Hello Tiffy!

Going to the pool is a frequent occurence now, as we in Austin are approaching 100+ degrees daily, but today was especially memorable. So when I was back in California Tri-Trip Steak is one of the most normal cuts of steak that you can buy and it happens to be very lean and delicious. When we moved to Austin, TX we noticed that we could not find Tri-Tip anywhere. The first day we had settled into our new home we went to the grocery store and asked the butcher where we can buy it so we can bbq one up that night as a celebratory dinner and the guy looked at us like we were on crack. We have lived without tri-tip for almost a year now, but recently my co-worker who has a costco membership called to tell me they not only have standard-marinated tri-tip there, they have a chipotle marinated version! I went to costco and got a membership and omg isthat tri-tip ever good.

So today we went out to the pool to cook up the tri-tip and have some beers, and we made friends with these two guys there. One of them is visiting the other guy, military guy, just got back from Iraq. They asked what smelled so good, I told them it was tri-tip and both of them gave me this crazy look! So I explained again, what tri-tip was, and they had to try some, well I made them. They both agreed it was the best steak ever and one of them said “Holy shit, this californian knows how to make a steak, wtf”.

I think we need to do a tri-tip across america tour, cause honestly this shit is too good and how is it that a state that prides their meats like TX doesn’t know about it? Anyway. Fun day, and I fed a soldier.

Tri-tip news

……………Tiff after going to the lake.

I decided to go on an innertube pulled by a boat on Sunday. I have to say I am in no where near the shape that I should be to do that sort of thing but I did it. Boy was I in pain afterward. However the few minutes of adrenaline rush *were* fun, I will admit. I have polka dot black and blue bruises all over my body and I severely screwed up my back to the point I had to stay home from work yesterday. All good, though. I basically just tore some major muscles that you never use in your back. They are like the muscles if you traced your shoulder-muscle down to the middle of your back, they were ripped to shreds and *oh* did it ever hurt the next day. Well, the next day was Monday, and I had a hard time working that day too. I figured it would not be that bad but I had a very hard time sleeping on Monday night so Tuesday when I woke up I was utterly exhausted and decided to take it easy and stay home from work. I found, amusingly, I was great when laying down and standing up/walking, but sitting was a killer. I could not even straighten my back. Anyway, I went to work today and I feel ten times better.

I am good at getting injured. It really does pay to stay in some kind of shape. Getting on the boat platform was pretty amusing as well to people other than myself. I had to do this “beached-whale hop” from the water onto the boat platform just to get up while other people could just use.. what are they called..oh, the MUSCLES IN THEIR ARMS. Yeah I don’t have any of those. Stopped the EA Active too early… Lol. I plan to get back into that soon though.  Blah blah… Alli pills they are good… Lost 10 lb but gained back 4 after stopping the pills… now I am back on the pills… no need to go on about that, story of my life ya know!

However, I am still loving life here in Austin. I mean really. I love the heat, I love the work that I am doing, & I love the people I spend most of my time with. I would say that this was a great move for me, considering it is almost my 1st Texa-verssary (as I like to call it) I am very pleased. We signed the lease on our apartment for another 14 months and we got 600 bucks back for doing so and a box of godiva chocolates (only had 1!)….(box!)….(jk, only one chocolate).

I am looking forward to July 4th, as it is not only falling on a Saturday this year, finally, but also it is gonna be damn good bbq weather! Can’t expect much different in sunny (or as some call it, sweltering) Austin.

I am a total liar, cause I no longer intend on posting about those previous things I promised about. How about….tanning? Tanning rocks, (if you are the right kind of person), for many reasons!

I have been quietly calculating when the best time to re-start my blog is. I am thinking possibly sometime this month. Stay tuned.

PS Thanks for coming

So the other day I started feeling a lot better but now I would say I am a 9 out of 10. Finally. I think we all know to feel a 9 out of 10 any day of the week is a blessing, and I am so happy I am back feeling good and ready to rock. Only problem is that I need to rest more… I am working myself way too ragged but I was politely asked to work this weekend so of course I am doing so. My condition for working this weekend was that this week at some point I can wake up and open my eyes in the morning and decide to take a day off, to which I will text my boss and say I will not be in that day. That sounds pretty sweet to me, because I can treat every day like it is Friday and if I want to sleep in I can do so. If only every day were so luxurious.

I have had a decent weekend so far. J & I went to the bar across the street last night and had some yummy and fattening food with beer, we hung out for a while and talked about stuff. Tonight, I went out to dinner/drinks with my friend Monica. Monica I have known for a long time. I met her during my previous employed time at EA in the Bay Area and she was from Austin. She moved back, and it was crappy! Well that was pretty fun calling her up about a week before I moved here telling her I was moving here. What a shock, and it is awesome having a built-in girlfriend when you move to a strange new town.

My plans for tomorrow are wake up-go to work-come home-do my second job-look forward to day off. I am beginning to feel a real toll on my health, well-being, spirit, motivation, whatever you want to call it, without regular pre-determined rest……… I do not know how the Japanese do this.

J & I watch this show and we are thrilled that Friday Night Lights is coming back for at least 2 more seasons.

The show, in my opinion, is a soap opera and there are a lot of teenage moments (that we have all been through) along with couple/parental moments (that a lot of us young and older adults can understand these days) so in my opinion it might be one of the only shows on TV that is suitable for family that is actually really good. I am so happy it is coming back!

My left ear is STILL CLOGGED! Yes this is BITCHING BLOG. I went to the Dr. the other day due to my sickness and he told me that my ears are full of wax. Yay… I told him I stopped using q-tips because the news said that ears clean themselves out and q-tips can be damaging. He confirmed that the news was telling the truth… but some people’s won’t clean themselves out, and apparently I am one of those people. So I have like tons of wax in my ears. I could hear fine, then though. He says go to the store and get this Debrox wax removal stuff. It is like liquid that comes in a container like a nasal drops container. Anyway, I used that stuff and it was kinda cool I heard all this popping and fizzing, yes that is disgusting but it was also cool. Then I got to wash some of the wax out of my ear. Well that was 4 days ago and my ear is still clogged. Supposedly, this is normal if you have a lot of wax and I probably got the liquid too far in my ear, and now I get to wait for it to dry. When it dries, I should be able to hear again. In the mean time life is annoying hearing it out of one ear let me tell you. If I am sleeping on the open side when my alarm goes off I can not really hear it!

I unplugged it earlier at work for a sec and I was so happy…then 3 minutes later I sneezed and it clogged again. Lol…. I swear my life is a sitcom. I am miserable lately but I feel better today than I have in a few weeks. I guess the meds are working… yay!

I think I am running myself ragged or something, I keep getting sicker…. I am taking tomorrow off. My throat hurts so bad when I swallow I almost tear up

Someone, please send me happy healthy thoughts…

Sigh, what a crazy couple weeks it has been. I have been working my ass off, with a nice sick break in between. The work emails have been coming at full speed and since we have some new developments and features coming out on the site tomorrow I will not have any free time for a while, yet! Oh but my paychecks have been extra nice lately so I have been paying off some of my cards and my car so this is all good news.

I joined a gym yesterday a really nice one! So we have a nice gym here at Riata the only problem with it is that it is big, but not big enough for the 9 communities to share. I found one right by work called Planet Fitness that is only $10.00 a month and it is a brand new location so it is super clean and all the stuff is new. I love that. I joined yesterday but today was my first day there. Boy, am I out of shape!! I did 20 minutes on this cool machine which was actually fun and challenging. (Hence the 20 minutes before my lungs gave out on me) It is almost like a cross between an elliptical trainer and a treadmill, its fun and you just kind of swing there. Trust me, it does the job. I worked on my upper arms as well. Most of the lower body stuff was taken, and I was so tired from my big 20 minutes that I was ready to go home. LOL.

At least I started something again! I was loving my 24 hour Fit-Lite circuit training gym in the Bay Area, and this place even has a whole FitLite-esque circuit training area inside a full sized gym - yes, for $10 a month no contract.

I am loving that. I am hoping to get into a bikini this year (which would be a stretch to lose 45 lb by september but I can dream can’t I?