Work Deadlines, Familiy Visits, Fad Diets, and More!

Since March, it has been so busy at work that at home, after the kids are in bed, I'm usually working. Last week, the worst of it passed. This project has been tremendously fun, but I'm glad to have a little time to sit and write a blog entry for a change.

I'm also glad to be able to ride to work again. I've had to get to work as early as possible and stay as late as possible given the daycare's schedule, and that means no biking. Next week-- bike!!

It's been bothering SNG and me lately that we haven't been on the bikes in so long, and never without pulling a trailer, so I made arrangements with one of e-baby's old teachers to babysit on Saturday mornings for us. The guys next door also ride, and they've gotten tired of the group ride shenanigans, so we now have a running date with them to ride out from the cul-de-sac. Sweet! As a warm-up, we rode a hilly 16 mile loop this weekend. Um, ouch. I am in sorry shape. It was really fun, though, to feel the wind and hear the road, out with friends on a bike, without a trailer, and be able to say 4-letter-words (which I did, repeately, with reckless abandon).

After the bike ride, Dianaverse came over and we worked on her chair. She has this cool highbacked dining chair she picked up for a song somewhere and it is begging to be artifully decorated to match this old embroidered cushion she also has.

The garden's doing OK. While my parents were in town week before last, we put in trellises for the melons. It's nice, but more than half of the little baby melons are molding and turning black and dying before they get bigger than a golf ball. I don't know what the deal is there.

While mom and dad were here, mom got me started on her latest fad diet, the Glycemic Load diet. Like so many others, it's a no sugar, no flour, low starch diet. Unlike others, you can have all the fruits and vegetables you want. I love fruit, which has been my problem with so many low-carb diets. So far, so good. It isn't hard, and if I can drop 15 pounds on it, I'll be happy enough to eat (or not eat) whatever they tell me. I fixed a batch of banana bran muffins using a recipe from the book, but with wheat germ instead of wheat bran. I thought they were the same thing! They're not. The muffins were super-tasty and that was my first clue that something was wrong. So, back to the store for a bag of sawdust and I made a second batch, with the right ingredients. They were still quite acceptable. Not as tender as the ones with wheat germ, but the taste and moistness were good.

So between the new diet and the time to get some exercise, hopefully by this time next year, I'll be writing about how none of my clothes fit because they're all too big, woe is me. :-)