Sunday. . . or What I'll Do to Avoid College Students

Parsnips, nutritious & delicious!

After the mania of screaming the Phelps team to victory (the satellite came back, I suspect it was powered by the sheer awesomeness of Michael Phelps), I found myself getting in bed at 1:00 a.m. Since the lovely students have descended on our small town, I rolled out at 6:15. After a little waking-up process, I managed to get to WalMart at 6:40(Oh, how I hate them! But if you need Q-tips and shallots, where else can you go?). I grabbed the old pocket book and found it to be quite light. Yep, I had left my wallet in my gym bag. Hooray! Drive back home, get wallet, kick myself, say "I'm sorry" to Al Gore, and toddle back to WalMart. Now it's 7:00 and I'm starting to get a little edgy because there are more people there than I'd like.

I did find all the produce I wanted, along with some toiletries. Surprisingly, the produce, for the most part, did not look as if it had been resting up for a week-and-a-half. (Thanks, college students. They are good for something besides driving like bats out of hell.)

I'm very excited about a little project I have planned for today. Cooking. I'm cooking some black-eyed peas from dried, making some Fiber One muffins from the mix, and roasting some veggies for a lovely soup. Okay get this: butternut squash, shallots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, pumpkin (the only veggie from a can!), and a little evaporated fat free milk. These will be staples for the week. I'm very excited. I've never roasted these veggies before. I'll holla back with the results of these culinary endeavors.

Fun This Week

Hey, y'all. It's been a good week. I enjoyed the variety of things I did. Monday and Tuesday were spent at a Geogebra seminar. Google Geogebra, if you're an educator or a nerd. It's a very good tool that unites algebra with the geometry. It will be used in my class a lot in the upcoming year. It seems to be really useful in helping students visualize the meaning of the equations of lines and how they go with the graphs of those lines. It'll be good for all levels. I'm very excited about implementing it, since I'll have access to laptop carts!

I'm finally almost through (about 10 pages to go) with In Cold Blood. If you think I've been reading this a while, TRUE. I'm really bad about NOT sitting down to read. I'll watch A LOT of TV, but reading seems to slip. You've got to devote all your attention to it. I can watch TV mindlessly, while doing any of a number of things. No excuse, I'm just sayin'. What's next? Maybe, finally, Lonesome Dove or The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency? Not sure.

Today, I did 4.18 miles on the treadmill. For some, that wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket, but for me, it's a TON. It was pretty difficult. I have run/walked 6 of the 7 days this week! I am so excited about that. If I can keep something like this up, I'll be good to go come August. I'm planning on running outside tomorrow, EARLY so I won't die. Mercy, it's hot here.

Stayed with Snoopy Wednesday and Thursday. Who knew she's quite the chef? Wednesday we had lemon pepper chicken and Jamaican jerk chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes. Delicious. Thursday, we had a skirt-steakish situation. That was really good, marinated in some steakhouse marinade. But the best was rosemary corn, roasted on the grill. You take little globs of butter and smush them (yes, technical term) on the washed corn on the cob. Then take rosemary and sprinkle it, letting it stick to the smushed butter. I think she grilled it for about thirty minutes. After it's through grilling, you let it sit for about ten minutes. That rosemary will totally permeate all the way to the cob! That may have been the best corn I've eaten. That was accompanied by a lovely baked potato. Yum is right.

I'm gonna go do a little cleaning.

Have a great Saturday, or whatever day you're reading this!