My week in summary

Did I tell you how much I like going to Calgary? Well, here goes:

Monday night was the awards dinner. Would have been fine, except for all the food and wine. Man did they have a spread out! And the Desert table to die for. I figure I was -21 points for the day when all was said and done. I actually got to bed at a decent hour, unlike last year when we drank Ceasars like they were water, then went to the bar after. (I also did not have one of the cute presenters hitting on me and making me misbehave...) Went to bed at a decent hour. I am lucky I set my phone alarm, as my wakeup call never arrived.

Good thing was that I got up at 5am to go workout. 3.5 miles on the treadmill, some stretching, crunches, and some weightlifting for my arms. Bad thing: at about 9am, after having only coffee that morning, I started getting hives on the roof of my mouth. I had to dash out of the meetings to go get some benedryl, as my throat was starting to swell. That kind of put a damper on any food I wanted to eat that day. The folks in my department were going out to celebrate "going away" for the people that got buy-out packages. I declined with the excuse that I was not feeling well. I know that I would have had alcohol had I gone, and I did not want to do that as I was taking the anti-histamies.

Instead I went out with my co-worker, and had a lovely pasta dish (soft food). Mango curry fusilli with chicken. It was soooooo good! She is also looking at taking a buy out from the company, and I will not blame her if she goes, but I will definately miss her!

We did make some plans to go out to breakfast the next morning, but she was running late, as she actually had a phone interview she was trying to schedule. They told her 9am, but they had not called as of 9:30, so she was coming to get me... I checked out, and sat in the lobby of the hotel with a book for a while... at about 10:15, I tried calling her to see what was up, but it went right into voice mail, so I figured she was talking to them - she had said earlier that it might have been 9am their time (central) rather than her time (mountain). Needless to say, I was getting a bit hungry, and wondering when she was going to show up. Meanwhile, another couple of my co-workers were catching a cab to the airport, so I rode with them, leaving Holly a message on her phone - I figured I could go through customs, and then have plenty of time to find something to eat - and left the hotel. I got a call at about 11:30 as I was about ready to set all of my stuff on the belt to go through the x-ray at security. She had finally arrived at the hotel, and was wondering where I was. I felt kind of bad, but really, we had originally planned 8:30! If I knew she was going to be there at 11:30, I would have definately had breakfast on my own, and I would not have been as cranky!

Let's recap. Got a call at 8:20, she was going to be late, perhaps 9:30. She called at 9:15, saying that probably more like 9:45, I checked out at 9:45, sat until 10:15, called, could not get an answer, and left at 11:00. Meanwhile, I am getting hungrier and hungrier, and a bit worried if I am actually going to get a ride to the airport, since I should be there by 12:00 to give me time to clear customs. Bah. Enough of that. Why should I feel bad about trying to take care of me?

On the positive side of hives on the roof of my mouth, it sure curtailed what I ate at thanksgiving! The Hors d'orves nearly made me cry. I put a tortilla chip with a dip of cream cheese, coctail sauce and shrimp into my mouth, and it made tears come to my eyes, it hurt so badly! Dinner was okay, but then for desert, I ate a bite or two of the strawberry chiffon pie, and when that started to sting, I gave the rest to my husband. No fun when eating stuff hurts!

Mom and I also got up early on Friday to hit the stores. I cannot believe that people stand in line to get the "deals" that they do after Thanksgiving. Really - my time is much more valuable than that! The up side is that the majority of my Christmas shopping is now done. Yay! We went to Kohl's and got a bunch of stuff, and now I have $30 to spend this week. I think I will look at getting myself a new rice steamer, as my old one took a crap.

After Kohl's we went to JoAnn, pulled a bunch of patterns I had written down (the best way - go online and look at the stuff before you go to the store, then just bring a list of pattern numbers) since they were 99 cents each, Fun Fur yarn to make some fuzzy scarves, and some cutting wheels. We decided that it was not worth standing in the cutting lines to get the 99 cent per yard flannel, so we checked out and got an extra 20% off of everything with the coupon because it was before 9am.

Breakfast at Perkins. Was thinking about getting oatmeal, but opted for the Eggs Benedict instead. Then off to the mall to look at Marshall Fields. We looked at the sleep number beds, man they seem like they would be very comfortable to sleep in, but I would want the one that is almost $3000. I guess that would be something for the bonuses this year! Went back to Marshall Fields, tried on lots of clothes, got a warmup outfit, and a new pair of jeans. Shopped at Target, went back to Mom's house 6 hours after we left, and it was not even noon yet...

Saturday, I felt like doing a lot of nothing, so that was exactly what I did. I have not exercised for a week, and that needs to end!

The bonus this week is that the training I was supposed to do on the 30th was postponed, so I can now fly to Chicago and back for the training on the 2nd, instead of having to drive! Plus I get another two days at home!

Anyhoo, I suppose I need to get some sort of work done, it has been a conference-cally day.

later!
-a