Okay, that was not good, but it is the theme I came up with for this year’s holiday party. It is now a tradition (three years strong) that we throw a holiday party and I cook lots of food. Last year, we tried to do it for NYE but I think only one couple actually stayed until midnight. This year, we decided (okay, I decided but he went along with it) that December 30th would do. Everybody was gone by 9:30 pm but honestly, I still think of it as a success. We had a good time! Also, I was able to give away enough leftovers that we only have to eat the party remnants for like three days.
So, theme-wise, I decided on noodles but I could not think of any noodle-based appetizers, so I made samosas because everybody likes them, including me! I did come up with more noodle dishes than I ended up making but thankfully cut back because adding noodle kugel, pho, stroganoff, etc. would have just made my life more stressful! I did have plenty to do, especially since I made the spaghetti noodles myself. I did not try to make the others from scratch though, only the one kind I have successfully made before.
I ended up making five noodle dishes. Well, four plus a ramen bar of sorts. I made macaroni & cheese, using several kinds of cheese plus cream instead of milk for the béchamel sauce. I baked it, of course, although I did not top it with breadcrumbs this time, I was a little wary since I burned the top the last time I did that although I did put plenty of extra cheese on the top and broil it just a bit. To go with my homemade noodles and marinara sauce, I made a bunch of meatballs. I used soy milk in the panade so that they would be friendly to my fiancé’s tummy but otherwise they were pretty standard.
The pad thai is probably what turned out the worst among my dishes. The flavor was okay but I oversteeped the rice noodles and so they kind of clumped up and fell apart instead of having the proper noodle texture. On the other hand, the japchae turned out quite well! I was a little self-conscious about it since my [future] mother-in-law served japchae just two days before and we actually had some leftover but I was assured that it was excellent, so I will happily take that compliment!
For the ramen bar, I made a broth from chicken thigh bones plus scraps from onions, mushrooms, garlic, and ginger. Of course I threw in some peppercorns and bay leaves and just a pinch of MSG. For protein, I made poached chicken, air fried tofu, and marinated soft-boiled eggs. I was actually very pleased with how the eggs turned out, the yolks were properly jammy in my [admittedly biased] opinion. Vegetable-wise, I sautéed some bok choy and some beech mushrooms, which are pretty much my go-to ramen veggies, and I cut up some scallions that are amazingly still growing in a pot outside.
I deep fried the samosas because; yum! I did cheat a little and use egg roll wrappers instead of making my own dough but I do not feel too guilty about that. I made the filling myself and two kinds of chutney, so I am still a passable Indian Auntie! I don’t tend to do dessert but a friend / guest is good at it and she made delicious oreo truffles and dipped wafers. We also put out a cookie tray from my MIL. It was the second one we received this year. I am definitely developing a cookie problem!
So, other than feeding people, one of the things that excited me the most about the party was the opportunity to use my new Christmas present – a super fancy Japanese chef’s knife. It is great, it cuts super easily through carrots; mushrooms are like butter; onions give off fewer fumes! Of course, that level of sharpness does come with its dangers. My fiancé warned me several times not to cut myself and I replied that was less likely with such a sharp knife since I would not be exerting as much pressure. Even so, he said, I needed to be careful.
I concentrated very hard on not cutting the fingers of my left hand and so was super surprised when I saw some blood on the cutting board before I even felt the pain. It turns out, I should have been more worried about my right hand! How did I cut my dominant hand? By choking up too much on the knife and letting my index finger touch the base of it. That is a mistake I will [hopefully] not be repeating anytime soon! The cut was clean but deep and long and it just kept bleeding, keeping me from being able to bandage it adequately right away. I left a lot of blood droplets as I flitted about trying to take care of it but eventually I managed to staunch the bleeding with some tightly wrapped gauze. It is mostly on its way to healing now but even four days later I have to keep a bandage on it in order to protect my environment from occasional blood droplets. Also, the affected finger is definitely swollen but I guess that is to be expected. I am keeping an eye on it for pus but am not too worried, I am working to keep it clean.
I also burned myself a little on my Instant Pot. I was using the air fryer lid. That makes the rim of the metal pot get a lot hotter than pressure cooking does so when I leaned across it and my arm touched – ouch! (The photo is almost four days post-burn, so it has had time to significantly discolor.)
Despite a few wounds though, the party prep went well overall. A few friends could not join us due to illness but we had a decent crowd and, as always, a lot of fun doing a white elephant gift exchange. Personally, I gave everybody socks! They were selected for each person individually, like when I got them all mugs last year or tee shirts the year before. I don’t know what generic / personal gift I will be able to come up with for next year! I might have to start thinking early.
This might not actually be the end of my garden bed but I suspect that it is. We are trying to move and it is not practical to take it with us. We have been looking for a new house (in the same area, we just want to upgrade) but are not really aggressive enough for the current housing market it seems, so I suppose we might still be here next season; only time will tell.
I never got around to planting anything in my straw bales this year, so they just kind of sat there sadly throughout the summer. My raised bed though, did pretty well, even if I did not get everything from it I planted, the overall yield was good.
I planted five tomatoes (bought as small plants) along with peas, beans, cucumbers, and basil. The beans did okay and the peas were fine for a short time but the basil did not even grow and the cucumbers I planted ( a variety known as a lemon cucumber that is roundish and yellow) did produce a couple of fruits but they were sad looking and never got eaten. I also planted some basil in a hanging basket and some carrots in grow bag. The former did okay and I got some use out of the leaves although they were always kind of light green and never too productive but the latter did not grow too much, which is disappointing. I have not harvested the carrots yet but it looks like there are only maybe three of them in there total. I also put some wildflower seeds in the bed in the hope of attracting pollinators. Nothing really grew enough to do so until after the tomatoes pretty much did not need it anymore and now they just kind of look like weeds. I think I will skip that step in the future.
There were a couple of volunteer tomato plants that popped up in the front flower beds. A yellow pear tomato right near where I grew some last year and a cherry tomato whose origin remains a mystery. They both got kind of overgrown and did not start producing fruit until a little later in the season so I got only a couple of tiny tomatoes from each before they were removed by my mother-in-law when she came by to tend to the flowers in October. Before that, I had pruned them a little to encourage ripening but I do not know how successful that would have been anyway.
Of the tomatoes I grew in the raised bed, some were more successful than others. I think I only got one or two Purple Cherokees before that plant gave up but the Early Girl did pretty well. Those tomatoes were smallish but consistent and good. The Chocolate Sprinkles was kind of disappointing, the skin was tough and the flavor was not awesome, so I do not think I will buy that one again. The real winners of the year were the Sweet Million and the Sun Sugar. I had a ton of little red and orange cherry tomatoes to snack on and cook with.
The bed itself is looking kind of sad these days. The vines that once grew peas and beans are dead and brownish. There are more than a few rotting tomatoes of various sizes sitting on the ground. Some might be salvageable but I decided to let those go – if they are sitting in the dirt, bugs have most likely gotten to them anyway.
I did not cook a ton with my tomatoes. I never really do. We often have sliced tomato with salt & pepper along with our dinner in the summertime. Mostly those are the huge, impressive heirloom tomatoes grown by my mother-in-law but sometimes my Early Girls get in on the fun, as did my disappointing Purple Cherokee harvest. Of course, I used some of the little ones in pasta salad a time or two. I did do a burst cherry tomato pasta for my grandmother that I thought turned out pretty well although I did not take any photographs of it. Later in the season, when I got a real glut of the little tomatoes, I made a focaccia bread (with pre-made dough from Trader Joe’s that made the whole thing pretty easy) and a quiche with tomatoes and asparagus. I still have like two cups of cherry tomatoes left to do something with, so I might try that burst cherry tomato pasta thing again for us.
Overall, it was a pretty successful season. I watered a lot at first then stopped having to do so due to rain, so the work was minimal and the tomatoes we did get were pretty good. Only time will tell whether this bed will get another shot or if I am gardening in a whole new place next season!
A little while ago, I became officially engaged. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact date because we had a couple of conversations leading up to the decision to get married and there was no official proposal, just a mutual decision. In one of those conversations, I mentioned that I am both heteronormative and materialistic enough to want an engagement ring and my [now] fiancé agreed even though he was scared of the idea until I promised I would pick it out for him.
I did have some guilt over even wanting a ring. I actually already own a diamond engagement ring that belonged to my great grandmother. It is quite pretty but not at all what I would choose for a ring of my own and I definitely wanted something a little more “me”. My preference for yellow gold is pretty deeply ingrained as is my general disdain of diamonds due to their lack of color. I do love bright colors!
I went over some options with my BFF on our trip to Vegas and she helped me narrow them down to four, which I sent to my fiancé to pick from. I did tell him that he could get me any ring he wants as long as it is yellow gold with a pink sapphire of at least one carat (I have big hands) and diamond accents. He took the easy road and ordered from one of the links I sent. As you can see though, it is very different from the art deco heirloom I now sometimes wear on my right hand. My engagement ring may not be particularly traditional but it makes me smile and I feel that it suits me well.
Once we agreed to get married, I immediately jumped into planning. He wondered whether we should wait until after we buy a house (we are currently in the market for an upgrade) and I pointed out that these things take a while to plan so we will need to start now even to have a wedding after we move. Of course, with the housing market being what it is at the moment, we might not find something to buy until after we are married anyway! After some debate (mostly me arguing out loud with myself) we decided on May of 2024. We do not have a lot of photos together so I went about having a drawing commissioned of one (my hair was frizzy in the original) to put on our save-the-date cards.
The day my ring arrived though, we were going on a double date with some friends and got one of them to take a few photos of us together. I was actually quite pleased with how the photos came out, even though some were quite silly, and ended up using one for the announcement we sent out.
We are lucky that my father wants to pay for the wedding because it will not be a cheap affair! I learned that the average American wedding costs $30,000 while the average Indian wedding in America costs over $200,000. I can hardly even wrap my head around that number! I feel pretty confident that I can do it for less than that. For one thing, together we are only one quarter Indian. Of course, given the tendency of the traditions to steamroller over others, the fraction of our wedding that is Indian will be considerably higher than that.
One of the reasons Indian weddings are so expensive is the multiple functions over multiple days. I might do a small mehndi party but we will not have a haldi or any pujas. One thing I do want though is a Sangeet. I think they are traditionally more of a North Indian thing and I am [half] Telugu but they are becoming pretty standard at American Desi weddings and I love the idea of having an extra party, especially with much of my family traveling so far to attend. I am not sure whether any of my friends are really up for performing a rehearsed song or choreographed dance number so I decided to find a DJ who can incorporate karaoke into the program that night. Anyway, reserving a hotel ballroom for two days, of course, doubles the venue, food, and drink prices right off the bat but we did it anyway, choosing a local hotel where we have attended a convention in the past and knew we liked. Also, unlike some other options, they agreed to let us have outside catering, which is key to our fusion wedding plans.
The hotel provided us with a preferred vendors list which included eight Indian caterers. The problem, therefore, became finding a Korean caterer for the other event. After calling nearly two dozen Korean restaurants up to 100 miles away, I finally gave up. They were mostly all happy to provide trays of food for the event but the venue requires caterers to be licensed, have an insurance policy for at least a million dollars, and provide their own staff. Apparently this is infinitely more common for Indian restaurants than Korean ones. We are bummed out but our current plan is to ask the venue chef to prepare some Korean-inspired dishes, maybe bulgogi and/or Korean fried chicken. Also, we can get desserts from wherever we want, so perhaps some of those can be purchased from a Korean bakery. We are leaning toward a minimally sized wedding cake and a dessert buffet instead of a big tiered monstrosity so that people can select from a variety of pastries.
My initial idea to incorporate Korean traditions was to do a Pyebaek at the beginning of the Sangeet. From what I could tell, this would include bowing, drinking tea and/or wine, the gentle tossing of dates and chestnuts, and possibly a brief piggyback ride. My fiancé vetoed the latter two parts even after I explained that the fruit and nuts would be gently tossed underhand and hardly chucked at my head or anything like that. Anyway, his mother has now gotten involved which is good because she is the Korean one! She told him about a tradition involving the trading of wooden waterfowl, which he loves and will help us plan something brief but meaningful. She will also be in charge of buying us both hanboks to wear during that part of the evening. Unfortunately, based on some searching of options online, it appears that we are too fat to be Asian. Both my fiancé and I have chests that measure around 43″ which is larger than the biggest hanboks made by a tailor in New York that she is considering. I had a similar problem when searching for lehengas to wear to the other events. They can be made any size up to 42″. Really? Indians are getting bigger too these days, it is not just Americans! Anyway, that is frustrating but hopefully something can be custom tailored.
I did order a lehenga for the ceremony which is supposed to arrive next week. I gave my measurements to the shop and am hopeful that it will fit although I am sure it will need to be adjusted by a local tailor. I am down to about 175 lbs (from a top weight of 250 about six years ago) and am glad that at least I did not have to shop for a wedding dress then! I am doing my best to be body positive and be pleased with weight loss only for health-related reasons and not aesthetic ones but man, that is hard when shopping for a wedding and I still have more clothes to buy.
My current vision for the wedding includes multiple costume changes. At four or five o’clock on Saturday, we will both be in Korean garb to do some sort of Korean ceremony with tea and ducks and whatnot. After that, we will change our clothes, possibly while dinner is being served, and both be in Indian wear for the rest of the evening (Sangeet). On Sunday afternoon, he will wear a hanbok (maybe the same one as Saturday, maybe a different one, that is up to him and his mother) and I will wear a lehenga. I was originally going to go with a red one, which is the most traditional for a wedding although I see Indian brides is all colors of the rainbow these days, but I fell in love with a white one with red and gold embroidery that I saw online. I can only hope that they tailored it right and it will suit me. We will change during the cocktail hour and to the reception, he will wear a suit and I will wear lehenga #3. I do like Indian formalwear more than the western sort although maybe that is mostly because the nicest clothes I own have always been Indian.
I have not ordered my reception dress yet although I do have one in mind. I am currently arguing a little with my aunts who think the pink dress I chose is too similar in color scheme to the white and red I am wearing to the wedding ceremony. They think I should wear turquoise for the reception and pink for the Sangeet. Pink is my favorite color though and it matches my ring! At the end of the day, I know I get to pick but I really don’t want to make them feel like they are not being heard. My original plan was to actually let one of them pick out our Sangeet outfits with some basic guidelines like color (green / blue family) and our measurements. They will both be taking trips to India before the wedding.
I am thinking about a ton of other things with the wedding – bridesmaids, flower girls, the ceremony, flowers, it goes on and on. More to come!
My best friend and I turned forty this year and so to celebrate / mourn the event(s) we decided to take a trip together. Despite living only a couple of hours apart, we have not seen each other in almost two years! She does not drive and I see my grandmother every weekend, so it just does not tend to work out. Anyway, we were in dire need of a hangout so we started trying to plan something a few months ago. Florida and Texas were also considered because we wanted somewhere sunny where we could hang out at a pool or beach but in the end we decided to go to Las Vegas.
To sum up the trip – I enjoyed myself and am glad I went but I do not think I ever need to go there again. Las Vegas is . . . a lot. I mean, it is shiny and huge and loud and just not very me. I don’t really drink or gamble much and am not a thrill seeker in any way so the city really does not have a lot to offer me.
Our time together started on Saturday, when BFF came to town and I picked her up at the train station. We got facials and haircuts at Aveda then pedicures at a nearby salon followed by dinner at a bar we used to like when she lived nearby. I just got a trim to get rid of the raggedy ends (even though I had not gotten it cut for at least a year) but I think it turned out well. Also, the facial cleaned out my pores. I had some blackheads on my nose which are thankfully gone now. For some reason I cannot recall, we chose to watch Magic Mike that evening before bed – it was even dumber than I recalled.
On Sunday morning, we got breakfast at a diner and headed to the airport. The flight was four hours, the longest I have been on since COVID, and was surprisingly uncomfortable. I started to feel some low grade nausea pretty immediately and thought that a Tums would take care of it but alas, it was not to be and when we landed I actually had to make use of the air sickness bag for the first time in like twenty-five years. I used to vomit on planes all the time as a kid but thought I had grown out of it. Apparently not. I also had a cold sweat going, which my BFF had also although she did not actually get sick, fortunately. So, the flight was not great but it was over! Immediately after stepping off the plane, we saw the obvious sign we were in Las Vegas. Well, maybe not the MOST obvious sign, because that was the literal one that led down to the baggage claim but right next to our arrival gate was a bank of electronic slot machines – in case you just can’t wait to gamble, I guess.
We took a taxi to our hotel, The MGM Grand, selected because its pool complex features a lazy river. We were both surprised at how close the airport is to the strip. I just assumed it would be further from the actual city like many airports are. Anyway, I was able to check in on the app which apparently also acts as a room key through bluetooth or NFC or something but we chose to “print” room key cards anyway because that just seemed more secure. We were only on the second floor and the view was basically non-existent but the room itself was perfectly comfortable although it did take us a bit of time to find it, the casino floor seems purposefully confusing and difficult to navigate and of course one has to weave between slot machines to get to the hotel rooms.
That evening, we headed out to explore a bit. We got ourselves 24-hour monorail passes and wandered around the building until we found the station. It was surprisingly far even though the stop was actually in our hotel. Each of the hotels in Las Vegas is the size of several city blocks, for which I was not quite prepared! We also had to do a lot of walking after getting off at the stop we chose, through an entire additional hotel, then up the street a ways to The Venetian. Once we finally got into the shopping district there, it was very nice although physically a bit confusing. There is a sky that is not the real sky although it is pleasant enough to look at. There were gondoliers serenading tourists as they poled down the indoor canal and we considered trying that for ourselves but determined we were too hungry and needed to find a restaurant instead. We went to a Trattoria for dinner and each ordered pizza, which turned out to be a mistake – even BFF with her regular stomach could not finish her whole dish so there was no hope for me and my surgically ensmallened one. We decided after that to get one entrée and one appetizer and split it so as not to be so wasteful. Also, food in Vegas is pricey!
After eating a bit too much food, we headed over to The Bellagio. There was a nice view from the skyway over Las Vegas Boulevard and we had a pretty good time gambling at the slots there. We actually found a machine that let you bet a penny per spin. It turns out that lots of the machines allow you to choose to pay a penny per credit but most of them require multiple credits for each bet; 50, 200, etc; 88 cents is a surprisingly common minimum. Anyway, it was on this unicorn of a machine that I actually won some money! I sort of understood how it worked but not totally. Still, I was able to get $26 from the cashout machine after only putting in $5 to play. I did gamble a little more during my stay, bringing my net gain down to only $10 but hey, I still won overall! The problem we had at The Bellagio was getting to the front to see the fountains. By that point we were exhausted and confused and there were not sidewalks where there should have been but we got there just in time to see the show, which was set to music and very beautiful. Afterward, we did have some trouble getting back to The MGM Grand though. My phone told me it was faster to take a side road but when we did that, we had to walk even further because there was no door to let us into the building there and we had to walk over halfway around the monstrosity before we discovered a usable entrance. I just have to say again – those buildings are so damn big! My watch says we walked about seven miles on Sunday.
On Monday, we decided not to leave the hotel all day. It was still quite the hike just to get to the pool complex although I don’t know exactly how far because in an attempt to avoid unnecessary tan lines, I left my watch in the hotel room. Apparently, The MGM Grand will not rent you a tube for the lazy river and buying one there is silly expensive (well, not really for Las Vegas, that place is not cheap) so I bought a couple on Amazon before we left. I figure they can be used at the pool near my parents’ house in the future, so they will not go to waste. The pool staff take the opening and closing hours very seriously and there were people lining up well before the lazy river opened at ten a.m. even though they could have been enjoying the other pools in the meantime. Of course, none of the three additional pools there are more than 3½ feet deep, not even the over-21 pool. I suspect it has something to do with drunk people. BFF was sad about that, she likes to swim more. Anyway, we were finally let into the lazy river area where we found a couple of shady lounges although unfortunately, they were not in the shade for long once the sun moved across the sky. The lounge chairs are crazy close together, which I do get because then they can fit more of them but it is terribly inconvenient to walk around a long row of them if you are not situated on the end. There were definitely a lot of drunk people on the river and plenty just standing at the edge or walking along without any tubes or floats but I am glad that we had some, floating was definitely more fun than walking. We actually tried to drink a bit ourselves; we had plans to share a frozen cocktail but apparently they won’t sell you alcohol without a proper ID. Neither of us had brought one along because we are forty and could hardly be mistaken for someone underage. They required an ID for credit card purchases too, apparently everybody but us knew to bring theirs along. Fortunately, I was able to use Apple Pay to get us some nachos and a fruit cup, otherwise we would have had to make the long slog back to our room just to be able to eat! Because of my position in the tube, my knees and chest took the brunt of the sun even though I was wearing sunblock, and turned a bit pink but overall, it was not too bad. My new hat (with a hole for my ponytail!) did a good job of keeping the sun off of my face and BFF kept her milky white legs underwater to help protect them from the harsh desert rays.
Once the lazy river closed for the day (at five p.m.) we headed back to our room to put actual clothes on. We had dinner at Grand Wok Noodle Bar in the hotel. What was weird about that place was the fact that they are a noodle place but only a couple of their dishes actually have noodles. We ordered orange chicken, which apparently comes with no sides at all, so we also got vegetable lo mein. The situation was a bit odd but the food was actually quite delicious. It turns out one meat dish and one noodle dish was just the right amount of food for the two of us, especially when paired with a delicious sparkly mango mocktail. We went straight from dinner to an in-house theater to watch Ka by Cirque du Soleil. As a birthday present, my brother bought us tickets to see it and he sprang for better seats than I would have! They were right in the center and close to the front and gave us a great view of the amazing acrobatics of the performers. I don’t really know what to say about the show except that it was absolutely amazing. Even the parts that were not crazily impressive (like the aerial duet or the feats of balance) were beautifully choreographed and performed. I was particularly blown away by the part where they fight on a mountain (a vertical platform studded with pegs) but I have no way to really describe it adequately. It just blew me away overall! By the end of the show, we were exhausted so we bought some overpriced cookies and went back to the room to relax in our pajamas. Surprisingly, the internet in the hotel was not good, the TV kept glitching and stopping, so we could not really watch anything but I guess people don’t go to Vegas for the television.
On Tuesday, we headed back to the lazy river, where we spent the morning after I slathered on extra sunblock to protect my already pink skin. We brought our IDs this time but did not really feel up to cocktails so we just lazed around until we got hungry enough for lunch. It being the day after a holiday weekend, I had assumed there would not be big crowds anymore – boy, was I wrong! The river was full of drunks again and we waited quite a while in line for the buffet. The buffet was less decadent than I had pictured (based on the media) but was still perfectly satisfying. I got a slice of beef that sated my appetite for a steak, which I had kind of wanted in Vegas and after asking around, we finally were able to have some vegetables in the form of a salad. The salad bar was sort of hidden around the corner from the rest of the buffet, it was weird. After lunch, we went back to the pool for a bit then went out again to explore a little bit more outside our hotel. We exited through the lobby, which seemed like it made sense but then we had to walk almost halfway around the hotel to actually get to Las Vegas Boulevard. The layout of these hotels continues to confuse me. We saw The Excalibur and New York, New York from across the street and did eventually make it to Milk Bar, where BFF bought some fancy cookies, and then headed to Eataly in the Park MGM. Unlike our last visit to Eataly in Chicago, we could not buy things like balsamic vinegar and olive oil to take home without paying exorbitant baggage fees, so we just got drinks and lost some money at that casino while we waited for a table at La Pizza e La Pasta. They had some pizza that looked good but since we had that just two nights before, we opted to get burrata with focaccia bread and a ravioli dish instead. BFF had a single glass of wine of which I took a sip; that was the sum total of our drinking for the trip. This time we had learned our lesson about following our phones’ maps and were able to return to our hotel in a reasonable and less exhausting amount of time.
Wednesday morning, we basically went straight to the airport, where I considered gambling away my $10 in winnings but ultimately decided against it. Exhausted, we got on a plane (armed with Dramamine, this time) and flew back home uneventfully. After showering off the plane germs, we watched some Junior Bake Off (how did I not know that was a thing?) and went to bed early. Las Vegas was exhausting!
I did some traveling in April and kept putting off the cleaning of my craft room, so I never got around to starting any seedlings for transplantation. I decided that I would just buy tomato plants and grow stuff like beans and peas from seed. I was a little too ambitious last year and lost some control over things even though I was overall very pleased with my garden.
Last year, I got very lucky when I found a plethora of morels in the back yard. This year, I found only two. In late April, I spotted two tiny morels growing next to a rock but decided to let them grow for a bit. Two weeks later, I finally harvested them and they had gotten huge! I sliced them up and sautéed them in butter with a package of crimini mushrooms and ate them in ramen. I wish I had more but am still happy with the result.
I did a tiny bit to start growing things last weekend – seeding a container with buttercrunch lettuce and a hanging basket with basil. I also sprinkled a wildflower blend into a pot which I kept indoors. Only the wildflowers germinated at all in the past week. I know that this may have a lot to do with overnight temperatures and varied germination time but I quickly got impatient anyway.
On Mother’s Day this year, I went to my grandma’s place a little early so that I could leave with time to plant before it got too late. I went to Home Depot and bought five tomato plants for a total of around $30 – those things have definitely gotten more expensive! I got three plants for $5.48 each (Early Girl, Cherokee Purple, and a yellow cherry tomato – Sun Sugar, maybe?) and two for $5.98 each (Sweet Million and Chocolate Sprinkles). So I should get lots of little tomatoes this summer which are great for snacking. I planted all five in my raised bed although I might get one more because I do have a tomato planter that can go anywhere, most likely on the front porch. I may whine about the price but will still likely buy it.
Also in my raised bed, mostly following the square foot gardening method, I planted a couple of Lemon Cucumber seeds and some Picklebush seeds I had left from last year. Last year, I started my cucumbers indoors but the packages say I can directly sow them so I am giving that a shot. I also planted two square feet worth of basil and three each of beans and peas. The beans are a combination of yellow bush beans and Tendergreen Bush Beans, both packets from the dollar store and left over from last year. Last year, I grew sugar snap peas (if I remember correctly) but had only a couple of those left so I got out my huge bag of microgreen seeds and planted Speckled Peas. I put my new trellis up next to those, so I hope they grow well and climb it! I mostly see Speckled Peas used as microgreens and not as a vegetable crop, I wonder why.
In a 7-gallon container, I planted some Rainbow Carrots. I kind of just wanted purple carrots but I could not get a packet of those seeds except by mail order and with shipping, it just seemed silly so I got a blend like I did last year. Finally, I decided to re-seed the lettuce and basil that did not germinate from last week. I might regret that, I guess only time will tell.
I have four bales of straw (out of five from last year) that seem possibly re-usable. I am thinking of planting some leafy greens in them – specifics TBD.
In other news, a couple of weeks ago, I finished knitting myself a pair of socks. I have not made socks in years and am not sure I want to do more anytime soon; it is a lot of stitches for not a ton of payoff. Plus, while two socks at a time is a great way to combat “second sock syndrome,” I did not do a great job with the tension in the corners, particularly in the stranded section. I really like the feel of the yarn I used, it is an angora blend, but the yarn seems to break kind of easily and since they are stranded, I feel like there is some danger of the floats snapping and the socks unraveling. I have not yet washed them. Since they are not superwash wool, I am planning to do it by hand which, of course, means it will take me forever to get around to it.
Now I have been without a project for a while, I just cannot decide what to make next and my fingers are antsy!
There is nothing more exciting than finishing a project. Starting a new one comes in a close second but finishing is just such a rush! I finished two long-term projects plus one tiny short-term one just in the past couple of weeks and it is very exciting.
Last week, I finished a blanket that I have been working on for just over a year. It started in early 2022 when a friend’s son was set to turn eighteen. A throw blanket seemed like a nice gift and I had been sort of wanting to make a Mario Pixel Blanket for a while. Of course, every time I make a blanket with motifs, I enjoy doing the blocks and then hate seaming it together and even more, weaving in the seemingly infinite ends. I know this and yet I have done it multiple times and keep subjecting myself to it. Anyway, this son of a friend is a big video game fan and his favorite character is Luigi so I changed up a few colors and decided to dive in. I did not make the squares exactly how they are in the pattern since that seemed like it would take too long and be too big, so I made granny squares with just two rounds, measuring almost three inches on each side. I figured I could use leftover Red Heart Super Saver yarn from my Among Us projects but as I recall, I did have to buy some additional yarn in order to have enough plus the skin color, which I did not have to start with. Still, that is pretty cheap stuff and it was hardly much of an expense although in retrospect, since I spent so much time making the blanket, perhaps I should have invested more in materials.
I fiddled with background colors a bit on my chart and finally came up with a plan that included a quantity needed of each color. I set about making the piles of granny squares I would need. Based on my pace, I figured I would finish making motifs a few days before the kid’s birthday. I determined that I could sew it all together pretty quickly and did not really factor in the time needed for that. Silly me!
I did finish the motifs in time and sewed together a single row of them before I ran out of steam. I realized there was no way I was going to finish in time and I stuffed all of the pieces into a tote bag along with the chart I had drawn in my notebook. I then proceeded to forget about the project for something like eleven months. I finally picked it up again when watching a movie at my grandmother’s place because the bag happened to be in my car. I then decided to push through because I was so close!
It took another month of sewing motifs together and burying ends, mostly while hanging out with my grandmother on our weekly visit, whether watching a movie or just talking, but I finally got everything stitched together and the ends buried enough to not be dangling, at least. It was not until after I had finished that I realized there was an error in the positioning of the sky-colored blocks vs. the grass-colored ones between Luigi’s legs. In order to fix that, I would have had to un-pick the buried ends (if that was even possible) then pick out the seams and re-sew everything with now dangerously short yarn ends. This being the case, I decided to leave it as-is. Maybe Luigi is standing on a couple of hills! Of course the outside looked very uneven and wavy, so I single crocheted all the way around it. I decided on yellow because it is the least-used color in the blanket but it still didn’t look quite right, so I added another round, this time double crochet, I think it turned out okay. I did not get a good flat picture of it because I took the photo on our bed where there are body pillows under the comforter that I was too lazy to remove. The final step, as always, was me sewing on a little made-by label. I used to have nicer ones (woven) but I cannot find them, so printed satin it is!
Immediately after finishing the Luigi project, I threw myself into a tiny one that could easily satisfy me. Around the time I was working on the border, a friend posted a picture in our Discord chat of a cute bag that she suddenly felt a need to own. Apparently she has tried to learn to crochet in the past without luck and so is not eager to give it another shot. I realized that between the dark brown and the skin color I had in Red Heart yarn, I was 2/3 of the way to having all of the necessary materials to make the bag happen. I spent like $4 to get a skein of medium brown yarn and set to work. I suppose I could have searched Ravelry for the pattern that appeared to be for sale but instead I freehanded something similar based solely on the photo. I think it turned out pretty well, honestly. It might have looked better if I had used single crochet instead of double crochet but my way was faster and I think it looks okay anyway. I was eager to finish and admit that I crocheted the strap while at a work meeting to expedite the whole process. The arms and legs seemed especially silly but I made them anyway and they look really cute. I chose not to stuff them.
The last thing I finished this month is also the oldest project of the three. Many years ago, my parents went on vacation to New Zealand and Australia. They brought me back two sweaters’ worth of yarn. Twelve skeins of turquoise Empire 8-ply from Morris & Sons and some possum-blend yarn in black and purple that I apparently have not added to my Ravelry stash. Anyway, the Empire yarn is beautiful and soft but very splitty. Sometimes I would find one ply broken in the skein and it would unravel some in each direction from the break. Also, I found many knots where the yarn was put back together, three or more in a single skein, which seemed excessive to me and was annoying. Still, I like the yarn overall and was excited to make myself a sweater out of it.
I could not decide on a pattern to use so I opted to make my own using a basic raglan pattern (more or less) and some cables from my Vogue Stitchionary. After deciding on a v-neck, I set to work. I do have some regrets about how I made the sweater; the cable on the sleeves is too simple, the cable on the front looks weird starting small and getting bigger, and I did not shape the sleeves well. Additionally, I made mistakes; there is a cable mis-crossed on the back of the sweater, it goes over instead of under across the whole width. Also, at a few points, I mis-counted my rows and some of the cables are shorter than they should be and/or look weird but overall, I am pleased. I started it in March of 2019 and put it down then picked it back up more than once. Some of the errors are due to the fact that I did not keep good notes about my process.
As I came close to the end of the sleeves, I played a bit of yarn chicken with one cuff and thought I had won but when I tried on the sweater after that, the cuffs were definitely an inch too short so after dithering a bit, I tore back the cast off and extended the ribbing a bit. Unfortunately, that meant I had to add another ball of yarn to one cuff and as I did not have another ball of yarn, I ended up working from the other end of my last ball (on the other cuff, I was knitting them two-at-a-time on one long circular needle) which did cause a few tangles. Fortunately, that was short-lived and I finally finished! I was worried that the sweater would be too baggy since when I started it, I weighed something between 200 & 210 lbs and now I am down to 182. My bra size has decreased a big and my waist measurement has as well. Fortunately, either I originally planned this with too much negative ease or the ribbed sides are really great for shaping, because it seems to fit me pretty well now!
There are kind of a lot of ends to weave into this project too, although not 305 like for the Luigi blanket! It took me a few days to do that because of a combination of disinterest and a power outage (it is hard to do stuff like that by candlelight). Anyway, eventually I finished and I am pretty pleased. I have only half a skein of yarn left, although in two different chunks. That was cutting it pretty close and I am glad that I made it!
It took me a few years to get this sweater done but now I can proudly wear it to work 🙂 I should probably block it but eh, that’s for another [less excited] time.
Apparently, I never got around to posting my dead crewmate pattern even though I made it well over a year ago (oops!) I did some trial and error with a crocheted bone (including a kind of cool-looking convertible one with a removable top) but then hit on the idea of using a pipe cleaner. I also used a couple of pony beads to make it the right shape and I think that worked out pretty well.
I finally collected the photos and finished the pattern, even putting it up on Ravelry!
Obligatory Disclaimer: The characters in this pattern are the property of Innersloth and/or the artists Marcus Bromander & Amy Liu (I do not know how the intellectual property thing works from a legal standpoint, but I am 100% sure they do not belong to me). This pattern is provided for free with the understanding that it might be shady to sell something that includes characters for which I do not have the license or permission (neither explicit nor implicit) from the copyright holder.
Size: About 2” tall or so, depending on how you measure
Yarn: Worsted Weight, 1 skein each of dark gray, and color(s) of choice. It will vary by yarn but 1 skein will most likely make multiple toys
I used Red Heart Super Saver, although cotton would be nicer than acrylic, I found the acrylic colors to be more vibrant and plentiful, choice-wise.
For a full set of Dead Crewmates, I used leftovers from my first Crewmate project, which was almost a full skein each of:
Inside: Charcoal
Body Colors: Red – Cherry Red
Blue – Royal
Yellow – Lemon
Green – Paddy Green
Orange – Pumpkin
Purple – Amethyst
Black – Black
White – Soft White
Pink – Shocking Pink
Lime – Spring Green
Cyan – Aruba Sea
Brown – Coffee
Tools / Notions: Size E (3.5 mm) crochet hook, yarn needle, Poly-fil stuffing, white pipe cleaners / chenille stems, white pony beads (9mm x 6mm)
Gauge: I did not measure, they are toys, so it does not really matter although it should be tight enough that the stuffing does not show through.
Note: In the game, the insides of Crewmate bodies are a darker / greyed version of their body color but I both did not like the idea of buying an additional skein for every one of these and doubted that I could find quite what I needed anyway, so I decided to just make all of the insides dark gray.
Abbreviations / Notes
Ch – Chain stitch
SC – Single Crochet
st(s) – stitch(es)
DC – Double Crochet
SS – Slip Stitch
TBL – Through Back Loop only
PM – Place Marker
RS – Right Side
WS – Wrong Side
SC2Tog – Single Crochet 2 stitches Together (draw up a single loop from each of 2 adjacent stitches then draw a loop through them both)
(#) – number of stitches in round after completion
I like to use a piece of scrap yarn as a marker, weaving it in/out every row, that way, I do not have to move my marker up each row then, when I am done, I just pull it out.
When joining a new color (as for the goggles) do not finish the last stitch of the original color, instead, pull up the final loop in the new color.
Instructions
Bone:
Fold pipe cleaner (also known as a chenille stem) in half
Thread one bead onto the pipe cleaner and slide it down to the center bend
Wrap end of pipe cleaner around and insert end into hole in bead
Pull taut so that pipe clear is wrapped around outside of bead
Repeat #3 & #4 4x more
Adjust the wraps so that they lie next to each other, covering one side of the bead
Thread the second bead onto the other half of the pipe cleaner, sliding it down to almost the center bend.
Repeat #3 – #6 on the second bead
Fold pipe cleaner so that naked sides of beads are pressed against each other and pipe cleaner-wrapped sides are on the outside.
Twist pipe cleaner ends together tightly for about ¾” (NOTE: do not worry if the ends are not quite even, they will be hidden inside anyway)
Body Inside:
With Dark Gray yarn, Ch 4 sts
Turn, SC 3 sts in chain, SC 1 st in side, SC 3, SC 1 st in side (8)
[SC 3, SC 3 in next st] 2x (12)
[SC 1, SC 2 in next st] 6x (18)
[SC 2 in next st, SC 2] 6x (24)
Cut yarn, leaving a short tail, and finish off.
Construction:
Put one pipe cleaner end of the bone through each of the holes next to the very center with the bone part on the RS of the work
Pull the pipe cleaner ends so that the bottom of the twisted section sits flush against the top
Twist the ends together on the WS of the work a few times then spread them out flush to work
Use tail from center of work to help secure pipe cleaner in place
Leg 1:
With Body Color yarn, make a loop and SS in it
SC 6 sts in loop
Pull end taut to close loop
PM for beginning of round
SC 2 in each st around
SC in each st around (12)
Repeat #6 4x more
Turn, Ch 1, SC in first 3 sts
Repeat #8
Cut yarn, leaving 6 – 12” for sewing up and pull through loop to finish stitch
Remove marker
Leg 2 / Body Bottom:
Work as for Leg 1 through #7 then stop – do not turn or cut
Place Leg 1 next to Leg 2 with the tab between them
SC 3 sts in side of tab
SC 9 sts around Leg 1
SC 3 sts in other side of tab
Skipping 3 sts from the last st done on Leg 2, SC 9 sts around Leg 2
PM for beginning of round
SC in each st around (24)
Repeat # 8 4x more
Use yarn tail from Leg 1 tab to sew up the gap between the legs.
Position Body Inside (with bone facing out) on top of the Body Bottom
SC around, working each st through a Body Bottom st and TBL of a Body Inside st
After working about halfway around, stuff body and legs firmly.
Finish working around.
Cut yarn, finish off, and bury yarn end
Backpack:
With Body Color yarn, Ch 9 sts
Turn, SC 8 sts in chain
Turn, Ch 1, SC 8 sts in chain
Ch 3, DC 2 in side, DC 8 TBL, DC 2 in side, DC 7 TBL, join with SS to top of Ch3
Ch 3, DC 19, join with SS to top of Ch3
Repeat #5 1x
Turn, Ch 3, DC TFL in same st and next 7
Cut yarn, leaving 12” – 18” for sewing up and pull through loop to finish stitch
Stuff backpack lightly
Sew up top of backpack along 3 sides of top flap using tail
Use the same tail to sew Backpack onto the back of the Body Bottom along all four sides then bury yarn end
It is that time of year again, the time when I finally tackle the cleaning of my craft room, at least to the point that I can use it to make another mess. I decided to make ornaments to go in my Christmas cards again this year but wanted to try sewing some instead of doing crochet snowflakes as I have before. I was inspired by this tutorial I found online but decided to make the triangles differently because (1) there would still be raw edges if I did it that way and (2) all that thickness would make my Christmas cards weigh too much to be sent with a single stamp. When I sent masks to everybody a couple of years ago, I learned what an expensive pain in the butt it was to get dozens of cards weighed and metered at the post office.
Okay, to be honest, I did not really use the tutorial at all except for the photo that acted as a jumping off point. I got out some scrap muslin and started fiddling. I knew I wanted all of the edges finished but there were probably better ways to do it. Still, this worked out in a sort of patchwork-looking way.
I started with a rectangle 3 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ and folded it to make a right triangle with flaps on each side. After ironing those flaps down, I tucked the raw edges under and pressed the triangle flat. I then snipped off the bits overhanging the corners and sewed around the perimeter of the triangle. The one thing I did not love about this was that there was no “right” side since no matter which way I turned it, the triangle had a visible folded edge. I determined that this could not be fixed without either making a thicker triangle or cutting an awkward shape instead of a neat rectangle, so I decided I could live with it! After making three triangles in this manner, I stacked them up into a star and used a button to sew them together. I decided I was pleased enough with the look that I could go ahead with the project.In retrospect, I should have sandwiched the cross-triangle between the two others but eh, hindsight is 20/20 and I guess these just have an obvious backside.
My next task was to select fabric. I thought about buying some new stuff but I figured I should use up what I had leftover from my mask project first. I dove into cutting, ironing, and sewing triangles even as I waited for the buttons I ordered from Amazon to arrive. I was excited to have found a five-pointed snowflake button even though that feels wrong as it really should have six, it works with my project.
Once I had at least 150 triangles, the next step was to start assembling the stars. I did my best to spread out the patterns although I am sure that there are more than a few identical groupings in the bunch. Then, while watching television over the next week or so, I messily sewed the button in place. Additionally, I sewed together the overlapping triangle tips at the top of the star to give me a place to loop the ornament hook through.
In the meantime, I wrote personal messages in each of the 47 cards that I addressed with my fancy calligraphy pen and added a photo to each one (I have a reasonably nice one with the boyfriend taken in front of a Christmas tree on Thanksgiving) along with a party invitation for our local friends. Finally, I stuffed an ornament into each envelope and weighed a sample to make sure they were under 1 oz and a single stamp would be sufficient postage. Most envelopes weighed 0.92 oz and the ones with party invites weighed 0.95 oz. Just made it!
Now they are all in the mail and some [local] people have gotten theirs already. Now I just have to wait to see what people think.
Overall, I had a pretty good summer with my garden. I almost forgot about my root vegetables until I went outside on Saturday to clean up the area for winter and realized they had not been harvested yet. Nor had they been watered in nearly two months, oops! The radishes and beets both seemed kind of pruney and dinky but the carrots seem to have done okay. I just have to figure out what to do with them now!
I tore out the last plants I had in my raised bed. The peas I had planted late in the season then neglected produced two little pods that were still edible. The beans (probably Cherokee Wax beans but honestly, I cannot be sure) had a couple of dried up pods left and I considered saving those for seed next year but then decided to just plant from a seed packet, especially since I was not sure which beans they even were! I filled my compost tumbler with carrot tops and failed broccoli plants and did not have room for any straw, which is too bad because that compost is in desperate need of “browns” to be properly balanced. Once the “greens” break down, I will probably add some. So, I piled all of my straw bales on top of the raised bed and hope for rapid decomposition to give me good compost for next year’s garden!
Throughout the summer, I think I tended my garden pretty well until it stopped producing much in September, then I basically neglected it until this past weekend.
Overall, I think my harvests were pretty good although I have a very limited basis for comparison. Still, I am happy with the yield and definitely plan to garden again next year.
In other news, I totally failed to grow fenugreek microgreens last month. I wanted to use them for Indian food that I was making on the 29th but I did not get around to planting them until the 20th which is closer to time for sprouts than microgreens (depending on the seed, I guess). Anyway, I used a Micro-Mat in a tray and spread the seeds out on top of it. I soaked the mat well and put a weight on top. By the first day, I could see that I had overseeded the tray once the seeds swelled up and it only became more evident from there. Some of the roots tried to grow upwards and before I was even ready to take the microgreens out of blackout, there was evidence of mold. I tried to fight it with hydrogen peroxide and removal of the offending plants but it was an uphill battle and I lost it, finally giving up a couple of days after I had planned to harvest them anyway. I did let the tray sit for several days after that, being too lazy to take it outside to compost immediately (my bad). I will just have to sow another tray of microgreens seeds and try to be more careful next time, I guess!
I have actually had a fairly eventful month. I successfully got through a couple of audits at work although I have a big one coming up in just two weeks now that I am not sure I am totally prepared for! It is an initial certification audit, and my first of that kind, so I am a bit nervous about it even though I like to think I am good at my job; I cannot control everything!
Anyway, September marked the end of the outdoor growing season here in Michigan. I went on a vacation the first month of October so right before leaving, I harvested everything that I could. This includes four partially gnawed-on butternut squash, two small pumpkins, and a super tiny watermelon. Also, I grabbed the second of my red hot peppers and all the ripe tomatoes that I saw. There were several green tomatoes remaining on both my Black Krim and Sweet 100 plants but given that there was bound to be a cold snap, I did not have high hopes for those being ready upon my return. I put the squash and watermelon in the basement and the tomatoes in the fridge and then left town.
My vacation was great! I went on a seven-day Disney cruise with my brother’s family, which includes my two favorite miniature humans, and my boyfriend who gets motion sick. The trip was not perfect for him but he did like it enough that he is now talking about getting his family to do one so it must have been a positive experience, at least. With the exception of one day that was bad for him, we actually had a pretty awesome time overall and would heartily recommend a Disney cruise to anybody who can afford it (they are not cheap).
Upon coming home, we found that my boyfriend’s parents had been over and taken care of not only the flowers which were done for the year but also my garden. They tore out all of the old plants and picked the remaining Sweet 100 tomatoes, both red and green. I kept the non-squishy ones and composted the rest. I do not know yet what I will be doing with the green ones; maybe pickling? Speaking of pickles, I forgot about my fermented dill pickles in the basement. Those have been fermenting way too long at this point, I am pretty sure. I need to spend some time and process them correctly but I just keep putting it off.
My boyfriend’s mom got rid of most of my herbs in outdoor pots but for some reason not all of them. I do not fully understand her logic but I suspect she left either the better looking ones or the most cold-tolerant. Anyway, she also left my root vegetables which are in grow bags so I need to harvest my onions, radishes, beets, and carrots before it gets too cold for them. I hope they are doing okay still! I want to have herbs during the winter so I finally cleaned and re-set-up my off-brand Aerogarden. This time, I did not even put lettuce in it. I hope to get enough microgreens going to make that unnecessary. I plan to start with fenugreek (because I am making Indian food in two weeks) and hopefully get a batch started about every week or so. I am not optimistic about my chances of sticking to that but I guess only time will tell. Even though I have a silly number of microgreens seeds, I placed another order with True Leaf Market anyway because I just cannot help myself. I got a quarter pound of basil seeds because I want to try basil microgreens even though that may not work out well. I would have gotten a pound but between putting it in my cart and checking out, they went out of stock on that volume. Many of the basil seeds are too expensive to buy in bulk (like $200 per pound or so) but I only paid around $10 for four ounces of Genovese Basil. It is too bad they were out of the pound bags, those were priced at something like $25, which seemed quite reasonable. Anyway, I got the smaller one plus a pound of lettuce seeds and five kinds of Hamama seed quilts to give to my father. I got him a kit for those earlier this year and I think he has been using it. If not, maybe this will encourage him. He definitely likes the IDEA of growing his own food, at least.
Just days after returning from my trip, I got minor surgery to remove my tongue tie. The procedure is called a “frenectomy” and is supposed to help me breathe better or something but for now all it is doing is making my mouth hurt and giving me a very slight lisp. Overall, I really like my dentist, which is why I drive an hour to keep seeing her instead of finding someplace new, so I let her cut on my tongue with minimal explanation. I am also trying to do my tongue stretches so that I get the full intended benefit of the procedure. Also in health news, I sliced a bit of flesh off of my left thumb. It is the most at risk when I am chopping vegetables and I got it pretty good, I cut off several layers of skin and it was bleeding pretty badly. When checking through my chopped bok choy for the disc of skin (which I found) I also discovered a nice crescent of nail that I had apparently sliced right off. When my boyfriend saw it and heard about the bleeding, he seemed pretty alarmed and wanted to know if he should take me to the ER for stitches. “What would they even sew together?” I asked, amused at his alarm. When my physician father saw a photo the next day, his assessment was “you’ll live,” so I am hardly worried.
I have not knit anything in like a year at this point. It is actually kind of weird. I did start a crochet project back in February that I am nowhere near finished with. I made all of the motifs but then ran out of steam when it came time to sew hundreds of tiny squares together. It is like I forget between projects how very much I hate doing that. Anyway, I figured I would need a project for my cruise. I had just started a new audiobook (The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik) and needed something to keep my hands busy while listening since I would hardly be driving that week. I love shopping for yarn but determined that I had enough already and so found a lace scarf pattern that would use some of my stash. The pattern name is a little old-fashioned (racist?) but I like the look of it so I cast on the Oriental Impressions Scarf and took it with me. I made a few changes but it is mostly faithful to the pattern. I don’t know if I will get it done by Christmas, it depends on whether I put it down like my last project but if I do, I plan to give it to my boyfriend’s mother. I like to think she will appreciate a handmade gift.
The last thing that has been happening to me recently is some fairly significant weight loss. Near the beginning of the year, my doctor started me on a new medication for my diabetes, an injectable (non-insulin) drug called Ozempic. At the time, I weighed about 205 lbs although my weight tended to fluctuate a few pounds in each direction from there. Anyway, I am almost down to my [interim] goal weight of 185 lbs. I know that still sounds like a lot but it hits the milestone of a 30 BMI which is the cutoff for obesity. It is ridiculous that I even care about that number since I know that BMI is kind of bunk but it seems like some sort of thing to be celebrated. I do feel in some ways that I should not be able to be proud of this weight loss though because I did not really make an effort, I just took my medication as directed. It is the drug that delayed my gastric emptying and therefore decreased my appetite. It is actually ridiculous how much my appetite has shrunk, sometimes I don’t feel like eating anything at all. For some reason, chicken especially has become less appealing to me. Anyway, 20 lbs (well, almost) does look like a big weight loss but it has been something like 8 months since I started the medication, so it is not really too drastic overall. I have a lot of complicated feelings about this weight loss but in the big picture, I think it is a good thing for my health and therefore I am [mostly] happy about it.
KalyKnits 