Retirement

I am choosing to retire this blog for the present time. I think I prefer to be more private and introspective. Plus, there is nothing going on anyway. The possibility of updates will occur around the time of the wedding (in October) and any major events thereafter.
Thanks for being cool.

What Have I Been Doing?

I've been "wedding planning!" It requires a LOT of decisions and coordination and ... vision. So, that's what's been going on. Oh and job hunting. Nothing like that either.

So friends, are you looking forward to our wedding? Its going to be fun!

There's *Like* Nothing New Lately

Hi there my peeps.

Things here are pretty stable. This weekend my dad came to visit and today Ryan and I went out to Linens N Things just to play with a Dyson vacuum and pretend we could afford it. Then we went and looked at more wedding invitations (and pretend we could afford those?). The never ending search for the perfect invitations. Tonight I cooked dinner and Ryan went out to watch the game with friends and I watched The Good Girl on Lifetime which was really very good (not watching the super bowl and the movie).

I have an interview on Valentines Day at a law firm very near my house. It is a great firm and a great location (5 miles from my house, next to a gym, across from a mall, 2 minutes from Wegmans -- all the bases would be covered!) so FINGERS CROSSED, friends. Fingers crossed!

Other than that... Franklin got a great haircut this week... and umm... yeah that's it.

PS We watched King Kong (the recent one) and I sobbed uncontrollably to the point where I almost puked. I was that sad. I love monkeys.

The Weekend

This weekend was a wedding planning weekend. Wedding planning can get very involved and.... I'm not sure I'm 100% interested in very detail. We looked at invitations on Saturday and found only ONE that we could be satisfied with. And then yesterday we went to a bridal show at the Princeton Marriott which was awful. Bridal shows are scams to collect personal information in order to solicit and to sell the information for others to solicit. They wanted me to go to every table to get vendors' signatures so that I can get into the "FASHION SHOW" like it was a REAL FASHION SHOW. I can see those same dresses online. Then we went into Princeton to look at more invitations.

Other things we did: we watched "Catch Me if You Can" and "Titanic" both of which I probablly have seen and remembered little about. And Ryan let me end "Titanic" right after Rose says that she is going to get off the ship with Jack that way it had a happy ending. Sick right?

What a New Day Brings

A new day brings: finishing the box of peach honey bunches of oats even though we bought that cereal for Ryan to satisfy his need for sweet cereals, catching up with old episodes of Frasier and the Nanny, working out on the eliptical at the gym for a half an hour and following it up with weights (leg-day), watching Martha with Jennifer Garner who was charming as heck, bathing our dog, Franklin, and then bathing myself, washing all the towels used for drying up the wet creatures (including myself) after the bathing, eating lunch which consisted of left-overs, incessant job searching online, working on the outline for that book that i can't seem to finish, possibly detecting critters in the wall... i heard something but it stopped, watching Family Feud and Tyra, waiting for Ryan to get home.

Admissions: I enjoy Tyra and think she would make a good friend; I watch "Girlfriends" and *love* it

Sidenote: I heard a coyote last weekend!!!!!

Another Success

I lost another 1.4 pounds which brings my total to 3.6 in 2 weeks!

Another Few Thoughts

I forgot to mention that I decided to walk to the post office today since I had the time and I could spare the universe just a little by shimmying my butt rather than driving my car.

Also, tonight Ryan and I watched "Brokeback Mountain" for the first time ... and woah. Woah. That movie was incredible. I cried so much my shirt got wet.

My Late Take on the Golden Globes

I actually didn't see ANY (okay a few) of the movies that were nominated so I have no opinion on that subject. But, if any of you know me know this, I *love* television and in loving television I have developed distinct preferences. Specifically, for the category of "Best Comedy Television Series," I cannot fathom that The Office would not win... Ugly Betty is AT BEST mildly amusing and AT WORST insipid and trite. Yeah, I said it -- insipid and trite. I was watching Ugly Betty when it first came out just because I like to sample new shows but after about 3 episodes I had seen enough. It is like a pleasant never-ending TV movie. Another thing is that Steve Carell is much better in The Office than Alec Baldwin is in 30 Rock ... unless you think that he should finally be recognized for his uni-dimensional acting.

Here's the News

First, I started washing my hair in really cold water and wow it is soft.
Second, I joined weighwatchers last week and already lost 2.2 lbs! I will keep a record of my weight loss in case anyone wants to cheer me on.

Idol

I can't believe how upsetting and sad the first few weeks of Idol are. These people really think they can sing. And they are so misguided. I just think that they have mental health problems and it is really unfair for people to be laughing. There should be a table set up there offering people help.

Recipe

I made a banana bread / cake tonight that I think came out pretty good so I thought I would share it with you all. It is VERY LOW FAT too!

3 mashed bananas
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup of flour (it should be whole wheat but i am still trying to get rid of my regular flour)
1 package of flavored instant oatmeal
1-2 cups chocolate soy milk (i just eyeball it)
1/2 cup of fat free vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon baking power
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon olive oil
pinches of spices listed in order from most to least - cinnamon, nutmeg, clove
sea salt to taste

And that's it!!! Other than the yogurt, there's NO dairy... so you could probably substitute the yogurt for soy yogurt and be fine! Oh, and I put semi-sweet baking chips on top to make it more like a cake.

After a lot of calculations and research the following is my estimate on the nutritional information (the things necessary to know for weight watchers):

Cut this is 10 pieces:
148 g calories
2.3 g fat
2.1 g fiber

i really was away!

I went to Port St. Lucie Florida for about 2 weeks and just got back last night. My mom and I drove down the day after Christmas with our two dogs to meet up with her parents (my grandparents, duh!) who have a house there. We had a pretty good time .... although ....

My dog Franklin bit my mom's dog Simon on the ear. They got into a fight and Franklin was definitely winning and I had to whack him with a couch pillow to get him off of Simon. When they were separated, we saw that Simon's ear was bleeding ... like really really bleeding and he had shaken his head so there was blood all over the wall and the lamp and carpet like a crime scene ... and I basically had a break down and started shaking and sobbing and was no help to stop the blood. Luckily, Ryan came down to Florida for a few days (including New Years) and was there was it happened so he helped my mom as I did the only thing I was capable of doing -- finding an animal hospital. Then Ryan drove me, my mom, and Simon to the animal hospital in Fort Pierce where they admitted Simon immediately. It turns out that no stitches were needed and they just used a little "tissue glue" to glue up the little snag in his ear.

It probably sounds like I'm making light of it but it was scary and we didn't see how the fight started so we don't know whether it was totally unprovoked and Franklin just snapped. I wish Cesar Milan would help.

was away for a few days

actually, i wasn't. i was here all along. i was just feeling boring. i'm really freaked out about the weather. why aren't they freaked out on television? why does the weatherman keep saying how "nice and warm" it is??? it isn't NICE. it is SCARY. i'm really really freaked out. i know i said that but... damn! double damn.

in personal news, one of my best friends, Alyson, is coming to visit this week! yay, Alyson! we're going to watch television and movies and maybe go to the mall and cook meat-free / dairy-free food and maybe go to the gym! then christmas comes and then i go to florida for almost 2 weeks.

a few notes

i cannot see an inconvenient truth. i spend my of my day deliberating in what ways i can make less of an impact on the earth -- paper or plastic? i know i should bring a bag with me to the market but i use the plastic grocery bags for garbage bags. should i bring a bag to the grocery store and buy biodegradable garbage bags? i buy biodegradable products as often as i can (laundry detergent, dish soap, cleaning products) but that doesn't mean that the chemicals in the products are not harmful so i make an all-purpose cleaner out of white vinegar and i try to buy organic white vinegar and am not sure if i should buy vinegar in glass or plastic -- which has less impact considering that i recycle both? anyway, i saw al gore (for maybe 4 minutes) on oprah but he talked about how the polar bears are drowning and i started crying. seriously, if i see that film i will be sent over the edge because the edge is near anyway.

Pretty Okay Day

Today was a pretty okay day. We went to mass at the parish where our wedding is going to be. It is probably going to be OUR parish too but we're trying to figure out where we want to go. We went out for brunch and then Lowes to get blinds and Pier 1 just to browse at the crap and then Whole Foods. Home again to get Franklin so he can spend some CAR TIME while we went to Penny's to get more drapes (obsessed with covering windows? yes - we just got that awesome new tv.) At church, we picked up a name of a little boy to get gifts for and went to a toy store to get him a few things. We had some cozy time and then to Ryan's parents' for dinner.

Oh and last night we saw For Your Consideration which sadly did not live up to my expectations. But I probably need to see it again. Personally, I think that Waiting for Guffman was the best of the bunch.

Also Friday night I hosted dinner for Ryan's family which was REALLY FUN and I got to fuss and cook all day and clean and stuff. (I'm not being sarcastic -- I really like it!)

PS I'm so boring!