MON. FEBRUARY 27

Oops, bad me. I simply forgot to post last night, then had a physical therapy appointment this morning and raced out w/o posting.

Yesterday I skipped b'fast because I had to use every spare minute to run my pitch for the meeting we had. It went very well, btw.

Afterwards, to celebrate, we went to Islands for lunch. There's this absolutely beautiful, very sweet waitress at the Beverly Hills Islands that we always get when we stop in for a post-meeting lunch. She's so lovely that I had to ask her once if she was an actress, and of course the answer was yes. And even though we were seated in a totally different area of the restaurant this time, we got her again! A good omen, one might hope.

I had a "small wave" cheeseburger with, you guessed it, grilled onions, and a small serving of their luscious fries w/ low-fat ranch dressing -- the "Small Wave" is the name they give it when adults order off the kids' menu, so basically, it's a kid's sized hamburger. I really appreciate that they allow that. I also had cranberry juice to drink. Just in case.

Later in the afternoon, I swiped a Halloween-sized Nestle's Crunch from the goody bag Cory got at a b'day party this weekend.

For dinner, I made beef stroganoff -- had 1 1/2 servings. And later in the evening, I had a small serving of Moose Tracks ice cream. And that was it.

And we've reached the end of another month, so once again I'd like to ask whoever is actually reading this blog to check in w/ me by leaving a comment. Thanks!

SUN. FEBRUARY 26

I skipped breakfast yesterday, because though my fever had broken, I was still feeling very iffy. I still am, in fact.

After church, and after getting Sabrina to her playdate and Cory to his best friend's b'day party, Lee and I stopped at El Pollo Loco, as that was pretty much the blandest thing I could think of. I had a chicken breast w/ the skin stripped off, 3 tortillas, and appx 1/2 c. of rice. No salsa.

And through the day, I kept drinking cranberry juice. Not sure it's the right thing for what ails me, but it couldn't hurt.

Lee and I had to work hard to prep for a big meeting this morning, but kept getting interrupted by the kids (a good interruption), and by my mom, now certifiably insane, insisting that her broken wrist is a life and death matter and that for us to suggest that perhaps she might not want to call us at 1:00 a.m. (as she did the night before) to complain that she's in pain was a sign that we have abandoned her completely and she will never speak to us again. (And Lee's response was: "And you turned that down?!") So we got far less work done than we should have, because her insanity is just too upsetting for me to get back to work. Sigh.

But I did get to watch the finale of "Dancing with the Stars" -- go Drew!... And I chanced eating some less-than-totally-plain food, w/ a Lean Cuisine rigatoni w/ meatballs, to which I added just a little Parmesan cheese. And Sabrina didn't finish her piece of fish, so I ate what she left.

And I'm still dealing w/ a lot of abdominal pain, though no fever, thank God. I am off to prep for a huge pitch, for which I am not fully prepared, but on which a really good job hangs. I'll just pop some Advil, I guess, and power through. And then maybe take a nap.... We are home tonight, for which I am grateful. Not sure what I'll make for dinner, if I'm even up to it.

SAT., FEBRUARY 25

We went to our writers group today, w/ the requisite donuts in hand (as we were presenting our pages). It was a very lackluster morning, w/o many of the members present, and we got less than the usual excellent feedback, I felt. Rather frustrating.

I had 1 jelly donut, 1/2 chocolate old-fashioned donut, and a few bites of a cinnamon roll.

After the group, we all went to lunch. In honor of the Olympics, Jack wanted to go to an Italian place, so we went to "The Italian Fisherman," a weird little just-above-fast-food place with some good stuff and some not-good stuff and everything about $1 more than it should be. Cory was happy with his sausage sandwich there, but fortunately for the rest of us, there is a Baja Fresh right next door. So, in honor of our trip to Baja, that's where Lee and Sabrina and I got our lunch.

I had a "baja style" shrimp taco and a fish taco, and a handful of chips -- "Baja style" means it's just the meat, w/ onions and cilantro, wrapped up in 2 tiny corn tortillas. And I had a lot of water to drink, because I was not feeling good by this point.

We had to run some errands on the way home -- had to find Cory his plastic polar bear for his "tundra" diorama -- and by the time we got to the toy store, I was really in pain. A lot of abdominal pain, and feeling sort of dizzy. I lay down when I got home.

And when I woke up, I was shivering uncontrollably, and had a fever of 102. Yuck.

I don't know much about what happened the rest of the day. I dozed, drank lots of cranberry juice, dozed, watched the tape of last week's "Dancing with the Stars," dozed, read the paper, dozed, asked the kids to be quiet, dozed, sort of watched the Olympics, and then fell asleep.

And this morning, though my fever broke overnight, I'm still not feeling too great -- still lots of abdominal pain. I haven't eaten anything and don't know if I will...

(But even I don't, I will post it.)

FRI., FEBRUARY 24

Today was a much more complicated day food-wise than I expected. I tried to sleep in, but really didn't. I had to take Sabrina to a couple of orthodontists for consultations, and I thought there was enough time in between to go to Starbucks w/ her, but the timing of the appointments got messed up, so we didn't go. But Sabrina was really upset at that, and started crying at the 2nd orthodontist, and darned if she didn't have a stack of Starbucks gift cards to hand out to patients. So off we went anyway.

I had a tall iced vanilla chai latte (and let me point out that "tall," in this case, means "small." Go figure). There was a Quizno's right next door, and the kids asked for an early lunch, so sure. I can't believe I've got Sabrina happily eating at Quizno's when only a couple of weeks ago she would react like I was trying to poison her. Whatever.

I had a small smoked turkey on rosemary parmesan bread w/ red onions, tomato and red pepper sauce, plus a bag of lime/pepper potato chips. Then Sabrina only ate half her sandwich, so I finished it for her -- half a small tuna/cheddar on sourdough.

We then ran errands -- trying to find a small plastic polar bear for Cory's diorama on the tundra due Tuesday (for which of course he did not bring home the instructions over winter break). No luck. Then we went to see Hoodwinked. Cute movie, very clever. I had half a medium popcorn -- split it with the kids. Also, couldn't have my usual Diet Coke 'cause I won't let the kids drink caffeine, so had several sips of their Sprite.

Tonight I expected to have the same thing for dinner as I had last night, since I had a second AWD meeting and there were leftovers from last night. But I got messed up (just too tired to really be driving) and went to the wrong location, so I was late. And it turned out there was other food. I had a small serving of spaghetti w/ meat sauce and Parmesan. I also had half of a little Chinese rice ball filled w/ chocolate ice cream -- I don't remember the name (anyone?). And I had about 6 donut holes. I passed on the leftover birthday cake and the wine.

Tomorrow is our writers group, which means doughnuts and lunch. I will make dinner tomorrow night -- maybe a curry chicken broccoli casserole. Or something easier. I'm too tired to think that far ahead.

Good night.

THURS. FEBRUARY 23

It's not that I was bad yesterday not to post, because let's face it, I got up at 6:30 a.m. to write, worked all day, then took off for a meeting that went to 10:45, then raced home to catch the last of the figure skating and got to bed at midnight.

But I do admit I was bad not to post this morning. Sigh.

Working so hard yesterday, I sort of didn't eat. Early afternoon, I had a Lean Cuisine sesame chicken which was actually quite good.

Last night I went to my Alliance of Women Directors meeting, which was catered. I had appx 4 oz. is my guess of roasted lemon-pepper chicken, appx 1/2 of rice, a hefty portion of Caesar salad, and about 1/2 c. of mixed veggies -- potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. And then one woman had a b'day, so they had a cake from Costco -- I had too big a piece (they were cutting them huge) of white cake w/ chocolate filling -- too big because it simply wasn't that good.

WED. FEBRUARY 22

I sat down last night to post my food for the day, and just clicked on the pages we'd written and ended up getting absorbed in them, and shut down my computer forgetting completely to post here. How pathetic is that!

We worked most of the day yesterday. I had a Lean Cuisine glazed chicken w/ vegetable rice as sort of a late breakfast/early lunch.

In the late afternoon we took the kids to see The Pink Panther, which was embarrassingly funny. They had a special deal that if you gave a $2 donation to some charity, you'd get a free small popcorn. So we did. I had one of them, but really it was an ultra-small popcorn, w/ fake butter -- about the size of 1/3 of a regular small popcorn.

After the movie, we had to get Cory fed and race him up to church, so we stopped at the McDonald's right next to the theatre. I had a double cheeseburger (no pickle) and a small fries.

And that was it for the day.

Today (Thurs.) we are home writing all day. We have to deliver pages to our writers group tonight, so it really is an all work day. Tonight I go to a meeting of the Alliance of Women Directors, and it's a catered dinner. And since they didn't take my catering suggestion, I have no idea what we're having.

Okay, off to work I go.

TUES. FEBRUARY 21

Ah, back home. The land of panicked phone calls from Grandma and plaintive cries of "I'm bored" from the kids...

We got back to work yesterday. Lee ran out to do some kind of errand in the morning, and somehow it led him to Burger King... And even though I was sitting at home on my computer, and very hungry, I sort of knew Lee would come home w/ food. So I didn't eat.

And Lee brought me home a BK fish sandwich. Wouldn't have been my choice, not at Burger King anyway. But hey, BK wouldn't have been my choice. Whatever.

I didn't eat anything else till dinner, when I made one of my favorite recipies: chicken in a paprika/onion/sour cream sauce. And the best part is that the kids don't like the sauce, so Lee and I can snarf it up. I had one chicken breast, but 2 servings of the rice w/ the sauce. So yum.

And later for dessert I had a sugar-free strawberry fruit juice bar.

And that was it for the day.

Today (Wed.) we were supposed to have an afternoon meeting about "The Lone Ranger," but it got pushed to next week. So instead I'm home all day, and writing -- though I may take the kids to the movies this afternoon (popcorn!), because they are indeed getting bored with their week at home now that they're back from Mexico. And Cory goes to church tonight, but the dinner portion is over for a while...

So off I go to work. Which involves...well, sitting exactly where I am.

MON. FEBRUARY 20

I got up in the morning and placed yet more incredibly expensive international cell calls back to my mom, where I at least learned that she remembered going to the hospital the day before, even though she had no idea why her wrist hurt so much. And I learned that her caregiver had found someone to sub for her for the two months(!) she would be gone to the Philippines for her father's funeral. So I basically just said, "whatever" and let it go.

I made more mini-cinnamon squares for breakfast -- I had about 7 of the mini-cinnamon squares while watching a Care Bears marathon. Then I joined my kids and another family to walk the beach again. I couldn't go down to the tidepools because I was wearing flip flops, but the kids found crabs, an octopus, fish, all sorts of goodies. And meanwhile my wonderful husband Lee did an unthinkable thing -- he packed. Everything. Wow. (Of course, I will never find anything until it's all unpacked -- but still.)

Two carloads of us drove back separately, but 10 of us decided to go into Rosarito Beach to do a little shopping and have lunch. Since our cars were packed, we paid through the nose to park at the Rosarito Beach Hotel for a little safety. Then off we went, braving the gauntlet of vendors trying to sell us jewelry, hair-braiding, pottery, and trying to wave us into what were clearly spring-break bars, even though it was lunchtime.

But we passed by them all, heading for what we had been told was the best steakhouse in Rosarito. And it was a find indeed!

It was just beautiful. An enclosed patio in front (where we ate), with trees, an aviary, a waterfall, and tortillas being handmade right in front of us. And really delicious food, at very reasonable prices. I had a very strong margarita, a small salad w/ Roquefort dressing and croutons, a filet mignon -- about 8 oz., I think, soft as butter -- and a small baked potato w/ butter and sour cream Oh, and 1 of those handmade tortillas, and a whole bunch of chips and salsa. It was an absolutely delightful lunch.

Afterwards, we did a little shopping -- the kids were just burning to spend some money. Sabrina bought a magnetic bracelet/necklace/belt, and she bought a little beaded bracelet for her Sunday school teacher. Cory, who kept announcing that he wanted to buy something useless, bought a poncho. At which point, every vendor leapt out to sell us stuff, since he was now wearing a big bullseye saying, "Sucker!"

It took us about an hour and a half of sitting in place to cross the border. After we crossed, I returned all the calls about my mom, dealt with the new caregiver issues, talked to my mom's psychiatrist, etc. Oy. But at least I wasn't paying $10 a minute for those calls!

We stopped just over the border and had dinner at McDonald's. I had a double cheeseburger and a hot fudge sundae. It was heavenly to be home.

We got home around 9:00 (left Rosarito at 3:00), watched the ice dancing finals, and went to bed. Now it's back to work. And back to posting what I eat on a daily basis. I'm sure I forgot a cookie or two in here (though I think I got all the chips mentioned!)... But that's pretty much every bite I took for my 4 days in Mexico.

I wish I was back there now!

SUN. FEBRUARY 19

We had decided to do a late Sunday brunch all together, so we slept in, then got up to cook.

But first I picked up messages, and learned that my mom had taken off her second cast (how sloppy is this hospital, that they're making their casts that badly!). I had a whole nother string of messages from nurses at the hospital. I talked to my mom there, talked to the dispatch nurse, and had her write "Do Not Remove" in big black letters on cast no. 3.

And then I got about cooking. The other house brought the pancake stuff and bacon, I brought the potatoes, a whole bunch of people brought eggs. I cooked the eggs and the potatoes and made a couple of batches of margaritas (in lieu of champagne, you see), diligently salting the glasses and everything.

It was a marvelous brunch. The kids ate around the coffee table, we squeezed all the adults up to the table, and had a truly lovely time. I had about 2 eggs' worth of scrambled eggs and cheese, a couple of servings of hashed browns (with grilled onions -- the remainder of my onion), a half a bagel w/ cream cheese and lox (the very last of that lox I've been working through since Christmas Day), a chocolate chip pancake with just a drizzle of syrup, and a margarita.

After brunch, everyone else cleaned up -- I was exempt because I cooked. Ah, bliss.

Then we took off to Foxploration, the mini-theme park Fox Studios built as an adjunct to their Baja studio, which they built to make Titanic. It was a blast. A friend of ours shot the "Making of Titanic," so we got to see a lot of his footage. We played for a long time in a room where you could shoot nerf balls at each other, took the Titanic tour, climbed all over the ship from Master and Commander, and took a special effects exhibit tour. Everyone was starving by the time we were done (and freezing -- it was cold!). Cory bought a bag of chips while we were there, and I managed to snag two chips from my stingy son.

We stopped at a taco stand on the way home and bought handmade carne asada tacos for everyone. But when we got home, I picked up messages and learned that my mom had taken off her thirdcast. She wasn't answering her phone (they've given her Darvocet, so that explains it), but boy did I get an earful from another neighbor, whom I've never met and who my mom has never even mentioned in some 12 years of living there, but who felt free to tell me I need to drop my work, my kids, my husband, and move in with my mom indefinitely. She was really quite nasty, and it upset me a lot.

So that left Lee to parcel out the tacos, and he botched it up. Somehow he missed finding his own tacos, so he ate mine. Leaving me to eat 2 of Cory's carne asada tacos, which were just plain meat, no cilantro, onions or salsa, as mine had had. And leaving Cory hungry and asking why he only got 2 tacos when he ordered 4. And later when we found Lee's tacos, neither Cory nor I could have them, because they had guacamole on them. And Lee was full, having eating my dinner. Oy.

We had also bought donuts at a little bakery we found next to the taco stand, in part because we couldn't find marshmallows anywhere to make more s'mores. I had 1 raised chocolate donut w/ peanuts.

And then I went to bed early, with a screaming headache, and with my back hurting so much I could barely stand up. Thanks, Mom.

SAT. FEBRUARY 18

So I woke up after very little sleep because of worrying about my mom -- I forgot to mention that on the trip down, we also learned that my mom's caregiver's father had died on Thursday night, so the caregiver was not coming back, and there was no one steady to look after my mom during the weekend when I would be out of the country.

I made Pillsbury pop-n-serve "mini-cinnamon squares" for breakfast -- basically like cinnamon rolls, but not rolled. I had maybe 7 little 1 1/2" squares (didn't count as well as I should have), while we watched tape of the previous night's Olympics (Jack, ever prepared where Olympics are concerned, had brought down his own VCR).

During that time, I learned how to get my cell phone to work from one of our group who travels to Guatemala a lot. Whew. I picked up a zillion messages from nurses at the hospital near my mom, learning that she had actually remembered to take a taxi to the ER (as I had told her to do), and that she had a temp caregiver with her while she had her wrist cast a second time. I relaxed a bit.

Then we went for a walk on the beach, climbed rocks, did a little tidepooling, and eventually made our way to one of the best surfing beaches in that part of Baja and watched the surfers and talked and hung out. Really what the weekend was supposed to be about.

We decided we would go out to dinner that night, and it turned out the family in the other house had brought all the makings for hamburgers, just in case. So back we went to hold an impromptu BBQ.

While cooking, there was a lot of snack food around. I think I ate a handful or two of vinegar potato chips, and 2 Fig Newtons. And we cooked, and someone ran to the liquor store across the street for ketchup, and we had a yummy BBQ. I had a cheeseburger w/ grilled onions (I brought an onion from home -- one always needs an onion, after all), a very few vinegar potato chips (we didn't bring enough chips of any kind, and they were all gone at that point), a big serving of broccoli salad, and 1 Fig Newton.

We hung out and read, and talked, and some people napped (excuse me, took siestas) for the afternoon. Then we went out that evening to a restaurant about 15 miles away that had been recommended as a great place to go for dinner and the sunset, plus it had an early-bird menu w/ reduced prices. Well, we took longer getting going, and missed the sunset (saw it from the road), and when we got there, they told us there was no early bird menu that particular evening. But we had a lovely dinner anyway -- not cheap, but a fraction of what it would have cost in the States.

I had chips and salsa -- don't know how much, 3 luscious lobster tails w/ about 2 oz. of drawn butter, and mashed potatoes (I asked for baked potato, but somehow I ended up w/ mashed). The lobster was magnificent, tender and juicy. Definitely the right thing to order. Oh and how could I forget: a margarita.

And we danced to the live music, and I taught Sabrina how to do the cha-cha, and she went out to one of the vendors outside and bought me a little silver-and-abalone bracelet with her own money. How sweet.

When we got home, we started a fire in the firepit in our front patio (even though it was freezing!) and made s'mores --as soon as I learned we had a fire pit, I bought all the fixings, knowing how important it would be to the kids. Well, they blasted through that bag of marshmallows -- I thought I had enough for 2 nights, but boy was I wrong. I had 1 s'more as a sign of solidarity, though really I could have done without it.

And then we watched the Olympics and went to bed.

FRI., FEBRUARY 17

Oh, this is going to be hard to do -- four days worth of eating, in an unfamiliar environment, including lots of snacking, and I didn't write any of it down. I know I should have, but between whipsawing back and forth from profound relaxation and enjoyment to dealing with my mother's increasing insanity by long distance, somehow writing anything down at all fell by the wayside.

Okay, let's try.

Friday morning I packed up to leave for Baja. I'm pretty sure I didn't have anything for breakfast, as I had to race the kids to school at the ghastly hour of 7:30 (I hate computer class days). At least it was pajama day at school, so I didn't have to get dressed -- Sabrina insisted that I drive them to school in my robe to keep in the spirit of things.

We picked the kids up at lunchtime, and stopped to pick up a few necessities -- ice, earplugs, cookies. And we had lunch at Arby's before hitting the road. I had a beef and cheddar melt, and 2 potato cakes. I really love their potato cakes, so that was a real treat.

On the road, I believe I had one Chips Ahoy. I think that's all. I'm not a big Chips Ahoy fan (though I was in a car w/ two big fans), and I'm pretty sure we didn't crack open the Fig Newtons at that point.

We had a looooong wait to cross the border, during which time I got royally chewed out by one of my mom's neighbors for daring to leave town in the midst of her crisis (My mom broke her wrist Thursday -- didn't remember why she had a cast on it, and took it off -- and had quite the fight with this particular neighbor in the process -- but Lee and a therapist familiar w/ my mom's situation both said I should go). Believe me, by the time we crossed the border, I could have used something much stronger than a Chips Ahoy.

It took us a looooong time to drive through Tijuana as well, and though we were hungry, no way were we going to stop! But once we got on the toll road south, we sped right to our destination: Las Gaviotas, an American community of about 150 really lovely little beach houses. We had a place right smack on the beach, and our friends were just one house behind us (16 of us in total).

But all we had to eat at that point was snacks and frozen peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. So Lee and our friend Jack went to the restaurant immediately across the street from the complex -- which turned out to be a little more upscale than we really needed at that point. But they persuaded them to make things as simple as burritos and tacos (when really they were serving steak and seafood) -- and Jack and Lee had quite the enjoyable discussion (over a couple of drinks while waiting) with Ruben, the owner, who told them all about bullfighting and invited them to join him for some particularly spectacular bullfight that Sunday in Tijuana (they politely passed).

While I was back at the house waiting and fretting over the fact that I couldn't get my cell phone to work (the nice customer service people told me what to punch in, and said to follow the instructions -- I guess it didn't occur to them that the instructions would be in Spanish!), I spent the evening wondering what horrible things my mom might be doing to herself. And while doing so, I ate a few handfuls of Trader Joes vinegar potato chips.

Eventually the guys came back with food -- it had to be about 10:00 p.m. by this time -- Lee was supposed to get me chicken tacos, but he didn't pay attention to the fact that the chicken tacos were covered in guacamole which I can't eat (allergic). So I stole a beef taco from Cory. And then Lee gave me half a beef enchilada which was hot hot hot!

And that was it for Friday.

THURS. FEBRUARY 16

I meant to post last night, but I went to bed early with such a screaming headache, I didn't even stay up to watch the men's free skate finals. (I taped it -- hopefully will get to watch before we leave for Baja today.)

Yesterday I had half a bagel w/ whipped cream cheese for breakfast. Actually it was Sabrina's -- I made it for her, then she insisted that she wanted cereal instead, poured herself a bowl of cereal, and proceeded to eat about 4 bites of it. Oy.

I was on the run all morning -- pre-trip errands, don't you know. I had lunch at the Corner Bakery, which I love but Lee doesn't. I had a ham and cheese panini w/ homemade potato chips. Yum.

I went to Costco, but they had very little in the way of free samples. I had a couple of bites of ice cream topped w/ organic frozen blueberries -- and I have to say, if they're trying to sell the blueberries, they shouldn't be giving out free samples, because they were the hardest, mealiest blueberries I have ever tasted. I also had a little paper sampler of Chinese chicken salad which tasted quite odd after the blueberries.

Dealing w/ my mom and her broken wrist and her panic attacks and her caregiver ready to quit gave me a screaming headache by dinnertime. I could barely sit up, I felt like my brains were going to explode out my eyes. So Lee cooked dinner. He made a "breakfast" dinner. I had 3 beef brown-n-serve sausages, a scrambled egg w/ cheese (overcooked), and a hashed brown patty, and a few bites of sourdough toast. Later that evening, I was very hungry, so had a little of the leftovers of the hamburger/potato/onion mixture our cleaning lady had made earlier in the week.

Filled with guilt, I am off to Baja this afternoon. The guilt comes from being incommunicado (no guarantee that our cell phones will work in Mexico) while my mom is home injured for the weekend w/ her regular caregiver taking the weekend off because she simply can't stand to be around my mom anymore. (My mom managed to take the cast off her arm this morning -- she couldn't remember why she had it on -- then called her caregiver at 5:30 in the morning crying because her wrist hurt. Oy.)

But Lee insists I should go to Baja anyway, and I talked to a therapist friend who said I should go. So please pray for my mom -- I am having her caregiver write in huge letters on her cast "Don't touch this!". Pray that she doesn't do anything stupid, and that her caregiver has a restful weekend.

I will have no internet access in Baja, so I will have to post 4 days worth of food on Monday night. I am looking forward to a weekend with lots of lobster (we are staying in the home of the Pacific lobster, where you can get a full lobster for $10). Unfortunately, hardly anyone else in our group of 16 seems interested in lobster.

(I told my kids we'd be having lobster, and Cory said, very seriously, "Mom, I don't think I should eat lobster because I want to be a marine biologist and it would be wrong for me to eat sea creatures." I reminded him that he eats fish and scallops and shrimp, and that I thought he had changed his mind and wanted to be a video game designer. He thought about this, again very seriously, and said, "You've got a point.")

We are having a huge Sunday brunch all together -- eggs, bacon, hashed browns, cinnamon rolls, pancakes, etc.. Other than that, I don't really know what we'll be eating. I have no problems stopping at a 75 cent taco stand, though Lee (who grew up in San Diego and crossed the border to Tijuana regularly) was horrified at the thought. In any event, it should be a weekend of lobster, Mexican food, and snacks. And maybe a margarita or two.

I'll try to be good. And I'll be back here Monday night. Peace out, as Sabrina would say.

WED. FEBRUARY 15

Sorry I didn't post last night. Had a really bad headache. Not any better today, thanks to my mother who has gone off and gotten herself hurt out of spite. Still waiting to hear the final news on that.

Yesterday I had a Lean Cuisine deluxe pizza for breakfast. Actually about as good as a microwaved pizza with no calories could possibly be.

For lunch I had vegetarian spaghetti w/ Parmesan. I was really hungry all day, don't know why. In the afternoon, I really really really wanted something sweet and disgusting, but instead had a sugar-free raspberry fruit juice bar.

For dinner, the kids were at their program at church refusing to eat their sloppy Joes. I on the other hand, was at home not refusing to eat my popcorn shrimp, which I had w/ fat-free tartar sauce.

That's it for yesterday. More on today tonight. If I remember.

TUES. FEBRUARY 14

Today was one of those weird days where I felt like I got nothing whatsoever done.

I didn't get much sleep, because the sliding glass door in our room was open and I didn't realize it. But the ambient city noise from outside keep waking me up. So a rough night.

We had to teach at LAFSC this morning, about ethics in Hollywood. (Hold the jokes, please.) We dropped the kids off (almost late, but just in time) at school, then stopped at an IHOP for breakfast and to figure out what we were supposed to say. I had 5 small potato pancakes w/ appx 2 T sour cream and about 1/2 c. applesauce.

We gave our talk, such as it was. Lee wanted to stop for lunch afterwards, so we stopped at a McDonald's on the way home. I had a chicken fajita roll-up and a hot-fudge sundae. I was so sleepy when we got home, I had to lie down. And I ended up getting no writing done. None whatsoever. Very frustrating.

Later in the day, I had one of the leftover tuna pockets from the night before. It didn't reheat particularly well.

For dinner, I made Hamburger Helper -- always a way to keep the natives happy (how tacky are we). We had Crunchy Taco Hamburger Helper. It was okay, I guess.

Tomorrow should be an all writing day here. About time! I can't wait.

MON. FEBRUARY 13

Oh, I love the Winter Olympics. But I will tear myself away from women's snowboarding to post here...

I had a few bites of Cory's leftover breakfast wrap (sausage, eggs). And then I had half a bagel w/ whipped cream cheese.

I wasn't planning on having lunch because of our meeting this afternoon, but our housekeeper was here today, and she made a ground beef, onion and potato stew. I had a bowl with sour cream.

Our meeting didn't go all that well. We were underprepared -- or misprepared is probably a better way to say it. We didn't have the full story to pitch that the producers expected, though they liked what we said enough to ask us to come back. Our agent was gracious, but not happy. The good part is, the work we did and the answers they gave us to our questions in the room will make it a breeze to prep for meeting no. 2, which will probably be in a couple weeks.

After the meeting, we stopped at a gas station, where I bought a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich -- I was just nervous after the meeting.

For dinner I made these little tuna pockets for dinner tuna, cream of mushroom soup, french fried onion thingies, Parmesan, mixed together and baked inside Pillsbury crescent rolls -- I had 2. (Lee had 4. I guess he liked them!) And I shouldn't have, but I had some Moose Tracks ice cream for dessert while watching the Olympics.

Tomorrow we teach at LAFSC in the morning. I think the plan is that we will drop the kids off at school together, then continue on and have breakfast out somewhere so we can talk through what we plan to say. I know tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and we "should" go out to some overpriced prix fixe menu, but frankly, I really only cared about Valentine's Day when I was single. It's been years since it mattered to me, and I'd rather spend the money on other things. Chances are, Lee won't even realize it's Valentine's. (Sabrina will -- she has been deluging us with little cardboard Valentines all day! So sweet!)

I am supposed to drop in on the 3rd grade Valentine's party tomorrow, but the room mom in charge assures me I'm not needed, so I will probably skip it. We've spent too much time prepping for today's meeting, and I have to get back to writing.

Happy Valentine's Day, all! Okay, back to the Olympics!

SUN. FEBRUARY 12

I slept in yesterday (Sunday) -- ah, bliss! And Cory didn't go to his junior high church group because his cough was so awful the night before, we told him he needed to get some extra sleep. (Claritin seems to be helping, where Benadryl was doing nothing...)

So I skipped breakfast (also skipped doughnuts at church).

After church, we sort of lost the afternoon to a kid's b'day party. Sabrina was invited to a party at this little dress-up venue in West Hollywood, so we drove slowly so as not to get there too early, and then because it wasn't worth it to drive home and back to get her, we all sort of had to kill time. We were right by the Beverly Center, so we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Not bad, but not what it used to be when Peter Morton actually owned the chain. But positively empty, which was a little creepy.

I had a 7 oz. cheeseburger, which came w/ double cheese, and of course w/ grilled onions, tomato, ketchup. Also fries which were very good. And I had 1 of Lee's onion rings, w/ ranch dressing. All overpriced for the tourists, but very good.

We went to Premise last night, so had dinner there. I had a slice of thin-crust pineapple pizza, and a slice of sausage pizza both of which were remarkably mediocre (Pizza Hut). Eh. I left before dessert, because I needed to get the kids home and to bed before a school day, but grabbed a tiny sugar-free chocolate cookie on my way out through the kitchen. Then curled up with the Sunday paper and watched the Olympics until Lee finally got home.

Today I will probably not eat much. We have a very important meeting at 3 this afternoon, and I would rather feel hungry going into it. And besides, we are not prepared, so won't have time to eat today. Pray for us!

SAT. FEBRUARY 11

Oh, I can't believe I flat out forgot to post last night. The Olympics have my routine all messed up. And today I've been trying to get this to publish, but Blogger must be doing maintenance again, 'cause I've been trying. Will keep trying...

Well, I had half a bagel w/ whipped cream cheese for breakfast. Then I had to take off to an Act One board meeting. On the way, I had the brilliant idea which is posted at Quoth the Maven on how to respond to the upcoming release of a certain rather blasphemous movie. Worth the whole day.

At Act One, they served us Subway sandwiches. When will people learn that Quiznos is so much better, usually for less money? Sigh. I had one section of a ham sandwich w/ lettuce, tomato, mustard, mayo. Very boring. I also had 2 small bags of Doritos and a macadamia nut/white chocolate cookie. And after the meeting there were some Famous-Amos sized cookies lying around, and I think I ate 3 choc. chip cookies (but like I said: small ones).

For dinner we had In-n-Out -- I had a single cheeseburger w/ grilled onions, tomato and sauce, and fries. I do pity the parts of the country w/ no In-n-Out. And we watched the Olympics.

Today I'm already almost to dinnertime, but will post hopefully tonight when I get home from Premise (where I very much hope they are not serving Subway sandwiches again).

Sorry for the delay....

FRI. FEBRUARY 10

The Winter Olympics are starting!

Oh, yeah, I have to write about food.

Okay, breakfast. Lee made Hamburger Helper for the kids last night while I was out, and there was a tiny bit left, so I had about 1/2 c. of leftover Hamburger Helper.

Then Lee later had a two-for-one coupon at Quiznos, so he got me a tuna and Swiss sandwich w/ tomato and lettuce -- unfortunately on wheat bread, which I really don't like. Give me the pucker of sourdough or rye every time. Oh well.

As I got ready to go out and run errands and be a Brownie leader, and as I was cleaning up the kitchen, I threw out the remainders of my birthday cake -- and I confess to eating 3 bites of cake before I threw it out.

Once again, the snack mom didn't bring enough snack for the Brownie leaders, but a couple of girls were absent so we each got half a Krispy Kreme glazed donut (pretty shocking to bring donuts for Brownies, actually, but the girls didn't seem to mind).

For dinner I was going to make baked chicken w/ a honey-mustard sauce, but when I got home, after horrible traffic (and with the Winter Olympics about to start!!!), I just didn't feel like doing any real cooking. So I made spaghetti. I had a bowl of spaghetti w/ meat sauce and Parmesan.

And right now they're raising the Italian flag because THE WINTER OLYMPICS ARE STARTING!!! (I really like the Winter Olympics. Could you tell?)

I think there's a couple of sugar-free popsicles in my future tonight -- you know, in honor of all the ice at the WINTER OLYMPICS! (And you know, if I wasn't writing this down, it would probably be ice cream. Guilt is a wonderful thing.)

Okay, that's it for today. Tomorrow I have an Act One board meeting and "a light lunch will be served." Which could mean anything.

Home tomorrow night -- thank goodness, because the Winter Olympics will be on!!

THURS. FEBRUARY 9

I woke up yesterday absolutely ravenous, craving junk food. And I soon realized why -- my period had started 5 days early, so all I wanted was salt and sugar. Which explains the following...

I started fairly well. I had a Lean Cuisine glazed chicken with vegetable rice for breakfast. And then I sort of cleaned off my kids' plates, since they had, unusually, not finished breakfast. So I had half a breakfast wrap (eggs/bacon in a tortilla) leftover from Cory, and 1 mini-cinnamon roll (the size of a quarter) leftover from Sabrina.

Lee took the kids to school because I was feeling so wiped, and he stopped at Carl's Jr. for breakfast on his way home. He brought me back an order of hash brown nuggets. Grease and salt. Yum.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and since that already put a slash through the middle of what was clearly not going to be a writing day, I ran errands. And in the middle of the video store/post office/bank/ pharmacy bookstore/ supermarket, I stopped at a Quiznos and had a small smoked turkey/Swiss/red pepper sauce on rosemary parmesan bread sandwich, and a small bag of lime and black pepper potato chips. And then drove around for the rest of my errands trying to figure out how to make lime and black pepper dip for chips (I'm thinking sour cream, margarita mix, and pepper -- but that's going to be too liquid... Ideas?)

I knew I was going out to dinner, so wasn't planning to eat anything else for the day. But Sabrina managed to talk Lee into taking her to Mrs. Beasley's bakery on the way home from school. And she brought me a lemon muffin. If I hadn't been dealing with the salt-and-sugar jones, I might have saved it. But I ate it.

And then off I went to support a friend who had directed a play that really should have been playing at Leisure World rather than in Hollywood. We did our best to laugh and be supportive. But at least we had a great dinner before the theatre at the little Italian restaurant next door.

We all shared an very lovely appetizer of lightly breaded shrimp, calamari and zucchini -- I had about 15 baby shrimp and a couple calamari and zucchini. Then I had fettucini with salmon and peas in a pink vodka sauce. What made the sauce pink, I wonder? It was pretty good, though I've certainly had better. Skipped the liquor, skipped the dessert.

Got home, dropped into bed and dreamed of potato chips.

Today (Fri.) I write all morning, then I have to be a Brownie leader this afternoon. (And bad Brownie leader -- and bad mom -- that I am, I sent Sabrina to school in her regular uniform rather than her Brownie uniform. Oy.) Then tonight is the WINTER OLYMPICS!!!!!

WED. FEBRUARY 8

Well, hopefully Blogger's back up from its maintenance and will allow me to post this... While Blogger was down, I sure noticed a lot of people checking this blog -- or was it just one or two of you waiting for me to post?!!

I skipped breakfast but got hungry mid-morning while writing. I made a big bowl of vegetarian spaghetti w/ Parmesan.

Skipped lunch to keep writing and doing other fun and exciting things like paying my mom's bills and getting my income tax stuff together. Boy, do I lead an exciting life or what.

This afternoon we picked up our new kitties. A grey-and-white 4-mo.-old brother and sister, whom the kids promptly named Luke and Leia. The rescue organization we got them from had them at the vet over the weekend, recovering from a cold. They insisted they were ready for adoption, but I'm not so sure. Luke is a healthy, feisty, curious little boy. But Leia, who is the same size but feels like she weighs half his weight, hasn't drunk a drop that we've seen, has only eaten a couple of half-hearted bites of food, and we haven't seen her use the litter box. And she still has discharge coming from her nose and eyes from her cold. I sort of feel like the vet just wanted them out of the way.

They're locked up in their room right now. Hopefully Leia will feel better in the morning and will start eating and drinking. I'm going to have to call the vet.

So while we were so preoccupied with the eating habits of kittens, I sort of forgot to eat. The kids ate at church, so that was okay. After they were gone and I realized I was, once again, ravenously hungry, I made myself a CPK Thai Chicken pizza. Oh, was it good. I think I finally have the trick of getting the crusts just right and not overdone in this unpredictable oven we have here. Yum yum yum.

And that was it for today. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment in the morning, then writing in the afternoon. Then tomorrow night I am supposed to go out to dinner with the board of directors of the Alliance of Women Directors, then we go to see a play directed by one of the women. I'd rather stay home, play with the kitties (and maybe the kiddies) and watch Dancing with the Stars. But I guess it's good for me to get out once in a while. No idea where we're going for dinner -- some place that gives discounts to pre-theatre eaters, I think.

Since this blog is about eating, please pray for little kitten Leia to eat... (and esp. to drink)...

P.S. oh yeah -- I did 15 minutes of Pilates mat exercises, and 6 minutes of stretching.

TUES. FEBRUARY 7

Well, with the news in today's (Wed.'s) paper that a low-fat diet does absolutely nothing to protect one from heart disease or cancer, I guess I have to admit I'm doing this purely for vanity. Lovely.

Anyway, I really did try to post this this morning (Wed.) . But Blogger wouldn't let it post due to system upgrades or some such. Let's try again for yesterday:

I had half a bagel with light cream cheese and about 1 oz. of lox for breakfast. Lee went out to McDonald's for a late breakfast, and came back with a chicken fajita roll-up for me, so I guess we'll call that lunch.

I finally made my Costco run yesterday, after a long day of writing. Shouldn't have let it go so late, because traffic over the hill was pretty bad. And while Costco wasn't crowded at all, there was a definite dearth of free samples. I had 2 little Famous Amos cookies, 1/2 a dino chicken nugget, and 1 bite of a hot link. So exciting.

When we got home, I made hamburgers for everyone, because we still had hamburger buns leftover from New Year's and I really couldn't believe they were still edible (they were -- let's not think what preservative load they must have been carrying!). I had a 1/4 lb. cheeseburger w/ 2 slices of cheese, appx 1 T. of thousand island dressing, ketchup, and 3 slices of grilled onions Oh, yeah, on a hamburger bun With it I had a handful of green apple slices and a couple of handfuls of Tostitos.

Later that night while watching that cultural magnet, "American Idol," I had a small serving of Moose Tracks ice cream.

Today (Wed.) is another all writing day -- It is so unusual for me to have 3 of them in a row, I have to take advantage of them!... And we also pick up our new kitties today. The kids eat another probably heinous meal at church tonight, so who knows what I'll do...

MON. FEBRUARY 6

I'm typing as fast as I can, because my computer's about to run out of juice. No one IM me in the next 6 minutes!

I skipped breakfast, but had an early lunch of a Lean Cuisine chicken/bacon/cheese panini -- I think it's the last one in the freezer, and I won't buy more.

I had what was either a late second lunch or an afternoon snack of half a baked potato with light butter and sour cream, courtesy of Sabrina's leftovers from the weekend. Also 2 small chicken nuggets from the source.

For dinner I made a lovely recipe of chicken breast in an orange juice/chili powder sauce, rice, and mandarin oranges. The kids didn't like it at all, so that's tomorrow's lunch (although Lee will probably get to it first).

And I had a very small serving of Moose Tracks ice cream for dessert.

Okay, writing all day tomorrow, but I think I have to run to Costco. Sure hope they have some decent free samples!

Whew -- 1% juice left. Posting now.

SUN. FEBRUARY 5

So it was really a pretty blah b'day.

Not that blah is bad. I've had years where my b'day mattered very much to me indeed, and I felt horrible when no one really noticed. This year, it sort of didn't seem to matter all that much. Still, I have to say, if it wasn't for Sabrina (to whom it mattered quite a bit), I could have had a really depressing time anyway.

I slept in late, which was great after Vegas. Sabrina insisted insisted on making me breakfast in bed, so I had what was really not my choice at all for a good breakfast: a scrambled egg w/ cheese, 3 brown and serve sausages, and a slice of rye toast. Not what I would have chosen at all, but you have to appreciate the sweetness involved.

After church we went out to lunch. We asked some friends to join us, but the wife had to do just one shot for a video the drama dept. was putting together. She said she'd be right behind us, but as it turned out, the one shot took hours, evidently. So we had lunch w/ the dad and the daughters instead. We went to El Torito, where I must have eaten a whole basket of chips all on my own. I had a beef soft taco, a chicken soft taco, some rice, and a little sweet corn cake. Oh, and I also had a prickly pear margarita. An interesting experiment, but not one I'd order again.

We went back to church to pick up Cory from his weekend at jr. high winter camp. He was in a foul mood. I have no idea why, or what might have happened at camp. We went home to watch the Superbowl, which had fairly boring commercials, I have to say. At halftime, Sabrina brought out a cake for me -- but it was a Superbowl cake which didn't even say Happy B'day on it -- an odd choice. And though everyone knows I like ice cream cakes, it was a white cake w/ white icing -- which I don't like at all. I had one piece of cake and doubt I'll have any more.

We didn't make any Superbowl snacks -- well, Cory had some popcorn, but I was still full from all those chips. And I skipped dinner. So that was that.

Today I should be home writing all day, home tonight. I think I'll make my chicken and mandarin orange thing for dinner.... Back to the grind. (Okay, okay, it's not nearly as much of a grind as most people have. I realize that.)

SAT. FEBRUARY 4

We left the hotel much much too early for Las Vegas -- around 7:45. Amazingly, the roads were empty.

A local deli catered the day for the participants at the workshop. They had bagels in the morning continental breakfast tray, but I have learned the hard way that one should never eat bagels in a town that doesn't have enough Jews in it. And it proved once again to be a good rule -- the bagels looked like incomplete croissants, and were in fact the one item that hardly anyone touched. I had about 3/4 of a raspberry danish. It was okay.

So we talked, and we were brilliant, of course. And boy, did I really need a Diet Coke. Lunch was box lunches from the same deli -- not bad at all, actually. I had a tuna sandwich on rye w/ mayo and tomato, a small bag of potato chips, and a white chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookie. Later in the day, they brought out the remnants of the b'day cake, so I had another piece of b'day cake.

I so would have loved to head back to the Strip with everyone after we were done teaching, but I had wanted to get home before my birthday, which was a good choice, given Sabrina's reaction to my return! So off we raced to the airport immediately after finishing teaching. I have never seen the Vegas airport emptier. There was a Quiznos by my terminal, so I had yet another tuna sandwich, this time w/ mozzarella cheese and tomato and a bag of chips. How repetitive of me.

My flight home was awful. Thank God it was only an hour. We left late. The leg space was less than I have ever seen on any plane -- short little me had my knees hitting the seat in front, and when the woman tilted it back, I couldn't even let the tray table down. And the woman sharing my row was drunk as a skunk, and a reeking smoker, having only gotten on this plane after missing her flight to Boston because she stayed late at the tables, where she had lost $3000 just today. The flight was incredibly turbulent.

So it's really not surprising that when I got home, I wasn't hungry. At all.

But boy was I glad to be home!

FRI. FEBRUARY 3

I did try to post my food for Friday when I got back to our hotel room Fri. night, but for some reason the hotel's high speed internet wasn't working and I couldn't get online. And that was pretty much my last chance online till I got home.

Okay, let me think all the way back to Friday. After our absolutely horrible dinner at the Rio on Thurs. night, it felt like Barb and I spent most of the rest of the weekend looking at restaurants and saying, "We've should have eaten there." At least we made a good, if simple, choice for breakfast, going to a little French bakery inside the Paris hotel. And let's face it, how can you go wrong with a chocolate croissant?

We then did a little playing, and a lot of walking. We walked a mile or a little over up to the Wynn hotel, which was less than a home run. It was classy and lovely, but the carpets were downright ugly, and really detracted from the overall feel of the hotel. We played there about 15 minutes, and they actually had a 1-cent video poker machine, which was fun.

We walked back to Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett's new Caribbean restaurant at the Flamingo, for lunch. Here's my question: Is Jimmy Buffett an owner, or part-owner, of the Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurants on Maui?... Okay, I had (duh) a margarita, which was remarkably light on the tequila. I also had a bowl of crab and corn soup, and a fairly large quesadilla with chicken, onions, peppers and sour cream. It was decent, but I can't imagine going back as a destination restaurant next time I'm in Vegas.

I spent some time at the pool while Barb did a radio interview. And either at the pool or possibly at the church where we taught, I got bitten by some kind of insect (no, not a black widow spider), about 7 bites, all over my body, now hugely swollen and infected. Really gross. Aren't you glad I shared that?

Anyway, next we were picked up to go start our teaching. They took us to-- wait for it -- a Caribbean restaurant for dinner. Oh well. Actually, it was a much nicer restaurant than Margaritaville -- more pleasant, less frenetic, better food, and much cheaper (margaritas were $2 less). I had an appetizer of what they called Meat patties: 4 little turnovers filled with hamburger, carrots and potatoes, served with a chipotle sour cream and mango salsa. Yum.

I thought that was it for the night, but the organizers of the event had a surprise birthday cake waiting for me. So later I had a piece of b'day cake -- chocolate, w/ white frosting. How sweet of them!

Then back to the hotel, about half an hour of gaming, then bed.

THURS. FEBRUARY 2

Well, we have high speed internet access in our room at Paris, Las Vegas, so here I am being a good girl and blogging yesterday's food.

Not that I was a particularly good girl yesterday. Can I just say "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" and leave it at that?

I snagged the 1/4 bagel w/ cream cheese that Sabrina left behind at her very early breakfast. Oh, and did I forget to mention it was a chocolate chip bagel?

At the airport, I had a Thai chicken pizza at California Pizza Kitchen , but minus the crust.

Mid-afternoon, Barbara was hungry so we went to a very lovely pseudo-sidewalk cafe here at Paris. I wasn't that hungry, so had some absolutely lovely (and quite overpriced) potato skins -- 1 each of mushroom/bearnaise, cheese/onion, and ham/some kind of sauce. Really delicious. Oh, and a handful of little fried onions.

We hung in the casino for several hours, where I made the acquaintance of the new generation of penny slots. Barb really wanted seafood, which turned out to be a mistake. Our concierge recommended the Seafood Buffet at the Rio, which was really not that great. Let's see if I can remember (buffets make it hard to remember, esp. because I end up taking waaaay more food than I eat). 7 scallops, two servings of fried clams, about 1/4 of rice, a few carrots, about 4 oz. of teriyaki salmon, 4 crab legs, probably about 2 oz. of tartar sauce, a couple of bites of shrimp pasta, a really lousy mini-lobster tail, and two crab melange thingies. I think that's it.

Today we're off to breakfast, then a walk, then Barb has a radio interview and I go to the pool. We're supposed to see some magic show this afternoon, don't when we'll squeeze in lunch, then off to teach, a dinner w/ Act One alums or something like that, then we're done at 10, so I'm hoping we can pay a visit to Jimmy Buffett's new restaurant here, Margaritaville -- if it's not too insane, being Superbowl weekend officially as of today.

Okay, I did it! Even from Vegas!

WED. FEBRUARY 1

Today was all about getting me ready to go to Vegas tomorrow, and Cory ready to go to Junior High Winter Camp on Friday. So I was all over the place.

Before racing off to my haircut appointment, I grabbed a tuna melt and fries at Jerry's Deli. Frankly, it sucked. I like their sweet tuna sandwiches, but whoever was doing their grilling was a mess. I left half the tuna on the plate and didn't miss it. It was just a little gross. Oh well.

When I finally got home around 4:30, I had half a bagel w/ cream cheese. I had bought bagels at the store the other day, then Lee stopped at Noah's Bagels and bought a few more bagels yesterday, so we have a lot in the house.

Tonight I had a little bit of the leftovers from yesterday lunch, probably 3/4 cup of the hamburger/potato mixture. I'm still hungry, but don't know what else I'd have, so will probably just finish packing and go to bed.

I will probably miss a few days here, as I am off to Vegas, teaching for Act One, in the morning. Talk about temptation!... I will try to be good, in all ways. And I promise I will keep track of what I eat, the better to write it down when I'm back on Saturday night. (Or if Barb has a computer I may be able to do it from Vegas.)

My computer's about to run out of juice, so I'd better go plug it in and finish that packing. Tomorrow's Groundhog Day!

TUES. JANUARY 31

Oh, crud I got caught up watching "My Fair Lady" on TV last night and then it was after 11:00 and I had to crash and didn't blog.

Let me recreate yesterday as fast as I can. I had half a bagel with cream cheese for b'fast.

Our once-a-week housekeeper was here yesterday, and made gorditas for lunch as a special pre-birthday treat for me. I had 3 gorditas -- fried corn tortillas filled w/ a mixture of ground beef and potatoes, w/ sour cream. (Actually had 2 at lunch and 1 later in the afternoon.)

For dinner I made pasta primavera w/ stir-fried chicken -- the primavera was broccoli, carrots, mushrooms and green onions, in a parmesan cream sauce, but made w/ skim milk rather than cream. We had leftovers.

I also did 145 crunches, 14 minutes of Pilates mat exercises, 7 minutes of stretching, and 21 minutes of free weights. Oh, and I forgot to say yesterday that I did 20 minutes of free weights yesterday.

Today I am on the road all day, so will be eating b'fast and lunch out, is my guess. The kids are up at church for dinner tonight, so something fast and easy at home. I leave tomorrow for Las Vegas. Temptation city.

Will catch up tonight. Promise.