Weekend in the East

This weekend I spent my Friday and Saturday nights on the East coast. My friend Mary had text me a few weeks ago and asked if John and I wanted to come to Rhode Island on the 25th for her daughters 2nd birthday. Any excuse to take a quickie weekend trip is good in my book so I told her we'd be there. Of course, John's schedule became a little ridiculous that week and he found out that he'd have to work 3rd shift on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. So with that, I decided that I'd still go because if I didn't, I'd be sitting at home alone with nothing to do, so I might as well go and see friends.

With finding out he'd be on 3rds all weekend, I decided that on Friday that I should go see my friend Brian (or B-rye as I call him) in Connecticut since I had yet to visit him and then I'd just head to RI on Saturday. So I made the plans Wednesday morning and Wednesday night, John finds out he no longer has to work on Friday night. I felt bad for making plans to go to CT, but I had made them thinking he was going to be working and he told me to go ahead and go anyways. He'd just be going to bed early anyways.

I had a blast in CT. It had been since the O.A.R. concert in July since I'd seen Brian so it was good to hang out with him on his turf and with friends of his. He just got a promotion so we met people out for happy hour, then went to a Mexican place for dinner, followed by some Dairy Queen (by my request since we have NONE in NY), and then more drinks. We were going to eat at this place called Paul's Pasta which John and I had eaten before when he lived there and it was fantastic, but it looked like it was super busy, so we had the Mexican instead (which was also super yummy). We ended up leaving the bar at what felt like super late, but in reality was only 11:15. The combo of Mexican, DQ, and many drinks was not proving well for my stomach. So we went home, had some water and aspirin and went to bed.

I have never slept on a more comfortable futon than in his spare room! He has a memory foam topper on it which made it so nice and comfy. OH, and random, maybe gross side note (but totally made us crack up). So when we got home, we were watching tv and I was petting his dog who came over next to me and is a giant Akita, and as I'm petting him and taking to him telling him what a good boy he is, all the sudden it smells like dog fart. I looked at Brian and said, "You dog's ass stinks." He says, "Did he poop?" I told him no and that I just thought he had farted, but then we both leaned up from where were sitting and looked at the floor only to see a giant turd sitting next to the dog. I laughed so hard (even though dog poop on the floor is not really that funny). I guess it was just funny because I was telling him what a good boy he was. Brian said it was his, "Screw your for not taking me on a walk tonight" deed. Either way, I found it funny.

Saturday we both got up, had some coffee, and then I got ready and headed to RI. The drive there was nice and only a little over an hour. The only downfall was that there were 2 GIANT long bridges I had to go over to get to their house. For those of you who don't know, I'm not a big fan of driving over bridges that go over large bodies of water. There's no way in hell I'd ever make it on a drive to the Florida Keys...that's for damn sure. I don't know when this uneasiness really began, but it's been for a good 5-7 years now and is not something I enjoy. I'm ok to a degree as a passenger, but as a driver...ugh. I think I'm afraid that I'm going to crash and be forced into the water and drown in my car. I know, morbid and weird, but I can't help feeling that way.

The birthday party for Sophie was great. I arrived after the other tots had left, so it was just my friend and her husband, and his parents. Nice and low key. We had some wine, jumped in the bouncy house they rented for Sophie and just hung out. They took me around the city of Newport later that evening and showed me around. It's a really nice city. Lots of money there, that's for sure.

Sunday, Mary took me to the Breaker's Mansion for a tour. Holy Cow. The number of mansions in the city alone is astounding, and to go in and tour one...wow. It amazes me that these were "summer cottages" for people!! The Breaker's was gorgeous and interesting and I really enjoyed it. It seriously blew my mind.

I had a really great time in Rhode Island with the Tarr's and in Connecticut with B-rye. I wish that John could've come with me. It turned out that he didn't even need to go in on Saturday either. His work annoys me! But, all annoyance aside, I got to spend time with some friends which is always enjoyed, and appreciated.

The Results...

are in from the Warrior Dash. I....didn't do so hot. Although, I did say that as long as I finished in under an hour I'd be happy and I did finish in that time frame, so I guess I'm happy. I think I finished in 58 minutes and some change. It would've been 5 minutes sooner had the sprain never happened, but oh well. I'd have finished a lot sooner if I was in stellar shape, but I'm not, so whatever. Melissa, my bionic neighbor, sprained her ankle at the first obstacle, and still managed to finish in under 40 minutes and was 35th in her age group out of 340 something people. I hate her! Not really, I just wish I had the drive and motivation she did!

There are also some additional picture that their photographers took, but I am not forking out $50+ bucks for 3 or 4 pictures. If you're interested in seeing them go to the following link (you can copy and paste it into your browser):
http://www.warriordash.com/photos/
Click on Northeast, and then you can type in our last name to see the pictures of John and I. They're pretty funny.

Recovering

It's been two days since the dash and I'm still recovering. I've been taking it easy as far as exercise goes (walking on the treadmill is as far as I'll push it for now) and I'm hoping it'll feel good enough to go to spin on Thursday. The swelling seems to be going down for the most part, and now it's just bruising. I'm hoping that by a week's time, I'll be able to run again.

Warrior Dash

What a crazy day today was (and I mean that in a good way)!!! John, my neighbor friend Melissa, and I did the Warrior Dash down in Windham at Windham Mountain Ski Resort. What is the Warrior Dash? It's a 3.23 mile race on the ski mountain with 12 obstacles throughout the course.
The obstacles are as follows:
Knee High Hell (running through tires)
Warrior Wall (getting over wooden walls)
Tunnels of Terror (crawling through tubes)
Black Forrest (running through the woods)
Slithering Swamp (a GIANT "puddle" that was chest deep with FREEZING cold muddy water)
Walk the Plank (walking on a plank over a trench)
Rip Van Wrinkle Way (a steep bridge )
Rio Run (run down a river bed which was not much of one)
Cargo Climb (climb up and down a cargo net)
Catskill Skid (a giant slip and slide)
Warrior Roast (jumping over 2 rows of fire)
Muddy Mayhem (crawling through a giant mud pit with barbed wire over it)
We had SO much fun!! We were scheduled to originally race at 3pm when we first signed up, but a month or two later, the released more times, so we switched to the 10:30am time slot. It was chilly, in the low 60's and once we hit the slithering swamp...it was FREEZING, but after you got out and kept running it was ok.

The whole first half of the race was entirely uphill. Needless to say, I walked up. I may think I'm in shape, but running up this mountain was a big no thanks for me. Melissa ran it since she's super fit, and had John not been playing the role of supporting husband, he'd have run up as well, but he walked with me. Once it leveled out though, I did run/jog. Unfortunately, somewhere after the halfway point, (snap, crackle, pop is what I heard) I twisted my ankle. I sat down for about 5 minutes until the pain subsided, got back up, and kept running. It felt good enough to run on and I also wanted to finish in under an hour which gave me the drive. After we crossed the finish line and saw Melissa, she comes limping toward us. I pointed to her and said, "Are you kidding? Did you sprain your ankle too?!" She did. First obstacle tripped her up...literally. I'm not sure how I'd have felt if I had sprained mine right off the bat, so I felt lucky that I was at least almost 3/4 of the way through.

I have never been muddier in my life. We threw away everything we had on, except for the sports bra I had on since I wasn't thinking when I got dressed. I thought about crappy clothes I could toss, but didn't think of a crappy sports bra. I'm currently soaking it in the hopes of saving it. I'm not optimistic. Despite the mud, sprains, chilly morning temperatures, we had a BLAST. I'm ready to do it again next year...maybe in a different location. Everyone we came in contact with was funny and friendly. The costumes we saw were priceless (and of course we saw them all when I didn't have my camera with me). Here are the pictures I did get to take. Hope they're as fun to look at as they were to be in!

The three of us pre-dash. Notice how clean we are. It won't last!


John and I


We're headed up there somewhere


This is near the end of the course. The big slip and slide in the distance, followed by a jump through some fire.


To finish it off, a crawl through this mud pit.


Spin girls play dirty!


A dirty bunch of neighbor friends!


Love a muddy husband!


And a sprained ankle to finish it off.

The Return of Spin

Tuesday and Thursday 10:30am spin classes started back today and I couldn't be happier!! There are 9:30 classes, but those just don't work for me. It wasn't that big of a deal that I couldn't go to spin during the summer because I worked most of July anyways, and I was gone most of August, plus when I wanted to ride, I would just take my bike to the park and ride there. But now that school is in session, the Y brings back the 10:30 class and I am one happier spinner once again!

What a Final

Tonight was the final match for the U.S. Open and what a great final it was. I was excited that Rafael Nadal won since he has yet to win the Open, but of course I would have rather had my boyfriend Roger Federer win, but he was knocked out in the semi's. Oh well. I have watched more ESPN in the past two weeks than I have in my whole life. Every match that was on was a great match. I'll be sad tomorrow when there is no tennis on, but I will patiently bide my time until tennis season rolls around again next year.

Price Adjustments

Who doesn't love them? I know I do. I bought a Land's End wool coat from Sears a few days ago and it was $130. I didn't really want to buy it, but it fit like a glove and my old pea coat I have from years ago...I don't even know how I ever fit into it. It's HUGE!!! So I was in desperate need of a nice coat (other than my ski coat). So I bought it anyways knowing that I needed it. I also knew that it would go on sale before I had to rip the tags off to wear it. Sure enough, 4 days later, I walk through Sears and see it's now 20% off. So I decided that the next day I'd go back and get the adjustment. I stop in to get the adjustment and the girl says to me, "Do you want to come back at 6? We're doing our friends and family discount tonight from 6-9 and you can get an additional 15%, after the 20%." HECK YES! As much as I really didn't want to go back since it was such a crummy day today, I did. New price of my coat...$88!!

Morning Prize

John had to work third shift last night so this morning when he got home, he came upstairs, woke me up, and told me to come downstairs because he brought me home a prize. My prize? DONUTS!!! We don't get donuts all that often, so it was a prize I was looking forward to. Two chocolate frosted donuts from Dunkin' Donuts. Yum!! I love when I wake up to prizes like that. I have the best husband ever!!

A Colorful Dinner

Tonight was probably one if the most colorful dinners I've ever prepared. White, red, green, yellow, purple, and orange. What did I fix? Chicken kabobs with red and green peppers, white and red (which are purple) onions, yellow corn on the cob, and baked sweet potatoes (which as you know are orange). Not only was it all esthetically pleasing to the eye, but was also delicious and nutritious. The only thing missing was dessert, which for once in my life, I didn't think about! Well, actually it crossed my mind but then decided I didn't want to make anything or buy anything since we just had ice cream two days ago. 12 servings were supposed to be in the container, we only got 5 out of it. Oops!

A Day at the Races

Today was the final day for the throughobred track and since I haven't been all summer, John and I decided we would go since he was off for the holiday. The weather was perfect! Partly sunny and low 70s.

I thought for sure that the track was going to be packed, but much to our surprised, it wasn't incredibly crowded. Admission was free and you could even sit in the grandstand for free as well. There were huge sections of seats open which really shocked me, but at the same time, was fine by me. I hate when it's so crowded you can't move.

We had a really great time. I made a bet on one horse names After Phyllis (since I have an aunt named Phyllis) but unfortunately, she didn't win. I did bet on a horse named Crazy Cat Lady...and WON! A whopping $3.50 on my $2 bet, but hey, it doesn't take much to excite me. There were two other races that I didn't bet on and said to John, "I bet this horse wins," and damn it if I wasn't right!! Should've placed that bet!! My luck though, I'd have made that bet, and they'd have lost. Oh well, like I said, it was a lot of fun (minus all the crap food we ate).

With all that being said, now that this was the last day of track season, the extra 30,000 people who are here will GO HOME!!! Downtown is free again!!! We've been DYING for Indian food but refused to go downtown to get it due to all the people. Looks like I'll be requesting we get that this weekend.

Time Off

Well it's been quite some time since I've had a post and since my summer has come to an end for the most part, I figured I would get back to my semi daily posts. So, what's new? I guess I can fill you in on my summer.

Not much exciting really happened. I worked most of the month of July down at Measured Progress which was good. They said that since they built the new building we've been working in, that they want to contract more work for next year since they spent half a million dollars on it and it's silly for it to sit empty for 9 months out of the year. This is good news for me because more work = more money and chances for me to work. After the first of the year, John will be going back to shift work (which I am NOT excited about) so it'll be nice to be able to work on days he's either sleeping or at work. Plus, the extra paycheck I bring in is nice to add to the bank account. We're working towards the goal of socking away enough money for a decent down payment on a house when we're done up here.

We were excited at the end of July to have one of our friends from Washington come and stay with us overnight while they were moving to Rhode Island. John worked with Steve on the Seawolf out there and his wife Mary and I are good friends, so it was really great to have them here for a night with their daughter Sophie who has gotten so big! I was her first visitor when she was born almost 2 years ago, so to see her as a big girl now was great. We had so much fun catching up with them.

I went to Cincinnati for a visit in August, followed by a trip to Vegas. Well, it was really a night or two in Cincy, a week in Vegas, and then another week in Cincy. The whole reason I planned it was because John was supposed to be working crazy hours those two weeks at work and he said I might as well get my trips out of the way since he wasn't going to be home. Of course though, his schedule got shifted and they did all that work the 2 weeks before I left. Go figure!

I enjoyed both trips. Being in Cincinnati is always great. I got to see my Aunt Susan who moved to South Carolina when she retired. She was up for a visit the same time as I was, so it was great to see her (and all my other aunts) for an afternoon. OH! And I also found out my cousin Sarah is pregnant, so that was super exciting to find out!! Spending time with my nephews was special as always. Charlie finally doesn't look at me with the "stranger danger" look so that was exciting. JJ is still my huggie bear, while Ben and Max are growing up so fast. I love them all so much and miss seeing them on a daily basis. I'm looking forward to the day when I can see them more frequently.

The other highlight of my trip to Cincinnati was going to the ATP with my friend Matt. We went to the semi-finals and the finals, and finally, after years and years of waiting, I finally got to see my boyfriend Roger Federer play...and WIN! We had great seats for the semi's...but crappy ones for the finals, until we decided to self upgrade. We pirated the same seats we had sat in for the semi's. The whole first set, we stared at them, sitting empty. After the first set was over, we decided we were gonna go sit in them and pray no one was going to boot us out. Mission accomplished!! It was a great match and the seats were SO much better than where we had been.

Other than that, I don't think much else happened this summer. So that's where I've been and what I've been up to. Hopefully you've missed reading this and I'll promise to get back to the grind of posting on a semi-regular basis.