I LOVE Boston!

I'm at a conference right now in Boston which reminds me a) all the reasons I really do love my job and b) just how awesome the city of Boston is!

I always intended to move back to Boston after I moved away to go teach English in Istanbul.   However, despite all my efforts, life had other things in store for me!

So, here I am this week, 4 or 5 years after my last visit.  10 or so years since I lived here.

Mostly I'm working which has been great, but a couple of times, I've gotten to get out and have dinner or a meal with friends, colleagues and/or customers.

Eating so many fabulous meals out with others really reinforced that despite the fact that sometimes I *think* I can eat a fair amount, really compared to everyone else at every meal I've eaten, my portions are just tiny.  A few people have said, oh will that be enough?  LOVE IT!

And since I'm so busy working and satisfied with hanging out etc, I've turned down lots of opportunities to eat bad things.  Like fancy desserts, chips, etc.  A small amount REALLY does satisfy me.  And for whatever reason, I'm not wanting to snack at all like I was before.  

I do have to take it easy eating and talking.  Make sure everything goes down well of course!

More sight seeing tonight and tomorrow.  Can't wait!

I know I'm fat but...

It's a bit ridiculous that the arms on the desk chair in this hotel room are so narrow that my butt almost gets stuck getting out of the thing!

You might think it would encourage me to lose weight, but instead it just makes me wonder why the chair is so poorly designed!  ; ) 

We're finally, officially in our new apartment!

Yayy!!!  We moved into our new apartment this Saturday.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to stick around long as I'm already away on a business trip in Boston for a week.

Every where i go, there's crappy crappy rain.  Alex just posted this pic of some crazy lightning outside our apartment in Austin.  Here in Boston it's been rainy too.  I'm off to New York after Boston, and guess what the forecast calls for?

I don't have pics of our new apartment yet (it would be all boxes if I did); however, this is the view from our balcony.  (The one from Alex with the lightning and rain).

And I'm pleased to say that the pics I posted previously of our apartment (which were from the model unit) are pretty much identical to the actual apartment.  We had only seen a larger model unit, never the actual thing before we moved in.

The layout, fixtures and all the little details are just the same as our apartment.  Loving the place, but I'll be away for another week before I can enjoy it some more.

So I'm supposed to be working from home...

But really, this is how I spend my time all day!

The first one is me with my two dogs and my mom's dog Charlie.

The second photo is Alex's Vanity Fair-esque shot of the dogs -- both ours and my mom's two dogs (so from left to right, Brit, Charlie, Cali and JJ).

And I suppose I do get some work done on occasion too!

Tomorrow I start working from home

Tomorrow is my first day working from home. Permanently.

I've had lots of thoughts about getting bored or depressed working from home. Or not working enough during the day and then having to work at night to make up the time, or just working all the time.

One thing I haven't really thought about however, or feared, is eating all day being at home. I'm thinking I can't be as bad as I was with that vending machine at work! Assuming I avoid the delivery and fast food trap.

There's the main, HUGE Whole Foods on 6th and Lamar not too far from us, so I'm thinking when I want to go out I can take a wander over there for a fab salad for lunches.

I also just posted something on one of my other blogs about getting an espresso machine to avoid too many Starbucks or morning breakfast outings.

For the time being however, I have two more weeks in Houston before we officially move to our new place in Austin. So I'm kind of between homes for a little while. I'm quite curious to see how two weeks of working in limbo is.

Snacking less but in sugar shock

Overall, I'm finding that I'm snacking a bit less with our new schedule. Snacking is my utter downfall, so this is definitely a good direction to be heading in.

However, I'm in a bit of sugar shock right now as I offered to make cupcakes for my niece's birthday next weekend and tonight was the trial run. I want the icing and decoration to be just perfect, and I was definitely in need of practice.

If anyone is wondering, cupcakes go down just fine. And I'd say I'm at my sweet spot fill-wise right now. I can say that after 2 and a half of them. (They were small and pretty "airy," and I ate them over about an hour or so. I decided just to make that my dinner.

Grocery shopping is a joy again!

I'm on vacation this week and lounged a bit too much yesterday. It was only my second day off but a good reminder that I need to stay active to feel good. Too much sleep and indulgence is a bad thing for me.

So today we got up early, ran a bunch of errands and made our way to the local Kroger. I've mentioned my experiences grocery shopping in New York City previously, and shopping in Houston is just such a drastically different experience. A lovely, wonderful experience!

Yesterday, we actually went to WalMart and that I found a bit depressing and too suburban, but Kroger today was great. The selection, the veggie options, the incredible prices, the wide aisles(!!) and the friendly service.

The best part is that now that we have groceries, I'm no longer stuck in the cycle of fast food eating!

Simple things I know, but we're still living out of suitcases until we move to Austin two weeks from now.

A new life in Texas!

So after many days packing and a three long days of driving, we arrived in Houston early Tuesday evening just in time to have our dogs meet up with my moms two dogs in the park near her place. This was recommended to make sure they all get along okay at Mom's house.

Our new apartment in Austin isn't available until March 20th, so we're crashing with my mom for 2 weeks.

Once we left our apartment in Brooklyn, I felt such a sense of freedom. For at least the three days we were on the road, without an apartment, not having to work or check email or anything, I felt like I had no responsibilities. It was incredibly freeing and fun.

And I love technology because it totally made our drive! We had the GPS on my G1 phone for directions, Alex's music mix on his iphone, a Starbucks GPS finder for anytime i felt like a nice strong coffee. Alex even had an app showing the cheapest gas.

I could really see the difference with Alex and his most recent fill. It definitely helped and he was eating less than me!

Now i just have to figure out my eating in Houston. I'm definitely out of my routine, and for the last two days have been totally vegging out and relaxing.

The weather is completely glorious so I should take the dogs for some long walks. I did one the first day we got here and i can say it ain't easy walking four little dogs at once!!

Tonight, we're off to watch my nephew in a school show. Usually I'm never around for this kind of thing so it should be fun.