{"id":5942,"date":"2020-01-16T20:51:25","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T02:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/?p=5942"},"modified":"2020-01-17T15:24:41","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T21:24:41","slug":"winter-blahs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/16\/winter-blahs\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Blahs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was just sure I must&#8217;ve written something with this title before; looks like it was <a href=\"https:\/\/debslunch.com\/debslunchblog\/2014\/02\/25\/winterblahs\/\">hashtag winterblahs<\/a> in 2014, and <a href=\"https:\/\/debslunch.com\/debslunchblog\/2013\/01\/24\/winter-blahs\/\">winter blahs in 2013<\/a>. Nothing on the newer blog for winter blahs, but I found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/24\/still-january\/\">Still January<\/a> from 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, I&#8217;m feeling frozen and not in a good way &#8211; sluggish, like my metabolism is all tamped down. Pale and dried out. Although outside frozen means I can walk across the backyard to dump the compost, since the mud&#8217;s frozen, and now covered with snow. And my walk to work this morning was kind of pretty.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5945\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/walktowork.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"488\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/walktowork.jpg 488w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/walktowork-338x450.jpg 338w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/walktowork-113x150.jpg 113w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 488px) 100vw, 488px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>and kind of cold, too.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5946\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/thursweather.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"527\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/thursweather.jpg 527w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/thursweather-365x450.jpg 365w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/thursweather-122x150.jpg 122w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 527px) 100vw, 527px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Speaking of walks to work, there&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/news.wisc.edu\/steeped-in-history-underground-update-is-bascom-hills-latest-chapter\/\">construction now on Bascom Hill<\/a>, that&#8217;s causing pedestrian detours, so I have three choices for getting around it: turn left off University Ave. and go up a long steep set of concrete steps, walk a little farther and turn left and go up a much shorter set of concrete steps and cut through a building &#8211; the Law school, with its hush &amp; serious students (haha), or stay on the flat and turn left on Park St. Monday I thought maybe the long steep stairs would be a metabolism boost, so I tried that. It didn&#8217;t seem to do much, so I went on Park St. Wednesday and through the building Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n<p>I keep hearing about limited fasting as a weight control thing, like only eating one meal a day, or even easier only eating between a set of times, like 11:00am to 7:00pm. I&#8217;ve been sort of trying the latter, I usually don;t get hungry for breakfast until at least 10:30, but I love my milky coffees at like 7:30, and have been allowing myself that, so probably it&#8217;s reducing the good effects.<\/p>\n<p>Winter came back last weekend and I&#8217;m only just writing about it now, the following Thursday. Friday was crunchy rainy snow, while we were going to and coming home from Susan&#8217;s retirement party. It was pretty fun &#8211; she got a local Dead cover band, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TDShack\/\">Tumbledown Shack<\/a>, looks like they&#8217;re regulars at the place where the party was, and there was Fantasy Factory on tap and dancing.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-5947\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/susanparty-1024x536.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/susanparty-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/susanparty-650x340.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/susanparty-150x78.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/susanparty-1536x804.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/susanparty-2048x1072.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Saturday we got up and shoveled, and then I went out to run a few errands by car, and came home and pretty much holed up, though we did go walk for coffee. I finished unpacking the boxes of kitchen stuff from the Chicago apartment, and made cauliflower curry for dinner. I broke into the leftover cookies &#8211; ate way too many of the springerle while I was washing the dishes because sometimes it feels like if I eat a little too much it&#8217;s actually a metabolism boost. Don&#8217;t think it worked in this case.<\/p>\n<p>And we got hooked on Mandalorian. I got a free trial of Disney+ starting Saturday, and we&#8217;ve now watched all 8 episodes. I should cancel now before they start chargeing me $5.99\/month &#8211; I can always sign up again &#8211; season 2&#8217;s not going to be until fall.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5941\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/sidewalk1-11-20.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"488\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/sidewalk1-11-20.jpg 488w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/sidewalk1-11-20-338x450.jpg 338w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/sidewalk1-11-20-113x150.jpg 113w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 488px) 100vw, 488px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5937\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/mandobaby.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"644\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/mandobaby.jpg 644w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/mandobaby-446x450.jpg 446w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/mandobaby-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sunday morning we didn&#8217;t really need to shovel again, it all kind of blew away. I made apple crumb cake for breakfast, and worked, and we walked on the Lakeshore path and a shorter walk for coffee &#8211; so 1200 plus steps for Sunday. I made snacks: Pigs in blankets, and potato puffs, still those ones <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jan5brekkie.jpg\">from the freezer<\/a> that I forgot to put out at the party, and peeled the last three holiday clementines, and we ate in front of TV. Dipping into the Packer game, but mostly we watched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/masterpiece\/shows\/howards-end\/\">Howards End<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/masterpiece\/shows\/sanditon\/\">Sanditon<\/a> &#8211; featuring Mr. Pamuk &#8211; on PBS. It must&#8217;ve worked because the Packers won. John says I am a jinx, I am not allowed to really watch Packer games, although it&#8217;s OK if I check the score on my phone from time to time while watching other things.<\/p>\n<p>Oh yea and I made a test batch of vegan gingersnaps, that might be our offering for this year&#8217;s edition of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/12\/six-snow-days\/\">Culinary Ladies cookie grab for Planned Parenthood<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5940\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/testsnaps.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"488\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/testsnaps.jpg 488w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/testsnaps-338x450.jpg 338w, https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/testsnaps-113x150.jpg 113w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 488px) 100vw, 488px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Monday was pretty much a normal workday. I came home and made a gratin of almost the last of my CSA veggies &#8211; celeriac, sweet potatoes, and parsnips. And lots of cheese. And the cup of heavy cream lurking in the back of the fridge that I mixed with a pint of skim milk from the Union to make the 3 cups of milk the recipe called for.<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday I went to help serve the food pantry breakfast, then came home to work on my class, stopping to put gas in the car and buy us an ice chipper. After I showered when I got back &#8211; I fried a lot of turkey sausages at the breakfast so a shower was called for &#8211; I was putting lotion on my face and I scratched my forehead with my raggy thumbnail. Nobody&#8217;s really said anything about it, and Mark didn&#8217;t even see it until today. See overleaf for denthead.<\/p>\n<p>I worked until about 3:00 when Mark was driving to get his haircut, and the library is on the way, so I had him drop me there, and walked home, which meant on top of all the schlepping at the pantry I had a good number of steps for Tuesday, to0.<\/p>\n<p>Al and Emma came over for dinner and I made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bonappetit.com\/recipe\/chickpea-and-chorizo-tostadas\">chorizo and garbanzo beans tostados<\/a>, and chilaquiles with chicken. And coleslaw. Seeing how much I can cook without buying anything &#8211; it&#8217;s so satisfying (to food geeks like me anyways) to use up stuff from the freezer, and not let that last handful of cilantro turn to mush in the vegetable drawer..<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday after work I went to see my friend Maria&#8217;s new house. They moved from the East side to over off Lake Monona. It was pretty nice, and there was a place when I was driving away when I was coming down a hill right towards the lake. Must be an awfully nice view n the day time. I think they made a good move.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s about it, for now.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was just sure I must&#8217;ve written something with this title before; looks like it was hashtag winterblahs in 2014, and winter blahs in 2013. Nothing on the newer blog for winter blahs, but I found Still January from 2018. Anyways, I&#8217;m feeling frozen and not in a good way &#8211; sluggish, like my metabolism &#8230; <span class=\"more\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/16\/winter-blahs\/\">[Read more&#8230;]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,6,21,28],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-ds83473gmail-com","4":"post-5942","6":"format-standard","7":"has-post-thumbnail","8":"category-blogpost","9":"post_tag-overeating","10":"post_tag-shoveling-snow","11":"post_tag-weekends","12":"post_tag-winter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5942"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5958,"href":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5942\/revisions\/5958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debslunch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}