The Fever Has Broken

Ahhh.....the fever that was Yahoo Messenger has broken. I've made a few new friends in distant places that I enjoy catching, but the obsessive nature of the damn thing seems to have passed. And I have ABSOLUTELY NO INTENTION WHATSOEVER to succumb to the blandishments of my co-workers and their pages at MySpace.com. I have simply told them, "My God, you DO want me to show up at work, don't you?"

At any rate, now that I am capable of dragging myself away from my computer screen for entire hours at a time, I have actually managed something like tidying up the living room and the spare room. Mind you, I've got Fibber McGee's closets right now, but everything is relatively tidy otherwise. I've done dishes and I've cooked. I had a couple of the girls from work over last week to kill a couple hours between the time they got off work and the time our boss was taking us all to Cheesecake Factory for a little team bonding and wasn't worried they'd think poorly of my housekeeping. It was fun.

With the turn in the weather, I've been catching up on my sleep. Hours and hours of lovely, peaceful sleep. It's been heavenly to burrow into warm flannel sheets and sleep the sleep of the just. An added bonus of all that sleeping is that you can't eat if you are sleeping. At least I can't eat in my sleep! Although, it does seem that my sleep-deprived, obsessive Yahoo Messengering phase has had a lasting effect on my appetite. I turn to a cup of coffee or warm tea instead of a nibble in the evenings. A can of diet soda or a glass of sugar-free lemonade or limeade with a splash of sugar-free raspberry Torani syrup does the trick. Being under some severe budget restrictions doesn't hurt either. When it comes down to a choice of buying potato chips or milk, potato chips become a luxury item! Even during PMS I was able to resist.

Budget restrictions are a good thing, too, for getting the old pantry and the freezer cleaned out. After all, I bought that stuff originally because it looked good to eat! So, I've gotten creative with what's on hand. That's a fun cooking challenge for anyone that likes to cook, and it's a testament to having a well-stocked larder. What I've discovered is that there is very little that I cook, except for desserts, that doesn't require onions in some way. I actually ran out of onions one day last week. This led to the creative use of dried minced onions and green onion dip in a couple of things, with pleasant results. (I am pleased to say that I have restocked my onion supply for the coming couple of weeks) Rice and noodles are my friends, as is soup. It's a good time of year to explore the comforts of cabbage and noodles and bubble and squeak. When I'm feeling posh, I've got shrimp and coconut milk to make shrimp curry over basmati rice. Canned great northern beans, diced tomatoes, chicken broth and that old Parmesan rind in the freezer are the makings of a filling, comforting soup. Frozen peas, chopped broccoli and chopped spinach are nice additions to a whole lot of things, just to bump up the veggie content. And the nice thing about this stick to your ribs cuisine is that it takes less of it to stick to my ribs. Which seem to be shrinking. If it is fall and I am shrinking, that's a good thing! Usually, it goes the other direction.

I do love fall. The crisp air. The scent of apples and fallen leaves. The outrageous show of color as the trees change from green to a riotous display of gold, orange and crimson. I even like those cold, rainy days of late fall that are made for sleeping late and lounging around in your pajamas until noon, at which time you change into your sweatpants and sweatshirt.

Got out my copy of "Thurber Country". I'd forgotten how funny James Thurber's writing is. I sit there, all by myself, laughing out loud sometimes at some of his turns of a phrase for the situation it conjures up in my head.

That's about as much of an update as I've got. I think I'll go play with my Outlook address book. Maybe THIS will be the year I can print labels for my Christmas cards! There's always hope.....