eating habits: dinner last night was a disappointingly indifferent $50 mexican meal at a restaurant i'd heard good things about. we found it no better or worse than our local place, without the convenience of being local. plus, it had nothing on el burrito mexicano in chicago where we'd get more (and better) food for less than $15.

gregorian news: oil change and tire rotation today. ooooh the excitement. [rolls eyes] at least the oil change will be free since i got that free changes for a year gift card from honda. and, they give him a good wash for free. while we are down there (if we have time) we might go check out my former boss' new baby store since it is in the area. the only problem being that the store is all free-trade, organic cotton baby stuff meaning $$$$$ and i feel obligated to make a purchase.

shameful news: we may or may not go to crash see my former best friend's replacement for me's wedding this afternoon just to see what the service is like, the flowers, the dresses etc.

sleep deprivation: i absolutely could not fall asleep last night so i practiced saying the states in quasi alphabetical order. the first time i only got 37 but now i can get all of them. my biggest pitfalls are minnesota, vermont and michigan.

current mood: cold!

eating habits: first and foremost, i have to say you were lucky to get a post out of me on tuesday. i fell asleep two hours after writing that. yep, 9 pm. pathetic.

anyway, on to more important topics. dinner last night was stew, which rhymes with "ew" for a reason. actually, i like it okay i just usually have major cravings for junk food after i eat stew. it feels too healthy and my body rebels. dinner tonight was vegetarian fare. i made my "i don't know what to call this so i will call it fake vegetarian lasagna slash ratatouille" dish. it is grilled eggplant and zucchini layered with cheese (cheddar and parm) and tomato sauce then baked.

tomorrow we are going to go out to a new-to-us mexican place that i've heard great things about. i have to admit that when i think mexican i am not at all interested in ceviche or anything high class. when i want mexican i was burrito type fare. sue me.

reading habits: still waiting on the diane schoemperlen book to come into the library, avoiding reading the fannie flagg, and strongly considering re-reading all my gowdy books.

current mood: sore shoulders

eating habits: work keeps infringing on my right to have tasty and varied dinners. last night i had a two hour meeting that kept me tied up for a 10 hour work day. when i finally got home, dinner was a roasted chicken breast with steamed broccoli and a baked tater (BT).

today, i volunteered for an after school duty and then had to pick up a few things at the store. i grilled pork chops and mushrooms for the parents with garlic parmegianno spinach and the ubiquitous BTs. for myself, leftover chicken, green beans, and a BT. all this butter and salt (which is required on a BT) can't be good for me.

current mood: sore knees! so sore!

news and reviews: the play was great. it was just the right amount of funny mixed with suspenseful/scary. yes, it was misery as in the stephen king book. yes, the female lead scared the daylights out of us, causing us to recall fonder memories of her as the silly opera singer in glorious to block out her creepiness. all of which means that she did her job really well. the paul sheldon character looked more like stephen king's much handsomer cousin than like james caan, which i think makes for a nice change.

eating habits: breakfast was bacon, eggs, and toast. different people got different things depending on preference. lunch was roasted cauliflower, again. dinner was grilled ny strip steaks with baked 'taters and 'slaw. we're well into bbq season now. i really want to grill quails next weekend.

reading habits: i perused nigella lawson's nigella express today. bah. boy am i glad that i didn't buy that book. there were maybe three recipes that i might try, but really aren't all that different from recipes i've already got. otherwise there were a lot of typical scary and off-putting british ingredient combinations that i wouldn't ever try - not even if gordon ramsay had made them for especially for me and was hand feeding them to me.

current mood: burp!

eating habits: tried to go out to a new italian place for dinner last night but they were filled to capacity and there was no hope for a seat. so we strolled on back to the grocery store to pick up jumbo hot dogs and spicy nacho cheese doritoes. the dinner of champions.

breakfast today was going to be pancakes, only i got half way through whipping up the batter when i realized there were no eggs. then i poured cereal and opened the fridge again to find that we were out of milk. this is not how the weekend is supposed to start. i sent mom a fetchin' some milk on account of how she drank the last of it in her tea. mother's day be darned!

we worked on cleaning out the garage and stripping the stain off the deck all morning, and were rewarded with lunch out at the italian place. we got there before the brunch crowd and enjoyed our four cheese pizza bianco with roasted garlic. came back home to keep on working on the deck.

dinner tonight is going to be a repeat of yesterday's dogs and chips before going out to see misery the play (to which we may or may not have lost our tickets! oh my!).

current mood: what's that smell?

stress watch 2008: basically this week has escalated from "a series of bad days" to "hall of fame induction worthy bad week". surprisingly, my reaction to the overload of stress has been mostly sort of punchy giddiness interspersed with the inevitable crashes. example: today i got home, turned on fairly odd parents, and totally zoned out. also did anyone else see jeopardy today? what a cheap win! suchita was robbed.

eating habits: lunch was microwave dinner because i had no food. sue me. dinner was polenta with loads of parmesan and butter, topped with my quickie bolognese. it was okay. not great. but that could partly be because i was feeling fairly unenthused in general. right now i'm using all my willpower to resist the cookie dough ice cream in the freezer and the rice crisp snacks on the chest of drawers. no stress eating! bad!

reading habits: i'm on the verge of dropping everything and gorging on gowdy. it's been that kind of week. i need comfort brain food.

current mood: ping bonk zoink!

blogging excuses: i really don't know why i didn't blog last night. i guess it was cuz we went for a walk after dinner that took over an hour, then came home to watch our shows. during our walk i accidentally walked out of the grocery store without paying for my hamburger buns and went back to confess and pay for them. i embarrass myself so well. i could win an award!

eating habits: lunch was a nice plain buttered panini with a side of coleslaw. my foodie workmate stole some of the slaw to put on his sandwich. this inspired me to put some on my burger at dinner tonight. genius! it was great. i put it on one bite at a time so there was great cold/crunchy contrast to hot juicy burger.

reading habits: i was thinking today about how much i love barbara gowdy and how much she tickles me pink with her silliness and bluntness. i really don't even know how i started thinking about her, or why, but i was remembering her anecdote about when she was researching to write the romantic. she needed the main love interest to die young of alcoholism so she would call up alcohol addiction centres and say "look, i need someone to die by 26 of alcoholism, what are my options?" needless to say, they'd be a bit flabbergasted. so she'd have to go through the whole "i'm researching a book, obviously" explanation. knowing her dead pan speech patterns i can just imagine how funny it would have been to be a fly on the wall for those conversations. all of which has gotten me in the mood for another gowdy-a-thon.

current mood: SORE shoulders