I decided to make my “Cardio Tennis” post separate but everything else going on can just go in one post. So let’s see…

I went to NYC for a long weekend a week ago and met up with my friend Mary. We stayed at my sister’s apartment in NYC. We had SUCH A GREAT TIME! I think we did just about every thing we could possibly fit into our 4 days there:

• We got up early and tried to get on the TODAY Show and got our 3 seconds of fame.
• Top of the Rock (went up to the top of Rockefeller Plaza and had a gorgeous view…we were actually the very first people to the top that day.
• St. Patrick’s Cathedral
• Central Park
• Time’s Square
• Shopping on 5th Ave (well ok, WINDOW shopping.)
• World Trade Center area
• Sex & the City tour (this was AWESOME!)
• Mary Poppins on Broadway…Emily’s friend IS Mary Poppins so we got to get a backstage tour and all that. The show was amazing!
• …and probably a lot of other stuff I’m forgetting.

We had such a good time though. I used this trip as an excuse to celebrate my upcoming 30th birthday (in TWO days!!) so every night when we went out to dinner Emily and Mary told them it was my birthday so I’d get a dessert. It was fun fun…

Here are a few trips from the trip. The entire album can be found here.

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Let’s see, what else is going on? Anna’s about to start her first dance class. I AM SO EXCITED! She is too. She keeps “doing ballet” all over the house so I searched and searched to find a school around that accepts 2 year olds. I originally found one about 25-30 minutes away that has a “mommy and me” class. It’s an 8 week class. We missed the first class and I just realized a couple of days ago that we were going to miss 3 more, so half of the classes for that session…so I’m not paying for that if she’s going to miss so much.

SO. I searched and searched again and found a place that’s about 40 minutes away. They have a 30 minute tumbling/ballet/tap class for 2-3 year olds that’s NOT a “mommy & me”…so we’ll see how that goes. She already has her leotard, tights, ballet slippers and tap shoes, so she’s all set. It’s a 2 week session, with two classes each week (so 4 classes total) and we won’t miss any (well, unless she’s sick or something). So I’m excited! She can’t wait to go….see?

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Hmm…I guess that’s about it. I’m sure there’s more going on with me, but it’s really not all that interesting.

I haven’t played tennis much in the past few years but I’ve been itching to get back into it.  I played a lot growing up, especially during high school.  I got pretty decent but never won any tournaments or anything.  Anyway, I’ve been looking all around the area for tennis clinics or some kind of board with people looking to hit and have had a hard time finding anything.  I finally found a “cardio tennis” class at a country club not too far away.  Luckily the class is open to non-members and is very affordable.

I went tonight for the first time and had a blast.  There were 7 of us and everyone was really nice.  Luckily it was *only* 90 degrees, though a little muggy…but it could have been a lot worse.  I think I probably sweated off about 10 lbs.  (Yeah right…that would be nice though..)  It was a great workout and a lot of fun.  I’m going to go again on Wednesday and try to keep going twice a week.  It’ll be good exercise and get me playing more.  I think I’ll also be able to hit with some of the people in the class, so it’ll be nice to finally meet some people down here.

Later in the summer I might try to join a league, though it kinda scares me.  I was never very good at matches…I think I used to get really nervous, so I don’t want to let a team down.  But we’ll see.  It’ll probably be fun.

I took this photo tonight of the moon shining on the bay behind my in-law’s house.  Except for the reddish lens flare on the top of the moon I really love the way it turned out!

As some of you know, I’m back in school going for a teaching degree. I’m currently enrolled in a Literature class and have to read several of the classics during this class. The first book I read was Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. Marlow must have been smoking crack while writing the book. It was weird, hard to read, and well I just didn’t like it at all. Thank God for a good synopsis I found on the internet to help me understand what was going on.

I started reading The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde a couple of days ago and surprisingly I LOVE IT. It’s a three act play and I read the first act the first night and the entire second act last night. I’ll probably finish it up tonight. I’m pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying an old English play as much as I am when I typically read books that I really don’t have to put much thought into.

Other books that I’ll have to read are Emma, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and something with “Asher Lev” in the title…among other short stories and poetry and stuff. I’m excited to read Emma (which I’ve always wanted to read) and Huck Finn, which I think I may have read in school at some point, but I can’t remember.

So after I finish The Importance of Being Earnest I have to read a short story and then write a 3-5 page paper…which I’m so NOT excited about. I despise writing papers. I feel like the world’s worst writer at times, though I really don’t think I’m *that* bad. I think I just have a hard time coming up with ideas to write about and then figuring out how to get all my ideas down on paper. Ugh…

Anyway, I’m just glad that I’m actually enjoying a book that’s required reading…for once.

Apparently I felt that a regular blog was not enough and I created a PhotoBlog for myself today. So between this blog, the PhotoBlog and my photo gallery you should have more pics than you could ever want to see. I’m going to try to update the PhotoBlog every day with a new photo. The link’s at the top of the page, or here –> http://www.theboghs.com/photoblog.

So I bought this color calibration software for my laptop and for our desktops so that when I edit photos I know they’ll print exactly as they look on my screen. In the past I’ll edit a photo so it looks like I want it to look and when I print it it looks nothing like what I want. So frustrating…

So I bought this:

It not a super duper high end calibrator, but hopefully it’ll work well enough for what I want to do.

So anyway, I received it in the mail today and calibrated my laptop and the difference after was pretty amazing. They let you see a before and after (which I wish I had printscreened to post here) and the changes were very very noticeable. So hopefully this will allow me to make prints of photos exactly the way I want.

Ok…off to edit some new photos. :)

Is this a perfect blackmail pic or what? Maybe I shouldn’t be posting this for the whole world to see, but it’s just a baby booty…I couldn’t resist. ;)

I’ve taken a ton of pics lately. We spent a few days in Dallas last week since my parents were there. We went to the Stockyards in Fort Worth, visited with a friend from my mommy board (Anna had a blast with her daughter. They’re only 3 days apart in age.), went to Six Flags and swam in the pool at the KOA we stayed at. Then yesterday we went to the beach in Galveston and today Anna played in her new pool that Grammy and Pappy bought her…so I’ve had a ton of picture taking opportunities. Here’s one pic from each outing…head to the Gallery to see them all! :-)