Up, up and away…

Dear lovely people that read my blog,

I’m going to make a concerted effort to keep posting while I’m traveling for work. Me and North Carolina are going to be fast friends for the month of May. Yup, it looks like three out of four weeks, Texas will be more of pit stop than a home. Poor B, he’s going to have to fend for himself. There won’t be a lot of home cookin’, nor will he have anyone to cuddle up with at night. Sassy La Rue, she’s not going to have much of that.

But, as for Weight Watchers on the Road, I have got a game plan. I’m going to be the new Jared for Subway. I’ll be dining there on a regular basis if I’m not able to find WW friendly fare at other dining establishments. The other restaurant you’ll find me noshing at is Applebee’s. I know it’s not gourmet but they do have the WW’s menu available at my beck and call.

Travel is not going to deter the over arching goal. *Fist in the air* Power to the weight loss, my friends!

As for today, I’ll let the pics I’ve posted speak for themselves. These are from the Memphis Zoo and they are old but they represent what is on the agenda until I have go to the airport.

Tata for now,

Jen aka Nutcase 101

PS. Since, I didn’t post my Weekly Weigh in Review (Week Seven), there was a slight set back, a .08lb gain. I’ll take it. I was a bad girl last week and was expecting at least a two pound increase on the scale.

PPS. For those of you looking for my Menu Plan Monday, just alternate Subway and Applebee’s for Monday through Thursday.

I have the power…

B and I were merely talking when he went off on one of his pedantic diatribes about goofy stuff that makes me giggle, laugh or just want to tell him, “No, don’t go there!” If I go with the third response, he’ll elaborate even further. This usually makes just want to ignore him because of his silly responses. But, now I have the power to eliminate this at any time, with these few words,

“You know, now I’m going to have blog about this.”

Pain, pain, go away…

Yeah, this whole exercising thing…it’s not my cup of tea. I know I need to do it and I am! I walk the mall, sans the purse, for two miles a day during the work week. But, this whole routine of lifting weights, even baby ones, is killing me.

You all would be rolling on the floor laughing at me doing squats, bench presses, tricep something or others, all in the name of vanity. My ridiculous vanity.

Okay, gotta stop typing now. My fingers hurt. Where’s the darvocet?

Menu mayhem returns…

I had to skip the past two weeks due to work craziness and I’m not going to be much more consistent since I am traveling Monday through Thursday for work. I am going to take time when I can to plan out menus for the weeks that I know I’m going to be in town, because I really do enjoy interacting with all of you. There is a real sense of community with the people that participate in Menu Monday.

Monday: Shrimp Fried Rice with tons of veggies and using brown rice instead of white to keep it Weight Watcher friendly (6 pts)
Tuesday: Vegan Chili with corn cakes – Surprisingly only 2 pts for a serving of chili and 2 pts per corn cake
Wednesday: Pineapple glazed boneless pork chops with asparagus
Thursday: Sushi night
Friday: Chicken Fajitas with all the trimmings
Saturday: We’ll be in Louisiana.

I’m hoping to make extras of some dinners and freeze them for B to pull out and nuke while he’s a temporary bachelor. Don’t forget to check out all the other menus at Laura’s “I’m an Organizing Junkie!”

Ouch, my ovaries…

Over the last two Saturdays, B and I have had one of his nieces in our company. First, we love them both to death. Second, we wanted to do something special for them, by letting them each have one-on-one quality time with the two of us. The other kicker to this story is that they are being raised by their Dad, B’s brother, without a lot of female influence. I thought it would be nice if they had some concentrated girl time, doing girl things. We wanted the experiences to be somewhat equal, so we decided to take them to the young girl mecca of Libby Lu.

Now, I work with people that have a lot of power in their companies, industries, etc. I have got some mad negotiating skills, though I would never phrase it that way for Corporate America. But, I do get the opportunity to wine and dine some CXOs on occasion. I’m good at managing their expectations and making sure that we’re both on the same page, yo. But, when you’re dealing with a six and five year-old, they could give a flying fuck expect that THEY WANT THAT, they NEED THAT and IT’S NOT FAIR!

Thankfully, we did plan well in only taking one girl at a time. We had our date with the oldest last Saturday where she chose to the Cinderella makeover, getting all dolled up with tiara to boot. If I had known that glam head jewelry was to be involved, I think I would’ve signed up as well. This Saturday we took the younger girl, who had to duplicate big sis.

It was a lot of fun watching the girls getting to play dress-up, getting their perspectives on the world and remembering when things were fresh and new. I got to see how their personalities were developing and the young ladies that they are becoming. But, MY GOODNESS, they have a lot of energy. I have SO much respect for all the moms out there and I need to write my mom a letter of apology!

The two weekends did give me a lot of insight into being a mom and I know that I’m far from ready. So far, that I told B that we could try in 80-85 years. I’m going to need a lot more patience, understanding, and ability to control my flair for shouting out “SHIT!” before I think about bringing another life into this chaotic world.

Thankfully, my sister gave my mom Fat Elvis last year, a child full of ubercuteness to last for at least four to five years!

Weigh (week seven) in review…

I know that all six of my lovely readers were waiting on bated breath to see how I did this week on the Weight-Watcher-Life-Style-Never-Eat-Greasy-Food-Drink-Margaritas-Again diet. (Okay, it’s really just Weight Watchers and I can have anything I want but that’s how I feel sometimes – let me vent)

This week wasn’t one of my best food wise. No, me and greasy fried foods were fast friends. And, you saw the brownie post? Of course you did because I have to remove all the drool stains off of my blog! And, let me tell you, it takes more than Clorox Clean-Ups to get those bad boys out. I ate flautas…beef flautas. With real sour cream and guacamole. mmmmmmmmmmm Real sour cream. Damn, now I caused a blog drool stain. Let’s just say that was one of many meals that I inhaled this past week.

Oh, did I mention that I only worked out once? Yeah, that’s all I could fit into my tight schedule of making sure the couch didn’t move from it’s honored place in front of the TV. It was a rough week of TV watching but I did it. I did it well. I’m thinking about trying out for the Couch Potato Olympics.

As you can surmise from what I didn’t do to lose weight, start hating me now, I still managed to lose weight. How? I sure as hell don’t know but I did. I’d like to think that it was all those trips to the fridge during the commercials to get Diet Coke.

Total Weight Loss: 13.6lbs

I don’t feel guilty at all…

I ate a brownie. A HUGE FABULOUS brownie. That melted on your tongue into pools of chocolate goodness. I felt transported to that great big river of chocolate that sucks up Augustus Gloop, willing to be sucked up into a giant brownie pipe. I desperately wanted to take B’s away from him before he inhaled it all, but I was a good girlfriend. I just shot daggers into his head because he didn’t finish before me.

This piece of brownie goodness was from the Cheesecake factories small sister store Grand Lux Cafe. Thankfully, this place is within walking distance of my apartment, allowing me to burn off calories when I get a craving. Now, did we walk? No *rolling eyes* that would’ve made, uh, sense! And, I did eat sushi for dinner, so I totally earned the brownie points. Haha, get it? (Yes, I know. You may shoot me for my bad puns but at least I tried…more brownie points for me??)

And, I ate it the night before weigh in. I’m such a rebel.

Ding dong the witch is dead…

Yes, that person, of whom I do not name, is no longer on American Idol. I suspect you already knew this. What you did not know was what my reaction was like. I was a little surprised by it myself. And, poor B, I scared the shit out of him. To him, I’m deeply sorry.

When the results were announced, I screamed so loud and shouted the word YES, I believe the entire apartment complex was able to hear me. I, of course, did a little dance around the coffee room table to thank the powers that be for his removal from my precious American Idol. The best way to sum up the emotions flowing through my body, is that it was like winning the lottery, getting proposed to and being announced the next winner of American Idol all rolled up into one.

Yes, I’m an AI freak – 28 years old at that – but I’m a happy AI freak. Thank you, America!

Procrastination…

I still haven’t unpacked. Nearly three months after moving from Memphis to Houston, there are still lovely Allied Van boxes decorating my living room. Actually, a lot of them are from my move from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Memphis. Shameful, I know.

I have a friend whose fiance would DIE with just KNOWING that there were boxes still packed and in his house. He had to have EVERYTHING out of boxes, properly put away and boxes removed from the premises within five days of moving. Me, I can live with my boxes. B seems to not be worried about it either. He ignores them much like I do. Also, they block out the sun in the mornings thus we haven’t had to buy curtains – boxes are a money saver.

But, now I have a small dilemma. I’m actually having a house guest at the end of May. I hope that it will motivate me to remove my boxes that are now being used to hold up coats and entertain one superstar of a cat. I think Sassy would be upset if the boxes were taken away. Where would she hide and pitifully meow from? Also, she has a perch up on the top of the stack of three that allows her to reign over her kingdom.

The other thing is I don’t know where to store the stuff that is in said boxes. Frankly, I don’t have enough storage. And, the boxes keep all the mystery stuff safe and out of my way…what to do, what to do? I guess me and The Container Store need to become fast friends.

The Whoorl challenge…

Over at the wonderful world of Whoorl, she offered to interview us, the commenters, on a series of conditions (which will be posted at the bottom of this site). I bravely raised my hand high and said, “Me, please!” and she was kind enough to honor my request by emailing me the following five questions to answer. I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me blog.

Here are your 5 questions:
1. Are you a night or morning person?

Neither, I’m more of a midday person. Odd, I know. When I wake up, I’m typically awake but never fully functional. I have to have at least 20 ounces of water in me before I become coherent. Hence, some of my blog postings and comments prior to that accomplishment are rambling, idiotic and blah. When it gets later in the evening, I get sleepier and my ability to rationalize goes straight down the drain. But, if you catch me between the hours of two – six PM, I’m on top of my game. That’s usually when I’m getting the most work done and I feel that I’m in “The Zone”.

2. How many countries have you visited?

Oooooh, good question. I was born in the UK and I’ve been to several European countries, but I’d have to call my mom, since I don’t remember anything – damn lack of ability to recall memories from under the age of two. Then we came stateside.

My grandmother lives next to Canada, so I’ve been to that exotic land on multiple occasions. And, my parents took me to the Bahamas, where we went to Cozumel, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands.

Grand Total: Six

3. Black or red licorice? Or neither?

NEITHER! I can barely tolerate red licorice and that’s only if I’m in a MaGyver situation and it requires that I chew it up, spit it out, and use it to stop the run away vehicle I’m in because someone tampered with the break lines. The black stuff, completely and utterly revolting. (I guess it’s one of my Kryptonites.)

4. What do you find most attractive about the opposite sex?

That would be intelligence and sense of humor were the most important for a long time but now I have to make it a triage of qualities: Intelligence, sense of humor and COMMON sense. I’ve dated men in the past that had the first two but the last one was completely lacking. And, when it came to situations where common sense was needed, I felt that I was babysitting a grown man, trying to explain why you don’t X, Y, or Z in public. UGH.

Thankfully, then the famous B came along. He met all criteria and then some. He’s even got the big bonus “Romantic” quality, that I had always secretly desired but was never a strong requirement (especially growing up with my father). I thought that the romantic aspect was only played out on TV, because the men I always dated had a severe lack of it in their system.

5. What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve done?

Hmmmmm, that’s a tough one. I have to go with chasing the U2 Spy Plane. It’s a long story, so hang in there!

The story behind this one is pretty cool. I had just finished up undergrad at FSU and decided to take a two week trip. One week in New York with my Grandmother and one week in California with my friend Dana. The week with Grandma was relaxing, the week with Dana was my “WOW Factor” trip.

Dana was in the Air Force at the time and her squadron was in charge of the U2s. Having grown up as an Air Force brat (Thanks, Dad!), I was familiar with the US air fleet. I was super excited about going on base and just seeing this massive plane. It’s an interesting piece of aerial phenomenon because the plane only has two wheels as landing gear and the wing span is longer than the fuselage, the area where the controls, equipment and pilot sit.

The Sunday of my arrival, Dana took me to a picnic with her co-workers. There I met the Colonel in charge of the pilots. We had a nice conversation about the aircraft and by the end of the day, he offered to let me sit in a chase car and watch the planes take off and land.

Okay, background on the chase car: The pilot in the plane is in a space suit, just like the astronauts where because the plane can reach the upper atmosphere and it’s difficult to breathe up there – also, the pilots are up there for hours and the space suit has a built in potty (I thought that was hilarious!). When the plane takes off and lands, the pilot needs eyes and ears on the ground to tell him what’s going on. And those eyes and ears, have to be in a car that can travel at the rate of the speed the plane is when it takes off and land. That means a SUPED UP CAMARO! VROOOOOOOM! Also, the driver of the car has to be a U2 pilot, and they are a hot species. Yummy!

I spent four hours sitting next to a hot U2 pilot, watching these massive planes take of while we chased them and then when they were landing, the car was underneath the plane until right before it touched down. It was GREAT!

I wish I had pictures but, unfortunately, due to security protocol, that was a no can do.

Now, my lovely readers, if you want to have yourself interviewed by moi (and I can come up with some crazy and creative questions), here’s the rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” Or you could say something about my charming wit, beautiful hair, etc (Okay – this was copy and pasted, since Whoorl has the beautiful hair).
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Edit: I answered this before my 20 ounces of water, I told you I’m not at the top of my game. I’ve corrected a majority of the errors and given credit where it’s due!