Back on Track and well over 50

[Feminista54]

Hi...A beautiful day today--sunny and over 70. Did our two miles on the close by state park beach...came home and ate a huge salad by myself over the course of this afternoon...(think pop corn bowl size).
LK made a pot roast for dinner tonight--I will be having leftover chicken and brocolli. One full week of SoBe 1 under our belts...
We head north via Charlotte on Tuesday, and next Tuesday classes begin for again...
Its quiet here--everyone is next door warching the game (Sophie & her firends are doing whatever 17 year olds do: nothing).
ciao

[Chris55]

Good morning! Cold again here, in the teens. Ugh! I succumbed to some grains yesterday so am not very happy with myself. I had some triscuits with my herb cheese and peppers in the afternoon, then as I was making meatballs and pasta for the guys i found some frozen roasted eggplant that I had forgotten. So I quickly turned that into my main course, had a couple of meatballs and about an ounce of pasta. But I'm fighting a low grade cold again and was feeling pretty yucky last night, started munching on crackers - bad idea since I ate way too many, on top of the triscuits and pasta earlier in the day.

Today's plan is to have my eggs and beans for breakfast, some kind of soup for lunch, beef sirloin tips/mushrooms/cooked veggies for dinner.

Finance day - need to clear through the pile of bills, figure out what's going on with DD's loan payments since we haven't gotten her next bill. Also on the agenda - starting to pack away Christmas decorations. We always leave them up until at least the 6th - Little Christmas/Three Kings Day, sometimes ridiculously longer. But I'd like to get the tree out the door and to the dump so DH doesn't just toss it in the yard and create another eye sore!

Meanwhile, I will try and do some exercise and have some recovery time sitting with my Nook - loving my new e-reader!

Paul Krugman's NYT piece is right on track again, as usual.

[Feminista54]

Good morning--We start to head north today --very slowly (via friends in Charlotte, etc.)--I miss my dog. We're going to try and get our 2 miles in though this morning...
Yeterday I had some hushpuppies, mmmmm. And, I am sure going to have some more grits along along the way--prob. the love of grits, hushpuppies are only taste vestiages of being born in Florida that remain besides a love of grapefruit. Did I tell you I have been drinking these grapefruit flavored sparkling waters (depending on who makes them between 0 and 4 calories a small bottle--very refreshing)?
I think New Hampshire is a threeway race between Romney, Huntsman --who the Globe endorsed!--and Santorum...Romney will win...and then its of to SC.
Not really sure what is on the menu today besides eggs, coffee & celery...
ciao

[Chris55]

I hope you have a safe trip. They're predicting a storm here for Thursday, not sure if it's coming up the coast or not.

The scale is moving up and down, so getting a bit frustrating. I ended up procrastinating finding something to make for dinner last night and ended up with a brown rice dish with shrimp and veggies, plus a salad. I'm sure I had more than a serving of rice and woke up feeling bloated this morning, and the scale agreed. Trying to be a bit more strict today.

I exercised this morning, then met a friend for coffee and some sanity. I stayed far away from the wonderful scones they have at the cafe and stuck to black coffee. It helped than I had a cheese stick before running out the door to meet her. Beans for breakfast, bean soup for lunch. Dinner is a pork roast and veggies. It's a huge bone-in roast that was on sale - I'm hoping it cooks by 6. I sliced some off for DS to take back to enhance his ramen; will pack up some beef and mushrooms, too. I'm making a pile of mashed potatoes and will attempt to freeze some of them, along with some garlicky roasted pork and gravy. I just hope all the stuff I'm freezing fits in his tiny freezer. I should have measured the darn thing!

Tomorrow I do a Sam's Club and Trader Joe's run after a dentist appt. Will stock up on low fat goodies, maybe get a huge bag of broccoli florets. Veggie prices are rising pretty steeply here, so I think I'll pick up a 5 lb. bag of whole frozen green beans. They're pretty good with some olive oil and garlic.

Listening to NPR, just love the whole NH primary scene!

[Feminista54]

Hi, Stormy here in Charlotte, so it must be going up the coast...friend made blueberry waffles for breakfast, oh my! Could not really turn them down...LK is learning a new video editing program while here--our friend is a film maker. I am just along for the ride (will be editing some of my manuscript when I inish writing this).

This will be the first day not walking 2 miles on the beach...if I don't get to walk some today, I'll do some Walkaway the Pounds...
Can not wait until we are home to cook for ourselves (Saturday!)--we will stop at Costco for big bag of brocolli, peppers, etc.,etc. At Missy's I did most of the cooking so it was Sobe (Missy doesn't really like to cook, neither does her bestfriend/next door neighbor so when we went there for dinner, guess who cooked!).

Semester starts on Tuesday....

ciao

[Chris55]

We're getting ready for some kind of storm - they still can't decide if it's going to be rain on the coast or snow or a "wintry mix". DS has his car in the garage, hoping they actually call off his bread delivery tomorrow since he has a very long run into areas with pretty poor roads. Friday is actually looking like it might be worse than tomorrow.

I did a lot of grocery shopping today. Stopped in Trader Joe's and stocked up on wine (2 buck Chuck), coffee, frozen brussels sprouts, found some sharp lf cheddar that looks interesting (hoping it has a taste unlike most of them!), plus lots of goodies for the family - pizza dough, tamales, licorice, etc. Then went to Sam's Club for veggies - big tub of baby spinach, mushrooms, unfortunately no fresh broccoli, but more bananas, eggs, and lf cheese. Then the stockpile of paper goods - DH loves those blue paper towels that they sell in the section with all the home maintenance/auto care stuff - they last forever, kind of like Bounty on steroids.

I had to eat lunch out - opted for Wendy's. Couldn't decide if I wanted their chicken/pecan/apple/blue cheese salad or chili, so I got a combo with both - half salad and small chili. I had the salad I was craving plus nice hot chili! I just wish they would use plain pecans instead of sugary ones - don't understand that, but I ate them anyway. Dinner will be sirloin tips, mushrooms, salad, maybe green beans or some of my brussels sprouts.

DS just ordered books for his spring classes, actually for one class. He's gotten away pretty cheaply so far and this semester he'll only need two inexpensive books for East Asian Philosophy, a Linguistics book he's buying from a friend, and whatever novels his English Comp teacher decides to use - still nothing posted, very irritating. He doesn't start back until the 23rd so we have lots more time to hang out together.

Enjoy your trip through the south!

[Feminista54]

Hi, almost home, we are spending another night here on the shore (LK wants to watch the football games--I am SOOOOO ready to be home,and I miss my dog).
Our semester starts on Tuesday, DS is lucky to have another week I would like a week at home to get organized, and to catch up....but I will have to jump almost right back in...
Last night we had the most delicious sesame encrusted tuna steaks (I'll have the leftovers for dinner tonight)--sushi quality, so I had mine just this side of swimming, lol.
We did at least a mile, if not more, inside of an Ikea somewhere yesterday, bought Evan an easel...if I was ever going to re-do my kitchen I would go there, some great ideas...it was good to stop and stretch after driving for 7 hours+
Anyway, have a good weekend...
ciao

[Chris55]

You'll barely have time to take a breath and grab your notes to start teaching on Tuesday! But I guess if it's warmer down south and you're having fun, go for it!

We had a lovely snowstorm on Thursday. Were supposed to get rain or under 2" on the coast, ended up with 4-5". Then Friday we had rain and freezing rain. Every school district in the state was shut down on Thursday which means they didn't plow until late in the day and it was tapering to rainy stuff by late afternoon, so DS and I went out and cleared out the driveway. Two garage spaces are going to the people who actually go to work in the morning, so my car was outside buried in snow. I decided to just dig out the back where it was plowed in and leave the rest thinking that if I cleaned it off and then the rain froze, it would turn into a large ice cube. Good decision - Friday I just went out, cracked the top layer of ice, and swept the snow away. Then I dug it out the rest of the way and cleared the mailbox again. Today I did the deck while DH raked the roof. So three days in a row of shoveling plus a 30 min dvd each morning!

I tried my new Leslie Sansone intervals dvd. Not the best quality - obviously thrown together, handheld video camera shaking at times, Leslie running all over, nobody in sync, but I can turn it to just music, so I think it will be fine. I'll just listen to the music and watch for move changes. I also did part of a Prevention one with Chris Freytag which is a collection of shorter circuit workouts. It's pretty fast, but I was able to keep up, just skipping some parts that would stress my hands.

Food has been good. Lots of soups and salads. I did cheat a bit tonight and made a lo mein dish with leftover pork and lots of veggies, but white noodles (that were delicous!). Not sure how the rest of the weekend will go.

Turning frigid tomorrow night.

[Feminista54]

Hi--stopped at Costco on the way home, after talking with LX who said we only needed eggs, milk, brocolli, celery, mesclun, hunk of gorgonzola (to crumble for salads) ...that's what we got (plus coffee), and came home to no toilet paper, kitchen bags, dog food...arghhhhhhh. and a broken (cracked) toilet seat among other things....
And, the worst :9 degrees out...all my nails have become brittle...

Yes, its going to be a shock tomorrow: 3 classes (2 back to back)...I don't have an evening class this semester--the first semester in quite a while without one (which means that the family doesnot have a red meat night scheduled).

Made 1/2 dozen hard boiled eggs, so have breakfast for a few days, to alternate with oatmeal...lunches will be salads with chicken or soup or hummus (will make soup & hummus later today with Evan my little sous chef). Dinners: salmon / chicken/ other fish, salad & veggies.. or eggplant parm... that's the plan for this week...

Did one milew/of Leslie this morning...

ciao

[Chris55]

Good luck with getting your brain back in gear tomorrow!! My son has two days a week where he'll have 4 classes, only one on each of the other 3 days. He was initially hesitant about doing that to himself, but mornings will be Linguistics followed by Japanese, so lightweight stuff for him; afternoons will be Western Music followed by his English Comp late in the day which is fine since he revs up in the afternoons. I would be sleeping through the class myself.

It was -6 this morning when I got up. My oldest was out delivering bread up north where one of the bank thermometers said -20, though the news is saying it only went down to -11 way up near the Canadian border in St. Agatha (pronounced Agat). I haven't gone outside and don't intend to. It was supposed to slowly improve to the 20's but I had no reason to go anywhere today and spent the day doing laundry, hauling the Christmas boxes down from the attic, and straightening up.

I did a 30 min walking dvd this morning, my Debbie Rocker one, which I really like. I used 3lb. weights for the first time - had been doing 2lb., so that was a stress on my arthritic hands - did a soothing paraffin treatment after that. Eating is back on track after some pizza (and soda) with the guys yesterday. Both boys were home and it was the last day that will happen until spring break, so we went out for a little pizza and shopping.

Sounds like you'll have to do more planning so the rest of the family can get their meat fix. Maybe they can have whatever vegetarian treat you're eating as their side dish and you can have it as your main meal.

Our dishwasher is frozen - the drain pipe evidently holds enough water in it that it freezes every year when the temps get crazy. We've insulated the wall better but it hasn't completely eliminated the problem, although it's better. So we're doing dishes the old fashioned way - I'll have to start nagging the boys to clean up. I did the whole dishwasher load from yesterday and that was enough for my hands for a while - they'll just have to chip in and clean up after themselves!

[Feminista54]

Good cold morning...I am slowly weaning myself into waking up early (which is hard,because I tend to be up from 3-6 and want to sleep from 6-8,and soundly!)
Oven baked eggplant last night so I can make eggplat parm tonight (last night was salmon & brocolli)...taking left over chicken & Quinoa salad (monday night's dinner) for lunch today. Oatmeal for breakfasts...
Our house phone has died..it rings but either you can't hear or the caller can't ... so willbe doing some phone shopping in the near future...until then: cells are on.
Going to NYC tomorrow after class--will be staying with Jane in Williamsburg, because Saturday I have a roundtable to sit on...
Classes so far are good...though I do have a challenge in one class, a student with asperger's (who announced, when we were going over the requirements,to the class that he was not social and could not do small group projects). My other challenge was my office computer presented itself with a blank windows screen--no start button, no desktop icons, nadda...Tuesday morning, so the IT ppl came and took it away--seems it had some malware on it that activated when it re-booted. I got it back right before I left campus yesterday...kept on having to borrow colleague's computers so that I could advise students, etc. Did not realize how dependent on computers, I am...
Well, off I go --first Thursday in a very long time with out an evening class!
ciao

[Chris55]

Happy Friday! I hope you made it through your first week at school unscathed! We're making the most of the last few days of break - finally got to go snowshoeing today. We had a fresh and fluffy 5" overnight, so DS and I headed out to a preserve on the river and hiked for over an hour, with a huge hill on the way back. Between that and shoveling today, I've done enough exercise for a few days. But it feels good and hopefully I'll sleep past 4 tomorrow!

Food is good, except for a small piece of crumb cake I made for the guys last night. We had my miso shrimp soup and salad, so no carbs and the cake was calling me. Today has been good foodwise - I'm doing a bunless burger tonight, salad, and some kind of cooked veggie. Tomorrow I'm making a small turkey - last meal for DS at home for a while. I'm driving him back on Sunday and this way the boys will have some leftovers to eat while I'm gone. I'll be staying over at my sister's in NJ for a few nights to visit with her, then heading back between snow storms. She follows SB sometimes but her new daughter-in-law is from the Dominican Republic and does most of the cooking, which means rice, fried bananas, but some beans, too. Plus I'll be eating a meal or two on the road, so not an entirely on-plan weekend coming up.

Enjoy your days off!

[Chris55]

Goodness. I heard this morning about the fire in Poughkeepsie. Every parent's nightmare. My heart goes out to everyone there.

I dropped my son off at NP on Sunday afternoon after a rough start getting my car moving in the morning because my gas line froze. Ended up leaving 45 min. later and had a good rest of trip down. He actually vacuumed his room while I was unloading, had him settled in about 40 min., pleased to see him running down the hall hugging people. He has a roommate who hadn't yet materialized so am waiting to hear from him about that. But he had 4 classes today, had to pick up books, paychecks, etc., so is probably very busy getting back in the swing of things.

Food has been way off plan. Ended up meeting up with an old friend after NP drop off, ended up having chocolate mousse birthday cake followed by pizza at my sister's. Tonight is dinner being cooked by my nephew's wife, who is from the Dominican Republic, so yummy seasoned beans, rice, beef, salad, and I hope some wine. Needed some last night and didn't get any, sad to say!

I hope you are coping with the beginning of school and the devastation of losing students so tragically. Makes me count my blessings.

[Feminista54]

Yes, that fire was every parent's nightmare, and devastating to students --most who have not lost anybody in their age group except to car accidents.
I have had the "influenza" as my PA friend calls it--was really down for the count from Friday afternoon until this morning--slept more than I have done in months! I have 3 classes today, I think I can do it, and I'm not contagious.
My stomach could not face coffee, but because I need caffeine, I am slowly drinking a Pepsi Max. My meals this weekend were limited to oatmeal and chicken soup with a little rice, pasta, or brocolli in it--thank goodness I put up so much chicken stock-- and from Evan, tootsie roll pops. My tongue is black from all the peptobismal I've ingested. One of the strange things I do when sick is watch cooking shows...I know I am feeling better when I want to make something. Glad to get this illness out of the way...but it messed up going to NYC, oh well.
Couldn't tell if last night's GOP debate was just boring or I could not concentrate--but from all the twitter feeds I read, the verdict: boring...Romney does not have any emotion, Newt was on mute (even during the "heated" exchanges), Santourum and Paul when allowed to say anything either rambled or babbled--tho' sometimes one of them would say something sensible!
Glad that your son has adjusted very well it seems to college life--you did well!
Well, to prep a bit and then off I go...
Enjoy your visit with your sister, if I remember correctly besides rice and beans, DR cuisine includes empanadas and pumpkin as a veggie....mmmmmm...enjoy!

[Chris55]

I hope you're feeling better. I'm lucky that none of those nasty stomach things have descended on us yet!

Eating has been awful - chocolate mousse birthday cake, pizza, pancakes, etc. The DR dinner was good but not very exotic - beans over rice, fried bananas, stewed beef and peppers, salad, avocado, wine. Trying to get back on track today at home since the scale is not happy.

About to have breakfast and watch Obama's speech. I was too tired from the drive yesterday to stay up past 9. Our governor also did his State of the State last night. Slash and burn politics - then he wonders why crime and domestic violence are on the rise. Idiot.

I need to do a grocery run, too. We're almost out of veggies and fruit - one lonely apple and a few leaves of spinach are all that's left. I just joined our CSA for this year with an extra $110 to buy whatever else I want besides my weekly share. That way I'll get my share on Thurs/Fri and be able to use my credit to buy at the tiny farmer's market that they run on Mondays. But now I need to go look at wilted imported veggies at the supermarket. Sad this time of year.....