I'd head straight for the produce section and spend my three minutes there grabbing up as much salad and/or salsa ingredients as I could... and some fruit. Our produce section also has lots of fresh shelled nuts and good dried fruit so I'd grab that, too.

The bakery is right next to the produce section so hopefully I'd have a little time to grab up a few loaves of their fresh artisan bread... some ciabatta, french bread and pumpernickel.

Earlier this week, my parents took their boat to its new home at a marina in Corpus Christi. While they did that, I kept their dog. They didn't want to take him because he's an elderly dog and doesn't handle adventure as well as he used to. He pretty much just wants to be in his comfy bed and sleep all day. So they brought him here to stay with me while they moved their boat.

He's a very easy dog to dogsit. He really does just sleep all the time. He eats and drinks some and needs to go out occasionally, but mostly... he sleeps. And there's no question in my mind that he'd ever do anything like make messes or tear the place up. He's simply not motivated anymore to do such things.

One thing he does still do occasionally is lick himself, which I realize is totally normal for a dog, even an elderly dog. Unfortunately, the sound of a dog licking itself is one I simply cannot stand for even a moment.

Of course... he doesn't lick himself all the time or even very often really. He does, however, seem to want to lick himself in my room, just when it's most completely quiet and I am attempting to fall asleep. Which causes me to immediately fling myself out of the bed and chase him away.

Yes, I know... I haven't managed to keep up with NaBloPoMo. But that's okay. I will still post about food whenever I can. And today is the day!

I made a great breakfast today.

I started with a World's Largest Bloody Mary.


The food portion of this fabulous weekend breakfast is a toasted "everything" bagel topped with frizzled brown sugar baked ham, a fried egg and smoked provolone cheese.



Note the golden, oozy egg dribbling out of that. YUM!



I think this might've been slightly improved with a little schmear of green olive cream cheese on the bagel and then after the cheese melted, a thin slice of cold, rich, ripe tomato. But I didn't have either of those things... it was still delicious. Next time, though, I'll plan to make those two additions.

Also, I have to post this because last night I bought some truly perfect roses. These are so gorgeous I can hardly stand it. Texas is famous for roses in summer. They grow them up near Tyler and you can get achingly perfect roses for anywhere from $6 to $9 per dozen. They don't smell like much but they're so beautiful they make your heart melt.

I usually prefer the peach colored roses with the red edges, but these pink roses with the red edges were too gorgeous to pass up. And this whole dozen cost me only $9. Worth EVERY penny.

We ate lunch a new sushi bar and grill this afternoon. The food was wonderful. I had miso soup that was extremely tasty and then a bento box lunch with teryaki salmon that was also delicious. It came with a little cabbage salad, some rice, California rolls and some tempura. The tempura was beautifully cooked. It was super light and crispy and the sauce they served with it was salty and a little bit sweet... delicious!

Unfortunately, the service was just dismal. It was really too bad because I'm pretty sure the little girl who waited on us wanted to do a much better job, but the restaurant was extremely busy and she didn't seem to have much experience. She apologized a lot but it was still difficult to get things like soy sauce or my dad's beer.

Apparently this is typical of this town. New restaurants open and EVERYBODY goes but the talent pool for wait staff is very small so the service is never good. Such a shame... it mars an otherwise wonderful meal.

I did make the mistake of wearing a white shirt today, though. White shirt + soy sauce = brown spots on white shirt. I swear, it wasn't even that I dribbled! The shirt JUMPED out towards the soy sauce. Really!

I don't have a picture to post of my dinner tonight because I didn't eat any... but that's not interesting.

Michael had swimming today with his daycamp and between that and the past two nights he hasn't gotten to bed until 9pm, he was EXTRA tired today. He fell asleep in the car on the way home almost instantly. So I wanted to get him fed, bathed and into bed quickly tonight and since I knew I wasn't going to be eating anything, I just got him a dinner from Sonic.

While we were there we saw a taxi at one of the bays. There was a girl in the backseat of the taxi. Apparently this girl wanted to eat at Sonic so badly she'd called a taxi to take her there. Wow. I like Sonic, I particularly like certain of their items and drinks. But I'm pretty sure it's not worth calling a taxi over.

It wasn't a very special dinner, nor was it artfully prepared or beautifully garnished. But it was extremely tasty and I didn't have to cook or really do any dishes beyond rinsing out the cup I ate my soup in and putting it in the dishwasher.

And it was healthy and mostly fat-free. It was not meat-free, though. There's ham on the bagel. But it's low fat deli ham and only four thin slices, so it barely counts and doesn't count at all as far as my stomach is concerned. Which is now pleasantly full.

I think I might've gotten a bit too much salt in the soup... with the cheese blend on it it's quite a bit too salty. I still love it and still eat it, but after eating only a tiny bit I had to glug down two of giant glasses of ice water.

This dinner was so vegetarian I'm pretty sure it's vegan. Well... maybe not, but very, very close. Either way, it was extremely tasty. Way tastier than it even looks, believe me!



And, look! No tomatoes! No avocados! I know!

Okay, the soup is garlic, onion, celery, carrot, fresh corn, crimini mushrooms, vegetarian broth, white wine, ditalini pasta and TONS of flat leaf parsley... topped with a sprinkle of three cheese blend. Supporting role here from an extra toasty piece of my dad's homemade, extra sour sourdough bread and lovely glass of Kendall-Jackson Zinfandel which is just heavenly.

This was a better meal than a Monday deserves, but the good news is it made a TON and I can eat this soup all week and not have to cook any more. Which is good. Because it doesn't look like I'm going to have time anyway.

Tonight's dinner was back to vegetarian.



On the left is a beet, blue cheese and walnut salad. I cheated and used pickled beets, but that's okay, I love pickled beets. I put down a bed of spinach and added in some mushrooms... 'cause... I had them. I drizzled the spinach and mushrooms with homemade red wine vinaigrette. I think some hard-boiled egg slices might've enhanced it a bit, too, but I didn't think of that until later when I was looking at the picture.

The item on the right is a whole wheat tortilla with the spicy vegetarian bean mixture from last week topped with some leftover roasted vegetables (potato, carrot, squash) and then sprinkled with jack cheese. It was okay. Good use up for leftovers, but nothing special. I should've put some good salsa on it.

The salad was the best part.

We didn't end up eating at home on Saturday. Michael spent the night at the neighbor's and ate breakfast there. I didn't eat anything... can't remember why.

In the afternoon, we went to see Wall-E, which was very sweet and adorably cute... typical of Pixar... and afterwards we had an early dinner at Chili's. I just had a hamburger and a beer and Michael had a cheese pizza which he only ate three-quarters of (barely) because he ate an entire bag of M&M's while watching the movie. I'd gotten a medium bag of popcorn for myself and you'd think since I hadn't had anything to eat I would've gobbled up every scrap of that popcorn, but I only ate a little of it; kind of a waste actually. It just wasn't hitting the spot. Someone somewhere around us ate one of those giant pickles, though, I could smell it. I didn't think anyone ever really ate those, but I guess so.

Anyway, Chili's was good, their burgers never disappoint. I've been really CRAVING beef the last few days which I had sworn not to eat! But I guess it makes sense... I'm needing the iron. I should've taken my supplement. The burger didn't upset my stomach, though, so it was okay. Well... much, anyway.

Later in the evening we went back out and got sundaes at Sonic. I had told Michael we'd go to Marble Slab Creamery but we were both too full right after dinner and later... meh, it was easier to go to Sonic and Michael NEVER finishes what he gets at Marble Slab anyway.

He got a little chocolate sundae and I got a little caramel sundae. Vanilla and caramel together is my top favorite thing ever. What was funny, though, was on the way home, Michael said, "I thought you were going to get a beer float?" Ummm... ew. I said, "Oh you mean, a rootbeer float? Yes, I was going to get that, wasn't I?" And I explained that I should have because the rootbeer float is really the only thing at Sonic that's good. Everything else just has too much of a synthetic flavor. You just know they get giant foil pouches of their dessert sauces that have been created in some factory without the addition of any naturally occurring substances. And yes, the caramel tasted like that. It was TOO buttery and TOO sweet without any other flavor. I know that hardly seems possible, but it definitely lacked that rich, deep caramel flavor.

I told Michael, now I know better and I will always get the rootbeer float because it's the only thing they have that's good.

Cake should be eaten at room temperature and if it's my applesauce cake, should be eaten for breakfast with a cup of coffee.



Custard and cream pies should be eaten chilled.

Fruit pies should be eaten hot and definitely should be a la mode.

Mmmm, now I'm needin' me some pie.

Since Erik doesn't like hot dogs... we ate some for him.

These are the all beef kosher hot dogs I mentioned. I think they taste way better than any other hot dog, with the exception of bratwurst which is really sausage and not a hot dog except that you eat it the same way.

And yeah, I went ahead and ate them even though I haven't been eating meat. Which just means... I have been. But it's okay. My stomach thought these were kosher, too, and didn't have a fit.

No, I didn't eat all three of them... one was for Michael.



Happy 4th of July!!!

I haven't really had dinner tonight or even... any kind of meal at all today. I've eaten some things. It's been a crazy busy day.

I had my usual noodles for breakfast and I had kind of thought we'd be leaving work early today, which we did... but not, lunchtime early. So by about 12:30pm I was starving and still had a long way to go. Luckily I had some leftover mushroom ragout and soft polenta in the fridge at work so I had that.

Then, we did leave work a little early, although, not very early. But we went to Chili's for cocktails, although, early cocktails. I had a gin martini. I shared a plate of Chili's Southwestern Eggrolls with my friend. I didn't even realize how hungry I was until I'd quickly inhaled half the plate of the eggrolls. Because, they're brilliantly delicious for one thing and also, apparently I was pretty hungry.

Later, I had a glass of wine. More of what I had last night.

Then we came home, VERY late for us and I fed Michael some chicken nuggets, cheese, orange juice and... he ate some chips, too.

It's nearly 11pm and I roasted some vegetables for myself, but so far have had only smashed up grapes in a glass for dinner. I WILL eat some of the vegetables before I go to bed, though, because I've already learned that wine for dinner makes for a MISERABLE following day and not in the way you think. My stomach, more tempramental than Naomi Campbell AND John McEnroe put together, simply will not tolerate me drinking my dinner, no matter how much I'd like to from time to time.

We got home kinda late tonight because we had to go all the way across town to Target to get Michael some new swim trunks. Yesterday was water play day at school and he managed to come home with everything he went with... except his swim trunks. Which wasn't a huge deal because those trunks were very nearly too small for him. It's better that he remembered to bring home his expensive Crocs than the outgrown swim trunks. But he needed new ones tonight because tomorrow he's going to spend the day with his favorite babysitter and she has a new pool in her back yard. I'm hoping she'll let him swim ALL day; I'm going to hand him over to her tomorrow morning with a full can of spray sunblock (50+).

So since we got home so late tonight, I wasn't in the mood to cook, and certainly not anything noteworthy. I could have had leftovers and I should have... but my avocados are more quickly spoiling so I just whipped up my favorite: avocado smashed on a toasted Everything bagel.



The Kendall Jackson Zinfandel really jazzed things up, though. Heavenly.

But even though my dinner wasn't very fancy, my dessert was. Well, first of all... the very fact that I even had dessert was pretty fancy because I never do. But these strawberries looked particularly luscious. And I had an idea for just how I thought they'd be tastiest.



I made the cream from cream cheese, ricotta cheese, heavy cream, honey and lemon zest. I masserated the strawberries with sugar and a splash of port wine. I served it with three little vanilla cookies and a slice of lemon.

Refreshing and sweet, creamy and a little bit tart. Perfect summer dessert.

Michael's dinner:



This is oozy, gooey, buttery Muenster cheese between two buttered and toasted slices of my dad's homemade sourdough bread (that is extra sour) and some spiced ziggy fries. I cooked it in my contact grill so I'm calling it a panini... as opposed to a grilled cheese sammitch.

My dinner:



This is oozy, gooey, tangy Swiss cheese, smoked turkey breast, sauerkraut, homemade roasted red pepper vinaigrette and spicy brown mustard artfully arranged between slices of extra sour homemade sourdough bread and toasted panini-style. Plus a little dish of left over super tangy gazpacho with an avocado that was mere hours from going bad, but that was actually creamy and tasty.

If I'd known July's NaBloPoMo topic was going to be food, I would definitely have thrown over June's home theme to do this one. But since I didn't complete June's NaBloPoMo, I guess it doesn't matter. It's not always such a stretch for me to post everyday... well, I know, there were days when my content sucked because I was just posting to post. But food! My God, I could talk about food for a month at least. One of my MOST favorite topics. This blog is practically all about food as it is and it's very handy that I'm currently on a meat-free food adventure. So!

Segueing nicely from June (where I posted about food half the time anyway) into July which IS all about food, I end and begin with: FOOD.

Tonight's recipe: Mushroom Ragout with Soft Polenta

I'm sorry this picture is kind of lurid because of all the meat-free things I've made recently this was the most delicious.



I'm not sure which to say is the best part, the polenta or the ragout. The polenta is soft and creamy and outstandingly delicious. The ragout has very rich, deep, slightly tangy flavor that compliments the creaminess of the polenta beautifully.

The recipe is from the April 2005 issue of Cuisine at Home magazine. They present their recipes in a very particular way, so I'll just do it their way.

Mushroom Ragout with Soft Polenta
Makes 2 C. Ragout and 2 C. Polenta
Time: 40 minutes

For the Ragout
Saute in 2 T. Olive Oil:

1/4 c. shallots, sliced
1 lb. assorted mushrooms, sliced or quartered (4 cups)

Add; Finish with:

3/4 c. tomatoes, diced (I just used a one can of diced tomatoes in sauce)
1/2 c. vegetable broth
1/4 c. dry sherry or Madeira (I didn't have either, I just used some Chardonnay I had leftover)
2 t. balsamic vinegar
1 t. tomato paste
1 T. chopped fresh parsley
1 t. minced fresh thyme (I used some dried oregano instead)

For the Polenta
Bring to a boil; whisk in:

1 c. vegetable broth
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
Pinch of white pepper (I went ahead and used black pepper and plenty of it)
1/2 c. yellow corn meal
2 T. cream cheese, cubed (I used a reduced fat)
2 T. Parmesan cheese, grated (I used three cheese blend I already had)

For the Ragout: Saute shallots in 1 T. oil in a large saute pan over medium heat until soft. Increase heat to high, add half the mushrooms and saute until browned; remove from pan. Add additional T. of oil to the pan and saute remaining mushrooms, then return the reserved mushrooms to the pan. Add tomatoes, broth, sherry, vinegar and tomato paste. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Finish with herbs and seasonings.

For the Polenta: Bring broth, cream and seasonings to a boil in a saucepan. Whisk in cornmeal; reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes stirring often. Fold in cheeses before serving.

It sounds like a lot of work and having two pots going at one time might seem like too much going on at once... I thought so when I set out to make this. But it's not really that big a deal if you get all your ingredients out first and you buy sliced mushrooms. It's easy enough to make the polenta while the ragout simmers and then they're both done together and both hot.

There's not a lot of variation in texture in this dish... it's all pretty soft. But no moreso than spaghetti or lots of other pasta dishes. Crunch could be added with some toasty garlic bread.

This afternoon I watched The Doctor on Encore and wept sobbed through the entire last half of it.

Then I watched the last half of Chocolat and cried at that, too.

I've been wandering around my house feeling lonely and unfulfilled, questioning every single thing about my life.

My boobs are so sore the pain is penetrating all the way through my body so that it feels like my whole body is achy.

I've been really hungry, but lack the will to really cook anything that sounds good... however, dark chocolate is almost unbearably delicious.

Anybody have a wild guess what might be wrong with me?

I have no excuse for not posting yesterday except that I did literally nothing all day and had nothing to write about. I slept late, took a nap and went to bed early. In between, I ate and watched TV. I probably could've posted about my breakfast because it was pretty good. My mom brought me a huge loaf of my dad's homemade sourdough bread and I cut a thick slice of that and made toad-in-a-hole. I also had some turkey sausage with it, thus breaking my meatless run... although as I'd said, I never meant to remain meat-free forever and the turkey sausage was tasty and didn't cause painful upheaval in my digestive system, so I was actually pretty happy about that.

Next month's NaBloPoMo subject is food and since this past month has been pretty heavily about food I think I'll probably make it with that one.

Last Friday, my precious boy graduated from Kindergarten. He graduated from Pre-K last year, too. I'm seeing a pattern here. Do we graduate our kids from every grade now? I wish there was some way around this... I'm sorry, but this all strikes me as much ado about nothing. I'm proud of my baby, of course, but I also don't want him to think that we have to celebrate every time he does what he's supposed to. But... no one asked me.

Then he spent the weekend at my mom and dad's and apparently had a great time there. My mom let him fish and he caught three fish!!! He also caught bait and actually touched live shrimp. And he helped rescue a little snake that was trapped in the bait net. He helped my mom wash her car and watched The Spiderwick Chronicles and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

It's going to be a fun summer for him, I think.

1. You have 10 dollars and need to buy snacks at a gas station. What do you get?

Chips, pretzels, Gardetto's, iced tea.

2. If you were reincarnated as a sea creature, what would you want to be?

Clown fish.

3. Who’s your favorite redhead?

I just don't know.

4. What do you order when you’re at IHOP?

Spinach and mushroom omelet.

5. Last book you read?

Surveillance by Julian May.

6. Describe your mood.

Ecstatic! It's Friday!

7. Describe the last time you were injured.

Um... Wednesday I cut my finger on the aluminum cover to a pan of refried beans.

8. Of all your friends, who would you want to be stuck in a well with?

This is difficult to answer, I don't want to be stuck in a well. I'll say... McGyver. Sure... he's my friend.

9. Rock concert or symphony?

Symphony.

10. What is the wallpaper of your cell phone?

I don't know, it's got clouds.

11. Favorite soda?

Club.

12. What type of shirt are you wearing?

Black cotton blousy t-shirty thing.

13. If you could only use one form of transportation?

I pretty much do only use one form... car.

14. Most recent movie you have watched in theater?

Speed Racer.

15. Name an actor/actress/singer you have had the hots for.

Johnny Depp. Wait! No... Orlando Bloom. No! Johnny Depp. Ummm... yeah.

16. What’s your favorite kind of cake?

Vanilla drizzled with a caramel glaze.

17. What did you have for dinner last night?

See blog post from yesterday.

18. Look to your left, what do you see?

Dining room table, baker's rack with cookbooks.

19. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?

No.

20. Favorite toy as a child?

Barbies?

21. Do you buy your own groceries?

Of course. Who else would by them?

22. Do you think people talk about you behind your back?

Probably.

23. When was the last time you had gummy worms?

I've never eaten gummy worms. Only bears.

24. What’s your favorite fruit?

Pineapple. Schlurrrrp!

25. Do you have a picture of yourself doing a cartwheel?

Hell no.

26. Do you like running long distances?

Nope! I'd rather take a beating.

27. Have you ever eaten snow?

Oh yeah. But don't worry, I made sure it was white.

28. What color are your bedsheets?

Pristine white.

29. What’s your favorite flower?

Gerbera daisies.

30. Do you do ballet?

Oh, Lord. No.

31. Do you listen to classical music?

Yes.

32. What is the first TV Theme song that pops in your head?

I Dream of Jeannie.

33. Do you watch Sponge Bob?

Only when forced.

34. What temperature is it outside right now?

Similar to the lowest part of the pit of hell.

35. Do people consider you smart?

Yes, all the ones who know me.

36. How many piercings do you have?

Four, two in each earlobe.

37. Are you signed on [to] AIM?

No. MSN LiveMessenger.

38. Have you ever tried gluing your fingers together?

What, on purpose? Why?

39. How do you feel about your family

LOVE THEM. They're all great. Best people I've ever known or ever will know.

40. Do you have an iPod?

No, but I have an mp3 player... it's a SanDisk.

41. What time do you go to bed?

I shoot for 10pm and usually manage to get in bed about midnight.

42. What CD is currently in your CD player?

It's a mix I made from stuff I downloaded from Napster.

43. What movie do you know every line to?

Star Wars, Aliens, Sense & Sensibility... some others.

44. What is your favorite salad dressing?

My own roasted red pepper vinaigrette.

45. What do you want for Christmas this year?

I'd like a new job making lots of money and a great place to live,
please.

46. What family member/friend lives the farthest from you?

My best friend, Michelle, lives in Surrey, England or somewhere close
to there.

47. Do you like hugs?

What? Who doesn't like hugs?

48. Last time you had butterflies in your stomach?

Couple weeks ago... I'm not going to say why.

49. What’s the way people most often mispronounce any part of your name?

They don't.
It's a very easy name
But, they'll spell it wrong almost every time.

50. Last person you hugged?

My kid.

Isn't this gorgeous? It was SUPER fast, easy and the best thing I've made yet.

A super quick tomato gazpacho that I made by combining two cups of regular V-8 juice and one can of diced tomatoes in sauce and kicking it up with some extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, a shake or two of steak seasoning, little bit of salt and lots and lots of fresh ground black pepper. (You could put more stuff in it and usually I do, but this is a quick version... no chopping, etc.)

Then I made a little panini to go with it from slices of fresh ciabatta roll with a schmear of green olive tapenade and mozzarella cheese. Ciabatta makes the most wonderful panini... the edges get crunchy but the inside stays soft and it's very porous bread so all the tapenade oil and tangy olive juice soaks in... wow. Especially delicious dunked into the soup.

I garnished my soup with half an avocado diced, a slice of lemon and a little sprinkle of three cheese blend. And lots more pepper.

This is cavatapi pasta with green peas and yellow squash with a sauce made from ricotta cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice and a little dab of pasta water. The recipe also called for butter, but I left that out of mine and also called for fresh basil, which I'm sure would improve it by a huge amount, but my store didn't have any on the day I shopped. I served with a side of sliced tomatoes and avocados because I have them and because I love them. They were good with a little salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.

This is a good dish, but doesn't have huge flavor. I'm thinking maybe I ought to top it with some sun-dried tomatoes or something. It makes a ton, that's for sure. I wanted leftovers, but it made too much even so. I should've boiled much less pasta. But that's relative to how many people are eating, whether or not it's a main dish and how much you do or don't want leftover.

Last night's Italian Bread Salad



Yes, that giant bowl constituted a bit more than I should have eaten all at once and yes, I was a teensy bit sorry about it for a little while, but overall even though this particular meatless entree was especially tangy (read: lots of acid) it didn't cause a problem. I didn't even have heartburn.

And this dinner was especially easy to fix. I barely even had to cut anything up. I just combined one can of basil, oregano and garlic-flavored diced tomatoes, one can of sliced black olives, one little jar of quartered, marinated artichoke hearts, a few stalks of cut up pickled asparagus (because I had it), a couple forkfuls of sliced pepperoncinis (just what was left in the jar) and I cubed up some mozzarella cheese. I combined all that in a big tupperware bowl because I knew I wasn't going to use all of it for one meal and specifically wanted some of it leftover for lunch the next day, plus it's always yummier when it marinates over night. Putting it into the big tupperware bowl was great, though, because then I just shook it to mix everything up.

Then I cubed up some fresh french baguette I bought. I put a layer of the bread cubes in the bottom of the bowl, then spooned over the salad mixture. Then I drizzled on a homemade vinaigrette I'd made a while ago that I found in my fridge and topped with a little sprinkle of the three cheese blend (Parmesan, Romano and Asiago).

The vinaigrette I'd made was SUPER tangy so when I had it for lunch today I put on a bit less. Delicious, though! The dressing and vegetable juices soaked into the bread a little bit, MAN that is good!

So easy and fast! Almost no chopping. All I had to do was open a few cans of things. I did cut up the cheese, but you can buy cheese crumbles and cubes nowadays or shredded cheese on there would be fine, too. I used up some stuff from my fridge which is always good. Got the nearly empty asparagus and pepperoncini jars out of my fridge.

Yum!

Tostada.

I chopped half a medium onion and sauteed that in one tablespoon of canola oil with some garlic. Then I put in a can of vegetarian refried beans (98% fat free). I added in salt, pepper, ground ancho chile powder and some smoky Cochise chili powder.

I made a corn relish from fresh corn cut from the cob, a green onion, black olives and one small tomato chopped. Then I zested one lime and squeezed in it's juice. Salt, pepper, ground cumin and a dusting of the ground ancho.

I put two tablespoons of the beans on a crisp corn tostada, topped with a little pinch of Monterrey jack cheese and then put a small pile of the corn relish over it. I garnished with half an avocado sliced and a little curl of a slice of lime.

I can't tell you how delicious this is. It's so much more delicious than it looks and sounds. The tangy freshness of the lime with the creamy olive and sweet corn mixed with the crunchy tortilla and the smokyness of the beans is heavenly. This is definitely the kind of dish where you don't miss the meat or the fat. Only fat in this is some microscopic amount from the (fat-free vegetarian) beans and sprinkle of cheese.

I gave Michael his pop tarts this morning and noticed he wasn't eating them. He barely nibbled the corners of one of the tarts. So I said, "What's the matter? Not hungry?" And he said, "My neck hurts." I looked at him. "You mean, your throat hurts? Hurts when you swallow?" Yes.

I felt his head which was a normal amount of warm and then gave him some Tylenol and by the time I dropped him at school he was perfectly fine, even ate a cereal bar in the car.

All day I expected to get a call from the school that he'd spiked a fever or something. But I didn't. I picked him up at the usual time and he seemed okay. Although, pretty quickly it was clear that he was especially tired and looked a bit ashen. We had to go grocery shopping and he really doesn't like to grocery shop and usually is a bit of a pain in the ass about it, but tonight he just dragged along behind me and would lean on me whenever I stopped. He said his throat was bothering him again so I bought more children's Motrin gave it to him even before we left the parking lot. I wanted him to eat a good dinner. And he did. Motrin works. He seemed perfectly fine all evening.

I discovered this morning that the essay I thought was due on Thursday for my class was actually due today... or tonight... at 9pm. Good times! However, I think I pulled it out pretty well. As of this posting at 10:43pm I wrote it and submitted it (the instructor stated over and over in the instructions that the essay was meant to be very short and more along the lines of a brainstorm) and it was only 47 minutes late. Not bad for someone who didn't even know she had an essay due today when she got up this morning. Although, I should state for the record that I am in no way proud of that really. I'm usually a better student than that, I admit I've slacked unforgivably so far in this summer class and I shall no longer allow myself to do that. I just basically have no business ever thinking that I can get away with sitting on my butt for an entire day of the weekend. I just can't do that.

Because I also have a prospectus that must be finished tonight. I've started on it, but still have a fair bit to do... so if I want to get to bed before 1am I better get busy. I just wanted to post because I couldn't bear to miss a day when I really do suddenly have lots to say.

I made a spectacularly pretty and delicious dinner for myself tonight as part of the new meatless diet I've chosen and I even took a picture. So I want to share all about that. But it'll have to wait until tomorrow, because right now I have GOT to get this prospectus done.

I've read on one or two other blogs recently that apparently a number of people are giving things up in order to get a healthier body. For the most part it's been alcohol, sugar and caffeine... thank God most people have shut up about the carbs.

Well, I haven't given up caffeine, I don't really drink that much and have been known to skip my one cup of coffee just because I'm in a hurry. I don't need to give up sugar because of all the things I eat, sugar is the least of anything. I don't drink sodas or juice, I don't add sugar to anything I drink and I don't usually eat desserts or candy. These aren't things I'm sacrificing for any reason, I just don't eat a lot of sugar in the regular course of things I eat... but I'm not going to avoid it, either... I'm sure it's in some of the tomato sauces or whatever that I eat, but I don't think that's enough to worry about.

I have pretty much cut out alcohol, but that's only incidental, as is giving up meat. I haven't eaten any meat and only a little cheese or dairy since last Monday. Fat-wise I've really just tried to eat as little as possible and limit it to either olive oil or avocado... mercifully I don't have a problem with either of those.

This isn't some altruistic goal toward getting "healthier." It's more a matter of self-preservation. Starting with Friday before last I'd been having TERRIBLE trouble with my stomach. And yes, I have a sensitive stomach, it gets into an uproar very easily but I know I ate and drank things that really just made my life hell.

Friday I had the three kamikaze's on an empty stomach. I might just as well have ordered battery acid on the rocks. But they would've had to serve it to me in some kind of protected container, right? That same night I ate pizza and drank wine. It wasn't the greasiest pizza I could have eaten, but it wasn't good, either.

That was all bad enough, but then on Sunday night when we went to my parent's for dinner, I had lots of wine, some of it on an empty stomach. And brisket... and other stuff that had bacon in it. Well, since I had my gall bladder out, my digestive system just cannot handle any quantity of fat. It just doesn't digest. It sits there in my stomach and makes me very, very sick and miserable.

So over the course of just a few days I managed to totally destroy the lining of my stomach. I was extremely miserable for days and made up my mind that I would skip the alcohol... especially all the stuff made up mostly of acid, like wine... which is sad, because that's my favorite. I also determined I'd give up meat and most dairy, at least for a little while, and that's not even a problem. My stomach did eventually get better, I've been feeling much better since Wednesday, but still the thought of a big fat steak or hamburger or ANYthing with bacon makes me go *HRRRK*.

So... none of my dietary changes are motivated by wanting to get healthier, although that is a nice benefit. Not motivated by a desire to lose weight, although that will also be a nice benefit. It's not motivated by any soft-hearted desire to spare animals the horror of being killed and eaten (as far as I'm concerned, they have no other good reason to even exist). This is all just a matter of self-preservation. It might have some desirable consequences, but I'd be doing this even without those consequences just as a matter of appeasing my stomach.

Potatoes, rice, bread, noodles, quinoa, cous cous... vegetables, fruit. Maybe some eggs and I'll need to look into more recipes with tofu. That's what's on my menu here and hopefully this week I'll have time to really try some actual recipes rather than just throwing together whatever I can stand to eat.

I'll probably add back in some lean proteins... fish (shellfish), boneless/skinless chicken, turkey. Not sure if I'll ever go back to eating red meat. Also a huge shame, I love steak and prime rib and hamburgers. But it's surprising how quickly you stop loving food that makes you miserable. I'm quite sure I'll go back to drinking wine in the near future, but I'll be sure to avoiding having it on an empty stomach and only a little bit. I'm sure that's key.

Ultimately it's like how people feel about tequila after they've had a bad run in with it. Most people I know will never touch it again after having gotten sick from it... it's hardly a sacrifice to not eat something that makes you gag at the very thought of it.

First of all, no I don't know what that thing is I posted a picture of the other day. My first guess is that it's H.P. Lovecraft's schmoo. I'm not convinced it isn't some very skillfully made-up thing, but it could be a real animal. If it is, I just hope I never meet it in a dark alley. *shivers*

Yesterday was up and down. I meant to post about it yesterday, but the afternoon was out of hand and required some malt and barley-flavored medication so I didn't get around to posting.

Most of yesterday was very good. Work is busy, especially since we only work until 1pm on Fridays. That sounds outrageously great, doesn't it? And yet, I find that the reality of getting off work early on Fridays in the summer simply means having to compress 8 hours of work into 5. I don't mind it, but usually require a nap in the late afternoon in order to recover. Which I did. And that was a big part of why the afternoon got so quickly and so badly out of hand.

I set my alarm for 4:50pm because I had to go get Michael. But 4:50 didn't leave me a lot of time to get out the door and that was a mistake. Because the alarm went off and I was terribly groggy, but slipped back into some pants, stuck my feet in some shoes, grabbed my purse and my cell phone and stepped out the door before I was really awake. But I sure woke up quick when I realized I'd just left my keys on the table inside. Commence heartfelt, bitter Yosemite-Samming.

Now, I did have the presence of mind to get a spare set of car keys made not too long ago and had them in my purse (so... I'm smart and cautious, but only about half way). WHEW! I didn't have to call the B&GC and tell them I'd be late picking Michael up. And that gave me time to figure out what to do. First I called the rental company. But the answer there was not only no, but hell no. I did think about going out to my parent's to get the spare key they have to my house, but what with the price of gas being so high I knew it would end up being six and one half dozen of another if I just paid a locksmith and the locksmith would be a quicker solution.

So I called a locksmith. He graciously said he'd be by my house within 15 minutes or so and it would cost me $40 in cash for him to unlock my door. So then I needed to go get some cash because I NEVER have cash. Well, as I said, this was right at 5pm and while I wouldn't say there is traffic in the true sense of the word in this town, there is some. Mostly just in the form of some of the busier intersections get backed up. And guess where my bank is? Yep! Right on the corner of one of the busiest intersections in town. So I had all kinds of problem getting in and out of the bank. Then, I tried to be tricky and circumvent having to sit in that intersection waiting to turn left, but my circumvention ended up with me stuck waiting for a train. In a town where it hardly takes five minutes to get ANYWHERE, I was in real danger of missing the locksmith! As it was, I was driving up JUST as he was.

He did unlock my door lickety-split and all was well after that. I know there are WAY worse things that could have happened. All that amounted to really only a minor inconvenience, but it did drain away every last ounce of my patience because as you know, I don't normally have very much to begin with.

But I'd already planned and provisioned a pleasant evening for me and Michael so things did get much better very quickly.

For Michael, I got TWO video games: Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones, plus a pepperoni pizza and a piece of chocolate cream cake. He could hardly ask for more and was well-content to spend his entire evening playing games.

For myself I'd gotten some beer, Michelob Porter, that was very rich and tasty. I like beer, but don't normally drink it. I'd only gotten it because of my recent stomach issues it did not seem like a good idea to drink wine, but I did want some kind of adult beverage on a Friday night.

I also planned to make myself a pizza... pesto with cheese and tomatoes. Delicious! And I rented The Other Boleyn Girl and Fool's Gold. I watched The Other Boleyn Girl and it was excellent. I'd read the book many, many months ago and loved it. And while the movie NEVER compares to the book, there are some instances where the movie is still pretty good and this was one of them. The costumes and art direction were excellent, the writing, direction and acting was very good and I tend to like Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johanssen just in their own right anyway.

Of course, the movie lacked the amount of depth that the book had in terms of the characters, their motivations and the intricacies of this particular story, but it came as close as any 2 hour movie ever could. The movie did especially make it seem as though Henry spent way too much time thinking with his dick and to some degree I'm sure he did... but not quite as much as the movie made it seem. But then again, this movie WAS just focused on the events and consequences of his sexual liaisons, so it's understandable.

I was especially impressed with the depiction of Catherine of Aragon. I was glad that they made her seem like the strong woman she was. And it's always so annoying to me, whenever I'm reading (or watching) about Henry VIII and all his children that were miscarried or stillborn and it never occurred to anyone to think this was probably more due to HIM than the women he was with. But I guess when you're king, no one thinks like that. Clearly though, all that royal in-breeding resulted in his damaged chromosomes... it's only kind of a miracle he ever had any children at all.

I haven't watched Fool's Gold yet, but I will later tonight. I'm not expecting much from it, except to spend two hours looking at a half-naked Matthew McConaughey which is NEVER a bad thing.

In the meantime, wow, do I have a lot of work to do this weekend! I've got two prospectus' to write and I need to catch up with my class. Here we are at the end of the third week of a ten week class and so far I've done nada. It's not like me. I need to get it together and quick.

Plus, I still have all the usual weekend stuff. Laundry, cleaning. And it's already noon. Better get busy.

P.S. A quick note about the Home Invader. I'd gotten some of the LARGE ROACH baits about a week ago and hadn't seen a roach since then. I assumed (again, why?) that the giant roach I'd been terrorized by was dead and gone. And that was a reasonable assumption given the fact that it had been more than a week since I'd seen it. But no.

Sitting on my sofa (which is really a love seat) last night sipping my beer and watching my movie all relaxed and happy... and something caught my eye. I want you to know that f***er was on the arm of the love seat right next to me. It's really amazing it hadn't gotten ON me. Yep, I squealed like a wussy little girly girl and jumped up, but immediately ran to get a tissue huge wad of paper towel and snatched that nasty thing up off the arm of the loveseat, crushed it with extreme prejudice and threw it into the trashcan outside. Die, Die, DIE!!!

Now! I had better not see any more of those!

It's 5:30am and I'm up. About to get ready for work. Okay, it's not really 5:30... it's quarter to 6. Still. As I resentfully crawled out of my bed and turned off my deeply, deeply annoying alarm, I thought, "Tomorrow at this time... I will be in a coma!" *grumble, grumble, grumble*

I made up my mind to post something kind of random from the internet as my post today because... I just wanted to. I wanted something cute. I guess I was sort of thinking of my schmoo, but I already posted a picture of that so I thought I'd just google the words "extremely cute" and see what I came up with... pick the cutest thing and post it.

One of the first things the google image search came back with was this:



For the love of GOD, what is it? That is very nearly the least cute thing I've ever seen.

Some folks at Google might want to take a workshop on cute.

BTW, have you ever noticed that when someone says they're moody, none of the moods alluded to in that connotation are good moods? Like if I said I was feeling moody today, people would probably run off... but what if my moodyness was some combination of happy, effusive and garrulous? It's never that, though, is it? We say moody and what we really mean is some combination of sad, angry and irritable.

I should give this up since I think just posting everyday is causing my content here to suck big time. This afternoon I sat at my desk at work and thought about how *today* I'd come up with something better! Something interesting! But then I got distracted with work and then when I got home distracted with doing computer-y stuff for people, I forgot all about it until just now.

I can share two things, though.

One is that I made a scrumptious, but very easy dinner tonight. I bought some fresh mozzarella and herb tortellini and cooked that, then just dressed it with olive oil, tossed it with some chopped avocado and topped with a Romano cheese blend. It was delicious!

Also, I got a really red eye today for no reason, so I took a picture. It's not just of my eye though. I think this picture looks kinda funny because I took it myself, but edited out the camera, so it just looks like I'm mysteriously looking off to the right. I was looking at the camera, that's why I'm turned that way... I probably should've just left the camera in... heh, the picture would've made more sense.



Anyway, if you look at my eyes and can get past the fact that I look sort of cross-eyed (I'm not) you can see the inside corner of my right eye is red. It just did that for no reason this afternoon and has been red and feeling dry and kinda sticky the whole rest of the day. But, it's okay if it turns out to be pink eye! I already have the drops! Hah... for once I'm prepared!