The Weight Update AND What I Did This Weekend

04/27/2008; 171 pounds; 7.5 pounds in two weeks; total loss of 37 pounds.

For some reason, I feel like I look thinner in the last picture. Oh, well, the number's don't lie. I was convinced that it was only going to be like four pounds this weigh-in, but lo-and-behold when I stepped on that scale, and the nurse told me 7.5 pounds...well, I immediately had to stick my head out of the door and shout it to Richie, and the whole room! That's a whole pound and a half more than that my usual two-week losses.

Richie went with me this time, and we decided to eat at North Towne Grill, across from Northwoods Mall because I had to exchange some shoes of Cathryn's that didn't fit. Since the restaurant didn't open until 11 or 12, we decided to kill some time in the mall after I exchanged the shoes. Richie had a Strawberry Julius and we both got Doozies from the Great American Cookie Company in the food court. A Doozie is basically two cookies with cake icing in the middle, but really, it's like holding diabetes in your hand. Richie had a normal-sized double chocolate, but mine was chocolate chip, and it was so sweet I could barely finish it! That's really saying something for the girl who could finish off a whole box of Swiss Cake Rolls in one sitting if she was upset about something.

After that, we decided to go to Books-A-Million. Now, this is not my favorite bookstore--that honor goes to Barnes & Noble--but we really didn't want to drive down Rivers Avenue any more than was required. Actually, the Books-A-Million in Northwoods Mall isn't that bad. I normally find them very messy and unorganized, but this one was very neat and clean. Richie looked around with me for a little while, but then we got separated when we got to the music section, and he wandered off to the fishing magazines. He sat calmly and read, never once complaining that I went up and down each aisle, looking, touching, smelling each book that caught my eye. I decided on the new Dorothea Benton Frank novel, Bulls Island, and of course I had to have the new issue of InStyle.

North Towne Grill has got to be one of the best restaurants ever. The cuisine is Greek, and Richie and I like to eat there each time we're on that side of Charleston. It's the same with each restaurant we visit--Richie has his favorite things on the menu, and will select from that, while I will peruse the menu two or three times, because I like to try something new each time. Richie chooses his very favorite dish from the restaurant, the North Towne Chicken, which is slow-roasted chicken with a side of steamed vegetables and Greek potatoes. I've had it, and it is beyond delicious. I decided on something called Souvlaki, which is grilled pork tenderloin chopped up with tomatoes and onions, and wrapped in pita bread, with a side of the Greek Potatoes. It was beyond delicious.

I will say that Saturday, eating-wise, was very out of the norm for me. I can't tell you the last time I ate potatoes or bread, let alone a cookie with cake icing. But I felt like I had been doing so well that I needed to reward myself. And guess what? I couldn't even finish my lunch. We had to box it up and bring it home, where Richie enjoyed it Sunday night.

Cathryn went to Pirateland with Cathy and Richard this week, so after we got back from Charleston, I took advantage of her absence by cleaning her room, and completely reorganizing it so that she can walk in it and have friends over. More about that tomorrow.

Toodles!

Doin' The Charleston, Part Two

On Sunday, we decided to go downtown and walk , which is the best way to see the prettiest parts of Charleston. This is where we began:
There are so many beautiful, old houses around Battery Park and East Bay Street. We each had our favorites, but we all agreed: this dude was just showing off.

Cathryn's favorite (naturally) was pink:

This house was Richie's favorite. I believe the museum called this Georgian architecture, and described it as a masculine style. It even had cement lions decorating the outside.

This is the house that really struck me. Maybe because it reminded me of the house in Mary Poppins. Of course my favorite house would be pop-culture related!

Next, we decided to take a break from walking and let Cathryn run around the park, like a lot of the other kids were doing. She quickly became obsessed with this cannon.

Cathryn loves taking pictures so much, that we found it difficult to take a picture of her when she wasn't posing. Richie was the only successful photographer:

Here's another that Richie took. He says that it's his favorite, and it's definitely one of mine. It's my desktop background right now.

Our only family picture! My only regret is that Trey wasn't with us. My mission is to get someone to take a picture will all four of us in it.

I love this picture. They are so sweet together.

The next place we went was Liberty Square, which houses the Fort Sumter National Monument, the American Military Museum, the SC Aquarium, and various shops. This sign was near the shops. I thought it was quite whimsical.

As I've never been to the SC Aquarium, I was thoroughly fascinated by the design of the place. This artwork on the outside of the building continued inside along the ceiling of the main lobby.

These frogs were great. We saw one atop a house on East Bay Street.

River otters in "The Mountains" exhibit! We were all so excited to see them. These guys were total hams. They loved the crowds and continually played to them.

We all agreed that the best thing about the aquarium was the ocean tank. It was phenomenal. You literally felt like you were standing at the bottom of the ocean. Cathryn went wild over the sharks:

Here's a better shot of the ocean tank. We came right at feeding time, which was particularly exciting.

No trip could be complete without sticking your head through a cardboard cutout!

Our trip to Charleston was wonderful. I almost don't have the words to describe how great it was to have us together, doing touristy things. The three of us had the best time being goofy together, and just hanging out together as a family. Really, I can only think of one thing that was missing from our trip, and that was Trey.

Toodles!

Doin' the Charleston, Part One

We had been talking about it and talking about it, and we finally decided to do it. We planned a weekend for Richie, Cathryn and myself to stay in Charleston and do lots of touristy things. We sat down at work one day, made a hotel reservation, and planned out our fun family weekend.

Yep, we stayed at the round Holiday Inn on Savannah Highway, even though Richie told me we could stay anywhere. I'm not ashamed of this, because that place intrigued me.

The hotel was actually really nice, but I wasn't 100% satisfied with our stay. For starters, there was no microwave or minifridge. Second, the service at the Harborview Restaurant left much to be desired. Richie didn't get his baked potato until the end of our dinner, and then when he and Cathryn went to breakfast the next morning, he said that he had eaten much, much better for the $17 he paid for breakfast. While they were at breakfast, I had my special oatmeal and took a few pictures of the view:

I wish I had taken some pictures of the view at night, because all the lights were really beautiful.

After breakfast, we drove around downtown Charleston while we waited for the museum to open, and made plans to go to Battery Park on Sunday before the Aquarium opened. Pulling into the parking lot of The Charleston Musuem, I felt my heart begin to pound. I hadn't been there since the 3rd grade (and neither had Richie), so we were really looking forward to seeing it again, and introducing it to Cathryn for the first time.

Richie and Cathryn in front of the replica of the Hunley. Warning: Most pictures featuring Cathryn will show her apparent deep-seeded need to be a catalog model.

Walking into the museum, the first sign I saw was "No Flash Photography". I was very disappointed, because, man, I wanted to take a picture of that big whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling. When I got over that, we walked upstairs and went into the "History of the Low Country" exhibit, which was exactly how I remembered it. That exhibit became the "Becoming Americans" exhibit, which led into the "Civil War" exhibit. Richie especially enjoyed these exhibits, because he loves antique weaponry. It was so interesting to hear him talk about the different guns, especially. Each time we turned a corner, my eyes welled up, because not only was I reliving a favorite childhood memory, but I was literally walking through the history of the place I love so much.

The Natural History exhibit was creepy, and I couldn't wait to get out of there. Not that I'd tell Cathryn, because I want her to be educated. But geez--all those skeletons and that big stuffed polar bear? My size ten feet were trotting hastily. Once we were out of that creepfest, we wandered into "The Early Days" exhibit, which Cathryn found quite creepy herself. I tried to get Cathryn to pose with one of the Ancient Egyptian statues, but she shook her head vehemently and said, "NO WAY!" On our way out, we saw a case containing Gershwin's piano, and they were playing his music. What intrigued me and Cathryn both, though, were these:

A Victorian Dollhouse! Complete with all the dolls and furniture! But the one that made me want to rip open the glass case was...

An exact replica of Hopsewee Plantation. Cathryn and I had a hard time tearing ourselves away from this one.

"Kidstory", though, did a good job of doing just that. This was the exhibit Cathryn had been waiting on, because it means she gets to touch stuff and not get in trouble. She was the only kid in there, which suited her just fine because it meant that she could run around uninhibited. She pressed buttons, turned on the light at a lighthouse, colored, and raised the flag on a pirate ship.

Her favorite part, by far, though, was this:

This is a replica of the Heyward-Washington house in Charleston, where George Washington stayed when he visited Charleston shortly after being named President. Inside was a closet with clothes to try on, music to listen to, games to play, and stories to read. It was Cathryn heaven. It was hard for us to convince her to leave this area to go to the next exhibit.

The next exhibit completely took my breath away. It was titled "Clothes to Dye For" and reflected South Carolina's textiles industry, and the power of color. What immediately struck me was that the clothes were in order according to the ROY G. BIV system, which we learned in elementary school. First, RED:

A hoop skirt and corset. The sign said that the corset was 21 inches at the waist. I hurt thinking about it.

ORANGE:

This picture doesn't show it, but this dress was the most beautiful shade of peachy-orange. I wanted to take it off the mannequin and shove it in my purse. You can't convince me that you couldn't wear that dress this spring.

YELLOW:

Another 1950s dress I fell in love with.

GREEN:

This entire room taunted me with it's retro goodness. I could feel them laughing at me, saying, "Ha, ha...there's not even a glass to separate us! You could reach right over that rope, but we know you won't!" The dress that really broke my heart, though, was:

BLUE:

Richie saw it before I did. I was actually snapping a picture of the green dress above, when I heard him say, "Josie, this one is you up and down." It was on the other side of the room, so I couldn't really see it until I was upon it. Once I saw it, though, it took my breath away. I need to find a dress similar to this, like immediately.

I didn't like any of the the dresses put on display for the remaining colors, so I don't have any pictures of those. However, we did take one last picture at the museum, a nice bookend to our visit:

This was taken in front of a huge antique teller window. I can only imagine the bank that originally housed it.

After leaving the museum, we did a very non-touristy thing and had lunch at North Towne Grill, which is a Greek Restaurant across from Northwoods Mall. After lunch? We killed some time at the mall, wherein I discovered the BEST STORE EVER--Palmetto Moon.

Part Two: Battery Park and the SC Aquarium.

Toodles!