shellybean99's Xanga

Tet

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:16:54 GMT

I went to the Vietnamese New Year Celebration in New Orleans East this weekend. I was complimented on my chopstick usage. :)

7K

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:24:06 GMT

Last week was fairly low key. I have been hitting the gym as much as possible, and that takes up a lot of time in the evenings. On Tues. I had dinner at my friend Emmy's house, which was fun.
I ran 7K (4.35 miles) on Friday. That's the furthest I have ever run and although I thought I was going to keel over at the end of it (and took a nap afterward) I ran the whole thing and I ran it at a pace that will let me complete 10K in a hour. (So basically, 10 min./mile) I am very pleased b/c I was shooting for an hour and 15 minutes for the whole thing, so right now I'm running faster than I thought I would. Go team Shelly! :P
Afterward, Benjy and I ate at Baru, which is a Latin American tapas place- very tasty and fun! We then met up with some friends at a bar near our house.
Saturday, I got a box of local veggies from Hollygrove Market that I am very excited about. I've been envious of Kristi for years b/c she gets veggies delivered from a co-op to her house. I have to pick mine up, but for $25 I got more veggies than Benjy and I can eat in a week. (We actually ended up splitting the box with Bonnie and Gabe.) This week I got potatoes, turnips, carrots (yellow, orange, and purple ones, actually!), navel oranges, tangerines, strawberries, popcorn rice, green onions, kale (which I've been craving!), mustard greens, green beans, and cilantro. We hung out with our friends Jonathan and Sarah on Satuday night and played with their kitten- Zoe- who is incredibly cute.
On Sunday, I went to brunch at a new place (Gott Gourmet) with Steph, Anne, and Ashely, then met Benjy for some thrift store shopping at Buffalo Exchange. I got one pair of jeans that is pretty cute, but Benjy really did well. He got 2 pairs of jeans (one was Chip and Pepper, for $25!) and this really cool London Fog overcoat (also incredibly cheap at $25) that was in nearly perfect condition. He was beside himself about the overcoat. :)
Things I'm looking forward to:
Asian New Year celebrations at Tulane on Tues.
Going to Jaquesimo's on Friday for Emmy's birthday
Traveling to West Virginia over Valentine's to go see Benjy's friend Ryan and go skiing at Snowshoe.

Yes We Can (Refinish Furniture)

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:08:40 GMT

This weekend I finally redid the finish on the rocking chair on my porch so it would be weather proof. This is pretty lame on my part b/c I've had the poor rocker sitting on my porch since April. Oops.
The stain came out really well and despite hand sanding the whole thing, it wasn't too much work. Next weekend, I want to do a bookshelf I have out there and maybe the porch swing that came with the apartment after that. The chair was the most important thing to get done though b/c Mom gave it to me. The bookshelf just came from Target.
I've been inspired to make my porch look nicer b/c Mom found a beautiful mosaic tile bistro set for the porch. Now I have to make the rest of the porch pretty to match! Hopefully I will have the porch looking nice in time for us to enjoy it this spring. (Of course, this might mean moving my bicycle off the porch as well!)
Other highlights of the weekend include eating at Patois with Bruce and Linda (Benjy's former neighbors for whom we cat sit), and getting to play with our friends Sarah and Jonathan's new kitten. Patois was really good and Zoe (the kitten) is tiny and adorable. All in all, it was a lovely weekend!
I'm including a picture of the bistro table along with my Mom and my poor bald dogs who got into wet paint and had to be shaved!

Adorable

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:24:36 GMT

I like this illustrated story on Tor's free short story site.

Switzerland Pics

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:07:39 GMT

I'm not going to post a ton of photos since I posted a gazillion last year, but here are some of my favorites. (And in basically reverse order since Xanga is stupid)

Tyler (Benjy's brother), Kate (Tyler's girlfriend), myself and Benjy and the beautiful view of the three mountains (L to R: Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau) on the slope at Winteregg.

Kate and I going off piste (off the groomed slope) for the first time at Winteregg. So much fun! Its like skiing through a cloud.

The whole family at dinner at the Eidelweiss. Incidentally, Raclette is my new favorite food. :)

I actually went ice skating this year, on my last day! Woo!

New Year's day was beautiful b/c it had snowed the night before. I spent the morning walking around town and taking pictures. This is my favorite.

Having fun on New Year's Eve.

NYE sillyness

On the balcony, enjoying the snow and fireworks for NYE.

Action shot!

I love this picture that I took of Benjy skiing. He was zooming by!

A good picture of the crazy hat I gave Benjy for Christmas. He looked very cool on the slopes and was also easy to find!

Amazing fog swirling around the slopes as we ate at a restaurant on the Bob Run (a blue slope) on Christmas day. The walk back to Murren through the fog was somewhat less amazing though.

A pretty church seen from the train on the way to Murren.

Running

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:56:33 GMT

I just signed up to do a 10K run (the Crescent City Classic) in April. Gotta put the new running shoes I got this fall to good use!!!

I'm back!!!

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:54:54 GMT

I'll post a real entry soon, I promise.
But basically Switzerland was wonderful, I miss it already, and I'm just trying to get back in the swing of things at work right now.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday!!

Holiday Pictures

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:37:16 GMT

At my office party

Before the party, beneath our garland

Before the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra's performace of Bach's Christmas Oratorio

In Jackson, Ms with my cousin Kaley's puppy, Jack.

At our christmas party

Benjy, the festive bar tender. :)

With all my girlfriends at my Christmas party

Anne and Benjy did not plan this. :)

With Shelby at the Abita Winter Ale Pub Crawl

Homer wishes you a Hairy Chrismas

The remains of my headband :(

The morning the cat stole Christmas

One more of all the girls at the pub crawl

See you in 2009

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:02:16 GMT

Tomorrow morning I fly to Switzerland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so ready to go skiing it isn't even funny. :)

So this will be my last post for a while. I may post the pics I've been promising if I have time this evening, but its more likely that I will be running around like a chicken with its head cut off. And I may post if I get a chance in Switzerland, but again, no promises.

This weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday we went to my office party. On Saturday, I got my hair cut, and then came home and tidied the house a bit. After that we opened presents, then went to the Bourbon House for our Reveillon dinner. We had a great time and the food was wonderful.
Benjy gave me a lot of great presents this year. My big present was a Scooba- its the hardwood floor cleaning version of a Roomba. I've actually had it for a few days b/c the box mailed to my office had a big picture of the scooba on the front of it. Way to ruin the surprise, Amazon. :P He also gave me some cool smaller presents. Right now I am using one of them- USB gloves. they are fingerless gloves that have a warmer inside them. They plug into the USB port of your computer and keep your hands warm as you type. My office is always freezing, so I am glad to have them! They are also super cute. :)

On Sunday we drove to Gulfport to drop the dogs off with my parents and got to see their kitchen. They have been renovating it for the past 3 weeks and have made a lot of progress. They've painted the cabinets, gotten granite counter tops, added a bar, retiled the kitchen, laundry room, and entry way, and gotten new doors, a new stove top, and a new sink. Everything looks wonderful and I can't wait to see it when its done!
After that we drove to Hattiesburg and met up with Kristi and Colin for dinner. I always have such a good time when I see them!

Today I am working 8 hours, then coming home and getting everything packed up!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!!!

The joys of owning pets

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:32:31 GMT

Somehow my new, never worn, beautiful peacock feathered headband migrated from its place on top of a box on the corner of my dresser to the playfully destructive jaws of my miniature schnauzers. (Benjy of course, totally denies that the cat could have possible knocked it onto the ground while taking his morning constitutional across my dresser.) I was going to wear it to my office party tonight.

I'm so bummed right now. :(

Update: I bought fabric glue and attempted to fix the headband, but it just didn't look the same since the dogs had eaten two of the prettier feathers. I probably could have worn it without people asking "did dogs chew on your headband?" but it just wasn't the same.
The good news is that Mel, the lady who makes the headbands told me I could send it back to her and she would fix it for me. She is so awesome!!! So even though I didn't get to wear it to my office party, I will get to wear it sometime in the future. Seriously, check out her site. Her work is beautiful and I can attest that her customer service is beyond excellent.