If you decide to check it out, let me know! Hope you enjoy.

Post from Uncovering Pamela

“Lbs.” The movie now on Amazon!

It’s been a while since I’ve sent out a “Lbs.” update.  Just wanted to let you all know that it is now available on iTunes for $9.99.  You can get more info on their site here.  If you get it, don’t forget to let me know what you think!

I haven’t watched it in a while…thinking it might be time to again!

Post from Uncovering Pamela

“Lbs.” The Movie on iTunes

Hopefully this new schedule will help me enjoy things more and get to live a bit even more than getting off at 8pm did. I’m hopeful.

Still been in a funk off and on, but have been trying not to think so much.  Anyone who knows anything about me knows that this takes herculean effort from me.

One of my best friends went down to visit his mom in Webb City yesterday and today.  She teaches middle school in Joplin, Missouri, the site of a recent devastating tornado strike.  He used to live in Joplin and wrote a very moving blog post about what he saw there that just about brought tears to my eyes.  You can find it here, and I really hope you take a moment to check it out.

I also preordered Jim Butcher’s new book, Ghost Story, via Rainy Day Books here in Kansas City.  It comes out on July 26th and I will get to pick my book up on that day.  The best part about it?  I’ll be picking it up at an event where he will be signing the books and speaking!  Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows that I am a HUGE fan.  His Dresden Files books series is probably my favorite ever.  This will be my third time getting to meet him.  The first time was an event that he spoke at.  The man is hilarious.  The second event was just a book signing.  But this will be the biggest event for him that I’ve attended yet.  Can’t wait to hear what he has to say.  For more information, you can check it out here.

Plus, I just can’t wait to read the book. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!

Ok, I guess I’ve rambled enough for today.  But I’ll leave you with a few videos that I’ve enjoyed recently.

This is just AWESOME whether you like beer or not:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNQa5HCUYCQ

What does advertising really do to our perception of women?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTlmho_RovY

A great Irish PSA about standing up to homophobic bullying – very moving:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrJxqvalFxM

Okay, hope you all are having a good week and I’ll let you know what I think of the movie!

Post from Uncovering Pamela

Settling In

Saturday dawned bright and early…ugh.  But I attended my first Weight Watchers meeting EVER with my friend, Christy (a/k/a Angelchrys – who is awesome by the way, so check her out).  Most of you know that I’ve only ever done Weight Watchers online.  Once I got over my nerves, I was okay.  It didn’t help that they had a moment where we had to go talk to “someone new.”  I HATE THAT.  I mean, social anxiety issues here.  But I actually just ended up turning around and talking to the lady behind me, who I ended up thinking was totally awesome.  She’s of the same kind of attitude/mind-frame as I am.  Pretty much “I hate being told what to do.”  But she was pretty funny, so I’m looking forward to hopefully getting to know her better.

I’m not sure if the meetings are going to be for me, but I’m going to give it a fair shot.  I’m signed up for the monthly pass now. I will admit it was fairly hard hearing people celebrating 75 lb and 100 lb losses and knowing what I had lost.  I feel like I don’t have a right to be proud of where I was.  I feel like it’s a element of shame now.  The same way there’s a part of me that doesn’t feel like I have a right to be proud of the 75+ pounds I’ve kept off.  It’s like the weight I’ve regained completely negates that and makes it worthless.  I know it’s totally screwed up and totally ridiculous.  I know. Believe me, I know.  But it’s how I feel.  And believe me, also, that if one of you were saying crap like that, I’d smack you. LOL

But I’m going to give it a shot.  To be totally honest, I’m not sure how I feel about the new Points Plus plan.  The zero point fruit concerns me a bit – not that there’s ever a chance of me abusing that.  I like fruit, but not that much.  But I had a fruit bowl this morning that is technically supposed to be free, but when I plug in the nutritional info into the calculator, it comes out at 6 points.  I also, after being totally on plan today, am concerned that I’m getting too many points.  So I’m going to try the plan as written for a month and if I don’t lose like I want, I will start tracking my fruit, too.

I did have a moment of panic on Saturday night at the grocery store when I started calculating the points for some of my favorite foods – ones that I lost a lot of weight with last time around.  For example, my one point bagel thins are now 3 pts.  I logically knew that “hey, I’m getting more points each day, too,” but was having a hard time getting my mind to accept that.

This week’s topic at the meeting was having a good weight loss buddy and support team.  I know that I have a huge network of support if I just remember that.  You all are awesome, Christy helped calm me down during my panic Saturday night, and I have other friends that I know are there for me.  I’m a lucky girl.  And honestly, other than the weight watchers message boards and some of you guys, I didn’t have that kind of support last time around.

So we’ll see what happens.

After the meeting, Christy and I visited our Borders bookstore that is going out of business…so sad.  We then met another of our friends and went to a French restaurant for lunch.  I’d never been to one before!  I had chicken and salad and french fries, but the most eventful moment was when our friend talked me into trying escargot.  Christy said my face was priceless.  The taste was absolutely fine.  I just couldn’t get past the chewy/squishy texture of it.  And once I started chewing and experiencing that texture, I just couldn’t get the image of what I was eating out of my head…it wasn’t pleasant.  Totally a mental thing, as like I said, the taste was fine.

I’ll admit the photo doesn’t look very appetizing.  But I’m very, very, very proud of myself for just trying it.

After lunch, the three of us went for coffee and walked around a local area called Brookside and just window-shopped at some cool small stores.

Today, my mom and I went to the zoo and I finally got to meet Nikita, the KC Zoo’s new polar bear.  I could have watched him for hours!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzbvA7fBJTA

It was also 86 degrees in Kansas City today. 86 degrees!  On April 3rd!! I’m not going to survive this summer.

But while I admit I didn’t track yesterday (bad girl, I know), I did completely today and still actually even have a few points left to use (which is ok, because I’ll probably be up for several more hours). So I’m pretty proud of myself for getting through today completely on plan.  I also got quite a bit of exercise at the zoo today, too.  Think this is going to be a good week!  (Other than the fact that my car is currently being pounded on by hail.)

Post from Uncovering Pamela

Busy Weekend

BUT.

I somehow, even with all the junk I ate, lost 2.9 lbs this week.  Without trying.  Imagine if I did try!  I tweeted about it earlier this morning and someone replied that I must have been trying without noticing. I think she may be right and it’s a cool way of looking at it.

Even though I’m still a bunch of pounds heavier than I was a few weeks ago, I’ve decided something.

I’m going to forgive myself.

Even if I can only keep up the forgiveness mood for today or a few days before I start bashing myself again, I’m going to forgive myself.  I’m going to forgive myself for the weight I’ve regained.  For letting it make me feel like I’m not smart enough or strong enough or good enough. I’m going to forgive myself for feeling like I need to forgive myself for being me.

I can’t change what I’ve done.  I can only change my behavior moving forward.

And it begins today.  Even if this is only the first of many more beginnings, I’m beginning again today.  Today, I packed my brunch that I eat when I first get to work (instead of hitting the vending machine or fast food).  Today, I packed controlled snacks. Today, I can do this.  I can do this for one day.  I’ll worry about tomorrow when it gets here.

Now, on to my weekend.  Friday night, I hung out with a couple of my friends.  We talked and caught up and laughed. Then they showed me the movie “Fingersmith.”  I HIGHLY recommend it.  It takes place in 1861, but I think that even people who aren’t really big fans of period pieces like that will like this one.  There were a bunch of twists and turns in it and the acting was phenomenal.  I will be buying it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGSZETzGDvE

On Saturday, my mom and I went to First Watch for lunch with my grandma to celebrate her birthday (belatedly).  I had a good time.  After that, my mom and I went to Sprint.  I have an HTC EVO that I absolutely love, but the power button that also darkens and turns on the screen is not working properly.  Sometimes it takes pushing it about 8 times to turn it on or off and it’s driving me insane.  I don’t have the Sprint protection plan or insurance, so was scared that my options would be very limited.  However, they informed me, after seeing what I was talking about, that it would only cost $35 to fix it, and if they couldn’t fix it, it would only cost me $35 to replace it!  Sprint gets bashed a lot, but I think that’s fairly awesome. I left it for two hours to see if they could fix it.

And those were some of the longest two hours of my life. LOL I felt completely naked.  Okay, not really, but after I left it, I realized I had no way of getting in touch with people I needed to get in touch with.  Didn’t have their phone numbers, didn’t have access to twitter or facebook, and couldn’t even tell what time it was since I wasn’t wearing a watch!

But while we were waiting, my mom and I headed over to Planet Comicon.  I’m sure it would have been considered pitiful to many of you who have attended some of the bigger conventions around the country, but it was my first con and I loved it!  I walked in and sighed and thought “yeah, these are my people.” 

Even more awesome, was that my mom and I got to meet Lindsay Wagner (a/k/a The Bionic Woman).  (Which is how I actually talked my mom into going – next to Melissa Gilbert, she is my mom’s favorite actress.)  Afterward, I asked my mom how excited she was to have met her on a scale of 1 to 10.  My mom immediately said “10.”  She was giddy like a schoolgirl all the rest of the day.  It was pretty cute.  Here I am with Lindsay (She first met my mom and immediately asked her if I was her daughter…guess we look alike or something ):

And then I got to meet the person I really wanted to meet.  Michael McMillian (Steve Newlin from True Blood).  He was really cute and really nice and friendly.

I also saw, but didn’t meet, Alaina Huffman (from various shows like SGU Stargate Universe and Painkiller Jane):

After the Comicon, we went back to Sprint where I learned that they couldn’t figure out how to fix my phone, so they would have to order me a new one.  Hopefully they call soon and let me know it’s in, because I don’t know how much longer I can take the one I have.  I need to repeat, that other than this issue (and the fact that I really would like a keyboard next time around), I have absolutely no complaints about the EVO.  I adore it.

Yesterday morning, even though I was fighting the mother of all exhaustion, I met up with the same friends from Friday night to see “Sucker Punch.”  I think I would have appreciated it more if I’d been more awake, but it was visually stunning.  I’d like to see it again when I’m more awake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrIiYSdEe4E

So that was my weekend.  Overall, except for the exhaustion and not getting a chance to see some other friends, it was pretty great.  I absolutely cringe looking at myself in the photos above, but again…today is about forgiveness.

And I just finished my first meal of the day…and tracked it.  Go me.

How was your weekend?

Post from Uncovering Pamela

Forgiveness…and my weekend

Seriously, people.  I started laughing hysterically when I saw this list idea.

It would be easier to just say see the following:

• www.amazon.com
• www.borders.com

I mean, this IS me we’re talking about.

There are a lot of books I’m wanting to read this year, but here are some of my favorite authors of whom I’m hoping to catch their latest books:

• Jim Butcher
• Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb
• Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Charlaine Harris
• Lynsay Sands
• Kerrelyn Sparks
• Amy Knupp (have to mention a friend that writes Harlequin romances)

There are lots of others, but am currently drawing a blank…and in looking at that list, I’m sensing a theme…

In related sadness, they’re closing my favorite bookstore.  It’s a Borders not far from me.  I suffered from deep depression throughout high school and this bookstore saved my life I think.  Anytime I was upset or frustrated or had just had it, I would head over there and spend a few hours escaping and relaxing.  Not a lot of people know that, so they don’t quite understand why it’s so important to me or why I’m making such a big deal out of it closing.  Even my mom doesn’t quite understand. And even now, it’s one of my most prized “happy places.”

I asked today when they were planning on closing and the woman said May, but that at the rate they’re selling things, she doesn’t expect it to last that long.

<sniff sniff>

I took a bunch of pictures inside while I was there today – to remember.  Someone on Twitter compared it to taking pictures of a person in their casket. Gruesome comparison, but it works.

I’ve learned so many things in this store – about myself and the world around me.  Someone mentioned “now you can just shop on Amazon since it’s cheaper.”  I do shop on Amazon quite a bit, but there’s something to be said about actually being in the store, surrounded by the books, and smelling their magic.  You can’t browse by touch on Amazon. You can’t see and feel the covers in all their glory.  You can’t take in the atmosphere of actually feeling that a representation of the entire world is physically in the room with you.

Besides, when you want a certain book NOW, hitting an actual bookstore is much much cheaper.

I was reminded of one Borders store that’s still in a city not too far from me in KS.  They said they’re not planning on closing it, but that’s what they said about my store, too.

And I’m sorry.  I’m just not a fan of Barnes and Noble.  Not the same comfortable atmosphere.

What can I say. I’m a hopeless sap that loves books.

Post from Uncovering Pamela

30 Days of Lists: List 26-Books I’d Like to Read This Year

• Being able to escape into the story and forget all the worries, cares, etc. I have in my own life.
• Finding new quotes that mean something to me or that I just think are especially profound or funny (I love collecting quotes).
• The chance to not have to deal with or worry about anyone else: it’s just me and the story.
• The opportunity to learn something new.
• The opportunity to expand my vocabulary.
• Being moved by the story.  The best kind of story is one that will make me literally laugh out loud and also want to cry.
• I’ve written about this before, but when I was growing up, I was a really shy child. I spent a lot of time by myself.  Reading allowed me to experience all of the things that I didn’t get to experience: adventures, social situations, etc.  Even now, that’s still the case somewhat.  Through books, I get to experience new adventures that never, in my wildest dreams, will I ever get to experience.  (Though I leave open the possibility…)

I could go on and on, of course.  These are just some of the biggies.  I absolutely love the fact that most of my friends now love to read.  I’ve had a lot going on the last few weeks, so have been working on a book of short stories by my favorite author in my favorite book series (EVER – which is saying a lot).  It is “Side Jobs” by Jim Butcher and is in his Dresden Files series.

So do you like to read?

How often do you read?

What do you like to read?

What are you reading now?

Post from Uncovering Pamela

30 Days of Lists: List 14-Things I Love About Reading

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have already seen my next bit of news.  I get Google alerts for “Lbs.” and received one a couple of days ago for an interview with Matthew Bonifacio.  I flagged it for follow up later to add here on my blog.  I happened to check my site stats yesterday, however, and noticed that I’d gotten a few hits from the IFC website.  I thought that was odd.  Until I went to check it out and discovered it was a link to the article I’d flagged for follow up (that I obviously hadn’t read yet).

Matthew was kind enough to mention me in the interview! I’m truly honored, and it was very nice of him.  He was asked for his most memorable moments while traveling for the film and one of the ones that he mentioned involved me.  He said:

Finally, last year when “Lbs.” was in release it opened in Washington DC, a young lady flew in with her mom from Kansas City to see “Lbs.” and meet us. She had started her own “Lbs.” forum on her blog called Uncovering Pamela. She is such a dedicated fan and religiously updates her blog when there’s any news on “Lbs.” I’ve even found myself going to her blog to find out updates! It’s all so flattering and a great reminder of the reason we made this film.

You can check out the full  interview here.

Of course, that makes me feel all the more guilty about slacking off on updating my “Lbs.” info lately.  I need to get on that.  So be expecting an update post in the next couple of weeks.

Matthew Bonifacio, Me, My Mom, Carmine Famiglietti, and Lou Martini, Jr.

For those of you new to my blog, you can check out my Lbs.-related info on the links above, the official site, IMDb, or check out the trailer below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7CAgOGqjis

Post from Uncovering Pamela

Lbs. the Movie – Spirit Awards

I thought I would share with you the really fun day I had last Saturday.  A couple of new friends I met last year (through Twitter, amazingly enough) have become really good friends to me and we ended up going to Kansas City’s local brewery, Boulevard Brewing Company.  For more information, click here.

It turned out to be a lot of fun.  Which, while the tour itself was great, I think had more to do with the company.  I do think it would have been more interesting if we’d been there on a day when they were bottling.  Because of that, I recommend making your appointment for a week day.  Due to the overwhelming popularity of the tour, which is free to the public, you have to reserve your tour spots several months in advance.  We scheduled these back in November.

Here are photos of the brewery:

(I cropped my friend out so he wouldn’t kill me )

Before we went into the tour, we received bottle caps as tokens to use at the tasting room after the tour.  Guess they didn’t want us getting trip-over-ourselves drunk.

We learned that Boulevard makes wines, as well.  I had no idea.  Need to try one of them one day.

It was fun seeing the barrels for their Sixth Glass Quadrupel Ale, which I love.

And fun seeing a stamp for the Jack Daniels Distillery, which is one of the only other tours I’ve been on and that was back in college.  I’ve also been to one of the Stone Hill Winery locations.

This is our tour guide, but the thing to note here are the pipes.  I am amazed just thinking about the planning that had to have gone into building this place.

The room we were standing in for the picture immediately above was designed to withstand a tornado and an earthquake if they should hit at the same time.  Because of that, the guide said it’s one of the safest rooms in all of Kansas City.

I just loved this photo.  It was taken through the yellow windows seen in the second picture from the top above, as we walked into the newer part of the brewery.  You can see a very small part of the Kansas City skyline in the distance.

The newer part of the brewery:

Outside of this area, they have a wonderful place where people can have parties, receptions, get married, etc. (with great beer on tap, of course).

(The Wheat and Amber are my faves of the ones above.  I’m pretty sure I’ve tried them all now. I can’t stand the Pale Ale personally, though one of my friends gives me a really hard time about it because he likes it.)

We were told that the owner fell in love with this flooring while he was in Europe, and decided he wanted it throughout the brewery.  The contractor originally said he could have it done in three weeks, but it ended up taking six months (unsurprising to me)!

(and my foot )

The bottling room floor:

Unfortunately, we just missed getting to see them do some bottling, as they did on the tour immediately preceding ours.  They normally don’t bottle on weekends, but due to the massive snow storm we’d gotten recently, they were a little behind.  By the way, we got more than 10 inches.  It was insane:

(The view from my front door on the worst day of it – the wind was insane and made it drift right in front of our door)

Anyway, back to the tour.  Shortly after seeing the bottling room, they walked us back to the tasting room near the gift shop.  And this is where the real fun began.    Teasing, of course.  One of the coolest things was that we got to try their limited edition Smokestack Series Chocolate Ale.  If you’re in the area, you may have heard about it.  It was released for Valentine’s Day and sold out within hours.  Everywhere.  It was yummy.  Here’s a news article about it.  Luckily, due to the popularity and demand, they announced that they will be bringing it back next year.

After the chocolate ale, we began turning in our bottle cap tokens:

(Belgian Dubbel, unreleased)

(Dry-Hopped Unfiltered Wheat, unreleased)

(Dry Stout – in the immediate foreground, Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale in the two glasses behind)

Bottoms up!

One of my friends and I both left with one of our bottle caps as souvenirs.  There wasn’t anything left that I haven’t tried at some point somewhere, I don’t believe, so I wasn’t disappointed not to have used it.

Here is a picture of the bar in the tasting room:

This was a fun “oops” to see on a bottle of probably my favorite kind of beer (I’m not a huge beer fan. It has taken me many many years to even be able to swallow it.  But this one I like a lot, especially with a bit of lemon.):

The rest of the day was really enjoyable.  Had Mexican for lunch with my mom and then met up with my friends again for a fun, relaxing evening.

On Sunday, I went to the movies with another friend to see Blue Valentine.  The movie was great, though a bit disturbing and painful to watch. After that, went to Dean & Deluca for the first time in my life (a little overpriced for me) and then tried a restaurant called Ingredient.  Got some great chicken noodle soup (and I’m not usually a fan!).

By the way, one of the friends I went with on the brewery tour just happens to work at a liquor store and was able to hook me up with my own bottle of the chocolate ale before they sold out.  Not sure when I’m going to open it, but yay!

Also, has anyone else read The Hunger Games trilogy?  I finished it last night and LOVED it.  Definitely recommend you check it out if you haven’t.

Overall, last weekend was just a really good weekend.  Exhausting, but good.  So have you guys done any fun sightseeing in your own towns lately?

Post from Uncovering Pamela

Boulevard Brewery

All you need is about two pages torn from a magazine, scissors, and tape.

This is one that I made over a year ago:

First, pick about two or three pages out of a magazine that have a color scheme you like.  You can, of course, use any kind of paper for this that you like.  It doesn’t have to be from a magazine.

Then cut out at least 12 squares.  I usually make mine about 3 in. x 3 in.  I’ve used up to 16 squares for one of these, though.  I think that if you go with less than 12, you may run into problems with getting it to form the circle.

Next, pick up one of your squares and decide which side you want to be visible in your star.  Place that side flat on the surface in front of you.  Fold it in half twice, vertically and horizontally, so that it looks like this:

Take each of the four corners and fold them inward to the center of your square like this:

Next, you’ll want to fold it into a kite shape by taking two edges of your square and folding them to run parallel to the center crease:

Flip it over on the table and fold back the top part of the kite down to the folds you just made.

Turn it back over and fold it in half along the inner seam:

This creates a pocket on the back side that you use to slide the pieces together.

Continue folding each piece using the steps found above and begin putting the pieces together.  Here is kind of an aerial view of how they slide together:

Getting the last few together and forming the complete circle can be a bit tricky.  Once your star is complete, I like to add a few small pieces of tape on the back to hold it together.  And here is the completed project:

These are kind of a fun little time waster.   Enjoy!

Post from Uncovering Pamela

Origami Star