From bad to worse

Change from beginning of program: -4.4 LBs
Goal: 39 LBs to go

Activity: driving

Temptation: fried food
Fruit and veg: 3

I'm starting to wonder if I'm subconsciously trying to eat more - and more dodgy - food every day. It's getting bad.

Breakfast - black-eyed peas and watermelon. Is that a Southern meal or what?

Snack in the car as I drove to Lufkin - Almond Joy (whole thing) and a Butterfinger mini

Lunch - Olive Garden. Salad. Fried lasagna - that's right - pasta wrapped around cheese, then fried, then served over alfredo sauce. Shrimp dish that included angel hair pasta, tomatoes, and a buttery sauce. I did split it with my sister, but it was still a lot of pasta...and butter. Several bites of a chocolate cheesecake-like dessert.

Snack - birthday cake (chocolate cake with chocolate icing) and rocky road ice cream and two beers. It was nephew #3's birthday, and we followed the tradition of him decorating his own cake. He wasn't really into that, but 2-year-old niece was all over it. She decorated her own "cake" - a paper plate with a layer of chocolate icing. She added about a million sprinkles. And loved every minute of it. She insisted on having a bath afterward because she hates to be sticky. She was pretty damned sticky after that experience.

Dinner - I'm ashamed to write this. I was facing a long drive home. I was nearing catatonia because of the teenager's hormones and the toddler's energy. I stopped at a Whataburger, mainly to pee, but I decided to order a Whatacatch meal. The menu said it was a filet of fish on a jumbo bun with tartar sauce, lettuce, and pickles. The total came to something over $7, which seemed high, but I never buy fast food so I don't know how much it costs these days. After several minutes, the cook came out of the kitchen and asked if I wanted a sandwich. I explained that I did - as that's what was on the menu. Apparently, the cashier had ordered the wrong thing. Long story short (too late), I got a sandwich with two fish filets, cheese, and tartar sauce. And fries. I ate all of the sandwich and about half of the fries. That was interesting - with my standard transmission and darkness and roads with deer crossing signs.

Holy crap! I just looked up the nutritional info on this debacle. With just one filet and no cheese and the regular sized bun, the sandwich had 460 calories. So my version had about 1000 calories. Plus fries. Even Homer Simpson would feel guilty after eating that.

And I wonder why I'm so swollen that I feel like I'm going to pop at any second.

I'm really tempted to stick a pin in my finger to see if it will relieve some of the pressure from all of this water retention. It makes me think that my hormones are fluctuating again. UGH.

I did manage to hit the farmer's market and a roadside stand, so I plan to have some fresh veggies tomorrow. I just need to lay off the sweets and fats.

When will this binge end?

Fattening Friday

Change from beginning of program: -4.8 LBs
Goal: 39 LBs to go

Activity: jumping up and down in elation over winning a blue ribbon at the State Fair of Texas

Temptation: Mexican food, fried food, beer (I did not resist)
Fruit and veg: 5+

This was a frustrating week. Work was particularly challenging, and I had dinner at restaurants 3 of the past 5 nights. Not good for losing weight.

But the week ended on a positive note: I won the blue ribbon for picante sauce at the State Fair of Texas. This makes me a back-to-back champ. I can say that I make the best hot sauce in Texas.

What do I win? A blue ribbon and bragging rights for the rest of my life.

Woo-hoo!

Sorry - I can't believe it. The results are not posted online yet. But I got a letter in the mail that said my place was "1."

Anyway - another dieting day down the drain...

Breakfast - hummus and pumpernickel (just 1 slice) and raspberries.

Morning snack - green apple

Lunch - Mexican food. Chips and green sauce (tomatillos and avocado). Veggie burrito filled with black beans and several veggies, but also cheese - covered in cream sauce. Instead of rice and beans, I had lettuce and tomatoes. And guacamole.

Dinner - our favorite seafood place. Appetizer of avocado, tomato, shrimp, and crab, served with tortilla chips. Stuffed crab and stuffed shrimp with fries. Why does fried food have to taste so good? If it tasted nasty, we would all be thin.

Evening - Although I told myself all day that I would not drink tonight (to give my poor liver a break), I had to have a beer to celebrate my win. And to help break down that fried food. And to act as a diuretic because I am still SWOLLEN like an effing balloon. And because I survived the week. And because I like beer.

Tomorrow's challenge - a trip to the country to celebrate nephew #3's 13th birthday. I'm sure too much food will be involved.

Are they insane?

A year without shopping?

The only way that would happen for me is if I were imprisoned and had no internet access.

It gives me the chills just to think about it. ARGH!

Self absorbent

Change from beginning of program: -2.8 LBs?? - Goin' the wrong way, Bubba
Goal: 41 LBs to go

Activity: sweating and holding myself back from choking someone

Temptation: the best food ever leftovers
Fruit and veg: 3

I am so damn swollen, I might just pop.

Beer is a diuretic...right?

Challenging day at work because a coworker has convenient memory loss. And is arrogant.

Lunch: Indian buffet. I hadn't been there in about 6 months, and all of the staff greeted me warmly. My companion was impressed.

Dinner: Leftovers of the best food ever are almost as good as the first go-round.

Because we have had intermittent rain showers during August, I have gotten lax about watering the yard. Bigfoot informed me last night that all of the progress I had made with the grass in the front yard was disappearing. So I had to start the watering routine again. Ugh. It's not the watering that takes up my time. It's the weeding and other time wasters that I see only when I'm in the yard watering.

The best food ever

Change from beginning of program: -5.8 LBs
Goal: 38 LBs to go

Activity: sitting on my fat arse in meetings

Temptation: the best food ever
Fruit and veg: 5+

Breakfast: hummus on pumpernickel. Raspberries. So far, so good.

Lunch: Veggie chef salad, dressing on the side. Still good.

Afternoon: Half a brownie that I baked last night.

Dinner: Team event at the best restaurant in town.

• 3 glasses of sparkling chardonnay
• Appetizer: fried plantain chips dipped in chimichurri sauce (like pesto, but made with parsley and garlic instead of basil and pine nuts)
• Appetizer: crab claws in creamy butter sauce and some kind of heavenly cheesy fried something that defies description
  
• Entree: beef so tender you could cut it with a fork, smothered in a creamy sauce, over mashed potatoes, with two mini taco thingies, with grilled carrots and fried yucca
• Dessert: tequila bread pudding that has a consistency much, much better than that of a normal bread pudding, topped with a luscious creamy layer of gooey goodness

I swear - I must have ingested a half pound of butter over those two hours. My insides will revolt for days, but damn it was good. It tasted even better because someone else paid for it!

Chocolate is evil

Change from beginning of program: -4.2 LBs
Goal: 40 LBs to go

Activity: ironing

Temptation: fudge, Mexican food
Fruit and veg: 5

It's official. I have hit the wall.

The wall of chocolate.

I struggled to break that chocolate addiction in May. After about 3 days with no chocolate, I lost the taste for it. I felt liberated. And I lost weight.

Well, I slowly but surely worked my way back into the chocolate dependence.

It started small. A mini candy bar here, a bit of ice cream there.

Sunday, I made fudge.

Today, I made brownies.

Most of the fudge went to the office, as will most of the brownies. But I still eat the edges, the batter, the bits here and there.

And the weight is creeping back on. Dammit!

What to do?

By the way, have you ever noticed that the words evil and live have the same letters? Same goes for Elvis and lives. And Satan and Santa. What's up with that?

Vindicated

When I bought my house 10 years ago, I had a few requirements. An electric stove was one of them.

I found a house with an electric stove and a gas oven. I replaced the gas oven with an electric one in the first month I lived here.

Everyone said I was crazy. But I know what works when I cook.

Julia Child, my new hero, says in her seminal Mastering the Art of French Cooking, "Electric ovens give more even heat for pastry baking than gas." YES! I knew that the gas oven was burning things on the outside and not cooking on the inside.

Julia also says, "For top-of-stove cooking you wan to switch from very high indeed to very low heat with gradations in between, which a restaurant gas range can provide...Otherwise, a good modern electric cooktop is far better than weak domestic gas burners." (emphasis mine)

The master has spoken. I made the right choice with electricity.

I'll be wearing out that electric cooktop with my new stainless steel cookware.

From cupake catastrophe to trifle triumph

I refuse to give up on the cupcakes from last night. So I used the cake chunks I salvaged from last night in a trifle. Filling: cream cheese and whipped cream beaten together, chocolate fudge sauce, caramel sauce, and pecans.

My arteries are clogging as I type.

To avoid hurting myself, I am taking the whole thing to work tomorrow.

Like the canisters? I found them at a thrift store about 20 years ago in Dallas. I renovated the entire kitchen to match the canisters.

Baking disaster

In my quest for a winning recipe at the Ghirardelli contest, I tried some new cupcakes. I made the batter for German Chocolate Cake, but with Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate instead of the German Sweet Chocolate.

True story: German Chocolate Cake has no relationship to Germany. The chocolate used in German Chocolate Cake is sold under the brand name German Sweet Chocolate. My German friend looked at me like I was crazy when I asked him for an authentic recipe for the cake with coconut. He informed me that they did not have coconuts in Germany.

Anyway, my idea was to make cupcakes with the German Chocolate batter and put a large marshmallow in the center of each one. I tried that. I filled each cupcake liner 2/3 full of batter and stuck the marshmallow in the middle. Like an idiot, I made two pans of cupcakes (24). I put them in the oven and went outside to move the sprinklers. When I came back inside about 10 minutes later, I smelled something burning. The marshmallows had risen out of the cupcakes and were quite toasted on the top. And running over the pan. And dripping onto the racks and the bottom of the oven.

I turned the oven off and washed the racks. And cleaned the oven. (I guess that's one positive outcome...)

The German Chocolate Cake recipe makes a three-layer cake, so I had a lot of batter left over. For my next attempt, I cut the marshmallows in half and put the in the cupcake cups before the batter. This time, I made just one pan of 12 (instead of two). I also stayed in the house. And I opened a beer.

Every few minutes, I checked on the cupcakes. And every few minutes, I was poking down the rising marshmallows. I felt like Woody Allen in Sleeper. After about 15 minutes and 4-5 sessions of poking down the rising cupcakes, I removed them from the oven. They promptly fell to look like craters.

If the combination of the batter and the melted marshmallows didn't taste so damn good, I would have given up. But it really was the perfect combo.

After three pans (36 cupcakes), I still had batter. I finally put the remaining batter in a bundt pan and baked it until almost done. I covered that with the remaining marshmallows and the partially cooked cupcakes from the failed batches. I baked until I thought it might be done.

All of it is now in a large bowl covered with plastic wrap. I need to dream up a way to salvage what's there. Maybe a trifle?

What a mess.

I generally don't fail with baking. I guess I was due for a disaster. Now I just need to figure out how to turn this into a winning recipe.

Good luck with that...

Blog post 100 - Somebody's got a case of the Mondays

and it's me

Change from beginning of program: -6.4 LBs
Goal: 38 LBs to go

Activity: having a facial and ironing

Temptation: Reeses
Fruit and veg: 5

I don't like Mondays. The office is hot, everyone comes to the office and talks very loudly all day, and I'm usually tired because I couldn't go to sleep on Sunday because I napped all day. I have learned that I won't be worth anything by Monday night. Tonight was no exception.

I practically fell asleep during my facial at the end of the day.

I got home and ironed, and I got in the bed around 7:30. What an exciting life I lead...

Breakfast - Hummus on multi-grain bread. Pluot. 6 Reeses minis at work.

Lunch - Fish burrito (fried fish inside -yum) with rice pilaf. Salad with blue cheese dressing on the side.

Dinner - Kraft Spongebob mac and cheese with extra cheese. Mixed veg (2 servings). They have shrunk the amount of macaroni in the boxes so much that the box now contains 2 servings. It used to contain 4. But now I don't feel so bad about eating the whole box. Which I did.

Had an extreme chocolate jones and considered making a batch of fudge to deal with it, but was just too damned tired. Finished off the pint of Rocky Road ice cream that was lurking in the freezer.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll feel more motivated. Or not. If the heat doesn't stop soon, and if those people at the office don't stop talking so much, the chocolate cravings could take over.

No broken bones

I have always said that I would never need to worry about a broken hip because I keep plenty of padding on my bones.

Now I know that my bones are strong. And it ain't because of milk.

All-you-can-eat Sunday

Change from beginning of program: -6.4 LBs
Goal: 38 LBs to go

Activity: none

Temptation: creamy jalapeno dressing
Fruit and veg: 2 (I know, it's pathetic)

Slept until 11:15. Made Bigfoot's breakfast and then had leftover tuna casserole and a pluot. And some of the cookies I made last night. I kept only a dozen cookies, and the ones I kept were a bit undercooked. But I ate the edges.

Took a 2.5 hour nap. Made Bigfoot's dinner and finished the shrimp and baked potato from last night. I put the undercooked cookies in the oven and left the room to talk on the phone. 15 minutes later, the cookies were black and smoking.

Not to go cookie-less, I baked the remaining batter (4 cookies).

When our Sunday night shows began, I had some cherries. Then all 4 cookies. Then some Triscuits (reduced fat!) and Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp Cheddar. Why is it that when I start snacking I can't stop?

Mastering the art of eating

Change from beginning of program: -4.0 LBs
Goal: 40 LBs to go

Activity: none

Temptation: creamy jalapeno dressing
Fruit and veg: 4

Saw "Julie and Julia" today. LOVED it! I read the book when it was first published. Julie's adventures in cooking were quite entertaining. I remember seeing Julia Child - in black and white - on TV when I was a child. I don't know if her shows were in black and white, but our TV was. My mother always said that French cooking was too complicated, so that's one cuisine I never learned to cook. I asked my mother recently if she had a copy of Julia's cookbook, and she replied that she did not because French cooking involved too many sauces. I guess some things never change.

The movie inspired me to cook. Just what I need when I'm trying to eat only what I need and not what I want. I bought her cookbook on the way home from the theater, and I have read through all of the front matter. I looked at a few recipes, but I haven't decided what to try first.

I did bake a batch of cookies to satisfy my need to cook. My artist friend is designing a wine label for our next batch of wine, and I'm paying in cookies. Most of the cookies are already packed and ready to be shipped on Monday.

From the time Bigfoot woke me up (9:30) until the time we got back home after dinner (8:30), today was rush, rush, rush. He woke me because we were moving CDs that had matured from the bank that offered 0.65% interest to the bank that offered 2.45%. We both had money to move, hence doing it together. I cashed out a few days ago, but he had to wait until today. I dropped him off at one bank, so that he could cash out, and I ran to the farmer's market that was just around the corner. Well, it was under the freeway and two lights and a right turn and a left turn away from the bank, but in Houston that is considered just around the corner. (By the way, the farmer's market had pretty slim pickins. The heat has killed just about everything.) A mere 15 minutes after dropping Bigfoot off, I picked him up and we headed for the new bank. Setting up the new accounts took forever because the systems were down and they had to do it more or less manually. In the meantime, my friend and her children were heading to our favorite Mexican restaurant. I had to tell them I would be late.

I dropped Bigfoot off and headed for the restaurant, where I wolfed down chips and the creamy jalapeno sauce/dressing. As I had not had a chance to eat any breakfast, I was famished. Although I ordered a taco salad with guacamole, I did not have a healthy meal. The 900 chips before the salad didn't help. And the decadent fried tortilla shell, dipped in more of the creamy sauce/dip/dressing just made me feel bloaty. But, boy, did it taste good.

We went to a bookstore that is going out of business and stocked up. By the time we located a newspaper to see the movie times, we had just 15 minutes to get to the theater. We dashed over there and made it before the movie started. But even though we were at a mutliplex, the movie was being shown in a small theater. And they had bussed in many residents of a retirement community. We had to sit on the second row and look up the whole time.

Then it was off to Target to get some breath spray for Bigfoot. One hour and $60 later, I headed for the house. To my surprise, Bigfoot was mowing the lawn. Why the surprise? He generally won't mow if I'm gone because if he got hurt he wouldn't have anyone to take him to the hospital. (He had a lawn-related emergency room incident before he moved in, so I understand his logic - for once.) While he mowed, I cleaned the kitchen and the pile that accumulated all week when I was in my work-induced funk.

Dinner was at a seafood place (not our favorite one) near the house where they serve 25 fried shrimp and fries for $12.95. It's a nice place, and I substitute a baked potato for the fries. I ate too many shrimp and still brought some home. Most of the potato is intact, and that will most likely be my breakfast tomorrow.

Since dinner, I have felt like crap. Probably the combination of too much greasy food (chips, dressing, fried shrimp) and too much food in general. And the heat. Let's not forget the heat.

Holy crap! I'm back over a barrier I had hoped to not ever cross again. The chocolate and alcohol every day this week finally caught up.

I just wish I didn't like food so much.

Call Me Stupid

Change from beginning of program: -6.0 LBs
Goal: 38 LBs to go

Activity: 1 hour, 45 minutes of digging in the garden

Temptation: candy and beer
Fruit and veg: 5

This is Friday's summary. I was just too damn tired to write it on Friday.

I have never read Moby Dick (the outcome of being "educated" in rural schools), but I know that the first line is "Call me Ishmael." And I believe that the book is about the search for a great white whale.

Well, call me Stupid. And I don't need to search for a great white whale - I am one.

What stupid thing did I do? In my ongoing quest to make fried chicken for Bigfoot that he likes, I bought some "Cajun-All" seasoning at the grocery store. As I will not ever eat the chicken, I thought I should try the seasoning before I used it. I put a small amount in my left hand, wet my right index finger and stuck it in the seasoning then into my mouth, and then I cursed myself for being an idiot. I was sober! And I didn't taste anything for hours because my taste buds had been seared off.

Of course, I then had to drink plenty of beer for medicinal purposes - to numb the pain.

Breakfast - the usual. Too much candy from the dish at work.

Lunch - healthy, at least. Met my friend and her children at Sweet Tomatoes and had a big salad, followed by a small, but loaded, baked potato.

Afternoon - Because the very needy - and noisy - people that I work with will NOT LEAVE ME ALONE, I reached the breaking point. I had to have a mixture of Reeses and ice cream. I didn't really have the time to drive to Dairy Queen for a Blizzard, so I went to the company cafeteria, bought a Reeses, and asked them to mix it with their fat-free frozen yogurt. They added a bit of milk for blending purposes (which was OK), but they also added crushed ice. The thing tasted OK, but the crushed ice was still somewhat chunky. Next time, I'll know to tell them not to use ice.

Evening - Wandered around Costco and Kroger because I'm pathetic and that's the best I can do on a Friday night.

Dinner - Leftover shrimp scampi at 9:00. Then the seasoning and beer. Then Alka-Seltzer because I felt like crap.

What a week. I need to figure out how to manage my stress at work better. Those people really do drive me crazy.

WTP?

Change from beginning of program: -6.0 LBs
Goal: 38 LBs to go

Activity: 1 hour, 45 minutes of digging in the garden

Temptation: candy and wine
Fruit and veg: only 3, sadly

Last night, my sister was sitting next to her almost-3-year-old daughter (a.k.a. The Real Mini Me). My sister saw something that made her say, "What the F?" She said "eff" because the child was near her. The Real Mini Me knows many of her letters, so she quickly replied, "What the P? What the T?"

So now my new response to any puzzling question will be "What the P?"

Breakfast: multi-grain bread and hummus (for about the 15th day in a row). Two 3 Musketeers minis at the office

Lunch: Couldn't find anyone to go to lunch with. Went to an Italian restaurant and ate shrimp scampi while reading a book on compulsive eating. Nice. Then went to the bank and closed out a CD because the renewal rate is .65%. What the P???

Afternoon snack: Snack size Almond Joy and Kit Kat. Yep, it was that kind of day.

Dinner: Leftover Mexican food.

We had a miracle on Mobud today - rain. Our first rain of August. 38 minutes of hard rain. I was ecstatic. I've been waiting for rain for weeks because I needed to weed, put down some new edging, and work on the compost pile. I was able to do all of those things. The compost pile is huge, but it is nice to make my own dirt. The cucumber and tomato plants are now a part of the compost pile, and I'm prepping the beds for the fall garden.

By the time I came inside, I was literally soaking wet from sweat. Houston is as humid as hell already, and the time after a rainstorm is as humid as hell in a rainstorm.

Because I had worked so hard, I felt like I deserved some wine. So I had a bottle from the Maydelle Winery - a spot we found a few months ago. They make fruit wines, and I ended up buying a case when we visited. Oh, and I had to have some Triscuits and Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp with the wine. Basically, everything I burned off in the garden is back in my belly now.

Why do I even try?

Pink vs. Chocolate and Wine. Wine Wins.

Change from beginning of program: -6.0 LBs
Goal: 38 LBs to go

Activity: walking on treadmill - 1 mile - and ironing

Temptation: cake and candy
Fruit and veg: only 3, sadly

Too many meetings make Pink eat chocolate. Two 3 Musketeers minis in the morning, plus one in the afternoon. Plus two Dove bites.

Breakfast: OK - hummus and multi-grain bread.

Lunch: Too many chips - with green sauce - at a Mexican restaurant. Two bean and cheese tostadas. Not bad, except for practically licking the plate clean. Discussed the Obama health care plan with my lunch mate. Discussed is not the right word. Listened to a diatribe is more accurate. And the diatribe is based on Fox News propaganda - there is no meat to it. When I asked what specifically was wrong with the health care proposal, she could give no concrete answer. Surprise, surprise.

Six meetings today. Six scheduled for tomorrow. Thank gawd they pay me well. Otherwise, I would be hanging from a rafter by now.

Dinner: Leftover cappelini pomodoro from the Olive Garden when I took my friend for her birthday on Monday. Then a bottle of wine.

Hey - I had to try this wine. Sister and I are planning our third batch, and I'm testing which variety we should make.

And some leftover cake chunks.

On the positive side, Bigfoot shamed me into walking. I made it only one mile, but one mile is better than sitting on my big fat arse all night and watching TV. I just spent MOST of the night sitting on my big fat arse and watching TV. And drinking wine.

I often say that my life is boring. Some days, like today, boring is good.

And wine is good.

File this under "I just THOUGHT I had seen it all"

Christian sex toys

I didn't realize that dildos had religious preferences.

My butt hurts

Change from beginning of program: -8.0 LBs
Goal: 35 LBs to go

Activity: working

Temptation: kolaches, chips and green sauce, beer
Fruit and veg: 4

Sat on my arse from 9:00 - 6:30 with no real break. My arse hurts.

You know how when you stand for a long time your feet swell and hurt? I think my butt is swollen.

Spent today in a meeting room taking notes in a meeting between developers and marketing - two groups with the same end goal but VERY different ways to get there. They had a box of kolaches sitting there, so I had to have one even after eating my breakfast of multi-grain bread, hummus, and raspberries. For lunch during the meeting (UGH), I had the leftover shrimp pasta in garlic butter from yesterday. The garlic made my mouth taste sour, so I cut another kolache in half and ate the half. Then I got up and walked across the room and ate the other half. Oh well. And then on a break, I had four (!) 3 Musketeers minis.

Even though the meeting ended at 5:00, I worked until 6:30 to catch up on email and organize the notes from the meeting. Then I met the team for dinner, and I totally blew it.

Chips (way too many), green sauce, red sauce, cheese enchiladas, lettuce and tomatoes instead of rice and beans, and 4 beers at the restaurant. 2 beers at home, so far.

I know I'll feel like a slug tomorrow. Perhaps that will motivate me to get on the treadmill to get used to walking before I go to Rome in 8 1/2 weeks.

Undulating

Change from beginning of program: -8.0 LBs
Goal: 35 LBs to go

Activity: working

Temptation: beer and cake
Fruit and veg: 5

A few years ago, Bigfoot heard the word "undulating" on some show and asked me what it meant. I demonstrated, and he told me to never do that again. Of course, I do it every chance I get.

A few weeks ago, they had a 48 hour marathon Spongebob Sponge Bash, and I recorded all 48 hours. I'm watching a few episodes every day until I get through them all because they crack me up. The episode I'm watching now shows Spongebob watching a sea anemone undulating and then turning the channel to football quickly when his pet snail enters the room. Just like a man in real life...

Enough about a spongy fry cook who lives in a pineapple under the sea and his undulating anemone fantasies...

Breakfast was (surprise, surprise) multi-grain bread with hummus, and raspberries.

For a morning snack, I had a small slice of the bundt cake I made yesterday for the Ghirardelli contest. It started as a pound cake, and I added chocolate chips, then I put melted chocolate into half the batter, then I layered it all in the bundt pan with raspberry jelly. And topped it with a scrumptious mixture of chocolate chips melted with heavy cream and corn syrup. It was pretty tasty.

Lunch at the Italian restaurant consisted of a small salad (yes, with dressing already on it) and what they called shrimp scampi - but it was really angel hair pasta with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes and shrimp in a garlic butter sauce. I took half of it with me and then forgot to get it out of the refrigerator to bring home at the end of the day. Typical.

After working at home for 2 hours after work I had a veggie enchilada and rice and beans that were left over from a visit to Chuys. And the last pluot.

Evening treat: beer. 4 so far. I need it, as I will spend the next day and a half in a conference room taking notes during a clash of the departments meeting. Followed by a team dinner. I'll be lucky to get home by 10:00.

Good news for the day: My trip to Rome is officially booked! I'll be there the first week in October, and I'll have a few non-work days to visit the city. I cannot wait! I need to start studying Roman history now so I'll have a clue as to what I'm seeing.

I need to start building up my tolerance for wine, too. (I wish.)

From the mouths of babes...

My friend's 11 year old daughter told me about her recent visit to an aquarium. She spent a lot of time near the touch pool, where she "made friends" with the stingrays.

She told me that one of the male stingrays was bothering one of the female stingrays and kept trying to sting her on the back. She tried to keep them apart, but to no avail.

She doesn't know yet that once the male starts stinging the female, nothing will stop him.

I hate summer

Change from beginning of program: -5.2 LBs
Goal: 39 LBs to go

Activity: fighting crowds at natural history museum

Temptation: ice cream
Fruit and veg: 3

Heat makes me sick. Literally. When I get overheated, I feel like I'm gonna puke.

It's not hard to get overheated these days.

What's amazing is that I got overheated indoors! In the AC!

Met my friend and her kids for lunch at Chuy's. Had the taco salad with guac instead of meat, but used plenty of the creamy jalapeno dressing. And had plenty of chips before the salad came. And had most of the shell, dipped in the creamy jalapeno dressing.

I justified this by telling myself that I didn't have breakfast, so I could eat up.

We went to the Museum of Natural History, where it is always crowded. Not just crowded; more like chaotic. The AC was on, but it wasn't set very cool. And those thousands of people being around made it even warmer and stuffier. We spent about 3 hours there, and I thought I might pass out. We did see the Terra Cotta Warriors, which was interesting, but very crowded.

Part of the problem was that I didn't drink enough water while we were there. I gulped and gulped from the water fountains. The only place to get more water was the McDonalds - the most chaotic part of the entire operation. And I unwisely had Diet Coke when I went there (for $2.17, thank you very much).

When we left, I got into my oven-like car and drove home. I needed to return something to Marshall's, but I had to come home to cool off and drink some ice water before I could face anything else.

At Marshall's, I returned $21 worth of stuff and then spent $28. Not real productive...

Came home and started reading Feeding the Hungry Heart, which is about stopping the cycle of compulsive or emotional eating. It's quite good, and it made me think about a lot of things.

Dinner: Multi-grain bread with hummus. That vat of hummus is going to last for a while.

Snack: Blue Bell Rocky Road ice cream. 1/4 of a pint, or the actual serving size. The entire pint has 640 calories, not nearly as much as I had imagined. But the small serving was enough.