Book and Movie catch up time

Ok - Movies since we last talked include: Music Within: worth watching; Australia: good for a laugh or two but could have been done in at least two places before it was actually finished; Run Fat Boy Run: hysterical!!!!! Must watch!!!!!

Books: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls - her memoir of life with crazy parents, well worth the read and it was a quick read by the way. And I had a little candy with Debbie Macomber's The Manning Grooms - cute one. I finished the Septimus Heap books (Magyk, Physyk, Flyte & Queste). Good books, a little more difficult to get into than others.

and, I was happy to introduce Jamie and Claire to Doreen Warner this week. She called me the day after I'd given it to her husband to pass along to her and she was already in need of the next book!!! And those are BIIIIIGGGG books! Always happy to help create more Diana Gabaldon fans!

Mason City

My weekend in Mason City! It was awesome. I drove down after work and had the joy of driving through an hours worth of fog, from just north of Owatonna to just north of Mason...yag. I hate fog, it's worse than snow! Snow and ice, you just drive really slow, but fog...well. It was not good. I made it to mason and it was clear and beautiful - got to see where Andy works all day - not quite a cubbie, not quite a palace. We headed to Fort Dodge on Saturday after we'd finally woken up (felt good to sleep in a bit) and took the scenic route through Webster City - what a cute town! Gonna have to drive that one when it's not raining sometime cuz there's some shopping that must be done there. Fort Dodge has a Fazoli's!!!!!!! and Andy let me pick where we ate late lunch!!!!! woohoo!!!!!!!

I got to see the babies in Fort Dodge...I decided I can't determine my favorite of the babies until I've had a ride in each one. I'll have to fill you in on that sometime later (the babies are cars, of course).

Went to a cool little bar with good food called Lefti's for supper with his parents. Good fish and chips, excellent loaded nachos. We didn't get home until 9 or so as we "had" to go to Target after dinner and then ended up sleeping too late for church. Whoops! Ended up with a bit of an ice shower so didn't head back north to MC until about 3, but then had a fun meandering drive north. Andy's gonna be once fantastic road trip partner!

The weekend was a great eating weekend with anything from subway to Lefti's to Chef's Kitchen and a fun one to get to know Andy's parents and Sam, his dog. Fort Dodge is a neat little town, just like Mason City!

and again, we have sunshine!

woohoo! Loves it! I even walked a bit at lunch today! it wasn't an insignificant amount of walking either - a REAL walk! ;) I'm recovering from a 13 hour day with the little monsters yesterday (as opposed to "the monsters" - there are the little monsters and the big monsters). We had a great time hanging out at "Mary's house" and going to Menards (where they ran away from me!) and eating at McDonalds...Amazingly they went to bed at a reasonable hour and I had time to finish my book. Poor Reese - I told him if he didn't fall asleep and stay in his bed mom and dad couldn't come home. oh dear - traumatized for life I'm afraid! ;)

They had fun wearing my sunglasses...yes, I took a picture while I was driving on the interstate...

this one's just a damn cute one of Janna, with her sunglasses on top of her head "just like you, Annie" ;)

and it's Shamrock shake time at McDonalds - yummy!

Whoa!

*O-E moe-e wocky...it's been over a month since I was on here! Wow!

...so it's gorgeous outside today, sunny and in the 40s and I'm loving it!

As for the weight loss program, blech...haven't lost a pound. Haven't gained anything tho, that's a positive for the day! I'm trying to take babysteps now, my goal is to lose 5 lbs by Easter. That's completely do-able I think...but then again I said that 35 lbs by July 1 was doable too and here I am, having lost nada! ;)

So what have I been doing since I posted last? Hmmmm *glancing through the planner*...well, when last we "talked" I said that Andy was coming up and we'd go out to eat quite a bit and sure enough! He came up late Friday night and we'd had pizza with Gramma already! ;) Saturday we went out to eat (yummy) and attempted to see baby Andrew Berglund, but mama and baby were resting so I didn't get to see him until later in the week. We drove all over creation, Andy got to see Lake Superior for the first time and it was a perfect day for it. The ice was still over the beach area and if you were silent you could hear the ice cracking with the sunlight. Gorgeous! We ate at Grandma's and I had chicken ceasar salad (my second favorite meal there) and then headed home. Met DeAnn, Gabe and the boys and Emma up at Mexico Lindo and I ate part of Tommy's quesadillas and all of my Pollo Santa Fe (new dish - excellente!). Had an awesome time with all of them!!! Gabe had spent some time in the ER that morning already so his morphine and beers weren't really working together for positive. Fortunately it wasn't a nasty situation for the rest of us! :) So the next day was Super Bowl Sunday and we headed to the Mall of America to be able to spend more time together - excellent choice. We rode all kinds of rides in the Nickuniverse park, shopped til we nearly dropped and had a wonderful sandwich at Tony Roma's. Great day, fantastic weekend with my Andy.

I started off February really well - walked two days in a row in the evening on my treadmill the first week; three days in the next week and then laziness set in. Not even watching American Idol was an incentive to get on the damn machine, I sat and sat and sat! ;) A couple of days I've been able to walk outside which has been fantastic for morale but the majority of the time I've been doing nothing...I know, I know...I'm telling myself the same thing! "Get off your hind end!!!!"

Movies for the past month include: The Visitor, Vicky Christina Barcelona, The Dark Knight, Tropic Thunder, Ballet Shoes, Priceless, The Reader, The Wrestler, The Changeling, Gigi, The Curse of the Golden Flower, Trade, Chrissa Stands Strong, and Kung Fu Panda - whoa, that's a lot! ;) Although for a month, that isn't all that bad, is it?

Opinions on movies:
The Visitor - fantastic, well worth watching, gets you thinking about illegal aliens
Vicky Christina - crap, what a stupid purchase
Dark Knight - meh...well, at least I've watched all the Batman movies anyway
Tropic Thunder - what a hoot! very foul but hysterically funny
Ballet Shoes - adorable! Who knew Hermione Grainger could be a normal little girl?
Priceless - had to remind myself what the movie was about, so a little forgetable but a cute one nonetheless (subtitled!)
The Reader - loooved it! what a concept!
the Wrestler - oh dear...I knew there was a reason I never got into 80s wrestling...yag
The Changeling - hmmmm, police corruption and Angelina Jolie as gorgeous as usual.
Gigi - "thank heaven for little girls"
Curse of the Golden Flower - weird...kung fu action-y type of movie...
Trade - fantastic - well worth watching. references the sex trafficking in Mexico to the US.
Chrissa - adorable!!!!! An American Girl movie, well worth watching and wasn't as cheesy as some of the "after school special-y" type movies out there.
Kung Fu Panda - Hi-YA! loved it! Po rocks (Janice even gave me a Po stuffy for here at work - he watches over me as I work)

So as for TV - American Idol is making me happy. ANTM has just started back up so my Wednesdays will be busy with both shows on at once. I think I need to get TiVo. I am super-pumped that Anoop is in the top 13 but a little bummed that Jesse didn't make it in. Thank heavens that The Bull didn't get in....it's too bad her personality is crap, she has a halfway decent voice. Oh well. I'm looking forward to seeing Danny, Anoop and Lil do really, really well all the way through the competition. As for ANTM, I don't know yet, I haven't had a chance to watch the first show yet - ugh! I'll let you know my opinion on that as soon as I have the chance. I know, I know...you're just waiting for me to report on that! ;)

Books, books, books...have had the most difficult time getting my reading in! I read Pax Americana - one of my seditionist gun-totin' books, was good but no wrap up in the end so I was a lot disappointed. A patient loaned me the Septimus Heap series and I have to say I'm a bit hooked. Quite good!!!! Hmmm...was thinking that I've read more than that, but I can't remember...that must be it. It's been so busy here at work that I don't get my hour at lunch to read as much as before. Some days I even forget to stop for lunch - amazing! I'm still looking at purchasing a Kindle or similar book reader device. Especially when I end up taking two books with me over a weekend b/c I'm nearly done with one and will be starting the other! Once I told Andy about that he thought I should spend the $100 more and get a whole laptop instead of just a reader...microsoft reader is a program that's free and works on all computers. I'm not completely sold yet, but the idea of having a laptop to get my stuff done wherever I am is starting to rub off on me. Again, i'll keep you posted! ;)

So February wrap up - one weekend up here with Andy, a four day weekend in Mason City with Andy and now today I'm headed there again - woohoo! I've met his parents once, had a great time with them. Love Mason City, it's a great little town. So far, my Andy is fabulous. He bought me a beautiful necklace for Christmas-Valentines Day. He has great taste in jewelry and stuffies! ;)

I had my Thursday off yesterday and did a bunch of shopping. Came home to a new gun on my bed - woohooo! David paid me off (from a few loans in the past) with a 12 gauge shot gun - woohoo!!!!!! Love it! Now I have my own arsenal. I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet - it's tough living right by the school, I don't dare shoot when there are things going on over there. Anyway, I'll get a few rounds through that baby next weekend and I'll post pictures of my bruises!

Baby Andrew came the end of January and then my cousin Christine had baby Odin on the 19th- baby central! I've had the chance to hold and talk to baby Andrew a few times at church and he and I get along just fine. He's a great conversationalist too! I'm looking forward to seeing baby Odin over Palm Sunday weekend at Auntie Karla's...

David's been living at home again - it's been weird having all of us at home - sharing the bathroom with someone who actually uses it is pretty weird! I'm not saying Russell doesn't use the bathroom, he just uses it significantly less than David does! ;) The upside is that David cleans up a bit more than Russell. I don't really mind cleaning up but I feel bad for the women they'll end up with - those poor women will be worked to the bone!

Ok, I think I've caught you all up! I've been doing so much Facebooking that I forget to keep up on my blogging...AND my not eating. Have a fantastic Friday, enjoy the sunshine and I'll let you know how my weekend with the Andy turned out on Monday! :)

*Reeser Beeser's way of saying Holy Moly Rocky!

It's Official

...as if you didn't already know...I'm a p-i-g, hog! :) I just finished an entire bag of dill pickle potato chips. It took me two work days but they're gone, the bag is in the garbage and I've the pickled tongue to prove it!

Friday!!!!!!

I never thought it would actually show up - it's Friday...naw, not really. This week flew by, faster than I ever thought a week could fly. So Wednesday I ate at the Country Inn, and yesterday I ate at Subway and Taco John's - not good, not good at all...fortunately, when I got on the scale, I was still at 196. Thank goodness! I need to stop the eating out. But it won't happen this weekend - Andy's coming up, so we'll eat out at least twice I'm guessing. Olive Garden - here we come!

Food Thursday included a chicken bacon ranch sub from subway - got the 9-grain wheat bread. Yummy. Last night I had Taco Johns - their grilled burrito is just sooooo good. I only ate about 6 of my potato oles, not bad, I think! Other than that, I really didn't eat anything else. I've been keeping as busy as I can keep myself so I won't eat. I forget to eat when I'm really busy.

I saw Rachel Getting Married last night - depressing as all heck but Anne Hathaway does a damn good job of playing a whiny selfish recovering addict. Good grief. I hope she wasn't basing it off a real person, I'd hate to think someone could be that obnoxious and needy.

I also saw Red Road and Miss Potter...Red Road was a freaky weird movie from Glasgow, Scotland - interesting story, sad. Slow to get into it, but worth watching. Miss Potter was so sweet - it was Beatrix Potter's story. I have to say I could feel her pain - 34-year old woman living with her parents - of course this was 1902 instead of 2009, but still...Excellent movie, highly recommend it.

I'm still reading Under the Banner of Heaven - savoring it, really. So far it's a collection of people's stories - they'll all tie together I'm gathering, but sooo good.

I think that's all that's gone on...will update you on the Andy weekend come Monday sometime! :)

Good Grease!

Oh dear - I've done it now...I just finished a patty melt w/ french fries from the Country Inn. In about 5 more minutes I'll be rushing to the bathroom. Yag - we call them sliders. And I should eat them, but doggone it, that's good grease!

I need to have some kind of reminder attached to me surgically that reminds me that overeating is miserable and not to do it. blech...

So the last two days have been pretty bad for me...eating WAAAAAAYYYY too much and getting zero exercise. The breakdown:
Monday's food
--diet coke (good grief, I shouldn't even have to type this anymore, should I?)
--2 Karianna's bars
--c. potato/sausage hotdish
--milky way
--pepperoni pizza from the gas station

Tuesday's food
--diet coke
--2 Karianna's bars (thank goodness they're all gone now)
--breakfast burrito from the gas station
--rice/chicken/broccoli bowl
--Joe Jitter's House Salad w/ copious amounts of ranch dressing

add to all this crap, now I've just had that patty melt...ugh...I don't think I want to get on the scale tomorrow morning

On a non-food note, I've finished Inkheart. It was good, i'll read the second book and even intend to see the movie. I'll let you know the comparison. I've started reading Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer...so far, really good. Its about fundamentalist mormons and the wacky (mostly criminal) things they do and get away with.

Russell and I watched The Duchess Monday night...good movie, I think. Kiera Knightly is always interesting to see. Apparently it was based on a true story - sad what people have done to live sometimes.

American Idol is heating up - auditions will be over after tonight and next week is Hollywood week. I'm liking the new judge - she is a good match for Simon and she gets along well with Paula so far! ;)

Waiting for sunshine today - hope you get some too! :)