Happy Hag

My Mom-N-Law has a picnic on every last Saturday in July. It’s quite a tradition, with folks from their old neighborhood coming in for the weekend–usually about 80 people. It’s a lot of fun. Everyone brings their “specialty” side/desert & Mom provides the main meat. It’s a Friday, Saturday, Sunday thing. Years ago, three other fun, FUN women & I started going to antique stores & co-ops on Sunday. We start at about 7 am and go all day, getting quite punchy towards the end, where anything remotely funny will have us bent over double with tears running down our faces. We are all pretty much at the pant-wetting stage now too, which will be even funnier. One of the women has a 16 year old boy & she is full of Tips & Tricks to Keep Tabs on Teenage Boys. Years ago, she advised me to bake boy-friendly goodies and invite the gang of son’s friends over to YOUR house, which I have taken to heart, despite my loner ways & house-cleanly phobias. There is always at least a bag of nacho chips & dip around, and hidden favorite candies of certain boys. It’s also helpful that we own a pizza joint and make killer chicken wings, although this is NOT good for my waistline.

I bought “juice boxes” of wine to put in a cooler–I won’t be drinking because I’m driving, but they ought to add to the hilarity and the purchases of totally useless junk that seemed to be a good idea at the time. Every year one of us is searching for something, so that gives us a mission to shop. One year, it was the year of Glass Chicken Sitting on Nest. We all found a chicken we couldn’t live without. Another year it was old tea towels from the 40’s and 50’s. I’m sure when son is going through my effects after I kick the bucket, he will be scratching his head. “What IS all this crap?” I look for old cookbooks for me and sports memorabilia for son. You just never know what your going to find digging around in those dusty boxes and shelves.

Hope you-all find a treasure this weekend!

Filed under: General on July 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

… I left the hose running all night. Husband was delighted to tell me this because it’s usually him that does stuff like leaving his truck door open all night. My sleepy morning brain fumbled about for an excuse — I finally blurted out, “Well, YOU need to get that faucet fixed!” The faucet leeks so the hose has to be turned off via the valve in the cellar. Of course I was joking with him ~ we always laugh how it seems to be human nature to find someone else to blame when you do something dumb. Our 12 yr. old son is a Master at this.

I’m sitting here drinking coffee and reading all your lovely blogs, putting off going to the gym. Sigh. What’s that Nike ad say? JUST DO IT. I had a major-ish binge yesterday on into last night. Looking back, I see that I didn’t eat lunch as soon as I should have. I let five hours go by before eating a meal replacement bar, then I didn’t wait long enough for my stomach to realize that I had fed it and continued to eat other stuff. After that, I fell into the stupid trap of “Oh well, this day is shot. Might as well eat some more.” One of the things I over-ate was Flat Earth chips. Oh my goodness, are they good! 130 calories per serving (also counts towards 1/2 vegetable serving). Yeah, but I can’t eat just one serving when I’m in Binge Mode, whines Susan. At least I got my veggies in for the day–ha-ha!

Okay, off to the gym!…. after this last cuppa….

Filed under: General on July 23rd, 2008 | 5 Comments »

Now come on, if I really looked this good at my present weight, I’d be celebrating with a box of Ring Dings whilst choosing my new bikini from Overstock.com.  I spent about a 1/2 an hour fixin’ her up to be more virtual, with boobs lowered about 2″, slight roll where flesh hits undie bottom, plus some dimply celulite going on in the inner thighs, but can’t seem to import her here… a blessing, I suppose.

Filed under: General on July 22nd, 2008 | 3 Comments »

Yey! I finally get to nudge my nag on my weight ticker down the track a few lengths. That hoss has been eating grass at the 164 marker for what seems forever. I was about to name her “Alpo”. Giddy-up!

In my vast experience with my personal weight, I’ve found that at about 156, people start to notice. My body must have a tipping point where things begin to show. I feel downright skinny at that weight (I’m 5′7″), though if I weighed that much 13 years ago I would have been aghast and secluded myself in the house, weeping at the horror of it all. Perspectives sure change.    

Okay, thinking back over last week, I realize I didn’t snack and I exercised daily. Duh. I’ll see if I can keep the fat ball rolling. 

  Nice to come back and see most everyone here in Blog Land has been posting new insights, some losses and some funny stuff. Keep it up~Ur doin it ryt! 

Filed under: General on July 21st, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Got the washer & dryer running their little hearts out, sand shaken from shoes and kitty litters professionally cleaned out. We had a great week at the beach, full of excellent weather, golf (for the menfolk), and plenty of relaxing and reading. In my quest for a genuine “Why yes, I was on vacation” Vacation Tan, I endured laying out on the beach the last day and burnt the tender jointure of where thigh meets bun. Laying out is a trial and torture for me, even with all the scenery going on around my towel. It’s so boring and, well, sandy.    I did lots of walking~~maybe about 15 miles total for the week~~mainly because of my misjudgement of distances. There was a water tower I could spy from our place on the beach and I decided to walk to it. I walked and walked & it didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Of course, most people would realize that you have to walk back too–a minor detail I forgot in the Quest for The Tower. It took me two hours to complete that walk. I clocked the mileage by car and it was just under 7 miles to & from. MUCH easier on the eliptical, but not near as interesting. The rest of the week, I wore my watch and turned around after 1/2 an hour.  Wouldn’t you think you would find lots of shells during an early morning walk? Zip and Nada, my friends. What I did find were… sunglasses. Sunglasses in every shape and color. Sunglasses with barnacales growing on ‘em, sunglasses with fake jewels, sunglasses for every member of our group. I averaged about three pairs a day, with the pinnacle of my salvaging being a pair of goggles. No designer ones though… :)We had a sea turtle make a nest on the beach in front of our house the second day. There are dedicated turtle lovers who walk the beach early every morning, looking for mama turtle tracks. They call in anything suspicious and the Chief Turtle Guy comes out to verify the nest by digging down to find eggs, then he ropes off about a ten foot square area surrounding the nest. In 55 days, hatchlings will dig their way out and head for the sea. I was told its quite a party for the Turtle Folk, who set up lawn chairs, drink wine & eat goodies while they wait to help the little turt’s to the sea.Tomorrow morning I will step up to the plate, er, scale, and assess. I’m gonna guess 164, as I was pretty good up until dinner the whole week. I’m hoping the daily walks will negate the booze & semi-extravagant eating out. My brother-in-law was whipping up mean Margharitas (sp?) on a regular basis~~what’s a girl to do? Plus, my favorite summer wine (Robert Mondavi’s Fume Blanc) was about $5 cheaper a bottle then it is up here in State Store Land.

Filed under: General on July 21st, 2008 | No Comments »

Gotta stay somewhat on track on vacation next week. I usually end up coming home and unpacking the vitamins I forgot to take, the workout clothes I didn’t use and the good intentions I tossed at the first dinner out! Wine drinking replaces water drinking and lazing on the beach wins over walking on the beach. How many of you over-pack? Its like I think there’s no stores where we’re going. I sure like my creature comforts. Mainly because I HATE, HATE, HATE having to go to the over-crowded grocery store on the island along with everyone else, I bring enough to put it off a day. The menfolk have no idea. 

We are looking forward to a dinner at the Beaufort Grocery Store and maybe Clawson’s Pub–both located in the very pretty town of Beaufort, NC. (See? There go the Good Intentions part.) There’s lots of nice stores there~ arty things that are neat and unusual, along with all the regular touristy clap trap. Since we’ve been here many times over the years, we have done the fishing trips, toured Fort Macon, did the little kids treasure hunt (which was very cool), visited the small but well-run Aquarium, shopped the ga-jillion beach stores with henna tattoos and sad little hermit crabs. HA! Two years ago was the Year Of The Henna Tattoo for all the kids. I paid somewhere in the silly amount of $65 bucks for son to have a huge dragon done on his back. In a few days of beach play, it was a faint memory. Oh, except for the allergic reaction all the kids had in some degree. My one nephew had a raised red area where his tattoo was for months afterwards. I wonder if the stores are still doing it?

So today its wash-n-pack day. I did go to the gym for an hour to try to squeeze another drop of cellulite from the fanny area. Hope everyone has a hydration-filled week with lots of victories!

Filed under: General on July 12th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

I watched the Rachel Ray show at the gym while I did the eliptical. I have only caught it a few times and liked what I saw but today annoyed me. Her first guests were two women. Woman #1 was a thirty year old virgin. Woman #2 was a 30-something who believes that casual sex for women can be good. Whaaa? I’m showing my age, I guess. Woman #2 says its possible to have casual sex and not be negatively affected by it. The guest Doctor said that when you have really good sex, your body produces a chemical that makes you want to bond with your partner. (Now, do I think being a virgin at the age of 30 is sort of weird ~ yeah, I do. I’d be afraid It would, ah, “grow over”.) At the end of the segment, everyone seemed to believe that casual sex was okay & the only thing you have to beware of are those chemicals that might make you want to bond with your partner. Heeelllooo? STD’s or pregnancy anyone? Mind-messing? If I didn’t have a 12 yr. old son, I might be amused, but these are the ideas that are being fed into our youngster’s developing & immature minds. Scary.

  On to the next segment. A family has four young boys who were trashing the house: holes in walls, markers on furniture, they SHREDDED mom’s treadmill track. Mom’s throwing up her hands: “What can I do?”she whines with a smile. The plan was to make the house boy-proof, and ways were shown on how to do this. I wanted to reach through the TV and shake these people! How about disiplining  those unruly rug rats? How about giving them something constructive to do, like sports, instead of trashing their house? I couldn’t watch any more and switched over to a channel I could relate to: The Food Network, of course!

Filed under: General on July 10th, 2008 | 6 Comments »

 Despite having an epic-sized glass of wine, I’m still under 1500 calories today. About 200-300 more than I usually shoot for. Must go to bed soon to keep it this way! A book awaits me: “The Pact”, by Jodi Picoult. It’s not riveting for me, but it hums along okay. Oh for a really good book!

  Getting ready to leave for N. Carolina this Sunday. We are renting a house with some other family members. It’s become a bit of a tradition~going on 13 years now. The place we go is getting very built up and crowded, although the beaches are as beautiful and clean as ever. My Mom-n-Law has been in a cooking frenzy, baking cookies, cakes and whatnot, because God forbid we feel a hunger pang. I heard myself saying to her, “I’ll make some lasagnas”, before I could stop myself. She also has a strange aversion to eating out every night. Sigh. I enjoy seeing the change in scenery as we drive from PA to NC, although more and more its all starting to look the same, ie: chain eateries, stores, etc… Would be nice to take back roads instead of awful Rt. I-95, but once we climb in the car and its pointed South, there’s no stopping or silly dilly-dally side roads allowed.  I have yet to have a true NC BBQ sammy! Sometimes we will stop at some of the Civil War battle sites coming back, but its mostly a: AreWeThereYet Trip. Son & I hoot with laughter when DH is the first to have to make a pee stop. This stems from all the years when either I was pregnant or son was little and we required more stops than reasonable ~~ to a full-grown man’s bladder, that is. He’s a good guy, really. 
 

Now, in my secret heart, where I’d really like to be going to is where Sistah Pat is right now! She’s ridin’ through the West in her trusty steed, “Manny” with her family by her side. We drove out to Montana last year and stayed at a ranch, rode horses, fished … I rejoiced in the beauty and wide open that is the West. Husband and I were scratching our heads the whole time, trying to think of a way to make a living out there! 

Hope your day was aaaalll coooll!

Filed under: General on July 9th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

Thanks to the blogger who mentioned “Vita-Muffins”! I found them in the freezer section and crowed with delight. An all natural chocolate muffin with only 100 calories and loaded with fiber ~ what’s not to love?    Yahoo had a feature story titled “Supercharge your diet”. A recent study finds that dieters who journal their foods lose twice as much weight as those who didn’t. Here’s the article:   

Keeping a food diary — a detailed account of what you eat and drink and the calories it packs — is a powerful tool in helping people lose weight, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

The findings buttressed earlier research that endorsed the value of food diaries in helping people lose weight. Companies including Weight Watchers International Inc use food diaries in their weight-loss programs.

“For those who are working on weight loss, just writing down everything you eat is a pretty powerful technique,” Victor Stevens of Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland said in a telephone interview.

“It helps the participants see where the extra calories are coming from, and then develop more specific plans to deal with those situations,” said Stevens, who helped lead the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The technique also helps hold dieters accountable for what they are eating, Stevens said.

The study involved people from four U.S. cities: Portland, Oregon; Baltimore, Maryland; Durham, North Carolina; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Their average weight loss was about 13 pounds (6 kg). But those keeping food diaries six or seven days a week lost about 18 pounds (8 kg) compared to 9 pounds (4 kg) for those not regularly keeping a food diary.

The average age of people in the study was 55.

They were asked to eat less fat, more vegetables, fruit and whole grains, exercise 180 minutes a week mostly by walking, attend group meetings, and keep a detailed food diary.

Blacks made up 44 percent of the people in the study. The researchers noted that blacks Americans have a higher risk than whites for conditions linked to obesity including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

“Keeping a food diary doesn’t have to be a formal thing. Just the act of scribbling down what you eat on a Post-It note, sending yourself e-mails tallying each meal or sending yourself a text message will suffice,” Dr. Keith Bachman, another Kaiser Permanente expert, said in a statement.   Sharpen those pencils, ladies! 

Filed under: General on July 8th, 2008 | No Comments »

Wore my bib of sweat proudly as I left the gym today. An hour on my buddy the eliptical, and a wee bit of weight training gave me lovely wet sweat stains on back and front of tee shirt. I drove home looking like an anxious driver, leaning towards the wheel so as not to touch my wet back to the leather seats. Note to Self: bring towel for seat.

I go to get my hair done on Wednesday. In addition to getting a foil, I now also get my eyebrows dyed. A few years ago, my brows started to get a wild grey hair in ‘em here and there. I was plucking them but soon realized I would be drawing those suckers on in a few years if I kept pulling out every grey hair. So, now I look like Groucho Marx as I sit under the dryer with my hair in foils and one big dark brow line. Not a good look. O vain me cringes every time a rare male walks by. Sometimes, a little kid who is there with their mom will not be able to tear their eyes away from the Strange Lady from Outer Space with silver things poking out of her head. Oh the work it takes to be a woman! I would like to get a pedicure but am too embarrassed about the condition of my feet. NASTY! My speedy waitressing has produced big horny calluses on both big toes and balls of feet. I work away at ‘em occasionally with a big raspy file that looks like something more suited for a horse’s hooves. I also have a callus razor thingie that scares the heck out of me to use. I gingerly scrape away, just waiting for a big flap of skin to get caught. This is probably too much information on my personal grooming, and I apologize.    

Go forth and make your own sweat bib!

Filed under: General on July 7th, 2008 | 5 Comments »