Tuesday Confessions!

That time again and this time I'm two days late! Oh yea I rock so hard! I think you guys know the drill by now. Click on the badge below, head over to Alyx's blog and link up! Make your own confessions, after reading mine of course!


1. I need to work on my temper. That sounds weird. I need to clarify... I don't lose my temper a lot. Almost never. But sometimes when I'm really tired or frustrated or both, I have these little outbursts that could almost be called temper tantrums. They're not healthy and I'm not proud of them and I don't like them. So yes, need to work on them.

2. Valentine's Day is coming up! I don't have huge plans with the boyfriend... Dinner at home that night, go out to eat for the day sometime next weekend since I'm working every evening this weekend for All Star weekend. I thought about doing something really cute, like a scavenger hunt, then I remembered Gone Girl... so nixed that idea.

3. I skipped working out last night. Whoops. It was the second class of my free two class pass from S Factor. It was just so rainy and gross last night! The last thing I wanted to do when I got home was go out again. So I didn't. Ha, world! Instead I watched about 4 episodes of Breaking Bad, season two. Almost done with season two, two more episodes!

4. I signed up for a TRX class! I'll start in March, every Saturday for six weeks. Excited and scared! Hopefully I won't make a fool of myself in front of my friend who's in the training session with me. I've always said I have very little upper body strength -- maybe this will be when I change that!

5. I think I'm obsessed. I can't stop thinking about when these games come out from Guillotine Games. I'm in love with Zombicide and have about 7 of my closest friends equally in love. We're planning an all-Zombicide games night. In honor of Walking Dead starting up again!

Zombicide Toxic City Mall expansion

Zombicide Prison Outbreak expansion/stand alone

6. I think I'm going to give up soda for Lent. Or fried food. Last year I did fried food and did really well... only cheated once! Or I could do soda AND fried food? Hm... Still deciding. I have one more day to decide!
This weekend might be the worst weekend to give up caffeine before. I'm going to be working late three nights in a row... It's not supposed to be easy though.
Oddly enough, I'm not at all religious... I don't even go to church. I have no opinions on the Pope's announcement yesterday that he's stepping down. I won't go to church for Ash Wednesday. But I still honor Lent by doing my sacrifice each year.

Can I do without you for 40 days, soda?

7. Happy late Chinese New Year! It's the year of the Snake! Chinese New Year started on Sunday. Saturday night my boyfriend and I had a big family dinner to honor the holiday. I got my first red pocket!

Money in red

Here's some information on Chinese New Year celebrations that seems pretty accurate. We did the New Years Eve family gathering and feasting. And the red pockets.

8. I owe you a recipe post. I haven't forgotten about the Funfetti cookies I said I was making last week. I did make them. Soon, soon! I'll probably work on that after I finish this post.

9. Whoa, eight confessions so far? I'm on a roll!

10. It's NBA Week! The NBA All Star games are rolling into town and Toyota Center is all dressed up!

Toyota Center -- AKA, All Star Center?

I'm going to try to get better pictures later this week when it's not so rainy disgusting.

Sunday Monday Confessions!

It's that time of the week again!


1. I'm just going to start calling these my Monday confessions. I just never can seem to get this done on a Sunday! It's on my calendar, I think about what I want to post, I just never get it done.

2. I'm getting a new kitchen doohickey this week! It was recommended to me by one of my awesome friends who loves to craft, bake, and is a great mom. She's like Martha Stewart. But cooler. Cos I can ask her questions. And she never went to jail.
So this is what I'm getting:

You can get your own at Amazon!

It's a Matfer 321005 Exopat 11-5/8-by-16-3/8-Inch Nonstick Baking Mat. I've been using parchment paper when I bake, which makes clean up so much easier, but it's a bit of a pain (I'm also just lazy). I don't want to spend the time cutting it, and then the paper is wider than the pan so I have to squash it down so it doesn't hang all over the place. And then I saw my friend posted a pic of her cookies out of the oven and I was all, 'yum! Hey what's that mat they're on....' I was sold.

3. I plan to test out my new baking mat this week! I have a game night with friends coming up this Friday so I'm going to make Funfetti cookies! Everyone loves the dip, and the same blogger who posted the dip (http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/) has a post with them in cookie format... So I want to see how they translate. Will report back soon.

4. I am Zelda obsessed! Reading The Legend of Zelda; Hyrule Historia, finding out about the Wii U Zelda in the works and the remake of Wind Waker has totally inspired me to play the old games again. I dug out my old Nintendo DS, the one that still has the GameBoy Advance slot, and started replaying Minish Cap from the beginning. I'm already about halfway finished. I tried to continue playing Ocarina on my 3DS but I don't remember where I am or what I was doing so I turned it off, I'll come back to it. I plan to also replay the Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons games -- flashback to GameBoy Color!! Pretty sure they'll play in the GBA slot on my older DS. And awhile ago I restarted playing Twilight Princess. Will pick that up again in awhile.
And I still have no plans to even try to finish Majora's Mask. Stupid game. I just can't do the lover's mask task, I can't do it!

5. I think I need to amend my 2011 taxes. Ew. :/ Should be pretty easy... thank you Turbo Tax!

6. I worked out Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and I'm working out tonight. Go me!

7. I read What Alice Forgot last week, in about 3 days, and it's seriously made myself think -- if it was ten years ago and then the next thing I knew, it was today, what would I think of my life?
That makes very little sense... Here's the book synopsis, to help explain:
Alice Love is twenty-nine years old, madly in love with her husband, and pregnant with their first child. So imagine her surprise when, after a fall, she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! she HATES the gym!) and discovers that she's actually thirty-nine, has three children, and is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. A knock on the head has misplaced ten years of her life, and Alice isn't sure she likes who she's become. It turns out, though, that forgetting might be the most memorable thing that has ever happened to Alice.
 So let's see... ten years ago, I was almost 22. (I was probably playing Oracle of Seasons/Ages, lol.) I was living with my parents in Lake Jackson, after nearly flunking out of TCU. I wasn't in contact with any of my friends from TCU because I was so ashamed of how badly I'd done and how I had to leave. I was going to Brazosport College to appease my parents... It was my second semester. I think it was around this time I was taking a computer programming class and realizing that I could do college, I wasn't dumb, and I had decided on a major that I could graduate with in a year. I think I was still terrified of my parents' idea that after I graduated from BC, I needed to go to a university and finish up my bachelor's degree. I was working at Hallmark/Coach House Gifts. I was totally frivolous with my money and accumulating a lot of debt that future me would get to deal with. I spent most nights hanging out at IHOP with my friends -- ah! The start of my chub! Eating a club sandwich or pancakes or fries or a sundae at 11pm then going to sleep an hour later... My dating life was pretty nonexistent.
Now? (I'm still playing Zelda!) I'm living in the Galleria area with my long term boyfriend. I've reconnected with my really close friends from TCU. Do we see each other? No, but I do want to change that and soon, Miss Polly and Miss Lissa! But our lives are busy. :) I have an MBA and a payroll certification. I work for the Houston Rockets. I have seized control of my debt and am much more aware of my expenditures and my disposable income. 
If I had short term amnesia today, and was thinking it was 10 years ago, and I was looking at my life, I definitely don't think I would recognize it. But I'm actually so thankful of that. I have grown so much in the last ten years and I am in such a better place, in all aspects of my life. Financially, emotionally, mentally, physically.

Sunday Confessions!

You know the drill! Grab the button (click on the button to go to Every Day is a New Adventure, who started this - she has the code super easy to copy/paste). Write up your confessions. Link up. Visit some new blogs!


1. I can never seem to do these on a Sunday. I really don't know why... I even woke up early yesterday and had several hours in the living room to myself, while the boyfriend was still asleep. I just wanted to read my book, not look at a computer.

2. I have to find my workout motivation! It's not even the end of January, it's too early to lose the whole "New Year, new resolutions!" oomph. I went to S Factor yesterday and realized it had been about a week and a half since I'd worked out. I didn't even wear my BodyBugg at all last week! Gotta get back to it... pretty much done with all of my workout Groupons, so now to get to a good routine with my usual places. Should go to Zumba tonight and tomorrow night. Those are my only two chances to go this week. I have trivia on Wednesday night, a concert on Thursday night, and a colorful run (yes, yet another one - it's my 3rd!) on Saturday morning.

3. I'M GOING TO SEE LADY GAGA THIS WEEK!! It'll be my second time seeing her in concert.

4. I had a psychic reading on Friday. I went to an entrepreneur showcase at S Factor with a friend (basically, all of their students who do direct sales things -- Scentsy, Premier Designs, Passion Parties, etc. set up tables and other people came in to check out the studio and the tables). One of their students was offering 10 minutes readings for $5 and I figured what the hell, why not. It was my first time ever doing something like this.
Some of the things she said were a little uncanny, too on point. One thing was silly. And one thing is just... staying with me, in the back of my mind. I actually talked to one of my friends and she's willing to go to some other psychic with me. Palm readings, tarot readings, I'm really not that picky. I want to try it out again, get a "second opinion", and just have fun with my friend. Now I need to do some research to find one that's not too gadawful expensive or in a sketchy neighborhood.
Too funny, I remember a scene in the book MWF Seeking BFF where she and a new friend went to get their palms read.

5. I turned down a cupcake on Saturday! My friend was going to Sprinkles, and asked me if I wanted one, and I said nah, thank you though. My reasoning was I was probably going to have frozen yogurt later that evening, so no double dessert for me! I didn't even end up having the froyo! And I wanted ice cream yesterday but never had it! (The bad thing is, the reason I didn't is because our complex's water was turned off yesterday so they could fix something. So I didn't want to get a bowl, the scoop, a spoon, dirty and then let them sit in the sink for who knows how long until the wtaer was back on and I could wash them. Little OCD....)

Sunday Confessions!

Oh Sunday, Sunday... Time for random confessions! Actually on Sunday too, woo woo. My boyfriend is off at some rp'ing event, playing with his new collection of D10 dice, so I have the apartment to myself! Which means really I have the computer to myself. I had it to myself technically this morning while he was asleep but I slept in as  well. For once! Probably partly due to the glass of red wine I drank the night before with some of my friends. Yum. Not often a red wine girl but it's so yum!



1. I love my job. I seriously really do. I've been there almost 3 years now... It's totally busy right now and W-2 time, year-end, quarter-end wrap tasks are consuming my life for the next month and making it damn near impossible for me to schedule anything during the week with friends (I work late often during this time, but never really know when I'll need to or want to, or where I'll be in the whole process to even yet warrant it).
But every time I tell people where I work and what I do, their response is almost almost, "Oh that's so cool." Usually followed by, "Do you get free tickets" or "what does ___ make?". And I have to smile and say yes, it is cool. Yes, I do get free tickets -- not court side though. Oh I wish. Oh court side ... such a dream of mine. And yes I know what ___ makes but I won't tell you. Go Google it yourself!
Every day is different. Every day is an adventure! I've learned so much... There's no way I would have ever been able to get my CPP while I was at my old job. I just didn't have the exposure to basic payroll concepts that I do now. I don't think the CPP really would have helped me much there anyway. But now? I use things I learned in the course every day.

2. I want ice cream. I know. It's weird. We're in the middle of winter -- as wintry as it ever really gets here in Houston, TX -- and it's 40 degrees outside (actually today it's sunny and clear and windy and 57 degrees and so friggin' beautiful I wanna cry. I played disc golf. I was terrible but it was so fun). But I want ice cream! I'm going to the grocery store later. Maybe I'll give in. I'll get one that's so rich and decadent a) the boyfriend who doesn't really like or crave sweets won't touch it and b) it's so rich I can only take 1-2 bites and I'm done for the day.

3. Does someone want to come over and put up my wall art for me? Seriously. I don't want to do it! I want to have it up, it'll look so nice... I have spots for most of it planned out... I just don't want to. I'm scared of putting holes in the wall and messing up the placement and having to move it up or down and then you have a hole. And the painting. Blaaah. I'm having a big girls day in two weeks... I should really aim to have at least 2 rooms done by then (bedroom, living room, bathroom, dining room).

4. Going to try a new recipe today! Spinach and tomato chicken. I'm amazed too -- something that's not from the crockpot? And on Crockpot Sunday at that?? Laura, you wild woman! I'll report back later with how this turns out.

Hm. What else. Oh. Sure why not.

5. This wine is really good. This is the wine I drank last night that made me sleep in. You should try it out. It's super tasty. It's basically super expensive French wine that due to the weird French wine laws, can't be bottled as super expensive French wine. Here's some information on it. If you like reds, check it out. It's $12. And tastes like a $70 bottle. At least that's what my win connoisseur friend, who introduced me to it, says.

Time to go play with my iPad. And think about putting up wall art...

Sunday Confessions - Late again

Whoops late on this again. Oh well, better than last week where I didn't do it at all, right?


1. It's 7am on my day off and I'm awake. Sure why not. This is actually a regular occurrence for me now on the weekends and holidays it just still freaks me out a little bit. I used to be able to sleep in til noon no problem! (Actually it was a bit of a problem -- I'd intend to get up at 9, set alarms, and then it would be 1pm and I'd just then be getting out of bed wondering where had the day gone. Kinda miss those days.)

2. I'm a little freaked out that tomorrow is going to be 2013. That was a super crazy fast year! And one of the best... at least for me. I'm sad to see it go. But excited to see what the new year will bring!

3. One of my favorite things about a new year is setting my new Goodreads Reading Challenge. Here is my 2012 one and my 2011 one. It is driving me a little crazy the 2013 one isn't up yet. Come on, guys, don't make me wait until it's actually 2013 to set my goals!! A few weeks ago I decided on a new reading challenge (2013 reading challenge - BBC The Big Read list) and I've actually got a head start on one of the books! I started reading The Hobbit a few days after seeing the movie. I know, reverse order! I'm about halfway through. I've had to pace myself so I finish it in 2013 not 2012.

4. Valentine's Day, SLOW DOWN! You're not here yet! And stores need to stop making me think you're just around the corner! Sheesh... it's not even January yet. I say this because on Wednesday I was getting lunch at the Park Shops (think: mall) and saw this at the cookie place:

Seriously! Let December end first!

5. I went to a gag gift white elephant party this past weekend. I was honestly a little scared of what I might bring home but hey, we all went into it KNOWING it's a gag gift theme, so that's part of the fun. I brought Perfect Brownie baking set, you know it from As Seen on TV! I thought it was too perfect. Someone will want it. It's mildly useful. You'd never buy it yourself. But it's not complete garbage. That's how I go into purchasing for a gag gift white elephant. "What's something I'd want but never admit I want or know I want?"
I was #11 and there was nothing I really wanted to steal so I opened a new gift and first I got this gem:

Too kind! What I always wanted!

And Chris was the best boyfriend ever. He made it DISAPPEAR. (Ok here's what really happened. I had to go use the restroom so I left it with him to "guard" and told me to be sure to display it, so everyone knows how cool it is, and when I got back he's holding something else and said someone stole the mug. So did he really do anything? I don't know. There could have been some serious coercion while I was gone. I wasn't there. So he gets all the credit.)
So I ended up with this:

As Seen on TV stuff is the best for gag gifts.

I'm kind of excited about it... Okay excited is the wrong word. It's a vacuum attachment. Excited is definitely the wrong word. Anyway I need to use it. I plan to soon. I just first really need to empty out the vacuum canister before I vacuum anything again.

Sunday Confessions

It's that time again! That was a seriously fast week... It's been a seriously fast weekend too but it's been so great. Love this time of year! So many parties.... I've gotten to spend more time with people I haven't seen in weeks, find out what's going on in their life... So great.


1. I finally got my jelly beans! I was running various errands yesterday and doing Christmas shopping, and heading to Candylicious on West Alabama was on my list but I really didn't want to go there because it was across town from everything else I was doing and no other errand required me to go that direction. So I was heading back on Westheimer, out past the Beltway and I passed an HEB and thought to myself, that seems like a pretty big HEB. I wonder... So I pulled in, parked, hunted down their candy aisle...

It's like the promised land. Or something.

2. It's raining and I want it to stop. I need to go to the store soon to get stuff for crockpot chili (I'm planning to do this recipe) and I hate driving in the pouring rain. Other drivers are crazy when it's raining...

3. I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping! I need to go to one more store to get my dad's present and that's it.

4. Funfetti dip gathers new fans! I made it for a party on Friday night. I was bored and it didn't seem colorful enough so I dug in the pantry to see what I had and added red sprinkles. I'm going to get green ones so I can make it red and green sometime and call it my Christmas Snow Dip!
Here is the recipe for Funfetti for those of you who may have missed it on my earlier blog post.

5. I had a dream last night about reconciling with a friend who I essentially "broke up with" years ago. The dream was absolutely crazy. She was taller, and a mother now, and had an accent that she'd picked up from the foreign guy she married a few years ago. It made absolutely no sense. But now I'm going to thinking about her all week. Stupid dream!

6. I love the little clementines that arrive in all stores around the holiday season. So delicious  so easy to peel! I get one whiff of that delicious citrus smell and my mind is swept away to CHRISTMAS TIMES, YAY! That smell just reminds me of Christmas. It's really interesting how closely connected to our memories our scent of smell.

I've always seen them named Cuties. Maybe Cuties are from Florida, Sweeties are from California?

Sunday Confessions - Look guys, on a Sunday!

It's that time again! And look, I'm even doing it on a Sunday. I haven't done that in about three weeks...


1. I kind of totally bailed on the pub crawl I organized last night. Well technically I didn't organize it, St Arnold's did, I just found out about it and made a Facebook event for it so my friends knew it was happening.
Chris and I were running a little late but as planned we were able to eat beforehand at Le Madeline with some friends and then headed over to meet up with more people at Buffalo Wild Wings, which was one of the first four stops. I didn't want to eat there because I was afraid everyone would have that idea since it was one of the pub crawl stops. Guess what? I was right!! Got a text from one of my friends while at BW3: 'Understand now why you ate at La Madeline. They took forever with Sheldon's burger!' See? Sometimes I do know what I'm 'talking about.
BW3 was so crowded!! A bunch of people were eating so we stayed awhile and then most of the group was ready to go so headed on out to the next place. My other friends who were at another table were finishing up beers, and they were nice beers, no chugging, so we stayed another five minutes or so to let them finish then headed out. Next place was Little Woodrow's on Morningside which is pretty much all outdoors and a bar with no real front wall, just open air... so! Crowded! And cigarette smoke filled. Gross. I did find the rest of the group but they were "inside" near the bar and I stood with them for about a minute before I started to get claustrophobic from the press of people and had to escape. Chris, a friend of his, and I decided to just hit the rest of the places to get our stamps since they were all so close and then camp out in Black Walnut Cafe, which was NOT on the crawl, until it was time for the final stop and the pint glasses. So that's what we did. I did at least text as many people as I could think of to let them know that's what we were doing, and they could join us if they wanted, and Black Walnut had beer and wine if they wanted to drink! I got accused of cheating. Whatever. I can't deal with crowds and cigarette smoke. Ok I probably could but I choose not to. It's not my idea of fun. I like being able to hear the conversation I'm having with someone. I like personal space. And I like AC!
So if anyone who came out is reading this... I hope you had fun. I  hope you didn't feel abandoned by me, that was not my intention. I hope no one was off by their lonesome. That was not my intention.
And if anyone is still saying I cheated, haha, shut up. I got the same glass you did. Look how my collection grows!

Santo - from Dec crawl, C Ale - from Nov crawl, Summer Pills - from a crawl years ago I did  in Market Square area with my sister and brother-in-law, Lawnmower - from when I went to the brewery a few weeks ago.

2. Do you want to see my Christmas decorations for the apartment? Boom! That's it. :) I know. I go all out, what can I say?

3. I need to put laundry away. Seriously. I did laundry on Wednesday or so and it's all in a basket in the living room, just waiting for me. Maybe today. Maybe. I should today.... or else when the heck will I?

4. This weekend is just way too busy... I just want to hide. Yesterday it was the spa at 9, get gas, go to the bank. Book club holiday book exchange at 11 (I gave World War Z, I got Little Bee. PLEASE don't tell me anything about it! Somehow I've gone this long without being spoiled on it). Pick up equipment for ultimate frisbee today on my way home. Get ready for the pub crawl. Crawl. And then I was actually invited to two other parties last night, and my singles group had a games night. I called it quits after we hit up Chocolate Bar after getting our pint glasses. Enough is enough! I'm tired. And I wanted to spend time with my friends who drove up from where they live, an hour away, And then I wanted to spend time with my boyfriend. I felt like I never saw him this week cos I was sick and sleeping almost all the time I was home.
And today is just as crazy... Dim sum brunch with one of his friends at 11. I may have to bail early because I have ultimate frisbee that I'm hosting for the singles group at 1. Then this evening, we have dinner with Chris' family at 6 to celebrate his grandmother's 80th birthday.
All fun but aaaah! WTF! Did I even look at my calendar when I made my schedule this weekend, to notice the other events scheduled?
At least I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping.

5. I'm going to a screening of The Hobbit tomorrow with a friend -- IMAX!! Not 3D, I think. I meant to read the book before I saw the movie... whoops.

6. My blog hit 700 page views today!!

7. My confessions will probably never be juicy... sorry. This is my personal blog but it's still the internet, not my locked away diary. I still am very cautious the amount of deeply personal information I put out here.

Sunday Confessions - Not on Sunday, again

1. I think I need to just call this my Weekly Confessions. This is my third time doing it and second time I've done it a day late. I have an excuse though! I felt under the weather yesterday. Woke up with a sore throat but pushed myself to deal with it because I had the Graffiti Run with a friend at 8. Got home, de-colored myself and my gear. Watched some tv. Went to eat lunch with the boyfriend and knew then something had me. My tastebuds were totally dead. I only ate half a burger and about a third of my shake. The rest of it is still in my freezer. Laid down for a nap at 3:30 and was pretty much out the rest of the day. Still feeling it today but not nearly as bad. Just have a headache and my nose is all stopped up. Definitely sinus congestion. Blah. Boyfriend was a total sweetheart. He got me water and medication and then left me be!

2. I am in love with colorful runs! I did the Color Run in November, the Graffiti Run yesterday. Signed up for Color in Motion in February... They're so much better than mud runs. Not as gross, clean up is so much easier, and they're just so happy! Look how cool this is! And I'm pretty sure they are all based on the Holi festival celebrated by Hindus in early spring. Maybe I just need to go to India or Nepal to see the real color throws.

Not my picture, got it from here: http://alohaphotog.blogspot.com/2012/07/color-throw.html. My picture of the big color throw at the end was not nearly this nice. But the color throw itself was just as awesome!

Here's a pic of my friend and me who walked together. They had out a box of pink (and green, but we didn't get to it) powder to play in pre-race. So our before pictures are colorful too:

Crazy girls, me and Dede!

 3. Still on track to do Zumba twice this week... tomorrow and Thursday. Just need to feel better. Can you sweat away feeling bad?

4. I need to cook more. I was a bad girlfriend last week. We ate out a lot (helping the economy?). I was supposed to cook some chicken curry thing yesterday but I realized halfway through my nap the chicken was still in the freezer and I also couldn't get myself out of bed to do anything with it.

5. I need to hunt down which grocery stores have a bulk candy section because I want to buy Jelly Belly jelly beans (of my own flavor choice) and keep them at work. I have some now but I'm down to the hard-to-recognize colors/flavors and the ones that I can recognize, I just don't like that much. They're so nice to have at work -- so easy to turn down sweets when you can go back to your desk and enjoy a delicious chocolate pudding or Dr. Pepper or peach jelly bean (or 2 or 3 or 10). Fat free, gluten free, 4 calories a bean!
I had the brilliant idea this weekend to go to the Galleria... dragged the boyfriend because it's dangerous to go to a candy store alone. We were going to eat lunch at E-Tao and then head to Dylan's Candy Bar. Well.... we made it to the Galleria, after sitting in traffic for about 20 minutes on Westheimer to go 1 mile. In the parking garage we couldn't find a spot so we went over to the orange garage and STILL couldn't find a spot. So I finally admitted defeat, admitted my boyfriend was right and this was a terrible idea (at least for this time of year -- any other day it would have been a great, well-thought out plan!) and we went to Chipotle.
So yea... Still need jelly beans. And now every time I want to eat I want E-Tao because for the next 22 days, I CAN'T HAVE IT! Stupid Galleria.

Sunday Confessions - 1 day late, shhhh

Totally forgot to do my Sunday Confessions on Sunday. Oh well here we go.


1. I wasn't feeling great yesterday -- at first I was afraid I caught what my brother-in-law had over the holiday, but I'm feeling okay today so I think it was just some sinus congestion crap -- so I restarted playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (I finally finished playing Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword just on Saturday -- such a beautiful ending! It took a year to play, cos it came out last year around Thanksgiving but I hadn't played since February so it's not like I played every day and it took a year. It only took about 60 hours total play time. Haha.) I played Twilight for about 6 hours straight... yea. I'm so cool. The sad thing is, 6+ hours of play time and I'm only to the second dungeon...

2. I noticed today when I logged in, this blog has had over 500 hits! That makes me super happy. I'm a bit of a hit counter stats stalker. Looking back at the history, it looks like it hit the 500th page view/hit on Thanksgiving. :) More happy! So whoever you were, thanks for visiting! Not too shabby for this little blog being around just over a month and I'm still feeling out my niche in the interwebz world.

3. I love Living Social/Groupon/Amazon Local/whatever deals! I recently bought a Xumba deal on Living Social for Tropa Z Fitness and I went to my first class last week -- had to work out a little before the smorgasbord of food! -- and I loved it! It's very high intensity and I was a little sore the next day, which is exactly what I need. It's even better that I ran into one of my friends there and she goes there about twice a week. New workout buddy! So my plan is to try to go there twice a week, work up to three times a week. My friend goes Monday and Tuesdays... Tuesdays would be good for me. My next three Mondays are already booked... Maybe Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday mornings. They have Zumba M-Th at 7pm and on Saturday morning around 10. I love that schedule! I can work with that schedule!

4. Looking over the list of books I've read recently, I think I'm a little zombie obsessed...
World War Z
Zone One (reading it now)
The Walking Dead - graphic novel volumes 1-16
The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor
And I have so many more zombie-centric books I want to read... No wonder one of my favorite games of Chris' is Zombicide. Right up my alley! And it's a co-op game.

5. Is it Christmas yet? I love Thanksgiving but this year it was a little different, since as I've mentioned, my brother and sister-in-law couldn't make it. It was so nice to get to spend time with family... My boyfriend hasn't gotten a lot of face time with my parents so that was great. Although a little eerie at times when I started seeing some similarities between my father and my boyfriend... mainly how they like to tease me and their love of puns. Oh the puns. So many puns....

Sunday Confessions - Over the Edge

I've seen other people do this on their blog every Sunday so thought I'd give it a try. And this is linked up on Every Day is a New Adventure - go check it out for other Sunday Confessions and new blogs! I found some I'm going to follow.

I must confess...

1. I love doing things with charity - make it even better when it's adventurous things! Yesterday I went Over the Edge for Special Olympics Texas. I raised just under $1500 for Special Olympics and then I rappelled down a 20 story building. My sister and I went to a VIP meet and greet cocktail hour on Friday and the MC there explained how Over the Edge relates to Special Olympics. I'd never thought of it this way... let's see if I can the verbiage right.

"For Special Olympians, these are people who were told that they'd never be able to do things like this. But they push themselves to the edge of their fears and go past it. So we put together this special event for volunteers to raise money and push themselves past their fears and go Over the Edge!" Or something like that. It was really poignant.

Here are some pictures. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of pictures because I had to turn in my phone right when I got there, because we can't have any loose items in our pockets when we rappel.

My Everest the morning of!

Someone rappelling!

The hardest part - leaning your weight out over the air and getting all of your weight into the harness.

Walk down the building! Easy, right?

2. I have been a little bum this week, while my boyfriend's been out of town. I've been marathoning old episodes of Modern Family. Turns out I hadn't seen the first 3 episodes of season 2! Marathoning tv shows is one of my guilty pleasures. I find a do it a lot less now that I live with someone.

3. I need to workout more. And eat less sweets. 

4. I miss my boyfriend. He's been in Dallas for a board game convention since Tuesday. It's been weird basically living alone again. Kind of nice to have the place to myself but definitely a little lonely. It'll be good to have him back -- he flies back in tonight!

5. Um... I don't know. Oh. This is one of the first years in a long time that I'm not finished with my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving is even here. But hey, there's still time! I really need to figure out my shopping list. I have ideas for people I just need to finalize it.