gigerisgod

not really posting much lately. laziness? tired? or is my life that boring? 

answer: all the above. this is not necessarily a bad thing, nor am i bitching about it. but i am alive, even if i am quiet.

currently, i am writing some SG-1, a Continuum AU. it's one that's been around for a while, but at least i haven't tossed it. then again, i could be doing everyone a favor by tossing it, but i do enough of that.

am enjoying the Farscape comics. Just read Ongoing #3 (go here for a peek) www.tfaw.com/New-Last-Week/Profile/Farscape-Ongoing-3___355702 . I really like how Aeryn is illustrated in this one.

Also, since i'm on the subject of Farscape, can anyone tell me if the paperbacks are any good? here's one... www.amazon.com/Farscape-Ship-Ghosts-David-Bischoff/dp/076534002X .

off fandom and onto health. and no, i am not putting this behind a cut tag. i post so rarely it hardly matters.

deal with it.

i spent much of 2009 coping with some baffling symptoms. for some time i thought i was suffering with lyme's disease, but it turned out to be gluten intolerance. i was very lucky that one of my doctors (inadvertently) mentioned a gluten free diet before my health seriously declined.

i thought a gluten free diet was crazy. i've eaten wheat all my life and haven't been sick. WTF changed? i also thought giving up gluten was close to impossible because it's in everything. with that attitude, i didn't give the suggestion much consideration - at first. i had already tested negative for Celiac. btw, i still test negative for Celiac. Doctors don't tell you about  testing discrepancies, or the fact that you might not make enough of the antibodies they test specifically for. the docs also don't tell you much about Celiac disease's lesser demon, gluten intolerance. i learned about that from talking to people and reading everything i could find.

the past eight months have been an an enormous learning experience. i feel incredibly lucky that i can eliminate the problem through diet. there have been setbacks, but each one comes with new information and benefits. and like many other people, i also suffer with several food allergies, so food and diet has become center stage for me. there's drawbacks and inconveniences of course like mindless eating and eating out and PIZZA, oh, God, how i miss you! but it's worth it. the longer i maintain the diet, the easier it becomes and i feel better and better all the time. i used to eat whole wheat breads, carrots and roasted almonds regularly. this is a really bad idea for someone with gluten intolerance and allergies to carrots and tree nuts. it's amazing how diet and nutrition impacts our bodies. 

And regarding nutrition, here's the newest author/book i'm turned onto: www.foodandhealing.com/ i'm planning to read both Food  And Healing and The Whole Food Guide To Strong Bones.

so, i hear the Superbowl is this Sunday. me, i couldn't give a fuck.

incidentally, i could care less about sports as a whole. (X-Games are the exception! i can watch boyz jump motorcycles all damned day and still find it hard to tear myself away. bless their adorable, crazy asses.)

but i used to look forward to the Superbowl. it was an excuse to get together with friends and drink and eat ourselves silly.

now, just because i won't be drinking myself into sports-induced stupor this Sunday doesn't mean i'm a thoughtless whore. (well, i am, but there's always room for improvement.)

for those where food allergies are a consideration this Superbowl Sunday, i give you the perfect fare: chicken wings. check this vid out from Renegade Kitchen:  www.youtube.com/watch . this guy's the Denise Austin of the food allergy kitchen, sort of, as in perky. but he's cute, isn't he?

talk of putzing around the kitchen, so i'll mention that mine is in the midst of a mini-makeover. thanks to my generous grandmother, i was able to purchase a new oven. my old one was well, really old, and a fire hazard. we got a deal for the oven plus a matching micro-hood. my microwave currently functions fine, but it's a hand-me-down that's over 13 years old. gotta watch that number 13. my birthday falls on 13, so you understand.

cooking with a new oven that heats evenly with a bunch of bells and whistles that i thought i'd never own makes me tremendously happy each night. the husband is in the process of tearing apart a partition wall (aesthetic design, functionless) to install the microhood. much support is needed, plus there's a piece of trim molding that has to be mounted above. i'm so glad he does this shit. a stainless steel backsplash is being mounted, too. the old one was a stained piece of yellow-ish sanatist. nasty.

we purchased three new cabinets for the empty wall. we've talked about this for the last thirteen years, but money's always tough to come by and it usually is reserved for the kids or a pricey car repair. it was worth the wait. the cabinets give us some storage and they look awesome. 

next up is some affordable open kitchen shelving. one night E asked me how many cookbooks i had to shelve. we weighed them because the shelves we were considering were rated to eighty pounds. my cookbooks come in somewhere just over sixty pounds. and i'm sure i'm leaving one or two out somewhere. i can't wait to see them up, not piled in the corner and scattered all over the house.

my boyz are good, though the oldest was sick again last week. happens alot when the kid's tonsils are large. but a bad tooth was the problem. he had an abcess that was treated with antibiotics, but it still made him physically ill for a while. he improved as soon as the tooth was extracted.

the little one turns five in a few weeks. (the oldest turns ten this summer - yikes!) i have to throw together a pirate birthday party lickety-split. i'll be entertaining ten-to-twelve kids from ages 3-9 in my modest-sized house for the event. parents take up space and eat, too. i'm thinking pizza and cupcake decorating. i've got a wooden treasure chest craft for them to do and my sister suggested a dig for buried treasure. that means lots of playsand, so the cement basement floor is perfect for that. my husband is an enormous child, so he's fixated on the sword idea. we came across paper ones that we can glue to cardboard backings, paint and decorate. i suck at coordinating, especially sugared up mini-humans. iz scared.

made a huge pot of chicken soup two days ago, and yeah it was delicious. i've been eating mostly soup since then. call it a craving. i need to go shopping tomorrow to get re-stock, especially need some eggs and berries. i eat alot of fruits and veggies and when i don't have them i begin to jones.

husband's knee is healing nicely. his pain tolerance is a little frightening. me. i'm a fuckin baby.

and you have to love a man who offers choices. today's was, "So, you wanna hang cabinets first or have sex?"

i was lucky enough to lose the kids for a two-hour playdate earlier today.

cake or death. like sex or cabinets. wanna guess which one i chose?

we had a good laugh over my Hitachi.

and since i'm on the subject of sex, there is nothing, and i mean NOTHING like watching Derrek Diamond get off. that's a truly beautiful thing. as far as i'm concerned, you could get rid of all the porn on the planet. just leave me anything with that dude and i could die happy.

i'm a little preoccupied. can you tell?

attended a driving safety class/seminar with the husband today offered by his company. the things i do for a lousy 5% discount on car insurance and alone time. we kind-of took turns oogling each other when i wasn't freezing my ass off in the shop most of the morning and afternoon. the continued cold prompted a headache. ick. but i brought meds.

split and made a quick stop @ Target to supplement my heinous wardrobe. i lost weight recently and the clothes that used to fit kinda fall off now. also, TPTB @ the office have decided to tighten the dress policy. i received the talking to for khaki's on a not-Friday. bitchwads.

my husband makes an awesome shopper's helper. i'm as shocked as the rest of you, but the man knows what i like and what looks nice on me. he so rocks.

hung out with the family, including my in-laws. they are nearly finished with home inspection. provided all goes well, they will be coming home this year - YES!

had a couple of boys over for a play date. only one head injury. my kid, so no biggie. Bill is doing fine. another big brother door slamming meets head. *sigh*

got period. hurray, not pregnant. bullet dodged. oh, wait. cramps. fuck. get over it.

watched Robin Hood with Uma Thurman. has everybody in Hollywood done a Robin Hood film?

also watched a great film featuring about Chess Records, Chuck Berry, Etta James (Beyonce), Muddy Waters & the Wolf. loved it, but anyone know the name of this movie?

my friend is getting on the subway tomorrow in his underwear. told him i want photos. here's what it's all about: improveverywhere.com/

happy birthday wishes to synecdochic ! hope it's the start to a beautiful year for you.

starting the new year off with a virus. sucks, eh. just hoping we're all clear of it by the time family comes from out of town Thursday night. i don't want to get them sick.

i had all these really cool, positive things i wanted to post, but i'm feeling kind-of blah right now. i'd make myself sick if i thought it would make me feel better, but i'm afraid it will just set up some sort of chain reaction. maybe i'll just wait that idea out for a while. 

damn it's arctic cold outside. brrrrrrrrr. my best friends are penguins and polar bears.

whoa.

found ShitMyDadSays through a friend on Facebook and i'm telling you. i could not stop fucking laughing. to tears.

it's like talking to my dad after a pitcher of Manhattans, only without the grenades and the semi-automatic weapons.

funny. funny shit. humorous use of the words shit, fucked, and euphemisms for getting fucked.

i gotz my card and it was such an awesome surprise. thank you for thinking of me *squishing you*

recently, i was caught in the grips of a terrible whim. madness, really. it blindsided me. came out of nowhere, just hit me one day like a brick in the head.

'til now i've been against it in the biggest way. it hasn't even been a topic up for discussion in this house.

but the other day i was sitting in the kitchen and realized. i want a dog.

a dog. hmmm.

where the fuck that came from, i have absolutely no clue. but it's been on my mind for a few weeks now. i even started looking around, scanning for good breeds and rescues to adopt from. my husband laughed about it. he wants one, but he doesn't push for it because he knows i'll be the one doing most of the work. i'm just home more than he is. i even went to my allergist and had him do an environmental panel to rule out dog dander - which it did, although he didn't test me for dog saliva (there's a difference? isn't that essentially what dander is, dried saliva on the animal's coat and skin?) allergies confuse me. 

they're also my foremost reservation about adopting a dog. i intend to double-check the boys for dog allergies before i think any further on it.

we already suffer from kitty. my allergist still asks me, "Get rid of the cat yet?" but i can't get rid of her. who's going to take a cat over 13? and a new home could be traumatic for her. no, she's ours until the end. we just get by with hepa filters and the occasional drug or two.

the next hurdle to dog ownership is the fact that i work and i'm gone for a good deal of the time. i can't afford to pay anyone to come in and walk him.

which brings me to the money aspect. we're struggling to make ends meet as it is. and i have a husband with a torn rotator cuff and torn cartilage in his left knee. we may be looking at disability time and reduced pay to start the new year off. my poor E. i don't think i could afford another animal right now.

so the dream of a puppy under the tree for the boys is trashed - for this year. but maybe next year things will look a little different. it'll give me plenty of time to research a good fit for the family. newfoundland looks like a great breed. so big and shaggy and sweet.  and maybe the cat won't cough up a lung over it. actually, i'm sure she's going to piss herself if i bring a dog into this house, but in the end maybe they'll be friends. that would be nice.

i'm a Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen junkie so yesterday i decided on their Herbed Roast Turkey from my online recipes. i already had the dang thing in the oven when the husband mentioned Richard Kimball was hosting ATK featuring you-guessed it. i think they did the fried turkey last year, but i might have that one wrong. anyway, the herb rub turned out quite good, enough to do it again. i have leftovers, sweet!

i also made their roast sweet potatoes with a spiced brown sugar glaze, ummmm. i cooked all the usual favorites. seems like the more big dinners and parties i manage, the better i get at it. i stayed on top of the pots and pans and dishes so by evening i wasn't overwhelmed at all, which is a lifesaver when you have no counterspace.

the plan was to cook for my little brood, myself, the husband and the boys, then swing over to my folks and visit with them over desert. that way i see everybody, but the chaos is in a smaller, more convenient package - the sort that doesn't drone on all fucking day, killing you slowly. family is best tolerated in small doses. and of course my grandmother was there so.   

but surprise! husband went out to the store for a few things and i get a phone call to the tune of, "How do you feel about having company for dinner?" my thought was, who did he run into now? turns out good friends of ours had no plans for the afternoon and were going to spend Thanksgiving alone. his parents were in D.C. and i think her family celebrated the holiday last week, though i can't remember why.

my turkey was 20 lbs. and i cook a big meal, so there was no question about having enough food. and i was so organized - yes, i know, this baffles even me - that i was more or less done by 3 pm. there was a last-minute scrabble b/c the house was not the way i like it for company. that was part of the appeal of staying home, you know?

but of course i told him to have them come and it went over very nicely. she even brought some gluten free cookies for me, bless her heart. we had a really good time and my boyz had fun with their little girl, Skye - she's smart as a whip and scary as hell at the wee age of three. Skye also loves me, so i tend to dote on her a bit, me not having a girl around and all.

i did get the guilt trip from my mother over the tele and she intends to bust the husband's hump over it later today. to make up for missing out yesterday, we're going over for brunch later this morning. somebody help me. at least daddy won't be rolling grenades at me. i don't have to worry about grenades until cocktails are served.

the good news:

my cam_trope story is progressing nicely, i.e. i don't hate my own story. even got some decent feedback on it - thank you kaz! i'm actually kind of digging it. just trying to round out the ending.

the bad news:

feel awful. felt awful all weekend. terrible nausea, bloated, tenderness, very tired. lack of interest in anything. which means i accomplished diddly. it's depressing. i lose interest in food. i do eat, because i know i need to, but it's not eating the way i should and i'm fairly certain that will only exacerbate my symptoms. it seems like i experience periods of wellness then not-so-much wellness.

i really don't like what this suggests.have this feeling my health problems might be a two-pronged deal. fuckery.

but, on the bright side i fit in blouses and skirts i haven't been able to wear before. that's good, right?

jeeze, i just want to throw up right now but i've always had a high tolerance for vomiting. blah. this does not make me want to cook for turkey day. meesh.