SuPeR SeCrEt StUfF

What a long and short week, just pure insanity!! This week at work we had consultants come in. It's not that I don't like consultants, it's just that I don't trust them. At all. Anytime someone wants to know more about how you do your job and what you do and throw in all those fab buzz words like "oh my, that sounds SO manual", and "oh dear, that must be SO time consuming" all I hear is "your company is paying me a million dollars to basically type up all the dysfunctional crap you all already know and then I'm going to automate your job so all of you can be eliminated and then they can keep us on retainer indefinitely because none of this is going to work even remotely like we just promised you". Cynical, I know, but I've been there done that a million times. So, my week was full of 4 hour meetings. I was stuck in 5 of them, so roughly 20 hours of my week was spent sitting in a room being peppered with free soft drinks. One of my coworkers was stuck in 6, so life coulda been worse and a few were only stuck in 1, so it also could've been better. Throw sucky recessions that make retail blow in and it was just a bit of an ugly, stressful week. One night I was so pitifully tired that we took Pippin on a ride around the neighborhood instead of his usual walk. If that's not "lazy American" then I don't know what is.

As a result of too much work and too little time I only got in 2 of my usual 4 lunch-time workouts. One of them was a run that I struggled through but finished, and then for my other one I went with swimming. I should've run but my knee is bothering me a bit and I really wanted to hit the pool. I'm still crazy slow but my main problem is just total boredom in the pool. It's just back and forth, back and forth. Over and over. I think I may start timing myself and maybe that will make it more interesting. Any suggestions to fight pool boredom would be great!!!

SO, the big news is that in just barely over a week Brent will be 31! And this year, instead of torturing him with projects, I am going to whisk him away to.......well, it's a surrr-prise. For him anyway. I can think of at least a dozen people who know where we're going. I've given him a few hints, like our plane leaves here at 7:55 and lands at 9:20 (nonstop flight), it's a state we haven't been before and best case we'll see 3 states we haven't seen. I've told him there are no bloggers I know there, but there are bloggers in nearby states. It's pretty stinking hard keeping it a secret, sometimes when I'm reading through the books I'll see something really exciting and just sort of squeal but I can't share what's so exciting. We leave Thurs night and come back Tuesday and I just can't wait!!! I've got to go back and count, but I think we only have 12-13 states left that we haven't been to, so we're closing in on 40! I know I'll never do a marathon in all 50, but I definitely want to see all 50 together. Speaking of, someone at work told me about this website where some guys drove nonstop and were able to drive through all 48 cont states in something like 4 days. Very interesting.

And tonight I leave you with the excitement only known as Pippin, who is absolutely dead to the world asleep after a day at Brent's family where he got to visit with both grandparents (my parents and Brents) and half of his nieces and nephews as well as lots of other family members. I'm pretty sure he's going to be sound asleep until Monday and he's gotten some sort of belly rash from rolling in their yard or something. Here he is in more awake times, loving the excitement of having treats mailed to him from Rich in Texas. He is one spoiled dog!!!

He has no idea what excitement is about to happen:








Once the envelope was open he knew there were some fresh treats and toys in there!!












This would be the point where he starts pummeling me to have a doggie cookie:












His eyes are screaming happiness! And I'm telling you, they looked and smelled so good I thought about eating one. It's crazy what the doggie bakeries can do!








Have a great night and happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!!!