R.I.P. Fiona ?-2008

It has now been one week since my little girl, Fiona died. I woke up Sunday morning at 4:30 to find that she had had the runs all over the bedroom, but she seemed ok. We got everything cleaned up, about 6am we went out to potty where she had some trouble pooping, it was very soft and a little bloody. I made sure that she drank some chicken broth and she was sleeping on her favorite pillow when I went to church at 10am. When I got home at Noon she was gone, she had bleed out through her rectum. I swear that she was ok when I left. I've gone through a lot of emotions since Sunday. Being mad at God (If I hadn't gone to church I would have been here), It's just a dog (I can't even believe I thought that, Fiona was more then just a dog) and more in-between. I miss her and so does Toby. It's a little easier every day, but this morning I found where she had pooped behind the hot water heater and started crying all over again.

Poor Toby is not quite sure what to do. I've tried spending more time with him, going on longer walks, taking him to the dog park. Toby has always had Fiona. He's never had anyone his own size to play with. I've been dropping him off at my friend Karen's house during the day where he has 5 other dogs to play with and a yard to run it. He's not used to playing with other dogs but I think he's getting the hang of it.

At the dog park he'd run over and play for about 5 seconds, then run back to me. Karen's dogs are teaching him things. He's never been a barker but did bark some at the dog park. The first time he did it he looked surprised as if to say, "Who did THAT?"

This brings back a memory of Fiona. We were in the back yard of the house, it was late at night and I had just gotten home from working a double shift and was really tired. Toby was doing his business and I had Fiona in my arms and for some reason the thought came into my head "I wonder far I could throw Fiona? I bet I could make the fence". And I swear it's as if she could read my mind. She turned her head up to look at me like she was asking, "What the hell are you
thinking".

It was Fiona that got my mom to play with dogs. All of her life she was scared to death of dogs. She had really bad varicose veins and was afraid that dog would nick them. She would cross the street to bypass a tiny dog. But Fiona she loved, (who didn't?), and would let her into her apartment in the morning. She would bring her a sausage sandwich from Burger King every morning and cut it up into little bits and re-heat it for her. Because of her she started to meet the other dogs and right before she died, (Mom, that is), I was able to get a picture of her with all five dogs around her. My brother Hack was amazed knowing the fear Mom had. That was the kind of dog Fiona was.

She was a little over ten years old which is getting up in age for her breed. I take peace in that I tried to give her the best life that I could and hope that she is in a better place.

My glass of water is empty. And I like it like that.

For a long time I have been a solitary person. I would prefer to be at home working on my projects. I ran into an old friend of mine and she talked me into going to church with her. Sooooo, now I'm in the chorus and have taken over their "web presence" and working on the fundraiser. The point is I'm now a much more sociable person spending time at people's houses. I thought it was just my friend Huggy-Bear that owned a lot of crap but I'm finding out that it's a lot of people.

I can understand the idea of art for art's sake. Some of Rodin's work can make me weep. But just to get something to "fill that corner" I don't understand. I look around my apartment at the plain white walls and realize that there is beauty in blank space. When I first started graphic design I would want to "fill that corner" and hadn't yet learned the use of white space. When can be used to emphasize the design itself. Opening up that space lets me enjoy it. A large white wall with a single picture on it is far more striking that a gallery.

A case in point is that I used to have this fancy cell phone, (I love my gadgets), Bluetooth web access, 2.1 mega pixel camera. But I was also so afraid that I've hurt it or lose it that I couldn't enjoy it. So now I have a $10 throw-a-way phone. It doesn't give me the joy that the other did, but the peace it gives me is worth far more.

Think of the things we own but don't use. I have another friend that has a number of exercise machines that he never uses. Every time she see them she feels guilty for not using so now that object is a source of guilt.

Our outer world is a reflection of our inner world. Now I know that the first thing that may pop into your mind is that it's an empty world. I would guess that your glass of water is half empty. I like to think of my glass as being empty. Think of the potential that it has. Instead of water I could put a flower in it. Rather than have a shelve full of knick-knacks, use that same space for just one quality piece. The less we have to focus on the more attention we give that which is left.

It's pretty amazing how little we really need. Living without the refrigerator brings that point home a lot. The other day I really had a craving for some chocolate. Now if I want chocolate I'll have chocolate. But by not having the fridge running to keep the chocolate in was none for me to have and I didn't want it bad enough to get in the car and go get some.

Getting back to making money,,,

I came across something today and had a great idea! Someone had left some Reader's Digest in the office. I was flipping through the pages and found the page where they are asking people to submit jokes and little stories for things like Life in These United States and All in a Day's Work. They don't even have to be original items. For every previously published item it's $100 and for every original items. (that they publish).

I wonder how many other magazines are paying like this? I'll look into this and let you know but think how easy it would be. You can even submit via email.

I didn't know I had such a fat head!

One of the things about losing weight is the way your body changes... my shoes have gotten looser and my pants have gotten longer. But the main thing is the skin on my head of tightening up. It used to be when I shaved my head I had these rolls of flesh that my razor had to go over. Now it kinda just smooth. I find myself rubbing the back of my head in amazement in not finding the roll of fat back there.

Now if it would just catch up to the rest of me!

How to shop 101

When I was married, I used to hate going shopping with my wife. When I go shopping I know what I want. I go in, get it, go through the self checkout or 10 items or less line and get on with my life. My wife on the other hand would go up and down each (and every) aisle. With a cart of oh-doesn't-that-look-good items.

I don't know that either method is the best. We ate better using her way. So like I usually do in those cases, I decided to find out. Turning to my friend www.google.com, I put in how to grocery shop better. I found out some very interesting things. Tricks that stores use to get you to buy more. Things like more expensive items at eye level, things on end caps are not always on sale. Impulse items at the checkout line. So here are my thoughts on shopping better.

Shop early or late. The idea is to shop when there are fewer people shopping. If you shop at 5:30pm on a Friday, you’re going to run into a lot of people who just stopped in for "one thing", usually with their kids who've been in day care all day. More people means less items on the shelve so you're more likely to just grump what's left, or just what's closer. If you shop really early or late, you'll have less people, but you sometimes have to put up with shelve stockers. But that can work out too because what they're putting up is usually fresher or at least has a longer expiration date.

Shop around the perimeter of the store. It's along the wall you'll find all the fresh items. Shop the perimeter of the store first for the bulk of your buys, THEN dip into the aisles for staples that you need. Most fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meats, and natural foods are usually located on the outer aisles. Often these foods contain the most nutrients and the least amount of preservatives and added chemicals. Inside the aisles you'll find the pre-made, pre-boxed, hormone-grown, nutrient-leeched, preservative-full items. Shop on the edge! Don't get canned corn, get fresh corn. Don't buy pre-sliced, pre-packaged lunch meat, go to the deli and get it fresh(er).

Can't buy fresh? Then get frozen. Items are usually flash frozen at their peak, within hours of being picked. Think about this, some fruits come from as far away as 1500 miles or more, think how early they have to pick them so they'll be "fresh" when they get to your store.

Look at the ingredients. Ask yourself a simple question when looking at food to buy. Is this food processed in any way? The easiest way to find out is to look at the ingredients. The lower the number, the better! I try not to buy anything that has sugar within the first five ingredients. I was looking for a cold cereal and the first one I picked up, all FIVE first ingredients listed was some form of sugar!

Don't shop on an empty stomach. I know you've heard this one before, but it really works. You won't be tempted to buy food you don't need, or that isn't healthy for you.

Think of your store as a department store. So that the dairy, produce, meat, and so on) is a separate store within the supermarket. You wouldn't shop at every store at a mall the same way, would you? You know better than to idly browse through a jewelry store, don't you? So apply the same approach to the grocery store. Target the sections that are safe to browse through--the produce section, primarily--and steer clear of the dangerous sections (the candy, ice cream, and potato chip aisles).

Don't use a shopping cart. Boy do the stores really have it in for you. They give you this big old cart which makes it so easy to just toss stuff into it. Don't do it, if you have to use one of the carry baskets you'll be forced to make the choice of what is really worth carrying.

Shop more often. Trying to live and eat better is rough. This one may have to be put aside for a while. Here in Florida I paid $3.20 a gallon for gas this morning and a new report shows that it could easily go to $3.50 and $3.80 with the next 6 months. Unless the store is on your way home or within walking or biking distance you might have to consolidate your trips to one or two.

Avoid convenience items. Don't purchase items that are convenience items, such as prepared vegetables or pre-made sandwiches. These items are more costly, and you are better off buying your own ingredients and making them yourself.

Check the entire shelf. Grocery stores will often place the higher priced items at eye-level. Again, consumers choose more items to buy from eye level. So look at the top and bottom of the shelf for potential better bargains.

Buy generic products. Now maybe not every thing you buy should be generic, but most generic or store brand items can save you a dollar or more! It really adds up. And do you really think that they have one factory for Green Giant green beans and another for Winn Dixie brand? Of course not! Yes, the Green Giant brand may have fewer broken beans in it, but who cares? It's all going to become poop anyway. My wife would never buy generic, of course this was also the same women who thought that any movie older than three months was crap.

Ok, ok that's enough for now. (climbing down off of my soapbox)

Losing weight makes your pants longer!

Something I've noticed as I've been losing weight is that my pants are getting longer. To the point that I've had to "up" the hem a couple of times on one pair. It was really cold so I put on a pair of my heaviest pants, but it turned out to be a pair of "fat pants" that I haven't gotten rid of yet. Older, larger clothes also make you look fatter than you are, I've noticed this even with shirts. Go figure.

--
Give the hardest job to the laziest man and he'll find the easiest way to do it. www.thelaziestman.com

Man was it cold this morning.

I force myself to get up at 5:30 AM so that Toby and I can go for our walk. Toby jumping around like he always does, as soon as the door opens the the wind hits him at 20 degrees, he just looks up at me like I'm nuts and dragging his leash behind him goes back to bed.

--
Give the hardest job to the laziest man and he'll find the easiest way to do it. www.thelaziestman.com

Better than Seinfeld?

A little while ago I had told you about the tip from Jerry Seinfeld, and the website www.smarterfitter.com that give you the calendar to use. Well, I've found a better one. Unlike Smarterfitter, it lets you credit more than one on the same page and even to do negative ones. On my I have tow positive ones, Walk the Dog and Update Blog and one negative one, Eat out. You check them off each day that you do them. It's called Joe's Goals. Check it out and start today!

Weight loss in Pictures

Here I am at Christmas 2006

And now at Christmas 2007, who know what I'll look like in 2008!

A motivation tip from Jerry Seinfeld

I was never a big fan of the Jerry Seinfeld show. It just seemed silly and I've never watched a lot of TV (Go! Heroes! GO!) Ahem... But I came across a great motivation tip on Lifehacker.com, click for the article itself. Basically it comes down to this:

Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show, Jerry Seinfeld was still a touring comic. At the time, I was hanging around clubs doing open mic nights and trying to learn the ropes. One night I was in the club where Seinfeld was working, and before he went on stage, I saw my chance. I had to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. What he told me was something that would benefit me a lifetime...

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself—even when you don't feel like it. He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here's how it works.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."

"Don't break the chain," he said again for emphasis.

It makes sense. I'm a great one for getting ideas and making plans, following through on them.... not so good. It's just there's so many of them and I have such grand ideas it's hard to get them all done. And after all, I AM the laziest man (www.thelaziestman.com) (shameless plug).

But seeing that chain of red X's grow makes you really want to keep that chain going. I was waiting on the new year to roll around to get one of the calenders. I found a spot of the web where you can do the same thing. It puts the calendar on-screen for you and you can add the X for each day you do it. You can find it here. The only drawback to it is that it's not sitting there on the wall staring you in the face every morning. The good thing is you can have more than one. But I guess you could just use different colors of markers for each day.

I've been putting down the X's for a week now and it's getting easier. Give it a try

Testing BlogJet

I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com Let me test it out for you first, I’ll give you a review once I’ve had time to play with it.

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein

Convenience is a reason for clutter.

I just wanted to get this thought down while I was thinking about it. As I was going through the list of things I own, I realized that I own no less then six garbage cans. Two in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, one in the bedroom, one in the washroom and a last one in the living room. Now, my apartment is not that big and since my food waste, (the little food waste that I have between Toby and Fiona), goes into left over jars. So I've ditched the six trash cans and have gotten one large 55 gallon one. I won't have to buy 3 different sizes of trash bags and if I have to walk a few steps so much the better.

But it got me thinking about how much clutter is convenience. At one time I had many different means of cutting up food. I had a Veg-o-matic, another cutter similar to it that pushed the vegetable through a vertical grid of blades. A set of knifes. A box grader. A Chop-o-matic for herbs, nuts, etc. A garlic press. So let's see that, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 different things to cut/chop up food. They've all been replaced by one very good knife. Now I paid as much for the one knife as I paid for all the other put together but it will last me years.

Convenience is a reason for clutter.
--
Give the hardest job to the laziest man and he'll find the easiest way to do it. www.thelaziestman.com

Why live the Simple Life?

People has often asked me about a minimalist lifestyle. I like to think of it as simple living. But there are some definite benefits. I found some of the reasons on the Simple Living Resource Group

Ecological. Lower consumption of goods and services benefits the environment.
Financial. Expenses are reduced dramatically resulting in a more economically sustainable lifestyle.
Spiritual. For years, people seeking spiritual growth and inner peace have established for themselves simple spaces, clothing, and food to enhance their personal development.
Consider monks, nuns, Buddhists, and spiritual leaders such as Gandhi, Mother Theresa, and St. Francis. Simple surroundings enhances the ability to look inward and upward.
Health. Eating simple and healthy reduces diet induced illnesses.
Focus. Sparse surroundings enhances the ability to focus on work and pleasure.

Simple living is stress free living. With no bills laying about, nothing that visibly needs to be cleaned or put away, and no extra stuff lying around that would lend to making an easy mess, you can relax in good conscience and truly enjoy your environment. A relaxed person is a healthy person.

Simple living frees up your schedule. When you don't own a lot of things, things become easy to find. Cleaning is quick and easy. I've often heard that Einstein had a closet with 7 identical suits. Shirts, pants, Ties and Shoes. (He was notorious for not wearing socks.) This way he never had to spend time thinking about what he was going to wear that day. He would just reach in and take the next set. When he got to the sixth one he would send the others out to be cleaned.

The hardest thing about losing weight was the clothes. When you're as big as I was, a 68 waist and wearing 6X and 7X shirts a single pair of (cheap) pants could be $50 or $60 dollars. T-shirts were $30 to $50 dollars apiece. Everything was more. When I was losing weight I hated to get rid of my "fat" clothes because some where in the back of my mind was if I gain the weight back I would have to spend that money all over again.

100 item challenge UPDATE 67 ITEMS

Well, I went online and started searching for anyone else doing the 100 Item Challenge and came across this post from zenhabits and found that there was a few points the I didn't notice the first time around. So I went back to Dave Bruno's website, the guy who started this whole thing. Here's the point I missed.

You only do personal items, you don't have to include everything.

Hmmm, kind of a big point to miss, eh? Since I live alone I figured everything was going to be included. After all, it was all my personal stuff. The way he puts it:

I'm going to limit my personal stuff to 100 items. Shrewd readers of this blog will immediately wonder, what constitutes personal stuff? Pretty much whatever I say. But for now a "personal stuff" does not include:

• Books, including maps - likely the stuff-vice I'll carry with me to my grave


• Tools - will hopefully get this category down to 100 sometime down the road


• Collections - for example my Marklin train collection is 1 item for now. And my collection of underwear is one 1 item for now. (Like I'd go down to 1 pair. Give me a break.) But really I don't have a lot of collections. I've always kind of wanted to, cause it seems cool to collect something. I've just never been able to muster the passion necessary.


• And stuff I cannot claim as 100% or close to 100% mine, i.e. I'm not going to toss the Hobbit picture hanging in our hallway or chuck the one radio we own, though both happened to be gifts given to me. These things don't really belong to "me" so much as our home. Someday our family might choose to take up the 100 Thing Challenge for home decorations, furnishings, and accessories. But I'm starting this challenge realistic.

Heck, I could have been done the first WEEK if I had noticed that! I guess it comes down to some things you just have to have. Even though it's "your" personal stuff, some of it is just essential. Dishes, clothes. Now this is with counting some items as a collection. DVDs, Books, underwear, etc. So here's what I have left. Using collections I started with 1043 single actual items, most being books and DVDs, down to single actual items
135 and now down to. DA-TA 67 items. I may break some of the collections up after a bit, but this is enough for now.

Kitchen (7) (9 single actual items)

Can Rack
Dog Clippers
Iron
Magnetic Knife Holder
Presto Kettle
Tongs
Knife Sharpener (2)
Chair

Living Room (30) (361 single actual items)
60" Ruler
Baby Gate
Blood Pressure Cuff
Brass Duck
Camera
Cell Phone
Chair
Clock
Coleman Lamp
Computer
Creeper
Desk Lamp
Dog Leash (4)
Dog Pillow (2)
Drill
Ds Lite
DSL Modem (Do I Really Own This?)
DVD Collection (325)
Flash Memory Stick (2)
Hey Kool-Aid Pitcher Being Used As A Penny Jar
Inkjet Combo
Ironing Board
Laser Printer
Mini Ironing Board
Pen Holder
Hand Weights (3)
Phone
Sewing Machine
Smoke Bottle
Video Cam

Bathroom (4) (7 single actual items)
Electric Shaver
Photo
Rug Set (4)
Showers Head

Bedroom (17) (36 single actual items)
Bed
Belt (2)
Blanket (4)
Coleman Lamp
Fan
Fitted Sheet (3)
Flat Sheet
Garbage Can
Hand Washer
Heater
Washcloth (4)
Notepad
Shoes (2)
Towel (5)
Underwear (8)

Hall Closet (5) (5 single actual items)
Juggling Stuff
Power Strip
Hand Saw
Jigsaw
Toolkit

Washroom (4) (6 single actual items)
Brooms (2)
Buckets (2)
Dustpan
Mop

Weight Loss Proof

I went to get into my car and the radio let us know that there was a seat belt check set up down the road. As long as I've had the car I've never been able to get the seat belt to fit. Today it just clicked in place! Woo-Hoo. It's the little proofs like this that mean so much!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from me and the dogs!

100 item challenge

I'm sure I've talked about this before. It's called the 100 Item Challenge. The idea behind it is too only own 100 items. Why 100? It was a good number to start with. It all started with Dave Bruno's website. Then I found where Zenhabits was thinking about doing it. Here's what Dave had to say:

You'll immediately wonder, what constitutes personal stuff? Pretty much whatever I say. But for now a "personal stuff" does not include:

• Books, including maps - likely the stuff-vice I'll carry with me to my grave
• Tools - will hopefully get this category down to 100 sometime down the road
• Collections - for example my Marklin train collection is 1 item for now. And my collection of underwear is one 1 item for now. (Like I'd go down to 1 pair. Give me a break.) But really I don't have a lot of collections. I've always kind of wanted to, cause it seems cool to collect something. I've just never been able to muster the passion necessary.
• And stuff I cannot claim as 100% or close to 100% mine, i.e. I'm not going to toss the Hobbit picture hanging in our hallway or chuck the one radio we own, though both happened to be gifts given to me. These things don't really belong to "me" so much as our home. Someday our family might choose to take up the 100 Thing Challenge for home decorations, furnishings, and accessories. But I'm starting this challenge realistic.

When I first had the idea of doing this I thought, "This'll be easy, I've only got about 150 items now". I always said that everything I owned would fit inside my car. Hoo-Boy was I wrong. I went though the apartment and found 385 items. Not counting the 125 books or the (gulp) 600 DVDs. At last count I'm down to 135 items, counting my clothes as 1 item. I'm down to 7 books and about 150 DVDs. I've been taking the DVD, converting it to a single file, so that I could fit 5 or 6 onto a single DVD.

I had a set of dishes for 8. Now I have 2 each of plates, bowls, silverware. I large measuring cup that I use for everything from soup to oatmeal. The other good thing about it is that forces me to keep the dishes clean. Being a single guy and The Laziest Man(TM) of thelaziestman.com fame I would keep using clean plates until all 8 were dirty!

The hardest part was getting rid of clothes. As you know from some of my other posts I'm following Ayurveda and losing weight. But getting rid of the "fat" clothes was so far because somewhere in the back of my brain there was always the thought "what if..." Finding clothes when you're thin is easy, you can walk into any Wal-Mart and get more pants. But when you wear a size 66 there's only 1 or 2 places in town. At anywhere from $30 to $100 for one pair of pants. I'm putting together a list of what I have left. This time of year is hard because the idea is if you get something you need to get rid of something.

Weight loss update

Well, People have been asking so I weighted myself this morning. I am just one pound away from my short term goal of 350, on my way to my long term goal of 290 so just 60 pounds to go. I'm on the downhill slide.

I've lost 65 pounds, ask me how!

Yes, it's true I've lost 65 pounds since Christmas. Without exercising and without feeling hungry. In face some days I have to remind myself to eat! Is it a pill? NO! Is it sticking my finger down my throat? NO! (not that that would do any good anyway as I have no gag reflex from learning sword swallowing in the circus.)

It's something called Ayurvedic. In Ayurveda, the five elements of space, air, earth, fire and water make up everything in the universe including the human body. These elements come together to create three different constitutional types or doshas known as Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Ayurveda has considered about the diet in detail. The Ayurvedic diet is one that not only nourishes the body, but also restores balance of 'Tridoshas' which is very much essential for maintaining Health. Depending on our dosha, or constitutional type, some foods can be beneficial, and others should be avoided. These same foods may have the opposite effect on another dosha.

The science of Ayurveda teaches that right diet is the foundation of healing. For maximum health and vitality, the ideal diet is one that balances our doshas. The qualities of Vata are cold, dry, light, hard, and rough. Pittas properties are hot, sharp, oily and light and the qualities of Kapha dosha are cold, heavy, liquid and unctuous. You can also have what is called dual-doshas, such as I am, a Pitta Kapha. So in the spring/summer I follow a Pitta diet and in the fall/winter I follow Kapha.

It's not my goal here to give you all the info there is about Ayurveda, but I'll give you some links that will tell you more and show you how to find out what your dosha is. The main thing is that it works. One of my friends named Karen started working from home at the clerk's office, so I didn't see her for months, when she came in she had lost 30 pounds and looked great! Of course I asked her what her secret was and that's how I learned about Ayurvedic. If I would exercised I could properly lose weight faster, but too fast can be just as bad, I've already gone down 4 pants sizes and should be down another one by the end of next week.

It was also following this way of life that made it easy to turn off the refrigerator, as a Pitta I don't consume food or drink that is hot or cold. So I drink warm water or tea. For breakfast I usually have a bowl of cereal such as golean granola or grape nuts. I used canned milk or sometimes grape juice. Lunch is the big meal of the day. Usually rice with bean, a can of tuna in water or chicken. I "graze" of fruits and veggies all day unless I'm in court that day. When I get home at around 5:30 I either eat what I have there, fruit fresh or canned as a snack or sometimes I'll stop by the store and pick up some fresh broccoli to steam. Then before I go to bed I'll have another piece of fruit or some of the picked onions I put up. I've taken to drinking a glass of water with some apple cider vinegar and honey in it.

Finding out what your dosha is
Different dosha diets
More about the different dosha and some good books on the lifestyle

EAT-TASTE-HEAL
Amazon
The Quick & Easy Ayurvedic Cookbook
The complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies

and as always, look for these and other at your local library first! One of the main things I got rid of in my 100 item challenge was books, so I gave them to the local library where I (and others) will have access to them. actually I digitize most all of my books now. The trouble being I have to cut the spine to do it and I hate to destroy a book, but this way I can share them easily with people and take them on the go.

Living Without a Refrigerator! Update #5

It is now going onthree weeks without a Refrigerator. It's tough and yet in some ways it's not that bad. I'm not eating that much anymore so it's easy to make enough without having any leftovers. It's tough because I hate shopping and having to stop each night for that night's supper is a pain. Here's a photo of the fridge for you to see .

I

I put in some plates of baking soda to help keep it smelling good and to keep it dry. The main thing I miss is cheese. I haven't found a cheese yet that will keep. Even with it being the middle of October we're still have temps in the 90s. They keep telling us it will be colder soon.

Next I'm going to try those little chesses that are dipped in wax. I've found WebPages about canning soft cheese.

Preserving soft cheese in the box and Canning Soft Cheese.

You can read more about my experiment with

storing carrot in sand!