Rain, Rain, rain, rain, snow, Rain

No photographic proof of the rain, but Pubsgal said it all.  And it seems there’s no end in sight.

This was the scene Sunday when I got home from church.  Thought I wasn’t going to be able to make my trek to the Bay Area.  But soon it stopped snowing AND STARTED RAINING.  and all was right with the world.  sigh.  I’m trying to have a good attitude about this neverending rain.

Actually, Monday and Tuesday in the Bay Area were relatively rain-free.  Had nice visits with both Mom and Dad, and the highlight of the trip was (squeee!!!) the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars was on the tv when I got into my hotel room.  Yes, its a little embarrassing that that was the highlight.  But did you all see the Karate Kid dancing?  And Kirstey Alley?  Yeah.  She did okay for a 60 year old fat lady.  Hey I can say that because I’m 56, and you know how they say dogs and owners start to look alike?  Yeah, I feel just like Monk looks:

Not sure what all he ate on the two days I was out of town.  I DO know what I ate.  Too much.  All delish, but too much.  So much that I didn’t want to blog anymore.  Its embarrassing when people tout you as a maintainer and you still have food issues.

But today was an excellent day (except for the rain.)  So I thought I’d share that with you all.  I was going to fast, but then realized I had way too much to do, and that might not be a good idea.  So decided to go with a very limited meal plan.  And I stuck to it.  Started off late with a bowl of spackle 2.0 at ten am.  Four hours later had a lunch of cottage cheese/crushed pineapple/walnuts.  Four hours later I followed my own advice to Helen and had a delicious piece of fish.  I had told Helen that when I was really trying to cut back on the calories I tended to eat fish and shrimp (most protein for the least calories.)  This was a nice piece of red snapper.  I usually fix my fish the same way and it is always excellent.  Spray a pan with Pam and sprinkle in seasonings of choice (garlic salt or Mrs. Dash  are my two regular choices.)  Heat the pan over medium high heat, and then add the fish.  Spray the top of the fish with some more pam and seasonings.  Depending on how thick the fish is, cook for 3-5 minutes on one side, flip and cook 2-4 minutes on the other side.

When fish is done, but pan is still hot, remove from heat and squirt the juice of one whole lemon over the fish while it is still in the pan.

Had the fish with a pear salad on the side.  Because I didn’t feel like cooking anything else.  Otherwise I would have had butternut squash ‘fries’ with the fish.

And finished the evening with a bowl of my homemade yogurt.  Doesn’t it look yummy?   I keep trying to convince you all to try this.

Here’s how I really had it–cinnamon splenda mixed in, with a little muesli, walnuts, and 8 chocolate chips.  With a cup of tea on the side.  I started drinking tea in the evening when all that good tea came out at Christmas.  I really enjoy it, and it seems to signal the end of the evening (aka the end of eating) to me.  I make sure I only drink decaf tea in the evening.

Its interesting to me that I can fairly easily go back and forth between eating too much and too rich food, and then switch back to eating very carefully and rather stringently the very next day.  Like when I came back from Africa.  I will say that you can’t maintain if you have too many of these over-eating days.  That’s kind of where I am right now.

Memory’s a funny thing.  That’s the advantage of keeping a journal (about almost anything.) I was thinking today that it had been AGES since I exercised.  But actually I worked out at the gym on Sunday morning, and took a nice walk (in the rain) with Noah on Sunday afternoon.  I didn’t exercise on the days out of town, unless you call getting a wheelchair in and out of my car a zillion times, and pushing my dad in said wheelchair all over town exercise.  Which I guess it actually is!  (Dad can still walk, but we both agree that it is much more enjoyable to take these excursions with a wheelchair.)

Speaking of rain (we were speaking of it, weren’t we?) Noah came home from the trainer’s looking like a mudpuppy!  But oh, what fun he had!  There was a horse in the next pen over, so many dogs to visit with, and best of all, because of all the rain, they had had a tree come down the night before!  and you know what that means.  Sticks and plenty of them.  The trainer tried to explain to me Noah’s ‘stick dance.’  Honestly, I don’t mind him getting messy when he has this much fun.  And he is tired out for DAYS afterwards.

Here’s another quilt technique I am trying out.  I saw a picture of an old antique quilt that was just rows and rows of strips surrounding a central square and thought it really looked neat.

The end.  25 shifts to go.