on weight loss and the impending feast

hi, i'm exhausted. all from cooking an old favorite recipe for dinner tonight. lemme tell you - between prep, assemblage, actual cooking time and all the clean-up (of which there was PLENTY - man, i miss my dishwasher), this recipe took me roughly an hour an a half to get onto my plate. good thing it's so awesome and totally worth it and oh yeah, only six points per serving. i've got five portioned-out tupperware containers sitting on the stove while their contents cool enough to cover and stick in the fridge. i've got lunch and dinner set for the next two days.

(did i mention i REALLY like this meal?)

according to the number on the scale this morning, i've lost 6.8 pounds since i started this whole weight watchers thing last thursday. i know this number is not correct, however, because my initial weight was taken late at night, at the end of a long day while fully dressed. today's weight was taken fresh in the morning with no clothes. still, it was nice to see that number and it gave me a real boost in the self motivation column (and i'm going to claim at least 1-2 of those pounds as the real deal).

tonight, i'm finishing up season four of the l-word, which i'm realizing i've already watched in its entirety. tracy & sarah are working their way through season five and i'm hopeful they'll let me take it home for a bit when they're done with it. i've got the first disc of season one of angel sitting here and don't worry - i'm already scolding myself for opening up the door to my becoming hopelessly obsessed with yet another joss whedon series. what can i say? i'm weak.

(i totally blame jenna for the fact that angel ever made it into my netflix queue.)

i'm crazy excited for thanksgiving. originally, mom and laurel wanted to do dinner at my new place. when we realized that it would only be four of us there, we decided to just go to my uncle's (where grandmom and her amazing cooking will be) like we normally do. after all the food, we'll stick around for some games with jack and lindsay and most likely end the night at laurel's apartment, watching miracle on 34th street, as is our tradition.

my gym is open until noon on thursday and i'm totally planning on going in the morning before i head down to delaware. i have also decided that YES, i will count (estimate is more like it) points during the day but that NO, i will not feel ONE SHRED of guilt for going over the day's target. i mean, come ON - it's thanksgiving! give me some pineapple stuffing and candied yams and garlicky broccoli and creamy mashed potatoes and really? if the turkey wasn't there, i so would not even care. give me a plate of thanksgiving side dishes (and desserts) and i'm the happiest girl in the world.

in other random news, i'm totally loving this flickr group. is that creepy of me?

Read more...

yes we did.

you've heard, right? that the phillies won the world series? well, it was incredible and of course, true to philly style, about as crazy and dramatic as it could have been. a few of us gathered at colleen m's place for part TWO (see? crazy!) of game five for the most tense, exciting and joyous three and a half innings of baseball i may ever get to experience in my life. somewhere in the 7th or 8th, colleen embraced me and excitedly said, "we're gonna win, stell!" and i started crying a little. by the bottom of the ninth, i was pacing back and forth, driving her dog crazy and making others worry slightly because i was SO quiet. when lidge threw that last strike and dropped to his knees with his arms raised in triumph, i dropped right to the floor and the tears came for real. we hugged and cursed and cried (ok, that was just me) and it was just amazing.


adam and i went to the parade on friday and it was one of those experiences that you just never forget. at one point, the crowd started rushing into the street as if the rope barricades weren't even there. i looked back at adam like, "are we really doing this?" and we went with the crowd. the cops didn't push us back and when the trucks with the players came down the street, i could have given them high fives if i was tall enough - we were that close. i took a ton of photos and the (nearly 60) best ones are here.

before we could even recover from all that excitement, the obama happened. the president effing elect obama!


i made obama logo cupcakes the night before the election. let me tell you - it's really tedious and hard on the back to bend over a table decorating 24 cupcakes with colored sugar. i went to bed with purplish fingers, but a HUGE smile on my face. i felt like a domestic goddess and i knew deep down, under all the nerves and fears, that we were totally going to pull this one off the next day.

i went to a conference on election day and voted on my way home. there were no lines, they didn't have those awesome little "i voted" stickers and we had to fill in ovals with pens on our ballots, as if we were taking standardized tests. (seriously, chester county? what year is this?) when i went to put my ballot through the scanner, the woman told me that it didn't matter which way it went in and i was sort of seized with this instant, "oh my god, my vote isn't going to be counted correctly" paranoia.

(though, it turns out that pennsylvania did alright, eh?)

i spent the rest of the night knitting, pacing and eating some of the obama cupcakes i had left after taking some to work and giving a few others to my landlords. when they called pa, i jumped out of my chair and started walking around my living room, pumping my fist into the air and shouting, "yeah, pennsylvania!" when they called florida, i started crying and promptly opened a beer. when they called ohio, i started shaking. and when they called the election? oh, i was a mess.

i cried trough his entire speech, wrapped up in my favorite thermal blanket. i went to bed filled with hope and so excited for our future. two nights later, i was sitting at a table with five other politically like-minded friends at world cafe live. girlyman came out on stage and opened their show with their special obama song (brilliantly set to the tune of richie valens' "donna"), except this time, instead of singing, "ever since i saw him speak" they sang, "ever since he became president" and we all cheered like crazy. it was just one of those magical little moments that again, you never forget. throughout their entire set, i just felt so good inside. it's hard to explain, but i read in someone else's blog this week that they have never felt this connected to or optimistic about government before and it's so true.

at one point in the show, ty was commenting on our world series win and then our election win and she said, "aren't you guys TIRED? shouldn't you try to spread your joy and happiness our a little bit more?"

seriously, man. i keep telling people i feel like i haven't slept for the entire past month.

i slept for twelve hours last night. since i woke up, i've had coffee & breakfast brunch, added way too many blogs to my bloglines subscriptions, watched a whole lot of 30rock and worked on this post. my only other plans (until i have to leave for joe's big turkish party tonight!) are to knit, watch more 30rock and take a very long bath. tomorrow, i am meeting colleen d for a proper tea at the simpson room and that's about as much excitement as i can handle this weekend.

well done, america.

Read more...