The New and Improved Me

It's official. Today I actually dipped UNDER my pre-pregnancy weight. Three cheers for me! I fit into all my clothes now and some things are even a bit big on me. I'm going to continue trying to eat low-carb for the time being just so I can see if I can get into extra-super-mega shape, which I haven't been in since I stopped dancing on a regular basis. Plus, being on this diet has instilled in me a healthy fear of all bread and potato products. I'm afraid that if I allow myself to indulge in a bag of Doritos I will promptly blow up like a gigantic blueberry and nobody wants that.

Ode: Why My DirecTV is totally worth $70.00 a month

I just thought I'd weigh in on a little debate I heard about last night (wink wink). Look at is this way: you all probably know that I don't get a lot of time to myself that doesn't involve playing Candy Land, making peanut butter and honey sandwiches, doing mass quantities of laundry, baby butt wiping, nose wiping (or wiping of any sort). On the same note, I almost never get a chance to go out to the movies, see a concert, eat at a restaurant other than a "kid friendly" T.G.I. Friday's, or sit a the bar and down a couple of gin and tonics. That's fine. What I do have is my TV- my wonderful, glorioius source of escapist entertainment. At the end of the day, I love to turn on my TIVO and see what golden nuggets of entertainment it has stored away for me. HBO and IFC especially provide me with hours of enjoyment that is worth (to me) even more than what we pay for it now. Now, if I wasn't a parent and had time to spend more money on other ways of amusing myself, maybe I wouldn't feel the same way. However, in the past three months I have been to exactly one movie in the theater which involved driving one hour to the nearest babysitter. I also waited months for the chance to go see Henry Rollins speak at the Rave in Milwaukee. I don't know when I last had a few beers at a bar and I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a show in Chicago. If I want to do these things I can either go by myself, drive to Rockford to utilize our family babysitters, or trek two hours to Milwaukee to do them with Steph. Most of the time, though, I enjoy hanging out with Jason close to home so instead we opt for taking pleasure in the joy that is our satellite TV. I enjoy turning on my TIVO and seeing it filled with crude cartoons like South Park and Spongebob. I love my Jon Stewart's witty cynicism. I love the movies I get on Sundance and IFC and of course, I treasure the moments I spend with HBO on Sunday nights. Maybe it's a bit lame and sad, but it's my indulgence so there! (I'm also lucky Jason feels the same way I do since the fact that my job pays me in drool and cracker crumbs would make it a bit hard for me to pay the bill.)

In closing: Different things are worth different amounts to different people.

I Heart DirecTV
I Heart TIVO
I Heart HBO

Party Time

Ok, there are a few more hours left in this day so I just have to say:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPH!!!

Hopefully you are out having fun and raising hell enough for the both of us because my boring suburban-mom-self probably won't even be able to stay awake long enough to watch Saturday Night Live tonight. Really, I used to be cool at one time in my life... I think.

XOXOXO

Politics Schmolitics

Can I just express how disappointed I am that people in this country wussed out and stopped supporting Howard Dean in favor of the more "electable" John Kerry? I know this is old news but I'm still bothered by it. I really think that the only way to get people to vote Bush out of office is to have an opposing candidate who is actually in OPPOSITION to Bush's policies. I think the Democratic party is playing it safe and it's going to bite them in the ass again. Now I'm not super keen on either political party but I'm definitely more a liberal (oooooh dirty word, I know!) than a conservative. I guess Dean's rebel yell in Iowa was just a bit too scary for the general public. Whatever. I'm bummed beause now I'm going to be voting for a guy who is just okay becuase the current administration makes me so entirely sick to my stomach.

Which reminds me, why on earth are people saying that Spain has "let the terrorists win" by voting out their old pro-U.S. leader Jose Maria Aznar? Did everybody just undergo a complete labotomy and forget that 90% of the Spanish public was against Aznar's move to support Bush's invasion of Iraq? You think maybe that had something to do with it and the recent terrorist attacks just sealed the deal? Like its not bad enough that people who disagree with the president in our own country are labeled "anti-American"- now people in other countries are supposed to vote in leaders who support U.S. interests or be called slaves to terrorists? Color me not amused.

Other Stuff:

Images of the WTC attacks being used in Bush's re-election ads: Not Cool
The Republican Party's attack on Kerry for voting for the Iraq war (and just about every other Bush policy) and now running against him: Right On.
Martha Stewart taking the legal limelight from Ken Lay and the other Enron cronies who will never see the inside of a jail cell: Not Cool
A Broadway-Performing-Tap-Dancing Larry David on the season finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm: Pure Comic Gold

The Time! Who's Got the Time???

It feels like I am constantly moving and doing things yet I never get everything on my list done. It's like I'm running around like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland yelling, "I'm LATE!" only I don't really know what I'm late for. I know, I know, I shouldn't worry about my house being clean all the time but I'm a perfectionist. I can't concentrate on other things I have to do if there is clutter around me. I've been doing a lot of work for Sasha, editing music for her dance recital and she has about twenty dances that she needs songs cut, extended and/or combined together to be about two minutes long each. Plus, of all the themes she could have chosen, this year she decided to use TV Themes. So lucky for me I get to go around with songs like Happy Days, American Idol and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in my head. I seriously wonder if her kids even know that Will Smith once had a tv sitcom way way back in the old twentieth century. Is a ten year old really going to know who the Jeffersons are? Whatever. I'm getting paid for it so yay for me! I like makng my own money.

Also, it looks like we are getting our ceramic tile extended out into our dining room in the next couple of weeks! I'm so excited. No more scrubbing apple juice and yogurt out of my carpet! We're also getting a new washer and dryer too so I will be in domestic goddess heaven.

Oh yeah. I saw HBO's tv ad for the new season of Six Feet Under premiering in June and I think I made a puddle of drool on the floor in front of my couch. My tv has been severely lacking in Peter Krause time so I will welcome the return of my beloved Nate Fisher with open arms. Mmmmm.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Well, in the first two weeks on the South Beach Diet I lost 7 pounds, which was great but then starting at my birthday I began eating all kinds of things that were bad for me and found it very hard to stop! Insead of slowly easing carbs back into my diet I've had Thai food, pizza, m&m's and cookies this past week and I've gained two pounds back. Feh. Well, all my jeans are fitting and I feel really good but I'm just being nit-picky and I want to be at my actual goal so it looks like I will be going back on the strict phase starting today. It really does work, but I just have to be better about going off of it when I'm done. I'm a person where it's easier for me to have nothing at all rather than just a little taste of junk food.

This is So True

Somebody posted this on a parents message board I read:


Why I love MOM:

Mom and Dad were watching TV when Mom said, "I'm tired, and it's getting late. I think I'll go to bed." She went to the kitchen to make sandwiches for the next day's lunches. Rinsed out the popcorn bowls, took meat out of the freezer for supper the following evening, checked the cereal box levels, filled the sugar container, put spoons and bowls on the table and started the coffee pot for brewing the next morning. She then put some wet clothes in the dryer, put a load of clothes into the washer, ironed a shirt and secured a loose button. She picked up the game pieces left on the table and put the telephone book back into the drawer. She watered the plants, emptied a wastebasket and hung up a towel. She yawned and stretched and headed for the bedroom. She stopped by the desk and wrote a note to the teacher, counted out some cash for the field trip, and pulled a textbook out from hiding under the chair. she signed a birthday card for a friend, addressed and stamped the envelope and wrote a quick note for the grocery store. She put both near her purse. Mom then washed her face with 3 in 1 cleanser, put on her Night Solution age fighting moisturizer, brushed and flossed her teeth and filed her nails. Dad called out, "I thought you were going to bed." "I'm on my way," she said. She put some water into the dog's
dish and put the cat outside, then made sure the doors were locked. She looked in on each of the kids and turned out their bedside lamps, hung up a shirt, threw some dirty socks into the hamper, and had a brief conversation with the one up still doing homework. In her own room, she set the alarm; laid out clothing for the next day, straightened up the shoe rack. She added three things to her 6 most important things to do list. She said her prayers, and visualized the accomplishment of her goals. About that time, Dad turned off the TV and announced to no one in particular. "I'm going to bed." And he did...without another thought.
Anything extraordinary here? Wonder why women live longer...?'CAUSE WE ARE MADE FOR THE LONG HAUL .....(and we can't die sooner, we still have things to do!!!!)



Oh yeah, thank you to those who remembered my birthday yesterday! It was much appreciated.

Patting Myself on the Back Again

Well, I was sure when I started this low-carb, South Beach diet thingy that I would be the one person in the world who was unable to lose an ounce on this diet. That would just be my luck, I thought. In reality though, this is probably the easiest and best diet I have ever done. I even cheated and had a bowl of ice cream on Monday and I still have lost 6 1/2 pounds in 11 days. Unfortunately, I had gained back a pound and a half before I started due to that carbohydrate infested week after Valentine's day but I am still very very pleased. The food is really good and my body feels very light and healthy with all the fresh veggies I've been eating for the past week and a half. I'm never hungry and aside from the ice cream (which left me feeling totally yucky by the way- big thanks to Jason for bringing Moose Tracks into the house!) I haven't had many cravings at all for junk food and breads, which is amazing to me. It must have something to do with cleaning out your system and restarting it again the correct way. So that puts my total post-baby weight loss at about 43 pounds- 2 away from my pre-pregnancy weight and 7 away from my end goal. Life is good.