| Clothes Shopping, Weight, Movie, HGTV Design Star, Next Food Network Star |
[Jul. 14th, 2008|02:31 pm] |
I partly got over my clothes-shopping phobia on Friday. One of my co-workers was going to Avenue and I asked if I could tag along. I hadn’t planned on buying much of anything – maybe one of my usual baggy tops, but I wanted to try on some different sizes of pants and/or skirts to see if I could determine what size I am now. That sort of worked and sort of didn’t. I ended up buying a navy blue top, a pair of khaki bermuda shorts and a pair of red capri pants, and a dress. The sizing thing, though, didn’t work so well. Their sizes run super big to the point of ridiculousness, so I still have no idea what size I would wear at another store.
By way of explanation ... I started out at the beginning of the year wearing mostly a size 28/4x. (Yes, I had gotten that fat! Ugh!) After 7 months, I have been wearing mostly 24s, but those are too big for me (and the 26s I still sometimes wear are so big they are falling off me). I am wearing size 22 jeans today. But the bermuda shorts I bought at Avenue were size 22 and they are a good bit too big. The capris were a size 18 and they are just a little tight. 18!!! There is no way I am a size 18 or even approaching that. So I have concluded that I am probably a size 22 but working towards a 20 and that since I still like my tops really baggy (I can’t stand to have fabric touching me in certain places), I am a size whatever in tops. I can probably stand wearing a 24/2x for now. Mostly I wear things much larger and they are huge on me.
But, at least I got some shopping done and I didn’t feel like everyone was staring at me and thinking I’m too fat to even deserve clothes at all. *sigh*
I haven’t weighed myself in over a month. I took a couple of weeks off, got sick with some kind of awful stomach virus, then injured myself. That was 2 1 /2 - 3 weeks of being out of my routine. I’ve been back into it for a couple of weeks and I think I’m losing again and have successfully “jump started” my metabolism, but I’m scared to weigh myself. I’m just afraid taking time off made me gain a ton of weight, which is ridiculous and my clothes say otherwise, but I can’t help being paranoid about it. Not good. :(
On a happier note, other than the 5 days or so that I had an injured knee, my workouts have been going really well. I’ve progressed both in terms of range of motion and in the weight I can lift and I feel like my cardio workout are going well also. I only have a trainer once a week, so I’m doing one session with weights on my own. In a week or two I’ll add in another session on my own. I also have a couple of dvds I keep meaning to try – pilates and tai chi – but I haven’t gotten to them yet.
Movies
No weekend Netflix movies this weekend - I was too busy. But the same co-worker I went shopping with and I went to see ( War, Inc., and it was not as bad as I’d been led to believe it was... )
Then on Sunday night I watched ( HGTV Design Star )
( And then I watched Next Food Network Star )
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| Movies, SYTYTCD, HGTV Design Star, Next Food Network Star |
[Jul. 7th, 2008|04:02 pm] |
I spent most of my holiday trying to stay off of my bum knee, which I re-injured while cleaning off my patio last weekend. It’s all better now, but it’s kept me away from the computer, because sitting at my desk at home seems to aggravate it. I think I need a new chair.
As for this past weekend, while staying off my knee, I watched four movies, all with varying degrees of awfulness. One made me froth with anger, one required frequent fast-forwarding, one put me to sleep and one was intentionally awful and lots of fun.
( Cake )
( Monster-in-Law )
I don’t hate RomComs. Really, I don’t. I just seem to have stuck myself with some of the worst of them lately.
( The Serpant and the Rainbow )
( Not Another Teen Movie )
This past few weeks’ movies have made me seriously think about deleting at least half of the 495 movies on my queue. I’m in the mood for them when I queue them, or I can’t really tell what they’re going to be from their description and then I end up with a pile of Movie Dread rather than something I’m looking forward to and will enjoy. However, the next 25 movies are going to be kidflicks, fantasy and sci-fi effects flicks and a few silly comedies. Hopefully this will put me in a better movie-watching mood.
As for TV, I can sum up my reactions to SYTYCD, HGTV Design Star and Next Food Network Star ( with one sentence: )
I think I am going to watch the trainwreck that is the finale of The Bachelorette tonight, if only because this season has been the Most. Dramatic. Trainwreck. Ever. for that show.
After 6 months, D has finally figured out how to get into the middle, mostly-enclosed section of his Condo. He almost the entire weekend there. He won’t even join me to watch TV. He drops by for 5 minutes of petting then runs back to the Condo. I think perhaps he was trying to avoid the awful movies.
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| Garden, TV, Movies |
[Jun. 30th, 2008|01:19 pm] |
Garden/Patio
I spent most of Saturday afternoon cleaning out pots of dead plants and dirt (20 something of them - some of them very large) and hauling around bags of dirt. I spent most of Sunday being sore. But the good news is, my patio is mostly cleaned off and looks a lot better and I am ready for a fall garden.
I think I am going to try to grow roses in the three huge clay pots I now have. Any suggestions for varieties of rose I should try? I am a novice rose grower. I do have a rose expert living next door and my dad knows roses, so I will have some help. But I need recs for relatively easy but pretty roses and advice on how to care for them.
TV
( Groomer Has It )
( HGTV Design Star )
( Next Food Network Star )
Movies
I finally watched a couple of the Netflix movies that have been sitting on my “movie shelf” since mid-May. After watching them, I’m fairly certain my subconscious was trying to protect me from the extreme awfulness of both of them. One of them was slightly more awful than the other, but still made me absolutely livid. And they were both RomComs, so. Urm, let’s get on with it, shall we? I’ll start with the slightly less awful one.
( Rumor Has It )
( The Family Stone )
I don’t hate Rom Coms. In fact, there are several I like. But the ones I’ve seen lately are starting to push me in the direction of hating them. I have two more to watch sitting on my shelf at home, Cake and Monster-in-Law. I think I’m going to like the latter, but probably not enough to overcome the feeling of pure loathing I have for what I watched this weekend.
I have switched my queue around so that after I’m done with the Rom Coms I mostly have fun silly comedies and kidflicks to get me through the summer, including some fairly recent ones. I thought switching it around like that might help me get back to watching.
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| Last Week's Friday Five, Good Things!, Movies |
[May. 12th, 2008|11:36 am] |
(This is a combination of what I was going to post on Friday but ran out of time for and today’s post.)
My horoscope on Friday was trying to warn me away from this:
There is a fanciful frenzy that is trying to lure you in to its madness. ... If it doesn't have real meaning for you, don't waste your time.
I don’t know, horoscope. That sounds like a fun time to me, especially since it’s Friday and fanciful frenzies can have a great deal of meaning for me. I think my horoscope writer is anti-Discordian.
( My Friday Five Answers were kind of long )
Today is my weekly weigh-in and I always feel nervous and stressed out before it, because what if I haven’t lost any weight, or have lost less than I feel I should have. I know that’s not a good way of thinking and that some weeks I won’t see the number on the scale go down, even though I’ve done all the right things. So to help me stay motivated and not stress out over the numbers, I’m going to try doing something new on Mondays. In addition to weighing, I’m going to remind myself of how my life is better this week since I started eating healthier food and getting some exercise.
( Good Things )
Weekend Movies
( The Laws of Attraction )
( Chak De! India )
I hope everyone who celebrates it had a lovely Mother’s Day.
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| Secrets of Adulthood Article; Speed Racers, First Loves and Early Anime |
[May. 8th, 2008|12:26 pm] |
Secrets of Adulthood
I don’t agree with all of them, especially not “It's important to be nice to EVERYONE,” because I don’t believe there’s any necessity at all to be nice to child molesters and such. But the rest of the list is pretty good. Especially, “Someplace, keep an empty shelf.” I have not been doing that, but I think I am going to try it this weekend.
Moving from adulthood to childhood ...
Speed Racer Thoughts
I haven’t seen the movie yet, so these are not thoughts on the movie itself.
I have a special interest in all things Speed Racer. A really serious special interest, because Speed was my First True Love, at the age of 7. Had Speed Racer fandom been accessible to me at that age, I would have been one of its most active (and probably wankiest, but hey I was 7) participants. I’m fairly certain I scribbled down some way OOC Mary Sue ficlets somewhere. I pray to the gods they have biodegraded if I did. I know I over-identified with Trixie. Every man I’ve been attracted to in my life has shared most of the physical and non-physical characteristics with him (except of course none of them have been race car drivers or had a little brother who hung out with a monkey). I still love to hear his voice. I had no idea I was watching and fangirling anime at the time. In fact, I did not know Speed Racer was anime until a few years ago (about the same time I realized it was Speed who who was the genesis of my Ideal Man). I’m grateful for all the recent talk about the movie, just because it’s bringing back some very happy memories.
This morning while I was enjoying my last few minutes in bed and all drowsy and befuddled, I got an extra bonus helping of those happy memories when I listened to this short piece, Speed Racer Film a Far Cry from its Anime Roots on NPR. I remember it discussed the origins of the original TV show, and how it was made and that I found that very interesting in my sleep-befuddled state. I’ve thought about it all morning, so I listened to it again at lunch time and it really is an interesting and fun clip. Whether you’re a fan of anime and interested in its roots or just waxing nostalgic, I highly recommend it.
I have not decided if I’ll see the new Speed Racer movie. Maybe I will in a while, and with low expectations. In the meantime, I have DVDs of the original TV series. Guess what I’m planning on doing this weekend ... ;)
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| Cinco de Mayo, Movies, Flavored Water Recipe |
[May. 5th, 2008|11:52 am] |
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
( Wimbledon )
( Because of Winn Dixie )
( Netflix Watch Now Rec: King Corn )
I am not following the “flat belly” diet, but I do like the water recipe that comes with it:
Sassy Water
2 liters water (about 8 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 medium cucumber peeled and thinly sliced
1 medium lemon thinly sliced
12 small spearmint leaves
Combine ingredients and let it stand in fridge overnight. Drink all water the next day.
ETA: The Cornwall Cam has some really pretty pics up today.
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| Restaurant, War, Inc. |
[May. 2nd, 2008|12:44 pm] |
Today’s ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif) thefridayfive looked to me like it was going to dredge up a lot of negativity, so I’m going to pass on it this week. I don’t have a problem with it in theory, I just don’t feel like this is a good time for me to answer some of those questions.
I want to eat at this restaurant so much! The website design is kind of awful, but the menu ... OMG! Especially the organic desserts. Yum! And they deliver!
It’s time for me to movie promote again. This time, War, Inc.. (IMDB Listing)
The schedule, if you happen to be in the NYC area:
First it’s at the Tribeca Film Festival
APRIL 28, 2008 - 9:30 pm @ BMCC Tribeca PAC
MAY 2, 2008 - 6:00pm @ BMCC Tribeca PAC
MAY 3, 2008 - 5:00pm @ Village East Cinema 1
MAY 4, 2008 - 12:00pm @ Village East Cinema 1
(Sorry - that’s just today and tomorrow left to see it. You can buy tickets here.)
Next, Toronto:
AMC Yonge & Dundas 24 Cinemas - 10 Dundas Street East, TORONTO, ON.
EMPIRE Empress Walk 10 Cinemas - 5095 Yonge Street, TORONTO, ON.
AMC Winston Churchill 24 - 2081 Winston Park Drive, OAKVILLE, ON.
AMC Kennedy Commons 20 - 33 William Kitchen Road, SCARBOROUGH, ON.
AMC Interchange 30 - 30 Interchange Way, WOODBRIDGE, ON.
Then it opens in NYC and LA on May 23. I’ll post theater, etc. closer to that date and then keep you posted on wherever else it’s showing.
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| Diet, Movies, Kindle |
[Apr. 29th, 2008|09:50 am] |
Whee! Yesterday I wore a skirt I haven’t been able to wear in over a year! It was my weigh-in day and I lost another 3.4 pounds last week. So I did manage to slow things down a little, but not enough. I need to try to get it closer to 2.5 this coming week.
Weekend Movies
( The Interpreter )
( Billy Elliott )
I also tried to watch Wimbledon, but my dvd player kept saying, “no disk,” so I took it out and looked at it and there was a big ol’ crack down the back of it, so back to Netflix it goes. I asked them to send a replacement.
Kindle
Do any of you know anything about this device? Have any of you tried it? Is it the wave of the future amazon.com claims it is or a $400+ waste of money or something in between?
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| Trainer/Gym, Movies, USA Film Festival, Dog Furniture, Friday Five |
[Apr. 25th, 2008|11:12 am] |
Our meeting with a trainer last night was a huge waste of time. I’m still angry about it this morning. The first part of it, where he got our measurements and calculated our bmi using calipers was fine. But he didn’t share the information with us (except the bmi, mine was a tiny bit lower than I thought it was). Then he babbled at us for approximately an hour. It was basically his sales schpiel. I just really didn’t need that. I understand they don’t want to give away a real training session for free, but I’d rather buy an hour of his time that amounted to something substantive than be babbled at for an hour. And at the end he refused to quote us any prices. I felt like I was on a used car lot. Not good. Not good at all. When the second trainer calls, (the one who’s more likely to do any actual training) I’m just going to tell him up front he needs to start out quoting me a price or hang up the phone. My dad taught me to walk off car lots when salesmen treat me this way and I can do that with a gym, as well.
In more fun weekend news:
The USA Film Festival has a salute to Mystery Science Theater 3000 on Saturday with creator Joel Hodgson and MST3K vets Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Kevin Murphy, Mary Jo Pehl and J. Elvis Weinstein reuniting for a special clip presentation (created exclusively for the USA Film Festival) and panel discussion. I probably won’t go, but boy is it tempting.
Also, there’s a lovely little wankfest in the comments to Pegasus News’s review of Expelled (which also opens at and has a panel at the USA Film Festival). Not that wank there is surprising. It’s a movie (like some of Michael Moore’s) designed to create wank.
And finally, if you’ve been asking yourself, “What if my dog is not spoiled enough? ... Tuesday Morning provides the answer.
thefridayfive:
1. Whats harder to live without, chocolate or alcohol?
I suppose that depends on whether or not you’re an alcoholic. I’m not addicted to either. My problem is more with sugar and fat-drenched starchy carbs.
2. Does the colour yellow remind you of anything?
a) That creepy short story about the wall paper, and 2) a framed print I have at home. I can’t wear yellow, because it washes me out, but I don’t object to it on principle. Still, it’s not one of my favorites.
3. Who most annoyed you last week?
See above paragraph re: trainer.
4. Do you have a cutesy romantic nickname for your partner (or previous partners)?
I don’t currently have a partner, but I usually don’t do that.
5.What is your favourite Stephen King movie?
I think I’ll have to go with Stand by Me as my all time classic favorite, though I have a cheesy fondness for the original TV miniseries of Salem’s Lot (from 1979), I am still scared by The Shining and I adore 1408. There are a few recent ones, including The Mist (which short story scared me witless when I first read it) that I have on my Netflix queue.
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| Sort of Random Stuff |
[Apr. 22nd, 2008|01:53 pm] |
I can't find my MP3 player. I'm hoping I just put it down in a different place at home because I don't really have a new routine yet.
I can’t believe I missed this live blogging chat yesterday! *sob* At least the transcript is still up.
I cannot wait to see this movie, even though I will have to wait. *sigh* He mentions both Angelika and Landmark theaters and we have both here, so I think the chances are pretty good it’ll end up here before long, especially since Grace is Gone really packed ‘em in here.
I may be dieting, but I still love good food and this dinner sounds fabulous.
As a counter to the last link, and since I need to add some calories to my diet to slow things down, I went looking for nutrient-dense foods online and found this link: World’s Healthiest Foods.
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| Diet & Exercise, Dessert, My Boy Jack |
[Apr. 21st, 2008|11:18 am] |
I’m a little nervous today because I’m planning on weighing tonight and it’ll be my first opportunity to see if there’s been any change over a week. I keep telling myself that it’s okay if I didn’t lose 2 pounds because at least I ate healthier food and was more active and that can’t be a bad thing, and if it happens again next week I’ll just tweak what I’m doing and move forward, but still some positive feedback from the scale would be awfully nice. And boy, was that a poorly constructed sentence! Ha!
On Saturday one of the trainers approached me at the front desk while I was checking in, and I felt a little more comfortable with him than I have with the other two I’ve talked to, so I set up an appointment for Thursday night for a free evaluation/getting started session. Hopefully my workout buddy will be okay with that, but if not I’ll just change it.
Now for something more fun ... I had two diet desserts this weekend:
1) A Breyer’s No Sugar Added Creamy Vanilla Bar (150 cals, 9 g fat, 18 g carbs 6 g. sugar) which was not very good because, while the chocolate coating is fine, the ice cream inside it is very grainy; and
2) A Mrs. Smith’s Heavenly 100 Chocolate Mousse (100 cals, 3 g fat, 17 g carbs, 11 g sugar) which truly was heavenly and creamy and chocolatey and YUM!
The chocolate mousse was a lot of sugar in a fairly small package, but as an occasional treat it was worth it and it was so good it felt like I was eating a lot.
Computer Guy came and looked at my computer and did some things to it, but it still rebooted itself while I was playing Sims 2. Maybe that is something that is just not fixable? It is pretty irritating, though.
No movies this weekend. Not much TV, either. I mostly was out on Saturday and did a lot of housekeeping and finished unpacking. And on Sunday I slept a lot. I am used to getting part of my make-up sleep on Saturday and didn’t this week, so I guess that is why I was so dead tired on Sunday.
However, I did watch ( Dan Radcliffe in My Boy Jack )
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| St. Patricks Day, Weekend Movies |
[Mar. 17th, 2008|10:33 am] |
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
I forgot to wear green.
The Cornwall Cam has primroses on this page and shetland ponies and surfing on this page.
Weekend Movies
This weekend I had Katie Holmes as an insufferable brat, classic Clark Gable - with a puppy, Alan Rickman styling hair! and Bubble from Ab Fab showing off how incredibly talented she is.
( Pieces of April )
( The Awful Truth )
( Blow Dry )
( Little Voice )
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| American Idol, Top Chef, HP Movies |
[Mar. 13th, 2008|11:37 am] |
Between the time change and coughing (and I think somewhat from being hungry) I am completely exhausted. My computer person is coming by this weekend and I also have to do a little cleaning, but other than that my plan for this weekend is to sleep.
I didn’t really watch American Idol this week because I’m not all that interested in any of the contestants this time around and please don’t shoot me but I think the theme was good-but-seriously-over-hyped-artists this week.
So ( American Idol )
Now, Top Chef, on the other hand, I am very interested in. And the first episode did not disappoint me at all. It made me desperately hungry for deep dish pizza ( and some other yummy things )
The news about the last HP book being made into two movies makes me happy. IMO more is better and it will be a longer time until it’s over, so yay!
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| Time Change, Diet, Weekend Movies |
[Mar. 10th, 2008|10:20 am] |
Ugh. Time change. I never do well with this time change. But I did get up on time this morning. Our bus was a couple of minutes early this morning, which led to a lot of confusion. I tried to explain to the driver that we were asking him which bus he was because we are so used to our bus showing up at the train station 10 minutes late rather than 3 minutes early but he just sort of grumbled at me and left to talk on his cell phone.
I think I am mostly well now and I am trying to get my diet back on track. I completely blew it last week. It wasn’t so much that I ate a lot. In fact, there were a couple of days when I think I only had a cup of soup and a piece of toast, but what I did eat was too high in carbs and fat, plus I think the cough medicine was loaded with sugar. Hopefully one week won’t have messed me up too badly, though.
The theme for my weekend movies this week was Guilty Pleasures, or at least, attempts at guilty pleasures:
( Blue Crush )
( Somersault )
( Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle )
( First Daughter )
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| Cat Problems, Movies |
[Mar. 2nd, 2008|11:13 pm] |
Happy early spring. We have the first tornado watch of the season this evening.
I am having some cat problems, as in I have a cough and didn't want him lying on my chest and he got pissy when I made him get off and bit me. All I did was kind of sit up and pet him on his side which is what I usually do when I want him to get off me. And he did get off, but then he sat looking at me for a moment, very angrily, then *chomp* He is (at least temporarily) completely banned from the bedroom. peach1250, we'll need to figure out what to do about this when you're cat sitting, because he is absolutely *not* going to bite you. I think it's clearly my fault and I need to spend the next 3 - 4 weeks re-establishing dominance, but I'm not sure if he'll be allowed back in the bedroom even after that. He is not going to like this. Wish me luck!
Weekend Movies:
( Firewall )
( The Sum of Us )
( A Room with a View )
( Win a Date with Tad Hamilton )
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| Movie Quote Meme/Quiz |
[Feb. 18th, 2008|11:42 am] |
Movie Meme taken from lilferret
1. Pick 15 of your favourite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Fill in the film title once it's guessed.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.
Comments are screened to give everyone a chance to answer all of them without help. I’ll provide the answers tomorrow or when someone has guess all of them, whichever comes first.
I am going to make this somewhat hard for you. They are not ALL John Cusack movies, and despite my love for them I am totally skipping Casablanca, The Princess Bride and Office Space. None of them are from The Usual Suspects, either. One of them is really easy. And here’s one helpful hint - most of these are older movies. Good luck!
( Movie Quotes )
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| Politics, Weekend Movies, Dieting/fitness, Superbowl, Horoscope |
[Feb. 4th, 2008|12:36 pm] |
Political Stuff:
Surprises this weekend – Both Maria Shriver and my sister came out for Obama.
And then there was the news that nutjob Ann Coulter claims she’ll campaign for Hillary Clinton if McCain is nominated. McCain must have danced for joy over that announcement.
Also, this is fun to play with.
Weekend Movies:
( Tristan and Isolde )
( Ice Princess )
( Just Like Heaven )
( Charlotte Gray )
Weight Loss Update
1. Get Rich Slowly has a companion blog, which I created an LJ syndicated feed for, Get Fit Slowly.
2. I was pretty good over the weekend. I allow myself 1 day off my diet every week, and Saturday was that day. I still ate well, but I had some of these chips (they are lower in carbs and especially in sugar than most other chips, but are still partly potato chips) and dessert of fresh berries and yogurt.
3. I also cooked up several lean, low carb dishes to help get me through the week.
4. And I walked both Saturday and Sunday.
I do not own a scale and don’t believe in weighing, at least for myself. It tends to have a negative impact rather than a positive one, but I could tell my clothes were looser, and I felt better in general.
Superbowl:
I didn’t watch*, but congrats Giants fans and condolences Patriots fans.
*Of course I didn’t – the puppy bowl was on!
Horoscope
You face a day of some conflict, nevertheless the discord will prove quite useful. This is probably one of the best opportunities of recent weeks to become aware of some family matters that have been occurring behind your back for some time now. News about some past personal history may surprise you, and perhaps even upset you for a short time.
Yes, that actually is how my day is going.
And I cannot figure out why everyone wants to talk at me on and on and on and on today. STFU peoples! Gah!
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