We Are The Littles

So, Friday I had a hankerin’ for some pancakes. I asked the cook to go to the store and buy some pancake mix and make’em on Saturday with some bacon and eggs. The store was out on Friday and Saturday was sanitation day which means nobody can be on the streets until 10:30am. So, he went back Saturday morning and got the stuff but by the time he returned the moment was gone. It was too late. No pancakes for me on Saturday.

I woke up this morning at my usual time, 5:30am, talked to MBM for a while and then decided to attempt my own pancakes (the cook has Sundays off). The result is below. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. The pancakes are just regular old pancakes. For the eggs I chopped up a FRESH clove of garlic, threw in some salt & pepper, and a little bit of cheese. Cheesy garleggs and pancakes.

Since it’s Sunday, the day of rest, I plan on doing as little as possible. I’m still on my push up quest and still trying to run as often as possible. I did a measly 2mi run yesterday, but I did a whopping 72 push ups on Friday! This Tuesday is my two week test to see how many I can do consecutively. Should be interesting.

That’s all I have for today. If you haven’t seen the Halloween pics MBM put up make sure to scroll down and check them out.

From POTD's

I don’t think the tiny scorpions we used to find in Oklahoma would stand much of a chance next to this bad boy. Some of the guys found it on one of the trucks that came down from Northern Nigeria to deliver some stuff. No Q.o.U., they didn’t kill it. It was dead when they found it. I’m glad they don’t have critters like this where I’m at. Can you imagine stepping on one of these on your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night!!!??? Talk about a rude awakening.

In other news… There are some great new pictures over on Gabby’s Virtual Baby Book. MBM took the best one yet and it’s up for all to see. Go have a gander.

Good night.

From POTD's

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I had one that was typical of being in Wichita Falls, uneventful! I did however have some really good photo ops. Here are two that I would like to share with you all. Of course, there will be many more to come.

Something to make you giggle: On the way back to Houston (boys will be boys!)

From Labordayweekend

Something to make you hungry: My uncle and aunt made me lunch (Brisket Bolio and fixin’s)

From Labordayweekend

Yes, she has arrived. She came into the world kicking and screaming, but not very much and not very loud. Just enough to let us know that all was well.

We made it to the hospital this morning around 8:30am and by 1:30pm MBM & Gabriela had completed their task for the day. I wanted to make a stop at Best Buy or Circuit City on the way to the hospital but MBM didn’t want any part of that for some reason. She said something about finding an attorney if I stopped anywhere. I’m not quite sure what that was about.

Anyway, I stayed in the room for the entire thing. I didn’t get sick or pass out as many people expected. Sorry to let you all down. Gabriela Sophia Little weighed in at 7lbs 2oz and is 20in long.

So, that’s all I have for now. You can see a few more pictures over here. Full-screen slideshow is here.

*EDIT* Got one of the videos up. You can see it in glorious high definition here.

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.

Later.

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…

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.

Later.

From POTD's

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.

From Picture of th…

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.