I’ve been swamped at work, and not interested in a computer when I come home. Unfortunately, for about the last two weeks (and some of this week), I’ve had to bring work home, and do work stuff and not fun stuff on the computer at night. On the plus side, the system I was helping out went live this weekend, with one minor snafu related to DNS and the problem related later. So work should go back to being a bit more “normal” and me not being run ragged. Basically, I’ve had to ignore other clients during the day and work on their stuff at night. I’m going to be *so* glad when this contract is over!

I wrote the details about the DNS snafu here, so you can go read it for the details, but basically someone *cough* marketing *cough* switched registrars without telling anyone and without understanding all of the moving parts. Now, somehow, since I figured out what happened (it wasn’t hard if you know how to use whois) I can somehow magically fix it. Nevermind the fact that I’ve only been involved in about 3 DNS entries, and I really have no clue about what other entries should be there, and nevermind that I have other clients that I’ve been ignoring while I was testing and debugging their system before go-live. It’s now officially their week to be ignored. Luckily, they don’t have my cell phone, and I have no intentions of ever giving it to them. However, they do have the home phone since I’ve worked form home for them a few times – Luckily on that end, I have VoIP, and all the numbers I wish to ignore have been forwarded to “the Manhole”, a gay sex line. I don’t have to worry about being called at home by them

Before this turns into a rant on terrible managers (that’s for the next post), I also wanted to mention that Brian bought a bike this weekend, and we’re going out riding. Unfortunately, our out of shape sit bones can’t handle much more than 2-3 miles, and we’re pretty pathetic. We will likely be out riding on the Mt Vernon trail this weekend if anyone’s interested in joining us. I can carry up to three bikes on my car (one in the backseat – mine) and two on the trunk rack, but if you have your own way of getting there, that’s better We don’t know when yet, but the only other plans are dinner for restaurant week at 7pm.

We’ve both (well mostly me) also been doing the One Hundred Pushups “challenge”. I’m doing girly pushups, but I’m up to week three, and I can definitely do more now (26) than I could when I started (12). Brian’s trying for “regular” pushups, but isn’t as consistent.

Also, I’m trying the Galloway training program on Active Trainer to be able to run a 5K in under 38 minutes (12:00 minute per mile pace). I eventually would like to run a half marathon or marathon, but to even register for the local ones, I have to be able to run at a 12 min/mile pace – which I can’t yet. I will be done with the 7 week training near the end of September, and hopefully will have found a 5K to run that weekend I am running the Kentlands 5K on the 30th, so if you want to join me at my snail pace (4mph), please do, it’s nice to have someone to talk to for 45 minutes of torture.

Finally, my birthday is the 22nd and I’ll be the “big” 3-0. Too bad we’re going to be at a wedding in Cherry Hill, NJ so I don’t get to celebrate properly. However, Brian and I have reservations for Morimoto’s in Philly on the 23rd, and we’ll celebrate then. He’s got something planned, as he’s having stuff shipped to me at the office that I’m not allowed to open. I’m really curious now…

The last two weeks have been really busy for us. First, we went to Cedar Point with everyone, and had a grand old time. We finally got to ride Maverick, which is an awesome coaster – especially in the front seat (thanks to a 95 degree first drop). It is quick and nimble and just overall fun. I called it the Italian Job on steroids.

We got our engagement pictures back, and they will eventually be posted, but Brian’s looking through them at the moment to pick out the ones we want to get printed. They look good, and there are actually some really good ones of us that we want to print for ourselves.

School is ramping up big time. I turned in my major paper for one class, and a big assignment was due last night, so I’ve been busy working on that. Luckily, there’s only one group project (not a big deal), an individual project which I’m starting on already, and a final. Then I’ll be done for this semester.

We started dance lessons last week, and we’ve started with the Fox Trot. I’ve had to be careful to not two-step since they’re pretty close to each other. Brian’s learning quickly. After two lessons, he can lead me around the floor and even make the corner turns. Next week, we’ll start with some slightly fancier things like a promenade and turns. It’s been fun. And good exercise.

On the exercise front, I’ve been running with the Fleet Feet 8K running group, tonight we’re running 4 miles. Brian joined my gym, and we’ve been going almost every night. We may not go tonight because of my running group, but we’ll definitely be going tomorrow and the rest of the week. It’s been good, and it gets both of us out of the house to exercise.

We’re still waiting for Brian’s house to sell, and we’ve basically picked out the house we’d like to make an offer on, but we can’t do it until his house is at least under contract, preferably sold. Luckily, his is the next lowest priced on the market, and the only comparable (less than his) is in horrible condition. Hopefully, we get a bite soon. The commute’s getting to him, and I certainly wouldn’t mind being closer to work and start making a home together rather than squishing into each other’s place.

It’s been a very busy few weeks. Brian’s house is on the market and he’s living with me now. We’ve been carpooling to work which makes life easier – it’s about 50/50 on who gets to drive in traffic Getting used to living together is interesting. It’s taken a bit of adjusting to habits and things. And we get to do it all over again once we move into the new house with new habits and needs. We’re both doing Weight Watchers and getting healthy home-cooked meals every night.

School has picked up, so I’ve been sticking my nose in a book most nights, and writing all kinds of essays on the weekends. I have two major papers due soon, and a group project due right after Thanksgiving (what kind of prof does that??). Grades are doing well though. I’ve already had a few assignments, including one midterm, and I’m at an A in both classes. Trying to do homework with Brian in the house has been interesting – I don’t always feel like it, and feel like I should be hanging out with him instead.

I started the 8K running group at Fleet Feet near my house, and I’m amazed I can still run 3 miles with no problems. We’re training for the Jingle Bell Jog on December 16th in Rockville. I’m looking forward to it.

We’ve found several houses we like, but we can’t really put a bid on any of them until Brian’s is at least under contract, so we’re just playing a waiting game on the house. Mine is almost ready to go on the market, but we’ll probably wait until we’ve moved into the new house before putting it on the market because of both of us living there with the cats.

The worms have become outdoor residents because of a lovely fruit fly infestation in the house. We took the worm bin outside, where it should be fine until it gets close to freezing at night, and put apple cider vinegar traps in the house. They’re finally almost all gone – after setting out traps that became full overnight. There are still a few in the house, but we’ve been keeping anything they’d lay eggs on either sealed or in the fridge, they will hopefully die off by the end of the week.

This weekend, we went to the Solar Decathlon on Saturday. Carnegie Mellon, Texas A&M and University of Maryland all had houses there this year. We were able to go into CMU’s and Maryland’s, but the A&M one was closed for judging. Maryland had this really cool Desiccant Waterfall that works as a dehumidifier. It wasn’t humid on Saturday, but I could see the usefulness of one. All of the houses also had an induction stove. I want one, and I think I talked Brian into an induction stove, some solar panels and instant-on hot water heaters to save money in the new house.

Sunday was a trip to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, with an early breakfast beforehand at Eggspectation in Silver Spring. Nice place, but I wasn’t impressed by the food. My apple juice had been carbonated at some point, and the cinnamon bun was hard and not sweet at all. The hamburger I had for lunch at the one in Chantilly was *much* better. We arrived for gate, although we didn’t see much. We saw the Rogues play and there was one young girl who was doing traditional Scottish dancing near the stage and they brought her up on stage. Both Brian and I thought she was much better than the dancer we had seen in Scotland! I bought a few CDs, some potpourri, and a glass decanter, and then Brian and I left because I had a terrible headache. I ended up sleeping in the car on the way home, and then taking a nap after a shower. Luckily, the headache was gone in time for me to enjoy dinner and some homework, before going back to sleep.

Yesterday, we met with our photographer for our engagement pictures. We met him at the Jefferson Memorial, and then walked around the grounds for a while taking pictures. It was really weird at first because we were just supposed to walk along and ignore the photographer. We stopped at a few places to “pose”, but most of the pictures were of us walking along the tidal basin. We also took a few pictures among the columns and on the steps at the memorial. We should be able to see them in 3-4 weeks and then order a few. We’ll also be getting the digital negatives, so we can post a few on the web page.

I’m joining a few friends at the Twilight Festival 4-miler on June 23 at 6:30 pm. I’ve never run 4 miles, only a 5K, but it can’t be *that* much more, can it? I run at about 15 minutes per mile – nice and slow – anyone else interested in running (or walking) with me?

Yes, I realize that I run slower than I walk, so feel free to join me and just walk We’re not allowed to have headphones, so having someone to talk to helps you ignore the fact that you’re putting your body through that

I didn’t fully run the 5K on Tuesday, walked quite a bit of the second mile. There were a lot of uphill sections, and it was in full sun. I didn’t feel like dying in the heat, so I walked most of the uphill portions after the first mile. It was entirely too hot and too humid to be enjoyable. I think I’m declaring a moratoriam on races until the fall when it’s cooler. Until then, I’m going to run in the mornings with the other ladies until it cools off.

Despite the walking, I managed to finish with a gun time of 45:07 and a chip time of 44:13 – giving me a 14:32 minute mile, an improvement over my 15 minute mile at the Run for Roses. Now to work on being able to run up and down the hills all the time.