Friday, Dec 2...

Well, my little Emmy poodle doodle (yeah, I call her every silly name you could possibly think of) put on a grand performance (along with the rest of the 3rd., 4th., & 5th. grade classes at her school, but who really cares about the rest of them anyways?!) at the high school auditorium for a Christmas Carol-A-Long Thursday night. It was a smashing success, in spite of the 4th. and 5th. graders ear piercing renditions of silent Night and Joy To The World performed on their insidious little recorders. (OMG, I actually found a recorder home page, no way!) Good lord, whose bright idea was it that every elementary school child must learn and perform on this horrendous instrument? I think it's nearly impossible to actually become good at the stupid thing! I sure didn't when I had to learn it in elementary school- oh my poor mother, I must have driven her absolutely batty with it! Luckily I still have one more year before the onset of the dreaded and incessant recorder practice. Wish me luck! Anyway, I got a little annoyed with myself because it never even occurred to me to grab the digital camera before we left for the performance. Of course, we're typically seated so far at the back of the auditorium that we can't see anything but a blur of bodies anyway, so why would it have crossed my mind? But it just so happens that I spied two empty seats in the very first row, so I snatched those suckers up and we sat our happy butts down! Bub was even able to make Em out in the sea of faces, and he's legally blind!! So, no pics, but at least we were able to see her this time! Anyway, they picked a crappy night for this little shindig, don't these people know that Thursday nights are when Survivor, The Apprentice, and ER are on? I mean, c'mon! So I put in a tape for Survivor (knowing we'd be back in time for everything else) and then we grabbed some dinner at Taco Bell (mmmmm, Taco Bell!) before the thing was supposed to start, and it all worked out just fine in the end.

Okay, since I brought it up, let me expound just a bit on my intense yearning for my beloved Taco Bell. I know, it's sad, but I'm a foodaholic and dammit, it's my prerogative! One of my very favorite meals in the world is a chicken taco salad from Taco Bell. Yup, that's right, the ones with the big 'ol deep fried flour tortilla bowls. Now, I decided a long time ago that life was simply not worth living without at least being able to indulge in some of my all time favorite foods, so I made it my mission to find the nutritional information on these salads and figure out what I could do to it to make it a more diet friendly and acceptable meal. What I discovered is that you can't actually find the nutritional breakdown on the salads the way I order them, or 0n the tortilla bowl by itself. So, what did I do? I contacted the freakin' company and had them break it down for me over the phone!! Obsessed much? Nah, just diligent and determined! The bowl (by itself) has like 370 calories and 20 grams of fat, 38 grams of carbs, and 7 grams of protein. So here's what I do; I order the salad with grilled chicken instead of taco meat, no pinto beans (YUCK!), and I get it Fresco Style, which means no cheese or sour cream and it adds extra fiesta salsa instead. And since I order it without a bunch of stuff, they tend to pile the lettuce even higher than usual, which suits me just fine. Then I add the little cup of salsa that comes with it, I skip the crispy tortilla strips, and add a couple of packs of hot sauce, and viola! Then, with all my might and every lick of will power I can muster, I try my hardest to only eat about 1/2 to 2/3 of the yummy, crunchy tortilla bowl, plus all of the fillings. Luckily it's been a battle that I've had the good fortune to win more often than not, but good lord is it ever a battle! And you know what? It's worth it every time! I sure does loves me some Taco Bell, mmmmm!! I'm not real sure what the total damage ends up being, since I'm not an actual calorie counter, (I wanted the nutritional info on the bowl just so I would have a general idea) but I figure about half the bowl plus all the fillings I mentioned can't be that bad, and hey, I lost 190 freakin' pounds eating it this way the whole time, so I guess I'm doing something right!

Monday, Dec 5...

Good grief! I started this post last Friday, and now here it is, Monday afternoon! Needless to say, it got busy around here. Anyway, I had the formidable pleasure of spending most of this morning at the auto mechanic's because our minivan has been acting up and frustrating the hell out of me for a while now! It would simply die when idled or at a stop in traffic, which, of course, didn't make me very popular among my fellow motorists, especially when the light was green, but my insolent little car insisted on red. Apparently there was a hole or leak in some hose thingy, that was allowing air in where it shouldn't. But it's all fixed up and running smoothly now, all for just under 100 bucks, ouch! But I am happy and content, and life can continue on like normal now. See, it doesn't take much to make me happy! Of course, it doesn't take much to frazzle me to the core either, but we'll just skip over that little personality flaw for now!

We went to see Chicken Little on Saturday, yawn! I'm sorry but kid movies just don't do it for me. Plus, I hate going to the theater anyway, as I've previously stated, so unless it's just an awesome movie that I've been wanting to see, I pretty much only go in an effort to keep the peace and make everyone happy. Bub has this need to go out and do stuff on the weekends, which, by all means, is completely reasonable, but I'd much rather stay my happy butt at home like a reclusive little hermit. Have I mentioned how anti-social I am?? Well, Bub's just the opposite, so you see how well that works out! But it makes Em happy, and that's what really matters anyways, so I go along.

Oh, I almost forgot! We put our new Christmas tree up on Sunday. We got a new one because the old one was simply massive and it took forever to put together. And after the incident last year where Bub decided that it was more important to fall asleep on the couch than to help put the damn thing together, and then get pissed at me for having the audacity to be annoyed and frustrated about it, well, that was just more than I could handle this year. So much so that I was ready to forget about the whole freakin' thing and not even put a tree up if it was gonna be like that again! So, we shelled out 30 bucks for one of those pre-lit ones that just unfolds and viola! A ready made Christmas tree, minus the drama!! Yay! Now all I need to do is find a way to keep Precious from climbing up the damn thing and chewing on the lights! Ooooooh, that curious little kitty! Why I oughta! But, alas, she's just so darn cute and lovable, what's a girl to do? ;D

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully I'll find my way back here again before next week!