Sorry Charlie, you are a liar and I'm breaking up with you!

I've had a long-term relationship with Charlie the Tuna. It started in junior high school when my friend Jean and I ate a can with crackers at her house every day. It's a wonder her mom didn't put a stop to it.

Anyway, in college I sent some Starkist labels and a small amount of money off in the mail and got my first Charlie the Tuna wristwatch. Oh how I loved that watch! It was way cooler than those Mickey Mouse watches my dormmates had. The next year my sister gave me some towels with Charlie on them, because I liked the watch so much. Yay!!

The watch bit the dust and as a young adult in my 20's I found and bought another one.

But I have a big bone to pick with you, Starkist, and watches and other cool stuff won't fix this.

I bought a 12 oz. can of chunk light tuna in water, and it seemed, sloshy, even before I opened the can. So I read the label. It said each serving was 2 oz drained, and there are about 5 servings per can. There is no way there is 10 oz of drained tuna in there, and when I drained it and weighed it, there was 6.75. That's quite a big difference from the "about 10" the label is claiming. Unless you really eat your tuna dripping wet.

Sorry Charlie, after all these years I'm breaking up with you. I am going to see that cute mermaid, her chunks have actual identifiable chunks!

OMG, I can read on the treadmill!

I walk on a treadmill at the gym, 3 or 4 times a week, for about an hour each time. Back in March and April there was usually something on TV (among the 5 channels available on the machine) that was suitably distracting. Now with summer programming we are at boredom central on the old 'mill. I do not want another reason to skip a workout.

I have seen women reading magazines on the ellipticals and on the treadmills, so I thought what the heck, give it a try.

I started with a large print book, which was great, except it was a tiny bit too thick to fit the lipped tray, at least at the beginning of the book. I held it open with a lightweight rubber band, which I had to fiddle with at each page turn. Once I got nearer to the middle of the book, I could just slide the pages under the lip of the tray. Yay for books!

But the coolest thing is the Kindle on the treadmill. Except the fact that I felt the need to go wash my hands after the weight machines and before the 'mill, it was ideal. It didn't shift around and the page turns didn't always require two hands.

Next I will experiment with the Sony 300 reader, since it is smaller. The page turns require a little more focus since the "target" is a spot on the right side of a ring, but all in the name of reducing exercise boredom, right?

What a way to kill a Sunday

So, instead of working on the actual pants pattern I'd downloaded from the Internet and traced, I spent several hours doing a new croquis. I didn't remember how long it had been since I did my last one, or what I weighed at the time.

Here's the overall plan:

Take pictures of myself in dark, tight fitting clothes, front and side, and reduce the photos to outlines. Then, in theory, I can draw the outlines of sewing patterns on top of "me" and see how I really look in them. That is often enough to cure me of wanting that pattern altogether.

Oh, and since I couldn't find my old croquis, I hooked up my old computer and spent a great deal of time copying selected directories to the external hard drive, then comparing directories to the new computer. Mission accomplished, day/time killed without actually working on my pants pattern. More measurements were taken.

The last croquis was 13 months ago and 13 pounds heavier. I am smoother in this one, but it may be due to the choice of dark and tight this time around. Is it obsessive that I am considering buying a leotard and tights specifically for future croquis?

This croquis came out much better since I used Nina's old room for a background (less cluttered, better background angle to the wall, and better contrast), and fully extended my little tripod. Also I was standing more straight to the camera. Not perfectly straight, but better.

My conclusion after studying the two croquis side by side? I used to describe my body as a tube atop a beach ball, but that comparison only works from the front view. The side view shows a belly that denies the tube and extends the beach ball idea. With tiny bumps for boobs. Really now, was that necessary?

Sigh. Time to start doing some of those "core" exercises I have been avoiding at the gym. Damn I hate getting on the floor at the gym. I'm not too keen on doing it on the floor at home either. The treadmill is so much more sanitary.

No, I'm not going to post MY croquis here. The sample above is a professional model croquis. Mine would be TMI.

It's grilling time again!

Ok, so it's not like it's never grilling time here in south Florida, but when the popular media starts getting into it, so do I. I'm shallow that way.

So the above bunch of food is good for about 4 meals for me. Well, 4 meals of meat and 2 of veggies, but it's a start!

The above ribeye steak was brushed with a mustard/olive oil/red wine vinegar marinade and the veggies were brushed with Italian dressing. Pretty simple and OH SO Good. The most exciting part was when the wire grill brush fell apart in action. Yowza! The second most exciting part was not realizing I'd run out of fuel and wondering why it wasn't cooking faster. I really should be more observant. Ya think?