A day or WAITING!

ONLY 7 more days left to work before my GLORIOUS Winter vacation. OH I CAN'T WAIT! I told you guys that my giddy joy-joy levels would rise as the day grew closer. You have been officially warned for the second time now. This will only get worse! I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping too. I'm probably at about 80% which is pretty freaking good for me. Almost shocking really!

As you know I spent most of my day yesterday organizing, moving furniture, putting out more Christmas decorations and cleaning. I swear I still smell like Lysol. By the time I sat down to eat dinner, write yesterdays post and get caught up on some blog reading it was nearing 10:00. By the time I looked up it was nearing 1:00 AM and Nick was passed out beside me. CRAP! I had no idea it was that late. Needless to say I woke up SUPER tired and was dragging my feet all morning.

Then I get to work only to find out that the server crashed sometime on Sunday during an update and the project database we use for EVERYTHING is down because of it. This is bad! Very, very bad! I read my emails, saved what I could and was then forced to stop, wait... wait... wait... but it was still down an hour later. I HAVE SO MUCH TO GET DONE BEFORE MY WINTER BREAK! This couldn't have happened at a worse time. To make myself feel better I went to make breakfast. YUMMY OATS AGAIN!

• 1/2 cup Irish oats
• 1 cup water
• dash salt
• dash pumpkin pie spice
• heavy dash cinnamon
• dried cherries
• golden raisins
• sweetened coconut flakes

Okay, it's official, I am in LOVE with Irish oats. I plan to stock up the next time I go grocery shopping. It has a much creamier and smoother consistency than regular oatmeal in my opinion. Very good!

Waiting....waiting.... (work piling up, unable to process)waiting.... waiting on the server to come back up! And then we get this status email at 10:30 from IT which left me speechless. "SQL Server was rebooted this weekend. After reboot, data since April is missing. We are working on retrieving the backup now!" THIS WAS VERY BAD NEWS PEOPLE!

I was STILL waiting as 12:00 rolled around. The work on my desk had doubled since the morning and there was nothing I could do about it. Fun stuff! Time for lunch I guess. :)

I let out all of my frustrations on this poor little salad. JABBING it with my fork. Stabbing the delicious little beans and tomatoes with wild fury. For some reason it made me feel a bit better. JUST A BIT THOUGH! Probably because it was so freakin delicious!

• iceberg lettuce
• baby arugula
• lima beans
• black beans
• Morning Star Farms black bean burger
• spray butter

I found myself STILL WAITING at 12:30! Ann and I figured we may as well leave for a bit and at least get some Christmas shopping done so I can feel somewhat productive today. I still needed to get something for my coworker and I knew I could get her done easily enough. We hit up Pier One and I wrapped her up in a mater of minutes. Easy Peasy! Now I'm probably at about 90% done. YAY!

We got back to work at 1:30 and you will never believe this, WE WERE STILL WAITING! Wow! I was officially scared. I kept thinking, what if they can't retrieve all of the lost data? It would cause complete, chaotic, catastrophic lunacy here in the office. But then, like an early Christmas miracle, all was restored at about 2:00 PM. YEAH! Back to NONSTOP work it was until a mini break for my afternoon snack at about 4:00. I had a plain Oikos yogurt cup with POM arils and a sliced banana. TASTY TREAT!


Then I worked my little fingers to the bone until 5:00 and headed straight to the gym. Without Ann. She got stuck at work. SUCKS! I can finally get back into weight training again. The arm is all better. It's peeling and somewhat scary looking but the soreness is all gone. The new plan of action for my workouts will consist of about 30 minutes of weights/machines (at least) and 30 minutes of cardio. I think all the cardio last week really helped with my weight loss so I want to keep that up. Here is the workout...

Elliptical
Interval training, level 3, 30 min., 358 calories
Situps with 10lb ball
x20
x20
x20
(it was at this point that Ann showed up, YAY...)
Ab Machine (Cable)
80lb x 20
90lb x 15
V-Bar Lateral Pulldown (Cable)
50lb x 20
60lb x 15
70lb x 10
High Row (plate loaded)
70lb x 20
80lb x 18
90lb x 12
Low Row (plate loaded)
30lb x 15
40lb x 12
50lb x 12
Face Pull with rope grip (Cable)
60lb x 20
70lb x 15
80lb x 10

I WAS WHOPPED! When I got home Nick was still working on the threshold/door situation. Men and their little projects around the house amuse me. "Oh, this is simple" they say. "Oh I can have this done in less then an hour" they say. That is never the case though, which I find to be hilarious. I let him do his thing though because he enjoys it. He has already purchased like 4 new tools to help him on this grand adventure. EXCUSES excuses!

I took a nice relaxing bath and then pondered over dinner. And then it came to me! PANCAKES! Simple, quick, delicious and filling. Perfect! Nick was game so I quickly made up some regular store brought batter for him and made his pancakes first. He doesn't like my healthy ones. He likes his fluffy and he thinks they're too dense. I think he's just too crazy to appreciate their perfection! Here is what went into my mix.

Into the blender went the usuals...

• 1/2 cup oats
• 4 egg whites
• splash of vanilla Almond Breeze
• dash salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• dash cinnamon
• dash pumpkin pie spice
• 1 banana, sliced

I blended till smooth and then stirred in the following right before pouring them into the pan...

• 2 tbs sweetened coconut
• dried cherries
• golden raisins

SO YUMMY! I topped them with a bit more dried fruits, coconut, sugar free syrup and a bit of pumpkin butter. DROOLING!


So uhm yeah, my throat soreness was getting worse as the evening progressed. SUCKS! I made a large cup of raspberry tea to try and soothe it.


I also enjoyed some Trader Joe's cinnamon schoolbook cookies on the side. I love these things with hot tea...


Alright, that's it, my pillow is calling my name now... Hav a great evening.

Saturday rolled into Sunday...

Hi everyone. Hope you are doing well. My weekend is nearing it's end but it's been such a fun one. Saturday started nice and early. I made myself a super tasty breakfast of banana and coco pancakes with fat free syrup. I absolutely love these pancakes. I'm experimenting with different add ins and they all come out excellent. This one was 1/2 cup of oats,3 egg whites, half of a banana, dash of salt, 2 packets of splenda, a tiny bit of vanilla extract and a teaspoon of coco. Blend till smooth and cook in a hot pan with some Pam for just a few minutes. I topped it with the other half of the banana and some syrup. OMG, so good!

Then I downed a cup of coffee and met Ann at the gym. It was leg day again. We did the usuals. Warm-up on the treadmill, squats, leg press, stiff leg dead-lifts, seated leg curls, leg extensions, hack squats and I also got on the ab machine and then we cooled down on the treadmill. It was a good workout!

My lunch was a simple bowl of cucumber salad. I made it using Mama's recipe. You cut the cucumbers as thin as possible, salt them well and then squeeze the extra liquid out of them. Toss them in bowl in which you have already whisked water, vinegar, pepper, splenda and a tablespoon of fat free sour cream in. Done. It's best served chilled. I had the salad with a turkey wrap and some very tasty hot/sweet mustard.

The I cleaned up and me and Ann went to the winery to enjoy the very gorgeous Saturday we were having. The place was packed. Birthday parties left and right. As you know from reading my blog, I love this place. We didn't take any snacks. Drinking wine was being naughty enough. We played pentago and scrabble and enjoyed the fine wine, scenery and the company. It was good times.

After the winery we went back to Ann's house and hung out for a bit. The wine had gotten the best of us and we were feeling lovely, just lovely. She made me a nice little salad for dinner. We cooked up some chicken breasts and just tossed that with the salad and some salsa dressing. Simple but tasty and filling. I forgot to take a picture. I will blame the wine. :-O

After dinner, I hung out for a bit and then drove home (yes, I was okay to drive by this time)... I spent the rest of the evening messing with Nick. Pretty sure he hates it when I drink wine. This won't stop me though. ;) BUGH BUGH!

Sunday morning I woke up, oddly enough, feeling good. I started my morning with coffee and pancakes again. This time I added blueberries to the same recipe instead of a banana. WOW, I think I love this one even more. How could I have went so LONG without these brilliant little pancakes in my life? HOW?


Anyways, moving on. I spent the next hour or so getting my cat high on catnip and then taking pictures of him. LOOK, LOOK HOW PRETTY HE IS! Mean little shit!


Nick was in the basement looking through his tools, look at what he found! Poor little lost guy was all covered in cobwebs. How the heck does a toad get into our basement? Very odd! Nick put him outside in the bushes. GOOD LUCK FELLOW!


For lunch I went to my moms but I took my own food. I made burritos for both Ann and I. Such a simple recipe. I took ground Morning Star (fake) meat and mixed that with 2 green onions, and black beans and taco seasoning and cooked it on low heat with a little water till nice and combined. We stuffed those into fat free tortillas and topped that with shredded lettuce, cherry tomatoes and fat free sour cream. Very good, and good for you. Also, very filling.


My mom made her famous breaded and deep fried pork and oven roasted potatoes which are smothered with oil. It smelled good but my burrito did too. I RESISTED!


For dinner we grilled out and I made ranch turkey burgers. I also grilled an onion and some mild Hungarian peppers. I had my burger with a high fiber English muffin instead of a bun. I also made a small side salad with Greek feta dressing. And of course, don't forget the pickle on the side!!!


Now we're of to Canton to hang out with some friends and to play some Settlers of Catan. I love that stupid game! We will probably be there for hours so goodbye and goodnight.

Wicked Wednesday....

Hey yall, it's mid-week. Halfway to FREEDOM. Can you stand it? I can't. I'm all giddy with anticipation! Today was another busy day at work. I should probably start trying to have breakfast at home, but I have a hard time waking up super early just for something that I can easily have at work. However, I'm obviously not having eggs, or wraps or anything actually worth having. I tend to have things like granola bars, fruit, instant oatmeal, or as I did today, toast with fat free apricot jam and a banana. Not bad I guess. Perhaps waking up early to make it at home is something I can strive to do in the future.

My lunch was MORE CABBAGE and great northern beans. Don't worry, this was the last of it and it'll be a while before I make it again.

My afternoon pre-workout snack was more Hummus with veggies. I need a food processor so I can start making this stuff at home. That or some Baba Ganoush. MMMM, so tasty!

It was leg day at the gym. It went pretty well. Though it seems way too early to be saying this (day 26 today), I swear I'm getting stronger already. Some of the things, like the Hack Squat, which I struggled with the first week are becoming more easy to do. Which is exciting. We were there for just a little over an hour today. We had a late start due to an accident on the Hwy. and had to take the back-roads to the gym. So we ended the day just a tad sooner then usual.

For dinner I made healthy pancakes. It's a recipe that Ann found on another blog (thanks healthy foddie blog ladies) and she makes them all the time. It's basically egg whites, blended in a blender with old fashioned oats, cinnamon, Splenda and baking powder. That's it. Then you make them like regular pancakes (with some Pam or oil, I used Pam) and voilà. Healthy pancakes. I blended some raspberries into mine as well and threw some on top and had it with some sugar free, low calorie syrup. I would have made it with blueberries but for some reason the store I ran to at lunch did not have any. NEXT TIME! I also had a glass of my new love, chocolate Almond Breeze. YEAH! All in all dinner was nice and filling. Not too much though, just enough.

Goodnight!! Now I'm sleepy and my bed beckons me to come hither.