TexasMama

Ya Know, I Just Don't Feel Sorry For People Like That

This post would undoubtedly offend someone, if anyone read this blog.  Luckily I don't have to worry too much.  I do want to preface this entry with an acknowledgment that many, many people are overweight through no fault of their own.  I also think it is OK to enjoy eating, and to splurge every once in a while, no matter what you weigh.  But there is a limit to what any human being should  subject her body, and what follows is way beyond that limit, in my opinion.  If you do that to yourself on purpose, you have no right to complain.

On Wednesday, G and I ate breakfast at one of our regular haunts.  The woman in front of us in line was fairly large and complaining to the server about her knee pain.  She then ordered 2 scrambled eggs with toast and hash-browns, a side of sausage patties, two pancakes, a cup of fruit, coffee and orange juice.  She sat at the table next to us.   I fully expected someone to join her shortly.  You see, each of those pancakes she ordered is bigger than the large dinner plate it comes on, about 13" across, and she ordered TWO of them, and William and I normally share the rest of what she ordered and come no where near finishing it.  But her order arrived and no companion appeared, so I watched in growing shock as she ate her breakfast.

First she finished all the eggs, then spread one full pad of butter and one tub of jelly on each of two pieces of toast, and scarfed them down, snacking on sausage in between.   When those were done, she grazed on the hash-browns while spreading two more pads of butter on her pancakes.  But the thing that really took my breath away was the syrup she added.  She poured 2 large plastic containers of syrup over the pancakes.  We are not talking those little cups in which you get ketchup at some restaurants, no these cup are probably 3 inches across and 1.5 deep.  She poured at least 3/4 of a cup of syrup on her pancakes.  It stood as a lake, filling the pancakes to the edge and dribbling off the plate as she cut into the pancakes.  Which she naturally finished, swabbing up every last drop of syrup with the last pieces of pancake.  The only thing she left uneaten was a bit of the hash-browns, part of her second large OJ, and about half the fruit.

Now maybe this was a splurge for her, I have no way of knowing, but she easily consumed at least 3000 calories and well over 100 grams of fat.  In a period of about 15 minutes.  To me, that is just frightening.

Well, now I'm very sad.

It's been a really sad few days on my message boards.  On one of the boards a 28 year old woman with a two year old and a 3 month old is in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant.  When she was 33 weeks pregnant with her younger child, she went into congestive heart failure and he was delivered via emergency c-section.  He is fine but tests eventually revealed that she has a congenital heart defect for which a transplant is her only hope.

On my other board, the one I am most a part of, a woman lost her husband yesterday.  She joined the board a little after I did, more than 3 years ago.  In that time she has had too many miscarriages to count and still has no living child.  Now her husband is gone too.  The doctors think he died of meningitis but won't know for sure until the autopsy is complete.

I will spend my evening counting my many, many blessings.

Ambiguity

What follows will be interesting to almost no one. 

I am an architect and am used to working with contractors of all sorts.  Usually I find them fairly intelligent, and well meaning despite the reputation of the building industry.  But right now I am working with a contractor that apparently cannot read.  He is very nice, his finished work is great, but the bidding process has been a total nightmare.  You see, he left out a few things, like, say... the floor.  The specifications clearly stated maple with 3" maple base in one unit, and Oak w/ 3" oak base in other unit.  But somehow he assumes someone else was responsible for the floor.  ?????   He failed to notice that I had actually specified particular tile for the master bath and gave an allowance much too low.  He also somehow missed the material allowance I included for the stone counter tops.

But today was the best.  I called to confirm that he received my fax with the changes for one of the units.  Yes, he said, all his guys are pricing it, but would it be ok if we just went to all melamine (a laminate like material) cabinets with melamine doors instead of the paint grade wood.  It threw me off because I hadn't remembered spec'ing paint grade wood.  Now, I've been on vacation for a week and not thinking about the project, but I told him I was fairly certain we had taken the millwork out of the contract completely and would be purchasing pre-fabricated cabinets from a third party, who would also be installing them. (This is a rental unit so the owners don't really care that much.  The other unit will still have nice, stained-wood shop-built cabinets).   He replied that he must have misread the fax.  He thought his millworker was supposed to do all the cabinets but that we were changing from stained-wood to painted.  So we agreed I would review the fax and get back to him.

Here is what it says on the millwork:  "10.  All kitchen and bath millwork is painted, prefabricated Millwork and will be provided and installed by Owner."

Now can someone please tell me where that is unclear?  I thought the "provided and installed by owner" part pretty much took it out of the contractor's court.  How could I possible have been more clear?  Anyone?    Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the fact that the millwork in this unit was NEVER to be stained.

Sigh, it's going to be a long week.  I really hope another contractor comes through with a better bid.

Phew!

It occurred to me that I could check my visitor stats to see if anyone saw my posts and it appears no one did.  I was lucky though.  THere was a rash of visitors about an hour earlier.  Oh am I glad no one saw all that.  I must be more careful!

OK, a big Oops!

I accidentally posted this post and the following post on my blog that is intended to update my family on the goings on of our house etc.  It's a nice, non-personal, non political, intended to offend no one, sort of site.  Luckily they weren't up for long.  But ugh!  Good grief, I don't want to tell people who actually know me we are going to couples counseling.  Nor do I want any of them to spend a minute considering what my views on the things listed below might be.   The next is worse though.

Originally titled: I've been a bad blogger.

Well, I haven't posted in weeks.  I have so many things running around in my head that I need to get out that I think I just haven't been able to get started.  So to keep it all strait in my mind, I'm making a list of issues I need to sort through.

1.  Upcoming couples counseling and my feelings about what brings us to need it.  I should really do this today since the first session is tomorrow.

2.  Thoughts on a link from weeks ago on Cecily's blog about abortion. 

3.  This whole scary supreme court thing.

4.  Medical Marijuana

5.  Atheist/Agnostic  God?

6.  Lessons learned from 18 month old twins in G- gymnastics class.

7.  A relationship in the family.

8.  My interminable cough and endless string of illnesses/issues

Well, there's more but my poor brain can't cough them up right now.  I guess I'll have to settle for the lung that will come out any minute now.  At least all my ribs are still intact.  For the moment.

A Day in the Life of an Adult ADD'er

Yesterday I had what was one of my worst ADD days in a long time.  Bad enough that I am finally considering getting help for it.

Uneventful morning.

10:53 am - Arrive at swim class. No swim diaper.  Ask person at front-desk to retrieve swim-suit forgotten last week from lost & found as it had a built in swim diaper.  (Technically against pool rules, but oh well.)

11:04 am - Join swim class already in progress.  Lovely.  No poop mishaps.

11:40 am - Retrieve freshly showered boy from shower.  No diaper.  Have already thrown away one in which he arrived.  Put shorts over naked bottom and entreat said boy to please speak up before peeing or pooping.

11:45 am - Pay for next session. G gets his stamps.  Lovely.  No pee or poop mishaps.

11:50 am - Arrive at car, put on diaper.  Secure child in seat.  Head home.

12:00 noon - Transfer sleeping child to bed and to nanny's care.  Grab work out stuff.  Head for gym.

12:10 pm - Planned stop at drug store for shampoo, conditioner, and deodorant to keep in gym bag.

12:20 pm - Back home for forgotten drawings needed for work.

12:40 pm - Arrive at gym to find no gym shoes or socks in bag.

12:50 pm - Unplanned stop at nearby shoe store for shoes to keep in gym bag.  Purchase $39 shoes on sale for $29.  Woohoo!  Actually remember to buy socks as well.

1:15 pm - Begin weight training in new, fashionable shoes without aid of forgotten water bottle.

2:00 pm - Retire to shower.  Discover 2 different types of conditioner and no shampoo in bag.  Use soap from dispenser for shampoo. 

2:15 pm - Exit shower with brilliantly conditioned hair.  Use towel from swim class as it is the only one available.

2:20 pm - Get Smoothie for lunch.

2:30 pm - Stop by home for forgotten laptop.

2:45 pm - Begin work.

The rest of the day is uneventful. 

The real miracle here is that I wasn't crying.  Somehow I stayed fairly upbeat through what would normally have reduced me to a quivering mass.  Still I think it's time for a little help here.  Anyone have an idea who I should talk to?

Resolutions Update

It’s time to check up on how well the resolutions  are going.

1)      Get into shape – Doing pretty well here.  I have lost 5 of the 17 lbs I would like to lose.  I was doing better on the weight-loss front but then I started running.  I do think it will be worth it though and once I reach my goal, (more on that in a minute) I’ll start mixing in walking again and hopefully that will help the weight/fat loss.

On running:  I decided about a month ago to get serious about running.  Before that I was walking.  In order to really be serious about it, I need a new jogging stroller, but I wanted to be sure the expense would be justified.  So I set some goals I have to meet before getting my stroller.   Run at least twice a week. Check.  For the last 3 weeks I have run 3 times a week.  Hoping to make it 4 soon.  Run my loop (approx. 3 miles) in 30 minutes or less.  My first 3 mile time, about 2 weeks ago, was over 35 minutes.  Last Friday I ran it in just under 32 minutes and today I finished in 30 minutes, 14 seconds.  I am so getting that stroller on Wednesday!  After that I plan to run 2 days a week and walk 2 days a week, since walking really is better for weight loss. At least, if you are in as crappy cardio-vascular shape as I am.

2)      Actually working while at work – Not so good.  Umm see how I’m working now?  The internet is just so enticing…  OK I will get better about this.

3)      Being Neater – sigh  I suck at being neat.  But I will renew my efforts.

4)      E-mail updates – Opps haven’t done one yet.  OK, tonight I promise.

5)      Getting G- to sleep better – I had made HUGE progress on this front by the end of January.  Then illness swept in and we were back at square 1.  I’m please to say that while we are not quite back to where we were in January, we are doing MUCH, much better than in December and I have high hopes the improvement will continue.

Hmmmm… 2 out of 5.  Not so great.  I guess I have some work to do.  I’ll update again in a few months.  Now, if there’s anyone out there, how are you doing on your resolutions?

WTF?

OK Typepad is eating my post.  What is going on?  Every once in a while the page just refreshes and everything is gone.  Ummm.... Grrrr.

Sigh

I was spell-checking a really long post on mecury, etc., when my bug-filled internet crashed.  When will I learn to save this stuff.  Or just write in word to start.  *sigh* maybe another day...

Testing, testing, 1,2,3...

21 months and counting...    21 months and counting...

Woohoo! Look what I can do.  OK and I promise to post something real, soon.