The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[Sojourner]

Good Luck Nova! That's cool that in doing a good deed for your friend, you had one come back to you........it could mean something....

Hey, maybe you can wear your lime green high-heeled sandals to the interview, LOL!

Hasta!

[Arklahoma]

Nova ~ How goes it on the job-searching front?

[Nova]

Been really busy lately, so haven't been spending as much time on the computer. Overall, I'd say that's a good thing.

Haven't heard anything from the job. I don't expect to for at least 4 weeks from the closing date, and it's been one week. Unless I get called for an interview, I won't even know if I made it to the first cut or not. Stupid computer scanners. Oh well, I've got my grapevine contacts, so I'll find out when they start interviewing, in case I'm not one of them.

Had a good weekend, even though I seemed grumpy most of the time. Cut and faceted my second stone, a really pretty piece of green cristonite. Cut it into a Greek cross, and this time, I did it in about 5 hours. My first stone took my around 14 hours, so I made a lot of improvements.

we watched War of the Worlds on HBO this weekend. Hrm, all I can say is thank goodness we didn't pay for it. ASide from paying for HBO.

Oh man, my boss just came in and told me to spend $35K and to do it in the next 30 minutes. That's three items, minimum of three vendors each item, with delivery and invoicing by the first week of September. Ack! okay, later.

One more thing. I bagged all the old clothes lying on the floor of my closet yesterday so I could take them to the battered women's shelter donation store. 39 shirts, 18 pairs of slacks, 9 pairs of jeans, 2 suits, 9 dresses, 14 skirts and more. Wow. I've gone through a lot of clothes.

[Arklahoma]

I just love reading your journal b/c you have so many interesting things to say. I used to own a mail order business and sold many product lines. Jewelry was one of them and I'm totally hooked. I've always wanted to take some jewelry-making classes but just can't seem to find the time. Do you have all your own stone-cutting equipment or do you go to a class somewhere?

[Nova]

I can't afford my own stone cutting equipment yet. When I moved to Houston, one of the best things is that I found the Houston Gem and Mineral Society. I went to a gem and mineral show that they put on, and found out that you can join up for $30 a year and they'll teach you how to do all kinds of stuff. I signed up that day and showed up next week with all my cheap tourist rough that I got from North Carolina. I spent 2 hours or so sorting through it all too, so proud of what I had. Even if it was crap.

The very first day, they told me I didn't have anything good enough to facet, which was what I really wanted to do. Instead, they taught me how to make cabachons, which are the smooth, domed stones that are opaque, instead of translucent. I've cut a dozen or so different types of cabs. Ovals, rectangles, squares, circles. I've done carnelian, tigers eye, aventurine, azurite, sapphire, sodalite and more.

One of the guys was a real sweetheart and gave me some quartz that was good enough to facet. Then another guy taught me how to facet a simple round cut. It only took me 14 hours and I was so proud of it. But it was hard, and it took me a while to get up the gumption to try again. This time, I had the crystenite that hubby gave me for my birthday.

I can't stress how sweet these guys are. THey're crusty too, but mostly sweet. They've been cutting stones for decades and they will gladly take all sorts of time to teach you one on one about cutting and angles and minerals. I mean, this is stuff you'd pay thousands of dollars for if you go to a special class taught by lapidaryists (is that a word?).

And another great thing, is that you can use all of the club equipment for a measly $2/hour. A new faceting machine runs around $3800, and a cabbing machine is probably $1500 or so. Plus they have transfer tools, dops, wax, polishing machines, plus all sorts of machine shop tools like driss presses, sanders, cutters and so on. $2/hour.

On top of all that, they teach classes in wirewrapping, beading, silver smithing, PMC, enameling and more. They also do a lot of work with kids, which I think is great.

I'm keeping an eye out for a used faceting machine. Someday.

[Nova]

I feel chatty tonight. I also have the munchies, so writing instead of dwelling on what I'm not eating is a good thing. I bought lots of chocolate shakes this time around and chili since it was on special. I like eating the chili with crackers though, and at night, I get sad because I can't have another snack. I'm not hungry, I just want to eat. I thought it was only supposed to take 21 days to break a habit. I'm going on five months, and I still have a snacking habit.

My cat is so dumb. I threw a piece of crumpled up newspaper on the floor, and she's batting it down with a paw, and of course it keeps springing up. So she bats it down again. She's been doing this for 5 minutes, interspersed with eating the paper. I guess she's bored, because now she's sitting in a box and batting down the flap.

Saw some interesting things on the food channel last night. Why is that suddenly one of my favorite channels? I'm not even tempted by the foods they show. I love Anthony Bourdain's travel show. He's in Puerto Rico and the food looks incredible. Fresh and tasty and yummy. Last night, I watched the World's Best Places to Pig Out. How American is that? Ben & Jerry's Vermonster was on there. Four teens attempted it. They all failed. Some Texas steak place with a 72 oz steak. A 12 egg omelet. A diner that served a 3 pound cheeseburger with 12 slices of cheese and 2 pounds of fries.

The top place? Lambert's, Home of the Throwed Roll, in Sikeston, MO. That's hilarious. I've actually been there. My parents ride a Goldwing motorcycle, and they tell me that if I ever pass a restaurant with a lot of Goldwing motorcycles outside, it's undoubtedly an excellent place to eat. Goldwing riders think nothing of riding 3 hours to go to lunch, and 3 hours back again. They'd been to Lambert's long ago, and when I was home once, we went out there. And yes, the food was incredible. You order your dinner, and each dinner must be about 4-5 servings of food. Before you even get your dinner, servers come around and dole out as much fried okra, fried potatos, and more as you want to eat. No plates. Just paper towels. And of course the rolls. They are oversized, home made yeast rolls. The kind that make your mouth water just smelling them. They walk out with a cart of rolls, and if you want one, you put your hands in the air and they throw it to you. If you drop it, they walk up and give you another one in a baby toss, but that's embarassing, so you try to grab it the first time.

My other favorite show right now is Alton Brown's Feasting on Asphalt. He rides a motorcycle across the country searching out the best local food. After watching all these, I'm filled with the urge to travel and search out small, interesting, local places, instead of the big mega malls and such. Sometimes, I feel sad that I won't be participating in the Best Places to Pig Out road trip, but it did reinforce the idea that if I go out to eat, I want to experience the unusual and the fun. Not the Bennigan's and Chili's.

I decided to try something new as far as exercise goes. I haven't done jack in the last 4 weeks, and the weight is coming off nicely. Tonight, I tried an easy yogalates DVD because I'd been sitting on my butt all day. Then I signed up for an exercise/behavior modification class at work. It starts mid-September and goes to December. Three time a week you meet to exercise and I think there's a lecture once a week. The catch? I can't make the 4:15 pm class, so I signed up for the 6:30 am class. When I told my husband, he laughed in my face and said what made me think I'd ever get up at 5:30 to go exercise? Well, I'm kind of second-guessing myself, but hey, it's only 10 weeks, and it is behaviour modification, right? For some odd reason, I'm also finding myself wanting to learn how to box. Is the diet affecting my mental capacity? Why am I wanting to do all these crazy things? Thoughts of a 5K run have even slipped into my mind. It's very, very frightening.

[Arklahoma]

I never really wanted to cut stones but I find it fascinating. I think I'm probably more of the mindset of how to make a buck with something I love. I can buy metals and gems wholesale so I'd like to know how to set stones, and build pieces. Interesting information on the Houston Gem and Mineral Society. I wonder if Cleveland has anything like that, so I'll have to check it out.

BTW, I'm enjoying the Feasting on Ashpalt show, as well. Best of luck with the exercise.

[Nova]

Ark, Google for gem shows in your area. If you see one called Intergem, it's really not that good, but it's huge, popular and travels around the country. It has dealers for tons of beads, cut gems, fine jewelry, but not much rough or many gem findings. There were some. But you might find a local club booth at the show, or there might be a local club big enough to put on a show geared toward minerals, fossils, rockhounding, and gem and jewelry making. Oh, check out the Rio Grande catalogs, if you haven't already. They have a lot of good ideas and tips in their catalogs. If you get the right findings, it looks really easy to set stones. I'll probably never make money at this. It's more for me to build and make jewelry that I like. If you figure out a way to be successful at it, let me know. I'm always looking for something creative to do that would let me earn a real living.

I have to say, I'm doing pretty well at learning to resist temptation. Yesterday was a friend's birthday party, and months ago, I promised to make her some special cupcakes from my Death by Chocolate cookbook. They're incredible and taste fantastic. It's a rich chocolate cupcake with a huge chocolate truffle baked in the middle of it. I made them without tasting any of the truffle, or even the cupcake batter, and before, I would have eaten at least a spoonful of batter. Probably more. I resisted licking my fingers until the very end, when I was taking them out of the muffin pan and there was some chocolate truffle residue in the bottom of one of the cups. I had to taste it. Yep, it tasted 100000000 times better than my chocolate pudding, but I wasn't really tempted to eat a whole cupcake. Or even have a second taste. I just knew what it would taste like, but more importantly, I knew ahead of time how bad my stomach would feel and that I'd have a massive sugar headache if I actually ate one. That's something I've never experienced before.

I do miss fat in my diet though. I miss the richness, and I'm sad that my hair is falling out. It's not horrible, and I won't go bald, but there's definitely a lot more hair on my comb and in the shower than there used to be. I know it'll come back after I go to a more normal diet, but still....

And even though it's irrational, I feel like my body is punishing me for even that taste of truffle, because I haven't lost any weight all week. Never mind the fact that I had maybe a gram of chocolate truffle on Tuesday night, and my weight hasn't changed since Sunday. Aren't neurosis fun?

[Arklahoma]

I used to sell Moissanite jewelry but the profit margins were very slim. I felt like the only way I could increase my margins would be to invest in learning skills like soldering, stone setting, etc. so I could build the pieces myself. Unfortunately, nursing school got in the way and I've never completed my goal. Currently, I'm in graduate school, but after completion, I'm thinking of returning to this, if not only for myself, but maybe some profits, as well.

Kudos to you for making the death by chocolate cupcakes. You are definitely stronger than I am.

[Nova]

I solved the hair coming out problem. I cut 2/3 of my hair off last night. Well, actually, I paid a very nice girl to cut it off for me, because if I did it, it wouldn't look nearly as nice. I like it. It got so curly once all the weight came off. She probably chopped off 10-12 inches. It's also funny to see who notices at work and who doesn't. So far, it's mostly guys. I guess years of training by other women are starting to work!

Planned to do work last night at home, but somehow, just didn't get around to it. So to make up for it, I actually got up early and came in early to get a head start on some of this stuff. And then of course, we didn't even get around to my section. My section's at the end of the 48 pages of work, and in 5 hours, we got through 13 pages. *sigh* So I'll rewrite mine again this afternoon to match what we did this morning, and then we get to come in tomorrow. I'm wearing shorts. Heck if I'm dressing up to come into work on a Saturday. It was nice being in here early though and having the office to myself. I turned on my iPod, turned up the volume and started grooving as I was typing. Got a lot done in an hour.

If it were'nt for the fact that it makes me happy to know I'm in ketosis, I'd really despise this sweet taste in my mouth. Ugh. I think I must be one of the only people who really doesn't like the taste of the RTDs. I have several because they're so convenient for when you're in a 5 hour meeting, and I wrap a towel around the container and tell people it's chooclate milk. But it's not. Ugh. At least it's only 8 ounces, so it doesn't take long to drink. I brought my bar in later, and I was good to keep going even though everyone else was starving. So MF has its advantages at times.

[Nova]

Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday, Michelle....
Happy Birthday to me!

And I refuse to work late on my birthday, so the contract stuff can go suck an egg. we're moving at a rate of around a page an hour. With 20 pages to go on our -FIRST- review, it's obviously going to take half a week. And this afternoon, we're reviewing a different section of the contract, not even the stuff we've been tasked to do. Plus we were interrupted for an hour this morning to provide input on another contract that interfaces with ours. ARGH! That's okay. I'm fine. I'm mellow. It's my birthday

[Arklahoma]

Happy Birthday!!!

[DogMa]

Happy birthday!!!!

And the gem guys sound a whole lot better than the weird gamers living in their moms' basements!! You really sound like you're doing a lot better, which is good to hear. (And I totally want to learn to box, too. Except I just want to punch a bag or something. Nothing that will punch back.)

[Nova]

I like physical competetion, but I get so nervous before some of it. I've got a black belt in Shotokan karate, and I loved doing katas and going to class. I even liked the sparring, although not as much as I liked katas. But I did okay. Of course, most of my class was better than me, so I got my a$$ handed to me, but I had the attitude that if it takes a punch to make me learn to block, well, I got better at blocking. But when I went to competitions, I got so nervous that I didn't do very well. Except one time. My opponent got in a blow and hit my nose and mouth pretty hard. A lot harder than she was supposed to. You're supposed to have control to tag your opponent, not bloody their nose. And it made me mad. So the next round, I let her have it. The ref called us both for agressiveness, which is funny, considering it was a karate tournament. She won the next round and advanced, and after I walked away, all that nervous energy came out and I almost broke down crying. It was so wierd. I think I was mainly embarassed that she beat me and gave me a fat lip.

I'm even more nervous at a weight lifting competition, which is even more stupid because you're not competing against anyone but yourself. So I have no idea how I'd handle boxing, but it still seems like fun to try.

I told my office mate this morning that I think I might have a mental illness. In spite of working both Saturday and Sunday on this contract, I've been unaccountably cheerful. In spite of the painful word smithing and arguing about contract philosophy and grumbling about everything. Hubby said people handle stress in different ways. I have no idea. I'm just determined that I'm not going to get upset about this. I'll work hard on it, but I'm not going to go insane over it.

Tonight we went out for dinner, and I wanted to eat outside on the waterfront. So we ended up at Babin's in Kemah, sitting on their second floor deck overlooking the bay. The food was incredible, and I stuck to plan, but I also didn't stress over added fat in the salad and on the fish. I passed on the bread and ordered a greek salad and mahi mahi stuffed with crab and shrimp. Oh my goodness, it was delicious! I even stuck to my portion size, although to be honest, it was because I was too stuffed after eating a salad, 2 big glasses of water, and half of that huge portion of fish.

After dinner, we walked on the "boardwalk" and fed the catfish. That's just creepy, and wierdly fun. A huge roiling mass of slippery catfish just under the surface of the water, and when you throw in a catfish chow pebble, the water erups with gaping mouths and writhing bodies striving to catch the food. It's neat.

I had the waitress take our picture at dinner, because I can rarely get my husband to take a picture with me. I must say, I'm pleased with how I'm looking. I think I'm starting to look better than my self-image, and I know before, my self-image was deluded and thinking I wasn't nearly as big as I was.

[Arklahoma]

Are you gonna share the pic???