Dog days

Phew, I have had an intense week at work - lots of people on vacation, so lots of emails to respond to on their behalf. It really puts into perspective how not stressed I have been for 99.9% of my working life. It also puts into perspective how very complicated my work is when I pay attention to things other than my own daily tasks.

But! A large part of working so diligently has been telling myself that I can be lazy in other parts of my life. I have been the absolute suck at exercising - I've been in a lazy rut ever since I got back from traveling in June. I've run a few times, gone for a few bike rides, but haven't really done much else. I need to shake it off and get back in the game, man - the Google pounds creep up on you fast. Today I had a weird lunch of sushi, Indian, Italian, and hippie (quinoa pasta, not recommended). And that was me trying to control my portions. As if by covering continents I wouldn't notice that my plate wasn't full. In actuality, it did wind up full, because I have so little self control when it comes to the eats.

Speaking of which, I am now the proud owner of a beautiful little ice cream maker.

Isn't she pretty? I think I will name her once we have spent more time together.

Leslie is currently visiting from NYC, and over the weekend we made four sorbets:

• strawberry, from this recipe, which turned out great
• blueberry, which we made sans recipe, and was fantastic
• herbal tea, coconut milk, and lavender, which was odd but sweet and creamy
• lavender and coconut milk, which was also odd but will get another round of consideration tonight

As you can tell, my commitment to eating more healthfully to combat my extreme laziness is not what it could be.

To lapse back into self justification for a moment, I blame my indolence on the fact that my body thinks it should be summer, and that if I were on the east coast it would be too hot to move. The fact that it is 60 and cloudy every day in San Francisco has not yet computed; my bod had 25 years of seasonality, and it just hasn't caught on yet. So let me believe it's the dog days and ice cream and beer are what's required for survival. We have two beers going right now - a hefeweizen that we bottled last night, and a blonde ale that will be ready in another few weeks. Both are light and summery and totally not weather-appropriate, but I'm hoping they'll both be tasty. The hefeweizen smelled sweet and banana-y, so my hopes are high. Will report back soon.