Honeymoon cottage, BOOKED

Right after I booked our flight to Kauai, I started rethinking that plan and wished I had booked it for a longer stay. A few days passed and I called the airline just to see how much it would cost to change our outbound flight... the cost basically doubled, so I became much more ok with 1 week in Kauai instead of 1.5. Now we're thinking we'll do something local for a few days after the wedding, and before leaving for Kauai. Maybe I'll get my time in Yosemite after all!

So last night I sent off that final decision email to the owner of a cottage we are going to rent on the North East side of Kauai. I used a number of vacation rental websites, and had emailed many agents and property owners. I looked at so many ads and listings, and many were already booked. We narrowed down the available options and discussed, and discussed until we picked one. Way too many options out there... phew!

The next honeymoon task is to get a guide book (Tracy recommended a good one), and then decide on what we really want to do there, get those things booked and then the rest of the time there will be just chilling out. In fact, Eric has requested more chilling and less doing. He's probably right. I only have a few things that I really want to do and they are a kayaking/hiking tour, and visiting various areas of the island but no specific activities. Maybe just a drive and wander kind of thing, no real agenda.

Now, if only I had all of my wedding invites out, I might actually be able to sit back and relax. Maybe tonight I'll actually work on some of those higher priority tasks instead of the fun ones. Sometimes it's just so hard to stick to the priorities.


If anyone out there has ANY suggestions about Kauai... Bring it!

Jury Duty

Today I am hanging out at our County Superior Court, I have been summoned for Jury Duty.

I have been eligible to serve for many years, and have been summoned 3 times. This is the first time I have actually had to appear. So far I am still hanging out in the waiting room and thankfully there is Internet Access. What a great time to research honeymoon accommodations, chat online with my friends and catch up on some bloggy reading. I suppose I could do some work too, as I came prepared to catch up on some well avoided tasks, but what fun is that? Maybe I'll pull that out when I get bored with the Internet... HA!

So far it's been 3.5 hours, only one group has been called and many people are sleeping. Kinda amusing really.

Update - I didn't get picked to go on a panel. Just sat around until a judge came in to dismiss us.

Honeymoon BOOKED

Money is tight in our household with Eric starting up a business, our recent travels for family events, and trying to get things in order to sell our place and buy a new place closer to my work. Oh yea, and the wedding too.

So we had decided not to honeymoon. But then my boss said YOU MUST GO ON A HONEYMOON! So he is forcing me to at least take an extra week off past my wedding planning week, and family time week, so that maybe, just maybe we might go on a honeymoon too.

In order to cut down on some costs, we talked about backpacking in Yosemite, since Yosemite is actually where I wanted to have our wedding in the first place, but logistically that was a big headache. But then I have been wanting to vacation in Hawaii for a really long time and when else is it a perfect time to splurge on a Hawaii vacation then for a Honeymoon?

So I did it. Without much consultation with Eric (but with permission from him to just do it when I found something), I booked our flight and car for Hawaii.

I'm a little dizzy now as I only spent about an hour researching flights and even in that time I saw the prices go up, so I just bit the bullet and did it. I guess now I need to find us a place to stay....

EEEEEeeeeee!

Tracking

Ok, I just have to give praise to the wonders of the Internet and how it opens up vast channels of information, particularly for those of us which are just a touch controlling and like to know what is happening with their stuff at all times. The particular bit of technology with I am currently very pleased with is the joys of tracking packages.

Sure, sure, tracking the traffic or where my lovey is on his journey on a plane is fine too, but don't you just love that you can click on a little link to find out where your particular package is on its route to a loved one you are gifting, or perhaps that special little gift to yourself you just can't wait to have in your very own hands.

Lately I have been shipping lots of things around for the wedding and such and I will be the first to admit that I LOVE CONTROL (which I am learning to reign in these days before I explode). I love that I can go to a site to see that my mosquito netting to shield the cake from Oak leaves is now in Mesquite, TX and should be arriving at my office on Friday. Or I can call Eric's aunt to let her know that FedEx left her granddaughter's dress by her front door, since she usually goes into her house through her garage.

LOVE IT!

Boot camp is kickin’ my booty

Alright, I did it. I gave in to the pressures of the wedding day diets and workouts. I actually gave in a few months ago, and I said I would write about it, but I didn't. If I wrote about it, then I would be somehow more accountable. More accountable then just me knowing. When Tracy of The Starshine Report announced her Operation String Bikini, I thought, ok I'll do it too. I'll announce my goals and talk about it on my blog too. But I didn't. I didn't know if I could stick to it.

It has already been about a year since I started being more mindful of what I eat. I try to be aware of my portions and what my body needs. I grew up in a home of food = love, and 'you better clean that plate', so I have an unhealthy view of portions. This has been a big battle, especially since my Eric has a fast metabolism and does manual labor so he's working off all of those calories he eats. Me, I sit in a car/train, then I sit at a desk, just to return to the car/train to get my arse to the couch as fast as I can.

Eric started running with me last year on the weekends, but I never stuck to it consistently. Each time I would make some progress and would be able to go a little further, I'd miss a day and bam, there goes the routine and there went any progress I had made. I didn't know how to push myself. How to hold myself accountable for a goal of # of sit-ups or minutes to run, and hell no I wasn't doing any pushups or upper body work in general. But I was continuing to not be happy with my "squish" as I would call it. You know that squish in the chest area, next to the armpits? Yea, that squish. The squish that is so attractive in tank tops and GASP! strapless dresses (you know, like those wedding dress types).

So I got on the all knowing internet in search of some help. Some motivation. Guess what? There are people you can pay to motivate you to be in pain! Yup, I signed up for an all women, morning boot camp. Last month I went 3-4 days a week, getting up at 4:30am, to workout with a bunch of woman in the dark at a park for an hour. They took our measurements, weight, and then kicked our butts. We ran timed miles and counted situps, and I don't want to talk about the number of squats performed. For the first week I walked funny. Really funny. But then the second week I was able to recover more quickly, the third week it actually felt good. And then that forth week? well my brother came to town and then I went out of town and there went the diet and the working out 3-4 times a week. Seriously, chips and beer came into my house for the first time in a long time and if they are there.... I will eat them.

When I came back from vacation to New Orleans (I'll write about that later), I had my post-camp evaluation. I had lost all of 0.5 pounds. ugh. My thighs, actually went UP an inch, and everything else was about the same. But the skin fold test.... huh, I lost 2.9% body fat. Not great, but that's something right? And my chest squish? Had the biggest change of any of those measurements. So maybe I need to get back on that wagon, because although the scale may not know it, I know that I can run further and do more sit-ups, and push-ups? well I can do a few now. I have missed the first two days of camp this month, and tomorrow is the timed mile. I think I'm actually excited and want to see if I can come in any faster then when I started.

Here's to kicking some booty to the curb!

Update - DRAT! It was totally raining this morning and that was all the excuse I needed to not get up early to go run.

And My Commute Gets Worse

Ohhh wee, I feel like I'm bitching a lot!

On Sunday morning, a gasoline tanker crashed and burned on a freeway in the SF Bay Area. Thankfully no one was killed, and the driver of the tanker walked away with 2nd degree burns. The heat of the fire exceeded the limits the freeway structure could withstand and the steel supports melted. This little mishap is now costing the state millions of dollars to fix and from a completely selfish standpoint... TOTALLY SUCKS as now I HAVE to take the train into work which is about 2 hours each way including walking. If I get there early there is a shuttle from the station to my office park, but that still means getting to the train station by 7am, and some mornings I'm just not that with it.

The part of the freeway which collapsed onto another freeway was my way home. It was also the way home for 10's of thousands of people everyday. I decided I didn't want to even try to use the train system come Monday morning as I thought it would be complete chaos. The state officials thought it would be as well, so they made all public transportation free for the day.

So yesterday I opted to work from home and forgo the free transportation. FYI - Mondays are not a good work from home day for me becuse I have a hard time convincing myself that it's not still the weekend. So now as I sit here on the train, riding into work, I am officially FREAKING OUT at the amount of work I have to do today, and I have to train a new hire to boot. At least on the train I suddenly have a few hours to spend writing. Lucky you people!

Really, I'll try not to bitch quite so much tomorrow. (although I've already written a few posts today so there might be about a week of whiny writing).

CHEERS!

The Dress

Finding the dress can be painful and joyous, hot and exhausting, and a whole lot of fun. For me, it was 2 weekends of time with my mom and girlfriends, and being totally cool standing around half naked and laughing a lot.

The first day at the first salon I tried on MANY dresses. I had a consultant who was great at listening to me and running around finding dresses for me to look at and try on. She was very efficient and knew her stuff. Amongst the thousands of dresses, she pulled out THE DRESS.

It's a little different, but very now. It's simple, but with just enough adornment. It's shaped so I'm not freaking out about my bumps, lumps and "squish". I fell in love with it... but still had to look at some "cheaper" options, so off to David's Bridal I went the next day.

There I was shocked by the bright white lights. The large number of brides and prom goers in this very large showroom. But there were a few dresses I thought looked pretty good on me... and they were so much less money then the one at the fancy bridal salon.

After another weekend of re-trying on my narrowed down list of 3, I could only visualize myself in the fancy, well fitting, slightly different dress which I clearly loved more then the others. I had figured this would happen and had already scheduled an appointment to get my measurements and order the dress... you know just in case.

The day before my appointment I was to order the dress, I went to the designer's website and found that MY DRESS had been discontinued. Slightly worried, I went to my appointment to order my dress. I mentioned the discontinued status on the website to my consultant, and a wash of worry came over her face. She said, "Then you aren't going to get your dress." Oh well that made me feel better! But I just smile and try to not freak out because I could always fall back on the David's Bridal dress and I was also pretty sure the bridal salon would not be needed this discontinued dress anymore and I could probably have it altered to fit and maybe might even get a discount to help cover the cost of the needed alterations.

After my consultant calls the designer, argues with her boss about why the dress was still on the floor, she asks me to try on the dress one more time to see if I could buy the stock dress. Amazingly it fits perfectly! My consultant continues to apologize and comment on how calm I am. Since calm is far from being my middle name, I am actually pretty amazed too. But what was I going to do. Maybe I should have pitched a fit, because I didn't get the discount I had hoped for, but since I'm no haggler, I paid for the dress and checked it off my list.

Now, the dress has been cleaned and mostly repaired, and is hanging in a closet at my parent's house. The lacing for the corset back is not the original lacing, so I'm having a new one made. My good friend, Amy, has a dress by the same designer so she has sent me her lacing to see if it will work for my dress as well which I will try out at my first alteration appointment this Thursday.

Hopefully I'll continue this calm about my dress through the next few months. What can I do, right?