They call me the fireman...

This was our big gift of Christmas this year. I stood in line at Toys R Us the day after thanksgiving by myself in 38 degree weather at 4am with nothing but a sweatshirt. I kept telling myself that it would be worth it on Christmas morning. What little boy wouldn't go completely nuts for this thing?? Well, apparently my little boy. He was more interested in Hazel's kitchen and she was more interested in the fire truck. It was a little disappointing, but someday he will love and appreciate it. For now, Hazel and I are enjoying rides to the mailbox and to the park.

The time has come...

I have been waiting to post this to make sure everyone received copies of their very own. I think enough time has passed that it's okay to post the video online. In case you haven't watched it enough, here it is again...

Limited or no connectivity

Has anyone else experienced the terror of recieving this message when trying to connect wirelessly? I HATE THIS MESSAGE WITH A PASSION! I am particularly sensitive to this issue today since I've spent countless hours today trying to get my loaner laptop from work to connect to my network. It is 3:00 pm and I am calling it quits. This message was one of the many reasons I got rid of my PC and switched to a Mac. It is also one of the reasons that I HATE PC'S!

In case you can't tell, I am totally at my wits end trying to resolve this issue. I have packed the stupid loaner laptop up in it's bag and already told everyone at work that I am taking a long weekend and to leave me alone. I am on the verge of throwing the stupid laptop out into the street.

To make matters worse, being that it's 3:00pm, my kids will soon awake from their naps ready to play. My house is trashed, the entire day has been wasted and I really just want to sit on the couch and watch TV for the rest of the day. I suppose a big bowl of ice cream is in order to help cheer me up before "special mommy time" is completely over for the day.

That is all...I just needed to vent.

Gingerbread House

Calvin had a great day at school today, and as a reward he and I made this gingerbread house. For the first 10 minutes he didn't even try any of the candy but that didn't last long. Once he saw me take a nibble he lost interest in decorating and wanted to eat everything. Good thing we were mostly finished by then.

I got this kit at Savemart and I have to say that it was by far the easiest kit I've ever purchased. It was $11.99 which is comparable with the Wilton one at Michael's. This one had way more candy than the Wilton one and it was so much easier to make. Our gingerbread house last year was pathetic. This one was right up Calvin's alley since it was a Snoopy Dog House and it came with candy bones. In case you can't tell from the photo, Calvin is obsessed with all things spooky so putting candy bones on the house was his favorite part.

A Night out on the Town...

Andrew and I enjoyed a lovely night out on Saturday. We attended the TriNet holiday party in Oakland. My neighbors wanted to take our picture before we left and it sort of felt like we were going to the prom. They thought we looked too darn awesome to be driving to the fancy party in a minivan so they decided that we needed to take their custom ordered BMW. They offer this quite a bit and we always say no, but this time I said yes. I mean, it was true...we needed a super cool car to go with our snazzy looking selves. The fun and excitement soon fizzled since Andrew drove like a granny all the way there and back.

In other news, the official results of my race have been posted. It turns out my time was 1 second better than I thought (20:39). For those of you who can't do math in your head as quickly as Merrill, that's a 6:33 pace for 3.15 miles. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, wait, I am...

I was feeling super bummed about not placing on Saturday, but I'm feeling better now since I realized what a competitive race it was. I estimated 100-200 people in this thing and after viewing the results there were 500 women and 300+ men. So, coming in 9th out of 500 women feels pretty good. Hopefully I can shave 30 seconds off my time for the next one!

Bah Humbug!

I just completed my first Bah Humbug run (5k) in San Ramon, CA. Here are the details:

It was 38 degrees.
I had a tummy full of sushi.
I didn't feel like death.
I improved my 5k time from 21:51 (at last month's run) to 20:40.

And all I got was this lousy ornament...



If I had run this last year with a time of 20:40 I would have gotten first place for my age group and 7th overall for women. This year, I missed out on 3rd place by 27 seconds. When I finished the race I thought that maybe I had 30 seconds of speed left in me, but I pushed as hard as I could. I guess 30 seconds of speed would have gotten me to 3rd place.

At least I made a personal improvement on my time and cut 1:11 off my time. I need to begin the hunt for another 5k or even, a 10k (gasp).