1. What’s an adult problem nobody prepared you for? 

Hmm, the feeling of being entirely overwhelmed by everything but having to trudge on anyway. You can learn all sorts of coping mechanisms and skills but nothing prepared me for that one day when I had three kids and a job and all the stuff that comes with home ownership… it was SO MUCH.

2. How tuned in are you to all the recent food related health news? Have you gotten rid of your scratched cookware? Did you pay attention to food additives before they made the news? What’s one healthy eating/cooking/food shopping habit you need to adopt? 

I feel like I am pretty on the pulse, ever since about late 2020. We began down the rabbit hole of keto and fasting and all that stuff came along with it. We knew about bad seed oils and additives, stuff like how Ranch is literally the worst thing you can eat. I didn’t get rid of a lot of that cookware so I probably should.

3. What’s getting worse and worse as you get older? How about better and better? 

Worse and worse would be my ability to sleep all night! Better is my confidence in myself and lack of caring what others say about my choices.

4. Are you more of an indoor person or an outdoor person? Elaborate.

Interesting question. I think most people appreciate the comfort about being indoors but I really like outside as well. I think about how sometimes on days like Thanksgiving or Christmas where activities keep you in, I find myself in late afternoon, going outside and escaping the sounds of chatter and TV, etc…

I like going outside even when it is hot, but maybe that’s just because I’m a tried and true Floridian. I don’t much care for outdoors when it is cold. Now, as it pertains to activities done in or out, well, I probably enjoy an equal amount of both: cycling, running, the beach versus gaming, watching movies, cooking.

5. If you had an expert personal assistant today, what would you have them do? 

Ha, grade papers. I have a couple classes to work on but my brain is stuck on getting ready for RAGBRAI and more closely, Thursday meetings and a brew club party Saturday.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I find it amusing the number of posts I saw yesterday about how much money Bezos has so you don’t need to buy on Amazon Prime day. Be that as it may, I do enjoy a deal! I picked up a sports bra (sadly not on sale), some biking headbands, and a cordless pool vacuum. I have a dude who cleans my pool but this will be good for in-between cleanings without having to stop my pump, insert long hose into skimmer, turn pump on, and dump water to waste. No thanks. I did that for six years and I was DONE with that. It comes on Friday and I’m excited to use it. The reviews were positive. We get a lot of fine debris on the bottom and even with brushing it down to the main drain, it comes back through the jets. Yes, this is what those other robots are for but I’ve talked about that before: they wear out a vinyl liner!

I took my daughter to camp this morning then rode 12 miles, then went to the store. I have been starving these past few days and I think it is due to all the miles. I could barely stop eating yesterday then at 10:30 at the store I did a small salad and four non-breaded wings. I know you need to take in a lot of calories when cycling this much but wow, my body must just be adjusting to all the loss because it’s begging me to eat!

OK, time to buckle down and get some work done.