Ix-Nay on the Ikini-Bay Ody-Bay

Yeah, so I kind gained all the weight back that I lost.  Yeah.  In one week.  I gained 4 pounds in one week.  I wish I could say I didn't know how it happened and it must be a fluke, but it's not.  I ate myself out of house and home.

Seriously though.  My mom and sister came in town last weekend and then took Anna with them when they left - Mom was going to do Anna-duty all week while Tommy and I gallivanted about town.  And gallivant we did.

Our first issue is that we we were out of food and really needed to go to the grocery store.  Instead, I ate out for lunch everyday and we went out for dinner (and a few drinks) every night.  This, by the way, is not how you lose weight. 

By the end of the week, the only thing that remained in our refrigerator was a half-full jar of pickles.  And a teething ring.  The worst part was that WE WERE ALMOST OUT OF WINE!  The horror.

Point of this story is that having a baby makes you fat and not having a baby makes you fat.  So, really, you are destined to be fat regardless.  Might as well order a Snickers.

So, today at lunch (fridge is fully replenished and I was able to pack my daily PB&J), I forced myself down to the gym for an abs class despite being so exhausted I could barely do a single crunch...nevermind V-ups.  Because apparently, not only does being Baby-Free make you fat, it also makes you a party animal and therefore exhausted.  I am more tired now than I normally am...but then again, we also partied a little more than we ever did Pre-Baby.  I don't think I went out 5 nights a week when I was single and 23.  Not sure how I thought this would go down.

Poppy attempting naptime.  With a 10 month old in a swaddle.  Success!

Eating is the best!

Yayy, I love Nana!  NOT!

Nana lets me do whatever I want!!  Food fight!!!

I'm cute.

She loves this car with a fire-y passion. 

At that said, we missed Anna terribly.  My mom and sister sent us tons of pictures and kept us updated on her daily adventures.  It was a wonderful time for Tommy and I to relax and play and workout together and sleep in together and get chores done and all in all, just wonderful.  But man, we were glad to have her back!!  We're too old for this stuff!!  And we are so thankful that my parents were willing (and wanted) to take her for the week - she is a lucky monkey!

And now I have 10 pounds to lose in 5 weeks...instead of 10 pounds in 10 weeks.  The odds are not ever in my favor, but I will do my darndest.

Bikini Body

I have my bikini body back.  FINALLY.  That said, I didn't exactly have the greatest bikini body before I got pregnant, and that hasn't changed, but I think I can say that I look almost as good in a bikini NOW as I did THEN ("then" being before Ironman gave me a set of six-pack abs...I doubt we will ever see those puppies again).

So, I guess that's really the best I can hope for.

Before Ironman training (in 2009), I weighed about 143 pounds.  That's a size 10 and on the high end of the BMI scale.  My dearm goal was to get down to a size 8...I've NEVER been a size 8.  Not even in high school when I was a skinny minny. 

Alas, Ironman training began and while I got VERY toned, I did not lose a single pound, nor drop a single inch.  I had rock hard abs, could do 100 push ups, and about a million V-ups before collapsing, but I didn't lose a single pound or a single inch.  I was still a size 10.

After Ironman, I started seeing some doctors because that's just not normal.  I was diagnosed with PCOS.  In short, there is a fat girl version and a skinny girl version.  I had the fat girl version and the only reason I didn't weigh 400lbs is because I was training for an Ironman and making healthy food choices.  I began getting treated for insulin resistance with a medication called Metformin which initially made me want to hurl, but once I got regulated on it, I felt amazing and the weight started dropping off.  In the summer of 2010, I was the skinniest I have been since mid-high school - 136 pounds - but still a solid size 10. 

Those effing pants!!  Makes me crazy.  Luckily, my husband likes a girl with some hips.  But really I think he just says that because he doesn't want to buy me all new pants.

Then I got pregnant.  My pre-pregnancy weight was 136 pounds (but I consider my REAL pre-pregnancy weight to be about 143).  By the end of those 40 weeks, I had grown to a solid 177 pounds.  I weighed more than Tommy (but he was training for Ironman and therefore at his optimal race weight, soooo, I tried not to dwell on it).

I was told that breastfeeding would make the weight melt off. 

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHA.

Breastfeeding made me want to become a cannibal because then there would ALWAYS be food available to me.  Breastfeeding made me the hungriest person in the world.  I would have beaten some starving Ethiopians for their dinner.  Seriously.  I would wake up 2-3 times a night, RAVENOUS, and eat a few slices of pizza or a few bowls of cereal or whatever (a couple of timese a night).  I kept snacks next to my boppie because while I was feeding Anna I would sometimes get so hungry I would cry.  Not to be rude, but you can't lose weight if you are eating 124 large pizzas a day.  I'm just saying.  And I'm telling you that I was NEVER full.  Ever. 

Then I stopped breastfeeding. And while I had developed some terrible habits (McDonald's Chicken Biscuit anyone??), I was no longer starving and was able to at least ATTEMPT to make good choices.  But bad habits are hard to break and it's been tough going.  I was finally able to control my hunger.  THANK GOODNESS.

Getting into the routine of work, baby, working out, preparing meals made a huge difference for me and I started seeing some results. 

By Christmas, I was down to 146 pounds.I made a new years resolution that in 10 weeks, I would lose 10 pounds. 10 weeks just also happens to be my birthday and the start of summer (here in Texas).  That's 1 pound a week for 10 weeks.  I'm 4 weeks in and have lost 4 pounds, but I know these last 6 pounds are going to be the hardest...since I was never able to lose them before. 

But I'm gonna try!!

And finally, today, when I looked in the mirror, I wasn't repulsed by what I saw.  142 pounds of me wasn't gross.  My boobs were a little saggier (but they are so microscopically small, that it don't really matter), and my belly is flabbier, but overall, I'm about back to where I was before the Ironman.  I wore a bikini then, so I can wear a bikini now.  Can't say that I will rock it, but you probably won't vomit.

At 6:30AM this morning, in 50 degree weather, I put on my bikini just to be sure.  Lo and behold, it wasn't too bad.

6 more pounds to lose.  6 more packs of abs to find.  I can do it.

Nothing New.

I'll be brief. (HAHAHAHAHAHA)

Nothing exciting is happening here.  We spent Christmas with my family and then had 5 glorious days at home with just the three of us.  We relaxed, we played, it was magical.  I cannot wrap my brain around the fact that the holidays are a whole year away.  The pain.  It was a seriously fabulous time - we NEVER have relaxing time at home - and even though we were all sick as dogs ( I spend one full day at the doc-in-a-box and at an actual doctors office), it was still magical.  THAT'S how badly we all needed a vacation.

Nonetheless, a few updates:

We are considering moving.  It's been a long time in the making, but now we are actually thinking about moving.  We need a little more space (currently in 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and no yard)...and we really want a pool.  We are still trying to wrap our brains around moving to the 'burbs, but it's looking more and more likely every day.  We found a house that had the most AMAZING backyard - gorgeous pool, overlooking a little subdivision pond - but we didn't put in an offer fast enough.  Drat!!  And now, having seen THAT backyard, we are all snobby and are like, "well, THAT one isn't on a lake, so phooey".  Yeah.  Now we have this bizarre "it must be on a lake" requirement that we didn't even know could exist before. Nonetheless, we are on the hunt and are getting prepared to put out house on the market at any given moment.  Our biggest issue is that we work on opposite ends of town, so figuring out the commute is going to be a huge mess.  Alas, we will find something wonderful...someday.  And we are secretly hoping that other sale falls through so we can just have that one and have a pool for the summer.  Hahaha.  Fingers crossed!!

Anna has started to really babble.  In a scratchy animal voice.  It's like she permanently has a "smelly cat voice".  All the time.  I'm pretty sure that is going to be her permanent voice. 

3 Bath Days:

• The other day, she grabbed the pepper shaker off the coffee table (because yes, we eat at the coffee table)...and coated herself in it.  She was sneezing and coughing and it was fairly comical.  It ended up being a 3 bath day.
• On the drive home from my parents house for Christmas...we had the car loaded with us, Anna, the 2 80lb dogs, our luggage for a week and some Christmas presents...and Anna had a blowout.  We only had one wipe left from the trip and no clean clothes (well, there were clean clothes, but who knows where they were in the car).  She was naked and fairly well coated in terd for the next 3 hours of car drive.  That's good parenting right there.

And speaking of good parenting:

• We learned that if we play Rock Band, she will be mesmerized for at least an hour (probably longer, but we are kind of out of shape).  Between the lights and music on the TV, Tommy singing and dancing and my banging on the drums, it's like Baby Valium.  Not sure why we didn't think of this before. 
• So, I bought her some shoes...and I put them on her for our trip to the zoo on Saturday.  And I kept wondering why one seemed almost too big, but the other was WAY too tight.  I was starting to get concerned about her freakishly different sized feet.  Well, I was freaked out until Tommy pointed out that I hadn't taken the paper out of the toe of one shoe.  Ooops. 

Clapping because wearing Christmas jammies in January is awesome!

Horrified of this new toy.

Grammy and Anna

Great Grandma, her grandson, and his daughter!

From the wedding we went to in Mexico

I did not approve this photo.

The olympic trials for the marathon were in town this weekend, so we gathered up our running buddies, some champagne and a portable heater and settled in for the duration.  Luckily, at the olympic trials for the marathon, the duration is only about 2.5 hours.  They are pussies.  Real athletes can run at full speed for 5 hours.  Srsly.  I'd like to see them do that.  Ha.  But it was a wonderful morning spent with friends and then an even more enjoyable afternoon at the zoo...I love Houston in January.  We MEANT to wake up to see the marathon (which was the next day) but we slept in instead...wise choice.  I've lived in Houston for 8 years and this was the first time I didn't participate in the race...it felt wierd, yet oddly relaxing. 

My training has been total crap, but my New Years Resolution is to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks (which happens to conveniently coincide with my 31st birthday), so my race training is being put on the backburner and I am focusing on eating right, lifting weights and getting toned and stronger.  I'm still biking and running, but only for like 30-45 minutes at a time to make room for weights.  We will see.  I'm still planning to race a 5k in February, a 10k in March and a sprint tri in April, but it will all depend on how my training goes.  Wish me luck!!

Happy Happy Christmas!

Okay, the 2 job, maintain a happy healthy marriage while raising a child thing was rough and is (thank goodness) basically over.  At this point, I'm really only doing about 1.25 jobs and it's fairly manageable for the moment.  Things slow down a little during the holidays, so that's made a huge difference and I am finally starting to get the hang of the new job, so yayyy...that said, I am still probably going to end up wasting 3-4 days of vacation this year and that just hurts my heart. 

First World Problems.  I has them.

We did the Turkey Trot here and I did about like I expected (not good, but about as good as I expected).  I finished in 26:26 for the 5K...which is about 3 minutes off my PR.  I figured I would do just under 27 minutes, so yeah, right on plan, but not good.  I keep saying I'll get faster and back to where I was, but to do that, I will actually have to train properly...and right now, I'm not.  Blah!  Tommy walked with Anna in the jogging stroller...he fell down the stairs (twice) earlier in the week and his ankle was all jacked up. 

Then we did Thanksgiving with our wonderful friends Tiffany and Harold at their camp on the coast...it was us, Anna, our two dogs, Tiffany and Harold, Harolds mom, their 4 kids and their 3 dogs.  To recap, thats 5 adults, 5 children and 5 dogs.  Hahahaha.  It was wonderful - we wish we could see them more often!

We went to Cancun for vacation, which was marvelous (although, a little cold for our tastes).  I got caught up on my reading (The Hunger Games, a couple of chick lit/romance crap, and some comedy...I ran the full gamut).  We did a lot of beach sitting, even though Anna HATED sand, eating delicious seafood, drinking margaritas, playing cards and watching movies.  The water was too rough and we couldn't swim in the ocean, but Anna loved swimming in the pool (I did not swim in the pool...it was freezing).

Here is a photo bomb of our last few months.  And yes, these are the just a small selection of pictures.  We took 320 pictures over the weekend alone.  Trust me.  I've toned it down for you.  It could be much worse.  Much, much worse.


I'm 7 months old!  Hooray!



A Preview of the Teenage Years

And you thought YOU had bad hair days.

My friend Jodie came in town and we had a girls lunch and then we went and "played" at Kristins.  Playing mostly consisted of the other babies taking whatever Anna was playing with (eating).  It was very amusing.

Mom.  Seriously.  Stop it with the camera.

Anna and her pals. 



The girls!  We survived lunch!



Cupcake! 

This is when we realized that we should have dressed her as Gene Simmons for Halloween. 



First trip to the zoo.  Petting a goat.  It looked and felt a lot like Donny the Dog.  She was not impressed.

My mom and sister came in town and Tommy and I went to a wedding and then spent the night in a hotel...there is nothing better than waking up on your own on a Sunday morning.

Thanksgiving at our friends new camp!

 And then we spent the week after Thanksgiving in Cancun - we spent the first 5 days alone, just the 3 of us, and then we packed up and moved to another resort for a friends wedding for 3 days.  My family was there and it was a blast. 

Mommy realizes she may be showing too much boob for a wedding.

Baby Anna will cut you if you take her banana.

Dancing with Daddy

This is the moment that she realizes that sand is going to kill her.

Yayy Mexico!

This is how we do vacation.  Napping baby, cards, beer and paella...on the beach.

What up?!?

Practicing for the swim.  Ironbaby!

The storm that rolled in from Cozumel the day of the Ironman...

Splashing is the best!

Yes.  She is almost 8 months old and we still swaddle her.  Dear lord.

I love swimming!  Even when it's freezing cold!

The view from our room.  We are spoiled!

My family!  Nothing better than a wedding where you are barefoot and can have a mimosa during the ceremony.

Excuses!

I am seriously just one giant excuse after another.

But here is my Top Ten List for Why I Haven't Blogged Since Before Kim Kardashian Got Married:

10.  I got a new job (yayyy!)
9.  But I still have my old job (boo!), so I get to do two jobs...and only get paid for one.
8.  I got a subscription to US Weekly (also known as the greatest publication of all time) and therefore for one night a week, I am busy.  Reading about the Kardashians.  And the Real Housewives of Whatever City.  And the Beiber.  GLORIOUS.
7.  I have this rugrat who requires inordinate amounts of attention and prefers to be outside with the mosquitoes.  And it's hard to play on the computer when you spend 100% of your time batting mosquitoes away from your child's face.  And then she STILL looks like an assault victim.  And then we both spend the next two days walking around swearing that we just ran into a door...our husbands did NOT beat us.
6.  I am running.  Or biking.  Or lifting weights.  Or TRYING to do some form of calorie expenditure. 
5.  I am lounging on the couch, watching the Beibers, Kardashians, and Housewives with my cute husband who moans and groans the whole time, which means that I have to rewind and re-watch, which means that we all get double the time with the Kardashian family.  Winning!
4.  I've been sick.  Which is sad.  And means that I walk around with kleenex stuck up my nose.  Lucky for me, Tommy finds women with kleenex hanging out of their noses irresistible.
3.  Anna is hysterical and wild and still isn't taking naps.  Which means I am not taking naps.  And when Mama don't take naps, ain't nobody happy.  And ain't nobody having no time to blog.  I just bought a book about how to get your baby to nap.  Basically, it's all puppies and rainbows and "just love your baby to sleep" and makes me want to hurl the book across the room.  If love put the kid to sleep, she'd be freaking Sleeping Beauty.
2.  I apparently have arthritis in my feet and am wearing old lady shoes.  From the ugly shoe aisle at DSW.  I don't respect myself.  At all.  But man, these puppies are comfy.

And the number one reason why I haven't blogged since Before Kim Kardashian Got Married:

1.  I just haven't felt like it.

Quick update:
Tommy and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary last week.  The traditional gift for 4 years is fruit or flowers, so I got him an Edible Arrangement and he planted flowers in our garden in the shape of a 4.  We are so cute.  My mom is coming in town this week to hang with me, since Tommy is going to Amsterdam for work and then when he gets back, we are going to a friends wedding and staying at a hotel for the night while Nana hangs with the nugget.  I plan on taking 14 naps before I head home in the morning.  Ha.

The Don is doing SO much better.  He has been diagnosed with Addison's disease and for the small price of $400 a month, he is healthy and happy.  Don needs to get a job.  But seriously, Addison's is a very dangerous disease, but it's similar to diabetes in that it is deadly, but VERY manageable ($$$)...so we are managing it.  And Anna will have to pay for her own college, but that's an entirely different issue.

Work is seriously kicking my butt.  I miss blogging.  But then again, I also miss having a waist, so it just goes to show that we can't have everything.

Okay.  Love.  And puppies.  And I'll get back to it eventually. 

The Don

I got this furball of a dog in college against my parents will (shocking!).  I lied to the shelter saying that I would be living in a house with a friend (when I really lived in a tiny efficiency apartment) and had her pretend to be my landlord when they called to confirm this story.  (Why is adopting a shelter dog so freaking hard?!?!) 

Anyways, I picked up The Don on February 14, 2004.  He was assumed to be about 8 months old (birthday of June-ish 2003), and was part-Newfoundland, part-Chow, part-Lab, part-Any Other Giant and Furry Beast You Can Think Of.

He was giant and furry and adorable.  And probably the best dog ever.  We had our moments of course, but overall, he was potty trained and crate trained when I got him, so other than the fact that he took a giant dump in the middle of my BFF's house on his first visit there, he was a perfect gentleman.

I was a sloth-like, overweight college senior (also shocking!) because I ate predominately french fries coated in melted cheese with a side of Jack Daniels and Coke while playing as much dominoes as one could handle.  It was a fairly glorious victory lap (also known as the 5th year of college).  But, when I got Don, we started running because you can't keep an 80lb Furry Beast in an efficiency apartment without also giving him sufficient exercise.

And so the endurance athlete was born.

Over the next year, Don and I moved to Houston for work, into a slightly larger apartment (I got him his own bedroom) and started training for my first half marathon.  I lost 40 lbs, started eating well (although, I have never lost my adoration for cheese fries and Jack and Coke...and dominoes), and Don and I were running fools. 

He was a man-magnet at the park - even though running in Houston summers is not the most attractive activity in the world - he scored me dates on a regular basis.  He and I would run our loop or 2 and spend the next hour chatting with fellow runners.  He and I could run up to about 13 miles together in the winter...the summers were a different ball game though.  Nonetheless, I ran my first half in Houston in January about a year after I ran my first mile.  I ran my first marathon a year after that.  And my next marathon the year after that.  And then a triathlon.  And then Ironman.  Donny created an evil monster!

Donny used to be TERRIFIED of men.  He would hide in the closet, under all my clothes, until the man left.  Until I met Tommy.  Tommy showed Don that all men weren't evil and now he is just the sweetest puppy you ever met. 

He doesn't get on the furniture, he doesn't really bark (unless we are being robbed), he doesn't run away, and he doesn't dig or really do anything else mischevious.  His only tragic flaw is the EXTREME shedding.  And he went through this phase of hiking his leg at other people's houses for about 6 months.  Otherwise, BEST.  Dog.  Ever.

This brings us to today.  Don is getting old.  For the last few years, he has been struggling with his hips and has been on medicine as needed, but overall, wasn't very bad off.  However, when Anna was about 4 weeks old, he fell down the stairs and he hasn't really been the same since.

We got carpeted stair treads and got rugs for the entire downstairs so he wouldn't slip or struggle.  It helped a little, but he didn't come upstairs as often and kind of generally stayed in one place.  We would take Dixie on walks, but Donny couldn't really go, so he would whine at the door until Dixie got back and then he would run out into the field in an act of defiance.  It has been really sad to watch him.

Early last week, we noticed that he hasn't been eating as much (if anything).  He has never been much of an eater, so him skipping a meal or two is not alarming...so who knows how long he hadn't been eating.  We took him to the vet on Tuesday of last week and they ran some tests - told us to go get a drink and come back in an hour - and they found what looked to be like Kidney Failure.  He had lost 6lbs in a month. They gave him fluids and some different pain meds for his hip (the other medicine may have caused the kidney problems) and an antacid to help him eat something. 

We tried to get him to eat anything - we gave him treats and wet food (that smelled good enough that I considered trying it), we made him chicken and rice and sushi, we gave him cheese and peanut butter...nothing.  He ate nothing. 

Then Dixie ate it all and shat her brains out all over my rug, but that's a different story.

He was still very pitiful and feeling awful.  He didn't wag his tail.  He didn't get up.  He didn't go outside.  Nothing.  It was awful.

We took him back in for more tests on Thursday - there was another disease that they needed to confirm or rule out that often presented itself like Kidney Failure.  He stayed at the vet all day while they took more blood, gave him more fluids and ran the tests.  Confirmed.  He didn't have kidney failure, instead he has Addison's Disease.  Addison's Disease is less dire than kidney failure and is often managed with treatment, but can still be quite ugly.

Addison's Disease is basically a failure of the adrenal gland to produce the stress hormone that we release to combat stressors in life.  Without it, your body has no way to cope and will ultimately collapse and go into crisis...and die.  Donny's body does not produce this hormone which is why he was feeling so awful.

Treatment is a shot of steroids every 28 days and daily doses of prednisone to keep levels of the hormone where they need to be.  He got his first dose of the steroids on Friday and was doing much better on Saturday - got up to greet me when I got home and ate a few pieces of a treat.  But then on Saturday night, he woke me up at midnight, barking to go outside (of course, I was home alone with a sick baby).  I went downstairs to let him out and I found the crime scene...bloody diarrhea everywhere.  I spent the next hour cleaning and emailing my vet (who is AWESOME btw) and then I slept on the couch, because Donny needed to go outside about once every hour and a half.  He continued to poop blood for most of the next day until we picked up the RX my vet called in. 

He is now on 6 different medicines, one of which has to be dissolved in water and shot into his mouth an hour before the other meds.  He still can't really go up the stairs - he will whine at the bottom until you come and get him (let's remember that he weighs about 70lbs).  But he is wagging his tail and getting around a little bit better.  The vet says the meds will make a huge difference, but I'm skeptical.  He is definitely on the downhill side of things and I think we are getting very close to having to make a decision.

I keep hoping that he will snap out of it and get better, but at the same time, I know he won't and I don't want him to be miserable.  We are playing the wait and see game...and it's not particularly fun. 

Added to the sick baby, our house is one giant stressball.  My mom is coming to visit tomorrow...her arrival will either easse some stress because we will have more hands around to help or increase it because you can't release your stress anger when company is around...we will see.

Keep Don in your thoughts...he has lead a good life and I don't want him to be in pain or miserable.  I love that giant mutt.

The Hook Brings You Back.

So I had this boyfriend in high school.  And by boyfriend, I mean this boy who liked me and I kind of liked him, but thought it was creepy that he was a senior and I was a freshman, so I didn't really want to go out with him.  I didn't know how to say no (or sure that I WANTED to say no), so I asked my mom if I could go out with him...knowing she would say no for me.  She's a good woman. 

If I had really wanted to go out with him, I would have just gone out with him.  I was difficult that way*.  So of course, mom said no because she is a rational human being and when your 14 year old daughter wants to go out with a 19 year old boy (he was old for his grade), you ALWAYS say no.  Even if you know she will go anyway.  At least then, when she gets impregnated, you can say "Nanananana, I told you so"...and then you can go about raising her High School Love Child.

For the sake of the story, we will say his name was Eagle.  This doesn't really protect the innocent at all, because his name was another bird...which totally didn't help his cause.  He was a nice enough guy and I DID like him...but only kind of.  He was into cars (which I SOOO wasn't)...and into low-rider cars (which I was even LESS into than just regular cars)...especially since I didn't even have my drivers permit.  He was into really loud music in his car - you know, like the BOOM BOOM BOOM music that makes you want to kill people as they zip through your neighborhood or stop next to you at an intersection (this is probably why I am deaf today).  But is probably also why I was not a teen mom (he knocked up a couple of girls shortly after our "relationship" ended).  See mom?  I DID make good decisions.

Anyway, we used to spend the afternoons hanging out on the bed of his truck in front of my parents house.  The fact that this was fun to a 19 year-old was baffling to me and only furthered his creepiness factor.  I mean, I felt SO cool that I was hanging with a 19 year-old, but seriously thought it was wierd that he thought it was cool to hang with me.  In my parents yard. 

Alas, we had unrequited love.  And therefore, he sent me love letters**.  Of the handwritten/cologne doused variety.  They arrived regularly in the mail...and made every other piece of paper in the mailbox stink to high heaven.  He must have wasted bottles of cologne on these letters.

Fast forward to present time:  We just had a re-orginization at work.  I have a new boss who shows up in a meeting the other day wearing a familiar scent.  I immediately placed it and the hook brought me back man.  I could totally see myself sitting in my parents yard (with straight teeth because I wore my retainer all the time back then), with my friend Eagle listening to Satellite by DMB in the bed of his truck...

To sum up:  My boss wears the same cologne as my high school "boyfriend".  Not sure how I'm supposed to get through my yearly performance review without dying.

*Let's hope Anna inherited my hair and nothing else.  The less she is like me, the more likely that Tommy and I are to survive her childhood.

**I also recieved a recorded-from-the-radio cassette tape of Careless Whisper by Wham.

Update:  It has been brought to my attention that this story would be significantly better if my new boss was my old boyfriend, so for the sake of hilarity, we will say it is so.  Done.  New boss = Ex-Boyfriend.  (But in reality, they only smell the same...)