Kindle is the shit.

I leave for Italy in 5 days. Woo! Anyway, I finally ordered that Kindle last week and it is AWESOME. It's totally not annoying to read on such a small screen as I thought it might be. You should all buy one.

In other news, I had jury duty yesterday. It was, at times, awesome and horrible. First, you go in there in the morning and sit in a "jury suite" where they have movies playing and popcorn machines and arcades and pool tables and just hang out until they call your name. I was in the business center with my laptop plugged in reading until about 11:30. And then, when they need to populate a 12 person jury, they call out 12 names, plus some additional names in case some jurors are dismissed by the attorneys. I got pulled in as #35 for a jury that only needed 12 people. And once you get to the courtroom you're not allowed to DO ANYTHING but listen to the jury questioning. No reading, no eating, no talking, NOTHING. So for three hours I watched the attorneys ask jurors questions. And then the unnecessary jurors were dismissed and went back to the jury suite. Fortunately, it was so late by then that we were allowed to go home 30 minutes later without having to deal with any other schenanegins. I'm back at work today.

I'm also lazy. I just DO NOT feel like going to the gym today. So I'm not going to. I'll lift a bit when I get home. I'll also make a delicious dinner because I roasted a chicken Sunday night and I've been cooking with the leftovers ever since. Tonight we will have a casserole. Yay.

MIA

I know, I know, I've been MIA lately. But I've been so busy with work, and Wake football, and getting ready to go to Italy in two weeks, that the blog was moved to the back burner. And all I can even offer you now is a quickie. I'm sorry, oh deserted blog.

Anyway, because the trip is eminent, here's some stuff I've purchased (in addition to the approximately 8 pairs of new Gap jeans that are in my closet. Seriously. Do yourselves a favor and check them out).

Exhibit A is my cross-body bag, essential for thwarting thievery and gypsies and the like in busy tourist locations. And also big enough to hold my guidebooks, wallet, sunglasses, sunscreen, and a bottle of water. From Piperlime.com.

Exhibit B is the Old Navy "cardi-coat" that I dominated this weekend. IT WAS $20. SERIOUSLY. If the damn thing falls apart when I get back, it'll still be worth it. The only sad thing is that it also exists in purple but is sold out in my size online. I may have to check that out in person this weekend at some point. Because it's awesome. In fact, I'm wearing it right now. But mine is grey, not white.

I've also purchased the much talked about kindle with a purple leather case. More to come when I've actually received and played with it a bit.

During my random online shopping, I came across these: FitFlop boots. They are going to be the perfect lovechild between Fitflops and Uggs, and I'm buying some as soon as I get back from Italy. I believe I've mentioned previously how effing awesome Fitflops are for walking in...they're as comfy as actual walking shoes. And though they're kind of ugly as far as flip flops go, the comfort level always wins out in my opinion. My only prior complaint with Uggs was that they have virtually zero arch support and are therefore pretty poor for lots of walking, and it appears that Fitflop is fixing that problem. More to come on the quality of the actual boot as compared to Uggs (they're about the same price, so I'm hoping they're similar). They also have a tall boot coming out.

Ok, back to work. I'm flying to Chattanooga tonight. Exciting.

Courtesy Post

I know I haven't been around for a while, so I wanted to pop in and say "Don't worry! I'm Alive still!" But really nothing even remotely new or exciting is going on, so I don't have much to say.

I was sick as a dog last week (bad cold) and was stuck in West Virginia in a hotel room of infection. Ugh it was horrible. I took some time off and slept a lot, and I feel much better now. I'm in Charlotte all week, so I'm trying to get back into my normal routine.

Wake opened their season Saturday with a loss. Great. And in true Wake fashion, they made it appear at the end that we should maintain hope, that they might pull off a win. And then when the time came to pull their shit together, they choked. Hopefully they'll be able to pull off a win on Saturday.

Blake has a number of visitors coming into town on Saturday to see the Panthers/Eagles game on Sunday. This means that I will largely have the weekend to myself because he will be busy with his guests. I have to go back to WV on Sunday (boo) but a little extra down time can only help my recuperation, I assume.

In other news, I leave for Italy in 31 days! Crazy. I should probably make some reservations at the busiest attractions this weekend during my down time. And potentially print out some train schedules. Good times.

That is all. I'm boring.

Shopping success

I don't wear jeans much, because I argue that a t-shirt dress is like 100 times more comfortable. But I felt that I needed some new ones. I usually jean shop at The Gap, because I don't feel like spending $200 on jeans that I'll wear a only a few times a month.

The Gap has a new denim line right now, and I must say, I enjoy them very much. I wound up getting two pairs of Real Straight jeans and a pair of Boyfriend jeans. I wanted skinny jeans, but oh my god they were so tight and uncomfortable I wanted to die. Horrible.

Anyway, I don't have much time right now, but you should all go try some on and check them out. They're currently all $20 off. But know that you shouldn't be upset if you have to try on multiple sizes...in different styles I needed a size 4, 6, and 8 to get them to fit properly. Which is super annoying, but the size isn't as important as the actual fit I suppose.

Boooo shoes, yay coat!

So sadly, the little open toe booties I told you about in the last post did not fit when they arrived. Like AT ALL. My feet were about twice as wide as the shoe. So those had to be returned. It was a sad day, but I feel that with enough shopping, I will be able to find a cute pair of booties. I will just have to do so in person so that they can be tried on.

To cheer myself up, I purchased this DKNY down jacket. First of all, it was originally $260 and I got it for $60, so right away that's a huge score. Second of all, the down jacket that I currently own is just awful for the following reasons:

1. I got it at Abercrombie my freshman year at Wake (read: it's small, and borderline cropped).


2. It is bright baby blue.


3. It has no discernible waistline, and therefore makes me look like a blue marshmallow.

I don't have a lot of need for a down jacket, but I think $60 is an appropriate price for the few late season Wake football games and walking to work during the 3 weeks of winter that necessitate down jackets in Charlotte. And it's not terribly trendy, so I intend to own it for several years. I mean the horrible one lasted for nearly 8 years. So this one should be a staple of my outerwear wardrobe for quite some time.

Nothing else exciting to mention today, so I shall take my leave and update again soon. I'm headed to NJ this weekend, so let the tax-free shopping commence!

An update...involving shopping (of course)

First of all, in response to my last entry, I got on the scale this morning (which wasn't the plan...usually Monday is my weigh-in day) and I have lost 5 pounds since the food logging began. This is ridiculous, as I have been actively trying to lose 5 pounds for months (or probably years) and this is the first time it has actually worked. Score. I realize that the weight loss will slow down a bit now that I've dropped all of my water weight and my metabolism is getting used to the reduced food intake, but I'm pumped nonetheless.

What better way to reward myself then with needless shopping? I've been all over online shopping recently, and Blake is probably going to murder me one of these days as a result of the copious boxes that have been arriving, but whatever. I got this sweater dress for 75% off, which totally kicks ass.

It is going to look really cute with black tights and these shoes, which I had both a 20% off deal and a $20 rewards certificate to use on. Thanks, piperlime.com!

Have a good weekend everyone!

The Food Diary

Subtitle: The Post that Meg will Like

So I've been really good about my food diary situation this week. Once you get past the annoying factor, it's actually really helpful. First of all, I almost can't believe that I've never stuck with this before, because I LOVE budgeting (I'm an accountant after all). I think I've always stopped doing it because I've become so disgusted with my food intake, and I'm afraid that this is going to cause me to become some kind of food and exercise nazi, which I don't really want to do.

But the main benefit, I think, is that it has shown me how vitally important it is for me to get my fat ass to the gym every day. I mean to be able to come in a few hundred calories under what my body has used for the day, I have got to go to the gym - even on my best diet days. And God forbid I want to eat at a restaurant...twice a day working out is essential to break even in most cases. I need to stop doing that.

Anyway, I've been a bit handicapped because I'm not supposed to start lifting again until next week due to my shoulder injury. I did go back to pilates this week and modified my movement to keep my shoulder out of it, and it worked pretty well, so that's good. When I go back to lifting next week, I should be able to get myself at more of a calorie deficit.

The weekend is going to be hard. I typically don't do any working out, and I generally replace my normally low-calorie breakfast and lunch with bagels, so that does not work well. I think I have the motivation to at least do the EA Active game on my Wii for a half hour on each weekend day. That will at least give me a little bit of wiggle room...and might allow me to break even both days, if I'm lucky. So far this week, Monday through Thursday, I am at a 1,774 calorie deficit, Yay! My goal is about 2,000 per week. I know to lose a pound you need to hit 3,500, but I just don't think I can actually maintain that. I'd like to keep my goals reasonable.

I need to get this out there - Wednesday nights, my girls and I go to dinner before line dancing lessons. This week I suggested Moe's. Because, no lie, their website has the best nutritional information ever. You pick what you usually get, and then you can remove stuff that you leave out and add stuff on as you wish and it shows you how the meal changes. It convinced me to get the junior burrito instead of the mega-huge normal one. However, the worst part of the meal is, of course, the chips. The side of chips that you get with your burrito has 375 calories! 375! That's more than the burrito! If I didn't love Moe's queso dip like it was my first born child, I think I would have skipped the chips all together and just gotten the bigger burrito (chicken, no beans, no cheese, lots of grilled veggies. Just like I like it).

Anywho, that's about it for me this week. We're heading to the Def Leppard/Poison concert tomorrow night (hilarious, right?) and I'm already planning ahead for my tailgate food intake. I'll update again soon!

Oh, and I bought these for 50% off recently...they are so cute, I want to cry. They are Puma, and they will be joining me in Italy in October. :)