I don’t know why. Sheer goofiness and inspiration maybe. I’ve watched this video several times though and every time about the time they go to Atlanta I get a little choked up. Something about how big our world is.

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/videos.shtml?fbid=BUcpnM

That’s a HD version. If you’re on a slow network or can’t see it, here’s the youtube version, not nearly as high quality but still worth it.

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/index.shtml?fbid=BUcpnM

And you can go to that site or http://www.wherethehellismatt.com and check out his outtakes, too.

I know I said I’d post today. Sorry to keep you all waiting…

My big news is I’m stepping down from Bentley July 11 and starting a new position with 3-GIS in Decatur July 14th. I had to wait until this afternoon so I could tell my boss first. And I technically haven’t told him yet. I’m nervous! I’m going to send him my letter as soon as I hit send though, and them I’m leaving so I don’t have to talk to him. How mature am I? I thought so.

Anyway, they FINALLY called me over there, offered me more than I asked for and they do four days a week for 9 hours a day and then work four hours from home on Fridays and take the rest of Friday off. So what I save in commute I could use towards the 9 hours and not be away from home any more, plus get to stay in my jammies on Fridays. And it will cut my commute down from 300 miles a week to 40. With gas the way it is, that’s like 3800 bucks right there. I just can’t turn it down.

So I’m excited and anxious and all of the other things that come with leaving the comfort of something old for the unknown of something new. I think it’s a good move for us though, and for my sanity. I haven’t been happy here for a while and I think I’m really going to like what I’m doing over there.

1. I have BIG news coming tomorrow! (And I’m not pregnant.)
2. Our class reunion is underway thanks to dear Roz. I’m so excited! Mostly because I’m running the myspace page and I get to see everyone’s profiles since they’re all friends of mine. (I mean, friends of the REUNION).
3. I finally lost 30 pounds! Yay! Actually 31. I’ve been trying really hard this week since it’s our final week in our work weight loss challenge. I’m THIS close to winning 1200 bucks and that’s worth it to not eat chocolate for a week!
4. How do I not have any comments on “The Beach” post below? Did I lose you all? Maybe my commenter’s broken.
5. John’s job with Chili’s fell through and he’s super bummed. Like, been down all week bummed. I’m trying to cheer him up but I don’t know what else to do! Sigh. So think happy thoughts towards John!

So I finally met my internet friend and she’s fantastic in real life. Super sweet and welcoming. Just like she is online.

Here’s some pics…

Kelley’s little boy is Carl, his birthday is May 31st so he’s a few weeks younger than Dash. We met another one of our friends online, Jenn and her little girl Ava. Ava is the sweetest little girl, super affectionate and doesn’t know a stranger. We also caught up with Roz, Miss S and KJ, which was AWESOME, but I don’t have a picture. Can you believe that? What was I thinking? We’ll have to go down there again soon then so I can get one.

Dash and Carl on the beach.  They were kind of hit or miss on sharing, mostly because Dash has never had to share before…

Both kids were exhausted but fighting sleep, so Kelley took Carl for a ride on her back in her beco which worked like a charm, and then took Dash for a ride and didn’t quite work as well… )  But it got him to the point where he could go to sleep with a little patting so we laid them next too each other.

Cutie-pie Carl. 

Kelley, Carl and Ava at the cafe where we met Jenn

Ava loving it up on Carl

Dash was a little more skeptical

Cutie-pie Carl, again. 

I have one of all three kids but it’s on my other computer, so it’ll have to wait…

1. John just went up to the new Chili’s in Decatur and put in a job application and they hired him on the spot! He has to take a test or something but I’m sure he’ll pass. It will change his commute from 90 miles to 5 miles so it’s going to save us a TON in gas. HOORAY!

2. Dash is officially walking. He would take 5 steps or so maybe once every three days but this weekend I started holding one hand and getting him to walk with me (so cute) and now he’s walking 5 or 6 steps together several times a day. If he’s standing and wants something that’s close he’ll walk to it instead of crawl.

3. I’m going to meet my internet buddy this weekend and hopefully catch up with Roz, too. Yay!! Panama City, here we come!

4. In our work weight loss challenge, I’m in second place overall for most pounds lost and second place overall for highest percentage of weight lost. It ends at the end of this month so I’m trying to edge out the number one’s in both of those categories. So far I’ve lost 29 lbs and 11.8% body weight since January. I still feel like a big roly poly, maybe just not AS big.

5. All of my chatting buddies are on vacation this week, Kelly, my internet friend is in Panama City without internet connection and Debbi, the girl I work with is in Wyoming running a race in the mountains. Big Horn, I think. Amy, you might have heard of it… Anyway, I’m lonesome and work is going really slow.

6. I started knitting a blanket the other day, what a nutjob. Any idea how long it takes to KNIT a blanket? Crochet is a whole other story. But knitting takes a LONG time. It’s cute though, and I like it, so it’s not so bad.

7. We’ve been car shopping lately. We figure if we buy a car for 8000 or so the car payment will offset the gas savings we’d get so we’d be no worse off money-wise and John could have the durango for driving around town instead of the obnoxious 2 door neon. We’re having a hard time finding a decent fuel efficient used car for under 8000. EVERYONE seems to have had the same idea we had. We found a 2002 Honda Civic with 89K miles on it for 14,000. A new one is only 23,000. Talk about some return on your car. Nissan’s and Toyota’s are about the same. You can get an SUV right now for REALLY cheap though.

OK, I’m going to stop while I’m ahead. I’m struggling for the next three. I hope you all have a great day and I’ll try to get a video of the Dashman walking…

I think I mentioned the splash pad earlier. John and I took Dash there this weekend and remembered his bathing suit (but forgot ours, or a towel…). Dash had a blast.

We get grins and smiles from Dash a lot but the full-on having a blast smiles are a little harder to come by. Dash was cheesing it up at the park though. He met a few little girls, too, and had fun standing there staring at them. He’s so big he looks like he should be running around like crazy, most of the little kids there were running around like mad but I’m sure they were closer to two although Dash was quite a bit bigger. Hopefully in a few months he’ll be running around, too…

And a not so sucky picture with my new lens. FINALLY a clear shot. Jeez.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!

The 50mm came Friday so I had fun playing with it all weekend. I’m trying to get the hang of it, since I can getting the aperture to f/1.8 makes everything but what you’re focusing on pretty blurry if my focus isn’t just right it seems like EVERYTHING’S blurry but I think it’ll just take some getting used to. I need to look back in Erin’s photo of the day blog and see the settings she’s using.

Anyway, here’s some shots I took this weekend…

My favorite of all, it kills me that Dash is a wee bit blurry in this one, you can’t tell so much when it’s small but when it’s big you can. I still love it though.

Dash enjoying bath time…

And finally a better shot of what I can only say is our dog.

I need to figure out photoshop since my photoshopping skills are seriously lacking. I have a book though, and I meant to read it this weekend, but you know how that goes. Soon, though, maybe.

Happy Monday, everyone, if you can call it that….

I’ve seen this on a few blogs and thought it was kind of neat but thinking up 101 things sounded a little daunting. It’s Friday though, and I’m stressed a tad at work so breaking every now and then to list a few more sounds like a good idea. Please by all means, join me if you want to. I’m eager to start crossing things off.

In no order of importance…

1. Open a savings account for Dash (I just did this one today. )
2. Expand my retirement portfolio to include more than just my 401K
3. Knit a sweater
4. Go to Hawaii
5. Have another baby
6. Be happier with my job or find another job altogether
7. Improve my photography skills
8. Actually sell something on Etsy
9. Scrapbook Dash’s first year (ha.)
10. Learn to cook the spicy beef dish from Surin (Thai) that I like so much
11. Learn enough Spanish to be able to talk to some of the hispanics that live here
12. Go to Houston
13. Lose 50 pounds
14. Finish John’s Christmas stocking that I started last December.

OK, I’ll be back for the rest. I want to make them good instead of just random things that I try to think up. Although they’re all pretty random…

So I guess I didn’t mention the dog earlier except in my 10 on Tuesday post, huh? )

So Friday, John’s coming to have lunch with me and when he goes to leave there’s this young, collarless, black lab by the neon. Very interested in John and Dash. John goes and gets him some water, starts driving over, texts me and tells me what happened and sends me this picture.

How many of you just said “Aw…”? I know, he’s cute. So I tell John to go back and see if he’s still there and if he is, to put him in the backyard and we’ll try to find his owners. I’d feel horrible if something happened to him.

So he goes back, sure enough the dog’s still there. We have a big power box behind our house right by our fence, so he sends me this picture.

I know. So that’s how Mannie / That Dog / Buddy came to live with us. Still no word in the paper, we have signs up, no word from anywhere. I can’t believe someone would just misplace a gorgeous lab puppy and not come looking for him, when we lost John’s dog we flipped out, roamed the neighborhoods, talked to people, ran an ad in the paper for 4 weeks. If he’s still ours by this coming Monday, we’re just assuming he’s ours.

A friend recommended reading puppies for dummies, and I like the idea of taking him to Petco to a puppy seminar.

Oh and Dash doesn’t like him. He likes the thought of him. He likes to watch him from inside. Mannie is too jumpy for him though, as soon as he jumps up anywhere near him Dash flips out and the only solution is to take him far away from the dog. I’m sure when the puppy stops being a puppy, Dash will love him, we went to a picnic and there was a dog there and Dash was nuts about him.

So I’ll keep you all posted. Really, he’s a nice dog. A little mischievous but just a puppy. He’s nuts about John and John’s nuts about him and he’s growing on me too. Its funny that Lucy just dropped a notch from the most high maintenance pet to the second most.

1. We saw Indiana Jones yesterday. I really liked it but a lot of people didn’t. I heard mumblings of it being a little far-fetched but they’re all far fetched, aren’t they?

2. Ironman is next on my movie list.

3. Followed by the Zohan movie with Adam Sandler. )

4. It’s POURING down here. It’s been raining since 5 last night. Gloomy but much needed.

5. Did I post about the dog? I think I did. Hm. He showed up on our doorstep Friday afternoon, sweet little black lab puppy. No one’s claimed him so he’s ours for the moment. Two cats, a bird, several fish, a toddler and a very excited black lab puppy.

6. Puppy casualties thus far - beach ball, plastic ball (the big swirly ones you get at Walmart) planter box of mums, green frog baby swimming pool (sorry, Dash) and big blue swimming pool (he bit the inflatable ring. John was able to patch it though.) I’m sure there’s many more to come.

7. May has a TON of stuff going on. Roz’s birthday, Erin’s birthday, Patrice’s birthday, Dash’s birthday, Mother’s Day, on and on.

8. I finished my first pair of socks. Yay! They’re for Dash, but still. They’re actually the same SIZE. ) I’ll post pics one day…

9. I ordered a new camera lens, a 50mm f1.8. The f1.4 was almos three times as much and a lot of buyers of the f1.4 recommended the f1.8. So we’ll see how it goes. I think it was 125 with free shipping at best buy. The f1.4 was 329.

10. Has anyone checked out the “Pounce” option on etsy? SO my favorite bored-out-of-my-mind thing to do. Go to “Buy” and like the third option down is pounce. You can set it for either recently sold or undiscovered, and each time you click it it will show you the three most recent sold items on etsy. So you can see what everyone else is buying and check out the other stuff from that store. Nifty little tool.

I could go on about other randomness but I’ll leave it at 10 for now. Happy Tuesday, everyone, hope you all had a great Memorial Day…