Ladybug Studio

Just ducky, thanks…

Usually I like tell about things in the order that they happened. But today's post will work better if I just tell about separate events/subjects.

So I'll start with The Computer. As a reminder, since I mentioned this quite a while ago, my home/freelance Mac wouldn't start up. So I took it to The Apple Store in FL Mall for an initial diagnosis, then took it back and left it to be repaired. A new logic board and video card were installed. I picked up my freshly repaired computer on Saturday night.

On Monday night I finished cleaning the office and brought the Mac back in, put everything back together, pushed the power button and…

It still wouldn't start up. I heard the startup chime and the screen with the apple came up. A progress indicator began spinning, but even though I waited for a long, long time, it just didn't go any further. I turned it off, then restarted in Safe Mode, which at least worked before, but it still stalled out at the same point. I shut off the computer.

I was so upset about this that I was practically shaking. I paid them to fix the computer. They installed new parts and had the thing for well beyond the 3-5 days I was quoted and it still wouldn't start!

Normally I can mentally brush off stresses and concerns, go right to bed and fall asleep. (very lucky, I know) But not that night. I ended up staying up for a few hours watching TV before I was settled down enough for sleep.

On Tuesday morning I called The Apple Store and complained, in a surprisingly calm, even tone. They admitted that the technicians generally boot a computer up to a diagnostic drive that tells them all sorts of things, but they don't actually just start the computer up on its own. That is just lame! Shouldn't they have verified that the computer would start, since that was the issue I was having in the first place?

They agreed to working with me over the phone when I got home, so I left work an hour early in order to have time to deal with the computer before heading to Orlando to visit Denise. When I got to the house, Tom mentioned that the power had gone out for about a minute, but had come back on. Which explained why all of the digital clocks in the house were blinking like mad. I headed to the office and was struck dumb when I got there.

The computer, which had been shut down the night before, was on. As in fully started up. Happy as a clam, with my wallpaper and icons right where they should be.

Apparently, it just needed a thunderstorm and brief power outage to get it going. I opened up a few programs, restarted the machine, updated iTunes. It performed like a champ. My mind is still blown.

* * *

After I was done messing with my restored computer, I refreshed my makeup, changed clothes and headed to Orlando. Denise and her family were staying at the Peabody on International Drive and I wanted to see them before they headed back to Michigan on Wednesday. The drive took about an hour, which is what I had guessed.

The hotel is HUGE! Denise's husband Chris told me that there are 1800 guest rooms. It was too late to watch the March of the Peabody Ducks, but we were able to visit their Royal Duck Palace and peer at them through the glass. I was actually a little bit shocked at how small the fountain is where they spend their day. But they appear to be content and what do I know about ducks anyway.

After briefly touring the hotel, Denise, Chris, Lily (10), Parker (8) and I went to TGI Friday's for dinner. The kids are into Angry Birds and often take turns playing on Chris's iPhone. I handed my phone to Parker and asked him to get me past the level I've been stuck on forever. I gave up a long time ago. The kids took turns and not only won that level, they also acquired two new birds for me.

Let me just say now that those are two really terrific kids. Denise and Chris have done a wonderful job raising them. They are polite and intelligent and interesting. A real pleasure to be around. Lily is a riot, actually. Smart as a whip, that one. While we were driving to and from the restaurant, she was entertaining us by making up commercials for oddball products that she thought up. So clever. She's going to drama camp next week and I think she'll be teaching them a thing or two.

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was time for me to go back home. Which should have been easy, as I've driven in that area many times in the past. But no. In the dark and — dang! Just realized that I didn't wear my glasses! Anyway, I ended up heading west on 528 instead of east. The next exit was about 3-4 miles down the road, then I had to sit through two lights before being able to turn around and head in the right direction. Doh!

* photo from Peabody Orlando website.

One more day?…

Ah, the ever fleeting weekend… over so quickly.

I feel like I had a pretty good weekend, had a nice time and got some stuff accomplished. But not enough of either. Another day or two would have helped.

No tennis again. My foot is much better and I have high hopes for this Saturday, but it's still healing. I was at least able to drive my car on Saturday. Pushing in the clutch has been an issue, so I've been tooling around in the FJ all week. I'm not complaining, but I did miss my car.

While I wasn't playing tennis on Saturday, I spent time at home cleaning the office. With the Mac out being repaired, I decided that it was a good time to do a deep cleaning of the whole computer area. Somehow, I managed to extend the project into organizing and cleaning out the closet. My crafting/art area looked awesome after I was done, but I ran out of time to work on the other side. (see extra day off from para. 2)

It was time to go pick up the Mac from The Apple Store at Florida Mall. Hurray for necessary trips to the mall! My first stop, though, was Orange Cycle. I had a return to make and ended up spending nearly the entire refund on other items. Well, I really needed another pair of cycling shorts, especially as my Number 2 pair have been declared somewhat indecent. During the last Sunday bike ride, the girls informed me that the rear of my shorts were a tad sheer. Maybe it was the morning sun shining on my derriere, but whatever - can't wear 'em any more! So I got another pair identical to my Number 1 pair.

I really wanted to go to IKEA, but my project had set me back time-wise. IKEA is not the sort of store you dash into and back out of. No, it's definitely a store that takes a little more time than that. Plus, I didn't exactly know what I wanted, so it would take some browsing and consideration. (refer again to para. 2)

So I finally got to Florida Mall, after traveling across most of Orlando. While there, I shopped in Sephora (new Givenchy lip gloss and NARS blush) (plus really cool 500 Beauty Insider Points Josie Maran travel set), had my earrings cleaned at Helzberg Diamonds and settled my bill with Apple. On the way out I bought a strawberry lemonade from the Nordstrom eBar. (okay, but not great).

By the time I finally reached home, it was nearly 9:00, so I went to McDonald's, picked up fast food and called it good enough. Tom and I watched the Time Trial stage of the Tour de France in which Cadel Evans clinched the 2011 winner's title.

On Sunday morning we headed to Cocoa Village for our usual weekly bike ride. Though we had a smaller group than usual. Just Alex, Tom and me. Jeanene was out of town and Dallas never responded to our invitation. Vanessa and a small group of Freewheelers were there, but they ride a slower pace than we prefer to. So the three of us stuck together and rode both sides of River Road, plus the Charlie & Jake's extension, which added about another 10 miles, for a total of 37.7 miles.

I felt pretty good, considering the 90+ squats that I did during my CrossFit workout on Friday night. Sometimes the pace was a bit high (Alex!) and I had to really push to keep up, but I managed it. I even felt good enough to follow Alex in a sprint at the end. It was hot though. We weren't able to find a spot on the shady side of the street, so our vehicle was parked in the blazing sunshine when we finished up the ride.

I desperately wanted a cold, icy drink, preferably a soda of some sort, and Tom was quite hungry, so  we went toward Merritt Island in search of sustenance. Long John Silvers looked good to both of us and we stopped there for a delicious (unhealthy) lunch. I gratefully sucked down two Dr. Peppers. (love fountain drinks!) Tom and I felt much revived when we were finished.

The rest of the day was pretty casual. We unloaded the bikes and stuff, showered, lounged around watching TV, took short-ish naps, and enjoyed the few remaining hours of the weekend.

Welcome home forever, Atlantis…

As soon as I got up this morning I turned on the television to check on the status of the planned shuttle landing. All was looking good so I continued my morning routine while bracing myself for the inevitable shock. Every time, even though I know it's coming, I'm always momentarily startled by the twin sonic booms announcing the arrival of the shuttle.

BOOM BOOM!!

And that's when it really hit me. That was the last time I would hear the magnificent sound of a shuttle reentering the atmosphere. Every time I think about it I get teary eyed and choked up. I didn't feel this way watching the final launch, though that's probably because I was trying to take a video with my iPhone, snap photos with my camera and actually watch the liftoff, all at the same time. Apparently I was too busy with my juggling act to get emotional.

But the twin booms definitely signaled a true ending to an amazing 30 year ride. I grew up with the shuttle and was 12 years old when Columbia first launched on April 12, 1981. I saw all but probably 10 or so of the 135 missions. I simply can't imagine what it will be like without the space shuttle.

Well, enough sadness. Today was also a day for celebration. Atlantis may be done flying into space, but she will still be close enough to visit and will eventually reside in a special exhibit at the KSC Visitor Complex. There was a special event today and everyone at KSC had the opportunity to get a little closer to the beloved orbiter.

The event was to include a few speakers including the KSC Director, the NASA Administrator and even a brief visit from the STS-135 crew. Our group watched it on TV in our office, which was a very good thing as it was quite crowded at the actual venue outside of one of the OPFs (Orbiter Processing Facility). In fact, it was so crowded that I wasn't sure I even wanted to go after all. But three of us from my office did head over at about 1:00 and I think we timed it perfectly. The crowds had thinned considerably and we were able to get up to the barricade to take photos. After we had taken all the shots we wanted, we helped ourselves to the free bottled water and each selected a frozen treat. (I got a popsicle. Refreshing! Until it melted on my hand. Sticky!)

It was a very nice event and I am glad now that I went. If only to say goodbye to Atlantis, face to face.

Rest day…

Yesterday was a Tour de France Rest Day and was a rest day for me as well. Physically, at any rate. I didn't get to go home and rest because I had a manicure right after work. After my appointment, I had to hurry home, get Tom and head to Cape Canaveral for a birthday party. Yesterday was Alex's birthday (43) and there was a small dinner party at Jeanene's aunts' condo.

I love their condo, by the way. It's spacious and bright, has a nice long balcony with two sets of sliding glass doors. It's decorated in a beachy theme and the walls are painted soothing shades of aqua and teal.

Dinner consisted of roast pork loin, mashed potatoes, summer and zucchini squash, plus a HUGE Coconut Pineapple birthday cake. With vanilla ice cream. There was lots of talking and laughing and bicycle discussions. It was quite a nice way to spend the evening.

50/50…

This past weekend was half good and half bad. It started out with a lot of promise, then went straight downhill, then evened out and finally started inching up.

I have to admit, CrossFit caused the bad parts of the weekend. Which actually started on Wednesday. That workout I did with all of the pull ups and push ups? Killed. I clearly overdid it that night. My arms are still sore! And weak. On Friday, I checked to see what the workout would be and it was front squats. Which is more about the legs than the arms, so I figured I could handle it. And that was correct, for the most part. What happened to me had nothing to do with the workout itself. It was my own stupid fault.

I was removing weights from a barbell. I pulled a 25 lb. weight toward me, not noticing the small, black 5 lb. weight in front of it, which slid off of the bar and went straight down to land on top of my left foot. For about 2-3 seconds I was in shock, then the pain hit. Sassafras! I managed to finish the workout, then drove myself home, whimpering every time I had to push in the clutch.

That ruined my plans for Saturday morning tennis. No way could I run around on a tennis court. Big bummer too, because I was looking forward to trying out my new tennis shoes. In fact, between the foot and my sore arms, Saturday was just a big boo. I spent a lot of time on the couch in the spare bedroom feeling sorry for myself.

I was worried about our plans for biking on Sunday, too. But after loosening up my cycling shoes, I was able to carefully insert my foot and once in, it felt fine. We had a pretty big group for our ride, though we splintered off into smaller groups depending on how fast people wanted to ride. I spent about half of the ride with the faster group, which I was proud of. My body was feeling pretty stressed over the recent trauma.

After our ride, Denise, her husband Chris and their children, Lily and Parker met us in the Village for lunch. They're all down from Michigan, visiting family and getting sunburned at the beach. We had a good lunch at Ryan's Pizza and then poked around in a few of the stores that are open on Sunday. Eventually we parted ways, Denise and family heading to Ron Jon's with Tom and I heading home for much needed showers.

In the late afternoon, I headed slightly north to Denise's father's house. He was hosting a barbecue and the whole family and a number friends would be there. It was great to see everyone and it meant so much to me, the way I was so warmly greeted and treated like family. (her mom even calls me her 4th daughter) Denise's sister Michele directed a crazy family photo extravaganza and I was often called on to take photos with various family members' cameras. Which was fine as I much prefer to be on the business end of a camera.

As I said, it was a 50/50 weekend and I sort of feel cheated over the way Saturday turned out. But Sunday was such a good day, it might have made up for it.

Catching up…

I have such a hard time getting back to my blog after taking a few days off. Plenty has happened since I last wrote, but there's no way I can try to catch up now. As I usually do, I will just mention some of the highlights. In no particular order.

1. I did a HUGE workout last night which consisted of pull ups and handstand push ups. I did 84 of each and can't raise my arms above my head today. My biceps are so pumped up I can't straighten my arms. I resemble Cro-Magnum man.

2. Atlantis did launch last Friday, as everyone knows.

3. The big pizza party get-together went very well. Everyone had a nice time and I personally ate too much pizza.

4. I started watching the new USA show called Suits. I like it quite a lot!

5. My Mac went on strike and refused to start up. It's now at the Florida Mall Apple Store having surgery to replace the logic board. Hopefully it will be ready this weekend.

6. It's been raining a lot lately. Pretty much heavy rain every day. Which is messing with afternoon activities like bicycling and tennis. At least CrossFit is still indoors.

7. Ann and I didn't find any tennis shoes for me while shopping last week. But after more research, I ordered two pairs of K-Swiss shoes and really like one pair. If I end up really happy with them, I'm going to order a few more pairs. My legs have been hurting when I run around on the tennis court and I'm certain it's the old, worn shoes.

8. Staying up late every night watching the Tour is beginning to take it's toll.

9. Denise and family are supposed to arrive in Florida today!

10. We had an AC scare on Tuesday night. The AC quit working at around 9:00. Tom couldn't figure anything out and started to stress. I called our AC company's after hour emergency number. They tried to trouble shoot over the phone, but couldn't solve the issue. They showed up at 9:00 the next morning and it turned out to be some sort of wiring/switch that came disconnected.

Better late than never…

Ann arrived from NC last night. Joy and I picked her up from the airport around 7:00. Which would have been great, except that her plane was scheduled to land around 6:00. See the following:

Ann + Flight from Charlotte to Orlando = DelayDelayDelay

I don't think Ann has ever had a flight from Charlotte to Orlando that left on time and landed on time. Ever. There is always something. Often it's weather, but yesterday's delay was due to a power failure at the Charlotte airport. I couldn't believe it when she texted that to me at 5:00 yesterday. We had just spoken 30 minutes before, as her flight was boarding. It's just crazy.

But she's here now and that's all good. Her plan was to spend most of today relaxing by Joy's pool (while Joy and I spend our day not relaxing at work). We are having a huge get together and pizza party tonight at my house. (Ann, Joy, me, Tom, Jo, Carl, Rachel, Tori, Michael, Stacy and Elijah) That should be interesting. We'll see if Tom survives it.

Tomorrow Ann and I will spend the day shopping in Orlando. We're going to Florida Mall, naturally, and we're also on the hunt for some tennis shoes for me. The ones I ordered online didn't feel wonderful, sadly, so I want to be able to try some on.

Friday is, fingers crossed and God willing, shuttle launch day. I have a car pass for the Turn Basin viewing area on KSC property. Right in front of the VAB and LCC. Ann and I, and my freelance "boss" and his wife will be heading there bright and early. But because of the expected crowds, we are having to head out about three hours prior to launch. So it's going to be a long, hot, sweaty day. Not to mention how long it may take to get home again after launch (or scrub).

Ann will drive back to North Carolina with Michael, Stacy and Elijah on Saturday morning. So those are our plans for the next couple of days.

Holiday weekend…

Three day weekends are so awesome. I particularly appreciate that the holiday fell on a Monday. So first there's this long weekend to look forward to, then there's a short week before the next weekend. It's a win-win!

I had a good weekend overall. Didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped to, but did enough that I don't feel too much guilt. I did that dreaded CrossFit workout on Friday afternoon. Though instead of doing the Filthy 50 I ended up doing the Terrible 20, by scaling back the number of reps. Still kicked my butt. And dagnabbit! I forgot AGAIN to set my heart rate monitor watch so I have no idea how many calories I burned.

Because the lady who runs the Saturday round robin would be out of town over the weekend, I had considered skipping tennis. It doesn't always run well without her. But, at the same time, I did want to play, so I decided to give it a go. I could always leave if chaos ensued. To my happy surprise, we managed to organize ourselves pretty well and I ended up playing four or five sets.

Sunday I slept late, then watched the men's Wimbledon Finals. Then Tom and I headed out for a lunchtime bike ride. We did our Windover out and back and the first half went well, but on the way back I developed a pain in my right foot, in the middle toward the top. It felt like something needed to pop, but wouldn't and putting any sort of pressure on the foot was unbearable. So I was doing most of my pedaling using my left foot. We stopped at one point and I took off my shoe and attempted to work it out by massaging my foot. It didn't really work so we pressed on, gingerly. Somehow, the pain eventually went away and I was able to make it back home under my own steam. Really weird.

Sunday afternoon I did a CrossFit workout. I had looked at the WOD and it didn't involve legs at all, so I figured the bicycling wouldn't be a factor. It called for five rounds of five reps shoulder presses. Which is also called the military press. Basically, a straight overhead press. Allie started me out a little too high this time, with a 45 pound bar. Then I added weight and did 55, then 60 - and failed after 2 reps. So I took weight back off and did two more sets at 55. My shoulders and arms are sort of wimpy.

On Monday I slept until 8:00, then got up and got hopping. I had a lot of things I wanted to do, chiefly house cleaning. Another thing I did on Sunday was go to Bed, Bath & Beyond. I needed to exchange my single serve coffee maker. For months it worked perfectly. Then, it started acting up just a little and sometimes didn't feel like brewing. I found that running the rinse cycle seemed to make it happy so I did that for a few months. But lately it's been nothing but trouble and I had had enough. But I do love the K-cups for their convenience and flavor variety. So I traded for a different model and have my fingers crossed that this one will hold up.

Dead to me…

First - a face update. The swelling has gone down a little more, but it's still noticeable if you pay attention. I'm sure during the regular course of the day no one would even realize there was anything seriously asymmetrical going on with my visage. The pain has lessened, too, though if I press too hard it hurts. (I know, stop pressing then!) And I can open my mouth all the way which will make eating so much easier.

On Wednesday, even though I knew I wasn't going, I still checked the website to see what the CrossFit WOD would be. It was absolutely scary! Called the Filthy 50, it involved 50 reps of about a dozen different exercises including box jumps, wall balls, kettle bell swings, walking lunges and burpees, the most dreaded of exercises. (do a squat thrust and throw in a push up.) I was actually glad to be going to the dentist instead. (though if I had known then what I know now…)

So yesterday's workout was another round of dead lifts, which pleased me because I knew I could lift more than I did the last time. The trainer was just estimating about the weight and underestimated. We had seven show up, again. People just aren't clued in yet about reserving their space in class. Naturally, being a good little rule following goober, I had signed up all proper like. But it didn't matter, we made it work. Four of us did the dead lift workout and the other three did the Filthy 50. I had the opportunity to also do the Filthy 50, but declined. Honestly, I had a good excuse. I found that when I ran through the rain from my car to the gym, that it hurt my face to run or jostle about. So all of that crazy activity would have been extra unpleasant.

The dead lifts went well. I did three reps each of: 95, 115, 135, 155, and 165 lbs. The whole time I was there I was keeping an eye on the ones doing the 50 and I sort of felt guilty for not doing it too. And almost jealous because they were surely burning a ton of calories while I wasn't. But I think I will be doing the Filthy 50 myself this afternoon. I checked the workout and today is a Rest Day. Ha!