Zumbaaaa!

I've done a lot of Zumba, but I hadn't taken a Zumba class at a gym until Crystal and I went last Sunday morning. It was superfun! I'll go with a friend to a gym (depending on what we're signing up for), but I just don't ever see myself joining a gym again and going on my own. It's just too easy to work out at home, if it's not going to be a social activity. No makeup required, no perfectly coiffed hair, no extensive supercute wardrobe of workout wear, no driving and gas costs, no certain time I have to be there... But it's perfect for the Ladies of Data Ops workouts, especially now that it's 32 degrees outside! Most gyms do punch cards now, so you get 5 or 10 classes at a time.

Jennifer Lopez sang several Spanish songs at the AMAs last weekend. One of them is on the Zumba  DVD set. The second the music began to play, Lauren and I looked at each other and said simultaneously, "ZUMBAAAA!"

'Twas hilarious.

The in-laws are here through tomorrow. We'll be trying to figure out things to do today that don't require driving near any shopping. For those of you venturing into the Black Friday abyss, I wish you good luck! (I bought a bunch of stuff at the outlet mall earlier this week at the pre-Black-Friday Black Friday sales, where several stores were 50% off everything. Yeah, baby!)

Patrick's Saturday Six

1. What about your current career would you most regret not doing if you changed careers tomorrow?
Contributing to a process that saves lives and improves quality of life. For example, I'm currently the DM on the study for a drug that appears to reduce the mortality rate for a particular illness from its current 87% to just over 1.5%.

2. When it comes to your weight and your mental picture of yourself, do you think it’s easier to see yourself heavier than you actually are or lighter than you actually are? 
I don't know which is easier, but I've looked in a mirror and seen myself at times in my life as thinner than I was and at other times as heavier than I was. It's not good to see yourself as anything but the size you are, so I think neither is easier. You really have to be aware of your body and it's true appearance to make better choices in eating and exercise, whether you're thin, average or overweight.

3. If you had no idea how old you actually were and someone asked your age, would your answer more likely be older or younger than your true age? 
younger

4. What aspect of your personality would most influence your answer to question #3? 
the desire to really "live" and have as many positive experiences in life as I can fit in

5. If you had to pick one or the other (no “equal mix of both”), do you tend to be more of a visionary or more practical in how you address problems? 
More practical.

6. Do you feel that you are better or worse at solving problems than a person who’d answer question #5 the opposite way you did?
I think 95% of the time, the practical solution is the most desired and most successful. I did make a notable visionary suggestion back in the day, when I offered the idea of using 3-part NCR for a study document that we were photocopying back in 1992. We used it for the next study we did and today it's the industry standard. (Not to suggest that I swayed the entire industry... I'm sure all the "occasionally visionary" data managers across the country were thinking the same thing! Why are we wasting time and causing ourselves problems photocopying these documents?)