Call me Cinderella

Greetings:

I meant to blog earlier today (not currently at 11:25pm) but hey, what can I say?  I was productive.   My big news is that I've been seriously cleaning in the last couple days.   I'm kicking myself for not taking before and after pictures.   I spent about four hours cleaning my desk and it looks fantastic now.    I need to figure out a way to sort papers so I keep my desk looking spectacular.  My next task is my closet and dresser.   I may start that tomorrow since I'm home all day.  

We found out today that Gavin is likely employed assuming he passes a drug test.   He goes in on Sunday morning for the drug test.   It's very early in the morning so it's not going to throw off our travel schedule.   They want him to be a produce clerk.   Gives him great ammunition to make jokes about handling melons.   He's pretty happy.   His brake light problem on his car should be fixed soon too.

I was productive today and ran some errands in Des Moines.   I picked up some new clothes I had shipped to Lane Bryant directly to avoid shipping & handling costs.   I needed new jean capris and new dressy capris.   Everything fits and looks good so I'm a happy camper.   I was near another business so I picked up Dad's Father's Day gift too since I was in the area.   I had a little time to kill and went to the Lutheran hospital and chatted with Dan for a bit during his break.  I was shocked he actually had a break.   I decided to take some "me time" after that and went to a matinee showing of "Mother's Day" at the new theater in Altoona.  I thought the previews looked good and it was relatively cheap to go to an early showing.   It's one of those movies with several story lines but they all sort of come together in a sense by the end.    It features Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, and Kate Hudson.   I liked it and I am glad I went solo because it was very much a chick flick.   The new theater is one of those fancy set-ups.   I sat in a leather recliner and watched the movie.    The theaters are smaller and hold less people because of this so it's gotta be a pain to see a movie when it first comes out.

Netflix wise we watched "We're the Millers" recently and it was a pretty good comedy.   Very crude.   It also featured Jennifer Aniston.    It features a group of people that for the most part do not get along.   But they need to act like a family to smuggle drugs into the USA from Mexico.   I watched a movie about Jimi Hendrix too.   It was sort of a biography/documentary about the time he was found and went to London and became a bigger rock star.   It was OK.   They weren't allowed to actually use his music so that stunk.

I made a decision to take a little trip with Dan, his boys, and Gavin later in the summer.    We are going to Dubuque in July to the Grand Harbor Resort and Waterpark.   Dan's going to change his schedule so we can leave on a Friday, be there all day Saturday, and come back Sunday.   It's uncertain if we can bring the older boy (Taylor) with us due to his possible visit with grandparents.   And I'm hoping Gavin can join us too.   He has the time off from football but who knows with his new job.   It's a nice hotel with an indoor water park.   Lots of slides, a lazy river, a play area, hot tub, etc.

We went to the Shinedown/Black Stone Cherry concert last Friday.   It was a good show.  Black Stone Cherry played longer than I expected but it wasn't horrible.   I'm still surprised that Shinedown didn't play an encore song.   Maybe that's not the norm anymore.   I haven't been to a concert in forever so who knows?    Standing on the concrete for hours did not do great things for my plantar fasciiatis.  It's been pretty sore all week.    Collective Soul is playing in Des Moines later in the summer (outdoor show) and I'm considering that concert.   I'd likely try and take Dan with me since they are a 90s band.   Not sure Gavin would care for them.   **Side note:  LeAnn the Gin Blossoms are no longer playing in Des Moines.   We have the Jim Gaffigan show at the end of July too.   It is honestly nice to be getting out more often and have fun.   And I was wise and saved money well for these little ventures.   Wahoo!

So my right foot is still unhappy from the concert and I was super "graceful" yesterday and hurt my other foot.   I was putting yoga pants on and got caught up and fell forward.    My left foot smashed into the ground big toe first and holy crap that hurt.   I was panicked yesterday because my toe nail was loose and wiggly and bleeding a lot.   Today the toe nail seems more stable so I'm hoping the nail doesn't fall off.   I spent part of my morning trying to clean blood out of my bedroom carpet.   Bleh.

On that gross note, I think I'll end this entry.   :)   Speaking of gross...

Free, Free At Last

Here I sit, watching TV, drinking an adult  beverage, not grading anything.  It feels odd but feels good.  Grades for ISU were due today at 2:15pm and I had mine turned in at 11am.   I usually have them turned in over the weekend but I was so busy this weekend to sit and focus on grading.    It was scramble mode yesterday and this morning.  

I am only supposed to work 20 hours each week this summer, starting this week.   Yeah....I reached 20 hours today and I still need to go in tomorrow for half a day.    I wish salary could somehow pay for overtime.   I need to send information to enrolled families so they can start completing the registration packet for SYF.

I ran some errands today and shopped at Target.   I was shocked but actually found some really nice shirts.   I had not planned on buying clothes but couldn't pass up the price.    They will come in handy when I need to dress up a bit for activities this summer.   My main purchase was a new digital scale.   It's unwrapped and sitting in my bathroom.   My first weight loss goal is to lose 11.8 pounds.   It will take me to an even number and I think I can accomplish the goal easily by the end of the month.   Gavin got me a George Foreman grill for Mother's Day and I am super enthused to use it often to prep food.   Both he and I need to eat more protein.   He needs it to support his weight lifting and I need to stop being anemic.  We made chicken the other night.   I'm making black bean quesadillas tomorrow.   I may try to make salmon this weekend.   I am going to design/plan a walk/run plan for the local trail by the apartment and DMACC.  

It was neat to be included and see Dan's mom get married this weekend.   It's been awhile since I attended a Catholic mass and some parts of the service were different than what I'm used to in Waukon and Protivin.   After the service, a deacon married Meri and Ray.   I was not a witness.   We found out prior to church that at least one of the witnesses had to be Catholic.   Dan needed to stay a witness so someone from the church was the other witness.   An interesting note:  Ray is taking Meri's last name, she is not taking his.   I've heard of the option but have never known a couple to do it.   We had some chaos afterwards with finding a place to eat since it was Mother's Day.   I'm not going to rant about that on here.   What's done, is done.

Some good news is that my plantar fasciitis is doing much better.   I take a long-term pill in the morning and at night that's supposed to prevent inflammation.   It's the prescription version of Aleve.   I also have inserts in three pairs shoes that I commonly wear and that helps too.  It acts up here and there but it's nothing like it used to be.   I do have to be careful with how much I wear flip flops though.  

I did watch a couple movies last night while grading.   "Still Alice" is about a professional that is an expert in communication and finds out she's developing early-onset Alzheimer's.   It shows her decline and how her family deals with it.  Julianne Moore and Alec Baldwin are the main characters.  It's pretty decent.

I watched :"God's Not Dead" as I remember seeing remarks about it on Facebook in the past.   It's on the dish from time to time too.    It was good.   It features a lot of personal stories and some of them interact by the end of the movie.  

I have a movie about Jimi Hendrix and "We're the Millers" coming next.

End of entry.

Movie Review Time

For those that give a hoot:

"Guardians of the Galaxy":   I had put off seeing this movie for quite some time.   I had heard good things but the collection of characters didn't seem super appealing.  I have to admit it was pretty funny though.   I should have seen it in the theater.

"Blackfish":  This is a documentary about killer whales used in facilities like Sea World.    I had heard things about it and there was noticeable advertising in the past years from Sea World about their treatment of animals.   It showed a pattern with a specific killer whale and his tendency to hurt and kill trainers.   OSHA changed a rule about no longer letting trainers get into water with killer whales during shows.   Pretty gruesome details but interesting.   I've never had interest to visit Sea World and really not interested now.

"Million Dollar Baby":  It isn't a new movie.   It featured Clint Eastwood and Hillary Swank.  Eastwood's character trains Swank's character (eventually) and she does very well.   After an illegal hit in a major boxing match, Swank's character is paralyzed and it shows the true relationship between the two.   (father/daughter type of relationship)   Very strong movie but sad.

"Hobbit" movies:  we rented the last two Hobbit movies.   Shrug.   I like the Lord of the Rings better.   Gavin liked them though.   I didn't pay attention very well.   I was probably working during them.

"The Imitation Game":  It was my first Benedict Cumberbatch movie.   Many rave about him...eh.   He's a good actor though.   It's based on a true story about England in WWII.   Smart people are brought together to try and break the German code so the Allies can predict where and when bombings will take place.   It connects to the first computer.    The lead person (Cumberbatch) doesn't get the credit he deserves and is actually treated very poorly after the war.   He is homosexual and is prosecuted (since it was illegal) then and ends up enduring a medical procedure to "cure" him.   Sad that the country ignores his good work and focused on that part of his life.

"Take Shelter":   I thought it was a "Twister" copycat.   It was more of a movie about mental illness than about storms.   A man predicts and has dreams about an impeding storm that life threatening.   Mental illness runs in his family (mother) and people start to wonder if that's driving his decisions.   He builds an expensive underground storm shelter and by the end of the movie you think he's been proven wrong.   But they take vacation and the end alludes to a huge storm/hurricane approaching land.  

"This is Where I Leave You":   Very good family drama.   A dysfunctional family comes together after their families death and follow their father's wishes to mourn for 10 days.   Information comes out about the past.  They all vent about issues.   Very good casting and a surprising ending too.

"Atlas Shrugged: Who is John Galt?":  This is a series I started watching with Jon a few years ago.   It is based on the book by Ayn Rand in 1957.   Have you read it LeAnn?  The story is about the failure of the country and breakdown of the economy.   Sadly some aspects do seem fairly realistic due to our social issues today.    This was the final movie in the series.   Corny acting but decent story line.

We used a free coupon to use Red Box the other day and rented "Sisters".  I am so happy I didn't see it in the theaters.   It had funny points for the most part but wasn't as funny as I expected.   I think Tina Fey wanted to make a movie that allowed her to swear like crazy.   I liked her performance in "This is Where I Leave You" better.  

We have "Still Alice" and "God's Not Dead" coming this week.  

I think the next movie we'll see in the theater will be the third in the Divergent series.

Final's Week---Deep Breath

Greetings:

Thanks to sleeping from 4:00-8:30pm, I am wide awake at 1:00am.   Whoops.   The last few days have been a whirlwind of visiting my student teacher and grading unit plans for HS 275.   Between the two sections, I had 66 unit plans to grade.    Most were done very well so they weren't difficult to review, it's just the quantity and the hassle of bringing boxes of them between home and ISU.   I finished the last box last night/morning at 3:30am.   I had to be able to start handing them back today as today was the scheduled final exam time for HS 275.   

I still have plenty of grading to complete in the next days/week.   I have to switch gears and focus on DMACC for a bit as final grades are due by Monday.   I have until next Wednesday to turn in grades for ISU.   I now have 35 PE unit plans to grade.  I also have final exams (electronic and hard copy) too.   Tomorrow is the last meeting day for my personal training class at DMACC.   They are presenting information about a project and then taking their final exam.   I have mixed feelings about that class.  I feel I did OK with it considering I had no prep time and didn't always feel competent teaching some of the content.   I'm not sure what I'll say if they offer it to me again next spring.

The weekend will be busier than usual too as I am going to a family gathering with Dan and his family on Friday evening.   It's a game night since his sister and her family are going to be in Central Iowa.   I am spending Saturday by myself so I can keep working on grading tasks.  I hope to submit my DMACC grades on Saturday.   On Sunday Dan's mom and her long time companion are getting married after a church service.    They've been together for 25 years.   They've considered marriage before but now with him retiring and their health status, they've decided to finally tie the knot.   I'm assuming Sunday will be busy even though the marriage is scheduled for the morning.

Next week I need to finish my ISU grades and jump into more work with the summer program.    I still need to hire about 8 more people and several of them are group leaders.   I had a pitiful amount of PE majors apply to work for the program.    They typically fill leadership roles.    I submitted my first request for background checks today too.   I also need to set up someone online materials for a few students.   I am doing two independent studies during the summer.  One is for a couple PE majors that need to become Red Cross instructors before they student teach in the fall.   I'm doing it mainly so I keep the Red Cross happy as I need to train instructors so often.   I'm also doing an independent study as all of our classes for elementary ed majors were canceled for the summer due to low enrollment.   One of the students needs to student teach in the fall and has to have either health or PE methods before she can do so.   Considering that most of my materials are online already, I figured I could help her out and she can provide lessons for the summer camp kids.

I'm excited to go to the Shinedown concert next week.   I'm not excited about the venue as getting their early seems to be essential if you want to get a good place to stand and watch the show.   Yes, stand and watch the show.   They don't have seating.   Bleh.    I'll have to double up on meds for my foot so it doesn't make me miserable all night.   I also bought our tickets for the Jim Gaffigan show at the end of July.   It's going to serve as a birthday present for Dan.   It will be a nice way to celebrate the end of Summer Youth Fitness too.   LeAnn and Tony are joining us too (as well as Gavin).  

I'm also excited to do some much needed cleaning both at home and at the office.   I need to sort through so much paper at work to decide what can be recycled and what needs to be shredded.   I want my office to look better and function better.   I'm sick of piles of paper sitting everywhere.    I need to clean my desk in the apartment too and need to do a major clean-up in my closet.   It looks like a bomb went off in there.  

I also need to invest in a tennis racket for the summer.   My orange and black one disappeared a couple years ago.    The other one I have in the trunk is in bad shape.   I want to buy a mid-grade racket this time around so it will cost more but hopefully last a long time.  

Hallelujah Summer is Almost Here

Been meaning to blog for weeks but had to keep my priorities in mind with work.    I typically have no intent or energy to turn the computer on at home and I never have time to do anything personal at work (at least lately).  

The big part of the past month has been my trip to Minneapolis for professional development.   I haven't been able to attend a national convention for my professional membership in years.    11 years actually.   It was OK in a professional development standpoint.  I learned a little bit more about some health-based activities and technology sources.   The keynote speakers were pretty decent.    My coworker did all the driving as she's familiar with Minneapolis.   We stayed with her mom in a super nice condo.   It was nice to swim in some evenings.   The only downfall was the fact her mom had no Internet/Wifi so my plan to do work in the evenings failed.   The Internet at the convention center wasn't super consistent either.   Either way, I don't when I'll go another national version of the convention because the next is in Boston, then Florida I think.  

The other big news is that I did receive my promotion.   Starting July 1, I am a senior lecturer.   Longer contracts and more pay.  I'll take that.   I didn't get an award I applied for but compared to other applicants, I'm a novice faculty member.

The highlight of this weekend was the hours of tennis I played yesterday.  I've been dying to play tennis all winter and during the early spring.   I'm hoping it's something Dan and I can do after work some days as well as on the weekends.   Surprisingly he didn't win all the games either.  

And now for the 101th time...I am excited to make some healthy changes as this semester is ending and the summer is beginning.   The first thing I will be doing is buying a scale.   I need to look at the ones we use for research at work because they are consistent and easy to calibrate over time so they stay consistent.   Would like to weigh myself once a week.    No plans of using Weight Watchers.

Things have also been quite different with Gavin driving.   I don't have to race home from work anymore so I've stayed back late more regularly which is actually helping with all the grading I have on my plate right now.   He's doing well with it and my anxiety of him driving in Ankeny has dropped a lot.   He's pretty mindful about how much gas he's using too.  If you do the math, he's still on the first tank of gas put into it after we arrived in Ankeny with it at Easter.  

Things are going very well with Dan too.   This week marks 9 months of blissful dating.   (Sincerity not sarcasm)    He met Alissa on Friday after work.    We don't see each other as often anymore due to schedules and I'm trying to work in things to do that aren't eating out.   Playing tennis yesterday is a key example.   We are considering the idea of going to a Steeler's game in October as they are playing his favorite team (Dolphins).   It's only a consideration at this point.  

Back to grading!

Mediocre Productivity

Greetings:

I'm catching up on some Netflix movies and was sick of grading assignments so I figured I'd write out a blog entry.  

Our visit, although brief, was nice earlier this week.   I got to see Grandma Stika for a bit as well as a chunk of the Smith clan.   The St. Patrick's Day parade wasn't in the cards due to the weather.   I even got to ride along to Caledonia.   Gavin didn't get to lay his eyes on his car but he'll see it soon enough on Easter weekend.  

Speaking of him driving a car, we took time on Wednesday and he got his license.   The wait was ridiculous.   Then again that's quite normal for the Ankeny DOT location.    In hindsight, we should have gone to the station in Decorah when we were in NE Iowa or to the location in Ames.   We were seen right before 5pm or else we would have been told to come back the next day.   We had more than a two hour wait so being told to come back the next day would have not gone over well.

We spent time yesterday visiting with our State Farm agent, well actually her assistant.    His car now has insurance coverage.   And finally today we bopped down to the Treasurer's office in Des Moines and had the title changed over to Gavin, received license plates, and registered the car too.    He can now legally drive the car when it needs to be brought back to Ankeny.

I took my car in to the dealership yesterday for some basic maintenance and to figure out what the rattling noise was under the hood.   My dad thought it was the incline pulley which made sense.    Turns out the clutch in my air conditioner compressor went to crap.    The dealership states they won't only replace the clutch because the repair usually doesn't work well.   They'd rather replace the entire compressor.   Mighty pricey.   It will have to wait or I may not fix it at all.    It seems silly to spend over $1,000 on a repair when I do want to trade in the car within the year.

Now for some movie reviews:

"Orphan":  holy cow good horror movie!   Family adopts a 9 year old girl.    Bad things start happening and they find out she actually has a hormonal disorder and is actually a grown woman.   A mentally ill grown woman.    Lots of thrilling parts.

"Hellraiser III and IV":  one of my favorite horror movie series.    I own the first two movies thanks to Michael and decided to watch more in the series.    I think there are like 10 total movies.   I expected them to get worse as I went further into the series but so far they are still decent.  

"Cake":  Jennifer Aniston is the main character that is dealing with grief and chronic pain.   It's actually a really good movie and an interesting role for her.    I highly suggest it.

"The Constant Gardener"  A decent cast of characters and a plot that does keep you interested.   A politician's wife is murdered in Africa and he decides to investigate to figure out why.   Rachel Weiss is the main female character.    Quite the scandal is recognized by the end of the movie.    It relates to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and a pharmaceutical company.

"Life of Pi"  I was quite confused by the end of this movie.   I can understand why it won so many awards as the effects are awesome throughout the movie.    The boy is telling the story throughout the movie (well he's a grown man) and I was confused if the tiger actually existed or if he manifested the tiger to represent a cruel human he had to share the boat with.  

"Fed Up"  Fantastic documentary.    It relates to the sugar industry and how after the fat-free/low-fat craze hit in the late 80s, the amount of sugar skyrocketed in many products to make food taste better when it was lacking fat.   It's a movie I plan to show to college students.   I wanted Dan to watch it but got impatient and sent the DVD back to Netflix so I could move on to the next video.

"Wild": Reese Witherspoon is the main character that decides to walk the Pacific Crest Trail.    She decides to change pace with life due to her drug use, failed marriage, and poor choices.   It was based on a true story and they mentioned details at the end of the movie.   Overall, a pretty good movie.

"Horrible Bosses and Horrible Bosses 2":  A very funny pair of movies.  I found the first to be better than the second.  Crude humor with an interesting cast.   Seeing Jennifer Aniston play a sexual harasser was unexpected but she did it well.  

"The Age of Adaline"  A woman has an accident in the 1920s and it doesn't allow her to age any longer.    She has to live a secretive life and move a lot so people don't notice her perpetual youth.   She bumps into someone from her past though and things get messy.

"Little Miss Sunshine"   This is a weird movie centered on a weird family.   It was Steve Carrell's first major film I believe.   The family is traveling to California to take the daughter to a beauty pageant.    Lots of surprises along the way, including a death which made it feel like National Lampoon's Vacation.   It was an OK movie.

"Left Behind"   So this movie relates to the "Left Behind" book series.   I loved the book series.   The movie was 'meh'.   Nicolas Cage was assigned the lead role which is horrible casting.    I figured they would cover the entire first book but they actually only covered like half of the book.   The ending was not great even though it was accurate for the book.   It was a crappy spot to end the story though.  Basically the reaping occurs (think Revelations) and all of the good people are taken to heaven suddenly.   All the sinners are left behind and deal with the chaos.   Car crashes, planes falling from skies, mass confusion, the works.

"Little Children"  I rented this movie years ago when it was a new release.    It features Kate Winslet as the main female role.   It has screwed up story lines for most of the characters and most of the issues are sexual.   Definitely 'R' rated.  I like it though because is shows a lot of human nature.

"Perks of Being a Wallflower"   I think it was OK.   I honestly cannot remember much about it so it wasn't a movie that made me go "wow".  

"Interstellar"  Now this movie made me go "wow".   I don't know why I waited so long to watch it and wish I would have seen it in the theater.   It was an interesting story line with Earth becoming inhabitable so other planets and galaxies needed to be explored.  

"What Dreams May Come"  I remember being more freaked out about this movie when I first saw it as a kid.   I think it's ironic that the movie involves suicide and Robin Williams killed himself.   It was still good as I remembered though.

"Babel"  Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett play a married couple in this movie.   It's another movie that has more than one story line running through the movie.  Cate's character is accidentally shot and kindness in a foreign country saves her.   While they are dealing with that issue overseas, their children are being watched a house keeper/babysitter.    She is an illegal from Mexico.   Since the parents cannot get back in a timely manner the babysitter has to take the kids into Mexico so she can attend her son's wedding.   On the way back into the states, her nephew does something stupid at border control and the babysitter and children end up wandering in the desert and almost dying.   Lots of thrilling parts with both stories.

"Rendition"  Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal are the married couple.   Due to a terrorist attack, Jake's character is pulled off a flight since he was recently in the country and held for questioning (and torture).    His wife goes nuts trying to figure out what happened to him and becomes aware of improper tactics of our government when it comes to holding suspects.

"Selma"  Fantastic movie about the Civil Rights Movement.   It's fairly accurate and shows a lot more about Martin Luther King Jr. beyond the famous speech he gave.   It shows more about the marches and the violence that took place in the south.   Highly recommended.

At Last!

I've been wanting to blog for weeks.    I usually tell myself when I complete A, B, and C I will take time to blog.   Well I usually don't get through my list (work-related) or by the time I'm done with C, I have no more energy for writing an entry.    Plus I've been staring at my laptop or desktop computer screens a lot lately due to my grading workload.    My eyes onto of my brain are shot.   My popular phrase lately has been "my brain feels like mush" and it's quite accurate.

We held our semesterly health fair event at a local elementary school today.   I am quite pleased with this semester's effort.   Out of the 20 booths, I only had drama from one group.    Even though they were all pissed at each other today, they put on smiles and did well with the children.   Group work always seems to start a World War with 1-3 groups when I have a health fair in my class.  We had a 'first' today with the health fair.   I could tell a little group looked upset in one of the groups.   I went over to her, asked if she was OK as I figured she had an issue with another student or something.   She said she was fine and like three seconds after I walked away she blew chunks everywhere.   Oddly enough vomit doesn't bother me much because I deal with it enough at ISU but I was surprised that more of my pre-service teachers weren't helpful.   Out of the 8 or so that were in the direct area only one stepped up to help me with her.   Sigh.

I am thrilled that next week is Spring Break.   It will be nice to have some downtime.   Sadly one thing I'm looking forward to is having time to catch up with grading.   I'm going to spread it out so the week isn't a drag but it will be nice to start the following week with less of a workload.   In all of my ISU classes, my students start teaching lessons to their peers so I have to get into lesson plan assessment mode.    Great lesson plans are easy to grade.   Crappy lesson plans are easy to grade.   It's the middle ground lesson plans that take more time than I like.   It sounds like we'll bop up to Waukon for the first part of the week and come back down to Ankeny in the middle of the week.  

Let's talk health.   I have felt so worn out and tired lately.   It's to the point again where it's affecting my work so that's irritating me.   In the past few days I cannot think straight at times.   Luckily it happens when I writing an email or doing something in my office rather than in the middle of teaching a class.    I'm hoping that I catch up with rest next week even though they say that's impossible to do.   I am rarely taking my melatonin or prescription sleep med.   I was hoping to wean myself off both and get back to sleeping naturally.    About 1-2 nights a week I can easily fall asleep on my own.   Other nights I can feel completely exhausted but I just lay away usually thinking about work.  

I need to get moving more too.   The weather has been gorgeous and I'm not taking advantage of it often enough.   I need to use the walking paths around here more often.   My main complaint is how often my right foot hurts with my plantar fasciatis.   Some days it's nothing and is fine to walk on and my pain level is very low.    Some days I can hardly put weight on it by the end of the day.   Especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I've been very active all day with teaching and Swim & Gym.   The fun part is that I'm sure weight loss would help with pain relief but I can't do much of what I enjoy for activity because it makes my foot act up.   Lovely cycle.   I haven't tried tennis yet.    Assuming the great weather continues, I want to play soon with Dan (or anyone else that is game) since all of our snow is gone down here.

Speaking of Mr. Dan, things are still going very well.   Both he and I have been working like mad people lately so there really isn't much to report on.   I haven't been going to Newton much because I've been working on weekends (thanks DMACC).   This month marks 8 months of dating.    I think we are going to use the Jim Gaffigan show in July as a celebration for our one year anniversary.   I will admit it is starting to feel odd that hardly anyone has met him yet.   I'm hoping he can be present for some/all of Alissa's graduation celebrations as well as come up for Nicole's wedding in July.   Fingers crossed.

Time to switch laundry and hit the hay!