And baby (still) makes three

Well, the five baby guppies are all gone, so we're back to our original family of three. On the one hand, I didn't exactly want more guppies, but on the other, it's kind of sad that the babies can't survive more than a few days before being eaten by mom and dad.

In other critter news, it's ladybug season here in the house....

The Catty Divorcees

I would really like to spend some time in that alternate universe where Christy and Kelly have superior intellect. Superior to whom? Amoebas?

Foiled!

This was supposed to be a big night for me: A and H are away on a daddy-daughter campout and T is at a friend's house for a sleepover, so I was going to climb into bed and whiz through Harry Potter 5 (I stayed up until 2 am yesterday finishing Harry Potter 4). The idea was I'd finish while H was still reading it, and then give it right back to her so she wouldn't even miss a step. I cleaned the kitchen, finished some paperwork and then went to H's book to retrieve the book. But darn it, it was gone! It looks like H took the book with her on the campout. Why, oh why, would she do that? There is zero chance that the book will see the light of day--between planned activities and hanging with her friends, there is no way she will crack that book. I am so bummed--guess I'll finish laundry and then get a good night's sleep.

p.s. I cleaned the guppy tank the other week. It was beyond murky--opaque is more like it--and more disturbingly, it was starting to smell like rotten eggs. Now that the water is clean, the guppies have rediscovered each other and... we have baby guppies again. Many of the eggs have been eaten (hurray for the circle of life!) but I saw 5 fairly big babies today. Let's see if they survive the next few days--must suck to constantly be looking over your shoulder, wondering if your mom or dad are going to eat you alive. Literally.

Mmmm, Popcorn

The problem with this healthy eating/austerity plan is that I get really hungry in the afternoon so when I'm at the train station on my way home, I give in to the temptations of this and justify it by saying that I've saved enough calories and simoleans to indulge.

Watching What I Eat Sucks

How is it that I'm just now discovering that my office kitchen has an ice cream cooler stocked with treats, courtesy of our client, the ice cream company? It's probably best that I did not know about this earlier, sayeth I while munching on a Fiber One bar because that Healthy Choice chicken artichoke panini was not very filling.

Still sticking to the brown bag lunch austerity plan. Healthy Choice has been very disappointing. Lean Cuisine is tastier, but the overall issue is that none of these options are very fulfilling--I'm still hungry! But then again, I'm always hungry!

I went to a friend's house last night for our book club meeting. It was a little more animated than our usual meetings, because this was the book, and the author was there. I really liked this book. There weren't any "takeaways" per se, but the little vignettes were entertaining, funny, wry, touching and something a lot of people could relate to.

I've more or less given up on DWTS. When there's no eye candy for me, there's no joy.

Poor Rocco! Yea Leanne!

Rocco is out, but Kenley lost Project Runway, so my reality TV week has been salvaged. Unfortunately, my last impressions of Rocco have to be those hideous pirate shirts.

I am addicted to the Harry Potter books--I just finished the third (all three this week) and am holding off on starting the fourth because I'm sure I'll get sucked in. H told me the fourth was her favorite. Plus, she's still on the 5th, and I can't overtake her.

Smorgasbored

This post is a random collection of thoughts while I procrastinate....

I thought I re-programmed my Ti-Faux to keep recording for 1 hour after The Amazing Race's end time, but apparently not. So now I'm down two episodes and have to fill in with TWOP's recaps.

The austerity plan continues, though I deviated a bit this morning and had an iced tea from Starbucks instead of McDonald's. I was going to make up the difference by pocketing lots of Splenda on my way out, but I forgot, so perhaps I'll have to make another Starbucks exception later this week. Today's lunch was Healthy Choice's Chicken Marsala. Not a big fan. Healthy Choice has been a disappointment for me, so I stocked up on Lean Cuisines--will report back on those after I try them.

I fancy myself a somewhat early-adopter, but I'm only now reading Harry Potter. To be fair, I did try to read the first book back when it first came out, but didn't find it at all interesting. Now that H is reading the series (she's on book 5, I think), I decided to give it another go, and I have to say, what the hell was I thinking? I started the first book last night and couldn't put it down--I'm about halfway through. It's magical and gripping. I can't wait to read them all.

Another hot Chicago Marathon yesterday--Steve ran a 3:20. He was disappointed, but it's an awesome time, heat or not! The kids were with me and now I tell them when they feel tired about running during their soccer games, think about those marathoners!

Recession Meals (and not)

So as part of my new austerity plan, I've brought breakfast and lunch in to work every day this week. Breakfast is easy--either a bagel from New York Bagels and Bialys or Trader Joe's oatmeal (which, by the way, is thick and delicious). I'm not really a fan of pre-packaged lunches (those Stouffer's beef chop suey dinners when I was a kid notwithstanding) and we rarely have leftovers from dinner, so this was a bit of a challenge. Here are my reviews so far:

Healthy Choice Five-Spice Beef & Vegetables Steamers: One of the five spices had a very strong and overpowering flavor. Wouldn't buy this again.

Annie Chung's Udon Noodles: Really tasty and could pass for freshly made. Only complaint is that I was still hungry after I finished, but actually I had this problem with all my meals, so maybe I'm just a pig. Will buy again.

Trader Joe's vegan pad thai with tofu: OK, but didn't really taste like pad thai. Probably won't buy again.

Of course, the few bucks I saved on brown-bagging lunch and breakfast was put toward a great dinner at Aigre Doux. This was one of the best meals we've had in a while. On the bartender's recommendation, I had the calamari salad. It was good, but pretty standard fare. A had a great heirloom tomato salad. My loup de mer special was delicious--especially the lentils and I'm not ordinarily a lentils fan! A had some veal duo that included veal cheeks--not my cup of tea, but he inhaled it. This was much better than the dinner we had at Joe's Stone Crab the week before and cheaper--then again, the wine wasn't flowing like it was the previous week. And we had much better service--you would think that if a table was dropping over $2000 on dinner, you would get good service, right? Well at Joe's, you'd be wrong.

That one

I don't always agree with Maureen Dowd, but I think that one hit the nail on the head with this one.

The only, and I mean only, good thing about Maks and Misty withdrawing is that it gave Rocco a reprieve. Unfortunately, I'm sure that'll be a short-lived reprieve.

It's a sad, sad day

White Sox out, Red Sox in. Maks out and Rocco in a freakin' puffy pirate shirt. The Amazing Race cut off from my Ti-Faux because of football and 60 minutes. Enough said.

Please...

... pretty please tell me that the only reason that Kenley is still on the show is that they wanted to wait until the very bitter end to cut her to make the elimination all the more painful. There can be no other reason. Kenley, the reason you are and were always left out is because you are one of the most annoying human beings to ever take a breath. Seriously. On par with that annoying family on the family edition of The Amazing Race. I can't take her for one second more on my TV screen. Actually, I'll take the one second when she finally gets cut. Please oh please let that happen.

I caught bits of the VP debate tonight. Biden is definitely a skilled orator, but he didn't always answer the question that was asked--too busy linking McCain to Bush. And on that point, I wanted Palin to just say, "for pete's sake Joe, let's quite dwelling on Bush and the last 8 years and start talking about McCain and the future!" She definitely seemed nervous and out of her element, but she got a couple good zingers in.

Go, Rocco, Go!

Well thank goodness Rocco is safe. He's certainly more deserving than Kim or Cloris. I did feel bad for Kim yesterday, what with it being the anniversary of her dad's death and all. I felt worse for Mark, though, when he was talking about how happy he was that his dad was still in the competition, but he chose the unfortunate wording of "I'm happy my dad's still alive." Oh, Mark.

Also watched my ti-fauxed episode of The Amazing Race. I love the mom and son team (I will even forgive her naming him "Dallas") and I hate the New York dating team. HATE. I was mostly sad that I am not on this show! I would be so good.