Attack!

Cody and I were almost viciously murdered tonight. Ok, maybe I'm being a little dramatic.

When I got home for the gym, I felt bad for the dog, since he hadn't had the chance to run on a treadmill. So I settled for taking him for a walk. He was so excited to be going and practically drug me down the sidewalk. About halfway through, we get to this open area. This mangy looking dog comes up to us. I'm looking around for his owner (DEFINITELY a "he"). Nowhere to be found. No leash. He comes up and takes an aggressive stance with Cody and then starts sniffing and jumping at him. Keep in mind, it's dark and I have no idea what to do. All I could think about was getting Cody away from him. This dog was scary looking, like a mix between a pit bull and a lab. Very beefy but unkempt looking. So I'm trying to back away and get myself between Cody and the other dog (yes, in hindsight I understand that this is a bad move - but I really just wanted to protect him!). I'm stomping at him and yelling "no" and "stay" and "sit". All while pulling Cody away. The dog would let us walk a little then circle around. So I'm yelling and stomping and trying to get away. Cody, bless his little heart, is following my commands - he's stopping, sitting and staying. *sigh* Well trained dog. At this point, I'm panicked, so I call my mom who jumps in the car to come find me. Finally I make it to the edge of the little park area and have put some distance between me and the big ugly dog. At this point I tell Cody to run and we take off together, running for about a block before mom got to us. SO SCARY. I don't know what I would have done... I was trying to get Cody's leash off the whole time because I didn't want him to get tangled up if he had to fight... and the sweet little thing is just trying to sit and stay because I'm yelling it in a firm voice.

Moral of the story - keep your freaky, mangy, scary dogs locked up and/or on a leash!

The 3 Step Approach To Spider Extermination Part 2

Now it's 4 steps.

As detailed by Eva, there is generally an intermediary step between Stomp and Swim. This step is explained below:

1. Spray: In order to properly exterminate a spider you need to ensure you have some way to disable said spider's movement. I find that hair spray does this most effectively. Extra strength Suave. It has great hold, but comes off most surfaces.
2. Stomp: This step is crucial. "Smash" may be substituted for "stomp" (SSS Approved Smashing Materials: shoes, books, binders, anything heavy that rolls, cups, glasses, plates but never, NEVER anything that involves touching the spider, even if it's through toilet paper). The key is making the first stomp or smash effective. There are several reasons for this. First, we're not into torture here. We want quickest, most painless end for our little arachnid. Secondly, the only thing worse than a spider crawling around your room is a half dead spider wiggling it's legs. Yuck. Make it a good stomp.
3. Scrape: This is the especially icky part. Generally by the time I get around to stomping, I'm so worked up that I go a little overboard. This leaves an unsightly mess. Beware. In your panic you may reach for anything, ANYTHING to remove the remains. Don't use important documents such as receipts, bank statements, cards from family members. I recommend about 30 squares of toilet paper.
4. Swim: How, you ask, does swimming become involved in the spider termination process? Well, you have to get rid of the body. I use the patented "Rush and Flush" method. This involves me putting the little body on any surface I can spare (without touching it, of course) and running as fast as I can to flush it down the toilet. One tip: don't run too fast. Those suckers are light and tend to have a lot of lift at high speeds.

Kids, remember the four "s": Spray, Stomp, Scrape and Swim and you'll be spider free!

Choir

Oh my gosh.

Everyone at some point in their life needs to join a 200 person choir. It's taken me the last 24 hours to collect my thoughts on last night's rehearsal. It was absolutely AMAZING! I have never sung with such a large group of people before and was amazed at how the director ran his rehearsal. No one talked in between when he was talking about changes and there was no plunking of parts. For those of you who don't know what "plunking" is, it's basically where you have to stop rehearsal to play one part out on the piano so someone can get it. Everyone just sight read (meaning it was the first time they had seen the music but were able to sing it correctly just by looking at it). Completely amazing. The biggest test is how quiet a choir can sing. It's very easy to get a loud sound from such a large group, but to get a quiet, in tune sound is much more difficult. This group was great. Let me put it this way, I could have sang louder by myself on the quiet parts than the whole choir did. Absolutely amazing.

Maybe I haven't collected my thoughts since all I can seem to say is amazing...

The 3 Step Approach to Spider Extermination

So tonight Brig and I hung out. In one of our more brilliant blonde moments we came up with the three step approach to spider extermination. It's really quite simple, you just have to remember the three "s".

1. Spray: In order to properly exterminate a spider you need to ensure you have some way to disable said spider's movement. I find that hair spray does this most effectively. Extra strength Suave. It has great hold, but comes off most surfaces.
2. Stomp: This step is crucial. "Smash" may be substituted for "stomp" (SSS Approved Smashing Materials: shoes, books, binders, anything heavy that rolls, cups, glasses, plates but never, NEVER anything that involves touching the spider, even if it's through toilet paper). The key is making the first stomp or smash effective. There are several reasons for this. First, we're not into torture here. We want quickest, most painless end for our little arachnid. Secondly, the only thing worse than a spider crawling around your room is a half dead spider wiggling it's legs. Yuck. Make it a good stomp.
3. Swim: How, you ask, does swimming become involved in the spider termination process? Well, you have to get rid of the body. I use the patented "Rush and Flush" method. This inolves me putting the little body on any surface I can spare (without touching it, of course) and running as fast as I can to flush it down the toilet. One tip: don't run too fast. Those suckers are light and tend to have a lot of lift at high speeds.

Thanks Brig... it was a really fun night! :)

Massages, Auditions and Babies

What a crazy title, huh?

First things first. I had my first massage yesterday. It was AMAZING! No, they didn't put any of the scrub "there". The only slightly odd thing was that the girl who did it was a girl I went to high school with. Ahh, the joys of moving back to your hometown. Anyways, it was so nice to be treated like a princess for a little while! They gave me a warm footbath, then used the vanilla/orange sea salt scrub to make my skin soft and then massaged in the shea butter. Very nice. If I were rich, I would do it too.

After the massage I had an audition for the Sacramento Choral Society! I couldn't believe it... I had emailed the director earlier in the morning and he called that afternoon to see if I could come in that night. I sang one of my German arias and an Italian aria. He was impressed and invited me to join! Woo hoo! They do one big tour every year or so - this year it's to China! How cool is that!?

Finally, tonight I went and saw Billy's brand new baby, Samuel Aden. Holy cow, the kid is cute. I'm convinced he's gonna be a singer - he has a set of pipes! No really, he was absolutely adorable and Billy and Barb look really good. I was so happy to see them all!

After that I went to the gym and ran 4 miles. It's the first time in a long time I've been able to run like that. Not the greatest of times, but it was 4 miles none-the-less. I feel so much better when I run distance! I just find a pace that I feel like I could run at for hours and stick to that pace until the end. Then in the last minute or two I turn it up to a sprint. Seriously, it feels great!

Ok, I'm off to bed. Peace.

Picture - Mr. and Mrs. Denny! 
 

Joanna and Chris's Wedding!

Holy cow, it was a blast. Jo and Chris went all out - I have way too many pictures to post (there are two below), so email me if you want the link and you can look at the rest. We had the rehearsal dinner at Casa Guadalajara on Friday night. For those of you who don't know, it's only the best Mexican food in all of San Diego.

On Saturday we got up nice and early to have our hair and makeup done. We had a little puffy eye scare, but nothing that an ice pack and some makeup couldn't fix. :) We were at the salon for about 3 hours and then went back to Joanna's place to help her get ready. I got to drive her down to the church, and I have to say, she was the calmest bride I've ever seen. Seriously. It was awesome... we had one last little drive together. The ceremony was beautiful... all of us bridesmaids said we weren't going to cry (me especially since I had to sing!) but the minute those doors opened and Joanna started walking down the isle, we all lost it. She looked so happy and so beautiful!

The reception was a blast. There was much dancing, much fun and many pictures. With a little bit of alcohol thrown in. We partied until around 11pm and then all went back to our hotels. Me, two groomsmen and a friend of Joanna's decided to go out bar hopping. We ended up at "The Top of the Hyatt" (I swear, that's the name... bonus points if you can tell me where it's located). We ordered drinks and some appies and 45 minutes later were still sitting there. So we walked out and went to Santanas (our other favorite Mexican food... although it's more like Mexican "fast food"). We got in about 2am and it took me 25 minutes to pull the 67 pins out of my hair. HOLY COW! No wonder I had a headache!

The next morning Joanna and Chris had a brunch at their hotel to continue the festivities. It was awesome. The four of us who went out (wow, 3am and 8am are awfully close...) banded together in misery. Not really. We were actually doing pretty well, having worked off of just a few hours of sleep. It was all very lovely and we had a wonderful time!

Joanna and Chris, I know you're in Hawaii right now, but I also know you'll catch up when you get back... thanks again for letting me be a part of your special day. You made it wonderful for yourselves as well as your guests! Aloha!

On that note, I'm headed to bed. ALOHA to all of you!

Picture - Anna and Joanna at Church 

Good Girl

I have been such a good girl.

I've been running again. A lot. It's making me feel so healthy! Not a ton distance wise, but I'll build back up to that. I've been going almost every day and seriously, the legs are coming back.

On another happy note, I finally made the appointment to have my Zimbali Butter Scrub. Eva and Adam gave me this certificate to an African-themed spa here, to be used for the Zimbali Butter Scrub. I have a HUGE presentation on Tuesday, so I set it up for Tuesday night - my little reward for getting through a hard day. I can't wait... they use sea salts and shea butter and give you a massage. Kati got me all worried asking EXACTLY WHERE they put the butter, but I have to assume they're good about it and it doesn't go anywhere butter and sea salts shouldn't go. Then she mentioned the Brazilian wax.

They better not be putting it there.

ANYWAYS, I'll give you guys an update after that's done. I seriously can't wait!