Nothing to Read & Latkes...

...believe it or not, those two things are related, somehow. 

I'm facing a tragedy of monumental proportions. 

I have nothing to read. 

For a bookworm, my friends, this is the stuff of nightmares. 

I'm not interested in picking up my usually beloved Faulkner Reader. No mysteries on my bookshelves are calling to me. I can't find the bag of books that I purchased about 6 months ago...but I know it's somewhere. And nothing in my Kindle is tempting me. 

I can't sleep if I can't read. I'm hoping to figure out something. STAT...

Knitting...

Plugging away on the shawl. Nothing to report, other than my Rembrandt Yarns order came in. And it was wrong. Arrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhh! 

I ordered a sock weight yarn and they shipped worsted weight. So, larger yarn, no socks...because there's roughly 216 yards in that worsted skein, and you need 400-ish for socks. 

See the photo? The top package is a sock blank, called "Mental Health Day," and it's a one-of-a-kind hand-dyed blank. So when you knit with this, you basically unravel it and knit up your socks. It looks like it'll be a "fraternal" pair - whereby the pattern won't be exact on each sock, but it'll still be a pair of matching socks. It's a unique colorway, and I figured it was worth a shot. 

And you can see the yarn below...that's the Precious Metals colorway, which I'd been eyeballing for about 3 months now. And it's heavy. I mean, if I had another hank, I'd make a stunning worsted-weight shawl out of it. Or a pair of worsted weight socks - which I've done before and they're incredibly comfy. 

But I haven't got another hank. I did email Sandy, the owner of the company. As you may recall, this company was introduced to me by one of my students, who gave me a hank of Sandy's sock yarn. I fell in love. It's a company in Indiana. It's a woman-owned business. Love to support these kinds of places - and I would recommend it to you, as well, so check out her stuff. 

Whole 30...

So I bet you're dying to know the latkes story, aren't you? Well, it's this way. I'm on day 3 of my Whole30 and I've been experiencing the usual "withdrawal" symptoms. I'm tired, I have kind of a "low-grade" headache, and I have to do a little better with proportions of protein/fat in this meal planning because I was ready to chew on my mouse at work!

A person brought in home-made chocolate chip scones. They smelled lovely, and I didn't turn a hair. It was ok. I was feeling fairly virtuous. 

Well... Then, my desk-mate picks up latkes from the Polish deli down the way. Oy. I had a really hard time concentrating on my lunch of chicken, salad, and berries. 

I guess maybe my "virtuous" feeling came back to kick me in the shins. I got over it, but I'm telling you, I can still smell the latkes. (For those who don't know, latkes are potato pancakes, and the deli makes theirs with spring onions and dill.......yes, I'm drooling.)

Due to a rather unfortunate lack of planning on my part, I'm a little short on supplies for the next few days, so I suspect I'll be doing a Meijer run at lunch tomorrow. I should probably put a cooler in my truck. Despite it being nearly the second week of April, we look to have snow flurries tomorrow. 

Tonight, I made a frittata for the next several days' worth of breakfasts, since that can be eaten warm or at room temp. It worries me that I usually eat in the car. I have to do something about being able to eat breakfast - or at least the main part of it - either at home at the table or at the office if I come in earlier than I usually do. Which I don't want to do, frankly. 

The frittata is mostly veggies: cherry tomatoes, shredded zucchini, garlic, spring onions, mushrooms. Eggs, seasonings, and some leftover ham, which may or may not be "totally" compliant, and yes, it probably means I'm not being strict enough, but it's done and I have to live with myself. 

Definitely a grocery run tomorrow... at least for the veggies. Not sure how I can keep anything frozen or any kind of meat product in the car for the afternoon, even if it is going to be cold. Cold-ish. 

Spring???

This is what I came out to this morning. Snow on my car. Granted, we're not New York, and we haven't got it that bad. But...

It's April 4, and there's snow today. And will be snow tomorrow. And likely through the rest of the week. 

Don't get me wrong. As you can see from this hurried photo, the sunrise was spectacular. 

But if "spring is in the air," then Mother Nature is having a melt-down of epic proportions. The robins on my deck were looking at the snow as if to say, "Hang on a minute..." and the daffodils are trying to "take back" their first blooms. 

My mother, sister and I are going to the theatre (with lunch) for Mom's Christmas gift - on Saturday. Hopefully, it won't be horrible - the last time we went, it was pouring rain. Maybe that's a sign that we need to do something different...


Random Picture...

This is on the desk at work. I'm diffusing Sacred Mountain, which is a lovely combo of "conifers" (spruce and cedar, mainly) and Ylang Ylang, a floral. 

I try to do a different oil each week, and everyone seems to enjoy it. We've had some definite favorites and one or two "Let's not diffuse that here" scents. 

I have to pay attention to allergies and stuff like that, but for the most part, people are interested in the fact that these Young Living Essential Oils are all natural, and we're not putting those plug-able things around the office or using sprays. 

Everyone was asking us where "spring" was...we figure it's in a different time zone!

I guess I'll go grab my short story anthology and see if I can read myself to sleep. Tomorrow is another day!