TAR

The Amazing Race starts up again tonight !!!! whoo hoo !!! I'm so excited. Finally, we're back to the original format and they'll be LEAVING THE USA ! Last season was very sub-par for them.

Quiet, then not, then quiet

There was just this wave of patients here. It was so odd. All morning, over three hours, I only saw one patient. Then, after lunch I had four all come in at once. My front desk tech was working with an I&R, the phone was ringing constantly for people ordering contact lenses, and I'm trying to juggle four patients. Madness I tell you !!

Now, things are back to normal and I'm back at my desk. (three hours later) No, it didn't take me three hours to see all the patients. I helped log in our huge contact lens order from yesterday, organize all the paperwork we let stack up during the rush, and make sure all of our charge slips were in order. When we get really busy like that stuff starts to stack up. When it's just me and one tech things get hard to juggle.

This weekend was pretty uneventful. My parents were in town on Sunday to begin their house hunting trip. They stopped by to say hello for two hours or so. The doggies got to play together. We all went out for lunch at Panera to chat. My mom kept grabbing my hand to oogle my ring *sigh*. Then they traveled back to my uncles to make dinner and prep for their house hunting adventures starting Monday. Their cell phone doesn't work at my uncle's house so I guess I'll have to wait to see how they're doing with it all.

That's really all that's going on. No real plans this week. Dr M and a friend came over yesterday to be cheesy girls and watch the Bachelor finale (complete with QUITE the spread of appetizers). I made a fruit plate with homemade cream sauce. So good! Mmmmm mango! Gotta do silly girly things occasionally.

This week's project: wedding invites. Gotta get those done and out the door!

Hawaii

I'm SO ready to be in Hawaii !!!

Working Hard for the Money

Well, not hard exactly, but more than usual for this store. The last two days have been fairly busy. I'd much rather it be busy than the way it normally is.

My parents house sale is official as of Sunday. They're coming out here on Saturday to house hunt for a week in Gainesville. They'll be visiting me in Tampa on Sunday. Is it bad that I'm more excited about seeing Jackson (the dog) ? My mom calls me so much I feel like I never moved out. We definitely get along better when we're not living together.

Tuesday night I went to dollar burger night at Bar Louie. You can get a burger for 1.00 and then the toppings are like 50 cents each. They even have weird toppings like olive spread, feta cheese, buttered spinach, etc. REALLY good burgers and a basket of tater tots. (4 bucks total) It was also nice to catch up with Dr M and chat. I'm hoping she stays here and doesn't move to Vegas. I'd miss her. She's really the only person who calls me regularly to do things and hang out. I have quite a few acquaintances, but she's crossed over to friend status. :) Hopefully she doesn't move, but I can understand why she would want to.

G comes home tonight! I always look forward to Thursday.

I'm very over the Olympics. I'm burned out / OD'd. Too much Olympics in a short amount of time. I do enjoy it, I've just been watching too much of it every night after work. Mainly because the other networks aren't even trying to compete with it. The only thing I have to look forward to is new BSG on Friday !

Sunny days sweeping the clouds away.....

It's been so nice here for the last few days I've been sleeping with the windows open and the ceiling fans on. It's PERFECT weather. Low 70s mid-range humidity, sunny, beautiful.

The day started with a doggie bath. Tiger sorely needed one. He really doesn't mind them much and jumps right into the tub when I get out the dog shampoo and turn on the tub. He's so great about that. After a brief toweling off, I took the doggie outside by the pool to lay in the sun and play with his toy. He entertained the two girls out by the pool, who said they didn't mind he was there. (I would have had to take him inside if they did since dogs aren't really supposed to be in the pool area) I just wanted Tiger to get some sun to dry off and enjoy the lovely weather as much as I was. It's still too cold in the water to go to the Davis Island doggie park. And, going to that doggie park would involve yet ANOTHER doggie bath post-playtime. (he does love getting sandy and disgusting though)

After Tiger's brief foray outside I decided to get some sun myself. yes, I donned a bikini in February. (there are some perks to living in Florida afterall!) I enjoyed reading by the pool for about an hour. That's all I wanted to do, too much time and i'd get pink even with SPF 15. First time in the sun all year so i wanted to be extra cautious. I also have to be careful of the tan lines since I'm getting married in a strapless dress. How on earth am I going to go the next three months in florida with no tan lines ? Can't exactly sunbathe sans top by the condo pool, eh.

The rest of the day involved housework and cooking. Relaxing and nice to enjoy having a day to myself. I'll actually be ready to tackle work again come Tuesday morning. Thank god for days off !!

Arena Football... meh.

I finally have a two day weekend for the first time in three weeks! I'm so happy that I get to relax and spend time with G.

Some friends had free tickets to go see the Tampa Bay Storm arena football team. I had never been to arena football and neither had G. So, we figured it would be fun to go! Yeah, we now know why we've never been. YAWN! Oh my god was it boring! There is NO strategy to arena football. It's all offense, no defense what.so.ever. The field is only 50 yards long. The most entertaining part of the whole game were the Storm dancers. Now that's just sad. I wasn't the only one either. I'm not just a jaded girl. I LOVE college football. I'm meh about pro football. Arena football... double meh. I talked to everyone in the group I went with ... I don't think any of us are going back. This was supposed to be Tampa Bay's rival team game too. Oh well.

As my friend Lynne said, " We can scratch that off the list of things we want to do before fifty". Heh.

Sold !

My parents sold their house on Sunday. They accepted an offer. The inspection takes place this weekend. If you know anything about my mother you know that she's having a cow right now. They have to be out of the house by the end of March and they have no where to go.

My father interviewed with a company in Ft Lauderdale this last week, but he hasn't heard anything back yet. He should know by the end of the week. If he gets the job, they'll start house hunting in Ft Lauderdale. If he doesn't... they'll most likely go to Gainsville to be near my dad's family.

But, they should be all moved and settled by the time the wedding rolls around. (which makes my mother happy)

First day off

This was my first day off in eight days. I needed the break SO badly! I didn't even get days off last week when I was sick. I woke up fairly early to walk the dog, ended up being really congested, tried so hard to clear the congestion I got a headache, then ended up napping in bed for another hour to make it go away. I was just happy I could do that!

The only thing I managed to do today was meet with my CPA. Apparently I'm going to pay WAY less in taxes this year than I orginally thought. It'll leave me some money to do some things we've been wanting to do to the house. (like hardwood floors, lighting, and finally fixing our guest room shower!) Anything else I have left will go to pay down more debt. Whoo. Most likely going to the home equity loan since it's interest is higher than the student loan debt. Gosh, isn't being a grown up exciting!? No, not really.

Last night two friends came over for dinner and to laugh at the Bachelor with me. It's become a tradition. Those girls are so messed up. I've known you ten whole minutes YOU MUST HAVE MY BABIES NOW !! MARRY ME MARRY ME !! Oh lord. It's fun for comedic purposes.

And yes, it's Valentine's Day. Since G is out of town I'm not doing much. I made myself some curry chicken, played with the dog, and am watching the Olympics. Whoo! Party! G and I are supposed to celebrate when he gets back in town. I don't really care about Valentine's Day so I'd be happy just getting to spend some time with him this weekend. I actually have two days in a row off so it'll actually happen this week. YAY!

Turtles are here!

The turtles have landed. They came in yesterdays mail. They're SO cute!

We're having minor issues with the hotels. There are only two hotels near the beach where we're getting married. But, there are TONS of hotels less than 10 miles away in Honolulu. G and I are staying at the JW Marriott on G's hotel points. (so, for free) The hotel next door is also a Marriott, but a lower end one. But, it's still a VERY nice hotel. My parents got a room last weekend and told me there are only a handful of rooms left for the week of our wedding.

I called G's parents Monday night and told them about the lack of rooms at the Marriott Beach Club so they called that night. They're full. The JW is too pricey for our family's too. Now G's family and his sister have to stay in Honolulu or Waikiki. They're going to talk to a travel agent and see if there's anything they can do about getting into one of the two hotels near our wedding beach.

Everything is so close together though, they really only have to come out to the beach the night of the wedding. Not the end of the world if they have to stay in town, but it would have been nice to at least have the family all together. I can't believe the hotel is full three months in advance. Although, it is the week before Memorial Day weekend.

I feel much better today. I seem to only feel disgusting now when I try to sleep. Extra pillows and gravity are my friend. I know, TMI.

Almost better

You know how when you're getting over being sick you feel kinda okay, but you're still really run down ? That's me right now. I loaded up on Sudafed and Advil before going to be last night (at 945pm) and slept til 830 this morning. I think I spiked another fever last night as I'd wake up freezing and pull up the blankets and then wake up a few hours later really hot and nasty. Gross!

I feel decently enough now... alright enough to be at work at least. G comes home tonight which will be nice. I don't think the dog could take another day of mom not running or playing around the house with him after work. He's seemed very bored and depressed the last few days that I've been sick. Although, he's happily keeping mommy warm in bed. (aww!)

I still have two and a half more days of work this week. Why oh why did I get sick my week of six in a row!

I'm sick

I'm sick.. and I blame Suzy. All this talk about her snot made me sick !! :p

I think I caught it from one of the numerous patients who were hacking up a lung on me this Saturday. I started to feel bad yesterday afternoon, I went home an hour early, by 8pm I was running a fever of over 101. I took some Advil and went to bed. My fever is gone this morning, but since the doc who could cover for me is moving today.. I'm at work. I made a trip to Teavana to get some more immune-boosting tea and now I'm hiding in my office.

Fortunately, I only have four patients scheduled so it'll be a quiet day and I can nap in my office. Wednesdays are usually our slowest day! (thank goodness) I'm only half way through my work week.. of course it's my week to work six in a row!

The Weekend

After the relentless rain finally let up on Friday night, G and I headed over to Let's Eat with two friends. Let's Eat is a very interesting concept, which is genius in my opinion, and popping up all over the country. The store chops, slices, and preps food dishes for you before you get to the store. You sign up online for which of the 15 meals you'd like to prepare (one meal feeds 4-6 people so you can split them into two meals)and then show up at your assigned prep time. There are instructions at each station about how to prep your meal. The chopping, shredding, mincing, and butchering is already done. After you've put your meal together, magical little elves follow behind you and clean up your mess. By the end of our 2 hour session we had 24 meals ready to go from fridge to freezer. All looked very tasty, nutrious, and best of all NO DISHES !! Pair your meal with a side dish and/or salad and you're ready to go ! So far, both meals we've had from Let's Eat have been delicious. I even have enough left over for lunches at work. Saturday night we enjoyed the Citrus Glazed Pork Loin. VERY good and we paired it with vegetable risotto and wine. mmmm! Last night for the super bowl we used the Spinach and Cheese Cannelloni. Also great and I have TONS of leftovers. (which I'm having for lunch today)

After finishing our creations, the girl who worked their told us we get 20 dollars off next month's session if we signed up that night. So, we did! More yummy food.. less cooking for me !!

I worked all day Saturday and was exhausted when I got home. Saturday is always our busiest day! It was really nice that G had dinner and wine ready when I got home. Heaven!

Sunday we really didn't do much of anything. Or, anything exciting anyway... I got my car cleaned which it sorely needed, picked up G to go to Target where we bought more exciting things like dog food. Then, off to Home Depot to get air filters for our heating/air unit which probably hadn't been changed since it was built !! Our condo place decided to use the world's most unusual size (12x30) so I can only find filters at home depot. Blah.

The Super Bowl was lame and the commercials were lamer. I ended up watching some of Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet because it was WAY more entertaining. Your heart could melt from all the cuteness.

Today starts six days of work in a row. Yay !! It also looks like today is going to be a VERY slow day. *Grumble* So, I'm going to get my checks balance and research stuff for my SEP-IRA. (being a grown up sucks sometimes)

Raining Cat and Dogs

G and I woke up this morning to pouring rain about 8am. It hasn't stopped since. Apparently, there's a cold front moving through and this storm is the front of it. G told me his flight last night had to devert around it and it made for quite the bumpy ride.

We braved the outside long enough to dash into Chili's for lunch. Mmmm chicken sandwich.

Now, Tiger and I are listening to it rain while G works in his office. I'm working on planning our trip to Hawaii.. which islands we want to hit when, etc. The rain continues to beat on the windows.