I grew 3 greenbeans!

My greenbean plants died. I'm not sure what happened, but they are no longer of this world. BUT, while pulling up the dead plants, i found 3 beans! They looked a little dried out and sketchy to me, but my sister's boyfriend rinsed one off and ate it! He declared it delicious. I'll take it! Gardening success! (hey, there's a way to spin everything, right?)

I had a wonderful weekend with my sister and her boyfriend visiting. We even went to the beach! It was great! (see right). Then my sunscreen exploded at dinner and i peed my pants with it. What can you do, that dress is ruined. So the next day we went shopping! Unfortunately not for a new sunscreen-free dress, but for my sister's new work clothes, because she got a job! Hooray Sissy!! She's moving back to Boston next week, where I hope she'll be very happy :)

Though my sister is spending her last week of freedom in my apartment, I am not. Horrible timing, but duty calls and I am in Charleston, West Virginia for the week. Fun, right? Actually, it might not be so bad, i get to drive around a lot (and i like driving), the weather is nice (so far) and everything is super lush and green and hilly, seems pleasant (since my allergies aren't bugging me yet, can't say the same for my coworker!). I might even get to set foot in Ohio tomorrow, my first time in WV and OH! Checking off those states one by one... I was almost in Virginia today! (At least i think it's in VA...) I spent 4 hours sitting in the DC airport, looking at the Washington Monument out the window, waiting for our tiny 2 propeller plane to show up. Luckily, i've been to both VA and DC before, so i don't have to have an inner battle about whether 4 hours in the airport counts as me being in VA. Phew!

I went to spain!

I'm having a problem. Actually, I'm having several problems.

1. For the first time ever, i have pink eye! gross!!
2. I have pink eye in BOTH EYES! iiiick!
3. I have a partialy stuffy nose
4. Because of this partially stuffy nose, i have little to no sense of taste or smell
5. Because i can only barely taste anything, i can't stop eating everything in the kitchen to see if i can taste it.

Luckily, none of these problems started until Sunday. Which means, i didn't have any of these problems on my trip to Spain! (Though it seems spain may have caused the problems. they all started on the airplane ride home...)

Spain was AWESOME!! Lots of great people, lots of great sights, and lots, and lots, and lots of great food. (My pants were loose when i left the US, but they were tight when i came back. Crap! Totally worth it though!)

Vacation food highlights:
- one of our hosts made us a savory zuchinni flan, served cold with a tomato and onion chutney. AWESOME! Unfortunately i couldn't eat too much of it, because right before, he served us:
- some kind of gazpacho (has a different name, but i can't find it anwhere) with hard boiled eggs blended in, served with extra chopped up eggs and jamon serrano. Mmmm!
- i love manchego.
- nobody eats manchego WITH jamon, one or the other.
- they drink a lot of yogurt in spain. It's not kefir, it's watery yogurt. I got yelled at several times for suggesting it might be like kefir.
- I'm dissapointed in churros. Maybe i didn't have very good ones?
- chocolate (drink) is awesome. regular chocolate (to eat) is awesome too, of course.
- marzipan can be delicious!
- cheap wine tastes good, unlike in the US.
- tapas are great, you get to try everything!
- cafe bombo/bonbon is delicious. espresso with condensed milk.
- pa amb tomaquet is a great idea.
- patates braves are basically spicy fries. even husband didn't know this.
- best place to drink a beer: on the beach in barcelona
- i tried paella for the first time, pretty tasty. Reminds me of really good chinese fried rice, but don't tell this to anyone in spain, they hate chinese food. Guess the chinese restaurants there suck?
- tiny whole fried calamari are delicious. Don't think about the fact that you're eating their brains.
- tiny whole fried fish are disgusting. Think about the fact that you're eating their brains, and scales, and fins, and everything.
- tortillas are not the flat wraps that we know in the US via mexico, they are (usually potato filled) omeletts. They can be delicious!
- i had nothing healthy for breakfast every day! Sometimes a croissant, sometimes an ensaimada, sometimes a sandwich, sometimes all of the above!
- i ate this weird black rice sausage-like thing, it was delicious! Turns out the black was blood. Gross! (but still delicious!)
- i got to try a cake that's made in santiago only on holy years, which is rumored to be about once every 10 years, but i really have no idea about these things. It was an almond cake, and very tasty! Do you think i'll get in trouble if i try to make it on a non-holy year?

What the heck man?

Here's a picture of what I've looked like over the past few years:

What the heck man? If I'm only 5 pounds more than I was when I was thin, why the heck don't I look good? I look like I've had children, but I have not! Cookies yes, children no.
Also, maybe it's the hair.

chuga-chuga-CHOO-CHOO!

I'm melting! I've been subconsciously sabotaging my weight loss regime (judging by the amount of cake i ate this weekend, amongst other things) yet i lost weight this week anyway! amazing! And, more importantly, MY PANTS FIT!! well, almost. Only some of them, haha. But huge milestone!

I'm writing this on the train home, where i've treated myself to a beer. Probably not good to be balancing work laptop on my lap in a moving vehicle while drinking an open bottle of beer, but i'm a good multitasker. Here's a picture!

Now i have to go work on my PE application. Deadline is Saturday, but self inflicted deadline based on endorser availability is TOMORROW (Thursday) 4 PM! Aaacckk! I probably won't make it, but i should try. Penalty if i miss it? 6 months more of free time and studying, but 6 month delay in adulthood.

PS - i spent so much time rushing around with my application that i didn't have time to draw a picture and post! But, to celebrate the fact that I FINISHED MY APPLICATION IN TIME(!!!) I had another beer on the train the next day. And a candy bar. Take THAT weight loss!

Shoot, i think i already wore this shirt this week

and it's bright orange, people might notice! At least i don't smell bad. There's one old guy in our office who smells really bad, pretty much every day. Do you think it's because he's old and his nose stopped working? Or maybe he's been wearing the same shirt a whole lot more than once per week. This could be. He wears a white button down shirt every day... maybe it's the same one over and over! If only he'd wear bright orange like me, then i'd be able to tell. But if he wore bright orange, he'd look like a pumpkin. He's really short, under 5 feet i'd say, and also has a beach-ball belly, and he walks in slow motion, like a turtle (I'm tempted to draw a picture of this, but i think that would push me over the line from being observant and concerned to being mean and hyper-critical). Poor old man. I'm glad i'll never be a short old man. Short crochety old lady, perhaps, but hopefully i'll have my belly and my "scent" under control. I think i want to be an old lady that smells like soap... good goal? What do you think?

Speaking of controlling my belly, i've lost 5 pounds this month! Hooray! Only 10 more to go until my pants fit again! haha. But, it might be a while, since to celebrate this weeks' continued weight loss i ate 2 cupcake ice cream cones (best idea ever! similar to these, over at my sister and her friends' food blog), a big cookie, and a bite or two of cake. Man i love cookies.