Dedicated to the Cool & Bad A$$es

For Christmas, this awesome dude, also known as Bro Cool A$$ Mofo (or at least that's what it says in my phone) bought Dad, me and himself hockey tickets.  The game we get to go to?!?  Tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets!  The Blues are in first place and playing amazingly well and definitely are showing that are a team to be taken seriously.  I'm excited and pumped for the game and ready for some fun with the fam. 
We are also celebrating tonight because this guy was promoted a mere 4 months after starting his new job and he passed his management test with flying colors!!  I'm so proud of him!

Exciting news for me as well but I'll mention more of that in the coming week.  Let's just say, I'm proud of me and I'm taking the Bad A$$ title.

In any case, LET'S GO BLUES!!!

Twelve in 12?

It's March 1st and while I hate to rush this month along, someone is excited for the start of baseball season, especially after seeing this today...

Cardinals, Molina reach $75M deal through 2017

Glad one (and I'm sure the rest of the 2011 team, minus one who will remain nameless!) Championship team member thinks this city is a great place to play baseball!  By the way, if I haven't made it know before, Molina is my favorite Cardinal.  He's a class act and a nice guy along with being one of the best catchers in baseball.  Don't just take my word for it...even Carlos Beltran agrees with me.  :)

Cardinals Winter Warm-Up 2010

And there is no zoom on that personal pic!  I was that close when he signed autographs for the Cardinals Care event.

Oh and in case you were not in the loop when that other Cardinal left, it was not about the money.

Insane!

Source: Getty Images

How crazy is this?!?  So glad that Juan Pablo Montoya and the driver of the jet dryer are ok!  It's been a wild first week of the 2012 NASCAR season!  I'm hoping I will be able stay up long enough to see who wins this race.  I can't imagine what else could possibly happen in the last 40 laps.

Or like a friend of mine just commented, "this is looking like the race that will never end."

Drive-by update

The last two weeks have flown by...some good things going on, some not-so-nice and some things that are making me take action, but I've been getting by.

A few notable things to mention:

- Switched my workout routine at the gym.  I got my exercise ball (compliments of my cable company) and the resistance bands I bought on Amazon and I've spent most weekday mornings doing a short core workout rather than treking to the gym at 4:30 am for my hour and a half cardio and core/weight training.  The extra hour of sleep has helped tremendously!  And I'm still hitting the gym after work for my cardio and on the weekends for my weekend warrior workout.

- Bro joined me for Coco's birthday happy hour last Friday night and all of my friends and former co-workers were excited to see him.  In fact, they asked me to make sure I invite him to all future functions.  Again, just one more reason why these people are some of the coolest people you could ever meet and we all had such a blast.

- After months of semi-monthly Scrabble nights, I finally won a game against my parents when we played a few weekends ago.  I had good words and good positions for most of those words.  Usually I get stuck with low points with good words and the parents rack up the double and triple letter and word scores.

- Tax season is in full swing so my spare time has been filled with 1040s and Schedule A's.  It's funny to see how many people want nothing to do with their own taxes.  It's also funny that I find these returns fairly enjoyable to do.  (Wonder if I'll still find them enjoyable by the time we get to April 17th!)

- Daytona 2012 is tomorrow.  Woo hoo!!  I'm psyched for the upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup season and still rooting for my guy Jamie McMurray!

- So hard to believe that next week at this time we'll already be into March.  And, in looking at my calendar, I have plans every weekend during the month and all but one weekend in April.  I don't know how I became Ms. Social Butterfly but I'm looking forward to all of the fun things planned including another 30th birthday party, a Blues game, March Madness, St. Patty's Day, my Bro's birthday party, Michael's birthday, a girls' weekend and the much anticipated continuing ed classes at the community college. 
I think by May, I will be planning a relaxing vacation!

Other than that, it's been pretty much run of the mill here.  Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Best Week 2012

By far, this has been the best week of the New Year (yes, I realize it's only February!). 

Anyone else have as much fun as I have this week?
 
Anyone? 
Anyone? 
Bueller? 
Bueller?

By the way, this has nothing to do with the fact that Ferris Bueller has made his reprise with Sunday's Super Bowl commercial.  It's just been an AWESOMELY FANTABULOUS week on many fronts and that's what popped into my head!

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

See that house?  To you it looks like an ordinary house in suburban America.  To me, it looks like the house I grew up in.  And this morning it made it onto the early morning news.

From KMOV.com

Woman shoots self while cleaning gun

Posted on February 8, 2012 at 4:55 AM

Updated today at 9:01 AM

(KMOV) -- A woman accidentally shot herself while cleaning a gun Tuesday night, police said.

Authorities said the accident happened at a residence in the 12000 block of Trampe Heights Lane in Spanish Lake, Missouri around 11:45 p.m.

While the woman was cleaning the gun, it discharged, hitting her in the foot.  No one else in the home was injured.

Six police cars were on the scene after the call came in.  Police did not have information on the condition of the woman or what type of gun she was cleaning.

Be sure to check back with KMOV.com as more information becomes available.


I've heard conflicting reports as to if it is our old house or actually the neighbor's house across the street (our house was featured on the news this morning), but it still was crazy to hear and even more insane to see on the news.  Imagine the wake up call to my Mom, who I called around 6 am to tell the story to.  You'll understand why I called her that early once you learn that she still owns the house on Trampe Heights and is currently renting it out. 

Yeah, I don't think you'll see Mr. Rogers in this neighborhood anytime soon.

Impressed by my skillz

Yesterday I went to visit my brother and do his taxes.  I've done his Federal and Illinois state taxes ever since he started working.  I've also done my own taxes every year since my first job at Claire's when I was 16 and while my taxes were simple back then, they're probably even easier now.
Granted, I also have hours of income tax classes (both individual and business tax) from my years in college as well as practical experience from volunteering for the IRS VITA program during my college days; so really, tax returns really don't scare me easily.

On my way out to my Bro's, I called my Mom just to check in and told her what I was up to and her first response was, "How do you know how to do Illinois state taxes?!?"
I proceeded to remind her that McKendree is located in the state of Illinois and I also had jobs in Illinois while I was in school and had to file non-resident tax returns for the state so that I could get credit in Missouri for paying state tax somewhere.  She was impressed that I could handle completing both Illinois and Missouri state tax returns.  Yep, I'm that awesome -- I may live in Missouri, but this girl is a multi-state tax aficionado.

Random online purchase

If I haven't proven how random I am yet, this definitely will do it....

I had two gift codes from Christmas to use on Amazon.  Since I had the time today, I decided to finally place my order.  I purchased 3 items with my $55 in codes.

A Cuisinart Immersion Blender (in Chrome!)

Black Mountain Fitness Resistance Bands

Garth Brooks Ultimate Hits

I'm sure if actual people saw my order and knew all 3 items are for me, they'd think I'm a confusing mess.  And actually, they'd probably be right, but I'm excited for my purchases.  I'd also like to see what Amazon does when they link and suggest other products to go with another person's purchase.  You know, the little spot where they say, "when buying this item, people also purchased"....ha!

Isn't it ironic

Last night when my buddy, from way back when, Derick came through for a quick visit and to wish me a happy birthday, I was on the phone with my Dad giving him my Super Bowl pick and my points for the game.  Then I proceeded to update him on all of the other exciting happenings from the last few weeks and even months, including my recent poker nights, my excitement for the upcoming Nascar season, my fantasy hockey team, transportation facts (yes, I still talk about trucking!) and every other non-traditional subject I'm interested in all while being outfitted in the cutest mini-skirt and boots possible  He then decided it would be fun to tease me about being the most non-girlie, girlie-girl ever. 
I guess you don't come across many girls that care about their appearance (and shoes!) as much as I do and yet still recite sports stats like a grocery list.  I told him about my plans for the next few weeks also and he just laughed....after keeping in touch with me every now and again over the last 5 years, he's figured out I'm probably pretty close to one of a kind too.

29 on the 29th

After a weekend of shenanigans, little sleep and more birthday fun than you can possibly imagine, I've made it to Sunday night.  I'm extremely grateful for every nice thing done to make my 29th birthday an extra special one -- from the phone calls and cards to the balloons and cake and presents, but mostly I'm grateful for the time I was able to spend with so many great people.

Friday night was a night like no other for me.  Besides my Bro, Mom, Michael and my "lake girls," nearly all of my friends from my previous job came out to happy hour.  I knew I was liked when I was there and I was hoping that I would see many of them, but to have just about everyone who was invited show up and help me celebrate was very, very cool.  After a few hours (why do they call it happy hour when we know it will go on for longer than that?!?), a group of us hit the next spot for karaoke.  I channeled my inner rock star and sang my rendition of When I'm Gone by 3 Doors Down (I got rave reviews by the bar for my performance too) and kept up tradition by singing Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi with Coco.  My Bro, who drove an hour after working all day and dealing with some not-so-nice weather, entertained the crowd with a little Poison and he and I finished the night singing Don't Stop Believin' in memory of my good friend Sherri (January 27th would have been her birthday).  We closed the karaoke bar down at 1:30 and headed home.  I needed to try to get some sleep even though I was still so pumped up because Saturday was going to be a big day as well.

Saturday I was super woman and I went 10 different directions throughout the entire day.  I had to take care of nearly everything on my weekend to-do list so that Saturday night, I could sit back and enjoy some poker time.  MO and I were invited to play in a fundraiser Texas Hold 'em tournament and we both jumped at the chance to play cards again so soon (and so reasonably priced as well).  The tournament was fun and I played probably one of my best nights of poker.  I made it to the final table and ended up finishing 10th out of 120-130 people.  Not too shabby if I say so myself!

As for today, I made a mean slow-cooked pork verde, spanish rice and stuffed mushrooms and had an early afternoon dinner with my family.  My Dad, Aunt and Nicole do not really come over to my side of the river and visit all that often and I was happy to just have a few hours to spend with them at my apartment.  Nicole was also highly impressed that I had a mini donut maker so we ended up whipping up a batch of glazed donuts for dessert too.

Overall, I can say, I've had a fantastic birthday weekend and for your viewing pleasure, I'll leave you with a few highlights from Friday.

The Super Sibling Duo.
And in case you haven't heard, my Bro is the absolute greatest!

A little Poison action compliments of my Bro

Cause I'm a Cowboy....

Recreating last year's shot pic.  For some reason, everyone got a kick out of this.

I hope you had a great weekend as well!

Party Time!

While my actual birthday isn't until Sunday, my amazing group of friends are throwing me a huge party tonight.  We're going out for happy hour at a local sports bar and then heading out to do karaoke.  I've got my songs prepared and I'm ready for A LOT of fun tonight and the entire weekend.  Pics to follow if I remember that I actually have my camera with me.  :)

As for the rest of my birthday weekend, I'm playing in a fundraiser poker tournament Saturday night (told ya, the bug bit me again!) and then having my Dad, Aunt and Nicole over for dinner on Sunday.  I decided instead of going out, I wanted to stay home, spend some time in my kitchen and whip up my own Mexican feast, so that's what I'm doing.

Ready....Set....Let's celebrate!

Early Birthday Present

With my birthday being in 12 days, I decided tonight that I would buy myself a birthday present.  That present you may ask is tickets to....

Yep, that's right, despite my Bro's constant disgrace of me digging Nickelback, I'm going to see them when they come back to town on May 29th.  Plus, how can you go wrong with Bush, Seether and My Darkest Days also on the bill?!?  Happy Birthday to me! 

Now I just have to find someone willing to use the 2nd ticket I purchased.

Poker night

One year ago tonight, I was in Mississippi watching my favorite dude (Broccoli) take down the 3rd Saturday of the month $5K Guaranteed Texas Hold 'Em Tournament at the Gold Strike.  It was a long, yet highly eventful night and one that he and I were always reminiscing about when we were together.

I played poker before I met Broccoli but haven't played much since we broke up, but tonight that's about to change.  I got a text from one of my friends at my former job earlier today.  His buddies were looking for a few more people for poker night tonight and he wanted to know if I'd be up for playing.  The itch has been there so of course I had to accept. 
I'm hoping tonight I can be the champ of the 3rd Saturday in January Texas Hold 'Em tourney at MO's buddies' house.  I wouldn't mind that title.  I just hope it doesn't go until 2 am.  Wish me luck!

Missouri, you did me a favor

I received notification from the State of Missouri that my Driver's License expired this month.  At first I wasn't sure if I was glad to be getting a new license or not.  You see, my license was taken while I was still trying to lose the weight 6 years ago and anytime I get carded now, it's always a topic of conversation that besides the smile, I looking nothing like the girl in the picture.  It reminded me of how far I've come and how much my hard work in the gym and complete lifestyle change has paid off.
This morning, I proudly went to the license bureau and handed over my expiring license and got my new updated one.  One with an updated picture and updated weight!  It was a bit sad to see Fat Lindsay go, but I'm sure it will cause me less grief when people thing I have a fake ID and I'm nearing 30 years old.

Interesting reading

While I have a little time in between the holiday craziness and the tax season madness, earlier this week I decided to go to the library to see if there was anything interesting for me to spend my down time reading.  Interestingly enough, I found this book:

I figured there would be a few things for me to contemplate and perhaps try before I'm too old, married or pregnant.  (For the record, none of those three are on the horizon for me.)
So far, I'm digging some of the ideas even only a few chapters into the book.  In fact, I just may take some of these things to do and add them to this year's bucket list.

We'll also see how many of these I've already attempted once I make my way through the entire book.  If I had to take a ball park guess, I'm going to say 10.

My kind of winter

In the good 'ol Lou today we hit a record setting high of 66 degrees.  It was sunny, calm and the perfect January day.  Who would have thought on January 5th, I'd be leaving the gym in a tank top and have my window down for the drive home?  (I'm usually the one wearing 4 layers and bundled up like I live in the Antarctic.)  We're expecting more of the same for tomorrow with a forecasted high of 64 degrees and more sun and while I'm enjoying this magnificent winter weather, I can't help but think about how Mother Nature will be getting back as us.
And I'm guessing it will be sooner rather than later but until then, I'm pretending like we've made it to Spring.

Headed back to school

For the first time in 7 years, my Bro and I will be in college at the same time and for the first time ever, he and I will be taking a class together.  It's nothing major (yet!), but we're registered for a continuing ed class offered through the local community college.  It's a chance for us to bond (an extended Sibling Saturday of sorts) and a chance for us to get the ball rolling for the bigger and better things we have planned for the future.  I'm excited for this opportunity and a bit nervous -- I definitely don't want to look like even more of a dork in front of him than normal because he will totally call me out on it.

Someone is a bit excited today

I have seen the tweets and music articles floating around the interwebs and I am fairly certain today is the day!

Shinedown are releasing the first single ‘Bully’ on January 3rd, 2012

I am just hoping I get to hear it at some point over the next few days.  I'd like to think of it as an early birthday present from my favorite band.  Thanks guys!!  (Yes, I'm talking to Shinedown as if they followed my blog!  Wouldn't that be so awesome?!?)  I'm sure even without hearing it, it's as great if not better than everything else you've released.

Yep, I'm a giddy school girl today.

Update:  Just caught the song and lyrics on You Tube and I think this song will go great on my Shinedown workout mix.  More Shinedown awesomeness for sure!  Here's the link for your listening pleasure:  Bully

Sources: 
#1
#2

Day 2 and not so smart

I never do resolutions, but instead come up with ideas of things I'd like to work on for each new year.  Mostly they are mental notes for making myself better.  As of today, the 2nd day of the year, I've already broke one (because I don't listen to that little voice that tries to keep me on track when I want to be stupid) and I'm on my way to making another one work (a BIG dream of mine that will one day come true, I hope). 

I would say I'm 50/50 for the year but I think I created a huge mess for myself with the one I've broken already and it probably counts as multiple failures on my part.  So much for being smarter in 2012.  Personally, I think it would be better if I went back and relived January 2011.

Christmas revisited

I realized Christmas came and went and I never really said much about the festivities at either parents' house nor the fun we had at my Aunt and Uncle's place Christmas Eve afternoon.  Rather than form words, which is a bit difficult since I'm running on 2 hours of sleep right now, (Yeah, I was a party animal with Mom and Michael last night.  Don't ask for more details though, I'm still bitter after losing every game of Scrabble the last two nights.), so I'm entertaining you with a photo dump.

Bro as a Christmas present, his bow even matches his shirt!

Dad -- wine holder and trash collector, he's multi-talented

Sibling Love

Bro, modeling his new work attire

Me and my meat thermometer

Bro and his big basket of cooking goodies.  (This was my gift to him.)

Dad opening his present from Bro. (We're going to the hockey game!)

Bro wearing my awesome hat from Memphis.  He was jealous I was so stylin' on Christmas. 

 

Confused by the present.

Silcone baking mats! (Or cooking drum sticks, your choice.)

Mom and Michael with their healthy popcorn maker.  (Yes, that's from me.)

Oreo already asking for a popcorn snack.

Oreo, bummed we told her she had to wait for popcorn.

My new Calphalon Grill Pan!

Despite the extra stress we faced again this holiday season, we had fun and enjoyed our time together.  I call that Christmas success.