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Yesterday, I had lunch with odosgirl. We went to Panera and talked for a couple of hours. I need to send her a link to AO3 because she's thinking that her old fic should be somewhere where people can find it. Uploading that would be low priority for her because she needs to finish her dissertation by the end of August, but it might be something for her to do when she needs a break from the dissertation.

After school, Cordelia had a friend over to practice for their performance in the upcoming talent show. The friend's brother came over, too. It's easier for their parents if I take him, too. He's younger, and I think his sister watches him after school until one of their parents gets home. The girls practiced for fifteen or twenty minutes; then all three kids played Wii games, mostly Mario Kart.

We made panko crumb coated chicken for dinner. Scott was only able to find seasoned panko at the store, so that's what we used. Fortunately, the unspecified spices in the mix weren't anything that gave me trouble. I had brined the chicken, starting the day before, so it was very salty. I meant to pour off the the brine Thursday night when we didn't cook the chicken, but I forgot.

Cordelia's team played today and will play again tomorrow. Today's game was close, and I'm not sure what the final score was. The other team had some clever plays and was generally faster than Cordelia's team, but they were generally also smaller. Cordelia played like she didn't want to be there which is pretty much the case. She asked us before hand if she had to go. She says it's boring. There are three games left and three practices.

After the game, we went to Whole Foods. I got some stevia to try and a couple of kinds of tea, some white tea (vanilla bean) and some oolong (peach). I wish all of these things came in smaller packages for trying things out. Getting fifty tea bags is a big commitment, and Scott grabbed the smallest package of stevia he could find. That has dozens of packets in it. Each packet is large enough that I'm not going to want to use all of it but small enough that I'm likely to use more than half of it.

We also got pizza and beverages. I got a piece of pesto pizza because I can't have tomato sauce, and it was the only option without. The pesto pizza was no better than okay-- Against it was the fact that some of the shredded chicken on it had hardened into unchewable shards and the fact that, somewhere in the middle of the slice, it suddenly got spicy, painfully so.

Before the game, we talked with another parent from Cordelia's school. Like us, they're facing a decision between staying at the current school and going to the big middle school. The mother says she likes the anti-bullying policies in place at the middle school and that she's afraid that, this being the first year of a new program, there will be bugs that have to be worked out. Both are valid points.

I'm very concerned about middle school bullying. My middle school years were utterly miserable due to bullying, and, while Cordelia's not me, I've worried that she'll run into something similar. I'm kind of inclined to think that a smaller group of children with closer supervision might be better that way. I don't know. It might help if they told us who the principal is going to be. I have the impression that it definitely won't be the current principal, but that tells us nothing about who it will be.

(no subject)

I'm hoping to do the consult about my possible surgery soon. We need a solid idea of what I might need because Scott's sister wants him to use his vacation time to help out when his father has surgery in May. If I'm looking at laproscopic surgery or surgery a year from now, that's possible. If I'm looking at something more invasive and/or sooner, we'll need all the time Scott's got and then some, especially if it happens during the school year while Cordelia has to be at home. (I'm against sending her away even if the surgery happens during a vacation. We think it was my gall bladder surgery that sent her into the never wanting to be away from us fear. The timing was exactly right.)

Our sister-in-law came up with the name of a specific surgeon she wants me to see if I can get. I have no idea how to go about doing that. I can't get him by chance because I've been referred to thoracic surgery while he's a general surgeon. He's an expert at minimally invasive surgery. Our sister-in-law thinks this procedure is better done by a general surgeon than by a thoracic surgeon. Again, I have no idea how to deal with that.

(no subject)

Hm. I've now tried the vanilla bean white tea with stevia. It tastes peculiar. I'm not sure whether it's that it's white tea or that it's vanilla bean flavored or that I used stevia or a combination of two or more of these factors. I can probably get used to the flavor. I don't have much option-- I've got forty-eight tea bags left, and I need a sweetener that isn't going to add junk calories.

I'm not trying to change my eating habits a lot. I just want to stop gaining weight. I'm not worried about losing weight. I'm trying to avoid drinking stuff sweetened with sugar or honey or agave and to limit snacking and sugary treats. I don't think I'll miss fruit juice much. They stopped making the kind I liked. All the stuff we've tried since has tasted kind of nasty to me. I will miss soda pop and not just the caffeinated stuff. Avoiding sugary treats is hard because Scott likes to pick up things like that for me as a way of saying I love you and because Scott and Cordelia both like those things.

Of course, with my luck, I'll prove to be allergic to stevia, too. I'm very allergic to aspartame, and sucralose had a bad effect on my digestive system. Oh, well, trying it is the only way to find out.

(no subject)

Okay, basil is definitely on the list of things I shouldn't eat. I'm really regretting that pesto pizza. I should have passed it by. It's been eight hours, and I can still taste basil. No wonder I can't eat Italian food-- Basil and oregano both give me trouble. (And tomatoes and peppers and...)

Maybe having that surgery would be a good thing. I could find out if I like peppers and tomatoes. (Almost all of the foods I say I dislike are things that give me digestive trouble.) I'd be able to eat cucumbers and iceberg lettuce without regretting it. I'm not sure I'd want to, but I could.