59/365 - It Slices! It Dices! ;o)

This "Kitchen Machine" was a generous and thoughtful (combination birthday and Christmas) gift to me from Donald's parents.  We've already used it to help mix bread dough, grate carrots, and slice vegetables for soup.  It works great!  I'm sure we'll continue to get a lot of use out of it.  (I have some recipes in mind...)

Thank you very much!  :o)

I feel like I'm forgetting something. . . Oh, well!

I turned thirty over the weekend! This last year, I'd become increasingly conscious of the approach of the big 3-O, so I wasn't shocked when it finally arrived. Somehow, 30 seems less "awful" (if you know what I mean) than 29. I won't lie-- I don't feel thirty, and I can't really understand how I got here already (I mean, I was only 18 just a few years ago!)-- but at least now that it's here, I can finally let it slip further into the back of my mind. (I hope. (g))

Also: I was thoroughly spoiled by my family on Friday, and then by Donald on Saturday. (My actual birthday was on Saturday, but on Friday night we had a little get-together for my birthday and Mom's, which is later this week.) Thank you, everyone!

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I've exercised (more than incidental exercise-- housework and our almost-daily walk to the pond) two days in a row, now, and I've also started limiting my soft drink in-take to one can a day. Two days of exercise is hardly something to brag about, but at least it's a step in the right direction. Of course, the hard part will be keeping it up. I guess the next step might be not buying more of my favorite colas, once I've drunk up what we have in the house. I don't think a can of Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew a day is a terribly bad vice (g), but I don't need those extra calories (or the caffeine), and I'd probably be healthier if I just cut it out of my daily life and let it be an occasional treat instead of a daily habit. We'll see. . . I've cut the cola out of my diet before, but somehow it managed to sneak back in.

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I've had the washing machine going for two days, now. (Well, ok, I'm not running it all night, and I did get a late start on it today. . .) That's a lot of laundry for a household of two (+ two dogs with their own doggy blankets and towels). Yesterday was mostly just our regular washing, which I always seem to do on Mondays. Today, I've started catching up on some of the "special" washing that's been piling up. Anything that doesn't get washed regularly or that needs special attention-- table cloths, decorative bits of fabric, gardening gloves, etc.-- usually gets left until later. "Later" sometimes ends up being months later. If I ever manage to work my way through all that stuff, I should regain the use of a few more laundry baskets, which ought to come in handy. ;o)

This Holiday Weekend

It's hard for me to remember, sometimes, that this isn't a holiday week for some readers.
Here's what we've been up to:

Wednesday was Donald's 36th birthday. It was a regular workday, but we still managed to find some time in the morning and evening for fun, and he got to talk to both his parents and his brother on the computer. (If you'd like to talk to people for free over the Internet, do check out Skype. The sound quality is impressive-- better than through a telephone, I think.)

Wednesday afternoon, my parents were out in the clearing burning a pile of brush while Grandpa L. continued discing (disking?) nearby. We went out and spoke with them for a while (and helped gather a few more things to throw on the fire). It looks like they're going to move forward with their house plans, so there should be some interesting changes in the local landscape, soon.

Thursday was (of course) Thanksgiving, which we spent with my father's side of the family. All the aunts, uncles and cousins were in attendance, including those who live in Georgia. They brought their bulldog ("Gertie", if I'm spelling it correctly) down with them, and she provided the entertainment once the kids (my two young cousins) had gone to visit their other grandmother.

Friday, we did our Day-After-Thanksgiving shopping from home, which in some ways has been nice, but in other ways, it's been less than ideal. Also, though it seems like it ought to be better, not having to get up early, stand in long lines, deal with traffic and possibly be jostled by complete strangers, that's all part of the experience, and without it things just don't feel as much like the kick-off of the holiday season.

The day after Thanksgiving is the traditional day for many (most?) people in the U.S. to put up/decorate the Christmas tree, but as I wrote in the previous entry, I'm thinking of putting that off for another day or two. No sense doing it when I'm not in the mood to enjoy it, right?

In Donald's family, as in most Swedish families, they don't decorate the tree until Christmas Eve morning, but they then leave it there until January 13th. (I think. . .) That's definitely a difference in our traditions! I think Mom was always eager to get the Christmas tree down soon after Christmas day. . .

This afternoon, we went to Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jim's Iron Bowl party. While most of the others watched the game, Carrie, Kimberly, Donald and I played card games. It was nice to see everyone, and fortunately, the "right" team won, so everyone who actually cared about it was happy and easier to live with than if they'd lost. ;o)

The downside: There was a group photo, and when I saw it later that night (at home), I was less than pleased with my part of it. Gross. I don't really look like that, do I? (Please lie to me, if necessary. Otherwise, I may well cry.) Seriously, I don't look that bad in the mirror. . . I know that if I lose some weight I'll be somewhat more photogenic, but in the meantime, I'd much rather be behind the camera than in front of it.

Okay. I know I'm not completely unattractive. There are probably even people who'd happily trade bodies/general physical condition with me. That said, I'm still feeling fairly depressed about this, and I'm not looking forward to being forced into family photos this Christmas. I certainly won't be printing them up for display in my own house.

Anyway. Putting vanity aside.

All in all, a nice holiday weekend, despite unflattering photos and rain. And I definitely have a lot to be thankful for, even if I do look chubby in photographs. I should be thankful to live in such a land of plenty that chubbiness is the problem instead of not having enough to eat-- and I am thankful for that, among so many, many other things. It's good to be reminded to take the time to remember all those blessings. . .

"Blue Screen of Death" and so on

Yesterday afternoon, our "main computer" (not the one I use most of the time, these days) came up with the dreaded blue screen. Donald tried a bunch of things I don't understand well enough to name, but all to no avail. Fortunately, the company he does freelance web design work for just happens to specialize in this sort of thing, so they're having a look at it. (I really, really hope they can get it back in working order without our having to lose too much stuff! Back up your computers regularly, folks! (g))

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I've got a slightly sore throat again, today. Allergies or something else? It's probably not improved by the fact that I haven't been drinking much water, lately, so (raising my glass) here's to health! ;o)

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I just celebrated another birthday, last week. (Thank you, everyone, for the well-wishes and the thoughtful gifts!) Only one more year before I'll have to change that blogger blurb describing myself as "twenty-something". . . The years really do sneak up on you, don't they?

Caution: Now I will blather on for a few paragraphs. It's really not worth reading, but I don't have the heart to press the "delete" key. . .

When did you first realize that you were never really going to feel "different" as an adult-- that you'll probably feel essentially the same at eighty as you did at eleven? Ok, some things do change, I guess, but you always feel like the same person, don't you?

I guess that as a kid I thought I'd magically transform at some point. Maybe the fault likes with the whole "little girl blossoming into a woman" type of thing. (g) They never tell you, though, that underneath the obvious external changes-- despite the frenzied accumulation of knowledge that continues for a handful of years-- you don't change all that much. (Or, if you do, it must happen so gradually that I somehow missed it. . . Or maybe it wiped out my memory of the former me?)

I think I was in high school when I understood that I was always going to be me, for better or worse (or for better and worse, with both my my personal set of talents and tendencies toward certain faults). There wasn't going to be a moment of exponential change in my personality. I'd go on growing and learning, bit by bit, as I had for the previous however-many years of my life, but at the core, I would remain mostly the same person. Just like we all do.

Well, that's ok. I'd rather be myself, anyway. I wouldn't know how to be someone else. ;o)