Your Mileage May Vary

The Cost of a Chair

Background Noise: Brandy, Three Dog Night

Last Visited: inventory verification; and yummy stats 

Random Thought: i'm getting better at go karting; i wonder if the bruises inside my knees afterwards will ever stop though

Mood: i could use a few of Katrina's caffine breath mints this morning 

I've coveted this chair for a good long while now; i've been able to resist purchasing it for all that time because, well, there are just so many other things i can do for the price of that chair (for fun, let's put the average with tax at $2400): 

• 5.8 flights home (at the rate i paid for my ticket in july) 
• airfare and 6 nights in London at the rate i got in december  
• 40 nice pairs of shoes  
• 6 tickets to South Pacific  
• 30 bottles of 2003 Paraduxx Mallards  
• 240 poker buy-ins   
• 40 rounds of the gokart grand prix   
• 600 breakfasts a starbucks (including tip)  
• 40 full tanks of gas (at the rate i paid this weekend, roughly 14,000 miles of driving) 
• 2300 4x6 prints (after tax and delivery)   
• 3 prime lenses for my camera  
• 150 tank tops at the Gap  
• 85 tickets to the symphony   
• 300 drinks at the bar  
• 234 movie tickets  
• 10.4 flights to the general midwest  
• 12.6 flights to Vegas / LA / Seattle   
• a shark expedition from SF bay for 8  

... what i'm saying is that that money buys a lot. Does $2400 make for the most expensive chair ever? Certainly not. But compared to all of the other things i could do with that money... it feels quite pricey indeed. 

(Since i started writing this post i found out that not only is that chair currently on sale, the recliner variant is now offered in fabric in addition to leather at a significantly lower price; i'm trying very very very hard to forget that i know that little piece of information.)

(Oh, but it would be so nice to have a perfect reading chair....)

ps: Hail to the Victors, even in 1903, even in the snow; especially in the snow. 

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Sneaky Red

Background Noise: Love Song
Last Visited: reddit, etc
Random Thought: hail to the victors!
Mood: goooood morning

Holy Cow, Batman, Anne didn't post again last week! No way!

... You're all shocked, i can tell.

Well, um, not to over use my "holy crap last week became insanely busy" but, well, it's true. It became busy in the best of possible ways, and i'm thrilled, but that doesn't exactly mitigate the fact i now really don't actually have time to write this post here. But i had to say something; after all, i promised.

Also, i need to say: Happy Birthday (last week) to Heather and Mike, and Congrats to my totally awesome Brother for graduating from U of M! Here's to the parents being done paying U of M after a full decade! (lord, i should send the parents flowers or something.)

Oh, and, of course: Red Wings for the win! Go continue to destroy the Avalanche, boys, they deserve a beating.

... and one last thing: congrats to the big man Jake Long for going #1 in the draft this weekend. Go Blue!

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Mr. Jetlag wants to be my best friend

Background Noise: GG, Ballrooms and Biscotti
Last Visited: DTW, Zingermans, Home
Random Thought: somehow i seriously doubt all the work i did to my web galleries when i was home and offline have actually updated and for some reason i'm envisioning hours of work to fix them.
Mood: amused by the toy helicopter floating above the carpet near gate F3

Yesterday afternoon i watched 6 year olds play hockey; i'd have used a period there, but well, it feels like i need to elaborate.

That's my little cousin Jack; there are more pictures of him and his twin brother Joe playing, but well, the pictures of Jack make him look like a hockey player and the pictures of Joe? Less so; never fear, Joe has other strengths - for instance, he can spell "leprechaun."

I'm sitting in the little desk area of the F terminal in the Minneapolis airport, the same desk area i spent three hours at last thursday, about to grab the same small non-fat mocha from Caribou that i enjoyed on my way out. I don't love stopovers (shocking!), but, there is something to be said for having nearly a whole day to either decompress into a vacation or decompress out of it. I'm still tired, but as always after trips home, it's a different tired then when i arrived.

I need to pack up to head to my gate soon; I caught an earlier flight out of metro here and i'm glad i did - there was a bumpy weather pattern coming in that we only had to deal with a little bit.

I'm so glad Al gave me the excuse to go home, take a few walks, see my family, have tortilla soup, cottage inn pizza, good time charlie's, and zingermans. I'm sorry i didn't get to see more people, but to be honest, i was quite totally exhausted most of the weekend and i'll be back in a few months.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! Go find some green beer - and at the very least, wear your green socks.

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Take the deal!

Background Noise: somewhere over the rainbow & what a wonderful world
Last Visited: bacon cups
Random Thought: if we taught english the way we teach math...; also, this Psychologist Might Outsmart the Math Brains Competing for the Netflix Prize
Mood: whiped, but good

There are moments where one has to take a step back and reflect for a moment.

At the start of this month i ran a 5K for the first time; saturday, one month later, i'm going to run a 10K*.

When I cross the finish line late saturday morning, i will have doubled my distance in a month; and considering in January the most i could run is 2 miles, that's not bad.

Not bad at all.

Good job me.

*So, JR is making me a deal: based on the fact that running up that hill this morning induced a coughing fit and dizzy spell like one i haven't had since college, he's proposing a change to the race we were going to run Saturday (which included a non-trivial 1000ft+ climb): we won't run it; instead, we'll run a 10K (longer) in los gatos on flat ground. It's a longer distance, but no incline, and hopefully will save my lungs the trouble of stopping taking in oxygen.

Needless to say, i took the deal; and i'm grateful - not only that he was the one that offered, but that i wasn't put in the position of being the one to ask; because i wouldn't have; i would have run that race up the hill and possibly hurt myself because there was no way i wasn't going to do it.

... It's a rare moment that i actually am grateful for my lungs wimping out on me; this, however, is one of them.

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I'm doing what?!

Background Noise: Last Five Years
Last Visited: victoria's secret tankini selection
Random Thought: since when do profits rise 58% yet it's a disappointment? how is a record profit of $1.58 Billion not quite good enough? i don't understand wall street sometimes.
Mood: one thing at a time

It's amazing how quickly one can get talked into running a 5K. Then how quickly one goes from signing up for a 5K to signing up for a 5 Mile run one month later. Like, blink and you're doing it, kind of fast. Like, too late to back out now, better figure out how you're going to do this, kind of fast.

So i guess this means i'm running a 5K Superbowl Shuffle on Superbowl Sunday, and a 5 Mile race on March 1st.

:)

Wish me luck!

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Awash With Russians

Background Noise: Meditation of Dvorak's Slaonic Fantasy, Sophie Solomon
Last Visited: Spring in New York and On the Ave
Random Thought: I might have to give this gym in the morning thing a real shot
Mood: wait, i woke up early and was happy about it? Must be the endorphins

May the Gods lump Me with You, always. - Coldplay.

Spring in New York? Yes, please! I can't wait until Memorial Day and our little weekend getaway to the city that never sleeps; i've missed walking in the city - and now that we're staying on the Upper West Side we're perfectly situated to do just that: lots and lots of walking. I can't wait. Oh, yeah, and we'll be seeing a few shows too. Company, anyone?

Speaking of shows, i really really really need to remember to get to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf while it's playing here in San Fran. I'm just saying.

Oh, and it's the Hockey playoffs once more so i'll be continuing to cheer on the Red Wings against the Sharks. Because, after all, you might move out of Michigan, but you don't ever really leave Hockeytown.

(oh, and really, how startling is it to hear one of your relatives say "You haven't really updated your blog in a while"?)

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Elite and Charging Like It

Background Noise: There are worse things i could do
Last Visited: Stub Hub!
Random Thought: can we take a ride? get out of this place while we still have time?
Mood: open the tree

So, first: pictures from my foray to Moss Beach this weekend.

Ok so they aren't as incredible as they should be, but give credit where it's due, those were taken with a camera phone.

But i'm not really here to talk about magical beaches. I'm here to talk about basketball.

Let's start with stanford. Now i realize that there are only two home games left and everyone is jazzed and all... but... it's Stanford Basketball. We're not talking Duke or NC State or UCLA or even a Big 10 school here, they're like, the fighting pine trees. So color me surprised to find out tickets to their final home game start at $55 on stub hub. And go up. By a lot. Not that i don't want to see them play or anything, but really? I'm not going to be able to justify more than $20 for that particular ticket.

... However. A ticket to a Sweet 16 or Elite 8 game? That i'm willing to pay for. Which is good, because, though i just found out that the Western Regional will be taking place right down the road in San Jose, tickets are already sold out and stub hub is selling individual seats starting at a whoping $172. But at that point i'd go for the whole weekend (at $302) and (hopefully) see some killer March Madness action.

:) Gotta love college sports.

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Every Day, Bo

Background Noise: Chasing Cars
Last Visited: nwa.com
Random Thought: on the downside, my $10 ticket home for Christmas is gone. on the upside, i now get in at a better-ish time and i'm pretty much off the hook for buying presents.
Mood: heartbroken.

Oh, Bo.

We will win this game for you.

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Frankly, Toledo isn't exactly Paris

Background Noise: Always True to You
Last Visited: MGoBlue
Random Thought: i am not patient
Mood: foiled again!

Just in case you've been living under a rock....

Where you watch it and who with don't matter as long as you tune in and cheer for the Maize and Blue!

ETA: Slate's entry into the UM v OSU smackdown. I loved the Toledo line. And i have to agree: Sit Down, Texas. And USC, and Notre Dame and Florida can get comfortable in their barkaloungers too.
ETA: When it comes to our Defense, you'd have better luck against a train.
ETA: Bob. Ufer. Ringtones.
ETA:"Michigan football,'' he often said, "is a religion, and Saturday's the holy day of obligation.''

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Oh My... Go Blue

Background Noise: Football
Last Visited: Los Gatos Weekly
Random Thought: um, that was a really big omlette
Mood: kicking Northwestern's ass

So, um, that picture showed up in the Los gatos weekly. Oh well, apparently i'm "famous" now.

Picture of me cheering at Double D's on my Birthday

ETA: So apparently for the past few days this picture has been of an old dude smoking a stogey. Yeah... that's not me. Not that i mind that the picture of me looking like a moron is no longer up (at least not up at the location i linked to) but at least that picture pretty much showed that i was a girl and not... an old dude.

I'm just mentioning this in case there was any confusion. And now! i can not put this picture up and still know that i kept my word to post it. Hm... maybe i should link to dynamic urls more often....

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