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We’re headed over to Kennedy today to watch the shuttle launch, and I’m SO excited! I know we’ll have tons of pictures later today.

Happy Birthday Kev! I love you so much! I hope you have as wonderful a day today as I had yesterday!

Every single person should totally go to the Magic Kingdom for their birthday. It is one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had. It’s not cheesy and awful like having people do the Happy Birthday clap-a-long at a restaurant, either. It’s seriously cool. It’s not in any way over the top; just a whole lot of fun.

This is–by far–one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had. Thanks, baby! I love you!

I went a day without doing my Wii Fit, and it reprimanded me. So, today, I made sure I played “step-up-on-the-white-thing” and dodged stuff flying at my head. I really do love my Wii Fit (and my Wii in general), but the parody that Kevin has posted over at his place is frickin’ hilarious.

My Favorite Commercial

When I lived in Dallas, I was used to a certain caliber of television; good news, solid local programming, and decent (even high-scale) commercials. Since moving to Orlando, I’ve been sorely disappointed in the poor quality of the news, and, yes, the commercials. The one saving grace is the “Appliance Direct” guy. Right now, he’s even giving away t-shirts that say “I love refrigerators”. If you click through to You Tube, you have a wide array of Appliance Direct commercials from which to choose. Sadly, the most current ones haven’t made it onto the site yet, so be sure to check back. Seriously, if you need a chuckle, this guy is sure to lift your spirits every time.

We had a pretty relaxed Memorial Day today….I did manage to work out for an hour this morning, but then I promptly hit the pool to get my tan on. I also made two HUGE pots of soup (one beef and barley, and one french onion) so I could freeze individual portions for Kevin to take to work when he goes back next week. The only drawback of today is the monster headache I have going on. That might just be why I haven’t been motivated to do much of anything else.

At least there’s a marathon of Deadliest Catch on Discovery. I loves me some Sig Hansen (and, yes, I am a big enough dork that I actually own a “Northwestern” hat).

But the one saving grace of watching the weather team here in Orlando is the fact that they always include Abaco on the map.

The UPS man finally showed up around 5:15, and I wasted no time in plugging that bad boy in. 60 minutes later and I was officially hooked. The hula hooping seriously works the abs….Once you get to the advanced level, it’s downright painful. The step “class” is hella fun, and the downhill skiing is harder than it looks. I suck at the soccer game, mostly because I lose points when I try to hit the shoes and stuff that they kick at me. Reflexes, I guess. I also LOVE starting with yoga so I get all stretchy. I rock the lunges and most of the strength training, but then again, I knew that was my strong suit. Aerobics and jogging, not so much.

For a total workout, it’s pretty good, and it’s fun, which is a plus. For hard core cardio, I recommend Dance Dance Revolution, though. It’s nowhere near as much fun (especially on the “Workout” setting on Difficult), but it definitely gets the job done. And Wii boxing does amazing things for the upper arms. Between these three things, though, I KNOW I’ll be getting the well-rounded workouts I need. Hooray for Wii Fit!!!

I had every intention of going to get my haircut yesterday. And today. Instead, we played all day yesterday, and I chose to do my Wii workout today and then hit the pool. Oh, and read “Stolen Innocence” (the book about the FLDS). I read “Escape” last year and then sent it on to Camille; I have a feeling I’ll be sending her this one, too.

So maybe I’ll make time for a haircut tomorrow. Or maybe Thursday. My Wii Fit comes either late Thursday or Friday, so I know I’ll be occupied this weekend!

Instead of going to the movies today, we headed over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios today (formerly Disney MGM) to check out the new Toy Story ride, and it was awesome! It doesn’t “officially” open until May 31st, but it’s been running intermittently for a couple of weeks now. It took two tries to ride it (the first time we got all the way to the front of the line and the ride shut down; they’re still working out some glitches), but it was soooo worth it. If you’ve ridden the Buzz Lightyear ride at the Magic Kingdom, it’s the same premise, but far easier, and in 3D. Totally worth it, and totally cool!

When we got home, I spent some time in the pool, and then I decided to shred a little Guitar Hero. On Expert. I didn’t do too terribly (I finished 4 songs, and not all of them were on the 1st level). During one particular riff, Kevin remarked that “it didn’t look that hard”, so I made him try. Yeah, he never made it past the intro. What can I say? I have mad GH3 skillz.

I’m not looking forward to Kevin going back to work. I’m definitely going to miss all the play time we’ve had. Movies, mini golf (it’s actually pretty good cardiac rehab), theme parks (we hit Epcot on Saturday, and walked a WHOLE lot), Wii…..just a whole lot of time spent together doing really fun stuff.

One of my very favorite things to make for dinner is jerk chicken. I love the stuff, and I have an *awesome* marinade recipe (hat tip to Kevin, since he actually found the recipe about 10 years ago). Sometime last year, I started using the grill almost as much as Kevin; I’ve found that I really enjoy it, and I have yet to ruin anything that I grill. So, tonight, I made my famous jerk chicken kabobs, grilled zucchini, grilled peppers, whole wheat cous cous (with parsley, cilantro, garlic, lime juice, and tomatoes), and my super-tasty mango salsa (helllloooooo yummy mangos!). The best part is that there is very little salt used in any of those things; lots and lots of other spices, but hardly any salt. And the only oil used for the whole meal is olive oil, and only about two TBS total (not per person, TOTAL).

Who says eating a heart-healthy diet has to be boring?

At least I get to play with Dance, Dance Revolution. I played for 30 minutes today and burned as many calories as I do in a mile-long very brisk walk. The only reason I know this is because it comes with a “Workout Mode” feature that lets you program different variables, such as how many calories you want to burn in a particular session. When you reach your goal, it lets you know. And it’s fun; I mean, time passes pretty quickly while you’re looking like a fool. Plus, it’s air conditioned in my house, and that’s important a) when it’s hot outside, and b) when the skies are filled with smoke from wildfires.

I’ll gladly wait another week for my Wii Fit. I’m beginning to think that the Wii was the best thing we ever bought. Besides the TV and the laptops, it’s the one piece of technology that gets used every single day. If you don’t have one yet, you need to get one.

Update: I spent a total of 90 minutes on it today and, as a result, burned off the 6 oz. tenderloin I had for dinner. Bonus: It wasn’t until I was finished and looked at the time that I realized just how long I’d been at it. Sweet!

No Sugar Added Fudgsicles are the most perfect food ever. Seriously. The best part is that the serving size on the back of the box lists TWO fudgsicles (at 80 calories total). I love these things.

It started out with losing another pound. Then came the trip to the hospital to thank Kevin’s Air Angels in person (really, there’s no way we’ll be able to thank everyone involved in Kevin’s care enough. It’s just something that’s too big). I spent an hour or so in the pool (half working out, half lounging).

The really incredible thing, though, is what’s going on over at Fanblogs. There is a lot of bad shit happening in the world right now, and Kevin wants to do something about it. So he came up with the bright idea to start a fundraiser to help raise money for the Red Cross and a couple other charities. In 36 hours, college football fans have raised over $10,000 to help cyclone, earthquake, tornado, and wildfire victims.

Kevin and I both have a whole new perspective on what’s truly important in life, and helping others is right at the top of that list. So go on over to Fanblogs and get the details on how to make a difference. $10K from a bunch of armchair quarterbacks will do a lot of good.

Last week we saw “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, which was totally funny. Today, however, we saw “Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay”, and it was laugh-till-you-cry funny. I fully expected us to be the only people in the theater, especially since it was 1:30 on a Monday, but there were several other people (all around our age, thankfully), and they enjoyed it just as much as we did. Definitely five stars for “Harold and Kumar”!