Breakfast?, 12:30 p.m.

The first thing I ate today was a slice of my grandpa's birthday cake. It was angel food cake with coconut creme frosting -- very yummy. This also happens to be the only thing I photographed all day.

Lunch, 4:00 p.m.
My dad and I were hungry after the birthday party and didn't want to wait two hours (the length of our drive home) to eat...so we ended up at the root beer stand, because it's pretty much the only place to eat in the town where my grandpa's nursing home is. I had a cheeseburger and fries.

Dinner, 6:30 p.m.
My friend Erica invited me out to her parents' new house for dinner. I had salad, wild rice & turkey soup (her husband made it -- it was very good), and cranberry pie. I had never heard of cranberry pie before, but oh my goodness. It was very good.

Snack, 12:00 a.m.
After I got back from Erica's parents' house, I had some Wheat Thins before bed.

Breakfast, 9:45 a.m.

Cinnamon roll.

Lunch, 12:30 p.m.

Leftover green bean casserole and fruit salad.

Snack, 1:30 p.m.

A tiny little mini lefse, fresh off the griddle.

Snack, 3:00-ish

I had more than one Oreo. I'm not going to lie.

Dinner, 6:45 p.m.

My cousins and I went to "the root beer stand." OK, yes, it's an A&W, technically speaking, but it's never been known as A&W in our family. That's because it's not like any other A&W -- It's very old school. You order your food on the phone from your table, the food is better, there's a waitress...they even have carhops. Anyway. I had a bacon cheeseburger and fries, and split the cheese curds with my cousins. (We were having some major dilemmas over whether to "curd it up" -- so we decided to be piggy and have it both ways.) After that, despite being stuffed, I had a raspberry flavor burst cone.

Breakfast, 9:30 a.m.

Peanut butter on white toast (there was no wheat bread laying around) and light strawberry yogurt.

Snack, 1:00 p.m.

My cousins had a bag of Rolos at my grandma's. This is the only time I took a picture, but I ate so many of those during Thanksgiving weekend...

Thanksgiving Dinner, 2:15 p.m.

Turkey, mashed potatoes, lefse, cranberries, and green bean casserole, followed by a pretty big helping of fruit salad -- the kind made with real whipped cream, not that Cool Whip shit. Yum.

Snack, 5:30 p.m.

My mom made an apple pie...but not just any apple pie. This had caramel drizzled on top, and pecans. Very yummy.

Snack, 9:00 p.m.

It wouldn't be a trip to grandma's without cinnamon rolls...

Breakfast, 1:15 p.m.

Peanut butter on wheat toast, and a Special K bar. I don't ordinarily eat dessert for breakfast, but I made these things last night and the chocolate hadn't set yet by bed time, so...I had to try them today. Jon's working all weekend so he can't come to Thanksgiving (I'm sure he's really disappointed, too...). I asked him if he wanted me to make anything special for him before I left, and he wanted Special K bars, so...yup. Hopefully he eats them all before I come back...because otherwise I'll eat them and gain about 50 pounds.

LUNCH -- NOT PICTURED. My mom made a pot of chili because it's my favorite, so we had that pretty much the instant I walked in the door. It was spicier than usual, which made me happy...and my dad unhappy.

Snack, 8:00 p.m.

Three Oreo cookies. I had also had one of the chocolate chip cookies (on the left) after dinner.

Dinner, 9:30 p.m.

My dad and I split a pizza. It wasn't very good.

Breakfast, 10:00 a.m.

Banana and peanut butter on wheat toast.

Snack, 4:00 p.m.

Granola bar. I was *starving* when I got home. I forgot to bring a lunch to school. OK, no problem...I decided I'd go to the grill and order a burger or something. Well, genius that I was, I got all the way over there and realized I had no money -- my purse was in my office. After that, I didn't want to walk all the way across campus to get my purse, then walk all the way BACK to the grill, then all the way back to my office again...so I just toughed it until I got home.

DINNER -- NOT PICTURED. Jon and I discovered a good Mexican restaurant in Sheboygan -- finally. It was weird. One of my co-workers and one of his co-workers recommended this place to us on the same day. So, we went. It was good. I had enchiladas (one cheese, one beef), rice, and beans. Yum.

Snack, 9:30 p.m.

Strawberry (?) candy cane.

Snack, 12:15 a.m.

The rest of the sorbet.

Breakfast, 6:45 a.m.

Banana and peanut butter on wheat toast.

LUNCH -- NOT PICTURED. I guess I didn't take a picture of my lunch, but it was nothing special -- sandwich, granola bar, string cheese, and applesauce, I believe.

Snack, 4:45 p.m.

Just the apple -- the cheese spread is there simply for comparison. Like I said, they're huge.

Dinner, 7:00 p.m.

"Chicken Pasta Toss" -- another magazine recipe discovery. This is pasta in a cream sauce with chicken chunks and lots of spices. It's a heart attack on a plate, but it's so-so-so yummy.

Snack, 9:30 p.m.

Green apple candy cane.

Snack, 11:15 p.m.

Mango sorbet. Yum.

Breakfast, 1:00 p.m.

I had been laying in bed reading for about an hour and a half -- "just until I finish this book!" -- and my stomach kept growling. Finally, Jon brought me some breakfast. I think it was a ploy to get me out of bed, because he knows I wouldn't want crumbs in the sheets...

Lunch, 3:30 p.m.

More taco soup. This stuff is pretty yummy, I have to say.

Snack, 6:15 p.m.

Cherry candy cane.

Dinner, 9:30 p.m.

Rice with salt and butter.

Snack, 9:45 p.m.

I was still hungry after the rice, so...

Happy J.F.K. day! It's been 45 years and we still don't know whodunnit.

Breakfast, 12:30 p.m.

Banana and peanut butter on wheat toast.

Snack, 2:00 p.m.

Cherry candy cane and hot chocolate. 'Tis the season...except that it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Geez.

Lunch, 4:00 p.m.

Taco soup.

Snack, 5:15 p.m.

A Dora the Explorer candy cane. I am very disappointed in these...they're very soft. Like they've been sitting in the back of the store for a year waiting to go on the shelf. Not cool. Oh. You'll be seeing an inordinate amount of candy canes in the next month. I'm kind of an addict. As soon as I see them in the store, I buy about 10 boxes -- no joke. I took half to my office and left half at home.

Snack, 8:00 p.m.

Chocolate chip cookie with caramel center.

Dinner, 11:45 p.m.

Pork chop cooked in cream of mushroom soup, and canned corn.

Breakfast, 6:45 a.m.

Peanut butter on wheat toast, and light blueberry yogurt.

Lunch, 11:30 a.m.

My friend Alaska Lauren (who is now Portland Lauren, I suppose; as opposed to Minneapolis Lauren) sent me a sweet lunch box in the mail. It arrived on Tuesday -- the shittiest day ever (in which I discover that I have to pull a course out of my ass in no time flat). It couldn't have been better timing, really; at least I had something to be happy about for a few minutes. Anyway, I've decided to say, "fuck being a grownup at work." Well...sort of. I've been carrying a purse to give more of an adult impression, since I look younger than half of the students, and I will continue to carry the purse...but why not use a lunch box for my lunch? It seems like a good compromise to me, and a good way to retain at least a little of my personality.

Snack, 5:00 p.m.

Leftover pizza.

Dinner, 10:45 p.m.

Taco soup...and some Fritos. This is a recipe I found in the Kraft Food & Family magazine my friend Lisa told me to sign up for. It's sweet -- a free magazine that shows every few months packed with recipes. OK, yes, the recipes are thinly disguised ads for Kraft products -- they wanted me to use Kraft shredded cheddar for this recipe (I used Costco) -- but so far I've had good luck with finding quick and easy dinners that also taste pretty good.

Snack, 1:30 a.m.

This seemed like the biggest apple in the universe. I put Jon in charge of selecting the fruit on our last grocery run, so it's all monster-sized. The apples are bigger than my fist. Next time I eat one, I'll have to set it next to something for comparison.

How is that an entire week has passed since my last post? Oh...right. Work. On Tuesday, I found out that one of my spring classes was canceled for low enrollment -- which means that I'm now teaching fewer credits than what my contract requires. To make up the credits, I am being more or less forced to teach a May Term class...which means a 3 week intensive "special topics" course. But it gets better -- this 3 weeks special topics course has to be planned -- proposal, syllabus, and text books -- by Tuesday. In other words, I was given a week to pull an entire course together. Yikes. Good thing I'd worked my ass off the week before the wedding, because otherwise I'd be very, very screwed right now instead of just plain screwed. So, here's the week in food:

Friday, Nov. 14

Breakfast

Peanut butter on wheat toast and light strawberry yogurt

Lunch

You know...some crap from the cupboard.

Snack

I never eat these unless I'm on a road trip.

Dinner

Taco John's in Menomonie. You know...this is one of Sheboygan's biggest shortcomings. No Taco John's. I mean, what a ripoff. I'm back in 'Sconnie, and there's no Taco John's in a 50 mile radius -- at least, not that I'm aware of.

NOT PICTURED: We arrived at the hotel about 8:00, and by midnight we were starving. So...we ordered delivery from some local restaurant. I had a bowl of chili. It was pretty good.

Saturday, Nov. 15

Brunch

All I ate until the reception was this cheese steak...and most of the fries.

NOT PICTURED: Wedding reception food: appetizers, lots of cheese and crackers, and cheesecake. (They didn't feed us dinner because the wedding wasn't until 7, so the reception didn't start until 8:30-ish.) We were pretty hungry late that night, because we'd eaten the cheese steaks some time around 2:00, so we ordered in a pizza some time around 1:00 a.m.


Sunday, Nov. 16

Dinner

Somehow, the only picture I took all day was of what I ate after we got home. During the day, I had a granola bar for breakfast, a gas station snack (I don't even remember what), and a big lunch at the Altoona Family Restaurant in Eau Claire -- I met up with my friend Jeff and his fiancé, Laura. They're getting married while I'm in Prague, so I figured I'd better swing by and see them before the big day. It was good...I hadn't seen Jeff in about 3 years. Anyway, I had a bacon cheeseburger and fries.

Monday, Nov. 17

Breakfast

The usual.

Lunch
NOT PICTURED. I had my monthly lunch with my mentor, which meant that we ate in the cafeteria, and I'm still not ready to let my colleagues know I'm crazy, so...no photos. I had a cup of icky veggie soup, some rice, and...I can't even remember what the entree was.

Dinner

Beef ravioli in tomato sauce. Yum.

Tuesday, Nov. 18

Breakfast

Yogurt and toast. What else?

Lunch

I ran out of lunch meat, so...no sandwich.

Snack

These are pretty good. I find that kind of odd since I used to hate them back in the day, when my mom always had them in the cupboard.

Dinner

This was the day the shit hit the fan in terms of finding out about the class cancellation. There was no time for "real" food.

Wednesday, Nov. 1 9

Breakfast

More peanut butter on toast, more yogurt.

NOT PICTURED: I have no idea what I ate for the rest of the day...there's no photographic record, and I can't remember.

Thursday, Nov. 20

Breakfast

Just toast -- I had a faculty meeting at 11:00, and they feed us lunch, so I didn't see any need for the full breakfast being that I was going to have lunch in 2 hours anyway.

NOT PICTURED: lunch with the faculty. I had salad (lettuce, tomato, cheese, sunflower seeds), a cup of chili, and two breadsticks.

Snack

Chocolate chip cookies with caramel centers...very yummy. I had two.

Dinner

Take-n-bake pizza from the Wal-Mart deli. It's actually pretty good.

Snack

Blackberries. I split these with Jon. They were very, very yummy.