Up and Running Again

Well we are back from the land of sun and rain and trees and volcanoes and beautiful beaches and cloud forests and monkeys and all sorts of animals!

It was a great trip, not too much rain, lots of fun activities, hardly ANY people, extremely beautiful and great pineapple! Other than ridiculously expensive taxis taking advantage of tourists it was a wonderful trip.

Back to things, we have been super busy since coming home and haven't even had time to go through the pictures (and videos) we took, but will post soon.

Yeah for Halloween and CANDY CORN!!!

Peace Out

Well, I still don't even feel like we are going to Costa Rica tomorrow. I think because we built up our Peru trip for so long, having it booked 5 months in advance and this one was kind of spur of the moment.

Still need to pack this evening and just chill...maybe head to the pumpkin patch and pick up a couple pumpkins so our front porch looks more "halloweenish". :) I am going to try and squeeze in a 9 mile run this afternoon...we'll see how that goes.

We have a few things planned for our trip but that is it, we are spending the first few days in Arenal/La Fortuna where there is an active volcano. We have a canyoning adventure planned for Sunday-that would be some hiking/and rappelling trip down waterfalls. Then we head over to Monteverde which is the rainforest area. We have scheduled our trip over there to be by boat across a lake and then horseback. While we are there we have a canopy tour, which is a zipline tour through the tree tops and there is some massive "tarzan swing" thing too. Then we head down to Manuel Antonio/Queopos (the beach), and we hope to do some snorkeling and sea kayaking as well as just hiking. Apparently thats where the monkeys and sloths are.

Thats seems like a lot to fit in! I saw today on the weather channel there is some tropical depression right over Costa Rica! Should be fun in the rain!

Busy Busy

I spent Friday evening babysitting for a couple that was kind enough to let me live with them for 6 weeks last Fall while our house was being built. It was a fun time, watching The Princess Diaries 2 and then Extreme Makeover:Home Edition that they had dvr'd but hadn't watched yet.

Saturday morning I decided to run a 5K that started right down the street from our house. Even running through part of our neighborhood on part of my usual running route. If you have been following my blog I was hoping to break 22min. I did not. :( Running 22:33. It was a somewhat hilly course, which I think plays a role, but then EZ told me it doesn't...for every up there is a down so it will all balance out. On the flip side, I was 3rd (extremely small race) so I won prize money-$75! That never happens for non runner people to win money!

I dragged ez to the store to buy paint after the race. And then started painting the bedroom. He got frustrated after 10 minutes and left me, so I spent Sat afternoon painting while listening to football and then Sunday morning painting some more (this time with ez's help). I ran another 9 miles yesterday which could explain why I am sore...combine a race with a long run and painting doesn't help.

Then last evening we headed to a local lake for a kayak trip around the lake and a BBQ dinner with a few friends. Man, kayaking is so much harder than a canoe!

T-minus 5 days until we are on an airplane to Costa Rica!

An Ethics Seminar

This is in response to The Office last night and their ethics seminar...

What does it mean to be ethical??

Is it Meredith getting a discount on supplies in exchange for sex???

Is it the AIG corporate people who are part of the financial disaster taking the taxpayers/governments money to go on a spa getaway after getting bailed out? Then getting more money and then proceeding to say they are going on another spa getaway.

What about the guy at the gas station last week that forced the person in front of me (and me too) to move and get gas before us....

I must explain this one, because I have never been so enraged and actually start yelling at some random person at a gas station. :)

If you don't live in the south, perhaps you don't know about the gas shortage here. Gas stations have been running out and typically there have been long lines at stations that do have gas (especially cheap gas) in the past few weeks. I live in a cheap area of the state. In fact, in just my 30 mile commute, gas goes up roughly 40 cents a gallon from where I live to where I work. So yes, I choose to get gas at the cheap stations where I live along with every other person it seems.

Last week (on a Friday) I stopped on my way to work (it is roughly 7:30am). The gas station is a mess and I happen to have one of maybe the 10% of cars that has their gas tank on the right side of the vehicle.

The way this gas station sits, the building is directly behind the 10 or so pumps so it is practically impossible to pull in from the back side of the pumps, since there just isn't room. So I pull in to the gas station and it seems that every line I can pull into has cars facing the rear direction except one. I see a car waiting in line going the way I need to go, granted the car at the pump is pulled in from the other side. I think to myself, yes, I will pull in here and now we can change the way the line moves.

Ok, so the guy finished pumping his gas and needs to leave, so the guy in front of me and myself both back up so he can get out. As we do this a truck pulling a trailer from the other side pulls in.

The guy in front of me gets out of his car and starts yelling at the man in the truck but it is too late, the guy in the truck is at the pump and is saying he was there first and begins pumping his gas. So the car that was in front of me is so mad, he drives off. So it is not me left facing the truck while he pumps his gas.

When he is done he motions for me to back up and I won't move. He gets out of his car and tells me to back up and I refuse. I tell him he can back up since I am not about to let someone else pull into the pump. He tells me that he can't since he has a trailer, which I then proceed to tell him that if he knows how to pull a trailer and since he pulled in, he can just turn his wheel and back himself right out.

We argue a little and he tells me he isn't backing up and I tell him I am not. So we sit. Facing eachother at the gas station. After about 5 min, I get out of my car to go into the travel center to get a coffee and we start yelling at eachother again. A few curse words thrown around, me telling him he has pulled in the wrong way, he then yelling that I don't own the gas station so there is no right or wrong way.

Anyway, I get back in my car and a few minutes later a man from behind the truck pulls up and asks him to move (he wants to pump his gas from the wrong way too instead of waiting in line). Of course the man in the truck tells him I won't move my car and the man behind him explains that if I back up he won't take my space but let me pull. So I agree.

It takes a third person to settle our argument. Not one of my finer moments, but I was not letting this guy in the truck just take advantage of more people. So there.

The funny thing is, I drove by again on Monday and every day since then (since it is on my way to and from work) and now the gas station has ropes and signs and directions saying you can only pull in from the one side! Praise the gas station manager!!!! He has settled the ethics debate.

My Friends....

How many times did John McCain say "My friends" of "My friend" last night during the debate. I got so annoyed that by the end I couldn't even listen to it.

For those of you who don't know I really haven't decided who I am going to vote for. I am a registered independent and never really like anyone in the debate. But I do believe that every American should vote. It is what our country is about-democracy right.

So I have slowly been researching the candidates trying to figure out who favors the sames things I do and it is a mixed bag. So EZ sent me to some website that asks you questions about what you would favor and how high/low you favor them and it spits out a comprehensive list of all the candidates that were running during the primaries and everything.

We'll thrown out who came up #2 since they didn't win the nomination for their party but #1 was Obama and #3 was Ralph Nader and they were with 5% of each other. So since my computer wasn't allowing me to select my level of priority for some reason. I might consider them the same. (McCain by the way was like #13)

What does all this mean...well I need to do more research right??? Oh but wait, Nader isn't even on the ballot in NC. Now that is what makes me mad about the system, not to mention how the independent candidates don't get to debate because there isn't enough support-but only because most people out decide that the only way their vote will really count is if they vote for one of the two major parties-McBama (as Jay is referring to them).

But I will look into both candidates more and really decide in case Nader does show up on the ballot here in 27 days.

Carpooling

So, since we live in the middle of our commutes (35ish minutes in opposite directions for each of us) we have had a hard time finding people we could possibly carpool with. There are actually a lot of people that work at UNC but EZ's office is off campus and most people live on campus and have much different schedules. I on the other hand had found no one who works at HPU...until now.

So apparently someone who lives right down the street works in the criminal justice department here. So we met up for lunch the other week and have arranged things so we can carpool 2x per week. So one less day of driving for each of us per week= approximately $10 in gas per week = a good $400-$500 a year if it all works out (oh and aren't we doing our part to save the environment!)

Then a couple days ago, received an email from a new faculty member who is moving into our neighborhood at the end of the month who is in the Exercise Science department. So now there will be three of us. Hmmmm...we could possible work in 1 more day per week and that would be some more good carpooling.

Now we are talking a possible $800-$1000 in savings-there is almost our trip to Costa Rica-without doing anything! :)

Pictures will come soon of the hair cut...I still don't really like it, but oh well, what's done is done.

Nuculer vs Nuclear

Now, I don't spend much time using the word "nuclear", but EZ sure does. And in the past however many years, he has complained numerously how George Dubbya says nucUler instead of nuclear.

In the past hour that we have been watching the veep debate, every now and then EZ pipes up at how now the governor says the word... also nucUler.

I of course don't really notice it (and really could care less), it is such a small difference. EZ on the other hand uses the word a hundred times a day and it really bothers him. But after the question got asked on nuclear weapons, ahhhh yes, Mrs. Palin does indeed say nucUler, and Mr. Biden uses the correct nuclear.

Maybe this is the underlying reason why EZ is voting for Obama-Biden...No More NucUler!


On a side note...I chopped my hair off today. Super short. I don't know why, but not sure if I like it...oh well, it is just hair, it grows back.