The juice life

Mike is home, I'm settled back in from my travels, and life is good. I'm having to put on the space heaters when I get home at night, and drink lots of tea, but that's fine by me. I'm not saying that I love it when it gets dark at 5 p.m., but there is something nice about it when you live in a place without clearly defined seasons. It doesn't ever smell like Fall in San Francisco. It does get nippy in the mornings, but that's not really any different than a foggy summer morning. So the early dark is the clearest sign we've got that time is moving along.

The other sign that time is moving: I bought a juicer, because I have apparently embraced my late-20s yuppiehood with a vengeance. It is a beautiful piece of machinery, capable of pulverizing fruits and vegetables with a single snarl. It is immensely satisfying to use. So far I have been chucking in grapefruit, apple, kiwi, lemon, carrot, celery, kale, and fennel. It's delicious, and makes for a beautiful orangey juice.

Part of the reason the juicer felt necessary was that I was in a pretty gross state when I got back from Texas. A week and a half of eating and drinking too much and sleeping too little had piled up, and I wasn't happy to be heading back to Real Life while Mike stayed in Austin. So retail therapy + the promise of a healthier life resulted in a trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond with a coupon in hand.

I am not supposed to go to Bed, Bath & Beyond alone because I buy too many things. Way too many things! But those things are always so useful. Like a towel for your hair that you can lash into place on top of your head, or a pot lid organizer for the pantry, or, say, a JUICER. I also bought a box of jordan almonds that I ate in one sitting, but we can talk about my jordan almond problem another time.

Aside from dedicating my credit card bill to B, B & B, I cooked my butt off on the nights that I was home alone and Mike was in North Carolina (embarrassing Bank of America at their headquarters). I made a curry split pea soup, a warm salad of eggplant with arugula, basil and feta, and roasted the heck out of pumpkin seeds with brown sugar and cayenne.

I also took the week off from alcohol (that's a bottle of sparkling water you see there) to detox from our Texas celebrations. And to prep for a party with an open bar, which I'll post about later...