2008: The Best Version of Myself

is archaelogy a hobby?

It's not a hobby... but I just think the exhibit is awesome. All of them are the size of regular people (and animals including life size chariot horses)... they speculate 7,000 pieces in total and they have yet to find two that are identical. I am awe struck by the detail, the concept, the imagination, the production... and I think it's interesting that it wasn't discovered until 1974. So I am very excited to see it. I hope it's not something that sells out, but I'll probably get tickets soon. I'm not really into art... i've lived in Atl for a year now and I've walked by the High Museum lots of times and haven't gone... they do have a jazz night once a month I'd like to go to. But this excites me!
 
I was just poking around the High Museums website - (the website needs some serious work on it... but that's another story)

I am sooo not an art appreciator, or an understander of it..I like the pretty colors and whether or not something would look good hangin in my living room :) but it looks like they've got some cool stuff in their collections... the Georgia O'Keefe exhbiit going on now looks pretty neat...
 
The exibit looks very exciting. Wish I could see it.

I completely know what you mean about the round-about-rude posts. I did not understand that mulligan post. It seemed ridiculous that someone even wasted the time writing it.

Sucks about the hot water and gas. I would have been a meanie and horded the last remaining water before everyone else realized it and had a giant hot bath. Just kidding, but it is fun imagining being really devious. :D

Here's to a great day, tomorrow!
 
Hi BG! Hope everything is going well for you this week. Usually we hear from you throughout the week. Must be work is keeping you busy?
 
Hey Sweatpea, I'm here just haven't felt like posting much. Tuesday was busy at work and I hit the brain drain so now I feel like a vegetable. But thank you for stopping in! And Mal and LusciousL as well.

Hit the gym three times this week already. Tonight will be my last for the week. Quickly took some measurements this morning... waist, hips, thighs and calves. My waist and my hips will absolutely not budge... thighs and calves are melting off. I know that you can't spot train or spot reduce, but since my workouts at the gym have mostly to do with my legs, arms and back... i'm having a hard time keeping myself from thinking that's a falicy. I will say it again that I've never had trouble losing fat from my torso and now it won't budge... in fact the fat was softening up quite a bit on my waist and then this morning it was hard again. I'm too sick of being frustrated by this to really care.

The Office is back on tonight... Jeff is making chicken parm and we're going to watch it and have a good time. I'm hoping to go out for Thai for this weekend. A new place opened up down the street from Jeff's office and he said it's great.
 
ooooh thai food.... so yummy... extra spicy - good for the metabolism and slightly aphrodisiacness too :)

enjoy :)

Thai food is yummy. We went to a place here on Howell Mill for Jeff's last birthday, so over a year ago... his fish was excellent my pad thai was nothing to boast about. But when we went to NYC we ate at this great little place called Limeleaf up near Columbia on 110th(??) and it was delicious. I had drunken noodles with beef, he got the same thing but with rice and chicken and we had a great crab/shrimp spring roll in this amazing dipping sauce. So therefore I'm achin' for spicy food. Jeff also makes a great pad thai with chicken/peanut sauce.
 
Sounds like you've had a busy week and the evening sounds wonderful.

Don't forget to check in for the challenge!
 
when you find a good one...dig in your claws and hold on!!!

I know all about that too! When Jeff & I were dating, before we were exclusive, he was just finally getting past the end of his last relationship and was looking forward to playing the field a bit. However, I wanted a relationship and to make the story short threw a fit until I got my way! I still can't believe it worked, but needless to say the two of us are very, very happy and now we make a joke out of how we began. Although I rarely share that story.

So friends, this post officially makes me a "Member", I am no longer a "Junior Member". I'm not even sure why I care.

I decided that I've not been doing enough weightloss wise... although doing it the slow way isn't terrible, probably more long lasting. But I realize that my birthday is in 2.5 months and I'd like to look good for my birthday dinner. So the goal is 15 pounds. I think I'd be happy just to be in the 170s but I'm not going to settle. Besides, if I make the goal any smaller I'm going to become lazy and say I still have time to rush it off. Sooo, I have ten weeks and 2 days to lose 15 pounds. Not quite 2 pounds a week but more than 1. The last time I weighed 175 I looked so good and I think my upcoming birthday is the perfect opportunity. I am definitely tracking the cals for these next ten weeks. Recently I haven't been tracking,... I knew what my daily intake was and wasn't taking into account what I was eating for dinner and beyond. I gave up being concerned about having more protein than carbs. I actually felt physically ill doing that. I still need to increase my protein intake but I plan on doing it a bit more gradually so that my stomach doesn't get twisted in knots with an onslaught of protein. I'm really looking forward to the next couple of weeks.

The weekend was wonderful. Took a small nap after work on Friday, then Jeff and I went to see The Counterfeiters (film - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) at this little cinema near Jeff's place. I never thought I'd be one of those people to like foreign films but Jeff and I catch a couple here and there and it's just so much more entertaining than watching a movie about bees or most things that are American releases (they really need to stop letting Eddy Murphy make those movies where he plays all of the characters). Also Jeff treated me to some movie popcorn because he knows that I've been wanting some. It was the best popcorn I've ever had. Instead of using the heavy butter oil stuff they used some sort of other oil that was succelent and highlighted the taste of the popcorn. It was a party in my mouth and a true surprise. Saturday we hit this huge farmers market and scored some cheap produce, rice noodles, a few asian spices for supercheap, and some freshly made sausages. Saturday night I made a strawberry shortcake... the cake wasn't my favorite but the strawberry syrup was rather nice... and I realized there is nothing more beautiful than coarsely chopped strawberries... a beautiful color.
 
Good luck with your mini-goal, I know you'll give it one heck of a go!
 
Hello. I'm just trying to pop into some new diaries and get to know some more peeps on here :) So hello... I have some friends and my Dad who are Thai food enthusiasts and have turned me onto it a little bit. Last time I went out for Thai food I had this soup stuff that had like mushrooms and chicken and cocnut milk in it (I think). It was very good and my friend loves it so much, I swear she'd probably drink it morning/noon/nite if she could.

Congrats on your successes and I hope your reach the goals you've made. I just re-took my measurements last week and saw some differences. I totally think the waist is the hardest to get the weight/inches off of. Just hang in there :)

Have a great night,
-Sam
 
Mal - I did have an awesome weekend. The shortcake left something to be desired, but I used regular flour instead of cake flour so maybe that was the difference. Nonetheless I'm going to be working on a strawberry shortcake cupcake this weekend... I feel like experimenting. If it turns out well, I hope to be bringing some with me when I visit Chicago next month... if my visit to Chicago ever happens (bah!)

Sweatpea- Thanks for stopping by... i'm glad we're "friends":)

Sammy- It's always nice to have a new face in here. I've been trying to get around to new diaries too. I just always feel awkward stepping in to say hello since I've been around a while... I feel like Bridget Jones when she doesn't get the memo that the Tarts and Vickers party is now a casual tea.
 
So all day I've been planning on the gym. Yesterday was a wild success with tracking cals and working out and drinking tons-oh-water. Guess what... I'm was off with my cals. Surprise, right? I'm actually surprised that I've managed to even lose the five pounds I did but it's nice to feel like I know what my maintenance is now... just after those last few weeks and evidence from last night. Anway, I was planning on the gym and now my uterus is battling it out for my attention. Yes, sweetie... I know you're there all too well:( Sometimes my period is happy and quiet and sometimes not. I need to chuck the caffeine... or at least my diet coke habit.

So I tracked my cals and although I'm sure I can't account for every little thing accurately, I did my best to over account a little for my unweighed food items and I ended up between 1900-2000 cals. Very nice. Body agreed.

Now onto my daily rant. I really get sick of people who don't know what they are talking about. I'm not just talking about the Barbie/Rocky incident at the gym, but just people in general who listen to the media, or one source, or one person and take their word as the gold standard. Politics particularly annoys me to no end with this. While I am a registered Independent I do tend to lean heavily to one side of the political scale; the side for the sake of this forum isn't that important because for the most part I think politics and religion have no place amongst friends... they create enemies and I just want to be happy. Nonetheless, my rant really doesn't even have to do with political parties... at least until the punch line. An aquaintance of mine, who used to be somewhat of a good friend although it's more that she was best friends with my best friend and dating another close friend so I hung out with her, and she's a nice girl, but not my favorite tool in the shed so to speak. Anyway I happened upon a myspace blog of hers. I haven't seen her since I moved to Georgia and have messaged her very little since then... we've never had anything to talk about. So I'm reading her blog and she's making a very rational rant. She's complaining about something our government doesn't do and she believes it should... I have the exact same belief. Then I get to the end of her rant and she says "F*** [political party]". I didn't realize that she was of that political party, but that's fine. Anyway we'll call her associated party, "Party A", and mine "Party B." So she makes what I would call a vaild rant and then says "Fuck Party B". She is blaming Party B for the problems that caused her rant. Except it's widely known that Party B is FOR the government doing this thing (the thing she wants), and that generally speaking Party A is against it... but with most things your party does not tie you down to believe everything the so called majority believes/does, and so some of Party A supports, but on the whole does not. In fact, it was a Party A President who was the start of her current issue with the government. Now here is my problem... she can dislike Party B til the cows come home. Throw an Anti-Party B bash with balloons, a ticker tape parade and cupcakes. But for fucks sake, at least know what you are saying. Do some damn research. When the media tells you that some Republican said this or some Democrat said that... research it! Especially if it's a negative comment... find the speech and read that comment in the text of what they said. Find out why they said it. Where they said it. When they said it. Find out if they indeed actually said it! It just floors me the shit that people are told, and that then they believe with no questions asked. Question everything. Question everyone.
 
BG - I like you and your way of thinking! Definitely people need to go to the source and do some research before opening their mouths. Or at least get both sides of the story and make a judgement from that point.

As far as the calorie thing, my totm always interferes with my plans of eating well. I know that you will just get back on track. And congrats with the 5 lb loss! That is definitely something to celebrate!

Oh, and I'm glad we is friends too. ;)
 
BG - I like you and your way of thinking! Definitely people need to go to the source and do some research before opening their mouths. Or at least get both sides of the story and make a judgement from that point.

Like I said before, I don't mind if someone doesn't agree with my points of view politically, religiously, morally, etc. But if you are going to make a statement and then point a finger, make sure you're pointing your finger in the right direction. I think what irked me most is that I know it's her boyfriend telling her all of this (he and I were close friends until they started dating) and she's not looking for herself. And it was so clearly obvious that she has no idea what's going on.

As far as the calorie thing, my totm always interferes with my plans of eating well. I know that you will just get back on track. And congrats with the 5 lb loss! That is definitely something to celebrate!

I'm actually doing my best right now to pull back on the calories on days i don't go to the gym. Last night I made a valiant effort until I decided to bake some cupcakes (I'll talk about those below). But nonetheless after I stuffed two of them in my mouth I realized that I probably ate 100, maybe 200 over maintenance, so it worked in my favor to plan a deficit and then have a haphazard snack session with Jeff.

Oh, and I'm glad we is friends too. ;)

:D

Today will be a success if a certain person makes it out of the office today without me hitting them over the head. It's a case of HUGE miscommunication, but they gave me a very big impression that some things were done and ready to go out the door when in fact, they've filled out one form and never started the incoporation process of making actual documents and packets. I've definitely got the time to do all of it, but it's time consuming and I know my boss is about to pile work on my desk. I guess with missing the gym until Friday I can put a few extra hours in at work.

And if anyone is wondering why I don't go to the gym during my period, it's because something really embarrassing and publicly traumatizing happened to me once a few years back and I refuse to put myself in that situation ever again.

So onto the cupcakes.... With warmer weather and longer, sunnier days... and maybe more time to sit online at work and stare at recipes and pictures of cupcakes, my creative side is in overdrive. There was a recipe for a "Luscious Lemon Birthday Cake" on the back of my yogurt container and it made me realize it's been years since I've have a lemon cake, and so I decided to try out the recipe. I wanted to make Raspberry Lemonade cakes with cream cheese frosting. I really did screw up most of the steps, so I may give the recipe one more try, but my biggest complaint was that the cake part lacked any flavor of lemon once the cakes came out of the oven. The batter was tangy, and actually had a kick in the back like a lemon sprite zip, but it never came out in the cupcakes. I may have not added enough zest. Anyway, I made this lovely homemade rasberry simply syrup beforehand, strained out the seeds, and then chilled it. I did add the syrup to some cakes and left others without to be filled after they cooled. The post-filled ones were the best. The pre-filled lost flavor during cooking. The cream cheese frosting came out fine. I used whipped cream cheese hoping to lighten that flavor because I wanted something super light, but it didn't work like I thought. And one complaint is that I hate that powdered sugar always gets super tart and tastes like the bag it came in. I may purchase a small coffee grinder and make my own powdered sugar... see if the taste changes.
 
I found I was on the floor dying with cramps most months, and even more so when I started my birth control pills. I feel your pain!! I found that swimming the first day really helped though, or maybe it was coincidence. Regardless drug up and feel no pain :)
 
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