Do you Pinterest? And other random thoughts

Have you heard of Pinterest? It's bookmarking in the cloud and it's great! You can create boards related to your interests (like organizing your bookmarks in folders) and it's all based on visuals, so when you go back and look at your page you can instantly see each pin. I'm still new to it, but have (so far) found it very useful for saving recipes and knitting patterns.

My inkjet printer is located in our second-story office, above the garage. Air conditioning is available, but to save money reduce our carbon footprint we don't use that space much when it's this hot. I have folders of .pdf patterns and recipes on my laptop, and – when I need to use a recipe, for instance – have learned to put the computer out of the way of drips and flour and spatters, oh my. Having recipes and patterns stored in the cloud is even better. A hard drive crash won't destroy the files and they're always gonna be there.

Oh, and Pinterest is free. And you can follow other peoples' boards to help you populate your own. It's quite useful.

Denise, Denise, where are you? I have to leave town for a couple of days, but I'll take your book with me, ready to address, and mail it from wherever I happen to be. Thank you, BlackBerry, I love, love, love being connected virtually all the time. (Drives my husband batshit-crazy!)

Yesterday was a great day. When I let the dog out, the cool, clear morning whispered, "Wanna go for a walk?" So I did. Three miles, half of which were jogged. I'd love to say I ran, but my running speed is slower than some people's walking pace, so jog it is. I did half a mile on the way to my turnaround point and jogged the entire third mile. It's amazing how little fitness I've lost the past month, when I only walked two days.

I tracked everything I ate (I use Calorie Counter by FatSecret, a free BlackBerry app), and I ate healthful meals that fit into my calorie goals. I don't intend to weigh, measure and count for the rest of my life, but for the first day of August, I did just fine. And as I wrote yesterday, I want to continue this trend for a month, to get back in the groove. One day at a time seems to work very well for stopping drinking, do you suppose I can use it to encourage a more positive food-and-exercise regimen?

I felt so good at the end of the day, knowing I'd been true to my goals.

As for the rest of the day, it was food, food, food, capped off after dinner by mowing the yard. As I mentioned earlier, I'm leaving town today and when I get back I'll be getting things ready for weekend guests. I was able to cross "Mow" off the to-do list by just sucking it up and getting it done last night. It was nearly dark when I came in, but at least I won't have to fit it into the 24 hours from Thursday noon (when I get home) to Friday noon (when our company arrives).

The food, food, food was:

• Picking green beans, tomatoes, celery, peppers and zucchini
• Prepping zucchini, peppers and celery (and more!) to make zucchini relish (which I will do this morning)
• Canning a few jars of tomatoes (so they wouldn't rot while I'm gone)
• Making pesto (second cutting of basil, should have a couple more before the first frost)
• Baking bread (because we didn't have any for bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches, which was on the dinner menu)

So I was busy all day, a very satisfying start to what I hope is my turnaround month. How about you? Was the first day/Monday of the month a good one, or was it just another day?