A Step Back in Time

Fun fact? They filmed Sister Wives here a few weeks ago. 

To Plimoth Plantation! One of the many exciting places we visited while I was visiting Boston a few weeks ago. Meaghan was a fabulous hostess and took Debbie and I exploring the whole weekend. Also, there was a dance party, which is really all it takes to make me happy anyway.

Outside of the gates of Hahvahd Yahd.

On Friday we went to a hockey game at Harvard, which was pretty much what you would expect. I am pretty sure there were more Cornell fans there than Harvard fans, but who's counting? The players were pretty and the place was packed - and it had been so long since I'd seen a hockey game I was definitely into it.

After that we attended a dance party (Cronk 2.0 was the name of it, I believe) some students in Meaghan's program were throwing in an old gymnasium on campus. I had so much fun, even though I definitely regretted my decision to wear my new boots.

Dancin.

Bein gorg. The yooj.

On Saturday we went to Plimoth Plantation and the Mayflower II (a recreation of the original Mayflower). Plimoth was fantastic except for the part where I was harassed by a pilgrim. I asked him "What do y'all do for fun around here?" and he acted like he couldn't understand me and didn't know what "fun" was. RUDE.

The MOOflower. Hilarious.

Inadvertently racist. I promise I was just making a he's-so-hot face. 

The happiest sheep in the world. 

The culprit. 

Baby. Goats. 

That girl was SUPER skeptical about the breadmaking going on here. 

Then we tried on some hats. Obviously.

Sexy Pilgrim.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6YuLgyYZhc
You're welcome.

A wolf mask. No one told me this was not...right.

Adorable character hats. 

The Mayflower II was excellent...it was crazy to think how many people were on that boat while it slowly made its way across the Atlantic. I fear I would've thrown some people overboard had that been me.

Really excited to be hanging out with the cannon.

Debbie was not pleased with my climbing antics.

But we got the cutest picture ever out of it!

Sunday we went on a Harpoon brewery tour which was fantastic! They walked us through the brewery and then we had a tasting afterwards. They had all the different beers on draft. I loved the seasonals but my favorite was the UFO Hefeweizen.

Sniffing something they use to make beer. I got a lot out of the tour.

Tasting everyone they had on draft - yum!

Aw yea!

After that we had a tour of downtown Boston with our cute, historically-garbed tour guide.

And then we went to Mike's Bakery where it was INSANELY busy and bought way too many cannolis that we ate later back at Meaghan's apartment.

The whole place was packed.

Spoiler alert: they were delicious.

And finally some amazing Italian food - I wish I could remember the name of this seafood linguine dish, because it was incredible.

Something about pesce. I don't know.

The endangered pentapus, nature's most noble creature.

Definitely loved visiting Boston, but I knew it was off to ND after only three days back at home. Yes, November was a complete whirlwind.

Get Ready for a LOT of Updates

I'm going to split all of these updates up so it's not one overwhelmingly long post (you are welcome), so be prepared!

The first update I need to share is from my Halloween trip to New Orleans. Yikes, it has been a while since I've updated. My costumes were Snooki and the Tin (Wo)Man from the Wizard of Oz. I went with Ashley and Megan (both from Chicago) and it was a total blast as evidenced by these pictures...

Scared on the Haunted Swamp Tour!

We were a hat trick the first night. Get it?!

YUM. Cafe du Monde was necessary.

Met the entire cast of WWF.

Snooki!

Cowardly lion, scarecrow, and tin man!

We stayed in a great hotel about a block away from Bourbon street, did all the fun touristy things like the swamp tour, the ghost tour, and the cemetery tour. We went out every night (Pat O'Brien's of course, and then wandering Bourbon St.) and met some interesting people - one guy dressed as Wolverine claimed to be a movie star and did have a picture on his phone of him playing a bailiff in Drop Dead Diva. His business card listed him as an actor and martial artist. Quality.

I will make sure to look for him in the next GI Joe movie.

Going back to work after this awesome trip was rough -- good thing I only went back for a week! After that, I was off to Boston, which will be my next update...shortly.

PS: I only gained 1.4 pounds the whole time I was in New Orleans, which was INCREDIBLE since I ate everything in sight. Not sure how that happened.

Back from Vacation!

The past week and a half I have completely fallen off the radar. I'm up a few pounds (3 to be exact) but honestly I was expecting a lot worse. I have been tracking everything I eat and there were more than a few bad days. Suffice to say I won't be meeting my exercise/within calorie range goals for this month. I probably won't make my weight loss goal either (I'd have to lose about 5 pounds in 5 days to do so). 

First, I went to Shreveport for my friend Cathy's birthday with a few other people, where we gambled, drank, and ate....and ate....and ate.

 

Before we ate 5 pounds of crawfish.

The boys...before they ate...whatever they ate.

Ready to go gambling!

Then I was off to Irvine, CA for a business trip for the better part of last week.

The John Wayne Statue at the airport. It was HUGE. 

Had to get a cheeseburger at In N Out ... animal style!

These beautiful flowers were everywhere!

Heading back to Dallas on the plane. 

My mom was here visiting this weekend for Easter and I went to a friend's housewarming part on Saturday. We planted some pretty flowers for my patio. 

And for now, I'm working from home today, and I'm enjoying a grilled cheese with tomato soup, a Hitchcock movie, and the thunderstorms outside. 

The perfect rainy day meal.

Back from Vacation!

I haven't posted in a while because I have been on vacation! I went to visit Alicia in Providence, RI for almost a week and had such a good time. It was definitely a last-minute trip planned about two weeks in advance, which is something that I never do since travel is the one thing I do get crazy anal retentive tendencies about, but I'm so glad I did. Full disclosure: I didn't stick to my calorie limits (and didn't intend to do so - not what a vacation is for), but I did log all my calories every day. Still up a few pounds from where I was before vacation, but I'll get it back down.

Did I mention the Lady Gaga concert in Boston? And how she had a giant fish puppet that she called the Fame Monster? And how we had floor seats about ten feet away from the stage? Best. Show. Ever.

Now that I'm back, my co-worker/friend Cathy and I have decided to combine forces in a Memorial Day Challenge. Our goal is to lose six pounds a month (minimum) until Memorial Day, but the focus is on going to the gym five days a week and doing something active the other two days (going for a walk, dancing, whatever). This ties in with my Lenten promise - working out at least five days a week at the gym until Easter. I've decided to join 24 Hour Fitness so Cathy and I can easily work out together, and all the group classes are free!

I'm focusing mainly on cardio, so I have been working on the elliptical for 40 minutes doing intervals. I try to get an elliptical with the arm movement - it's funny how much of a difference that makes! That puts me at about 450 calories burned according to the elliptical machine. We're also alternating strength training for abs, arms/back, and legs/glutes. This is where Cathy comes in handy - the first day we were doing abs, she had us do 30 reps of front, left, and right crunches (that's 90 total) and then looked at me and said, "Okay, now let's do two more sets!" I almost murdered her, but I would never push myself that hard on my own. Same thing with actually getting to the gym; it's so much easier to talk yourself into going when you make plans with someone. 

We even went to a class this morning called Kickboxing Boot Camp. The instructor was probably about 7 or 8 months pregnant and bouncing around the gym like she didn't have an almost fully-grown child in her uterus. I kept that in mind when I felt like I was going to die during the workout. I really liked the class though and I'm definitely going to try out the other classes available to keep me from getting bored. I'm still a little intimidated going into the gym, but everyone seems so friendly that it makes me less nervous every time I go. 

One other change since I posted last time - since I burn at least 400 calories per gym session, and I've found that my 1200-1500 calories a day wasn't cutting it while I'm burning all these calories at the gym. I haven't been grazing for food like that all year, and I was going nuts trying to find something that would keep me full after dinner. So in order to avoid a mental breakdown, I've decided on gym days, I can eat up to 1800 calories if I feel like I need it; with the exercise factored in, that still puts me at 1400 total for the day. We'll see how that goes over the next couple of weeks and I'll adjust it if I'm not seeing the results on the scale. 

To leave on a happy note, I celebrated St. Patrick's Day at the Greenville Ave. parade yesterday, and it was so much fun!! Lots of green, ridiculous costumes, and pretty much the only day of the year when morning drinking in the streets is socially acceptable - what's not to love?

I wish I could wear this headband every single day.