Happy Halloween!

Since I'm on a posting roll....

Finally!

I've got more pictures, but Blogger doesn't seem to want to publish more than 3 at a time.

Una will not leave Reuben alone...evah!
She stole his chewie, even though she had one of her own.







She adores him.











All she wants is 100% of his attention.
It is so damned cute!

Bitches!

This is going to be a bit of a rant...but here goes: What does blogger have against my dog sleep over pictures? It won't post those, but it'll post this one? What gives?

By the way, this is a very clever photo, as these are Halloween costumes. My dog, in the foreground is dressed as me, and I'm in the back ground dressed as my dog, Reuben. We're good seamstresses, right?

Crackritas, weigh-ins, and dogs, oh my!

I promised Marta that I would post tonight concerning the ever coveted Crack Margaritas.

Friday night, Chris and I went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant to meet another couple for dinner. And crack margaritas, of course. I, being the ever gracious, loving and on antibiotics kind of wife that I am, volunteered to be designated driver. This was an awesome choice. Chris had 8 or 9 margaritas over 3 hours. Let me say it again. Chris had 8 or 9 over-proof, crack-filled, should be illegal in the state of NY margaritas. Not to mention the husband in the other couple had almost as many, and just recently lost 17 pounds because of an infection he had in his hip/buns area. These guys were wasted. We ladies just laughed and laughed and made butt jokes while they stammered and looked sheepish and goofy. I'm still regretting not bringing my camera. Boy am I feeling stupid about that one.

On the food front of that beautiful evening, I kept to one margarita, and then water after. I also made my own core polenta chips and brought them with me, nervous that I would be made fun of. Nope, the other lady in our party...also doing Weight Watchers. Woo-hoo.

Saturday night was another night out to dinner with astrophysicist doctorate friend who was visiting from Indiana. I drank a diet coke, and water, no beer (even though I really wanted one).

Sunday morning, I went to weigh in and I lost 2 pounds last week! I am so jazzed, especially since I had gone out to dinner both Friday and Saturday nights. I'm hoping to do almost as well this week. If I lose 1 pound I'll be happy.

Sunday night was doggie sleep over night. Una, my parent's pup, stayed at our place for the night. She wouldn't leave poor Reuben alone. She terrorized him. I'm sure the noise of 2 dogs scampering in our apartment terrorized our elderly landlord downstairs.

Damn Blogger won't let me post any pictures...and there will be dog pictures!

A let down

I did go to a seond WW meeting last night, only to discover that the leader who I thought would be there, was not. Instead of the peppy, no nonsense leader I wanted to see, it was a woman who just couldn't seem to get the members going. The members were quiet, they didn't share much. It was really a downer. It makes me think of my job as a Literacy Specialist...part of my job is to help teacher change their teaching stlye from passive to active. This lady was "chalk and talk" the whole way. Not fun.

On the upside, I found that the leader I wanted to see is there on Wednesday nights, which is great because the meeting is at 5:30, I tutor until about 5, so I can go to that meeting next week. Even better is that Wednesday is usually the day where everythign falls apart. I'm very happy with that discovery.

Food is still going well, I've got FPs abound. I'm going to the gym to earn 2 or 3 more so I can eat some Mexican tonight without guilt. I volunteered to the the desiganted driver so I can avoid the calorie laden crack-arita. Clever, right?

Can you believe it?

It's Thursday and I still have a tone of flex points left! I don't know how I did it, but it's been done. I'm still going to a second meeting tonight. I need the support for the upcoming weekend where I'll be going out to dinner twice.

One of those nights is to my favorite Mexican Restaurant that has mind altering margaritas...that's going to be horrible. I don't know how many points is in one, but I have to have 1...then instead of a second, I could have a light beer. Just gotta gets some APs on Friday and I'll feel better about the situation. Saturday night should be easier, though, at least I hope so.

I truly wish that I could post my food planner from the WW site. That would so totally awesome, but it won't let me. That really stinks. I'm thinking of emailing them, part of me doesn't want to because I would get one of those auto-emails which are written like you're stupid. That roasts my bottom, as Darth would say.

A quickie

I am at job #1 (teaching) and my last 2 students were absent. The rumor is that their school district had the day off, so they were not required to be here today. What fun.

Things are still holding together for me when it comes to food. I'm glad that I had lunch all packed and ready for work this morning. Packing it at night is such a time saver. Everything seems to take three times as long in the morning. I know that may not be entirely true, but it seems to be that way. Maybe I'm just using more brain power than usual in the morning...at least these days. Antibiotics make me exhausted.

I'm at work, so I'm going to talk a little bit about work. I started a Live Journal account because one of my Creative Writing students wanted a different way to publish her work, so I taught her how to blog by using LJ. Now I have an account so I can post to her account. I'm also figuring I'll put some of my creative writing on it (if you can call it that) in order to model good writing behavior like writing through a whole class period, editing, revising, etc. She's 18, so I'm not super concerned about her. She's smart enough to not put pictures of herself, or use her real name. We had a long talk about it and she brought that stuff up. I'm glad she's got a good head on her shoulders.

Other aspects of work are okay. Crazy only sighed about twice an hour, which is not as much as she usually does. So things are good on that front.

Getting the ball rolling

I know it's only day 2 of my Weight Watchers week, but I'm strangely motivated. It's almost frightening how fast these little light switches in my head and can turn on and off. I think it's that way for a lot of us. Some weeks we feel "on" and we seem to be able to get it all done without batting an eye, but those "off" weeks nothing seems to go right. I'm feeling strangely on. I've eaten well for 2 days, I've found the time to cook, I went to the gym for cardio yesterday (no weights until the Lyme antibiotics are done and the achiness goes). Crazy co-worker's constant sighing isn't making me cringe. (And when I say constant, I'm talking record breaking amounts of sighs. Like 3 in under 5 minutes. WTF?)

I'm hoping that this good feeling keeps up. I think I might treat myself to an extra meeting this week. I had to take Thursday night off from job #2 (the library) so I could travel to an out of state conference, which I'm not going to because I'm merely on the waiting list). Thursday night, in the past, has been the "oh screw it" night of record. If I can't regroup on Thursday, it's over for the week. I just need a really good week under my belt and then I have a better chance of getting into a good cycle of things.

Keep a stiff upper lip

Yeah, my leg itches like hell, but rather than complain about it, I'm going to treat you to pics of the old and new library in my town. The new library isn't done yet, but it's getting really close....

This is the old library in my town. We knocked down a Carnegie building to build it...








This is the children's room in which I work. I've worked here for more than 19 years. I'm 33, so I'm sure you can figure it out....










This is the view from the children's room window. Aside from the crane in the lower half, it's a nice view of the Hudson, right?






Here is the new library, which is very obviously under construction. It should be done in about a month. No one can wait until we move in!

A Second Opinion

I went to my regular doctor today who put me on antibiotics to treat Lyme disease. I have many of the symptoms of very early Lyme and she'd rather be safe than sorry. I'm glad that someone with a medical degree listened to me and didn't give the the flea/bedbug brush-off. So, I'm achy, sore, and itchy, but I am so happy I didn't let it go when I thought the other guy was a quack. Trusting your gut is important. What if I let it go for a few weeks and I got really terrible Lyme symptom? Lyme can be debilitating.

Anyway, I'm on the antibiotics. I'm glad that I have no plans for this weekend other than lay around and watch TV with my dog and husband. I'll go to Weight Watchers on Sunday, but that is the extent of place I'm going by choice I think.

Thanks for bearing with me, folks! :)

Not so much better

Question of the day: Would you take a doctor's diagnose seriously if when he gave it he was also picking his nose?

Huh, I didn't think so. New doctor at my allergist's office told me my giant welts were merely flea bites, and was not alarmed at all that they nurse noted that I had a low-grade fever. He didn't even flinch when I told him that my temperature is usually 97.3, so my temp being 99.something could possibly be worse. Nope, not even a blink. He told me how to get rid of fleas in my apartment and how to search for bedbugs. Um, I believed I mentioned about 100 times that I was bitten at work....4 hours after leaving my home. I also mentioned that I've had flea bites before and they have always been 1/10 of the size of what I've got now. I love it when a doctor doesn't believe you. I got a cortisone cream and that's it. I'm thinking if I still have a fever tomorrow, I'm going to my regular doctor.

As for crazy coworker, if she can't pull her crap together, my school will get rid of her. She's not tenured and they've got a file going on her bad habits so that they have good evidence as to why they can her ass. I know she's interviewing other places, and I'm glad. I don't think any good school will hire a already employed teacher mid-year without being suspicious. She makes me nuts. Today one of the women in our department did a presentation on something crazy is "interested" in. I used quotes because I noticed her playing with her cell phone during the presentation. No wonder she asks dumb questions...she's not paying attention.

I am on a tear the past couple of days...I'm so sorry everyone, it's just piling up non-stop it seems...

What a frickin' day

Actually, I've had worse days as a whole, but today had so many little annoying pieces that I just might watch Biggest Loser in bed. I've been in my pajamas since about 8 for squeezin' out tears.....I will post my issues with bullets to save time:

• Crazy coworker decided that today would be a good day to give me her testing protocols, which had very obvious mistakes...mistakes that a monkey wouldn't make. I could have a severely reading disable student look up the information she screwed up and they would get it right. I'm tempted now to check the more complex part of the tests to see if she totally screwed up (because she screwed up the scoring of about 10 tests that I had to go back and fix to save her butt last month)
• Crazy coworker also decided to lie about training she received. She says that she attended a training put forth by another member of our department....who hasn't done any trainings on the subject in which Crazy has shown up at. Bizarre.
• Somehow, at about 10:30 this morning, I developed itchy spots on my left leg. They appear to be large bug bites...obviously, I'm somewhat allergic to whatever bit me. They itch like a bitch but are painful to the tough. Oh joy.
• My car's thermostat decided to go bonkers on the way home. The needle would rise to "hot" and then lower to "not so hot" in a matter of seconds. My poor car is at the shop. This has happened before, I probably have some air in my radiator. We know what caused it the last time, but they don't know why I have an air pocket this time. I love my car, but not when I can't drive it.

On the upside, thought:

1. I could have done worse with the food today. I held it together for the most part, and my indulgences are covered my by WFPs. No big.
2. My mom is lending me her car, which is the same make as mine, but an automatic (how I love to drive clutch!)
3. I am home and I am in my jammies and I can go to bed whenever I want. I might even take a benedryl for the itchy spots and be totally incoherent when my husband gets home from the gym.
4. My dog is completely enamored of me. I love unconditional doggy love.

So totally Amazon

Yesterday, my brother's girlfriend, Aimee and I went indoor rock climbing at The Cliffs in a town near to mine. Today, I'm feeling a bit tired, and a tad tight, but so motivated to get back into being active! We really had a great time, and we are going back soon to take a 3 hour beginner course so that we can learn to belay for one another. Once we know how to do that we can stay there all day on our $16 day pass.

I didn't go to WW this morning, but I'm going to try to get there sometime during the day tomorrow. I'm certainly going to try to go Hard Core tomorrow. I'm going to plan out my dinners and lunches. Breakfast is easy because I've got good cereal at home.

I really think that the climbing experience restarted my motivation. I'm relieved, quite frankly.

Again with the poop

Yeah, I ate poop at Starbucks last week...and again today. Bruce, it ain't real poop, it's figurative poop. Processed white sugar poop. Poopity-poop-poop poop. You get the picture.

Work is still stressful, that can't be helped, but I'm turning all my negative energy into really organized lesson plans complete with state standards attached. I'm a lesson plan maniac these days.

I haven't been training or even just plain exercising, but I feel an upswing in the magical circle of good health...where eating, exercising, and sleep all come together...one of our fellow bloggers was just talking about that the other day. It rings true. I know that wonderful cycle that comes once the vicious cycle of horrid eating comes to an end....

And lastly, I've been thinking a ton lately about how I started this blog to be about triathlon training and I have yet to do any. Lack of motivation. I still read as many tri blogs as possible hoping to inspire myself back into the pool or something. It's not working yet, but I'm totally not giving up!

Edging towards the light

I'd like to thank all of you who posted to my blog yesterday. It felt good to hear all of your commentary and advice. I really needed it.

After my total freakout yesterday, I was determined to have a fabulous day today...when I woke up this morning, I forgot completely about all that...but not entirely.

1. I had 2 mice to release in the "No Mouse in House" relocation project. It seems that every other fall we find mice sneaking into our apartment, eyeballing the toast crumbs. Out comes the Hav-a-hart trap and the relocation process begins. Total so far is 3 mice (one adult and 2 younger ones) which included a release of 2 today. I dropped them off in a field with plenty of mouse accommodating areas.
2. Forgot to eat breakfast this morning....too focused on making sure the mice were okay. They are just so damn cute....
3. I did pack lunch, so I get a thumbs up for that. It wasn't a totally core lunch. I had chicken with low fat mayo on WW whole grain bread. It's certainly a ton better than what I have been eating for lunch recently, so I'm going to give myself a thumbs up on that one. Plus, I bought cut up melon off of the lunch truck. Double thumbs up.
4. I ate a naughty snack at Starbucks this afternoon between work and tutorial...poop.
5. I'm planning a nice dinner of spicy beans and brown rice. Yummm! Plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

So I think improvement is obvious....

• Remember to eat breakfast
• Pack lunch for cryin' out loud (especially since it's parent/teacher night tomorrow night and I'm going out to dinner with the rest of the staff.
• Get my arse back to the gym. If I keep telling myself that, it just might happen!

Oh, and crazy co-worker didn't get what she wanted from our department supervisor yesterday, so she emailed our site supervisor, who replied back to her, and cc'd me....what is she thinking?

Inconsistency

Yep, I'm one of those inconsistent ladies we all know and love. I just can't seem to get my crap together in any sort of way. I'm still under 170, which is great because it was so hard to get here. Unfortunately, the last time I got stuck like this it took more than 18 months to get out of the slump. Yikes! I'm doing all the wrong things: not packing lunch, eating bagels at breakfast, ignoring the fact that I feel like nutritional garbage (I am what I eat, you know).

Now it's time for excuses....I haven't been feeling well lately, my co-worker is nutty and she's starting to attach my name to zany, harebrained ideas in emails to our entire department, including supervisors and I have to spend tons o' time creating emails that are professional and yet make it clear that I did not agree with her. Oh, and my foot is still bothering me (it is feeling better, though)

I think I'm heading in the right direction for dinner. I'm making a roast chicken with a Israeli couscous "stuffing", steamed broccoli and baked potatoes. this big meal should yield me some core leftovers for lunch tomorrow. The days after that I'll worry about tomorrow night.

Last year when I was my most successful, I had another (not crazy) co-worker who was also doing Weight Watchers and we would eat lunch together every day and it was nice. We compared packed lunches. We discussed breakfast and dinner points. It was lovely. She was moved to another program so that the crazy one and I could have it out. I'm alone and it sucks.

I'm done complaining, and I'm going to put my chin up, smile, eat yummy roasted chicken sans skin (I hope) with couscous stuffing and I'm going be elated about it.

Wha?

I can't believe that I haven't posted since the 25th of September! What is my issue? Aaah, it was a simple case of life overload. I just didn't have the time this past week. I've been fighting a cold, which I can tell you is no easy feat for me. Usually colds turn into bronchitis or a sinus infection. On very special occasions, I'll get both. Once in a while I'll get bronchitis with a tracheal infection...that is a joy to be had. Regardless, I'm trying desperately to get rid of this cold with out it turning into anything else...I think I've got it at bay, but it's been making me go to bed really early, really often. So far, not too bad, but part of me is afraid that the worst is to come. I might have to visit my Doc and get the barbituate cough medicine. Scary stuff, but man, it knocks you out and keeps you from coughing...or maybe it knocks you out so the constant coughing doesn't wake you up...or so you won't remember the constant coughing...who knows, it's strong stuff.

Another time consumer this past week was that my mom and I spent a 3 day weekend in Lancaster, PA. We brought my pup, Reuben, who is pretty good in the car and hotel rooms. Far better than he is in the house on most occasions, but I digress.

I think I need to write more at another occasion...it's 8pm, I'm exhausted, and I can hear my nice comfy couch and remote control calling me to come relax.....

See ya'll soon!