HB to meeeeeee!

Don’t you think you should automatically get a day off when it’s your birthday? Like a free holiday? I do too. Hmmph. Oh well. Ren and Gary are coming to have lunch with me today. That’ll be fun. We are going to have sushi, and maybe Gary will get a pina colada again. Nothing says “raw fish” like a pina colada. Or nothing says “pina colada” like raw fish. Something like that.

Went to the beach last weekend. It was so fun and relaxing. Hope to do it again soon.

Tonight George is taking me to Galatoire’s for dinner. I have never been. I am v excited to go. That thing we call “Weight Watchers” and “points” do not exist tonight, though I will go to the gym after work and will count points during the day to attempt to minimize the gain. Because by golly, I will eat the hollandaise sauce!

Okay, must get ready for work now….boo!

Happy New Year!

In spite of the fact that George and I have both been sick for the past few days, I don’t think it bodes badly for a new year. I certainly had a great time on Sunday night. Perhaps too great, as it happens. But that’s all done and past. While I have your typical run-of-the-mill cold, complete with fun chest congestion, poor George had a nasty bout of food poisoning. Well, we think it’s food poisoning. Presumably it came from a salad I made him at a grocery store salad bar. A very fancy grocery store salad bar. No proof though.

Just before the tainted salad was consumed, we went to the movie and saw the Holiday. Cute and all, but I really wasn’t convinced of the chemistry of the couples. Too bad. What I coveted most from that film wasn’t Kate Winslet’s flawless skin, but instead her perfect, cozy, tiny cottage. Ah well, they only exist in movies, right?

I also banged my knee up pretty badly on New Year’s Eve, and now am walking around with a limp and a bacon bandaid on my knee.

Happy New Year!

Christmas pictures!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Me, I did. Got a bunch of good stuff, including (best of all), not one, but TWO diamond pendants from George! Atta boy! I’m going to return one, though, and get something else like a ring or earrings or an anklet or something. (Kidding about the anklet, in case you don’t know me.) George doesn’t mind the exchange, because, see, I already have one diamond necklace and now if I have THREE then my first one and my new one will be worn only 1/3 of the time each, but now they can be worn half the time each, and they won’t feel like I’m neglecting them.

Here is a picture of the new ones…the one on the right is the one I’m keeping. Ain’t it dreamy?

So, in addition to the diamond extravaganza, I also got to hang out with Ellie (and the rest of my immediate family.) Exciting, no?

So, as most of you now know, I’M GETTING ANOTHER NIECE! Of course this is good news, except for Ellie. Now she won’t get to refer to “my cousin Vinny”. But what can ya do?

Can you believe it’s a week til Christmas? No, me neither, when the temperature is in the *&#@ 80s. Ah well. Who cares what the weather’s like, because Ellie will be here in six days!

Had quite the family-oriented weekend. Friday, I had dinner with cousin Monica and her son Max. Max is so cute. He calls me “Aunt Pam” and climbed on my lap and asked me if I was happy (yes, how could I not be, with you being so sweet?) and we had lots of fun playing with his toys after dinner.

On Saturday, I went to Baton Rouge and Mom and I had dinner with some of her siblings. It was Mom’s birthday-eve. I probably shouldn’t mention numbers, in case Mom is reading. Let’s face it, Christmas is coming and it’s not too late to return my presents.

On Sunday, Mom’s actual birthday, we went to brunch (mmmm, eggs sardou) and then did some Christmas shopping. Well, she did anyway. It’s really hard to think of presents for my brother and brother-in-law. On the other hand, my brother owes me $50, so maybe I don’t have to find anything for him after all. Hmmph.

We also got Mom a Christmas tree and set up a web cam. We got to see Ellie on it, so the stress of dealing with a Windows computer was worth it, in the end.

And then I babysat Max last night. We had lots of fun watching Cars. Max was understandably upset when Mommy left, but he calmed down before too long and we were able to enjoy the antics of Lightning McQueen and Mater (my favorite.) Unfortunately, a massive cockroach decided HE wanted to have fun too, so we fled the room and played with Max’s toys for a while instead. And then Monica came home and killed the roach and all was well.

Hurrah!

This post will take the form of a bulleted (okay, dashed) list…

– today jenny and rob find out if i will be having a niece or a nephew!

– this weekend was pretty jam-packed with fun. friday night would have been much better, though, if i’d run into paula at the beginning of the (very painful to me) concert, rather than at the end.

– i beat my personal record of 20:56 at the Celebration in the Oaks 2-mile run with a blistering 20:30! Yes, I kill myself to run 10:15 miles. teresa, however, while she had a good time, ended up with a severely swollen pair of eyes. it is a medical mystery, but now she is all better.

– i got the best christmas present so far this year (and this one is going to be hard to beat, people) from kristina. it’s the most beautiful purse in the world.

i swore i wouldn’t use it until christmas, but today my willpower was out to lunch and i couldn’t resist. the leather, it is like butter!

– last night, whilst toasting tortillas to go in the soup i made, i turned our house into a smoke pit. i may have left them in the toaster oven a tad long, and they may have turned to ash. the stench is lovely. how to get rid of it?

– sunday is mom’s birthday! so i will be going to baton rouge saturday night so we can see “The Holiday” and then have brunch on sunday.

– 10 days to ellie! again!

I just posted on how I am having a hard time with Christmas shopping. Seriously, it is not easy! Usually I don’t have a problem thinking up fun, original gifts for my friends and family, but for some reason this year, I’m totally stymied.

But then I thought, what about Gourmet Gifts? How fun is that? One year, I got a gift of cheese from Kristina, and it was the most fun present ever. I’ll never forget that. So take it from me, a gift of the gourmet will always be a hit.

Some ideas:
Chocolate Indulgence (yes please!)
For the newlyweds
For the grillmaster in your life
Oooh, and this looks like a great one to sneak into the movie theater. Not that I’d ever do that…
Oh my. Here’s what I need…a YEAR OF CHOCOLATE! What a year that’d be…oh my…

Hmmm….now, remember, act surprised if you get one of these from me!

Mmmm, five spice pork…

Kidding, kidding. I know, I haven’t posted in a while. Want to see some pics from my trip to Monterey? I had a bunch of meetings, but don’t worry, I didn’t take pictures of those. I do have plenty of photos of jellyfish, and Ellie. Hey, that almost rhymes!

Busy weekend ahead. Tomorrow night is some show at the HOB that I got George tickets to for an anniversary gift. Can I tell you what a good wife I am? I am not at all excited about watching some guy play a guitar all night long. But George is, so I got him the tickets. (I was rather hoping he’d bring someone who would enjoy the music to the show, but alas. He wanted me to go, and therefore he is a good husband. Or is he torturing me, and does that make him a bad husband? Naah. I shall make him take me to dinner first, and then it’ll be okay.)

Then on Saturday, I have the Celebration in the Oaks 2 mile race. I’m hoping I can beat my time of 20:56, but I am not too optimistic. However, I did do a time of 21:15ish on the treadmill the other day, so maybe it is doable. I’m going to try it again today, and see if I can go a bit faster. I think I can.

After the race (and a shower), we’re going to the Quarter to see Rites of Passage (our wedding band, and friends) for their Beatles tribute night. It’s my favorite show that they do (they do it every year.) And no, I won’t be air-guitaring along. Heh heh.

And then Sunday is possibly Christmas shopping with mom. I really need to work on that.

Oh yeah, speaking of Christmas presents, I got one from work already…a video iPod. Daaang, I love my job!

Oh my!

Do NOT make this dish unless you’re prepared to eat an entire pork tenderloin on your own. Because it is THAT GOOD.

Holy crap. Yum.

Five Spice Pork

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I ate waaaay too much and drank waaaay too much, but it was fun. We had dinner at the pub, and everyone brought something. It might not have been the best-organized potluck ever, considering there were four turkeys and about eight pumpkin pies. But it was all so good. Too good!

And tonight, Jon and Teresa and George and I are going out for our anniversary dinner. Not sure, in retrospect, how wise it was to schedule another big meal right after yesterday’s orgy of eating, but maybe it’s best to just get it all done at once. Not sure I’m hungry yet, though. Ha ha! I’ll manage, I’m sure.

We’re going to the Bombay Club. We went there for drinks on Teresa’s birthday and had a great time. Can’t wait to eat there! And have some port. I like port. It is yum. Liquid raisins. And I don’t even like raisins!

And six days until I see my Ellie. Yay!

Yesterday I made the mistake of going back and reading the archives of my blog. It depressed me for two reasons. First, I was a much better blogger back then. I wrote long, witty, genius, brilliant, hilarious, clever entries. Now I’m lucky if my entries are longer than 100 words. Second, I was reading the entries from early 2004, when I first started Weight Watchers. I was so hardcore! I lost 3.2 lbs in a week, and that was normal! I lost 35 lbs in 6 months!

So here’s what I take from that lesson. I need to write better entries (regardless of the fact that no one comments anymore, sniff, sniff) and I need to get really hardcore with Weight Watchers.

So starting Friday (for real, come on people, you try counting points on Thanksgiving day), I’m going to be seriously hardcore. I mean, Kristina’s wedding is now a little over four months away and I look like a repulsive blob. I don’t want to do that to her.

And a happy 18-month birthday to my adorable Ellie!