That she is not starving, and no, she may not have any of my not-really-egg-salad-sandwich-with-wheat-free-bread? And further, she is certainly not entitled to have a taste of everything I've made for myself to eat? Because clearly she is not listening to me.
Golly moses, can't a girl eat her faux food without getting barked at incessantly? Sheesh.
A few weeks ago, I did that Quantum Wellness cleanse. And as part of that cleanse, I discovered I felt better when I wasn't eating wheat. So over the last month, I've been slowwlly moving towards a wheat and gluten-free diet at home. (And I do mean slowly: it's been about a month now.)
And it's been good. I'm starting to find adequate - and even tasty, in most cases - substitutes for the stuff I really love (like pasta! and cookies!) and in general am finding it fairly easy to make the shift. Thanks to Trader Joe's.
Also thanks to Trader Joe's: for reasons I can't begin to comprehend, I am now suddenly grossed out by animal flesh. This started on Saturday morning when I picked up a package of 6 chicken breasts and a 1-lb container of ground turkey. I put them in my cart and started driving it around. About 10 minutes later I realized that I was a bit grossed out by the raw meat in my cart and further realized, "there is a snowball's chance in hell that I'm ever going to take that meat out of my freezer and cook it when I get it home." So I put the chicken and turkey back.
Tonight I had my very first "egg" salad sandwich since 2003 when I bought one on my way to the beach and, 72 miles later, had to pull over along hwy ... something... and throw it up.
Not my finest moment. (Actually, now that I think about it, a lot of my 'less than fine moments' have involved vomiting. Must ponder that.)
So I'm just a touch sensitive to eggs. But the thing is, I love eggs. I love devilled eggs, egg salad, those Starbucks Egg & Cheese sandwich things... yum. Eggs are GOOD. Eggs just don't like me. (I can have small amounts of eggs, on occasion - which is how I know I love those Starbucks breakfast sandwiches - but definitely must not have them regularly. Or I pay for it. Dearly.)
So life and work have been crazy busy lately and Rennie is continuing to recover quite nicely (although she continually tries to lick at her healing incision. Ugh.) I don't have a lot of big news to share, but here are a few things that have come up or amused me over the last few days:
Item the First: My aunt called this evening after having seen the talent portion of Sarah Palin's 1984 Miss Alaska competition to make sure I'd seen it. Why? Because I play the flute and the flute, in this video, is what Miss Palin tries to play... To echo my aunt's statement, "My yorkie could play the flute better than that!"
You've got to watch until at least about 1:30 in, when she goes completely off-key and the trumpet comes in and tries (not-quite-successfully) to drown her out. And it all goes downhill from there.
It's one of those "must look away but can't" kinds of situations; laugh-out-loud funny.
Continue reading "Various and Sundry Updates & Observations" »
So Thursday's excitement with the IV was merely the beginning of the wackiness experienced throughout the weekend:
First: the "affair" with Cutie Boy ended as quickly as it began. It became abundantly clear on Thursday night that we wouldn't be going out Saturday, when he didn't know about his childcare at that point. My thinking: if he really wanted to go out, he'd have known, and called me and made plans. And he didn't. And when Saturday rolled around - the day of our agreed-upon get-together - and I didn't hear from him I wasn't surprised. (I told you repeat dating experiences weren't my forte.) I supposed I could have called and bugged him and whatnot, but frankly, I just don't want to work that hard. I made a reasonable effort and if he'd been interested he'd have picked up the ball and run with it. So to speak. And he didn't.
Okay, so not so much wacky as pathetic. But I'm okay with that. I didn't really want to be dating anyway.
(Seriously, I'm giving up dating. I'd become a nun, except I'm not so much interested in the Catholic thing. Darn Pope. Phooey.)
Saturday, I slept all day. The end.
Sunday, I felt terribly clever because a) I managed to stay awake for most of the day, b) I did laundry, and c) I actually remembered to take the ground beef out of the freezer several hours before I wanted to cook it! Usually I take it out about 10 minutes before cooking and either microwave-defrost it (which results in partial cooking) or I scoot it around in the skillet for 45 minutes waiting for it to thaw.
So, um... HI! Your friendly (though woefully inadequate) neighborhood non-astrophysicist under-achiever here!
The pity party is over. Obviously.
Now I am home and reveling in the fact that I've made it through my third Tysabri infusion and I'm feeling... tired. Yeah. So no change. But on the upside, I had no rash, no hives, nothing remarkable. Yay! I also got to see a couple of my favorite nurses at the outpatient infusion clinic and the IV insertion was painless and left zero bruise. Would that that were the case every month. As someone who's had her fair share of IVs now, I can say my favorite nurses are the ones that a) can insert an IV and/or draw blood while I feel absolutely nothing, b) said IV does not leave a bruise or mark of any kind after the IV is removed, c) offer me a pillow and nice warm blankets and d) bring me Diet Sierra Mist and a sandwich.
I mean, if you have to be stuck with needles and sit there for two hours and watch some poor old woman get her blood transfusions, the least they can do is offer you a sandwich. Right?
So it's been a lovely, relaxing sort of day. I slept late - until 9:30 a.m., which doesn't seem all that particularly late in the grand scheme of things. It seems like it was just a few years ago that I had zero trouble sleeping until noon, but now I can't seem to sleep past 10 a.m. without needing to get up, scurry around, drink a cup or five of coffee and DO something. Might be an aging thing, though I suspect the caffeine withdrawals might play into the equation somewhere.
Anyway, so I got up this morning with only one thing I really wanted to do today: pamper myself. I did do some grocery shopping - because despite having a variety of food I could eat, there was really nothing I wanted to eat. When I got home I put together a Crockpot full of chili and after a couple hours of napping I set about the personal care ritual and I now have a pretty French pedicure, fresh, clean skin and soft shaven legs. Also, I have a freezer full of vegetable chili and most of a can of chipotle chilis in adobo sauce for which I need to find a recipe.
In general, it has been a good weekend: Friday afternoon I spent with my mom's family celebrating Independence Day and my mom's birthday. Yesterday was low-key and (mostly) spent around the house. Nothing terribly exciting but also not a bad way to spend a weekend. I feel refreshed and ready to head back to work!!
And now I'm off to bed because tomorrow I'm going to attempt to get back on the daily exercise wagon, but if anyone has any ideas what I can make with those chipotle chilis (besides making another batch of chili) I'm all ears.
So it's been rather a busy sort of week, and yet here I am - more than a week from my last post - and I've got absolutely nothing to write about. So I thought I'd give a general update of sorts on my activities since I last wrote anything of substance, in case anyone cares or is worried about whether I've suffered an attack of PML:
So, for starters, no PML. I am PML-FREE! I had my second Tysabri infusion on Friday and, as with the first one, I came home, went to bed and slept for most of the day. I'm not sure whether it's the Tysabri itself, the process of getting the infusion (dealing with the needles and setting up the IV, etc., etc., etc.,) or some combination thereof, but sleeping after my infusion seems like the best way to spend my day.
Oddly, though, I've been feeling pretty run down and tired the last couple weeks (beginning before my most recent Tysabri dose) and so I've been sleeping a lot anyway. So perhaps I'm staring a relapse in the face and just not realizing. In that case, I think sleeping a lot might be my best defense.
Just wondering...
As often happens while I'm cleaning up the day's dishes, today while standing at the kitchen sink I had a bunch of phrases and blogworthyish thoughts pop into my head. What also often happens is that by the time I get back to my laptop I've forgotten said phrases or ideas. Today that's only half true. The thought I had while standing at the sink this evening was, "warm brownies with butter pecan ice cream on top is like a little piece of heaven right here on earth."
And then, right that minute (because I have no self-control) I served myself up a brownie (left-over from my visit w/ a friend on Sunday), heated it ever-so-slightly in the microwave and scooped the last bit of Haagen-Dasz Butter Pecan on top. And now I'm eating it and writing to you all about it and.. well... YUM.
So I don't have a lot to say tonight; no words of fiscal wisdom, no schemes for World Domination a la Pinky & the Brain, not even much in the way of "life events." But there are a few things I've been meaning to share and a couple things that have sprung up this week that I thought I'd blog about for your entertainment. Or mine. I'm not sure.
Continue reading "Scrapings from the Bottom of the Barrel" »
...people, I'll be damned if I don't feel BETTER!
I mean, yeah, it's early (it's only been 4 days) but since beginning the Synthroid I feel like myself again!
Myself, as in the person who can clean the house and STILL have energy to go out later.
Myself, who can work a 9 hour day and still feel energetic and clear-headed enough to write a blog post.
Myself, who can go out for a walk and not have to take a nap afterwards just to make it through the rest of the day!
I'm not counting those proverbial chickens, mind you: as I said, I've only been on the stuff for 4 days, but if it continues to work the way it has these last few days (or, dare I hope, better!?) I'm going to be in much better shape than I have been in a long, long time.
Continue reading "At risk of angering the gods of health and well-being..." »
So I'm going over to the house of a friend of a friend to play poker tonight, hence the early posting! I have this funny feeling I'm going to be out quite late eating guacamole (made by yours truly) and chili cheese dip that has been characterized as "evil" by several folks who will be attending.
I promise to report back on my day tomorrow, because it involved celebrating my 2-year sobriety anniversary and also a rather-more-successful attempt to find a bra that fits me. For you ladies out there who have, um, boobies that are on the larger size, Nordstrom is a lovely place to spend lots of money. They have a much bigger selection than Macy's, and on top of that, they have lovely sales-ladies who run back and forth between the dressing room and the floor to pick you up different sizes and styles.
Ever had one of those weekends where everything is leisurely? You get up each morning, laze about, have a cup of coffee while you eat breakfast and read the paper... Yeah?
Those are nice kinds of weekends. That is exactly NOT the kind of weekend I had this weekend.
I've been moving non-stop since 7 am Saturday morning and am only now sitting down to think for the first time in the last 48 hours. Some of the things I've done in the last two days include:
Things I wanted to do this weekend? In no particular order:
So, despite not getting some things done that I wanted to get done, I still managed to be pretty productive. And I'm not sure about the rest of you all, but going back to work tomorrow morning is going to constitute a welcome break from busy-ness for me!! :-)
Continue reading "Shades of Black, White and Everything in Between" »
So I've continued with my baking endeavors this week: I basically ruined my attempt at sourdough over the weekend and ended up throwing out the starter and starting over... we shall see how the new batch works. However, I did do so well with the basic French bread that I decided - upon craving something sweet and yummy this afternoon - to make some cinnamon rolls.
So I dug around in my recipe box and pulled out this little gem, which I'd cut out of Cooking Light about two years ago. It was given 5 stars on the website, and for good reason. These puppies are TASTY and - at only 232 calories and 5 grams of fat a pop - they're HARDLY bad for you! (Right? I mean, 232 calories? That's like 1/16th of a Cinnabon and not nearly so sickeningly sweet!)
(Quick aside: there's a whole lovely montage of bun-baking pictures on my flickr, for those who care to take a peek. And those who care to take a peek will also be treated to new, extra-cute photos of Miss Rennie, as well!)
I think I'm having the reverse of spring cleaning which, apparently, is "Fall Messing." Make Messes! Everywhere! All I have to say about that is, thank GOD for my dishwasher.
So, yeah. I'm fine. Annoyed and a bit disappointed, but generally fine. Gilbert has, smartly, steared clear of me all day and though I anticipate that we will eventually re-establish our friendship I'm just not ready to do so yet.
However, the readers of my blog (I think I'm up to at least 10 now!) are lovely and pretty people who say sweet, thoughtful things. So, my deepest thanks to everyone who's left a comment or sent happy thoughts over the last 24 hours. It means more than I can say... er, write. And for the record: I've not sworn off dating for good at this point; I'm just not going to focus on it. (After all, who needs a boyfriend when you've got a YORKIE?)
Anyway. So. With all the time I now have on my hands - on account of the current dearth of boyfriends - I decided to do some BAKING! (Because nothing helps assuage a bruised ego like baked goods!)
Specifically, I'm baking bread. Though there may have been some chocolate chip cookie baking last week too. I'm not sure. I may have blocked it out.
Anyway, the point is: a couple weeks ago, while in the midst of the first part of my Total Money Makeover I was hungry for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich but had only two of the three ingredients: peanut butter and jelly. No bread. (And yeah, I know this is especially weird given my general distaste for peanut butter, but go with it. I was hungry.) So rather than run to the store and spend cash I decided to use what I had on hand (flour, water, yeast and salt) to make some bread.
Seemed like a good idea at the time; and the bread even turned out pretty well! What I didn't expect was the complete alteration of my bread-eating needs.
"Why, this baking thing is so easy," I said to myself, "I could just do this and save myself a LOT of money and get better bread too!" This resolve only strengthened upon my visit to WinCo Foods on Saturday, where they charge only $.23 per pound for flour. So I stocked up. I mean, Gold Medal flour is roughly $.50 a pound, so we're talking serious savings here!
Continue reading "Yeast Makes Everything Better... Right?" »
Ya'll, I'm TIRED... I'm so tired, I can't even come up with an interesting title. I'm so tired I'm reverting to a southern accent I have never, ever had before. (I once had a fake British accent, however.)
Anyway, it has been a busy couple of weeks, culminating in my birthday/housewarming gathering last night.
In addition to getting to do a lot of visiting with a great number of people, I also received some lovely gifts, including two (count 'em TWO) gorgeous handmade necklaces from Fran and my brother and sister-in-law, a couple plants, a gift certificate to a spa, the Extraordinarily Deluxe Edition of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and a beautiful full-color book about hummingbirds.
The most unusual gift, however, was from Scott (over at I'd Rather Be Running): The Avenging Unicorn Play Set, from Accoutrements. People, I don't know how I managed to get such a weird, twisted sense of humor, but this thing is just awesome. The front of the box boasts that the playset includes "4 magical horns and 3 figures to impale!" while the back of the box provides some more insight:
When they are not frolicking in dewy meadows or posing on windy cliffs they are helping believers do away with daily annoyances. Does the New Age lady at the bookstore get on your nerves when she starts ranting about her latest encounter with an ancient warrior spirit? Are you tired of being accosted by the creepy mime who thinks he deserves a quarter for pretending to be trapped in a box? Close your eyes, take a deep breath and summon a unicorn. If you believe in the magic of unicorns with all your heart and soul they will answer your call.
I think it's the "do away with daily annoyances" comment that struck my fancy. This puppy's going on my desk and people who annoy me are, I suspect, going to get impaled in effigy. Heh. I think, also, I might need the J.S. Bach action figure to hang out on my piano and provide inspiration.
Anyway, the party itself was very fun. I ended up going with a "tex-mex" theme. Roughly 30 people showed up over 3 1/2 hours and everyone seemed to get along quite nicely as well as enjoy the food. I broke all the rules of party-throwing, as I found several recipes on my favorite cooking sites, Epicurious and Cooking Light, and made them all up completely untried. I got lucky, though as everything turned out really well. (Well, except for the part where I nearly hacked off my index finger trying to cut open an avocado. But I only ended up with a small wound from the knife, so it's all good...)
I made:
Chunky Vegetarian Chili
Guacamole
Roasted Jalapeno-Tomato Salsa
Salsa-Baked Goat Cheese
Of everything I made yesterday the guacamole recipe turned out to be my favorite. It was wonderful and it is going on my blog's cooking sidebar as a "favorite." A number of other folks really seemed to like the salsa recipe as well as the baked goat cheese dip. They were good but I could have sat and eaten the guacamole all day long.
I had a lovely time, despite being quite tired by the end of the night, and Rennie ended up completely overwhelmed by all the people. I think she enjoyed all the extra attention, but towards the end of the night, she kept creeping over to her crate and putting herself to bed. She was so exhausted, in fact, that this morning she slept until 7:30 before waking me up to feed her. For a dog who typically gets up at 5 am on the dot, every morning, this was remarkable.
Anyway, so it was a lovely way to spend an evening - despite the running around and anxiety of making sure food dishes were filled and people were happy - and I'm glad I threw the party. The next one, though, is going to be in 2010 so I have time to forget how much work parties are... Or, perhaps, when/if I ever get married so I can pay someone else to do the worrying about food trays. ;-) But heck, if nothing else, my house is now spotless!
I am off now - and the next two days - to finish up my school project and try to catch up a bit on sleep. My actual birthday is Tuesday and while I don't have concrete plans I'm hoping that it proves to be a big improvement over last year, when I spent the entire day feeling like crap.
I hope all is well with everyone out there in Internet-land! Once this class is over I'll have a bit more energy for blogging. This has been a rough 5 weeks...
So I'm feeling a bit more cheerful today. I still managed to work more than a full day but I also took a break in the middle of the day to run some errands and generally recoup just a bit. I have another full day ahead of me tomorrow but I'm going to try to get everything done as quickly as I can so I can get offline early and maybe nap!
Anyway, I've continued with my dietary make-over, trying to add protein-rich foods and fruits and veggies, and remove stuff that isn't as good for me. I've been logging my meals and snacks with Nutridiary and it's been really eye-opening to see, at first, how much crap I was eating! So I've been talking with my naturopath and picking up tips along the way. The best part about all of this is how much better I've been feeling lately: I wake up more alert and I don't get tired quite as easily.
I am also keeping my eyes peeled for recipes that look yummy and are either low in fat/calories or can be modified to make them so.
Earlier this week I found a recipe in an issue of Bon Appetit for pasta with shrimp, basil and asparagus in a very basic sauce. It was from a restaurant somewhere in Sydney, Australia, and though it seemed like it could be quite bland, it still turned out pretty good. (The sauce itself called for a bit of white wine; I substituted an equal amount of chicken broth.) Anyhoo, trying new recipes has also given me ideas for recipes I've already tried and found I enjoyed.
I'd run across a recipe for linguine with a red clam sauce a couple weeks ago and, intrigued, I picked up a can of diced tomatoes and a couple cans of clams. And, surprisingly, it was pretty good! I was fully prepared for a disaster meal (you know - those recipes where you eat a couple bites, then throw the rest out and have a bowl of Froot Loops instead?) but it actually turned out quite well! It's a great recipe because the sauce comes together in - literally - 5 minutes. Less time than it takes to cook the pasta! So I've been fiddling with it a bit over the last few weeks and today I threw in a couple ounces of diced asparagus because I had it on hand.
And this was the version I really liked. Which is shocking, because, as a rule, I don't much care for vegetables in general and asparagus in specific.
So I said to myself, "Self, you should post this updated, revised, improved recipe on your blog so everyone can enjoy it!" So that's just what I'm going to do. It's quick, easy and tastey. (One word of caution, though: this recipe does not, alas, belong in the "freezes beautifully" section of your cookbook.)
So here, without further ado, is the super-fantastico exciting Pasta with Asparagus and Red Clam Sauce recipe, adapted and revised by yours truly:
I haven't done a lot (read: any) real cooking since I was first diagnosed with MS. But I realized last night, while I was sitting here doing some reading, that I'm feeling much, much better. I have more energy these days and I don't constantly feel like a nap would be helpful. I've been keeping my eyes open for good recipes and lately I've been trying a few new ones here and there, as I've felt up to it and had the energy.
In February I stumbled across the book called 50 Great Pasta Sauces; most of the cream-based sauces use copious amounts of heavy cream (versus half and half or milk) which, no doubt, make them taste like heaven. But given my allergies to dairy I do try to go easy on the dairy-based stuff. I'd originally bought the book when I was still having trouble with tomatoes and was trying to find alternatives to both traditional tomato and cream sauces... well, this book contained a lot of recipes that use either tomatoes, cream or both. But one recipe was within my own guidelines and while it was very basic it was also quite tastey!
It's called "Browned Butter and Sage" sauce and because I don't care to be sued by the copyright infringement people I won't post the recipe here... but essentially, you take some butter and melt it in a pan. When it melts and gets all frothy, you drop in some fresh sage leaves and a bit of olive oil and then cook it on medium-low heat until the butter is browned. And then you pour it over your pasta and add some parmesan cheese! Voila!
I poured it over the Wild Chanterelle Mushroom Ravioli by Rising Moon Organics (not Vegan, though they do offer vegan raviolis which are quite good!) and it was so good. My only suggestion, if you try making this is to use more sage rather than less. I used a small portion because the leaves on my baby sage plant are still small, and that yummy sagey flavor just didn't come through as well as it could have. So... more sage!
But that's not all! Oh no, that's not all! More cooking adventures in the extended entry.
Last night I had a dream that I had the hugest buckteeth ever and that they were crumbled and cracked and falling out piece by piece. The bucked-tooth part isn't so far off, since I had an 11mm overbite as a child (thankfully, it was corrected by years of orthodontia), but the crumbly tooth pieces coming out in chunks was certainly very strange. I've had a number of recurring dreams over the years and based on a quick google search, dreams of teeth falling out are rather common, but this is (I believe) the first time I've had this dream.
My father once had a dream that he woke up and had an enormous front tooth and when he went into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror, the shower curtain was thrown back and The Beatles were in the bathtub, singing "You're gonna lose that tooth, yeah yeah, you're gonna lose that tooth..." to the tune of "You're Gonna Lose that Girl."
I think I'd prefer that dream to the one where all my teeth are falling out...but, unfortunately, we don't get to choose our dreams... I suppose the tooth dream is better than the recurring one I have where I'm being chased down a hallway or corridor by someone who is trying to hurt me in some way. Thankfully, that one only occurs when I'm feeling trapped by some aspect of my life...
Anyway, I'm exhausted today. For reasons beyond my comprehension, I ended up working about 11 hours before I even realized how late it'd gotten. Crazy stuff. I'm getting a haircut and have to leave early tomorrow, but that's not why I worked late today - I just sort of did. It's odd, sometimes, how I get so focused on something that I can work for hours, and yet other times I can't focus on even one thing for longer than a minute. Weird sort of day.
When I finally did get offline I went to Fred Meyer's and they had all their spring flowers and plants out. So I bought a couple containers for the deck, starter plants of sage, rosemary and chives, as well as an orangish-red calla lily to plant outside somewhere. I'm not a very good gardener, but rosemary, sage and chives pretty much grown themselves and the extra little effort really makes a huge difference - both in the flavor of the food and in the cost! (Buying fresh herbs at the grocery store is a rip-off!)
Thank heavens spring is on its way!!
So I was going to write about something a bit more serious this evening, but seeing as how I feel the need to acknowledge the start of NaBloPoMo and for once I've actually gone and done something - out there in the big wide world - the serious post will have to wait unti tomorrow. (Plus, it gives me something to write about tomorrow!) The irony is, it's the first day of The Big Event and I haven't even looked at a single blog today, let alone written anything until now - 13 minutes before 9 pm, PST. Sad, sad, sad.
I am, however, pleased to discover that a) someone other than my parents reads this blog, and that b) I have some measure of influence over said non-parental people! I managed to coerce inspire TWO PEOPLE to do NaBloPoMo with me!
HAHAHAHAHH! Suckers...
Ahem. No, just kidding. REALLY!
Anyway, so it's been a pretty busy week, highlighted in part by some vegetarian chilli I just cooked up and ate (and there are like 40 gallons left!) for dinner tonight - I know, you TOTALLY care - and last night's trip to Powell's City of Books to see the one and only Amy Sedaris. She was at Powell's pimping her new book, I Like You. People, this lady is a riot. In case you're puzzled, and thinking, "wow, that name sounds familiar....?" let me fill in the blanks:
[Quick break to scan my bloglines feeds...]
Ok, I'm back and I must share this post from Dooce.com. Those who have spent any amount of time with George Lucas' Star Wars Trilogy will enjoy it. If you don't want to read it, at least scroll down to the picture of their dog dressed up as Princess Leia. TOO funny.
Actually, now that I think about it, you should read the whole post and, if you have time, some of Heather's earlier posts too. I heart Dooce.com, mostly because I never fail to take something away from her posts, whether it be insight or understanding or humor. Humor, mostly, but the other stuff is there too.
So I'm off now to watch some more Little House on the Prairie reruns - in the name of research, you understand. I have a post to write on it later this month! WOHOO!
I feel significantly better today. I didn't have to work and I was able to sleep until 10, so that may have had something to do with it, but even more than that my mood has been much improved. Still, even with the improved mood and energy levels I called my neurologist because this is likely only a short reprieve rather than a turn for the better since I'm slated to give myself another injection this weekend.
The nurse returned my call this afternoon and we talked for a bit and I explained everything that was happening; when she called me back after talking to my doctor she suggested that I cut the Avonex dose in half for a few weeks to see how I do. That will hopefully mitigate some of the depression until I'm able to see my psychiatrist next week. She wants me to call her back in a couple weeks to let her know how I'm doing and what the shrink's opinion was and we'll go from there. She and my neurologist are also considering putting me on a low daily dose of Provigil (the anti-fatigue medicine I tried right after my diagnosis) to try to combat the fatigue caused by the Avonex... all this seems a bit bass-ackwards to me. I mean, really: MS causes depression and fatigue, and the main side effects of the drug we're using to treat the disease are depression and fatigue, so we're treating these side effects with more drugs which have their own side effects! GAH! Crazy making, if you stop to think about it.
Anyway, my doctor believes the Avonex works better than the Copaxone so they want me to try to stay on it (or another of the Interferons) if I can. So I guess, bottom line, it's all a waiting game to see if we can coax my body into accepting these new drugs without freaking right the hell out.
So as far as the rest of the day was concerned, I ended up resting most of the morning, watching TV and doing a bit of laundry. This afternoon I took a quick trip to the grocery store for some supplies and then got started making some Magnolia Bakery cupcakes. A few weeks ago my aunt emailed me a recipe for the "famous" cupcakes and since my baby sister's 16th birthday party is this weekend (yes, I feel old) I thought I'd give the recipe a whirl.
People, these cupcakes are like heaven right here on earth. SO light and fluffy and - despite the two cups of sugar in the batter - not too sickeningly sweet. SO. GOOD.
Now, having said that, they're not so good that I'd make a special trip to Manhattan to get them. But you can bet your belly button that I will definitely be seeking out Magnolia the next time I'm in the city. (Which will be... um... probably not any time soon but, hey, details!)
I also had enough energy left over after making cupcakes and cleaning up the kitchen to go over to my mom's for dinner. She made some yummy roast beast with mashed potatoes and gravy. My favorite meal. And cupcakes for dessert. (Obviously.) It's been a good day and I'm actually looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow. Hopefully I'll still be feeling pretty good by then.
And, last but not least: one small bit of humor, which I found while looking for the cupcake recipe. This, from the "what'll they think of next?" department:
Well, I don't have a whole lot to write about this evening but I figured I should post something.
My holiday was fairly laid-back and quiet. Every year, the family gathers to celebrate the fourth and my mom's birthday. My mother wanted fried chicken and potato salad, so I volunteered to make my new favorite potato salad. This potato salad, people, is fantastic. It's another triumph from the folks over at Epicurious, one of my favorite recipe sites. I've made it four or five times now and I just enjoy the heck out of it every time. Plus, who knew that pickling cucumbers was such fun!?
That being said, the damn salad is labor and time-intensive. And on Monday, when it was hotter than Jabba the Hut's butt-crack in the house, I was peeling boiled potatoes and chopping and mixing and stirring potato salad. Damn near killed myself and all for a salad! Seriously, after I had mixed the salad all up and it was resting peacefully in the fridge, I flopped on the couch and thought I might never get up again. Classic case of me DOING. TOO. MUCH.
Fortunately, the salad and I made it to my grandma's yesterday and everyone - even my uncle who hates onions - gobbled it right up. Secretly, part of me was hoping no one would like it so I could take the left-overs home, but even with that little bit of self-serving attitude I was happy to have made and brought the salad and that everyone seemed to like it. Grandma's fried chicken and baked beans were fantastic and my aunt Laura's brown sugar angel food cake was to die for.
Really a nice way to spend my fourth of July. And, even nicer, the whole day was low-key enough that I felt pretty good (read: not miserably fatigued) and was even able to make it to an AA meeting in the evening!
I woke up this morning still feeling pretty good, but by noon or so I was feeling nauseated and beginning to get the fatigued feeling back again. This just underscores the need for me to continue to take things easy and not push myself too much. It's just that I'm anxious to get back to working a regular schedule and to get back into my regular routine of walking Rennie at lunchtime. We're both starting to get a little pudgy.
I'm discovering that I'm not a very good sick person.
Over the weekend, I picked up my first box of Avonex, the "disease-modifying drug" the doctor prescribed. Before I can take it, I have to go meet with the nurse and get trained on how to give myself a shot into a muscle. I'm hoping to meet with the nurse this week but I've had trouble getting ahold of her so the exact date is still "tbd."
I'm not all that thrilled about giving myself an injection, but I figure that if this stuff is going to help me live a more productive, normal life for a longer period of time I can deal with poking myself once a week. The real concern right now is the side effects. Apparently the drug causes "flu-like symptoms" for a day or two after each injection. That's apparently something that wears off over time, so I'm hopeful that this stuff will work for me, but who the heck knows.
The other thing I've been doing a lot of lately is reading and research. I ordered a couple books from Amazon.com about MS and I've been digging around the web looking for well-written blogs and websites on the subject. One of the books I picked up discusses an MS-specific diet, called "The Multiple Sclerosis Diet Book," which looks like it could be good for helping maintain health and control symptoms. We shall see, though. More on this as soon as I have a chance to read through it!
Still trying to stay as positive as possible, though this gets harder the more I read about the progression of the disease... Knowledge is power, or so they say; may as well learn as much as I can so I know what I'm dealing with, I guess... Ugh. It's just hard hard hard.
Well then, so I haven't been writing. What ELSE is new, I ask you? Not a whole helluva lot on this end, that's for sure. Lesseee.... first off, I am on vacation beginning tomorrow. About a month and a half ago, I scheduled this vacation and finally, FINALLY it has arrived. I've been looking forward, nae pining, for some serious time off since I started working full time; I am thrilled to have 9 days in a row to be a lazy bum. Well, sort of. I'll still have school stuff to take care of but I will have 45 more hours to devote to it over the course of the week. We're currently in the middle of week 4 and my hope is to get all the homework done and submitted next week, as well as get a signficant chunk of my final project completed. The beginnings of said final project are here, in case you want to take a gander. A lot of items up there are just placeholders at the moment but as it is my final project for a scripting class I'm hoping it will be a bit more fleshed out by the end of next week.
In addition to the "must do" stuff, I am also going to take Miss Rennie to the coast one day and treat myself to a day of pampering on another. I am SO looking forward to this...
Also, my older brother and his woman are getting hitched (for those of you who are wondering, I love her and her adorable daughter; I couldn't be happier for my bro). So it looks to be a rather busy week.
Yesterday I celebrated 7 months of sobriety. Yahoo! Go me! Aside from the occasional drinking dream, things are good on this front.
Elise has an interesting Shrimp Ceviche recipe posted here. Looks tasty, no? May give this a whirl this week.
Earlier this week, Newsweek ran a "20-years Later" story regarding its predictions in 1986 that women who were 30 and still unmarried had a better chance of being killed by a terrorist than they did of ever getting married. Despite the fact that these rather desperate odds are refuted in this follow-up story, the piece still seems to proliferate the idea that marriage-and-children is the ideal and that there is something wrong with those who don't have - or want - this situation. What is up with that? Why is the "married" state of being the "ideal" state in this country? Why is there the abounding impression that if you're not "with" someone you couldn't possibly be happy? Bahhh!
Anyway, so the week is shaping up to be a good one, the minor issue with my website (yesterday) aside... For those of you who didn't notice, for some reason my webhost didn't renew my domain name correctly, rendering my website totally screwed up for the last 24 hours. It only recently came back up, thankfully.
Seriously!!! Boing Boing today is reporting on a new concept kitchen by CC Concepts. Check this out:
Pretty!! And compact! And best of all, it SPINS!!! Holy cow, what will they think of next? Their website is kinda sucky, but the product seems really cool... I wonder if it's as handy in real-life as it seems like it could be.
Either way, it's my own damned fault. My good friend Fran came over for dinner tonight and of course, I made one of my "old standby" dishes (Linguine with Shrimp & Scallops in Thai Green Curry Sauce), because I know we both love it.
The last time I made this dish, I burned the living daylights out of my mouth, so this time around I used about a third of the green curry paste and left out the peppers and it was great! Until an hour later, when my stomach started aching. I'm not usually one to get heartburn or sour stomach, but MY GOD do I feel like crap now. Even after taking some Maalox and drinking water and eating an English muffin. No dice. Still. feel. like. crap. ARGH.
So I don't know what the problem is. Maybe it's because I used bay scallops rather than sea scallops, or maybe it's because I used seafood rather than chicken (which is what I normally do because it's easier and cheaper). Or maybe my body was just screwed up anyway today and the green curry exacerbated it.
I haven't heard from Fran yet telling me she's sick, though, and dad seems to be fine as well, so my I can only assume that I am old. Definitely a sad state of affairs.
It's definitely been a better day today than yesterday. It wasn't perfect by any means, mostly due to the nasty rain and wind and general ickiness. It was just blustery and bleary and miserable.
And cold. I was effing cold all effing day.
I'm exhausted right now, due to a) having just spent five and a half hours looking for coverage of a client's big event thingy, and then b) writing out the answers to silly questions for school that are due in, oh, 2 hours from now. I did the week's design exercises over the weekend and they were fun; but iIt's the silly discussion questions that I hate, so of course I put them off as long as possible. And today is the longest I've ever procrastinated with these questions and didn't remember that I'd not done them until I was on my way downtown this afternoon sans laptop.
So yeah, definitely not the perfect day and I'm tired and ready to head to bed. But, it was still a very good day, and I wanted to pause for just a moment to mark this occasion:
Well, now that my blog-home is back into some semblance of order, I thought I'd highlight some of the changes I've been making. Back in early January I updated the actual design of this site, but wasn't sure how to customize specific category templates. So I took a step back, ignored the little problem for the time being and focused my energies elsewhere.
Well, I finally sat down this weekend to tackle the little problem. What I wanted was to have the sidebar content change depending upon the category that's chosen. Turns out there's no way to natively do that with Movable Type, but there are some PlugIns that can be installed and tweaks that can be used to customize the category templates. Of course, things aren't quite as straightforward as I would have liked and I ended up using a couple different hacks to get the results I wanted... No elegant code writing for this girl! But no matter. It works, and that's what matters.
So, as of this morning, I now have different sidebar content for the Miss Yorkie Princess, Chef Zee and Knitting categories.
Click the links, people, and behold the power of MODULES!!!
I'm especially pleased with the knitting category page, since I found a page describing how to make fun little progress bars for each of my projects! Yippee!!!
Of course, now that I've done all this tweaking, I've decided I'm not happy with the design anymore. Ugh... so I'll be updating that again shortly. But right now it all works and I've got to turn my attention back to school and other matters; so for now this will have to do. Let me know what you think!
... That crazy flurry of activity that is preparations for a large group of people converging on your house, expecting food. Right now, the pumpkin and chess pies are in the oven and the kitchen is clean. It's been a long time since I've made pies and really, they're not difficult at all, particularly if you cheat like I did and use Pillsbury's really cool roll-out pie crust. I do know this is cheating and I'm not going to apologize for it for two reasons:
1) I have very little experience making pie crust on account of my mother always makes the pies for our family gatherings and hers are fantastic, so why mess with a good thing?
2) Even if I wanted to, I don't have the proper tools for making pie crust right now. I'm almost positive I sold or gave away all my baking supplies when I left Boston.
The only issue here is that, at heart, I am a purist and a bit of a pie-crust snob, and I usually feel that the crust makes the pie. But right now, I can only do what I can do, so we'll see. (And if Pillsbury comes through, I may never learn to make pie crust....)
Here's a shot of the carnage in the kitchen, after the pies went into the oven:
Shot of the pies, mid-way through:
For context: I'd put the foil on the crust before putting the pies in the oven and opened the door to check on them and see if I could take the foil off. I ended up leaving it on throughout the entire baking process because the crust was browning just fine. Here's how the pies turned out:
Pumpkin
Chess. Even with the foil on the edges for the entire baking time, the chess pie still turned out a bit too brown. Guess dad's oven cooks a bit hot, eh?
This afternoon, I'll drag the turkey out of the fridge and assess the situation. The turkey's been defrosting since Sunday so it should be ready to go. There is turkey stock and stuffing to make, plus the dog desperately needs a bath and the house needs to be cleaned. Laundry is already in the wash. So it looks like we're on our way!
Lately, I've been consumed by the consumption of Thai food. I dream about where my next Thai meal is coming from and if I didn't know better, I'd think whoever made the food had put in something addictive. These days, in most cases, it's me making the food and near as I can tell, the ingredients I'm using are not addictive in and of themselves. Fortunately, in most cases, there isn't anything in Thai food that I can't have. (Well, except eggs, and I usually leave those out...)
My obsession fascination with Thai food started in Boston. A friend from work and I would go to the Thai restaurant down the street for lunch several times a week, and they had this fabulous soup that they served as an appetizer. It was a chicken noodle soup, with ramen-like noodles and a clear broth. There was obviously lemongrass in it and a variety of spices, and we just LOVED it. When asked, the proprietess merely smiled and told us it was "Thai chicken soup." Do you know how many recipes are out there for Thai chicken soup?
Let me tell you, there are a LOT of Thai chicken soup recipes.
I am inordinately fond of the mashed potatoes and gravy from KFC. I am aware that their methods of making this tasty side dish are... well... questionable and yet I still find myself yearning, on occasion, for the spuds and their lovely gravy dressing. I have been known, in times past, to go through the drive-thru for a large order only. No chicken, no biscuits, no cole slaw. Not even a drink. Just the spuds, which I happily consume immediately upon my return home.
Why?? It's not as if there isn't better food to be had. Doubtless, there are more preservatives and additives in there than actual potatoes. I have seen the movie Super Size Me and have heard tales of horror about the contents of the book Fast Food Nation (which I have not read for fear it might scare me forever away from my delicious-yet-occasional KFC treat). All of these items point to the fact that I should not, under almost all circumstances, eat these nasty things.
None of this matters. In my mind, sometimes, just sometimes, nothing tastes better.
So today has been a very busy, eventful day indeed.
Did you catch the Astros-Braves game? 18 innings, people. 18!! It was extraordinary. So much so that I went into my room and went to sleep.
But really, the only reason I did that was because I'd gotten up early this morning (and by "early" I mean 9 a.m. ;-) to go see my friend Roy run the Portland Marathon!! And also some other friends who I knew were running. But mostly Roy, because he showed up at mile almost-25 when I ran the marathon two years ago and it was SO SO SO nice to see a friendly face at that point in the race, when all I wanted to do was give up. This is the shot Roy took of me at about mile 25 back then. I was hurting. Roy looks just as goofy in the pictures I took of him, but since this is my blog and I don't have his permission to post them up here, I'm just going to tell you that HE was hurting too.
One of the best things about living on Portland's east side is that there is a thriving Asian community here, complete with markets, restaurants and various and sundry other shops. I've been to several of the restaurants over the years - including a really great Thai restaurant that is all of a mile from my house!! - but had never been into any of the grocery markets.
But today, after dropping off some prescriptions at Safeway, I decided to kill the 30 minutes of waiting time by heading to one of the markets to see what they had to offer. And, my god, but it was fabulous!
Multiple bottles of chili paste. And chili sauce. And chili paste sauce. Twelve different varieties of fish sauce in a wide variety of sizes. Soy sauce varieties included sweet, salty, light and thick. And thick & sweet soy sauce. And light and salty!
For a while it was pretty rare that I blogged about food. And then I started throwing up the odd recipe here and there on my blog. And now? Now that I'm cooking for someone several times a week, I think about food and recipes and cooking on a regular basis.
You see, in exchange for living scott-free (does anyone know the origin of that phrase, btw?) at my dad's while I'm getting back on my feet and figuring out what I want to be when I grow up, I'm obliged to cook several meals a week. This is a bit more challenging than it might seem on the surface, because both Dad and I have food allergies. He's got sensitivities to tomatoes and peppers and other nightshade veggies along with soy, wheat, dairy and egg allergies. My body is not fond of dairy, eggs or lamb. So between the two of us we can eat a grand total of maybe 4 foods.
OK, maybe a few more than 4. But most of the time, while I'm digging through recipe databases, it feels as if hands are tied behind my back. I either have to start by finding recipes that don't call for the stuff we can't have, or figure out a way to alter the recipes that do include the offending ingredients.
Continue reading "Shrimps and Scallops and Fettucine, Oh My!" »
My friend Amy in Boston calls me a "fancy-pants cook" because the last few times she stopped by my place I'd just made recipes that looked, tasted and smelled complicated but were, in fact, pretty easy to make. (Perhaps that is the definition of fancy-pants cooking?)
Anyway, I have only a few recipes that I truly love, that I can make really well, and that are exceptionless crowd-pleasers. One of these is my mother's famous salmon ball appetizer; another is the chocolate chip cookie recipe I've used since I was 10 years old.
The problem with these recipes - and a couple others that involve using copious amounts of cream-of-mushroom soup and/or sour cream - is they contain either dairy or eggs, or both, and I've been trying really hard lately to stay away from those foods as much as possible. So, before leaving Boston, I dug around online for recipes that would let me use up some of the stuff I had in my freezer, cupboards and refrigerator but that would avoid the items to which I'm sensitive.
My new favorite recipe - which I made again tonight - is called Linguine with Chicken and Spicy Pesto Sauce, and I stumbled upon it during a search for 'pecans' on Epicurious.
In tonight's version I left out the jalapenos and spicy stuff and substituted in rice noodles for the linguine so my dad could eat it, and it was still fantastic.
Between this, my favorite Chicken Noodle Soup recipe and the Gingery Beef Strips, I'm beginning to amass an arsenal of recipes which are 'Zee-friendly' but which nevertheless taste great.
The thing is, you can only make a recipe - regardless of how great it might be - so many times before you start to lose enthusiasm for it. So I'm on the hunt again, looking for easy, tasty and zee-friendly recipes to add to my recipe basket. Anyone have any suggestions?? I'm especially fond of slow cooker cooking. :o)
OK, so I'm finally convinced, really and truly, that my body doesn't like dairy products. Moo-cow dairy products, that is.
When I was 17, I spent a month in Germany and came back with the worst case of acne I'd ever had. Granted, it was nothing compared with the acne I've seen on some teenagers, but for me it was pretty bad. Anyway, at the time my mom thought it was because of all the chocolate I ate while overseas, and she was probably right. But that was only part of the story.
The full story is that I learned about a year ago that I'm actually allergic to eggs and milk (and lamb too, oddly enough) and the vast majority of the chocolate and sweets I ate in Germany had milk in them.
Before moving to Boston I was pretty good about sticking to my dairy/egg-free diet. I didn't have anything in the house I couldn't eat. I poured over labels with a fine-tooth comb. I asked for special meals while in restaurants and even ordered special vegan meals on airplanes.
But I've gotten lazy recently and have been cheating the last several months - the result of having 'contraband' in the house - and I've discovered that my body really doesn't much care for what I've been putting into it. The proof? I've got some really awful break-outs that just don't seem to want to go away.
So I finally broke down this afternoon and made the decision: I have to go back on my dairy-free, egg-free diet. It'll be easier for me to stay on it, now that I'm moving back into a place by myself. It was so easy to just grab a cookie here, take a nibble of ranch dip there, try out what the roommates are cooking and etc.
It is fortunate that my body doesn't seem to mind goat's or sheep's milk and there are plenty of yummy cheeses to be had - including brie! yum! - made of these milks. But gosh, I miss regular cheese! I haven't had a slice of cheddar in so long, I can hardly remember what it tastes like!
I stopped at Whole Foods this afternoon and had to keep reminding myself to think about all the things I can eat rather than bemoan everything that I can't. [sigh] When are they going to invent a cure for allergies?
For a weekend that I'd slated for spending entirely in bed, I've spent surprisingly little time under the covers. I did manage to sleep until noon, which I haven't been able to do for several weeks, and when I got up I felt blessedly rested and refreshed.
Sleep will do that for you, you know...
Anyway, it's nasty out today, so I have spent the majority of my time inside. When I got up, I made a pot of Dunkin' Donuts coffee (yes, I've even taken to keeping it in the house in bean form!) and set to creating my favorite crock pot recipe, Gingery Beef Strips. I love this recipe because you just throw everything into the crock pot and turn it on. It is so easy, anyone could make it and not screw it up (yes dad, even you!) and it tastes like you've spent hours laboring over it. Plus, it doesn't have anything in it that I'm allergic to. Brilliant!
I am falling in love with my crock pot... And why shouldn't I? You spend 30 minutes or less preparing your meal, run off and do other stuff for a while and when you come back, voila! a meal! Somebody oughta give a medal to whoever it was that invented the slow cooker.
So without further ado, here's the recipe:
"I could have me a million more friends, and all I'd have to lose is my point of view."
