Fringe just blew my mind

Sitting in a house stuck without cable for a few hours, has made me especially happy that I can grab another home's wifi connection on my laptop. I've been updating myself on Fringe's episodes that I've missed. It's wonderful. My brother really got me into X-Files when I was little, so it's only fitting that my brother and I both love Fringe. Not to mention, I love all of the scientific theories behind everything. Add in Joshua Jackson (Pacey from my obsession: Dawson's Creek) and I'm sold.

Now, let's get to how it blew my mind. Now they're talking about physics and two realities that have collided and are trying to take up the same space. The images they've shown are making me crazy, and I have to say the special effects crew on this show are pretty damn awesome. Check it out. A lot of the episodes are on Hulu.com

Shut the eff up... GLEE is back!

I am currently in all sorts of sadness and joy over Glee. I LOVE Glee... not just for its' musical theatre goodness, but also for its' exceptionally dry and witty comedy. Not to mention - shouldn't life be full of moments that can only be expressed through song and dance that is made to seem like it's being done in a performance?  I love it! Anyway... the sadness part - I AM BABYSITTING! How I end up doing good deeds on what should basically be considered a national holiday, is a travesty. Anyway, the babysitting isn't even the bad part because I love my nieces. The bad part is my sister just moved and cable hasn't been installed yet! So please, no spoilers.. shut the eff up and tell me nothing! I am super excited to stay up once I get home and watch the episode that I have obviously DVR'd!

Week 1 results

Well... it's been awhile since I posted, and not because I've been making bad food choices - because I have. I've actually been really busy lately. Anyway, after week 1, I am officially down 0.2lbs. I know exactly why it wasn't as high as I'd like it to be. So, now we're onto week 2. My resolution for this week is to

...wow...

I left this on here yesterday and never posted it. Perhaps I'm too busy constantly sabotaging myself on diets.

My resolution for this week is to stay on plan... starting tomorrow...

Weight Watchers and Ben Folds

Days 2 and 3 have gone much better! I've stayed within my given points on both days and have gone to bed feeling satisfied. Hopefully the rest of the week will go well. Tomorrow we're going out for dinner before we see Ben Folds in concert. I AM SO EXCITED! This will be (I think) my 4th time seeing Ben... maybe my 5th? I cannot wait. He is my favorite to see in concert and I really hope that he does his ChatRoulette portion of the show tomorrow.

4 steps to a Nicholas Sparks novel (spoilers)!

1. Have two characters that are unlikely to have a relationship fall in love.

2. Give a character a terminal illness.

3. Catholic overtones.

4. One member of the unlikely love duo performs some sort of insane gesture to show their love for the other.

So yeah, The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks was just like every other book by Nicholas Sparks. It uses the same concepts over and over again and suddenly he has a winner! It's somewhat irritating at this point and I think his readers deserve a little something "more". Did I get through it and emotionally involved? Yes. Did I enjoy the book? Somewhat. It was fairly predictable at times, but it still had me turning pages. I have a feeling this is going to be another one of those Nicholas Sparks movies that are better than the books. I'll have to check the movie out, hopefully it doesn't disappoint.

Now what to read next? Hmm...

Day 1 on the diet - I'm a cheater!

So, as usual I of course need to go outside of the limits on my new diet. I spent most of the day tracking well and brought lunch with me to work. Here's what I ate yesterday: -sugar free Jell-o ~ 0 pts
-Chobani nonfat yogurt (strawberry) ~ 3 pts
-Doritos (nacho cheese) ~ 6 pts
-Panera black bean soup and 1/2 greek salad (no olives) ~ 6 pts
-small apple ~ 1 pt
-small hot and sour soup ~ 2 pts
-chicken and broccoli ~ 3 pts
-1/4 of an egg roll ~ 1.5 pts
-1/2 cup fried rice ~ 4 pts

My grand total: 26.5. I'm allowed 25, but I am allowed 35 extra points a week, so technically I'm within what I am allowed.

FIRST OF ALL, can we point out how my salad and soup were the same amount of points as my small little bag of doritos? Oh how I love that. Hysterical.

Now before you go shaking your finger at me for doing bad, there's one thing you need to understand. Everything before the chinese food was planned out. I knew what I was having and I was happy with it. My downfall for the chinese food came because I am legitimately an emotional eater. Someone in my grad school class was eating chinese, which triggered my brain to tell me that I absolutely had to have it. I rationalized it in my head, and went for it. Yes, it was a bad decision. I do regret it, but I only went over my points by 1.5 points and that's not too bad. I also limited how much of the food I ate. SO there we go. I'll be posting later on tonight with how I did today.

Wizarding World of GLORY!

As I sit here catching up on last night's episode of Celebrity Apprentice I can't help but get giddy and excited for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I love love love all things HP! I've read all of the books, seen all of the movies, waited on line for midnight movie and book releases. Oh, and I've taught the first book to 3rd graders. I wear HP t-shirts and sweatshirts and I just love it all. I'll admit I am a HUGE HP geek. I've almost contemplated a HP-related tattoo. So when Universal announced that they were creating an entire amusement park based around HP, I flipped. I immediately told my husband that we had to figure out a way to go there some day in the near future. (We recently received a certificate for 3 days/2 nights that can be used in Orlando... could my chance be here?)

Side note... did anyone see the AWESOME replica of Hagrid's home? I can just imagine all of the amazing poses that I will make all over the park. AHHHHHH

Before, before, b4

So, after being fed up with my current weight, I decided to start Weight Watchers. My husband and I went for our first meeting today. We weighed in and got our starting weight taken. We begin our journey tomorrow. If you're not familiar with Weight Watchers, you're given a set amount of "points" to follow daily, and an extra set of optional points for the entire week. These points are based on your age, activity level, weight, etc. I have chosen to opt out of using my extra 35 weekly points unless absolutely necessary. Here are my stats:

Current daily points: 25
Starting weight: 189 lbs.
Before pics: My goal for this blog is to not only analyze my journey through the program, but to keep myself accountable and motivated.  I plan on trying to blog my progress daily, and to track my weight and pictures weekly after my weigh-in meetings.

iMaxiPad

I'm going to be honest... the iPad entices me. Actually, I think that any time that Steve Jobs makes a Keynote speech, I get a little excited. I look forward to it every year at MacWorld and I need to watch the entire Keynote online. It's like my Superbowl Sunday. It's like Steve is going to reveal that I've won a million dollars every time I watch it.
So yea, I would like an iPad, but it will definitely not be a first gen one. This thing needs to have a front view camera. Think of the skype possibilities. It's like Spock style stuff!
Not to mention it will need to support flash at that point. Would I want it as an eReader? Probably not. I don't like the idea of a backlit screen. One of the main reasons that I love my nook is because the eInk screen is so easy on the eyes.

-Side note-
A man is at the terminal where I am about to get on my flight... and he has an iPad. You do not realize how tempted I am to ask to take a picture of it. SO SEXY!
***end of random iLove in my mind***

So bring me an iPad to play with and I may change my mind.

RENThead love

While performing in RENT this past September a fellow castmember was reading Without You by Anthony Rapp. I figured... "What the hell, I should read it". I have to say it was somewhat of a laborious process, as the book is very sad. It is a memoir that deals with Anthony's relationship with his mother and her battle with Cancer. It also deals with Anthony's various relationships and his involvement in RENT. He also remarks on his friendship with Jonathan Larson, and Larson's untimely passing. Did I like the book? Yes, but it may be because of my involvement in RENT. I would recommend it to others, but I would have them become familiar with RENT first if they aren't already familiar with it.

Oh the weather outside is... Nice-ful?

Just a quick update. Ryan and I are in Florida visiting his familia. The weather is beautiful but we haven't had too much time to enjoy it. Today's agenda: sit out and try to get as tan as possible! Oh and read. Then we're visiting his grandfather again before heading to the NY Rangers game down here.

Columbine.. Everything we thought was incorrect!

So, I finally completed one of the two non-fiction books I had set aside for this weekend. Columbine by Dave Cullen was a book that made my jaw drop several times during my reading of it. I could not believe how many things I "knew" about Columbine were wrong. I was in middle school when the Columbine massacre was carried out by Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold. Until today I always thought they were members of the "Trench Coat Mafia" and were retaliating because they were always picked on. Boy was I ever wrong. This book was wonderful in terms of setting all of the facts straight in what the media so obviously skewed and the Jeffco police department covered up. It is definitely a valuable piece of writing. As a teacher I also found it valuable that Cullen went into the minds of the killers through their journals, videos, and with their psychiatrists to really show who they were. Did I think it was a feel good read? Obviously not. But I read through it quickly and thought it was extremely well written and moved along for a non-fiction book.

And now it's time for me to move on and finish my next book!

The nook is "da bomb"

nook owners BEWARE! When flying be sure to have your nook in an accessible place. The TSA requires you to take it out and put it in its' own tray. My dumb butt didn't realize this and they had to hold up the entire line as I had to walk back around and grab a tray for it. (Mind you I DID have my laptop in a seperate tray). And now it's time to begin my "finish your damn books this weekend" challenge!