Tag Archives ⇒ random

Weekend random thoughts

· Lauren

My brain and I have been all over the place today trying to get ready for my trip to Florida tomorrow so here’s a list of random thoughts to go with my crazy day:

***Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first – Florida lost their football game today. The Gators are breaking my heart early this season. They made a pretty poor showing against Miami for most of the game and the Hurricanes took advantage of that. My only consolations are that they didn’t lose to an SEC team and that early season losses are recoverable. Let’s remember that Florida has never had an undefeated season, yet they have three national championships. This can be overcome!

***It’s hot in Los Angeles. Really hot. I live at the beach which is the mildest possible location, but it’s still been in the low 90s every day and abnormally humid this week. And when you don’t have air conditioning it can be extremely uncomfortable. But somehow I feel like California is trying to prepare me for Florida, so maybe I should be thankful? I guess I’ll find out when I arrive in Orlando tomorrow! Fortunately my hotel room will be air conditioned, unlike my California apartment, which will be a welcome change.

***Speaking of weather, a few weeks ago I decided I should start looking for a light jacket to wear running when the weather starts to cool off. This makes some sense in Los Angeles where the temperature drops quite rapidly after the sun goes down, but I was in DC when I actually started shopping for this jacket. It was August on the East Coast. Why in the world did I think I was going to be able to find a jacket in any store this time of year? I must be crazy. I will have to resume my search for a running jacket in October. You know, when fall actually arrives?

***I can’t believe I’m going to Florida tomorrow. Preparing to be gone for an extended period of time has really stressed me out, but it’s almost too late to worry about all that stuff now. I finished just about all of the items on my to do list today – meaning I fit two weeks of stuff into about twelve hours. It was a very busy day. Right now as I’m sitting in bed my suitcase it almost completely packed (and hopefully it isn’t over the airline weight limit!) and my alarm is set for 5 AM. It won’t be long before I leave my little home for over a month. I miss it already!

***I’ll finish this post with something truly random – the new Pumpkin Spice M&Ms are dangerously good. Much better than I expected. I have a feeling I’m going to have to stay away from them to avoid excessive snacking, but I think I need to make some cookies with them later this fall.

Dressing up on Monday

· Lauren

I usually pick out my work clothes for a particular day the night before because my brain doesn’t seem to be cabable of making such important choices early in the morning. So last night I pulled my favorite blue dress and silver heels out of the closet for work today. Dressing up on Mondays seems to make the start of the work week a little smoother. However, when I got up this morning all I wanted to do was throw on jeans and a t-shirt. I almost wore an outfit of that sort to work, but after some deliberation I managed to talk myself into the dress and heels instead. And it’s a good thing I did because my group had a lunchtime meeting with our program manager today! I would have felt like a total slacker if I’d shown up for that in jeans. Not that I think any less of my co-workers who do wear jeans because that’s my go-to article of clothing most of the time, but I felt much more confident wearing a dress and heels in a meeting with my program manager. All of this makes me realize that my wardrobe really needs an upgrade. I need some options that are somewhere between jeans and dresses. Too bad I’m such a picky shopper! Maybe I’ll have more luck when fall rolls around.

I’m in Wikipedia!

· Lauren

OK not really, but kinda. I don’t remember what I was searching for yesterday, but I ran across the the Wikipedia page of René Clausen, the conductor of the 1997 Florida All-State Chorus that I was a part of. Here’s the excerpt that I was most intrested in:

The Salutation of the Dawn: The lyrics of this piece were taken from the Sanskrit poem, “The Salutation of the Dawn.” It was first performed by Florida All State Chorus in 1997 and was never performed again until 2009 when it was revived by the Maryland All State Chorus directed by Drew Collins.

So in a roundabout way I’m in Wikipedia!

Ponder this

· Lauren

I was watching “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen” at the gym tonight when I realized that Megan Fox is wearing the same jeans and camisole top for the majority of the movie. Since the story takes places over some number of days (and at least two continents) I can only assume her clothes get pretty dirty and sweaty and generally grungy (ignoring the fact that it’s a movie, of course), but she doesn’t have anything else to change in to. That made me wonder, what would I like to be wearing if I was randomly whisked away from my everyday life by some alien robots to go globetrotting on a mission to save the world? This required some thought (which helped me pass the time while I was on the elliptical). First of all, comfortable shoes would be a must. Now, most of the shoes I own are comfortable enough that I wouldn’t have trouble walking in them for several hours – even my work shoes – but “comfortable enough” wouldn’t cut it in this situation. Ideally I’d like to be wearing sneakers. Preferably my New Balance Minimus shoes or possibly my new Nike Free running shoes I bought today. Those babies are the new love of my life, but I’ll write about that some other time. In addition to comfortable shoes, I’d say jeans would be my next requirement. Shorts might be preferable in certain climates, but without knowing where you were going ahead of time (spontaneous quest to save humanity, remember?), I’d prefer jeans. They can be worn just about anywhere and you can move in them pretty easily. I think a short-sleeved t-shirt is the obvious choice for a top, but I’d hope I was wearing a jacket of some kind over it. Megan Fox starts out with a jean jacket, but sheds it somewhere in Egypt, which makes sense. But if you ended up somewhere chilly at least you’d have some level of protection. But what else? A watch? Maybe a hat? I’d certainly like to have a hair rubber band in my pocket in case I needed an impromptu ponytail. Oh, and sunscreen. Without it I’d be doing a good impression of a lobster after about a half hour in the sun. But I’m nitpicking now and putting way too much thought into this! Does anyone else have other suggestions?

December random thoughts

· Lauren

***Pie is a traditional holiday dessert, right? Well, at work we have a different kind of pie. A much less interesting kind. For the last week a certain group of us have been getting daily emails telling us who still has training to complete and the information is presented in the form of a pie chart. I finished my training a while back so I’m not delinquent (for once, actually), but everyone in the group noticed that one person in particular comprises more than 75% of the pie chart. So someone sent him an email asking him to save some pie for the rest of us! Too bad it’s not edible pie.

***I wore a dress to work again on Wednesday not just because wearing one on Tuesday made me feel good, but also because I had already picked out my whole outfit and I didn’t want to change it all. (My brain doesn’t function at a high enough level early in the morning to select clothes.) This time I wore a red cardigan with my favorite little black dress that my mom bought me at Ann Taylor back in 2001. It’s so gorgeous and it still looks great after eleven years. (And it still fits which is amazing!) After two days I discovered several drawbacks to wearing a dress at work (less comfortable shoes, cold legs, worrying about flashing people, etc.), but there are a few perks too. I certainly liked the compliments. I think I’ll consider dressing up for work a couple of times a year just for the heck of it!

***On Wednesday I realized that I don’t own any sweatpants. I used to, but they disappeared at some point in the past (probably to Goodwill). When I got home from work I was completely exhausted and all I wanted to do was crash on the couch. But before that I had to change out of my dress and heels I wore to work. That’s when I discovered my lack of sweatpants. They would have been perfect to thrown on for a little television watching and web surfing, especially since winter is in full swing here in Los Angeles (rain and much cooler temperatures), but my wardrobe is completely devoid of sweatpants. This speaks well for my fashion sense, but lounging around the house in skinny jeans just isn’t as comfortable!

***It rained on Wednesday night so I made sure to bring my umbrella in to work with me on Thursday morning. I expected it to rain all day, but the front went through early in the morning so the umbrella turned out to be completely unnecessary. Of course. If I had left it in the car it would have rained all day – most heavily when I was walking out to my car in the afternoon. Then today I wasn’t expecting rain (at least not until tomorrow), but of course it was drizzling as I left work. And of course I didn’t have my umbrella. Isn’t that how it always happens?

***I finally put up my Christmas tree tonight. I wanted to put it up earlier this month, but I was waiting for the rain to stop so I could mop the floors beforehand. Gotta start with a clean canvas. The rain stopped over a week ago, but I have to admit that I procrastinated with the mopping and decorating since then. When it started raining again today I was mad at myself for not checking these things off my to do list in a timely manner. The only feasible solution was barricading myself in the house when I got home from work and getting started on chores. I made sure not to walk outside again for the rest of the day to avoid tracking more dirt inside. So this is how I got my floors mopped and my Christmas tree put up tonight. And it looks great.

November random thoughts

· Lauren

***On Monday I had dinner with some co-workers and then stayed up way too late baking two kinds of chocolate chip cookies for a pumpkin carving contest at work (recipes to be posted soon). All of that was totally worth not having time to update my webpage on Monday night.

***The spin class I went to yesterday morning was surprisingly packed. Evidently hitting the gym the morning after Halloween is a priority for a lot of people!

***After three days of early morning spinning classes (with not enough sleep beforehand) I was really sleepy at work today. So I had a Mountain Dew at lunch to try and wake myself up, but I just ended up a little jittery from the sugar and still sleepy.

***Whenever you’re halving or doubling a recipe always triple check to make sure you have the right amounts of each ingredient. Seriously. I tried to make a pumpkin cake for a party last weekend, but I accidentally put in twice as much milk as I was supposed to and it was a disaster. Oops.

***Easy pumpkin buttercream frosting recipe: Beat together 1 stick softened butter, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 Tbsp milk, and 3 to 4 c powdered sugar. Enjoy! (Based on this recipe.)

***I can’t wait to vote on Tuesday. I love living in a Democratic state because my vote actually makes a difference here. I don’t feel like I’m throwing my vote away like I did in Republican Florida!

***Tonight I tried a salted caramel brownie recipe that I’ve had bookmarked for about a year. Unfortunately they were kind of a pain in the butt to make. Tomorrow I’ll see how they taste and if they were worth the effort.

***Here’s a tip that should be a no-brainer but seemed to escape me – never wear a white shirt while baking. Especially when you’re using cocoa powder and melted chocolate. My Gator sweatshirt looks pretty grungy right now.

***I have a lot more baking to do tomorrow morning so I figured I’d put some butter out to soften overnight. I forgot to do this earlier in the week and it caused me a lot of grief. But of course the recipes I’m going to make tomorrow don’t include butter! The one night I remember to put butter out to soften I don’t need any!

Wednesday random thoughts

· Lauren

Just a couple of random thoughts from today.

***I don’t think it was a coincidence that the spin instructor chose a CD with my current favorite song on it for our class this morning. Lord knows I needed a pick me up and these days I’m starting to believe there’s no such thing as a coincidence.

***I had a conversation at work today that went something like this. Me: “I am so looking forward to football season.” Co-worker: “That’s so beautiful coming from a woman.” A little sexist maybe, but I work with mostly men so I’m used to it. Plus, I thought it was funny.

***I have way too much technology going on at the moment. While I’m sitting here writing this post on my laptop I’m also downloading a song on my iPhone and watching an episode of “Glee” on my iPad. I draw the line at having the television on at the same time, though. That would cause brain overload.

Random thoughts on a Saturday

· Lauren

More random thoughts, aka another Not Foodie Friday…on Saturday. I was working on this post yesterday, but I fell asleep before it was done. At 10:30 PM which is unheard of for a Friday night! Regarding the “Not Foodie Friday” part, I still don’t have any new recipes to share, but that’s going to change soon. Dan is on his annual desert camping trip this weekend (which explains why I could go to bed so early last night) so I can make cookies to my heart’s content! But more about that later. Now, on to the random thoughts.

***Speaking of Dan going camping, the morning he left, his first words to me when he woke up were, “Where are my earplugs?” No greeting for his wife, but instead he asked about the earplugs I promised to provide for his trip. I thought it was cute. My brain usually can’t concentrate on anything that specific before I get out of bed!

***When I read that Nick Stahl was missing I had to watch “Terminator 3.” I love that movie. I don’t know why it got such a bad rap. OK, maybe it wasn’t as good as the first two installments in the franchise, but I still loved it.

***I’ve fallen off the no caffeine wagon. Starting Thursday at the Angel game when I had a Diet Pepsi with my disappointing ballpark meal I’ve ingested quite a lot of caffeine. I guess I’ll give myself a pass for the weekend and get back to my routine on Monday.

***I couldn’t bear to watch the Laker game last night. I knew that with them down 2-0 to the Thunder I would just get stressed out and I didn’t like the idea of feeling that way while Dan is out of town. So how do you think I felt when I read that the Lakers won last night? Elated! I still think I’ll skip watching tonight’s game. At least the whole series (and hence the whole season) won’t be over before Dan gets home!

***Just because I’m wearing flip flops today doesn’t mean it’s summer. It just means that I was too lazy to put on socks and shoes this morning. I’m not ready for summer yet!

***Trader Joes is killing me! My co-workers keep bringing in goodies like chocolate covered sunflower seeds and chocolate covered pomegranate seeds. How have I never had either of these delicious snacks before? Probably because I don’t shop at Trader Joes too often. And I guess that’s a good thing because these things are so bad for me! The last thing I need is something else to crave.

***Newsies on Broadway. How did I not know about this? I can only hope that it comes to LA at some point in the future. Most musicals do, however I’m still waiting for Book of Mormon to open at the Pantages Theater.

***My IM pet peeve: If you have something to say to me, just say it. Don’t send me a “Good morning” IM and then wait for me to respond before you reveal the intended purpose of the conversation. I’m a very busy person and I have more important things to do at work than exchange pleasantries via IM.

***So far I’ve spent just about all of today doing whatever I want. It’s time to break down and do some chores before the day is over and I feel like I’ve completely wasted half of my weekend. Time to put aside my laziness in the name of productivity!

(Very Belated) Not Foodie Friday

· Lauren

I’ve been compiling this list of random thoughts since Friday, but I’ve been too busy to get it ready for publishing until now. This means that I’ve missed a couple of days of posts. Oops! At this point I’ve decided that I don’t want to continue updating my webpage every day unless I have something meaningful to say. Posting just for the heck of it isn’t worth anyone’s time. This list started off as a substitute for a recipe on Foodie Friday because I haven’t cooked anything worth sharing in a while, but now it’s just a bunch of things I’ve been thinking about over the last three days. Enjoy!

***The Lakers stink right now. I was sure they were going to win the first round of the playoffs against the Nuggets after they went up 3 to 1. I was so wrong. They lost Game 5 despite an inspiring fourth quarter rally (mostly by Kobe), and then they lost Game 6 in spectacular fashion. It was embarrassing. I’ve got all of my fingers and toes crossed that they can triumph tonight in game 7. I don’t want their season to be over yet! (Update on 5/13: The Lakers made it into second round with a win in Game 7 on Saturday! Yay! Too bad playing the Thunder is a death sentence for them.)

***Our DVD is completely full of shows that we haven’t been watching since the NBA playoffs started. There’s always at least one game to watch when we get home from work so that’s how we’ve been spending our evenings. Dan and I watched one episode of “Top Gear” on Thursday night, but that’s it. Our DVR is running out of space! (Update on 5/13: We made a dent in the DVR today by watching another episode of “Top Gear,” two episodes of “Whale Wars: Viking Shores,” the season finale of “Once Upon a Time,” and tonight’s episode of “Sherlock.” Awesome!)

***My mental list of jeans is very outdated. This morning I was sure all of my jeans that fit me right now (and can be worn with flats) were dirty, but I found a suitable pair at the bottom of the pile that I had completely forgotten about. I seriously don’t know how long I’ve owned them or how long they’ve been sitting there unworn, but I’m not complaining!

***My lasagna is without a doubt the best in the whole world (no dissenting opinions, please!), but it is seriously labor intensive. Now I remember why I only make it a couple of times a year – besides the fact that it’s incredibly unhealthy. It took me two hours to assemble after I got home from work on Friday, and that’s minus the 45 minutes of baking and 15 minutes of cooling before it’s ready to eat! You can’t beat the results, though. Yum.

***When you’re washing all of your bedding, make sure that you get every load of laundry done with at least an hour of margin before bedtime. Either that or have a suitable backup set of sheets available. When Dan and I got home from dinner with friends on Saturday night at almost midnight I realized that I had put stain remover on our sheets, but hadn’t thrown them in the washer yet. Oops. So I pulled out our extra set only to discover that the elastic in the fitted sheet had died. Sheesh. They worked well enough for us to sleep on for one night, but I need to keep on top of the laundry next time I’m washing sheets or we’ll end up sleeping in the guest room!

***If I want to get my chores done in the evenings I need to make sure that I don’t sit down when I get home. My butt shouldn’t hit the couch cushions until everything is done – like today. When I walked in the door I made myself go straight to the kitchen to take care of the garbage, the dishwasher, and the dirty dishes. Then I started a load of laundry and folded a bunch of clean towels. Only then could I crash in front of the TV and start working on this list. Luckily I didn’t have to cook dinner tonight (thank goodness of leftover lasagna) or else I my feet would have been screaming by the time Dan got home!

***I’ve been watching a couple of Charlie Brown specials that I recorded back in November – “A Boy Names Charlie Brown” and “Snoopy Come Home.” The commercials, songs, and show previews during ABC Family’s “Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas” are making me wish I could fast forward the calendar about six months. All in good time, I know. There are way too many great moments between now and the holidays that I definitely don’t want to skip!