Angelo's 30th Birthday

Angelo turned the big 3-0 on the 17th! We went out to dinner to Shogun (like a Benihana) with our parents and his brother. Here are pictures from the night just to prove Angelo's family exists. (They are very hard to get on film.) Here's us with my parents.Angelo acting his age with his mom and dad.
Angelo and his brother Nino.
For his birthday I surprised him with a ride in a WWII plane. You've got to do something fun when you turn 30, right? This was super cool! Angelo got to fly all over San Diego. The pilot let him fly the plane and they did loops and all kinds of tricks. He got to pull 4Gs!

Here's a video of the take off.

The Guerilla

I have named the new intern. He is now to be known as The Guerilla. Notice the spelling; this is not in reference to a big hairy monkey, but what the dictionary defines as "a person who engages in irregular warfare especially as a member of an independent unit carrying out harassment and sabotage." Actually, he named himself. I have overheard many of his cell phone conversation (remember his proximity to my office) and he has often referred to himself to his friends as "guerilla." I so wish I was kidding about this but sadly, I am not.

He offered to knock someone off again at another one of our staff meetings. One time, ok maybe that's a joke, twice, I'm keeping my distance. Then later I heard the following conversation between Guerilla and my co-worker:

(They were talking about something not going right. He was obviously joking around but dude, come on, stop with the killing jokes.)
Guerilla: "We could just shoot 'em."
Co-worker: "You just want to shoot somebody, don't you?"
Guerilla: (Laughing) "I do, I really do."

If anything bad happens to someone who wasn't nice to my company it wasn't our fault! It was the Guerilla! I do not want to go to jail as an accessory to murder.

For your entertainment

For a mutual activity our youth group made some awesome videos. Check them out.



Here's the url: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc-7Ns3vhkM



Here's the url: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVe-Vh9rfnc

More intern shouting...

...from the office next to mine. He yelled, "AHHH YEAHHH!" today to himself.

There was also a really loud yawn and some whistling too.

Things I have whispered from my office: "Shut up" & "You are an idiot."

Going Bananas

I had the exciting task of taking my parents to the airport this morning. As I entered their house my mom yelled down the hall to my dad that I had arrived. My dad shouted back something about which shirt was packed, I don't know. My parents are retired and therefore spend A LOT of time together. Which means that sometimes they annoy the crap out of each other. It's hilarious. Sitting around while they finish packing for a 5 day trip was beyond entertaining. My mom had a bunch of stuff on the kitchen counter that she hadn't put in her carry on bag yet. My dad was buzzing around the kitchen and started asking her what she was going to do with this stuff. She told him that she would take care of it. He asked her another question and she grabbed a banana, pointed it at him, and blurted out, "ARE YOU GOING TO EAT THIS BANANA????" I think she was just trying to illustrate to him that his constant questions had become annoying but instead she just sounded like she was brewing her own brand of crazy. I couldn't contain myself and my dad and I just started laughing. Earlier my mom had asked my dad to take out the trash before they left. While they were still gathering up their stuff I grabbed the bag and took it outside to the trash cans. When I got back my mom was shouting down the hall from her bedroom asking my dad if he had taken out the trash. My dad wandered into the kitchen and asked her where the trash was. To my mom, of course, this was a stupid question. "What do you mean where's the trash? I left it right there next to the trash can!" (I decided I would just sit and enjoy this for a while.) My dad yelled back, "There's no trash." My mom comes back into the kitchen and says, "What do you mean? Did we loose the trash? You didn't take the trash out? Where did it go?" My dad responds, "I don't know, there's no trash." By this time I couldn't hide my convulsing shoulders anymore and they looked at me. My mom asked if I had taken it out and I said no, I hadn't seen any trash. They knew I was lying and the mystery of the missing trash had been solved. Sometimes its fun to make your parents think they're crazy. As they finished up it was fun to just randomly shout, "ARE YOU GOING TO EAT THIS BANANA????" at them. My mom looked at me as we exited the house and said, "Ah shoot, this isn't going to be a blog is it???"

Operation: Name the New Intern

So I was being sarcastic when I posted this farewell to Sybil blog that said..."Keep your fingers crossed that we'll get another entertaining intern this summer. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the overzealous ex-military kid that has shown up at our office 3 times in one week asking about our intern program." Luckily, that didn't happen.

Instead it is happening NOW, during the fall semester. That's right, apparently we ordered a big bag of crazy and it came in the form of the overzealous ex-military kid. My co-worker announced earlier this month that she had lined up a great new intern, a real "go-getter." Later on as I walked past the intern office my jaw fell ajar as I recognized who this "go-getter" was. At this point I didn't have any real ammunition to inform anyone of the crazy we had let infiltrate our operations but it didn't take long for him to demonstrate it himself.

At his first staff meeting we were complaining about a person that we deal with a lot that isn't very helpful in our cause. New intern blurted out, "Hey, you know bullets are only 50 cents, you want me to knock him off for you?" Everyone laughed a little but I just wore a fake smile and inside I knew that this was going to be an interesting few months.

On a more annoying personal level, we have him parked in the office right next to mine and he has this awesome habit of sighing REALLY loud. Just out of the blue, he'll screech out a really long, irritating sigh. You know, the attention seeking kind. The first time he did it he scared the piss out of me. I haven't come up with a good nickname yet. It will come, they have a way of naming themselves. This is going to be great.

26

I have officially lost 26 pounds! Wahoo! Today was my goal deadline. It has been 4 months since I really got serious about my need to be healthier. I was only 4 pounds shy of my 30 pound goal weight and I am so happy!

This is me now compared to what I am affectionately calling "Puffy Katie." The "Puffy Katie" picture was taken in April and this is me now. My SparkPeople program has worked so well for me. I have not had to starve or give up many foods that I like. (The only thing I am really staying away from is french fries but I haven't missed them that much.) I really needed to learn how many calories were in the foods I ate. I also have been really committed to working out at least 3 times a week. I now fit into the clothes I was wearing the last time I lost some weight. I'm not stopping here though. I got to set a new goal weight and deadline today and anything above this is just icing on the cake. (Figuratively speaking of course.) I feel so much better and my headaches are few and far between. Angelo says that I am much happier too. This is totally possible! There are good days and bad but it is so worth it! This is really cliche but it's not about a diet. You really have to have a long term perspective. I am not eating and exercising like this from this date to this date. I am eating and exercising like this for the rest of my life. No more "Puffy Katie!"