Archie The Dog

     Page One Hundred Thirty.
     Today I started a new dog-sitting job. It's my first time with this dog, a basset hound, and I'll be here for the next twenty-three days. Archie's parents are hiking around Germany and Italy. Archie seems like a rather spoiled but easy going dog. He has a dog walker come in a few times a week plus he goes to doggie day care twice a week; this in spite of the fact that both parents are retired and home, a lot. In short, this dog's social life is more active than mine. (And people claim I'm busy.)
     The fun part of this job will be eating all the vegetables from the garden: yellow grape tomatoes, roma tomatoes, beefsteaks, Swiss chard, and basil. I'm going to eat at a friend's house this weekend and bringing a salad. (She's buying a pizza. But I told her I'll only eat about one centimeter of it as I'm still on my diet.) I think I'll saute some mushrooms, onions and red pepper and mix it with copious amounts of raw tomatoes then add some blue cheese, freshly chopped basil and drizzle on some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I'll serve that on a bed of greens including the Swiss chard. Yum, yum, yum.    

I Want To Eat Now!!!

     Page One Hundred-Eight.
     Would you like to know what I want to eat right now?
     I'd like to start with a stack of blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and sausage patties with a couple of scrambled eggs (cooked hard) as my first course. Then, after that's finished, I'll take a cheeseburger (cheddar) topped with tomato, lettuce and grilled onions, some fries and cole slaw. Please leave the entire bottle of ketchup - I'll use a surprisingly large amount. Then after I eat the last fry, I'd like some Chicken Paprikash over wide egg noodles with a large helping of freshly steamed broccoli on the side and a beautiful mesclin salad dressed only in a fine balsamic vinegar. For dessert: Bananas Foster. Thank You Kindly.
     I'm writing this blog on Tuesday afternoon and have been ill with a horrific flu since last Thursday. Thursday was the last time I ate. On Friday my fever was seriously high but it broke by Sunday. In fact, I mostly feel normal now, but I still can't eat. I want to, Lord knows, but after two or three bites of anything, I'm spent. This morning I had one and a half slices of toast with butter and one hour ago for lunch I had one glass of chocolate milk. That's just not enough. And if you saw me you'd know that I can't afford to go too long eating this way. I can afford to loose 7-12 pounds but nothing more. I have two extra inches around my waist, that's it.
     Part of me wants to go to the gym (my home away from home) right now, But I know that if I do, I'll probably collapse from shear exhaustion exacerbated by starvation. I think that for dinner tonight I may prepare some Ramen and see what happens. (On the plus side, perhaps this is the opportunity I need to loose that nagging 7-12 pounds?)