Just when the travelling ended

We are headed over to Amsterdam and Brugge for a long weekend in December with my parents and my brother. As many readers know I used to travel all the time for my former job. Well wince coming to the new job I have been a slave in the office, basically. Since going public recently we are now back in to doing Compliance, which is what I used to do, so I am being sent off to Holland to Bergen Op Zoom for a few days for some initial conversations with the office there on compliance stuff and will be making some trips back there next year too. Just when I though that work travel was gone. The trip that I am looking forward to though is going to Hong Kong some time next year!!!!

So off to planning a few days in Bergen Op Zoom, Netherlands on the front of my vacation in December. Any one been here before and know of some things do see in the area?

About a week to go

I haven't lived up to m running like I said I was going to and with the race quickly approaching next weekend I need to get out running. I got home from work last night, laced up the running shoes and made a beeline out the door before there was an excuse why I couldn't go.

I felt really good during the run so had a plan in my head where I was going to run and about how far I thought it was. I ran to a park that is behind our house and then ran 5.5 laps around the park which is a .33mile loop then headed out the back way of the park, around the neighborhood and back to our house which to my delightful surprise was 3.09 miles! I know I can do the 5k next weekend but my goal is to run it under 30 min. I ran the 3.09 last night in 32 min. and change. Not too bad but I can do better so I have a goal now. I need to run everyday between now and the race and I should be able to push myself to be under 30min.

Time to get off my tush

Time to get the arse off of the couch and onto the road since I have committed myself to two 5k's withing the next month and a half! It is a really good thing and I think the committment to the 5k's will be more inspiration to go exercise daily now, hopefully!



The first 5k is the weekend before Scott runs the NYC Marathon and is a local 5k in our town which we are doing together! The next 5k is the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning which my brother, Scott and I are going to do together.



I started the running yesterday with 2.2 miles in 22.38min. Not the best of starts but hopefully I will get faster and skinnier at the same time!

Wish me luck!

Week 1

Week one of Team Balls N' Dolls was a great success! We came from behind in the top of the 7th to give us two runs and held them to no runs in the bottom of the 7th to make Week One a "W" in the books!

Team photo last night

Week two hopefully will be a bit better for me since I did have 2 good kicks but need to learn to keep them on the ground. The ball is harder to catch since it has lots of bounce but you learn to cradle the ball.

Hopefully this will be a successful season!

Balls N' Dolls

A playground game and competitive league game, similar to baseball, invented in the US around 1920 will be occupying my Thursday nights as a social "drinking" league for the next 8 weeks.

Have you figured it out yet?




It looks like this:







Yeppers- Kickball

I joined an adult social league with some friends to play on Thursday nights for some fun. Should be a good time. We have our first game tonight so I have everything ready to go. Team Shirt (salmon colored), wristbands, knee high socks, shorts and Gatorade. Hopefully through all the years playing in grammar school will come back to help me tonight as I haven't played since then.

Until tomorrow wish me luck and I will post some pictures in the am!

I have an app for that

I am still getting used to the iPhone and its apps. I never know where to start with looking for apps. I mean what am I really looking for, what do I need an app for? There are a ton of great apps out there for traveling (getting your city guides on your iPhone rather than a book to carry around) and then on Friday afternoon I came accross the best app thus far for me.

Lose it! - Lose it is like a mini weight watchers for your iPhone. You start by putting in your height and weight and how much weight you want to lose, then how many pounds per week. It will tell you then what your calorie intake should be. Once all that is set-up, which takes all of 5 seconds, you get to track your meals and evercise in the daily log. This tracks calories in and out based on food and exercise, net. The cool feature about this app is that you when you put in what you eat it will let you choose from restaurant menus, grocery store items or your own meals. There are a ton of exercise options to from my workout to gardening, etc.

This is what the daily log looks like....pretty darn cool!

I have been using it all weekend and it is a wonderful tool to have. Sure makes me think a little more before having a Starbucks Frappachino! I am going to be using this to assist with losing the weight that I want to and hopefully with the exercising this will be a good tracking device.

I think I was meant to be a travel agent in my life

Growing up my parents made a point of getting Chris and I to all 50 states and not the whole drive through and stop at a rest area and consider that a state, but actually staying in the state and doing things/seeing things. We managed to do very well in our years growing up with one of our best trips driving from New Jersey throught the midwest and up through Canada to Alaska for a month in Alaska. An experience I will never forget.

I am working with my staff to get the rest of their days that they are thinking of taking off booked. One of the girls that works for me is Sweedish and goes home either during the summer to see her family or over Christmas. Alternates with her mom in Sweeden and her dad here for the every other year thing. She was planning on going to Sweeden this summer so we were talking about what week she is going and that she will still have an extra week left of vacation to take. I said why not instead go to Thailand to see your mom there over Christmas and you would be able to go for 3 weeks and only use 2 weeks vacation with all of the Company days off. The thought went into the head, phone was picked up, Sweedish was spoken and a ticket is being booked for Thailand for three weeks over Christmas.

I love booking travel trips for people and love planning the vacations. Maybe I should go into business as a travel agent?????