CondoMe, Part 1

So the first batch was interesting. There is/was one place that I kinda loved--I woke up Sunday morning thinking about it--but, as I continued to truly contemplate living there, the rational part of my brain was able to remind the rest of my brain that, although there are, indeed, many windows and a lake view, nearly all of the windows face north. That is, this place will get absolutely no direct light, which, ultimately, will make me unhappy. I should add that, if it had faced south rather than north, I might have written a check on the spot.

That is useful information, at least in my head, because it helps me refine what I want. Seeing actual places helps me figure out which things are REALLY important, and by how much. For example, another place has a balcony--except it's facing a courtyard, and the people across the courtyard are quite close, and there's a taller building past that, so not a lot of light there, either. A skylight helps, but, all in all, it didn't excite me that much, especially for the price. Point being, a balcony isn't the most important thing.

I think we're going to see some more places on Thursday. There are a few seemingly fab places we couldn't see on Saturday, and it's early in the search. It's not as though I have to decide RIGHT NOW, which is what I've generally had to do when I'm moving.

The other project for the weekend was a synergistic blend of "use some of the canned beans and tomatos, already, maybe starting with the ones you bought three fucking years ago when they were on sale and you stocked up" and "how about making some dinners and, especially, lunches, so you have some stuff you can just grab and go, okay?" The real estate agent dropped me off at the Whole Paycheck on Saturday and I did my usual buy-so-much-stuff-my-arms-get-longer, and Sunday morning I went nuts. I ended up making:
*a black bean and sweet potato thing (it's supposed to be pureed but I just mashed it up so it's more coarsely textured), some of which was used for our dinner last night while we watched the game (along with chips, melted cheddar, avocado, mango, salsa, and some slightly freezer-burned chicken breasts from my freezer that were sliced into thin strips and spiced with a jerk chicken blend)
*french vegetable and bean stew, made with leeks (which I've never used before), white beans, tomtaos, carrots, potatos, fennel seed, and fresh tarragon
*tuscan beans with sage--basically, white beans with garlic and sage, and I dumped in a can of tomatos there, too, and maybe an onion
*chickpeas with spinach--again, a can of tomatos, some garlic, as well as cumin, coriander, and a pinch of saffron
The stew will make nice lunches, especially with a hunk of bread. The chickpeas or the black beans can be combined with some brown rice for lunch, and the beans with sage can be combined with pasta for a quick dinner. Everything is packed into little serving-size bags or containers, so I just need to make a batch of brown rice--and possibly prepackage and freeze that, too. All of the recipes were from the Moosewood Low-Fat Cookbook, though I modified a couple of them a bit.

And? I did it all in about three hours, maybe less. I wanted to do some baking, too, and then decided I'd save that project for another day. But I did manage to use up a bunch of stuff--several cans of beans and tomatos, in fact--so I managed to implement both parts of the plan. And the plan has two ulterior motives: further improve my eating habits, in ways that are easy to maintain, and use up as much of the stuff in my freezer and cabinets as possible, thereby reducing the things that will need to be moved.

Meanwhile, my motivation is still missing; give me a call if you find it, 'k?