I hate the limit on the size of posts. My family are all on there so they wanted me to do it too. Ack.
Damn it’s hot and it’s 5:30 in the friggin morning. It’s going to suck when it’s over 70 today. They turned off the ac and turned on the damned heat. We have no choice but to turn off the heat in our apt. These apartments seem to hold in the heat.
Guess I’ll do laundry today. Egads I hate doing laundry.
Still not smoking “real” cigs. I’ve had to replace a few things with my ecig. My USB pass through croaked. Ordered another one. I need a few atomizers and a couple of batteries. I had a battery die yesterday and you’d have thought an old friend had died! lol
In other news… I’ve ordered the first part of the kids Christmas stuff. I also ordered a pair of woolly mammoth crocs for myself. I couldn’t resist. They were $20 instead of nearly $60 and free shipping!
My Aunt had her surgery, she had a really rough spot one night, but now she’s home.
It’s really weird to see people running around in shorts in November…
Last weekend, hubby, the kid, and I went shopping. We went to hobby lobby and bought some christmas ornaments. I ended up with an orange gold fish made of glass that I love. lol We stopped and had lunch too. This weekend we’ve done the same thing. Sat we went to Walmart (grrrr) only to find out they no longer have a craft section and they’re not carrying the sandwich rounds I wanted to get more of. I think I’m done with walmart. Today we went to an asian market we tripped over last weekend. We had no idea one was so close! I bought a new wok, a bunch of veggies, some sauces I needed, and I got some daikon to make daikon/carrot pickles. I love those things!
And I’ve already made brownies (in the oven) and Middle Path Cafe chicken salad. 3 of my Aunts are coming through town today. They’re going out to the Mayo Clinic so one of them can have out patient surgery. I wanted to do something to help out… none of them are having an easy time financially right now. So I decided to take care of their lunches and perhaps dinner for today at least. Ham and cheese sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches, potato chips, and brownies. It might even save them some time by not having to stop to eat. I’ve been busy this morning. lol
Okay… Middle Path Cafe Chicken Salad is a recipe my Mother got from a place she ate lunch at one day. It’s closed now.
Not complicated.
Canned white meat chicken, drained, flaked
Avocado, diced with lemon juice added to keep it from browning
Cashews, you can crush them or leave them whole
Sliced black olives
Salt
Pepper
Mayo
Mix all of the ingredients, except salt, pepper, and mayo. Include the lemon juice you drizzled over the avocado. It brightens the flavors. Add mayo and gently mix until you reach a consistency you like. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve on a nice sturdy multi-grain bread or on a bed of lettuce (for the low-carb crowd among us. lol).
It looks deceptively simple but it’s really good!
I had wanted to quit for quite a while. The last time I talked to a doctor about it he wanted me to take Chantix. Uh… NO thank you! Besides the hideous side effects the cost (around $300) made it very unattractive!
I had considered going cold turkey but I’m 45 and getting too old for that shit. I’ve quit cold turkey repeatedly during my life… but I couldn’t do it this time.
At one time I had seen something about ecigs. I mentioned it to my Aunt and she said she’d tried one on the plane back from England. She liked it. I guess I filed that away somewhere in my memory. Then I saw a blog post by another blogger discussing using them. I started researching it, planning how much it would cost, and seeing if it was possible to quit using them. I discussed it with Richard and he said go for it.
What are they? It’s an electronic cigarette. It’s made up of a battery, an atomizer, and a cartridge (the part you inhale through). Inside the cartridge is, for lack of a better word, wadding that you place drops of liquid on. When inserted in the atomizer it is gently heated until vapor is created. That is what is exhaled when it’s used. Vapor. It’s called vaping. The liquid can contain nicotine. It’s the only ingredient and you don’t get all that nasty tar, and other chemicals that you get in regular cigarettes. It comes in different levels (mgs) and you can slowly lower how much you use. They also sell liquid with no nicotine that comes in different flavors.
Anyway I got my ecig about 4 days ago. I still had real cigs and finished them Saturday around noon. I was going to keep one pack as a security blanket. (Mentally for some it’s easier to quit if you have one pack. You don’t have that “I’m totally out!” panic feeling.) Well after using the ecig for a few days one thing was bugging me. The old ashtray, the lighters, and the damned ashes all over my desk. (It’s inevitable.. there will be ashes on the desk when you smoke.) I HATE that! It also felt like the ashtray and lighters were taunting me. Well screw that! I finished the cigarettes and put up the lighter and ashtrays.
The nice thing about the ecig is: no ashes, no lighter, ashtrays, no panic if you’re running out, no fear of setting something on fire, no fear of dropping a lit one in the car, and more. I DO catch myself trying to tap the ashes of the ecig. lol And I found an old glass ashtray that kind of fits it to sit it in. (Helps with the allusion.)
I’ve already noticed I’m breathing better, not coughing as much, my sense of smell is getting better (or worse if you consider the cat smells ewww!).
So I’m off of the real cigs. I’ll eventually taper off of the nicotine and go to 0 nicotine liquid. Hell, like I told Richard I’ll keep the ecig and maybe vape other flavors. I can’t EAT chocolate fudge brownies but I could VAPE them! ROFL
I had no freakin idea! I figured out the carbs in our regular thanksgiving dinner. My jaw hit the floor. No wonder I felt like a beached sleepy whale after eating it!
It worked out to somewhere around 180 grams of carbs.
After some sweating, crying, and thinking I’ve come up with something I can have Thanksgiving.
turkey w/ a bit of gravy
mashed cauliflower
small salad
some things from the veggie plate
brussel sprouts
roasted broccoli
2 carb quick cheddar biscuits (may not eat both)
crustless low carb pumpkin pie w/ 2 tbsps of sugar free cool whip
It ends up being somewhere around 25 grams of carbs. About ten above my usual per meal of 15. I’m splurging! lol
I’m making the regular meal for hubby, da kid (probably won’t eat it.. the brat), and my aunt and uncle.
I can live with it.
Thank god today is over with. They finally sprayed the apartment at around 11am. I worked until about an hour before Richard got home putting everything back. (Which means, sorting, tossing, cleaning, etc)
I tossed old crap in the kitchen including pasta I’d forgotten we had. By the time Richard got home I was sitting exhausted in my chair staring at the screen. After dinner, leftovers thank god, I took a nap. I asked Richard to wake me up in time for Hell’s Kitchen. When he came in to wake me up I begged him to let me sleep. lol
He called me during all of the chaos today to ask if he should get a seasonal flu shot at work. He said yes and it’s free. I told him sure. I can’t take flu shots because of allergies. But anything to keep the kid and I from having it is okay in my book. They’re going to be offering the H1N1 flu shot too. I’m not TOO sure about whether he should get that one. I’m leaning towards no.
Tomorrow I have to crawl to the store to pick up a few things. Hopefully tomorrow will be better than today.
I’m clearing out cabinets, closets, etc, in the kitchen and bathroom so they can spray for bugs tomorrow. Good lord we have a ton of cooking shit and a lot of it is still in the closets in boxes!
I was PLANNING on making cookies with the kidlet today but I’ve had to put that off. I figure yank it all out today, throw it back in there tomorrow, and maybe make the cookies Wednesday instead. And somehow in the middle of all this chaos we’ve got to squeeze school in. Lord it’s going to be a LONG day!
It has given me an excuse to toss shit in the kitchen. Things I missed in the first run, macaroni, etc, that we don’t eat anymore.
Did I mention I hit my second goal weight-wise? I’ve lost 60lbs and now weigh what I did ten years ago. I haven’t even been exercising lately.. I just cut out all the bad carbs and gave up Dr. Pepper completely. I hadn’t weighed myself in awhile and Friday noticed that my, this is going to sound SO weird, thumbs looked thinner. LOL! So I got on the scales this weekend and voila!
I’m counting all this moving shit as exercise today. I’m going to be so damned exhausted by the time bedtime gets here tonight….