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Friday Cute Factor

Bucket full of love!

Bucket full of love!

Thanks…?

Got this email today…

“The Solutions Architect position you applied for with CyberCoders on 2/15/2009 has been closed.  If it re-opens and you are a fit, we will be in touch!”

Wow – um…  Thanks for the info I guess?

Or should I feel bad that I was such a terrible fit that  you gave up?

Good thing I found something else and wasn’t waiting around!

Chocolate Fudgesicle Ice Cream

Found this fabulous recipe in the cuisinart instruction booklet. Super yummy, low in calories! This is our new favorite ice cream – besides the strawberry gelato…

Ingredients:

2 packages sugar free instant chocolate pudding

3 cups fat free milk

Preparation:

Place the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and combine until well blended. Turn machine on, pour the mixture into freeezer bowl, and let mix until mixture thickens, about 20-25 minutes. Serve immediately, or if desired, tranfer to an airtight container and store in the freezer.

Biking Home

Cherry Creek Trail Map with Notes
Driving a car every day to work is a bit strange. It has been a couple years now since I have had to do that.
I kind of prided myself on doing my part to keep my carbon foot print small.
I had pondered public stransportation, but this side of the light rail route stops at every exit on the highway…  20 minute car ride, vs 10 min bike or 20 min walk to the train station, 30 minute ride, 5 minute bus ride (if i could figure that part out), or an 8 minute bike ride to the office. Wowo!  Without the ability to really gain anything personally while doing that commute, i just couldn’t stomach it. (can’t blog if i have my bike – since you have to stay with you bike the whole time.) I could read…
With their recent decree that i should be there prior to 8am and ready to work, the train commute just wasn’t going to fit into my schedule. My gym doesn’t open till 5:30, so with an hour work out plus shower…  not gonna happen!

But i did think i should do my part and i looked up the bike route home. There is a great set of trails all over denver and beyond.
Hubby and I did a dry run over the long weekend – 18 miles, 2 hours. I figured i could get that time down since some of it was getting lost and lolly gagging along. We don’t usually have any place to be when we ride our bikes, so my mind frame would have to change.

I decided i would try to bike at least 1 day week. Meaning train it to work, ride the 18 miles home – skipping the gym since that would be my workout for the day.

This past friday was the first attempt alone.
I did ask hubby to ride with me to the train station so i wouldn’t have to be alone on that part! He gladly accepted the challenge, since it meant he got to sleep in and not have to go to the gym! He was thrilled!

We arrived at the train station too late and too early. Meaning I had 15 minutes to wait for the next train (me being type A – i’m calculating the time that i am spending and thinking that i could be at work by the time the train arrives… sigh)

As we are waiting we are noticing a large amount of bikers arriving. This is a concern because there are only so many “spots” on the train. Bikes are only allowed at the beginning and end of each car and not by the driver and only 2 per site. I was at the very first train stop, so that is a plus, but still… I got on from one side of the train and so did another fella. A couple stops later another fella got on – so we were up to 3 bikes in 1 spot, i wasn’t sure what would happen, but luckily the RTD police were not around that morning to kick anyone off!

It was definitely a different feeling to ride with a laptop on your back -especially a 15 inch heavy bugger!

I didn’t dress the part to get to work since it was only 2 miles to union station and a little over a mile to work from the train stop.
After my work day was over i put on my cushy butt pants (which unfortunately since i lost so much weight are not fitting and causing more issues than they are solving – time to go shopping), my tank top to get some sun on my arms (it was 80 degrees ya know), sunblock, and headed on home.

Took me about an hour and 20 minutes, which i am still sure i can cut down – i still spent a bit of time lolly gagging, forgetting i had a purpose, and forgetting to up my gear range on the flat parts! It was a very nice ride and i managed to get on the bike path before most exercisers, it tends to get crowded in places.

I made it to the bar where hubby and some friends were by 5:38! Still time for happy hour! Only a mile from home.
I was definitely sweaty, and feel i did a bit of exercise!

Is it tuesday already??

I’m out in Indianapolis helping hubby and Tom with their conference.
I took a late night flight Friday to make sure i was able to finish my work week.
It was an ity bity plane. 2 by 2… ooofa. I was over the wing but decided not to look out the window cause when i did i could see the wings flapping in the wind!!!

A cool thing the flight crew did was to move a gentleman from the army to first class. I thought that was really awesome!

Saturday we prepped for the conference. Filled the conf bags with all the goodies. Hope everyone likes them!

Swag Bag

The location is pretty swank:

The parties are fun:

I’ve managed to get my Dunkin Donuts fix as well as my Starbucks, so i am good to go!

A little tuckered out from the early morning and late nights, but i’ll be home tonight and tomorrow I start my new job!  Yeah!

Day 5 – NCECA Road Trip

This was the day that we finally arrived at the main event!!
We headed north to see Walnut Canyon before heading back south.
It’s a cute little national monument – and since I’m counting – at $5 entrance fee, we are almost half way to our national park pass cost!
There were over 250 steps down to see 25 different ruins! I used it as an additional portion of my workout!

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It was another fun time for hubby and I trying to decide how they lived, how they ate, where they “shopped”.
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After that stop over we headed south to Montezuma’s Castle National Park. Another cool ruin and apparently where all the idiots in the area congregate. Sigh.
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It was another great view despite the idiots flittering around. Amazingly large structure, so far up the hillside built so long ago, with no apparent way to get in!

We got our view (another $10 save with the pass!) and got out of there as fast as we could!

Then it was 2.5 hours to phoenix!!  I had been warned of the police presence by friends that have spent time in the area. We saw a bit of it in flagstaff – police doing radar checks everywhere – everywhere! Photo tickets, and more. So we kept our speed in check as we headed into the sprawling metropolis of Phoenix. And we also found the heat! It started to warm up as soon as we left Flagstaff – 60 degrees, 75, then 90 as we hit Phoenix…

We got to the hotel by 2:30, were able to check in – although their valet area is crap – in and out in the same place and only 1 lane wide… ugh.
Our room is beautiful. Amazing work desk (that is where i am now).

After a shower and some relaxing hubby went with me to pick up my badge for NCECA and get my goodies! It was fabulous. No lines! Love that!

Our goodies included a recyclable shopping bag – yeah!!!!

After my quick jaunt to get my badge we walked around the area and same some weird art:
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Found the science museum and a cute place to grab a beer!

I picked most of my schedule for  the next few days and then we were off to sushi with hubby’s business partner and wife.

I over ate – as usual – and slept pretty well on our big comfy bed!

I’m not dead yet!!!

Sorry for the error page that has been here for the past week.

The previous host company did an upgrade and hosed my blog…  as you may have noticed.

Hubby is currently in the process of doing the database move, so i can’t do anything too fancy till that is complete.

I’ll be back on track soon!

Ladybugs!

Humor on the street

Came across this on my way to work, was too funny not to jump in!

Wordless Wednesday