Don't you just love Fall?

The period of time between Labor Day and Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite. I adore Fall! My nesting instinct kicks into overdrive. Over the weekend I cooked and froze a beef soup full of lots of veggies, chili and a casserole, I polished my silver, and put flannel sheets on our bed. Other things I like about Fall:

Weather-I love the crispness of the air. Goodbye broiling sun. So long horrendous humidity. Hello cool breezes and falling leaves. Now I can exercise outside again without fear of keeling over from heatstroke. I much prefer walking outside to my treadmill but slackers can't be choosers!

Fashion-I love to wear brown. In fact, I'm wearing it today. And I wore it yesterday. I may wear it tomorrow. And if there is a God, the cooler weather will force everyone to put away their damn flip flops. Man I'm tired of girls/women who think that flip flops are perfectable acceptable with any attire and for any occasion. They're not. When I was in D.C. a few weeks ago I even saw a twentysomething guy on the Metro in a beautiful suit and black flip flops. C'mon people! Not every fashion trend needs to be followed blindly by the masses.

Sports-Right now is a sports lover's smorgasbord: there's so much to choose from. Baseball's regular season is winding down, football has three weeks under it's belt and hockey is in its preseason. Over the weekend, the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bears and Chicago Blackhawks all played at home. Traffic was a nightmare but who cares?
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Yesterday my eating was as close to perfect as I get. Today started out well until I stopped by a co-worker's office. She has a huge basket of mini Tootsie Rolls (love 'em) and caramels on her desk. I grabbed a handful and ate 4 before I even realized what I was doing. Totally unconscious. Didn't even register until I went to throw the wrappers away. Ugh!
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Message to my beloved ChiSox. If you wanted your fans out on ledge, we're there. Enough already. I've bitten every nail I have to the quick watching you go from a 15 game lead on August 1st to a 2 game lead today. Last night you dropped a perfectly winnable game against the freakin Tigers! Do you want to win the division? Do you want to get to the postseason? Because you're not playing like it and in fact you're in very real danger of becoming the team who blew the biggest lead ever. Please don't become that team. You'll break my heart.

Up 15

I stepped on the scale for the first time in weeks and I'm up 15 pounds from my lowest weight this year. Ugh! However, not really a surprise. Depressing but not surprising.

The other night The Saint and I had a good talk about my downward spiral and he was very sweet and supportive. He was actually willing to cut me more slack than I was willing to cut myself but I'm tired of excuses. Hey, this is my life. I can't fall back into bad habits everytime I get sick, have my period, have to go out of town on business, work late or have to deal with my father.

So since work is busy right now (what else is new), when I went shopping last night I bought a bunch of Lean Cuisines for lunch and dinner for next week. I thought this would help me with my time constraint and portion control issues not to mention that they very helpfully list the Weight Watchers Points on the side of the box. I haven't bought any Lean Cuisines lately and they have some new stuff that will hopefully taste as good as it looks on the packaging.

And one way or the other, I need to start walking again. Pronto!
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What the fuck is up with the Chicago White Sox? Last night, bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, 1 out and they can't fucking score. AND go on to lose in the 11th. I'm nauseous just thinking about it. Christ, it's hard to be a sports fan in Chicago.
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I had a blast in Virginia last week. My friend David and I got to hang out and damn he is funny!Seriously funny. We laughed our asses off all week. His dad had a stroke about a year ago and we always share "dad" stories. Tuesday night we had a problem with his car (long story) and his first reaction was to call his dad. He said to me "I'm 40 fucking years old and I still want to call my dad with my problems." In the end he didn't because he knows his dad isn't the same and wouldn't be able to help. God, I so identified with that! It was heartbreaking to watch him come to that realization but, I'm glad I was with him. We got through it and even laughed about it because humor is great coping mechanism.

Thursday I finished at about noon and got to sightsee. I did speed tours of the Smithsonian Visitor Center (the Castle), the National Gallery of Art, the National Air & Space Museum, and my favorite, the National Museum of American History.
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My plan for this weekend is to walk both days and journal my eating. I can do this.

No time for me

Not only was it a short week due to the holiday but two days of it were taken up with accreditation visits. And I have a cold. And I'm flying out to Virginia on Monday to set up the library at one of our new campuses. I have my ticket. No hotel yet. No idea if I will have to rent a car. I also have no idea what the hell the holdup is. Obviously I'm not making my own travel arrangements. I'm a planner. I'm organized. Duh, I'm a librarian. I don't like leaving shit to the last minute and to me, this is very last minute.

Between my cold and working 13 hour days this week, I have been a total slug in the fitness department. It's really aggravating me. My nose has unplugged enough that I thought I could get out of here at a decent time and go hit the treadmill but, I saw a little notation on my calendar for today. Dentist: 3:45 The Saint, 4:30 me. Crap. I just want to go home and workout. I don't want any detours or distractions. I'm tired and it won't take much for me to put off the treadmill yet again and go to bed early.

I'll be gone all next week. I have a friend out there who has promsied to take me out and we'll "paint the town red." I don't have the heart to tell him that my "painting" days are over and I'm ready for bed by 9:30 at the latest!

I'll miss The Saint, Riley, Bailey, Devlin and Ronan but I think these business trips are good. It makes them appreciate me more!

Hurricane Katrina

Tragic. Horrifying. Scary. Sad. Unbelievable. Heartbreaking. I don't have adequate words to describe the situation on the Gulf coast. I've been watching coverage of the events in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama all week and while it depresses the shit out of me, I can't stop watching.

I have been kicked into disaster planning mode by these events and The Saint has been patiently humoring me and reassuring me, used to my sporadic bouts of freaked-outedness. The biggest threat to us, where we live, is tornado or fire. I've insisted we sit down and create a disaster plan this weekend. For example, if we had a fire, how would we round up the cats? How would we get out of the house from the second floor?

I feel for the people in these areas that are now left without anything but their lives: homes, clothes, food, water, identification, jobs, etc. If you want to help them, donate to the Salvation Army or the Red Cross.

There's another population that needs your help just as much. The animals. The Humane Society of the United States has launched a relief effort to help the animals affected by this disaster and you can make a donation here. I did.