4,000 options...apparently.

As I've said in a past post, I'm not complaining!  But for some reason I've been considering a lot of different options to better my career path and hopefully not waste my time.

• Choice #1: Stick with the Y and try and get full-time hours.  Not that I would mind hanging out at the pool all the time, in fact it's the option that I'm the most comfortable with, since it's what I know.
• Choice #2: Go back to school.  I've already taken the first step on this one and signed up to take the GRE at the end of the month and bought a book to study from.  I've done some sifting through on the Stanford website and am really liking what I see (People that I've talked to about this have said that it was the best for education - and by people, I mean randoms I saw wearing Stanford wear at Target.)  I'm going to do a little more research on this and look at some of the professors, and decide whether I would want to do a Special Education certification or go for a Masters in Administration.  Who knows...I'm just playing with the idea.
• Choice #3: Start up some interviews and look for something more education related.  I've applied for so many teaching positions, but I recently signed up for a instructor/curriculum writer for the Palo Alto Jr. Museum and Zoo.  It required experience teaching and such, so it's right up my alley after this last summer.  I was also chatting with a Target customer and she handed me her card for assisting in gymnastics and a preschool...random.  It sprang from her casually mentioning that she was from MN, so I had to have more than small talk with her!  

Pleasanton (our current city) has closed all substitute teacher applications and there are no teaching positions in my field available in the area, so I'm doing all that I can to get back in the game!  Stay tuned to see what actually comes from all this decision making!  :)


On a different note, Andrew is finally home for more than 48 hours as I mentioned, which means I can't have just sandwiches or cereal for dinner!  We've been grilling machines and recently experimented with the crock pot.  Yesterday we actually threw in some ingredients for some yummy pulled pork sandwiches (a recipe that I got from a college friend), and they turned out amazing!  I have Andrew to back me up on that one :)  They have a nice spicy tang to them (Andrew does the Home Improvement grunts with them), which isn't too strong and we combine that with a splash of BBQ sauce on a bun to complete the delicacy.  Here's the recipe if you'd like to give 'em a try:

Ingredient

• 3 pounds Top Roast (or any type of roast -- I used a pork shoulder roast)
• 2 whole Onions
• 3 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
• 8 cloves Minced Garlic
• 1 Tablespoon Cumin
• 1-½ Tablespoon Oregano
• 1 can Small Can Of Chipotle In Adobo Sauce
• 1 cup Chicken Broth
• 1 cup Water
• 1 Tablespoon Bay Leaves
• 2 Tablespoons White Or Rice Vinegar

Preparation Instructions

Take everything but the roast and put it in a blender. Blend until onion is all ground up.

Add some of the sauce to bottom of crock pot. Place roast in crock pot and pour the rest of the sauce over meat.

Slow cook for 8-10 hours on low.

Use fork or tongs to shred the meat once cooked.

Some Pictures

Pre-race getting my nervous on:

My age group getting ready to go (the smallest by far):

End of the bike leg:

I think this is after the bike portion, trying to get ready for running.  Obviously there are hundreds of bikes and this is only a snapshot of my row!  There were 7 waves (heats) of participants and I was in the 7th (last to start), so that's my excuse for half of the bikes already back to their starting positions! :)

Starting my run:

After the finish!  The event was called "See Jane Run" and this was the character:

Here are a few pictures of our new apartment, and again we are just getting everything settled.  Here's one side of the bedroom.  It's not humongous, but it was designed to enable a walk-in-closet:

The bathroom, which is MUCH larger than our past apt:

The transition from the bedroom to bathroom, which holds a washer/dryer behind those closed doors:

One side of the living/dining room:

The living room/Andrew attempting to organize his work materials.  We are looking forward to getting our new couch (*cross your fingers*) next week, so we can put the lawn chair on the deck.  We'll show it off once it makes it's way home!

Pistol Whip and Grant making an appearance!  I promise I'll keep it to this one photo - I don't want to be the creepy person obsessed with photographing her pets, especially because they are fish...

The AMAZING kitchen:

That's all - hope you enjoyed! :)

Mission accomplished.

Yesterday I did my first sprint triathlon (not so much "sprint," but more-so shorter).  It consisted of a 1/4 mile swim, 11 mile bike ride, and then a 5K.  I knew that the swim part was the only part that I was fully confident in (and I took first in my age group on that leg!), and I basically survived the rest!  It was only open to women, so it was fun being able to cheer people on as they sprinted past me on the biking and running legs - you know, "keep it up!," "woot woot!," "I like your bright pink shorts!," and the like.  Sounds lame, but it was nice knowing that a 50 year old man wasn't on my tail the whole time (like the 5K I did about a month ago).  Since it was my first, I didn't set a goal time or place - no pressure - so I had a great time!  ;)

We stayed in for the most part this weekend, since it was the first weekend Andrew's been home long enough to enjoy the new apartment.  Right now we're finishing up a serious cleaning spree and trying to find places for all of Andrew's equipment, assorted office stock, reading material, and marketing papers.  At this point I'm wondering why Abaxis isn't offering to pay for part of our rent, since it's basically a warehouse around here.  The bronze Honda has officially been taken over by equipment, which means Abaxis has claimed about 70% of our living space.  I'm okay with it for now...I'm just waiting for the banner and neon sign to make it's appearance...

Last update: Pistol Whip and Grant (our fish) are still alive.  They can thank me later for turning on the air conditioning for them this weekend - it's been in the triple digits for a few days.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!