Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Celebrate Vitamins

I'm trying out the Celebrate Vitamins . They're vitamins designed specifically for bariatric patients. They sent me a trial package of their calcium and multis and iron with C.

I started taking them last night.. here's my eval so far.

Last night: Calcet creamy bite, Lemon creme. : Ok.. nothing to write home about, but not offensive either.

This morning: Blackberry multi: Pretty good. Actually better than the Bariatric advantage multi in Lemon that I've been taking.

CalciumPlus 500: Berries N Cream: bleah.. was ok until I got to the end and then it became chalky, gritty.

So far they are sitting on my stomach ok.. and this is major as I've had a mild GI bug for the past 2 days.

Will try to remember to talk about the other flavors as I go along.

If you want a sample, email Celebrate Vitamins at success AT celebratevitamins DOT com

(replace AT with @ and DOT with . and remove spaces).

enjoy

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Sadness

Very sad. Missing my daughter. Haven't heard from her directly for a month.

She doesn't call, doesn't reply to email. I do know she's alive in the world from 3rd hand sources.



It's very sad.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

New schnauzer pics




This is was about a month ago and before grooming yesterday .. I'll try to get some current pics up soon.

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Pain medication

When did accepting pain, not taking meds for it, become a virtue?

Was it in generations past when pain meds weren't very common, or the really only good pain medication was whiskey.. and nice women didn't drink?

I don't know.

My mom seemed to think that pain was just something to be endured.

Or is it the "good patient" syndrome.. where good patients don't complain of pain?

I am on a journey to get rid of the "good patient" syndrome within myself. I'm not a drug seeker...not one of those who is "allergic to everything except dilaudid". But I dont think it's my job either to make it easier on the physician by just grimacing and bearing it. *yes, I know the term is grin & bear it, but I think grimace is much more appropo*

Just rambling thoughts after talking to a friend who recently had surgery and is only taking their pain meds at night. And they wonder why they're having such a hard time during the day. Take some tylenol/acetaminohen during the day silly.. it won't make you sleepy and you'll feel so much better. No reason to suffer needlessly.. it doesn't make you a better person or earn more stars in your crown.

At least their doctor gave them good pain control. I've had docs who wouldn't give enough to keep a fly pain-free. :(

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

BAIPA


It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around the neck than to face the punishment in store for harming one of these little ones. - Luke 17:2

WWJ_NOT_D

Monday, September 21, 2009

Super Easy Homemade Split Pea Soup

Did you know that split peas don't have to be soaked b4 cooking? Fantastic item to keep on hand for those days that you don't know what to cook. I made this tonight and it was oh so good.

Here's my super easy recipe.

1/2 cup dry split peas
2-3 cups HOT water
1/4 cup diced ham (or other meat).
(I often use the Carl Buddig Quick Fix meats.. they're 2oz, 70 cal and ready to use, already diced. They come in Turkey & Ham. I've only used the ham, but I bet the turkey would work just as well)

OPTIONALS

2 T diced carrots
2 T diced Broccoli stems (peel them first)
2 T diced onion
2 T diced celery
2 T diced veggie of your choice (bell pepper, cauliflower, squash, etc. the only thing that I'm not sure would work would b mushrooms, but I could be wrong.. they might b wonderful)

Saute or stir-fry veggies for a few minutes in a wok or frying pan coated with spray veggie oil (such as canola or olive oil). If u don't have the spray kind, a scant teaspoon or 2 of oil would work. Use as little oil as possible.

Put everything together in a 2quart or larger saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook with a lid slightly ajar for 30 to 40 minutes or until done to your liking.

Enjoy!

Serves 1 or 2 people.

Serving size: 1 generous cup (really 1& 1/4 cup or 303.5 grams or 10.69 ounces)
Amount Per Serving
Calories 138
Calories from Fat 13
Total Fat 1.4g
Saturated Fat 0.4g
Cholesterol 6mg
Sodium 166mg
Total Carbohydrates 21.8g
Dietary Fiber 9.0g
Sugars 3.5g
Protein 10.1g
Vitamin A 21%
Vitamin C 16%
Calcium 3%
Iron 9%

Nutrition information calculated at CalorieCount.about.com, based on the following ingredients:
1/2 cup dried split peas
3 cups HOT water
2 T carrots
2 T onion
2 T bell pepper
2 T celery
1/4 cup chopped ham

If you change it, of course your results will vary. go to the site above and put in your variation and see what you get.

If you want to make larger amounts.. for every Pound of dry peas (which is the usual size of the bag sold in regular grocery stores) you need 6 to 8 cups of HOT water. Since neither my ds or dh will eat split pea soup.. I use 1/2 cup peas & 2 cups hot water.. and end up adding another cup of water during cooking.

I think this would be great for the soft foods stage of wls.. and could run it through a blender or magic bullet if it wasn't smooth enough. Use chicken broth instead of water to up the protein. :)

Social Media

This was shared on twitter.. (do you twitter?).. and I found it VERY interesting.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

enjoy.

Stress and the Lapband

I had a terrible time with being hungry this past Friday. I was getting hungry 1.5 to 2 hours after eating, and not just a little bit hungry.. ravenously so.

Then I found this article at cnn (well, I didn't find it, it was posted on a yahoo group called smarterbandsters) about why we eat to much.

Go ahead and read it, I'll wait.

Turns out there are 2 main stressors that cause us to overeat. 1) lack of sleep, and 2) stress. I suffered from both of those last week. Thursday night I only got 2 hours of sleep due to the stress. DUH.. no wonder I was extremely hungry.

Then.. one of the ways to combat the overeating.. is exercise. It's been raining almost everyday here.. and plus our new neighbor is ugly about one of our dogs. So the exercise I prefer, walking my dogs, has been practically non-existent.

Things have settled down some, my sleeping hours are still very odd, but I am getting at least 5 hours (I know I need more.. it will happen) and the cause of the stress is being addressed. Now if it will only stop raining.....

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Walk from Obesity

Unless something goes terribly wrong.. on Saturday, September 26th, I'll be participating in my first Walk-a-thon (am I dating myself? they don't call them walk-a-thons any longer).

If you'd care to support me, click here.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Loss Equivalents

Your weight loss =

1 pound = a Guinea Pig
1.5 pounds = a dozen Krispy Kreme glazed donuts
2 pounds = a rack of baby back ribs
3 pounds = an average human brain
4 pounds = an ostrich egg
5 pounds = a Chihuahua
6 pounds = a human’s skin
7.5 pounds = an average newborn
8 pounds = a human head
10 pounds= chemical additives an American consumes each year
11 pounds = an average housecat
12 pounds = a Bald Eagle
15 pounds = 10 dozen large eggs
16 pounds = a sperm whale’s brain
20 pounds = an automobile tire
23 pounds = amount of pizza an average American eats in a year
24 pounds = a 3-gallon tub of super premium ice cream
25 pounds = an average 2 year old
30 pounds = amount of cheese an average American eats in a year
33 pounds = a cinder block
36 pounds = a mid-size microwave
40 pounds = a 5-gallon bottle of water or an average human leg
44 pounds = an elephant’s heart
50 pounds = a small bale of hay
55 pounds = a 5000 BTU air conditioner
60 pounds = an elephant’s penis (yep, weights more than his heart!)
66 pounds = fats and oils an average American eats in a year
70 pounds = an Irish Setter
77 pounds = a gold brick
80 pounds = the World’s Largest Ball of Tape
90 pounds = a newborn calf
100 pounds = a 2 month old horse
111 pounds = red meat an average American eats in a year
117 pounds = an average fashion model (and she’s 5’11”)
118 pounds = the complete Encyclopedia Britannica
120 pounds = amount of trash you throw away in a month
130 pounds = a newborn giraffe
138 pounds = potatoes an average American eats in a year
140 pounds = refined sugar an average American eats in a year
144 pounds = an average adult woman (and she’s 5’4”)
150 pounds = the complete Oxford English Dictionary
187 pounds = an average adult man
200 pounds = 2 Bloodhounds
235 pounds = Arnold Schwarzenegger
300 pounds = an average football lineman
400 pounds = a Welsh pony

I'm somewhere between the worlds largest ball of tape and a newborn calf.

Ideally, I'd like to lose Arnold Schwarzenegger, but will settle for losing 2 bloodhounds.

ROFL!!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

New neighbors suck

I want my old neighbors back. The ones that were Texas Highway Patrol.. and understood dogs and country life.

I walk for exercise. I have two schnauzers that I walk on a lead and a big German Shepard mix that is very shy and is scared of almost everything.. except something that runs.

We were on our way home from a walk and the new neighbors had a skinny female hound outside and we stopped at the edge of the yard (we didn't go past the counties easement) to say hello. Lady of the house came to the door to call the hound in. I called out "We're just making friends, if that's ok" She replied "It's making the dog in the house bark" .. weird, dogs do that naturally. And I happen to know that the other dog they have is a Pomeranian.. those dogs typically bark alot. If she didn't want a barking dog, why have a Pom??

Anyhow, the hound decided to run to her and my German Shepard decided to chase. Oh lordie.. and he will not respond to voice commands. I know, we should've trained him better, but at 9 years old, I think it's a bit late to learn.

Anyhow, the chasing upset the neighbor lady.. she yelled at me "You need to keep your dog on a leash or keep him home." "Keep your dog on a leash".

I didn't say anything.. didn't know what to say. I felt bad that my dog was chasing hers, but I couldn't stop it.. I had a schnauzer on a leash and a schnauzer puppy in a front carrier. I didn't have permission to go on her property. I knew my Shepard wouldn't harm her dog.. but she didn't know that. I can understand her feeling threatened.

I just wish we had our old neighbors back.. they were such great folks. They had two really big dogs, one breed I don't know what it was, and a Great Pyranees (spelling?). The Pyranees was a big baby.. would lie down anytime you got close to him and roll over for a belly rub.

I don't know what I'm going to do from now on.. I guess I'll have to check and see if neighbor is home b4 I walk my dogs any longer. Like being a prisoner in my own house. Good grief.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Hurray for Pat Boone!!

A message I sent to the President and my elected representatives. I urge all citizens to do the same.

Dear Senator:

I did not give you permission to sign my name to any of the bailouts or “stimulus package” or appropriations bills – and certainly not a ten trillion dollar indebtedness!

You’re my elected public servant, and the public servant of all the citizens who sent you to Washington on our behalf. There are other solutions to our economic crises, ones that will directly help taxpayers, homeowners and ordinary citizens, including those who lose jobs in corporate bankruptcy or restructuring.

We weren’t consulted about these huge deficits and paper promises and trillion dollar debts – AND WE REJECT THEM!

Taxation without representation is tyranny! Have you heard that before? Well, we citizens of a democratic republic reject these draconian measures, and direct you to undo them on our behalf. We’re not wasting perfectly good tea this time; but the “tea parties” have begun all over this country, and you’d best get the message. We reject the tyranny of governmental control, taxation without representation, and the usurpation of our constitutional freedom and independence.

You now have lots of tea – but little time, and we have very little patience left.

Pat Boone
Hollywood, CA


from http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/2009/09/03/pat-boones-letter-to-elected-representatives/

or

http://www.patboone.com/tea_party.php

Acorn Field Office

Share photos on twitter with Twitpic

Friday, September 11, 2009

Quotes for Patriots Day

someone should send this to Obama.

found at http://ccm-cos.com/

On Respect.

* You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

* You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.

* You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

* You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

* You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.

* You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds.

* You cannot establish security on borrowed money.

* You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.

* You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.


--William J.H. Boetcker, 1916


When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect.

Adlai Stevenson

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Witchy or Improved Self Esteem ramble

I had a WONDERFUL time shopping yesterday. [/sarcasm]In my ongoing quest to find good walking shoes, I went to a shoe store in my small town.. trying to buy locally like they urge us to do.

There were two clerks working(?). One was checking out a customer and another was standing there twirling his keys around his finger watching. I had been in the store a good 5 or 10 minutes looking at shoes and being ignored. I finally went up and asked if he was working...or if he was just spending his day twirling keys!!

He said he was working, but didn't move to help me.. just continued twirling keys. I said something to the effect of "your store just lost a customer" and walked out.

Makes me soooooooo mad to receive poor service in this economy. I went home and wrote the store a love letter on their website.

My husband says "Don't make Lisa mad" as if this is a bad thing. I don't know. I'm finding I have much less tolerance for incompetence and poor service the older I get. On the other hand, perhaps it's improving self esteem from weight loss. I still have a long ways to go, but I also don't feel I have to be "nicey nice" any longer to make up for being fat.

Strangely enough, I rarely run into discrimination due to my obesity. I don't know if that's because I don't go out much in public (due to high gas prices) or if because I refuse to accept poor treatment. I'm not sure.

The PA at my doctors office said to me that I should learn to accept compliments.. I don't think I have trouble doing that. I think she was speaking from a one size fits all patients, she has only met me twice, I don't think she knows me very well.

I need to get busy with doing the mental work of weight loss too. Another thing to add to my schedule.. busy busy.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

felting with I Love This Wool

Bag is Paton's Merino (black), HL's I Love This Wool (lavendar, pink & yellow), and a variegated wool blend, don't remember the name, but it's by Yarn Bee and is sold at Hobby Lobby.

Had to run through wash cycle twice.

I don't know why my post felting pics are so dim. Same room, same everything.. only about 30 minutes later. sorry bout that.

as always, click the pictures to see them bigger.



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Prefelting. Bag is pretty big, almost covering the entire lid of my washer.

Photobucket

With magazine showing prefelting size.
About 18" tall, 22" wide near base & 14" wide near top.

Photobucket

showing the stitch detail

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more stitch detail and handle edging.
I did the top edge the same way, just neglected to get a photo.

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Stuffed and drying.

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Bag didn't shrink much at all horizontally, but vertically it shrank about 5 inches.



I think I would compare ILTW to Lionbrand wool, but the colors are a little bit more subdued. It's ok to work with, but I still prefer Paton's Merino. Cost wise, unless Paton's goes up, I think they are comparable. I'm lucky to have a Michaels and a HL in the same town.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Free Our Health Care NOW

In one month, over 330,000 people have signed saying no, to government health care! We are now receiving between 15,000 - 20,000 signatures every day. We ask each of you to reach out to at least three friends this weekend, as time is of the essence. With your help we will have 1 million-plus signers to deliver the petition to the Congressional leaders and the White House. http://www.freeourhealthcarenow.com/

For our 437 Tea Party Patriot chapter partners, we have prepared a health care power-point presentation with teacher's notes for your health care day, on Friday, July 17th. Every one of you can be an expert on free-market health care! http://actionpack.ncpa.org/ Don't forget to ask everyone to sign the petition, and have their voices heard. http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/healthcare_petition.pdf Remember to return the completed petitions to us!

We are in the battle of our lives. President Obama and Congress want to force employers to pay for health insurance reform. Although the details aren't completely settled yet, the idea is to create a new federal mandate that would force employers to provide health insurance for their employees - or pay a penalty tax to the government. Of course, they don't actually use the dirty words "tax" or "mandate", rather the legislation uses words like "shared responsibility" and "contributions" to the government. Of special note, members of Congress, are going to vote for you and me to have a government-run plan, but not going to join us - they are going to keep their current taxpayer-funded plan.

If that doesn't get your attention, this will! The government is about to force employers to pay for employees' health insurance with an average cost of $12,000 per employee per year or $6.00 per hour. This new health care mandate will effectively increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $13.25 per hour. There will be massive layoffs and entire industries who employ hourly employees are at risk. This is a direct hit to small businesses, the job creating sector of our economy!

This is truly a partnership! If you have not signed, please do so! If you have signed, forward the petition to three friends who have not signed and let's move those numbers. www.freeourhealthcarenow.com You can keep track of our progress on our website www.ncpa.org - just click on the ticker link under the Eagle. 500,000 - 1 million, here we come! We are fighting for our freedom!



Jeanette Nordstrom
National Center for Policy Analysis

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Mandatory Volunteerism?

compulsory volunteerism was passed by house & senate and signed into law in april 2009.

Can anyone explain to me how being forced to volunteer is any different from slavery?

I had heard someone say that Obama hates the white man. At first I thought that was just fear-mongering. I'm beginning to wonder now if it wasn't truth.


Title 18, U.S.C., Sec. 1584, makes it a Federal crime or offense for anyone to willfully hold another person in involuntary servitude.

Where are the bloggers that used to post on how badly Bush sucked. They are all strangely silent now. Happy with your choice? I'm not. Cannot wait for an opportunity to vote the man out of office.

Music

Just wondering why it is that blues speaks to my soul so strongly.

I'm sitting here making a playlist at playlist.com and every song I can think of to put on the list is sorrowful, dark and full of emo.

Strange when I feel generally content and happy.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

It's so simple.. socialism does not work

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

*********

I've lost one of my followers on this blog (a big 50% loss.. I only had two.. lol). I don't know if they don't agree with my political views, got tired of the lack of crochet content or what the issue is.. and whatever it is.. it's OK.

I'm just so very worried about the direction our country is taking that I don't have the urge to type about more fun things right now. I am feeling literally ill at times seeing what is happening. While people have their hearts in the right place.. the way things are being approached is wrong wrong wrong.

Just praying that we survive until the next election.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Third Fill

I went for my 3rd fill today. Got a very small one, only .25cc added.. but that's because I am losing still at a good rate, but am still having hunger issues 2 hours after eating a meal.

So I didn't need much added.. just a little fine tuning. And I'm glad only .25 was added.. I'm just a tiny bit sore on the inside.

I'll update this tomorrow.. I'm really tired and going to go lie down now.

Ok.. I'm finally rested up and here's the update......

As of July 1, 2009.. I've lost 56 lbs!!! That's about 14 lbs a month, or approx. 1/2 lb a day for the past 4 months.

Last appt was June 2nd.. between June 2nd and July 1 .. I lost 8lbs. And I didn't try all that hard.. just stayed with my 3 (sometimes 4) ounces of meat and 1/2 cup of veggies.

I am hoping to really WOW my oncologist when I go back in August.  I will
actually be able to be weighed on their scales!! She wasn't all that supportive
of me getting a band when I asked if I was healed enough to get one. She said
"if that's what you want to do to yourself". I'm thinking that maybe she was
confused and thinking I meant a different surgery.. but she's a normal weight,
so she's probably not well informed on this aspect of medicine.

Isn't the band amazing? I lost 8lbs and wasn't even trying all that hard. Even
fell off the "band-wagon" one night and ate about half a bag of flat-earth
chips. At least they were baked. I try not to keep such things in the house,
but we were having taco salad, and I really miss having SOMETHING crunchy/salty
to eat with that.

I'm not beating myself up over it.. but I keep thinking.. what would've the
numbers have been if I hadn't indulged in the chips. hmmm.. what a great
motivator for me.
I'm going to try and figure out how to get my walking ticker posted on here.. I'm trying to walk at least 20 min/day.. the past two days I've walked an hour each day, but that was shopping. I don't think the budget can stand me to shop daily.. lol.

It's so hot here.. heat index for the next two days is going to be from 105 to 109.. so exercise has become difficult if not impossible during the day. 3am walks.. here I come.

When I forget to time my walks.. I go by steps. Past two days I've done 4000 and 4500 steps. woohoo!! I'm on my way to another 8 (+ ??? I hope) lbs gone.



Friday, June 12, 2009

Political comment

I wanted to post a cartoon here, but can't seem to get it to fit the layout.. so I'll just redirect folks to the page (probably safer copywrongwise anyhow)
(copywrong.. all rights reversed..hehehe)

check it out: http://www.creators.com/comics/41/37901_thumb.gif

And just read today about Letterman slandering Sarah Palin and her daughter Willow. And now the fool says he made a mistake, thinking it was Bristol with the Gov.. not her 14 y/o. WTF difference does that make!!! An apology is owed.. to Governor Palin, to Willow, to Bristol and to all women in america. How dare he!! If he had a daughter, maybe he'd think a little differently. Maybe. Some MCP's never change no matter what.

And I totally agree with Lou Pritchett (former vp of Proctor & Gamble) in his letter.. posted below.

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America’ crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett


And for those who question whether Lou Pritchett really wrote the letter above.. yes, he did. Check it out at snopes.


Ok.. my venting is through for today. Off to pray that BHO is defeated in 4 years.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Second Fill

Went back to the Doc today for a consult and hopefully a second fill.

I have had a little trouble over the weekend with sliming (food getting stuck and then you produce massive amounts of saliva) due to eating too fast due to stress (from having a 20 y/o son who does boneheaded things from time to time). So I had to really talk alot to convince the nurse to give me a 1/2 cc fill.

I'm on full liquids till thursday then can eat what I want. I asked if I should do soft foods for a bit before moving back to hard solids, but she said it was up to me. hmmm I think I'll do at least 1 meal of soft foods...

The good news is I'm down 48 lbs since surgery. 48 Wow.. I can hardly believe it. But yet I can cause I'm already wearing smaller clothes. Things I couldn't wear last summer (like non stretch pants) I can wear now. AAMOF, things I bought last week are starting to be too big. yippee!!!

Life is good.

Friday, May 29, 2009

PIllowPurse

Wow.. it has been forever since I posted.

Weight loss continues to go well. I go back for my next fill on June 2nd.. so will talk about numbers and stuff on a post after that.

I finally felted a purse that I've had made for a while. I call this a pillow purse because I used a pillow pattern to make it.

Here's the good stuff:


Wrong side out.. prefelting
PRE_WrongSide

Right side out.. prefelting
PRE_RightSide

Right side out.. with magazine to show size.. prefelting
PRE_RightSide_Size

Right side out.. prefelting.. showing D Ring handle attachment
PRE_DRingHandleAttachment

Right side out.. POST felting.. drying over box.
(horrid lighting.. will try to get better pic up later)
POST_RightSide_Drying


Made with Lionbrand wool in black and scarlet. I've got a crafting date, so must run right now, but will post more details later.

Friday, May 01, 2009

rambling through current events

Hurray for Carrie Prejean for politely and without fear speaking her opinion. There may be those out there who disagree with her, but last time I looked, the United States still had freedom of speech. Or is it now only free speech when it's politically correct?

Ridiculous that being for traditional marriage makes you anti-gay, or being against Obama makes you racist. Has the world lost it's mind?

And what in the world is Perez Hilton doing judging a beauty contest anyway? What makes him qualified? His mouth and manners sure don't. Of course, he's probably brought up in a culture that thinks cussing is no big deal. News Flash: The flyover country doesn't talk like that and doesn't appreciate hearing it either.

I didn't walk today.. didn't even make it to the grocery store. I don't know why, but all my energy faded today. I got sleepy about 10am and since I had gotten up at 3, I took a nap. Since then the day has been downhill.

Finally got dressed at 5pm (ah the life of a country housewife).. and am now waiting for dh to get home before I go to the grocery store. Which is probably a mistake as I ate lunch at 3 and that will put me at the store at mealtime. rut roh.

Swine flu..aka h1n1 (p.c. again!!) has hit near hear.. about 50 miles away. Just hoping it doesn't come here although my son would love for his college to close down. One amusing thing I heard on the news a day or so ago was that a newscaster said "it wouldn't be a bad idea to buy a mask", but said nothing about actually wearing it. Yeah, yeah, I know it was implied.. but I still found it amusing. Any bit of humor in a dire time eh?

Thursday, April 30, 2009

One step at a time

I have so many things going through my mind as I type this.

I want to share my weight loss journey. When I went back for my two week check on March 23, I had lost about 18 lbs. By my next visit about a month later on April 20th, I had lost 28lbs.

Yesterday, I had lost 33lbs. Clothes are fitting better, and the seatbelt in the van isn't quite so tight.

And my dh came home yesterday and looked at me and said.. I'm starting to see your weight loss.. you definitely look thinner. What a sweetheart. I love that man so much!! He has almost never said anything negative about my weight over the 28 years we've been married ( I can count on my one hand the times I've heard him say something hurtful.. and over 28 years, that's not a lot). And he's so very supportive of my efforts. He eats my new cooking efforts without complaint.

Yesterday I made white chili from the bariatriceating.com website.. it was pretty darn good. And under 200 calories/cup. I had 1 cup of soup and 1/2 cup of mixed veggies and I was full. I could not have eaten so small a portion before surgery and be full.

My one complaint so far.. beyond the inadequate post0p pain coverage...is that the Dr. I chose to do my WLS seems to be very very busy and I can't get in when I'm supposed to. I was supposed to return around May 20th and they can't get me in until June 2nd. Two weeks can be forever when you're hungry and trying to lose weight.

I'm also walking almost every day ( I took Monday and Tuesday off of this week because of huting feet and rain) and while I don't enjoy the walking, my dog sure does!! I can tell my stamina has increased.

More later, I need to go bring the dog in and take a shower.. I'm all stinky from walking.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

More Bernat Felt goodies

The first pic is to show the colors of the yarn, the second is to show the whole bag (lousy flourescent lighting) hanging to dry. I don't usually hang bags, but I want the handles on this to stretch some.


Felted Earth Bag 2
Felted Earth Bag


This is a variation of I felt the earth move bag . I didn't follow her pattern exactly, I did the decrease rounds where they looked right to me. I also crocheted in FLO (or maybe it was BLO.. i don't recall.. i was consistent tho whichever stitch I used). I think the yarn I used was much bulkier than hers, so I'm glad I made the changes. Otherwise the bag would've been humongous!!

And when it came to the handles.. I didn't feel like flipping the thing back and forth to make the handle, so I dug out my tunisian hooks and did them in the tunisian knit stitch. And devised a way to hook the handle to the other side instead of stitching.

One more thing I did differently was that I did a round of reverse sc all along the edges of the handles and the top of the bag. I like that effect.. think it gives a project a "finished" look.

This is almost all of the Bernat Felt yarn.. I had 13 skeins. Two left which I made a purse organizer out of and it's in the machine right now felting. Pictures soon.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Time to get back to crochet

I've been felting quite a bit and now it's time to show some of the results.

Found a great buy on Bernat's Feltit in the color "Fresh Poppy" (i think they must be discontinuing this color) and bought TONS of it.. cleaned out the bin ..lol.

I made my own pattern for this.. it's not even written up yet. But I did post the diagram for my idea on my pattern blog. I will eventually write up the numbers, but for those who are confident to proceed on their own.. this should give you a starting point.


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Here's a purse I made for one of the nurses who took care of me during my latest surgery. Her first name is Lisa too. She admired the bags I had with me preop, so I made this for her while I was recovering. I haven't given it to her yet.. I don't know when or if I will see her again.


Prefelting

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Drying over a woven basket

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Finished. But it's VERY floppy, in this picture it has a tupperware bowl inside to give it some stability. I will either need to find something to give it more structure.. or felt it again.

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This is a bag I made from the pattern available here.



Prefelting

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Drying over a Wine Box.. lol

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Showing finished size with a magazine

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Finished and needing a shave

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This last one I'm very pleased with. It's one I made from a stitch pattern I found. It didn't turn out exactly like I had planned, but it's great anyways.

The stitch is very yarn intensive, but makes for a very sturdy bag when felted. I would've made it bigger, but ran out of the dark teal.



Finished, with magazine behind it to show the size (still drying).

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Here it is stuffed with plastic bags, drying.

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Prefelting with the magazine lying on top of it to show size.

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Right side out

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Wrong side out.. which I also think looks attractive.

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I have two or three more bags in progress.. hope it won't take me as long to finish and post about them as it did these.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Socialism

ATHEIST HOLY DAY

Received this in email today and thought it was worth sharing.


FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY

In Florida, an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter
and Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case
against Christians, Jews and observances of their holy days.

The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such
recognized days. The case was brought before a judge. After listening to
the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his
gavel declaring, "Case dismissed!"

The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your
honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have
Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and
Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays."

The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do. Your
client, counsel, is woefully ignorant."


The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special
observance or holiday for atheists."

The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day.
Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it
is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God,
then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned."

You gotta love a Judge that knows his scripture!

Thursday, April 09, 2009

sometimes it doesn't pay to be frugal

i got a boo-boo yesterday. i was going to turn out the light and wasn't paying attention and slammed my left hand into a wall. owie owie owie. i had to go get the frozen bag of peas we keep for an icepack and put it on my pinkie.

well, by bedtime it was hurting pretty good.. and all swollen. so i took two motrin and went to bed.

this morning, not only the pinkie was swollen, but my hand was swollen too. so off i go to the doc/hospital to get irradiated.

i broke a bone in my hand..not my pinkie. fortunately, it's only a hairline crack and not displaced at all, so it doesn't need a splint. doc said just don't hit it on anything else. i don't plan on that!!!

next time i will leave the light on. oh.. and i can't reach the shift key w/o a lot of pain.. so i'm all lower case for awhile.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Update on Banding

This started as a post to one of the many Lapband support groups on yahoo, but as I typed I realized that this was really more of a blog post than a message to the group.. so here goes.

I am 4 weeks out from surgery (March 9) and I keep reading where everyone says the first 6 to 8 weeks are for healing.

I'm not "pushing" myself at all, but I feel SO much better than I did at 2 weeks out, it's like I'm a whole different person. At 2 weeks, I couldn't sit at my computer more than about 20 minutes before I started having lots of pain.. and would have to go lie down.

I remember thinking.. I need to walk, but I hurt so much.. how can I walk? Even taking the glorified tylenol I was sent home with (Darvocet) didn't work. Only thing that did work was Motrin and that was supposedly a no-no.

I finally got back at 2 weeks for my first post-op visit on March 23rd.. and they were very surprised that I was still hurting. I did take a couple of Motrin before driving over because I just couldn't see driving an hour while in pain. I'm soooo very glad the pain is over.

But NEVER AGAIN WILL I EVER HAVE SURGERY (ESP. ABDOMINAL SURGERY) WITH ONLY DARVOCET AS POST-OP PAIN MEDS. And I told the nurses and Dr. B's PA the same thing. If this thing ever has to be revised and all he will provide is Darvocet.. well, I'll go to a different doctor. That's all there is to it. There's no need to fear that I will get addicted to narcotics.. I wean myself off as soon as I start feeling better. I've done it before when I had my hysterectomy.

But the GOOD news is that of March 23rd I had lost 15 lbs. I believe I'm even lighter now.. probably on the order of 20lbs total. I hope it's more, but as my scales and the doctor's scales are way off from each other.. I have trouble telling.

What is significant is that my clothes are fitting better. Things that were too tight, are now loose. Not to the point of falling off.. lol dream on dh...but definitely looser.

I've also found that turnips (really.. ) make a decent lower carb substitute for potatoes. It's surprising, but they work. Haven't been able to get them to crisp up like (oven fried) potatoes yet.. but I'm still in the learning stage.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Tea'd Off (or what to do on April 15)


Dig Deep

Got the plumbers out yesterday.. turns out that the drain wasn't clogged.. the whole pipe near the cleanout near the house was BROKEN. From the riding mower going over it. sheesh. Time to make those lazy kids use a weed eater instead. The plumbers had to dig enough that it looks like I had a flower bed dug.. LOL

Maybe my son will listen now when I tell him not to drive his car over the field lines.

At least now I can wash clothes w/o worry about flooding the laundry room.

I'm getting so very tired of a full liquid diet.

Although this morning I made something very good. I took some fresh strawberries.. maybe 1/2 to 3/4 cup.. I didn't measure, I just used the ones that hadn't gone bad in the pint box and threw the rest in the trash.. lol. Dumped "some" (again didn't measure) plain non fat yogurt on top. Threw in a tablespoon of Flax Seeds and a dollop of 2% milk (to thin it down a bit) and 1 package of unjury strawberry sorbet flavor (for extra protein) and blended all of this together. Oh.. and 1 package of Stevia sweetening (because I thought it needed it.. ymmv). WOW.. is this stuff tasty.

I'm trying to keep my meals small and frequent right now as that seems to agree with my tummy the most, but this is so good I want more than the 2 oz I just ate. I'll give myself 20 minutes or so and if I'm still hungry and desiring more, I'll get some more.

I tried weighing again last night.. don't think I've lost any more, but don't think I've gained either, so this is a good thing. I have trouble with my scales.. I can't maintain my balance perfectly still long enough for it to register all the time. But the numbers that I did see come up didn't go above the last good reading (where I WAS able to remain still long enough).. so I'm hopeful.

Friday, March 20, 2009

It's always something

The saturday before surgery (March 7) I was doing laundry and noticed that there was a little bit of water on the floor in front of the washer. Wasn't sure what was going on.. and really wanted to get things washed before I was put out of commission for a while.

So I went ahead and washed and prayed that it wasn't the hoses on the back of the machine. Must've hung out aleast 7 or 8 loads on the line. Wonderful day. Lots of exercise.

Surgery day came and went.. and I didn't worry about the washer for a week. Just put towels on the floor incase someone absolutely had to wash.

Tuesday of this week I finally found an appliance repair place.. and called them and they diagnosed the problem over the phone.. said it was probably the pump. Seems that nowadays they make the casing for the pump out of plastic and eventually the ball bearings overheat or bind up or something goes wrong and the plastic melts and lets water out on the floor.

Sure enough, when he took the machine apart, I could see where the plastic had melted and a semi-circular hole was in the casing. That's why the machine would still work, but was leaking.

Replacement costed a little over a 100.00, much cheaper than a new machine. But then, while he was testing the repair and then writing up my ticket.. we started hearing a strange noise.. chugga... chugga... chugga... then chugga...... chugga...... chugga...... then chugga............ chugga............ chugga............. slower and slower. Repair man says.. sounds like you have a back up in your drain line.. it's not bad yet, but if you don't get it snaked out soon, you'll have a flood in here, not just a leak.

So now I'm waiting on the plumbers to come out and snake out my washer drain line. Isn't life wonderful?

OTOH.. the back pain from my surgery is beginning to ease. It was never really bad, just constant. And lapbanders are supposed to avoid nsaids (aleve, aspirin, motrin) if possible and tylenol just wasn't very good. I was beginning to have greater empathy for those who are in chronic pain.. it's not the degree of pain so much as it NEVER stops!!! But this morning, miraculously, it's suddenly alot better. Not gone yet.. but better. Thank You Jesus. I needed that.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Protein

Got my samples of Unjury protein powder today.

I ordered the Strawberry Sorbet, Chocolate (gotta have chocolate!!) and the chicken soup flavor to try out. Everyone says the chicken soup is really good.. so I decided to mix it in with the remains of my cream of brocoli soup. Wow.. was that good.

The chicken flavor was a little intense, so maybe next time I'll mix it with a whole can of soup instead of half a can, but otherwise it was really good.

I've been missing crackers with my soup, but lately that has dyed down a little. I did give in a few days ago and put 4 goldfish in my cream of tomato soup and let them get really soggy and then mush them up to babyfood consistency in my mouth.

I also did the same with a bite of steak this past weekend. DH was having steak and he gave me what he considered two small bites. I cut one small bite off of one of the pieces and gave the rest back to him. I chewed all the juice out of the meat.. and masticated it till it was a paste in my mouth and swallowed. No repercussions from it, but won't push my luck.

I want my band to heal well. Healing is what the 2 weeks of full liquids is all about.

I'm down to using the Darvocet (glorified tylenol) only about every 8 to 12 hours now. I do wish the doc's office had given me something stronger and will complain about it when I go back next Monday. NEVER again will I submit to elective surgery with only Darvocet as post op pain coverage. Be better to just hit myself with a stick on the head. The pain from the stick will take my mind off the surgical pain better than the Darvocet would.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Eating O' The Green

I'm wearing green for St. Patricks.. and will also eat green. Today's soup will be cream of Brocoli. yum yum.

Still on full liquids and will be until next Monday at least. I didn't call the doctor, but have discovered that if I try to eat more than about 6oz at a time .. my belly complains at me. So I think it's a good idea to stay on liquids for now.

I might have lost about 9lbs since surgery. I don't trust my home scales.. but it seems that that is what they are saying. We'll see by next week when I weigh in at the doc's.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Mission Accomplished

I did it.

I took a giant step.

I had surgery last week.

I am now the new owner of an Adjustable Gastric Band.

Sorry I haven't posted in about 3 weeks, but I was busy getting ready for the surgery and my new life.

So far, so good.

I'm still on full liquids as of now.. later on today I will call my Doc's office and find out if I get to move to mushy stuff yet..or if that is another week away. Right now, 6oz of a thick soup fills me up incredibly full. And keeps me full for several hours.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Acrobat misses.. Foxit to the rescue

Just read that there is a vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat.. ..after much digging, I finally found this:


A critical vulnerability has been identified in Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 and earlier versions. This vulnerability would cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this issue is being exploited.

above is from : http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa09-01.html

There are patches on the way, but a partial solution is to turn off javascript in Adobe reader & acrobat. It's only partial because someone has been able to reproduce the vulnerability without utilizing javascript.. so turning it off is only a stopgap measure.

I'm sooooooooooo glad I ditched Acrobat reader a long time ago and only use foxit now.

More sites of related interest:

http://secunia.com/blog/44/


http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2690

http://blog.metasploit.com/2009/02/best-defense-is-information.html

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Power of Prayer

While wandering around the web last night I found an essay on why Prayer isn't answered.

I'd love to post the essay here, but as that would be a violation of copyright I'll just have to post the link here.

http://mzbworks.home.att.net/prayer.htm


If you read it, let me know what you think.

To me, it's another way of saying "God helps those who help themselves" among other things.

I do know there was one thing in my life that I wanted so badly, I prayed for it, I prepared for it, I made drastic changes in my environment to let this thing happen.. and it did happen. So I can attest that what the author calls the "Power of Abundance" does work. But.. you may have to give up other things for it.

Has it been a good decision for me? Well, so far I'm happy with my decision. I do know I missed out on other things because of the choices I made, but I would've lived a totally different life.

Read the essay and see if it speaks to you the way it did to me.

Monday, February 23, 2009

The Survivors Club widget

Update on Stray

Well, the vet that I liked wasn't able to see the dog (he had to go home sick) and the other one was tied up in emergency surgery, so they had me sign a paper permitting sedation (just in case) and had me leave him for a few hours.

When I came back about 4 hours later, the vet came and spoke to me. He said he couldn't find any obvious injury to cause the swollen chest and that the abrasions on the back legs were nothing to be concerned about. I asked "what about the matted and discolored fur at his neck". The vet didn't know anything about it. I TOLD the vet tech. Something is wrong here.. there's severe miscommunication.

Anyhow, the vet went back to try to look at him and the dog did his "yipe yipe yipe yipe" routine that he does when he's very frightened. Vet came back and said he couldn't handle it.. that he would have to sedate him to examine him. (Wasn't that what I signed the paper for???) And it being so late on a Friday, that that would get into boarding fees.

I am rather unhappy with this vet and will mention it to my regular vet when I get the chance.

The final verdict is that we decided to take him home (the vet did give him a rabies shot and a long lasting antibiotic) and see how he did. If he was still doing poorly on Monday, I would bring him back in.

I got him home and let him out of the carrier into the bathroom.. he promptly threw up on the bathmat and then went outside. LOL.. thank goodness the bathmat is washable.

We kept him in the bathroom/small yard the rest of Friday and all Saturday.. finally let him go on Sunday afternoon. He's doing alot better.. still not 100%, but better. He's running some and tried to jump, but when he landed he hollered.. so I guess he's still some sore.

I at least feel better to know that he has had a rabies shot since he hangs around my dogs and my house so much.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Taking in Strays

I have a vet appt in front of me today. I know I've talked about the little neighborhood stray that likes to hang out here with Sasha. We don't know who he belongs to or his name.. no collar or tags. We call him "Pogo" because he jumps straight up into the air about 4ft..when he's feeling good.

He's not feeling good at all today. Late yesterday evening, we noticed him in our yard and went to see him and he didn't jump like he usually does.. and when we tried to pick him up, he screamed. (he's a whiner, he hollers when a big dog chases him..and he hasn't even been touched..but this was different)

We got him inside enticed with a bit of doggie treat and once we picked him up, he quit hollering. Looking him over, we at first thought we saw a bb gun wound, matted reddened fur, but we couldn't find an actual wound. Then we noticed that one side of his chest was swollen and two little abrasions on his back legs. So now we think maybe he was grazed by a car.

We kept him penned up in the bathroom that has an outside door with a little fenced yard last night and he seems a little bit more comfortable this morning. He let me lift his front legs off the ground with only a whimper, no screams. I called the vet this morning and they said they would see him at about 11. Now the trick will be to get him into a carrier. I don't think anyone has ever done much with this poor little one. Looks like we're going to be semi-adopting him.

My dh said the other day that what he'd like to do when he retires is to get into Dog rescue. This may be our first step in that direction.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Good Hair Day

I got my hair cut today.

It was down to my waist.

Now it's just below my shoulders.

I didn't mean to cut so much off, but it felt so good, I kept on going.

Actually, it was severely tangled, so we just cut off the tangles.

Now I get to grow it out again.

(The old color is almost grown out.. now I just have to adjust to having so much gray)

Saturday, February 14, 2009

My valentine heart




Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"



A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out.

Your heart is open to where ever love takes you!



Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out



Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking



What turns you off: fighting and conflict



Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love



humorous pictures
more animals

Friday, February 13, 2009

GRITS.. manna from heaven

Got this in an email from my Uncle. I agree with 99% of it..all but the fork part. I use a spoon.. don't want to miss a single grit.

Southern is as Southern does!

IN GOD WE TRUST, THE SOUTH SHALL RISE AGAIN!

What Are Grits?

Nobody knows. Some folks believe grits are grown on bushes and are harvested by midgets by shaking the bushes after spreading sheets around them. Many people feel that grits are made from ground up bits of white corn. These are obviously lies spread by Communists and terrorists.

Nothing as good as a Grits can be made from corn. The most recent research suggests that the mysterious Manna that God rained down upon the Israelites during their time in the Sinai Desert was most likely Grits.

Critics disagree, stating that there is no record of biscuits, butter, salt, and red eye gravy raining down from the sky, and that God would not punish his people by forcing them to eat Grits without these key ingredients.

How Grits are Formed:

Grits are formed deep underground under intense heat and pressure. It takes over 1000 years to form a single Grit. Most of the world's grit mines are in South Georgia , and are guarded day and night by armed guards and pit bull dogs. Harvesting the Grit is a dangerous occupation, and many Grit miners lose their lives each year so that Grits can continue to be served morning after morning for breakfast (not that having Grits for lunch and dinner is out of the question).

Yankees have attempted to create a synthetic Grits. They call them Cream of Wheat. As far as we can tell the key ingredients of Cream of Wheat are Elmer's Glue and shredded Styrofoam.

These synthetic grits have also been shown to cause nausea, and may leave you unable to have children.

Historical Grits:

As we mentioned earlier, the first known mention of the Grits was by the Ancient Israelites in the Sinai Desert.

After that, the Grits was not heard from for another 1000 years. Experts feel that the Grits was used during this time only during secret religious ceremonies, and was kept from the public due to it's rarity.

The next mention of the Grits was found amidst the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii in a woman's personal diary.

The woman's name was Herculaneum Jemimaneus (Aunt Jemima to her friends.)

The 10 Commandments of Grits:

I. Thou shalt not put syrup on thy Grits.
II. Thou shalt not eat thy Grits with a spoon or knife.
III. Thou shalt not eat Cream of Wheat and call it Grits, for this is blasphemy.
IV. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors Grits.
V. Thou shalt use only Salt, Butter, and red eye gravy as toppings for thy Grits.
VI Thou shalt not eat Instant Grits
VII. Thou shalt not put ketchup on thy Grits
VIII. Thou shalt not put margarine on thy Grits.
IX. Thou shalt not eat toast with thy Grits, only biscuits made from scratch .
X. Thou shalt eat grits on the Sabbath for this is manna from heaven.

How to Cook Grits:

For one serving of Grits:
Boil 1.5 cups of water with salt and a little butter.
Add 5 TBsp of Grits.
Reduce to a simmer and allow the Grits to soak up all the water.
When a pencil stuck into the grits stands alone, it is done. That's all there is to cooking grits.

How to make red eye gravy :

Fry salt cured country ham in cast iron pan. Remove the ham when done and add coffee to the gravy and simmer for several minutes. Great on grits and biscuits.

How to Eat Grits :

Immediately after removing your grits from the stove top, add a generous portion of butter or red eye gravy. (WARNING: Do NOT use low-fat butter.)
The butter should cause the Grits to turn a wondrous shade of yellow. (Hold a banana or a yellow rain slicker next to your Grits; if the colors match, you have the correct amount of butter.)

In lieu of butter, pour a generous helping of red eye gravy on your grits. Be sure to pour enough to have some left for sopping up with your biscuits. Never, ever substitute canned or store bought biscuits for the real thing because they can cause cancer, rotten teeth and impotence.
Next, add salt. (NOTICE: The correct ration of Grit to Salt is 10:1
Therefore for every 10 grits, you should have 1 grain of salt.)

Now begin eating your grits.
Always use a fork, never a spoon, to eat Grits. Your grits should be thick enough so they do not run through the tines of the fork.

The correct beverage to serve with Grits is black coffee.
DO NOT use cream or, heaven forbid, Skim Milk.)
Your grits should never be eaten in a bowl because Yankees will think it's Cream of Wheat.

Ways to Eat Leftover Grits:

(Leftover grits are extremely rare)
Spread them in the bottom of a casserole dish, Cover and place them in the refrigerator overnight. The Grits will congeal into a gelatinous mass.
Next morning, slice the Grits into squares and fry them in 1/2 inch of cooking oil and butter until they turn a golden brown.

Many people are tempted to pour syrup onto Grits served this way. This is, of course, totally unacceptable.

IRISH BLESSING BEFORE EATING GRITS

May the lord bless these grits,
May no Yankee ever get the recipe,
May I eat grits every day while living,
And may I die while eating grits.

AMEN

Now excuse me while I go cook some grits. Anyone know where to get Dixie Lily Yellow Grits? They are exceedingly hard to come by.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Back to the farm

Looks like it's time for us all to start growing our own food.

"Beware of what you eat. You are on your own",
Senator Tom Harkins announces.

http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency/anmviewer.asp?a=346&z=1

Who didn't know this already? I have always maintained that locally grown food is so much more safer than stuff shipped in from who knows where. At least now they have to tell us where the fruits and veggies come from... that's a start.

I do feel for the people in big cities who don't have a farmers market to go to.

I just don't understand

How is it that people in the news keep forgetting that they owe taxes?

The IRS surely doesn't let US forget that our Uncle wants his (more than fair) share.

Do these folks have friends in advantageous positions? I can't figure any other explanation.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/tax-cheats-or-tax-idiots/

And beyond not understanding.. I'm OUTRAGED at Geithner being our treasury secretary.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark (aka Washington, DC).

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20090209_Stu_Bykofsky__If_the_rules_apply_to_Betty__why_not_to_politicians_.html

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Showing Off: Valentine Tote

I am going to brag on myself a little here.

I saw a pattern for a square and turned it into a felted tote bag. How cool is that?

Not only is that cool.. I used Tunisian and did lots of color changes.. whoopee!!
Based on the December Square from the Stitch to Win contest at CrochetToday : Pyschedelic Heart. I was also a maverick in that I used TKS instead of TSS.

You might have to register to be able to see the pattern, but it's easy and unobtrusive. I had to enlarge the graph to be able to see where to make the color changes, which means I had to d/l an editor for my foxit pdf reader, but once I had gotten that accomplished, the rest was gravy.

(I did write to coats and suggest that they make the graph larger and on a separate page for those of us with impaired eyesight.. or make the graph in black and white and label the squares p, r, o for the pink, red, orange colors.. they wrote back thanking me for suggestions and offered to send me all the patterns. No telling if they'll take my ideas and use them, but at least I'm getting all the patterns already printed out for free. I'm happy.)

I didn't have any orange wool, so I used white. I know white sometimes doesn't felt as well as other yarns, so that made me nervous.


Here's one side:
OneSide

Another side:
OtherSide

Another thing that made me nervous was all the color changes.. would they hold together during felting?

Here it is this past weekend, 99% complete, waiting for handles and to be seamed up.
PreSeaming

This morning. I finished making handles. Ran out of enough red to make handles and finish off edge, so used some hotpink too. I think it actually looks nice this way.

Seamed

Just another photo. Prefelted the body measures about 11" wide by 14.5" tall.. about the size of a legal sheet of paper.

Ready2Felt

I threw it in the machine with a tiny bit of Gain liquid detergent, hot water and permanent press cycle. (We have soft water..so I can get by with tiny bits of soap). I stopped the machine at the end of the wash cycle before it spun.

Felted

A better angle where you can see the handles. I'm not sure if I like the short handles. If I were plannning on keeping it, I might redo them.

felted2


The finished size is about 12" high and about 9" wide. Not exact measurements cause I measured while it was stuffed with plastic bags drying.

What do you think? I think I love it!!

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Windows 7

Seems Microsoft is beginning to let us know a little bit about Windows 7. It will come in 6 flavors, Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate.

How confusing will that be?

I'm just hoping my win2000 pro and winxp will keep on chugging a good long while.

Read more here if interested.

Monday, February 02, 2009

Felt-it Felting

It's just my luck. About the time I discover a yarn, the company takes it out of production. Such is the case with Caron and it's Felt-it yarn (actually, I think I'm beginning to notice that Caron is rather quick to discontinue yarns.. or is that only my imagination?)

Here is a little tote that I made with 3 skeins of Caron's felt-it. I'm pretty sure the colorway is called Wildflowers, but mine doesn't have as much cream in it as the colorcard at Caron shows.

I had 3skeins and it was barely enough.. but would've been enough if I hadn't experiemented with doing the handles in a different manner and messed up some of the yarn.

I was so short that one of the side seams wasn't stitched securely enough and it came apart during the felting process. I had to stitch it back together while still wet with a totally different wool.. but I don't think it shows very much.

Actually the mend makes it even more unique and one of a kind. ::grin::

Without further ado.. here are the pictures.


Mended
Mended area
PostFelting
Postfelting
Prefelting
Prefelting


I can't give out the pattern, it's based very heavily on the Felted Tunisian tote class taught by Kim Guzman. You can visit her group at Ravelry or one of her websites, CrochetKim or Wips'NChains. Perhaps she might agree to assist someone, but I cannot share it, so please don't ask me.