Just got back from the walk from hell. My lovely dog tried to eat a few people and since it was day time there were many wonderful Marin people out for him to target. I swear we will be cast out of the county for having such an unfriendly dog. Then the dog poops where this dude is trying to park his truck. So I am sort of watching the dude to make sure he doesn't get out and get bitten by Maverick and I stick my pinky in poo. We get out of there and I am trying to find a trash can for disposal and some grass to clean my finger, but suddenly there are people everywhere and no grass. I eventually succeed but I am a little pissed at this point. About 15 minutes later we are heading home when we run into a large, old golden retriever loose and wandering on the road. This dog proceeds to walk in front of us or follow us almost all the way home. I can't catch the dog because he won't come close enough, which is ok because Maverick would have jumped on him and started something, and no one stops to help me with the dog because they assume he's with me. Eventually he walks right up to a gardener, and that guy was able to take care of it for me. All the while, Maverick is trying to eat the gardener. We get within a half mile of home and it starts pouring rain. Mind you it was sunny this whole time, but now it pours. Finally got in, clean and dry and it's sunny again.

Work continues to suck up all my time, but at least we are making some profit and starting save for our million dollar house. At this rate in 20 years we can afford the down payment. Awesome. It's review time at work and I have been trying to get great ratings so they will increase my salary next year. Now if I can only start traveling more to get flier miles and travel for free....

I am debating whether to invest in backpacking or mountain biking as my first new hobby. Both are an eventuality as I see it, but which one first. Biking is maybe more exciting, but you can get hurt more easily. Plus bikes are expensive and my man needs one as well. So backpacking is a bit cheaper, though it requires more planning and time to execute. Also, there are the bears to worry about. I also need an indoor hobby besides reading and movies. I guess puzzles I also like to do puzzles, but they always get in the way. I have been bored at home and resorted to cleaning to keep myself entertained; this is not acceptable.

Weird dreams are back. I dreamt I went on an abandonned train to a haunted town with my daughter (already terrifying). We were staying in a lodge and there were ghost people sleeping in between the carpet and the flooring. They were dressed in night gowns complete with caps. They also talked to us when we stepped on them, which was pretty often as they were everywhere. We stayed there for a few days until I had enough money to buy us a place. Our new residence was an abandonned and flooded shop. Very high quality. I think I was supposed to be writing about the town and that's why we were there. It was in upstate NY.

Always keepin' me wondering about what goes on in my head...

OMG. How long has it been! Stupid work sucks the feeling (and time) out of life so much that you forget to do these things. I am a corporate zombie, I have no need for feelings....

Seriously, I am still on the ridiculously boring project where I click buttons on a screen until something blows up or just doesn't work right. I fully understand this project is huge and meaningful to the client people, I also fully understand how important my job is as I am making sure this application actually does what we claimed it would do before giving it to the client. However, for the day to day purposes it sucks. I never know when I will get to leave that day as I have no independence, we usually work very long hours plus weekends, and the work itself is such that I am considering training Maverick to help out. So basically I have no life.

I got some time off for Christmas and came back to WL. It was fun, though a little stressful. We just know so many people there. We didn't get to see everyone and for the most part people we did see got the standard hour visit package. This is where you pick a destination, agree to meet, show up a few minutes late from your last visit/appointment, chat about the same stuff (for me) over and over, make excuses and rush off to the next person. Since both of our families live within a mile of each other we stayed some days with each. This was intended to help us simplify the trip and totally failed. Next year, the sign up sheet is coming out. I'll keep you all posted.

So I go to bed every night within two hours of eating dinner pretty much. That has got to stop. I feel nasty from it. I am working on a plan, but see when you have no life you can worry about these things.

It is beautiful today. I swear I love this place. It is sunny and going up to 60. My goal is merely to spend as much time as possible outside. I have two hikes planned, then maybe the beach? That would a very cold beach, but you get some sweatshirts out and cling to the fact that you are there at all. I ate lunch on Friday at Chipotle (my obsession) downtown SF outside. Amazing after years of Indiana winters.

We also were on CNN. Maybe you missed it. Over New Year's we got a terrific storm and the creek flooded, amounting to two feet of water in our parking lot (which was low compared to what the rest of our town got). Gov. Arnold says that for our town of 12000 there was $40 million in damage. If you understand the real estate market out here that is not so hard to accomplish. We missed it as we were in LA for that weekend (where it was also raining) but it was plenty muddy when we got back.

Well, time for hiking to begin. Hope you are actually still looking at this... I will try to be more frequent in writing. :)

The face inside is right beneath my skin.The face that laughs every time I fall.

I cannot walk. My foot is undergoing work right now. Also, last week I ran a bunch of stairs and couldn't walk for three days. I am so out of shape!!!

I now understand why it is punishment in sports to run stairs. Plus we run them inside, so it's this tiny hall stair case. Very depressing. I am on a project that so requires my time that I have to work out during the middle of the day or else I won't do it. This is the case for every one on the project and we run stairs together like little rats. This is my life.

Lazy weekend. Beach, partying in the city, tv.... To be honest, one day was great but then I was bored.... I wanted to hike so much but the weather was crappy Sunday and my legs were still really hurting from stairs. I was not a happy girl.

Sometimes I think I have it all. And then not. C'est la vie.

Friday night I dreamt that Juneau had puppies quite suddenly—as in they just sort of fell out of her. They were sort of giant light brown puppies, but of course very cute. Then there was a break in the dream. Now Juneau is a small, slimy chicken like creature. Karen tells me she’s pregnant and I say no she’s not. I pick her up and squeeze her a little, she is really hard to hold on to as she is so slimy. I put her down and an egg comes out. The egg opens and large (considering the size of the egg) brightly colored stuffed animals are inside. They are like those jungle animals you can buy at a zoo—bright blue snakes and red lizards.

Sunday night I dreamt that there was some sort of family gathering in SF. The lab guys were around along with my entire extended family. Downtown SF the guys were supposed to be staying in this plaza down the street from KP and I. The family was all gathering in this bar place that was on the corner that I had to sleep on (in a sleeping bag of course). KP was on the opposite side of the street. She and I decided not to go into the bar to do the family bonding thing, so instead we talked from across the street. The lab guys were required to go in to the family bonding thing so we speculated how crazy they thought our family was. After awhile we noticed that the street cleaning people were starting to clean the plaza where the guys were supposed to stay and had left all their stuff. The guys came pouring out of the bar and ran to get their stuff before the cleaning began. They came back up the street, looking for a new place to settle. Of course as generous girls we offered to let them stay in our sleeping bags with us.

So the toll for the weekend: vertical climb of 2500 feet and 20 miles hiked. I now have pictures from both the top of Mt. Tam and Bald Hill. I will post them soon; they are incredible. From the top of Mt. Tam you can see the bay, the ocean, our house, the city, and supposedly the Sierras on a really clear day. I will have you know I sat in the back seat on the way up the mountain and felt pretty good the whole time. Amazing.  I am glad I did all the crazy hiking, but my knees are a little worse for wear this morning.

I got mad at the Victoria’s Secret models last night. Naturally I came up with a very effective outlet for my rage. It’s unfair that these people are not real, and yet we are taught over and over again to look like them. So I continue down that impossible path….

Feeling mellow after a good weekend…. I got to see one of my old friends who is now at Stanford. We went shopping and bonded through the global issue of finding jeans with small back pockets. Despite not finding a solution we had fun. I did find some Diesel jeans that might work but they are not affordable, so why even bother?

I also had a perfectly ordinary Sunday and that was something I needed a lot. A day to go buy food, do laundry and clean the place in my usual maniac sort of way.  The apartment complex had an Octoberfest thing at night and that was very enjoyable. Of course, since I cannot eat bratwurst I ate chicken. Pathetic stomach! It robs me of these experiences.

Watched Monday Night Football with some friends last night—it took me back to the times where all my friends were guys and I knew a lot more about sports. Good times, but the game pretty much sucked.

The boat just went crazy. The ride to and from work is almost always smooth but randomly we will hit bumpy water and it reminds me of how much I hate boats. The funniest part is that when this happens I cannot see any bumpy water but other times when I see bumpy water we’re just fine. Very odd.

A few great dreams lately…. The first was Thursday night. I dreamt I took a math test with all my new work people and my HS girls. One of my old friends was the TA and put our scores on the board. She critiqued our Stanford friend rather harshly for a silly addition mistake. She wrote the girl’s name up there and a frowny face. Then she got to me. I had made the mistake of multiplying numbers together twice. She called it double clicking because multiplication signs can be just a dot and I had done two in a row, like 3 .. 4 would be 3*4*4. I was mortified. Why does this stuff come up now?

Last night I had a dream that I found hubby and someone else together. I wasn’t upset, but KP was with me and she sure was. So I think this means that KP is my conscience and that I am crazy because hubby would not do this sort of thing.

It was a classic SF day yesterday. Fog and light rain, 60s. Sunnier and warmer today. In any event, it’s always sunny and warm in Marin so all’s forgiven.