~~~ THREE LITTLE PIGS ~~~

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, you're probably tired of me talking about my dog, Baxter. If you're not a FB friend, Baxter has had some medical issues lately, but I am confident that he will be just fine.

2013 is, so far, just as I had hoped it would be. I have a positive attitude about this being a good year for Robin and me. She is about to start a new job and Baxter is good. I know there is a perfect job for me out there and I am anxious to find it. I have been working out on a regular basis and eating healthier. Until yesterday.

Baxter's specialist is about an hour and 20 minutes away. It's in South Carolina. In Florida, the most popular grocery store chain is Publix. There are no Publix stores in NC, but there SC has them. Other than Popeye's, Publix has the best fried chicken. There are no Popeye's in NC. So when I saw that there was a Publix on the way to the vet, my mind immediately went to fried chicken. It wasn't an impulse stop. I planned it. For a while. I told Robin I wanted to stop on the way home from the vet yesterday and get some chicken. She was all for it - at the time.

One thing you probably don't know about Robin is that her taste buds change on a daily basis. One day she hates chocolate, the next day she'll eat two candy bars. One day she can't handle spicy food, the next day she's putting half a bottle of hot sauce on macaroni and cheese.

But Robin's food swings would not stop me from getting my chicken. As we pulled in, she announced that she hates fried chicken, that we'd be getting it just for me. Yeah, soooo? I was half way to the entrance and she was still talking about hating chicken.

Got my box - looking back, I could have gotten just a piece or two - paid - got in the car. There was a McDonald's in the parking lot and I have always gotten my dogs a cheese burger after going to the vet. Told her to go there and order a burger with nothing on it for Baxter. Pulls up and orders that, plus a Number One. Asked her what she was doing, told me she was hungry, and asked if I wanted anything. Told her no, I had chicken.

Honestly - I kind of wanted a burger. And fries. But I had this box of chicken and there's no way I could have been such a pig. Well, that's not true. I so could have. But the chicken was bad enough and I am blowing my "plan" as it is. I did the responsible thing and ordered nothing. I had my chicken for when I got home.

She got the food and drove away from McDonald's. She stopped somewhere to eat. I wasn't paying attention because I was too busy breaking off Baxter's burger into small bites for him. Got done with him and noticed how good her fries smelled. Tried to ignore it and just cracked the window and looked out. I am bigger than those fries.

Then I noticed the smell of my fried chicken. Before I realized it I had a big ole chicken breast in my hand and was going to town on it. Little pieces of crunchy skin peppered my pale pink hoody, but I didn't care. It was so good - I hadn't had fried chicken in forever - I deserve this - been through so much with Baxter - this is comfort food and damn it, I need some comforting.

She was wolfing down a Big Mac and fries, Baxter had had his burger, and I was chomping like a savage on a piece of fried chicken. Looked up from my feeding frenzy and realized where we were. In the parking lot of a really nice and really big GYM.

The words SO WRONG don't begin to describe...

Now I am stuck with all this chicken that Robin won't help me eat. Oh well, today's a new day. It's Tuesday and maybe Robin will love fried chicken. And we do have a friend who never ever cooks, so maybe we'll give it to her. Yeah right. Who I am trying to fool?

Kim & Robin's Chicken Chop Chop

Here's exactly how we made this: Marinate three chickens breasts for an hour. Marinade: 1 Cup Fat Free Italian Dressing, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, 2 teaspoons honey. Cook chicken in marinade. Once cooked, cut up into little pieces. Cook a bag of yellow rice. Spoon chicken on rice and garnish with shredded lettuce (if you want), tomatoes (if you want), black beans (if you want), whatever. Then spoon the mustard curry sauce on top. Sauce: 2 tablespoons light mayo, 1 tablespoons mustard (to taste), 1 tablespoon curry (to taste), just a splash of water. Easy, healthy and really really good! Ours turned out every bit as well as that restaurant in Miami.

It's 01.12.13 ~~~

So we're well into double digits of the new year. Well, today is the 12th. Not exactly "well" into the new year, but still... I am still going strong with my resolutions of being way more active than I was last year and eating more fruits and vegetables. I could not possibly be any less active than I was last year. It seems like I spent 2012 playing "Words With Friends" and "Angry Birds". When tired of the mean birds, and caught up on WWF, I'd look at my e-mail. Repeat. It's a nice balance, all from my Kindle Fire. And don't even get me started on a little addiction called "Facebook"!!!!! But I promised myself that this year is gonna be different. Yes, I still am a WWF addict. And you don't need to be told that I spend A LOT of time on FB. I am proud to say I've reconnected with my treadmill and am walking outside some too. Eventually I will break out my Wii and DVDs. Keeping it moving. Today I felt guilty that I wasn't doing any intentional exercise, so I think I got my groove back. Woke up this morning with a Miami restaurant, "Chicken Kitchen", on my mind. Used to love it. I think their motto was "a healthy addiction". Googled it and found out how to make my favorite thing. It's called "chicken chop chop". It's basically grilled chicken breasts over yellow rice, with a mustard curry sauce. Robin also added black beans, tomato and lettuce to hers. I like mine plain. While I was googling that, something else was on my mind. (Oh, by the way, as I play WWF, AB, go on FB, etc., there's a TV on a lot. Not always, because I enjoy my music too, but I do watch more TV than I will ever admit.) The other day I saw something about the "Yonana". Kind of like yo mama, but different. You stick frozen bananas and whatever other type of fruit you want and voila, it's frozen yogurt. Or something. It's frozen fruit that goes in and comes out of a machine. But it's just fruit! I googled that and made the mistake of showing Robin. Within seven minutes she was showered and dressed and insisted that I get ready so we could go to Walmart to get a Yonana. Knowing it would be useless to suggest we wait, before I knew it, we were at Walmart. They don't sell it. I was kind of relieved, to be honest, because I had a feeling that that would have wound up in our next garage sale. Even posted about it on FB and the consensus was to step away from the Yonana. One of my FB friends went as far to suggest we make something similar in our blender. Called her for details and here's what...the fruit must be frozen. Our bananas are not, but we did have frozen strawberries and frozen blueberries. Throw them in the blender with a little milk, which we didn't have. But we did have French vanilla coffee creamer and used that instead. O.M.G.!!!! What a wonderful way to get some fruit in your diet! Frozen fruit is defintely gonna be a staple in this household from now on! I am proud of myself for basically getting back on track with healthier food choices and exercise. Plus it gives me something to write about on Facebook!

Maybe it's time to make fun of my own family instead of Robin's...

My mom and Nelson got a new car recently and are still trying to figure out all the bells and whistles. And Bluetooth. (As a little sidebar: whenever I'm on the phone with my mom and she has an appointment, say at 11:30 tomorrow, she will ineveitably tell me something like, "I have a dental appointment at 11:30 tomorrow and will be leaving the house at 11:10. It's only one and tree quarters miles from the house by way the crow flies, but it's takes about nine minutes to actually drive there. The appointment should take about a half an hour. That is if she's not behind schedule. You never know. I'll be going to Publix after that. They have BOGO Hellmann's this week. Oh, I forgot you don't have Publix up there in North Carolina. Anyway, if you need to reach me between 11:10 and say 2:00 or 2:15, call me on my cell.") Called them a little while ago. No answer. WHAT TO DO? WHAT TO DO? Oh wait. I know. I'll call the cell. "Hello?" "Hi. Where are you?" "Hello?" "HI! WHERE ARE YOU?" "Hello?" Click. A few minutes later, she calls yelling, "Hi - can you hear me?" "Yes - stop yelling!" "Hello?" "I can hear you!!!!" "Hello?" Click. A few minutes later... "HELLO!!!!" "Hi. We're still trying to figure out the Blu...." Click. A few minutes later... "Hello?" "Hi. Can you hear me?" "Yes." "OK. Good. We're trying to figure out how to work the Bluetooth." "REALLY!!!!!" "Yes. We're at Publix waiting for Nelson to use the bathroom. Second time today. All that water he drinks." "That's nice." Silence. "Hello?" "Hello. Can you hear me? Are you there?" "Unfortunately, I am." "OK. Well I'll let you go." "OK. I love. Oh - by the way - I will call you a little later than usual tomorrow. Want to try to sleep in." "We sleep in til 6:30 nowadays." "That's good. OK. Bye. I love." "Bye. I love." Then I hear... "How do you turn this thing off?" "Press the button." "I am pressing the button. What button?" "That one over there." "This one?" I couldn't resist, so very loudly I yelled, "JUST PRESS THE DAMN BUTTON ALREADY!!" "OH MY GOD ~ YOU'RE STILL HERE???" "I am. Good thing you didn't say anything bad about me." "We're still trying to figure out how..." Click.

Hello 2013!

I have very strong optimistic feelings about the new year!

The holidays went by too quickly.  We went to Ormond by the Sea (FL) to visit my family.  It's an eight hour drive and we took Brady and Maxx.  About two hours away from my parents' house, the dogs needed to go for a walk.  It was around noon.  We were hungry, but I didn't want to eat too much.  Then we saw a "Krystal's" (burgers - little ones) and I wanted to get two.  We stopped.  We walked.  We ate.

We shouldn't have eaten.

As we were approaching the exit to my mom's, I started not feeling well.  Bad stomach ache.  We got there and before I could say, "Brady! Don't jump in the  ____!!, "  Brady had jumped in the pool.  Got him as dried off as possible and we all sat down to visit.  Within an hour, I announced that I had to go lie down.  Did so and my face and neck practically caught fire.  Red patches galore!!!  Whatever the pillow case had been washed with, I was allergic.  ( I am very sensitive.)  Soon it was trip after trip to the bathroom.  (Both ends - you're welcome.)  I think I threw up somewhere between 21 and 24 times.  (Didn't keep track of the other end.)

After anticipating and being excited for this trip for months, I was in bed by 4:00 p.m.  I prayed that I would wake up feeling better and that nobody else would get it. 

Thank you for answered prayers!

The rest of the vacay was great!  My twin nephews are ten months old now.  Robin and I have extra lines in our faces after spending five days of doing anything to get them to smile and laugh!!  It's amazing how similar and yet different they are. 

Saying bye to my mom SUCKS.  'Nuff said...

Made it home safely, albeit Robin  came home with the flu, which she is just now getting over.  Had a quiet NYE and spent New Year's Day with friends.

Baxter's scheduled for surgery this coming Monday.  Been very stressful praying that his rectum doesn't prolapse again.  Poor Lil Shawty Got Low.  :/

I made the resolution of eating better and exercising more.  How original!!  God, I'm clever.  And interesting.  But I've been doing well.  Today is the fourth and I have worked out 4/4 days.  Sure I'd love an elbow massaging my ass or a small person to walk on it, but I've GOT this.

The only bad thing so far is - right now Robin and I are mad at each other.  I was feeding the dogs at 6:00 tonight and she disappeared.  I looked for her all over the estate.  It was dusk and I thought maybe she'd gone down to get the mail and a big truck sped by and hit her and she was dead in the neighbor's yard.  So I made a cocktail and waited.

After a minute I really did begin to panic a little (pretty sure that to panic a little is an oxymoron).  I had shouted downstairs before - no response.  This time I went down there.  There she was, meditating with earplugs on.  I said some colorful and not nice things and she said, "What?  I was meditating."

"I thought you were dead in the neighbor's yard."

"Did you go look?"

"Not the point.  You don't just disappear!"

"I told you I was going downstairs to meditate."

"You did not."

"Yes.  When you were feeding the dogs."

When it's dinner time around here, it's like a very loud crazy person circus.  Brady jumps up and down on all fours and Baxter runs around while I say, "No food for you".  It's a game we've played for years.  It's a very noisy time in this house.

Robin should know that if she had said anything to me, there was no way I would have heard it.

I'm mad at her for making me think she was dead and she's mad at me too.  Apparently one shouldn't be cursed at while one is meditating. 

Details.