A Yucky 48 Hours.

I felt slightly "off" on Sunday - lethargic, headachy, just generally less than great, but I pushed through the day's chores and went to bed early, figuring I'd wake up feeling better. Everybody I know has a cold and my throat was slightly sore and my head slightly achy, so I just figured it was my turn. I woke up feeling the same general "off-ness" but went to the office anyway. I lasted until noon, when I came home, with the same dull headache and tiredness, but now with added chills all over. The odd thing is that there was no fever, in fact, my hands were icy cold! I had no idea what was going on, but I knew I seriously needed a nap.

So I fled the office and came home, ate half a sandwich and sat on the couch with a cup of tea when, oh joy, the nausea and stomach cramps hit. Oh hey, I guess this wasn't a head cold after all.

The rest of the day consisted of cautiously sipping tea to stay warm and hydrated, and trying not to move too much because it felt especially not good when I moved suddenly. I stayed as quiet as possible, except for the urgent sprints to the bathroom, and slept restlessly last night.

I stayed home from the office today (and devoutly hope I didn't infect anybody else before I realized what was coming at me). By late this afternoon it was over, as these things often are. The virus came, wreaked its havoc, and left, all in about 36 hours. I'm still tired and still have that slight dull headache, but I can eat again without unfortunate repercussions, and I suspect that by tomorrow it will be as if it had never happened.

I've found my contractor to redo the bathroom at the house, and he's going to meet with me to pick out materials this week, and start the job as early as next week, so that's excellent. It's going to cost exactly what I thought it would - when all's said and done, about $6500, for all new everything - flooring, lighting, tub, vanity, sink. I am a very sick individual who loves remodeling projects, so I'm getting excited about this one!

While I sat on the couch, catching up on Downton Abbey and other recorded teevee, I watched a couple of episodes of Christina Cooks. She cooks pretty much the way I do, but damn, she does have a very free hand with the olive oil! I don't know if these are older episodes and she's dialed back the fat since then, but I was a bit surprised to see the medical professionals who preach the no-or-at-least-very-low-fat gospel blurbing on her books. But I do want to try the artichoke pasta recipe she made - it was quite easy, with onion, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, canned tomatoes, fresh basil, and dark beer (and quite a bit of the aforementioned olive oil) tossed with penne. It reminded me that I'm quite capable of putting together a good vegan pasta dish without help, because this is the sort of thing I make when I'm just throwing stuff together. It made me realize that I have become a very competent "mostly vegan" cook in the last couple of years.

I finished Christina's book This Crazy Vegan Life: A Prescription for an Endangered Species over the weekend. I liked it. It wasn't any new or earthshaking information after all the other books I've consumed on the subject, but some very tasty sounding recipes. If someone is toying with the idea of going vegan for health reasons, it's not a bad place to start, but I still think I'd go with something by Dr. Neal Barnard, like this one: The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook: 125 Easy and Delicious Recipes to Jump-Start Weight Loss and Help You Feel Great - several of the recipes have become my standards - the chickpea burgers topped with mango chutney are fabulous.

But as with so many other things, I find my go to vegan recipes online. One of these days I swear I'm gonna spruce up This Olde Blogge and add a page of just links to my favorite recipes. Just like one of these days, I'm going to make this: chocolate peanut butter swirl ice cream cake for a couple of my co-workers who automatically turn up their noses at the "weird" food I eat, while regularly commenting that "That smells so delicious!" I tell them what it is and have offered to let them try some, and they look like five year olds being forced to eat lima beans, but they do admit that it at least "smells good." It also tastes good boys, and maybe one of these days you'll get over your "vegan is weird" biases and sample some recipes! It could happen!