11/25/10

1. Discovering English muffins in the fridge available for breakfast. Dan had bought them on sale yesterday.
2. Dan doing all the dishes, including mine from last night and this morning.
3. Meeting the maternal side of Dan's family at a diner for Thanksgiving.
4. Dan's grandfather agreeing with me that the jacket probably needs to be sent back another time.
5. Hanging out at Dan's dad's for awhile too with his sisters and P.
6. Making mulled red wine.

A year ago today.

11/24/10

1. Not getting any panicked or particularly urgent calls throughout the day.
2. Extended brunch plus girl talk with the few teammates in the office today, who were all women.
3. Getting an hour-long shiatsu massage.
4. Making it to the hardware store just in time to purchase a Benjamin Moore fan deck for the color consultation on Friday.
5. Getting eyebrows/upper lip threaded in record time.
6. Dan putting in frozen biscuits for me, to go with more beef stew for dinner.

A year ago today.

11/23/10

1. Getting advice from MF on how to express what I wanted to say in a more manager-friendly way.
2. Meditating with PH after lunch.
3. Maintaining my composure during my 1:1 when I had some somewhat difficult feelings to express.
4. Getting help dealing with last-minute tickets while I put out a fire.
5. Sewing class instructors being willing to stay late to re-fit my pattern after they realized the whole thing needed to be shortened at the waist since I'm petite, and giving me the muslin for re-tracing the whole pattern free of charge.
6. Dan heating up stew for me.

A year ago today.

11/22/10

1. Having a meeting with SS about how to set up some testing.
2. Going for a run along the Hudson with BB and BH. Out and back within an hour.
3. Dropping off/picking up library books.
4. Walking back and chatting with JM.
5. Dan heating up stew for dinner for me.
6. Finishing up dress muslin pretty quickly for class tomorrow.

A year ago today.

11/21/10

1. Spending most of the day lying on the couch reading HP#5.
2. Cleaning the other half of the apartment, including getting down and scrubbing the bathroom tiles with a Magic Eraser. Didn't quite work as well as I'd hoped...need to figure out another way to clean grout.
3. Going for a run in my shiny new running clothes. The little pocket on the back of the capris (aka almost pants length on my short legs) really does come in handy for tucking in keys, much better than the little inner pockets in the front that I've had before in running shorts. Also, excellent sports bra.
4. Beef stew where the meat really was falling apart tender, after tripling the amount of time the beef needed to be cooked in the recipe.
5. Clearing out my personal email inbox.
6. Getting an email back from Ted Berg after I emailed him a map I made of his Sandwich of the Week reviews.  

A year ago today.

11/20/10

1. Meeting up with Dan's sister C and her boyfriend at a diner for lunch.
2. Meeting our day-of coordinator Carina and having a good time chatting with her. I think she's going to be really good, she's on top of her stuff.
3. Stopping into a local butcher shop and getting beef chuck to make stew and frozen cheese ravioli.
4. Really scoring at a running store in Paramus that Dan found. Lots of selection, well-organized, and an excellent membership program that saved me enough in that one purchase to cover its cost, plus free shipping for anything that I order on the website in the next year. 
5. Finishing running errands and getting home in time for Dan to help me move my bike into the basement (farewell for the season, dear little bike!) and do some quick cleaning before heading out.
6. Watching HP#7 Part I with JM. Not my favorite of the movies, but hey, it's still HP.

A year ago today.

11/19/10

1. Wearing one of my favorite vintage dresses, a cream and pink floral crepe dress.
2. BB joining our team for lunch.
3. Gossip pow-wow with AJ before she left for the day.
4. Figuring out how to modify the scoring calculator to show "n/a" when adjacent cells were empty.
5. Finishing up the last of the meat sauce and bok choy for dinner.
6. Spending the evening finishing reading HP#4.

A year ago today.

11/18/10

1. Trying out a sprinting/walking set for my run this morning.
2. Getting some other work done during a client training I'd sort of forgotten about.
3. Thanksgiving themed lunch.
4. Finding out in my 1:1 that feedback we'd given in the skip-level yesterday was already delivered to my manager.
5. Getting dinner with several people on the team and having a good time chatting.
6. Staying in the office late but getting a bunch of necessary and unfortunately delayed work done.

A year ago today.

11/17/10

1. Discovering waffle machines at breakfast today, with plenty of topping options. Waffles!
2. Comporting myself pretty well during some feedback sessions, after the practice I've had at it over the last few weeks.
3. Having a really good conversation with EM at lunch about health and the obesity epidemic and inviting myself to her Crossfit gym as a guest in a couple weeks.
4. Reading through my peer reviews and feeling very appreciative of the feedback that people had taken the time to write, both strengths and areas for development.
5. Having a pretty good time at the happy hour, with my fancy girly cocktail paid for.
6. Thinking about different things on the walk home but a large percentage of that being really loving my Duo Bern boots.

A year ago today (happy 1 year, little blog!)

11/16/10

1. Going for a run in the morning in my regular sneakers instead of Converse to ease some slight twinges in my arches.
2. Started my dressmaking class and finding it not too difficult to use their sloper for my size. I had thought they might not cover my measurements but their pattern's pretty big.
3. Having my umbrella with me in my purse when it started to rain because Dan had said the night before that rain was forecasted.
4. Getting to meet up with SR, JH, RC, and Dan at Shake Shack after all, since they met at 8 and my class ended up 8:30 and the location wasn't too far.
5. Shackburger that Dan bought for me for dinner. Mmm.
6. Wandering around Eataly on JH's recommendation. So much pretty food. Ginger infused olive oil!

11/15/10

1. Taking care of some financial stuff.
2. Feeling pretty satisfied with the work day for the first time in awhile. Got everything I needed to get done, done, without feeling rushed, and got a little bit extra done too.
3. Returning a bunch of books to the library all at once.
4. Coming up with a potential plan for how we might merge our finances a little more closely after the wedding.
5. Dan popping in the still damp laundry from yesterday into the dryer, one more time.
6. Email announcement about my promotion going out to the team--finally! Yes, I got promoted!

11/14/10

1. Waking up before 9am naturally and just sitting around reading/watching TV.
2. Dim sum with the fam.
3. Exchanging the Nordstrom store brand tights for the right size.
4. Finally putting down money for a pair of waterproof winter boots that aren't too high to fit around my lower calves. They're purple! Props to my mom for finding them.
5. Dan agreeing to do laundry as I made his favorite meat sauce dinner.
6. Watching Casino Royale for a bit on TV but then popping in our DVD of it to watch the rest without commercials without having to start over from the beginning.

11/13/10

1. Having enough time in the apartment earlier in the day to laze around, read, but also clean a little and accomplish some mending.
2. Successfully using the bias tape foot for the first time.
3. Hot pot for dinner.
4. Scoring at the J.Crew outlet with 6 new tops that fit well around my shoulders and my waist. Snapped them all up since that doesn't happen too often or easily.
5. Laughing over old family photo albums.
6. Watching TV with my mom and sister.

11/12/10

1. Going for a run with BB in the morning and feeling really good afterwards and not feeling like she was judging me at all for my pace.
2. Getting lots of sympathy and empathy from MF.
3. Learning how to actually set up some really useful shortcuts previously demonstrated to us.
4. Dinner date with AM and getting lots of good advice.
5. Dan hanging around while I got another hour and a half of work done.
6. Talking my mom into coming to pick me up from the apartment tomorrow afternoon, rather than me needing to take the train in the morning.

11/11/10

1. Getting myself out of bed and going for a run in the morning in time to make it to class at 9:32.
2. Interview class not being as bad as people told me it was.
3. Attending a productive meeting to generate feedback for management that made me feel I wasn't alone in the things I was worried about.
4. Annual wing-eating competition at TGIAF being even more ridiculous and hilarious than I remembered it being last year.
5. Hanging out with a good number of people on the team over dinner.
6. BB staying over and just hanging out and chatting some more.

11/10/10

1. BH being cool about me being several minutes late for my phone shift. I issued a blanket apology for not being able to get myself on there right at 9am anymore these days.
2. Navigating a potentially tricky 1:1 meeting with a peer pretty well.
3. EM opening up to me a bit about her personal life without me poking too much.
4. Last CSA of the season! Finally over and done with.
5. Paying a visit to Shareen Vintage with AJ and sipping red wine while browsing through their racks.
6. Getting Dan's extended length pants back from the tailor's and finding them perfect.

11/9/10

1. Making the decision to go for a run in the morning in the light and miss hot breakfast at work, rather than putting it off until the evening when it'd be dark by the time I got back from work.
2. Getting no calls during my shift today.
3. Getting good advice from BB and AJ at lunch with regards to the development areas that were mentioned in my review today. They're so smart, and they're so good at making me feel like they're on my side while still giving good advice on what I can do to improve.
4. Hearing other people on the floor cheer and clap when we got some really good news, all of us glued to our computers watching the stream.
5. Chair massage working out tension in my shoulders, plus a little extra scalp massage.
6. Taking my first ticket on the new product, with help from RC.

11/8/10

1. Wearing my new skirt out and about.
2. Listening to my repetitive playlist on my phone.
3. Taking a quick picture with my phone with my Android squishable holding up a sign saying "I heart SP!" as part of my thanks to her for helping cover us last Friday.
4. Taking charge and projecting the slides for a training when they had technical difficulties at the other end.
5. Everyone near our cubicle taking a quick afternoon break for my boots show and tell to decide between the Bern and the Viola boots (everyone, even the boys, voted for the Bern).
6. Making pumpkin cream cheese to supplement our dinner of the last of the turkey stew.

11/7/10

1. I usually prefer to be on Daylight Savings time, but it is nice to wake up in the morning and find that it's an hour earlier.
2. Dan cleaning the apartment under my direction.
3. Finding enough bias tape in my stash to finish up the seams on my remaining skirts, without needing to use a serger.
4. Downloading Bruno Mars' Just the Way You Are from iTunes. I enjoy the music video. 
5. Having a lovely time at the A Practical Wedding book club meetup #2 at a cute little wine bar in Manhattan.
6. Biscuits to go along with leftover turkey stew.

11/6/10

1. Dan making biscuits for breakfast, and then letting me heat up his frozen butter chicken meal for lunch.
2. Finishing up the hand sewing needed for the flare skirt. Done! Unless I decide I do want to add that lace trim.
3. Dan going out and doing all our grocery shopping.
4. Ever After playing on ABC Family. I'd just been thinking that other day that I wanted to watch it again.
5. Turkey stew for dinner coming together easily.
6. Advil helping knockout my headache and letting me get to sleep.

11/5/10

1. Going to my last sync meeting.
2. Going to a talk by the guy from runlikecrazy.com, who's running 52 marathons in 52 weeks and is on his 45th with the NYC marathon this weekend, and leaving feeling inspired. Just gotta love Australians with their down-to-earthness and self-deprecasting, dry sense of humor.
3. Going the tailor with Dan's custom suit and learning that they should be able to lengthen sufficiently without too much of a problem and that the measurements overall are fine, there are just construction issues with the jacket.
4. SP stepping up as always and helping me and EM out.
5. Finishing reading Before I Fall and really loving its bittersweet love story.
6. Dan coming home and helping me fall asleep by reading from Guns, Germs, and Steel. Isn't it weird when you know you're dead tired but still just can't fall asleep?

11/4/10

1. Went to a training unprepared but found that it didn't really require any specific prework, so it was ok. Phew.
2. Found out some really, really good news at work :)
3. Learning that Dan's sisters already got the dresses we ordered on Saturday and that they're just a little bit too big (big is better than small!). Nice work, J.Crew.
4. Grabbing dinner with AJ and catching up, felt like I hadn't talked to her in awhile, even though we'd gone out for dinner just last week.
5. Dan's custom-made suit coming in the mail and damn does it look good in all the areas that suits normally look awful on him! Arms, waist, legs... There are definitely some tweaks to be made, namely the pants aren't long enough, but should be doable.
6. Finding that slitting the back of my yellow rain boots further really helps with opening up the width to make the more comfortable and hopefully putting in end of the various issues I've had with the footbed rubbing up.

11/3/10

1. Finding a lace trim in my stash that matches my flare skirt fabric and liking how it looks pinned up. Not sure if I'll use it for sure, but it's an option and I wouldn't have to go out and buy more stuff for it.
2. A tall stranger pointing out that the train was about to leave as we walked down the staires, causing us to hurry and just make it on. He then also offered to switch spots with me so that he'd grab onto a high bar and I could reach a vertical pole more suitable for shorties like me. That never happens to me on the PATH.
3. Getting my first shiatsu massage. More geared toward being therapeutic than relaxing, lots of pressing on specific points that almost hurt but feel really good afterwards.
4. Lunch with KC and hearing about her engagement and exciting career opportunities.
5. Squeezing in enough time to run errands like picking up some stuff from the tailor and getting my eyebrows threaded, even after running late due to meeting some very nice girls at the tailor's who were chatting about this nightmare princess bride they're bridesmaids for and then assured me that I was being a cool bride.
6. Chatting with Mama G on the phone for almost an hour after I'd emailed her to ask for help on making the decision on the officiant and feeling really good afterwards about how things are going with the wedding planning.

11/2/10

1. Having lunch with AJ and EM and actually not talking about work very much at all.
2. Finding out that I actually won us a wedding-related giveaway that I entered in last minute on Sunday night! Further details forthcoming.
3. Grabbing a power cord in an afternoon meeting right before my computer completely died.
4. Sewing class teacher introducing us to a hem marking tool that I might get to be able to actually mark my own hems.
5. Getting to use the store's serger to finish off the outside edge, the lining, and the bottom of the contour waistband! I think I may have hemmed it a little too short for the look I was going for to start with but I'll figure out a way to fix that up.
6. Leftover fried rice available for dinner and finishing up HP#3.

11/1/10

1. Deciding to work from home and getting a lot of the training I'd been falling behind on done.
2. Mostly successfully attending a meeting by dialing in to a conference number and following along the presentation on my computer at the same time.
3. Listening to a training led by MG and being impressed by how practiced she was without sounding like a robot. She's gotta have done this like at least 20 times by now.
4. Saving $1.50 in coupons on a pair of foot pads at CVS.
5. Cobbling together fried rice for dinner without eggs or onions, just peas, corn, and hotdogs. Dan was horrified by how I'd eaten over half a dozen eggs through breakfast and lunch.
6. Getting the flare skirt done to the point of being able to hang overnight before midnight.