July 12, 2004

Had a great (if tiring) weekend with my mom. Had dinner with Tee on Friday night at a Mexican place (fish tacos – yum!) and then shopped with my mom on Saturday (got a pretty skirt and dress). We ate lunch at Applebee’s so I could try the WW dishes they have, but I was unimpressed. I can see how others might like it, but I don’t eat onions and (especially) celery, and their salads had either one or the other. Whatever. We got the chicken wraps which had corn in them. I love corn, but never in things. Only on its own. So anyway. Grilled chicken and vegetables for dinner. I want a barbecue pit bad!

Sunday we shopped a bit more, then I took my mom on the American Queen, one of my company’s boats that was in Baton Rouge on Sunday. First we ate lunch at Macaroni Grill, though, and I had this extremely delicious grilled vegetable plate. I think I may turn into a grilled vegetable.

Tonight we’re going out with Vince, the guy who introduced George and I. Can’t wait to see him.

July 9, 2004

So they’re filming a TV movie at the library across the street from my house. This morning I took some fuzzy pictures of the goings on in my jammys.

Went to a WW meeting last night with Terry. We didn’t stay for the actual meeting but I bought some of their “Just 2 Point” bars. (I just showed them to my boss, who said, “well, how many points are they?” and I giggled and she laughed at herself. TGIF and stuff.) I had one of the bars last night. Not too bad. Not great either, but at two points, I won’t complain.

Leaving for Baton Rouge after work tonight. Having dinner with Tee. Yay! Haven’t seen her in far too long, and haven’t really hung out with her in even longer. We’re going to have mexican food. Yum! Don’t know how I’m going to manage, point-wise, especially considering they’re giving us pizza for lunch today at work. And don’t think I’m gonna pass that up!

DC or bust!

Yay! My mom and I got our plane tickets to DC in August. Leaving Thursday afternoon, returning Sunday evening. Yay! Get to see Kristina! And Chris! Get to shop at H&M and IKEA! Yay! Plus probably yummy brunch food at the shower! (Yeah, let’s remember the real reason I’m going – my sister’s wedding shower.)

Nothing else exciting to report. That’s pretty exciting, though, doncha think?

Down 1.8

Yay! Lost 1.8! I knew that cheeseburger was a good idea…

Went to gym last night with Terry. Figured out I want to lose 15.4 or so more pounds by the wedding, which is 14 weeks away. I think I can do it. Also want arms to be buff.

Got a present in the mail from Kristina yesterday. V v v v v v exciting. The DVD of “Love Actually” and a balance ball workout video, which I’ve been wanting for a long time. I haven’t used my balance ball for a long time (wood floors in the house scare me) but I think I’ll bite the bullet and try it now that I have an actual workout video. Heck, if mine pops, I’ll just use George’s. We don’t need two anyway.

Made some delish sweet potato sticks last night. I think I’ve already posted the recipe, but here’s a link to it just in case I didn’t.

July 6, 2004

Loooove long weekends. Aren’t they just the best? Here’s how mine went, chock full o’ fun…

Friday: Went to pub. Ordered pizza for dinner to assuage intense pizza cravings. Yum. Went with friends Lindsay, Matt, Dawn, and Colin, and George to sleazy, cheesy bars in a rather less-than-classy section of town. Always fun.

Saturday: Took Stinky to the vet to get her neck checked out. Vet says allergy, but to what? Hmm. She wasn’t too happy about the visit. Went to the library, checked out some books. Went grocery shopping. Went to the movies. Saw The Terminal. Enjoyed it, but the movie had too many endings. Probably will never watch it again. Wandered around Lowe’s with George. Now this is the fun part of home ownership. Going to home improvement stores with a real purpose in mind. Not that we bought anything terribly exciting. Primer for the porch floor and some chain to hang some candle holders Tee gave me as a housewarming gift. George picked up some color samples for his “pub”, which is what he is calling what is now the garage. Later this week it will no longer be the garage, thanks to a wall that is being built to make it a room instead.

Saturday night: I stayed in while George went to the pub. I was sleepy. Read my book from the library.

Sunday: Got up early, made a gorgeous blueberry galette (fancy word for tart made with no tart pan) but forgot to get George to take a picture of it. Sheesh. What’s the point of a digital camera? Anyway, we left around noon to go to our friend Liam’s new house (and I use the word very loosely as it is under extensive renovation) near the Mississippi Gulf Shore. I’d say beach but it is too disgusting to call it that.

When we got there, we found Liam and some of his friends (and his 15 year old nephew visiting from Dublin) on the, well, beach. I did stick my feet in and some people do swim in it, but I would never. Ew. Anyway, the day was spent at the Crab Festival in Bay St. Louis (we rode on a nauseating but fun hang-gliding ride and ate hot dogs) and at Liam’s house and at Super Walmart. Now that’s a real slice of America! The boys set off some fireworks, Polly and I bought a watermelon, we ate the fattest, most delicious crabs and the spiciest corn in the world. I actually had burns on my face from the corn. Gaa!

Just before dark we set off to attempt to get home before the fireworks, but alas, we missed them. Not completely – we did see them from the car, and in fact we saw bits of lots of displays, and even caught the big finale of the one we were trying to get to, so not a total loss. Was a fun day overall.

Yesterday was very lazy. I did go to Target to get a few things but most of the day was spent lazing around the house. Went for a bike ride in the evening and then George took me to get a cheeseburger at Bennigan’s. I’m trying an experiment, to eat a massive quantity of points on just one day to see if it helps me to lose weight this week. Since I’ve been too good in past weeks, without a significant loss, maybe this will work. Fingers crossed…

Wedding excitement

Well, the wedding yesterday was lovely. And very interesting. I’ve been to a million Catholic weddings, but this was my first Jewish wedding. Mazel tov! And Mandy and Mike were glowingly, sickeningly happy. Very sweet.

But an hour into the reception, George and I had to leave as his pasta had pine nuts in it. George is highly allergic to pine nuts. (I feel bad because Mandy said there were no nuts in it – I hope no one else had an allergic reaction!) Fortunately, because he didn’t eat a whole nut (we don’t think) and because he’s on Singular (because of Stinky), his reaction wasn’t so bad. A dose of liquid Benadryl was enough to stop it. But the hotel (where the reception was held) didn’t sell Benadryl in the gift shop so we had to leave. And we didn’t go back, so I didn’t get cake nor a chance to catch the bouquet. Dang it! I was determined to catch that dang bouquet. Sheesh. But George did slightly make up for it by buying me a Crunchie bar at World Market. Mmm, Crunchie bar.

Went to the gym this morning. Did arms on the weight machines. I wanna be buff!

Also, to answer comments: Jewish weddings can’t be on Saturdays, so Mandy and Mike decided on Thursday at 1 pm. Don’t ask, I don’t know why exactly.

And here’s the recipe for Cinnamon-Sugar Knots:

POINTS® value | 2

Servings | 12

Preparation Time | 10 min

Cooking Time | 15 min

Level of Difficulty | Easy

Ingredients

2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

11 oz refrigerated bread stick dough

3 serving butter-flavor cooking spray

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Mix well and set aside.

Unroll breadsticks and cut each in half lengthwise (to make a total of 24 pieces). Arrange pieces on prepared baking sheet and coat with cooking spray. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon-sugar mixture over each piece. Tie each piece into a knot (pulling dough gently if necessary). Sprinkle remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture over knots.

Bake until puffed up and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve warm. Yields 2 knots per serving.

 

July 1, 2004

I think I’m addicted to posting. No, actually, addicted to comments. Yeah!

Don’t have much to say. I am leaving work early today to go to my friend Mandy’s wedding. She is so adorable, I’m sure it’s going to be a great wedding. She’s all teeny and thin and kinda kooky-cute, which I love about her. I love the way she dresses, so I can’t wait to see her wedding dress.

She converted to Judaism a year or so ago, because her husband-to-be is Jewish. Last December she had a holiday party and they made latkes and we played the dreidel game and it was lots of fun. Their wedding is at 1 pm today, which is unusual but has the benefit of getting me out of a half day of work. Of course, it also means taking half a vacation day, but whatever. It’s a sit-down meal reception, which is very unusual down South. Should be interesting.

Last night I made these cinnamon-sugar knots from a WW recipe. The knots are small and 1 point each. Too too too too good fresh out of the oven, and I ate like 7 of them. So I brought them to work today so they’ll have to eat the rest of them. Yes, when it comes to pastrys, Pam has no self-control. Mmm, speaking of…wedding cake! Yum!

Cool!

Also just found out a famous New York band might be filming a video (or maybe an MTV special) on one of our boats. Since I am a fan of this band (and no one else in the company has even heard of them), my boss said he’d do what he could to get me on the boat. Cool!

Curses!

$#%&?!@

Gained back the .4 I lost last week. Highly annoying. Incredibly annoying. I was so good last week! Maybe too good? I keep reading on the WW boards and in various other places that you should have a couple of high point days each week. Maybe I should plan to use all of my flex points on two days (17 per day) instead of evenly distributing them throughout the week. Maybe that would help?

Any thoughts?

Exciting

Wish I led a more interesting life, but alas. Here’s how I know I don’t: I’m very excited by what I bought at Sam’s last night. And I promise it’s not exciting. Laughing Cow cheese wedges. 1 point each. But only one is 1 point. In the way that only Weight Watchers math can be, two wedges are three points. Hmmph. But on an English muffin (2 points), should be a nice snack with mix of carbs and protein and fat. Hmmm. On second thought, do these faux cheese wedges have protein? Must do research. Anyway, they’re tasty, so who cares. One point!

Also got 2 pounds of strawberries. Yum. And they’re very very tasty. (Also got some frozen fish. Not quite as exciting.)

Before Sam’s, we went to eat at Pho Tau Bay, the best Vietnamese restaurant. It’s cheap and delicious. I wish I could tell you what I order, but I order by number. CM10 and B9 I highly recommend. And the beef stew. Yes, Vietnamese beef stew. Not like American beef stew. Gorgeous. But I had the CM10 last night, which is chargrilled pork on a bed of broken rice (I love this rice. They crush it before they cook it, so it’s all these little pieces of rice. I’m big on texture, see.) and that sauce that comes with Vietnamese food. The clear sauce with some shredded carrots floating in it. What is that heavenly broth? And a few sliced cucumbers. Simple but so friggin’ good. Oh yeah, and these steamed egg cakes. Yeah, try to figure out the points for that! And I ate all of it. Along with a spring roll. (Fresh, not fried.)

My other favorite Vietnamese dish is chargrilled shrimp thingies (some kind of ground up shrimp bits all smooshed together and grilled, don’t ask, but very yummy) and some cut up (fried) spring rolls on a bed of vermicelli noodles and lots of green stuff (mint, thai basil, i think, limes, sprouts, stuff like that) and that magical sauce. Very good. Dang, I should write menus, eh?

Tomorrow is weigh in. Hope I lose.

06/28/04

Went shopping this weekend! Had lots of fun. Laurie came with me. It was really cool because I was able to wear things at stores I haven’t even had the courage to set foot in in many years. For instance, the Gap. Express. Banana Republic. etc, etc. Ended up buying a bunch of shirts and two skirts (one from American Eagle Outfitters. Who knew?) and three pairs of shoes. Lovely.

Polly and Colin and George and I tried to go see Fahrenheit 9/11 on Friday night, but it was sold out. (Helloooo, I told George we’d have to buy tickets in advance, but he underestimates the intelligence of New Orleanians.) So we went to see a band play instead. Now, I hate New Orleans music so I don’t normally like going to see bands play, but I do love a good cover band. Tee hee! And this is a good cover band. Nothing cheesy, mostly Beatles and stuff. And we had the most delicious New Yaaawwwwk-style pizza beforehand. One slice, thank you. Stinkin’ points.

Saturday night, we were able to see the movie. Very powerful. Very emotionally wrenching in parts. Go see it. I won’t say anything else about it.

Yesterday was for relaxing and playing with the tiniest kittens ever. It took everything I had in me not to stick one in my pocket and run home with it. But of course they grow up, and Stinky is quite enough of a handful, thankyouverymuch.

Went to the gym this morning with Terry. Was nice to run on a treadmill again with fans blowing on me. Am a bit out of running shape, am looking forward to getting back into it, and with the weight I’ve lost, beating my 5K PR in the fall. And then training for my next marathon in May. But they raised the per-visit cost for civilians – $2 per visit instead of $1. Okay, still cheap, but harder to come up with.

06/25/04

Regarding yesterday’s nonexistent gym visit or phone call from Terry…nothing was wrong with her or the baby, she just fell back asleep on the couch after getting up with Isabella. Must be hard to adjust to new motherhood. But Isabella is the squishiest, softest, cutest, smiliest 3 month old I know so there are compensations. And she smells good. And she drooled on me. She must like me!

Last night hung out at Janice’s house. (I work with Janice. She’s nuts. She lives a few blocks from us.) George had fixed her computer. Whenever we go over there, she and her husband, Butch, ply us with alcohol, particularly these amaretto slushies that Butch makes. Holy cow, they’re yummy but high in points. I only had a little last night, I swear!

Can’t wait to go shopping tomorrow. Yay! Think we might go see Fahrenheit 911 tonight. Should be interesting, but is sure to enrage George (in the way Michael Moore intended.)