Another Day of Shopping

I took today off from work, so I went shopping again. Boy am I tired. I started out at around 6:45am and didn't get home until 3pm. I did my grocery shopping first. Came home and put the groceries away and then went out to the bank to get some money and then went to P-burg to shop. I went to a pet store and bought a couple of toys for the puppies. Winnie has wanted the little piggy thing that my sister got me for my blue bag I take to work. Every day she gets in the chair and stares at it. So, I found a piggy toy at the pet store and figured it might work as a substitute. I gave it to her tonight and she played a lot with it. Then I went to K-Mart and spent a bunch of money. I bought two coats, a pair of shoes, a rug for my car, two packs of puppy pads, a bag of doggie treats and I think that might be it. The coats are men's coats. They seem to be thicker than women's coats. The shoes are brown which will match my brown pants. The puppy pads are cheaper there at K-Mart than they are here in my town. And the doggie treats were on sale. Oh, and I bought two more doggie toys for the puppies. After K-Mart I went to the Dollar Zone store and got a heck of a deal on a baby blanket I bought for the puppies. The price tag said $5.00 but the lady at the register charged me $1 for it. I also got the puppies a couple more toys there.

Time for lunch and I went to a Pizza Hut. I wanted some breadsticks. Unfortunately, these weren't very good. They were all dried out. The waitress was very good. She brought me a second drink without even asking if I wanted one. So, she got a $3.00 tip.

After lunch I went to Borders Bookstore. I had never been there before today. It's a nice store. The golf books were out of order and intermixed with other sports books. I didn't buy any books there but I did find these very, very cute little pink pigs that have magnets in them. I have the pigs on my fridge. Big Lots was next on the list of stores to visit and I didn't really find anything there I wanted. I ended up buying some orange smelling bathstuff.

After Big Lots I drove back to my home town and stopped at the Rite Aid to get a reload pack for my prepaid Mastercard. I was also looking for a certain type of Theraflu which apparently no store wants to sell. So, I got the Rite Aid version.

I went home after that and put some of my purchases away. I didn't finish the job because I had to wash my car. This might be the last good car-washing day I get until next April.

So, you can see I was on the go pretty much all day. I'm happy to finally sit down and do nothing.

Walmart and Krogers employees dressed up for Halloween today. It was interesting to walk in the stores and see the employees.

I think I'm done with the shopping trips. At least for a year or so. It's much easier to buy the stuff online and not leave the house.

I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday so I'm going to enjoy my nice long break.

I Don't Like the Cold

It's gotten pretty chilly around here lately. Earlier in the week, my employer held an Appreciation event in a park next to a river and we all had to attend. It was freezing. Barely 58 degrees by the end of the day and we had to be there at 11:30am - when it was much colder. I loaned a pair of gloves to a co-worker and wore a pair myself. That co-worker also brought a blanket and wrapped up in it during the event. This shows I work for a bunch of idiots. Managers claimed that the majority voted to have this outside. Hah! I doubt that. Oh and the most idiotic part - an egg toss game. They wanted us to pair up and toss unboiled eggs at each other until they broke. It was freezing cold and the only sink available to wash hands was in the very dirty park bathroom that only had toilet paper with which to dry your hands. Someone handed me an egg and when I figured out what they were doing, I said "oh no. I'm not doing that." and put the egg down on a table. I then made it look like I was busy doing other things so I couldn't be roped into participating. My boss won two awards at the event: King Macho and King Boss. Boy do they fit. If they had a King Ego award, he would have gotten that one too.

On a related note, I've had bad sinus problems all week. Killer headaches that just wouldn't go away, even when I took OTC cold/sinus medicine. Today after I took my nap, I stayed in bed and covered my head up, hoping that the warmth would move the sinus around. This sinus has worn me out. All week, I've been very tired. I think I fight the headaches at night in my sleep and I don't sleep that soundly. The last couple of days, I've been going to bed at about 8:30pm.

I'm looking forward to another round of shopping next Friday. I've got a five day weekend coming up and I can't wait. There were some stores I didn't get to visit the last time I went shopping and I'm hoping to get to them this time.

Today, I saved $9.44 buying food on sale at Krogers. Granted, most of it I didn't need and only bought because it was on sale, but I'll use it.

My sister emailed her family's Christmas Wish List to mom earlier this week. Mom forwarded it to me but I haven't had a chance to really look at it. I got it on a day when my headache was really bad and I just couldn't spend too much time looking at a computer screen. Mom has already picked out a few things on the list, so I plan to look at it tomorrow while I'm at mom's and check out what's left. I need to finish up my Wishlists and email them to Mom and my sister. If I'm feeling good I might do that this weekend.

I'm thinking I should drag out some vampire/werewolf/witch romance novels out of my storage boxes to read this coming week, in honor of Halloween. Right now I'm reading Diana Palmer books, although I did by a new book today at Walmart that isn't a Palmer book. It's a romantic suspense book.

A Very Short Weekend

I don't like these 2 day weekends. Maybe the Presidential candidates can promise me a 4 - 8 hour a day work day for the same pay I get now.

Yesterday I had to sew a pillow cover for the puppies' dog bed. They had torn a hole, well three holes, in the pillow and have been having fun for about a month pulling out the stuffing. So, I made a cover for it yesterday out of red and yellow fabric - the colors of the Spanish flag.

Today, the puppies went to their grandparents' house for their weekly visit. I made biscuits and peanut butter fudge, both of which are still in the kitchen. I haven't eaten it all yet - good for me. I took the puppies out when it got warm enough and hooked them up to the tie-out stake I have. I bought cords made for 10 pound dogs so it was easier for them to move around. I stayed out there with them and tried to get them to come to me when I called them. After they had their time out in the sun, I brought them in and gave them a bath. I managed to wrestle PJ down in the baby tub and cut the nails on two of her paws.

And I've been working on my Christmas Wish List. It's been very hard to find items under $10.00. As I've said before on the blog, I make two lists, one for mom and one for my sister and include items of varying prices so they have a choice and don't have to spend a lot of money to get me something I will like. Most of the lists so far include books and dvds. When I get them finalized I'll email them to mom and my sister. Different items on each list so there's no danger of getting two of something.

I also did a bit of Christmas shopping today. While I've been looking at Amazon.com for Christmas Wish List ideas, I found a book for me and a couple of things for Mom for Christmas. I'm having everything shipped to Mom's house because the mail carrier and the UPS/Fedex people never can find my house and my packages end up at the neighbors and I might never get them. I still think the neighbor would have kept my I Can Make You Thin cds if I hadn't made an effort to go look for them.

Archway Cookies Files for Bankruptcy

I was very surprised to see a sign at my local grocery store informing the customers that Archway Cookies has gone out of business. These cookies were one of those products that, as I was growing up, we could only afford as a special treat. Otherwise, we bought the generic brand of chocolate chip and the like. And even as an adult that spending habit continued. I don't think I bought more than a couple of packages of Archway cookies in the last 5 years. I bought a package tonight. It's sad that the company had to file for bankruptcy because the cookies are very, very good. I read that the company started in the 1930s as a mom and pop operation. A true American tale of success only to be undone by rising food and gas prices. Thanks Congress and the Executive branch for helping to create the global food and energy crisis that has contributed to the demise of this American company. The candidates for President talk about job creation here at home to help stimulate the economy. They make promises about what they will do if they are president. Well, judging by what they've done in Congress (or more to the point what they haven't done), I don't think either one of them will do anything but make things worse. I do think McCain will hurt the country less, but I don't have much hope for either one. It's a shame that the candidates talk about creating jobs when they are allowing the jobs we already have to disappear. Talk about being out of touch with the American people.

One More Day

I have one more day off and I'm going to enjoy it. It's been sunny and in the 80s here and I've been out in it. There won't be many of these good days left before winter gets here so I'm going outside as much as I can.

I cut up the cake and found some square gladware containers to put it in. I've been eating the cake according to the I Can Make You Thin rules and it's been going well.

Winnie and I were watching Animal Planet last night and they had some chihuahuas on there. Winnie paid close attention to them. That was cute.

Here's a diet tip for you: get a lapdog. Winnie lays on my lap all the time and keeps me from going anywhere, let alone to the kitchen to get something to eat or drink. And when I am out of my chair, she's in it, waiting for me.

There was a quote on my laptop's homepage the other day that I thought was interesting. Here it is:

We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us. - Maurice Maeterlinck

A Week

I've been following the I Can Make You Thin plan for a week now! Instead of talking about it, I just did it. Yay for me! Today after work I had to stop at the store to get some milk. I had also been wanting chocolate chip cookies for a few days after reading in a romance novel about a housekeeper and a little girl making cookies. So, I bought some refrigerated cookie dough tonight as well. And I also bought orange sweet rolls in a Pilsbury can and a 2 layer 8 inch chocolate cake from the bakery section of the store - it was marked half off. I know you're thinking that I've blown the diet, but I haven't. I made the cookies, ate just 6 of them and got sick. So, now I don't want the rest of them. I just stuck them in the freezer. Usually I would eat them all and be sick too and then ask myself why I ate them all. So, this is progress. I don't know how to freeze the cake. I want to cut it up into pieces, but I don't have containers that will hold a slice of cake like that. I told my mom that I might just have to squish the cake in the round containers and forget about trying to keep it in picture perfect cake form. I haven't eaten any of the cake yet, which is also great for me. And the sweet rolls are still in the can.

I have Monday off for Columbus Day. I'm excited about my three day weekend. I hope to watch some golf this weekend. I recorded the European Tour event and I think I've mentioned on here that I never watch anything I record so I really want to make a special effort to watch this recording, otherwise it will just sit around collecting dust. And I don't want that to happen. PJ's honorary daddy, Jose Maria Olazabal, should be on the dvd somewhere.

Winnie and PJ got to go outside for a walk this evening. Winnie wanted to go yesterday but we had some rain on Wednesday and I didn't want to take the puppies out if it was still wet and soggy out.

A woman at work opened her home to a Boxer that her kids found and brought home. It's a well trained puppy and it's the 5th dog for this family. She said she was going to have to get a second job to feed him because he eats a lot. She thinks he's been without food for a while. I had several bags of dog food that the puppies would only eat a few bites out of and then never eat any again, so I took it all to work and gave it to my co-worker. I'm all for anyone keeping the pets they find instead of taking them to the pound. The pound told my co-worker that she could bring the dog to them, they would keep it for 5 days and if no one claimed it, they would put it up for adoption and she could adopt him (for a big fee). Well, she's got him now free and clear and if she wanted to find the owner, she could advertise for free on the local radio. And the pound told her that they preferred that the dog have his shots before she brought him to the pound. If she's going to pay to get his shots, she might as well keep him. Plus, a while back, when the pound was under different management, there was a letter to the editor in the local paper recounting a woman's experience with the pound. She too found a couple of dogs on the Interstate and took them to the pound. The pound told her too that she could adopt them after 5 days. Well she and her daughter went to the pound within two days to check on the dogs and the pound had killed them. They didn't even wait 5 days for anyone to inquire about them. I am 100% against our local shelter now because of this and I don't care that the woman who was in charge during this time is no longer there. I can't trust them anymore to do the right thing for those innocent little animals.

American Express Business Card Commercial

I have a bone to pick over this credit card commercial with the guy at the airport who has a credit card with cats on it. My point: If the guy's business was a pet-related one, then that credit card would fit right in with it.

First Two Days of my Little Vacation

Yesterday - went shopping. Bought some clothes, a Christmas present for Mom and Dad, and some odds and ends at KMart for me and the dogs. Today, I dyed my hair, took a nap, rolled up some pennies, sorted some books and put them into plastic storage containers, took the puppies outside for a walk - PJ has outgrown her harness. Luckily I have extras of different designs and sizes so she could still go out. I washed the clothes I bought yesterday and washed my dishes. And I read a book. I usually don't read the new books I buy because I usually read at work and in order to read at work, I have to be able to put the book down after my 15 minute breaks and lunch and get back to work. So, for that reason, I read books at work that I've already read before so I can put them down easier.

I like these days off. I need to take more of them.

AdAware

I downloaded Adaware onto my lap top since I didn't have a malware program other than whatever good my virus software does. I think it screwed up my Internet Explorer settings somehow. I deleted a bunch of crap on my laptop using adaware and then tonight I tried to come here to this create a post screen and couldn't get in because it said my cookies function had been disabled. I didn't do anything to IE and the only new thing I've done to the computer is the Adaware. Must be them. I had to reset my security settings to low to get to post to the blog.

I have four whole days off in a row starting tomorrow. I'm excited. I'm going shopping tomorrow. Usually when I go shopping I end up not buying a darn thing. But this time, I'm telling myself that I'm doing Christmas shopping for Mom and Dad so hopefully I will make the trip worthwhile and buy something.

I've finally turned the furnace on today. I picked up PJ and put her on my lap and her little paws were like ice cubes. So, I wiped off all of the vents, replaced the filters and turned the furnace on. At first, the furnace kicked on at 62 degrees. I left it there for a while but turned it up to about 68 later on. 62 is pretty cold. In the winter that would be freezing. The puppies got warm by laying on my lap when I talked to Mom tonight. They warmed me too.

We had a bake sale at work to benefit a co-worker's retirement party. I made peanut butter fudge and no bake cookies. Both sold out quickly. This one coworker liked the fudge so much she bought about half of the batch.

Announcement

Just so everyone knows, I subscribe to Dish Network because of the Golf Channel. NOT because of this crappy All Barack Obama Channel that has shown up on my program guide. I don't support Obama. I can see how the political spin doctors will claim that all Dish Network subscribers support him though since his channel is being sent out to everyone's tvs. Or at least to mine. I don't know what package it's been included in. Dish Network doesn't allow us an A la Carte option to pick only the channels we want. So we get stuck with whatever they give us.

Long Time, No Updates

Well, the I Can Make You Thin plan has been pretty absent from my days lately. It started with the Ryder Cup. I ate everything in the house because I was worried about the European Team. I'm slowly trying to get back into it. Tonight I went out and walked for about a half an hour. It's getting cooler here now that it's almost October.

More bad news family wise - my grandfather Wolfe passed away on Monday. Mom and Dad went to the visitation last night but Mom wasn't feeling up to going to the funeral today. Not in the missing grandpa way but in the physical, sore feet and legs way. Grandpa's obituary was in the paper today and it noted that there were 19 grandchildren. It's a sad commentary on the family dynamics that I can only identify 12 of them.

I'm looking forward to next week as I've got Thursday and Friday off next week. I can't wait. I haven't had an extra day off (other than Labor Day) since I went to the golf tournament at the end of July.

I've been doing a lot of Sudoku puzzles lately. They are sort of addictive, especially for a numbers girl like me. Hopefully, I can do those puzzles instead of eating.

Busy Day

I did my laundry today and vacuumed some of the rooms in the house. Then I went outside and cleaned out the flowerbed and trimmed some bushes and trees up. I also walked a couple of times today, once after lunch and once after dinner. I did some yoga too. This was on top of taking the puppies to mom and dad's this morning.

I listened to some of the mind programming sessions on my I Can Make You Thin cds. I have one mind programming cd I listen to at night, but it's been a while since I listened to these other ones.

We're supposed to get wind gusts of up to 30 mph or higher tonight until 9pm. There are a couple of trees belonging to the neighbor that have been leaning over my driveway onto the phone line. Maybe the wind will bring the trees on down and dad can cut them out of the way. I just hope if they do come down, I won't end up being late for work.

Sort of Busy, sort of not

I did a few things today, but I can't say I did a whole lot. I went to the store, made some sausage stuffing (I have about 10 one cup servings in the freezer to eat later), made outfits for Winnie and PJ, washed my dishes, and vacuumed my car's floor mat. That's about it.

I had to make the outfits for Winnie and PJ - they are inspired by the European Ryder Cup team flag (golf). Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal are part of the team this year and they will be playing this coming week in Kentucky. Sergio and Jose Maria are Winnie and PJ's honorary daddies. I think the outfits turned out well considering I broke two needles on my machine and stuck myself about three times. Oh, and Winnie bit me when I tried to take the outfit off. I would post pictures of them here, but it took me about an hour to get them posted on my golf blog - blogger is acting up. So, if you want to see Winnie and PJ in their Ryder Cup outfits, check out the Even Par Round blog - link's over in the side bar.

I've been watching a lot of the Military Channel on tv lately. I haven't seen many of those shows before, but I'm starting to run into re-runs so I will probably have to find something else to watch soon. Today I actually watched the Miss Venezuela pageant on some Spanish channel. Pretty hair, pretty dresses, and a lot of crowns. They must really like their pageants in Venezuela. I think I saw on some travel show that they take it seriously down there.

As for the I Can Make You Thin plan, I'm still on it. I did eat a bit too much stuffing today, but I wasn't stuffed. Just somewhere between full and stuffed. I consider that a success. Before the plan, I probably would have eaten one more plateful. And after eating the stuffing, I followed the rules and didn't eat again until I was hungry - or in my case, a weird feeling tummy that felt like food would make it settle. It had been about 5 and a half hours so I considered it 'hungry'.

In Memory

This morning, Steffi, my oldest chihuahua, passed away. She was my dog from the start, laying up against me as a puppy and yelping whenever I left her even for a second. We had 16 years with Steffi and she will be missed.

Back on the Plan

I've been back on the I Can Make You Thin plan for about 6 days now. I couldn't work out any this week because my left knee was bothering me. Then when it got to feeling better, the right one started feeling bad. I finally got to work out today. I have two sort-of goals in mind - thirty days without going off the plan and following the plan 90% of the time. So, we'll see if I can follow through with either one.

I bought the first season of Burn Notice on dvd earlier this week. I've never seen the show but I like the guy who plays the lead character. He was in the Pretender. I found time to watch a couple of the episodes today and it's a pretty good show.

A Big Purchase

Well, I bought a big tv today. It's big to me, but probably small to some people out there. It's a 37 inch Sharp LCD HDTV. West Virginia has a no sales tax week going on this week so I got out of paying about $48.00 of tax by buying the tv today. I've been watching Sergio Garcia, Rafael Nadal and a bunch of other stuff today and boy is it all difference.

I'm still off the plan. Tomorrow, I will be back on it. I go back to work tomorrow and it will be easier.

Steffi still isn't eating anything. I offered her three kinds of meat and catfood tonight and she wouldn't eat any of it.

Off the Wagon

Well, I'm off the I Can Make You Thin plan for yesterday and today. I don't know why either when the plan gives me everything I would want. I think part of the problem was weighing myself. I saw that I'd lost weight and in my mind, I'm now thinking that I'm done for some reason. When the whole idea about this plan is that you're never done because you're creating new habits for a lifetime.

Tomorrow I will probably be buying a new tv. West Virginia is having a Sales Tax Holiday for the first week of September on anything that has the EnergyStar symbol on it. So, I'm thinking about getting a HDTV. The one I'm looking at is 37 inches big and I would be saving about $48 by not paying sales tax. I don't need a big tv since I sit pretty close to the one I've got now.

Steffi hasn't been eating well. Yesterday she didn't eat anything and today she's only had a little bit of catfood. I've tried everything: chicken, turkey and bologna.

I got the new Diana Palmer book this week and I've already read it about three times. It is a much better book than some of the more recent offers from her. But I still have a problem with the main characters coming from abusive or disadvantaged backgrounds. There has to be some other way to create obstacles between the male and female characters than to have the abuse be what keeps them apart.

Two Week Check-in

Today is my every two week weigh-in as part of the I Can Make You Thin system. Good news. In two weeks, I've lost 8 pounds! This is the easiest weightloss plan there is. Everyone should try it. Check out McKenna.Com for more info.

Curse NBC

I can only see rhythmic gymnastics once every four years. Contrastly, I'm going to be bombarded with images of the Presidential candidates and their running mates every single day for the next two months or more. What does NBC do during the rhythmic gymnastics coverage today? They cut away to show Obama and Biden. You know what's worse? The NBC Nightly news is supposed to be on today. Brian Williams couldn't wait two or three hours to put Obama and Biden on his show. This whole running mate thing was on MSNBC all morning long. There really was no reason to interrupt the Olympics on NBC for it. I think they did take the Olympics off MSNBC.

So far, so good

I'm still following the I Can Make You Thin system. A package of chips ahoy soft chocolate chip cookies has lasted me pretty much all week. I've been able to stop at 4 or 5 for a snack and haven't had that "eat them all now and you can start the diet again tomorrow" thought. I'm also doing some yoga most days. I think I'm going to end up taking today off from exercise. It is Friday and I have to celebrate the weekend somehow.

I've had that Leona Lewis song, Bleeding Love, in my head all day today after hearing it on the radio this morning. I have a feeling I'm going to end up buying that cd just for that song. It would have to be just for that song since I don't think I've heard any of her other ones.

The laptop is still working pretty well. I hope it continues.

As for the Olympics, those Chinese gymnasts do look like 12 year olds so I hope the investigation that seems to be in the works will result in some kind of action. Part of the Olympic spirit comes from following the rules and being honorable. I would like to see more rhythmic gymnastics. I don't know when it's on or if it's done. I get stuck watching water polo and of course they have to have boxing on every day for two solid weeks. But then, in a world of violence like we have on Earth, I shouldn't be surprised that there would be so many people wanting to beat each other up.