benjerin.com Blog

Last week at work was a big deal for me.  We had our re-certification audit for ISO/TS…basically the most stressful part of my job and it happens once every three years.  The audit went very well, and my company has been recommended for re-certification.  This was our third audit in as many weeks, and I’m more than ready to get back to my regular work routine!

Friday night, Benjy and I relaxed around the house.  We’ve started watching “Magnum P.I.” via Netflix on Benjy’s XBox.  I didn’t want to watch at first, but I’ve gotten sucked in.  I must admit that I’m intrigued by the story lines…and also, I have renewed desires to travel to Hawaii.

Saturday morning, Christy and I went to the gym for a barbell class.  It had been a while since I’d taken the class and it kicked my butt!  After the gym, and a shower, I met up with Laci to attend the Athens Indie Craftstravaganzaa.  I bought several goodies for myself, of course, and a few holiday gifts too.  My legs were burning as we walked around the craft festival.  I was so weak from all the squats and lunges at the gym earlier.  I came home for a nap, then Benjy and I went to Laci and Alan’s house for dinner and a visit.

When I woke up this morning, I was afraid to get out of bed for fear that my legs would totally give out on me.  My entire body was sore actually, but I had already signed up for a 5K at 3:00 p.m.  I was fully prepared to just walk the entire 5K, but Christy was ready to run, so I felt like I had to at least attempt to keep up with her.  I couldn’t keep up, but I did manage to run the entire thing.  It took me almost 33 minutes to finish, but I was happy with that time, considering my thighs felt heavy as cement!  We’ve spent the rest of the day running errands and doing household chores, preparing for a short work week, then a trip to Virginia/West Virginia for Thanksgiving!

Last week was exceptionally uneventful.  I worked a good bit of overtime.  Christy and I made it to the UGA track only one day last week to do some intervals and run some stairs.  It was an incredible workout!  Benjy got to hang out with Daniel for a little bit Friday night.  And those were the highlights.

Saturday morning, Christy and I ran a 5K in Winder.  I finished just under 30 minutes, yet again.  I don’t seem to be improving much lately, but I’m still very happy with a sub-30 5K!  After the 5K, I drove to Leslie and Adam’s home in Decatur.  They were kind enough to let me use their shower.  Then we met Angela and Jessica for lunch at the Flying Biscuit.  After lunch Leslie, Angela, Jessica and I headed to the Indie Craft Experience Holiday Shopping Spectacular.  Our friend, Laurel, had a booth at the festival where she was selling jewelry.  Then we ran into an old friend, Byron.  The whole event was a spectacular trip into the way back machine!  Also, I love these indie craft festivals because of all the fun crafty goodies! 

Old Friends!

A necklace I bought from Laurel. (front and back)

My new wallet, made completely out of duct tape!

The time change has really screwed with my body clock.  I’m ready to go to bed at about 7:00 pm every night.  That, combined with with some overtime at work, and I’ve been less than productive this week.

Christy and I have decided to start running together at least one day a week after work.  Twice this week we went to the UGA track to do some walk/jog intervals.  One day, we even ran stairs.  I really love having a workout buddy!

Friday night, I made Southwest Chicken Chili and cornbread (YUM!) and we watched “The Player“.  I have no idea how this movie got on our Netflix queue.  It was weird, but it had quite a cast, including very small cameos by several big name stars.  It was interesting, and I’m glad we stumbled upon this movie, for whatever reason.  I also made some Taco Stew in the crockpot.  I combined a “Pork Taco Stew” recipe that I had before with a “Tortilla Soup” recipe that Leah shared with me.  I’m going to have that for dinner tonight, but I’ve already tasted it and it is delicious!

Saturday was the official “In Their Shoes” Breast Cancer Walk.  Christy and I met at the start at about 7:30 am.  A group warm up started at about 8:00 am.  Finally, the walk started at 8:30 am.  There was a lot of energy in the air, the weather was gorgeous and the walk was so much fun!  The 13.1 miles went by a lot faster than I thought it would.  We finished in about 3 hours and 25 minutes.  We were given some goodies and hung out at the finish line to stretch and cheer on a few other finishers.  The whole thing was a wonderful experience!  Together Christy and I raised over $2200 and walked over 100 miles in training.  We’re thinking about volunteering with the walk somehow next year.  Click here to see pictures.

Today has been a rather lazy day, as Sundays should be!  We’ve only left the house to help care for a friend’s dog, that needed to be let out for a potty break while his owners were at work.  We decided to take the pup for a brisk 30 minute walk.  The weather today was wonderful and I really enjoyed the walk.  I can’t wait until Benjy and I start running together!  The only other productive thing I’ve done today is lots and lots of photo uploading.  I am many many many months behind on photo posting, but I’ve played a good bit of catch up today!

Click here to see October photos.

Click here to see September photos.

Click here to see August photos.

Monday was uneventful, just went to the gym and caught up on chores around the house.

Tuesday after work I went to the Red Cross to donate blood.  Please consider doing this if you can.  Think about the juice and cookies!  Later that night, we met up with several friends for dinner at Johnny’s New York Style Pizza.  It seems so rare that we get a group together and it was obviously long overdue as we hung around and chatted for at least an hour after eating.

Wednesday, Christy and I went on yet another training walk for the “In Their Shoes” breast cancer walk.  The big day is only a week away now!

Thursday, I considered skipping out on the gym so many times, but I am so glad that I went because the Step and Sculpt class kicked my butt…in a good way!  That night I completed my absentee ballot.  In the state of Georgia now, you no longer have to have a reason to vote absentee ballot.  By the weekend of October 25th, nearly 25% of Athens “active” voters had already voted via absentee ballot. By October 31st, 40% of Athens “active” voters had already voted by absentee ballot and advanced voting.  This is amazing!  Benjy gets Election Day off of work, so he will vote then.

Friday was Halloween!  Benjy’s friend Ryan drove down from Virginia.  I dressed as Frenchy from the movie “Grease”, Benjy dressed as Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter book series, and Ryan dressed as a character from the movie “Eyes Wide Shut”.  We headed downtown to meet up with some friends.  Josh and Emily were dressed as Johnny Cash and June Carter.  Karen was dressed as Rosie the Riveter. 

I absolutely L-O-V-E downtown Athens on Halloween!!! People are so creative with their costumes and since the bars are all so close together, you have the perfect set-up to people-watch and see as many costumes as possible.  Also, I love the fact that Halloween is truly the one night that people go downtown to mingle with everyone.  Indeed, the town of Athens did NOT disappoint!  I got plenty of pictures that you can see here.  I especially made sure to get pictures of my three favorite costumes of the night:

Barf from the movie “Spaceballs”

Tobias Funke from the show “Arrested Development”

Bert and Ernie from the show “Seasame Street”

After staying up until 3 a.m., Erin was crazy enough to wake up at 6:30 a.m. Saturday to go on a group training walk for “In Their Shoes”.  It was the last group training walk and I really didn’t want to miss it.  Also, Christy was expecting me.  After an 8 mile walk, all the walkers enjoyed bagels and muffins from Panera Bread.  We chatted about the walk and all of our personal journeys to good health.  We talked about maybe continuing to get together once a month for a group walk even after “In Their Shoes” is over.  When I got home from the group walk, Ryan and Benjy were up and ready to run some errands.  We got Benjy a new pair of running shoes, so now he has to start running with me.  I’m so excited!  After the errands we came home and I took a 4 hour nap while Benjy and Ryan played a crazy-addictive video game called “Worms“.  We grilled steaks and baked potatoes for dinner and all went to bed relatively early.

This morning we all woke up abnormally early.  I played on the computer while Benjy and Ryan played more Worms.  After Ryan left to return home, Benjy and I trekked downtown.  I had to return my “Pink Ladies” jacket to Junkman’s Daughter’s Brother.  We decided to also stop for lunch at the Taco Stand.  We sat outside while we ate, soaked in the sun and read some local papers.  This is how we enjoyed our extra hour today.  Then it was time for another nap.

How did you enjoy your extra hour?