Monday, Monday

Shameless Product Endorsement
Celestial Seasons (you know, the tea people) have these "all natural, calorie free" Zingers To Go. They are sort of like the Crystal Light On the Go but for the crunchy crowd. They taste like CS Zinger iced tea and are sweetened with stevia which is an all natural (although processed, so how natural is that?) sweetener. The stevia makes it 0 carbs and it doesn't taste gross, like aspartame, and it isn't processed using chlorine, like splenda. I am pretty addicted to these things. I have always been a little freaked out about artificial sweeteners. It started when I took a toxicology class in college and has sort of remained there ever since. I actually want my child's tylenol to be sweetened with sugar or honey or maple syrup and not aspartame or saccharine or sucralose. Stevia is supposed to be natural although I have had friends tell me the whiter the stevia the more processed. The whiter the stevia the better it tastes too. I am not sure how it is processed but it is sold by the local health food store so I hope it is ok. I can say this, when I get sick of drinking water I can add one of these packets to my water and it is like drinking punch but healthier than Kool-Aid. Yummola.
The Orange Tangerine Zinger is my favorite but I haven't tried the ones with caffeine since I am not that kind of girl (a caffeinated one, that is).
PS - Although I used to raft guide (it is how Hubby and I met) I have never guided a group of people down in a orange and I do not endorse this mode of white water transit. At least those people are wearing helmets.


Stuff that Only I (and Chag) Care About
The Red Sox are 2.5 games ahead of that other team. Unfortunately they are going to be on the road the week we are up in Boston. Hmph.

Anthropologist for What???
I am taking a LOA, it is official. That means July is a month of being a SAHM...except I am going to Boston to move a house worth of stuff for a week and we are driving to NYC to go to my best friend's niece's first birthday for a week (and Hubby is doing some work on the house for them). That leaves two weeks left to be a SAHM. Hubby has already got my schedule worked out during that time (thanks). The biggest thing we HAVE to do is get Noodle waking up before 9 am. She starts kindergarten August 16th and school starts at 8. I have my work cut out for me.
Since we won't actually have a paycheck for a month we are reducing her pre-school to half days. I wonder if she will get sick of me. She loves me but she only spends 3 days a week with me. Maybe she will decide she likes her dad more afterall. So now will I be an anthropologist for Stay-at-Home America? Ack. I think not. I do not want to be imbrued in the politics of that. I could be Anthropologist for Tourist America since Asheville is a prime tourist spot in the Southeast and noone likes tourists. I could take a leisurely stroll down to the local 4bucks and watch the tourists go from the Grove Park to the Biltmore Estate. The coffee shop is literally midway between the two venues and, eventhough the Dripolator and Gold Hill coffee are much better and almost as close, people go with what they know. I have so many choices for my month of figuing what the hell I am going to do with my life taking a little break from CA.
I-85 South
I take I-85 down to ATL, it is more of a no brainer of a drive but isn't nearly as pretty as going through Dillsboro, NC. On the route down there are lots of signs for topless 24 hour bars, fast food and gas stations (Commerce, GA and lots of outlet shopping is there too). One thing I noticed is that some of the gas prices only have the change not the dollar for the price per gallon. So I slowed down to take a good look and the signs were built to only handle gas up to $1.99 a gallon. Whomever built the signs never thought gas would go above that price so they sign can't handle a 2 or 3 or a 4 in the the place the dollar amount goes. That was some forward thinking.

And To Close Things Out
I successfully made it through my birthday with only a few tragedies (dead battery in the rain at 7 in the morning in a strange place, my best friend's grandmother passed away, a good friend was expecting to make a couple thousand dollars at a fair made a couple hundred). None of my worst fears came to fruition (knock on wood and rub the buddha's belly). Everyone can breathe again. Phew. Tonight Hubby and I would celebrate with a bottle champagne BUT we are in different cities so it will have to wait until Friday.