Freebie Friday!

Well, extra day off Friday, anyway. The freebie part is just because I got the day off without having to use a vacation day. I actually spent a wee bit of money. It's been a looooong time since I helped keep the Lowe's corporation operating in the black, so I picked up a few odds and ends. You see, I got the wild idea to finish painting the hallway bathroom this weekend. I had painted the wall around the door to said bathroom when I painted the rest of the house, but hadn't finished the bathroom. So now I'll finish the bathroom and touch up the paint in several other places.

The Lowe's trip netted me a disposable foam brush, a couple of paint rollers, a roller pan liner, some mineral spirits and some drain cleaner (not to be used in painting). I wandered around a little bit looking for other things to buy, but nothing appealed to me. I was also trying to delay my exit a bit since there were LINES of people waiting to check out. It didn't occur to me at the time to focus really hard on opening up another line, but I did think "I'll wander around a bit and maybe they'll open another line." Sure enough, as I wandered toward the front, a rather chipper young clerk asked if I was ready to check out. I told her that she had perfect timing. w00t!

While at the grocery store, I noticed several shoppers using canvas shopping bags. They are emblazoned with the store logo, of course, but they're still reusable canvas bags instead of using plastic. I hadn't seen anybody here using canvas bags until today. I may have to haul out my bags too!

So now I'm waiting for the re-plastered areas to dry. After a quick sanding job, I'll get the painting done tonight, just to get it done. I may be up a bit late, but I'd rather get it finished. I really need to paint the baseboard trim. It's pretty ragged looking in a lot of places. Definitely needs to be a high gloss brilliant white, which it most certainly is not.

My yardwork schedule is all out of whack. Last week got messed up because of the rain. Today was very windy, so spraying weeds was out of the question. The ground is very wet from rain earlier in the week too, so digging up flower beds isn't possible either. Right now the backyard is mostly purple because the weeds are blooming. It looks very pretty, but I'd rather have more grass than weeds instead of more weeds than grass. The weeds rather need to be mowed too. The grass is still plenty short enough, but the weeds are getting tall. Ugh.

Food!
On the cooking front, I found a recipe to make sun-dried tomato spread. I used to be able to buy it in jars and found it to be completely deeeelicious on sammiches. I haven't been able to find the jarred stuff in years now and I've been craving its rich flavor on my hummus sammiches. This weekend I'll give the recipe a try and see if I can at least approximate the yumminess I used to be able to buy.

The "big" cooking thing this week will be marinated, grilled portobello mushrooms. I'll slice up the caps and use them in sammiches or on salads. I'll also make a corn, black bean and quinoa casserole. Other meals will include pasta with marinara sauce, tacos and hummus sammiches.

Working Out is Working!
Parts of my body are changing shape. I have some interesting sort of sunken areas around my hip joints where muscles have clearly tightened up in some places, but the nearby fat hasn't shrunk. Sort of looks like a big scoop of me is missing. Can't wait to get more of me missing. Ye Olde Shoulder appears to be cooperating with the workout plan, though occasionally it gets sore with some motions. Yay! I'm still not ready to step up the intensity of the workouts, but I'm definitely making progress at building strength and stamina.

For some odd reason, I don't like working out on non-work days. I don't know if that's a function of having a different schedule or if it is an attitude thing. On work days, I come home, check e-mail for half an hour and then workout. On non-work days, I don't have such a structured schedule and there is always something else going on. I still don't really like working out first thing in the morning because of joint/muscle stiffness. Definitely need to figure something out though as there isn't any particular reason why I can't work out on weekends. I do think I'm getting into the habit of regular exercise again though, so that's good.

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