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Classical brooch in gold, enamel, diamonds and emeralds. French, Third Empire

Jenny Craig Diet Update: Week 4

I said I want EXTRA cheese!

Has it been 4 weeks already? It seems like yesterday I started this thing and it is not going badly at all. I have been trying to stick with it but had a little setback at the beginning of the week. 

Last Sunday was Easter Sunday and of course, ham was on the menu. I love ham and it is typically pretty lean meat  so I thought that a piece or two of ham would be an appropriate thing to have for our Easter dinner. As Mr. B is participating in the diet too we both had a very light meal (relative to the usual food hangover-inducing blowouts usually associated with the holidays). We had ham, baked sweet potatoes that were scooped out, mashed and mixed with unsweetened applesauce and cinnamon and then re-stuffed into the hollowed out potato and baked again. We added to that 2 cups each of steamed broccoli. I must say that the idea of mashing the potatoes with applesauce and cinnamon was a terrific one and my thanks goes out to Sally Tomatoes for that one. By the end of the meal we were quite satisfied but I thought that the saltiness of the ham might be a little troublesome. Plus, rather that the appropriate 3oz of ham we each had 6-7 ounces. I knew that was a mistake and by Tuesday of this week I had put on two pounds! I didn't panic because I figured it was just water and that the HCTZ I take would deal with that. 

Been nice knowing you

We pretty much stuck to the diet otherwise, having a frozen 'diet' meal (Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, Weight Watchers, etc.) with a large salad for lunch and dinner served with two cups of steamed veggies. For breakfast we typically have Cheerios and skim milk, then a couple of snacks during the day and our yummy pizza snack for nighttime snack. That's plenty to eat and comes in typically at around 1,400-1,500 calories a day. 

So all in all it was a good week on the Jenny Craig diet plan. I have fallen into the pattern of (hopefully) losing 2-3 pounds a week now. As of today I have lost 24.4 pounds and am 1/3 of the way to my goal! 

Happy Birthday Shirley McLaine

Shirley McLaine is one of my favorite actresses and today is her birthday. In honor of that occasion please enjoy these photos of Shirley in some of the wonderful costumes created for the movie "What A Way To Go!" by Edith Head. Shirley stars with Dick Van Dyke, Dean Martin, Bob Cummings, Gene Kelly, Robert Mitchum, and Paul Newman and a supporting cast that includes Reginald Gardner and Margaret Dumont. It is a seriously entertaining movie.

From IMDB: 

This black comedy opens with Louisa Foster donating a multimillion dollar check to the IRS. The tax department thinks she's crazy and sends her to a psychiatrist. She then discusses her four marriages, in which all of her husbands became incredibly rich and died prematurely because of their drive to be rich.

Shirley out by the pool as Mrs. Pinky Benson (Gene Kelly)

Louisa Benson waiting for Pinky in a pink chinchilla coat and a pink Rolls Royce

As Mrs. Rod Anderson Jr. (Robert Mitchum) in a dream sequence

Louisa trying to give her millions to the IRS

Louisa Anderson

 

A fabulous outfit here

Mr & Mrs Pinky Benson arrive for a premiere

Louisa Anderson in orange emu feathers

More diamonds please

Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland being sued for negligence in molestation of child

Boozebag, child-molesting priest, caught in his underwear chasing victim down the street, not named in suit. Your Sunday donations to the world's largest organized crime syndicate are paying for this travesty to go unpunished. Disgraceful!

Suit: Oregon church at fault for underwear-clad priest who chased boy fleeing molestation (via Raw Story )

A lawsuit claims church officials were sufficiently aware of sexual abuse by clergymen to have prevented an Oregon priest from molesting a boy and chasing him down the street in his underwear. Father Angel Armando Perez pleaded guilty April 1, 2013…

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#TBT Throwback Thursday

My attorney is on call, if needed.

Bunnie getting ready to go to the supermarket, c 1987

Nick Zappia, Steven Sluiter,Tyrone (I can't remember his last name), and me having dinner in my 'cucina microscopico' on Federal Hill, c 1984(?). P.S. I'm still using that enameled tin-topped table in my kitchen)

Joanne Miller, Tobin, Kevin Nolan and me at my 40th birthday party at Bunnie Brennan's house, 1994

Can anyone guess this location??

Linda Watson, The Undisputed Queen of Barbecue (retired).

Daniel, Anne Marie, Bob, Tobin and MaryKaye Maxwell at Contrast (now Pecorino Romano) in Dennis, MA

Happy Birthday Anthony Trollope!

Barbara Murray as Madame Max Goesler

My Number One favorite author is Anthony Trollope (4/24/1815-12/6/1882). Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire. He also wrote perceptive novels on political, social, and gender issues, and on other topical matters. My favorite series of books written by Trollope, are derived from characters created in the Chronicles of Barsetshire and were made into a BBC series called The Pallisers. It was a terrific story of the upper classes in the political world in Great Britain of the mid 19th century. It featured one of my favorite, albeit obscure, characters in literature, Madame Max (Marie) Goesler later Mrs. Phineas Finn. She is a smart, self-confident, selfless, dedicated and strong woman who always took the bull by the horns and never said 'die'. In the TV series she was played to perfection by Barbara Murray. I've always loved her portrayal of the character and after reading the Palliser Novels (as they are called) I can see that Trollope felt that she was a terrific woman as well. 

The Pallisers DVD collection is available via the 'CLAMS' system on Cape Cod. I highly recommend it if you don't want to read the books. The DVD series is a great way to get introduced to the characters of the novels and if you decide to read them be prepared for a long read. The six novels span several thousand pages.

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