Labor Day shenanigans

English: A pile of plain M&M’s candies. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, first let me say, I had to work today and it was crazy busy from the get go.  Between dealing with the lady I hired for the office job (I’m starting to wonder if I may have made a mistake) and trying to deal with the event calendar, my morning somehow disappeared.  Then I pretty much spent the rest of the day running register.  Now you know we’re busy when I’m on register for an extended period of time.

We tried to have a managers’ meeting, probably not the best day for that.  I tried to get the cake decorating info in the book…again, not an ideal time to tackle that.  I finally just cleaned my mess up and ran register.  I was so glad when it was time for my hot and sweaty self to head on home.

I did swing by Kroger on the way home…being the bad girl I am, I bought a frozen pizza (that’s the tired me controlling the trying-to-eat-healthier me).  To give myself a little credit, I did only eat a fourth of it…along with about four glasses of water.  I also bought some fun-size M & M’s for Claire.  I’ve been keeping a little bowl on my coffee table with kid candy in it for her.  You should have seen her eyes light up when she saw those M & M’s (or, as she says, “nm n nms”).  She also chowed down on some string cheese.  Have you ever watched a little kid eat string cheese?  Not a pretty sight.

Claire and I visited for quite a while.  She wanted to help me feed the kitties…not that it requires much help…open a can and divide it up on two saucers.  Then she wanted to go through my purse.  Just had a thought, I hope she’s not really a midget spy for a major crime ring…memorizing all of my credit card info….

Now  I’m worn out and just about ready for bed.  How’s that for a fun-filled Labor Day?  At least I have tomorrow off and no pressing engagements to take care of.

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I’m thankful for day 20 of NaNo

nanowrimo, goal day 20 (Photo credit: paloetic)

Seriously, I had a good day of writing today.  It was one of those days when the writing is easy, words form without a lot of effort, you don’t have to give it a lot of thought.  And I ended up with a little over 2000 words, still have that little cushion to help me as I continue working toward that 50,000 word count.

Once I finally got out of bed today, I forced myself to make the trek to Kroger to purchase a few more things for our Thanksgiving work feast…bottled water, bottled tea, soda, chips, candy, snack cakes and crackers, and a big old spiral sliced ham (which I did bake this evening…the house sure smells good).  I dropped everything off at work where young Chris told me the district manager had called for me.  So I meandered toward the office, talking with customers on the way.  When I called Steve, he told me we had a conference call scheduled for this afternoon and wanted to know how things were going.  We chatted for a few minutes then parted ways, he to make the trip to Illinois, me to check on the schedule…another call-in to try to find a replacement for.  I got all of that taken care of, added a few more shifts to use up the hours that I had left over, gathered all of the requests-off and schedule info so I could work on the schedule at home later in the day.

Then I went back to Kroger, the one closest to where I live, to pick up a few things I needed for home.  I finally made my way home with half an hour to spare before the conference call got underway.  After participating in the 40 minute conference call, I got the ham in the oven, laundry in the washer, dish water run, and finally sat down to eat something.  After working on the schedule for a while, I did a couple more things around the house then decided to get down to the business of writing.

Whew! One of my work buddies told me I looked tired…hmm…I wonder why?!  What a great day off!  What did you do today?

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Trippin’ at WalMart

A picture of the inside of a remodeled Walmart in Miami, Florida. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

First, allow me to say, I hate shopping at WalMart!  With a passion!  Yes, they have low prices…but that’s the only positive I see in shopping there.  Customer service is nonexistent.  Invariably, something that I want (or several things I want) are out of stock.  The stores are much too large for a quick trip…whatever I want is going to be in the far corner…always.  They have hundreds of check-out lanes and usually have only 2 or 3 open.  Long lines, long waits…

Having said all of that, I did make my once quarterly shopping trip to WalMart today.  I’ve been putting it off for something like two weeks now.  I’ve told myself I was too tired after work to face the mobs there.  On my days off, I’ve convinced myself that I will stop after work the next day, then, that day, I can’t make myself do it.  So, this morning, I got up, got ready and headed out the door before I could talk myself out of making the trip.

Were they busy?  Of course.  As busy as they would be this afternoon?  Probably not.   Surprisingly, I was unable to get only one item on my list (do I take a list?  You betcha!  I’m not walking up and down all of those aisles and buying more than I need) and I was able to pick it up at Kroger for just about the same price.

It didn’t take me as long as I thought it would.  And of the 3 check-out lanes open, the one I walked up to got me through pretty quickly.  Yes!!

But, let me ask you a question…do you think the people who shop at WalMart view that as the kind of store where you don’t really have to get dressed to go shopping?  I didn’t get all dolled up to go there, but I did throw on some clean clothes and a little make-up, styled my hair, you know, the basics.  Women there with rather large busts wearing skimpy little spaghetti strap tops (of course with their bellies showing), short shorts that were very tight and left nothing to the imagination.  One lady was wearing a t-shirt with food on it (actual food, not a picture of food)…and yes, Simone, the pajamas, always the pajamas…altho, I must say, I see this everywhere…I live in a major college town and this has become a common look.

Am I being too critical?  Maybe.  I’d love to have the body confidence to feel comfortable wearing things like that (well, maybe not the food on my shirt) in public…I try not to judge people by how they look, goodness knows, I’ve had those judgements made about me in the past.  And ultimately, I guess it’s no one else’s business how you dress.  But sometimes it is kind of funny!!

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It’s Girl Scout cookie time

Image via Wikipedia

Have any of your little girl scouts hit you up to buy a few boxes of cookies?  I’ve got a friend who has a grand-daughter who sells a ton of Girl Scout cookies…if you talked with this little girl for a few minutes you’d know why she’s so successful with her cookie selling…she’s one of the sweetest, most cheerful little girls I’ve had the pleasure of knowing.

Well, I ordered a couple of boxes of cookies from Hannah a few weeks ago.  I’d kind of forgotten about doing that until I saw some girls had set up a table at Kroger to sell their cookies.  I wonder how they decide who gets to do that?  Surely they have lots of little girls (or their mothers) who would like to do that.  So how does the store manager say no to some of those cute little girls and yes to others?

Anyhow, I remembered that I had ordered some cookies…but now I can’t remember what kinds.  Surely I must have ordered Thin Mints…right?  Or what is that kind of peanut buttery cookie that I like?  Or did I order that new lemon cookie?  I guess this will be a very pleasant surprise when I get the cookies.

And someone told me that there were no calories, fat, or sugar in Girl Scout cookies, only lots of vitamins and good for you things…that’s right…right?

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What’s in your grocery cart?

I finally gave in and made a trip to Kroger this morning.  I ran out of bread a couple of days ago, but didn’t want to stop at the grocery store after work that day because it was snowing. The snow itself didn’t keep me from shopping that evening.  I just didn’t want to deal with all of the crazy people who hear the word “snow” and decide they need to go out and buy enough food for a month.  So I did without…no big deal…

I’ve got plenty of oatmeal so I took some to work and had that for breakfast.  I had soup and salad for lunch for a couple of days.  I had a baked potato and cottage cheese for dinner.  I’m really making the effort to eat the food I buy and not throw things away just because I was too lazy or too tired or too whatever to prepare something.

This was the second week in a row where I bought only healthy foods…no frozen pizza, no chips, no candy, no cookies…wow!!  Now I’m not saying I’m not eating the occasional piece of candy.  I have some candy left over from Christmas and I’m allowing myself to have a piece if I’m still within my calorie range at the end of the day.  But the funny thing is, I don’t always want a piece.  How cool is that?

I came close to staying within my $50 a week food budget…spent $53, so not bad.  I did buy a couple of things that weren’t on my list when I saw them on sale.  I try to stock up on things that won’t go bad when I find them on sale for a good price.  One of the crackers I really, really like is this flaxseed cracker by Back To Nature…

Then, in the dairy case, I  came across these Laughing Cow spreads that go perfectly with the crackers for a healthy, fairly low-cal snack…

So those were my two purchases that put me over my budgeted amount for the week…hey, I figure it could have been worse!!

What else did I buy?  Let’s see…grapes, green onions, bananas, Greek yogurt, skim milk, coffee creamer, cottage cheese, whole wheat sandwich thins, tuna, diet Pepsi (uh..yeah…I’m still drinking it…one thing at a time…get the eating under control, then think about kicking the diet Pepsi habit), eggs (wow, has the price of eggs gone up?!), a couple of boxes of Morningstar Farms products (I tried the bacon for the first time last week and I am hooked!)…and my Saturday off indulgence…a newspaper.  I used to subscribe, but ended up not reading more than half of the papers that were delivered to my house…I decided that was a waste of my money and a waste of some perfectly good trees.  So, on my weekend off, I treat myself to the newspaper…not such a terrible indulgence, is it?

I’m feeling pretty good about making healthier choices..oh, and have I mentioned that I’ve lost 8 pounds since the first of the year?!

So what was in your shopping cart?

The long and winding road to fitness, day 141

Ahh…a day off work…far and few between now…makes them much more special.  I really didn’t accomplish a lot today.  I did take several boxes of school supplies to the Boys and Girls Club here in town…I guess that’s kind of work related, but it was a very pleasant experience.

I pulled into the parking lot at Kroger, turned the car off, sat there for a few minutes, then started the car and drove home.  What’s up with that?  Well, honestly, I think I was about to buy some unhealthy food choices so I decided not to put myself in temptation’s way.  I don’t know if that’s good or not, but that’s what I did.

I did a little walking this morning while the weather was still nice.  Since then, the temps have been dropping, the wind has been whipping around, clouds rolled in…I guess fall is back.  I just heard the weather guy on tv say tomorrow’s temps will  only be in the 40s…brr…I think I’ve been spoiled by the nice weather we’ve been having.

But it could always be worse (and probably will be soon)…

My eating wasn’t spectacular today.  I ate only 4 servings of fruits and veggies, 1 shy of my minimum goal…maybe I’ll eat a small salad as I’m preparing my food to take to work tomorrow.  Nope, not maybe…I’m going to do it.

And I finally called my hair stylist this afternoon (sounds like I’m some kind of celebrity, doesn’t it?  My stylist.) and made an appointment to get my hair cut tomorrow.  It needs it…desparately.  Hopefully that’ll make me feel better after a long day at work that’s going to start much too early (like 5 am early).

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 136

Image by **tWo pInK pOSsuMs** via Flickr

A pretty good day today.  I guess getting a decent night’s sleep helps.  I managed to get in about 7 hours last night and am hoping to do the same tonight.  It was crazy busy with people stocking up on all of the discounted Halloween and fall merchandise.  And yes, people have already started their Christmas shopping.  Back in my pre-retail days, I always set the goal of finishing all of my shopping by Thanksgiving.  Now I’m lucky to finish it at all.  Gotta love those gift cards.  And really, I like getting gift cards myself.  Then I can just go out and buy whatever the heck I want…oh wait, I pretty much do that anyhow…well, within reason…no trips to Paris or fancy shmancy cars…but you know what I’m saying, right?  There really are advantages to living by yourself.

I stopped at Kroger this morning before work to stock up on healthy dinners for the freezer at work.  I didn’t even realize they were having one of their mega sale things where you get $5 off your purchase if you buy ten items.  So, yes, I bought 10 Healthy Choice meals for work.  The one I ate for lunch today was really quite tasty…lemon pepper fish with rice and broccoli…only 350 calories and decent as far as sodium goes.  And, you know, that’s something I would be unlikely to prepare for myself so it’s a real treat to be able to throw it in the microwave and have a hot meal ready in 5 minutes or so.

I ended the day under on calories again.  Wow!  Two days in a row.  What’s going on? I also did some walking and strength training this morning.  And lots of walking at work, lots of walking, lots of talking…it’ll be nice to have tomorrow off and be able to enjoy a little peace and quiet.  I can be quite the talker, but I also like some time to myself.  I NEED time to myself in order to function.  I’ve been that way my entire life…never minded alone time.  I know there are a lot of people who want to be surrounded by people every minute of every day, but not me.  Being able to get away from people gives me time to recharge and go out and do it all again.

I’ve got to run some errands in the morning.  Then I’ll come home and clean house and do some cooking.  And maybe, just maybe, I’ll find a few minutes to do a little extra writing.  How about you?  What’s in store for your weekend?

 

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 135

Image by jpstanley via Flickr

Thank goodness I made it through this day at work.  Crazy, hectic, busy, late truck, lots to do, in a bad mood…yes, me.  I finally realized it was because it was going on noon, I’d been up since around 2 am (couldn’t sleep), and I hadn’t eaten anything.  That always affects my mood.  You’d think I’d be adult enough to realize that and do something to avoid it (oh, like eat breakfast?), but no…I’m trying to get a lot done…quickly…so I don’t want to stop and take the time to eat.  And because of that, my mood gets worse and worse.  Until I finally give in and eat something.  That reminds me, I need to leave a little early in the morning to buy a few things to keep in the freezer at work.  I had planned to go out to Subway for lunch today, just to get out of the store for a while.  But I changed my mind since it was pouring down rain…blah!  So I settled for the only thing I still had in the freezer, a breakfast Lean Pocket…Subway would have been better…

And, to make my already bad mood worse, I found out that our six-day work weeks actually start this coming week instead of the following week like I thought.  So I don’t get the weekend off, I get Saturday off, then have to work Sunday and every weekend until Christmas…yippee!!

Anyhow, did some range of motion exercises this morning and that’s all I did for exercise other than all of the walking and lifting I did at work.  I don’t feel too bad, other than being awfully sleepy.  Seems like my bed time is coming earlier and earlier…but what can I do?  Gotta get me some sleep, please let me sleep tonight…please…

My eating was pretty good, not enough fruits and veggies today, only three servings.  But I’m definitely going to buy produce for some salads for work.  Easy way to up the veggie intake.  But I was under on calories today, so that’s a plus. (Or maybe a minus, at least on the scale)

Do you realize that Thanksgiving is fast approaching?  I actually have to work on Thanksgiving…boo!!  What are you going to do?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 129

Image via Wikipedia

Funny start to my day today.  I got to work  a few minutes before 5 this morning.  Waiting in the parking lot for my boss to show up (we can’t go in the building by ourselves), about 5:08 my phone rings.  He said he just woke up and would be there as soon as he could.  I told him I’d go across the street to Kroger to pick up some things for lunch and breakfast for myself for the next few days (I was planning to do that tomorrow morning anyhow, so it wasn’t that big a deal).  I talked with the lady working there for a few minutes (hmm…maybe about our bosses…I’m not saying that’s what the conversation was about, but could be) and still made it back about ten minutes before he showed up.  But it all turned out okay, now I don’t have to stop at the store on my way in to work in the morning and can sleep for a few minutes longer.

You know, I made a mistake when I went to Kroger this morning, I didn’t buy any produce.  How crazy is that?  I only bought frozen things to keep in the freezer at work.  Okay, I know, those things aren’t absolutely the healthiest choices (really, I did not intentionally write that as a play on words), but they are convenient and they keep me from going out to a fast food place on the days I don’t bring my lunch.

I ended the day with four fruits and veggies.  Not that great.  I did have a good idea though for the next time I go to the store.  I’m going to buy some cottage cheese and fruit and have that for dinner for a few days.  It’s light and generally healthy…maybe a little more sodium than I need (who knew cottage cheese had so much sodium?), but it’s quick and easy and good for me.

I did core exercises and stretching before I left the house this morning.  Then I walked for 20 minutes, plus up and down a ladder with heavy boxes quite a few times before we opened.  So an okay amount of exercise. 

Now to tackle the sleep issue.  I need sleep, desperately.  When do we change time anyhow?  Next weekend?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 111

Another day without a lot of good fitness news to report…darn it!  I didn’t get anywhere close to enough sleep last night.  Holy moly, these crazy kids (sounded drunk, or something, to me) pulled up in front of the building next to mine.  Loud, obnoxious arguments going on, shoving and screaming by the girls (what’s with that?  is it like, supposed to be attractive to the drunk guys?), a lot of cussing by all of them (my mom would have beat me half to death if I ever talked that way, she wouldn’t have cared if I was an adult or not).  This went on for probably 20 minutes, then they went inside for a while, then came out and picked up where they left off.  I couldn’t believe the cops didn’t show up.  Like everyone else, I expected someone else to call, and apparently no one bothered.  They finally cleared out around 5 am after an hour of this nonsense.

I got up and went in to work to do payroll.  I was shocked.  This week’s was one of the easiest I’ve done in quite some time, not a lot of missed punches.  And it didn’t hurt that I’d kept up on it all week.  So I made it out of there before we opened!  I stopped at Kroger and bought the Sunday newspaper…and a Digiorno pizza…what?  How did that thing get in my cart?  I think it must have jumped in while I was looking at the oj.  Anyhow, what I’m getting at is that I had pizza for lunch…bad Patti, very bad Patti…but pretty good pizza for a frozen pizza.

I did make the minestrone soup (http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=246310).  I am going to steal a line I read on another blog today (from Cassie at BackToHerRoots)…”I bastardized the hell” out of that recipe.  She had me laughing while I was reading her blog about making peanut butter Nutella cookies.  Then, while I was trying to find all of the ingredients for the minestrone and not having much luck, I realized I was getting ready to do the same thing to that minestrone recipe.  I was shocked to discover that I didn’t have any canned red or white beans (used black beans instead), thought I had an onion only to find out it wasn’t good any longer so I used canned tomatoes with onion in them, had no vegetable broth so subbed beef broth (kind of changes the entire taste of the recipe, but still…), had no celery so used celery salt and then didn’t add the salt that the recipe called for, then I quadrupled the amount of a lot of the veggies (zucchini, green beans, carrots), used kale instead of spinach and used a lot of it.  Used whole wheat penne pasta (I really like the taste and texture of whole wheat pasta).  I used one can of black beans and one can of corn instead of the two cans of beans that the recipe called for.  So…not sure if Olive Garden would recognize this minestrone, but it still tastes terrific~

Not very good lighting for the picture…but you can see what I’ve done…now that’s my dinner for the week.  Ought to be good for at least a couple of servings of veggies.

I still didn’t feel like getting outside and doing anything and that’s a shame because it was another gorgeous day.  So…still no pictures of the lovely fall leaves, no pictures of the geese on the pond, but I do have a cute picture that is kind of fitting for the Halloween season…

Poor little Spook with her Halloween costume on…she was so funny…she didn’t much like it but she had me laughing as she fought it.  Just so you don’t think I was abusing her, I didn’t leave it on her long and she attacked it as soon as I got it off of her.

Have you ever dressed your pets up for Halloween?  Did they like it?

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