The usual now seems weird

So when I lived in Utah, I would go home and visit probably every two weeks or so. I used to joke with everyone that going home wasn't a huge deal because I did it so often.

But now, it's been about a month and a half since I left Utah. And I'm going back tomorrow. And it seems weird that I'm going back. Is that weird or what? I didn't really think I would adjust to being gone that fast. Highly unexpected.

In other news, well there really isn't any. I shouldn't have been so proud about keeping up my running schedule, that has pretty much gone with the wind this week. I did do power yoga though. So my arms are pretty sore. Yeah, I thought yoga was about stretching not strength training too. Too bad I'm wrong. Or at least with the one power yoga video I have I'm wrong.

Oh! I got a calling too. I'm a home evening group leader again. I know, right? I was too eager to get out of it last time. Didn't learn the real purpose of being a home evening group leader so now I need a second go round. Opportunity, I'm thinking of it as an opportunity to make friends :)

Dave's Corner: I would tell you he's doing well, but I really don't know all that much. We haven't really been able to talk in almost a week. Just a couple texts here and there to let me know he's still busy and can't talk much. It's mostly because of the time zone i'm in though. If our time zones were more compatible those few texts would have probalby been full blown conversation.

Stella's Corner: Ok, Stella has some sort of aversion to the porch. At my house we joke about revolving door dogs, but that's really what she needs. Exhibit A:

Yes, that is her, standing in the doorway sniffing the outdoors while I sit outside on my lovely bench I assembled enjoying the perfect weather. But she won't come out with me. I even got her a cushion from a lawn chair so she could use it as a dog bed. Hasn't really worked so far. I guess she's concerned she'll get locked outside and left here? Who knows the thoughts of my adorable little dog.

ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!

So the cooking experiment has been a partial fail. The reason being: I don't eat enough. All the recipes I have that I really want to try feed eight plus people. So even cutting in half I still have enough for four meals. Meaning if I try and cook every day my fridge gets full to bursting and I can't find room or time for the leftovers. So, the cooking experiment is going to have to be cut down to only two or so days a week. I will say though, adding refried beans to my cheese quesadillas was a brilliant idea. Point for cookbooks!

But, on the other hand, my running experiment is progressing better than I had anticipated. Probably because I enlisted Carly to be my conscience. I'm trying to get up to the point where I can run a 5k without wanting to die afterwords. I don't know how successful I'll be with the not wanting to die part, but I have some hope for at least being able to complete a 5k. I'm getting my approximate training schedule from the mayoclinic.com. It is really hard to run when it gets to about 9:30 PM and I still haven't made it out. Telling someone about your goals really does help you achieve them though. Or at least it has helped a lot so far.

Stella's Corner: On our run today (Stella decided she wanted to go for a long walk and I didn't want to go for a long walk plus a run, so the walk became the run) she spotted a doe and wanted to go chase it. Lucky for me, I caught her because that doe was having a serious struggle with fight vs flight. The reason?

She was protecting her little fawn. Seriously small. Like smaller than Stella. I honestly thought deer were born bigger than that, but I guess not. Definitely cool to see though.

And I thought School was busy!

Well, it was. Generally much busier than I have been in the last two weeks. The problem lies in the fact that after a nice long day at work... I have nothing to write about!

Seriously, work doesn't generate that much cool blogging worthy content. I guess the call that I got at 2:30am this week. But no one really wants to hear about logistics. It's kind of the hidden world of behind-the-scenes-ness. Maybe that's why I like doing it so much. Because truly I enjoy it. Getting to be In Charge of where and when things happen and trying to make sure everyone else understands the Big Picture. But really not that much cool story worthy stuff. Which really only leaves the weekend to generate Hey Look at What I Did! type material. And last weekend was busy!

I joined the Mormon Choir of Washington when I got out here and had three rehearsals before our first concert. Lucky for me I learn music pretty quickly. It's easy when you're a soprano :) So last week we had two concerts, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. I will admit, humid hot is really hot when you're also trying to sing worth anything. The Saturday concert was outside and it was HOT!!!!!

Afterwords, I went to the Fairfax County Fair (Celebrate Fairfax!) with my aunt and uncle.

Steve won me this cute caterpillar because I started singing Tim McGraw at him (you guess which song!)

Cute huh?
We also heard The Bangles in concert (who are they right?). They were popular right around the time I was born... Although they said they're releasing another album this fall, so maybe I will learn who they are. As it was, I recognized Manic Monday and Walk Like an Egyptian. From commercials with those compilation of classical rock hits CD's. Yes indeed, I get out a lot ;)

The concert on Sunday kind of took up the whole afternoon. I understand why call time is an hour and forty five minutes before our performance, but it is still a lot of time to wait around. I'm glad that ward choir isn't that way though. I'm going to have a hard enough time being there at 7:30am next week!

We had another concert yesterday out in Winchester. Boy is the stretch of freeway running out there really pretty! Once you get out past Gainesville, it's pretty much all trees and farms and such. So even near the Nation's Capitol it doesn't take too long to find wilderness. Maybe just a little longer than when I lived in Utah.

Dave's Corner: As far as he'll tell me he's doing well. Busy with boring stuff. He teases me about being better at logistics than me since that's what he's doing too. Except I can actually tell people what to do and they'll listen to me. And he has to try and make people think he knows better than they do without making them angry enough to dismiss his idea without consideration. There are so many perks to being a civilian some times.

Stella's Corner: 
Stella has a love hate relationship with the East Coast I think. She loves the squirrels
  (yes all of her paws are indeed off the ground as she tried to follow the squirrels into the tree) (I don't like the squirrels, she still tries to pull me off my feet to chase them down. Hasn't succeeded yet though)
but the hot does get a little much for her. She spends a lot of time laying on my tile floor trying to soak up the coolness. Next week I am going to try one of the no leash dog parks in the area. See if she is really as anti-social as I think she is.

well, ttfn! ta ta for now!

pooooool

So the pool opened last week, and I finally got a chance to go yesterday. It's actually a really nice pool. It is actually positioned so it's in the sunshine most of the day, which surprisingly enough seems to be an oddity in many apartment complexes. I LOVE SUNSHINE!!

It's been lovely and warm. I really do appreciate my desk too. It's right next to a huge bank of windows so I can look out and see all the trees surrounding the office.

ooh! and I got my library card :D I'm really excited about that. That's just about all that's been exciting in the last part of this week.

The cooking experiment is going well though. I've made stuffed pork chops, breakfast casserole, homemade meatballs, and an interesting salad dressing so far. On the table still are some biscuits and enchiladas. Hopefully I manage to keep it up :)

Sometimes work is Fun

Pretty cool huh? This was work today, watching the Washington Nationals vs Philadelphia Phillies. It was pretty cool. Well, I didn't pay much attention to much of it actually. ExxonMobil has a private suite where employees and other 3rd parties can watch, so I was eating food and talking to my coworkers. Really hot and humid outside, glad for the air conditioned box. Although, there is one thing for being really cold all the time, I didn't get nearly as hot as any of my coworkers.


my first attempt at being a chef! stuffed pork chops actually turned out pretty well. I need to get some casserole dishes though. Can't do everything in metal pans!

Stella's corner: She gets most excited when I get up in the morning and get home in the afternoon. It's really cute when she comes in the morning and paws at my bed to try and get me up faster. Better than any alarm clock!