It's Halloween!!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
It's a great day because it's Friday, the week went smoothly, and lots of great things to smile about. To be brief:
1) Matt's HUGE promotion at work!
2) Carving pumpkins last night that look AWESOME
3) Eating bdubs (because it's gotta make the list).
4) Going home this weekend and seeing my best friend
5) Seeing lots of friends this weekend
6) Seeing my family this weekend
8) TRICK OR TREATS!!
9) Halloween in general
and 10) EUROPE IN TWO WEEKS!!!
Everything is great.
Happy Halloween! A couple more hours of work, then off to a great weekend!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Rowing Club 2008
Today I got an email from one of the seasoned rowers in the Cincinnati Rowing Club that today is the last day for 2008 Open Rows. And even though that doesn't necessarily mean I wont row anymore this year, it means that the season is pretty much over. Open rows are for Novices without boat house keys, and although I have a key, daylight, time, and temperature is now a very constraining and limiting factor. It brought a bit of nostalgia to my heart and felt the need to post some pics of the East Fork Chase to commemorate the season. And to remember when the Original Reiky crew raced (The Riekiert was J, A and D original quad) and to conclude the 2008 season on high note. J is unsure if she will pay her dues next year and continue rowing.... it's so sad. We had a great run....
The drive in
The Kaschper International 4x
Walking the boat down to Launch
The Crew before the race
VICTORIOUS!!! Silver Medal!
Celebrating at Octoberfest (Annual Tradition)
Midweek
It is already turning into a much smoother week than last week, it;s already wednesday! It's been busy both at work and after work, and I think this is the latest I have gone without carving my pumpkins. Here we are two days before Halloween and the pumpkins are still sitting by the door with the dirt still on them?
I have one worry this week and one worry only. Will Matt leave work on time Friday to get back to his house for Trick or Treats? I keep expecting him to leave later Monday-Thursday so that he can leave at a reasonable time on friday. SO far, no luck. Monday night we went grocery shopping ,Yesterday went to the store to buy Halloween supplies (i.e. Candy) . We've been eating later and later in the evening. Yesterday I made rutabaga, which might be my new favorite vegetable. They are by far not the easiest to prepare and cook, but might be the most delicious AND NUTRITIOUS vegetables out there. They are packed, and i mean PACKED, with vitamins and good stuff for you- and probably the most tasty too!! I have a hard time finding them, and pealing and preparing them after struggling for 15 minutes hoping to not lose a finger was a task. But It is SO worth it!! Tonight I am taking Odie to the vet and I have an Adult Halloween party in my building tonight that I am excited about. Tomorrow is pumpkin carving night, and FRIDAY NIGHT IS HALLOWEEN!! Where has the time gone? I cant believe it's going to be NOVEMBER!!
What is even stranger this year is that it will still be light outside when it comes time for Trick or Treating. It's weird that we haven't set out clocks back yet, this month seemed extra long. But gosh, I leave for Europe in just a little over two weeks? WOW!! I cant believe it. I keep telling everyone that if BHO gets elected I am going to leave the country... haha.
I have nothing exciting write about but I felt compelled to post. One thing I want to share is this awesome website I recently discovered: http://www.woot.com/. Have you heard of it? If you haven't, prepared to be addicted! It's a website that sells one product a day at a super low price. Usually it's something techie-- the first day i checked it out it was selling a Phillips HDTVs 42" for like $749 or something ridiculous. And every day since there has been some cool stuff up there! It might come in handy for some x-mas shopping. Either way, this website is AWESOME and addicting. Coveat emptor-- to your wallet. The products are great!
I have one worry this week and one worry only. Will Matt leave work on time Friday to get back to his house for Trick or Treats? I keep expecting him to leave later Monday-Thursday so that he can leave at a reasonable time on friday. SO far, no luck. Monday night we went grocery shopping ,Yesterday went to the store to buy Halloween supplies (i.e. Candy) . We've been eating later and later in the evening. Yesterday I made rutabaga, which might be my new favorite vegetable. They are by far not the easiest to prepare and cook, but might be the most delicious AND NUTRITIOUS vegetables out there. They are packed, and i mean PACKED, with vitamins and good stuff for you- and probably the most tasty too!! I have a hard time finding them, and pealing and preparing them after struggling for 15 minutes hoping to not lose a finger was a task. But It is SO worth it!! Tonight I am taking Odie to the vet and I have an Adult Halloween party in my building tonight that I am excited about. Tomorrow is pumpkin carving night, and FRIDAY NIGHT IS HALLOWEEN!! Where has the time gone? I cant believe it's going to be NOVEMBER!!
What is even stranger this year is that it will still be light outside when it comes time for Trick or Treating. It's weird that we haven't set out clocks back yet, this month seemed extra long. But gosh, I leave for Europe in just a little over two weeks? WOW!! I cant believe it. I keep telling everyone that if BHO gets elected I am going to leave the country... haha.
I have nothing exciting write about but I felt compelled to post. One thing I want to share is this awesome website I recently discovered: http://www.woot.com/. Have you heard of it? If you haven't, prepared to be addicted! It's a website that sells one product a day at a super low price. Usually it's something techie-- the first day i checked it out it was selling a Phillips HDTVs 42" for like $749 or something ridiculous. And every day since there has been some cool stuff up there! It might come in handy for some x-mas shopping. Either way, this website is AWESOME and addicting. Coveat emptor-- to your wallet. The products are great!
Monday, October 27, 2008
All is well that ends well
Wow its been a crazy week since the last post, where to even begin? Frankly, so much has happen that my brain can barely decipher the week's events from everything else going on in my mind. I can start with what comes to mind first, my glasses breaking about mid-week last week. Boy was that stressful. First, id like to point out that I don't wear my glasses 100% of the time. I wear the them driving so i can see signs (and cops) from further away, and I wear them at work so I can stare at the computer screen all day and not tire my eyes. When my glasses broke, for some reason, it felt like the world was collapsing. Id also like to mention that they did not break on my default, however the broke by a certain someone pushing a certain four legged creature on to a table where my glasses rested. Inevitably there was a loud crash, things fell to the floor and my glasses broke right in half. Boy did I get angry, so angry that tears came because the thought of finding new glasses that I actually liked was as much fun as pulling all the hair out of my head one stand at a time. agh. Not to mention, it was going to be expensive, I dont have an eye doctor in Cincinnati yet, AND you guessed it- I don't have vision insurance. Luckily, matt and I both took time off work to get me to a doctor and to Lensecrafters to get a vision check, pick out new frames, and get new glasses made all in the same day. And IT WAS stressful. I was very picky, indecisive and hard to please. I had no idea what I was looking for. I wanted to be trendy yet sophisticated. I was pleased to see how patient Matt was, he even picked out a whole bunch of frames for me to try out and was incredibly honest. The whole process probably took close to four hours. I ended up with Corvette red glasses, a huge change from my old plastic black trimmed with light pink frames. They are bold, but I think i hit the look on the head- i've gotten quite a lot of compliments!
The rest of the week remained hectic, but controlled as work was so insanely busy. Today is actually the day I will have my year-end performance appraisal that hopefully will result in a bonus because I've been working so unbelievably hard with year end liability estimates and audit inquiries into our financials. Ugh, so stressful. So we shall see how it goes today at 1:30. Matt had a bad Friday and worked late fixing stuff, he was unhappy to into work today because of how rough friday was. Poor guy. I am optimistic about a good week this week.
Yesterday we went to Matt's parents house for his nephews first birthday party. His nephew is adorable so it was fun playing with him and all the other little rascals running around that day. There were like 4-5 babies to gawk at that day, ugh, so cute. Seeing his brother celebrate the first birthday party is made me so excited to celebrate a birthday party with the kids I hope to have someday. I never see this part of me, for a while i always thought i was missing the mothering gene because I never really craved to have children of my own. I never knew how to handle babies, how to play with them, i never had the instinct. But now, when i see the all the little kids all i wanted to do was pick them up and throw them around and make them giggle. It was a craving for sure.
Since it was so closed to Halloween I brought some things to share to the party. I made Halloween punch in a carved out pumpkin. It was SO good. It was apple cider, honey, pineapple juice, boiled-in Cinnamon sticks and two baked oranges with cloves. Boy did it have a lot of flavor-- I got so many compliments. It felt good! I also made a pea-salad (i dont like peas) and made crouton tomb stones (Rest in Peas) haha I thought it was cute. I really enjoy these kinds of crafty creative things, who knew I ever would? It made me think of how excited I will be to do crafts with my own children.
And, last but not least, one of the highlights of the day was sitting and talking to matt's mom after the party. Gosh I do love her and how included she makes me feel. She was telling me how thankful she was for all the help from matt and I, and she started to tear up when she said that if anything were to ever happen in our future that I would make such a good mom. Gosh, that was a great compliment and so heart felt. Even though she is so cute when she gets skiddish mentioning the possibility of Matt and I getting married; skiddish in the most endearing way.
So all is well that ends well. Monday morning is slow. I am rested and slept all the way through the night last night. Time to start the day!
The rest of the week remained hectic, but controlled as work was so insanely busy. Today is actually the day I will have my year-end performance appraisal that hopefully will result in a bonus because I've been working so unbelievably hard with year end liability estimates and audit inquiries into our financials. Ugh, so stressful. So we shall see how it goes today at 1:30. Matt had a bad Friday and worked late fixing stuff, he was unhappy to into work today because of how rough friday was. Poor guy. I am optimistic about a good week this week.
Yesterday we went to Matt's parents house for his nephews first birthday party. His nephew is adorable so it was fun playing with him and all the other little rascals running around that day. There were like 4-5 babies to gawk at that day, ugh, so cute. Seeing his brother celebrate the first birthday party is made me so excited to celebrate a birthday party with the kids I hope to have someday. I never see this part of me, for a while i always thought i was missing the mothering gene because I never really craved to have children of my own. I never knew how to handle babies, how to play with them, i never had the instinct. But now, when i see the all the little kids all i wanted to do was pick them up and throw them around and make them giggle. It was a craving for sure.
Since it was so closed to Halloween I brought some things to share to the party. I made Halloween punch in a carved out pumpkin. It was SO good. It was apple cider, honey, pineapple juice, boiled-in Cinnamon sticks and two baked oranges with cloves. Boy did it have a lot of flavor-- I got so many compliments. It felt good! I also made a pea-salad (i dont like peas) and made crouton tomb stones (Rest in Peas) haha I thought it was cute. I really enjoy these kinds of crafty creative things, who knew I ever would? It made me think of how excited I will be to do crafts with my own children.
And, last but not least, one of the highlights of the day was sitting and talking to matt's mom after the party. Gosh I do love her and how included she makes me feel. She was telling me how thankful she was for all the help from matt and I, and she started to tear up when she said that if anything were to ever happen in our future that I would make such a good mom. Gosh, that was a great compliment and so heart felt. Even though she is so cute when she gets skiddish mentioning the possibility of Matt and I getting married; skiddish in the most endearing way.
So all is well that ends well. Monday morning is slow. I am rested and slept all the way through the night last night. Time to start the day!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Great weekend and no TCBY
Another perfectly delightful weekend has come and gone, It's Monday morning and I am so tired! It definitely feels like fall now, and winter ready to make it's entrance since the nights are getting colder and colder. I haven't turned on my heat yet, even though it's dropped down to the lower 40's at night most nights. I like the bite in the air, and as I am winding down at night i like snuggling up under a blanket on my couch, a warm cup of tea and I light candles all the time because I think I subconsciously think that I am warming the room a little bit. I have candles all over my apartment. It feels cozy. I love it.
This weekend was agenda-less and I had a blast. I love weekends were I wake up feel like we can do anything today!! Friday night was so relaxed and low key. After work, Matt and I went up to Teak and got some sushi and Thai food to go, walked over to the store to get a bottle of wine, then came back and just chilled and hung out all night. It was great, we lit candles, drank wine, laughed, had a blast. After we ate, we went swimming and sat in the hot tub for a while then went to bed at a reasonable time. I felt so rested and felt so good on Saturday. The sun was out, I slept in until 10 or so, it was a great morning.
Last year I won an entertainment book and clipped a bunch of coupons i thought would be worth using. This weekend we discover the 90% of the coupons expire on Nov 1st, so needless to say it was a weekend of random activities because we want to get our savings! The book included a free pass to the Newport Aquarium, so guess where we went Saturday morning? How can you pass up a free pass, and it was awesome!! I took some pictures of us petting the sharks, and standing next to huge fish , and being silly playing in the kids area. A great time, and money well spent!! Ill try to post pictures if I can remember.
I clipped another coupon for TCBY-- I LOVE that place. There used to be a store close to my parent's house when I was little and we went there a bunch of times growing up! I LOVE frozen yogurt, and I am pretty sure I haven't been back in, say, 15 years? Well, I had a buy one get one free coupon that said there were like six locations around Cincinnati. We even mapquested two locations. Both of which were out of the way, but figured we'd find a reason up that way to make it worth out while. One was North off 71 near the mall (15-20 min away). And it was CLOSED!!! Then we drove all the way to the west side, and THAT WAS CLOSED TOO!! Why don't they tell anyone this? We drove probably a totally of 2.5 hours round trip to these locations and ended up empty-handed. What a disappointment. Are they closed everywhere now?
The day definitely wasnt a totally wash, though. That night Matt took me out to a very nice dinner at The Reserve. We drank wine, had a three course meal and split a sinfully delicious dessert that I am still salivating over. It was romantic, it was great! We met up with some friends later that night to make the day perfect. And the weekend still wasn't over. Yesterday Matt and I went to church, relaxed a little bit together and watched some of the terrible Bengals game, and went shopping at this place. If you have never been there it is quite an experience. There is nothing you cant get at this store. It's definitely not the place you want to get your milk and eggs for a quick trip, but if you want to experiment in the kitchen, or just find something seasonal or ethnic that would be impossible to find the local grocery, this is the place. We spent a little over 80 bucks there and came home with a bunch of yummy veggies and ingredients to make some great and different dishes for dinner this week.
Great weekend. I am tired this morning. Hope this weekend isn't as stressful as last week.
********************************************************************************
Caveat from my last post. The inspiration of the "non-responsive person" post finally responded. There was a question in an email sent last Monday, the email was finally returned Saturday morning. sigh.
This weekend was agenda-less and I had a blast. I love weekends were I wake up feel like we can do anything today!! Friday night was so relaxed and low key. After work, Matt and I went up to Teak and got some sushi and Thai food to go, walked over to the store to get a bottle of wine, then came back and just chilled and hung out all night. It was great, we lit candles, drank wine, laughed, had a blast. After we ate, we went swimming and sat in the hot tub for a while then went to bed at a reasonable time. I felt so rested and felt so good on Saturday. The sun was out, I slept in until 10 or so, it was a great morning.
Last year I won an entertainment book and clipped a bunch of coupons i thought would be worth using. This weekend we discover the 90% of the coupons expire on Nov 1st, so needless to say it was a weekend of random activities because we want to get our savings! The book included a free pass to the Newport Aquarium, so guess where we went Saturday morning? How can you pass up a free pass, and it was awesome!! I took some pictures of us petting the sharks, and standing next to huge fish , and being silly playing in the kids area. A great time, and money well spent!! Ill try to post pictures if I can remember.
I clipped another coupon for TCBY-- I LOVE that place. There used to be a store close to my parent's house when I was little and we went there a bunch of times growing up! I LOVE frozen yogurt, and I am pretty sure I haven't been back in, say, 15 years? Well, I had a buy one get one free coupon that said there were like six locations around Cincinnati. We even mapquested two locations. Both of which were out of the way, but figured we'd find a reason up that way to make it worth out while. One was North off 71 near the mall (15-20 min away). And it was CLOSED!!! Then we drove all the way to the west side, and THAT WAS CLOSED TOO!! Why don't they tell anyone this? We drove probably a totally of 2.5 hours round trip to these locations and ended up empty-handed. What a disappointment. Are they closed everywhere now?
The day definitely wasnt a totally wash, though. That night Matt took me out to a very nice dinner at The Reserve. We drank wine, had a three course meal and split a sinfully delicious dessert that I am still salivating over. It was romantic, it was great! We met up with some friends later that night to make the day perfect. And the weekend still wasn't over. Yesterday Matt and I went to church, relaxed a little bit together and watched some of the terrible Bengals game, and went shopping at this place. If you have never been there it is quite an experience. There is nothing you cant get at this store. It's definitely not the place you want to get your milk and eggs for a quick trip, but if you want to experiment in the kitchen, or just find something seasonal or ethnic that would be impossible to find the local grocery, this is the place. We spent a little over 80 bucks there and came home with a bunch of yummy veggies and ingredients to make some great and different dishes for dinner this week.
Great weekend. I am tired this morning. Hope this weekend isn't as stressful as last week.
********************************************************************************
Caveat from my last post. The inspiration of the "non-responsive person" post finally responded. There was a question in an email sent last Monday, the email was finally returned Saturday morning. sigh.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Pet Peeve
Although this will be a digression from my attempts to maintain a fairly positive blog spot, I have to mention something that continues to get on my nerves. Especially certain incidences recently that make this one of my biggest pet peeves (besides dealing with stupid people), NON-RESPONSIVE people!
First, since we are all well versed with Internet communication (email, chat, instant messages, and the like) and almost all of us have cell phones, getting in touch with people has never been easier. Almost everyone I know who has a cell phone carries it with them everywhere they go. Personally, I feel naked with out my cell/blackberry or some form or communication device with me. And I know I have been known to not always pick up when my phone rings, however, I make it a point to ALWAYS return phone calls. Much like 'the ol' days" where you left messages for people on their telephone answering machines, the dialed person would return the message at his/her earliest convenience. Just the same as it would be very rude to leave a message and get no return phone call back.
Well, now and days it seems far too easy for someone 'not too get the message.' In fact, many have PDAs and phones that receive data to get emails/texts/phone calls INSTANTLY! So the question of someone not receiving the message for 'x' amount of time (out of town, working late, or generally NOT AT HOME) is no longer and excuse for anyone. ANYONE. Heck, I've even seen bums on the street with cell phones in their hands!! Now, there is two faces to this coin; I know that because we can now receive these communication messages all the time now it increases the opportunities for these messages to be screened. I know i dont want to talk on the phone or send an email when i am talking to someone, out to dinner, or doing other things I just don't feel like being bothered. I am definitely OK with leaving messages and waiting for a response. The pet peeve is the not responding. For me, when i know i am busy and cant get back to an email I will send a quick one back to say i am busy, thanks, and ill get back to you as soon as I can. Phone calls, ill send a quick text back saying thanks, ill call you back later.
Now, what is an acceptable amount of time to return the message?
I have no idea? 6 hours? One day? two days? three days is definitely pushing it. When is it acceptable to feel like you are getting blown off?
It bothers me so much, and I cant explain why it gets under my skin as much as it does. It's very possible that I take it too personally; I just imagine someone reading/hearing my message shortly after they receive it and saying to themselves ' o it's donna, this is unimportant to me, ill ignore it.'
Maybe they don't say that.... BUT WHY CANT YOU RESPOND TO ME!?! Am I really asking for that much? SOme of my friends have a free pass when I am just calling to chit-chat and I know they are super busy (and we generally dont talk on a regular basis anyway). Sometime I dont call people back for a few days because I know I want to block out a decent chunk of time for them. But what if I asked you to make plans? or have a simple questions, or require a simple response? What is your excuse??
I wonder about the future, this high speed communication pathway makes it easier in a lot of ways. But do we ever know if the message got delivered? Too often you hear that they never got the message as the excuse. What if there really was a problem with the connection? I just have a hard time believing it because I dont think Ive missed very many messages (that i know of)
First, since we are all well versed with Internet communication (email, chat, instant messages, and the like) and almost all of us have cell phones, getting in touch with people has never been easier. Almost everyone I know who has a cell phone carries it with them everywhere they go. Personally, I feel naked with out my cell/blackberry or some form or communication device with me. And I know I have been known to not always pick up when my phone rings, however, I make it a point to ALWAYS return phone calls. Much like 'the ol' days" where you left messages for people on their telephone answering machines, the dialed person would return the message at his/her earliest convenience. Just the same as it would be very rude to leave a message and get no return phone call back.
Well, now and days it seems far too easy for someone 'not too get the message.' In fact, many have PDAs and phones that receive data to get emails/texts/phone calls INSTANTLY! So the question of someone not receiving the message for 'x' amount of time (out of town, working late, or generally NOT AT HOME) is no longer and excuse for anyone. ANYONE. Heck, I've even seen bums on the street with cell phones in their hands!! Now, there is two faces to this coin; I know that because we can now receive these communication messages all the time now it increases the opportunities for these messages to be screened. I know i dont want to talk on the phone or send an email when i am talking to someone, out to dinner, or doing other things I just don't feel like being bothered. I am definitely OK with leaving messages and waiting for a response. The pet peeve is the not responding. For me, when i know i am busy and cant get back to an email I will send a quick one back to say i am busy, thanks, and ill get back to you as soon as I can. Phone calls, ill send a quick text back saying thanks, ill call you back later.
Now, what is an acceptable amount of time to return the message?
I have no idea? 6 hours? One day? two days? three days is definitely pushing it. When is it acceptable to feel like you are getting blown off?
It bothers me so much, and I cant explain why it gets under my skin as much as it does. It's very possible that I take it too personally; I just imagine someone reading/hearing my message shortly after they receive it and saying to themselves ' o it's donna, this is unimportant to me, ill ignore it.'
Maybe they don't say that.... BUT WHY CANT YOU RESPOND TO ME!?! Am I really asking for that much? SOme of my friends have a free pass when I am just calling to chit-chat and I know they are super busy (and we generally dont talk on a regular basis anyway). Sometime I dont call people back for a few days because I know I want to block out a decent chunk of time for them. But what if I asked you to make plans? or have a simple questions, or require a simple response? What is your excuse??
I wonder about the future, this high speed communication pathway makes it easier in a lot of ways. But do we ever know if the message got delivered? Too often you hear that they never got the message as the excuse. What if there really was a problem with the connection? I just have a hard time believing it because I dont think Ive missed very many messages (that i know of)
Thursday, October 16, 2008
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