I guess I run now

Hubby successfully defended his diss on Monday & was referred to as “Dr.” for the first time around 1:30 that day (this is a privilege reserved for the dissertation director, so I was only the second person to call him that).

We haven’t gone hog wild with the celebrations: a trip to the beach on Monday night, friends over last night, jam making today. But it has been a relaxing couple of days. Tomorrow we’ll start packing to head back down state & cleaning/getting this house ready for our tenant’s return on Saturday. It’ll be a crazy couple of weeks after that getting classes prepped, but I’m aiming to get into a workout routine as quickly as possible.

I’m also canceling cable. Hubby hates TV, everything I might want to watch is on Hulu anyway, and I’m much more productive when there’s no siren song of mindless TV to answer. Without TV this summer, those 1.5-2 hour walks were perfect. I had the time to do them. With TV, it’ll be harder to motivate myself off the couch & out the door. Folks who have done this already…it’s doable, right? Help me out here as I am a little nervous about cutting the cord.

Okay, it’s only for a 1 year experiment. I enjoy summers without the noise box blathering on and on, but then I’m usually happy to return to some mindless entertainment in the fall. In fact, I usually OD on TV that first week back.

Anyway, the real “radio silence” in the title isn’t about the TV thing: it’s about my relative absence from this site. I usually reserve blog writing/reading for when hubby’s away from the house or I’m away from him…cause this is MY space & while he knows about this blog, I’m just not into having him looking over my shoulder reading it…not that he’s interested, mind you. Anywho, for the last couple of weeks we’ve been pretty inseparable what with his folks being in town, all the friend packing/moving, and his major revision sessions for the diss. So…and I’m only realizing this now…I haven’t had much alone time to write my own (non-work) stuff. That’s something I’m looking forward to doing when we get back down state. There’s actually a lot I’m looking forward to, but blogging regularly is at the top of the list.

Ta Ta For Now (TTFN)

Okay, things are better. I’m going to take the high road here, especially since these folks are on their way out of town this weekend, hubby’s all about forgiveness, & I have a short memory for this kind of stuff anyway (see drama below if this doesn’t make any sense to you).

So friend’s hubby defended his diss today & we went to the defense. Not bad. My hubby, more importantly, defends his diss THIS Monday. Very good. Friend’s house is empty, so we’re having them for dinner tonight & probably tomorrow night as well.

In other news, hubby & I have finally picked enough thimbleberries for a few cups of jam. Figured out the trick only after my day picking them alone with the dog. You gotta have two people for this job. First of all, thimbleberries aren’t cultivated, so no one’s been so kind as to gather a field of them together for you to pick. Instead, they grow on hillsides near and into the tree line. & they don’t all generously ripen at the same time, so you might climb a hill (around these parts, they’re steeper than stairs at most points) only to pick the 1-2 ripe berries on a bush before climbing back down again to climb at the next spotting of the ruby red berries.

Sometimes, though, you get into a patch of them where you might find as many as 10 berries (slightly bigger than wild raspberries) in one spot. That’s where the person on the ground comes in handy. While you climb around, the person on the ground shouts out the location of additional berries you can’t spot.

This, and the fact that they’re too fragile to ship, is why 6oz of thimbleberry jam will run you between $12-16 around these parts. But it’s good stuff…a little sweeter than raspberries & with less annoying seeds.

Calm blue ocean…for me, that’s making jam with hubby. Last night we made the local strawberries I froze earlier in the summer into 8.5 pints of jam…there are no better strawberries than the ones in the UP, I think. Next we have 5 pints of local raspberries to jam & then the thimbleberries. We may try our hand at pickles when we get back down state next week. & I’m officially praying that our local blueberries come in before we have to leave here.

No other news here. We’re trying to enjoy the last few days up here & getting some writing done in the process. It’ll be good to go home & get back to school…this summer vacation has been too very stressful & too damn busy. I need a vacay from my so-called vacay.

Happy weekend chicks!

& not in the direction you might usually suspect.

I decided last night that I really am upset & angry at my “friend” for lying about her “ladies’ night out” (her husband told mine about the trip, apparently).

Here’s why: not only did she lie when she said she had to get ready for a “meeting” at 6, not a party; but she actually asked me what hubby & I were doing last night before we left her house. Yeah…how’s that for shitty? In other words, no way in hell did she, as her hubby said, “think she might have forgotten to ask” me to join her little sunset cruise.

So…she lies, her husband lies, and then I’m supposed to show up (late) to her little party when everyone else at that little party knows that I was an after thought, an also-ran, the person she felt she HAD to invite & not someone she wanted to invite like the rest of the little party.

Awesome. I thought I left this bullshit popularity crap behind in high school! But no, the beautiful & wealthy size 4s still rule the planet & I get to feel awesome when they toss a bone my way.

Show of hands…who thinks I’m p*$$ed about this?

Been helping our second set of moving friends with annoying errands for the past couple of (3?) days, cooking, feeding kids, breaking down the swing set, recycyling runs, packing up the office, etc. Not a big deal & nothing like the 3-day moving-nightmare-athon of our other friends (since the second set can afford packers & movers and the first set needed our help for that cause…well, grad school makes most people broke).

Anywho, this morning I woke up & thought, “gee, it’d be nice to do some laundry so we have clean towels & clothes & sheets, and wouldn’t it be nice to tackle the dishes stacked all around the kitchen and, gee, don’t I need to eventually get some gifts for hubby’s defense celebration?” In other words, after several weeks of entertaining inlaws, traveling for a funeral, entertaining inlaws again, packing, writing, packing, this place is a mess & I’m tired of it.

So while hubby went back over to our friends to continue helping out with their move, I started laundry (it’s only 1/2 way done at 6:30 now), cleaned the kitchen & shopped for gifts for him.

Got to our friends house around 2:00 & hubby was on his way out to the hardware store for something they needed & I immediately got a list of alcohol to purchase to restock their boat & instructions to put it on the boat for them. Not a big deal, we’ve been drinking their boat alcohol all summer. So I hit the liquor store, hit the marina, loaded up their boat with yummy stuff. But turns out I was buying it & storing it so our woman friend could take her women friends out for a cruise tonight. Turns out, I’m not one of those women friends. HA!

I know this cause she must’ve got to the boat, seen that I bought them a bottle of Petrone gold (from us as a special gift) & felt guilty since we’ve been doing so much for them for the last few days and all. So her hubby calls with a bullshit story that she must’ve forgot to tell me about the trip. But that seems unlikely, doesn’t it? I mean, we were on the boat last night, she saw me going to get the stuff, asked me if I put it on the boat, and said goodbye when we left without a followup, “see you tonight.”

Here’s the deal, I’m not upset. I doubt I’d like her other women friends. But I think it’s all pretty damn funny.

So after we got back from my uncle’s funeral, hubby & I entertained his folks for a few days while also trying to revise the diss (him) and write the book review (me). Then we were thrown into packing/moving hell trying to get some friends on their way to a tenure-line position in Penn. Diss is drafted & waiting for hubby to pick it (the unofficial version) up at the print shop. Review is in the hands of the editor. Friends should’ve arrived in Penn yesterday. And so it begins again.

Today we’ll help another friend (this one moving to Ohio) pack up his office & do some other odd jobs around his house. Hubby’s still editing his diss (for when they bound the final copy), & I have two articles to finish up.

Meanwhile. The summer is slipping away from us. Hubby defends on Monday & we leave the UP a week from Friday (so packing up this place & cleaning it for our tenant). Then we’ll have two weeks to prep for classes (damn, I didn’t order textbooks yet!) & a new year begins.

It’s crazy time here.

But I still hope to see major movement on the scale when I get back to the downstate house. & I’m thinking about heading back to the Y the minute we get home (okay, the following day) so I can get a routine going.

Hope ya’ll are doing well…I need to catch up!

The trip home was a bit short, but nice, despite the awful circumstances. The wake was okay cause I got to catch up with a lot of cousins I haven’t seen in a while & the funeral was actually pretty lovely. The priest made an effort to talk about my uncle & what made him special, which was nice. Then my cousin asked my brother & I to speak, so I elaborated on the stories I told below. We all had great stories to share. Really was more of a celebration of his life than a mourning of his passing, which I think is what funerals are meant to be.

Eating wasn’t great during the trip, but I did walk a bit. Stepped on mom’s scale right before I left yesterday & (if it’s right), I’ve lost another 4 pounds since my last weigh in. Okay, that’s not much, but I’ll take it & try to do more with it in the next couple of weeks.

My inlaws stayed at our house, extending their vacation, and watched the dog, which was really sweet. & they didn’t realize that we crate the dog whenever we leave him alone in the house…although we’ve been talking about seeing if he’ll behave if we let him have the run of the place. So…since they didn’t know not to give him the run of the place, they gave him the run of the place, and he was fine. Nice to know & now we don’t have to stress about it.

So far I’ve done a 30-min hike around an old dam (up & down hills) and a 30-min walk along a nature trail. Hubby’s got pizza on the menu for tonight (with salad), so I’m thinking of using this downtime to take the dog for an hour-long walk along the portage. Be nice to get some exercise in if I’m going to be eating pizza crust later. Yeah…that’s a plan. Maybe hubby will join me since my inlaws are napping.

Looking forward to seeing what ya’ll have been up to this past weekend.

So I’m here with hubby & the inlaws & I get a text from my nephew just telling me to call his house & ask about my uncle…and telling me not to let my mom & sister know he text’d me. This is the uncle I went to visit at the hospital while I was home last month. & yeah, he passed away today.

He was a great guy. My dad died when I was 9, so the men in my life who sortof showed me what fathers & men were all about were either my mom’s boyfriends (most were great guys who adored us, but still…) and my uncles. Of these, Bobby was my favorite. A house contractor, he was always dirty from a job, but he could walk into any fine dining restaurant in the northeast & the owners would welcome him & ask him to take a look at their wine cellars…he was really good at wine, really knew his stuff, was known as a great collector, & had an incredible collection that he’d open up whenever family was around.

I can still remember Easter dinner when I was in college. He served me a wine that was older than I was & asked me what I thought of it & It wasn’t a test or anything. He just wanted to know if I liked it. He just hoped I liked it. Yeah, he taught me that you could appreciate good wine without being some pretentious ass…you could just be this blue-collar all around good guy who understood a nice glass of wine when he tasted one.

When I bought my first rotten & rotted cottage on the cape, Bobby was the contractor who turned this shack into paradise: new floors, cathedral ceiling, enlarged kitchen, deck with a trap door (that you couldn’t tell was a trap) to the basement. He was amazing. I have all these great pictures of everyone in my family standing around in various stages of slacker-tude while Bobby’s in the background working away, raising beams, knocking out walls, measuring windows, fighting with the folks he hired for various jobs that the rest of us were too inept to handle.

Bobby didn’t teach me that men can laugh & laugh all the time, but he confirmed my belief that such happy men existed. & I miss him.

So hubby & I will be heading back to the cape on Wednesday for a wake on Thursday & funeral on Friday. Our inlaws will be happy to have the house to themselves for a few days & they’ve agreed to watch the dog. It’ll be a long & costly trip, but I really need to be there for my mom, my cousin, my sister (who will be a wreck) and myself. Was feeling sorry for myself earlier cause hubby was working on the diss while I was making calls & being sad. But I wasn’t being very reasonable: he has a lot to do for the diss & needs to finalize a lot of stuff since we’ll leave first thing (6am) Wednesday & he’ll need to have all of his ducks in a row to pull this off. He’s a great guy too & I’m damn glad he’s coming with me.

No, the fast didn’t kill me. In fact, I learned that 600 calories is a lot or can be if you divy them up the right way. I also realized that I probably obsess about food & worry about not getting enough to the point where I probably have too much food…not a huge surprise, of course, but I’m starting to get some perspective here, I think.

So the day after the fast, I decided to hit the local brew pub while hubby was at the university library…see, it’s okay for me to write at the brew pub up here cause it’s called The Library, so it’s almost like I’m researching. I had a pint, a cup of onion soup, & a side (not an order or an appetizer, but a “small side” as the waitress called it) of sweet potato fries. Not a great lunch, but I enjoyed it & post fast, realized it was more than enough food for a lunch. Then I moved to the coffee shop to continue work & had a medium coffee. Around 5:30, hubby rang my cell. Our friends were heading out with their kids to have pizza on the boat & did we want to go. Sure ’nuff!

On the boat I had four pieces of a medium pizza…don’t freak out…the pizza was one of those round ones they cut into squares, so the biggest square was about 2″ x 2″, but the other three were closer to 1″ x 1″. Again, after the fast, I figured I’d see if just that much pizza would satisfy me & it did…for a while. I really wanted another piece, but since I couldn’t justify eating it cause of hunger or “needing it,” I was able to pass on it. I also had a beer & a margarita on board. Those I’m claiming I “needed,” was very thirsty on the boat. Lovely evening, if a bit cold on the water. Came home & had 8 pretzels with 4 small pieces of cheese. Not a healthy day by any stretch (and no salad or breakfast to speak of), but a day I think my diet may have survived anyway.

Anyway, my inlaws are coming to town tomorrow for a week…today was an insane day of cleaning, doing laundry, shopping, and organizing our lives (pantry, bathroom, closets) but it paid off doing it early. See, normally I’d assume I had until about 5:30 on the day of their arrival to clean…takes a minimum of 8 hours to get here from just about anywhere you’d want to live. But then I realized that if I cleaned today, I could just write or read while waiting for them & not be stressed. Good thing. They called around 6 tonight to let us know they were in Marquette (about 2 hours away), exploring, & spending the night there. They’ll be here in the morning! But we’re ready! All I have to do in the morning is change the sheets on our bed, do a couple of loads of laundry, & write until they arrive.

We’ll be walking a lot while they’re here, so my exercise should be good & food should be okay. But I’m wondering if a fast will be possible. I’d rather not explain that I’m fasting & a lot of our dinner choices will be up to them (although hubby & I have two dinners, most lunches, and breakfasts planned). Argh! I’d love to get another fast in this week!

Okay, periodic posting while they’re in town.

Happy Week Chicks!

Quick break to document last night’s atrocities before I get back to revising this essay that I’d love to see the last of soon…very soon.

Okay, so yesterday I wasn’t great during the day…breakfast out (hubby’s wish) of 2 eggs & toast. Snack was a lot of strawberries. Oh & hubby bought some chocolate covered pretzels (decided not to kill him for that since he was celebrating…but then) that I had 7 of. Ugh. Yeah, I can’t blame him for the decisions I made, but I’d sure like to. Still, those were some good pretzels!

Dinner was a 22 oz beer, caesar salad, gave roll to hubby, 1/2 serving of gratin potatoes, whole serving of veggies, 2 lamb loin chops with creamy cheese on top (very rich), & I split a chocolate souffle (although I let hubby finish my serving cause it was only so-so). Not terrible, not good either, not medium, maybe a mild bad. It wasn’t a whole-hog food-fest, but the calories were certainly high. & we’ll be going back there when my in-laws come to visit next week…need a plan.

Today is my revised semi-fast day. 600 calories & I really should do some walking tonight since I did next to none yesterday! So far:

Breakfast: hb egg (90), handful of blueberries (16), 8 small strawberries (18).

Lunch: late lunch will be small salad with lite dressing (96)

Subtotal =220 (remaining 380)

Dinner: will be mostly veggies [yellow squash (8 oz=53), green beans (10 beans=17), radishes (2 large = 2)] with about 3 oz of London Broil (155)

Subtotal=442

snack: (didn’t go too far over, but not exactly a smart snack) 4 oz sangria (71) & 20 pretzels (100)

Total=614

Exercise: 1.5 hour walk with the crazy dog in the misty rain.

Speaking from the front end of this semi-fast, it’s not so bad & it’s not like I can’t eat tomorrow for pity’s sake!

Okay, I’m putting the fast on hold. Hubby finished up the first complete draft of his diss around 1:30 last night & his best friend up here got his final draft done yesterday afternoon, so we’re heading up to Copper Harbor for a nice dinner at the Harbor House (good, rich, German food). I’m going to celebrate…try to stay within my 1200 calories as much as possible, but this will not be my 600-calorie day. We’ll save that til tomorrow….

Exercise is at a minimum today.