Nick of time

The St. Paul Classic bike ride is on September 10th. In order to save $5 on the entrance fee, you had to register by July 31st. Thankfully I remembered this information at 11pm! I don't think that I actually ended up saving that much money since I had to pay some sort of service charge. Isn't it easier for all parties involved to pay online? Then why is there ALWAYS a charge? It's not like someone needs to be in the office working right to receive my monies. But I'm always the sucker and pay the fee... But I'm registered and I'm riding in the St. Paul Classic bike ride with Erin. We're also going to see if we can score some t-shirts in exchange for our services (aka volunteering).

I also signed up for the Twin Cities 5K. Part of the TC Marathon festivities include a 5K run/walk- this one includes a t-shirt and I don't even have to whore myself out for it! I guess it is good that I am spending my money on various health activities rather than H&M clearance items.

This evening, Jay Leno had the snakes from Snakes on a Plane on the show. This movie has to be pretty big if even the snakes are getting booked. I learned these fun snake fats: 450 Snakes used during the filming of Snakes on a plane. Snakes were cast by color. An albino cobra would last about 24 hours in the wild since it would not be able to blend in.

Since I was just watching snakes on TV, I'm pretty sure I will not be able to sleep since I will be thinking of the albino cobra that would kill me with one bite. And I have an overall creepy feeling about me right now that is in no way comforting.

Heat advisory

Oh, Minnesota. Probably the only state in the country that advises you to stay inside during select times of the year. Right now, it we are advised to limit outdoor activity because of the blasted heat. I think the heat index is about 100 or 105. Extremely pleasant either way. I filled up my kiddie pool in the back yard, but I haven't actually sat in it yet because it was too cold- I really can't win. So in the meantime I am sitting on the couch surrounded by laundry that I should put away but refuse to move since that is way to much work, and I'm hungover.

We had a work "outing" yesterday for the media department. We toured the Summit Brewery in St. Paul- extremely boring but there was 3 free drinks at the end. The guide looked like he should have been in a musical, I was waiting for him to break out in a dance routine. We were forced to slam our drinks in about 30 minutes causing all of us to get a good buzz on. We headed to Minnehaha park after that for some grilling, yard games and more drinking. I didn't think that I had been drinking that much, but I've been feeling like crap all day and I stopped drinking 22 hours ago! Argh. It was a rough couple hours at work this morning and I literally ran out the door at 12 to catch the bus. I had to run to the bus because it was pulling away from the curb as I flailed and waved my arms. Good times. I felt a little bad leaving exactly at noon (summer hours are 8-12 on Friday) but I usually end up working till 3 on Friday's so part of me felt it was my right. There was a member of the HR department on the bus so I felt better knowing that she left promptly too. It's funny that stupid things like that validate your actions.

I was going to clean the house today, glad to see that's working out really well. It's 5pm and I'm still sitting in the air conditioning not moving anything but my fingers. And I still feel a little like I'm going to puke and I don't know what my stomach is going to do. Blah.

A kind gesture of generosity

Today I walked with some co-workers to Marshall Fields to grab some lunch. A salad sounded good, so I got my overpriced bucket of lettuce and walked back to my desk to eat. Upon opening my mandarin chicken salad I discovered there was bacon sprinkled all over it. Lettuce, chicken, oranges, peapods, green onion, and bacon? I'm not sure how they all go together and why no other mandarin salad contains bacon, but mine did. How depressing is to walk a couple of blocks (in heels) to find out your lunch contains and animal product in which you don't eat? I'll answer, very. After attempting to eat around the small tiny pieces of pig, I gave up knowing that it would take me 3 hours to finish and everything tasted like bacon. I asked my co-worker if was interested in my recently purchased lunch and he offered to trade me his sandwich for the salad. Normally this would not be a trade I would be interested it, but today the sandwich gods were smiling on me- it was a chicken salad (no bacon) sandwich. One of the few sandwich options I actually eat (I'm picky about my sammiches).

Summary: I am blown away but the kind gesture of elementary school ways for Ryan to trade lunches with me. And if you don't eat bacon, stay away from the MF pre-made salads!! Or double check the ingredients before ordering (that's really more of a note to self).

"If you're going to San Francisco"

Adam and I got back from our trip on Saturday. It's kind of nice to be able to travel somewhere and be able to do it on your own- aka, no need for a ride to and from the airport. It's nice that where we live we can catch a bus and the train to the airport and it's not too difficult. I'm so glad that we missed the horrific week of MN humidty and heat. I feel like MN really is the center of extremes- deathly cold in winter and overbearing heat in summer. But I admit, I do like to have seasons. San Fran was fun, with ideal weather- 60's year round. Not too hot, not too cold, comfortable. And dress in layers and try to stay on one side of the hills. Mpls is FLAT compared to SF, but then again, I'm sure a lot of places are. We did a lot of the tourist stuff (with all the other toursits) I honestly haven't heard that many British accents since being in Britian. We went to Alcatraz, rode the cable cars, Golden Gate Bridge, the ocean, Golden Gate Park, and Haight-Ashbury. We rented bikes on Friday and rode across the golden gate bridge (no worries, pictures of Adam and I in bike helmets will be available soon). I saw some of the best views I have ever seen, we rode along the ocean overlooking some cliffs- it was really breath taking. Adam got to see the ocean for the first time and got his feet wet by the tide. Of course the clutz that I am, I managed to tip over on my bike and now I'm dealing with a sore wrist and leg. But it was worth it to SF via bicycle.

In my Triathalon update, I am doing quite well. I have the 26.2 miles of walking/running completed (Walking arounf the gigantic hills in SF helped a bit). I've bicycled 64 miles (25 miles bike ride around SF doesn't hurt). I remembered that I don't actually have to swim the 2.5 miles, but I can row 12.5 miles, so so far I have rowed 2.5 miles. I had to do some quick calculations to figure out how many meters are in a mile. (.006214 meters per mile- I know you wanted to know). So as impressive as 4000 meters looks, it's only 2.5 miles. Lame. On the upside, I kind of like rowing.

I finished "Don't Eat This Book" today. Morgan Spurlock (the man who ate McDonalds for 30 days in "Super Size Me") wrote a book recapping his adventures. If "Fast Food Nation" didn't scare you away from fast food, then "Don't Eat This Book" will. While Fast Food focuses on how the food is made, Don't Eat looks at what it's made with and how many calories are in it. If you haven't thought about eating healthier, you will. Oh, Morgan Spurlock, you are the Michael Moore of the fast food industry. The FX series '30 Days' also by Spurlock will be back for season two in the end of July. It should be good, I don't think it will be as good as season one from last summer, but definetly worth watching.

Tomorrow marks mine and Adam's 4 year anniversary. Our first dated lasted around 7 hours as we walked around Lake Calhoun/Uptown and only ended because my mother called at 5AM asking where her car was and why the hell I wasn't home yet. Thank you cell phones.