This blogger is unavailable for the next little while (possibly until 2011....). Please see her Twitter page for updates, because incomplete sentences is about all she can manage right now. Grad school is kicking her ass.

ciao!

PS If you really love this blogger and want updates on her but are not a Twitter-er, that page has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to :D

I'm not dead!!!!

Ooooh, boy it’s been a while, hasn’t it. So sorry I’ve dropped off the face of the earth. School ramped it up into high gear from January to end of May. I took 23 credit hours spring semester, and something like 20 Maymester (that would be 3 weeks…). Yeah. Not fun. On top of that, we’ve had a crazy first half of the year, with the house (literally) falling apart (our 3-year-old house’s gutter fell off!!! SPLAT!!) , 3.5 months of looking for a car for me (pictures here), deaths, sicknesses, and weddings on both sides of the family, and me being quite sick for most of the semester.

That started with a very bad kidney infection, bladder infection, sinus infection, bacterial vaginosis, and a yeast infection, and then progressed to diarrhea, positional dizziness, and extreme (like really extreme) fatigue. I was diagnosed with orthostatic hypotension, which means that my blood pressure drops like a rock when I go from lying to sitting, or from sitting to standing, and was put on a high salt diet. I also had (and still have) bizarre bone pain, both in the joints and in the long bones and intestinal pain, and unexplained weight loss (I lost like 15 pounds total, which is a lot for someone my size. I’ve since gained it all back, but still). I’ve had all sorts of blood tests, fecal samples, diagnostic imaging (small bowel series – where you swallow barium and x-rays are taken of it going through your GI tract; ultrasound of pancreas, liver, gall bladder, stomach, and kidneys; and endoscopy and colonoscopy). They thought at first that it was Crohn’s, which can have all of these symptoms, then RA (rheumatoid arthritis) which is also autoimmune and can have all these symptoms, though the GI stuff is more uncommon, and lastly, when every single test came back negative, it was chalked up to my Irritable Bowel Syndrome freaking out from when I got sick in the first place.

SO. That means that I had to start all over figuring out what was causing all the irritation. I originally cut out all dairy and anything whole wheat or whole grain, because that’s what I ate the most of and also are the most irritating to the GI tract. Surprisingly, that helped both the GI stuff and the bone issues, but did not make them go away completely. After tinkering, I believe that my biggest problem is too much animal fat or animal protein and whole grain/whole wheat. I’ve switched to a mostly vegetarian diet and I’ve cut out brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat breads, whole grains, and (bulgur and wheat berries mostly). I’ve slowly added skim milk and oatmeal to my diet, and hopefully can get regular servings of yogurt back in. I’d like to occasionally have cheesy stuff and whole wheat bread or pasta. I’ve successfully eaten pearl barley, which isn’t considered whole grain, and I’d like to eat quinoa and other whole grains every once in a while. Most of the meat I do eat is fish (mainly wild salmon) and shrimp, which I feel is less irritating to my body at this time. When I eat badly, I get a lot of stomach pains, and my joint pain is actually worse.

Also, exercising helps. Too bad I’m still pretty darn exhausted all the time, though it’s (very) slowly getting better. I’m trying to get back into exercising because I have become extremely weak from not moving around very much, which is very bad for my profession.

School News: School’s done til mid-late August. Right now I’m in a full time 8-week clinical internship, which is both amazing and extraordinarily stressful. I’m only 3 days in, but I’ve learned and done SO MUCH I can’t believe it! Also, despite me getting sick, I made all A’s both spring semester and Maymester. Go me!!! That earned me expensive restaurant trips :D

Foodie News: Mostly I’ve been too tired to cook anything fancy, but I have been trying to eat more vegetables. One of my meals is always rice and legumes in some format. I’ve become addicted to Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food (damn you TP girl!!) and I recently bought a new cookbook, Mark Bittman’s The Best Recipes In the World, and I am madly in love with both. Fast, fresh, interesting recipes that can easily be adapted into one-dish meals. I also recently made Mark Bittman’s no-knead bread (actual recipe that I used here).

Knitting News: Haven’t really been knitting very much. Still knitting that plain Jane sock, but it’s long, because how ever many yards that ball had is pretty much going to make me knee socks, I believe. Faux-cable-y socks are on hold because I have to do a short-row heel and I have to pretty much only do that, and, well, I haven’t had time to do that since before Christmas. Thermal sweater is hibernating, and I’m debating frogging the 4 inches of sleeve that I have, and eventually casting on for the body, because there are no increases/decreases for a long time, so it can be rather mindless (also, I’d really like someone to tell me how to increase stitches in the sleeves in pattern the way Laura wants it because it’s way too hard for me to figure out…). Fingerless gloves are like 30 minutes away from being done (I dropped a stitch on the last finger on the last freaking row and it laddered down, so I have to pick it back up and then cast off, then weave in the ends for that glove), and I think that’s all I have on the needles. I bought some Noro Kureyon Sock (pictures here which I’m planning on using next for my first two-at-a-time Magic Loop socks (using the new Knitpicks Harmony Wood Needles (you’ll have to look that one up yourself)), and also some Claudia Handpainted fingering yarn, which is for some other pair of socks that I haven’t figured out yet.

Random News: I got a Twitter Account (here) and I am ADDICTED. Add me if you’re on it, and if you’re not, get an account. Major love! Better than Facebook!!

Goals This Summer:
1) Blog more!! (and get on a schedule)
2) Get on a cleaning schedule
3) Exercise more, regularly, and learn to enjoy it
4) Knit more
5) Learn as much as I can about my profession

I might have less to talk about in this blog about cooking and knitting, and more about life in general, but since most people who read this really know me, I figure that’s a-ok!

Alright, I’m done for the night. Bye y’all!

Observation

You know it's time to clean when you give yourself a paper cut on the toe because there's too much paper on the floor!

Oh my goodness. Too funny:
Instructions for Baby

(as seen on my new absolute favorite blogger, Dooce.)

I love the poor baby's expressions on the "NO!" parts. My favorite is the "Bonding with Baby."

Have a good weekend, everyone!!

Aaaaarrrrggghhh!

I'm still here, I promise!! I have 4 midterms and 1 final in the next 9 school days (plus I believe there are two projects that are due then and one BIG project that I have due in April, but I have GOALS, people!). Sooooo, I'm a teeny bit busy.

Good news: I have a new camera! It's so purty. I believe I've drooled all over it.

Bad news: My pissy, constantly PMSing teenager computer (aka, one of the first computers that had Vista) needs to have a .... personality change, let's say .... and thus, what's the point of loading new software for the camera when I will have to reload it in less than a week. Plus, did you see the beginning of the posts where I have 5 tests in 9 school days? Yeah, not much time to learn new software.

I am learning the camera, though. I read it's manual in the 5 minutes in between when I'm ready for bed and when the M is ready for bed (it's currently replaces my silly fantasy series that I'm reading -- my version of smut). This little camera is soo freaking cool! Love!

In other news, my Grandpa is getting married this weekend. Yes, he is about 75 years old. Yes, I do think it's absolutely adorable. We're going down to south Georgia to watch him and Ms. Shirley (as opposed to him marrying my Aunt Shirley, that'd be a little weird, wouldn't you think? Besides, I think my Uncle Olan would have a small problem with that) (and yes, they really do name people that in the South. I also have an uncle named Clyde. Yep, both those names are on their birth certificates). Should be about 4 hours of fun bracketed by about 6.5 hours of complete and utter TORTURE where I'll have to study in the car (which I HATE). Hopefully, I can convince the M that I study better in the car when I'm knitting on my pretty sock...

Ummm, no cooking news for a while because I completely overestimated the amount of food that we'd need and I haven't cooked in, oh, about a week and a half, and we're STILL in no danger of running out of food...

Okay, that's all for now. Hope your week is better and less stressful than mine (you know your life is stressful when you have to put on your to-do list "shower!!!!!" because if you don't, you won't shower, and then you'll be all stinky...).

2 Things

1) I'm going to Knitch today! I have a gift certificate from Christmas and I get to GO to a REAL yarn store and SEE yarn before i buy it!!!!!!!!

2) The M bought my Valentine's Day present! (here, here, and here. We were going to buy a case for it as well, but we decided to get one at Walmart or Target, because the one we were going to get (the one that had the massively best reviews) didn't have a zipper and reviewers said they got much better ones that were cheaper and better in a normal retail store.

Yay!!!! And we're going out to a new restaurant! (ok, new to us). I've gotten AWESOME grades so far this semester and we are sooo proud of me that it's not even funny. :D

And, you wouldn't believe how fast a plain Jane sock could go when all you do is read for class all day. As soon as I posted the last post, the yarn decided to become finicky and pool everywhere, like I was concerned about here, here, and to a lesser extent, here, and I HATE pooling, so I found the other end of the center pull ball and started doing every two rows, two-ish rows from the outside of the ball, two-ish from the inside. Slightly less mindless, but I can handle it. It looks SO GOOD OMG. I am SO PROUD OF MYSELF. This is REAL, HONEST-TO-GOD KNITTING (ok, sorry about the caps thing. Can you tell that I'm a little excited??). And soon, I'll be able to put a picture up! Yay!!!!

Hopefully tomorrow, a review of my menu from two weeks ago and another menu. We'll see.

And, my grandpa's getting married 2/25!! Yay!

Cuh-razy

Okay, let's talk about knitting. And how all of the sudden, I'm so busy that I can't even think hard enough to knit on my freaking sleeve for Thermal (it's hard to remember to increase every 7 rows or whatever when you are trying your hardest to zone out for 42 minutes of the first season of House, MD (the only relaxation that you are getting that day because you have literally been studying every other minute of the day). Cable Twist socks are too hard because I'm only knitting when I'm watching TV in the dark or reading, and I can't manage to do the pattern without looking. So, I was stuck. Then, the Knitting Philistine saved the day and shipped the yarn that I bought from her stash reduction sale won from her yarn contest (M, don't read the strikethrough! I totally won this yarn! Didn't pay for it! Nope, nope! Oh, lord, I have a problem....).

Anyway, this is a hand-dyed, varigated yarn from Hello Yarn, called Tough Sock (can't seem to find it on her site right now), in a colorway called dusty (you can see a picture of this yarn here, though it's a Ravelry link, so if you don't have Ravelry, sorry!). Anyway, it's a lot less warm than in the pictures, and I think it's going to look super with jeans. I'm knitting a plain Jane sock out of it, and it's got something ridiculous like 128 grams in this ball. Since I have small feet, and I'm knitting it toe up, I'm super excited to see how long I can get these socks. I'm planning on knitting them a la Yarn Harlot, stopping the stockingette stitch where the calf starts to expand and knitting ribbing and doing increases. We'll see.

Cable Twist socks are also in danger of being frogged (again!). The vast majority of my sock yarn is solid or heathered yarns, and I just can't bring my self to knit plain old socks out of plain old yarn. These yarns are meant for CABLES and PRETTY LACE and REALLY NIFTY (and too complicated for my completely brain-dead brain) TEXTURES! I currently have three non-solid sock yarn in my house, my new sock yarn, my Cable Twist sock yarn, which really doesn't care if it's Cable Twist or Plain Jane, but really, can't you just finish me already, and then some pretty Artyarns Ultramerino 4 that really wants to be Jaywalkers (I mean really, this yarn will cry if it's not Jaywalkers. It's kind of pathetic, actually. However, we can't have crying yarn in this house. Must cater to yarn, treat it gently and with kindness and let it get what it wants....). I might take the needles off my poor little 4" sleeve, leave it on it's cable, and cast on the body if I get too desperate. If I remember correctly, there's no increasing on the body for about a million years, so I should be good for a bit.

This had better end soon, or even at my slow as hell pace, I might run out of mindless things to knit (and by mindless, I'm talking this toe is on the edge of being too hard right now. DPNs too, why don't I have a circular needle in this size? What was I thinking??). And then what will I do? The M has banned me from buying more yarn until all my unused yarn is used up (within limits. He understands that if I run out of sweater yarn before I run out of sock yarn, I should get more sweater yarn. He also understands multiple projects, so if I had more time and wanted to start, say, a complicated lace project, I could get some lace yarn. But right now, I have enough yarn for a sweater and enough yarn for 9 or 10 pairs of socks. That's enough for now). Oooh, I know! The M will need some socks, and, gosh darn it, all my sock yarn is girly-looking. (goes and hides her plain chocolate, navy, and black yarn, those are for MY dress socks, dammit!) That means I'll have to buy new yarn!

Okay, so the M and I are the ultimate in laziness. When it comes to grocery shopping, we have to go to at least 2, at most 4 places. Therefore, we prefer to go only every two weeks. This requires a LOT of planning on my part, deciding which recipes I want to eat two weeks from now, trying to look at my planner and determine exactly how stressed I am going to be and how much the M will need to help me.

Also, the M eats 6 meals a day. Granted, they're relatively small meals. But still. And I cook all of them. And I make bread. And almond butter. And I cut up carrots for us (no baby carrots for us!!). It takes a lot of work. To cut down on it, I make 4 family-sized meals every weekend. To keep things healthy, I try to make 2 meals chicken, and two some other type of lean meat. That means I need a total of 8 recipes--I try to do 4 chicken and then one each with a choice of turkey, lean beef, pork tenderloin, fish, and chicken or turkey sausage. To top that, I have to balance easy with flavorful and interesting, and I try to make at least one new recipe every two weeks. If I like it, I add it to my "tried and true" 3-ring notebook, if I don't, I toss it. I then look at my list of 8 recipes, decide which recipes will be good for week one, and which will be good for week 2, and mark them so I don't forget.

I have several staples that I rely on--some of which I make at least once a month, and most of the time every two weeks, because they're just that easy and just that good. I'm going to try to post my "menu" every two weeks, and slowly put up my staples and then maybe some new recipes. As I go, I'll start linking to my recipes (hopefully) so if you want to try it, you can!

Okay, here is my "menu" for the next two weeks. I usually just plan the main dish, and we make enough rice/potatoes/pasta/whatever for these meals to last us the week, and then we just dip in them as we need them. We like fresh veggies over cooked, so the M grabs some raw broccoli and a tomato after each meal and eats them like apples, and I make myself a side-salad or eat some fruit--that way, I don't have to cook as much!

To make this weekend:
Chicken Soup
Chicken Andouille Sausage and Bulgur Wheat
Mexican Black Bean Sausage Chili (adapted)
Chicken in Yellow Curry (from Madhur Jaffrey's From Curries to Kebabs: Recipes from the Indian Spice Trail) with onions, mushrooms, bell pepper, and green beans

Next weekend:
Chicken Gunk (more on this later)
Cilantro Chicken with snow peas and bell pepper (my new dish this time, probably with a little less cilantro, and omitting the carrots)
Salmon with Asian Lime Marinade (really, I can't recommend this highly enough. I'll have a post on this by itself)
Crockpot Stiffado

Most of the time, I do a pretty good job of balancing, but some times (like this time) I notice too late that whoops! This week seems to be ALL poultry. Oh well. Then, if I like the layout of the menu, I save my little piece of paper with the menu written out, and maybe use it again.

Okay, time to return to studying. First test of the semester a week from today. Blech.

We just ordered pizza. For the first time since we've been together (3 1/2 years). This is a milestone!

Why yes, I'm still here

1) Why is it necessary that I must still be cold with jeans, two pairs of socks, a long sleeve button-down, and a long-sleeve WOOL sweater on in my 75 deg F house (yes, we're wimps. Wanna make something of it?)?

2) Still knitting.
Finished, in fact, with Bear's laptop a while ago.
Started Thermal by Laura Chau in Knitpick's Gloss. I'm knitting the sleeves first, because they're most like socks and more portable than the body. They're my current knit-while-reading-for-class project.
Also started (and frogged, and started, and frogged) a sock out of Lana Grossa Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch Softcolor, pattern (finally settled on) Adrian Bizilia's Cable Twist Socks, with a few mods. This is my "must need light and a bit of concentration" knitting project (just the little twist stitches. The splittiness of the yarn + the twist stitches make it difficult to do without looking).

3. Still recovering from the horrible disease known as the Kidney Infection + 2 other infections. Not sure which was worse, the illness(es) or the meds. I was a pretty sick puppy for quite a while.

4. School is kicking my ass. Well, I did really well last semester, but it's pretty much taken up EVERY WAKING MOMENT. I enjoy what I'm learning, I do not enjoy being in middle school again. Seriously. Same 42 people, same 4 rooms, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Drives me stark raving mad.

5. I'm getting a new camera soon!! My old one has died, which is one of the reasons why I stopped blogging--what's the fun in having a blog with no pictures?

6. Not much (interesting) cooking being done. Basics. Quick. Nutritious. Usually involving a crockpot or a broiler pan. This combo does not make for interesting concoctions usually, but if you've found something that fits all (or most) of those requirements, let me know. I'm running out of yummy ideas.

7. Still reading everyone's blogs religiously (It's my escape. Is that sad? Wait, don't answer)

8. School has made it necessary for me to lug my laptop around with me ALWAYS and so I feel like I have more time for this lil' ole blog. Or so we hope.