What's on your Thursday Menu?

Bummer on the computer (and your wallet). I am not a tech person, so I get very frustrated with computer glitches or failures. Maybe your computer will magically correct itself . At least yesterday was nice for you. Yay on the 2 grades.

I decided to lift weights yesterday instead of yoga. Went to the gym with DD since I have been telling her I would run her through a workout. We did back, rear delts, and biceps. Today is in the office, another weight workout (chest, medial delts, and triceps), followed by yoga.

QOTD: I bought my last computer when I started graduate school. Lets see that would be 2020?? I think. I only use is sporadically at home.

Accountability: Yay! On track. No extra chocolate yesterday.

B: triple zero greek yogurt with berries, keto granola, cold brew with half n half

L: asian chicken salad with light sesame ginger dressing

D: berry chicken salad with light huckleberry dressing

S: protein frosty, sf chocolate

E: weights and yoga

Have a great Pre-Friday.

Mornin' All!

well the air quality here is going to be iffy again today (Canadian wild fires again), so I guess we won't be biking. Or walking. So I'll go over to the gym and hop on a stationary bike, I guess. I have a book I can take along - that way I can easily spend an hour on the thing. Nothing much else going on with me for the next couple of days. Although I'm happy to report that evidently someone canceled a "Trusted Traveler" interview (for Global Entry approval) at one of the Chicago offices for Aug 25th, so I snapped it up. If it weren't for that, every office within a four-hour drive from here is booked until at least the end of September. I really wanted to get this approved before I head to California for the OH conference in Sept, because I do not want to endure another horrible TSA "pat down" (where I think they thought I must have had a gun up my rear end or something) like the one I had at O'Hare before going to Scandinavia (Global Entry includes TSA prescreening. At some airports, they still have the older x-ray machines that they use for the prescreened people, that don't show surgical clips and staples, which is what I think sets those newer machines off. Usually the patdowns I get are fine, but the last one I had was humiliating. I never want to go through that again! I also won't have to take off my shoes or take stuff out of my carry-on before setting it on the conveyor belt - although that part doesn't bother me that much).

QOTD: my current laptop is two years old, but the screen is popped slightly out of its frame, so I don't take it anywhere any more - I'll take DH's if I have to go somewhere with a laptop (he usually uses his work one). I don't really want to replace mine since it works fine - and probably will for at least a couple more years. I also have an ancient one that I'd kept just because it has a DVD player, but the DVD player has started to die. I may have to buy an external (USB) player so I can use it on my current laptop. I also have a tablet, but I only use it when I travel. It's probably four or five years old.

B: piece of Danish bread with butter and currant spread, Ratio yogurt, coffee with half & half

L: Asian-style salad, protein muffin

AS: Ratio yogurt ?

D: I'm not even going to put anything since I always end up eating something other than what I put here!

have a great day, everyone!

I've had GE for a decade and it's a lifesaver but always, always check your ticket; they will randomly not apply it so that you have to go through the process and ensure you haven't become a terrorist. if you don't notice, it's annoying.

Oh, and once you have your known traveller number, be sure to go to all your airlines and enter it in on your points/reward account (if you don't have one for an airline get it because that's how they ensure you get pre regardless of carrier).

Good morning all and Happy Thursday,

I want my MTV.

QOTD- My laptop is a pre-schooler. It's only 4 years young. When I did a recent technology clean out, I threw out a 2011 desktop computer. So, I figure I have another 8 years left on the laptop...

B: Dannon Light and Fit Coconut Yogurt, Tangerine.

L: Salad with rotisserie chicken.

D: burger w grilled onions & mushrooms, asparagus

Having a main computer crash is a horrible thing. I hope you can get it back up and running well.

QOTD: my main work's computer is probably 5-6 years old. But I bought the best of the best at that time. I hope I get a few more years from it.
My tablets are newer, because I noticed tablets lose their speed app 1 year after I get them. Or I drop them and damage the screen.

I've been extremely busy, not even time to get on line to see what everyone is doing. UGH.

My diet - is all over the place, with a lot of carbs. Plus I crave watermelon, tomato and Cesar salads like crazy, so that's that. Even with my SIBO, and IBS-C, watermelon, that is full of FODMAP, doesn't constipate me. I get gas, but not too bad, since things are just going through. Almost any other fruits-veggies high in FODMAP cause my system to just stop working. I.e. raw carrots can block my digestion for 2 days. Everything stops moving. OK. Enough of that.

Today I plan to work late, to catch up on some reports, and organize my office. It's a mess. I do like working in my office when everyone else is gone. I can set up my thermostat at 69 and enjoy the cool air.

Eats: TBD, and I have stuff to make Cesar salad, plus some watermelon. Chicken, cold cuts, etc. Things are fine.

I have not noticed that with the tablets but I am ruthless about getting rid of aps I don't use on my tablet. I'm sure that helps.

Good Morning! Oh boy it's hot and humid. I was out for my walk before 6:30. I love that it's checked of my list and I can be a couch potato most of the day if I wanna. And yesterday I was a total couch potato. And my knee loved it. The most pain free day I've had in a few months. But then there was food accountability. I ate 1 cup of caramel corn while finishing up a great (to me) book. State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny. A political thriller. I had zero expectations that it would be good and ended up thinking it was terrific. The little zingers thrown in didn't hurt.

Today I just have PT. The window washing guy was supposed to come, but they are predicting big rain this weekend, so he asked to push off til Tuesday. I appreciate his offer so much. He does such a great job the windows look spotless for months, but I would have been sad to see them rained on so quickly.

QoTD: My laptop is about 2018 but I did get a new Ipad in February just before the big trip. I don't need much on anything. I don't even have word or excel anymore. Who am I?

Food today...

B: leftover pork al pastor with an oz of chipotle goat cheese on 1/2 bagel thin. Not sure if this will actually taste good, but I'm using up leftovers, dang it!

L: Either I will convince Roger to take me to lunch or deli turkey and a bowl of roasted beets with oranges and pistachios. I better get those beets roasted this morning if I want them for lunch.

D: grilled tri tip and chicken. a few bites of Costco scalloped potatoes and a small portion of bagged salad mix.

Lots of Maalox and extra PPI's. I'm better, but I'm not great yet!

Peace everybody.

G'morning all!

That pup is so cute! QJB, sorry about computer problems.

Last installment of south of Belize involves two excursions:

Cacao farm - Belize has a ton of cacao farms and some of them that have a chocolate making workshop near by give tours. We showed up at this farm and our guide was the farmer. He was max 5'2" but after spending an hr with him he seemed like a giant, so knowledgeable and kind. The cacao pods hang low from the trunk of the trees, excuse my language, like a pair of balls. They go in with machetes and cut them off, the guys in the group winced at this. Then they use a wooden sorta baseball bat but shorter, to crack the pods. What comes out is a milky bunch of seeds (see pic) that taste like almond. Then the seeds get spread out in the sun to get fermented and dried out. I bought two bags of the dried seeds, they have a hint of chocolate but to me they're re more like bitter almonds. According to the farmer they are antioxidant and have tons of other benefits. So after two weeks of drying and fermenting they make them into a paste, add cane sugar and put them in the containers. When we moved to their workshop they showed us the process and under 5 minutes we had chocolate. Pure chocolate. The farmer also explained that big corporation like Hershey pulled out of Belize because wouldn't you know, they found a cheaper and lesser quality source in west African cacao pods. According to the farmer as long as you eat 65%-75% cacao and above you are doing a favor to your health. He said to look for fare trade cacao on the back of your chocolate bar. From now on nobody can tell me chocolate is not fruit.

Swamp tour - it was presented to us as Monkey river tour where you see and hear howling monkeys. That's why I said yes. But once we got on the boat and the first question was do you have mosquito repellant I started worrying. While on the boat, all was good. We saw monkeys, crocs, and some giant spiders. Then he turns off the boat and says we walk. Walk where? We were in the middle of a swamp and I swear if the guy left us we had no idea where to go. So we are walking in this mosquito infested jungle with giant ants crawling all over, and he stops every 10 steps to explain a plant. I couldn't give a rat's ass about any plant, and in my head I kept saying let's move let's move. The guy had a can of OFF repellant that I think we finished during that hike. There was literally stagnan****er in between the trees with mosquitos buzzing. You might wonder what I was wearing for this tour: shorts and tank top. Do you know how much skin was exposed to the elements? At one point he turns around and says do you wanna go the long way or do the short circle. We all yelled short one. Seeing the boat again was like seeing land after a long sea voyage. We practically jumped in the boat. On the way back he stopped at a village for lunch and we had the most amazing chicken we had ever had. Turns out they raise chicken next door and when they have these tours they just kill one in the morning and make the lunch for the tourists. We also saw one Manatee on the way back. All in all it was an experience that I wouldn't want to repeat, but it was worthwhile. It reminded me of the show "swamp people" if you have ver seen it.

QOTD: o got it after COVID so I think it's 1-2years old.

My meals yesterday (I was hungry most of the day)

• Coffee
• Rolled oats with blackberries
• Sourdough bread, mortadella and pecorino
• Yasso espresso w/choc chips, pretzel sticks, hb eggs, almond butter on rice cakes
• E: 2 sessions of weights

Happy jr Fri-yay!

Nope. Mountains, cold air for me. No bugs, crocodiles, or anything like that. So, Swiss chocolate for me.