We're Back, We're Bad, You're Black, I'm Mad, Come On!

A fond hello to all my Faithful Readers out there, or at least any who are still checking me out. No good excuses for a week-long gap in postings, except that last weekend was incredibly busy during the tournament, and afterwards I just felt burned out about pretty much everything.

But after a fun and refreshing weekend, which included a great date, a wonderful hike, and the worst Shakespeare play I've ever seen, I'm ready to declare a brand new start. Things I am starting fresh this week:

My new domestic situation. I have a new roommate, Molly, who arrived from North Carolina over the weekend. She seems great, and the best news is that her dog, Turtle, a 9-month old Yellow Lab mix and Simon, the Official Dog of The Consistent Fool, seem to get along great.

My modified version of the 100 Mile Challenge. The original idea of the 100 Mile Diet Challenge is to, for a week or a month, eat only foods that were grown within 100 miles of you. The idea is to reduce energy (specifically oil) usage by not eating things that have been shipped 1500 miles to get to the grocery store.

This isn't very easy in Longmont specifically, since the only area in Colorado that grows significant amounts of fruit, the Palisade area, is more than 100 miles away. So I am going for eating things that were grown within Colorado. Additionally, I am not going to give up on spices, and I have much better things to do with my time than to try and find vinegar that I can be assured was made in Colorado. Plus I can't really give up nuts. So I'm restricting it to fresh produce and meat. Also, I'm too cheap or poor to eat every meal I eat out at The Kitchen (although, for any Faithful Readers who are well-off enough to do this, you should. Also, you should take me.) so I'm restricting it to food I prepare from scratch at home.

I am working through my supply of non-local produce and meats, but at least until the end of August, I will only be buying things that fit the requirements. If all goes well I will continue on into September, and who knows how long after that?

My view on politics. After listening to some of the Sunday Morning chat shows, I realized that I am completely burned out on the horse race aspect of things right now, so I am going to officially Stop Caring about who is leading in polls run by the Des Moines Register of unregistered independents, who are leaning in voting in the Democratic primary and are dominantly left-handed, but play some sports right-handed. They may or may not all be meaningless, but I just don't care right now. So now it's my job to convince you not to care either.

More later, but that's enough new things for one morning.