Oh, good gravy.

I tried to buy a multi-vitamin today, something to help boost me up as I'm thinking I might just be a bit run down from all this driving in my car to get to another building so I can sit on my a$$ all day, typing. Buying vitamins is a trial for me, due to my food allergy. It's amazing the things they can find to put soy in (flavored bottled water? Really?), and vitamins...sigh. Particularly women's formulations -- they just love cramming soy down the throats of women, don't they?

So I hie me to the health food store and hunt down my usual brand. Which has now changed it's base formula, which means it now no longer states in the allergen info that it doesn't contain soy. The only brand I can find is massively more expensive, but has an allergen free guarantee -- it's free of the Big 8 (cow’s milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat), and they test at the factory for bad proteins. Still and all...vitamins. And I am run down.

Thankfully, I still have an old bottle of the vitamins I used to take. I'm ok for about a month and then I will have to invest. Gah.

Aside from vitamin issues, I've been thinking about getting back into shape again. I realized how weak I've gotten in the past few years. It's been ages since I worked out (well, I walk, but that's more for my circulation and sanity than physical fitness), and I'm starting to feel it. My singing voice is falling out of tune because my core is so weak. Since I hear a rumor my college choir director is getting the band back together next spring, and I love singing choral music, I have to get my abs back into fighting trim.

The problem is that it has been so long since I worked out, I've forgotten how it goes! I guess I'll have to start simple -- bicep curls, a few Pilates moves for the abs, squats -- until that gets too easy and I need something more complex. I figure that will be part of what I do to keep myself busy when my temp gig runs out -- maybe at the end of the next week. I'm not really sure as no one's told me yet what's going on. Alas. I could use some more free time, and maybe a return to the 7 am wake up hour. This getting up at 5:45 is for the birds. If I ever have a kid, that kid is sleeping in until at least 8. I'll benedryl them into submission if I must.

But as they say your fitness goals should be measurable and specific, here's mine: I want to do 10 push ups. Standard ones, not the girly "oh, you've only got a quarter of the upper body strength of a guy" ones. I'll let you know how that goes.

Speaking of kids, remember the massive clover plants of my last (ancient) post? Well, they've borne flowers:

You can't tell much by that picture, can you? So here's another one:

The little one at the bottom is a regular clover flower. The Monster Clover plant put out flowers at least twice the size of average clovers. I love it. Ginormous clovers. It's like all the best parts of spring mushed up and forced to bloom in a cluster of gigantic, creamy goodness!

If I had a lawn to call my own (heh, like that's liable to happen ever) I'd only have non-mowing plants. You know, those low-growing violets and clovers and other small ground cover that's way prettier than grass and a lot less maintenance. I'd try to get my clovers to grow massive and scary like these clovers did, and produce huge globes of soft happy, just because I could.

Show me a person who hates clover in their yard, and I'll show you someone with no soul. No soul, I tell you!