RaNdoM

So I really have nothing. Why, then, am I writing here when I am aware that I have nothing to say (as opposed to other days)?

Procrastination.

Pure and simple. I am not quite to the point that I am cleaning my house rather than do homework, but I may be edging closer. I have checked my facebook, my email, my message boards. I have prepared dinner for my family (okay, Kroger chicken-- but I reheated it), rewashed a load of clothes that sat in the washer too long, nagged dh into doing dishes (that started because we were looking for the corkscrew), and had a glass of wine.

Now I just need to bs my way through a definition of distance education. Recently, I have been rejoicing in the lack of theory in my classes that I am taking this spring. No theoretical framework to integrate into papers. No pretending I know what on earth my professors mean when they challenge me on my theories that I have cobbled together paraphrasing sentences I sort of understand. Just education classes.

Just the practical bs, ma'm. Hold the theoretical bs. I take the bs back. Busy work. That is what it is rather than bs. I am proving that I am working. Definitions, case studies, and bears, oh. my.

Let's see how far I get before I start wiping down the kitchen cabinets.

FAIL

Dripping faucets. How hard can one be to fix? I have even done it before. So I buy a $35 kit and get my husband to turn off the water, and tear in.

Let me back up. To understand, you really must know that I fall asleep pretty easily and sleep like the dead. My husband, on the other hand, is an insomniac, and every little thing keeps him awake. The shower in the master bath has been dripping since we moved in. Our home warranty does not cover faucets. So, he felt that something *had* to be done. I on the other hand, have been putting this off for months. I knew that there was no shutoff for the shower itself. That means all the water in the house has to be off until I get everything put back together.

But dh finally nagged talked me into tackling this. I took apart the faucet, removing the handles and stems, and put on the new stems and handles. This took a relativity short amount of time. Couple of hours.

But of course, both handles still leaked. We had not touched the seats. The seat is a little nut-like thing that connects the back of the faucet to the faucet stem (which is under the handle).

So we take it all apart and take out the seat on the cold water. It didn't want to come out, so off to the hardware store for a different seat wrench. That helped. The seat loosened and came out. It was, of course, shot. So I try to put in a new one. It would not go in. Would not thread. We spent an hour or more trying to get it to catch. So I try putting in the old one, taping the threads and stuff. Nope. Leaking mess. So back to Lowe's to see if there is a different seat sold. No. Gerber changed the way they manufactured them. The clerk, though, helpfully pointed out how the threads were machined differently. And the old seat is ever-so-slightly smaller than the new one.

So there is no way to fix the old faucet. Which means after 6 hours, and $50 in materials, we are back to the beginning. Well, except for the drip that has turned into a waterfall. Dad is coming on Monday to sort it out.

Yeah, I slept in Miss O's room. Dh got to enjoy the waterfall by himself.

New Year!

So, I have gained a ton of weight. Almost a metric ton. So I decided to do something. My dh does WeightWatchers online, but it is expensive. So I didn't want to do that. So I poked around and found a free food tracker. It figured out how many calories I need to eat every day to loose 1.5 pounds a week (I lack the obsessiveness to eat few enough calories to lose more). Other than the point system, it works like Weight Watchers. You type in the food you ate and the amounts and it tracks the calories for free. It will keep a year's worth of records for you. If you want more than that, you have to subscribe (but it is still WAY less than Weight Watchers.

I've been obsessively finding foods that will help me not starve while not sending my calorie count out of control. I found this list of 100 Calorie Snacks on WebMD:

100 Calorie Snacks: 20 Choices

Need some ideas? To get you started on the road to calorie-controlled snacking, our experts offer some suggestions for healthy 100-calorie munchies:

1. Half an apple with 2 teaspoons of peanut butter
2. An orange and a few dry-roasted nuts
3. 10 cashew nuts
4. 10 almonds
5. 2 ounces of lean roast beef
6. Half a small avocado
7. 3 ounces cooked whole-grain noodles with 1 fresh tomato and 1/2 ounce hard cheese
8. 1 seven-grain Belgian waffle
9. 4 mini rice cakes with 2 tablespoons low-fat cottage cheese
10. 3 ounces low-fat cottage cheese and 3 whole-wheat crackers
11. 1/4 cup fat-free ranch dressing with mixed raw veggies
12. 6 Wheat Thins crackers with two teaspoons of peanut butter (or any nut butter)
13. 1 small baked potato with 1/2 cup salsa and 2 tablespoons of fat-free sour cream
14. 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce with 1 slice of whole-wheat toast, cut into 4 strips for dunking
15. 1/2 cup frozen orange juice, eaten as sorbet
16. 2 large graham cracker squares with 1 teaspoon peanut butter
17. 3 handfuls of unbuttered popcorn, seasoned with herbs
18. 4-6 ounces of no-fat or low-fat yogurt
19. A 5-ounce tossed salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and 1/4 cup fat-free dressing
20. Half a "finger" of string cheese with 4 whole-wheat crackers