1. Do you like to cook? Why or why not?
Yes and No = Sometimes. I look to cook when I want to, I don't like to have to cook every day, it then seems a drudgery. I like to cook most when I've planned ahead and have all the stuff I need and can make something healthy and interesting. I like to cook the least when the opposite is true.

2. What is your favorite recipe? Is it one you use on a regular basis? (Feel free to share the recipe with us!)
One of my favorite recipes is the Weight Watchers Texas Hashbrowns recipe - It's great tasting and only 3 pts for a pretty hefty serving.

3. If you owned a restaurant, what would the theme be? What would your restaurant be called?
The theme would be healthy tasteful weight watcher recipes with lots of variety. "Light Varieties"

The good news is - I've stayed on WW through a very rough traditionally chocolatey holiday. I keep trying to remind myself that eating doesn't really console, but I must admit I miss it.

We had a great Easter with Family! I feel very lucky to have a Mom who worked so hard to make healthy choices. We went on a nice long walk after dinner - it really was a walk down memory lane. It was great!

Just edited this blog - removed all the negative stuff after reading Natlie's - so......copied it all in my personal journal then deleted -

Monday Madness Week Four!

1. What three adjectives would you use to describe your best friend?
I don't have a best friend.

2. Please fill in the blank (and feel free to elaborate!).... "When I dance, I look like ________________."
I'd prefer not to think about it.

3. What is the longest word that you can think of? Define it.
Supercalafragalisticexpialadoshous.

It means - super duper great.

This week I am posting a bonus question in honor of Easter.
4. What is your favorite flavor of jellybeans? What is your least favorite flavor?
Favorite: Jelly Belly Latte (sort of off white)
Least favorite: Black Licorice

Here are this week's Monday Madness Questions of the Week: April 14th!!

1. Which one pet that you've owned in your life was/is your favorite? Why?
Don't make me choose - please don't make me choose. I love them all. Okay - dogs are falling down in the list just because they're hair, their smell, their size....My birds are my favorites - each are special in their own ways. Chica and Sophia are my favorites because they talk.

2. What one thing have you always wanted to try, but have been too afraid to? Do you still want to try it?
Wow - this is a hard one. We don't want too serious of an answer do we??? So I'll say join the Peace Corps or some sort of volunteer activity like that. I don't see it as practical to try it at this stage in my life with a 9 year old.

3. If you could invent something, what would you invent? Give it a name...
An emotion detector - a device that could read your biorhythms (or something like that) and determine if what you needed was fun, hugs, quiet, etc. This device would be particularly helpful for husbands who usually don't have a clue.

I got to go to a 'chick flick' with Nat and Alex the other weekend. That was fun. You see, when you have a son and a husband and no girls in your immediate family, you don't get to see these movies on the big screen usually. You wait until they come out on video. So it's pretty neat to be able to call up a sister and see if she wants to go. I don't know why we don't do that more often. I do have 5 sisters. Obviously there's 3 of them that I can't do this with because of the distance, but the other 2 are close enough. I guess everybody's lives are so full it's hard to make the time to do everything you may want to do.

Today Mom and Dad came over for dinner. We had a nice visit. I got to make them dinner for once. Usually we go to Mom and Dad's and Mom and Dad are the cooks. Today it was me and David. David helped me make a cake - a Boston Cream Pie - actually. It was from a light cookbook I bought. David was looking through it and it looked really good to him so I committed to make it with him.

One of things I'm trying to do with Weight Watchers right now is to eat things that I usually categorize as being taboo - but then I feel so darned deprived I just totally blow it. The secret to long term weight loss is to learn how to eat these things in the right portion size and made the right way. I have a 2 week free trial of the Weight Watchers e-tools. I entered the recipe ingredients in there and hey - the points came out to exactly what they calculate to be based on the calories/fat/fiber that are cited in the recipe book. It's pretty cool. If I cancel my dotphoto subscription it will pay for the WW e-tools. I'm just scared to cancel the dotPhoto because I don't have any of my photos ordered yet. Ordering the photos is going to be a formidable task - because first I have to remove the red eye from photos, be selective in my uploading, and then order. The only reason I've been holding off is because I"m so far from 2003 in my scrapbooking that I didn't want to have to store the hard copy photos any longer than I had to ( you know they run the risk of getting damaged.

Anyway, back to the Mom and Dad visit. We had shrimp stir fry with brown rice and then the dessert. Mom and Dad were really patient because the cake making took a little longer than I'd planned. We ate around 4:00 - I think they thought they'd eat earlier. Dad shared a great DVD he made of bunches of photos he collected through the last couple of years. Mom showed me a neat thing in Adobe Photoshop Elements. Dad played chess with David while Mom kept me company while I cooked. Dad beat David, David doesn't like to lose, but I think he lost with a little grace this time (no crying anyway).

Well, enough rambling for now - thinking of you all - Love Ya!

I tried the food battle monkey page - Did you know it's all just based on the name you type in -
Pat - 3.9
Patti - 3.7
Pattie - 5.5
Patricia - 7.3
Patricia Rae - 7.9

So what's up with that?

1. If you could bring someone famous back from the grave, who would you choose? Why?
The first person who came to mind was Elvis Presley. I can't say he's even a favorite singer, but for some reason I just think that if he could have lived longer he might have made some changes in his life. If I think about it longer, I'd say definately Karen Carpenter - I really loved her music and just think her life was cut short due to the external social forces that drives so many to have eating disorders. (God I don't even know why Elvis came to mind - but I felt like I'd be cheating if I'd totally left it out since it was my first answer).


2. What have you tried in life, and simply were not good at?
Training a dog. The proofs in the puddin' (or Scrappy ...or Lady) so to speak.


3. Approximately how many times a day do you look at the clock? Where are you when you look at the clock the most?
At work I look at the clock a lot - sometimes because I'm anxious for the day to be over - sometimes because I have a meeting and don't want to be late - sometimes because I need to be sure I'm not too late getting David. I look at the clock a lot at home because time seems to go so very quickly - I get carried away doing something and then before you know it, it's 8:30 and I haven't made supper - then I have to keep an eye on the time to be sure David gets to bed at some decent hour - then I have to watch the time to make sure I don't stay up too late. I'd say 30 times a day - mostly at work.

We saw a great movie last night - "The Core". Movies are a great escape aren't they? David is finally getting back to normal - he still has his cold though. And guess who got his cold? That would be me. It's easier to be sick then to see your child be sick.

David Bloom of NBC died. You feel almost like you know the guy having seen him so much on TV. He died of a pulmonary embolism. You have to wonder if the stress and heat and everything accelerated his death. It has to take a toll on the human body living the way they do while out there in the desert. I don't think I could love a job that much. I know I couldn't go fight a war. I suppose I could get mean enough, but I'm too much of a chicken and I don't like being uncomfortable. (maybe I'm just too selfish) It's a good thing we have so many who are willing to fight. I support them because I know they need our support. I think it's horrific the way Saddam has been treating his people for so many years, but as I see what's going on I have to wonder if there really are "weapons of mass destruction". If our government doesn't find any - then what - hopefully the fact that we're freeing the Iraqi's from Saddam will outweigh the fact that the reason we went in to their country never turned out to be based in fact. Being that human nature tends to find a negative point and exploit it - I doubt that would happen. So all I can do is try to keep my mouth shut about my doubts and try to focus on the positive that will come out of this. So many lives are affected. I don't envy the President having to make the decisions he's forced to make.

Monday Madness question and answer for 3/31/03.

1. If you were to write a book, what would it be about?
Things to consider when you're looking for a pet.


2. What three food items would combine to make the most disgusting concoction ever?
Pickles, Onions, and Ice Cream -


3. What is your favorite time of the day and why?
Morning - because you have the entire day ahead of you.