Archive | Home Life RSS feed for this section

A Whole Pint

12 Sep

I do not donate blood. Why? Because I don’t really think about it and when the option is waved in my face I retreat due to a fear of needles.

Why would I donate blood when others do, others who do not practically hyperventilate when a needle is aimed for their arms?

Well, a card came in the mail about 4 days ago and it was about donating blood, it was saying the normal things those advertisements always say, about how they need more donors, not enough blood blah blah blah.

For some reason, instead of immediately tossing the card out and forgetting about it I kept it and the idea of donating blood bounced around in my head for a couple of days.

I realized not donating blood because I am scared of needles is a stupid reason to not donate.

We all need blood, duh, and who knows when something might happen and I will be the person needing the transfusion instead of being the person healthy enough to donate? I am not sick now but that doesn’t mean I won’t become sick, it doesn’t mean I won’t be in an accident, it doesn’t mean a thousand different things won’t happen to me in the next twenty minutes that will make me the person in need. And how could I, in good conscience, accept blood when I have never had the decency to donate some.

It’s like taking food from the food bank when you’ve never donated to it. Or like accepting help from the government if I lose my job but never having my previous pay cheques tithed so I contributed to the pot. It’s like getting someone to drive me places when I am injured but never helping them when they need a hand.

See where I am going with this?

I believe in balance and you can’t have balance without Give and Take, emphasis on the Give since it is always more important to give than take…imo.

Also, and this is my selfish reason for donating, what better way to over come a fear than to purposefully expose myself to it?

Sure I have had needles poked in to me over the years, but this, donating, allowing myself to be jabbed with a needle when there is no benefit to me…I’d say that might help me get over my fear…maaaaaybe…

My experience went as well as can be expected I suppose, every one there was really nice, they put a sticker on me saying I was a first time donor so that at every stage things would be explained to me in more detail since I had no idea what the hell was going on lol I also got a sticker at the end saying something along the lines of “be kind to me, I donated blood today”

My stickers

My stickers

Apparently I am still a child at heart because I enjoyed getting the stickers lol 😛

I got a finger jab (props to any diabetics out there who have to do that daily cause that sucked!) and my hemoglobin level was juuuuust barely enough to allow me to donate, looks like I should eat things with more iron in them, oh the things you learn. 😉 Then I answered a loooong list of questions. Then I got taken to a private room where a bunch of questions were read out loud to me by a very kind nurse, these were the more sensitive questions, mostly having to do with sex, and STI’s and, well, that’s mostly it…Then I got taken to the refreshment area because I made a mistake in not eating prior to going to my appointment so I had to eat cookies to get my blood sugar levels up before they would take my blood. Maybe the sugar in the cookies makes it tastier? teehee

So oh the horrors I had to eat two Peek Freans Creme Cookies…Mmm cookies!

Peek Freans 2

Oh, I also got a mango juice box. 🙂

Then I got sat in a waiting area where I watched some food cooking show that was mildly interesting but by this point I was thinking about one thing and one thing only…needles! A nurse brought me this…

Aaahhhhh medical stuff!

Aaahhhhh medical stuff!

…medical stuff! Scary looking medical stuff! Don’t give me this stuff, I don’t want to see what my blood will be going in to!

Ok, deep breath, it’s all good… 😉

I basically ignored that pile of stuff and focused completely on the tv screen, that medical stuff no longer existed in my world, my world was a stupid cooking show because I knew the next step would be involving hooking me up to a needle and my fake calm was starting to crack. Yes I am aware I am a wimp.

Jump off a cliff? Sure, no prob! Get jabbed by a needle? Umm, let me go hide in a corner k? *rolls eyes* I’m an embarrassment to humanity, sigh.

After a little while I got taken to a super comfy lounging type chair thing, the friendliest lady cleaned my arm for 30 seconds (for real, she timed it an everything!) then I got stabbed with the biggest needle in the world! What the hell??!?! I’m used to small needles and didn’t even for a moment think the needle used for blood donation would not be a small needle but oh boy, it was nothing even close to the word small. Nope. Nuh-uh. Huuuuge! When it was facing towards me I could see down the inside of it! Who the hell makes a needle so big?! That can’t be normal!

Now, for all that I am scared of needles I have to watch when they are jabbed in to me, so I watched as the worlds largest needle was put in my arm and then left there. Left there! I mean yeah, ok, I knew it was going to stay in my arm, like an IV, but I thought the needle would be the size of an IV needle so this was a little freaky to see. The poor nurse she had to talk me through taking some deep breaths so I wouldn’t have a total freak out lol She did a good job of it too! It helped when she covered the needle with some gauze so I couldn’t see it anymore lol Didn’t stop me from staring transfixed like a cat at a mouse hole on the tubing that had my blood flowing through it…

There it goes...my blood...out of me and in to a bag...

There it goes…my blood…out of me and in to a bag…

Turns out I bleed quickly…which I guess is a good thing to know in case I am ever stabbed, I now know I have less time than others might to stop the flow of blood before I’ll bleed out cause yeah, that blood of mine just hot footed it out of the hole in my arm and filled the bag super fast. Which is probably for the best since about 15 seconds after the needle was in my arm the only thought filling my head was

“oh my god, there is a needle in my arm! get it out! get it out! get it out!”

That basically just kept repeating itself over and over and over until the lady came to take it out, then the screaming voice promptly changed to…

“oh my god she is going to take out the needle! it’s gonna hurt! it’s gonna hurt! it’s gonna hurt!”

And uh yeah, it did hurt, fyi.

After sitting for five minutes pressing down on the gaping hole in my arm so it would clot I got a bulky bandage made of gauze and was taken back to the refreshment area where I got more juice and cookies…a package of mini chocolate chip this time, Mmm!

That bandage is juuuust as uncomfie as it looks, sigh.

That bandage is juuuust as uncomfie as it looks, sigh.

Aaaaand then I spent the rest of the day with a headache, tired but unable to nap, and feeling kind of wobbly…like I had been working out and hit muscle exhaustion, only all I had done was donate blood.

I didn’t realize how much donating a pint of blood would physically affect me, I was told not to work out or do anything physical for 6-8 hours but even by that 8 hour mark I wasn’t up to doing anything, so I didn’t! I sat and watched tv and YouTube and cuddled with the cat (who I swear knew something was up cause he was even more cuddly with me lol) and basically just chilled.

I am not allowed to donate blood again for 56 days, which miiiight just be enough time for me to forget the fear, and the size of the needle, and the horror, and remember only the happiness of the cookies and mango juice…maybe… 😉

Tags: , , , , ,

FEAR

10 Sep

My Bikram Yoga teacher said this the other day and I really like it…

FEAR is…

Forgetting

Everything (is going to be)

All

Right

meme

Something to remember when you’re facing something that scares you! 🙂

Tags: ,

Vacation Talk!

9 Sep

I went on vacation for two weeks and recently got back. I had intended to blog while on vacation but yeah, that soooo didn’t end up happening lol It was a simple trip back to Alberta to visit my family and friends, you know, the ones I left behind when moving to BC. 😉

Instead of making multiple posts about the trip I’ll see if I can condense everything in to one post…or maybe two…

The cat came with me so instead of flying we had ourselves a 13 hour road trip through the lovely Canadian mountains then through the lovely Canadian prairies. Striker, the cat, spent the first 45 minutes of the drive loudly expressing his displeasure over his forced confinement in his carrier as well as being manhandled out to the suv. I took a book on cd (from the library) to listen to and he was so loud I had to turn the cd off because I couldn’t hear the narrator! He eventually stopped meowing at me and decided a better use of his time was to pout…for approx 12 hours…

This is what a pouting cat looks like.

This is what a pouting cat looks like.

When he wasn’t sitting on the floor under my legs he was sitting in his carrier with his face squashed against the mesh side ignoring me. Blatantly ignoring me.

I have two nephews and I like to take each one of them to hang out one-on-one.

My first day there I took the older nephew (he’s 14) horseback riding. He agreed to go but he wasn’t really feeling the whole riding horse thing, he’s such a trooper! 🙂

Giddy up!

Giddy up!

After the trail ride we went to a movie (Fantastic 4) and dinner (food court). I tried to get him to go to a real restaurant but there is a pasta place in the mall he loves and I’d rather he eat something he really wanted than drag him somewhere he doesn’t like.

I went to a place called Freshii and had an amazing rice bowl called Pangoa…

Pangoa from Freshii

Pangoa from Freshii

Imagine my surprise and horror when I got home and found the nutritional information online for this dish, it has 900 freakin calories!!! There is brown rice, grilled chicken, beans, various veggies and some bbq sauce but as you can see not a lot of any one ingredient so where all those calories came from I do not know. I do know that I won’t be ordering that ever again, even though it was tasty.

The next day I went for brunch with my mom, we went to Tutti Frutti and I had a lovely vegetarian omelette and one slice of Maple Crisp crunchy french toast. Yes you read that right, crunchy french toast! Mmm!

Crunchy French Toast

Crunchy French Toast

The omelette was a tad odd, IMO, because it was open not folded or rolled but it was tasty and really that is all that matters lol

Veggie omelette with potatoes on the side.

Veggie omelette with potatoes on the side.

My mom got the Casa Blanca which is French toast topped with fresh fruit & coated with delicious English cream only she got the cream on the side so she could decide how much of it she ate. Smart lady! 🙂

French toast with lots of fruit!

French toast with lots of fruit!

Later that day I guest paddled with a dragon boat team called The Raunchy Rodents. They practice on the river and have a freakishly short training season because winter is a long and cold season there, can’t really practice on the river when it is frozen! lol I had a great time, they are a fun bunch! 🙂 They had about half of their team at that practice due to a variety of circumstances which kinda made me feel better about taking a spot on the boat, I would have hated to be an extra body if all their team showed for practice.

The Raunchy Rodents - well, about half of them lol

The Raunchy Rodents – well, about half of them lol

A view from the middle of the river

A view from the middle of the river

Some of us went out after practice for a drink and a nibble, we went to a local pub called Duggan’s Boundary Irish Pub and had a fun time. 🙂 The brunch I had earlier with my mom powered me for the whole day, though I did cave and get some Potato Pancakes cause uh hello, how could I not? lol

Potato Pancakes with sour cream

Potato Pancakes with sour cream

The next day was a big day, I took my younger nephew (he is 7 and will proudly tell anyone who asks! lol) to Drumheller to go to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. It is basically the mecca for anyone in to dinosaurs and this little guy is most definitely in his dinosaur phase! It’s a three hour drive there and we spent the entire time talking about dinosaurs and life and music and playing pretend, it was a highly entertaining drive lol

Little hand, big footprint.

Little hand, big footprint.

I was abandoned 20 minutes in to our arriving at the museum so he could participate in a Dino Dig, basically he got to go be a paleontologist for 90 minutes while I wandered around doing nothing of much interest because adults aren’t allowed on the expedition…well, minus the adults running the expedition that is lol He loved it! They went on a 2.5 km hike through the badlands, used real paleontology tools to excavate part of a fossil then learned how to cover it properly and transport it back to the museum. After the day was over he told me everyone should move to Drumheller because why would anyone want to live anywhere else? Oh, and we are all supposed to work at the museum…oh boy…lol

If you were thinking he fell asleep on the way home after a long and busy day you my friend are oh-so-wrong. We played pretend and chatted the entire three hour drive home, although I would have been ok with a bit of quiet time because I was tired lol

Let’s see, the next day I got to spend with my friend Nicole, we had plans but they fell through so I ended up going with her while she bought kitty supplies and then adopted two adorable kittens. Yay for kittens! She was going to get just one but the brother and sister were in a cage together and how can anyone be heartless enough to separate siblings?

Meet Solar and Lou.

Meet Solar and Lou.

If I remember correctly the girl is on the left, she is Solar, the boy is on the right and is named Lou. I don’t have a great picture of the two of them because they are super fast and oddly enough don’t much care for staying still…go figure lol We had so much fun playing games with them we basically spent hours playing games and just watching them be silly lol

Sunday (the day after the Day of Kittens!) there was a family brunch where I ate pretty much everything lol I don’t have any group pictures from that day, I do have a bunch of individual pictures but that’s too many to be putting on here. Later that day I went to hang with a friend, Jasmine, and her family which consists of a husband, three kids and a dog. Her brother came over as did her parents, all of which I have known for a loooong time. Her youngest is my Goddaughter and all three kids think of me as an Aunt. They are great, the whole lot of em. 🙂 That evening involved a decent amount of alcohol, lots of reminiscing and my camera being dropped in to a glass of water by the middle child.

sigh.

Yup, there went my camera. 😦 We fished it out immediately and put it in to a bag of rice to dry it out but the camera didn’t recover fully. It could take a picture but the flash was dead and the picture quality was not good after it went swimming. Sadness.

I spent Monday working in my parent’s basement sorting out all the stuff I have stored there lol My parents got the basement renovated and my mom wanted me to go through all my stuff and sort it in to things I am bringing back with me, things I am keeping stored in my parent’s basement and things I am getting rid of. I got rid of quite a bit, brought back a chunk and left the rest in rubbermaid containers on shelves out of my parents way. Aren’t I such a good daughter? 😉

Tuesday was a day of awesome, well, sort of. I went to Calgary to ride the Olympic bobsled track and ride the zip line they have. Calgary hosted the 1988 Olympics and now the Olympic Park is a tourist place as well as where current and future Olympians train, for only $99/month I too could have a gym membership there lol

Decked out and ready to bobsled!

Decked out and ready to bobsled!

Ready to zip lining!

Ready for zip lining!

I have gone zip lining many times but this type of harness was new to me. When I was hooked to the line it is like sitting in the most comfortable hammock ever lol It is supposed to be the fastest/longest zip line in North America (if I remember correctly) and there was a parachute I had to deploy to get me slowed down in time for the stop but it wasn’t so fast or long that it was scary, sigh. I think I am done zip lining since it no longer brings out any nervousness or fear. The bobsledding was interesting, there are 14 turns in that track and it was fun but not “oh my god I’m so scared and nervous and can’t wait for the adrenaline rush” type of fun, which was what I was hoping for, shrug.

On the way home from Calgary I stopped at Peters’ Drive In and ordered heaven, seriously, their food is sooooo good! If I lived in Calgary I’d be a thousand pounds because I would always be at Pete’s lol

The most amazing of all amazing burgers and mouth watering onion rings.

The most amazing of all amazing burgers and mouth watering onion rings.

The thing about Peter’s is that they have the best milkshakes you will ever find! You choose your flavour and can combine up to three flavours to make your own custom milkshake.

All the flavours available.

All the flavours available.

The rest of the trip was filled with dinner with friends, hanging with other friends, hanging with my parents, helping out with stuff around my parent’s place, basically just enjoying being there. Oh, and shopping! There was some super impressive shopping! I got boots, and flats, and a blazer (so grown up of me don’t ya think?), Christmas presents for various people, random things that I wanted to buy there because there is only 5% tax vs the ridiculously high tax where I live, stupid tax *grumble*

I had a great, fun filled, always doing something, type of trip and I’m really glad I went. 🙂

The drive back went much better, the cat decided I wasn’t subjecting him to some random form of torture and he spent most of the drive sitting on various objects so he had a better view out of the window. The only time he got vocal was when I had to swerve to avoid a deer and the cat did not appreciate that, I’m pretty sure he would have hated the experience of hitting the deer more though so I wasn’t too worried about his bruised feelings lol. 😛

This is what I woke up to my first morning at my parent's place.

This is what I woke up to my first morning at my parent’s place.

That adorable picture is the site I woke up to my first morning of vacation, there was a head board on the bed I slept in and the cat figured out he can watch me from above…scareeeeeeee! lol 😉

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Three Yoghurts and a Soup…and Pie

13 Aug

Sorta fell off the wagon with my writing on here, sorry!

So since my last post I have eaten three more of the American yoghurts and one soup.

I’ll just write about these in the order I ate them, ok? 🙂

Harvest Peach

Harvest Peach

The first of the three is Harvest Peach, it is one of the Weight Watchers yoghurts so it was 2 points and does not contain aspartame…not that I actually care about that, I mean c’mon, I drink so much diet coke half my blood is probably aspartame lol 😉

Anyways…it was good, not oh-my-god-amazing or anything but good. It tasted like peaches, which is the point of the flavour so points to them for that lol

I think the reason I am not raving about it is because it was my night time snack waaaay back on Monday after I had some totally delicious banana cream pie for dinner.

Yes you read that right lol I’m trying to feel guilty or ashamed by the fact that I had pie for dinner but I don’t, shrug. A friend at work made me a personal sized banana cream pie when she found out it is my favourite type of pie, how awesome is that!

Home made banana cream pie

Home made banana cream pie

I don’t know if you can tell the size of the pie from that picture, the blue dish it is resting on is a dinner plate, the medium sized one that comes in a set, so it wasn’t a full size pie at all. It was pretty much perfect for one person. 🙂

I’m pretty sure anything I ate after the pie would have gotten a review of “ok” cause how do you beat banana cream pie? The answer is you don’t! lol

The next yoghurt was…

Boston Cream Pie

Boston Cream Pie

Boston Cream Pie! Because apparently I was on a pie kick lol Actually I pick them randomly from the fridge so I never know what flavour I am getting next.

Not gonna lie, I had high hopes for this one since Boston Cream Pie is my favourite doughnut. I’ve never actually had a slice of Boston Cream Pie so the only thing I had to compare the yoghurt to was the doughnut and well, no, just no. The yoghurt tasted so fake, it wasn’t at all like the doughnut, just spoonful after spoonful of artificial taste. It is like when you buy a cheap advent calendar at Christmas and the chocolate is the super cheap gross kind and it doesn’t even taste like chocolate even an itty bitty bit, it just tastes like chemicals. This yoghurt was like that. Yuch.

I guess the only way it can redeem itself an itsy bitsy bit is that it is one of the Weight Watcher yoghurts so it is only 2 points.

Things got better though, don’t despair!

Zesty Southwestern Style Vegetable Soup

Zesty Southwestern Style Vegetable Soup

I had a soup, Mmm! I love soup!

This is a Progresso Light Zesty Southwestern Style Vegetable soup and so far it has been the best of all of them. It lived up to the “zesty” without being overwhelmingly spicy and the vegetables were cut in to these nice big chunks. It was pretty much awesome and if this soup was sold where I live I would buy it frequently. It is Weight Watcher endorsed and is 2 points a serving, there are 2 servings in a can.

Close Up!

Close Up!

Look at those vegetable! There are kidney beans in there too. 🙂

Then I had the happiness of having a yoghurt that was delish and not overshadowed by a home made pie lol

Key Lime Pie

Key Lime Pie

Key Lime Pie yoghurt, whoever made this was a smart smart person lol I’ve never had Key Lime Pie so I have no idea if this lives up to the actual thing but I really enjoyed it. I find the Yoplait yoghurts taste best when they are citrus flavours. This is a Weight Watchers yoghurt so it is 2 points and definitely worth it! I was sad when I was done this one because it is the only one of its kind in my fridge, sigh. Why oh why didn’t I buy two of them? sigh. Guess I know for next time! 😛

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

More Soup and Yoghurt

8 Aug

That’s riiiiiight, more Progresso Soup and Yoplait yoghurt reviews! I know, I know, you are just soooo excited! lol 😉

Today’s soup was Progresso Light Chicken & Cheese Enchilada, it is 2 Weight Watchers points on the Points Plus program, one serving is 1 cup and the can has two servings in it.

2015-08-08 13.22.31

Chicken & Cheese Enchilada

Close Up!

Close Up!

So, the same as with the soup from yesterday the chicken was not good, it was dry and chewy but at least it was in large chunks. I like the colour of the broth in this soup more than the one from yesterday, I realized after my second spoonful that the colour reminds me a bit of the artificial cheese colour of Kraft Dinner Macaroni & Cheese which is a tad odd but since this soup is supposed to have a cheese flavour in it I guess it makes sense the colour seems similar lol. There was a decent amount of veggies in the soup, the tomato pieces were a good size (I like veggies in my soup to be cut in big chunks so the soup seems more substantial) but the rest of the veggies were super small pieces, probably so they could fit better in the can but ya know, I’d still rather the pieces be a bit bigger, shrug. There was a bit of a zing to the broth, my first spoonful I was all “wow! spicy!” but then the next however many spoonfuls were not spicy. It was odd lol Every now and then I’d have a spoonful that was spicy and the rest were not, they weren’t bland exactly, just not super flavourful.

All in all I would recommend this soup, the flavour was good (despite being inconsistent) and the tomato pieces were large enough you had to actually chew lol

Today’s Yoplait yoghurt was Pina Colada! Mmm! It is another 25% less sugar yoghurt but not a Weight Watchers affiliated one, which means for that tiny yoghurt cup I used 4 Weight Watchers Points Plus points.

Pina Colada!

Pina Colada!

Those 4 points were totally worth it my friend! All this yoghurt needs is a little splash of alcohol and it’d be perfect! lol 😉 I really enjoyed this one, just the right combo of flavours, nice smooth, thick texture, everything a yoghurt should be, imo.

So yay! This puts me at 2 yoghurts being good, 1 soup being good and 1 soup being not good – that’s pretty decent I’d say. Only 2 more soups to go and ummm…7 yoghurts? Yeah, 7 yoghurts! 🙂

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Soup and Yoghurt

7 Aug

I figured since I bought all that soup and yoghurt yesterday when in the States I might as well start eating it! 🙂

Today I chose the Progresso Light Zesty Santa Fe Style Chicken soup, it is 2 Weight Watchers Plus Points per serving (which is 1 cup) and there are 2 servings in a can.

Santa Fe Style Chicken

Zesty Santa Fe Style Chicken

Here is a close up of it…

2015-08-07 12.57.29

It is not a pretty looking soup, the broth is kind of a sludge type colour, not appetizing looking in person at all. The chicken pieces were nicely sized, I’d go as far as to call them chunks or cubes of chicken rather than pieces buuuuut the chicken was dry and chewy, sigh. There was one cube of chicken that was soft and tender and it was such an oddity compared to the other pieces I actually wondered what went wrong with that particular piece of chicken lol The rice, veggies and beans were excellent, Mmm! The first spoonful was a tad spicy but I like spicy food so I quickly adjusted and was fine with it.

For an overall review I would not recommend this soup, mostly because of the chicken being so dry and chewy. I feel that if a company is going to put meat of any form in to a can of soup they should make sure the meat is tender and tasty. Just sayin.

For the yoghurt I enjoyed a Yoplait Cherry Yoghurt that apparently has 25% Less Sugar.

Cherry!

Cherry!

It is 4 Weight Watchers Plus Points which seems a tad high considering it is just a yoghurt cup, shrug, but it did taste good! There were actual pieces of cherries in there which is always nice. 🙂

So far I am batting 50/50, one yah and one nay, and that’s alright, I mean I can’t expect everything I choose to taste good lol I expect most of the yoghurts to taste good but the soup is a total guessing game, shrug.

I’m picking randomly which soup and which yoghurt to eat so who knows which ones I’ll write about next! 😛

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Spider Invasion

18 Jul

Spiders and I are not friends. In fact I pretty much hate everything about them. Their creepy 8 legged bodies, how they crawl so quickly over any type of surface, how they have no respect for my personal boundaries and how they seem to think being anywhere near me is an ok thing to do.

So imagine my surprise when I came home last night from work, went in to the bathroom and discovered that some evil, conniving, trying to drive me insane mama spider decided my bathroom was the absolute best place to have her eggs hatch. Yup, my bathroom, countless baby spiders…everywhere…it was not pleasant! *shudder*

spider 3

I don’t know much about spider birthing patterns, all I vaguely know I remember learning from Charlotte’s Web which I read as a child and only kind of remember. What I remember is Charlotte had a crap tonne of eggs, she died when they hatched, or right before, or right after…somewhere around the time they went from eggs to spiders she died so I have forever combined the two events in my head. In my world mama spider picks a spot she thinks is safe for the eggs, leaves them there, if she is lucky she finds a pig to watch over them, then dies as they are born. Is this correct? I dunno, shrug.

What made a mama spider think my bathroom was the perfect spot to leave her eggs I do not know but I sure as hell wish she hadn’t cause oh wow, anywhere near me is not a safe place to be if you are a spider.

After standing in shock for a minute or so I went in to full attack mode.

Me vs the spider babies!

There can be only one victor!

Aaaaand since I pay rent here I vote for me being the winner…just sayin! 😉 lol

Here is something you may not know about baby spiders, they share their web. Yup, that’s right, their web. What does this mean? This means that if you take a tissue, squish a baby spider, then remove the tissue from the wall with the intent to throw it out you actually end up pulling a super fine and delicate web away from the wall with the tissue, that webbing is covered with other baby spiders so you end up trailing webbing covered in baby spiders with you as you attempt to discard the tissue. Yeeeah, that happened. The baby spiders panicked and started climbing the webbing, aiming for my hand, my hand! So of course I panic and decide instead of trying to throw it out in the garbage I’m gonna dump the lot of them in the toilet and flush but the movement of my arm causes the web to sort of float backwards and instills in me the fear of them getting on me, or falling, or jumping, or dropping, basically of becoming free in the bathroom and scattering and me having to try to kill them all before they disappear in to nooks and crannies of the wall / baseboard. Ugh.

Something else about baby spiders? There are endless amounts of them. Endless! I don’t know how many I killed but the genocide seemed to go on forever. After squishing all the ones I could see I then sprayed everything with chemical cleaning products, scrubbed the bathroom down and went to have a cup of tea, finally able to relax…well, relax while constantly feeling creeped out and thinking I felt a spider web or spider on me. Thing is, when I went to the washroom a couple of hours later there were more of them! All over the place, again! So back in to attack mode I went, sigh. After killing the second wave of them I wasn’t sure what to do. Obviously the cleaning chemicals weren’t keeping them away, or killing them, which had been my hope. I didn’t know where they were coming from so not like I could go to the source, all I could do was keep killing them as they became visible. But I had to relinquish the field and go to bed which would give them a whole lot of hours to repopulate my bathroom. Not cool.

This morning when I got up the absolute last thing I wanted to do was go in to the bathroom. I reeeeally didn’t want to see how many had come in to the bathroom while I had been sleeping but not like I could seal off the bathroom and ignore it forever so in I went. I had to immediately start killing baby spiders, again, which was expected, sigh. There weren’t as many as I had feared there would be but there were still way more than I was comfortable with. They were on the wall, the sink, the cupboard door, the other wall…I wouldn’t be surprised if they crawled over my toothbrush during the night the sneaky little brats.

Twice more before leaving for work did I have to go in there and kill! kill! kill!

spider 2

When I came home from work tonight I immediately opened the bathroom door to see just how many more I had to deal with. At first I didn’t notice any and got stupidly optimistic that I had either killed them all or the remaining ones decided to go elsewhere but then I stepped farther in the bathroom and realized that they were still there, just staying closer to the corner of the wall where they are harder to spot, well, except for an assault team which was on the far wall making their way to who knows where. All the visible ones were quickly dispatched to wherever spiders go when they die and I decided all this killing earned me some ice cream…yeah, I don’t really understand my logic either but oh well lol

Now it is nearing the time I should be going in to the bathroom to wash up for bed and all I can think is how I really don’t want to have to deal with more spiders, they are creepy, and en mass they are mildly terrifying because what if they figure out they could all attack me at once? I’d never be able to kill them fast enough! It’d be like when the little people took down Gulliver in Gulliver’s Travels, he didn’t stand a chance! Great…now I have images of myself tied down and at the mercy of baby spiders…should be interesting dreams tonight… 😉

gulliver

Tags: , , , , , ,

Big Boned

10 Jul

Here is a conversation that happened this evening at work:

Him: Yeah, I’m from around here, well, now I live in Sechelt but I grew up in this area, went to such-n-such school, blah blah blah

Me: Oh, hmm, that’s nice.

Him: So are you from this area? Where did you go to school?

Me: No, I moved here from Edmonton.

Him: Oooooh! An Albertan girl! I could tell you are from Alberta because you’re so big boned. Yup, a big boned girl from Alberta.

Me: *stares in shock* What?

Lady who over heard convo: You should stomp on his foot, while wearing heels.

you said what

I excuse myself from the situation and go do something else. He follows about 5 minutes later and laughingly apologizes, but the kind of apology that means diddly squat because you know he doesn’t actually mean it, he doesn’t think he did anything wrong and while pretending to apologize he infringes on my personal space by trying to put his arm around me and be all chummy.

What. The. Hell?!?!?!

youre mean

I’d like to say I responded with a scathing remark but I was at work and had to stay professional so I had to appear to shrug it off and go about my business. I’d also like to say I promptly forgot about the insensitive jerky comment and it didn’t bother me but that’d be a big fat lie. It is still bothering me now and it has been hours, not a couple of hours, more like 9 hours. *sigh*.

I know that only I can give permission for other people to affect me but ya know what, what he said affected me and I don’t care if it is me giving him permission to affect me, or low self-esteem, or deeply buried anger because I couldn’t respond, or years of learned responses to how men treat me but whatever it is, it is affecting me, and I don’t like it.

What gives this guy, this guy that I met for the first time this evening the right to not only comment on what I look like but to comment in a negative way? Since when do our social norms allow anybody to do that without some sort of consequence? Oh wait, it’s been ok for, well…as long as I have been alive. *double sigh*

What the hell does “big boned” even mean? Is that another way of saying “fat”? Or is it a specialized way of saying “fat”, is it supposed to be more politically correct? Maybe it is the female version of “husky”, I’ve heard guys described like that, “oh he has a husky build” like he is a breed of dog or something!

I just don’t get it.

The whole situation makes me so angry. Angry that this guy seemed to think what he did was perfectly ok, angry at myself for not responding in a stronger way, angry at men in general because I can only aim so much anger at myself before I have to deflect it elsewhere and well, men in general are an easy target if I pretend they are all like this guy.

Ok, calming down now…

After work I was restless, I wanted to do something to work off my annoyance but on my drive home I found myself a bit teary eyed which is so not like me. That stupid little man had made one comment and it had me questioning all kinds of things about myself, what I look like, how I was dressed, what I ate today, how active I have been, am I bigger than I thought, am I big boned? Even though I don’t really know what big boned is supposed to mean I couldn’t stop wondering if I am that, is that what people see when they look at me, someone big boned? A big boned Albertan girl?

Since I finished work at 9:30pm and there really wasn’t much to do I came home, cuddled with the cat and made the conscious decision to not let how I was feeling affect my eating plan. I am doing Weight Watchers and the last thing I want is for some bump in the road to derail my weight loss. Normally when I am upset I either (1) eat everything! or (2) eat absolutely nothing, even if I am legit hungry. What can I say, I go to extremes. If I didn’t eat anything when I got home I’d be under eating for the day, if I ate the entire tub of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream that was calling my name I’d be waaaaay over my food budget for the day so I stuck to the plan, I made a healthy-ish snack, ate my points for the day (that is a Weight Watchers thing, if you count calories it would be like me saying I ate my calories for the day) and well, that was it. I didn’t let my emotions control my eating (or not eating), I didn’t derail my weight loss plan thereby making myself feel even worse about myself because of this comment and I will hopefully wake up tomorrow feeling better about things, cause time is supposed to heal wounds right?

Does time also heal anger because I still want to punch that guy in the face, or put on a pair of pointy heels and stomp on his foot, better yet steel toed boots!

kill you

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Brownie Strawberry Trifle

3 Jul

This my friends is not a healthy living friendly desert…consider this a fair warning! 😉 It is however quite tasty sooooo if you’re willing to eat outside the boundaries of whatever diet, or healthy living plan, or life change you are currently following than read on!

You will need:

– brownies (yeah, you’ve gotta make those)

– 1L (12oz) Cool Whip (I used Light Cool Whip)

– 1 135g (5oz) package of Vanilla Instant Pudding

– 2lbs fresh strawberries

Instructions:

Bake brownies. You can use your own recipe or a brownie mix, whatever floats your boat.

Slice the strawberries, seems fairly obvious and yet it is mentioned in the original recipe so I thought I’d tack it on here also.

Make the pudding, once it is set fold in the Cool Whip. You’ll need a large bowl for this. It makes what the original recipe refers to as a custard. This is not technically a custard, duh, but who am I to judge the original recipe person? Well, ok, I am judging a little bit lol

Once the brownies are completely cooled cut them in to small pieces, I tore the brownies in to small pieces instead of cutting them because that’s how I roll over here. I’m sure Martha Stewart would not approve. 😛

Put half the cut brownies in the bottom of your trifle bowl, pour half the custard on top of the brownies and spread it around so all the brownies are covered. Layer half the strawberries on top of the custard. You can stand up some of the cut strawberries around the edge of the dish so it looks prettier, ya know, if you want, no pressure to make this presentable or anything…

Repeat the layering. Brownies, custard than strawberries.

The original recipe also wanted you to melt chocolate chips and drizzle it on top, I chose not to do that because I thought it would be sweet enough and I was right. Not saying it wouldn’t be an extra level of delish with the melted chocolate, and I’m sure it would look even more impressive but I liked how it looked with the fruit on top, easily seen, not covered by anything and hey, I’m making it so I get to make these oh so important decisions. Ooooooh the power of me!

Here is how it turned out…

Chocolate Brownie and Strawberry Trifle

Chocolate Brownie and Strawberry Trifle

I added some raspberries to the strawberry topping because who doesn't like raspberries?

I added some raspberries to the strawberry topping because who doesn’t like raspberries?

Side view!

Side view!

A couple side notes:

– Keep the trifle in the fridge until it is time to serve it, otherwise the custard melts and stops looking so pretty.

– I doubled the amount of brownies I made, so two batches instead of one, which turned out to be a good thing because it took one entire batch for each brownie layer. Depending on the size of your trifle bowl you may also need to make two batches of brownies.

– I did not double the amount of Cool Whip or Vanilla Pudding used. I realized once it was too late I probably should have, especially when I had poured half of it on for the first layer and I was struggling to get all the brownie covered. You’d never know it from the picture though, shrug. When eating the trifle the ratio of chocolate to custard was a good one so flavour wise it turned out I didn’t need to double the Cool Whip and Vanilla Pudding, just be prepared to use slices of strawberries to help cover thin custard coverage areas.

– I did not use the entire 2 pounds of strawberries, despite my going to all the effort to clean, and destem, and slice them. I used a good chunk of them, as you can see. The way the hidden layer is placed is identical to the top layer, only minus the raspberries so not like I skimped in the middle with my strawberry usage. But hey, rejoice, this just means extra strawberries for you!

– I added the raspberries on a whim because they were on sale and because they are a personal favourite. I had originally intended to make a little design with them but I was running late so I just popped some on where there was space between strawberry slices. I didn’t get to use them all so oh gee, I have leftovers of those also, what a shame! 😉

– The original recipe is from an American site so the quantity of everything was a little off to the size of things here, except for the strawberries because, well, I don’t know why to be honest. Normally I do all the conversions before I go shopping so I know what size packaging to look for in my grocery store but I didn’t this time so I winged it. It turned out ok.

– I would recommend making the brownies the night before, I made them the morning of and it seriously cramped my style. I had everything else all ready to go and I was stuck waiting for the stupid brownies to cool completely, it took forever and that’s with me living in a basement suite apartment!…In case you don’t get the significance of that, my place is always cold, it will be 29C (84.2F) outside and I will be inside wearing a sweater and sweat pants with a little throw over my feet. It’s like I live in the place that summer forgot.

I calculated the Weight Watchers Points Plus points for the trifle, a portion of my trifle comes out to 12 points. If you make it I would recommend calculating your own points because you will be using your own brownie recipe, and may be using only one batch of brownies, or maybe you doubled the amount of custard, or perhaps you decided to drizzle the melted chocolate, who knows!  Then there is always the trifle bowl size to take in to account…The point is this strikes me as a desert where every person’s version will be slightly different which means so will the nutritional information be. But that’s ok! This is a super easy recipe that is also super easy to personalize, which makes it great for everyone, enjoy! 🙂

Oh, the original recipe can be found here

Tags: , , , , , , ,

A Vegan Breakfast

19 Jun

Recently, for reasons even I don’t understand, I seem to be watching YouTube videos about being vegan. Now, there is absolutely NO danger of me going vegan but I seem to keep watching the videos about what a vegan eats in a day, or how to eat vegan or how eating vegan helps with weight loss. Topics like that…

There are these two girls, twins, who are vegan and have a channel that just seems to be about them and their vegan-ism. For the most part I don’t agree with what they eat. Not because they are vegan but because they have such a restricted list of food they eat, they basically eat the same things every single day, with very little variation and while they swear they are being healthy I think they can’t possibly be getting all the vitamins and nutrients they need.

I know I shouldn’t judge, and I try not to but when I was chatting with that nutritionist I was speaking with a while back she explained something to me that made perfect sense. She said how you shouldn’t eat the same things daily, even if they are healthy, because there are so many nutrients your body needs that no way it can get everything it needs if you are eating the same foods day in and day out. So, instead of eating an apple everyday, swap that apple out every now and then for a kiwi, or a peach or whatever you can get your hands on. She stressed that she is not saying eat kiwi every day, maybe eat a kiwi once a month, just make sure that you are swapping in to your daily food alternatives so your body is getting supplied with all the various minerals and vitamins and nutrients it needs. Your body will know what it needs and will take it from the foods you eat, as long as you eat them. But if you eat apples everyday for your fruit then you are limiting your bodies ability to get everything it needs. Does that make sense?

So these girls, they eat pretty much the exact same thing daily, and while the foods themselves are healthy, I don’t think following their example is a good one because the food list is so limited.

Ok, enough of me being on my high horse! Something they showed intrigued me and I thought I’d give it a try and it turned out to be…interesting…

You take a banana and some water, put them in a blender and blend until you have a smooth mixture. Pour it in to a bowl, add oatmeal, mix it up, cover it and put it in the fridge overnight. By the next morning the oatmeal has soaked up the liquid so it doesn’t need to be cooked and you have a ready made breakfast. They added maple syrup and hmm…something, I can’t remember what right now, to it for flavour. I planned on adding maple syrup and brown sugar but tasted it first and found it was actually really sweet all on its own so instead I added some vanilla and some cinnamon.

2015-06-11 13.52.04

It looks like oatmeal you’d make with water but it sure doesn’t taste like it. The texture was a bit odd, I didn’t hate the texture but it took some getting used to. I think if I had a working blender and had blended it I’d have found the texture more enjoyable because it would have been smoother. But my blender is dead so I smooshed the banana with a fork and ended up with a slightly lumpier version. 😛

Like I said it was quite sweet all on its own so I added a small splash of vanilla and some cinnamon. It tasted quite good, and I would make it again. It was nice having breakfast ready for me when I got up, a definite plus if you are short on time in the mornings! And bonus, if you aren’t a fruit person well boom! one fruit serving done for the day and all before you’ve finished waking up. 🙂

Something else they do with bananas is take some frozen bananas and some non frozen bananas (they didn’t give quantities), put them in a blender and blend. It turns in to a smooth, chilled, soft ice cream type of texture and they swear it is just as good, if not better than ice cream. I want to try that one too but have to wait until I can afford to replace my blender, sigh.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →