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While I was reading Skinny Bitch I decided to go and find an organic wine without sulfites. For some reason I didn't think it was as hard as it was going to be. I went to Whole Foods first and they didn't have anything. I then went to Sprouts and by golly they had one brand, Frey. It wasn't like they had a huge selection so I chose the Red Wine and the Cabernet. Well, this picture is the result of me opening up the Red wine first. I guess when you buy organic wine, or at least this brand, they use a type of recyclable cork. It kind of reminded me of particle board when it gets wet and just crumbles and breaks apart. So, when I went to open this bottle just like I open any other bottle of wine it didn't turn out the way I expected it. I grabbed my rabbit wine opener and put it in position and started to push the lever down and I got splattered with wine that shot up through the crack as the cork shot down the neck of the bottle. Of course the cork didn't go all through, no that would of been too easy. Instead it got stuck. I then reached for my jackknife wine opener and managed to start pulling it up but couldn't get it to come all the way up. Then I tried the rabbit again and it did the same exact thing. After getting a facial with this lovely organic, sulfate-free wine I began to start having a mini-nervous breakdown. I was determined that this bottle of wine was not going to beat me. I tried poking and stabbing the cork through b/c I just knew this wine was going to be absolutely delectable. This went on for about 5 minutes until I chipped the side of the bottle. At that point I felt beaten. I held it upside down and saw a little trickle drip out of the bottle. I decided to taste what little I could get out the Fort Knox of all wine bottles. Blah! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! I cast that bottle aside and started working on the Cab. The exact same thing happened with the second bottle with the exception of not chipping the mouth. I did manage, after a lot of hard work, to get the cork out of this one though. I finally got to have me a glass of vino. This tasted a little better but not worth the effort of taking a wine bath or drinking cork in the bottle. I have to put this all behind me. That was the only glass I tasted because wine without selfites has to be drank quickly or it will spoil. I guess I should of drank the whole bottle that night but I didn't. So, the money along with the wine got poured down the drain. I'll keep the sulfates and just drink in moderation.
NO MORE COFFEE! NO MORE COFFEE! Imagine the Mommy Dearest movie when she says, "NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!!!!!! That is what I felt like this morning when I tried going without my coffee. I tried, I tried. I couldn't do it. I almost had it done too. I woke up and made my strong coffee and added soy milk to it. Remember baby steps. I had a couple of sips but wasn't really feeling it. No problema. I made myself a fresh glass of iced de-caf green tea for the road along with a glass of regular black tea for security. I was kind of sleepy during the commute but I made it. I must also mention that this was my first Monday to work since I started on the floor. I think I'm allergic to Mondays. I know I'm really allergic to them when they are a hell-a busy and I have low levels of caffeine in my body. I felt like my brain was mush and that I was the biggest air head in the world. I suffered through work with catching some of my mistakes. Lord only knows how many I didn't catch, but I made it. I should of been rejoicing when I walked out of work but instead all I did was feel deprived. So you want to know what I did? I got in my car and drove to the Starbucks that is located right next to where I work. I went through the drive-thru and ordered and a Venti Non-fat Iced latte. It was sooooo gooooood. Of course I felt bad because I was close but yet so far from being one step closer. Oh well, I told myself maybe tomorrow will be a better day. I then eased my guilt with the thought of that at least I didn't get the extra shot. Maybe I have made a little bit of progress. I'm not giving up. Let's see how far I can get tomorrow.
I just finished my latest read on Saturday. The book is titled, "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. I admit I saw it about 6 months ago and just looked at it and walked away. I had no clue as to what it this book was even going to be about nor was I the least bit interested in finding out what it was about. My friend Lisa had mentioned it shortly after I had seen it in the store but she never did elaborate on what is was about so I never gave it another thought.
Well, with my quest of trying to lose weight lately I decided to pick it up and find out what this book was all about. To tell you the truth I thought it was about what you turn into when you starve yourself to be thin. Never in a million years did I think it was a book promoting healthy eating and animal cruelty. I'm sure there are quite a few books out there that tell about our low USDA standards for our food and she goes right down the list. Now I guess I could go on and say she is another one of those radical people that are standing on their soap box but she did mention the strict guidelines regarding Japan's food inspections compared to our US inspections that made my ears perk up a bit. Now since I am a Customer Service Rep for an International shipping company, I can say that Japan is one of the countries that have very strict guidelines. Foreign foods are prohibited. Nothing made from or containing any meat, plant, poultry, eggs, seafood or dairy products can go into their country. So, if you know someone in Japan and wanted to pay a fortune to ship them a chocolate candy bar for their birthday, you better think again. Basically what it will boil down to is that you just flushed your good hard earned money down the toilet. Japan customs doesn't care if there is just a microscopic drop of dairy in it b/c it is listed in the ingredients it will be stamped return to sender. I just had an irate customer who flipped her lid b/c she sent over animal feed and b/c it had the word animal in it, it was returned to back to them. She claimed that it didn't contain any animal products but that it was feed for animals. When I asked her what it was made out of she couldn't tell me. I told her it couldn't be made from animals, dairy, poultry, eggs, seafood or plants. So unless it was made from the soil of the earth, there were probably restriction on that as well, there was no way of getting it through customs.
I do have to put a warning out there though. It is not for the faint of heart nor someone who gets easily offended with four letter words. She really lays it out there and sometimes it does get a bit extreme with the cuss words that she throws out here and there. I did enjoy the book and found it a real eye opener so much I am beginning my journey of becoming a vegan-vegetarian. I say vegan-vegetarian b/c last week I still put milk in my coffee which is baaadddd!!!!! I also went to a birthday party where they served italian beef sandwiches and little barbeque cocktail weinies in which I did not take part in but I did eat some cheese. Plus when everyone got the late night munchies and were stuffing their faces with footlong Sonic Coney dogs with cheese I opted for Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby ice cream. Hey, a girl’s gotta eat. So far it hasn't been too bad as long as I put soy milk in my coffee and add soy cheese (no added casein or whey)to my salad. No more blue cheese with my walnut and cranberry salad. Sniff Sniff. I would have to say my biggest obstacle at this point is giving up caffeine. My favorite drinks are iced coffee and iced tea. Don't know how I'm going to tackle that mountain. Will keep you posted.
I've been going through pics to post on Facebook of friends and family. I can't remember if I had this one in my album or if I found this one last year when I was going through my Mom's photos in Alaska. This is a pic of my older sister Joyce holding me at South Padre Island. I have no idea why I have my red tennis shoes on other than I found it to be safer in her arms than in the water. I loved those little red tennis shoes of mine and I love my family too.
Yes, we got to stay in a haunted hotel on our road trip. I can put that on my list of things that I have done. It wasn't intentional, I just waited until the very last minute to book our stay in Sedona and Prescott. I was trying to keep our overnighters reasonably priced b/c we really weren't going to be in any one place for very long. I wanted both places to be within walking distance of the downtown areas so we could walk from place to place without having to worry about parking. I found a really cool hotel called the hotel Vendome that is marked as a historic building in Prescott. Well, after booking I started reading the reviews. I guess it is helpful to read reviews before booking versus after considering everyone wants a 48 hour cancellation notice. Anyway, I started reading and realized in a couple of the reviews they were mentioning a ghost. Yikes! The good news is that the person who wrote the review was very disappointed b/c he did not see any ghost. The ghost that supposedly haunts the Hotel Vendome was a former owner of the hotel, Abby Byr and her cat. I had spaced out the particular room number when we got there but I thought it would be pretty funny to tell the Gabster and get her all worked up. Well it worked. Was it worth it? Yes!!!!! It is a really cool place and it has lots of charm. We had two bedrooms connected by a bathroom. Did we see any ghost? No. We did have a weird experience with the bathroom light. It had an old fashioned bathroom with the clawfoot bathtub and the toilet tank hung above you so you had to pull a chain that hung down to flush. Anyway I don't know why I described the bathroom other than that is where the light incident happened. While I was in there the light went from dim to really bright. Of course as soon as that I happened I was trying to get out of there as fast as possible. Then I tried turning off the light. I couldn't get it to turn off. I tried both switches and nothing. Then I messed with the timer knob to the ceiling heater and nothing. I then told my story to JL and she said she had tried turning it off and couldn't get them to turn off either. I asked La Princesa if the timer had anything to do with the light and she didn't know so I gave it a try. It finally turned off. I then went to lay down on the bed while everyone changed into their pajamas. La Princesa went and turned off the light and was trying to convince Mama Mia to come and sleep with her. I got up to turn down the thermostat in our room when La Princesa caught me and asked me why I had turned the light back on. I told her I hadn't I was just turning down the thermostat and was no where near the bathroom. That is probably when she began panicking. Especially after her boyfriend researched it on the internet and confirmed our story.
She convinced Mama Mia to go over to her room. So I moved to the other room which worked out well b/c JL and I began working on a plan to scare the living daylights out of her. Well, before we could even come up with anything La Princesa called me on her cell phone. Yes, her cell phone. I guess she wanted to ensure the safety of Mama Mia back to the other bedroom and to convince me to come back to her room. She had decided that she would be better protected if I were over there. So she sent poor Mama Mia packing, back to the room she was originally in, and I went back to the room I was originally in. I then had to listen to La Princesa tell her story of hearing strange noises in the room. Which totally got me freaked out. Talk about a plan backfiring. Finally La Princesa drifted off to sleep after her boyfriend convinced her that the majority of ghosts are friendly ghosts. I think he even gave some kind of percentage which was probably totally made up but it made her feel better. She fell asleep and I was wide awake. I only heard one noise while I was still awake and then I fell fast asleep. We all survived the night. We woke up a bit stiff from the rock hard beds but the experience was a great one.
