One thousand million tons of bananas.

Monday, bloody Monday -- I think that my weekends have to be good as overcompensation of terrible weeks. It was one of those weeks where I kept getting serious injury after serious injury at work: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcycles, golf carts, lost pregnancies ... I was so happy to be out of work when Friday came about. But .... my weekend was a blast (again ... hehe).

Saturday I had yoga for only the second time since I started -- Other April and I took 2 weeks off after our first class for drinking/vacation reasons. It was so much better than the first time. We did more stretch yoga, like pigeon pose (let me tell you how much I love "doing the uh uh pigeon" ... as Bert from Sesame Street would say). I love the stretching, but I'm no good at the balancing -- I have no balance. I think that I'm going to set up the spare television in that weird room off the deck in the house to do yoga through the week to see if I can get better at the balancing. The only yoga tape I have is abs yoga, but I'll start working with that and see how I do.

Other April brought purses back from Chinatown and I got a small tan and brown Coach and a large black Prada. I'm so excited about the Prada one -- it's really nice. The insides don't look like a real one, but who but me sees the inside? The Coach wasn't really that well-made, but it's good in a pinch when I need a brown one for the club or something.

Saturday night the girls and I had a sleepover at Stacy's house -- the first sleepover I've been to since high school (well, besides sleeping over at boys' houses or them sleeping over mine ...). We had such an awesome time! Other April and I brought booze and board games, Suzanne brought mixers and penis straws, penis stirs and margarita glasses that had our names and "Girl's Night 2006" on them, and Stacy provided the venue and the food. It was so fabulous! We drank like crazy and stayed up until 5am, and talked about boys and sex and everything else you're supposed to talk about at a sleepover (all those secrets you end up revealing that aren't allowed to leave the party). There were suggestive pictures taken with the penis straws and everything :)

Sunday I took Other April home and then Christen and I went to the driving range for a few hours -- I realized I'm not as terrible at golf as I thought I would be. It was a lot of fun; I'll definitely be going back. I have a set of left-handed golf clubs that my dad gave me, and I'm only missing a club or two (I know I'm missing a 1 iron; that might be it). We hit about 350 balls between the two of us -- I hurt my middle finger from swinging -- and whiffing -- and it still hurts a little bit. We went to his parents' house for a little bit after that and I discussed this wedding that we are going to at the end of April with his mom. We've decided that since it's a spring wedding on a Saturday afternoon that it was acceptable for me to wear one of my cute little sundresses, which makes me happy because that means I don't have to go out and get another new dress. All my other dresses are black and pretty fancy. Maybe I can get Christen a lighter color dress shirt, like a light green, so I won't be the only less dressy person. My sundresses are way cute though. I have a blue striped one from the Loft (I love that store) and a white one with little flowers that I got at a great sale at Macy's. As a matter of fact, if it would warm up I would wear them to work -- it's 60 degrees all of a sudden! What happened the high 70s/low 80s of last month????

Last night we decided to hit Mama's pizza for dinner. They have the best breadsticks anywhere -- a little bit of heaven in your mouth. I only had one piece of pizza and a few breadsticks, but it definitely was worth it to go -- so yummy :) Saturday we hit a little seafood restaurant on Clearwater beach called Frenchy's for lunch, and I will tell you they had the best she crab soup I have ever had. Ever. And I get she crab soup anytime I see it on the menu, so I can say I'm a bit of a connoisseur. It had a lot of crab instead of just a little lump on top, and it was smooth and creamy with the sherry and a little kick of cayenne pepper or something. Way tasty.

Prayers.

My aunt is in the hospital. And no one bothered to tell me or my mom. I think it's a heart attack; I had to email my grandma to find out and I haven't heard back yet. Grandma said in her follow up email (no prior email to start with) that they took 5 veins from her leg to patch up her heart and it's beating on its own now.

Please, if you believe or don't. Please keep her in your thoughts or prayers. She's such a wonderful woman.

Holy Weekender, Batman!

So this weekend was a total blast, as weekends tend to be in my family (evidently, since I just noticed that last weekend's post started the same way... hehe). Here's the gist in bullets:

--bought a darling pair of Mia wooden heels with Stacy at DSW (shoe mecca)
--went to dinner on St. Patty's day with Stacy's family for her dad's birthday. Wow, to be in close proximity with that many Atlanta transplants ... hehe. We went to Timpano's Italian Chophouse in Hyde Park and it was marvelous. I had mussels for the first time (I've had oysters and clams, but never mussels) and we stood near the band and talked at great length with the pianist. They had a guitarist, sax and pianist and they were lovely. All old and lovely. Stacy's uncle made me, Stacy and her aunt pose with the sax player sans sax ... if I see the picture I'll post it here :)
--left there to meet with Christen and his friend Jesse at Hooters for more late night drinks while the boys smoked their cigars. The waitress liked to "perch" on the edge of the table like she was an owl too. I was told to hook she and Jesse up, but I'm no good at that so I just drank.
--Saturday, went to Ellenton Outlets with Christen as we hadn't been there in a really long time and just hung out and shopped all day. I bought a cute pink shirt at Gap (I know, I know, but it's a cute pink shirt) and a book about books (you know how I love those) and was talked out of another Coach purse (I was told I have enough purses, like that's possible). We also got a baby ice cream scoop for my new obsession with Rice Dream non-dairy ice cream, and onion cutter to make onion blooms (although I'm going to try to bake it).
--drove down to Anna Maria island and ate at the Waterfront Restaurant - he had the seafood platter and I had the snow crab (I cut my thumb on the sucker). Washed it down with a delightful piece of key lime pie and a cup of tea. It was a beautiful night and we ate on the porch.
--Sunday ventured to Orlando to mill about town; I was talked out of another Coach purse (this one was way cuter) and bought another book.
--dinner at Jungle Jim's for a Peanutbutter Bet (you don't know what you're missing).
--a late-night drive home playing the Penis and Vagina game (substitute one word in a tv show title with penis; substitute one word in a movie title with vagina). It was great fun.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend. Christen is now snoring on the couch next to me and it's distracting. I keep trying to hold his nose -- any suggestions on how to stop it? Well, taking him to bed will cure it and I think that's my next stop. Toodles!

Wild and Craziness

So this weekend has been a blast! Friday was Stacy's last day with the company, which is a sad sad thing, but we had a hell of a party at Bar Louie to mark the occasion. Ridiculous amounts of liquor were imbibed by everyone -- I think the bar could have catered to our group exclusively and had a great night. I was trashed on a lovely wine, and the pictures were exceptional.



This is me, Stacy, and Other April at the bar.

A wonderful time was had by all, and I found out that I know the bar manager! He's a friend of mine from high school, and I dated his best friend in high school. We caught up; it was fantastic to see him. You know how sometimes you run into people from school and you don't really know what to say to them? This didn't really turn out that way, and we weren't really that close in high school. You know, I did date his best friend in high school ... But it was really pretty neat.

The next morning Other April came to pick me up and take me back to my car (Christen drove me home; I was too intoxicated to do so) and it was a unanimous decision that we skip yoga this week. So the Brother and I went to the Antiquarian Book Fair in St. Pete. So Fun! So many books! The only problem with it was that, as they were all antique book dealers (115 venders) everything was highly overpriced. There were a few books I wanted but I didn't get, and Ian drooled over the copy of Fahrenheit 451 illustrated by Ralph Steadman. Alas, I did not have a grand to part with to get it for him, and if I couldn't pay the $800 for the Tender is the Night first edition, well then. He's just going to have to deal. The most expensive book we saw was $6500 for a first edition of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

There were purchases made, though. I came away with a autographed copy of Pat Conroy's Beach Music, and a copy of Drink: A Social History of America, which, in light of Friday night's bash I thought was appropriate. I also appropriated a well-spent $3 on Letters from a Nut by Ted Nancy for a bit of fun. The Brother picked up a copy of an autographed Orsen Scott Card novel.

Saturday night we went to the State Theatre to see The Spill Canvas, The Plain White T's, OkGo, and Motion City Soundtrack. I do have to say that I think I'm getting too old for such crowds. The average age was around 16. The show was pretty good; I went for OkGo and the Brother for they and MCS. I liked Spill Canvas best when it was just the lead singer; the drummer was out for a wedding and he sang a few songs acoustically by himself and I thought it was great; then he was joined by his band and it drowned him out.

Today has been a lazy day. I brushed the dog and watched Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I have the book, and I thought they did well with the interpretation. It was pretty good. One of these days I'm going to have to get up and get dressed, but I may laze for a little longer. This weekend has gone by so quickly! Toodles!

RIP Jacob the Snacob

The snake formerly known as "The Cliff Burton Experience" has left the building. Please erect a monument in his name. Thank you.

ADCTD 2U

It's been a strange day. For starters, I went to yoga this morning with Other April, realized I am decidedly NOT bendy and signed up for another 9 courses ("I'm sticking with it until I don't start to black out in the middle"). While we were at yoga Christen plugged April's flat (don't think it that way ... she was with me, I tell you) and we came home and decided ... to go to the beach! The people beach, no less! We had planned on meeting Stacy there because she marathon beaches, but she had decided not to go so we laid out for an hour before making up our minds to go to the Ruby Tuesday salad bar. It's a beautiful day -- absolutely gorgeous :) So we go to RT and our waiter is this really young kid -- maybe 20? And that's a maybe. And he's decided we're his bestest friends, so he keeps telling us about his new "Mr. Roboto" ringtone (It's that old song, you know? Yeah, sure kid ...) and about his house parties where the cokeheads cleaned up his house while he was passed out, and coming back to sit next to either of us at our 2-seater booth -- or on the carpet next to us when he asked if minded if he took a 5-minute smoke break ... it was crazy. I didn't understand any of it, but it did make for a good laugh!
Then we went over for a smoothie at Jamba Juice (mmm ... Orange Dream Machine with a Femme Boost) and to stop at Borders so that I could buy The Town That Forgot to Breathe. Now, about this book. I bought it because Autumn told me to read it. But really I bought it because the other day I got an email from the author thanking me for mentioning it on my blog! And although I hadn't mentioned it, Autumn did, I felt obliged to read it. I thought that was really neat. However, Now that I've bought it and read the inside cover, it doesn't seem really like the type of book I'm too into reading. It does seem like the type of book Autumn would like. But I'll give it a shot, and I'm also perfectly content to say that I can recognize that it's good writing without actually caring for the content. We'll see; I'll keep you all and Kenneth Harvey posted.

So I think I might go for a bike ride, because that sounds like me, right? :) I don't want to sit home because I'm afraid I'll start eating, but usually I just go shopping and I can't afford to do that. So I'll ride my bike to my mom's house, and if she's not home I'll just ride around back home. It's uphill all the way home from her house, so that'll be interesting.

I'm listening to Amber's radio show. I've listened before, and I'm actually really impressed for reasons twofold. Eins, she doesn't sound anything like what she seems like she seems on her blog, and Zwei, it's such an eclectic show and I hear a lot of things I don't hear that often. It's her last show, but maybe she'll get back into it when she moves to the Twin Cities? That's a hope and a prayer.

So adios; I'm off to sweat some more. Catch you later, aligator!

I swear I'm alive -- the elliptical says so!

Well, it’s been a busy week (or two) so I guess I haven’t been around as much as I’d like to have been. I didn’t actually remember that it had been a full two weeks since I updated until I started to write this post. I guess I’ll bullet what’s been going on to save your eyes from my rambling:



* 2.20.2006: The brother and I spent all of President’s Day book shopping – it was marvelous! I got an Umberto Eco book (because L loves him so much), a Capote novel, A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot, A Clockwork Orange for Christen, The Pearl by Steinbeck and a Fitzgerald novel. At this point I don’t remember what the brother got, but they were good books. He’s such a brain.
* 2.21.2006: Mom’s birthday, I got her dark chocolates and a rubber ducky with tattoos and piercings all over it – just her taste! :)
* This weekend: My friend Bill called to tell me that he and my friend Alicia got engaged after dating for a little less than 4 months. I’m thrilled to death for them – they’re both fabulous people – but a little mopey for me. It was way sweet the way he popped the question. I told him to write the story for the magazine, so if he does and it gets published on the online issue I’ll set a link to it here. That makes … 5 marriages now? Then comes the babies, I’m sure. First were Shea/Kyle, then Londa/Jim, then Shelley/Richard, Theresa/Andrew, and now Bill/Alicia. Who else is getting married? Is it in the water? I swear I drink 96 oz of water a day!
* Sunday: Christen and I went to the exotic car show at Vinoy Park – so many pretty cars. I don’t like traditional exotics, like Porsche and Lamborghini, but I love old cars and they had tons of old Bentleys and Rolls Royces and such. No Cruel Intentions jaguars, but you can’t win them all :)



Monday started my new workout – I decided to start working out at work (there’s a small gym there) 4 days a week after work. Saturdays are yoga. I’ve stuck to it all week, so here’s to making a turn around! I’m really excited about yoga. We (Other April and I) were going to do pilates and yoga, but the lady at the fitness center said that it would be better if we worked up to both. So I’ll let you know how it goes.



I’ve also gotten addicted to fitday.com. It’s so great! You put your foods in and it tallies your calories and protein and carbs etc and gives you a little pie chart to see how balanced your diet is and stuff. You can pick things off the list of what they have or make custom foods if they don’t have it. I went to Boston Market last night and had 1/4 white meal and today I went on their Web site and got the nutritional info and put it into fitday. I don’t really count calories per se because that just doesn’t work for me, but this kind of makes me make better choices for my diet. I have a target calorie count, but mostly I just try to balance my pie chart and that keeps me where I want to be. I’m very serious in wanting to lose 45 pounds. I don’t think that’s unreasonable – I’m not trying to get to a size 2, I just know that I felt my healthiest when I weighed 45 lbs less, so I’m going to try to get there.


So homebound schooling is not working for The Brother. He can't stay in a fetal position for long, Alex. (Sorry, I'm watching Jeopardy.) I think he just needs to get his GED. Any thoughts on that?