Don't go to work at your church hall when it's being renovated. And there's no water. And no heat. But when you have to do that, at least plan your Whole30 lunch so that you're not (a) tired; (b) cranky; (c) needing to pee (no water, no toilets...); and (d) are next to a fridge filled with donuts.
Lest you worry, I didn't even peek into the fridge. I did, however, stand over the heat register in the sanctuary to warm my toes and fingers... I spent the morning taking Hubby to the doctor and knitting (more on that below) and then ran to the church, intending to only run off the upcoming week's bulletins.
Except that I had to do a total re-vamp of the format. Love when that happens. So, I ended up being able to have some hot tea, but crikey!! It was about 65 degrees in there and it was pretty frigid.
But it got done. And I came home, just about jumped over the dogs, and made a beeline to the "necessary room."
If only I could print from home!
And I really wanted to practice my guitar today, but my hands were frozen!!
Whole 30...
So we did another grocery run and got a few things. As well, I delved into the Whole30 book, and decided that I needed to make homemade mayo. I love a good mayo, and I needed something to bind together a tuna salad, or chicken. Avocado is fantastic, but it only goes so far, and honestly, I'm turned off by the browning, even when I dip the cut half in lemon juice. 
You can look up various Whole30 compliant mayo recipes, so I won't post any here. But it's super simple: lemon (1/2), an egg, oil and salt. I used an immersion blender (stick blender) because even though I have a nice blender, it's a stinker to clean. And I also just blended it all up in a canning jar. Easy and no extra bowl to clean. You'll notice that I used my Depression glass reamer. And that's a pretty huge lemon. I let that sit out till it warmed up a bit, rolled it on the counter, and then sliced it in half. It was incredibly easy to ream out the lemon - as opposed to squeezing it and spritzing everything with juice! And then having to chase seeds.
I grabbed the last of the cheesecloth and strained it into the canning jar, so that I wouldn't be spitting seeds. All told, it took about a minute to do everything. Since it's such a large lemon, it was a bit more juice than the recipe called for. And I just about ran through my (fairly pricey) organic extra-virgin olive oil.
But it tastes amazing. I can see adding some fresh herbs or my favorite horseradish (fresh or ground, not the "horseradish sauce" you see). And I can see using this as a base for a nice ranch-style dressing.
I like experimenting with my stash of balsamic vinegar, but I was getting tired of V & O for the salads I've been eating.
I've been reading about the "expense" of the Whole30 plan, and I agree. To some folks, it can be expensive. I think it depends upon how you shop in the first place. Except for the chocolate addiction I'm trying to ditch, we usually shop pretty close to Whole30 standards. We've been lucky that way, and I know it. If you had to totally revamp the way you shopped and were not used to buying organic or skipping the processed stuff, it would knock you for a loop. Thankfully, Hubby and I usually try to eat "clean" for 85-90% of the time. That being said, tonight's dinner was a slice of salmon (made with dill + lemon), 1/2 an avocado, a handful of cherry tomatoes, broccoli and a small baked potato (no butter, but with avocado, it was pretty good!). Since I basically skipped lunch, I could afford a bit of a heavier dinner. I plopped a generous teaspoon of the mayo on top of the fish (I know - it's salmon, but I love tartar sauce and this was as close as I was getting).
We usually have salmon or cod for a Friday - holdover of being Catholics as youths. And I like fish, so it's all good.
Tomorrow & Sunday will be meal prep for the week. Normally, I'd do it on one day, but my sister and I are taking my mom to see a play, so that kind of chews up the late morning and afternoon. I'm looking forward to it, but it does cramp my weekend.
I'm surprised that the sweets craving hasn't really bothered me. But I'm still waiting for the "miracle fat consuming" to happen. I know cutting out the processed foods and sugar will help, but I'm hoping it'll help sooner rather than later. I'm getting anxious.
Tasks...
I have a task list for the weekend (as we all do, right?) and today I knocked a few things off. Tomorrow looks pretty good if I can get an email and yet another newsletter out before I go with my mom and sis. I hope, in the evening, to either knit or get some practice in. I'm working on a piece or two to start playing in church during the summer.
The meal prep is part of that. My list in my head is about 3 miles long. But I try to be realistic and not bombard myself. I think it took me a decade or more to learn that balance. But I'm also still learning it...
As, I'm sure, are most of us!
Knitting...
At the doctor's, waiting for Hubby, I did get more done on the Traveling Sock. It doesn't look like much, but it's the cuff done and the plain knitting starting. Now, it'll zoom by. Yes, people were looking at me. Like, "what is she doing there?" Not like DPNs aren't seen around town, but perhaps in this office, they're foreign?
Anyway, I was thinking as I was starting the first couple of vanilla rows.
What if, at random every 4th and 5th row, I threw in 2 pairs of purls, sort of as a little "pop" in the leg? I'm looking at the yarn and trying to decide if the colorway is just too busy or if it would look like I made a mistake.
But a consistent set of purls would stand out from a random "oops, I forgot where I was." But maybe I need a plainer yarn. Maybe this is just too wild (because of the striping). Would it look better in a pooling kind of set up where you have blocks and blobs of color as opposed to a pretty regimented set-up of self-striping.
I have to think on that. And -- these are to be "traveling socks." Do I really want to keep track of rows, or do I want to just carry a measuring tape and the instructions on the heel flap? Though, come to think of it, maybe this is a good time to try the Fish Lips Kiss or Sweet Tomato heel. Or revisit the Strong Heel - which I've done on one pair, using Opal yarn, so I'm pretty sure that even though it comes out as a single-knit heel, since Opal wears like iron, I'm not worried that it'll wear thorough before the rest of the sock.
Random Picture...
This is a throw-back from way, way long ago when we had a gazebo-like bird feeder in the front flower bed. One year, a robin made her way into the thing, pushed the acrylic tube out of the way and decided that THIS was HOME. She had a major stink-eye going on, so we weren't bothering to dislodge her. We got some fascinating pictures, and Hubby was able to photograph the babies as they hatched.
Unfortunately, our usually quiet neighborhood went through a spate of idiot vandals coming around cracking people's car rear-view mirrors and lawn ornaments, and some creep took a ball bat to our feeder. It was pretty devastating. Not because it was hand-made or anything...just for the violation of someone coming into our yard to destroy something. We never replaced it.
The vandals stole the robin's house.
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