Saturday 18 September - Sunday 19 September, 2010

Talk of the Table

First of all, just want to clarify that I *LOVE* comments, long and short.  It would be kind of funny if I didn't love long ones, because I tend to write novellas on other people's comment sections.  So type away!

Sorry if the banana slug grossed anyone else out as much as it did Debby. *blush*  I remember Juice being curious about them, so I thought I'd share.  They don't bite and they don't ambush a person, so they don't bother me, but I have to say that I won't actually touch one.  I did once - to get it out of the cat's dish - and the slime was really hard to remove.

Speaking of gross things, wow, Lori!  The idea of cows eating cows is kind of disturbing.  I knew chickens do that - my brother and sister-in-law kept chickens, and would feed them table scraps.  They liked eggs and chicken nuggets.  And commercially produced chickens do too, I'm sure.  But cows?  Wow....I know, what rock have I been living under?

Lori asked, "If your tummy is rumbling and your blood sugar is okay, do you not eat at that time?"
It depends.  Sometimes, if I've just eaten an amount that seems like it should be enough, I'll wait it out and see if I'm still hungry a little later.  Sometimes, if I know we're going to eat dinner soon, I'll wait.  The bedtime thing was an experiment with hunger and blood sugar levels.  When I'm sleeping, my body is sedentary, and my blood glucose levels should (theoretically) stay about the same, although sometimes it starts to rise when the a.m. "wake-up" hormones start kicking in.  (Which is why I think that it was actually higher in the morning than when I went to bed that day.)  I think next time that happens, I'd have a little snack.

Debby asked, "...aren't you losing weight when [stomach growling, hunger] happens that often?"
I think it would if it was happening often enough! :-)

Saturday 18 September



Breakfast:  Egg and cheese scramble with tomato and chives (love that combo!), bacon, and a pancake.  Not shown: A second pancake of the same size, a little more bacon, and 2 mugs of my usual decaf coffee.

Have you ever seen Mara's blog's (http://www.imadedinner.net) "Cute Food Saturday" feature?  It's usually cakes or cupcakes, sometimes clever sushi.  Well, I was feeling a little inspired....

Here's a "snowman" for Thing 2.

And after much creative struggle (hmmm...how to make this into a race car?  Or a train?  Or the bacon into a bridge, but can't quite figure out how to make a train crossing the bridge?)  I made Thing 1's into an inkblot a bicycle.

The drizzle ended after breakfast.  I was going to run regardless, but it was nice to not have to wipe off my glasses while running.  I did 4 miles today, mostly running, but some walking, too.  (And by running, I always mean in the most generous definition of said gait. :-)

I always feel right at home entering the eucalyptus forest....

Sheesh - it was overcast, but it wasn't quite this dismal out.  The waves were so cool to watch - they were making that perfect curling wave shape.

Here's my "woo-woo" moment.  When I stopped at my turn-around point, I had this thought..."Wouldn't it be cool to see something that I've passed a zillion times and never noticed before, to show on the blog?"  And shortly after I continued, this guy popped into view.  The whole property where he's the parking lot guardian has lots of interesting visual features, so I wasn't completely surprised to find something new.

Post-run lunch:  Leftover Chinese food and some milk.

And some walnuts.

The rest of Saturday was off-camera.  The afternoon was snacky - I had some more nuts, and cherry tomatoes, and a mandarin orange, and the rest of Thing 2's burger (about 2.5 ounces), and two slices of leftover bacon.

A couple hours later, the Things were going crazy at Kids' Night Out at the gymnastics place, and we parents enjoyed a quiet fish dinner.  Princeton Seafood had fresh-caught halibut, and we both ordered with double-veggies instead of rice.  (I ordered a Pete's Wicked Ale, which used to be our favorite, but it was strongly sweet and not the best choice with fish.  Shoulda got the Corona with lime like Mr. H&H.)  We were briefly tempted to get the chowder, too, but then I reminded the Mr. about our last dinner outing and how miserable we felt afterward.

I was quite prepared to eat all the fish. But I got stuffed about halfway through the fish, and 3/4 through the veggies (carrot + zucchini combo).  Weird!  So Mr. H&H, who hadn't had a snacky afternoon, got the rest.

We then took a nice, long stroll.  I kind of wish our main street or some of the harbor shops stayed open on the weekend nights, because unless one is pub-crawling, there's not a lot to do after dinner around here.

Sunday 19 September

Avast, me hearties!  It be Talk Like a Pirate Day!  And whilst I be versed in speakin' like a pirate, it be kind o' labor-intensive ter be doin' a whole post in such.

So I'll resume in Standard American English now.

Well, I started the day with a nice blood glucose reading: 92.  Hurrah for fish and after-dinner strolls!

This made me a bit over-confident...

Breakfast: 2 donut holes, a wedge of apple fritter, coffee...

...and the last bite of Thing 2's chocolate glazed twist.

Well, the Mr. usually cooks up sausage gravy on Sunday.  I decided to test, to see the effect of the donuts at 1 hour.  It was...CRIKEY!  154?!?  Well, so much for fasting blood glucose pride...  "Just a bite" sometimes adds up to more than one is bargaining for.  Drat.

There was one thing to do:  get on my bike, and ride!  (Stationary bike, that is.)  So I rode for 10 minutes of a 20 minute program-very moderate intensity-then Mr. H&H called.  I tested again, and whew!  Down to a much more reasonable 122.

Needless to say, I skipped the toast.

Lunch:  I was cooking for Thing 2 and her friend, so I had three wedges of quesadilla, made with low carb tortilla.

And some walnuts.

I also had (not shown) about a handful of popcorn and a bite of ice cream when serving up snacks in the afternoon.

Later on, Mr. H&H gave me a bite of some pastrami and cheese on cracker.  Yum!  So for my snack, I had some, sans cracker.

But with tomato!  (I love tomato and cheddar.)

And some more walnuts.

Dinner:  Cheeseburger and salad.

(image from Wikimedia Commons)

Dessert: Two break-and-bake chocolate chip cookies.  Hmmm...on the one hand, they were warm.  On the other, I didn't taste the chocolate as distinctly as I would have liked.  I think I've really come to enjoy peanuts and chocolate chips better.

So overall, I felt like I ate a lot of stuff over the weekend.  I suspect that doing a little more running than I used to do is making me hungrier than usual.  Something to watch, anyway, as I continue with my half-marathon training.