Friday, August 1, 2025

116.4 - the walking around offset the 1.5 donuts I had over the last few days. Surprising. DH is not doing his weekly weigh-in as he says he wants to get back on track. I hope he can keep out of the snacks. There is still a donut left as well as some snacks his sisters left from last weekend. I offered to trash them but he didn't want me to. Hmmm...

Easy trip back yesterday and we had leftovers from the night before we left for dinner. It started raining last night and is really cool and drippy right now. DH is supposed to golf today, but I think that will be a long shot. I will be doing laundry and taking Justice for a walk later once the rain stops. The weather forecasters promise a stellar weekend after this so we should just be happy that we are getting some rain as we need it. The storms that come through New England between fronts in the summer often bypass Cape Cod by going across the state in a northwest flow.

Not much else to report. Have a free Friday!

With a wind shift, we are now at an air quality index of 58, which is "moderate"ly bad. An improvement over yesterday's 190! Sedona by comparison is 34 today.

I was reading about the Canadian fires yesterday and came upon a not so fun fact - some of them have been burning since 2023. They smolder underground over winter and flare up in the spring. The article called them "zombie fires". I have heard of roots smoldering and reigniting in CA fires, but burning for 2 years and over winter is crazy to me.

My dad seems to be feeling better. I wish I knew what the answer was. But I fear there is no answer and this is the trade-off for him still being with us with the artificial urinary tract system he's left with. He's a trooper for sure.

Today I will clean out some closets to find Goodwill items. I figure the architect will need to look at said closets and I would rather not have her look at them as they are now... Given I don't live here full time, there's not a ton in them, but it's mostly things I didn't know where else to put, which always ends up looking like the hodgepodge it is. I also need to do some general cleaning.

Tonight I'm making a brothy tomato and rice soup I saw on NYT Cooking and grilled cheese sandwiches. It's only going to be in the 60s today, so a summery soup sounded good. I loathe cold soups (gazpacho, I'm looking at you - might as well eat salsa with a spoon), so this seemed like a lighter, warm, summer version.

I also need to figure out how to get a couple of plants out of a bed. One is a small deer eaten lilac and the other is a stubborn grass mound and neither wants to budge even with a sharp spade. This is where a strong husband would come in handy!

Off to find out where Kirby wandered to... take care all

Definitely strange to think that there is fire under the ground.

I don't like cold soups except for gazpacho which I agree is like salsa, but I like salsa. Funny story which I don't think I told you guys. The day we got to Madrid my SIL and I went to the store to get basics for the kitchen. She grabbed a carton of milk for coffee in the morning. I made my coffee the next day and started to put milk in it but it was dark! I looked more closely at the carton and saw the tomatoes on it - it was gazpacho. Needless to say I did not drink that cup of coffee. At the store we went to they only had shelf stable milk - not cartons in the refrigerated section. Those cartons were all gazpacho. It was actually fairly tasty though.

Haha!

Greetings all

The sun is trying to come out. Hoping for it. I have gallery duty this afternoon and it is always better if sunny. Meanwhile lazing about drinking coffee.

So last night's studio meeting was about as expected. Some of these people were totally entitled "Karens" who wanted to know why they were not consulted or get to vote or have more meetings etc. A couple I think get it as a business decision to better use our limited space but the Karens were only focused on what they wanted us to do for them. Oh well, it's done and we have advised these people that they have input on the redesigning of their space and we will work with them. I was proud of how our staff handled the controversy. After all the drama I stopped at the grocery for dinner and guess what? ended up with more carbs than usual.

CC that summer soup sounds good. I don't think of cold soup as soup - more like liquid salad. Good gazpacho is yummy but too much effort. A pox on that big grass plant. Those things are indeed almost impossible to remove. Can you cover it completely and kill it off? Guess what, strong husbands don't always do what they are asked to do.

Liz gazpacho in your coffee? Yuk how awful. So odd that fresh milk was hard to find. That was true in the Philippines - a pitcher of cream was actually canned milk. Made for gross coffee.

Please be careful all of you in the smoke zone. I had no idea those fires smoldered under the snow. No wonder they are so hard to fight. Reminds me of those fires in coal mines in Pennsylvania and Wyoming that burn underground for years.

DH is off to lunch at the Mexican restaurant so that will be dinner tonight. Good thing. On impulse I brought home some pork ribs from the deli. Not so good. They were really greasy. Headed for the trash.. One thing about being sleeved is that I have no reluctance in throwing unwanted food out. Even a donut.

Hmm DD why is it that our bodies can put on pounds rapidly but the other direction is slow as a glacier. At least for some of us. Mysterious. But your new pounds don't stick.

It is almost sunny. Time to get going.

Diane S

Yep - if the food isn't worth eating, it is time to chuck it! No problem for me either but DH has a difficult time doing that. There is still 1/2 of a chocolate donut in the fridge which he refuses to throw out.

Are those Zombie fires in areas with peat? If peat gets to burning several feet down it's very hard to put out.

It didn't mention peat, but it's possible!

Back from working out, and it feels good. I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon (getting established with a new PCP) but it was cancelled. It wasn't anything urgent, and was still rescheduled this month, so I kind of welcome not having the afternoon interrupted.

The music was great last night, but hard to see the band because the front of the stage was filled with people dancing. Which is a good thing. The difference between the audience the salsa band pulled in vs the jazz band is notable. Jazz trio audience looks mostly like me, white and "mature". Salsa audience way more diverse in age and ethnicity, and full of great dancers, all ages. I especially like seeing the folks in their late 70s/early 80s dancing with their longtime partners. It's beautiful.

Smoke haze and temps in the lower 70s. It's wonderful to have the windows open and the breeze flowing through. It will be a great day for some yardwork .

One upsetting moment today: I gained 4 pounds this week! What the %$&$? I weighed on 2 scales because I couldn't believe it. I don't typically retain water in this amount, but I cannot fathom that it could be anything else. My eating hasn't changed, my exercise is greater, I'm doing okay on protein, my bathroom habits are regular... I will cut out the ****tails and see what impact that has. So not losing my mind yet, but since April there has been a slow, upward tick in weight, and now this big jump. There is room to cut back on food, not so much volume, but density of calories. But I thought that was the bargain my body and I made, I would be a little chubby so I could still eat cheese and have dessert once in awhile. Is my body changing the rules again?!!! This battle goes on.

Peps would tell you the gain is from inflammation from the increased exercise! Keep on keeping on!