6-4-10 Friday (Loving Left Overs)

Today me and Grandma will be hangin’ out. Tomorrow Grandma, Jim and I will be going to Asheville for the weekend. We’ll stay in the RV and Grandma will check into the same hotel that Ann, Morgan, Patty and Tonia stayed in a couple of weeks ago. The plan thus far is to tour the Biltmore Gardens on Saturday and then the house on Sunday.

Grandma and I went to the car wash to get her mini van spruced up. With a nice clean vehicle at hand we stopped at Walmart for some supplies.

Once Jim got home from work we started packing for our Asheville trip. Some clothes, and such, it didn’t take us long at all.

While at the store I bought these delicious Wheat Thins Garlic & Parsley Flat Breads. A point per 2, 2.5 for 4 of them. I ate 4 with cream cheese and damn they were good.

Dinner. Chicken sausage. There’s so many flavors out there to choose from and I urge you to try them. Delicious. One of the popular brands is called Aidell’s. Mine were not Aidell’s but were tasty. All the brands are listed on my tracker.

We bought a sugar free strawberry angel food cake and some fat free whipped cream. Grandma cut up a bunch of strawberries, then sweetened them with Splenda® . They accompanied the cake and whipped cream perfectly. Delicious and only 2 points!

At lunch time I loaded up my foods into the point tracker. With dessert and all, I was going to have 8 points left. After dinner I tweaked what I really ate and gained another 2 points! I ended the day with 10 daily points left over. Not the intention.

Maybe it was that I was hungry again. Maybe it was knowing I had so many points left. Whatever the reason, I ate more cream cheese and crackers. I’ve tracked it, I just didn’t change the screen photo above. New points left over are 6.5.

Some photos:

Above: Dasher didn’t know what to do with the cat being in his bed.

Below: I helped him.

I took a bunch of pictures while Dasher was snacking:

Still enjoying Roswell, we went to a museum and then to a zoo. The zoo was great. Again, this post has a lot of fun photos. Click here.

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6-3-10 Thursday (A 5 Star Entry)

Let’s get the hurray’s out of the way, shall we?  Check out these screen shots:

 

That’s right – Thursdays are weigh-in days.  6.6 pounds off so far!  I’m proud.  Please send a cyber-pat-on-the-back. 

While Mike and Dave were in the midst of departure procedures, Jim’s Grandma called that she’d be here in town in 5 hours.  That put her arrival at about 3 pm.   The guys departed at 1, and I did a 2 hour cyclone of laundry, linen changing, general cleaning, a shower and a shave for Grandma’s arrival.  Phew! 

Above: Dasher enjoyed the canine company.

Above: Mike

Above: Sugar.

Above: Little Bit.

Grandma arrived, we chit-chatted and eventually Jim came home.  Off to dinner at TGI Fridays.  I had the Jack Daniels chicken, sans the Jack Daniels.  For my 2 sides I chose double broccoli.  Yum.  I ended the day with 7.5 points left over!  I don’t know how that happened.

Above: Betty Ann (Grandma)

 

Here’s my Weight Watchers recap for the day:

 

Today we arrived in Roswell, NM.  Check out our foil hat fashion show here.  Read about our alien encounter!  This post is full of FUN photos.

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6-2-10 Wednesday (Green With Envy?)

We had a relaxing day today.  We grabbed some dinner supplies from Walmart and BJs (steaks). 

Although we look green, it’s only the effect of the sunlight through the green umbrella at the patio of Showmar’s where we had lunch.  I’ve mentioned Showmar’s in previous posts.  Mike enjoyed his gyro, Dave liked the fried shrimp platter and I thought my grilled chicken pita was tasty.

Just as we finished lunch, the sky dumped 926,236 gallons of water.  We had to run for the door to get back inside the restaurant.  Here, we waited it out.

It was quick.  We were able to get underway.  After all, we had a lot of nothing to do today.

We drove around Myers Park which is an upscale community.  It’s filled with old beautiful homes.  It’s surprising at how many even had gas lamps.  I didn’t take photos; Mike did.  Jim and I have been through this neighborhood several times previously. 

Later when Jim was home I created a lovely dinner, if I do say so myself.  For an appetizer, homemade guacamole.  Dinner of NY strip steaks on the grill, baked potatoes, and baked Gruyere onions.  Mmmm mmmmm.

We played Phase 10:

We didn’t finish the game because Jim needed to get to bed but I was deemed the winner.   That’s how I roll.

OK here’s my Weight Watcher’s daily and weekly.  Tomorrow starts a new week for me.

I used 6.5 points of my weekly.  Damn, that steak was “expensive”.  I used 10 weekly points all together.  Here’s the weekly summary:

Mike and Dave leave tomorrow (sad).  Jim’s grandmother, Betty Ann, arrives tomorrow (happy).

We explored more of the caves and we have plenty of photos to prove it.  Click here to see last year.

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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