Home Alone

Julie is in New Brunswick for two weeks so I'm on my own at the moment. It is very strange to be the only person at home; I almost forget how to be by myself! The television is not on if I don't want it to be on and nobody minds if I'm on the computer for a while. Nobody is waiting for dinner to be made and nobody cares if the dishwasher ran or the laundry is done...

Hm... Yeah, after two days of this, I'm over the thrill. :(

I bought her an iPhone last week (early b-day present) after her mp3 player broke. She's taken to the new technology like a house on fire... she's twittering, texting, watching netflix, skyping, reading books, playing scrabble and using the iPod all the damn time! I think my iPhone is jealous of all the attention hers is getting. The Facetime feature is AWESOME for keeping in touch - basically it's skype but without the constant 'You froze... Should we restart? No? Hello? Oh, there you are... Yep, still frozen but I can hear you...' We did the Facetime thing this evening and it was fantastic. The only downside to that is both people have to be hooked up to wifi at the time, it doesn't work over 3G. So between that and texting, I guess I'm not really that lonely after all. :)

This evening I watched a couple of episodes of Hoarders: Buried Alive on TLC. One thing I don't understand (and believe me, I understand everyone is different and I don't know how it feels to actually live in a house with a hoarder) is why do the other adults living in these houses not put up a fight and challenge the hoarder? Why are there always these grown up kids that yell at their mom for being a hoarder but they're sitting on their lazy ass in front of a computer? Trash all over the floor... rodents running around... holy hell... I would get out a trash bag!!! Mom? You don't like this? Tough!! I'm throwing out the 48 slurpee containers you have stacked beside the bathroom sink(?)!!

Of course the ones that have OCD, that's a whole other story and usually requires a much different approach. I'm talking about the ones that are just suddenly shocked one day that their house is packed full and they don't know where to begin. But again, it is easy to criticize having never been in something like that. I always think of the one episode where the young boy ended up moving himself out to the back shed to live in a sleeping bag because his parents had his room crammed with stuff. Or the guy who refused to at least clean up the staircase after his wife tripped over a stack of magazines and broke her leg on the way down. Sometimes it's heartbreaking. :(

On that note, I'm off to tidy up the kitchen.

Fingers, movies and freezers...

Hm.... Earlier today I either did something, saw something, or thought something that made me think, 'Ooooh, I want to blog about that.' Do you think I can remember it now? Nope. However, I decided to update anyway. And my GOD, this time I'm bookmarking the site so I'll come back to it more often.

Where to begin... Apparently typing without using my left index finger is like riding a bike... Then again I've had to type that way for 6 - 7 months twice before so I suppose it is a talent that will stick around for a while. I had yet another surgery on my finger a week and a half ago (third time's a charm?) and I thought it would take me a while to get back to typing this way but thankfully that wasn't the case. Easing back into work has been much easier than the last two times. I worked a few hours on Wednesday, half a day on Thursday and most of the day on Friday. This week I expect to work my full 40 hrs without getting wiped out. It's crazy how surgery really saps a person's energy.

The surgeon was pretty happy with how it went this time, compared to last time when he basically said, 'Well, hopefully that helped some but don't expect much.' This time, right before the surgery I told him, 'Look, I don't care if I come out of this with a finger that looks hideous and deformed. Hell, I don't care if I wake up and my finger is gone. I'm aware that a career as a hand model is out of reach at this point... Do whatever you have to do to get me as close to pain-free as you can.' Apparently that was the pep talk he needed because I woke up with my finger looking like it belonged to Frankenstein. He was almost apologetic when I saw him for the follow-up visit last week as he explained that he ended up removing more bone and most of my nail bed to get out the damn tumor. Evidently I will have a pretty hideous finger once this is all healed up. As long as this is the last surgery for a long time, I couldn't care less. :)

Anyway, enough boring finger news...

(not like the rest of my life is that much more exciting...)

This weekend has been very low key and restful here. We've watched a lot of movies and most were pretty good, only one made us wish we could erase our minds and wish we could have that time back:

Deliverance - I had never seen this movie before though I knew it was some sort of back woods horror-type movie. AMC was playing it all evening on Friday so I decided to watch it. For a movie made in the early 70's, it still has the ability to disturb the de-sensitized people of today. When Burt Reynolds' character ends up with a broken leg, I actually got nervous thinking, 'Who is going to get them out of there now?? They are screwed!!!'. I don't think this is a movie I could watch for a while but I thought it was very well done.

Black Swan - Ugh... Disturbing, disgusting, uncomfortable, infuriating, boring... Deliverance was nothing compared to how gross and creepy this one was. We actually had an argument half way through the movie yesterday because Julie wanted it turned off and I wanted to get through it to see if it eventually became decent. It is not often that I hate a movie this much but this one is definitely in my top five worst of all time. Mila Kunis was very appealing though, that's the one highlight I enjoyed. Julie won't even talk about it, I think she's been scarred for life.

Daybreakers - I put this one on last night expecting it to just be a background noise while I played on Facebook but from the beginning I was hooked and when it ended, I was actually disappointed that it was over already. I really enjoyed it and I think I might watch it again before it is taken off of Movie Central. I think I might have a crush on Ethan Hawke... the man is beautiful. :)

Point Of Origin - This was a made-for-TV movie from about 10 years ago that Julie found somewhere on cable. It starred Ray Liotta and John Leguizamo and is about an arsonist that they are trying to find but ends up being a fireman. Not bad but a little predictable.

Love and Other Drugs - This one started out nice and cute but then got pretty heavy for a rom-com and kind of flat lined. I kind of wished I had waited for it to get on Movie Central instead of paying $4.99 for it.

Eat Pray Love - This one I watched earlier in the week. I did not expect to like it at all and only put it on because I was all drugged up and needed something to stare at one day but I ended up loving it. I watched it two days in a row. I think I would like to also read the book. I now understand why this was made into a movie.

I have also totally fallen in love with The Ricky Gervais Show on HBO. It is an animated show based on the record-breaking pod casts from a few years back. I love shows that make me actually laugh out loud. I ended up ordering the first season off of Amazon.ca so that I can watch it whenever. Absolutely hilarious and brilliant and just thinking about it makes me want to log off and watch an episode. :)

Now totally changing the topic... I wish we had enough space in our small condo apartment to have a small chest freezer. The fridge freezer is packed full right now and because of that things aren't freezing properly. :( I like to make batches of things like spaghetti sauce, chili and stew and so that takes up a lot of space and then I have some Weight Watcher Smart Ones for last minute lunches for work and then there are the bags of frozen fruit and vegetables. Totally packed. I hate it. I don't want to stop making batches of stuff because doing that is a godsend some nights (or this past week when I haven't been able to cook and Julie has been left in charge of preparing the food...) I can't wait until the day we can move into our own place... sigh...

Speaking of Weight Watchers, I've been doing that for the past two months. The online membership, not going to meetings. I think if I couldn't use the online tools, I wouldn't be as diligent in keeping track. There are also a lot of great resources online (member boards, recipes, articles, recipe builder, etc.) that make it easier. I'm currently at my lowest weight in about five years so I'm pretty happy with how it is going. My sister started in October and has lost 40 lbs so far. I don't remember the last time she was this slim. Absolutely amazing.

[Edited to put spaces between the paragraphs... what the heck? I never had to do that before! Very annoying...]

Playing with the phone

I received my Christmas presents from Julie a week early this year. Ever since we visited Julie's parents in October, I've wanted a bread maker. Julie's mom makes great bread and it tastes way better than store bought (mainly because homemade has less sugar). On Friday we were at the mall to buy Julie's Christmas gift (she picked out these cool knee high leather boots) and we stumbled upon the Zellers blowout madness event literally when the doors opened. I couldn't believe the crowd that had been waiting to get in! Anyway, Julie Scored an awesome bread maker for 50% off and I picked up Christmas pjs for us.

As for the new phone, I've been complaining for a while now that I pay $55/mo for just a voice plan on a plain Jane phone. I rarely used it so I finally decided either I cancel it completely or get a fun phone that I can access the Internet on. Fun won out and Julie found me an iPhone 4. The plan I'm on now is $60/mo so For $5 more I get the Internet and now evenings start at 6 pm. Sweet. I'm enjoying the phone so far and my family is happy that I'm finally answering all the calls that come in. : )

A race to lose

My mother and sister recently joined Weight Watchers. Since I'm tight on money and cannot afford the join-up and meeting fees, I follow along more or less with them using online websites that have the calculators and points lists. About a week after they started WW, I received my next surgery date (will be #3 for my stupid finger) in March 2011. As much as I'm glad I'm having the surgery, I'm terrified of being put under again because I was so sick after the last time. The very first time I ever had a surgery (for my smashed nose/sinuses) I had a meeting with the anesthesiologist and was told that it's harder to get the dosage of drugs accurate the heavier the patient is. This can cause side effects like severe nausea or even death. That surgery was a breeze though and I was not sick at all afterward. However, since then, I have not had good experiences. This got me thinking about what I can do to reduce the chance of getting really sick off of the anesthesia and I realized if this can't motivate me to lose some more weight, nothing will. Plus, this is a short term goal rather than a long term goal so it's easier to keep focus on it (in theory).

After I decided to set a goal of losing as much weight as I can before the end of January (I chose the end of January because I have to get a physical sometime in February before the surgery and they will take the weight on that paperwork as what I am at the time of the surgery) I decided that I could keep even more on track if I had others losing with me. Since my mother and sister started WW, I asked them if they wanted to have a competition as to who could lose the largest percentage of weight by the end of January. I wasn't sure if they would go for it, especially considering there is no prize except bragging rights, but they did. Every Saturday (after their WW meeting and weigh-in) we compare where we are in our journey. Having the competition is actually benefiting all three of us because I know my sister has started going to the gym for some work-outs because my mom is beating both of us and she wants to beat me to the 100's (right now I'm 205 lbs and she's 203 lbs). In four weeks the three of us have lost a combined 37 lbs. They've each lost 14 lbs and I've lost 9 lbs.

Last week and the week before I had been getting up early and using the Wii to do The Biggest Loser workouts but this week has kicked my ass at work so I've been sleeping in this week figuring it's probably better if I get some more sleep to combat the stress. Still lost 1 lb this week and I didn't eat any junk or drink alcohol so I think I did well. That hasn't stopped me from thinking about going to the liquor store every day after work though... but I know if I stop by once, I'll end up going back again later in the week and then again the following week, etc., etc. and I don't need the extra calories nor the headaches nor the false feeling that alcohol helps after a hard day. I think that's what I'm afraid of the most, so I want to keep it as a treat rather than a numbing agent during the busy season.

Julie put up our Christmas tree today and I decorated it. She decorated the bookshelves with random Christmas stuff we have (i.e. a book showing the Christmas story as illustrated with legos, a singing and dancing snowman, a St. Nicholas that lights up, our stockings, another book about Christmas, a Grinch snow globe, etc.). Later tonight or tomorrow we will watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation which is our tradition (this is our fourth Christmas together so I guess we can have bonafide traditions now).

I decided to make my family Christmas gifts this year rather than buy stuff because I just can't spend much this year. I have seven family members to make gifts for and after thinking about it for a few weeks I decided to do the same thing for everyone. I bought glass frosting and stencil stuff from Michaels and wine glasses from Ikea. I've been making personalized wine glasses for each family member for the past week. The ones I've done so far look so cool and I'm really happy with how they've turned out. I think my family will really like them considering they're all wine drinkers and whenever we get together there are always abandoned glasses of wine because nobody can remember who put down what glass where (possibly too much wine, ha ha..). Plus nobody has any kind of glasses that are personalized so this will be a new novelty for them all.

I am going to put each personalized glass in a gift bag and with it a bottle of wine (red or white, depending on preference - luckily we're all cheap wine drinkers!). I will also include some baking that I'm going to do that will be packaged up in cool Christmas baking bags I found somewhere. Everyone will also get a tree decoration that Julie and I are going to make (we haven't gotten to those yet) and Julie is painting each person a little picture. It's been pretty fun working on it so far so I'm hoping the gifts will be well received!

Julie has the television on TLC which is showing this special on people who take outdoor Christmas decorating to a whole other level. They make the Griswold house look like nothing... holy cow. Their power bills must be insane!!!

On that note I'm signing off... still fighting off the last of a bad cold. Time for some cough medicine!!

Update

Alright, so I'm the worst at updating. Probably because my life is pretty boring...

In the past couple of months, Jules and I have started to address the issue of finding a donor in order to get this baby plan in motion. It's too expensive for us to buy sperm so we've been looking at our list of guy friends to see if any would be a) suitable and b) willing to be a donor. Finding someone who would be willing to father a child and be known as 'dad' to the child but not be super involved in our lives. Piece of cake, right? (This is another moment where I ask the homophobes out there, why the hell would anyone CHOOSE to be a homosexual and make their lives this hard...)

Anyway, there may be a potential person for this endeavour of ours. Hopefully in a few weeks we'll know for sure. :)

As for other things, we're still eating quite healthy and exercising. Jules is doing better than I am and has lost about two pants sizes. I was doing amazing until I had a business trip at the end of April and was forced off the wagon. Oh my god is it hard to get back to exercising (and eating 100% healthy). I'm still losing weight/inches but it's slower going because I have the occasional slip-up and haven't found the exercise groove I had before I went away for that week. Oh well, clearly the key is not giving up, which I haven't and that's why I'm still seeing some results. :)

Blah... birthday rant/complaining/feeling sorry for myself

I suppose the danger to eating a certain way for a long period of time is that when you are forced to revert back to eating something you normally don't, it tastes horrible.

Last Saturday I woke up with a really sore neck and left shoulder. By Tuesday night, I could tell it was really 'out' so to speak. I had wanted to get a chiropractic adjustment on Monday but the chiropractor was sick until Wednesday. So on Wednesday I had no choice but to stay home (combination of not being able to sit for more than five minutes at a time and the fact that I slept for maybe an hour Tuesday night) and when I saw the chiropractor he adjusted the hell out of me and told me there was little chance that I'd be mobile enough to work the following day. True enough, I had to stay home on Thursday because I was still too sore and was practically bedridden. I was feeling the muscles loosen a bit by Thursday evening and so I medicated myself and went to work on Friday (thankfully a co-worker with a new, taller backed chair let me use his for the day - I swear that was a difference between me making it through the work day...). My birthday was yesterday and because Julie and I are eating healthier, I invited the family over to our place for dinner/cake. I had wanted to showcase my new cooking talents but with a really sore back and neck, there isn't a whole heck of a lot a person can really do. We ended up getting hamburger patties and buns and a fruit tray from Costco and I got veggie patties for Julie and I. I called my grandmother and asked if she would bring over some potato salad (she makes the BEST potato salad) and I was determined to make a batch of curried coleslaw (which I would have a picture for if I ever transfer pics off the camera to update my other blog...). Friday night, I medicated and had a beer so my back was as loose as I could get it (which wasn't much but I was determined) and I spent the evening (slowly) making a huge batch of the coleslaw. On Saturday morning, I made the birthday cake and icing and then Julie and I chopped and sliced the veg for the burger toppings. Between chips and crackers and nuts and dips and fruit, I think people filled up before the burgers were ready. I was going to get someone else to cook them on the barbeque but my family was driving me crazy so I went out there to do it. Yeah, cool spring-ish day + slight wind + hamburger patties = major smoke. I'm surprised some of my condo neighbours didn't call the condo Nazis on us... Anyway, people ate the burgers but there was some complaining about various things "Aren't you going to saute the onions with mushrooms? My burger isn't cooked enough... I think I can still see pink. How am I supposed to eat this? (Throw it in the fucking microwave!!)" That same person also made a point of telling both Julie and my sister that she didn't like my coleslaw. Who does that??! Who goes to some one's house for food and tells them that they don't like something they're eating?? Seriously... What kind of person with ANY sort of manners whatsoever would go out of their way to bring it up to two different people. I don't know about you, dear reader, but if I don't like something and I'm a guest in some one's home, I'll either eat it anyway (usually if you're unsure about something you take a small portion of it just in case), or I'll leave it and dispose of it in the trash later if it's something I'm unable to eat. The only way I would ever tell someone that I don't like what they've made is if they asked me directly. Even in that case, I would word it in a much nicer (?) way, like mentioning why I don't like it, (have never liked the texture of ___ or the spice used upsets my stomach or something) so that they know it is my issue and it's not the food. Chances are, if someone is making a dish for a party, they've made it before and they're making it because other people have said they like it, especially the people who live with them.

Anyway, the cake went over really well. It was a two layer vanilla cake with a whipped cream & cream cheese frosting. Between the two layers I also had strawberries with the frosting and then I spooned strawberries on top of each piece when it was served. They couldn't believe it was all organic (except for the Cadburry micro eggs I sprinkled on top) and although some grumbled about the size of the pieces (I cut them a bit too big, I admit) EVERYONE cleaned their plate.

Anyway... When everyone was leaving, my dad gave me a hug and he forgot my back was really sore and he squeezed too hard. All the chiropractic work and icing and resting that I did all week was undone in a second and I've spent ever since in absolute agony trying to find a comfortable position to rest in somehow. Julie is out shopping right now so when I woke up from my nap and was starving, I had limited options for food. I can't really lift anything and most of the dishes are dirty from yesterday (and I can't bend down to get any out of the dishwasher) so all I could reach/lift was a hamburger bun, a leftover patty and some of the veggies to dress the burger with. YUCK. I ate it an hour ago and I still feel gross. Processed meat and the processed cheese that was on it and the processed hamburger bun... I honestly didn't think it was going to taste bad. You know, seeing as how I lived over 30 years eating that kind of stuff... Oh well. I guess that's the downside to eating healthier... When you're crippled and have nobody to cook something for you, anyway.

Oww... back is spasming again. Time to go and lay flat on my back again. :(

New Blog

I started a new blog dedicated to my diet change project where I can talk about food and what I'm cooking. It's more for my memory and for personal accountability than anything. It's kind of neat to go back and look at how something evolved...

My new food blog