For My Birthday, I Got Lactose Intolerance

My birthday was last month. 41, for those keeping score at home.

It was right about then that I discovered I had become lactose intolerant. Adult onset is apparently not uncommon, but that doesn't make it any less annoying.

Naturally, I've had to adapt my grocery shopping:

For straight up milk drinking, there are plenty of substitutes (lactose-free, almond, soy, etc., though I'd probably take it easy on the soy), but I still have a bunch of whey protein powder I need to get through.

Also, this puts a crimp in my plan of storing condensed milk in my emergency food supplies. (Condensed milk is super high-calorie and was used as a compact field ration for Civil War soldiers.)

Other than that, I've never been a huge cheese person -- I can take it or leave it (outside of pizza, I guess). It's just irritating.

Other Things That Happened in Year 40
Outside of my immediately previous post about a particularly intense period of deja vu (it reads like a fever dream; I wasn't on anything, honest), it's been silent running here on the blog. Not too much on the Facebook or Twitter, either.

I usually say bloggers should ignore unannounced, extended interruptions in posting -- just pick up where you left off like nothing happened. (This only applies to personal blogging, not corporate or professional.) In my case, though, it was part of a bigger hunkering down.

I left my job last March. Since then, I've been mostly half-assing it around -- small projects, bits and pieces. I haven't been hustling around town as much in this go-round as I did after I left (er, was asked told to leave) AOL in 2007, when I was going to every tech meetup, lecture, and unconference they would let me in to, for fun.

Just as then, I haven't been doing any major travel or huge projects or lifestyle changes. If two data points is enough to draw a pattern, when I'm not working, I tend to turn into something of a hermit, so I have to fight that impulse.

Now, I haven't been doing nothing nothing. Witness:

* I saw the Discovery fly-in to Dulles:

* Grew facial hair:

 

* Researched some documents about my Dad at the National Archives:

 

* Volunteered as a victim in a Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Hazmat drill:

  

And did a bunch of other stuff -- Wikimania, San Francisco trip, visited Mom & Dad for Dad's radiation therapy, etc.

Now, though, it's been over a year, so it's time to get back into the game. More on that, later.

For now, though, I'm going to get back to writing, both here on the blog, and hopefully elsewhere too.