If You Don't Like the Weather, Just Wait A While

This weekend has all been about catching up. Not on sleep, although I did that also. Catching up on eating.

When things get busy at work, the first thing that gets tossed is eating. The past couple of weeks, I've skipped breakfast and lunch. My one main meal has been dinner. And sometimes not even that.

Also within the past month, the women in my office have created a Weight Watchers club. Since each lady is of a different weight, each has a different allotment of points determined by the caloric content of a particular food item. When I walk by their offices around noon, I can usually spot several of them consulting their guide book that tells them what they can't eat followed by with a frown of disgust.

The other day, I stepped on the scale to see how much I weighed just for giggles. I knew that my weight had dropped in the past couple of weeks, but I couldn't tell by how much. Well, it was nearly 10 pounds - all in a month's time.
I told my colleague that I should join their club. Since each pays weekly dues, the biggest pay-out going to the person with the biggest percentage of weight loss, I knew that I'd take all the cash. She got mad at me since I hadn't been doing anything to lose weight (all without trying, by the way) by just not eating. No eating healthy; no exercise; no nothin'.

Well, today I woke up with an overwhelming hunger, a belly demanding attention that I've been neglecting for far too long. I was able to temporarily sate it with some oatmeal and fruit. But, after a couple of hours, it was demanding something more substantive.

In addition to missing meals, I've missed cooking even more. If I could nourish myself solely through preparing meals (and maybe some mild sampling), I'd be perfectly content. So, I whipped up a quick stromboli. Since my belly was rather impatient today, I didn't let the dough rise as much as it should have to it was a little tough; but still very tasty.

A few hours later, I made broiled cinnamon toast since I could feel grumbling about to ensue.

Around five, I knew I wouldn't be happy unless I had one more good meal for the day. I didn't want to run out the store again and I didn't want fast food. We didn't have much in the fridge and/or pantry except the basic staples. However, we did have some potatoes from last weekend. So I found an old recipe for gnocchi in bechemel sauce that I haven't made in quite some time.

That's the funny thing about cooking. You can take very common elements (potatoes, milk, butter, and flour) and turn it into a very elaborate and impressive sounding meal.

So now, I can go to bed feeling satisfied but not like a little piggy. And come tomorrow morning, I'll be the only person in the office hoping to have gained some weight over the weekend.

Now about yesterday:

Well, to preface all of this, I've been to more high school games this season than I've been in the past ten years. It really hasn't been that many, but it feels like it. And each game I've been to this year, the home team has lost in very disappointing upsets. The visitor, being down several touchdowns in the fourth quarter, has come back to win in the final minute or two; I was beginning to wonder if I was a curse.

Okay, now about yesterday: my sister-in-law is a trainer for her high school football team. They made the state semi's and had their game at Texas Stadium yesterday afternoon. I had to work until 1 so I was going to miss the first game of the triple header. It was a 5A game that featured the number one ranked team in the nation. We got to the stadium in time to see Nicole's game (the 4A school). The game was never that close, I was glad to see. So, it's either Chris or Jackson, but not me. Or maybe Tigger.

Not having seen enough football for the day, I wanted to stay and watch the 3A game. The winner of this game is going to play my high school in next week's state championship game. I was going to scout the team and figure out their trick plays and strategy. Not that their opponent, my old high school, would need it; they've won each game this year by four or five touchdowns.

This team out of Gainesville was fairly good. The quarterback had a decent arm and one of their running back had some decent moves. Most impressive, however, was another kid on their team that played both sides of the ball. He played linebacker and running back. I'm not sure how many tackles he ended up with, but I sure heard his name a lot. He ended up with 170 yards rushing and I'd guess about 7 of them where yards after contact; it regularly took three kids to tackle him.

The best part of the day, however, was the weather. I arrived at the game in mid-80 degree weather. I left about six hours later in low-30 degree weather. I was freezing but I loved it.

I see the weather report is showing temperatures in the high 40's all week long.

This is my favorite time of the year.