My New Home . . .

Finally! I have secured a new apartment that is larger, upgraded, closer to work, and borders the Chattahoochee River! It's also close to some really great parks, shopping and restaurants.

The picture above is similar to what my new kitchen looks like. Everything is the same except the dimensions of the room. Mine's a bit different, but it's beautiful. The pool is gorgeous, the fitness center is great (the cardio equipment has flat screen tvs!), they have canoes and kayaks to use on the river. It's been so long since I've been in a canoe, but it's so fun. I'm looking forward to getting on the river.

I will begin the moving process in the middle of July, and will go little by little through the week. I think I'll have a moving company help with the big stuff, a.k.a. my piano, the last weekend of July.

I'm very excited!

Medical Update . . . & Some Other Stuff

I am finally feeling better! Yay! I think the kidney infection is completely out the door. If only my exhaustion had gone with it. This week has been a madhouse for me. My Court schedule was crazy! Thankfully, it's Friday and I have a whole two days of no work.

My Mom is in town this weekend. She decided she wants to assist in the apartment/condo hunt, so that's what we shall do tomorrow. I have tried to instill in her all week long that there will be NO SHOPPING! My Mom's a shopper by nature, and when I say shopper I mean a hunter. She will spend hours perusing the stores.

We were supposed to have dinner tonight at Fritti. I was so craving their NY Strip. Unfortunately, my Mom let me know earlier in the day that she probably wouldn't get to head this way until much later than we'd planned. So, I had to cancel our dinner reservations. Poo! What's the replacement meal, you ask? A supreme pizza from Pizza Hut.

I'll update on the house hunting later in the weekend!

Film Meme

I saw this over at a friend's blog and thought it looked like fun. Besides, I need all the apartment hunting procrastination I can get!


1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times:

Silence of the Lambs.

2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in the theater:

Um, the last one I remember was Breach.

3. Name an actor who would make you more inclined to see a movie:

Robert DeNiro.
Reese Witherspoon.

4. Name an actor who would make you less likely to see a movie:

Will Ferrell.

5. Name a movie that you can quote from:

Fever Pitch!

6. Name a movie musical that you know all the lyrics to all the songs:

The Sound Of Music.

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with:

The Sound of Music & Phantom of the Opera.

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see:

* Silence of the Lambs.
* An Inconvenient Truth.
* Breakfast at Tiffany's.
* Crash.
* Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

9. Name a movie that you own:

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

10. Name an actor who launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops:

Hmm, let's go with George Clooney. He started out on The Facts of Life!

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in?

Yep, several.

12. Ever made out in a movie?

Yes.

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't gotten around to it:

Babel.

14. Ever walked out of a movie?

No, but I have stopped DVDs. Kinsey, anyone?

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater:

Apollo 13. I still cry every single time I watch that movie!

16. Popcorn?

In the theater, absolutely!

17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?

It depends. Sometimes I'll see several in a row, other times it's a few months.

18. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?

Ummm . . .The Queen? I think!

19. What's your favorite/preferred genre of movie?

I like rom-coms, comedies, thrillers, and horror!

20. What's the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?

E.T.

21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?

Not sure, really.

22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?
Mulholland Dr.

23. What is the scariest movie you've seen?

The Descent was really intense and scary. However, my top scary film will probably always be The Shining.

24. What is the funniest movie you've seen?

There this older movie called Big Man On Campus. It's completely corny which is why I loved it so. I haven't seen it in years, but just thinking of it makes me laugh.

The Woe of the Kidney Infection . . .

Want a fun way to spend a Friday night? Head on over to your local Emergency Care Clinic! These are free-standing clinics that operate as emergency rooms, but usually without the four hour wait.

I'd gone to my doctor on Tuesday for a pretty simple infection, which was worse after the typical three day treatment. As the day progressed yesterday the constant ache in my lower left back got worse and worse. I suspected a kidney infection. I was right. I received a shot in the butt and another week's work of antibiotics. Thankfully, I was in and out within an hour and was treated by a very fun doctor. She was so fun that she seemed to think the hallucinations I have as a result of my codeine allergy would be, "Fun!" Yeah, right -- they are not fun. They're scary!

I'm feeling better this morning. My lower back is only a tiny bit achy, which is good. Evidently, last night's antibiotic shot was a good one.

Today, I'm apartment hunting. I have a nice, not so little list of places to go. I dread looking. I also dread packing things up and moving. There are two good things about moving this time: 1) I get to hire a moving company since my piano is very difficult to move, and 2) I have my very own truck to assist me. There will be no more stuffing things into a tiny Acura Integra.

I finally received my race number for the Peachtree Road Race. Sadly, I didn't receive one of the 250 silver numbers which would've placed me in a contest to win an all expenses paid trip to Dublin, Ireland. I so wanted to go to Ireland. Heck, who am I kidding, I'll take an all expenses paid trip to almost anywhere!

(12 of 12) 2,0: June

It's time once again for Chad's wonderful 12 of 12! I'm proud of myself since I've remembered to do it every month so far. Check out Chad's site to see everyone's day.


7:45 a.m.: Heading to work. I'm still in happy mode over my new truck, Murphy. I have no idea where the name came from.


9:30 a.m.: This is where I spent most of my morning, the Paulding County Courthouse.


9:40 a.m.: I'm not really sure what sort of business this is, however, I thought the gigantic eagle was hysterical. (You'll see another gigantic thing later.)


10:00 a.m.: Atlanta has a ton of open area shopping centers. There are several different ones called "The Avenue." This is "The Avenue at West Cobb." I drove through to see if there were any stores I was interested in. There's a pretty good selection, but nothing I can't get a little closer to home.


10:10 a.m.: Getting back to work I had to drive through Kennesaw Battlefield State Park. This is one of the battlefields. There are pretty good running trails at the park.


10:15 a.m.: This is the "Big Chicken" which is very well known across Georgia. This is still on my way back to the office.


3:20 p.m.: I left work a little early because of a doctor's appointment. On the way home, I stopped at Walgreen's to fill my prescription.


4:30 p.m.: My prescription, which was supposed to take 30 minutes, took over an hour! I felt so bad by this time that I decided to run through Panda Express for some fast Chinese food.


5:00 p.m.: I am unable to wear my contact lenses while taking my medication. So, first thing is to take them out and stick them in my cute little contact case.


5:05 p.m.: Taking my medicine.


6:30 p.m.: The season 4 premier of Rescue Me starts tomorrow night, so I'm sitting down with my season 3 DVD to watch the season finale again.


11:31 p.m.: Time for bed!

Bonus picture: This month's bonus picture is based on the word "secret." I'm not sure if you can tell what my picture is, but I'm not telling. Also, I was/am an Alias fan, and the number "47" has special meaning, and Alias had all sorts of secrets!

(12 of 12) 2.0: May

I'm incredibly late posting my 12 of 12 since I was out of town and without normal internet access. But, better late than never . . . right? Head over to Chad's site to check out everyone's day.

This month I was visiting family in Tennessee, so a little bit different.



8:15 a.m.: My Mom has a tremendous amount of gorgeous flowers around the house. On the way across the street to my grandmother's house for the morning coffee ritual I spotted this really pretty pink peony!


8:17 a.m.: Then, I spotted these dark red poppies! I love poppies!


8:20 a.m.: While on the way across the street I decided to walk to the end of our little road (I come from a very small town!) to check out the cows. All of this land used to belong to my grandfather. Now, it's a dairy farm.


9:15 a.m.: This is looking in the other direction and was taken a bit later. I like the lone tree standing out in the field.



9:20 a.m.: This is my dog Charlie. He's a sweet, fun dog. Here he is rolling around on the ground after a nice morning run through the fields.


3:00 p.m.: After hitting a surprise birthday part (trust me, you didn't want any pictures of it) I stopped at Belk to pick up a birthday present for my Dad. He said he needed some cologne, which is exactly what he got. I love when present buying is easy.


4:00: This is my 4 year old nephew. He's showing off his very cool Spiderman scooter. He's so enamored with Spiderman that he's named his hermit crab "Peter Parker Spidercrab." Isn't that adorable?


4:15 p.m.: Here's my nephew chasing after his dad, trying to recover his stolen scooter.


4:30 p.m.: It's pouting time since no one else is ready to get into the pool besides him. I suspect this was a bit of a pose because as soon as I took the picture he said, "I wanna see how I look!"


4:45 p.m.: Now that it's time to swim, he's considering a jump off the diving board.


4:50 p.m.: Finally!

Bonus Pic: The picture this month was based on the word "Dreamscapes." I took this picture on the way to my grandmother's house. I thought it was pretty with the fog and looked mysterious, like something out of a dream.


Tune in next month!

*T-E-NN-E-SS-EE . . . Tennessee!

I'm headed to Tennessee for the weekend. Mom and Dad will get to see my new truck. I had to wash it today so it would be nice and pretty. Saturday we're going to a surprise birthday party. Also, Saturday is 12 of 12, so instead of a work day you'll get to see where I grew up. Small town anyone? However, it will be at least Sunday night before I get to post them. Mom's still living in the land of dial up internet, at least at the house.

The 12 of 12 bonus word for the month is "Dreamscapes." I'm trying to figure out what sort of picture I'm going to take.

See you all when I make it back to Atlanta!

*The title is based on a Tennessee cheer that is heard at every game. I love my Tennessee Vols -- can't wait until football season starts!

I'm still around . . .

I've been MIA for a bit. I was in Nashville last weekend, but ended up not running the Country Music Half-Marathon. Work has been super busy! So I've been exhausted by the time I get home from work. This weekend was a lazy, recovery weekend for me. Next weekend I'll be in Tennessee and then the next weekend I leave for a week in Florida.

Oh, how I long for my vacation!

Big News . . . At Least For Me . . .

I bought a new car! Yesterday, I trekked up to a Honda dealership to check out the Honda Element and Honda CRV because they were having a great financing deal. I really thought that I'd like the Element, but once I drove it I didn't like it at all. The guy I was talking with seemed very standoffish and wasn't willing to go below their sticker price. So, I meandered to Toyota and Nissan just to look. Fast forward to four hours later and I was driving home in this:


My actual Xterra is a Charcoal Grey (Armor, if you want to be technical). I love it and am super excited about it. I can't wait to drive to Nashville this weekend!

I'd been considering trading my little Integra for a while but just didn't want to deal with a car payment. So, I just bit the bullet and did it. The salesman who helped me was very nice, and they worked with me on price. So, I feel like I got a very good deal.

In other news, the Country Music Half Marathon is next Saturday. Because of the blisters and bruising I had from the last half-marathon, I haven't been able to run very much. I hope that I'll be okay on this one. I am assuming I'll have to walk a bit during the race. Let's just hope for no falls! No falls and a finish -- that's what I want.

A Polenta Conspiracy . . .

So, after work yesterday I finally made it to Publix with the grocery list I'd been carting around for an entire week. It was not as crowded as I expected for early on Friday, thankfully, so I didn't have to deal with any obnoxious folks. However, after marking off every item on my list, sans one, I ran into some difficulty. Polenta. I love polenta, it's yummy, quick and easy to make. I've purchased it at this very Publix on several occasions. However, last night when I went to the rice section . . . it was gone! So, I carted over to the spices/baking aisle near the corn meal and breading . . . nothing. I checked in the cereal aisle near the oats and the grits . . . again, nothing! I asked an employee . . . he'd never even heard of polenta. Seriously? He went to see about getting help from another employee who knew they carried polenta but had no idea where it was. It was at this point that we ran across a lovely pregnant woman with her very cute 3 year old daughter. She was also searching for polenta. We were finally able to find it together, sans employee help, in the organic foods aisle. Two tiny little box holders with bags of polenta. Thank goodness!