Anna Skamarakas

On my recent visit in with my gastric bypass surgeon, they were kind enough to present me with a lovely bag of samples and goodies that they had saved for me from Christmas.  Most of it was junk and I threw it away, my kids took off with the water bottle and the bag itself, and I was left with a bottle of protein powder from Health Wise.  Unlike many of the other protein drinks I’ve had, this one is not vanilla or chocolate or milky or creamy in any way.  The sample I have is for the Pineapple Orange High Protein Fruit Drink - with the very catchy caption “Fill it*Shake it*Drink it. 

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It’s a really sad day here.  Jim’s friend Calvin died yesterday morning from metastatic prostate cancer at the age of 49.  But it’s not just Calvin’s passing that makes today sad.  My sister’s friend Jual was diagnosed just last week with breast cancer.  She’s 29 years old, has two children under the age of 3, and she has a new baby on the way.  And it’s not just Jual and Calvin that make today sad.

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Yes, I will finally have my place in the history books, ladies and gentlemen!   I have gone 42 years of my life without doing anything worthy of notoriety, but I have finally done something to make me (in)famous - at least at Eilis’ school.

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Okay, so we got a note in our room telling us the Magical Express shuttle that would get us to the airport in time for our flight was leaving at 5:15, and in order to be on it, we had to be at the pick up location at 5 AM.  There is not much help available for your luggage, and I am greatly disappointed in that.  The note implies that you just place a phone call to bell services the night before your shuttle, and someone will come to collect your things.  Not so.  We placed our phone call, only to have a cast member tell us how short handed they are at that time of the morning, and they only have one guy that can do the luggage runs, and they have already booked him beyond what he can do.  We are a good, long walk from the main building where we will be picked up, so Brighid and I make sure we are up and out the door all the earlier so we have ample time to haul our luggage across the resort.

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Saturday, February 10th, and our last day here.  We leave EARLY tomorrow morning.  This has thrown a monkey wrench into our plans, but we’ll work through it.  The plan for today is to go to Islands of Adventure for the first half of the day, then leave to go to Universal Studios to spend the late afternoon and evening, specifically to see the Mardi Gras parade.

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Even when they are 15 years old.

I have a daughter that age, who has a crush on a boy.  We’ve been there, ladies.  You so desperately want the boy you like to like you back, there is almost physical pain involved in not knowing if he likes you or he doesn’t like you.

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While I technically have lost more weight than Jim, he has lost his the old fashioned way.  He made a very deliberate decision last July, just before my gastric bypass surgery, that he wanted to lose weight as well.  Weighing in at about 325 pounds, he didn’t feel he was a good candidate for the weight loss surgery, and attending my gastric bypass support group meetings convinced him of that.  Most of the people in my group have used surgery as a tool to get down to about 300 pounds, so he felt fairly svelte sitting among us all.

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I am not a big fan of pudding.  My favorite way to eat it was always the Jello Pudding Pops - frozen and delicious.  I’m just not so much interested in blobby stuff - Jello, pudding, tapioca, mousse, you get the picture.  So why did I buy the Instone High Protein pudding?   Well, because I have to eat so damn many grams of protein per day, and I get tired day in and day out of the same old protein bars and the nuts and the bites of cheese.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

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For a man who did not choose to be Governor of the state of NJ, Richard Codey certainly has the mantle thrust upon him often enough!   You’ll remember a couple of years back when our then Governor Jim McGreevy decided to leave office, Dick Codey took over, as we have no lieutenant Governor in our state.  Yesterday, following a serious car crash, our current governor Jon Corzine was air lifted to Cooper Hospital, and due to the seriousness of his condition, a stunt double needed to fill in.  Enter Dick Codey, the former new acting governor.

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Granuaile will be 2 on Monday, and we are celebrating her birthday with a party tomorrow.  I tend to go way overboard with food and stuff for parties, but Jim has decided to keep a closer watch on this party than on some others we’ve had.  I ordered a couple of trays from Wegman’s, so tomorrow, he will pick up a fruit tray; a tray with cheese, chunks of ham, and veggies with dip; a tray called Wokery, which has egg rolls, spare ribs, pot stickers, garlic wings and shrimp purses; and something called Suprimo platter, which is sort of a pepperoni bread.  I wanted to make the  food sort of multi-cultural, since we are going with the Backyardigans theme for the baby.  Anyway, it never seems like there will be enough food.  So today, I made deviled eggs, picked up chips and dips, and I am marinating pork as I type.  I may not serve the pork - I may save it for Monday night for the kids - but the fact is, even with the food I have chosen and the birthday cake (oh, and 24 cupcakes that I made today), I still felt like we needed more food.

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