ut anything that lets me eat more avocado is at the top of my list.

Right?!

Budgetbytes has some really promising recipes, although I don't think I've made any yet.

House-ma to all who need it!

Y'all, I'm so wiped out. I got up at 5:30 this morning to drive up to a winery in Sonoma with my sister, where we spent the next 5 hours working a draft dog test. They hook the dogs up to a little cart and put weight in it, and make them do obedience work, and hike a mile on a fire road, and work an obstacle course. The dogs were great, the weather was fine, the winery was lovely (I saw a jackrabbit in the wild!), and we had a ton of great food. And at the end we got a private wine-tasting and tour.

So. Exhausted.

But if you ever want a bunch of people to stop and visit your dogs, go to a winery with a couple of St Bernards and a Great Dane. So much socializing.

Dinner was half an apple and some peanut butter. And half a beer.

Sounds like a wonderful day, Consuela.

Typo, hope you are OK!!

Jesus, Windi, that is horrid. I'm glad your supervisor came in. That sounds bad.

Thanks for the -ma, guys! I'm going to slounge for the rest of the evening, have a glass of wine, and distract myself, then work like hell tomorrow (to distract myself.)

House~ma to everyone!

don't actually enjoy the process of cooking all that much

This is me. So, so very me. For the month that Pete was in the UK, I kinda lived on fancy cheese and deli meats, with lots of fruit and the occasional salad. Needless to say, I am thrilled when friends who like to cook visit and take over my kitchen.

I like baking. I like the transformation. I'm not a fan of cooking, as much--it seems less chemistry and more engineering.

I kind of laughed over being needed to figure out how a new universal remote works at my parents' today, given that Dad used to be a TV repairman and I'm one of the least electronically-adept people ever.

Ahh! I just saw a commercial where Mr. PotatoHead goes to the grocery store and buys up lots and lots of bags of potato chips, then he and Mrs. PotatoHead drive off into the sunset in a convertible while EATING POTATO CHIPS. It's CANNIBALISM, PEOPLE! LIKE THE M&Ms!! IT'S WRONG.

Jesus, Windi, that is horrid. I'm glad your supervisor came in. That sounds bad.

Nothing compared to what New England has faced this year. But bad driving conditions are bad driving conditions, no matter what kind of winter happens. And I admit to being sore all over from tensing my whole body as I drove. Bosslady felt really bad for me last year when I ended up sleeping on the couch there overnight because of a blizzard that started pretty much the moment I pulled into the driveway. Me, my first concern is getting there safely then second concern is getting home safely. If I have to sack out on the couch and delay in order to get the second, that's ok. It's this business of not being able to make it out of town, car getting stuck and having to abandon it (happened several years ago, before I knew what thunder snow is), that bugs me.

Rental~ma, Strix.

Selling~ma, Plei.

I'm glad your run went well, Pix.

Avocado lovers, after a week of experimentation (grocery store has 'em on sale for $0.68) I settled on a formula for scrumptious chicken avocado salad. 6 oz. chicken breast, diced; 1/2 avocado, mashed; 2 tbs salsa; 2 tbs fat free Greek style yogurt. For the person on a strict calorie restriction, served over sliced cucumbers; for the person who needs to stop losing weight and maybe gain some back, two sandwiches with some really stout whole grain bread. No empty calories and no feeling deprived for anyone.

Also I warned bosslady in case their day program thinks the weird color means the chicken salad has gone off. They will totally kick up a fuss if they don't think they like something. Yeah, as wacky as it has been getting all the staff at the house on board with the new healthy eating protocol, the day program. Is. Not. Helping. One day they sent us a memo saying "How come this person only had a yogurt and some plain iceberg lettuce for lunch today? Don't you think that's taking the diet to extremes? Maybe you should check with a nutritionist." Bosslady responded "How come she left the house with yogurt, fruit, a half sandwich, string cheese, and a salad made of chopped romaine, carrots, and red cabbage plus dressing but then only had her yogurt left by lunch time and apparently got into somebody else's iceberg lettuce? Her physician referred us to a registered dietician, and the dietician looked over the menus here and said we are on the right track." (Ok, she worded it more professionally, and for some reason she wouldn't add "P.S. Here's a fun fact: anyone can claim to be a 'nutritionist'; dieticians have actual qualifications." llike I wanted her to.)

Windsparrow it sounds like getting staff on board with new diets is really hard.

In terms of blood sugar - nothing today was deadly. Even my low of 58 is "concerning". No real long term danger until you hit low 50 or 40s (40s there is a risk of brain damage - not huge risk but significant.) 58 and sixties mainly is a case of temporary impairment of judgement plus extreme irritability. I ended up in 85 which is really a good bedtime number. I am cutting the 24 hour insulin dose again. All this constant adusting of insulin dose is a result of cutting the amount of food I eat. I gradually titerated down from 36 to 16, and finally stopped getting occasional number in the sixties. The problem is that now that I've lost a signifcant amount of weight, the same insulin does that worked fine with the amount of food I'm eating is now too high. I guess less body weight means the insulin does is more concentrated. So I'm not at the point yet where I have to cut food again to keep losing weight. I think that will come if I manage to lose another 15 pounds or so. But I definitely need to cut the insulin dose in order not to increase the food from the amount that has caused weight loss so far.