Journal 78 Shaking Phones, Phages, Recharge Needed

It was hot and humid again in New Jersey this week. 

This week I had a stressful tech moment. We have a new phone, and I didn’t realize that it does things if you _shake_ it. I must have shook it, and an important email got unsent and stuck in the outbox. I felt like I was penalized for something. At this point, I just want a rotary phone on a landline. And if people wanted to contact me, they would have to call my house number and ask, “Hello, is Asya there?” (No one calls me, but if they did, that’s what they would have to do hahaha.) And I could shake, grope, fondle, lick, tickle the rotary phone and it would not do anything weird. 

I spoke a little too soon about my cat’s food improving. Overall, the smell and color is much better, but it still has these weird little black balls in it. They are usually imbedded in the meat, which is disturbing. If you break it up, it breaks down into a black powder. 

I sent photos of some alarming examples to the company. They said it was some sort of supplement powder. I looked up the powder and it is white. Does it turn black when cooked? Why is it in the shape of a ball? How can it be an added powder when it is imbedded in the fibers of the meat? If I found this in a can of human food, I wouldn’t eat it. So now we check every can for these black things. 

There is another worry regarding the cat food. I recently watched a documentary on phages. It was mentioned that phages are now being used by some animal food companies, but they do not tell the consumers because the cunsumers might think their food isn’t clean. Great, another new unregulated thing to worry about. 

I think phages can be super great, but like anything else, maybe they could be overused? I don’t know if it’s healthy for animals to eat artificial concentrations of them every day. Why can’t companies just keep clean facilities and use clean ingredients in the first place? 

This upcoming week I need to slow down and recharge. My baseline recharging thing is cooking super healthy food, but the kitchen situation is just so rough in this house. It is a kitchen inside a kitchen... over the years... in this house... I have dreamed of calling for a dumpster or two... 

I keep buying shelving units, and anything I have bought has made such a difference.

So my plan is to take stock of everything in the fridge and pantry, and try to make nice meals that use up everything perishable. I am really going to focus on vegetables. I want to see all of my fresh and frozen vegetables depleted by the end of the week. This week I have: 

Sweet potatoes 

Potatoes 

Broccoli rabe 

Tomatoes 

Assorted frozen veg

Do onions and garlic count? I also want to remember to take a vitamin and fish oil every day. On Wednesday the weather might cool, so those will be my oven days. I have a high aspiration to make some kind of flatbread. Bread is too hard to buy these days. 

Please wish me luck! 

And I wish you also many delicious meals this week!

Asya