I know. I have been poorly treating you my dear readers. Mea Culpa. And not really for a good reason. I’ve been working hard on some new blogging projects that have taken all of my writing time outside of work. And to be honest, I’m Loving it! (thank you mickey d’)

I’m working on a few new projects as an intern, contributor, and editor for various travel magazines and blogging sites. And I’ll be posting more about them when my contributions start to manifest moola.

In other news, I have successfully gotten off of caffeine. Well at least I’m not NEARLY as dependent upon it as I was before. How you ask? Well that’s my trade secret but I’ll divulge that it’s taken some slow process steps by first totally eliminating Diet Dr. Pepper from my diet. Yes that stuff that I’m soo addicted to. Then I substituted that with iced tea. Now I’ve eliminated all artificial sweeteners including Splenda. And to be honest, I like drinking water. I still drink iced tea but fresh, ice-cold water is so refreshing, especially after a nice long run. Oh and I rewarded myself today with a new pair of tennis shoes! Can’t wait to get back on the trails after being sick for the past couple of days! Wahoo.

Then in other other news, I close on my house in 2 weeks. I can’t freaking WAIT! I picked out colors and am all ready to go. It should be fantastic. OH! and if you remember this post about stars, I’ve already started pricing LED lit ceiling panels. I’ve got a plan! Don’t worry you’ll get an invite to the multiple house parties that we’re throwing! Should be fun times… had by all.

I got my first comment on my new Travel Blog today from someone who I haven’t bribed, begged, or pleaded with to take a look at my site. Now I just have to finish the header graphic, facebook integration, and Twitter pages. First things first. Travel blog. Then the world! Oh and I might get an internship position at Matador…. writing about sports travel. Keep your fingers crossed.

In other news. I’m taking my life. Putting myself into a snowglobe. And shaking. REALLY Hard. Stay tuned. I know you’re fascinated.

I’m totally delinquent in any updates. But fear not! I’ll update you really soon on the super secret project! But in other news, I haven’t had a Diet Dr. Pepper in over 7 days now. Amazing what a little determination and inspiration can do huh? Thanks to my good friend for continuing to inspire me!

This weeks goal: Climb Mt. Everest! Too ambitious? Okay okay. I’m committed to increasing cardio to an hour a day.

Hey everyone! I know it’s been a whole 4 days since my last post. And oh boy have I not missed you. Not once. Okay. Maybe a little bit. But I have had an amazing weekend. Through the awesome support of my friends and family, I was able to cross one more item off my bucket list. I competed and completed my first Adventure Race! Check out the video below. I couldn’t have accomplished so much without the amazing support of the Moxy Pucks team. Jim, Rob, and Darin rock my socks and so much more. Through their tireless effort and support, we were able to finish in 13 hours to be rewarded with steaks and fantastic beer. I don’t think a Lone Star ever tasted sooo very good. Everyone was super friendly and helpful. After crossing this off my list, I realize that I really can do anything. The world is my oyster and I’m the pearl. Yes. I even nasceate myself sometimes with my cheeriness.

Okay I know you’re dying to hear the synopsis. So here goes:

The first leg started out with us getting wet. Yes. We were drenched most of the day. Soaked. Stinky. Sweaty. I can alliterate. Who knew? We had an inner tube relay across the river.Leg 2 was a 9 mile Mountain bike section to be immediately followed with the big water slide and climbing the Iceberg and swimming. We made up some massive time with the ingenious efforts of our navigator through the hiking portion. Then had an awesome time working through the hike/bike trek section, the dirt section where my scooter filled up with mud. Our luck wasn’t 100% as we didn’t go far enough west for our last checkpoint before the final checkpoint. We were soo close. Yet so far. Eventually with the help of other teams, we were able to find it and complete our mission. Looking back over the weekend, I can honestly tell you I’ve never learned so much. I had some great teachers and it was an awesome experience. So who’s going to do the next one with me? You know you wanna. Oh and I gotta give some mad props to the people who put on this competition, too cool racing.

So again… who’s with me for the next one? You know you wanna!

For anyone who spends a modicum amount of time traveling, you will invariably encounter the ever elusive place called an airport. These places are not be confused with casual, carefree train stations. Oh no siree. Airports are a hub of activity day and night. Airports are as unique in character as the patrons that careen down their hallways (sometimes they run. And I just saw someone do a cartwheel). And today is no different. I’m not a fan of O’Hare. We’ve discussed this. Even though today I’m stuck a lot longer than I really wanted to be, I was able to find the ever-elusive power outlet. Thank goodness for small miracles since finding a power outlet at O’Hare is like trying to find a beer in Saudi Arabia or someone sober at Mardi Gras. It’s that rare. I kid you not. Today’s a fun day to be at the airport as it’s the start of Memorial Day weekend and more casual passengers are flying to destinations filled with sandy beaches and hopefully a few dozen cocktails with umbrellas! Gotta have the umbrellas so they don’t get hot!

No where else in the world can you see the savvy business man with his blue tooth chatting away about this new deal he’s going to close. I so desperately want to run up to him and try to get his slicked back hair to move. He’s sitting next to the indie rocker chick (which reminds me, I’ve GOT to find out where she got that belt. kick ass). There’s some navy sailors chatting it up with an elderly couple. And this one woman wearing white pants… who wears white pants? … complaining about the condition of the seats. It’s a great place to people watch.

You also get to see some pretty incredible moments while you’re here. The elderly couple just gave up their seats on the DFW flight since the navy sailors are flying standby and trying to get home on leave.The other day when I was departing Austin, I noticed that everyone (And I do mean the entire airport) was standing, silently, and watching out the window as a soldier was taken home to his final resting place. It was certainly a bitter sweet moment. I was proud of everyone for respecting him and his family. Okay enough of the sappy stuff.

Did you know that in a lot of airports you can start buying alcohol early? Seriously. If I wasn’t doing the race in less than 24 hours I would already be tossing back an ice cold bud. But I’m being a good girl so I can kick ass on the trail this weekend. Should be fun. So excited. But for right now I have got to go talk to Mr. TooCool and his slicked back hair. I can’t resist just messing with him a bit. Carpe Diem!

PS: Quick update. I just met this guy who’s trying to convince me to drink egg martini’s. He swears it’s the new ‘thing’ in Chicago. I wonder if it’ll catch on. The recipe sounds intriguing. I might have to try it. This is going on at the same time that I see a woman running to catch a plane in a full ballgown style wedding dress and veil. Man. Why did I have to forget to charge my camera?

Sometimes life hands you a handful of lemons. Best laid plans go awry due to the ever loving kindness of Mother Nature and yet you find yourself somehow miraculously making wicked hard lemonade outta those lemons. This weekend I was fixin to go to a sandbar party out on Lake Travis with some friends, among a few other plans when things went egg-shaped (that’s a nice word for FUBAR). Unfortunately Mother Nature decided to cool down this Texas heat with one of her fronts that poured down an inch of rain. And I’m not complaining one bit. Of course we already know how much I love dancing in the rain (even if I’m riding my bike and taken by surprise when the torrential downpour starts… note to self, read the weather report before taking off on a bike ride). But of course it turned out to be a pretty awesome weekend anyway. So I decided to put together a list of things to do when you find yourself stuck indoors when mother nature strikes. Sorry it’s only a top 5 list. I’m a little busy watching Detroit and Chicago battle it out on the ice.

1. Make a fort: Who says kids get to have all the fun? I certainly don’t. So push the furniture back (hey! it’s an opportunity to redesign the living room anyway) and make a fort outta old blankets, sofa pillows, and if you happen to have big card board boxes around, go for it! Or take that tent that you were planning on pitching outside and throw it up in the living room. Be sure to leave the opening facing the wide-screen TV and put on some great National Geographic Channel specials. Don’t get me started on the Travel Channel’s programming. bleh.  Might as well picture yourself in the great outdoors while stuck inside. To fully capture the experience you can turn off the tv, pull out a board game with the friends and play Monopoly or Risk! Oh and if you want, I have a great way for making S’mores on the stove. Be creative! (Oh! and I played Guitar Hero last night for a little while and it was really fun. I wasn’t very good… in my defense, those drums are HARD! but it was a lot of fun hanging out, drinking a few yummy beers and being a rockstar!)

2. Dance in the Rain: That’s right. You heard me. If Mother Nature decides to shower you with some May showers, then go outside and enjoy them. Granted you probably shouldn’t be wearing you white Easter Sunday dress with the pink bow when you got sloshing through puddles but that shouldn’t stop you. Oops. Live and learn.  Clothes wash. You’ll dry… unless you’re the Wicked Witch of the West… then you’ve got bigger problems anyway. “I’ll get you my pretty… and you’re little dog too.” I so don’t know where that came from. heh. But dance in the rain. I always love heading out to Mt. Bonnell when the thunderstorms roll into Austin. Talk about a spectacular display. Ride the Lightening.

3. Be a do-gooder. Stuck inside and been meaning to go through your closet to get in a good amount of spring cleaning? What a perfect opportunity to be stuck inside and go through all of your gently-warn clothes to donate to Goodwill. Never a better time to catch up some spring cleaning.

4. Catch up on your reading: Been meaning to re-read Angels and Demons since it’s coming out in theaters? (And yes, I know. Even with Tom Hanks and Ron Howard at the helm, NOTHING will ever come close to the book)  Wanting to re-read the Twilight series for the oh-i-don’t-know hundredth time? Gonna catch up on Robert Patterson’s latest crime novel? What a perfect day to wrap up in a blanket and read. Disappear into your favorite lollipop book. And whatever you do. Do not pass go. Do NOT collect 200 dollars. DO NOT. I repeat. DO NOT read anything pertaining to work, business, self-help or other gobbidly goop. The weekend, especially Sunday, is a day of rest. You owe it to yourself, to your family and to you friends to relax a bit. So enjoy a guilty pleasure. It’s okay. I promise. Work will still be there Monday.

5. Dance: Okay. You know this was going to be on the list. Turn on the radio, IPOD, or computer and dance! Just have some fun with it. No matter what throws your head back, just enjoy dancing to the anthem that inspires you to move! For me this weekend it was a little bit of this and a little bit of that but mostly some Oldies, Classic Rock, and Metal. Surprise. Surprise.

What’s your favorite indoor, rainy day game?

Yes! The vending machines have been restocked and the world has realigned itself. I also secretly (or I guess not not so secretly now) suspect that the Swine Flu pandemic is a massive conspiracy created by manufacturers of hand sanitizer.
Now go enjoy your weekends everyone! Have some fun.

You see. I have this little teeny tiny vice. It’s microscopic. Well sorta. I have a drug problem. I know! Surprised aren’t you? I am addicted to caffeine and it gets worse… much worse… it’s a particular product where caffeine can be found that I am addicted to. Yes I should go to a group meeting about this addiction. “Hello my name is metalchick and I am addicted to Diet Dr. Pepper. “

Seriously. It’s bad folks. So bad that I had to leave the comfort of the 3rd floor vending machines in search of Diet Dr. Pepper yesterday morning. I put out an APB on Diet Dr. Pepper until someone, thank goodness for fantastic developers, located some on the second floor conference room vending machines. Crisis overted. But today is another day. Did they restock my precious or am I going to have another crisis? The glow of florescent lighting and ambrosia of the gods, the one the only, Diet Dr. Pepper beckons. So it’s hi ho hi ho it’s off to work I go. Only going to the office will reveal the truth. I should seek professional help huh? Shush from the peanut gallery.

So my trip to big D got postponed for a little bit and thus tonight I find myself enjoying an evening at home watching game 7 of the Pittsburg Penguins and Washington Capitals. Don’t worry. I know you’re worried. I’m still going to Moline, IL, the illustrious home of John Deere, next week. Yes. There are tractor races. I’m gonna get muddy! When in Rome ya know? A girl’s gotta be flexible and still have fun regardless of the way the ball bounces. I’m super impressed with Crosby tonight. This guy is phenomenal, amazing, incredible. There simply are not words. Inspector Gadget would say ‘wowzer’.  Of course I still miss the Stars and they will always have my heart but alas, not making the playoffs I have to go for second best. Go Peguins shall be the battle cry going forward!

In other news, I’m really getting excited about this Adventure race. 12 hours (give or take a few ) , 3 men, me, 800 foot zipline, 12 miles of mountain biking, kayaking, and a partridge in a pear tree? Oh and did I mention there’s North Shore beer as incentive to get to the finish line? I’m SOOO there! Should be an awesome way to spend Memorial Day weekend! Hooyah! I guess that do something every day that scares you mentality is really rubbing off! You make me feel like dancing! I wanna dance the night away!

Bad Pun. I know. Forgive me. I’m sitting here tonight realizing I have an awesome opportunity to travel to rural Illinois next week. Overalls and all.  Only I haven’t the slightest clue of what to do at night when I’m not busy workin. When viewing Marriott’s recommendations, they list nothing under bars, eateries, or nightlife. Not even the local dive bar, restaraunt, or places of interest. But fear not there are chains of plenty. Ahh America. The land of corporate, franchises.  Unfortunately even google in their infinite wisdom has not surfaced any significant results. Seriously. Although I know more about the history of Moline and Davenport Illinois than I did 24 hours ago. Reading through the local newspaper, there is hardly mention of any sort of fun activities during the few days I’l be there. And yes I even asked the customer… to no avail. A pity. So what’s a single, adventurous girl to do? I guess I’m just gonna have to stir up a ruckus like any like-minded solo woman business traveller must do. Times of desperate need call for desparate measures. Talk about your super hero come to life. No worries, I’ll report back on any adventures I have. This week, it’s back to Dallas and a few foosball, beer-laden nights. Perhaps this time he’ll take me dancing. We’ll see. You never know what unfolds behind the auspice of a casual night out in Dallas! Carpe Diem! Have fun y’all!