The Plan
I had a couple of different ideas for this entry today, but all of them are going to require a little bit more time. Meanwhile, the commitment I’ve made to myself is to have an entry up Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. Central. So here we are, three days in, and I already don’t know what to write.
So instead, I’ll tell you about some of the ideas I have for this space, and maybe they’ll be interesting enough to you to stick around. Or maybe not. It’s a free country; I won’t hold it against you.
“So You Screwed Up Your Credit”
I have been foolish enough to screw up my credit not once but twice and have read endless amounts of information and tried endless numbers of things to repair it. What I’m going to do is craft a quick-and-dirty series for people who have no idea what to do; a lot of information available online presumes an already-intermediate understanding. We’ll talk about what makes up your credit score, good and bad, how to fix things fast, how to fix things slowly, how much extra money ignoring your credit situation can cost you over time, and how to become a responsible user of credit once you’ve cleaned up your act. I’ll outline some action items and we can commiserate about the tedium and unfairness of it all. It’ll be a blast.
“How Not to Buy a House”
Len and I have made a series of… let’s say unorthodox decisions in our home ownership saga. Those decisions have led to predictable consequences. There is a plan to deal with those consequences, and I’ll tell you all about all of it, but seriously: Do not do this.
“10 Most Popular Dinner Recipes from 2019”
I dunno, guys. MyFitnessPal sent out an email at the end of December with that title and I thought preparing all of these recipes might be a nice way to spend 10 Wednesdays in a row. Mondays. Saturdays. I haven’t decided yet. I do have the ingredients for the first one, so you’ll see it next week sometime.
A lot of chicken, a lot of cauliflower. I guess keto was popular last year.
“Care and Feeding of the Adult Picky Eater”
Len is a man with many quirks. Many, many, many quirks. One of these quirks is that he, in his words, doesn’t “like food.” This is… honestly, it’s a ridiculous assertion and it’s flatly a lie on its face anyway, as this same man can knock back a party-size bag of chips or half a pie in one sitting. Ours is a household of two, and sometimes an entire pound of meat isn’t enough to feed both of us dinner. I’m scrambling 8 to 10 eggs when I cook us breakfast. When he says he doesn’t like food, what he means is he thinks he hates all new things and refuses to try them. He’s put off by weird textures, unusual smells, weird colors — especially green — bone-in meat, all uncured pork products, dark meat poultry, seafood, any kind of ethnic flavor except Tex-Mex, fruits and vegetables generally and condiments and ingredients including mustard, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and wine.
Managing this has required ongoing experimentation for years. When we eat separately, he will gravitate toward eating only things like frozen pizzas and Pop-Tarts and steak, which gets shockingly expensive very fast. When I just give in and cook the same 10 meals I know he will eat, I feel terrible and get resentful. What I going to do this year is just keep trying new recipes, once a week, and letting him fend for himself if he doesn’t like it or refuses to try it. But maybe he’ll try some things and even like them. Maybe.
So, watch this space. It’s going to be a fun year ahead.
