Random Updates

March 17, 2007

An appeal for leave donations for a co-worker is making the rounds. I have been told that he only needs enough leave to see him through the end of April. I'm not sure how he is doing; I have been afraid to ask.

I am continuing to maintain my new weight -- roughly 20 pounds lighter than I was last July -- despite having stopped my diet-and-exercise program. As I have written elsewhere, the problem is that I find the treadmill incredibly boring. I do play tag with my son, do household chores, and walk a bit during my commute, so I am not completely sedentary, though. I also have been trying to get out during lunchtime when the weather is nice, and my husband and I have been going bowling recently. Hopefully these steps will be enough to keep the extra weight off. Type 2 diabetes runs in my family, so I need to maintain a healthy weight to avoid developing that disease.

My husband has been working as a budget analyst for the Treasury Department since his graduation from George Mason University last May. The job draws on his background in information technology, but it also requires project management, contracting, and people skills, so I think it is interesting enough for him without being overwhelming. Right now he is working on a major interagency project that, if successful, could have a major impact on the federal budget formulation process. We'll be able to see in a few more months how it is working out.

As predicted, I stayed in today due to the weather. My husband did get out to get a haircut and to drop off some dry cleaning. He also updated our family home page, adding about 30 pictures taken since our son's birthday last November, and put up a picture and a set of coat hooks we hope our son will start using instead of simply dumping his clothes on the floor whenever he comes home from school. For my part, I managed to clean the oven, then used it to bake brownies from a mix and a chocolate-pecan pie from scratch. I also took a nice, long nap this afternoon and reread Terry Pratchett's Interesting Times.

Chocolate-Pecan Pie

• Prepared 9-inch graham cracker crust
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup margarine or butter
• 1 cup corn syrup
• 6 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup pecan halves

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Beat sugar, corn syrup, salt, eggs together in large bowl. Melt margarine, stir in cocoa powder and oil, and add to mixture in bowl. Stir pecans into mixture, pour mixture into pie crust. Bake pie for about 40 minutes until set. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.