Cat, Random thoughts

Odds and ends

Edited:  I wrote this post before the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death.  Though I am a pacifist and do not wish death on anybody, I am only human and I must say I am not unhappy for the news.  And that was a fantastic speech by Obama. 

Back to our originally scheduled programming!

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Chris and I went to Sage on Friday night for drinks.  I had had a key lime martini there before and was craving it.  (I love using “had had”).  Here I am pictured with a chocolate martini, but it’s basically the same.  The key lime was good though…still not as good as the place in Chicago.

Here’s an excerpt from my old blog, a post about my trip to Chicago where I had the most awesome key lime martini:

“We met Karen for dinner and went to a really cool place called “Avec.” We shared a variety of different dishes, including a focaccia with goat cheese in it, and dates filled with sausage and wrapped in bacon. Then we went to a bar and enjoyed a large number of key lime martinis…we had been there on our last visit as well, and I have never had a key lime martini so delicious. I don’t recall the name of the place, but it’s in the meat packing district. (edited: I realized I used my credit card, so I got the name: “Fulton Lounge”)”

So I just googled the place and it evidently closed a year ago!  So I will NEVER have that most delicious key lime martini ever again.  Hmmm…does it exist now only in my memory?  Avec is still awesome though.  I hope to go back this summer.

Okay.  So that was Friday.  Saturday I played two weddings and hit up Frazer’s.  I went with my friend Melissa and then some other friends joined us later.  It was great.  I mentioned it in this post also.

Sunday—beautiful run around Forest Park with Jen.  5.5 miles.  I need to rebuild the callus that got removed during a pedicure, because my foot was killing me.  It’ll grow back, stronger than before 🙂  Then I went to Best Buy with Chris and got a new laptop.  It’s an HP, and it was on clearance!

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How adorable is this small creature?  Do I talk about my cat too much?

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Do I post too many pictures of my cat?  Certainly not!  (Please don’t answer that question)

How about a picture of me in the car after the run?

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I urge you NOT to enlarge that photo.  I don’t understand how it is possible for a 32 year old woman to have 400 zits on her chin.  I do love my orange tank top though.  Also a new hairband—polka dots!  I was wearing green shorts.  Body glide is a wonderful invention.

Okay, seriously, this whole robbery thing is causing such mood swings.  I’m angry at the financial loss, the sense of security in one’s own home, and the TIME spent dealing with this shit when I really have better things to do (like blog, or practice, or maybe just relax, or you know, WORK).  I’m sorry for the negativity on the blog recently, but it’s just been a rough time.  I know things will get better and easier, and things could be worse, and for all of that, I am thankful.  It’s just been a bad week which ended a bad month.  Grrrrr.

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Yes, that’s a bruise on my arm.  No idea what it’s from!  Probably a gym-related injury though.  Speaking of, my pinky is feeling MUCH better, luckily.

How was YOUR weekend?  What are your plans for the week?

Random thoughts

Good Riddance to April

2 Comments

It seems ridiculous to do my monthly goals post, but I’ll do it anyway.  As you all know, this month totally sucked.  My race sucked, we got robbed, basically the whole month sucked and I’m really glad it’s over. 

Monthly Goals:

Books: one classic, one related to teaching violin or children, one non-fiction.  Great Expectations, The Social Animal, and Moonwalking with Einstein.  Yeah, well, my kindle got stolen halfway through The Social Animal.

One or more new restaurants: Frazer’s

Weekly activities with friends:  I did a lot of activities with friends

New recipes (three): I’m sure I tried some recipes.  I didn’t do three, but I did a new stuffed chicken or something.  I don’t feel like looking.

Race:  April 9 Go! St Louis Half Marathon.  Goal:  2:30 or bust. Ha!  Follow that link.

Mileage:  90 miles (run or walk). Is 64 the same?

Lose a couple of pounds:  under *redacted* by April 30 or bust. (I do have a number in mind, and this month I will meet or beat it). Might have lost a pound.

Career: Schedule Student Recital for Early June.  Plus some other stuff that will happen in April.  You’re on a need to know basis.  Check!  My student recital will be happening.

Fun: Did a lot of fun stuff, mainly to try to distract myself from the awful-ness that was the rest of the month.

Financial: Well…I did MY taxes.  But I promised Chris I’d do his, so that’s this month. Check!

Fingernails/finger biting: Must continue trying to stop…gah, so difficult as I usually don’t notice I’m biting until it’s already been going on for a little while. Hmmm…this is not working.

I posted a widely successful post:  Orchestra Auditions for Non-Musicians.  Over 2500 page views (quite a lot for me).

Okay.  So that’s April.  Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Random thoughts

Computer shopping

I am waiting in best buy after a great 5.5 mile run. There was a shower before, of course.

I went with Jen and the weather was perfect. We didn’t see any larpers today, unfortunately. The best thing is that I feel like a runner again!

Now we are dealing with Chris’s broken computer and then I am going to buy a new laptop. The insurance settlement is on its way. State farm is really a great company!  It’s likely that Chris’s desktop was damaged though and hopefully we can prove that….they didn’t steal it but it hasn’t been working right all week and today wouldn’t turn out at all. Grrr. So a beautiful afternoon is spent picking up the pieces from jerk criminals.

Last night I met a friend for dinner at Frazer’s. After dinner a few more friends showed up and we were there until midnight or so. For dinner we split chorizo stuffed dates, a tasty bottle of malbec, and then I had a brie, pear, and arugula salad, and shrimp and scallop pasta. I will definitely go back there!

Ok, time to shop for a new computer!

Random thoughts

Pity party over

Okay, I’ve declared this evening the end of my pity party.  Well, not exactly, but we’ve moved on today into…

strange gym injury party time!

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That’s my left pinky.  Suffice it to say it feels much worse than it looks.  What happened?  Well, it happened really fast.  In a nutshell, v-sits holding a 10 pound weight to press up while moving legs forward (I need to start taking pictures during my workouts, huh?).  At the end I was exhausted so I leaned over to drop the weight first, and proceeded to somehow drop it directly onto my pinky finger…which hurt A LOT.  Then I spent a minute or two lying on the floor holding my hand in agony, while Mike either laughed at me or debated calling 911.

Summary:  I am really clumsy.

Other summary:  Mike had a tooth infection.  Evidently he needed a root canal.  He thinks I need to start foam rolling my legs.  His ex-girlfriend wants to get back together but he claims he doesn’t want to.  I also mentioned my blog today, maybe he’s reading this (probably not).

Then I headed off to my ocarina trio rehearsal followed by another lunch at Panera (started reading Water for Elephants, love it so far!) and 3ish hours of teaching.  Finally my day is done! 

Things that are uncomfortable:  trying to play violin with a wonky pinky.  Let’s hope tomorrow goes better since I have TWO weddings to play for.

Next Saturday, May 7:  I am playing for a live internet concert.  6 pm Central Time. Go to this link and it is advertised as “Heather’s Free Live Concert.”  I am playing with Heather!  If you want to catch it from the beginning please visit the link a few minutes early as evidently you are required to watch a couple minutes worth of commercials. 

Teaching, Weather

Sunny Day

Today is the second sunny day in a row!  Unfortunately my current schedule is such that I am barely able to function, much less spend any quality time outside.  Okay, it’s not THAT bad but I am too busy to go for a run or anything without waking up way too early (for me).  Besides which Chris pointed out that it IS a little strange to not be able to walk properly for close to a month now and maybe I need to rest a bit more. 

Primarily this week (it seems) I’ve been sitting around feeling sorry for myself.  One of my students yesterday asked if I had gotten any better at Mario Kart Wii—we had discussed my general lack of video game skill.  This gave me an excellent opportunity to tell him about the break-in.  He was confused why somebody would do that (a sign of a fantastic kid!) and seemed flustered.  FYI:  this is the student who asked earlier about the race picture, and did I win.  He is also a fantastic violin student.  Soon I plan to teach him vibrato and I am banking on the John Kendall step 1:  First ask the student to play vibrato—they may just be able to working out really well.

We actually did some wedding planning last night.  We’re now looking at the first week in January.  It means another year of filing my taxes as single, but that’s probably okay.  We actually sent emails to a couple of venues to maybe check them out over the weekend.  I have to try to remain calm through this process, as I have not been dealing with stress very well lately.  I may have had a couple of freak outs this week which ended in me curled up in a ball sobbing.  Perhaps the robbery IS affecting me.  I’ve also been starting to freak out about my impending 33rd birthday…I guess my 30th is finally catching up on me.  Am I going to look like an old bride?? 

Okay, sorry for the maudlin-ness of this post.  Let me leave you on a happier note.

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We watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom the other night.  Harrison Ford proved it is most definitely NOT necessary to have a “six-pack” in order to be ridiculously good looking without a shirt on.  That’s a PSA for all of you men out there:  don’t worry about your abs too much.  Instead work hard studying archaeology and practice your combat skills.

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.