Still a little sick today, but nothing major. Just the remnants of a cold. Blah.

Had a tiring weekend. Especially tiring because of illness. Saturday had sushi with my sister and some of her friends. Then drove to Baton Rouge. Got a manicure with mom and sister, went to uncle’s house, went to dinner.

Sunday was my sister’s shower. Got lots of compliments on my new dress. Love my new dress. It was the first time I’ve seen a bunch of my relatives since I started WW, so I got lots of compliments on how I looked, too. Always nice to hear.

Yesterday my sister took her bridal portraits. I went along. Then we went to lunch. Then I went back to New Orleans. Last night I went to a friend from work’s house and ate my weight in finger sandwiches, mini quiches and potato chips. I woke up full this morning. Bleeeggghhh. Nevertheless, I expect to see a loss this week. (Even after the orgy of food last night I weighed a bit less this morning. So keep fingers crossed.)

Tonight I babysit my cousin Max. He’s 13 months old and very cute. I saw him Saturday at my uncle’s house in Baton Rouge and tonight I’ll be babysitting him at my uncle’s condo on Bourbon Street. Yeah, babies and Bourbon Street! What a perfect match!

Bleeeggh. Today I’m at home, took a sick day. I’ve never taken a sick day at this job. And I’ve taken maybe one other sick day in my whole life. But I have to say, I am very glad I’m not at work today. See, I sneeze a lot (see yesterday’s post about not being able to afford $40 a month for Allegra-D) and everyone in my office gets annoyed by my sneezing. I know they’re just teasing me, but hello, it’s a reflex, there’s nothing I can do. Except hit them up for some of their Allegra-D. Ha ha. So anyway, on a normal day I sneeze a lot. Just now, I sneezed about 13 times in a row. Unfortunately, not even exaggerating about that.

But I am able to get some work done on my sister’s shower gift I have to give her on Sunday, so that’s a plus. And I’m off Monday (vacation day) so this is shaping up to be a looong weekend, even if today isn’t exactly fun. (Though I have been watching more episodes of “I love the 90s” on VH-1, which is awesome. I may be a child of the 80s, but the 90s was really the decade I grew up in, ya know?

Just call me Sneezy. I think I have another sinus infection. Blech. Wonder if I should go back to the ENT and give him my sob story about how I can’t afford to buy any more Allegra-D. Maybe he’d give me samples. Hmm.

Went back to Curves yesterday after work. I gotta tell you, it isn’t easy. When I signed up, I was all thinking that it was going to be so easy and I would be able to go every day, no problem. But today I definitely need a rest from it. That’s good, though. That means it will do me some good.

Nothing else exciting to report. My life is (blissfully) dull right now. Last night I watched the 1990, 1998, and 1999 shows of “I love the 90s” on VH-1. It’s hilarious.

Ugh. Gained 2.2 lbs this week because of cruise. But thinking back, would I give up the bread pudding? Twice? The lamb chops? The hot dog? The poboys? The fried green tomatoes?

No, no, no.

And I did run on the treadmill for thirty minutes on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Not that the four activity points I earned each of those days made even the tiniest dent in the 60+ points I ate every day. Ha! So I can’t complain.

The auditors are here from the corporate office. Scary, just like you’d expect auditors to be. Eep!

And I did my first Curves workout yesterday. I was surprised at how much I felt it! Am going again today. I like it. Time goes by so fast.

I joined Curves yesterday. Okay, perhaps I am not in the target demographic, but it’s not too expensive, it’s close to home, and it emphasizes strength training, which is what I need most right now. Regarding what has been said about Curves and the anti-abortion movement, I found this on snopes.com:

Gary Heavin is far from the first successful businessman to underwrite reproductive causes — Tom Monaghan of Domino’s Pizza and Carl Karcher, founder of the California-based hamburger chain Carl’s Jr., have been very open and public regarding their support of the pro-life philosophy, just as Warren Buffett, ranked by Forbes magazine as the second-richest man in the world, has been forthcoming about his backing of pro-choice programs. In each instance, these men are acting as private citizens who choose to bestow parts of their fortunes on the causes they believe in, not as officers of their corporations. The money is theirs to do with as they please, just as anyone’s paycheck belongs to the person who earns it and stops being the employer’s money at the moment it is paid out. That a spendthrift employee might choose to gamble away his earnings doesn’t mean the company he works for supports gambling; likewise, that a wealthy man financially supports particular causes doesn’t mean the corporation that paid him the money favors those movements.

All this is by way of saying that while it’s correct to identify Gary Heavin as a patron of pro-life endeavors, it would not be right to point to Curves as a supporter of those same causes.

Anyway, just so no one thinks I’m completely insensitive to the controversy surrounding Curves. I just wanna get buff, people!

I weighed myself this morning. I think I gained somewhere in the vicinity of 2-3 lbs over the weekend. Maybe. We’ll see tomorrow. Worth it, though. But am back on track as of today. Here are some pics from my cruise (not in the correct order but I will fix them and add more captions at some point.)

Holy cow.

This is good stuff.

Stonyfield Farms organic lowfat yogurt. Flavor: Luscious Lemon. I can’t wait to get to the bottom of this. Fruit on the bottom? Lemon on the bottom? Dang.

Yay! Am leaving for cruise this evening! Lobster, here I come!

Am excited. But also exhausted, as I didn’t sleep well last night. Went walking with Terry and Isabella yesterday evening. Made the baby giggle. Is there a better feeling than making a baby giggle? (Yes, of course there is. But not many.)

Ever had the Whole Foods brand frozen cherry bars? We’re talking hunks of real cherries, cemented only by frozen cherry juice. Heaven in a bar, I tell ya. Only 2 points each, and good thing I did go walking and running yesterday, because I ate three of them. God, I could eat them all the time. I think Trader Joe’s makes them too because I bought them while visiting my brother in California. (Didn’t bring them home, silly, just ate them at his house.)

So yeah. I’m thinking about joining Curves for strength-training. Hmm. Am going to check it out next week with a woman from work.

Mmmm….sushi for dinner last night. From my favorite sushi restaurant, my favorite sushi. (Nothing adventurous, but they do yummy things with salmon and snowcrab. And noodles. Yum.) And it happens to be right next to the jewelry store where Laurie got her engagement ring. Ahem. Which I love. Ahem. (Yeah, George doesn’t read this.)

We also discussed going to London next November, in a year and a half. For Thanksgiving. Why are guys so obtuse? How hard can it be to figure out that the best reason to go is for a honeymoon? Hello?!? But whatever. You can’t expect guys to be as intuitive as women.

Today my boss brought three dozen assorted Dunkin’ Donuts to the office. Not cool. I adore donuts. Jelly donuts especially. The man is trying to sabotage me! Maybe I’ll just have half…it’s just that I’m really trying not to use any flex points before the cruise tomorrow. Maybe if I exercise after work. Hmm.

Work is killing me. Ugh. I am just one (underpaid) person! What do they want from me? Blood? Yeesh. On the other hand, I’m going on a cruise this weekend and I’m going to be all about the lobster and lamb chops. Yum!

On a brighter note, I lost another 2 pounds this week. For a grand total of 25.2 lbs! Wish I could afford to treat myself to something nice, but I suppose I can’t complain, considering the number of clothes my mom has bought me recently. (And here’s to hoping they don’t fit for much longer!)

Curses to Vince! Ha ha, no, I guess I can’t totally blame him for how yicky I’m feeling this morning. That would be the three and a half glasses of wine I had last night. (Man, when did I turn into such a lightweight?) But I can sorta blame Vince because if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have had the wine, seeeee?

But we did have a lot of fun last night. Started at the pub, then went with Lindsay and Colin and Alex and George to dba, a cooool bar in the Marigny. The Marigny is a neighborhood near the French Quarter. It is way cooler than I am.

It was just the kind of fun that hanging out with friends is, nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing that makes good blog copy.

But I did make the font bigger on this page, on the recommendation of Hollie. Better?