Cassandra Dwight

I've been looking for something part-time that pays reasonably well, and hadn't found anything in some time. Last week, Gordon's former law partner mentioned to him that she was looking for someone part-time. I happened to be in the car at the time, and said I might be interested in filling in short-term, or long-term if it seemed like a good fit for both of us.

Monday she called me and asked if I could fill in for a couple of weeks, and could I come in that afternoon. So I did, and we'll see how it works out. It's nice because she is very flexible with my schedule as I need to do things, and it is about 1/2 a mile from the house, so I can walk to and from work and get a little exercise in 5 days a week. AND I can wear jeans to work. AND I'm getting a decent hourly wage. AND it's only 3 hours a day.

Hope everyone had a nice Independence Day. I had a couple of parties to go to, which was fun, and we also went up to Ojai and Santa Barbara for the day on Sunday. All in all, a low key and nice holiday weekend.

I'm working on my reading for school now (we have a 5 day lab later this month) and trying to clear off my desk. Other than that, things here are quiet.

BTD-wise, I'm watching my portion sizes and cutting back on sugar and empty carbs. I'm losing weight, so it seems to be working, and so far it is painless. Next is to ramp up the exercise!

I realized in the last few days that I haven't posted on here in a while. I hadn't realized it had been a month, though! My apologies. Things have been crazy.....

I had my June weekend at school, and it was a really good weekend, as they all are.... Then on June 5th I flew to Texas to spend some time with my family. Spent a few days at my dad's, and then went to my mom's for 10 days. The reason behind the trip was not a fun one - my grandfather has been declining rapidly the last couple of months. He has Alzheimer's and went from living alone and driving one week, to not recognizing his apartment building the next. He then had a pacemaker put in and has been in and out of the hospital since then. I saw him daily while I was there, and I felt that he declined even while I was there. He doesn't know who anyone is, and doesn't know WHEN he is.

I did get to spend time with my mom and her cats and dogs, which was fun. She had two 9 week old kittens that I got to play with - THAT was fun.

I got back just over a week ago, and have been getting back to my usual routine. I did pretty well with the BTD during my trip, but I'm tightening up on things now to lose some of what I've gained since we got married! I'm enjoying eating a lot of fruit right now - mangos, cherries, blueberries, pears, etc. YUM!

Yep! It's been a year since we got married! We celebrated all weekend - went to see "Hairspray" on Saturday, and then went out to dinner at Yamashiro, a Cal-Asian Fusion place that has fantastic views of Los Angeles - from downtown to the ocean (on a clear day!). It was a fun evening, but the food wasn't worth the price.

Sunday we were supposed to go to Solvang for the day to play and take pictures and have fun. Didn't happen, though. Sunday we woke up and were just wiped out and needed a day to relax. So we went to lunch with some friends and went to the movies.

Yesterday we threw a BBQ for some friends and family - very relaxed gathering, and we threw some chicken and salmon on the grill with some asparagus, served some appetizers and had people bring food, too, so we didn't have to do too much or get stressed about things. It was a fun, lovely afternoon.

We finally got our wedding album a couple of weeks ago, too - just in time for our anniversary! It's beautiful - we're very happy with it!

Gordon loves to watch the Food Network, and I'm learning to appreciate it. We often watch Alton Brown's "Good Eats" - it's funny, educational, and he makes interesting food. A recent episode was about avocados, and rather than make the usual avocado suspects, he made avocado compound butter (good for grilled chicken, among other things). He also made avocado ice cream and avocado buttercream frosting.

I know that avocado is not good for me, but I absolutely HAD to make the avocado ice cream. It just sounded so weird and so good that I had to try it. So for Mother's Day today my sister-in-law put together a brunch for her mom/my MIL and last night I made dairy-free avocado ice cream. I let everyone taste it at the brunch, and my sister-in-law loved it, but no one else was very into it. I found it to be VERY creamy and very rich - I could only eat a few bites of it before I was DONE.

I think Alton Brown summed it up best on his show - he said something to the effect of "It tastes like avocado, but it's GOOOOOOOD."

I also made wheat-free cinnamon buns, and they were a big hit. And other than the avocado, everything I ate at the brunch was neutral or beneficial for Os.