Random Sayings from the Madhouse - Day 1

I'm in Ohio visiting my family. When we are all in one place together it is truly a madhouse. I feel bad for the people who live below my parent's apartment. 

Here are some random sayings from the day:

Gracie Mae: "Bonk bu donk" - My 2 year old niece trying to say "Badonkadonk". Classic! Reading it in black and white just does not do it justice. 

Mom: "I like watching your butt when you do that" My mother said that to me as I was showing my mad skills at the table tilt Wii fit balance game. I'm a champion...at the ADVANCED level. 

Joshua: "UNDERWEAR!!!" My 5 year old nephew says this at the most random moments. Its his favorite word.

Joshua: "Aunt Cathy is WIERD!" - Joshua whispered this to me after my sister Cathy "raised her eyebrows" at him. 

Zachary: "Oh my gosh! This is the coolest toy that just came out!!!" - My 9 year old nephew, Zachary, said this after I handed him the Hot Wheels color changers car and ramp that I got him. That's right, I know how to pick out the BEST toys.

Zachary: "She is REALLY good at this!" Said after Zach and Hailey had been looking for me for a good 5 minutes during our impromptu hide and seek game. Consider we are in a small 3 bedroom apartment playing this game, I'm quite proud of myself for finding such a good hiding place.

That's all for now. Stay tuned, you never know what will happen next!

Earlier today I updated my status and made a comment about Weird Gym Guy. Some of you, may not know about WGG, so feel free to read along and let your imagination go wild.

On second thought, your imagination doesn't hold a candle to what WGG actually looks like. I've posted my previous blogs and notes from Myspace and Facebook, for those of you who may have missed it the first time.

November 8, 2006
The weird guy at the gym. I've seen this guy before. But now that I'm "officially" blogging I just have to write about him. (This is when I was blogging on myspace.)

Okay, so this guy is a pretty tall guy, he's in pretty good shape and pretty thin, but he's one of the weirdest looking guys I've seen. He's got bleach blond hair that comes down to about the middle of his face. His head kinda looks like a mushroom, that's the best way to describe it. He ALWAYS wears these big sunglasses. They are the Oakley ones with the radio attached. But note, we are INSIDE, its not that bright. But maybe he has really sensitive eyes, but my guess is he's just trying to look cool.

Now you're probably all thinking, that's not so weird, right? Well, this guy's shirt looked like mine. I was wearing one of those work out tank tops with the racer back and the built in sports bra (I've probably lost most of the guys by now, but my point being, its a definitely a girl's shirt). Well, he was wearing the same thing essentially. It didn't have the racerback, but it was definitely not a tank top I've ever seen on a guy before. And it only came to about the middle of his stomach. Nice... Now like I said before, he's not fat so its not like he's got a huge gut spilling over. But seriously, if a guy wants to show off his abs, they usually just take their whole dang shirt off.

Now to his pants. They were suck tight black yoga pants (once again, probably lost the guys). And the top of the pants around the waist was the same color as my tank top. My tank top was black and this light bluish green color, not a color that should be on a guy's pants. Now not only were these pants suck tight and well...girly, they were really, really low on his waist. And I mean REALLY low, like I'm almost seeing something that I REALLY don't want to see, low. Its really quite disgusting, but at the same time, quite comical.

So that's the weird guy at the gym. What is really funny is to see people react to him. There was a couple on the elliptical machines in front of me. When he went to get on the elliptical machine in front of them, the guy nudged the girl and said something I couldn't decipher (I was rocking out to Family Force 5 on the treadmill) and then the girl looked over to the weird guy and then back at the other guy and smiled. And then there was this other lady who noticed him and then turned around and looked at everyone as if to say "Am I really seeing this?!" Ha! Quite entertaining.

June 18, 2008
I now have an update. The weird guy is still there...and even weirder.

Last week, I went to the gym without Nathan because he was going to go play tennis with a buddy. And this was the first time in over a year that I've seen this guy. He was wearing a tank top, that was made out of super thin material and ripped so that the only thing that was covered by the tank top was his chest. Like if he was a woman, where his boobs would be. He was still sporting the super tight, ultra low (gag me) yoga pants, but he had a new addition...a slut sticker...or tramp stamp, whatever you want to call it, but a tattoo, right there on his lower back, right above his butt. Not that I've seen a lot of bare backed men, but this was the first one I've ever seen with a slut sticker. I kinda thought that was a 'girl' place to put a tat, but I could be wrong, please gentlemen, correct me if I am.

So I am absolutely giddy at this point because I think this she-man, himshe, shim, whatever, is absolutely hilarious. I mean, it puts a little excitement in the daily workout. Everybody notices this guy, and its quite fun to see the reactions. So I really wanted Nathan to see this guy. And today he saw him.

The weird guy was wearing those short cotton shorts, they have a brand name, soffe, like what cheerleaders wear. They were a melon color, kinda pinkish orange. He was also wearing a white sports bra.

Now you're probably saying to my blog "But Angela, I didn't know they made sports bras for men." They don't...it was a WOMAN'S sports bra top. You're probably wondering how this can get better? Oh, but it can.

Along with the melon shorter than any man should be wearing shorts, and the not made for a man sports bra, he was wearing...wait for it...5 INCH PURPLE HEELS. In case you didn't get that...5 INCH PURPLE HEELS!!!! And these were like platform heels.

He was walking out of 24 hour fitness, and I would've missed him but Nathan bumped me out of my iPod induced 'zone' and asked "Is that the guy?!" Oh yes, yes it was. There were 2 really big buff guys standing by the door when he went out and from what I could tell they were laughing after the guy left, and they actually went out the door to see the guy again. Words cannot describe this guy. So if you want some entertainment while you work out, let me know and I'll tell you when and what 24 hour fitness to go to. You will not be disappointed.

TODAY, Monday, May 4, 2009

Weird Gym Guy is now sporting a super long, blonde hair extension. In a pointy tail mind you.

I saw him as I was getting on the treadmill today. And I literally almost busted out laughing. I'm serious, I spent a good 10 minutes trying not to laugh or smile. I'm sure people who looked at me thought I was nuts, because you know you always look like a total goof when you are trying not to smile and failing miserably at it.

I also had the pleasure (or lack there of is probably more correct) of having to see him in the reflection of the mirror when he was doing his arm moves. He was taking a big barbell and raising it high over his head and stretched back really far.

You can only imagine where this brings the top of the front of his super low, suck tight yoga pants. DANGEROUS TERRITORY my people, dangerous territory.

At one point I was quite certain his pants had slipped to the point of no return, but thankfully, it was just a shadow on the lower part of his abs.

I'm sure you are all thinking to yourselves "But Angela, why not just look away?!"

Are you serious?! YOU CAN'T JUST LOOK AWAY!!! Its like a train wreck, or trying to eat just one Lay's potato chip...not possible. I'm pretty sure I did more reps than I meant to because I lost count on more than one occasion by this distraction.

So stay tuned to my little blog here. I don't blog about EVERY time I see him. Just when something new pops up.

Pursuit of Honor...

...is the title of the new book by this man here (in the black jacket of course):

His name is Vince Flynn. He is AMAZING! This was at a book signing for his last book he published this past November.

He writes about top secret CIA, black ops kinda stuff. A friend of mine describes Flynn as similar to Tom Clancy but 10 times easier to read. Basically if you like to read about a badass who goes around torturing and assassinating terrorists in the name of keeping the good ol' US of A safe...this is your man. And you all know how much I enjoy reading about terrorists being tortured and assassinated. Mitch Rapp is his badass. If Mitch Rapp were a real person, he would totally be my "Get Out of Marriage Free" card. 

Unfortunately he's not a real person, so I'm going to have to stick with The Rock or Vin Diesel, or maybe Mark Wahlberg. 

Anyways, so yes, Vince Flynn's new book will be titled "Pursuit of Honor". It comes out October 13th. That's a little under 6 months away. It might as well be an eternity for me.

If you think Vince Flynn and his character Mitch Rapp sound like your kind of fun, you should pick up his book "Term Limits" or "Transfer of Power". 

"Term Limits" is his very first book, but it is somewhat hard to find. It is more like a prequel to his Mitch Rapp series. Its good if you can read it first but you can get by without it. "Transfer of Power" however is a complete must. Do NOT read any of the other books before it otherwise you'll ruin other parts of the books before it. 

My personal favorites of Flynn? Probably Memorial Day and Executive Power. Although his newest book, Extreme Measures was really good too. I got a friend of mine hooked on them and we both started reading it at the same time. We were constantly texting each other "Have you gotten to this part?" or "Oh my gosh! It gets SOOOO GOOOD!!!" It was quite fun. But honestly, all of his books are pure genius, suspenseful, an awesome good time. I read them in like 2 days. 

Here is a little excerpt from Memorial Day...quite possibly one of the best lines of all time.

Quick little background - Mitch Rapp (CIA guy, basically he goes around and assassinates terrorists...like I said, my kind of guy) is in this meeting with a bunch of overzealous liberal bureaucrats. Meanwhile, there is a credible threat that a nuke has made its way into the Washington D.C. area, set to go off on...Memorial Day! 

On a side note, CIA if you have stumbled across my blogs because of the terms "nuke", "terrorists" or "assassinates" or "nuke in Washington D.C." I would love an intel analyst job. I'm just saying...its an option...I'm sure you know how to find me. 

Okay, so here is Mitch Rapp telling off one of the liberal bureaucrat ladies...

Stealy stood so she could face Rapp eye to eye and started to lecture. "You have no idea what you're talking about. We can't simply deport American citizens and hand them over to the CIA for torture."

Rapp cut her off with a booming voice that was almost a full blown yell. "The debate portion of the evening is over. You are an idiot! You have no idea what you are talking about, and you have no idea what it takes to wage this war. Now sit down, and don't interrupt me again or I will throw you out of this room by the scruff of your neck."

Seriously...I laughed out loud when I read that. I just pictured this big bad ass guy saying that to the likes of Hilary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi...awesomeness.

That is all the little tidbit that I am giving. Trust me, once you get started, you are completely hooked. Its better than Twilight. I've never actually read Twilight but seriously...teenage vampire love or bad ass terrorist assassin? I'll take the bad ass terrorist assassin any day. 

Vince Flynn = Mitch Rapp = AWESOMENESS

Go check him out while I start a countdown for the book release.

A Sobering Experience

It was a somewhat dramatic day at school today. No, my kids weren't obnoxious, nobody came to school with a gun (at least that we know of) and I didn't catch any kids going at it in the back stairwell. (I've never actually witnessed that, thankfully, but I do work with people who have...yikes...).

Today my school had a program called "Shattered Dreams". Apparently this happens every other year as they didn't have it last year. 

All seniors, juniors and those sophomores who have a parking permit were called down to the band parking lot during 3rd period where they witnessed a mock car crash. They didn't actually see the cars crashing (obviously) but they saw the aftermath of a drunk driving accident. 

I didn't get to see it but during Advisory (don't get me started on that, its a post for another day) we watched the video of the last time they did Shattered Dreams. It was probably the best Advisory period we've had all year (which isn't really saying much, but I'm looking for the silver lining in the Advisory period they came up with this year).

I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty intense. One car was upside down, there were "dead" and bloody students strewn about. Once was even coming through the windshield. 

They had cops there, a fire truck complete with the jaws of life and parents wailing. 

One student left in handcuffs in the cop car, one in an ambulance, another in a helicopter (yes, they really had a helicopter!), and one in a hearse. The blood and everything looked fake, but when you add all of the other stuff into it, it was rather realistic. 

Then starting at 10:30 they have what they call the heartbeat. Every 10 minutes a heartbeat comes over the loud speaker and then flat lines. You actually hear it flat line. The after the heartbeat a cop and the grim reaper come into a classroom and take a student. 

That student's face gets painted white and they stand in the hall for the rest of the day. It is supposed to symbolize the statistic that every 10 minutes someone dies from a drunk driving accident.

Thankfully the grim reaper didn't visit my class. Too be honest I'm not really sure I would have handled it that well. I mean, I know its all drama and not "real", but the video alone from the year before of the grim reaper going into classes was enough to make me tear up. And I'm not really that sappy of a person and rarely cry at movies. I'm sure I would've been fine, but I'm glad I didn't lose a student. Especially in my 6th period, because I really like my 6th period kids.

One of the hardest parts of the video they showed was when a parent was waiting at the hospital and their child didn't make it. You saw him hearing the news from the doctors and they went into the room and lifted up the sheet to look at his son.

Like I said it was pretty intense. Especially hearing the heartbeat those first couple times, talk about freaky! Later on in the day, it got slightly annoying, especially while I was trying give directions for the test during 6th period, but it still made you think. I wish I could upload the videos, but A- I have no idea how to do that with this blog, and B-I'm sure I'd be violating all kinds of school district policies.

Some of the kids took it hard, some didn't care, or at least didn't seem too. But overall, for me at least, it was a pretty sobering experience. I just hope that it  really makes the kids think twice about drinking and driving, especially since this is right before prom. I would love for it to make the kids to think about drinking PERIOD, but I think that's probably a long shot. 

I don't know if they do this at other school's other than mine. I've never heard of it before, but it is definitely something that EVERY student and really every ADULT needs to see. 

The right motivation.

This summer, Nathan and I were really good about working out. It was really easy. We didn't have school, and really didn't have a whole lot to do, so we worked out. 

I truly enjoyed it, and of course enjoyed the results of working out even more. 

Then school started up, and we still did okay. We didn't work out as much as we did in the summer, but we were still consistent. 

Then Ike hit and everything went to crap (including our kitchen, but that's a post for another day).  

Well, we are going to the Bahamas in July (yippee!!!) and I want to make sure I have somewhat of a bikini-worthy body. You'd think that would be enough to inspire me to get back into the gym...but alas that has not been the case. We booked our trip in January, and we didn't start getting serious until about two weeks ago.

So I have two little items that have inspired my trek back to the gym. 

An iPod Shuffle. A pink one to be exact. 

All of you know about the love affair I have with my 80 gig iPod. But I found that the 80 gig iPod wasn't a very good workout partner. It took up my whole arm, and really its kinda heavy for a jog. The arm band I used made it hard to adjust the volume, and I lived in constant fear that the constant jostling would make the iPod stop working all together. And as attached as I am to my whole music library, did I really need 6200+ songs during a 30 minute workout? Not hardly. 

So I purchased my Shuffle back in February. I filled it with my workout playlist and it sat on my desk collecting dust until a few weeks ago when I got these...

Best. Running Shoe. Ever! Nathan and I had gone to the Nike outlet where I found these. I tried them on in the store of course and loved how they felt. Plus I'm a big fan of the air bubbles. I'm sure there is an industry correct term for those, but I'm just going to call them air bubbles.

My last good pair of running shoes had them. Recon ate them, and I was stuck with my every day Nikes. They were okay, but I felt every step on them and my legs always felt sore after running. They didn't have air bubbles. 

Maybe its just all in my head, but I truly believe that the air bubbles make a huge difference. And they did not disappoint me on my first run. Of course I hadn't really run since before Ike, but man, you wouldn't know with these shoes. 

Seriously, I felt like I was running on pillows! I was so giddy I almost started giggling while jogging on the treadmill. I've been running with these shoes about 3 times a week for 2 miles each time I run and my legs feel great afterwards. Now I really look forward to going to the gym and running. 

And I'm now running a 10 minute mile! Not too shabby considering I start out just two weeks ago running a 12 minute mile.

Now I'm just trying to keep my workout playlist updated. I have songs on there that I've been working out to for the past 4 years. They are great songs, but they get a little boring after hearing them so many times.

Here are a couple of my favorite running songs. When these songs come on, regardless of what speed I'm already running out, I always kick the speed up a few notches.

1. Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
2. Cross My Heart - Marianas Trench (you've probably never heard of this band, and had it not been for emusic.com, I probably would've never heard of them either)
3. Single Ladies - Beyonce
4. Impossible - Manafest (This song inspired me to run an extra 1/4 mile after my 2nd mile and I was running at 6.5, which I think equates to about a 9 1/2 minute mile)
5. Fighter - Christina Aguilera
6. Ignition - TobyMac
7. Breathe Today - Flyleaf
8. Break the Silence - Thousand Foot Krutch
9. Boom - P.O.D
10. Your Still The One - Roper (This is a super fun punk remake of Shania Twain's song)

Feel free to share your favorite workout songs. I can always use more!

I am not my Grandma

I'm giving up on Gobs. Maybe for a very long time...maybe just for a couple more weeks, I don't know. I just know that I don't want to see the gob recipe or batter for a long time.

For those of you who don't know what a GOB is, its this delightful treat that my Grandma makes quite perfectly. Basically you have two soft chocolate cookies with a fluffy vanilla filling in between. Similar to an Oreo Cakester only much, MUCH better.

I made them WITH my Grandma back in March when I went to visit her for spring break. Then I got back to Houston and decided to try them on my own a couple weeks later. I like to bake sweet treats for my work peeps and I thought this would be the perfect new treat.

Wrong.

The cookie part turned out perfect, I mean, absolutely beautiful. I was so proud that my first Gob minus Grandma experience was going so well.

The came the filling...oh that bastardly filling. (I don't know if "bastardly" is actually a word, but I like it, so its staying in my post.)

The filling is supposed to be nice and light and fluffy. Mine was nice and sweet and RUNNY!!! Ugh, I went ahead made them that way, and wrapped them up and took them to work anyway. They are a lot of work and I couldn't just toss them. And really, they tasted pretty good, the filling just wasn't the right consistency.

Nathan ate two of them that night, and one of my mentor teachers ate a couple that next day, and then took a bunch home to his wife. So I mean, really, they were okay. But just OKAY.

My mentor teacher told me that it was a good thing I didn't get it perfect on the first try because then I wouldn't be trying it again and bringing more in a few weeks.

So it is said mentor teacher's birthday on Thursday, and I thought what better way to show my appreciation than to make him some gobs.

So tonight, I started making them again. It must be a sophomore slump or something. But this time the cookies part didn't turn out quite right. Terrible or bad? No...but just okay. And I don't like to make things "just okay".

Now onto the filling part. I had called my Grandma after that first batch and learned that I hadn't cooked the milk and the flour long enough. So I was determined not to make that mistake again.

Well, I don't know if I cooked it TOO long this time or what, but now the filling is too THICK and it just doesn't look or taste right at all.

And my hand mixer broke. I think I ran the poor thing into the ground trying to beat that stupid filling to death.

So I think its a sign folks...no more gobs until I can get back to Grandma's for another lesson. My Grandma thinks the reason its not working out is because I'm supposed to come visit her again! :)

On a funny note, when I called Grandma I told her "Grandma, I giving up on gobs." She doesn't hear very well, and she thought I said I was giving up on GOD. HA! Oh I love my Grandma, she is the coolest! :)

So Don, if you're reading this, I tried. You'll just have to make do with one of my other cookie options. :)

512 MB? What?!

I got a new computer on Friday. It...is...AMAZING!!!

I've had my old laptop for about 3 years now, which isn't really that long, but in computer years, it might as well be a decade. I was definitely past due for a new one.

You all know how crazy I am about my music, and you all know that I have LOTS of it. My iTunes library currently has just over 6200 songs on it. No, I did not add an extra zero, you are reading correctly. 6,200 songs...six thousand, two hundred songs. Actually 6,206 to be exact.

Well, all this music was really starting to bog down my laptop. So much so that it was practically unusable. It would take a good 5 minutes to boot up, and then another 5 minutes to open a program. And then another good minute or two trying to switch between programs. It was maddening, MADDENING I TELL YOU!!

There were several instances where I wanted to throw my computer out the window. Fear of losing my entire iTunes library kept me from doing so.

So I was curious as to how big my hard drive was...512 MB. WHAT?! 512 MB? Are...you...serious?! But it was true, staring me right in the eye. It was then that I decided it was time for a new one.

So I did my research and found this little dandy at Best Buy.

It is a Toshiba Satellite laptop and I LOVE IT! It has 3 gigs, GIGS for ram, and 320 gig...GIG hard drive. Its almost ridiculous how much bigger it is from the old laptop.

I'm still getting used to the speed. I turn it on and its boots in like 5 seconds, and then when I log in my desktop pops up...immediately. This is new to me since I was usually able to put a load of laundry in the washing machine, unload or load the dishwasher, etc in the time it took my old laptop to boot up.

It also has a really long battery life, which is great because my old laptop would last for about 30 minutes on the battery...yeah..not pretty.

I'm sure there are lots of people out there wondering why I didn't go with a Mac. Trust me, I would have loved to have a Mac, but to get the same specs with a Mac would have set me back a good $2500 and I got my Toshiba for less than a grand. Awesome.

And a big thanks to my sweet husband, for letting me get it!!