It is NOT AT ALL Pretty!

As I regretfully (I'm beginning to think) shared with all of you 3 weigh-ins ago, I joined Weight Watchers Online. It went swimmingly for that first weigh-in - I lost 3, count 'em, 3 pounds! The second weigh-in was good, too - I lost 2 pounds. That's 5 pounds in 2 weigh-ins/weeks! Absolutely FABU!!

And then......the unthinkable happened.....we journeyed to see my seeester & b-i-l and had a weekend-long food orgy, (along with a very excellent time).

Today, my sis just HAD to tell me that one serving of the Peking Duck we so groaned over because it was sooooo good, is 10 WW points PER SERVING. Considering the fact that I had too too many servings, I do think I easily used up my point allotment for the next week, maybe even two weeks! Why she had to depress me so with this information is beyond my sisterly comprehension. WHY, CARE, WHY?????

So, today I step on the scale. SHOCK OF ALL SHOCKS - I'VE GAINED 3 (THREE) POUNDS!!! HOW CAN THAT POSSIBLY BE????? Well, let's put just a little think behind this, Ann. If one eats more Peking than one expends, one will gain weight. Duh!! And though we walked about a million miles at the car show, it obviously didn't take care of all that Peking thing. DANG IT!! (Boy, was it good!)

Below you will see the damage I did......the scale never lies!!!

Why, look at that!
The scale is showing NO NUMBERS???
Those fairy-scale goddesses are working overtime!
They've blotted out those horrid scale numbers I do NOT want to see!!
Imagine that!

~~~
xoabb

P. S. My buddy, Mental Pause Mama, just informed me that when she looks at the above photo all she sees is a Rorschach uterus......hmmmmm......I'll have to think on that one. Note to self: Go read up on Rorschach Ink Blot Testing.

And What Do We Have Here??

The two amaryllis bulbs you see above are at least 12 years old. My Mom and Dad usually send one or two amaryllis plants just enough before Christmas so they're blooming by then. When the bulbs are through blooming, they are usually just thrown away.

I personally have a very hard time throwing any plant that's even barely alive away, so I stuck the two bulbs in a pot in our garage, and forgot all about them.

Springtime rolls around and I need a pot to put aloe vera plants in. I use the pot I'd put the amaryllis bulbs in, totally forgetting I'd done that as there's no sign of the bulbs left. Fast-forward 2 or 3 years. All of a sudden, in the middle of the aloe plants, lo and behold, I notice a shoot coming up....yep, it was the resurrecting amaryllis!

One or both have been blooming at least every other year since! As you can see, this year both bulbs will bloom. Wonder what we'll get? They were solid deep red the first year and they've never been that again. Pictures to come when we finally have blooms!

~~~
xoabb

P. S. Black Watch plaid ribbon as an amaryllis tie-up. Don't ya LOVE it??

I LOVE My New Camera!

One of our Christmas Family Traditions (actually more of a sanity-saver than a tradition) is that the adults draw names. My dad had my name this year and knew via mom's clever sleuthing ("Ann what would you like for Christmas?") I wanted a camera that took better macro pictures than the camera I had. Lo and behold, on Christmas day I opened my present and in it was a Pentax Optio W30 digital camera. It has more bells and whistles than I'll ever get around to learning to use, but what I wanted a new camera for, it does beautifully!

I'm a very novice picture-taker, not even good enough to be called a ~photographer~ yet (just you wait, tho, one day soon that title will fit) but as you can see I did manage to take a nice close-up of my blooming-in-the-dead-of-winter (can you believe that??) bougainvillea. The actual pink flower petals are only about 1/2" long. Click on the picture and you - obviously - zoom in....Look! You can even see the little "hairs" on the petals!! WOW!!

~~~
xoabb

Baby Heather......& A Few Turkeys, Too

As you know, GB and I went to see my sis and b-i-l this past weekend. We thought. Turns out, we actually went to see Baby Heather the cat. (Also turns out she's the unequivocal owner of my sis and b-i-l, not the other way around!)

10 years old, and with a MAJOR heart condition, Baby is the most social, demanding, beautifully gray, and all of 6 pounds soaking wet cat we have ever met. Yep, she also thinks she's human. She also has her own agenda when it comes to the important things in our life, like our wanting to take a picture of her with her face toward the camera. Can't tell you how many times I tried to do just that. Did it work??? As you can see above, nope. As all we mere humans should know, a good scratch is much more important than posing with ones face toward the camera!

But then.......Baby threw me a bone...

Feetz? Theyz weaponz I keepz hidden. 'K?
(look out http://icanhascheezburger.com/ - I think that pic's a contender!)
I took a great shot of Her Royal Highness....
and, DANG it, the picture's colors stink big time,
either because I did something I shouldn't have done,
or didn't do something I should have done.
Do ya think I might benefit just a teensy weensy bit from
actually reading and embracing the camera's instruction manual?!?!
Ah well, at least you can see how very lovely Baby is.

On to other matters...

~~~

Below, our pond last Friday morning:

It's early morning
Our turkeys in the tree tops
See them? There are six!

~~~
xoabb
expect anything!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This will be short and sweet.

After writing this ~blog~ thing for a short month, I've become aware that I use the !!!!!!!! much more than I probably should. And also the - thing. You know the - words here - thing.

I promise I will be more cognizant of all the times I use !!!!!!'s and --------'s. But I don't promise not to use them. They are what defines my very soul, so don't you DARE ask me to stop using them!!

Hmmm...nobody has actually asked me to stop using them.....that must mean I very personally myself think I use them too much.

I will not take responsibility for that!

Well, that works for me. Deal with it! ;-)

grin!! :)

~~~
xoabb

D. C. and the Auto Show

I need to screw off my feet and put on my spare pair. NOW!

GB, my sis, brother in law and I spent the better part of today at the Washington Auto Show. While their website kind of stinks, (to my non-car mind), the show itself was just amazing! Nearly every auto company was represented, from Scion's and Kia's to Bentley's and Mazeratti's. All the companies had concept cars and some of those were incredible.

The very "coolest", (at least I think Chrysler is banking that this auto's "cool" will appeal to a certain male demographic......but......wait a minute......the damn thing is a MINI-van......are you KIDDING me??? You're trying to appeal to any male demographic with a MINI-van??? HOW MANY marketing dollars did you spend for that idea, Chrysler??? It's. A. Freakin'. MINI. van.!!), was what Chrysler calls it's Town and Country Black Jack Van. It sports a complete black jack table in the back area of the van, and if you get tired of that, a large-screen tv under the back hatch. Bottom line? It's a mini-van. Emphasis on mini. Mini and sexy should never be used in the same sentence (there's one exception - see next paragraph).

My favorites at the show were the Mini Coopers. Emphasis on mini. (Mini and sexy should only be used together when referring to the Coop.) It was a small herd of Coops, 12 to be exact, each one different and the next one cuter than the last. What a lovely tooling-around mobile. LOVE 'em, love 'em!


Tonight we're off to Peking Gourmet Inn, for their world famous Peking duck.

Are we having fun yet???? Yep, actually we're having a blast!

Except my feet..........my poor poor feet....

~~~
xoabb

P. S. -

It's now 11:00PM EDT and we've just returned from the above named restaurant. We are all groaning....with pure delight! NEVER have we had a more EXCELLENT meal, well, ok, definitely one of our top five! The Peking duck was all and more it was touted to be - and Peking Inn's other signature dish, (that we all shared), their ~garlic sprouts stir fried with shrimp (our choice), chicken or beef~ was simply over the top. (I understand the owners grow the garlic sprouts for this dish and there's a fresh crop every day for this.) Can't begin to tell you how delicious it was. Simply superb!

If you are EVER in the DC area, do yourself a favor and dine at the Peking Gourmet Inn. A little out of the way, but you certainly will not be disappointed!!

Palm Trees in all the Wrong Places

I stopped by Lynn's Somewhat Invented Life (a very well written blog in my humble opinion) the other day and she had a tale of her tanning youth gone awry. It instantly brought back memories of when my tanning youth went awry. Ahhh those youthful memories. Grand, tho some are totally embarassing, aren't they?

I had come home from college one summer and gotten a job as a lifeguard for our city's Parks & Rec. Department. All the lifeguards were required to wear the same regulation Speedo swim suit, and that year they were simply charming navy blue Speedos with big white palm trees all over them. Some of the palms were right-side-up, some were up-side-down, some were sideways. They were not pretty by any stretch of the imagination.

During our guard shifts, we all had to sit in regulation guard chairs and, of course, we never used the regulation umbrellas.

Several weeks after I had been working, on one of my days off, I was getting ready to go somewhere that involved my wearing a bikini (which I could do then...easily.....now? Don't ask!). I had on shorts over the bottoms but just the bikini top on top. I turned around to get something and my boyfriend at the time burst out laughing. He dragged me to the mirror and just pointed at my back as he couldn't speak. I had palm trees all over my back. Tan-colored palm trees. Not just one, but many. It was simply spectacular. I can laugh now...but then? Nope!

~~~

xoabb

P.S. - We're off to see my seeester and favorite B-I-L in DC for the weekend. Fun! Maybe I'll see you over the weekend, if not, then for sure on Monday. Bye!

Word of the Day

PERSNICKETY
~it's one of my very favorite words~
~I just love the way it rolls off the tongue~

per·snick·e·ty

(pr-snk-t)

adj.

1. a. Overparticular about trivial details; fastidious.

b. Snobbish; pretentious.

2. Requiring strict attention to detail; demanding: a persnickety job.

Origin: 1885–90; orig. Scots, var. of pernickety

~~~
xoabb

I WON! I WON!! I WON!!!

BRIDGE NIGHT ROCKED!!
AND THOSE CARD GODDESSES ROCK!!
AND THAT BEE-YOU-TEE-FULL SCORE CARD ROCKS!!
Notice that the score for Ann (that would be me)
is much much higher than anyone else's!
All that money? My winnings - we play for big stakes.
What a wonderful, fun, delightful, perfect, lovely,
wonderful (oh - I already said that) night!

Of course, not everything went as I hoped......
the snacking....it was fierce!

~~~

xoabb

It's Bridge Night!

At my house...........I hope to be reporting back, later on this evening, that I was the BIG MONEY WINNER and not those other people I play bridge with! DANG IT - I lost so badly last time I deserve to win purely on sympathy! And my loss had nothing to do with my playing abilities........I think....well, maybe a little...... I'm sending up a prayer to the fairy-card goddesses to send me grand slam-worthy cards all night long! Is that too much to ask????

I'm also hoping to be able to report that our consumption of junk food was reasonable this time. Of course, that would be a first. (Refer to this Mental Pause Mama post. See what I mean??)

~~~

xoabb