Riddle me this, Batman.

This is ridiculous, and I'm getting tired of it.

The scenario:

I'm looking for a tan/nude shoe to go with a dress that I own. I go to Target. I find the perfect shoe:

Now, I know how things work, so I traipse around the entire freaking shoe section of Target with these beauties on my feet. I walk up and down every single aisle, fast, slow, turning corners, stepping out onto the unpadded tile. I put these shoes through their paces. They feel fine! They fit! They're perfect! I'll take them!

$31 and some change later, I own what I think are the perfect shoes to wear with my cute dress to the wedding this Saturday.

And then I get home.

This is where it all goes wrong. Where it always goes wrong. I put them on to break them in a little bit and wear them around the house. Holy toe pain, Batman! In no time flat, those perfect, somewhat comfy, flirty little shoes turned into little evil tan-colored monsters, manically chomping away at my feet. They suddenly rubbed in all the wrong places, squished my toes, and made it clear to me that they in fact, did not wish to be the missing part of my perfect little ensemble.

Why...why....why?!?!?!? And, how? How is it possible that they feel fine at the store? Especially when I spend so much time walking around in them and trying them out? What could possibly change in those 15 minutes from the store to my house? The freaky part? This has happened on way more than one occasion, with so many absolutely adorable pairs of shoes that it really pained me to have to part with. What is going on?!

I need an explanation or a solution, and I need one quick...I'm still out a pair of shoes for this damn wedding.

Why is it so hard to be a girl sometimes?!

"Well it would have been, could have been worse than you would ever know..."

("Dashboard" by Modest Mouse)

Small victory, big defeat.

First, the defeat. House scale: 250.0 - not surprising since I suck. More on that later.

As for the small victory? Scale in my boss' office: 249.2

Today was the final weigh-in for our work BL contest. Now, someone, please explain to me how I kept losing weight on my home scale and never losing on the work scale, and now I gain weight on the home scale and lose it at work?! I'm beginning to lose my faith in scales, I can tell you that much. But at any rate, I'm not complaining, because that was my goal for the BL Challenge - to get that darn scale to say something under 250.

Anyway, let's move on to the topic of how much I suck, shall we? Since that's such a happy, light topic...

How many times in the past two weeks have I made good food choices? Yeah, none.

How many times in the past two weeks have I done C25k or anything on the treadmill? Um, maybe twice? And neither of those were in the past 7 days.

How many times have I eaten food within an hour before bedtime? I think 3.

How many times have I counted my calories? None.

Yep. I have hit a snag. How utterly inconvenient that I realize this a mere three weeks before my 5k. (Get ready, I know you all can feel it coming...the Eternal Optimist is on her way...)

But, it's better for me to realize what's going on before my 5k rather than after it. Unfortunately, I am human, and I falter. This is my chance to get back on the wagon. We all fall off, and the challenge is getting up and climbing back on, as hard as that may be. Today, I start the climb. Calorie counting. No eating out this week (except for my weekly lunch date with MFN and JMcQ). C25k Week 3. At least four Treadmill 5k's. Upping my 5k training to a 1% incline (since I've heard that running outside is equivalent to running inside at a 1% incline because of wind resistance, hills, etc.)

I can do it. For one week, I can do it.

That family wedding that I was supposed to lose my second 10 pounds for is this weekend. Did I lose my second 10? No. Do I get to reward myself with a cute new dress? No. Am I upset? Yes. Do I get to blame anyone but myself? Nope. I did it. (Or rather, I didn't do it.)

But I will.

That's what this year is about: saying I'm going to do something, and then finally doing it. I've made a small step towards my goal - I've lost 10 pounds. Now, I have to get my ass in gear and lose my second 10. I am not going to finish this year anywhere near the 260.6 I was in December of 2008.

I promise myself, and I promise you.

I feel good about this...here we go (again!)

Wedding Music*

*If hearing about the music I used for my wedding/reception does not interest you at all, please feel free to ignore this post. I won't take it too personally...

Way back in February, I did a couple posts about the music we used in our wedding, but never finished. (That's so like me...) Since life's pretty slow right now, and I don't have much else to blog about, how 'bout a little re-cap, plus the rest of the music that I never shared with you?

Pre-wedding Slide Show:

Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
Come Fly With Me - Michael Buble
Stuck on You - Elvis Presley
Come Go With Me - The Del Vikings
L.O.V.E. - Michael Buble
At Last - Etta James
Burnin' Love - Elvis Presley
This Magic Moment - Jay and the Americans
The Best is Yet to Come - Michael Buble
You Send Me - Sam Cooke
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Michael Buble


The Ceremony:

Canon in D - Pachelbel (Gary Schnitzer version): Pastor/Parents/Party Processional
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring - Bach (http://www.weddingmusiccentral.com/ version): Bride/Father Processional
Back to the Future Main Theme - John Williams: Recessional


The Reception:

Walk This Way - Aerosmith and Run D.M.C.: Bridal Party Entrance
Back in Black - AC/DC: Bride and Groom Entrance
For Once In My Life - Michael Buble: Our first dance
Stand By Me - Ben E. King: Parents' Dance
Have I Told You Lately - Rod Stewart: Anniversary Dance
Ladies Night - Kool & the Gang: Bouquet Toss
Low Rider - War: Garter Retrieval and Toss
How Sweet it is (To Be Loved By You) - James Taylor: Cake Cutting
Play That Funky Music (White Boy) - Wild Cherry: A 'must play' for my dad; it's his favorite song.
All You Need Is Love - Nada Surf Version: Last Song


A couple notes/stories about this music...

As you may have read in my previous post, none of our music was played with our pre-wedding slideshow. It was drama, and I was not pleased. Instead, our 170-something guests got to silently look at pictures of us growing up. The church's sound tech was, like, 12. End of story.

Paying $2.99 for that version of Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring was some of the best money I spent on the wedding. I could not find a version of that song that was as slow as I wanted, and had the right instruments. Then I came across http://www.weddingmusiccentral.com/ and all was right with the world.

The 12-year-old sound tech wasn't very quick on the draw with our recessional song, so we ended up all standing at the altar waiting for the music to start for a good 30 seconds. 30 seconds seems like an eternity when 170 of your closest friends and family are staring at you. Trust me, I know.

Extra kudos points to you if you don't personally know me (sorry BFF and MFN) and you can guess why we chose the reception entrance song we did...

I could write an entire post about the dumb issues we had with our DJ the night of the wedding. Not the least of which is this: he played the live version of MB's For Once In My Life, without telling us it was going to be the live version. While it's not the worst thing that could have happened, it was totally not what we were expecting, and the live version was not as good as the regular recorded version. I was annoyed, but I still remember almost every single second of that dance.

We chose to cut down on drama and do our Parents' Dance together. The Hubs danced with his mom, and I danced with my dad at the same time. Stand By Me was the perfect choice for us.

The Anniversary Dance went on for so long (my grandparents have been married for 61 years) that we were still 'eliminating' couples after HITYL went off. The DJ had to find another song to continue the dance until we were down to my grandparents and another couple who had been married for 59 years. Honoring these long marriages was one of my favorite parts of our reception.


The Hubs did a quick change during my bouquet toss into his racing gear, and had a surprise entrance into the reception for the garter retrieval. This is definitely one of the only places where our DJ earned his money, because we just couldn't figure out a good song to use for this, and they came up with Low Rider. It was perfect, and we managed to keep the whole thing a secret from everyone. Yet another highlight of the reception.


I'm really sad that the photographers had left before the last dance. To their credit, they really did get everything that we thought we would want. I wasn't expecting the last dance to be as great as it was. It ended up being me, my new husband, and our closest friends in a circle singing "All You Need Is Love" to each other at the top of our lungs. There's nothing like the "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah's"...remembering that part ALWAYS puts a smile on my face. It was the perfect way to end the perfect day.

Sweet Sacrifice

As I've mentioned before, MFN's hubby is in the Army. Next week, he deploys for a year in Iraq...lucky him. I can't even imagine what MFN is going through. I'm so selfish that I have always just simply said I would not date anyone in the military, or emergency services of any kind. I just couldn't do it. Luckily for me, The Hubs has metal plates and screws in his leg as a result of being an idiotic teenager, so there's not really a chance he would get drafted, or even accepted as a volunteer.

Anyway, remember The Navy Wife? She called me on Friday night to check on my 5k progress, and we got to talking about how MFN's hubby is leaving, etc. The Navy Wife has been through two deployments (I think...I can't remember, but it's at least two), so she had some really good advice and insight.

One of the things she suggested I do, was to do a 'countdown' for MFN using candy. It was such a good idea, that I started working on it right away.

Here's the finished product:

You know an ex-English Major can't resist the chance for a good pun...
365 Skittles (I counted twice!), one for every day of his year-long deployment:
MFN gets to eat a Skittle every day, and 3 on Mondays (for the weekend, of course). Hopefully, they'll be gone before she knows it! (Also, hopefully, the cleaning crew at the office doesn't steal any during the night!)

I know that this isn't life-changing, and it's not like I'm bringing Jason home quicker for her, or anything, but I hope it makes the next year just a tiny bit easier for MFN to deal with. At the very least, a sugar buzz can't hurt, right?

WTFS* Moments...

*"What the eff, seriously?!"

I feel the need to share these two fast-food related WTFS moments because (1) the second one just happened today, (2) my first job was at McDonalds. I was 14 and I like to think I had more common sense than the characters I seem to keep encountering, and (3) the common 'combo' theme cracks me up. I didn't know it was really that challenging.

WTFS Moment #1: Arby's. I picked up lunch for MFN and myself a few weeks ago.

Mrs. B.: Do you have a Ham Melt value meal, or do I have to buy all the items separately?
Arby's Girl: No, we don't have a value meal.
B: Okay, then I'd like a Ham Melt, small potato cakes, and a small Diet Coke.
AG: *lightbulb* Oh, well we have a Ham Melt combo...
B: (after a WTFS moment/look)...Okay...I'll take that.

WTFS Moment #2: Wendy's. Thankfully this WTFS Moment did not actually happen to me. I was merely a witness.

Customer: I'd like a Number 1...
Wendy's Guy: The meal? Or the sandwich?
C: The Number 1...
WG: The meal?
C: Yes.

Do you have a WTFS Moment you'd like to share? I'm sure they've happened to you - idiocy can't possibly contained to the fast food restaurants in the Cincinnati area...

Anything but the diet...

Lots of little stuff going on that I want to share, and I need to take a break from talking about that ever frustrating topic of diet and exercise. Therefore, my challenge today is to talk about anything but the diet.

1. Work sucks. I need to win the lottery with the quickness. Also, randomly, I absolutely hate it when I have to choose a new password for my computer at work. We have to do it every couple of months, and today was the day. Inevitably, I sit there, staring at my computer screen for minutes, trying desperately to think of something that fits the two million requirements and is something I will remember/not hate having to type in every day. Run-on sentence over. You may breathe.
2. The Hubs is about to have a serious breakdown. I think he has finally hit his limit with the whole full-time job/full-time student thing. It took about 5 weeks, which is probably about 3 weeks longer than it would have taken me. Now we are at an impass...he either has to get a new job that pays better so he can work less hours, figure out a way that we can afford for him to work less hours at the poorly-paying job he has, or suck it up. And I either have to find a way to spend less money or get a second job. Both of those options are equally hard/sucky for me.
3. My mom is the awesomest. I hung out at her house yesterday and we spent the afternoon looking at old photos of her and our family. She gave me the two baby blankets that were made for me when I was born. She made one of them, and my Aunt Nadie made the other. She made sure to emphasize the fact that it was really special that Aunt Nadie made me a blanket because she didn't make blankets for any of the other babies. Did I mention that my mom is the awesomest?
4. The BFF is one of the strongest women I know. You can't imagine the life she's had, and some of the things she's gone through, or how it always seems like god/the devil/allah/whoever has it out for her. As of right now, there's a whole lot of drama with trying to evict Tulula the Toomah from her uterus, but I think it will all get figured out. She hasn't given up hope yet, and at the very latest, Tulula will get her walking papers in January. And, I realize that the image of a larger-than-a-softball-sized tumor getting up and walking out of her uterus is something I'm sure you could all have done without.
5. I can't wait to have Memorial Day off! And it just so happens that I will be camping with 5 of my favorite people the weekend after that, so I only have to work 3 days that week! I'm super excited about camping, and I can't wait to go. I think we all could really use some time away from life!
6. I really need to spend a day (or a week!) organizing the music on my iPod. What a flippin' mess! There are so many songs that got imported as Unknown Artists even though I know full well who the artists are. And playlists? Don't even get me started. I really have to work on getting a great playlist together for that big event of mine that's coming up on June 7th, but that I'm not allowing myself to talk about in this post. Get it? Got it? Good. Moving on.
7. The Hubs and I are totally sucking with working out a way to find time to hang out with friends and family during this crazy time in our life. Candice and Harby have tried to hang with us several times in the past couple of months (in fact, I think the last time we saw them may have been The Hubs' 30th at the beginning of February. Damn, we suck!) and we have either bailed on them, or flat out had to say no. And now Candice is trying to get something together for Harby's birthday, which is awesome, but... it's the weekend of that big event of mine that I'm not allowing myself to blog about. (Dude, this is harder than I thought!)
8. I hate internet direction sites. When trying to get directions to my mom's new house this weekend, Google maps took me some strange way that said it was going to take over an hour and a half, so I used Mapquest, whose route looked much more sensible. While it took me only a little over an hour, I soon (after missing the very first turn I was supposed to take) realized that all of the distances were off. If it said I was supposed to go 5.8 miles down a certain road, it really ended up being closer to 5 miles. Sometimes even less. And then, I get to my mom's, and my 80-year-old Grandpa is incredulous that I don't own a GPS. "I used my Tom-Tom and it brought me right here", he says. Seriously?
9. I can not win a contest on Pioneer Woman's blog to save my life. At least I'm in good company with the other 15,000 or so people who try every time. If you haven't checked her out, especially Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, what ever you do - don't do it at work. At least not with any big deadlines looming, because you will not be able to pull yourself away.
10. That, ye lads and lasses, is all.

Part 1: The Early Years of Us (Continued)

(Labor Day fireworks one year after the proposal.)

(MFN's and my 26th birthday cake. Made by The BFF.)


(Cornhole game The Hubs and I made for my dad's birthday.)

(Where the infamous proposal happened. Yes, we had a wedding date before we had an engagement.)

("I Hate War" monument in Washington, DC.)

(The Wienermobile! How cool is that?!)

(A baby gorilla about to get in trouble by big daddy.)

(My most recent -and fourth- tattoo. As a tribute to my mamma.)

Pictures. Lots and lots of pictures! (Part 1: The Early Years of Us)

Just thought I'd share some of my favorites. These are all pictures from either before or during the time The Hubs and I were dating. (July, '06 - October '08)

(A pretty day on the way to see The Hubs race.)

(A park in Dayton, Ohio.)

(The Hubs getting ready to race.)

(Us at the track.)

(Halloween '06: Racecar Driver and Checkered Flag.)

(Gatlinburg trip exactly two years before our honeymoon.)

(Florida trip, December '07)

(Downtown Disney)

(The BFF at the Jimmy Buffett concert.)

(Candice at the Cincinnati Zoo.)

(Me and Harby aka The Hubs' best man.)

More in a minute!

This is my life?

I just called The Hubs to share some really exciting news:

I saved over $40 with coupons at the grocery store and came in $30 under budget. And I bought him the fish he likes without him even asking.

Next thing you know, I'll be driving a Dodge Caravan full of screaming children to soccer practice.

I think I need to put on a skanky outfit and go do some binge drinking while ugly guys try to grind on me without my permission to really bad hip hop music at an 18-and-up club - just to recapture a teeny tiny shred of my youth before it's totally gone.

Or, I'll put away groceries, clean the bathroom, and watch Dirty Dancing again.

Then I'll look up the phone number to the Dodge dealership. Minivans are hip, right?

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

Okay, just have to say that is quite possibly the best. movie. ever.

I might just have to watch it again.

:-)

"You fixed it!"

(I'm a My Big Fat Greek Wedding nerd, and that's one of my favorite quotes from the movie. Challenge: Can anyone tell me what scene it's in?!)

Anyway, the awesome Katy over at "Follow Me to 'I Do'" alerted me to a problem with posting comments on my blog. Maybe you guys really do like me after all! The BFF had issues with comments after she started using a non-Blogger template, and I think that's what my issue was as well.

I think I fixed it, but I'm going to need the help of you Smartie McBloggertons to help me prove it! (a.k.a. leave me a comment, pretty please!)

So I guess I could give you a little update while I'm here...The Hubs is en route to his parents' house. I'm en route to some yummy dinner and some even yummier young Patrick Swayze in the form of Dirty Dancing.

What self-respecting woman who was alive in the 80's wouldn't call that a pretty perfect night? Certainly not me.

Certainly.

"Hold your head up, keep your head up - movin' on..."

("Sweet Dreams" by The Eurythmics).

248.0, but guess who has made the executive decision to move her weigh-ins back to Monday? That's right, yours truly.

Since the 20/20 Challenge is defunct and no one is 'officially' keeping track anymore, it doesn't matter when I weigh in. I just feel 'off' weighing in on Fridays, and it gives me no incentive to be good through the weekend. Therefore, *lightbulb* I can weigh in on Mondays again!

So I guess that means I've lost 1.8 pounds from last Friday, but maintained from this Monday. We'll see what next Monday has to say about that. All in all, I feel much better about Monday Weigh-Ins, so I'm glad they're back.

So far this week, I've done treadmill 5k three times. Twice with an attempt at as much running as I can - not strictly C25k, but running for less time, more frequently. I'm not sure if it's the best idea, since it's not doing much for my endurance, but it's probably closer to the reality of what I'll be doing when I actually get out there and run my 5k. We'll see how it goes.

I have 2 more 5k's this week to reach my goal of 5. Tonight and tomorrow will have to be the days I get it done, since I'm driving out to bufu to see my momma on Sunday.

The End.

Existential Crisis...

Wow...nine posts and nary a comment to be found.

Have you all grown tired of me already? I don't know if my little blogger heart could take it...

:-)

"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away..."

Now it looks as though they're here to stay.
("Yesterday" by The (incomperable) Beatles).

Oy vey! Yesterday was rough. I can't even begin to tell you how many food sins I committed -but I'll try. After all, you're stuck with me - the good, the bad, and the ugly. And yesterday was definitely ugly.

The week started out okay - I ate pretty well on Monday, and had a new PR on my 5k Monday night. Tuesday morning, the scale said 247.6. (Pretty please don't tell me not to weigh myself every day. I know I'm not supposed to, but it's my "own personal brand of heroin". You won't get me to stop.) Anyway, 247.6, I was pretty stoked.

The morning started out perfectly - my Crunch Pak of apples and grapes, and V8 Fusion. (Yumm-o.) At 11:30, MFN was in a meeting and I was getting really hungry, so I decided to have my lunch without her. I wanted to get in and use the ONE microwave we have before everyone started warming up their Cinco de Mayo party dishes. So I ate my Bowl Appetite.

This is where my day starts going downhill.

Half an hour later, MFN gets out of her meeting and warily comes to my desk. She needs to get out of the office and commiserate over a Cincinnati staple - Skyline. (p.s. I absolutely love my city, and it's plethora of culinary delights. As long as I have this blog, I will extol their virtues. All of them, that is, except Goetta. The Queen City is on her own with that one.) So, as you will recall, I already ate my lunch, but I had to help a friend in need! Two cheese coneys, a root beer, and a lot of complaining later, I was two lunches down for the day and still had a long way to go.

Remember that Cinco de Mayo party I mentioned earlier? All it took was one person mentioning chips, and I was in there with the quickness. Fritos?! I haven't had Fritos in years...I had to have some of those. Mmmm...salty, water-retention-y goodness, say hello to my belly fat.

And then, The BFF emailed me a special little coupon for a free two-piece grilled chicken meal with two sides and a biscuit from KFC. I had kind of wanted to try their new grilled chicken, and mashed potatoes with gravy, mac 'n cheese and a biscuit certainly sounded good. So guess what I had for dinner? And, p.s., the grilled chicken was absolutely horrible. Seriously dry, and the pieces of meat were much smaller than their normal chicken. If they were trying to get people to try it so that they would return and buy more...they failed. Miserably.

And then, irony of ironies, I enjoyed two (small) brownies that were left over from my Mother's Day dinner, while watching MTV's True Life: I'm On A Diet. That's like eating a whole pizza by yourself while watching The Biggest Loser. Ugh. Low of lows, here I am.

My best guess is that I was probably about 1,200 calories over my goal for the day. That's almost an entire day of calories. This morning, the scale said 249.somethingorother. I couldn't bring myself to pay that close attention once I saw the first 3 numbers.

I just can't freaking believe it was so easy to fall.

On the upside, (The Eternal Optimist strikes again!) I didn't let my self-loathing keep me from getting on the treadmill and doing my second 5k of the week. I had no plans to run, but I wanted to stay at or above 3.1 mph so that I would finish in an hour or less. You know what I realized? Walking on the treadmill is the most boring thing in existence. It takes forEVER! I finally couldn't take it anymore at around 45 minutes and just had to start running as much as I could. Just to get it over with!

I went to bed trying to remind myself that tomorrow is a new day, and I can't take back how today went, but I can do better tomorrow.

As much as I know that, and as much as I try to remind myself of it, I just can't shake that nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I failed at yesterday.

"Fall seven times, stand up eight", right?

Well, at least I'm standing...

"I'm goin' down down baby, yo street in a Range Rover..."

("Country Grammar" by Nelly).

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is as 'ghetto' as I get. I do enjoy that song, though.

Anyway, the point is, I'm goin' down, down baby...

5k Times to Date:

• 59:40 (April 01)
• 57:15 (April 03)
• 56:48 (April 16)
• 55:38 (April 21)
• 54:25 (April 23)
• 52:39 (May 04)

I have brought my 5k time down over 7 minutes in a month! I'm really excited about that, because that means if I can keep this pace up, I'll be down to 45 minutes by the time my 5k rolls around on June 7th.

I seriously felt like I was going to die tonight. Maybe 10 days away from running wasn't such a good idea after all. But I made it through. I kept going, and as we all know, that's the name of the game.

Let's Make A New Friend

Meet my pal Sigg:

She is beautiful, and she keeps me hydrated. She also comes in a gazillion stylish designs for you to choose from. The design above is called "Earth", which just happens to be the particular Sigg that adorns my desk at work.

I highly recommend you make friends with a Sigg of your own.

"I'm back in the saddle again..."

("Back in the Saddle Again" by Aerosmith).

This morning's weigh in? 248.0

I'll take it!

I've got a new resolve. A new strength. A new motivation. A week off was just what the doctor ordered. I've decided I'm going to push myself as far as I can go. I'm going to lose those last 8 pounds by May 23rd.

I'm going to do it - no excuses. And here's how:

• C25k Week 4 at least 3 times this week.
• 5k on the treadmill at least 5 times this week. (Including my c25k nights).
• 1,600 calories or less every. single. day. this week.
• Metformin every single day this week.
• V8 Fusion and fresh fruit for breakfast every work day.
• Drink at least 3 full Sigg bottles of water every work day.
• Continue crazy active work project at least 5 hours of every work day.

I'm excited!

On to other news:

Tonja cancelled her birthday bash this past weekend, so we didn't even have to miss out on it! I'm bummed for her that she cancelled, but excited that we might have a better chance of going when she reschedules.

We didn't see X-Men: Origins this weekend. The Hubs is wicked bummed. Maybe next weekend?

I cooked for The In-Laws yesterday. It was uber awkward. I made Chicken Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Mixed Veggies, and Crescent Rolls. The Chicken Casserole turned out great, the Mashed Potatoes were still lumpy, the Steamfresh Mixed Veggies were disappointing, and I burned the bottom of the Crescent Rolls. So maybe The MIL has a point. :-/

Everything was actually pretty good, considering, and I think The In-Laws could tell that I was trying really hard. And no one got food poisoning, that I know of. Yet.

So I guess that's it. This week, I'm focusing on diet/exercise. The Hubs is focusing on schoolwork. And we're both focusing on not having nervous breakdowns.

Waisting time...

(Heh heh, get it? It's a pun. About how I'm wasting time, and it's affecting my waist? *Tap, tap*...Is this thing on? Crickets.)

249.8

I'm up a 1/2 pound, which is to be expected. I've boycotted diet and exercise this week, just because I can. Now that's dedication for you...

Actually, I've been doing a very physical project at work that involves LOTS of lifting and moving and general running around. It basically means I leave work at the end of the day feeling like I got hit by a train. I just couldn't bring myself to go through c25k this week. I knew the consequences, and this morning, they were staring me in the face.

Unfortunately, until I took a look at the calendar this morning, I didn't realize just exactly how much I was counting on this week to help me get to the -20 mark by May 23rd. Now I have made it so that I have to lose over 3.2 pounds per week to reach that goal. I'm not going to say it's impossible, but...

If I get there, that's great. If I don't, don't expect a big, whiny post about it. It's my responsibility, my job to do the work. If I don't reach my goals, I have no one to blame but myself.

And that's all there is to say about that.

Current events-wise, Tonja's birthday bash is this weekend, which The Hubs and I can't afford to go to. Bummer! I'm sure it will be an awesome time.

Since The Hubs has to work on Mother's Day, we're having The In-Laws over for Mother's Day dinner this Sunday. Wish me luck, as this is my first chance to prove to her that I'm a capable, adult, human being. I'm going to cook a family favorite that I've made about a thousand times. I had better not mess it up, since she already has about zero confidence in my cooking/baking/breathing ability, and she's not been shy to make it known. The hope is that this will turn her attitude around, without The Hubs having to have the talk with her. Wish me luck!

(p.s. While she can be a little too much to take sometimes, she's totally cracking me up lately. The woman keeps asking me how my 'marathon' is going...no matter how many times I tell her it's just a 5k, it's a 'marathon' to her. Okay, Jack's mom, sure...I'm running a marathon in a month. Let's go with that.)

The Biggest Loser Challenge final weigh in by my boss is on the 18th. I know I haven't won the challenge, but I just really want that fricking scale in her office to tell me a number below 250. It seems as though I've been going down, down, down on my home scale. Every fricking Friday, I try the scale in her office, and every fricking Friday, it says 251.6. How is that possible?! I figure, losing those 10 pounds by the 23rd, maybe...just maybe I can get that scale to say 249. Ugh!

Aaaand...I had 115 chances to become a millionaire on Tuesday, and it didn't work. Mega Millions was up to $181 mil - $117.4 mil cash option, which would have worked out to just over $2 mil after I shared it with the other 56 people at work who put in money. I have 129 chances tonight, and would have to share $220 mil ($143.5 mil cash option) with 58 people. In case you're wondering, that would be just about $2.5 million dollars.

Don't you worry your pretty, little blogger-friend heads...I will blog, even if I become a millionaire. I promise. :-)

Wish me luck, because my good karma from last week - I saved a girl from walking out of a bathroom with her skirt stuck in her underwear, and I saved a deer from getting hit by my Speed Racer of a husband - didn't help at all!

Guess that's all the news here in Mrs. B-ville. Hope you have a great Friday!