Lost 1.4 lbs this week for a total of 5 pounds. Am happy, but wish it’d come off a little faster. Am going to concentrate on exercising this week.

Kristina yelled at me for not posting since Thursday, so here, I’m going to post. Actually, I have lots to post about, so I won’t have to babble on about boring crap. Well, relatively speaking, anyway.

Friday night we went to the pub. Nothing dramatic there.

Saturday morning we left for Houston. We planned on leaving at 8:30 or so, to arrive at about 2:00 or thereabouts. But no. I woke up and went to take a shower, only to discover that my hot water was off. So I called my landlord, and they said they’d send a plumber out to fix it while I was gone. Meanwhile, in the background, I can hear my landlady asking, “did she pay the gas bill?” Of course I paid the freaking gas bill! Hmmph. Anyway, so then I had to shower at George’s. And it was pouring rain, and we had to run a bunch of errands before we could leave New Orleans. Therefore, we did not leave New Orleans until around 11 a.m. Ah well, we didn’t have to be anywhere at any specific time, so it didn’t matter.

It rained pretty much the entire way to Houston, which sucked, but we finally made it to George’s friend Rita’s house. Her husband was out of town, but we were entertained by their little boy, Craig, who is 15 months old and was the cutest, smiliest, happiest baby I’ve ever met. He loved George the most, of course. George, who doesn’t even like kids, had to pick Craig up and sit him on his lap. George had no clue how to pick Craig up. It was funny.



So after we settled in, we all went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Yummy. Nothing exciting to report there. I had chicken flautas. Mmmm…flautas.

After dinner, George and I headed into Houston (we were staying in a town south of Houston) to go to a British pub we found on the internet. It wasn’t too hard to find, and at first glance, we were a bit worried. It was a freestanding building sandwiched between a Wendy’s and a Krispy Kreme on a busy road. Not too promising. The faux-Tudor building looked like it used to be a Steak & Ale. (Apparently it was a Chili’s at some point. Hmmm.) But once we stepped inside, we were in love with it. It was really amazing, and very, very authentic. (Except for some minor quibbles George had, including a lack of optics on the liquor bottles. Please.) There were people throwing darts, there was (non-American) football on the TV, there were beers on tap served in 20 oz pints, a roaring fire, copies of current issues of The Guardian and the London Times, and best of all, a food menu with bangers and mash! Mmmm…bangers and mash! Too bad we’d already eaten dinner.

Coincidentally, my sister was in Houston as well this weekend, so after the wedding she had gone to, she and a bunch of people from the wedding met us at the pub. (Oh yeah. It was called the Richmond Arms.) I saw her (in all of her hair-flipping glory) with her engagement ring. We talked about her wedding for a bit. After a little while, George and I went back to Rita’s house to sleep.

On Sunday, George and I went to IKEA. Yay! IKEA! I only bought a few things, including (how exciting) a wooden dish drainer. I’ve always wanted one. Pathetic, eh? He got a coffee table. Very nice. I’m guessing they don’t sell it anymore, because I couldn’t find it on the website, but it’s really cool.

Then we met Mike, Debbie, and Christian (friends who live north of Houston) at the Galleria. Damn, but that place is like mall heaven. Or hell, depending on how you look at it. There were so many cool stores. But at the same time, too many cool stores. Sigh. Didn’t spend a dime, though. Whew.

We said goodbye to M, D, and C (after hideously expensive Haagen-Dazs ice cream by the ice skating rink) and went back to the Richmond Arms. For dinner. Yay, I got my bangers and mash! It was so incredibly cozy. We sat at a table near the fireplace, had some pints, ate our dinner, read the papers. Just lovely.

Eventually we made our way back to Rita’s, and watched TV (ooh, cable!) until I fell asleep. (George had conked out at around 8, the wuss. He even made it to sleep before the baby. Yeesh.) Woke up yesterday morning, and headed back to New Orleans. About halfway back, George found out he’d have to go into work as soon as we got back home, because of some crises. He was not pleased. But I surprised him by putting together his coffee table while he was out. Ain’t I sweet? (You wouldn’t think so by the amount I was cursing IKEA while trying to hammer plastic thingies into holes just a bit too small for them. But eventually I got it.

Then I went to Whole Foods, bought some yummy groceries (including some rather expensive goat cheese that the multiply-tattooed and pierced cheese lady let me try) and thus my exciting Martin Luther King, Jr Day long weekend ended.

Now, of course, I’m broke. I don’t get paid until the Friday after next. Going to go home and find stuff to sell on eBay now.

George took me to Herbsaint for dinner last night, to celebrate my birthday. Our friend Megan works there as the grill cook. Oh man, it was delicious. I highly recommend it.

Let’s see…we started out with cocktails, a Pimms Cup for me and a gin Martini for George. They brought us out some yummy warm bread and butter. Then we got a little tasty nibble snack thingy “compliments of the chef”, but we’re not sure if everyone gets that or if it was a treat from Megan. It was deliciously unusual – some kind of smoked (I think) fish atop a mound of minced apple and fennel, drizzled with tarragon oil. Who thinks of these things? Good chefs are geniuses, I swear.

After that, we had our salads. George had a Caesar salad, which I’m sure was delicious, but it had whole anchovies on top of it, so I’m just going to take his word for it. Mine was mixed greens with dried figs, walnuts, and blue cheese (bleu?) and a sherry vinagriette. I don’t even like figs, but mmm, the salad…delicious! Mmmwah!

Entrees…George had the free-range roasted chicken with bacon and wild mushroom hash and butternut squash. Seriously, bacon and wild mushroom hash? Gorgeous. I ask again, Who thinks of these things? I had the grilled flatiron steak with fries. Yes, fancy restaurant fries. Oh god. Megan told us they were fried four times. Holy cow. And probably in beef lard or something bad but oh-so-good. The steak was so yummy. Had some herbsy-green sauce stuff on top. And there was some fancy dipping sauce for the fries. No ketchup to be seen. Mmm.

Dessert (hello, this was my birthday dinner!) was Satsuma and Cardamon Creme Brulee. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. I love creme brulee. Could stick my face in it. But I’m polite, so I don’t.

Next birthday…hmmm…hard to top….but this is New Orleans, so I think we’ll manage…

Yay happy birthday to meeeee and Shelley!

Not really. So far. Has been very busy and stressful at work. Got here at 7:30. Please, God, let me go at 5:00 as promised. Things seem to be getting sorted out, though, so maybe there’s hope.

Opened a present from my sister. A book I asked for. Yay!

Fun weekend, and yay, Friday’s my birthday! (Should I yay about that? It’s my last birthday in my twenties. How strange. But I’m not seriously stressing out about that. It’s just weird.)

Let’s seeee…Friday night, George and I went to this new Chinese buffet on the West Bank. Disgusting. Well, not completely gross, but it used to be a Shoney’s, and you can tell. It was just weird. We went to the pub afterwards, but George left after a little while because he wasn’t feeling well. I suppose from dinner, but I felt fine. I think he just ate too much. So I stayed at the pub for a while, hung out with Polly and Colin and Lindsay and her sister. It got pretty crowded, and I left a little while before midnight.

On Saturday, Terry and I went to the Navy base, to the exchange. It’s like the best store in the world. Love it. So cheap! And then George and I went and picked out new glasses for him – I swear I picked out the pair he got, but he insists I didn’t. Hmmph. After that, Terry and I went to Metairie to return something for her computer, which I’m attempting to fix up for her. Then we went to the Babies r Us store and scanned some more stuff for her registry. I was paranoid that people would think that I was the pregnant one, but since she’s quite obviously with child, I may have been overreacting. But she let me scan the stuff, which was fun. And which also made me realize just how expensive babies are. Very. Went to the pub that night. Lots and lots of LSU fans. Don’t know how they found the pub, can only imagine they spilled onto the ferry and wandered over. Hmm. I left just as the Oklahoma fans were getting there. Whew!

Sunday was just relaxing. I went to Walmart to get some groceries, but other than that, I didn’t do much. Watched Notting Hill instead of the game, though I did pause the movie and flip to the game every so often to see how LSU was doing. Yay, they won. Should I be more excited for my alma mater? Eh…I didn’t care much about it while I was there – and I was there for a long time – so I don’t see why I should care now. Nevertheless, it’s pretty cool that they won.

Oh, and here’s a picture of my necklace that I’m finally uploading. It’s turned on its side a bit. Gorgeous, eh? Note: not actual size. Ha ha.

Gonna have a brother-in-law someday…as long as my sister doesn’t turn psycho about wedding planning. Yep, my sister finally got the ring that my mom brought to Rob while we were in DC. We were beginning to wonder if Rob was going to hock it instead of giving it to Jenny. Fortunately, we won’t have to visit the pawn shops of northern Virginia to keep it in the family. (Of course Bill’s brother Mike would be a good place to start – he manages a pawn shop in Woodbridge, VA.)

So I’ll get to be the maid of honor. I wonder if my Aunt Deanne is going to be mad that Jenny got engaged first? She did, after all, promise me a mega-blowout engagement party if I got engaged first. (For my aunt, it’s some kind of contest that she wants me to win. I mean, so did I, but George might need a bit more time. Like decades. Hmm.)

Anyway, we had a nice weekend too. Worked (sorta) on Friday, went to Baton Rouge Friday night to see Chris off (sad and a very long wait at the Chimes) and then back to New Orleans Saturday morning for Laurie’s bridal luncheon and then to Anne’s house to hang out with her and then to the bachelorette party and then finally a bit of rest on Sunday and then to Bonnie’s house for a Christmas open house and then to Whole Foods to grocery shop (my favorite grocery store ever – remind me to tell you about how rich I want to be…oh heck I’ll just tell you now…I only want to be well-off enough to be able to regularly grocery shop at Whole Foods and prices be damned…okay, that’s pretty darn wealthy, so I’m going to pray that the office pool for the Powerball pays off…) and boy, was it a busy weekend. But fun, like I said. We went to Lola’s, a delicious Spanish restaurant for the bachelorette party (well, that’s not all, we did manage to make it to the Quarter for an hour or two) and had divine paella, one of my favorite foods ever.

Birthday is a week from Friday. Am excited, but I’ll be 29 – it’s my last twentysomething birthday!

Ah, could it be the happiest Christmas in a long time? I mean, first a car, then a dreamy diamond necklace? George gave me the necklace and it’s very very very very pretty. Mmmmm….Will post a photo later. I scanned it yesterday so I could show my mom, Kristina, etc. Want to wear it all the time! And probably will, except while sleeping, bathing, dying hair, etc.

Also had lovely time at George’s parents’ house for Christmas dinner, and at Mandy’s house on Tuesday for a holiday party (it’s her first Hanukah since converting to Judaism), and at Lindsay’s last night, and at the pub on Christmas eve. So many wonderful, generous, kind friends. And of course a ton of fantastic gifts, but I’m realizing the point is not that I get lots of cool gifts, but that I have so many great people in my life that want to give me gifts. And that I want to give gifts to.

Love Christmas!

Found a great great blog the other day. It’s called Mr Ointy, and I feel like I have so much in common with the writer. (Except she can write. ha.) But I fear I may be coming across as a stalker so I’m going to stop leaving comments. Tee hee!

Had drinks with old high school friends last night, Pete and Thao. They dated in high school for a little while and now they’re married. Sweet. I haven’t seen them since high school, so it was especially exciting, and nerve-wracking.

Today Skip is coming to visit! Skip is one of my friends from college. I adore him, love him, love him. He genetically engineers mice in St. Louis. I have such smart friends!

Another post! Another post! Dang, I’m good. It was a very busy five days, and there was no time for posting. Eating was our highest priority. Amazing, then, that I did well at the race on Saturday.

Kristina came in on Wednesday afternoon. After I picked her up from the airport, we had a snack at Denny’s. Went back to my house, went to the pub for a drink, and then to have sushi at Cafe Zen. Afterwards, we met Alicia out and she and Kristina played pool, as they always did. I won $2 at video poker. Woo!

I had to work on Thursday, and it was also the Christmas party. Kristina dropped me off at work, and while I was slaving away, she shopped, hung out with Alicia, saw a movie. Then she met me at work for the party. It was fun, and the food (ahem) was yummy. Some guy named Bob had his truck backed up to the door, and on the flatbed was an assortment of liqueurs and such. He gave us Frangelico. We mixed it with milk from the vending machine, which was yummy, but Kristina thought it tasted like hazelnut coffee creamer. Ah well. After the party, we headed to the Mayfair, where Alicia met us. I do miss the Mayfair, and I found out that Liz, the bartender, also lives in Algiers Point. Nice.

On Friday we had reservations at Brennan’s for breakfast, along with a gift certificate for $100. Still, two of us managed to spend $125 on breakfast. But it was so good. Oyster soup, some yummy egg dishes, and Bananas Foster and crepes for dessert. And coffee. And mimosas, of course. Yum. So after gorging ourselves (again), we walked around the French Quarter, quite a bit. Bought some Christmas presents, and later, after we had digested breakfast, we had a dozen oysters at Felix’s. Yum.

Kristina was tired, so instead of going out that night, we went to the pub briefly, ate Vietnamese for dinner, rented movies and then watched them. Ooooh, really really good movies. Gigli and How to Deal. Woah.

Saturday was grey and icky, but we had plans! Went to Port of Call for lunch. Kristina and George had the burgers and since I was running in the race later, I only had pizza. After lunch, we went to Magazine St to look for more Christmas presents. George bought a bunch, K and I didn’t have so much luck.

Afterwards, we went to City Park for the race. It was getting really cold by then. We met up with Polly and Colin. Polly and I ran the race. She ran beside me the whole time (and she said I’d beat her – ha!) and beat me by one second. (Uh, I let her win!) It was fun, though, and I beat my PR by 30 seconds, which was the whole point. Yay!

After the race, Kristina and I went back to my house, where I showered and we drank a bottle of wine. Then we went to the bonfire, but we didn’t stay long. It had burned out a little and I had left George at his house accidentally. (I am a bad girlfriend! Very forgetful.) So we went to the pub and hung out for a while, and went over to Ross and Raul’s for a while, and then to the Half Moon. I slept on the couch. I really don’t like it there, so I’m glad they got a couch so I could nap! Ha ha.

Oh yeah, and on Friday I got my contacts. Soft contacts are so hard to get in and out! But I’m getting better at it.

Yesterday, Kristina went home. We ate at Panda King, our favorite Chinese buffet, before I brought her to the airport. Santa was there, and he said I’d get everything I wanted for Christmas. Hmm….

Bad Pam for not posting more! Lesssseeeee, how was my weekend? Oh yeah, tiring. But fun and somewhat fruitful. Teresa came in Friday night to help me get the stuff together for the garage sale. Lots of stuff. We were up until 2 am or something obscene pricing stuff, picking up stuff, putting up signs, etc, etc. And then had to get up at 4:45 (hence 2 am being obscene) to start bringing everything outside. The thing is, it was really cold. Very cold. (By our standards.) So the crowds stayed away. But managed to sell most of the stuff, though not many clothes, which I had by far the most of. Whatever. I made about $200, a lot less than I wanted to, but enough for an eye exam so I can get contacts. Yay!

Took a long nap after the sale, then went across the river with George and his friend Stacy to see a band. One of the members of the band works with George, and when we went to see them a few months ago with Polly and Colin, they mentioned a Beatles tribute night. Well, that was it. It was so much fun – I even danced! Gaa! Okay, obviously I had several pints of cider. Must do to dance.

Got my Christmas tree on Sunday. Pretty. Smells good. Yay. Decorated it. Yay, yay, yay.

But all of this pales in comparison to the most exciting news (drumroll…)

…Kristina’s coming to visit! Tomorrow!! Her temp job ended today and last night we booked the ticket and yay yay yay! And I get to take Friday off work, and we’re going to Brennan’s for breakfast, and yay yay yay! But now I have to clean my house. Agh. I hate cleaning. I am not so good at it. I am messy. I also came to the disturbing and disheartening revelation that I am not only messy, I’m dirty. Blech. Well, not personally. I bathe every day. Perhaps I spend too much attention to my personal hygiene and not enough to the cleanliness of my house. I don’t dust. I don’t clean the grime out of the corners. I do vacuum and occasionally mop. I wait far too long before doing dishes. They do pile up in the sink. I don’t clean the crumbs out of my toaster oven. I leave toothpaste goo in the sink. Used floss is near the trashcan by my bed, if not completely in. Aaagh, I’m groossssss!

Well, perhaps realization is the first step. (I think I’ve been in denial long enough.) So tonight I’m actually going to clean. As much as I can without wanting to die of boredom. (It’s so dull, even if it is quite satisfying when it’s all done. Yeesh.)

Okay, will stop at store to get some furniture polish and windex and then will have my way with my messy, dirty house. At least I did the dishes on Sunday.

Ok, ok, ok, I know, I’ve hardly posted at all lately. I was sick earlier in the week (mostly better now) and I’m getting stressed…I’m having a garage sale bright and early tomorrow morning so my living room has been crammed full of random stuff. Hopefully I’ll make a lot of money. I really just want to make enough to get some contacts. That’d be $200 or so. I have an appointment for Monday to get fitted for them, so keep yer fingers crossed.

Ah, December…so busy. Garage sale tomorrow, and then we’re going to see a show tomorrow night. (Band playing Beatles covers, yay!) Next Thursday is the office Christmas party. Friday is carolling. Saturday is the Celebration in the Oaks 2 mile run. Followed by the Algiers Point bonfire. Then the following Friday is the bonfire in Gramercy, which we’re getting bused to by work. Oooh, fun! And also secret Santa stuff at work. Yay! God, I love Christmas, even if it is exhausting. Plus I need to mail my Christmas cards. And finish making the Christmas presents I’m making (which, I must say, I’m quite proud of.) And Skip’s coming in town from the 18-22nd, yay! And doing Christmas with my mom on the 21st. She says she has a very special present for me. Hmmm….mysterious.

Mostly I just can’t wait to take off these glasses and put in contacts!

And I went to the gym with Terry on Wednesday. For the past two weeks, since the 5K, that has been *it*. Gaa!