FTP

Lila and her cute tongue

We've been streaming X-Files on Netflix and watching with Luciana. We started with the first episode and have been going through sequentially (still on first season, I think), and we've been really enjoying it. We kind of break the "healthy family dinner" rules, in that we generally have three or so meals per week in front of the television.  That's the only time we have television on, and we only choose shows we like to watch as a family (unless we're doing a family movie night or something like that).  I am aware that family dinners are important and should not involve TV, but we find this works for us. We have a lot of family together time and time where we chat at length about our respective days, but none of us likes to talk while eating. I have a strong preference to read while I eat, but basically anything is better than conversation. I'm the world's slowest eater, so conversation only makes that worse.  M & I (and Dej) watched the X-Files religiously the first time around.  The show was part of our dating life, as we had a standing weekly X-Files date before we moved in together.  It's fun to watch again almost 20 years later--it's still a good show, and we are enjoying sharing it with L.  It was an important show to us back then, when one still had to schedule one's life around the good tv shows, so our Friday nights (then Sunday nights) were dedicated to a special meal (enchiladas, pizzas--only the "special" meals that everyone loved and looked forward to were good enough for X-F) and the show. It's fun to pass that history down to L and let her experience it with us.  The theme is timeless and relevant:  The truth is out there (but our skeevy government will lie, cheat, and kill to hide it).

Jasper and his cute tongue

L & I have been reading, "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, for our bedtime reading.  We're a bit more than halfway through. I haven't read this book for at least 15 years, and the last time I read it, we were so much farther from this being a reality than we are now. This book now seems closer to truth than fiction, and it's distressing to see how very close we are to such a dystopian nightmare. HT is an excellent and very important book but a fairly depressing read.  I wanted to jump to Upton Sinclair's, The Jungle, next, but we might need something a little more pleasant between the books about a dystopian future and nightmarish past. L is studying labor unions/labor issues in the early 20th century, so The Jungle would be a perfect complement to that. I may just assign that to her as independent reading rather than our bedtime reading. It's vital that she read it, but it's pretty depressing reading right before going to sleep. I have a couple of weeks to think about it and decide what's to do next.

Prior to this book, we read the very good but very long, "I Know This Much Is True", by Wally Lamb. That is such a good story--we both thoroughly enjoyed it.  I enjoy the interesting discussions we have after/while reading.

Damon's recurrent staph infection of his skin is back. I'm SO frustrated. He had the skin infection when we adopted him. He has not made it past three weeks without antibiotics since then. I give him his Cephalaxin as prescribed, completely finish the entire prescription, and everything clears up.  Within three weeks of going off the drugs, however, he ends up with another raging infection.  Always on the skin, but always different areas. I don't like him on so many antibiotics and I feel that he's had the same one enough that the staph is probably growing resistant. I have him on probiotics, which help, but I know that antibiotics mess up his digestive system, too.  Poor guy!  I'm going to start a major research project to see if I can come up with anything that will help.

Kitchen day this weekend produced dog food (which I guess will be an every weekend thing, so no need to continue to include it) and the following:

• Pizza
• Baked potatoes & chili
• Chickpea Ratatouille & quinoa
• Tempeh bacon (for tempeh, Tofurkey, tomato, and hummus wraps)
• Fudge. Delicious, fairly healthy-ish fudge.