Something Fishy?

Since I started my new job I've had to attend a number of events.  Some of them are networking events that I'm invited to, some of them are charity events that my magazine sponsors and has a table at, some of them are events that we're hosting, and some of them are events thrown by our clients that we attend to show our support for them.  I recently attended an event on sustainable fishing.  I've actually read some really interesting articles on the topic so I was curious to see what it was all about.  The area's best seafood chefs were all there, preparing their signature seafood dishes using sustainable seafood, and they passed out literature and talked about sustainable fishing.  Sounds good, right?  I thought so too, despite the fact that I'm not much of a seafood person and I'm pretty particular about the seafood that I do eat.  However, I should probably mention that the venue was an aquarium.  And they had someone playing "Under the Sea" on a flute.  While everyone stood around and ate fish.  In front of other fish.  Does that seem a little...um...fishy...to anyone else?  (Click here to download a seafood watch pocket guide.)

In Case You Missed It...

As I mentioned in my last post, a lot has happened recently.  If you hadn't heard, in addition to having a birthday I also started a new job!  I mentioned in my very first blog posting that I had lost my previous job and I thought it was important to mention it, but I made a conscious decision before that first post was even up that I would not drag you all along on a rollercoaster of job applications and interviews and what was certain to feel like a lifetime of waiting.  (Some of you did get that by phone though, and I will forever be grateful for your patience and positivity.)  Many of you probably tired of hearing my mantra: "This is all going to work out the way it's supposed to.  There's something better out there for me.  I just have to be patient because it's out there, and a year from now I will be so much happier than I've been for the past year," but it turns out I knew what I was talking about.

What am I doing, you ask?  Well, I'm working for one of these:

Okay, not for any of these specific titles, and it's not nearly as glamorous as working for one of these specifically might be, but it's also not Hotdish Monthly.  I'm working for a glossy lifestyle magazine as their newest Account Executive.  The transition from textbook publishing to magazine has presented a bit of a learning curve, but so far things are not only going really well, but I'm also enjoying it!  Now I just have to learn to enjoy the 5:30 wake-up time and the $170/month parking contract...

Golden Grahams and Birthday Cake

A lot has happened since the last time I blogged!  Amongst other things, I had a birthday!  (Actually my birthday was the weekend of Tyler and Debbie's wedding, but I don't think I mentioned it in that post.  Or did I?  Obviously I'm becoming senile in my old age.)  I was lucky enough to spend the day with Jan and Ron in Chicago, and we just had a nice, relaxing day.  We sat around drinking coffee in the morning, Jan and I went to HomeGoods and poked around in the afternoon, and in the evening they made me Mom*Star's World Famous Homemade German Chocolate Cake.  (Ron grilled salmon for dinner and I made spaghetti squash to go with it while Jan made a salad and assembled the cake.)  Yum!

Ron's Grilled Salmon

Jan's Salad

(How cute is her new salad bowl/claw combo??)

My Spaghetti Squash

Mom*Star's World Famous Homemade German Chocolate Cake (Complete With Festive Candle)

(Ron helped!!)

After dinner we ate cake and they gave me some really mushy cards (Yep, I cried.) and a couple of super awesome gifts.  I'm sure you're dying to know what they are, so I'll tell you!  Gift one was something that I asked for: a Polar F6 heartrate monitor.  (Pink, of course.)






If you don't have one of these and you work out with any regularity, I cannot recommend it highly enough!  (You're welcome, people at the Polar company!)  I absolutely love it.  In fact, I might even be a wee bit obsessed with it.  Upon unwrapping it, I immediately busted it free of that stupid, impossible to open bubble pack and programmed it so that I could demonstrate exactly how it works for Jan and Ron.  (Yes, I demonstrated by showing them what my resting heartrate was and then running in place like a maniac and then showing them what my heartrate was again.  I may or may not have also worn it while I ate my slice of GCC, and in case you were wondering, I burned 59 calories by eating birthday cake.  I call that a win/win.)  Now I wear it every single time I work out and I'm forever checking to see if I'm in my target heartrate zone and tracking how many calories I've burned.  It even sends me a message every week on Sunday to tell me how much time I spent working out that week, what my average heartrate was, and how many calories I burned total.  It's amazing.  Get one!


Gift two was a total surprise, and I'm super excited about it.  (I'm also a huge nerd.  But I don't think I need to tell you that.)  It's a book called The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a  Time.  I just started reading it a couple of days ago so I can't give you much of a review yet, but I love it already, just on principle.  It combines two of my favorite things: correcting typos and roadtrips.  What's not to love??


There was also some OPI nail polish thrown in there for good measure.  So fun!  A big thank you to both of you for making my birthday so fun and relaxing!


I also received several fabulous birthday packages from friends.  Thank you all so much!  You all really outdid yourselves and I'm so lucky to have you in my life!


When I got back to Minnesota I celebrated with friends here (who also outdid themselves).  Julia hosted a lovely birthday lunch for Laura and me, complete with Spanky's breadstix (Fremont shoutout!), soup, and salad, and Julia, Jon, and Kristin took me out for the annual birthday GCB.  (That's Garlic Cheeseburger, for those of you that didn't go to DePauw.)  Afterwards Kristin had us over to her place, where she gave me the traditional golden birthday gifts of Golden Grahams and Hershey's Golden Nuggets and we had champagne and cupcakes.  What more could a girl ask for?!


I think 29 is going to be a very good year...

All In a Day's Work

This is how I spent the first hour of my day. Happy Friday, y'all!

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