This morning for V-day I made maple-pecan pancakes and bacon. Tonight we are having wine, salad, wine, stuffed mushrooms, lasagna with all full fat cheese, and dark chocolate-port truffles. And maybe some more wine. I don't like going out on Valentine's day, but the eating is no-holds-barred even at home... being as I haven't gone running at all in the past week, I'll need to step it back up after this!
Michele, good luck with figuring out DH's potential new job. I will be in Houston for a couple days on business later this month! I've never been there before. Not that I'll get to see it at all since I'll be working the entire time . . . again . . . but oh well.
Allison, congrats to your DD on her acceptances!
DH and I went for a couples massage on Sunday. I think he may be willing to try it again and go for a deep tissue instead of swedish next time. We'll see. No official V-day stuff for us, we exchanged cards last night. MIL brought us cookies last night which I unfortunately ate too many of. This morning I came downstairs to find DH listening to Marvin Gaye on Youtube. Setting the romantic mood I guess!
DH has been complaining about a strange smell coming from the laundry room. I keep nodding and saying "yes dear" and just ignoring what he's saying.
Mudpie does like to stash her "treasures" (pencils, DH's wooden drumsticks, string, etc.) behind the furnace in the laundry room.
Mud doesn't like to go outdoors much in the winter but she does make an exception when I'm loading my car in the mornings. This morning she beetled off through the yard and behind the shed. A couple of minutes later she raced back through the yard and ran into the house and downstairs. I thought I saw another rubber fan belt (she loves rubber only a bit less than wood) hanging from her mouth. I figured she would play with it and hide it later.
Turns out it was a dead baby garter snake. She had a stash of 3 of them back behind the furnace. Protein snacks for later Mud? Lucky me got to fish them out of there and dispose of the remains.
And now my mind keeps returning to a nature special DH and I watched on garter snakes. Apparently they hibernate during the winter by swarming into huge balls of snakes, usually in large piles of boulders.
I'm hoping these baby snakes were not part of such a ball. Fortunately there are no piles of boulders in the neighbourhood so it's unlikely.
Tonight I am bringing dinner to my friend whose husband recently died. I am going to stay for dinner. I have chatted with her via text and email multiple times, but I haven't seen her since the funeral. I am anxious to see how she is doing and to see what else I can do to help. She is vegetarian (was vegan until very recently), and I made a vegan dessert last night. It smelled good but we'll see how it tastes! I'm going to make the dinner after school and then go to the gym, and then to her house.
My weight is terrible! I've not been tracking and I don't really want to. I tell myself that I don't have to track unless I go over 120. I'm almost 122 at the moment. I'm going to give myself a day or two to get back down, and if I don't, then it is back to strict tracking. Some of it is water retention, and some of it is I've just been eating too much! Healthy foods, but portions have been too large. Sigh....
Michele, you are such a good friend. Many times when there is a loss since you friend suffered. everybody immediately offers to help, make phone calls, etc and soon get busy with their own lives, this is understandable but the friend still grieving and still needs supportive friends.
Allison-- lots of strong, powerful, positive vibes coming your way. I hope things are okay.
Bargoo-- you are right that people often offer to help and then drop away. I would hope my friends would do the same for me if I were in the same situation. My friend emailed me yesterday (Valentines) that she was having a very rough day.
Dh said the Houston option isn't an option like he thought it might be, so I guess we won't have to make a decision. Now to wait for the decision on the Atlanta job. Unless things change again-- which seems to happen often!
michele Life is change, yes? My DH is again quitting his job - today. SIGH. I don't get nearly as aggravated by this as I used to but it's still annoying.
Allison Hope your day improved.
bargoo The snakes came from what I believe was some sort or terrarium that the neighbours behind us had. It looks like everything in it died and they chucked the large glass aquarium tank into the back of their yard. I don't know if racoons made off with other inhabitants of the tank but the cover had been pried off. Mud is clever but she's too small and not that smart! So she got the "leftovers". I poked around very thoroughly with a stick to make sure there was nothing else of interest in the tank.
I sometimes think I have the weirdest senior cat in the world. We had roofers working on the shed today and they told me Mud had sat in the window watching them and pawing at the glass for most of the 3 hours they were there. She has an attention span that is incredible for a cat. They came over and tapped on the glass and she immediately "tapped" back. I let her out after work and she went right out front to their truck. Attention hound!
My second group of all female labs today were acting like a troupe of baboons who had been smoking crack - SHEESH! I am so glad this day is over.
Cats like to bring you gifts, so I am told. I am a dog person. There was a neighborhood cat where I lived before, he just hung out around there and hoped for a handout and enough people left food out for him that he stayed around, I once in awhile would give him something my dog would not eat. He evidently really appreciated that because every once in awhile he would bring me a dead rat and leave it on my doorstep. I lived right near a church and one Sunday during worship service he came into the sanctuary and just strolled down the center aisle .He was quite a character.
Well, DH didn't make it home in time for V-day due to traffic. He works very far from our house but when I woke up this morning, there was a big box of chocolates, a dozen pink roses and some clothes that I had on layaway at one of the stores. So, more than made up for it. We're actually going out this weekend - it stinks when the holiday is during the week especially on a school night. Not much else to say except having a good week, thus far.
I've been busy with work this week. I've had trouble staying OP food-wise (or, trouble eating at losing levels - I've been eating at maintaining levels), but while it's been a physically taxing work week in some ways it wasn't that bad. I'm just going to "own it" and try to get OP today. I did finally get to go back to my yoga class last night after missing it for the last month+ due to rehearsals, then the holidays before that. She didn't do any of my favorite moves and it still felt soooo good! So glad I'm back to it.
BF found an organic farmer that is coming to sell to our area Mondays. He bought me some "veggie bread" from the farmer for Valentine's day. It's got 3 dough colors woven together, dyed with veggies (green - spinach, red - beet juice?, orange - sweet pot), though it doesn't taste whole grain. He also made me dinner and did the dishes (yes Dagmar, here's another MAN who doesn't understand what the hole in the kitchen counter with the thing that has water coming out of it is for). If he would only fix the toilet now, that would be so romantic to me and really top my Valentine's Day week. (I could fix it in 5 minutes but I won't do it bc it's his job. Not bc he's a man, it's the principle of the thing. Sorry Bill!)
Dagmar, nice gift! My BIL's uncle's cat would bring them live rattlesnake presents in New Mexico where they lived. At least your gifts are dead? Yes, dogs just eat their finds and then you get to smell it on their breath. Reason #17 why Emma isn't allowed off her leash by the house: the neighbor's cats' poop.
Michele, how do you feel about moving to Atlanta? It would be nice to have DH around more, though, wouldn't it?
I'm glad it sounds like everyone had nice Valentine's Days.
My dh made me dinner for Valentine's day too-- yummy! I did the dishes though. Usually when one of us cooks, the other will do the dishes, though I tend to do more of them than he does. He does do them sometimes (sometimes they just make it to the kitchen), and he does laundry and changes the cat litter (I scoop-- he changes)! I am lucky!
I think it would be an exciting change to move to Atlanta. I would hate to leave my job, but I hated leaving my job in Houston and I found another one that I love, so it is possible again. We are very upside down in our mortgage here because we bought when the prices were high and then the market fell, so the company would help us to get out of the house. So, that is a very attractive piece of the puzzle for us. With both of our daughters away at college next year, we are joking that we could be honeymooners again!
Little bit of a catastrophe with the dinner I brought my friend last night. I was very proud to make a vegan dessert-- it was delish!! For the dinner, I made a pasta bake with veggies. Dh told me to use the pasta sauce he had made a few months ago and frozen. I did that and had him taste it right before I was leaving to make sure it was done, tasted okay, etc. He realized then that there was meat in the sauce! Ughh.... She is a strict vegetarian. I didn't notice the meat, so I'm glad he did! I called her up and offered to pick up a salad or something, but she told me to just come over. We had a nice time and I left the pasta for her boys even though they are picky eaters. It was yummy and I'll probably make it again for my family. I promised her I would bring another meal soon and make sure she could eat it! I'm going to watch her kitties this weekend while she goes to visit her mom with her boys.
We have a 4 day weekend so I am thrilled! Today is my Friday! Dh is taking off tomorrow too so we'll do some stuff together (mainly stuff around the house). Hopefully we'll hear something soon about the Atlanta possibility.
Setting the romantic mood I guess!
