MON. SEPT. 22

When I have various meetings or appointments, I now try to bundle them all on the same day, so as to preserve as much writing time as possible. So, with various things to do in the Valley today, I had a breakfast out. I had SCRAMBLED EGGS AND ONIONS, a POTATO PANCAKE with about 2 t. of SOUR CREAM, and a SESAME BAGEL with CREAM CHEESE. And a Diet Coke. Yeah, I know, but I don't drink coffee.


I skipped lunch after that unusual (for me) breakfast, but later in the afternoon, after the school runs, I had a 100 calorie bag of KETTLE CORN.

For dinner, I made CHICKEN IN ORANGE/CRANBERRY SAUCE with WILD RICE. It was incredibly easy and quite good. And I had some COOKIES AND CREAM ICE CREAM while watching Dancing with The Stars....

Tues., home all day except for USC....

SUN. SEPT. 21

No b'fast, but I had a CRUMB RAISED DOUGHNUT at church.

For lunch, the kids really wanted to go to Burger King -- Lee and I had other ideas, but Cory was really really hungry and wanted to go somewhere where he could order seconds if he wanted. I had a FISH SANDWICH that was really overdone.


For dinner, I made PASTA W/ SAUSAGE -- pasta, chicken-apple sausage, spaghetti sauce, green pepper, mozzarella. And had a bowl of CHERRY CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM for dessert.

And that was it!

SAT. SEPT 20

A good food day, mostly because dinner was so good, worth every calorie.

I mostly didn't eat during the day. Lee had rock fever, since he hadn't been out of the house for a day or so (kids out of school), so he went out to McDonald's at lunch time and brought me back 2 SNACK WRAPS (crispy chicken and ranch).


For dinner, our manager took us out to Houston's, which I like but rarely eat at. I had a VODKA AND TONIC to drink, then a CAESAR SALAD -- a very sour one, which was yummy. I also had 2 bites (since this is "every bite I take") of Lee's chili. For dinner I had a lovely grilled piece of NEW ZEALAND BUTTERFISH (which I had never even heard of, but it was delicious), homemade TARTAR SAUCE, and ROASTED CORN. And we all sort of shared Lee's FRENCH FRIES. And for dessert, the three of us split a 5-NUT BROWNIE with CARAMEL SAUCE and VANILLA ICE CREAM.

Worth every bite.

FRI. SEPT 19

Yes, I missed Thursday. Sorry. (Btw, if anyone is reading here, please feel to comment, even anonymously. That would be most encouraging.)

I skipped b'fast on Friday.


For lunch I had some leftovers -- BREADED CHICKEN, CORN and MASHED POTATOES.

For dinner I tried a new recipe -- an easy, quick variation on THAI CHICKEN -- chicken in a coconut-peanut sauce with peanuts and green onions. With WHITE RICE. It was actually pretty good. Lee liked it a lot better than the similar Thai beef recipe I tried a couple weeks ago. And it was fast!

Saturday night we are going out to dinner....

WED. SEPT. 17

Oh, so nice to be back to full speed again! I don't think I'd realized how long I'd been low-level sick...

For breakfast, just to be sure, Lee picked me up another MANGO-A-GO-GO SMOOTHIE at Jamba Juice, once again filled with all the boosters he could squeeze in there. (We have a ton of Jamba gift cards left over from Cory's b'day party, so just burning them off.)

Later that morning, while we were working, I had the pack of POTATO CHIPS Lee had brought me the previous day which I was unable to eat.

For lunch, I had a little leftover PENNE PASTA W/ MARINARA and a few bites of CHICKEN PARMESAN in it.


Then off I went to teach, and found myself ravenously hungry on the way for some reason. I stopped at a campus coffeehouse, picked up some ICED TEA and a CINNAMON RAISIN BAGEL with CREAM CHEESE.

We had another event at Cory's school this evening, so had dinner there. TWO CROISSANT MINI-SANDWICHES, one with HAM AND SWISS, one with ROAST BEEF AND CHEDDAR. A handful of CARROT STICKS. Two little LEMON BARS. And water.

Then home to crash for a day with much less running around...

TUES. SEPT. 16

So, so, so much better today than yesterday. No comparison. Whew....

I felt I could eat this morning -- in fact, I felt quite hungry after yesterday. Lee kindly took Cory to school, then stopped and got me a small MANGO SMOOTHIE at Jamba Juice, stuffed with all sorts of immunity boosters and whatnot. With it I had an UNCRUSTABLE -- For those of you w/o kids, let me sheepishly admit that, yes, we have these in the house -- they are frozen PBJ sandwiches w/ the crusts cut off. But it was good for recovering from a fever.


For lunch, I had the other half of the PESTO PASTA that I had out the other night -- my leftovers. Pasta, pesto sauce, pine nuts, chicken, parmesan.

Later in the day, while I was reading scripts, I had a 100 calorie bag of KETTLE CORN.

Lee stopped at Quizno's when he picked up Cory from school (he really let me take it easy today) and brought me a SMALL TUNA SANDWICH -- bread, tuna salad, cheddar cheese, tomato, mayo. He also brought me potato chips, but I passed on those. (Do I get brownie points for that?)

I taught at USC tonight, and when I got home, I had a couple of small SPRING ROLLS that were leftover from a party a few days ago. And I could taste all the veggies inside, unlike my salad yesterday when I got so sick.

So I guess I'm better. Thank God.

Tomorrow I teach again, then we have a light supper before a meeting at Cory's school....

MON. SEPT 15

The day is a fog, as I spent much of it with a fever of 102...

I didn't realize it at first -- just in a lot of pain, really tired -- but I chalked that up to having to get up at 5:30 to get Sabrina to her class trip. Went back to bed, dragged myself up to go to our accountants to sign taxes, and to lunch w/ a school parent.

At lunch what I really wanted was nothing but protein -- but at these "ladies who lunch" things, one has to order salads, pretty much. So I ordered a HALF COBB SALAD, because it was the salad with the most protein in it I could think of -- lettuce, tomato, hard-boiled egg, blue cheese, balsamic vinegraitte. I don't know why they left off the bacon. As it was, I could barely taste the salad. That should have been a hint there was something wrong. Oh, and PELLEGRINO to drink.


Then I came home and collapsed. I was freezing, shivering -- and realized I was sick. I canceled my dinner plans and spent the rest of the day in a complete fog -- pain, fever, sweats, chills, the whole thing.

Sometime in the evening, Lee made me eat a bowl of WHITE RICE. The rest fades away in a miasma of pain and fog.

SUN. SEPT 14.

Okay, this is frustrating. I wrote a whole, very descriptive post about the food of the day, watched as Blogger automatically saved it every time -- then my browser crashed, and turns out Blogger didn't save a thing. So now I'm afraid we'll just get a list w/o the explanations.

A Dixie cup of ORANGINA at church.

Lunch at Numero Uno: A small bowl of SALAD -- lettuce, tomato, carrots, cucumbers, cheese, with RANCH DRESSING. Two small pieces of NON-GARLIC BREAD. One slice of THICK CRUST PIZZA -- cheese, tomatoes, chicken sausage, pepperoni, pineapple. A few bites of SPAGHETTI WITH MEAT SAUCE. DIET COKE for the caffeine. And lots and lots of leftovers.


While open-housing, one CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE.

At Premise, all I had was a CHEESEBURGER -- bun, meat, cheese, ketchup, onion dip, tomato. Skipped the side dishes and desserts. And more DIET COKE.

And that's it. If Blogger behaves, I'll write more fully about Monday -- lunch and dinner both out.