I'm bubbly? I'm bubbly!

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.

Nope, I'm not grouchy. I'm bouncy, skippy and just a bit amused with stuff. Oh, and the first part of this blog is being typed with one hand, while the other hand directs a freshly-baked butterscotch chip cookie right into my mouth - it's fabulous.

Even better, is that Jason was nice enough to bake cookies tonight and hand them to me during trips back and forth to the kitchen as I blog surf.

It's not just cookies that make me happy - they just make things better.

I'm happy because:

1. I met my hubby in a bar and thinking about that story made me smile today.
   
   
2. My family makes me glad I have them to call my family.
   
   
3. I've got an amazing group of friends that are fun, caring and continually introduce me to cool new people as well as helping me discover different areas of my own personality.
   
   
4. Beer always tastes better in the summer.
   
   
5. I'm finally running my air conditioning on a regular basis.
   
   
6. I can legitimately say I'm doing work while playing with a huge pile of toys on my desk.
   
   
7. My physical therapist makes me feel like a rockstar.
   
   
8. I walked all by myself for 25 feet today (it was kinda wobbly and a bit ugly, but I DID IT!).
   
   
9. I'm able to visualize myself wearing my gi and my belt again.
   
   
10. The mountains outside my home are beautiful.
    
    
11. I love the color green and it's all around me.
    
    
12. Little white dogs with brown ears make the world a better place.
    
    
13. Did I mention hot, gooey cookies?

My heart rate’s over 100 - now what do I do?

Rehabbing from my hip upgrade has been a bit of a bitch (duh - I know). I did really well at home, but not well enough to walk on my own. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I'm expecting to hop up and be back to my old active self after sitting around for two months.

Enter the University of Utah Physical Terrorist (I mean, Therapist) Unit. Really friendly people - really good therapists - really tough for wussies like me.

My guy is charged first with getting me stronger and then we will progress to "gait training" which is just another fancy way of teaching this thirty-something chick that regular people walk without dragging one of their legs behind them like Egore. Which is great. I'm happy for the opportunity. But I like being able to squat down to pee without yelping from pain in my quadriceps, which has been a regular occurrence during the past week.

I'm getting used to the pain part, and feeling like I'm a bit better in control of my strength training situation...but yesterday my guy pointed out I'm making a lot of progress (YAY!) and asked me if I'd like to try some cardio.

Inside, I'm doing cartwheels... "Yes," I said, and we trotted off to the stationary bike to see what I could do (stationary bikes are on the 'approved list' because my previous therapist told me my balance was no where near safe for clip in pedals at this time - and I agree this is a correct analysis).

So I climb on this bike and my guy is explaining to me that I can play with the tension to see what's comfortable for me. He's fiddling with the controls while chatting with me and level "2" was killing my legs and lungs, but I try not to show it.

Then we joked about me not falling off the bike because it'd been so long since I'd had a real workout, but in the back of my mind I had a very clear image of what head down, legs up would look like if I happened to tumble from the equipment I was sitting on.

I'm telling you - 5 minutes on this bike and I felt like I was Sweatin' to the Oldies or hanging out in one of my days of old spin classes. Did I stop? No way. My ego wouldn't let me get off that bike before the guy twice my age next to me did. So I kept going...huffing, puffing and feeling my face and chest turning various shades of red, but I found myself sticking with it and ended up riding 15 minutes, only after I turned the resistance down to "1".

I nodded to my guy on the way out and muttered "Yeah, it felt really good to do some cardio today," and tried to keep the optimistic smiley face on my head.

I wasn't lying, it did feel good to ride the bike - slowly - with little resistance. It was the walk to the car afterwards that damn near killed me. I found myself spending more time than I wanted sitting in my vehicle trying to figure out how to keep my legs from quivering enough to where I could drive myself home.

Later, when I tried to pee, I let out a bit of a whimper as my muscles again reminded me they are in disagreement with the new training regimen as opposed to sitting on my ass seeing how fast I can flip channels on the TV.

Fuzzy kitteh gets summer haircut

No, this is not a picture from a cat fan website....

This one belongs to me.

It is amazing how one swipe of the clippers not only revealed how much of Jinxy was hair - not body - but we have discovered a nice kitteh was hidden under all that fur.

Once grouchy kitteh is now friendly - and even purrs on occasion.

Point - Click - Whoops - and Happy Birthday!

This is another installment of "My brain's on vacation, but I'm still playing with hi-tech devices." For a brief history, click here.

This year I wanted to do something really cool for my dad's birthday. So, a couple of weeks ago I started placing phone calls to my mom and sisters to see what ideas they had...

My mom suggested we buy a real estate website package as a surprise for him because it's something he's talked about off-and-on through the years and is something he would really enjoy.

Brilliant!

I spoke with my sisters and I was to take the lead on this project because I still have a bit of free time I'm looking to fill and I know a good vendor back in Junction with the right product.

After emailing back and forth with the account manager about our plans to surprise my dad with this gift, I went online to begin the purchase process. I would purchase the plan under my name and then present it to my dad on his birthday so he could finish building the site.

That was the plan.

Here's what I ended up doing instead...

I filled out all of my contact information EXCEPT for the email address. Yup - it asked for the real estate agent's address...well, that's my dad's email. So that's what I used. Never mind the fact that I had already filled in MY name for the agent, but evidently it is harder to run a laptop and keep track of the Detroit Red Wings vs. Pittsburgh Penguins playoff game than I thought.

When the confirmation page popped up I was horrified. It looked like this:

An email has just been sent to (dad's email) with the details of your sign-up. That email will also include instructions on how to proceed to get your website set up as soon as possible. Check your email in-box in a few moments. If you don't receive an email within 15-20 minutes, give us a call at 970.241.6482, or email us at support@flexisswinr.com.

Kinda hard to surprise dad when the confirmation email goes directly to his address rather than mine. After muttering a sentence that included the key phrases "what, shit, and kidding me?, " I figured I needed to make another round of phone calls to let my co-conspirators the cat was out of the bag - early.

By now I'm giggling at myself. I call mom first and explain the chain of events...how I was not able to draw the correlation between an online purchase order and correct contact information.

She's now giggling too.

Then I ask to explain to dad that he's has an email that's may seem a bit confusing, "Hi Dad...Tomorrow you're going to go to work and sit at your desk and turn on your computer and check your email and see an email that gives you instructions on how to set up a website for Realtor "Dani." But it's not my website, it's your website and it's for your birthday and it was supposed to be a surprise - so surprise and we all worked on it but I accidentally put in your email address instead of my email address so it came to you instead of me...Happy Birthday!"

Yes, the message came out of my mouth as badly as it was typed above. He was kinda quiet on the other line so I was having a hard time telling if he was surprised, confused or both...I'm pretty sure both with a side of "hee, hee, funny" at my slightly inaccurate analytical skills.

Mom took the phone back, still giggling at me. I made the rounds and called my sisters, who also giggled at me - it's typical behavior of me to get really excited about something and then get the delivery just a bit off when it's time to move forward (note: this is why I don't do toasts at weddings and typically need a script when delivering a critical message).

But that's not all...Today my dad forwarded me a copy of the receipt from flexisswinr.com with the purchase amount of his surprise birthday present in the body copy.

Seriously.

Dad: I hope you have an awesome birthday and enjoy your new website...You're the best!
- love all of us

Bliss comes in the form of a marshmallow

....That is perfectly roasted over the coals on the backyard barbecue grill. I don't give a damn how silly it looks.

However, next time I'm going to use a hanger instead of a kabob stick because I'm now missing quite a bit of my little knuckle hairs.