6 hours

I am not sure how much of Mr. P's work stuff I have shared here...but a quick recap. Last July Mr. P got laid off from his architecture firm. Within a few weeks he started working for a construction company as their construction coordinator. Well, the firm wasn't doing too well, and Mr. P ended up working as a superintendent at a job site about 40 miles away. He was working crazy hours and I was coming up on my summer of no teaching and the thought of spending ALL my time alone, coupled with Mr. P's general unhappiness we agreed that Mr. P would quit his job.

This decision FREAKED me out way more than I thought when the money stopped coming in, some because I like to have a nice cushion and some because Mr. P wasn't putting the breaks on spending, and some because when two adults have ONLY free time, especially we two adults, we liked going to movies, out to eat, to the beach, out for drinks, etc. which all cost the dollars.

So about three weeks in, I had him apply for a job I found on CRAIG's list, which he promptly got. He now makes just a tad less than he was making at the construction company, but he works, well, no offense to Mr. P, but very little. Well, he works very little outside of our house. He goes to a few meetings a week, and occasionally he does an all-nighter when he gets close to a deadline.

It is a fantastic arrangement. I get to spend all my free time with my husband...he is here every morning while I get ready for work, when I get home from the gym, when I get home from work and I love hanging out with my husband more than anything.....

...BUT, I need time. to. myself. To eat mac and cheese and watch Grey's Anatomy (both of which he hates), to rock out to Glee Pandora and grade projects in my pajamas, to fiddle around the house without listening to hair metal or the History Channel.

We have standing Friday night plans with a large group of friends, which I have skipped the last two Fridays, but forced Mr. P to attend so that I can eat mac & cheese (spinach and fish sticks) and catch up on Grey's, grade projects in my pj's while rocking out to Glee Pandora, and fiddle around the house in the quiet bliss of alone.

And now I got to blog without explaining that I was blogging and I got to pause the television while I went to fix myself a Diet Coke float that I am eating out of a fancy wine glass. Man, I have it good.

Research Support

So far, my research summer support has paid for the following accomplishments:

• I have watched every episode of The Office.

I never watched it originally because it made me SO uncomfortable. I get embarrassed by characters on television. I have to turn away or change the channel. I watched on HULU and when I needed a break, I would switch to something less stressful for me, like Law & Order: SVU.

• I have mastered all crops (except for one) on Farmville.


• I have committed to THREE new research projects.


• I have committed to teaching an extra course this Fall, which needs to get prepped.


• I have spent 18 days at the beach.


• I have seen: Super 8 (Twice. I loved it.), Hangover 2, Bad Teacher, Horrible Bosses, Transformers 3.


• I got all the way through Couch to 5K week 7, then regressed back to week 4. I wanted to run a half in November, not looking that good.

Now the time is starting to get REALZ. I have 5 weeks until my Fall semester starts and I will be teaching two master's courses (same course, two sections) and a freshman course. In the mean time, we are going to Texas for 6 days and Denver for 5 days. Plus I will certainly spend a good deal of time celebrating my birthday and I am going to Biloxi to see Kathy Griffin. I still need to get significant work done on some research, but instead of working on that tonight, I decided it would be MUCH better to bake this cake and watch Toddlers and Tiaras on Netflix.

Looks like I will be teaching every summer from here on out since I took this summer way more OFF than I really should have. DAMN.

the bottom of an ant's pants

Ant hem. HA HA HA HA.

I love Glee.

That's all.

OH, and I got an awesome necklace (a capsaicin molecule) for Valentine's Day and some potted tulips (that Mr. P thought was a hydrangea) and flowers and a bag of cinnamon hearts that I already ate.

my phone go boom

Today I was meeting some old friends for lunch and in my haste to get a quarter in the meter I dropped my iPhone on the sidewalk, and BOOM, it was all over for the iPhone 3. White screen of iPhone death.

I came home and Googled and YouTubed solutions and I must have broken the LED screen...I decided I would go on Tuesday to get the iPhone 4.

Two hours later, I got the iPhone 4. I couldn't STAND not being connected to the world every second.

How sad is that?

Now, Mr. P and I canceled our plans for tonight (meet up with friends for beers and trivia) and are settled in with pizza and Hell's Kitchen on DVR and talking to each other using FaceTime while we sit next to each other in the living room.

That is even sadder!

what I did today

• Slept through the alarm set for 5:30am and managed to drag out of bed at 7am. I set the alarm so early because starting next Monday I have to teach a class at 8am and the heat makes it impossible to run at times other than 7am and 7pm. I like TV at 7pm.
• I weighed in DANGEROUSLY close to scootching up a decade. I immediately logged into http://www.weightwatchers.com/, updated my weight and made a note to self to get shit together. asap.
• Started week 2 (note that week 1 happened several weeks ago) of my half marathon training. AND AND AND, I warmed up and stretched before I ran. Pain free the first mile (well, my hip/knee crap, lungs? different question), then a bit of pain the second mile. Managed a decent time for me. Stretched again. Iced hip.
• Made a frappe with my new Mr. Coffee Cafe Frappe. YUM. (Impulse buy yesterday because I was sure that it would help me through said early morning class starting next week.)
• Watered plants. Fell in love with my baby cucumbers all over again. Tried to decide how many times we are going to have to have Thai food based on the 450 peppers that are growing.
• Showered.
• Wrote three blog posts and deleted every.one. of them.
• Quit the gym. OF COURSE, you have to quit by the 20th so you don't get charged an extra month. I bet they change the form every day so that you are always a day late. fuckers. I want to quit the gym!
• Changed my address at the post office.
• Went to Chick Fil A for lunch and to read to decompress for class.
• Taught an hour and a half class about writing queries.
• Taught an hour and a half class about accounting for corporate bond issues.
• Graded projects while eating a Fage 2% with Honey yogurt thing. I almost threw it away because it was weird. But then it got a bit warmer and blended and then I liked it...but maybe not 4 points liked it. I added some Corn Flakes. Did you know that Kellogg's Corn Flakes contain high fructose corn syrup? Yeah, I didn't either.
• Came home.
• Made HOMEmade salsa/pico. Tomatoes, red onion, homegrown jalapeno/serrano/habanero peppers, fresh corn, black beans, garlic, cilantro, salt/pepper, red wine vinegar. DAMN it is good. and fresh. and delicious.

Now I am waiting for Mr. P to get home from his run, and we are going to eat the salsa/pico stuff on corn tortillas with some refried beans and a bit of 2% cheese. We have 8 days left in this house, and it can't happen soon.enough.

OH.MY.GOD. I have the Bachelorette on and I think one of the dudes got a tattoo with her name on it....what the hell man??? psych.o.

How was your Monday?

EDITED TO ADD: My iPod had died, and when I charged it the date/time was funky, so it logged my run at May 5, so it isn't showing up with my Nike girl. My next run (Wednesday) will be there.

Victorious!!!

I was able to hula hoop at class last night!!! Once I got home I even demonstrated for Mr. P, and he said, "WOW, how did you FINALLY figure it out?"

I know, right? 40 years is a long time to want to be able to do something! Okay, that is exaggerating, I probably didn't ever even try for the first time until I was 8 ish, but even 32 years was a long time to wait!

A few things I did different this week...I ran before class so that I would be good and loose (that is what she said), I wore more form fitting clothes because apparently the hoop will 'stick' better, and I worked on my hip posture all week. Apparently I let my butt pooch out too much, I need to tuck it more under...yeah, I don't really know either, but I worked on it and YAHOO.

I even got a DVD to practice with...if I can maintain success, I will post a video of my mad hula skillz next week! (I KNOW, please wait with bated breath.)

After class I met Mr. P at the gym. I thought of a way I wanted to challenge myself using the Biggest Loser show every week. On the first episode the contestants had a challenge where they had to ride a stationary bike for a marathon: 26.2 miles. I wanted to attempt their challenge while I watched this week's episode. I did it, but it took a whopping 77 minutes!

For next week I am not sure how to recreate the challenge they did yesterday...if any of you watched and have ideas, I am open!

Yesterday was a rousing success on both food and workout fronts. Now, let's see if I can build on that and go TWO whole days in a row!

it's OK to be fat and work out...

I have been struggling with food lately, having more bad days than good, so today before I decided on my lunch I found the 'Where are they now' episode of Biggest Loser online and am watching it now (in another window, of course). At the beginning of the episode the doctor made a comment about one of the impacts the show has made on America and it is that the show has made it so that it is okay to be fat and work out. That is really resonating with me.

It took me a long time to feel okay about going to fitness classes, using the weights at the gym, running on the treadmill, running in public...I still wonder if people who pass me or see me are thinking things like:

A little late, dontcha think?

or maybe,

That isn't going to help you, Fattie McFat.

But you know what? I think I (mostly) don't care anymore.

On a somewhat related note, for which I could figure out no graceful or clever transition, I read a post today that inspired me to do something else for my health, and that is to make my appointment for my "annual exam" (I think it has been three years since my last one, OOPS) so that I can then get a referral for a baseline mammogram now that I am at the big 4-0.

Okay, back to the Biggest Loser episode...it ended on the note of finding a DAY TO DAY way to live a healthier life...not the Biggest Loser ranch way, but a real-life way that you can do for.ever. I am definitely NOT there yet, but heading that way for sure.

So on that note, before some lunch, I will get in my last run before the 10K on Saturday, then will have a nice pasta with chopped spinach and broccoli.

Complete sign of MATURITY

I am talking about the kind of maturity that you say like this:

MATOUR

Not the kind of maturity that you say like this:

MATCHUR

Mr. P and the College Kid got into a discussion on whether the snake I saw last week was a rattle snake or a rat snake while we were at family dinner last night. In a stand of supremacy, the College Kid went out to the car and got her notebook for the critter class she is taking (all things reptilian and amphibious I want to say) to demonstrate her classification and naming prowess. After her asking me a few questions about that snake's head where I might have made up the answers she admitted it might be a rat snake (she was on the side of rattler) and decided to go play with Eli in the kid's play area of the restaurant.


While she was gone I grabbed her notebook and we added stickers and other commentary to her notes. For example, Penny wrote "I HEART PBI" which stands for some sort of breeding, but I don't remember what the P or I stands for now. Teddy wrote "I heart NEWTS" in SororityGirl16 font. Mom had some stickers with snakes that we added to her notes. But the piece de resistance that had me laughing SO hard that I cried and then my throat got all phlegmy and thick?

Which if you don't know what it is, it is Mr. P's rendition of the SNL skit baby hands lady which comes up in many a family meeting...see the tiny hands on the star stickers????

Like I said, we are MATOUR.

Was Spock right?

It is the middle of the night and you are on your way home and there is no traffic on the road. You get stopped at a redlight. You sit. You wait. The light is NOT changing, there are no other cars on the road. Do you run the red light?

The reason I ask is because Tuesday is my work at home and get caught up on grading, prepping for class, reading papers, laundry, dishes, vacuuming, regaining sanity from the weekend day. And as part of the day I catch up on DVR, and on today's menu is 3 weeks worth of House. If you haven't watched and are going to...SPOILER ALERT!!! Click away from the blog.

A dictator in the midst of horrific genocide is dying. If you are his doctor, do you work your ass off to save him, knowing he will go back to his country and complete his mission? Or do you perform substandardly and let him die? Or do you mislead others and more or less kill him yourself?

There is a theory of moral development that suggests that a person with a lessor developed morality would sit at the red light and work their asses off to save the dictator. Without a more developed moral compass, people act to avoid punishment. Interestingly, this same theory states that the MOST morally developed would run the red light and kill the dictator.

How developed are you?

I wouldn't run the light.

Maybe even more telling, while I might WANT to do it, I wouldn't kill the dictator because I wouldn't want to go to jail.

What would you do in those situations?

Was Spock right, do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one?

why you never use your husband's laptop

I woke up this morning to sun (it only lasted 30 minutes, but whatev) and decided to do a quick iPod update off of Mr. P's laptop before I headed out on my run because I know he had recently purchased Love Drunk and I wanted to listen to it on my run today. (Okay, I really wanted I'm on a Boat, but that is MORE embarrassing).

So, admittedly without his permission, I grab his laptop, turn it on get on his iTunes library, go to his recently purchased...and guess what I found?

Vampire Diaries.

le fait de manger propre

Aujourd'hui est le jour que j'ai décidé que j'essaierais de manger propre. Pour l'instant, il me tue parce qu'apparemment je soutiens le marché d'aliments traité et je ne l'ai pas même réalisé.

OH wait, sorry. I just watched, Ne le dis à personne, which is Tell No One from Harlan Coben's book of the same name. Oh man, I follow Harlan on Twitter and I feel all goofy and weird when he posts normal stuff like, "my kid has a funny bathingsuit" because I super love his books, and when my sister first moved to New Jersey which is where he lives we worked out a plot to try to go to his house and ask him to please.please. write a little bit quicker, but then we chickened out, OH, but the movie was a French movie, so I was feeling all frenchy. OH, and anyways, back to what I was saying:

Today is the day that I decided I would try to eat clean. So far, it is killing me because apparently I am nearly single-handedly supporting the processed food market, and I did not even realize it. I have had watermelon, blueberries and a kiwi for breakfast:

After I ate this, and watched the movie and started this post I started getting antsy, like if I stayed in this house one second longer I was going to have a partially hydrogenated corn syrup sandwich (on white bread)...so I took off to work. I got a bunch done. Then I did my campus 5K route and managed to get through all 5 K's still doing the running motion. So whoo hoo!!

I went to the store to pick up a few "clean" eats, and decided on black beans and brown rice, with homemade guacomole (WOW), salsa and organic, all natural cheddar cheese...I was so hungry I snacked on some delicious cherries while I prepped:

Here is my complete dinner...yeah, it looks pretty gross in the photo, but it was delicious (brown rice, black beans, 1/2 grilled chicken breast, homemade guac (tomato, avocado, jalapeno, onion), and Pace picante...I was a bit concerned that the picante may be considered "processsed", but all the ingredients were regular food things and no chemicals, so I decided it would be okay.... Now we are all watching "Meteor" ... in addition to reality television, I love disaster movies...even made for television, awful, horrible disaster movies. I make my entire family watch them...every minute. So far this is not disappointing in the awful department, and I am super excited because when I was getting the link for the movie, NBC is having "Survival Sundays"...week after week of crappy disaster movies, sometimes just when you think life is so hard, something really great happens.

But, back to my clean food...I made some banana ice cream (frozen bananas in the food processor), and topped it off with some more cherries. (oh.my.god. if you are a fan of the bananas, this stuff is beyond good.)

I still have points left over for today, but considering this week I earned 40.5 Activity Points yet am STILL 43 POINTS in the hole, I think I will just call it a day and hope that my journaling, exercising and ONE day of clean eating will keep me out of the weight gains....(yeah, two birthday parties, Olive Garden, late night burgers and 7 buffalo wings add up really quickly, yikes!)

I may have taken the clean eating a bit more literally than most, but I am proud to say I had a whole day and did not eat a single bit of artificiality. I do plan on incorporating more real foods, but brother, give me back my DIET COKE!

how do you feel about test drives?

My sister is buying a car in the next few weeks and we have pretty much the same car buying approach...

1. Walk in the dealership.

2. Tell saleman, "I would like that one".

3. Sign papers.

4. Drive away

Notice, no haggling, no dealing, maybe not even a test drive. But that really isn't the test drive to which I am referring.

I was watching The Bachelorette and towards the end of the seaon they have these fanstasy overnight dates...and on one of them the poor bastard, "was sunburned, and tired, and there was a lot of pressure". I was wondering if it meant the dude couldn't, well, you know, drive.....so I texted my sister about it, and apparently that is the story as The Soup tells it.

I got to thinking...man, that is skanky, her having back to back to back sex dates. blech.

But then I also was thinking, what if you pick a dude and there is no combustion (ha ha, sticking with the car metaphor)? That would be bad.

So, what is your stance on test drives? And if the situation were yours, would you go from the Honda dealership, to Ford, to Kia, then even maybe back to Honda????

Pulled the trigger

on that diet roulette gun I was talking about, and I gained .2lbs.


So as I plow into week 3 of the 15 Week Challenge, I have lost .59% of my beginning weight, which is 1.4lbs. ehh. Not my best efforts, but I have had a STELLAR day. Now, I did not eat "clean", I am saving that for later in the week, but I have eaten lots of fruits and veggies, grilled chicken, went out for a jog this morning, and drank (mostly) water all day. I have used all of my points though, and not sure that I will make it all the way until tomorrow without dipping into my weekly points. I do have berries and watermelon if I get hungry though, so I think I am in good shape.

I even went to work and got a bunch of statistical tests done on a paper I am revising!

Now that the housekeeping is over, I have another Ruby rant.

So, I watched it again last night, and while I probably should just not watch anymore, I probably will, so be prepared for me to gripe. In this episode she was so whiney about not wanting to do universal weight machines because she was going to 'bulk up'. The little bits of her routine I saw were not in the body building category, rest assured. It was just so frustrating. I don't know how she is financially supporting herself, and she has this show to help her lose weight and all she does is BITCH, well I could deal with bitching, all she does is WHINE. (I really feel like Jillian needs to go to Savannah and kick some ass.) Then, her MD brought in some "guru" (that label makes me wary of ANYONE) and he kept saying that her current workout of treadmill and universal weight machines was going to 'bulk her up'. Fed right into her delusions. So she quit her gym. quit.her.gym. I don't know why I am getting so frustrated about a stranger's journey when I have my own struggles, but I truly believe if there was a camera crew following me around I would be too embarrassed not to be on.it. every day.

Okay, judgey rant over. OH, I found out this weekend that one of the instructors at work and her husband are swingers. blech. shiver. throw up. (If you are a swinger, I really don't care if I just offended you because I think it's yucky.)

Called out. Thanks.

So over the last few days, a few people mentioned (Fatinah and Wafelenbak) that my Nike girl was a bit bratty and sad that I had neglected her. I had indeed. I had sort of decided last night, that today, rain or shine, humidity and heat be damned, I was going to strap on that bitch and take her for a run so she would quit telling the blogworld that the new found resolution I had to my healthy journey was already waning.

I am playing a bizarre game of diet roulette. I am making BETTER choices, but really, it doesn't take a whole lot of discipline to merely NOT eat fast food for every.meal. Throw in a salad here and there, maybe a piece of fruit, and ta da. BETTER choices. Not good. Better. I am journaling maybe one meal a week....I don't even know.

However, I still had kind of made up my mind that I had to get my ass in gear. Kind of.

Then, late last night I watched a few episodes of Ruby. If you don't know her story, she is a lady from Savannah that has assembled a team of a trainer, nutritionist and shrink to help her lose the 300lbs that she needs to lose. The episode I watched was Ruby on vacation...she didn't take any of her meals, and she kept saying, "I think I know best" when she didn't eat her pre-planned meals or when she didn't want to exercise.

I thought to myself, "If she really knew best she wouldn't have gotten to this position."

DING DING DING DING

I am still one hundred pounds overweight. I am still in the super obese category. I DO need WeightWatchers. I do need my Nike girl. I do need to drink water and take my vitamins. Merely fitting into XL shirts from OldNavy does not mean my journey is over.

So people, please feel free to comment on my girl if she is sad...BUT check her out today! I got 2.25 miles in the 200 degree humid filled day...I am cooled down, and am heading to buy groceries!

Keepin' it real

Well, maybe not REAL, real, but reality television real.

I love reality television, most all of it. But I really dig the shows where there are challenges and voting. I LOVE challenges and voting. We even have challenges and vote during our family vacations and holidays.

But this time of the year brings my most favorite...it is an awful, horrendous guilty pleasure...Big Brother. I watch the show (3 nights a week), and have bought the live feeds, I even participate in chat rooms, I am a HUGE BB dork.

ahh. Confession is good for the soul....

So what about you? What is your television secret????

seven, seven, SEVEN

Got word of my seventh publication getting accepted this evening. Well, techically it is "conditionally accepted." I have a several hours worth of editing to do, but no biggie.

I have to tell you, my *7* dance for Mr. P looked a bit too !SUPERSTAR!. It really wasn't all that too hot. I must work on that.

I feel giddy with relief, for some reason 7 seems hugely bigger than 6.

HUGELY. bigger.

but really, probably not statistically significantly bigger. that's for you other stat dorks out there. cheers.

Oh, and I am about to google 30Something so I can watch it, I never did. I am 30something for another 4 months, so I better get my watch on.

Last straw

Nope. This is not going to be another whiney post about how my life is too hard, when well, it just isn't. Don't get me wrong, I totally did cry at the park, getting healthy really sucks sometimes and I was devastated when my paper got rejected, but overall? I have got it pretty good, even though my DVD player spins the DVDs too loudly. Can't buy good electronics for $24.99 anymore. fuck.

Anyways, this is about Jon and Kate. Plus Eight. on TLC. Awhile ago I quit watching them because I just wasn't finding the show endearing anymore. Tonight I was flipping through the channels and I saw that Jon and Kate was on, so I decided to watch for a few minutes. They were getting ready to go see the Harlem Globetrotters, and Jon said he had to do some work. Piqued interest. His work was LOOKING AT THE ALLSTATE WEBSITE. what?!?!?!?

That type of "product placement" is annoying enough on Biggest Loser, when they have weirdly staged snack breaks, but for whatever reason, Jon calling that work made me so annoyed that I turned the tv off, but not completely off. Just changed over to DVDs.

Damn. That DVD player is SO freaking LOUD. the incessant whirring.

oh the humanity. the spinny spinny noise of that DVD player. I just need to start getting my porn on iTunes.

Weird HotchPotch

I think I might be spending too much time reading blogs. I have started dreaming about bloggers.

~Awhile ago Swistle asked her readers to guess her baby's real name. I guessed Owen. That night, I dreamt that she called me to tell me how ridiculous my guess was because clearly his name is Marshall.

-Last night I had a dream that I was at the aquarium and Bea worked there, and insisted on brushing my hair while we watched passers by. Then, she told me that she thought Kevin Bacon was hott and she was thinking about leaving J. for him.

****************

Today I went to a local pizza place for lunch (one slice of broccoli pizza with a side spinach salad). There was a dude sitting next to me working on his computer. He got a phone call and during the conversation he said, "Yeah, I am sitting at the bar, 3 hours from home, drinking tea and eating a salad." Here's the thing. He was eating HUMMUS and drinking a GUINNESS.

***************

I am very disturbed that my Thursday Survivor habit is pre-empted for basketball. I like the March Madness just fine, but NOT DURING SURVIVOR. That being said, my Aggies did win this morning. On the subject of sports, I think tomorrow will be a very sporty day. An afternoon baseball game, then my school is in the NIT (the basketball tournament for the losers who didn't make the big tournament) and we are thinking about going to the game. They have hotdogs there. 8 points baby, and worth every single one of them. I don't eat a lot of meat, but man, I love hotdogs.

**************

I really thought I had 4 bullet points, but I am out. OH, Mr. P met Sam Sheppard today. Now, I am out.

Call backs.

My highschool kid auditioned for the community theater production of Fiddler on the Roof yesterday. He had to go sing a song and perform a monologue in front of STRANGERS. He got a call back. Wish him bone breaking thoughts. Well, just until about 5:30pm Central time. After that, it would just be cruel.

Thanks to all the support I have gotten at home and from this blog, I also had a callback to my Couch to 5K workout that I considered a FAIL from yesterday. This morning? SUCCESS!

I just checked to be sure, and we are calling back LOST! from last week that Mr. P deleted JUST AS I was sitting down to watch it. He can NOT work his new HD DVR. So tonight is flatiron steak, baked potatoes and some deliciously confusing time travel.

My Dad sent me an email last night. He used "lol" in the email. That is just wrong. Not in the theme of callbacks, but wrong.

Fatty McFlufferbut

Today is the first time in over a month that I was dreading my fat test, technically I was still on plan for WeightWatchers, but...well, it was more form over function if you know what I mean. However, Mr. P and I did another 5K this weekend (42 minutes!!), and with my other workouts, my bod did not let me down...I scored 91.82%!*

I am almost just VERY GOOD at being fatty mc fat fat fat. However, my BMI is still kind of a drag since according to that I am still EXTREMELY obese, which is a special category of morbidly obese for those of you keeping score at home. I am looking forward to being just plain old obese. That word sucks ass by the way. I looked all that up last night while watching part of 1/2 Ton Mom on TLC, but she was breaking my heart with a BMI of 113 and I couldn't figure out at what point you get that heavy and I got all morose so I had to turn that off, and I couldn't watch House because I was sort of afraid of that commercial coming on again, so I had to watch Everybody Loves Raymond DVDs instead.

*I lost .6 pounds, but 1.82 pounds of FAT. So there you go.