Labor Day Weekend

I've never been so excited to have a

weekend. Why? Well, this year I am driving home with one of my best friends, Sam,

and my baby girl, Heidi,

to do some serious camping!

Today I vacuumed, washed, waxed and organized my car in preparation for the trip.

It's gonna be a long haul from Florida to Indiana!

We'll probably make it in about 18 hours. We will have CD books, MadLibs and snacks to make this  

a ton of fun. We're pretty excited. This will be Sam's first visit to the great Midwest!

We'll be passing through Atlanta, Georgia,

Chattanooga, Tennessee,

and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Then we'll brush past Cincinnati, Ohio,

before entering

AKA:

Something I've missed out on for a couple years is Sno-Castle! We're gonna have to get some on our way to the camp site.

Then, while camping, I'll spend some time near the camp fire cooking the perfect s'more,

enjoy some boating,

and play some Euchre!

Oh, I can hardly wait! T-minus 3 days!

January in Review

Before February gets going, I'm gonna be all over it and do a photo-review blog for what went down in my corner of the world in January 2011.

Rang in the new year with some friends who've become close over the last few months: Sam, Alex & Julie, as well as a couple of old book club friends, Casey and Ryan. We celebrated at an indie, dinner-movie theatre called The Enzian during their James Bond theme party. Casey, Julie and I got all dressed up in sparkling formal-wear, and the men all looked snazzy in their suits and ties!

Just 2 days into 2011 I had the pleasure of hosting my best friend from Down Under, Tamara! We had a blast together all week, catching up, playing with Heidi and Ashes, dining out, having PB&Js, playing Euchre and discussing our cultural and language differences. That weekend my Mom flew in town to run the Walt Disney World Half Marathon. I was supposed to run it with her, but I had to back out due to knee injury... She ran it, had fun, and Tamara and I supported her. The next day we all enjoyed ourselves at Universal's Islands of Adventure. We were blown away by the feature Wizarding World of Harry Potter ride inside the Hogwarts Castle!

During the Tamara visit I had to deal with Heidi having caught some gastro-intestinal parasites. Got her all treated for that, and she's doing MUCH better now. Still hanging around 55#, but she's already healthier.

Through the month I hosted a couple of euchre nights. I taught my new Euchre playing friends how to play bid-Euchre so we could have 6 or 8 people playing one big game instead of breaking into 2 smaller games. It's a lot of fun. I'm really glad I can get that taste of the Midwest down here through Euchre.

The Spring 2011 semester at PSU started on Monday, 10 January 2011. I'm taking 2 classes this semester: IST 552 Data Management and IST 411 Distributed Object-Oriented Programming. I LOVE 411 and am doing well there so far, but I'm praying to pass 552. The class overestimates the students' background knowledge and is very accellerated in pace...

I had a lovely Skype date with Miss Kristin! When I Skyped with her she announced that her and her husband, Aric, were getting a puppy - a Cocka-Poo! They've sinced picked him up from the breeder and named him Hiro, from the main character in the shoe Heroes. I've seen a photo, and he's just adorable! Can't wait to Skype with her again soon to hear all about their transition into puppy parenthood!

On Tuesday, 11 January 2011 my brother, Chucky, turned 22! I sent him a card, a book he requested ("The Art of War"), and a gift card to Target. I wish I could have celebrated with him in person, but when you're on opposite coasts of the country, it's kinda tricky and we make do. Happy birthday, Chuggy! Here's a favorite photo of the two of us, taken at Lana & Geof's wedding back in September 2009:

Last weekend I got to go skiing with a bunch of great friends from work; they are all in the IS Leadershpi Development Program with me. We had a blast! We stayed in an awesome, 5-bedroom cabin, tucked away in the woods, and we had 2 full days of skiing! Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip:

My parents bought me Dave Ramsey's "The Total Money Makeover" for Christmas. I have sinced read it all the way through and am working to have my own Total Money Makeover. With all the student debt I have, this just made perfect sense. In fact, tonight I'm finalizing my Allocated Spending Plan for February 2011. It'll be interesting to see where my bad spending habits reside (I'm thinking eating out and groceries are my bane, aside from my car loan payment). Anyway, I like being organized and I like budgeting, so to implement his plan has been fun for me so far.

Last Saturday was my first Hackathon, hosted at Sam's house. He made a super cool white board, DIY-style that I got to use while Joel taught me how to do dynamic programming tables (part of my first IST 552 homework assignment). It was a lot of fun boucing ideas off one another for different programming projects and hanging out with like-minded career/student/developer friends. I'm excited for the next one and hope it goes from monthly to bi-weekly! Here's a photo of Sam displaying my dynamic programming table on his home-made white board:

The last big thing I did in January was epic! My friend Alex and I participated in our first Warrior Dash! On top of that, it was his first 5K! He picked a great one! We ran through mud rivers, crawled through mud pits (I'm talking several feet deep pits full of sloshy/suctiony/smooshy mud), climbed rope nettings, scaled balance beams, leaped over fire and swam through a muddy trough with barbed wire just over our heads! It was so adventurous and challenging and fun! I haven't seen my official chip time yet, but my watch clocked me at approximately 35 minutes. That's 5 minutes less than what my goal was!

February 2010

I always say, "wow, that was a busy month," but when I say "wow, February was a busy month," I mean it in a way that surpasses any way I've ever said it before. Note: life + owning puppy = life on fast-forward! Here's the run-down for what I trouble I was getting into back in February:

Heidi 72-hour vet check - healthy pup minus the minor ear infection that cleared up in a week's time

Volunteer with BC - first time to volunteer as an adult; it was good.

Euchre Night with BC - first time to host a card night; much fun and more Euchre Nights to come!

Phone Dates with Kristin - started having a weekly phone date with Kristin to work through our devotionals

Bonfire at Joel's - even with the Florida Hospital Lady Track Shack 5K the next morning I still went to Joel's, hung out, met some folks and enjoyed the perfect s'more!

BC Movie Night (I Am Legend) - a favorite movie of mine (also partial inspiration for getting a German Shepherd Dog), and lovely company

Super Bowl Party with Matt - my plans fell through but Matt and company provided for a great group of people with whom to celebrate the event. Sad that the Colts lost but at least a Boilermaker took the championship!

Avatar + Pizza with Matt - loved the movie, discovered a cool pizza joint, great friend with whom to enjoy both

Paws in the Park Walk with Matt - Heidi's first socialization opportunity; Matt joined us for the fun (despite the cold weather!)

The Bling Thing with BC - downtown night! First time to the underground bar (can't think of the name of the place). Loved hanging out in the red, Clue room!

Puppy Valentine's Day Party at Joel's - adorable! Cooked out and made several new puppy friends!

2-week vet check - all healthy!!!

Sunshine movie with Matt - I was right on in knowing that Matt would love that movie! Nice evening and discovered my new favorite white wine!

Sam's Senior State Wrestling Tournament - amazing weekend with family and friends to celebrate Sam's big victory!

Chucky's 21st birthday celebration - belated but brilliant! Can't wait to go out with him again!

Puppy Class 1/8 - so much fun! Heidi loves playing with the other pups, and we both love learning!

Waffles with Matt - we decided my Belgian waffle maker needed to be put to good use. Matt brought fresh strawberries! Yum!

Dinner with Darin - Darin was in town! He got to meet Heidi, see my place, and then he treated me to dinner at Amigo's! I love hanging out with Darin; we always have nice conversation!

Pie & Away We Go movie with Matt - another nice evening in with Matt; we both loved the movie, and I made him a pumpkin pie for helping me get to and from the airport the previous weekend.

BC Movie Night (I Am Legend) - even though I watched the movie recently, it was lovely to host another book club movie night!

Church - finally settled into a schedule with Heidi and figured out how to escape the house for a couple hours to get my spiritual fill

Bonfire at Matt's - wrapped up the month with a great evening at Matt's bonfire! I brought Heidi! Everyone loved her and the cucumber salad I brought. S'mores were amazing!

This Week

Well, I don't know about you, but this week has absolutely FLOWN by me! Having a puppy to care for is like hitting a fast-forward button on life, except you can still enjoy the moments.

I wanted to recap the last week. I've had a lot going on and want to share it with my little army of readers.

Sunday I brought Heidi home, introduced her and Ashes, and tried to catch up on sleep wherever I could. (See post on Heidi.)

Monday I kept busy at work, coming back home for the lunch hour to tend to Heidi, and taking advantage of my flex-time so as to not leave Heidi alone for more than a few hours at a time. That evening I met up with Jessica and Lindsey at Lake Eola to serve food to 100 homeless people; we teamed up with Rock for Hunger. It was a lot of fun, and I'll be helping Jessica's volunteer group more in the future.

Tuesday work and lunch were the same as Monday. After work I was able to squeeze a run into the busyness of caring for Heidi. I ran for 30 minutes, and hoped and prayed I could run at least twice more between Wednesday and Friday for my race over the weekend. Later I had Joel, Heather & Matt over for an evening of Euchre! Joel and I were a bit rusty after not having played the beloved Midwestern card game for so long, Matt had played once or twice before, and Heather was new tot he game. We had a great time playing over Chex Mix, pizza and strawberry milk! Heather & I won, so I guess it's true what they say: girls rule and boys drool. = P After a while Heather had to go in for some work (she was on call), so Joel, Matt & I played some three-person Euchre. We also played with Heidi! It was good for her to romp around and socialize with other people. Groundhog Day marks my anniversary with Lockheed Martin as a full-time employee. I received necessary permission to begin part-time telecommuting, and am so happy with my first year with Lockheed! Also, I learned that I may be able to participate in Lockheed Martin's Information Systems Leadership Development Program (ISLDP), pending space available. It's a very challenging and prestigious program, and I'm thrilled to have the potential opportunity to take part!

Wednesday was my first laid back evening of the week. I had a lovely chat/Skype session with Miss Kristin. She adored seeing Heidi, even though Heidi wouldn't look at the computer screen/camera head on, haha. By Wednesday I was starting to get a good feel for her tiny body's "schedule" and learning her needs, etc, and was able to sneak in another trip to the gym. For an unknown reason I had a very sharp pain in my right knee a few minutes into my run, so I quit, not wanting to worsen the problem. I switched to the elliptical machine and called it a night.

Thursday was a lot like Wednesday minus the phone date but plus a run. I took it easy and my knee was fine. I did some blogging and hit they hay early. Thursday marks the day when Ashes started to play back - or even initiate the playing - with Heidi! He jumped and hopped and ran all around the living room! They're going to be great friends!

Friday I worked from home; it was nice, but a little chaotic given that I had a lunch outing at noon and a meeting at 1 PM. I had several meetings through the morning and into the afternoon, too. Work has definitely been keeping me on my toes, and on one of the calls I learned about several new efforts I'd be jumping in on for my communications role. It's really exciting, and I love the people with whom I work! For lunch I took Matt to Good Fellas' Pizza; we had pasta, and it was delicious - plus it helped me load up on carbs for my race the next morning. After a long week I was able to find time for a nap. Later Matt picked me up and we went to Oviedo for Joel's bonfire party. We met up with some familiar faces from the book club, and met some new ones. The highlight of the evening was roasting s'mores! Mine were cooked to golden perfection! It was a fun party, but at midnight it was time to head home. Matt helped me walk Heidi when we got back to my place, and then we said goodnight as I had an early morning.

Today I got up dark and early at 6:30 AM and went to Winter Park to run in the Florida Hospital Lady Track Shack 5K. The race is all women; estrogen overload! Last year I ran the same race, which was my first in Florida, so it's become a sentimental, traditional race for me. It's a fast course, and I really enjoy it. With Tuesday's knee pain I figured I'd just be running this 5K for fun, but overall I felt great, no knee pain, so I pushed a little. I ended up only half a minute from my PR time of 25'52"! Here are my race stats:

Division: women ages 19-24
Division Place: 12/144
Name: Amanda Bennett
Bib Number: 1306
Age: 23
Place: 146/2077
Gender Place: 146/2077 (top 7%)
Clock Time: 27'46"
Chip Time: 26'33"
Pace: 8'32.6"/mile
Hometown: Orlando, Florida

I'm quite happy with my running performance. A good race to kick off the year! I also bumped into Marissa post-race. It was nice to chit chat with her on the way to our cars. And we got little plants from a local nursery. When I got home I napped, but Heidi was wide awake so I didn't sleep too well. Grudgingly I got up and lounged around for a bit. In the afternoon I took Heidi to PetSmart to engrave her dog tag. Here are a few photos that mark the occasion:







Which brings me to the present. I'm painting my nails a lovely lavender using my new "Done Out in Deco" OPI polish, then I'm going to see if I can't catch a few Zs. Tonight I'm having company over to watch "I Am Legend!" Tomorrow is church and lunch with Aunt Joan over a Melbourne visit. For the Super Bowl it's looking like I'll join Matt at his friend's party.

Have a great weekend!

Amanda