Snickerdoodles.

So let's say it's finally starting to feel...not like fall, exactly, but maybe late summer, at your house. And you're starting to think about spicy cinnamon baked goods. And you're trying to eat a little healthier, so you're looking for something non-gooey and non-overloaded with bad stuff.

Why not try Whole-Wheat Snickerdoodles II at Allrecipes? I made a batch earlier this week and we scarfed them down so fast, I decided to make a double batch today. The house smells great!

I added extra cinnamon to the batter, as well as a dash of cloves, just to make the cookie itself spicier before rolling it in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. I also substituted applesauce for a bit of the butter, say 1/4 of the amount called for. And I forgot to flatten the cookies both times, so they were puffier than the picture shows, but still yummy. They're a little dry and crumbly because of the whole-wheat flour, but good with a glass of milk or cup of tea. And they taste good warm out of the oven, but even better the next day.

And if you and a significant other scarf down ten or twelve cookies while watching TV, telling yourself all the while that it's okay because they're "healthy," well, that will be our little secret.

Pants rant.

I've got these yoga pants that I mostly love. Except when I have to do any actual exertion in them. It's cooled off here the last few days, so I've been wearing pants instead of shorts for my daily walk, and I don't know who decided that exercisewear should be as unabsorbent as possible, but I'd like to smack him. Because you just know it was a him.

My yoga pants are rare and prized possessions, because if you think plus-size exercise clothes are hard to come by--and they are--they're nothing compared to plus-size petite exercise clothes. It's apparently crossed very few people's minds that there may be some short pudgy girls out there in the world and that they might want to get some exercise to rectify their pudginess, since there's obviously nothing they can do about their shortness.

So I got a wonderful pair of petite XL yoga pants at Land's End several years ago, and then because Land's End stopped making the wonderful yoga pants before I could get any more (of course), I also have two slightly less wonderful pairs from L. L. Bean.

I checked the label on my Land's End pants after my walk today and they're apparently 39% cotton, which you'd think would have some sort of cooling effect. However, they're also 48% nylon, and that's where the problem lies. These pants feel exactly like the navy blue polyester bellbottoms I used to wear in grade school, when I'd go out and play a hearty game of kickball at recess and then come inside and sit in a damp, gooey waist-to-ankles mass of man-made "fabric" that never dried.

That's exactly how these pants feel. And grade school flashbacks are seldom enjoyable for me.

I just can't understand why clothes made for sweating should be made of the worst possible material for letting sweat evaporate.

If you know of any flattering black petite XL exercise pants made for short pudgy girls who actually sweat, let me know, won't you?

RIP, Epson Photo R320.

Our printer died a quiet death the other day and now we have to replace it. We bought it three or four years ago, and I remember telling someone at the time that if it were possible to marry an inanimate object, I'd marry that printer.

It printed hundreds and hundreds of gorgeous photos for me, in every size imaginable, and although it had gotten a little cantankerous in its old age, I still loved it dearly. It took me far, far away from the limitations of film cameras and Wal-Mart 4x6" photo processing, into a world where I could take a picture, crop it, print it as big or small as I wanted, and have a scrapbook page completed, all in an hour's time.

So goodbye, old friend. As we throw you into the garbage can, remember that we didn't want to, but your warranty was just too short.

What we're up to.

Well, things here are uneventful. Uneventful is fine, but dull. And it doesn't give me much to write about!

I've lost almost 20 pounds. Today I smushed myself into a pair of jeans that's one size down, and a bra that's one cup size down. And it didn't require too much smushing, so I was pretty happy! All my fattest pants are falling down...my fair lady. Heh.

Todd has finished his big summer project at work, and is back to semi-normal work hours, and is anticipating a promotion to engineering manager in the next couple of months. A couple of nights a week, he rollerblades on the path at the park while I walk, which gives him a good workout! I need to lose a couple (dozen) more pounds before I try climbing back up on my rollerblades. But the walking is nice. Especially now that the weather has cooled off in the last few days.

We've been watching Season Three of "The Office" on DVD for the past week or so. I can't wait till the new season starts.

See? Pretty dull! I'll try to summon up some interesting thoughts soon.

Books, books, books.

I updated my book blog--Mimi and Kimberley, you are so kind, leaving comments when all I had was a scribbled list!