Hurricane Anyone?

The past few days have had me laughing a lot (of course, I have also been screaming a lot at work so maybe it all balances out). We are undergoing some process changes at work to work more efficiently together and to provide better customer service. Of course, with all changes, there is an adjustment period. "Hurricane Amy" has come through several times lately, but I think we are improving. :)

Mike was a sweetie and got me a "Volunteer Parking" sign to hang in the garage where I park my car. He also got a Vol lightswitch cover. To top that, he even bought my brother Mark the same thing in University of Georgia flavor. Anyway, he was holding up the lightswitch in the Tennessee bathroom (yes, I have an orange colored Tennessee bathroom and love it!), and he realized that the switch in there has two switches and the plate only has one. So, he asked if I would want to hang it near the kitchen. I was surprised, so I said, "Are you sure you would want it where it is so visable?" Mike said, "Orange is the new white. I am so used to orange that I don't even notice it any more." I thought that was so funny. The things spouses get used to being around. :)

Another thing that is funny to me is that Mike and I are silly about certain things, and I think it is all because we have been divorced before. For example, we still pack our Christmas ornaments in different boxes. It cracks me up. I still remember dividing up the Christmas ornaments and how painful that was. We also still have our own silverware container. Now, this one is probably because we have a lot of silverware, and we have started to co-mingle it a bit lately. We have our own bank accounts and deposit money into a joint account to pay bills, groceries, and joint things. Kind of funny when I think of it just because I think it is so different than when you get married the first time.

Yesterday, we were watching the Florida primary results, and Morgan saw the results on the screen. Of course, she didn't really understand what was going on. She saw that Hillary Clinton was winning by a lot, and she got this panicked look on her face. I thought she was going to cry as she said, "Oh no Mom, does that mean that Hillary Clinton is now the president?" I couldn't help but laugh as she is definitely my daughter! :) I explained to her that hopefully this will not be indicative of the results in November. :) It made me laugh about when she told her first grade friends that they should get their parents to vote for Bush because voting for Kerry meant less toys for the kids. We had talked about the election the night before, and I had tried to explain that I thought our taxes would go up if Kerry was elected. She asked what that meant, and I told her that higher taxes meant less money in my paycheck. So, she told her friends that he would mean less toys for kids. Her teacher was not amused. :)

My mom is coming into town tomorrow to take care of Morgan while Mike and I go to Mardi Gras. Mike has never been to MG, and I haven't been in years and years. I was laughing recently because Morgan wanted to know why I was cleaning up the house before my mom came to visit. She said that she doesn't clean up for me. HA. I told her that maybe she should try it sometime. :)

I will try to do some mobile posts from Mardi Gras. I have been thinking about the last time I went to MG when we had a bunch of people all stay in one hotel room. I remember how beads were almost like money. I met a judge last time when I went, and he said that he and his wife and girls (probably my age or older) go every year. He said that he sees all of that crazy stuff in the court room all year long, and he goes to Mardi Gras to let it all go. :) I remember leaving the hotel with 20 people holding on to each other, and then realizing that a short block or two along that we were no longer together. I remember a friend of mine sitting down to talk to some homeless people, and we tried to convince him not to stay there alone. He didn't listen, and he ended up getting robbed. I also think of my grandfather, Paw-Paw, who celebrated his 90th birthday in New Orleans. We ate at Commander's Palace, and he wore a chef's hat that he adored. Ahhh....New Orleans. I am excited about going again. I can't wait to see what Mike thinks. I also can't wait to have a hurricane. It appears that each one is about 6 points. However, I think my flex points will probably be gone by Friday at midnight. So, I will just have to enjoy it and get right back on track when I return.

Double 1st Place!

Morgan's Mini and Youth cheer teams competed at Jamfest today in Tampa. The Florida Wildcats were rocking the house and started the day with 4 first place victories!!!!!!!! The juniors, who are usually the BOMB, had a rough day and got 3rd. I am not sure how the seniors did because sickly Morgan was ready to go home (and so was Mom).

Mike went and picked up Katie so that she could watch Morgan's cheer competition. For some reason, Dana thinks cheerleading is awful, and she was giving Mike a hard time about Katie going. She said that she didn't want Katie to be exposed to cheerleading as they "go around naked with too much make-up." I totally don't understand this. For one thing, Katie does Baton, and they walk around in a leotard only which shows much more to me than Morgan's cheer outfit. It is a short skirt I guess, but they were bloomer shorts under it. It does show some belly, but it is definitely less than a bikini which Dana seems to be fine with. Hmmm...Morgan exercises 13 hours a week by tumbling, stunting, dancing, and running. How exactly is that bad? Maybe she missed that lesson that says that people should exercise?

Fever, Bucket List

On Friday, Morgan called me at work from the gym and said that her head was hurting really badly and wanted me to come get her. Since this was an extra practice before the competition on Sunday, I wasn't sure what to do. So, I went to the gym, and Morgan said she could make it. So, I wasn't that worried. Then, she didn't seem to be feeling well that night, but it was too late to go to an urgent care. Saturday morning, she was pitiful. Off to the doctor we went. Even after Advil and drinking cold gatorade, her fever was still 102.

The doctor gave her a shot of Rocephin (even though she didn't think a BOY should give her a shot). :) She got Amoxicillan and some cough syrup. Of course, the cheer competition is tomorrow. The boys wanted to see a movie, and it seemed like a good calm activity for Morgan. So, off we went to the Bucket List. It was a great movie. I really liked the ideas behind it, the humor, the depth of the relationship. It was very good. Morgan, however, was not so fond of it. :)During the movie, my phone rang, and I was shocked as I had turned the ringer off. Sometimes, the change to my volume doesn't work if you close the phone too quickly after you change it. I guess that is what happened. Anyway, I am frantically tyring to get "Low" to stop playing in the movie. I don't even think anything of it until we are on the way home. I call Denise back, and she reminds me that I was supposed to be at her house 30 minutes before to go to a party. OOPS. So, Mike drops me off at her house, and I go to the "girls" party. The person doing the party didn't show up though, so we just hung out. It was still fun.

Haircut

Morgan decided to get her haircut. Of course, she had her hair like this about 2 years ago. She wanted to grow it long because the cheer girls had it long. I still remember the day that she got it cut before her first cheer competition ever. I got them worst looks from the cheer moms. How could I?? So, it is very funny to me that she wanted it cut back the way it was after 2 years of growing it. Of course, Morgan said that it is the new style. I think it turned out perfectly! I love it.

Teeth and Online Games

It has been an interesting few days. First, Morgan had one of her 12 year molars come in 2.5 years early. It came in before the first molar next to it. It came in on top of her poor baby tooth who was not ready to leave yet. The baby tooth still had at least one full root, but one side did not have a root. So, the adult tooth was coming in and turning because it was pushing on the baby tooth. Her dentist pulled it, and then said that it looked like it was starting to get infected. ICK. Poor Morgan. For some reason, they had to give her a ton of anesthesia. It just didn't want to get numb. Her dentist doesn't use gas. I was surprised. I have always thought the gas makes it so much better, especially for kids. She said that kids don't breath deeply enough for it to really help.

The visit reminded me of when I had a loose tooth as a child. While I did have some teeth that had to be pulled due to overcrowding, on one visit, I just had a loose tooth that I wanted to get rid of (maybe I wanted the tooth fairy money or something). Anyway, I asked the dentist to pull it. So, he used gas and pulled it, and then they gave my mom a bill. Let's just say that Grams was NOT happy.

I also found out on Friday that I am apparently blocked from sending emails to people at Misys. For some reason, this just cracks me up. Of course, I usually wouldn't email anyone there anyway as I would use personal email or IM to keep in touch. In this case, there was a super bowl pool going, and I just replied to the email with my number preferences. However, the email didn't make it. So, I tried again several days later (not realizing the issue), and it still didn't make it. So, I sent my preferences using IM laughing hysterically. I don't know why I think it is so funny, but I do. I guess it is just funny that someone actually took the time to block the address. :)

I am continually amazed at the Webkinz and Club Penguin games. How many Webkinz does a child really need? Morgan and Katie are constantly getting more of them whenever they have money (most Christmas money they got has gone to buying more of them). My children spend tons of money on these things and seem to never tire of them. Now, they are all into Virtual Villager as well. It is a game where children are all alone with no parents, and you build a society. You train people for jobs such as a healer or a teacher, and they mate and have more children. You grow food and get technology points. The kids love it. We got it at Target. Now, Morgan wants a cheerleading game. Does anyone know of a good one?

The kids are out of school tomorrow for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Lovely. My friend Lisa sent me this link. I think these are hysterical and should be a required present for anyone getting a divorce!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=xs_gb_2_center-2_rw_uk_17551?ie=UTF8&docId=1000187581&pf_rd_p=268944301&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=701&pf_rd_i=2&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=07CMS0KWKT5F3KYXBWMH

Warpath and 5500 Cigs not smoked!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been on the warpath at work this week. I am not really sure what exactly started it, but it just seems that there is a high degree of slacking going on. There aren't really a lot of things that set me off but there are some like slacking, lack of customer service, saying bad things about fellow employees, and generally bad attitude. So, I guess I hit my tipping point with these this week. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday. :)

Today, I hit 5500 cigarettes not smoked. I still can't believe it. For some reason, this stupid counter says I have only saved 19 days. I still don't know how that is possible - seems like it should be more. I will say that I can still tell that my lungs are paying the price when I exercise. I am thankful that they have had over 7 months to recover. :)

Last night, I was yelling at Morgan for not doing her homework in time. It was a LONG night. This morning, she hands me an essay she wrote for school called, "Why I like my Mom." Talk about GUILT. Man, they really know how to get you.

Ohhh, My Aching....

I think it might be easier to count the places that don't hurt than to list the ones that do. Between skating and falling, I am feeling the pain. I think I need to go skating more often. I saw a shirt on a guy at the gym the other day that said, "Pain is weakness leaving the body." I loved that shirt, and I have thought of it several times since then.

I was planning on doing some weights at lunch, but I chickened out. I just can't seem to get motivated for the weights. BORING. Ok, Ok, I will try to go tomorrow. :) However, I did finally get brave enough to go to Take...the First Step which is a Women's walking/running group. I have been wanting to go since early December when I got sick. So, I finally went. It was so much fun! There were other women there walking and some running. We did 100 meters "easy", 100 meters fast, 200 meters "easy", 200 meters fast, 300 meters "Easy", 300 meters fast, 400 meters "Easy", 400 meters fast and then we went back down with 300/300, 200/200, 100/100. It was really fun and the time went really fast. The goal was the make the second part faster than the first. I am really glad I went even though I am SORE!

Skating Sunday

Morgan's friend Alexis had a birthday party at a skating rink today. I have only been skating once since Jr. High and yesterday. Mara convinced me to skate, and I am SO glad that she did. I had a blast! I think I went around more times than Morgan. I figured it was good exercise, and it was fun (I am still surprised). I did fall twice. Once, I was getting up from a bench, and my feet went out from under me. I bounced on the bench and then landed on the floor. Morgan thought that was hysterical. She was laughing about it all day. The other time, my skate kind of stuck to something on the floor, and I didn't recover fast enough. I fell on my knees. Ouch. I am definitely going to feel that tomorrow! According to my Polar watch, I burned 576 calories skating though. WOO HOO!

I was so bummed that my boy Peyton lost. If the Titans and Tampa weren't in it, then I wanted Peyton to at least make it. Now, I am at a complete loss (the other Manning went to Ole Miss which makes it against my biological history to cheer for).

Nice Saturday

Wow, today was a great day. Slept in until 10, only had kidney stone issues for a short portion of the day, went for a walk/run, ate some flex points, watched play-off games, watched Morgan play with some friends. Ahh....Saturday. What a glorious day. My favorite day of the week.

I was just reading Roni's Weight Watchen pages (I was a little behind), and I noticed that she is having a contest that involves my favorite popcorn! I guess I missed it for January, but it says they are doing it monthly so I hope this counts. So, I have already written about how fantastic the Buttery Salt and Black Pepper popcorn by Orville Redenbacher is, so I guess I just have to link to Roni's site and to Orville's site. I really like Roni's site.

I did make it 3.1 miles again today, and I shaved 1 minute off my total time this week - still a snail but getting faster. I really like the bimactive program on my cell. It gives me encouragement every quarter of a mile. :) I love seeing the analysis of it after the run. :) Very inspirational. It even shows graphs of your speed over time, and it keeps a running odometer for the week, month, and year by activity! I honestly need to get a move on as I only have 6.2 miles walk/running and 3.1 biking. I don't have swimming there as my phone can't go in the water.

Thoughts on a Friday

Ok, this has got to be the funniest football funny ever. I laughed so hard, and I even made it my wallpaper. :) If you can't see it well, just double-click it to open it larger. It is too funny. SEC! SEC!

Now, on to my next topic. Lean Cuisine French Bread Pepperoni Pizzas. They are not quite as good as the black pepper popcorn, but they are close. I love pizza, and these give me the closest feeling to "normal" pizza of anything. They are really good. I am not sure how much different they are in calories and fat that normal french bread pizzas, but it is only 290 calories and 8 grams of fat. It is surprisingly filling and so yummy. It doesn't taste or feel like diet food. The Margherita Pizza by Lean Cuisine is also pretty good.

Blended families are challenging. Of course, I love Mike, and I love the kids. I am thankful that the kids get along so well. However, I will say that it has to be one of the most challenging situations that there can be. As if families aren't challenging enough, when you add different beliefs, different pasts, different rules, and add the fact that they are with you some of the time and with another whole belief system some of the time, it is interesting. For example, you might feel that you can make a difference, but then the child goes to the other house and gets a totally different outlook on things.

Lastly, I am realizing day after day how much the right organization helps productivity, morale,and efficiency. With the same people, the right structure really makes a difference. Also, I think having a strong leader makes a big difference more because they will enforce processes than anything else. If you give detailed instructions and goals, I think most people will try really hard to do a good job. If you just say to work hard, they will do something but not necessarily strive for the best.

5000 Hits!

My blog has over 5,000 hits now. I have to say that I have really enjoyed the blog. Not that it has anything that exciting on it, but it is good to write about life, document the funny things, and post pictures. I love reading friends' blogs because it is fun to keep up with everyone and the changes. The biggest thing that has been fun to me is the statcounter. I put the statcounter on back in September I think, and it tells you areas that your visitors come from, the top searches used to find your site, and even the operating systems and browsers used most often. The top things I have laughed about in the stats.

1. I have had visitors in over 20 different countries and almost every state (Florida, California, and North Carolina have the most visitors)
2. The top things that people search for and come to my blog are kidney stones and stents (by far the number one search), quiting smoking, Misys (and Misys sucks - which of course I don't think I have ever said but my blog has Misys and the word sucks), Amy Gleason, couch to 5k, and Bond Clinician. I think that is pretty interesting.
3. The majority of people use 1280X1024 as their resolution.
4. People use IE7 10 times more than IE6 (at least in my visitors)
5. People use XP 35 times more than Vista (at least in my visitors)

I guess I never thought that my ramblings on life could provide so much information. I hope that people with kidney stones have found some information or at least the knowledge that someone else out there has been there. I hope that people quitting smoking or losing weight have gotten some strength from reading my experience as most people who know me thought I would smoke forever and that me running a 5k was less likely that me winning a million dollars. :) For those searching for Misys, it appears that most of you are trying to find someone you worked with or trying to find some dirt on the company (or as Histalk so eloquently said maybe you are taking the highway over Misys MyWay - that one cracked me up).

Chris did have a fracture in his fibula. Bummer. He is in a boot for 3 weeks to start. Mike took him to Shriner's, and I think he was as impressed with them as I was. They really do a great job there. Morgan's toes are still sore, but she survived the second day of cheer this week. :)

So, for my new thoughts, I decided that I will comment on my favorite weight loss snack - popcorn. Now, I have tried just about all kinds of popcorn in my day. I have always loved popcorn, and we used to make it in the pan, as jiffy pop, in the electric poppers with the yellow top, in air poppers, in containers you put in the microwave, in brown paper lunch bags, and in real microwave bags. I worked in a Carmike Cinema for years, and we used to experiment with the popcorn trying to make it bright yellow, pale yellow, white, and many other variations. So, I would say I am a pretty good judge of popcorn.

Back in October when I was starting Weight Watchers, I was in Publix and walked passed the sample stand. They had popcorn! I had to stop and see what they had. It was Orville Redenbacher's Natural Buttery Salt and Black Pepper Popcorn. It comes in a mini bag, and it is so good. Each bag is 2 Weight Watchers points and it is very flavorful and filling. I have at least one bag a day and have for the most part since late October. It has really been a valuable weight loss tool. I think the people at the office tell time by my popcorn popping. :) As this popcorn has become very popular, it is difficult to find. So, I have tried many other types. I have tried the simply salt variety of Orville Redenbacher's Naturals. It is very good, but it only comes in the big bags (not mini) so each bag is more like 8 points. Ick. Orville Redenbacher's 100 calorie bags are MUCH better than Pop Secret and Newman's. So, for microwave, I have to give it to the black pepper popcorn HANDS DOWN. I do also pop popcorn in the Presto Microwave Popcorn Popper (also Orville...hmmm... I see a trend here), and I use Pam, popcorn, and some salt. 4 cups of this is only 1 point. YUM...:) What kind of popcorn do you like?

School Starts Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hallelujah!!! Christmas vacation is over!! School is back in session tomorrow. While it has been probably the best Christmas vacation I have had in many years, I am still very happy to put the kids back in school and to return to some normal days. That started today with Cheer resuming. Morgan had mini practice tonight where she limped through due to her toes hurting. It was only a little over two weeks, but it felt like longer. When you go somewhere every day, I guess two weeks seems longer. :)

I tried to get Chris into an Orthopedic today, but I didn't have any luck. He had been seen at Children's Healtcare of Atlanta, and they don't open until 11 for me to get the fax of the X-ray report. I called yesterday, but they wouldn't fax the report to me a lowly parent. The cited HIPAA as their excuse which is a bunch of bunk in my book. I think people just like to use HIPAA as an excuse. For some reason, she couldn't fax it to me, but when I called back and gave the Shriner's hospital fax it was fine. Now, how did she know that was Shriner's?? I could have given her my fax number, right? Bunk, I say. Bunk. For that matter, I didn't even have to give her a release or anything. Usually, you have to at least complete a form and sign it. Oh well. Back to the adventure today. So, I called 3 other offices, but they said he would need a referral from the insurance before they could see him. Of course, that would result in another visit and would reduce the time available to be seen. I thought we were going to make it at Shriner's, but they had to have the X-ray report in order to schedule him. So, they finally got that from those dorks in Atlanta at 11:10. Unfortunately, their clinic wasn't open in the afternoon. So, they did get him scheduled for 8:45 in the morning. :) I am glad that Chris will be seen by the great docs at Shriner's. I was really impressed with them when Morgan went there.

We had an e-prescribing seminar today for our providers. As much as providers talk about wanting to e-prescribe, I am not sure that they really do. We had only 30% of the registered providers "show" for the webinar. I am sure some of them didn't attend due to emergencies, but some probably forgot and some probably just weren't that interested. I think e-Rx is HOT, but it would be a lot hotter if scheduled drugs were included.

Well, I am off to the land of school starting back dreams. Today, my official weigh-in showed total loss of 30.5 pounds to date in just over 3 months. Woo Hoo! Go Amy, Go Amy, Go Amy...:)

The National Championship Game is on now. I am surprised at how it is going so far. Of course, I have to pull for the SEC even though I am not sure that it isn't harder for me to pull for LSU than it is to pull for Florida. I do feel badly for Dr. A who is the only Ohio State University (I refuse to put the The at the beginning) person I have EVER liked. :)

Biggest Loser Saturday

I was inspired by the Biggest Loser show this week. Supposedly, they exercise like 6 hours a day or something crazy like that. I needed to get back into my jogging/walking, and Morgan was still with Grams and Papa. Mike was off driving to get the kids in Valdosta, so I was all by myself which is very rare. So, I decided to have Biggest Loser Saturday. I jogged/walked a 5k, biked a 5k, swam 1/2 mile, and lifted weights. Woo Hoo! According to my Polar watch, it was well over 1000 calories burned through exercise. While it was not 6 hours worth of straight exercise, it was a lot more than I normally do.

I went to LA Fitness with Mark to see what I thought of it. I currently have a membership to Lifestyle Fitness which i actually bought mainly for the step aerobics classes. As I have gotten into the running/jogging stuff, I haven't done those as much. Unfortunately, the guy at LA Fitness was not so nice when I said that I didn't want to pay an enrollment fee. I think paying an enrollment fee AND the first month AND the last month is crazy. 2 of the 3 seems ok but all 3 is just over the top to me. I am torn because I really liked the personal trainer I had as my "free trainng sessions" at Lifestyle, and I would like to start working with a trainer. Also, you can't get any closer to my office than Lifestyle. However, LA Fitness is actually cheaper AND has a swimming pool (and is generally nicer and larger). Decisions, decisions.

Goals for 2008
1. Lose 50 pounds (for a total of 80 lost)
2. Start resistance trainng
3. Run a 5k in less than 40 minutes

Looking great in 08!

TGIF and Bowling

Woo Hoo! Friday! For a short week, I was very happy to see Friday. :) Work was very busy. Managing client expectations is difficult but I think we have made a ton of progress in the year. I am excited about 2008 and all it will bring. Remember the motto is Looking Great in 08!

After work, I went to happy hour (Morgan is still with Grams and Papa). It was so nice to be able to hang with friends. With my new choices, I did a fabulous job of moderation. I had 3 drinks all night (Bacardi and Diet coke - 2 points). We went bowling after happy hour. I hadn't been bowling in YEARS. We wanted Abhijeet to get to go since he had played it on the wii but not in real life. We bowled three games, and I won 2 of the 3. I am pretty sure Mike wishes he could go back to the day where he picked on my Wii bowling score to tell me that it wasn't really a good score in real bowling and how he kept telling me I needed a reality dose. He did beat me in the last game though by 16 pins. My high score (a whopping 123) was higher than his high score (119), so I am declaring myself the champion. :) I think Abhijeet had fun, Tony had fun, Mike had fun, and we even met a very cool couple who just moved here from Georgia. John from their group bowled EIGHT (yes, that is 8) strikes in a row!!!!!!!!! Amazing. Now, that my friends is a great score in real life bowling!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to everyone! We had a fantastic time in Nashville with the kids and my parents. Grams and Papa ROCK!! We flew out early in the morning of the 26th, and we quickly adapted to "Grams World" which entitles you to desert after lunch! (Chris was amazed at desert after lunch!). We had taco soup, honey baked ham, Ho Ho Pie (Uncle Mark's fav - sorry Mark!), and peanut butter/chocolate fudge (Amy's personal fav). We had a great time playing with the Wii. Thursday, Mike went to visit a client, and we all went to see the Parthenon in Nashville (Athens of the South) and drove around downtown. We were trying to decide whether to continue driving, and Chris said, "We can always look it up on Google Earth which is just as good." The Parthenon is amazing to see, and I hadn't been there in a long time. The Athena statue inside was pretty amazing. It is 41 feet tall! On Friday, we made Christmas cookies and saw a movie (the girls saw Water Horse and the boys saw I am Legend). Water Horse was really cute. That night, we went to dinner at a Mexican place.

Saturday, we hung out, played Wii, and had a great time. Mississippi State played UCF anbd won!! Woo Hoo! Go SEC! Sunday, we all went to Opryland Hotel to view the Christmas decorations. Well, that was the goal anyway. The boys wanted to go see Ice (thankfully I didn't go as even Mike was cold in there!). While Mike, Chris, and Michael went to see Ice, Grams, Papa, Morgan, Katie, and I went to the mall. The girls were drawn to every webkinz and little kinz that was in the mall, and their Christmas money was burning holes in their pockets. Grams bought them one webkinz (they were only 12.99 for a Big kinz and 9.99 for a Little Kinz which is a DEAL), but they then proceeded to get many more. We finally convinced them to stop buying them. After arriving home, Mike, Chris, and I went to Best Buy with a detour through Macy's (poor Chris was so patient in getting to Best Buy). We found TravelPro suitcases for $59 AND we had a coupon for 15% off! What a deal.

Monday, Mike drove the kids to Dalton where their uncle picked them up. Morgan, Grams, and I went shopping. :) Then, my first boss called, and I went to see him. It was wonderful to catch up with him and to see his wife and son. He was a great mentor to me and certainly kept me out of a lot of trouble. That night, we went to dinner at Pie in the Sky Pizza. Ahhhh....pizza. I love pizza. Then, Mike and I went downtown for New Year's Eve. We planned to go to Tootsie's, but you had to have a reservation before 10. So, we went to Legend's. The band was fun, and I was amazed that it was non-smoking. Apparently, Tennessee passed a non-smoking ordinance, but then they left it optional (seems like it was already optional so that seems weird). Anyway, Legend's is now smoke-free. Odd. The Kentucky fans were there after the game, and they kept saying C-A-T-S, Cats, Cats, Cats as a cheer. It was cute, but the bands didn't play Rocky Top like they usually do because the Kentucky people were booing. I did meet a couple from Land O Lakes. Too funny.

Mike and I were about to leave, and my friend Street called. We love Street, and it was so great to see him and Breezy. We went back to Tootsie's. Finally, we left and had to do the traditional drive through White Castle on the way home. Unfortunately, I apparently had too much to drink and was hungover ALLLLLLLLL day on Tuesday. I also didn't realize that the Outback Bowl started at 10 Central instead of 11, so I was showering when it began. My Vols pulled it out (FINALLY won a bowl game again) and did their part for the SEC (7-2 so far proving that the SEC is best). I barely survived enough to watch the first half of the Georgia-Hawaii game (man did Georgia dominate that one - SEC, SEC, SEC!).

Wednesday was a good day back at work. Mike and I watched Biggest Loser. I felt bad for the girl in the green team. Her dad didn't want to be there, and she did. She worked SO hard, but she had the lowest weight loss of the girls. I don't like the purple girls. They are annoying, so I would rather them go home. Mike and I tried the new Zumba CD's I got for Christmas. I really like it! It will take me a while to get all of the moves down, but most of it is pretty straightforward. I gained 3 pounds in Nashville, but I lost it all already in 1 day - must have been mainly water. I think I am finally over my chest cold, so hopefully I can get back into my running this week.

Happy New Year - Looking Great in 08!