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pontalba

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Posts posted by pontalba

    Weight Loss and Getting in Shape

    in General Chat

    Posted

    That is only too true Ooshie, sad but true. The weight is distributed differently as you mention....up till the time I hit my 30's I didn't gain in my waist and stomach at all. It was all hips and backside. That has changed.

    What kind of abdominal exercises are you doing?

    What's up in January

    in General Chat

    Posted

    We spent the holiday quietly, mostly at home. Went out for pizza as a last hurrah before no carbs dieting. :D

     

    We have a few small trips planned in the next couple of months and are finalizing plans there.

     

    Retirement with the right spouse is certainly the best of the best! :cool:

    What do you avoid?

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted

    There isn't a whole lot I avoid.

    I do avoid something too gruesome, although that is in the eye of the beholder I know. I don't like anything where an animal gets hurt or killed.

    I also don't care for romance novels, I mean the Harlequins sort.

     

    I guess that is about it.

    Your Book Activity Jan 2013

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted

    Stephen Lawhead is a great author, really does his research well. His books are not usually ones that would interest me to be honest, but one of his was book of the month at the library a few months back so I gave it a go, and was spellbound. It was Tuck, which I didn't realise at the time was not the first in a 3 parter about the Robin hood saga, but I enjoyed it so much I got the rest, and enjoyed them I looked up more, and enjoyed Taliesin so I'm now on the Pendragon series.

    Fantasy isn't my favourite genre but I may revise that, when I get onto different authors :)

    always looking for more inspiration :)

     

     

    Thanks so much for the tip, looks like I have a new series. :D

     

    Football's never entertaining, read Zafon!!

    :giggle2:

     

    Hah, truer words were never spoken! :roll:

    Weight Loss and Getting in Shape

    in General Chat

    Posted

    Hey y'all. :D Thought I'd resurrect this thread, it being the time of initiating weight loss again. :P

     

    I fell off of the wagon, big time, regained 11 or the 33 pounds I'd lost last year. Ho Hum. Ratz.

     

    We started "the" diet again yesterday, and are doing well. It's a little difficult to get back into the swing of regular exercise, we'd become pretty sketchy about it the last few months. But. We are back! Husband and I are doing Atkins again, and have resumed the bike for him and the treadmill for myself. Phew!

     

    Anyone else getting back on the plan? Hmmmmm? :flowers2:

    Your Book Activity ~ December 2012

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted

    I collect them too...and yet I always cook the same things over and over again. My plan in the last few months has been to try one new recipe every month, but that still doesn't explain why I have so many books and magazines!

     

    In my case, at least, I'm quite sure it's wishful thinking! :P

     

     

    I'm reading Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. It's a very heavy depressing read and I'm only 5% into it. I think I'm going to have to intersperse it with some lighter material.

    Ohh, I have that on the shelf, as of yet. We bought it mainly because we'd just finished watching the TV series The Wire. Same writer, based on.

    And yes, most intense.

    Favourite meal out / take away

    in Food, Cooking & Recipes

    Posted

    Favorite, favorite pick up meal out has to be a roast beef debris po'boy. Here is a pic. Lots of places down here have them though. http://www.nolacuisi...y-debris-gravy/

     

    Directly after that would be an fried oyster po'boy.....do I detect a trend here?? lol

    ^ Oooh, that looks like something I'd enjoy, but I'd probably prefer it with raw onion rather than cooked. I love raw onion. :D

     

    And Bell Pepper would be good too. I usually have some sort of cheese added too. Swiss, Moz, or chedder usually.

    Your Book Activity ~ December 2012

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted

    Respect, pontalba! So far I have managed one carton, but since all the books have come from different shelves I can't see any gaps! I can see this is going to have to lead to a proper reorganisation...

     

     

    It is, it is! I can see I will need to do some bookbuying therapy to cheer myself up afterwards! And as for those two ladies, well, they do totally deserve it :P

     

    I know the feeling. :yes: Great haul, though!

     

    Wow, Pontalba! Congratulations on doing such a difficult thing. It must have been so hard :friends0: (I feel like I'm in a support group...)

     

    :thankyousigna2: LOL /bowing/ Many, many thanks. However, I must admit it wasn't that terrible. They were mostly cook book. And since I have no idea why I collected so many over the years as I am not /clearing throat/ much in the kitchen, in truth, it didn't hurt. The shelves are not empty, all filled up. Not only with books that were stacked hither and yon, but some newer additions. :blush:

    Your Book Activity ~ December 2012

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted · Edited by pontalba

    I am engaged in some very traumatic book activity - packing up some paperbacks to go to the charity shop. Given that I only get rid of about one book every few years if I truly hated it, this is very, very hard for me! Do I get rid of books my mum has read and given me that I wouldn't usually buy or read? My head says yes, but my heart says no...

     

    I'm considering doing this this year as well. I have a lot of books I'm just never going to read, and there's no point in hanging onto them.

     

    Ahh, ladies! I've done quite the brave thing. :D

    A couple of weeks ago I decided that since I had not looked at all but one of the bookcase full of cookbooks, (all lovely hardbacks) I'd ditch the lot. Did it. All but The Joy of Cooking.

    Also a bunch of herbal remedy books I'd had for years and years. I don't use them anymore, or the bits I do I already know about.

    So. Eight cartons of books went out to Good Will. Gave me a whole bookcase 'pon which to shelve books that'd been sitting in a pile in the study. :angel_not:

    pontalba's 2012 Reading List

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted · Edited by pontalba

    Dick Francis's Bloodline by Felix Francis 3.5/5

     

    I wanted to love this book, I loved the series by Dick Francis, and his son Felix has continued after his Father's passing. They'd written several together and they remained the same, mostly, as the earlier entries. This one, however, has an ever so slightly different feel. This is the second that FF has written on his own, I haven't read Gamble yet though it is on my shelf. Somehow I picked this one up first in error.

     

    I cannot put my finger on the exact difference but it is lurking there on the edges. This one seemed a bit more explicit, but not, a bit less introspective.......that's the best I can come up with at present. The story frame is interesting enough, typical Francis hero. Someone in the racing world with close familial ties to that world. A murder, love interest, bad guys, goodish guys. Flawed hero of course, that is par for the course.

     

    Recommended for die hard Francis fans.

    Top 10 books of 2012 for fans of New Orleans- and Louisiana-set tales

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted

    Brian, glad you like it. :D There are a few more that are not on the list that I have and would recommend. Last Days of Last Island by Bill Dixon and The Last Madam: A Life In The New Orleans Underworld by Chris Wiltz.

     

    Julie, while it's true Southerners can spin a yarn, for example William Faulkner comes to mind, there are others that are more my favorites, non-Southerners. Vladimir Nabokov and John Banville especially come to mind. I didn't become interested in Southern writers till a few years ago, I was actually kind of prejudiced against them. Dumb, yeah, dumb. :) I've, thankfully, overcome that and truly enjoy them now. In fact I just finished The Bayou Trilogy, (see review on my thread) and really enjoyed it. Although I don't know that "enjoyed" is actually the correct adjective. :roll: lol

    pontalba's 2012 Reading List

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    Well written, The Bayou Trilogy will haunt you with it's lushness, it's depravity and it's total handle on realism. Noir in a sense, but more. The three stories Under the Bright Lights, Muscle For the Wing and The Ones You Do reverberate with the atmosphere of the Louisiana Bayou. They follow the Shade family, first focusing on two of the three sons Rene Shade and his brother Tip, the former a police detective, the latter the owner, continue(er) of paternal family tradition, a barkeep/pool hall owner. The third, youngest, of the brothers Francois (Frankie) is a lawyer, part of the local D.A.'s office.

     

    The first two of the Trilogy focus on the sons, the third zeroes in on their wayward, deserting father, John X(avier) Shade. Pool hustler extraordinaire, now eaten up with booze and who knows for sure what else.

     

    Their moral struggles, and decisions are what drives these books, although not exactly in the manner you'd think.

     

    Recommended, but not for the squeamish.

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