15 Errand Pile Up Ahead

Dear Friends and Family,

Mr. mouse stayed home yesterday. He woke up in a cold sweat and had a bad case of indigestion. I think it was some old chicken he ate. He wasn't in any shape for work, so I left him at home and headed out yesterday morning. Because I rushed home to make sure he was okay, I skipped a couple of errands last night.

In the queue for tonight, check mailbox, workout, supermarket, ATM, a phone call to a recruiter to tell him for the fourth time - no, and a phone call to a girlfriend from old work. It's amazing what a shortened week will do to the errand schedule. But, it feels blissfully like a routine.

I'm most excited about the mailbox run. Lots of goodies expected this week:

• paperwork to register the Jetta
• paperwork to roll the 401k
• paperwork to modify the mouse pad loan
• MY FRIDGE! MY FRIDGE! MY FRIDGE!
  

I can't wait!


Cheers!
mouse

01.30.07: Chinese New Year Party

Dear Friends and Family,

WOW.

We had a great weekend. Saturday was our annual Chinese New Year's party. So many of our close friends flew/drove in for it, I was blown away. Our neighbors from the mouse house all came in; my girlfriends and squirrel hunter from old work came in; our friends from first work came in; and, two close friends from out of town came in as well. Mr. mouse's friends, the original regulars, all came too. It was a packed house. All in all, I think we had close to 70 people come through our doors Saturday, which is more people than our wedding. I joined in four rounds of shots. The rest of the night was soda for me. 3:1 seems to be a working formula.

Sunday, we broke up into smaller groups. Half of guests headed out to the aquarium for the day. The rest of us went to the Cultural Center; it's where Mr. mouse and I were married. It was opera day, so we listened for a little bit before going across the street to the park. We splintered into yet smaller groups from there with our neighbors meeting up with some friends for dinner and Mr. mouse and I dropping off friends at the airport. We headed back to the aquarium for the dolphin exhibit. Then, picked up some Due for dinner. We took it back to the house because everyone was beat. We all turned in early Sunday night, including two friends who drove in; they turned around and came back for the night.

I took Monday off to spend more time with some friends who stayed in town for the day. We met up for breakfast then headed out to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was free day yesterday so we saved a boatload on tickets. Then, we headed out to Korean for dinner (restaurant review coming later this week) before heading out to the airport. Mr. mouse and I joined our last set of friends and the gate until their flight headed out. And, then, we headed home, dropping off his car at work in the process.

To cap off a wonderful weekend, we realized, Monday was our anniversary. We've been together 12 years now. Granted we've been married for seven and a half years, but, together for 12. Good for us. We came back home Monday night and crashed. Guess we were more tired than we realized.

Hope you had a great weekend as well. And, for those readers who came out, thanks for making it a most fantastic weekend.


Cheers!
mouse

Typical 19 Point Day, Finally

Dear Friends and Family,

I think I have the food thing figured out, at least for another eight pounds. Every 10 pounds, Weight Watchers drops your point allowance by a point until you hit the minimum of 18 points. I am currently at 19 points and have finally found a food routine that works for me on the weekdays.

I've been struggling with the no fridge, no microwave, early breakfast, late dinner thing for about a month now. And, I tried the grazing routine. It worked for like a week and then I got fed up with the same old two point snacks six times a day. Thanks, but no thanks.

Some people, when they lose a point, they try to take their current routine and "find" a point they could lose like switching bread brands or switching from low-fat to fat-free cheese. For me, that's like a bad game of strip poker gone awry. I can't find myself gaming myself out of a point by switching brands, I like most of the stuff I eat now, and it's mostly healthy stuff.

Instead, I find myself switching up my food routine by a lot. It's a good way to keep things fresh. So, what's my 19 points per day routine? How does it work with my new work constraints?

Breakfast (2 points) - 1 container Stonyfield Lowfat Vanilla Yogurt, 1/4 cup Fiber One, 2 cups tea, a multi-vitamin

Lunch I (2 points) - 1/2 sandwich (whole wheat bread, low fat cheese, roast turkey or ham or chicken or beef, mustard), 3 oz carrots

Lunch II (2 points) - the other 1/2 of the sandwich, 3 oz grape tomatoes

Lunch III (4 points) - 5 oz strawberries, 1 large banana, 5 oz some other fruit, 9 grams almonds

Dinner (9 points) - varies by night

I've tried it a couple of days this week and it works for me. The fruit salad is the lynch pin to this whole gig. Since it's nearly a pound of food, it keeps my belly working for a long time. And, the nuts. Without the nuts, it feels like diet food. With the nuts and the banana, it feels like a special treat.

So, until I hit my next point drop, I've got a plan. I'm keeping track here, because at some point in maintenance I might need to come back to this plan on some weeks and I know I'll forget it if I don't write it down.


Cheers!
mouse

10 Ways to Help Boost Your 'Good' Cholesterol

Dear Friends and Family,

There must be a more elegant way to do title links, but I don't have the time this morning to figure it out. I read an article yesterday on niacin and its benefits on good cholesterol. So, this morning I decided to check out WebMD to see if there was any additional information. And, there was. Yeah!

10 Ways to Help Boost Your 'Good' Cholesterol

1. orange juice
2. niacin
3. glycemic load
4. choosing better fats
5. soy
6. enough time
7. alcohol in moderation
8. aerobic exercise
9. stopping smoking
10. losing weight

I have a freebie health screening at work on 2/1 with an optional $35 cholesterol test. I'm not sure of its accuracy compared to the one I had done at the lab last fall, but figured it would still be another data point in this whole journey. So, I'll do the 12 hour fast and get pricked and see where I'm at. If the HDL is still low, I've got 10 good suggestions on trying to raise it.

Gotta run and finish some slides for work.


Cheers!
mouse

Good Meeting, Mouse

Dear Friends and Family,

I had a great day at work yesterday. It's been so long since I had one of those, it's really pretty sad. Don't get me wrong, I haven't had a bad day yet at the new job, although I have had slow days up front. And, I certainly haven't had one of those near postal days I had with pretty regular frequency near the end of my tenure at old work. But, yesterday was the first really good day I had at "new" work.

We had a long meeting scheduled for the afternoon. We walked in with a couple of blank sheets of paper and walked out with a pretty good plan of attack, if I do say so myself. The thing that made me happiest about the meeting was what I was able to contribute from a thought leadership and direction setting perspective. And, how good the team felt in accomplishing what they did yesterday afternoon. This is what it feels like to be on a winning team again.

I hate to say it, because I still miss all of my friends at old work a lot, but for me, now, after yesterday, the move has become worth it. The move was always worth it from a personal standpoint, in getting together with Mr. mouse, and from a financial standpoint, in reducing our monthly expenses by half, but from a work standpoint, I wasn't so sure. Yesterday, I felt sure. Another day, another corner turned.

I'm working from home today. No meetings. Just putting together slides based off of our plan from yesterday.


Cheers!
mouse

Oscar Mayer Center Cut Bacon

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm drawing a blank this morning on what to write about and I realized, it's Tuesday! I can write about food today. It's good to have that cushion to fall back on since not a lot new happened yesterday.

I've been trying to add new foods to my portfolio of options, not because I feel the need for variety, but because Mr. mouse can get cabin fever eating from the tried-and-true options that have become heavy hitters in the mouse meal rotation. Plus, now that I'm as far along as I am in the food journey, I'm less panicky about losing control. It's unlikely I'm going to wake up and find myself fifty pounds heavier in a day. It'll happen a pound or two at a time if it does at all and I've got the confidence I can self-correct if a new food or meal option isn't working for me.

This weekend, I tried a modified English breakfast for four Weight Watchers points.

• 1 pt 2 slices Oscar Mayer Center Cut Bacon
• 1 pt 3 egg whites
• 1 pt 1/2 cup Heinz baked beans (UK version)
• 1 pt 1 slice toasted wheat bread
• 0 pt 3 oz grilled grape tomatoes

The bacon was the experiment. I looked at the turkey bacon and the fake vegetarian bacon and the sausage and the fake vegetarian sausage and just wasn't inspired. I know they're probably great products, but I couldn't see Mr. mouse getting jazzed about breakfast with them. Then, I considered getting one of those options for me and a separate option for him. But, that didn't seem right either.

Then, I came across center cut bacon. It's honest to goodness bacon - pork meat, artificial curing agents and all. And, it's 1 point for 2 slices. As an added bonus, it's not a sodium killer - 9% RDA in a single serving. That's an experiment I'm willing to try. The slices come out smaller and leaner than regular bacon but just as good which is the important thing.

I also play a funny trick with myself with the egg whites. I'm a big believer in dishes being inspiring to look at as well as to eat. And, there's nothing more blah than bad plating or plating that looks like diet food or rabbit food. Three egg whites on a platter = blah. So, I cook three egg whites with two egg yolks. The eye, or at least my eye, is fooled into thinking it looks right. Then, I don't eat the egg yolks.

Don't ask. It works for me so I figured I would offer it up.


Cheers!
mouse

Mirai Sushi

Dear Friends and Family,

We went out to celebrate my new weight tonight.

Mirai Sushi has the distinction of being our local sushi joint. The sushi quality is excellent, as to be expected. And, the prices are in line with the location and the fish quality. I guess it's true about getting what you pay for.

The bluefin chutoro was most excellent - like having a piece of butter cream atop the perfect amount of rice. The rice clearly plays a secondary role to the fish in the nigiri here.

We ordered two of the special maki - a spicy mono which is spicy octopus topped with spicy tuna and an unagi trio which is eel and avocado topped with unagi and sweet unagi sauce. The two rolls were very well composed. The texture of the octopus and the tuna offset each other well and the spicy mixture has a nice spice without being too mayo-y. The unagi was also very well done. It's a pile of eel with eel stuffed in the middle. If you love eel, this is the roll for you. I love eel.

The only disappointment in all of this? They don't carry mackerel. I've been having a serious mackerel craving.

Overall rating: 8/10

Mirai Sushi
2020 West Division Street
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 862-8500


Cheers!
mouse

Today = Mouse - 6 Gallons of Milk

Dear Friends and Family,

Just weighed-in for my weekly Weight Watchers routine. And, it's a little scary writing this, because it shows how bad things must have been when I started this 49 weeks ago.

Today, I hit the 50 lb point in my weight loss journey. 50 pounds. According to Weight Watchers, that's the equivalent of 6 gallons of milk.

Wow. I'm speechless.


Cheers!
mouse

01.22.07: More Home Prep

Dear Friends and Family,

Deja vu, all over again. The weekend was a flurry of activity getting our house ready for the party this upcoming weekend. I'm SO excited about seeing everyone again! I can hardly wait. Four more days...

• We boxed all of the miscellaneous paperwork lying around the house. Figure we'll tackle the weekend after the party. It would have been our entire weekend to get through the piles of paper.
  
• Mr. mouse set up a TV he bought so we now have TV - high def over the air free TV. I love it. I never turn it on, but, nevertheless, I love the concept of free TV. I almost feel like it's pirated or something, but, apparently there's such a thing in life as a free lunch.
• We hung up the rest of our pictures. There's one mirror left to hang, and then I think we're about done with hanging things in the new place. It feels a lot more like home with all the wall "art" up. Plus, I think it looks pretty darn good, the placement we went for and everything, if I do say so myself.
• We rearranged the living room furniture and the dining room furniture so that it looks like a place people live vs. a recent tornado zone. The couch and wedge are in the living room. Our closeout Target stuff is in the dining room. We have a computer table.
• And, on the furniture trend, we assembled more IKEA furniture for the bedroom to stash away all the clothing. We have two medium boxes of donate clothing - stuff that doesn't fit anymore. Yeah!
• Last but not least, we assembled another deck box and put the rest of our deck cushions on the deck. So, the upstairs hallway is almost clear.

It doesn't sound like a ton work, but it was a ton of work getting it all done this weekend. Sadly, it takes having company over to motivate us to work all weekend. Otherwise, we'd do like one bullet point, and spend the rest of the weekend relaxing and watching the game and stuff. How lame are we? C'est la vie. Maybe we should have more parties, to be more motivated to clean and stuff. Now, there's an idea :)


Cheers!
mouse

Scary Sunday Morning

Dear Friends and Family,

I had an incident this morning that kinda freaked me out.

I woke up. Came downstairs to make my morning tea. Put the hot water heater on. Lay down on the couch while waiting for the water to heat up. Hot water heater goes off. I get up, assemble the tea, set the timer, lie back down. All routine so far... Timer goes off, I get up to get my tea. I walk over to the kitchen. Get my tea. And get really really lightheaded. So much so I'm standing in the kitchen waiting for it to pass and I come to only because I spill a quarter of my tea on the counter and the hot tea brings me out of it. Wow! Not good, to say the very least. I clean up the mess, make more tea and start researching on the internet.

My first assumption was sugar levels. I get lightheaded frequently in the morning and I always thought it was a pre-breakfast sugar thing. I was really hungry last night after a big dinner and it was too late for a snack so that reinforced my initial take on it all. Also, I didn't get lightheaded before Weight Watchers, so more reinforcing data. Well, after some more reading, I think it's more related to my blood pressure than it is to my sugar level - although that probably compounds the issue or makes me more aware of it.

So, there condition called orthostatic hypotension. It's when you get lightheaded or dizzy upon standing from a sitting or prone position. Sounds just like that happens to me. Your blood pressure is higher standing than sitting or lying down. There's more gravity the heart needs to overcome to get blood to your brain. From what I can gather the condition happens when the circulatory system doesn't react fast enough. So, why me? and why only in the morning?

So, my blood pressure is low. My pulse is low. Generally, this is a good thing. My diastolic (second number) is really low. Again, usually something to be happy about. I know after my recent heart fun and games, that my pulse drops really low when I sleep - into the mid-forties per minute. Again, something to be happy about. My conclusion? I think I get this lightheadedness in the morning because I'm coming out of an especially low cycle from sleeping. Then when I stand my hearts has a large gap to bridge and it's a little slow in the get-go.

The websites recommend getting more fluid - unlikely to help someone who's already drinking 10 cups a day. And, to try to increase blood volume. Umm... Okay. Mr. mouse thinks more cardio will help - stronger heart and everything. Things to contemplate.


Cheers!
mouse

Taking Stock

Dear Friends and Family,

I turned a corner yesterday. I realized it after I parked the car and walked through the building to meet Mr. mouse. After a month of trial and error, things feel like they're falling into place. I'm beginning to get the hang of it.

• job: It's still new and I'm still figuring it all out. But, the building, my colleagues, the cube, it all feels normal now. I have water stocked in my cube and tea bags. I have napkins and tissues. I have friends to laugh with and I'm making progress on my project.
• house: Living with Mr. mouse again is working out well. We don't have a lot of time together on the weeknights with the crazy commute, but it's beginning to feel normal. The mouse pad feels like home now. Before, it just felt like a place I visited when I needed a haircut.
• wellness: Yesterday's gym routine went okay. I found an elliptical I like. And, I was strangely okay with the weights. Maybe it was just using it a half dozen times to get used to it.
• financial planning: I am still really excited about the loan modification. I'm also rolling over my 401k from my old work to my financial planner. No more orphan 401ks.
• commuting: It's still is super long. Let's not kid ourselves here. But, between carpooling and public transportation, this is becoming routine too. The new lot is working out well too. It'll be my default going forward and I'll see how I like it.
• eating schedule: I still haven't figured this one out. Dinner is a LOT later now with the longer commute. Breakfast is a lot earlier for the same reason. And, for some ungodly reason, there is no refrigerator or microwave at work for the time in between. So far, I've been making do with room temperature food. It's getting old. I ordered a tiny fridge from Amazon. Will post it when it arrives. And, I have a deal with a co-worker with a contraband microwave to use it for my lunch. For now, this still requires some tinkering. Plus, with my killer weigh-in this week, I lost another point. So, that needs to be incorporated into the routine.
• sleep routine: Bed by 10 PM. Up by 4:15 AM. Sleep when on the bus or Mr. mouse is driving.
• car: We kept the Jetta.
• driving in a new city: Mr. mouse does the city part. I do the suburban part. The suburban part is no different than driving anywhere else in the country.
• learning roads: I've learned a couple of alternate routes if for some reason Mr. mouse and I are going in separately. Or, I can slough it out on the highway. More importantly, the roads around work are beginning to make sense. I have a decent chance at not getting lost each time I try to do something new.
• finding service providers: We have a dry cleaner. Lisa. I got a quickie manicure at work. It was okay, but my hands are super dry from winter. Will need to experiment more on this one. It was convenient, but average. Everything else can be taken as needed. The dry cleaner was the one I was most anxious about.
• pilates: I might be putting this on hold for now. I think I can make the gym routine work with my current gym. And, the only pilates studio I found by work only offers it in 1 hour sessions. That's a little too rich for my blood. I might hold off and see how I feel in six months. For now, sacrificing it to feel like I've transitioned is worth it.

We have a couple of big dates in the next couple of months - Feb 3, I'm hopefully transitioning my 401k. Mar 1, I'm starting contributions to my new 401k. Apr 1, I'm hopefully modifying my loan. I think by then I'll be able to revisit my Top 3. Right now, it's wellness, transitions, refinancing. By then, I think I'll be comfortable replacing the latter two with other stuff. It'll roughly coincide with the start of spring a period of rebirth. I like that. Winter always seems to last forever, but it inevitably gives way to spring. I just need to get through winter and by spring life will be different yet again.


Cheers!
mouse

Taking Control

Dear Friends and Family,

The ghost of mouse house. Actually, it's the rewards of mouse house. One of my Top 3 is refinancing the mouse pad with the proceeds from the mouse house to reduce the monthly payments on the mouse pad. This reduces significantly the interest paid each month which ultimately equates to interest savings. And, it makes the mouse pad completely affordable from Mr. mouse's paycheck. This means, if I ever want to take a year or two or three off, I can do so guilt free and worry free.

I assumed all this would involve refinancing the place. The re-finance cost plus the rate increase plus the extension of the term back to 180 months would be offset by the saved interest and the peace of mind. I called to kick-off the refinance process, and it turns out there might be a simpler option. Our back has a loan modification option. I'm not sure how exactly it works, but it seems like you keep your original loan length (so you don't restart the clock to payment #1). And, it seems like you keep your original rate (which is good since rates have risen since). And, it seems like the fee is a $250 processing fee vs. the typical refinancing costs of close to $2,000. Okay. Sign me up.

After learning all this, got a letter in the mail yesterday with the process. The paperwork and checks are due by the end of the month. From there, they do a bunch of hoop jumping and it looks like our payments change effective 4/1. It's a little longer than I expected, but a refinance would probably take us a similar amount of time. If we hustled, we might get it in for a 3/1 change, but in all likelihood, it'd be 4/1 for that as well.

I'll talk to Mr. mouse about it this morning and see where we land. I am hugely excited about it. In fact, I'm inordinately excited about it. It's a little scary how excited I can be about something this mundane, but I am. I'll keep you posted.


Cheers!
mouse

Small Victories

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday, after a month at the new job, I think I might have found a solution to the parking dilemma. There's a covered lot that's halfway between my desk and the gym that I can access, I think, from both my desk and from the gym, both in the morning and at night. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I can?

It feels a little further from my desk than the uncovered spot I was using before. Maybe it's a minute or two longer, but, in reality, I don't think it's significantly further. And, it's covered, so no more cold, wet shoes and scraping the car. From the gym, it's for sure closer. So, if the gym is a twice a week routine, I should be indifferent in the walking distance. The BIG improvement is the accessibility. The gates, fence, pond routine was old after trial #1, so I've got my fingers crossed that this is a viable alternative.

Gotta go pack my lunch now. Sorry for the short post. I slept in this morning.


Cheers!
mouse

Sweet Justice

Dear Friends and Family,

You know who I'm talking about. Maybe not specifically, but in general... Ever work with someone you detest so much they make you physically ill? The one who's looking out for #1 regardless of the impact on the company, their fellow employees or the customer? The one who's all talk, no action? The one who thinks they're all that when they're really not much of anything at all? The one who despite all that gets away with it all? Unfortunately, we all probably have worked with him (or her) at some point in our career.

Well, "that person," made my day yesterday. I got an email from my manager telling me that "that person" was applying for a job in our department. Did I know him? Had I worked with him before? Could I recommend him? In 50 words or less, I made sure my manager knew what I thought of "that person." It felt good to know that there was a sense of balance in the world and that I wouldn't have to work with "that person" in my new job. Once is enough for anyone, and I've already had to work with him twice.


Cheers!
mouse

Pizzeria Due

Dear Friends and Family,

I had a most excellent weigh in this morning. And, I had lots of points to spare. When those two forces intersect, we go out for a special treat I normally can't afford. This works especially well on Monday nights, so I have the energy to hit my Tuesday workouts in high spirits.

Deep dish pizza. It's all a matter of preference. Chicago's got many venerable traditions, each with their staunch champions and detractors. Our favorite is Pizzeria Due. Uno was the original location. Due is the second location. Then they went on to calling the rest of them Uno. The original Uno and Due stick with the original menu while the others have the franchise menu. We like Due, because Mr. mouse likes the way they slice their onions (versus others that chop theirs).

We ordered the Uno and a pepperoni with onion to go. Took them home and chowed down. So yummy. If you're in town, it's a definite must try to get a taste of true Chicago.

Overall rating: 8/10

Pizzeria Due
619 North Wabash Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 943-2400
http://www.unos.com


Cheers!
mouse

01.15.07: Unpacking Frenzy

Dear Friends and Family,

This weekend was spent in a frenzy of activity on Mr. mouse's part unpacking and putting stuff away. We've got a big party coming up in a couple of weeks and want to get the place ready for it.

We organized the basement so that all the shelving is up and a lot of the boxes are gone. We opened the rest of the kitchen boxes and put all of the food away. And, we cleared off a bunch of misc paperwork from the master bedroom floor.

I say we, but 90% of it was Mr. mouse with me helping wherever he had specific things I could help with. He's got a system and it doesn't help if I try to parallel process. He's an open it all at once and then find a home for it person. And, I'm an open a box at a time until it's all done person. Plus, I get kinda overwhelmed by how much stuff we have. I begin getting the serious urge to donate it all. We'll go down that path, but this weekend was not the time to take on that.


Cheers!
mouse

Aki Sushi

Dear Friends and Family,

We both had a craving for sushi last night so we decided to try a new sushi restaurant. Aki Sushi is not new, just new to us. They've been open about a year now.

Not crowded when we arrived just before eight, the place had only a couple of empty tables by the time we were done with dinner. We ordered a bunch of nigiri sushi and a couple of standard rolls. For the nigiri, we got maguro (tuna), hamachi (yellow tail), sake (salmon), I don't know it's name in Japanese (white tuna), unagi (eel) and tamago (egg). And, for the rolls, we got a salmon skin maki and a shrimp tempura maki. The have all of the out-of-control makis with the fish inside, wrapped in fish outside with crunchy stuff and non-traditional stuff like cream cheese. And, they have the signature makis which take the out-of-control maki to the next level. Call us purists...

Since we just beat the crowd, the sushi arrived quickly. Mr. mouse and I both really liked the rice texture - sweet and tangy with just the right amount of stickiness. The fish was fresh and creamy, although Mr. mouse though it could have been sliced a hair thicker if he was going to be picky. The rolls were good. I thought they had too much sauce on them; Mr. mouse thought they could have used a little more.

My two complaints? They were out of saba (mackerel) and I've been craving it recently. And, both the unagi and the salmon skin could have used a little more char for lack of a better word. I expect a certain crispiness around the edges with the unagi and across the board with the salmon skin. Instead both were cooked through but not crispy. It tasted more meaty that way, but lacks a certain guilty mouth feel. It might be personal preference, but I think I would lean towards crispy over meaty in both of those pieces. Other than those two pieces of criticism, it was a good first try for us.

Overall rating: 7/10

Aki Sushi
2015 West Division Street
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 227-8080


Cheers!
mouse

Wellness Update - 01.12.07

Dear Friends and Family,

To keep life nice and neat and organized, I'm writing two separate posts today. One on work and one on wellness.

I think I've got a handle on the lunch routine. It's a lot simpler than I was anticipating. The cafeteria is atrocious. There are no places to eat out. So, I bring my lunch every day. Eating healthy? Not a problem. Points control? Done. Save money? Easy peasy.

Now the gym is an altogether more difficult proposition. The work one, while convenient on the surface is not so convenient. There are moving gates and locked doors and restricted access and multiple parking lots that make me feel like Mario in a Nintendo game gone awry mixed in with a little Sydney Bristow from Alias when trying to go to the gym after work. Does it need to be that complicated? Cheap, but a lot of hassle. Add to that the old and limited equipment and the unfriendly free weights area and it make working out work instead of fun.

I went to tour another facilities. It's a lot nicer and I went yesterday for a free workout. I like the elliptical. And, a lot of the machines are similar. The leg press, glutes machine, dips and pull-ups machines aren't ideal. But, the rest of it is good. I have to meet the pilates instructor. If that works, this might be a workable answer. Next week, I'm going to tour a third gym in the area. And then make a call on which will be a long term solution. For now, next week, I'll use the one at work.



Cheers!
mouse

Work Update - 01.12.07

Dear Friends and Family,

I had a 1:1 with my manager yesterday. I wasn't sure what to expect because I'd been working on a bunch of stuff on my own and I wasn't entirely sure I was headed in the right direction. Add that to a new working relationship, and I was a little nervous going in.

I got a lot of good feedback on what we need to accomplish over the next two weeks and a general good feeling that I've made good progress over the past two weeks. So, I felt a lot better by the end of the day. All in all, a decent start to transitioning into work.

My one gripe? It's on the IT front. Every system and every tool has a unique user id and password. I've almost committed the cardinal sin of writing them all down at my desk on a post it note. Trust me, I wouldn't be the only one.


Cheers!
mouse

Cho Dang Soon Tofu Village

Dear Friends and Family,

Another night at the gym, another dinner out. It's a good thing I've been saving money packing my lunch. Otherwise, we'd be eating dinner at home a lot more often. I love soon tofu. In case you missed my last blog post on it, it's here.

Cho Dang is one of my favorite soon tofu places in town. It's consistently delicious. The broth is rich and spicy. The tofu is mild and creamy. And, the rice is served in a hot bowl and develops (depending upon the night and our luck) a most delectable char. I love charred rice. It's like candy, only better.

We discussed whether the place deserves an eight or a nine rating. If the rice was consistently perfect, I'd give it a nine. But, sometimes the char is missing and sometimes it sticks too much to the bowl. So, we settled on an eight, but it's a high eight. The added bonus is it's low in points so I can have it without any guilt about negating my workout.

Mr. mouse ordered the combo which comes with seafood soon tofu and a side of kalbi. I ordered the mixed soon tofu which is a blend of beef and seafood. We both get them at "typical" spiciness which is spicy without being outrageously hot. The kalbi is good, standard cut of meat, slightly sweet marinade, brought out pre-grilled on a plate shaped like a cow. Don't ask. But, yes, they also have pig shaped plates.

Overall rating: 8/10

Cho Dang Soon Tofu Village
1719 West Algonquin Road
Mt. Prospect, IL 60056
(847) 956-8638


Cheers!
mouse

Category Miscounts

Dear Friends and Family,

I love the category feature in new Blogger. It's one of the main reasons I made the switch to new Blogger - using Firefox to manage all of the random cookie issues with making the switch. But, there's a glitch in the category count that's bugging me. Still have no clue how to fix it. I wrote Blogger - yeah right... I'm hoping, somewhat optimistically, that they'll notice it, release a patch and the problem will solve itself. Otherwise, I'll just live with my miscounts.

Okay, what on earth am I talking about? If you label a post before publishing, it automatically adds the category to your post. And, the category count (in parenthesis) goes up by one. Voila. But, if you then modify that post (say you found a spelling error or wanted to add a post script) and then re-publish the post, the category count goes up again. But, really, there's no additional post... You'll see I'm off by two in work and by one in eating out. C'est la vie. It's annoying, but not enough for me to spend the time to figure out a fix.

My lame work around? I try to remember to remove the category label before editing a post. Then, re-label it once I re-post it. Usually it works, sometimes it doesn't. Then, I get annoyed with myself for forgetting. Sigh.

I am grateful these are my worries and not bigger things.


Cheers!
mouse

Don Don

Dear Friends and Family,

Don Don, Fine Korean Cuisine. All I have to say is... Really, is this the best name you could come up with after a night of soju and hard thinking? Sigh. We went last week after my gym workout. But, I'm jut catching up on writing this blog post.

Don Don specializes in a couple of pork dishes and offers the standard portfolio of Korean restaurant dishes. Their specialties include pork sausages, pressed pork and a hot stew called gam ja tang - which translates into potato stew, but don't be fooled, it's chock full of pork neck pieces, hence it's tie in with the restaurant theme.

Mr. mouse ordered the gam ja tang, which he really like. It's a lot of work to eat, so if you don't have the patience to pick meat bits out of neck parts with chopsticks, this is not the dish for you. However, if you love odd cuts of meat in spicy native broth, this will be right up your alley. I tried a sip of the broth, and it was very porky and spicy at the same time, a little addictive in it's taste, I don't think I personally like the soup enough to eat a bowl of it. Mr. mouse does.

I ordered the bibimbap - a standard Korean dish of mixed vegetables and rice served in a wicked hot stone bowl. It was good, but standard. The rice had a nice crispiness from the hot stone bowl and the marinated mushrooms were excellent, but the dish overall was average.

I'd go again to keep Mr. mouse company the next time he has a gam ja tang craving, but I'll probably try one of their specialties next.

Overall rating: 7/10

Don Don
1177 North Elmhurst Road
Des Plaines, IL 60016
(847) 981-5220


Cheers!
mouse

Boston Blackie's

Dear Friends and Family,

I hit the gym tonight, which means you can fairly easily deduce two things. I had extra activity points for dinner and I was famished by the time Mr. mouse picked me up. It was a close call between deep dish pizza and Blackie's for broasted chicken.

I'm a big broasted chicken fan - back from the Michigan days. So, we headed off for a fried, I mean broasted, chicken dinner. We ordered a half chicken for $6.99 and a side baked potato for $1.99. I had half the potato with a tsp of butter, 1 leg and 1 thigh for dinner. The chicken was crispy, but the batter was a little overdone. Mr. mouse has gone for lunch and said it's much better at lunch time. The meat is juicier and the batter is just right. I'm game for trying it again, since tonight seems like an anomaly. The food was fine, just not as good as I was expecting.

Needless to say, the portion sizes are ridiculous. We split one dinner and had leftovers.

Overall rating: 7/10

Boston Blackie's
222 East Algonquin Road
Arlington Heights, IL 60005
(773) 545-RIBS
http://www.bostonblackies.com/


Cheers!
mouse

Little Black Dress

Dear Friends and Family,

It's weigh-in day today.

I haven't lost a lot of weight in the last month, about a pound in four weeks. And, being it was the holidays followed by house closing compounded by lack of access to the gym, I'm okay with that. In fact, overall, at this point, I'm okay with losing a pound a month. What's weird is my density has been changing. Now, I've always been physically dense, but I've gotten more dense recently, if that makes any sense... So, my weight doesn't change, but my size changes dramatically. It's happened a couple of times in the past year. It's so weird.

Where does the little black dress fit into all of this? I had one that was a little too little. Don't we all? And, it was sitting in the closet as an aspirational goal. Well, by fall, I'd gotten close enough that I wanted to wear it to the wedding this past weekend. So, I kept it closer to the front. Tried it on every so often. Just kinda kept checking. And, it looked like it'd be fine... a little snugger than I'm comfortable with... but fine. Then, we packed it along with everything else we owned for the move. Well, this past weekend, I put it on for the wedding, and it was better than fine. It fit perfectly, if I do say so myself. And, I think it might end up being a one wear dress, unless I come to a screeching halt in my progress OR I have another event in the very near future. In one sense this is nothing to complain about. In another, it was my little black dress with some very classic lines and I'm disappointed to lose it as an option and an aspiration. Still, I'm glad I had the opportunity to wear it when it was just right.

Yesterday, I noticed this phenomena as well. A pair of pants from last November... add it to the donate/consignment pile. This is getting to be an expensive proposition. I'm more complaining because I don't really have time to go shopping between now and the beginning of February. Then, I might as well look for spring clothes. It'll be fun to get the spring wardrobe. I haven't been this excited about getting new clothes in a long time.

I have a hot date with the elliptical and free weights tonight.


Cheers!
mouse

01.08.06: City by the Bay

Dear Friends and Family,

We went out to San Francisco over the weekend to attend a friend's wedding. MK, the groom, is a close friend of mine. We did our summer internship together and shared a lot of common experiences. That being said, I wasn't sure if the weekend would be "worth" it since we would know 0 people at the wedding outside of the groom.

We had a lot of fun. We met a couple of people who didn't know anyone either and spent the cocktail hour with them. And, then, I ran into a person I knew from recruiting. I hadn't seen SC in over 10 years and it was good to catch up. We had amusing company at our dinner table. All in all, it was a fun evening. It was definitely worth it.

And, as you can tell from my prior posts, we had the chance to eat out a lot. Those burgers from In-N-Out, ah, heaven on a bun. I'm also a big fan of Culver's burgers. But, I digress. We hit the dim sum place again on Sunday before our flight back. And, there's a Japanese place, Sankaku, located by gate 70 in Terminal 3 in SFO, that has spam musubi for sale. We got the last one!

If you're wondering why I was posting over the weekend, it's because we had some down time before and after the wedding. Mr. mouse was watching TV and watching flights land. And, I was using the time to write on eating out. If you don't do it right away, it quickly fades into a low priority.

Both the flight out and the flight back were uneventful. I love living in a hub city. I say this now. I'm sure we'll have less than smooth experiences in the future, too.


Cheers!
mouse

No Mai Gai

Dear Friends and Family,

No this isn't another restaurant review. In fact, I'm sure none of you will find this funny, but, personally, I find it absolutely hilarious, so I'm writing about it.

When I was writing yesterday's post on lunch, I used a wikipedia article to help me with the spelling of all of the dim sum dishes. Well, there's a dish we usually get called no mai gai which is glutinous rice wrapped in a lotus leaf and then steamed. The rice is filled with bits of chicken, sausage, shrimp and other goodies. So, I always knew the dish as rice wrapped in lotus leaf, never by it's real name. Now, there's no forgetting.

Rewind like 12 years to when Mr. mouse and I started dating. We used the term gai (chinese for chicken) and the english term guy interchangeably. Don't ask me how we started because the roots of that joke are lost in the annals of our long history. Well, those of you who know us know we have an army of plush friends. They are all generically known as gais. What happens when you pick up a gai you think is your own and then you realize it isn't. You put it back down and you say "no mai/my gai"... get it?!?! Of course not, but, for us, it's roll on the floor laughing.

Now you know what kind of stuff keeps us entertained. Full weekend write-up coming tomorrow, as usual.


Cheers!
mouse

In-N-Out Burger

Dear Friends and Family,

We couldn't resist. We had to hit the local In-N-Out. And, boy, are we glad we did.

An average In-N-Out burger is a good burger, but these were even better than usual. The burgers are made fresh, never frozen. And, the fries are fresh, never frozen as well. It's a privately owned, family operated burger chain - read not franchised. And, I'm a big fan of the fresh grilled taste. We got there at midnight, and the place was packed. Our burgers had a nice char and were well seasoned. The buns, made from "real sponge dough," were grilled to perfection, crispy without being crunchy. All around, it was so good, we decided to order seconds to take back with us to the hotel. Yes, I had two burgers tonight after a wedding dinner.

Overall rating: 8/10

In-N-Out Burger
11 Rollins Road
Millbrae, CA 94030
(800) 786-1000
http://www.in-n-out.com/


Cheers!
mouse

Fook Yuen Seafood Restaurant

Dear Friends and Family,

You guessed it. More Chinese food. We called Mr. mouse's dad for a dim sum recommendation. We're staying right by SFO and wanted something close by. Fook Yuen is located off of the Millbrae Avenue exit on the 101. There's a parking lot located right next to the restaurant and when we arrived at 11:30, there was no wait to get seated.

Instead of using the usual rolling carts, the dim sum is brought around on trays which is surprisingly more efficient than carts. We got our usual har gow (aka har gao aka shrimp dumpling), lo bak go (turnip cake), fung zao (chicken feet), paigu (pork spareribs), congee (rice porridge), har cheong (shrimp wrapped in rice noodle rolls), cheong fun (stir fried rice noodle rolls) and potstickers. There's a ton of other dishes we usually get, but dim sum is always expensive (Weight Watchers points-wise) so we went easy on it.

The quality of the dishes was good. I'd say very good compared to the Midwest, but what you'd expect in Northern California. A couple of the dishes were a little cold by the time they got to us, which was disappointing. But, they did a nice job with the shrimp dishes and the potstickers, so we left happy and full.

They had a couple of more esoteric dishes, not weird dishes, but dishes that some restaurants don't always carry. We don't normally get the cheong fun, but since it was available, we decided to partake. And, it was worth it. How do I count the points for dim sum? It's a complete guess on my part:

• 3 pts 1.5 har cheong
• 2 pts 0.5 oz pork spareribs
• 3 pts 1.0 oz cheong fun
• 2 pts 1 potsticker
• 4 pts 1/2 large bowl of congee
• 2 pts 2 har gow
• 2 pts 2 chicken's feet

18 points for brunch. Ouch! But, it's not often we get real dim sum, so it was worth it.

Overall rating: 6/10

Fook Yuen Seafood Restaurant
195 El Camino Real
Millbrae, CA 94030
(650) 692-8600


Cheers!
mouse

Fung Lum Restaurant

Dear Friends and Family,

We came out to San Francisco for a friend's wedding. If there's one thing I look forward to in San Francisco, it's Chinese food. In fact, one of my favorite places to hit is right at SFO airport. Fung Lum is in the food court and they serve a variety of dim sum and Chinese pastries.

The pricing is a bit steep for a full meal, but for a quick snack, it can't be beat. It's $5 for 3 pieces of dim sum. Last night, we got 2 servings of the har gow and 1 serving of the curried beef pastries. We brought them back to the hotel room for a late night snack. The har gow (aka har gao aka shrimp dumplings) were nicely done - good translucence on the skin. And, the curried beef pastries hit the spot. I'm always surprised the dishes are as fresh as they are.

Overall rating: 8/10

Fung Lum Restaurant
Terminal 3
San Francisco International Airport
(650) 821-8383


Cheers!
mouse

It's Friday!

Dear Friends and Family,

Five days into the new year, two weeks into the new job and already there's nothing new and exciting to write about. Who would have thunk it?

The week went quickly, and I learned a lot. I think I have the bus routine and the carpool routine figured out - this is where we drive to Mr. mouse's work together and I drive from there to my work and then in the evening do the whole thing in reverse. I know I don't have the where to park at work figured out. And, I don't think I have the how to do the whole drive alone figured out. But, it's a start.

As for living with Mr. mouse, the first few days were pretty stressful, but it's quickly turning into a non-event. We eat dinner together and then we do our own things until we go to sleep. Most of our evening events revolve around unpacking and organizing and we just find we do that stuff better individually than together. Trust me, organizing the kitchen pantry is not a team sport.

I think this morning, I'll spend some time calculating our expenses from mouse house renovations. This will get me moving down the path towards refinancing the mouse pad.


Cheers!
mouse

Working Out is Hard to Do

Dear Friends and Family,

Went to the gym both Tues and Wed night. Wasn't sure how it'd all work out with the new gym and the new routine and everything. But, figured it was time to try it all out.

Tues night, my workout was cut short because I told Mr. mouse I would be ready by a set time for him to pick me up. Then, I ran a little behind in getting down to the gym. Then, I ran more behind in getting laundry service set up. Even more behind when I realized I now have to remove make up before exercising. And, the result? I skipped my cardio and did weights only. For upper body, most of my routines are free weights, which translates well from gym to gym. But, this gym doesn't have 8 lb or 12.5 lb dumbbells, so I've got to pick between 5, 10 and 15 lb dumbbells. I took it slow on Tues and felt fine yesterday. Today, I'm sore. This is normal.

Wed night was an absolute fiasco... I left my car (and locker) keys at my desk, so I had to walk back to get them - 10 minute round trip. Then, I realized I had to use my badge to lock the temp locker so I need to get let back into the gym. Then, the whole make up routine. And, my lunch wasn't agreeing with me. And, I was hungry. But, I hit cardio with a vengeance. Okay, not quite sure what happened in between Thanksgiving and now and in between switching machines, but holy cow, it was hard. HARD! Did I say, hard? It was killer hard. Okay, lower body weights next. Unfortunately for me, this is mostly machine driven and I can't say I have them all figured out yet. I guessed at weights since the machines are different, and I can't say I love the abductor/adductor machine. It's just old. And, there's no glutes machine...

Now, the fun begins. Skipped the shower since it was already late. Packed up and headed out. Well, come to learn, they'd closed ALL of the doors. And, I needed to go through the basement of the building to the one door that's card controlled. And, then I needed to walk the perimeter of this beast of a building to get to my car. Keep in mind it takes 5 minutes to walk through the building... around it, well, we all took geometry, it's longer than through it. And, it's cold and dark and kinda scary out there. Well, get to the car, and find out then they'd closed all of the exits and only one mysterious exit is open. Could they make it any harder?!?!

Well, I guess yesterday was all about learning. And, learn I did. Here's to transitions.


Cheers!
mouse

Commuting Update

Dear Friends and Family,

Today, I try driving into work. I'll pick Mr. mouse up on the way home. We'll see how it goes.


Cheers!
mouse

More Cookies Please, Not!

Dear Friends and Family,

I nearly threw the computer out the window yesterday. Mr. mouse was able to find and fix the problem.

Cause: remember when I disabled cookies on my computer so I could track who was tracking me? Blogger required a cookie to use, which I was okay with - I just cleared the cookie frequently. Well, when "new" blogger came out, it required a Google cookie in addition to the Blogger cookie which I was less okay with - after all that adds my search info to my cookie info... okay, more manual clearing. I can deal. Now, there's a third cookie www2.blogger.com that needs to be allowed to make blogger function.

Symptoms: Blogger couldn't login... You'd enter your user id and password and it would get stuck in a continual, indefinite loop trying to authenticate you and login on. Instead, it would redirect between sites and get stuck.

Solution: I downloaded a second browser and allowed all three Google cookies. It'll be used only for posting/reading blogs. And, my primary browser will go back to being my primary browser. Problem fixed.


Cheers!
mouse

Already Late

Dear Friends and Family,

Running behind... Wrote a long letter to a girlfriend this morning and then spent some time trying to figure out what's wrong with my computer. So, gotta run and get ready. Need to pack lunch, pack my gym bag, pack my computer bag. And, then get to the bus station.

Wish me luck at the gym.


Cheers!
mouse

01.01.07: Home, At Last

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy 2007!

I won't spend a lot of time stating the obvious... While 2006 went very quickly, it was the year that seemed like it was never going to end. It reaffirmed my lesson of resilience and perseverance and reminded me I need to have faith in the end goal.

I'm going to recap and kick-off the year, section by section, so be warned, it's going to be a long post. Ready?

2007 weekend updates: We flew back to the mouse house neighborhood for the weekend. Our neighbors were having a New Year's Eve party and we wanted to count down with them. We landed just ahead of a quick but intense snowstorm. We ran a couple of errands before the party. We dropped off some business school recommendations, picked up some shot glasses, loaded up on caffeine and got some take-out sushi to kick-off the evening. The party was a ton of fun, as to be expected, and we toasted in the new year with some of our closest friends. We also had a chance to meet the new owner of the mouse house, he came over for the party. Sunday, we went over to Trixie's for brunch, but didn't stay long. By 1:30, we had our plants loaded into the car, and we made the long drive over to the mouse pad. Officially, as of this moment, everything we own is in one location. Wow!

baby... maybe: Apparently, the next lunar year is the year of the Golden Pig. It's an event that occurs every 600 years and is apparently going to result in a mini baby boom in the Far East. So far, no news news on this horizon for Mr. mouse and me. Although I might write more one day about this Golden Pig phenomena, if I end up researching it.

blogs - news - technology trends: We've got both computers and our wireless network up and running. The TV is still in the box, low on the priority list. I love my blog. That about sums up technology trends for us.

clutter diet: You'll see a lot of posts in this section this upcoming year. We have a lot less space for storage in the mouse pad. And, we've gotten a lot of low grade stuff we need to get rid of. Basically, we're combining 3+ households into one. We've got the staging+remnants from the first house, we've got the mouse house, we've got staging from the mouse house, we've got miscellanea Mr. mouse picked up to get by in the old apartment and we've got mouse pad stuff. My head is spinning from the amount of stuff we have. For example, neither of us drink coffee, we have four coffee makers. We don't squeeze fresh juice, we have two juicers. The list is endless. On top of redundancy, remember, we have less storage space. And, I never took a hard stance on tossing things. This year, this will be a top priority for me.

eating out: Although we're going to try and eat in often, I've made the commitment to post restaurant reviews here.

food: This was a spot for me to post food items I was discovering through Weight Watchers. It's been on the back burner for the last couple of months as my Tuesday posts have been regular updates. Not sure if I'm discovering a bunch of new food or if I've settled into a new lifestyle. This might be another section of the blog that evolves.

infrastructure: OK. What gives? I can't access blogger from my computer. It works fine from Mr. mouse's. Very annoyed. Will need to figure this out.

life in general: Top on my Top 3 is transitioning. I've got a long list. In no particular order, there's job, house, wellness, financial planning, commuting, eating with Mr. mouse, lunch routine at work, living with Mr. mouse, gym routine, work schedule, sleep routine, car, driving in the new city, learning roads, finding service providers, pilates, etc. Wish me luck.

money matters: Now that Mr. mouse and I have some discretionary cash flow, we need to think about how best to invest it. Also, now that we've got some time, I want to seriously think about who we should be using as a financial adviser. And, we're putting plans together to refinance the mouse pad. We want to take the check from selling the mouse house and use it to lower our monthly mortgage payments. By my math, that makes my income 100% discretionary, taking a lot of pressure off me if the new job doesn't work out.

mouse pad: Mr. mouse wants to dive into a kitchen remodel. But, I've got some more practical considerations before we begin tearing the place apart. I'd like to finish unpacking and get the place to a livable state. Then, in my opinion, we need to fix the roof leaks, overhaul Mr. mouse's car, and figure out a mysterious bed creak which is most annoying.

Top 3: I could go back and look at what my Top 3 was, if I wanted to be consistent and accurate. But, I won't, not today. Today, I feel like looking forward and not being totally concerned about being connected to the past. My Top 3. Well, wellness is still on my list. Transitioning. That's on my mind. And, the house refinance. I think that's a good list for now.

wellness: To say this is going well is a huge understatement. If you had asked me last Jan 1, I would have never thought I could be where I am now, in one short year. Sometime this next year, most probably, I will hit whatever is to be my "goal weight". Then, I'll focus on other aspects of health and wellness. For now, my focus is on finding a routine and on getting back to the gym. Between my heart, quitting work (thus losing access to the gym) and the holidays, it's been close to two months since I've had a decent work-out. Time to ease back into it.

work: So far, so good. Five days under my belt, so still in honeymoon phase. Will write as relevant things come up. If I say nothing, assume it's all good.

archive - career hunting: I guess it went quickly. Wow.

archive - mouse house: This was a big focus of 2006. And, it feels good to have it behind us. I'll miss the community and the convenience. But, I'm excited to be together with Mr. mouse. I'm glad this chapter is closed.

archive - old work: Four and a half years... Longer than any other company I've been with. Still a great company with a great future. I learned a lot about work and about myself. The work being done on women's leadership is an amazing component of old work. If Mr. mouse had found a job in the area, we'd be happy at the mouse house and at old work. That's okay. Last year was a tough year, and I'm glad to be in a new environment.

archive - transitions: A temporary area to write about the transition from old work to work. Ten days that went very quickly. Without the blog, I'd probably forget them. Now, they're captured for me to revisit.

archive - vacation 2006: Now that we're not spending every weekend working on the mouse house AND we live together so time alone is less of an issue, we'll be doing a lot more traveling. High on my list is going back to visit my grandfather. That'll probably be this spring. And, we'll see a lot of our friends on short weekend trips. And, once we settle in and take a breather, we'll plan a vacation for 2007.

Still with me? Well, I've got to go and scrounge some dinner with Mr. mouse. Hope you're as excited about the new year as I am.


Cheers!
mouse