Not wasting food

It's been a whirlwind week so far, for both of us. Shane went back to work Monday morning (leaving at 5:30) and hasn't worked less than a 12 hour day since then.
I've been working 9 hour days to try to conserve as much of my vacation time as possible for when I can actually spend time with my husband and family. I'll be doing the same (or possibly even working a couple of 10s) next week when we get back. I'm hoping to use less than 3 days of vacation time for the 5 1/2 days we'll be gone.
But we're going to Hawaii! I'm so excited. To see Shane's wonderful aunt (who is letting us stay with her), to see my friends get married, to see the tropical island again and swim in warm ocean water...it will be bliss. And best of all, I get to spend a bunch of time with Shane and with my brother. I'll even get a chance to know my brother's girlfriend a bit.
Even with such a short trip, though, there's a lot of planning involved. Not only finding a pet-sitter and someone to drive us to the airport, packing, and working a lot, but also making sure we're not wasting food. Over the weekend, when Shane and I went to the grocery store together, I bought a bunch of fruit. He ended up asking me, "Can you eat all of that? Are you sure?" The answer is a definitive yes, because I have the last of it packed for lunch. After I eat dinner tonight, the only thing we'll have in the house which could go bad is some celery, and I'll probably eat some of that with my dinner before blanching and freezing the rest.
Of course, this means that on top of everything else I'll need to do when I get home, I'll have to go grocery shopping. But I would have had to do that anyway, since this food would have gone bad before I got home. This way it's just not wasted.
I am rather proud of how perfectly I planned it all, though. I made a wrap sandwich for lunch today (we don't even have any bread left) and ended up using some of my homegrown spinach in it because all of our other leafy vegetables and things which might have gone into a sandwich have been eaten (or were so old that they'd gone moldy, like the avocado I bought, darn it!). Now I've harvested from my garden stuff: a few spinach leaves, 2 beans, and 7 pea pods. Not bad for the beginning of June in Fairbanks!
The packing is the only major thing I have left on my list. I haven't started yet, of course. I wait until the last minute so that the pets don't have as much time to freak out. They're freaking out anyway because Shane's gone, so I really don't want to add to that. I'll pack tonight, and I'll have to do some digging for the clothes I want, since truly hot weather is a rarity around here. Thankfully I have a few sundresses, two of which my MIL bought for me, one from Italy, and one from the last time Shane and I went to HI. (He bought me a dress, and I bought him a shirt.) Since we won't be gone that long, everything will easily fit inside my hiking backpack. I have a dress that will be great for the wedding itself, and I'll be packing a total of three pairs of shoes. (One pair of flip-flops, one pair of walking sandals, and my ballet flats.) Now is also when my Nook is going to come in most handy: I'll download some free books from ListenAlaska to put on there and won't have to worry about running out of things to read. The only actual book I'll bring will be one which I'm returning to my little brother, via my middle brother (who's coming to the wedding). That middle brother will also be bringing a couple of books to me, one return and one loan. :) Ah, Sibling Post. Love it.
In addition to everyone we'll see in Hawaii, we also get to see my MIL. We had to stop in Anchorage no matter what, so we made it a rather long layover and my MIL will drive up to have lunch with us. Not only that, but she's giving me her old iPod Touch. It's not at all old, but she got an iPhone and decided that she didn't need the iPod anymore, so she offered it to me. I tend to be the type of gets an electronic gadget and uses it until it starts to break. This is the case with my old, first generation iPod Nano. There was a recall a while ago because so many of the first gen ones broke, and they replaced them with newer ones. But I never did that because mine worked just fine. Well, now it's not. Some of the buttons are dying, and the sound goes off sometimes. I would want it replaced anyway soon (running without music is unbelievably boring!), so it makes me happy that I can replace it without either spending a lot of money or buying something new.
Talk to you later, folks!