I lost FOUR more pounds!!!! I am PSYCHED!
I am down 14 lbs! SWEET!!!
Of course 10 of the 14 lbs I had gained over the holidays because I had given myself permission to eat anything that was edible and not nailed down. So, it isn’t as impressive as you would think, but remember I am really good at rationalizing things so in my mind..it is AWESOME!!!!
Well, unlike my Boston friends that are BURIED in snow…we got hit hard this past weekend. But it was and continues to be beautiful. It is so inconvenient, so darn tootin’ cold and so pretty. ALL at the same time! I love when snow collects on the tree branches and looks like a live Ansel Adams print.
I learned how to peel an egg without having to peel it manually. You put it in water in a jar with a lid..because I started in a cup with my hand. You can imagine how that went! Shake it ferociously and it shakes it off. Let me tell you..the energy you exert to shake that shell off the egg is great for weight loss, but I still think it is easier to knock the bottom, then the top of the egg, and roll it in your hand to crack it and peel it off.
I cleaned the under cabinets in my bathroom. I will certainly be outlived by my soap!!! I have enough soap that it can be passed down through the generations.
I made some yummy stuff while stuck at home. I took a pork chop and drizzled olive oil on it and then sprinkled tarragon on it and then split it down the center and stuffed it with mozzarella cheese and apricots. I thought it was pretty tasty for something I made up out of thin air.
I made an omelet with mozzarella, mushrooms, spinach, garlic, onion, kielbasa, avocado and Dijon mustard. Yummy. The secret is to sauté the mushrooms, spinach, garlic, onion and then add the kielbasa and then the egg and then the cheese and the avocado at the end with the mustard.
I found a recipe to make mashed potatoes without the potatoes. I made it with cauliflower. I zapped the cauliflower in the microwave till it was soft. It was roughly 10 minutes. I put it in the Cuisinart with butter, garlic, salt and pepper and pureed it till it was the consistency of mashed potatoes. I thought it was pretty tasty. I garnished it with chives.
My meeting about my book went really well. I need to rework some things for accuracy but I was very pleased. Even better, my friend Jennie sat down and brainstormed with me on ideas and gave me great help and insight.
I went to visit my friends Linda and Tom, who I feel like I have barely seen. He is SUCH a talented writer and he is having a hard time in the writing industry and I really, truly believe that if you don’t know someone first hand to open the door for you into a publication it doesn’t matter what you write or how well…you can’t get in. There are probably so many talented people out there not getting into their fields of desire and where their talents reside for lack of connections. That is so wrong!!!
I was invited to a cocktail party the night before Valentine’s Day. It was a bunch of gals in the building. It is a group I do not know well at all. I know the host well and like her a lot but it was interesting to meet some of the other participants in the group.
Okay, I have been going to the same dentist since I was 2! I love my dentist. Actually, the original dentist in the group retired and I switched over to the gal groomed to take it over for him and I love her. Now she is grooming her daughter to take it over. HOWEVER, last week, I went to have my teeth cleaned and can I tell you…the dental hygienist told me AT LEAST 50 times I need to floss regularly. So, I guess she either thinks I do not understand English and didn’t get it the first 10 times she told me. It was unnerving. I almost shouted. I GET IT! In my head I was saying BACK OFF!!!! I thought about calling and saying next time give me ANYONE but her!!!! She was a kind person, but lady…LET IT GO!!!
So this gal in the building that I knew to say hello and is a close friend of a close friend of mine told me she had some vintage clothing for me and to come check it out. I put it off for fear that I wouldn’t like it and didn’t want to offend her, but our mutual friend said that would not be a problem.
I went. She was from Arkansas and came to Cincy for a liver transplant and stayed! Nice gal. Interesting gal. I stayed and spoke with her. However, what was interesting is what she passed along to me. HATS! Some of which were Neiman Marcus hats! Not bad at all!!! A great hat for a funeral…she referred to it as her funeral hat. Then a hat that is reminiscent of my dad’s hats but with a more 1960’s hip band on it, Katherine Hepburn style hats, a skirt that looks like it dates back to the Civil War and was HUGE. She said she misjudged the size of my tush! Geez…if it was that big…I am glad I can’t see it. I say that in jest because I KNOW it wasn’t! And then a poncho that she had made by the same company who made Clint Eastwood’s and looks identical. Maybe from the film, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. I don’t care which film. I just think it is really cool! It was such a nice and generous gesture from someone who barely knows me. I was really touched.
My mom has a friend named Loretta who lives in Savannah where she lived part-time and who would give her cool gifts with really cool stories attached to them. Henry Winkler suggested to Loretta to buy a bracelet she was looking at at a party down in Soho in the 70’s before he became the Fonz and now she was passing that very bracelet onto my mom.
This day of the hats and the stories that went with the items reminded me of Loretta and her gifting and how cool and honored one is to be the recipient of those really special gifts.
Miss Mary Lou my pool walking buddy came over for coffee one day and to see Miss Dulce. It is so odd to see someone daily at the pool and winter comes and we all go to our cubicles (aka condos) and stay in till Spring.
Man on man, it is cold here! All the dogs are shaking their paws from the cold on their tender pads of their paws. They are sinking into the snow and having a ball. It went to 22 the other day and I took a cup of coffee out to a bench in the Meadow and sat there like it was a balmy day! Here is a look at what temps are like here…but nothing compared to what my Boston friends are dealing with…
When I was in college my best friend at the time went to Northwestern in Chicago. I went to visit her and she took me to The Original Pancake House for breakfast. We waited in line for at least 30 minutes to get their famed popovers. There is one of those Original Pancake Houses in Cincy…I had never, ever been there till the other day! Everything you order comes with pancakes! This is not the joint for a WHOLE 30 kind of a gal. I ordered a side of eggs and bacon and even the bacon had sugar on it. But the bacon was good. The eggs were cold, but none of it mattered because I was with my friend Sue!
THEN, I went to lunch with my friend Beth and her friend Shelly! We went to RUTH’s in Northside. I had a Parkside salad, which was tasty with bacon, Gorgonzola, hazelnuts, etc. Love the crunch! Both these gals work for University of Cincinnati in comparable positions in different colleges within the university. It was interesting. A lot in common and we had ALL lived in the DC area. Some interesting possibilities may come from that lunch!!
THEN, I went to dinner. I have barely eaten out since I started WHOLE 30 and now I am having 3 meals in one day out? And every course had bacon…sometimes being on a diet forces one to eat things they would normally not eat 3x a day!
I went with my friends Jean, Jay and Lynn to a place called The Grand Finale. They used to be known for their crepes. I remember years ago getting a crepe with mint chocolate chip ice cream in it and hot fudge on top. Yes, it was quite memorable. Definitely not on my diet today in any way, shape or form.
I started with bacon, lobster and sun-dried tomato deviled eggs. Oh delish!
For my main entrée, I had a scallop, bacon, and bleu cheese salad with a warm bacon vinaigrette dressing on top!
I may have stayed within the guidelines of my diet…roughly, but I may have clogged my arteries on the glut of bacon. I devoured in a steady pace ALL day long. Someone has to suffer!
I could NOT take pics for you because it was WAY too dark in there.
Jean kept insisting I try the dessert she got for us all to share but I had to be true to the diet. If I waver, I could easily slip back.
I must confess the last few days I have been craving Graeter’s ice cream like it is nobody’s business! I am going to try to hold out till my birthday in April, but not sure I will make it!
I went to an Oscar party last night (only for the Red Carpet portion of the show) that my friend who throws parties threw…she should throw parties for a living! She gets everything so perfect for each and every party. She would mint money if she did that for a living. Well anyway, she had a killer pulled pork. Wanna know how she made it?
She cooked the hunk of pork in her crockpot for 8 hours with 2 cans of root beer. She took it out, pulled the pork apart and added MONTGOMERY INN BBQ sauce and let me tell you. I had seconds. I would have had thirds if my belly or conscience would have let me.
I went to my friend Viv’s for the Oscar’s before the chocolate fondue came out. That would have taken a hardcore willpower that I didn’t want to test!
It was safer at Viv’s with a few Cutie oranges! Probably nowhere as good but I deluded myself into thinking they were!
Well, it is snowing again.
Until we meet again…
Enjoy! Eat, travel, laugh…often….
eattravellaugh 