I also have issues with holding a pen too tightly; and hand writing anything over a half a page gets my hand cramping. I think you are right; that it is due to never hand writing anymore so the muscles aren't used to being used that way anymore.

My biggest complaint this year is the Peaches. What on Nirn is going on with the Peaches being sold at the grocers this year? They look perfectly ripe outside; but inside they are hard and dry, and many of them have some kind of black stain on their interior. I've had to throw out whole bags of them!

And I do agree with you on the tomatoes. Even the Romas are completely tasteless, dry, and kind of tough; almost as if they are not ripe enough yet (but they look perfectly ripe).

At first I wondered if it was just me/my taste buds failing or something = but then I picked up Grainger County tomatoes from some small local farmers at roadside stands and they have been just perfect: juicy and very tasty.

So it makes me think it is something with the commercially grown tomatoes/fruits. I think they are pushing them to grow quickly and over-produce fruit chemically or something = like maybe using some kind of plant-type steroids or planty growth hormones or something = like they have been doing with the beef for so long.

It is turning me off of buying from them; and I love fruit so it is really hard to give up on it.

Today's grocery bill was traumatizing. $55.65US!!!!!! Admittedly it includes one 'splurge' item. Then again most of my weekly grocery bills do, and managed to remain decently below $50, sometimes below $40. (They can rarely drop below $30, but those for sure contain no splurges.) What killed me this week is that pretty much every 'periodic' (non weekly) food item I buy needed replacing at the same time. It also didn't help that the only Fujis in stock didn't look fit to eat. Replaced them with peaches, which are significantly more expensive in this neck of the woods. Alas, again no Wild Wonders tomatoes. I've a bad feeling about their recent absence. And of course my decades-long butter-substitute-of-choice was once again not stocked.


<nods> This is a big part of it. Maximize yield at the expense of flavor. As to peaches, yeah, I've had my shared of those. Also of their polar opposite. Peaches so mushy you can't eat them by hand as slices. (I assume those are fine in recipes?, but I never use them for that purpose.)

Coffee and toast.

Auditioned Homel Chunky Beef Chili last week. It is indeed chunky, even more so than Campbell's Chunky. To the plus, it's not as sweet at the Campbell's. To the minus, it's not overly flavorful. For this reason I prefer Campbell's. As to Campbell's Chunky Hot & Spicy Chili vs Wolf authentic Texan Chili, it depends. On days when Campbell's sweetness doesn't much bother me I like it at least as well as the Wolf. On days sweetness does bother me I clearly prefer Wolf. Wolf chili is very consistent. I always like it. The nod therefore goes to Wolf. (Sorry, I don't have a can of Wolf on hand at the moment to verify exactly which variety it is.)

As suspected, this week's grocery bill came in under forty dollars. Just over $35 to be exact. It would have been even less had this not been one of my rare 2gl milk weeks. I might have squeezed by with 1gl, but didn't want to risk it. No biggie. It's the overall monthly budget that counts, not individual weekly spending.

This week's Fuji Apples are a big improvement over those bought two weeks ago. (I bought peaches instead last week.) I've eaten two from this week's batch so far. The first was solid second-class. Today's is solid third-class. Third-class Fuji's are fine apples.

This is, of course T-day week. I'll lunch at an all-you-can-eat restaurant with my brother, as I almost always do. It's one of two meals per year that come out of my Spending Money funds rather than Food.

An ominous prelude to today's holiday meal. Stepping out of the shower this morning, it came to me that I've not weighed myself in months. Stepped on the scales. 155lb! That's 15 more than where my weight has tended to stay for some years. No idea what's up. My diet hasn't changed. Yes, I ate 'one' extra splurge meal several months ago due to a spur-of-the-moment, unexpected commitment that kept me away from the house during meal time. Surely one meal couldn't be the culprit. Not by itself. Part of the blame is likely me being almost totally inactive following whatever it was happened to me after mowing during one of our super hot days. That caused me to miss out on a good three to four months of daily walks. Truth to tell, by the time I got to feeling reasonably better I'd forgot all about walking. Too late now, as it's now too cold. Maybe next year?

Anyway...

Arrived at my bro's house circa 0935. We gabbed until about 1000. I then drove us to our local all-you-can-eat Country Buffet restaurant. We got there plenty early in case of long lines. Turns out, it wasn't as hectic as past years. They did steady, solid business the whole time we were there. But it never felt overcrowded.

I started out, as usual, with a plate of salad. As always, it was far better than the salads I make myself at home, though I felt it lacked a little compared to years past. The meal-proper consisted of ham, mashed potatoes, dressing, black-eyed peas, cranberry sauce, biscuit and water. Everything was good. There were no standouts on my plate, but no sub-par items either. Well, the biscuit could have been better, but that hardly counts. Neither of their two soup offerings looked appetizing, so I passed. No dessert. I surprised myself in not feeling full at meal's end. Even later, when the meal final hit bottom, I didn't feel overly bloated.

We went Dutch, but I covered the entire tip.

Dropped Bro off at his house afterword, then drove home.

Total cost: $15.18 (senior discount) plus tip. This is one of the two meals each year I categorize as 'spending money' rather than 'food' for budgetary purposes. (The other is X'mas-day lunch.)

Coffee and pie! And I suspect I'm not alone in this post-feast breakfast.

Ugh, Khajiit started yesterday by going over to his GF’s grandparents house for their family thanksgiving @ around 11am. They were also celebrating Khajiit and his GF’s birthday while we were already gathered together (Khajiit’s is the 12/6 and GF’s is 12/9). We ate copious amounts of Thanksgiving food and dessert then they brought out a red velvet birthday cake. Bluh. After that we went back to Khajiit’s house and had another Thanksgiving feast @ around 7:00pm. This one has yet another Thanksgiving dinner at his fathers house today around noon so he is not eating anything else today before or after that!

Grits, it does seems we have a bit of a lovely tradition the day after Thanksgiving. As I was enjoying coffee with pumpkin pie this morning, I lifted my mug to you - imagining you enjoying the same breakfast.

I wait all year long to hear those two visits to the restaurant with your Brother! Love hearing about these trips!

On your scales; you might want to look carefully before you step on the scales to make sure it is set at zero. The dials that reset the weight to zero can get bumped when cleaning floors (etc) and set the scale off from the zero mark. That seems like an excessive weight difference for what little changes you described.




You and Acadian both; I have come to look for these posts from both of you,








Three Thanksgiving dinners !!!!!! Lucky you! And Happy Birthday in advance to you and your Girlfriend!!!

A quickie homemade chicken vegetable soup in a hearty broth = sauteed the chicken and veggies in a frying pan and then added V-8 Juice to the broth. It took 30 minutes from cutting up the veggies to serving; and was surprisingly delicious for not having hours and hours of cooking for the flavors to meld!

I brushed my teeth, then ate salted popcorn and brushed my teeth again.



It's called planning

Christmas dinner! I feel less of a crowraven and more like a turkey on Thanksgiving now


Looking forward to Decrepit's dinner dealings report with his brother! Please tell us you din't skimp on dessert this year

Ditto on both of the above!!!

Mirocu reports that he is eating ostkaka.

Yes, indeed! With whipped cream, jam and coffee

My Christmas Dinner:

Ham Hocks & Collard Greens; (MMMMMM!) Roast Beef; Candied Sweet Potatoes; (MMMMMM!) Cornbread Casserole; Mashed Potatoes; Banana Pudding; and a Christmas Cookie (with icing) .

I am FULL !!!! Urgh ...

Celebrated Christmas Eve and much of Christmas morning, as one does, capturing, editing and narrating yet another Scenic Excursions episode. That kept me gainfully occupied until leaving for my bro's home. Once there we gabbed a while and exchanged gifts. I then drove us to his faux Oriental all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant-of-choice for X'mas day lunch.

I started out, as always, with a salad plate. Their salad-bar doesn't offer as many yummy options as where we lunched Turkey-day, but includes enough 'exotic' choices, of the sort I don't normally allow myself, to make for good eating. Very good Thousand Isle Dressing too!

I debated for days what I wanted my main course to be. Remained undecided at salad's end. Ended up getting a plate of turkey, dressing, what I fondly call 'daddy-fried taters,' Lima beans, and heavy roll. My thought was to down those, then return for a smaller plate of faux oriental cuisine. Potatoes were yummy as expected. Good, if a little dry, turkey. Limas were decent. Dressing was surprising okay, far better than last year when it wasn't fit to eat. Those consumed, I still wasn't up for oriental. Ended up with a second, smaller plate of what I'd just eaten, exchanging the roll for garlic bread. Ended the meal stuffed to the max. Have felt pleasantly (?) bloated since.

(Had we lunched at 'my' faux oriental all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant-of-choice I'd almost certainly have gone oriental. As stated previously, I'm not a fan of the 'sauce' almost all 'oriental' dishes are cooked in where we dined X'mas day. Entries tend to taste much the same there, and a bit sweeter than I prefer.)

No dessert as usual. Water to drink, as usual. Paid for bro's meal and the whole of our tip, again as usual. My bro somehow ended up with three fortune cookies, to my one. No big deal as they haven't contained true fortunes in years. One of his three contained witticism so profound I asked that he give it to me for repeat here. It reads, "Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow."

YES!

The Annual Decrepit Christmas Dinner Dealings Report!

D'OH!

Bold:


I wait all year to hear your reports of your Restaurant dinners with your Brother; but my favorite by far is when you go to the Chinese Restaurant! (probably because I only eat the fake crab dishes and Rangoons whenever I go to the ones around here, lol). Your updates are a Chorrol Holiday Season tradition!

Bought a bottle of Wishbone Zesty Robusto Italian dressing yesterday. Used it on tonight's supper-salad. Very good. I've not enjoyed a homemade salad this much in ever so long. Which means one of two things. Either it will prove a migraine trigger or Walmart will soon cease to carry it.

Speaking of which, my local Walmart no longer carries Wild Wonders tomatoes. They now carry a similar product. It's definitely better than standard slicing tomatoes, but doesn't hold a handle to Wild Wonders.

Ritz crackers and Gatorade...a hardy meal lol.

My goddamn hair after another frustrating go at XCOM: Enemy Within. I’m gonna need to buy a new punching bag, fam, this game has it in for me

EDIT: And since I’m still a little goody-two shoes during my bouts of incandescent rage and I don’t want to spam this thread with my nonsense, I rage-scarfed a bowl of Tonjiru along with some homemade nigiri and takuan. That Tonjiru slaps harder than the alien who blasted my face off with his frickn mech claws, I stg, so I guess that’s a silver lining.

I love XCOM but XCOM doesn't love my Combat Medics.

SPEW!!!!

Here, this is for you:

Pretty much as soon as I've posted this post, I'm gonna have a

SEMLA

Cross-thread time.

Looks like another week of non-sweet Fujis. They look fine. They're more than adequately juicy and firm. Just, no sweetness to speak of. I'm gonna go broke buying artificial sweetener packs to sprinkle atop the quarters. Had an approximately month-long run of super yummy Fujis leading up to around Christmas. All mid/upper second tier to solid top tier. Since then? Well, I can't call them bottom-of-the-barrel due to being firm and juicy, but they leave much to be desired.

Remembered to buy two gallons of milk this week. Should have done so last week. Forgot. Needed to ration milk consumption. Not by much, but every little bit hurts. Thankfully two-gallon weeks are extremely rare (which is why I tend to forget when they occur).

Added blueberries to my breakfast oatmeal mix. They're a solid addition, but don't know that I can afford the added expense on a permanent basis.

Number of semlas consumed thus far in 2020:

Cocoa made with cinnamon and hot sauce. It's a blustery kind of day.

Number of semlas consumed thus far in 2020:

MMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!

I'm eating Spaghetti and drinking Dr. Pepper.

Salad-suppers were becoming more and more repugnant. Loss of Wild Wonders tomatoes and my two favorite dressing were taking a toll. It reached a point where, several days in a row, I was tossing a portion of each supper in the trash. Then I recalled having a bag of frozen broccoli in the freezer. Hadn't touched it in ages. Warmed a generous portion of broccoli in the micro and added it to that evening's salad. Major improvement! I'm back to enjoying salad-suppers again.

I continue to enjoy my fruit & oatmeal based breakfasts (with cinnamon, a dab of sugar-free blackberry preserves and two packets of artificial sweetener). Doubt I'll ever tire of it.

Lunch is what it is. (Soup or Chili some days, Wowbutter Sammiches others.) I never dislike it, but it's nothing to write home about.

Haven't eaten a hamburger since 2009. Only reason I ate one then was due to a severe ice storm (back when we had actual winter weather) that knocked out electricity throughout the area a good five days or more. A burger specially restaurant was one of the few eateries open for business those first few days. Now, I'm not an anti-burger guy. I'd eat one every now and again, no remorse, should circumstances arise. It would count as one of my infrequent splurge meals. It would be no more or less unhealthy than those splurge meals I do eat. No, I'm not leading up to announcing having recently eaten a burger. It just came to mind out of left field to mention it.

The only 'chips' I've eaten in ages were served me during a day spent having heart tests at a local hospital. (This was some years ago.) Why in the world does a hospital serve chips? Drumming up business?

Khajiit has corned beef brisket, taters, carrots, onion, a bottle of Guinness Extra Stout, and some water in the slow cooker in preparation for our traditional St. Paddy’s Day dinner (since St. Paddy’s Day is during the week this year, today was the best day for us to cook it)! When it’s closer to being done, we will add cabbage to the pot, and cook some cornbread!

Popcorn!

I am not eating polish sausage hot dogs, because when I bought them today, I forgot to buy buns!

*does not post joke from Teresa of the Faint Smile's story*

Adding Baby Lima Beans to my salad-suppers has improved their flavor markedly. I'm back to enjoying suppers again.

Today's grocery run went okay. Except soup. It's rare to find a canned soup I like in-stock anymore. Those bought today would not normally be considered for purchase. Oh, skim milk was out again in GL size. I bought whole instead. Not much of it either.

Meant to buy a bandana with which to make a jerry-rigged C-19 mask 'last' week, only to totally forget by the time I got to the store. This week I remembered, up until an uncontrollable need to visit a restroom hit suddenly out of the blue. (I had 'gone' right before leaving the house, so shouldn't have needed to again so soon.) In the process of taking care of that I forgot about bandanas until halfway home. (I wore my current uncomfortable jerry-rigged mask, and gloves, during the grocery run.)

Popcorn

Groceries went over budget today, a too common occurrence these days. A combo of prices being jacked up and the store being out of what I normally buy, forcing me to buy a more expensive alternative (or do without).

Bought a can of Amy's Black Bean chili last week. Not bad at all, and for once the contents in the can look very near to what the can's picture promises. Bought another can today for consumption later this week.

My weight has been creeping up, first noticed Thanksgiving morning 2019 (before lunch with my bro). It's now reached 160lb. That's not dangerously heavy, even for a runt, but definitely cause for concern. My 33" waist pants, which used to be rather loose on me, are becoming rather tight. Still wearable, but nearing their limit. Not sure what's causing gain. I eat pretty much what I've eaten for years, and stayed at 140-144libs. My diet is overall healthy to only marginally unhealthy. No stacking. One 'splurge meal' per week. Same old same old. I suspect something has crept in that I'm not accounting for. But what? Being physically inactive doesn't help, but that's not new either.

I always imagine you as being way too skinny by the sound of your diet; and am always happy to hear you have put on a few pounds here or there. A 33" waist on a pair of jeans is about as perfect as it gets on a man; so you sure don't need to think about dieting or anything.

Bread and pasta are probably the worst things you eat (from what I have seen on here) as far as weight gain goes. If eaten at the wrong times or without a protein to temper them they will act just like sugar and shoot your insulin way out of whack. (You don't have to be diabetic to have your insulin acting up).

Complex carbs like those beans and veggies are good for you; but breads and pasta are just fillers. "All you can eat" Restaurants always load you with yeasty bread rolls; pasta; and potatoes = because if you eat them while hungry they will shoot your insulin up and make you feel full really fast = so you don't load up on their expensive meats; and you leave all full and satisfied without breaking their budget.

Never eat carbs first (especially non-complex carbs like bread or pasta) when you are hungry (like if it has been over four hours since you have eaten) = always eat a bite of protein first. It doesn't have to be a lot of protein; just a small bite of some protein is fine. If nothing else; just eat a small bite of Wow-butter just before your apple; or dip your apple in it; etc.

As a rule = ALWAYS eat any carbs or fruit you eat with a protein (eat the protein first to keep your insulin from shooting up) = and this goes for all those apples you eat, too.

Also: Try to eat as "unprocessed" as possible = all those preservatives and chemicals used in processing are nothing but trouble for your health.

It isn't that you are eating different or more than you did before; it is that when your get over age 45 or so your Endocrine and Digestive systems just start having a little trouble keeping up with all those things they use in processing. It sends the wrong signals and ends up causing your body to hold onto and store the nutrients instead of using them. You end up feeling tired, hungry = and gaining weight even though your diet hasn't changed.

Tea and patch notes for breakfast.

Today's menu is: Dark Reaper's Division Black Bean Soup.

Looks good!

If you love the taste of tacos you will forever love this soup .

Oooo black bean soup! I love black bean soup!!

Its was delish and tasted like tacos and had a nice pleasant amount of heat to it, not to spicy just right.

It's beginning to look as if the Walmart I shop at is never going to replenish its soup shelves. Soups/chili I normally buy haven't been in stock for weeks if not longer. I did manage to find a can of my Wolfe chili-of-preference this Monday, hidden at the rear of remaining mediocre chili. Last week I tried Progresso Cream of Mushroom. No thanks! I like some Progresso soups. Not that one.

Bought a tub of raspberries to add to my breakfast oatmeal/fruit mix. They're okay. Don't know that I'll buy more, as they replace nothing so are an added expense.

@mALX
As to a 33" waist, it seems to be the breaking point for me. A loose 33 is acceptable. Tight 33 is when I start looking and feeling roly-poly. I always looked my best with a 27-28" waist, but there's simply no way I can do the exercise needed to acquire and maintain that any more. Last time I did so was for about six-nine months during 2008, when I jogged almost every day, combined with light aerobics and extremely light weight lifts. It's prolly my final period of 'fitness' this incarnation. It came to an abrupt end within 30min of ending that day's exercise routine. Looking out the living room window, to see if mail had run, I was hit with extremely severe pain in both knees. It sent my crashing to the floor, where I lie for sometime, unable to rise due to knee pain. Took some years for knee pain to lessen to the point where I can walk 'normally' without any appreciable pain. But I can bend my knees only so far before pain set in and jogging .... wait, why did I let myself go off on this tangent????

At any rate, due to height and frame a 33" waist on me isn't as 'ideal' as it would be on a taller, larger framed person. It's certainly not overly unhealthy, but still...