Flops and Fabulous

I'm sad to say that my Super Bowl Grid was a fantastic flop. I managed to sell 5 boxes. Out of 100. And 3 of those were for a check I was given prior that had been made out to me, so I just assigned boxes to the person...they never knew. *sigh* But, that's the way things go. What is a fantastic idea for one walker may not work for others. I know many people that had huge success with this...I just wasn't one of them this time around.

My Insider Pages fundraiser started on the 4th and goes until the 25th. To join that (it's free...just costs you a few minutes of your time for each review), go to http://www.insiderpages.com/fundraisers/Susan-G-Komen-3-Day-for-the-Cure-L-Winfrey-1002. Surprisingly, THIS has been a fabulous success as far as I'm concerned! In 5 days, I have about $85 in donations! I will have a few more to write when we go to Disney this weekend, and I plan to try a few more places between now and the end of it.

Some notes to make it easier:

1) Remember, chain restaurants don't count for this fundraiser, though Insider Pages allows you to write the review.

2) Some other places are excluded as well. I've found hotels and chiropractors so far. There may be a few more.

3) First reviews are worth the most (1.50 or .50, depending on what area the place is in). Second, third and 4th are also paid reviews, but at a lower rate (.50 or .25). After the 4th review, it doesn't earn anything, but you can still write it.

4) The easiest way to see if your review counts (and how much) is when you click "Write a Review" and the text box opens where you do that, if you look just above the box it will say something to the effect of "This review is worth xxx for the Komen 3 Day for the Cure Fundraiser."

That's about all of the tips I have. Think outside of the box when reviewing, though! It's not just eateries that you can do. I've done doctors, car dealerships, and motorcycle shops! Also, don't be afraid to add a place that's not listed. It does take an extra minute or 2, but all you need is address, phone number and type of business, and then you get to write the first review!


Other fabulousness: DH and I are back in Disney from Sunday to Wednesday. This has been the shortest time between trips for us, but we will have a LOONNNGG stretch before our next trip (October...for us, 8 months *IS* long). We are trying 3 new restaurants this time: Kouzzina by Cat Cora by the Boardwalk Hotel(Greek food), Les Chefs de France in Epcot (French food, if you couldn't tell) and Yak and Yeti in Animal Kingdom ("Pan-Asian" food). We also splurged on a savanna view room this trip...so I will be having coffee on the private balcony and watching the giraffes and zebras eat their breakfast.

Most people in the US dread tax time. I, personally, love it. I'm not a saver by nature. And while I know it would be better for me to reduce my withholding and put that amount in a savings account to earn some interest, I also know I wouldn't do that. It would get spent. So...I leave my withholding rate high. And as such, we got enough back this year to pay off one of the bikes (we have 5 total, but only 2 have loans). Yay! We were supposed to get our Federal return last week...still no sign of it. Hoping it arrives this week.

My weight loss progress falls into neither the fabulous category, nor the flops category. I guess by default, not being a flop is fabulous, though. I've pretty well been maintaining. Not what I want to do, but man, life is just crazy lately and I don't know where time is going! I got my elliptical thing. It took a little getting used to, but I had read in the reviews that it might be tough. I was adapted in about 2 days. After about a week, I could knit while working out! DH was laughing at me. Mind you, I couldn't follow a pattern, but just a simple project I had been doing was finished in one night...and I didn't focus on my burning thighs.

I started out by getting on it when commercials would come on, and stopping when the show came back on. a 1 hour show, and I would work out about 15 minutes. This weekend, I didn't feel like that was enough...so I switched it and would get on when the show was on and take a break when the commercials were on. THAT was a workout.

Food-wise, my portions are still on the large side, but we (yes, the DH is trying to be better too!) have been doing much better with content. We have decided to make a weekly Trader Joes date, where we are getting healthier "quick" meal options that we can throw together after work. For example, we got some precooked lentils that came in a microwaveable pouch. Have you seen the Uncle Ben's Ready Rice things? Same idea, but lentils, not rice. We mixed those with some Israeli couscous, steamed up some veggies, baked some chicken and it was dinner. Prep time was about 10 minutes. Cooking time about 25 (for the chicken, mostly). very high in fiber (the lentils had 17 grams per serving!!) and protein, low in fat, and pretty filling. Needed to season the lentils and couscous more, though. Live and learn. It was edible. We also got some fully cooked then frozen brown rice, a veggie lasagna, shepherd's pie, a pork roulade and a bunch of other stuff. The plan is to find some of the things we really like that can be versatile, then stock up. Oh, and they had their own brand of the No-Pudge Brownies! I made some oatmeal raisin cookies last night (high fiber oatmeal, splenda, etc) so the brownies will be a few more days before we try them. I'll probably make a batch of both to take to Disney for the road.

I think I've rambled enough. I'm sure you have other blogs to read work to do. I'll let you get to that.