It sure was a Long week...

Hello world!

I'm back from good ol' Kentucky, which surprisingly was not as bad as I expected it to be. Thankfully, MarkieMark was able to come to the training in an unexpected twist of things. This severely improved the boring-ness of the training. Many texts were exchanged from across the room with each other. It was the only way we could keep our sanity, trust me.

Although the training was very helpful and applicable for our careers, it was presented very poorly for a group of engineers. And by poorly, I mean the guy spent a whole 10 minutes explaining to us that we can use Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V if we wanted to copy/paste data on a Minitab spreadsheet. Thanks for that information, trainer. It's not like we have been using computers to analyze data for the past 8 years or anything...

And then there was the puppy of the class who kept asking questions. MarkieMark and I decided to make it a drinking game...a shot for every question asked. Well I'm pretty we would both die of alcohol poisoning if we actually drank 101 shots. Yes, 101 questions in 4.5 days! This is the kind of ridiculousness that went on. And I will have to deal with it again in a month's time for a whole week again...

But overall, Kentucky was not so bad as a state as it seems. The people were really nice. Every one I encountered was very polite and helpful, a good change from the general rude behavior in Memphis. And in general, it was a lot cleaner. Kentucky definitely gets more points than Tennessee. They actually had a concept of Southern Hospitality.

The week was also made better by a surprise visit from hubby! He drove up after work and completely tricked me! He made me believe the whole day that we had a Skype date and we were going to eat the same dinner and watch the same TV show as the same time and everything! Then I get back to the hotel, and there he is waiting for me in the lobby! And he brought me presents! This is why I love him, people.

Well, I'm off to watch a bad movie, eat bad food, drink, and hang out with hubby and MarkieMark! Woot!

My words of advice for the day:

Conquer. Cherish. Chill.

Minneapolove

Oh how lovely Minneapolis is! I miss it so very much! I had an excellent time there during my short stay. I loved walking down Nicollet Mall and eating lunch in the IDS Tower. I loved being back on campus, in Coffman and exploring the new building that took the place of the ugly Science Classroom Building. I loved visiting my sister's res hall and eating lunch with her there. I loved talking all the current ChemE students at the Career Fair and sharing my experiences and hearing about theirs. I loved the general hustle and bustle of the city! I loved eating my mom's home cooked meals again! I loved going to the Bookstore and stocking up on University of Minnesota paraphernalia! I should just become a professor there.

Being back at work after that trip is just depressing...

Next week I head to Calvert City, Kentucky. Which, if you ask me, is probably the least glamorous place for any type of corporate training. I mean, come on! If it weren't for the whole week or if I had MarkieMark to share the experience with it wouldn't be so bad. But such is life.

My words of advice for the day:

Foster. Further. Focus.

Well, I'm out like the last contestant on Project Runway. Auf Wiedersehen.

Sweet Tooth

You know how I know I have the best husband?

Today I was watching some cupcake show on TLC and got this strange urge for some cake. Like I wanted to stuff my face with cake kind of an urge. While hubby was leaving to go pick up some food, I briefly mentioned my craving for cake to him. Then he came back 20 minutes later with a RED VELVET CUPCAKE STUFFED WITH CHOCOLATE!!!!!! Best cupcake ever!

If he wasn't already my husband, I would totally marry him again.

Real Deals and Steals!

Surprise! New blog design! I may or may not have spent an hour and half finalizing it...

As promised here are some awesome deals I found today!

I love to check up on Target's Daily Deals everyday. The prices are significantly marked down, plus the shipping is free (BONUS!) Anyway, today's deal was probably one of my favorites! They had Buy One, Get One Free on their summer dresses. So you get 2 dresses for $21.99 and they are literally brought to your doorstep for free! What can be better than that?

So naturally I snagged this beauty in the color shown below AND one in black:



You also can take advantage of this offer here!

Another great find: Body Central Sale! This is where I got my dresses last week when I was doing some much needed Vegas shopping. I got 3 dresses for $10 each. And today they did not disappoint either!

You can get this gorgeous dress for $9!

Or get this one for to wear on a night out also for $9!

They also have these amazing tops for only $7 each! (Oh did they accidentally get added to my cart, and accidentally got charged to my card, and are accidentally going to be shipped to me by next week? Oops!)

This one is great for a cocktail party

Perfect for a Holiday party just like that or paired with a white or black short cardigan

This one is great for work or even a date night!

Get these and other awesome steals at Body Central Sales Page.

Until next time, my friends.

This, That, and Everything Else

Well it's that time again...

Let's see if we can do a quick update here. And well, you know how much I LOVE lists so here you go:

1. We have been travelling a lot! Between AL to WI to Las Vegas, it's all been an adventure. And there are many more to come. I go to the beautiful Minneapolis again next week, then go to Hodunkville, KY for some training the week after that and to AL the weekend after that for Bayfest 2010. Woot! Although I absolutely love travelling, it has taken a toll on me. Hubby and I have not had a quiet weekend for a couple of months now. So that's exactly what we will be doing the next two days. Nothing adventurous, just an old fashioned holed-up-in-the-house-sleeping-eating-Netflixing kind of a weekend. Boring, I know, but oh so heavenly!

2. Well folks, I'm at the halfway point to my weight loss goal! 11 down, 11 to go. I actually feel disgusting internally when I eat crap food now. For example, after the whole weekend in Vegas, I literally felt like a big stuffed turkey. What with the massive quantities of food and alcohol, and no exercise except for a lot of walking (but that doesn’t really count). Not that the food and alcohol was not fun. It was beyond amazing! I just feel the after-effects of it when we got back and needed a detox week basically.

3. Oh did I mention we went to Vegas? It was EPIC! We drank, we gambled, we ate, we laughed, we stayed out until 6 am, we walked, we hot-tubbed on the roof of the hotel, we prank called phone sex lines. I mean it doesn’t get much better than that! Of course the only reason it was EPIC was because of the company we had! You just can’t beat that dynamic. I will put up some highlights in a separate post.

4. Two days ago, we added a new member to our family…the new iMac! OMG it’s gorgeous! I sit at work on my crappy computer with the crappy graphics, and the crappy internet, and the crappy OS and I just think about how much I just want to go home and use the iMac! I’m obsessed. It’s my baby.

5. I have some amazing deals to share (with pics…OMG!) so stay tuned!

My words of advice for the day:
Visualize.Value.Vanquish

No Preservatives Added

It had been a long week between meetings, projects, little sleep, and a lot of stress. As soon as I hit the bed and closed my eyes, I drifted off into a blissful slumber. I dreamt I was about to heat up my frozen lunch at work. I turned the package around to read the nutritional info and the ingredients. As I read each chemical in the list of ingredients, it started popping out at me from the package box in its 3-D molecular formula. As the number of chemicals grew, they started getting bigger and bigger while menacingly floating towards me. It became clear to me that giant molecules of every preservative added in that stupid frozen lunch were attacking me! I began running away faster and faster as the molecules kept increasing in size. I headed towards my corner office and just as I entered, I hurriedly closed the door on the preservatives. I woke up with a start and yelled, “I’m being attacked by giant molecules!” at which point, hubby looked at me like I was clinically insane, a look that I am quite familiar with.

Well, this quest to limit preservatives is not limited to just my dream world. My new year’s resolution was one of the most common ones made—to lose weight. I’m happy to say that I stuck with it and have had successful results. Though I’m still not quite where I want to be, I’m very happy with the progress I have made. In order for me to achieve this goal, I knew that I needed to avoid distractions. So, I only made one resolution, and focused on it. One of the most important things to me was that to reach my target weight, I would not compromise my health. This meant that I paid more attention on getting balanced meals and exercise instead of starving myself, spending countless hours at the gym or taking any kind of harmful weight loss pills. At the beginning of this plan was to avoid processed food as much as possible and I can’t believe the difference it has made in the way my body feels. I’ve established a regular exercise regimen and I’m really feeling great about myself after a very long time! I want to begin chronicling my progress because I believe that it will give me an added push to achieve my goal. So here is my first report:

Target lbs to lose = 22
Lbs already lost = 8
Lbs to go = 14

Now if only dreaming about giant molecules could make those lbs disappear…

Progress Report

The following has happened since the last time I wrote (I promise to update more regularly from now on):

**In no particular order**

1. First and foremost, I got married to my best friend, my soul mate, my companion for life. Our wedding was beautiful and we couldn't have asked for a better day!

2. I got to meet my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins from around the country and around the world after many many years. Seeing them has definitely intensified my travel bug and I'm anxious to go visit all of them!

3. I have realized that some people are truly not worth stressing out about. Like my twin cousin says, "Accept, don't expect." He expanded this idea to mean that instead of expecting people to behave a certain way, we should just accept the way they actually behave. That way, we can not only accept the fact that there is no point in wasting time over people who constantly let you down, but also become more aware of the people who will stand by you through everything. I have applied this philosophy to my life recently and I have never felt more free.

(That's enough emo-ness for now)

4. Two of our good friends moved within 7-8 hours from us! We are so excited for their new opportunities and can't wait to visit them!

5. We have hotel and tickets booked for Las Vegas over Labor Day weekend. It is sure to be an epic reunion of friends!

6. Spain won the World Cup and they certainly deserved it! Hubby and I have made it a goal to be in Brazil in 2014 for the next one!

7. My sister turned 18 and graduated high school! Wow, I'm getting old!

8. We moved into a new apartment! Goodbye, incompetent management/maintenance, bugs, and frozen pipes!

9. I went to Philadelphia for training, fell in love with the city, and really really hope to be moved there next year.

10. Hubby got his first speeding ticket so now he can finally stop gloating about how he has a clean driving record. Haha!