I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Habbala! I haven't really participated in many of these things simply because I don't want to turn this into a personal blog, but this one seemed innocent enough that I thought I'd give it a shot. :)

8 Things About Me
Rules:
1) Post rules on your blog
2) Answer the 6 categories
3) Tag others

8 Favorite T.V. Shows:
1) Friday Night Lights
2) Real Housewives of NYC (and the others, too)
3) What Not to Wear
4) House
5) Top Chef
6) Giada at Home
7) The Hills
8) How I Met Your Mother

8 Things I did Yesterday/what a wonderful life I lead
1) Celebrated 3 years of awesomeness with Matt! :D
2) Packed up my desk at work (we're moving; I didn't get fired!)
3) Talked to Mojo while feeding him
4) Made a to-do list for this weekend
5) Went on a brief but enjoyable jaunt to the gym with Rachel
6) Had my first (and only!) two glasses of wine for the week (see #1)
7) Didn't cook a SINGLE THING.
8) Went to bed at 10 and got an excellent night of sleep!

8 Things I look Forward To:
1) Finishing my Masters degree
2) Moving out of Spokane!
3) President's Day (no work!)
4) Traveling to Europe - hopefully 2010!
5) The basketball game tonight
6) Having a clean house
7) Getting a facial in a few weeks
8) Sitting on my bum and doing nothing for the majority of this weekend. :)

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1) Mizuna (Spokane)
2) Wild Sage (Spokane)
2) The Melting Pot
3) Queen Mary (Seattle)
4) Izumi - hole-in-the-wall Japanese food (Seattle)
5) McMenamins (Portland/Seattle)
6) PF Changs
7) Twigs (Spokane)
8) Do coffee shops count as restaurants? I like them...

8 Things on My Wish-list:
1) Wii Fit
2) A laptop (working on this one!)
3) Passport
4) New running shoes
5) A counter-top grill
6) A more cohesive life plan
7) An extended vacation to spend with Matt
8) A raise never hurts, right?

8 People I Tag:
Tag yourselves and I'll post your link here! Just leave me a comment!

Pizza!

Just thought I'd give you a little peak at my dinner last night. Matt's pizza (left) had pineapple and pepperoni. Mine (right) had pineapple and red peppers. YUM. I love home-made pizzas, and these little 8-inchers weren't even that bad for us! :)

R.I.P. Domino

...And the economy has claimed another casualty during this recession.

I'm joining the upset bloggers of the world in morning Domino magazine's passing. Conde Nast publishing is closing down the last savior of the hip and chic home magazines. I just sent my subscription card in yesterday, and have purchased 4 of the last 6 issues at news stand price (the budgeter in me cringes at that statement), but apparently I'm not enough to keep Domino in business. Of course, economic hardship and decreased sales are to blame - and I can understand that. It's much harder to shill ads for expensive paint and furniture in a magazine like this when many Americans don't know where their next paycheck is coming from.

But thanks for the good times, Domino. Thanks for putting together a magazine that was fun to pick up and thumb through, that gave me lots of ideas for painting and DIY projects, and profiling the interior decoration of stars' houses. Thanks for featuring articles on becoming a wine connoisseur, keeping your house like you have a staff even when you don't, and awesome libraries with captivating pictures. You even had a vegetarian recipe every once in a while. Even though you weren't quite as good as Blueprint, you picked up the slack and carried it well.

I'll miss you.

Christmas in late January!

That's right! Christmas for me was tonight! Because of the crazy winter weather this holiday season, my parents had a rough time getting the presents they'd ordered in on time, and I had a tough time getting to my parents to receive the presents. :( But! Despite UPS's stupidity, I managed to get a box with Christmas presents this afternoon, and enjoyed opening them tonight after gym!

Here's some of the loot:

A large purple scarf from my sister, DVDs of 27 Dresses and The Devil Wears Prada, pretty silver earrings, and 2 books (A Devil to Play, and Franklin and Winston).

A sweet set of new wine glasses!

My parents always find the quirkiest stuff for presents - like the book about learning to play the french horn above (I played for 8 years), and they definitely take note when I talk about things that I need (like wine glasses - my set of 8 is down to three, so these were definitely needed!).

I love Christmas.

Biggest Loser!

I'm watching Biggest Loser on TV right now, and just realized that I haven't written here about the "biggest loser" competition that I am participating in! Silly me! Some of you might have already read Rachel's recent post about her recent results; I'm involved in the same contest.

So every year, my company puts on a Biggest Loser contest that starts in January and ends in March (10 week span), and costs $20 to buy into. You get $10 at the weekly weigh-in if you've lost the biggest percentage, and the rest of the money is split between the top three losers (based on percentage) at the end of the 10 weeks. This year, the top prize is almost $500. So I decided to enter this year along with Rachel and another coworker of ours, and we've been gung-ho ever since!

How am I doing so far? Well, in the first three weeks (including a minor set-back this past week), I've lost 4.77% of my body-weight, which puts me in 4th place among my coworkers. Rachel's in 3rd, and our other coworker is in 2nd, so we're pretty stoked! We have seven weeks to catch the front runner, and we'll go 1-2-3!

So why am I doing Biggest Loser? Honestly, the main reason is the money. $500 will pay for a trip to Vegas for a long weekend! But also, my girls at work are doing it! I didn't want to be left out, and I've had a lot of fun going to spinning, step, and even hip hop (oh man, THAT was a treat tonight) classes with them! But don't get me wrong, the weight-loss and getting-in-shape-focus are important to me, too. Running season is coming up, and I want to put myself in a good position to do well by training hard now.

So anyway, that's been a huge part of what I've spent my time on in the past few weeks, and what I'll continue to do in the coming 7 weeks!

Menu Plan Monday

This is going to have to be a short entry, because I'm pretty far behind on my to do list, so I'll hop right to it. Also, check out Org Junkie's website for more menu planners!

Monday (class night): A big crock-pot of Vegetarian Chili with sour cream and shredded cheese on the side.

Tuesday: I'll be making Polenta Fries since we didn't have them tonight, and baked tofu for me - sausage for Matt.

Wednesday: Mini pizzas with pineapple and bell peppers (mine) and pepperoni (Matt's).

Thursday (class night): Burgers with hummus, tomatoes, and spinach.

Friday: It's our three year anniversary! I can't even believe Matt and I have been together for three years already. :D We'll be eating out somewhere.

Saturday: Shepard's Pie

Sunday: Pulled Chicken Sandwiches for the Super Bowl, and some frozen ravioli with steamed veggies for dinner (if anyone's hungry after all the game-time snacks!)

A To-Do List, In Pictures

Let's face it, I've been quite the slacker this week. I haven't done my homework, I've slacked off on my house-hold chores, and I pretty hopelessly fell off the exercise- and diet-wagon. *sigh* I like making to-do lists, because I feel like they help me get stuff done. Even better, this to-do list has photographic evidence of how much I've been slacking. Here's what I want to accomplish this weekend:

1. Do all of my homework, for both of my classes.

2. I'm so far behind on filing, it's kind of ridiculous. So catch up on that.

3. Figure out the recycling/garbage/donating situation, cuz it's getting kind of crazy.

4. Do some laundry, because I like wearing clothes outside. :D


5. Return library materials before I get charged late fees.

6. Plan all meals for this week (including breakfast and lunch!) and grocery shop accordingly.

7. Hang out with Mojo da Betta Fish (and feed him).

8. Watch the Miss American pageant (what can I say? I live for this stuff.)!

9. Hit the gym both days this weekend, and stop being lazy in general.

I've got some other things on my calendar, like hitting up the Festival of Foodies, maybe signing up for a race or two, and finishing some stuff up for work.

What are you up to this weekend?