Halloween Fun!

Today was a ton of fun at work (and if anyone other than the DF is wondering, yes, we did work most of the day...) and I have some great photos to share! We ended up being the only team in the costume contest, so we won this year - woohoo! I think we would have won even with competition, though, because everyone loved Roy's costume. Our vampire teeth were pretty impressive, though mine were really just longer versions of my own canines. I don't know if I mentioned it, but Stacy and I were actually vampire characters from Twilight. I'm Bella and she's Alice. Bella basically wears skinny jeans, sneakers, hoodies, and headbands so my costume was pretty simple. Stacy likes to dye her hair brown in the winter, which worked well for our costumes because Alice has short, flippy hair. Our shirts actually say who we are, and Roy's says that he's the slayer. Technically the Twilight vampires don't have the classic vampire canines, but we couldn't resist the excuse to wear them. And also we'd look like ourselves if we didn't do something for a costume.

Susan also guessed how many pieces of candy were in a cute pumpkin jar (I think it was 440 and she was off by 12) so she won it as well. That works well for me because she doesn't really like that candy, so she's sharing with us! Our team didn't win the crockpot cook-off but people must have really liked it because almost the whole crockpot was gone after lunch! We all played pumpkin bowling as well, which was pretty entertaining. Overall, it was a pretty successful day, and it was really nice getting to joke around with all of the other employees. Everyone enjoy the photos and have a Happy Halloween!!

Big Day Tomorrow!

Tomorrow's the big Halloween party at work, and I'm pretty excited about it. I've been busy getting stuff ready for it (I'm on the planning committee) while trying to stay caught up on my real work. We're doing a complicated team scavenger hunt using clues written on bones hidden throughout the office, pumpkin bowling, and having a crockpot cook off. My team made our Cajun Corn Stew today because we figure stew always tastes better the next day, right? It will be good fun trying everyone's recipes if nothing else. I'll post pictures right away of our costumes! I hope some of you have Halloween plans at work too!! :-)

New Glasses

The DF went to Lenscrafters yesterday for an eye exam, and he decided to go ahead and get some new glasses as well. His are a few years old, and while they had been holding up pretty well, he managed to lose a lens one day while coming to meet me for lunch. It was pretty amusing seeing him standing there with only one lens! Thankfully I keep extra contacts in my purse, so he wore those home. Otherwise, he's as blind as a bat (like me!). He looked pretty good in most pairs he tried on, but he decided to get a pair of Oakleys that are green on the sides. Green is his favorite color and the color helps make them a little unique. I think they look pretty good! What do you think?

Friday Update

There's nothing too terribly exciting going on right now. The DF and I are just happily moving along. Although, we had some excitement up here yesterday that you might have seen on the news - namely a tanker truck explosion. It blew out a pillar under an interstate and the fireball could be seen from downtown, yikes! Traffic patterns have been affected quite a bit, but fortunately my commute today was fine. I'm glad that my employer isn't AmeriGas' insurance company, though...

Anyway, next week will be a little more exciting because I get to dress up at work on Friday. Stacy, Susan, and I are dressing up as vampires and Roy (Frankenstein's monster last year) is going as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, lol!! He's got a wig and skirt and everything. It should be great! Don't worry, I'll have plenty of photos. I might have already mentioned this, but I'm pretty excited.

For now, just enjoy the semi-warm weather, the weekend, and a new Robert Pattinson pic!

Family Weekend!

The DF and I took a quick trip home this weekend and I got to see a lot of family! (Sorry, Mom, you were one of the few left out!!) We started with the DF's family because today is his maternal Grandma's 80th birthday. Then I got to hang out with Tommy and Dad for a bit at the new house. Then I went to Jolene's Grandma's 80th birthday party even though her birthday isn't until February. It was a surprise party; it's pretty easy to surprise someone 4 months before their birthday, lol! The DF stopped by to see his paternal grandparents, and I got to see them briefly as well. We ate dinner with his parents and little sister before heading back up here. A couple of uncles were thrown in there at dinner as well. Oh, and the DF's brother shaved his "winter beard" into a weird, stalkerish mustache, lol. Overall, it was really nice to see so much family in such a short time! I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again a few times this upcoming holiday season!

Car Bummer

Last Monday morning I was unhappy to discover a dent in my driver's side door when I left for work. At first I didn't see the note on my windshield and was really ticked, but thankfully my neighbor that had hit me left her phone number. I snapped a picture of the damage with my phone and took another showing how far I was from the parking spot line just in case. It was kind of dark, so I took another when I got to work, which you can see to the right. She must have been nowhere near getting into the spot since she hit the middle of my car with her front right bumper, but who knows...Regardless, I called her and thankfully she has insurance. She didn't call them until late in the day, though, so they didn't get back to me until Tuesday. Then they couldn't fit me in until Wednesday. I took my car to their estimation center and since I don't have a favorite body shop here I told them they could take it to one of their preferred places. They gave me a rental and then called back the next day to say it would be about a week. They said the damage will be around $1,300 - it's so expensive! My rental car is a midget 2009 Hyundai Accent, and I think they build them specifically for rental car companies and charge around $5,000 for them. I say that because there's no power windows or locks, no automatic lights, and no cruise control. It is really weird to lock and unlock doors by hand and turn on the lights every morning. But it drives well, and it's free, so I'm not really complaining. Hopefully my car will be done on time. It could have been a really big pain, but her insurer has been great. I'll keep you updated if anything goes wrong!

The Tour De Cookie!

A couple of months ago, I saw an ad for the "Tour De Cookie" in a Starbucks. It had a picture of a bike with chocolate chip cookies for wheels, which I thought was pretty amusing. I decided to check out the website. Basically, it's a fundraiser for Riley Children's Hospital. It started in Tucson, I think, and several other cities have started holding their own. Basically you donate money to ride around on your bicycles from one cookie stand to the next and eat a bunch of cookies. I mentioned it to the DF since he loves cookies so much and we decided to sign up. The registration fee included $25 in "cookie money" which you use at the stands to buy cookies. There were 2 course lengths, 15 miles and 30 miles. Since the DF and I aren't really cyclists, we decided to just do the 15 miles. We borrowed Katie and Greg's bikes, got up early, rode around, ate a bunch of cookies, and had a great time! There were lots of nice people involved, and not everyone was a hard-core cyclist, so that was good. Here are some pictures!

Here we are before the race. We look tired because we were tired! We're also wearing our official t-shirts; you can see the bike with cookie wheels!


The best part! The weather was chilly, but not awful, but those bike seats don't feel too good after a while!





Here we are after the race.











The DF was pretty excited about this cookie, which he ate here at home. It's as big as his face!

Long weekend!

Since the DF is on vacation right now from rotations, I decided to use some of my PTO and take today and tomorrow off from work. We don't have any major plans for these two days, but just being able to sleep in is exciting enough for me! I'm meeting my coworkers for yoga during our lunch break, and I think I'm going to the grocery store. It will be kind of nice being there during the day before the after work rush. Tomorrow we're meeting with the DF's cousin to go over our renters renewal policy, but that's about it. And then Saturday, the DF and I are going on an organized bike ride, which you guys will get to hear all about next week. It's a dream come true for the DF, let's just say that. ;-)