Thanks Curt!

Curt sent me these beautiful daisies today to congratulate me on making my goal weight. I now weigh what I did when I first met Curt almost 8 years ago.

Grocery shopping

After the gym last night I went to the grocery to get, well, groceries. It was weird, but I actually enjoyed myself. Grocery shopping is one of my least favorite tasks. But I enjoyed getting all this healthy stuff: yummy fruit and veggies and figuring out how I will prepare it. I also found these awesome WW (Smart Ones) sundae things. I found a cookie dough one and it was awesome.

Congrats to Angela and Michael!

Angela (and Michael) is/are expecting at the end of November. They will soon find out if the munchkin is a boy or girl. I can't wait to meet this little person. I still can't believe Angela is gonna be a mom. It is so cool and weird! I get to be an aunt again! Woo-hoo! I LOVE being the cool aunt.

Angela, you need to add this doggie to your growing family. That dog cracks me out--as Baby Faith says!

The pics of Angela and Michael are from when they were out here visiting in February.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!!

Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.

So I made my WW goal today and then some. To reach my goal weight of 125 I had to lose 1.2 pounds. I lost 1.8 pounds for a total loss of 30.2 pounds. (And I was out of town this weekend eating out and drinking and I was still able to stay within my points.)

So, all of you haters and pushers can step off! :)

For some reason my little turtle has bumped my profile and menus down to way down there. He has never done that before. Maybe he was so excited that I went past goal.






Dinner

Dan came over to our hood last night for dinner. We hit Rustica. I have to say their Spaghetti Pomodoro is awesome. And I was good and only had about half my pasta--even tho. I coulda ate the whole thing!
After dinner we hit McNally's for a drink.
We had a good time, some laughs and fun.
Have a safe trip home Dan.

Back in time

Cousins Ann and Jackie. (I believe in December 1997.)

My cousin Jackie is almost 17 years old. She is an amazing person. Curt and I are planning for her to come out NEXT summer to visit us.
She sent me an e-mail today with some pics from the Mother's Day party my mom had. She also included this pic of her and me. I think it was taken at my college graduation party that my mom threw. (My mom loves throwing parties.)
Isn't it sweet?
Thanks Jackie!

Good Lord (quote from Curt over IM)

Gail sent me a link with a picture of this dog. I am sitting in my work cube cracking up so much that I am crying. And I am trying to be quiet, which just makes it worse.

The Good Shepherd not so good

Curt and I watched this movie last night. And we didn't think it was really all that good. It was way too long. If you are gonna make a movie that is almost 3 hours it better keep my attention. The movie went back and forth between when Edward was in school to 1961. That was a little confusing. Curt and I agreed that they didn't do a very good job of making Matt Damon look older--but they did with Angelina Jolie. Matt Damon is a superb actor and I thought he did a great job in this movie. It was a very slow and kinda confusing movie.

Bingo

Oh, I forgot to mention Bingo. He belongs to Don and Kristin in Portland. He is this great yellow lab. He was so sweet and quite hairy. He would come up to you and lean on you and then sit on your feet. He was super friendly and loving.
Whenever Curt and I are finally ready to have the committment of a dog we will likely get a lab. We still want a greyhound, too. They are both very sweet animals.

Happy Memorial Day!

Well, we are home (already) from Oregon.
We had a great visit and stayed with Don and Kristin and their kids, Annie and Chase (minus Don who was on a business trip) for the weekend.
We arrived Saturday afternoon and arrived at our wonderful hosts' home Saturday evening. Kristin prepared a wonderful meal. And we had delicious champagne to celebrate our arrival.
Sunday was Annie's 7th birthday and party at the Portland Zoo. We had lunch, cake and presents in a picnic area. Unfortunately it was a tad chilly. But we survived. Afterward we went to visit the animals.
After the zoo Curt and I went to his old hood and walked around and had some coffee and tea. Then back to the house for a little nap.
We dropped the kids off at their aunt's and uncle's and us 3 adults headed to Montage to meet Aaron, Stephanie and Jim for dinner. We got there and met them in the lounge for a drink while we waited for a table. The guys had oyster shooters. The girls did not take part in that grossness. We all had a great dinner. I had my wonderful and delicious Spicy Mac. Your leftover are put into aluminium foil--in some fancy thing. 5 of us took food home in a giraffe, scorpion, mouse, squirrel and swan. Afterward we hit a couple of places for drinks, first Muu-Muus (they have the best wasabi mashed potatoes--tho. I didn't have any) and then Gypsy.
We had a great night, lots of laughs and good conversation. It was great to see some of my Salem buddies!
This morning we headed to Powell's before we went to the airport. Browsed some books, met Curt in the coffee shop for coffee and tea. It was a nice little visit to Powell's. When Curt lived in Portland we spent many afternoons at Powell's enjoying coffee or tea while eating something yummy and reading a magazine or book. I miss those trips to Powell's that I took for granted. For those of you unfamiliar with Powell's, it is an entire city block. Truly amazing. They have new and used books. You can also buy stuff online.
Thanks again to our wonderful hosts, Don and Kristin (sans Don)! We will be back!

Friday night we had dinner with Jay. Talk about a lot of laughs. Jay had me totally cracking up. We had sushi for dinner and then hit McNally's for a drink and then back to our place to show off our honkin' HD TV while watching an episode of Planet Earth. Then Curt took Jay back to his hotel--he had an early flight out the next day. It was great to see you Jay! And it was great swapping stories.

Next up ... dinner with Dan and then Jodie.

Pics from our weekend, go here.

Curt (& Joey) working from home

******UPDATED to add link of pics of Joey's bed******

Yesterday Curt worked from home. There is moving going on at work. Curt now has an office at work. Fancy, eh?

Well, when I came home from work yesterday evening Curt told me that he took pics of Joey. So now we know what Joey does all day:

And remember, Curt took these "cute" pictures of Joey! Not me.

OK, here are some pics I took of Joey's bed and Joey right after the masterpiece was complete. That thing took me forever to make. It's a good thing he loves it.

When it rains it pours

Talk about lots of visitors. So this week my old Salem buddy Jay is in Berkeley for some training. Curt and I are meeting him for dinner tonight. We will probably bring him back to our hood and have some yummy dinner. Jay's only request was no Mexican food. No problem. I don't know of many Mexican restaurants around here.

While Curt and I are in Oregon our Salem buddy Dan is going to be in the Bay Area. Great timing, eh? But Dan is gonna hang out for a few days, so we will see him when we get back home. So Tuesday night Dan is gonna come to our hood, see our "new" place and have some good eats.

On Wednesday my buddy Jodie from the Republic is coming for a visit. Curt and I will meet up with her Friday in the city for some good eats.

Then the second weekend in June my high school friend Ilysha and her husband, Eric, will be in the area. Eric is a magician and is "working" a dinner theater in Martinez, which is about 25 miles from us. I haven't seen Ilysha since our 10-year high school reunion, which was in 2002. I can't wait to see her, meet Eric and see his comedy and magic rolled into one. Should be a fun night!

Then the third weekend in June Curt's dad, Ed, is coming to town. He is coming out to see the Cards play the A's. Should be a fun weekend. Also my dad and Hilda will be here for part of the weekend, too. So we will be with both of our dads on Father's Day. Pretty cool!

Whew! I think that is it for a little while. Lots of visiting going on (Erica and Casey were just here over the weekend.)

Freeway back to normal

So the 580 freeway connector is now open. The guy said he could have it fixed in 25 days and it sounds like he did it before that. You can read the story if you really want right here. When Erica and Casey were here we drove by it and we were going to point out the honkin' gap that I had seen a day or two before. Nope, it was no longer there. They got that done quickly. Good for them.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

That is, if you actually get a 3-day weekend. Anyway, we are off to Portland for a couple of days. I am so excited to be there and see friends and eat my Spicy Mac at Montage.

Tea party pics and lazy weekend pics

Pictures as promised. Yes, these are from over the weekend. I have been a little busy and a little lazy. Anyway, here you go:

Tea party to Celebrate Mia's birthday. Click here. Lazy weekend pics click here.

28.4 pounds

Go little turtle, go! At WI in today I was down 4.4 pounds (which we knew the drop would be drastic from last week of having "gained" weight), for a total loss of 28.4 pounds!!!!!! I have 1.2 pounds to go to hit goal.
This weekend will be a challenge since we will be out of town and staying with friends. I will do my best--that is all I can do.

I have been getting a ton of compliments lately on my weight loss. Last week my boss told me I was getting skinny. His boss told me how great I look. Someone else told me I have been looking really cute (all those cute new little clothes). I have just been getting a ton of compliments. It makes me feel really good. Today my particular cute outfit has created many compliments. Someone even said people were talking, Hey, did you see Ann's cute outfit!
Then there are the haters: I have been told "I hate you." And I already went through the crap from yesterday. But it happened (not quite as extreme) today at cake and ice cream. (Goodbye for Alicia. We also had Hawaiian food for a goodbye to her at lunch--I brought my own food.) People had to make a point that I wasn't having any cake and ice cream. To me it wasn't worth the points. I don't like cake that much and I am not a cookies and cream ice cream fan. If it was other ice cream I probably woulda eaten it.
Here is what I have to say to the haters:
The pain of passing up food is temporary. The rewards of weight loss are forever.
--Anonymous

Squeaky little ...

Joey looking out our front door.

So, all weekend Curt and I kept telling Erica and Casey about this squeak Joey has developed in his mature years. Not once did he squeak! What happened last night? The day Erica and Casey left? A squeak. And Curt said Joey squeaked before I got home from work, too. And this morning when we were getting ready for work he let out a honkin' squeak.

Yum to eating healthy!!!

Went to P.F. Chang's today. Everyone wanted to do family style. I told them that was fine, but I wouldn't be participating and I wouldn't be sharing. (Not that anyone wanted any of my steamed veggies, but still.)
Of course, I was given a hard time that I am already skinny enough and we don't want your steamed veggies and you and your points. Two friends did say nice things--Mia mentioned that I have done really well and am so close to my goal. Graciela mentioned to everyone how I had already figured my food out (which I had).
I know the comments are a reflection on the one making them and not me. And I realize a lot of it is jealously. But it isn't like I haven't worked hard for my weight loss.
And this isn't just about weight loss. It is also about making healthier choices and eating healthy. If they only knew how much fat and calories they were consuming--and I am not judging.
Because believe me I wanted the calamari, fried crab wontons and other delicious stuff. But I didn't stray--and it was tough! I didn't snack on any appetizers and I just waited for my veggies and brown rice.
I was satisfied--ate all of my veggies and I felt good afterward. And I was proud of myself for having the will power to stay away from the yummy, fatty, salty food!

Desperate Housewives--spoiler

(Probably isn't so much of a spoiler since it was on Sunday night. But there are some shows I am still catching up on. Like Brothers and Sisters. I am behind a few episodes. So keep quiet!) Oh my gawd! I watched the season finale last night. OK, so Victor is a jerk. He was a jerk when he was on Sex and the City. And I knew Bree wasn't actually pregnant. Duh! When they "revealed" that she wasn't actually pregnant it was well, OK. Was I supposed to be shocked? (Kinda like when George Michael came out. Tho. to my disbelief people still were shocked.) But I do have to say the very end was shocking. Edie--holy cow! They do kill people on that show left and right so she coulda really hung herself. We will have to wait for the new season to find out if she really did it. I was sad that Lynette didn't tell her girlfriends that she is sick. Maybe she didn't want to ruin Gaby's happy event.

Eye opening

Tomorrow the admins are taking out my friend Alicia (who is in Accounts Payable) out for lunch to wish her good luck. We all work very closely with her and are sad that she is leaving.
Anyway, we are going to P.F. Chang's. I decided to look at the menu today to get an idea of what I can order. Luckily they also include nutritional information, which was rather scary. Most things are so bad I can't believe it. I will be ordering the steamed veggie plate with a little brown rice.

Erica and Casey in town & tea time

Erica and Casey arrived Friday night. We picked them up at the Rockridge BART station. We headed to dinner afterward at Trattoria la Siciliana. We had a reservation for 7:30. We arrived and they didn't seem to have our reservation, but put us down for 4 for 7:30. We got in about 7:40. (The place is pretty small--so getting a table on a Friday night is tough.) We had this amazing crab for appetizer (which we always get). We all had really yummy pastas. Erica and Casey really liked the place.
Saturday Erica, Casey and Curt headed into the city. I went a little later. I had a tea party to attend from 1-3 for my friend Mia's birthday. I met up with them afterward. There were 9 of us total at Lovejoy's Tea Room. It was a lot of fun. Lots of girl talking, yummy teas, great finger sandwiches, fruit and sweets. (I steered clear of the sweets.) We did get to choose a Petit Four. My little mocha cake was yummy. (I did take some pics--will post those soon.) There was also a Tarot card reader. I decided not to do it. Most people came back to the table a little freaked out. There were things I just didn't need to know.
Afterward I met up with Erica, Casey and Curt and we headed to Haight Ashbury area. Hung out at Golden Gate Park. If you want to see diversity go there. We watched cute little girls in light pink and hot pink soccer uniforms playing. That was a riot. We watched hippies play music and dance. We just enjoyed being outside. Then we headed to Kezar for dinner. (When we got home we had a message from Siciliana confirming our reservation for THAT night at 7:30. Ding-dongs!)
Saturday night Curt and Casey went to the Oaks Card Club to play poker (Casey) and drink beer (Curt). Erica and I opted to stay home and knit and watch Grey's and ER. I had already watched Grey's--but I was willing to watch it again. And ER had some shockers.
Sunday Erica, Casey and I met Katie, Mary Flo and their 2 young'uns for brunch at Crepevine. We did a little walking around our neighborhood and found a yard sale with some great finds! (I didn't buy anything.)
Then the 3 of us went back to our place and we got Curt and we headed to Bay Street. Erica and I went to H&M and the guys sat outside and drank coffee. I bought more stuff at H&M. I need to slow down the shopping for a little bit. I do still need a few pairs of new jeans and a jean skirt. But I have gotten a good amount of pants to replenish my "old" and "big" clothes.
Casey and Erica headed to a family dinner. They are here for Casey's niece's UC Berkeley graduation. Curt and I did laundry, had dinner, hung out.
They are definately saving the best for last on Sopranos. Another excellent and emotional episode. I won't give anything away.
So today I noticed that Blogger now has an autosave--that is so great!
Pics of the weekend coming soon ...............

Disappointment

So after "gaining" 2 bogus pounds ...
Curt and I went to an A's/Royals game last night with some friends. I had saved up enough points for a cheeseburger and I was really looking forward to it. I couldn't find a concession stand selling one! I walked all over the place and no luck. (And I have had a burger there before.) I didn't want a hot dog or nachos or a pulled pork sandwich. I wanted a burger! So I settled for a hot pastrami sandwich. It was good--but I was still bummed. Plus the sandwich wasn't something I had planned for. But I was fine--I was still within my points.
But I still had fun. We went with some old and new friends. The Royals won. It was chilly. I have started bringing blankets to the ballgames. To me baseball and blankets just don't mix. I am thinking about investing in an A's blanket.
Our friend Monica was eating a Twizzler at one point. The little girl--who was probably 3-- in front of us just stared at Monica's Twizzler. It was hilarious. So Monica asked, Would you like a Twizzler? In a trance the little girl (whose name was Zelinda) said yes. The dad said it was fine and Zelinda got her Twizzler.

Gilmore Girls

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post about the series finale of Gilmore Girls. I was sad the show came to an end. But I thought they did a great job. Everything was resolved without being over the top. It was a tearjerker. But a good ending.
I loved the relationship between the mom and daughter. Here's to Lorelai and Rory!

Lesson learned

So don't have sushi the night before your WW weigh-in (WI). In fact, it probably isn't a good idea to have sushi two days in a row right before your WI.
The scale said I gained two pounds. I know that I didn't actually gain two pounds. It was water weight from the sodium. But it still sucks.
My leader said likely next week I will have a much more drastic drop in weight.
As they say on the WW message boards, I had a NSV (nonscale victory) with all the new clothes I bought. I mentioned my new clothing sizes in the meeting today. It was pretty exciting.
And I received a charm for my key chain. The key chain I got when I hit my 10% goal. The charm is for losing 25 pounds (which I hit 26 last week). I got the reward this week because last week I was the only one in the meeting so it wouldn't have been much of a celebration! Ha!
Anyway, Erica and Casey are coming into town this weekend. So it will be a challenge to stay on track foodwise. Wish me luck.

Hilarious!

I was on Zach Braff's blog and he linked to this:



This one is funny, too.

Must have music

So yesterday I get dressed for the gym. I go to my purse to grab my iPod. I can't find it. I freak for a second and then remember where it is. It isn't lost. But it isn't with me either. I had no music while on the ellipitical yesterday. That 30 minutes felt a lot longer than 30 minutes. At least I had my trashy celebrity news to read. But music definitely makes the workout seem a lot easier. I burned fewer calories and didn't go as fast or as far as I usually do with my tunes.

I stole this next part of my post from Norman. I thought it was funny. Enjoy!

FINE This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
FIVE MINUTES If she is getting dressed this is half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given 5 more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
NOTHING This is the calm before the storm. This means "something" and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with "Nothing" usually end in "Fine."
GO AHEAD This is a dare, not permission. Don't do it.
LOUD SIGH This is not actually a word, but it is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A "Loud Sigh" means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over "Nothing."
THAT'S OKAY This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can make to a man. "That's Okay" means that she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
THANKS A woman is thanking you. Do not question it or faint. Just say you're welcome.
WHATEVER It's a woman's way of saying *!#@ YOU!
WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?! No, she's not hard of hearing. She's just giving you a chance to recant the stupid thing that just came out of your mouth and to either escalate the conflict by saying it louder (remember, you'll lose) or to come up with a clever substitute that sounds pretty close to it, like instead of saying, "That's why I hate you," you would say, "That's why I dated you." WARNING: If you try to use "Nothing" as a response, she won't accept it.

More on Paris

So apparently Sheriff Joe has offered to house Paris in Tent City in Phoenix. Oh, how wonderful would it be for Paris to hang out outside all day in the summer with no AC while eating bologna sandwiches. I get too much joy out of imagining her serving time. Cruel, I know. But who cares!
And apparently the Governator has no time to take her petition or pardon request into consideration. The comments are hilarious if you have a chance to look. Also someone posts the online petition begging to keep Paris out of jail. It is so lame. She probably wrote it herself. It is so childish. It of course refers to other celebrities who received a slap on the wrist--so apparently she should, too.

Weekend Update

Postage

First thing, a reminder that postage went up today to 41 cents. Didn't it just go up??? Anyway, you can now buy forever stamps. This means you pay 41 cents--but when the postage goes up you can still use them. Forever stamps will cost whatever the going rate is at the time. So, stock up on forever stamps now!

Sopranos

OK, remember how I said before that this second half of the season of Sopranos had just been OK? Well, they were saving the good stuff for near the end. There are only 3 epsiodes left until the end of the series. The beginning of last's night episode was so wow! I was sitting on the edge of the couch just watching--wide-eyed. I won't give anything away. But man, wow!

New clothes

I went shopping for some new clothes yesterday. Normally I don't really like shopping for clothes because it is hard to find things that fit right and it just gets frustrating. But yesterday I discovered that I now wear sizes 6-8. Before I was a 10-14. Most of my "old" pants are practically falling off me. I shopped at Old Navy (and used my gift card Curt got me for Christmas) and this place called Insider's Outlet. Brand-name clothes at discount prices. They did have a lot of nice stuff. I will likely hit that place about once a month. Supposedly they get new stuff in all the time. There will be more shopping in the near future. An H&M just opened in Bay Street (which is a shopping center near work and not far from home).

Night Knitting Club

I had 2 friends, who are also co-workers, over for dinner, gabbing and knitting Friday night. I made my famous red pepper sauce (and there should be leftovers for our visitors coming this weekend!) and pesto. We ate, gabbed, had some wine, smores, knitted a little, gabbed some more and watched Sweet Home Alabama. We had a lot of fun. Alicia recently got a new job and will be leaving Onyx next week. Sue and I are sad because Alicia is great to work with and a friend. But this is a good move for her.

Snagglepuss

Terri, my Legal dept. co-worker, went out of town this weekend. Her cat, who I refer to as Snags, has been under weather and she was afraid to leave him alone the whole time. So I checked in on him twice a day. I also checked on him this morning. He did well the whole weekend, was eating and quite cuddly. He would crawl up on me and rest his head on my shoulder like a baby. He is a sweetheart. We just sat on the couch and watched Lifetime or the Lifetime Movie Network.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the great mothers out there. This day is all about you! (My brother, John, and I are very lucky as is Curt and his brother, Craig.)

***UPDATE***

Adding to this entry to include pics I have been promising:

Curt and me putting in our garden:










The yummy lamb kebabs I made for dinner last Saturday:










Lexie's birthday party last Sunday:

Mother's Day gift challenge

Planned Parenthood is having a Mother's Day gift challenge. Until midnight Mother's Day online donations made will be doubled.
So click here to make your donation.

A mish mash

Movie Reviews

OK, I have picked some real doozies lately.
Last week I watched A Good Woman. It was so slow. It wasn't a bad movie. Just reeeeeallllly slow.
Over the weekend I watched Derailed and Children of Men (watched this one with Curt). I had heard that Derailed wasn't good. But I still wanted to give it a try. I usually don't care what reviews say, I watch what I want to. It was so bad. On Netflix you can rate movies--but you can't rate 0 stars, so I had to give it 1 star. But trust me on this one, it is a waste of your time. Children of Men--the concept was a great idea. But it just wasn't a great movie. It was too weird. And I kinda got bored.
Last night I watched Grizzly Man. Some friends said it was good. Uh, no. This guy was a nut job. He would live with the grizzlies for months at a time for something like 11 years. And it wasn't like he was just taping the grizzlies. He was interfering with their natural life. His life ended when he and his girlfriend were mauled by a grizzly. And eventually he was going nuts. You could just tell something wasn't right. But a lot of people in this documentary were really weird: the coroner creeped me out, the ex-girlfriend was quite odd and Timmy the guy who was "protecting" the grizzlies was out of his mind. There was some amazing footage that Timmy got--when he wasn't interfering in their lives. But the documentary was kinda boring. Oh, and him getting mauled was only on audio and we didn't get to hear it, which was fine with me.

Comcast

So our digital cable is out. Every channel says channel will be available shortly. So no HBO, HD, etc. Curt called Comcast and they are coming out Saturday to look at it. We can still get regular cable. So I am wondering if it is the box. And remember all the crap we went through just to get the first cable box. Curt was checking out other deals with other providers. Thank goodness we have other options should we decide to go with another company. You better shape up Comcast!

Send Paris to jail

So there is a petition to keep Paris out of jail. But there is also a petition to send Paris to jail. And apparently that one has double the signatures as the one to keep her out. Can you believe she had to nerve to ask the Governator to pardon her??!!??
There is a story from the Daily Dish yesterday about all of this. If you have time, read the comments. They are hilarious!

26 frickin' pounds! (2 bags of potatoes and then some)

Just came back from my WW weigh-in (WI) and I lost 1.8 pounds over the week for a total loss of 26 whole pounds! I am so close to my goal. Only 3.6 pounds to go.
I have been doing really well with tracking my food, making good food choices and working out 4-6 times a week. I still don't love exercising, but I am doing it and that is what counts.
WW is definitely a lifestyle that is manageable. It took me seven years to put on almost 30 pounds and it is gonna take me about seven months to take it off. Not too shabby!
I am going shopping this weekend to buy some new pants. I wanted to wait till I hit goal--but some of my pants are just way too big and I feel weird wearing them at work with the crotch practically to my knees. Plus, I think I deserve some new pants dangit!

Fun and warm weekend

I have to say this was a really great weekend. The whole weekend the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny and warm and nice!
Saturday I ran some errands in the morning. Then in the afternoon Curt and I headed to Home Depot to get stuff for our garden. We have a garden plot behind our place--we don't really have a back yard. We just call it out parking slab, which is what it is. Curt did the hard work--broke up the dirt and tilled and added Miracle Gro soil. Then I planted the tomato plants. He came back out and planted seeds: peas, red bell peppers, onions, carrots and radishes. I planted the herbs: basil, oregano, chives and parsley. (I took pics--but haven't uploaded them yet. Will do soon.) So hopefully my black thumb won't curse our garden. Curt's mom is a master gardener--so I think we have some good vibes coming our way. Marilyn's garden is always amazing!
Saturday night I made lamb kebabs for dinner. They were so good. A WW recipe. I had never cooked lamb before and it came out really well. I marinated it and then kebabed it with red bell peppers and red onion. (I took a pic of my beautiful kebabs, which will be coming soon.)
Sunday I attended my little friend Lexie's birthday party. I got there early to help set up. There ended up being about 12 girls and Cooper (Lexie's 4-year-old brother). Man, that party was wild--and it actually was pretty tame. At one point I opted to stay and help clean rather than go down to the playground with the kids. It was a lot of fun. Those kids have a ton of energy. It was a fun time. Lexie really liked the scoa (part scarf, part boa) I made her in her favorite color of turquoise. I was the unofficial official photog pf the party.
I was gonna upload all the pics from the weekend, including the party. But when I got home I was exhausted. Helping run a 9-year-old's party is quite tiring.
So I will post pics soon. I know Lexie's mom, Mia, would like to see pics from the party.
Oh, and when I was leaving the party Cooper asked me if I wanted a big hug and kiss from him. He almost knocked me over with his powerful affection. It was very sweet.

Brrrrrrrrr

At least Curt's beer never got warm.

Last night I was wearing a fleece top, wool coat, scarf, gloves, had a blanket over my lap and was sipping coffee to keep warm--but was still cold. Where was I? No, not in Russia during a snowstorm. I was at the Giants game with Curt and our friends Jim and Jennifer. So let's put this into perspective. I was freezing my you know what last night, and didn't it just hit 100 in Phoenix? In April? Usually 100 is about mid-May or so. A little early this year. Global warming anyone?
We got tickets from Curt's work for Club Level--which are pretty nice. It started raining and we were sitting out in it. We eventually moved up to be under cover in some empty seats.
The Giants lost 9-7. For a while the score was 9-2. It was a long game. But we still had fun.

WE BELIEVE

I am really not an NBA fan. When I was in Phx. I paid attention if the Suns were in the playoffs--but that was about it. But the Warriors beating Dallas last night was pretty sweet. I do enjoy rooting for the underdog. On our BART ride home from the baseball game we saw lots of Warriors fans with their free yellow T-shirts from the game.

AND ONE OTHER THING

Joey weighs 16 pounds. In my weight loss I have lost 1 1/2 Joeys. Nuts, huh?

Happy Birthday Lexie!

Alexis and Cooper hanging out in Mexico during their family vacation last month.

Today is my "little" friend Lexie's birthday. She is 9. Her birthday party is Sunday. Should be fun! We are gonna eat junk food and make crafts.

******UPDATE******

It is still Lexie's birthday.

But I just came back from WW and I lost 2.2 pounds for a total of 24.2 pounds! I am only 5.4 pounds away from my goal!

Memorial Day Weekend planned

I am so excited! We are going to Portland for Memorial Day Weekend. We haven't been back to Portland since Angela and Michael's wedding more than 3 years ago.
We are staying with our friends Don and Kristin and their two kids--Chase and Annie.
They have this amazing house and are the greatest hosts!
And I am so looking forward to having a few meals of Spicy Mac at Montage. If you are ever in Portland, Ore. you have to try Montage. It is a must. One time I went back to Oregon for a visit and had lunch at Montage before my flight out. I took a little lunch cooler and wrapped up Seafood Etouffe in foil for Curt and brought it back home on the plane.