Somehow, my manicure miraculously survived housecleaning and cooking two separate Thanksgiving dinners. Frankly, I was rather surprised since I’m notorious for chipping a nail at inopportune moments… like 15 minutes after the salon’s closed for the weekend, or three minutes before I’m due at an event where I’d hoped to look pulled together.
My husband — [...]

Talk about an ego-booster! Today I ran into an acquaintance whom I hadn’t seen for a couple of months. Like me, she’s been struggling to lose weight, although her efforts consist mostly of whining about it in between bites of Ben & Jerry’s.
First thing she said was how envious she is of my 16-pound weight [...]

Ever since the day it came out, I’ve been begging my husband for a Wii. Oh, I know I could just go out and buy one on my own (assuming I can find one for sale), but I know that unless he agrees to the purchase he’ll never play it.
And I want him to. I [...]

What with all of the women wearing Empire waist or baby doll tops these days, it’s getting hard to know who’s pregnant, who’s bloated from PMS, and who’s just making a fashion faux pas.
So one might think I’d know better than to ask a swollen-bellied woman standing next to me in the elevator, [...]

For the past week or so, my knee has been a bit suicidal. I can tell this because the dang thing keeps getting hurt: first, when I tripped on our deck after what we’ll kindly describe as “one too many” cocktails. Again when I slid on our wet yard while trying to navigate downhill. The [...]

I’m back from a visit to my mother’s house in Texas where, despite her 20+ year career as a nurse and her friendship with a woman who’s had Celiac disease for over 30 years, I still got glutenated.
In all fairness, it wasn’t for a lack of effort on my mother’s part.
Those who have to live [...]

I ran out to Wal-Mart this morning to pick up some travel-sized bottles for my toiletry kit, rather than lugging the full-sized bottles through three airports tomorrow. Since I’m only going to Texas for five days and will be staying with my mom (who does daily laundry out of boredom), I plan to just pack [...]

I remember, back when I was a kid, sitting in front of the television and watching June Cleaver tip the grocery delivery boy as he removed items from bulging brown paper bags and set them on her kitchen table.
The guy looked quite a bit like our grocery delivery boy, one of my older [...]

Food eaten:

Breakfast: 1 pkg Buddig turkey, 1 c. brown rice, 1/2 tomato (broiled) with 1 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese. Coffee, coffee, coffee. Calories: 430.
Lunch: 1 c. garbanzo bean salad, 2 c. Asian-style soup (rice noodles, spinach, chicken broth, rice wine vinegar, dash sesame oil and some chili pepper flakes). Calories: 341
Dinner: 1 c. steamed broccoli, [...]

Most of my friends are already married, so I have little experience with the type of “Bridezilla” that’s now in fashion. Oh, sure, I know most brides try to lose weight before their wedding day. I vaguely recall doing that for my own wedding, although back then I had only 10 lbs. to shed. (Oh, [...]