eh_notsomuch

I bought a coat from Amazon the other day for less than $20! It just arrived today. I was afraid it'd be too small even though I ordered the XL. But it fits, and it's quite warm, and the collar around my neck is nice and soft, and it's kinda CUTE! Looking forward to trying it out tomorrow!

In the form of the bullet!

• I was putting some bottles in the wine fridge this morning (w00t~!), and I noticed a tuft of cat hair on the bar countertop. The cats are obviously conducting their own building inspections. I hope we're up to code!


• I reiterate: kitties are not digging the "get locked up in the bedroom all day" routine. And of course if the door were open, they'd still spend 90% of their day in there! It's just the closed door they object to. But I don't care what they think. Until all the contractors and subcontractors hand me back their spare keys and I can be assured that no one else will be coming in and out of the house when we're not there, the cats stay sequestered in the bedroom during the day.


• Speaking of the remodel: stuff in the kitchen works! Like last night, I unpacked the microwave stuff and set up the little plate, and found a place to store the convection rack. (Ooooh fancy!) I ran it at very low power for 30 seconds. You know, just to make sure the plate was in right and able to move. And it works! Today we turned on the hood, and it's got 4 nice bright 50 watt bulbs in there. The fan is... kinda loud. But if you turn it down to 2 (out of 6), it's manageable. If I'm watching TV while I'm cooking and running the fan, I'll be very glad for those two speakers installed in the kitchen ceiling. I started putting in oven racks, but it feels too loose. Need to find the manual and make sure I'm doing it right.


• I'm wearing an inexpensive brown T-shirt I bought at Target a couple weekends ago and my new beige skirt. I look decent and am very comfy! I must go snag more of these cheap and cheerful shirts.


• Just saw a headline go by: "Unlike 1Q, Apple shares rise after 2Q report." Translated: when Charity buys Apple shares, she gets a decent earnings report but the stock tanks anyway. After they claw back up to a reasonable level, she sells them to Hubby, who then gets a hhhhhhawesome earnings report, and they go sky-high. Eh, whatevah. I am clearly not cut out to own individual stocks. I will stick to mutual funds. Or bonds.


• But yeah, so I got my Apple stock money back, and my 6-month CD matures next Friday. So when they announce the next release of the MacBook Pro, I am ready, baby! I figure they'll do a refresh in time for the back-to-school buying crowd. I'll wait till November or so to let them work all the kinks out, then SNAG!!!


• Today was "Bring Your Young'uns to Work Day." Remember when the whole idea of it was Bring Your Daughter to Work, so she can see different roles for women so she doesn't have to stick to "nurse" or "teacher" or "mommy" as a career path? Yeah, so that lasted. My company actually has organized programs for the kids now, and they shuffle them off to the auditorium or something so you hardly see them. This is a vast improvement from when it was just an excuse for the kids to eat all our cookies and download South Park cartoons at their mothers' desks. (Tru fax, saw that with my own eyes.)


• Dr. H and Dr. M back-cracked me yesterday. I consistently have tightness and issues with my mid-back, so I got the office ergonomics guru to give my desk a makeover. So he's got my chair rearranged now. It's weeeeird. Not bad, just weeeeird.


• Wanna hear something that sucks? Next month Hubby has to fly down to Tampa for a meeting at 1 p.m., then turn around and fly home! I mean, he prefers not to have to go away overnight and all, and there is value in face-to-face meetings. But doesn't that seem like a huge waste of money!? Not to mention an e-nor-mous pain in Hubby's posterior.


• I'm sneezing and blowing my nose like a mofo today. Hard to tell if it's the cold or allergies compounding the problem. Although I am grateful that the sore throat has finally! passed. Hopefully this won't last much longer.


• I do see my doctor next week, but that's because I need a new scrip for Wellbutrin. Even though it hasn't helped much lately with not overeating, I think I should stay on it. When I read that story a few weeks ago about Cabinet-level members of the administration sitting in on torture meetings, I literally got depressed. I had to shut off the TV and go to bed. Coincidentally, I had been alternating days on with days off, to try and get off it. After that, I was like, "Oh yeah. We're keeping it." I'll be interested to see what the doctor says.


• 3 shots of decaf espresso + large cup full of ice = free iced coffee at work. Take that, Starbucks!


• So glad I'm getting my hair cut on Saturday. It's becoming bushy, and no matter how much effort I put into blow-drying, I still look like a little Dutch boy with a bowl haircut by the end of the day.


• Back to remodeling news: we're meeting with a lady next Wednesday. She's a friend of Georgie's and does cool things with framing and mounting photographs. We're going to have a bunch around the 2nd floor, including two super huge ones on the dining and living room walls.


• To those of you on my F-list who need it, just know I'm pulling for you.


• And finally, boom de yada!

Mah pretty size 10 party dress. Let me show you it.





ETA: You guys. Comments really do equal love. My F-list > everyone else's F-list!!! Thank you so much!

I’ve been on the go more or less since noon today, and got soooooooo much accomplished!

• Found a tailor’s down the street and took my purple suit and brown slacks in to be re-hemmed. They will be done next week!


• Drove to the Rescue Mission of Trenton in, well, Trenton, and gave them my old D70 body and lots of accessories to list on their EBay store. Only been meaning to do that since, well, forever!


• Drove to this jewelers in Hamilton Square, because I’d heard they charge only $3 for watch battery replacements. And it’s true! The guy put new batteries in 2 of my watches that have been sitting collecting dust in a drawer for forevah. He took a couple of links out of my gold dress watch, again which I’ve been meaning to do forevah. (Notice a theme today? Sheesh.) Then I didn’t like the old strap on one of the watches, so he sold me a pretty light brown leather strap. And he ran my wedding and engagement rings through their ultrasonic cleaner, and WOW! My engagement ring sparkles like new! I didn’t realize how dirty it was! I love this place. I’m going there for all my jewelry repair stuff from now on.


• Went to Mercer Mall to look for an evening wrap. Nothing in Filene’s Basement, Ross or TJ Maxx. So I called my pal Suzerella up, at the Lane Bryant. Yes, she had a brown wrap with copper metallic weave, and it was 50% off! Drove over there, looked great, grabbed it! I also found a cute little clutch that will go with my outfit, and it was 30% off!


• Came home, made a shopping list, grabbed Hubby, and hit the grocery store. So all our food shopping for the week is done!

Now we’re about to drive down to my parents’ house, because we’re going to have a little early birthday celebration for me! Yay! Hubby has actually wrapped what appear to be presents for me! He’s not just giving me the box from Amazon or wherever. I feel so special!

I have this gorgeous dress that I bought last year, but couldn’t wear due to binging and getting too fat to wear it to Hubby’s company's Christmas party. One of my goals was to wear it to this year's Christmas party, on December 8.

This morning I got up and decided to try the dress on, just to see how far I still had to go.

And, uh, hee hee, the damnedest thing...

It. Fits.

Itfits itfits itfits fitsfitsfits!

I need a shaper for my tummy and hips, but it. Fits!

It’s a size 10, and it fits!

I opened up the trunk of clothes with loads of smaller size clothes and tried some on. The dress I’m wearing in this photo? Fits. Other pants and skirts are a tiny bit too tight, but in another 5 pounds or so, it’ll be a breeze.

I did it.

I got what I wanted. I made a goal and I made it happen.

It. Fits.

So I spent about $200+ on spring clothes yesterday, which means of course it's 45 degrees and raining outside now!

I just packed away my size 10's in the cedar chest. There are an awful lot of them. *sigh* Hung up my new bigger *groan* clothes. I did have to go with the size 14's in pants. I did get a cute Jones New York boatneck top, that will be perfect if anyone wants to take me sailing. I got some Tommy Hilfiger pants too that should be very comfy. Best of all, I got a decent-looking suit, good enough to wear for Easter (next week?!), for $20! I could even wear it to work. If I get four or five wears out of it, it more than pays for itself.

I worked out on the treadmill. I did 45 minutes and would have gone longer, but I had some, um, thigh chafing issues. Ugh.

We did go see The Lookout today, and it was very good. I don't want to tell you too much about the plot, but you should definitely go see it. I found out that the writer/director of this movie also wrote screenplays for Out of Sight, Minority Report, Get Shorty, and Malice, all of which have been great mysteries with really good ideas. Hubby and I both liked it. Charity Frog says check it out.

Nope, me neither!

Tomorrow I may go clothes shopping. I threw out all my larger sized clothes last year when I hit my goal weight (smart, no?), and I can't fit into my size 10's, so back I go to 12's. Maybe even *shudder* 14's. This too shall pass, right?

And of course, Season 3 of Doctor Who starts on the Beeb tomorrow night! Which of course means nothing to me, for lo, I am a Yankee, and completely unable to see it in this country. I just mention it in passing.

Saturday is supposed to be the sunnier of the weekend days, so Hubby has hinted that smoked turkey may be on the menu. *scrumptious*

I still want to see 300, but I'm hearing all kinds of good things about a small movie called The Lookout. 300 will be out for a looooong time, but Lookout is only in a thousand screens, and could use the love. We haven't gone to a movie in so long, the last time we did go to a theater, I sat there the whole time wishing for a PAUSE button.

So clothes, bird, and maybe a movie. Huge weekend.

Hey, look! There's finally a current picture of me in my weight loss gallery! I had a very productive shopping trip at the outlet stores today. I went totally nuts in Dress Barn. I wasn't sure about this one, but my shopping co-hort DP loved it and said I totally had to get it. And now I love it too. It is cute! And comfy too! So I got Hubby to take a photo of me, so I could add it to my gallery and you can see what I look like right now!

The ribs are smoking, the yard smells like hickory (yummmm), and I hope my folks show up soon. Cuz I'm hungry.