Making Time

There are never enough hours in the day, and sometimes I wish our bodies didn't need eight hours of sleep a night. There are so many things I want to do. Do you ever run into this?

I find myself making lists upon lists of new ideas and things I want to try, learn or complete. Though life sometimes gets in the way. I recently read a few articles about what successful people do in the morning, typical habits etc. I wanted to see if I could employ some of those habits into my own life to become a bit more successful in the things I'm looking to accomplish.

Here's five things I'm now doing:

1. Wake Up Early - 90% of CEOs polled said they were up before 6AM. Ugh, I don't think that will be me in the near future. Though I have been getting up earlier than before and making it into the office earlier as well. 
2. Eat Breakfast - This is something I've been doing really well at. Just taking the extra time to feed my body has made a pretty big difference. 
3. Tackle the Toughest Thing First - This is not always the easiest but something I try to do before I get bogged down with all the other interruptions I have on a daily basis. Making a to do list before I leave for the next morning usually helps me complete this task. 
4. Exercise - Right now I am doing this after work, though I would like to transition this to first thing in the morning. It's a work in progress. 
5. Personal Passion Project - Right now it's The Tomboy Project. If you would like to check it out please visit fb.com/thetomboyproject

These five things might seem like they are adding more to my workload, though they have really helped me be more productive, awake and motivated. It's nice. 

What are you doing to be more successful with your hopes and dreams? Share them in the comments. 

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http://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/231037#0

http://www.businessinsider.com/things-successful-people-do-before-bed-2014-3

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifercohen/2013/10/02/5-things-super-successful-people-do-before-8-am/

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/10-things-successful-people-do-on-monday-mornings.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-successful-people-do-on-sunday-night-2014-3

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/13/successful-people-after-work_n_4235795.html

Imma Grow Me Some Food

It's about that time! Spring is coming and that means it's time to get my seedlings started. My last name is George which means Farmer, I feel this innate need to grow things from the Earth. I think it's just in my blood.

One thing my family does is make our own salsa. It's so much better than anything you buy in the supermarket. This year I want to expand beyond tomatoes and peppers to include lettuce, corn (my Iowan roots) and watermelon.

To start my seedlings I always let them germinate in a ziploc bag. If I don't do that, I always loose them in the soil and it's an epic fail. It takes me back to elementary school when you put the lima beans in the bag and let them sprout.

Once these sprout I will transfer them to smaller pots until they are healthy enough to be transplanted into the garden.

One with Nature

I live on the outskirts of the city in the desert. With this comes animals of all kinds, and my curiosity to know what I am sharing my home and neighborhood with.

As I approach my second anniversary in my home I have seen a

Desert Spiny Lizard

via http://faculty.ucr.edu/~chappell/INW/herps/DSL.shtml | Photo by Mark Chappell

Gila Woodpecker 

 

via http://sabinocanyonnaturalist.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html | Photo by Ned Harris

and now! A pack of Javelina 

via http://gwenhernandez.com/tag/javelina/ | Photo by Gwen Hernandez

It's always cool to see animals in the wild. They are seriously beautiful. I love javelina. It's important to remember to NEVER feed them. It leads to them (and more) consistantly coming back into your neighborhood. You could get injured and they would most likely be killed. No one wants that. 

Merry Christmas!!

There are so many things I want to share from this holiday season, though one of my favorite has to be a combination of my friend Frank's birthday, Smitty being pregnant and Roo's first Christmas. That is pretty much the entire year wrapped up in one family and packed into one giant box I shipped to Austin.

What the hell am I talking about? One quilt and four bibs. See, my mother and I had planned on making this quilt from the time we heard Smitty was pregnant. We started off on a roll. We knew we wanted to design something around Frank being a firefighter and choose fabrics that fit in what I knew about Smitty's style. We finished the design and purchased the fabric. We even ordered specialty teddy bear firefighting fabric from across the country.

Things got super busy as usual. Smitty had Roo and she's basically in college now. Then we got an email from Smitty. She was doing a project for Frank's 30th birthday. Frank is like Mother Teresa in a petite Texan body, she cares about others and does so much to help make the world a better place. The project was to get all of Frank's friend to do one act of kindness for someone else and then tell the story so it could be put into a book.

BINGO, perfect timing to finish the quilt and bibs. I knew it was cheating because it wasn't for someone else, but it was something I was really wanting to do for their family. I finished the bibs and submitted those as my story. I kept the quilt a secret.

I shipped the box out filled with trinkets, bibs, the quilt and a butt load of confetti. Sorry ladies, I couldn't resist.

Below are some pictures of the quilt in process and the final one is the Rooster taking it for a test drive. I think she likes it.

Merry Christmas!

Piecing the top together.

Stitch the ditch!

Make sure everything lines up!

Lots of stitching the ditch.

Pining the edges. Lots of pins, lots of pokes.

See the fire helmet?

Finished top.

Finished back.

I think she likes it!

My mom and I are working on two more quilts that will be available shortly. Stay tuned for those in the coming weeks!

Ballet Arizona and the Nutcracker

I didn't plan on going to the Nutcracker last night. Originally, I was supposed to go to the ballet with April and Stuart. One night about a month ago, April is trying and pushing to get me to purchase tickets. I finally gave in after getting an email from Ballet AZ saying the Nutcracker is 50% off the same night April wants me to go. 

I ask her where they are sitting, Section C she tells me. I keep looking and looking for Section C in Symphony Hall, can't find it. I see section 1, 2 and 3 . . . but no letters. Finally, I think she's just sleep deprived and telling me things because it's about 3AM at this point. I go ahead and purchase tickets close to Section 3. For me, I think C, 3 . . . same thing. 

I get to work the next morning, tell her I got tickets and she asked me where I am sitting. I tell her and she's really confused. We go back and forth for a minute and something just isn't sitting well with me. I then proceed to ask her what ballet she's going to.

THE RUSSIAN BALLET! Why she didn't tell me or I didn't ask is completely beyond me. We bought tickets to two completely different ballets. Who knew Phoenix was that culturally down to have two ballets. 

In the end it worked out because of our ADDY extension I ended up at Mingle Bells the night we were supposed to go and I moved my ticket to last night. 

The ballet I went to was incredibly funny and beautifully performed. The sugar plum fairy and man fairy were spectacular. Their lines, jumps and turns were on lock. There was a point in the ballet where their duo was so spectacularly executed I thought the audience was going to give them a standing ovation in the middle of the show. 

Then there is this Queen of Hearts character that is totally a Drag Queen. AMAZING. That's all. 

It was cool seeing and recognizing some of the dancers from Cinderella in their new rolls. If you have the chance to go and see the ballet, you should go. I highly recommend them. 

Hanging out with Leroy

I love this little man. He's amazing and soooo cute. We hung out all weekend and watched Halloween cooking shows and movies. Much needed rest.

Dogs are such great stress relieving fur balls. Shoot me a photo of your hound!

Weekend Recap: Stories from a Different World

If you've ever gone to Van Chevrolet to get your car serviced and taken the shuttle home chances are you've encountered this shuttle driver. He's a 79 year old man with white hair, a bunch of perfectly placed wrinkles and walks slightly hunched over.

If you don't pay attention you could easily just pass him over for another old person in the Valley. Though take one ride with him in the car and you will experience a world we no longer know.

Today I got to hear the story about how he became a pilot. Before he made the decision to become a pilot though, he was doing jobs to get by. He was a typewriter repair man, a bartender and something else that I can't remember. Anyway, as he was looking around at the people in the bar one night he was starting to realize that he had a lot more potential and wasn't ready to settle for what he was doing like everyone else in the bar had.

As he began to contemplate his future, he saw a girl with a mini skirt on (this is where I thought the story was going to take a turn for the worse) and it flashed him back to a flight he was on a few weeks earlier. He started thinking about what it would be like to be a pilot, the uniform, the pretty stewardesses and the good pay.

He began to train and get his credentials. Within 138 days he had them all complete. He said he was amazed at how all the obstacles just fell away and it felt like it was God that cleared the way for him to be a pilot. Things that shouldn't have happened were happening in a good sense.

See when he was younger some idiot fired a gun next to his head and pretty much destroyed his hearing out of one of his ears. To be a pilot, you need to be able to hear perfectly. He was understandably nervous when he went into do his hearing test for the Mighty Tigers.

He went into this tiny sound proof room with a tiny window. He sat down and put the headphones over his ears and waited patiently for the nurse outside the room to start twisting and turning the knobs to send faint sounds into his headphones.

She instructed him to raise his hand every time he heard a sound no matter how faint. To his luck the nurse started with his good ear and it passed at 100%. As he finished the first test, he felt this giant sneeze come on. AAAHHHH-CHOOOO, the sneeze was so big and loud his head went down between his knees.

After he sneezed, the nurse continued with his bad ear. Amazingly, it passed with 100%. He got the job with the Tigers. It was the beginning of a 30 year career. Every time he went into the doctor for his hearing check-up he passed easily because they just yelled at him from across the room.

As I'm listening to this, I'm thinking did the sneeze pop something? Did some animal take residence in his head for all those years? What made him be able to hear so miraculously? So I asked.

Nope, no Jesus miracle . . . when he sneezed and put his head between his legs . . . he switched the headphones so the nurse tested his good ear twice. At this point in the story I start laughing so hard, I had tears. I don't know what it is about hearing a story from an old person, you never think they were ornery. . . but most of them were more ornery than we could ever imagine.

He always just turned up volume 100% and never missed a call or conversation. He flew some of the most amazing planes of the time. Through his travels he met his, what he says, amazing wife and had more adventures that anyone ought to be allowed in one lifetime.

I was like holy fuck you need to share these stories of yours. Come to find out he has written a book. It's called The Mighty Tiger: Adventures Of An Unlikely Pilot. I've attached a link below so you can check it out on Amazon if you are interested on hearing more of this man's amazing stories.

2nd Annual Tomboy Road Trip

Many of you who read my blog know that I am in the process of writing a book. Though for those of you reading this that don't know, I am writing a book.

The book is called The Tomboy Project and is an exploration of what tomboys are like in today's society. I am in the second year of the book and am incredibly honored to meet some of the people I have met over the last year and a half.

I took last week off work to complete the second long road trip leg of the project. I drove around the midwest talking with women and experiencing their lives. In the morning of one day I was on a farm and that afternoon I was in the middle of Downtown Chicago. It's quite an adventure to see what I get into.

If you are interested click on the link above and visit the Facebook page. Like the page to stay updated with all the adventures and behind the scene photos.

Sceloporus Magister

We had a visitor today. I had no idea what it was but thanks to Google found out it's a Desert Spiny Lizard. The most important question I have is . . . is it poisonous? The answer is no, but they will bite if they are picked up.

My little visitor made me curious to know more. So I will share what I have learned. 

They are native to Utah, Colorado, New Mexico to Arizona and can grow to be up to about 142 mm or 5.6" from snout to butt. The tail size will vary and make them, obvioulsy, longer.

Their color is close to camoflage in the desert shrubbery though they have speckles of yellow on their sides, wedges of dark purple on their shoulders. Boys have two large, bright, teal patches on the belly and a blue patch on the throat so I'm pretty sure the one hanging out on my fence was a man. 

They burrow and live in pack rat nests after basking in the sun on tree branches during the day. They also hibernate in late Fall and Winter. 

It says you will most likely find a male and female together. "Mating takes place in spring and summer and one or two clutches of eggs are laid in spring and summer. Clutch size ranges from 2 to 12 eggs. Hatchlings may appear as early as late May but usually begin to emerge in July."

They eat insects including ants, beetles, and caterpillars. The DSL also feeds on spiders, centipedes, small lizards, and some plant material.

I got all of this information off a great website by Thomas Brennan, it has a lot more information on all the reptiles of Arizona. It's intention is to educate and preserve the great species we have in the desert. Go nerd out here.

These are the photos I took through my kitchen window. 

This photo is off the website mentioned above. Tom's photo looks a lot better and shows the true beauty of this lizard. 

Here's a fun video of one of the lizards getting some tasty fly snacks.

Happy Birthday Leroy!

So my little man turned two this year and I can't believe how lucky I am. Leroy is seriously one of the best dogs I have ever had. To celebrate we had a combination house warming birthday party. Here are some pics from the event. 

Projects here, there and everywhere.

Keeping busy keeps me happy and right now I am busy. There are a couple projects I am working on that I am super proud of. Here's a short update on a couple of them.

Betsy took this, I stole it from her Facebook.

At the agency, Betsy and I are working on a commercial for our client. That commercial is in production this week so you know I can't share much information about it. The producer and director were a great fit for this project and I can't wait to get everything wrapped up.

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With all the things I like to get myself into, I also like to keep a life on the side. This past weekend, I ran in The Color Run. SO MUCH FUN! It's a 5K where every 1K you go through color zones where you are plummeted with this colored powder similar to flour. So, you start the race clean with a white shirt and end a colorful mess. After you finish the run, every 15 minutes, they have a powder toss where everyone throws the powder in the air, resulting in the photo above.

If you can sign up for this I highly recommend it!!

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My personal project, The Tomboy Project, has been slow on the backers, though it is gaining ground as far as women wanting to get involved. This project is growing and becoming something that when finished, will probably blossom into something I can't even imagine at this moment. If you don't know what the project is check it out on kickstarter here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1029556983/the-tomboy-project

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As I am typing this, Leroy is snoring on the couch next to me. He has been a true blessing in my life, reminding me of what really matters in life and being such a great stress reliever. We are planning on running the Run. Walk. Wag. 5K9 and I've been googling training programs on how to get him ready for 3.1 miles.

He is so tired after 1.5 miles right now, so hopefully in about a month I can get him up to the 3 miles. If not, we will just do the 1 mile fun run. He can handle that without a problem.

Are you planning on running this with your dog? Let me know and post a picture of your dog below!!

Extreme Couponing

I partnered with my mother to start extreme couponing. Well not as crazy as the show but enough to make a dent and start saving for an XBox and Kinect. Dear XBox if you are reading this and want to send us one for free, let me know. I will test it out for you.

Anyway, we did our first shopping trip before Thanksgiving and we ended up paying $130 for a week's worth of groceries for three, plus Thanksgiving dinner for six. Not too shabby if you ask me. 

Tomorrow we are going on our next couponing adventure. It's weird how spending time with my mom cutting coupons, grocery shopping and planning weekly dinners is now fun. I must be getting old. Look out advertisers, I'm becoming your target market. 

We are taking tips from the show, though will NEVER I repeat NEVER get in a dumpster for a coupon. Though some of the tips we are incorporating are: 

• Subscribing to the Sunday newspaper - You can get the AZ Republic for $4 a month and that includes Wednesday which is another big day for coupons.
• Cutting out any coupon you could potentially need and file it - We started using one of the empty file drawers in my home office to keep everything labeled and organized.  
• Create a filing system and stick to it - We have also started using the computer to catalog the coupons we clip every week but we only have about 50 coupons right now. If you are interested in the inventory document we set up, please leave a comment below. 
• Stock up on any non-perishables when you can get the best deal - Just make sure you have the room so you don't appear to be a hoarder. 

I know you might think this is a really random blog post. But think about it, in the world of advertising you've probably at some point and time designed or dealt with FSIs but how many of you have actually used them. 

We don't really deal with retail clients anymore at our agency, though if you do, try using the coupons in the Sunday paper. It will give you a great eye opening lesson on how your clients should or should not be designing their FSIs.

Have a great rest of your weekend!

**UPDATE**

Happy to update we saved 23.9% more than we did the last trip to the grocery store. It's definitely hard  work and REALLY time consuming, but so worth it. We saved more than we spent at every store and made a profit at one of the stores. This is a really good feeling. 

A Memory . . .

It was exactly 10 years ago to this minute that I heard the first plane had hit the World Trade Center. I had gotten up for another day of my senior year in high school at 6:38AM, I never got up this early for school.

I turned the radio on before I got in the shower and that's when I heard. I went in to tell my mom about what I had heard. She kind of brushed it off like it must had been an freak accident.

I continued to get ready like it was a normal day. Though as I got to my first period H.E.R.O. class, we all started to realize that this wasn't an accident. Every class I went to that day had the television on, we watched the second plane hit. We watched the first and then second tower collapse. The pentagon and then flight 93 crash.

Our country changed forever that day. I don't think there is enough gratitude we could exude to everyone who was involved in helping to save this country and the people hurt in the hateful act initiated that morning.

My hope for this 10th Anniversary, is that everyone spends time to reflect and remember how we came together as a country. We were a community that day, we were a unit. We were thankful for the survivors. We were doing whatever we could to find other survivors. We never gave up hope.

I really think this mentality is necessary to have today. The problems with this country, the economy, the unemployment etc. are fixable. But we need to come together as a community again. We need to stop this me vs you mentality.

We need to come together. We need to start supporting our neighbors and become the strong nation the rest of the world looks to us to be. We are a place where anything you dream and work for can happen.

God Bless America.

Whiskey Row 10K

This past weekend was incredible. My copywriter and I have really flipped the traditional advertising events of sitting around drinking to a more healthy and exciting environment. We have joined Gold's Gym along with a few other co-workers and we have started running 5 and 10Ks. This past weekend we ran in the Whiskey Row Marathon 10K.

We drove up to Prescott on Friday afternoon and stayed at the Hassayampa Inn. This place is almost exactly the same as it was when it was built in 1927. Supposedly, it is also haunted. We didn't encounter any of the three ghosts though. Kind of a bummer.

The beds in this place are amazing. I had a hard time getting up in time for the race Saturday morning. Good thing Betsy gets up early. We headed down the hill to the start line. The marathoners and half marathoners started an hour and a half before the 10Kers so it was nice to not have such a crowded start line.

Ready. Set. Go. We set off on a nice flat surface. . . hahaha . . . then we turn the corner to our first hill. Not too bad. Must. Keep. Going. Keep it at a nice jog, then I see it, it's like a tsunami of concrete. This hill is seriously reminding me of California Street in San Francisco. By the time I got to the top I had to look down and make sure my legs were still attached to my body.

The best part of the race was when the 10K crossed the marathoners. We were going opposite directions but there was this great sense of community. Everyone was cheering each other on, high fives and words of encouragement were exchanged. It was a really motivating part of the race.

Bets and I both finished the race. Betsy finished 2nd in her age group and 5th overall. She's pretty badass. Me on the other hand finished 611th. But at least I finished right? And I still got a finisher medal.

7th Annual Pat's Run 2011

So this weekend was amazing and inspiring. The entire race you would see military personnel with their families and their fully loaded packs or carrying a flag. It was definitely more emotion that I thought I would experience. 

The most inspiring thing I saw was a man on the side of the road who had lost both of his legs and he was readjusting one of his prosthesis to get back up and continue running. I don't think words can describe the feeling of seeing something so moving. 

28,000 people showed up to race and show their support, that's a big deal. 

Below are some pics from the race. I can't wait until next year.

In our corrals.

Running up a hill.

Coming down Rural.

Entering Sun Devil Stadium.

Coming out the tunnel.

Mile 4.

Some of the runners. 

The finish line.

ASU Sun Devil Stadium.

Arizona, a Lexus and a Haircut

So as you all probably know I am back in Zona and it's amazing. I love it, the weather has been beautiful, the people that I work with are great and it's so nice to be around family again. The only thing that sucks is I realized that I left an entire load of nice shirts in the dryer . . . guess I know what my first paycheck is going towards.

I have taken a job with Moses Anshell, a great ad agency in Phoenix. There are some great things coming in the near future and I am so excited to be a part of it. Don't worry I will share more as we get things moving . . . I wouldn't want to spoil the anticipation.

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As for the Lexus, I have realized how much better the traffic is here but how much worse the drivers are. In LA, when there is a hole people drive faster and are aggressive. They also use their horns, thus in the last three years I have gotten REALLY good at using my horn as well.

So I am pulling out of PetCo this girl cuts through parking lot almost nailing my car, so I do what anyone would do, I honked. Not in a "hey whore don't cut me off" but in a "hey I'm here don't hit me" kind of way. She proceeds to flip me off. So fine whatever Arizonians use their middle fingers instead of their horns . . . it's all starting to come back to me.

Then we are making a left across traffic, no light. Nice size hole in traffic comes, we can both make it if we both go. So, she goes and I follow her out, we both begin to accelerate and then all of a sudden she slams on her brakes with NO ONE, NOOOO ONNEEEE, around. She is obviously pulling a backdoor (backdoor is when someone slams on their brakes because they think the person is driving too close to them in anticipation that the other person will rear end them.)

Her being a stupid bleached blonde whore that is driving a (most likely) leased Lexus obviously can't judge distance very well because I had more than enough room to maneuver into the lane next to me and go around her. Oh did I mention there was no one around us, so that also made getting around her a lot easier as well.

So I then get slowed down by a truck that is trying to turn right so she then gets in front of me and starts going 15MPH, so I take a picture of her license plate, this obviously did something because she sped off.

Anyway, I just thought I would share because this woman/girl/whore managed to cut me off, flip me off, pull a backdoor and then reverse tailgate me in a matter of two blocks. She is lucky I didn't have eggs with me or I would have thrown one at her. (Those of you who know me know that last statement is only half true.)

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Ok onto the haircut, if any of you are still with me, this part is about social media.

I needed a trim, my hair was lookin' a bit nappy, so since I'm home I thought I would hit up the local Great Clips that I used to frequent while in high school. Since my lady didn't speak English that well, I was reduced to eavesdropping on the lady next to me.

They were talking about facebook. These ladies were in their 40s maybe early 50s and were talking about how they didn't use facebook and couldn't believe that people would openly put all that information out there. The lady was afraid her children would get stolen and the hairdresser was afraid she would get stolen. The hairdresser also said that she didn't even own a cell phone, honey you look like a cave woman so I understand you not having a cell phone, and unless the man is a neanderthal you have no worries about being stolen.

I had to contain myself from laughing at most of their conversation and at one point I almost interjected but I realized I really just didn't care.

What do you think about the generation that is too young to retire but completely missed the digital revolution?

Arizona and a Haircut

I have finished moving back to my home state of Arizona. It is an amazing place and I am happy to be home. I have recently started a new job as the Senior Art Director with Moses Anshell. Even though I've only been here two days,  I feel like I've been here forever. Everyone here is amazing, so nice and helpful. It is also a young agency, meaning the employees are in their early 20s to early 30s. It is refreshing and inspiring.

I got here yesterday and I had a bunch of goodies on my desk which included food, gum, koozies, and other assorted items. Also, they gave me a duck toy and water bowl for Leroy. It was great. I also didn't sit around on my first day here. I was thrown in and picked up the pace, I'm amazed at the difference that makes and how exciting it is.

Today hasn't slowed down a bit either. There's too many things that I've been impressed with in my two days here to name. But just know it's good.

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On to the haircut. I desperately needed a trim so I went to the Great Clips I used to go to in high school when I was too poor to get a proper trim (kind of like now). The lady that was cutting my hair didn't speak very good english so I had to resort to ease dropping on the lady next to me.

So apparently she isn't to tech saavy and doesn't like facebook or even computers in general. Apparently they are too public, and she's worried about pedophiles "coming to her house to steal her children." I seriously had to contain myself from laughing out loud and messing up my hair cut. Though the hairdresser agreed with her stating that she didn't even own a cell phone. . . she did kind of look like a cave woman so I let that one slide.

It amazes me how incredibly different the two generations are and I am somewhat spoiled because I am in advertising so the older crowd gets and uses facebook and other social media platforms. Though there are so many people over 30 that are scared of technology and won't venture beyond Microsoft Word. The internet sends chills down the spine and they think they are going to get sucked into a black hole.

While our generation is great when it comes to sharing socially online, we royally suck at face to face communication. It has come down to asking someone out over a text. 52% of youth in Japan think that is the socially acceptable way to go about it too!

I wonder if we will ever see a revolt against technology and cubes. In someways we are already, the laptop and skype allows us to work where ever we want while still being able to conference with co-workers. Do you think that offices will ever be out of date?

I know an entire thought process of how generations interact with technology just from going to get a haircut. It happens.

A have found a new interest.

Photo by ray.blas

My birthday is coming up soon since my new interest is paddle boarding, I've been looking at boards. I found one by Holua, it's great and has that grandpa faux wood paneling in the Caddy look to it. I've also found another brand I like it's Three Bros. out of Florida.

The thing I loooove about paddle boarding is you can do it ANY where. Whether you are landlocked in the mid-west rocking the lakes or on a coast hanging on some waves, you can get on a paddle board and enjoy the day. I first saw paddle boards in Hawai'i when I was there almost 10 years ago, so yes I'm a little late to the game, but sometimes that happens. 

I just found a living social deal today for a $49 2-hour session. I am pretty stoked. Check out the deal at http://livingsocial.com/deals/16156?ref=personalized-link-box-5485684&rpi=5485684. If you are interested in going with me, let me know.

I fell in the skimmer basket hole.

Visit http://www.a-technologies.com/poolinfo.htm

So this weekend I went back to Arizona to get Leroy's last booster shots! Yay, he's legal now and can socialize with the other puppies around.

He loves my parents back yard and we were running around the pool and I wasn't paying attention and stepped on the skimmer basket cover (aka the access hatch) on the pool deck . . . my foot went right through it and my right leg went in the hole all the way up to my knee. If you don't know what a skimmer basket is . . . please refer to the drawing above.

As stupid as I felt about it, I realize how incredibly lucky I am to have not broken my ankle, knee or the entire leg. All that happened was that I cut my foot on the plastic and have some bruising around where my knee hit the pool deck.

Wonderful.

Hopefully after that the week will be good to me and will fly by. I am soo ready for the holidays, there's something about this time of year that makes spending time with your family so much more enjoyable and all of their faults so much easier to poke fun at with no one's feelings getting hurt easily. Yes in my family everyone makes fun of each other, and it's great.

Friday's A Comin'

Ahh the weeks here go soo incredibly fast! I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already. I am excited though, my best friend is coming up from Irvine, we've been friends since elementary school and it's really nice to hang out with someone who knows everything you have been through.

Leroy is doing better, after his leg pains, I kept him in his crate for a week. Ugh that was interesting. This morning he ate my bracelet from Fiji . . . didn't really make my day. Though by the time we got home from work he pooped them all out. Ziploc should make dog poop bags, I like that they are a little thicker than the regular poop bags. It's amazing how much poop you deal with when you have a puppy.

Update in the HWH realm. I sold my first campaign at the new job. It took me a month. It feels really good.  We have a great team and everyone sticks together, it's almost like a dream, kind of afraid I am going to wake up . . .

Yea I know this post kind of sucks . . . buuut next week will be better.