“Ever heard of Swarzstar?” Tom asked me via Skype.

No, I haven’t. But I do know that “swarz” means black in German. So I asked him why he was asking and he said he was telling a lady at work about how we stripped the dye out of my hair and all that. She told him she uses Swarzstar because it’s like a shampoo that you just wash your hair with. Looked it up on Amazon. It’s got good reviews. It doesn’t stain the skin or take as long as regular dye to use. They only had black or dark brown. I would have preferred medium brown but dark brown will do. Going to try it.

Still haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to cut it to my shoulders. I know I will eventually because there are only so many years I can stand to have it so long. The question is when. It’s pretty damaged.

We may have to call them out to tune up our air conditioner soon. It really struggles on triple-digit days. I keep it at 78° when I’m awake, which means that it turns on and off more often the hotter it gets, and that’s what puts a strain on it and causes the compressor to seize up. Too bad I don’t like it at 76°, but that’s a little too chilly for me unless I’m sleeping, working out or doing something physical.

The electric bill just came. $191. Yup, shoulda replaced the windows, but oh well. Still beats the $450 electric bills we would get down in Arizona.

Not that I would ever complain about peace and quiet, but why has it been so quiet today? I thought the workers were supposed to return to finish the irrigation project. If they have, they sure are going about it quietly.

That really loud car is out of work today. I hope that’s not going to be a regular thing because then I’ll have to go back to listening to it come and go 4-5 times a day instead of 2.

Since it’s been successful for Tom, and it’s actually what most doctors recommend, I’ve decided to go on a diet that isn’t really a diet, but more like a healthy lifestyle change. For the most part, I eat healthily. But I was still having a few hundred more calories than I should, so what you do is you pick an ideal weight and you eat the number of calories necessary to maintain that particular weight. This way you don’t have to practically starve yourself by cutting your calories really low. 1000 calories a day just isn’t sustainable. It would work and quickly too, but the suffering along the way isn’t worth it. Better to go the slow, less torturous way. It may take me a year to lose 10 pounds and 10 pounds may be all I’ll ever lose, but even just that is fine with me, and I’m not in any hurry. So… 1500 calories a day it is! I just have to be sure to do it every single day without taking any breaks, days off or deviating from this plan in any way. I can assure you that 1500 calories is a lot more doable than 1000 and even 1200. On top of a reasonable amount of food that’s not so little that I’m going to be a lightheaded grump with a growling belly, but also not so much that it’s unhealthy and guaranteed to keep my weight up, I keep active as well.

The biggest and best thing is that I haven’t had one single shred of anxiety. I always knew that the main culprit was my being overly sensitive to the thyroid meds, and I don’t care what anyone says. I know my mind/body. So does my hubby. :-) I still think I can take it every day once I hit menopause. Someday we’ll find out for sure.

I spent all day yesterday playing with Grammarly. It’s not perfect but it’s definitely better than a regular text editor. I’ve gone through everything on Blogger, and now I’m working on my Prosebox entries, but only stuff that’s public. Going to be rechecking stories as well.

This morning I got an email from Grammarly that said:

PRODUCTIVITY

You were more productive than
99% of Grammarly users.

ACCURACY

You were more accurate than
99% of Grammarly users.

VOCABULARY

You used more unique words than
99% of Grammarly users.

I seriously hope I’m that good! I’m a professional writer after all. :-)