Lent

I remember, now. It starts the day after Fat Tuesday*. It was that time all of us Catholic kids endured every year for some six weeks until Easter arrived. The only day off was St Patrick's day... oh, it's great to be Irish. What it meant was that it seemed like we had all kinds of special obligations and that we had to abstain from something that we really liked. Usually it was something we craved immediately after giving it up. If our parents were really strict, they made sure that everyone we knew helped us maintain our abstinence. It could be pure torture to be visiting at a friend's and have his mother offer something and then remember, "Oh, I'm sorry. I almost forgot that your mom said you've given that up for Lent."
Suldog has given up flour and dairy, meaning, for one thing, no cheeseburgers. I think he has an ulterior motive. I can't eat cheeseburgers either, but that's a whole 'nother story and I'm not giving them up in case that situation changes. I don't want give up dairy anyway because too many things I like that are in the basic staples in my diet are included in that food group... not to mention ice cream. Besides, the economy is still trying to work itself out of a funk. The last thing needed is to have folks stop using what they want most.
Well, I've figured out what I'm giving up this year. It's grapes.

*don't click on the link unless you want to know more than what you already know about Mardi Gras and Carnivale