Emily’s Unhealthy Obsessions

Four Triscuits in and I got a kick.  Yay, food!  We (because I consider myself a we now with this little unseen fella in my belly) adore Roasted Garlic Triscuits.  With or without cheese, they are delightful.  I wouldn’t, however, call them a craving.  It is more of a situation where, once I eat the first one, I then have to devour about 75 more before I am satisfied that I have had enough of that taste.  Patrick thinks they make me smell and I am sure he is right, but I’m the one with the kid in me so I get to have the crackers and be stinky.  Some other non-craving cravings: turkey sandwiches.  Haribo gummy bears (and what an adorable website.  I highly recommend the production tab).  Cherry Coke (one a day… it’s so sinfully good).  Vegetable soup.  Chick-fil-a breakfast biscuits.  I just learned today that Rachael Ray has never heard of Chick-fil-a.  This is very sad to me.  I wouldn’t necessarily say it is my favorite fast food establishment, but around here they are so prevalent, it must be how California people feel about us not having an In-N-Out Burger.  I pretty much will eat anything and everything lately.

What I am not terribly fond of anymore is Italian food.  When we went on our trip I was about six weeks along but had only just found out the night before we left.  Although I never experienced true morning sickness, I was adversely affected by the 100 degree heat, the miles of walking, and the absence of ice and consistent air conditioning.  Every day we would trudge mile after mile in the heat and arrive at some lovely cafe for lunch, only to be served luke warm soda and HOT pasta for lunch.  It will be awhile before I can look at another piece of prosciutto square on.  As I just finished writing that, The Insider is on in the background, and they are talking about the TomKat wedding (hack), and Lara Spencer just said, “Italians blah blah… but they also serve some of the BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD.”  Ah, I beg to differ.  ACK!  Now they are talking about mozzarella and parma ham!  I may have to change the channel if they start showing antipasto platters.

And yet I have been sitting here for thirty minutes trying to think of something to say…you would think I would have plenty to rant about after all this time!  In my absence there have been lots of trips and events… we first visited Tallahassee for a friend’s wedding in June.  Then in July we headed to Maine and upstate New York for the 4th of July and some family bonding time.  In later July was our big trip to Italy, which was a whirlwind eight days of walking and sightseeing and sweating… who knew that Italy gets as hot as Florida in the summer?  And in Florida I don’t make it a point to get outside and walk a good five miles in the sweltering heat, so I maybe was not as conditioned for that trip as I could have been!  Then to round out our summer of trying to escape Florida’s heat, we headed to Wisconsin in August for more family bonding and to meet the latest addition to the family, our new niece Abigail!  We were able to relax and see a lot of friends and family… ugh, I’m hungry and it’s making me boring!  Why am I hungry at 1 AM, you ask?  Well, that’s the baby talking.  The four people who might actually still check and read this of course already know, but yes, there is a baby due in March 07!  He makes me hungry pretty much all the time.  Food makes him very happy and his little legs kick like crazy right after I eat, without fail.  Just like his momma. I’ll be back after a snack… and hopefully I’ll be more interesting!

Since we’ve been home, I’ve been doing laundry almost nonstop.  We arrived home from North Carolina and left for Tallahassee about 9 days later, so there was a lot of laundry done in a short amount of time.  During that time, I noticed something slightly disturbing about myself.  I color code my hangers.  Only the empty ones, but still.  Color coded, there they hang on the rack in the laundry room, completely and totally segregated - white together, black together, and off the the side, the really weird ones in fuschia, magenta, lime green, and teal.  I like to tell myself that it is because the black ones have short, more angled hangers, and the white ones have a more elongated, straighter hanger part… but deep down, there is a nagging fear that I am a little bit of a hanger racist.  After all, like Avenue Q says, everyone’s a little bit racist….

I am back!  Thanks to the loyal readers (Jon, Kim, and Kim) who wondered if my blogging days were over… no, I’m just a big slacker incapable of multitasking.  We made a few trips and worked a little extra and time just got away from me and my blog. One of the trips we made was to North Carolina, where the quest for shoes was officially ON.  Give my sister-in-law Fran a quest, and she is more stubborn about accomplishing it than even me.  After numerous stops in “comfy” shoe stores, where we found some of the ugliest and most orthopedic shoes on the market, we stopped at a funky little establishment called Firefly near downtown Raleigh.  There, I was introduced to the world of John Fluevog shoes, which are fantastically fun and - here is where it gets exciting - comfortable.  Yes, cute AND comfortable… coexistence, thy name is Fluevog.  I planned to link to the shoes on fluevog.com, shown in a different color, and then describe the actual color of the ones I bought.  However, I have actually just found a link showing the exact shoes I purchased by searching “firefly raleigh” on yahoo.  You ready?  Really, really ready?  Because for what I paid for these suckers, I need you all to be really, really ready and really, really excited about them once you do see them.  Naysayers, good riddance.  Positive vibes only, please.  Alright, I’m ready for the reveal!  Here they are.  Comments, please.

The Brangelina spawn is here.  Does anyone care?  Could the headline BE any bigger on people.com?  Ick.

Because I can’t actually eat anything sinful these days, I have taken to looking up pictures of my dream foods on the internet.  A recent conversation with some friends prompted me to look up one of my childhood favorites, the Star Crunch.  During the conversation, I recall that the whole table was not familiar with this delectable treat.  According to Little Debbie herself, these treats are still being made, and in fact are #9 on the list of top 10 requested Little Debbie treats.  Can anyone guess what number 1 is?  No peeking… venture a guess first.  Here is the link to the full top 10.  I was not a big snack treat child (any of the ones on this list that I enjoyed were probably at a friend’s house) but I daresay most people in my age demographic have had all of these at least once.  Comments?  I needed to get you all off my back about the shoes!

Alright loyal readers, it is time to get involved.  I am not sure if I ever said for sure, but Patrick and I did in fact get booked on the Adventures by Disney trip to Italy this summer.  I nearly had to cancel the trip, however, when I read the fine print and realized that we are each allowed only ONE (1) suitcase and one carry-on item.  Um, have we met?  For a typical long weekend jaunt, I have been known to arrive with my two largest suitcases, both with the extra top portions unzipped which expand the normal capacity by about two inches.  Plus a purse and the biggest carry-on I’m allowed.  This is an 8 day trip to another continent.  I am in panic mode already.

You all know by now how hostile I am about the concept of dieting and all that it entails.  The 1300 calories I am allowed to consume on a daily basis are not stretching very far, and this makes for a cranky Emily.  Self deprivation is not my favorite game to play.

Alerted of the news of the TomKitten’s arrival and told her name (Suri), Patrick Hayes was quoted as saying, “Yeah, she will be SURI when she grows up and finds out who her parents are.”  And there you have it.