Much Better Day

Today was much better. I didn't have to go into work because it was a travel day. Craig's emails finally ALL came in at once and we successfully exchanged emails after that. I am at the beach AND my little bb will be here in hours. The sad news is that my mom took her to the doctor today for hives and she has strep throat. Yikes...that will knock me on my butt so I hope that I don't get it from her. She doesn't really show signs and is only contagious for 24 hrs so I will just have to wait to kiss on her...that will be hard but I will try my best!! If I get strep, you will know what happens!

I feel like this is going to be a really good vacation for me and very relaxing. When Craig and I go on vacation we do, do, do, but here it is a slower pace. We went to the beach today, ordered pizza tonight (which I had with a beer) and here I sit, watching Lance and getting caught up on some of my photography projects. I am FINALLY looking through my pictures from Greece....yeah, 5 months later but I didn't get to it before now and it is what I 'scheduled' for this weekend. Remember, I talked about scheduling projects? Well, I thought that going through trip pictures would be an easy one at the beach because there is no stress involved....I just needed time and I have it here!

Tomorrow is the second to last (and one of the best) stages of the tour. I hope that Lance does well. I am hearing all the right things about the guys he wants to take with him next year and it makes me very happy!!

I will try to post some more this week, if not I will be back next Friday. I brought my camera to get some cute pics of bb but I forgot the card reader so that will be next week (also, left the card with my painting on it in Atlanta so I have to wait until my mom comes on Wed).

Have a great weekend!!

Much Better Day

Today was much better. I didn't have to go into work because it was a travel day. Craig's emails finally ALL came in at once and we successfully exchanged emails after that. I am at the beach AND my little bb will be here in hours. The sad news is that my mom took her to the doctor today for hives and she has strep throat. Yikes...that will knock me on my butt so I hope that I don't get it from her. She doesn't really show signs and is only contagious for 24 hrs so I will just have to wait to kiss on her...that will be hard but I will try my best!! If I get strep, you will know what happens!

I feel like this is going to be a really good vacation for me and very relaxing. When Craig and I go on vacation we do, do, do, but here it is a slower pace. We went to the beach today, ordered pizza tonight (which I had with a beer) and here I sit, watching Lance and getting caught up on some of my photography projects. I am FINALLY looking through my pictures from Greece....yeah, 5 months later but I didn't get to it before now and it is what I 'scheduled' for this weekend. Remember, I talked about scheduling projects? Well, I thought that going through trip pictures would be an easy one at the beach because there is no stress involved....I just needed time and I have it here!

Tomorrow is the second to last (and one of the best) stages of the tour. I hope that Lance does well. I am hearing all the right things about the guys he wants to take with him next year and it makes me very happy!!

I will try to post some more this week, if not I will be back next Friday. I brought my camera to get some cute pics of bb but I forgot the card reader so that will be next week (also, left the card with my painting on it in Atlanta so I have to wait until my mom comes on Wed).

Have a great weekend!!

TGIF

Well, almost! This week has been crazy busy. I have been working 12 hour days and I am exhausted. I usually leave my hotel at 8 and get back around 9 or 10...yuck! I am almost done though. Tomorrow I am driving to the airport to drop off my coworker and then my aunt it picking me up for the trip to the beach....I can't wait and I think that I will put my bathing suit on under my sundress tomorrow for the drive to the airport.

This week has also been hard because I haven't gotten to talk to Craig hardly at all. For some reason I don't get ANY emails that he sends me. For a few days they were getting stuck in my quarantine...along with some from Carrie, Drena, and Dudley but then they just stopped coming at all. VERY frustrating. So, I am not physically able to see him, can't talk to him on the phone until 10pm and then I can't get emails..GRR.

In other news, Lance has decided to start his own team and ride next year and I absolutely can't wait. If anyone is up for a trip to Paris...LET ME KNOW!! I am going to see if I can talk Craig into it but I don't know if our vacation fund will be that strong by then.

Sorry to post so short but I am tired and cranky and really don't have much more to say. I hope to have internet at the beach and will post pictures of my sweet little bb. I can't wait to hang out with her for a week!!

On the road again, can't wait to get on the road again...

Wait, not actually. I had a hard time traveling today. I was really sad to leave. I got home last night and spent time with Craig but for some reason I returned to the days when I would obsess over when we were going to be apart to the point that I wasn't able to fully enjoy the time we had together. I used to do it all the time when we lived in separate cities. In fact, it took me quite a while to get in the swing of things and not spend all of our time together upset. I am not sure why I slipped back last night but it sucks cause I am gone for the next 11 days straight. I am excited about spending time with my niece and at the beach but I just wanted to be home for a little while.

This job is going to drive me nuts. I am not too confident with the Controller here and here was my favorite quote of the day for those of you not on facebook: "Accounts Payable is my least favorite part of my job"--Accounts Payable Clerk. Excellent!!

On the flip side, I checked and I do have the channel for the Tour here. Bad news is that Lance's teammate is 1 min, 34 seconds above him in the standings. It isn't over for Lance but it is pretty close. I really don't want to Contador to win but I want Lance's team to do well....such dilemmas.

I am sleepy, I have been up since 4am and I had two beers with dinner...my dieting is going great...NOT. Ugh, I am going to have to start all over. It is NOT going well, but then again, it never does or I wouldn't be in this dilemma. Ok, bed time for me! I will post the picture of my painting from girls' day tomorrow.

bitch!

That is what this flight attendent is! I got on with my lovely painting from girls day which is wrapped in paper and asked her very politely to put it in the coat closet....you know, the one for first class passendgers, where I am sitting. I highly doubt anyone has a coat right now and it really required minimal effort on her part. If you can call carrying something that weighs mere ounces an effort at all! So she puts it in the overhead and shocker it doesn't fit! If I knewq that from my travels shouldn't she who does it every day?? Then when she saw it wouldn't fit she put it diagonal...really? Is that best use of space? What happens when someone puts stuff around it and stretches it. So then she said to put it under the seat, at which point I said "can't you just put it in the coat closet?". She got a huge attitude and said "I COULD, but I didn't know that was what you wanted". Really? How was my first sentence to you "can you put this in the coat closet?" Confusing??? (I didn't say that but I was tempted). Is there a better way to say that that I am not aware of? If so, please leave a comment. At this point I took it from her and put it under my seat (where it doesn't fit but is proped to where if she doesn't hit it with her cart it should make it ok). Good thing I took a picture this morning of it. Just such rudenss. I NEVER ever have rude flight attendants and especially not in first class and over something so simple. I wasn't asking for a gourmet meal.

Bonus: I just heard her ask another flight attendant for an airsick bag for the guy in 7d. I am in 4a and that is too close for me. I already feel naseous thinking about it. Yucky way to end my fun trip to Atlanta.

Baby Names

No, I am not pregnant! I have been thinking about this post for a while and then when I found out that the girl with the office next to me is expecting again and her daughter is a month younger than Charlotte, I thought I should probably get on it before you guys have your next round of rugrats :-)

So, I figure I am probably the last of my group of friends to have kids (except maybe Dudley who doesn't want them), and when you are last you get all of the cool advice...most of which probably won't help since I am convinced that I will have a difficult baby anyway, but what you also get is slim pickings in the name department. So, I decided to put out the names that I like. I don't care if you name your next little one these names or not, but don't get mad if I pop one out with the same name...you had fair warning :-)

Girls:
Lillian (calling her Lily)
Amelia
Emily
Katherine (love kate or katie mostly)
Anna (which is sort of like my middle name Anne, which I like)

Boys:
Andrew is my favorite but that is my cousin's kid's name (the one who now lives an hour from me) so not sure he would like that and since I didn't have this blog before their son was born 6 years ago, I guess I have to deal with it.
Collin
Um yeah, that is all I have right now for boys...hope I don't have one until I figure out a name. I don't love any of our family names really and I think that I have always assumed that I would have a little girl. I am not sure how I would do with a boy..no brothers, no nephews and I have always been around a lot of girls so it would be interesting...guess I need to work on the names just in case.

Of course, I am sure that this will all change when I actually do get pregnant one day and considering the fact that Craig wanted to name my cat Lily, it will be interesting what his input will be when the time comes :-) But, these are the ones I like now.

Scheduling

I read or heard somewhere that you should schedule everything in your life and you will be less stressed. I have thought about this a lot and couldn't decide if it was true or not but the more I thought about it the more it seemed like it might be. Think about it. Right now I have a HUGE to do list and and even HUGER (it is a word, I promise) project list. They both seem neverending and when I have free time I am not sure where to start so I end up doing nothing. If I scheduled them then I would know exactly what to work on and I might actually do it. The example that I heard about had the guy literally scheduling everything that took longer than 5 mins. I would never do this in my personal life but I could almost see this being helpful at work. Call so and at x time, respond to all emails at x time, etc. As for the personal life, I think that if I narrowed it down to one project per weekend of me not traveling then I could get my projects completed a lot faster. I have so many things that I want to work on that I ened up doing a little here and a little there but nothing is completed. Last weekend I decided that I was going to work on my Ohio website and I did and now it is almost done. I kind of want to continue the trend. So, as I sit on the plane I am going to work out what I want to do which weekend.

Also, do boys ever seem to have projects? I feel like I am constantly needing to do this or that but Craig doesn't really seem to have the same to do list. He is working on my bike so I guess that counts as a project and he is working on editing his pictures from our trip (which he will get done way before me, I am sure) but other than that he doesn't seem to really have any projects. Do I have more because of my business or do guys just operate differently and just work on things as they come up until they are done and then move on? I am curious.

I am typing on the plane in airplane mode, though I still think that people around me think I might crash the plane with my phone. Amatuers!

Having slight withdrawal this morning from the tour. Hoping I can make it to work in time to stream the end of it. It is not supposed to be an exciting day cause it is flat but I still want to watch. I am seriously comtemplating calling my hotel for next week to make sure they have the channel it is on. I guess not much I can do if they don't other than find a bar to watch it in but next week is supposed to be the best week. It is the mtns where the field separates and it is the 3rd week so people are tired and start to slack! I want to see what Lance will do!!

Bike Pic

Here is the picture that was on Craigslist where I bought it so it will have to serve as the before picture even though you can't see all the rust. Craig is going to lay out the pieces so I can take another picture of it all. Seems like you guys like pink better than sky blue...light pink or dark pink..I feel like the light pink might be too drab....what do you think?

Vintage

So, remember how I talked about my vintage bike that I got? Well, on Sunday Craig completely disassembled it. I was sort of sad because I wanted to be able to show you guys a before picture of it so you could tell a difference in the before and after, but he got excited about it and did it while I was running errands. I think that it is cute when he takes on projects like this because I feel like it is his little way of showing me that he wants to do things for me and take care of me. I know it sounds silly but I think that he feels a real sense of accomplishment when he completes a task that I am impressed with (such as disassembling a bike, restoring it and putting it back together). The bike had seen better days but was in good shape considering that it is from the 70s. It needs new wheels because they are a little bent and rusted, a new paint job, also a bit rusted in some areas, a new seats and could use some new grippers on the handlebars. Not too much really in the grand scheme of things, still cheaper than buying a new bike and a lot more personality in this one anyway. When I went over there last night he has spent almost two hours sanding the old paint off (candy apple red) and a lot of the frame was down to bare metal! I go back and forth as to what color I want to paint it but right now I am thinking a really pretty color of sky blue.

In other news, I took another sewing class last night and this time I learned how to make quilt blocks with circles. I will try to take pictures of it tonight if I have time...if not then I will do it tomorrow when I am in Atlanta. I think that I might be ready to try a real quilt, and not one that is a kit. Anyone need a small lap quilt that I could practice on? If so, what colors?

My mom just emailed me and said I should be glad I didn't go to Atlanta last night because the flight from Dayton to Atlanta had to make an emergency landing in Chattanooga and bus people to Atlanta. That definitely sounds like something that would happen to me! Luckily for some of my upcoming trips I am leaving in the afternoons and getting home in the afternoons and the prices were decent in Cincy so I can fly from there, which means no connections!! YAY! I feel that connections are where it all seems to go wrong for me (not that I didn't have my share of drama before). One more flight to book and then I will hopefully be done for a while...all except that I now have to actually make the trips....

Looking forward to seeing a lot of you on my visit this week!

Work, work, work.....

I was really good yesterday and worked on the pictures that I am going to use for my new Ohio photography site while watching the tour. I feel like I have improved a bit since my old website and I definitely have more pictures to pull from, even if they aren't improved. I am not sure if I am going to still try to wait until January or if I am going to try to get in a few natural light sessions this fall. Most of my clients are graduating from my program and from here on out I only have 1-2 clients per month. I am sort of happy about it only because that means I won't have to stay on the weekends anymore. I love visiting but when I stay the weekend I miss out on everything here, and it never seems to fail that I will be gone when something is going on but here when there is nothing....so is life.

Anyway, I would love some opinions on the photos I chose for the albums. I am going to do a it a little differently for my new website. Instead of having: Pregnancies, Babies, Kids, Individuals, Couples, Nature and Misc, I am going to have a couple of different ways but mainly: New arrivals (newborns), Sitting pretty (babies old enough to sit), Movers and Shakers (9-18 months), and then older kids (forgot the name for that). In addition to that, on my first year program page I am going to have an album for pregnancy, newborn, 3, 6, 9, and 1 year with pictures in there (probably the same ones) just because I constantly get asked what I do for each age group and it will just be easier if they can get ideas from the site. I am also trying to show more of the style I like so I won't be asked to do as much cheesy stuff that I don't like. So, if you already know my website then here are the codes, you can send me an email or just leave a comment on the actual photo. If you click on the photo then you can leave a comment underneath it and none of my clients have these codes so you can say whatever you want. If you don't know my website (please don't post it here, I don't want my personal life to come up with my business name), then leave a comment here or email me and I will send it to you. I look forward to the feedback!

codes:
newborn
3to6months
6to9months
1year

A biking weekend....

I am watching the tour while Craig still sleeps. I have no idea how he can sleep so late on the weekends. It baffles me! Yesterday I went and got new road tires (not the super, super thin ones, but some tires that are a lot thinner than what I currently had) for my mountain bike. I think that we are going to go and ride a pretty long ride on the bike trails today. This should help me to be a little faster with not as much work...at least that is the idea!

I also think that I forgot to mention it but a while back I bought a vintage huffy cruiser off of craigslist. The idea was that we would fix it up, repaint it and I would have a cute little cruiser that was like new :-). Yesterday while I ran errands Craig took apart the entire bike. When I came back it was just a frame on the garage floor with all the pieces around it. It looked sort of sad but I am excited to start getting it fixed up. I am hoping that with my crazy travel schedule coming up he will work on it a bit while I am gone.

For the Lance watch 2009, he is 8 seconds from the rider in the yellow jersey. His teammate Contador is 6 seconds behind. So, Lance is in 3rd. He would be in first except that Contador attacked on a climb two days ago and since they are on the same team, Lance didn't chase. The attack was stupid and Contador basically attacked his own team...a VERY big no-no in cycling and I think that it pissed Lance off. He refused to really comment on it (which is rare for him) but Levi (another American and teammate) said that Contador did if on his own without the team. That is not good for Contador. In case you aren't familiar with cycling, here is the one paragraph version of how it works.

Each team has 9 riders at the start of the race. Most teams have a leader and who you would consider the General Classification guy (meaning he is good enough to win it all). Then the other 8 guys or so are either good sprinters, good climbers, or pretty good all around but not necessarily fast enough to win. On the tour there are some stages that are flat and you want your sprinters to win, some are mountains and you want you climbers to win, and then some are just same old same old stages and a random guy will win the stage but then will suck all the other stages. So, all the team members work to get their guy at the front (sprinters to the front on flat stages, climbers and GC on mountains, etc). The good teams will ride at the front and keep the pace of the race going. If they want people to drop off they will go faster than they know the other teams can go, if they just want to rest a little they will set the pace lower. The team with the yellow jersey is supposed to set the pace by riding at the front but that doesn't happen as much in the first couple stages because teams will have good sprinters that they want to win the stage but who can't have the yellow overall so they want to be at the front. They will block everyone out at the end and then split so their sprinter can get through and win. ANYWAY, in Astana's case (Lance's team) they really have about 4 guys who are good enough to be GC guys and if they were on different teams they would be the lead of their respective teams, but because they are all on the same team, there is no really clear leader. They put Contador in the lead number (21) but it was still sort of on the table as to who it would be. Then, Lance got in a breakaway that Contador didn't and was 19 seconds up on him....looking like Lance would take over the leadership. Contador didn't like it so he attacked his team the other day and Lance didn't chase. The reason that is not cool is because the other 7 guys carried Contador all day (and Lance). By riding right behind someone you save 30% of your energy, so they do the work, you ride on their wheel. Most of those 7 guys can only lead for a stage or two and then they rest and someone else steps up. Or they will take turns during the stage in the head position but the lead guy rests a lot and rarely takes a turn at the front (though Lance likes to) so he can be at the front through all stages by saving his energy. When Contador just attacked on his own, it was like giving a big finger to the guys that are going to have to carry him in future stages if he wants to win. Since most of the guys really wanted Lance to win anyway (a lot of them have ridden with him before and were on US Postal with him) it didn't really get Contador and team points. Plus, there was no point in him doing that....he wasn't going to get yellow so all he accomplished was getting 2 second above Lance and pissing his team off.

Ok, geekiness over...really the tour will not be decided until the last week which is still two weeks away so we will have to see. Lance looks great on all the rides and doesn't seem to be hurting. I wish Contador was on a different team so I could have seen how Lance would have done on a counterattack on that mountain but I guess I will have to wait until they get into the Alps.

The Tour and Travel....

I am obsessed with the Tour...it is a sickness really. I streamed it at work yesterday and nearly jumped out of my desk chair when Lance was within tenths of a second of getting the yellow jersey (what the winner for the race at the time wears). I know strategically it would have been bad for him to get it...it is easier for them to make up time later and when you have the yellow jersey your team has to work more because they pull the group (has to do with windstreams and geekiness) but I was so excited because it was the first day that I felt like he was BACK. I mean really back, not just washed up and riding for fun. In interviews this time around he jokes more and just doesn't seem as serious...until yesterday :-) Now that he is basically tied for yellow he is getting a taste of the old Lance and I am pumped!

Another tidbit....Ben Stiller actually gave out the yellow jersey yesterday. He was at Wimbledon and then made his was to the Tour and has been joking around with Lance the last few days. Here is a funny video....after this Lance's bike was actually a little messed up and they had to replace the chain. What is up with Stiller's hair?

I am about to start a marathon travel schedule again. It is funny because when I was in Atlanta I wanted to travel all the time but now that I am here I want to be home all the time (though that hasn't worked out for me). Here is a peak at my schedule over the next month:
July 15th-19th- Atlanta (girls day, yay!!)
July 20th-24th - Darlington
July 24th-29th- Vacation but no flying required since I will already be in MB
July 30th-31st - Darlington
August 5th-7th- Providence
August 10th-11th (or 12th)- Philly
August 16th (or 17th)- 20th - Atlanta

Holy cow!! That is a lot of skymiles! Speaking of skymiles, Delta randomly gave me 5K toward Medallion status yesterday. That is pretty sweet and might actually help me to get back to gold. I swear, they are like the boyfriend who pisses you off but then brings you flowers. For now I will stay in the relationship. The funny thing is that as much as I get pissed at them, I find myself defending them to people who tell me to switch airlines :-) Hopefully the travel will slow down a bit after this run. I sort of miss being here with Craig :-( We went out with his friends the other night and the guy asked me if I was ever going to be around because I was always gone :-(

Nothing else too exciting going on here. The Beach Boys are playing at the venue across the street from my apartment tonight so I think that we might go and see them. Craig stayed home sick today though so hopefully he will feel better!

Homemade Pizza-YUM!

In my quest to eat more natural foods, I decided to make pizza. Originally the plan was to use the breadmaker that Craig's mom gave him to make the dough and then I would just have to put it in the oven but when I left my apartment I forgot one of the parts so I had to do it by hand. I was a little nervous because you have to use yeast and let it rise and stuff but it turned out really good.

Here is the recipe in case anyone wants it (Carrie, if you want to make a recipe card :-), but I think that it might be too long) It sounds a little intense but it wasn't that bad and you could take more short cuts if you wanted. I put them in parenthesis when I could think of them.

Dough: This is enough to make 2-12 inch thin crusts or one thick crust.
1 Cup of warm water (80ºF)
2 TBL Oil (can be any kind of oil. I used olive oil).
1 TBL Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour (you can get this at Kroger, King Arthur is the brand I used and seems to be one of the most pure).
1.5 cups Bread Flour (also got this at Kroger and it was King Arthur)
1 tsp Active Dry Yeast (also from Kroger in the baking aisle. I bought a jar cause it is used for all bread but you can get little packets too).

Sauce:
6 oz can of tomato paste
Italian seasoning
6oz water
(or you can just buy the cans of spaghetti sauce).


Toppings:
Mozarella cheese ( I shredded a block because there are preservatives in the pre-shredded but here is another place you can quicken it up)
whatever else you want. We had turkey pepperoni, some ground beef, and Craig had mushrooms.

Prep:
Take the cup of warm water and dissolve the yeast in the water. Take a bowl and pour a little oil in it and spread it all around. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl (including water and yeast) with your hands, knead it until it forms a good dough. You should be able to pick up the whole ball of dough and walk around without it sticking to your hands or dripping at all. (I walked down the hall and into the computer room to show Craig and nothing happened). Knead it for a few minutes and then put it in the bowl with the oil spread around, turn the dough over so the other side also gets some on it. Cover with a towel and wait at least 30 mins. (The recipe says it should double, but I am not sure mine did. You can wait longer than 30 mins and I probably did closer to 40. Also, it didn't seem like it was rising and I didn't know what to expect so I turned the oven on to warm and stuck it in there for a few minutes to heat it up because a little heat will help the dough rise faster). Once your dough has double or gotten close, spread it into your pizza pan(s). I made two thin crusts so I had to divide the dough in half. You have to spread it pretty thin and it is a little elastic so it can be tough. I would hold it up and let the weight of the dough droop it a little but I imagine this is why people at the pizza shop spin it. I tried that but it didn't go too well. Once you get them spread on the pan(s), stick it in the oven while you mix the sauce (or about 5 mins if you are cheating on the sauce).

Mix the sauce ingredients (italian seasoning is just a pinch here and dash there but if I had to estimate I would say 2 tbl). Take the crusts out of the oven and spoon the sauce on and spread it, then add the ingredients. I did cheese first, then toppings and then more cheese. Stick it back in the oven for about 15 mins (check it and the crust will be getting crispy and the cheese will be bubbling).

Enjoy! If you want one with just bread flour, let me know and I can tell you the one from the same place I got this one, but I haven't tried it, so no gurantees.

I have to admit that I really liked making this recipe and the result was yummy. It was a lot less salty than normal pizza but it still tasted good. It did take a while to do it but I sort of enjoyed that part of it too. I realize that it might be a little harder with kiddos running around. Let me know if any of you try it cause I would love to know how they turn out!

I will let you know if I find any other good recipes that are from natural ingredients.

Happy 4th!

Today I am a little sad that I am not at the Peachtree Road race. For the last 9 4th of Julys that has been how I started my day! I feel like it is what you are supposed to do on the 4th...followed by a pool and then a cookout and some fireworks. Well, I guess I will have to settle for a lazy morning, watching the tour, followed by some shopping and then a soccer game with fireworks. Not bad!

Last night Craig and I went to a little festival in downtown Dayton to see some fireworks. It was nuts. I saw a lot of people that were very different from the surburban life that I have! It was interesting. We had fun though (we didn't get to look at many booths because it was so crowded so we just got food and then waited for the fireworks). The fireworks were really good. They had some cool news ones or at least ones that I haven't seen. For those of you who don't partipate in FB, on the way back from the fireworks when we were walking to the car, I felt a drip from a building awning. Huh, it hasn't rained in days. I turned to Craig and said "that better not be bird shit"....and then put my hand in my hair..oh, it was! UGH, gross. I told him and he said "are you serious?" um, YEAH! Ugh, I had to wash it out of my hair as soon as I got home. It was so disgusting.

You guys know I am obsessed with Lance Armstrong and his uncanny abilities. Well, the Tour de France starts today with an individual time trial...I am so excited and am sitting here watching it alone in my undies while Craig still sleeps (he takes the REALLY lazy approach on weekends :-)). I am a little sad that Lance is supposed to ride as a support rider for Alberto Contador (who isn't even American) because I want him to be the lead person. I sort of wonder if it will stay that way. As you might or might not know, Lance has won 7 Tours but Contador is 10 years younger and won the Tour last year. It just depends on how Contador does early on to see whether the shift can be made to Lance. Of course all the announcers want Lance to be the guy and so do I! He also has Levi Leipheimer (American) on his team and the announcers just said that Contador doesn't speak any English and thinks that the two Americans might gang up on him. I wish that Contador was on a different team because I think that it would push Lance a lot harder and I am scared he will sit back too much...then again, I am not sure he can sit back, not sure he can even think about it in the race that has defined him as a rider.

Ok, geekiness over :-) I had great aspirations of getting a ton of stuff done this weekend but it is not looking like I am going to get through it all. I meant to post this list on Thursday as a motivator but, um, that didn't happen so here it is now.

--Need to go through all the pictures I have taken of clients in the last year and pick which ones I want on my new Ohio website (I did this about 4 months ago but I need to update for some of my favs from the last 4 months and need to actually upload them to the galleries. I just tried to log in though and I can't so I need to now figure that out...ugh).

--Need to go through all my pictures from Greece to through out the bad ones and keep the good ones.
--need to make a CD for the two Jenns.

--Need to go through all my pictures from Glacier and Canada and do the same thing. Need to upload those.

--I want to make a book of my trips each year. Um, I think that I am on 2007.

--I wanted to design a book of Ariyana's first year (she is 21 months old now!!). UGH!

--I also would like to design some birth announcements, Christmas cards, and the like. Trying to get ahead.

--Need to decide and get together some ideas for how to transition this photography gig to Ohio.

As you can see, most of it is related to photography. I miss it. I feel like my skills are going to deteriorate if I don't get back into it pretty quickly so I am still aiming for January (though I doubt anyone will come out in January for photos but it will start the process at least). Well, I guess I should get to it.

In Defense of Food

I finally finished it tonight and I really liked it. He uses the word "nutrition" a bit too much for my liking but other than that it was a good book that brings up some interesting points. The basic premise is that we barely eat food anymore because everything is so processed. After reading it I started looking at the ingredients in some of the foods I have in my cupboard...don't do it. I can barely understand half of them. He also talks about different 'fads' that scientists have gone through. At one point they said that carbs were bad, then it was protein, and now it is fat. I guess the overall point is just that scientists have tried so hard to break food down into the different nutrients that make them but you just can't do that. You have to look at the whole food and you have to look at what other foods are eaten in the same meal. He talked about how any traditional diet (French, Italian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese) works better than our "Western diet" as he coins it. They all eat things that we consider to be fattening and bad for you yet they have lower disease rates for every major disease that can be linked to diet. And, further, as soon as they adopt our diet they get the same diseases we do from it. He talks about how there are nutrients that are the "nutrient de jour" if you will. They are deemed to be a good nutrient so the food scientists inject it into every food. The problem is that they have to take out something that is in there and often times that can be worse for you. Omega-3s are the popular one right now. Listen to commercials...everything from bread to yogurt to whatever have Omega-3s added. They discovered that these are good for us and are actually replaced by Omega-6s because of the way our farming (animals and plants) are done...so now they are adding them back in. Weird huh. Oh, and supplements almost never work...but, people who take them do tend to be healthier, he says it is because people who would take the time to buy supplements are probably already health conscience.

It is just a really good read and you can wade through what you want of it. I recommend it. Especially for all you with children. I sort of had this thought the other day of where our eating goes wrong. Most of you read the books about what to give your baby when in their development and knew how different foods made their bodies react...fruit makes you poop, stuff like that. Well, where do we lose that knowledge and how much do our bodies really change if we didn't force them to change by putting more processed food into them? I don't know the answer, but it just got me to thinking. So, in the last few days I have cooked all my meals and I am trying to use up the processed foods I have by mixing them in with whole foods. After that I am going to see if I can just mostly eat whole foods. The general rule the guy in the book gave (those he has many other rules) was that if your great-grandmother (or great-great-grandmother) wouldn't recognize it as food then you should pass. The example he gave was that your great-grandmother would recognize yogurt, but wouldn't know what the heck Go-gurt was. Craig's mom gave him her old breadmaker a while back so this weekend I am going to attempt to make bread :-) I went to the store tonight and found whole wheat flour (and then I found it at Kroger too) so I am going to use that and see how it turns out. Sadly I only have 14 more days here before I travel for an eternity again but for those 14 days I am going to try to only eat out (or processed in general) once or twice...one being on the 4th :-) I am sort of interested in how hard it will be and if it will be costly or not. I think that now would be easy with all the cheap and yummy friuts and veggies at the stores, but what about the winter?

Anyway, sorry to ramble, let me know if you are interested in the book. In other news, the neck is finally improving. Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I think that I am going to look into a massage tomorrow or Friday....now, do you guys go to spas or the chiro? Think it makes a difference in this case? Also, thanks Molly for the pillow and desk suggestions...I did change how I have been sleeping and I think that has helped. As for the desk, that is a hard one since I am never in the same place and most of the time I am stuck in a conference room or am sitting on my couch, but I will try to work on that one...I need to improve my posture, maybe some yoga classes will help. I went to spin class tonight and it hasn't seemed to affect the neck too negatively. I tried not to lean on that arm at all and took it a little easier than normal. I nearly laughed when the teacher said you burn 600-800 calories in her class (maybe if you are a lot bigger than me but I only burned 411 :-))

I feel like I want to have a contest, and for a good prize, but I just don't know what the contest should be.....