You are what you eat

... or so they say.

I am trying to develop better eating habits. I have a thing for sweets, especially baked goods. These things are not very good for me. For the last month or so I've eliminated red meat from my diet, concentrating on fish and poultry instead. Actually, for the past year or two (or maybe longer) I have cut back on how much meat I eat. I'm eating even less meat now.

And I'm trying to add more vegetables to my diet. The problem is that I don't like vegetables. It's really hard to be a vegetarian if you don't like vegetables. Sometimes I'll have a 12 oz. can of V-8. That's two servings of veggies! If it's nice and cold I can swig it down so fast I almost don't taste it. If my taste buds are used to lots of sweets, like they have been, then veggies are a hard sell. I know that if I cut out the sugar, then other stuff will taste good. Haven't been totally successful with that yet.

This morning I went to the local farmer's market, opened on Wednesdays and Saturdays near our neighborhood. I bought three tomatoes, a small yellow squash, small zucchini squash, string beans, and a pint of blueberries. Then I went to the grocery for bagged lettuces, strawberries, carrots, and dairy products. Here's my plan: cut the squash into small pieces and saute them with onion and mushrooms. Add that to a can of spaghetti sauce and any other left-over red sauce we happen to have in the 'fridge, and it's the sauce for lasagna. I got ricotta, mozzarella, and "Italian blend" cheeses at the grocery, and some large pasta shells as well. So I might do stuffed shells, or if we have lasagna noodles (and I think we do) I'll slap together a lasagna. My kids are particularly fond of lasagna, and if I hide the squash in it, they probably won't notice. We'll have salad also, and both of these young'uns kinda like salad. 


Superman is out of town for a few days. He's gone up to visit Light in Pennsylvania. He's driving back on July 4th. I hope that, being the actual holiday, the traffic won't be too bad on the 4th. He'll be home for a couple of days before I leave him again. I'm taking Sproing to Florida to visit my family for a week, then we're driving up to Pennsylvania to see Light. The darling Light has volunteered to keep Sproing for a couple of weeks. So I'll leave him there and come back home. Superman will drive back up there at the end of July to help Light move into new digs, and to bring Sproing back to SC. It's a travel-heavy month, July. I'm glad gas prices are down, and hope they stay low. 


And yes it is hot here, but no hotter than most of the rest of this half of the U.S. I got out early this morning to do my shopping before it got too terrible. It was about 80 deg. when I went to the farmer's market. They're predicting 106 or 107, depending on the source of predictions, for today. Yesterday's high was 106. I'm staying inside as much as possible. One good thing, though; the humidity isn't terribly high. So it's hot, but it's sort of a dryer heat, at least for these parts. Of course I don't like it and want to move north to avoid this foolishness. I'm going to try not to complain too much about the heat this summer. Wish me luck. Oh, I'll hate it just as much, but I'm trying not to dwell on it in print (here and on Facebork). 

Road Trip update

Warning: drunk blogging ahead

I gotta tell you, the summer climate here is SO much better than back in South Carolina. The temps this week are about 10 to 15 degrees (F) lower than what poor ol' Superman is suffering. It's warm here, but bearable. Here's a thermometer I saw in the shade at noon. Isn't this lovely?

We don't want to talk about what this thermometer will look like 6 months from now. It hangs beside the mailboxes at an apartment complex where Light was investigating housing options. We've looked at some apartments, and have more to look at tomorrow and maybe Thursday.

As we drove around the area today we come upon this view. Isn't it lovely? This is a hillside west of Indiana, Pennsylvania.
Also, Pennsylvania is fun to type. As is Massachusetts. Schnecdity isn't nearly as fun, because I don't really know how to spell it, even though C and I stayed in a very scary motel in Schnectidy last summer. Scnectidy. Schnectity. OK, using spell check now: Schenectady. See? That was not nearly as fun as Pennsylvania or Massachusetts, which I can type without getting those mean red lines under them.

Now, about the drunkenness. I'm not really drunk, just a bit buzzed. On of all things, beer! Yes, I'm developing a taste for beer. I've been working on it for a few months now, starting at a local Greenwood eatery I may have mentioned before, a pizza place with lots of beer options. Tonight I'm drinking Shock Top, a Belgian white beer with a hint of orange. I've had two, which is all I'm going to have tonight. I got a great deal on it, though, from a bargain beer store where I had to buy a case of bottles. That's the smallest quantity they sell. The price per bottle was just over $1.20. Actually, I don't know if that's a great deal or not. I hardly ever buy beer from a store. I get it at restaurants, where it's more expensive. I don't even know how much beer costs from the restaurant. I rarely pay attention, since Superman pays the check.

We left the quaint rustic hotel today. The window unit air conditioner was blowing something we suspect is mold into the room, causing Light's sinuses to explode (metaphorically). She could barely breathe. We didn't use the air conditioner at all the last day and a half, and that helped a bit, but she was still suffering. So was I, what with my intolerance for heat. It wasn't terribly hot, but it wasn't comfortable either. So we're at a Comfort Inn on the south end of town. The room is probably three times the size of the one we had in the other place. It is prettier, but has much less character. We're paying twice what we did at the other place, but saving a bit of money with discounts available at local eateries by presenting our key card. Yes, our key cards are also discount coupons. Cool, huh? There is some other kind of savings over the other place, but I forget now what it is.

And speaking of character, here are some pictures of the bathroom in the old place. This is the floor of the shower.
The shower floor has the same tile pattern as the rest of the bathroom floor. It has a pleasant geometric balance, though these colors wouldn't be my first choice.
The shower looks almost like it could be a tub, but it isn't quite. It's big, almost 5 feet long and 3.5 feet wide. Light took her showers in the morning and had irregular water pressure, but my evening showers had near perfect pressure. I dunno.
I seem to be rambling. I'm getting tired and my beer buzz is nearly gone. We've got apartments to look at tomorrow, and perhaps we'll go to the Jimmy Stewart museum. Did I mention that Indiana, PA is his hometown? Yes, and his voice instructs pedestrians crossing all the intersections along the main east/west road through downtown. It's charming and disarming. The locals who work downtown are probably sick of the man's voice by now.

Oh, look, I'm rambling again. I got hot and sticky today, so I'm going to take a shower and go to bed in my nice cool motel room. Light just went to bed and is covered with a blanket and the comforter. I'll probably only need the sheet. This is great.

uh

What is it, Tuesday already? If it weren't for garbage pick-up I couldn't keep track some weeks. 

Let's start with a cute Scheherazade picture. She's hiding in the bookshelf and having a bit of a wash-up.

This afternoon she's been walking across my desk, but when the door opens she darts into the shelf to hide from any would-be cat nappers. This means specifically Sproing, and a bit less specifically Diva. They like to play with her, but on their terms, not hers. Sometimes she's willing, often she hides. 

Do you remember a couple of months ago I said I'd gotten some new dish washing liquid, and it smelled like fresh fish? I'm too lazy to look it up and link to it, so hunt the archives yourself if you're that interested. At any rate, many of the commenters suggested I toss the stuff and get something else, since it smelled so bad. 

I didn't. 

We finally used it up. Everyone disliked the smell, but we used it until it was gone. See how pretty the bottle is?
Just goes to show you can't judge a detergent by its bottle.
Even if the bottle is so pretty that I took lots of pictures of it. 

You'd think I had nothing better to do, huh?

OK, moving right along, let's talk about the weather. Now I know some of you live in more northern climes where winter stretches out long and lazy over the landscape. Here in South Carolina we don't get significant coldness. Rather, we get significant hotness and very short winters, comparatively. Spring is exercising her options already. It's a bit early, and I know we aren't finished with cool weather entirely, but it's warm. 77F warm. That's 25C. It isn't too bad in the shade with a slight breeze, but this sun is intense already. We haven't even gotten to the solstice yet, and already the sun is blazing. 

For those of you who may be joining our story in progress, let me just explain that I don't do heat well. I don't do heat with any grace, that's for sure. One might wonder why the hell I live in South Carolina! I've been wondering that myself, more and more over the last three years. 

And speaking of three years, that's how long it's been since I started my homophile transformation. Three years ago this month C moved into our house. A lot has happened since then! He and S have their own place now. They moved out of our house in December. The room they lived in is now my office and Light's bedroom when she's home from college. I'm in college now myself, working toward a degree in psychology with an eye toward grad school. My eventual (though still ephemeral) goal is to work in some capacity with the GLBT community, possibly in a counseling setting. 

I think that's about all I have to say today. I know there was more, as there usually is, but I've been so distracted that I've forgotten. If it's that important, I'll post it later. I doubt it's that important. 

OH!! Wait!! I remember now! My semester is half over now, so mid-term grades (or grade estimates for those less-organized professors) are posted. I have an A in each of my classses except the one that is graded Pass/Fail. I'm passing that one. So far so good!

I had a weekend

The play for which I was sewing costumes opened and closed this weekend. Community theater, folks. Five shows, plus one on Thursday morning for the school kids. 'Twas the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I didn't watch it. I actually didn't even do all the sewing I was supposed to. I did get the four dresses built, but the mob caps were fewer than desired.  I'll go ahead and make some more now, anyway, because they'll be used later. Brigadoon is coming up soon.

My allergies have been acting up, causing my throat and ears to itch. Sunday the mess moved into my lungs. I need my inhaler, but can't find it. I think the thing has expired, anyway, so I'm going to call the doctor's office this morning to request a refill on that prescription. If it gets much worse I'll go in for a look-over. Right now I don't think I need any antibiotic. Yet. My chest is tight, though, and I've got a wee cough. I feel icky, but not so much that I can't do anything. 

I think some other things may have happened this weekend, but I'm not sure what. I slept a lot. Superman and Twitch went grocery shopping yesterday and bought $400 worth of stuff. He likes to stock up. 

We have a new-to-us fireplace insert. It was cool enough last night that Superman built a fire in it. He says it puts some nice heat into the room. I think we'll set a fan in the hallway to encourage some of that warm air back toward the bedrooms. 

So, in conclusion, there isn't much to blog about. On today's agenda is more laundry (yes, the washing machine is still working!) and a visit to the drug dealer, my psychiatrist. Nice fellow, but not nearly as useful as my therapist. (No offense, Ur-Spo)

Happy Monday to all, and to all a good week.