It's the most important meal of the day!

I've heard that you're supposed to eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch, and a pauper for dinner if you're watching your weight. I am watching my weight - watching it mostly go up, unfortunately! My breakfast most days is Quaker Weight Control Oatmeal (with 7 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber to boot).
At 160 calories and 3 grams of fat, it definitely fits into a healthy-eating profile. I sound like Bob from The Biggest Loser (do any of you watch that show? Holy product placements Batman!). I love me some Bob, though!

I don't think the oatmeal alone fits into the king-prince-pauper formula. And here's my question for any of you who have had this - does one packet really satisfy you all morning? I find that it's tasty and satisfying, but that I'm hungry within an hour or two. Really, that's not a problem because I can grab an apple or a banana. And I suppose I probably should be having something in addition to the oatmeal first thing, anyway. I'm just happy to have anything at all. I don't eat until after I've arrived at work; I'm lucky to have a job where eating a cup of oatmeal at my desk isn't a problem.

If my weight weren't on the rise, and it were convenient, I would happily eat a Dunkin Donuts double chocolate donut every morning, though. Yum! But don't click if you're at all in denial about how bad donuts are for us. Bummer, huh?

Now how many knitting blogs manage to mention The Biggest Loser and Dunkin' Donuts in the same post? I don't know - maybe a ton of them. I'm proud, nonetheless! We'll be back to our regularly scheduled knitting program soon.

Old pictures, new pictures

The webring assignment this week is to dig out the oldest picture of yourself. I really don't have any old pictures of myself. The problem is two-fold - first, most of the pictures of me in my younger years are still at my mom's house, hundreds of miles away. Second, I don't have a scanner, so I couldn't get them online, anyway. But, perhaps I can get creative and come up with a solution to this problem... I'll think on it a bit. I've missed two blogstalking assignments already, so I need to figure something out!

Out with the old, and in with the new... a new picture of ZEN. Hot off the presses, just hours old...

Quite timely, since today is Halloween and all. It's her first Halloween, and she's had a good day so far. She got to trick or treat at my office, her dad's office, her godmother's office, and the LYS. She was such a good baby, not at all fussy about being stuffed into a puffy duckling outfit. That's my girl! It's pretty mild here today, so I'm going to have her sit on the porch with me, all dressed up in her duckling outfit, and pass out candy.
Trick or Treat goes from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., though, so she probably won't make it past the first hour or so.

As promised, here's a picture of her modeling her pumpkin hat, which turned out a bit small, because her mother CANNOT COUNT OR MEASURE.



And finally, a heartfelt thanks to Lauren, who spoiled me this Halloween with a package filled with great treats! ZEN carried the felt pumpkin around for her trick or treat (despite the fact that she's too little for candy, chocolate found its way inside). And I'm so excited to try my hand at dyeing with the KnitPicks Bare laceweight. I'm going to be a wuss and start with just a basic black, but after the yarn soup debacle of earlier this year, I think it's best to start basic.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Yarn love and getting from here to there...

ZEN is learning, at a young age, to embrace and love yarn. Perhaps this is her way of asking me to knit her a pair of socks?

In other knitting news... I cast on the cover sweater from Lace Style. I am using T3 Weavers Alpaca, and I am enjoying the pattern (simple feather and fan) so far. I think it will knit up quick, but I have to shift focus to my Christmas knitting, so it won't be done as quickly as I might like. Here's my swatch and progress.



This week's blog stalking assignment was to show how we get from here to there. I don't have any pictures of my cars, but I drive either a Blue Honda Accord or a Black VW Passat Wagon. If I'm lucky, I get to drive the Passat, which means there's a good chance I have company. That always makes for a better ride!



On a final note, Nat read my last blog entry. He has zero faith that I will finish his sweater. Such doubt, and it's only October!

Peer into my purse

...if you dare!

Blogstalking, assignment two:



I almost sat this round out, because I'm so embarrassed of the mess that is in my purse. Here are two other views, but that's all your getting, because anything closer would further humiliate me!





I suppose I should tell you what all that junk is. First, there is the small purse in the big purse. No excuse for this, except sheer laziness. I switched from the small to the large, and didn't bother to shift the contents (yes, I am well aware that I could have just dumped everything in; it was easier this way, somehow). As to the actual contents, here's an edited list (why, you might ask, is this list edited? Because there's just too much crap in there to bother noting all of it - it is not edited to protect my reputation in anyway, so no worries there!)

1. The knitterly stuff
a. Back issues of Interweave Knits (Spring of 2004, Summer of 2003)
b. WIP - baby jaywalker sock in Panda Cotton (from the dyeing arts, but the link has gone bad, though there is a promise it will return at some point)
c. Mass Ave Knit Shop Discount key chain
d. Secret of the Stole info. sheet
e. Knitty Patterns (Mr. Greenjeans and Muir)
f. Size 9 Crochet hook (for beading)
g. stitch markers (ring style)
2. The money-savers
a. coupons for groceries
b. coupons for Borders
c. coupons for department stores
d. expired coupon for the garden store
3. The reminders that I'm overweight
a. Weight Watchers membership book/bookmark
b. Gum (gotta have something to do with my mouth since I shouldn't be eating!)
c. Jimmy John's menu (there are a few things on there that can be Weight
Watchers friendly)
4. Proof that I'm a mom
a. Toy remote control
b. Pink baby velour pants
5. Proof that I'm a mom, knitter and a woman
a. Bills!
b. Many tubes of lipstick
6. Other junk
a. Saline Solution
b. Coin purse with debit/credit cards and some cash/change
c. Change settled at the bottom of the purse
d. Bookmark (but no book)
e. Non-winning powerball ticket from when the jackpot was huge awhile back.
Yes, this should have been thrown out weeks ago.

OK, I'm sufficiently mortified, but probably not mortified to the point of actually cleaning out the purse. Alas...