So funny.

This site is making me giggle. Here's why:

I finally have a wedding band!

I've been married for 2.5 years and am just now wearing a wedding band. Here's the gossip:


- My original engagement ring was designed by me based on a Tacori Ring that I LOVED! I decided that I wanted to be different and instead of a diamond solitaire, I wanted a SAPPHIRE solitaire. Here's the Tacori Ring I based my design on:

- I get engaged and realize that, while I'm lucky to be marrying a great guy, I really want a diamond solitaire.

- My fiance agrees to upgrade my ring to a diamond solitaire.

- Several thousand dollars later I have the engagement ring of my dreams but now we can not afford to buy me a wedding band. Oh well, who cares? Right? He'll just give me the engagement ring again come our wedding day.


- Fast forward several months after the wedding. I work with the public and strangers often notice my engagement ring. Since there's no wedding band on my finger I'm asked CONSTANTLY when I'm getting married and it starts to get really old. I purchase a fake bridal set for $20 at Target and these questions cease. Problem solved, right?


- Years go by and I'm sad that my beautiful engagement ring is sitting in my jewelry box while this $20 Target faker set gets all the attention. I start to get a bug up my ass to get a wedding band.


- I find the perfect band for the perfect price online. My husband insists I get it. It's finally arrived and I hate taking off my rings. It's so pretty . Here, ladies and gentleman, is my wedding band:












I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

Sabbatical

Today is day four of my 4 day dieting hiatus. I hadn't intended to do this, but here we are.

It's the long Thanksgiving weekend and I've been enjoying it with my husband. This is our first real chunk of time together since my show started rehearsals back in September. This was a long time coming and being able to wine and dine has made it that much more special. Here's the breakdown:

Thursday:
We participated in (too much) of your typical Thanksgiving Day fare. We visit his family in the early afternoon and mine in the early evening. It's just way too much food.

Friday:
We went to this little Greek place for breakfast. I had tzatziki and saganaki (both with grilled pita). He had the gyro breakfast. Mine was way better. For dinner he took me to the Irishman followed by drinks at Butterwood. I had a very big "martini". I use that term loosely because, according to my husband and his friends, you can't call a drink a martini just because it happens to be served in a martini glass. My husband was very pleased when I ordered a "drink" off of their "martini" menu. Call it what you will, it was good.

Saturday:
Had a disappointing breakfast at some family diner on Sheridan drive. Had an AMAZING dinner at Suzy Q's Barbeque Shak. It was SO GOOD! I ordered something called a Piggy Pie. That was fun. Not to mention the fact that calling my meal a "Piggy Pie" was a huge self esteem builder.

Not sure what today will hold.

I'm kind of over cheat food but I'm really sick of my diet food. Not to mention the fact that I'm really annoyed that I only lost 1 pound last week. Not feeling super motivated to continue to cheat, definitely not feeling motivated to continue on this diet right now.

Bottom line, I'm 100% NOT motivated to continue living life as a fatty.

11/22/07 Stats

The results of today's weigh in are:
Current Weight: 186.6
Lbs Lost: 23.4
Lbs From Goal Weight: 51.6

Do we live in a haunted house?

So tonight my husband is removing the air conditioner from the bedroom window in preparation for our winter hibernation. The dog was being all cute and I decided to snap some photos of the proceedings. Here's one photo I took:

I was snapping away. Here's the very next photo I took. It was taken a fraction of a second after the above photo:

Ok. What up with all the orbs???

Now, I'm not one to jump to conclusions, so I thought about it for a minute. I was sitting in the exact same spot for both photos. If the orbs are the result of some weird reflection, shouldn't they appear in both photos?

Also, the orb behind the dogs back left paw appears to be disappearing into the floor. I've never seen a reflection do that.

Our house is old, but not super old. It was built in 1940 with land sale records dating back to 1818. We've lived here over 2 years and I can honestly say I've never "felt" anything in this house. I wasn't feeling anything when I shot this picture. The dog was going nuts, but I thought it was just because she was excited by the commotion my husband was causing (pugs are easily excited and VERY curious).

I sent the photos to wnyparanormal.org. I wanted to see if they had any insight. I'll keep you posted...

Feeling fat is stinker.

I'm feeling like a big fatty these days. It's strange because I should be feeling better about myself. Case in point, this morning when I got dressed I realized that I needed to buy some size 14 pants as my 16s are now too large. This should make me feel good, right? Unfortunately, I take no pride in having wasted away to a size 14. I know I need to celebrate each battle won and blah, blah, blah...

I'm sure it doesn't help that I spent last night putting my size 4s into storage. I held up a pair of my size 4 jeans and couldn't believe that I ever fit into them. They were so tiny. I was so tiny. Now I'm a big, size 14-wearing, fatty.

Yeah. I feel stinker today :(

11/16/07 Stats

The results of today's weigh in are:

Current Weight: 187.6

Lbs Lost: 22.4

Lbs From Goal Weight: 52.6

Iron-Free Zone

Due to a persistent hip issue, my weight training has been put on hold. In the mean time, my husband has me doing a series of exercises to help heal my physical imbalances that are causing my hip issues.

I'm glad that I'm working towards health, but I don't want my lack of hard core exercise to slow my progress. However, I do need to get over my "race to the finish line" mentality where weight loss is concerned.

11/10/07 Stats

The results of today's weigh in are:

Current Weight: 188
Lbs Lost: 22

Lbs From Goal Weight: 53

Back up the garbage truck...

Tomorrow is my cheat day and it can't get here soon enough. The diet I'm on keeps my blood sugar levels really steady so my cravings are few and far between. Unfortunately, all that flies out the window when Aunt Flo comes to town. It's taken all my will power to stay away from junk food for the past two days. To curb my cravings, I've been eating alot of grilled zucchini. I'm really surprised that it's just not hitting the spot. In honor of my excitement about tomorrow, I'm compiling a list of all the foods I plan on consuming:

1 - Girl Scout Cookies! I received these on Tuesday and they've been taunting me ever since. I can't wait to rip into those boxes and show those tagalongs, samoas, and thin mints who's boss.

2 - Halloween Chocolate! This is left over from last week. We didn't give out any Halloween candy but we bought some for our personal consumption. Bite size twix, milky way, milky way midnight, baby ruth, and snickers are the stuff of dreams.

3 - A Starbucks Venti Frappuccino! Not sure what flavor. Either coffee or caramel. Last spring I was addicted to the Dulce de Leche Frappuccino and I'm having a hard time now that they don't offer it. There's nothing like it. It's caramel, but not super sweet, kind of deep and smoky. SO GOOD!

4 - Chips and Bison Dip! My husband is a season ticket holder for the Buffalo Bills. Where there's a season ticket holder, there's tailgate food and that means chips and bison dip. I cheat on Saturday, the Bills games are on Sunday. That means we have Bison Dip in our house from the day after my cheat day up until my next cheat day. Usually I can resist, but this week it's taunting me.

Notice there's no actual food on my wish list. I'm such a junk food junkie. I'd rather skip every meal and spend the whole day consuming thousands of calories in garbage. I plan on doing just that tomorrow :)

Working Out - Definitely Not Stinker

I've had 3 workouts with my personal trainer (my husband) at our fitness center (located in our basement). I have to say, our gym is pretty awesome. My husband is REALLY into lifting weights and we recently purchased what is the beginnings of his dream gym. We have: a bar, 5,000,000 lbs in various plates, a great selection of dumbbells (none of the 3lb pink variety), various storage for the plates and dumbbells, 2 benches, a lat pull down machine, a "chin up, pull down" monstrosity...it's great!

Since I'm so obscenely out of shape, we've spent my first 3 workouts figuring out what I am capable of. I have to say, I'm surprising myself. At my last workout, I was able to work up to a 135lb dead lift (I had 3 successful reps at that weight).

At my lightest, I was able to crank out several push-ups. At this ginormous weight, I can barely move. Not only are my muscles totally weak, I'm also trying to move a much heavier body. It's a double whammy. To try to get me back into the groove, my husband had me do 10 push-ups...ONE AT A TIME. It was so pathetic because I NEEDED the rest between reps. I tried a few times to "crank out" 2 consecutive push-ups but my body was not having any of it.

Since Monday's workout I have been ridiculously sore. My lower back is killing me. Tied for second place are my abs and the backs of my legs. I can't wait to do it all again tonight!

11/03/07 Stats

The results of today's weigh in are:
Current Weight: 190

Lbs Lost: 20
Lbs From Goal Weight: 55

Salads can make you fat!

My husband was on vacation last week and we met for lunch almost
everyday (which was nice).

I ordered a diet-friendly salad at each meal and didn't eat again until
my stomach growled (if at all). Even so, I figured I'd pay for our
week on the scale. I was right.

I only lost 1 pound last week! I'm trying not to be super upset about
it. I mean, a pound is a pound. I just feel that at this hugely enormous
weight, I should lose more than 1 pound in a week. It's not like I
spent the week stuffing my face.

My sluggish results from last week have inspired me to get back into
the gym. It's official: I'm going to start lifting weights again.

Progress Pics - 11/01/07

Last night I worked out for the first time in Lord knows how long. My
husband went REALLY easy on me. That's ok because I'm REALLY out of shape.
Even though it was a much lighter workout compared to my sessions of a
year ago, I was still working pretty hard. I'm looking forward to
Friday's workout :)

Today is November 1st and that means it's PROGRESS PICTURE DAY!!! I
don't feel like I'm ready for a photo yet, but I've lost 18lbs since we
started this journey on 09/23. The picture on the left is from 9/22/07 and the picture on the right is from today (11/01/07):