Time-Turner Wanted

Pottercast is coming to Dallas tomorrow and I'm going to miss it.

My inner Harry Potter nerd is bawling like Voldemort at King's Cross.

Pottercast is the weekly Harry Potter podcast broadcast by the HP obsessed folks who run The Leaky Cauldron, my favorite Harry Potter website. The hosts are on a summer road trip recording live podcasts around the country. The Professor and I are heading out on our own road trip July 2.

I had my choice: Attend Pottercast on July 1 or go to the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on July 15.

I chose the movie. My inner Harry Potter nerd will get to stay up late and frolic with wizards and muggles at the local cineplex instead.

If I only had a time-turner, then I could do both.

Weigh Day Update: I maintained this week - no loss, no gain. I guess that's a small victory considering I almost killed myself walking in the heat over the weekend. Dumb, dumb Dillypoo!

Snack Attack

I'm a snacker. Some days I snack more than others. Snacking is one of the reasons I ended up at Weight Watchers. I like to snack between meals and I sometimes bring snacks to meetings.

Meetings are more fun if there are snacks on the table.

But WW is teaching me how to snack wisely. It's been years since I craved anything as healthy as an apple in the afternoon, but now I keep a ready supply of fresh fruit available:

I take at least a banana and one other piece of fruit to the office every day. Fruit is now my friend.

I've discovered other snack items that I like, too. I think astronauts may snack on these:

I try and avoid buying too many WW products, but these are really tasty:

There's a chocolate caramel bar, too. They're a good substitute for the Snickers bars I used to treat myself to way too often. I also like the WW ice cream bars:

The Professor and I like to cool down with ice cream in the summer and these are pretty much guilt free. Sugar free popsicles are also yummy. I try and limit myself to just a couple of these treats each week (I don't want to start craving sugar again).

Before joining Club WW, I used to drink Vitamin Water all of the time which is really just sugar water and just as bad as drinking soda. I've since discovered these from SoBe:

You have to look for the flavors that are 0 calories (there are only five that I've found so far). The others are all bad for you. I'm pretty stupid for diet orange Crush and diet caffeine free Coke, too.

Not all of my snacking is sweet. I've been eating a lot of yogurt and cottage cheese, too. I especially like mixing the cottage cheese with a little salsa to make a dip for sliced carrots, radishes and celery sticks:

It's amazing how the body craves what you put into it. Now that I've purged my system of candy bars, buttered popcorn and Dublin Dr. Pepper, I find myself craving fresh strawberries, vanilla yogurt and granola.

These new snack habits combined with my new appreciation for regular exercise mean Dillypoo is becoming much less of the woman she used to be.

And that's a very good thing.

Baby, It's Hot Outside

Summer is officially one week old and I'm officially ready for it to be over. It's HOT outside:

8:15 in the evening and the temperature is still in the triple digits.

What's really fun about Texas summers is that we have a little thing called a heat index to remind us that we're even more miserable than we thought. A heat index is the opposite of a winter wind chill. Although the thermostat says it's 100 degrees outside, the heat index means it feels like 104.

So even though Monday looks like it'll be a balmy 92, that little storm cloud thingy indicates the humidity will make it feel like 192 instead.

Thank goodness for air conditioning and sugar-free popsicles! I'm going to need both to get me through to October.

Time Delay

I overslept two mornings this week because my alarm clock isn't working. Which means I missed my morning workout and I'm actually bummed out about it. I guess the exercise thing is starting to take root in my psyche. I've even started jogging on the treadmill. I thought I was going to die afterwards, but what is it they say? No pain, no gain.

Of course, I don't want to gain. I want to lose. But you know what I mean. It's time to push myself a bit more so I continue to lose weight and get fit. I'm fixated on reaching 25 pounds at my next weigh in. I'm 1.4 pounds away from that goal. Missing my morning workout is not helping.

Other challenges this week have been guests and dining out too many times, so I'm gorging myself on fruit. I figure the extra healthy stuff will help negate the bad.

Like the scoop of ice cream I had this evening with my cousin's cutie pie daughter.

I'm walking in the park tomorrow morning no matter how hot it gets (temps are hovering around 104 degrees this week). And then I'm going to buy a new alarm clock.

California Cousins

My California cousin and his lovely family are visiting for a few days. This evening we went over to my brother's house for dinner and a swim.

Well, the kiddos swam. Dillypoo hasn't quite reached her bathing suit weight.

Anyhoo, my cousin has three delightful children. The eldest is the same age as The Princess of Darkness but I could find no evil in this little one:

My cousin should count his lucky stars.

The middle child (and only boy) is also a sweetie:

Don't you want to scoop him up and give him a hug?

The littlest one has potential to be a Lady in Waiting:

Thankfully, she lives several states away so this may be averted. Isn't she a cutie?

The Eldest daughter, the Princess of Darkness and her Lady in Waiting got along like best friends (the kind of friendship only seven year old girls can make after two hours):

In moments like these I sometimes wonder why I never had children. Then gentle reminders like this reinforce the decision:

The Princess of Darkness and a chocolate cake masque she applied herself.

Um, yeah. If she'd been born first, she might have been an only child.

Quick Weigh Day Update

This is a quickie as one of my California cousins and his family are hurtling down Interstate 10 on their way to visit for a couple of days and The Professor and I are heading over to the parental unit's house to say "howdy!"

*whew!*

I lost three pounds this week! I'm so happy!

Vegemite Taste Test

One of the visitors to my blog recently posted a tribute to Vegemite on her blog. The aptly christened Aussiechic is from Australia and Vegemite is something that she (and apparently all Australians) remember fondly from their childhoods.

Unlike Nestle Quik and Cap'n Crunch (which I remember fondly from my childhood), Vegemite is supposed to be good for you. So I decided to give it a try:

First, I had to find Vegemite. It's not something usually stocked at my local Super Target. After some searching I eventually found a jar at World Market. Next, I had to consult Aussiechic for the best way to try it. I've heard from non-Australians that Vegemite can be somewhat disagreeable to the non-initiated and I wanted to make sure I was preparing my taste test properly.

She recommended I spread a small amount on buttered toast:

That seemed easy enough. I can make toast.

Vegemite looks like the gooey filling in a cinnamon roll, but from my research I knew that looks were deceiving. I took a bite:

It's a bit savory, kind of salty and definitely not cinnamon. I'm glad I consulted an expert because my instinct would've been to spread it on thick. Trust me (and her) - a little bit goes a long way! This isn't peanut butter.

Having grown up like most Americans on super sugary cereals for breakfast, I can understand why Vegemite never took off here. It's not something you lick from a spoon. But, having been prepared for the taste and knowing the best way to eat it, I thought it was OK. Definitely an acquired taste, but one that I could maybe acquire. Under the right circumstances.

Like with a cup of honey sweetened hot tea and cream.

Daddy's Girl

I love this photo of me and my dad. I'm holding a cracker and he's holding me and we're both laughing with obvious delight.

I have wonderful memories growing up with my goofball dad. He and my mother were unconventional parents in that neither was much of a disciplinarian and both enjoyed playing as much as me and my brother did.

Dad used to take us camping when we were little and I have fond memories of Krause Family camp outs and trips through the California Rockies. Dad had an old army tent that slept a small platoon and took an army of uncles and cousins to pitch. Dad loved that tent and we took it everywhere, from KOA camp sites in the desert to the Sequoia National Park. It was tough, too. I remember a fierce storm that blew pine cones the size of footballs onto the roof while camping under the redwoods. That may have been the final straw for Mom. We rented cabins the following summer.

Dad also had a penchant for cars. Big, ugly cars. He owned a series of Dodge Darts, one of which my brother and I treated like a rolling fortress complete with tunnels punched through the rear window dash and into the trunk. There was also a Falcon Ranchero truck that he brought home one summer that had holes in the floor board and a gas pedal with a tendency to fall on the floor.

In spring Dad would order a truckload of top soil that he'd let me and my brother play in with our cars and shovels before spreading over his vegetable garden. One year his garden produced enormous zucchini squash:

He was quite proud of his farming skills that year, especially since I was finally old enough to stop pulling up his seedlings in an attempt to help out with weeding.

Dad is retired now but the twinkle in his eye and mischievous grin on his face are more prominent than ever. He's not much into gardening or camping anymore (although he's looking forward to "roughing" it at my brother's new cabin in the woods), but he still loves his cars. These days he's looking to trade his stinkin' Lincoln in for one of those new-fangled hybrids.

I enjoy doing special things with Dad, like the recent VanCliburn piano competition or taking him (and Mom) to Maui with me. The Professor enjoys spending time with my Dad, too, debating politics and checking out the local taco bars for lunch.

Today is Father's Day and I plan to spend the day at my parents' house, going through boxes of old photos and family memorabilia, cooking dinner and letting Dad know that he's the best, most wonderful father in the world!

I love you, Dad!

Topsy Turvy Update

It's been almost three months since The Professor planted the Topsy Turvys and we finally have a tomato!

Can you see it? It's dead center in the photo hanging from the planter in the back:

It's still green and small, but it's definitely a tomato. Still can't see it? Let's get a little closer:

Good to know that we city folk can fend for ourselves if necessary.

Mullet Madness Update: You all voted and the results are in: The Professor's 1990's hair-do was a mullet! He's still in denial, but recovery comes slowly to those who refuse to see the truth. He'll come around. Next I need to convince him that he stands 5' 7". He thinks he's 5' 6", but since I'm 5' 6.5" and he's taller than I am, well... The man's stubbornness has no bounds.

It's not the years, it's the mileage...

I love my car. Baby is the perfect car for me. If you saw her in a parking lot you'd know she was mine. People have told me so.

Baby and I found each other by chance. The Professor and I were out shopping for dog food one Saturday in 2002 and ended up test driving cars for fun. After a traumatic hostage situation at a Toyota dealership (never, ever relinquish your keys to a car dealer unless you're certain you want to leave with another vehicle), we saw Baby on the VW lot waiting patiently for us to find her.

It was love at first sight.

We went home that night and spent the next day looking at the budget and crunching numbers. I called the dealer Monday morning and by the end of the day, she was mine!

That was the most expensive dog food run I've ever made.

Today Baby hit 100,000 miles:

Sadly, Baby is starting to feel the milage. Remember her A/C doctor bill? Well, a week later she had to return for more surgery - her air compressor died. That was another $888.

Ouch.

Like her owner, she has a variety of aches and pains. For instance, her trunk doesn't always latch properly and the door to the gas tank sticks. Her paint is fading (much to my dismay) and I use Velcro straps to keep the arm rest cubby closed.

But she runs beautifully and gets great gas mileage. Last summer I treated her to personalized license plates. I still smile when I see her and think, "Look at that good looking car!"

Yup, I love my car.

Weigh Day Update: Oops! I gained a pound this week. I bought an exercise mat so I can start using the exercise ball. I think it's time to beef up my exercise routine.

Crime and Punishment

Quick updates on this week's posts:

The Princess of Darkness and her Lady in Waiting were chastised for their devious plot to sneak Grandma's candy but no further punishment was deemed necessary. In fact, upon hearing that the list had been discovered, the Lady in Waiting responded, "Oh no! We're doomed!"

She has a flair for the dramatic.

Button the unfortunate guinea pig is recuperating quite well from the vet(erinarian) game. Grandma reports that he (or she, hard to tell with a guinea pig) is resting comfortably and nibbling on kibble.

The Mullet Madness poll is still open! The poll will be open until Saturday night, so get your vote in now if you haven't done so already. The Professor's sense of humor is being sorely tried this week, but I think he'll pull through OK. I hope he's braced himself for the awful truth, though.

If not, I'm sure Button will share his (or her, hard to tell with a guinea pig) nest until he's fully recovered.

Go Get Candy

Don't let the charm of this photo fool you. The Princess of Darkness (on the right) and her Lady in Waiting are juvenile delinquents disguised as sweet little girls.

Last weekend, my parents took these two darlings to the Concerts in the Garden. By all accounts, they had a wonderful time. Good music, fine weather, snacks and fireworks - a perfect evening outing. Afterwards, the girls went home with Grandma and Grandpa and spent the night.

My nieces and nephews like sleep overs with Grandma and Grandpa. There are fewer rules at their house than at home.

Typical grandparents.

Sometime after the girls returned to their parents, Grandma and Grandpa decided to tidy up the spare bedroom where they discovered this among the scattering of little girl litter:

Little girls do not make good sneaks. This detailed to do list reads:

1. act like were alsleep
2. make sur adults are alsleep
3. wake up
4. sneek out
5. go get candy
6. close the dror (Grandma keeps a well stocked candy drawer in the kitchen)
7. and don't tell parents
8. and don't leve eney croms (crumbs) or clues by the bed
9. go back to sleep
10. wake up in the morning
11. get botion (Button, an unfortunate guinea pig that lives with Grandma and Grandpa)
12. play the vet game (with the unfortunate guinea pig Button)
13. wake up grama and katiy and jump on grama (my mother's sister Katie is the Lady in Waiting's grandma)

The detail of their planned crime spree is amazing, don't you think? If they'd only remembered to not leave clues by the bed, nobody would have been the wiser!

Except for poor Button the unfortunate guinea pig. Grandma says he's still hiding under his shavings dreading the return of The Princess of Darkness and her Lady in Waiting.

Weigh Day Update: I lost another 1.2 pounds for a total of 21.6. I'm back on my losing streak!

Spring Cleaning

This morning I woke to the sound of cleaning. The Professor had risen before me and was downstairs tackling the pile of clutter that has been building in the entry way and dining room. I hollered down the stairs that I'd join him just as soon as I dressed and brushed my teeth. He cheerfully hollered back for me not to rush and added, "It's easier to throw away your stuff if you're not down here."

And thus began my day.

The Professor and I are pack rats. It's hereditary. We both come from a long line of hoarders and we both know we're clutter bugs. I often joke that we live like unsupervised 12-year olds.

The Professor: "It's mostly your stuff that's down here."

Dillypoo: "I don't think so! You're as much to blame as I am for this mess."

The Professor: "Am not!"

Dillypoo: "Are too!"

Niecy Nash would not be amused by our foolishness.

It took the better part of four hours to dig through, sort, discard, and put away the various piles of books, papers, leftover yard sale items, art and supplies, and other assorted crap. We eventually got from here:

To here:

The fun part of a big spring clean (if there is any fun to be had) is rediscovering long lost treasures. The Professor found some photographs taken on our first trip to visit his parents. I think we'd been dating about a year, maybe two:

We look so young! I feel so old now.

The Professor sported a funny little hairdo in those days. We've argued over the years about whether or not it qualified as a mullet. I say yes, he says no.

Of course, this photo was taken in 1992 or 1993. Fashion and hair styles were still recovering from the atrocities of the 1980s. Mullets were common place, as were other offensive hairdos and don'ts. Why, just a few years before cropping my style to the perky little do above, I was working a mean spiral perm:

I needed the volume to pull off the oversize glasses. Here's a better view (so you can fully appreciate the horror of it all):

So when I call The Professor on his mullet, I'm not throwing out stones from my glass house. I just think he needs to come to terms with his past indiscretions.

So....

I'm posting my first ever poll! I'll leave it up for a week and let you decide if The Professor was once a member of the mullet crew. Comments are also welcome (and encouraged).

Another Date with Dad

I had another Van Cliburn date with Dad last night. The competition ends on Sunday and this was my last opportunity to join him for any of the performances. (And look! My chin has healed!)

We started with dinner at one of the new, tonier restaurants downtown. Luckily the company was wonderful because the dinner was overcooked and dry. Who likes charred salmon and crunchy risotto?

One of the Van Cliburn competitors was seated at an adjacent table and Dad couldn't resist stopping by on the way out to shake his hand. I noticed the fellow had cleaned his plate, so hopefully his meal was better than mine. Either that or he was overly polite since he was in a foreign country. Or hungry.

Once we got seated, I checked the program and saw nothing that restricted photography inside the hall, so I dug out my camera and started clicking away.

These two ladies were enjoying a lively discussion about one of the contestants, but they were blocking my view of the stage. I pointed my camera elsewhere until they sat down:

The Bass Hall is beautiful! I love the balconies. The view from those seats is pretty good, too. I sat up there for The Lion King and Greater Tuna. I don't think it's possible to get a bad seat in the hall.

The interior of the dome was designed by Scott and Stuart Gentling, twin brothers known for their paintings of birds and landscapes. A little bit of trivia about the dome art: The Professor submitted a proposal to paint the mural on the ceiling when the hall was under construction. He didn't win the contract, but we still have the building plans that came with the proposal packet.

There are lot of interesting people who attend the competition. I noticed this guy when I was there last weekend:

Dad says he always wears Hawaiian shirts. He also wore matching hot pink Crocs. Not your typical piano competition fan. There was also a woman wearing a gold sequined jacket that was obnoxiously sparkly. She was watching me take pictures so I didn't shoot her. I was going for candids.

The chatty ladies finally sat down as the orchestra begin to enter:

The enormous gold wings above the stage swing out over the audience and help with the sound quality in the hall. I'm sure there are some technical reasons for this, but I just think they're cool.

The competition has three grand pianos (I think) for the competitors to choose from, and they're all beautiful:

We had an old upright painted green when I was growing up. Somehow, these pianos don't sound quite the same as my old set of ivories.

Of course, The Sting was the most complex piece I ever learned to play, so what do I know?

Dad successfully picked four of the final six competitors. He's waffling on who will win, though. He really, really enjoys this competition. Can't you tell?

Pioneer Dillypoo

I'm a big fan of the Pioneer Woman. She's a city girl who married a farm boy and moved to a ranch in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. She blogs daily about her life on the farm raising children and livestock, and about her favorite hobbies, cooking and photography. She entertains and inspires me and I want to be her when I grow up.

Except I think she may be younger than I am.

The similarities between PW and me are eerie. I'm also a city girl who married a small town boy, but my small town boy is an artist, not a rancher, and we live in the middle of the city instead of the sticks. We're urban pioneers.

The Professor and I don't have children or farm animals, but we have two useless cats and a dingbat dog. While PW may scrape manure off her front porch, I regularly wipe cat puke and hair balls off my floors.

Like PW, I enjoy cooking, but I'm more of an "experimental" chef than trained epicurean. Just yesterday I pulled chicken breasts out of the fridge and stuffed them with soft cheese, rubbed them with a random assortment of dried herbs and spices, and grilled them on my Cuisinart Griddler.

I love my Cuisinart Griddler.

The Professor thought it was much better than the red pepper rice I made last week using soup instead of water. I'm still soaking the rice cooker pot.

Like PW, I also shoot photos for my blog. Admittedly, mine are poorly lit and composed and I tend to use my iPhone (a lot) or a point-and-shoot camera, but they are original. I like reading PW's photo tips, especially her Photoshop instructions. I just wish she had more to say about cell phone photography.

PW recently renovated a lodge on their ranch to host guests and cook big meals. The Professor and I are renovating our 100-year old home in the middle of the city. PW finished her renovation project. We've been working on ours since 1992. We're hoping to finish it sometime before we die.

The house is winning that race.

So you can see why I enjoy reading PW's blog. We have so much in common! It's nice knowing there are kindred spirits out there in blogland.

The cows pictured above were taken by PW. She shares some of her wonderful photos on her website. Check it out!

Stormy Weather

There are storms brewing tonight. I love thunderstorms.

I like lying in bed at night listening to the rain pound on the windows and the wind race around the house. I love listening to the roll of thunder and the crackling flash of lightning.

We get fierce storms in Texas this time of year. Sometimes the tornado sirens wail and sometimes the power surges or fails, plunging us into the darkest of darkness. The atmosphere vibrates with thunder as a really good storm builds and moves in.

There's nothing like a terrific thunderstorm to make you feel the power of Mother Nature!

I remember one time listening to winds so fierce they sounded like monsters howling through the streets.

I remember watching power lines spark and crackle as a twister tore through the city.

I remember the green hue of the sky as hail laden clouds moved overhead.

Those storms were spectacular.

Most people are afraid of storms, but I love them. They remind me of how wondrous and powerful the world around us is.

It's Tuesday, which means it's Weigh Day. I maintained this week. No loss, no gain. Frankly, I wasn't surprised. I've been losing a lot the past few weeks. My body was bound to say "whoa!" at some point. I'll hit the treadmill again tomorrow and see if I can convince my body that a one week rest is enough. I like being a loser!