I hate it when a favorite show bites the dust. We're now Survivorless and Great Raceless until fall. *sniffle*

I made a heap o' beans this evening. I mean a HEAP. Normally, I do big batches of about 3-4 pounds dried beans, but today I completely lost my head and boiled 6 pounds! It's a combination of 4lbs/pinto and 2lbs/great northern beans...they're cooking in three separate big pots, each with a smoked turkey leg for flavor. I might cut up some low-fat sausage in one of the pots.

Since I had three pots, I took my diced tomatoes with green chilis, chili-ready tomatoes with onion, and such and mixed them in a large mixing bowl, then divided that between the three pots and added water to top them off.

Man, this is a lot of beans. I'm going to have to rent freezer space! LOL

Lots of beans... teehee, I am picturing you farting... I am a dirty dirty girl! lol

Gilmore Girls was really good, I am SO excited for next season... I can't wait!!

-Aimee

A quick note before I head bedward...I just calculated what all I made.

There are 64 1-cup servings. There's about 30 POUNDS of soup beans in my fridge (32 pounds, less the 2 cups each we ate for dinner).

Poor Howie? Maybe, but he'll be tootin', too, so poor Kimberley. Really, it's poor Nancy downstairs! Good thing none of us smokes and it's warm enough the windows are open. Nancy'll get her beans tomorrow. By then we'll be numb to it all.

The good news? Each cup only has 124 calories and 1 gram of fat. Oodles of protein and I seasoned with Italian seasonings, garlic, fennel seed, crushed pepper seed, and ground black pepper. There's no added salt other than what was in the smoked turkey legs. Wooo!

Woohoo! Lots of posts for me to read this morning! I'm a bit late in posting because I had a pile of work on my chair that I wanted to get done first thing, so now it's on somebody else's chair cuz I did my part

I had my weekly weigh-in this morning. After Monday's splurge (fried chicken tenders and french fries with LOTS of honey mustard at my restaurant) and yesterday's PMS splurge (in addition to everything I packed for the day, I got a salad covered with egg and cheese and regular honey mustard dressing, a large diet pepsi, and a small carton of low-fat chocolate milk, so lots of added calories), I didn't have my hopes too high for the number. Peering through clenched eyelids, I saw--298! Down 1.5 pounds from the last 2 weeks! I even checked it 3 times, and it remained steady at 298, so GO ME! It always seems that the weeks I feel I did well, I stay the same, yet the weeks, I feel guilty for splurging, I lose Not that I'm complaining--I'll take a loss at ANY time, whether I have cheated or not! I think this week probably just had something to do with TOM (which really started today), so I know cheating on a regular basis won't really get me anywhere in the long run

I was VERY busy at work last night. I didn't leave until almost 10:30, even though I was first-cut, but at least I walked with $63, and that's after I tipped out the host, the sald bar attendant, and the bar tender. Yay money!

Aimee--I LOVE Gilmore Girls, too! What an awesome show. I haven't seen it in FOREVER, though, due to my work schedule. My sister has the first 2 seasons on DVD, so I'll just keep buying the dvd sets for her for every holiday until she has the whole series so I can borrow them whenever I want I really love watching the OC, too (yes, I am addicted), but I haven't seen it in weeks, either. I revord it with my DVR (TIVO kinda thing), but I haven't even had time to watch it, so I still have like 5 recorded episodes to watch, plus the season finale is on tonight!

Kimberley--It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Not now. Here's looking at you, kid. (sorry--popped into my head when you were talking about all those beans, and there just happen to be 3 people involved--what an awesome movie )

Sara--I'm not a huge fan of fat free cheese, either. My problem with them especially is that they get so plastic-like when they melt! My melted cheese should be ooey-gooey, soft, and delicious, not shiny, smooth, solid, and rough!
Alright, kids, be good! I'm off to hire a hit man for our pain-in-the-a$$ client (uh-oh, did I say that out loud? ). Have a great almost-Friday!

Oh Kimberly sign me up for some beans too! I love em all!!!

Aimee, my pizza is completely homemade right down to the crust, that way I have total control of what is in it. We only do it once a week and conserve our servings accordingly.

Jill, congrats on the loss chica!! Good for you, solidly out of the 300's!!! YAY!!!

Well, busy day for me... going to work today (on my day off) to help get us caught up on paperwork. Then when I get home I've got to start packing the truck for our trip! First time going anywhere requireing creative packing in this vehicle! We'll see how it goes... I'll check in later today but then I'm off the radar until Tuesday next week!

Have a Terrific Thursday Gals!!

Goodmorning girls!! I have a huge arsed pimple on my chin, and am going to have to use very creative makeup today... thats the drama in my life. Ick.

Kimberley - tootin'... lol.. what a funny word. All you gotta do is add some rice to those beans and you'll have a complete protein!

Jill - It baffles me how your base pay is so LOW! Seems like it should be against the law or something. Servers here make $8 an hour (min wage) and tips are on top of that. Congrats on that weigh in I am not doing mine until tomorrow, I had a HORRIBLE sleep... and ate before I was going to weigh in. Bad combo!

Sara - Homemade pizza sounds yummy.. I'm SO not a cook lol. Or not for anything like that. Have a GREAT trip, be safe, eat well, enjoy

-Aimee

I roared when I read that! Of course, I then had to explain it to Howie and read your quote. Would you believe I have never seen Casablanca? I really need to rent that one.

Congrats on the loss, just TWO-riffic, as Howie would say. That's great! I'm actually a bit nervous about tomorrow's weigh-in. I've not really been off plan, but I've not exercised. I have GOT to get back on a schedule at the YMCA.

TFT, I would love to be getting ready for a camping trip. We love camping! Right now, thunder's rolling in and the radar looks very interesting, though...By Saturday it's supposed to clear up, so we hope to get the lasagna bed down for the veggies. We're running behind this year on planting.

Aimee, I was never a cook, either. Can you believe it? Something just kicked in and I started really liking it. The stuff I make isn't complicated -- I mean, I don't clarify butter and all that jazz -- but it's good. And, like TFT said, I know what's in there and have control over it.

And....We'll be reheating frozen bean soup for many months to come. I will serve some over brown rice, too! I forgot to put some in, but truthfully, my three stockpots were to the brim and not much rice would have been possible.

Well.. hellooooo.. it's been very very quiet in here today. Goodlordy ladies, we need to pick it up! Work today was alright, I really felt like going home, but I stuck it out. I had a little meeting with my district manager, and she wanted me to let her know when I felt I was ready to interview for assistant manager positions. I know I will be ready soon, I just have to learn a little more about this company, how it works, what each position involves, and their visual standards. So thats the highlight of my day.. and now there is some nasty thunderstorm, so I gotta shut off this machine. I'll talk to you ladies tomorrow!!

-Aimee

It's Friday! *do a little dance. make a little love. get down tonight!*

I always get to the restaurant early for my 4pm shift since I get out of job #1 at 2pm and that's not really enough time for me to go all the way home and all the way back to the restaurant in between (since the restaurant is closer to job #1 than to my house). So anyway, I was there at about 2:30, so usually, I eat whatever I packed for dinner (frozen stir-fry most of the time lately), then I hang out, talk to he servers from the day shift, change into uniform, help with things like making the night seating chart and assigning night shift sidework. Well, yesterday afternoon, the manager asked me if I could come on early since there was only 1 server left from the day shift, so he had all the tables. It's not usually a problem since it's not a very busy time of day, but he had 4 tables, and more kept coming in. So, I changed and clocked in at about 3:05. From then until 4 (when the next night shift server came on), I had 5 tables! That's a lot in an hour! So then there were 2 of us on (the day shift guy had finished and left, so it was me and the other 4:00 guy), and together we had about 9-10 tables. We were running around like crazy! Of course, then a party of 7 comes in, and it just so happens to be my turn, so I took that, too. Then 2 more tables got sat in my section--it was insane for an afternoon/early evening! At one point, I had 8 open tables (double the usual max), and it STAYED busy until about 7:30pm (but all of the other servers came on at 5:15, so I only had the usual max of 4 tables at a time after that). I got home around 10:30 and had ended up making $89 (after tipping out the bar tender, hostess, and salad bar guy). That's more than my monthly car insurance payment, and I made it in one night! I wish I could make that much every night--it was awesome! I even had one woman write a little note at the bottom of her signed credit-card receipt that said I had great customer service skills To top it off, we had a contest during the shift (managers' way of getting us to upsell--we got a playing card for every salad bar added to a meal, any side substitution that cost extra, and flavored drinks that cost more than regular drinks, etc., then whoever had the best poker hand at the end of the night wins), and I WON! I got a Best Buy gift certificate (though we're not sure how much it is for--but anyway, I won it, and that's all that matters ). It really was a good night


Today, I have to go home after job #1 and CLEAN! My apartment is a disaster seeing as how I'm almost never there I need to do dishes, laundry, clean the bathroom, vacuum, change the sheets on my bed, put sheets on the pull-out bed, clean up the clutter of junk mail piles and such, take out the trash, and do a little grocery shopping (I do need to buy normal food for my guests--not just my quick on-the-run foods). I also will go through a touch-free car wash on the way home since this will be the first time my sister and her fiance will see my new car (it is currently SMOTHERED in pollen). Busy day ahead of me, that's for sure! So yeah, my sister, her fiance, and my Jackie should be here around 8 tonight, then we're off to the Baltimore aquarium tomorrow (YAY!)--should be a fun weekend!

Hope everyone else has a great weekend and a FABULOUS FRIDAY!

Have a super weekend everyone! I'm hittin the road in 27 minutes!!! all packed and ready to roll!!! Hasta la vista, Chica's!

Totally TGIF! Weigh-in wasn't any great shakes (I maintained), but we had a nice day. Howie lost 5 pounds, making up for his two pound gain last week and then some.

Jill, sounds like an insane evening at the restaurant, but a profitable one. I like the manager's incentive with the playing cards. I was good at upsells and cross sells at my job, but I sure got tired of having to coach team members to offer them when I was a team leader.

Aimee, looks like your manager likes what she sees. That's great! Do you get a good discount there? Are the clothes styles you like?

Sara's off and roughing it. Have fun! Hello muddah, hello faddah, here I am at camp Grenada...

I was scarce yesterday because I buckled down and finished cleaning the house. The dogs' crate pillow and bedding, our bedding...all of it, washed. Dusted and vacuumed, damp-mopped the bathroom and kitchen floors, too. It felt so good to be all done a day ahead of schedule.

Howie's been a happy camper since I've been keeping the house picked up and clean. Last night, he brought home a card and a dozen roses; in the card he wrote, "Three weeks of keeping the house done. WOOO-HOOO! You're doing great and I love you." Wow, what incentive! Yep, he's a keeper. I intend to make a habit out of this cleaning thing like I have the eating right. I need to do likewise with exercise...The big E word.

In food news, I've got all the ingredients for The Yumminess (mango salsa) and just need to track down the recipe I used for it back in January. It was so good and I want to duplicate it.

We're going to our friends' belated Cinco de Mayo party tomorrow night, and we're bringing that salsa and chips. I told Howie I should bring a gallon of beans as a hostess gift, LOL! We bought the Tostito's Lite (with Olestra)...Hope none of the other folks are among those who have, ummm, adverse reactions to it. We normally don't buy snacky stuff like that, let alone Olestra stuff, but we wanted to be able to enjoy some chips tomorrow night without having too much fat and calories involved.

Hello all, I've been neglecting you, so busy with work, I did enjoy my week off, and having time to do stuff, like play on the internet and keep up to date with my posts.

I have had yet another job interview at work, this time for the clinical department of the insurance company I work for. I really want this job, I have already got a promotion to underwriting, but I want this one more. Hopefully things will work out, I should find out early this week.

I am finding the whole healthy eating and exercise thing so much easier now the weather is better. Food choices have improved, my hubby is wanting lighter food at night instead of warming stews and stuff like that - that you can do light, but the temptation to have creamy mashed potatoes and stuff is always there.

And exercise is so much easier when the sun is shining!!! I hated walking to the swimming pool in the snow, it just did not feel right at all!!!!!

Exercise is definitely more appealing in nice weather - I agree! The warm pool always felt really good on cold days, though, I have to say. Congrats on the job interview and all success your way!

Well, I've a tasty batch of The Yumminess in the fridge for tomorrow. The recipe's posted in my blog for now, though I'll probably add it to one of the recipe threads.

I'm toddling off to bed now - seems 4:00am feels later to me than normal.

Where is everyone? Okay, I'll post so y'all get your notification that this thread hasn't gone to Code Blue for the weekend! LOL

The Yumminess was a great success and all I had to bring home was my empty bowl. Love it when people eat up everything like that. Howie and I were vastly over calories for the day, I'm afraid. We were fine going in to the party, but I probably had 600 calories in libations over the course of the evening, and then we got pizza on the way home.

Gotta head outside to work in the yard, though what I'd LIKE to do is sleep. I started using my CPAP machine again at night now that my head's cleared up at night again, and I'm having trouble getting used to it. Part of last night's restlessness, however, was all the libations making me get up to pee several times. That and I was thirsty as all getout and would drink a little glass of water almost each time I got up. Vicious circle!

Back on plan today, though. Onward and downward!

Psst! I'm alive too! My mom is in town for the weekend, so we are busy amusing ourselves until Tuesday morning when she leaves..

So seriously.. what happened to this place? No Diana, no Marge, no Heather, I'm starting to get worried about Marge..

-Aimee