Skinny (and VERY Freaked Out) Bitch???

So, my dear husband bought me a present this afternoon when he was messing around and not working (that's OK, Jace you deserve it!)... it was the Skinny Bitch book, which I have been meaning to read for a long time. (INSERT HUGE HINT OF IRONY HERE BASED ON PREVIOUS BLOG ENTRY)... so I eagerly started reading the book waiting in the car line to pick up my son from kindergarten. From word one I was hooked... short readable chapters, lots of cussing, funny, irreverant and very much in-your-face... totally my kind of read.

Until, that is, Chapter 4. This chapter is titled, "The Dead, Decompsing Rotting Flesh Diet." Gulp. OK... I just had heaping plateful of pulled pork at Sonny's for lunch, but I can handle this. Right? Wrong. DEAD wrong... no pun intend.

I have to say that I am pretty good at ignoring things in this world that bother me... so I act like horror movies don't exist (they do), I think that little kids don't get hurt or killed in wars (uh, yeah, I know they do) and that the animals I eat don't really feel anything when sacrificing their life for my dining pleasure (uh. well, let's just say they do, too.). The shock and horror of the words in this tiny little $13.95 paperback and the chemicals and shit in all of our foods has me COMPLETELY rethinking what I eat.

Ironically, just before I started chapter four (and right after I got home) I took out hamburgers for dinner. Needless to say, I couldn't eat them or even look at them and after I went for a quick walk so Jason could cook them for himself I smelled them on the grill and proceeded to gag as I walked in the door.

The book promotes a vegan lifestyle, which admittedly would be very difficult for a finicky eater like me, but after what I just read, I don't think I have any choice. So to be a skinny bitch you just give up everything that is delicious to you because suddenly you find it so repulsive that you couldn't be forced to eat it if your life depended on it. I KNOW I can lose weight that way.

Reading Material Avalance/Tsunami/

Have you ever heard that the amount of printed information doubles every four years (or less)... I can't remember exactly what it is, but I used to think (as an avid reader) how great that was! More stuff to read, more to learn, more to share and show that I was erudite! (I don't know exactly what it means, but it sounds good, so just go with it, please). Anyway, I am now regretting I ever even had that thought. I freakin' can't even keep up with the stuff that I WANT to read and that really sucks. For fun, here's a list of all the stuff left (like a mis-behaved puppy) laying in piles all over the house.
Books:
Last Harvest (read 12 chapters last Saturday haven't picked it up since)
The Good Life Diet (read most of it about 6 months ago keep meaning to start it over)
You: Staying Young (same as above except 4 weeks ago)
Nurturing Resilience in Our Children (tried to start it ages ago, but I'm not into it)
Safety 24/7 (just bought it for work, will probably never read it)
Magazines/Newspapers
Real Simple Oct 08 (my favorite, usually read it cover to cover the day I get it. Got it over a week ago)
Fast Company Oct 08 (ditto)
Parents Oct 08 (still in plastic wrapper)
Esquire Oct 08 (in the potty room so I've seen some of it)
Also, Biz941, WonderTime, an article in Smithsonian from June, SRQ, Sarasota Magazine, Green Builder, Modern Contractor Solutions, a zillion copies of the weekly Gulf Coast Business Review and even a Wall Street Journal cover page article given to me by my CPA.
Oh, and some random American Express special publication about on-line marketing and a Scholastic magazine about kids are around here somewhere. I think I should start a paper recycling station right here.
Get the picture?

Prepping Early For Halloween

Just remembered this and it made me laugh, so I figured I'd better do a quick post. Two weeks ago Bryce had decided that she wanted to be Belle (of Beauty and the Beast) for Halloween. As luck would have it we found a Belle dress at the Disney shop at the Outlet mall for 1/2 price in her size. Yay! She's done! Well, we've been asking Jake what he wants to be for Halloween for a couple of weeks and the answers have ranged from a Hot Wheels Driver, to some scary robot like-thing in a costume catalog. But after our trip to Disney this past weekend, he's got this year entirely figured out. He wants to be a Monorail Driver or in Disney speak a Monorail Transportation Host. Sooooooooooooooo, I e-mailed my two girlfriends both of whom have husbands who work at Disney to get an old nametag and a good description of the uniform. This one should be fun folks. I've actually got to put it together. Wish me luck! Thankfully he's got a tiny monorail that he can carry around to explain his costume. Someone help us, we're a bunch of lunatics!

Escape to the Happiest Place on Earth

This past weekend we went to our second home, Walt Disney World, to celebrate Jack & Emma Kotter's 4th birthday! It was a very fun trip, although Jason was a teensy bit hung over, everyone else was on their best behavior and we actually got to go on a ton of rides at the Magic Kingdom on Saturday. Highlights from the trip include:
- The excitement of meeting Ariel
- Jason and Bryce napping on the train. Really? Sleeping at Walt Disney World? That should be against the law unless you're under 18 months.
- Lots of birthday greetings and singing for Jack and Emma... including one weird-o employee stationed in Tomorrowland. Dude, you know who you are. Creepy.
- Watching Christa and Jason contemplate how they would fare if forced to go on the teacups...
Fun stuff! We have to do it again sometime.

Also, Jack and Emma's party Sunday night was great! The kids had a blast, dinner and cake was delicious... in my estimation two day weekends are just too short.

The Near Attack of the 100 lb. Raccoon

So I'm taking this working out and weight loss thing pretty seriously... last night I decided to go six miles at about 7 p.m. and it was dusk, so I knew it would be pretty dark during parts of my walk. Got passed by two runners (boo hiss) and then encountered a very smelly dead animal (not sure of it's identity) on the sidewalk... yuck. On the march back there is a part of the sidewalk that is very dense with trees and bushes. I was making a pretty good pace and getting my "second wind" when I heard something move in front of me. Oh, it's just a cat I thought to myself and proceeded to walk toward it. The "cat" then growled like a freakin' sabertooth tiger and lunged toward me -- this thing was huge! I ran (f-a-s-t) to the other side of the street and realized that the "cat" was a ginormous raccoon, probably rabid, probably hungry for a sweaty, unshaven bite of leg. Nice.

Anyway, I survived. 1 hr 34 minutes. 14:35 average miles and burned 692 calories. Woo hoo!

Hold Me To It

Well, this week began the real, bare-knuckles, actually-try-to-really-stick-to it-for-once exercise and weight-loss program. Sunday night I left Michelle and David's after dinner and did 2 miles jogging and walking intervals back home. Average 14:27 per mile and burned 257 calories. Tonight we had a heck of a workout at bootcamp; serious legs followed by serious arms. I was completely jell-o by the time we got to the 100 abs we had to do to complete the hour. I went to my new doctor this morning (she's great!) and she had some bloodwork done and gave me a tetanus shot. Food today was 1/2 cup coffee, my vitamins, lunch of soup and multi-grain bread with one Pepsi (I can't help it!), a tiny bit of rotisserie chicken for dinner... oh, and 2 Mr. Goodbar minis from Connie's desk at 3 p.m. (she's going to kill this thing with all the crap she keeps at the office). Drank lots of water today and I can't believe I'm going to put this on here, but I think it was be an incentive -- weight this morning was 141.5. So, it's actually 11.5 pounds I need to lose not 10.
On a not so good note, a girl from bootcamp was diagnosed late last week with lung and throat cancer. She's a mom, 35, stunningly beautiful and sweet, works out 5 times a week, has never smoked in her life. What the hell? Cyndi you are in our thoughts and prayers!

The Lazy Daze of Summer

Today started out with the kids on their bikes in the driveway... Jason was out for his run and I was sitting out front drinking my coffee and reading the paper. This has become somewhat of a weekly ritual and I absolutely love it. I can see the bay from my seat and the water was like glass this morning.
At 9:30 we received the call we were expecting, changed into bathing suits and went to Siesta to pick up Jason. We took a dip in the Gulf and the made a sandcastle... we were all back home by noon, pink from the sun and trailing soft, white sand everywhere. Oh, well. We're used to it. (There's a makeshift beach in our backyard).
The big news of the day is Little Miss Determination conquering her bicycle. Bryce never liked riding her bike because she couldn't quite get the hang of pushing the pedals. Riding a bike for her amounted to us pushing her up and down the driveway or leaving her sitting on the seat crying because she couldn't go anywhere.
Finally, today a light bulb went off and she's been circling the pool on her bike for the past 20 minutes. She is very proud of herself and the determination I saw in her today was pretty darned amazing. Now I can't seem to get her off of it. Of course, I would ride forever if I had a princess bicycle with white tires, too.

5 Miles at Dusk

Did 5 slow n' easy miles tonight. No watch. No sweating. Just walking, breathing and taking it all in. I don't know how many calories burned, but it was a great de-stressor.

The Worst of Times Brings out the Worst in People

Yesterday my Mom's condo got broken into. Some loser(s) took some of her jewerly, a photo printer, but worst of all her debit card and lots of personal paperwork including her social security card. To boot, they were dumb enough to go around the corner to Publix and try to use her debit card a few minutes later. Hope they got the pissants on camera. Just this past couple of weeks the house next to our shop was burgularized and on Monday night (Labor Day) the house next door to us was broken into. To boot, we had a TON of people over that day and none of us saw anything.

We've had materials stolen from the shop, saws and other equipment stolen from job sites... scrap metal taken. When will it end? I have never seen such ridiculous desperation. It's a sad state when every time you turn around you find something missing and you feel completely violated.

Well, my new stance is to take the defensive position and we're going full board as security freaks starting right now.

High School Memories

Tonight we had a great planning meeting for our 20th high school reunion next summer. I love getting back together with these guys... it's so easy to be around people who know you so well. Every time we get together there are a slew of new, hilarious stories that come out... one person remembering that she offered sex to her then boyfriend (a classmate) and was declined, another giving incarceration details about one of our 'state champion' athletes.

Among all the laughter and me yelling at my kid, we actually got a lot done and I think we got everyone excited about what is in store for us that weekend. Actually, all Christa and I want is for some people to pick up the reins and really help us out.

Even though I am already freaked out about how much work we have ahead of us, I am so excited to see everyone again for the event and re-live some of those ridiculous moments and memories. I was thinking that I should post some pics from high school. But on second thought, maybe not.

Labor Day Fun & Frolic

I can't believe I didn't break out the camera today because there were a bunch of cute kids here having fun together, while the adults had just as much fun. The Kotters, the Rileys, the Youngs, the Blancos and Michelle & Melissa's Mom, Brenda all came over for a cookout of pork tenderloin on the BBQ and lots of other delicious stuff. Everyone had kid(s) in tow, so there were EIGHT kids in total. It seems like all had a blast and I'd wager that every single one of the kids are completely and totally pooped out like mine are right now. Jake and Bryce practically fell asleep in the bathtub.

Christa and I were talking about how great it is to have people with kids over to have them entertain each other. Kind of takes the pressure off Mom and Dad. And can I say that I love not having to worry about my kids as much since they can swim. That is super cool. Of course, I do have to say that I was caught completely off-guard when little 1-year-old Joachim decided to take off in the pool while I sat on the edge with Brenda. Duh. How quickly we forget. The last three day weekend of the summer was good one. I will welcome fall with open arms, though, as it's too freakin' hot outside.