Update

It has been a while since I've written so I thought I would give you an update on my life.

• The St. Patrick's Day Party/Beverly's (Casey's mom) 70th birthday party weekend was a huge hit. About 30 people from all over the country flew in to attend her party and soak up the wonderful Arizona weather (most out-of-towners came from MT). Thursday night was dinner at Kate's house. Friday (St. Patrick's Day) was a spring training game, alcoholic beverages at Seamus McCaffrey's Irish Pub, corned beef and cabbage at Bev's house. Saturday was the actual party, 120 people at Bev's, eating amazing mexican food catered by Casey's friend Mike. Sunday morning was brunch at Bev's (leftover mexican food accompanied by eggs so it felt more like brunch). Monday night was dinner at Mary Jo's. A few people stayed until Wednesday so Bev had over a week of celebrating! It was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to have an excellent time. Once all the family members got past the, "Oh, so you're Erica. We've heard about you" I even had some fun!

• For only an additional $9 a month we can get a Cox digital video recorder (aka Tivo) thru Cox. We've been toying with the idea for some time and, after assurances from several friends that we won't watch more t.v., we went for it. Casey hooked it up this afternoon and asked me to figure out how to record. It took me less than 5 minutes to find a dozen things to record! I called, from our family room, to Casey, in the office, "Oh, this is going to be dangerous..." I have already scheduled recordings of Top Chef, Garden State, Sex and the City and some Debra Messing movie I've been wanting to see. I wanted to record Everyday Italian but I was already recording two programs around 5 pm today! (I can only record 2 programs at a time...come on...don't the Cox people know that there are more than 2 good shows on at once???). Yeah, right Kate, we're not going to watch more t.v. ?!?!

• I'm still doing my running/walking thing and today I hit a milestone...I actually enjoyed myself. I ran on Saturday so my legs were still a bit sore when I started this morning so I began with a "oh, this is going to be a long run" attitude but something clicked in my head and I kind of enjoyed it! My legs were still a bit tired, but I pushed myself harder and finished several minutes faster than I had done days past. This afternoon I clocked the trip (walk to bridle path, walk/run on bridle path and walk back from bridle path) and it is 4.5 miles round trip. I am so proud of myself! Not to toot my own horn or anything! : ) As most of you know, I normally hate to exercise so this is huge for me.

That's all for now. Next time remind me to tell you about the cute Irishman wearing a kilt at Seamus McCaffrey's. Oh, and when Casey's cousin's husband spilled his Guinness on my foot and licked off the excess. Drunken, Irish fun ya know.

Sore legs and dirty fingernails...what a day!

Today was a good day. It was cool and windy out so I went down to the Bridle Path on Central between Bethany Home and Northern and did my walk/run thing. It was a lot of fun, and I really mean that. I feel so good about myself when I do more than just lounge on the couch and watch t.v. or read. It takes me about 20 minutes to get to the path and then I walk/run for about 40 minutes and then walk back. My return walk takes more than 20 minutes since my legs are really tired and sore by then. I am trying to slowly build up my running skills. Right now I just run for about 1.5 minutes, walk for 2, run, walk, etc. I don't feel as winded as I thought I would, but my legs are sore. The place where my legs attach to my trunk (what an odd word) gets really sore. I must be using muscles I have never used! Casey suggested a few stretches and they helped but I'm really sore. Last time I ran I was sore for 2 days afterwards and had a really difficult time walking quickly sitting down, etc. I'm thinking this time it won't be as bad. I hope.

Later on in the day I went to Whitfill's Nursery and bought some flowers. I usually stick to a purple color scheme but I want crazy and bought some orange and yellow wildflower-looking flowers. They look great in the window boxes, especially since I left the purple lobelia in the box so the purple is in the front with the yellow and orange in the back. I had planned to use some of the flowers in the back yard but ended up using most in the front so I'll have to buy more.

Casey got some bouganvilla for the backyard so we'll have tons of color soon! We get irrigation Friday night, which is great because it will make digging much, much easier. Although none of that will matter if we don't get the weeds cut. To quote a friend, "so, are you cultivating dandelions in your backyard?" It is really bad. I can't get over how quickly they grow. I keep looking out the window and thinking I must pull them (yeah, right the yard is too hard) out and before I get to it they have doubled in size! I think I am going to leave that one to our yard guy. He charges $25 to cut our grass and even thought the grass hasn't grown much he can come and cut down the weeds. It will be a well-spent $25.

That's all for now. If I get around to it I'll post a picture of our new flowers. They make me so happy and I want to share the joy with you.

Telly Savalis, Sinead O'Conner and Friends.

Anyone who knows me knows I am sort of crazy when it comes to hair. I have very wavy hair and choose to straighten it. Most people with straight hair think I'm crazy but I hate that my hair isn't quite curly and isn't quite straight, but somewhere in between.

I got my haircut on Saturday. The woman who cut it had cut it once before and last time I called the salon to tell her that she gave me one of the best haircuts, if not the best, I had ever had. Well, that was until this time. She cut it shorter than I really wanted, but she must have known it was going to be okay because I love it. It is slightly above my shoulders (a good 4 inches shorter than it was 3 months ago) and she cut it so it flips out at the ends. Well, if I could style it like her it would flip out! I just can't get the blow dryer/round brush thing to work. I've tried and tried and even asked stylists to slowly show me and I still can't get it. That means that I have to a) dry my hair with a blow dryer b) straighten it with a flat iron and c) curl the ends with a curling iron or rollers. That is too much work for even me! I should be able to curl up the ends with a flat iron but I could only get them to kink not curl so I found the neatest product at Sally Beauty Supply; it is a flat iron with a curl iron attached. Well, it is really a flat iron with a curling iron arm attached to the top of it so I can straighten and curl my hair with one tool! I am so excited. I needed a new iron because mine was not heating up properly (I think the cheap ones only last a few years) so I am thrilled to have found this one. And, for only $19.99! I just tested it out and it curled the ends of my hair perfectly. I'll have to see how the straightening iron works when I straighten my hair in the morning.

It is a good thing I found a solution to the serious problem. Otherwise I would have had to go back to my high school hair style! (see Title for a hint. He He).

P.S.
I just tried to spell check this and lost the entire post! Fortunatley, I was able to click the "recover post" button and get it back. I would not have been a happy camper if I lost this! Who cares about spelling anyway? Does it really matter that only 4 people read my post and all 4 used to work for newspapers (and 2 still do) and 2 were/are copy editors??? They won't care if I have spelling errors, will they? Or if they do they won't tell me because they love me! : )