Thursday, January 8, 2009

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.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

"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...

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

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.

Monday, January 5, 2009

$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.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

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.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

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.