02.27.09
Reality TV is my reality.
You’ll be happy to know that I didn’t forget half my lunch today. I brought it, and then didn’t eat half of it. What can I say? I’m capricious!
And it’s a wet and rainy Friday here in the ATL. It’s hard to believe that 4 days ago I was basking in the 85 degree sunshine of the Caribbean. I’m not bitter.
Last night Dice had to work late, so rather than wait for him I just ran home. Unfortunately I didn’t leave the office quite early enough and it was pretty dark by the time I made it home! And me without my reflective gear! It was a good run, especially since the weather was nice: clear and mid-60s.
I had enough time before Dice got home to watch the Top Chef finale! I’m, frankly, shocked that Hosea won. Considering how well Carla had been doing towards the end, and how well Stefan had done all frickin’ season, it just surprises me that they wouldn’t take any of that into account. I know that it’s their practice to judge only on that meal and not take the rest of the season into account, but that practice sucks, in my opinion. It’s just short-sighted and unfair to allow someone with mediocre skills to skate through to the finale and then manage to cook just a little better than the other two, who could wipe the floor with him on any other day. All that said, I like Hosea just fine, and I think he’s a really good chef. I think Stefan is probably better, but whatever.
I also had time to watch the first hour of the Biggest Loser from this week. I believe I’ve mentioned recently that not only am I obsessed with the show this season, but that it’s touched me so deeply that I’ve considered stopping watching it because it actually disturbs me. Well, that ended with the first hour of this week’s episode. Maybe not ended forever, but it definitely put me off. The breaking up and reforming of the teams was traumatic, but Bob and everyone on his former team were literally puddles of quivering nerve endings. I mean, it’s not like anyone’s dying. It’s actually a really good thing for the contestants to switch trainers, that way they learn another way of working out and are thus even better equipped to deal with the outside world. But Bob and his former team were so annoying about how upset they were. All they have to do is look over to the other side of the gym! They’re in the same building! The editors even created this HORRIBLE video montage of the contestants doing pushups and then high-fiving Bob in the halcyon days of yore. I threw up just a little bit in my mouth.
On the other hand, it was really funny that Jillian’s old team had very little problem changing trainers. Bob had, like, a summit meeting outside the gym for an hour with his old team, meanwhile Jillian’s old team is workin’ out, doin’ their thing, totally unconcerned. Hell, I wouldn’t be if I just got switched to Bob, either!
02.26.09
MoM Evaluation, and plans for another one.
Gah. I forgot half of my lunch today! PANIC! This is a crisis. If only there were a means of obtaining food in my office building. Oh WAIT, there’s a full cafe downstairs! Problem solved.
Back to real life. Except for my Puerto Rican vacation (uhhhh, and a day or two before and afterward, heh) I feel that I did quite well on the Month of Moderation. Not perfect, but well enough that I feel that it was more successful than the doomed-from-the-start Month of Repentance. Throughout the month (and again, this is except for the Puerto Rico part) I only ate dinner out once per week (plus trivia night, but I only have salad there), lunch out once (or less, one week we never went to lunch!) and didn’t drink any alcohol during the week. It wasn’t perfect. For instance, because I took the PR weekend completely off from running I will probably only complete about 90 miles this month, and that’s only IF I get my 6 miles in tonight, and at least 10 miles tomorrow and Saturday combined. That is a very sad situation.
But practice makes perfect, right? So March will also be another Month of Moderation. There are a couple events in March that will require fancy dinners out, so it will be a challenge to stick with the rules. But I’m certainly going to try! Poor Dice, even if he didn’t want to take part in the Month of Moderation, he really doesn’t have a choice. But, it’s for both of our benefits, so even if he didn’t want to (which he does, by the way) he would still inadvertently improve. And while the mini-vacation almost completely derailed my Moderation goals, I’m back on track again and am hoping that another Month of Moderation will cement those practices so that I will no longer want to go out to eat every single night. Yeah, RIGHT!
02.25.09
Expect to be jealous!
There’s nothing I hate more than having to re-write stuff. I remember when I was a kid and my dad bought our first computer, a Mac II. I started typing all my school papers on it immediately. This was long before the auto-save function we rely on today. And occasionally I would write the entire paper only to have the computer freeze up and lose the entire thing! Very few things in this world lead me closer to suicide than that. So you can see why I’m not all that psyched to re-create the already mediocre narration of my fabulous Puerto Rican vacation. But I’ll try.
We drove to the airport with the Canadians on Friday morning and met Tim and Robin at the gate. It’s about a 3 hour flight to San Juan. After picking up our high class Kia Sedona minivan, we drove through Old San Juan, seeing the old fort and a plaza who’s name I can’t remember. Eventually we had lunch where I tried my first taste of mofongo, which was less flavorful than I had expected, but still good. After that we made the 3 hour drive to Rincon where our rental house is. Everyone had told us it would only take us 2 hours to get there, but that’s a bald-faced lie because it didn’t take us one second less than 3 painstaking hours on the road. Once we got settled in we wandered into downtown Rincon where there was a festival happening. So we all got pina coladas from a street vendor and wandered through the artists stalls before ending up at a bar having cans of Medalla Light, the local Puerto Rican beer.
Saturday morning we got up and explored the beaches of Rincon. Rincon means “corner” in Spanish and it’s located on the west corner of the island where the Atlantic meets the Carribean. So it’s got several fabulous beaches to choose from. We ended up at Maria’s Beach where we had breakfast/lunch at the Calypso Cafe, a low-key, slow cafe with a nice view of the ocean, not too far from our house. We had several meals at Calypso since it was convenient. Saturday afternoon we went swimming at one of the other beaches.
The waves were much too strong for snorkeling or boogey-boarding, but they were FANTASTIC for jumping in the water and getting pushed back to shore! Which I love. In the evening we showered off the sand and salt and went to Calypso for rum punches at sunset, watching the sun set over the ocean, before heading out to another restaurant for a great tapas meal. Among other things I had two kinds of empanadillas and a plate of dorado, a local fish.
Sunday morning we went to Bananadang!, which is a coffee and smoothie place dedicated to sustainable business. I had the Purple Dang Smoothie, which has acai and bananas and is DAMN good. After that we rented snorkels and went snorkeling for a couple of hours. The water was much calmer and I could have spent all freaking day out there, but eventually we had to come in to have lunch. After lunch we dropped the Canadians and Robin at another beach for more fun in the sun while Dice, Tim and I took a little trek to San German (pronounced “hare-MAN”), a little town southeast of Rincon with some cultural history. Dice particularly wanted to see an old church which was either the oldest church in the Americas or the oldest chapel in the Americas, or possibly ONE of the oldest chapels in the Americas. Something along those lines. Anyway, we saw the church and drove through the really quaint and historic squares in the town. Then we headed back to pick up the others, all sunburnt and tired. While they showered and recovered from their day, I walked down to the beach that was about 100 yards from our house and had myself a lovely sunset swim.
By the time I returned and showered it was time for dinner. First we went to a bar called the Villa Cofresi, after the dreaded Pirate Cofresi from the 17th or 18th century. They have a drink called the piratta (which means “pirate”) which consists of 3 kinds of rum served in a coconut. So we all enjoyed a piratta, which wasn’t all that great but it was definitely an experience, while watching the sun set over the ocean. Again. Yeah, that just doesn’t get old.
Once we were finished our pirattas we heard that a restaurant not far from our house called Shipwreck was having a pig roast, which means we totally had to go! Unfortunately that turned out not to be true, but we stayed for dinner anyway. I had a seriously delicious mahi mahi dish, and the female half of the Canadians, Dice and Robin all had the seafood mofongo, which they said was also fabulous. The male half of the Canadians had a salad with tuna on it which I think was the winner of all the dishes, though. I tried the tuna and it could not have been more fresh or better prepared. A very nice conclusion to our vacation.
Monday morning I walked down to the beach with the Canadians and enjoyed a really wonderful early morning swim. There’s nothing like starting the day with a refreshing dip in the Carribean, you know? Especially when you know the day is going to include a lot of travel and stress. We packed up all of our stuff and climbed into the minivan for our 3 hour trip back to San Juan. (With a quick stop at the Dang! for breakfast. DANG!) Once in San Juan we had no time for lunch so we had to eat airport food, which turned out to be fine and allowed us enough time to make important purchases at the duty free shop like Puerto Rican rum and multi-packs of Toblerone. Priorities!
The flight back to Atlanta went smoothly. Once back on the ground we split into two fast-acting teams: T&R and the female half of the Canadians waited for the baggage at baggage claim, then took a taxi to T&R’s house to pick up their car. Dice, the male half of the Canadians and I ran to our car and sped over to Wag-A-Lot to pick up the doggies, Jack and Murphy, before they closed for the night. It worked out perfectly because by the time we managed to collect the dogs and get home, the other team was already there. We all re-convened at the Canadians’ and ordered pizza and ate our dinner staring at the TV due to a combination of exhaustion and the fact that we hadn’t seen this novelty called TV in four days. After we ate we all went to our various homes and went to bed. Well, actually Dice and I were too wired still to go to bed immediately, so we stayed up watching TV for a little while longer before packing it in.
As far as I’m concerned, it was a perfect long-weekend getaway. I could not have been more pleased with the beautiful 85 degree weather, sunny and breezy, clear water, good companions, and great food to eat. Basically, it was so awesome that I am still depressed about having to be back at my humdrum daily life. BOO! When’s the next vacation? And where are we going?
02.24.09
Don’t hold your breath.
Hmph. I had an entire description of my fabulous Puerto Rican vacation all typed out when Firefox quit unexpectedly. I don’t have time to re-write it now. Maybe if you’re lucky I’ll get to it tomorrow!
02.19.09
Vacaciones!
Whooo hooo! We’re all checked in to our flight and I’m ALL excited! We leave tomorrow morning for San Juan, Puerto Rico, but we’re staying in beautiful Rincon, which is all the way across the island. This means we’ll get to see a lot of the island as we drive from San Juan to Rincon and back again. I should have a full report on all the exciting adventures we (don’t) have!
Dinner last night was wonderful. It was just so nice to have a quiet dinner with M&K, and catch up with them. I see them on a fairly regular basis as I’m running around the neighborhood, mostly because I often make it a point to run past the properties they’re working on. So I see them a couple times a week just to chat for 5 minutes. But it was nice to stop and have tacos with them. We went to Holy Taco which was, as usual, completely delicious. I know that cheese dip has changed their menu and added a bunch of new tacos, and I really hope they’re as good as Holy Taco tacos, because otherwise there could be trouble. I had the vegetarianos tacos which have black beans and rice with cabbage and radish. So delicious! I know that black beans aren’t Mexican, that’s an Americanization, but they still taste good. Although I do have to say, it would be nice to have the option of refried beans, ya know?
Anywho. Vacation awaits! Expect a full report upon my return.
02.18.09
Twist my arm!
And the irony is that the reason why I was so antsy to go out last night was because it was our regular trivia night, but we skipped it in order to have dinner with our good friends and neighbors M&K tonight. And yet tonight I’d much rather stay in and eat my healthy food because our trip to Puerto Rico looms and I’m worried that all I’m going to eat for four days are pork, mofongo and pina coladas! Still, I will manage to choke down a couple tacos tonight and have a refreshing glass of wine. Twist my arm, right?
You heard that right, folks! I’m counting the hours until our Puerto Rican mini-break this weekend! (For those of you who aren’t Anglophiles, the British call long weekend trips “mini-breaks.” In case you think I’m all travelled and seasoned, I first learned this from Bridget Jones’ Diary. YEAH, I said it!) Four glorious days of 85 degree days and pork- and pina-colada-filled nights. We’ve rented a beach cottage with the Canadians and T&R, and I for one plan to have a thoroughly relaxing and fattening time. There’s the rain forest to explore, the Arecibo Observatory and Puerto Rican culture. All of which I’m going to miss because I’m going to be on the BEACH in my BIKINI reading my BOOK.
But that’s not for a couple more days. So here I sit, counting the hours. Fortunately I’ve got dinner tonight to while away my time with. Heh.
02.17.09
Stickin’ to mah guns.
I’ve been doing really well on not having the urge to go out to eat, but today I’m having a setback. I don’t know why, something inside me just yearns to go out, have a good time, not care about piddly things like health and my credit card debt. It’s the same something that ruled most of my life during my 20s, and it was also the reason why I was 25 pounds heavier and couldn’t walk upstairs without gasping for air. Must remember goals! Must stick to the rules! Must not fail!
Failure is not an option.
Last night I went to my neighborhood running group for the first time in a few weeks. We had five solid people there, which was nice. The other four were fasty-fast-fast, though, which always makes me feel bad. I can go forever, but I rarely break a 9 minute mile. However, I got almost seven miles in so I’m fairly pleased. Then I went home, ate a spinach salad, watched Jeopardy! and went to bed early. And guess what I’m going to do tonight? The exact same thing. Except replace running group with simply going to the gym. And so now you can see why I’m antsy to go out for a burger and a glass of wine. Dammit.
Aaaand, I’m over it. Tonight the next episode of The Biggest Loser airs. In previous seasons I’ve watched episodes here and there, never really getting into it. For some reason, this season I’ve been totally hooked. In fact, I’m so invested that I cry at almost every episode, and have even thought about not watching it anymore because it’s too heart wrenching! Can you believe that? Sometimes Dice will walk in while I’m watching and say something like, “Why’s that guy jumping over that pole?” and I’m all, “SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Like, don’t interrupt my special time! I should watch a previous season in its entirety to see if they’re all this fascinating, or if this season is just special.
02.16.09
Stuff I ate and other things.
Wow, I can’t believe I’ve neglected to post since last Wednesday! I’ve been kind of busy at work, which must explain it. And during the weekends the last thing I want to think about is, well, letting you all know how many hours of TV I watched (too many) and how long it took me to scrub the kitchen cabinets (2 hours). Just doing all that is enough.
There’s nothing really to report about last week, except a delightful dinner at Taqueria with the female half of the Canadians and Tash. Following my Month of Moderation rules, I was allowed to go to dinner but I only had refried bean tacos (which are actually delicious and are my new favorite menu item at Taqueria) and a diet coke. And some cheese dip, naturally. After dinner we wandered up to Starbucks and had hot tea and watched the people pass by. We would have stopped into any of the three independently-owned coffee shops along the way but, it being Decatur, they were all closed. Boo!
Dice had to work on Saturday so we spent Friday night quietly at home, ordered pizza and went to bed early. Saturday he went off, and I went for a run and then cleaned the house. R&T came over so that I could cut R’s hair, and then T took off and R and I went to the movies with the female half of the Canadians. Rachel Getting Married was still playing so we saw that. I’ve been wanting to see it since it got all the good buzz. It was okay, not spectacular, but pretty good. It really tried to capture the individual nature of an at-home wedding, and although it was incredibly obvious that that was a goal, even that obvious nature added to the reality it was seeking. I don’t know about best picture or anything, but a solid piece of film. After the movie I went home and futzed around the house waiting for Dice to come home, which wasn’t too long.
Saturday night, as you may know, was Valentine’s Day. Dice sent me a beautiful vase of multi-colored roses! So romantic. However, we don’t do that whole romance crap. Usually I use it as an excuse (like I need another one) to go out for a fancy dinner. This year, however, VD landed on a Saturday night, which means that every yokel and their yokel spouse is going to be out and about. So while we wanted to go out to eat because it was our night to do so given the Month of Moderation, we didn’t want to be 1. over-charged for a trumped-up prix fixe; or 2. surrounded by dumbasses. So we went to Vickery’s, which proved to be the perfect idea because it’s not fancy enough to be on anyone’s romantic radar, but it’s also not in any way divey. It was perfect. We sat at the bar and had a drink first, then went into the dining room where we had delicious sandwiches with greasy french fries. I was well pleased.
Sunday we layed around in full couch-potato mode. Knowing that all the shows are starting up again for February sweeps, and also that we won’t be able to watch TV this weekend, we really needed to knock a lot of shows off the queue in the DVR. It was imperative. Fortunately we were up to the task. In early evening we roused ourselves and went grocery shopping and stopped to pick up Chinese take-out on the way home.
All in all, I’m pleased about our weekend adherence to the Month of Moderation. Yeah, I went out to eat on Thursday night, but I kept it moderate food-wise and I didn’t have any alcohol. We also haven’t been out to lunch at all in the past week, so we’re actually ahead on that score. Although we did get take-out twice over the weekend, that’s still better than going out, which would be more expensive and include higher food content. So, although we’re not perfect saints by any stretch of the imagination, I’m okay with our showing over the always potentially dangerous weekend.
In other food news, last week’s Top Chef episode included a challenge where the cheftestants had to cook the dish that some of the highest luminaries in the cooking world would choose as their final meal on this earth. Their death penalty meal. Their last supper. The dishes were surprising to me, including shrimp scampi and eggs benedict. And it got me to thinking: in the past I always thought that my last meal would be buttermilk fried chicken. I do love buttermilk fried chicken, and it’s one of those dishes that I almost never allow myself because it’s just so bad for you. But I think I would have to change it to pasta alfredo. Why? Not just because I love pasta alfredo more than any other food in the world, but also because I like pasta alfredo even when it’s done badly. Even if it’s crappy pasta alfredo, I’d still prefer it over almost any other kind of food. What would you choose for your last meal?
02.11.09
Say I’m the only bee in your bonnet.
Can I just say how incredibly f-in’ pissed off I am at this whole octuplets fiasco? I realize that her reproduction rights are none of my business. I do. I really believe that every woman should have the right to schedule, or not schedule, her own reproduction. But having octuplets after already having 6 other kids, with no job, no partner, no means to support 1 child, let alone 14, plus having $50,000 in student loans (which is more than I owe, by the way, and I went to grad school!) is COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE. This woman should NOT be raising children! Not to mention the fact that she’s obviously had plastic surgery on top of the IVF, all of which is hugely expensive. I have major, serious concerns about her sanity. And I really, really hope they take those children away from her. And then sterilize her.
Anyway. Last night we went to trivia at the Thinking Man and had a pretty good time. During the first half the questions were ridiculously easy. One question was, “Which TV network is commonly called the ‘Peakcock Network’?” But then in the second half the questions got harder, enough so that we actually got to debate our answers within our team. I like the debate part. After the last round we were in second place and looking good, but then we totally biffed on the final bonus question and ended up finishing in fourth. Which makes us the number 1 losers! YES! Otherwise I had the house salad plain with a couple glasses of pinot grigio. Good times!
02.09.09
Weekend worky!
Well, what a weekend. Wait, there was a weekend? I totally missed it! Saturday I spent most of the day at work. I came home in early afternoon and went for a run, then by the time I had returned I had two emails and a voicemail summoning me back to campus. So I jumped in the car and went. Without even showering! Ew. Saturday night Dice and I, for our once a week dinner, went out to Planet Bombay for Indian food. We love Planet Bombay, and it’s really the only decent Indian place within 5 miles of our house. If I’m wrong about that, I’d love to hear about others, though! The host guy is kind of a character, but he’s entertaining.
Sunday we went grocery shopping and then to Brick Store. The rules of the Month of Moderation say one dinner out and one lunch out per week, so we made sure to get the shopping over in time to make our trip to the Brick Store count as lunch. Which I loosely describe as any meal eaten before 5:00 pm. Since we normally eat dinner close to 9:00 pm, I think that’s justifiable. In the evening I went over to the Canadians where T&R were as well and hung out for a while watching the Grammys.
Ever since the whole peanut recall debacle started, I’ve had an incredible urge to eat peanut butter. Ray eats a peanut butter sandwich every day. I love peanut butter but I very rarely have it because it’s so calorie dense. But it’s a nice treat to have with lunch or dinner. Mmm, melted peanut butter on tooooooast.
