benjerin.com Blog

Could I possibly keep up a weekly update?  Probably not, but I’ll try.

Our weekdays seem so busy lately.  Tuesday I tried to donate blood and I was turned away because I had an irregular pulse.  Yikes!  I read somewhere that the cure for irregular pulse is to order pizza, lay in the nearest hammock and drink a cold beer.   So, that’s what I did.  It was nice.  Benjy spent Wednesday out of town for work.  On Thursday, I visited some United Way agencies for the allocations panel that I am on.  It was so neat to learn about these agencies and I envy and admire people who are making a living and making a difference at the same time.  I would like to do that some day.  Benjy got to take Friday off of work for all the overtime he got going out of town earlier in the week.  Lucky!

For Friday nights, we have started a weekly “Battlestar Galactica” dinner at our friends house.  We don’t have television and our friends have Tivo, so they have been kind enough to invite us over to watch one of our current favorite shows.  We take turns making dinner.  This week I made pork chops, fried peas and rice.  We also experimented with smoothies.  We are trying to take full advantage of all the yummy fresh fruit in season.  We are really enjoying these weekly dinners.

Saturday morning I went to yoga.  I am so in love with yoga right now and I hope that Benjy will start to go with me again.  He said that it really helped his back pain when we were going regularly a couple of years ago.  After yoga, we had to do a super duper cleaning because we were having friends over for a cookout in celebration of Benjy’s 30th birthday.  The house was presentable, the weather cooperated, the food was good and plentiful, and a good time was had by all.  Shockingly, Benjy did not want to grill.  This has never happend before, but thank goodness we have the greatest friends that are always so willing and ready to help out when we are trying to entertain.

Today Benjy rested and recovered from his birthday festivities, and I ran a 5K.  I was going to take it easy at first, but after the 1st mile I decided to push myself as hard as I could.  I was happy to finish under 30 minutes (just barely!) and I placed 3rd in my age group.  Woohoo…I’m starting a collection of 5K awards!  This 5K was particularly hard.  Maybe it was the heat and humidity, but I think I really need to run more during the week.  I really care more about endurance than speed, so I will try to work on going farther, instead of faster.

Tonight we watched “I Am Legend”.  I think Will Smith is very talented, but I hated the movie, it made me angry, and I do not recommend it.  And on a more frightening note, look what Benjy found outside of our carport door!

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Maybe I can try to post every Sunday night, just to catch up with everyone on random stuff.  We’ll see…

Benjy is turning 30 this month!!!  He is still really enjoying his job.  For the last few weeks he has had to go on overnight trips for work.  He described one of these trips as “Fun, like a hunting trip with the guys, but we don’t have to kill anything.”  I can’t get over how perfect this job is for him.  He gets to work with his hands and be crafty, but it is not back-breaking work.  We are so happy this worked out! 

Benjy now has enough brewing supplies that he can drink one keg of homebrew (on tap!) while he brews a new batch.  Right now he is working on “Midnight Imperial Coffee Stout”.  He is also really enjoying video games as usual (Rock Band and Gameboy Tetris are his current favorites).  A co-worker has turned Benjy onto radio controlled airplanes, so he has been tinkering with that new hobby as well.

My job is going to be stressful for the next month, another audit coming up. Arg!  Also, I am training a new employee, and that is never fun.  No offense to the new girl, it is just so exhausting to explain everything you do day to day.  I have been continuing my work with the United Way.  I am on the allocations committee right now, helping decide which agencies get which portion of the funds.  I’m not looking forward to deciding which good-deed-group is more deserving than the other, but I am looking forward to learning more about the partner agencies.

My “free-time” lately consists mostly of weight-loss related activities.  I have lost ALMOST 30 pounds since August…WOOHOO!  I enjoy running (5K addict here) more than I ever thought I could.  I also take lots of classes at my gym.  And I’m starting to attend yoga classes again at a local donation based studio.  Now that the weather is warm, I really want to add some variety to my activity: biking, hiking, frisbee golf, rollerblading, swimming, canoeing, etc.

We are wrapping up a wonderful and productive weekend.  Friday night was spent at Laci and Alan’s.  We made tacos and watched Battlestar Galactica.  Love that show!  When will they reveal the final cylon?!  Saturday, we cleaned the house, worked on renewing Benjy’s passport (hoping for an upcoming trip to Costa Rica), and had fun at Lowe’s.  We bought a new bird feeder, a thistle sock feeder for finches.  We also bought several air-purifying house plants (peace lilies and spider plants) and some orchids.  I love seeing all the extra green in the house.  Today Benjy went to the shooting range and worked on construction of a compost bin.  I spent 9 hours volunteering at an “adventure race” that consisted of biking, orienteering, running, backpacking, canoeing, eco-IQ trivia, etc.  It was fun and motivational to watch.  I’m not sure I’d ever want to compete in something like that, but I feel even more motivated to add variety to my activity as mentioned above.  Also, this experience started daydreams of a future career in parks and recreation. Hmm…

I have rambled on long enough now.  Maybe if I follow through with weekly posts, these updates won’t seem so jumbled.  We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the Spring. 

March photos are posted.  Enjoy!