Birthday Tulips

Here's a picture of my tulips from Gary. We went to Jinbeh (Japanese steakhouse) for dinner on my birthday, and although it was rather slow service, it was a nice dinner.

Happy Birthday to Me

Yep, that’s right… it’s my Birthday. And my profile on here promptly updated my age! How rude!!?? LOL. Oh well, time flies when you’re having fun. I sure don’t feel 34. :-)

Roberta took me to dinner last night, along with our boyfriends. She did let me choose the restaurant although, it went something like: “You choose… How about Red Lobster?”. I actually chose La Hacienda Ranch (not out of spite, of course, but in interest of going somewhere all 4 of us would like). Plus, I figure it is my favorite restaurant because I would have to say Mexican is my favorite type of food and La Hacienda Ranch is my favorite Mexican restaurant. Therefore, La Hacienda Ranch is my favorite restaurant. How’s that logic? We had a nice dinner and since it was Easter, it was not very busy – imagine that.

Today, Gary surprised me with a delivery at work… I received some beautiful tulips – my favorite flower. (He remembered me saying this previously, how sweet). He’s taking me to dinner tonight… hmmm… second favorite restaurant?? I’ll have to think about that.

It was also the 4 month anniversary of our first date yesterday, so perhaps double celebrating is in order. (And perhaps, by my posting this note here, he may actually remember when 5 months comes upon us). :-)

Second Outing

Good news… Gary and I went out on our second cycling outing last night and my butt doesn’t hurt nearly as much this time. However, it did become glaringly obvious that I’m really out of shape. Will keep working on that… getting in shape is certainly a goal in doing this.

My friend, Brian, told us about a bike rally in mid-April that he is doing with a group and suggested that Gary and me might like to go too. Brian is doing the 63-mile course. (I can’t yet envision being able to do that). The shortest is 22-mile. We’ll see if we can be prepared for 22 miles by then. I’m not sure how far we went last night… my next cycle related purchase will definitely be a computer - to tell distance, speed, etc.

I am also going to miss out on a week of cycling when I go on my second cruise with my friend, April. Speaking of which… April and I got signed up for our shore excursions yesterday and we are looking forward to: a sunset sail (in Key West), swimming with the stingrays (in Grand Cayman), and a beach escape (in Cozumel). Can’t wait! That cruise will be 4/3-4/10.

Molly

I'm learning to post pictures. Has everyone seen my adorable kitten? This is Molly at 4 months old. She's almost a year old now, so she's a little bigger. She's an Exotic Shorthair.

Reserved Practical Intellectual Giver?

That’s how this relationship test that I ran across today describes me… along with the more detailed analysis:

You are a RPIG--Reserved Practical Intellectual Giver.

You are loyal, kind, thoughtful and conscientious. You're a good person. You make everyone around you happier and better, even if you yourself are not at your happiest or best. You just care so much about your friends and loved ones that you can't help giving them everything of yourself. It can wear you out, but you'd never let on.

You're successful, smart and fun to be with, but your self-esteem could use some boosting. You don't like conflict, and you don't like demanding things for yourself, so you can feel unappreciated. But then you wonder if you don't deserve to be appreciated. You do!

You have many small crushes, but it takes you ages to get to a serious stage with someone. You get so caught up second-guessing yourself and worrying if the other person really *likes* likes you that you never dare to make the first move. Generally you end up with another clever RPIG who knows one when s/he sees one. This adds up to one long courtship. Fortunately this also adds up to one long marriage.

You would never cheat. You would never hurt anyone's feelings. You are so sympathetic and give so many second chances that it takes a lo-o-ong time for anyone to get on your bad side.

Your only problem is you can be *too* thoughtful -- you can end up worrying and getting hung up over nothing. You may be a boy scout.

I thought this was kinda fun, give it a try and share if you’d like. :-)

Cycling is a pain in the ass

First, let me start by saying, simply, that my butt hurts.

Now, let me explain that, over the years, I've tried various types of fitness-related activity: running, weight training, racquetball, volleyball. Never cycling, though. Not that I didn't have any interest - I just always found reasons not to. It was usually a three-tiered mental progresion:

1. I don't have a bike; followed closely by
2. Bikes are expensive; which led me to
3. How many months out of the year could I expect to use a bike in Texas, anyway?

My practical, thrifty alter-ego just wouldn't give me the go-ahead (where's that person when I'm considering computer equipment, anyway?). But, what can I say? People change. So, when Rachelle recently expressed interest in buying a bike and getting into cycling, I thought "why the hell not?" I figure that half the battle in trying something new is finding someone (or some people) to enjoy it with. And, in that regard, I've already got a head start. So the calculus of the equation was slightly altered, and the practical, thrifty alter-ego finally lost the argument.

So this weekend we marched over to a local bike shop. And, after a brief four hours of browsing, hounding salespeople, and test riding a half-dozen models, walked out with a couple of shiny new bikes and the assorted accoutrements.

A few miscellaneous thoughts on the experience:

1. My butt hurts. It hurt a little bit after the test ride. It hurt more after our maiden voyage yesterday. They say this is normal, and should get better over time. I say, why the hell didn't the practical, thrifty twit in my head mention that little factoid before?
   
2. We had a great time riding yesterday. It was an incredibly beautiful, perfect day for it. Didn't want to push it too hard, so we just rode for an hour. Then, we went to the movies. Don't want to get too much nature, ya know?
   
3. I found it ironic that, even though Rachelle was the major impetus behind this endeavor, the staff at the bike shop seemed to think it was all my doing. Case in point: we each bought the same model, but they only had one in stock. Guess whose bike is on order? I'm not sure how that happened, exactly. They did fix her up with a loaner, so I guess it's not that big a deal.
   
4. Cycling has lots of cool accoutrements. Tools and toys and gear and equipment. Not quite as much as camping, but then, it's more expensive. Btw, have you noticed I like saying the word "accoutrements?"
5. Ok, truth be told, my butt doesn't hurt at all. But Rachelle's does (or so she told me), and I wanted her to feel better, so don't mention this part, ok?

My Bonus Purchase

It’s annual bonus time at work (last paycheck) and therefore it’s time to spend some money on myself. OK… I would have done this without the bonus, but it seems to be nice justification for a large purchase.

I’ve been interested in getting into cycling, so Gary and I decided to hit Plano Cycling’s big post-construction sale this weekend (apparently the grand opening for their new showroom). Based on the pre-research we did on the Internet, it did seem they were having an excellent sale and we decided it was time to buy. We both bought a Specialized Allez Sport 27 (in black), and then, of course, all the “gear” needed to get into the sport. (Padded shorts – woohoo).

It was a beautiful day yesterday for our first journey out. Being new to this, we decided to hit a bike trail. Amusingly, the first trail I knew of that we tried was all of about 3 blocks long. The second attempt at a trail was much more successful at a nice park in Coppell. We had a lot of fun. Although, even with the padded shorts, I do have to say, my butt is *quite* sore today. :-) But, I’m anxious to go again. I can’t wait for daylight savings time to make evening riding more of a possibility.

The Cruise

Since I mentioned the cruise... That seems like a good place to start.

Gary and I went on a cruise the weekend of March 3rd-7th. Here's a link to the photos. The cruise was from Galveston (TX) to Cozumel and back on the Carnival Ecstasy. It was a nice trip, but the water was very rough on the way there. I found this particularly unfortunate since this was Gary's first cruise and I told him he would barely feel the movement of the ship. There were a lot of people sick. I'm lucky - it didn't affect me.

There was one formal night, so you'll notice the photos from that. In Cozumel, we went snorkeling and then to a private beach that had some activities to do. We enjoyed the hammocks. Ok... I look like crap in the photos on that day since I had already been snorkeling in most of them. Please excuse that. LOL. We also got lucky with the weather. It was forecasted to rain in Cozumel on the day we were supposed to be there, but it didn't and it was beautiful.

When leaving Cozumel, the Captain announced that we were having technical difficulties with the propulsion system, which would affect our maximum speed. They were announcing at that time that we would be "significantly late" (10pm) getting into Galveston. We were supposed to get in at 8am. We did actually get in earlier, around 6pm and managed to get off the ship and to our car by 8pm (and we were one of the first people off the ship). Gary and I decided to go ahead and make the 5 hour drive back to Dallas that night, but we both took an extra day off work to recuperate.

Overall it was a good trip though and I enjoyed the company immensely.

Getting On The Bandwagon

My friend (Liz) and boyfriend (Gary) have inspired me to get into this. It seems like a good time to start since I've been emailing everyone about the cruise I just took. I figured I could just keep everyone informed of the big events this way. We'll see how it goes.