The Fam

My mom is in town so it's been busy. Rushing from work to her hotel, dinner, to my place, back to the hotel, back to my place, you get the picture. Tomorrow she and her boyfriend check out of the hotel and spend the rest of the trip at my place, which will make it easier. We have our Chicago Ghost Tour tonight and I'm totally psyched! I've wanted to go on this forever, but couldn't ever find anyone that would go with me! I think we are hitting up the The Art Institute of Chicago tomorrow...yeah, I got the day off...which is another thing I've been meaning to do for the past 5 years! Then it will be off to the grocery store to stock up for the Thanksgiving Day Feast!

Received a funny phone call from mom this morning. It seems they went to the Corner Bakery across from their hotel and lo and behold, there was Jerry Springer getting his morning dose of caffeination! Thank goodness I wasn't with them because I would have been absolutely mortified by what happened next...my mom's boyfriend went up to him and asked for his autograph! You can tell he doesn't travel much... :) So, they are excited to have had a Chicago "celebrity" sighting and I'm sure nothing I do from here on out can beat out that moment! Damn that Jerry Springer!!!

Plan B

No, not the emergency contraception... Went over the x-rays with the Doc and things are pretty not good. My lower spine is curving left, probably from that heavy bag I tote around with me all the time on my right shoulder. To make up for it, my body has curved my spine to the right up by my neck...nature's crazy version of "balance", if you will. So yeah, my spine is an "S". Great. Then there is my neck. This should be curved. Nice smooth curve from the top of my spine to my skull...but no. Mine is straight as an arrow. I kid you not. Why me?!!!

Treatment: I had electric stimulation (like a tingle that makes the muscle spasm) treatment and then an adjustment...which was the most unnerving experience EVER, let me tell you! Nothing like thinking someone is about to snap your head off and hearing 10 popping bones all at once! I have to have adjustments 3 times a week for the next 4-6 weeks, then we'll do a re-evaluation and see if things are straightening out...HA! Get it? Straightening out? Okay, yeah.

Running is not exactly on my chiropractor's top list of things to help my back :) Shocking, I know. So, I'm walking. A lot. It's pretty much getting boring, but it's the best option I've got at the moment. My mom will be arriving on Saturday so at least I'll have a walking buddy for a week. I'm trying to convince her to walk the Turkey Trot with me, but with the temps dropping, she is not ready to give in.

I may try to work on just strengthening my lower body as best I can in the weight department. I'll keep walking and maybe even try to jog some intervals. Mostly, I just don't want to reaggrevate this muscle...or nerve...or whatever the Doc said it was. Just when I'm ready to give it another go, something always comes up! I need to find a routine before the holidays come and I get totally sidetracked!

Oh yeah...

I forgot to mention I went to the chiropractor today about my back...he told me lots of interesting things, including that one of my ribs is out of place! We took x-rays and I go back tomorrow to get the final verdict and if treatment will help...I'll keep ya posted!

Pictures

Well, the kitchen table it together and ready for Turkey Day!

Here it is in full:



With one leaf up:



And finally, no leaf:



It's perfect for my kitchen...it can take up as much or as little room as I need!

While my friend was putting it together, I was testing some of the Christmas cookie recipes. Here is how the Oatmeal w/ White Chips & Cranberry turned out:



And just for cuteness, here are the cupcakes I made for Halloween:

Frustrating

Well, due to my back issues, I haven't been able to execute my plan as I had hoped. Mostly I've just been walking because it's the only thing that doesn't make me feel like I'm doing further harm. Yesterday, I was attempting to clear out my kitchen to make room for the kitchen table I finally bought and just that minimal amount of bending and lifting made my back worse! I am so completely frustrated right now! I'm making an appointment with a chiropractor tomorrow. I guess I'll just have to make due as best I can for now!

I still have a ton more to get done before my mom arrives on Saturday. The house needs a full swiffering to remove all the dust bunnies...and they are really dust bunnies, my bunny sheds all over! Dishes need to be done. Bedding needs to be changed. Bathroom can always use a once over. Augh! And my back is not going to make any of this easier :(

Completely Off-Topic :)

So, in order to save my sanity, I've been planning my annual bake-a-thon list of cookies for Christmas. I know, I know, a little early for Christmas stuff. But you learn from experience that it is never too early to plan when you are baking 50 or so dozen cookies! I need a little feedback on my line-up so far... My goal is to have a diverse group of goodies that will appeal to the masses. Honestly, of the first 7 cookies I picked out, 4 were based around chocolate. That is not diverse :) Don't get me wrong, I LOVE chocolate, but there had to be some changes. Here is where I'm at right now. Let me know what you think!

• Lemon Sandwich Cookies - lemon butter cookies sandwiched with lemon filling
• Rum Balls - Chocolate and liquor...what could be a better combo?! An assortment rolled in either nuts, cocoa or powdered sugar.
• Oatmeal Cookies w/ Cranberries & White Chocolate Chips - This was a boring ol' oatmeal cookie until I decided it would be festive to add a little red and white!
• Chocolate Mint Cookies - A chocolate cookies with a chocolate mint ganache.
• Chewy Coconut Cookies - Well, I guess the title says it all. This was an attempt to find something a little different than the norm.
• Peanut Butter Temptations - A peanut butter cookies with a mini Reese's cup shoved in the middle :) Mmmmmmmmmm...
• Russian Tea Cakes - A nice little shortbread type cookie w/ nuts and rolled in powdered sugar.

So, that's it right now. I think it's pretty diverse at this point, but not sure they appeal to the masses. Give me your thoughts so I get in the test kitchen! Yum!

To Trot or Not To Trot?

My friend came up with the glorious idea to do the Turkey Trot this year. I was all for it, but had to check with my mom first since she will be here in town on Turkey Day. She said it was okay if I ducked out for the morning and said that maybe if it wasn't too cold...we are from Oregon where anything below 50 is intolerable :) ...she would come out and walk it! I was excited! I kept on checking back with my friend to see when we were gonna register and he kept saying soon...soon...soon...until one day he said, I don't think I can do it. What?! I already checked with mom!!!! Dammit!

So, I wrote off the Turkey Trot. But now, I'm kind of thinking, why shouldn't I do it? I've done all my other races by myself...what is one more? Granted, I haven't been running and I have no cold weather gear, but so what? It couldn't hurt to burn a few calories before the Big Chow Down! Maybe I'll even just drag my mom out there and we can walk it together. I'm kind of getting pumped just writing this...I need to call mom again :)

Decisions

So, I think I've finally committed to some decisions. I will run the Portland Marathon in 2008. It is one week before the Chicago marathon so I can still train with everyone here or with a sponsored group. I'm excited about it. Excited to run for the hometown crowd. My friend may even do it with me which would make it that much more fun. Now, if I can just convince some of my girls back home to do it too! Sonja, you are gonna need a good goal to lose that baby weight ;)

I've also decided that I can't soley focus on running right now. For one, it has still left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth and I can't stop dreading it! Second, I can't afford to buy gear fit to run in the harsh Chicago winter weather and clocking miles and miles on the treadmill is not tolerable! So, today I will start my weight training and do some cardio. Too bad I pulled that muscle in my neck and back again (it happens at least a couple times a year) and I'll probably have to stick to lower body work until it is better. And I probably ought to seek out a chiropractor to figure out why this keeps happening! BTW, my weight has finally stabilized. No, not gone down, but at least stopped going up! I've never seen it this stubborn in my life and it totally has me freaked! If this new regime doesn't jump start it, I don't know what I'm going to do!

Finally, I need to find a new job. It has been a long time coming, but it finally hit me that I just can't do it anymore. I don't like the direction our corporate office is taking us, there is no room to move up here, I'm underpaid and I think I'm actually hurting myself by not gaining more experience at the management level after all these years. It will be hard to leave these people, but I need to be farther along in my career than this. I should be in management or at least have full accounting close responsibilities. Don't get me wrong...I've been promised these responsibilities during my reviews for the past 2 years...but they never happen. I can't keep waiting. I'm bored and gaining nothing by staying here. Let the job search begin! Time to call the headhunters!

So, yeah, basically I'm bored and ready for change. I'm tired of the days all blurring together!