look, here i am!

Look who returned! Craziness lately, I'm telling ya! The weather is crazy, work is crazy, weekend free time is wonderful, but crazy! It's good though... I'm feeling pretty content and happy, a little frazzled sometimes (and I'm definitely getting a cold), but happy. It's spring 100% now, what with the raining and gusting... although the high of 50* today is a little out of character, and the wind is bordering on ridiculous (my car was rocking back and forth like a boat while I was sitting in it this morning, waiting on the train!). But tomorrow should be nice and my plan is to at least start on the planting of my two new plants (got them this weekend with my mum!)... a beautiful red azalea

that I bought for the front of the house... I'm thinking something like this:
And a currently small, but soon to be flourishing lilac bush
that my mom gave me for the back yard.
Next time we head to my parents, I'm also going to pick up a yucca plant

also for the backyard.
I'm very excited to get some more color and life through out our yard... not to mention how wonderful that lilac bush will smell once it gets the chance to set up shop and grow a bit. Can't wait!

So what else? Well, I'm officially training for the 3-day now. Last week I walked 13 miles and each week it will go up a bit more. Its neat because I get emails every week from my virtual personal trainer telling me exactly how much I have to walk everyday. I actually only walk 4 days a week, two others are "cross-training" days (thinking yoga would be nice, but, don't laugh... we're also thinking about getting the WiiFit! which would easily take care of the 30ish minutes I need), and then Monday is always a day of rest. Thank goodness, today I would probably get blown away if I tried to walk!

Last week was crazy with work things, and this week will probably not be much better. We have a big event this weekend (one of the ones that I often travel for, but my coworker is handling this one)... and we have two events during the week, including one on Wednesday that I have to stick around for, until around 8 - 8:30ish. But it shouldn't be too bad... and at least the conference I had to assist with Thursday and Friday of last week is over! It wasn't horrible, but there are always little things that make them a pain. I did however get to have a really interesting, thought-provoking conversation on politics and religion, over lunch on Friday, with an editor from Italy. It was entertaining and enlightening!

As for the weekend, well it was the right combination of busy and relaxing. Friday we headed to a bar to watch the hockey game with our friends, Slink and Corey, after which we headed back to their place to hang out and spend the night. Then next day we woke, headed to breakfast with our friends, then headed home. I did my miles and we took it pretty easy. Sunday morning I woke, did my miles, then we got ready and headed up to my parents to celebrate Mother's Day and my dad's birthday. My mom got a card, some chocolates, and we took her out to buy some flowers. My mom has a green thumb... more like two of them... she LOVES to garden and their yard is beautiful, always flourishing (I'll have to take some pictures). Being able to pick out some flowers to plant was one of the best gifts I could think to get her... she was very happy. My dad got a card and a redemption code for his favorite online music store. He loves to download new artists, especially now that they finally have DSL instead of dial-up. So while my mom and I (with Trav and my brother in tow) shopped for flowers, my dad downloaded to his hearts content. :-) After that we relaxed and ate a nice lunch, then hung out for a bit more before heading home. I hit the sack early because I wasn't feeling so well (probably this cold I'm working on)... and here we are at monday morning.

Now I definitely have to get back to work... but I'll try to return sooner rather then later. Have a great one!