Just another cra-zy Saturday night

I had TJ's instant oats and flax for lunch, and then a yogurt. Then we went to Desfina and I had a beer after work. I actually wound up having 3, what else is new. I had a bag of Sun Chips and probably 5-7 of Andy's hand cut fries. Then we went to see Jenny Dee and the Deeeelinquents at the Cask N Flagon, they were fabulous but that is no surprise. We then headed to Crossroads [me, Erin, Ed, Pickles and Crotty] and I had like half of another Corona, a DC, a cheeseburger and a few fries. Fries were not good. I then got a pounding headache, came home, took some Advil and fell right asleep.

Today was wasted trying to get Red Sox tickets, I love my team, and I love paying face value. I got in a few times but only was able to get section 35 [barf] or SRO and the tried to get better and got booted. Whatever, it would've been more on the credit card and I'm trying to save, right? So yeah, had some Instant Breakfast and tea and chained myself to the computer between laundry and tidying up.

Lindsay R came over for a bit on her way home from a shower, I had some Chex Mix and water. Then I made some Kraft Alfredo mac n cheese, a teeny bit of Boones, and a giant piece of garlic bread. Ed actually found bread at WF that I don't like, a first. It's ok, but sour doughy in a strong way that is not good. Does this stop me from eating it? Hell's to the no. The day I do not eat bread that's available in my house, Armageddon is on the way for sure. It's an extra disappointment because Ed got this really good butter that he says is awesome but I can't really tell - it's yummy but I think I'm missing out on the amazing factor. Alas, I don't need to fall in love with expensive, fatty-ass butter. Especially when I'm not exercising. Which I didn't today. But will tomorrow. Yes.

Back to Miss America on TLC [WOW train wreck, and I thought my reality shows were entertaining...they've got nothing on this] and organizing my life. Princess is at his brother's house of debauchery, doing god knows what so I have the house to myself. I am relishing in losering it up. Off to eat a limited edition Apple Pie yogurt from Stonyfield Farms, then maybe some tea. I need to try and remember to grab my laundry before I fall asleep. These are my roaring 20's.....

I love free stuff

And as I've mentioned a bit lately, I'm turning into a bit of a dirty hippy in my old age. That being said, I read in a fellow-blog that I follow about a promo for free web-hosting space! This is awesome since it's such a useful thing taht I need, but paying for it seems wack. You have to link to it in your blog and vow for what you are going to do to make the world greener. That was horrific grammar, thankfully bad word choices don't enlarge my carbon footprint.

Ok, so I have no idea if I'm doing this right but anyone who read this, link here for good info and how-to's on getting your own space:

So here are my resolutions:

I will only print necessary documents at work, and lately that is very very little.

If I have to print, I will do it double sided.

I will also try and consolidate documents as much as possible.

I will research and purchase refillable ink cartridges for my home printer, for printing photos or projects.

I will research and purchase recycled photo paper.

I will use less post-its [already bought a voice recorder and have started using the virtual notepad in my iPhone].

I will use the front and back of papers for notes [my mom has been doing this for years!].

I will tele-commute more.

I will take the bus when I go to my local, city office.

I've started using old magazines to keep my boots upright, prop up uneven house-wares, etc. Will keep this up!

I feel better already....what a great idea! This is in-line with my personal theory that the reusable bags at Whole Foods should be free. I know people would abuse this, but it's a shame. Instead they cost a couple bucks, which isn't a lot and I've bought them but it does seem counter-intuitive. Now if only they would install a voice-box on the bags that shouts at me when I leave for the grocery store. Ive been improving though, will resolve to keep that up too!

So the above has nothing to do with food; real quick:
so far DD HEC on a croissant, a tea and some Instant Breakfast.
Had some popcorn and 5 [yes, 5] doves chocolates last night in bed. It's like a luxe hotel on the second floor of my house...what?

Boring Thursday

Summing up today. I worked from home, had my bagel and tea around 11. Didn't eat the rest of the day but I also didn't really move. I had some water and did 50 minutes on the Wii including 2.7 miles of a Wii-run. Just had some bread and butter, will probably have some more. I'm hungry but wondering why I don't have the shakes from LBS. It was a busy day, I might be forgetting something....what a drag it is getting old.

Back to CR Sober House.

Scrap-booking

Not even sure if I hyphenated that right but I decided I'm going to sew some curtains this winter and then move on and up to other household items. So I had to go to Joann Fabrics and Michael's and GOOD LORD scrapbooking is popular!! Like 4-5 aisles devoted to it, with tiny little pieces of everything and special scissors and adhesives and backgrounds and books. I was horrified and amazed. Anyhow, I digress.

I skipped yesterday:
I had my bagel and some tea. We had our "virtual SKO" and that included lunch [rather than 4 days in Miami - these are trying times] so I had a turkey sandwich, some salad, veggies and chips. I also had 1 oatmeal raisin cookie and a diet Sunkist.

Afternoon passed and I didn't snack...I think? I'm trying to remember, the past few days have been a blur of fastness, if that makes any sense... I came home and had a WF pizza for dinner, some tea and 2/3rd of a belgian 100 calorie bar. I think some water too? Who knows. I didn't move a muscle, not even going to trivia [everyone was sick or bailed].

It was inauguration day, I am hopeful for the future but so over all the hullaballoo! I felt like I was immersed in all things Obama and for someone like me who is still very much on the fence [or actually I'm not even near the fence, I'm way on the other side but not in a hater-negative I'm just going to talk smack and pout way], I was happy that is jazzed up so many of my friends who have never taken a huge interest in politics and world events, but apprehensive in that I feel like everything is turning into these glorious flashes in the pan. Everyone has their 15 minutes and everything is trendy. I do not want a trendy president or a brand for a president or an image for a president, I want someone who does their job, is fair and keeps America awesome and makes us even better. Enough with the rant, it was a significant and historical day and I'm glad so many folks were part of it and felt encouraged by it - 2009 could be the start of something really rad.

Today, I had some Carnation IB with soy milk and part of an apple. Then some tea and an english muffin with butter at Ed's office. We had to re-sign our re-fi [re re re] because the dates were f'd up last week. Our amazing lawyer came to us [so I didn't have a chance to apologize or yell further at the less-fortunate] and we TCB'd at Ed's espresso-world and he made me a muffin for my drive to WF - he is so sweet.

For lunch, we did the caf [barf], I had a salad and Diet Snapple Iced Tea and little roll with margarine. I didn't snack all afternoon and then got home after Joann's and had a handful or Triscuits before heading back out to Michael's/Target. Kill me now, I know. Whatever, recession, resmession, I'm going to start DIY'ing everything just for $$ and sanity and quality and feeling good about how my house looks. I am SUCH a dirty hippy! ACCCKK. For supper, I just made an entire box of mac n cheese and almost ate all of it, I left a tad. I'm going to have a teeny caramel chocolate and head to bed. No moving, I'm focusing on tomorrow. Yep. Ok, I'm really out now - Top Chef has restarted and Radikha is so annoying and the Hosea/Leah thing is yucky, and whatever.

My good-will shout-out of the day goes to the lady behind me at Target. I walked away and suddenly hear a "Ya gluves!" in a screechy Boston accent. While non-natives might find this irritating, this is exactly what I love about my home town. She noticed I was leaving an item behind [there were gloves on the end of the register station- turned out not to be mine, but that's beside the point] and chose the most efficient and direct manner to inform me without causing any kind of awkwardness or forcing us to be friends or talk more than necessary. Love it. I told her they weren't mine but thanks, and I was on my way. She was fabulous.

Wii Fit tomorrow? I think I'm doing Cambridge and cocktails. Exciting!

I food-cheated Saturday night

My January is not turning out the way I expected. So Saturday after I posted, Ed and I split a hazelnut-chocolate bar from TJ's [Ritter? Maybe? The ones they strategically place at check-out, there are different varieties - light,dark, with a cookie/biscuit thing - they're squares] with another cup of tea.

Then yesterday I had tea and a HEC on an everything bagel, I only ate like 3/4ths of it - which was weird but I wasn't super-hungry. Of course, then I made an entire box of brownies. We were kind of snowed in AGAIN and the box was taunting me, what can I say? They didn't cook all the way, per usual but they were pretty f-ing good. Princess and I ate the whole goddamn pan...I finished the last teeny bite this morning [it's Monday now, I'm a lazy-blogger]. I had those with some tea, then later an apple and then Ed got us WF sushi which was good but some of it was that multigrain stuff and I don't care if it's healthier, that stuff is wacky. And isn't sushi healthy enough on its own? I had more tea and some water with lemon.

As it got later, I got the late night Praeter-Willies [splg] - this led to more brownies [I felt slightly nauseous going to sleep], some peas with butter, triscuits with cream cheese and a yogurt. Yes, I am in dire need of a trip to the grocery store.

Then today was Monday, I worked from home - had a banana, did 50 minutes of Wii Fit including a 20 minute faux-run [2.75 miles!]. Had my bagel and a Carnation Instant Breakfast with soy milk. Had some tea...I feel like I had something else but can't think of what it could have been. Went to my parents for dinner, had lasagna and brocolli and garlic bread and 2 mint chocolate cookies with some peppermint tea and wine and water. Got home and had a yogurt and 1 Reeses and some more water...off to bed!

That's Not Real Exercise

I just tried to guilt Ed into getting me a chipwich. The cornerstone of my argument was that I did about an hour of the Wii Fit today. To which Princess replied the above. He's right, I should be honest with myself that I need to kick it up a notch if I want to be HBT [hot by 30]...why is it so cold? And why can't I go to bed early? I got a planner yesterday, maybe I'll try and schedule my entire February and then stick to it. I need something, my dad ran 4 miles in -4 this morning. He isn't fat and he's going to live to be 90... Maybe if we get a dog, then I'll get up early? But then we'll have a dog, which I want but I can't deal with that right now. Vet bills and feeding and potty-training or whatever the hell it's called for puppies. I will work to get skinny so I have good, healthy habits in which to raise a teeny French Bulldog. Or two, I think we should get 2 at a time, that way we can watch them wrestle. And it's unlikely that they'd both die at the same time. Is that creepy? It might be.

I am watching Food Network, so not a good idea for a hungry Saturday night. Giada just took a trip to Italy. If I get married, we're going to Italy for like 4 weeks as a vacation: fashion, water, islands, old paintings usually of Jesus, old buildings, not understanding what people are saying around me, wine, frangelico and most important FOOD. A perfect country. I do wish I liked espresso, that is the only piece of that whole culture that I don't dig and I feel like I'm missing a lot. But I would love to start at the top and work my way down, so awesome.

Ok, I'm tired. Here's a sum up:
1 hour Wii Fit
Water
Tea
Salad [spinach, tomato, mozarella]
Pumpkin/Mozarella ravioli's from Dave's w/ tomato sauce
More tea
A glass of wine
3 small pieces of the savory cran bread w/ cream cheese and garlic salt

This is where I'm at. I'm starving, it's Saturday night. I have a headache and I keep yawning. We watched our Netflix already [The Wackness? It had its moments but overall was pretty wacky and not in a good way]. I want a brownie sundae with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, gummi bears, banana and whip cream. Instead I will go to bed instead....hopefully this ravenousity will subside by morning.

Saturday

So yesterday flew by, I was still frantically getting ready when Meagan and Dan showed up a little before 8. Can time-management be learned? That would be a nice skill...it's so frustrating, I have good intentions and then life just gets away from me. Needless to say, 0 exercise besides running around to various grocery and booze places and going up and down my stairs cleaning and putting stuff away.

Meagan and Dan showed up and then Laura and Beth came over as well. I had mentioned to Ed that he should invite them [they get along well and I try to up my people-in-my-home anxiety by adding folks when I can], but he never listens to me and last he'd told me was that he'd texted them so I didn't think they were coming. So that was a nice suprise and made conversation and AI Wii-Karaoke even more fun. All in all, a very fun night; and not having to drive home is the shit.

I made a spread of cucumbers, peppers [gross, but yellow looked pretty] and carrots [semi-gross but good for you and people like them] with this parmesean pesto dip from Shaw's [delicious]. We also got red pepper hummus bread and the savory cranberry bread from WPF and I put out some olive oil and balsalmic with S&P. It was relatively healthy and soooo good. Of course, then we ordered some pizzas and had a WPF bread pudding tart thing [french vanilla choco-chip, decent] and the Pepperidge Farms entertainment selection of cookies. And drank way too much.

Said and done, I'd say I had a handful of veggies and dip, probably 2-3 slices of bread total, with OO, 3 pieces of cheese pizza from Angelina's [yum], 3 or 4 cookies and 2 tiny pieces of the bread pudding. Drinking I had a glass of red, 2 of white, 1 of Boone's Farm [love it] and another half glass of red. This was a perfect amount of drink, I felt happy, didn't feel sick and went right to sleep.

Today I had one final cookie and just ate a banana. I am going to Wii-Fit now for 45 minutes or so and then have breakfast [I know it's 2 pm, we woke up at 12:30 and have been cleaning, so sue me]. I think we have nothing to do today...we are on-call babysitting for our friend Lou's kiddies if he needs us but they are with their grandparents today and so I think we might not get them until tomorrow. Beyond that, my day was clear so woo-hooo!!!

I have a huge urge to go out to eat tonight, but last night staying in was cheap but buying food and drink was not. And I thought we might be making salads and being healthy so we have baby spinach and tomatoes up the wazoo...so we are going to eat a tasty but nutritious meal tonight. I already want a loaf of garlic bread but will RESIST. Side note, just heard this on the radio: I love that AirTran commercial where the voice talks to the girl at the night club? "It's an individual pie!".

More later, off to Wii-jog.

2 Degrees

That was the temperature this morning, fun times. I just talked to a guy I work with in Chicago and he said it was minus 20 last night without the windchill...WOW. Can't wait till that gets here. I am having another speed-day, WFH and it's 3 o'clock....it was just 10:30 I swear. I've got to get my ass in gear, gotta hit up the grocery store and get in some fitness before Miss Meagan and Dan come over. Quick recap:

Had my bagel, 2 cups of tea.
Just had a bowl of cereal for lunch.
Now I'm having more tea and a 100 calorie bar...

My house is so cold, I wish I could somehow get work to pay for my heat.

A homeless man critiqued the change that I gave him tonight.

And I yelled at him. In public, in front of people.

So I will revert to my former policy of never giving anyone begging any money. I am not evil, I am under 30 and not close to rich and I make efforts to give to charities I deem important all year [Jimmy Fund, ARL, Salvation Army, USO, Helping Hands, various MS and Diabetes orgs], I'm trying to get over my fear of giving blood, I donate bags and bags of my old clothes a couple times a year, and would gladly give my sweatshirt or the 2nd half of my Twix to a stranger as long as he wasn't a kiddie rapist... But I seldom, actually never, for years, give homeless folks money when they ask for it on the street.

Tonight, on my way to meet Darling at the lawyers [we are re-fied at 5.25..woo-hoo!!] after trying to park for 40 minutes and then starting my walk across the Common in the oh, 8 degrees? out, I walked by a guy asking "for money to get him out of the cold". I smiled and said sorry, per usual. Then I felt bad and reconsidered - it is SO COLD OUT - and I was late so I quickly fished out the teeny amount of change I had in my wallet. I didn't even look at it, just handed it over and started to walk away. I got a "Thank You" and then an immediate "Wait...what's this...did you just give me 4 cents??" I shit you not. And this was accompanied by an almost comical look [I'd turned around by now] of disbelief. Now granted, 4 cents isn't going to help this guy and under other circumstances I maybe would've dug up more change - hell if Boston wasn't so annoying in charging 25 cents per FIFTEEN MINUTES, it would have been at least 29 cents. But this was what was immediately available in the change portion of my wallet while I'm hustling and cold. And

a. I had no idea it was only 4 cents

b. I worked for that 4 frigging cents and CHOSE to give it to someone who appeared down on his luck but more likely is a drunk or drug addict. Sorry to any other druggies or drunks, I'm a liberatarian and have no issue with you if you don't drive, harm me or my family/friends or ask me to finance your life cause you're too fucked up to do so yourself.

c. This dude is STANDING there - just generally, here's a hint: if you can't get a job, at least move around the park. Rule # 1 of staying warm, keep the blood flowing.

So needless to say, I flipped out - just briefly, I was running late. And I will be honest, I felt good about it. "Are you criticizing me after I just gave you change?" He starts back peddling and mumbling and looking a little scared. I look meek and pie-eyed, I'm a girl and I smile a lot and I'm barely over legal-midget height. But I will warn you: do not let the 1980's Joseph Lee Elementary School upbringing rear its ugly head because it is in fact very ugly. He switched back to "No, no, THANK YOU, I mean THANKS!". Whatever. I then added on a couple of each of the following "Seriously?" "You've got balls, dude" "What a fucking asshole" "Never again" and "Only in this fucking state, jesus". Apologies to Boston/Massachusetts and Jesus, I love-love-love my state and have no religious background that makes me yay or nay Jesus, but I was all types of fired up.

I kept walking, totally talking to myself like a nut for most of the remainder of my journey. As someone who speaks up for herself enough, but doesn't always, I was glad I fired back at him. Maybe some will consider this a hate crime, or at the least insensitive or that I'm a jackass for giving someone 4 cents. In hindsight, in his shoes, I'd probably think I was a yuppie-douche too, but I would NEVER even conceive of calling the yuppie-douche out on it. Sorry I don't carry change - it's 2009. Did he think his piping up would make me reconsider "Shit, sorry dude, hold on - let me fish out a $20". I am never going against my instincts again. NEVER.

On our walk back we went by him again - still in the same place. I asked Princess to please be quiet while we passed [I had of course screamed to him the entire story via iPhone 5 minutes later, like the yuppie-douche that I am]. He grew up in San Diego and lived in San Francisco for a couple years as a grown up, so if you think that I sound like I hate homeless people, have a beer with My Muffin. Needless to say, the dude started with his standard request and immediately shut himself up when he recognized me. I avoided eye contact and the urge to kick him...

Enough with the ranting, it's just people with bad manners really piss me off. How hard is a please or a thank you? Being gracious should be taught in school. I am so lucky to have been raised by nice, normal, decent humans. Thank you mom and dad and the entire Harris family. I'm going to stop now before I start going off on the kids and the myspace.....goodness. Anyhow, this is a food blog so today I ate:

My bagel, some tea.

Some water, an LC pasta bowl for Lunch [I was in Westford until 4].

Dinner was a McD's cheeseburger Happy Meal with a small order of nuggets on the side. They screwed up my order, thus the nuggets. Worse things could happen, and I ate them anyway. And I sure as hell didn't rip the dude at the drive-thru a new asshole....grrr...

Came home and had more tea and 2 Reeses during The Office. Line of the night was "beet-stained teeth"....from Jim, sigh. Liz Lemon dancing was also impressive. Channel 7 has had Thursdays on lockdown for a while, huh?

I'm on my final cup of tea now and just had one of those mini-bags of popcorn? Nice concept but poor execution. Maybe it's my microwave but I either can't pop enough of the kernels or burn the bag entirely. The latter was tonight. God is probably punishing me for my treatment of the less-fortunate by making my entire house reek of burnt corn. Yumm-o.

Off to bed, I'm digging the Artie book but fearing he's heading toward a really bad melt-down soon. He is hysterical but there is this huge sadness and need in him that I don't think anyone can help with the way he is right now. He needs to take care of his shit, I hope he will. Adding to this, Celebrity Rehab Sober House made me sad... Enough with the feelings, good night!

"No way"

That was my sentiment this morning at Target [yes, I popped in before work. And yes, it's the 3rd time I've been in less than 48 hours - I have issues] when I found a pair of pants one size up from my current [Wii-overweight] waistline. I was hoping to buy something that would fit with long underwear under it [it's 11 degrees out] and have the bonus of being a *little* more comfy while I'm still fat. However, when it came to actually making the decision to purchase, I said "No Way". As in, "No Way would I even come close to filling those...right?", "No Way I've let myself get THAT much bigger", "No Way, how did I wander into the tent section?" Needless to say, there was no way I could actually buy pants that big. So, "No way" will become my new mantra. Even without the "way", if I could just start saying NO to food I'd be so much better off...alas.

So I went into a vortex yesterday. Everyone has this idea that you work from home and can get soooo much accomplished but my WFH days are nuts-to-butts filled, I get anxious around 3 because the day is going so fast. I love it, I love being busy, I love not having a second to space out - but it makes things like mindless food-blogging go by the wayside.

I haven't recapped since Tuesday mid-day. Quickly -
Tuesday:
Had that apple and more tea
Lunch was a burrito w/ sc and salsa and some juice/water
I had one of these 100 calorie belgian chocolate bars from TJs [surprisingly delicious!!] and more tea

I did 25 minutes of the Wii Fit - not exactly pushing myself. Why can't I suddenly develop an addictive personality and get addicted to working out? Not like compulsive eating disorder addicted but just kind of jazzed…moment of silence for the first use of jazz as a verb in my blog.

Had my pizza at trivia, 2 of my sister's fries and 4 beers [wow!]
I also had a few bites of their chocolate chip cookies, they were actually pretty decent.

Wednesday:
My bagel with butter and CC
Tea
Gross WF Ravioli from a can. Not as gross as you'd think, but not good.
More Tea
Some juice
100 calorie chocolate
More Tea
Pizza [again! This might be a another diet secret...eliminate pizza]
More juice
A pickle
1 Reeses cup and more tea…in bed while reading Artie's book IN MY HOUSE…that was a great feeling!!

No moving at all... I had intentions and then just ran out of time and didn't make it a priority. We need a TV in the bike room, the iMac shows DVDs but for live shows it would be nice to kill 2 birds with one stone. No excuses, bottom line is that I"m lazy. I ate dinner wicked late [like Top Chef late], due to shopping. Quite a successful shopping trip though, nothing exciting but plenty of good bargains for my home.

Beyond that, it's Thursday - finally - I thought yesterday was Thursday until about 1 pm, that was really sad... Heading out early for an appt and then Wii-Fit and The Office! Said-appointment is for completing our re-fi tonight! Signing my life away again..but it should save us about $160 a month and is only costing us the lawyer since we closed so recently, so like $1200 which means it's paid itself off in 8 months! Very exciting. I was apprehensive of more paperwork and apprehensive that things will go completely in the shitter, but if rates do go down to like 3 or 4, we can always refinance again. Fingers crossed, when all is said and done, our mortgage will be down to a grand...

Where did Monday go?

I don't know, we went to bed at like 8:45. I stayed up reading 90 pages of Artie Lange's new book which meant I fell asleep around 11, but still. I hate Mondays. Dragged my ass up to Westford, most of my colleagues were either traveling or on vacation so it was a ghost town! I had a bad eating day and less than 10 minutes on the Wii for exercise...let's review quickly, I need to get back to work:

tea in the car
bagel w/ butter and cc
more tea

diet coke
fritos [for lunch!]
1 small slice of papa gino's extra-cheese [Kyle brought in a whole pie, so good.]

garlic bread
daddy's reheated lasagna
gatorade
wine

more tea
half a SKOR bar
a bite of a muffin [it was old, I tossed it]
a small bite of chocolate [too bitter]

some wine
some water
a nutrigrain bar, blueberry - in bed while reading [I knew I'd be ravenous?]

And like I said, 8 minutes on the Wii while hi-lighting my hair. Which was depressing me last night, but this morning I like it. I can't tell if it's bedhead or I really like it yet, we shall see. And actually it's afternoon now...holy shit, getting old is insane. Time literally flies, I can't imagine having children.

Ok, so for today I had my bagel per usual...side note - I think my diet secret may be to eliminate the bagel each morning, that's got to be a ton of calories. But I love the fat, it makes me feel full and oatmeal is a pain in the ass...but I need to be bikini ready by June. Hmm..I need more hours in my day. Anyhow, had that with some tea, making my second cup now and about to eat an apple. Working from home and I hope to get a work out in before trivia. More later!

I'm changing my name to Lazy Gaudet

Even weekends that I'm snowed in and have diddly to do I get little-to-nothing accomplished. I did nothing this weekend, no touching up, no curtains, no deep-scrubbing of my bathroom. Laundry and some dishes and snow maintenance. I could have blogged 19 times but I just get sucked into a lethargy pit. Part of this can be blamed on The Wire which I am re-watching from the start. It is soooo good, but the episodes are an hour and even though I've seen it I still find myself paying keen attention. It's a part-time job - my weekend job, apparently.

Let's see, yesterday I had an apple for the afternoon and did 14 miles on the bike [53 minutes] AND my arm exercises, impressive for a day of rest. My current exercise DVDs are "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia", it's pretty decent and comes in half-hour increments which is good for working out. I then had another of Ed's cookies. He came home and made us pasta his boss brought back from Italy, simple little shell things with my dad's sauce. It was ok. I wanted garlic bread but he brought home WPF Oat and Honey which I was skeptical of for that purpose.

I went to Target and came back and had some anyway, it was decent. I was ravenous by that point for whatever reason [so hungry lately - either due to exercise or due to less calories or maybe some kind of cruel placebo effect] and so in addition to my bread I also had some ramen that I bought at Target [total rip-off 97 cents and same portion as the 20 centers - just in its own box think and nuke-able]. Followed up with some more tea and half a bottle of Boone's, and the another cookie. Considering I sat on my ass and watched TV for 5 hours [Ed went to a party and I started Season 1 and an episode of Bad Girls Club - sooo trashy!], that is NOT eating a lot for me. On the bad side, I went to bed at like 4 am. TV will be the end of me.

Today, I slept until 11:30, got up, had a banana, and shoveled for an hour while Princess slept [he got in at like 5:30 - I am so nice] and then came in and did my arm exercises. I measured my stuff on the Wii Fit [still fat, still gaining - though in very tiny increments] and got ready for my afternoon. Ed made me a bagel and butter and cream cheese and I had some gatorade, ghetto late breakfast but whatever works.

Went to the NB outlet and CVS and my parents' house for supper. Had a glass of red wine, some cranberry juice and seltzer, lasagna, some parmesean encrusted chicken, and broccoli. Had some peppermint tea and one mint-choco cookie for dessert. Went to Trader Joe's and now I am home. Just had some tea and 2 more pieces of garlic toast that my dad sent home in my care package for the week. I am still hungry and watching TV so I am trying my hardest to resist... Tired for now, will try and wake up early tomorrow to exercise, maybe? I could work out after work as well. I wish I could work from home everyday. Or win the lottery, either would work.

Why isn't a single cookie spelled "cooky"?

I'm still not sure what his motivation is but I was awoken this morning, or actually this afternoon [slept till 12:15, it was awesome] to tea and a ham egg and cheese on a bagel IN BED! And I was having one of those annoyingly realistic dreams about life - it was depressing me so I was extra thrilled when I woke up to real life AND food. He is so sweet. Speaking of sweet, Mr. Homemaker then decided to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch, with extra flour so they poofed into little sconey-muffin type bulbous cookies. By the time they were done I was sitting on the couch checking my email and he comes in a presents me with a single cookie and some milk, thus the snapshot. Seriously? I keep asking him what he did or what he wants to do...I am skeptical, but maybe he's just being nice? Or maybe he lost his half of our house in some sort of complicated gambling scenario. Who knows, but I'll take it.

No exercise today, I think I may take a pass - a bum out becuase it's a weekend day and so much easier to work out on weekends than weekdays [esp today where I am a total loser and Ed is going to a party and it's supposed to blizzard]. But my body hurts! I think the 80 minutes last night was a bit much. I did just receive the complete series of The Wire from amazon.com, SO EXCITED! I got it for $90 the day after Xmas, a steal since I've seen it for $150-255 listed everywhere else. So I may do some light bike riding to an episode or 2.

For now, I am keeping wildly active by doing laundry and cleaning the house. I may try and paint the touch-up spots that have needed touching up since the first week of November. I think I actually still have tape up in some parts of my house...

I totally thought I'd be the coolest 29 year-old ever

Instead it's 11:47 on a Friday and I'm blogging. Blogging about food and the Wii. And watching several episodes of Bad Girls Club OnDemand. And I just posted a YouTube video to Facebook. Yep.

Before I forget, I had an apple yesterday and did 56 minutes of the Wii Fit before bed [woo hoo!]. I was impressed with myself. The Wii Fit is fun and it gives you shit if you skip a day which is awesome. I'm still overweight, and I've gained like 3 pounds this year, whatever.

Today I slept through my work-out alarm [I wanted to do the bike for an hour to a Big Love episode] and went into Cambridge. Grabbed some Dunkies on the way, HEC on an everything bagel with a tea. Had a Fettucine LC and Diet Coke for lunch, and then a Reese's and tea for an afternoon snack instead of my yogurt [bad!]. I went for a beer with Andy and his wife and their adorable baby! Had half an old clementine while I was there, it was gross.

Went to the mall, got home a bit before 8 and had some Triscuits and cream cheese to help with my low blood sugar. I really wanted a loaf of garlic bread and a large Papa Gino's cheese pizza when I got home [1 beer and I'm ravenous] but instead I did 80 minutes of the Wii Fit [including a 12 minute faux-run, go me].

I really like when it tells me I am a fantastic runner, I confirm it out-loud each time. Ed asked me last night if I talk to it every time I work out, which I also confirmed. I am my father's daughter.

I then had a salad of baby spinach, tomatoes and mozzarella and Newman's Balsalmic - at like 10:45, bad. Then a yogurt, a little bit of garlic toast [Ed seriously ate like 98% a giant long baguette and left me a crust...such an asshole] and 3 2-bit brownies with some tea. I had some seltzer lemonade as well. That $3.69 Santa Cruz lemonade from Whole Foods is sooo good, too bad it's sooo expensive.

I'm starting to cough so I'm off to bed, super-siked to sleep late tomorrow. I have absolutely nothing to do...nothing! I need to get my life in order, or else it's going to be March and I'll be saying the same thing.

Top Chef Made Me Do It

This show always makes me hungry. I just inhaled half a container of Pillsbury garlic butter crescent rolls. Can someone fine me a diet plan that those are listed on? Yeah, and to top this off I sucked with exercise today. Like did squat, I even DROVE to Whole Foods, which is a 5 minute walk. So lazy. I'm not drinking though, and I did buy wine so that is good. That is an easy way to cut calories.

I don't know what happened, it's one negative of working from home...like it's 10 and then 1 and then 3 and the NINE PM? And I'm sending a work email and questioning my sanity and sad I never exercised. I need to work more on patterns in my life - getting set up in proper, healthy patterns and schedules. Sigh. Fabio just referred to Top Scallops, that was good. Blondie and Neck Tattoos are going home, right? I love Carla, or Hootie-Hoo as we like to call her. Not sure if she's a Top Chef but she makes me smile.

So for the afternoon, I had more tea, an Amy's low-sodium [it was on sale] mac n cheese, which I salted [what the fuck? I was embarrassed when I realized this] and some Diet Coke. Picked up Darling and we had some Whole Foods sushi. It was ok, I got shrimp California rolls to spice it up and they are so not as good as the crab ones. Then I had more tea [starting to understand where my brown-ass teeth come from: get me some white strips, STAT] and 2 2-bite brownies. And then I was good until the Pillsbury incident. Sigh, again. I need to work up stamina so I can run for like a half hour and eat carefree meals with reckless abandon.

Did I outline my goals? Probably, I'm becoming even more repetitive in my old age. If not, 30 lbs by Dec 31, not joking. Bitches around me keep getting married and dresses look way better on skinny chicks, plus I need a tropical vacation and I'll be damned if I am not frolicking in a bikini for at least part of it. I am almost 30 and have NEVER worn a bikini in public. I have worn a bathing suit [plain black tank] twice in 15 years. Wow, that's sad to type out, especially considering I was a fish as a child. Life begins at 30; I'm excited!

Supposed to get more snow Saturday - barf. I may or may not go drown my weather-sadness in a Reese's cup I have hidden. Good night!

Kitty Litter

Salt [for your stairs] is really expensive, and the animal lover in me likes to get that Paw Safe crap that is EVEN MORE expensive. So I decided to cut corners and get a $5 thing of kitty litter - safe for animals and way cheaper. I've discovered that once the snow melts, it turns the litter into this mushy gray paste that gets everywhere- like ruin your floor everywhere. I've become a take off your shoes nazi as a result. Not good.

Today's Annoyance has been brought to you by....I should have resolved to not bitch in 2009. So yesterday I did not really exercise, I considered shoveling and laundry to be my cardio for the day. Will be back in the saddle today, going to try the bike but last time I swear it bruised my ass, I am so out of shape. Or maybe I had the seat up too high.

Had the last of Harry's delicious cinnamon raisin bread for "lunch" as toast, and some more tea. Ate a banana on the way to Hudson. I stopped at Lyndell's to get cupcakes and was so good, I ordered nothing for myself....I realized I pretty much ate bread all day and needed to get a hold of myself. Bread is my down-fall. I love it. I love bagels and rolls and crusty bread and baguettes and Wonder bread and bread sticks and WPF and Iggy's and croissants.

Had wonderful chicken and veggies curry over spinach noodles and a salad, it was from the Wagamama cook book and quite delicious! Hilary can cook. She made a blondie/giant cookie thing I had a few pieces of with vanilla ice cream and tea for dessert. And 2 glasses of white wine. A nice night of catching up, their kids are so good and getting HUGE and loquacious. Too funny.

Driving home was sketchy, the snow turned to rain and turned to sludge and then froze! Awesome. Plus I was on wacky back roads, that turned and had like 30 mph speed limits. Not a fun time, I got home wicked late and was so tired this morning WFH again today, had my bagel and tea..about to eat lunch. Work is picking up a bit, it's a good thing. Kind of boring post, sorry.

"Wintry Mix", my ass

How do I forget how much I hate winter EVERY YEAR?

Barf. I am working from home today, one small plus. Drove Darling to work, the roads weren't so bad, but they will be brutal once the temperature drops. Snow is annoying but ice is scary. And I love the Corolla but the brakes do some weird lock up thing in crappy weather, I think it's a safety feature but it makes a horrible noise and I feel like I have no control over the car for 5 seconds. Fun!

So last night I had my pizza and 3 beers, and the Atomic Dragonhearts prevailed and won! Take that, 2009. It was a good night, the snow held off until I was alseep. I also had a tea and 2 2-bite brownies and 2 bites of Ed's butter/garlic/parmesean bagel upon returning home. Not very exciting.

Today I had my bagel and tea, I'm planning on a banana shortly and some water. No exercise yet, I will do the bike at lunch if time allows. I did shovel slushy/rainy/wet snow today, but that was like 8 minutes total and sucked but didn't really work me out. Planning to go to the Kushi's for supper later, popping into Lyndell's [for the first time ever] to grab some dessert for that. It will be nice, as long as they have power - and I remember my GPS and do not crash into a guardrail while driving.

Also, and totally separately: the older I get the more I am turning into a nostalgic pansy [totally inherited from my dad who is Chevy Chase incarnate]. When a 15 year old gives me excellent customer service at the Somerville Target, I nearly tear up. There are so many people, and so many sucky and selfish and nasty things that go on that when something is simple and good, it is unexpected. I am going to try and recognize these moments for reflection when I am having a craptacular week.

Today's shout-out is for LeSportSac in Tennessee. I emailed them about a half hour ago asking about a a baby bag style they used to carry. Side note/back story: after a brief hiatus, I'm now back in one of those phases where my life is boring [minus the house, but the house is expensive and unfurnished and not really joyous - yet] but everyone I talk to is either newly engaged or newly married or newly pregnant or newly parents - or conversely, there is some scary health issue in the family....serious shit. This must be what 30s feel like?

Anyhow, I just got back a personal email with the info I needed and more...God bless the personal touch! It was nice, made me smile. This economy and such really sucks but I am hoping one positive may be that people and businesses re-focus on service and local networks and resources and just get back to the basics that were the fundamentals of our country that seem to be lost lately. I sound like a total dirty hippy / old white man, maybe my brain is frozen. Back to work...

Is it Friday yet?

I'm seriously over this whole week of work concept. It's Tuesday, I feel like I've been sitting at a screen of nothing for like 7 years....I sit A LOT in my personal life but there is something about having to do it, in a cube, for the man, during certain hours, in front of a lame [and SLOW] laptop for no real purpose that makes it such a life-suck. A paycheck is a good thing nowadays, I should be counting my blessings.

Instead I'm counting calories- wocka, wocka! Today I actually did get up at 5:30 and do 45 minutes of Wii Fit before work: yoga, stretching, 2 faux jogs, hula hooping [my obliques seriously hurt], some balance stuff. Still getting fatter according to the chart and the measurements, but whatevs, it's day 3, if I haven't lost a pound by Saturday I'll regroup.

I then had an orange to fend off LBS and dropped Darling at work. Got to my office in WF at like 8:30...acck. So I had my bagel with my butter and cream cheese...cream cheese was like half frozen, how can we make million dollar routers that do amazing things and not manage our break room fridge temp properly? Had some tea, had GROSS salad bar salad for lunch, with a diet Sunkist [? not sure what's going on there, it inspired me]. Then had a yogurt for a snack. I am starving. I got home around 5 and inhaled some edamame and I'm still hungry. I am staying strong - trivia tonight and that means pizza and booze! Never giving that up, I don't care if I have to run 10 miles a day.

Hmm, what else...last night I did have my 100 calorie bag of popcorn [after burning attempt A...Julia Child, I'm not]. I then had the frosting mousse off of the last of my dad's Yule Log dessert. That thing is so good as a whole, and the mousse is one of my favorite things ever. So probably like 2 bites of that, and then 2 2 bite brownies and some tea. A bit of water...I need to drink more water, that is a resolution.

In other news, I'm slightly irritated this evening. Not sure if it's lack of sleep or work or the GIANT WHITE PICK UP TRUCK that lives next door that sounds like the frigging train when it comes and goes. I do love my neighborhood, I do. But I do not get why you need a massive [like hummer-sized] truck in Medford. There are no farms, nothing to tow or carry giant amounts of...I do not get it. I'm also watching a repeat of Real Housewives. This show is so vile and yet I cannot help but watch it. They are in a limo in Sonoma at Grgrich [splg?] and I am so frigging jealous right now

Now these bitches' daughters are getting $600 ratty hair extensions. Where did I go wrong in the disposable income department? I'm happy and healthy. Happy and Healthy. Happy and Healthy.

$429.45

That's how much I've spent so far this month. It's the 5th. Granted, that has a credit card payment and my car insurance in it, but good God!! My resolution of tracking every penny I spend is already depressing. It will feel good once those little charts in my iPhone start showing that I'm spending less and less, paying off my stupid credit card / homeowner debt, and generally being a good and responsible late 20-something [5 more months!], right? I'm watching an episode of Platinum weddings that is not helping my financial outlook - her engagement ring is $250k. And not even that pretty! Giant, but not the die-and-gone-to-heaven rock that one would expect for that kind of cash.

Ok, so on to other resolutions, I got up at 6 for some pre-work exercise. Well, I meant to get up at 6, I finally got up at 6:20 when Ed whacked me and mumbled something incoherent that definitely included the word "lazy". Whatever works... Anyhow, did some Wii Fit, 20 minutes. You can jog in place with it! And the Yoga is fun! And the ski jumping and hula hoops are fun! I confirmed I have horrible balance, it keeps asking me if I trip a lot, funny. But yeah, did various exercises for 20 minutes and then needed to get ready for W-O-R-K. Yeahhhh.....

For food, had a plain bagel with butter and CC and garlic salt [nectar of the gods for me lately, so gross] and some tea. Did a half Cali Turkey Club and Ceasar Salad at Crapplebees, with a DC and lemon. Had a banana mid-afternoon. Not so bad, right? Breakfast should have been oatmeal, I know. As long as I need to drive Princess to work at 8 [love having 1 car] I'm going to either need to wake up at 5:30 to fit everything in or plan to work out at night. Neither of those are very attractive.

For dinner, I had a Raspberry UFO and some Dave's fresh butternut/sage ravioli with a garlic/Parmesan/oil sauce that was super good. They're on to the food portion of this wedding and goddamn it's making me hungry. She spoiled the groom with a helicopter cake [they have not 1, not 2 but THREE helicopters]...for $4,000!!! Acck, ok so I'm thinking a snack size bag of popcorn and then some tea and 1 or 2 2-bite brownies for Intervention at 9. No more beer tonight, storing up for trivia tomorrow. Gotta try to get to bed early too. If I'm asleep, I can't snack.

Do I really have to go back to work tomorrow?

Bleccccchhh. I haven't worked a full week in what feels like an eternity. And describing my end of year as lackluster would be exaggerating, so tomorrow will be a rude awakening. I hope it's quiet, I need to plan stuff and regroup, clean my desk, get re-motivated. Plus I'm trying to eat less so I will have no energy....we shall see. Getting to bed early tonight will help.

Today I slept till almost noon [yes!] then hit up Everett. Went to Panera, got and Everything with butter and cc and an Earl Gray tea. Really wanted a chai but that would be sugary. And delicious, but bad for me so I stayed away. I exchanged some pants at ON and got some towel bars and painting supplies at HD. WILD. Then I hit up CVS and Johnny's quickly. Johnny's is cheap but their inventory can leave much to be desired. We def need to hit up WF early this week for some produce.

After that I came home and did some Wii Fit - awesome. I bought it in August? Maybe even July and had yet to to open it - I'm that lazy. Thankfully, Princess was motivated by boredom the other day and gave it a shot. I will try to do it daily, it weighs you and stuff! Crazy. It tells me I am overweight based on my BMI, thanks for the news flash. I think I pulled a muscle trying the Warrior yoga pose today. Sad, really. But it's a sort of motivating tool, we shall see.

I only had time to do about 10 minutes of that, I had to bathe and prepare for Work Lindsay and her delightful bf Jesse stopping by to see the house. Whenever people come over, I start to notice hidden corners of dirt and crust that I never seem to notice and then I get all anxious. I seriously need a crew to come in here and then I can try and keep it up from there. I cannot wait for the kitchen and bath to be redone....hopefully it's more like a couple years rather than 5 or 7.

We went to Tango for dinner, courtesy of our Phantom Gourmet cards. It was awesome, I got the beef in cheese and sauce with veggies and mashed potatoes. The potatoes were a bit nutmeggy sweet, but everything was awesome as usual. We started with empanadas and the mozarella/tomato salad and had some nice red wine. I ended with the flan with caramel sauce and whipped cream. So good! I love that place.

We are back home now, Ed is Wii Fitting as I type and I just had a cup of tea and a Rolo. Watched that washed up Teen Idol show on VH1 and I really wanted to like it but it was sad. Then the new Bret Michaels' show came on and I felt like I was going to catch The Clap from just watching it so I gladly turned the reins over to darling for his Nintendocize.

Plans for this week...trivia Tuesday, first time in like a month? Dinner at Chez Kushi on Wednesday. I think that's it, I feel like I had something this coming Saturday but can't for the life of me remember it. I need to start eating more blueberries or something.

Holiday Season es Fine

Trying to sound exotic but those 7 years of French clearly didn't stick with me. Just returned from Craige and Aaron's lovely holiday gathering. Ed bailed due to illness and I felt a little like ass but my cough let up and nobody gave me weird bubonic plague looks. Their house is soooo nice, if the burbs didn't make me break out in hives, it's a wonder the bang you get for your buck outside of the city.

Awesome food: chips, crackers, bean dip, macaroni ball things, veggies and dips, ham cream cheese asparagus wrap things, shrimp cocktail, peppermint bark, gingerbread, asparagus wrapped in cheese and wonder bread (bomb!), and an eggnog and gingerbread trifle. I sampled all of that and had 2 glasses of wine and a diet coke. I also made out like a bandit with the Yankee swap. I was ghetto and just brought beer with a bow on it but other people brought nice things. Hanging out with grown ups is rough on the self-esteem when you're poor. Anyhoo, I got the second to last pick and wound up with a mirrored/light up Jesus and Mary wall adornment that says god bless this house. Hello, perfect! It's been in their Yankee swap for 10 years but sorry fellas, not getting it back next year. I LOVE it. Plus I got a Buddha bank and homemade BBQ sauce and rub - yum-o. A very successful evening.

Before that, I painted trim and did 13 miles on the bike to the lackluster season 2 finale of Brotherhood. I think I'm kind of over it, I need a new series. The Wire totally spoiled me. I also had a yogurt. Tomorrow, I will make French Toast, go to Home Depot, exchange some Xmas items and take a crack at the Wii Fit. For now, I'm blogging from bed so good-night!!

Ps. Special shout-out to my wonderful boss' big brother Tim. He had an aneurysm a week ago and had successful surgery immediately after. He's making great progress but still needs to wake up so he can do even more. So Tim, I don't know you but I adore your sister and family is everything to her, so please please please wake up asap. There are a million people who love you waiting for your eyes to open. That's all for now.

Holy Hiatus, Batman!

So it's been almost 2 months. I became a [relatively] happy homeowner and learned that doing that takes up pretty much every second of your time and money at the beginning. At this point, Princess and I have just gotten lazy and it's cold and we had the holidays so I have more time. Plus I made it a resolution to blog, run more, eat less, and lose like 30 lbs over 2009. Trying to be 15 lbs lighter by my 30th in June. I need to get a scale.

Quick recap of end of 2008, I stopped moving after the 5k and gave in to all the wonderful end of year treats and beverages that were constantly around me. I haven't gotten huge, I think I'm kind of at my maximum lazy-ass threshold which, thanks to genetics, isn't obese. I am lucky. However, I'm also not close to skinny or even healthy yet and I feel like crap and keep being sick, so I need to get my ass in gear. January is the new January.

Thurs Jan 1
Exercise - 0 [gave myself a pass, it's a holiday]
Food - Made homemade cinnamon buns FROM SCRATCH [me, who knew?], had 1 for breakfast.
Had some tea and an apple. Went to 5 Keane for NY's pork, squash, roasted potatoes, some delicious cran/orange gravy, and brocolli. Had one of those Ferrer Rocher [splg?] candies [addictive, thankfully they were almost gone] and some cherry pie with vanilla ice cream, and peppermint tea for dessert. Came back home and had another cinnamon bun [it's a holiday] and split the last bag of movie theater butter popcorn with darling and went to bed. Oh, probably had some juice and water too, I have had the plague since the end of November - it keeps getting better and then coming back uglier. FUN. Unfortunately it's not one of those sicknesses that makes me lose weight. Not that that is a healthy way to lose weight, but it would be a nice perk to this vile suffering.

Fri Jan 2
Exercise - 0 I seriously had all intentions but woke up and felt like death, drove Princess to work, went back to bed until 11 and then cleaned the kitchen, bathroom, did laundry, vacuumed and watched like 8 episodes of Law & Order SVU. I had dinner plans and just ran out of time....and Ed had even set up the Wii Fit. I am a bad Resolver. Or Resolutionizer?

Food - Had my old standby, the Everything bagel with butter and cream cheese [so much more appealing than oatmeal or toast or scrambled egg whites....] and some tea. I then had an orange and a yogurt and some more juice and water, due to illness. I had a mac&cheese lean cuisine w/ tomatoes around 3 and some more tea. I threw away lots of my hidden candy whilst cleaning. Not all of it, I'll be honest. Went out for Indian with Erin and Carolyn and met her new bf, Matt - he's lovely. This is one way to diet: maybe it's because I already have a bad hack but this chicken vindaloo was sooo spicy that I could hardly make a dent in it. So I had my glass of wine, the samosa was ok, and mostly rice. My face was like red and my eyes were watery the entire meal, nice first impression to Matt. Erin and I spent a good amount of the night referring to Facebook and Myspace so he probably thinks we're weird anyway. We went to Miracle of Science for a cocktail, I had a kind of gross [but only $5] gin and tonic. I think gin and tonics are a 3rd or 4th drink for me, it didn't go down as easy as I would've liked. It's what I get for attempting to be classier than I actually am. Speaking of that, I'm going to a party and Craige and Aaron's tonight [so excited to see their new house!] and need to bring an app/dessert/booze. I have 2 bottle of Boone's in my fridge [not joking], is it trashy or awesome to bring one? Mortgages make you poor... And I legitimately feel Snow Creek Berry is delicious. Ok, so came home and had 2 pieces of Harry's holiday cinnamon-raisin toast with butter for a nightcap. And made some tea that tasted gnarly.

Sat Jan 3
Exercise - will be biking to the season 2 finale of Brotherhood that I got from Netflix. It's usually around 55 minutes, that will be good for me.

Food - Princess made me 2 eggs on an everything bagel with ham and cheese and some tea. He is a good boyfriend. We did almost murder each other mid-November while moving out of 203. That apartment was dirty and filled with stuff and 3 floors up and we were just sooo over it and tired and cranky from the long and complicated home-buying process. However, since then we have come to an understanding and have been getting along remarkably well. Moving is stressful, as are bills and leaky things that you don't anticipate leaking and appliances that don't work that you did anticipate working, etc. We fight ugly but we do get everything out and get over stuff so hopefully things will continue on a more rational path. The good thing is, it's not one of us being a super-douche and the other being normal, we are both super-douches. How that is a plus, I don't know but somehow it is...

Ok, off to paint some trim, ride the bike and prepare for the partay tonight. I'm also going to work out a training plan for our next goal: April 26 - James Joyce Ramble in Dedham. It's a 10k that my daddy runs ever year. Of course, he runs it a week after the marathon which I will NOT be doing, but if successful, it will be a milestone for me nonetheless.