5-30-10 Sunday (Safe Play With Chickens)

I washed the “new” thrift store purchases this morning.  Jim reorganized the master bedroom closet a little.  Basically he removed some ill-fitting clothes.

By the way, the “This Day In OUR History” segment I do at the bottom of my entries has a photo of Mike (of Mike & Dave) who will be here sometime later today.   That photo really shows mine and Mike’s typical fun-ness. 

I tried another smoothie today.  Jim and I both liked this one better than the chocolate-strawberry one I made the other day.  Jim says too “banana-ery” and wonders how strawberries would be in it. 

I heard from Mike and they’ll be here tomorrow evening.  In the meantime, just to get out of the house, we walked around the Northlake Mall.  Nothing real exciting.  Nearby the mall, we had dinner at “Fox and Hound” which is a regional restaurant chain.  I played it safe with the Jamaican Chicken: 

I ate half the rice. 

Jim had the Spinach Dip Melt:

 

Fox and Hound’s website doesn’t have nutritional values for my meal.  2 websites I used to research says:

 

That equated to 20 points!  There’s no way.  Chicken, white rice, black beans and broccoli.  I manually entered it in and came up with 14.5 points! 

Now I want to bitch about how I don’t trust the Weight Watchers point guide.   I look up 8 ounces of boneless, skinless chicken breasts = 7.5 points.  VERSUS I take and enter in nutritional value from a bag of boneless, skinless, Tyson chicken 8 ounces equals 5 points.  So I’m left wondering, “what the hell?”  This isn’t the only food this has happened with.  2.5 points is a lot on a 29 point diet.  Naturally each point becomes more crucial as the program reduces my intake.  Damn point thieves.

Now onto my numbers for the day:

Above: I had 2 points leftover!

 

A year ago:  The highlights: Free food at a favorite restaurant chain.  We spoke with an astronaut.  Hanging out in a space capsule.  Mud puddles, although rare, were found.  Check it all out here.

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5-29-10 Saturday (Pricey Entertainment)

Truth be known, I hate shopping for clothes so when the opportunity presents itself, I try to bail.  Jim wanted to go thrift store shopping but knew I wouldn’t so he invited his work-friend Beth.  They’ll go to lunch and then spend the day touching used icky clothing.  Don’t I make that sound appealing?  

Generally, there are a few people I don’t like to shop with.  It’s the type that has to pick up everything and examine it whether its something that’s even appropriate for them or not.  An example might be someone computer illiterate or who doesn’t even own a computer picking up a mouse and inspecting it.  Why?  I also have the ability to scan things quickly.  Jim?  No, he likes to look at everything carefully.  To some, that’s what “shopping” is all about.  What typically happens at Flea Markets, or other shopping venues is that I have to look at everything twice.  I get too far ahead. 

Jim came home with tons of clothes.  I should have taken a photo.  Shorts and shirts.  He did a great job.

While Jim was out shopping with Beth, I went to a couple of used video game stores.  It would seem as though the PS3 games retain their value much more than XBOX?  I saw “bargain bins” full of $9.99 or under games with game platforms other than PS3.  Needless to say, I came home and started eBay bidding. 

Above: .5 points to spare.

After dinner we watched via Netflix, via the PlayStation, “Broken Hearts Club”.  It’s a gay romantic comedy featuring several big name actors.  Dean Cain and John Mahoney to name a couple.

Jim and I enjoyed this movie.  It wasn’t campy.  It was actually very funny.

We checked out a place with sands of snow.  We got shocked while doing so… several times.  The photos are beautiful.  Check ‘em out here.

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5-28-10 Friday (Cereal Racing)

There wasn’t much going on for today.  I could describe, in detail, how I washed down the kitchen counters.  I’ll spare you.  I did go to Walmart for like my 10th time this week (maybe not so much).  Out front I spotted:

  Above: I never knew those little things were so fast.

Today is our 11th anniversary.  I wanted to make a special meal so I came up with steak.  I used every last bit of my points and then used .5 of my weekly and didn’t even get to have dessert!  Next time, I should have chicken (way less points) and that will leave plenty of room for dessert.

Jim ate two of my Weight Watchers GIANT Mint Cones.  It took all I had not to eat any.  I had to settle on a 1 point english muffin.  Sometime I’ll need to pick up some 1 point fudgicle pops for just such an emergency.  I’m trying to hang on to my weekly points for Mike & Dave’s visit.

We watched a 1973 Sci-Fi classic, Soylant Green.  Interesting.

I will tell you that it’s definitely ahead of it’s time.

 

All that talk about Soylent Green – I’m hungry.

A cursing video.  Peeling skin off.  I give you a tour of the cats domain.  Anniversary celebrations.  Click here to see last year’s adventure.

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5-27-10 Thursday (Rewarding?)

I totally understand the Weight Watcher’s weight-loss method, I do.  BUT when I weigh in and am told I lost 4.2 pounds they congratulate me by reducing my daily points to 29.  Like I said, I understand.  My reward is to lose more.  I will succeed.

 

I commented to Deanna and Jim last night that I should have done a formal diet sooner.  I guess I just thought I’d do fine my just eating a little better.   Maybe it works for some people but for me, I think I need the guidelines, the rules.

Dasher had a vet appointment today.  It was time for 1 shot and close to needing others so we went ahead and did some a little early.  I don’t think he was happy with get needles to take blood, needles to give meds and a thermometer up his ass for his temp.  Poor guy… not the best of days for him.

I vacuumed today.  Maybe tomorrow if it strikes my fancy, I’ll mop.  I wasted about an hour playing on the PlayStation. 

Weight Watchers update:

Above: I feel like I ate like a pig all day but I managed to stay within my DAILY points.  I gotta save those weekly points for when Mike & Dave visit.

Uhhhh, we ate a lot today.  Click here to see the endless list of food.  We purchased rubber gloves for non-kinky activities.  Check it out!

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5-26-10 Wednesday (Give A Hoot, Don’t Pollute)

My friend Dave mentioned that a PS3 game (Buzz Trivia) I really like is clearanced at his local Target in Florida.  I decided to check my local Target out yesterday but I struck out.  No such luck.  I did get lucky with this photo though.

Above: All the way to the left.  Room for future expansion?  A stall you can stand out while your friend pees even though you don’t have to?  A last minute budget cut during construction?

To start off my day I stopped at an ATM to deposit some checks.  While in her car, a woman threw her cigarette butt out the window.  When it was her turn, she got out of her car, made her transaction and as she returned to her vehicle, I couldn’t help myself – I had to comment.  I told her she had dropped her cigarette butt.  She looked at the ground and then acted surprised.  I told her it was littering.  She said I should mind my own business.  I told her the world wasn’t her ashtray and it was my business.  Eventually some explicatives were exchanged.  I threw her harsh words right back at her with the word “pig” added to the end.  I hope I didn’t offend any pigs.  I’m not real proud of the explicative exchange but afterwards it sure felt good.  You f%^ing pig.  It feels good again.

Even when I smoked I didn’t do that.  If there was no ashtray, I extinguished it and put it in my pocket.  The world is NOT your trash can or ashtray.  Stop littering.

The public service announcement was brought to you by… well honestly by anger.  I guess yesterday’s bad day carried over a little.

Jim’s office is having some sort of potluck tomorrow so he wanted to bring meatballs again.  I throw them into the crockpot with some Yoshida’s Asian Gourmet sauce and some pineapple tidbits.  Yum.  None for me though.  Anyway, I went to Walmart for the meatballs.  I brought my trusty new Weight Watchers calculator with me.  I used it several times to compare a few things.  You’ll read about them as I eat them I suppose.  What I will tell you is that I have a $1 off any Morningstar Farms product so I did buy a bunch of veggie burger/chicken things.  I like ‘em, they are very low in points, and they are filling!  Go to their website and get your coupon.  You can only print it once you you may want to photocopy it!  I used 3 today!  I can have a “chik’n patty” on a whole wheat bun for only 2 points!

Above: Morningstar Farms® Grillers® Chik'n Veggie Patties

I went to the dentist to finish up root canal #2.  Today’s visit marked the worst visit.  I was there, in that chair for 3 hours and 45 minutes.  My lower back felt like it was on fire.  What happened?  Well, she explored another canal which was tight.  That made a total of 4 canals, the primary ones were done at the prior visit.  After she finished packing, filling, removing the dam and what nots, it comes time for a final x-ray.  The x-ray revealed an air pocket.  She missed it from a prior x-ray because “the tooth clamp was in the way of the shot”.   Everything went back on.  The damn dam, the clamp, etc.  She had to drill out part of the temporary to repack one of the canals.  I thought I was going to cry.  I think the back pain for more than any other reason.

As I’m departing, she asks if I resolved the price issue with my regular dentist.  I told her that begrudgingly I’d have to pay $145 each tooth because he was going to insert a post, blah, blah.  She had a look on her face and tried to dismiss it.  I pried.  What?  She didn’t want to get “in the middle” but she doesn’t think a post is needed.  She feels theirs plenty of tooth left and a post is sometimes worse.  She said a post is “old school” when used for every situation.  She continued by saying that especially since I wasn’t getting crowns right away, I shouldn’t get the post.

What the @$ck?  I guess I need another opinion.  I’m so put out.

In better news, we had a dinner date scheduled (rescheduled from last week) with Deanna and her boyfriend, Joel.  Joel hurt himself during a workout so he wasn’t able to attend.  I think he was afraid I’d beat his ass in Air Hockey.

Deanna, Jim and I went to Dave & Buster’s.  It’s a Chuck-E-Cheese for adults and I guess kids too.   I looked over the menu online and Googled a lot to find the nutritional value of the foods.  Nada.

Above: My choice which I altered.  No BBQ sauce.  Green beans steamed rather than sautéed and nix the Mashed potatoes and had Citrus Rice (which was yummy!) instead.

Above: Probably still too much food but I still managed to stay within points.

After dinner, we wandered into the game room.  We got some Wednesday deal where the games are half price.  A lot of the games spew out tickets which can be redeemed for crap.  You swipe your game card which deducts credits and play.  Jim spun some crazy wheel where he had to try and stop it on the jackpot of 1,000 tickets.  He hit it!

Above: Look at all the tickets.  Each ticket is worth 2 but he still had to wait and fold all those tickets.

Above: Deanna tries too but not as successful as Jim.

Above/Below: Deanna tries “Deal or No Deal”.

 

Above: Deanna and I add our tickets to the bucket.  With approximately 1400 tickets it’s still slim-pickins at the redemption booth.  We decides to hold on to the points and add to them another day.

Above: Deanna tries another wheel game.

We’re all spent out on our cards.  What now?  Jim suggests ColdStone Ice Cream.  Sigh.  After careful consideration of the various menu choices (not much for low cal), I decided to skip it.

Above: That's right Jim, suck it in for the photo of you holding ColdStone.

  Above: That’s OK.  When I got home I had a 2 point “Weight Watchers GIANT Mint Fudge Cone”.

The food recap for the day:

Above: I do want to point out that I ended the day with 6.5 daily points remaining.  Even if I underestimated the food I ate at Dave & Buster’s I still had wiggle room.  Can anyone tell from the food photo (a few pages up) how large the portions were?  I think I nailed it though.  Using my palm for reference, the chicken breasts were about 3 oz each and I added a little extra padding.

Today we crossed into a new state and lost an hour.  Check it out by clicking here.

5-25-10 Tuesday (I Do Vs. I Can’t)

It was a screwed up day today.  Perhaps as these topics are mentioned again, I will expand on them further.  For now, I’m just not in the mood to blog about it so you get the short version:

I went to my regular dentist.  I thought it was just for polishing left over from the deep cleaning.  She poked, prodded, and scraped and then polished.  At the end I was nice and sore once again.  The receptionist said she’d submit to insurance.  For what?  $148.  Good luck with that. 

Day 2 of trying to get a hold of the DC Marriage Bureau was finally a success in a way.  They are booked up for a civil wedding 8 weeks in advance.  I, yes I, missed that on the website.  No wedding.  Thank you in advance for your suggestions, I have already researched who else can perform the service and it get’s costly.  Jim and I will wait.  We’ve been together 11 years, a certificate isn’t needed to confirm it.

Back when we bought our TV, we agreed we’d eventually like a PlayStation3.  One, for my love of video games and two, for the BluRay.  Jim has been saving up our Discover cash-back points to get Sears Gift Cards.  The PS3 is $300.  We had $275 in gift cards so we only paid the difference of $25 plus the tax!  We ordered it online (Sears didn’t seem to have it in a nearby store) for $8 shipping and like 2 days later, here it is.  I did a rough setup of it, just putting cables anywhere for now.  I can’t believe it only comes with 1 controller.  $$$.

Weight Watchers update:

Finishing off the food in the house, it’s a miracle I didn’t go over my points with my dinner.

We had a Thanksgiving-ish meal with our new camp friends.  After lunch we toured a couple of other RVs.  Dinner with some friends at a legendary and haunted hotel.  Check it out here.

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5-24-10 Monday (Calculations)

While in Asheville with Jim’s Aunt Patty (from Beaufort, SC), she asked me if I’d take a bag of clothes to some people in Charlotte.  It was just a plastic grocery bag of baby clothes.  As strange a request that I thought it was, I couldn’t resist Aunt P’s southern charm.  Today I set the address in the GPS and away I went.  It was about a half hour each way.  I drove mostly through cruddy areas but then entered South park, a nice area of Charlotte.  The trees canopied the road and it was then that I decided I was happy to live here.  Beautiful.  Sure we have our share of run down areas but doesn’t everyone?  I pulled up to the condo, knocked on the door and gave the guy the bag.  Aunt P most likely called ahead as I requested.  The guy seemed pretty ungrateful about it.  He wasn’t rude but he certainly didn’t act as I think he should have.

My next stop was to check out the Weight Watchers meeting location.  I spoke with Alix of Casa Hice earlier today and compared Weight Watchers notes.  I spoke of my desire for a calculator or slider chart.  She said if the location is a regular store front, I should be able to “drop-in” even while a meeting is in progress for supplies.  I stopped by but they were closed.  It’s funny that they’re actually in the same plaza as our gym. 

On the way to the gym tonight, I stopped by the Weight Watchers location.  I asked to buy the slide rule but she said they don’t sell them.  They are for meeting attendees.  I offered $5 anyways but she said they were part of a kit.  I bought the $12 electronic calculator instead.  The online photos had me thinking it was large.  In actuality, it’s palm size which isn’t bad.

OK time for Weight Watchers updates, lessons, etc.

First I want to tell you that I’m still working on eating food we had in the freezer which included pork chops that were purchased prior to this diet.  Each pork chop was sizeable at 11 oz which included some bone.  I was going to weigh the bone after and deduct it’s weight.  11 oz was going to be 12.5 points!  I’m happy to say that I left meat on the bone.  I was full.  I wanted to eat it.  It was really good.  It may have even whimpered.  I resisted.  I weighed what I didn’t eat.  Minus 4.6 oz.    My points went down and I was able to have dessert!  I ended the day with 1.5 points left over!  Yeah baby!

  Above: 4.6 oz!

Above: Even though Jim is not on Weight Watchers, he loves the dessert.

 

Above: Try salsa on chicken or brown rice.  We got the idea from Peggy and Brenda.  They used peach salsa but with so many kinds available, there’s lots to try.  Trust me, it makes plain brown rice edible.  4 tablespoons = .5 points.  Worth it.

  Above: This is the Nance’s I refer to a lot.  We use it on sandwiches and on fresh cooked broccoli.  Try it!  It’s hard to find though.  Out of 4 grocery stores here + Walmart, 1 carries it (Bloom). 

I wanted to mention a few things about what shows up on today’s food consumption. 

Above: That was an afternoon snack.  I figured, why not.  It sure hit the spot.

Above: Carrots?  .5 points?  Really?  After I finish the bag I probably won’t buy them anymore.  It’s pickles all the way!  or at least till I get tired of them.

Above: We tried a different machine out tonight.  A Cybex Arctrainer.  It was Elliptical-ish and felt like a nice workout.  Woo-hoo!

 

I tried calling the DC Marriage bureau today.  After following prompts to speak to someone it would just ring and ring.  I let it ring like 20 times or something before I hung up.  This happened 3 times today.  I guess I’ll try again tomorrow.  I have a few questions for them.  

I spoke with Mike of Mike & Dave today and there has been a change of plans.  We won’t be seeing them in Asheville after all but rather they’ll come here to Charlotte.  It works out cheaper (no RV charge) for us and cheaper for them (no hotel).  They will also spend more time with us rather than just 1 day in Asheville.  We now have the weekend free too.

We shared a couple of meals with new friends.  We toured an old historic hotel.  Check it out here.

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5-23-10 Sunday (Alternative Dating Sites)

It’s so exciting.  We have Asheville with Mike & Dave coming up.  Then Asheville with Grandma.  Then DC with Carl & Tim and Laurie & Pearl.  This morning I worked on a possible menu to host dinner in the RV 3 out of 4 nights.  We’ll most likely have lunch while we’re out and about.  The gang’s hotel will feed them a free breakfast buffet each morning. 

Naturally, with my anal-retentive nature I’ve made meal plans that are broken down into the ingredients that we’ll need to have on hand.  For example:

Anal, aren’t I?  But, it’s not just me.  Jim shares in the passion.  He’s using Excel to make an itinerary spreadsheet.  It’s including times, costs, notes, etc. 

I’d like to have a Weight Watchers calculator or little slider thing.  Their online store sells the calculator for $11.95 + $7.95 S&H.  My online software does it but I want something portable for grocery shopping.  My phone doesn’t offer an app either.

 

I’m going to stop by their meeting support group location when they’re “open for drop-in to buy products or such” but I have to wait until Thursday morning.  That’s their next drop-in date.  Ugh.

I made Jim and I smoothies.  He had some but wasn’t that fond of it.  I thought it was pretty good.

Apparently some time ago Jim signed up on Golden Corral’s website – probably for coupons or something.  Maybe it was for dating.  He got this email today:

 

I read the email out loud to him and could barely stop laughing.  The email provided a link to see the rest of the comments but Jim doesn’t remember his password so I had to request a password reset.

It took a while but after the password reset, here’s the rest of the email from Jim’s stalker.  I wonder if she’s got money…

So… how’d you meet?   -----------  The Golden Corral website.  Let’s eat!

I went to Walmart and picked up some low point foods and more pickles!   We were both a little hungry before dinner so we had some Morningstar Farms “chicken” nuggets.  Not bad, not bad. 

Dessert.  Yum.  I can’t believe how delicious this was:

Above: $1.88 for a 2 pack. 

There’s many desserts out there that are 1 point.  I’m sure they weren’t as yummy. 

Jim spent hours on the DC itinerary.  He researched, surfed, added, deleted, formatted and calculated.  He even figured out rentals vs. bus. vs. The Metro.  He calculated costs of using The Metro vs. driving. 

Above: 2 points over for today and deducted from the weekly.

What a lazy day…