Michael and I decided last weekend to slow down our beer consumption. Beer is probably my biggest vice as far as calories go right now, and avoiding it shouldn’t be that hard – right?
It’s funny how becoming being a beer connoisseur has changed our dining habits. Last weekend we were looking for a place to eat after coming back from Lancaster, and immediately my thoughts went to finding a good brewpub, or what good beers the places we considered had on tap. I had to remind myself that we were not doing the beer thing, gosh there really was a time when I always ordered soda at restaurants.
And we gave in after a whole no-beer week, yesterday we treated ourselves to an evening at Sly Fox – and didn’t bring along the growler! I was delighted to find myself not really in much of a beer mood, one pint of 113 IPA with my Reuben was more than enough.
I’ve also changed my habits when it comes to what I listen to on my commute to and from work everyday. For a while I had a pretty set schedule of listening to NPR in the morning and XPN in the evening. But lately I’ve grown increasingly annoyed with the news. I’m not sure if it’s a change in the news itself or if it’s a change in myself. It’s probably me growing old, bitter and sick of politics. Listening to it no longer enlightens me and makes me thoughtful, it upsets and frustrates me. SO I’ve given up on it, no more listening to that crap in the morning that makes me annoyed.
So what would I listen to? I’ve been frustrated lately because of my lack of time I could devote to reading. I hadn’t much exposure to audio books, and figured this would be a good opportunity to start checking them out. On Monday evening Michael and I walked up to the Library to check out their selection of audio books. Honestly? The selection sucks. I picked up the audiobook of Myst: The Book of Ti’Ana figuring that’s length (only two cassettes) and subject (fantasy) would be a good place to start with the audio book thing, I could get a feel for how I like them, and how it is to listen to them while driving.
I was pleasantly surprised with how well my trial went. The audiobook was a good one, not too hard to follow and it doesn’t distract me from driving at all. There are times when I have to stop it or rewind it to catch something I missed while some jackass in an intersection decided to cut me off, but these distractions were to be expected. I finished both cassettes in 3 days, which surprised me until I thought about it, I spend about an hour of each weekday commuting to and from work, that’s a lot of time.
On Wednesday I headed up to the Lansdale Library to check out their books for sale. I had some time after browsing the books to wander into their audiobooks area – and boy do they have a selection! 3 aisles of audiobooks, and not just lousy best sellers, they had a lot of good books. I knew I could get them through my local library via the library loan system, but figured I’d ask directly if I could check them out there, and to my delight they were happy to set me up with an account! The Library is only half a mile from my office, so it’s a nice quick walk to get there, and I do always like walking more when there is some sort of goal, I think I’ll be frequenting their audiobooks section these next few months.
And while I’m talking about changes, I decided last night to crosspost my shaman.princessleia.com posts to my LiveJournal.
It’s very gloomy out today, such a perfect day to work inside.