Losing It!

Over the past 5 days or so, I have managed to lose 5 lbs!  After over-thinking diets and such for many months I am shocked at how easy it was.  This is pretty much the basic way I did it:

I quit buying bags of chocolate, which tempts me to take one each time I pass it.

I didn't eat any pizza or cheese.

No white bread, no potatoes. 

When Britton had a hot dog, I chose a turkey sandwich on wheat instead.  I didn't miss the hot dog at all because I don't really like them.  I only eat them because he wants one and it seemed silly to make something different for myself.

I didn't eat anything fattening near bedtime.  If I was hungry it was just celery and other veggies.

When I did have a meal, I ate less, but not so little that I didn't get full.

I don't want you to think that I totally deprived myself because I didn't.  I even totally pigged out on popcorn when we went to the movie.

Of course, now I am afraid that after the 5 lbs this plan will totally quit working, but we will see.

Bran Muffins -- yuk!

Until yesterday I had never tried a bran muffin.  When I was at Trader Joe's I saw some in the baked goods section.  They are suppose to be "good for you" and they looked good (TJ's normally has really good baked goods) so I thought they would be a nice idea for breakfast sometimes and bought 2 package, one blueberry and one mango/blueberry.  I tried a blueberry one last night and it was HORRIBLE!  It was so horrible that even my dog (who will pretty much eat anything) wanted nothing to do with it.  Is it just the particular ones I got or do they all taste that bad?  Are there people that actually like bran muffins or are they something people strictly eat because they are constipated or trying to lose weight?

Do you know what the one flaw in women is?

This was in my email box today; thought I'd share.

Do you know what the one flaw in women is?: "You've got to watch this beautiful 3-minute movie: http://www.theoneflawinwomen.com/"

More of Mel's sick ranting

Oksana: What kind of a man is that? Hitting a woman when she’s holding a child in her hands? Breaking her teeth twice in the face! What kind of man is that?
Mel: Oh, you’re all angry now! You know what, you f* cking deserved it!

Possibly I am wrong, but when a man continues to insist that a woman deserved to be hit, most especially when that woman was holding his 8 month old daughter - there is no hope for him.

It is possible, as Mel says in at least one of the tapes, that Oksana is a "gold digger."  Let's look at the situation though, Mel is what -- 108 year old?  OK, maybe not quite that old, but you get my point.  Oksana is a beautiful young woman.  Now I am not saying a beautiful young woman can't fall in love with an older man (my SO is older than me by a decade), but did Mel not consider that possibility back before he got a woman pregnant?  You know, before he destroyed his marriage with his wife that had like 8 children with him?  If he was stupid enough to fall for a gold digger (and I am not saying she is) doesn't he hold most of the blame?  Shouldn't he have just looked in the mirror and thought about how he should proceed cautiously because not only is he old, but he is also a total asshole and most women would not want to be with him?  I think so.

Then of course there are the threats of murder -- what psycho rant would be complete without them?:

I’ll put you in a f *ckin rose garden you c*nt! You understand that? Because I’m capable of it. You understand that?

What a man, eh?  Nothing shows you are a man more than threatening a 95 lb woman.

One of my favorite weird things in these new tapes is that Mel claims to have left his wife, Robyn, not for Oksana, but because they had no "spiritual connection."  Ya know, because Mel is so spiritual.  Seriously, does he not get that he is sooooooooooo unspiritual that he could not possibly have a spiritual relationship with anyone or anything?

The best thing about these tapes is that he pretty much admitted to beating Oksana and knocking out her teeth (while she was holding his baby) so it should be very easy for him to be convicted of domestic violence there in CA.

Note:  I took those quotes from the text portion because the few clips I have heard on TV were too disturbing for me and I couldn't listen to the actual recording.

Mel Gibson -- I just can't help but comment

So I decided to go listen to what was called a "racist rant" myself.  I think we all pretty much already knew that Mel was racist and that wasn't what shocked me.  What shocked me was the intensity in which he was speaking to his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child, Oksana Grigorieva.  Seriously, if I were her I would be afraid for my life.  There was all this religious prudishness about how her clothes are always too tight and she is a whore and on and on.  Here is one of the quotes:

“You go out in public and it’s a f*cking embarrassment to me. You look like a f*cking bitch in heat. And if you get raped by a pack of ni**ers it will be your fault. Alright? Because you provoked it. You are provocatively dressed all the time with your fake boobs that you feel you have to show off. I don’t like it. I don’t want that woman. I don’t want  you. I don’t trust you. I don’t love you.”

I haven't seen that many photos of Oksana, but she doesn't seem to dress overly provocative to me.  Besides which, she doesn't seem to dress any differently than before he met her -- he knew how she dressed and he obviously liked that and her fake boobs at one point.

In another tape she made that wasn't on the site, he reportedly said:

"I am going to come and burn the f**king house down... but you will blow me first."

This guy has some major issues and I wouldn't be at all surprised if we don't eventually see an OJ type scenario play out, maybe not with Oksana, but if I were her I wouldn't take any chances.  I don't know what domestic violence laws are in CA, but I really hope they throw the book at him.

More Adventures in Grocery Land

Jim and I were just at Target. The cashier was ringing up our items, then all of a sudden she asks Jim "What's your birthdate?" Jim says, very nicely but confused (as was I) "Why do you need to know my birthdate?" She said "Because of the wine, we have to ask." (Among our items was a bottle of red Zin; Gnarly Head)  We both cracked up and I said (nicely, like anyone would know that was a needless question to ask) "That's ridiculous," but she didn't get it, in fact, looked offended. The people in line behind us were making jokes too.

At first, when she asked us, we thought it was some weird Big Brother thing, like places that ask for your zip code and phone number and stuff. It never occurred to us that buying wine would be an issue.

I understand that state law probably requires cashiers to ask someone's age if they appear to be under 25 or 30 or something. But where's the common sense? Here's a picture of my darling Jim:

Does he look like he's over 21? LOL.

In the Grocery Store: Snarky Cashiers and Grabby Baggers

There's one market we shop at every week; it's like a Whole Foods but that's not the name of the store. And like most places now, you're encouraged to bring in your own bags and get a few cents off for each bag you bring in.

Every time we go in there, we bag our own groceries. We do this because we've had such awful experiences with the people who bag; it's incredible! One of our own bags is an insulated cooler type bag; which would tell anyone with a brain that perishable items go there. But nope, they'll toss any old thing in there. They might put, say, the fish in there but then on top of that, they'll put tomato cans. Speaking of cans, they also put all the cans in one bag, all the glass bottles in another, etc.

So instead of coming off like uptight mean people, (because no matter how nicely you might say something to the person bagging your groceries, they take it the wrong way...) we gave up and just started bagging our own groceries.

A typical encounter goes like this:

I set up the bags at the end of the counter. Person comes over to start bagging, or the clerk will start to bag. I'll say, very cheerfully, very friendly, something like "Oh, thank you, but we'll bag our own stuff," and sometimes make a joke or something. Almost always, the clerk will say something like 'OH, well, by all means..." super sarcastically. I've had the baggers just stomp off! What kind of customer service is that?

To top it off, I've had baggers come over when I'm done, and I'm putting the bags in the cart, and the person will take a bag from out of my hand!!!! and put it in the cart. I'll say, "I have it thanks," but they ignore me. Ignore me! They either stomp off again, or act all offended.

I don't want to be rude but next time some clerk or bagger cops an attitude about me, the paying customer, bagging my own damn groceries, I'll tell them why it's so. Because you all don't know how to bag stuff using common sense.

More of my 80s memories -- weddings!

Yep, that is me, circa 1984 or so.

Anyhow, thinking about 1980s themed movies earlier made me think of my favorite - The Wedding Singer!  For 2 Springs and Summers, 1983 and 84, as I recall -- I seemed to attend at least 2 weddings a month.  Some of those months, especially in June, I am sure that I attended a wedding every single Saturday.  They were all very much like the ones in the wedding singer.  They were awesome!

At that time I worked at what would become Honeywell, but then it was Sperry Air Flight Systems.  I don't know exactly how many people worked there, but hundreds at least.  The thing about the 80s is that people that were pretty much complete strangers (except for working at the same place) would invite you to their weddings and the wedding dance after the wedding.  Sometimes not even their wedding, but their friend, sister or cousin -- someone you didn't know at all.  It was so sweet because you see I was still a few years off from being legal drinking age and at weddings (at least back then) nobody asked to see an ID, you simple asked for a drink and they gave it to you.  You could drink (sometimes for free) and dance all night to great music, performed by a band that looked just as you are imagining!  I have never had so much fun at a wedding since those 80s weddings, all these modern ones pale in comparison.