Day 7 - Transformers:Dark of the Moon, The Throne of Fire (Kane Chronicles book #2)

Food diary:
usual breakfast
usual lunch
weight watchers Cheddar cheese stick
4 low-fat wheat wafers
1/4 cup Edamame soy beans
1 cup spaghetti with tomato sauce, four meatballs and Parmesan cheese
20 oz water
1 milkshake from Wawa
small popcorn (shared with Ben)
I went over, but that's OK.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Ben and I went to see Transformers as a kind of last minute thing.
From IMDb.com:
The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the Moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and to learn its secrets.
I enjoyed the movie, despite the fact that it was almost as predictable as Godzilla.  Yes. The stupid one with Matthew Broderick. (A story for another night.) I liked how they "got around" the Meghan Fox issue and I thought the new girl was MUCH better. The conspiracy theorists will love the whole "moon landing was a cover-up" plot. The beginning was really cool as it combined old news footage with new stuff shot for the movie. And of course I enjoyed hearing a Linkin Park song as a good portion of background music for parts towards the end. I don't think the movie was worth $10 though. If I'd had a choice I would have waited until Sat morning when our local theatre offers the first showing of a movie for $5, but then I'd've had to go alone and I HATE going to the movies alone.

The Throne of Fire (Kane Chronicles Book #2)
Before anyone asks, yes, I have read The Red Pyramid and yes, I liked that book too. One thing you need to know is that if I don't like a book I will stop reading it and I'll probably never touch it again.
Anyway...The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan is the second book in the Kane Chronicles. The Kane Chronicle follow Carter and Sadie Kane, a brother and sister combo, who are members of the House of Life and descendants of the ancient pharaohs of Egypt. They also happen to be fledgling magicians (the REAL kind) and former hosts of the Egyptian gods Horus (Carter) and Isis (Sadie). The second book has all the magic of the first and was a total page turner! Both books are definitely worth a read, even if you are an adult with no children (like me). Knowledge of ancient Egypt and the Egyptian gods is not needed as Mr. Riordan has Carter and Sadie explain what people might not know. These are wonderful books full of action, magic, adventure, just a touch of sadness (a few characters DIE) and thinly veiled references to Mr. Riordan's Percy Jackson series. I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the (supposedly) last installment sometime next year. I wonder if those veiled references are going to yield a cross-over in the near future...

Goodnight all!!

Day 6 - Red Riding Hood

Food diary:
1/2 cup of low-fat cottage cheese
usual coffee (coffee and cottage cheese will hence forth be know as "usual breakfast")
chicken sandwich (1/2 piece of thin sliced chicken and a whole wheat English muffin)
1 tray of broccoli and cheese (sandwich and broccoli will be known as "usual lunch")
one serving (about a cup and a half) of chicken rice casserole
4 chicken nuggets
1/4 Edamame soy beans
40 oz water (I might have more and I will change it if I do)
I still have points left, so I might have dessert...

Exercise:
none (yet)

Red Riding Hood
Last night I RedBoxed the movie Red Riding Hood. It is based on a book of the same name by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright that is now a member of my 'To Read' list.  The movie's genre is listed under drama, horror and mystery. There is some blood, no guts and a couple of dead bodies. This is NOT a movie for young children.
From IMDb.com:
Valerie is a beautiful young woman torn between two men. She is in love with a brooding outsider, Peter, but her parents have arranged for her to marry the wealthy Henry. Unwilling to lose each other, Valerie and Peter are planning to run away together when they learn that Valerie's older sister has been killed by the werewolf that prowls the dark forest surrounding their village. For years, the people have maintained an uneasy truce with the beast, offering the creature a monthly animal sacrifice. But under a blood red moon, the wolf has upped the stakes by taking a human life. Hungry for revenge, the people call on famed werewolf hunter, Father Solomon, to help them kill the wolf. But Solomon's arrival brings unintended consequences as he warns that the wolf, who takes human form by day, could be any one of them.

I loved that the movie kept you guessing. They do a really good job of making the identity of the werewolf a complete and total surprise.  You'll be convinced that so-and-so is the werewolf, only to have something happen that makes it look like a totally different so-and-so is the werewolf. They managed to incorporate the "Grandma, what big eyes you have..." part of the story and they even manage to fill the werewolf with rocks, but not for the reason in the fable. Gary Oldman (Father Solomon) once again plays a wonderful semi-psycho even though he is not the "bad guy". I even love the movie poster.Yet another RedBox movie that was totally worth my dollar. I might even buy this one once my car is fixed and I've caught up on my bills since all of my "bill money" is going to fix my car...

I also finished a book last night, but my review of that will come tomorrow. Good night all!!!

Day 5 - The Dreaded Friday

Food diary:
1) usual coffee
2) 3/4 cup of low-fat cottage cheese
3) chicken francaise
4) 100 calorie English muffin
5) just for one broccoli and cheese
6) low-fat string cheese
7) half a cup of unsweetened applesauce
8) half of a turkey and provolone sub from Shoprite
9) 100 calorie bag of cheez-itz
10) 3 breadsticks
11) 50 oz of water
I have one point left, so today is a good day.

The Dreaded Friday
As I said yesterday Friday is a long day for me. I'm up at 7 and I usually don't get home until 1am Saturday morning. Loooooong day. And of course it had to rain today, so I feel like I've already showered when I actually smell like pizza. I'm actually just really annoyed with the whole day. I was planning on reviewing the book I finished today, but I have decided that I will do that tomorrow because I'm ready to fall asleep on the keyboard of my brother's computer...

Goodnight all!!

Day 4 - Just a regular day

Food diary:
1) usual coffee
2) half a cup of low-fat cottage cheese
3) chicken francaise
4) salad with Italian dressing
5) half a cup of unsweetened applesauce
6) low-fat string cheese
7) 100 calorie bag of cheez-its
8) 2 cookies (I was trying to finish the package)
9) beef stroganoff noodles with london broil
10) weight watchers mini chocolate ice cream bar
11) 5 tbsp of mini chocolate chips
12) 20 oz of water
I only went over by one point!

Exercise:
one hour of Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
That's worth 5 points, so I have four extra points I didn't use today.

Today was a "normal" day. Ran some errands after work. Came home, ate dinner, changed and exercised. DDR:MM was actually fun.  I played and beat story mode in about an hour and a half, but a good 30 minutes of that was waiting for the cut scenes to finish and the "dancing" to start. I only played on easy mode which meant that the only "dance steps" I took were left and right.  All in all it was a nice, easy and pleasant workout.
So I've packed my lunch for tomorrow and everything is ready for me to take my shower and head off to bed for what always turns out to be the longest day of my week: Friday. Friday means I work BOTH jobs. "Oh hooray, hop about, clap paws, squeel with glee." - Garfield

Goodnight all!!!

Day 3 - Beastly

First things first: Food diary.
1) coffee with sweet and low, low fat creamer and a hint of peppermint mocha creamer
2) half a cup of low fat cottage cheese
3) two slices of thin crust pizza
4) two cookies
5) 2 mini Baby Ruth bars (I'm a bad girl!)
6) one 100 calorie bag of cheez-its
7) a pretzel from Auntie Anne's in the mall (Ben bought it for me!)
8) 3 oz of chicken breast
9) 20 oz of water
Not my best. I went over my points for today...

Tonight I decided to Redbox a movie. I don't usually go for the movie-made-from-a-book movies, but I really loved the book (it deals with my favorite fairy tale) and even though I KNEW they'd GET IT WRONG I decided to try it anyway. I was surprised. I enjoyed it...
So I watched "Beastly" which is based on the book Beastly by Alex Flinn. They changed a lot, like in the book Lindy has red hair and in the movie it is black. Also in the book Kyle is HAIRY!! He even comments that he looks like Chewbacca. In the movie he's covered in magical tattoos and scars and has theses strange metal things running through his skin. Basically he looks like someone just covered in tattoos. There are people like that all over the place, so I didn't really get what was so "beastly" about that.  I guess a hairy guy was too hard to do...
The time-line was also off between the book and the movie. The book's ending is 25 million times better than the movie's ending. They cut quite a bit of the book out of the movie. I really liked the fact that Kyle was given a magic mirror that he used to keep track of Lindy in the book. In the movie he follows her around and in all reality becomes a stalker and I find that super creepy.
Despite all the changes I found that I liked the movie as itself, and not a representation of the book. I will have to keep them both separate in my mind. (There are actually a few book-to-movie crossovers I can do this for, although Twilight was not one of them. I CANNOT STAND KRISTEN STEWART. HER BEING CAST AS BELLA MAKES IT THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE!! But that's a rant for another night!) It made me laugh and it had the right amount of tenderness and understanding between all the right characters in all the right places. The ending was kind of campy, but it had the overall effect that was needed for the movie they made.
So all in all in was definitely worth my dollar and it will go in my buy-it-once-it-hits-the-$5-bin-at-Walmart list.

Good night all!

Day 2

I figured for day 2 I should tell you a bit about myself. My name is Merri and I am 30 years old. I am single and will probably stay that way until I die. I'm not being cruel to myself, just pratical. Who in their right mind would want me?? I'm crazy, have a minor case of OCD, prefer books and crafts to people, am painfully shy, don't drink, love to cook (and eat), don't smoke, have never done drugs and I am crazy. Seems simple enough.
Hmmm...what else can I tell you?? I LOVE to read. I have been known to devour books! A true bookworm, that's me! I do assorted arts and crafts that include cross stitch, knitting, jewelery making and photography. I listen to a lot of different types of music, but I'm not too fond of rap, reggae, gospel or country. I CANNOT dance. I play handbells for my church and am a Deacon as well. I know how to edit the service to make CD copies and how to put the service together so it is ready to be broadcast on the radio. I can do all of this and more and most people won't even begin to scratch through the tough outer shell I put around myself when I was a child. "Don't let them know they've gotten to you!" was my mantra for a good portion of my childhood. I could be cast in the role of down-trodden heroine and be perfectly comfortable in that role because that role is me!
As you can see I have many titles, but the one I want most will never be mine.

Here we go

OK. So I got this idea to start a blog and keep a record of some of the things I do. This is the place where I will post pictures of cross-stitch works-in-progress (and then the final piece), what I'm reading (and what I felt about what I read), and what I'm playing.
I am also going to use this blog as a comprehensive food/points diary where I WILL NOT LIE!!! I will keep progress of my weight loss and exercises and since I hope few people will read this I don't really have all that much to be embarrassed by do I?
So current age:30
Current weight:272 - That's down 4 pounds since I started weight watchers about 2 weeks ago. My goal weight is 150 which means I have 122 pounds to loose!
And that is all for tonight. Have to go to sleep.  I've got a full day ahead of me tomorrow!