Saturday without jet lag

[fenchurch]

Jet lag hit me like a Pan-Galactic Gargle-Blaster, but thankfully I finally seem to be over it. I guess it's just easier to adjust going the other direction, because we really had no problems when we got to London. Since we got home, I've been waking up around 4:00am and getting sleepy around 8:00pm (forcing myself to stay up until 10:00 even though I was painfully tired). On Thursday I actually fell asleep, without realizing it, while sitting on the couch and woke up around two or three hours later very confused in an extremely dark house. I'm kinda glad I didn't have to drive anywhere that day.

By the time rackham got home from work that night, even with that unplanned nap, I was having trouble completing sentences in one go... with huge pauses in the middle while my brain rebooted or something. Rackham said it was a bit like listening to William Shatner on Valium. I have no idea how he managed to make it through a full day of work...

Friday was only marginally better, although I still only managed to stay up until 10:00 with a lot of effort. But this morning I woke up around 4:30, read for an hour and then slept for another three, finally getting up at 8:30. It's been *much* better today... I finally feel in sync again.

I went back to Curves this morning for the first time in about three weeks... I never did get a chance to go while we were in the UK, but that's really alright, considering the amount of walking we did. I was mostly anxious to do the whole weighing and measuring thing and see where I ended up after two weeks of vacation.

Right before we left, I'd found a stash of old jeans a size smaller than what I'd been wearing (okay, in women's sizes on my end of the spectrum, they only do even sizes, so would that really be two sizes smaller?). They were sort of "wishful thinking" clothes... you know, ones I hadn't actually been able to wear in nearly seven years but kept around anyway because someday they'd fit again? Well, I tried them on at the time, and while I could get them on, they were way too tight to wear in public. Not comfortable and they certainly didn't look good.

Flash forward two weeks and I'm hunting for something to wear on Thursday, since most of our clothes are in the wash... and all I can find are a pair a sweatpants, a pair of shorts and the stash of way too small jeans. I figured I'd give them a try again, because they were at least wearable, kind of, and maybe I could deal with wearing them until my others were dry... with a large shirt to cover the really bad parts. And they fit. Not only do they fit, they're a bit loose!!! In two weeks, I'd dropped a pants size (or two, depending on how you reckon it). That means, since I started going walking again toward the end of the summer, I've gone down three (or six) sizes!!!

Got the official score at Curves: In the last month I've lost four pounds and four inches (accumulated from all the measuring points). Altogether since I started there a few months ago? Four pounds and 14 inches. I'm really not that bugged about the pounds, since I'd much rather lose the inches!

It's really becoming obvious though, and I may even need to do a bit of clothes shopping soon. At least I won't need any jeans yet! But other articles of clothing are getting loose enough that they're just not working anymore. Yay!!!

On the ferry ride back from the Isle of Man, we had some Manx Broth for lunch and I've been wanting more ever since. However, I'm really not sure where to get a "scrag end of mutton" (or what it even is, for that matter) which is an ingredient from one of the recipes I've found – the other recipe calls for "a piece of shin beef" and a "marrow bone" (and I have no clue about those, either), so tomorrow we're planning to just make do with some homemade beef and barley soup (the cheater's method using some store-bought organic beef stock). We ran out to the one remaining Larry's store on the Eastside, down in Redmond, to get the beef at their butcher block... it just reminded me how much I miss having a Larry's Market nearby. It's so nice having people who actually know what they're doing when it comes to things like meat or seafood... and having fresh organically raised meats right at hand. Trader Joe's is good for a lot of stuff, but they do have a limited variety.

Comments

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Have no idea what a scrag end is, either (and mutton is so vile I don't know why you'd want to eat it -- won't lamb bones do?), but shin bones are literally beef leg bones, and marrow bones are sliced, cleaned beef bones made to be slow roasted in order to eat the marrow inside (bleah). I always see marrow bones in supermarket meat cases. I suppose you could use beef rib bones or even oxtails as a substitute for the shin bones (Americans don't use every bit of the animal, as the thrifty Manx, Scots and, well, French do -- I think a lot of meat parts Europeans use in their daily cooking go to dog food companies here).