Friday Quote Day on Thursday

Wherever you go,

no matter what the weather,

always bring your own sunshine.
 ~ Anthony J. D'Angelo

One of you commented about yesterday's "upbeat" post. I didn't realize I'd been on a downward track lately. It stands to reason, though, with my father's recent death and the fear-based election cycle we're in and the end of gardening season (and since my father was passionately interested in politics and gardening, they are all enmeshed), that I might not sound too perky lately. I'm grateful for the reminder, D. I can't promise to continue the upbeat trend, but I can promise to give you a break for a couple days.

!!! BLOG BREAK !!!

Yes, it's my annual Halloween trek. I have to cross state lines to pass out candy because we live so far out in the Middle of Nowhere that no one ever comes begging at our door. Oh, and there might be an out-of-state grandchild involved. Heh.

Keeping the walking streak alive shouldn't be a problem. There's a nice trail in the neighborhood and I've let my family know that I need to get a walk in every day, and why. It'll be up to me to make it a priority. Since the trail ends at a playground, I know of at least one member of the family who might be interested in joining me. We may not be walking fast, but we'll be walking!

Yesterday's walk was in some real rain. None of that light-sprinkle stuff. I wore a hat, but didn't want to carry an umbrella. I was soaked when I got back, and since "back" was Democratic headquarters, I had to sit in wet clothes for a couple hours before I went home. A hot shower felt great!

So did pizza for dinner, knitting and relaxing in the evening and getting a good night's sleep. You all have a wonderful weekend. I'm planning to do the same.

Still walking, still on track

Twenty-six consecutive days of at least three miles a day. I've already done the extra miles which will put me over the 100-mile mark by the end of the day on Sunday. And I'd have to say I've created a wonderful new habit: I can't imagine a day without walking.

I may bump it up to four a day for November and shoot for 125. Haven't decided yet. Because then what will I do in December? Bump it up again? This could go on and on and on until I'm running half-marathons every day next summer.

I had to walk early and fast yesterday, because I had a job interview mid-morning. It went well, and I'll know something for sure within a month. The physical office space won't be ready until the first of December. The job is part-time and will use my graphic design skills – a perfect combination.

The Christmas stocking is done, and now I can get back to a bag I started working on in August. The pattern is available on the same page as the Christmas stocking and I just realized that I ought to change my e-mail address on the website, since the old one no longer works. Hmmm. Yes, that would be a good idea. I haven't decided what to knit next, but I've pulled some patterns from my collection for consideration.

We were under a tornado watch last night which was a complete dud. The WeatherBug app on my smartphone just likes to scare people. I think I'll take its forecasts with a grain of salt from now on.

Nothing to reap these days, eating has been under control (I lost 1.5 pounds this week) and I think I've covered all the knitting, running, reaping and eating bases. I can tell the weather is shifting, finally (despite a very warm yesterday), because I'm looking forward to picking out the next knitting project.

And since my garlic has shipped, finally, from Seed Savers, I'm also looking forward to a little time in the dirt. There are no seasons here in the Middle of Nowhere! We do it all, all year 'round!

Walking in the rain, and a whole lotta nuthin'

I left fairly early yesterday morning to begin the walk du jour, because weather radar maps showed us about to be hit with a lot of rain. Didn't happen. If I'd waited an hour, I wouldn't have gotten rained on at all. As it was, I didn't melt, and walking in a light rain isn't really a big deal. That's good to know, because I'm sure there will be another day when the choice is to walk in the rain or … walk in the rain.

I took the new baby's Christmas stocking (scroll down the page) with me to Florida earlier this month to work on (good airport knitting) and I'm happy to report that I started binding off yesterday. It's an I-cord bind-off, which isn't difficult but I just got too sleepy to finish the job. Should get it done today. I'm using wool yarn, larger needles than the pattern recommends and am felting it when the knitting is finished. Makes for a sturdier stocking, the better to hold all that loot! Although, really, how much loot does an infant need? Heh.

How much loot do any of us need? I haven't quite gotten on the daily declutter bandwagon, but I did take a large box of old craft magazines to the library's book sale last week and I didn't even look at them before I boxed them up! That's a major breakthrough for me; I find it very difficult to let go of things I might need or want someday. A few years ago I would have had to rip out or copy articles or ideas. Now, I rely on my own creativity or the internet. Which means instead of piles of magazines, I have piles of printouts. Sigh.

Which brings me to Halloween cards. Usually I make them and they're always well-received. This year I ran out of time (which is stupid, because everyone knows when Halloween is and it only comes once a year and why on earth wouldn't you just plan ahead and make them in August?). So I popped into the Dollar Store and walked out with eight cards (seven grandchildren and a friend) for less than five bucks.

The Dollar Store makes it very hard to justify handmade Halloween cards.

And speaking of Halloween, it's almost time to carve those pumpkins! Here's some inspiration. The "Ghoulishly Grand Carved Pumpkins" are aMAZing!

Done, done, done, done, done.

Our newest granddaughter's blanket. Finally!

I cast off Saturday evening, laundered it yesterday and will mail it today. And she's not even four months old yet! I really meant to finish it for her welcome-home gift, but that was in July, and as I recall, I was pretty swamped in July. Oh, and it was hot in July. Who wants to knit a blanket when it's hot? Not me!

Detail of the feather-and-fan lace edging.

The color is not as orange as it looks on my monitor. It's more of a strawberry, and I hope it sort-of matches the dark pink in her room. I used some of my long-discontinued Brown Sheep Cotton Top, a 50/50 blend of cotton and wool. It comes out of the dryer looking like new – perfect for a busy mom! This baby is the little sister of triplet two-year-old boys. Mom does not need a fussy-to-care-for blanket. Or anything, for that matter.

The last carrot from the garden.

While I was dismantling the garden yesterday (just between you and me, it might take longer to put the garden to bed than it did to knit that blanket!), I found one lonely little carrot, left over from the earlier harvest. I must have walked past it a dozen times in the last week. It wasn't in a weedy area at all, but I guess I just wasn't looking for food. Heh.

Mmmmm. Apple pie. The apples are roasted before filling the crust. Did I say mmmmm?

Finally, there were these apples, see, and they were going to get all soft and mooshy if I didn't do something with them, and so my husband – yeah, it's all his fault – suggested a pie. And I found this recipe for a different kind of pie crust in a magazine (it uses sour cream and vinegar) and I had to try it. Since my husband wanted pie and all.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Still sticking with my walking regimen. I did three s-l-o-w miles Saturday afternoon, four little-bit faster ones yesterday morning. I'm a little bored with the route; if you're on Facebook, you are well aware of this. I sent several photos and posts to FB as I walked yesterday, which helped keep me going. This photo shows my favorite view. Quality isn't very good, the BlackBerry phone doesn't compare to the Canon Rebel. But it's a lot easier to carry when you're walking.

Finally, thank you for your comments on Friday's political post. So nice to know I have more than two readers! Heh. I remember as a little girl learning there are two things you don't discuss: politics and religion. I usually reserve my political rants for Facebook (and I probably piss off my Republican cousins when I do), so I was sticking my neck out by posting about it here. Thank you for playing nicely. No matter what your political views, I appreciate good manners.

Something the Republicans could and should take to their Tea Parties.

Friday Quote Day

Being in politics is like being a football coach.

You have to be smart enough to understand the game,

and dumb enough to think it's important.
~ Eugene McCarthy

’Tis the silly season, and the closer we get to Election Day here in the United States, the sillier it gets. Is it important? Well, it is to the candidates, if you consider the obscene amount of money being spent on getting their respective messages out. We citizens will go on, no matter which party prevails next month. Or the month after, should someone get their knickers in a twist and decide to challenge the election results in court.

What's important to me? Not living in fear. Which is why I mostly held my nose and voted a straight Democratic ticket. Democrats still, in spite of everything, give me hope. Republicans scare the crap out of me. Especially those Tea Party wingnuts. Their agenda of trying to make me afraid of Democrats has completely backfired. I'm waaaaay more afraid of Republicans than I am of the Dems.

The way elections work in the U.S. is that as soon as one is over, the campaign for the next one begins. We've been hearing about potential Republican Presidential candidates for months now; speculation will begin in earnest November 3rd. It didn't used to be this way. I'm old enough to remember, vaguely, when the candidate was actually chosen at the party convention, only a couple of months before the election. How would all the media outlets survive if they only had two months to air commercials and print ads?

(And how would elections work if each candidate had the same amount of money to spend? My guess is that they'd spend more time saying why we should vote for them, instead of why we should vote against the opponent. But that's just a guess. Since corporations are now buying our government, I guess further that we'll never know.)

So what does this have to do with knitting, running, reaping or eating? Nothing, really, it's just that yesterday was, as my husband calls it, a "Debbi Democrat Day." I worked a few hours at our party headquarters and then chaired a Democrat women's club meeting last night. It was, possibly, a little too much democracy all in one day. Heh.

I'm still maintaining my three-miles-a-day streak. I walked in town yesterday and came across the oddest thing, so odd that I had to snap it as my photo du jour. How often have you seen a bag o'taters hanging from a pole in the middle of your hometown? I wonder if someone found them and decided that particular pole would be a good place for a lost-and-found? Maybe the person who was carrying them just couldn't tote them another step, and had to hang them up for later retrieval. Or abandonment, as William Hurt did his suitcase in The Accidental Tourist (my all-time favorite film).

I'll never know, but it sure did make the end of yesterday's walk more amusing. And on a Debbi Democrat Day, that was a Good Thing.

A placeholder, sorry it can't be more

What I'm doing today:

• Walking
• Working at Democratic Headquarters
• Making mozzarella and then using it to make pizza for dinner
• Knitting (while working at headquarters)
• Democratic women's club meeting tonight

What I'm not doing today:

• Putting the garden to bed

Sigh.

Tomorrow looks like a better (less busy) day. And the weather is holding – sunny, upper 60s, perfect for outdoor chores. And walking. Which I'm going to do NOW!

I surrender …

to my age, to my physical condition, to the nature of the putting-the-garden-to-bed beast.

This is not going to be a one-day job. This is more than likely going to be a two-week job at my current rate of progress.

Sunday I took the fence down. Monday I pulled the tomato stakes. Yesterday I pulled the tomato vines and hauled them to the woods.

Today? I'm the designated driver for my husband's eye doctor appointment. In Charleston, WV (a two-hour, one-way drive). The appointment card actually says "Bring a driver," and since our dog Hershey can't drive, I'm it. No garden work today.

When I pulled those vines yesterday I just couldn't help picking the almost-ripe and larger-sized green tomatoes. I now have a large brown grocery bag more than half full of ripening Romas.

The daily walk continues, today will be the 20th day. Not sure if I'm going to get it done before we leave or while he's waiting for and seeing the doctor. The office is a block away from the mall in downtown Charleston, which would definitely offer a change of scenery from gorgeous mountains and wildlife. I'm not sure it's all that great a trade-off, though.

See what I mean? Seriously, how can a window display of winter boots compare to this?

Are five hours enough?

Five hours of sleep, that is.

I was up late watching the Rangers slaughter the Yankees (sob, sob), and woke up suddenly at 4:30 a.m., panicked at all I have to do this week and how little time I have to do it. I stayed in bed until 6:30, but I could be two hours ahead of schedule if I'd just gotten up when I woke up.

I'm a lark, always have been, and I find when my bedtime is more owlish (anything past 10 p.m. is late for me), I don't sleep well at all.

Add to that the very long to-do list this week and it's no wonder I was up before the birds.

It's kind of funny, actually. I don't work outside my home and I shouldn't have so much to do. Usually, I don't. A combination of events and issues have come together this one week to create a perfect storm of Things To Do.

I need to make a list, lest I forget something.

Number-one on the list is Take A Walk. It's rather amazing that I just keep going out and doing it every morning without thinking about it. Before I made this commitment to myself I had rousing back-and-forth arguments. Walking Debbi knew it was good for her health, Sit-on-her-ass Debbi just wanted to read magazines and drink coffee. There's no question about it now, though: A walk is definitely part of my daily routine. Yeah, me!

I have a freelance design job that's due tomorrow. I have to be gone all day tomorrow, out of town, and Thursday, working at Democratic headquarters again. I'm helping a friend with some software training Friday. I have two evening meetings this week, as well. And the garden is still a mess, although in addition to dismantling the fence I've also removed and stored all the tomato stakes.

Who's going to do the laundry and cook dinner? Why, that would be me, but I don't know when it's going to happen. It will happen, though, just as the daily walk also will happen. The things that need to be done expand to fill the time available to do them.

Small and straggly now, but they'll look great in a couple years!

Why couldn't I have done some of these things yesterday? Because we planted hydrangeas! I killed the grass where I wanted to plant them ages ago. By the time we got around to actually planting them, that grass was good and dead. I tilled it up, our friends came with a truckload of plants and mulch and shovels and all four of us got to work. We're so pleased with the result, and will be even more pleased when the bushes grow and establish themselves beside our garage. There are more little landscaping projects in the future, but I can't think about that now.

I'm too busy.

P.S. Four more rounds on the baby blanket and it will be done, done, done. I'm nearly finished with the same baby's Christmas stocking, too. It will be good to have both projects completed before the wee one has children of her own. Heh.

Plan the plans ...

not the results.

My weekend plan included putting the garden to bed which, for you non-gardeners, means dismantling the electric fence, pulling up dead cornstalks and pumpkin vines, clearing out the weeds, spreading compost and doing a light surface tilling. I also need to get a row ready to plant garlic. What got done?

Well, the fence is down.

All I can blame it on is walking. When I was working in the garden earlier this spring and summer, I wasn't also walking three or four miles every day. That takes some energy, energy that could otherwise be spent doing the tasks in the first paragraph.

The other problem is that I'm just not motivated to do it. Planting a garden is way more fun than cleaning it up at the end of the season.

Day 17. Thought I'd look up instead of forward.

It'll get done, a little at a time. The weather should remain nice for most of this week, and cool weather while you're working your ass off isn't really a bad thing.

Today will be 18 straight days of walking at least three miles a day. I did four yesterday and the day before, and I won't have any trouble hitting 100 miles for the month of October. I wish they were running miles, but oh, well. Gotta start somewhere.

That walking plan is working very well … and with all the other plans I have for today, I'd better get out there. I love the picture I took on yesterday's walk. Whaddya think?

Friday Quote Day

The greatest pleasure in life

is doing what people say you cannot do.

~ Walter Bagehot

I'm not sure if it (a marathon) will be my greatest pleasure or not. And it's only one person (my husband) saying I cannot do it.

He never tells me what I can and cannot do. Except for this. He was with me that hot, hot day a couple years ago (three, I think) in Washington, DC, when I did the Army 10-Miler and a much younger, much fitter man collapsed and died just after crossing the finish line. We know a man who had a heart attack after he ran Boston a few years ago.

He says he's worried about my health, but I think he's just worried about who's going to do the laundry if I die before he does. (Hah! That's a joke, honey!)

The walking plan I started this month is the prelude to getting back into running. I'm hopeful (although there's no evidence so far) that regular walking and sensible eating will result in some weight loss. Losing some weight will make running more comfortable. Once it's easier to run, I can start building up some mileage in preparation for training.

For a November race, I need to start training seriously in July or August, the hottest months of the year here in southern West Virginia. It would be very helpful to be carrying around less lard by then.

So … first things first. Keep on walking. I've managed to walk at least three miles a day for two straight weeks. One more week and it'll be a habit! I'm at the point now where I don't question whether I'm going or not, it's more like when during the day am I going to fit it in. Not quite as automatic as brushing my teeth, but almost.

My husband said he'd go with me today, and we're going to do five miles, to help boost that monthly total to 100. That also may not be my greatest pleasure, but it would make me pretty happy.

Have a good weekend. I'll be working at our Democratic headquarters. And walking.

Oopsie!

UCF is playing Marshall tonight. There were plenty of Marshall fans on the plane from Orlando to Charleston (WV), as well, but no one was chanting, "We are! Marshall!"

WVU is playing South Florida. No reason for any of them to be on that plane. My bad!

The times, they are a-changin'

As I mentioned last week, one BIG advantage of walking in town is the availability of public restrooms. Of course the downside of public restrooms is that they're, well, public. And, you know, some people like to write on bathroom walls. And, you know, usually it's not very nice.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this on the door of a public restroom stall today:

What's up with that? How long have we been getting motivational messages from bathroom walls?

Today is my first full day home from Florida and my lucky 13th consecutive day of walking three miles (or more). I forgot to take the Garmin with me Sunday when I was at the beach, but I walked for 70 minutes, so it was well a little more than three miles. I hope I can post a nice big fat 100 for the October total. We'll see.

Looks like I'll be dancing in the rain tomorrow. We'll see; it usually doesn't rain All. Day. Long. There should be a window of relative dryness for at least an hour, sometime.

I'm tired. And glad to be home. And ready for life to resume some kind of normalcy. My husband and I will be watching the UCF-WVU game tomorrow evening – the first college football game we've gotten to watch together since the season started. (The plane I came back home on was full of UCF athletic staffers. The West Virginians on board started the Mountaineer chant. It was quite fun!) That'll be normal.

So will doing the laundry. Heh.

This post brought to you by the number 46

There's nothing like a date made up entirely of ones and zeros to get you thinking about the binary number system. In fact, 10/11/10 (and 10/10/10 and 10/01/10) are the ONLY things that have gotten me thinking about it.

I had to JFGI to jog my memory. I recalled having to learn the system in junior-high math, but couldn't remember how to come up with a value for all those ones and zeros. Professor Google to the rescue!

We have but a short time to exercise these muscles. Once 11/11/11 (73) rolls around, we won't need the binary system again until the 22nd century!

I'm still in Florida, heading home tomorrow afternoon. Dad's memorial service last night was nice, but very hard for my brother. This was more of a neighborhood and church family celebration; my brother and I, and Dad's wife (we lost our mother years ago) were the only family present.

Daddy never knew a stranger, and that was proven again, with a church full of friends and lots of sweet shared memories.

Let the healing begin. Amen.



Sent from my U.S. Cellular BlackBerry® smartphone

Oh, well

Doesn't look like my video uploaded. You'll have to trust me that today's walk on the beach was just what I needed.

Sent from my U.S. Cellular BlackBerry® smartphone

Peaceful, easy feeling

Sent from my U.S. Cellular BlackBerry® smartphone

I'm not crabby!

I'm at the beach!
Sent from my U.S. Cellular BlackBerry® smartphone

Aack! My brain!

As a newish BlackBerry user, I really haven't thought twice about battery charging. I plug the device into the charger at night and when I'm in the car, and it charges while it's tethered to the computer.

This morning at around 4:00, a tiny, gentle alert sounded from the nightstand. I thought I'd set an alarm by accident and decided not to even look at the phone. Of course after I woke up a little bit (because who can go back to sleep when you hear a tone you've never heard before?), I did look, and saw a Low Battery Alert. Hmmm. Never had one of those. And it's been plugged into the charger all night. Hmmm. Hmmm.

Okay, I'm wide awake by 4:15. You see, I'm going on a trip. TODAY. On a plane. And, well, I'm going to need my BlackBerry brain while I'm gone. We (BB and I) headed to the office, got online, Googled "yellow LED red battery icon" and found out what to do. During the various solutions I tried, I discovered that the plug-in charger I've been using works fine on my husband's flip phone, but wasn't supplying a charge to the Curve.

Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmm.

No time to figure that one out. The charger we've been using for his phone works fine on mine, so I traded for a player to be named later. Heh.

What this means is I won't have to leave earlier than I'd planned in order to stop at the US Cellular store on the way to the airport. (US Cellular offers free battery swaps when your battery dies.) As of now (obviously, since I'm online), the battery is fully charged and appears to be holding the charge nicely.

I really had no intention of getting up at 4 a.m. though.

As for blogging while I'm gone, I'm not sure if it will happen. I had big plans for writing a couple posts to be published later, but that hasn't happened. I need to do a lot of house stuff, I need to pack, I need to take my walk, I need to drive to the airport … all of that stuff takes time. Waking up a couple hours early doesn't help much, since my husband is still sleeping. All I've accomplished is resurrecting the BlackBerry and doing one load of laundry. Vacuuming makes noise. Packing means I need to be in the bedroom. It's too dark to walk.

I'm too rattled to write anything coherent, as this post clearly proves!

Anyway, I did manage to walk yesterday in town. If you're a Facebook friend you saw the photo. And if you're not a Facebook friend, why aren't you? (If you scroll down the left sidebar of this page, you'll find a link to Facebook me.)

The advantage of walking in town became very clear to me about half an hour into the walk: public restrooms! That's not something we have out here in the Middle of Nowhere, so you really have to plan ahead. Or learn to cop a squat, something I've not managed to do very well. Yet. Practice makes perfect.

My brother will be fetching me at the airport tonight and the weekend will be emotional and sweet and offer, maybe, a little more closure to the events of the past month. If I have time to blog and something to say, I probably will. If not, well, I'll be back next week. Behave yourselves!

Purging

No, not binge-and-purging, the other kind, the kind that's all over the cable channels these days. Niecy Nash started it (I think) with Clean House, and it's now evolved into that Hoarding show that I can't even bring myself to watch.

I'm not a hoarder. Well, except for yarn maybe. But it's neatly contained and I swear I had plans for it when I bought it. I've been able to let go of a lot of yarn over the years, and I think I could probably get rid of some more, but I'm in one of those inert places where I can't do much more than is vital for our day-to-day existence.

In addition to the daily walk, which takes an hour, I've done very little around the house. Yesterday, in order to make myself feel as though I'd accomplished something, I unsubscribed from some e-mails, cutting the virtual clutter by about 60 percent!

When I switched ISPs last summer, I dropped a lot of e-mail newsletter subscriptions. In the last month, I've found myself skimming the remaining ones, or deleting them without opening them at all. There are a couple I think I'll get back to, so I'm keeping them. All they're doing is taking up hard drive space. The rest? Gone. All the political ones are gone. I'm active locally in my Democratic women's group and that's enough right now. I don't need the DCCC, the DSC and OFA asking me for my time and money, both of which are in short supply lately. Especially the money.

Speaking of the local Dems, I'm "working" today at our party headquarters. We've never had a headquarters during a mid-term election, but this one is apparently important enough that the Executive Committee rustled up a location, stocked it with signs and stickers and badges, oh my, and staffed it with volunteers. Like me. All I need is my knitting and the BlackBerry and a couple of magazines. And maybe the iPod. And this remote control. (Did you see The Jerk?) I'll be good for the day.

The down side to a day of service is, when do I walk? I could take some time during the day, lock up for lunch and walk around town for an hour. That might be fun, actually. Or I might have to get it done tonight. Dinner is ready, reruns from last night. I made enough vegetable-beef soup for a dozen guests, and there's only two of us. Soup's better the second night anyway.

Which will it be? Stay tuned …

Four in a row!

I promise I won't count down my daily walks indefinitely, but it's very helpful to me to do so early in the game. Consistency may be the hobgoblin (I said 'hobgoblin!' And it's almost Halloween!) of little minds, but it also is the best (perhaps only) way to create change in one's life. And believe me, changing from working in a garden to sitting on my ass is not the way to change one's body.

I don't think it's an even trade, this walking thing. The garden work was labor-intensive and took much more time. Maybe the month or so of rest I took as the garden work was dwindling was a good thing. I'm always looking for ways to trick my body into releasing lard. Maybe it won't remember the digging and planting and hoeing and weeding, and we'll just start from the sitting-on-my-ass part.

September was supposed to be very different from the way it turned out. The ass-sitting came as a result of my dad's sudden death. It turned out to be more than just sitting. It was napping and eating and actually being pretty much a zombie, and it's really not over. I'm told by family and friends on the one hand that it 'takes time,' and on the other to 'move on with your life.'

I guess I'm not quite there yet. I'm still in the taking time part, but I'm beginning to wonder how much time it's going to take. One of my friends says it doesn't get better, it gets different. So, so true.

Anyway.

Yes, it's fuzzy and crooked and I should have edited it. So, sue me. Heh.

I've been taking my Blackberry with me when I walk, and posting a picture on Facebook as I'm trudging along. Yesterday started out grey and dreary and I just wanted to get it over with. At the 1.5-mile mark, I wondered if it was going to rain before I got home. Then a half mile from the house, the sun broke out. It lasted only a few minutes, and must have been responsible for pushing our high temperature above the 50-degree mark. And it was glorious. I felt very happy for those few minutes, in a way I haven't felt in quite some time. I wish it could have lasted a little longer, but decided I should probably be grateful for the moment.

The weather here will be improving later this week, just in time for me to leave the state. I'm heading to the land of perpetually nice weather (Florida, unless they're having hurricanes), for the second memorial service. I hope when that's over I can really begin to get out of this dark place and be glad my dad is in a better one.

Even with highER speed internet access ...

my computer life can be slow.

Tethering the Blackberry to the computer affords me a vastly improved
internet experience, but sometimes – like this morning, for instance –
there are inexplicable glitches. Right now, for instance, the Blogger
Dashboard refuses to present a screen in which I can create a new post.

As my mother used to say, "There's more than one way to skin a cat."
Thank goodness for the ability to e-mail a blog post.

(One of these days I'm going to have to look up the origin of that
weird expression. I never questioned it when she said it, and she was
always right. There IS more than one way to do just about anything!)

I've been taking advantage of highER online speeds this weekend to
sign myself up for online banking and bill paying. Should my husband
and I decide to head south this winter, we'll need to be able to take
care of business no matter where we land. So far, so good. Why haven't
I done this before?

Oh, right, painfully slow dial-up. Heh.

I also found out that I could register my Kroger Plus card at the
Kroger website and load digital coupons to it. Who knew? I probably
should read those little mailers they send out once in a while, I'm
sure they've told me about this feature.

In this day and age, when we depend so much on thousands of dollars'
worth of electronic equipment for information and entertainment, it's
great to know you can save $3 on toilet paper without cutting out or
even presenting a coupon.

Nothing can speed up my walking, it seems. But at least I'm out there
doing it. So far this month I'm three for three, three miles each day.
I don't see any reason not to continue. It's going to be a little
chilly today – upper 50s for a high – but I have a basket of
headbands, hats and mittens ready and waiting for cool weather.

There goes that excuse.

Friday Quote Day

Discipline is making the choice

between what you want now

and what you want most.

~ Author Unknown

I'm not so sure I like the word "discipline," but I like – and am comfortable with – the concept of choice. I'd rather think not think of myself as an unruly delinquent. Discipline belongs in middle-school classrooms, not grown-ups' kitchen pantries.

Last night we did indeed have pizza, and it was my favorite variety: pesto sauce with mozzarella, fresh sliced tomatoes, kalamata olives, onions and grilled chicken, sprinkled with feta. I had just one slice.

By 8 p.m. I was a little hungry. I'd been alternately knitting and playing BlackBerry solitaire while watching television multitasking. I wished for ice cream, but none appeared, so I had a half cup of applesauce with a little cinnamon mixed in. By 9 p.m. I was ready to read for a while and go to sleep, still a little hungry but not uncomfortably so.

It's okay to be hungry. Meals are so much more satisfying when I am ready to eat, rather than when I eat by the clock. But I'd rather not go to bed hungry. I think maybe I need to eat dinner later in the day (we usually eat around 5:30). I'll have to convince my husband that scheduling dinner for my needs is more important than watching The Ed Show.

Or Colbert Report reruns.