I've been eating a lot of fruit lately. It's really sweet, but good for you, which makes it an excellent boon to healthy eating for me (since I have a sweet tooth). I'm not good enough at eating it up fast enough to be allowed to buy organic yet (unless I'm gonna eat it right away, but sometimes even then I mean to then forget...); I had some organic grapes that started to go bad at the ends, which is so sad (luckily, I have long thumbnails at the moment and can slice off the ends without the use of a knife).

Have you ever noticed how people smack their lips and look at you longingly when you peel an orange? Suddenly, everyone wants a wedge of it. Tim does this to me, and it's not so bad -- one slice for him isn't taking too much away from my treat, and it's good for him to eat more fruit. But when it happens at work, I have to pretend I don't notice, otherwise more than half my fruit is gone by sharing it. An orange is my current favorite afternoon snack.

I'm also a bit mango-crazy lately, as they're in season. I pass by this little Asian grocery that has a fruit/ vegetable stand out front, and they've had mangos for the past few weeks now. The first one I bought, before reading Barth's succelent entry on how to choose them properly, was underripe. Ah, but then I noticed the yellow ones sitting near the green/ pink ones, and I bought two of those near the end of last week. One was filling enough for my lunch last Friday. The other I devoured like a madwoman over the weekend, standing over the sink with mango juice dripping off my chin, gnawing at the skin for every last fibre of yellow-gold heaven.

Those of you who are very familiar with mangos know where this is going.

So, I have this horrible rash on and around my lips. There's even a bit of it on my neck, where I pushed my hair back while eating the mangos. Yup. I was careless while eating and I let the skin of the mango, which is irritating to human skin, touch my own skin. Gah. It's slowly going away, but for a rash from a fruit skin it sticks around a lot longer than you'd think.

It's even making me a little afraid of buying and eating more mangos. Is that not the saddest fruit-related thing you've ever heard? Well, that and the upcoming death of the bananas....

Anyway, strawberry season is upon us (or is soon, I'm never quite sure) and strawberries are traditionally my favorite fruit. Probably still are, if only because they don't hurt me with their love the way mangos do.

- Heather, signing out from the 'land of fruit and nuts'