low.fiber.kick.

I've been kicked off fiber for three days. Yesterday was day one, today's day two, and tomorrow's day three. I usually get a ton a fiber throughout the day, so it's really been challenging to keep it minimal. The hardest thing I've noticed, is that most healthy food (veggies, whole wheat stuff, fruit, etc) has a bunch of fiber in it. This means that the only foods I can keep eating from my usual stuff are meat (chicken and turkey mainly), yogurt, cheese, and eggs. My doctor told me to eat all the white stuff that you're normally supposed to limit- potato's, white bread, pasta, etc. So instead of my normal fiber filled cereal, I'm eating fruity cheerios. They're pretty much a healthier version of fruit loops. They taste exactly the same, but have way less sugar, and a ton of vitamins added in. I tried white bread with my turkey for lunch (no more lettuce or tomato for me) and I realized that I don't even like the taste of it anymore. It tastes fake. Gross. I had spaghetti for dinner, and couldn't believe how small the serving size really was. Two oz of dry pasta is only about 50 sticks of spaghetti, and that has a bunch of calories and carbs in it. 50 sounds like a lot, but when you look at it, it's tiny. So I had 3 oz with some chicken and spaghetti sauce. The biggest difference I've noticed, is that even though I'm eating about the same amount of calories and protein, I'm much hungrier than usual. Probably because you can eat so much more food when it's good for you food. I can't wait until friday. I definitely couldn't keep this up.

blah.

Today was an uneventful day. No one e-mailed me, no one called me, and no one updated their blog. What's up? I didn't even get any spam mail. Maybe my inbox is screening. Oh wait. It looks like the twins did update their blog at some point today. Maybe tomorrow will be more eventful.

bonus.time.update.

I stopped by macy's today to see when they have clinique bonus time since no one else seems to know. It's in april. I think she said april 4th, but it may have been april 6th. So I think their months are april and october. Next time I'm near bloomindales and lord and taylor, I'll ask them and let you all know.

(According to google analytics, I'm getting tons of visits with "clinique bonus time" keywords. I've even made it up to a page rank of 3 now!)

my.shoes.

I finally found the perfect pair of high heeled shoes. I've been looking for them for a while (since well before christmas) and while I had the exact image in my head (deep purple or wine colored with some sort of seaming or other embellishment that would make them stand out instead of blend in), I had only found one pair that were remotely close, and they cost $398 at dsw. They were marc jacobs. Since that was a little out of my budget, I went barefoot at my christmas dinner (the event that had inspired my frantic shoe search to being with). I did paint my toenails the same color- a deep wine hue- so they looked pretty. I'd pretty much given up on finding the ideal pair, and had stopped looking. A few months ago, I'd received a coupon from dsw for $20 off any pair of shoes, and it expires on march 4th. I'd gone to four different stores for a total of seven times since receiving the coupon, and found nothing every time. So today I was out near the natick mall using another free $25 coupon, and I decided to stop by dsw to see if I could find a cheap pair of sneakers to use in the aerobics classes I've been taking. (My current running shoes are a little big, which is perfect for running since your feet swell, but they feel a little floppy when I'm jumping side to side.) I didn't have any luck in the sneaker department, so I decided to check out the clearance section, although I've never found anything there before. Today was my day. The exact shoes I'd pictured in my little mind- moda spana, deep wine, seamed (so they're a little funky), eel skin high heels. Here's a link if you want to see them. The best news was the price. They were cut back to $54.95, plus an extra 30% off, plus my $20 coupon. They were pretty close to free if you ask me.

optic.nerve.

*ja* and I still managed to get out on our walk tonight even though it was sub-zero with the wind chill. Very nippy. We only did two miles instead of our usual four in order to save our extremities from frostbite. Afterwards, we were eating dinner and watching an old episode of malcolm in the middle. It was one where lois is trying to get dewey's ratty old teddy (domingo)away from him, and he won't give it up. She grabbed it from him, but he snuck it back. Here's a transcript of what happened next.

(Lois walks into dewey's room sniffing the air. Dewey's in bed.) (*If you've seen this show, try to hear this with lois and dewey's voices. It makes it much funnier.)
Lois: "Okay. Where's domingo. Come on, I can smell him. (pause) Honey, do you think I just took domingo away from you because I'm mean?"
Dewey: "Absolutely."
Lois: "Dewey. The reason I had to take your teddy bear away is because he's very dirty. He's covered with germs and he could make you very sick."
Dewey: "He wouldn't do that. He loves me."
Lois: "It's the germs sweety. They're tiny bugs carrying disease, and domingo is covered with them. Now when you touch them, they get on your hands, and what do you suppose happens if you touch your eyes? Well I'll tell you what happens. The germs get in there and they infect them, and you get very sick, and eventually your optic nerve rots away and your eyes fall out. Now, if you want to keep domingo, you can. But if you want to keep your eyes, you'll give domingo to me."
(Dewey whips the bear out from under his covers and hands him over to lois.)
Lois: "You made the smart choice sweety. Sleep tight."
(The rest of the episode shows dewey wearing gas masks, wrapping himself in saran wrap with a bug net over his head, and cleaning everything in the house from top to bottom. Lois eventually puts an end to it by eating a bug that dewey was scared of.)

So, *ja* was drinking water at the exact point where lois talks about the optic nerve rotting and the eyes falling out. She started to laugh, and shot water up her nose and all over the place. It was hilarious! So funny, in fact, that I just had to write it up here.

bad.itunes.

I've been listening to a cd that my brother left in my car when he borrowed it in august. I have one of those trunk loading six cd changers, so I rarely make the effort to change cds- I'm usually listening to my ipod anyway- so anything that he left in there is still there. I really like a couple of the songs that are on this cd, so tonight I finally remembered to grab it so I could put the whole thing onto my computer. He must have burnt some songs onto the disc, so the only info I had was that they were by kgb and switchfoot. I had to do some searching to figure out what discs the songs were from, and then input the names into itunes. Now I'm not sure if it's because the disc has been in my car for more than six months, or because my twenty year old brother was the owner, but this thing is pretty banged up. Not only are there are some scratches, but there's a weird corroded type stain on one side near the edge. Needless to say, this cd has some trouble playing several songs- most of which are from the kgb disc. Instead of ending up with choppy music, I figured I'd buy the kgb album, and keep the switchfoot one since the disc condition doesn't seem to have affected that music. The problem arose when I went on itunes to find the album. I couldn't find it. Anywhere. I even tried searching for one song from the album, but just ended up with a bunch of other artists. I'm frustrated. It's not like this cd is old or anything- it's from 2001. I don't understand why they don't have it. Maybe they do, and I just can't get it. Who knows. Anyway- here's the link to the disc on amazon. If anyone has it and wants to share, let me know.

movie.reviews.

I made great headway in my oscar movie viewings this weekend. I saw little children at the end of the week, the devil wears prada yesterday at home (*nn* and *tm* came over to watch with me), and both volver and notes on a scandal today at the coolidge theater. I even renewed my membership to the theater, so the tickets were only $6.50 instead of $9.50. I paid for both movies, because I only believe in two-for-one at large cooperate movie theaters. The first movie (volver) I saw by myself, and really liked. It was definitely a darker, less commercial movie, but I thought it was well done, and I'd be happy if penelope cruz won best actress because of it. If you like almodovar's stuff, and feel like doing some reading (or better yet, understand spanish), I'd recommend that you check it out. For the second movie, *ah* met me since we watch the awards together and she'd been wanting to see it for some time. I loved this movie. It was incredibly intense, and I understood why someone had recently said it was "so scary". My body was tense for most of the 110 minutes, and I think I even bit my hand several times. Judi dench's character was a whack job, and right now, she would be my top pick to win for best actress. (The only one left to see in this category is helen mirren in the queen.) Little children was better than I expected. I read this book while traveling in europe, and thought it was so bad that I left it on the train from switzerland to italy, even though *tm* and I were trading books. I thought it was so poorly done that I didn't want her to have to read it despite our limited number of english books. I was a little disgruntled when I realized that I'd have to see the movie since kate winslet was nominated for best actress. While I definitely don't think she should win over the other nominees, the narration and direction helped to pull some otherwise very random story lines together, which helped the movie flow better than the book. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. Last but not least- the devil wears prada. I also enjoyed this one, and also wouldn't be disappointed if meryl streep won for best actress (although I doubt she will), but it wasn't anything that will make a lasting impression on me. It was enjoyable while it lasted, but that's about it. We also watched the deleted scenes, and felt that there were several scenes that should have been included in the movie. They were fairly short (so wouldn't add too much extra time) and would have helped to make sense of other things that happened. So there you have it. My overall ratings:
little children- C
the devil wears prada- C+
volver- B+
notes on a scandal- A

new.gym.clothes

I'm sold. For several years, I've been working out in old cotton t-shirts, mostly the freebies I get from children's hospital. *a* kept telling me that that I should get a "real" gym shirt- aka the moisture wicking breathable kind. It seemed silly to pay money for the fancy kind of shirt, when I could both promote blood donating, and save money while doing it. Alas, as time went on, I got tired of leaving the gym in baggy wet sweaty shirts, and freezing as soon as I went outside. So a couple of weeks ago, I stopped by the new balance outlet on my way somewhere. I went in looking for warmer sweat pant type things, and left with a running coat, a long sleeved base layer shirt, and a moisture wicking breathable kind of gym shirt. I figured I'd give it a shot, but would probably end up rotating it into my "give pints for half-pints" shirt lineup. After my first gym trip wearing the new shirt, I knew there would be no more cotton t-shirts for me. It was so comfortable, and was just as light when I left the gym as it was when I arrived there. Over the past two weeks, I've resorted to washing it every night, and then hanging it to dry so it would be ready for me to wear the next day. A little ridiculous I'll admit, but I just couldn't regress after making so much progress. It became obvious that I needed to buy at least one more, so I met up with *ja* (who desperately needed new shoes) at the outlet today. It was the right time to go, because there was a ton of stuff on sale. I got three more short-sleeved shirts for $10 each (they were $16.99 when I got the first one), one long-sleeved shirt for $10, and a pair of gym pants for $5. What a bargain! I suppose I can wait until friday to do my laundry now.

jar.head.

I watched jarhead today. I tivod it a while ago, but hadn't started it because watching a marine movie about desert storm wasn't really my idea of a good time. (Especially when I have so many oscar movies to catch up on.) I wanted to see it because I love jake gyllenhaal, and it turns out that I actually enjoyed the movie. If you have a couple of hours and are looking for something to do, go watch it.

triple.product.

Today was a notable day. It was the first time of 57 platelet donations that I gave triple product. Generally, people give single to double product (one product is 3.2 units), and I've been stuck in the double product category for some time. I have a really high platelet count, but the anticoagulant that they send back in with your red cells makes me feel gross. Once I almost vomited and passed out, but they paused the machine before that happened. It was not pleasant. Since the volume of anticoagulant pumped in depends on the volume of platelets taken out, they have to run the machine at a slower rate so I don't get too much of the bad stuff. Over the past few months, I've tried to get a lot of extra calcium (since that reduces the effects of the anticoagulant) and eat plenty of tums while donating. They've gradually increased the flow part way through the donation. Today, I made it up to a flow rate of 10.0 (normal for me is 8.1 and for most people is 11.0), and the total collected amount was 10.1 units. Just over the 9.6 triple product amount. I was very excited, as was everyone for me. *k* said I should go out for a drink tonight to celebrate!