Who knew vampires could be so irresistable?

I've done it, I've crossed over, I am now among the adoring, crazy Twilight fans. I LOVED it!! I am so upset that I don't have the next one in the series! I have all three on hold at the library and I actually checked out the third one (like that helps) and I just borrowed the first one from a friend from work. I am sooo close to going out to wal-mart and buying the second book.

I read the entire book in about 5 or 6 hours (it's over 400 pages long), but it didn't even seem like that long. It seemed like I just blinked and I was halfway through the book. Here is how it went down: I worked the night shift Saturday night, a 12 hour shift. I spent most of it doing homework (oh yeah, and some actual work, you know the stuff they really pay me to do :), and I started Twilight around 6:30 am which is 1 hour before I go home.
-After getting home I got into bed at 8:00 am to take a nap before church, thinking I would read until I fell asleep. I read for 2 1/2 more hours until it was time to go to church.
-I got home from church at 3:00 pm, read until 4:30, slept for an hour, then went to my parents' house for dinner.
-I got home around 8:30ish and read from 9-10PM to finish the book!

The downside of all of this is that I ended up staying awake for more than 30 hours! Unfortunately, lack of sleep is a trigger for my migraines so I woke up this morning with a severe migraine and uncontrollable vomiting. I'm still debating if it was worth it. I'm thinking....yes (now that I am feeling better, of course).

A moment of silence for my 5k aspirations

I have decided to momentarily throw in the towel on my ambitious aspiration to run a 5k on Friday. I've been having some pretty bad knee problems ever since I started this a month ago and after my one try to run on the road, my knee throbbed for over 2 days. I haven't given up, I've just decided to take things a little bit slower. I'm going to do it one day but I have to figure out what to do about my knee first. Apparently this is a common problem for beginners to have so I am going to try new stretches and maybe a knee brace to help things. So, on Monday it is back to the treadmill at the gym (yea!!! air conditioning and tv).

The new (temporary?) aquarium

Anthony recently got a new aquarium! I know you are all thinking, "Why???!!!" Honestly, I thought the same thing, but Anthony really wanted it and he got an awesome deal on it. A friend of his from work wanted to get rid of her set up, so she sold the entire thing, fish and all, to Anthony for $100 as long as he came and got it. He has been excited for weeks, thinking that it was a 64 gallon tank with all of the accessories. The plan was to replace his 55 gallon and sell the old one on craigslist. Of course, things aren't really going according to plan. Go figure.

First off, the tank is EXACTLY the same size as the old one, which is definitely a bummer. Also, instead of a direct switch Anthony likes parts of his old setup better so he decided to mix and match different equipment from both. One of the major disappointments is that when we picked up the tank it was incredibly dirty so we couldn't know how clear the acrylic it is made of is. Now that it is clean, the tank is still sort of cloudy and it might just be because of what the tank is made out of. So, now Anthony is going to wait for a few months and if he still doesn't like it he is going to switch everything BACK!! I am exhausted just thinking about it. For the past three days and the majority of my summer break Anthony has been preoccupied and my house has looked like this:
Finally today we got mostly everything cleaned up and I feel much better already:
All in all, we still got a good deal on the aquarium even if we don't decide to keep it. We could definitely sell it for more than what we bought it for and the live rock and fish that came with it are worth the money by themselves. It just bites that Ant put so much effort into something that might end up being a big disappointment. Here are some preliminary pictures of the tank:
One really cool thing about the new aquarium is that it came with a breeding pair of clown fish, something Ant has always wanted!

Hidden Treasures

With all of this time off of school and with Ant fiddling with his new aquarium, I decided to do some cleaning, and man did I hit the jackpot!!! I found two entire dresser drawers full of Anthony's childhood pictures! I think that I had only seen one or two pictures of him as a kid and I always thought it odd that his family of many-photo-takers didn't have many pictures of him when he was young. I just chalked it up to him being the fifth child. Now the mystery is solved!! There are literally over 100 pictures of him at birthday parties, yearly school pictures, family pictures, yearly soccer and baseball pictures, etc.. It is so neat to see snapshots of his life and what made him the wonderful man he is today. It's also fun to try and guess what our kids are going to look like :) Here are a few of my favorites:
This is a picture of him just six hours old! I think this is what his mom meant when he said he was, and I quote, "an ugly baby". Hey, ugly babies grow up to be the cutest people, right?
I call this one: "chicklet teeth"

I found soooo many pictures of Anthony making faces at the camera. Anthony explained to me that he did that so often, that one of his nicknames was "the face".

There were a few more pictures that were PRICELESS, but Anthony made me promise not to post them. You didn't hear it from me, but one featured him in a wig, makeup, and a dress sitting demurely on a chair with his legs crossed, holding his purse and smiling for the camera. (I am hoping that this was just some torture thought up by one of his four sisters). The other one was just classic 80's: Anthony wearing only short shorts, a blue headband, and white roller skates leaning up against an RV in a driveway. My sides still hurt from laughing!

The Mole

I admit, I love watching The Mole. It is a reality show on ABC where a group of people are given missions to earn money, all the while trying to figure out who among them is a "mole" sent to sabatouge their money-earning efforts. One of the main things I love about it is all of the behavior analyzing I get to do. I have suspected since the very first episode that Paul from Brooklyn is the mole (see picture above for his moley mugshot:) My first clue was that during his interview about their first mission which involved bungie-jumping off a waterfall, his first comment was about how he was worried about how safe it was and that he was going to die. Okay, tough, young, new yorker guys DO NOT think about death or dying. They think about thrills and fun and basically think of themselves as invincible. He also acts WAY over the top when pointing fingers at everybody else, trying to convince others that he is just sooo into the game. Then, when everyone is trying to make money, he all of the sudden gets tired and uncharacteristically compassionate towards his teammates who aren't doing well when the night before he was berating them for being "wusses". I think he is trying to make it seem like he can't hide his emotions by having extreme fake displays of them. Hmmm... We'll see if I am right later on in the season.

Fast, Slow, Repeat

The gym is closed this week because of summer break, so this morning was my first run on the road. Let me tell you, running on the treadmill is Sooooooooooo much easier than running on asphalt. I don't know how I am going to do a 5k at the end of next week! It is not looking good. I've been having knee problems that I think are due to the way I run (I have flat feet) which only get worse running on the road. This morning I went 2.2 miles in 28 minutes. I could have powerwalked faster!! I think that the problem is when I slow my pace to a fast walk for a few minutes, usually the treadmill keeps me on pace (4 miles an hour). On the road, I slow down to a turtle crawl because I am so tired. Here I was thinking I was all that because at the gym, I usually do about 6 miles and hour (10 minute mile). Ummm, are there any treadmill roads around here?

I also wanted to say that I continue to be amazed by the differences between guys and girls. (More specifically, the difference between Anthony and me :) Last night as we were coming home from my parents' house we pulled to the side of the road to let an ambulance go by. As we got back into traffic, Anthony realized that there were cops with flashing lights behind us. He quickly pulled over to let them by, thinking they were with the ambulance. But nooo, they were pulling us over!!! Of course, I am FREAKING out! Anthony CANNOT get another ticket. (He has had quite a few and I think he has done the online traffic course as much as you can do in a lifetime) So, they had Anthony get out of our car and come to the Sheriff's car where they talked for at least 15 minutes. The entire time I am sitting in the car, my mind racing with all the different scenarios of what is going on, none of which make any sense. We definitely weren't speeding because we had just started to get back on the road. Finally Anthony got back in the car and when I demanded what was wrong, he acted all nonchalant and said he got a warning for his taillights being out. All of this time he and the two deputies had been talking about fishing. Men!!!

Ichetucknee Springs

Ant and I decided to go to Ichetucknee Springs today and snorkel around with our new underwater digital camera! (That brings our total to 3 different digital cameras: our nice one, our boat one, and our underwater one) And yes, Ant took that GORGEOUS picture of the springs with it today. It was freezing!!!!!! I thought that it would be so hot outside that it would feel good, but after about an hour in the water my lips were purple and I just wanted out. Still, it was really fun to snorkel around and see the fish. Some of the pictures didn't turn out because it was really murky and the camera doesn't handle motion very well.

Me posing and waiting for the tram to take us to the drop-off point to the river and some cool underwater pictures of me snorkeling
Some cool underwater fish pictures.

Ant barely took his snorkel off the entire time, even though I gave up after about 45minutes. It was just too cloudy and it all kind of looked the same to me :)

Summer break...where have you been all my life?

Today was my last day of classes before summer break! Yea!!! A week of freedom!! This was also the last day of my sexuality and disability class. It was interesting. And weird. Luckily, my teacher was pretty good about warning us ahead of time when things were going to get graphic, so I would step outside and watch cartoons on my mp3 player. 6 week long classes really go by in a flash! Tuesday I had a presentation on cancer and sexuality (which I rocked by the way) and then today I had my final (which I also rocked). I feel like all I have been doing for the past week is studying, eating, and going to the gym. This has truly been one of the few weeks where I have felt like grad school is really kicking my butt. Now I have the entire next week to work on my one and a half hour long presentation on personality disorders for my diagnosis and treatment class. Can we say movies and youtube anyone?

As an interesting side note, for those of you who have chronic digestion problems like me, a friend from school recommended this thing called kefir. It is kind of like a cross between milk and yogurt and it has lots of probiotics that are supposed to be good for digestion. I had never heard of it before, but I just got some from publix today. I haven't tried it yet, but if you have or do, let me know how it goes.

Just say no to crack...

Anthony demonstrated some mad plumber skills today by single-handedly installing our new water heater!! (hence the crack reference:) We decided to get a new water heater a few months ago because the one we had was old as dirt and we thought it was making our utility bill ridiculously high. Seriously. I should not be paying the equivalent to half of my mortgage payment for electricity! We first thought that we would upgrade our water heater to a taller, bigger one but it turned out to be a total rip-off and headache. The plumber from Lowes wanted to charge us over $800 to install a $200 water heater just because he had to extend some pipes! That was not happening. So we returned the water heater and got a new replacement water heater that is the exact same size as our old one. Anthony hooked it up easily and on the first try! Now, if any of you know Anthony and his track record with handyman projects you can attest to the fact that NOTHING ever goes smoothly for him, so this was a true feat. Hopefully now those huge electric bills will be a thing of the past because as of right now, all of our appliances including our A/C are less than 5 years old.

Stomach Bug

I am slowly recovering from the mystery stomach bug that, apparently, has been going around. It started late last monday and I declared myself offically well this morning when I had a protein bar for breakfast and my stomach decided that it was okay with that. Being sick has not been fun. Luckily, I only missed one day at the gym, so I am not too far behind in my training schedule. Of course, the days of laying around while not at school or work hasn't been the best for my endurance. Oh well. After a few days of not feeling well, I went to the doctor thinking that I had something seriously wrong with me because it seemed like my symptoms came and went and I didn't know a single person who was sick. Then, when I went to work over the weekend I talked to at least 5 different people who had had it recently and Anthony talked to just as many on his floor of the hospital who had been sick too. Now I need to track down the person who gave it to me and return the favor!

I called it!

As I predicted, Stephanie is the first female top chef!!!! Yea!!!!! Girl power!!!

Bat House

Ant and I went to a bat house that is on the UF campus this weekend to watch the bats come out. If you have never seen it, it is an amazing experience! At dusk, the bats slowly start coming out one at a time and then all of a sudden they all come out in black swarming cloud. The bat house is directly opposite a lake that has lots of alligators and soft-shelled turtles, so we also got to see around 4 or 5 a little TOO friendly gators. I told Anthony that when it comes to gator-watching it seems like a catch-22 because you want them to come up close to you so you can see them, but if the gators start coming up to people too often then the wildlife commission euthanizes them. *Sigh* The perilous life of an alligator.

There were quite a few families at the bat house with their kids waiting for the bat-show. Here are a few of the things some of the kids said while the bats were coming out. Anthony and I tried to not be too obvious about what we were laughing at :)

"I can hear them chit-chatting"
"They are making me wiggle" (stated as they were flying over head)
"I wonder what it is like to have rabies..."

Kids say the darndest things!

Melon Run

I've been doing well with my running program this week. I have a good feeling about it, like I am going to go all the way!! I've decided that I need a goal to work towards, so I am going to run in the Melon Run on the 4th of July here in Gainesville. It is a Florida Track Club event that they have done for the past 30 years where you run a 3 mile course and then eat lots of watermelon to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I wonder if the founding fathers started that tradition? :) Anyway, if anyone wants to do it with me, come on! I need all the support I can get.

As a side note...

I know I am a blogging-dork for posting twice in one day, but I wanted to say that I started my "couch to 5k" running program today! It is a program my cousin recommended to me and it is a beginner program listed on coolrunning.com. In the past year she has started doing triathlons and running, so I asked her for some suggestions for a newbie. I always thought that running would be boring, but I want to do it because I think that it is an exercise that I could stick with. I can do it on my own time schedule, pretty much anywhere I want. My main problem is that I don't feel safe running anywhere around town by myself, so that leaves the UF gym which serves mainly as a dating scene for the uber-fit. All of the girls actually wear make-up there, with perfect hair and clothes and everyone is constantly checking everyone else out! Yeah, I don't really fit in there, but I am learning to just cop an attitude and act like I am the only person in the room.

So, today I started the program and I should be running a 5k within two months. We'll see how it goes! My feet and legs already hurt. Dance Dance Revolution didn't quite prepare me for this...

Coooool!

About a month ago, Anthony and I went scrub shopping because both of us hadn't purchased scrubs in a long time and the ones we had were starting to look scraggily. Not to mention, when I first bought all of mine I accidentally got petite sized pants, so it looked like I was wearing high waters all of the time. Not very comfortable. We put off buying new ones for so long because they are so darn expensive! Anyway, I had the best time trying on different scrubs, even a Grey's Anatomy brand that was soooo comfortable. Unfortunately, Anthony felt a little let down because of the minimal selection of scrubs for guys. If you want something more exciting than oatmeal-colored hospital scrubs, the only prints available for guys are some racing ones and, surprisingly, wine bottles. He felt pretty frustrated, so a few weeks later I thought I would surprise him and ordered a scrub top for him online of reef fish. He loves it!! What a good wife I am! (I know, and modest too :)

For fellow dachshund lovers:

If you have ever had a dachshund, you know this is true!