Evil, thy name is mexican food

Okay, I had planned to leave the basket of chips and salsa alone. That did not work at all. I thought, I gave blood, I can eat some!

Don't even start, that is the key.

Went home feeling rather bloated after my margarita and tortilla chip fest. Oh, and I had a taco salad with chicken. But, since I had had so many chips before, I pretty much left the shell alone, which is really a first for me. I admit though, I opened the button on the top of my pants. Bad Anneke!

Back at it. Plan for the day: Toaster waffle for breakfast. Squash and salad for lunch. Dinner - will have to see what is in the fridge for dinner, but thinking some sort of chicken dish with lots of veggies. I know I have brussel sprouts that need to get eaten, and I should really do something with the turnips that are there. And I have a squash that got dinged that is starting to get soft that I need to address.

Tonight will be a night at home. We have not had a night there to do stuff since before Christmas. The remnant dishes from the family gathering are still there, needing attention. I have mounds of laundry in the basement that need to get done. I would like to finish the skirt for my dress that I am wearing next weekend at the anual gala (Saint Paul Jaycees). Eric wants to finish up the workbench he is building. I might take the opportunity to go to Best Buy to check out DVR's, but that is not something that is high on the priority list.

Tomorrow, I have not decided if I am going to weigh in or not. I have been really tired this week, and think I might take the opportunity to sleep in on Saturday morning, as we are going to be out past midnight. Have to figure out if I am the DD, or if Eric will be taking that role tomorrow night. He almost never drinks much, but now with a CDL, his legal limit is .04 if he gets pulled over, so why chance it.

It's kind of frightening what a week in the office can do for you. I can see the tip of my desk right now, and I am getting caught up on a bunch of projects. Next week is travelling on Tues, Wed, and Thurs. I need to make a plan and pack my cooler for the trip, so I can stick to the plan of eating like a WWer.

Cheers - holiding up my water bottle to you all!
~a

Facing the demon

also known as the bathroom scale. I knew I was going to be up. I suppose it could be worse, but I knew I was going to have to face it sooner or later. 2 lbs is not the end of the world. I now have my reality check, will eat better today and tomorrow, and next week, and I will exercise. I want to see that number go down, not up.

It's crazy. I have a journal in my purse, but if I don't start it at the beginning of the week, I don't want to be "wasteful" and start filling out pages the rest of the week, so I can start fresh and not "waste" a page. For cripe's sake, I think I can spend the $5 or so for a journal, and not fill out every page. Get over it!

Went out to the bar last night for a friend's 40th birthday. I now know again why I don't go to the bar... Eric and I stripped in front of the clothes chute when we got home, so our clothes did not stink up the bedroom. I don't know that we would frequent places more if we did not come home smelling of smoke, but it sure would be nice when we did go out.

There were also some interesting characters at the bar last night. There were these two women I ran into in the bathroom that were bumping and grinding with each other in the bathroom, talking about "nice" men, and who they wanted to go home with... the scary part was they looked to be at least 40-45, and were trying to pick up college guys. Eric was convinced they were hookers. It just made me step back and wonder. Here were some women with GREAT bodies, trying in the bar to pick up men, but they were so over the top, and seemingly so DESPERATE, that they were just not attractive. Then you take one of my friends, who is cute, and blonde, and is struggling with some weight that she has put on, surrounded by 6 men, having a conversation with them all engaged. I know she is single, and would like to be in a relationship, but is secure enough with herself that she does not feel like she has to try and grab on to anything that moves and is male. So there you have it. We all have issues, it's not just me. I am so glad that my husband finds me attractive, even with my ups and downs. And I know it's for all of me, not just what I look like.

Well, enough of the musings for the day, I really have some things I NEED to get accomplished here at work today.

Make it a great one!
~a

Holy people, batman!

And the holidays are offically over, at least at my house...

There were 22 people at my house yesterday. I, in my infinate wisdom, decided to invite my dad's side of the family over to share some Christmas cheer, as we don't get to see each other all that often anymore. When my grandmother (dad's mom) was alive, we all went over to her place to have dinner and socialize a bit. That was bc - before children. And a number of spouses... and then I invited them all over to our house, and told them that I would prepare all of the food. When I figured out how many people would be there, I started worrying about if there would be enough food. But, things did turn out okay.

I made a ham (bone-in) just stuck it in the oven at 325 for about 3 1/2 hours. Simek's veggie lasagne in the microwave (thankfully you can do that, otherwise I would have needed another oven - something on the wish list for the kitchen remodel), meatballs and bbq sauce in a crock pot, about 6 lbs of mashed potatos in another warmer, beets, corn, buns, cheese, crab dip, cheese and crackers, banana bread, biscotti... and then I brought out the pie - apple, pumpkin pecan, and coconut. Most of the stuff was made ahead of time, so all I needed to do was some warming, but it was still a bit of work. Eric did hack up, er, carve, the ham, but that was all of the food stuff that he did.

Add to that - my SIL was supposed to come and clean the house, but she was not feeling well, so I did most myself. I went home at noon, and started straightening, picking up, dusting, dishes, food prep, and bathroom cleaning. When Eric came home, he vacuumed everything.

And then decended the horde. I ran around a bit, making sure everyone had drinks, food was okay, etc. The kids kept running up and down the stairs, and added to the general confusion. I ate a piece of the veggie lasagne, and some beets, and a small piece of cake, and a small piece of pie. And crackers and crab dip. And some beer. Yep, that's about it.

I was so tired when everyone left - I had basically been on my feet doing stuff for 9 hours. Eric, the lovely man that he is, rubbed my feet for me when we crawled into bed.

Another Christmas, come and gone. And I have survived.

Here's to another year of holiday togetherness... and probably by this time next year, I will be wondering, once again, why I do this to myself!

Happy holidays everyone!
-a

I finally found it on-line...

My stepdaughter was in the October issue of Popular Mechanics: view article . She's the one wearing the puple gloves in the "action" shot.

And she is home now, but reading the article really makes you worry about what goes on there on a daily basis...

Enjoy!
~a

Stuff and nonsense

It was a grand Christmas. Although I think I ate too much, and did not get my rear out of the house to exercise, it was fun.

I won the prize for most gifts again this year. I think people must like me or something. I got a great watercolor picture from my parents of Calla Lillies. They are red, and amazingly enough, I believe they will go very well with the color we are planning on painting the accent wall that runs through the dining room and living room. Both my stepson and my husband bought me the same gift: Season 4 of Alias, so I will be returning one of the copies. I think I will look at getting a DVR, since I still have some money left on the gift card that I won earlier this year at Best Buy (where, in fact BOTH of them purchased the DVD sets, on the same day...) . And my sister and brother-in-law got us an automatic litter box!

I went to my WW meeting on Saturday morning. Was down .2 pounds. Kind of disappointing, but there are several reasons - I have been going to weigh in every other week, so this was just one week, I had gone out for Thi food the night before, and there was a bit of sodium, plus the fact that I did not work out like a fiend before WI. I realize I have had two days of not counting points, but I think I did okay with food. I never stuffed myself to the point of being uncomfortable, didn't drink a lot, and made a pretty good effort at avioding the cookie tray.

The main reason I did not exercise, is that I was keeping myself busy with a project - I am making myself a fancy party dress. I spent quite a bit of time on Christmas day cutting out all of the fabric, and Mom and I worked on putting together the bodice. It is the red dress in the photo. Two pieces, a fitted, lined, boned bodice and a very full skirt. I don't know that I would have been able to do it myself, and have it look as good as it does. I will have to make sure to take pictures of me in the dress!

I don't think Eric was very happy with me though - we stayed at my parent's house much longer than he wanted to. I think, in hindsight, I should have sent him home on Sunday - when he could have cought a ride with his sister. He spent a lot of time watching TV yesterday while mom and I putzed. And, he was not talking to me in the car on the way home yesterday afternoon/evening. I just left him alone, and read my book with my keychain flashlight. Not much you can do when they won't even talk to you! I do think he forgave me. I let him get the outrageous pizza he wanted at Papa Murphy's last night, even though it is something I was not going to eat, since it had beef in it. I got myself something he would never eat too... the Gourmet veggie pizza - YUM.... Spinach, artichokes, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatos, onions.... MMMMMMM.

Well, maybe more later, I gotta hop on a conference call.

Ta!
~a

Rock Star...

Or so I just want to call myself one!

It's been a good week for me. Hard to believe it's Christmas already - so here are some of the successes:

• Out to lunch on Monday - I was doing some training, and it was a quick lunch break - I had soup and crackers. Did not get the tuna melt I was thinking, and the soup was plenty.
• Picked up, and then put back the cheese popcorn I was going to get for driving snacks on Monday evening
• Exercised like a fiend on Tuesday, 20+ miles on the bike, 1.5 then on the treadmill, making 1 hour and 18 minutes of exercise.
• Made two batches of banana bread on Tuesday evening. Did not lick any batter, or have any of the warm bread - it was for gifts!
• Was starving on Wednesday, but still made somewhat healthy choices for dinner out - and stopped when I got full, instead of stuffing myself.
• Thursday, I got up at 6am, in the hotel, and exercised. Avoided the popcorn in the back of the room that was brought in for afternon snacks. Actually talked myself into putting down the bowl I was about to fill, and walked away. Drank more water, and had a piece of gum instead.
• Stopped by my mom's on Thursday afternoon to pick up a recipe, and my sister and nieces were making cutout cookies. Looked at the cookies, considered picking one up, and decided I was not hungry.
• Thursday night. Made two batches of biscotti, a pecan-pumpkin pie, and a coconut pie. Did not eat any, did not lick any batter.

It's kind of like I am back in control again! Not sure what changed in my mind, but I am not complaining.

So, I asked Eric to go to the store last night, because I thought we had another dozen eggs, but it turns out there were two partial cartons in the fridge... I did not have enough eggs to make the pies and the biscotti... I wrote on the list - "large eggs" so he comes home with JUMBO eggs. Argh. Let me tell you there is a lot more egg in a jumbo egg. In showing Eric the difference between the Large and the Jumbo, he laughs, and says that it's a guy thing. Why go large when you can go Jumbo! It worked out - I used 5 of the jumbo eggs in my second batch of biscotti, instead of the 6 it called for.

It was a good evening though. I got through all of the mail that was on the dining room table, paid bills, balanced checkbooks, cleaned up the kitchen, organized some paperwork, and in general got some de-cluttering done. Eric made some great strides into picking up and straightening the basement, which I am thrilled about, since it has been such a disaster for so long, and I want to have the house organized and "spotless" for our party in January. I realize that is a month away, but the house is just that bad, to my opinion... plus we are having family over on the 27th, and, well, every bit helps.

Well, I need to get some projects finished here at work.

Here's to another stellar day!

-a

3 points

So far today. Yes, I know I should do better than that, but it was kind of a crazy morning.... and evening.

I went to the gym last night and did 1 hour on the stationary bike, went about 20.5 miles, and 18 minutes on the treadmill (with the cool-down) and did about 1.5 miles. Felt pretty darn good about it too! I ran into my cousin (well, cousin's wife) when I was going into the locker room after. She wanted to know why I was there... Hello.... but I said, "what is the closest Y to my house, it would be this one..." but I usually try to go in the morning, and work on the machines, and she is an evening that goes to the group classes. That is why we had never run into each other there before. I'm sure there are a lot of people that I don't run into there... so I got home, took a bath, made myself a salad, and started on two batches of banana bread.

I had asked Eric to buy Christmas stamps on his way home. When I got home and asked him where the stamps were, he says: "do you need anything at the airport post office?" Yep. Once again, the clueless man strikes again. Yes, when I ask you to do something, I really mean do it now, or within the next hour. The plus side to that would be that he actually put together the package for his daughter since he was going to make a special trip to the airport, he could mail the package at the same time. It did take him about 2.5 hours to wrap 2 packages, and pack the box though. I guess the darn TV and computer solitaire were so much more attractive than getting things actually done. Not bitter at all... it just drives me a bit nuts when he does not do things around the house. Hello, put away your clothes. See all of the stuff sitting in front of the laundry machine? You could actually put the wet stuff in the dryer. Dishes in the sink? Nah, they will wash themselves, right? Junk mail, what junk mail, that's the new tablecloth that we will just eat dinner on.... yargh.

So this morning, I got in kind of a hurry to get to my 9am meeting, since I had 3 baskets of laundry I folded, and a load of delicates I needed to hang to dry, and banana bread to wrap up in plastic wrap and foil, and a shower to take, and a bed to make, and the bag of garbage sitting next to the garbage can that Eric failed to notice to take out to the garbage can for pickup this morning... I was not able to grab my usual yogurt and Kashi for breakfast. Meeting lasted longer than what I had time to stay for, and I was only able to make a bag of microwave popcorn before I had to get on my conference call.

Anyway, I need to get a few more things done here, before I head home to pack to go to Alexandria this evening. I wonder what will not get done at the house tonight. Oh yeah, that would be no cleaning, no putting away of laundry. I am so frustrated with the level of crap in the house. I have no idea how Eric actually thinks that the state of the house is okay with people coming over on the 27th, and we will be gone the 24-26th.

Enough about that. Eating yesterday was good. I had 24 points for the day, and figured that I earned 6 AP's. Yay me. I have also successfully navigated the Christmas treats that have been in the office, because I am saving myself for the good stuff on Christmas. I will make sure it's a 10 on the food scale.

Make it yours, own it, and take no prisoners!
-a

Now that I've gotten that out of my system

Me update!

Computer at home is having virus/spyware issues, and I cannot launch the interenet without my anti-spyware and the hijacker for my homepage fighting it out and just freezing up the whole computer. I hate that my DH visits all sorts of sites willy-nilly, then can't figure out why the 'puter is not working properly. Last time we had a techie look at it there were 57 viruses on the computer. 57... bleah!

So I went to weigh in on Saturday, expecting to have a major gain, because I had stepped on the scale that morning, and it said that I was up 6 lbs from the day before. How on earth can you go up 6 lbs in one day (yes I know I should stop scale-hopping... it's a sickness I am just not willing to battle at this point), so instead of totally skipping the meeting, I went to the Y and did 45 minutes on the treadmill. 500 calories burned, according to the computer... then went to shower and discovered that I had forgotten a towel. I thought the WW folks would appreciate it if I did not smell, so I used my t-shirt to dry off, then panicked since I thought I was late for the meeting, again. They changed the times about six months ago, but old habbits die hard. Rush in to the meeting center, to be greeted by.... an empty room. I was about half an hour early for the meeting. It gave me a chance to chat with Corky, and dry my hair a bit more before facing the scale. Now can I say I really hate the new system. You don't know what you weigh until they paste the little sticker in your book and then work up the courage to look at it. To my shock and suprise, I was down 1.4 pounds!

Looked at the scale the next morning, and the tarre on it had been bumped, and it was reading 5 pounds with nobody standing on it. Mystery of unexplained weight gain solved. Happy to say that it did not make me skip the exercise, or the meeting, and it actually had motivated me....

My work Christmas party was Saturday evening, and I did very well - I figured I used only two of my flex points, and I still had some desert. And only one glass of wine - they were stinkin' expensive!

I also conquered some of the travel munchies yesterday. I did not go into the gas station when I needed to fuel, but rather, drove over to the super Wal-Mart to find something healthier. Looked at a number of different food labels, really wanted some of the WW snack cakes, but all they had were the 3-point chocolate muffins. Wanted the 1-point snack cakes, so kept looking. Had a bag of cut-up broccoli, cauliflower and mini-carrots in the basket along with some hummus. Picked up a bag of cheese popcorn. Walked a bit, talked to myself, took out the bag of cheese popcorn. Grabbed some flavored water. Checked out. BING - Success... did not really want/need the cheese popcorn, the hummus and veggies were plenty!

Seems like Stella's back in the groove again. (Stealing a line from Corky...) I want to look hot in my red dress for the cruise in February. I want to get back into my size 1o pants again. Hell, I WANT to get back into my 8's, but at this point I will aim for the 1o's. I will make it through Christmas. The whole point is to get together with family. I can have one cookie. I do not need 13!

Anyhoo, enough pep talk, time to get into the game!

Thanks for listening.
Anneke

Sometimes Hotel exercise rooms

JUST SUCK!

I was all psyched yesterday to go down in the morning to ride the bike and read my book club book. Yeah, like I expected greatness from the small-town hotel that I think bought second-hand exercise equipment that is meant for home use, so they can advertise that they have an exercise room as an amenity. The recumbant bike's pedals did not move. The Schwinn Aerodyne (yes, they have one there) had a huge hesitation at the top of each foot stroke.

I got on the treadmill. No key. Have to go to the front desk to get the key. He also hands me a remote. I tell him I don't need it, I have my digital music player. Go back to treadmill. Oddly, there seems to be no TV in the room, why was the desk clerk handing me a remote? Start the treadmill, can't seem to figure out how fast I am going, the light said KPS or Mets... figured I would walk and read. Tried to bump up the speed, not sure what it did, but did not seem to speed up. Tired to up the incline to perhaps get more of a workout.... it was reading 1.5, but when I had tried to lower the incline, it beeped at me. Tried putting it to 2.5, it made a odd and scary clunking noise and lurched... decided to not take my chances. So.... ended up with a leisurly walk on the treadmill, reading my book for half an hour. I was not taking any chances on the stair-climber after that.

The positive about this is that I acutally did exercise yesterday morning.

7 things...

Thought this might be kind of fun


7 things I plan to do before I die: (no particular order)
1. Travel to Greece, Hawaii, and Australia
2. Get out of debt
3. Finish a "sprint" triathalon
4. Run a 5K under 30 minutes
5. Learn to fly an airplane
6. Get a tattoo
7. Own a Porche

7 things I can do:
1. Crochet and sew (I sew costumes, mostly)
2. Touch my toes without bending my knees
3. Finish a half marathon
4. Ride a motorcycle
5. Raise only one eyebrow (ala Spock)
6. Drive a manual transmission vehicle
7. Back up a trailer

7 things I cannot do:
1. Bowl consistantly
2. Stand on my hands
3. Make everyone like me
4. Stop procrastinating
5. Speak French
6. Chin-ups
7. Eat Lamb

7 things that attract me to another person:
1. Intelligence
2. Humor
3. Good sense
4. Likes me!
5. Great Smile
6. Capable of doing things for themselves, but yet willing to accept help
7. Fun to talk to

7 things I say most often:
1. Absolutely
2. Fabulous
3. Yeah (with a bit of sarcasm)
4. Hel-lo! (again with sarcasm)
5. Mm-hum
6. On the Side
7. Ta!

Walkin' in a winter wonderland.

Well, okay, so the furthest I walked was to my vehicle and around it with the snow brush...

Did not shovel yesterday, my stepson beat me to it... I didn't go and fight him for the shovel, either! Well, I suppose I could have done the driveway, so Eric did not have to do it when he got home, but Curt was having so much fun tinkering with the snowblower, I figured I would let him have the opportunity to use it when/if he got it running. Athough, his time would probably have been better spent fixing his vehicle that has been sitting dead for the last three weeks. He has been using one of our vehicles to get to work/school since his started spewing oil all over the place. Lucky for him, I have a company vehicle for work, and don't need the car every day.

One of the positives is that I actually got my running shoes in my bag today. The plan is to ride on the bike, and read my book that is due back to the Library on the 19th. I am picking up my co-worker at the airport at noon, he is coming back today instead of tomorrow, since his FIL passed away yesterday. I guess it was not unexpected, but still sad for the family nonetheless. I think I will be going to workout after I drop him off.

I really needed the day yesterday to decompress. I was thinking that I just needed some time off, to get my head together, and to just be. Be careful what you wish for! I think it helped.

Speaking of snow, what is it about snow that makes people complete idiots? The neighbor down the street, once again, in his little low-slung Honda, was trying to drive through the 6 inches of snow to the front of his house. Um, if you spin the tires the entire time down the road, it really does not make you get there any faster... all it does is make ice under the tires and you get stuck. He did the same exact thing last year when we had a bunch of snow, I had to push him out of drifts a couple of times, and he just dove back in. Reality check, park on the street that is plowed, and walk the frickin' half block to your house - you can't leave the car there anyway, because the snow emergency parking restriction starts at 8am, and it's 7:45am right now...
I really hate people that don't use logic.

On that note, more numbers to crunch!
-a

SNOW DAY!!!!

Okay, so I am not in school anymore, but I am still taking advantage.

I brought my computer home last night because the plan was to drive to Fargo today for a meeting. With the crap weather here in Minneapolis, I made the executive decision not to drive to Fargo in the 4 inches we are supposed to be getting, just to have to drive back on Thursday in much the same. Not cool if the Safety Person ends up in the ditch, driving to a meeting!

So I am going to work from home today. Have not done that in a while, but I have on my comfy clothes, and will be pulling out the work I have in my bag. Woo-hoo, get to wear pajama pants all day if I want.

Did not get as much done last night as I wanted, I ended up working in the kitchen for about 4 hours, making a number of things - cooked up a bunch of squash to freeze, made some "beets in the Dutch style" which is basically cooked beets with onions and apples - very yummy, if you ask me, and a WW recipe with a few modifications: Winter squash lasagne.

Perhaps today with my "snow day" I will get to the biscotti and the banana bread.

I also figure I can get a couple of AP's in today by shovelling snow. I was thinking about going to the gym last night after work, even brought clothes, but I soon figured out why the bag felt so light - bonehead move once again, I forgot to put my running shoes in the bag. Very hard to workout in steel-toed boots.

On that note, nose to the grindstone!
-a

Allergic to exercise?

Yep, and I mean that too... believe it or not, but I was reading the January issue of Runner's Magazine (free subscription I got from registering for/running Grandma's half marathon) and there was an article talking about a relatively rare condtion - anaphalaxis after strenous exercise. I guess there are about 450 cases of it each year, not especially life-threatning in all cases, but still a medical concern nonetheless. I am wondering if that was my problem in Calgary a few weeks ago. Since I don't seem to be able to tie it to any food or perhaps any other contact allergy... the article talked about sometimes it is tied to food, eating foods that you are mildly allergic to (and show no symptoms to speak of) up to 5 hours before exercise might make the body more susceptable to having an allergic reaction, and the exercise sets it off. Most people with this condition don't think that it can be exercise, because they exercise all the time, it just manifests itself when the conditions are "perfectly" aligned. And other times, there is no food involved, it just happens.

I know I did a pretty intense workout that morning - 3.5 miles on a treadmill on the hill program (don't usually do hills on the treadmill) and about 20 minutes of lifting weights (which I don't usually do at all), and Calgary is definately at a higher elevation than Minnesota, which would contribute to the "hardness" of the exercise. As the author of the article said, "maybe it is just my body telling me that it is something it does not like" and isn't that exactly what an allergic reaction is? You just have to be prepared to deal with it, is all... I am going to make sure I carry Benadryl, or it's equivalent, with me at all times. Not much of a burden as I already carry ibuprofin and pepsid in case I need it.

Well, I survived the doctor's visit. And once again, they took my height and my weight. Third time I have done that in a doctor's office in the last three weeks. Why do they insist on weighing you before they have you pee in a cup? I mean, you know with your woman's exam they are going to ask you to pee in a cup, so you make sure to drink lots of water before you go in, so you can pee in said cup, but they make you step on the scale before you are allowed to pee. Now everyone knows that will make the scale say nicer things, and with your heavy clothes on and an appointment at the end of the day, you need all of those extras to help with the scale... I suppose it is better than when they had me step on the scale with my steel-toed boots - "We'll just write down you were wearing heavy boots" yah right. Oh well, water under the bridge, move on!

The Holiday Train went quite well, I think. We got lots of people parked, and it seemed like there were no major snaffu's. I sort of begged my husband to help me out, and let me tell you, he was an immense help. He has all sorts of experience with dealing with layouts of parking, and getting cars in and out - he does a bit of this with his job at the State Fair. I think he made a world of difference had he not been there. Although, if I get roped into doing this again next year, I will need to make a more concerted effort to recruit more volunteers from the company. It ended up being a pretty late night, I was pretty tired by the time we got home, and morning was way too early.

Although, I probably would have been early to my 8am meeting had I not decided I NEEDED to fold the two baskets of laundry that have been in the bedroom for 4 days already. Tonight, I get the house to myself, I am going to cook some food to freeze, probably make a batch or two of biscotti and banana bread (I give it to people in the office for Christmas on the 23rd, since if you HAVE to be here on the 23rd, you might as well get some sort of reward!), and de-clutter. Sounds pretty ambitious, but I know I can do it!

So that's it for today... I have a to-do list here at work with a lot of things on it, and the morning was spent in meetings... plus I am going to Fargo tomorrow, so will not be in the office at all.

Make it a great one!
-a

It's going to be a long day

So much to do, so little time, it always seems...

I have my annual obgyn appointment this afternoon. Of course I forgot the paperwork they sent for me to fill out in advance at home, so I need to go home and do that. And I really want to go home and nap, or even de-clutter my house after that, but I need to go out and do some work with our Holiday Train. Check it out, it's really cool, but I am going to be at the last stop for this evening, in charge of directing traffic and parking. Which means I am going to be there probably until at least 10:30.

Well, I did not write about a couple of things from last week... just figured I had other things I wanted to mull over here. I had my appointment with the allergist on Friday. He seemed to think that I had a contact allergy rather than a food allergy that made me get hives all over the roof of my mouth. He asked me: "How did you know they were hives?" DUH, strange bumps all over the roof of my mouth. "Did you look at the roof of your mouth?" Um no, being that it is not located in an area that is easy to look at in the mirror... "Well if people don't usually look in mouths, they don't know what they are supposed to look for." Hello, my friend who looked at it is a nurse, and my mother is a dental hygienist - she has looked in my mouth many, many, many times, and can tell you what it normally looks like! So anyway, they took some blood to test for reactions to Wheat Bran, and walnuts, since all I had that morning was coffee and a low-fat cranberry bran muffin. (There is no test for cranberries.) It is just weird, and I hope that we can figure out what it is. Kind of scary not knowing when you are going to have your throat swell up again.

I talked with a friend of mine on Saturday, and hopefully we will be meeting to work out together in the future. We are planning on doing a couple of triathalons this year. I need to keep challenging myself on the exercise front. Sad to say, but 5K's just are not seeming like a challenge anymore - when you do training runs that are 3 miles (on a light day) it just seems lik no big deal. So, let's add in some swimming and bicycling! Another friend of mine wants to do the MS 150 this year too. Not sure I am up for that one. We did the MS 60 last year, and I seriously thought I was going to die. My butt hurt, I was cranky, my thighs were burning, it was windy as shit (pedaling downhill to keep going really sucks), and to top it all off, I did not drink enough, so I was pretty dehydrated at the end. I tend not to drink too much when I exercise, because if I do, I get nautious - but I need to figure out where that fine line is.

Well, I need to go "yell" at a vendor, and get my expenses in. It's going to be a long week.

ta
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BEEEEEEER

Yep. That was the theme last night. But since there were no good muchies last night I stuck to the BEEER.

Today would be the recovery party. I SO did not want to drag my sorry arse out of bed this morning, well, the second time anyway. I woke up at about 5am, burning hot - all of the alcohol, I imagine, tried to turn over on my stomach, but had to pee so bad I could not stay there. I ended up laying down on the couch in the living room and sleeping there until about 6:30 when Eric came looking for me. It's so cute, he rolls over in the morning, and if I'm not there, he goes searching for me.

Anyway, I had planned to meet Corky to go running at 8am, so I needed to get going then. I really wanted to pup out, but that was not going to happen. We sort of did pup, since we walked most of the 3 miles, but at least I got out there!

Then there was the bowling this afternoon. I did total crap the first two games - an 89, and a 68, and the last game was a 124. Kind of amazing the last game, since I started out with two gutter balls.... I kept joking that I was trying to lower my handicap. I think I succeeded, since my handicap was 111. Last time I bowled I was all over the place too. Although my high game that day was 156. Have never bowled that good before.

At least my killer headache is gone. Good pain medication can do that for you.

Anyway, not much else going on.
-a

Death

Seems like it is going around. I don't know what it is.

1. A former co-worker of mine died on October 31st after a long battle with ovarian cancer. She was one of the most kind, gentle, generous people that I know.
2. Another former co-worker of mine, was on a treadmill two days ago, had a heart attack, and died. He was 50 years old, just had gotten married, and was building a house.
3. I got an e-mail from my ex-boyfriend, that I had lived with for two years, this morning that his cat (that was 17 years old) had died this week. It was kind of weird finding a message from him, since we have not spoken to each other since 1998. (In fact the last time I saw him, I crossed the street to avoid having to pass him going the other way.)

It just makes me sad. I know death is a part of life, but it still does not make it any easier.

-a

Unusually happy

I don't know what it was last night, but Eric was wondering what was up with me! I just was in the best of moods last night, and it really showed - I was just weird and silly and all of that stuff! Eric said that he liked this mood much better than depressed or pissed off. I think the mood swings from hell that resulted from going off the pill are over (cross your fingers!)

I got home after being gone for two days, and the pots and pans had been washed, and Eric had straightened up the living room. We had gotten out all of the Christmas stuff out of the basement on Sunday, and I did not have time to get the empty boxes put away before I left. Eric said that it was too cluttered even for him (did not know that was possible!) So, I had no desire at 5:30 in the evening to think about dinner, so we headed out to Green Mill where my stepson was working (25% off the bill, thank-you very much!). I had the portabella mushroom sandwich, and some fries. Went over in points for the day, but I was okay with that.

I think it was just a great relief to get my review over with my boss. Plus the fact that I did not have to go to Fargo for a meeting today, then rush back home for the evening's activities.

So anyway, we actually had a good conversation over dinner. I asked Eric if he had talked to his sister about the money we had loaned her. He had. She told him that she had no intention of paying us back - she never has any intentions of paying anyone back the money she borrows, it is just easier asking for a loan than for a handout! I guess we have gotten off easy, we are about $500 into her habit - my MIL gave her a credit card "for emergencies" that she charged $19,000 on that she has no intentions on paying back. I guess she also asked Eric if push came to shove, would we let her live in the gutter? Sad to say, but I think that would be the case. She is just a user. It is always about her, and she has absolutely no guilt about taking money from people - even her family. I refuse to help someone do that, even if she is my family. Thankfully, Eric agrees with me, and it appears so does his mother (finally) and his other sister.

I just don't get people like that. How can you go through life living like that? For GOD's sake, take some personal responsibility!

So after that, with me still in an unsually good mood, singing in the car on the way home... I cracked open the ornaments and started decorating my tree, and put some lights in our front window. I am so excited for this Christmas season - the last couple of years, I have not made the time to get out the decorations, and it just depresses me, but this year, WATCH OUT! I am pleased to say - we have lights on the outside of the house. This is the first year ever that I have had lights on my house, and I have been a homeowner since 1999. I LOVE the way the houses look with lights on them! And now I am one of the cool kids! (Can you tell I am a bit excited over that?) And the tree makes me smile too.... I finally got to put all of my Star Wars ornaments on the tree. Yep, big geek here!

And to top out the evening, I got to watch Alias snuggled up with my honey last night. I am sad that this is the last season. I admit, it has been kind of lame the last couple of shows, but yesterday's was a good show. I like the fact that they are re-introducing some of the older characters. And.... I was right - they did not kill off Vaughn, since he was in the previews for next week's show. (Like Sidney told Vaughn, you never know in this business, things are never as they seem!)

On that note, I have some actual work I need to get done today.

ta!
-a

It's that time of the year

Annual review time.

Yep, I didn't do a couple of things that I had on my PMP (Performance Management Plan), and when my boss asked me why I didn't do them, I told him that I had no good excuse for not doing them. Ripped the band-aid right off without hesitation. It was really uncomfortable for a bit, but we accepted it, and moved on. On that note, the rest of the review went pretty well - I need to do a bit of updating of my activities and results, but not so bad. Hopefully it will allow me to get a nice bonus, since I really did accomplish quite a bit this year.

Well, I did not go down to the treadmill last night. I decided I needed to watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and work on the stuff for my review today. I know, it is definately an excuse! But, I also stayed in my room, and did not go anywhere to get something to eat, since I was not hungry after all of the afternoon snacks I scarfed down.

Well, nothing more earth-shattering tidbits are coming to mind at the moment, so I think I am going to call it a day and go home. It will be nice to see Eric after being gone for two nights. Perhaps I can earn a couple of AP's tonight, if you know what I mean (wink, wink!)

toodles
-a

Why do I do this?

Yep, self control went out the window again last night. Why do I decide that I can eat all of the food on the buffet, and desert to boot?

The bonus was that I journalled all of the food.

Sitting in Red Wing at the moment - we have all sorts of meetings here, and of course railroaders like their food, so we have all sorts of food set out at the meetings... I did turn down several drinks last night and stuck to water, but I did have a plan that I did not stick to. WHY, WHY, WHY? I just need to keep visulizing myself in that fabulous red dress that I want to wear on the crusie in Feb!

So I got myself a new toy this weekend - I got a new palm Z22. My old palm Vx pretty much stopped synching with my computer. I am having fun trying out all of the new stuff, I think one of my favorite features is that I can load pictures on to it, and then carry them around that way. The best part was that I had won a $200 gift card at work for Best Buy, so it was sort of "free" I also got to buy a bunch of DVD's. I love movies, so that was another bonus, and I still have some money left over.

I am just getting a kick out of watching Oprah today - Brazillian waxing.... I still think I want to try it, but I want to do it as a reward for myself for reaching my weight goal.

Well, Saturday at WI, I was down 1.8 from the previous two weeks. I was happy about that. I did manage to go for a 3 mile run that morning, but walked into the meeting 15 minutes late, 'cause I was having timing issues that day. I almost did not go, but I really wanted to see if I could meet Jess (Jessiferseabs), and I wanted to catch up with Corky. I think we had a really good conversation - I think it really is important to make sure you look good - which means that I need to get some more clothes that fit. If I don't feel good about myself, I don't want to do anything that will make myself to feel better - if I feel good, I like doing things better. Every girl just wants to look cute!

Anyhoo, on that note, I am planning on getting myself down to the exercise room to get in some time on the treadmill. Weather I run or walk is the question, but seems like I always run. Want to get in the distance sooner!

And I am out of points for the day, so I need to do something if I want to eat anything for supper.

ta!
-a

Counting points?

What does that mean? Does that mean that I should actually monitor the intake of food that goes into my mouth? Hmmmmm....

Anyway, on that note, dinner last night was good. Eric's family showed up a little later than they were planning, but that just gave me more time to do the cooking. I think I seriously used every pot/pan that I could. Even made Eric wash one so I could use it again to make more food!

So here were my boneheaded moves of the night:
1. I put the oven on "broil" instead of "bake" to cook the Naan. Needles to say, it did not turn out as well as expected... I figured it out when I took the last of it out of the oven.
2. For the Saffron rice, somehow I thought the rice was basmati in my jar on the counter. Wrong, it was Brown rice... took FOREVER to cook, and I could not figure out why, as it was only supposed to take 10 minutes or so! At least everyone was gone taking Chris to the airport, and it was not a big deal.

I got a call from a recruiter last night as I was doing all of my dinner cooking - I guess there is a company looking for an Industrial Hygienist. Never hurts to look, and if there is less travel, even bigger bonus!

Speaking of travel, I am off to Chicago for the night - I have training I have to do tomorrow. The good part is I get to fly instead of having to drive. Somehow I found a round-trip flight on Monday, for Thursday, to O'Hare, for $168. Yep, instead of 14 quality hours in my vehicle, I am getting on an airplane!

On that note, I need to pack, leave a note for the housecleaner, and get my rear to the office to prepare for my annual review, go to downtown Mpls for a meeting with our environmental guy, have lunch with my eyeglass vendor, and get to the airport....

a-