11 days until the kitchen is ripped out. I'm beginning to panic.

Today is day one of a really strict "watch every bite" diet, too, in an attempt to bust this very long plateau. I know exactly why I plateaued - because I got lax. The good thing about South Beach is it's a very easy diet and doesn't require point counting or carb calculations. The bad thing about South Beach, at least for me, is it's so easy to slide gradually into a Phase 3 (maintenance) form of the diet, allowing a few more carbs here and there in moderation - and maintain I did, every pound I lost since Christmas has stayed off - but I quit losing. So for the next 11 days the focus is going to be prepping for the Persons in Toolbelts (the installers are a husband and wife team) and diet boot camp.

I like external deadlines. I may complain about them but they make me focus. I have a hard time with things that are open-ended and I am not good at setting deadlines for myself, which is why I drifted off the weight-loss portion of the diet. I know I want to lose the next 15 pounds but it's not like it's a crisis, because I look "okay" as I am, and I'm busy with other things and I'm living with a busted dishwasher and half a kitchen sink and that's really getting old and so much else is going on and insert excuse here. But the thing is, I don't look as good as I can or should, and one of these days the tacky crapola in every store will be on the clearance rack where it belongs and I will actually see new clothing I want to buy, and I would like to be ready for that happy moment, rather than muttering, "Another 10 pounds and that knit dress would fit much better." So now that I am sweating under the kitchen deadline it seems like a fine time to put myself on a strict but temporary low carb plan to kick my metabolism off its comfortable plateau. We'll see how it works.

The ugly crocheted bag is done and ready to be felted - I do need to crochet some straps but that won't take long at all. Maybe felting will happen tonight. I'm already thinking of next projects and for some weird reason I have an urge to make some slippers inspired by Mariko. I have the pattern, it's the one I made over and over for my husband. I never made a pair for myself. My house has tiled floors in the main living area (the bedrooms are carpeted) and I'm thinking a pair or two of Cotton-ease ugly slippers would be just the thing to put between me and the tile floors. And I have lots of Cotton-ease in the stash from hell. And they do go quickly.

One of these days I will update the blog and add links for the crochet stuff I'm finding. I'm loving Donna Kooler's book, I totally recommend it - it has a great stitch library, I found just what I want for the next crocheted bag. Now if I can just do something about the hours in the day. In one of our cases another party filed for an extension to respond to discovery entitled "Motion for Enlargement of Time" - that has become a catch phrase now. Who exactly grants the motion to ENLARGE TIME? Even if the judge thinks he's God, I'm pretty sure the best he can do is extend the deadline, not actually Enlarge Time. If only we could really Enlarge Time....