Monday

Wow, what a weekend. 

Friday and Saturday were in Phoenix, helping Elizabeth out by acting as an upstairs maid and laundry serf.  Six loads, if you can believe it.  Plus miscellaneous cleaning, cooking, shopping, rehanging whiteboards (Command Adhesive Picture hangers are way cool).  I think it was helpful. 

Didn't eat terribly well those two days - I stepped on her scale on Saturday morning and saw 144.2, and I think that was accurate.  But I did introduce her to the bunless option at McDonalds, and she agrees with me that the burgers taste exactly the same with or without bread.  Unlike In-N-Out - protein style is good, but you actually miss the bun.  With luck, knowing about bunless Big Macs will keep her from the chicken nuggets in future.  We finished the trip at the Chili's in the airport, eating chips and salsa and artichoke dip.  Oh, well.

Sunday was drudge-around-the-house day back home, more or less.  Shopping, cooking, laundry (another load or two), and painting.  I got the walls of the being-redone bathroom primed and painted, as well as the ceilings of it and the entire bedroom (there is nothing worse than painting ceilings, although I do appreciate the ceiling paint that goes on pink when wet and dries white).  We had a good breakfast (Cracker Barrel does amazing low-carb), Mexican for lunch (not so healthy), and for dinner, a very nice pot roast with new potatoes and carrots.  Put a little butter on a new potato that's been braising in pot roast liquid for an hour, and it's like eating beef/butter-flavored velvet.  Very nice.  I seared the pot roast and the mirepoix in bacon fat - much nicer than the "vegetable oil" that the recipe called for.

A couple of observations: I was very tired and achy yesterday morning, but in spite of that, had the stamina to prime and paint, including ceilings, for something like 6 straight hours.  At the end, my shoulders and feet and hips and hands were all incredibly sore and stiff.  I took 3 fish oil and some Advil once I was done for the night, and this morning, my hands and shoulders have a faint memory of being stiff yesterday, and my feet feel fine.  I'm sure that our less-inflammatory diet helps this work as well as it does, but I am ever-so-grateful that it does work.

Especially as I will need to repeat the process - we both hate the paint color, now that it's dry.  Bother.