IT'S A CHOICE

OF COURSE THEY ARE ALL OUT OF ORDER.  I SPENT THE ENTIRE DAY GETTING XMAS EVE FOOD READY.  TODAY, XMAS DAY, I AM BAGGED.  SO TURKEY HAS TO WAIT TIL TOMORROW.  THIS WAS MY XMAS MORNING BREAKFAST IN BED.

EVERY TIME MONTE HAS A BRILLIANT IDEA A LIGHT ON HIS HEAD COMES ON.

WE COULDN'T FIT THE DESSERTS OR THE SPINACH DIP ON THE COFFEE TABLE.

THE MAIN SHOW.  THERE WERE ONLY THREE OF US.  THERE IS AN OBSCENE AMOUNT OF FOOD LEFT OVER.  THAT WILL BE TODAY'S SUSTENANCE.  TOM HAS TO WAIT TIL TOMORROW.  TIL THEN HE WILL SIT ON THE DECK IN THE COLD...COLDER THAN THE FRIDGE WHERE HE WOULDN'T FIT ANYWAY.

 The title of this post is basically my motto.  Now you people that are around me a lot, if you actually read this thing, know that I don't always remember to exercise that thought.  I try to but I am getting old you know and forget things.  lol.  

So with that in mind I gave myself a good talking to this morning when I woke up at 1:00 am.  I woke up sad for heaven's sake.  (shovel list) I took time to analyze why was I morose and unhappy. I wasn't really sure. 

 But April had sent a text how she was missing the childhood excitement for xmas, Santa on the roof...she is sure she heard him one night in our old old house, the plethora of gifts and stuffed stockings (or should I say garbage bags as the stockings would never hold it all), delicious food and candy and things we never got otherwise.  There was so much excitement, surprises and fun.  I responded by saying that there wasn't an adult out there that didn't mourn the old times with our little children and also when we were kids ourselves. 

 I have a dislike for parents, that in the silly light of 'not lying' to their kid,  dispel the Santa myth.  Meanest thing on the planet!!!  To deprive them the very few years of true belief and faith in a Santa is really awful and mean. Says something about a parent that would be so misguided.  Kids figure it out eventually and I have never ever heard of a child holding it against the parent for not telling them there is no Santa. I have heard of kids being very resentful of a disbelieving parent! And if the parent handles it well, it can be explained in a most fantastical way.  You know who you are out there!!!!  Shame on you and missing that magical time with your children. In my opinion only!

Back to the analyzing.  I realized that I am missing being with all my family, no tree, nothing special happening, no presents, no overstuffed garbage bags standing in for stockings.  No little oranges that back in the day you could only get at Christmas.  Then you would keep the wooden box they came in to use on the front seat between Mom and Dad for the youngest kid to sit on.  yikes!!  And no driving around looking at xmas lights.  No one seems to be doing them this year.

So I gave myself a shake, wrote on my gratitude list, reminded myself that it is a choice how this xmas is going to go and started to get excited about the plan the three of us came up with.

So xmas eve is where it happens.  Xmas day is all turkey dinner day...making it, eating it and cleaning the kitchen afterwards.

All three of us happened to be in the living room so I asked them what we should do xmas eve.  I said we can't just sit around and stare at each other.  Games are out.  Mr. Autistic doesn't play games.  Talking is out.  He doesn't talk/visit either.  Movies are out.  He doesn't watch tv at all.  Like what the heck are we going to do?  Ange did mention movies and he went along with that!!!  I suggested a xmas movie but he piped up that we should watch a Bollywood musical!!!  I am not sure if Ange was too excited about that, poor thing, but I dove on it and and YES YES YES!!!  The fact that he was even willing to watch something at all, not only was a big thing....it kinda made my xmas.

So I have chosen to hakuna matata (sp?) and enjoy.  I do get to cook.  Tonight we have blueberry balsamic slow cooker meatballs (blueberry only because stupid Walmart delivery doesn't have grape jelly..shovel list), cranberry balsamic baked brie, surimi, prawn and scallop seafood dip using yorkshire puddings for the dip, spinach dip, one with chestnuts and one without, small charcuterie board, creamed corn and salsa dip with scoops, triscuits and ritz crackers, banana peanut butter honey roll ups and sliced like sushi.  I wanted some smoked salmon but this town doesn't have any.  I mean Aryn got some in Dawson, a gerjillian miles from the ocean and here we are on the ocean but noooo..no smoked salmon anywhere.  And if that isn't enough I have fifty wieners in the fridge and pilsbury wiener wraps and then all the pickles and olives and Kathy's pickled beets.  A real Xmas eve.  I also made a three sandwich loaf batch of stuffing. There's a ton of it for the huge turkey.  

Then the baking.  I didn't bake at all.  I don't want to be worn out to the point I can't make dinner tomorrow.  So I ordered brownies, squares, little cinnamon buns, Christmas fruit cake...which reminds me.  If any of you get the dreaded fruit cake and you hate it (which I don't understand) please save it for us.  We not only eat it, we love it.  And it has a shelf life that beats Twinkies so even if I don't see you for a couple of years it will still be good.  We will take it. Thank you in advance.  We would be willing to pay a small storage fee.

Have any of you made spinach dip lately.  They don't sell chopped spinach anymore.  At least not in Port.  They do sell the frozen cubes.  But that spinach!!!!  It's like a cow chewed it, swallowed it and regurgitated it.  It has been mulched into microscopic pieces...no bigger bits to chew on. It actually goes through my fine sieve!  So disappointing.  And it gets everywhere. It gets in my raccoon wounds.  (shovel list)

Well I gotta bounce.  I need to prepare the brie to bake, chop prawns and scallops and bake the risen bread loaves (from frozen) in the oven.  And I have to figure out how long the turkey needs to cook for tomorrow.  I paid 23 dollars for a non deformed or missing parts smaller turkey.  It was in the grocery delivery order.  That sucker is seven kilos.  Seven!!!  Fifteen and a half pounds.  Not sure if the three of us can handle that!!!  Between now and new years we will be eating all the different things you can make with a ton of turkey.  And I don't eat meat.  So that is almost eight pounds of turkey between the two of them.   hahaha!!!!!

Have a wonderful Xmas out there!!!  I will be thinking of you all.  TFL & TTYLG

RAMBLE TAMBLE

 Here is a little piece from an essay I am reading by someone that has schizoid effectiveness disorder.  For those that don't know what that is, it's a more extreme autistic reaction to things plus a few other symptoms not suffered by autistic people. This article I chose to read because Monte has this diagnosis as well as autism.  This particular bit I have copied because even though I do not have sed this writing completely resonated with me.  And it was so well written.  Here goes

 Cooking Grounds Me Like Nothing Else

When an episode strikes, thinking doesn’t help. Breathing exercises don’t help. Even talking doesn’t always help.

But cooking does. Because it forces my body into a rhythm my head can follow. The sound of the knife on the board. The weight of the dutch oven. The smell of onions hitting hot oil. The heat from the stove. The way ingredients respond exactly the same way every time.

Cooking never judges me. Instead, it gives me something stable, repeatable, and predictable to hold on to.

It pulls me out of thought and back into action. It reminds me I can create order in one small corner of my day, even when everything inside feels unraveled.

Cooking is where my mind quietens enough to let me continue living

If the printing doesn't show up just run your cursor over it and it will.  Same with quotes I put down below.

I love to cook.  It does for me what crafts, music, painting, anything you love does for you.  Unfortunately I am truly having to adapt to my back pain fixes.  Either I will have to try pain killers (shovel list), just use my kitchen chair more or give up cooking...(SHOVEL LIST. not an option).  I avoid bending over for as long as possible and recognize what is my enemy. lol. 

Number one is the dishwasher.  Even leaning my elbow on the counter and using my other arm to load or unload isn't really working anymore.  Thank the heaven's above the minute I sit down the pain stops and after a few minutes I can get up and go again.

Tomorrow is laundry day.  I don't have a ton.  It's been weeks since I did the last batch. But I basically wear the same outfit for a week.  Not the undies but everything else.  You don't amass a ton of laundry that way.  And remember according to my last post my laundry has basically been cut in half.  hahahaha!!!!  Just kidding.

Well I have managed to deck out my front room with 22 battery operated candles....making up for not having a tree, even a tiny one, for the first time in my entire life.  I don't enjoy the process anymore.  I have become waaaay to fussy about balance and symmetry.  If there is even the slightest tiny hole with no lights I get obsessed as I rock in my chair and stare at it.  Then I get up and move lights around til I am satisfied.....for five minutes.  I am like my old gramma Graham.  She always had a wood stove for everything.  And she was famous for stoking the fire til it went out.  So funny.  So I decided to not stress myself out this year with a balanced tree.  My Libra nature oozing out. 

One pro fix back move I have made is to spend 120 bucks (eeeek! shovel list) on a full size seat and back chair cushion that both vibrates and heats.  I got it yesterday and I am not overly sure that it made any difference to my back per se, but it absolutely lulled me into a dazed stupor.  A dazed stupor is lovely but I am already addicted to that flipping chair, now I will be welded to it.  We shall see.  I have offered Ange to come up and use it too for her poor back.  Maybe if the two of us use it I won't feel so guilty.  that was a very big whack of money to spend on myself...especially when our whole family isn't giving gifts this year.  Giving gifts is absolutely the most important reason for xmas...at least to me.  I LOVE giving gifts. I'm missing it.

Thats it folks.  I am sitting in my bed whilst I type this but I hear my chair calling out there!!  Gotta bounce!  TFL &TTYG. I have added a g.  I always say later gator.  so now there is a g for gator!

'Children make your life important' Erma Bombeck 

 

COMPANY AND PASTA MIX!!!!

 Stan and Antonia and their poodle doodle of some sort were here for one night.  I decided to make pasta for dinner.  She loves pasta passionately but Stan doesn't really eat it.  It sure wasn't on our roster growing up.  Dad liked potatoes so no rice or pasta.  And Stan definitely prefers that.

But Antonia loves pasta and they don't eat it very often.  I decided to make two pastas.  One was my old tried and true meat forward spaghetti sauce and spaghettini.  The other was a brand new aha! type recipe.  You make a layer of cherry tomatoes in 9x13 size casserole dish and you nestle two Boursin cheeses in it.  Then you bake it til the cherry tomatoes start to burst.

Well the spaghetti was delicious.  The other not so much.  I mixed it with rigatoni pasta like the recipe said and boy was that the wrong pasta.  It overwhelmed the delicate sauce.  Ange and I didn't care for the taste either.  Stan and Antonia didn't eat much of it but went back for seconds of the spaghetti.  But Monte freaking loved the rigs.  Loved them.  Thank goodness cuz there were tons leftover and almost no spaghetti!

The pharmacist visit was way better than I ever expected.  Ever!!!! They immediately made an account for me and took all my meds info and connected me to Avi tele doctors.  And then made me an appointment for a phone consult the next morning at nine with a dr.  He phoned right on time asked a couple of questions and sent a three month (there max) to the new pharmacy and ended the phone call with 'talk to you in three months!'  I walked out of there on air!!! I am so happy and relieved.  No more panicking near the end of my prescription deliveries.  That pharmacy is in the same building as Monte's office so he will just bring them home to me when they are ready.  win win

Now I am going to clean my house.  I was up at 5:30 this morning so I very quietly cleaned the kitchen.  Now it's dining room and guest room.

That was yesterday.  Now it is the next morning.  I was awake all night out in my chair watching Blue Heelers on Acorn tv....best streaming station ever.  I was also making lists and decisions about xmas.  It is going to be a turkey dinner after all.  Easier than a bunch of finger foods and appies.  Also xmas eve is so important to our family.  So we are all contributing to that.  Even though it's just the three of us I think it is pretty important to keep the traditions going. 

 So Monte rolled home at six this morning with my fave breakfast from McD's...a McGriddle and orange cranberry muffin...still warm.  I am off low carb right at the moment thank goodness!!!  I am sitting up in my bed, chowing down on awesome food, blogging and watching Australian TV.  I am a happy old fat broad I must say.

I am thinking about starting a secret blog.  It will have all the Deep Dirty Deets in my life.  There will be a select discreet list of people who would have access to it.  Nothing would be held back and it would be right down and dirty and gossipy.  I predict there will battles to get on THE LIST.  And you can rightly presume that if you are NOT on the list, dirty details about you will be revealed.   hahahaha....just kidding!!!  I love you all!!!  TFL & TTYL

THE UPSIDE OF GETTING OLD AND WEARING DEPENDS:

It cuts my laundry in half.  think about the significance of that.

It gives you an excuse to stop wearing tights or tight trousers...comfy and baggy it is!

No worries doing things like jury duty, tourist submarine tours or buried somewhere near the bottom of massive stadium seating.

THE DOWNSIDE OF GETTING OLD AND WEARING DEPENDS:

When you are a guest in someone's house, where do you dispose of the used one to freshen up with a new one.  They are very bulky and fill a bathroom garbage can to an embarrassing level.

Wearing bulky disposable underpants compared to cute little lacy numbers forces you to face the fact that senior life has now landed on you permanently.

And when you choose to take a break and not wear one you can forget  you aren't wearing one.  I think you can understand the downside of that.

My advice is to get jiggy with it quickly and cope the best you can with a positive mind and a sense of humour.  Anything else will be destroying.  

TERROR IN THE NIGHT

 Okay maybe I am using a touch of hyperbole in my title but I was actually scared in the night.  What woke me around three am was a tremendous loooooong crash of extremely loud thunder.  And it was weird thunder.  It sound like it was rolling in a barrel and it was heavy...it actually shook my chair.

  Soon after I could see forked lightening out the window and more weird thunder.  And even more scary than that was the wind.  Only once years ago in Kamloops, literally fifty two years ago, I was in a worse wind storm than last night's.

  The wind last night was so strong and gusty and blew things around on my deck, heavy things.  Every single strangely last clinging leaf on a tree was blown to smithereens.  So were blow up Santas.  (shovel list...I dislike blow up decorations, during the day when they are flaccid they look like deflated used condoms...not nice) sorry

We had a fantastic fun weekend.  The kids arrived late.  I guess they were stuck behind big trucks and it was that foggy they had to go super slow.  But arrive they did!  We visited and caught up for a while then we all hit the hay.  They had worked all day before coming so they were pretty tired.

As it was raining out we just stayed home and talked, pianoed, watched something on tv, played with Leeloo, got dressed and ready to go to the tap house for dinner etc...  It was so awesome and relaxing.

The Tap House was so much fun.  We really had a fantastic time! How often do you get to eat in a real true blue train station converted but completely kept to the original look.  I know!  The Spaghetti House downtown Vancouver is sort of like it.  But this one was smaller and more authentic because it IS a once upon a time train station.

But...I wasn't impressed with the food.  I didn't even eat mine.  But I will say the raw oyster presentation was amazingly delicious.  I should have just ordered three of those (18 oysters) and I would have been a lot happier.  Plus the service was bad enough to reduce our tip to 15%.  But they are only two and a half months old so we shall give them a chance.  Plus everyone else loved their food.

The funniest thing though was Monte.  Being autistic he gets very involved and sometimes offended by the oddest things...things that the rest of us either miss or just don't give a rat's ass about.. That night it was the fusion food on the menu.  He thinks that fusion food is completely disrespectful to the origins of the food.  And he would not eat any of it.  He didn't order one thing except a san peligrino.  And we got a lengthy interesting lecture on why he felt that way.  Life with an above my pay grade intelligence human can be very illuminating and interesting.

The kids left around three for home on Sunday.  The house was pretty empty.  So I just took a little time to sit and reflect on the visit until I didn't feel so lonely.  I will see them again the first week in January or there about.  I am making an appointment at my old hair salon in North Van to get a proper spiral perm.  Spiral perm curls just last waaaay longer than the regular curls done by regular people.  I need a Viet Namese hair dresser.  And the salon I always went to are predominately VN.  And it has to be early January.

And this is why.  I am going to Mexico with Kathy and some teacher friends, or retired teacher friends during spring break.  I have gone with them before to Mexico not long after Bill died.  I think I mentioned this before here...I was reluctant at first.  It isn't really fun being the only fat broad in a group of skinny good looking folks...at a beach no less.

  It shouldn't matter.  I am pretty sure these people don't give two hoots about what I look like, and I shouldn't either, but being honest here I DO give two hoots.  No matter how little I eat, how many carbs I avoid I just lose so little weight.  Mind you after what I have deep dived in to google about the latest discoveries about type 2 diabetes it is kind of predictable.

  I was skinny and careful about carbs to stay that way and had been since I was 24.  I was about 120 pounds.  Then type 2 inexplicably hit when I was around 40.  And the weight just came on no matter what I ate.  I don't like not being in  control of that.  (shovel list). You would think by 73 yrs old it just wouldn't matter anymore.  The attitude I can control, and shall work on doing better at that part.

Anyway it's a lot easier for me to have properly permed hair...especially in a hot humid climate.  But not too close to the date of the appointment.  People who don't perm their hair or don't live with someone who does, may not be aware of how badly you stink (sorry mom, stink is the only word that suits here) when your hair is newly permed.  It is awful.  

Well enough for today.  I am off to the pharmacist now to change to a new pharmacy and ask for advice about pain medicine.  Ever since I wrecked half my kidney function with ibuprofen I am leery to take any at all.  My lower back and tailbone has made it impossible to get things done in a timely fashion and my sister gave me some amazing advice that changed my whole stance on pain meds.  Her arthritis doctor told her to keep moving...no matter what.  And if the pain keeps you from it like mine is within five minutes of moving around...take pain meds and keep going.  She also is the one who suggested I speak to a pharmacist about that cuz there ain't no way I can see a doctor here in this ol' town.

Thats it folks.  Gotta bounce.  TFL & TTYL

'In two decades I have lost 789 pounds, I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.'  Erma Bombeck

CLEAN HOUSE AND PEA SOUP

 My house is clean as a whistle and I made a massive pot of split pea sludge.  That ham had a very big bone in it and I had a 900 gram bag of split peas.  Inevitably there was going to be pea soup.

  And thank goodness my low carbing means I can't eat it.  No amount of fibre can yank down the carb count in that soup.  And the thank goodness is because that was the smokiest ham I have ever bought and I despise the taste of smoke.

I didn't hate it up until Monte and April were 6&8 years old.  We went to Maui for a holiday and Spod, being a spam freak, bought a can of smoked spam.  Sounded good, looked good, smelt okay but the taste?  Hokey Dinah...I almost can't eat even bacon now.  Anything smoked turns my stomach.  And this pea soup might as well have had a smoke gun on it for the last six hours.

The housecleaner was here on Wed. so the house is pretty clean.  I spent most the day today working on my bedroom.  You wouldn't know it to look at it.  I just don't have anywhere to put anything.  I really don't.  Back in the nether days we didn't have a ton of everything. Now we load up on quadruples of whatever we own.  I say it's buying choices.  I don't want one pair of brown shoes and boots for winter and one pair of white shoes for summer. I want ten pairs.  Choices.  

In grade 8 when we first moved to Vancouver from lowly Smithers, I had one wool pinkish skirt and one blouse.  For the whole school year!  I wore the same outfit for a whole year.  I am happy to say I didn't care one bit.  Can you imagine a 13-14 year old kid of today handling that?  Not on your life.  And now when I look at my room I yearn for those days again!!!! Much simpler times!

But I digress, as usual.  Company is a'comin'!  Myles and April are arriving around ten tonite.  They can only stay til Sunday.  But we will have all day tomorrow to visit and play the piano and have fun!  I am going to teach April my version of Hallelujah.  She is very capable of learning the original but she says she prefers my rendition.  It's waaaaay simpler.  I mostly play by ear...always have. 

We were trying to decide where to go for dinner tomorrow night.  She mentioned the Station Tap House.  I had never heard of it!  I didn't think it was possible that there was a restaurant in town I had never heard of.  And they both like beer so as soon as I hung up the phone I googled it.  And it's just down the street from us!  DOH!!!!  The menu is awesome, small but refined.  And all the beer is from around here.  We have amazing distilleries and beer maker places.  I forget what those are called.  Breweries!!!  Thats it.  Award winning ones.  So we shall go there and I am going to eat carbs!!!  Then when we get home we may watch a movie or something.  I am so excited.  

And next week end my brother and Antonia are coming for one nite!  Two visits in a row from people!!  We never get people.  I am not sure I remember how to have people.  hahaha!!!!!

Okay enough rambling.  I shall report on our weekend on Monday!  Have a great weekend and TFL & TTYL

'If I had my life to live over, I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.'  Erma Bombeck.   this woman is my hero

WARNING: A FOODIE EXPERIMENT POST

 Now and then I like to talk about the food I am trying or going to try.  The reason for this one is I am experimenting with low carb but delicious meals....a complete meal.  Not easy!!!  You would maybe think we diabetics can just chow down on vegetables and meat.  How exciting does that sound?  So now and then when I have a brilliant idea...even if it turns out to be a junker in the end I will be posting about it.

I decided to buy a massive heavy giant bone in ham.  After the initial dinner I cut the meat off and then make pea soup with that bone.  I will still maybe make pea soup for Monte and Ange.  I won't be eating it.  Too many carbs.  But I can snack on the leftover meat.

I looked up keto glazes and lo and behold I have all that I need according to the recipes I found.  Every one of them was the same.  Low carb brown sugar, dijaun mustard, vinegar.  Thats the base.  Add spices and what you like.  You boil it and in pictures it thickens.  We'll see.

Fifteen minutes a pound for the ham.  My ham is about eight pounds so two hours.  There will be yummy pan juices...especially with the glaze mixing in with the meat juices.  So...how to utilize that....

Well I happen to have two, not one but two purple cabbages.  I have got to that stage of life where I forget tiny details like I bought a cabbage already.  And they I bought purple ones because they are only four bucks to green cabbage's eight!  Ridiculous.  And don't forget, as I have mentioned before, cabbage is PIG FOOD.  That is what we fed our pigs when we were kids!  We rarely ate it ourselves.  Now it has become an elite expensive side dish.  And I know why. 

I totally blame it on the popularity of pulled pork.  Pulled pork, which I hate, has caused two sad things.  Firstly pork shoulder.  Pork shoulder roasts or steaks were welfare people's go to meat.  I was on welfare for years once upon a time and we ate a lot of it with shake and bake.  Then along came pulled pork and shoulder, or butt as it is also called for some unknown reason, was the only choice of pork that works.  And you guessed it...because that cheap ass cut of pork gained a desirable identity....stores put the prices up.  Way up...for junk meat.  (shovel list). And what mandatorily goes with pulled pork?  Why that would be coleslaw.  All of a sudden pig food also gained an identity.  And...up goes the price of cabbage..the lowest of low vegetable.  Enough said!

But cabbage's one redeeming factor other than it is delicious, it is low carb.  So due to two taking space in my fridge (actually the top of my outdoor freezer, it's cold enough now) and us all trying to low carb to some level or another it will be cabbage with the ham.

I am going to cut them in half and roast them in another pan at the same time as the ham.  But when the ham is finished I will remove it to a cutting board, ready for my kitchen chainsaw, and I shall transfer the cabbage wedges to the drippings pan, use a little glaze on the cabbage and finish roasting it.

And...this is the exciting  part.  I am going to make us each keto mug cheese muffins.  I might not use mugs and make a triple recipe and make them in the oven in my silicone muffin pan.  Haven't decided yet.

So sliced ham with glaze, roasted pan juices cabbage and cheesy keto muffins.    They only have 3 carbs per muffin.  Cabbage has five carbs per cup of cabbage and ham has zero.

My hopes are high.  But recently I saw continuous comments and pics for 'chaffles' on low carb sites.  Cheese waffles that use almond flour, cheese and eggs.  One day I made them and hated them.  I really don't like almond flour so I am not holding out too much hope about the muffins.  We'll see.

Anyway I am going to take pics as I go and I shall try to attach them to this post in a sensible order.  But it IS blogspot.  No control.

Speaking of control that is what prompted me to once a week try to come up with low carb ideas.  So instead of sitting here moaning about it and scrambling around in my brain for a medium carb eating plan, I am going to actively make up a proper low carb dinner once a week that generates left overs!

So as usual I almost forgot to take pics.  I get so involved in the process I forget that part.  But I got a couple so here goes.  I will attribute a number between 1 and 10 on each of the four things involved with this dinner under the picture.  By the way...the glaze worked beautifully and it didn't spike our blood sugar.  TFL & TTYL

AS USUAL ALL OUT OF ORDER.  THIS GROSS MESS IS THE PIG FOOD...PURPLE CABBAGE.  IT WAS AWFUL.  0 OUT OF TEN.  IT WAS LIKE SHOE LEATHER AND WE WOULD NEED MUCH NEWER SHARPER FALSE TEETH TO EAT IT.  BAD!!!

THE GLAZED HAM.  I WOULD GIVE THIS ONE 8.  FOR MY TASTE IT WAS WAAAAY TOO SMOKED.  THE SMELL PERMEATED THE HOUSE TO THE POINT THAT BY TWO IN THE MORNING I HAD TO TAKE AN INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH GRAVOL....IT SUPER MADE ME SICK.

THESE WERE SUCCESSFUL.  I MYSELF WOULD GIVE THEM A 6.  ANGE LOVED THEM, SHE EVEN WANTS THE RECIPE.  I FOUND THEM TO GRAINY OR SOMETHING.

IGNORE..STUPID BLOGSPOT

THE GLAZE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT GOT A TEN.  IT WAS DELICIOUS AND THICK AND GOOEY.

THE FINAL BEAST.  ALL GLAZED AND ROASTED.  IF YOU LOOK CAREFULLY YOU CAN SEE WHERE I SNUCK A TASTE.  THAT WAS WHEN I REMEMBERED TO TAKE PICS!!!

I HATE LOW CARBING

 Seriously!!!  Low carbing and being diabetic sucks the fun right out of life.  It's expensive, it's meat forward...not my favourite and it's boring as hell.  I am an all or nothing person and I can't find a happy medium.  I am either stuffing my gob with very inappropriate food (muffins, potatoes, rice, sloppy casseroles, muffins etc...) or I am measuring crumbles of carrot, four peas, ten pieces of rice etc (shovel list).  How does one find a happy doable medium?

  And people that tell ya that one bite is enough are full of crap.  You know I was looking at a raggedy hunched over homeless soul who had been going through the dumpster behind the store.  He started eating a baguette end...and I totally envied him.  Seriously!!!  I envied him, this poor downtrodden, raggedy fellow. I felt like crying...and not for him...for me!!!!  I was freaking jealous of him and his freakin piece of dirty mouldy bread.

  The upside?  I have lost almost eight pounds and my blood sugar is bang on!!!!  I just have to get jiggy with this way of eating.  No choice.

Small towns are funny.  People are way too involved in every decision the mayor and councillors make.  Every little traffic change thats made causes a shit storm on our local fb page.  Every little improvement done gets endless ridiculous criticism.  In big cities, we the public generally have no clue what's going on in city hall.

Well here it's the public indoor pool.  A place I want to partake of.  I think swimming is about the only exercise I can do now with my issues.  And I love swimming (as long as I don't get my hair wet).

That being said the second year I was here they closed the pool for renovations.  Well holy bejeepers you'd think the powers that be had decided to paint all the streets pink for berjillians of dollars.  The hue and cry (lol..I checked with AI if it was hue or hew) was crazy, mostly against.  The bros in this town are bullies and buffoons and the pool is predominantly used by women and women with kids.  Bros don't give a rat's ass what we want.  So the pool sits idle waiting for a miracle.  Have you ever heard of a town without a pool?  Sigh.

Okay this has turned into one big whine.  My apologies.  I think I spend way too much time by myself listening to my tinnitus.  Right now it's screaming in my ears. I am trying to figure out what key it's in.  I can hum it.  Maybe I will go to the piano and find out.  And maybe I won't.  Maybe I will be smart and just say good bye.  I promise I won't post again til I smarten up.  TFL & TTYL

                  A BLAST TO THE PAST

IN OUR KITCHEN IN OUR LOG HOUSE WE BUILT IN BAMFIELD.  THAT IS MOLLY IN THE PLAYPEN.  WE COULDN'T TAKE A CHANCE OF HER GETTING OUTSIDE....EAGLES HAVE ACTUALLY EATEN LITTLE DOGS UP THERE.

WHEN WE REBUILT THE HOUSE AFTER THE FIRE, WE GOT OUR MOOSE BACK.  THE RESTORATION PEOPLE FIXED HIS BURNT NOSE. HE CAME WITH THE HOUSE.  AND FOR THE LIFE OF ME I CAN'T REMEMBER HIS NAME.

I DO BELIEVE THIS IS THE STRANGEST PIC I HAVE IN ALL MY THOUSANDS OF PICS.  SOME OF YOU HAVE PROBABLY SEEN IT BEFORE.  WHILE WE WERE BUILDING THE LOG HOUSE IN BAMFIELD, WE LIVED IN THIS DECREPIT BROKEN DOWN HOLES IN THE FLOOR TRAILER.  IT WAS THE HAPPIEST PLACE I HAVE EVER LIVED.  VERY LOW MAINTENANCE.  ARYN IN THE PINK/RED JACKET IS CARRYING AN UPSIDE DOWN MONTE.  I AM NOT SURE WHAT APRIL IS DOING.  POOR JENIFER IS TRYING TO WATCH THE 13' TV WAY OVER ACROSS THE ROOM.  THE TRAILER CAME WITH A CRAZY MURAL ON THE WALL.

NOTHING NEW

 Jeez!!!  I lead the most boring life.  The most exciting thing I did since talking to you guys is...let's see.....NOTHING.  We were going to be going to Nanaimo today but the place Monte needs to go to is actually in Parksville and closed Mondays.  So we will go tomorrow to Parksville and then for something different we head to Courtenay/Comox to the Costco there.  It isn't much farther distance than Nanaimo, just the opposite direction.

Stores in the smaller, and sometimes bigger, towns on the this here island close for three days a week.  Sunday Monday and Tuesday.  Go figure.  It is so annoying!!!  And I know they say unemployment numbers are super high but so many places are closing or closing part time because of employee shortages.  How does that work? 

 Our I.C.U. just closed indefinitely at the hospital.  So we are in a town with all the old doctors  retiring and the one clinic with the one overworked doctor is only open intermittently.  If you have 3-4 hours to go and try to get one of the fifteen  chairs in the hallway and hopefully he doesn't get called to the hospital and the clinic closes...after you have sat there forever...you may get to see a doctor.  Most of us do telephone doctors but they can be a real pain in the butt.  They don't seem to understand that it's either you renew my prescriptions  or I just go without.  The pharmacists can only give extras now and then.

  And god help you if you are travelling.  It's almost impossible to get enough pills to cover the end of your three months prescription, all they can give.  I hate it.  Poor Kamloops.  At least we are only 18,000 people.  Kamloops is in the same boat with one clinic and they have over a hundred thousand people.  I really want to see where my kidneys are at (they aren't so good) but you have to see a doctor.  Anyway enough of that crap.

On the lighter side I just bought a ton of battery operated pillar candles.  They are all on remote controls so I can line them up in my front window (hopefully making up for no tree) and on the piano and on the mantel.  I love lights!!!!  I also got two plug it ins with apple cinnamon smelly wax thingies.  That is my nod to xmas.  I am sure we will get good old Hey Google to play Elvis's xmas album.  And I bought Ange a big cat xmas puzzle the first year she was here.  We never put it together.  So maybe Xmas day we will clear the table and do a puzzle.

I am glad my kids don't feel I have reached that age where they must spend xmas with mom...it might be her last.  My experience with that is we have spent many a xmas with old gramma who never dies.  I don't want to be that person.  Nope. (shovel list). Plus all those grammas were shoved in a corner and totally ignored.  I am actually thinking of inviting some of our familyless peoples for xmas or xmas eve.  I shall consult the household about that.

Not to belabour it but....the hardest thing to come up with is decent between meal snacks on this woe.  So I took a page from April.  One summer in Bamfield the whole family low carbed it.  When we got back to town in summer she had to go back to school. And she did something I have never forgotten.  

I used to buy fat little chubs of liver sausage.  It is a zero carb perfect snack for us low carbers.  No crackers mind you.  Well (she was in grade ten) she would put one of those with the end cut off in a zip lock bag in her back pack and every now and then stick her finger in there and scoop out a gob and surreptitiously eat it! So I keep one handy with a small hole poked in the end and every now and then I squeeze a squirt into my mouth.  Keeps the hungries away!!!!

Well enough of that.  Gotta clean the house.  Housekeeper comes next Wednesday and I am gone all day tomorrow.  Take care and TFL & TTYL

1. “Keto is not about depriving yourself; it’s about finding new and creative ways to enjoy your favorite foods in a healthier way.” ― Martina Slajerova. (I call total bullshit on this quote)

 

HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO

 Grooooaaaaaannnnn!  Back on the low carb train.  It would be so much easier if I could shop in the states.  They have the most amazing plethora of keto low carb foods.  Go Trader Joe's!!!  But that is actually just being lazy.  If you are willing to spend a little time and money you can cook keto all day long.  Literally!  lol!!!!

Unfortunately I don't like almond flour.  It's grainy and falls apart in your mouth and it reminds me of when I accidentally get sand in my mouth.  And coconut flour, the only alternative, is difficult to deal with.  When I am low carbing all I want and all I can think about are muffins. But making muffins keto is not an option.  Here is why....I can't help but compare and thats the downfall.

 We have a coffee shop here called Steampunk. They sell the most amazing incredible muffins on the planet.  They are huge, heavy, loaded with goodies and an awesome array of kinds.  Apple spice, Pina colada, carrot cake, banana chocolate chip, oatmeal peach, all with a buttery crunchy crumble top.  OMG!!!!  I have no real idea of the carb count on them but at a pretty experienced guess here I would say around a thousand.  I want one RIGHT NOW!!!  Keto muffins are a very sad replacement.

In preparation for this 'back to it' way of eating, I stocked up on some snack things.  One of them is cheap 2 carb per piece, Walmart brand cheap wieners.  I also buy a carton of apple segments.  So I get a dish and get three wieners and four segments of apple.  I cut them up in smaller pieces and eat a piece of wiener then a piece of apple then a piece of wiener and then a piece of apple....raw wiener...I don't like them cooked.  It's no muffin but it's low carb and pretty tasty!!!  (when you are desperate)

Tomorrow we will hopefully be making a trip to Nanaimo to Costco.  There are just things that should be bought there.  Turlett paper, meat, olive oil, buckets of mayo, lox, cheese, cookies, cakes, breads, bagels, buns, brioche, muffins, dam!!!!!  I am also not going to be able to partake of our usual treat of fries and gravy and hot dog.  When you go to Costco only four times a year you can indulge guilt free, except when you are low carbing it.  Maybe I will take the wiener out of the bun and eat that, without the apple part.  Sigh.  (shovel list...I am going back to shovel....penguin just couldn't cut it, either that or I am way more a shovel person than a penguin one).

Well enough complaining for one post.  The upside of all this is the feeling of accomplishment when I choose to not eat crap.  I taught myself back when I first low carbed when I was 24 that when I feel hunger that is a sign of accomplishment.  And of course my lower a1c is a really big bonus.  So right now I am feeling extremely over the top accomplished and I need to check that my blood sugar number isn't too low.  Lol!!!  Gotta bounce!!

TFL & TTYL

I RAN OUT OF APPLE!!!!!!  I HAD TO SUBSTITUTE CELERY CHUNKS.  SO I ADDED MAYO.  IT IS BASICALLY CARB FREE SO A NECESSITY ON MY LOW CARBING.  SADLY DOESN'T IT LOOK LIKE MASHED POTATOES?

 

IF YOU ARE HAVING A LOVELY DAY, DON'T READ THIS NEGATIVE RANT!

 You know that old cliche...'you can put a man on the moon but.....'. Well I have a rant that I need to get off my chest. And like I said please feel free to skip this post.

A couple of months ago Aryn installed roku on both of my tv's.  My monthly Telus bill for optic tv went from 200 plus different amounts every month (which included internet) to 124.  Most of that is the internet.

It took me a while to get used to the Roku.  It has its drawbacks. The actual change in the programming is great, it's the instrument you have to use that is the nightmare.  My rant is about their  unbelievably ridiculous extremely badly designed clicker. It's so bad I googled who was the idiot that designed the piece of crap.

Bould Design from San Francisco is the culprit.  The opening statement on their site is all untruths according to me.  And as I have pointed out before...this blog always seems to end up about moi!  I am going to try to post a copy of their little statement that starts their site.  It probably won't go properly as I feel that whoever designed blogspot are cousins of Bould design.  Here goes:

BOULD DESIGN is a strategic partner for bringing highly functional, beautiful and successful products to life through a professional, user-centric design process. Our focus on function, simplicity, quality and character has achieved outstanding results for clients ranging from stealth mode startups to diversified multi-nationals.

Well guess what?  I am a client and I have a total opposite view of their clicker.

1.  Function?....the little buttons are....LITTLE!...My fingers are not big.  They don't overflow onto neighbouring buttons on anything else...like my other clickers I have.  But this little piece of crap?  Why yes they do.  One is forever hitting two buttons at once and always the wrong one is the one that will operate not the correct button.

2.  Beautiful?...it is about four inches by 2-3 inches, all black with teeny tiny faded white printing or symbols on the buttons.  Plus it is not a sharp square edge that sits on the arms of chairs or edges of overcrowded side tables.  Noooo.  It is rounded so it falls off EVERYTHING.

3.  Successful?...  it freaking well is NOT.  It is so tiny you keep dropping it.  And to push buttons from the top of it to the bottom you actually have to hold it with one hand to poke buttons with the other.  Thats just plain stupid.

Clearly young people with dexterous hands that still have max feeling in their finger tips and good, really good, eyesight so they can actually see what the buttons are and good memories so they can whip around that stupid control with no problem, designed this.  Plus they are from San Fran.

Well I am a fat cranky old half blind desensitized broad.  Who the hell do they think are the tv watchers in this world?  It sure as hell are not any people under 55ish.  Those youngsters are all watching YouTube or insta or tick Tok  on their phones.  They don't need weenie pieces of crap to operate a tv.  But us old dinosaurs need big huge buttoned, well marked, bright remote controls that don't fall off arm chairs and side tables.  It takes five minutes to get out of that chair to pick it up and if we bend over too far we either fall or can't get back up.  And by then when we finally get back into our chairs we have to find the damned rewind button and the stop button and the go button and.....well you get the point.  Shame on BOULD DESIGNS.  (I hope they have a roaming bot that finds their name when it's used.  If you did find it and you are reading this...SHAME ON YOU!!!). That does happen doesn't it?

Well if you are still with me I don't have anything to report.  My house is so clean.  The cleaner came yesterday for the first time in a month.  Boy did it ever need cleaning!!!  And now I sit here feeling nervous.  Clean houses always make me feel nervous.  Today I am determined to find all my jeans (totally missing) and throw out half my shirts.  Wish me luck!!!

TFL & TTYL

YOU KNOW UNTIL THE LIGHT FROM THE CAMERA WAS ON IT I HAD NO IDEA THAT THE ARROW BUTTONS WAS PURPLE

NOT ECHOING YET BUT GETTING THERE

 There is something very addictive about junking stuff.  I do have to admit though I don't throw out unused unopened packages and boxes of food.  That Monte takes down to the Bread of Life and donates.  But I am having trouble with one bunch of stuff.  I am truly understanding hoarders a little more.  And that is with my shirts.

I have about forty shirts, most existing since 2003.  And because of my upper back deformity (nice way of saying hump due to double scoliosis) my shirts ride up at the back.  And I really hate that.  So I am constantly reaching back and tugging my shirts down.  And because my right arm is gibbled I only use my left arm.  Now a great portion of my shirts have thumb holes on the bottom at the left back side.

I remember many years ago when my sister and family lived in our Monte Creek house for a while.  They were looking for a house to buy.  One evening there was a showing and she asked me to go along.  I said I would love to and as we were about to leave she gently says, 'were you going to change?'  I wasn't, hadn't even thought of it.  But when I took a look at what I was wearing....well let's say rag bags looked stellar compared to what I was sporting.  I just never noticed or really cared if I am honest.  But I happily went and changed...probably not much better.  

I will put a pic on here somewhere.  Preferably at the bottom but this blogspot has a mind of its own.

Yesterday Monte and Ange were at the dollar store.  I was buzzing around the house working away and I thought I heard Ange come upstairs but she didn't find me and say anything and when I went to sit for the five minutes I need to sit cuz of my back there was an awesome surprise on the chair.  A mars bar!!!!  I passionately love those things and once a year at halloween I allow myself one mars bar.  But this year whilst I was in Vancouver Monte got into the halloween candy and there were no mars bars left when I got home.  I lamented to Ange.

Well I guess she bought me one at the dollar store!!!!!!  And there it was!!!  I pounced on it and gobbled it down!  Soooooo ooooey gooey good.  I took a selfie of me eating and sent the pic to Ange with a giant heart!!!

But then I took an actual look at that picture.  I was wearing a pair of dirty black jeans, big pink slippers and a black sweatshirt that I didn't remember but what the heck.  Down the arm was written 'I draw the knife'. Huh???

When Monte saw it he says hey!!!  that is my Wolf Parade shirt.  Ooooops!!!!  But holy hell you can't see those clothes in the pic but Jesus Murphy my hair, my fat neck, my big brown sun spots!!!!  Egads!!!!  I don't remember looking in the mirror since I got home and boy does it show!!!  So if shirts are that unimportant to me it's time to do a massive cull.  That will be my goal for tomorrow.

Well as usual this post is ALL ABOUT ME!!!!  Again.  I mean I could be writing about politics or other news or crap that happens in town here or......but no.  I write about me.

So before I launch into another all about me story I shall hang 'er up here.  Have a wonderful time til next time....TFL & TTYL

I CLEARLY HAVE NO PRIDE

but it is a picture of happiness!!!!

RAIN RAIN RAIN

Well folks, yet again I am in the clearing out and disposing of goods....purging you might say, mood.  And due to the crappiness of dealing with  FB marketplace I am just chucking it all out.  Our thrift stores here are very hard to please thus I am not considering them either except for clothing....clothing seems to go no problem.

  I try really hard to feel bad about the waste and throwing out perfectly good, sometimes new, stuff.  But I don't.  Those feelings are what totally complicates a good massive clearing out.  Thank god for black non transparent garbage bags.  And thank god for the van and the garbage dump.  I really don't want my kids to have to do it after I am gone.  I am not stopping this time til my voice echos in here.

No xmas tree this year.  As much as I love staring at the lights I have decided there will be no tree, not even that tiny one.  I will let Biscuit shine for us.  Biscuit is the flowering hibiscus and right now she has three massive flowers glowing on her.

Ange showed me the most awesome app the other day.   It's called Freeprint.  Every thirty days you send them up to 45 pictures and for the cost of shipping...6.99 they send 4x6 prints to you.  They are beautiful!!!  So I got onto Amazon and bought four little albums and I have sent my first batch off.  I am sending them in groups that make sense.  The batch I sent off this first time was the pics of our Vietnam trip and the pics of us all at Hullcar burying Mom's ashes with Dad at the cemetery there.  I will label  each album for quick finding.

I apologize if I am missing words or saying things in a screwy way.  I have a really interesting show on tv going, my phone is blowing up for some reason and I keep getting bleeps on my laptop.  Busy techy day today!  I like doing three things at once and my brain just happens to be in the kitchen.  I made an order super early this morning at Walmart site for a ten o'clock delivery.  Two 2 pound sirloin tip roasts and sourdough.  

Back when I first went on the dr. Atkins way of eating, one thing I subsisted on was cooked roast beef, cheap cut, put through a meat grinder.  You also put through a piece of bread for every 2-4 pounds of roast and a little onion.  You then add mayonnaise and salt, pepper and whatever spices and herbs you want.  Zero carbs in that and it is delicious to snack on.

The last time I made this was yonks ago in Bamfield.  Cookie and I made a big batch with the old crank handle stainless steel grinder that you clamp onto some overhang ledge.  I have a picture of her and I cranking away!  I think we were in pjs. 

Well this is getting me nowhere!  Gotta go and get the roasts ready.  Not sure if I can figure out how to work the stupid thermometer.  I have always had Monte do it!  But alas...he has left home.  He hasn't slept at home even once since I got back.  Hope he doesn't get caught.  You aren't allowed to live in those places.  I have told him but you know.....

So have a great week or few days or whatever and TFL&TTYL

'Out of clutter, find simplicity.'  Albert Einstein 

HOME AGAIN HOME AGAIN JIGGETY JIG!!!!!

 Okay!  The actual physical trip home was a complete nightmare.  And I am on a mission to get rid of that tiny piece of shit car.  Honestly it is very rare that I take the time and energy in my life to regret my actions or decisions but here is one I am really regretting.  Selling the jeeps.  Oh we have totally saved enough money in gas to be happy but....what is the point in having a vehicle with so many negatives.

Don't buy Corollas people.  First of all they are so low to the ground even spry young people have a hell of a time getting in and out of them.  The seats are so low I can't see out of the stupid thing.  I have asked other people  to tell me if they can see the hood of the car when they are seated and no matter how much they strain up they can't.  Like how do you drive onto ferries and tight parking spaces when you can't see the front of the car?

The giant screen with your life story written on it sticks up so high it blocks your vision when driving.  The bottom of the car scrapes when you go over speed bumps.  The only thing this car can do really well is corner.  And that ain't enough to entice me into kind thought about that assy little piece of crap.

It was raining hard all the way home.  Really hard.  And every puddle, no matter how small sent the car sailing sideways.  What the hell is that???  So even going only 70 it was happening.  So scary.  And on the freeway it was easy to go really slow cuz everyone could pass me but when I hit the two way road it was whilst all the working bros in big pickups were heading back to Port from their respective jobs.  

Not happy about doing 70 or 80 they would ride up right on my backside and flash their lights and honk their horns.  I would have pulled over but it was raining so hard I couldn't tell when there was a pull off.  I finally made it to Cathedral Grove and pulled over.  I am NEVER EVER driving that car in the snow.

But the real drawback to all this is Monte.  He absolutely loves that dumb car.  And he owns one third of it.  I am not sure how I am going to solve this problem.  In a year I am going to have to do the DMV tests to renew my license and because of my eyesight in short distances (long distance is perfect) I may end up  having to be chauffeured around and it will become a moot point.  I need a shovel, not a penguin.

I had a fantastic time at Myles and April's.  I spent a lot of time alone while they worked and played at previous plans so I had awesome time to think, rethink and write.  

I think I mentioned I belong to a writing group and I get twelve essays per day.  Most I don't read as they aren't interesting to me.  But the ones I do have taught me so much.  Sometimes I write comments to the authors.  One of them wrote me back.  I had mentioned in my comment how I was raised in a pretty severe iconoclastic religious lifestyle that has been likened to a cult.  She suggested I write about being raised that way.  Well, it sparked something in me!  So I started to write and it is rolling out pretty easily.  I really love writing and I am quite happy if anyone reads it or if no one does.  It's not a requirement for me.  My mother was similar!  She always told me to burn all her writings after she died.

It is good to be home.  Now it is time to get ready for my most disliked holiday of the year.  I hate halloween.  It wasn't fun when I was a kid and it isn't fun now as an adult.  I hate fireworks and running up and down the stairs to answer the door a thousand times.  With any luck it will be raining and cut down on the amount kids.  The part I do enjoy though is seeing all the little ones in their costumes.  I even enjoy seeing the older ones, especially the ones with homemade costumes.  Normally I would have one box of large chocolate bars for the teens that are proud and brave enough to come to the door at ten o'clock at night.  They are the most fun.

Well thats it for today.  I apologize for the negative overtone.  I am actually feeling very happy and content.  I gave Monte some money and sent him off to Pete's Mountain Meats to buy a dozen lanjagger sausages.  Myles bought some from his butcher and gave me half of one and I have been jonesing for lanjagger ever since.    TFL & TTYL

Nutritional Value of Landjaeger

Landjaeger is not just tasty; it also offers several nutritional benefits, making it a practical choice for those needing a quick energy boost.

16. 16

    High in protein. Each serving provides a significant amount of protein, essential for muscle repair and growth.

17. 17

    Rich in fats. The fat content helps to provide long-lasting energy, which is particularly useful for outdoor activities.

18. 18

    Contains essential vitamins and minerals. These include B vitamins, iron, and zinc, which are important for overall health.

19. 19

    Low in carbohydrates. This makes it suitable for low-carb and ketogenic diets.