A Retail Life

A Clean Bill of Health

2008-08-15T06:09:00.002-04:00

I had my baseline colonoscopy on Monday. I think it actually took longer to hook up the IV for the sedative and hook me up to the blood pressure machine than it did to do the actual scope! For what it is worth, and for those who are hesitant to schedule this particular procedure, it's really not that awful. I found the prep to be the most inconvenient part; I describe it as having the stomach flu without a raging fever. The stuff you drink to cleanse the colon isn't the most wonderful stuff and it's not the worst stuff either. I found it to have a significant appetite killing effect, which was okay with me given the "clear liquid diet" part of the prep. I was fortunate enough to be the first appointment of the day, so I was all sedated and ready for the doc when he came in at 8:45. I was in the recovery area by 9:05 and sitting at the nearest Bob Evans by 9:45. Swear to Gawd! I had the perfect amount of sedation because I could remember the procedure and talking to the doctor and the nurse afterwards but I never felt any discomfort at all. I mean, it really was "That's it? You're done back there?" I got a completely clean bill of colon health, and the nurse said stuff like "We wish we had more patients like you," and "You like your fruits and veggies, right? We can tell!" Don't have to go back for 5 years either.

In other health news, I got the results of my mammogram back yesterday, too. No changes and repeat in one year. That completes all of the routine medical testing for me for a year or so, and they all came back good. Now to keep working on weight loss and fitness. Quite honestly, such good test results are a real incentive to do just that!

Also, I have a really, really clean house right now. Just sorting out a bit of junk in the spare room and doing some filing. So I have a clean bill of health EVERYWHERE!

How Clean Is Your House?

2008-08-09T19:53:00.006-04:00

This is my new favorite show. I do not consider myself a clean fanatic by any stretch of the imagination. Heloise (or at least the people who write into her with new hints) and the Fly Ladies scare me, quite frankly. I mean, there's a thing called "obsessive compulsive disorder" and I think that most Fly Ladies should look into treatment. Really, I do! I have loads of clutter and stuff that needs to just get toted out to the car or the curb so it can live elsewhere, but every time I watch this show, I am reminded that I am hell and gone from the state of the homes that Kim and Aggie invade. It's sort of reaffirming for me, really.

I've also gotten some really good, inexpensive cleaning tips and tricks from the show. After all, if they work on the hog pens shown on TV, my little bits of dust and dirt are a breeze! I was skeptical that some olive oil mixed with plain old bottled lemon juice right from the fridge would remove the waxy buildup on that antique table from Grandma, especially when I'd spent good money on stuff that promised to do the same with no effect. Imagine my surprise when I tested the olive oil/lemon juice on the spot under the lamp mat for the table lamp and got a shiny table top that looked brand spankin' new! Imagine the utter shock I got when that mixture of regular table salt and the same lemon juice took the bits of cooking gunk that had accumulated under the rings on the electric stove right off with just a little effortless scrubbing with a nylon scrubber when even 409 and lots of sweating had failed. I also have started mixing plain ol' baking soda and Purex laundry soap with bleach into a paste that is apparently a homemade version of Soft Scrub for mere pennies when compared to the real deal. I put it on the tub and the tiles and it takes any soap scum right off and I think it is even bleaching out the grout on the tiles! These are all things I saw on "How Clean Is Your House?"

Of course, I was telling a friend recently that once you really and truly start deep cleaning and keeping it up, it is like dominoes, and before you know it, you're pulling out the refrigerator and cleaning under there! Because once you move the fridge even slightly and get a glimpse of what is lurking back there and under there, the genie is definitely OUT of the bottle, and you will not sleep until you've cleaned it properly! Which means that you then have to contemplate cleaning the INSIDE of the fridge, too. Yeah, yeah, I know. See above references to OCD, right? Well, I am comforted by the fact that, having cleaned out Dad's refrigerator not that long ago, I will not be confronting a 3 year old maple syrup spill that has been allowed to drip everywhere inside the refrigerator. Who knows? Maybe I'll thin things out and get down to have just six or seven kinds of mustard in my refrigerator!

Tomorrow I think I will clear the clutter from my room and the living room so that I can give it all a good dusting and vacuuming. I've got to do it early, though, as I have to start prepping for my baseline colonoscopy tomorrow afternoon. I am getting the scoping on Monday a.m. at 8:30. Everyone says the prep is worse than the actual test, and I believe they are probably right. Heck, these days you get enough happy juice to make you forget they've even done the colonoscopy from what I've heard. And I've taken Dad to enough scopings to have a pretty good idea how things go. I should be ready to eat my friend Meg's car upholstery by the time all is said and done sometime late morning/early afternoon on Monday! Then I can come home and take a nap! Or maybe that napping thing is just a Dad/Dogzilla thing? I guess I'll find out. At any rate, I'll be clean inside and out!

I Love Shark Week!!!

2008-07-29T10:01:00.002-04:00

What more can I say? I really, really do. While I don't want to pet them or swim with them, and I do not go into the ocean past my ankles when I visit the beach, I DO think that large sharks in their element are magnificent creatures, every bit as beautiful and graceful as any other predators that we consider "beautiful", like lions, tigers and wolves. They are an evolutionary design that has proven almost perfect right out of the box.

A Health Update

2008-07-09T11:35:00.002-04:00

Okay, let me first confess that, up until the middle of May, when I developed what was only the second UTI of my life, I hadn't been to my "regular" doctor for somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 years. Uh-huh. FIVE years. Last year, I kept waiting for the urgent care that was treating my abdominal abscess to tell me to GO to my usual doc, but that never happened. Not sure how time slipped away, but at first it was because I didn't have a regular, scheduled day off to make doctor appointments. Then, there was the matter of that deductible under previous forms of insurance. I know it seems silly, but after first switching jobs, there wasn't a lot left over for things like deductibles. Insurance was there for catastrophe, God forbid, should it strike.

Anyhow, I've got a new kind of insurance plan that actually works better for someone like me, who is rarely sick and who needs more of the routine/preventative care. So I've decided to make this the year that I get caught up on ALL the routine medical tests. So far, I've had my cholesterol checked, my blood glucose level checked, my thyroid and liver functions checked, had a PAP test and one of those in-office EKGs done, and have scheduled a mammogram and a baseline colonoscopy (given that I am turning 50 this coming Saturday, it was time. What a way to mark my golden anniversary with the world, eh? LOL). I've also gotten an eye exam and the first new glasses since the September after my mom died, some 12 years ago.

When I last had a cholesterol test, I was on medication to control cholesterol. Need I say that the medication fell by the wayside when I stopped going to the doctor? Anyhow, my current cholesterol level, without any medication, is 182. The "good" cholesterol count was 60 and the "bad" cholesterol level was 113. My triglycerides are 46. All of which is pretty good. Speaks well of the benefits of having a job that you actually LIKE most days, eating a high fiber diet and exercising regularly. My fasting blood glucose came back at 87. Other tests are well within "normal" ranges, too. I am very happy about all of this! As is my doctor, who, bless his heart, hasn't yelled at me once for letting things slide. He's just glad I've come back and approves of all the things I am doing right these days, such as exercising regularly and losing weight through the incredibly sensible (at least for me!) Weight Watchers CORE Plan. The only things he asked me to do, apart from keeping right on with the good habits, were to add a calcium pill with Vitamin D and a baby aspirin to my daily multivitamin.

My current total weight loss since the middle of May is 14 lbs., and still dropping. I feel really good and very powerful! It's good to make choices that feel right. Looking forward to a birthday weekend up at Dad's this weekend. I'm sure Dogzilla will want me to walk him tirelessly, especially since he has gotten so trim again with the baby carrot treats. For a twelve year old beagle, he can still jump up on those rock walls with the best of them! We should all be so spry at the equivalent age of somewhere between 80-90 years old!

I think that's about the size of it on the health front for me. I just had to share!

Change Is Good

2008-06-06T11:26:00.003-04:00

I've come to the conclusion, after all these years, that change is definitely good for me. At least on the fitness and weight fronts. I seem to have a body that adapts incredibly well to routine. It's incredibly efficient at maintaining if I try to do the same old, same old day in and day out. So, the real secret for me is to almost constantly be mixing things up. I've been doing the Weight Watchers CORE plan for about 3 weeks now, and it still makes sense to me. Non-starchy veggies are my friends. The starchier ones, like corn, lima beans, sweet potatoes and white potatoes are not my enemy, but I do make a conscious effort to monitor how much of them I eat and how often. Lean protein is a good thing. I've been eating lots of chicken (the rotisserie chicken, plucked of its skin, is still a very good thing), lean pork and beef cuts, and both fresh and canned tuna and salmon. Whole grain products, like whole wheat pasta and whole wheat couscous and cereals with 5+ grams of fiber per serving, are also things I include in my diet, but I do keep a real close eye on how often I eat them and how much. Usually, they are a once a day thing and kept to the smaller portion of the meal. I've been able to consciously experience just how much I actually LIKE eating this way. There's so many things that I actually find very appealing. I love fresh apricots, and this year has been very good for them. I really enjoy fresh tomatoes and peppers of all colors. Fresh parsley and cilantro add new dimensions to just about anything you stick them in. I've made a really good Moroccan-spiced chicken breast. From a Weight Watcher recipe. Mind you, I changed the technique a little bit, but it still came out very good. Instead of just plopping a mix of ground cumin, coriander and cinnamon on the boneless chicken breasts and then sauteing it in a couple tsp. of oil, I mixed the dried spices with the oil and rubbed that on the chicken, which I then cooked in a non-stick pan sprayed with high heat PAM (btw, throw out all your other cooking sprays as this high heat version of Pam is well worth it!). I browned the chicken on both sides and then tossed it into a murderously hot (450 F) oven for about 10 minutes, until the juices ran clear. I wound up with deliciously moist chicken that paired nicely with some whole wheat couscous that had been cooked in chicken broth and that I stirred chopped fresh apricots and chopped cilantro into. I've decided that for weight loss, I should actually listen to my hunger levels (which is part of the CORE plan), and eat somewhere between 1200-1600 calories most days. Because there actually ARE whole days when I'm just not very hungry. Especially if I am good about taking in fluids.

When it comes to exercise, I need to average 45-60 minutes of something in addition to my "normal" activities. Now, sometimes, that's vigorous housework or carrying stuff up and down the stairs at my apartment (I have an ungodly amount of stuff that I donate to charity when I get into my "purge" modes and it all has to be toted down to my car to get hauled off. And, yes, I do know there are charities that would come get the stuff, but that would defeat the point of me hauling it down the stairs. Going down stairs means you have to come back UP them, see?). Lately, I've dragged out my modest array of fitness tapes and begun to work my way through them depending on my whims. I've been using a couple of The Firm tapes. Discovered that I am hideously uncoordinated at step aerobics, but my solution is to just keep moving my butt up and down the step when I get lost or to keep marching in place or squatting or lunging for stuff that is on the floor that I get lost trying to keep up on. Eventually, I'll get the moves but right now, it's important to just keep moving and sweating, IMHO. I like the whole CORE plan because it does encourage activity, diet alone not being enough. You get to earn a few extra weekly points to spend on stuff that isn't part of the CORE foods list, for things that might surprise some people. I like to "earn" my daily low-fat, artificially sweetened yogurt every day. That means I need to do at least 2 points worth of activity every day. I also find it both interesting and appropriate that WW seems to give you the most points for an activity in the early going of that activity. I think that makes sense, especially when dealing with a group that, for the most part, is unaccustomed to regular physical activity and who, given the chance, will overestimate their efforts. I know. Been there, done that. Keeps people from thinking they can earn 10 points a day for indulgences by exercising every day for hours on end. It encourages the efficient use of time for maximum fitness benefits, near as I can see. I mean, I can find 45-60 minutes to do something physical most days. That's reasonable. I mix it up between core training, cardio (like stepping and walking), yoga (I have a tape) and vigorous cleaning (moving boxes, gardening at my dad's, moving furniture around).

Currently, I've lost about 8 lbs., which is pretty reasonable. I am aiming for 1-2 lbs. average per week. Knowing my body as I do, I expect it to do this in fits and starts. I mean, I'll loose 4-6 lbs. one week and then somewhere between 1/2 lb. to 2 lbs. for several weeks. In the end, though, I know it works out to 1-2 lbs. average over time. Which is healthy and which is the measure of doing stuff that becomes a permanent way of living. And I am NOT a fanatic about anything. I reorganized my pantry/dry goods earlier this week. I put canned fruits and veggies, vinegars, healthy oils, sauces, dressings and whole grains where they are easily accessible. Things I absolutely cannot resist for the most part got tossed out. There was surprisingly little of that stuff in my house. The top shelf, the one that is above eye level and that I actually have to reach for holds the graham crackers, the two boxes of Girl Scout cookies, the jar of mini raspberry Three Musketeers, and the jar of mixed jelly beans. Believe it or not, I can actually have these things in my house and not gorge on them. But I want them up high and mostly outta sight so I am not tempted by them constantly being in my face. I also threw out my takeout menus. All of them.

Well, that's enough rambling on. I think I'll go clean something. I'm sure the tub could use a swabbing down.

The Merry Month of May

2008-05-21T17:50:00.002-04:00

Perhaps it should be the COLD month of May. Although, come August and September, I'll probably look back at the slightly below average temperatures of May with longing. It is nice to sit here with the windows open this evening, though.

Not a whole lot happening in the past month, truth to tell. Nothing terribly exciting at work or at home. Of course, not a lot of going anywhere much what with the stinkin' price of gas! I have been up to visit with Dad and Dogzilla. Last weekend, I had to adjust Dogzilla's harness to fit him better. The baby carrot treat diet seems to be working wonders on the boy, and he's slimming down to a reasonable weight for an old beagle boy. He even showed some surprising vim and vigor over the weekend, running on his leash like a young dog. Of course, he was one whupped pup come Saturday evening since the day was so nice for walking him to his heart's content. Honestly, he was practically tripping over his little dog feet he was so tired, but he kept hopping out of bed to check on me in the living room during the evening. I think he was afraid I'd be sitting there eating sub sandwiches without him, and no lack of sub sandwiches or assurances from me could convince him otherwise. I finally went to bed around 10:30, just to get him to stay put. Which he did. It was rather like watching an over-tired two year old, the difference being that Dogzilla did not run himself into a wall or a coffee table in a fit of giddiness and then have the mother of all temper tantrums. He just kept wanting me to put him back to bed! Silly old dog anyhow. It's good to see him still feeling frisky at somewhere around 12 years old, though.

I've started the Weight Watchers CORE plan online, and so far it's working well. It doesn't involve nearly the amount of obsessive journaling that tracking daily points does. I don't do real well with anything that involves obsessive journaling. As clearly evidenced by my neglect of my blog! Anyhow, it's far easier to use their little online planner thing to track the weekly points I get. Near as I have figured out, you are pretty much safe if you stick with skim milk, green leafy vegetables, lean skinless protein and a little fruit. Which actually makes sense to me. It hasn't been hard to accomplish these general guidelines. I've been very careful with the whole grains/cereals category. Near as I can tell, you either count points for those things OR you may have them once a day. At any rate, it was good for 6 lbs. this week, and I don't expect to do anything much different next week. Fortunately, I am definitely NOT fascinated by 100 calorie packs of anything and most of the junky little snack things that allegedly count for one point. I'd rather use such points as I am given or that I may earn through physical activity for things like real cheese and salad dressings that don't taste like fat-free hell. My premise on those things is that a LITTLE of the real deal goes a very long way compared with buckets of the fakey stuff. I am actually trying to eliminate a lot of the processed and over-refined stuff, like white breads and pastas, so this way of eating makes sense. You do get to eat CORE foods until you are satisfied. Mind you, that doesn't mean you get to eat as much as you want until you are stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey. There's a difference between being satisfied and being overstuffed. The goal is to recognize hunger and to recognize when that hunger has been eased. It's about pushing back from the table with plenty of room for another bite or two and choosing not to take those bites.

So that's the big stuff about what's up with me. I'm taking some vacation at the end of the month. Got a nephew graduating from high school on what would have been my mom's 72nd birthday, so Dad and I are planning to go to that with my brother and his wife. This is the nephew that's done a lot of high school theater and who wants to be a youth minister when he finishes college. Afterwards, we are going to a wedding for one of my cousin's daughters on my mom's side. I'm sure a lot of Mom's kith and kin will be there, and I'm sure we'll all have a great time catching up. Somehow, Mom will be with us all in spirit!

Seriously, now. That's it. LOL

Spring!

2008-04-23T16:13:00.003-04:00

Sigh. I've shamefully neglected my blog, leaving everyone with the impression that those of us who survived The Great Earthquake were still buried here in snow, with nothing being further from the truth! As to said Great Earthquake, I managed to sleep right through any shaking at my house, which leads me to believe that I've joined the rest of my family, who I've always sworn could sleep through a tornado blowing the house down. At any rate, spring has definitely and FINALLY sprung. There are daffodils and crocuses in bloom, along with forsythia and lilacs and any number of trees. Practically overnight, it seems. Anyhow, it's gorgeous. Low humidity, temperatures ranging from upper sixties to upper seventies in the day (although I see my little weather bug says it is 80 outside right now!) and falling into temperatures that are wonderful to sleep in with the windows open.

Let's see....I've been reviewed at work. I got a good raise for retail. I got to write a whole bunch of reviews for cashiers and other front end support positions. Now we get to deliver them. Yee-haw. Dogzilla has been to the V-E-T for his spring checkup. He got a rabies shot and tested for heartworm (all clear). The vet did suggest, ever so kindly, that we get some weight off the dear old boy, so he is on the baby carrot treat regimen. The first weekend I was up, he spent much of the weekend spewing baby carrots onto the floor with surprising vigor for a chubby old beagle, but this past weekend he seemed to take them quite readily. Of course, I had to keep pointing out the chunks lying on the floor that he missed, but at least he was eating them and not spitting them out. I'm going to have to keep an ice cube tray in the freezer this summer. No mean feat that, given the way Dad likes to cram the freezer full. I do come by my own packed freezer via a genetic predisposition, I guess!

I'm taking a few days vacation at the end of May/beginning of June. I have a cousin whose daughter is getting married on May 31, which happens to be my Mom's birthday. This is on her side of the family, so I told my Aunt Mary that it would be like Mom was with us at Stephanie's wedding. My youngest nephew will graduate from high school that morning, and I think they're having the party on June 1. I'm planning to take the Friday before off, along with Monday, Tuesday and Weds. afterward. I can spend an extra day with Dad and Dogzilla, without rushing to get home on Sunday night, and then I'll have a few days to do whatever I want when I get home. Perhaps I'll do some more clearing out and reorganize the kitchen or something. I'm sort of in the mood to do that kind of stuff.

Well, that's been my life in a little nutshell. Really. It IS spring here in central Ohio!

That's Not a Snowbank, That's My Car!!!

2008-03-09T16:01:00.003-04:00

This is what my car looked like when I went out around 11:30 this morning to scrape it off. Seriously. And there was a really nice bumper height drift behind it that I had to mash down so I could move the car once I got it all brushed off. It is a very good thing that the local prognasticating groundhog, Buckeye Chuck, is in a burrow somewhere deep under the snow. This is hardly my idea of an early spring, and I am ready to skin the wee beastie!

In Like a Lion

2008-03-09T08:27:00.003-04:00

This was my weekend off and I was supposed to go visit Dad and Dogzilla. I was looking forward to seeing them both, but the weather had other ideas. It started snowing around 9:30 a.m. on Friday and didn't stop until sometime on Saturday evening. After talking to Dad on Friday afternoon and with weather predictions that said Saturday would be just as bad, if not worse, we decided I should just stay put here in Columbus. The National Weather Service reported total snowfall of 20.4 inches as of yesterday evening from the airport just south of my house. The lengths that Mother Nature will go to to FORCE me to stay home and clean house, I tell ya! Nothing quite like the approach of springtime in central Ohio!

Numero Uno

2008-02-13T14:26:00.007-05:00

I love the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. I watch it every year. Faithfully. Picking my favorites from every group. Of course, I love beagles best of all and look forward to those few moments when the 13" and 15" beagles are judged in the hound group, but every year I've watched them shut out and overshadowed by itsy-bitsy dogs, terriers, big flashy sporty dogs, snooty-looking Afghan hounds and my personal pet peeve dogs, the stinkin' poodles of all sizes. To all the poodle lovers out there, my apologies. I'm sure they are fine animals. Really. But to a person that grew up with beagles, they are rat-faced, foofy-lookin' dogs.

So I was absolutely thrilled when Uno, the 15" "big" beagle, took the hound group. And even though I don't know the dog personally, I was tickled to death to see him win all the marbles, as it were, by going Best in Show. Of course, the judge was a Georgia boy, so it should figger that he'd take a look at that spunky, noisy hound and see a winner. Uno really showed off the beagle personality in a way that most beagles, fine as they are, just don't quite manage to convey in the show ring. That perky, tail-up, ears flying strut as he paraded around the ring. Getting so caught up in the excitement in the air that he started baying at his handler and the judge while he was showing and being judged. And continuing to do so whilst one of the formidable poodles was being judged. You cannot tell a beagle to shut up if it's made up its mind to bark and carry on. Trust me. I know from personal experience. Uno cracked me up standing there barking at everything and everyone after they announced he was the Best in Show. The jumping and dancing. So very beagle. I couldn't help but see Dogzilla in Uno, although my personal prejudice is that while Uno is, indeed, a very fine specimen of beagle, Dogzilla in his prime was at least as handsome a specimen if not more so.

Now, having waxed euphoric about beagles, I do hope to God that all the people who thought Uno was the cutest thing on earth and who want to run out and get them a beagle dog will take time to actually do their homework on beagle ownership first. There are enough beagles in rescue and in shelters and roaming the streets because people couldn't handle them. Dogzilla himself is a rescue boy because some idiot that didn't know how to train a beagle to hunt opted to just abuse and neglect Dogzilla when he didn't become a rabbit dog. Beagles are, indeed, furry little clowns. They do well with children, being sturdy and generally possessed of a merry and playful temperament. They usually enjoy being part of the pack and want to sit with you and sleep with you. They're very companionable dogs. However, they definitely have minds of their own. Which is all well and good until you don't want to do what your beagle wants to do. They can be downright stubborn and single-minded, so you'd better be sure your beagle knows YOU are the alpha dog in the house. Understand that there is a reason that few beagles hold obedience titles and awards. Smart they are, and they'll certainly benefit from obedience training (so will you!), but don't hold your breath for your beagle to win awards for being perfectly obedient and willing to bend to your will. They can be difficult to house-train, partly because they ARE scent hounds. They are strongly food-motivated and they are problem solvers, which means in practical terms that they WILL figure out how to get those cookies off the counter at the first opportunity, and have no scruples or apologies for cruising grocery bags that get left sitting on the floor. Or the table. They are, at least in their youth, fairly active dogs, which means you'd better have at least an hour a day (more is better in my experience of any beagle under 8 years old) to devote to walking their little legs off or a large, fenced-in back yard. And they are furry Houdinis, so that fence had probably better be pretty tall and planted deep or they will figure out how to jump it, climb it or tunnel under it. Never, never, never trust a beagle off the leash unless you are in an enclosed area. They are inclined to roam and were bred to be pretty tireless, so they can go a far piece on those four little legs. And if they are on a scent trail, they become oblivious to everything, like landmarks and moving vehicles. And they can be noisy little creatures. They like to bark (technically, they bay). They're certainly vocal when happy and excited. And also if they are bored and lonely. You'll need to exercise your beagle's body and brain, accept its little personality quirks and notions, and have time to include it in your daily life. Because your beagle wants to "help" you with any project. Mostly it is like having a furry little two-year old that gets in your way, but that's a beagle and that's what you can expect. If you can accept all of that, then by all means, the beagle is the adorable little hound for you. Enough of the soap box, then. Just please, please, please read about beagles, talk to people who own them and who've spent lots of time with them before running off to get one. And please, please, please either find a reputable breeder or a very good rescue operation if you want a beagle. Do NOT patronize mall pet stores or puppy mills. You can read all about finding a reliable, reputable breeder at the American Kennel Club web site.

Anyhow, forget the Year of the Rat. It's the Year of the Beagle!

A Day Off

2008-01-23T16:30:00.000-05:00

Oh, it's sooo nice to have a day off and have the energy to actually DO things other than try to recuperate from running around like a chicken with its head cut off at work every day. Mind you, I'm still VERY good at goofing off, but at least in between bouts of goofing off I can actually accomplish some household chores. I've dusted, I've vacuumed, I've cleaned the bathroom, I've unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, washed up the dishes in the sink that can't or won't go in the dishwasher and made two kinds of chicken (there was a sale on ginormous packages of chicken thighs at the store this week; more about what I did with them later.).

Things have definitely slowed at work. I closed last night and pretty much sent my cashiers home after we got the all clear of customers. I was out by 10:30, along with pretty much everyone else that wasn't part of the overnight stocking team. And we left it looking pretty darn good for the morning crew. It's nice to leave things nice for a change. That tends to not happen during the holidays. There are nights when you leave carts of merchandise that people abandoned that have to be put back on the shelves. There are nights when what passes for a good zone is "at least it's not on the floor." So it's very nice to leave early knowing that the morning crew won't be cleaning up a mess and can get to the things they need to get done.

It's also nice to have extra days off because you can use vacation or personal time to free up actual payroll hours for the good people we kept after the holidays who've gone from getting nearly full-time hours to getting half that or less. Happens every year at this time in most of the retail world, too, just in case anyone thinks this is unnatural.

I'm off today, and will go to work tomorrow, then I get a three day weekend. Woohoo! I'm taking a personal holiday on Friday, with my immediate supervisor's blessing, and this weekend is my usually scheduled weekend off. So on Friday I can tackle the laundry without feeling like I'm letting other things slide, and then on Saturday I'll head up to visit with Dad and Dogzilla. The only thing I'll have to do on my return is unpack.

After sorting through the kitchen a bit, I've decided that, except for some milk, I don't need to go to the grocery store. At all. Seriously. I'll have plenty of cooked chicken. I made up half the chicken I bought by marinating it in a mix of green onions, garlic, fresh ginger, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, sriracha chili sauce and honey. It will bake for about 40-50 minutes in a 375 degree oven. The other half of the chicken thighs got marinated in a mixture of salt, cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, lime zest, lime juice and olive oil. It's baking on a rack in the 375 degree oven along with the other chicken. I can have it as is, but with my completely and fully stocked pantry, refrigerator and freezer, it can also turn into soups, salads and all kinds of other dishes besides what is essentially baked chicken.

Ahhh, it's nice to have a little down time. Did I say that enough?

Fear and Loathing In January

2008-01-16T11:52:00.000-05:00

Well, you can certainly tell it's a new year. After the excesses of the holidays, people everywhere are "getting serious" about it all again. What I'm noticing this year is the amount of what I call fear and loathing on the whole diet, weight and exercise front that is rampant this time of year. I'm sure it's been like this every year, but I'm really noticing it this year. And I think it's really "fear and SELF-loathing" that is catching my attention. I mean, I've read any number of posts to various lists and blogs recently, and have found myself wanting to ask, "Why are you surprised that your bodies get hurt and won't listen to you when all you do is tell them how fat, lazy, worthless and disgusting they are? I wouldn't listen to you either!"

I've done a lot of thinking about resolutions as a consequence, and I've decided that, for me, it's going to be about investing in small, moderate changes that will be permanent. It's about doing the things that I already KNOW to do and have lost focus on. This year is going to be about celebrating what my body does for me by doing those small little everyday things that make me feel good. That means focusing on good nutrition so that my body has all the building blocks it needs to feel strong and energized. I am all about high fiber, fruits and veggies, lean proteins and low-fat dairy. I have a non-sedentary job, to be sure, but I've decided that I really do need to do more on the exercise front, so I've dusted off some exercise DVDs, my hand weights and my exercise ball. Because even 30-45 minutes a day lifts my spirits and builds up my body. I want to emphasize that these are not things that constitute re-inventing the wheel for me. Seriously. It's just as easy for me to put together healthy meals and snacks as it is to make things that aren't as nutritious. It's really not that hard for me to incorporate 30-45 minutes of exercise into my day. I've just let these things slide, and that doesn't make me an awful person.

I suppose I've decided to take a kinder, gentler approach because I also find with each passing year that aging is a privilege that not everyone gets to indulge in. I may piss and moan about every ache and pain and lament that my stamina ain't what it used to be, but I also see that I can count among friends and family any number of people who just plain ain't around any more to do that. Life is, indeed, short, so savor it all because it sure beats the alternative. Dogzilla isn't a person, but that chubby little hound has the right of it. He doesn't KNOW he's an old dog. He still gets a twinkle in his eye and runs around like a pup when we go outside. He dances for his breakfast and his dinner. He makes absolutely NO apologies for needing a good long nap on Sunday afternoons when I visit, and he doesn't ever beat himself up because he doesn't have the stamina to walk 5-6 miles a day any more. He just snuggles up to me on the couch and rolls over for a belly rub and sighs with contentment. Good boy.

So how about this year, choosing to stop and smell the roses and choosing to be kind to yourself and celebrate the wonder that makes you who you are?

Jingle Bell Hell

2007-12-19T18:26:00.000-05:00

Sigh. I work retail. It's December. Don't wonder why I haven't updated this thing! We've been awfully busy most days, especially in the last week. Not hitting those overly optimistic sales forecasts out of corporate, but awfully busy just the same. Weird hours. Long hours. Trying to mostly keep a handle on things like laundry and dishes and the other joys of daily life. I have managed to put up my tree, bake some cookies and do some shopping. Fortunately, the rest of my shopping involves gift cards, and I can finish that in about 10 minutes on a break! I only have to actually wrap about 3 presents, which is good, as I have all the wrapping skills of a first grader.

I'm looking forward to driving up to my dad's on Christmas Eve. I'll get to go to church down the street with him because it's just not really Christmas if I can't go to church on Christmas Eve. I'll spoil Dogzilla with some Christmas cookies. I'll go to my ex-sister-in-law's family party at her aunt's house because that's my Christmas Eve tradition. I'll see my nephews there most likely and catch up with Deb's family. Deb and I have decided that we will always be sisters-in-law, even if she isn't married to my brother any more, and that's no slur against my current sister-in-law, who I am also fortunate to call my sister-in-law. Heck, Deb has said that she couldn't have picked a better stepmom for my nephews than Tammy. So on Christmas Eve, I'll go to Deb's Aunt Jane's and visit with everyone and sit around with them and sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" as led by Deb's Uncle Ed. On Christmas Day, I'll take Dogzilla strolling sometime a little before sunrise and look at Christmas lights while the hound has a Christmas sniff. I'll give Dogzilla his presents (a new fleece blankie, a new food dish and some kind of special dog treats) while Dad and I are having coffee and reading the paper. Dad and I will go to my brother's to open presents and have dinner. I'll take my strawberry jello salad, Christmas cookies and salami rollups. I'll have to drive home after dinner because I open on the day after Christmas. We open at 7, which means I have to be to work by 6.

I am not looking forward to the day AFTER Christmas. People are mostly nice in the weeks leading right up to Christmas, but the day after is when the gloves come off. They have a whole year to work at being good so Santa is nice to them next year. I would like to tell the post-Christmas cranky ones that if store credit was an option, I'd certainly give it to them just to get them outta my hair and outta my store. Like you think I enjoy having you yell at me because you are apparently a four year old that can't be bothered with receipts and who doesn't understand plain English that states a valid receipt dated within 90 days of purchase is required for ALL returns and exchanges? I am sorry that your relationship with your family, friends and co-workers precludes your asking for a gift receipt from them, but that's your issue, not mine, and I most certainly do not have to make up for the shortcomings of your interpersonal relationships. And just why do you think that yelling at anyone is a good way to get what you want anyhow? In my time, I've been yelled at about things beyond my control by people who billed their time out at four hundred dollars an hour. So if you want to roll on the floor over a couple pairs of little Christmas socks like a two year old, have at it, and we can have security escort you to the parking lot. With your stinky little Christmas socks. To just think about what you've done. Maybe then you'll notice the "Distributed by Kohl's Inc." on the label and realize you just threw a fit in the wrong store. Or not.

I think I'll go pop a nice little Christmas DVD in, read "A Christmas Carol" and chill for a bit. Maybe have some eggnog and light some candles. And think about fixing the Christmas lights in the window, which have, regrettably, half fallen down. Those darn sticky tabs just don't work so good when the temperatures fluctuate between the teens and the upper forties on a regular basis! Good thing I've got a couple days off.

I hope all my friends and family are having some very happy holidays and that everyone stays safe well into the new year and beyond. God bless us, every one.

Why I Love Beagles....

2007-11-07T08:49:00.000-05:00

especially Dogzilla. They are just so damn comical! This past Sunday, after dinner, Dad and I were sitting in the living room. I was sitting in the recliner and Dad was sitting in the other chair that faces the TV. This is the chair that Dogzilla lies in when it is just the two of them. Dogzilla comes trotting in from the kitchen and just stares at Dad, who is sitting in the chair reading. Dogzilla circles around the coffee table, and comes back to stare at Dad some more. With an expression of exasperation. He finally hops up on the couch, where he proceeds to make quite a show of trying to get comfortable, complete with the beagle version of huffing and puffing. This is already getting hysterical to watch, especially since my father is just sitting there reading, paying no attention to this show. Dogzilla hops down off the couch, stares some more, and then proceeds to start pawing at Dad. This goes on for a couple minutes until Dogzilla finally hops right up on Dad's lap and proceeds to try to sit next to Dad in the chair. This was an easier prospect in the days when Dogzilla was a slim 25 lb. hound, but it's like watching sardines trying to fit into a can at the dog's current shipping weight of nearly 40 lbs. Anyhow, he flops around for a while, with Dad trying to help him get into a lying position. There is more huffing and puffing on Dogzilla's part. Finally, Dad decided to go watch the Browns on the TV in his bedroom and take an afternoon nap. At which point, Dogzilla hopped up into the chair and took a nap for a couple hours. Just to prove his point. This was all funny enough to watch, but after a couple hours, Dogzilla got up, hopped out of the chair and stretched, and then headed into Dad's bedroom. Any other afternoon, and the hound would have followed Dad into the bedroom for napping, but he'd had a point to make, I guess. Anyhow, having made his point, he was ready to kiss and make up with "Daddy" by snuggling up to him once I hoisted his furry little behind up on the bed.

It got better the next afternoon, though. Dad went directly to the couch to sit and read, having learned his lesson and leaving Dogzilla's chair wide open. Of course, Dogzilla proceeded to hop up on the couch right next to Dad, put his head on Dad's knee and took a nap. No interest in the chair whatsoever. This is some of the funniest behavior Dogzilla has engaged in for a while. How can you NOT anthropomorphize behavior like that!

Where DOES the Time Go???

2007-11-07T08:04:00.000-05:00

I see it has been forever and a day since I updated this thing. Sheesh. The good news, I suppose, is that no news is good news, really. Hasn't been much to write home about. Or here either.

It is finally, mercifully FALL in central Ohio. I was not happy about October being a high-usage month for the air-conditioning. It's made it hard to believe that it is actually November already because October was so unseasonably warm. But today is on the side of gray skies, cool temperatures and the kind of blustery weather that shakes the remaining leaves from the trees. Fortunately, I have nowhere to go and nowhere to be today. This past weekend was my scheduled weekend off, and I am usually off on Tuesdays, so I took Monday and Wednesday as personal days, since those need to be used or lost before the end of the year. I'm planning to use today to give the living room a good sorting out and put up my Christmas decorations.

Yes. Put up my Christmas decorations. This will be the last long stretch of time off for me until sometime around mid-January or early February, so I have to get done what I have to get done before Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving for the non-retail types out there). After Black Friday, I'll be running hard 8-9 hrs. a day, and I save my energy for that and doing the basics of daily life for the most part. Keeps me relatively healthy and sane, see? So I prefer to go into the holiday shopping season relatively neat and tidy, as it is much less work clearing the debris afterwards if I do.

Spent the weekend up at Dad's and took Monday up there, too. Dogzilla was thrilled to get to wake me up an extra day at an ungodly hour. Which was made more ungodly by changing the clocks back. Bless his furry little heart, but his tummy told him it was 3:30 and time for breakfast on Sunday morning. Except that we'd set the clocks back and it was only 2:30. I made him go lie back down for another hour. Which he did in surprisingly good fashion! It's tough to reset an old beagle's internal clock. Anyhow, the weather was the kind of weather that is cool/cold nights that go into sunny, breezy days with temperatures in the upper 40s/lower 50s; perfect for indulging a chubby hound's wishes for frequent trips outside to survey his domain. And eat deer poop. Sigh. It's a good thing he's still so cute and awfully sweet, as beagle-kind are wont to be. I did put up some new mini-blinds in Dad's room and wipe down the windows. Also vacuumed behind his bed and cleared out the mondo cob-webs that accumulate in 100+ y.o. farm houses.

I did a lot of reading. Dad gets National Geographic, Time, U.S. News and World Report, Cooks Country and Arthritis Today. I did a lot of just plain relaxing, too. It all got me set to refocus on my weight loss goals. I'm heading into the season of the year where I actually lose weight. I've been playing around with 5 lbs. or so, though. Mainly because fall tends to mean some heavier, more comfort type foods. I've slacked on portion control and things like fruits and veggies, too. More refined and processed carbs have made their way into my house. All in all, they are things that are easily enough fixed and tweaked. I'm substituting more whole grains for the refined ones. Doing things like whole grain breads for potato bread, sweet potatoes for white ones, whole grain pastas for white ones. Also adding more fruits and disposing of leftover Halloween candy. I'm setting a goal of eating fish at least twice a week, and I'm taking fish oil capsules daily, too. To help with portion control, I bought some salad plates that were on clearance at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I love my Fiestaware dinner plates and they are fine for the summer when you need them for large salads that involve lots of vegetables and leafy greens or big ol' ears of fresh sweet corn, but the darn things really are the size of small platters. Which is not so good when you begin to eat things that have more dense calories and need to be portion-controlled more stringently. Appropriate portions tend to look a little lost on those big ol' dinner plates. Hence, salad plates. Which will look heaping when filled with appropriate portions. I'm going for color when it comes to fruits and vegetables. Sweet potatoes, winter squash, beets, greens, apples, oranges, grapes and pears. Adding more beans to the mix, along with things like brown rice, whole wheat couscous, and buckwheat groats. Taking dairy back towards low-fat. Low-fat individual cottage cheese cups and yogurt cups. Limiting the amount of cheese. I'd rather have a smaller amount of the real deal than play with much of the low-fat cheeses. Skim milk mozzarella and ricotta okay. Even some of the two-percent cheeses are okay. Low-fat cream cheese is acceptable to me. But the rest of the no-fat, low-fat cheeses tend to have as much character as the plastic they resemble when melted. No thank you. I'm just going to be more judicious about the amounts of blue cheese, Parmesan and sharp cheddar I use.

I'm also going to incorporate the weights I've got at home into my week. I get lots of walking in at work, but it shouldn't be too painful to add in some strength training and core-conditioning with even the limited amount of equipment I've got at home. I have weights in 3, 5, 8 and 10 lb. increments. I have a body bar, a step and an exercise ball. There are some very good, relatively quick routines at about.com, too. Strength training is also, IMHO, one of those types of exercise and conditioning that has a noticeable impact in a relatively short time, too. I'm pretty sure that I can find 15-30 minutes 3 or 4 times a week for this, even allowing for crazy schedules and long hours. It's definitely doable.

In other stuff, the dreaded remodel is, at long last, FINALLY complete. Now we all just need to get back to keeping it all pretty, like normal. Most of us at work, at least those of us who've been around for a while, figure the holidays will seem like a breeze by comparison with the experience of the remodel. At least we'll know where stuff is and stuff won't be moving around on a daily basis.

I've started my holiday shopping and I should be able to wrap most of it up before Thanksgiving, too. Might just need to pick up a few small gifts for my co-workers. Fortunately, most of my family will be quite content with nice gift cards, that I can pick up at work. Best of all, everything will be paid for BEFORE Christmas. That's a nice feeling!

Well, really must go turn my attentions to the business of the day, which is cleaning house and decorating. Laundry will be tomorrow, before I head off to work at 2. Life is very, very good!

Why You Should Always Read Food Labels

2007-10-09T13:49:00.000-04:00

Yes, there's loads of information about nutrition on them, and any sensible consumer should know to read labels as a matter of course. But you should also read labels so that you notice it when a cup of peach-flavor yogurt that is supposed to be the kind that helps your heart or boosts your immune system contains a warning, for those who might be allergic to certain ingredients, that said peach yogurt contains "milk, tilapia and almonds". TILAPIA??????? I know it is a mild, if not downright bland, fish, and I'm usually a pretty adventurous eater, my distaste for most innards aside. But dear God, pureeing tilapia (I'm sure they cook it first. At least I pray they cook it first!) and sticking it in peach yogurt is just wrong. And it was listed pretty high on the ingredient label, too. Like within the top five ingredients. Ugh. It's like "Iron Chef" comes to your local Kroger. Maybe I should just invest in a nice yogurt maker. Since I'm pretty damn sure I'll never look in the freezer and think, "Hey! Those tilapia fillets are just sitting there, and I could turn them into fruit-flavored yogurt!"

I will never entirely trust a Kroger product again. At least not in the dairy case.

It's a Good Thing....

2007-10-07T08:34:00.000-04:00

that I am able to recognize purely rhetorical statements from customers, like "where did you move the Q-tips, because I can't find them and I'm totally pissed off!!!" Nevermind that this is apparently the first time you've bothered to inquire about their location during your sojourn through our almost completely remodeled store. It is an equally good thing that I can restrain my natural impulse to respond to this kind of little rant with "I personally did it with the goal of pissing you off, although that IS our current corporate policy on such things. 'Cause that's sooo good for business." Of course, now that home improvement has moved into its permanent location, we all sorta miss being able to tell people that lightbulbs are directly across from the bras and panties with a perfectly straight face.

Stop Me Before I Clean Again....

2007-09-27T09:42:00.000-04:00

I am really only joking. But I do find myself constantly taking a moment to Swiffer something or knock down cobwebs or straighten out a table top or empty the dishwasher or wipe a kitchen or bathroom counter at the moment. Once everything isn't an absolutely chaotic, overwhelming mass of clutter that needs sorted out, the maintenance factor seems to be pretty easy, and if I am constantly taking about 15 minutes a day to dust and tidy, then I'm not spending my whole day off clearing away the accumulated clutter of a whole week. Why didn't I figure this out sooner????

I've even felt optomistic enough to add a mum to my decor. It's this really pretty kind that starts out with flowers that are a sunny yellow, and as they age, they turn a gorgeous burnt orange which just matches the pot I put the mum in. I find myself really drawn to burnished orange tones right now. I've never been all that crazy about orange, my current fascination with the No. 20 Home Depot car aside, but rich burnt orange shades really catch my eye. I looked up the meaning of orange as a color, being curious and figuring that my attraction to the color had to mean something. It turns out that orange is a power color, that is also a healing color. It's the passion of red combined with the joy of sunny yellow. Symbolic of stimulation and change. If you want to recharge or spark up something, add a dash of something orange. Which actually made perfect sense to me, with the way I'm feeling at the moment. Renewed and re-energized. It's a good feeling!

Vacation Update

2007-09-17T10:21:00.000-04:00

I am taking a brief rest from my labors, so I thought I'd post an update. Let's see.....I started cleaning out the spare room on Thursday, before heading off to work. Friday I continued for a few hours before showering up and packing up to head up to Dad's. Stopped on the way there to exchange one of the blinds I bought for his room. I accidentally picked up one that was too wide. Since I needed a new pair of shoes for work, I stopped and bought a pair at the Kohl's that was in the same plaza. Got to Dad's visited for a moment or two with him before taking Dogzilla on his first tour of the grounds, as it were. Dad and I visited some more and Dogzilla got walked a little more, and then Dad and I went to dinner with his Friday night crew, which consists of his cousin and her husband and another guy who's a family friend. Had a nice Italian dinner, and then went home to relax and walk Dogzilla. Between the time we got home and the time I was taking Dogzilla out for his 8 p.m. walk, there was a noticeable change in the air. It had cooled off significantly enough that I was glad I'd thought to bring a long-sleeved t-shirt and a fleece zip jacket.

Got up early on Saturday with Dogzilla, so I was ready in plenty of time to go meet my friend, Patty, for coffee. Unfortunately, Patty overslept and never made it on Saturday. Since she was only briefly in town for a niece's wedding, we agreed to meet at the airport on Sunday morning before her flight home to Tampa. That gave me a chance to pop into the Wal-Mart down the street and cruise around. I got the bright idea to get Dad a new window valance, shower curtain and bath rug for his birthday. Dad wouldn't get things that coordinated for himself, and even though I can't do a darn thing about the bathroom walls that either need re-papered or painted, I figured it would be nice to at least perk things up a bit in there with something new. I bought myself a pair of slippers to keep at Dad's for those late night trips outside with Dogzilla and, it being Wal-Mart where NASCAR is an all-year round marketing opportunity, I also got a Tony Stewart racing cap and t-shirt. While I was out and about, I also stopped at Border's to cruise the magazines (only emerging with 3 cooking magazines. I AM incorrigible!), and pop into Shisler's Cheese House to use the gift certificate that my niece, Katie, got me for Christmas. Then it was home to trot Dogzilla around and spoil him with treats.

In the late afternoon, Dad and I went to a party that a friend of my brother's boss was throwing. My brother, Mark, and his friend, also Mark, were doing the barbecuing for the party. Mark's buddy Mark has one of those $20,000 professional smoker rigs with a wood firebox and a propane furnace. They were doing chicken, ribs and pulled pork for the party. And the 8th Army besides! People were bringing covered dishes to go with everything, so there was a ton of good food and plenty of beer, wine, soft drinks and coffee to wash it all down with. The party was an outdoor affair, and the day was sunny but cool. I was glad I'd thought to stick a pair of gloves in my jacket pockets. Helped keep my hands from getting cold holding my beer! We'd ridden up to the party with Mark's ex-in-laws, Pat and Don, so no worries about drinking and driving, not that I drink that much anyhow. The guy hosting the party collects and restores International Harvester/Farm All tractors and equipment, and he had several on display. Plus the combines and other equipment to match. And my brother says it was only the tip of the iceberg of the man's collection. It was impressive, though. Got to visit my my brother's friend and his wife and their kids, too. I hadn't seen Cheryl or the kids in ages, so it was a nice time. I will always remember Cheryl, as she was one of the first people to show up at the house with food after Mom died. She put together a big cold cut & cheese platter and brought buns and big container of potato salad, and I thought it proved to be among the smartest things to bring in the situation. God bless everyone that brought casseroles and such, but it was usually too much trouble to have to think about heating them up and setting them out. Grieving people just can't cope, y'know? But anyone can make a sandwich and scoop out some potato salad to wash down with yet another cup of coffee.

Saturday evening I mostly just read, watched TV and trotted Dogzilla around. I was up early with him on Sunday, too, which was good. I managed to make coffee, get him fed and walked, and even read a little of the Sunday paper before heading to the airport to see Patty and send her off. We had a nice visit. There's something about having a chance for face-to-face time with people who've known you for 30 years! We had a chance to catch up before she had to go stand in line at the security gate.

Sunday afternoon, I made dinner and then went with Dad to check out in-car GPS systems (Don had one and Dad is now fascinated by them) and cruise Bed, Bath and Beyond. I resisted the urge to buy anything else, though. We went back home and flipped back and forth between the Browns-Bengals game and the NASCAR race before it was time for me to head home. I picked what will probably be the last of the tomatoes for me from Dad's garden. Showered and fell asleep very early last night. I think I was asleep by 8:30! Slept like the dead until about 3 this morning, at which time I was wide awake. So I got up and finished with the shredding and sorting of mail (it is now down to one teensy pile of assorted envelopes that I'll get to in a bit), dusted the ceiling fan and a lot of other things with the Swiffer, and made a grocery list. Then about 8:30, I actually went to the grocery!

I bought things like parsnips and butternut squash and peppers for stuffing with barley. I bought lots of apples, for eating and baking into apple crisp. I'm planning on sorting out some boxes of junk, too, before I take a little afternoon nap, too. I really feel like I am making serious progress here, though, at getting things organized and cleaned up. I can put books back into the bookshelves in the spare room and the bed is actually relatively accessible, too! Yippee!!!

I am accomplishing exactly what I wanted to get done with time off, which feels very good!

Me and My Shredder

2007-09-13T13:37:00.000-04:00

As I've mentioned before, the approach of fall triggers my nesting instincts. While most people do spring cleaning, I'm definitely a fall cleaner. To that end, I've spent the morning before heading off to work to at long last begin to reclaim my spare room, which doubles as my computer room and guest room. Up to now, guests might be hard-pressed to FIND the bed in here. Mainly because anything I don't know what to do with ends up in the spare room and often on the bed.

Let me further explain that my relationship with mail is rather like that between the postal delivery service and mail in many small third world countries: I don't deliver it, I store it. I have taken out no less than 3 tall kitchen bags full of junk mail, old mail and mail that has been shredded. And I'm not quite done yet. I am optimistic that I can finish this part of cleaning out the spare room in an hour or so tomorrow before I head northward to Dad's. Then I can start tackling the rest of the sorting out when I am home again come Sunday evening. I feel really, really good about this. It's needed doing for a loooong time.

Fall is in the Air

2007-09-11T16:34:00.000-04:00

No, not a leaf in sight that has turned yet, but here in the middle of September, fall is definitely in the air. I suppose we may still get a few hot, humid days, but they will be considered "unseasonable" and not at all like those of the dog days of August.

I love fall best of all the seasons, I think. Winter I tolerate until sometime in early January, at which time I am tired of being chilled to the bone and soggy boots and heavy coats. Early summer is fine, but come August, I am tired of being reduced to a limp dishrag by even the slightest venture out of doors. Spring is something I have only come to appreciate at all in the past few years, mainly because here in Ohio it is an unpredictable season that seems to last about two weeks before the temperature gauge goes from 40 to 70. I do love the promise and hope that lie in a pale haze of new leaves on the trees and in the crocuses that poke through the earth, even when surrounded by melting snow.

I love the crisp, clear sunny days of fall, especially once the leaves do start to turn color. I don't even mind the leaden gray skies of November that pour cold rain. The scent of apples and new-fallen leaves fill the air and are one of my favorite scents. While most people look at spring as the time for deep cleaning, I tend to have more inclination to clean out my little nest in the fall. I become inclined to don my hiking boots and my hooded jackets and head off to the park and the orchard. I like making Dad's house snug for winter by putting the storm windows back in the screen doors and pulling down the storm sashes on the windows. I wash Dogzilla's blankies and his fleece blanket coats because even an old beagle gets a chill on those brisk mornings when frost starts to appear on the grass instead of dew. I start cleaning at my house, so that I'll have room to put up my tree before the day after Thanksgiving. Working in retail, you have to decorate before then, because afterwards you rarely have the time or energy to do it. Fall is when I take stock of what I use and what I don't. I think about subscribing to magazines and taking care of library fines, thinking of those long winter evenings. I stock up on candles in spicy scents. I sort through the magazines that have accumulated, in particular the cooking magazines, and clip out recipes to add to my already large collection of clipped recipes.

I take the flannel sheets out of storage and consider buying yet another set, even though, at the age of 49, flannel pajamas are no longer an option. Thanks to perimenopause, I have resigned myself to wearing little cotton knit summer nighties until I am about 80, even in the dead of winter. I keep an eye out for sales on things like blankets and comforters and pillows, so that nesting will be comfortable. I check my stock of winter socks and gloves and start to think about things like slippers. I inventory my sweatshirts and start eyeing new fleece pants to lounge around in. I consider whether my current snow boots will last another year or if this is the year I should spring for a new pair, just in case I need something more than the Columbia hiking boots for trotting Dogzilla around come wintertime.

I make apple butter in the fall and actually manage to can it appropriately for food safety and to last through the winter. It's better than anything you buy in a jar at the grocery and it makes a wonderful gift come Christmas. I make pumpkin pies and apple crisps. I almost always have hot soup at the ready, whether it is chili or potato or bean or vegetable or chicken noodle. I do up pickled beets almost every week and Brussels sprouts, cabbage and butternut or acorn squash become regular fixtures on my menu. I buy new bottles of bourbon and rum, because my cocktail preferences change a bit and bourbon and water or eggnog with a shot of rum take precedence over mojitos and planters' punch, and stock up on inexpensive Chilean reds that are perfect for turning into mulled wine in my small crock pot by adding cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and slices of oranges and lemons. I make sure I have plenty of tea on hand, as there is nothing like a good hot cup of tea on a chilly evening, even when you are feeling well. And just in case I'm not feeling well, I make sure I have plenty of zinc lozenges, ibuprofen, chicken broth and ginger ale on hand.

Fall is my time to take stock and secure the homestead for the coming winter by the fireside, as it were. Speaking of which, I need to go clean some cobwebs. Literally. I just noticed they are dangling from the ceiling near the ceiling fan. I am going forth with my Swiffer in hand!

I Am Being Stalked

2007-09-11T14:59:00.000-04:00

No, no. Don't worry too much. There's no crazed psycho or internet junkie after me. It's a wasp. I HATE WASPS!!! I was stung by them several times as a child (the perils of sleeping upstairs in an old farmhouse) and was apparently traumatized by the experience. I'm not allergic. I don't even remember it hurting all that bad, truth to tell. But whenever I see one buzzing around the apartment intermitently, I become obsessed by the need to kill it. I saw it once yesterday and it's buzzed me twice today and when I turn to get the wasp spray or the fly swatter, the bastard has disappeared. Oh, perhaps I should amend that to say the bitch has disappeared. It's probably a female wasp. Not that I intend to get close enough to it in its whole undamaged condition to conduct any kind of conclusive investigation of that point.

Such are my neuroses. Sigh.

Weekend Summary

2007-09-02T20:31:00.000-04:00

Let's see.....this weekend, I got to go up to visit with Dad and Dogzilla. Saturday was truly gorgeous. Sunny, with afternoon temperatures in the mid-70s and low humidity. Dad mowed a little grass and then settled in for an afternoon nap to the OSU-Youngstown football game. I'd trotted Dogzilla around the grounds once or twice, but I decided that it was so nice, we ought to go to the park. We haven't been to the park in forever, and I know Dogzilla always enjoys all the new sniffs he gets there.

The days are past, I think, when he could tackle the 3 mile trail that loops around the park, but there's a nice little 1.2 mile loop that is a nice jaunt for a chubby old beagle. Not too hilly and mostly in the shade, so he doesn't get too hot. He likes to ride in the car with me, probably because I rarely take him to the V-E-T in my car and we mostly go to the park. He lies on the front seat most of the time. The park is actually not far from the vet's office, so he has a couple nervous moments when he recognizes a certain intersection, but it passes quickly once he's confirmed we're going to the park. I usually snap his leash on his harness before I park the car because he is ready to jump out the door the minute we stop.

It was around 2:30, and the trails were practically deserted, so we had a nice quiet walk in the woods. I think the only things we disturbed were some young frogs near the pond. Dogzilla went to get a drink and they all hopped in. They were as green as spring grass against the brown bottom edge of the pond. Dogzilla noticed nothing, as usual, though. He was happy to hop into the car at the end of the walk, though, and spent the rest of the afternoon napping. I took him for a stroll across the street at the little shopping plaza after Dad and I got home from dinner. To his furry delight, someone had dropped some french fries and chicken nuggets on the sidewalk. I figured he'd sleep well once I finally got him tucked in with Dad for the night. Of course, just like a small child, he has to potty and have a drink of water and a bedtime snack before settling in. I am surprised he doesn't expect me to read him a story while we're at it.

Sure enough, Dogzilla slept until 3:30, which is his agreed upon breakfast time. So I got up and fed him and took him outside. Came back in and gave him his morning ration of fake dog bacon and tucked him back into bed with Dad, hoping he'd sleep until about 5:30, and went back to bed myself. I woke up around a quarter to seven! And not because I'd heard Dogzilla come in. Had a moment of fear that perhaps Dogzilla had expired in the night, either from our excursion to the park or from his questionable little snack there at the shopping plaza. Fortunately, any concerns I had were laid to rest the next instant when I heard his little dog tags jingling as he shook himself before leaping out of bed to come see if I was up. He's always so patient while I dress and make coffee, bless his furry little heart. It was a cool morning, so I was glad I'd brought a long sleeved t-shirt. We had a nice walk and picked up the paper on our way back home. Except for a few trips around the yard, and one final stroll around the shopping plaza, Dogzilla snoozed. And snoozed. Like, lying on his side, tongue practically hanging out snoozing. It doesn't take much to tucker the dear boy out these days, to be sure. Of course, according to the "Real Pet Age" test, he is somewhere in his 90s by beagle standards. I suppose when I am in my 90s, presuming that I am so blessed, I'll enjoy napping, eating and the occasional stroll around the block myself!

I realize that I have talked endlessly about Dogzilla, and very little about Dad. Well, he's fine too. We talked about the big Michigan upset and the Indians and getting new blinds for his bedroom. We read the paper together and had coffee. We went out to dinner on Saturday, and I cooked steak and corn on the cob for us today, along with some of the sweet-sour tomatoes that his mother used to make. He is always glad when I come up because I take care of Dogzilla and wear the hound out, so that he sleeps good. And I clean the kitchen and dust the living room and swab down the bathroom tub and other fixtures, along with any other little odds and ends or special projects Dad wants help with. I suppose my mother would have a seizure about the general state of the kitchen table, but I like to think that wherever she is, that stuff doesn't matter anymore, and what really does matter is that Dad and I talk and do things together, and I know that would please her no end.

Well, it's a beastly early day for me tomorrow. I have to go set gift cards at 6 a.m. YAWN!!! On the plus side, it's holiday pay! 'Night, all.

Best Country Lyric I've Heard In a Looong Time

2007-09-02T20:24:00.000-04:00

I caught this chorus somewhere just south of Mansfield on the way to Dad's this weekend, and, despite being lodged in the midst of lots of sturm und drang fiddles and steel guitars, it cracked me up. It goes like this:

You say I should stay with you/You say Jesus forgives you/You pray that I will, but I won't/The difference is Jesus loves you, I don't.

In the words of Larry the Cable Guy, "Now, that thar is funny, I don't care who ya are."

In the Kitchen

2007-08-21T15:42:00.000-04:00

Ah, it is definitely the dog days of summer, with the weather hot and humid and inclined to brew up afternoon showers and thunderstorms. Running around at work, even in the air-conditioned environs of the store has been miserable. Most people don't notice that our store isn't all that cool because they are swanning around at a leisurely pace pushing a cart of stuff, but if you're actually working and hefting boxes of bags onto check lanes and running from customer service to the furthest registers and back again and pushing carts back into place so that people can actually exit the building, you work up a sweat.

Not much is going on besides work. I am studiously avoiding the laundry room, one of the perils of having all those darned baskets around that are so convenient for storing the laundry in! I've been up to visit my dad and Dogzilla. Dogzilla was happy that last Saturday was actually beautiful for strolling a chubby old beagle boy around. He was less thrilled with Sunday morning's downpours, that are a bit too much like bathing for his tastes. He'd be all expectant and hopeful every time I put my soggy shoes on to indulge his idea that "outside" would be nice.
And then we'd get outside and it would be pouring and he'd decide he was made of sugar and might melt. He stands under the paper box on the back porch while he waits for me to open the back door. Mistakenly thinking that it is large enough to protect his chunky 40 lb. self. He's comic when he does stuff like that.

I've been doing quite a bit of cooking lately. I've decided that I know how to cook fish after I bought some individually frozen tilapia fillets, seasoned them with cumin, pepper, salt, coriander and smoked paprika and baked them according to package directions and they turned out perfect. I served the fish with a fresh salsa of tomatoes, garlic, red onions, diced avocado, chopped fresh cilantro and lime juice, with salt and pepper to taste. Today I experimented with the wide world of baking by making a plum tart and a peach clafouti. I used one of those roll out pie crusts from the refrigerated section for the tart, just putting it on a baking sheet and putting a mixture of sliced fresh plums, a little sugar, a little lemon juice, cinnamon, fresh grated nutmeg and a little cornstarch in the middle. Then you just fold the pie crust edges up over the fruit, leaving the center open. It certainly LOOKS pretty. The clafouti is basically a layer of sliced peaches in the bottom of a pie dish and then you pour what is essentially a pancake batter over it and bake it. I added a little cinnamon to the batter, just to make it interesting. I'm stir-frying bok choy tonight to accompany the teriyaki style country pork ribs in my crock pot. Looking towards lunches for the rest of the week, I made a recipe for a cauliflower and penne gratin. You just blanch some cauliflower florets (about half a head of cauliflower), cook a couple cups of dried penne and toss them both in a light cheese sauce. The original recipe called for Gruyere or Swiss, but lacking them, I substituted Muenster. I also added a grating or two of fresh nutmeg.

If you've never had fresh nutmeg, go forth and find thee a whole nutmeg and a microplane grater next time something calls for nutmeg. You'll faint and die and toss that can of ground nutmeg that has been sitting in the cabinet for 10 years. You'll find reasons to put nutmeg in things. It goes well in most cream sauces and a dash really picks up things like cooked spinach. I put it in the Italian tortellini soup I make. You season good chicken broth (or even canned low-sodium chicken broth) with a dash of nutmeg and black pepper, let it simmer, put in some fresh tortellini and a package of chopped frozen spinach that you've thawed and squeezed the water out of. When the tortellini are done, you put it in a bowl with a grating of Parmesan on the top. With a little crusty bread, this is a quick and easy meal. But I digress. We were talking nutmeg. You'll drag out that recipe for planter's punch and give it another go with fresh nutmeg. It's not that it actually tastes so different, but it does taste FRESH. Nutmeg is one of those things where a little goes a long way. I have a can of whole nutmegs that I got on sale at Kroger. Probably enough to last me for the rest of my life and to become a family legacy, truth to tell.

Well, I have to go check on the things simmering in the crock pot and baking in the oven. Tomorrow is back to work.

God Help Me.....

2007-08-07T13:38:00.000-04:00

but I might as well confess that I LIKE NASCAR. There. I said it out loud, as it were. My brother has long been a fan. Every year, the Daytona 500 is run on his birthday weekend. Next year, the 50th anniversary of the race, it will be run ON his birthday on February 17. There is always a big party at his house. We watch all the pre-race coverage and have a drawing where everyone chips in a couple bucks and we pick a driver's name out of one of Mark's NASCAR caps. If you've got the winning driver, you get the pot. There's food and drink, and we watch the race. We critique both the performance of "The Star Spangled Banner" and the delivery of the words "Gentlemen, start your engines!" My sister in law is never going to live down the year that she inadvertently hit the mute button as those words were delivered. The commercials that air during the Daytona 500 are probably second only to those aired during the Superbowl. And they're usually funnier, if not quite so glitzy.

Anyhow, whenever we are at my brother's house on a Sunday afternoon during race season, NASCAR is there on the TV and the satellite radio by the grill. My dad likes NASCAR, too, and it was always on at his house on Sunday afternoon after dinner. Before long, I found myself actually taking an interest. Listening to discussions of things like lines on the track and pit strategies. Actually starting to really see what was happening on the track beside the non-NASCAR fan's observation that it is nothing but "left turn, left turn".

To those who've never watched, you may never quite understand what it is about the sport that's fascinating. I find it admirable that these guys run at speeds approaching 200 miles an hour with an average of 6" between them and another car. Either in front of them, behind them or beside them. Or some combination of all of the above. Those tracks that look so flat from the Goodyear blimp's coverage are often steeply banked. The average temperature inside the cars is 130 degrees. That's before you put on the flame-retardant jumpsuit and the helmet. The races usually last about 4 hours. That's a long time to be in such a hot environment. Without power steering and cruise control. Drivers have to listen to their spotters in the helmet's radio and still focus on what's actually happening around them on the track. They have to talk to their crew chief about how the car is driving and track conditions. And remain alert enough to steer into those sharply banked turns and around and through wrecks and debris on the track. It's an admirable accomplishment to coordinate all that, and I'm actually kind of amazed that there aren't more wrecks on any given Sunday. And that things don't often get more serious than someone "getting a little loose" and a couple guys "trading paint". I find it comically endearing that anyone who is interviewed, from driver to crew chief to spotter to the guy that is responsible for tightening the lug nuts knows to work the name of the car's chief sponsor and the team owner into any interview. And you want to know why companies sponsor cars? It's the cheapest TV advertising they'll ever get when all is said and done. Get a top driver in your corner and it's a sure bet that your name is in front of everyone watching for four solid hours of TV time and even the announcers in the booth are saying your name. As is typical of many Southerners (and NASCAR was started by southern boys), NASCAR has come along way by letting us all think they're dumb with that Southern drawl and generally polite manner.

And since I'm confessing, I like Tony Stewart. I want a Number 20 Home Depot hat, and a long-sleeved t-shirt and a hoodie sweatshirt. I'd put a bumpersticker on the Saturn. I really would. I don't even look good in orange! I can't entirely explain this phenomenon. But I think what I like about the guy is that, as a friend put it, "he's had his bite of the apple and no one, not Home Depot or NASCAR, is going to hold him hostage because of it." He lets us see him being a jerk or getting well and truly pissed about something and he also lets us see that hometown boy made good when he climbs the fence and kisses the ground at the Indy track. And if he ever gets the boot from Home Depot or his team, he'll drive something somewhere for somebody. Yeah, he's a competitor, but he's still having fun with it all.

So does it show that it is my day off and that it is too hot to do laundry? No posts for a month and now TWO in one day!

For Julia

2007-08-07T12:36:00.000-04:00

As my friend, Julia, has pointed out, I have shamefully neglected updating this blog. So I am going to remedy that.

First, the only animal I've really spoken with lately has been Dogzilla. If you don't count that cute little Jack Russell-ish looking puppy that lives on the second floor. Who was with her "mommy" on a leash going out for a walk when I came home. "Mommy" was talking on the phone, but I said hello to puppy girl, who got all excited, wagging her tail and squirming. "Mommy" apparently decided that since I must not be a dog-hater, that she'd let the leash go so the puppy could come over to me. Puppy rolled over for me, still wagging her stubby little tail and wriggling around, so I could rub her belly for a little. After a few minutes, I picked up her lead and handed her back off to "Mommy". Who was still on the cell phone. Sheesh.

Anyhow, most of Dogzilla's and my conversations have revolved around my promise to keep it our little secret that he doesn't even pretend to have an interest in things like bunny rabbits, stray kitties and the occasional fox. For fear he will be kicked out of his breed for non-beagle like behavior. I think the dear old boy has decided that all that furor over the aforementioned bunnies, kitties and foxes is a young dog's game. Seriously. I've held him up to the neighbor girl's bunny hutches, containing actual LIVE rabbits. Nothing. I've walked him across the street behind the pizza shop, where they put out food for the two adorable little tabby-ish looking stray cats. He's been within 6 inches of them, and looked them right in the eye and returned to sniffing the ground. Then there was the fox. I took him out for a post-Sunday dinner stroll around the yard a few weeks ago. Towards the back of Dad's property is a brier patch, and I noticed some kind of animal sitting there grooming and sunning itself. I knew it wasn't a stray cat because the shape of it, even at a slight distance, was wrong. Ditto for it not being a groundhog. We started walking towards it, at which time it stood up and slinked into the brier patch. The reddish color and big pointy ears made sense when I saw that brushy tail and realized it was a fox. Trotted Dogzilla over to the spot where the fox had been sitting and he noticed nothing. Not even an extra curious sniff of the ground. Mighty hunting beagle he is clearly not!

Let's see what else has happened since my last post.....the Great Abdominal Abscess Incident came to an end just about a month after it began. Interestingly enough, I saw the same doctor at my last visit to the urgent care as I did for the first one. He was really surprised to see I was still coming in. Usually, these things heal up in a couple of weeks, but he and I allowed that this one had been extremely large. At any rate, he removed the final bit of packing in the incision and determined that it was time to let the darn thing finish healing minus any further packing. After a couple days I was mercifully able to shower like a normal person, which meant I could do things like color my hair again and shave my legs without a half hour production being involved. I have an inch long light purplish scar where the incision was, and I am apparently permanently dented in the area where the infection was. Other than that, everything has healed up quite nicely. It did take a very long time to finally manage to wash every towel, sheet and piece of clothing I own, but that coincided with a long stint of dog-sitting for my friend Lisa, who has a very nice washer and dryer at her condo.

I had a birthday in July. I am now 49. Thanks to scheduling, I actually had the day off on my birthday, which was quite nice. I celebrated quietly, which seems to be my preferred was to celebrate these days.

I've gotten a renewed interest in cooking here lately. I've discovered that sea scallops are my "go to" quick fix meal. I just sprinkle them with a mix of salt, pepper and ground toasted cumin seeds or maybe some of Emeril's "BAM!" (aka "essence" if you watch Chef Lagasse on a regular basis), and put them in a very hot skillet to sear about 2-3 minutes per side. With a nice salad, they make a 10 minute meal.

I seem to have also acquired an interest in cocktails, what with this hot, humid summer we've been having. One of my newest drinks involves putting a couple small scoops of a nice tropical sorbet, like mango or passion fruit, in a champagne flute and then pouring prosecco or asti over it. It's very refreshing. I also mix lime juice, pomegranate juice, a little sugar, some fresh mint and rum in my little cocktail shaker (I got it on clearance for about $2 when we got rid of our seasonal summer stuff), give it a good shake and pour it over ice in a nice glass and add just a splash of sparkling water for what I call my pomegranate mojito. I put peach nectar, triple sec and inexpensive but fruity Riesling (I like Hogue Riesling and that Schmidt Sonne brand in the blue bottle) with ice in my cocktail shaker, give it a good shake and then pour it into a large wineglass that contains slices of nectarine (the peaches at the store usually have no taste) , oranges, lime and some white grapes. A splash of sparkling water (orange flavor is nice but not necessary) and I have a white sangria wine spritzer. Again, very refreshing.

Not much else is going on. The clusterfuck that IS our store's remodel continues. We are all mostly hanging on to the belief that it will all be over with by the end of October. Just in time for fourth quarter and the holidays. Oh joy.

Dad is well, as is my brother and his family. My niece, Nicole and her s.o. Genry (pronounced "Henry"), got a house near where Nicole works, which is exciting. Especially, I think, for my brother and sister-in-law, since Nicole, Genry and baby Isabella are no longer residing in the basement. My nephew Zak's girlfriend, Sarah, is moving into the apartments across the street from my dad, so I expect we will see much more of Zak and Sarah. Dogzilla will be thrilled that there are new people to spoil him. Because he isn't nearly spoiled enough with just me coming up every couple weeks to walk him, feed him treats and hoist him into the king-sized bed next to "Daddy".

I've lost about 50 pounds since last August, maybe a little more. Mind you, I'm still not a small person by any stretch of the imagination, but I am smaller. And seemingly getting even smaller. There are pants that I really, really can't wear to work any more for fear they will drop right off me. That's how I gauge where I'm at mostly. By the way clothes fit. I can't button them yet, but I can at least get size 20's on my person. So that's my next goal. To get them zipped!

That's pretty much life in a nutshell. A rather BIG nutshell, but a nutshell. I'll try to do better with keeping this blog up to speed. Lest I forget something!

If I Could Talk to the Animals

2007-05-09T21:44:00.000-04:00

I have been pet sitting for a friend of a friend this week. The menagerie consists of 4 kitties and one large German Shepherd mix dog. Jaime was afraid that the dog would never settle down for me and that I'd never see two of the four kitties, as two of them trend towards shyness. Jaime doesn't live far from me, actually, so it's been quite convenient to stay here and still pop over to my own home. I stay here at night, and have been here in the morning for the great feeding of the beasts. Since I don't have a pet of my own at my house, this is a good way to a pet experience.

Ginger, the dog, has been a doll. She's smart and, as is good with a large dog, really quite gentle. She loves just about everyone, near as I can tell. She walks fairly decently for me; Jaime had warned me about pulling. Even after just a few days and a few short walks, Ginger has learned that if she pulls, we stop moving. She'll walk quite nicely for me for several minutes at a time. Makes me feel so "Dog Whisperer"! Ginger sleeps on the king sized bed with me quite contentedly, keeping very much to "her" side.

The kitties are about as nice as you could want. There's the orange and white short-haired fella, Herbert, the blue-eyed long-haired kitty, Sasha (who also is completely deaf), a long-haired tortoise shell looking fella, Cocoa, and a small calico girl, who's name escapes me. Jaime warned me that Cocoa and the calico were quite shy and that she doesn't even see them all that much. I am actually pleased to say that I have petted ALL of the kitties, and that even Cocoa and the calico come out with me. The little calico cracks me up because she really "talks" to me, always meowing when it is breakfast time or we are in the kitchen. The grossest part of the whole experience is the litter box scooping, and there is no one on earth that enjoys that! But it's a dealable requirement to sit for the critters. Being allergic to kitties, I do take a Benedryl at night and that both ensures a good night's rest and no sneezing or runny eyes from the kitty dander (even though Jaime keeps the place pretty doggone immaculate. No unpleasant kitty box smell or "DO" (dog odor) when you come in the door. I am grateful she has hardwood floors, as it makes sweeping up the rather industrial sized furballs that accumulate!

My incision is healing quite well. Not due to go back until Tuesday to have the packing checked and probably swapped out. Shouldn't be too much longer before I don't have to have packing in there, and things like washing my hair, taking a simple shower and shaving my legs become a whole lot less complicated! Done with the antibiotics, so I availed myself of a couple glasses of wine during my critter-sitting stint.

That's about all for me at the moment. Yeah, yeah, work continues, we continue to be understaffed and there is a serious case of HUAS (Head Up Ass Syndrome) running rampant among the greater minds at the store right now. The beauty of retail is that nothing is really forever, so that makes it bearable!

Definitely On the Mend

2007-04-28T07:47:00.000-04:00

Yes, I am still taking antibiotics and still have an open incision with some packing in it, but overall, I am feeling like my "normal" self. Whatever that is! Slowly digging out from the clutter that accumulated when I was requiring things like four hour naps and was generally to sick to do much tidying up. Back at work for the whole week, and it wasn't exhausting. Mind you, I do manage to log plenty of sleep at night right now, but I am chalking it up to the general healing process, so I'm not complaining. I am hopeful that I'll only have to have the incision tended to a couple more times at the urgent care. Once the packing is removed for good and the incision is allowed to heal over, I should be able to return to showering that doesn't require having part of me swathed in plastic. Very inconvenient swathing yourself in plastic to shower and then trying to keep the plastic-wrapped part dry!

That's about where my life is these days. Now to sort through the mountain o'laundry that I have to start chipping away at. I do feel the need to wash EVERYTHING I own with hot soapy bleach water at this point. And dry it on high. Just to ensure that Mr. Staph is dead and buried.

The Bactrim Diet

2007-04-20T14:16:00.000-04:00

Not that I recommend this as a fun and painless way to lose weight, but it goes something like this....

1. Acquire some medical condition which requires that you ingest 2 Bactrim tablets every 12 hrs. and take the Bactrim faithfully on schedule.

2. Ponder your options with your slightly queasy tummy. Settle on a food list that consists of Ritz crackers, graham crackers, tea, water, ginger ale, applesauce, 1 oz. portions of mild cheddar cheese, toast, chicken rice soup and yogurt. If you are so inclined, have a small salad now and again. But you probably won't be so inclined very often, just so you know. You may be able to combine up to any two of the solid food items with one of the liquid ones. Your stomach will let you know. Trust me on this.

3. Lounge around, rising periodically to attend to your chosen medical condition. In my case, this has consisted of wound dressing every 3-6 hours. Channel surfing, reading and talking on the phone are all excellent cross-training as you lounge.

4. Wait a week and step on the scale. For me, the above regimen has resulted in a 7 lb. weight loss.

5. Continue this regimen until your medical condition is cured.

Some Relief

2007-04-17T17:28:00.000-04:00

Ahhhh......after yesterday's little conniption fit about my abscess, during the night, sometime around 2 a.m., something seemed to give. A sense of relaxation set in as I lay there on the couch half asleep. I could move more comfortably. Although I didn't have a strong physical sensation of anything having burst or popped, somehow, the Thing didn't seem so irritated and angry any more. Was able to stretch out full this morning, and when I looked at my abdomen this morning, it seemed as though the skin and tissue over and around the abscess were less "hot" and red, and it looked like the odd swelling on the right side of my lower abdomen (where the abscess is) had subsided. It was definite progress and perked me up considerably, truth to tell.

Got ready and headed back to the doctor. I made sure I took one of my Vicodin tablets before I left, as I figured the fiddling with the incision and unpacking and repacking the incision would be ouchie. I've taken the Vicodin long enough now to know how it will affect me, and I figured that so long as I didn't lie down and try to nap right at the steering wheel, I was safe enough to drive, which was right. It didn't kick in until I was actually at the urgent care and it pretty much had worn off by the time I left. The doctor I saw gave me a "good girl" for having thought to take something before he got in there prodding and squeezing. Lots more nastiness came out when he squeezed on me today, which is a good thing. He upped my dosage of antibiotics to 2 Bactrim every 12 hrs. He said one might be sufficient to do the job, but he was of the opinion that we want to really knock these bugs down, so I should start taking 2 tablets instead of 1 every 12 hrs. I will, OF COURSE, take them until they are gone, no matter how good I start to feel. I've read enough books about how to build a better bacteria, so I know to take all of my antibiotics. Doctor also put me off work until Monday, with orders to rest, rest, rest. Since that was my intention, that's what I'm gonna do. The most strenuous thing I'll do in the next 5 days is the occasional teeny load of laundry. I can't carry much more than a teeny load of laundry comfortably right now anyhow. But I am at the point where I feel compelled to launder every pair of undies, every towel and every washcloth I own in hot bleach water. I also want to get rid of the trash, which at this point, what with all those used gauze pads, constitutes bio-hazardous waste. Ugh!

Dropped my prescription and my doctor's excuse off at work after my doctor visit. I work with mostly wonderful, caring people, from the store executive level down to the cashiers. Everyone I saw told me I was to get well, for God's sake. They made sure that I didn't feel bad about needing the time off (which I don't, for the record). I made sure, however, that they all understood that I appreciated the difficulty in trying to cover my shifts and the sacrifices and juggling people were making to do that, and that they knew if the shoe were on the other foot, I'd be the one stepping up to the plate to do the same for any of them. I do have to say, though, that it is one of those times where having developed a reputation as a pretty tough old bird that doesn't call off sick at the slightest tummy tickle pays off. People take it very seriously when you get a doctor saying you're not coming back until Monday.

Well, that's the update for now. Now I am going to just rest, rest, rest!

And the Staph Goes On....

2007-04-16T18:11:00.000-04:00

and on and on, apparently. Mind you, I am willing to admit that I am one of those people who never seems to catch much of anything, who has a high pain tolerance and who's never spent much time recovering from anything. I am, indeed, the genetic descendant of my farming Swiss-German peasant forbearers on the health front, which means I have generally enjoyed good health most of my life. I am willing to concede that I am probably not a very patient patient when it comes to something that will take a spell for full recovery.

Soooo.....imagine my frustration levels every time I look at my still swollen lower abdomen, which is still oozing disgusting amounts of pus and which also has about 18" of packing in that little incision. It's not that I don't see some progress. I do. It's not that I don't feel better at all. I do. It's just that having been a generally healthy person all my damn life and after four days of antibiotics, I expect to feel like doing friggin' cartwheels and seeing something that is clearly healing and not hovering in a state of "is it getting better or not???" It is a question of expectations, you see. And I am not sure what to expect from an abscess that was softball-sized. And I'm frustrated by it.

I have a dr. appt. tomorrow for some more follow up care, which means prodding the incision to remove and replace the packing in there. Yuck. I do sorta thank God that I have not been plagued by stinky bacteria; the only scent from the wound is actually quite medicinal and probably from the packing. I am going to ask for an excuse from work for the rest of the week, possibly through Monday. I could not possibly have done my job today. If I don't feel significantly better by Weds., I still won't be able to do my job. This is a major source of frustration for me because I've NEVER had anything that kept me from being able to do my job for a week or more. It is uncharted territory for me. However, I also know that pushing my body to do more than it is capable of is a fool's errand. It will serve no one in the long run to try to shortcut my recovery and healing, and the fact is that without a rather dramatic improvement on the healing front, I am not capable of running pretty much at full bore on my feet for 7 1/2-8 hrs. right now, and probably won't be for the rest of the week.

And one more thing. The claim that paper tape doesn't hurt is a lie. It does too hurt when you have to change a dressing 5-6 times a day on the tender skin of your lower abdomen. One shudders to think what the other kinds of tape would feel like. Probably wouldn't have any skin left at all with those.

Ouch!

2007-04-13T13:10:00.000-04:00

Okay, I had to take the day off work today so I could go to the urgent care. An unpleasant but otherwise apparently garden-variety boil went ballistic on me yesterday, turning into a lovely abdominal abscess. ICK!!! I've never had such a thing in my whole life! I wandered around work last night feverish and nauseated and since the damn thing hurt to walk, to sit, to stand, to cough, I was pretty pathetic. I'd decided to hit urgent care this morning no matter what.

Fortunately, my friend Meg offered to drive me to the urgent care and to the store to get my prescriptions and things like gauze pads and adhesive tape. They got me in quick at the urgent care, and bless that doctor there. He looked at me so serious when he said "I'm going to have to cut it." My reaction was THANK GOD!!! And you'll give me antibiotics, too, right? The worst part was when he had to press on my abdomen to get all the nastiness out. Double ICK. We're talking 8-10 4x4 gauze pads of toxic waste. They're going to culture it, but the doctor and me are both fairly sure it's some kind of staph. Nasty unpleasant staph at that. He packed the wound, which was an interesting feeling in and of itself. I got prescriptions for Bactrim and Vicodin, and I have to go back on Sunday to have the packing changed and for some follow up.

At any rate, I am and was soooo grossed out!!!! But I already feel better. Of course, I'm going to concede that it is probably the Vicodin talking. So I think I will go lie on the couch where I can't get into any trouble!

Ain't She Sweet?

2007-04-08T21:29:00.000-04:00

Today the store was closed, so I went up to my brother's for Easter dinner with the family. My niece Nicole was there with her new baby, Isabella Rose, who was born on March 21. I have a feeling she will be known as "Bella, " though. At least until she's a bit older and able to get in trouble from time to time, at which time she will be "Isabella Rose!" But right now she is tiny and newly minted. All sleepiness and innocence and curiosity about just who ARE all these new big people??? I got to hold her for a little bit. There is something about holding a tiny new baby that restores a person's faith in humanity. It was good timing because yesterday at work there were lots of cranky adult-sized babies who went around the store fighting over bags of candy and yelling at pretty much everyone they encountered because apparently it was our fault that they'd procrastinated on getting the Easter baskets together and we didn't have everything in stock for them. These are the same people who are apparently surprised every year when December 25th rolls around and we have Christmas again.

At any rate, getting to be with my family and getting to hold Baby Bella was the best thing the Easter Bunny could bring me.

Is Anyone Else Bothered......

2007-03-05T12:16:00.000-05:00

by the commercial from some lunchmeat company (I think it might be Boar's Head, but it's dumb enough to be Hormel, the people that brought us SPAM!) in which a woman is putting perfectly round slices of pre-packaged ham onto some bread and is being grilled by an alleged "food professional" about said pre-packaged ham? What bothers me is the woman's assertion that the ham is "all natural", especially when the alleged food professional inquires about preservatives in the ham. To which she replies "no preservatives". NOW WAIT A COTTON-PICKIN' MINUTE!!!!! It's HAM, for chrissakes'! Ham has SALT, which is a preservative in addition to being a flavor-additive. Ham without salt, whether it is cured by brining, smoking or air-circulation, is at a certain point in its career ROTTEN PORK. It is one thing to claim that you do not use artificial, man-made laboratory concocted chemical preservatives. It is another to try to make me believe that ham occurs in nature absent the application of copious amounts of salt, however derived.

And I've seen hogs and little piggies. The parts that make ham are not, I repeat NOT, perfectly cylindrical and boneless, so don't try to tell me it is "natural" ham. Nature never made a pig that was boneless with perfectly round little back legs. Stop treating me like I'm that damn dumb. Stop treating us all like we are that damn dumb. And to those who are buying into the notion of "natural" ham, then I suggest that I, like the famed chef Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, can tell you what you are by what you eat. You are a goddamn moron.

There's my little rant for the day. God, I love being on vacation!!!!

New Pants

2007-02-23T20:24:00.000-05:00

Several months ago, I was browsing the mens clearance racks at work with my friend and co-worker, Lisa. There was a pair of khaki pants for stupid cheap. Like six dollars with my discount. I'd looked at them, thought "those will fit my arse," and bought them, only to discover that they did not fit my arse. Not even close. Periodically since then, I have tried them on, just to see if they fit. Yesterday, due to a lack of serious progress on the laundry front, I thought I'd give 'em another shot. THEY FIT!!! If not perfectly, then at least comfortably enough to be suitable for work. I haven't been on the scale, but this is a measure of continuing progress because the last time I had the pants on was about a month ago, and they could be fastened but weren't in the "comfortable enough to survive an eight hour shift." In confirmation, a co-worker asked yesterday, "Are you losing weight?" Uh-huh. I am. As my friend Julia would say, "Happy, happy!"

A Few Weight Loss Tips

2007-01-29T19:40:00.000-05:00

Yes, the blush of those early resolutions has begun to fade for many. In another month or so, treadmills and bikes will open up at peak times again for the dedicated. The Girl Scout cookies will arrive and resolve will fly out the window for people who've been doing Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and the host of other weight loss programs. There will be endless discussions at meetings everywhere over what to do about those Thin Mints lurking in the freezer. (For what it's worth, my answer is pretty much the same as it was when I quit smoking several years back and had the revelation that, ultimately, it was as easy as just not buying the damn things.)

I've given a lot of thought to what works for me, and I thought I'd share some of the ones that haven't failed me. Of course, my basic premise for weight loss is "eat less, move more." Seems a simple enough equation, but the devil for each of us is in the details. And this really isn't about the day-to-day gory details of my diet and exercise. I do what works for me, and it isn't necessarily what works for anyone else. It is about incorporating changes that are life-long.

So what is it that works for me on the bigger scale? The scale that goes beyond silly rules like "eat a salad every day". Which I don't do, by the way. Well, one of the first things I'd recommend is resolving to be happy and content. Don't let the bastards grind you down. Live in the moment as much as humanly possible because it is, ultimately, and in spite of our best-laid plans, all any of us are guaranteed. I am not advocating hedonism here; not talking about doing whatever you damn well please because you might die tomorrow. I am talking about coming to grips with the concept of "enough". I don't ask for riches untold in my prayers at night. I ask for "enough". What I consider to be enough might not be someone else's idea of enough. That's what is important to figure out. What's enough for YOU?

I think it is terribly important to find and treasure the sources of unconditional love in your life. We all need someone, and preferrably more than just one person, who loves us no matter what. People who love us when we feel fat, cranky and pimply. Who assure us that we are NOT fat, cranky and pimply. Or who'll assure us that they don't take no nevermind if we are. These are the people who know the "real" us that we're all afraid the rest of the world will see, and who aren't afraid of that person. Who love and accept the best and the worst we have to offer. These are the people who are truly honest with you and that you can be truly honest and open to about your dreams and your fears and doubts. There is no substitute for knowing that you have an intrinsic value that has nothing to do with what size you are.

Are you meeting all of your needs in life? It's a good idea to take an inventory and see if all of your needs, physical, emotional and psychological are being met on a somewhat regular basis. It's sometimes quite surprising how an unrecognized need to be hugged, for instance, can be subverted into eating half a bag of chocolate chip cookies.

I have said it before and I'll keep saying it to anyone that has a weight problem, especially if it is a significant weight issue. Work on your body image. Learn to love the good parts and be comfortable in your own skin. Learn to appreciate function over form. Don't let a number on a scale or a size on a hanger determine your self-worth. They can be markers of progress, but don't allow them to be the sole measures of your worth as a human being.

Learn to be your own best friend. Seriously, would you walk up to your best friend and say "You fat, disgusting pig!" If not, then why is it okay to tell yourself something like that? When you hear that internal voice, tell it to shut the hell up. Keep doing it until it does. For most of us, this takes a lot of practice and actual conscious thought. We've gotten accustomed to calling ourselves dumb, fat, and lazy and we don't even really hear that tape when we play it to ourselves. Well, it's not acceptable behavior. If you wouldn't say it to your best friend, then you don't get to say it to yourself.

Among the more mundane recommendations I have are things like "eat at home" and "take your own lunch". Seriously, though, if you're not cooking for yourself and eating stuff you made, then you are at someone else's mercy all the time. Now, it's true that I like to cook, and so it is probably easier for me to devote time to making a couple of things ahead so that I have leftovers that can easily be reheated. It also means that I have things in the pantry and the freezer that I can put together pretty quickly if need be or if my plans or my tastes change. I spend some time thinking about menu choices at home. And since I don't eat out all the time, then when I do it's because it's a special occasion (even if the special occasion is "It's Tuesday and it's my day off!") or because I've got a very particular hankering for something that I won't make at home, like pot stickers.

Those are just a few of the things that spring to mind right now. I'm sure there are other things, but I really want to go watch some tv and read my current book. Maybe throw in a few bicep curls while I'm there. I am a big fan of functional fitness right now. Today I was up and down ladders in the backroom at work to work those legs some. Who needs a stairmaster???

Ah, January. Resolutions and Random Thoughts

2007-01-09T17:31:00.000-05:00

Ah, the pace of life has slowed again at work. We're all setting things back to rights, giving things plenty of spit and polish, reviewing what we did right and what we could do better for next year, and basically getting ready to introduce the shopping public to spring. The Enchanted Bathing Suit Forest has already reappeared at the front of women's clothing and the flip flops are about to replace those few pairs of slippers in the bins in the shoe department.

Here it is well into January, and I'm just now up for air long enough to think about things like what I'd like to work on in 2007. I'd like to keep losing weight. While everyone is bemoaning their holiday weight gains, I actually lost 7-10 lbs. (I'm not really sure, but that's as accurate as I can be) during the holidays. Since I am not 100% sure of my highest shipping weight, I think that actually puts me at somewhere between 20-25 lbs. since August. Don't worry, there's still plenty of me to go around and I am far from in danger of being blown away by a strong gust! But I can tell in the way my clothes fit, even baggy things like nightgowns, jeans and sweatshirts, and people have begun to notice. Most of them think I've done something to my hair, but I know they are just seeing the change in my face.

I attribute a good part of my weight loss during the holidays to running at full-bore at work for 8-10 hrs. a day five days a week. The other part I attribute to finally seeming to have internalized the whole concept of "enough". I ate pretty much whatever I wanted to, including things like eggnog with bourbon, Christmas cookies and candy, pizza, subs and potato chips, but I think I rarely overindulged in any of those things without counterbalancing them somewhere else in my day, and even overindulgence itself was pretty rare. I was able to stop at normal and recommended portions of most things. I had an entire bag of Hershey mint kisses in my house for a whole month. I even forgot the partially open bag was there for a week. I'd eat 3-5 at a time. And that was enough on the occasions I was actually in the mood for them.

I'll admit that I mostly cook at home, making leftovers serve for lunches. I keep canned soups and a couple of light frozen entrees in the freezer (although I am an inveterate label reader and will buy certain Stouffer's red box entrees because they are just about the same as some light frozen things in terms of general nutritional value and higher quality) for a pinch. But even if I don't have leftovers or a frozen thing, I am fortunate to know what my options are at work over at Food Avenue and out on the shelves. I'm lucky enough to have a well-stocked pantry that ensures I can get something relatively healthy on the table relatively quickly, even when I get home late or have a short time between shifts. I don't think I could live nearly so well without my Trader Joe's frozen veggies, like haricot verts, soycutash and sugar snaps. Rotisserie chickens, especially when you're shopping at midnight and can get the ones sitting in the deli case that have been marked down a couple bucks, are a godsend. And low carb freaks take heed that due to holiday budget constraints, there were several weeks where my diet was heavy on the carbs (mac and cheese, tuna noodle casserole, cheesy taters, potato soup, and bean soup weeks spring to mind). For exercise, I walked a good 2-3 miles daily, just at work, and I also did things like push shopping carts manually (I can push up to 7 at a time) on a regular basis and climb up and down ladders in the stockroom to help our backroom with the massive amounts of pulls they had on their plate. I jokingly referred to it all as the "GSTL Total Holiday Fitness Program". It worked.

Of course, with the slower pace at work, there are a few things I'm making a more conscious effort at monitering. I'm avoiding the candy that is almost always at hand even now. Hershey kisses and those little Dove chocolates. Not allowed to mindlessly graze them. I'm craving salads and soups, so those are appearing on my menus more frequently. I try to have a nice hot cup of tea almost every evening or at some point in the day (and, yes, it is one of the few things that I use real sugar for). Adding more things like mushrooms and other veggies in things like beef stroganoff and cutting back on the amount of meat. Reacquainting myself with tofu, which I actually like. I make a decent ma po tofu, which is one of my favorite Chinese dishes. Trying to have meatless meals at least once or twice a week. I plan to pump up my exercise ball and clear a space in the living room, so that I can roll around on it a few times a week. Plan to add some upper body free weights (I've got them sitting in the living room, after all!) and do things like squats and lunges, too, to work the lower body. These will all be reasonable and attainable habits to either keep up or acquire.

There really isn't much more that I can think of. Change for me is becoming more and more an organic process. I find what needs to change or improve usually makes itself apparent, regardless of my plans or my best intentions. If I focus on anything, it is being open to the input of the universe, so that I can hear the directions for where I'm supposed to go and trusting that all things will unfold as they were meant to in good time.

That Championship Season

2007-01-09T10:48:00.000-05:00

In the immortal words of Dr. Zachary Smith, of "Lost In Space," "Oh, the pain, the pain!" I speak of last night's BCS national title game. Ohio State vs. Florida. For we Buckeyes, it was humiliating, inexcusable and just plain god-awful. Now, I'll confess that I actually conked out around 7:30 and didn't awake until 12:30, when it was all over except the shoutin' and the cryin'. I watched part of the press conference. "Shell-shocked" was the word that came to mind watching Jim Tressel, Troy Smith and the other players, but I was still impressed by what I saw. Everyone could have sat there and made all kinds of excuses. Everybody could have sat there and cried. What everyone did while I was watching was respond with "the better team won today" and "we weren't on our game". Troy Smith tried to pick up the burden of the loss, and his head coach wouldn't let him. Jim Tressel figured it was more his burden and that of his coaching staff. My heart went out to everyone sitting on that dais, and to all those in the locker room.

I'm sure there will be plenty of post-mortem on this one, and that there will be lessons learned and taken to heart. At the end of the day, you win 'em as a team and you lose 'em the same way. No individual can take credit for the wins and no one gets to bear the burden of the losses alone. I am going to take the position that you learn more about a man's character and about a team's character from defeat than you do from their victories.

I happen to think that it was Florida's day. They came in underdogs, and they knew it and they had something to prove. They wanted it badly enough, they played well enough when we didn't, and the stars and the planets aligned to give them their day in the sun. Florida peaked on Monday night and became more than the sum of their parts. Among the comments I read on a story about the game in the Akron Beacon Journal someone wrote, "To my Buckeyes, remember that the sun can't always shine. Sometimes it has to rain, but as a wise man once said, 'If it don't rain, we don't eat.' Keep your chin up. We'll be back." Naturally, there were others wanting to eat the boys alive and fire Jim Tressel immediately, but most were relatively sane and rational and in the vein of "every dog has its day".

I don't know Jim Tressel, only what I've seen of the man in the local papers and on local TV, but I do believe that beneath that reserved demeanor beats the heart of a true competitor, and that he is probably hurting, angry, confused and embarrassed today. My take on what happened? Coach had a really, really, really bad day at work. The kind where nothing you touch and nothing you do doesn't go completely awry. The kind where you wish you could just go back to bed and start all over again. I think, that like most of us, he got blindsided by that and never saw it coming. Unlike most of us, however, Jim Tressel got to have his really, really bad awful day on national television where we could see how utterly confused and flummoxed he was. We saw as genuinely human a face as we're ever likely to see from such a private and reserved person. We're not used to seeing that kind of human frailty from "The Vest." We've come to expect that he's the guy who'll come up with the answers and the plays that result in another victory. And Monday night just wasn't his day to be that guy. Happens to the best of us, and being the head football coach of nationally ranked Big Ten school doesn't make you immune. So let's not howl for blood and let's cut the man slack on that point. If anyone can figure out what went wrong and figure out how to set the ship right again, it's Jim Tressel.

At the end of the day, it was disappointing at best to be subjected to such an unholy ass-whuppin'. Winning is always going to be more fun than losing. But one game, even if it is the national title game, does not a season make. A nineteen game winning streak is nothing to be ashamed of, and no one can ever take the sense of team pride and togetherness that it took to earn that winning streak away from these boys. Maybe the loss puts the fire in the belly for the boys who are coming up and who'll come into their own next season. I don't know. But I do know that it is always easy to be gracious when you win and when things roll your way. The measure of a man and of a team is what you do when things don't go your way. That is what defines a championship season.

Coming Up For Air

2006-12-28T10:33:00.000-05:00

Ahhhhh, it feels good to breathe again! Returns are still pretty busy, but the general pace is slowing down at work. We're getting ready to give everything some spit and polish, just in time for our remodel to begin in March or so. Deciding which seasonal people stay and which ones go. Another week or so, and everyone will have spent their gift cards and Christmas cash and their credit card bills will start rolling in, so sales will plummet and we'll be able to pretty much shoot a cannon through the joint. Ahhhhh......

A day off today, so really, I do plan to start digging out here at home. During Holiday Hell, things come in the door and get dropped there. Dishes get rinsed off and sit in the sink or the dishwasher until I remember to wash them. Or until I run out of dishes! Dust collects and becomes full-grown dust bunnies. It's part of my life during the holiday shopping season, but I'm ready to start digging out here!

I'm a full five pounds lighter than I was at the beginning of the shopping season, and that's with pretty much eating and drinking as I wanted, including Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Want to lose some weight? Get you a job as a cashier supervisor and walk an average of 8,000 steps a day. Wrestle carts in from outside at least once a work day. Spend some quality time with your backroom team once or twice a week helping them backstock and/or pull merchandise, climbing up and down ladders to do so. Lift boxes of bags onto 22 checklanes at least once or twice a week and help with lifting heavy boxes of furniture, TVs and Christmas trees. You come home too tired to do much more than have a glass of eggnog and pick some meat off a rotisserie chicken before falling into a dead sleep, believe me. I am calling it The GSTL Total Holiday Fitness Plan.

Car is off being repaired and I'm driving my Dad's truck in the meantime. No lingering after effects from the fender bender, thank goodness. Now I'm off to clean SOMETHING up around here. Looking forward to a new year, too!

The Christmas Cheer Just Keeps On Coming

2006-12-21T16:38:00.000-05:00

Four, count 'em FOUR, days before Christmas and my Saturn's trunk gets crushed by a couple of STUPID FUCKING UNINSURED SHIT-KICKERS from Mt. Vernon in a Ford F-150 pickup truck. Bastards, bastards, bastards!!!!

On the plus side, I am fine. Gonna go visit my chiropractor and get a nice massage, in case of any delayed onset ouchies, but I am uninjured, so thank God for small favors. I put in calls to my insurance agent, my dad and my brother. I will actually probably have my brother fix 'er up; he's on the hunt for parts. I suspect my insurance company will total the poor thing out and give me about $5 dollars for my little 10 y.o. car, which is why I am glad to have a brother that is an auto body man by trade with nearly 25 years of experience.

I think the car is technically driveable if my dad follows me to my brother's shop, so that is good. And fortunately, the friggin' pickup didn't crunch my bumper, just my right tail light and the trunk. So my brother might be able to fix 'er up without getting insurance involved. It's all just such a complication!!!!

I'm going to go pour myself a nice big glass of eggnog now. Heavy on the bourbon.

What It's REALLY All About

2006-12-15T05:56:00.000-05:00

Whenever I begin to get jaded about the whole Christmas season, this is something that never fails to renew me. It is one of the few Bible passages that I actually know by heart. The first thing I usually do in the way of decorating my house is to set up my Nativity figures and set my Bible open to this passage next to it. I love going to church on Christmas Eve, just to hear this read aloud because, for me, it is an experience that makes it really feel like Christmas. This version of Luke 2:1-15 is from the Bible that was given to me at church when I was confirmed, back in the third grade, at Grace United Church of Christ, Evangelical and Reformed, which is still the church I visit when I am visiting Dad.

"In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, 'Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!'

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has Made known to us.'"

Let the Shopping Begin!!!

2006-11-26T04:51:00.000-05:00

I like Thanksgiving. Really. I get to spend the day with family and overindulge in things like mashed potatoes and stuffing and cranberry sauce. Of course, Thanksgiving Day is just the eve of the big holiday shopping season, so it is a mixed blessing. It means I'll work a 10 hr. day on Friday, since it's one of the really, really big retail days.

This year, I worked 5 a.m. to 3:30. Hundreds of people were lined up outside the doors when we opened them at 6. Running into the store. We all just stand there, staring and laughing, and watch them pour in for a good five or ten minutes. We all know that if it weren't for the fact that we HAVE to be there, we'd all be tucked in our beds at that hour and not out shopping. But it's still fun and exciting to watch. We've been planning for this day for weeks, if not months, and now we get to see if all our planning was worth it. We cheer the first customer that comes through the front checkout, then we start the real days work.

For me, that means taking care of all the help lights. Getting change, getting numbers and/or prices for things that aren't scanning right, answering customer questions, helping cashiers handle transactions that are either unfamiliar or that are a smidge on the tricky side, especially if this is only your second or third day of cashiering. It's keeping an eye on endcaps that blow out and need rebuilt or replenished. Making sure that abandoned merchandise gets picked up and taken back to be sorted out. Making sure everyone is getting their breaks and lunches on time. Making sure the bathrooms don't get too god-awful messy (and people ARE so messy you need to be checking every 20-30 minutes). Making sure that carts are being brought in and the parking lot swept for them as often and as quickly as possible (we DO actually run out of carts for a few moments at a time that day we're so busy). Processing credit applications and coordinating carryouts for big items and very large multi-cart purchases. Letting the people in charge of skimming the extra money out of the registers know when it's time for them to do their thing. Lots and lots of non-stop running all day long, pretty much for 10 hrs straight.

This year, I wore my pedometer to work, just to see how many steps I took. The final count was 11, 315. That's a lot of walking! But eventually, the day comes to an end when you open, and you get to clock out and leave the madness behind. Go home and put your feet up and rest for the next day. Or just conk out at 7:30 and sleep like the dead until about 5:30 the following morning! When you get to go back and do it all again. But only for 8 hrs. and not until 7:30. And by comparison with the preceeding day, it seems slow and not very busy. You replenish all of your supplies, like bags, pens and register tape. Fill gift cards and trading cards and candy. And look forward to your next day off!

Sick Day

2006-11-09T19:14:00.000-05:00

Today I stayed home from work. I am almost NEVER sick, and I've actually gotten to the point where I don't even realize I am sick for a little bit. Like last night at work. I'd felt tired all day. Bone-weary tired. My back hurt. It had hurt for two days. I chalked it all up to being in my late 40s and having the resurgent Period From Hell. That cough coming from my upper chest for two days? Damn cold damp weather, dontcha know!

So I was working away. Feeling sluggish and having to appear peppy and fast-moving. Back feeling progressively worse as the night progressed. When I started wearing my fleece jacket and STILL feeling cold, the light bulb went on. I was SICK!!! You'd think the lack of appetite would have been another clue. Seriously, my appetite is the last thing to go and the first thing to come back when I'm sick. Earlier in the day, I'd met a friend for lunch and chowed down on a roast beef sandwich, which sat just fine in my tummy. And I'd even eaten a Bob Evans sausage and cheese snackwich on my lunch at work, in the belief that in spite of my lack of interest in food, I should probably stick something down there just to keep stomach acids from making me sick.

I took three Tylenol gel-caps upon arriving home around 11, made a cup of tea and some cinammon toast, and fell right to sleep. Slept like the dead until about 6:30. Woke feeling in need of more Tylenol and tea. Realizing that I had NO energy whatsoever and a certain amount of gastrointestinal distress that required frequent trips to the bathroom, I figured 1) I was in no shape to put in a full day of work and 2) I should not share my germs further with my co-workers as we are heading into our busiest time of the year. So I called into work and then proceeded directly to my couch, where I fell asleep for about 3 hours, just in time to let my friend Meg in, because she kindly stopped by to bring me some cans of soup and some Sprite while she was out and about this morning. It's good to have a friend who'll risk catching whatever you've got to spare you a trip to the store for sick supplies! I had some chicken noodle soup and some baked custard this afternoon, then settled in for another 3 hr. nap. The rest will do me good.

About to go hop in the shower to rinse the germs off and put on some clean jammies. Maybe make another cup of tea. Still feeling feverish, which for me means 98.6, as I usually run a little colder than that. Still not terribly interested in food. I'd hoped to feel a little bit better by now, but it is what it is. At least I'll probably wind up a bit more svelte, since my body does seem to be in purge mode on anything I do throw down my gullet! That's what I get for trying on a couple pairs of pants that I've been too fat for and having them at least fit well enough to button and zip and thinking "yeah, about 5 more pounds will make these actually wearable". A reminder that one should always be very careful about what you ask for because you might actually GET it.

Okay. Off to shower and tea up. Cough, cough. I hate being sick.

Internet Radio

2006-11-07T11:16:00.000-05:00

I love this. LOVE this. I get to hear new stuff that doesn't hit the popular music radar AND I get to hear my favorite songs and artists just by creating a station. So I get to listen to Johnny Cash, Barenaked Ladies, The Fray, Snow Patrol, Kathleen Edwards, The Goo-Goo Dolls, Sheryl Crow and George Strait. Without having to buy a lot of expensive CDs. Did I mention that I love this?

The Fever Has Broken

2006-10-26T13:01:00.000-04:00

Ahhh.....the fever that was Yahoo Messenger has broken. I've made a few new friends in distant places that I enjoy catching, but the obsessive nature of the damn thing seems to have passed. And I have ABSOLUTELY NO INTENTION WHATSOEVER to succumb to the blandishments of my co-workers and their pages at MySpace.com. I have simply told them, "My God, you DO want me to show up at work, don't you?"

At any rate, now that I am capable of dragging myself away from my computer screen for entire hours at a time, I have actually managed something like tidying up the living room and the spare room. Mind you, I've got Fibber McGee's closets right now, but everything is relatively tidy otherwise. I've done dishes and I've cooked. I had a couple of the girls from work over last week to kill a couple hours between the time they got off work and the time our boss was taking us all to Cheesecake Factory for a little team bonding and wasn't worried they'd think poorly of my housekeeping. It was fun.

With the turn in the weather, I've been catching up on my sleep. Hours and hours of lovely, peaceful sleep. It's been heavenly to burrow into warm flannel sheets and sleep the sleep of the just. An added bonus of all that sleeping is that you can't eat if you are sleeping. At least I can't eat in my sleep! Although, it does seem that my sleep-deprived, obsessive Yahoo Messengering phase has had a lasting effect on my appetite. I turn to a cup of coffee or warm tea instead of a nibble in the evenings. A can of diet soda or a glass of sugar-free lemonade or limeade with a splash of sugar-free raspberry Torani syrup does the trick. Being under some severe budget restrictions doesn't hurt either. When it comes down to a choice of buying potato chips or milk, potato chips become a luxury item! Even during PMS I was able to resist.

Budget restrictions are a good thing, too, for getting the old pantry and the freezer cleaned out. After all, I bought that stuff originally because it looked good to eat! So, I've gotten creative with what's on hand. That's a fun cooking challenge for anyone that likes to cook, and it's a testament to having a well-stocked larder. What I've discovered is that there is very little that I cook, except for desserts, that doesn't require onions in some way. I actually ran out of onions one day last week. This led to the creative use of dried minced onions and green onion dip in a couple of things, with pleasant results. (I am pleased to say that I have restocked my onion supply for the coming couple of weeks) Rice and noodles are my friends, as is soup. It's a good time of year to explore the comforts of cabbage and noodles and bubble and squeak. When I'm feeling posh, I've got shrimp and coconut milk to make shrimp curry over basmati rice. Canned great northern beans, diced tomatoes, chicken broth and that old Parmesan rind in the freezer are the makings of a filling, comforting soup. Frozen peas, chopped broccoli and chopped spinach are nice additions to a whole lot of things, just to bump up the veggie content. And the nice thing about this stick to your ribs cuisine is that it takes less of it to stick to my ribs. Which seem to be shrinking. If it is fall and I am shrinking, that's a good thing! Usually, it goes the other direction.

I do love fall. The crisp air. The scent of apples and fallen leaves. The outrageous show of color as the trees change from green to a riotous display of gold, orange and crimson. I even like those cold, rainy days of late fall that are made for sleeping late and lounging around in your pajamas until noon, at which time you change into your sweatpants and sweatshirt.

Got out my copy of "Thurber Country". I'd forgotten how funny James Thurber's writing is. I sit there, all by myself, laughing out loud sometimes at some of his turns of a phrase for the situation it conjures up in my head.

That's about as much of an update as I've got. I think I'll go play with my Outlook address book. Maybe THIS will be the year I can print labels for my Christmas cards! There's always hope.....

Wednesday Is Tornado Night at Target.

2006-10-11T23:30:00.000-04:00

Well, actually and thank God, it's just Tornado Warning Night. Yes, another tornado warning. At exactly the same time as last week's tornado warning! Sales sucked canal water, but it did make for an easy night with my whopping 10 closing cashiers. We mostly stood around staring at each other, shooting the breeze, straightening the soup cans and cereal boxes on the endcaps and eating Halloween candy. They are gonna be soooo shocked when the holidays actually kick in. They are gonna make me stop working on Weds. nights if we keep having tornado warnings.

Wide Awake

2006-10-09T02:40:00.000-04:00

Spent the weekend up at Dad's. This is always a great time to catch up on my sleep. I usually turn in nice and early on Saturday night, knowing that a certain chubby old beagle will begin checking on breakfast time around 3 a.m. Sure enough, said furball came in at 3. Trip outside, a treat and hoisted him back into bed with "Daddy". Four a.m., I consent to feed him breakfast. 1/4 cup of kibble and two, count 'em TWO, pieces of dollar store version of "Beggin Strips". Hoisted him back into bed. Five a.m., another trip outside with hound. Another beagle dead lift. Requested just one more hour before we went cruising the shopping plaza for abandoned McDonald's bags, stray partial donuts and other beagle delights. I finally consented to get up and get dressed at 6, much to his furry delight. This meant that I needed an afternoon nap on the couch after dinner.

Now, of course, it is 2:30 a.m. and, having turned in early again this evening, I was WIDE AWAKE at 1:00 a.m. Not a bit tired yet either. Sigh......

A Few of My Life Lessons

2006-10-06T17:40:00.000-04:00

As we go through life, if we are lucky, we get to figure some things out along the way. These are just a few of the ones I've learned, in no particular order, but together they form a large part of my outlook on life.

The first lesson I've learned is that life is a journey, not a destination. John Lennon said it well when he wrote that "life is what happens while you're making other plans." If we're lucky we get through with just a few bumps in the road along the way and few construction detours. If we're very lucky, we are blessed with wonderful traveling companions, fair winds and following sails, and good food and drink.

I've learned that, no matter how long you get, life is always going to be too damn short. It's no sin to die with some things undone as long as you've spent your penny to the best of your ability while you're here. If you've managed to change a single person's life or touch the heart and soul of one other human being, and have done so unselfishly and with a joyful heart, and you've laughed and cried with the people that you've loved, then you've had a good ride.

Do not go gentle into that dark night, but know that to age is a privilege that not everyone gets. Watching saplings grow into tall trees and babies grow to adulthood is a gift not given to everyone, so treasure the passage of the seasons and the years. Take heart and find hope that life will go on, even when you are no longer here.

I believe that death is not an end but another beginning. I will carry with me forever the memories of family and friends who have left this life, and I believe that as long as I remember them, then they are never really gone from me. It is just a matter of time before we meet again, either in another life and time or in the place beyond this life, so there is no lasting sorrow when a family member or a friend passes away. My grief is temporary; it comes from missing someone here and now. And every time I find myself saying "I wish so-and-so had seen that," I remind myself that they did, just from another place in time and space.

God has a sense of humor, and since we were made in His/Her image, we should use the sense of humor we were born with. A sense of humor is one of the qualities I prize most in people. It shows a sense of perspective about the universe and your place in it.

Take responsibility for your own happiness. Other people can contribute to your happiness, but it should never be a responsibility you delegate to them. No one is going to wave a magic wand and make you happy and your life perfect. If you find yourself dissatisfied with life, then figure out the root of your dissatisfaction and resolve to change it. It takes some courage to step outside of the habits of a lifetime and to risk discarding the familiar, whether it is friends, jobs or attitudes, but if you resolve to find happiness and contentment, then you are worth the effort.

Learn to distinguish the difference between love and sexual attraction. Mistaking one for the other is the cause of a great deal of unhappiness for most of us. Knowing the difference between the two helps define your expectations of your partner (or partners) when it comes to relationships. Count your blessings if you find someone that inspires both love and sexual attraction in you, especially if they reciprocate. But never feel that you've settled for less if your relationship does not come to include the house with the picket fence, the minivan and 2.5 children, so long as you can say that you have loved, even on a purely physical plane, unapologetically and without regret.

Live life without shame. Now, that doesn't mean that I'd want every aspect of my life on the six o'clock news, but if it were a consequence, I could live with it, survive it and overcome it. And that doesn't mean that there wouldn't be people in my life that wouldn't understand or that wouldn't be hurt if they learned about certain things in my life. But I could deal with those consequences too. For me, living life without shame means that I don't give what the neighbors think more weight than I give what the people that matter to me think. I don't worry a whole lot about what that mysterious "they" in society will think.

Turning the other cheek doesn't mean that you are the world's doormat or the world's whipping boy. I don't think that God requires that kind of submission. Sometimes the strongest thing to do is to walk away from a fight. To refuse to be drawn into the fight. To let the blows fall off you like water off a duck's back. Jesus was whipped and beaten by his enemies, but he was never broken by them. He stayed true to his beliefs and his destiny; he stayed true to himself without ever lashing back at the people persecuting him. "Are you King of the Jews," asked Pilate, to which Jesus responded, "You say that I am." That's my example of turning the other cheek.

I'm sure there are more life lessons, but that's what comes to mind most immediately. I try to live in the here and now most of the time because it's all I've got for sure, tomorrow being promised to none of us. I choose to greet the day with a smile most of the time, and I choose to laugh rather than cry if given a choice. I don't know everything, so I try to practice tolerance, especially when my views don't agree with those of someone else. The things I really hate are fanaticism, cruelty and blind stupidity. I got no use for people who are cruel to children, old people and small animals. Treating people the way I'd like to be treated is my starting place with most people. So now you know a little bit more about me.

Thoughts During A Tornado Warning at Work

2006-10-05T19:34:00.000-04:00

Wednesday nights are my usual night to close at work. Predictions for the weather this past Wednesday were of possibly severe storms, with hail and high winds. Fearing a dearth of help, I hoped for a dark and stormy night, little realizing I would get to learn what the "What To Do In Case of Tornado Warning" section of our store's company-issued "What To Do In Case of [insert name of disastrous event]" binder.

The thunder and lightening and rain started around 5. Just in time to pin most potential customers in their cars on the freeway until such time as they needed to head directly HOME for dinner. Business was markedly sloooow. I was beginning to align the labels on the soup cans on one of the endcaps by 6:30, having collected the two pieces of reshop from the lanes and taken them to the service desk. The thunder and lightening continued, the only unpleasant side effect being that lightening meant that my smart-aleck cart attendant was, regrettably forced to remain indoors, where he would inflict his presence on me far more often than is to my taste.

About 7-ish, the tornado warning sirens sounded. The manager on duty and our security guy had a confab, checking the official store disaster manual and consulting the local news, already in full "Tornado TV" mode with dual live Doppler radar tracking blurs of green, yellow, orange and fuschia in the background across the map of central Ohio. Manager got on the overhead PA system and announced that the National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for our area, and that we encouraged our customers to remain inside the building, preferably towards the rear and center of the store, and avoiding doors and windows. This had the effect that I have always thought it would have. PEOPLE JUST KEPT SHOPPING!!!! Except for the few who asked "Do we HAVE to stay here???" Having reassured these particular customers that this was America and that it was still their God-given right to risk life, limb and a trip to the Emerald City, we checked 'em out and sent them on their merry way.

I moved my cashiers off lanes near the doors, toward the center, just in case we had to make a fast break for the hallway outside the breakroom. Our security guy, who's actually SEEN two tornadoes, was outside monitoring the skies and getting weather updates on his cell phone, so I told my service desk person and our photo lab tech that should they see our security guy running past them, they were to leap across their respective counters and follow him. This was all done with a sense of calm and humor. I told my people that the breakroom hallway was a safe place to be, and that, in the event there was a disaster and we survived, our meeting place was at the Mexican restaurant across the parking lot. And that whoever got there first was to arrange a table and order several pitchers of margaritas until everyone had been accounted for. Afterwards, if there was still time on our shifts, we were to head back to the store and arrange the rubble in neat little piles.

Violating all policy, several of us ventured outside to look at the black sky to the northwest and watch the lightening for a bit. This all went on for about half an hour, after which, we were downgraded to a severe weather warning. Needless to say, the place was DEAD the rest of the night. Apparently, several nearby areas got hit by damaging hail storms, so potential customers spent the rest of the evening assessing damage to their cars and homes. It rained and stormed enough to keep my cart attendant indoors most of the rest of the night. By which time, I was ready to requisition a golf club from sporting goods and send him outside to play lightening rod. But that's a whole 'nuther story....

The Guardian

2006-09-29T00:24:00.000-04:00

We get free movie passes at work sometimes. Usually a preview of something coming to a theater near you soon. This week there were two. One on Weds. night, which was something that features Jessica Simpson, which made me glad I worked on Weds. evenings as I am definitely NOT interested in the least in the purported comedic talents (or lack thereof) of Jessica Simpson.

The other choice, which was being screened this evening, was "The Guardian", with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. I'd seen a preview, and Kevin, while looking a bit more weathered these days, was looking good. Besides, we are talking FREE movie here. So I met up with one of my co-workers, Rachel, a former co-worker, Jaime, and Rachel's friend, Becca to go see it.

I really, really enjoyed this movie. It's about Coast Guard rescue swimmers. Think "Top Gun" meets "The Perfect Storm", and you'll get a general idea. All those huge friggin' waves and big old rescue helicopters with people drowning in the high seas and manly men leaping out of said big rescue helicopters to save them. And when you get to the Coast Guard swimmers school, well, I'm only human. What's not to like about looking at a bunch of athletically fit men in swimsuits and wet suits? There's a minor romantic element, there are comedic moments and the very nature of what these folks do, which is pulling people's asses out of seriously hot frying pans and sometimes having to choose who lives and dies, lends a certain depth to the proceedings.

Kevin, while not the sweet younger thing of "Bull Durham" and "Dances With Wolves", still looks good in this one playing the veteran swimmer who's deciding whether or not he's past it. A somewhat more troubled and seasoned Crash Davis re-emerges when he heads off to teach baby rescue swimmers. And Ashton Kutcher. Well, to be sure, he's easy on the eyes, but he's got some smarts and some chops. Plays the cocky young guy, but his character is much more fully rounded than the character Tom Cruise played in "Top Gun". I mean, I could never understand the allure of that guy ol' Tom played, but I got this guy a whole lot better. There's enough other stuff there that you'd cut Ashton's Jake Fischer some slack on being a brash young thing that thinks he knows it all.

Such romance as exists in this movie is pretty peripheral, and there's not a thing that happens on screen that would make a first date blush. Yeah, there's language here and there, but I probably hear more "language" on an average day at work. Heck, I probably USE more "language" on an average day! Older kids and teens should be okay with this one. And bear in mind, this is not a highly intellectual movie or one that takes a degree in rocket science to figure out the plot or what's gonna happen to who. Nothing new under the sun here, when it comes to general story line and plot development, but it was very entertaining.

I didn't expect to like this movie so much, truth to tell, so I am pleasantly surprised at how much I really enjoyed it. Rather like "Speed" in that regard for me. And before you run out at see it at a first run showing, know that I refuse to pay more than matinee prices to see any movies. But I'd see this one again at a matinee. Just to be sure I'd want to add it to my DVD collection. Don't care what the critics say, I'm giving this one a definite "thumbs up."

Evil Yahoo Messenger

2006-09-16T05:56:00.000-04:00

Wondering where I've been? Well, see the title. A friend, a very good, dear friend, told me about Yahoo Messenger. Got me chatting. Dear God, it's like crack. Hooks you fast and hard. Life is dull when there's not a soul online. Although, we ALL sign in "invisible to everyone" apparently. In the belief that this will at least get our respective asses to work. To do laundry. The occasional dish or two.

On the plus side, I don't have much time to cook right now. God forbid I tear myself away from new e-buddies in England and New Zealand during what would be my dinner hour. My current grocery list consists primarily of rotisserie chicken, salad greens, yogurt, bread and milk. Canned soup to take to work. Diet Pepsi and coffee. And Ghiradelli chocolate chips and eggs, so that I can make the ONE thing I do seem capable of going into the kitchen for, which is Gordon Ramsay's recipe for chocolate pots. This is a good thing for my budget, though. so I can't really complain.

Aside from causing a certain amount of global sleep deprivation, it's actually working to my advantage at work. Work is going well, in spite of staying up waaay too late more often than is absolutely necessary. Apparently, being on the sleep deprived side makes me more effective at work somehow. It's a paradox I am not currently questioning!

Dad and Dogzilla are both well. Of course, no computer access up there these days. Dad has given up his computer after getting about the 100th virus. Has decided that he will just be technilogically challenged by his DVR with the cable. Dogzilla is happy because I am not sitting at the computer surfing the 'net, playing games or e-mailing. More time to walk him, pet him and feed him treats, so it is all good as far as the little furball is concerned.

Not much else going on. Like most, I still wish to win the lottery. No real complaints though. That's been my life in a nutshell. Ooops. Gotta run. London is calling......

Rachael Ray

2006-09-16T05:50:00.000-04:00

So cute. So peppy. So perky. So annoying. I cannot watch "30 Minute Meals" without thinking "Ball gag." She is the only person I've ever thought that about.

Now Seriously......

2006-08-01T08:38:00.000-04:00

Do you walk into your local grocery store, copy of the preceding week's ad in hand, and say "You had steak on sale last week but I couldn't get here. Can I have it for this price (pointing to your ad with a picture of a steak on it) this week?"

If you answered "No", then stop coming into MY store and thinking that it is appropriate behavior. I remind you that we are a major discount retailer and not a live version of "Let's Make a Deal" or your cousin's garage sale. There's a reason we put those dates in the ad that state "prices valid from this date to that one."

Just a current pet peeve of mine and one of the situations that requires me to restrain the impulse to drop my jaw and ask "Are you fucking joking???"

A Productive Day Off

2006-07-25T19:15:00.000-04:00

Well, I go from neglecting the blogs for weeks to posting twice in one day!

In spite of a slow start, I actually managed to do up the sheets and towels, sort the rest of the laundry for tomorrow morning, change the sheets on the bed, clean the bathroom, do a load of dishes in the dishwasher (including UNLOADING them and putting them away), reload the dishwasher, wash a sink of dishes that don't fit into the dishwasher (damn apartment dishwasher anyhow!), and cook. I made pickled shrimp, meat sauce for spaghetti, and a beanie-weenie casserole from my leftover baked beans by combining them with cut up hot dogs and putting a Jiffy corn muffin mix (with a little cheddar cheese stirred in) over it all. I want to see how the shrimp turn out. I had cooked shrimp that I'd thawed out and needed to do something with them. I'd seen the pickled shrimp on Paula Deen's show, and read a few recipes on the web and cobbled together my own recipe based on what I'd read and what was on hand in my cupboards and fridge. If it turns out tasty (and I am thinking that it might be something to do for gifts around the holidays, when cooked cocktail shrimp get to be relatively inexpensive), I'll put the recipe on my cooking blog. We'll see how it turns out. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If nothing else, they LOOK pretty in the jar! Oh, and I ordered a cookbook that I've been wanting with the Barnes & Noble gift certificate that my boss gave me for my birthday. I found a nice used copy of "Gordon Ramsay Makes It Simple". So I am, as my friend Julia would say, "Happy, happy."

And even with all of the above, I still managed to update my blogs and play plenty on the computer. And watch lots of Food TV shows. Yes. You noticed the absence of vaccuming from my list of chores. Well, I have until 8:30 or so to accomplish the vaccuming. I think it is rude to vacuum later than that, just in case there are tots that need their rest.

I am having a nice iced coffee now. Yes, I'll sleep like a baby. I am one of those people who can drink coffee in the early evening and still get a perfectly good night's sleep.

Birthdays, beagles and catching up

2006-07-25T11:04:00.000-04:00

Okay, where does the time go???? I've neglected my blogs shamefully, and today I am remedying that. I updated my cooking blog a bit, with some of my tried and true fish cooking techniques. I've pretty much decided that "elaborate" and "fish" do not go together, unless there is a sushi chef in there somewhere, and I am NOT talking about that guy behind the counter at my local Kroger. Which I only trust for the occasional California roll, being from the midwest and inheirently suspicious of large grocery chain "sushi". If I am eating raw tuna, I want to know it hasn't been sitting fully prepped in a case for several hours.

I had a birthday a couple weeks ago, which mostly passed quietly. I'd taken the day off from work since my birthday fell on a Wednesday and Tuesday is my day off. I headed northward to visit with Dad and Dogzilla. Dad took me to dinner at the Green Diamond Pub in Barberton. It's not too pricey and it passes for finer dining in Barberton, so it was very nice. I had a Sam Adams draft and a nice chicken marsala. Dogzilla's "gift" to me was to sleep in until about 5:30 on Wednesday morning. The weather was on the cooler side, so we walked a bit further than usual. I guess the old boy was feeling a little bit frisky and his arthritis pill was working so that his bad back leg wasn't hurting too much. Of course, he forgot himself once or twice when running into Dad's air-conditioned bedroom and leapt on the bed all by himself. It just confirms that I spoil him by lifting him into bed. Oh well, 40 lb. beagle deadlifts are not all that bad.

Work has been busy, which is good. We seem to be hiring more people and, more importantly, SCHEDULING them. It makes a difference. Cashiers have been divided into teams that mean something, unlike in the past where there was no feeling of "owning" your team. I came up with a very simple chart (it's actually a simple table in Word) to track my team's progress on a couple of things, so that I can address people who need to improve performance a bit and reward those who are making real progress and contributing to my team's successes. Anyhow, my boss was terribly impressed and so was our store manager. My fellow cashier supervisors have even adopted the format. This is all good, especially coming on the heels of a very successful weekend up front. I opened this weekend, and it seemed like we were on a good roll heading into the evening for the closer on the credit front when I was leaving. We made our credit goals both days, which looks good for the two of us! Again, this is a good thing.

As usual, I have been neglecting housework in favor of reading, cooking and playing computer games! Must do some laundry today, though. Even as a single person, you need to do up sheets and towels! Have to get in a few supplies and do up dishes, too. And vaccum. At least I have that Orek that Dad gave me. He got a new vaccum, so I got his old Orek. It still amazes me that I have TWO vaccums and a couple sizes of hand vaccums when I don't actually like vaccuming at all. Seriously, if I ever hit the lottery, I am getting someone to come vaccum regularly.

That about sums up my life of late.

Ah, the life of a slacker.....

2006-06-27T16:30:00.000-04:00

Or "Forced to Blog Because No One Else I Know Is". LOL In all fairness, I suppose it *is* my turn. After all, if everyone just sat around reading blogs, there'd be no one WRITING them and, therefore, nothing to read.

The past two days have almost, almost, got me thinking I can be a genuinely productive person. Me and my co-workers at the front end kicked ass yesterday on projects. We accomplished most of the things on our bosses' "List O'Projects for the Week". There are just a few of our new endcaps to set now, and those will probably be done by the time I get to work tomorrow.

Today has been my day off. It started, in typical fashion, last night with me chatting on the phone and playing on the computer until I decided to rustle up something for dinner. Which proved to be a sandwich and some macaroni salad. Then I watched TV and read until falling asleep sometime during "Emeril Live". Awoke in time to see the late night "Good Eats". Since I was looking at a day off, I read some more and played on the computer some more. Fell asleep around 2 a.m. Proceeded to sleep until around 9, at which time I rolled out of bed to make coffee, shower and dress for a day of housework/goofing around. Actually, I should put "goofing around/housework," since I sat around reading and writing e-mail, drinking coffee, paying my ATT bill on-line and playing "Text Twist" and "Cubis 2" until about 11:30, at which time I segued into reading, eating potato chips and watching "Boy Meets Grill". Notice how it is now noon and I have not done a lick of anything remotely hausfrau-like.

Finally, I started slowly by unloading the dishwasher and putting the dirty ones in. Ran a sink of water to wash the stuff that won't go into the 20 year old apartment dishwasher. Actually washed some of the stuff. Looked up the recipe I am using for potato salad on Recipezaar. Put some eggs into a pan on the stove to hard boil. Chopped up celery, fresh parsley, dill pickle and a red onion. Mixed potato salad dressing. Put the potatoes on the boil and put about 6 slices of bacon on a rack over a cookie sheet in the oven to cook crisp. Diced up the warm potatoes (actually, I have asbestos fingers and some of them were on the hot side while I diced them) and hard-cooked eggs, mixed them with the chopped stuff, crumbled bacon and potato salad dressing. At this point, I cleaned up stuff and commenced making a casserole, since the oven was on from the bacon. Cooked spaghetti that was broken in half and some frozen peas. Mixed it with diced cooked ham, a can of reduced fat cream of celery soup, Parmesan cheese, french-fried onions, some finely shredded mozzarella, a beaten egg and a splash of skim milk to get the consistency right. Put it in a 9x9 pan sprayed with cooking spray and topped it with more french-fried onions, Parmesan cheese and shredded pizza cheese. Baked it for 45 minutes, which was enough time to sweep and mop the bathroom floor and run the vacuum. When the casserole came out of the oven, I mixed up a chocolate brownie mix. I jazzed it up by adding a tablespoon of instant coffee granules and some chopped dried cherries.

Now I am waiting for the floor to dry. If I get laundry sorted, my day will be complete and I'll just have to dye my hair this evening. I can get right back to goofing off like usual!

Long time, no blog!

2006-06-10T19:17:00.000-04:00

I think I am just coming out of a very blah period. I've neglected my blog shamelessly. Of course, my work schedule seemed to have a lot of times where I closed one night and then opened the next morning or was a mid-morning shift, so I am sure I really wasn't getting enough rest. Things seem to be more on an even keel now, though.

Let's see. I have stopped ever believing that we will be appropriately staffed at work. To believe people who say "Next week, we get more payroll hours," just leads to disappointment. Puh-leeze. Stop making me promises that you can't deliver on. Besides, the company is planning massive expansion, and in big box retail, it's unlikely you'll pay for it by cutting profit margins on the merchandise. And God forbid that the stock price falls because then those shareholders get real unhappy. So the obvious place to make cuts is in people, which translates into "Who's got the crack pipe in payroll forecasting and budgeting" at the store level. Oh well. A bad day at the store still mostly beats an average day in the law firm.

Been making lots of trips up north. This weekend here at home is something of an exception, but I was up at Dad's last weekend. Mostly I had to spoil the chubby old beagle with lots of walks and some treats. He was limping a bit after our first couple walks, so I figured his arthritis in his back leg was bothering him. He thought that half of a Rimadryl tablet was a treat, and it seemed to help him a little for the rest of the weekend. The lazy thing *can* jump into bed when he wants to, but he just likes me to lift him in. Well, a few 40 lb. beagle dead lifts are good for me!
I've planted Dad's tomatoes and his impatiens, and the rainy weather seems to have done the flowers some good. If we can keep Dogzilla from trampling the tomatoes, they might be okay.

Dad gave me his old Orek sweeper because he got a new vacuum that is supposed to be good for his allergies. Now I have two vacuums. I don't even like using ONE, fer Gawd's sakes. Still wish I could get the apartment people to move a dumpster under my window. It would make things so much easier if I could just take out a screen and start heaving the junk out!

Well, that's as much of an update as I can muster! I'm sure I've forgotten lots of stuff.

Purple

2006-04-27T15:23:00.000-04:00

One of the things I love about spring is the shades of purple. Purple isn't really a favorite color but it's taken me until this year to realize that I generally don't like our attempts to duplicate nature. I see the first violets scattered in the yards as I'm walking Dogzilla and know that spring is on the way. There's a variety of shades, but my favorites are the violets that are a deep almost velvety purple. This year, behind where the old barn stood, there was a patch of white violets. I call them "white", but they were actually deep purple centers with the palest of lavender petals. I don't even know the names of many of the flowers out there. There are tiny, delicate star-shaped flowers with pale petals scattered among the violets. There is some kind of weed that has these outrageous rather heliotrope petals. There is something else that has deep periwinkle flowers. There are lilacs yet to come. The deep blue purple of violets just can't be duplicated. People have tried for centuries, but I just don't think it can be done.

Today was a gorgeous day. The kind I wish we could have all year round. A gentle breeze, lots of sunshine and temperatures in the mid-sixties. It was a good day to trot Dogzilla all over the yard, although the pollen forced me into taking a nice Benadryl caplet. Those apple blossoms are lovely and look like falling snow, but they're also putting loads of pollen into the air!

I've found some new music. I don't do that often, but I happened across "Austin City Limits" last night when Kathleen Edwards was on. I am probably hopelessly behind the curve on this, but she's an alt country folk artist. I think anyone that likes John Prine would like her music. Songs I like: "In State", "Back to Me" and "Six O'Clock News". I've decided I want to own her albums "Failer" and "Back to Me".

To Borrow a Phrase.....

2006-04-03T21:05:00.000-04:00

from my friend Debbie, some total ASSHAT is sitting in the parking lot honking their goddamn horn. I am ready to go out there and tell them to get their lazy friggin' ass OUT of the car and go get whoever it is they are looking for. Of course, it is probably the brats across the hall playing in the car or something. Nice way to update my blog, eh?? LOL

Not much else going on, though. Spent this past weekend with Dad and Dogzilla. Went to swiss steak dinner with Dad on Sat. night, and the neighbors had us over for lunch on Sunday. The weather on Sunday a.m. was nice enough that Dogzilla wanted to venture out into the housing development for the first time in months to deliver a little "pee mail" for the other dogs in the neighborhood. It was a little chilly for those of us that aren't a chubby beagle with a built in fur coat, but I humored the little guy. Then he spent most of the rest of the day lying next to me on the couch so I could rub his belly while he dozed. He is not spoiled at all, as anyone reading this can tell. ;-) I had a book to read and the new National Geographic, so I was okay with the arrangement.

Work today was slow but a co-worker was let go at the end of the day so we ran a small fire drill getting the schedule covered. I hope she'll be okay, but this is the only job she's had in her life so I think it might be hard for her to get a new start. I think it will probably be good for us at work, though. I liked her well enough, but she was rather resistant to change and right now, there is a lot of changing going on so I think some new blood will be good for us in the long run. Okay. Time to go put my feet up and relax. I am off work tomorrow. Since I have no money, it looks like laundry and housework for me!

Rich in Family

2006-03-24T12:37:00.000-05:00

I'm single and, while I never rule out anything, I am likely to stay so. That's my choice. I've no children of my own, either, which is also my choice. Believe me, at nearly 48, that is definitely a ship that has sailed.

I'll probably never be rich, but then all I really want these days is enough. Simple abundance, you know? I want enough to take care of the bills without too much worry and I really and truly don't need much more. Not more money, not more stuff. I am, however, rich where it counts in my book, and that is with my family and friends. I count my blessings there just about every day.

I hear stories about the strife that other people have in their families, and consider myself lucky that we all get along pretty darn well. I like my dad and my brother. I enjoy spending time with my nephews, who came from my brother's first marriage, and my nieces and oldest nephew, who came with my brother's second marriage. I consider myself fortunate in my sisters-in-law because I like them both. I stopped yesterday to see my brother's first wife at her hair shop for a visit and to find out what time my nephew, Max's school musical started. Deb had a client, and when she introduced me, she said "This is my sister-in-law. Um, hmm....Well, you'll always be my sister-in-law!" I told her I felt the same, and I do. We had a chance to talk a little when we were visiting about what good boys she and my brother had. I had a chance to tell her that I thought they'd managed to put their kids first when they divorced. She said she couldn't have picked a better stepmother for the boys than my brother's current wife, and I told her I thought my brother felt the same about her current husband. The bottom line is that we are always going to be family because there is a connection that you just can't sever and nobody is inclined to do so. Her folks still have my dad over for dinner and I still go to Debbie's family Christmas Eve get-together. When Max graduates from high school in a couple years, I'd expect that Mark and Tammy and Deb and Mike will all band together to throw a graduation party, just like they did for his older brother, Zak. Anyhow, it was a really nice visit, and it's nice to keep those relationships, especially when you hear all of the strife that a lot of people go through with divorces, step parents and step kids. And FWIW, I enjoy family get-togethers with my sister-in-law Tammy's family, too. Tammy is one of seven kids, and they have huge family get togethers sometimes. Dad and I are just as much a part of Tammy's family, and that's nice, too. Tammy's oldest son, Chadd, is a big gruff lug of a guy, but he always gives me a great big hug and tells me to be careful driving back and forth from Columbus. We even talk baseball a bit, and Chadd is a HUGE sports nut, especially when it comes to the Indians, the Cavs and his beloved Michigan Wolverines (I think he likes them just to tick people off, truth to tell!). Tammy's girls, Nicole and Katie, think of me as an aunt, just like they do Tammy's sisters. It's a fine thing to be loved by the next generation. Never realized it until it happened to me.

I got to see my nephew Max in his high school's production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Cinderella". I was REALLY impressed with Max's voice. He's a sophmore and had a small singing part as "Chef". I had no idea he could sing like that; I've only heard him as part of a group, and it's hard to pick out a single voice in those circumstances. He has a lovely clear baritone, I believe, and he never drifted off key or went flat. I was terribly impressed and proud. Actually, most of the kids did a really good job. Most of the girls had really good voices and did a great job. The young man playing the prince did a good job, but had a tendency to sound a little reedy and flat, in the way that high school boys can. Anyhow, the show was really quite enjoyable and we were home by 10, which was still past Dad & Dogzilla's bed time. I was very surprised that Dogzilla was in bed and snoozing by 10:30, and that the dear boy slept until nearly 6 this morning. He must have worn himself out with that Kong toy I put in his cage while we were at the show.

Anyway, family is really nice when you've got a good one.

I Hate Housework

2006-03-18T11:19:00.000-05:00

I do. I will do almost anything else in the world. There are books to read, computer games to fiddle with, cooking to do, TV and movies to watch and just stuff to think about. There are parks to walk and exercise videos and DVDs.

I think I might be all right if they'd just move the dumpster under a window and let me just start heaving stuff into it, though. Apparently the only way this apartment is getting totally and finally cleaned out is for me to die, God forbid.

I am going to go practice one of those Fly Lady/Clean Sweep cleaning/organization techniques. I am going to give myself one half hour to clean off a table top in the living room. Then I get to reward myself with a half hour of goofing off. Then I'll try to clean off the stereo stand before lunch. We'll see how that goes........Otherwise, maybe I will just borrow Dogzilla for a couple days and let him eat and chew up everything that's just lying around. He can be my furry avatar of clutter-clearing that way.

I hate housework.

My New Blog

2006-03-17T11:43:00.000-05:00

I decided to create a separate blog about cooking and food, since it is something I enjoy and just because I can. Feel free to cruise on over to "An Old Dog Cooks".

Boring

2006-03-16T09:36:00.000-05:00

Ugh. I know why I really hate this transitional state between winter and spring. I just feel boring. Fat, lazy, uninspired, broke and boring. Ugh. Happens every year. Usually cured by the first crocus poking its little head through the earth. I think I will do some major cleaning on Sat. & Sun. and reward myself with a spring bouquet of flowers. That should shake the cobwebs out. And next week, I think I will do cobweb patrol when I am up at Dad's. In between walking Dogzilla, who will probably be as feisty as an 11 y.o. beagle can get if it is at all warm. He still gets a little feisty now and again. Like when he is rolling on the floor or in bed. I tease the little furball that he is "rolling like a young dog!" He just smiles, kicks his little dog feet in the air and rolls some more.

How Much Pizza Would a Beagle Eat.....

2006-03-13T08:50:00.000-05:00

if a beagle could eat as much pizza as it wanted? Found the answer yesterday evening. Apparently, half of a large sausage pizza is full capacity for Dogzilla. The Beagle God smiled on Dogzilla yesterday, as the boys at Gionnino's were putting out the trash at the back yesterday on our evening stroll. There was a whole pizza in a box just lying there on the ground. Dogzilla dove in and ate half before he said "No mas!" and headed for home. I guess he knew a pizza-induced coma was imminent! He slept pretty good all night, too. Only got up to check on me once, around 1:30. I heard his little dog tags jingling and a few minutes later I heard a thud from Dad's room. I think the boy tried to jump back into bed and missed, so I lifted him back in and tucked him in. Probably the pizza weighed him down.

Thunder and lightening when we rolled out for a stroll this morning around 6:15, so we checked the pizza site, the bacon cheeseburger site and the Donettes site (Dogzilla remembers them all!), and picked up the paper so I didn't get soaked. Sun was out a few minutes ago, though.

Not much else since I last wrote. I still feel the good effects from my Trager session, and I think I will call and set up another appointment for next weekend sometime. I'm off Friday, Sat. AND Sun.! Planning to spend it in Columbus, and since I am beyond broke, I figure I can tackle a lot of cleaning projects at home since I got no money to spend! I'm planning to rent lots of DVDs from the library and cocoon and clean. My place needs a really good spring cleaning!

I never thought I'd give a rats behind, but I am rooting for Casey Mears this year. It's early, but he's #4 in points after earning another top 10 finish yesterday.

Going to finish checking the mail and then I'm going to go rub Dogzilla's belly. He's snoozing now and he always likes a good belly rub while napping. He's such a guy that way! LOL

My Trager Treatment

2006-03-08T21:46:00.000-05:00

My friend Meg's mom, Pat, is taking classes to become a certified Trager practitioner and she needs "guinea pigs", so I volunteered. I'd never had a Trager treatment, although I've heard about them. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I have an open mind about the whole mind-body connection and I like and trust Meg's mom. There are articles about the Trager method and the related Mentastics movement education at the United States Trager Association's web site, because I'm not sure I can do an adequate job of describing the session!

We did table work today. We started by chatting about my goals for the session. I wanted to just relax and to rid myself of the lingering effects of any stress floating around from last week at work. We discussed any weak areas in my body and areas where stress tends to manifest itself before I hopped on the table. I wore some nice loose-fitting clothes, so I didn't feel the need to undress any further, although sessions are very private and it is like massage in that you can undress to your level of comfort. A lot of the session revolved around gently getting my muscles relaxed and warmed up and then taking them through a range of motion. Pat and I talked quite a bit throughout the treatment, but it wasn't annoying. She is learning, so feedback during the sessions is important. As with massage, you promise to let the practitioner know if anything hurts or is uncomfortable. The hardest thing to do, and I struggled with this during massages as well, was doing abso-freaking-lutely nothing to "help". It's very hard to put yourself in a state of total non-resistance. I had to practice this and remind myself to just let Pat move my head or my arm or my leg. There were several times when I could feel the heat from her hands as they moved over me, and there were several times that I swore I could just feel energy flowing through various parts of my body. At the end of the session, I was as relaxed as I've ever been from a massage but without the achy muscles that usually come from having a really good massage. I felt very centered, grounded and solid afterward, rather like everything was properly aligned. No achy foot or achy knees. It was a great feeling, and I volunteered to go back for another session. My lower back is a problem area that gets very stiff, and I'd like to get that feeling looser, although I feel very relaxed right now.

In a lot of ways, it was rather like being petted and caressed, in a totally non-sexual way, for 90 minutes. I joked afterward that I must have been a dog in another life because I really liked getting rubbed behind the ears and having my back stroked. Let me tell you, I now understand why Dogzilla likes it so much when I pet him for hours at a time when he's napping on my lap. Pat and I talked afterward, though, about how we live in a society where we don't touch each other in non-sexual ways very often, though. Our culture doesn't have a place for much of that kind of interaction once we leave babyhood, and it's a shame because we are such tactile creatures.

Anyhow, I was very impressed and I am going to be quite happy to go back for another session. It was a really serendipitous opportunity to do some very necessary self-care, and I'm grateful for it.

I ran a few errands and then I came home and read a little bit. I even curled up for a nap after dinner (pan-seared thin round tip steak, with a red wine-rosemary pan sauce and oven roasted potato wedges with leftover haricot verts). I still think I'll sleep like a baby tonight, too. I plan to sleep IN tomorrow morning, since I don't have to work until 2:30.

Chicken with Provencal Sauce, Or Kitchen De-Stressing

2006-03-07T19:33:00.000-05:00

First, let me admit that I have not been stressed about anything since Saturday after I got to chat with my boss. However, I've wanted to try this Cooking Light recipe for "Chicken with Provencal Sauce," and while testing it out, I began to see how it would be a great recipe to de-stress by after a hard day at work. The recipe really isn't complicated and it relies mainly on good technique. You pound 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts flat, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and cook them for about 6 minutes a side in a hot non-stick skillet that you've coated with olive oil. Remove the chicken from the pan and keep it warm. Throw some minced garlic into the pan and saute to soften it, then put chicken broth in the skillet to deglaze the pan. Throw in some Herbes d'Provence and let it all reduce down to about 1/2 cup of sauce. Take it off the heat and stir in some lemon juice and whisk in a tablespoon of real, honest to God, unsalted butter. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle about 2 Tbs. sauce on each chicken breast. Easy. What makes this a de-stressing recipe?

First, you pour a glass of nice white wine to drink while you cook. I had a 2004 Honeymoon Vigonier that I got from Trader Joes. Very fruity (apricots, peaches and mango are what I tasted most strongly), so a nice sipping wine. None of that high alcohol heartburn effect. Second, there is nothing that isn't relaxing about whacking a chicken breast with a mallet. Third, allowing 10 minutes for prepping everything (flattening chicken, mincing some garlic and assembling salt, pepper, herbes d'Provence, lemon juice and butter), cooking time is maximum of 20 minutes. Nuke some nice frozen haricot verts from Trader Joes while chicken is browning on the second side. Take THAT, Rachael Ray. Fourth, there is nothing that isn't utterly satisfying about having nice juicy, perfectly browned chicken breasts as an end result. Fifth, you've got leftovers for several days, and even if you run out of sauce, you've still got some lovely cooked chicken to make other stuff out of. This all adds up to de-stressing cooking in my book.

I stored the leftover sauce separately from the leftover chicken. Tonight I stirred some dijon mustard into the leftover sauce for a slightly different taste. I'll make a salad with chicken later in the week and a chicken panini, too. Or maybe chicken-topped pizza. Depends on my mood.

Anyhow, today was a very unstressful day. Put the money in the registers and made out the daily cashier schedule, then I headed off for a 3 1/2 hr. training class with some of my co-workers. Afterward, our manager took us to lunch. We rolled back in about 1:30. My day ended at 4. I don't get many days like that, so I will take them when I get them. Ahhhh.....probably have to pay for it come Saturday. We are usually ungodly busy on Saturdays.

Tomorrow is my day off. Laundry beckons. It is the bane of my existence, but I live in a temperate but northerly climate in a society where clothing is not optional. I'm going to go watch a movie now.

Morning update: attempted to watch "Ned Kelly". Not even Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom made this bearable. Very boring. Not quite as coma-inducing as "Cold Mountain" seems to be for me, but a close second if I'd been lying on the couch reading and not gotten so distracted with yet another round of "Jewel Quest" on the computer.....

Pledge Week

2006-03-05T08:22:00.000-05:00

Sigh. I love PBS. Really. Except during pledge week. Which seems to come every other month in this town. And the only reason I really hate pledge week is because in between begging for money all they show are things like the same Wayne Dyer lecture, the same Suze Orman lecture and the same do-wop concert. Unless they show "Has-Been Disco Stars". Honestly, if I could afford it, I'd make additional pledges just to get these damn stupid pledge week shows off the air. Or so they could maybe get some NEW ones. The only one I even remotely like is the cooking one, where they have real people come in and prepare the recipes they've sent in. This time they were doing "Family Favorites".

Of course, my real concern is that now I will have to tune my bedtime TV to something else for a whole week. I can't sleep to people begging for money in between Wayne, Suze and the disco and do-wop crews like I can during regular PBS programming. Well, except for This Old House. Very hard to snooze through that power saw or power drill that makes an appearance in every show.......

A New Day

2006-03-05T08:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been kvetching about work quite a bit lately. Finally had the chance to talk with my boss, and, surprise, surprise! She actually anticipated every one of my current concerns and addressed them before I even had a chance to start in. My schedule is not changing a whit in the next couple of weeks, there are lots of potential new hires coming in to interview next week (with the goal being to make offers to two so that we have at least one for sure--the other person can most likely be sent to another store if need be), and there are people coming from other stores to cover any open shifts. Of course, they are coming from much lower volume stores, so we may kill them at our store with our volume. Heck, even a slow Monday or Tuesday is probably more volume than the store these people are coming from do on a weekend! Oh well. Guess they'll see how people at the busy stores live. They might even be bored where they are and want the challenge. At any rate, I am not covering these shifts and I am getting my scheduled time off, so all is right with my world again.

I shared some of my homemade granola with one of my co-workers, and she was impressed. It is always amazing what impresses people that don't cook. Anyhow, she even said she's consider making it. She figured she could just come over to make the granola and we could drink beer. I said that would be a good idea if we ever get the same time off. I think she'd actually like the recipe and get lots of use out of it once she saw how easy it was to make.

I did make some baked ravioli yesterday. I jazzed up some frozen cheese ravioli by tossing them with a sauce I made by browning an onion and some hot Italian turkey sausage and then adding a can of drained, diced Italian tomatoes and a can of garlic-herb marinara sauce. Topped it all with a sprinkle of Parmesan and baked it for about 30 min., or until it was nice and bubbly. It will make something good to tote for lunches next week.

Going to have a bit more coffee and see if I can't get the dishwasher unloaded and reloaded and the clean clothes put away before heading off to work today. Yesterday was, as is usual for a Saturday, ungodly busy at work with messy people who have apparently never seen spring clothing or Easter stuff. They left it all over the place! I thought we'd never recover, especially since all the sales floor folks were up on registers most of the evening. Hopefully, tonight will be a typical Sunday, though. That will mean we are fairly busy from about 1-7:30 or 8, which gives us some time to start pulling things back together before we close at 9 so that we are assured of getting out by 10. Earlier if we really go dead.

Sunny and COLD here today. Brrrrr.......I'm staying inside until I have to go out.

God's Way of Telling Me to Do Laundry

2006-03-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Okay. So I check my copy of the schedule in my drawer in the office at work yesterday. See that it has been changed to show that I am opening today instead of closing. Fine. I didn't want to sleep in anyhow. So I get to work this morning and while I am getting keys, fellow cashier supervisor, Lisa shows up. Sez that our boss told her on Tuesday that she'd flipped me and Lisa on Thursday's schedule and then flipped us back to the original. Lisa didn't think much of it and presumed that our boss would let me know. Nope. No note, no nuttin'. Just the copy of the schedule that showed the change where I open and Lisa closes. If my boss is in this afternoon when I go back to work, she is getting an earful from me. I am tired of a schedule that changes every 15 minutes. I am tired of not getting the time off that I am entitled to, which should be every other weekend and one set day a week. I am tired of not being able to plan anything in advance because the schedule changes every 15 minutes and I am not getting every other weekend off and one set day a week, especially when everyone else is getting their time off, including the people at the store that make the big money, like my boss. She's cute and friendly as a puppy and means well, but she's also young and needs to know that the current situation is a crock of shit and she really, really needs to start doing something about it. Like crawling up HR's ass and dying to get the position that needs filled posted. Like giving up some of HER time off to pick up some of the shifts that we are trying to cover.

Anyhow, since I'm up, I might as well do that pesky laundry that I've got sorted. Especially since being only slightly less madder than a wet hornet is giving me the energy to tote laundry baskets up and down three flights of stairs. At least all of my clothes will be clean and put away!

Not much else right now. I do seem to have licked the cold bug. I'm still a little snotty, but nothing more than usual for this time of year and I'm back to drinking coffee. I don't like coffee when I am the least little bit sniffly, so being able to drink it again is a sure sign that I am on the mend.

Time to refill my coffee cup and go check on the clothes........

New haircut

2006-02-27T17:26:00.000-05:00

I got my hair cut on Saturday afternoon. My ex-sister-in-law has a small (two-chair) shop in the shopping center close to Dad's and one of my nephews got me a gift certificate. People might find it odd that our families all get along so well, I suppose. I always enjoy seeing Deb and visiting with her. Heck, I go to her family get together on Christmas Eve! My brother still goes hunting and fishing with her dad and her folks have Dad over for dinner regularly, as does her aunt June. Anyhow, I went a few minutes before my appointment so I could look through the books. I wanted something easy to take care of because 1) I am not good at fooling with my hair and 2) I don't like having to fool with my hair. I found a picture that I thought would work with some modifications. It's a shoulder length style with a part just to the right of center. The girl in the picture had some pretty deep bangs, which were the part I wanted to change. I just wanted a very light bang. The hair is blow-dried to frame my face. When Deb was done cutting and styling, I could tell I liked it even without my glasses on. I also re-did my color last night. I've been using L'Oreal light reddish brown, but decided to try a medium auburn. It looks very natural. I must have chosen well because everyone at work really liked my new 'do. Guys from the backroom even noticed and complimented me. I've worn my hair mostly pinned up at work for over a year now, so coming in with a shoulder-length cut was enough to cause several co-workers to not recognize me at first glance. Even my boss said she had a moment when she came in where she thought, "My dreams have been answered and we have a new cashier supervisor from somewhere!"

Best of all, even though it looks even cuter when Deb does it, I can actually style it without a lot of fuss. Whew!

What To Do When You Are Sick

2006-02-27T16:44:00.000-05:00

Curses. It announced its presence on Saturday morning, around 2:30 when I got up to take Dogzilla out to pee. That sinusy drainage feeling high up in the back of my throat. I've avoided everyone's germs so far, but now I've got whatever the vague upper respiratory bug is that is making the rounds at work. So this is what I do to make myself better and to try to ward off a trip to the doctor.

Get plenty of rest. There is no substitute for this, IMHO, so nap often. Especially if you can do so with a beagle curled up behind your knees and his little head resting on your leg to keep an eye on the rest of the world.
Drink plenty of liquids. Lots of tea and lemon-lime soda or ginger ale and water. Orange juice if you can tolerate it. A nice hot cup of water with honey, lemon and little whisky never hurt anyone either when they had an upper respiratory infection.
Get those soft tissues with lotion on them. Your nose will thank you.
Find a nice steamy bathroom or a sauna a couple times a day to get the nasal passages open. Sleep with a vaporizer running at night.
If your boss says you may go home early, then go home early. Don't be a hero.
Let the dishes go, let the vacuuming go, drop the social calendar back a notch. You can catch up on everything when you are actually feeling better. And people will probably appreciate it if you don't show up at the candle party spreading your germs and contagion.
Chicken soup. I don't care what cuisine or culture you are from, there's a comforting chicken soup there somewhere. Heck, branch out and try several kinds of chicken soup. They'll all make you feel better. At a bare minimum, buy a big can of chicken broth and some noodles. You'll feel better for it.
Before you nod off, engage in some positive imagery. Imagine yourself bathed in a healing green light. Imagine yourself feeling better. Imagine the germs being chased out of you. Whatever works. The mind is a very powerful thing and it can give the old immune system a nice boost.
Go ahead and watch the Jerry Springer Show. Or Judge Judy. You know you want to. What better excuse than to claim that you only saw it because you were too weak to change the channel.
If you've already got the shower running to steam up the bathroom, go ahead and hop in there and wash your hair and feel clean again. Lying around like a slug can make you feel really grungy, so a little soap and water can provide some very nice TLC. Get some of that lavender baby bath that Johnson & Johnson make when you lay in your sick supplies. I don't usually like lavender all that much, but this is actually very relaxing, which is what lavender is supposed to do.

Those are all the things that I do when I have a cold. Actually, I've found that if I start doing some of them the moment I feel a bug coming on, the bug doesn't last as long or incapacitate me. Of course, I am a big advocate of frequent hand-washing and using that sanitizer gel when you can't get to the soap and water to prevent catching a cold. I've worked with the general public for three years now, and can't remember the last time I was really sick with anything for more than a few days, so I'll continue to keep on doing what I do. Of course, I always advocate getting proper rest and eating right most of the time as ways to help prevent catching and spreading the common cold, too!

Okay. Off to get another cup of tea and see what they are doing over at Food TV.

Venting

2006-02-24T05:33:00.000-05:00

Okay. Time to vent about work. I really do enjoy retail, but an on-going situation has me genuinely and truly pissed. I've been a cashier supervisor for about a year now. There are supposed to be FOUR cashier supervisors, but for most of the year, our store has run on three. People at my level are supposed to have one set day off a week and every other weekend, barring, of course, the 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and the middle of January, which is the busy season. Having only three cashier supervisors, however, means that you average one weekend off a month and you mostly have the same day off every week but don't count on it. Mind you, this has gone on for about a year. Having struggled through the holidays with a fourth cashier supervisor who was WORTHLESS (and who was terminated at the end of her 90 day probationary period, thank God!), my two other peers and I figured we could bear down and hold out until the new fourth cashier supervisor started next week.

Here's the kicker. She's not coming. She was an internal transfer that allegedly already knew the position. Turns out that supposedly due to some personal stuff, she has taken another position at her current store and isn't coming to our store. AAARRGGHHHHH!!!!! This has led to schedule changes in the next two weeks that are hell. Hellfire.

I think we are having a meeting on Monday. Now that I am over the initial thoroughly pissed stage, what really bugs me is the feeling that our willingness to be responsible and step up to the plate to do what needs doing is being taken for granted. It's presumed we'll cover shifts. Well, we're about to collectively stop being so darn nice about it.

Now I am off for the weekend. I've walked, fed and snuggled Dogzilla. Dogs always make you feel better. There really is no one else in the whole world who's ever run around the living room because they are so excited to see me.

How I Spent My Day Off

2006-02-23T07:53:00.000-05:00

I really de-stressed yesterday. First, I slept until I wasn't tired. That still meant I was up by 8. I had breakfast and played on the internet. I did some yoga, just to stretch things out. I did up the dishes, including unloading the dishwasher and reloading it. I read more of the book I am working on "Yellow Fever, Black Goddess", which is about the co-evolution of people and plagues. I did some cooking. Cooking is something I really enjoy and it really is relaxing to me. It's the cleaning up that is hard! I made pasta with peas and ham, which is a variant of a dish I got off a PBS fund-raiser show. You cook 8 oz. of small shaped pasta, like shells or elbows. While it is cooking, you saute a little garlic and onion in some olive oil till soft but not brown, and then add about a cup of frozen peas, lots of black pepper and sprinkle of salt. I added some diced cooked ham at this point, but it wasn't in the original recipe. Anyhow, after the peas, you put in about 1 1/2 cups chicken broth and let it simmer. Take the cooked pasta out of the cooking water and add it to the peas, etc. If it is too dry, add a couple spoons of the pasta cooking water. Then stir in a tablespoon of butter and some grated Parmesan cheese. Adjust the seasonings if necessary. Serve with additional grated Parmesan if you want. I had it for lunch yesterday, and I've got leftovers for lunches for about 3 days now. I also made up some granola. I used Alton Brown's recipe with some modifications of my own. I didn't have cashews, so I substituted walnuts, and I used a mixture of dried raisins (golden and regular), chopped dates, craisins, apricots (I chopped about 4 halves), and cherries instead of the cup of raisins. I also added a sprinkling of pumpkin pie spice to the mixture before sticking it in the oven. I am not sure about the serving size given with the recipe, though. Six servings????? That's a lot of granola at one sitting. I don't eat a cup of granola at one shot. So I am dividing it into 24 1/4 cup servings. I am putting it with some yogurt for breakfasts. I had some last night sprinkled over a serving of passionfruit sorbet. Yum!

For dinner, I broiled some turbot from Trader Joes and did some pea pods. A glass of lowfat chocolate milk rounded things out. I watched some TV and read a bit more. Turned in around 10 and stayed in bed till a bit after 6 this morning. Now I'm doing a load of light clothes before heading into work this afternoon. I'll need to get my suitcase packed as I plan to head north to Dad and Dogzilla after work tomorrow. We're taking Dogzilla to the V-E-T on Sat. a.m., and I am getting my hair cut in the afternoon. I made an appointment with my ex-sister-in-law, and I'm looking forward to doing something with my hair. I think it has been 3 years since I did anything with it! Tired of long and shaggy!

I think I'll go have a little more coffee.......

And how was YOUR day?

2006-02-22T09:16:00.000-05:00

Okay, so today is my day off. Woohoo! Sitting here sipping coffee and blogging. Ahh......

Now yesterday was the kind of day that makes you look forward to time off. I was closing. Like I'd done 5 of the six days I'd worked since my last day off. That already made it tough. I don't mind closing as much as some of my peers, but anything over 3 days worth gets old. I go in and the person I am relieving tells me that my service desk, the operator and one of my closing cashiers has called off. ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!! Worst case scenario, I was down to two cashiers for the evening. And then there was the raccoon in the trash can outside. He wasn't well. Except for his tail and his face, all his fur had fallen off and he was skinny. Animal control had been called. They said to call the police, who said to call animal control. Orkin had to talk to the game warden to trap the wee beastie and we were waiting for that. So, due to bureaucratic inertia, there was a potentially rabid racoon peering out of the trash can everytime someone went into the store. ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!

Now, as it turned out, things went much better than anticipated. One of the 30 people we called did come in to work until close. One of the girls on the sales floor said she could cover the operator shift and zone up the area around it. The photo lab person covered the service desk. And, we were not busy. Whew! Had a little burst between 6-8:30, but that was also when I needed to get people on breaks. I am glad I have such a good relationship with the sales floor, so they come a-runnin' when I call them usually, and last night was no exception.

But I am still glad that today is my day off!!!! The dog in the picture is NOT Dogzilla, but it is the sort of thing that would happen to him, I am sure. Not that he'd ever let a raccoon get that close to him.........

My favorite thing about the Olympics redux

2006-02-18T11:25:00.000-05:00

Kjetil Andre Aamodt celebrating Super G gold repeat. Woohoo!!!!

Hark, Hark, the Dogs Do Bark

2006-02-15T10:03:00.000-05:00

I love the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Someday, I'm going to go, especially since it is in one of my favorite places, NYC.

As my friend, Violet predicted, a terrier won Best in Show, but I'm not going to quibble. Rufus wasn't one of those yippy rat-catchers. He's a beautiful colored bull-terrier. Not a single poodle made it to the finals (although, even I conceded that the standard poodle was a good looking one and put it on my list of group favorites from the non-sporting group). The toy choice was a pug, and not some foofy attitudinal Peke. My friend Debbie's pug, Lola, must have been proud. Or thought she should have been the big winner. Of the seven dogs in the finals, five of them had made my group favorites list. I am prejudiced in the hound category. The sight hounds I like are the smooth-coated ones, like the whippet, the greyhound, the Ibizan and the pharaoh hound. I am absolutely weak for the beagles, the harriers and the foxhounds. If it was up to me, I'd be queen of a pack! As it is, I'm content to be the alpha female in Dogzilla's life. Anyhow, it was a great group of dogs and I don't think I'd have had a quibble with any of them winning.

I wish that people would do their homework before running out and buying any of them so that they'd get a dog suited to their life-style. Be honest about where you live, what you do and what you expect a dog to do. And be prepared to be the leader of the pack. Yes, we all spoil our pups, but you can't let them call the shots and expect everyone to be happy. Even the littlest and most submissive pooch wants rules and for you to be the boss. Learn about DOG behavior, and don't apply human psychology to a dog. It doesn't work. Obedience training is a good idea for most dogs, and it is essential with certain breeds. If you can't afford a reputable breeder, at least talk to one about the breed you are interested in and thoroughly research a breed. Then find a good rescue organization or a nice shelter. Shelter and rescue dogs can have behavioral and health problems, but they are also a source of wonderful dogs. With some patience, love and training, shelter dogs can become such wonderful loving pets. I know because Dogzilla was a shelter boy from the Humane Society. I've loved all the dogs I grew up with (mostly beagle girls), but Dogzilla is really special.

Okay, enough of my soap box, but today, give a dog a scratch behind the ear or a belly rub or a nice little treat.

My favorite thing about the Olympics

2006-02-15T09:57:00.000-05:00

Kjetil Andre Aamodt.

Ten things about the Olympics so far

2006-02-13T09:35:00.000-05:00

In no particular order. I was working, so I didn't see the opening ceremonies on Friday night. I don't think I'd have watched them anyhow, though. TV fireworks generally bore me. So in no particular order based on my limited viewing so far.....

1. I hate Bob Costas. There I said it. Why NBC continues to use him to anchor every major sporting event they carry is beyond me. Pompous, arrogant, smarmy know-it-all, and that is on a good day. He gets on my last damn nerve every time.

2. Michelle Kwan has such class to put a smile on and say that it's okay about not winning a gold medal when you know that stepping down is one of the hardest things you've probably ever had to do. And to do it soon enough to allow your teammate time to mentally prepare to fill your slot. And to not bite the head off every idiot at the press conference whose questions imply that your career, with those nine world titles, is nothing because you don't have an Olympic gold medal tucked in there.

3. Shaun White and the American snowboarders are just having such a grand time. They're fun to watch. And if I was 20 years younger, I'd be in love with Shaun and all that red hair.

4. The passion of Alpine skiers. That moment at the end of their run when they turn and see the board is when you really see the "thrill of victory, the agony of defeat." All measured in tenths and hundredths of seconds. I suppose that at the Olympic level of competition, most of the athletes are quite passionate about their sport and their performance, but so often they have a moment to compose themselves before the camera catches them. The camera is always right there waiting at the end of the downhill runs , capturing every unguarded moment of elation and disappointment. I thought grown men were going to cry a couple times at the end of their downhill runs on Sunday they were so disappointed.

5. I love to watch the athletes tear up at the medal ceremonies. Even the cockiest and the coolest seem to have a moment on the podium as they watch their nation's flag being raised and hear their national anthem where they are humbled, overwhelmed and filled with pride. Whether it's the first time an athlete is there or the last time or the something in between, you see the tears glistening in their eyes if not running down their faces.

6. I don't get the fascination with Bode Miller. Really. Big talk and an ego the size of Manhattan. Big deal. And a disappointment so far. I was pleased to see Ted Ligety come "out of nowhere" (if that is possible when you are ranked at #3 in the world for slalom!) to take the combined race. Good for him.

7. Kjetil Andre Aamodt. See previous post abut my favorite thing at the Winter Olympics. I don't care if he doesn't win a thing this go. I just like him. If I had a Norwegian Lundehund, I'd call it Kjetil. Of course, I'd probably get a second one and call it Lasse Kjus, after Kjetil's team mate. I'm crazy for those Norwegians, the big ol' sons of Vikings that they are. Whatever sport they do is fine with me. I think I must have been a Valkyrie in another life.

8. There is nothing that isn't funny about watching Matt, Katie and Al from the Today Show take a whack at various Olympic sports to demonstrate why everyone isn't at the Olympics. And the athletes are all such kind, gracious and generous instructors.

9. We own all these guns in this country and we love to shoot 'em. We give the US Ski Team $20 million dollars. So why can't we put together a decent run at the biathalon? Doesn't make any sense at all. Maybe the NRA could work on this. After they give Dick Cheney some free hunting safety lessons.

10. Curling. I have no idea about the scoring or the rules, but it is a deadly serious competition with grown men yelling at large rocks with handles. No tape delay, so you can tell when an appreciative "Goddamn" slips out of one of the Canadians' mouths. God only knows what the Swedes were saying during the match I watched as they were yelling in Swedish. My point is that part of why I like watching the Olympics is because it is an opportunity to connect with sports and sporting events that you don't hear about in America, at least not very often. I like America and wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but I do occasionally like to see the view from other places and perspectives. It helps keep me connected to the wider world of all humanity to see what's a big deal to other people in other countries. Like curling.

Yes, the Olympics are over-commercialized and often controversial with questionable long-lasting results for the host cities, but it's still fun to watch, especially when we get a glimpse of something that reminds us all of our better selves. I like to put aside the petty griping, bitching and moaning of every athlete that says "It's not fair" or makes excuses for not winning or poor performances and, instead, remember those who are gracious and joyous in victory, who show us what sportsmanship is even in defeat, and who acknowledge that, no matter what their personal talent or contribution is on any given day, they are at the games and/or on a podium because of hard work, sacrifice and a fair measure of luck and the grace of God.

February: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2006-02-07T20:36:00.000-05:00

T.S. Eliot was wrong. April is not the cruelest month. February gets that honor in my book. Here in Ohio, February is usually when real winter usually sets in, with all the snow, ice, wind and grey skies typically associated with "winter". Except for a couple of days where the clouds part and temperatures can soar into the upper sixties just long enough to seduce trees into bud, forsythia into bloom and delicate little crocuses and grape hyacinths to peek through the earth. Of course, the temperature then takes a nose dive and all but the hardiest green living things survive. Now THAT is cruel.

February also has Valentine's Day. Now, I was never a popular child in school and most of my adult life has been spent as a solo act, so Valentine's Day has no special meaning for me. My dad still sends me a card, though, which I do appreciate. I know it is something I will miss when he is gone because even after nearly 10 years I still miss getting a card or some small gift from my mom. I've gotten over resenting Mother's Day (not being a mother myself, once my mom died, I felt excluded and resentful of all those Mother's Day cards for several years), but I still hold a grudge on Valentine's Day because it's one of those days when I just miss my mommy. Childish, I know, but it is what it is. I do know that lots of people love me, and I usually try to do something special for myself that day.

People tend to be a bit more impatient and cranky this time of year. After all, the holidays are over, the bills are due, and most of us don't have much time off to look forward to until about Memorial Day, unless you work in government and get MLK Day and President's Day off. And everyone is ready to put away the winter coats, hats, glove, snow shovels and ice scrapers.

President's Day is not as much fun as in my grade school days, when you got to devote TWO days to presidents. You spent part of George Washington's birthday making a black construction paper silhouette out of him and eating cherry pie and then you got to make a silhouette of Abraham Lincoln and listen to The Gettysburg Address. Nobody else mattered. Not even FDR, Ike or JFK. Certainly not LBJ or Tricky Dick.

February DOES have some fine things, though. I love Groundhog Day. It is my February holiday of choice, and I usually make a big deal out of it. I know what Punxsutawney Phil predicts (and I consider him the most official groundhog out there; Buckeye Chuck is just a pretender to the crown. Or would that be "stump"???) and have been known to make "Groundhog Pudding" (it's the Oreo flowerpot pudding recipe, but I put little dragee "eyes" and a cinnamon redhot "nose" on coconut haystack "groundhogs" and have the groundhogs coming up out the Oreo "dirt"). I usually like to wear something brown, too. Groundhog color, you know?

In addition to being a mercifully SHORT month, February is also the month that they hold the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. This year, the finals will be held on Valentine's Day, which makes it okay in my book. I have to work on the 13th, so I won't see the show that night, but as long as they don't judge the hounds (I have to see both sizes of those cute beagles, even if I *do* think that Dogzilla in his prime had them all beat for sheer handsomeness!), I'm planning to enjoy the second night. I'm getting some champagne, I think, this year to make it special. I do love watching all those dogs. I am not so crazy about the plethora of poodles (although I've seen standards minus the show cut, and they are quite agreeable dogs) and most of the toy breeds (aka "slippers with attitude"), but I always enjoy watching to see who winds up best in show. February is also the month when spring training begins!!! Pitchers and catchers report on Feb. 16, and opening day is my Tribe vs. the ChiSox on April 2 in Chicago.

They run the Daytona 500 on Feb 19, to. I'm going to have to open that day, so I won't be able to go to my brother's annual Daytona party (besides, it is the day after his birthday this year, and I am not sure how my baby brother got to be 46 years old!!!), but I am going to watch anyhow, so I'll be with everyone at Mark's in spirit. I'll have to call to be sure they pull a driver's name for me to be in the pool, too! I hope it's someone I at least like. I'll miss watching Mark's Parade o'Shirts, though. Usually starts out with one of his Bobby Labonte shirts, and goes through Junior, Dale, Sr. and finally, depending on how things are going, winds up wearing "Anybody but Jeff Gordon".

The ugly about February? Well, the weather. The collective case of SAD (seasonal affective disorder) that affects most people. Even the groundhog is not what you'd call a handsome beastie. Stubborn they are, but handsome? Nah.

So that is the good, the bad and the ugly about February. I think I will get some kiddie Valentines, just to give everyone a giggle. We could all use it, eh???

Morning coffee

2006-02-04T07:02:00.000-05:00

I love coffee. Especially in the morning. Usually can't wait for that first sip. It's the best part of breakfast. I like it best at home, but I'll stop and buy some for a morning car trip. Doesn't have to be fancy. I don't especially care for that Coffee-Palace-From-Hell, Starbucks (which I expect to open a branch in my living room any day just because of the way they proliferate!). Maybe people like burnt, over-roasted coffee with whipped cream on top, but gimme something from my local Cup O'Joe or Stauf's Coffee Roasters. Heck, a fresh pot at the Speedway does me. So while I love coffee, I ain't picky. At home, I like Folger's or Maxwell House, though Kroger has some good blends. And, yes. I use that pre-ground stuff. It's what I grew up on (actually, I grew up on instant coffee, so brewed is a real step up!), and I cannot face the racket of grinding beans first thing of the day. And no flavored coffees either. Just a way to disguise poor quality coffee beans and it rarely tastes like "chocolate raspberry" or whatever is being foisted off as the flavor. I drink my coffee black most of the time, although at work I mix the coffee (which I usually have at my first break on days I open) with a shot of the "cappucino" from the machine there. It's powdered creamer mostly, but it comes out hot so I can keep the coffee at a decent temperature to drink on a 15 min. break. I keep some sugar-free Torani syrups at home in case I feel like tarting up my coffee in the afternoon or evening, which are the times I usually tart up coffee. Raspberry or caramel are what usually find their way in. A cinnamon stick or a cardamom pod are good to stick in the filter basket if I'm in the mood for that sort of thing.

Coffee is something that smells better than it tastes, and when I think of puppy breath, I liken it to the smell of freshly ground coffee beans. Of course, that is long before they become Dogzilla. Whose breath could generally melt the paint off a barn. No, no. You have to catch the wee beasties before they are fully weaned and just living on puppy chow and mother's milk. I generally don't do decaffeinated coffee because I liken it to non-alcoholic beer. What IS the point? I consume beer and coffee primarily because I am going for the mood-altering effects, with taste a distant second factor. Instant coffee is good to have around for baking, but otherwise, only in a real pinch if no other kind of coffee is available.

My favorite coffee drinking experience is probably the coffee I drank from styrofoam cups on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. I was the only one in my group that got up to watch the sun come up over the canyon, and there was nothing quite like standing there in the chill air with a warm cup of coffee warming my hands and watching the sun peep up on the horizon. Of course, there was also that woman who came huffing out of one of the government "hotels" that is on the rim and asked "Well, where does the sun come up?" I privately thought that anyone who had forgotten where the sun came up (even if you had forgotten all of your Girl Scout training,which would have told you that if you were facing north, the east is off to your right, the rosy glow in the sky should have been a sign) should probably not be standing so close to an unfenced 400 ft. drop, but I just gestured instead. I also love a cup of coffee after a nice run or walk on a snowy morning or when the sun is just coming up on a cool summer morning and I am on the back porch at my dad's. Drinking coffee with my friend Meg, whenever we manage to get together for one of our girl's nights in, is also one of my favorite things about coffee.

So that's my coffee story. Doing laundry now, and it is about time to check on it. And pour my second cup of coffee.....

Groundhog Day

2006-02-02T09:20:00.000-05:00

My favorite Feb. holiday. I actually look forward to hearing about Punxsutawney Phil's "prediction". This year, we are in for 6 more weeks of winter, which, if it is like the winter we've had so far, is okay in my book.

Haven't been inclined to update or check in until today. Lots of it is because I have been working opening shifts quite a bit. I tell you, I generally prefer to close rather than open. Opening means getting up at 6 every day. I was ever so happy to get to sleep until 8 this morning, and that was after I conked out on the sofa last night from about 9:30 to 12:30. Last night was definitely one of those nights that I catch up on any sleep I've missed!

I'm closing this evening, and then I am off for a four day weekend. Would have been a three day weekend, but I got a call yesterday a.m. from my boss. The opening front end supervisor had to call off, my boss had to go to a mandatory meeting, and I was the one they could get in touch with. When the offer was to give up my day off in exchange for Friday (hence the three day weekend became a four day weekend), I said sure! I didn't have any real plans and I was already up and showered.

I'm looking forward to having the extra time off. Tomorrow I can catch up on laundry, dishes and other housework. Then Sat. & Sun. I can head north to visit Dad, although I am sure that Dogzilla thinks I come up just to entertain his furry self. Not that he is spoiled and could easily draw that conclusion, mind you! Dad and I are going to my brother's to watch the Super Bowl, so that will be fun on Sunday evening. I will probably just stay at Dad's Sun. night and head back early on Monday to catch up with some more stuff at home. Possibly even tackle the Dreaded Spare Room. Honestly, it is just a matter of getting stuff into file folders and finishing with the shredding/sorting of a few remaining stacks of papers.

Since I've last posted, I did try a new recipe for posole. Actually, I looked at recipes for it and determined that I could put some ingredients into my big crockpot and make posole. Anyhow, I've got that to see me through the better part of the week. I got salad stuff yesterday. I want to try a salad of avocado, grapefruit sections and red onions with a citrus-based dressing. Possibly with a little cilantro. I thought it sounded refreshing and it would go nicely with the soup.

I am in desperate need of some crunches. I am looking very poofy around the middle right now. So, onto the exercise ball! And I am going to try the painful "Abs of Steel" tape. It hurts, but it is really just a series of crunches and it is very short and effective. I'm off now to do some nice squats and lunges. I just feel like a little bowl of jelly right now! So, I am going to start toning up!

Some Things That Make Life Worth Living

2006-01-25T20:02:00.000-05:00

Going back to work tomorrow. Spent the day spoiling Dogzilla. It was cold and snowy, so while I indulged him by taking him outside several times, he was quite happy to head back inside where the treats and cozy chairs were. We took a little nap on the couch this afternoon, with him curled up behind my knees, head on my leg. Anyhow, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite things, the stuff that makes life well worth living, in no particular order.

Dad. He's funny and we have a relationship that I am sure we'd have never had if my mom hadn't died when she did and as suddenly as she did. I miss Mom, even after almost 10 years, but I am glad I've had the opportunity to get to know my dad.
My brother. We don't talk often, but I do enjoy spending time with him. We both like to cook, and he's very good at it for a guy who works in an auto body shop. He's given me an appreciation for NASCAR, too.
My nephews and nieces. The oldest nephew and my nieces came with my brother's second marriage, and I am proud to call them family and flattered that they are happy to see me and call me family. Not many blended families have that kind of success.
Dogzilla. He's smart and comic in the way that only a very smart, food motivated beagle can be. I am his second favorite person in the whole world. Life is very good, even at 4:30 a.m. when I hear those dog tags jingle and he comes into my room all smiles (and hopeful that it is breakfast time!).
Baseball. Specifically, the Cleveland Indians. I love it. Can't wait till spring training starts. The only sport I actually listen to on the radio, and preferable to TV. Only actually being at the park is better. The only thing I don't like about baseball is the Yankees, and even them I love to loathe. Everyone's got to have a rival.
Pizza. In all forms, with the possible exception of Hawaiian pizza. Even though I was only 1 year old when my parents left Chicago, the city of my birth, putting pineapple and Canadian bacon on pizza is just plain wrong. And, yes, I have too tried it. And if it was the only kind of pizza, I would probably still eat it. So there.
Bourbon. Started drinking it the day I realized that some day I would be old and that no one takes you seriously if you are drinking drinks that come with umbrellas in them.
Cooking. I actually enjoy cooking, and I am good at it. I like trying different recipes and different cuisines. My motto, borrowed from a former co-worker, who said it was something her mother told her: If You Can Read, You Can Cook.
Irises. My absolute favorite flower.
Vaughan Williams' "Lark Ascending" and anything by Tom Petty (except for things that came out of what I refer to as his unfortunate Travelling Wilburys phase.).
Laughter. I like to laugh, I like to make other people laugh, and I am pretty good at both.
My job. I love retail. Truly.
Sleeping late on a Saturday or a Sunday when it is raining and I have a full pantry and fridge, nowhere to go or be and a good book.
Good books. A whole 'nuther list, lemme tell ya. I rarely make a trip to the library without finding something worth reading. Often a whole bunch of things. I did, apparently, burn myself out in childhood on mysteries with Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes, though. I can read just about any other topic, though. Some particularly favorite subjects, though, are sharks, penguins, pre-historic man, especially Neanderthals, Tudor history, and infectious disease. Favorite authors: Thomas Hardy and Richard Adams (Watership Down, yeah, Shardik, Traveller and my all time favorite ghost story, The Girl in a Swing) come to mind.
TV. Yeah, I like it. Favorite shows: House, the original Iron Chef (NOT Iron Chef America for sooo many reasons, first of which is if you start out trying to be cheesy, you are missing the whole point and, secondly, for the love of God, hamburger is not a good "secret ingredient"), Queer Eye, Secrets of the Dead, No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, Most Haunted (what isn't funny about watching a bunch of grown adults with a cameraman and bad lighting scare themselves sillier than a bunch of teenage girls at a seance???), and all bad British sitcoms. When I am at Dad's, I get to watch BBC America. I watch Changing Rooms (I love Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen), Ground Force (I want to BE Charlie Dimmock, just to have that much fun yanking Tommy Walsh's chain), Cash in the Attic (with Alistair, puh-leeze!), What Not to Wear (Trinny and Suzannah can come over here and make me over any day), House Doctor, Life Laundry and even the ever cheesy David Dickinson on Bargain Hunt. And I have a secret fascination with Bad British Sitcoms. Are You Being Served, Keeping Up Appearances, My Hero, Father Ted, you name one.

Well, there's the short list. I am going to go rest my feet in preparation for going back to work tomorrow. I'm actually looking forward to going back. See #12 above.......

The Mad, the Bad and the Innocent

2006-01-23T08:26:00.000-05:00

"The Mad, the Bad and the Innocent: The criminal mind on trial," by Barbara Kirwin. This was a very interesting book, from the point of view of a forensic psychologist who has, with some high profile exceptions, testified mostly for the prosecution. It was an interesting look at the insanity defense, and I think it a good starting point for anyone interested in taking a serious look at one facet of how society deals with mental illness.

We ignore the issue of mental illness so often. We bring all of our fears, prejudices and ignorance to bear when mentally ill individuals commit crimes. The mentally ill are relatively easy to punish since few truly mentally ill people are capable of effectively participating in their own defense. We don't have coherent standards for determining who is suffering from a mental illness that genuinely impairs their decision making process and/or their ability to determine right from wrong and who is merely manipulating the system to escape responsibility for their criminal actions. We lump psychotics and psychopaths together and presume that they are all, quite literally, trying to get away with murder. We are suspicious that everyone claiming insanity as a defense is malingering and all too often the public perception is that a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity means that a defendant is released back into the community and not punished at all. So we tighten up the criteria for using an insanity defense and then use the prison system to warehouse increasing numbers of mentally ill individuals, when most prisons lack the resources to serve the mentally ill. One of the first areas we cut when budgets get tight is funding for mental health. Consequently, existing mental health facilities often can't provide appropriate security and treatment for the criminally insane.

I think it a measure of a society how it treats those least able to speak up for and defend themselves. The mentally ill are a very vulnerable group, and are often stigmatized and misunderstood, even by otherwise rational and intelligent people, including legal and medical professionals.

Anyhow, this book is really very thought provoking, even if you don't agree with the author's perspective (she's pretty skeptical of the so-called "designer defenses", such as the infamous "Twinkie defense" and defenses used by the Menendez brothers; she feels, and I agree, that such defense strategies play into public ignorance about mental illness and ultimately harm those individuals who genuinely suffer from mental illnesses).

Poker Party

2006-01-22T08:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday afternoon I drove home from Dad's because some coworkers were having a poker party. Now, I didn't think I knew anything about poker. In fact, I still can't claim that I do, but the cards flowed my way and I must have wagered my chips wisely. Wound up winning for the evening. Amidst jokes about cashier supervisors who collect "money". We only played for the chips on the table, so it wasn't like there was money involved. Everyone had a good time and we had plenty of nibbles. That's the most dangerous part for me! I hope we do it again sometime. It was fun to see people outside of the store for a change.

Been having a nice time with Dogzilla, even with his arthritis kicking up a bit. Poor boy still likes to get out there and run around his yard. He just wears himself out tripoding it around, I think. Dad is going to take him to the vet to see if there is more than just an aspirin routine. We have told the dear boy, however, that hip replacement is not in his future like it was for Dad. Of course, if we didn't keep giving him treats, he might lose some weight! He still likes me to pick him up, the little furry king!

Well, I am doing up some laundry this morning and then I will head back up to Dad's until Weds. evening. Right now, though, I need to finish my COFFEE!!! Up late last night....

If I'm on Vacation, Why Was I Up at FOUR????

2006-01-20T06:44:00.000-05:00

The answer: Dogzilla, of course! He was ready for his breakfast, and since he was good enough to sleep from about 8 last night until a few minutes past 4 this morning, I indulged him. His bad leg is acting up a bit, but I really think he just likes having me put him in bed and in the recliner. Spoiled baby!

I do foresee an afternoon nap in everyone's future. Dad is up, too, so Dogzilla's morning work is done.

Weather has been nice and warm, so in spite of that bad leg, we did plenty of strolling around the yard yesterday. I brought plenty of "supplies", like vegetables, fruit and yogurt with me yesterday. I made some spaghetti sauce and some sloppy joe last night, since I figured it would use up the hamburger Dad got out and make enough for quick reheating later in the week.

Need to go coffee up a little bit more. Maybe rustle up some oatmeal for breakfast. That should pop Dogzilla out of the recliner!

Shopping at Trader Joes

2006-01-17T19:54:00.000-05:00

An easy, easy day at work today. Had plenty of time to get to some of the cleaning we're doing. Not a stressful moment in the whole darn day. It's nice having times like that. Makes up for Christmas and running around like a chicken with your head cut off. While multi-tasking. I like to tell my co-workers that I never had ADD until I started working there.

Needed to get rice and red onions after work, but absolutely, positively could NOT face the Big Giant MegaMart at 4:30. Decided to shop Trader Joes instead. Naturally, I walked out with more than rice and red onions. I wound up with a bottle of TJ's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar and a recipe for a salad made of baby beets, mandarin oranges and red onions in an orange vinaigrette. I decided it was worth the $3.00 splurge. Remember I AM The Condiment Queen of the Western World, and that includes all manner of vinegar. Except tarragon vinegar because of all the spices in the world, I oddly enough loathe tarragon. I dunno why. Go figure. But I digress.....back to the beet salad.

I decided that I always have canned beets of all sizes and shapes in the pantry, so I did not need to buy those cute cooked beets in the refrigerated section. I thought the combination would work as a main dish salad if I added some crumbled goat cheese and toasted walnuts. and put everything over a bed of mixed greens. Walnuts and lettuce I had at home, but I picked up some goat cheese crumbles. I also picked up two kinds of sorbet: passion fruit and mango-tangerine. It sounded refreshing and satisfying. I took a scoop of each kind and then sprinkled it with frozen blueberries.

I did some stretching after work today, before dinner. I'm planning to turn in nice and early this evening. I don't think there is anything I need to watch on TV. I've already washed my face since 2006 is the Year I Wear Just a Little Makeup Again. Nothing drastic. A little foundation (to even out my aging skin) and blush. Then I draw on the eyebrows (it is just not right that after 45 your eyebrows just fade away. I suppose all the color in your facial hair has to go straight into the damn mustache!!) and put on mascara.

Off to finish catching up on a few phone calls and then I am putting my feet up to read! Tomorrow I am doing a yoga tape. I want to practice downward facing dog. I think I will take a tape with me to Dad's this week, since I'll be up on vacation and the beagle doesn't walk like he used to. Of course, he will probably think I am playing when I do downward facing dog in the living room. Probably give me beagle kisses. Which are really just a subtle way to be sure I haven't been eating anything without him. He gets in close just to do a breath check!

Something New

2006-01-16T18:11:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a fairly uneventful day here at home. I did go out on a paper towel and trash bag run to stock the place up on those kind of necessities. One of my co-workers called and she needs to close tomorrow night instead of open, so she asked if I'd trade. The only disruption in my life was that I wound up doing laundry today instead of tomorrow. It is whirling around in the dryer now.

I tried a new recipe today, in keeping with my vow to try at least ONE new recipe every week. Today I made some chimichurri sauce. I knew I was going to have steak tonight, and I was chopping parsley for a lemon vinagrette for salad, so.....I tossed a few things together to make my version of a chimichurri sauce. I used some finely diced red onion, parsley, lemon juice, salt, pepper, red chili flakes, toasted cumin and olive oil. It was really good with the steak, which I pan roasted, since it was a nice thick ribeye. For dinner I also made sweet potato oven fries and I did some portobello mushroom slices on the stove with garlic and red onion. Had a small mixed green salad, too. Trying to live up to 5-9 fruit and veggie servings, too, and I think I am doing pretty well. The remaining steak and chimichurri sauce will be transformed tomorrow evening into Chimichurri Steak Salad. It's my idea for a chop salad, so it will be easy to assemble when I get home tomorrow after work.

Today is aerobic laundry day, which means several trips up and down the stairs to get it all washed, dried and put away. That will suffice! Tomorrow is going to be abs and weights before work, which means I need to roll out just a little before 6. It's not going to be that painful. Unless, of course, my abs set up on me! Which can always happen when you push those muscles beyond where they are. It is only temporary aches, though, so I'll live!

It is still nice to have a refrigerator that I can actually SEE stuff in. So much easier to live!

Time to go check on the clothes.......I'm sure something is dry by now.

Confessions of a Condiment Queen

2006-01-15T13:08:00.000-05:00

....or "What I Learned By Cleaning Out the Fridge." I cooked and had leftovers that needed refrigeration. Current state of refrigerator was a no-go on one more damn thing fitting in there, so I was forced to take drastic action and actually--gasp!--CLEAN THE REFRIGERATOR OUT. I learned that I am, clearly and undeniably, my father's daughter. Apparently, the love of mustard, of all flavors, textures and colors, is an inherited trait. AFTER the winnowing of my condiment collection, which still contains Thai red curry paste, fish sauce, and two kinds of steak sauce, I still have NINE jars of mustard which I deemed essential to my happiness. That is nine jars with NO duplicates, mind you. This is after I pitched jars of maple mustard, key lime mustard with ginger and some sweet-hot mustard that were all at least 4 years old and on the dried out side. I got French's yellow mustard, Dijon mustard, horseradish mustard, dill mustard, honey Dijon mustard, Creole mustard, spicy brown mustard, Bertmann's ball park mustard (no Indians' fan's home is complete without it, IMHO, whether or not you actually put it on your hot dog with finely chopped onions just like at Jacobs Field), and whole grain country mustard. Also on the discard list were several bottles of salad dressing, several jars of various peppers, olives and pickles that were surely past their expiration dates by months, if not years. I pitched cocktail sauce and horseradish sauce and regular Jiffy peanut butter (I've gone to natural peanut butter) of unknown origins. That 1/4 inch of lite maple syrup? GONE! Now I just have to tote the bags (dead condiments are surprisingly HEAVY, so more than one bag is necessary) out to the trash. I feel much better now. That is one lurking housecleaning project done. Whew. And now I have room for my bean soup, which wound up being more of a minestrone since I tossed tomatoes and spinach in there along with a Parmesan rind and some ham, and my Chinese leftovers. I made ma po tofu, Szechuan green beans and some braised napa cabbage with mushrooms. With rice on the side, I will have enough for two lunches, which takes care of what I take to work this week.

I'm going to let my lunch digest and then I am hitting the weights this afternoon and doing a yoga tape. Tomorrow I plan on doing laundry and finishing sorting out the filing in the spare room, which will certainly free up my guest bed.

This is the year for changes. My friend Debbie has up and moved to NH this weekend and my friend Patty is in the process of moving from Washington, DC to Tampa for the Postal Service! So many other friends also seem to be in transitions. Like we've all been stuck in a rut and have finally got the wheels under us again. It's good to see!

My friend Meg came to visit last night for a girls night in. We ate tortilla chips and dip and drank coffee while watching "48 Hours". She brought over a book that she's written with her son about bipolar disorder. It's a children's type book, and it turned out wonderfully. She printed it up herself. I was terribly impressed with how it turned out. I think it's very educational, even for grown people!

Okay. Going to go back to work. Or maybe I will just go watch Bobby Flay's "Boy Meets Grill". I live in a two-bedroom apartment with no balcony where the closest grill for me is out by the complex lake after a trek through goose shit. I think I will just refuse to grill until I can have a whole damn rooftop and the mother of all Weber grills at my disposal!

Back to Winter

2006-01-14T08:31:00.000-05:00

Well, overnight the weather is wintry again. At least the ground is too warm for snow to stick!

Last week's weird hours wreaked havoc on my strength training sessions, so this week I am going to make a real effort to meet my goals. Two times for abs/core and two times for the weights. I think I did okay food-wise, though. Lots more veggies/fruit and plenty of lean protein. It was PMS week, which explains the cookie and chip cravings. I do hate being in the erratic phase of perimenopause. PMS sorta sneaks up on me! Although, I really do have to say that since I have changed fields of work, my stress level is so much lower and I really think it has minimized most of the unpleasant aspects of perimenopause. Hot flashes aren't as hot or as frequent and even the cravings are a surprise, not a routine!

This week, I plan to make some nice bean soup. Actually, I have a nice Parmesan rind, white beans and some ham. I'm going to add some carrots, celery and onions to the mix, too. And some frozen cooked spinach. I'm going for a pasta e fagoli thing just minus the pasta. That will travel well to work and with the wintry weather, it will be soothing and a good way to meet my "more veggies and fiber" goals for the week. I am also going to cook one of the steaks my friend Lisa's mom sent me for Christmas. It's from Omaha Steaks, and the one should give me enough for a nice steak dinner and some leftovers for a main dish salad. I'm also going to stir-fry some tofu this week. That should round out the meals. Breakfast is going to be oatmeal or whole wheat toast with milk or an egg.

Yesterday was payday, so I made good on my $10/week to savings promise. I know it sounds like a small amount, but I need to start somewhere just to prove to myself that it *is* possible to save. I can always learn to save more.

Going to get dressed and run the few errands I didn't run yesterday. Then I am coming home and getting started on my housework. Today I want to clean my kitchen and get my trivets hung in there. I'd also like to get the bed in the spare room cleaned off. My friend Meg is coming over for a "girls night in", and in case she feels like staying over, I'd like to have the bed ready for her. Besides, it is a goal project!

Off to shower up and run errands. After I finish my coffee, that is......

Working the Night Shift

2006-01-11T18:08:00.000-05:00

Let's see.....today I managed to sleep and eat! I made sure I took a nice nap because I am working overnight this evening. One of my co-workers and I are going overnight to give each and every checklane a thorough cleaning. I'm taking my coffee cup to work, let me tell you! I should be able to conk out when I get home because then I'll work tomorrow evening.

Dad wrote this morning that Dogzilla was worn out last night after I left. Poor boy laid in his chair all evening and wouldn't even open his eyes when Dad talked to him. Then he laid in bed until 5:30 this morning, which is almost a record for Dogzilla. Of course, at 11 y.o., he is nearly 90 according to the real age site for pets. He's still a pretty spry little guy when he IS awake. I suppose at 90 I'll be happy to sleep, eat and take the occasional stroll outside.

Weather is freakishly warm for January. Makes me wonder what meterological nightmares February will bring. Anyhow, it does make for nice strolling outside. Of course, it is supposed to "rain/snow" this weekend, so it will be perfect for aerobic housecleaning. One of my projects is to find somewhere to take the junk I don't want. I think there is a Salvation Army nearby and I am going to see if I can find one of those AmVets dumpster things. If it isn't good enough to donate, then I am just pitching it. I'd like to get the living room and the spare room well and truly squared away. Clutter is EVERYWHERE.

That's it. Just another sorta boring day.

Goals for the year

2006-01-10T14:55:00.000-05:00

I know it's well into 2006, but I've wanted to take some time before making commitments to goals. I'd like this to be a more thoughtful process because I figure it will lend itself to greater success.

On the fitness front, I intend to add weight work to my weekly routine at least 2X and I intend to add core strengthening 2X per week also. I am not going to set a goal weight. Recent reading leads me to believe that the GOAL has to be adopting and incorporating better eating habits, not necessarily weight loss. I think that it is a whole lot like the attitude that if you do what you love to earn a living, then the money follows. To that end, I intend to do the following:
1. Pay attention to portion control;
2. Aim for 6-9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day from a variety of sources, focusing on what is actually in season;
3. Fish 3-4 times a week;
4. Vegetarian 3-4 times a week, and not just a steady diet of Boca burgers;
5. Experiment with new food products and try at least one new recipe every week;
6. Pay attention to meeting recommended fiber intake by focusing on whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

I think all of the above are attainable habits. I am not going to incorporate them all at once, but I do believe that using menu planning is going to help me adopt these habits gradually, so I am definitely commiting some time each week to planning menus. In the short term, this will mean using what is already on hand in the pantry and the freezer. If it's not useable, then it will get tossed. I am definitely cleaning out the cupboards.

Some other things I want to work on this year are developing a closer bond with my brother. After all, when Dad is gone (and I hope that's not for a long time!), Mark is my immediate family. We get along, but we tend to just not stay in close touch. I want to improve that. At work, I want to develop better coaching skills. I think I will ask if a couple of the execs that I like and respect will help mentor me in this area.

Other projects: get my address book computerized; put $10 a week into my savings account; finish assembling a family cookbook

Those are my general goals for 2006. I intend to track my progress weekly here and longer term in my daily planner.

Catching Up

2006-01-07T18:44:00.000-05:00

Well, been a couple of days, so I need to catch up. Work wasn't too busy, but with doing the "Friday close/Saturday open", it made for one tired pup! Glad I got to leave work just when things were really getting busy both Sat. & Sun. I'm off now until 10 p.m. Weds. night. Going to work an overnight on Weds. with one of my co-workers to clean our checklanes inside and out. The dust bunnies will be running! I'll probably need to remember to take a nice Benadryl when I get home. Don't want to take it before because I will fall asleep on a checklane if I take it before a 10 p.m.-6:30 a.m. shift. Afterward will be okay, though, because I'll want to be sure I get some sleep before going in to close on Thurs. at 3:30! I'm off this coming weekend, too, and I get to spend it at home in Columbus. Got a list of stuff I'd like to accomplish around the apartment, too!

Currently up north with Dad and Dogzilla. Thought Dogzilla was going to have a heart attack when I arrived. Dad was in the kitchen having a graham cracker snack when I showed up, and between the two events, Dogzilla could hardly contain himself! We took a nice walk once the graham crackers were put away. Dogzilla seems to be doing very well between the warm-ish weather and the aspirin routine. He can jump up in bed with Dad all by himself, but I think he just LIKES having me lift him in. Not spoiled at all, that hound.

Will be doing plenty of walking with Dogzilla the next couple of days, which will do us both good. I've still got baby carrots for snacks, which will also be good for us both! I plan to do some crunches, pushups and squats today. Ought to be interesting getting on the floor for crunches. Mr. Curiousity will think I am playing!

Recipe Recommendation and Other Stuff

2006-01-04T18:06:00.000-05:00

Recipe for Crispy Szechuan Orange Beef with Broccoli from Recipezaar is a keeper. Admittedly, I mostly used it to get an idea about what to put together for the sauce and I tweaked it a bit, too, but the basic idea I'm keeping. Original recipe used some sugar in the sauce, and I substituted orange juice concentrate and added a shot of sriracha chili sauce. I also omitted the water chestnuts. I scaled it back to make two servings, too, so in addition to being dinner tonight, it will be lunch another day. Tomorrow will either be Szechuan Green String Beans or Ma Po Tofu. Note to self: having an appropriately sized pan to cook in makes a difference when it comes to stir-frying, apparently. I must not feel the need to fill the pan! That's a good thing.

Recipezaar is a current fave site, too. Search on about anything and they come up with recipes. I pulled a couple of interesting ones that I'll try later. One is for a chicken dish from DR Congo and the other is a spicy African peanut soup.

Going to go lift some weights and then vaccum. At least to get up the BIG hunks! On my "to do" list is sorting out the stuff on the table in the dining room and the accumulated debris around the table!

I am feeling very positive about how quickly certain habits have returned. We are putting all the candy in our office into the break room so that it doesn't end up on our behinds. This will take care of a problem area for me quite handily and it will make lots of co-workers quite happy. I am pleased that most of the time, I feel like cooking and eating healthy. Right now it's like I hear the voice saying "You're full". I am glad that I feel like doing stuff to keep me busy, too, even at home. It's a very good thing to want to add to moving around at work, and I am surrounded by people who have non-sedentary jobs that feel the same way. Very different from an office environment, where everyone is fired up until about St. Patrick's Day on the health/fitness front. Heck, we all hafta be able to buy our spring khakis at work now, and this is the time, in retail, where you take the downtime on the business side at this time of year to focus on getting things reorganized and cleaned up again. That dovetails very nicely with my life right now.
Which reminds me. I brought home my $1 organizer/calendar book, so I am going to start using it. I also got a perfectly good wall calendar for .99 at Big Lots yesterday when Dad and I stopped after dinner. It's not the fat, thick paper that they use for the $8.00+ calendars, but it is certainly good enough to hang on my kitchen wall. I will be looking at lighthouses this year.

A Day With Dogzilla

2006-01-03T20:08:00.000-05:00

No, this isn't Dogzilla, but it could be his sleepy twin! Dogzilla started checking to see if it was breakfast time at 2:45 a.m. today. Fortunately, he was quite content to be told "No, it's too early," and go back to sleep. He didn't even want the usual trip outside. He curled up in the recliner until 3:30 a.m., and then I put him in bed with me until about 4:45. We took a couple of nice walks around the yard today, too. I'm doing hand weights this evening in front of the TV when I get home. Dad and I are going to dinner around 3:30 (the joys of dining with a senior citizen! LOL), then I'll pack up and head home. I got his Christmas stuff put away and carved up the ham, which has been vaccum packaged and put in the freezer. Meals for the week will include Orange Beef with Broccoli and Ma Po Tofu. I am going to get my Yoga Zone tapes out, too. That will be a nice inclusion to my fitness routine, especially now that I have a space in the living room to do yoga again! Making a list of things I want to accomplish when I am off the weekend of Jan. 13/14. Time to tackle some early spring cleaning projects! Currently reading through a Prevention magazine book on diet and exercise that Dad has. I think I will just take it with me. I don't think he'll miss it. Recent favorite cookbook: Gordon Ramsey Makes It Simple. I want to own this book.

Day 2

2006-01-02T20:48:00.000-05:00

Ah, some much needed time off. Not that yesterday was that awful at work. Things are definitely starting to slow down, and we all need it. The seasonal hires are starting to disappear gradually and the "regulars" are all definitely ready for a quieter month or two after the hectic holiday season. Actually, most of us "regular" employees are well and truly tired of the general public! I know I am looking forward to using some vacation time this month.

Did laundry this morning before heading to Dad's for a couple days. Brought some leftovers for lunch and stopped at the store to get a couple things before I arrived. Once I got to Dad's, Dogzilla (real name "Costello", although I have never figured out if he was named after Lou or Elvis...he's a rescue beagle, so I'm betting on Lou for the comedy factor) wanted walking, of course. It was a little drizzly, but I took him on a tour of the housing development across the street. We also surveyed the yard and the shopping plaza today, so he is a happy little camper. He's in sleeping with Dad now. Probably going to get up at 4:30 tomorrow a.m., knowing him.

Tomorrow I am going to do some upper body weight exercises, in addition to walking the dog. Also plan to take down the Christmas stuff here at Dad's and stow it for another year. I'm sure to have a furry helper. I praised him for letting Baby Jesus remain in the nativity for yet another year. I am always sure that THIS will be the year the beagle can't resist consuming the little figure of the infant Jesus!

It's nice to feel back in control of food again. Not that it got completely outta hand over the holidays, but it's nice to want vegetables and fresh fruit and lean protein and whole grain products. I'm living out of my pantry for a few weeks. It will clean things off the shelves and out of the freezer, save a few pennies and should be pretty healthful at the same time. Except for those little holiday Twix bars. I'm only human, for God's sake.

Going to plan out some menus tomorrow. I want to try this for a few weeks to establish a routine. I think it will be important to my success this year at shedding pounds and keeping them off. For now, though, I am just killing time until "No Reservations" comes on the Travel Channel at 10.

It's a Beginning....

2006-01-01T10:53:00.000-05:00

The air feels different this morning. The sun is shining. It's a brand new year and it just feels like a weight has shifted somewhere in the cosmos. Welcome to 2006!

My house is a wreck. From LAST year, mind you. But this year, I am going to get things all straightened back around. I'm going to clear out all the junk mail, get the important stuff sorted out and filed, and have a spare room that is once again fit for company. My own personal "Clean Sweep".

I live a retail life. I like it. It's something I'm good at. I even like the general chaos and insanity of working for a mass-market discount retailer during the holidays. Now I'm ready for a little downtime to bounce back and recover.

A list of things I want to do this year, in no particular order:
1. Get addresses put on my computer.
2. Finish assembling a family cookbook.
3. Get the junk out of the spare room
4. Get the junk out of my closet. Again. For about the sixth time.
5. Reorganize my kitchen. Again.
6. Make the time to chat with my brother on a regular basis. Dad's not getting any younger, and when he is gone, Mark will be my family. I want that bond between us a bit stronger.
7. Get a haircut. I can't stand having it this long any more.
8. Go to the KD Mini Marathon. Friends are planning to run it, and even though I won't be ready to run it or walk it, I want to see my friends.
9. Yes, I walk a lot as a cashier supervisor every day, but I want to add to my fitness routine. I want to add weights and yoga, so I am going to get a calendar and establish a routine.
10. The recipe program I am using for the cookbook has a menu planner and a calendar. I am going to start using them.

That's all for now. I truly do feel that something has shifted for the coming year. I hope so. Last year just seemed so tumultuous for everyone.