STRESS BEING PLAYED AS AN APPETITE INHIBITOR

I woke up yesterday morning fairly certain I would be devoting most of my morning into contacting the Department of Economic Security (don't you love what they call welfare assistance in the state of Arizona?).

I got a live person on the second attempt, and on the third attempt, actually talked to someone who could answer my questions about my daughter's not-being-fired-but-also-not-being-scheduled-any-work-hours situation.

I then spent an hour or so at the public library trying to not make too many corrections to Joy's cover letter(s) to go with job applications. Which meant literally biting my lips until they bleed and only making grammatical suggests (Joy actually spells much better than I do).

The next step was going to my local office supply store, where they did not have the model of printer which I trying to replace - after being told on Wednesday that the truck coming in Thursday would deliver it. The sales manager assured me that I could pay for and order one that would be delivered to the store next week - whereas I retorted a tad sharply that I could order it from amazon.com, get it cheaper, and have it delivered to my door.

But hey, I really didn't a chance to eat much of anything!

WITH AN EXTRA HELPING OF GREASE, PLEASE

How much does an extra-large-jumbo bag of popcorn at the movie theatre count?

Without any grease.

Yogurt -- 160
Fiber One -- 120
Extra-large-jumbo popcorn -- 300 (?)
Manwich (no one wanted to cook tonight, so....) -- 215

TOTAL -- 795

(Man, I should stopped at Dairy Queen!)

DAIRY QUEEN RULES

You can't complain about heat when you live in Arizona.

It's like grumbling about the cold when you settle in Alaska, whining about grapes after you move to the Napa Valley, carping about humidity if you live in Miami.

People in Washington and Oregon have a perfect right to bellyache about it hitting 100 degrees - it simply doesn't happen there, very few people or business have air conditioning or are prepared for dealing with something as simply as dehydration.

But when it hits 100 in Arizona - even in south south-eastern Arizona, at 5,000 feet, where it snows in the winter and we really don't get this hot more than a few days in June... forget trying to whine about it.

So my excuse... I'm sorry, my reason for visiting Dairy Queen twice today - heck, why even try to use the polite expression "visit" - I PATRONIZED Dairy Queen once to fortify myself to drive up to my husband's workplace and 'see' his new office (and suitably commiserate with someone who is being 'forced' to move into his actual work area from the windowless basement) - and second to drive the 24 miles into town only to discover the YW activity has three girls with three adult leaders - my conscious was clear asking to be excused.

So, today:
Yogurt & Fiber One -- 215
TWO Dairy Queen cones -- 658
Manwich -- 215
TOTAL -- 983

So maybe two visits to Dairy Queen isn't all that bad.

GOOD, BAD & UGLY

I guess if losing weight was easy, everyone would be skinny, right?

Today: 2 x yogurt -- 300
2 x Fiber One --120
Toast with Peanut Butter (but just ONE - such restraint, Hope!) -- 253
Grilled Cheese Sandwich (dammit, girl!) --670

TOTAL -- 1,343 (double dammit!)

FROM A FEW DAYS AGO.... I THINK

Well, the idea was good. And I was fully prepared to walk the horses this morning, double back, and then again this EVENING, double back.

One small problem.

Well, once again, I guess there were two small problems.

Repair guy for the satellite television (again), scheduled to come between 9 a.m. and noon.

So 9... 10....11....12...1...1:30...2:00!!!!

And it only took the dude about 30 seconds to set it right.

But by 2 p.m., any step that I take in the horses' direction is interpreted as only one thing - it's feeding time.

And rather than have to wrestle 1,800 lb. of hungry horse-flesh, I admit defeat.

For now.