I honestly do not know. I made it through Emma on the first time, so I have a tolerance for it. I also tend to finish even bad books or movies just to see how it ends. I'm not a particularly lazy reader either, so I don't know what my problem was with Pride and Prejudice. I started it several times in my twenties and thirties and would just put it down, walk away, and never make it back. I don't think I saw the movies and attempted the book in the same decade, so I can't make a fair comparison. I've read sillier things. I've read harder things. I'm not horribly picky. It's a mystery.

I NEVER wear shoes if I can help it. I’m even in the dance studio dancing barefoot about 8 hours a week. I will put on ballet slippers towards the end of the week when my feet start to get sore. I’m definitely calloused and want to be, but I’ve never had cracking. I have dry skin in general, so I’m thinking cragginess and cracking must be caused by another variable.

Thanks to this post I got my brain around this weeks menu, cleaned my fridge, shopped, have two kinds of beans soaking, and am now loaded up with a week’s worth of veggie-heavy meals. I only spent $50 too, so I owe you all for motivating me when I was trying to goof off online.

I came here to thank whoever recommended Elementary and I can’t find the post. I swear I never knew it existed until I read about it here. I watched the first episode tonight. That’s just weird. I’m going to bed.

I loved the books. I get the love. I had a very enjoyable summer reading them. I don’t get making them a religion. I swear the early days of Dianetics must have looked just like this.

I’d count both of those as meat, but since we’re omnivores, veg heavy and meat light would be good enough for me.

You’re evil. I thought it was going to be a great book discussion.

I loved Little, Big by John Crowley but I can't find anyone IRL who has read it so I can talk about it. I have friends who READ. It feels like I'm being gaslighted and everyone is pretending this book doesn't exist . . . which is a mood that totally GOES with the book. Someone needs to throw me a bone.

Ugh. I can meal plan quickly, but I really need to up the effort with the vegetables. I think we're full of meat, cheese, and starch after the holidays and I need a good week of light, heart-healthy meals. I made chicken parmesan tonight so I guess I'm starting tomorrow. 😣 I think I'll make: fish tacos with lots of slaw/veggies a vegetable soup . . . maybe minestrone big salad with grilled salmon veggie korma maybe fried rice one night? I might have to become a Meatless Monday person just to train Dh and Ds to enjoy an occasional meal that doesn't contain meat. I have rehearsals this week and a show on Sunday, so I'm not sure how ambitious I'll get this week. If I pull off the meal plan I listed I'll have to throw a steak at them towards the end of it so they don't mutiny. I can always do a big salad with the steak. Odds are I'll have to either serve grilled cheese with the minestrone or add some meat to the soup.

You're probably right. That would add up. I do add sugar to my tea, but I add ONE teaspoon and I drink it twice a day. If I replaced my tea with soda I'd be getting about 30 teaspoons of sugar. Now that Plant Nanny is the boss of me, I'm drinking more water so my cartoon plants don't get sad. 😁

I get that you pretty much have to cook everything yourself to reduce sugar to acceptable levels and it's pretty hard to avoid it altogether unless you cut out lots of fruits and veggies. Still, getting a month's worth of sugar in a single day seems really hard to do accidentally. I'm picturing someone with a sugar bowl and a spoon! It would be nauseating. I'm a person who gravitates towards savory foods, so maybe it's easier than I imagine. I think I've hit the age where restaurants are ruined for me. Everything tastes too sweet or too salty or the portions are too huge. Sometimes it's all three at once. I'm that geezer now.

Don't forget about your rice cooker if you have one. I'm assuming most came with a steamer rack?

I have a big batch of cheap white wash cloths that I only use in the kitchen. I use them for spills and cleaning and don't use fabric softener on them. Paper towels are pretty much only used by guests and for draining greasy foods. We use hand towels, dish towels, napkins, and the wash cloths for everything else.

If you buy a full set of pots and pans, a steamer pot is often one of the pieces.

Wait, how can one person eat more sugar in a DAY than another eats in a week or a year? What on earth does that one day look like? Sometimes I think these extreme diets say more about personality types than health fads. People with obsessive/addictive personalities can go all in with just about anything.

I have the same relationship with this book. I gave up on it years ago.

I'm a hopelessly messy cook too, but most meals dirty fewer dishes when you reheat. Tacos seem to uniquely dirty just as many dishes when you reheat. I just pulled out rice, meat, beans, cheese, salsa, spinach, avocados, jalapenos, sour cream, cilantro, green onions, and sauted bell peppers. Everything needed a utensil and a container. I guess it was less messy when the kids just wanted hard shells, meat, and cheese, but we seem to require a full buffet now. ETA, I have tossed the leftovers in the rice cooker and reheated while making rice for everything burritos, but that doesn't work when Dd is home. She doesn't eat beans or salsa.

It sounds like canapes. Specifically French canapes, not canapes as a class of appetizers.

Has anyone figured out how to make/store/reheat taco and burrito bowl fixings so that you don't dirty EVERY bowl and spoon in the kitchen? I swear they need to make some kind of compartmentalized container 20 compartments for all of this stuff. Maybe my family is just getting greedy with the "must have" ingredients, but I just reheated leftovers for dinner and it looks like I cooked a holiday meal in there. I've fantasized about buying squeeze bottles for sour cream and salsa, but I never actually followed through. Do you store it in one container and let everything touch? Or do you make a ridiculous mess like me?

Don't watch Bunheads. It ends abruptly and then you'll be sad. I loved Bunheads. 😥

It was just equal parts borax and baking soda with several drops of essential oil. I used bergamot. I put it in a jar, shook it up, then sprinkled. I didn't vacuum it up until the next day. What didn't get sprinkled became the homemade odor absorber because I just left it open and out and it was the same recipe. I didn't see any spots because of the oil, but my carpet is old so I'm not sure that it would even show up. It gets absorbed into the white stuff. You could do it without the oils if you want a scent-free odor absorber that won't annoy your people. I've just sprinkled baking soda before.

I'm way too cheap for that now, but just the idea that this thing exists makes me super happy. I'd have to research it, but the results have to be more pleasant than the 30 scents I had going in my house last night. I didn't have a spray bottle, but I did set out bowls of white vinegar yesterday. Today the smell is almost gone. I didn't want to buy anything, but this did send me down a diy bunny trail so i have the homemade version sitting out. For those of you keeping score at home, I have almost eliminated the offending smell. My boys say it's gone. I think it's only almost gone. Remember how I changed my furnace filter for the first time last night? It turns out that if you don't put the cover on right, your furnace doesn't kick on. I did not notice until this morning because it was so warm and I slept on a heated mattress pad. It was a bit chilly here this a.m.! Between vinegar, baking soda, essential oils, cleaning my kitchen drain, counters, and cabinets, and simmering citrus and rosemary, and carpet fresh it's almost undetectable tonight. I even found a furnace filter air freshener that I never used before because I didn't know how to change the filter until last night. 😬 I'm beginning to think some of the charred smell is just permanently burned into my nose. Thanks for your help. I'm glad that baking soda and vinegar are such work horses in the odor department!

Yesterday's burrito bowls are today's taco salad. I'm boring like that. Now that I've posted, I'm gonna go back and read this whole thread to steal ideas. I have the makings of one hot dog meal and one chicken parmesan meal before I have to do another round of menu planning and shopping.

On amazon there's a yoga video that has neck and back in the title (and maybe shoulder). Most of that is done lying down. I wouldn't say it's exciting, but I feel better once it's done and it's a quick one.

also, spanikopita!