***

Joe took me to a shooting range to get comfortable with the type of gun he keeps at home for potential intruders, and it turns out I’m not a terrible aim, for the most part. I even hit a couple bullseyes, thankyouverymuch. But I also pinched my finger the first time I went to pull back the slide mechanism, which resulted in an icky blood blister and a little cut. I felt pretty silly walking up to the counter to ask for a band-aid when everyone else was there to buy ammo.

***

Joe’s gift from Santa (otherwise known as my parents) this year was two tickets to see Adam and Jamie (of Mythbusters fame) at their live show in LA next weekend! So really, it’s a gift for both of us, and I’m pretty excited about it. I have NO idea what a live Mythbusters show entails, but I’m sure it will be spectacularly nerdy.

***

We’re going to Scotland! I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that we’re hoping to go in 2012, but plans have been firming up with Joe’s parents over the last several weeks, and TODAY we bought our tickets. Non-refundable, so there’s basically no backing out now (I should probably hurry up and get my passport changed with my married name, huh?). August 24 cannot come soon enough! It’s been way too long since I flew over any oceans, you guys.

That’s all for now. Happy Friday!

1) Posts
2) Updates on my 101 in 1001

And, yeah. I’m slacking in both areas, and I’m fairly certain I will not be completing all 101 items by next August. But I haven’t given up on either! I’m still going to plug away at what I can on that list, and one of those items is blogging every day in November (NaBloPoMo).

So I think part of my lack of blogging lately has been a subconsciously-induced calm before the storm. I fully intend to succeed at 30 consecutive days of posts, and I’m hoping they will be mostly awesome and only sporadically rushed and/or boring. But in the meantime, I am allowing myself to sort of relax and be distracted from this thing for awhile.

Except as November 1 approaches, I’m getting a little nervous about it (as tends to happen every year around this time). So I need suggestions for things I should blog about next month.

Ready, go!

And in other news, there are only 74 more days left of 2011. I just– I can’t– I don’t understand how this happened! Also, there are 11 more weekends left of 2011, and only three of those are stay-in-Santa-Barbara weekends. Maybe four, depending on what we end up doing for New Year’s.

I mean, if I study hard enough, I could take my certification exam THIS YEAR if I wanted to. But I have 180 days from the time I purchase the stuff, which means I will be taking my exam no later than my birthday next year.

But my point is, I had to decide that it’s worth shelling out a big chunk of money up front to pursue this dream. I think if I’m totally honest with myself, the real reason that I started out with the intent to get an associate’s degree at city college was because I was a little afraid to invest in this dream before getting my feet wet, and city college was the cheapest option. I was (and maybe still am, a little) afraid that I’d wind up wasting tons of money on something that turned out to be a big fat mistake. Why? Because I’ve done it before. I had to pay over $5,000 on the ONE quarter of grad school I attended because I realized a little too late that I didn’t actually want to become a teacher.

This time, though? It’s different. I can clearly see myself standing alongside my clients, encouraging them and pushing them to be strong and confident in their bodies. When I was working toward becoming a teacher, that image of myself was fuzzy at best. So I’m willing to risk repeating history, because I have high hopes that I won’t end up regretting the money I’m investing in this new future. Yes, I’m still a little afraid. But if I let fear call the shots, I will be waiting around for a long time before I really know if this is the right thing.

The next scary thing is going to be disciplining myself to study harder than I’ve ever studied before. (WAY harder, considering I have never really developed great study skills in all my years of education.) But again, I think it’ll be different. I just hope the course content is written in an engaging way so it doesn’t feel TOO much like homework, ya know?

(Oh, and I Googled a bit about a few celebrity trainers, and their certifications are mostly with groups that AREN’T accredited by the NCCA, interestingly enough. Just something I was curious about.)

——

*I’m still looking into the local certification program (called AFNA), but they don’t have an upcoming evening-only schedule as far as I can see, and I need to be able to keep working while I study and get my initial certification. So I contacted them to see if they have plans to offer an evening schedule like they do for their Pasadena location, and if I get a good response then I may consider doing that sometime next year.

Alternatively, there are about 17,000 different certification programs (who, me? exaggerate? never.) of varying degrees of “legit.” I’ve started a Google doc just to keep track of the ones that seem remotely reputable. I know that the personal trainers at my gym are all certified by different organizations, and most of them carry more than one certification; so I know there’s no One and Only Perfect Choice. I know that I should probably choose one that is accredited by the NCCA (National Commission for Certifying Agencies), which narrows my list down to about seven. But then there is one organization with a local program in Santa Barbara that does not appear to be NCCA-accredited but seems like a really interesting and engaging educational opportunity.

HOW DO I SORT THROUGH ALL THIS INFORMATION? It’s definitely a bit overwhelming. I mean, the first time I went to college, I didn’t deal with applying to a million schools or trying to decide on the best option. I just knew I wanted to go to APU and I made it happen. Now I’m faced with so many options, so many choices, so many directions and timelines and prices and GAH! I know I want this. I just don’t know how I want to get there.

For the time being, I think I will enroll in another class or two for next semester, only because the classes are ridiculously cheap and there are some topics I’m interested to learn more about. It can’t hurt to get some extra knowledge under my belt, whether or not I decide to go through with the whole degree, right? But do I take a risk and try the local certification program that’s relatively new and unknown? Do I go for one of the big-name guys like NASM or ACSM? Do I start out by getting a certification as a group class instructor, and try to get in to teach once a week at the gym? Make some connections?

I’m also seriously considering buying “Becoming a Personal Trainer for Dummies” because, although I may not be a dummy, I am pretty paralyzed by the plethora of possible paths to pursue. (The alliteration was just too perfect to pass up!)

Oh, and how ridiculous is it that I’m already mulling over potential brand names should I ever decide to start my own personal training business? IT’S COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS.

One step at a time, Tabitha. The dot-com of your dreams will be there when you’re actually ready to make it happen. First you might want to learn the difference between triceps and biceps or something.

Stuff that’s making me all wine-y this week:

• Complete and utter exhaustion. Every day I wake up feeling like I haven’t slept in a week (regardless of whether I slept for 4 hours or 9 hours)! What’s up with that? I must be fighting a bug or something.
• My laptop. It’s like it KNOWS I’m getting ready to replace it and has therefore decided to rebel against me completely. It’s slow, it’s glitchy, my video editing program will NOT sync up audio/video, and my internet randomly disconnects itself any time someone in our complex uses a microwave. (Seriously.)
• The weather. I’m really just not ready for it to be fall yet. Or maybe I just need to get some new cold-weather clothes so I don’t feel all frumpy in last year’s too-baggy stuff. But, but, but!
• Money. I need to hold off on clothes-shopping, personal-training-renewing, and all that stuff until I can buy that new computer I’ve been planning for, which means resisting all the Pretty Things and Stellar Sales happening right now.

Stuff I’m loving this week:

• My new hair. Have you seen it? The best thing so far is that my bangs have been blissfully cooperative. That was my biggest fear about getting bangs: FIGHTING with them constantly. I’m not holding my breath, because I’m sure I’ll have days where they hate me, but for now I’m loving the new hair honeymoon phase.
• I forgot to post my weigh-in yesterday, but I’m down half a pound from last week! Only two more successful (that is, under 152 lbs) weigh-ins left before I can get my belly button pierced! I should probably start looking into reputable places to do that around here.
• Pinterest! Oh wow, you guys, I knew there was a good reason I had held off on investigating that site. It is SO ADDICTING. But I joined up and am now full of inspiration for redecorating (or, really, just decorating for the first time) my bedroom. I just need to practice some more of that financial patience before I can start shelling out money for paint, bedding, pretty wall hangings and such.
• Ego boosts galore! On Monday I sang the National Anthem at work for a 9/11 ceremony, and therefore I basically stood in front of everyone I work with and showed off my new hair and my (apparently) amazing singing voice. I have gotten no fewer than FIFTY compliments this week on my hair, my dress that day, my amazing voice, and the fact that I was brave enough to get up there and sing in front of 300+ people. One guy even told me that he’s seen the Anthem sung a LOT this week (what with the start of football season, I guess), all by professionals, and mine was the best rendition he’s ever heard. (I disagree, but I didn’t tell him that. I appreciate the comment all the same!)

And in other news, this week has been hellishly long. Anyone else feel that way? Probably has to do with the fact that last week I only worked three days. This weekend I’m looking forward to relaxing, getting my house back in order, and probably spending more ridiculous amounts of hours on Pinterest.

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I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour conducted by Clever Girls on behalf of Dannon. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program but my opinions are my own.

For more information and recipe ideas, visit www.oikosyogurt.com or www.Facebook.com/oikos. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

***

I’m a little hesitant to write this post because I plan on being completely honest. But let’s start with the basics. I have only recently discovered Greek yogurt, and prior to this review, the only two brands I had tried were Fage and Vosko. So I was excited to try a new brand and see how it compared.

A couple of facts about Dannon’s Oikos Greek Yogurt:

1. Both the 0% and 3% fat varieties are an excellent source of protein, twice that of most regular lowfat yogurts.
2. The 0% varieties contain active yogurt cultures and range from 80 calories (plain) to 130 calories (fruit on the bottom) per 5.3 oz cup.

So on Monday night, I set out to buy a few different flavors of this stuff. The bummer was that neither Ralphs nor Trader Joe’s, the two grocery stores to which I am most loyal, were carrying Dannon Oikos. I had to resort to Albertson’s, and I had a heck of a time digging through to find yogurts that weren’t going to expire in the next three days. (This is, of course, an issue with Albertson’s and not Dannon.)

I was really hoping to try the 0% plain variety, but the store did not have any, so I bought two vanilla 0% and three Fruit on the Bottom 0% varieties (strawberry, blueberry and black cherry). Then I set out to try a different yogurt for breakfast for each of the next few days. I ended up keeping track of my impressions in diary-style entries, so I’ll share those with you now.

Tuesday – Dannon Oikos Vanilla:
Taste/consistency reminds me of Activia Vanilla yogurt. Doesn’t feel quite like the Greek yogurt I normally buy, though it is thicker than most non-Greek yogurts I’ve had. A bit too sweet for my taste, but it’s not a gross, artificial sweetness. LOVE that I get 12g of protein and only 120 calories! I’m having this for breakfast and it’s satisfying on its own, and it will probably tide me over until lunch. (Update about two hours later: I’m totally feeling reflux-y and a bit queasy. Not sure if it’s related to the yogurt or not. And no, I’m not pregnant.)

Wednesday – Dannon Oikos Strawberry Fruit on the Bottom:
I’m not a fan of the overly syrupy taste that typically comes with “fruit on the bottom” yogurts, and this one is sadly no exception. Even after stirring it into the tart yogurt, it’s too overpowering and doesn’t taste much like real strawberries. (Plus, there are very few actual pieces of strawberries, compared to the amount of gooey syrup.) The strawberry stuff actually reminds me of that Smuckers ice cream topping that is like 99% sugar and 1% actual fruit, which is kind of a sad comparison to make here, but it’s the first thing that came to mind when I tasted this. I bought blueberry and black cherry, too, so here’s hoping they’re better? (Also, no queasy feeling this time, so yesterday’s queasiness was most likely unrelated to the yogurt.)

Thursday – Dannon Oikos Black Cherry Fruit on the Bottom:
This time I took a bite of the plain yogurt before mixing in the fruit. And I realized that probably a key reason I’m not enjoying this very much is that the base yogurt doesn’t taste the way I prefer my Greek yogurt to taste (that is, I pretty much want it to taste like sour cream: very tart, very thick, very natural). This stuff seems to be sweetened a bit, and something about it is just…unnatural. Since I wasn’t able to find the plain Oikos yogurt when I went to the store the other day, I don’t know whether the plain version is different from what they use in the Fruit on the Bottom varieties. Anyway, after mixing in the black cherry…stuff (again, not a lot of actual fruit in there), I did find that it tasted okay. Definitely better than the strawberry, and better than the flavor it had before mixing it all together.

Tomorrow I’ll try the blueberry one, but I figured I had enough review material already and could post today, so I’ll probably just tweet a quick update when I’ve tried it saying, “Yeah, it’s syrupy but tolerable,” or, “Wow, this one is amazingly better than all the other ones I tried!” (Har har.)

Now for some Q & A to summarize:

Q: Was it filling?
A: Yes. Even though I didn’t always finish the full 5.3 oz cup, I defintely didn’t feel hungry for several hours afterward. I also feel like the protein was a good boost to start my day.

Q: Did you add anything special?
A: No. I wanted to try these the way they are packaged so that I could make an accurate assessment of them before I thought about adding in other items. I would bet that if I added granola or Fiber One cereal to the Vanilla variety, I would probably enjoy it more than I did the flavor on its own. However, my preference when it comes to Greek yogurt is to get the plain variety and add fruit (usually fresh organic berries) for a bit more flavor and texture, so maybe if I could’ve gotten my hands on the plain Dannon Oikos variety, I would’ve given it a try.

Q: How were the texture and taste?
A: Like I mentioned in Tuesday’s snippet, the texture is thick, but not as thick as other Greek yogurts I’ve enjoyed. The taste was too sweet for me, but I can see how other people might enjoy it. I have a serious addiction to things that are tart and bold, and I generally prefer to keep my sweet tooth reserved for chocolate and desserts. (Example? I would rather slather my pancakes in sugar-free raspberry jam than in maple syrup.) I asked my husband to try the Vanilla flavor, since he likes some of the sweeter yogurts (especially Dannon’s coffee-flavored one!), and he said the taste was decent, and he liked the richer consistency. So I’m not TOTALLY ripping Dannon a new one here, right?

Q: Did you try this in a recipe, or could you use it in a recipe?
A: I didn’t have a chance to try Dannon Oikos in any recipes, but I looked at some of the recipes on the Oikos website, and they look really great! I think that using this stuff in a recipe in place of a higher-fat product like sour cream or mayo would probably be a great way to make a healthier dish, and I would bet that Dannon Oikos works well in recipes. I just don’t prefer it on its own as a breakfast staple.

Overall, I think my not-so-positive reaction to this product stems mainly from my own preferences when it comes to Greek yogurts. I am a big fan of high-protein, low-calorie stuff, and I will probably try out a recipe or two with Dannon Oikos because seriously, how delicious does THIS look?

But I am really grateful to have had the opportunity to try this out, because I love to know how my favorite products compare with other brands and varieties. I will recommend this product to my friends who are looking for a protein-packed, healthier yogurt option that still satisfies their tastes!

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So tell me: Have you tried any Greek yogurt brands? What did you think?

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Disclosure: I have partnered with Dannon to help promote the Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt Series.  I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program, which includes writing about the promotion and product.  However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

I may possibly have forgotten that I was a blogger for a minute. (Or, you know, three weeks.) See, I’m doing this thing where I pretend to be a vlogger every day for a month, and it’s just a tiny bit time consuming. I hope you’ll forgive me for my absence.

In the meantime, here are some of my favorite VEDA moments so far, from myself and a bunch of the people who are participating. These are in no particular order.

(Yep, Joe has even been participating in VEDA, here and there!)

***

In other news, only three more personal training sessions left! I am definitely not going to reach my goal weight of 145 by the end of August, but I feel strong and I can see some noticeable changes in my appearance, so I’m happy overall.

I make no promises about when I’ll be back to post here, but hopefully I’ll make a real comeback in September after all the crazy video making is done.

***

Hello: Last Thursday, Joe and I met up with Katherine (and her awesome friend Valerie, who we’re trying to convince to start a blog!), Ashley, Pham, Nico and Jenn in Santa Monica. It was my first time meeting Katherine, Pham and Jenn, and my second time meeting Ashley and Nico. It was a TON of fun, and I don’t really know what else to say about it. We ate, we drank, we danced, we locked my car in a parking garage. It was the perfect evening, really.

(Left to Right: Valerie, Ashley, Me, Katherine)

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Goodbye: We visited my family in the desert this weekend, since my brother is moving his family to China for the next year. They leave a week from Wednesday, and I am simultaneously excited for them and majorly bummed that I won’t be able to see them for so long. The hardest party of saying goodbye was leaving my nephew Levi. He was clearly annoyed with me for being all, “Levi! Hug me! This is the last chance you’ll get until next summer!” because he doesn’t understand that we’ll be apart for a whole year. But as Joe and I were walking out the door yesterday, Serena got him to say, “I love you Aunt Tab, I love you Uncle Joe!” — which was basically the cutest thing ever.

I realized I didn’t actually tell Josh or Serena I loved them, because I was so caught up in loving on Levi, so this is me, telling you guys I love you SO MUCH! I can’t wait to see your updates from China, and I hope we can make the video chat thing work once in awhile so y’all don’t forget me.

In other news, it rained in the desert yesterday. It was NOT pleasant, seeing as how it was over 90 degrees outside and super humid, which is the one thing that the desert is almost NEVER guilty of (that is, humidity). (Terrible grammar much?)

***

Hello: I got to hang out with my sister and her two friends, Ruby and Grae, on Friday night. We went shopping at the mall and then I took them to see a movie. Hanging out with a bunch of 18/19-year-olds is way more fun than you might think, and I’m glad to know that my sister has some pretty awesome friends in her life. (Also? My sister looks AH-MAZING. She’s lost over 20 pounds and is totes my inspiration right now.)

***

Goodbye: Starting today, I’m saying goodbye (again) to bad eating habits and lack of exercise. I slacked off a TON over the last week and a half, and I can only partly blame that on the fact that Trainer Chris ditched me to take a week off in Hawaii. Tonight is Personal Training #7 and I fully expect an ass-whooping.

***

Hello: VEDA starts today, and we’ll see how well I do at recording a video every day. If you want to keep up with my videos, you can subscribe here. I probably won’t be posting too many of them here, unless they’re particularly awesome.

And also: Katherine and I are starting a YouTube collab channel! It’s called The Nerd Nook, and basically we will be having a conversation with each other, posting videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (alternating so that we each post either one or two videos per week). Our introductory video was filmed Thursday, since we got to meet up in person and knew it would be a great way to kick things off. Check out our channel (Katherine’s video is up today!) and stay tuned for my first one on Wednesday.

***

Here’s to the first week of August! Hopefully this won’t be the only time you’ll see me here, but if you start to miss me, I’ll be all up on YouTube in the aforementioned locations.

And yet, I can’t seem to get away from it! I want to keep track of my personal training sessions because they are awesome and I’m planning on becoming a personal/group trainer and I want to remember my own experiences WITH a great trainer so I can BE a great trainer. I want to talk about my plans for August like going to Monterey for my second anniversary and doing VEDA again and starting my first school term since 2007. (I had half a post written about this stuff when I realized, “This is the most boring crap ever, and it’s all I’ve been writing lately.”)

I used to be able to write about what happens in my life and still be creative about how I said it. I used to be able to tell true stories in a way that read more like fiction, so people actually cared enough to read it. I used to be inspired daily — more like twenty times a day! — by things I saw or read or heard, and I could easily compose a fantastic, thoughtful post that also fulfilled my biggest Reason for Blogging, which is to remember my life. Lately I’m just writing to remember, but not to retain any meaningful connections with those few people who might actually still read this thing.

Starting a week from next Monday, I’ll be engrossed in making video blogs for VEDA, and I’m looking forward to connecting “face to face” with some new (and returning!) people. I just hope I can muster up some worthwhile stuff to read here, so that I can keep those connections going after the vlogging is over.

Until then, here’s my boring update, which you can feel free to ignore, since really I just want it for my own diarying purposes.

***

Monday’s personal training session was awful ONLY because my sunburn was soooo uncomfortable. Other than that, it was a great workout as usual. Wednesday was supposed to be PT #7, but Chris was sick so he left me with a printed routine that I followed as best I could. I had a good sweat, but I know it would’ve been better with his motivation and direction. (Translation: I slacked off a little because I knew I could. This is why I need a trainer, duh.)

I’ve gained weight the past two weeks, which totally blows. I’m pretty sure there is no way I can reach 145 in the next two weeks, at least not in a healthy way. So I’m changing my deadline to August 31, since that will be after my last training session with Chris. Here’s hoping I can get back on track!

August is a whopping eleven days away, and aside from working my butt off to get toned and lose the last few pounds, there’s some fun stuff on the horizon…

August 1-31: VEDA! This is the second annual Vlog Every Day in August, and I’m half-giddy, half-dreading it, to be honest. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it for 31 consecutive days, but I’ll sure try. Last year I jumped right in and managed to post 29 videos, most of which were not edited or scripted and therefore were, admittedly, pretty lame. But the focus of VEDA isn’t necessarily to create brilliant material; it’s more about connecting with people on a different level than we’re used to in the blogging community. We get to see each other’s faces, talk about similar topics, and develop friendships that would most likely never exist without the internet. This year, now that I have an elementary grasp on the editing program Joe put on my computer, I’m hoping to make at least some of my vlogs a bit more exciting. But I’m also more committed to my workout routine lately than I was last summer, so there will likely be a few (or more) days where I have to scramble to record my daily video and just slap it up on YouTube without any edits.

August 8: My two-year anniversary! Joe and I will be spending a long weekend in Monterey, and I am really looking forward to being with him, away from our normal work/home environment, and able to reconnect and relax together. I feel like I haven’t been a very attentive wife lately, and I want to change that. I could say so much more on this topic (and maybe I will next week), but basically: I can’t wait for our weekend away.

August 23-24: I start my first two classes at city college! I’m taking “Personal Health Awareness” and a walking/jogging class. Should be a fairly light load in terms of homework, but I wanted to see how well I do getting back into the school scene before I load on a bunch of classes at once. The more I think about deciding to do this whole fitness-as-a-career thing, the more “right” it feels. I mean, I haven’t even started yet, so maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. All I know is that I have not felt this sure of a new career path, ever. When I wanted to teach, it was, “I’d probably be good at this, so it’s probably the right thing, even though it doesn’t really excite me.” When I thought about technical writing, it was kind of the same thought process. This fitness thing is more like, “I hope I’ll be good at this, and I want more than anything to work hard so I CAN be good at this, because it is so exciting to think about doing this!”

***

Okay. There. Maybe now I’ve gotten most of the diary-writing out of my system? I had a crazy dream last night that I’ll be posting about next week because it is pretty hilarious, and after that…we’ll see if I can’t find some inspiration someplace.

Things that have me wishing for a giant glass of wine:

• My desk at work. It is SUCH a colossal disaster, and every day I come in and think, “I have GOT to get this thing straightened up,” and every day it gets pushed back to the bottom of the to-do list. I may just come in on a weekend and do it on my own time when no one is here to disturb me.
• My new haircut. It’s not terrible or anything, but it’s also not exactly what I wanted. I’m sure no one has even noticed I had it cut, because it was basically just a trim, but what bothers me is how it falls when I blow dry it. So, next time I’m in the desert, I’m going to have my friend and awesome hairstylist Jen re-trim it the way I actually wanted it to look in the first place. (Long layers in the last four inches of length, not a tiny bit of layering on the sides in the last two inches of length. Ugh.)
• Food that expired before I bought it. I bought some Fage (pronounced “fa-yeh”) Greek yogurt the other day, and the one I brought to work today for breakfast had an expiration date of July 7. (I bought them on, like, the 11th.) So, there went my healthy breakfast! I’ll be taking it back to the store to get one that ISN’T already expired.

Things that I’m loving this week (which far outweigh all my “wines”):

• My new custom-made ring from Etsy! The story: A few years back, I was contemplating getting a third tattoo, with the words “numai harul” in script on the tops of my feet (one word per foot). Numai harul is Romanian for “only grace” and is the name of one of the songs I sang in Romania on choir tour in 2005. Then I fell in love with Joe, who is NOT in love with tattoos. I promised him I wouldn’t get any more tats, so this ring is how I decided to keep those words close to me without breaking that promise! (I’m also in conversation with another Etsy seller who makes custom script necklaces, so I might “upgrade” to that at some point, but for now, the ring is lovely!)
• Personal Training #5. Last night, since he read my post yesterday about how Monday’s workout seemed fairly easy, Chris decided to totally kick my butt this time around. I was probably the whiniest I’ve ever been in a training session, but I really enjoyed it and appreciated the extra push. My abs, however, are telling me that today needs to be a No-Laughing Day. Ouchie!
• A full, fun weekend! Tomorrow night we’re hanging out with Helly at her new house (and with her new karaoke system!), then Saturday I’m getting a facial with Julie (SO. EXCITED.), and Sunday is the beach party! Now the only thing I need to worry about is not stuffing my face all weekend, because we’ve already seen how well THAT goes when I step on the scale on Wednesdays.
• Planning our anniversary trip. Joe and I have booked our hotel for our anniversary weekend, and amazingly, we got our number one choice hotel! It’s definitely a teeeeensy bit more expensive than we’re used to, but I still have money left over from a big achievement award I got at work, and it’s our anniversary, so splurging is kind of expected, right? Anyway, I can’t believe our anniversary (weekend) is THREE WEEKS AWAY. Next thing you know we’ll be celebrating our third anniversary and we won’t be able to call ourselves “newlyweds” anymore.
• Which reminds me: our third anniversary is my deadline for the 101 in 1001 list. I, uh…kind of forgot about that for awhile. I may or may not get them all done by August 8, 2012, but I’m going to try to step it up now that I’m down to just a year to complete the project! Eek! (This still counts as a “love” item, because I love a good challenge.)
• Google Plus. There has been a lot of fuss over it, and a few people saying, “What’s the big deal?” but I am really enjoying it. I haven’t decided whether I will end up replacing Facebook with Google+ like I replaced Myspace with Facebook, or use them both in different ways, but as long as Google+ continues to get better and better, I plan to keep enjoying it!

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What are you “wine”ing and loving this week?
Check out what others are saying here!