Well, the run I had tonight was probably the best I’ve had in almost a year. We got home from work late and I talked to MBM for quite a while and I almost didn’t go but of course I got to feeling guilty about it and took off. I did a little over 4.5mi in 45min - around 9min 45sec per mile and didn’t stop once. When I get my total time up to 60min and my speed down around 9min miles I’ll be close to the old days. I figure by the time I get back for my next hitch I’ll be there… Assuming I can keep it up while I’m home!
As you can see from the title, I’ve been eating as healthy as ever and that probably has a lot to do with my runs getting better. Yea yea yea MBM, I know you told me that many moons ago. Go ahead and say it, “I told you so!” After many buttchewings the cook has done away with the butter, mayo, most of the oils, and I’m pretty much on a grilled chicken and veggie diet. Today for lunch I had a grilled chicken breast and a pile of spinach and onions. I’m sure my breath was SAAMOKIN! Tonight I had another grilled chicken breast with green beans and one of those big white things that some folks call a leek and others call a Nigerian radish. Either way it was pretty tasty. POTD #12 is a picture of tonights dinner. POTD #11 was from Saturday night.
In other news, the boss is leaving for Lagos tomorrow so I’m back in command for a while. Not something I’m looking forward to. This hitch has gone by easier and faster than any of the others, I just hope it doesn’t get to crazy for the next few days.
And finally, there is a slideshow below of MBM’s thrifty finding’s of late. She’s taken thrifty to a new level by spending all of our money on cheap things. I don’t know how well it’s working though. When we bought a few expensive things we didn’t have any money. Now she buys a bunch of inexpensive things and we still don’t have any money! Something is not right here. (That’s a joke mom, don’t get your knickers in a twist. Nobody is going hungry.)
To end it all, it’s 10:30pm and I just had a guy call and holler and scream at me over the phone about one of our compressors going down. Guess my last few days are going to be fun filled after all.
So, I was perusing some of my favorite sites when I came across a link for TotSpot. TotSpot is an online community where you share pictures, videos, and just about anything else about your child. I thought it was a great idea, looked nice, was easy to use, but fell short when I tried to incorporate my pictures from Picasa Web Albums. Not good TotSpot. Then I came across Kidmondo. Kidmondo only plays nice with Flickr and if you want to get rid of the ads you have to pay at least $5/mth.
So, I thought about what these sites do & what they offer. They host your pictures if you want, but I don’t need anyone to do that as I use Picasa Web Albums. They don’t host your videos but they do allow you to insert them into blogs. I can do that here. They have online social networks. I’m not interested. This is as social as I want to get online. So, I came up with my own Virtual Baby Book for Gabriela. It’s a work in progress and I’m not going to give away the link until she decides to grace us with her presence. By then it should be ready for prime time!
Think about it though… How cool is it going to be to have all the pictures, videos, stories, etc… all rolled up in one place and in chronological order from the beginning of her life until she runs off and gets hitched at the age of 35? What would be even better is when she does run off and get hitched at the age of 35 she takes the reigns and continues to update it so it would last even longer. It wouldn’t end up like most of the other baby books, half filled out, hidden away in a dusty old box in the attic. It’s always there, always accessible, and future proof.
It’s cool. I’m excited. I’m getting antsy. She’ll be here in 21 days or less. I’m home in 11.
O.k. from everything I have been reading, there are three great ways to decorate your house on a budget: 1) ask people for things you need that they may want to give to you or know of someone who may 2) garage sales 3) thrift stores
I am obsessed with reading decorating budgeting blogs and frugal shopping. In my enthusiasm, I have discovered the professionals and the “closet-cases” coming out now that it is IN to be thrifty. I am rejuvenated and excited. This is a great world. You can be creative, challenge and conquer, and come out smelling like inexpensive potpourri roses!
Yesterday, Justin and I had a very busy day. We started at the Goodwill very early. I have posted pictures of our finds, along with a great table my sissy-in-law gave me! She also gave us a great crib and a dresser that once belonged to her Grandma. I will take pictures of these later when I have them situated just right, but they are perfect additions to our nursery.
O.k. as many of you have noticed, Gabriela Sophia will be arriving soon, 23 days! I had my first weekly appointment yesterday. All looks good still. It seems just like yesterday that we found out we were expecting. Now, she is almost here. Wow!
My sissy is coming to visit me this weekend. I plan on taking her out early on Saturday to join us frantic Garage Salers or we may just go to Trader’s Village. The possibilities are endless, especially since Gabe just got paid!
p.s. did you know that you can buy coupons off of ebay? Not surprising I guess since you can buy toast that looks like the Pope on there, too.
Justin and I are back home. He had a great stay with Weezer and PaPa. He even picked up a new addition to the family. It is nice to know your children are paying attention to your parenting skills and growing up right! Look at Justin’s new Build-A-Bear friend! He is our POTD. Presenting Rocky Little II…
I really can not tell who is who in the Twin picture depicted in the previous blog. I think I am the one on the right, but can not say for sure. There is no writing on the back to prove otherwise. There is writing on this picture, however, and for sure I am the girl in it. You decided which little twin is me. The girl on the left or the girl on the right. Either way, we had some messed up shoes and socks!!!
Gabe’s job is to make money. My job is to spend it!
My latest obsession is decorating on a dime! My friend and babysitter, Marina, and I hit the neighborhoods today on a quest for great bargains, also known as, garage saling! She is an expert. In Houston, garage saling is an art form. The early bird catches the worm is the mantra of all garage salers. We were out by 7:00 a.m. This is late according to most experts. We all joke that you have to beat the Mexican ladies. Don’t be afraid to laugh. It is true and any real Mexicana will tell you so!
Today, I had a budget of $50. In Houston, that is more than enough to buy treasures. Houston is a great mecca of garage sales. There are a lot of good deals to be found. It is overwhelming. There were so many sales being held on this first day of summer.
Here is a slide show of my finds. I am particularly proud of one purchase. I can hardly wait for the next go round. Don’t worry honey, I will not go for another two weeks or so. I must warn you, garage saling is addicting!
Many of you have heard my tales of my hometown. No matter where I go or what I do, Wichita Falls will always be in my blood. I was able to spend more time than usual in my old stomping grounds this past weekend. I took my kids on a cathartic journey with me as I forced them to witness my old haunts and hiding places. I made sure to take several pictures to document my walk down memory lane. If you let yourself be absorbed, going back home with your kids can not only be a journey back in time, but one forward following the circle of life. It is hard for me not to go home and remember things such as the railroad tracks, my old church, my sister and I as kids, the East Side, high school (Moving Forward Strong and True, Senior Class of 2002!, stop smirking Linda), my grandmother making tortillas, simple laughter, and trying times.
The picture above is one of the many my grandmother gave me this past weekend of me and my sister in our very early years. She will never know just how much I appreciate these pictures. Below are new pictures I took with captions explaining what you are looking at.
When I go back home, I will be sure to take some pictures of places that I forgot to include. For example, the general store, Davenport’s, next to my grandma’s house that still lets customers charge on a bill and is known for it famous hot links. The Chicken Box, a legendary East Side Chicken Place that brought in loyalist from all over the city, rich and poor alike, for its dipped chicken livers and gizzards and crisp chicken, and an old storage building where my sister and I truly believed as kids that the Kool-Aid Man (oh, yeah) lived, always expecting him to bust through the wall.
So, today was just another typical day at work. Nothing very exciting happened. Nothing to tell. It’s the first day out of the last 5 that it wasn’t pouring down rain when I got home. The sun wasn’t out (it hardly ever is) but I didn’t do my daily run. After 4 days of complaining you’d think I would have been out there as soon as I got home… But I was tired and really not in the mood. Tomorrow will be better. T.G.I.F.
But, the big news of my day was my dinner. After almost 35 weeks of eating trash here I had a talk with my cook (see yesterday’s entry), gave them some money, and POTD #9 is what they came up with. If you look at the picture you’ll see grilled shrimp stuffed with mushrooms on skewers with onions, tomatoes, and peppers. On the side, broccoli, mushrooms, lemons, and that big white thing they call a radish. I’ve never seen such a radish, actually thought it was fish at first glance. Anyone know it by another name? Anyway, I ate the skewers complete with all the attached onions, peppers, & SHROOMS (but I didn’t eat all of the loose shrooms. I ate a few though). I ate the broccoli. Don’t tell MBM but it wasn’t half bad. They seasoned it with something and it didn’t really taste like broccoli. And finally, I ate the radish-thingy. It didn’t have much plant flavor either but had some kind of seasoning. It was OK, I’ll eat it again. So, the majority of my meal was ruffage and it was good. And I ate it. POTD #9.1 is your proof.
I told the guys only to cook from my menu, but the store didn’t have any boneless chicken breasts so they bought whole-small chickens and said they are going to skin them and debone them themselves. Did I mention I was impressed? Why didn’t I tell them to do this long ago? Actually, I told my old cook to do it but he didn’t know how.
So, there you have it. Hopefully they can keep this up and I might just have a fighting chance while I’m here.
Finally, MBM made it home from her journey North. She’s at the doctor’s office right now getting a check-up on the wee-est one. Savannah is on her way to Florida, James is still in WF, and Justin is wreaking havoc in OKC. And I’m still here.
So, I signed up for the one week trial on Weight Watchers.com. Things here are bad enough and the patented Gabe Little Diet doesn’t seem to be an option. Not only did I sign up, but I had a talk with my cook about how I wanted him to cook and I gave him 7 recipes (one for each day of the week) and told him he was not to deviate from the plan one bit. No extra butter, mayo, oil, etc… If it ain’t on the list it ain’t in this house. I was told yesterday where I could find decent boneless chicken breasts here so all of my recipes are of course chicken-based. They also had to be Port Harcourt ingredient friendly (which means stuff available here and that’s not much) but I think I found 7 that will do. Wanna see’em? Of course I put them on line for your perusal.
As for the family, MBM is on her way back home from Oklahoma City, Savannah is getting ready (I assume) to leave for Florida tomorrow, James is living it up in Wichita Falls, and poor Justin was left behind in OKC to spend some quality time with Weezer & Poppa before hammin’ it up with the Manthei’s in Texarkana. O’yea, I’m still stuck here in Port Harcourt. All alone. With nobody to keep me company. All alone. Woe is me. Woe is me.
One more thing… The POTD! I thought this would be a nice touch on the outside of Brenda’s Bar. Kind of matches the joint and gives it a little character. Who knows, might actually keep some of the drunks from peeing on her asthetically pleasing welcome mat.
Oh, and another one more thing… It rained pretty much all day yet again. The jump rope is looking better all the time. If it rains again tomorrow I guess I’ll have to give it a shot.
It’s yet another dreary day in Port Harcourt. It rained pretty much all day today, yesterday, and the day before. It’s put a damper on my running and I’m not pleased. Hopefully tomorrow will be rain-free, at least after 5pm or I will be forced to find another means of exercise that might just drive my downstairs neighbors into a frenzy… I’m talking about jumping rope of course.
So, today is an important day because it marks the official release of version 3 of the greatest web-browser ever… FIREFOX. Are you all still using that tired, busted, ugly, Microsoft Internet Explorer browser? Well do yourself a favor and go download the latest and greatest version of Firefox. You know what you’ll be doing when you download it? You’ll be contributing to the breaking of a world record. Mozilla (the makers of Firefox) are trying to break the world record for most downloads in a 24hr period. The servers are a bit slow because half the universe is downloading it but it’s worth the wait. So, go get it!
And now for the POTD. Brenda’s Bar. What more can I say? My mothers dream of owning her own bar have finally come true. She never would share any of her Santa money with us, said she was saving it for something big and now we know what it is. Congrats Mom. We’re so proud of your new establishment. Don’t steal too many waitresses from the Waffle House.
I’m outta here. The season finale of Lost is calling my name and I must go watch.
(That’s a joke mom, don’t get your knickers in a twist. Nobody is going hungry.)
