Fibromyalgia and Fat - Tomi's story page 125

[tomi]

My scales broke this morning. They were acting weird - jumping around instead of landing on a number and staying put. So took out the battery to reset things, and I cleaned off the dust bunnies from the rubber "feet" things. And then........... NOTHING! Dead scales. I'm trying to decided what to do........... replace them or learn to live without having to judge myself by that stupid number every day. Obviously the latter is the healthier option. Maybe I will do this.............. wait until Jan. 1st - if I feel I still NEED to see what I weigh then I will replace them. But maybe I will be able to do this without the constant need to see a NUMBER! Maybe I can do this with just eating right - getting in my daily movement - and judging my progress by the way my clothes fit, and by the image in the mirror. Which is what I REALLY want to do anyway. But this is scary stuff! Its like a junky learning to live without that fix! I've NEVER been without a scale - E V E R!!! Growing up - my mom had a scale. When I went to college I bought a scale. I have literally NEVER not known what I weigh. But I'm going to try to do this. I won't buy a new one.

EEEEESH........... I may have a melt down here!

Okay - day 2 of my strictly primal.

Yesterday was great! bacon, turkey and veggies in a stirfry with Thai spice, and almond butter.

I haven't eated yet today (its 9:40 am). I'm drinking a cup of Ginger Peach tea, sweetened with Stevia. Its very warming.......... my house is OLD and the insulation is not good. In fact - we think the floor has NO insulation at all. There is a very shallow crawl space - making it impossible to insulate. If we ever try to sell this house we are going to be in deep doo doo! Anyway - its really cold in here! The pellet stove is burning away - but we always seem to feel cold anyway. Last winter we burned through 4.5 tons of wood pellets. We need a good fire to burn this house down so we can rebuild - that would be so awesome. As long as I can grab the computer as I'm running out the door - we're good to go! ALL the boatshop financial information in on this laptop. Oh, and my purse - cuz replacing all that junk would be a big pain in the butt! A fire while we are gone on vacation would be a good thing - cuz we always take the computer and my purse with us!

Just dreaming here.......... not planning

No houses on the horizon for my son. That makes for a very sad mama! I was really thinking the last one was going to be the one - but nope. So I wait to see when he has some more houses lined up to look at. The experts are telling us that anything under $250K is flying right now. Bids need to come in at or slightly above asking price to get it. So he needs to be looking at houses lower than his top limit. UGH........... I wish he would just go get a stupid apartment! I want to give him a deadline........... find a house by _____________ or find an apartment. I don't think thats unreasonable. He'll be 27 years old in April - its time for this boy to leave the nest!!! Maybe I should make him watch "Failure to Launch"!!!

That topic frustrates me.

New developement on the family gatherings. Hubby and one of his brothers have decided to move our Christmas gathering from MIL's house to someplace neutral and spacier. No more trying to cook curries and cram all of us into moms house. YEAH! Just waiting for him to contact the other 2 brothers and settle on where and when. This makes me VERY happy! MILs house was fine until we added spouses and kids to the next generation - now - there are just too many of us!

Thats all I've got today.

[namelesswonder]

You better get an online backup system if that computer is the ONLY place you have all that financial data!

Google drive or Dropbox are good free options for documents. Plenty of space for most things.

Does your area do month-to-month apartments? I don't think it's unreasonable to ask him to move into an apartment if he doesn't have to sign a long-term lease, in case he finds a house.

[jenn26point2]

If my house were to burn down, I would want to grab my external harddrive and scrapbooks... And my phone. All of those photos would be irreplaceable. I have been planning to dump the external harddrive on to photobucket or someplace so that all I have to do is grab the scrapbooks and be gone. While the photos in the scrapbooks are replaceable, the hospital bracelets and locks of hair are not (well, the hair *kind* of is, but I will always know it's not authentic first haircut hair). And my wedding album cannot be replaced. I am in possession of the only negatives/copies of the photos and none of them are stored digitally. Walmart wanted $90 to transfer the negatives to CD so I've not had it done yet. One of these days I will break out the scanner and do it, but there are 13 rolls of film worth of photos... It'll take me a month to scan all those in... *sigh* 1st world problems, right?

[tomi]

You better get an online backup system if that computer is the ONLY place you have all that financial data!

Google drive or Dropbox are good free options for documents. Plenty of space for most things.

Does your area do month-to-month apartments? I don't think it's unreasonable to ask him to move into an apartment if he doesn't have to sign a long-term lease, in case he finds a house.

I ALWAYS backup on CD - everytime I make a change to the records. But - if the house burns up - the CD will likely burn up too. I should definitely look into an outside source.

Yes, many places will go month-to-month. I'm thinking........... April will be the date for move out. His next birthday seems like a good deadline date. Hubby is leaving it totally up to me (he's step dad, not biological dad) - but I think that is only because he doesn't want me telling him when its time for his daughters to get their stuff out of their rooms (they haven't lived with us for 16 months).

[tomi]

If my house were to burn down, I would want to grab my external harddrive and scrapbooks... And my phone. *sigh* 1st world problems, right?

Most certainly 1st world problems. I've never really been that attached to things - so I could lose everything in the house and I wouldn't shed a tear -- but recreating financial stuff for tax purposes would send me into a complete anxiety melt down!

When I moved from Idaho to Oregon - somehow the entire box of photos - a lifetimes collection - disappeared. I still don't know where that box could have gone. I saw it in the shop when we unloaded my stuff -- but where it is now - is a total mystery! I don't sweat it too much. They are only photos, and I have all the memories in my brain.

[namelesswonder]

My sister lived at home until this year (just turned 26) and brought most of her stuff with her when she moved in with her boyfriend. I left most of my stuff at home when I was in college and then took almost all of my stuff when we moved into the apartment last year. I left behind some things in boxes that I put in the attic (high school and college papers, nostalgic crap that I'll want in 10 years, but not now). If the kids are still in school, it seems reasonable to let them store it (to me), but if they move in with mom after graduating or get their own place, they better figure out what to do with their stuff!

If my belongings were destroyed, I'd try to grab my camera and wallet (and my cat!!!!), but really, everything could be replaced. I have a backup hard drive, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to grab it if it was urgent. I do need to replace it (the one I have has a separate power cable and it's kind of big, I want a portable one). I have several hundred gigabytes of data so I can't store it online, unfortunately

[jenn26point2]

I'm thinking backing up my photos to an online storage site is necessary b/c what happens if my house burns down while I'm at work and not there to grab anything? Maybe I'll do that tonight so I don't have to worry about it anymore. Then I'll just have to worry about all my wedding photos.

[tomi]

Seriously......... its not yet noon and I have pee'd 6 times already! I'm on my second large mug of tea - the second is Green Tea with Pomogranite (sp?). YUMMY

Breakfast:
2 eggs seasoned only w/garam masala.

Need to stock up on some of our India spices. Garam Masala is nearly gone -- need to buy some fresh ginger asap -- cardomom pods are down to 1/2 of the jar. We need to go to Bellvue to visit BIL so we can shop at our favorite India supply store. We actually had left over Chai after Thanksgiving dinner - that NEVER happens! A couple of the biggest chai consumers were not at the gathering - that has to be the answer. Plus SD#2 was not there - and she almost ALWAYS takes all the leftovers home with her. Good thing I got rid of my lactose pills - keeps me from drinking any! A "pot" which translates to a little over a gallon of chai has TWO cans of sweetened condensed milk. I certainly don't need to be fighting the desire to drink a cup of chai every evening. In case you want to try some REAL chai........... here's how to make it.

Water in large pot - bring to boil - add 15-20 tea bags (just regular tea).
Add: Four 1/4" slices of ginger root
1 TB cardomom seeds
5-6 curry leaves (fresh)

Let steep at a slow boil for 30 minutes
Add: 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk
2 TB vanilla - the real stuff, not the imitation kind

Different regions of India us other spices....... some will add cinnamon or cloves. We don't.

Let it simmer on LOW for a couple hours uncovered -- this allows for the richness and fullness of the chai to develope. In true Indian fashion - the chai would be "pulled" ........ pouring it from pot to cup from a distance of a couple feet (if you're really good at it) - but it really doesn't change the taste. The people selling it on the streets of India will "pull" it - maybe its just for the AWE factor????

a "skin" will form on the top as it sits - its something in the milk that causes this. Just skim it off and throw away. Strain the chai and keep refridgerated. It'll stay good for a couple weeks in the fridge - longer than that and the milk goes bad.

That being said............... Mark's post today points out the fact that chai is primal - although the sugar and milk are questionable. Let me know if you give it a try.

better go get ready for work............. I wonder if I could manage to not work today. Maybe I should call the boss???

[jenn26point2]

Could you make it with coconut milk instead of sweetened condensed milk?

[tomi]

Could you make it with coconut milk instead of sweetened condensed milk?

never tried it. I think that would radically change the flavor and consistency of the chai. I'm sure my husband would never go for it. He LOVES my chai - says I'm the best chai maker in the family - so if I tried to change anything - he wouldn't be happy. I'm sure he would say something like, "its okay, but its not YOUR chai" .......... I could use Stevia to sweeten it I guess.