Confessions of a Reformed Hypocrite

Maybe it's the new-found motivation that comes from New Year's resolutions, or the Bay Area California sunshine craziness, but for whatever reason - Steve and I appear to be turning into the granola-loving hippies we used to laugh at! (though upon my suggesting such an absurdity at the Costco check-out, Steve denied this claim entirely) However, the evidence stands thus: Since coming back from our Christmas vacation we have converted to soy milk, and we bought a fair amount of organic food in our last grocery shopping trip -INCLUDING natural organic peanut butter (you know, the nasty kind with the oil floating on top? I say nasty, but I actually like it. So there). The most surprising purchase, in my opinion, was a package of Boca veggie burgers. Veggie burgers??? VEGGIE BURGERS?! Only because they're healthier than the ground beef variety... Really! I am NOT becoming a vegetarian - I swear! ....or am I....? (cue Twilight Zone theme song - do do DO do, do do DO do...)

Actually, I can explain the apparent hypocrisy - Steve hates the taste of regular dairy milk and it's always been a chore to get him to drink it, so it just made sense to get the vanilla soy milk (which has a flavor he actually likes). Also, we ARE trying to eat healthier and in attempting to make smarter food choices, we examined label after label of nutrition facts and simply picked the healthiest items, which often turned out to be the organic ones. Who knew?! Other than these unusual changes in diet, we appear to be quite normal... even happy! And we've both lost 3 pounds. Yay!

In other news, the dreaded "Busy Season" of accounting is upon us from now until April. I am hoping to avoid the loneliness of having 10-12 hours a day to myself by continuing work on my novel-in-progress and starting up YEAR #2 of the 100 Books Read-Your-Heart-Out Challenge. I finished my first book of the year just yesterday, so things are lookin' good for me in 2009 :) ...Oh, and in case anyone is curious - I DID complete my goal of reading 100 books in 2008. Yes, I had to read about 25 books in the last 2 weeks, and I settled for 100-200 page "quick reads" and I read the last one on December 31st but ... so what?! - I DID IT!!

Disclaimer: No, these are NOT the books I read. In fact, I probably didn't read any of these. But look how many there are! WOW! Okay, also, I didn't read that many. Only 100, remember? But still! What a picture! (google images. gotta love it.)

I'm hoping to improve my pages-per-book average this year, though, as last year the numbers averaged out to about 277 pages each. My sister beat the pants off me (figuratively) with an average of 300 pages each, so we just can't have that two years in a row! I mean... well... I'd like to keep my pants... (literally)

Don't worry, I'll keep you posted...