This week my friend Phil is in town to work in my office building. He used to work here in San Diego with us, but relocated to Chicago in 2005, then relocated to Denver two years after that. We still work at the same company, but he works "virtual" from his house in Denver. He comes to the office in San Diego about a week every 3 months. So today I went out to lunch at Panda Buffet with Phil, Joanne, Yuri, and Sandra. Yuri and Sandra aren't in the photo.
A couple of funny stories about Phil. One time I wore the sweater pictured below to work:
and Phil said, "You look like you're wearing a muppet pelt." I thought it was funny so I told Todd. From then on, this sweater was dubbed as "muppet pelt sweater". Every time I wear it now, Todd says, "It's muppet pelt!"
The other funny story about Phil has to do with Gilligan's Island. Mainly because he took us on a three hour tour of San Diego Bay on a sailboat, and we ended up being gone for nine hours. We started sailing around 2 PM and went from Harbor Island to Coronado Island and docked there to have dinner. After dinner it was dark, but the winds had died down, so we weren't getting enough wind to get back to Harbor Island anytime fast. So Phil used the backup motor on the boat. Pretty soon we hear the motor sputtering, then it stopped. Uh oh. We ran out of gas! So we sailed VERY slowly to the nearest dock, while Phil called his friend who lived by the Embarcadero downtown to bring a can of gas and meet us at the dock. They put in the gas and we motored back to Harbor Island and by then it was nearly 11 PM, and we woke up all the boat's neighbors when we tried to parallel park the boat and almost hit two other boats. Every time I think of this experience I just wanna sing the theme song to Gilligan's Island:
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.
I made this layout three years ago to tease Phil about it on his birthday. Now keep in mind that I had JUST started digital scrapbooking so I havent' had that much practice yet.
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A couple of funny stories about Phil. One time I wore the sweater pictured below to work:
and Phil said, "You look like you're wearing a muppet pelt." I thought it was funny so I told Todd. From then on, this sweater was dubbed as "muppet pelt sweater". Every time I wear it now, Todd says, "It's muppet pelt!"
The other funny story about Phil has to do with Gilligan's Island. Mainly because he took us on a three hour tour of San Diego Bay on a sailboat, and we ended up being gone for nine hours. We started sailing around 2 PM and went from Harbor Island to Coronado Island and docked there to have dinner. After dinner it was dark, but the winds had died down, so we weren't getting enough wind to get back to Harbor Island anytime fast. So Phil used the backup motor on the boat. Pretty soon we hear the motor sputtering, then it stopped. Uh oh. We ran out of gas! So we sailed VERY slowly to the nearest dock, while Phil called his friend who lived by the Embarcadero downtown to bring a can of gas and meet us at the dock. They put in the gas and we motored back to Harbor Island and by then it was nearly 11 PM, and we woke up all the boat's neighbors when we tried to parallel park the boat and almost hit two other boats. Every time I think of this experience I just wanna sing the theme song to Gilligan's Island:
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.
I made this layout three years ago to tease Phil about it on his birthday. Now keep in mind that I had JUST started digital scrapbooking so I havent' had that much practice yet.
I had to go to the dentist for my six month cleaning/exam first thing in the morning today at 8:00 AM. Good thing I like my dentist, otherwise there would be no smiling at 8:00 in the morning, before coffee. I owe half my smile to my dentist, the other half to my orthodontist. I actually didn't get braces until I was an adult at 31. My teeth finally got so crooked that they were wearing unevenly, so I decided I needed them in order for my teeth to last. They actually had to pull one of my upper bicuspids to fit my teeth nice and evenly in my mouth! So, for a couple of months, I was a finance manager in a high-tech company, with braces and a big gap in my teeth. And short hair. Because I decided the gaping teeth and braces weren't ugly enough. Don't get me wrong, I think lots of people look great with short hair, I'm just not one of them. So, it comes as no surprise that I can only find one or two photos of myself during that very awkward "teenage" time at 31 years old. Even my mother-in-law was shocked to see me a couple of years later, when I got my braces off, hair grew back, and I'd lost 10 lbs. Ha ha. What can I say, I'm a late bloomer.
Todd made 
I spent a few hours doing our 2008 income tax returns today. But I told myself that I can go out for frozen yogurt after three hours of taxes. Remember that me = lab rat? Food incentives work for me?
We had salads for lunch, with leftover steak from last night:
Around 5:00 PM we headed to 
Mine:
I added a tiny little bit of sweet taro (the purple stuff) to my original tart flavor.
Look who likes froyo?
(Look who didn't do taxes and still got froyo? :)
Here's my layout for the Dare:
Full credits at the Dare site.
On a serious note, I just got an email update from my friend Barbara's husband Mike. He said Barbara is in her last days/hours now and will be going home to the Lord very soon. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2007. She's 33 and they have three young children. She's our sister in Christ and we shared with each other for many years in the same Bible study group. I'm sad, even though I know she's going to be with the Lord in heaven, where there's no pain and suffering. I'm sad because it's yet another passing of someone in which I don't understand God's purpose and intent. Please pray for Barbara's family and they go through this transition.
We decided to be a little less gluttonous this time and share a burger, salad, and fries. The place was packed! (Note the red velvet cupcakes in the background that we DIDN'T try out...)
Walking around La Jolla, we noticed these cows EVERYWHERE, all painted differently.
I came home and did some research and found out it's called 
Walking along the cove, it was gorgeousness everywhere I look. I love that I got some people in the photos so you can get a perspective of the cliffs.
There were lots of tourists everywhere, so for once I didn't feel out of place with my camera glued to my hand, LOL. Here are some wild harbor seals. They took residence here and the beach is no longer accessible by people, since these seals are federally protected.
These are basically some of my favorite colors- blue, turquoise, and green. Can you spot the seals on the rocks?
We walked over to the sea wall and got a closer-up view of the harbor seals:
More of them along the rocks:
What a perfect view!
Humans bite too?
A view of Windansea Beach:
We witnessed something hilarious. We saw these two at Burger Lounge earlier and they got their food to go. They were leisurely laying out in the sun when this clever seagull decided that he wanted some Burger Lounge too!
He tried to take their bag of food the first time and they chased him down and took it back. Then they put it BETWEEN them to deter the seagull from doing it again. The seagull wasn't deterred. He was determined to get a taste of the Burger Lounge goodness, so he kept hovering around the couple and eventually went for the bag between them again! But can you blame the seagull? After all, it was Burger Lounge food!
We ended our tour with a self-portrait at Windansea Beach.
What a beautiful day in San Diego. I'm glad we got to go out and walk around and relax a little bit. Now I'm going to go and start doing our taxes.
I woke up this morning and my right neck, shoulder, and upper back were all stiff and I had limited range of motion. So I decided to go to urgent care and get it checked out. For those outside of the U.S., urgent care is not the same as ER (Emergency Room). Urgent Care is actually for not terribly urgent illnesses/injuries, but if you can't get in to see your regular doctor, you can go to urgent care. In fact, Todd's dad (who is a medical doctor) used to own and run two urgent care centers in Ohio called "Rapid Response". (Oh the stories he has from that, LOL!)
So off I went to the Sharp Urgent Care near my house. I signed in and there was only one person in front of me. The doctor came in and checked my shoulder and back and pushed around. I described how I injured myself at Pilates class at the beginning of the month. It felt better after two weeks, but I somehow re-injured myself two days ago, again. He said I have a muscle tear and it's very common for people to feel better and DO too much, and aggravate the injury again. I described my activities and he said I need to rest it more, stretch gently, and take it easy for two weeks. So that's when I piped up tentatively with my question... "Umm... I'm training for a half-marathon... can I run? I'm supposed to run 10 miles tomorrow..." He said, "You can run that long?" At this point I perked up and said, "Yea, I'm running with a training group and I ran 14 miles last Saturday." He said, "That's impressive! But you know you use your shoulders and upper back when you run. You should cut your running in half. So you can go five or six miles tomorrow." Yay! And he said to stretch every hour, because as soon as you don't move the muscles, they stiffen up or lock up. I told him that's probably why it's the most stiff and hurt in the morning. He said yes, try gently stretching under the hot shower in the morning, and rub the area with a muscle cream like Icy Hot or Ben-Gay afterwards. He was very nice and wanted to know if I had any other concerns or questions. He said he's going to be 39 years old next month too, and that keeping active is good, and running is very good exercise. And that I should see some of the other 39 year olds coming to urgent care, LOL. He made me feel better, and I'm so glad I don't have a more serious injury. He did say that recovery takes more time as we get older. I guess I need more patience with my recovery. But as Todd can tell you, patience is not my strength! The doctor sent me on my way with prescription-strength motrin and a muscle relaxant for bedtime so I don't wake up so stiff and hurt.
The reason I'm going on and on about my urgent care visit is because I love Sharp Healthcare. It's SO not your stereotypical uncaring doctors and nurses. EVERYONE who works there pays attention to you like you're a real person. They ask questions, they ask if you have questions. They listen! And they do it all with a smile. It is SUCH an incredible difference between them and the OTHER place that we had to keep going to in 2005 when Todd had his Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension (SIH) and he had to see a neurologist. That other hospital system was cold, steril, and treated people horribly. It made Todd's illness even more stressful to me. It's such a contrast at Sharp Healthcare. I love my primary care doctor and the urgent care there. They just make being ill or injured a little less stressful, instead of more stressful. And I'm not alone in liking them... in 2007 Sharp Healthcare 
Todd really loves churros. He loves the churros at Rubios, and also at Costco. Both of them used to be $1 each, but now Rubios has increased their price to $1.25. I had a fish taco and a steak taco:
While at Rubios, I found two inspirations. First, I thought this pendant light was cool, and orange, and would look cool in our new kitchen above the peninsula:
Secondly, I thought this was good inspiration for a scrap page!
So I created this page for the 3/27 Color Match Challenge that I'm hosting at Pixel Gypsy Designs.
Full credits 
Little darling
Its been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling
It seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
And I say
Its alright
~The Beatles
Todd called our remodeling contractor today, because it is less than two weeks until demolition day and it seems like we haven't picked out all our materials yet, and I was getting worried. But according to their schedule, we are not behind, so that put our minds at ease for now. For now, LOL. I'm a worrier and a planner, so I'm sure my worries will creep back again in a few more days. You know what will probably bother me a lot when the remodeling is going on? The dust. I can't imagine how we're going to keep clean. :: sigh ::
I downloaded Blurb.com's bookmaking software "
After you've "slurped" your blog entries and photos, the blog entry titles are on the left. All you have to do is highlight a blog entry and click on the "Add To Book" button above the entries on the left, and your blog entry becomes a page in the book on the right. The above format is the default, but you can click on various formats in the upper left-hand corner, with varying number of photos and text boxes. The pages you've made appear as thumbnails on the bottom. Overall very easy! I just hope my blog can fit within the 440-page limit at the end of the year... I'd hate to have to separate it into two books. Oh and good news for my international friends... they do ship to Europe and Asia too! 
One of the senior VP's at Todd's work is leaving the company to be a CEO somewhere else, so they had a party for him today. Someone made this goodbye cupcake with a flip flop candle on it. Todd brought one home for me and it was yummy! Too bad the guy leaving is the guy who is on the Holiday Bowl committee... that means no more 
I had planned to take today off from work, but opted to take a day off later this week instead. So off to work I went, even on this beautiful cloudless day. :p
I'm been thinking about my eating habits lately. I know based on my blog it seems that I eat a lot. I do eat more than I used to two years ago. I eat when I'm happy. I eat when I'm slightly sad (but not when I'm REALLY sad or stressed). I eat when I'm socializing with people. In other words, food is just a big part of my social/psychological life. I know I can be thinner if I ate less food. (DUH.) But I would rather exercise for now. In the past when I was in my thinnest and best shape, I cut back and ate smaller portions, and I exercised probably 5-6 days a week, doing aerobics, running, weights, jazz dance, and yoga. I would sometimes even exercise twice a day, once in the morning, and once in the evening. I really WAS in good shape and I ran my fastest 5k at that time (circa 2004-2005). Being thin was a lot of HARD work! I know I'm 10-12 lbs overweight now. Even though I've been running a lot, I've also been hungry and eating a lot, so I haven't lost any weight.
Am I happy with myself and the way I look? I think I could stand to lose some fat around my gut area. I have a few pairs of cute jeans that I can't fit into anymore. They're just hanging in my closet mocking me. One of these days I'll be motivated to really try to lose weight. I'm adding weight training slowly back into my weekly routines. I'm convinced that it's not that our metabolism slows down when we get older, but it's a side-effect of losing muscle mass as we get older. So if I build up my muscles a little more, the weight will come off. This has been true in the past when I've lost fat. Isn't it weird how much we women think about our weight?
