this little life of mine

At The Melting Pot.

If you hadn't noticed from my Twitters, I'm on vacation. i'm in Ohio visiting my BFF Jewel and her two new kitties (Fester is pictured, Dash wouldn't sit still!) at her brand new house!
Yesterday we had mani pedis at a beautiful spa. We had our toes done in OPI's Bastille My Heart and I had Parle Vous OPI put on my fingers.
We spent the afternoon moving the last few boxes out of Jewel's old apartment and doing some vacuuming and wiping down counters. She enlisted the help of her friend' s 14-year-old daughter to run stuff up and down the stairs. JM is a great kid with lots of energy and she was a BIG help! To thank her, we took her to dinner at PF Chang's Chinese Bistro. We had a delicious meal and played several rounds of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. It was a really fun day!
Today we're going to do some shopping and maybe see a movie.

... because it seems I've injured myself again. How? Who knows! My left ankle was fine this morning when I got to work. FINE! Now? It hurts when I put weight on it to the point of my being gimpy again. I think it might be another tendon thing, like my leg earlier this year, because while I did start feeling a little discomfort just above the ankle (on the inside of the leg, not outside) before lunch, now it's a raging pain with just a bit of throbbing thrown in for good measure. Gah!

So tonight, at the gym, there will be no walking. I'm not sure if there's something else I can do - stationary bike, perhaps? - but I'm sure I can at least do my upper body workout.

*sigh*

I am ...

...so frustrated!

...so annoyed!

...so trying to be "cheerful and happy".

...so failing.

So, all that weight I lost earlier this year? That 50 pounds? The weight I worked so hard to get off my body? Is back. It crept up slowly at first around the end of June and continued through July, but this month? This month it just rushed back in with a vengence. My old 18s that used to fall off my hips are tight again, and I can't bear to even try any of the 16s I bought last spring. Gah.

I'm not sure what went wrong, but I do know I need to take a very close look at my life right now and see where I'm screwing up and FIX IT. Participating in the Lazy Waisters Triathalon I'm hoping will help get me out of the fitness rut I'm in (again), and I just got my new issue of Clean Eating magazine, so hopefully I will be back on track very soon.

Well, after my vacation, of course!

(I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the photographs. My eyes are getting too poor for the close-up shots, I guess; time to start wearing reading glasses when taking pictures!)

It has been a very long time since I roasted bell peppers, and since we suddenly had so many of them - both green and red! - I decided it was time!

The green ones were tiny which is why I used for of them to the two red ones. I roasted them in the toaster oven (it's WAY too hot to use the big oven, and I wasn't taking the chance of setting the whoel house on fire by orasting them over the gas flame on the stove), then stuck them in a paper bag for about 20 minutes, then peeled the skins off, sliced them up and tossed them with a bit of olive oil.

They were soooo good! The green ones were a bit ... not tart, exactly ... bitter! That's the word I was looking for: bitter. The green ones were a bit bitter, but the red ones were juicy and sweet and totally delicious!