Westport Winery, movies and dinner

Today we decided to get the heck out of the house and do something as a family. It is the girls' parents weekend so we were free!!

Our first stop on our trip was to the movie theaters. We made the decision to see Night At The Museum starring Ben Stiller instead of the Terminator movie. I see enough tantrums at home and did not want to support a movie starring a f-bomb dropping man.

The movie theater only had 11 of us so I felt like I was the lone laughing at times. One thing I did not understand is why when there was clearly a line delivered that was to make you laugh, they went right on speaking. So, I missed part of the dialogue. Where is the comic timing in that? It happened 3 or 4 times. From the reviews, I thought it was going to be funnier, but I enjoed it nonetheless.

Hank Azaria was brilliant as Kamenda (sp?) as he is in everything he does. I still think his performance in The Bird Cage was one of the best I have ever seen! Ben Stiller was good and I loved Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart.

Next we left the theater and headed to the Westport Winery where the wine was sweet and wonderful but overpriced and the service was frosty at best. After I said that we were going to buy something, he warmed up a bit. Perhaps there could have been a bit of vini-snobbery going on as I stated immediately that I am a sweet wine person and have never been into the drier whites and reds. We purchased the Little Wild Blackberry Riesling, Red Sky At Night...can anyone say chocolate and raspberries, yummy...and the drier and stronger Message In A Bottle for my husband.

We quickly headed to the Westport Lighthouse, but alas, it was closed. I performed a wedding there on May 9th. I told the gentleman closing up shop that I performed the wedding and he told me that he tells the people visiting about that. My son and I are going to head up there tomorrow so I will let that gentleman know more details when I get there.

I had seen signs for a restaurant called Half Moon Bay Bar and Grill in Westport so I was looking forward to eating there. I am glad we did as I have been complaining that there are no good restaurants in Grays Harbor County and I am thrilled to have been proven wrong.

We started with the Crab Cake appetizer. It had an aioli sauce that was bit spicer than I expected but my palate is so vanilla that I was OK with it. For dinner I had the Lobster Stuffed Ravioli with Lobster Brandy Creme, cherry tomatoes and spinach. When I hear the word Creme, I immediately think of something soft and sweet but this had a bit of a bite. After the second bite, though, I was in heaven. I don't understand what purpose the cherry tomatoes served and the chef had cut the spinach into strips so by the time I was in the car headed home, I remembered it was spinach. Cut spinach is not attractive or appetizing, I rather fancy the loose leaves.

My son had the Halibut with Lobster Brandy Creme and Macadamia Nuts. He loved the fish (yay, he likes a fish other than trout...add that to my shopping list!) but wasn't keen on the veggies which consisted mainly of squash. My husband ordered the Seafood Alfredo which he enjoyed but complained, rightfully so, about the chef leaving the tail on. So my tip to the chef, remove the tail, it is not fun to get your hands sloppy with sauce to remove it and you end up cutting too much of the shrimp when you use a knife and fork. My dessert was the Chocolate Bundt cake with white chocolate and dark chocolate syrup. Very dense, very rich and very good. I was imagining more white chocolate when she described it but it just a squirt or two. Too bad or it would have been down right heavenly!

Our server was good, I forgot to grab her name, and the decor was a tad mission style. They had two big screen TVs, one which had college baseball and the other a Nascar truck race or something to that effect...I had my back to the screen so I didn't have to endure it. The music playing was enjoyable and I was thankful for it as I prefer to not be annoyed by professional sports in a relatively fine dining atmosphere! I highly recommend Half Moon Bay in Westport if you are headed there.

We walked on the rocks facing the ocean and climbed up an observatory platform to get a better view. It was going to be my only exercise as I knew I wouldn't get back in time to walk on the treadmill. We then headed to a gift store and bought a few lighthouse books, bracelets for the girls and a Whoopie cushion for my son...he's twelve...sigh...he proceeded to inflate it and then squish it all the way to Wal-Mart for some last minute toiletries....kids...

I had a great day and look forward to tomorrow!

I haven't written in a bit

I haven't written in this blog for a couple of days due to focusing on my running blog. If you read that one, I haven't written a bunch either. Sorry to say that this one will be short as I have to take my mother in law to the doctor's.

I'll be back.....

Rice cakes and addiction

Hello, my name is Shauna and I am a rice cake addict.

I like the lightly salted ones and can go through an entire container, which contains 14, in one sitting.

I think the reason I hanker for them is that I drink a substantial amount of water. So much so that I got psychogenic water intoxication about 8 months ago. Normally this is diagnosed only in schizophrenic people. Lucky me! =O( No, I am not schizophrenic, I just drank a lot of water which depleted my sodium to a dangerous level. It is probably happening again since I have been a stay-at-home worker and also unemployed and have nothing better to do than drink copious amounts of water and coffee. This leads me to crave sodium and so I eat the rice cakes. At least I am getting fiber!

I told my doctor and he didn't think anything was wrong with it. I was telling the checker in the store and she told me she does the same thing.

I should start a rice cake anonymous club!!

I moved my running quest to the SeekerMommy running blog

I decided to start a separate blog for my running.

Day 2

Today I walked for 30:02 minutes.

14:30 minutes @ 3 mph
10:30 minutes @ 3.5 mph
4:00 minutes @ 3 mph
1:00 minute @ 2.5 - 1.5 mph

I really wanted to run but like I said before it is not recommended at first for beginners like me. I was even debating about whether or not I should increase the speed up to 3.5 mph but I was getting bored and actually walk faster than 3.0 mph so it felt good.

Tomorrow, I am going to try to run for longer because I think I misunderstood how long to run so I will try 10 minutes walking and 3:30 - 5:00 running. We shall see!

I did barely get any sleep last night. I fell asleep at 2:00 am - 2:01 am and then was up until 4:30 and woke up at 6:30. I did finally doze off around 8:00 ish. Thank goodness the family likes to sleep in on the weekend!

This is why I started earlier today. My goal is to eventually do this every morning before my son goes to school and outside with him.

Day One in my quest to train for the 5 mile run on August 8, 2009

Okey Dokey! I did it!!

I walked/jogged for 30:01 minutes. Here is the breakdown:

10 minutes @ 3 mph
1 minute @ 5 mph
9 minutes @ 3 mph
1 minute @ 5 mph
8 1/2 minutes @ 3 mph
30 seconds @ 1.5 - 1.0 to cool down

I felt good and my heart rate did not go over 161 which is perfect. I think the ratio is 210 - age (41) = rate.

I had a pivotal moment last night which spurred (word ?) me into action. I have been overweight for over a year. But last night I was sitting next to my son and he pat my stomach and it jiggled. Like jello. Not good! I remember reading in Cosmo a long time ago that a characteristic of a Libra is a softly rounded belly. Nothing about jello...

When I did the wedding on the 9th, I grabbed a flyer (mentioned before, I believe) for a 5 mile run. I asked my son if he wanted to give it a go with me. He said yes so this week I went to Big 5 and bought him a pair of running shoes (I already have a pair) socks, shorts and a shirt all made out of the wicking away material for both of us.

I am proud of myself and it went faster than it has before. 30 minutes can take forever sometimes!! It went faster probably because the girls were entertaining me (they are my nieces and they live with me) and my son put on some dance music for me. He is going to exercise later tonight.

I will walk again tomorrow but walk/run on Monday. I have been reading that you should not run for 2 days in a row when you first start. Maybe I will try to jog for 2 minutes. or at least 1 1/2 minutes on Monday.

Searching for SeekerMommy on Google

Oh my goodness! I decided to do a search for my name, SeekerMommy, which I have been using since around 2000 and someone is using it but with a space between Seeker and Mommy. Don't search for it. Apparently this person is into ummm, errrr, ummm, sexual stuff....sigh....and ick! There is also another person using SeekerMom but seems to be a bit more innocent as I only found links in Catholic sites.

Golly Gee Wilickers! I am not going to change my name but I certainly hope that when people are doing a search know that it is not me on those sites!! Prospective employers search social networking sites these days. My question to the one using my name is....do you really want to be defined as that????

I am also an Officiant so I am also known as Celebrations by Shauna which when I did a search just now shows nothing. I wish it would have linked to my WeddingWire vendor page! I need to get onto the site and figure out how to send a quote to the prospective brides and grooms who ask for more info for me. I, so far, have done one wedding from there. Great couple and alot of fun!

My son is my wedding photographer and he is very good at it. We don't charge for that as it is a hobby for him. He uses a Sony camera which is fabulous but it is pink so he didn't want to use it at first!!

I have done 11 weddings. My start happened when my brother was getting married. I had watched some show on how to do weddings on the cheap and this one person went onto the Universal Life Church website and became ordained. I offered to do it and they said yes. It was wonderful and I was so honored to do it!

I take great pride doing the ceremonies. I create a ceremony book which I tailor to the wedding colors and perform the ceremony from there and then give it to the bride and groom after the ceremony. I generally use the 4 x 6 photo albums as they come in great colors but have been recently finding full page albums which reduces that pages that I have to use in the book giving them more pages to put photos.

I hate being sick!

I live in a house with 4 other people. 3 are students and 1 is a bus driver for Transit so whatever is going around we get and pass onto each other, over and over and over...sigh...my husband ended up on antibiotics and I managed to keep my cold abated a bit with some Comtrex Day and Night. Again, I hate being sick!

I received two Victoria's Secrets catalogs in the mail. I am thinking of ordering a bathing suit so I can use it as a visual aide in achieving my weight loss/fitness goal. I am also going to train for a 5 mile run with my son, so I should lose a bit, right? I also found a great new cooking show on Lifetime called Cook Yourself Thin and am going to order the books from both series. It originated in the UK a few years ago and I love it! I was thrilled to see Candice on a show as I loved her on Top Chef. I think she got a bad rap and Stephen was horrible to her. Look who has a show now! You go, girl!!

Regarding my weight, I managed to gain 30 lbs in a little over a year. Lack of exercise and not good eating habits probably contributed a bit, but I just found out from my doctor that the pills I take to help me sleep are actually a major contributor to my weight gain. So, I have to make a decision, getting sleep or being thin.....I better start finding something else to take! I have heard and read that being in shape helps you have more energy and you do end up sleeping better. We shall see!

I have a Twitter account using the same name and I am still undecided about it. I am following Joy Behar, Joan Rivers, the Sneaky Chef, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Rachel Maddow, Kathy Griffin and one other. I suppose it would be more exciting if I had people following me as well!

The latest travel book I am reading is Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Very good book! I shall write more about it when I am finished.

Well, this latest bit of ramblings is over for now!

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and vampire books

Wow! Great movie!! I know I liked it more than the second one and maybe more than the first one? The acting was great, the sets were awesome and it was a darn good story.

I'm have been a bit of a vampire/werewolf fiend reading almost everything I can get my hands on. Although I do have to admit, the stories are drying up or maybe I am getting bored. I know that I could NOT get through the Anita Blake series. I loved the first 3 books and went out and bought the entire series. I am stuck in the book where some Victorian vampire from England is messing with her mind while she is in the back seat of an SUV. I tried, I really really did, to get through that sequence but I just couldn't do it. The author started getting a bit too freaky. I bought all of her other series, of the Fey, and could not get through book one. L.A. Banks' vampire series had me until Book 3 and I own the entire series of that. I am an avid reader but there are just some books that I just cannot get through...Yeesh! I should sell the series on EBay or Amazon. Someone let me know if you want them!

The JD Robb series is fab! Never have been bored with that. I also like anything Nora Roberts has done when it comes to otherworldly stuff. Nora's new book, Vision in White, is terrific. Although it has nothing to do with otherworldly affairs. It's the story of four women who work together and to plan the best weddings for brides, and find love in the process, that will be a 4-part series. I'm an Officiant and was thinking of branching out into wedding planning by studying a few courses when my job no longer wanted me so that went out the window. Nepotism is alive and well at that job! Oh well, at least I got unemployment off of them!

I used to be an avid writer but lost my way in my 20's...stupid, stupid girl. Now all these years later I am deciding to pick it back up. Hmmm....maybe I will read, one day, someone raving (or not) about my book series! =O)

My start!

Hello! I am new to blogging and don't find anything going on in my life, at this moment, particularly earth shattering but thought I would give it a go!

My last day with my employer was yesterday. Now I sit and visit websites trolling for a job. I live in an area that is very depressed right now so jobs are few and far between. I imagine that it is the same everywhere. I am very fortunate to have Unemployment Insurance that has increased a bit, thank you President Obama! That should get me almost to the end of summer if I calculate it right.

I am currently enamored with reading travel books, my two faves right now are Holy Cow by Sarah Macdonald and With the Kama Sutra Under My Arm by Trisha Bernard. The former is a spiritual journey through India for the author and the latter more of the travels of the author and her friend, Sally. I must admit that I took an immediate dislike to the author's friend Sally and hope that she redeems herself in the last 11 pages! Before reading Holy Cow, I had wanted to take a trip to India, but now? Not so much...too much suffering and separation of the classes. Hard to imagine that a country with such openness when it comes to spirituality would be so narrow minded when it comes to it's own peoples.

My immediate desire is to travel to Japan. My son also would like to go there as well. I was bebopping on the Internet on particular places in Japan to visit and came across the Tokyo Disney site. My son and I were thrilled! We both love all things Disney and I had forgotten about the Disney park in Tokyo.

I made the mistake a few years back in attempting to learn to read, write and speak Japanese all at the same time. Not so smart and really overwhelming! I miss the TV station AZN who would play Japanese programming on Sunday nights and I would get to guess what they were saying. I was always right....well maybe not, but at least I tried! =O)

If I want to visit Japan, I am going to have to at least learn to speak and recognize the language. I would love to get the Rosetta Stone Japanese software and try that. Maybe one day!

My son and I, who both could stand to lose just a few pounds, are going to start running. I performed a wedding (I'm an Officiant) at the Westport Lighthouse and they are having a 5 mile run on August 8th to raise money to fix up the lighthouse and I figured that it would be a good thing to train for. Heck, if the people on Biggest Loser can run 26 miles, I can do 5! Wish me luck!

I have to take my mother-in-law to the doctor's so I have to sign off. See ya and thanks for reading!