Cell phones, replacing OR How I Lost My Mind

I didn't manage to get back on here and write another post yesterday. I had so many things going on that I didn't even stop to eat lunch! I didn't even notice the time flying by and before I knew it, it was almost dinner time.

So why is it that I still don't feel prepared for anything? We're leaving in about 6 hours, and the bag is packed, but I feel like I'm forgetting something. It won't be a big deal if I do forget something, it's only a weekend at the lake. Still, something feels "off".

School starts on Monday again. I never even went and got new notebooks. I have some half empty ones from previous semester that I use for grocery lists, etc. But I like to have fresh ones. Especially because I take a lot of notes and need the space! And we're not allowed to use laptops in Spanish classes, so that's out. Speaking of, I never did buy a new backpack or messenger bag to lug around campus with my laptop in it.

I woke up early this morning for no reason. Trust me, I didn't want to. I even checked last night to see if my alarms on my cell phone were set. They were not. But the phone started dinging away anyways and woke all three of us up (What?? The dog sleeps with us too!). It wasn't even set! There was no way to even turn off the alarm. It just kept going.... So I turned of the phone. I think it's time for a new phone. For real. I've been using this thing for like 2 years now, and it's getting worse and worse. It's a HTC Mogul. It is one of the first smart phones with the slide out full QWERTY keyboard. I believe it was launched in direct competition to the iphone when that first came out.



But there are so many problems with it! The keyboard sticks when I try to type, and some letters just don't even type. So if I'm texting:

The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog

It would read from my phone:

The qqqquiccckkkk reeeeddd foooxxxxx jjjjumeeeeddd ooooooooeeeerrrr theee llllzyyyy roownnnn ddooooooog.

That's a little exaggerated. But only a little. And it's been doing that for about a year now. I'm about ready to "lose" it in the lake. :) I have to get another phone through Sprint, so getting an iphone is out (unless someone out there wants to send me one with free service!). We have the sweetest deal EVAR through Sprint so we're not giving that up anytime soon. I need to have a smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard, preferably a slideout one. I've played with those BlackBerry Curves and I didn't care for those tinyass letters/numbers. And I really prefer the Windows Mobile operating system. That leaves me with the HTC Touch PRO:



Now, my mom has this one. I'm not sold on it yet. It's supposedly a better, newer model of my current phone. I think I'm going to have to wait until Sprint gets some new phones. Sigh. I really hate my phone. This whole process of finding a new phone is the most annoying process I think I've ever had to deal with because of three things:

1. The fact that we need to stay with Sprint, whom always has craptastic choice on phone awesomeness. (I'm aware that I have never learned the correct usage of "whom". I used it here because it sounded good, and I have no clue if that is correct or not. There's a reason I'm not an English major...)

2. I'm the pickiest person in the world with what I will and will not give up on a device that I don't typically use all that often on any given day. I just want to be able to text my husband "Where the heck are you, dinner has been ready for an hour" without all the extraneous letters.

3. Any carrier I decide to go with if I even remotely think of ditching Sprint is going to stop offering badass phones the minute I switch. Seriously, that is my luck. Whoever is supplying the world with service for their iphones will cease to do so after I sign a lifetime 2 year contract with them. That is the way my life works.

So until I'm badass enough to will an awesome phone that meets all my criteria to fall from the sky and into my worn-out-from-fixing-jacked-up-texts hands, I'm stuck with this POS phone that decides whenever it wants to wake us all up for no reason whatsoever.

Grumble.

For now, I'm off to do some Yoga Download and pack a small bag for Kosmo to take with him to his grandparents (the hubs' parents) house while we're gone. See you Sunday night! It would be sooner if I could post from the phone, but if you expected that I'd wonder if you even read all the blabber I was just bitching about a minute ago.

Have a fantacular weekend!

I forgot to tell y'all...

I am still really happy about this and despite the fact that I've told everyone else in the world, I just realized that I haven't spread the news here!!

THIS GIRL made the DEAN'S LIST for the first time EVER!

You have no idea how excited this news has made me. I will likely graduate with honors now (cum laude), and if I can pull off all A's for the next 2 semesters I can graduate magna cum laude. *happy dance*

When I first went back to school, I wasn't doing it for me. I was doing it because I "had" to do it. I didn't care about my grades at all, I just wanted to finish and get out of there. Now I'm actually enjoying it and I am making sure I get good grades, even though that means I pretty much have no life during the semester. But that's okay, because I feel so accomplished and excited and happy and wonderful about this.

That is all. Carry on.

Dinner + Shopping

After reviewing my stuff for tomorrow's exam, I checked to see if just in case any profs posted grades. I got my grade back for the class with the BigAss paper I recently wrote....A-. After a slightly disappointed feeling I realized that it is an awesome grade and that I should be happy!

Dinner was a Quorn Garlic & Herb cutlet thing (thanks Season!), some grilled zucchini & squash, and some roasted baby red potatoes.



We took a walk with K-Dawg and saw a crane (I think...) and a really pretty sunset. It was a good night.




I'm trying to pick out a backpack and a lunch bag on eBags.com. I'm trying to find a backpack that will hold my laptop and also looks cute. I need a lunch bag as well. I've always wanted the Built NY Gourmet Getaway in French Bull or Vine or whatever they call it. But then I saw this Mario Batali bag that is the same price and may be a little more convenient to carry. Choices, choices. I'm leaning towards the Mario bag though.

I think I want to start yoga classes, but I'm a little intimidated. I found a beginner class though, and I am thisclose to signing up. I also want to start riding a bike. But I don't have one. And if I ride a bike, I can't bring the dog, and then he'd lose his walk time. So, I'm going to wait on the bike thing.

Alrighty, back to minor studying for this LAST EXAM FOR A WHILE!

Almost Done!

Only one more final exam left, boys and girls. Remember that little panic last night? Well, I did not end up studying any more. But I couldn't fall asleep. :-/ I guess I was worrying too much. I got about 5 or 6 hours of sleep though.

Breakfast was a smoothie. Well, about 1/8th of one until PunkAssDog Kosmo sneezed in it. Gross!! I didn't have time to make something else. :( I decided to get a bagel once I got to school.

Pre-sneeze:



By the time I got to school, however, my tummy was all in knots and I did not want to put food in it. I didn't know what to do. I knew I shouldn't take the exam on an empty stomach, but I also knew I wouldn't do my best if I was sitting there with an upset stomach. I opted to skip eating. I did fine though, I think. I have to make a minimum of an 80 on it to get an A-, and I think I pulled a B. I didn't think I did all that great on my midterm, but I still pulled an A on that. There was one question that was slightly more detailed than on the review, so I kinda felt unprepared for that section of that question. Thank goodness for BSing skills! :P

I ate when I got home because my stomach wasn't really bothering me anymore. I made a little quesadilla thing out of corn tortillas, the Andes cheese, and some leftover Amy's Black Bean Chili. I also made some guacamole out of some avocado and salsa.



I went to take a nap, but my mom called to say that my sister was at the gate of the neighborhood and needed to be let in. So I got up to go drive up there to open the gate for her, but when I got downstairs she was parked in front of the house. There went my nap!

We went to dinner when the hubs and Mom got home. We had Tex-Mex. My stomach started bugging me again, so I only ate a few chips and 1 of my enchiladas and a couple bites of rice. I feel really icky right now. :(

We're supposed to go out tonight to one of the husband's co-worker's house. I'm really tired, I feel like poo, and I look like hell. I don't know if I can handle putting on the wife show tonight, and then going out for our usual Saturday night shenanegans. Then tomorrow we are going to his mom's for Mother's Day. I can't wait until Tuesday night when I feel like I can really take a break. Tuesday is my last final!!

Well, I'm gonna have to go see if I can manage to look halfway presentable. Have a good evening!

Panic at the Disco Stepford Residence

I'm going to totally bomb this exam. I cannot concentrate enough to study in a decent manner. I've re-read notes, readings, etc. I've gone over what I need to know based on the topics she gave us last class meeting.

But I am not confident that I'm going to remember anything of any substance.

I could stay up all night studying, drag ass into the exam, and pray I do well.

OR

I could get a good night's sleep, get to school a little early and look over all my stuff in the room where I will be taking the exam, and pray I do well.

I want to do the second one, but if I do the first one, maybe I will magically become confident in what I should know? Will that actually happen? Or will I just continue to panic?

Hey, at least I can just take this class again from a better prof in the fall (if, as he says, UH can come up with some money to pay him).

And it's not like getting an A in this class is going to make a difference. I can't graduate with honors anyways, even if I make all As in every class until graduation. I'd still be like .01 points away from cum laude. *grumble*

Can you tell I'm over this? I think I checked out of the semester on Tuesday.

Ahh. Relaxation feels nice.

Hear that? That's the sound of *nothing*. NOTHING. Ah. That's nice.

Well, technically, I had to go school to turn in the paper. But I got to hang out with Season for a few minutes in the hot ass library. I guess they forgot it was May in Houston and didn't turn the AC to a lower temperature. I went up to my prof's office to give him my paper rather than put it in his box. Call me a kiss up, but I kind of felt like I should say bye and "have a nice summer". I mean, I did talk to this guy for like 3 months, why would I just part ways without saying something? Okay, I might want a reference in the future. But really, I thought it would be nice to leave on a good note.

I planned on going to the gym, but I didn't. I was so hot and I was hungry too. Yeah, those are excuses. Sorry. I'll get back in a routine soon.

Breakfast was a bigass smoothie made the regular way (banana, flax, spinach, blackberries) except I used unsweetened almond milk instead of skim. I didn't take a picture because it was ugly. I used more spinach than usual I guess. Instead of purple, it was brown. Tasted good though.

Lunch was Annie's Organic All Stars in my favorite bowl! I had a coupon. Yes, I realize I'm not 7. I have no idea why it's my favorite bowl, but it has been for as long as I can remember.




Dinner this evening was meatball sandwiches and a big salad!! Very yummy. My fabulous friend Season very generously bestowed upon me a plethora of meatless deliciousness. One of the items was Nate's Zesty Italian Meatless Meatballs. I approve and so does the husband. I heated them up in some zodka sauce, crammed them in a roll, topped them with some provolone, and then threw the sandwiches in the oven to get all toasty and melty. I know in the pic the salad doesn't look big, but I ate another portion equal to that one.




And now, an Actual Conversation:

To set the scene - Kosmo is laying on the couch between use cleaning himself.

Husband - Kosmo, why are you licking your kneebow?
Me - Ummm...what's a kneebow?
Husband - It's the part of his body that is a knee on him but an elbow on us.
Me - **blank stare** Honey, he has an elbow.
Husband - Oh, I guess that's his wrist then. Kosmo, why are you licking your frist?
Me - Do I have to ask what a frist is?
Husband - It's his foot and wrist.

Yeah. He's a special breed. The husband, not the dog.

Almost done.

I am done DONE D-O-N-E DONE with that paper. That was the main thing that has been hijacking my life this whole time.

I do have two exams to study for. One is on Saturday about the 1960s. Luckily, the prof gave us some topics to review:

-Discuss how at least three other rights movements were impacted by the African-American civil rights movement, and also the relationship between the Vietnam War and the rights movements.

-Causes of disillusionment and backlash from society and the impact on counter-culture and on mainstream culture. Must discuss COINTELPRO, failures in Vietnam, Pentagon Papers, and Watergate.

-Discuss post-Tet Vietnam War: Nixon's policies, the end of the war, impact on foreign affairs, politics, rights movements, counter-culture, and mainstream culture.

They're pretty wide topics that I feel good about. She's going to make 3 questions out of the above information, and I have to pick two. I'm okay with that, except on the midterm I had one essay to write and it took me almost the whole time to write! I need to keep track of the time on Saturday when I take this one.

The other exam is next Tuesday. It's a multiple choice exam of 50 questions for my Christianity class. I made a 99 on the midterm with minimal studying. I'm not worried about this exam.

And then I'll be done until June!! I plan on getting this upstairs cave clean (where I've been spending all my time). And I can actually sit down and plan some meals. And go to the gym! Maybe I'll lose these last 10 or so pounds I've been trying to lose. Oh, and my car is in dire need of a cleaning, inside and out.

I got some new shoes on Sunday. They're Steve Madden Crazzy:



We may get a new (actually decent) camera soon. Stay tuned for more details!

I still exist.

I'm so very sorry I've been neglecting my little blog lovelies. I have been SO VERY busy with the last bits of school this semester. I'm going to inundate y'all with lots of pics because I have a lot of things to share from the time I've been gone from the blog. And also I may not be on here for another week or so while I finish up some stuff.

Good news though! Thursday and Saturday are the last official days of class. Then I have finals, in which I only have to take TWO of four classes. Yay! And only one of those is going to be in the area of hard. So I'm feeling pretty good about them.

I have 3 papers due within the week. One due on Thursday, one due on Saturday, and one due on Tuesday. The Tuesday paper is my BIG paper and I'm actually having a lot of fun writing it (I already finished the other two). Here's what writing my paper looks like:



I regret to inform that I have not been doing very well in the eating of healthy and nutritious foods. I've kind of been relying on convenience foods and it's not going very well. I think I've gained like 5 pounds, but I'm staying away from the scale until Friday. I have been doing well with not eating when I'm not hungry and/or stopping when I'm full. I'm still being mindful of portion sizes and stuff, but I'm not obsessing over every bite like I usually do. Hopefully once I switch back to fresh veggies and stuff when things are less hectic my body will get back to normal.

My new favorite breakfast:

Blackberry, banana, spinach, flax smoothie



My new favorite dinner:

Fabulous taco salad made with romaine, Boca crumbles made with taco seasoning, tomatoes, avocado, salsa, low fat cheese, fat free sour cream, green onions, and crunched up tortilla shells


OH!! I totally want to thank everyone that participated in Erin's bake sale and auction. Y'all rock! And BIG FAT JUICY thanks to Erin for doing that whole thing and helping everyone kick cancer's ass.

Here's what I made for the lucky winner of the blondies I donated:



So yumtastic. This is a pic of Kosmo trying to trade his toy for a blondie (his negotiations were futile, BTW):



And even though I've been busy, I have snuck in a few nights of fun times with the gang. Single ladies, the guy in blue is taken but the other two yahoos are looking...and being the girl sometimes they think it's my job to pimp them out to all my girls. But fewer and fewer of my lady friends are single anymore...



Houston got ridiculous amounts of rain for the past two days (eleven inches!) and my neck of the woods (along with many others) got flooded. Both houses are fine, but the yards were super saturated with water (the pic below was from yesterday, before another whole night of storms + flooding, and doesn't look as bad as it really was). Many people were stranded after trying to drive through the high water in some places. It took me two hours to get to school this morning, and I was 30 minutes late. But only like 7 people braved the elements to get there anyways so it wasn't a big deal. Most of the water has receded now and all should be better by tomorrow. I tried to get a pic of the creek thing that runs directly behind the house, but nothing would come out good. But it was even more full than when Hurricane Ike came through here last fall!



Oh, I've purchased thestepfordwife.com so in the near future we'll be dropping the .blogspot and moving to that. But I'm not sure when because, well, I've got other things to do right now.

Alright kids, that's all I got. Good night!

Hi chickens!

Long time no see...

I've been busy with these papers. I'm feeling like I'm not getting anywhere though. It'll get better as I get down to the wire. I'm pretty disappointed in one of the books I'm reading for two of my papers. I've found a "fact" that is incorrect. It's a fact that is pretty easy to check on your own, so it makes me think the author of the book didn't do much fact checking. Now I don't trust the book, which sucks because I *thought* it was a good source for two of the papers. Bummer. I've got plenty of other sources and that one was a secondary source anyway, so it's not a huge problem. Just annoying is all.

I have some pics of stuff to share, but it seems that I've left the camera in a place that is not in my immediate vicinity and I'm pulling the lazy and tired card and I'll upload them later. You're not really missing anything amazing though. Just some doggy pics, some pics of the blondies I made for Erin's bake sale, and other random stuff.

On the meat eating front, I've eaten meat a couple of times this week. Mom made dinner and was really excited about it and wanted me to try it. It didn't gross me out so I went with it. But I'm definitely not craving meat. In fact, I'm making more and more meatless foods and when we go to a restaurant I don't order meat. I don't miss it. Anyhow, our meat consumption for the household is way down.

I'll likely not be around again this week. It is the last week of classes (Yeeeehaw!!) and all my papers are due. I've got two (maybe three) finals soon, too. But then I've got some time off before the summer semester starts to just RELAX.

Okay, I'm out. Gotta catch up on some blog reading!

I'm taking a few minutes....

...to update.

Let's see...things haven't been as crazy as it may seem with me being AWOL, but I have been super busy with stuff for school. I've watched 27 out of the 40 or so Disney movies I need to watch. I'm actually pretty behind; I was hoping to be done by now. I have to still write the paper (20ish pages) and then I have two other long papers due the same week. One of those I can churn out pretty quick but the other one I haven't even started the research on yet! And then there's finals. Yikes. I've got to get my act together. But why does it seem that all I do is school work? Hmmm....

I haven't been the best in the nutrition department lately either. I've managed not to gain any weight (I'm still at a 13 pound loss since the beginning of March), but I'm not doing my best to make sure the food I'm eating is wholesome or balanced. I did make some fabulous dishes the past two days though. Skillet enchiladas and corn & potato chowder. Both vegetarian, and they're on my food blog (link on the side over there).

The husband and I are looking for a house. That's right. You read correctly. We are finally going to be MOVING. Well, that is if we can find a place to live. I think we have a pretty decent budget/down payment, but it seems that there isn't anything in the locations we want. Or there are astronomical monthly fees that go along with them in the case of high-rise lofts and such. We've looked for acreages as well, and so far nothing in our price range that has a livable home on it already. We've also looked for just single family homes in just about every area we'd like to live and even a few places we hadn't considered before. This is frustrating. We're probably being too picky. There are some nice foreclosures in really great neighborhoods, but we're not sure we want to stay out here in suburbia. Ugh. We've got a lot more thinking to do. And there is the matter of the home we already own. It's still an option, but we need to figure this all out soon so as to give the tenant plenty of time to find a new place to live in the case that we want to move back into that house.

Tomorrow is a school day and I haven't done any laundry recently, and I'm pretty sure everything that is clean needs to be ironed. I'm thinking it's going to be a sweatpants day tomorrow. I have been craving a bagel from the Einstein's on campus, so I'm not going to pack a full lunch. Just an orange and maybe an Odwalla bar. I'm also going to be bringing the laptop to school (so heavy though...bah) to get some stuff done....but I have to be sure not to screw around on it. I need to get stuff DONE.

The doggy and I are chillin here watching the hubs play Guitar Hero. He's pretty good at it. I'm terrible at it. I am just really bad with anything music related anyways, even if it is just colored plastic buttons. But I'm getting very sleepy, or at least my eyes are tired from all the watching, so I am going to get in bed. I usually don't go to sleep until 10 so I'm just going to read for an hour. Maybe I'll fall asleep sooner.

Okay, that's all I got for now. Have a good evening kids.

Disney movies in the rain + crawfish boil

It has been storming here for two days. I love stormy weather. I love the sun, don't get me wrong, but there's something about stormy weather that makes curling up on the couch with 101 Dalmatians and Cinderella just so cozy. I love it. I wish I could do it again all day today, but I have to go to stupid class. I'm beginning to resent this one class on Saturdays, but that's a different story for a different time.

I woke up pretty early on Friday to get onto breakfast and research and what not. Breakfast was a warm, small whole wheat pita, a Laughing Cow cheese wedge and a Boca Tomato Basil Parmesan veggie patty. Doesn't sound like a typical breakfast, I know, but I wasn't in the mood for something sweet and I didn't want eggs. There is a Naked Green Machine in the pic, but I didn't drink that. I took one sip and it was a little too tart for my palate yesterday. I had a bunch of water instead.



Watched Cinderella, Peter Pan, and 101 Dalmatians. I was going to watch Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty yesterday too, but I had just watched them recently and I was pretty sure I wouldn't get what I'm looking for out of them. I'll tack them onto the end.

Lunch was a hunk of multigrain bread with a little butter and another serving of the Yellow Squash Gratin from the other night. I've been getting nudged to eat more, so I made the effort to have a huge snack later in the day. Whole wheat pita chips, carrots, and salsa. And a big orange. And water in another one of my favorite cups. It looks like I'm drinking blue Kool-Aid, doesn't it? Nope. The cup turns blue when it gets cold. And my fingers leave white fingerprints on it from the body heat.



It was still storming so I wasn't sure if we were going to the boil or not, because it was outside. We ended up going and got some seats under the pavillion. Like I said last week, I've been looking forward to this particular party since the beginning of crawfish season. I decided before we left that if the crawfish were tiny then I wasn't going to bother eating any because they likely wouldn't be good. It seems like we're having that problem everywhere...I guess it's a bad season. Anyways, they were HUMONGOUS. So I went ahead and got a tray (maybe 1.5-2 lbs). I did eat some, but barely any. I got my fix. That means for this past two weeks or so I've only had 1 meat meal per week. I think that's pretty good. I haven't made a solemn vow to be veggie or anything, so I guess it's not like I'm failing at a mission or anything.

Alright kids, I've got more to say, but I've got to get to class. It's still raining hard so I need to get out of here and give myself plenty of time. I'll leave you with a [bad] pic of K-dog snoozing on my books.

Blogging flowerside tonight.

See? Aren't they pretty? That orange guy was leftover from last week's flowers. Way to hang in there little buddy!

Wanna know what I did today? Watched Disney movies ALLLLLLL day. I'm watching all the animated ones for a big research paper that is due in three weeks. I'm getting a little worried that I'm falling behind. I have two other papers to get done soon, so I really need to buckle down and concentrate.

Breakfast was just something light. Just toast with PB, glass of milk, and a big ass orange. And a little leisure reading:



Maniac Kosmo was out of doggy food so I ran to PetSmart to grab a bag and while I was there I grabbed a few more toys that were on clearance, as well as a really cool doggy water bottle for when we go out for walks. It was only $1.47!







Does your dog line up his/her toys like that? Kosmo will actually sleep on them...such a strange beast.

I forgot to take pics at the grocery store, but I have some pics of some of the cool stuff I got:



-The top one is the Odwalla Berries GoMega bar that I've had before.
-The middle is an Odwalla Stawberry Pomegranate. Never had this one.
-The bottom is a strawberry Mrs. Mays Trio bar. I've never seen these before. It's vegan and has "3 nuts, 3 seeds, 3 fruits".

Lunch was some leftover pasta stuff and a bottle of Twist Organic Mango Acai:



The Twist was just okay. I'd never seen it before and thought I'd give it a try. It's not sweet at all. It is 25 calories for the whole 19 ounce bottle.

Dinner was Yellow Squash Gratin, which I really liked and the husband says is good (he had chicken with his) except he scraped off the bread crumb topping like some kind of evil alien or something. What is wrong with him?!

And now I'm just chillin here catching up on some blog stuff and getting ready to get back to watching some Disney movies.

I wanted to give Erin at I Walk In This World a big HUMONGO thank you for the POM and the Oikos coupons! The POM is delish and I will definitely be buying some when I am out. I haven't tried the Oikos yet though. Thanks again Erin!! Actually, be sure to check out her blog and participate in this awesome auction and bake sale that really means a lot to a lot of people (including me!).



Good night, kids!

Today was a good day.

*contented sigh*

Awesome things that happened today:
-I got my POM samples from Erin - thanks Er!
-I got my last midterm grade back - another A! (If you're counting, that's A's for all four exams)
-I had an appointment with my advisor and he confirmed that I am indeed graduating in December 2009 (egads...that's 8 months *faint*) instead of after the Spring 2010 semester.
-My presentation went very well.

This is just gonna be a quick post with the food for the day, as I've gotta get some stuff done.

Breakfast:
1/2 cup granola, 1/2 cup strawberries, 1 Tbsp pecan pieces, 1/4 cup skim milk (small breakfast, I got a little sick this morning and wasn't ready for a lot of food in my tummy)

Lunch:
1 Tbsp natural peanut butter on 2 slices of whole wheat bread, large orange (I intended to add a Odwalla Bar to this but didn't get to the UC to get one, lunch was filling anyways)

Dinner:
2 oz. cooked pasta baked with leftover veggies, fat free ricotta, and tomato sauce

Snacks:
small tostada shell with 1/4 cup guacamole, 1 Tbsp sour cream, 1/4 chopped tomatoes
1 8 oz. bottle of POM

I realize after typing all that out that that's not a lot of food.

Okay, I've gotta get some research done and then go to sleep.

Grocery shopping tomorrow! Hopefully I can get some action pics. :)

Evenin' Kids!

How was your day today? Mine went pretty well. I slept in a little and then ate a small breakfast of toast with 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter, half a banana, half a cup of strawberries, and a cup of green tea with Splenda. I worked on a presentation for tomorrow. I ate lunch a little later. It was some leftover pasta primavera from the other night. I added a teaspoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of grated parmigiano reggiano.

After lunch I browsed for some new recipes. That took waaaaay longer than expected though. I could have gotten a lot more reading done. I guess I do need to work on making up a "computer free hour" in the house.

Dinner was Eggplant Rollatini (super yummy, by the way). Hubby brought me an A&W Cream Soda! It's hard not to drink the whole 320 calorie bottle, so that was definitely an extra little treat. After dinner we watched our Monday night shows on CBS. We love Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. We also watched Two and a Half Men and Rules of Engagement, but I think he likes those shows more than me. I can take them or leave them. What are your favorite shows?

I just finished mapping out my LAST TWO SEMESTERS of school!! Well, not of school all together because I plan to start my Masters of Library Science in the Spring. I'm so excited. As long as the history advisor doesn't totally screw me over like he does to everyone else I should be good to go. Now if he'll only get back with me to set up our advising appointment I can find out for sure. I'm taking 12 hours over two Summer sessions and then 12 more hours in the Fall.

Summer Session 1
The Bible and Western Culture
Spanish 3

Summer Session 2
Christianity and Ethics
Spanish 4

Fall
The Bible and Modern Science
Judaism
Modern Europe: Work & Family
Texas Since 1865

AND THEN I'M GONNA GRADUATE - FINALLY!

Time for bed! Wish me luck on my presentation tomorrow!

Procrastinatin.

I should really be working on a bunch of stuff for school, but I can't. My eyes are about to fall out of my head from all the reading and I'm sick of scouring databases and journals and library catalogs. I need a break.

After my nummy breakfast this morning I hit up the salon and got my hair did. Here's exhibit A:



After the salon, I stopped by Hobby Lobby because I haven't been there in forever and I just wanted to browse around. I decided to get some supplies to make the hubs an Easter basket as a suprise. He loves suprises, especially when they involve candy. I'm going to put the jelly beans in a little container on Sunday morning, and I'm going to dye some eggs and throw a couple in the basket. Before I forget, how do I dye eggs without a kit? I've got all kinds of Wilton food coloring jars.



For lunch, I decided to eat outside. A couple of ladies whose blogs I read regularly have inspired me to eat outside. I don't have the cutest set up or anything, but here's what I had:



It wasn't much, but I wasn't very hungry at the time. 2 small carrots, 2 celery stalks, grape tomatoes, black olives, Sabra Greek Olive hummus, and 1 tsp. olive oil. And a big ice water in my Texans cup. (Yeah, I know they don't win, but they've been my team since their first game...I'm a hometown kinda girl). As I write this almost 3 hours later I'm getting a hankerin for a snack. I'm not sure what to have. I really want some bread and butter but I know it's not going to fill me up at all. Decisions, decisions.

Dinner tonight is going to be a pasta primavera dish with the Eddie's colorful veggie pasta I told y'all about last week. I'm looking forward to it because I am a pasta whore.

As it is Friday I think we are probably going to go out to the bars. I want to try some other kinds of ciders. I've tried Woodchuck Amber and I liked it. And I tried Ace Pear, that was good. Last night at the fish fry I tried Woodchuck Pear and I didn't like it that much. So the hunt is still on.

Speaking of the fish fry, the hosts served breaded and fried trout and redfish (all caught by the host), hushpuppies, fries, and onion rings. Another guest brought La Madeleine cheese cake and we brought potato salad and an Italian creme cake. I only ate 2 hushpuppies, 8 french fries, about a 1/4 cup of potato salad and half of a smallish piece of the Italian creme cake. And I drank half a bottle of the Woodchuck Pear and a big glass of water. I think I did pretty well!

Alright then, I'm going to go see about that snack. *smoooooooch*

*shakes fist at wind*

So could today have been any windier?! (Said in best Chanandler Bong voice). I checked the weather this morning and must have missed the part where we were going to have hurricane force winds all day. That would have been helpful knowledge when I was, you know, putting on that flowy-ass skirt this morning!!

Luckily it didn't fly up on me. When anyone was watching. I hope. *blushes*

So I got some pics of those Coog statues I was telling you about. Here they are:

Nice Kitteh

Mean Kitteh

I ate a nice breakfast of Stonyfield Farm Organic Probiotic Fat Free French Vanilla Yogurt *pause to catch breath* topped with sliced strawberries and 1/3 cup of granola. And I had a Berry Detox from Yogi Teas.

Class was good. In Christianity, we had a discussion about unChristian by David Kinneman and Gabe Lyons. I only have about 20 pages left in the book. It's a very interesting book. Basically, they researched why young people (16-29 year olds) outside of Christianity hold negative feelings or perceptions of the faith, and also how and why Christians need to change in order to break these perceptions. It's a very thought provoking read whether you are a Christian or not. I recommend it. My other class on Thursday is US History 1945-1960. I turned in a report (for extra creadit-WOOT!) and the lecture was a little entertaining. I realized I don't really know anything about Eisenhower. I really need to get on reading about him.

For lunch at my Alpha meeting I had a slice of veggie pizza and some Triscuit-like crackers and a little cup of pink lemonade. Not too bad.

Although, when I got home I promptly heated up some leftover Rice & Bean Casserole from last night so I must have been hungry. We're going to that fish fry in a little bit (maybe? I can't find my husband...) so hopefully that will hold me over in case there's nothing good for me to eat.

Tomorrow I have a hair appointment that I'm not looking forward to. I suppose I can bring my Ike biography with me and maybe get it knocked out while I'm sitting there FOR.EV.ER.

Oh! And I got invited to a Texas Young Republicans meeting in Galveston. We'd be working to help rebuild the Island and then there will be a board meeting. I'd really like to go. It's the weekend of my husband's birthday so maybe we can make a weekend out of it and stay at the hotel where they're holding the meeting. That'd be cool. I'd really like to get involved in a YR group. I'm disappointed with the UH group, as they never meet and never respond to correspondence. Tsk tsk.

Okay, that's all for now. I've gotta get some stuff done. Have a good evening!

Kwikie

So I've been pretty busy today so I'm not going to have much to say, and as I am writing this I really should be sleeping.

Today I had a meeting at school with my advisor for my minor. We went over some things and it looks like I might be able to graduate in December of this year!! Of course, I need to verify that with my major advisor and I'm sure he'll say something different and I won't be able to graduate until 2016 or something. But the meeting threw off my day and I actually skipped breakfast. Oops.

I also heard a really disturbing story today about Lone Survivor author and Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell's therapy dog being murdered by a bunch of stupid punks. I was really upset about it. The crime is cruelty to animals, but I really think the law needs to be extended to fit murder, and the sentences need to be longer. I need to look into the law more to be sure, and I know I have Texas Legislature Online alerting me on a bill about amending the cruelty to animals law anyways, so we'll see. I really need to work writing a letter or two into my schedule.

I went to the grocery store on the way home and I guess due to the hunger from skipping breakfast I grabbed a few things that weren't on my list: Yummy Sabra Greek Olive Hummus and some Athenos Whole Wheat Baked Pita Chips to go with it, tropical dried fruit medley, and some Odwalla Protein Monster in the vanilla flavor, I haven't tried it yet, but hopefully it's yumtastic.

When I got home I ate a big fat salad with some tasty low fat lemon rosemary vinaigrette. It was actually very filling considering I hadn't eaten breakfast. Then I finished my book report to turn in tomorrow for a 5 point bonus...yippee! That's done and I'm glad. Now I just need to get my butt in gear and get some other stuff knocked out before I get really overwhelmed in a couple of weeks.

Dinner was Tex-Mex Rice & Bean Casserole. It was okay. It could have used some salsa, but I'm weak and couldn't get the jar open and the hubs was working late so I was outta luck.

Anyways, I'm exhausted and I have school tomorrow and I think we have plans for dinner at a friend's house for a fish fry. I'm not really looking forward to that, but don't tell the husband! Hopefully they have some decently healthy food for me to eat...if I have time I'll eat a salad before I go, and I'll definitely eat a banana on the way.

Okay, that's all for me. I guess that wasn't so quick, was it? Nite!

Grades, food, prizes, and veggie talk!

Today has been a great day! Well, so far at least. I have a few more hours of chore-y type stuff to do. But I'm in a good mood because of some things that happened today.

First, I thoroughly enjoyed my Christianity class today. It was all about Christianity and the founding of America. So the day started off well.

Then I grabbed some lunch from the UC - a garden salad (with cukes, tomatoes, mushrooms, black olives, and light italian dressing). And that was when I discovered Odwalla bars. I knew about the drinks, but I'd never seen the bars. I chose the Berry GoMega bar. It was delicious and satisfying enough that I only ate half of it after finishing my salad. It had lots of flax seeds in it to give me 1,000mg of Omega-3s! Pretty good stuff. I'm definitely going to have to try the other varieties soon! This, followed by some afternoon gossip in the hallway before class was pretty fun.

In my Addiction class, the prof returned our exams from last week.....I got an A! Well, an A- but it's still an A! I'm so excited about that because I was totally freaking out about this exam before hand. I totally thought I was just going to bomb it, but then I got in there and did my thing and made it happen.

And then to give my day a little icing, I won Erin's POM & Oikos giveaway over at I Walk In This World! I never win anything EVER. This really made my day that much more special. Thanks again, Erin!

In case you were wondering, which you probably were not, here's what my food looked like for today:

B - 1 packet Quaker instant butter grits topped with 1 fried egg, cup of Bigelow Green Tea with Mango

L - Salad, 1/2 Odwalla GoMega bar, bottle of water (I really need to start using my reusable bottle! Shame on me!)

Snack - 1/2 Odwalla GoMega bar, orange

D - leftover Garden Style Lasagna topped with a teaspoon of olive oil

I'm sure I'll snack on something else later as I didn't eat a whole lot today.

Speaking of food....I am thinking really hard about eating vegetarian. I don't like chicken or pork, and I really only like ground turkey and the occasional steak. I can do without the steak and I know I can substitute soy crumbles and such for the ground turkey. I do like seafood, but not a whole lot...and I could do without that as well. My biggest concern with this is that I do not get in enough protein as it is, and if I cut out the meat then I may be making this worse. I'm not fond of tofu, so that's out. I do like beans, but everyone knows the problem that comes with beans...(*snicker*). I like eggs, milk, cheese (except cottage cheese), and I'm learning to like yogurt. I also like protein smoothies. So, we'll see how this goes. I know it's not a test that I'm going to fail or anything, and I know that I don't have to go all or nothing right away. I already barely eat any meat just because I don't care for it, and that's mostly why I thought about being vegetarian. So really, I'm just thinking right now.

Question(s) of the Day:
What are some benefits of eating a vegetarian diet? What is hard about being vegetarian? If you are not a vegetarian, have you ever thought about it, and if so, what deterred you from it?

(Lurkers, you can come out to play in the comments! I promise not to bite, you know, because I don't care for meat....tee hee!)

Opening Day!

First of all - GO 'STROS!!!! Here's a pic of THE CUTEST BASEBALL CAP EVER.

Saturday morning I woke up and ate breakfast. It was an orange, a lemon poppyseed scone, a small handful of pecans and some tea. And some light reading on the Cold War.

After breakfast, I went to school for my United States history class covering the 60's. Technically the class is US 1961-1976 or something like that, but we've been focusing mainly on all the "sixties" stuff. Civil rights & other movements, Vietnam, etc. It's an interesting class. I like the content but it starts to get really old when I feel like I'm only being taught one side of the story. But I'm smart enough to find out stuff on my own so it's not that big of a deal. It happens in every class. But I did leave there that day with the worst headache I've ever had. I'm going to be nice and attribute it to my sinus/flu/pneumonia/bubonic plague issue that has been ongoing FOREVER now though. I didn't end up eating any lunch because I knew we'd be eating dinner soon and I wanted to indulge. Plus I wasn't hungry.

After I went home and took some medicine and rested a bit, we went to the Verizon Wireless Theatre to see the Stephen Lynch concert. I'll be honest here, I had no idea who he was but man he was hilarious. But you should know, if you are easily offended and cannot laugh when something is funny...this is not the show for you. Stay home and watch Murder, She Wrote or something. I'm glad my friend forced us to go, and I'm thinking about buying some of this guy's albums. His newest is called "3 Balloons".

Before the show, we went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner because it was right next door and the least fancy of all the places nearby. The wait was an hour and a half but my genius husband was able to get us a table in only 30 minutes or so...I don't know his secret. I think I'll keep him though. I ordered the Twisted Mac, Chicken & Cheese (A grilled chicken breast tops off twisted Cavatappi pasta tossed in a lightly spiced 3-cheese sauce, with garlic, roasted red peppers and Romano parsley bread crumbs. Served with a side of garlic toast). I picked off the chicken and fed it to the husband. It was delicious! We inhaled our food and went over to watch the show.

After the show we stopped by a friend's new home. The party was already started but we joined in and played Drinking Catchphrase. We split into teams of guys vs. girls and whoever had the game in their hand when the buzzer went off, they had to drink. It was much fun. For the record, not that we were keeping score, but the girls won. Of course. We were running out of sustinence so we walked a couple of blocks to a really cool bar called Cedar Creek where we all had some Irish Car Bombs. I also ordered an Ace Pear Cider and we continued playing Catchphrase right there in the bar. Well out on the patio. And yes, people were staring. But I think they were just jealous because we were having a fabulous time.

After the bar closed we went over to BB's Cajun Cafe (best place ever by the way). Mike was there as usual to take our order. I was craving something sweet so I ordered the Pancake Munchies made with chocolate chips. The boys both got The Southern Man, which is eggs, cheese grits, bacon or sausage, a biscuit and a piece of fried catfish. We also shared an appetizer of Fried Pickles and Jalepenos. The food is so good there. I try to order something different each time. I've never been disappointed. I've had the Captain America, which is the Southern Man without the catfish, a hamburger (they have the BEST tiny little crunchy french fries!) and the Pecan Crusted French Toast. This place is seriously awesome and no one I know has ever been disappointed. And they have daquiris to geaux, FYI.

Sunday was a lazy day. I read most of the day. I'm trying to get my reading done so that I can write a report for Thursday. I should actually be reading right now, but I'm going to continue doing this and then updating the Delicious Disaster blog as well with the dinner I made on Sunday. It was a vegetarian Garden Lasagna recipe. You can see it over there. Then the husband and I walked the doggy and then watched some TV.

Speaking of the dog, I got a fabulous picture of him doing his thing in the back yard. I love this picture!

And that leaves us with today. But it's been mostly boring so far and nothing exciting to report.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Updates on boringness

The NOLA trip was really fun but I didn't get to spend enough time with any of my pals. The husband and I did go to Harrah's on Friday night and as usual I lost money and he had to win it back for me. The Westin above the Shops at Canal is absolutely amazing. I am thinking they heat the tile floor or something? How do they keep it warm all the time like that?! The bed was heavenly, as they advertise. We had a great view of the river and the French Quarter.

We had lunch at Coop's Place on Saturday with Kat and her husband, Michelle, and Jen and her husband.. I got the Pasta Opelousas (shrimp, tasso, boneless chicken, Creole green beans, & shiitake mushrooms sauteed in a garlicky alfredo base, lightened with wine). It was a little spicy for me, but that's not unusual. It was good though. I gave all the chicken to the husband because I am not a fan. He ordered the Shrimp and Crawfish Po' Boy on french and dressed, but the waitress brought him just a Shrimp Po' Boy. He didn't try to correct it. He says it was nothing special that he couldn't get back home. He also ordered a Woodchuck Amber for the first time. I took a sip and I must say I like! We walked around the French Quarter a lot and took in the sights and of course my camera battery was dead so I didn't take any cool pics.

For dinner that night we went to Pierre Maspero's with Jen and her husband. I ordered the Salmon. It was delicious and I couldn't finish it so I fed the rest of it to the husband. He ordered the Sampler and was impressed. We walked around Bourbon Street despite the fact that half of it didn't have power for some time. But I guess that's what candles are for. I'm not really impressed with Bourbon Street and I honestly don't think I'd waste the time there anymore. J & P showed us a cool place called Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. I'm sure it was cool anyways....it was so cold and we ended up sitting outside so we didn't really get to experience it.

We left on Sunday kind of early after getting breakfast at Cafe du Monde and eating our beignets in the park in front of the St. Louis Cathedral. That's the picture (in case you couldn't figure it out!). We drove home and on the way stopped off at Prejean's in Lafayette. We ordered an appetizer of alligator tail (which as usual was a little spicy for me but so delicious). I ordered the Crawfish Enchiladas (fresh crawfish tails, chilies & cheeses rolled in flour tortillas, topped with our Crawfish and Creole Sauce, cheddar cheese and baked golden) and they were DIVINE. They came with rice dressing and corn macque choux and a salad. The rice dressing was just okay, but the corn, my God the corn. It was delicious. I admit, I didn't know what a corn macque choux was and when I saw it on my plate I was like "hhhhm...corn in a mini pie shell.." But honey....it was so good. I think I dreamt about it that night. He ordered the Red Snapper Pontchartrain (eight ounce filet of fresh red snapper, pan sautéed and topped with Crawfish and Brown Butter Sauce. Served with a baked potato and corn macque choux). He liked it. Despite the fact that we both liked our food, we probably wont make the stop again (unless I'm dying of corn macque choux withdrawals).

We also stopped at L'auberge du Lac casino on the way home. He wanted to play some video blackjack again like he did at Harrah's but LdL doesn't have it. Blast! I sipped on some root beer while I watched him win some money playing video poker. He also insisted I put some money into the Wheel of Fortune penny slot, and I of course lost practically all of it. But that's just my luck.

Back to reality...

I had an exam on Tuesday that I was dreading A LOT. But I came out of it okay, and I think I may actually get a decent grade on it.

I'm still sick. It's not the flu anymore, but maybe a sinus thing? I don't know, but my head hurts and so do my teeth (weird). I just want to sleep all the time too!

I have a book report due next Thursday and I'm not through reading the book. I went today to find a shorter different book, but neither bookstore had it. Apparently bookstores don't like to carry 18 year old books. Phooey. If I would have been on top of this I could have ordered the book online a long time ago and had it by now. Oh well. The book I'm writing on is interesting and I wanted to read it anyways (The United States and the Origins of the Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis).

Let's see. I've got a lot of other schoolwork to do, all of it pretty boring and maybe I'll fill you in on it when it gets down to the wire and I need to vent about how much I hate working on it.

We're going to see Stephen Lynch this Saturday. He's a comedian/musician I guess. I've never heard of him, but apparently his show was selling out and my friend wanted to go so he got us tickets to go with him. I hope it's a good show! I've been wanting to see a comedian lately.

And that's about it for now. I'm going to try to get in bed and read a little bit before falling asleep. Maybe I'll remember to take the camera to school tomorrow. I want to get some pics of the cougar statues in front of the E. Cullen Building so maybe you'll see those soon.