The Virgo Times

Bonus!

A couple of days ago it occurred to me that giving up dairy could do away with some of my kitchen drudgery.

Since I keep kosher but only have one dishwasher, I use the dishwasher only for dairy dishes and cookware.  We ate cereal with milk every day and most of my baking was dairy,  so it made sense at the time.  (If only I'd been able to see into the future.  Drat.)  Meat dishes and cookware get washed by hand, as do pareve (neither meat nor dairy) dishes and cookware.

Now that I won't be cooking with dairy any more, though, maybe I could kasher my dishwasher and use it for meat dishes.  Then I would only be washing cereal/ice cream bowls and spoons by hand, instead of all the dishes for meat meals.

How nice that would be!  I'll ask my rabbi if the dishwasher can be acceptably kashered.   His answer, whatever it may be, is bound to be interesting.

Normal

The lab results are in, and my hormone levels are mostly smack dab in the middle of the normal range.  I suppose this doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't changed, since we don't know what they were before now, but it does make me wonder why I haven't feel more . . . normal.

The sole exception is my DHEA level, which is at the very low end of the normal range, so the doctor recommends a DHEA supplement and a B-complex supplement.  And fish oil, to help reduce inflammation.

I have given up coffee and most other forms of caffeinated goodness (though I do have a cup of tea most days), and at my doctor's suggestion I am working on eliminating dairy from my diet.  The world is full of dairy substitutes, so I can't moan too much about missing it.  Plus, going dairy-free can only simplify keeping kosher.

Okay, I don't want to yammer on about how I'm turning into an old hag and can't have anything any more.  SO:  to keep myself happy and motivated, I am planning a couple of things.  The first is a possible vacation in December; I'm thinking New York City would be a great place to go with J.  The plan is to arrive the 20th and leave the 24th, but I haven't booked anything yet.

The second is a really long-term goal.  It's so long-term that it seems silly to discuss it, but it's also so big that I will need every bit of that time to save and plan for it.  It's a one-year sabbatical.  I don't know where I got the idea, but as soon as it hit me I felt energized and excited.  Like I said, it's a long way off, but that's okay.  The idea that I will take a year off to travel is motivating me to get up every morning, so it's already exactly what I needed, even before it happens.  Pretty amazing.  And even better than normal.