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Showing posts from December, 2004

HOLY FRIGGIN' WOW BATMAN!!!!!!

Well, back from the sleep clinic and got the stuff out of my hair. Hubby and I both got in the same time, so things got set up fast as the tech could talk to us both together while she was getting one or the other hooked up. Got some more details on what my results were, I'd only talked to my nurse over the phone when she'd called to say there was apenea and sleep problems and I needed to get titrated. I'd canceled my appointment with the doc I had the next week to focus on getting into the clinic so I'd not gotten full details (figured I'd do that after everything else). So, the lowdown is I have mild sleep apnea, I'd only stop breathing 4-5 times an hour. What I have severely is not being able to breath effeciently once I got to sleep. I'd start breathing rapidly to try and get enough oxygen. Now I've been a shallow breather for years, even more so after I developed plueresy when I was in high school and refused to go to the doctor. Took years for

A few hours to go

and I really, really want a nap. Stopped doing coffee before noon and have only been doing Tazo Wild Sweet Orange tea since. Been puttering around the house between surfing blogs, got the laundry folded and put away, our overnight bag is packed: pillows, sleep clothes, books to while away the evening, clean undies for tomorrow morning and a bandana to put on in the morning until I can get home to wash the gook they use to attatch the electrodes out of my hair. Ran the vacuum around the living room and down the hall, still have a few dishes to do, the bed is made and I'll be coming home to a clean house in the morning. Just have to make sure the kitties don't get out when we leave, it has been getting pretty cold at night. Hubby's replacement cell phone arrived today. He'd dropped his in a glass of orange juice and juice and cells are a definate no mix. We are very impressed with TracPhone. He'd called them to see if they had any hints of how to fix it, they kept t

Well, considering I didn't get back to bed until after 2:30 am

I'm feeling pretty decent at the moment. Had a heck of a time getting up, but I finally did. I don't suppose the half a pot of coffee has anything to do with feeling so good :D I know I'm going to be wanting a nap later, but since I'm going to have to try and fall asleep at the clinic again tonight, this time not only wired up, but with a CPAP mask strapped to my face, that would not be a good idea. Luckily I've got leftovers to make supper with, so I won't need to have the energy to come up with a set dinner. So, I now have a load of laundry in the wash, all the stuff I do in cold only (except for the two red sweaters, one of them decided to bleed last time and the two white sweaters I had are now pink. I don't mind pink, I love pink, but I did like having WHITE sweaters. Oh well, they were hand me downs anyways, so I at least didn't pay for white sweaters). I'll toss the two red sweaters in seperately after this load. Under FlyLady I usually only

I KNEW taking that book to bed was a bad idea!

It is now almost 1am and I am wide awake. I am not the kind of person who can fall asleep while reading, even as exhausted as I am, esp when I am reading a favortie book. I've been re-reading the David Eddings Belgariad series and even tho I know what is going to happen, I can't put the books down, unless it is something like I have to go back to my desk at work. Reading in bed, it is impossible to put down. So I finished the Queen of Sorcery tonight and had to fight the urge to get the next book. So now I am up, sitting at the computer getting ready to surf BE again and waiting for my spaghetti to cook (not only did I not fall asleep while reading I got this intense craving for spaghetti and cheese SIGH!!!!!). I also now have a kitten who is insisting on sitting where it is making it very hard to type :P Os please ecuse any mys-typing I may not get corrected. So, earlier today we wandered out to the mall, hubby needed to go to Rad Shack for advice on getting the entertainment

AHHHHHHHHHHHH

Now this is the way to spend a Monday. Slept in, surfed BE and won 100 mystery credits, made messy omlet with roast beef and sharp chedder cheese with toast and butter, mochas and the TV set to the Great American Country channel and listening to Brad Paisley. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Recipes

Blueberry Muffins: 1 egg 1/2 cup milk 1/4 cup oil 1 1/2 cups flour, sifted 1/2 cup sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup blueberries Beat egg slightly and stir in milk and oil. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and add to wet ingredients. Stir until the flour is moistened. Batter should be lumpy. Add blueberries and fold in. Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees F. Makes 12 muffins. Yorkshire Pudding: 1 1/2 cups sifted flour 2 tsp salt 2 cups milk (or 1 cup milk and 1 cup water) 3 rggs fat drippings or butter Sift flour and salt together. Beat in 1 cup milk, drop in 3 eggs and beat well. Add other cup of milk and beat well. The more you beat, the better. You can do this well in advance and let sit, beating occasionally, use wooden spoon, not a mixer. Heat oven to 400 degrees, add a bit of butter or meat dripings to cups of muffin tins. When fat is bubbling hot, fill tins with mixture to 1/2 to 2/3 full and bake for 15-

Happy Day after Christmas everyone!

Hope everyones day went well. We had a very nice quiet day. Crawled off to bed about 10:30 pm on Christmas Eve, we were so tired, slept in and got up to no snow :( Still haven't got any, it is sunny and warm out this morning! I want my snow "HEY TEXAS! SEND MY SNOW BACK YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!!!!!!" LOL So got up and listened to the Today show, then fried up some bacon and made homemade blueberry muffins. Opened the prezzies from my mom and aunt, finished watching Deathtrap , which we'd started the night before, but got too tired to finsih. We didn't find anymore garland at Shopko, but I did get a rubbermaid wrapping paper container. Also scored the DVD of the 1951 Alistair Sim Scrooge AKA "A Christmas Carol", my very favorite version of the adaptations. So we watched that Christmas Eve with a glass of homemade egg nog. The DVD contains the original black and white version and the colorozed version. We checked out the colorized one for a bit, technica

Merry Christmas Eve morning!

Getting ready to wander over to Pullman and hit Shopko. We decided I REALLY need a container for my wrapping paper, so we'll see what we can find there. Not too mention see if I can score more decorations hehehehehe, I need more, more, MORE BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I do need some silver garlad. I got some pretty gold and burgandy garland at Wally World last night and some pretty green, but I do need more silver. The only silver I have is mixed into a rainbow garland. I've gotten the living room mostly straightened up, got the boxes put in the other room, so it is looking less cluttered. Going to do a double batch of egg nog today, see about inviting the neighbors over later for nog. Well, time to putter on out. Will blog later and definately get the pics of the tree posted

A fun timewaster

Yetisports guaranteed to occupy those boring hours at work :D

Soon!!!!!

A few more hours and I get to have a week off!!!!!!! It's now looking like we'll have some white for Christmas it snowed a bit this morning, a fine dusting, but it is going to stay below freezing so it should stick around. They are predicting some more late Saturday. So fingers crossed that we'll get lots more. On the tree front, it is coming along. We are going to hit Wally World tonight to pick up some garland. Hubby doesn't think we have enough sparkly decorations (him Grinch LOL. He's the one who says the Grinch and Scrooge wimp out every year) so we need to get more. I put another string of lights on the tree last night, colored ones. I'm thinking maybe another tonight, I've got plenty :D Nicky is being a very good kitty, he really hasn't been bothering the tree much. Still going to leave the tinsil off this year, just in case it is too much of a temptation for him. I have some pics of the tree, but photoshop is being cranky at the moment, so have

Got my tree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A co-worker mentioned yesterday that the boy scouts up in Potlatch were selling trees for $7 each. We'd been looking around town and the cheapest we could find were $15 and they didn't have any of the $15 ones left (at least on Sunday). So she called up to Potlatch for me (she knows the people who own the coffee stop next to the lot) to see if they still had trees and what time they were open. Now, here is why I love living where I live in Idaho and don't want to move. The lot was closing at 5. I don't get off work until 6 and it would be after 6:30 by the time we got to Potlatch. The lady at the coffee stop said to come on up, get a tree and just slide the check or money in an envelop under the door of the coffee stop. Or else send it up with my co-worker's husband. Now, you WON'T find that happening in the big cities anywheres. So up we went, found the lot and picked out a tree by flashlight. It is a beautiful tree, a fir and definately not the kind normally

Got the presents wrapped....

and packed for shipping and I can't find my mom's address to save my life. So I have a call into her cell to have her call me back. Last time I tried calling her landline, it didn't go thru, so either we have the wrong phone number or I am remembering correctly that she had it disconnected in favor of the cell. If she doesn't call soon, the package won't get shipped until Monday. It is only going over to Vancouver WA, but I would like her and my aunt to have it before they go to Victoria for the 25th. In the meantime, I probably should work on straightening the house up before heading out to the Yule celebration tonight. We are taking out favorite divination tools (in my case a tarot deck called the Witch's Tarot) and we are having a teaching circle before the non-coven folk arrive. Should be fin, tho I haven't worked with my deck in quite a while and it is a wee bit pissed off at me LOL Hubby traded services for hardware with a client. He fixed their c

YUMMMY!!!!!

CLASSIC COOKED EGG NOG (1 1/2 quarts or 12 (1/2-cup) servings) * 6 eggs * 1/4 cup sugar * 1/4 teaspoon salt, optional * 1 quart milk* divided * 1 teaspoon vanilla, * Garnishes or Stir-Ins, optional In large saucepan, beat together eggs, sugar and salt, if desired. Stir in 2 cups of the milk. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat a metal spoon with a thin film and reaches at least 160°F. Remove from heat. Stir in remaining 2 cups milk and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, several hours or overnight. Just before serving, pour into bowl or pitcher. Garnish or add stir-ins, if desired. Serve immediately. (note: resist the urge to turn the heat up a bit to get it to heat up the last 10 degrees faster. I ended up using a stick blender to smooth out the lumps!)

Friday at last!!!!

Finally heard from my doctors office about the results of my sleep test. I do have apnea and the doc wants me back in to be titrated to find out the correct pressure the CPAP I will be getting will be set to. So hubby called for me and we are waiting back for the appointment. So hopefully soon I will be getting a good nights sleep and I can stop feeling so crappy and exhausted all the time. I can tell you one thing, it is playing HECK with my love life :) In other news, the snickerdoodles came out well, I did the whole double batch so I don't have to deal with baking tomorrow. I do know I want a Kitchenaid stand mixer if I'm going to do anymore baking. I hate the mixing the dough part. The hunt for the tree is going to be more difficult. We usually get our tree from the St Mary's School lot, but they sold out already and closed up shop a couple of days ago. We may be going out the 24th to cut one down in the woods if we can buy one in town for a decent price. The Forest Ci

Something for the kitty lovers out there

Kitty cat tree decorating 101 I gotta say, that is one STRONG artificial tree

Okay!

4 sticks of butter warming up on the counter, chicken for my dinner defrosting in the microwave, pot with kosher salt, water and peppercorns heating up on the stove and hubby is off working on a clients computer. Looks like I am all set for the evening. Since we are doing Yule on Sat I decided to make a double batch of snickerdoodles, tho I may only bake part of them tonight and hold off on baking the rest until Saturday. Will see how I am doing later. In a few minutes I will be watching the SciFi miniseries Legend of Earthsea . I've been hearing bad things about it and from what little I have seen in the commericals it IS bad. Casting all wrong, charactors who never existed are invented and they have fucked up the storylines of the 1st 2 books of the original trilogy by Ursula LeGuin completely by coimbining the 1st two books and then screwing the plots of them royally. I figure I should watch it so I trash it legitimately. I loved the books as a kid, I loved them as a young adu

Anyone have a suit of armour I can buy?

hehehehe, the way I have been trying to injure myself in the kitchen I am in serious need of armour :D Last night alone I attempted to burn myself with the polenta (that stuff SPITS when it starts to boil! I didn't get teh heat turned down fast enough), actually I didn't attempt, I DID burn myself with it. OUCH!!!! Then I opened the cupboard door and proceeded to hit myself in the head with it :( I'm afraid to pick up a knife for fear of losing fingers LOL Oh well, after all the times I've hurt myself in the kitchen I haven't killed myself yet so it should be okay. Tomorrow is the staff christmas party, so tonight I am going to bake snickerdoodles. I also need to get those pork loins into a brine and into the freezer real soon. Been listening to holiday tunes today. Finally got a station online to stay stable. I find radio stations to listen to over the net using Radio-locator . You can search for stations according to format, country or call signs. They have a c

A Cat Lover's Christmas Carol

A Cat Lover's Christmas Carol On the first day of Christmas when I brought home my tree My 12 cats were laughing at me On the second day of Christmas I saw beneath my tree 2 mangled garlands and my 12 cats laughing at me On the third day of Christmas I saw beneath my tree 3 missing Wise Men 2 mangled garlands and my 12 cats laughing at me On the fourth day of Christmas I saw beneath my tree 4 males a-spraying 3 missing Wise Men 2 mangled garlands and my 12 cats laughing at me On the fifth day of Christmas I saw beneath my tree 5 shredded gifts 4 males a-spraying 3 missing Wise Men 2 mangled garlands and my 12 cats laughing at me On the sixth day of Christmas I saw beneath my tree 6 fallen angels 5 shredded gifts 4 males a-spraying 3 missing Wise Men 2 mangled garlands and my 12 cats laughing at me On the seventh day of Christmas I saw beneath my tree 7 half-dead rodents 6 fallen angels 5 shredded gifts 4 males a-spraying 3 missing Wise Men 2

WEEHAAWWW!!!!!

How to make a JeanC Ingredients: 5 parts friendliness 5 parts humour 3 parts joy Method: Stir together in a glass tumbler with a salted rim. Add a little wisdom if desired! Username: Personality cocktail From Go-Quiz.com

Holiday advice to live by

Holiday advice to live by... 1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls. 2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-malt scotch, it's rare. In fact, it's even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-aholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas! 3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat. 4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it&

Well, it's official

The holiday season has begun LOL. My hubby can rest at ease, I've started decorating the living room. Now, trying to put up lights and garland with a rambunctious kitten is making it really interesting :P Now I need to find a tree stand and a tree. He doesn't do holidays (but we get him prezzies anyways) and he promised when we got married I would always have a Yule tree. He may not like holidays, but he does like the trees and the lights and the sparklies just as much as I do. He had a rough time of it growing up, his mom always doted on his younger siblings and they got everything. It also didn't help that his birthday is Dec 21, so he never got to have his brithday and christmas as seperate celebrations. I'm doing my best to make it up for him. The trip to Costco was a success, got three bags of chicken thighs, a big package of pork loins I still have to brine, 2 big bags of sweet corn and some other lodds and sods. My freezer is pretty well stocked now and I don

A quick post

Off to Costco!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frivil

Got too tired, will just have to buy the kids the really good cookies at the store tomorrow.

YAY!!!!!

Christmas is happening this year! Hubby talked with the loan officer at the credit union and she's going to refinance our loans, so we can pay a few things off. This means I will have some funds to get prezzies for my aunt, mom, brother and his wife. The problem with being a member of the working poor and having ALL the bills and taxes come due in Dec, things get really, really, really tight. Last year I didn't get anyting for anyone and I was depressed, esp since my mom and aunt sent us stuff. So not only can I do prezzies for them, we can get Nicky edited, the pistols out of hock, do a BIG grocery shop at Costco AND pay the damned property taxes and garbage bill (we could be paynng that monthly, but hubby has a feud going with the sanitation dept and resfuses to pay up until we absolutely have to, as in it gets attached to our property tax bill) and then have enough left over to pay off a few other things. Looks like this years christmas isn't going to be so blue YAY!!!!

Monday again

Well, survived the sleep clinic. If they got enough results I will be surprised, I don't think I got that much sleep. More about that in a little bit. The formal dinner went well, we even got it going 1/2 early, which worked out very well for me as we were done by a little after 8. We started off with stuffed mushrooms, hazelnut stuffed ones for those of us who have seafood allergies. Then we had Orange you glad it's Thanksgiving soup (a Rachel Ray recipe) that was kicked up a notch with ginger. Followed by Stuffed Puff Pastry with either Salmon Avocado or Chicken Avocado, then a sorbet of mixed berrys picked this summer. Main course was Duck or Salmon, with stirfried snow peas and onions with my aforementioned (see previos posts) polenta and gogonzola cheese. That was followed by a salad and then dessert, fruit, nuts, cheeses and Nanaimo bars. All and all YUMMY! So then it was off to the hospital and the sleep clinic. Got settled in and watched some videos they show while

Movie recommendation

Just finished Holes . I really enjoyed it, tho hubby wandered off half way thru it. It isn't his kind of movie. It IS mine however and I will admit I cried at the end (okay, I burst into tears at Hallmark commercials, but crying at the end of this movie was legit). I haven't read the book, so don't know how the movie differs from it, but I usually avoid comparing movie adaptations to the origianl source material as there are somethings that you can't really transfer to the screen. I will probably pick up the book sometime tho.

Blergh!

Well, it is Sat morning and the expected snow storm seems to have fizzeled before it even got here, tho we did have a major wind blow thru last night and finally died down in the wee hours of the morning (tho sometime after 4am, it was still blowing then). Since we live in a mobile home, we can feel every wind gust that comes thru. Instead of sleeping in, I have been up since 7am, I was going to roll over and go back to sleep, but then figured that would not be a good idea if I am going to the sleep clinic tonight. Made the polenta last night, I have 2 loaf pans full in the fridge. I'll slice them and top them with gorgonzola and bake them to heat them up and melt the cheese. Well, time to curl up around my coffee, I'm really going to need it this morning.

HOORAY!!!!

2nd night in a row I don't have to cook dinner (yes I know, hubby could come up with something, but all we have is turkey and chicken and I'm a bit turkey'd and chicken'd out). Last night we did Papa Murphey's and tonight is the chinese buffet. The Dog is in town and that is where we usually go for dinner when he is here (Dog is short for Mad Dog, a nickname he picked up years and years ago). I'm still friggin' tired, tho after the carbo load last night I did get a slightly better nights sleep (gotta love those stuffed pizzas :D ). Managed to get a few dishes done, I haven't done any for a couple of days. I figured if I can't do them all in one swell foop, I can at least see how many I can get done in 5 minutes (a variation on FlyLady's "you can do anything in 15 minutes", she says if you can't do 15, try 5. Works for me ). Looks like we may be changing the venue for the feast this Sat. Weather is predicting up to a foot of snow and

Oh Goddess I am SOOO TIRED

Ever been so tired and exhausted it hurts? That is where I am now. This is so damned annoying it isn't funny. I want to sleep, I want to not wake up in the moring more exhausted then when I went to bed, I want to not be braindead with the attention span of a gnat. I'm now thinking that taking the Sat appointment at the clinic was not a good idea, I could have done the test tonight, but I wanted to have Sunday to scrub the electrode sticky out of my hair (I remember when hubby had his, the stuff is a bitch to get out) and get some sleep if I can't get any Sat night. I hope I live long enough to get to the clinic Sat, at this rate I'll be a complete zombie and I still have to cook my part of the big sitdown dinner the coven is having earlier Sat night. I'm doing polenta with gorgonzola cheese, so it should be pretty yummy. I am thinking of doing it early so I can put it in the fridge to firm up and then slice it and top it with the cheese and bake it to melt the ch