A shift...

Well, I've clearly been offline at The Billing Room for a good while. However, I've recently started a new blog dealing with my primary interest, travel. I'm tired of hearing myself whine, I guess, and want to polish up my travel writing skills a bit. So, here's my new blog... The Billing Room is likely going dark, so if you want to follow me, you can do so at my new blog, the Clever Nomad: http://www.clevernomad.com.

Thanks!

I'm Back

Hold the presses. I know you guys have been dying, asking "where IS that Island Chica?" That Island Chica needed a break, and she needed to take some stuff down off her blog. Once the name of my jewelry company was posted here, I realized I had some housekeeping to do. That's the problem with blogs - if you're anonymous, you can say anything you want but then you aren't that interesting. If you're "out", then you can share more interesting details but can't say as much.

Decisions, decisions.

Pomp and circumstance

I went to UGA for law school. I'm not really much of a football fan, so the whole bulldog ritual thing is sort of lost on me.

Admission: I attended three years of law school and never once attended a UGA football game.

What can I say? I was raised in NC and I'm a basketball girl. Sue me.

Anyway, the good people down in Georgia are nuts about football. They are also nuts about bulldogs (bullgods?), the mascot for the University of Georgia. A real live mascot dog attends the games, and the dog (god) is always named UGA. UGA VI recently died, and while the death of any beloved animal is sad, what I read in the article about his burial was surprising.

The god (typo but I'm keeping it) died in Savannah, Georgia, which is a few hours from Athens. Upon his death, THE UNIVERSITY FLEW THE DOG'S CARCASS ON THE UNIVERSITY PLANE FROM SAVANNAH TO ATHENS. In case you don't understand me, let's get this clear: public funds were used to fuel a plane, when gas is at it's highest price ever recorded, in order to transport a dog's body?

Then, the dog was buried after a ceremony, complete with anthems and speeches.

We're not talking about an epic car ride from Savannah to Athens. It's maybe 5 hours. I mean, we're not talking Sacramento to San Diego here. Using public funds to transport dead soldiers in planes? Why yes, that's a-ok by me. Using public funds to transport a dead dog in a private plane? Fuck off, State of Georgia.

Banned

The following word and all of its many variants should be banned:

CHILLAX.

Anyone who uses it should be punished with a swift kick in the ass and banished to the Nevada desert so they may chillax together.

That is all.

So far, so good

Okay, so I'm about 1.3 days into my little cleanse, and so far, so good. This should surprise no one, because if you can't stick with something like this for 1.3 days, you're pretty much hopeless.

I digress. I tried a recipe last night - quinoa with sweet potatoes and black beans (and other stuff too, but those are the main ingredients). It was pretty tasty. I also found a gluten-free cereal that's decent, since I rarely have time to cook oatmeal in the AM.

This morning, I've had a soy sausage, 3/4 cup of my gluten-free cereal with soy milk, and decaf tea with a tiny bit of splenda. Lunch is the quinoa stuff leftover and a soy yogurt with blueberries. Tonight will likely be the quinoa again (it makes a lot and I'm a believer in leftovers) along with some steamed broccoli... but what to put on the broccoli? No butter allowed. Maybe Olive Oil?

I promise this blog won't be all about food from now on. It's easy to write about and I'm busy.

On another note, my 6th wedding anniversary is this weekend. That's six years. The first half of our marriage was spent with me in law school, so it's hard sometimes for me to count those years. They were such a blur and I really didn't get to spend that much time with my husband. It's really only been these last three years where we've felt married, if that makes sense. I think we're going to the mountains for a night. It should be fun... of course, as always, what am I going to eat when we go out?

I'm afraid my cleanse might be cramping my anniversary.