I guess Friday is the new Tuesday.

Turns out taking on two extra side jobs the week that busy season starts at work makes for hectic days. I'm beat.

I'm looking at these next two hectic weeks as an opportunity to schedule things that need to be done for the dissertation once the IRB re-surfaces. Like the pre-test for the survey, and the details for possibly adding a third housing authority, and the outline of tables and descriptive work I need to do for the first paper. Adding a third housing authority has pros and cons: hitting a respectable sample size seem more doable, but I'm not sure that program differences would make the populations too dissimilar (and the logistics too complicated). But in general, more tends to be better with these things.

On an up note, I confirmed with the IRB that they did in fact receive and process my application, and I should be hearing from them soon. I cold-called the first name on the staff directory list, and happened to hit a really helpful person. "You'll hear back soon" probably just means they'll request additional materials, but at least it's in the works.

What I am really psyched about is this kale salad that my neighbor brought by! Raw kale salad! Chopped Kale (stems removed), basically marinated in tamari, oil and lemon juice. Who knew? I am in love, and heading out to get some kale and try it myself as soon as I post this.

It's great timing, because my friend Amy and I are trying out sort of a makeshift detox or cleanse diet for a few days, just to try and rid ourselves of the holiday overload. This is her very cute nephew Easy in his very cute Cleveland Indians outfit. I like that he looks a little bit gangsta here, for some reason.

I say makeshift because the official "detox" diets all seem pretty extreme or silly. Cayenne and lemon? But the idea of sticking to fresh stuff and avoiding processed foods, even just for a couple of days, is really appealing. Amy is already vegan (albeit slowly introducing fish and dairy this past year), and is dropping wheat, alcohol, sugar and caffeine -- but I'm trying to avoid dairy and meat. Really I just want to eat only what I make myself, or fresh foods. But I'm not even thinking about dropping coffee. No way, man. I'll stick soy milk in the stuff if need be, but I'm still unconvinced about soy at the moment and trying to figure out what I think about it. When I read the box, there always seems to be ingredients that have nothing to do with soy. I am hoping Amy can give me some wisdom on that.

Back to work! Next post is lard bread (seriously this time) and kale salad.