Friday Shuffle: The Eventually Edition

Okay, so it's Sunday, not Friday. But I'm not complainin' Friday (at work) was hectic and Friday night (after work) was a blast. There was no time for the Shuffle. "What about Saturday?", you ask. Two separate trips to the park, the latter one including a picnic lunch. Errands here and there...again, no time for the shuffle. No complaints here. But I am glad to have found some time to have blogged and given Fred a chance to shuffle his thang!

1. "Sisters of The Moon", by Fleetwood Mac - Is it horrible that I actually don't know this song, what with me being a big Fleetwood Mac fan and all?
2. "What a Fool Believes", by The Doobie Brothers - Really, why isn't this group called Michael McDonald and the other guys?
3. "Born To Jive", by Sha-Na-Na - okay, nooo, I don't own any albums by Sha-Na-Na, if such a thing is even possible, this off of the Grease Soundtrack. What does hand jive mean, anyway?
4. "Save Me a Saturday Night", by Neil Diamond - Yep, don't know this song either.
5. "Jimmy Gets High", by Daniel Powter
6. "A Horse With No Name", by America
7. "Open Road", by Ryan Adams
8. "Octopus' Garden", by The Beattles - What a care-free acid laden song for the whole family!
9. "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by They Might Be Giants
10. "Run-Around" by Blues Traveler

Okay, well Fred gave us a bit of an obscure shuffle this time around. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Saturday's Symphony - Not to be Read While Eating

In my weekend posting, I failed to mention one of the highlights, or low lights, of my outings Saturday occurred at the mall. Between the Jeopardy tryouts and trip to Knauss Berry, we stopped at the mall food court for lunch. My toddler announced that we had to use the toilet - someday I hope it will be "he".

He had to do number two and as is custom, I squatted down in the stall facing him, to give him needed encouragement and praise. Well, something I never realized before, is the awesome acoustics one is witness to with their head that low to the ground in a stall of a very busy restroom.

The cacophany was grandiose, and the stalls on either side were occupied - this proud papa is happy to report that my boy "outcacophed" them all!

Lines, Dissapointment, and Yumminess

Today consisted of two very long lines, some disappointment, and some extreme yumminess.

Last night a friend and I decided to try out for Jeopardy, which was here in Miami today looking for contestants from 10am to noon. We took my 3 year old with us under the promise that he could see the horseys (the Jeopardy bus was at the Gulfstream Horse Track & Casino). We had meant to be there by 9:30 but didn't show up until 10:15. The line was unbelievably long - well, more so unbelievable for my friend than me...I was pretty sure it would be long. Well, they had reached their 1000th contestant, which was about 300 people in front of us, so we didn't get to try out. So went looking for the horseys. The first race wasn't until 1:30 so the horses weren't out yet - we were o for 2. So we headed back home.

We got back home, picked up our other friend, and headed out to Knauss Berry Farm - my wifey had plans to go shopping with her cousin. I had heard of this place but had never been. It is a farm and bakery that is run by Mennonites; it's only opened from late November through Easter. We pulled up to the place and drove on by on account that the parking lot was jammed. We ended up parking a few hundred feet down the road. There was line of people out the door, through the parking lot, and to the street. It took us 30 minutes to get inside. While in line, I asked a lady what all the hub bub was about. Answer: Their Cinnamon rolls! And their bread! And their pies! And their strawberries! And their shakes - which was different (and shorter) line to a smaller building. We had planned to buy 2 loaves of raisin bread, 1 loaf of 9 grain bread, a pineapple upside down cake, Cinnamon rolls - yeah, we didn't want to buy too much stuff on our first trip. Then we'd go out back to the U-Pick strawberry fields. They were out of everything we wanted except the rolls, so we bought those, put them in the car, and took the toddler to pick the most gorgeous strawberries. And the little man was a natural. Once I had told him that we didn't any that had white on either the tip or the crown, or any that had boo boos (read as rot/insects)...the kid was flawless! So we paid for our pickings and headed home. Guess what we had for dessert? Strawberry Shortcake! Those berries were incredible! And breakfast tomorrow morning....Cinnamon Rolls!

The Weekend Recap

Okay, so it's only 7:47 am Sunday morning, therefore technically the weekend isn't over yet, but it seemed as good as any title for a posting. I went to work yesterday and the project was not going smoothly. So "not going smoothly", in fact that at 3:00 pm, semior management was on a conference call with us and decided to roll back our implementation. What does this mean. Well, it means that there was a whole bunch of finger pointing as to which area caused the multiple failures, and yes, some fingers were pointed in my direction. It also means that thousands of man hours are for not as we will now have to analyze the failures and remap a solution. The silver lining? I don't have to go into work today.

What else is going on?
Well, something most of you don't know about me is that I am a member of Weight Watchers. I had been in WW before (prior to our first son's birth) and I lost 45 pounds in 6 months. Note: The photo on my blog is from then, which was when I was at my lowest weight in a decade. I then forgot everything I had learned from the "program", that's what us WWs call it, and I had gained everything back in 3 years plus another 10 pounds.

I rejoined October 26 and, as of the Monday before Christmas, I lost 26 pounds. I have since put on 4 pounds and have not been on program, but will start anew tomorrow morning - my meetings are on Mondays. I will let you all know how I am doing.

Last Weekend

Okay, so I know it's a bit late in the week to be posting about weekend events, but here it is none the less.

On Friday, I had posted a list of tasks for the weekend over at TracyMichelleUnplugged. I am happy to report that I completed all tasks...and did it in one day...Sunday. Well, there was only one day left after we had decided on Saturday to embark on a journey like never before.

A good friend of ours called on Saturday to ask if I still wanted to go with them to the brand new Ikea store an hour and a half away. That may sound like a far distance but she was also meeting another friend who was travelling over two hours...yes, just to go furniture shopping.

They had been planning this, along with their significant others (and me to a lesser degree) for weeks but I had forgotten all about it. Which meant also forgetting to tell Mrs. Pheasantly Fascinating. The plan was for me to go with them and take the 3 year old along with and the wifey would stay home with the newbie; being less than 2 months old, the pediatrician doesn't want us taking him into crowded stores. Well I shared the plan with the wifey and she said she wanted to come along even if it meant staying in the car for an hour with the baby.

So off we went. We headed up the turnpike following our friends in their car. I am as green as the next tree hugger but with 4 adults and two car seats, using 2 cars was our only option. Not knowing exactly where the Ikea was, I followed closely behind. After traversing through two counties, we make a right turn and that when I saw it on the left side of the road. A huge mecca to all those that yearn decent furniture at very, very low prices. That's also when I saw the entire left lane of the street backed up for a quarter mile trying to get into the parking lot. That's also when I saw the temporary road sign flashing that there was overflow parking available at the stadium (two miles) up the road.

As we're following our friends to the stadium, wifey reminds me that the baby can't really be in throngs of people and that she'll just sit in the car two miles away from the store. So, weighing my options carefully, I call our friends cell to tell them that we are heading back to the store to try to find a parking spot. Forty-five minutes later we have completed one and a half parking- attendent-guided loops around the store when our friends call to say they're in the store. That's when I threw caution to the wind, disobeyed one of 30 some-odd parking attendents and turned down a parking row to find a spot waiting for me...kind of begs the question what use were the parking attendants. Normally I would've been ruffled by now...but I was so darn happy to have found a spot, the kids were behaving very good (per their norm, knock on wood), and the wifey was looking especially radiant. So I grab the three year old and head inside and met up with the gang.

Damned if those Swedes don't know how to lay out a furniture store. It was really neat inside. After an hour, we stopped for lunch in the Ikea Restaurant. Okay, while I would not call a walk-up counter where you order one of only 6 items a restaurant, I must say that the food was quite tasty and very cheap. The lil' one ordered the kids meal of Swedish Meatballs (really) and I order a veggie wrap for me and for the wifey. I also got her bottled water. 5 bucks and change. I scarfed down the wrap and went out to make the swap with the wifey so she could experience furniture Nirvana. I spent the next hour and a half in the airconditioned car reclined with the little one on my chest listening to a podcast of This American Life. We made it home by 5. Will we ever go back? Heck ya! We saw lots of neat furniture at very low prices...we're just going to wait a few months.