6-1-10 Tuesday (The Wait or Weight)

Unfortunately Jim had to work so Mike, Dave and I did a little shopping.  Our first stop was to Ikea.  Mike & Dave had never been to one so this was a unique experience for them.  We were hungry so prior to any shopping, we ate at the on-site restaurant. 

Up next?  Concord Mills Mall.  We walked around, shopped a little.  Browsed.  We even snacked.  I had a child-size Gelato.  It was tasty.

We made it home to meet Jim and then all decided to have Mexican this evening.  Off to the 1900 Mexican Restaurant we went.  Jim and I have taken Jodi here previously.  In fact, we’ve figured out we’ve been there about 3 times.  Here’s what I ate:

 

This was amazingly tasty.  I was extremely happy with my choice. 

For dessert we went to Crave.  I’ve mentioned Crave several times.  We love the dessert and we love the atmosphere.  Jim and I split a peach cobbler while Mike and Dave split a banana fosters cheesecake.  We all enjoyed our desserts but the wait time was horrible.  It took so long – almost an hour – from the time we ordered till the time we got the desserts.  We were told our cobbler takes a long time to bake.  Well, you know what, warn us.  Besides the last time we were there, Jodi got an apple pie dessert and it didn’t take that long.  Poor Jim, we were ready to just settle up on drinks and walk out because it had gotten late.  Jim didn’t get to bed until late.

Here’s a slide show:

 

Here’s how I did for the day:  On the Gelato, I calculated as best I could.  I tried to use the companies information combined with what I could find on the internet.  I found the Ikea Buffalo Wrap on a website which didn’t belong to Ikea so I hope it was right.  Once again, another company with no nutritional values.  That cobbler dessert I had was amazingly high in points.  I should have expected that and maybe only had a quarter of it or none at all.  It’s not a real big deal though.  I only went over a half a point for the day.  I think that’s pretty damned good.

 

 

A fire at that Fire Dept?  Lunch in an empty town.  Cave exploration – breathtaking.  We wait for and watch bats.  This was a great post.  Check it out here.

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5-31-10 Monday (Baby Pineapples)

For lunch, Jim suggested Ryan’s Buffet.  Their website has a fantastic nutritional chart enabling me to calculate points prior to arrival.

Kudos to them for publishing all this info.  There’s no many places that don’t.  Too many really.  Anyway, I blew a lot of points here.  I primarily ate rotisserie chicken (removed the skin) and salad.  We’ll you’ll see what I ate below.

Prior to eating we dropped off the BMW next door to a brand new Firestone place to have the tires rotated.  It was ready by the time we finished lunch.  The tire rotation cost $20.  As Jim is paying he spots a sign about a $15 tire rotation special.  Jim brings it to the advisor’s attention.  The special is a free 50-something point inspection with tire rotation.  He was sorry that he didn’t offer that on write up.  Jim asked for the price.  He couldn’t do it without the inspection but we can certainly wait while they bring it back into the shop.  VERY annoying.  We didn’t wait; we paid the price.  Normally I would have asked for the manager or something.  I’m not sure why I didn’t.  I guess I wasn’t feeling the bitch-vibe.  I should have especially because on the way home, the TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) light came on in red.  We were pretty close to home.  The tire pressures were all about 5-8 pounds over inflated.  I was pissed because Jim specifically reminded them to make sure the pressures were right.  I just adjusted them myself and life went on.

For the remainder of the day we shopped at BJ’s.  Eventually I went to Walmart while Jim napped.  We then both went to Concord Mills Mall in search of a new pillow for Jim and then on to Anna’s Linens on the same mission. 

Mike and Dave called us when they were about 30 minutes away.  We got home 1 minute before they arrived! 

Above: Mike (L) and Dave (R).  Sugar, 1 of 2 of their children.

  Above: Mike caudles a pineapple pillow.

I have no other photos.  Totally forgot.  Once they were settled in we went to dinner at Cheddar’s.    Jim had chicken fingers, Mike had the Monte Cristo, Dave had the sirloin, and I had the Tilapia.

This was delish.  I’m not a big fish-eater other than tuna fish, shrimp and beer battered fish.  I’m proud of myself for ordering this however, I’m not sure if it was “grilled” with butter.  I MUST get into the habit of asking for no butter and such.  I did get the sauce on the side this time.  For my side dishes, I had double broccoli. 

 

 

I dipped into my weekly points a little.  I must stay away from buffets.  I must.  I must.  Here’s hoping I get on track tomorrow.

Highlights from last year: An icky buffet breakfast. A lot of photo fun at a museum. We visit Smokey Bear.   Check it out here.

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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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