Two numbers, a symbol and OMG.

The Numbers:

26
4

The Symbol:

-

The OMG

It's a surprise. And it's not baby-related.

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The numbers

26 - My 10% goal for weight watchers. That's what I'm focusing on right now. I'm not 100% back on WW yet, that happens on February 12th, but to get my brain used to the idea of being back on the program, I'm focusing on this number and how upset it makes me. Unhappiness is a great motivator. Most of the time. I need to prepare myself for not having the crutch of chocolate or fried foods to comfort myself during emotional times. I just can't think of carrots or celery or any kind of "diet" dessert as being a comfort. It's just a means to an end. I need to stop thinking and feeling that way for this to succeed, but diet foods won't ever replace the taste of a Red Robin Bacon Cheeseburger smothered in marinara sauce with a side of fries. Never. I do not believe in the following saying:

"Nothing tastes as a good as thin feels." Bullshit.


4 - Number of weeks I've been a non-smoker. I'm very proud of this because it's been such a struggle for me. I have two more weeks until I "step down" on my lozenges. I'm currently taking one lozenge every hour and starting today I'm taking one lozenge every two hours. I don't count my slip up a couple of weeks ago. I've moved on, even though the thought of smoking still weighs heavily on my mind. These are my quit stats as of this morning:

Time Smoke-Free:29 days, 6 hours, 22 minutes and 6 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked:585
Lifetime Saved:4 days, 11 hours
Money Saved:$217.50

I'm wondering where all that money went, because I seem to have less of it now that I'm not smoking. That's weird. I need to figure that out. But it's 7:30 in the morning and the math portion of my brain doesn't turn on until at least 10.

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The symbol

- - That's what I saw earlier this week when I POAS. I wasn't feeling well and I decided it was worth my while just to try even though AF had made an appearance and I didn't think we'd timed sex right.

I had to wait quite a while before I could POAS because I was at work. I was basically useless that day because all I could think was "What if....". I was looking at baby clothes and seeing when my due date would be and all that jazz. It was hard watching the pee stick and seeing nothing happen. Almost as hard as actually peeing on the stick.

I did enjoy the instruction on the pee stick that said, "DO NOT INSERT IN YOUR VAGINA". It was bolded as well as being in capitals. You know they only put those instructions on there because someone did that and then got all mad because the test didn't work properly.

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The OMG

M., my husband, loves Asian food. Loves. it. Give him a bowl of soft tofu, seafood, bamboo shoot and a shit ton of hot chili oil and he's a happy man. When we go out for dinner, he always wants to go to one of the Szechuan places in the area. Occassionaly he'll want to go to Indian, Thai or one of the americanized Chinese restaurants, but mostly it's the Szechuan joints. He says it's a quality place if we're the only white people in there. I agree.

I enjoy Asian foods but there is so much of it here in Seattle that it just overwhelms you. You drive down 99 between Seattle and Lynnwood and every single strip mall has at least one Korean BBQ restaurant. You go to Fremont and you can't throw a stick without hitting a Thai restaurant. You go to Ballard and the Pho places are out of control.

The Seattle restaurant scene is odd. We have a lot of ethnic food restaurants and a lot of seafood restaurants. That's about it. With the exception of a few chain restaurants or small deli-style places, you're hard-pressed to find any kind of American foods.

Last night, we found one. I have found my people.

A little background on me - My paternal grandfather is from Arkansas. His mother, my great-grandmother, was from Mississippi. I grew up eating a lot of southern foods. My grampa used to make cornbread with cracklins, collards, fried chicken, etc. etc. etc. It was heaven. When we went to visit my great-gramma, she would whip us up the most delicious hush puppies, fried okra, and fried green tomatoes I'd ever tasted, all washed down with gallons of sweet tea. I watch Paula Deen on the Food Network and it makes me long for my childhood when everything was made with butter and lard then deep fried. You now understand the need for Weight Watchers.

So the OMG is this place:

Casper's Taste of the South (be warned - the website has audio.)

It's situated at 152nd and Aurora in Shoreline. I went there last night with M. and our friends R. and Y. I walked in, looked at the menu and almost started crying. Fried Green Tomatoes! Hush puppies! Pulled pork sandwiches! Fried Okra! Collards! Sweet tea!

So between the four of us we got a good selection of foods:

Appetizer - Fried Green tomatoes.

M. - Pulled Pork sandwich, red beans and rice and hush puppies; Me - Fried shrimp with collard greens and fried okra; R. - Baby back ribs with hush puppies and red beans and rice; Y. - Fried chicken with coleslaw.

I like the number of times the word "fried" is used in the previous paragraph.

Everything, with the exception of my shrimp, was delicious. The tomatoes were perfectly cooked, the green ones being more flavorful than the red. The red seemed slightly underseasoned. The hush puppies were sweet and crunchy with a hint of spice, the collards and okra were both to.die.for. apparently cooked in bacon fat. ZOMG. I didn't try anything else, but it was a good indication of how good the food was when R., who is notorious for eating every single thing on his plate, set some aside to take home. In his own words, "When I don't like something, I eat it all because I know I don't want to take any home. If I like something, I don't eat everything because I want to save some for later."

The only issue I had with my shrimp is that it tasted off. I don't think it was bad, but I'm used to mine being doused in cocktail sauce and that wasn't available. When I go back next, I will be getting the pulled pork sandwich.

There are two meal sizes, Lunch and Supper. Lunch comes with one side and Supper comes with two. There is a LOT of food with the Supper meal. A LOT. It's very possible two people can go there and share a meal and be satisfied.

This is EXACTLY the kind of restaurant Seattle needed. A restauarant where the tableclothes are butcher paper, where the owner, Casper, strolls around with a piping hot tray of biegnets for you to sample, and where you do not feel at all self-conscious leaning back and undoing the top button on your jeans because you've eaten so much. It's down-home. It's rural. And it's perfect.