Tuesday random:

I have the edging for the second sleeve nearly half finished (I started it last night, after an afternoon doing fieldwork). I'm excited about this sweater again, because it is fairly close to being finished - all I have left is the second sleeve, the button/buttonhole/neck band, and assembly.

After that, I think I'll pick up Honeycomb again and work hard-core on that. For some reason right now instead of flitting from project to project, I'm more interested in working a lot on one thing.

***

Who is Ed Hardy and why is he suddenly so popular? I see shirts with his name and designs on a lot of the students. And a lot of them are carrying Ed Hardy notebooks (the 2009 version of the Trapper Keeper?) I presume he is a tattoo artist, based on the style of the designs?

I feel very 40 when I look at what the students are wearing and realize I have no idea who the bands referenced on their shirts are, or who Ed Hardy is, or when I don't even get some of what are obviously jokes on their shirts.

(Still, I have to say, I'm glad the embarrassing "Big Johnson" joke-shirts went out of fashion.)

***

Whatever the problem was UPS had with my Keepsake Quilting order, it was apparently not a "We are not going to leave packages when no one is home anymore" issue. A music book I ordered from Amazon was waiting on my doorstep when I got home yesterday evening, delivered by UPS.

So I'm wondering if the Keepsake package got damaged in transit or something. I'm still waiting for them to re-send.

***

For the past not-quite-a-week, I've been keeping track, in as non-obsessive and non-self-blaming a way as I can of the amount of added sugar I've been eating.

I'm averaging somewhere around 12 teaspoons a day, and that's a liberal guess (for example, the cereal I eat regularly lists "5 grams of sugar" but I don't know if that's all added or some from the grain, so I count it as all added).

So, while I'm not "perfect" (9 teaspoons, no more) according to the AHA guidelines, when I am eating "normally" for myself, I'm not doing so badly. I think part of my little freak-out over it was that I seriously overestimated how much sugar was in what I ate. I was expecting to find I was eating upwards of 20 teaspoons a day, maybe even as much as 40 (which really was not a logical thought, given the amount of food I typically consume in a day).

And that average of 12 is even with having the occasional cookie or some sugar in my tea. So I am really not doing that badly. I think the fact that I don't really drink pop goes a long way to limiting sugar. (And I don't use many pre-prepared foods. The main one I use - a type of tomato sauce - I was pleased to see contained no added sugar).

So I've decided that I am, in fact, doing OK. That I'm not going to worry about this part of my diet, because I'm not eating nearly as unhealthfully as I had feared. The only two changes I am going to consider are (a) checking labels a bit more carefully when it's stuff that I don't expect to have added sugar (lots of things that aren't sweet do) and (b) be less inclined to "mindlessly" select pop (like on the rare occasions when I eat out, or at Youth Group on Sunday nights - it's just as easy, and better for me in the long run, to drink water. And I often do just take water at Youth Group, because some weeks they serve Crystal Light (aspartame gives me migraines) or they have only caffeinated sodas (I won't drink anything caffeinated after 4 pm or I don't sleep).)