Sabatoge...tasty tasty Sabatoge

As you might remember, I've been on Phase I of the South Beach Diet since August 13th. It's the strict phase where the list of things you can't eat far exceed the list of things you can. It's also the phase where you lose the most weight, the icky stuff around the middle, in the shortest amount of time. You're really only supposed to do Phase I for 2 weeks, but I stayed on a little longer to make supper time easier on my family since my husband started 4 days after I did. It really did go much better than I ever imagined, and my cravings for all the carb loaded things I love to eat quickly went away. Not to say I didn't want to have a big old slice of pizza, I just knew I couldn't. Believe me, there will never ever be a time when I have a beyond belief craving for lettuce with vinegar and oil.

We decided to take the long holiday weekend off from the diet, starting today. We've got parties, cookouts and all other sorts of things going on and the ability to find things on our Phase I "list" at potluck events are pretty limited. Besides that, my husband wants to drink - which is another thing you can't do in Phase I.

So, suffice it to say, I have fallen hard off the wagon I was doing so well staying on. I'm certain that, with what I've eaten already today, I have undone in my 6 1/2 waking hours today everything I accomplished over the course of the last 17 days. I figure I should be in a food consumption coma in, oh roughly, 4 hours. At least I'm going out with a tummy full of ooey gooey cheesy greasy sugary yumminess and a smile on my face. Nothing I've eaten today remotely resembles a vegetable or leafy green - hell, nothing I've eaten hasn't been loaded with carbs or sugar! (8 grain bagel with butter, large french vanilla latte, slice of cheese and sausage pizza, triple chocolate pudding cup)

I lost 8 pounds in that 17 days and I'm now (or at least I was yesterday) within 2 pounds of my pre-baby weight. You know, the baby that is going to be 7 years old in December, yeah, that's the one.

I know, I know. 8 pounds - big deal. It is though. The only difference I can really tell is that all my pants/bottoms fit looser, much looser, to the point where I have to make sure my shirt is long enough to cover my underwear from showing. I don't think I look any different than I did with those 8 pounds.

To me it's an emotional thing, my weight. I've always been thin. Mostly, anyway. The day I moved into college I weighed 105 pounds. And I'm 5'7". By the time I came home for Christmas break that year I had gained 30 pounds. When I came home at the end of the school year I weighed 185!!! I gained 80 pounds! The freshman 15 and the transfer 20 plus plus plus! It was horrible. I was miserable.

Since then, and that was quite a few years ago (1992), I've been very aware of my weight. I make it a point to be within 5 pounds of what the weight on my drivers license says. Because, let's be serious, I wasn't fooling anyone way back then into believing for one second that I was anywhere near 105 pounds!

So, here I am now. 35 years old. 131 pounds. And ok with it. Not to say I'd be more ok with being 125 pounds, that's my goal after all, but still ok. And I'm going back on Phase I on September 10.

Addictions

I admit it. I'm addicted. To many things actually, however none of them are illegal in nature.

I know.....how fun is that?!?

As I was indulging in one of my addictions over my lunch hour today the thoughts of my addictions were swirling through my head. Some of them are things I should certainly be thinking twice about, but others are just run of the mill. So, I've decided to come up with a list of sorts, of some of the things I'm addicted to. Here goes:

1. Single Latte Skim French Vanilla
2. Diet Pepsi
3. Orbit Sweet Mint gum
4. Sugar Free Cool Whip
5. Taco Pizza
6. Bagels with cream cheese (schmeer me up!!)
7. Tanning
8. Exercise
9. My daughter
10. Email

I guess that's my top 10. None of them will kill me (I don't think so anyway) but I know damn well that the tanning is the worst from the list for me. It's just so relaxing to lay there in the warmth. Ahhhhh.

Yeah yeah, so it's a fake bake and I'm exposing myself unnecessarily to ultra violet light. I've heard it all before, a million times I'm sure, and my response is always the same. I'm gonna die anyway, may as well die with a tan and a smile.

I think I have a new addiction that I'm working on. The South Beach Diet - Stage 1. Loving it. It isn't as hard as I thought it would be to avoid all the things I typically turn to the most - carbs, starch, sugar. The only thing I really miss is pizza right now. And maybe the booze. But when my 2 weeks are over I can start to gradually add those things back in.

Here's the thing. I'm getting apprehensive about adding them back in. I've already lost 5 pounds in less than 1 week just by eliminating all those things. So I keep wondering to myself if, when I add them back in, the weight isn't going to just come back. I mean, makes sense, right?

So, if there are any South Beachers in the 3 people who do happen to read my blog - let me know how you did it.

Oh by the way - my husband was very quick to poo-poo the whole thing working until he decided to give it a try to make dinner a little easier on me. And he's lost almost 9 pounds since Thursday.

Oh, gee. I guess the dumb bitch knows what she's talking about sometimes after all.

Finished

The exterior segment of our "construction" phase, that is.

I didn't think it was going to be possible for them to get it all done by the end of this week - I guess that explains why I don't have a job in any sort of construction field. I haven't got a clue.

I'm amazed by the difference new siding has made. I mean, I knew it would look a little different, but it's much more than I had imagined. I mean, we had white siding on the house already and replaced it with white siding. (8" aluminum replaced with 4" vinyl) We had Forest green shutters on the windows on the front and side of the house and just repainted them. I think it's the combination of all the new - roof, soffits, fascia, downspouts, overhead garage door, siding - that has made the impact.

It's almost as if our house wasn't built in 1958....oh wait, back to reality, it was and we were "gently" reminded of that by our contractor when my husband asked about something. He told us there wasn't much of anything that was done when the house was built that would meet building requirements now. Great news! I'll make sure that bit of information doesn't get passed along to any realtors in the future!

I'm buying paint tonight and plan to get started on painting the kitchen. I decided against ripping the tile off. Too much work and too big of a mess - maybe if we ever gut the kitchen it'll go. As if that's going to happen.

Construction Update

No new pictures to post, although the guys have been working really hard the past week and a half my house still looks, for the most part, the same as it did immediately after they tore all the old siding off.

Sure, they've wrapped all the windows with new vinyl or something, installed two gable vents on either end of the house, and today should be working on cutting a hole in the side of my house for the new dryer vent, but still not much new siding has been applied. (They did get one section done yesterday, but it's only about 8 feet wide)

The last I spoke with our main contractor, he intended to be done tomorrow. If that's the case, those 3 need to shift it into overdrive because there is still quit a bit to do.

I have picked the paint color for the kitchen walls and I think I'm going to go ahead and buy it this weekend and get started. I'm thinking about trying to pop off the lovely peachy tiles that make up the back splash, but that might be beyond my ability or make one hell of a mess - I'm leaning more towards the latter of the two. We'll see, maybe when the paint goes up (River Road) it'll tone that down some. Time will tell!

School starts next Friday. THANK GOD!!!!! We just got the letter in the mail yesterday and found out who she has as her teacher. I think it'll be ok. I hope it'll be ok. Last year, for kindergarten, I sent a request for a specific teacher - who we did get - but figured we'd take our chances with 1st grade. Now we've started to hear some horror stories about two particular 1st grade teachers, and - wouldn't you know it - one is the teacher she now has. I just hope that if we DO have problems the school can/will adjust accordingly.

That's about it. Not much else happening here in this one horse town.

Under Construction

At my house, that is. And it's a fricking mess.

Tuesday was the first day on the job and we had two exterior doors replaced with nice new insulated steel doors, one in the kitchen that leads to the back yard and one in the garage that leads to the back yard. I don't really care about the mess that was created in the garage, but the mess that was made in the kitchen was beyond words. Saw dust and chunks of plaster EVERYWHERE.


I had been wanting to repaint, seeing how the kitchen still has white walls. When we first moved into the house, 10 years ago, the white paint on every fricking wall was kind of nice. Neutral. Goes with anything. Now it feels institutional. So, I've gradually been painting the rooms, one by one, and giving our lives some color. Since the trim, that isn't there yet but soon will be, around the new door will need to be painted it seems like this is the perfect opportunity for me to take advantage of the lemons I've been given and make lemonade. Now if I could only decide on a color.


This is now what 85% of my house looks like. Lovely isn't it? I always wanted a house that said TYPAR all over it.
5% of the house says something about some old lumber yard that was around when the house was built a bijillion years ago. (See below) and the other 10% is the front that is covered in limestone. We thought about replacing that with siding....but then quickly dismissed that when measuring the depth of the mortar. THAT project would be a marriage breaker.


This is what USED to be on the house - aluminium siding. That old stuff has certainly seen better days and after this weekend it will no longer be a heap of crap in our back yard but will instead be cold hard cash in our pockets. That's right folks, scrap metal gets big bucks. We're expecting about $400 for that heap of crap. It won't really be money in our pockets, not for long anyway, we've got to pay the guys when the project is all done next week and that will help fill the gaps where the insurance money isn't anymore.

This is the one that has the old lumberyard stuff on it. And oh, the new garage entry door. The new kitchen entry door is in the second photo.

If you look at the first picture at the pile of old siding it kind of reminds me of the garage heap from Fragile Rock. Yeah, I remember Fragile Rock. I still sing the catching little theme song from time to time.

So, that 's about all that's new for us right now. I'm looking forward to the way the house will look when all the work is DONE. It might, almost, look like a house that wasn't built in 1958. And, thankfully, I think we're done with all the major major projects that needed to be done. We've done the roof (twice), the windows, now the siding and 2 new doors (still need to replace the front door that isn't insulated). Now all we have left is new flooring in the kitchen, replacing the bathroom vanity and mirror, and new flooring in the kitchen.

You know what, by the time we get all that done it'll probably be time to move.

Hell on Wheels

Friday night was marked with a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants trip to the Nissan dealership 25 miles away. While we were in the Hubby's truck on the way over he was planning his defense and come-backs to the "ignorant service manager who was trying to screw us" on the deal with the car.

When the tow truck got my car to the dealership they started running all their diagnostic tests and everything came out fine. They could find absolutely no reason what so ever that the car should have been towed there, or that the tow should be at no charge to us....namely $130.

When we got there we had the old battery we had traded in for a new one at AutoZone, since that was the only last bit of a shimmer of hope we had, that it would fail when tests.

So, the guy takes the old battery and runs tests. Thank god, it failed miserably. Which, by the way, validates the tow (and the $130 tow bill) and the replacement of the battery with a brand spankin new Nissan battery ($100) as warranty work.

About 40 minutes later we were driving off and heading back home and the hubby was in a much better mood. We really really didn't need to have a huge mechanics bill to pay in addition to all the money that's going to be flowing out of our bank account this week for the new siding on the house - finally. I'm telling you, if he hadn't made the arrangements to get the siding done this week (it was supposed to be done last year) the money would be gone.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. Baby Girl and I went shopping for school clothes yesterday with his mom and my daughter made out pretty well. Tomorrow she's going with my mom to do the same. My guess is that I won't have to buy much of anything.

We still don't know who her 1st grade teacher will be, and we haven't been able to buy school supplies because the list isn't at Wal-Mart. School starts in 2 weeks and I typically like to be a little more organized than this so it's driving me nuts!

Grounded

I can't think of anything more depressing for a Friday morning than to watch your car being towed away. And that's what I just did. So not a good thing to be doing at 9:15 a.m. Kind of puts a bad spin on what should be a good day.

So, we're a 2 vehicle family now down to 1. Which doesn't work real well in the grand scheme of things. Logistically, it's a nightmare. So far we're managing, but we've only been without my car since roughly 5pm last night.

Last night I walked out of my office to go home and got into my car just like every other Monday though Friday. Except when I turned the key in the ignition nothing happened. I called my husband and he came up with jumper cables and was able to get it started and get me home. After supper he went out to tinker on it and it wouldn't start again. He went to AutoZone and bought a new battery, still no luck. He finally jumped it again and took the whole car to AutoZone so they could put it on their diagnostic thing-y and they believe our problem is the alternator.

The good part about all of this, if there is such a thing, is that my car is still under full factory warranty. So, I'm sure this will cost a small fortune - what with the towing to the dealership at no less than 25 miles one way - but thankfully the wonderful people at Nissan will be footing this bill.

I don't know yet if they're going to have it fixed today or if we'll be without my wheels through the weekend, the dealership is going to call me when they get the car there and have a chance to check it out. If we are going to be without for the weekend I've already made a phone call to my parents, who are out of the state at the present time, to see if we can borrow a car since they have 4, and I get the Corvette. SCHWEEEEET!!!!

1999 Red Corvette convertible. I've borrowed it many times, not much of a grocery getter but pretty fun to drive around town in. I haven't had it sideways yet.....but never say never!

Culture Shock

Yesterday afternoon I attended the wake for my cousins husbands mother. His mom is Hispanic, born and raised in the states, and his dad came to the states from Puerto Rico when he was 19. All their kids were born and raised in the States.

I've never been to a wake/visitation or funeral services for anyone from any other cultural background than mine so this was an experience.

The wake was from 1-8pm yesterday and again this morning from 8:30-10am until the funeral service begins. There were several rosary sessions scheduled as well.
I went with my aunt and cousin and we got there right around 3pm. At 4pm they started the first rosary session - it went on for nearly 45 minutes. (I'm not Catholic either, so none of that really made any sense to me) We left just after 5pm to head back home.

Now, I'm putting it right out there that I have no idea what is or is not "normal" for Hispanic catholic funerals. So, I don't know if this one falls within the "norm" or if the things I witnessed were just typical of this particular family. And by no means am I stereotyping or drawing conclusions - I just honestly don't know about these things.

There was a point in time when we were there that I almost felt as if I was in an episode of one of those TV evangelists with the whole smacking on the forehead falling backward releasing of the demons things. There was a lot of hysterical fainting, lots of sobbing wails and over the top crying.

This passing was unexpected, she was only 60, but had been diagnosed with late stage cancer last fall. So, I guess it was a matter of time, but I don't think anybody was prepared for this.

I don't know. If anybody out there has some insight on this to share with me I would certainly appreciate it. There was a lot of this that I, in all my German heritage Caucasian-ness, just didn't understand....and some of it may make more sense if explained. (Like the death shroud)