MOAB

I’ve been working on the cap for the lady Richard works with… and once again I’ve had to rip it out. I had almost 4 inches of it done, with stripes, but I didn’t finish the row I was working on before I went to the store. When I got back for some reason I didn’t realize I was working in the wrong direction. Damnit. I tried to rip it back to the previous rows but I was having problems. I ripped it all out.

The kiddo has a cold and he’s uncomfortable and cranky. Dealing with his problems while trying to knit the damned cap and not screw up is not something I can do. Better to wait until he’s feeling better. I’ll get some of my new knitting needles and yarn and play around with something for fun. If I have to rip it out so be it.

I keep explaining to him a cold lasts about a week or a little longer. He’s three days in. It’s going to be a long week or two…

Ordered some yarn for my Aunt’s afghan. OMG the red that I received is a hideous Bozo nose color. Hubby looked at it and said that’s not right. Damn straight skippy. He told me to find another color and order it to replace what came.

I’ve got 3lbs of bozo red. Guess I can use it for a throw.

In the package I also received my bamboo knitting needles and the aluminum ones I ordered. When I pulled the aluminum ones out of the package I tossed them into Hubby’s lap. He jumped. They were a tad chilly… it was around 27 degrees. lol

It’s only 27. I sucked it up and went to the store and it only took two hours. It takes a while when you’re examining labels for contents. My refrigerator now runneth over with vegetables. I couldn’t get the grapes in it was so full. Everything I bought was as lean and healthy as I could find. I did get us one treat.. and even it is healthy. Smoked salmon, low fat cream cheese, and triscuits. Richard likes triscuits so I bought him some of the reduced fat version. I think he’s finding out that not all low fat-nofat food is as bad as he thought. I was pleasantly surprised. I’m counting the death march at the store as my exercise today.

My favorite cashier at the store told me something today that was sad. He’s in his 70’s. A sweet little old crochety guy. His wife died in December. He said he was trying to get over it.. and choked up. I told him that I don’t think you ever do. It gets a little easier with time. Bless his heart, he told me he’d been trying to find things to do and that he’d been listening to music. I suggested audiobooks from the library. I remember how hard it is to be in a silent house all by yourself after someone dies. I also remember missing the contact of another person so when I left I made sure and touched his arm and told him I’d be thinking about him and I’d keep an eye out for him at the store.

What struck me as being so sad was his reaction. He acted as though he were surprised anyone would care and thanked me.

I feel the need to bake something for him… maybe some cookies… I don’t know.

I remember how lonely I felt after my Mother died. I can’t imagine being married to someone for 53 years and losing them.

It’s 17 degrees and I need to go to the store. Dammit! I’m sitting next to the patio door on my right and my poor right hand feels like an ice cube! I hate winter and I hate late summer when it’s so damned hot!

Thought I’d do some pre-bitching now… get started early.

For my diet exercise posts. I realize it can get kind of boring to read things like that.

I want to do what I’m doing not to wear smaller clothes, to be thinner, or because my husband wants me to be skinnier.

I’m doing this because I don’t want to lose toes, feet, legs, go blind, have a stroke or have a heart attack. I don’t want Joshua to
have to deal with a Mother who is a total freaking mess because she can’t control herself.

Years ago I watched a 10 year old little boy weigh his Father’s food, draw his insulin, and check his urine because his Father, a truck driver, had let his Diabetes go completely out of control. When he finally woke up to how bad it was his BG was 1000 and he was legally blind. He led his Father around by the hand. The boy was incredible and everyone in the Diabetes class was in awe of him.

A little boy shouldn’t have to be doing those things for his Father… or his Mother.

So I’m going to set up another blog.. oh joy screwing around with wordpress is such a joy! Blech! lol

I cleaned off the enormously expensive exquisitely beautiful ($50) dining room table.. and it’s folding chairs. I also put my favorite heirloom table cloth out.. the plastic wonder with poinsettias on it. I actually do like the table cloth. It’s vinyl but I don’t care.

I can see the top of the table! That’s what matters! We’re eating at the table tonight if it harelips hell and half of Georgia!

Richard’s been trying to find me a table on the bulletin board at work. He’s found some gorgeous ones that don’t fold up. The last one was cherry… lovely chairs… $200. Only problem is he works 12-8 and by the time he sees something it’s already gone. Bless his heart. He knows I won’t allow much over $200 for one because I don’t want to worry about the 8 year old destroying a $2000 dining
room table. I’m nothing if not practical. So if we don’t see one or can’t afford one before Uncle Sam visits he’s going to buy me one
then. He knows I grew up eating as a family, as I believe he did, and it’s important to me.

Well the kid and I just had lunch at the table. Of course being as picky as he is he wanted a “tortilla pizza”… tortilla, pizza sauce, and cheese. He doesn’t eat the tortilla. I guess to him it’s a delivery system for the sauce and cheese. Oy. Kids and their food issues. I on the other hand had a delicate peanut butter and jelly sandwich, 6 cheese cubes, and celery sticks. I was trying to make a point with the food. I made sure he understood that I really don’t like celery but I ate it because it’s good for me. The cheese and sandwich were to try and entice him to try something new. He has never tried a pbj. He does like cheese. Just certain kinds. He enjoyed it… especially when I made gagging noises while eating the celery to make him laugh. I honest to god detest celery so it wasn’t too difficult an act to pull off. lol

R called after midnight to tell me he has to go to a meeting this morning. They’ve decided what they’re going to do at work. I have to take him back to work at 10:30 for a 30 minute meeting. Doesn’t make sense to leave him and go home so I’ll keep the kid in the car and wait.

In other news… my fasting blood glucose test results are in: 109

I think that technically makes me a pre-diabetic.

Although if they did the FBG test on me today it would probably be really high due to stress.

*Added Later:

Bad day for me. Trying to get out of our lot to go pick R up I damned near hit a car and got hit by another car. I managed to get out of it without anything happening but it made the stress level even higher. Turns out the company decided to outsource with a company. They don’t move jobs out of the country and they keep them in the community. Richard felt better after the meeting.. but my nerves were shot for the day from the stress. He told me not to worry about this shit for awhile and to take it easy for a few days. I’m going to do what I’m told… well try to do what I’m told. I may be knitting another hat to relax. Which reminds me I need to get more yarn for the other two afghans I need to make. Later. Today I behave myself.

In the middle of the night our kitchen sink magically unclogged. (Long story short no maintenance man showed up.. maybe our neighbors put something down the drain to clean it on their side.)

Richard asked if I thought he should run some baking soda and vinegar down the sink after flushing it for a good long time. I said sure.

He starts moving around in there and then I hear this “Oh CRAP!”. I asked what was wrong and he said he’d grabbed the wrong bottle. He poured vegetable oil down the drain instead of the vinegar. lol

He said he wondered when it didn’t bubble as usual. I told him to go ahead and use the vinegar, which he did, and it seems clear even this morning but I don’t trust our plumbing. I think it was put in by Barney Fife. There have been times when it’s done this and then become backed up again.

Oil instead of vinegar… if he’d skipped the baking soda it might have made a nice salad dressing….

Earlier I was looking for the pedometer I bought a while back and couldn’t find it. After digging through every decorative box I have made to put small things in (and to hide crap) I gave up.

I whined..

I don’t want to have to walk all the way to the back of Walmart to get a pedometer! lol

I’ll blame it on the Splenda hangover. Looks like for some reason splenda and I don’t get along well unless it’s in very small doses. I used two packets the other day in something and felt like my head was floating 2 feet over my RL head. Weird. Nutrasweet is a no-no and I guess Splenda is very limited for me. I think we bought an RC cola with splenda in it one day and it made me feel the same way.

I’ve never been able to handle sugar substitutes that well. I always have very strange reactions. I can limit my sugar to a tsp of sugar in a glass of tea or drink it without.

I had planned to change the way I was eating anyway. The idea that I might be a diabetic made it a bit more important. Still waiting to find out about the blood test. lol I probably am or will be a diabetic. I have a bullseye on my forehead. My Father’s family and my Mother’s family have a history of it. My Mother was a diabetic who went from meds to insulin so I know the drill. I was her “chef” as Joshua has taken to calling me. lol I cooked for her using 3 different types of diet at different times. The diabetic exchange diet, vegetarian, and low-fat. During my cooking career which started when I was 3 (lol) I have cooked various types of food. French, asian, home-style, mexican, diet foods, and many more. The benefit of all of that is that I can make things at home and adapt them to a diet. It makes it easier.

Some dishes need more tinkering than others. Some need very little tinkering. I was thinking about chicken/shrimp creole yesterday. It’s basically tomatoes, seasonings, onion, a little bell pepper, and chicken or shrimp. Served over rice. The only thing I’d do is limit the amount of chicken/shrimp in each portion and maybe switch the rice to brown rice. But not necessarily. White rice’s glycemic value is not that much higher than brown so to make Richard feel comfortable with it I’d use white. The beauty of this recipe is that you can freeze individual portions of the sauce/chicken/shrimp and make rice to go with it later. You could also add a side salad to it and have a really good meal.

My main problem with changing the way we eat is that Richard hates the word “diet”. I think he thinks like most people do of cottage cheese, carrot sticks, celery, etc. It doesn’t have to be that way and it doesn’t mean you have to give up things you love. You have to adapt and be willing to make compromises but food doesn’t have to taste like prison food or bird food.

He despises no-fat sour cream. Okay, no problem. According to WW:

regular sour cream 1 tbsp
reduced fat sour cream 2 tbsp
light sour cream 3 tbsp
no-fat sour cream 1/4 cup

All of those are 1 point. I’ll switch him over to light sour cream. He’s had it before when I bought it by accident and didn’t notice. lol I’ll use the non-fat with a drop of lemon juice and seasonings to make a veggie dip. (Whipping it with a whisk helps.)

He has had no problems with the new bread I’ve bought, low calorie, high fiber, etc. We both have issues with the bagels I bought. Egad! They were awful! Wheat bagels are an abomination! We’ll use regular bagels and eat them less often using english muffins as well. He loves english muffins.

Salad dressings are another issue with him. I don’t blame him. I can’t stand the fat-fee dressings. So we’ll use some of the better reduced calorie dressings instead. He likes italian dressing so we’ll use that too in limited amounts. I found a really good red cal ranch and a fantastic asian toasted sesame the other day.

He loves pretzels. They are high on the glycemic index. I was surprised at how high they were. I won’t take away one of the things he loves. I’ll pre-package his pretzels in baggies in the amounts he can have. Maybe I can keep his paws off my reduced fat cheese nips that way. lol He likes those too.

One problem I’m trying to solve is that Richard doesn’t eat lunch. Working 12-8am makes that a problem. He sleeps after he eats breakfast and misses lunch and then has dinner. I’m thinking of giving him celery sticks, carrot sticks, pretzels, crackers and cheeses to take to work with him.

Ugh duty calls… backed up kitchen sink… I love living in apartments and having sink problems on a sunday…