Harriet

I don't know what mystery adventure club is, but it sounds fun! Do they at least tell you what shoes to bring? I like this. This is a good way of looking at it.

They promised us food and a free t-shirt for volunteering to help set up the Chinese martial arts tournament. I was wary about what they might consider "food", so I packed no fewer than three bars, hoping not to have to eat them. The work was actually quite tiring, I did about a million side lunges whilst taping down tarpaulins. Oh, and there was neither food nor t-shirt to be had. And having left the house at 11 and returned at 4:45, a time frame that spans my usual snack, lunch, and second snack, you can probably guess how many bars I ate... I was so tired that walking home felt really hard. I finished off the day with a reasonably healthy* home made dinner prepared yesterday. Stirfry with shredded chicken and peanut sauce (peanut butter, dried granulated garlic, lime juice, brown sugar, sriracha). Then I ate cheese and chocolate out of pure fatigue-induced indifferent recklessness and went to bed at 9pm because I was exhausted and almost every major joint in my body hurt, making every activity including reading suck. Slept for 10.5 hours. *I figure a meal of mostly veg and meat to which I add a little sugar is healthy. I'm still probably getting much less sugar and salt from my home cooked meals than from restaurant or packaged foods. But I looked at how much sugar is in the clif bars, and how much we're supposed to eat every day (google says 25g for human, 50g for superhuman warrior...but will do more reading to try to determine if this is industry sponsored nonsense or sensible guidance) and realised I'm probably going to have to give up the bars as they have 22g or more than 4 teaspoons each. That's way too much, I think, for an everyday snack food. Then again, what do you guys think about eating sugar immediately after heavy lifting? Have read some suggestions that this may be less harmful.

I also mostly eat in front of a screen - my laptop. And I'm also struggling with eating for reasons other than hunger. It's good to see someone else trying to tackle this. Keep going!

Spaghetti <3 Oooh, I'm starting to get sympathetic pre-marathon nerves. Wait, nervousness is just a false interpretation of performance improving energetic buzz.

You put avocado in oatmeal?

Thank you! I've finally gotten to the level of knitting skill and understanding of garments that I can knit things I consider wearable. So I'm going on a total sweater spree.

Nice! I hope it's lovely and that moving isn't too much of a hassle.

Oh yeah. We want to live vicariously through you. Describe the carbs in lingering detail, please.

Whee! The tip test was fun, and I got some feedback, mostly positive. Looks like the test for yellow belt in May is pretty much in the bag. Hmmm. Now that I've submitted my short story to my group for critique I have to start work on something new. I've been working on the teleport story for weeks so it feels weird. I might need a bit longer than my usual 15 minutes to have a think about it and set up. I'm actually super pleased with it and I want my next one to be as much fun, as well. I also need to look at online markets to submit to. My first teacher said we should basically submit all our work, starting straight away, and not wait to be "good enough", because that's a waste of time, and also being rejected happens to everyone, even good writers, so we might as well get used to it.

Is this pudding? This is pudding, isn't it. Damn, I want pudding. Thanks! In person it's a sort of blackened teal. It's super nice because the fibres (white merino, brown masham, black mohair) take the dye differently, creating a not-quite-uniform colour. Thank you! So, 50's is 10-15 celsius, I think. Chilly to somewhat cold, I guess. I would say that's light sweater or hoodie weather. But I noticed since starting lifting, I warm up more quickly as long as I'm moving, so I end up in just a sweaty t-shirt during my walks, even if it's 12 degrees. I get just as cold when I'm staying still, though.

Nice! Adding to my mental wiki of cooking techniques. How do you get it dry after the brine? Savage. I love it. I am absolutely trying this technique.

Also, because I'm doing ALL the things, here's my now finished sweater. It's knit in a DK/light worsted weight yarn, so it's a heavy fabric, but I think the shaping stops it from being a chunky garment. Sadly, it's suddenly too warm to wear it now winter has fled. What's that, you say? Knit another sweater in a sport or sock weight yarn for spring? What an excellent idea! Cables on the back, too.

No doctor has ever been able to give me any help on this. There's nothing wrong with my bloodwork (no, auto correct, not "bloodworm" WTF?). They don't know what causes it, they don't know if it is a symptom of depression or even the cause. The GP I had as a child and young adult said she could diagnose me with chronic fatigue, but that she wouldn't, because it is a "basket" people put themselves in which allows them to make excuses for themselves. Turns out doctors don't even know what chronic fatigue is, anyway. The only things that have ever helped are common sense things I did myself: diet, sleep, walking, lifting, various techniques for managing the anxiety and depression. It's just one of the reasons I only go to doctors when absolutely necessary (except the therapist, she's alright) and prefer to keep my own counsel whenever possible. Anyway, the good news is I'm immensely stronger than I was a few years ago. So a bit of afternoon fatigue is not going to stop me from doing ALL the things.

Challenge stew! Just throw everything in. We'll stir.

Meow! Actually, the reason I like milk chocolate is the milk, not the sugar. I wouldn't mind if they had less sugar. So making my own hot chocolate sounds like it could be gorgeous... but I'm not sure I'd be able to stop at a reasonable amount - liquids are so easy to have more of.