going GREEN, err, purple?

When the baby bird left the nest on Wednesday, he took the car that he and I had been sharing for several years. That leaves me carless, and while Mr. P is all prepared to buy another vehicle, I asked him to put on the brakes---

When I went to the Museum of Natural History, specifically a special exhibit about the effects of human action on the climate, I pledged to work on decreasing my carbon footprint. I turned our A/C up a degree, I took my shopping bags to the store today, and I have decided to go the next two months using public transportation as much as I can. Now that is a bit more difficult in my town due to lesser public transportation options, but there is a university transit system and I have purchased my bus pass for the next two semester and have investigated the bus stops closest to the gym, my house, my office and my nail salon. My office is on the way to Mr. P's office, so I will take Mr. P's bus service to work on Monday and Wednesday mornings, because I teach fairly early, 9:30, and I can't risk being late to class, even for an environmental cause!

Here I come Purple line!

when in doubt, FLUFFERNUT

This week I have tried to jump on the eating breakfast bandwagon. I started with the Kashi/yogurt/fruit combo, and I am really enjoying it...but I know me, and I will get bored shortly....which got me thinking back to when during the winter Swistle wrote about her love of her baked oatmeal recipe, and I have been wanting to try oatmeal with accouterments ever since...okay, okay, I will wait if you want to go look, BUT even though she is completely awesome, come.back.

As I spent time this week thinking about oatmeal, I remembered that I bought some steel cut oats a few weeks ago when Amy challenged us to create a whole grain meal. (Which I did not do, by the by.) However, as I was thinking about oats, steel cut oats, little snippets of those Fluffernutter cupcakes kept butting into my brain and confusing me.

So, guess what I did? I made up a batch of steel cut oats:

Then I added a tablespoon of peanutbutter, and nearly TWO tablespoons of marshmallow creme. OH MY.

I tallied the points: 5, but it took me awhile to eat (which I like), and was delicious (which I love), and I actually enjoyed it more than the cupcake (it didn't taste better, I am not HIGH, but had elements of healthy and decadent...not just decadent) and now 2 episodes of Nurse Jacky later (THANKS, Nilsa), I am still feeling quite content on the hunger front.

Now we just have to see if I can stay out of the marshmallow creme..... (I won't tell you how I calculated the Points for the whole jar just in case I lost my mind and ate it.)

OH, and thanks for all the well wishes regarding my empty nest...but do not fear, I am FINE. Mr. P is on his way home from his last moving chore, bringing giant Low Cal Diet Cherry Limeades...then maybe we will be having some naked time in the...well, ANYwhere we want!!!

empty nesting

I am sitting alone in my house, the only things I can hear are the dryer, air conditioner, and now the clickety clack of my laptop keyboard.



The baby bird moved (partially, we will move the rest of the stuff tomorrow using Penny's moving truck) into his very own nest at 1pm today. I went with him to pick up his keys, and to get a look, since I hadn't seen it yet. It is a cute apartment, pretty big, and a very.sweet.bathroom.

As he drove away I told him to text when he got there, and then again every 5 minutes. I was kidding. sort of.

I guess I can catch up with all his goings on when we meet him for dinner tonight at 6pm.

my PhD is being severly compromised

by my own lack of, well, of something...maybe common sense, maybe regular sense, but man, something is preventing all my synapses from firing...a few examples:

~My sister and I are sitting across my dining room table from each other (when she was blogging about my mother actually) and I am writing down an address with a dry erase type pen.

Me:mmm, this pen smells good...kinda almondy
Penny: Let me see. (sniffs the pen), I don't smell anything.
Me: Yeah, I totally smell it and it smells good.
(ding, ding, ding)
Me: OH. It is me. (I have some delicious almondy butter body wash).
Penny: Idiot.

As a precursor to the next story I have to tell you that we have a LOT of inappropriate conversations around Chez Potchery under regular circumstances...'that's what she said' is one of my favorite things to say. Well, you add my sister, and it gets WAY worse. Anyway, last night, we were all relaxing and we start talking about names for porn movies, and we ended up on UrbanDictionary. Then Penny started laughing and telling me how her and College Kid got laughing hysterically over Donkey Punch Toboggan. So, of course, I look up Donkey Punch. I will wait a second if you need to see what it means. (ETA: But you do NOT need to know to appreciate the end of the story.)

Me: Well, what do you have to do to make it a toboggan?
Penny: Do it downstairs.
Me: Like in your house? In the basement?
Penny: NO, do it GOING down the stairs.

AHHHH. hence toboggan.

There is also a story about how I couldn't figure out how to open the gas cap on the rental car, and I almost had to drive to Mr. P's office so he could show me, then I forgot to put it back on and I thought the car was breaking down, but I don't have time to tell you because I am cooking dinner for College Kid 2 because he MOVES.OUT.TOMORROW.

Home. And then some.

WOW is all I can say about that trip. I had a great time with my friends from school, Mr. P and I had a good two days in NYC, I had fun seeing my cousins and aunt for my nephew's 3rd birthday party, and my sister and I arrived home yesterday with the baby (we flew), and the boys got here this afternoon (Mr. P drove the truck with the furniture, my brother in law drove the car with the pets). On Monday (when College Kid returns from camp) I will have my whole family in the same zip code, and that makes me very happy.

I DID gain 2.2 lbs which is a bit disheartening, considering I ran 5/9 days. However, I indulged in TWO Fluffernutter Crumbs cupcakes, macaroni and cheese, super brunch, Cake Batter Confetti ice cream cake, pizza, eggplant parmigiana, two ice cream cones WITH sprinkles, beer, pommes frittes, creme brulee...OH JEEZ, maybe it is a great thing I only gained 2.2 lbs.

I did a little run this morning, having to get re-acclimated to the Alabama heat, so I am back working the system. For the first time today I tried the yogurt/Kashi/fruit breakfast combination and I LOVED it. That is definitely going into my repertoire, I think I need to force breakfast into my routine, especially since I teach mornings in the Fall.

I still have lots to tell you, including how my mom called me on my birthday to ask if she could live with Mr. P and I for two months because she wants a "transition" to moving to the town we now all live in...yeah. Remember what happened in May? Some of you read my sister's blog, so you know my mother's latest weird ass shit. My nephew wanted a Blue's Clues birthday, and if you didn't know...Blue's Clues is OUT, can't find Blue's stuff anywhere. So, we were chatting about that and she told us that she googled Steve because she was pretty sure that Blue's Clues went off the air because Steve is a pedophile. She jumps to these insanely judgemental conclusions and that drives me batty. But, not to be outdone in being weird by my Mom, Dad has decided that he is coming to my nephew's Alabama birthday party and bringing his new girlfriend (to stay.at.my.house). GAG.

So Mr. P and I will be empty nesting for Thursday night before we have creepy company. score.

Solo, selfish vacay? SCORE!

Even though it is 12:49am, and I have some researchy, worky stuff to do in 9 hours, I had to take some time to document my day on Word (this stupid expensive hotel only has free Wi-Fi in the lobby) because I was afraid that once I slept some of the activity might leak out of my brains onto these really awesome pillows.

I seriously have been having the BEST time. I have gotten to do whatever I want, whenever I want and since it is no big secret that I am a bratty, bossy, bitch, OF course this type of trip would appeal to me!

Sunday my sister took me to brunch for my birthday, and just so you know…crème brulee French toast is pretty terrific. When we got back to my sister’s house, I tallied my points…26. YIKES. (1/2 bagel with jalapeno/scallion cream cheese, aforementioned French toast, frittata, eggs Florentine, breakfast burrito, chocolate fountain on marshmallows/pineapple/strawberries and a Bloody Mary. YUM.) After we lounged around a bit and then took the baby to stomp in puddles, I headed back to my hotel to pick up my conference registration. When I got off the train, there was a street fair the entire.way back to the hotel. I grabbed a cup of fruit and leisurely walked back. It was gorgeous out, and I felt completely content with everything...a big change from the last few weeks...Once I got back I couldn’t find any of my friends (sad), so I came back to my room and got some work done for a presentation I have to do on Wednesday afternoon.

Then yesterday was SO big, I will go through it in bullets:

-2 mile Central Park jog, followed by browsing in Whole Foods picking up lunch and some healthy snacks since I caved and bought $9 gummy bears from the mini bar last night when I was working.

-After cleaning up, I walked to the Museum of Natural History. I got some decent insight to myself in that museum. I don’t much care for room after room of dead animals, I really prefer watching animals, so for me, it’s more animal behavior than animal facts…also, I really loved the Hall of Biodiversity, all the stuff about planets and space and I especially dug a special exhibit about Climate Change and I pledged to get ‘greener’. I REALLY loved the moon scale, and will be using this for all future weigh-ins.

- I then subway’ed to the East Village and ate a late lunch at an ALL macaroni and cheese restaurant. Oh.my.delicious. As I was finishing up, I got a text from friends from the PhD program, so I hustled back to the hotel to meet them.

-We went to Ground Zero (not my choice), walked through Battery Park, then rode the Staten Island Ferry (totally my choice and completely awesome to see the skyline, Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty all lit up), got on the subway to get to 112th Street to go to Tom’s Diner (the outside is the shot used in Seinfeld), then subway’ed back to Times Square, and then on the walk back to the hotel, took a quick detour to Rockerfeller Center.

-While standing at Times Square a friend from school I had.just.talked about not 10 minutes prior walked right by…so we took a ton of pictures with all of us, but not one turned out on my camera. BOO.

Tomorrow I will: do some conferencing, go shopping at OLD NAVY with the giftcard my sister gave me for my birthday as I am nearly out of clothes and I don't go home for several days, go to dinner at Tavern on the Green, and YAHOO, Mr. P arrives!!!!

My legs/lowerback/and shoulders (?) are exhausted, so I know I am burning a ton of calories...I have not been WAY careful on food (read aforementioned brunch choices), but I have made sure I am getting all my fruits/veggies and water.

Old Navy awaits!

Where do the fat people exercise?

Greetings from NEW YORK CITY!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, I had a great day, and it was really fun to check in on my comments and see so many wonderful people sending me good wishes.

So this will be quick because dudes, my sister is taking me to brunch where supposedly there is creme brulee french toast. frittatas. specialty cream cheeses. chocolate fountain. mimosa. mmm.

BUT, before you get all frowny on my unhealthy eating...check out my girl <-----. That is right you are not seeing things, after my class yesterday (which went very well...whew), I did Central Park, walk/joggy style! (My title comes from the fact that I saw a TON of people exercising, but none that were even chubby...what is THAT about?)

Whoops it is raining and I am going to need time to try to find a Hello Kitty umbrella on my way to the train!