Post # WTF-ever

I don't want to write, but I will because I should share the tiny tidbits of my life, and, well, freaking go on a rant.

So- the Reader's Digest version (sort of):
I have a job, I'm a bus assistant, I get paid. But I don't really like it, I'm bored, I'm worried a kid will have a seizure and I have no freaking idea what to do about it except I know to call 911 if it lasts 5 minutes. Ah! Our girl has had two notable seizures actually, one lasting all of the 2 seconds it took for me to reach for the magnet that I'm supposed to theoretically wave across her chest to maybe possibly bring her out of it, and then another time she seized for maybe 6 seconds. The magnet wasn't on her wheelchair that day (mom says it doesn't always work anyway). I suppose I'm more comfortable with the kids now, but I still don't particularly like riding on a bus instead of driving it, not to mention the pay is less. My driver does annoying things. We get along, I suppose. At least I'm not waiting around for phone calls to sub, I guess.

I adopted a plant.
I found a small green thing amid a pile of loose dirt like the victim of a murder or something. The plant was there, all its dirt scattered about, and the little plastic pot too, but nothing else to explain its appearance or where it had come from. It was in the middle of the sidewalk around our mailboxes, so it wasn't a normal spot to get dropped by someone carrying things inside, and it couldn't have fallen off a balcony. My sister has asked for baby pictures when I posted on Facebook about it, but so far I have not and don't care to photograph much of anything. You'll just have to wait for later, if the little guy lives. The pot says "red" on it. I'm assuming I might see red flowers eventually.

I rode Zoomie in the rain. It was chilly, but not so much that I had to worry about freezing. I have no rain gear, my windbreaker from last year that was pretend-rain-resistant did not survive the attempt to operate on its zipper. My plan of attack, then, was to get wet. I chose to wear things I thought would dry quickly. My brown Danskin exercise top made of polyester, and also Danskin shorts which were only 65% cotton instead of all cotton. Cotton absorbs moisture and clings to it like there is no tomorrow. I also wore my water shoes. I wasn't brave enough to dare go out in only that with bare arms and shoulders, so a Horde Warcraft hoodie went with me out the door. It got ripped off at the usual hot spot as I entered the Greenway. My dress and shoes, along with undergarment, were safe in my pannier. I got to work, changed, and left my clothes on the coat rack in the bathroom. Several people commented- one recognized my shoes, and today a nice lady driver let me know as she finally caught up with me that there is a dryer in the janitors closet if I need it. I don't think anyone was offended, frankly I don't really care about all but a couple of people, and the system worked well. I don't want to get wet when it is colder!

Zoomie got chain lube today. I had to take the White Lightning to work with me because I never remember that she needs lube until I go to ride, and then I don't have time. I got to work with the bottle of lube and stuck it in my helmet. That way I'd see it when I got my helmet to go home. So, I promptly flipped her over, and oiled the chain. I had a nice silent ride home. After the rain yesterday morning that thing had started downright screeching at me for some attention. You'd be surprised how many people ride around with noisy chains, by the way. When mine is quiet, I noticed them all.

K, there you go. That wasn't so bad. If you're happy with that, close your browsing window, move on to another blog post, or whatever. What follows is simply me venting frustrations and it may be Too Much Information. You've been warned.

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Seriously.



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So, I don't think I've mentioned it, but I've been randomly not eating bread or pasta. As in, I randomly decided to do that just because. I want to see what happens, and how not eating those carbohydrates which typically have lots of calories will affect me. I was doing really well too. I decided not to worry about things like spaghetti night, or pizza fun nights, but would try to alter meals if it was easy to do so. Once instead of shells and cheese sauce (with tuna for me and my roommate for a TunaHelper-type meal), I put the cheese sauce over cooked broccoli and cauliflower instead. I limited strictly bread only and pasta only, which left torillas open and other options if I needed them. I was trying to make it easy so I would "be good".

I was doing really well, too. Until my sister came.

No, I'm not blaming her. Her visit happens to coincide with the few days leading up to my period, and so I think I'm blaming it.

My brain has gone freaking insane.

I have completely lost all semblance of progress I was making. I think there was progress. I was feeling great, eating fruit (mostly cantaloupe) when I wanted sweet stuff until weirdly enough, I lost all cravings. I was avoiding bread and pasta like a champ and not wishing for them at all. I was in a good mood I think nearly all the time. I felt a little skinnier and was looking forward to my sister's visit when I had planned to get her to wrap me up in duct tape for my homemade dress form- and I didn't think it would look bad. I posted about how I traced my outline for a paper doll and wasn't upset with the results.

And then I lost it all.

I'm freaking up and down in mood all the time, explosively angry at stupid times, and I can't feel the difference happening. I'll be happy, and then be ticked off at all sorts of things, and have no idea where the shift occurred. I guess that sounds like normal PMS but not for me, I don't think.

The worst part is that I'm CRAVING SOMETHING. I'll be perfectly happy and not hungry, but then I'll feel like crap. My brain says we should have something sweet to cheer us up. That bag of chocolate chips we had some of when Jessie was here sounds good. Let's eat the REST OF THE BAG. Jamie actually interrupted that one and he cooked me an omelet and to save my soul, the rest of the chocolate chips went into the trash can. Before that- I nearly ate all the Oreos. As in, NEARLY ALL OF THEM. Two packages. They did nothing bad to my stomach, so I didn't really think much about it until the guys were trying to figure out which one of them was hogging the cookies. It turned out it was ME, and I was honestly surprised. Where was I when I was chowing down on cookies??

The Oreos seemed innocent enough, as I had done no other dietary transgressions before that. At the chocolate chips, I started cursing the slip up of pizza the night before and taste of processed sugar that surely MUST be why I suddenly craved desserts and sweet things again. I promised myself to stay away.

As you can imagine, since this is a rant- it didn't freaking work.

I made brownies. Again- it seemed like a good idea at the time. I distinctly remember deciding to make them. The only reason the other box wasn't made also is that we didn't have enough eggs. I ATE 2/3 OF THEM. In two days I ate 6 brownies.

Last night we ate out at a mexican restaurant. I asked for the banana burrito-thingy dessert. I did realize that I didn't need it after a bite or two, but that didn't stop me, because at that point my stupid brain was telling me that I ordered it and it was probably expensive (eating out always is) and I wasn't paying, so I had better freaking eat it. I did. And then my stomach was telling me that I was a stupid idiot and why did I do that to it?

Someone is selling cake pops at work. I happened to have $.94 in my pocket from somewhere, so I got one and ate it. They are a dollar. I promised to bring 6 cents the next day. The next day, I instead ate another cake pop. Two bites of idiocy. I STOLE IT. Technically I stole the first one. To be honest, they are really delicious. To be even more honest- where the hell is that part of me that should be screaming that I really don't need that processed sugary-crap and why did I even consider EATING four quarters in two bites??

I don't understand it, I really don't. I recognize that I ate stupid things I didn't need, and that my brain tricked me and they did NOT, in fact, even remotely make me feel better, and actually I felt worse after eating them- not only for the guilt of failing at a goal which I was succeeding very well at, but usually also with a slightly "weird"-feeling stomach afterwards. I see that. But I made that second batch of brownies today anyway. And I've eaten them. And I'm sitting here after three brownies (properly my share of the pan, right? /sigh), with a swollen fat "weird"-feeling stomach, and I hate myself. Why can't I say no anymore?

I have the best husband in the world, and he was helping me so much with my randomly announced goal of no bread and pasta. He actually just cooked me spaghetti sauce with the other half of the cauliflower so I could have "spaghetti" for lunches. He cooks me healthy breakfast any time I ask and a lot of times he happens to be home in the morning and makes me yummy omelets when I don't ask. He is always offering the chance to ride to work and meet him for lunch breaks (although I'm sure that is for his own agenda also- he likes spending time with me, its probably not for the extra exercise). He cooks wonderful and exotic dinners for us. My favorite lately was that Thai soup with coconut milk and asparagus and potatoes and pork. I ate that nearly every day until it was almost gone. Jamie has done everything to help me.

I few days ago I was incredibly tired, but I didn't realize it at the time. Jamie had dinner ready when I walked in the door- the stew I had suggested when we had gone shopping. The fresh vegetables in all their whole chunky glory laying there in the cart had put in my head the wonderful image of those huge chunks in a delicious hot stew. Jamie was listening (of course) and he had that made for me, over mashed potatoes. I didn't even have to take the dogs out, I literally sat right down with the bowl and ate while we watched tv. When I was done he asked me if I needed more, because I must have had that look on my face. I remember telling him that what I really wanted was more mashed potatoes and a ton of butter. He said that was really unhealthy for me, but how about a dessert? He proceeded to make me strawberries with a bit of whipped cream (He whips it fresh. I don't like whipped cream except for his for some reason, He does something special I guess.) I enjoyed my dessert, and wiped a bit of extra cream from the mixer. I was almost falling asleep on the couch, so I ended up going to bed at 6:30. I appreciated the very special attention and treatment, but I'm not sure I've told him yet.

During the shopping trip I also requested vitamins. So far they don't seem to be helping the mood swings or random cravings (its been 3 days, without having to take birth control pills this week I forgot a vitamin yesterday), but they are supposed to be good for you so I'm glad they were cheap.

The ONLY good thing about the last week and a half is that my period started on time on Tuesday, and THAT is something I don't have to worry about in the slightest. I use a Keeper Mooncup, which is completely hassle- and worry-free. Thank goodness.

I'm seriously hoping all this madness can be blamed solely on this time of the month, because I take my next birth-control pill on Sunday and with luck, this will all be over on Monday. I'm sick and tired of this random yo-yoing, and my complete lack of willpower (and complete lack of motivation to DO anything- I'm supposed to be doing a fun no-pattern re-creation of Jamie's favorite shorts and...bleh). I LIKE being happy, and this is not it. I feel like going and crying now. Actually, I already did a little, when I got to the part about Jamie. Stupid hormones (I hope).

And puppies, I hope you understand that I'm cuddling you extra because I really did not mean to make you so sad earlier by screaming at you, even if you are incredibly freaking annoying because I'm in a bad mood.

/cry

Oh Happy Day!

There are several reasons why today (actually the last two days) is wonderful happy day.

I felt like superwoman!

As the week wears on, I definitely notice my legs getting weaker in my commutes to and from work, with the best ride being the one first thing in the morning, and the worst usually at the end of the day. I've found out that my route along the bike path is 4.6 miles one way, so I'm now up to bicycling 18 miles every day! Not cycling over the summer didn't hurt my abilities too much, but it did effect them a little bit.

Friday, however, was a complete 180 in terms of bicycling. I don't get it.

That morning, I zoomed along with tires and generator humming, feeling as if I could just go ahead and set out across the US and not stop until I reached the other side- I felt like I could keep pedaling forever, and I was going pretty darned fast too. I was almost sad to get to work. On the ride home I still had plenty of energy. I was carrying a free zucchini that someone had brought in to work. I also stopped to get more apples from the orchard in the park, so that I could eat them with peanut butter as I had craved doing the day before. I climbed the trees to get the really good apples, dress hiked up with the hem in my mouth to serve as a basket, bike shorts showing, I didn't care.

Zucchini!

Not the greatest picture in the world, I wanted to eat it too much.

Jamie cooked up the zucchini for me before he headed off for work because it ended up getting some of the skin bruised and worn off where it was pushed against the metal rod of the rack. I thought it was absolutely delicious!

I sliced up three of the apples to take with me to work that afternoon, and brought peanut butter too of course. My ride in was possibly the fastest of the entire week. I shifted into 5th gear before I even reached the bike path, and I even spent a good bit of the ride in 6th gear! ZOOM! It felt wonderful, and the apples were freaking fantastic. They might have been the most wonderful apples ever. I also had the perfect amount of peanut butter to go with them, I was very happy.

On the last ride home, I was still in great shape and in a higher gear than usual. I could feel my muscles still getting tired super-fast when they had to work up a slight hill, but they could maintain that higher gear without complaining. Weird. So that was the first two awesome things- superwoman and awesome free food.

Then, Friday was also my first payday. Whoohoo! I wanted some Chinese food to celebrate, but my roommate had another idea and we went to the Thai Kitchen instead. I had some odd stir-fry dish over lettuce, Jamie tried spicy jungle noodles, and our roommate had another type of stir-fry-looking dish with broccoli and carrots in it. I decided mine would be better with brown rice instead of lettuce, and Jamie claimed to not feel any heat whatsoever from his noodles, though they were good. It was supposed to have been a testing experience because Pappy's eyes water when eating them or something. Silly boys.

Today I wanted to go shopping. I had no particular goals, but I knew I wanted to visit the bike shop for a look around, and I wanted to see our local Goodwill store. I had planned to bike there by myself, but Jamie wanted to come too, so we all made a field trip of it. At the bike store Jamie decided that my flat tires are unacceptable- he got the thorn-resistant tubes for me. There is a neat display with cut tubes to show you how the thorn-resistant ones are incredibly thick on the outer section so that sharp things theoretically cannot penetrate to give you a flat tire.

Flat-proof?

I can personally attest that the Bell brand tubes that can be bought at Wal-Mart are not worth the cheaper price. My last two flats were due to failures at the inner seam, and I've checked to be sure my rim-tape was in good condition. Two tubes failed in a long un-patchable split in different locations (on the SAME DAY!). Not fun. I don't think I'll wait to experience another flat before I install these new tubes- I'll keep the old ones as spares.

If I had gone by myself to see these stores its likely that's all that would have happened: me seeing the stores. With Jamie along, he felt like treating me to some actual shopping. I got several shoes, a couple pairs of pants, and shirts! Without further ado- the spoils of Goodwill shopping:

Nice comfy black pants with flared legs. Vince size 4.

The most comfortable jeans EVER! Very thick soft denim.

Gap curvey ultra low rise size 6A.

Merino wool! 

Says Kate Hill in it, and Italian Merino Wool, but that's it.

Soft Old Navy shirt size S.

<3 pink

George brand size XS/ECH (0/2).

Look Tig: silk! 

The vest is a bit short, though. I'll need a tank top underneath or a simple dress maybe.

Tag says Valerie Stevens Petites Pure Silk. Care tag says its a 6P for size I'm guessing.

I love that two items were the same color- this shirt makes me feel very girly and pretty.

Axcess brand size S.

Before I get to shoes I simply MUST explain the wonders of my husband in a clothing department. That man can not only fly through the racks to find cute clothes (and he has great taste), but he can look at something and know if it the right size with near-perfect accuracy. I have no idea what size I am, and even if I did so many companies label clothing in the same size when their fit could be wildly different. I would spend hours looking through clothes and have to put them all back. Jamie only had a little bit of difficulty when he tried to give me size 14 girl's jeans when I need 16s- the fit is just too different from one size to the other for young girls when he is right that they LOOKED the same as the women's pants he had found. Anyway, we did not spend an entire day in Goodwill to find all this awesome stuff. In fact I felt very rushed until I came out of the dressing room and realized just how much stuff I was actually getting. Wow!

Ha! Size 4 L.E.I. girl's shoes. I could not resist these adorable things.

Jamie was a little bit confused about the size and I had to explain that shoe-people are dumb, and a size 4 in girls IS a size 6 in women's shoes.

Silly flash went off.

Jamie found these slightly dressy casual black shoes for me. Very comfortable.

No more water shoes with my red-checkered black dress! (Incidently, that's the outfit I wore yesterday.)

They say Franco Sarto on the bottom. I Googled that and just got a $70 pair of shoes for $3!

These were so comfortable I had to get them too. They are Keds and made of suede I think.

Yeah, Jamie found them too. I might not have looked at them twice for the mousy color.

Did I mention they were comfortable?

Yay for new stuff! 

Tomorrow I think shall be a day of laundry and bike-love as Zoomie gets her new tubes, and likely a bath. We also have our weekly pot-luck to go to with Pappy.

I hope your days have been happy too :)

The Real Me

Recently, I've read a post from the ladies of the Let's Go Ride a Bike (LGRAB) blog about bicycling and self-esteem, and how Trisha has not gotten thinner as a result of all her pedaling, even though it is exercise.

Around the same time, I had a very strong urge to draw clothing like my twin sister and I used to do, using our modified Barbie Fashion Designer "paper doll" templates. The only problem is that all my artwork, including my paper doll, was abandoned back in Jacksonville as excess baggage when my dad rescued us and we lightened our load in the exodus to Oregon one year ago. So i figured I could find a scan online. I found one skewed photograph of the magazine printout we used to have, and Barbie wasn't even in the skimpy bathing suit so you could see all the lines.

Lastly, I have taken new sewing measurements last week, being as accurate as you can possibly be when measuring yourself all by yourself.

All these things combined to bring me to me latest activity and realization. I photographed myself, standing as best I could in the posture of our Barbie paper dolls. This is harder than it looks to do. Not only do you have to have the space to get a full-body photograph using the self-timer, but inevitably I was slightly angled or something to make the picture worthless. It's very hard to run over, straighten yourself facing the camera and strike a pose while wearing tiny little pointy heels (Barbie wore high heels). I also did this completely stark naked because I wanted honest pictures. My goal was then to get a picture of decent enough quality to trace my outlines in Paint and make a paper doll of ME.

And... I did.

I found out that even though I often look at photos of myself, especially this special temporary set, and make a face of disgust at various pudge and bulges- I am NOT really unsightly. I think anything I have to gripe at would be solved by loosing a few pounds, or toning what is there. I discovered that my body is not just petite but pear-shaped. I have a very short waist, and then large thighs and butt, with bumps as you get to each one along my side. I thought it was very unattractive, until I took away all the textures. I'm actually very womanly. When I smoothed out those bumps, my form is downright awesome. In many ways my paper doll outline is simply a petited realistic version of Barbie! I'm a little thicker overall, and my neck is shorter than hers, and of course as a petite my waist length is short. But I'm a darned good paper doll!

I was in the middle of discovering this when I read the LGRAB post and the older post linked back about self-esteem. It is extremely true that bicycling boosted my opinion of myself, even though physically not much had changed. It is also true at this point that the added exercise, from a completely sedentary lifestyle prior, has not had any effect at all on my body size or weight. The measuring tape doesn't lie! I assume the scale doesn't either, but those things are evil anyway. I enjoy dressing in cute outfits that I've made myself, and hopefully this paper doll will help me design clothing outfits that flatter my particular figure, so I look as good as I can on the outside to match the happier me in the inside.

Next I'll have my twin sister wrap me up in duct tape to have a physical copy of me- a dress form! That will, I think, help me a bunch when it comes to fitting garments and making things from scratch without patterns.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share. If anyone wants an Aimee paper doll, I don't mind sharing since I've made things slightly more symmetrical and smoothed out than the original me. I have front and back views, but I admit the back view is just the front flipped around with some body details adjusted by imagination. I can't wait to design something!

A Wonderful Weekend

This week our normal potluck dinner plans were altered to become a pancake breakfast up in the mountains. We had been waiting for a Saturday that Jamie didn't have to work, and luckily I didn't have to wait too long. We ended up driving over to our roommate's grandfather's house, and then riding in his truck to the campground at Brainard lake. The rest of their family was in a second truck. There were lots of cyclists out because of a race. I have to admit that even I got irked at some of them for riding several-abreast and over the white line when a perfectly good shoulder was available. But, we finally made it up there. I think the view- as well as the food- was worth it.

Doesn't that water just look delicious? I didn't drink any, but that's not to say I wouldn't have.

Look at those boots! We discovered they suck for hiking, but oh well.

I unfortunately didn't get any good rock-skipping photos.

Back across the log for more breakfast.

A perfectly toasted marshmallow innard.

I ate lots of these. As in- before the pancakes were even done I'd had two.

I don't LOOK motion sick here do I? Actually, I did not get sick, but the Dramamine sort of made me loopy for most of the rest of our day. Riding in the backseat of a crew-cab pickup truck through winding curvy roads is not very fun.

Next time, I will bring Grunt and Jackjack with us. I think they would love to come along, and explore the woods, lakefront and stream. I also want to have my rubber boots along- it would be fun to walk up the stream I think, and wade in the lake, but that water is COLD.

Last night (I know, it's not technically part of the weekend, but it's my blog, so there) we had some truly wonderful food. Jamie got the idea to recreate a Thai soup that we've had a grand total of one time before in our lives. I'm not sure exactly what is in it to make it so darned tasty, but I had it again this morning straight from the refrigerator. It is just as yummy cold as it was hot last night. I do know that there is coconut milk in it, and pork, zucchini, asparagus, and potato. A little bit of Sriracha in the broth makes it a spicy soup, but not too much for me. The boys both added a bunch more to their bowls.

I might have drawn a Sriracha happy face :)

Then, after that wonderful dinner, we were standing around in the kitchen and I noticed that over the busy weekend our last few peaches were nearly non-edible. Jamie said they'd have to be cooked since they were too mushy to hold and eat regularly. Thus, we issued a Chopped Challenge* for dessert. Ingredients? Peaches, Jameson's Irish Whiskey, coffee, and oats.

I can't remember what he called it, but I call it Peachly Heaven.

I am so spoiled.

In other food-related news: I cannot eat peanut M&Ms! I've tried one more time since we got the giant bag of them, thinking maybe the first time was a fluke. Nope- M&Ms with peanuts in them completely upset my stomach. As in, the first time I was thoroughly convinced that it would be handy to know how bulimics throw up at will. I didn't have the guts to try it, but I was sure that it would have been a quick fix. Instead I laid in bed gingerly on my left side hugging a pillow with warm Jackjack against my back. Any other position made it worse. I thought maybe the combination of spaghetti sauce with too much sugar might have done it. I wondered if it was simply too much sugar. But did you SEE the photo of that S'more up there? I ate bunches of those plus pancakes and orange juice- it can't be sugar-related. The second try was with a very small handful of them (and I have pretty mall hands to begin with). I wonder if regular M&Ms would cause such a discomfort also.

To be honest, I've been really happy with cantaloupe for sweet-tooth needs, and now we have another one of those plus a honeydew and grapes. I wonder if maybe I'm just not a manufactured-sweet-type person anymore. The pancakes were awesome, and the S'mores too, but those are both things that I don't think I'll want again any time soon. That bacon, however, is another story!

Anyway, other than the M&Ms, I had a wonderful weekend. I hope yours was great also!

*Chopped is a television show on the Food Network where four contestants receive the same basket of 4 mystery ingredients that must be combined to create either an appetizer, entree, or dessert dish in each round. The worst dish gets that chef "chopped" until one remains who wins $10,000 for the best dessert dish and all-around meal.

The Fruits of A Bicycle Ride

Remember how I was surprised and happy to find out that the trees in the park were actually apple trees? Well, I went to work yesterday to find out if any new bus routes were up for bid (they weren't) after riding with Jamie to his work. I stopped to pick some apples!

There was a tiny little boy there with an itty-bitty wooden cart getting apples, and a horse paused for a break to munch on some too. Most of the apples on the trees were green, many had tiny worm holes. Most of the apples with red blush were on the ground already. I'm not sure if the ones very high up were even as good as they looked, because it seems there were some birds enjoying those. So, I picked a couple apples off the tree to eat, since I was very hungry. They were yummy, and the thought of a free tasty pie popped into mind. I went around several trees picking reddish apples off the ground, and a few better ones from the trees. I wasn't sure how many I'd need since they were very small, but I got as many as my little tank top shirt basket could hold.

Pedaling past the waterfall, I thought I should stop and dunk my feet in the water- something I've wanted to do ever since I first saw it. I also discovered yellow dust all over my feet at that point, so there was another reason to kick off my flip-flops and enjoy the cold water. I did exactly that, and told a runner about the apples further up the trail.

Then, I came home and found Alton Brown's Good Eats episode on apple pie, since I have never made one before. Good Eats is my most favorite food-related television show. I followed his recipe as best I could, but we didn't have all the ingredients. Instead of Applejack liquor in the crust, there is Appleton rum. It has "apple" in the name, that's close enough, right? I had to use strawberry jelly instead of apple jelly in the filling. We didn't have tapioca flour for the filling, so I used regular. That might be why it was still a bit runny when I cut into it. Overall, though, I'm very pleased with my very first attempt at pie made from scratch, and with teeny tiny free apples!

Remember the orchard?

Tiny apples

All peeled and cut up.

Uncooked pie, with an aluminum foil pie bird. I might have to get a real one, they are super-cute. My first try at pie crust isn't too bad, I think.

Uncooked, but now with glaze on top. We don't have a brush to properly get it on there.

This is in the crust instead of Applejack. Supposedly the alcohol makes a nicer stiff crust instead of water. Smelled really nice.

Pie! Cooling on the counter. FOUR hours? That's just torture.

You can see that my bad crust job let some filling bubble through- exactly what the pie bird would have prevented.

Two slices cut out decently. Ah, the filling is still a bit runny.

This was really yummy!

Breakfast of champions, maybe not, but it certainly makes a great reward for yesterday's efforts.

(Oh, and I received a call this morning- I get to be a bus assistant! That's better than a substitute until I can drive my own bus route. Happy Friday-Eve!)