Whew.

What a crazy weekend we had. Moving Ben's dad took ALLLLLL day Friday, and we still didn't get ALL of his stuff. The man is a serious pack-rat, and has been accumulating stuff in that apartment for 20 years. Every closet we opened was just FULL of random stuff, most of which we didn't know what to do with. Moving someone else is NOT easy. Normally when you help someone move you show up, load boxes, drive to the new place, unload boxes, and leave. We had to pack up his entire apartment, load it all up, drive, unload it all, and unpack it all. I can't believe we did it all in one day! Well, sorta. We still have some more stuff to go back for, but nothing that won't fit in our cars (no more U-HAUL, thank God), and we did have to go back on Saturday to continue unpacking. Being Valentines' Day, we all had to be leaving around 3:30 to get home, shower and go out for our respective V-day dinners.

Ben and I went to Johansson's in Westminster, which was delicious as always. It's become sort of a Valentines' Day tradition for us. We definitely went all-out: crap dip appetizer, salads, stuffed rockfish for both of us, coffee drinks (caramel Bailey's coffee for me and pumpkin spice liquer coffee for Ben) and dessert (for Ben - I was STUFFED). And of course I had a glass of wine with dinner :) Then we came back to my house (it's like 8:30 at this point), got into our PJ's, and watched Terminator 2 under the covers. We're always dying to just curl up in bed and watch a movie in the evenings but somehow it never seems to work out, so we were determined to make it happen for Valentines' day. As for gifts, we went completely un-romantic this year. I actually got him his gift about a month ago, because he needed it so badly. We decided that we both needed new running shoes for our hard-core gym sessions, so that's what we got each other :) Ben didn't have running shoes period (he was running in his big bulky Etnies on the treadmill - it was ridiculous), and mine were getting a little worn out. Plus I've been having knee pain on the treadmill and I really wanted to try a new pair with better cushioning to see if it would help. Anyway, he had to wait til payday to get mine, which was the Friday of the move, so needless to say we didn't get the chance to go get them BEFORE V-day. We went looking on Sunday at Arundel Mills mall (we looked in at least 5 stores) but I didn't see any that I was in love with. So we just got online and ordered some from Nike.com. We both got Nike's. I'm sorry if they use child labor, but Nike's are consistently the most comfortable running shoes I've ever owned. I tried on Under Armour's new running shoes - they suck. They look cool, but I didn't like the way they fit AT ALL. Oh well. I actually made his shoes with Nike ID, so I got to pick all the colors and stuff. I ended up running the design by him before ordering them. I really wanted to surprise him, but I figured if I was going to pay to customize them and they could be ANY color combination he wanted, I might as well make sure he loves them! Anyway, enough about running shoes.

Yesterday, Presidents' Day, we were both technically off work, but of course my hard-workin' fiance went in from 5am til 2 to make the overtime and holiday pay for the wedding. When he got home, we went to ARLINGTON to get a lift chair for his dad. We found it on craigslist, in GREAT shape, for $120. We couldn't pass it up, and we didn't want to let it sit til the weekend - we knew it would be gone. It's basically a power-assisted recliner than reclines and also helps stand the person up by lifting and tilting forward. Ben's dad has been having a hard time getting up and down, and he didn't have ANY chairs except his old dining set chairs - no couches or anything like that. In his old apartment he only had one room, so his bed was his couch. Anyway, we went and borrowed a pick-up truck, drove to Arlington, drove past home and on up to Westminster to unload it, back past home again to drop the truck off, and then finally back home - we got back after 10. Ugh. It was worth it though - it's a nice chair and his dad was really happy with it. The man doesn't get "excited" about much, so having him really like something (especially if he knows someone else bought it FOR him, heaven forbid!) is a big deal. So, all in all it was a successful day. Just a long one.

We didn't get to the gym much last week, unfortunately. We went Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday something came up with me - I don't even remember now - and Thursday Ben was all pissed off and stressed out about the move so I took him out to dinner at PF Changs, and then the whole weekend was consumed in moving. I went yesterday while Ben was at work... WOW I was sucking wind. I'm hoping today will be a little better!

Oh, one other thing that happened sometime this weekend - who knows when - I bent my ring! The side-stones on either side of the center stone are mounted on pieces of gold that sorta float above the ring itself and don't quite attach to the center stone, and apparently I caught one of them on something because while we were out for our V-day dinner, I noticed that one of them was bent outward. Grr! We took it to Jared on Sunday but they couldn't do it same-day, so I have to go without it til THURSDAY! How horrifying. I HATE not having it on. How are people supposed to know that I'm engaged?!?! I've waited a long time for this, and now no one even knows. I like catching people checking out my beautiful ring on the metro, ya know? Damnit. Oh well, just two more days...

I think I'll go for now. But first, a shout out to all the new babies being born here lately... Two people I work with had babies today - Amy Swift had a little girl named Camryn (HOW CUTE IS THAT NAME?!?!). She was scheduled for a C-section the first week in March but her water broke this morning - oops! And Praveen Sethupathy's wife is currently in the process of having their baby girl today. And I'm sure that Laura Cooke is going to pop any moment now. So much excitement! And to my girl Martina, who got engaged on Friday - CONGRATS to everyone!