What? You don't play with your food?

Last night we went over to Mala & Joe's house for a traditional New England dinner. Lobsters are ridiculously inexpensive right now, so we decided to do it up and have lobster, corn on the cob, squash, and delicious, delicious alcohol. When I say that they're inexpensive, I mean that they're actually cheaper than hot dogs, if you can believe it. $4.99/lb? Buh-riiiiiiing it!

So, my family unit spruced up and headed on up to their house. Danny even decided to wear a tie for the special occasion:



Heeeeeee!! Matthew was somewhat less-enthused, but don't let him fool ya, he was pumped:



Once we got there, Mala and I proceeded to line up our supper and ridicule them, because we like to play with our food. They weren't spunky enough to race, as we'd hoped, but we did have a beauty contest, and mine totally won. I called him "Cuddles." Hers was "Fluffy."



When it comes time to kill the dinner, I leave that to my husband. He doesn't have a problem with it, but I just think it's icky.

Ask not for whom the water boils...


Dinner is SERVED!


We had a great night; ate a lot of yummy food, drank (a little too much) vino, and laughed like hyenas for most of the night. The kids also enjoyed their dinner, I think... they were there somewhere. We threw some hot dogs at them, put the little ones to bed, and the two older kids had a romantic evening up in Morgan's bedroom doing God knows what. Apparently before we got there, Morgan insisted on taking a shower before Danny saw her, then she put on her prettiest plastic bathing cap (!) and proceeded to woo my son. Obviously, when they get older we will have to keep an eye on those two.

Corn Dogs, Air Show...my cup runneth over

I hereby dedicate this post to the lovely Samsmama, who has been to an air show, and who also enjoys the occasional foot-long corn dog.


Ribfest was a blast! We met up with Mala, Laurie, and their respective friends and families and started right in with the eating of the ribs and the drinking of the beer and the bounce-housing of the children. First thing, we stopped and got the kiddos a couple of corn dogs to appease Frank, whose only request of me was to see me eating a corn dog. Why? I dunno. I really couldn't say. I have no ide-- hey, wait a minute! Frank! You perv.



Hey look! Balls ---->




<---- Does this look wrong to anyone else? No? Just us? Oooookay, then. Hey, Mala spotted it, not me!




Seeking shade... because yes, it turned out to be a sunny day! Woohooo!!! The rain held off all day, and I even got some color. Ok, color for me means that I now have a white band around my arm where my wristband was and the tip of my nose is Rudolph-red, but whatev. For me, that's practically bronzed!





A rare quiet moment for our sons.




Yup, there was an airshow. It was pretty good, too, because several times we were ready to grab the kids and run. It's just not fun unless you're convinced you're going to die in a a fire ball, am I right?


Mala's husband showing off his new big inflatable guitar. What?

Speaking of husbands, they ditched us for a good portion of the day to go on a tour of the brewery. J texted me throughout. Figures -- the teacher is the worst pupil of the bunch! He sat in the back and sent me text messages along the lines of, "I don't care when Anheuser met Busch. Where's beer?" and "Still no beer. WTF?" One-track mind? Maybe.

At any rate, by 5:30 we were ready to roll on outta there, and we wavered between rallying and going up to Mala's place to dump our kids with a sitter and go out to dinner and a comedy show, having people back to our place to play Rock Band (as planned), or just taking my tired, sticky children (and self) home and crashing. Three guesses which one of those I picked.... Yes, I was in my pjs on the couch by 6:30, folks. I went to bed crazy-early! Sadly, I think my party animal w/ tons of stamina days are behind me. The heart is willing, but the flesh is weak... so very weak.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! Hope you all have a great day and get your corn dogs eaten. My husband and sons rocked it out on the Wii for a while after enjoying breakfast in bed, and now he's sittin' around in his Grateful Dad shirt, goofing off. It's that kind of day; rainy and gray and chilly.

Hope everyone has a nice Sunday! *MWAH!*

Waaaassssssaaaaaabiiiiii!

So it was 5:45 PM today and I just left the gym, and I was wandering around the grocery store foraging for dinner to feed my grouchy kidlets when I suddenly realized that all I'd had to eat all day was a reduced fat string cheese and a 200 calorie Lean Cuisine. No wonder I felt like I was gonna pass out in the deli section, yo.

So I get myself a little snack for the ride home. I've sworn off chips of all kind (yes, again), so I picked up some California rolls.
I had 2 or 3 of them while driving home. I was spreading the ginger and wasabi at stop lights and enjoying them quite thoroughly, praising myself for my virtue by eating crab meat, avacado, and rice instead of fat-laden Lays. Those of you who don't live nearby are probably thanking your lucky stars that you don't have to drive around near douchebags like myself who prepare savory snacks while maneuvering a gigantic minivan, right? And those of you who live near me, you have been warned. Muuaahaaahaaa!

Anywho, I had forgotten about wasabi, and how potent it can be. Don't get me wrong - I love me some spicy food. I'm typically not happy until my eyes are watering and I'm gasping for water (I have underlying masochistic tendencies, but who doesn't?), but in this case I might've gone overboard. I must have spread just a touch too much wasabi on one of my rolls because all of the sudden I was sputtering and flailing. I almost had to pull over! It was like deathly burning fire in my throat, man!

But that didn't stop me from having another.

If you're waiting for me to get to the point, keep waitin'. I am only telling you this so you can picture me eating sushi while operating a motor vehicle. Enjoy the visual. Savor it.

That, and I love spicy California rolls. That shit is delicious.

Chili Binge '08

Why is it that I struggle & starve for two weeks to lose 5 measely pounds, and then I take one weekend "off" and eat a little too much chili (such delicious chili)... and I gain it all back in two days?

Stupid, stupid! (slapping forehead)

I have once again banished tortilla chips and anything scoopable (salsa, guacamole, chili, tabouli, hummus) from my shopping cart. Many of my favorite foods can only be transported to my mouth using chips, apparently, and as the slogan goes: I cannot eat just one. Oh, and that reminds me - salsa is evil. It is one of those fat-free, "healthy" snacks, yet it can only be eaten with crispy chips of some sort. I know they make those baked things, but c'mon. Those things are like little bits of dried wallpaper and you know it. The best kind of tortilla chips are bubbly and crunchy and deeeeeeelicous.

Which is why I must never eat them.

By the way, some dingbat in a Weight Watchers meeting from eons ago actually suggested that we use carrots to eat salsa. Carrots! Carrots. I mean, really.

So, here's hoping it's water retention from all those salty chips and firey homemade chili I ate this weekend. In the meantime, back on the old calorie restricting wagon. I hate that damn wagon.

Ick. Lunch was not so bueno

I don't know what possessed me just now.

I went to Stop & Shop and got a perfectly lovely garden salad along with a cup of piping hot chili. Came back to the office, and then decided, "Hey, this is kind of like a taco salad. You know, like the ones you get at Wendy's."

So I dumped the chili on the salad.

It was not like the ones you get at Wendy's.

First off, it looked like someone had literally taken a steaming dump on my salad, causing everyone who wandered by my desk to stop and exclaim, "Ew! What is that?"

Secondly, the lettuce instantly became mushy and soggy, which leads me to believe that Wendy's uses some kind of freakish lab-generated space lettuce.

Third, it didn't taste very good. Too salty. Which made me kick myself for not actually tasting said chili before sullying my innocent pile o' greens.

I'm chalking this one up to a failed experiment. Learn from my mistake - no DIY taco salads!

Boooooo, me.

I'm familiar with the expression, "what you eat in private shows up in public," and I'm definitely living proof.... But that didn't stop me from stealthily scarfing down two cupcakes in the kitchen while I waited for my Lean Cuisine to finish nuking just now. In my defense, it's Friday, and they were free. Free cupcakes! How could I possibly resist their sugary lure?

Compulsive, much? Color me embarrassed. Just when I think I've got my act together and I see the scale go down a pound, I do something like that just to make sure I maintain the status quo. It's like I have a mental block when I hit this particular weight area; every time I do, my body says, "Oooooh yeah, I like it here!" Totally bogus.

So, now I've outed myself as a closet cupcake-scarfer. Booooooo, Bev, boooo.