General Long and Rambly Update

[amberfocus]

So I swam 34 laps today.  It would have been more, I still had a half hour before family swim ended, but some of the other kids (not mine!) were misbehaving so badly in the pool it was ridiculous.  Eight times I had to stop my laps and throw floaties, noodles and kickboards out of the lap lane.  Some of the kids (15 and 16 year olds were hanging over the lap lane rope, too.  A few strategically placed above the water kicks to splash water in the faces of anyone doing that soon put paid to that behavior.  Yes, childish, but I don't care.  I got enough splashes in my face and water up the nose while doing the back stroke to think turnabout is fair play.

I do not like the sourpuss female lifeguard.  She doesn't enforce the rules at all.  Ever.  I want the nice college boy back.  He at least disciplines kids breaking the pool rules by making them sit on the benches for ten minutes.  But he's getting ready for school so will probably only be around nights now.  *makes frowny face*  You know, it's not hard to teach your kids to behave in the water and follow pool rules and ettiquette.  I did it when my kids were toddlers.  You can do it, too, lazy parents sitting in the hot tub for two hours and letting your kids run rampant.

But regardless, I made my 1/4 mile and then some so as long as I do that I am happy.  And the kids start school on Tuesday so I can start adult lap swim and there won't be any horseplay in the pool then, so yay.  Still debating the personal trainer bit.  Not sure yet if I want to add in the Cybex machines or not.

This is day 2 of no restaurant food and cooking everything from scratch to improve our general health and diet and clean out the massive freezer.  Today I made banana bread because we had two (well, three) bananas on the brink and it was really good.  A bit crispy though.  I'm still not used to baking in a gas oven.  5 minutes less next time.  Oh, well, the chickens and ducks really liked the part I cut off and everyone else liked the other parts. 

I also made up a big batch of smoothies that used up the other banana, a half bag of frozen fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries) and I went out and picked a cup of fresh blueberries to throw in as well.  While I was out there the chickens harrassed me so I picked some for them, too!  There were also some green beans ready (more tomorrow, I think) and a tomato (first one!) ripe and a yellow summer squash.  The tomato will go into Wednesday's chili.

So for lunch we had fresh green beans and boneless skinless chicken thighs grilled on the George and for dinner crockpot beef chuck roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower (from the garden), the banana bread, the smoothies, and Rose made gravy.  She's getting very good at it.  I didn't even have to make the roux for her first this time.  I love it that she's taking over more.  She peeled the potatoes, too.

Oh, the chickens laid nine eggs today!  There are only seven chickens so they are getting quite productive now.  That was breakfast, scrambled eggs.  They are almost 100% foraging now.  They get just a bit of corn once a day and they eat all the vegetable scraps like carrot and potato peels and the bits we cut off fruit and whatever bugs and grubs and stuff they find.  It's definitely worth the investment.  I just wish one of the ducks was a girl.  The one female we had was killed by a racoon so no duck eggs, which are supposed to be higher in protein, lower in cholesterol and lower in calories or something.  Not to mention bigger.  Oh, well.  Circle of life and all that.

I took the day off from writing.  I tend to do that after a big writing spurt.  I'll get back to it tomorrow.  I'll be working on Leap of Faith and part three of Three Hour Tour.  Then maybe A Sky Without Stars.  Not sure.  The Ten2 muse is a bit quiet after the last thing.  Or maybe it's just that Nine shouts so much louder.

I still have my headache.  We're on day 8 now.  I may have to go see the Doctor about this.  I mean the doctor.  Will I ever stop doing that?  It is not like me to have a headache last so long.  I've had migraines in the past, but those generally shut me down and I don't function for two days and I go in a dark room with an ice bag and something strong and it goes away.  This is not like that at all.  I don't know.  Maybe it's a kidney infection.  Last time I had a headache like that that is what it was, but my back doesn't hurt by my kidneys so I don't know what to think.  The only time it doesn't seem to hurt is when I am swimming.  It's weird.