The List

Ah yes, I see that it is time for a new little post. Tonight's post is inspired by Cool Whip..... you'll find out soon enough.

Summer is fast approaching, and with that comes many adventures this year for me! First is my 16 day trip down the Grand Canyon. Aside from taking turns at the oars to row the 240 mile river, we'll been working pretty much from sunrise until late in the evening. Also, I can't imagine any better way to do hard physical labor than in 117 degree heat. So basically I am confronted with a choice... suffer now to get in shape for the river, or suffer out of shape while on the river. The choice was easy. Oh, and I'm going to be a bridesmaid..., nothing like some extra motivation.

Anyway, I joined WeightWatchers 8 weeks ago and so far have lost about 15 lbs. It is going well, but as I try to get creative with food, it has become very clear that there just some foods that I can never buy. Now, it's not like these are really bad foods.... in fact, it is usually the 1 'point' foods that are the worst since 'they aren't bad food you'. Well, if you eat the whole thing they just might be. So here is my list of:

FOODS I SHOULDN'T BUY!!!!
1. Trader Joe's Mini Blueberry Muffins. They are small, come in a container of 6, taste great, and have a very healthy ingredient list. In fact, the only solid is bran, making this a 1 Point food thanks to dietary fiber. Well, it usually takes less than 48 hours and these are all gone. Of course, eating the whole pack won't do much damage at one point each.... the next few days might not be so pleasant, though, if you get my drift.

2. Fiber One bars. Just saw these last week at the store. They were chocolaty, sweet, high in fiber and only 2 points. The box of 5 was gone in 24 hours. I think the sweetness got to me and had me craving more sugar. Again... another high fiber food.

3. Fat Free Cool Whip- Today's discover!! 15 calories for 2 Tablespoons. Of course, with 25 servings, the container is certainly not for quick consumption. Again, sweet and yummy, and hard to stop at 2 Tbs. Also, probably not the most nutritional food...

Well, I'll either have to find a way of forcing myself to limit these foods, or just not buy them in the first place. I guess it could be worse, though, I could be talking about french fries or fast food.

Solvang Half Century

This weekend we had a Claresco company trip to do the Solvang Century. Heather, Erica and I (the significant others/significant employee) headed down early on Friday, stopping at the Gilroy outlets for some pre-ride shopping! We enjoyed a relaxing trip down 101, with another stop in San Juan Bautista to see the mission and Atascadero on a secret mission to find cheese curds. We met up with the guys in San Luis Obispo for a dinner of tapas on the patio. After getting to our hotel in Santa Maria, we prepped our muscles for the next day's ride with a nice soak in the hot tub.

We stopped for some cheese curds on the way!

The next morning us ladies had a much more relaxed, mocha and latte fueled drive to Solvang, whereas the men busted out of the place around 6 am to have enough time to complete the 100 mile day. Sipping our lattes, we arrived in beautiful Solvang just in time to check in and head out along our 50 mile route towards Lompoc. There was barely a trickle of people heading out of the start when we set off. For a ride with +5000 participants, this was unheard of.

Here we are at the start.

The road was all ours.... at least on this section!

We met up a mile from the end for a triumphant ride to the finish.

None of us really had any preparation or training for this ride, in fact, I think the last ride I had done was back in October as part of the Triathlon, not counting a 12 mile jaunt to work one day.

All in all, it was a great ride and despite the cloudy weather and a bit of saddle sore, it was a wonderful half century.

DONE!!!

After a week of working and reworking my statement of purpose for graduate school, it is done and my application has been mailed in! I had no doubt that I would make it before the deadline, but for a procrastinator like myself, having it done weeks ahead is icing on the cake. Speaking of cake, my friend just called asking about roasting Brussels sprouts and now I will go reward myself with some celebratory Brussels sprouts (yes, I am serious).

Before I forget, here are some photos of the last couple weeks.

Celebrating my birthday with my friends at Cato's.

Erica and Brett add the final touches to a greek salad for the lunch we catered.



My friend Amy and I took a trip up to Dry Creek in wine country last Saturday. The mustard was out and looking beautiful!

Statement of Purpose

It is amazing how I find time to blog when avoiding other things. For the past week I have been writing and editing my statement of purpose for my grad school application. This is also the 3rd time this week I have written on my blog. Considering I normally go months without writing, I think there might be some correlation.

Anyway, I'm close to being done and will hopefully send it in tomorrow. Then I can get back to real life stuff... you know, laundry, dishes, going to the gym, etc. Now don't get me wrong. I haven't been plowing away at this 24/7 for the last week. I write a bit, edit, get sick of looking at it, and then maybe watch an episode of Psych or the Office... you know, for a treat.

One great thing about this is that this will be one of the first times in my life when I haven't waited until the last minute to do something! As a unashamed procrastinator, I think something might be wrong with me.... the application isn't due until April 1. I think the real motivation that I am really looking forward to being able to study something I am passionate about and will do my best to make it happen.

I keep trying to come up with some reward to motivate me to finish. I thought about getting a massage or facial, but after many days of pushing myself to sit down and write, I've realized that just being accepted to the program is the best motivation!

Not that I'd have a problem with a facial, too! ;)

I So Good

Today as I was walking the 3 blocks from Office Depot back to my office, a man yelled something out his car window to me. Now, it's not like this has never happened to me before, but he really made me think. There I am, trudging back from Office Depot, arms full of bulky supplies and he says to me, "Hey Mami, you so good!" Initially I thought, 'yeah, whatever,' as I felt quite grubby after a casual day at the office. Then I decided not to write him off so quickly.

So this is for you, man who yelled out your window while driving up Gilman.

Why yes, indeed I am so good. I so good for getting recycled paper hand towels for the office bathroom, so we don't have to have wet hands. I so good for restocking the office with more printer paper, so that we never have to worry about running out. Spot on sir.

I so good!!!

London Calling

Well, I think it is about time that I posted some pictures from my trip to London, so here they are! I met up with a former office buddy and friend, Amy, and we were lucky enough to stay with our friend Marianna and her husband Pat, who are living there for the next 3 years. We are already planning a return trip! One thing that made this trip special was being able to get a glimpse of everyday life. Sure we did some touristy things, but we were also able to explore the farmers' markets, buy fresh food, and cook our own meals at home. To sum it all up, we didn't just run around and 'see' London, we got to experience London! If you are planning a trip anytime soon, I have many off the radar places to recommend. Some of my favorites were Notting Hill's Books for Cooks, a cookbook store filled with friendly people who love to cook and savoy smells from the cafe in back! Another must is the free hourly tours at the Victoria and Albert museum. Our tour guide was so interesting and informed, that we stayed on for her second tour afterwards.

The sights.....



Abbey Road- I came here on my last day on my walk back from the Marylebone farmers market.

St. James' Palace from the park.

Where umbrellas go to die.

Marianna and Amy in Picadilly Circus

Stunning!

Wall of bread at a french cafe near Maida Vale.



Fun discoveries at Borough Market!!!

Passwords

I was trying to login to post some comments on a blog or two, and realized what a crazy amount of passwords and user names I am expected to remember these days. Let's see, we have:

Facebook
2 Emails
Myspace- I can remember the password in order to cancel this, since I haven't used it in years
Blog
Bank
Quicken online
Amazon
Ebay
Kaiser
AT&T
Itunes
paypal

Not to mention the ones I use at work:
Issue Management - 2 different ones
Online bills - 2 different accounts
FedEx
Test registrations for different software we are working on- at least 5-6 username/passwords

What really gets me is when you request a password reminder and then are required to change that password to something completely different. Sometimes I have to wonder if my 'secret password' is all that necessary. In fact, I kind of wish every now and then we could do a spring cleaning to weed out all unnecessary online accounts and start with a clean slate. Or at least wipe out my memory of all passwords so I wouldn't spend 15 minutes going repeatedly trying to get the right password/username combo.