Category: Lifestyle

I Went on Vacation!

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So apparently I’m awful at updating this blog. Sorry everyone. In an effort to change that, this blog has a new look and a new name! It kind of just came to me, so go figure. All that time I spent trying to come up with one, and couldn’t, this one just comes to me out of the blue.

So what’s going on in the “Little Life of Andrea”? Well my to-do list app, Things, is telling me I’m behind on at least 10 blog posts. The app where I save blog posts that I want to read later, Pocket, is currently saying I have 368 things to read. On Monday, I actually had to make a second “Watch Later” playlist on YouTube because the default one has the max 200 videos in it. I had to return 2 library books because there was no way I could finish them AND the other two I’m already reading before they were due back. My DVR is currently more than 50% full, and I have 2 movies from Netflix sitting at home as well. Oh and my room is a mess. I can’t even shut the drawers in my bathroom vanity or my closet because things are piled on top of them. {It’s that bad!} I wish I could say my days have been jam-packed and that’s why everything’s piling up {literally} around me, but I honestly have no idea where the time’s been going.

Last week, however, I do have somewhat of an excuse. I went on vacation! Even though it was rainy and cold most of the time, I had a lot of fun doing things I’ve never done before, some of which I probably wouldn’t do again, but live and learn I guess. Anyway, here’s a bit of a recap. It all kind of blends together so bear with me.

Sunday evening:

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We actually got to the beach at around 7:30 Sunday evening. The weather wasn’t so great so after we got our stuff into the condo, rooms picked out, and everything situated, we ordered some pizza, and headed up to the roof deck to relax.

Monday: Kayaking, Scooters, and Mosquitos

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Now I don’t think we went out after hanging out on the roof for the fact that I was up the next morning bright and early. Early enough to organize all my stuff in my room/bathroom, make the bed, and read a bit. {This was the only day this happened.} Once everyone was awake and ready, our first stop was breakfast at Fractured Prune. If anyone lives on the East Coast, or is visiting close to the Maryland area, I highly recommend stopping in for a donut or 12 like we did. Seriously, best donuts hands down.

We rented scooters {a first for me} and took a nice drive to Assateague Island to go kayaking. I’d never been kayaking before so I was a bit nervous. I had been canoeing though, so I figured, “How much different could it be?” {Not too different.} My only fear was flipping, which my lovely partner happened to make happen in about 3 feet of cold water. Thankfully, my camera, my friend begged me to bring, was not in the boat. Everything else was soaked though.

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After kayaking, we decided to check out a trail that used to be Baltimore Blvd. Apparently in 1950, the road was built, but only 12 years later in ’62, a hurricane wiped it out. There’s not much left of it. Sadly, I didn’t get to take many pictures because right after this, I got attacked by a swarm of mosquitos. I literally had a cloud of them around me, and took off running back to our scooters. [Note to self: Bug spray washes off when you flip in a kayak!]

Now here’s where it gets a bit foggy. I had thought that after Assateague, we returned the scooters, went back to the condo, and then ventured back out to play mini golf. The date stamps on my camera however tell me that our first game of mini golf wasn’t until Tuesday. I honestly wish I could tell you what happened during that stretch between Assateague and then, but I don’t remember. I believe we went to the boardwalk and everyone miserably failed at a bar crawl. I had a new hoodie on in pictures the next day so we had to have gone out.

Tuesday: Mini Golf and Boardwalk?

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Now according to my camera, we played our first game of mini-golf on Tuesday. {I’m kind of enjoying piecing this puzzle together.} That means that before this happened we went to the outlets to look for flip-flops. I also had my first Whopper from Burger King. {Don’t ask… I don’t know why it took me nearly 23 years to have one.} After mini-golf and Burger King, we returned to the condo. It looked like it was going to rain again, but we are hard core and decided to go out on the beach with a tent and play corn-hole. It was FREEZING so I commend the guys that were next to us playing volleyball and actually getting in the water. Once it started pouring, we went inside. We had ordered crabs for dinner so I was thrilled.

After dinner, we did take 2 of a bar crawl. I think we did a better job this time. The guys said so. I don’t know how much I agreed.

Wednesday: Pancakes and More Mini Golf

Wednesday was honestly terrible for me. I woke up feeling awful and exhausted. I ordered 3 blueberry pancakes and could barely eat a few bites of them. By mid-afternoon, I was feeling slightly better, at least enough to play mini-golf again. {I don’t think I lost this time.} I think we went to the beach a bit too {at least long enough to get Scopes} and we walked on the Boardwalk for a bit. We did ride the ferris wheel and they had fireworks while we were on it which made the price sort of worth it. This was pretty much the end of the day for me. The guys went back out, but the girls stayed in which was fine with me because I was practically dead.

Thursday: Our “Last” Day

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This was our big day. It was the only day the weather was supposed to be nice, so we had a lot planned. We ventured back to Assateague. It was a nerve-wracking drive for me because I had to drive a car much larger than what I was used to, but I did alright, and had a bit of fun while I was at it. While the others went kayaking, we stayed on the beach. {That way there was no flipping.} We stayed there nearly all day playing corn hole, flying kites {another first}, and playing with a frisbee. We even jumped in the water and realized it wasn’t that cold once you got in. We left Assateague after getting tossed around in the waves a bit, and made it to one of my favorite parts of the vacation – the Dew Tour. Seriously, I don’t know what it is with “action” sports. I just like them, and this was about as close to being at the X-games as I’ll probably ever get.  The day was a success as far as I was concerned, but my friends weren’t nearly as excited as I was for the Dew Tour. Oh well. Oh, and I also managed to get absolutely sunburnt despite applying layers of sunscreen. {I’m talking blisters.}

Friday:

Friday was our day to leave. We were packed and out the door at 8am. I drove my friend’s Dodge Challenger nearly 150 miles, and by the time we got to his house, I guess I was used to it. My Nissan Altima felt so tiny compared to the Challenger . The one thing that came out of the day though was my decision for my next car. The decision was between an Infiniti G37 {fun and sporty} or a hybrid Lincoln MKZ {practical}. After driving a somewhat “sporty” car, I realized that I enjoy having a fun car to drive a lot more than a practical one, so the decision right now is to wait a couple years and get the new Infiniti Q60 when it’s released. Getting home, I was greeted by two very excited dogs, one who insisted on carrying a 5lb. dumbbell around and then peeing on the floor, and 3 very happy kitties who didn’t stop meowing for nearly the entire day. I also got to look at my new Erin Condren Planner and the new copy of the Beach Babe DVD from Tone It Up. The rest of the day was spent lathering myself in spray aloe and snacking on trail mix and my latest obsession popped chips.

So that was last week. I look forward to actually updating this blog more often from now on. {Or at least I’ll try…}.

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{Bedroom Project} The Introduction

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I’ve been talking about this room remodel for what seems like forever on here {even longer offline}, yet this is the first actual post about it.

It all started when a mischievous cat, who goes by [Mr.] Chase, chewed through a bottle of bathroom cleaner while I was at work. That’s what set this whole bedroom redesign in motion. That bathroom cleaner happened to be sitting on my sofa, and this was what I came home to…

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My dark grey sofa was ruined. The cleaner actually ate through the fabric. Now the reason this started it all is because this is not your typical sofa. It’s incredibly small (53 inches wide, perfect for a bedroom) AND it folds out into a bed of sorts (handy for those nights when I was too lazy to move myself to the bed during a late night Netflix binge.) Now I could have just repurchased the same sofa. IKEA still makes it, and it’s only $129. I just didn’t really want to buy another insanely cheap sofa that I didn’t plan to keep long in the first place. I bought it with the idea that it’d last me until I decided to move. So with that settled, I was getting a new sofa.

BUT… there’s a catch. Apparently not many companies actually make 53″ sofas that aren’t utter crap or designed to actually be sat on for more than a couple minutes. If I wanted a decent sofa, I would have to get a larger one, and in order to do that, I’d need to make some space in my room by rearranging furniture. Thankfully my cat had me covered on that front as well. Within a couple months of the sofa incident, he decided to knock over quite a few drinks while I wasn’t looking effectively ruining my TV stand, desk, and storage cube shelf.

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So now I was in the market for basically all new furniture, and I designed a wall unit from IKEA’s Besta line. I came up with the design you see above which would combine my TV stand, desk, and a TON of storage in one. {You can never have too much storage right?}

Now here’s where my story starts taking a bit of a “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” twist. I figured, if I’m going to be mounting things to the wall, I might as well paint before I do that. So I went off to pick paint colors. Paint colors for my room turned into also painting my bathroom since they share a wall. Paint colors and furniture choices needed to be saved somewhere so they turned into a board on Pinterest, and before I knew it, I had everything from flooring to furniture to new lighting and drawer organizers picked out for my room and bathroom.

It’s been a massive undertaking, and while the painting is wrapping up this week, the fun really starts in the next few months where I get to start getting the furniture, and actually blogging about the process.

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It Was Him All Along

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This post is a bit of a rant, not because I’m bitter or whatever rants usually stem from. I’m just utterly shocked this thought never came to me before which seems to be quite common in my life right now. I’ve been having quite a few mind-blowing realizations about my life lately.

Once upon a time, I dated a boy. He had this habit where he’d break up with me every 6 months or so when holidays came around or he had something new to do. He’d treat me like absolute crap and say things like I ruined his life, and then he’d come back a couple months later saying he screwed up and he was sorry. Again and again, I took him back. This went on for nearly 8 years. {I know, I should have known better.}

I guess I went back to him because he was my first boyfriend. It was easier to go back to him than meet someone new {or so I thought}, so that’s what I did. I kept going back to him, and each time he’d do the same thing. He’d always end up saying something along the lines of “You do so many fun things when we aren’t together,” or “Why do you become awesome after I break up with you?” My response was always the same, “I’m still the same girl. I was always this way. You just never taken the time to appreciate it.”

Well the other day I realized my answer has been wrong all along. Yes, I’ve always been that girl. Yes, I’ve always done fun things and been awesome, but he rarely saw it. The thing that was different was that I’m that girl when he’s NOT around. I do so many fun things, and I become “so awesome” because that boy isn’t in my life.

It took me 8 years {8 freakin’ years!} to realize that, but I’m glad I finally did. Each and every day I wake up and I know I’m accomplishing more than I could have ever accomplished if he was still in my life. Each night I look back and see how far I’ve come in the past few years {all because of the times I spent WITHOUT him}, and I’m truly amazed at what my life has transformed into – all because he’s gone.

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Where’s Andrea?

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Hello lovely readers,

Last week I promised I’d new posts would be coming this week. Now I’m not one to break a promise so here I am, but I can’t say for sure when I’ll be back {you’ll see why in a bit}, but this is sure to be a long post. I haven’t really posted anything worthwhile since May 13. So what exactly have I been doing?

I finished my second graduate course for my Masters degree in Instructional Systems Design. I can honestly say I counted down the days until I was done with the course – not because I didn’t enjoy it. I loved it because it made me realize that I’ve unexpectedly managed to find a way to combine my childhood dreams of being a designer, teacher, and working with computers without ever realizing it. What I didn’t enjoy is actually having to do work. I procrastinate so I found every little way to not do my work until the last minute. {I shouldn’t do homework at work. My internet connection is too slow at home. The list goes on.} Waiting until the last minute backfired on me quite a few times when I totally missed Friday deadlines thinking they were on the usual Sunday.

Work was probably the most stressful it’s ever been. Around the beginning of May, students start worrying about finals. While I was worrying about finishing my own class, I had to not only keep on top of making sure we had coverage in our office, but also put together the Summer schedule. Imagine my surprise, 2 weeks before the Summer started, when I realized our current students were all available to work the exact same hours. We had gaping holes in the schedule, and I had no choice but to hire new staff nearly 2 months earlier than I’d planned. Thankfully I started collecting resumes in March. I browsed through over 50 resumes, interviewed about 10 people within about 3 days, and made a decision to hire them shortly thereafter. In the end, we got a few new employees and were able to fill the majority of our gaps in the schedule which was posted 5 days before the Summer hours began. {I’m going to say I succeeded.}

The week the interviews and schedule making was going on, my mom went in for her 2nd shoulder surgery. She had her first one in August of last year, but reinjured her shoulder a couple months ago trying to do the Surfer Girl workout from the Tone It Up! Beach Babe DVD. I took off of work for 2 days during that week to take her to her surgery and I suppose be there for moral support. I desperately needed a couple days off, but I still set up my computer, 24″ monitor and everything in the dining room and worked for the majority of the time.

Why was it in the dining room you ask? Because my room renovations have FINALLY begun, and I’m talking big time. My room is currently a disaster zone.

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This was a few days ago. The pink is gone, but there’s twice as much furniture in the middle of the floor.

 

Everything in my two closets has been relocated to our two guest bedrooms which are so full the doors can’t even shut {Now keep in mind, I somehow managed to fit what is now occupying around 350 sq. feet in those rooms into two not so large closets (maybe a total of 40 sq. feet together). How it all fit is beyond me.} My TV and anything breakable has also been moved into other rooms. All other furniture is sitting in the middle of my room, including my bed which is the only usable piece in the room. Needless to say I’ve not been spending much time in my room aside from sleeping.

If that weren’t enough, my bathroom is also a mess. Getting ready is a major pain in the “you know what.” When I emptied out my closets, I decided to stack my clothes in the other rooms so they are absolutely useless unless I want to rummage through piles if I can even get to them in the first place. I’m basically living out of the clothes I just washed that are currently still in the dryer because I have no other place to put them. My bathroom mirror and light are also currently missing waiting to be replaced, so I have to pack up my makeup every morning and make my way into the bathroom in the hallway. The good news is my updated skincare routine {*hint hint* future blog post :)} has me wearing less makeup so I don’t have to tote too much back and forth.

In any event, the majority of the painting is almost wrapped up. My bathroom should be getting a mirror and light tomorrow {I hope.}, and I should be able to get things back in my closets soon. After that, it should be smooth sailing with the fun part of buying furniture and accessorizing.

Once my room’s not in chaos, be on the lookout for a lot of fun posts about what I did.

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{Sunday Social} What I Was Doing…

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Sunday Social

  1. 1 year ago I was… finishing the last of my undergrad courses and debating on whether to go to the Graduation ceremony. Back then it seemed like a waste of time, something my family was forcing me to go to, and I doubt I was the only one. I did eventually decide to go, and it was still a waste of a few hours, but I’m glad I went. It was surreal walking across a stage in an arena I had watched circuses, performances, and ice skating at all my life. It was a weird feeling standing there with 1000+ people fidgeting with their caps. At the end of the day though, it was really a day for my family to be proud to see their first grandchild/only child to graduate from college.
  2. 5 years ago I was… {The timing of this post is leading up to the most uneventful answers.} I was gearing up to graduate from high school, practicing for our Baccalaureate mass and graduation ceremony,reveling in the fact that we pulled off an underdog Year Day win after losing to the freshman in years before, and realizing that for the first time in my whole life, my group of friends weren’t going to be at the same school.
  3. 10 years ago I was … 7th grade…Oh boy. I was probably flirting it up with whoever I wanted to be my boyfriend at the time. {Keep in mind that only meant we held hands, maybe hugged, talked after school, and went to the monthly bingo our parents volunteered at…Yeah, I was a badass… NOT}
  4. 1 year from now I’ll be… Oh, I don’t know. Hopefully progressing with my career.
  5. 5 years from now ill be doing…. Hopefully married and not still working as a manager here.
  6. 10 years from now ill be doing… Hopefully raising a family and making this blog pretty spectacular.

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May 2013 Goals

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MayGoals

April was pretty hectic for me so I’m going to make May’s focus on getting my life back on track.

  • I want to start using my planner more. To be totally honest, I didn’t really use my Filofax in April. It was probably pretty apparent to any of you who read my {My Week} posts or look for me in Philofaxy’s Web Finds. I have some big changes coming up which I’ll discuss in some later posts.
  • Along those same lines, I’m continuing my time management improvements. Instead of reading 9 books a month, I need to start paying attention to and whittling down this media overload that I have right now. Total count as of the first week of May is 61 articles in Pocket, 114 videos to “Watch Later” on Youtube, 4 books to finish, and of course the usual Netflix, Blockbuster, and DVR queues to work through. (I am going to cancel Blockbuster though so that will be a few less movies to watch.)
  • Eating healthier. It’s no secret that I’ve become an avid Tone It Up follower. My mom has been saying she wants to lose weight, but Tone It Up workouts are totally out of the question for her since she’s recovering from shoulder surgery and has bad knees. The next logical solution, eat better.I had considered buying the Tone It Up Nutrition Plan but that price tag is pretty steep. (If anyone’s tried it, I’d love to hear your thoughts!) The next best solution was actually free. Our library has a free subscription to the online version of Clean Eating magazine. What do they put in there? Meal plans and shopping lists. Our fridge is now stocked with tons of fresh fruits and veggies rather than microwaveable burritos, and I after only a few days, I already feel better, hopefully she will get more on board too.
  • Working out more. I’ve noticed a pretty significant correlation to how I feel and working out. No workout = no energy for me, and that’s just not okay. In keeping with the Bikini Series, I’m going to try it as closely as possible. My motivation is having a rocking bod to show off on vacation next month.
  • The room. I absolutely need to get my room painted this month. No excuses. My room is in shambles right now. There’s a step-ladder in the middle of the room, paint buckets on the floor, rinsed out paint trays in my shower, and a gigantic cat tower sitting in the middle of my room that I have to climb around every day. Oh, and my cats love bopping me in the head as I walk past them too…
  • The blog. Last but not least, I have neglected this blog tremendously. My stats have reflected it, and I just feel like I’ve let not only readers down, but myself as well. I promise to get back on track and remember why on earth I love this blog so much.

What about you? Do you have any goals or big projects coming up this month?

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April 2013 Goal Recap

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april-goals

April was basically hell for me thanks to the pollen, but I made it through thanks to some Allegra, an air purifier, and sadly staying cooped up inside. April’s focus was Work so how did I do?

  • Compiling a list of Skillsoft Courses – Nope. It’s still on the to do list.
  • The semester ends in May, and I’d like to provide our student employees with performance evaluations and maybe raises before they leave, so I need to figure out the budget which I’ve never had to do, iron out the processes I want to use, and schedule to meet with all of them before they get all stressed out with Finals.  – I got these done in a record 3 days. Meeting with 12-14 students in 3 days was a daunting task especially when you’ve never done it before. I didn’t have any formal managerial training, and I’ve never had to plan out a budget for a company before in my life. I know I’ve been in my office the longest, and I’ve been worked in every single position in the office so I suppose I am qualified to judge performance, but it still felt very new to me, but at the end of the month, raises were approved and evaluations were given before finals week.
  • Lastly, our department is trying to focus on an online support knowledge base of sorts to help continue to provide answers to our customers while also being able to focus on improving things for the future. Tidying up this space has been on my radar for a while, and I hope that with the help of my colleagues we can get some Spring cleaning done. – I’m going to say this was both a hit and a miss. Some of the pages got tidied up and revamped because I was asked to, but that wasn’t really the clean up I had intended. I’d love to be able to just sit down with the other people involved and figure out a plan of action, but they don’t seem to be so interested in change.
  • Evaluating my current wardrobe to see what I need to add or replace for warmer weather. – After spending a whopping $476 dollars at Forever21, I’m going to call this a success. I now have a plethora of new tops to pick from and some workout gear as well. I actually hit a limit on Forever21’s site that told me I had too many items in my cart. When a website tells you to stop shopping, I guess you should listen. Now the only things I need are a few new pairs of shoes and pants from American Eagle.
  • I’d like to tackle painting at least my ceiling in my bedroom. – It’s partially painted… that’s a start.
  • I’m also going to work on managing my time better. – This was something I struggled with. I spent the majority of my time reading rather than doing what I was supposed to. Blog posts, workouts, and school, all somehow took a backseat.
  • I’m also working on something I’ve sort of informally dubbed “Project Andrea.” – This is sort of an ongoing thing. I can say it’s taking shape though.
  • Also, this month’s photo challenge is Filofax themed so I’m excited. – I’ve officially decided I’m done with photo challenges. Oddly enough, that decision made me snap more random photos here and there.

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{Sunday Social} 4 Things

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Sunday Social

  1. 4 favorite things to do on a weekend:  Sleeping in for sure, even if that’s only until 8am. Do absolutely nothing. Spend the day shopping, and taking the dogs to Starbucks.
  2. 4 favorite things about your best friend: She just gets me. Whether I see her once a week or once a month, we still never run out of things to talk about. For some reason, we have the same tastes in like everything. (I’m talking we painted our rooms the same colors, we had the same bikes, coats, etc.when we were little.) If I had a twin in this world, (not identical or anything, just similarities…) it’d be her.
  3. 4 things you would do with $100,000: Pay off my credit cards (which is like $500 total). Buy my mom a new car. Put the rest to the mortgage. I guess that’s only three… maybe I’d buy a new Filofax…The grey Osterley is still calling my name.
  4. 4 favorite books you’ve ever read: Where the Wild Things Are, The Giver, Harry Potter, Gone Girl.
  5. 4 favorite snack foods: Granola, Cereal, Chex Mix, Chocolate covered raisins
  6. 4 things that you must do daily: Feed the kitties, take my vitamins, make the bed, read.

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{Sunday Social} When I Was Little…

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Sunday Social

I’m back everyone. Sorry for missing last week’s Sunday Social post. I’ve been working on projects around the house and working on my resolutions for the year. This week is focused on things you did when you were little.

  1. Did you sleepwalk as a child? – Not that I know of. I did talk in my sleep though, but I just mumble a bit. No words.
  2. Did you ever try to run away or sneak out of your house? – Did kids actually run away? I hid occasionally, but I was never really that good at hiding. I never really had to sneak out either. By the time I was going out late enough, I was allowed to be out.
  3. Did you have any imaginary friends? – Nope. I had my days where I pretended I was teaching classes or playing house, but there was never one person I imagined.
  4. Did you ever go toilet papering? – I must have lived a very sheltered life, which is surprising because normally I’m saying that about other people. I just never knew people actually did this. I saw it in the movies and on TV, but no one around me ever did this.
  5. Did you ever sneak tv shows you weren’t allowed to watch? – I was allowed to watch pretty much anything. I wasn’t a bad kid so my parents weren’t concerned. I did always feel a bit rebellious watching shows (other than music videos) on MTV when I was middle school though. I’d flick the channel to something like Disney whenever someone came into the room.

Well that’s it for this week. It’s a short post because I’ve got a laundry list of things to do (including several loads of laundry.)

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