Oh, hey! I found this again. It’s shouting into the void, but let’s be honest - that way I don’t annoy anyone, and the void doesn’t seem to mind.

I do have something to talk about now, but it’s old people health stuff, so the void seems a good way to vent. 

I’m fat. No, not a little bit fat, the doctors call it morbidly obese. Sounds nasty. IS nasty. The highest weight I hit was 322.2 in Feb. 2022. I had convinced myself that I was a “fit fat”, but the blood work over the last few years put an end to that. Last time, in January 2023, my cholesterol and blood glucose were high enough that the doctor tried to medicate me. Nope, uh-uh. So I changed my diet. I didn’t do it right the first time, and got hungry and grumpy and tried to starve myself, which always ends up with binge eating. However, for the last almost 3 weeks, I’ve been trying something new. I’m following a simple set of rules, No Sugar, No Grains. That simple, except for the first 30 days they suggest no beans, potatoes, peanuts, corn, or fruit except for cherries and berries. That’s ok, I can do that. I started this on April 20, 2023. I weighed 311.8 pounds the next morning, when I remembered to weigh myself. Day 20, today, May 9, 2023, I weighed 305.8. That’s six pounds in 20 days. Not too shabby!

This is a remarkably easy way of eating for me. I love meat and eggs and cheese and leafy veggies. Three times, when I needed an emotional reward, I had home made full-fat yogurt with frozen cherries. Cherries and berries are allowed, but not other tree fruits because of the amount of sugar in them. They do say to go easy on the cherries and berries because they can cause insulin spikes, which can cause sugar cravings. I haven’t noticed that happening, but as I said, I’ve only had them three times, so I guess it’s not affecting me that much. It will be nice, in another 10 days to be able to have that little fruit treat a couple times a week if I want it, but I don’t really miss it that much. The best part is the rule “eat until you are sated”.  What? Eat until I feel full? Well ok, but that’s not going to work for me. WRONG. The first few days, I did overeat, but my body quickly figured out that it was getting enough - maybe too much - food, and there was no starving going on. After a few days, I started recognizing the ‘I’m full’ signal, which I’ve never had before. After three weeks, I’m eating twice a day, at noonish, and again around 6pm. Both times I eat until I’m full, and I am almost never hungry between meals. Occasionally, mostly out of years of habit I think, I’ll have a snack around 11pm, but now I have a pickle, or even pickle juice, or something else salty. Sometimes I just put a little salt on my tongue, and roll it around. For some reason it seems to shut down the hunger.

My next doctor’s appointment is August 8th. I’m really hoping that my weight will be down signifigantly, and my blood work will come back much better too. I’ll record the results here, be they bad or good.

Story prompt: She tried to save time in the morning by making her iced coffee before she went to bed.

Yeah. Total three, possibly four stooges moment. I put the coffee on and started it. I had my AirPods in, so I didn't hear the splishy-splashing until the song ended, which meant the entire 12 ounces of coffee was all over the counter, because ONCE AGAIN I forgot to put the cup under the spout.

I tossed a cloth over the biggest part of the coffee puddle and realized it had run under the wire bread basket. Not a big deal, the basket has little feet on it, so nothing was wet. The two tiered basket has a handle on the top, which means I have to tilt it to get it out from under the overhead cabinet. As I tilted it, I felt resistance. I looked over just in time to see the 30 ounce insulated tumbler that I had just filled with fresh water tip over. No biggie, that tumbler has a special lid which is sealed, and just has a straw hole, so even if it does tip over, it doesn't spill much, just a dribble. Unless the straw just happens to hit the small shelf next to the stove at just the right angle to pop the entire lid off. If that happens, 30 ounces of water pours out across the countertop and down the side of the stove.

I grabbed another cloth and threw over the crack between the stove and countertop to try and stem the tide. I think all I did was push more water down. I pushed the cloth away from the stove to divert the water, and pulled the stove out. Two or three fuzz puppies rolled out. It was actually much cleaner under there than I'd expected. I fetched the mop, and sopped up the water that had run down, and got the stick vac to try and round up the fuzz puppies roaming around under the table.

That done, I cleaned off the side of the stove (ew. where does all that gunk come from?!?), and pushed it back into its niche.

Meanwhile, the two microfiber cloths I'd flumped on top of the now giant puddle on the countertop had been doing their job of sopping up some of it. It took three wringing outs of each large cloth to get enough water off that I could move everything off the counter. I have a LOT on that counter. Everything had to be picked up, wiped off, and set on a towel on the table. Then I wiped the countertop off a dozen or so more times to get it dry, and dried all the things off and set them back into place.

So now I'm 20 minutes older, two tablespoons of coffee poorer, one countertop cleaner, but I STILL DON'T HAVE ANY FREEKIN' COFFEE!

And I've decided I'm absolutely not going to take my shower tonight to save time, because I'd probably drown!!

Oh, this old thing?

 Well, I once again stumbled upon this blog, cleaning out bookmarks. Since it's private, by invitation only, maybe I'll just use it as a sort of journal - that way I can get all my whinging and complaining out without bothering other people. So, I'll just start here.

Today has been a weird day. I woke up feeling ok, but as the day went on, my joints started aching, and I've felt like my lungs aren't working right. They don't really 'hurt', but they feel odd, like they've been overstretched, like a previously overfilled balloon that's lost its air. I've also had a lot of clear drainage suddenly bubbling down from my head, and interfering with my ability to draw breath. It's very annoying.

Then my head started hurting. It started way down low, near the base of my skull. I told Larry that if we were going to walk, we needed to do it soon. The walk was not a fun one. I was panting, and my hips, lower back, and knees and ankles were all pretty much screaming by the time we were done.

When we got home, I got water and tea, and ate cookies. Then I remembered to take some ibuprofen and a decongestant. I've been sitting in my chair, moaning, for hours. It's not really helping. My hips are complaining, and my sciatic nerve is very irritated at me.

On an whole 'nuther subject, I started watching "Loki" on Disney+. Owen Wilson is playing Agent Mobius of the Time Variant Authority. I laughed when I heard that. So far, so good. If nothing else, it's a distraction from my discomfort.

And now some cool pictures of my plants.

Huge leaves!

And I think it's only half grown.

HUGE!

Gorgeous. This is the day before the big storm that dropped over 3 inches of rain and beat them half to death.

Calibrochia and the mandevilla. So, so pretty.

Amazing colors on this calibrochia. I think it's my favorite!

Mother's Day

Not everyone had a good mother. I have friends whose mothers were awful mothers. Mothers who did their best, but still didn't do the things a mother should do. Mothers who resented their own children. Mothers who dealt with their own shortcomings by punishing any perceived flaws in their children.

A mother's main job is to love her children unconditionally. My siblings and I were blessed to have one of the best at the job. No matter what I did, or what I said, or how horribly I behaved, I always knew my mother loved me. She might be pissed as hell at me, but she still loved me.

She and my father managed, with very little money, to feed us all, keep us in clothes, keep us healthy, and keep a well maintained house, with comfortable places to sleep, and books to read.

My mother and I are soul mates. Not that mishy-mushy 'one man one woman one soul' stuff, but souls who are inextricably linked throughout time. We revolve around each other (along with a couple of other souls) through lifetime after lifetime. Our relationships may change, but we are always together.

She complains sometimes (rarely) about age related physical changes affecting her, but all I see when I look at her is the beautiful person she is, and that bright and shining soul which serves as a beacon and an anchor in my life. I shudder to think where and what I would be had I not had her strong, loving presence in my life.

I love you, Mama. Always have, always will.

A long week

TL;DR: long whine about how our week has been full of doctor's appointments and weather changing. Decided the tl;dr was enough, deleted the rest. You're welcome.

Egg Salad - just because

This is in honor of Dee, the Coffee Bean Goddess, who used to cheer us up with her fantastically written accounts of every day things. She passed away just over 9 years ago, and I still miss her.

I bought a 6 quart Instant Pot a couple of years ago. It sat in my cabinet for a while, then I proceeded to ruin a few meals with it. I gave it to my son, who said he'd take a stab at it, but after almost a year, he hadn't even taken it out of the box. In the time since I gave it to him, I discovered that you could make yogurt in it, so I asked for it back so I could experiment. I think he was glad to get it out of his pantry.

Yogurt making worked, but since my pot didn't have the magical yogurt setting, it was a LOT of work and mess, so I only made it a couple of times. But, I discovered a couple of tricks after browsing around the webz, so I tried it for a couple of dinners. They turned out edible, and after a while, I actually started to like using it. Rice comes out perfectly, and people swear that eggs come out perfectly, too. In fact, I've read several blogs which tell me it's worth buying the pressure cooker *just* for doing eggs in. I was skeptical.

I LOVE boiled eggs and all the things you can make with them, but I HATE boiling them. Well, boiling them is the easy part, I hate trying to peel them. Yes, I've tried your granny's 'perfect eggs' trick. Yes, yours too. And yours. Nothing works, I can't do it, they never peel right, and I end up taking hours to peel them only to get these mutant-looking Frankenstein's monster eggs, or I end up rage quitting and throwing them all away. So ppbbbttthhht to boiled eggs.

Back in December or January, the warehouse store I'm a member of had 8 quart IPs on sale for a very good price. The 6 quart was just a little too small for roasts or large dinners. It had a yogurt setting on it, too. I quietly lusted after it, and started to walk away. My husband happened to be with me, and said, "If you want it, BUY it." So I did. This meant I had two Instant Pots. I like gadgets, but I really don't need two pressure cookers. I just don't cook that much. My sister volunteered to take it off my hands, so I took it to her the next time we visited.

Last time I visited, she happened to mention that she'd done eggs in the Instant Pot, and they came out perfectly, and peeled like a dream. I said, "Yeah, I've heard they do." But not with much conviction. However, standard sibling rivalry hit me, and I figured, "If she can do it, *I* can do it." I bought a dozen extra eggs, and vowed to cook them in the Instant Pot. They sat in the fridge for two weeks before I finally got up the courage to try them tonight.

I put the silver trivet with handles in the pot, added a cup of water, and put the silicone trivet (that just happens to also hold eggs) on top of that.

Then I neatly placed an egg in each of the little holes. I pushed the "Egg" button, and set the pot for "normal". Unfortunately, I didn't hear the beeper (damned old age), and they sat in the pot for almost 15 minutes on "Keep Warm". Once I remembered to get them out, I plopped them into an ice bath and let them cool. Then I peeled them. Out of 9 eggs, 8 of them peeled so easily I couldn't believe it. I cracked them around the middle, and the shell pulled right off. One of them stuck, and I ended up pulling half the white off. It was ugly, and a little over cooked, but edible. I was honestly amazed.

I mean, LOOK AT THEM. They are perfect!

Now, what to do with 8 boiled eggs? Well, egg salad, obviously. I searched the web for recipes, mostly for the mayo/mustard ratio, then made up my own recipe. First, squish the eggs. I reached for the potato masher, then remembered my Mom used to make egg salad, and she just used a fork. So, I used a fork. It was a little more effort than the masher would have been, but all I had to wash was a fork, so it was worth it.

.

I happen to prefer my egg salad less chunky, probably because my Mom made it this way, so it worked out well.

Then I added mayo, sweet & spicy mustard, pickle relish, lemon juice, and Worstershire sauce - just a sprinkle.

It's good! Vinegary without being sharp, creamy, and with just little crunch from the pickles.

It was a little runny, though. The sandwiches were a bit soggy.

My son also partook, and agreed that perhaps next time, I drain the pickle relish, and use a bit less mayo and a bit less lemon juice. This won't go to waste, though. I'm going to add a well-drained can of tuna to it, and have tuna salad!

Persistent

Wow. Still here, huh. It's nothing but persistent. In a world of rapid change, it's nice to know somethings are still hanging around for no good reason. Yeah. Still not going to post here, mostly because I don't remember it's here, and no one reads it, anyway. There you go.