Finances

I just got my power bill, and I am now sitting in candlelight.  According to the digital meat thermometer, my apartment has been a comfortable 64 degrees (that's sarcasm - I'm freezing), and the power bill was still twice what I had budgeted.  I've been coveting a pair of wicked good slippers from LL Bean, but they are ridiculously expensive, so I found a cheaper pair on Amazon that have good reviews.  Now I'm just waiting for enough Power Play points from people at work to trade in for another Amazon gift card.  And I'm thinking that I should exercise more.  Like my dad says, "If you're not warm it's because you're not working hard enough."  While I'm whining, my rent renewal is going to be an extra $25 a month, and they raised the laundry prices.  And I just got my car's cracked windshield replaced.

The headaches have been pretty manageable lately, though.  Frequency has gone down, intensity up.  Always a price to pay.  The diet is still effective, although I've been too tired to eat a lot lately, so I've been dropping weight again.  Which I didn't notice, until three people brought it up in the same week.  Maybe that's another reason the cold is getting to me so much.  I've started taking a bath every night just before bed so that my feet unthaw enough for me to get to sleep.  Life is so tricky sometimes.  Luckily, I enjoy candlelight.

Facebook

I don't Facebook a lot.  Every now and then it's nice to cyber stalk someone - just to see what they're up to.  I have a friend or acquaintance (not really sure how you classify some of the random people that become "friends" on Facebook) who I just unfriended.  Not something I normally do, mostly because I'm too lazy, but also because if I unfriended all of the random people then I would barely have any friends left, and then what would be the point of Facebook?  It wasn't so much her stance on gun control, although she's wrong, but that she's constantly inciting flame wars with political statements.  The gun control one was just the last straw.  If the best argument that she has is a photo of a child holding a handgun, I'm unconvinced.  There's my rant for the day.

Frustrations

My sewing machine loves to wad up the bobbin thread.  This is why I only sew every few years.

I've been hating my job. . .

So, I just applied for a bunch of new ones.  Which will probably come to nothing - but I actually like going to job interviews, and one was for a library clerk, so how could I resist?  I'd totally just quit my job, but I have a car to support.

Sick of Being Sick

Going on over a week now.  This morning I woke up before eight with a bad enough cough I couldn't get back to sleep.  Veggie broth sounded good, so I made some.  It is good.  And now I really need to get some more sleep so that I can actually function today. 

Decluttering

One of my goals this year has been to declutter everything I own.  It's a pretty ambitious goal considering I have an amazingly large amount of stuff.  One thing that I finally went through this weekend was a large tub full of stuffed animals, dolls, and various decorations.  There were a lot of things I just got rid of because they had been so well loved they were a bit raggedy.  But I took pictures, so here's some of my childhood:

 These are pillows that I made a long time ago:

 And this lovely purse is NOT a decluttered item.  This was made by my sister and given to me when I just visited her.  And I love it!  It's the perfect size to just pop in my keys and cell phone and go, which is so much nicer than the huge purse I normally lug around (but of course for work I need everything in there).  I just had to show it off:

My Keto Diet

I've been trying to maintain a state of ketosis since I left the fasting clinic.  So far, I've been pretty successful.  I'm basically eating all of the things I decided I never would again, at the clinic.  Meat, dairy, oils.  I eat creme brulee, salad with meat and oily dressings, artichokes with mayo/balsamic vinegar dip, celery with either sunflower butter or flavored cream cheese, eggs (scrambled or fried), frozen veggies heated with butter, and for snacks I eat cheese and tons of nuts.  Obviously not that healthy of a diet.  Major reduction of carbs.  No fruit, which makes me really sad.  I'm never hungry, which is nice.  I've started supplementing with a spoonful of coconut oil twice a day, a green drink powder I mix with whipping cream and almond milk, and fish oil pills.  Recently I added a really expensive multi-vitamin, and suddenly I've had some energy.  I can sleep again, and actually get out of bed and get stuff done.  In August I started exercising again, and so far I've done at least three times a week, usually more.  Mind you, just fifteen minutes or so at a time, but my arms aren't as flabby, so that's nice.  And the headaches?  Much better.  The frequency is really reduced and even the intensity has dropped a point or two.  The diet still sucks, though.