Steps: Small Ones, Large Ones; Forward, Backward, and Sideways Too

That’s life in a neat, tidy package, isn’t it? It seems to be for me, anyway: at any point in my life, I’m making progress in some areas, some more than others; in other areas I seem to be moving backwards; and in a few others I have either deliberately or accidentally routed around what I originally thought was the best course. Step into my cozy kitchen for an update, if you dare (more like if you’re in need of a soporific). But first, for anyone wondering which eddress to use to contact me, my primary one at this domain is the best bet at the moment. More on that over a cup of coffee or tea ...

As I mentioned, I have regained email capability via this domain’s email server ... kinda-sorta. Despite our tireless godemperor’s heroic efforts to instruct me in the mysterious ways of IMAP, I have yet to get Kmail chatting happily with it. Part of the challenge undoubtedly is our ongoing satlink situation, making troubleshooting an interesting experiment in guessing. But I have not given up (although I am considering [gasp!] switching to a different email client if that will help, and won’t make encryption difficult), and am determined to succeed somehow.

Speaking of connectivity problems, I have reframed that frustrating situation in order to decrease my stress over something I cannot control. I have found that our connection goes through periods of better and worse connectivity over the course of a day. When it’s good, I try to do as much work as I can; when it’s bad, I simply walk away from the machine and do something else. I’ll intermittently check in to see if the connection is back; and when it is, I’ll do some more online stuff. I find I’m getting a lot more things accomplished around the house, and I’m much less tempted to use my computer for target practice. The only downside to this strategy is that it doesn’t mesh well with participating at my two favorite fora, but I hope to find a way to route around that too.

I’ve had a small measure of success in the weight-loss area, although that has come after a couple of backward steps. However, I am hopeful that those backward steps are mostly behind me, as Tom Ender very helpfully pointed me to a possible culprit I hadn’t considered: insufficient sleep contributes to weight gain. I’d been putting in a lot of late nights working on various projects; that work also helped me be less mindful of my eating habits. I’m still working on improving my sleep, but just the awareness of that contributing factor has helped me refocus. Meanwhile, the combination of walking and spot exercising has paid off, despite that weight gain: I’m looking a little trimmer, and firmer in some places that had started to sag. I’ve also been doing a couple of new things since I last blathered about this: 1] irrespective of whether I walk or not, I have at least two mini exercise sessions a day—anything that exercises enough muscle groups to get my heart rate up a bit and feeling a little winded after 5 minutes or so. That may not sound like much, but every time one ramps up the metabolism like that, there’s a slow taper back to the resting metabolic rate. Engaging in several small sessions thus gives me the benefits of multiple long tails of boosted metabolism each day; and 2]. drinking green tea—which was also an Endervidual recommendation (I don’t buy green tea or extracts of it at that site; I get it at the store). (If you’ve had problems with green tea tasting bitter, you’re almost certainly brewing it incorrectly. Boiling water is too hot for the leaves—heat the water just until the kettle starts to “hum” or emit steam. Also, brew the tea for 3–5 minutes; longer and it will likely become bitter.)

I am still dealing with the tyranny of the garden, but much less so. The tomatoes are still producing, but only at a rate of 1–2 ripe fruits per day. I dried a bunch more the other day, along with making my fruit leathers; the rest I’ll either use in our meals or freeze. I haven’t tried that before, but several people have told me that it works well; just wash and core the tomatoes, then put in a freezer bag. After they’ve defrosted, they’ll slip right out of their skins. Earlier this morning I harvested a large crop of basil, which I will shortly be turning into pesto. Most of it will be frozen without parmesan cheese for use throughout the fall and winter, but my tummy is already anticipating something yummy with pesto for dinner tonight, so I will likely oblige it. Our sole tomatillo plant is still producing like crazy, and the fruits are beginning to ripen. However, the bumblebees really like the plant—probably because it’s one of the few still abundantly flowering—and with the shorter days have begun to get a little more protective of it. I have yet to work out a way to harvest the fruit without getting stung, so I can make and can some salsa verde. We’re also getting a lot of cayenne peppers that I’m not sure what to do with; I’m thinking of roasting them, then drying and grinding them up.

For those of you who have written or have been silently wondering when I’ll start selling candies and other treats again, that will probably commence at the beginning of October. If anyone’s interested in lobbying for a return of specific truffle flavors, or for new varieties, now’s the time to start making your case. I’m already thinking of how to improve on last year’s efforts.

So, I think that’s a good catch-up on what I’ve been doing lately ... I know I promised the first “cooking the alphabet” entry after the Salon was done, and will do that soon. Hope y’all are doing well too!