Well. Not a good time of year for actors, apparently. Actor Heath Ledger dies at 28

Took my dad to see Atonement this evening. We went to this new theater near his house, where we got drinks and snacky things and free popcorn. All around good time, and we liked the movie. It was a bit slow at times but very lush and beautiful and also made me love James McAvoy a little bit.

Before the movie, I stopped by Mummy Fantastic's to check how's she's doing after her fall this weekend. Thankfully, she seems well. Did have to get 7 stitches in her hand but she was in good spirits and said it wasn't bothering her. Poor thing, though, needs to be more careful!

Ooh, and also, I want one of these: Happy Cakes

ETA: Oh, I forgot - at the movie today, we saw a trailer for Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day, which looks awesome and also includes Lee Pace speaking with an English accent. Everybody wins!

Weekend recap (and some other stuff)

Phew! What a weekend. Very busy. To recap, Friday night was my cousins' birthday so a bunch of us went out to celebrate. We went to the Peaks Lounge, this great place at the top of the Hyatt by the convention center with a fabulous view of the mountains. And then we went to see Patsy Decline at Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret. The show was really fun and humourous. I think my cousins had a great birthday celebration.

Then on Saturday our friends came over for dinner and brought their 8-month-old daughter, Georgia. She's the cutest thing ever. She has red hair. Like real red hair, not the strawberry blonde you see on babies sometimes. Anyway, it was really nice to hang out with our friends and chat, and we played a game and played with the baby. And btw, Mr. Fantastic + baby = OTP. He is SO ready for us to have kids and he's so great with them. Well, we're going to start trying mid-March so hopefully I'll have an exciting announcement soon.

Sunday we went up to Ft. Morgan for our nephew's tenth birthday. Had lunch and then everybody went bowling. Haven't been bowling in ages but it was so much fun! And I scored a 99, which was better than Mr. Fantastic, which is the only thing that counts. Heh. And Mr. Fantastic's brother and his wife paid for everything, which I thought was really cool.

While we were on the drive up, we got a call that Mummy Fantastic had tripped over something in the basement and cut her hand and torqued her knee and had to go to the e/r. Poor thing needed stitches and everything and couldn't make it up for bowling. I think she's mostly doing fine, but if I can ever get my act together today, I'll go over and visit her.

Luckily today is a Corporate Holiday and so I get the day off to lounge around. If it was nice out, I'd be lounging around in my underwear. But since it's not, I'm lounging around in my long underwear. Not quite as fun.

And, here's some other stuf...

~~~

Hey, are you reading xkcd? You should be.

~~~

So, I know I've mentioned Scientology briefly before and you all know how absolutely NUTS I think it is. Here, you want proof? (As if the fact that it was originally created as fiction and features an alien named Xenu at its core isn't enough.) Check out the Tom Cruise Scientology Indoctrination video.

~~~

FYI, these are the shows I'm watching right now. Please feel free to come by if you'd like to discuss any of them.
Big Medicine
Biggest Loser: Couples
Celebrity Apprentice
Celebrity Rehab
Chuck
Friday Night Lights
House
My Fair Brady: Maybe Baby?
The Office
Project Runway
Psych
Real World/Road Rules
Stargate Atlantis
Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles
Three Sheets

God, I watch too much t.v. And I'm fairly certain I've left something out. *facepalm*

Oh honey. It's a good thing you're cute.

From the Conversations with Mr. Fantastic Files:

Mr. Fantastic: *pointing at the t.v.* Hey, you have one of those things!
Me: *looking up from laptop* Hm? One of what things?
Mr. F: One of those things that goes across the table but doesn't really do anything.
Me: ...a table runner?
Mr. F: Is that what they're called?

~

(on the phone )
Me: Whatcha doing?
Mr F: Watching Donna play Italy.
Me: What?
Mr F: I'm watching Donna play Italy.
Me: Who?
Mr F: Italy.
Mr F: No, I know, but what did you say?
Mr F: [loud] IT-A-LY. You know, boot shaped country?
Me: ... [rolling eyes] Yes, I got that, but who else?
Mr F: GHA-NA. Little country in Africa?
Me: Oh, Ghana. I thought you said Donna. I was picturing a little girl taking on all of Italy.
Mr F: ...

~

Mr. Fantastic is watching some show on the National Geographic channel about some guys who got attacked by a bear (because that's the kind of geek HE is). And these two guys are like hiking along a river or lake or something, looking for help, and the very first boat they run into had both a doctor and a policeman on it.

Mr. F: Wow, that was lucky!
Me: *surfing 'net* Hmm, what?
Mr. F: blah blah attacked by bear blah blah boat doctor policeman.
Me: Oh, wow, that is lucky!
Mr. F: Yeah, you know, with my luck, the first boat I'd find would have a stripper and a clown on it.
Me: ... *collapses in helpless laughter*

~

Mr.F called me at work and we had the following conversation:

Me: Hello?
Mr.F: Hi. Whatcha doin'?
Me: Working. What're you up to?
Mr.F: Trying to fix lunch. Have you seen my burrito?
Me: ...What?
Mr.F: My burrito. I lost it.
Me: ...A...frozen?...burrito?
Mr.F: Yeah, I bought one and now I can't find it.
Me: ...You...lost...a burrito?
Mr.F: Yeah, I wanted it for lunch but I lost it.
Me ...
Mr.F: Have you seen it?
Me: ...Did you look in the freezer?
Mr.F: [excited] Why, did you see it in there?
Me: ...No, but that's probably where it would be.
Mr.F: So you haven't seen it.
Me: No. Maybe you ate it already.
Mr.F: No, I would know if I ate it already. The cheese dip hasn't been opened yet.
Me: ...
(At this point, I realize that we have both an unopened cheese dip in the cupboard, and also an open cheese dip in the fridge, so he probably did eat it already. But I am trying to work here, so I wisely decline to bring this up. And I also laugh to myself that the way he knows he hasn't eaten his burrito yet is dependent on the presence of unopened cheese dip and not the presence of [or lack thereof] the actual burrito itself.)

Mr.F: So, you haven't seen it?
Me: No, honey, I'm sorry. I don't know where it is.
Mr.F: [sad] Darn. I lost my burrito.
Me: [soothing] I'm sorry you lost your burrito, honey.

~
God, he makes me laugh. ♥

Who on the what now?

Okay, so wait, the Golden Globes happened? Who won and stuff? Or do I even care?

So, have I mentioned that with the advent of losing 80-something pounds, I am now FREEZING to death all of the time? Turns out the whales know what they're doing after all. I've had to invest in long underwear just so I can leave the house. Wearing a pair of jeans and a sweater is not enough anymore, I've got to layer. Huh.

Yay! And boo.

How is it possible I'm this bored watching a cowboy movie starring both Christian Bale and Russell Crowe?

In other news, the nice lady at the gym did my measurements yesterday and did some calculations and stuff for me. Since November 29 (last time we did measurements), I've lost 8 pounds and a collective 6.5 inches from various body parts. Yay!

Also, my body fat percentage went down from 41.4 to 39.1. At first I was horrified to realize that I'm nearly half fat! OMG, cringe cringe. However, apparently 30% is average so it's much less horrifying than I originally thought.

And then she used math to figure out somehow that the 8 pounds I lost was all fat, which, also yay. Then she used the evil math to tell me that out of the 180 pounds of me, 71 of it is fat. OMG, horrifying again.

Can we make 41-35-41 the new 36-24-36? 'Cause then I'd be perfect.

State of the weight

La la, time to talk about my weight some more. As of today I've lost 85 pounds. Yay!

That puts me 65% of the way to my goal. Ideally, I'd like to lose another 45, but it can take up to two years to get all the way to goal. Plus, I plan on getting pregnant as soon as Dr. Snyder says it's okay, which is a year after surgery. So it may be some time before I'm all the way there. At a year out, which is April 3, the surgeon's goal is for me to be anywhere from 70-85% of the way, or around 155 at 85%. That means I've got 13 weeks to lose 25 pounds. Think I can do it? For the last three months, I've averaged about 1.2 pounds a week. But half that time I wasn't exercising. So if I'm really good and go to the gym three times a week religiously and get back to the rules of my eating plan, I think it's doable.

Also, as part of the returning-things-after Christmas spree, I exchanged something I got for a new pair of jeans. In a size 16! HOORAY! Mr. Fantastic didn't understand why I was so excited about it so I had to explain that 16 is the top end of the non-plus sizes, and it sort of marks the start of the transition from fat girl to normal-size. And he was like, "Oh! Well, welcome to regular-girl pants!"

Looking back, looking forward

Well. 2007 has been quite a year. Lots of ups and downs. Looking back...my first post of the year said my blog word was "Rodney." Just checked again today and it's now "hospital." That about sums up the year, I'd say.

January: The Hew got engaged. We lost my beloved Auntie after a long illness.
February: Went on vacation with mckays_girl. Mr. Fantastic got a job. I did a sleep study.
March: Mr. F gave me the plague and I got a new job. There was a St. Patrick's Day party. I had a botany-related nightmare.
April: I declared my intent to have gastric bypass surgery. I had said surgery and Mr. F is a champ. I talk about my health. David Hewlett turned 39.
May: My friend Erin had her baby.
June: I celebrated birthday 29v5. Mr. F turned 36.
July: We started the Family Olympics. I saw Harry Potter OotP. I read Harry Potter DH. I went to ComicCon with mckays_girl. My brother had a brain tumor.
August: My brother's brain tumor was cancerous. My grandmother died. Mr. F & I had our 8 year anniversary. It was the ten year anniversary of my mom's death. My dad turned 62. They decided not to do radiation on my brother, chemo only.
September: My brother started chemo, and also started having a weird skin reaction to one of his medications. He went back to the ICU. Mr. F & I went to Vegas.
October: Mr. F won a t.v. Hewlett 2.0 arrived. Had my 6-month follow-up to surgery, my brother went back to work. I got the plague again, SGA was picked up for season 5. Mr F. loves me despite my geekery.
November: I got a new phone. My brother JT turned 43 and still needs your Coke Rewards points. The chemo is working. After a long break, I started back to the gym again.
December: I got nearly everything on my wishlist and you guys rock. Steve turned 42.

This was quite a year for me. So many wonderful and awful things happened. I have certainly been living in interesting times. I'm so very grateful for all of you. For squeeing with me through all the good stuff and for all your amazing support through the difficult things. For making sure I never felt helpless or alone. I cannot thank all of you enough for being the amazing friends that you are. There's nothing like interesting times to make you appreciate how wonderful life is, even when it's awful.

Here's wishing 2008 is more of the wonderful, for me and for all of you. Happy New Year! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Popping in

Hi! I know I've been MIA and I have like a million comments to answer and I'll get to them, I swear. All is well, just busy.I just wanted to pop in and tell you two things.

ennuis petits: Yesterday, when asked for the URL of the page she wanted to make changes to, one of my web clients responded, "I don't know what a "URL" is. But if you go to www.website.com, and click on X, then pick X from the pulldown menu, what comes up is the page I want." *headdesk* I can't decide if this is better or worse than the woman who wanted me to change her links from purple back to blue.

However, in happy news...les petit joies: Took my brother to the oncologist yesterday, where they reviewed the PET scan he had last week. We got the excellent news that in just 3 months of chemo, the spot in his lung has shrunk from 1.8 mm to 1 mm. This is especially excellent because they think there may be a chance they won't have to do surgery to remove the remainder if they can get it to disappear with chemo alone. Yay!

PANTS!

Old Navy, where have you been all my life? Oh yes, for the last 8 years I've been too fat for you. Ahaha, not anymore! I finally had to give it up and buy a new pair of jeans so I thought I'd go check out the Old Navy because I heard they go up to size 18 (which is the current size of my ass.) So I went and saw that not only did they have my size, but they also have short lengths!

At 5 feet-almost-one-inch, it's really hard for me to find pants that are both wide and short enough. So I found an awesome pair of jeans that I adore, that fit, that feel good, that make me feel good and the best part was I got 'em for under $25. YEE HAW. It was very difficult to limit myself to just one pair, but it won't be too long before I've got to move down another size so I restrained myself. For the record, I've now lost 77 lbs (or 5.5 stone, if that's how you roll) in just over 7 months. I wish it was faster (I know, I know, stfu) but I try to keep the whining to a minimum since my doctor and everyone at the wls community tells me the slower it goes, the better it is for you long-term. I have 53 more pounds to lose, and I want it gone now, dammit! However, I have consoled myself with looking at my before and after pics. I seem to have a waist now. Where did that come from?

plague

Urgh. Still plaguey. mckays_girl mother-henned me into going to the doctor today, which I did, and am now armed with $40 cough medicine and instructions to get plenty of fluids and rest. Hopefully the heavy-duty cough medicine will help with the resting part and I will soon stop sounding like Suzanne Pleshette.

Mr. Fantastic brought me soup for dinner and let me watch Pushing Daisies before he watched the Tottenham match. What a sweetie.