Ms. Sara Goes to Washington

Hello, Washington D.C.!  That's right, I'm blogging from the nation's capital.  I'm here for the weekend for work (I'm giving a presentation tomorrow) and its my first time here!  I landed around 4pm today and I'm leaving Sunday morning.  I wish I were here longer, there's SO much to see here, but I'm going to try to do what I can. 

As my flight landed, I saw the Washington Monument and the Capital building from my window, so that's two sights down, but many more to go.

 

Once I landed I hopped in a taxi, which I was a little worried about (I'm a West Coast girl...we don't do taxis, we own cars) but am proud to say I did it, and thankful that I arrived at my hotel safely.  After getting settled, I decided to go for a walk and ventured down the street a few blocks in search of some dinner.  Here are a few of my observations:

1. People in Washington DC have GREAT coats!  They are all so cute and stylish.  Even the guys!  It makes me want to go buy coats...except I don't really have the need for a bunch of them.
2. Why are drivers so mean in big cities!?  Probably because some pedestrians walk out into the street when it says not too, crazy cabbies are driving like maniacs and the streets are all confusing.  I don't blame the drivers...I'd be mad to.
3. I didn't see anyone who was overweight.  Maybe that's because they walk everywhere in this city??
4. Being in Washington DC makes me feel like I'm in a movie.  Everyone seems so "business like" and professional.  It's fun!

So, hopefully tomorrow after my event,  I'll be able to see some sights and have some pictures of my own to post.  By the way, my hotel, the Capital Hilton, is pretty cool.  I'm on the top floor (the 14th) and I have access to the Executive Level which offers complimentary breakfast in the morning, beverages and snacks all day, hors d'oeuvres in the evening and cookies and milk at night.  In fact, I just got back from having cookies and milk...deeelicious!

Harry Potter Update

Alright, once again...I'm a nerd...I love Harry Potter...I just found this video on the Internet...and now I'm posting about it.  This one is my favorite book out of the series and I'm very excited for the movie!!  It looks so great, doesn't it?!?  I can't wait for it to come out!

I've Started Another Blog

Alright, I've finally gone and done it.  I've start a cooking/baking/recipe blog of my own!  I knew it would happen eventually.  After all, I love cooking/baking and there are just SO many recipes to try and to write about.  Plus, there are so many cooking blogs that I love reading...I just had to jump on the bandwagon.  Hopefully, my cooking/baking/recipe blog will someday be as good as some of my favorite blogs. 

Also,  I didn't want to totally take away from this blog and the exciting adventures of Jeremy and (me) Sara, by just blogging about cooking all the time! :)  So, every once and awhile stop by my other blog, "Sara's Sweets," and let me know what you think.

I Love My New Heart Rate Monitor!

For Christmas this past year, the #1 thing on my list was a heart rate monitor.  Why did I want a heart rate monitor, you might ask??  Because they are TOTALLY awesome for working out!

Well, I didn't end up getting one for Christmas, but due to a bonus that Jeremy recently got at work (yay!), he let me get one for myself!  This is the heart rate monitor that I got, it's a Polar F6 and it's so cool.

Now I bet your thinking, "But Sara, it's not pink!  Why wouldn't you get a pink one?"  Good question!  This model does come in pink...but it's a pretty lame pink and doesn't compare to my pink standards.  (I hope the people from Polar come across my blog and create a Hot Pink one in the future.)  So, I went for the black one with cute swirls around the frame. 

The heart rate monitor consists of the wrist unit, which is also a watch and a transmitter band that goes around your chest.  I played with it last night at the gym, and I even wore the transmitter band to work today in order to keep on playing with it!  My handy-dandy F6 measures my heart rate, calories burned, and time exercised.  It's quite possibly the coolest piece of exercise equipment that I've ever seen.  Here is the official description from the Polar website:

For effective training

Depending on your body’s daily condition, you might benefit from either a low or high intensity training session. This monitor checks your daily condition, and guides you to a suitable intensity. If you want to be sure that you are training at the right intensity, this is the right product for you.

• Get guidance for optimal training intensity based on your daily condition
• See how many calories you have burned
• Get interference-free data with coded heart rate transmission

  Neat, huh?!  When you set up the F6, you enter in your height, weight, gender and birthday, so it can correctly calculate the correct heart rate zone for you.  Since you enter in this information, it also makes for a very accurate calculation of your calories burned.  In fact, when I went to the gym tonight and ran/speed walked on the treadmill for bit and my F6 said that I had burned 300 calories, while the treadmill said I had burned about 480!!  Stupid treadmill, you've been tricking me all these years!  I'm sure the treadmill probably thinks I'm a 165lb, 6 ft tall man, which would result in a high calorie burn... but my F6 is smarter than that...it knows me.

Another cool feature is that you can upload your workouts (since the F6 records them) to a website and analyze them.  Plus, I just figured out (really, like 5 minutes ago and I'm still excited about it) how to upload a cute logo to my F6.  My F6 now has three little hearts on the watch screen!  Cute! 

  

So, I've own my F6 for 2 1/2 days and I LOVE it.  I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in getting/staying in shape or just being healthy!

Happy Birthday, Jeremy!

That's right, today is my dear hubby's 25th birthday!  Yay!  So, we'll now be the same age for about 3 months before I go back to being a cradle robber. :)  Sadly, Jerm had to work today, so I didn't get to spend much time with him, but we had a fun past few days with his family.  On Wednesday night, his mom, dad and younger sister came out to spend a few days with us and to celebrate Jerm's birthday.

Over the time they were here, we saw a movie (I highly recommend Taken!  Liam Neeson is awesome and kicks butt in it!), went out to dinner, watched some of the NBA All-Star events on TV and Jerm and his dad fixed some little house things (I'm learning that it's a never ending process being a homeowner).  Plus, of course, Jerm got to open some presents!

Presents!

 

He's such a goofball.

 

Loving his new electric shaver.

I'd like to mention that he's been really wanting that electric shaver and he has now PROMISED to shave everyday.  I already love this gift and now you're all my witness to this promise. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEREMY!  I love you!!

It's Snowing!!

That's right...Prescott, AZ has finally seen another winter storm that has brought us snow!  I haven't seen snow like this since my freshman year of college, which was 8 years ago!  (Yikes!  8 years?  Am I really that old?)  Usually our snow storms are just a dusting and enough snow to tease us, but nothing more. 

Well, not this storm!  Prescott is at about 5300 feet and here's what Weather.com has to say:

"... WINTER STORM WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM MST TUESDAY ABOVE 3500 FEET...

AREAS OF MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW WILL CONTINUE OVERNIGHT AND WILL BEGIN TO DECREASE FROM THE NORTHWEST TUESDAY MORNING. EXPECT SNOW LEVELS TO FALL TO 3500 OVERNIGHT. WEST TO SOUTHWEST WINDS OF 15 TO 25 MPH WILL CAUSE AREAS OF BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW.

STORM TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS THROUGH 10 AM MST TUESDAY ARE:

ABOVE 6000 FEET......10 TO 20 INCHES.   4000 TO 6000 FEET...... 7 TO 12 INCHES. 3500 TO 4000 FEET......1 TO 2 INCHES."

It's been snowing for the past few hours, the wind is blowing like crazy, the power is flickering and Jeremy and I keep trying to open the front door to peek out, but we keep getting snow blown into our faces!  If you know me at all, you know that I HATE cold weather...but this is actually pretty cool.  I'm crossing my fingers (and toes) and praying for a snow day tomorrow (ah, the perks of working for a university).

The view from our front door at about 5pm.

 

The park across the street.

David After the Dentist

How many of you love the dentist?  I sure do!!  I have since I was a kid.  I love the way they always make my teeth feel so clean and then, they give me a little goodie bag on the way out.  How many of your have been put under/knocked out for a dentist procedure?  I have!!  Just for the pulling of my wisdom teeth about 5 years ago and everything went well.  All four teeth came out easily and there were no adverse side effects to being knocked out...unlike for this little boy...

Meet David.  I came across this video a few days ago and I've been laughing myself silly over it.  In fact, just now as Jerm and I were watching it again, I was laughing so hard I was crying!  Apparently, little David had some teeth pulled and his dad decided to video tape him afterwards, as the medication wore off.  All I have to say is that David's dad is totally awesome for thinking of video taping this and putting it on Youtube.  Check it out!

 

Also, for extra laughs be sure to check out the "REMIX" to little David's adventure.

 

How About Them Cardinals?

What a great Super Bowl yesterday, huh?  Can you believe that last few minutes of the game?  Alright, I'm not going to kid myself or you by making you think I know/like football.  I could give you all my input of the game but it'd really just be nonsense because the truth is: 1) The Super Bowl is the only football game of the season that I voluntarily watch. 2) I really only watch it for the commercials. 3) I don't even understand football and I was in marching band for all four year of high school. 

Anyway, I did somewhat enjoy the game yesterday, as I rooted for the underdog, the AZ Cardinals.  Let me tell you a quick story:  I've lived in AZ for 20 of my almost 26 years in existence, and the Cardinals have always sucked.  I remember in elementary school, they used to give us little Cardinals trading cards and we'd all just throw them away.  Sad, huh?  Though I refuse to jump on the bandwagon and start claiming them "My Team," I think they did a pretty good job yesterday and this might be the only time you'll ever hear me say this but..."Go Cards!"

So, for the Super Bowl festivities we had our good friends, Jake and Kayla (or as we like to refer to them: Jayla), over for some snacks and fun.  The company was great and the snacks were tasty.  Jayla made their delicious Touchdown Bean Dip (TDBD) and Lil Smokies in "secret" sauce.  Plus, we had sandwiches, salsa, chips, brownies and lemon cupcakes.  Yummy!

Jeremy enjoying some TDBD.

 

This is an awesome picture of Jake.

Watching from the kitchen, since no food is allowed in the new living room.

Our TV is ridiculously huge!

The gang in the kitchen.

Still speaking of the Super Bowl, while watching the game Kayla and I decided that Jeremy looks like Pittsburgh Steeler, Chris Hoke.  (You can tell we were very into the game...we also decided that Kurt Warner has a nice smile and is a good looking guy.)  Take a look at the resemblance between Jerm and Chris!  They could be related, couldn't they!?

 

Hope you all had a good Super Bowl Sunday!!