Wow ... I haven't posted here in almost a month. We've been busy!

We started going to the gym about the middle of January. It hasn't been bad ... kinda good in fact. It's a really nice gym with an indoor pool, sauna, and jacuzzi and every type of exercise equipment I can think of. Thank goodness for the elliptical machines that aren't hell on my leg (I have this knot that swells up whenever I do a lot of walking or any other high impact activity. The elliptical machines don't really affect it and they give me the best workout). We also have been trying to watch more what we eat. Steffie loves the pasta and potatoes and things like that (I do too!), but I know carbs are my weak point. If I can watch the carbs, I know I can lose at least part of the weight. I have done it before. I was miserable on the atkins diet but it did work. We've kinda come to compromise. I'll try to limit the heavy starches to a couple times a week and keep a closer watch on portion size. Lots of fresh vegges and smarter choice snacks. We just have to stick to it. Steffie and I were both feeling kind of icky one week this month and didn't go to gym, and then my birthday and valentine's kinda dashed the diet for a couple days too.

Speaking of my birthday and valentine's day ... it was an awesome weekend. My birthday was on the friday before Valentine's day this year, so I had the day off. It's nice to have my birthday on my off day so I can sleep in and just have a lazy day if I want. Steffie took me to the Bourbon Street Steakhouse in the old stock exchange building in St. Paul off Grand Ave. It was really nice. I loved the whole french quarter atmosphere and Zydeco music. I order the shrimp and crawfish etouffee and Steffie had the jumbo. I tasted of Steffie's gumbo, which was really good with spicy andouille sausage, but my etouffee was to die for. It was rich and creamy and butter with just the right amount of spice. It was best I've had since I was in New Orleans. Along with dinner we had hurricanes to drink (very yummy), an artichoke and crab dip with bread for an appetizer, and a lemon cheese cake with maker's mark whipped cream (MMMMMMMMMM) for dessert. Dinner took a little longer than it should have getting there, and I would have felt a little grumbly about it. But, the waitress recognized it without us having to say anything and gave us our dessert free. I would so go back there again. I haven't even mentioned my birthday gift yet. Steffie got me hotwheels and a hotwheels car mat to play with them on! Yeah ... she got me boy toys. :-D Everyone needs a toy for a birthday now and again. She had wanted to get me a wheel car carrier too so that I could organize all the cars, but she couldn't find one. However my mat did come in a nifty zip up case that I can fit my cars in. I have an awesome girlfriend to try and play to OCD about organizing by getting me something I can use to store and carry the toys she got me.

She got me a stuffed puppy (so does not let her off the hook for getting me a real puppy!), and four yummy caramels from the candy company that is near where we live for Valentine's day. I got her a hand picked box of chocolates from Abdallah candies too. I thought it was really cool that they let me pick each piece of chocolate I wanted included. I got a balloon to go with it that's the shape of a monkey. It was so cute! Buster was afraid of it. That was funny. On valentine's day we slept late together and well ... did fun stuff *g*. Then that night we went to the MSDB Valentine's Day Massacre. That was a lot of fun. I liked the whole 1920's Italian gangster theme. It was too cold in the dungeon area though, and I don't normally say that. We played, and I never did warm up. Everything hurt 20 times more than it normally does, and it just never seemed to blend as it normally does to an enjoyable level. A ribbon flogger finally made me cry. I felt ridiculous, but I had to ask to stop. I was uncomfortably cold and it was affecting how everything felt. That really bummed me out since the parties are some of the few times we get to play using the equipment. Maybe next time will be better. I had sunday off, so no having to get up at four in the morning after getting bed after two. Yay for that.

Speaking of equipment, we went hardware shopping last week and bought the supplies we'll need to make ourselves a new cross. We've had it in the works for a while now and haven't had the time/money/supplies to finish it. It's a really cool idea. The cross breaks down to form a plant stand and shelf, so it's completely disguised when you aren't using it. The foxy furniture website listed up their plans for making it, so that's what we're using as a guide. We'd also like to eventually do a bondage bed / coffee table too for the living room. It will be really nice to have it at home so we can play and we can invite friends over to play. Here's a picture of what we're making.

Pictures from the photo shoot on Steffie's birthday of Steffie and I and Tanya and Rae.

*Rarrrr Rarrr Rarrrr* Is it done yet???? *Rarrr Rarrrr Rarrrr drones the ice cream maker in the background*

Steffie made strawberry ice cream !!! And spent quite a while today researching ice cream recipes online too. Well, I mean, gotta try out the ice cream maker she got from Rae and Tanya. Today strawberry .... on the list for upcoming ice creams is watermelon sorbet, cheesecake, pistachio, and orange soda flavored ice cream. If you know any good ice cream recipes, send them our way. You'll have to get Steffie to explain her freezie men theory too about where brain freeze comes from.

This past weekend was a lot of fun too. I was stumped trying to figure out what to get Steffie for her birthday, so I talked to Rae and Tanya about maybe doing a spa day at the salon for her the weekend after her birthday. Since it was thumbs up for that idea, I went ahead and made appointments for all of us. She never pampers herself like that, so it was fun. Facials, manicures, pedicures, hair styles, and make-up.

Plus, since we were all pretty afterward, Rae thought it would be fun to get our pictures made. We had couples pictures and group pictures. None of us was sure what to wear, so we did some casual and some dressy. Go figure that the ones that we liked best were the casual. It was just more us. And the lady managed to get a picture that we each liked how we looked in collectively. Now I have pics of Steffie and I and the girls to send to friends and family. :-D *yay* After we went down to the farm for supper and drinks and just hanging out. Tribe time is good. We went shopping Sunday morning. I'd never went shopping in Mankato. That was fun. Lots of different shops and a good breakfast buffet with gravy n' biscuits.

Busy busy week planned this week too. We got Steffie some new sandals and some new ked-like shoes yesterday. Glad we were able to find some that she likes. We went fabric shopping today, and got fabrics to make Steffie three skirts, fabric for me a chemise, a skirt, and an over skirt. Joann's had a 10% off the entire purchase for regular priced and sale items that was just good today, so we decided to get it done early this week in prep for our sewing day planned on Thursday evening. Then, there is TIES on Wednesday night and the farmer's market on Saturday morning.

We did quite a bit of cleaning today, but more of that needs to be done too. We'll find some time to rest and breath in there somewhere. Right???

Pictures of Steffie blowing out the candles on her birthday cake.

Today was my short day at work. Came home, washed some clothes and changed clothes... tried to something with my hair that ended up at least semi successful. I made Tanya a small pan of apple crisp just for her since she didn't get any last weekend. Then I headed over to her place about 11:30.

Tanya and Rae took off early today so that we could head over to Como Zoo and Conservatory to see the gardens and the animals and then head our for dinner for my and Tanya's birthdays. The flowers were beautiful. The fern room is my favorite. I could find myself a quite corner in that room and stay for hours. We saw the animals too, including the polar bears and seals playing in the water. There was a baby orangatun but we weren't able to see it when we were there. I'd definitely like to go back this spring when the butterfly garden is open and the Japanese gardens.

After we went over to Koy Sushi for dinner. Got there a bit early so we browsed the army surplus store down the street until closer to time for the restaurant to open. We have a few rolls of sushi and a drink each. Tasty sushi, but not all that hungry at the time after having lunch late at the zoo. It was good. I want to try and remember someof the ones were browsing on the regular menu to try next time.

Headed home pretty early. By a few minutes after six, were were headed south toward home. Stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way for desserts, but at the time I wasn't feeling any of the dessert offerings even though I was a bit hungry by then. Had a cup of potato soup. It was good. And I tasted Tanya's apple dumpling and Rae's cola cake. Those were good too.

I don't know ... I just wasn't feeling myself tonight. *shrugs* I hurt from coughing. I've been coughing almost constantly since I got home. Everyone was tired. Hopefully all will be feeling better and refreshed by Saturday when we're suppose to swimming with the boys.

I had a really good end of the week / weekend this week. Aside from inadvertantly giving myself an asthma attack with all the scented candles in my living and dining room Thursday night, Valentine's day was really good. Steffie thought the apple crisp and ice cream were yummy *YAY*, and she seemed to really like her valentine's day gift too. I made her a purse out of this pretty black sparkly fabric with pink and red hearts on it. It's Valentine's Day themed, but in a way that it could be used during the rest of the year. Much better than a gift bag that will just be thrown away. I filled it with little valentine's goodies (everyone needs a mini box of chocolates and a candy bracelet) along with some oh so cute silicone cock rings ... the pink one looks like a flower! Too cute.

For Valentine's Day, Steffie gave me some sour cherry jelly bean candies and some yummy tasting edible body paints that I've been wanting for a while now. The green tastes like green apple jolly ranchers. YUM! For my birthday she gave me this really pretty purple fairy sculpture with little tea lights. She's very pretty and will be perfect in my bedroom I think. Steffie has some other goodies in the works for me too ... like a clippy hog tie bondage thingie to go with my pink wrist and ankle cuffs. I think she'd be adorable hog tied. She sqirms pretty. :-D I would have been perfectly happy if she'd walked in my door empty handed though. Having her here for three days was all the present I needed. The rest were bonuses.

When we went down to Rae and Porkchop's this weekend, and that was a good time too. It was nice to get to go down and spend some time with them. We haven't got to do that much lately. Everyone has been busy with all sorts of things lately and we've been sick and have had car troubles and things like that. It was really nice to just get to hang out and catch up without having to rush around to do anything or be anywhere. They had me a giant birthday cookie with Strawberry Shortcake on it! I had just thought early this week and been kinda disappointed that I wasn't going to have a birthday cake this year or anything like that, and then they had me a cookie. :-D That was really cool.

Steffie and I got another really awesome valentine's day gift together too from Rae and Tanya. They gave us a gift certificate to Smitten Kitten so we could get a new silicone toy for the strap on harness that Porkchop is making me for my birthday. *bounces* I'm excited about it. I tried on Rae's this weekend to see how it would fit and if we'd need to make any pattern adjustments (not too much needed there) and I have to say it's a bit of power trip. I could get use to that *grins.* It will look really good with the shiny purple cat suit. Steffie and I went by Smitten Kitten on the way home on Saturday to browse. Lots we liked, but we narrowed it down to two that we liked the best. One is called The Wave and the other is called Echo. We decided on the Echo for now in dark purple with plans to get the other one later. *huge hugs to Rae and Tanya and Porkchop* We have kick ass friends who love us.

*giggles thinking about the morning* Steffie has other sweet toys too that I'd never play with before this morning. She let me lock the pad lock and take the keys to work with me. I think I might be starting to like some aspects of this switch thing.

As of 7:31am today, I'm 27. Yay!

For birthdays, the day was pretty uneventful. Woke up feeling kinda icky, but it got better. By 10:00 or so I was feeling alright. Busy, busy day at work. Mama and Daddy sent me a pretty rose bouquet and a balloon to work for my birthday. I got lots of happy birthday emails with one noteable exception. Jared made a fuss when I forgot to tell him happy birthday last month for his birthday, and then he forgot to tell me happy birthday on mine. My way of thinking, if he owes me 35 strokes for missing his birthday, I owe him 27 for missing mine. That sounds fair doesn't it? Seems fair to me.

Didn't really do anything for my birthday. Steffie is at home, and everyone here is busy. Went home after work and watched movies. Had a pizza. No big deal. A bit blah, but oh well. *shrugs*

Steffie will be down on Thursday, and I'm guessing we'll probably go out and do something on Friday since I'm off work. I'm going out with Rae and Tanya next Thursday after work for both my and Tanya's birthday.