New Fantasy Story, Chapter 2 "Gifts"

Reblogged from Ben_Scared:

It was quiet in the boys room, the time of night when Mister Sand had brushed away the daily fear and pain of life in the orphanage and replaced it with the hopes and joy of youthful dreams.  The only sounds were the deep breaths of the slumbering, peppered with a few light snores and the nose whistle of Shep, who always seemed to be stopped up.

Read more… 1,626 more words

…She’d Love Seafood Too

Okay, so my new healthy eating plan has been going really well, and I’ve got a pretty good routine going with foods that I like… but most of it are things that are easy to prepare and things I can prepare ahead of time and warm up later in the microwave.  And that’s all fine and good…

…But sometimes you’re in the grocery store and see a package of scallops and your mouth starts salivating and your heart speeds up a little faster.  It probably didn’t help that I was a rather hungry at the time (rule of thumb – never go to the grocery store hungry).

I love seafood… I mean really love it.  Shrimp is probably my all-time favorite, but scallops are right up there too, and since they’re a bit more expensive I rarely have scallops.  It’s been so long I can’t even recall when the last time I had scallops was.

Suddenly, I found a package of scallops in my basket.  I recalled that I had some rainbow Swiss chard and broccoli at home (ingredients for my Green Smoothies) that were getting a little wilted, and figured I could toss them in my big fry pan as I saute the scallops.  I then ran across a package of sliced mushrooms, “exotic blend” which had Shiitake, Oyster, and Porcini mushrooms… and I knew my dish was complete.

I would dub thee… Scallops Delight!

So I added a little olive oil to my fry pan, tossed in the mushrooms, broccoli and chard to get them started, added the scallops, tossed in a little garlic powder, pepper, and Italian seasonings, and after about 10-15 minutes it was ready for my plate.  I added a sweet potato and looked at my dinner.

I just had to take a picture…

Yep, I made this

Looks good, huh?  I plugged the recipe into Calorie Count and it wasn’t bad at all, just 560 calories and fit right in with my plan.

I could have easily split this in two and had a side salad to round out the meal.  I had a brief moment of thinking “damn shame I don’t have a special lady to share this with!”  But then I dug in and just delighted in satisfying my seafood craving.

Do you like seafood?  It was easy to make, go indulge yourself

Another margarita

Hi folks, I realize that I left some of y’all with a bit of a cliff-hanger a few weeks back when I wrote about finally getting together with my old friend JL for dinner after not seeing each other for years and years.  So anyway, here’s a quick recap of the evening…

I get a text from her about an hour before we’re supposed to meet and she says, according to her GPS, she’ll be about 15 minutes late.  No problem I tell her, drive safe and I’ll see you there.  I decide to head on over at 6pm to grab a table since we are meeting at a pretty popular Mexican restaurant at dinnertime on a Saturday.  I pause outside to send her a text saying that I’m here, but then see that she’d already texted me that she got there early and has nabbed a table already and tells me where in inside she’s sitting.

Again, I marvel at how nice smartphones are for socializing!

As I approach the table she hops up to wave me down, and then gives me a big hug.  She’s still beautiful– tall, lovely figure, and a smile that lights up the room.  The waiter arrives right on cue and she orders a margarita– a gal after my own heart!  I order the same, and we start with some small talk as we glance over the menu.  When the margaritas arrive they’re sufficiently large and sufficiently strong, and after we place our orders we start talking about life, the universe, and everything.

You know when you have a friend that’s just so easy to talk with?  Me and JL seemed to have that going on.  Our dinner and conversation lasted two and a half hours, talking about old times, our lives, my kids, her boyfriend, our exes (she was previously married too), books, movies, television shows, politics.  We chatted for so long I had to order another margarita!  Honestly, I think we could have gone on for longer but I thought that perhaps her boyfriend might start to worry about her, so I reluctantly said goodbye and we promised to get together again soon.

Oh yeah… there was also the matter of the gal she knows that she wants to set me up with!  We talked a little bit about her and she sounds like a sweet woman who has apparently been a bit unlucky in love.  JL said she was about ready to give up on men– Oh no!  I said, don’t give up!  I mean, I’ve been about as unlucky as you can get and I still hold out hope for love and romance.

Anyway, JL mentioned that she’d seen my Facebook event for this year’s Beer, Bourbon and BBQ Festival in Richmond.  After not being able to rustle up anyone to go with me last year — an utter tragedy — I made a Facebook event for it several months in advance and will be beating the drums and sending out notices to all my friends to round up at least a few of them to go with me.  JL mentioned that maybe she could bring her friend with her that weekend and they could go with us– sounded like a plan to me!

 

New Fantasy Story, Chapter 1 "Bubble Burst"

Reblogged from Ben_Scared:

“You are lowborn and will never amount to anything!”

The words stung worse than the lash that sometimes crossed Justyn’s back, a demoralizing combination of truth and fear.  Truth that, yes, he was born the lowest of the low, the son of a barmaid so wedded to her cups she couldn’t keep a job for more than a few days at a time. 

Read more… 1,906 more words

Had an idea for a short story, wanted to go ahead and capture the vibe in words on the page and loaded them onto my story-writing blog... still need to do the hard work of outlining, character bios, etc... but it's a start. Definitely curious to hear any feedback on your initial impressions!

The Plot Thickens…

A couple months back an old friend had gotten in touch, saying she was going to be in town visiting some friends and wanted to know if I could meet up with her so we could catch up.  I met J.L. many years ago when she was the freshman roommate with my sister, and instantly liked her.  She was brainy, quiet, a bit shy, and totally adorable and attractive without even realizing it.  My sister– who was a bit of a wild child at the time — kinda brought her out of her shell, and a few weekends a year I visited my sister we all would party and have a great time.  J.L. and I struck up a friendship and wrote letters to each other for a little while.  I even still have a picture catching us on a quick midnight kiss for New Years.

Eventually J.L. and my sis took different paths and didn’t hang out so much, and I lost touch with J.L. (though my sister kept in touch).  Fast forward a couple decades and now we have Facebook, wonderfully getting us all back in touch with friends we lost track of over the years.  When I saw J.L. post something on my sister’s wall, I sent her a friends request, hoping that she’d friend me back, and was thrilled when she did.  I was curious to see where life had taken her.

Well, turns out that J.L. is still brainy — she just got her doctorate — and is still totally adorable and attractive.  We love lots of the same books (and sent each other book recommendations), have the same politics, share a similar sense of humor… in short, just a really awesome woman.  So I was really looking forward to meeting up with her before — not for possible romance (for those of you wondering), she has a boyfriend — but just because, as I talked about before (Paradigm Shift) I want to expand my circle of friends and JL is Good People!  Not only will it be great getting reacquainted, but who knows who I might meet through her?

Unfortunately our meet-up falls through… I had wanted to take the kids to see The Hobbit, and it turned out the best time for them ran right into the meet-up time with JL… I texted her when we were done, but she was winding down and wouldn’t be up too much longer.  “We can try again another time,” she said.

So it looks like next time will be… this Saturday!  We’ll be meeting for dinner to talk and catch up — for me it’s Splurge Saturday, so we’ll be going to Plaza Azteca for yummy Mexican food and maybe a margarita– and then later I’m going to meet her at a bar to watch her boyfriend’s band perform (he actually lives nearby).  I love watching live music — and occasionally performing it!

And to make things extra intriguing, she recently left this in the comments of one of my Facebook status updates:

I need to mosey over to your blog. BTW, I’ve a gal you might wanna meet. *GRIN* We’ll talk … I’ll be good.

My response, naturally…

Hee hee, the plot thickens….

If We Can Measure It, We Can Improve It!

After a week of my new healthy eating program, I’m feeling good!  I can feel a difference in the way I feel (with these crazy “bursts” of energy at random times of the day), and I’ve started to notice little things  that are encouraging, including my clothes feeling just a little bit looser.

My Mom, who’s joined Calorie Count with me, sent out an email saying how excited she was to have lost five pounds in the first week.  I was excited for her!  And then I lamented not being able to really measure my successful week in a similar way… because I have no scales.  I just have never thought it worth buying one.  Each time in the past that I went on a diet, I either had scales to weigh in at the meeting, or I was a member of a gym and could weigh myself there.

When I wasn’t on a diet… why would I want scales at home eyeballing me and making me feel guilty?!  So I just never bothered to get one.

This time around I’m particularly excited about Calorie Count and the power of information it gives me.  Logging the foods I eat and tracking the level of 12 important nutrients gives me a powerful tool to measure my success and make adjustments along the way.  Continuous improvement…

At my full-time job, I’m the Quality Analyst for a company that manufactures and sells small kitchen appliances.  I work with a bunch of engineers, and a catch-phrase that comes up all the time is “if we can measure it, we can improve it.”  The engineers of the Quality group make it clear that measuring processes and keeping accurate data is key to continuous improvement for our product.  They of course are referring to machines that make our products, but the principle is the same.  Our bodies are machines, and if we want to improve it, we need to measure it.  Calorie Count is one powerful tool to do so, and scales are another.

Now I know scales can drive you crazy, especially if you’re constantly checking your weight each and every day… but I think it’ll be smart to have a weigh day each week to provide one metric for success on my program, along with taking body measurements too (once I implement my exercise plan).  Also, thinking long-term, once I achieve my goals the scales can be my sentinel to help me make sure I’m staying at my goal without deviating too much.

So I went on Amazon yesterday and ordered some nice, durable scales for my home, along with a food scale to better measure my food intake.  They should arrive next week!  Finally getting scales for my home affirms to me that I’m actually going to do it this time!!

Balanced Achievement Unlocked! (almost)

So Day 6 of my new healthy eating plan is in the books, and that means tomorrow is SPLURGE SATURDAY!!  I get my kids too, so I’m looking forward to basking in the company of my sweet children and topping it off with some treats.  My splurge plan right now is to try a Reuben sandwich from Arby’s, have some ice cream, and once the kids are in bed have a couple margaritas.  I’m still going to eat plenty of healthy foods too.