Day 3 - the crud

Well, day three of the crud. Okay, actually two and half days since it actually hit Thursday afternoon, but it feels like ten. My nose is dual action, stopped up in the top all the way to the back of my eyeballs, a raging waterfall from the face to the end of the nostrils. I am on my second box of tissue...very thankful someone figured out how to load lotion in them.



This was my week end goals and how it has shaped up.



1. Prepare menu plans -done for at least on week

2. Household shopping done - doing tomorrow

3. Mini cooking session - doing tomorrow afternoon

4. Finish cleaning bedroom -not happening

5. Shampoo bedroom carpet - weather to bad to move furniture out.

6. Laundry - in the works

7. Write out personal budget - started, not finished

8. Hit the gym for at least 30 minutes - cold has me too loopy to work out.



Finally after several hours...okay, more like only two...but when your mind is frustrated beyond all reason, and swimming about with the effects of the flu...it felt like at least six hours...I finally succeeded in installing my new MasterCook 9 program. This program is so much better than I had thought it would be. It is the best. I created a cookbook for menu planning, typed in all the recipes I wanted to make this week, then created a menu plan which then allowed me to not only print it out, it printed all the recipes and a shopping list. It will take quite a bit of time to type in all my recipes, but it will be worth it. Also, once I get my pantry inventory typed in the shopping list will look for items I already have and take those off the list so I am not overbuying. Also, it has this cook web tool which allows you to capture recipes off the Internet and from emails with out having to type them in each time you find one. Now, the negative aspects that I have found are very few, but are worth mention. One is that there is no way, that I have found anyway, to list dishes or items you don't have a recipe for so that is shows up on your shopping list as a part of the menu plan. In other words, I had to type in a recipe for chili dogs so that the wieners and buns would be listed on the shopping list. Same thing if you want iced tea or koolaid or pudding. The other negative is the amount of time it will take to enter all the information to make the most of the program. Which actually is a positive, because all those details...the more accurate the info, more accurate the info...is what makes the program run the way I bought it for in the first place. I had an old version of MasterCook a few years ago and had found some great cookbooks already formatted and was able to download them. Sadly, I lost them on one of the several crashes and now have Vista which as much as I love it I have to admit does not play nice when it comes to ease of new installations. At any rate, I am really happy to have my MC up and working. I did the math. To get menu plans worked up through the end of June (my goal) I counted the days. The thing is that we want to cut back on eating out, only do so twice a month on pay days. I only plan supper in the meal plans, no one is home during lunch, I take left overs to work for my lunch, and since I never know who is actually going to be home, I plan on 4 servings. At any rate, starting on Monday, that works out to 155 meals to plan, 20 of which will be crock pot Wednesday recipes. That is a lot of dishes to come up with...I am up to the challenge though.

This weather is crazy. When I first felt sick on Thursday, it was in the 70's around here. The storms blew in and the rain and the fog and today it didn't reach 50. A couple of days next week it is forcasted to be in the low 40's. No wonder I can't get well. Hot and cold temperatures, at least it is weather for a change and not the menopause storms.

Off to take some medicine and a nice warm bath.