What I accomplished this week

Gluten free
The other day I tried a Lindt Lindor truffle just to see if I would be able to feel the effect of the gluten- yep I could. You wouldn't think there'd be that much barley malt in one little truffle, but there's enough to make my throat swell up (my reaction when I eat gluten). Definitely lends credence to those who say that cross-contamination is an issue- small crumbs do have an effect.

We ate at Chili's for my SIL's birthday last night. Before leaving the house I got online and checked their website for allergen information. They have a specific list of foods that are gluten free, so I printed that off and took it with me. I ordered the honey-bbq ribs, steamed broccoli, and black beans. Yum!

I think I've said it before, but the longer I stay away from gluten, the more my body is able to react to other things it doesn't like. In the past, everything was masked by the gluten. Now that that's out of the picture, other things are now recognizable as a problem. Like M&M's. I'm still trying to pinpoint what it is exactly, but I think it's one of the blue food colors they use in the blue and green M&M's. If I leave those ones alone, I seem to be ok. I checked the M&M's website to see if I could just order brown peanut butter M&M's (my fav), but you can only special order regular M&M's. Meh. Not worth the money.

Little Miss Sunshine
I called her my sweetie yesterday, and she responded by saying 'I not tweetie, I punkin!' Her daddy calls her 'punkin', and apparently she's decided she really likes it.

Projects
I finally sorted and restacked our 30 plus boxes of books. The boxes have started to bend, causing the stacks to tip precariously towards the door. Almost two years of being opened and shifted and stacked has not been good for them. So I went through each box, pulled out books that I didn't want to keep, and made sure each box was as full as possible in an effort to minimize box bending. I then restacked the boxes and put away the various items that had been tossed wherever convenient over the last few months. It's so much neater now, and we're no longer in danger of being squished by an avalanche of boxes of books.

I ended up with two boxes of books to sell/get rid of. I listed them on half.com today, and it went quite fast. You type in the ISBN, the condition, and any remarks about the condition, hit enter, and it brings up all the pertinent info, including a picture if they have one available. You decide a price, hit enter, and it's listed. So quick! Some of the books were old textbooks that I should have sold back to the bookstore after I was done with them, but for whatever reason, didn't. Really should have- I would have got a lot more money for some of them. Oh well.

While I was at it, I also prepped some items for listing on ebay- fall type things like a Halloween costume, boots, etc.

I also gathered up stuff for the yard sale my SIL and I are going to do (next weekend hopefully). I'll take the books that are listed for the least amount on half.com ($.75 is the lowest you can go) and see if I can get rid of them at the yard sale. I also have quite a few I couldn't list on half.com because they're too old and don't have an ISBN. It's nice to de-clutter a bit.

Yesterday I finally got my hair cut- the last time was last October. I've been letting it grow out since then, but the ends were just getting yucky, and it needed some shaping. It looks much better now.

Job Hunt
Mr M met with the investigator, so things are finally moving forward on his clearance. In the meantime, we're updating his resume and making plans for him to attend a job fair that should have a lot of companies that we would be interested in. He really needs to talk to representatives in person- it's too easy for resumes to get lost when submitted online.