I play a lot more than I'd like to be, just because it feels like wasted time afterwards. I enjoy it at the time, but it's kind of an empty feeling when the game is shut down.

Still, I did just win the Space Race at Regent level in CivIII, playing the new Ottoman tribe from the CivIII expansion pack. That must surely count for something.

I'm not a very good diet-person, if the diet is framed in terms of all the things I can't eat. I've proven that to myself on too many occassions to count. So I've taken the approach of trying to improve what I do eat, instead. Rather than thinking about what isn't allowed, I look for really enticing foods that are allowed. And I permit myself to cheat, without guilt. If I only lose 4 pounds in a month rather than 6, hey, I've still lost 4 pounds.

So it was with this in mind that I went grocery shopping this past Monday. I planned a good meal for that night, heavy on the protein and light on the carbs. I also got the ingredients for an interesting salmon/pasta dish from a new cookbook (more on that in a few). But when I got home, I realized that I had left work so late, and taken enough time looking at nutrition labelling and all at the store, that it was nearly 9:30p, and I was just too damn tired to do all the prep as well as the cooking.

So I threw a frozen pizza in the oven.

In other news, I recently picked up a really interesting cookbook, called The Whole Foods Market Cookbook: A Guide to Natural Foods. It's got me looking not just at vegetarian recipes, but vegan ones as well. I've never thought I could find vegan dishes that held the promise of enough flavor to give up my cherished meat. But I'll be giving some of these a try over the next few weeks.