New cell phone and other assorted nothingness

I'm pretty sure that I mentioned my new cell phone in an earlier post. I had been up for my "new every two" promotion since March but I hadn't really decided what to get because I liked my old phone. Until my "take your birth control" alarm decided to stop working. That was when I broke down and ordered a new phone.

My old phone was a pink motorola razr. When I got it two and a half years ago, it was new and I was pumped about it because so few other people had it. And now everyone and their mom (including my mom) has one. So I wanted to get something different, but that I could still easily navigate (I hate electronics). So I went with another motorola. It's not a razr, so it's a bit thicker and not as wide, but it's purple. Yay. Here she is:

Pretty much all of the controls are exactly the same as my old phone, so mission accomplished. I programed it yesterday so it is now open for business. I even took a new picture of the cat for my wallpaper.

Nothing else really happened yesterday...I worked, hit the gym, went home and made dinner, and then watched TV. I made breaded turkey cutlets with summer veggie risotto and it was delicious. I'm going to miss being able to cook for the next month when I'm in New Orleans. Blake's going to make himself some fish that he got at the store Sunday tonight because he has Frisbee so he gets home late...I'm probably going to have an egg and cheese sandwich because those are my favorite. Tomorrow I'll go back to actual cooking and make some stir-fry.

In other news, I've gone out to lunch every day this week instead of eating my Lean Cuisine. I suck.

Ok, I have much to do because I want to take a half day tomorrow. Ciao!

Jen vs. the Grill

Last night, I wanted to start cooking again and I planned to make some marinated grilled chicken, steamed veggies, and rice. I was hoping to wait for Blake to get home and put him in charge of the grilling, but I was getting too hungry, so I decided to tackle the grill alone. I have virtually no idea how to use it other than the limited times I've watched Blake make our dinner, so I knew it would be a challenge.

It went pretty well though. Except that I didn't think to spray Pam on the grill grates first and the chicken stuck to it a bit. But everything wound up being very tasty. Tonight I'm going to make some turkey cutlets with summer veggie risotto. Yay.

I'm on a gym streak this week. I'm trying to do really well this week because I go out of town next week for several weeks in a row. The hotel we're staying at has a really nice gym though, with several treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, and even free weights. Above average for a hotel gym. I'm hoping to wake up early and do about 15 minutes of cardio followed by 20-30 minutes of yoga or lifting. After work, I'll head back to the gym to get in another 45 minutes of cardio. I want to try to continue my workout routines and also try to eat healthy...which is super hard when you have to eat out three meals a day. I'm going to try to have a salad with grilled chicken for either lunch or dinner every day. I'm also gong to try to limit my dessert intake to just the one big (free) dinner out that we have weekly. If I need a chocolate fix, I'll buy some dark chocolate peanut chews and have one or two squares as a snack. Breakfast is free at the hotel, so I plan to have a few hard boiled egg whites and a bowl of cereal in the morning; I also usually grab a piece of fruit from the buffet and have it as a mid-morning snack.

This all sounds awesome in theory, but only time will tell if it actually works out. Its success is partially contingent on the amount of times we go to Bourbon Street to drown our sorrows in copious booze. Which I would really like to avoid. If i can get through a month in New Orleans and maintain or even lose a little weight, I would be thrilled. It will be August though, so I could potentially just sweat out 15 pounds walking from the hotel to the car in the morning. Gross.

Well, this concludes a lovely morning of procrastination for me, so it's time to buckle down and get some work done today. Peace out.

concert and other assorted things

Last night, Scotty and I went to see Maroon 5 and Counting Crows. I got the tickets during a $10 lawn seat promotion ($10 = $22.50 with fees, but still pretty good). I really went to see Maroon 5, and I was happy that they went on before Counting Crows because I wanted to see their whole set. We stuck around for about 45 minutes of Counting Crows and I guess they have a new CD out, because we recognized zero songs that they played during that time, so we left. There was some lightning in the sky and I didn't want to sit in traffic to get home. But Maroon 5 was good; they played for over an hour and did a lot of good songs. Definitely worth the $45 I paid for two tickets. Normally you can't even get one ticket for that price.

That was pretty much my whole day yesterday. I went to work, I left early so I could get in 45 minutes of cardio at the gym before the concert, I ate some cereal, and I headed to Scotty's. I got to meet his puppy, Tank, and he was very cute. He's a lab/st. bernard mix, so he'll be pretty huge soon.

Today, Susan and I are grabbing lunch at Thai Taste (amazing) with Kristin, so that will be fun. I'm hitting the gym after work for some cardio and strength training, and then I will make my triumphant return to cooking (I've been totally lazy lately and making Blake do most of the work in that department). I'm going to marinate and grill some chicken, make some rice, and steam some veggies. Nothing really fancy. I also bought some turkey breast cutlets at the grocery store this weekend, so I'm going to make those tomorrow. Should be a nice change from my steady diet of chicken breasts and turkey dogs.

I got my new phone yesterday. It's purple. Yay! I'm presently emailing all of the important pictures from my old phone to myself and then I'm going to set up the new one. It should be good. I haven't had a new phone in like two and a half years. But when the alarm feature on my existing phone went on the fritz, I figured it was time.

That's about it. Today will be filled with productivity (hopefully) and a struggle to stay awake, because the concert caused me to go to sleep about 90 minutes later than usual last night. Boo.

weekend grade: B

I had a pretty good weekend, but I didn't get everything done that I wanted to. I may have been a bit too ambitious when planning this one. But I have to leave for New Orleans this Sunday, so for the next 3-4 weeks, I won't be getting home until 9pm Friday night and then I'll be flying out again at 8pm Sunday, so I won't really even have weekends. Intense job hatred shall ensue.

Friday I left work at lunch because I hate it here. Susan picked me up (because she's a manager and therefore has a shitload of vacation time, she no longer comes in on summer Fridays) and we went to Thai Taste which was delicious. It's sad that it's so far away from the office now (it was super close to the old office) because it is just SO GOOD. I think we're going to meet Kristin there this week at some point because she's on a client over on that side of town.

Friday night, we went to a housewarming party for two associates who just bought a house together. I find it a bit weird that two young dudes would buy a house together, but I guess it's a good investment, because people in this office seem to do it all the time. It was much fun, but we left early-ish (midnight) so that we could get to the lake early Saturday.

Saturday we hit the lake in the morning and it was drizzling the whole time Blake skied. So we went to Rusty Rudder for lunch, and by the time we left there it was sunny. It was also 3pm and we all had a ton of shit to do, so we headed home. Blake found out that Bowflex Selecttech dumbbells now come in a 90-pound version on Friday and promptly decided that the 52-pound ones I got him two years ago would no longer suffice. So he put his old ones on Craigslist Friday afternoon and got about 100 hits on them. A guy came to pick them up Saturday afternoon. They cost $450 new and he sold them for $200. But based on the number of hits on them, I'd argue he should have gone with at least $250. As soon as he sold them, we went to buy the new ones. The only pair in stock was the floor model so Blake got a 5% discount...and after his little sale wound up getting the new ones for about $450. Pretty good considering that that's about 5 months of gym membership for me.

Sunday, I got up, did my Fit, went to the gym, did the laundry, and went grocery shopping right off the bat. After the grocery store I ate some lunch and then realized it was 2pm and the Humane Society closes at 4, so I wouldn't really have time to go. Boo. I then cleaned the bathroom, mopped the floor, and played some Mario Kart. I think I'm going to take another half day this Friday and go to the Humane Society then. I'm sad that I missed it.

Lots to get done this week and zero motivation. Blah. I have to at least attempt to be productive I think. Maybe just not today. Mondays are hard.

Yay!

It's Friday! I kind of have a lot to do this weekend, so as soon as I get done with the work in front of me, I'm peacing out of here. This week went kind of quick, and I could not be happier about that.

My training went well yesterday, and they catered in Moe's which is my absolute favorite. Thank god I was teaching the training, so I was unable to get seconds (thirds, fourths, and fifths) or delicious queso-soaked nachos. After work I hit the gym and then did dinner at Zink with Kristin and Stephanie. Good times. Then I went home, played some Mario Kart and watched TV, as always.

Today when I bounce from here, I'm going to get to the gym and then start on my chores when I get home (probably after a power nap though). A few guys from work just bought a house and are having a housewarming party tonight, so I might stop by that. Tomorrow we're hitting the lake and I'll probably tackle my weekly errands. Sunday I'm going to go to the Humane Society and play with kittens for a few hours. I need to get to the gym at least once between Saturday and Sunday. It will probably be Sunday morning. This is going to be my last relaxing weekend for a while, because I'll likely be traveling on Sundays for the entire month of August. To New Orleans. And I'm NOT looking forward to it.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

nothing too exciting

I was actually productive at work yesterday, as planned. I really didn't do much that was unexpected. I worked, I went to the gym, I played Mario Kart, I made pizza for dinner (tasty), and I watched TV. Pretty normal Wednesday night actually.

Last night/early this morning, I had another pregnancy dream though. I swear, if my dreams were any indication, I'd have been pregnant for the past 5 years. I have these dreams constantly. I think it was a boy this time. I woke up when Blake and I were arguing about its name (so yes, this was a pretty realistic dream). And it probably happened because I'm having dinner with a pregnant friend tonight. My brain is so silly.

Today I have to get some shit done at work, but I also have to teach a training class at lunch. I'm looking forward to it (heavy sarcasm). Then I'm bouncing a bit early tonight so that I'll have time to get to the gym for some cardio and lower body lifting before meeting up with Stephanie and Kristin for dinner. And then, if I had to guess, I'll probably go home and play some Mario kart/watch TV. Same old same old.

I'm pretty stoked that tomorrow is Friday. This week actually went by pretty fast. I have to get cracking on my weekend plans!

today = productivity day

So I've been about useless this week, but today I'm going to get a lot of work done. As soon as I finish this post at least. So it's going to be a quick one.

After work yesterday, I expected to be walking home in the pouring rain, as it was supposed to thunderstorm. But for once, it was sunny out when I left. I figured that was a good omen (can you see where I'm going with this?). So I went home, did a quick lifting session, played some Mario Kart, ate some Chinese food, and headed to my softball game. When I left for the game it looked like it might rain, but the field was pretty far from my house, so I didn't think much of it.

And I should have. Our game got called off in the top of the 5th when we were down by 1. Which really sucks, because we were counting on that last inning to pull off a win. And then, when I was driving home, the downpour began. When I was about 2 miles from home. And it continued for quite a while. Of course, since I park on the street about two blocks from my building, I had to sprint home in it. And I got soaked. Good one, Mother Nature. I thought I had successfully avoided getting douched by rain for one day but you swooped in there and made it happen. Stellar.

I don't have huge plans today; I expect to head to the gym after work for some cardio and then head home for some Mario Kart/pizza making/TV watching. Pretty normal evening activities really. Hope you all have a good day!

i heart ebay

Mario Kart came yesterday!! It is so much fun. We played for several hours last night. We're trying to get the right combination of things done so that we can unlock the ability to use our Mii characters as drivers. It looks like it's going to take a while. It's hard!

Also, I won a controller charging station yesterday for half of the price that it would cost at Best Buy (including shipping). This is important, because I'm going to be getting two more controllers soon in order to increase the ability to have fun at our Wii parties. The charge station is gently used, but the picture looked good, and it's the same model as the one I already have, so for half price I'm down with it.

Yesterday I also tackled the first 5 songs on my Track Pack on the drums in the 'hard' setting and I dominated them. My Rock Band skills are increasing. Unfortunately, because it takes up so much space, Blake makes me take it apart and leave it in the closet during the week, so I won't be playing again until at least Friday. But I'll have plenty of Mario Kart to get me by.

I got my fat ass in gear yesterday and returned to the gym. After a 45 minute run on the elliptical, I was feeling pretty good. Until this morning, and now my abs and hips are sore. Seriously? It had only been a week since I was there last. I'm lame. Also, the bastards at work catered in Panera bagels yesterday, so I may have gone slightly off track with my eating habits. But at least I got to the gym to counteract that situation. Bagels are just so delicious.

Tonight, I have a softball game at 7:30, so when I head home from work I'm going to do some strength training with my kettlebell and have dinner before I have to head to the park. Depending on how good I am today, I may allow myself to pick up some Chinese food for dinner...I've been having a Chicken with Broccoli craving recently, and if I only let myself eat half of the portion I get it won't be too horrible for me. Last night I was pretty good, having a turkey dog, a baked sweet potato, and some steamed green beans. But I also had two of the chocolate chip cookies I made Sunday night. Oops.

I signed up this morning to volunteer at the humane society this weekend. Yay! I haven't really had the time to do that in a few months, so I'm pumped. We stopped by there two weekends ago to donate a 15-pound case of litter that we found when we were cleaning out a closet (it was a different kind of litter from what we currently use, so we didn't really need it). Blake wanted to throw it out, but I refused to let him do that. Plus, by bringing it there, we got to play with some cute little kitties for a few minutes. I wanted to steal them.

Well, I have a bunch of work to do today, so I'd better get to it so that Susan doesn't kick my ass.

weekend activities

This was another fun weekend, although I continued to botch my healthy living goals. I'm getting back on the wagon this week. Friday we saw The Dark Knight with some people and it was really good. I was a little out of the loop however because I never saw Batman Begins and apparently this one took up where that one left off and had some of the same characters and whatnot. Oh well. I will never understand Maggie Gyllenhaal as the female lead though. She didn't really look the part.

Saturday we did all of our chores and errands and I hit the mall because I had 20% off at BR for the weekend. I got a few shirts. Also, I went to Best Buy and got the Track Pack for Rock Band. We went to dinner with Bill and Tim and then Tim came over for a Rock Band Party. Some of the new songs were really hard. But it was fun. I need to improve my skills so that I can play on the hard setting next time.

Yesterday we spent most of the day out on the lake and it was glorious. It was a really nice day and it involved a lot of swimming and a tasty lunch at Rusty Rudder. And I only got a little bit pink from when I was in the water. Susan and AT were not so lucky. They got owned. When we got home we were exhausted, so we watched TV and I made cereal for dinner.

I have a shitload of work to get through in the next two weeks, and I'm not entirely sure how it's all going to get done...I'm going to have to do a better job of focusing. This morning we had a "branding" workshop, which means they gave us new t-shirts and fed us a bunch of BS about how great it is to work here (all of it was lies). But, I'm not really above lying to get other experienced people to work here, because I can make a quick $7k if I do. Which would more than make up for my shitty raise.

Well, I have a lot to do before I leave for New Orleans in two weeks (boooooooo) so I'd better get at it while I'm feeling moderately productive. Hope you all have a lovely Monday.

i suck at life in general

So remember my post yesterday about going to the gym and whatnot? Yeah that didn't happen. It appears that all motivation has vacated the premises. Susan and I decided to leave work at 4, go to my house and play Wii, and then go to the Melting Pot which was delicious and completely awful for my body. And then I didn't even get up to do my 30 minutes of Wii Fit this morning. I feel pretty bad about my actions.

I really need to do one of two things here: accept the fact that this is going to be my body forever and continue to be lazy, or get my fat ass in gear. Or my personal favorite #3: get LipoDissolve as a quick fix and then work to maintain my weight forever. But I think I'm too poor for that.

I haven't gained a pound since college, but I'd still like to lose some weight, I just don't really want to work to do it. I am LAME. I'm going to try to get to the gym after work today, but with my current attitude, I'm not 100% sure that will happen.

I am, however, going to see The Dark Knight tonight and I will get to meet Scotty's new puppy, so that's exciting. Also, I have my fingers crossed that I'll get my much awaited Mario Kart this weekend...and there's sure to be a Rock Band party at some point. And we've arranged for some boating with Susan, Chris, Danny, and AT this weekend. I haven't even seen AT's engagement ring yet, so I'm pumped (although I have been told of its mammoth size). I'm so happy it's the weekend. Work was NOT a good time this week.

My love affair...with food

I think we all could have guessed that my positive attitude and approach to my healthy living goals was going to wear off eventually. And that day was yesterday. First, I went out to lunch instead of eating my sandwich, and then I ate three fajitas for dinner instead of my intended two. And I didn't work out especially hard either (I forgot to eat my pre-workout snack, so instead of going to the gym I went home, had a snack, lifted, and then went for a 3 mile walk). And today was way worse. I know I'm going to Melting Pot for dinner, and yet I did not hesitate to eat two giant slices of pizza and two cinnamon knots at our catered training lunch. I WILL be working out hard before dinner tonight because of this debacle. I just...love food so much. It's sad really.

And now, I'm preparing a training program for work. Which basically means I feel like I'm in college doing a presentation. This is literally the first time I've looked at PowerPoint since graduation. And I want to kill myself.

I did get two tickets to see Maroon 5 with Counting Crows for $45 today, so that's a plus. Unfortunately, the tickets to see Journey, Heart, and Cheap Trick are up to $30/piece, so I'm going to have to pass on that one. Sad.

Ok, enough procrastinating. I've got to get this damn thing finished. Sigh.

Shop Victoriously!

I won a Mario Kart on eBay today! It came with 4 Wii Wheels and I'm SO excited that I don't have to locate it in stores anymore. Including shipping, it only cost $20 above retail. Some douchebag upped the bid with less than a minute left, but fortunately my maximum bid was still greater than his. Suck it, douche.

Now I'm slightly obsessed with eBay. I'm currently watching a pair of Christian Louboutins in my size with 4 days remaining. I'm a little iffy on buying designer items from eBay though, because in college I ordered what I thought was a legit Coach bag but it wound up being a shitty bag with a ripped off Coach logo on it. No wonder it was so cheap.

It would be nice if the shoes are real though. Still, I don't know if I could bring myself to wager more than $100 on a pair of maybe-designer-maybe-fake shoes without recourse.

Work may suck, but my happiness today was heightened by my eBay experience. Also, I ditched my packed lunch and went to get delicious Soho Bistro instead. Their lunch portions are very reasonable, and I got Chicken with Mixed Veggies so as to get some solid veggie intake. I probably should have avoided the spring roll though. I'm going to have to watch myself on the fajitas tonight.

random things

Last night I played in my first company softball game of the season, and we lost. But I was 1-2 with a walk and I scored 2 runs, so yay! It was hotter than hades out there. It was quite a workout.

I've been getting involved in some eBay auctions for Mario Kart the past few days. I lost the first one I engaged in, but that was fine because I found a better one. I'm currently leading the pack with a bid of $110 on Mario Kart with 4 Wii Wheels (retail value: $90). I really hope I win one of these things because I'm completely tired of trying to find it in stores.

I had crappy dinner last night because my softball game was at 6:30, so I didn't have much time. I had a bowl of Multigrain Cheerios before the game and then two scrambled eggs after. Not great for me, but acceptable given the circumstances. Monday night I rocked out marinated and grilled chicken (which I did not botch this time), zucchini risotto, and steamed lemon green beans. Tonight is going to be fajitas. And tomorrow is my night out at Melting Pot! Yay!

Blake's grandparents sent him a gigantic box of Omaha Steaks, which was wholly unnecessary because we still have most of the last box they sent. So in the near future, I will be eating a lot of vegetarian or (99% fat free turkey) hot dog meals so that Blake can make himself a steak for dinner. Because we can barely fit anything else in our freezer right now due to the influx of meat products. And we have a big freezer.

I hate work so much right now that I'm finding it very difficult to stay focused. eBay is not helping. I have to get some shit done today because tomorrow I have to prepare a training session to be given next Thursday. Kill me now please. I am counting down the minutes until I can bounce from here today and hit the gym (45 minutes cardio and lower body strength training).

brief update

So when I was at home yesterday, I realized that I hate my job entirely too much to continue doing it. I'm going to start looking for a new job pronto. I'm just cranky all the time because of this place, and I can't take it anymore.

I need to find something else before August so I don't have to go back to New Orleans. I'm bringing my computer home tonight to throw together a resume (I haven't had one of those since I got my internship 5 years ago).

the universe hates me

So I'm normally awesome at taking my birth control pills at exactly the same time every day. I can accomplish this because I have a daily alarm set on my cell phone to go off at 7pm. However, apparently the oldness of my phone has made it retarded...I realized yesterday that I couldn't remember it going off for the past few days and I whipped out my pills and realized I'd missed 3 days. Awesome. This, right here, is why I will never have sex without a minimum of two birth control methods before I'm married.

So if I had the internet in my house I would have done some research on what to do in this situation. But I didn't. So I just took two pills last night instead of one, like I do when I only miss one day. And then this morning, I took two more. I was planning on then taking two tomorrow and it all being worked out again. But then my stomach started hurting. Kind of like the cramps I used to get before I went on the pill. My time of the month was a week ago, so clearly my body is confused by this new development. I looked online, and apparently if you've missed one or two pills, you can take two in one day (but not at the same time), but if you've missed three you're just supposed to throw out your pack and start new. It's a new pack anyway, so I'll just pick up tomorrow taking one pill at a time. But my god, does my stomach hurt. It's time to leave work early and lay on my couch for the rest of the day now.

The point of this post is this: you should never depend on only one type of birth control unless you would be relatively ok with getting pregnant. And I'm ordering a new cell phone immediately. Also, I should have internet access in my house.

Side note: Blake told me if I was pregnant, he wouldn't pay me child support because it was my fault. I informed him that that's not really how it works, and that I would be bleeding him dry for the rest of his life. We have such a positive relationship sometimes.

healthy living update

Here are my stats from my first full week.

pounds lost: 1
Wii fit usage: 6 mornings
Gym cardio sessions 4 (should be 5)
Strength training sessions: 3 (should be 4)
Non-gym cardio sessions: 1 (DDR)
Meals eaten at restaurants: 1.5 (.5 for the partial catered lunch I had at work)
Crappy dinners eaten: 1 (cereal because I botched cooking my chicken)


I'm doing pretty well, although I need to do one more gym day a week to get to my goal. I also need to lose 4 pounds in the next 3 weeks, so I have to work a little bit harder. But overall it's going pretty well. Happy Monday everyone!

weekend activities

This was the first weekend in months that I had completely to myself with no set plans in place. And it was glorious. Friday night after Blake and I grilled some dinner, Tim came over and we played a lot of Rock Band. Tim is on guitar at about the level I'm at on drums, so it was really fun. Blake sang a bit. Good times.

Saturday we went to a vet appointment with the kitties at 7am. So we were a bit tired all day. Although we handle "tired" differently. I was lazy, and Blake did a bunch of housework. I went to Target, the Farmer's Market, and the grocery store, and then hit the gym, napped and sat around. Blake cleaned everything he could get his hands on (except for the bathroom, which I had to do Sunday. Boo). Then Scotty came over and we played some Wii, and then me and Scotty went to Howl at the Moon to meet up with Carrie and some other people. Blake, due to his lack of napping, went to bed. Howl at the Moon is a fun dueling piano bar that just opened. It was really good times.

Yesterday I decided to not deal with the gym (maybe because I was out until 2am Saturday night? I wasn't hung over though, I only had three beers). I did all of my required housework and stopped at Best Buy to check on the Mario Kart situation (a no-go). Then Tim, Scotty, and Carrie came over and we went to the lake. We did some floating around for a bit and then Blake, Carrie, and Tim skiied. And then it started to storm. Which sucked. Mostly for Blake, who had to cover up the boat in the pouring rain. We all went back to my place and I made some pizzas (the Teeter now carries frozen dough. My life is complete). We also played more Rock Band and watched the first episode of the new season of Big Brother. Good times.

After Tim left, I put the Rock Band back in its bag for the week. It takes up too much space to be set up all the time, so we've decided to make it a weekend-only activity.

And I'm about to suck it up and pay above retail for Mario Kart because I'm getting super tired of trying to find it. I'm giving Best Buy one more chance (tomorrow, when I go to get the first Track Pack for Rock Band) and then I'm ordering it from Amazon.com.

Botch

The theme of my life last night was "Botch." First, when I left the office, it was a complete downpour, and the wind was so strong that I couldn't use an umbrella and I almost got blown away. Because of this, I did a quick calculation in my head and walked directly home instead of to the gym. The thought of walking to the gym and getting soaked only to work out and then have to somehow get my soaking wet clothing home was unappealing. And man, did I get soaked. Of course it stopped raining entirely about 30 minutes after I got home.

In lieu of my gym routine, I used the workout mode on my Dance Dance Revolution for 30 minutes. I'm actually slightly improving at the game. Yay. However, now I have to get my lazy ass to the gym today, tomorrow, and Sunday to meet my 5-day quota for the week. Boo.

After botching the gym, I botched dinner. I marinated some chicken in salad dressing and was planning to steam some veggies and make baked sweet potatoes. The chicken had been defrosting in the fridge since Monday, so I assumed it would be fully defrosted. Try again. After cooking it for a seriously long time, the larger piece was still cold inside. Blake was mad, so I gave him my piece, which was smaller and fully cooked. So I was chicken-less. Then, my first experience with baking sweet potatoes failed because apparently it takes a ridiculously long time to bake them. I had them in for 45 minutes, and they were almost inedible. I will be "baking" them via microwave from now on. I put mine in the microwave for a few minutes to finish up and then ate most of it. However, my lack of protein due to the chicken debacle made me starving about an hour later, so I had a bowl of cereal. Not great. Blake did say that the fully cooked chicken was very good, so I guess that's a plus?

I was of course in a horrible mood after the dinner botching, so Blake cleaned up for me. Yay. Then, because he was mocked by the Wii Fit the other day, he decided to actually use it last night and I had a pretty good time watching him. I also watched some TV and read some of this month's Shape. This helped the mood slightly.

It's Friday! Yay! I don't have a whole lot of plans this weekend, other than the aforementioned gym activity. I also desperately need a pedicure, there's a huge sale at Crate & Barrel that I want to stop in on, and we're bringing the kitties to the vet for their annual check up tomorrow. I may also get to the lake at some point. Tim's making some noise about playing Rock Band, so perhaps we'll have some kind of video game shindig. Who knows. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Of Course.

So, I've been so positive about my whole diet and exercise thing, it was certain that something was going to come and slap me in the face. And here it is.

Starting Saturday and ending next Friday, it is Restaurant Week in Charlotte. What this means is that a slew of (normally expensive) restaurants around the city have put together special 3-4 course menus which will cost $30/person for dinner all week. A lot of them sound awesome. I've already made a reservation at Melting Pot for me and Blake and Susan and Chris because Susan and I have never been there and there's no way I won't love melted cheese and chocolate. Blake and I are also considering going on a date somewhere else (Ruth's Chris or M5 probably). It's not too often that you get to eat super expensive meals for $30/person. And as an avid foodie, I'm stoked.

Our Melting Pot excursion is next Thursday, so I need to be super good about eating and working out until then. I even thought to make the reservation at 7:15 so that I would have ample time to work out after work before eating. I need to go on the defensive before I fill my stomach with cheesy goodness.

Of course I also have training for work twice this week, which comes with catered lunch. Today, fortunately, it was Brixx's pizza and there was no dessert to speak of. There was also no salad. So I had the carrots and spinach salad that I brought for lunch and then two slices (they're really small personal pizzas) of vegetable pizza. At least I'm getting my veggies in. I have no idea what's on the menu tomorrow, but we've already gotten an email about there being both breakfast and lunch provided. I'm going to try my hardest to avoid the breakfast situation all together...because I love breakfast buffets way too much to get out of there with anything that would be considered even remotely healthy. I'm going to bring myself another salad tomorrow just in case. This healthy eating thing is harder than it looks.

General update

So last night, when I left the office, the sky was staring at me as if to say "that's right. I'm gong to pour all over you as soon as you go to walk home from the gym later. Seriously. Try me." So I really did not want to go to the gym. But I did anyway. I promised to be hardcore for 4 weeks and I'm a huge loser if I can't get through even one week without crapping out on my routine.

I did 45 minutes on an elliptical and then a 25 minute lower-body strength training session. And when I left, it was of course raining. Fortunately, it held out on the monsoon-style thunderstorm until I had already arrived home.

I made a delicious vegetable fried rice last night. Blake's had chicken in it as well. It was super fast and easy to make, and Blake really liked it, so I'll definitely do it again. Plus, it was a great way to get in 3-4 servings of veggies. You know what's cool? Canned water chestnuts. They added a lovely crunch to my meal.

I had an awesome "conversation" with my Wii Fit last night when I turned it on to log my gym activity for the day. Sometimes the walking balance board gives you tips and asks questions and such. Blake hasn't been using it recently, so yesterday morning, it merely remarked "hey, I haven't seen Blake lately" and left it at that. Lats night it said "How would you say Blake's posture looks lately?" And I clicked on the response "The same." And then he said "Change is always better, don't you think? Maybe you're not paying enough attention to Blake. Did you know that eye contact is key in owner-dog relationships?" Yes, a video game just laid a major burn on my boyfriend. And I laughed. A lot. He was less than pleased when I told him about it.

I'm back to my normal routine today. Homemade lunch in the office, gym after work, making dinner, watching TV. Dinner tonight will be grilled chicken (using my new pan of course), baked sweet potatoes, and steamed veggies.

It's almost Friday. Yay!

M by Staples

Ok, I completely realize that I'm a huge dork who loves office supplies. And the ones my office actually provides for us are completely shitty (shocker). Let's just say that I'm not the only one around here that buys her own supplies because she hates the free ones (I know of one other person. But there may be more).

I was at Staples last week and found this really cool deal where you can fill up a bucket (small $4.99, large $9.99) with these mix and match binder clips and paper clips and push pins, and they had 3 or 4 different color schemes. And I was all "I really like these black and white ones, maybe I'll buy some." And then I ran into their display of items from their M by Staples collection.

It is full of folders and notebooks and filing items in cool patterns. And yes, there were some black and white ones. So I spent $30 on office supplies at Staples. I'm thinking I may as well throw down for anything that might possibly make me want to show up for work in the morning. Here are some pics of items that I purchased:

healthy living diary

So I realize I'm only in day 3 of my whole 'not eating like an idiot/exercising an acceptable amount' kick, but it's going pretty well. Yesterday I had planned to go for a walk when I left the office, but then (of course) as soon as I walked out of here it started raining. Great. So I stopped at the butcher and then drove to Target to get a grill pan (more on that later). I then made up for the fact that I didn't get as much working out in as I'd like by doing 50 minutes of aerobics/strength training/yoga on the Fit last night. And it's a good thing I skipped the gym, because it was basically a monsoon outside at the time I would have been walking home from there. Our softball game got cancelled last night, which was sad.

I christened my grill pan when I got home, and it is great. It feels like it takes longer than an actual grill to make chicken breasts, but I like it. All I did was sprinkle them with salt and pepper and throw them on there. I intended to serve left over pesto sauce on top of them, but I forgot about the sauce until we were done eating. They were good anyway. I also made a gigantic pile of steamed broccoli with lemon juice on top and a very small quantity of risotto. Blake complained about the amount of broccoli, but I informed him that this is how we eat now, so he'd better get used to it.

And now a warning to anyone who wants to buy a cast iron grill pan ($19.99 at Target!). It works great, you just spray some Pam on it before you throw the meat on there...but it gets really hot. And when you're done cooking with it, you're going to want to remove it from the stove and let it sit and cool while you're eating before cleaning it. I tried to run it under the sink when I was done and all I can say is that I can't believe our smoke detectors didn't go off. There was a lot of smoke. A 20 minute cool down was all it needed to stop doing that.

I can't tell if my problem is that my body is adjusting to smaller portions or that it's in the habit of having dessert at night, but despite my dinner of a grilled chicken breast, at least two cups of steamed broccoli, and about a quarter cup of risotto, I felt like I wanted to eat again like an hour later. I didn't. I think this was more out of habit than necessity, because I'm pretty sure I ate a large enough dinner that I shouldn't need to eat again. I did have a square of Dove dark chocolate with almonds, which helped a little.

I continued my Wii Fit morning routine today. I have a lunch date with Kristin, so this will be my one lunch out of the week. I'm going to try to behave myself. After work I'm hitting the gym for a 45 minute cardio/25 minute lifting session and then I'm making vegetable fried rice when I get home. It's a Cooking Light recipe, so it shouldn't be too awful for me. I just have to watch my portions. And of course, I made an extra chicken breast last night so that I can add it to Blake's rice because he wants to kill me when I try to serve him meatless meals.

Have a good day everyone!

Healthy living progression; food processor

So yesterday I had an awesome gym workout, fueled by my anger about my raise. I did the really hard adjustable-stride elliptical for 25 minutes, lifted for 25 minutes, and then rode the recumbent bike for 15 minutes. Pretty solid for a Monday.

I'm still not sure what to do about this raise. A lot of people around here got way more screwed than I did (like the people who just got promoted and should have had gigantic raises but didn't), and although my monthly income will likely only increase by $50 after I do my annual 401K percentage increase, it's really not too horrible. I don't have my student loan anymore, so I have more than enough to live off of and save up for either a car or a trip to Italy. But I'm planning to keep my options open, and inform the powers that be around here how unimpressed I am with the current situation. Maybe my bonus will be decent enough to get me through.

When I went home, I made spinach and pine nut pesto (a Giada recipe) over chicken tortellini. I've never eaten much pesto, and it was a bit heavy on the pine nuts for my taste, but it was good. I'm serving the extra over grilled chicken tonight. I'm going to also steam some broccoli and make a (small) side of parmesean risotto.

The food processor is GREAT. It's a KitchenAid (to match my mixer) 7-cup model. Most places only make a 3-cup and then jump to like an 11-cup, which is way too large. But the 7-cup is perfect for cooking for two. And it came with a 3-cup bowl and blade as well, in case I'm doing something smaller. I think my favorite feature is the slicing/shredding blade, which allegedly will grate mozzarella cheese for me. All I have to do is attach the blade and drop the cheese in there. I'm really excited to try that out, because grating the cheese is my least favorite part of pizza making. I know I'm supposed to be being healthy right now, but making one pizza can't hurt that much, right? I may do that this weekend. I also have to try to slice veggies with it. I bet that's cool.

I'm currently avoiding work/going on an iTunes CD buying spree. Yay! After work today, I'm going to stop by the butcher (strangely, we've run out of boneless chicken breasts) and then do my weekly outside workout of walking down to Best Buy (maybe someone has returned a Mario Kart today?) and Target (I need to buy a grill pan because I'm afraid of using the grill by myself). I'm going to round out my activities by doing another half hour of Fit this evening. I'm going to hit up some ab strengthening routines.

Is it Friday yet?

crappy job no more?

So the other day, we got an email from the person in charge of the company, in which the general summary is "The economy is in the crapper right now, so your raises are going to be shitty this year. We don't really care though, because it's going to be next to impossible for you to find another job, so we're betting you'll all just accept it and move on."

I don't think so.

Now, I am horribly spoiled by my raises. And I realize that most people get 3-5% per year and the fact that my raises have varied from 11-21% is crazy. But this year, my raise is only 9%. I realize that is still crazy, but I was expecting 12%, which would be a LOT more than what I'm getting. Money is one of the only reasons I'm still working here...and the amount I'm getting paid right now might not really be worth it.

So I'm stuck with a dilemma: I know I want to leave here, but I have no idea what I want to do. I just calculated the lowest base salary that I would be able to live off of in the event that I decide to completely change careers. I have contacts at other accounting firms, but I don't know if leaving here for there is really going to improve my situation. The fancy mall down here is hiring a manager at Banana Republic right now, so although I'm completely unqualified for that, I think I might apply. I have to throw a resume together tonight.

Maybe I'm just being crazy? I mean, I'm still going to be making a lot of money...but I LIVE for the annual raises. That's what makes all of the hours and the travel worth dealing with. And this is really lame. Especially since I'm guessing the bonuses will also be shitty because of the economy.

I wish they were hiring at the Humane Society. I got several emails from them a few months ago about open positions...but I can almost guarantee I wouldn't make enough to live off of there. Boo.

For real this time.

So I'm back from my 'vacation' in NJ, and it was lovely to not have to work and to see my family and all of my friends from home, but now it's back to the grind. I'm horribly off of my at-home routine right now because before I went to NJ for a week, I was in WV for two. And the problem with traveling, whether it is for work or for fun, is that while I'm never completely sedentary, I'm not as active as when I'm on my regular routine. Also, I eat with reckless abandon. And hotel gyms are really really bad.

So I'm home for 4 weeks straight before I have to go back to New Orleans (kill me), and I'm going to dedicate myself to losing 5 pounds before I go. I would like to hit up my Wii Fit at least once a day, and get in 5 additional cardio and 4 additional lifting sessions each week. Also, I'm going to watch what I eat by bringing lunch to work 4 out of 5 days each week and making healthy dinners every night (I'm going to try really hard to not consider cereal or egg and cheese sandwiches healthy).

This morning I got up early and did a 30 minute cardio/yoga session on the Fit. After work today, I'm going to hit the gym for about 45 minutes of cardio and 25 minutes of lifting. And then when I get home, I'm going to open up my birthday food processor and give spinach and pine nut pesto sauce a go. I'm going to serve it over some store bought roasted chicken tortellini (and I bought the small, 2.5 serving package so that I don't feel compelled to make and split one of the family size boxes with Blake). I'm pretty pumped about the food processor. I'm going to eventually use it to hide all sorts of vegetables in various sauces so that Blake won't know he's eating them. Yay!

Since I weigh myself every day for my daily body test on the Fit, I'll update when I actually lose some weight. I feel that a month is more than enough time to lose 5 pounds, so as long as I don't get lazy it shouldn't be a problem. I'm counting on you all to keep me on track! I'll update with details about my adventures in pesto sauce tomorrow.

aaaaand i'm bored

well i've now been home for 4 days and i'm bored. most of my friends (and Blake) won't be here until tomorrow. i've played a lot of video games and surfed the internet and watched tv and now i'm ready to actually do something. i have been good about my shopping so far, i haven't really bought anything, so that's good. i've put a fair effort into finding Mario Kart around here, and no dice. i don't think i'm ever going to get this game. why is Nintendo so lame? i mean just make more of the game so that stores can keep them in stock. why is that so hard?

i remembered today that next friday is the happiest (work) day of the year, because the first pay period in July is when our raises go into effect. the raises have already been determined, but we haven't found out what they are yet. they like to wait until like the day before the paycheck to inform us of that information (yes, i know how lame that is). but it's something to look forward to once i have to go back to work.

i'm hungry. i may go to Whole Foods and grab dinner. oh how i love Whole Foods, and also hate them for not having a location in Charlotte.

Hi from home!

It's my vacation. Yay! I've been doing a lot of relaxing the past few days and it's been good. I've also been eating a lot of bagels because, well, you just can't beat the bagels in the greater NYC area. And I don't get to be here that much.

Saturday, we left the house around 7am to head up to PA. The cats were terrified. I mean really really scared. They had the entire trunk to run around in, their food and litter box and bed were in there, and they both sat on top of one of their carriers, staring at us the whole way. Wylie cried nonstop for the first hour. Norman was really quiet and we figured he was just being good, but it turns out he was scared out of his mind. They were both dong that thing where they looked exhausted but just as soon as they'd allow their eyes to close they would jerk them open and continue staring at us. And then, the last hour and a half of our drive, there was awful rain, like the kind where people are pulled to the side of the road. We had our hazard lights on and were going really slowly. And the sound of the rain on the trunk must have pushed poor Norman over the edge because when we went to get them out of the car (which they did NOT want to do), we found that he had done number 1 and number 2 right where he was sitting rather than in the litterbox that was three inches to his right. Fabulous. Here's a view of them from where we were sitting. The poor things.

They were scared at first in Blake's parents' basement, but by the time I left there Sunday morning, they were loving it. They have a lot more places to explore there, so they're having fun. And Blake is spending a lot of time with them. So it's a vacation for the kitties as well.

When I got to NJ Sunday, my sister was still around. She was supposed to go back to Baltimore Monday morning, but then decided to call out of work Monday and skip her evening class and didn't leave until about 7 last night. Why? Because we were playing Rock Band basically nonstop. Good times. Yesterday I also made a batch of Friendship Bread, went to the awesome shoe store (but didn't find anything...boo), and hit up Best Buy. They did not have Mario Kart in stock but they did have one set up to try and I played a bit and it was awesome. I'm starting to get seriously pissed that I can't find it to buy anywhere. Jackie's going to check the Target by her apartment in Baltimore this week at some point.

That's really about it. This morning I did some Wii Fit for about 45 minutes and made some breakfast while watching the Price is Right, and now I'm going to head to the gym. My mom's new neighborhood has a clubhouse with a gym, so that's good. When she gets home from work we're going to go to The Grove and do some shopping (unfortunate thing about the new house: it takes less than 3 minutes to get to The Grove from here. I see a lot of shopping in my future).

I may go into NYC tomorrow to amuse myself. And Blake's coming to NJ Thursday for the big July 3rd parties. Yay.

I wish I didn't have a job and I could just do whatever I want all the time.