Random Summer 2009 Tidbits

Yet another hiatus from my blog.  Sometimes I find it hard to find things to write about because I’ve pretty much already told everyone I know what I’ve been up to via Twitter and Facebook.   It makes the blog seem a little pointless at times.   It sucks in a way, I miss writing here regularly.

This summer has been pretty meh weather-wise but has been great in pretty much every other way.   My best friend Penny has been house-sitting in town for the past 5-6 weeks, which means she is an hour closer than her usual stomping grounds in Roosendaal.   So we’ve been trying to see each other as often as possible, getting together for girlie afternoons, movies, BBQ’s, and all that fun stuff.  It’s made the summer so much more fun, I hope they go there every summer!

Last night five of us girls got together and went out to Bennie Beer (not beer as in the drink, it’s Dutch for ‘bear’) for dinner, which was really yummy.   We also pondered how they manage to keep the place clean with so many stuffed bears everywhere.  They have to get seriously dusty.   The food is good though so we overlooked it.  They are a chain of restaurants that specialize in ribs, but I had a steak instead, which was good but definitely on the rare side of medium.  A little more rare than I usually like it.

After dinner we went bowling at a new place called Atoll Rotterdam, it was the most posh bowling ally I’ve ever been to, if it’s even possible!  I really like it there though, the atmosphere was great and the girls and I had a really great time.   I did find their whole system sort of weird though.  When you go in you get a card and everything is charged to that, and you are also obligated to order a drink.  How bizarre!  Like, if you want to go bowling you MUST buy a drink or you aren’t allowed to bowl.   Odd.   I did really badly on the first game, my score was pretty much half of everyone else’s.  Then I got better and actually won the 3rd one!

errr… I did break my ass in the process though.   It was like “Ooooh, this is fun!” and a little while later “OMG MY ASS HURTS!”.   Yeah, I mean we all should have known better than to think I could do something with heavy balls and physical activity without pulling some muscle or another… but, my ass?!  Ugh.  It hurts to sit.

It also hurts to stand, lay down, bend over…

Oh well, at least my ass held out until the very end of the evening before giving out on me.  So I got to enjoy myself for most of it!  I’ll live.  Although I’m not sure how the heating pad is going to jive with the 30 degree weather we are expecting today!

In other news, Project Fatass lives on!  I decided when I began that I wasn’t going to blog about it until I was well on my way with it this time.  I’ve written too many times during the 0-20 pounds lost period, who wants to keep hearing about that.  Each time I started and gave up and I figured if I was going to suck at it again this time, I wasn’t going to share it.

Remember this guy?  Well, this is roughly how much I am down to date.  That is my 25 pound fish and I am down 24.5 lbs as of this week.

I don’t know why I always compare my weight loss to fish, but it works.  Look how heavy it looks for him to hold it, that’s how much less weight I’m carrying around.

Plus, it’s easier than finding photos of 25 sticks of butter.

I hope to one day lose a whale’s worth.

Since early June, I have been following the Weight Watchers system here in NL.  It all started out when my mother (who has lost somewhere between 80-100 lbs over the last number of years) told me that she has been using WW to lose the last bit of weight she was trying to get off, and how much she loved it.  I didn’t really feel ready for it when she first brought it up to me, I listened but felt quite ‘meh’ about the whole thing.   Then, after months of avoiding it, I got on the scale.   Let’s just say, what I saw shocked me into submission and I let her teach me the ways of the Weight Watchers.

I found it difficult trying to follow the Canadian system when I eat mostly Dutch products, so after speaking with a friend here in NL who uses their system and her kindly giving me her login info for the website, I decided to sign up myself.   I don’t go to meetings but I am using the online program to track what I eat, my weight, and exercise.   I thought it might get annoying as it’s all in Dutch but I’m not really bothered.   It’s pretty easy to use and since it has most Dutch food products in the list, it makes it a lot easier to keep track of what I am eating.

So, I’m not going to make any grand speeches about how this is going to be the time I finally get all this weight off, but I really like this system and am doing my best to try to see it through to the end.  Not sure if I will write about it a lot but we’ll see.  I will update about the milestones though, at least.

Hubby is also trying to watch what he eats as he’s been getting a little pot belly over the last year or so.   He’s always been a total beanpole but I guess the mid 30’s are catching up with him and his metabolism is changing or something.

Anyhow, there are a few other things I plan to write about in a bit, like Pixel’s first plucking and our camping adventures but I’d like to give them updates of their own.   So I’ll write about that later.

All in all though, it’s been a good summer so far.   We’ve been spending time with friends, having fun, enjoying the sunshine when it’s here and also enjoying when it’s not.   I am happy, hubby is happy and our families are all healthy and happy.  What more could you ask for out of a summer?