Crap... it's been that long?

Amazing how time can pass quickly when one's not paying attention...

Anyway... I'll try to get you all caught up with this post.

Thursday, I began not smoking again, and have kept it up since then, making it five days so far. Jessi says that the physical desire for a cigarette is now gone, and it's only psychological, but I'm not sure I buy that...

Friday, I was up and out the door fairly early, as I had advance preparations to make for Jessi's delayed birthday party (which we had on Saturday). Jessi's request was to make it a Mexican-themed party, with Spanish rice and burritos and so on -- foods I've already created low-calorie versions of anyway. I did most of the grocery shopping before going to work on Friday, with only a few things to pick up after work (and, for that matter, after walking the dogs on Saturday). Friday night, after dinner, I started preparing stuff... cooking the chicken and steak for the burritos, and making the non-fat brownies, and getting other preparations made (like doing all the chopping and so on, as well as starting the Spanish rice in the crock-pot).

Saturday's Weight Watchers meeting was a good one, even though we both had a small gain. I was expecting a gain myself, given how much extra munching I'd been doing while I haven't been smoking. Afterwards, we took the dogs for their walk, and then were home for breakfast. After breakfast, we did some housecleaning, and then I got back to work on stuff for the party, which was starting at 4. I made three dozen burritos of various types (actually, it may have been closer to 4 dozen... kind of hard to keep track after the fact, you know?).

Anyway... I had everything prepared well in advance, adn in the fridge, ready to go, by about 1:30 or so, and then did clean-up in the kitchen. I think by 2:30-3:00, I was getting a fresh shower.

So, about 4:00, people started showing up, so I got things warming up for the taco salad bar, and turned on the oven to start baking the burritos.

The burritos were a huge hit -- they were gone almost as soon as I took them out of the oven! The taco salad and Spanish rice were a bit less of a hit, but that's fine... there's always leftovers after a party, and that's what we eat for the next week.

Jessi did pretty well for herself, present-wise!

Sunday morning, we took the dogs for another walk, but it was cut short, because KO was having too many issues with other dogs in the group, so we went home early from that, and had breakfast. We were supposed to be getting together with some people for a bike ride, but everyone was dropping out on us right and left... so about 10:45, I told Jessi we may as well get ready and just go on a ride, the two of us. I suggested a 2-hour ride -- and no, I don't know why I thought I'd be up for that, either!

We ended up riding a total of 15 miles... my previous maximum distance was about 6 miles. It did take two hours, including some shorter breaks.

After the ride, we got cleaned up, ate some lunch, and headed north to watch the playoff game (Seattle vs. Carolina) at my parents' house -- Jessi's idea, she enjoys spending time with my family, which is a very good thing!

Of course, I'm sure you all know by now that the Seahawks won -- and they did a very fine job of it, too, playing even better (IMHO) than they did last weekend.

As we headed back home Jessi said she'd like to have a Super Bowl party at our place -- one we'll invite about eight to 10 Weight Watchers friends to, to keep it healthy!

Sunday night, after Jessi went to bed, I sent some new "Cover Stories" columns off to Justin at WF Comics.

This morning, before going to work, I had some eBay shipments to make... and then it was off to work (another slow day -- even though we're doing a special Super Bowl publication they're supposed to be selling ads like mad for... I'm guessing we'll see more of those Tuesday -- and I spent the last few hours of the day doing tears, so I at least got my eight hours in!), then home, watched some Law and Order while eating dinner, put Jessi to bed...

...and then I got things caught up here!

Jon