1. The dog is pissing me off. She needs to go to obedience school.
2. I am not a failure if I can't train my dog myself. I keep telling my self that.
3. I have another new job. I am (will be) a highschool teacher. God help us all.
4. Evidently, my new year's resolutions are the same as last year's. Nearly word for word.
5. Our fucking garbage disposal is broken. AGAIN. Perhaps it's a sign that we aren't supposed to have a garbage disposal.
6. I am going to buy a new computer. Soon, but not soon enough. I am thinking May or June. Maybe sooner if this Vista crap pisses me off bad enough. I'm gonna upgrade to a Mac.
7. I am rejoining the gym at the hospital that is on my way to the school. I am using my xmas money to pay for the first 4 months.
8. I REALLY want to train for the ING half marathon that is in March.
9. On that note, I will be buying a new pair of running shoes with the nike+ technology.
10. It's been requested that I keep a blog about my first year of teaching. Mostly for entertainment purposes. As in mine.
11. I am not a stalker for reading other people's blogs. They post that stuff for a reason. right?
12. I like posting like this. : )

.......

I feel like I should post something. But I am at a loss as to what to write. There's lots of good things I can think of and lots of not so good things.

Maybe something will come to me later today.

Oh, and one more thing:

Fall is officially here. I know because I am wearning a sweatshirt and fleece pants.

And I got to use the seat heaters in my car this morning!

No Turning Back This Time

I will be defending my masters thesis by the end of February. I'm setting it in stone. I want to get this done, so I am going to suck it up and bust butt for the next few months to finish my degree!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Ok, I came up with a new title.

And I updated some things, feel free to look around and make yourself at home.

Random Thoughts

1. I hate my car right now. How many times does a car have to go back to the dealership before it's considered a lemon?

2. I wish I had a cooler title for my blog. I wonder if I can change it.

3. Since I type "important" stuff more often now, it's hard for me not to be lazy and not use puntcuation and capital letters where they are supposed to be.

4. My dog is hella stubborn.

5. Would a commute to Rome, Ga really be that much worse than the commute to downtown Atlanta?

That is all. For now, anyway.

so here i am.

lots has been hapening. work is super busy. apparently sept and oct are THE months for environmental education outreach and this is one of the last free weekends i have untill late october.

we got a puppy. her name is bella and she is about 4 months old. we think she is a pointer/possibly dalmation mix. she is very spoiled already and very stubborn, so she fits in well. here is her picture:


i am running again. kind of. i was doing really well and running about 15 miles a week untill it got hot as all hell in august. then i stopped which is usually the way it goes for me. now that the weather is actually nice again, i am trying to get back on the running wagon. i wanted to train for the atlanta half marathon on thanksgiving, but thats not going to happen so i am setting my sights on a shorter distance. i am trying to train for a 10k (6.2 miles)that is also on thanksgiving. wish me luck with the training, im not so sure its going to go as well as i would like.

its been a while

so, whats been going on with you?

as for me, ive been enjoying my latest job with the state. in june i started with the Ga DNR EPD WSPB outreach unit. lots of letter, i know. its the department of natural resources, environmental protection division, watershed protection branch. as the outreach unit, we go out an educate the public about water resources and how to keep our water ways healthy. i work primarily for ga adopt-a-stream but i also do stuff for rivers alive, project WET and river of words. technically, i am an intern, but everyone likes to call me a program assistant. one complicating factor is that i have 4, count em FOUR bosses. the other small comlication that i dont have to worry about for a few months is that my position is temporary. right now, i am only slated to be around for about 12 months. im am really hoping that i can find another position with the state (or national) government, cause all government jokes aside, i really like working for the state.

thurs, fri, and sat for work, i got to visit the jones ecological research center in newton, ga. thurs, we had a driving tour of south ga (tifton, albany, americus, albany, newton. we had a meeting on fri afternoon, then we socialized into the wee hours, drinking and playing cornhole. on sat, we canoed down the flint river and went swimming, snorkeling, and musseling. we found several threatned mussels, some not so threatened, and only a few invasive ones.

i have more to update, but i also have a dirty house that needs my attention. its funny how the evolution of web based communication happens. first was the blog, then myspace, and now facebook. as each was introduced (at least among my circle of friends), the latter fell by the wayside. i can say that i would like to make this a more regular thing, but then i will be distracted by myspace and facebook only to come back a after a few months...so, hopefully you will hear from me soon....

im moody.

and feeling like an idot right now. !!girly stuff alert!!

some of you know that i got an IUD this past spring. well its been great untill recently. well, today actually.

for the past month or so, ive had serious acne on my face and neck. bad, worse than i had when i was a kid. and they arent just pimples, they are huge cysts. and im a picker, i cant help it. so ive got this lovely crater/pizza face look going and make up isnt helping.

well i just realized what the culprit is. its the freeking IUD. its a progesterone based one and any person who studied endocrinology for 6 freeking years would know that progesterone is a precursor for testosterone. and testosterone can over stimulate sebaceous glands and upregulated testosterone+over activated sebaceous glands=pimples!!!!!

im pissed. i was soooo excited and this thing was supposed to be great, but guess what, id rather take an extra pill every day than deal with having acne this bad.

and the sad part is that im even more hormonal now than i was before and when i figured out this whole testosterone/IUD connection, i started to cry.

i guess i will be making some doctor visits in the next few weeks. sigh.

Updates

here are some recent pics, enjoy!

turning point

things that tell me i really need to do something about my weight/health:

kids at school asking me if im pregnant
shopping at lane bryant
weighing as much as matts best friend who is a foot taller than me.
almost being pre-diabetic
having ridiculously high blood pressure

hopefully this time i will actually follow thru with my efforts to loose weight and improve my health.

yay for me!

so i came home tonight, exhausted and totally not feeling like working out. i putzed around for more than 30 min before i sucked it up and laced up my running shoes. i headed out on the path with the intetions of doing the bear minimum of walking for about 20 min or so. well, once i got going i picked up a pretty good pace and even thru in 7 running bursts into my 3 mile walk. i felt really good when i came home, ate dinner, and now im ready for bed.

what a difference a week makes!!

with my clothes and shoes i am nearly 5 pounds lighter than i was in the buff last week!

woohoo!!

after all these years

friends is still hilarious. so much in fact that matt just spewed milk everywhere after chandler cracked a joke.

kitchen gadgets!

so, my latest obsession is kitchen gadgets. i already am ok at and enjoy baking but i want to improve my cooking skill. ive been trying lots of new recipes lately so i regeisterd for a bunch of stuff for the wedding. i didnt get much of what i wanted but i was able to return enough to get what i really wanted.

my most favorite item is by far my cookie scoop. its like a mini icecream scoop. its makes perfect size cookies everytime. and since they are the perfect size, they bake in the perfect amount of time and are fabulous!

today i just got a micro planer and a big food processor. ive been wanting a microplaner for a long time, lots of the recipes ive tried call for grated dinger or the zest of some fruit. the food processor is phenomenal! i got a small one for the wedding, but decided that i didnt like it so i exchanged it for the next size up. i just made a dough for a cobbler like thing that im making for dessert and it was sooo easy! and, it has a slicer attachment perfect for slicing apples. apple tart, here i come!

and i got an immersion hand blender for making soups and stuff. i call it my boat motor. im making a roasted tomato soup later this week. and it came with a whisk attachment so i can use it to make homemade whipped cream!

finally i got a whole new set of calphalon cookware. my faveorite part of the set is the wok. ive made some killer stirfry and my next challenge is fried rice.

beth 1-cookies 0

HA! take that, you evil cookies!

so im making cookies for this pot luck thing for work tomorrow. now, normally, when i make cookies, i have to sample the dough several times as well as one or two cookies when they are done. well of the four dozen cookies ive made so far, i have only sampled ONE finished cookie!

ive been working out for two weeks, hard core this past week and ive already lost one pound. i would like to continue that trend so im fighting the urge to eat the dough and completed cookies. i also passed up homemade pizza at the inlaws house since i had already eaten dinner before they called.

look what i made!

newsflash

yes, folks, matt is indeed an asshole.

im playing that stupid weffridles thing. i dont know if hes done it or knows about it or what, but he answered the very first question in about 30 seconds. the same question that stumped me for days. now hes gloating about how he "knows everything". so yes, matt is an asshole.

kharma really is a bitch

ive had quite a few run ins with kharma over the years, but recently, she has been in fine form. a few instances:

1. the whole sherri/steve episode. for those of you not aware, basically steve lied about having cancer to avoid sherri. then he had to avoid all of his friends/aquaintences because of the aftermath.

2. i did something stupid a few months ago at the zoo. i thought i had gotten away with it untill a few weeks ago. then i got a speeding ticket on the same day.

3. matt planned this huge new years party without even mentioning it to me. well, he got the flu and everyone who showed up left before 10:00.