I love my job, no, really I do.  I love that I’m super busy and my days go by fast…most of the year. There are times of the year which are pretty dead and from mid-May through July 4th is one of those times.  We filed our 10-Q last week and I finished up the loose strings this week. Now is when boredom sets in.   Yea, I have projects to do but they really don’t have a hard deadline and I really don’t need to have them done until after July 4th. 

To fill my time (when I’m not on vacation) I’m dreaming of vacations I want to take.  I seriously have over 10 different trip ideas in my head.  Some materialize, some don’t.  Sometimes I take different versions of trips and combine.  For instance, the Mid-Atlantic trip we took in September, I had two separate trips planned 5 years ago that I combined.  I have trips to Hawaii, Iceland & Greenland, Italy, Greece, Drive to Alaska (that one has been planned for 4 years now, I just don’t have 3 weeks of vacation to burn), Key West, FL, and Yosemite, just to name a few. All planned out, I just need the time and the money. 

Yesterday and today I’ve been thinking about our end of year trip.  I don’t have the luxury of taking off in the dead of winter to some warm exotic place like some people.  That’s my busy time, I’m working weekends!  So I always plan trips during the week of Christmas and New Year’s (and let’s not forget my birthday too).  I didn’t always have this tradition.  It really started the year after my dad died.  I know it probably sounds silly, but I don’t want to be around here on my birthday because I associate it with that horrible time.  The last 5 years I’ve been to Mexico, Texas, Vegas, Switzerland and Los Angeles on my birthday. 

So what place I’m I thinking about this year????  Are you dying to know???   Well it is an island in the Caribbean.  They speak English and they have a famous bobsled team.  If you still don’t know, the answer is below.  We will see if it actually happens but that is my No. 1 contender.  I’ve done the research and strangely it is the cheapest if we leave on Christmas Day and come back on New Year’s Day.  I searched all the days around it and the flights are $200 cheap on those specific days.  Weird.  I looked at 4 day hotel/flight packages and they were $400 more than the 7 day package!  Isn’t that crazy?  $400 more for 3 less days!  Sorry family, we are ditching you on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve for the tropics.

In other news, I ran 3.5 miles the other night.  I didn’t really want to.  I got distracted when I was running and realized I was 2 miles into my out and back run.  I could have walked the 2 miles back but I decided it was faster to run. So I ran most of it.  It felt good.  I can’t believe I did that. 

Yesterday we had happy hour at work. It was supposed to start at 3pm.  At 2pm, my director said let’s go!  That was great!  It was such a beautiful day to sit outside in the sun and enjoy a Leinenkugel’s beer.

By the way, the place I want to go for my birthday is Jamaica.

Seven Mile Beach, Negril, Jamaica

Well it has only been two full days since my last blog but boy has it been busy! 

Eric is working like a dog refereeing soccer.  He had a game Sunday (but it got rained out) and Monday. He has one tonight and tomorrow night and 3 days next week already.  Woo Hoo MONEY!  I’m such a mean wife, he works so hard and I take his money.  But it is our vacation fund.  He will enjoy it in June.

I made money too!  While I was cleaning the house on Sunday I decided to sell some of my old stuff on Craigslist.  I listed my Nikon Camera that I like but didn’t use for very long.  Within two hours I had sold it!  The girl who bought loves it. I met her and her mom to exchange the goods Monday night.  That was a quick and easy $75. I could have probably gotten a lot more for it, but I sold it quickly to somebody that will love it more than me and it isn’t sitting on my shelf anymore so I’m happy.  I wonder what else I could sell…hum…

Last night we went to the Twins game.  Surprisingly Twins Win!  On a funny note, Eric and I both work in downtown Minneapolis. So he parked by my building before the game and I meet him in the lobby.  As we started walking to the stadium he asked if I had the tickets...DAMNIT!  Morning checklist: Jeans…check, jersey…check, baseball cap…check.  I guess I better add tickets to that list.  Stupid me! So we had to get back in the car, pay $6 for 15 minutes of parking and drive home (25 miles) in rush hour traffic to get the tickets.  It took us an hour! Turned around and drove back downtown in Twins traffic.  We were running late for the game so we parked across the street from the stadium...$13.  It was an expensive night before we even got into the stadium!  Oh well, we laughed about it.  You know where my camera cash went, don't ya! LOL!   Good thing they won!

The pitcher last night was Scott Diamond (get the Post Title now…haha).  He came up from our Class AAA Rochester, NY where he has had a great year.  Last year he went 5-19 with 30 combined starts for Class AAA Rochester!  It was a well pitched game.  And we also got another great player from Class AAA Rochester, Brian Dozier.  He looked like a veteran last night with some of the plays he made at shortstop.  He was fun to watch. Hopefully this is the turning around point for the Twins.  I hope so, otherwise it will be a painful rest of the season.

We finally filed our 10-Q on Wednesday.  Wow was that a long, crazy day.  It was pretty horrible but we are done for another quarter. We also finished our year end stuff on Wednesday too.  So now I can look forward to vacation!!  Speaking of vacation, I requested another half day in May and my boss’ response was “Are you working any days in May?” and then she chuckles.  After the last 4 months at work, especially the last 3 weeks, I REALLY can’t wait for vacation.
  

Also on Wednesday, DJ and Beth visited on Wednesday.  Abbie had attended a concert at the Varsity Club in Dinkytown (near the U of M) and DJ was the chauffeur.   Per Beth’s request, we had Chinese for dinner.

Eric had his first soccer games of the season on Thursday.  I meet Mom and her crazy sisters Bev, Grace and Alice at Mystic Lake for dinner. It was nice to see them all again. It has been ages since I’ve seen Alice.  They didn’t win but they had fun.  I had to run to band practice after that.  Only 3 more rehearsals for the season and then it is the summer concerts.

Friday I went with Greg, Celeste and Evelyn to get our flowers that we planted a few weeks back. They look nice but I thought they would look better than they actually do.  We also went to Quizno’s for dinner.  Yum, I love Quiznos.  That makes it official. I ate out every night this week.  I’m so bad!

Yesterday, Eric and I went to the Zoo.  It was another gray and cloudy day with storms in the west but we managed to see the whole zoo before the rain set in.  Nothing too exciting at the zoo, the animals were not as active as they were a couple weeks ago. 

Today has been a cleaning and planting day.  Eric went to the Avengers movie; I went to Lowes and bought a lot of flowers.  I actually bought too many flowers.  Oh well I found place for them.  They look great.  I also cleaned the garage.  It is so nice again. And I put away the winter stuff.  Space Saver bags are my friends…fill the bag with coats, scarfs, gloves, and hats and vacuum it up. It becomes really small and flat.  Sweet!

Swirl is having a great week.  The weather has been nice enough so that the windows can be open. The birds have been going nuts outside our window and Swirl is crouching down and then pounces on at the window.  It is quite funny to watch.  He wiggles his butt and tail, crouches down and then springs into action.  Hence the title…it’s a play on words from the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” I’ve never seen the movie but it seemed like a fitting description of Swirl’s actions.

My life is really not that exciting.  I don’t really have much to write about it.  Since I last wrote, I had band practice Thursday night. I am a band geek. Friday I worked late (again) and crashed on the couch and watch TV.  Saturday I woke up really early (of course I did, I could sleep in) so I went to the donut shop (because Eric was good and deserved donuts) and grocery shopping. It was freezing and sleeting.  Not a good start to the day.  It was April 28th it should have been warmer!  After that, I came home and brought Eric breakfast in bed (apple fritter and milk).  He got up and we went on our way to Independence.  We had to stop in Burnsville first so Eric could get a haircut.  He likes to look spiffy for my mom. 

We got to Independence by 1pm.  We were there all of 15 minutes before we got in the car and headed to La Crosse to see Nancy and to go shopping.  We need to get a cord for her computer monitor and I need to pick up some accessories for my new camera (which I LOVE!).  We stopped at Nancy’s and went to Pizza Corral for dinner.  Very good pizza!  On our way home we stopped at Tamarack Bar for a drink.  Becky was working and Mike was there.  And then we came home just in time for Mollie B’s Polka Party. As I said before, tradition at Mom’s house.

Sunday was my Godparents, Ed and Shirley Suchla’s 50th Anniversary Party.  We went to 10:30am Mass were they had a blessing and then we went to party.  It was a small affair.  It was so nice to see their kids again.  Todd was up from Florida with his girlfriend.  Tim was up from New Mexico with his girlfriend.  His two daughters were also there.  Teri was there with her family, she has 4 kids now.  Wow! 

After the party Eric and I took the long way home again.  This time we went via Hwy 10 through Mondovi, Durand and Prescott and every other small town in between.  It was a nice drive but very slow!

This week has started out kind of busy at work.  Yesterday I managed to go for another run. I’m getting slower, not faster!  Oh well, at least I did it.  Tonight my volleyball team is getting together for dinner. Yum!

The Wild Bunch!