And We're Back

First off, my absence for the last couple of days was due to exhaustion/laziness, as well as the fact that the damn phone/Internet was out again. Seriously, it's 2011. I can get the entire Internet, in animated full-color, on my cell phone, and AT&T can't reliably provide a landline service?!

Today's reason for phone outage: AT&T was working on somebody else's phone line in the area, and that caused our line to break. WHAT?! Working on one line causes another line to break? That sounds like a really good way to guarantee job security for AT&T technicians. Or, I mean, at least until the whole world gives up on landlines ... which will probably happen in approximately 2 months anyway. So, enjoy your run, AT&T.

Anyway, petty concerns about utility companies can't hurt me now! I have something far more exciting to occupy my thoughts! So, remember how I started tracking my blog ranking on Technorati back in December? Well, when I last checked three weeks ago, my blog was ranked #22,865 on the Internet. Today I just happened to glance over at Technorati, and I was #9,004! I'm in the top 10,000! And my Technorati authority ranking, which has hovered between 126 and 129, is now 388. I don't really know what exactly that authority is based on, but as a reference frame, the top blogs are at about 900.

So, now that I am a person of influence, I would like to express my disappointment about the following: Tina Fey has a book coming out April 5, and according to this article, her book tour will not include a stop in Chicago. WHAT?! Tina Fey got her start with The Second City in Chicago. Has she forgotten her roots? And also, we have the best pizza. Anyway, I'll give Tina a break because I know she's so busy writing/producing/starring in the greatest show currently on television, so maybe she doesn't have time to visit the middle of the country. But I am disappointed that I won't get to see her and have my book signed.

In music news, I broke down and downloaded the two original songs from Glee. The first song, "Get It Right," is beautiful, but, I kid you not, I get dizzy when I listen to it because I'm picturing that incessant camera-spinning they used on the show when Rachel sung it. The second song, "Loser Like Me" has a fun Kids Incorporated vibe to it. "Yay I'm awesome/You can't hurt me/I'm the future/La la la." (Actual lyrics from a Kids Incorporated song, I believe.)

And speaking of losers, or the opposite of losers, I have been quite the winner this week with my cooking. (Clearly I am not the winner when it comes to graceful segues.) Monday I made Crock Pot Indian dal (lentil) soup. Tuesday I made a baked macaroni and cheese, and Wednesday I made matzo ball soup. Tonight I made crepes and other breakfast-for-dinner items. And these dishes were all from a Weight Watchers cookbook! My husband actually described the matzo ball soup recipe as "great."

A top 10,000 blog and my husband thinks something I cooked is great! Quick, check weather.com, enter the zip code for hell, and see if there are any sub-freezing temperatures predicted in the five-day forecast.

So, Weight Watchers has been going pretty well. I have some sort of new, out-of-nowhere discipline this week. I weighed myself at home yesterday and I had lost a total of 15 pounds, which is ... bittersweet. I lift a 15-pound weight at the gym and I think, that's heavy. But honestly, I want to lose 75 pounds, which means I'm only 20% of the way there. And as much as I can spout out cliches like Every little bit helps and You have to take the first steps before you can take the last, the fact remains that I still feel overwhelmed and like a big fat-ass. I have so far to go. It will take so long. But I quell those thoughts with another cliche: The time's gonna pass anyway. The next day and the next week and the next month come anyway, no matter if you've lost weight or not.

Then there's the workout front. Last week I was talking to Trainer Jill about how I tend to punish myself at the gym and possibly work out harder than an overweight person such as myself probably should. As I've said before, Jill's philosophy is that you should not over-do it when it comes to exercise. As I've also said before ... dammit. I thought it was good to push yourself, and now I find out that, despite the fact that I am a huge fatty, I have been over-exercising?!

Jill also started talking about how if I'm going to exercise, I have to eat more. And it's like, yeah, but I'm on this damn diet. I cannot eat more! And yes, Weight Watchers does tell you that you earn back "activity points" for exercising, so you can technically eat more if you exercise, but I've always had trouble figuring out how many points I've earned back and I think I tend to underestimate in an attempt to err on the side of caution. And my philosophy has always been that since I'm already losing weight at a relatively slow pace, I probably shouldn't go and take any more activity points for myself. But then Jill says that it's possible to work out so much that your body lowers its metabolism so as to hang on to every precious little calorie it gets, which I mean I guess I technically knew (that's why you shouldn't skip breakfast), but ... come on.

And then Jill starts talking about the glycemic index and protein and ... OMG, I cannot win.

But I will say that every time I swim, I get up to 2,000 yards and then I hit a point where I am so famished I think I am going to drown, and I have to drag my lightheaded self out of the pool and somehow find the vending machine so I can shove pretzels into my mouth. So, I was maybe thinking that the solution to my excessive swimming-based hunger might be ... wait for it ... to eat more before I swim. So today I had a bowl of oatmeal and my disgusting protein shake that Jill recommended (blended together with strawberries, bananas, and Splenda), and guess what? I actually got to 2,200 yards, and my workout ended due to time constraints and not an advanced state of hunger. But damn if it wasn't hard for me to eat an extra-big breakfast, because then I had to skimp on lunch and dinner.

So, as I said, our family is going to a classic video game convention this weekend. I rounded up some pictures from Midwest Gaming Classics of years past (okay, two years past), so I'm going to do a separate post with those. Because I am now 3 posts behind in my quest to post 365 posts this year, and so I need to break up some of these longer posts so I can get a few extras in. Also I will be giving something away soon, so stay tuned. It's my first giveaway, and granted it's a bit of a small start, but enter anyway for the chance to say you won my very first giveaway.