I'm guessing that I use the Alton Brown method. I cut the cheeks, then I cross-hatch cuts on them and turn the skin inside out, so that I can cut off the resulting squared-off chunks.
Then my inelegant method of getting every last bit is to kind of scrape the skin between my teeth like an artichoke. I don't particularly care to have witnesses when I do that. (Though I don't bathe with my mangos, I prefer to have private, one-on-one encounters with them.)
Weight slowly creeping down. One restaurant meal this weekend at a new Venezuelan place -- I had to try the ham & cheese empanada and plantains. Good, but OMG there was so much oil on that thing. I picked it up and oil poured out. I bit a hole in one end and then turned it so the hole was down and drained out at least 1/4 C of oil.
My planning and tracking for this week is thrown off by a business trip Tues-Wed. I will track and eat well Mon, Thurs, and Fri. I will try to make good choices on this trip. Still deciding whether or not to pack workout clothes -- I usually run on Wed but I don't know if I'll have time and it might rain, and not packing that stuff saves me a lot of baggage room. Maybe I'll go for some yoga in my hotel room. I am anticipating a lot of airport food -- flight out is 7am tomorrow morning and return is midnight the next day.
I failed last night. I was frustrated and kind of sad after a particularly wringing afternoon with DSS and fell into food. I took him shopping for a birthday gift for his mom yesterday. I had to fight to get him to go with me, during which time he blamed me for not having gotten her a gift in the first place, told me he wanted to stay home and play and told me he would just tell her that I made the mistake and that was why she didn't have a present. Then once we got to the store he told me over the course of the trip that his mom was stronger than me, smarter than me, faster than me, funnier than me. And on and on. I just pushed him to pick her out a present and get out of the store so I could get home. He didn't want to buy her a card, said she didn't keep them and it didn't matter. Said that she never wore the jewelry he got her and that she killed the mother's day flower because she didn't water it, so didn't know why we were bothering to get her a gift. We get home and realize I got the wrong size shirt and the wrong coffee beans, so have to go back and switch it while DH & DSS eat dinner. (I'm a girl - I can't give a too large shirt on purpose to another woman, even one who doesn't like me and has actively told DH that he didn't need to get me cards or gifts.) After bath I sit him down to write on his mommy's birthday card and he fills it up with "I Love You" and "You're the Best" and it hits me that I don't have a single card that he has colored all over for me. Not one. Not birthday or Christmas or Mother's Day or anything. And I've taken him to buy ones for her on every major holiday for years, and sat with him while he colored them. It made me sad. Yes, he tells me he loves me. Yes, he hugs me and kisses me goodnight - most of the time. When he is talking to me, which he wasn't last night at bedtime when he didn't say goodnight to me or this morning when all he said to me was "vitamins?" when he realized they weren't on his breakfast tray. So I know he loves me, but still.
And that sounds whiny and self indulgent. I'm going to leave it since I wrote it out, but sorry to be a downer on the thread.
Edit - I didn't say how I failed. I waited until DH went to bed and had leftover Chinese food and 8 girl scout cookies at 11:30 at night. Three full servings of cookies - one serving each, of three different kinds.
Last edited by Shannon in ATL; 02-27-2012 at 01:51 PM.
shannon - BIG . You are incredibly strong in the face of outright meanness. Troubled youngsters are so difficult to deal with - they are black holes of neediness and they give so little in return, until far into the future. It's why I failed at teaching. I just can't give that much, for that long. It's one thing if you have a kid who has a normal level of compassion and emotional intelligence - I can say to mine, "Look, what you said really hurts my feelings and I don't want to be around you for a while", and he'll understand and reposition his line a little. You must love your guy a whole, whole bunch to be part of that tangle! Be strong - you're amazing!
Thanks, Becky. I can sometimes tell DSS that he has hurt my feelings and he gets it, and often apologizes. I didn't say anything yesterday because I couldn't think of any positive way to say "my feelings are hurt that you are talking me down compared to your mother who treats me like a pariah yet I'm buying her a present". It just didn't flow. I did address some of the other rude and mean comments during the trip, and he responded okay to those.
I don't know, Shannon. It strikes me that there are different ways of showing people you love them. Some people you are quite comfortable with telling them, straight out, no beating around the bush: "I love you." With other people you have to sneak up from the side and shove a bunch of roses into their arms and run away into the bushes. Because you can't look at them. Or they can't look at you. Or it's complicated, somehow or another.
Your young DSS might be doing something like that. You, he can tell. His mother, well, it's complicated but he knows he feels strongly for her so *colour colour colour* should do it. You can't compare the different loves. When you look back yourself at different loves in your life, I'm sure you'll agree.
And as a wild guess, from thousands of miles away, it sounds as though he's very angry with his mother. Give him a hug from me.
Re. mangoes on YouTube. You're at work, aren't you? So it's all part of your work, isn't it? Yes, I thought so. That's all right then.
Shannon. I wouldn't call you a failure as a stepmother, quite the opposite, you are doing everything and more that you can. To me it sounds like DSS feels disloyal to his Mom if he admits that he loves his stepmom. I also think it is quite possible that ex wife , talks bad about you. He had to learn it someplace. She is probably fearful that HER SON might actually love his step mom. I always had a gut feeling about this but never felt like I should say anything, but will do it now. I just honestly feel tha DSS problems can be laid directly at his Mom's door. I might be wrong., but it is not at all unusual for exes to be biotches, in her inseurity she lashes out in her son's presence.
I hope you can get this resolved. I know this sounds like a long way off, but someday DSS will realize his stepmom really cared about him and wanted the best for him.
Shannon - All I can say is that it sounds like you're doing everything right by this kid, and the problem lies with him and his mom and dad. As for not getting cards from him, think of it this way. If you hadn't sat him down and made him buy a card for his mom and color it, would he have done it? I bet if his mom made him buy a card for you he would color it just as much, but since she doesn't like you she would never do that.
How do you guys share custody? Is there any chance you could get DSS a larger percentage of the time?
In other news, you guys are making me want cookies. And in addition to being on a business trip this week, plus having a cooking club meetup this weekend, I just found out that next Tuesday is a celebratory dinner for work at Fogo de Chao, which is a churrascaria, which as far as I can tell is an all-you-can-eat type meal.
Bargoo, let's just go out for a nice walk and talk about something else. It's getting really really dangerous in here. People's eyes have gone all funny and their hands are clammy.
siilver, you have to buy thin mints and other yummy cookies from the Girl Scouts. I am happy to say I have not seen a Girl Scout during this cookie season.Silver, the walk is a great idea, it is a very nice afternoon here, not warm but pleasantly comfortable.
BIG 
I did address some of the other rude and mean comments during the trip, and he responded okay to those.
All I can say is that it sounds like you're doing everything right by this kid, and the problem lies with him and his mom and dad. As for not getting cards from him, think of it this way. If you hadn't sat him down and made him buy a card for his mom and color it, would he have done it? I bet if his mom made him buy a card for you he would color it just as much, but since she doesn't like you she would never do that.
And in addition to being on a business trip this week, plus having a cooking club meetup this weekend, I just found out that next Tuesday is a celebratory dinner for work at Fogo de Chao, which is a churrascaria, which as far as I can tell is an all-you-can-eat type meal.
