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	DAILY UPDATE 11:44 PM 1/19/2011 happy belated new year! thanks for all the bday wishes. 29 is a sad, sad number. anyway, i flew home a few days after new years and went to scottsdale and sedona with the girls for our 2nd annual christmas/bday present to ourselves. sedona was insanely beautiful. we went hiking in the mud/snow and burned off approximately 0.3% of all the calories we consumed for the weekend. YUM. lynn and i hiked up a little further to get to the top of the trail and the sight was so breathtaking. i mean, it was just surreal. i would post some pictures of that particular view but my lousy blackberry camera didn't do such a great job and i'm waiting for lynn to send me the stuff she got on her camera. HINT HINT. in any case, here are some pictures: us at sedona. eckl was here! the hot car that lynn carted us around in. other highlights of the trip included eating a ton of excellent mexican food, finding a really good bread/breakfast place (and eating there twice), making it to the gym and actually getting in a decent workout (!!!!), sitting in the crazy hot tub at night and lounging by the pool during the day. i had to take two 2-hour conference calls at 7:00 am fri and sat morning, which slightly sucked, but it still beat sitting in the office. all in all, it was an excellent mini vacation. so excellent that i am ready for another one RIGHT NOW. so i flew back to DC last week and was immensely relieved to see that the new plant i bought a few weeks ago, Leafy, had survived without me. yes, i named my plant. yes, it's a he. no, i am not lonely all by myself in DC. work is kicking my ass this week and i suspect the rest of the month will be similar. i think i'm forgetting all these other important stories but that's what i get for updating once every million years. sorry. i'll be back in a few weeks with a more exciting update, i hope. btw, VALENTINE'S DAY is coming. stupidest holiday e ver. please send chocolate. okay, bye. 11:10 PM 1/30/2011 whoa, two whole posts in january - this year is off to a good start already! tom and gisela came to town last weekend after their whirlwind trip around the world, so i spent a few days showing them the sights in DC and VA. it was bitterly cold when we were out walking at night but they were total troopers. i, however, was dying, even with lots of layers on. for the billionth time this year, i'm grateful i decided not to listen to people when they told me to go car-less in DC. walking for 30 minutes when the temperature is in the teens is just brutal. speaking of brutal weather, we got hit by a winter storm on wednesday. it took me 2 hours to get home from DC. 2 hours to go FOUR MILES. people's cars were getting stuck left and right - i felt really bad for them. fortunately, i was carpooling with two of my coworkers and the girl who was driving was a former resident of minneapolis with an all wheel drive car. we managed to pass the time by gossiping and venting, so it ended up not being too painful. however, it took some other people more than 10 hours to get home - INSANE. i would have just killed myself. BUT...on the plus side, the snow is GORGEOUS. i made my first-ever snow angel wednesday night, after piling on the under armor and the ski jacket and the knee high rain boots. it was a ton of fun. i almost slipped and broke my neck a few times, but it was totally worth it to walk around in the pretty snow. i also almost got mowed over by the arlington police snowplow. again, totally worth it. one day you guys are going to read something in the headlines about some dumbass westcoaster getting killed in DC or VA while walking around in blizzard conditions. that'll be me!!!!! went to happy friday night at lauriol plaza (best mexican food in DC, my ass..). i drove to dupont circle and found a spot a few blocks away from the restaurant. FYI, i can now parallel park over mounds of snow covering up the entire curb - yes, people. RESPECT THE SKILLS. as i was getting out of the car, i remembered that i had my flats in the trunk and had this two-minute, internal debate with myself whether to change out of my 4" heels or wear the flats to walk to the restaurant. at one point i had a different shoe on each foot and was walking in circles around my car, testing out just how icy the road was. finally i gave in and wore the flats. AUGHHHH, the transformation is complete - i have officially turned into an east coaster and sacrificed fashion for safety and comfort. it is all downhill from here now. tomorrow i will go buy a pair of uggs. btw, know why they're called uggs? because they're UGGly. tee hee. as in, UGG, i can't believe i'm wearing this sh*t out in public. the street outside my apartment. okay, enough screwing around. last week was my hell week and this week is not looking much better. man, work can really get in the way of life sometimes. i'll update more in february. xoxo, kids. be good!