One more day

My kids only have one more day of school. Just one, one more, and then it will be summer. Holy crap. I'm not sure I'm prepared.

My brother was in town over the weekend and that was awesome. He came in to surprise our mom for Mother's Day, but the real surprise was that he got his dates wrong and bought a plane ticket for the following weekend instead. Heh. The first night he was here we all went to dinner out at the lake and it was pretty sweet. I hadn't been to the lake in years and years. I pretty much spent the entirety of 1982-1984 there doing things that ultimately could have gotten me killed, for the most part. Now that I'm an old fart, I am pretty content to just LOOK at the lake while sitting on the deck at Uncle Billy's, eating a brisket Brewben and drinking a Hill Country Organic Amber or three.

I have been cooking a whole lot, mostly on the grill, and making coldbrew, except this morning when I went to filter it I discovered this batch was haunted. You see the little ghost face up there, right? Freaky.

Because I know you're on the edges of your seats about it, here's how I'm progressing with my summer goals so far:

1. Lose 17 pounds.
I am down a little over 4 pounds, after paying more attention to what I shove in my pie-hole and also doing the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred for the past couple of weeks. I know when I told you all I wanted to lose weight, those of you who know me or have seen photos of me were all, "Bitch, please." And I get that. But the thing is, I have gained like 30 pounds in the last 10 years. The first 10 or so pounds were okay; people no longer felt the need to tell me how skinny I was and how much they hated me for it (can you imagine saying, "OMG, you're so fat, I hate you"? not nice, is it?) so that was good. But those last ~20 pounds ... they hurt. Physically. So I need them gone. Which means I need to stop inhaling giant bags of peanut M&Ms, apparently. Oh woe.

2. Read more.
Well. I am not doing so hot with this one. I gave up on A Prayer For Owen Meany because holy crap, that's a long book and I sort of stopped caring. Then I started John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley in Search of America but I sort of abandoned that one, too. That's a temporary abandonment though; I fully intend to get back to it, it's just that I've been distracted by Marion Nestle's Why Calories Count and I am super duper geeking out over it, food science nerd that I am. So. Now that I think about it, I guess I HAVE been reading more. But perhaps I should have pledged to actually FINISH more books. Therein lies the challenge.

3. To no longer give a damn how I think I look in shorts and just wear them, already.
Yeah ... nope.

4. To quit buying cute new coffee mugs before we need to add on a room for them.
Yes! I have succeeded at this.  I've been buying cute little rocks-sized drinking glasses instead, which we also do not need. *facepalm*

5. To shop at the farmer's market every single week. 
Running about 50% with this one. I'm going this week for sure though, I swear.

6. To eradicate hornworms from the face of the earth.
Haven't seen a single one since I picked them all off by hand and sprayed the plants with Bt.

It's a pretty good start, yes?

Okay. I think I'm ready. Bring on summer.