Don’t panic. You’ve got this.

I played decent golf yesterday in my weekly league play, and even if I ultimately decide competition isn’t my thing, changing my mindset to become more competitive made a difference. I was less fearful and stayed calm when I made mistakes. I was like, “Don’t panic, don’t panic. You’ve got this.” And most of the time I did.

Maybe I should have started saying that, oh, I don’t know, in childhood? Don’t panic. You’ve got this. Might be my new mantra for life in general.

Over-programming

Golf takes up a lot of time, but still, I am surprised at how busy I seem to be in retirement, even without a grand strategy or detailed list of goals. One thing I know for sure – I don’t want to be over-programmed. I already had swimming on my general list of regular activities, but since I joined the fitness center, I’ve also started doing weights, so that’s one more thing.

I’m not expecting any kind of revolutionary changes with the weight routine, which at this point is sort of minimalist. But I am hoping it will help with overall strength, balance and bone density.  I told the trainer I wasn’t going to look like one of the hot buff chicks. I just want to keep my body in decent enough shape to get me to the end of the party, hopefully standing up and without any broken bones.

When all else fails – duct tape!

The hinge on my laptop is broken. I can’t close it properly, which isn’t a big deal, since I don’t travel with it or work remotely. But it’s a pain in the rear. The computer is just over two years old. I took it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy, and they said it would be at least five weeks. Presumably because they have to send it back to Dell.

I decided to skip the Geek Squad and managed to duct tape the hinge back together for the time being. I wonder if there are local computer repair people who could fix it? Everything else seems to be working fine.

Dentist. Yay.

Today is the dentist. I go three times a year because I build up excessive tartar and am prone to gingivitis. I told you that’s why the gene pool stops here! I don’t know if it’s genetic or the result of poor dental hygiene in childhood. My parents did the best they could, and brushing and flossing didn’t make the cut.

The Army was a good experience for me in many ways, including dental care. It was like an intervention, and since then, I have been religious about taking care of my teeth and gums. My hygienist recommended a water flosser, suggesting it would replace daily flossing. I’ve been using it since my last appointment, so I’m curious to see what she says. I like it a lot, but there’s one caveat.

When I was traveling, I didn’t take it with me, so I brought floss. When I started to floss, my gums bled a little bit in places. I thought the water flosser was supposed to take care of that, but apparently not for me. So, now I do both. No wonder I’m busy.

Books & Movies

I finished The Testaments, the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. Didn’t I just see it won the Booker prize? I guess they liked it more than I did. It was OK, but I don’t know, I was expecting more. Offred is more like background noise as opposed to a featured character. I wanted more closure on Offred. Still, it is worth reading if you liked the first one.

On the movie front, I watched To Catch a Thief with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. If you read through the comments, Barbara said I looked like a female version of John Robie, the character in the movie. I’m not nearly as stylish as he is, but watching the movie kind of got me excited about fashion. At least excited about one outfit – the striped sweater and polka dot scarf. Somehow, I want to reproduce that.

We recorded the new Ken Burns documentary on country music and have been watching that. Dale doesn’t even like country music, but we both love this series.

Foodie Talk

The weather has cooled, and that makes me want to cook! Next on my list is a recipe for moussaka from an older cookbook by David Rosengarten. For you foodies, he was on the Food Network when it first started. When the network went viral, he kind of went away. Although I saw him recently as a judge on Iron Chef America.

I love his moussaka recipe, but I will have to tweak it some. The pan I originally made it in broke, so I used another pan, and it spread out too much, making it too thin. Moussaka needs to be thick, like lasagna. David calls for an 18x8x3 inch pan. I do not believe such a pan exists or ever has. Don’t ask me how many hours I spent trying to find one.

Finally, I came to the conclusion I don’t need that pan, I just need a different recipe. I compared and contrasted and decided I still liked David’s best, however, I want to reduce the eggplant and lamb by half but keep the bechamel the same. I’ll probably try it this weekend. A full report is pending.

In the meantime, I rewarded myself for this effort with a new Emile Henry lasagna pan. I think it will be perfect for the resized moussaka. I got red, because it was $10 cheaper than white the day I purchased it. But now I just went back to get the link, and there it is in white for the same price. Dale likes red, so why not?