misfitmonkey

Today has been a good day so far. I've resolved to stop spending my *entire* day at the computer, mostly because my scoliosis starts to bother me pretty intensely when I get into phases like this one where I'm sitting in a desk chair for such long hours. I've been doubled over in pain by 10 pm for the past three nights, so it's time for a cutback.

This morning I woke up and instead of immediately turning on the tv or heading for my desk, I pulled out the book I've been reading for the entire summer and almost two hours reading. I feel like I'd forgotten how, and it was nice to reconnect with the bookworm in me. :) I do have to say that it's been a struggle to get through The Memory Keeper's Daughter, because while I really like the story and the idea, I find the writing somewhat stilted and impersonal, which is strange because it's an emotional story. I'm halfway through the book and not connecting with the characters at all, which makes it hard for me to stick with it, especially with so many distractions to keep me from just reading in my free time.

I'm doing really well with eating lately, even at the party yesterday. The only sugar I ate was fruit salad, and declined what looked like delicious pasta, brownies, cookies, and other really good looking vittles. I've lost 4 pounds in the past week and a half, so I feel that momentum that I sometimes need to behave myself nutritionally.

Good day. I feel like a housewife lately with the laundry, minor cleaning, organizing, and picking up around here since I'm always home. It's strange, but also suits me, which is surprising because I'm usually a slob.

ME: Hey, Self.  What happens if you eat a whole block of swiss cheese at work?

ME: Well Self, I don't know, but I'll let you in on the results in about an hour.  Could get a little crazy, but I anticipate that I will just mostly be very full.

ME: Cool.  Well, keep me posted.

Last night Jim and I went to Cleveland to eat at Brasa Grill for our friend Kristen's birthday, and the food was pretty incredible, albeit quite expensive (for our budgets, anyway). It's $35 per person for all you can eat salad bar and then all you can eat meat that it brought around on a huge skewer and they slice a piece off for you right at the table. I tried several different kinds of beef, some lamb, turkey, ham/pork, roast beef, chicken and god knows what else... we were SO stuffed by the time we'd tried all the different meats, it was ridiculous.

The service left a bit to be desired though. The waitress was scary and didn't speak English and she kept taking plates and silverware without asking, and then the waiter refused to split the checks and put everything on one bill. He said it was because it was a busy Saturday night, but there were probably only three other tables out of the twenty on our side of the restaurant that were even seated. That whole thing cause huge bill drama trying to split everything up and lots of people only having credit cards with them, and I think they were just refusing to split the checks so that they could slap that huge "large party" gratuity fee on, which is just silly. They ended up wasting more time running our bill than they would have separately.

Meat was delicious, so it was mostly worth it though, and it was nice to see Kristen on her birthday, woo! I forgot to take any pictures, but it was bad lighting for pictures anyway. Just imagine tasty food and me in a hot, hot top. :)

Tomato juice in the morning is better than anything else in the entire world.  Shut your mouth and do not comment in protest if you disagree and do not like tomato juice, because I cannot be persuaded to think that tomato juice is anything but hawesome.  In fact, there should be a National Tomato Juice Day.  (*googles to check that their isn't and finds the closest holiday is January 1st - National Bloody Mary Day*)

Also, what kind of Facebook gift is a box of tissues?  Egad, Facebook.  Get your act together!  I want to see more varieties of trolls and flowers and animals (pets are always fun).  Harrumph.

Lastly, my mother sent part of my grandmother's birthday cake home with us last night and I broke down and ate a piece, because it's spice cake with vanilla icing that has bits of coffee grounds in it, and that's my favorite kind of cake in the entire world.  Unfortunately, I discovered not even twenty minutes later that eating massive amounts of refined white sugar and flour after not having had any in months will definitely result in all around physical pain and illness, and I paid for that slice of cake for hours afterward... HOURS.  Don't even ask how I paid. :\

Feasting on yellow jello and beef broth for the entirety of today has completely and utterly addled my starving brain, but I still had the good sense to think my boyfriend is the best and most considerate person in the entire world to have finally located sugar free popsicles that don't have red dye in them (banana! yay!).

This small but incredibly significant change in my diet has possibly been my salvation. Life has meaning where there are banana popsicles, YAY! :)

My weight has stagnated at 10 pounds lost since January 3rd, I'm guessing because I haven't yet incorporated the necessary exercise to really get the calories burning.  My body is still changing, however, and I find myself a lot happier with how I look lately. :)  Getting my skin care under control was a big step in that.  I'm hoping to start up some yoga classes in the next month or so when I start having time. :)

Here's an update on new foods/snacks that I've found that are healthy and delicious -

Real Fruit Snacks - OMG, these are delicious, no preserves or non-fruit sugars, very delicious!
Bumblebars - organic, gluten free, pretty tasty... I'm partial to the Chai with Almonds
Fruit Leather - similiar to the Real Fruit Snacks, simply made with fruit juice and mashed fruit

Other staples -

Herbal Tea/Juice - 100% juice tends to over-sugar-fy me (sleeeepy), so I mix 3 parts herbal tea with 1 part juice and I have a light and tasty beverage :)  (also good to drop my flower essences in, because I don't like tasting them in my water)

Lemon Fish w/ Jasmin Rice - if I'm hungry and don't know what I want for dinner, I always love lemon fish with some plain rice :)

Small cheats -

Thin Crust Pizza - every once in a while I have a plain cheese thin crust from Pizza Hut, or add some veggies

Sugar Free Sweets - currently popular are the sugar-free popsicles, sugar-free Dove chocolate mint morsels (yummmm), ocassionally sugar-free mint Lifesavers (all of these I eat very seldomly, maybe a few times a week)

So that's it for now. :)  Adieu.

1. It is actually easier to peel an orange with a plastic spoon than a real one.  Please be advised if you were not previously aware of this awesome fact.  The reason is that plastic spoons are sharper and get more of the unwanted stuffs off. 

2. Also, oranges are tasty.  Eat one every day.

3. You'd better prepare yourself for the hawesomeness of Brandice.net.  If you don't prepare, you might have a stroke.

4. Donate tampons and pads to women's shelters with the simple click of your mouse.  Failure to do so is pure laziness.

5. Kudos to copperbeech for introducing me to this awesome artist: Pondering Pool.  The prints I purchased came Saturday! :)

6. I am both grossed out and in love with sugar scrubs.  Thanks for the heads up, the_karen_show!

7. Jim and I are for sure going on our gem mining trip.  Yay!!!

8. There are pictures from the weekend coming.  Brace yourselves, fawkers!

So, I usually get a thin crust cheese pizza from Pizza Hut maybe once every one or two weeks... it's one of my ways of feeling like I can still eat what I want in a way that's a bit healthier than the way I used to eat it.  I think I'm going to have to be done with that whole routine though, because they've really SUCKED lately.  Too much cheese, disgustingly greasy, and just very yucky.

The Oscars are actually pretty fun tonight though...  I figured it would be pretty boring like the last awards, but Ellen's hosting and Will Smith's son was hilarious just now while presenting a couple awards.  :)

I'm so frikkin' boring tonight.  I apologize.  

Much thanks to the_karen_show for this new staple in my morning (when I have time to make it) diet - Breakfast Sandwich a la Karen

With very basic instructions from Karen, I made my first one this morning - Canadian bacon, cheese, and egg patties on a toasted whole grain wheat English muffin.  Last night I made the egg patties by scrambling eggs and putting one scrambled egg per hole in a muffin pan and baking until firm.  Then I wrapped them all up in Saran wrap to eat throughout the week and am keeping them in the fridge (I could've frozen some, but I didn't make that many at all).  I nuked the cheese/egg/ham combo for about 10-20 secs and toasted the bagel and voila!

Breakfast tastiness! :)  I highly recommend it.

Problem Factor #1 - Short plastic butter knife
Problem Factor #2 - Peanut butter jar only full at the bottom third of the jar

THE PROBLEM - Peanut butter on my fingers when I try to put PB on my Triscuits. :(

What's a girl to do??

Today I have eaten mostly cheese for all meals, except an orange for breakfast.  I am literally a cheeseball.  Also, go me for losing 3.2 pounds in the past week. ;)  I have faithful and diligent in my eating habits as of late.

I just got back to my office from an Integral training, and right after the guy told us not to save any changes we make to the default file, he changed a bunch of stuff and then saved the default file.  D'oh!  Our IT Dept is really funny here...  I think I learned more when I fiddled with it by myself last week (Integral, I mean... not the entire IT Dept).

I am a little over half a level to 60 on WoW with my main toon, and tonight is THE NIGHT.  Or tomorrow is the morrow... or something.  I *will* be level 60 before copperbeech goes on vacation, because she and Rob will have to be online when I level and congratulate me on my very first level 60.  w00t!

I HAVE to upload the new screenshots I have of the Dark Portal and the crazy area in Tanaris that I've been to in the game recently.  They're really beautiful...  I'm constantly amazed at the graphics in World of Warcraft, and even if you aren't a fan of the game itself, you have to respect the beautiful artwork that was done in order to provide all the scenery and characters.  It's really pretty amazing.

Sites I have recently been enlightened to or have rediscovered:

+  last.fm (join and add me!)
+  LinkedIn  (join and add me!)
+  Twitter  (join and add me!) 
+  Google Reader  (much better than Bloglines, sorry!) 
+  Friends4Days (this is really different, I like it :) )

In sad news, I start school and internship again on Tuesday.  It is likely that I will cry excessively on Monday evening...

So, I'm eating healthy (again). (It's an ongoing saga, she's eats like shit, she feels like shit, she starts eating healthy, she feels healthy, she wants a cheeseburger, she eats like shit, she feels like shit, and now she's eating healthy again.)

Current staples in the diet:
Uncle Ben's Ready Rice - Ready in 90 Seconds (Perfect for someone on the run who hates re-heated rice
Emerald Dry Roasted Almonds (So tasty!!)
Mrs. May's Naturals Cashew Crunch (these are highly tasty cashew clusters with very light natural sweetening, taste very snacky, but very good for you)
Del Monte Lite Sliced Peaches (I buy the cans and drain the lite syrup)
Dannon Lite 'n Fit Yogurt (I don't eat this all the time, but I like it as a switch up option with lunch)
Luna Bars (holy god, the Chocolate Peppermint Stick is absolutely awesome and delicious and doesn't even taste remotely like healthy food... plain yummy!)
Cottage Cheese / Sharp Cheddar & Triscuits (I'm a cheese nut in general, I always either have my cheese/crackers or some cottage cheese)
Spiru-Tein Protein Shake - Vanilla (I got it for $15 at Rite Aid, should last quite a while, and it doesn't taste like crap. Good with orange juice and milk so far!)

Those are the highlights as far as snacking and quick eating go. Bub and I got a lot of chicken, ground pork and beef, tortillas, milk, mini-wheats for me :), and I have some other things I want to check out, but those are some things I've found that I think will keep me in the healthy eating phase permanently. It's so much easier to eat healthy when I can feel like I'm just eating normally and not missing anything.

Thanks to Kelley for endless advice. :)

Posted originally at Monkey Mind

...I spilled pear sauce all over myself.

I just have to wait 24 more minutes and it's the WEEKEND.

Screw you, Friday work day!

Posted originally at Monkey Mind

16 oz. cream cheese
1 bottle ranch dressing
3/4 bottle of Red Hot Buffalo Style
20 oz. bag of chicken breast
handful mozzarella cheese

-put in crockpot (stir occasionally)
-eat with tortilla chips

____________________________________________

I will eat this very soon, as soon as I have time to buy groceries or send my bubby out for some chick chick. :)

Posted originally at Monkey Mind

1. I discovered Gala apples yesterday and they are damn delicious. Why the hell didn't any of you dopes ever tell me??? A guy at work eats them and I've always teased about his "party in an apple" until trying one. Now I want the party every day!

2. I'm breaking down and buying a school/laptop bag on wheels. Scoliosis + 3 textbooks per class + laptop = just stop trying to remain cool and do what's not going to make you lie awake with pain at night. Don't point and laugh if you run into me, I'm feeling really dorky about it. :(

3. I think it's super helpful to put the key phrases in bold text in blog entries, because then if you don't care about them, you can skip to the next! Am I right or what?? (I'm right.)

Posted originally at Monkey Mind

In a brief burst of excitement last night at the grocery store, I bought Motts Pear Sauce, because I love pears and I've always wanted grocery stores to carry pear sauce instead of apple sauce.

Motts, you sneaky mother fuckers. I just ate a bite of this stuff and after feeling very confused, looked at the fine print:

"Pear-Flavored Applesauce"

WHY? WHY???????

Once again, my creative eating talents are stunted by my grocery store's inability to mash up pears instead of apples. Life is cruel.

Posted originally at Monkey Mind

Yesterday I left work and followed my boss to her house, where I changed quickly and then we went out to dinner and then to see the Ohio Light Opera. It was a very late night, with me arriving home after midnight, but it was worth it.

The bistro we went to was EXCELLENT, and my boss treated me to a t-bone steak dinner. It was beautiful little local place with beautiful decor, extremely surprising food, and dishes made at a pottery store down the street. It's called South Market Bistro, and if you're in Wooster, Ohio at any point, I highly recommend you stop in. All their food is locally grown/raised, and it's well worth the price.

The opera we saw at the OLO was The Firefly, which was fun. It was somewhat long and the last half was much better than the first half, but all in all a good time. The lead for the night was Robin DeLeon playing Nina, and while I wasn't a huge fan of her voice (kind of abrasive, although very impressive), I really enjoyed the woman who played Suzette, the red-headed maid. She had a beautiful voice and great chemistry with Pietro, the butler.

It was a fun night... I haven't been to a musical performance in a while, and it's been an even longer time since I've been in the audience at a musical performance, rather than the pit or on stage with a wind ensemble or jazz band or whatnot. Sometimes I wish I could sit and watch a musical performance like someone without musical abilities would, not hearing pitch problems or noticing little blips in the performance. I also really miss PLAYING music, which is hard to line up once you're out of college and don't have the time to be super serious, but just want to play.

Today has been an entire day of recovery from getting zero sleep-ness. *yawn*

Posted originally at Monkey Mind