a bottle of red... a bottle of white...

This was me after spending my evening cooking:


Rockin out to some Wake Me Up (Before You Go-Go) and some Tom Jones while swigging not-so-cheap boxed wine (it was a lot cheaper before it became "trendy") and creating a culinary masterpiece.

Do you ever bite down in something soft and feel something hard and wonder what it is? I've been doing that a lot lately and it happened again tonight. I had the sense to grab the hard object out of my mouth and I'd SWEAR it's part of a tooth - it's white and really hard and a little shiny on the outside. I didn't eat anything that was hard and white today, so I don't think it's food. The funny thing is, none of my teeth hurt and I can't feel where any of them have broken off. Odd.

I tried eggs for the second time this year when I made 2 egg whites as part of breakfast. Not so bad with some Texas Pete and ketchup. Not bad at all. Good progress.

Last night I took a relatively unnecessary trip to Trash Mart. Sure, I needed to get some things, but I really didn't need to spend $50. On the other hand, they had some kind of milk that I had never seen before. It's skim milk but it supposedly doesn't taste like skim (and it's not "Super Skim" or "Ultra Skim"). I bought a regular carton and a chocolate carton since it sounded good. I had the chocolate this morning and while it doesn't taste as watery as regular skim, it tasted oddly almost like 8th continent lite chocolate soy milk (though the ingredients said that it was not soy milk). It was kind of weird. Not bad, necessarily, but not quite what I expected.

I'm also super excited because I bought something I've never bought before: seeds! Not the kind you eat, but the kind you plant! I bought 4 packets - butter lettuce, scallions, baby carrots (they're cute - they only grow to about 4 inches!), and broccoli. I always look forward to spring, but now I'm REALLY excited because I'll get to plant something. I have no idea where I'm going to put my little garden, but I'm psyched nonetheless. :)

Before I headed to the gym today, I decided to head over to Bed Bath & Beyond, followed by Half Price Books. At BB&B I used some new-homeowner gift cards to purchase The Biggest Loser food scale (which I totally played around with tonight), and at HPB I purchased a few magazines for $1.50 and 2 books that I've heard a lot about but never thought I'd want to read: Eat, Pray, Love (only $1) and The Memory Keeper's Daughter (only $2). Unfortunately, they didn't have the magazines and books that I really wanted - I've had my eye on possibly getting a Women's Health subscription (I found them online for $9.95/year) and the second book of the Shopaholic series (Shopaholic Takes Manhattan). I'm not normally much of a "fluff" reader and in the past I've really kind of hated "girly" books, but I want to see the movie and I always like to try reading the books before the movies whenever possible (and my mom gave me her copy on the cruise since she didn't like it). Well, I really liked it (and sadly, I identified with it a LOT), and after only a few days, I finished it last night. That's fast for me, considering I usually only read a chapter or two a night. Anyways, hopefully my new purchases will keep me entertained until the library comes through with the Shopaholic books.

Oh, and apparently I'm bringin sexy back, roadside. Last night on the way home from Trash Mart, I was stopped at a stop light on Ardmore and this car full of guys pulled up beside me and started honking the horn. I looked over and they were all looking at me, smiling and nodding their heads (what IS that?! is that some new flirting technique?). When I got home, I checked my car in case something was on it, or if maybe my trunk was open, but nope. They apparently were honking at me... and then coming home from the gym today, in broad daylight, 3 guys in a Penske truck did the same thing. THE SAME EXACT THING. I don't know if they were the same guys (though that'd be quite a weird coincidence) or if I'm just oozing hotness in my Trash Mart gear and post-workout messiness. I'm gonna go with the option that says I'm awesome.

So on to the events of this evening! I had planned to make homemade split pea soup and I totally pulled through. Here you can see the ingredients that went into my fabu-stew:


Soaked split peas (duh)...


TJ's crushed garlic (I'm lazy when it comes to garlic), black pepper, bay leaves, Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle (for some extra flav-a), carrots, fresh parsley, celery, diced ham, and chopped onions. I split my finger pretty deep while I was trying to cut the carrots. Ouch.

Here it is as it's cooking, pre-blending:



And finally, after I blended (erm, "liquefied") about half of it to make it thicker:



As I was cooking, I sipped on this:


(see, I started out with a glass...)

Since I let my soup cook for a long time, I got kinda hungry (all that crazy kitchen dancing will do that to ya!), so I ate part one of dinner - part 2 was a pretty big bowl of my awesome creation.



Above is a slice of Japaleno Cheddar bread from Trash Mart (half-off bakery goods are the greatest things ever!) dipped in tomato basil spaghetti sauce. Mmm!
Followed soon after by...



Believe it or not, this is just one sweet potato sliced into sticks and baked (yummy homemade sweet potato fries!)... it seemed to make a LOT of fries, but I totally scarfed them down. In fact, I tried them in a new combination:



Yup, I went there. I dipped my sweet potato fries in greek yogurt. And you know what? It really wasn't too scary. In fact, it was kinda good. I think I made my fries a little too spicy (too much Mrs. Dash. She's a wicked one.), so the yogurt was a nice complement to the spiciness. I was pretty proud of myself for branching out a bit!

As for my homemade split pea soup, yeah, it was pretty awesome - as expected. Next time I make it, I might omit sea salt since there's ham in it. I mean, this batch is just about incredible, but it might have just a weeeee bit too much salt. Still, yum!

My parents are potentially coming to visit tomorrow, so yay! Free dinner! Also, I'm pretty stoked to have my mom try my soup - she's never tried split pea before. My dad's a lost cause; he'll say it's disgusting because it's almost all veggies. But I'm totally making my mom try it, whether she wants to or not. Yep, I'm gonna force-feed. :)

It's about time for bed (I can't believe I've been writing this for an hour!)... peace.

My tapeworm tells me what to do

My mystery tapeworm is still with me. Seriously, I’ve eaten so much the past few days. Maybe it’s because I’ve come down with a cold? Doesn’t the old adage go, “Starve a fever, feed a cold?” If so, then I’m doing everything right!

Last night for dinner I had what seemed like a HUGE meal, but in reality wasn’t as humongoid as I’d thought. I baked a chicken breast (put Jack Daniel’s BBQ sauce on halfway through baking) and the remainder of my Alexia sweet potato fries (probably a serving and a half, if not two!), made a salad with mixed greens, feta and Drew’s Lemon Tahini Goddess dressing, and then had a carrot and a celery stalk dipped in white bean hummus. It seemed like a massive amount of food, but I was still hungry. I topped it off with a homemade chocolate chip cookie and cut myself off for the rest of the night. At least it was relatively healthy, though, right? Lots of veggies, anyways…

I’ve spent my last several workouts becoming more focused on weights and I think that might be a contributing factor concerning my constant starvation. Makes sense, right? My metabolism should be spiking, thus burning more calories, thus making me hungry? True or not, I like the sound of it. Anyways, I noticed this morning that I have little muscle lines on the OUTSIDE of my arms now! They’re pretty indiscernible, but if you look closely you can see them. I’m so excited! Also, people keep noticing I’ve lost weight! There is seriously no bigger motivator than having people notice all the hard work you’ve been doing, at least for me.

Tonight’s going to be a night off from the gym. I keep telling myself that I SHOULD go since normally I’d be at volleyball on a Thursday night (the Playoffs start tonight and we have yet another bye week since we’re #1 in our division!), but I’m so run down from this cold that I just don’t think I can do it. Instead, I think I’ll be heading to the East End Food Co-Op since I’ve been jonesing to go there for a few days now. I plan on getting some more unsalted cashew butter, maybe some bulk goodies, mayyyybe some more sweet potato fries, and maybe a special treat or two. I’m really considering making Red Lentil-Peanut Soup for dinner, but I can’t remember how many red and green lentils I have left at home from a previous (and delish) lentil soup recipe. Also, I only have about ½ cup of yogurt left after this morning’s breakfast. Perhaps I’ll make due with a more one-person-appropriate half recipe.

That’s pretty much the extent of my plans for the evening. Ideally, I’d like to get to Target to buy a new large envelope for my 2009 pay stubs and insurance info, etc., but I try to avoid going to Monroeville unless I’m going to the gym… and we’ve already discovered that’s probably not gonna happen tonight. So maybe I’ll just hang out at home and relax a bit.

Enjoy the warm-ish weather, Pittsburghers!

runnin on empty... NOT!

I’ve seemingly developed a tapeworm the past few days. I’ve seriously been so hungry, no matter what I eat or how often! The past few days I’ve been eating my newest creation for lunch – BURRACOS! Ok, they might really just be burritos (I’m a little fuzzy on my Mexican food terminology), but I think the term Burracos is pretty sweet. They’re a mixture of black beans and lean turkey meat, Greek yogurt, reduced fat “Mexican blend” cheese (Kraft), and TJ’s tortillas. Yummm! To make them more transportable, I’ve been wrapping them in the tortillas, then wrapping them in foil and putting them in a plastic container. Works pretty well! In theory, they should be really filling… but in reality I could totally eat a village after I eat a Burraco. In other new products, I branched out and tried both the TJ’s low sodium butternut squash soup and the vegan split pea soup. The butternut squash was sadly a terrible disappointment – very runny and unflavorful and ultimately too watery. The split pea soup, on the other hand, was pretty fab-u. It was chunky, vegan, fat free, and had only 100 calories per 1 cup serving. The sodium (as with any soup) was pretty high (570 mg, 24% RDV), but it had 3 grams of fiber and 7 grams of protein per serving. It was super yummy and I expected that the combination of a Burraco with 1 cup of the soup would tide me over for a few hours… but no. So I caved in and ate ½ cup fresh strawberries and about 7 pretzels dipped in unsalted cashew butter. I’m hoping to remain satiated until at least 4!
 
Ooh, and good news! My garage door finally works! It was heavenly today – I went outside, pushed a button, and the door went up. I got in the car, backed out, pushed another button FROM THE COMFORT OF MY CAR and the door closed. Just as it should. It was glo-rious! For probably the first time since I’ve bought the house, everything is in working order. I expect this to last until probably tomorrow, when undoubtedly something else will break.
 
In the middle of the night a few nights ago, I mysteriously took a small chunk out of my face… I have no idea how it happened and I have vague memories of it hurting and my face bleeding, but my nails aren’t that sharp. How on earth did it happen? Now I have this red mark just under my nose that looks like either a pimple or a bloody booger until you look closely and see the layers of dermis underneath the redness. Sometimes I’m just so awesome I amaze myself.
 
I’m excited to go to the gym tonight since I took last night off. I’ve been doing a lot of weights and mat work and I definitely notice a difference in the way I feel. Also, I’ve noticed that walking on a steep incline burns nearly as many calories (sometimes more!) than running, so that’s pretty interesting.
 
I’m gonna get up from my desk before I scarf down my fruit snacks I’ve reserved for pre-gym fuel. I really need to get rid of this tapeworm!

geezers need excitement

sorry if anyone saw last night's post before i edited it this morning. i feel a lot better and much less paranoid. i just needed some time to process everything and calm myself down. let's hope it doesn't happen again. :)

for the rest of you who didn't see the post, let's just say it wasn't pretty and it certainly wasn't necessary to share with the world. the section to which i'm referring has been deleted, so no need to read through yesterday's post to see what i'm talking about. trust me, it's been deleted for the best.

i woke up at a respectable hour today (as opposed to yesterday when i slept in really late) and was craving a diner breakfast. given my current financial situation, restaurant meals of any kind are an unnecessary indulgence, so i made do with what i had. i used up the last of my frozen bacon (5 slices), a can of sliced white potatoes, made 2 slices ezekiel cinnamon raisin toast, and made a pot of coffee. before you start recommending cardiologists for my impending heart attack, let me say that i split everything in half (ok, except the toast and the coffee) and made breakfast for 2 mornings. :) i am currently STUFFED, 3 hours later. it sure was tasty, though!

right now i'm waiting on garage door george to come back and fix my opener. he was supposed to show up at noon, but it's now 1:15 and still no george. i called my dad since he arranged the whole thing, but he seems to have a very nonchalant attitude towards it all - "give the guy a break. maybe he's just running late." umm... an hour and 15 minutes late? usually if people are going to be THAT late, they at least call. no word from george yet. i'm pretty tired of sitting around the house and i have PLENTY of errands to run, so i'm about ready to just leave. i'd call george myself, but i don't have a number for him... and i'm not sure which company he was from. it all just seems kinda shady...

anyways, i think i'm going to head out. i have to go to the library, go to the grocery store, and go to the gym (not necessarily in that order). tonight i'm making ground turkey and black bean tacos for dinner - i'm super excited. too excited. i need a life. :)

later peeps!

paranoid android

do you ever have the unfortunate experience of having words fly out of your mouth before you really process what you're saying? i had that experience today, among many other experiences. this one in particular was when lori called and invited me out for drinks with her and jeremey. i totally had all intentions of going, but for some reason my mouth formed the words saying that i wasn't going to go. i honestly didn't even realize what i had said until i hung up the phone... and immediately thought of calling her back. but, as is often the case, i decided that maybe my 30-second delay was from my brain and body telling me i needed to go home and relax. to put it mildly, it's been an "interesting" day. (interesting for me, not necessarily interesting to anyone else.) i really just need to process some things at the moment.

let me start with the good part of it all - last night george the garage door man came and almost completely fixed my garage door. my dad paid for it all (yes, i know i'm spoiled... but the door wasn't getting fixed otherwise), and it was lucky because it cost $550! basically, everything's wrong with it - springs, track, and a bunch of other things i neither remembered, understood, nor cared about... he fixed everything he could last night, but needed to get another part before fixing the opener part. luckily, my door is about a gazillion times lighter now thanks to the new springs and i can lift the door without killing myself. george said it was all pretty awful and that i easily could have gotten really hurt and i could have really wrecked the rest of my garage. hmm. oh well, it's much better now and it'll be fantabulous tomorrow afternoon!

this morning i headed out to the south side soup contest, which was pretty great. we had good weather for it and it even warmed up a little towards the end! i had expected actual bowls of soup, but instead we got little cups about the size of dixie cups. everything was still really good, though. i think i got to sample about 15 of the 23 soups - i almost made them all, but the last few were out of soup and a couple of them had signs that they were "forced to not participate," whatever that means. still, $5 and a can of campbell's broccoli cheddar got me a late and yummilicious brunch. i think my fave soup was the soupe savoyarde from le pommier. it was like a creamy vegetable soup. the crowd favorite from what i heard was the exotic wild mushroom soup. i puke on mushrooms, so i didn't try it, but every single person who left that table said it was incredible. i don't think i've ever heard so much food praise in my life as i did for the mushroom soup. actually, on my way back to my car, there was still a small line for the mushroom, so i jumped into it and decided to suck it up but (gasp!) they ran out of soup just a few people ahead of me. i guess that was for the better. wouldn't want little chunks of lindsay hanging around the southside...
there's more to the soup contest part of my day, but i'll keep that all to myself.

i had to scramble from the southside to make it to monroeville by 3 for my eye dr appointment. i'm SOOO glad i went - while i was being examined, i casually brought up my eye watering/pain issues that i'd had checked out a month or two ago. it's a lot better, but it's still there, so i'm pretty sure it's not the suspected sinus infection. maybe part of it was since i seemed to get a sinus infection almost immediately after starting antibiotics, but it wasn't entirely that. this doctor, however, offered a more reasonable and lindsay-plausible solution: my mystery autoimmune disease is probably flaring up and it's projecting itself through my eyes. given my ridiculously crazy medical history, i'm willing to bet that's the case. anyways, he gave me some new contacts to try (ooh, and i LIKE them! they seem more hydrating!), and then i checked out a sweet pair of vera wang spectacles that will be coming home with me in about 2 weeks. :) also, the technician fixed my old glasses since they're constantly falling off my face. now they actually fit! they'll probably stay that way for about a week or so. :)

after all the excitement of the day, i hit up the gym for a loooooong workout. not my longest by any means, but i didn't have my ipod, so the time just dragged on and on. i did the first part of my abs exercises, the little stair stepper machine (ugh), the elliptical, then the treadmill, then used nearly every machine i'd never used before since the gym wasn't crowded and i was soup-drunk. it was pretty cool to use other machines and i even found a few i like (and some that i hate but should probably use... i'm talkin to you, glute machine!). i ended it all with part 2 of the abs and mat workout. it was only an hour and 33 minutes, but it felt like 4 hours!

quite an exciting day for me!

you are the sunshine of my life, right by nature!

I don’t have a whole lot to report today, but I DO want to sing the praises yet again of Right by Nature. I stopped yesterday before volleyball “scouting” to waste some time and fuel up on a salad. I got the things I was looking for, loaded up my salad (spring mix, sunflower seeds, roasted soynuts, dried cranberries, a feta/asiago mix, bean sprouts, some mixed nuts and some de-lish green goddess dressing!), and headed to the registers… but wait! What’s that sign the bakery lady’s putting up in front of the bakery case? Surely that doesn’t say “Buy one, get two free!” Oh yes, friends, buy 1, get 2 (yep, 2!!) free! So I got 3 bakery bagels for some breakfasts: a blueberry, an everything, and a sunflower honey wheat. 3 breakfasts for only 69 cents total. Rock. Freakin. On. In addition to my salad and breakfast beauties, I snatched up 2 tiny tangerines and some new salad dressing – Drew’s Lemon Tahini Goddess. I’m super excited about the dressing and I think it’ll go swimmingly with my feta. To be on the safe side, though, I think I’m going to ditch the rest of my bagged spinach since I’m pretty sure it’s waging a war on my stomach. Perhaps I’ll stop at TJ’s before going home today to grab some spring mix.
 
Speaking of heading home, I have to go home early today because a mystery man named George is supposed to meet me there to fix my garage door. The door has been broken since early September and I give myself a hernia every morning when I have to heave it up to get my car out, only to have to prop it up on a ladder to keep it from crushing me and my little Cobalt. Apparently my dad has decided that I’ve suffered long enough and he called George to come fix the cause of my morning frustration. It seemed like he was going to pay for the job, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. The only reason I hadn’t called someone myself is because I don’t have the money to fix the door at the moment… so if George is demanding payment before he leaves, this homeowner may have to be a bit late on the mortgage payment this month…
 
I have some big plans for the weekend! Ok, they’re not really big plans for normal social-active people, but they’re exciting to a dork like me. First up, and the most exciting, is the Annual South Side Mid-Winter Soup Contest!! $5 and a canned soup donation gets you access to bowls of soup from 23 different vendors. Seriously, how awesome is that?! $5 and a canned soup = 23 bowls of soup? Hot diggity dang, that’s a screamin deal! I’m determined to forego a normal breakfast and potentially even dinner just to sample as many different soups as I can. I love me some soup. In college, my friend Katie and I called each other “soup sisters” because we always headed straight for the soup kettles in the cafeterias and ate soup whenever possible. I may go as far as to say that soup could easily be the perfect meal. I’m probably going to have trouble sleeping tonight just thinking about all that soup! :)
 
My other plans for the weekend include a super-long-overdue eye doctor’s appointment for new glasses and contacts, returning library books, balancing my checkbook and paying bills (hopefully there’s still money available after George leaves!), maybe baking some bread for next week, and cooking some dinners in advance for the week ahead. I’ve really been slacking on dinner this past week – I’ve made due with salads or soup or even some tortillas with hummus. I just haven’t been up for actually cooking. I’m hoping I’ll be inspired after the soup contest to make some delish creations of my own!
 
Happy Friday, everyone!

overdrive we're going life or death

Sometimes I’m pretty sure that I’m bipolar. The lows can get really low and the highs can get really high. The past few days have been like a hyper manic haze, which is (to be honest) really nice. I don’t really know how best to explain it, but I’ve been really… “on” the past few days. My mind seems to be really clear and sharp and colors are really bright and I’m really fast and everything seems really extreme and heightened. Seriously, I’ve been so ridiculously (and mysteriously) happy and I’ve been making so many plans and taking care of so many different things that I really just don’t want this to end. Actually, if I didn’t know better (and I do; trust me, it’s 100% impossible), I’d think I was pregnant.  Not because I’ve been gaining weight or anything, but because colors seem extra vibrant and bright and smells are stronger, and I suddenly have so much clarity and at the same time, every single day I’ve been having huge stomach pains and feeling like I’m going to throw up.  Maybe my body is just really confused…
 
Anyways, yesterday was a much better gym day. I only ran a half mile more than the previous day, but I ran at .2 mph faster than usual for the entire duration and then put myself through a myriad of weights and mat exercises.  I felt pretty good the entire time, but once I settled down to go to sleep, my stomach killed me. Plus, my heart was racing. For some reason, I’ve lived in perpetual fear of a heart attack since I was 19, and the tiniest thing sends me into a panic about it, so I was pretty freaked last night. I just could not get my heart rate down and make my stomach stop hurting. I finally fell asleep about 2 hours after I had lain down.
 
Today I tried something new! Lori let me try some of her V8 Butternut Squash Soup. It was surprisingly yummy! I’d never had butternut squash anything before and it didn’t disappoint. I have to say, though, I’m a sucker for almost any soup. Seriously, I don’t really like veggies all that much, but I’ll totally scarf down a big bowl of vegetable soup. Same with the split pea soup – I’m pretty much addicted to the stuff these days and I HATE peas! (Though I don’t think the soup tastes like peas at all, thank goodness!) I’m really excited about buying some of the butternut squash soup for myself, and I’m even considering butternut squash fries since I’ve seen them on some blogs. I assume they’d be similar to sweet potato fries? Yummm…
 
Tonight should be a volleyball night, but we have our bye week… and next week starts the playoffs – we have yet another bye week because (yes, again) we are #1 in our division!  Let’s hope we don’t biff it all up in the finals like last season… I’m really excited because my team’s going to watch the other teams play tonight and then we might go to Hemingway’s afterwards! I haven’t been to Hemingways in, like, forever, and though it’s not healthy by any means, it is yummy bar food (especially at half-price, which is when we’re potentially going!). I do have a beef with PUMP (Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project) and PSL (Pittsburgh Sports League), though. I just found out today that PUMP members are no longer going to receive the discounted rate of $10 per sport. Oh, and it was really nice of them to inform the members of this instead of just sneaking it into the FAQs for registration… It really ticks me off because that’s the only reason why I’m a PUMP member – I don’t live in the city anymore, so I don’t really have any reason to attend their political meetings and I don’t work downtown, so I can never make it to their happy hours. So now volleyball is going to cost me an extra $10 per league – and we’re doing both the rec league (which we’ve been doing) and the competitive league (movin’ on up!) this coming season. That’s an extra $20 that I don’t have. It really makes me want to quit the PSL leagues, especially since their nets are crap, but really the only other option is Sports Monster, which is a complete cluster in its own right. So I have to suck it up and find some way to get that extra cash… Ideas?

I really, really, REALLY feel like I'm going to puke. I think maybe my daily spinach salad is working against me. I think that's what the stomach pains have been for the past week. Whatever it is, I'm in PAIN and I'm going to keep my head on the desk for the rest of the day. I'm determined to not go home early.

Peace out. 

blonde ambition

‘Ello, guv’nor!
I’m having a pretty good day today, and I’ve been strangely motivated both professionally and personally. On the professional front, I’ve decided that maybe instead of leading my career towards Client Service, perhaps I will opt for Business Analysis/Marketing. Currently I’m on the Operations (or IT-ish) side of things and everything just seems really easy. Business Analysis and Marketing just sound really appealing to me and it seems like they might actually be a challenge. So for the next year, I plan on educating myself about the Business Analysis and Marketing departments here at work and attend all the functions they put on. My first stop is (hopefully, unless someone schedules a meeting during this time) a presentation on Friday during lunch about Modeling (not fashion magazine modeling, but more like projecting). I’m going to get some books out of our work library and I’ve already started reading industry-specific reports about BA. I think it’s a good start.
 
On the personal side of things, I want to get back into sand volleyball shape. I mean, I’m in better shape right now than I was while playing sand volleyball last summer, but I want to be even better this year. Besides, it’ll give me a goal for my gym workouts. I think I’m going to start working more on the dreaded lunges and squats, and Keri Walsh suggested pilates. I’ve never taken a pilates class in my life and for some irrational reason, people who practice pilates freak me out, but Keri Walsh has won 2 Olympic gold metals in sand volleyball, so I guess she knows what she’s talking about. Anyways, the sand season doesn’t start until probably June, so I have a few months to prepare. That seems perfect!
 
I finally made it to the gym last night, but it wasn’t my most productive visit. About 20 minutes into running, I felt like I was either going to collapse or have a very embarrassing accident, so I let up on myself and walked for 30 more minutes at 7% incline. I ended up burning 406 calories, but I felt like I should’ve done a lot more. I was whooped, though, so I went home around 8:15...
…which would have been great, but I realized I had left my BlackBerry at work and I work with a bunch of thieves, so I had to go allllll the way back to work and then finally home. I didn’t get home until about 9:00. Sometimes I’m so dumb. :(
 
I have a little beauty product review! Lately I’ve noticed really big dark circles under my eyes. Maybe it’s because I’ve been so tired lately, or maybe it’s because I’m (gasp!) getting old(er). Anyways, on my way home Sunday night, I stopped at TrashMart and splurged on the Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew Anti-Puff Eye Roller pen. For all things beauty-related, anything over $10 is considered a splurge in my book. Yes, I’m cheap. I’m also pretty poor and the only reason I caved in was because I had a $3 coupon for it. ANYWAYS, moving on, I’ve been using this pen every morning and night and WOW! I can totally tell a huge difference! Yeah, ok, I still have some bags under my eyes, but they’re not anywhere near as puffy and dark as they were a mere 3-4 days ago. Seriously, I totally look more awake and healthier. In fact, several people have commented that I look “healthy”… I’m not sure if that’s because of the eyes or the Caribbean tan, or if maybe I looked really sickly before, but hey, I’ll take whatever I can get.
 
Ooh, and I finally called the eye doctor and made an appointment for new glasses and contacts on Saturday. I had tried to make an appointment online TWICE (6 different appointment options), but no one ever got back to me. My self-imposed “blacklist-of-all-organizations-that-tick-me-off-by-making-me-actually-CALL-them-because-either-their-software-or-their-personnel-is-defective” was side-swiped by the impending deadline to use all my flex-spending money from last year by March, so I sucked up my pride and called them to make an appointment. I should really learn that it’s much faster and easier to just call people instead of relying on their internet appointment setups.
 
Also, 2 things I want to do this weekend if anyone else is interested: Saturday – the annual Southside Soup Contest, starting at noon. $5 to get in gets you all the different soups you can handle. Perfect for a chilly February Saturday. I wanted to do this last year, but I think my mom came to visit that day and I didn’t have time to go.
Sunday – there’s a Venture Outdoors Water Safety course on the North Side. It’s 9 am – 5 pm and it’s free for anyone who wants to attend. Since I’m a bit of a kayaking freak and this is free, I figured it might be a good idea to take it. You can also get certification (there’s a test) by filling out an application and sending in $10 after the course is done. It’d be neat to be certified, but I’ll wait and see how the course goes first.
 
That’s it for now. Tonight I plan on trying my hand at the gym again (hopefully tonight is better than last night) and downloading some Learning Tree podcasts. I’m such an exciting 26-year-old!

You're leavin' on the Fun Ship! We hope that you'll be back again...

Hi everyone!
 
Sorry for the delay in posting – I’ve been exhausted since getting back into Pittsburgh!
 
So time for a quick cruise recap: We set sail aboard the Carnival Freedom on Sunday the 8th from Ft Lauderdale. We had to be at PIT before 6 am for our flight at 7, so we left Butler (my parents’ house) around 4:45. Yes, AM. Ouch. It was ok, though, because we were excited. Once we got our bags checked and we found our gate, we ate breakfast at the airport McDonald’s (hey, it’s vacation!). I had a sausage McGriddle breakfast meal with a LARGE coffee. It was awesome. I love me some McGriddles. Our layover was in Charlotte and we had a couple hours to wait, so I tried my first-ever Jamba Juice for lunch. I got a pomegranate one – Pomegranate Passion? Whatever it was, it was fantabulous and I feel like maybe it helped offset the McGriddle a bit. J
 
We landed in Ft Lauderdale right on time and joined in the chaos of other cruise participants struggling to find their luggage and their cruise representatives. We were on board our ship with plenty of time to spare. We hit up the first buffet we could find (it was like 2:30 or 3 by this time) and settled in for Sail Away.
 
We took a gazillion pictures, but unless I can figure out how to easily post all of them on here, Facebook will have to do. Some culinary highlights include duck (not a big fan), chateaubriand (it was good, but oh my goodness, they practically gave me an entire cow!), and the ever-popular WARM CHOCOLATE MELTING CAKE!!! This might be my most favorite dessert in the entire world – it even surpasses Parisian desserts. It’s served in a ramekin and it’s like delicious chocolate cake on the outside, dusted with powdered sugar, and warm, decadent, rich chocolate pudding on the inside. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
 
Adventure highlights include getting trashed off just a few sips of a Cuban mojito in Key West, forcing my mom to kayak in Key West, mistaking a flipflop for a wishbone (don’t ask – it goes along with the Cuban mojito), holding a 2-year-old turtle in Grand Cayman, seeing 500-lb turtles, going to Hell (a real town in Grand Cayman. I sent a postcard to work: “Wish you were here!”), swimming with, kissing, and holding stingrays in the Caymans, spotting dolphins racing our cruise ship, climbing Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios Jamaica, and doing a 1-mile non-competitive walk for breast cancer awareness on-board.
 
So I’m back and I still feel like I’m on the boat. Seriously, I’m sea-sick on land. It’s not as much fun as it sounds. I felt so awful I almost left work early yesterday and I totally skipped the gym in favor of going to bed early. And today I barely got out of bed at all. I don’t know what’s up with me – my stomach has been hurting me a lot, like it’s sore. It was even happening on the ship, but it didn’t start until after I was dunked in the falls in Jamaica. That night, I was almost doubled over in pain. And I’m completely wiped-out, exhausted. I know that it’s normal to be tired after a vacation, but if this doesn’t stop by the weekend, I might MedExpress myself again.
 
While I was on the ship, I had a lot of time to think and I had come up with all these great ideas for myself. It’s funny how those ideas just disappeared as soon as I hit work yesterday. I have no idea what I was planning for myself, but I remember that it seemed adventurous, exciting, and fun. Figures that I’d forget whatever it was.
 
Plans for tonight include hopefully going to the gym unless I feel like I’ll puke everywhere and returning my redbox movie. I watched Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist last night. It was cute and I like anything with Michael Cera. Thank goodness for redbox free movie Mondays!
 
As our captain, Carlo, said when signing off everyday, “Arrivederci and ciao!”  

vacation all i ever wanted... vacation had to get away

hooray for us, we won 2 of our 3 volleyball games last night! the first game was really really close, but we ended up losing it. however, i'm pretty sure the team we played was the team who finally beat us in the finals last season, so beating them for the match was nice! also, i got to play a match before my team's match because another team was short players. it was awesome. i played with the team that was literally the worst team we'd ever played, but they were fun to play with and they have a great attitude about their skill level. i considered their match a good warm-up for my match. :) and surprisingly, whether it was due to the meds or due to my resting the past few days, i played pretty well for being injured and i had a lot of energy!

today was like the longest day ever at work. i made little vacation signs and colored them in. my boss drew a picture of my cruise ship sinking... but she had me and my mom and an unnamed really hot cabana boy in a lifeboat... but the lifeboat was very flimsy and see-through and there was a shark in the water. i get the strange feeling that they don't want me back... haha. :)

i left work a little early since i had saved up some time through the week, and i headed over to the library. i had some materials that just happened to be put on hold for me 3 days before my cruise, even though i had requested them months ago - and of course, they're all due back in one week (while i'm somewhere in the caribbean)... whatever. i got my stuff then went to my last tanning session. again, i was gonna go to the gym, but the reality of things i need to do hit me at work today - i have a gazillion things to find/pack/do before i leave for my parents' house tomorrow. it's about 11 pm now and i still haven't packed - i'm entering panic mode.

i probably won't be posting again until i come back from the cruise. i'll be hangin in ft. lauderdale, key west, ocho rios jamaica, and grand cayman. w00t!

peace in the middle east.

nicotine valium vicodin marijuana ecstacy and alcohol

i just heard the most absurd, rudest, most unprofessional thing ever from someone who works on one of my projects at work (names left out): "wow, i didn't think you were as big as "C" said you were, but dang! i guess you are!" the person wasn't talking about me, but the convo was going on in the cube beside me and it was loud and the person the comment was directed towards is a "bigger" woman. hot dang. i'm just stunned.
 
anyways, my post. i haven't posted in a little while because i've been trying to rest. i had originally thought my knee was the hurt body part after my fall in the denny's parking lot, but towards the end of the day on tuesday, it was clear that my knee was masking a bigger injury - my back/shoulder/rib area. the pain didn't let up at all through last night, so i went to medexpress in monroeville to get it checked out, just to be sure i didn't do something really bad. it hurt to inhale deeply and the pain was a jagging pain, not a "sore" pain. so i had some xrays done and luckily, nothings broken. it seems i sprained/pulled (?) my left rhomboid, so basically my upper left back. this is somehow attached to the lungs, i guess, so my deep inhales were putting pressure on it or something. to be honest, i have no idea. i just know that i have anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxers and that makes me a very happy person. and it feels a ton better today. i'm not sure if that's due to all the meds or not, but whatever, i'll take it. we have a vb game tonight and i don't want to suck.
 
i have been RAVENOUS the past few days! i seriously cannot stop eating - i'm constantly starving! i've been trying to pick healthy snack options, but nutella knows my name and knows where i live, so it stalks me until i give in to it. i do have a new obsession, though - i believe it's called stretch island fruit company fruit leather. omg, it's SOOO good! they're like fruit roll-ups, but with less sugar and a tougher texture. actually, they might not have any added sugar. they're just so yummy and they taste like fresh fruit! at about 50 cents each, they're a good snack option. :)
 
as stated earlier, tonight's a volleyball night! we're actually playing a team that's undefeated so far, so we might be challenged. on the other hand, they've only played and won against the easy teams that we crushed, so there's no telling how good they actually are. i think i've seen them play before, though, and while they're decent, if they're the team i'm thinking of, they shouldn't be too hard to beat.
 
i'm off to a late meeting... peace out.

mommy, wow! i'm a big kid now!

i thought yoga was supposed to help your balance?
this morning (and all of today, actually) was wonderful! i woke up super early (for me) to meet lori at denny's for our free grand slam breakfasts. i got there around 7, about 15 minutes early, and it worked out really well because there was a 15-20 minute wait. i don't think i've ever seen so many people at any restaurant - not even when there's been an hour and a half wait. to their credit, the experience was a great one. the turnover was very quick considering the circumstances, the food was good and hot, and the service was good as well. truthfully, i expected them to just give us our food and our bill and never check back, but i was pleasantly surprised when we were checked on several times, our coffee was refilled and we got more creamers and ketchup very expediently. all in all, thumbs up denny's!
 
however, back to the recurrent theme of "i gots no skillz" (i should create a new blog page to chronicle my fails at life), i bit the dust in the denny's parking lot. actually, it may have been the arby's parking lot, as they are joined. boom, right on my left knee. ouch. i was a big girl and went straight to work. for that, i am proud of myself. especially since my boss said i should go home (yeah, i'm pretty sure she was kidding). mommy, wow! i'm a big kid now!
 
last night i went to the gym and did some running and walking and then an hour of what should have been balance-control-enhancing yoga. perhaps i used all my balance on the mat and none was left over this morning? in any case, it was good and fun and i felt pretty spectacular afterwards, except my stomach felt like it was going into labor about a mile into my run and continued to feel like labor pains through yoga and when i got home. i don't know what my deal is these days with the excruciating stomach pains after running, but i wish it would all stop. i like running. i like walking, weights, yoga, classes, and even the elliptical sometimes. i'm not a huge fan of going into mysterious false-labor every time i go to the gym, though. :(
 
that's about it for now. i'm going to take my battered knee and my bruised pride to tanning and then i'm gonna work it out at the gym. i'm tempted to go to yoga tomorrow, thus breaking my strongly-enforced "no exercise on volleyball-eve" rule, but i'm not sure yet. i feel like i need to get all my gym time in before the cruise. on the other hand, we're playing our potentially most formidable team on thursday at volleyball, so i should really reserve my energy. i guess we'll just have to wait and see...

we are the champions!

WOO-HOOO!!!
way to go steelers! six-time superbowl champs!!
 
omg, like probably everyone in steeler nation, i nearly had a coronary when larry fitzgerald got that last arizona td... but then there's good ole drug-dealing santonio holmes for the pittsburgh win! from childhood drug-dealer to superbowl mvp... wow! i cried at the end, but they were exhuberant tears. although i don't consider myself a football fan in general, i have to say - last night's game is the kind of game that creates football fans. i actually watched the entire game and yelled at the tv - i think they even heard my defense cheers in tampa cause our defense was off the hook! this is a day for wide grins and contented sighs. :)
i considered going to dick's last night after the game to get a shirt, but decided i was too tired. but oh, i was so excited!! it took me a while to fall asleep, but i woke up feeling nice and refreshed - and it didn't hurt that the sun was shining!
 
i attempted to eat oatmeal this morning, but apparently my oatmeal was stale... i didn't even know oatmeal could GET stale, but this was just disgusting. i ate a few bites and then had to throw it out. lucky for me, someone at work made banana bread so i had a couple slices of that and a grapefruit with coffee. i'm considering going to trader joe's around lunchtime or maybe a little later because i'm totally out of salad fixins and i am desperate for some more tuscan white bean hummus and homemade whole wheat tortillas.
 
after work, i'll be going tanning, then heading to the gym for a massive workout - running, walking, maybe weights and elliptical, and an hour of yoga! i missed yoga yesterday at the gym, but had a good time running both saturday and sunday. saturday was another mileage record for me, but barely - 3.15 miles (previous record was 3.11 miles). i felt like i could have kept going, but the gym was ready to close since they close at 8 on sat and sun. sigh. maybe later this week i'll run more... or maybe on the cruise... haha. yeah, right. :)
 
i suppose i should do some work... peace out homes (or holmes, a la santonio)!

Here we go Steelers, here we go!

who wants to go to denny's for free breakfast on tuesday?! i'm dead serious. i don't look free food in the mouth (haha, actually, i DO)... if you were watching the superbowl (here we go steelers, here we go!), you may have seen the commercial for denny's proclaiming "a free grand slam for everyone in america" on tuesday from 6 am to i think 10 am. i'm totally down. i'm thinking go to the gym around 6, then head to denny's on the way to work. yay!

it's been a good weekend so far... yesterday i met the momster at ross park mall and yes, i bought some things. :) i bought a pink camelbak water bottle, a pair of shorts, and a pair of jeans. my mom bought me a pair of running shorts, too. the shorts were totally necessary, as the only shorts i had for the cruise were either gym shorts or shorts that are at least 2 sizes too big. the jeans were a good deal at $10.99 and a size smaller than i've been wearing (and yes, they fit!)... the camelbak is just really neat. i know, it's just a water bottle, but it's pretty cool - you have to bite down on it to suck the water up. it's taken me some time to get used to!

today was strangely productive for being superbowl sunday. i went to the gym, went grocery shopping, got gas for cobe, attempted to tan but hollywood tans was mysteriously closed at 3 pm, went to the library, made dinner, washed dishes, did laundry, cleaned up the house, took the trash and recycling to the curb, finished reading twilight and got a shower - all before 8 pm. that's a lot for me on a sunday! giant eagle was awesome today - they were having their version of a tailgate party with lots of free samples! i practically ate lunch there after the gym, haha. since i had been talking to lori on friday about doughnuts, i was suddenly hungry for one, so i got a glazed do-do from giant eagle. i'm about ready to eat it in a few minutes.

i heard dick's and jc penney are going to be open after the game if the steelers win... part of me is totally considering going. we're going into the 4th quarter now and the steelers are up 20 - 7. let's hope it stays that way!

here we go!