Cats and How's the Diet Going, Anyway?

We really are nice neighbors. We mind our own business except when the couple across the street from us provide us with entertainment by screaming at each other in their garage and we can hear them even with the garage door shut, and we say hi to the strange guy who we think is possibly a little Aspergers because he won't make eye contact when we do say hi to him, and we don't mind that our new neighbors right next door have six outdoor cats who like to hang around our yard.

Most neighbors wouldn't be quite so forgiving of cats that use their yard as a freeway and giant litter box.

The neighbors are two women that we think might be 'special friends' if you get my drift, and they have a little boy who is maybe going on two. They don't keep their cats in the house because of the cat litter and the little boy playing in the cat litter or something like that. So, all six cats live in the garage and our yard. They keep the garage door propped open so that they can come and go, and go they do. In our yard.

They started out with five cats, one really really old white cat who is very friendly but is so old that she can't meow anymore, she tries to meow and it just comes out like a gravelly squeak, and one little ginger cat that is not afraid of anything, not even the fireworks on the Fourth of July made her blink, and one gray cat that is curious but very timid, one calico that will let Keith pet her but not me, and one cat that looks just like Lucy and every time I see her I think Lucy has gotten out.

And then they got two more cats, something about going camping for the weekend and meeting some people who had these cats that they needed to give away so of course these two women brought them home. One solid black and one Siamese, both about 8 months old or so.

Well, about 3 weeks later the black cat got hit by a car right in front of the house, so now they are at 6 cats and I'm really surprised that nobody else has gotten hit yet. Yet.

And here is another instance of our good neighborliness. Keith got the shovel out and helped the neighbors clean up the dead cat. Now that is a good neighbor.

And on the diet front. I'm already bored with it and am having a hard time thinking of what the heck to eat. Yesterday I had soup for lunch and was starving about an hour later because vegetable soup just doesn't quite do it for me when there is no bread involved. Then last night I convinced Keith to make us some omelettes because he is the omelette maker around here, I get impatient and just make scrambled eggs. The omelettes were good, he put some ham, cheese, and bell pepper in there, kind of like a Denver omelette I suppose, and for the first time in a week I actually had bread in the form of an english muffin with my omelette.

I'm getting discouraged, though, because even with watching everything I eat and the no bread, potatoes, rice, or pasta thing, that scale has not moved. So maybe I'm just going to stay fat but still hungry.

My spell check keeps telling me that I am spelling omelette wrong.

So, I just googled it and it's supposed to be omelet. But omelette looks way fancier and kind of French.

No More Bread?

Or potatoes, pasta, and rice?

Keith and I went back to the doctor yesterday afternoon for our follow ups on our blood draws and we both have too much fat in our blood (and on our bodies) and our cholesterol is too high and have to eliminate starch from our diets. Like bread. I love bread. What the heck else do you eat for lunch if it's not a sandwich?

Salad? Yeah, salads are great as long as you can have some BREAD with them.

Soup? Same thing, you need some BREAD along with that soup.

Rolled up lunch meat with cheese inside and no BREAD? Sounds good, but when did a rolled up piece of lunch meat with cheese inside ever really fill you up?

Eggs? Sure, eggs are great when you've got some TOASTED BREAD to go with them.

A hamburger patty? Much better on a HAMBURGER BUN MADE OUT OF BREAD!

Arghh.

Then even without the bread we've got to make sure the other stuff we eat isn't too high in cholesterol. Like eggs. And hamburger patties. And salad dressing. And cheese. And lunch meat.

Arghh.

We also need to exercise more, so after dinner last night, which was leftover chicken enchiladas which we'll probably never get to eat again because of the tortillas, and low carb tortillas are not an option, because have you ever TASTED one of those, I made Keith go for a bike ride around the neighborhood. I really enjoyed it, but he went under protest. I reminded him of the days when we went bike riding all the time and remember how enjoyable that was and is this really all that bad and don't you feel better for getting a little exercise and fresh air?

He does have a good excuse for not wanting to do anything, though. His testosterone levels are way way low, and have been way way low for quite a while now, and not having enough testosterone in a man's body causes them to be tired, cranky, irritable, gain weight easily, have bone loss, and lots and lots of other things. So, despite the INCREDIBLY high cost of the meds, he is going to start using a testosterone cream that you put on your shoulders and arms each day that will fix that low testosterone thing and hopefully renew his energy and in general make him feel much better. And not so darn cranky.

We'll see.

And wish us luck on the no bread thing. Keith's favorite snack after work is nachos and chips are like even more evil than bread, so...