Ok, let's try this again

My pants have been shrinking! At least that's what I kept telling myself. Then I realized what deep down I knew all the time... I've been gaining weight at such a rapid rate that I'm now 35 lbs more than a year ago when I got married. No wonder my clothes aren't fitting me well and every time I go clothes shopping I strangely can only find stuff that fits in larger sizes LOL.

So I'm going back on the only weight loss plan that has ever worked for me.... Weight Watchers. There are 2 things that have kept me from re-joining WW in the last year or so:

1. It's very expensive. Approximately $15/week to weigh yourself and listen to a 30 minute lecture on weight loss tips
2. I don't like the location or leaders at the Lethbridge WW. There was one leader I really liked but she was basically the cashier... never the weigh in lady or lecturer.

So instead of doing the traditional meetings, I am going to try doing Weight Watchers online. No meetings, no public weigh ins, no lectures, but still the same plan. And the online tools are awesome! Once you are familiar with the program it's great one-stop shopping for all food tracking, activity tracking, recipe finder, etc. And best of all, it works out to be about 1/2 the price of traditional meetings. So far I'm on day 2 so no great successes to report yet but I'm hoping this will be the best of both worlds.... a plan that works AND that I can stick with :)

Keep crying wolf and soon no one will believe you

One thing I seriously don't understand in the world of Hollywood is why some people, and it only seems to be black men, cry racism when they are let go from an acting job.

A year or so ago actor Isaiah Washington was let go from the show "Grey's Anatomy". This was around a much publicized situation where he referred to his gay co-star in a derogatory way..... after which Isaiah Washington said the real reason he was let go was because he's black.

Now Harold Perrineau, Michael from "Lost", is saying that he was killed off on the show because he is black.

First of all, when these men were hired, were they hiding the fact that they are black? Did they think the casting people did not realize they were black? If they were worried about their race being an issue, don't you think they would simply have not been hired to portray those characters?

Other actors have come and gone on both shows. When Dominic Monaghan's character Charlie was killed off on Lost I didn't hear him crying that it was because he was English. Or when Jeffery Dean Morgan, who played Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy, left because his character was killed off there were no accusations of the producers getting rid of him because he is single.

So how come some people feel it is okay to cry racism when, through what seems to be normal storytelling of their characters, they leave a show? I can maybe understand them not GETTING a role because of race (of course I'm not condoning hiring based on race, but I can understand the accusation). But auditioning, earning a role in a regular television series, successfully portraying that character for years, and then being let go because the character is no longer part of the story, and THEN crying racism? Sorry, that doesn't fly with me. I think it makes them look like whiners and they can only do more harm than good for black people who may have a legitimate racism grievance.

Something I have learned that I am sensitive about....

People criticizing my cooking or lack of cooking. Today I brought a birthday cake into work for everyone in the office who has a birthday this month. Every month 2 people from the office volunteer to bring a cake in for all the birthdays that month. I signed up late last year for June. What I didn't realize at the time was that the end of May, beginning of June was going to be INSANELY busy for me. Just to give you an idea...

• Sunday - changed plans as I got guilted into coming in to work. Worked 4 hours but the server was down the whole time.... waste of time sitting in the office.
• Monday- worked a 14 hour day... until 10pm. Missed Brighton's 3rd birthday party because of it (still haven't given him his present).
• Tuesday - worked 2 hours of overtime.
• Wednesday - the day I was scheduled to bring a cake in to work

So as you can see, I haven't exactly had the time to buy ingredients and bake a cake from scratch. When I realized this I ordered a cake from Safeway. Note that I bought a HUGE cake.... bigger than most bring in. Also, most people actually do buy their cakes instead of making them. So I was doing nothing out of the ordinary.

But as the cake was being eaten, the "model" girl (from a few posts ago) leaned over to her neighbour and said sarcastically "this cake is so good. I MUST get the recipe." This was said in my earshot and I was very offended. After all, I have literally not had the time to bake a cake in the last few days. If she was so disappointed with her free cake she should have declined a piece. I was going to make a cheesecake before it was clear that I wouldn't have time to do so. And I still might..... but she will NOT be invited to have a piece. Bitches don't get any of my cheesecake LOL!

VICKY DOESN'T EAT MUSHROOMS!!!!!!!

There are few things in this world that I feel as strongly about as mushrooms. I don't like the look of them, the smell of them, and especially not the taste of them. I don't have a phobia or fear of mushrooms. I just simply don't like them at all. Because of that extreme dislike, I feel I have just as much right to order restaurant food without mushrooms as someone who is allergic to mushrooms.

On the weekend we ordered pizza and I had my usual.... veggie lovers with no mushrooms. When I opened the box at home at first glance it appeared that they made my pizza correctly. But on further inspection I found small pieces of mushroom scattered throughout my pizza. It looked like they had made my pizza with mushrooms, then realized their mistake and tried to remove them but missed some of the smaller pieces. I was horrified! What if I was allergic to mushrooms? I could have become violently ill because of their mistake. If they realized their mistake before cooking (which they must have done as there no signs of mushroom imprints in the melted cheese) then they could have easily remade my pizza with only a minor delay. Believe me, I would have been happy to wait the extra few minutes for a pizza that no mushroom had ever touched. As it is, I have to inspect every piece of this pizza before I eat it and then re-inspect it with every bite. I have removed a few small pieces of mushroom from every piece so far.

It will be a long time before I order Pizza Hut pizza again. Which is okay because Douro's actually makes better pizza. They are out of the way but the inconvenience has now become more bearable because of their better pie.

Irritating and ironic

I work with a girl who used to be a model. I have never seen a picture of her or one of the movies she was supposedly in but she mentions it all the time. I should also mention that she is neither tall (I am taller than her) nor particularly pretty.... regular but not pretty. Nor is she extremely thin... about average but not thin. So in no way would I have guessed she was a model if she hadn't told me.

The first time she told me I responded with "how interesting" and asked her some questions about it. Then we moved on with the conversation and I thought that was the end of it.

But since then she mentions it about once every 2 weeks... and every time she acts like she is telling me for the first time and there's a big pause while she looks at me expectantly. It's like she is expecting me to fawn all over her and praise her for her former career. I don't think she is even doing it consciously. I suspect she usually gets a positive reaction from people and she feeds off it. But she has now mentioned it so often that it's irritating me and I won't play her game anymore.

So a few weeks ago she mentioned again that she used to be a model and I responded with "yes, you told me about that." And last week when she mentioned it yet again I just looked at her and waited for her to continue her thought (if there was one). I don't think it is my responsibility to provide fawning whenever she mentions her former career.

Here's the funny thing. I only found out about 2 weeks ago (after working with her for almost 8 months) that she has her masters degree in computer science. I would have thought THAT would be something to brag about.... not that someone put some makeup on her and snapped a few pictures. Where's the achievement in that?

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday Vince & I celebrated our very first wedding anniversary. Vince planned the evening and it was a complete surprise. He had a limousine pick us up. We had champagne in the back seat on our way to The Keg. There we had supper (after which I was sure I wouldn't be able to eat for a week! LOL), and afterwards, just for fun, we had the limo take us to Tim Horton's for coffee LOL. We attracted a few stares from the people in Tim Horton's... it was amusing :) We got some pictures but I didn't get around to downloading them last night so I'll put them up on facebook in the next few days.

Unfortunately Vince has a bad sinus cold right now so he wasn't having as much fun last night as he normally would have. I suspect I am getting his cold too so I'm on Cold FX trying to fight it.

We decided to alternate planning of anniversary dinners every year so next year is mine. I don't want to try and outdo Vince so I'm thinking of trying something a little different. At first I thought a hot air balloon ride but Vince isn't into heights so I think that would be more scary than fun for him LOL. Then I thought since he loves hockey so much we could go to a playoffs game but unless it's in Calgary (and then good luck getting tickets!) we'd have to fly there which Vince won't do. So I'm leaning towards a romantic picnic but I'll need a contingency plan in case of bad weather. Any other suggestions for anniversary celebrations? I am taking suggestions for the next 364 days LOL.

Seriously, how hard is it to be polite?

Yesterday Vince & I were walking into Tim Hortons. He reached the door first and held it open for me but as I was about to walk through 2 women walked out of the same door chatting with each other but didn't say thank-you to Vince for holding the door open for them. This is my absolute biggest pet peeve because it is SOOOOOOO rude and costs them absolutely nothing to be polite and say thank-you in passing. So as I passed them to walk through the doorway I said "you're welcome!". I honestly don't think they clued in to why I said that but it sure made me feel better. I know it's rude to point out someone else's rudeness but I also think some people need a lesson in manners.