Lunch Date

I have Quaker high fiber oatmeal and a yogurt every weekday morning for breakfast. I'm fine with this routine. Rich and I have started eating at home more lately and I'm also fine with this. But lunch during the week has become my Waterloo. Since I'm nursing Ian at lunch every weekday, I'm going across the street to the day care for that hour. Because of his feeding schedule, I generally leave from 12:30 to 1:30. Rich and the others go out to lunch from 12-1. So even if Rich got me something while he was out, it would be very cold by 1:30 when I could eat it. That and I would starve by then.

I've been trying a variety of frozen meals from Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine. One day I had nothing but edamame and crackers for lunch. I'm feeling uninspired by all of it.

So this is where I turn to you all. What do you eat for lunch? Do you pack something each morning? Do you have a cafeteria in your office? Do you go out for burgers etc? I have read horror stories of vending machine meals that make me cringe. I don't want that. I just want something tasty and easy and healthy.

Help!

Brain dump

In case you missed it, I failed to include Rachel from Crunchy Turtle in my initial recap of our 13th Living Out Loud project. I really need to get more organized with these entries. That or I need an intern. I'm in a surprisingly good mood, which makes me want to write. But I can't think of much to write about, so I think you're going to get a brain dump.

My Google Reader is officially Out of Control. I literally need to assign myself homework of reading blogs to keep up. And I think I'm going to dole out a little tough love and pare down my reading list. If it's taking away from sleep or laundry (two of my highest priorities these days) it has to be better than mundane.

Oh, kettle, you are so very very black!

I've been working on our taxes lately and let me tell you, it's a giant pain in the ass. Not only am I delving into the world of depreciation for our rental property, I've realized I should have done our taxes last year differently. Hooray amended returns! I am dreading doing that too, but really shouldn't since it could possibly be enough of a difference to pay for a new refrigerator, one that doesn't spontaneously wet the floor and has a handle on the freezer door. I could paperwork my way to a new fridge! I just have to get off my ass and do it. Any second now. Just gonna download those forms and hop to it. Here I go. Watch me.

Our entire household has colds. Rich stayed home sick today and I brought Ian home at lunch because he was probably going to infect all the other babies and I didn't want to be That Mother That Selfishly Spreads Baby Plague. So he slept for four hours in his car seat while I worked. All in all, not so bad.

I think he's getting a tooth since there has been increased drooling and some general weariness. Here's hoping he sleeps a little better tonight since he kicked me in the belly all last night. I still love having him in our bed, I just might need to fashion padded booties to put on him.

Recap of 13th Living Out Loud project: Drinkin' buddies

I am overwhelmed at the number of folks who responded to this month's theme. Apparently everyone has some sort of relationship with booze, good or bad. We have 15 entries and five of those are from new participants! It's also neat to see the range of everyone's interpretation of this theme. You all surprise and impress me every month. So without further ado, let's check out the entries: Jeb's My Old but Rarely-Seen Friend, John Barleycorn I admire his dedication to the finer qualities of scotch. Personally I think it tastes like dirt. But I also like the image of Jeb throwing back tequila shots. :)

Gina's Drinkin' Buddies - NOT I can imagine that working as a volunteer EMT, you only see the bad side of alcohol. Moderation sounds like the way to go. It also goes to show you that while drunk dwarfs sound like they would be funny, they're not so much in real life.

Kim R's Drinkin's Buddies Indeed, it ain't easy being green.

Rachel's Without you Isn't it funny how the booze can seem like a character all its own in our lives and not always a passive one.

Jen's Closing Time Here's to being a cheap date! I love it too! And I can totally understand using alcohol to slow down my brain without necessarily turning it off.

Candice's To all the cocktails I've loved before I'm glad your best friend and your husband, who seem on opposite ends of the drinking spectrum, both support you so well. And I'm gonna have to try one of these mythical pear mojitos at PF Changs.

Peg's Hi, My Name is Peg, and ... You bring up an interesting point of how your kids would react to your drinking. I've never experienced my parents even a little tipsy and I could see how it would be hard to explain.

SuziCate's Jose Cuervo Is Not My Friend I'm no fan of tequila myself. It just stinks to me! Rich loves it, though. I like the idea of healthy relationships with liquids.

Deb's I'd Rather Have a Bottle in Front of Me I can't agree more with the biggest problem with excessive drinking being missing out on stuff.

Karal's To retch or not to wretch I laughed out loud at the confusion over retch and wretch (and Googled the spelling for both).

Rich's Cause I'm Clever When I'm Drunk My husband is a late bloomer to the drinking scene but quite clever. We seem to make a good team taking turns having a few too many.

Kim S's But the Bush is Comfortable! I hear ya about the baby birthday parties being more our style these days than swinging at the club. But yeah, social lubrication makes a big difference in some situations as to how much fun happens. Just look at the dance floor at any dry wedding reception.

Megan's Straight Edge Girl The first thing I thought after reading this was "Oh my God, I forgot about mojitos! I love mojitos!" Ahem. Then I realized how it is a big advantage to have time to figure out your relationship with alcohol on your own terms.

Amy's A Complicated Relationship You know I've never had a tab at a bar. Probably because I feared when it was time to pay up the total would floor me. I'm trying to appreciate food more myself these days so I can see how alcohol helps that. Here's to putting alcohol in its place!

And my own It's so good!

As always I had a hard time picking a winner. Everyone did a great job of sharing something personal, and that really means a lot to me. Some were funny, some were touching, some were a little sad. The best one for me, though, was Karal's since it was a bit of all of them. I laughed out loud over the play on words and I got all verklempt when she talked about disappointing her friend. So Karal is our winner this month and earns a $20 Amazon gift card. (Since I'm way behind on delivering prizes, I've decided to keep them simple going forward. I'm sure no one is writing their entries simply for the chance at a prize.)

Thank you all for playing along. Thank you for having as much fun with this as I am. Thank you for reading. Thank you for stepping a bit out of your comfort zones. And thank you for living out loud!