If anyone has been following my reading progress, you'd notice that I'm 4 books away from 50 of 200. Since this is a fourth of the way to the finish line, I'm pretty excited about it.

I've been going to the library every couple of weeks and it has definitely helped me do this project on the cheap.

I've got a few books in progress right now, such as:

Artemis Fowl-pretty cute little book. Since I've been listening to it on tape I've been thinking in an Irish accent for a few days (not even kidding). Such a beautiful cadence to their speech. Can we go to Ireland, please?  Modern take on Fairies that's pretty cute and there is a spy element mixed with Sherlock Holmes that I'm really liking.

I'm also working on The Golden Compass.  This is number 2 on the big list.  Well, technically His Dark Materials is number 2, but that's actually the name of the whole series.  With so many books to go, I'm not reading the whole series.  At least, not yet anyway.  I've tried to read this book before when the movie came out.  I couldn't really get into it, but I actually saw the movie a month ago and it looked like something I could eventually get into. As I'm reading, I'm really just wondering when the polar bear is going to show up.  When does that happen?  Cause he seemed really cool!

Started into some Oliver Twist...and I'll have you know that the "please sir, I want some more" scene happens in the second chapter.  So what the heck is supposed to happen in this book?  No idea.  I never had to read Dickens in college and that might be because I avoided him like the plague or professors thought his books were too long for a semester.  We'll see how this goes, but I'll probably end up getting the CD of it.  Maybe I should watch a BBC version of it so that I know what the blazes happens in this plot line.  Poor kid, gruel, beatings...Les Miserable again but in a different country?

I'm really not sure what to read next.  So if you go to my Good Reads page and see something that you've really loved and I haven't read it, I'd really appreciate a recommendation.  It also seems like my comments might not be working.  If that's the case for you, please hit up the facebook to let me know you pick.

S'il vous plait et merci!

The Shinies, Precious!

S and I were lucky that our upgrades for our cellphones became available this time of year.  Anyone who knows me knows that I HATE my blackberry, I was set on downgrading to a phone that just makes calls and sends texts because I hated that my battery sucked and that I neer knew when my phone went dead in my purse. However, there were some cons to this.  We are old school verizon, so if I canceled my data plan I would lose the unlimited internets.  Apparently, this is a huge deal.  So I wouldn't want to lose that.

It is also super convenient to be able to e-mail things to myself and get directions when I'm lost.  When I told the guy at the verizon store I can hold a charge for about a day or two he looked at me like I was the luckiest person on the planet.  Apparently, you can only expect to have a crappy battery life on a smartphone.  Why?  Yeah, I'm not really sure about that one, but I'm going to have to get used to it I guess.

So when we went into the store, I took a look around and came to the Droid Pro.  Now, this may also be shocking since I swear up and down that I hate droids.  Steven has the first model of the Droid and it's impossible for me to work.  I normally end up throwing it while swearing profusely that they should make phones user-friendly.  Yes, I know how old that makes me sound.

But then I got looking at this baby:

So there are some things that make it much better for me. Notice, the keyboard on the front.  I don't like having to slide out a keyboard and rotate what I'm looking at.  Too much motion gets me confused and this phone allows me to turn off auto-rotate (love).  Second, it's lightweight.  Third, and most importantly, you can actually get the touchscreen to respond.  Shocker, I know.

And the best thing is that you can get so many free apps that you can actually find on your phone!  The biggest problem I had with my blackberry was that applications and upgrades never seemed to show up, no matter how many times I shut it down and re-started the thing.  Yes, that's why I haven't uploaded a picture to my facebook from my phone in over a year, because the upgrade never worked correctly.  Lovely, no?

S got the new larger and improved Droid that he's currently trying to hack improve.

An even better thing...it was buy a Droid and get any phone free.  So once we mail in the rebates, my phone upgrade was free and S got the phone he has been drooling over.

So this means that I can keep in touch more. My new years resolution is to text more and to rely on technology to keep me organized and to go paperless as much as possible.  Good goals and it feels great to actually have a goal this far in advance that has nothing to do with losing weight.

Love it!

Post of Shame

I have been eating soooo horribly lately.  I'm sure a lot of it has been all the holiday crap since I've been to a party every weekend, but a lot of it has just been my willpower.

For instance (I'll tell you everything, so that it keeps me accountable), yesterday I had:

1. A large latte with sugar-free syrup, that's ok
2. My polkadots, which are a pretzel with a hersey kiss with an m&m melted into it...yeah, I had about 30 of those.  The sad part is that I made those to give to other people!  Not to mention all the broken ones I had to eat...and I had to finish the rest of the pretzels.
3. Lunch, I can't even remember it, but I'm sure it was crap. Although, part of me hopes that I can't remember it because I didn't eat it.
4. Dinner was TACO BELL!  The creme de la crap! 2 chalupas...do you know how many calories those things are?  Kill me.
5. THEN!  Once I got home and I was laying in bed...about to go to sleep...I had a craving for cheese puffs...and my wonderful love got dressed and went out to buy me cheese puffs and I ate half a bag...a big bag!

When I went to bed last night I had every intention of just eating salad today...but no such luck.

1. Breakfast (I'm ashamed to say) was low fat pringles and some gatorade.  This is nutrition?
2. Lunch was chicken strips (not that bad)
3. and I just ate half of a king sized hershey bar....

Oh, help! This is so not good.  Someone please kick my ass back into gear, so that I don't have to carry said ass around on a side-car attached to my fanny.

Seriously...

National Tree Lighting

This past Thursday, S and I made it into the district for the tree lighting.  We left work at 2 since they started letting people in at 3.  I should mention the even didn't start until 5.

So after we had been standing still in freezing cold weather (literally) for 2 hours...we were frozen solid once the thing actually started.  We got to see Sarah Bareilles perform, which was great.

The best part of the evening was getting to see the President and the first family.  W00t!

So once they lit the tree I snapped some pictures and we made straight for an Italian restaurant on F street.

Here are some pictures for your holiday enjoyment.  I hope to torture the cats later this weekend for some pictures...remember, I do it out of love...

Cheers!

A few weeks ago I got a letter in the mail from my orthodontist stating they'd take $500 off my treatment if I started treatment before the end of December.  Since I was quoted $4,500, that's kind of a big deal.  So I called them this morning and set up an appointment for this Wednesday to get the molds taken for invisalign.  Since I work with people, a lot, standard braces were not even an option...plus I was quoted $6,000 for old school braces.  Crazy?  Yeah, I thought so.

I have had braces before, so I'm kind of bummed that I have to do it again.  But the first go around was done by someone in the process of getting certified as an orthodontist, so my parents got a good price, but I got a crazy set of teeth.  I also had permanent retainers, which I've always hated and the top set broke a few years ago.  Because the wire was so close to my gum line, I was consulted by my regular dentist to keep it as it was.  Over the years one of my front teeth has slowly drifted.  I call it my snaggletooth.

See Nanny McPhee as exhibit A:

Then see my chipmunk face and the "snaggletooth."  I know that it isn't that bad, but I'm super, duper, uber self-conscious about it!  I've stopped smiling in pictures or taking a lot of pictures of myself, especially if my mouth is open.  Not to mention, if you look really close...it has gotten so long I've chipped it a little on the end!  Ugh.

It might be ridiculous, but the last time I went to the dentist I found out that the second tooth from the right has moved back so far that it hits my lower teeth when I bite, which is making it a little loose.  No bueno.  Since my biggest fear is losing my teeth, I freaked out and started saving up my pennies.

I'm so excited to start on this so that I can stop hiding from it.  Cause you know behind all the gunk, Nanny McPhee is the ultra fabulous Emma Thompson...and I'd kill to look like that literary savvy diva!  Just not as Professor Trelawney...

So here's to a straighter smile in about a year: Cheers!