Can't Take the Heat?

Our trainer cancelled our track workout tonight due to high heat and humidity. Oh yeah... we like her. In its place I did a quick air-conditioned treadmill workout, threw in some abs, and was showered before 7. Nice. 

Today was a great day. I was contacted for four different writing projects. Maybe that fairy dust I sprinkled in the air is finally taking effect. 

It's going to be a packed month. Our niece arrives tomorrow for a 4-day visit, as she does each summer.  I've got interviews to conduct for articles, a book proposal to get out, sample book chapters to write, a marketing plan to update and implement, and I'm just itching to rip the tired wallpaper off in the front bedroom and transform the space into my writing room. I'm thinking bright, cheerful colors, like a turquoise or an apple green. (Blair? Honey? Pick yourself up off the floor.) And I'll be putting self-esteem and two decades worth of dieting on the line as I attend my 20th high school reunion at the end of the month.

As I said, busy.

Running helps. While it is yet another thing to cross off the "to do" list, it's a focused task. One foot in front of the other. There is no multi-tasking, no checking e-mails, no scanning incoming calls. It's just breath and effort. 

I've got an early morning trail run with my name on it. Nighty-night.

We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties...

I miss the days of paying bills by dropping a check in the mail. This morning I received two e-mails from an Internet account provider. The first said the annual payment for my account was due (true) and my account would be charged $1890.00.

Umm... hello what? The message went on to say that the expiration date on my supplied credit card was incorrect and the transaction couldn't go through. Thank God.

The next message said the annual payment on my account was due and I'd be charged $75--the correct amount. Same message about incorrect expiration date. That's odd, because this company has had the same card of mine on file for years.

I e-mailed the service and heard back almost immediately that a batch of incorrect e-mails had been released, and to ignore them. They asked that I update my credit card info and pay online. (This isn't spam, if that's what you're thinking. I went through the site, not the e-mails, to handle all this.)

I updated my credit card, changing the expiration date to the correct month, and hit "Pay Invoice." I recieved an error message that my expiration date was incorrect. I corrected it AGAIN and AGAIN hit "Pay Invoice." Same error message appeared.

Okey-dokey... now I'm ticked. Is my account being charged twice? Has it not been paid? Who the hell knows? All I know is I'm 20 minutes in at this point and longing for the days when I wrote checks by hand. It's like with our phones. Our cordless phones are gasping their last breaths and it's a 50-50 shot if they'll allow us to actually answer a call. Add that in with a cell phone service that covers our house only sporadically and it's practically like living in prarie times around here.

Upshot... we bought new cordless phones and they're charging. The service verified my account has been paid and charged only once. LIfe goes on.

I just wish it would sometimes go on with a bit less technology...

Going Vegan... Maybe

I stopped eating red meat and pork in 1988. I initially did it on a trial basis, just to see if I could. Surprisingly, I never missed it and never had any desire to go back.

Cutting out chicken and turkey, which I did around 1995-96, was harder. Blair and I ate a lot of chicken-based meals together, finding food at a Wendy's or McDonald's became more of a challenge and frankly, Thanksgiving without turkey meat sucks. (I tried Tofurkey which is similar in taste and texture to regurgitated stomach snot. Don't do it.)

I always planned to either cut out or ease back on seafood, which I haven't yet. I love me some crabcakes and lobster! But I watched an episode of Hell's Kitchen where chefs had to drop live lobsters into boiling water and I was all but screaming at them, "Don't do it!" A little hypocritical, considering I eat lobster (dunked in hot butter... oh yum.) So I think I'll start easing off on seafood by no longer eating crab and lobster.

But I've been getting a lot of signals from the Universe lately about vegan. A friend of mine read "Skinny Bitch" and he and his wife are trying Vegan for a month. I'm waiting for him to report back to me. I've recently met several vegans and am semi-following a vegan blog.

Vegan scares me. It seems like a lot of work. But I might compromise (off-putting to the true vegans, I know.) I'm not so much one that believes it's wrong to eat animals as I am someone who believes it's wrong to torture animals before we eat them, which is exactly what happens with standard meat, eggs, etc. I don't want to eat tortured animals from a moral standpoint, but also from a health standpoint. I don't think eating something raised in suffering can be good for me.

Which is why I'm quite interested in the "natural" food wave that's sweeping America. Blair has made some inquiries to local farms about buying meat and eggs. My understanding is these farms raise animals the "old-fashioned" way, with pastures and room to roam. I'd forgo vegan and eat dairy and even chicken/turkey (red meat just no longer appeals to me) if we bought from them.

Still thinking things through. I'd like to read Skinny Bitch and some nutrition books and do more research before committing to anything. But giving up meat has really not been difficult and soy-meat products are MUCH tastier now then they used to be and I would assume they will continue to improve. So stay tuned...

Fridays Off

I could get used to this. Blair's office has gone to summer hours which means they work longer during the week but get Friday's off. Since he works 10-11 hour days as a norm, the "long" hours don't bother us and it's great having him home on Friday's. It's like having my own personal man servant around the house. This morning he already went to the bank, dry cleaners, and store, and he's taking the girls to the vet at 10:30 to get their nails trimmed.

I'm sitting in the library and I noticed a bulb in the light above me had burned out.

"Honey," I called, "Can you change the light?"

Bam-boom, light changed and best of all, Princess didn't have to move a muscle.

I wonder if I can con him into fixing lunch....