Life: Version 2.0 » Geekend Updates

Geekend Update: Jane Austen & More

Susan — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 13:54:39 +0000

This weekend came with very little down-time. My house is still a wreck, I did not get in as many workouts as I had hoped, and I still did not go through and organize my paperwork. I have no excuse.

Saturday I spent my day as the family bus driver. After a 20 minute brisk walk with Jasper the big yellow dog, Daryn and I went to Starbucks together and then drove to DC to pick up Zoe. We went to Fairfax Corner to have lunch and paint pottery (which was fun and creative). After that I had to drive all the way to Mount Vernon to pick David up from his new job. We then drove home and cleaned up a bit. After Mia picked up Zoe, I had to go pick up some of David’s skater friends and drop them all off at the local skatepark. I then drove home and by that time it was 7 pm and I was exhausted.

Saturday night I had my own mini-movie marathon (while Daryn slept). It was Jane Austen night. Since Daryn and I had been watching Pride and Prejudice over and over again over the past 2 weeks, I decided to rent “Mansfield Park”, “Sense and Sensibility”, and “Emma” from Netflix over the weekend. I stayed up all night watching them. It was fun and indulgent, just sitting there doing nothing while enjoying these movies. I think that I liked “Mansfield Park” the best out of all of these.

Sunday was full of chores. Laundry, grocery shopping, helping David with his homework, cleaning out the refrigerator, and then a birthday party at my friendly neighbors house where I stayed longer than originally planned, mainly because it was fun. I got home after dark and then had to prepare for the week. Ugggh. Oh, the good news is that I worked out when I woke up on Sunday – not an incredibly challenging one, but at least it was something. I will blog more about that later.

Such an exciting life. Can you stand it?

Geekend Update: Best Day Ever

Susan — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:53:13 +0000

I was supposed to sand and refinish my stairs on Friday, but I never got to it. I found listening to jazz and sipping on a glass of Pinot Noir to be much more appealing.
Saturday morning we wrapped up making our handmade Christmas ornaments, and then I headed to D.C. to drop Daryn off at a friends house
After that I drove to Boyds, Maryland for an afternoon of cooking and eating with a group of friends and colleagues. It was a wonderful time learning about new ingredients (like Chayote) and preparing delicious carbohydrate-rich, flavorful, vegetarian Indian food.
I left at about 5:30 to make the 40 mile trek back to my house in Virginia, picked up my son and went to Wal-mart for some Christmas Shopping. I hate Wal-Mart. Sometimes you just have to go there. We knew it was time to leave when the clientele began to get on our nerves.
My son and I then got into an argument about christmas presents, because he was sweatin’ me over the brand of skate shoes I needed to buy him. He was actually stressed over this! I told him if he didn’t shut it, he would get light-up spidey shoes for Christmas.
I stayed up until 1 am organizing the christmas presents that I purchased to date. They are all ready now for wrapping. I also watched the most recent episode of Top Chef which I Tivo’d. I love that show.
Sunday morning I wokeup and attempted to go wogging (combo of jogging and walking and running) with Jasper. I had to stop because I got up too late and there were too many other dogs around so Jasper attempted to run towards each one he saw. This is a problem since he is so large and strong that he can easily pull me down. So we ended up just taking a 40 minute walk. When I got home, I did 50 air squats.
I drove back to D.C. to pick up Daryn. I love DC.
We then went to a silly Southern Living at Home party (which I detest) but the lady who was having it is really nice and I wanted to get to know her better. I ended up spending money that I don’t really have but it was ok anyway.
I got home and FINALLY Daryn and I decorated our Harry Potter-themed Christmas tree. I was aggravated by this time because it was dark and I was exhausted from having not down-time and feeling like I really did not do anything productive over the weekend. Now it was last-minute and I had to get that damn tree done. Isn’t tree decorating supposed to be a happy and festive event? I finished puttting up the lights on the bannisters also – then packed my gym bag and got in bed.
Just when I was getting really frustrated about the weekends lack of productivity, I heard Daryn singing to herself in the bathtub “Best Day Ever”. How could I be in a bad mood after this?

Song: Best Day Ever Lyrics
Artist: Tom Kenny Lyrics
Mr. Sun came up and he smiled at me
Said “it’s gonna be a good one, just wait and see”
Jumped out of bed, and I ran outside
Feeling so ecstatic, satisfied.

[Chorus]
It’s the best day ever (best day ever)
It’s the best day ever (best day ever)

I’m so busy, got nothing to do
Spent the last 2 hours just tying my shoe
Every flower, every grain of sand
Is reaching out out to shake my hand

[Chorus]

Sometimes the little things start closing in on me
When I’m feeling down, I wanna lose that frown
I stick my head out the window and look around
Those crowds don’t scare me, they can’t disguise
Its magic that’s happening right before my eyes

Soon Mr. Moon will be shining bright
So the best day ever can last all night
Yeah, the best day ever’s gonna last all night, now.

[Chorus x3]

Geekend update – aerobicleaning

Susan — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:14:24 +0000

Another installment about my exciting weekends…

Friday night I was still not feeling well from the past week’s sinus infection, head-cold gone wrong. Friday during the day it was 75 degrees (can you believe it?) and sunny. The kids and I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and fell to sleep on the couch. Yawn.
Saturday Morning we woke up and it was 35 degrees. The weather has problems. Anyway, we spent the day preparing the house for Christmas, the kids helped to put things away and tidy up while I was Aerobicleaning. That is, Vacuuming while doing sets of lunges, running up and down the stairs and counting laps, doing air squats while washing the kitchen floor, etc. I have done this before and it is a great (and fun) way to get some exercise in while cleaning your house. Maybe I should make a video. Maybe not.
Saturday night I spent 3 hours making mini Harry Potter ornaments for the christmas tree: including 2 miniature copies each of all the Harry Potter books, Quidditch through the ages, fantastic beasts and where to find them, Hogwarts, a history and I made ornaments of the Marauders Map.
After that, the kids decided that they wanted to re-enact the graveyard scene from GOF, while playing the soundtrack. Daryn was the ‘baby’ voldemort all wrapped up in blankets and david dumped her into a big muck bucket. Then they switched roles and Daryn became Harry while David played the big voldemort. It was quite funny.
Sunday morning we woke up late, and decided to go bowling. David, Daryn and I hit the lanes at about noon and it was a blast! Daryn got her first strike and I didn’t do so bad either. Actually I won both games. We went to lunch at TGI Fridays afterwards.
Sunday evening we set up Christmas town (which Daryn proceeded to attack with her big dragon) and the kids decided to do another performance of the GOF re-enactment. David spent hours doing his homework (he is reading of Mice and Men – how depressing!) and working on Greek History. He is doing SO much better!
I spent the rest of the evening doing laundry and wrapping the banisters with pine garland, etc. We will probably get our tree this week.

That’s it for now until our next exciting weekend!

Geekend update – Eaters Remorse

Susan — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 01:24:28 +0000

Ok, so i am a little late with my geekend update.

I am still suffering from Thanksgiving dinner hangover. Needless to say, I ate way too much over the past few days and now I am suffering from eaters remorse. Ugggh.
I will not discuss Big Dave, because he was really not around this weekend, and when he was – it was annoying because he managed to turn Thanksgiving holiday with his grown sons into a big Frat party. That’s all I am going to say about that.
Friday night we took Brandon to the airport – it was surprisingly empty. We said our goodbyes and all of us were sad and quiet in the car on the way back. So we went to Target. I was very excited to find that they had all of the Harry Potter DVD’s on sale for a mere $3.98. How cool is that? Too bad that I have 2 sets already.
After all of the excitement at Target, we went home and ate leftovers.
I spent most of Saturday shopping for holiday ornaments for my Harry Potter-themed Christmas tree. I was excited to find dragons and owls at world market, and they even had a buy one get one free sale! I also came up with the idea to make golden snitches out of gold christmas balls – I am such a genius! I am also going to make mini books to hang from the tree, including Hogwarts, a history and some of the other schoolbooks used in the stories. I already made miniature Harry Potter books last year.
I took Jasper to the doggie groomer for the first time. I was worried that they would be mean to him because he is so big. $50 later I picked him up and he smelled much better, but he was mad at me. After a few hours at home, he got over it and gave me the look of love again.
After our day of shopping and grooming, we came home and ate leftovers.
Sunday was spent doing some laundry, cleaning, shopping onine for xmas presents and more harry potter christmas tree items. After such an exciting day, I had to settle down with a glass of wine and watch a movie (Failure to Launch). And then I ate leftovers.

So much excitement. Can you stand it?

Geekend Update – DIY Diva?

Susan — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:44:59 +0000

So I took the week off last week to work on some long overdue home improvements. The biggest milestone of the week involved Chris (thank you Chris!) – who came over and installed new lighting and switches in my kitchen and bathroom. It seems like I had all week to do many things, but I ended up doing them this weekend instead! Just call me last minute lucy.

Friday night was stressful because David came home with his 1st quarter report card which included 3 F’s and a D. I was so upset I couldn’t talk to him Friday night in fear of reacting the wrong way.
Saturday Morning I was better prepared (or so I thought) to discuss this with him, along with the consequences. I woke up early, and laid it all out for him. I guess he didn’t like the terms very much because he put his shoes on and walked out. - basically he ran away. We couldn’t find him for hours. Big Dave came home from work and search all of West Springfield for him – finally he found him. He ended up spending the day with Big Dave at work writing sentences about his life.
In the meantime, I took Daryn and Zoe to see Happy Feet. I really wanted to go to this movie not because I really wanted to see Happy Feet, but because I wanted to see the international release of the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix trailer. So basically I went to a movie to see a 54 second trailer. Was it worth it? Abso-freekin-lutely. I’m such a geek.
We got home afterwards and I finished painting my bathroom – including touch-ups and trim. It is a beautiful Tumeric color. I feel so accomplished. I even hand painted the switch plates with cool designs!
Today (Sunday) I went to Homey Depot (for the 100th time this week), touched up some trim around the house, and then for some INSANE reason, I decided to pull all the carpet off of my lower 2 sets of stairs, yank out all the nails, and strip the finish off of the wood. Geez, WHAT was I thinking? Needless to say I finished it (because I had to so folks could go downstairs) but my back is killing me! Now I still have to sand, apply some edging, and refinish the wood (I will try to recruit a helper on this one). I opened all of the doors and windows because of the toxic chemicals. I hope I didn’t do too much damage to myself.
I ordered an organtic, free-range turkey from Whole Foods for Thanksgiving. I hope it’s big enough (14-16 lbs) for 7 people. Is that enough? I hope so.
I ate bad things this weekend. Yesterday at the movies I scarfed popcorn and drank a big-ass pepsi. Then I ate a bag of watermelon sour patch kids. Today, I had an eggnog latte and a maple oat-nut scone. I will be better this week.
Now I am listening to Harry Potter music in my living room, eating spinach-stuffed mushrooms, and enjoying a glass of Pinot Noir. My kids are calling me. Harry Potter is on TV. I love it when that happens.

That’s all until next week…