So, We're Home

We've been home a couple of days, actually. New York City wore me out. Totally wore me out. Part of the problem was the crappy beds. Plus, our room in Manhattan was incredibly hot at night. So much so that I'd wake up out of overheatedness and then of course couldn't go back to sleep. Regardless, we had an awesome trip. Just a wonderful time. We spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in New Jersey (only had 1 rude encounter!), and Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning in Manhattan. We got daily passes for the subway and went all over the city. Well, all over the island, actually. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and took the ferry around the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island (and bought totally illegal fake bags in Battery Park. When Mom first saw all the bag seller, she thought they were all homeless, I had to explain that they were schlepping their wares). We saw Times Square a bunch of times. We went to Ground Zero. I had a really hard time there. I went to the Intrepid Museum (aircraft carrier). We just did so much, I'm having a hard time remembering it all! I had the most amazing piece of cheesecake from Maxie's Deli. The price, however...not so awesome. $8.52 with tax. For ONE piece! But, it was certainly to die for.

So, we had a wonderful trip and can't wait to go again, hopefully in the winter and see the Christmas Windows along 5th Ave. But, then we had to come home. And home hit me between the eyes. First, someone who shall remain nameless did nothing while I was gone. No groceries bought, no things promised got done. Serious frustration on my end. The nameless one did work really hard while I was gone, though, and thank goodness because said work pretty much funded my whole trip, but readily admits to doing not much else.

Yesterday, Chris' company announced they will likely be outsourcing their IT department. Fabulous. I was extremely upset last night, as we he (but he tried valliantly to hide it), but we remember that God is in his Heaven and has a plan for us, and all the worrying in the world won't change the big whigs minds. So, we'll just wait and see. Thank goodness Chris is highly employable. Hopefully they'll decide not to outsource his group of 2.

Also on the employment front, I may be doing swimming lessons again. I've been talking to Miller Swim School and may work with them over the summer and then continue on into the fall. I'm actually excited about it. I'll have to get my lifeguard certification again and learn how they do things, but I think it'll be fun!

taking New York by storm

we made it! And relatively uneventfully too. Here's a surprise - Bob made friends in the Tulsa airport bathroom. Somehow she figured out this gal was her friend's Arbonne upline. Only Bob! In another classic Bob moment, she kept switching seats as our flight descended so she could see Manhattan and eventually the Statue of Liberty. I just knew the barely-English-speaking stewardes was going to yell at her, but nothing! Alex the Armenian drove us from Newark to our hotel @ the Meadowlands - next door to Giant stadium (incidently, I would hate playing home games at Giant stadium if I were a jet. Just seems wrong.). He was cracking us up. He gave us a full on tour on our way. I'd never had one quite like it. The largest beer plant in NJ, hotel row (including a prison), and a five mile long bridge. The best part was, "Newark is a beautiful, beautiful city. Very beautiful. The surrounding area......not so beautiful. Our hotel must be part of that "area." It's not a bad hotel, but they're doing $17 million renovation. Right now, there's a jackhammer running on the floor above us. So, we went into the city yesterday. we had the absolute best time. We felt pretty silly on the bus- not knowing if we were at the end or not. We got off and bam! We were in Times Square. Mom was so loving it.

and we're off

Bob and I are in the Tulsa airport waiting for our airlane to whisk us off to beautiful, sunny.......Newark. Yep, Newark. We're staying in East Rutherford for a couple of nights while Bob does training and I "help." She's going to work for three days and I'm going into the city. Well, I'll help one day. I'm not totally self-involved!

We're Quitters

it's official, Chris and I, welre totally quitters. We quit the diet. We started our second week, and we just couldn't handle it anymore.We did learn some interesting things on the diet from H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks. The brain doesn't function so well on hunger. Also, Mimi is a big fan of the human food. Okay, we already knew that, but we were surprised by some of the foods she decided she liked, such as:
carrots
pears
grapes
Doritos (well, those were post-diet)
She's not such a big fan of the oranges,though. They're just fun to play with.

disappointment

I can't believe it. Seven days of pain. A whole week, and I weighed today, and only 2 pounds gone. 2! Talk about demoralizing. The other day, I was down four and now, today, only 2? Ugh. Mom says she can see a difference, though, and really that's the most important thing. Chris says he thinks our scale is a piece of crap, and it would probably be different if we had a non-POC scale. Maybe.

We went ahead and went to IHOP for breakfast. Not because of the devastation of the morning, but because we made it through a WHOLE week! Oh, how there were some painful moments. Yesterday was the hardest. That's what made this morning so disappointing. I could only eat half of my stack of the yummy pancakes and used barely any of the Butter Pecan syrup (which is really the only reason I go there), and still it was too sweet. Interesting how things change in just one week.

anticipation

today was brown rice and veggies. tomorrow is our day off. we get to eat real food. a regular meal. need I say more?

crazy

I heard about this on the Glenn Beck show today, and before I mentioned it to him, Chris had it up and playing on the computer. It's the beginning of the Simpsons, only with real life people. According to Glenn, it was made by SkyNews, the 24-hour news channel in Europe owned by Rupert Murdoch (duh! the owner/creator of FoxNews and a bunch of other media stuff). Supposedly it took a year and a half to make. It's pretty cool, but a year and a half? Yikes! Totally seems like too long, but what do I know?

Real Life Simpsons

Time Flies...

when you're watching the Olympics, making fun of Dick Button, traveling, being busy, being lazy, all kinds of things.

Chris and I are on the Mayo Clinic Diet. Let me tell you, the first few days were ROUGH. I was hungry constantly, and I don't do hungry well. Yesterday, we grilled the most amazing steaks ever. No, literally, 100% EVER! I think Chris is still having a hard time, but it's been way easier for me. Bob & I are going to NYC on the 22, and I wanted to be able to wear some of my cute jeans. So far, in 4 days.....4 pounds. Not bad. We'll see what the number is after 7. The diet says you should loose 10-17 in one week. Not expecting that much, though. I have to say, I haven't ever gone to the bathroom so much. Do they make TP with aloe in it?

In my absence,  Bob & I went to Kansas City and met up with the one, the only Andi. It was fab. We definitely don't get to see each other nearly enough. So, we hit all the hot spots: Urban Arts + Crafts, the Plaza, Oak Park mall (or is it Oak Brook?) for Nordstrom (where we didn't buy a stinking thing), yummy restaurants, Archivers, etc. etc. Everything held up to it's reputation, both good and bad. I dropped a ton of $ in UA, but I was spending for two. I love that store. I would totally go to KC just for it! Rockin'! We went to dinner that night at Cinzetti's. Oh my yum! It's a huge Italian buffet. The food was so good. And, there were Crepes. Kind of out of place, but outstanding, and the whipped cream? Too die for. Ate it by itself. Archiver's upheld its reputation of crappy customer service. Man, it's tough for me to shop there. But, they had a $1.99 bin with some good stuff in it, so I gave in. I don't think I'll be going back, though. Next time, I'll make sure to go to the Scrapbook Page instead. At Nordstrom, I had this awesome Lemonade, Peach, Ginger tea concotion. Totally the best drink ever. Got a second one. Of course, the second one is never as good as the first, but still, great. Wanna see some pics?