MON. JANUARY 30

Yesterday I succumbed to a bout of nervous eating.

Why, I'm not sure. I guess just hitting the end of the month -- One month into the year, no income, our resources dripping out slowly (well, not so slowly this month because of the Christmas bills), and what do we have to show for it? One act of a script that maybe no one will want, and no meetings set for any jobs.

So at breakfast I ate a whole buttermilk cruller. Thank God the doughnuts are finally gone!

I did the grocery-shopping yesterday and picked up lunch for myself. I had a ham and cheese foccacia sandwich (am I misspelling foccacia?) and (oops) a small bag of salt-and-vinegar potato chips.

Lee and I worked most all afternoon -- except that we had to pick up the kids and take them to a cat shelter, as the kittens we thought we were going to adopt fell through.

For dinner, I made a huge batch of spaghetti -- and then I had 2 servings, with lots of Parmesan. I was feeling quite bloated after that, so skipped dessert.

Okay, as I look at it, I didn't eat all that much -- but it sure felt like a day of nervous eating. I know the feeling well, as I used to be a binge eater.

But the day ended, thanks be to God, with a call from one of our agents setting up one of those meetings I was nervous about not getting. So maybe I can calm down a bit today...

And today makes it one month that I have been following this particular New Year's Resolution. I know a few of you are actually reading this blog. I would love to hear from you at this one-month point -- just drop me a comment w/ your thoughts.

Today is an all-writing day (my last for almost a week), so I should be at home and away from most temptation. Tonight I am making pasta primavera with stir-fried chicken, unless I get lazy...

SUN. JANUARY 29

Cory decided he wanted to skip the junior high group at church this morning. Normally we wouldn't have encouraged this (and we didn't encourage it), but we let him do it because next weekend he is off at winter camp w/ the jr. highers, so we figured he could miss an hour. And he was up late last night and may have been feeling it. (We did make sure he didn't use the extra time at home playing videogames, though!)...

What that meant for me was a chance to relax on a Sunday morning and read the Sunday paper in bed. O happy day!... I brought in a little b'fast in bed -- namely, the remains of Sabrina's lunch from Saturday -- about 1/3 a baked potato w/ butter and sour cream. And then I got really decadent and had half a buttermilk cruller, also leftover from Saturday (though the kids are making good inroads on all those leftover donuts, I am glad to report).

Obviously I skipped the doughnuts at church. Well, okay, I confess, I had one bite of Cory's jelly doughnut -- basically because Lee hadn't bothered to buy jelly the day before.

Cory got to pick lunch, and he picked McDonalds. I had their cobb salad w/ chicken. It is very mediocre. But I guess that's 'cause it's at McDonalds. I also snagged a couple of handfuls of Sabrina's fries.

By the way, I feel sort of smug seeing that McD's now has debit cards. I made a suggestion that they should do precisely that about 12 years ago (when I held a lot of McDonalds stock).

We then went and (gulp) adopted two kittens. They will arrive on Tuesday. We were planning on one. I sure hope this is a good idea.

We had a family-TV-watching evening, and I made cheesy enchilada Hamburger Helper -- one of Cory's faves. And I had a sugar-free fruit juice bar for dessert.

No exercise. My back has been killing me every time I wear heels, and today after the pet store, I could hardly stand up. But a friend may arrange for us to get a whole exercise machine -- one of those infomercial goodies --for free. We just have to see if it will fit in the little sitting room off the bedroom where my dead treadmill now rests.

Tomorrow is an all-writing day. And I have to start getting ready for next weekend -- I am off to Las Vegas to teach for Act One, and Cory is off to winter camp, and needs to be packed, etc. But there shouldn't be any major food temptations tomorrow. Well, except for the never-ending doughnuts. Oh, that reminds me, I also had half a chocolate old-fashioned donut while watching TV.

We've gotta get those doughnuts out of the house.

SAT. JANUARY 28

We had a doughnut festival at our writers group this morning. And amazingly enough, it was a themed doughnut festival: old-fashioned, chocolate old-fashioned, and apple fritters.

I had half a chocolate bar (okay we had a couple of non-themed doughnuts), half an apple fritter, half an old-fashioned cruller, and 1/4 of a chocolate old-fashioned. It sounds much worse than it was -- it was spread out over 3 1/2 hours. But of course, yes, I realize, the calories are the same.

I don't even care though, because our writers group loved our script pages. And that's all that matters.

We went to lunch at Fuddruckers again, and I managed to get past my usual cheeseburger order. I had a grilled fish sandwich with appx 1 T tartar sauce -- I think tartar sauce is my favorite condiment in the world. I also had fries with it. Dipped in tartar sauce, of course. Sabrina didn't finish her baked potato and offered it to me, but I had it packed up to take home. Guess what breakfast tomorrow is likely to be? (Although, of course, we still have half a dozen doughnuts in the house...)

I worked for several hours this afternoon writing up our notes from this morning's session, then we sat down to watch the finale of Return of the King. Lee made a frozen pizza, and I had one slice of not-so-good pepperoni pizza. And found myself getting more and more frustrated with the movie, which, each time I see it, seems to me more melodramatic and over-scored. Not to mention that each time I see it I get more and more peeved with the deviations from the book... Lee finds it magnificent, so I keep my mutterings to myself. Themovieisnotthebook, themovieisnotthebook, themovieisnotthebook -- I keep telling myself.

(Although I was struck by the extent to which the One Ring is really just Sauron's Horcrux.)

Okay. Time to calm down and go read a chapter of Mere Christianity. Tomorrow is church, lunch after church, and then I think we will go look at some kittens for adoption and see if we find "the one."

FRI. JANUARY 27

Okay, so I didn't blog last night, but I forgive myself, after the day I had on the run!

I spent the morning tweaking and spellchecking the first act of our script, so we could e-mail it out to our writers group, who had expected it Thursday night, not Friday morning. No time to eat. Thank God Lee (who was busy taking Cory to the hospital for his overdue x-rays) stopped at Quiznos and brought home a sandwich. He had pity on me and let me have half a roast beef, mozzarella cheese and mushroom sandwich. (And btw, Cory's finger is just a sprain.)

I then raced off to school to help with 5th grade "Colonial Crafts Day." I supervised kids learning to write with a quill pen. Other stations had them make faux tin lanterns, candles, corn husk dolls, etc. No snacks, no time to eat, on my feet for 3 straight hours in shoes that really I shouldn't have been wearing.

I raced out of Colonial Crafts Day to walk a few blocks to get my car to race back to pick up the 3rd grade Brownies for their ice skating expedition. This has been so logistically difficult in the past (kids changing clothes in cars and losing things, traffic getting to the rink, snack taking so long that the girls don't have much time to skate), that this year we planned for all eventualities. We planned it on a free dress day and told the girls to come dressed for skating. We prescouted our routes to the rink (extra important yesterday because the freeway was closed in both directions, which rippled out all over town). The snack mom packed snack in individual bags for each girl, so they could eat in the car.

But she didn't pack snack for the moms.

I snagged a piece of string cheese that someone didn't eat. And then proceeded to stand for 2 more hours in those bad evil wicked shoes (they're cute though). In between re-tying skates.

Sabrina brought a friend home. They shared a hot chocolate on the way home, didn't offer me a sip. Thank God. Because by the time I took the friend to her house, she had gotten quite sick, throwing up inside her front door. (Again, -- thank God. Not in the car!) I am hoping that somehow none of the hot chocolate Sabrina shared with her actually had any germs in it.

I had to go to my Alliance of Women Directors board meeting/potluck. I took with me Christmas-gift-basket food that we will never eat, but which was much appreciated -- camembert, crackers, smoked salmon (the chunky kind, not lox). But fortunately the other women brought food I would eat. Which I really needed, after such a long day with so little fuel!

I had: about 1 cup total of rice w/ corn and mushrooms, about 3 oz. of roast chicken, about 1/2 c. cranberry sauce, all that was left (not much) of a spinach/feta/pine nut salad. And I had 4 1" cubes of streusel coffee cake and a 1" cube of brownie.

This morning we have our writers group coming to our house. Lee is on the phone right now trying to figure out where the closest donut shop is (we don't usually meet here, but we need to provide donuts because we're one of the writers up for critique). We'll have lunch after. Dinner is at home, probably finish watching "Lord of the Rings" w/ the kids. I am so tired (only 5 hours sleep) that all I care is that it's easy.

No exercise yesterday, except for all that standing.

THURS., JANUARY 26

Well, we've been writing all day, Lee is still working on the last part of the big exposition scene we need to crack, and as soon as he gets it to me, I will probably just paste it in to my/our pages and send them off to our writers group, who pretty much expected the pages this afternoon.

What that means is that I didn't even leave the house except to take the kids to school. Lee did the pick-up, including taking Sabrina to the dentist. Which is conveniently located next to the kids' pediatrician. Which was good, because Cory sprained his finger today. Maybe broke it. We don't know if he broke it, because Lee didn't take him to the hospital for an x-ray, because he wanted to get home and get back to his writing. I have to say, I don't know a single mom who would have made that choice.

(Lee will probably be the one who takes Cory to the hospital in the morning... )

Anyway, food. Okay. I had half a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. Write write write. I had a Lean Cuisine angel hair pasta with shrimp for lunch. Write write write again. Then tonight I guess I was still in a pasta-y mood from lunch, because I made spaghetti with meat sauce. And I must have been hungry, because I had (gulp) 2 servings.

I did 140 crunches, but too busy writing to do any more exercise.

Hopefully I won't be up past midnight (depends on when Lee finishes his work). Because tomorrow is a busy busy day. I have to be at school at lunchtime to help with 5th grade's "Colonial Crafts Day" -- I have to help the kids make and write on horn books with real quill pens -- that includes sharpening the quills. I am anticipating at least one kid spilling ink. Then I race away from that to be the Brownie leader in charge of our annual ice skating meeting. Which is ironic, because I can't skate (torn anterior cruciate ligament -- not that I was much of a skater before I tore it). There will be some sort of snack at Brownies. I suspect I will need it.

Then I race home to pick up Cory and take him to his first "dance party." Boys and girls together. What a scary thought. Then from there I race over to the board meeting of the Alliance of Women Directors. This is 6 women who bring an ad hoc dinner every month. We never plan who's bringing what, but someone it always works out well. Fortunately, I don't have to cook anything, don't have to pick anything up -- because we have so much still leftover from the various gift baskets we got for Christmas. I think it's camembert and water crackers, maybe some breadsticks as well, maybe some smoked salmon. We've got 'em all. And chances are, I won't eat anything of what I take. So not sure what I'll have for dinner.

All I know for sure is, next month's meeting, there'll be Girl Scout cookies...

WED. JANUARY 25

Oops. "Lost" was so compelling last night that I simply forgot to blog. (Nice to see the baptism storyline, though they did botch the explanation of Jesus's baptism a bit.)

Okay. Yesterday I had my semi-annual dermatology check-up (used to be an annual check-up until that nasty skin cancer crept up on me last fall). I had an hour to kill between dropping off my kids and the appointment, so I stopped at a bagel shop and had a sesame bagel w/ cream cheese. I skipped the vanilla chai latte that would normally accompany such a stop.

Lee and I worked all day -- almost forgot to pick up the kids because we didn't realize how much time had passed!. I had a Lean Cuisine for lunch of cannelloni in tomato sauce -- actually not too bad.

I had a couple of bites of peppermint bark through the afternoon.

Didn't have to make dinner for the kids last night, as they had dinner up at their program at church -- I believe this week they had hot dogs, much improved over last week's apparently inedible macaroni and cheese (how does one make mac and cheese, inedible, is my question?). I took the easy way out and had a frozen pizza -- a CPK Thai Chicken pizza with the crust all soft and gooey the way Lee hates it.

And I did 16 minutes of free weights yesterday, plus 80 crunches. Somewhere in the house I have a Pilates magic circle, but I don't have any idea where. Sure would be nice to find it, I'm thinking.

Today is truly an all-writing-day. We have to deliver the first act of our script to our writers group by e-mail by tonight. So food will be whatever is quick and easy and available. Sabrina (who has now sold 273 boxes of Girl Scout cookies -- and I haven't ordered yet) has a dentist's appointment this afternoon, but I think I will ask Lee to do it, since I am on kid patrol all day tomorrow. Dinner tonight will probably be the popcorn shrimp we didn't have the other night. And I will work harder at getting the blogging done at night. Okay, gotta get to work.

TUES. JANUARY 24

No breakfast today. I thought I was going to get Sabrina's leftover mini-cinnamon rolls, because it turned out she had already made breakfast for herself and hadn't told me -- but then she went ahead and ate two breakfasts!... But then Lee brought me back a small mango-a-go-go smoothie from Jamba Juice. Yum. Not sure what all is in it, but clearly mango. And pineapple. Don't know what else. But I'd love another one right now.

Lunch was out with the Brownie leaders. I succumbed to the brown roll, but other than that, had a chicken curry orange salad -- don't know where the curry was, frankly, but it had chicken (duh), lots of different kids of lettuce, oranges, apples, raisins, pine nuts, bacon, and maybe some curry hidden in there somewhere.

For dinner, it was Lee's night to choose, and he wanted Panda Express. So I had a 2-serving entree of orange chicken w/ steamed rice. I don't know why, but their orange chicken is absolutely addictive to me. If there had been more, I would have eaten it, I'm sure. (Kettle Chips crinkly potato chips with black pepper do the same thing.)

I'm going to have a sugar-free juice bar for dessert as we watch "American Idol" tonight. I think it's really because now I want another mango-a-go-go and it's the closest I can get.

No exercise today, I was too busy running around doing Brownie stuff (including taking Sabrina up to sell cookies at our church offices -- she has now beat her record and her goal, and sold 261 boxes.) But I have lost a pound since the beginning of the year. Two more pounds, I go shopping for a new pair of black pants. Be still, my heart.

Tomorrow I have a dermatology appointment in the morning (after skin cancer last year, I know better than to skip it). And then I'm back home for what I hope will be a big writing day. Lee and I finally got some work done, but not enough. We have to deliver to our writers group on Thursday, so a lot to do.

You know, I think I could live happily on mango-a-go-go smoothies and orange chicken, with the occasional black pepper potato chip....

MON. JANUARY 23

This was a somewhat frustrating day, for no reason whatsoever. I didn't sleep well, woke up groggy and disoriented. Skipped breakfast.

I wanted to spend the whole morning writing, but was waiting for pages from Lee, so got off to a late start. We made a date to sit down and discuss each other's work at 12:30, but it was really clear that we weren't like each other's work quite as much as one might home. So we decided to go out to lunch. When one is out in public, one can't yell and say nasty things quite so easily.

We went to Hamburger Hamlet, because it has these nice big sheltered booths where one can spread out one's papers and talk w/o anyone overhearing. Also, because it's halfway to our kids' school, so we knew we'd be able to be on time for pick-up.

I had a partial club sandwich -- I say "partial," because the way I eat a club sandwich, I deconstruct it, taking out the middle piece of bread and some of the lettuce. Then I never eat the crusts -- I eat a few bites into each quarter-sandwich and then pull out the insides. Basically, I turn back a plate with at least half the bread left. And instead of fries I talked them into giving me a half-order of "those potatoes -- hashed browns with sour cream. Believe me, Lee and I were snippy enough with each other that I needed them!

I just didn't feel like cooking tonight, and had enough leftovers to give the kids a decent dinner. We had the leftover chicken cutlet things I made a couple of nights ago -- I had half a chicken breast. And I had the leftover mushroom rice pilaf -- about 1/2 a cup. I had a couple of bites of peppermint bark for dessert. And that's it.

Oh, and before I forget -- yesterday I forgot to mention I had a sugar-free fruit juice bar while I was reading a book that should have been much more interesting than it was.

Tomorrow I fervently wish I could be home writing all day. But it is not to be. Lee and I will have to be much more efficient and productive than we were today, cramming a day's worth of work into a few hours in the morning. Then I have to go to a Brownie leaders lunch -- probably will have some sort of lunch salad. (At least this year we're going to a reasonably priced place -- last year, we went to One Pico -- very nice indeed -- and I ordered oh so carefully, drinking water, choosing the absolute cheapest items -- and then everyone said "oh let's just split the check 5 ways" -- and I ended up spending an extra $12 or so for food I didn't eat!)

After school, I have to toss Sabrina into her Brownie uniform and take her up to church -- the business manager has so very kindly offered to have her come sell Girl Scout cookies to the whole church office, and he is making a formal announcement of it at their staff meeting tomorrow. I love it! She has sold 228 boxes so far (day 3 of the sale). I'm really sort of astonished.

Back home tomorrow night. "American Idol," don't you know. Maybe we'll have popcorn shrimp....

SUN. JANUARY 22

We somehow made it up to church early for the jr. high group parent meeting. They had bagels, so I had half a bagel with cream cheese. But it was a long morning, what with waiting around an hour afterwards for the next worship service to start, and I was weak and also had a jelly doughnut. Shame on me.

But the good news was, Sabrina sold a ton of Girl Scout cookies. She's up to 173 boxes so far. In 2 days.

Sabrina got to choose lunch, and she chose Taco Bell. Oh joy. I had a taco salad -- meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, salsa and rice (instead of beans. I hate beans. All beans.)

The kids had a playdate with their best friends from church all afternoon. Sometime during that time, Lee broke into the peppermint bark we were given at Christmas, and I had a 2-bite piece.

I made potato pancakes for dinner -- I had 5 potato pancakes -- small ones, I hasten to add with applesauce and sour cream, and 1/2 a chicken-and-apple sausage. (I'd be happy w/ just the potato pancakes... Actually, I'm happy w/ any kind of potatoes... But I knew Lee and Cory would want the sausage.)

And that's it for today. No exercise, I'm afraid.

Tomorrow is an all-writing day. Plus I have some nasty phone calls to make. At least no running around though. So I should be able to blog tomorrow night (I'm back in the swing of that at least!)...

SAT. JANUARY 21

Wow, it feels like I was just here. Oh, I guess that's 'cause I was.

So I went to the Act One offices this morning for a writing program advisory board meeting. Becca at the Act One offices put together a really lovely breakfasty spread. I guess I was just so amazed at any Saturday morning meeting that wasn't just doughnuts doughnuts and more doughnuts.

I had a very lovely crumpet (yes, an actual crumpet) covered with one of the great inventions to come out of the British Isles, lemon curd. (And they even had a toaster all ready -- how classy is that!) I also had a 1' cube of cheddar cheese. And that weekend breakfast staple, 4 small peanut butter cups. Not Reeses. I think they were actually from Trader Joes, which of course means they were healthy... right?

I unexpectedly ended up having lunch out with a friend who was feeling a little shaky, and seemed like she wanted company. We went to Sharkey's, a Mexican fast food place. I had a grilled shrimp taco, a grilled fish taco, some rice (probably a little over half a cup), and plenty of pico de gallo. Oh, and probably about 10 to 20 chips -- I should have counted them, but I just didn't.

I had planned to make tuna melts for dinner tonight (I have to capitalize on the fact that Sabrina will actually eat them). So I had a tuna melt -- sourdough bread, cheddar cheese. And an extremely small portion (1/3 c. or so) of chocolate chip ice cream. But I would rather have had more lemon curd.

No exercise today, but I forgot to mention that yesterday I did a 15 minute workout with free weights. I still haven't figured out what to do about my treadmill being broken. Maybe borrow Cory's Dance Dance Revolution?

And the big news from today was that Sabrina, on her first day of Girl Scout Cookie sales, sold 147 boxes of cookies. (Close to a third of those were for "Operation Cookie Drop" where the Girl Scouts deliver cookies to the troops in Iraq on behalf of the purchasers.) If anyone wants to buy cookies, and add to her grand total (she's aiming for 250, but would be happy to up that to 300), you know where to find me.

Tomorrow we have to visit the junior high group at church -- Parent's Day -- my guess is doughnuts. Then the kids' best friends are coming over for an extended playdate while their parents attend the new members' class at church. So I don't know if we'll go out to lunch or not -- Sabrina picked Taco Bell, so maybe we'll just pick up for everyone and then bring it all home. At least Taco Bell is cheap! And that's it for the day... I like lazy Sundays.

FRI. JANUARY 20

I'm later blogging than I have ever been and I apologize. I was out sooo late last night, didn't feel well when I got home, and then this morning was devoted to helping Sabrina get her Girl Scout Cookie sales off the ground, then I had to race off to a meeting at Act One... and now I'm home and getting caught up.

So yesterday I started with a bagel w/ cream cheese and lox. And actually, that was a very good thing, because it made me aware that I still had over 1/2 lb. of lox leftover from Christmas, and no way would I be able to eat it all before it went bad. And coincidentally, I needed to bring appetizers to this stupid cocktail party I had to go to last night. So I pulled out all my cookbooks and chose the easiest recipe.

Here it is: You cut a cucumber on a slant into 1 1/2" thick slices. You scoop a little hole out of the middle (the seed part) with a melon-baller. You blend together about 6 oz. of cream cheese with about 4 oz. of sour cream. You spoon that into the hole. You roll up a half-slice of the 1/2 lb. of lox you need to get rid of, and stick it artfully in the little puddle of cream. You cut a piece of a fresh chive and stick that in too. If all the salmon and chives are pointing in the same direction, you actually end up with a very lovely looking appetizer. And it takes almost no time.

Okay, on to lunch. I had a Lean Cuisine: 2 silver-dollar-pancake sized flat medallions of chicken with a vaguely lemon sauce, w/ a v. small amount of rice w/ peppers and broccoli.

We had to go to this cocktail party, which I think it's pretty clear I didn't want to go to. So my first stop at the party (after dropping off my appetizer to the appropriate oohs and ahs) was the bar, where I had a glass of white wine. Sure could have used some vodka, but that's not what they were pouring (cheapskates).

I also had about 4 little chicken-in-coconut thingies, 2 tiny pigs-in-a-blanket, several baby carrots w/ dip, a couple of shrimp, and 3 pieces of sushi, the kind with the shrimp spread open over the rice (anyone know the name?). I skipped the dessert table except for a lemon bar -- the best dessert in the world. And frankly, it was so luscious, I should have shoved a couple in my purse to sneak home (you know, the way Lee did with the chocolate chip cookies).

From the party, we went to join another couple for dinner. One of those things where you see someone at a Christmas party and say "let's get together after the new year" and you never do -- except that they got in toucch with us and said 'let's have dinner.'

They picked the dinner place -- the Ivy at the Shore. We knew it was high-end, but hadn't been there in some 8 or 9 years, and either the prices went up, or our point of view of what constitutes outrageous prices has changed as our income went down (or both)... but boy, was it shockingly expensive. (I'll spare you the details... let's just say $4.75 for an 8-oz. bottle of diet Coke, and leave it at that.)

Lee and I split a Caesar salad -- he got all the croutons, I think. I ordered lobster ravioli in a tomato cream sauce. I got 5 ravioli. Large ravioli, true. But let's just say it came out to 50 cents per bite. A little high for pasta, if you ask me. (It was yummy, I have to admit.) And I had a scoop of lemon ice for dessert.

A very nice evening. And sure, it was cool that Brian Grazer was two tables away. But we could have had just as pleasant an evening at California Pizza Kitchen, I do believe. Sigh... I'll regret it again when the bill comes.

I've already eat most of my food for today -- That Act One meeting, then lunch afterwards. But I'll wait and blog post-dinner tonight. I will. Really. (I promise, Clare!)

THURS. JANUARY 20

I remembered! I remembered!

...Granted, I shut down my computer and then remembered, and had to log on all over again. But it's still Thursday night, not Friday morning, and here I am!

Today was an all writing day. I proofread and did a final edit on 68 pages -- whew! So it's actually amazing that it wasn't a day of just chocolate and potato chips.

I skipped breakfast, but was ravenous by lunch -- and since the kids had to be at school by 7:45, "lunch" felt like, oh, about 10:30. But I waited till noon. I had spaghetti w/ plain vegetarian Prego sauce w/ Parmesan cheese. Yum. That is one of those things I just don't get tired of.

Sabrina made some popcorn while she was doing her homework, and brought me a little tiny bowl (one of her toddler cereal bowls) -- so I had about a cup and a half or so of popcorn.

For dinner, I actually did some real cooking. I made a sort of "shake and bake" kind of chicken breasts, and also made a mushroom rice pilaf. Which of course also had onions in it. (Writing all this down is sure making me aware of how much I like onions.) Lee was crazy about it, the kids not so much. I think the mushrooms scared them. I meant to make spinach for the kids, got it out and washed it, but then, because I was on the last 5 pages of the script while cooking, forgot all about it. Maybe I'll give it to the kids for breakfast tomorrow. (Kidding!)

This is really embarrassing, but for dessert, I had a big spoon of chocolate chip cookie dough. We have a vat of it in the fridge, which we bought to make pre-Christmas cookies, I think it was. Don't know how much longer it will be good. But it was fine tonight.

I did get a bit of exercise today, and meant to get more. I did about 5 minutes of stretching. I was then planning on walking on my treadmill -- but when I opened it up, the motor wasn't working. It was trying -- revving and stopping, revving and stopping... and making all the lights flicker, which made me a bit nervous. It's a good 8 years old, maybe more, so maybe its time has just come. But very frustrating, as we do not live in a neighborhood where one can walk (too hilly, streets too narrow, cars too fast, no sidewalks...). So I'm not sure what I'll do to get any aerobic exercise. Hmmm. Maybe I should call in an exorcist to pray over my treadmill.

I know what I'd like to do for aerobic exercise... Watching "Dancing with the Stars" has inspired me. I love to dance, used to dance a lot back in high school, college, etc. My dad taught me ballroom dancing -- and he was a master. Seriously. People used to compare him to Fred Astaire. He could make any woman look good on the dance floor (even my klutzy mom, who used to get asked to dance by all the guys after they saw her dancing with him... and then she'd step all over their feet).

With this enormous living room we've got now (850 sq. ft.), with a hardwood floor and all, it struck me tonight that we could hold "dance nights" pretty easily. We have friends in the dance world -- invite them to come, teach the samba, the waltz, the jive, whatever. Push back the furniture, invite a bunch of people to just come and dance. One problem is that our hardwood floor is a peg-and-groove floor, so has these little ridges that women could catch their heels in. But I don't think it would be that much a problem.

What do you think? I know there's only a few people reading this blog (thank goodness!!), but if you're reading, would you come to a night like that? Let me know...

Okay... tomorrow the kids go to school mondo early. Writing all day, then out tomorrow night. The 5th grade parents' cocktail party (and believe me, I will need a lot of cocktails to get through that one!). Then we were invited to quite the high-end restaurant by a couple we're just getting to know -- I think we'd better do our drinking at the (free) cocktail party to keep the restaurant bill within reason!

WED. JANUARY 18

Oh, I did it again! I don't believe it!

Sigh....

I am trying to do a quick 2-day 10-page cutdown of a sample script we need to deliver to our agents, so I am living very much in 19th century India at the moment. And this kind of deadline pressure work is very dangerous, eating-wise, because I can eat without even realizing I've eaten...

I ran errands all day yesterday morning, had lunch at Ruby's Diner (in the same mall as the scrapbook store I needed to go to). Patty melt w/ grilled onions and cheddar cheese, fries, Caesar salad, diet vanilla coke.

The kids had dinner up at church -- really heinous macaroni and cheese, apparently. Maybe I should be thinking about all that called-in pizza they used to get wistfully. So I just had a Lean Cuisine -- a "grilled" sandwich with beef and mushrooms -- I have to say, I admire their ambition in trying to create in essence paninis in a microwave, but it's just not working. I bought a couple because they were on sale, but don't expect they'll be making space for them on the freezer shelves at the store for long. Also a handful of Tostitos

Today I'm writing all day. All day. Hope I remember what I eat. Hope I remember to blog tonight instead of tomorrow morning.

TUES. JANUARY 17

Aaaaah! I forgot again last night and now I am typing like the wind because gotta get the kids to school.

Yesterday I wrote wrote wrote. Lee brought home some fettucini alfredo frozen thingie -- a Lean Cuisine, I assume, and made it for me for lunch.

After school, the kids bought snacks for themselves at the gas station when Lee stopped to fill up. Sabrina bought me a vanilla/chocolate Drumstick. Really have to think through that everyone-bringing-me-food-thing. But not right now.

Last night I made a stir-fry with beef, potatoes, carrots, greenbeans. Had one serving. No dessert. Feeling guilty over that Drumstick I didn't even want.

Also decided I should be writing exercise down here. More guilt, you know. So yesterday, I spent 10 minutes doing Pilates floor exercises. Would have been more but Cory kept interrupting with questions about "Moby Dick" (I have no idea why.) And I finally gave up.

Okay, gotta run. I WILL post tonight. I will. I will.

MON. JANUARY 16

I stayed up late watching the somewhat lackluster Golden Globes last night, so didn't get to blogging before bed.

Yesterday morning I had my annual physical, so I skipped breakfast, knowing they'd be taking blood -- which they did indeed.

For lunch I had a tuna melt w/ tomatoes and Swiss cheese. Sabrina insists tuna melts are her favorite sandwich, but she hardly touched hers. Cory, however, scarfed his down, every crumb.

In the afternoon, we had to drive down to Orange County for a birthday party. I thought traffic would be smoother than usual due to the holiday -- and maybe it was, but it still sucked. We were quite late. Had to make a bathroom stop along the way, and Cory used the opportunity to order a cheeseburger. "Pizza at the party!" I warned him. But he insisted he was starving.

The party was a blast -- wish we had been there on time. A warehouse filled w/ giant inflatables -- bounce houses, giant slides, etc. The kids loved it. And yes, there was pizza. I had 2 slices of thin-crust sausage pizza -- and Cory, full of cheeseburger... had three slices! Where is he putting it?!... I also had 2 handfuls of baby carrots, some pineapple, and a small piece of birthday cake.

We made it home for the Golden Globes, where Sabrina issued her opinions on the dresses most authoritatively. Cory had chosen nachos for dinner -- I thought he might want to pass after all that food. But no! he was still hungry.

So I made my totally disgusting and yet completely addictive nachos dip: Velveeta cheese, a can of chili, and a cup of salsa, all melted together. I had about 1/8 of the total recipe, probably about 1/2 cup or less. With a small bowl of Tostitos. And I had heartburn all night. I think the leftover nachos are all Cory's.

Today is one of those great all-day-at-home-writing days. I will probably make some kind of stir-fry thingie for dinner. So nice to have nowhere to go!

SUN. JANUARY 15

Got back too late and too tired to blog...

I was really hungry yesterday (that time of month, got the munchies, I guess) -- for breakfast, I curled up with my book of the moment ("The Meaning of Everything" by Simon Winchester) and the leftovers of the Sat. night chili -- not much left, so about 1/2 of chili w/ a piece of cheddar cheese.

After church, amazingly enough, there were still donuts left. I had a glazed donut, as I knew I wouldn't be having lunch for several hours. We drove through McDonald's for the kids, and I admit to snatching a few little handfuls of Cory's French fries. (I can't believe that Cory no longer orders a Happy Meal -- it's not enough food for his skinny little frame...)

We went to a luncheon seminar on 'ethical investing,' which was very interesting, but no lunch till 3:00, so we were famished. A very nice Mexican buffet, simple but good. I had 2 handfuls of chips and salsa -- no guacamole, I'm allergic to avocadoes. The lunch itself: a big salad w/ roasted corn, tomatoes, romano cheese and some kind of pink dressing (the only other choice was green, and I figured it had avocadoes so stayed away), green rice, 1 chicken enchilada in what seemed to be a red pepper sauce -- no cheese, enough steak fajitas to make 1 tortilla's worth (though I passed on the tortilla), and somesweet cornbread.

We expected a near-repeat of lunch when we went to Premise a few hours later, but unfortunately, instead of ordering from El Pollo Loco, they had ordered from Subway. My kids absolutely refuse to eat at Subway ever since Cory was at one with a friend and they saw a cockroach on the wall. And I think it's pretty bad, too. I had 1 roast beef sandwich -- that consisted of 1 slice of roast beef, of course, given how stingy they are. I got rid of most of the condiments. Whatever prayer group was supposed to bring side dishes really dropped the ball, because there were corn chips, nothing else -- I passed.

Lee ended up going out to Gelson's to pick up some dinner for our kids -- he brought me back some chicken-and-mushroom thing from there, but there was no way I was going to eat good food in front of all those people who were stuck w/ Subway. So Lee ended up bringing it home and eating it himself as a very late dinner.

(I have to say, writing this blog has made me very aware of how often my family brings me food. I have to think about that...)

There was quite a bit of dessert after Premise -- I saw Cory walking around with a whole stack of white-chocolate-and-macadamia-nut cookies. But I had 3 donut holes and left it at that.

Today, no breakfast -- I'm having my yearly physical this morning. This afternoon, we drive to Orange County for a 7-year-old b'day party, at which I predict bad pizza and birthday cake. Tonight are the Golden Globes, and Cory has chosen something truly disgusting for dinner (gooey nachos and chips) -- each week one person gets to choose one dinner, and he sure took advantage of his opportunity!

Gotta run get ready for the doctor...

SAT. JANUARY 14

Yesterday was such a relaxing day that I frankly just didn't feel like blogging when I went to bed, so let it all drift till this morning.

Our kids were out of screen time by yesterday (they get 9 hours per week, and this week it was gone by Wed.), so they had to entertain themselves in the midst of the rain storm that arrived yesterday morning. They decided to build a zoo and circus, using all 100+ stuffed animals in the house. Mom and Dad always have to pay for admission to these venues (this time we paid by giving them an extra hour of screen time).

I didn't have breakfast, but our admission price to the zoo turned out to include a small bucket (leftover from some sort of Happy Meal) of free popcorn.

Sabrina and I went out shopping after the rain lifted. She was given quite a few gift cards for Christmas, some with expiration dates. So off we went to the Gap and Nordstrom. First we stopped for lunch at a well-known piece of L.A. food history, The Apple Pan, a lunch counter that dates back to the 1930s, I believe. It seats 27 around the counter, and there are usually about that many people waiting for seats (26 when we arrived). I had a cheeseburger -- relish, mayo, grilled onions, and Sabrina and I shared an order of fries.

After our shopping Sabrina practically dragged me into a See's Candy shop to buy a single piece of candy, insisting that she doesn't like any of the pieces left in the box we were given for Christmas (and yet she keeps finding ones suitable to eat...). I had the See's equivalent of a peppermint patty, plus they give free samples, and I lucked into a chocolate buttercream.

I knew we were going to have a movie night (watching the 2nd half of "The Two Towers," which we started last weekend), so planned to make a pot of chili. I have a great chili recipe, which always smells great cooking because of the unusual addition of cinnamon in it. So I had a lovely serving of chili, with a couple of slices of Cheddar cheese and a dab of sour cream, both required because the cayenne pepper got a little out of my control when I was adding it.

(Here's a real question: How come chili is so much spicier the first time around? Sabrina let hers get cold, and then it wasn't so spicy. And the leftovers are never as spicy as the originals. Anyone have the chemical answer to this?)

That was it. I passed on dessert. Today (Sunday) we will not have our usual post-church lunch w/ our kids, as we have been invited to a seminar on ethical investing that Lee wants us both to go to -- not that we have anything significant to invest at the moment! Supposedly they're serving lunch, but since it starts at 2:00, I'm suspicious that "lunch" will turn into hors d'oeuvres. Then tonight we go to Premise, our monthly entertainment industry prayer group. Dinner is served, probably something along the lines of El Pollo Loco (we can hope). You get what you get and you don't get upset.

FRI. JANUARY 13

Friday the 13th. I've spent a lot of time trying convince Sabrina that this is really her lucky day, because she was born on the 13th.

But for me, I was a zombie all day. I managed to pull myself to some kind of functionality for about an hour's worth of writing, and for an extended conversation with my agent. And other than that, I know I must have done something, but I don't even know what it was. I did get some physical therapy today, so here's hoping it kicks in tonight and I can actually sleep so tomorrow can be a bit more functional.

Because I was out late last night, and such a zombie today, Lee took the kids to school (Friday mornings they have to be there at 7:30). He went to Carl's Jr. for breakfast and, out of sympathy, brought me back an order of hash brown nuggets, which are my road trip breakfast-of-choice. I was so tired, I'm not sure I even tasted them.

For lunch, I had a turkey sandwich on rosemary bread, with lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and onion, and Swiss cheese. And then I think I tried to take a nap. But I don't really remember.

I made an old recipe tonight, an enchilada casserole. Guessing from the handwriting on the recipe card, it probably dates back to college. It looked good on the recipe card, but it was really so-so. Ground beef, chiles, onions, sour cream, tortillas, cheese, enchilada sauce. It needed salsa. Or something. Really, it needed for me to tear up the recipe card and not make it again, is what it needed. We have leftovers, but no one really liked it, so I think we'll dump the whole thing.

Lee dished me out some moose tracks ice cream for dessert. At least something tasted good today.

Tomorrow, if it doesn't rain, I will be on a shopping trip with Sabrina -- she has a gift card at the Gap that is about to expire. We'll probably have lunch at the mall. Tomorrow night we may watch the 2nd half of The Two Towers, which we started last weekend. I'm thinking of making chili -- a good rainy night meal. Cory and I love my chili (it's his favorite thing to make with me) -- Sabrina and Lee think it's too spicy, no matter how much I cut down on the spices. But if I'm this tired again, I'll have to pull something out of the freezer instead.

Here's hoping for sleep!

THURS. JANUARY 12

I had to go out last night, and was such a zombie when I finally got home that the thought of sitting down and typing didn't even occur to me. (I feel only slightly less zombified this morning...)

I actually had breakfast w/ my kids yesterday. Made them bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. And even though they won't eat it, I remembered I still had a lot of lox left over from Christmas morning. (I could buy a pound and a half at Costco for what 6 oz. would have cost at Noah's Bagels -- so I bought the pound and a half. And now I have, oh, about 20 oz. leftover.) So I had a sesame bagel, cream cheese and lox.

We were out of milk (and just about everything else that doesn't go in the freezer), and had to buy power bars for Sabrina to send to the soldier her class has adopted in Iraq. So off we went to the grocery store, and Lee and I picked up lunch there. I had a roast beef sandwich on foccacia, w/ watercress, onions, tomatoes, cheddar It came with chips so I nobly picked up a bag of baked sour-cream-and-onion chips rather than normal ones. I figured, since they were from Kettle Chips, the best out there, they had to be good, right? Yuck. Wrong. Inedible. I ate less than half a mini-bag before finally giving up and dumping the whole lot.

No dinner for me, as I had to go out to a meeting. But the kids somehow persuaded Lee to stop at Cold Stone for ice cream on the way home, and Sabrina bought me some with her own money. (The rule is, any snacks away from home, movie snacks, etc., they have to buy on their own.) I really didn't feel like much, so had what amounted to half a scoop of vanilla w/ peppermint and chocolate chips.

It turned out there was food at the meeting I went to -- but, as always seems to be the case with this particular group, it ended up being something I can't or won't eat. This time they had a lovely salad -- but it had avocadoes in it. I'm allergic, so no salad for me. I had 3 crackers with some slivers of cheese and some Pelligrino. Skipped the wine (I was already yawning embarrassingly). Skipped the cookies. Came home and crashed. And then of course, couldn't sleep. Oy.

We have a fairly calm weekend ahead of us, and nothing on the books for today, so maybe I'll get caught up on my sleep! Tonight we'll watch last night's "Dancing with the Stars" and I'll make enchiladas. And then go to bed early...

WED. JANUARY 11

I fasted through breakfast and lunch today (making up for yesterday!).

Tonight started Sabrina's 6-week Wednesday night program up at church. They promised pizza, but they also said we had to reserve our pizza by Monday -- and we didn't get the flyer that said that till today. Oops. So I made a quick dinner just in case there wasn't enough pizza. I made fish tenders (sort of halfway between fish sticks and full fish fillets and angel hair pasta w/ parmesan sauce. I was starving, and really jonesing for pasta for some reason, so I all of mine and all the kids' leftovers.

When we got up to church, turns out they had enough pizza. But it didn't look that great (Dominos, sitting around for a while). Cory ate some pizza, Sabrina refused it, I passed as well. Theoretically I should have stayed for the evening, as it was supposed to be "Family Movie Night." But these Wed. nights are supposed to be nights of learning and being with friends, not of plopping them down in front of a screen (I can do that at home!), and I didn't want to encourage them to do it again but sticking around and showing support. And there were only about half a dozen parents who stayed anyway (and some brought sudoku or whatnot to do).

I'm a little concerned as well, because this used to be the 3rd through 5th grade group, and kids were so excited to be old enough to go. Well, last year they opened it to 2nd graders. And this year they've opened it to preschoolers and up. So of course the older grade kids don't want to go. I think Sabrina and her 4 3rd-grade girlfriends there were the oldest kids there. No 4th or 5th graders at all that I could see. (Cory had gone up to the jr. high program by this time.) And note the use of the word "girlfriend." There were no boys. At least none over the age of 5. I'm so grateful to Bill Parrott, who ran the program when Cory went through it, and trained up a whole cadre of God-loving boys. With him gone (moved to Washington), the program is getting girlier by the minute. It makes me sad.

So sad I think I will have a piece of See's chocolate as I sit down to watch the new episode of Lost... And that will be it for the day.

Tomorrow I'm home writing all day, but go out in the evening to the Alliance of Women Directors meeting. But often the snacks there are things I don't even like (hummus, etc.), and I don't really drink wine, so shouldn't be any real temptation there.

TUES. JANUARY 10

Oh my, today certainly didn't turn out as expected, food-wise at least.

Lee had a 14-hour writing day yesterday, came to bed after 2:00 a.m. and when he woke up, he was famished. We needed to talk over the beginning-of-the-year Open Writing Assignment lists, which I knew would take at least an hour, and he wanted something to eat, so we went out to brunch. I had a side Caesar salad and a baked potato with about 1-2 T. each of butter, sour cream, cheese, and bacon bits.

Back to work, and then off to Act One for a meeting with Barbara. A nice planning meeting, talking about our trip to Vegas in a few weeks (woo-hoo!). And when we finished we went out for an early dinner. But the Italian place we wanted to go to wasn't open yet, so we went to the chicken place next door instead. Barb wanted to split some onion rings as an appetizer (and they are really really good there, I have to admit) -- I had about 6 onion rings. And I had a turkey-and-veggie pot pie for dinner (I didn't eat all the crust). Plus it came with roasted potatoes, but I only ate about 6 bites -- they seemed superfluous. It also came with cornbread, but again, I only ate a few bites. It also came with cranberry sauce -- that I ate all of.

So I came home all full, ready to kick back, read the mail, read the paper -- only to find that Sabrina, very proud of the nice thing she had done, had bought me a cinnamon roll (at the school bake sale? not sure). And she had it all laid out on a plate, and wanted to watch me eat it. So I did. And that put me over the edge to feeling just a bit too stuffed. Yuck. (And the Cinnamon rolls was a bit stale on top of it all.)

Tomorrow I am home all day. No meals out. Other than driving to and from school, nothing, nada, rien. Boy, does that sound good!

MON., JANUARY 9

I fasted through breakfast and lunch today.

This afternoon, I went to Costco and had a few free samples. And since this is "Every Bite I Take," I will tell you about each bite-sized sample. Actually, they weren't great today. Sometimes you can practically have lunch on the samples, but not today. I had 1 bite of a sort of cashew roca, a tiny cup of salad w/ Chinese dressing and a bite of wheat bread (are those pathetic samples or what?!)

After we got home, Sabrina came over twice to offer me candy. I don't know why. All I can figure is, she felt so guilty after going to the dentist to have her cavity filled, and being very sternly lectured by him about brushing her teeth and not eating candy, that somehow it made her feel better to give me that which she knew she shouldn't have. So I had 2 pieces of See's chocolate.

Dinner was broiled orange roughy -- about 5 oz. with a light mustard-mayo glaze. Also sticky rice (leftover from P.F. Chang's on Saturday, so I didn't even have to drag down the rice cooker! The kids had spinach, but Lee and I both hate cooked spinach, so pretty much passed. (Our family cannot agree on a single vegetable, as best as I can tell. Lee hates asparagus. We both hate cooked spinach. Cory won't eat any raw veggie. Sabrina will only eat carrots raw. Oy.)

For dessert, Cory and I split the last of the cranberry bliss bars. Can anyone please tell Starbucks to keep Christmas in their hearts -- or at least on their bakery shelves -- all year long? Sigh. Farewell till next year, O cranberry bliss.

And that's it for today. Tomorrow I have a meeting at Act One, but doubt food will be involved. With any luck I'll be home for dinner, though I have no idea what that dinner might be.

Okay, I'm going back to watch the rest of the rather badly produced Critics' Choice Awards. At least they gave Andy Serkis a special award!

SUN. JANUARY 8

I know it's a little to post here, but I doubt I'll eat anything else today, so might as well do it now so I don't forget!

I didn't plan to have breakfast, but Sabrina didn't eat all her cornbread (probably because she instinctively sensed she'd be getting pretzels and gummy worms at Sunday school -- representing Moses's staff as a staff and when it turned into a snake, don't you know). And I couldn't let it go to waste. So I had about 1 1/2 cubic inches of cornbread, w/ a dab of lite butter and honey.

They have doughnuts at church, but I didn't even go near them.

Our lunch plans got a bit messed up. It was Lee's turn to pick where we went to lunch after church, but he ended up not even being able to come to church. One of our phone lines has been messed up pretty much since we moved in here. It gets staticky, then a day or so later we lose the dial tone. We have had repairmen out to "fix" it appx every two weeks, every one of them says something new is the problem, and none of them fix it for more than a few weeks at most.

The line's been out for about 9 days now, and twice repairmen have not shown up when they said they would (instead showing up when no one was home). So I called 611 again and evidently either raised enough of a stink this time or got a truly sympathetic supervisor. Because he got a repairman out here on Sunday. Unfortunately, he arrived about 10 minutes before we were supposed to walk out the door to church... and he stayed for almost 2 hours...

So the kids picked our lunch place instead. We went to Fuddruckers. And I got a good lesson out of it. Because I didn't have a chance to think about it ahead of time, I went into automatic pilot and ordered one of the two things I always order there -- in this case, a cheeseburger w/ grilled onions and fries.

And while I was waiting for our order to be called, I looked around and saw someone eating a sort of taco salad with chicken. And it looked wonderful. In fact, it looked better than what I had ordered. I had never even been aware they served salads at Fuddruckers before. So that was a good lesson to me to think twice and not run on autopilot like that.

After lunch we went to see King Kong. Lee was able to join us for that, thank goodness. (We loved the movie, btw. More on that on my regular blog.) I bought the kids popcorn, and snitched about 1/3 a medium bag of popcorn -- no butter from them. And a couple of sips of Sabrina's lemonade.

(Oh, mentioning a drink reminds me: I rarely drink anything with calories at all. I drink water mostly. Sometimes iced tea or diet Coke. And because I rarely drink anything w/ calories, it didn't even register with me the night of the Rose Bowl when I drank a special orange cream soda that my kids gave me for Christmas.)

I think I will skip dinner. Popcorn does that.

Tomorrow I'm home working most of the day. I have to take Sabrina to the dentist, that's about it. Hopefully a productive and low-calorie day.

SATURDAY, JAN. 7

We just finished watching the first disc of the extremely-extended version of "The Two Towers" -- Cory's choice -- and before we throw the kids into bed, I thought I'd grab a sec to blog today's food.

Our writers group met this morning, with the obligatory doughnuts. The rule is that whoever is presenting a script must bring doughnuts, and others may at their option. Sometimes we have enough for 3 or 4 per person -- leaving either lots of leftovers or huge amounts of temptation (or both).

While I would put doughnuts on my top 10 list of all-time food, I was quite restrained this morning. I had a maple bar, and about 1/4 of a chocolate old-fashioned. No apple fritter, no jelly doughnut.

It may be of interest to someone to know that doughnuts are not as deadly as one might think, at least in terms of calorie count. If one is choosing between a muffin and cake, the muffin is a better choice. But if one is choosing between a muffin and a doughnut, the doughnut is actually the better choice. Especially if it's a raised doughnut -- a plain glazed doughnut is usually in the 160-180 calorie range, really not bad for something with so much enjoyment.

Well, our group always goes out to lunch after we meet, and today we went a little higher-class than usual. We went to P.F. Chang's, where we ended up with a private room with a round table that sat all 10 of us present. Really lovely and enjoyable. We get could used to such treatment!

We all ordered a bunch of food, put it on the lazy Susan and spun it around. But I did my best to keep track. Okay, here goes. I had about 9 or 10 lemon scallops (small scallops), 3 pieces of honey fried shrimp, two pieces of Cory's honey chicken, 2 pieces of kung pao chicken (each "piece" is basically a chopstick-pick-up-full), a little of the lamb-and-cilantro stir-fry thingie, and about 1/2 c. veggie-and-pork chow mein. And also about 1/2 c. white sticky rice. Oh, and a fortune cookie. The fortune was not a real fortune, as they tend to be these days. "You have a persuasive personality," or something like that.

Wonderful company, good food. A really nice lunch.

I then came home and ripped the skin off my fingers de-ornamenting our Christmas tree and wreath, then spent 3 hours helping Cory assemble the drum set he got for Christmas. No more nuts and bolts for me, thank you.

Sabrina got to pick dinner, which was corn dogs and mac & cheese. I passed on the corn dogs, thank you very much, but had a kid's size bowl of Kraft mac & cheese. And a piece of See's chocolate for dessert.

Tomorrow is church. Yay. We will go to lunch afterwards -- it's Lee's choice where this week, and I don't think he's chosen yet, so I guess I'll just be surprised.

Now I've gotta get the kids into bed, then cue up the results show for "Dancing with the Stars." Shhh-- don't tell me who was kicked off!

FRIDAY, JAN. 6

It wasn't my fault. I want to make that perfectly clear from the get-go.

When Lee has work-related reading to do, sometimes he likes to go out to a restaurant or a Starbucks or something like that. And today he had a script to read, so off he went. And he came back w/ a "treat" for me at lunchtime (which I had expected to fast through)... A fish sandwich and criss-cut fries from Carl's Jr.

So when I went to my Brownie meeting later today (okay, really Sabrina's Brownie meeting), I avoided the snacks. No chocolate chip granola bars for me!

Tonight our kids went to a school-related screening of the new film "Glory Road" which opens next weekend. (They really *really* liked it, by the way. Even Sabrina. And it's a sports movie, so that's saying a lot. And Cory came home quoting whole scenes. Consider this a recommendation.)

And Lee and I went and did something we never ever do. We went out on a date! We went to dinner at Hamburger Hamlet, which we felt struck that nice balance between burger joint and real date restaurant. I had the rustic field greens salad, which was v. nice, but sounded a tad bit better in the menu than it actually ended up tasting: a zillion kinds of greens, apples, chicken, walnuts, blue cheese. And on the side I had what I just about always order at the Hamlet, because it's just one of my favorite dishes in the world: "Those Potatoes" they call it, an odd name for what is basically hashed browns layered with sour cream.

Okay, a little indulgence there. But sooo good. And I did box up the cornbread that I didn't even realize I was getting. I'll try to foist it off on the kids for breakfast.

Tomorrow we have our writers group. Which means doughnuts. Not muffins. Not coffee cake. Not fruit. Not even bagels. (We've tried all of those. No one will eat them.) Doughnuts it must be. Then lunch afterwards. And tomorrow night is family movie (or game) night -- Cory's choice this week. And Sabrina got to choose the dinner, and chose the rather nauseating combo of corn dogs and Kraft mac & cheese. Um... maybe I'll skip dinner tomorrow. Nothing like planning ahead....

Okay, at least I got this posted before midnight! Whew! See y'all tomorrow...

THURSDAY, JAN. 5

Oops. Didn't blog my food last night again. Twice is an excuse. Three times is a failure. I'll try to get online before I go to bed tonight. I guess "Dancing With the Stars" was just too exciting. Or something.

I fasted through breakfast and lunch again yesterday.

Lee and I went to the movies yesterday --"Good Night and Good Luck," which was playing at the one theatre in L.A. that serves real butter on its popcorn instead of some partially hydrogenated chemical. So we split popcorn and I had appx half a bucket of buttered popcorn -- possibly less, because Lee was sure chowing down on the popcorn!

For dinner, leftovers of the chicken/broccoli casserole I made a few days ago, over sticky rice. It reheated quite nicely, I have to say, though next time I may leave the almonds out. And I had one of the two remaining cranberry bliss bars for dessert. I doubt I'll get to the last one, as Cory has discovered them and thinks they're better than chocolate. Thank goodness they're Christmas-time-only!

Today I have to be a Brownie leader, so there may be snacks, depending on whether the snack mom brings enough for the leaders. (Incredibly, some don't.) And tonight our kids are going to a movie w/ kids from class -- Lee and I wanted to go to a movie while they were at one, but timing doesn't look like it will work out. We may go out to dinner. Or not. To be decided.

Okay, gotta get the kids to school. Whoever decided it was a good idea to have computer class at 7:30 a.m. was a pure, evil masochist.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4

Oops. What with the Rose Bowl going so late last night, and kids realizing they hadn't finished homework, I basically forgot to log on last night and jot down what I ate for the day. So here's for yesterday.

I fasted through breakfast and lunch again. A little dizzy while driving to the Valley for about 20 seconds, but otherwise no problem.

I thought we were going to have leftovers last night, because Cory usually goes up to church for his jr. high group on Wed. nights, making dinner a bit of a rushed affair (not that it's long and leisurely any other night). But the group is still on Christmas hiatus -- I'm sure the official reason is that many kids are not yet back at school, and could still be on vacation. And I'm sure the real reason is that the adults involved wanted to watch the game.

First, though, on the way home from school, Cory had to get his hair cut. (Sabrina kept insisting he didn't need a haircut: "He looks like a perfectly acceptable sheepdog," she would say.) We went to a new place, as the kids' former haircutter is back near our old house, the wrong direction now. I got a recommendation from a school mom (whose son has awesome hair) for a barber shop at the Brentwood Country Mart, a little old-fashioned shopping complex on the way home from school.

Turns out she's not the only one from school who frequents the Country Mart. We ran into 3 other families from school, including one of the moms I like the best. And many of them had stopped, not for haircuts, but for treats. Turns out there's a Mrs. Beasley shop right by the barber shop -- and Mrs. Beasley makes the best little muffins and cakes I've ever had. I was pretty good. I had a very small lemon bar -- always my first choice for any dessert. (The kids had frozen yogurt. And Cory's haircut was fast, cheap, and very good.)

With Cory home for the game, I decided to bag the leftovers and make burgers instead. I had potatoes in the house, so I made oven-baked French fries. If you're craving real fries, these won't make the cut, because they're not that crispy (having next to no fat in them). But as a fairly low-cal snack, and for someone who thinks potatoes are the world's best food, they're not bad. And I made cheeseburgers, which turned out lovely. I had a 1/3-lb. cheeseburger with, well, cheese (duh), and a little bit of 1000 Island, and relish, and grilled onions.

We played a kid-friendly version of a drinking game during the game. Every time USC got a touchdown, everyone who was in the room watching the game got a chocolate. I was out of the room for 2 touchdowns, and I gave Cory one of mine (he was out of the room for 1), so I had 2 Sees chocolates for dessert.

The kids stay very late at school today for a special event, so Lee and I might go to a movie. To popcorn or not to popcorn, that is the question.

TUESDAY, JAN. 3

I fasted through breakfast and lunch today, though I did have a couple of bites of Lee's chicken pie (which he ate instead of having the leftover curry-broccoli-chicken thingie I made last night. Do all men forget about leftovers? Just wondering.)

I had to do some last minute errands -- and I indeed kept them to the last minute, so as to not have extra time for temptations (like, say, fast food).

For dinner, we kept it simple and had spaghetti w/ meat sauce, with plenty of Parmesan. Somehow spaghetti is one of those things I hardly ever get tired of. Maybe my body craves vitamin C, and responds to the tomato sauce, who knows.

Lee offered to get me ice cream for dessert, but we have an embarrassment of desserts at the moment, thanks to Christmas. Among the treats that we received were Cranberry Bliss Bars from Starbucks. I regret oh so deeply that whoever gave them to us didn't bother to put a gift tag on them, so we haven't a clue who they're from. I regret this because I would like to be wishing them bliss with every bite. I'm sure they're one of the things that "only happen once a year," as the very clever Starbucks ads say ("Men decorate!"... "Coworkers dance!"... etc.)

Tomorrow is a day of some temptation, as I have to drive to the Valley, and will have time, no one in the car with me, and money in my pocket. But I will be good. Really. I will.

Till tomorrow then....

MON. JANUARY 2

I have traditionally had Pillsbury Orange Cinnamon Rolls out of the can for New Year's breakfast since I can remember. We had them very very occasionally as a treat when I was growing up, probably including watching the Rose Parade, and once I was out of the house and on my own, very quickly I continued what probably wasn't really a tradition in my parents' eyes, but became one in mine.

Today may not have been New Year's Day, but it was the Rose Parade. So guess what we had for breakfast?!

Through the parade and the rest of the morning, I managed to eat, um, 5 or 6 (I think 5, but not sure) Orange rolls. Soft and gooey and sweet. Can't imagine a Rose Parade without them! (And Lee, bless his heart, has been known to try 4 or 5 stores to find them on New Year's Eve... somehow they're more available now than they were for a while.)

Later in the day I had a See's chocolate because Sabrina bit one w/ nuts in it and didn't like it.

For dinner, I made a sort of casseroley thing of chicken and broccoli and curried mayo and cheese and almonds, the recipe for which I think dates back to college days or soon thereafter. Lee loved it. The kids hated it. So Lee and I finished off their portions. So let's call that 1 1/2 servings of chicken broccoli casserole. With sticky rice.

And Lee gave me a little serving of Moose Tracks ice cream for dessert. (Moose Tracks is sold under our local grocery store's house brand, so I don't know how widespread it is -- it's basically vanilla w/ streaks of fudge through it and little tiny peanut butter cups.)

That's it for the day. Nothing but water from here on out. Tomorrow, the kids go back to school, I send belated Christmas presents to my stepbrother's family (who were out of the country for Christmas), and start taking Christmas down and packing it up...

SUNDAY, JAN. 1

Fortunately there were no doughnuts at church this morning, as there usually are. So I can't lay claim to being 'good.'

For lunch we went to Islands w/ our friend Jack. A lovely lunch. I rarely have a hamburger there, because they're 1/2 pound hamburgers, but I was v. hungry (I didn't get dinner last night, bcause Sabrina had a meltdown at the New Year's Eve party we were at just as dinner was served -- she had lost her brand new opal ring, later found -- and by the time I finished calming her down, all the food was gone!).

I had a Hawaiian burger -- 1/2 lb. of hamburger, cheddar cheese, pineapple, teriyaki sauce, tomato, mayo (oops - forgot to say hold the mayo). Also had the v. wonderful fries which were esp. good today. Had way too much of them -- I would guess 7 or 8 oz... With low-fat ranch dressing, about 2 T. of it. Those fries are absolutely addictive. I read somewhere recently that scientists have determined that some people are genetically designed to be physically addicted to fatty foods. I think I must be one of them. Sigh.

For dinner, I was going to make a curry-broccoli-chicken thing, but Lee wanted to eat Cory's leftover beef stroganoff from the Grand Canyon (which was fab), so I just made ravioli w/ Prego spaghetti sauce.

And for dessert, we opened one of the many, many boxes of chocolates we got for Christmas -- this was a 2 lb. box of See's candy, the very best. I had one piece of bordeaux (hazelnut) filled chocolate (which I have previously researched and determined is about 70 calories -- worth every one). And then I stuck the box way up on top of the freezer so it won't be calling out to me. (It also keeps it out of Sabrina's reach -- after all, this is the girl who, one year, said that for Lent, she was giving up "sneaking candy.")

That's it. My first day blogging my food. It's only 7:30, but I figure if I've written my food down already, I can't have anything else for the night.

Tomorrow is the Rose Parade. Orange cinnamon rolls. Yum.

MY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

I have always been something of a nervous eater. I get nervous, I eat. And in 2005, I had a lot to be nervous about. So I nibbled myself an extra 8 pounds or so. (Not helped by being very sick in the fall, and unable to exercise or really to do much of anything.)

So one of my New Year's Resolutions was to start listing every bite I eat, the better to be aware of what I'm actually putting into my body. While I stopped years ago promising myself to stick to this diet or that diet starting in whatever January it was, this resolution I think I can keep. I love lists. I order my world through making lists.

And given the amount of time I spend on my computer, I thought, okay, I'll make my list on my computer. That should be more interesting that just jotting down random food notes in my schedule or in a notebook. For one thing, I sort of think through my fingers when I'm typing, and I'm likely to think more about the choices I made than if I'm just scribbling them down.

Then one morning it struck me: What if my list was public? Would I be more conscientious if I thought someone was virtually looking over my shoulder with every bite?

So I decided to start a food blog. And this is it.

Not that I think anyone will really read it. I will, to be fair, post it on my regular blog, so any of you readers who feel you want to check up on me can do so. However, unless I see comments from people, I will pretty much assume no one is reading this blog.

But you could. You could just click over and read it. And that knowledge alone might keep me on the straight and narrow!

Anyway, if you are reading... now you know what you're reading. And thanks for reading.