1pm.  Feeling guilty for not having a dinner game plan. Text husband:

          Me:  "What do you want for dinner?"

          Husband: "Something relatively healthy, not too fatty, not too carby."

          Funny, I was thinking "something I can fix that won't cost $100, won't take all afternoon to make, and won't require 3 trips to 3 different grocery stores."

1:15.   Cue digging out those dusty magazines with the nice pictures on the bottom shelf of the bookcase.  It's hot- discard all fall and winter-based magazines.  I hate cooking- discard all magazines that don't promise fast meals.

1:18.  Settled on a "Greek lemon soup with chicken meatballs"  It involves chicken (cheaper than other meats), carrots and things I already have in the fridge (less shopping) and lemon (which seems to go with hot summer days.

1:20.  Setback.  The husband doesn't like soups.

1:25.  Solution: Just do the chicken meatballs.  Skip the soup bit.  (That's possible, right?)

1:30.  Crap, spent 30 mins stressing about dinner and now I'm starving for lunch.

*lunch break*

2:30.  Modified recipe:  make the meatballs, cook in cast-iron skillet, do a side salad.

2:35.  I remember that I have tomatoes from my parent's modest-in-size-but-very-productive garden, and they WILL go bad soon.  Change side dish to sliced tomatoes with basil.  If mozarella is on sale, I'll throw that on top, too.

2:40.  Boring, time-consuming stuff like: reading and generating shopping list for meatballs.  Mentally assessing which store is closest to my other afternoon errands.  Making modification notes in the margins.

3:00.  Crap, look at the time!  Run errands.

5:00.  I'm soaked, even with the AC running.  My friend Fatso, the voice in my head, says, "You can fix this tomorrow night.  Just go out to eat tonight.  You can get a salad someplace.  No hassle, no dirty dishes, no wasted afternoon hours..."  Must. Resist.  Temptation.

5:30.  Did not resist temptation.  Maybe I'll fix dinner tomorrow night.