Sorry I have been gone the past couple of days.  I am happy to announce that I was setting up my new computer!  It has been a huge pain in the butt, I have had a lot of trouble migrating the data from my old computer onto my new one.  Oh, and my old one’s hard drive failed last night.  Completely failed.  So unfortunately I did lose some stuff – fortunately, we had already migrated most of it onto an external hard drive.  It has been soooo frustrating, but I’m thrilled to have my new PC!!!

So about my day…

I never hated going to the dentist.  In fact, when I was younger, I actually kind of liked it.  I liked the feeling of my teeth being really smooth and cleaned when I was done.  Plus, I got a free tooth brush! 

Another reason I never disliked the dentist was the fact that I never had a reason to.  Unlike my sisters, who were constantly complaining about their dentist and orthodontist appointments, I never had any cavities.  I never had braces, never had any tooth problems whatsoever.  The worst tooth experience that ever happened to me was when I had to have my wisdom teeth removed (three of them) and that wasn’t even that bad.  I got to eat ice cream for a week!

I am embarrassed to say that I haven’t been to the dentist since I moved to California (three and a half years ago).  I know, shame on me.  So this week, I decided to do something about that.  I found a dentist.

I was a little apprehensive about finding one.  I am somewhat particular about the doctors that I go to – it’s hard for me to find one that I feel I like and can trust.  And moving to a new place, where I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t really have anyone to ask for recommendations.  I finally sucked it up and picked a dentist from my insurance provider’s website and had my appointment this morning. 

First of all, let me say that I chose a good dentist.  I liked her from the start, when I saw her office and she welcomed me to her practice.  The reason that I chose this dentist was because of some of the things they had written on their website – specifically that they really cared about individuals and saw a limited number of patients per day so that they were able to spend time with each one.  I really liked that. 

The dentist and hygienist were great.  They cleaned my teeth like those babies had never been cleaned before.  Seriously.  It hurt, but felt good at the same time, you know?  And again, I take a lot of the blame because I haven’t gotten a good dentist teeth cleaning or checkup in a LONG time.  They did full x-rays, the works. 

And…..  I HAVE FOUR CAVITIES!   Grrrrr.  I was NOT a happy camper (although I am also not a surprised camper).  So now I have to go back again to get them filled.  And I am scurred!  I have never had a cavity before, does it hurt???

Before I went, I had a breakfast of cottage cheese cheesecake pudding with a chocolate granola bar crumbled on top.

After I got home from the dentist (which took almost 3 hours!!!  I was so glad I had a first-thing-in-the-morning appointment!) I snacked on some dried strawberries and dried kiwis. 

The strawberries are just ok.  I wish they didn’t have so much sugar on them.  But the kiwis are delicious!

Lunch was a hugh jass with chicken, veggies, olives, cheese, olive oil and vinegar. 

And look what was sitting on the kitchen table as I ate.  This awesome shot glass that S won at work in some sort of developer’s raffle.  Ha, can you tell we work in Silicon Valley???

Mid-afternoon I had some dried yogurt leather that I made in the Excalibur.  It was delicious!  Next time I am going to make it a little bit thicker, though.  I didn’t realize how much it thinned out when it dried.

I also had a big bowl of kettle corn!  I haven’t had popcorn in a while and forgot how much I love it.

Although I was sooo exhausted today (S and I were up until 1:30 trying to revive the hard drive on my old computer, to no avail) I went to the gym in the afternoon.  The good news was that it wasn’t that crowded.  I got a stepmill and did 30 min (fat burner program, level 13.)  It was TOUGH, I was tired.  And my legs are still a little sore from my 10-mile run on Monday.

A recap of my other workouts this week, which I am pretty happy about:

• Tuesday – 30 min on the elliptical machine with arms.  I hate the elliptical with arms.  Don’t as me why.  I’m not a huge fan of the regular elliptical either, but I like it a zillion times more than the one with arms.  But every single other machine was occupied when I went, so I sucked it up and did it.  I always feel better after I do it, too, since I don’t do it very often and it varies my workout.
• Wednesday – 30-day shred, level1, for the third time!  And I have to admit, it is getting a little easier.  I am really proud of myself because anyone who reads my blog knows that I HATE weights and I HATE doing ab work.  This is making me do both.  I think the key is that it does it in very small increments (3 min and 1 min segments) making it more doable and less torturous to me. 

When I got home, I made dinner of rigatoni with olive oil, spices and parmesan/romano cheese.  It was quick and easy.  I even ate mine out of a plastic tupperware container because only one bowl was clean and I gave it to S.  All the others are in the running dishwasher as I type this.

And for dessert?  A handful of Harry and David chocolate covered pretzels. 

I am currently watching the season premiere of the new Survivor.  Does anybody else watch this show?  I have to admit, I think it is my favorite show on television.  I love Survivor!