Still no suit...
Another 3 hour session (in Leeds - I wasn't quite mad enough to try Trafford Centre) and still no suit. Found a gorgeous Christian LaCroix jacket for #899, but
a) is beyond the budget
b) unsuitable for interview
c) isn't a suit
There are hundreds of linen suits out there, and I only tried on one, as I had dismissed them from the enquiry, so to speak. Do I go back and find one that fits and risk the crumpled look, go for the slightly tight pin stripe from Next or the very tedious boring mumsy suit from Wallis?
I could of course make the trip to Trafford Centre any night this week, but I have a 3000 word assignment to finish tonight, research for the interview to do and an essay for economics to draft. Plus I'm trying to stay interested in work, eat fairly healthily, try to get some exercise in, catch up on all the tv I have recorded, and my back hurts. Whinge, whinge, whinge. Just shoot me now.

Busy busy bee...
Oh dear, too much to do, not enough time. I tried shopping for a suit on Saturday. 4 hours later, no suit (but 4 new cd's as compensation). Rather disturbingly, I have decided to go to the Trafford Centre on a Bank Holiday Monday. As I type this, I'm wondering what kind of fool I am. Perhaps I missed the perfect suit in Leeds. Perhaps I should go back and check all the shops again just in case? There is a plethora of linen suits out there. Linen and I do NOT get on. I have trouble enough looking groomed and professional without tossing the fabric that creases as soon as you touch it into the mix. All I want is a smart black suit that fits. Preferably one that flatters. How hard can it be? And then I need shoes. And a coat. Jewellry at this stage is a bonus. Gak. I may be some time...

Let m go home...
... I want to be knitting. Have just spent my lunch hour surfing for the perfect knitting site and found it. See links to the side. Last night I knit the back of this pattern:

And now I have to interpret the instructions to shape the arms. Can't wait to finish it. But I have to work. And then go to a silly networking event. Boo.

When I finish the sweater I am going to try to knit the stars on the site with the videos. They look fun and portable. I've never done knitting in the round before. I wonder if I knit enough, can I patchwork them?

Feeble cough...
I is ill. Scratchy throat, slightly dizzy, but not ill enough to stay in bed. Boo. Might skive off work and go shopping. I need some new jewellery (big pendant, maybe?), a black mac for wearing over a suit, a new suit (black trouser suit, yet again? Or a tweedy one? Hmmm) and a crisp white shirt which will button up. Bravissimo do both suits and shirts for the amply blessed, but I don't know what time they are open till.

I am unusally productive today and have sent 8 emails querying a design. Yay for me. Will spend the afternoon concocting some BD literature telling the world how fantastic we are, just in case I don't leave, and to stop the folks here thinking that I might. Now what can this poorly poppet eat for lunch?

'Puters, Jobs and Wine
Thanks for the various recommendations re: Typepad and WordPress. I've had a little play on Typepad and still need to have a trial on Wordpress. But until the new 'puter arrives, I'm not trying to do anything too ambitious as this 'puter is very ill indeed and keeps losing connection, freezing, crashing etc.

Just come back from a lovely 4 mile dander across Ilkley Moor. Weather was gorgeous and we finished up with some nice homemade soup in a cafe. Tonight I am cooking up a storm with Jamie Olivers Monkfish wrapped in Parma Ham and Basil and Dried Tomato pesto, served with baked potatoes and Sophie Grigson's Jerusalem Artichokes with pancetta and breadcrumbs. Can you tell I have an assignment due? Yesterday I cooked up a vat of chicken stock and then went mountain boarding with AIF and soon to be MrAIF. Well, they boarded, I watched. So a great big fat zero on the assignment.

My problem with this particular assignment is that it asks me to examine the relationships within my current company. I spent Friday bitching with my boss about how crap it is, and his view is that we should just get on and do our own thing. This isn't good enough. I want an interdependent firm, where what one office does complements what another does, and we don't have to keep reinventing the wheel. Argghhhh! Luckily I have an interview with G on 9th May (this time the formal one), so I am reading



Mainly so I can start to formulate what it really is that I want out of my next job move. I want to make the leap from do-er to orchestrator (why else would I be doing the MBA) and I don't want to cock it all up with a crap interview.

With this in mind, I need to flatten the stomach and buy a hot new suit. I did well last couple of weeks with weights and the long steady state cardio, but food and especially alcohol has been atrocious. This week I have a day long seminar on Tuesday and an evening buffet on Thursday, then an afternoon gig on Sunday. That pretty much accounts for my 20% - the other 80% I shall endeavour to be good.

Good to remember that 20% is roughly 1.5 days or if you have 3 main meals a day, 4-5 meals a week. If you have 5 meals a day, that ends up being 7. If you look at it another way, if you are sticking to say 1600 calories a day, then that's 2240 calories a week. In wine and cheese (175ml red wine and 25g gouda at 213 calories) that's 10 occasions a week. Which if you follow Food Doctor's principle of no more than 2 glasses of wine a day, and no two days in a row, then actually, you end up with a maximum of 8 glasses of wine a week (950 cals) and about 1000 left over for cheese and chocolate. I can see I am beginning formulating a plan...

Really must do some work on this assignment...

Look what you find whilst procrastinating online...
http://www.sephora-uk.co.uk/

The excitement! Sephora soon to be online in the UK. Then I can get me some Lip Fusion!

Thou shalt not covet...

Have found the best jewellery website ever - click on the pic for a link...

Decisions, decisions...
So I've ordered the new PC. Didn't go for a laptop in the end, as I couldn't justify the expense. It's a super duper 3Mhz processor, stupid 160GB memory with 8MB cache, built in wireless, 7in1 disk reader, dvd rewriter, and a decent graphics card. I'm sooo excited. I should get it by end of April.

In anticipation I am contemplating moving the blog or using some other way of blogging. Tripod is a bit clunky and won't let me do what I want it to.

I've been having a look at WordPress, but I can't figure out if I can keep the space I have at Tripod, but use WordPress? And I have thought about TypePad or MoveableType. Problem is that I just don't know what I'm doing. This leads to masses of research and finding even more blogs to read. If I was a brainy computer nerd I'd be able to sort all this out, but with most things in life, I know just about enough to get me in trouble.

I know I DON'T want Blogger:
Airlie
Beanz
CrazyDogMama
Julie Berg
Katrina
Kyra (although is nicer than most blogger ones)
Ointy
NinjaKittyCat
Silverella

And much earlier I tried BlogCity and didn't get on with it
Exactly
Red Highlights
Yoga Girl

and as I say, I'm not too keen on tripod anymore
Bisous
Fabric Princess
Skwigg
WOAS

Blue Poppy has a nice site, but not really what I want - I prefer to have more than one entry per day.

I can't work out what Dangergirl is using but I love the idea of having books and cd's down the sides. I think it might be Typepad, which DietGirl
Go Fug Yourself
Sarcomical
Otter
WIP
and DivaQuest use, but all look fairly different. Must be different templates?

Maggie and PUPU are using WordPress which I am quite keen on.

And Erin uses movabletype, which again I quite like.

So it looks like I need to make a decision between MovableType, TypePad and WordPress. I need to find a host I think too, rather than sticking with lycos tripod thing. And then I can have a proper url. I have even been tinking about changing my nom de plume. LMG has the wrong connotations for someone trying lose weight, methinks.

Any ideas on new names, hosts or blogging tools, let me know.

New US Food Pyramid
My Pyramid Seems quite sensible sound advice.

Based on the information you provided and the average needs for your age, gender and physical activity [Age: 31, Sex: female, Physical Activity: 30 to 60 minutes ] your results indicate that you should eat these amounts from the following food groups daily.

Your results are based on a 2000 calorie pattern*.

Grains 6 ounces (168g)
Vegetables 2.5 cups
Fruit 2 cups
Milk 3 cups
Meat and Beans 5.5 ounces (154g)

1 Make Half Your Grains Whole
Aim for at least 3 whole grains a day

2 Vary Your Veggies
Aim for this much every week:
Dark Green Vegetables = 3 cups weekly
Orange Vegetables = 2 cups weekly
Dry Beans & Peas = 3 cups weekly
Starchy Vegetables = 3 cups weekly
Other Vegetables = 6 1/2 cups weekly

Oils & Discretionary Calories
Aim for 6 teaspoons of oils a day

Limit your extras (extra fats & sugars) to 265 Calories

*This calorie level is only an estimate of your needs. Monitor your body weight to see if you need to adjust your calorie intake.