Sunday, April 29, 2007

Memo: What Do 300 Calorie Meals Look Like

Actually they look like quite a lot from what I'm eating right now!

This link to Diet Blog was passed on by The Morbid Me blog.

This is a sticky note to myself so when I need a refresher I can go and look at what I should be eating in the next 6 months or so....

Which is not to say that YOU can't go and check it out too!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

President Bush: Read My Lips

Just say.....


VETO!


If You Never Read Another Blog....

....please go and read any of these wonderful posts:

Meditations On Gun Control


We License Cars ... Yackyackyack


Virginia Tech Shooting


The author certainly knows his stuff. 'Course it doesn't hurt that the stuff he knows is also the stuff I agree with, but what makes it so cool is that he writes probably exactly like he talks. He doesn't pussyfoot around with fancy words. He's just wonderful! He's also witty which is the single most important quality I look for online. His name is Lawdog and his blog is The LawDog Files.

When you quote him, and you will, don't forget to give credit where credit is due....he deserves the respect.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

No News Is No News

I've been keeping a low profile. Trying to stay out of trouble. Being a good ol' gal. That's so boring! It's a thankless endeavor, to be sure, but someone has to do it. The last thing I'd want to do is show up on the front page of the local rag and the way things are going around here and in the rest of the USA it could happen!

Now this is just a suggestion, but if people feel compelled to kill themselves why not just DO IT ala Nike and stop taking other folks with them! Who gives them the right to have power over anothers very existence? And to off someone and then have the rag and the tube say it's because you were afraid you'd lose your job..........hello?......you lost more than your job, bonehead. Or it's because you were being evicted.....well, congratulations, your room in HELL is right this way! Loser.

That leads me to the loony at Virginia Tech..... What a tragedy........words fail me. I can't begin to sort out my feelings. Naturally, being pro-gun, it pains me to think about the way no one could fight back. They were like sitting ducks. Maybe when we outfit our kids for college we need to stick their own Glock in the suitcase with the laptop.... maybe we need to spend more money on mental health in this country instead of blaming guns for all the ills. All we can really do is pray for the souls of those taken and that peace be granted to the families of all including the fruitcake.

As for me, I'm going to the dentist this afternoon. Yuck. I love my dentist, I just hate what he does for a living! It's time for the scraping off of the enamel barnacles. I'll get that fresh and minty feeling for awhile and find myself smiling at mirrors and admiring how brave my teeth were to sit there and let him chisel them clean once again.

Be safe.

Friday, April 20, 2007

VA Tech

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Grrrrr....

I've been trying to write some stuff for awhile now....like days....and Blogger has been ailing. I thought it was something I'd done, but I got rid of what I thought was the problem and it's still quirky.

Sigh.

This is a test post. Had this been a real post it would of been absolutely brilliant. No lie, you'd all be sending me greets and flowers and candy and stuff like that. You'll just have to take my word on it though because, of course, all the brilliance that was is no more. Story of my almost never witnessed brilliant life!

BTW, the Astros are just doing great on this road trip and the tiny 2 day home stand. I wish we could bottle the joy and save some for the less thrilling days to come. And there will be less thrilling days, it's a given, you can't win them all...no matter how cool that would be.

You know, one of my kids pointed out that the Astros are the best looking ballplayers in the majors and she's right. Even scruffy old Woody has a nice butt.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

I'm Sick - So I Think I'll Report It!

I'm down with the grippe - I'm got a hacking dry cough that alternates with a hacking wet cough! I've been fighting it for 2 weeks tomorrow and every day I think I'm getting better and don't want to get on antibiotics. My voice comes and goes - Demi Moore has nothing on me! The kids make me say "ditto" and then laugh their a**es off.

But rather than a cheap ploy to get folks to send me Kleenex and Crown, my purpose is to tell you about this cool site called Who Is Sick? where you can go and report your ills for all the world to enjoy! Check it out.... if this catches on it just might be a good idea. They don't keep any personal info, but you could, in theory, see what's going around in your area and at least not feel like you are the only one so afflicted with the plague! I found the link to the site at yet another site called Download Squad. This linking stuff is almost like a social disease in its own right, isn't it!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Info On The 'Stop Rosie' Petitions


The advertisers that sponsor The View and must evidentally agree with Rosie's anti-everything *I* stand for views are:

Sponsors of ABC's "The View"

* All Detergent
* BAM Power Cleaner
* Best Foods Mayonnaise
* Bush's Baked Beans
* Claritin-D
* Clorox
* Cottonelle Toilet Tissue
* Crest Whitening Rinse
* Disney's "Meet the Robinsons"
* Dove Ice Cream
* Excedrin
* Head & Shoulders Shampoo
* Honey Bunches of Oats
* Humira
* I Can't Believe It's Not Butter
* Janome Sewing Machines
* Loestrin 24
* M&M's
* Marshall's
* Miracle-Gro
* Pepto Bismol
* Pier 1 Imports
* Pillsbury Toaster Strudel
* Reach One Ultimate Clean Toothbrush
* Scrubbing Bubbles
* Sears
* Singulair
* Stainmaster Carpet
* Stanley Steemer
* T.J. Maxx
* Tide Laundry Detergent
* Vaseline Intensive Rescue Body Lotion
* Woolite
* Zyrtec

I'm a regular user of 4 or 5 of that products listed, but I won't be buying them until Rosie gets the boot. Rosie and Michael Moore need to row off together and live on an island so they can rule.

Two petitions to STOP ROSIE are located at:

Fire Rosie O'Donnell From the View

and

STOP ROSIE Petition

Read 'em, sign 'em, live 'em, learn 'em, love 'em!

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

My Thoughts On Unsolicited Comments

Over at LivingAfterWLS there's a post about Unsoliticted comments: Where do they lurk in your life? and it got me to thinking about things people say to kids and the way it can shape their lives.

I've always been "sensitive" to what others say and it hurts a lot to hear what they say to kids that are "different". I'm not sure now or back then who decides what makes someone "different", but boy howdy if you fit into that flexible category you better be tough to survive. I wasn't tough, but I developed many coping skills that serve me well to this day. I wish I could go back knowing what I know now and tell them all off, or at the very least, could have learned to "consider the source" and let it slide right off my hide. The older I get the more I'm convinced that we are the sum of what life deals us. Had I been one of the "beautiful people" maybe I wouldn't of followed the course that was charted just for me. Maybe I wouldn't of taught my girls to try to consider other people's feelings and look for the good in everyone because there is good to be found even if you have to dig deep to discover it.

I was a fat kid, then a fat teen, then a fat young adult who blossomed into a fat wife and mom. As a kid my worst word wounds were from a skinny little piece of crap and his buds who taunted me with "Sixteen Tons" all during the 7th grade. They were like a swarm of bees, waiting for me to venture out into the sunlight and then swarming around me chanting that taunt. I hated them. I still do. I always will. I wasn't all that fond of Tennessee Ernie Ford either!

One of the coping skills I learned was to denigrate myself with humor before someone else could slam dunk me with their hateful or thoughtless comments. I went on to use humor both as a release for my own tensions and a kind of glue that bound others to me. You know the drill ... "all fat people are jolly" .... well some of us are or so you'd think. Looking back it was a good thing that I had to develop others ways to fit in to the small group that made up my world in elementary, junior and senior high schools. I made life long friendships and for a variety of reasons having those friends probably saved my life and my sanity.

Along the way I also developed passive-aggressive tendencies and that's not a good thing. When I do draw a line in the sand to take a stand I tend to go overboard and be aggressive instead of firm and in control of my emotions. OR I drop someone like a hot potato and avoid them like the plague. (Also I can and do combine cliches often in the same sentence! It's both a gift and a curse!) I would rather not face confrontations if I can avoid it. I'd prefer to just never have to deal with that person again.

Even as a long married adult with children of my own I was taunted about my weight. While walking through my own neighborhood, in an effort to exercise, the adolescent son of an acquaintance hollered some unkind words about my need to lose weight to my retreating back as I went by. The first coping skill I ever learned was to NEVER turn around, just keep your back to them and continue walking as if you didn't hear a thing. Never let them see you cry! Never let them think it hurt! Never bleed in public! It made me so angry and upset that I went on a diet then and there and lost quite a bit of weight, but alas it didn't STAY off hence the eventual need for the RNY WLS to amend my pig-out ways.

Words can and do pierce the psyche, and they hurt every bit as much as the sticks and stones, but when you get to a good spot to look back on the past you realize that you are just as good as anyone else and maybe better than one or two. You survived it, you didn't quit, you're the gol-durn Energizer Bunny!




The Cure For Diabetes Type II Is Here!
RNY Post-Op Progress Report
The New Me Emerges - Amazing R-N-Y Progress
T.G.I. Friday's Just The Right Size Surprise!
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow! RNY Progress

My Life In The Fast Lane

I went to Canton's First Monday Trade Days Flea Market this past weekend and it was kewl! I'd heard about it for years, but had never been....a friend of mine mentioned she was going and I BEGGED to tag along. It is truly the largest flea market in the largest State in the Nation! Thanks to my first born daughter who went with me I was coerced into renting a scooter the 2nd day after walking my a** off the first day. Bad enough that my shoes were starting to rub on my right baby toe, but even losing weight has not made up for the fact that I'm just not up to hiking back and forth for hours and hours on end. The scooter was the ultimate save-my-life and money-well-spent to keep me in the game vehicle. It's NOT just for the old and infirmed either... lots of younger able-bodied young MEN were tooling around having a ball just like me. I'll admit it's a little tricky maneuvering it through the thundering herds of bargain hunters, but I found out early on that if I'd park it out of the way and TAKE THE KEY, I could walk around looking to my heart's content and climb back on when I needed to advance again.

In Canton, among other things, I bought a flagpole! I've wanted one for years and this one was just what the doctor ordered. I'm planning on getting the "installation sleeve" sunk in my backyard and have the flags visible above the roof of my house. A USA flag comes in the kit and I bought a Texas flag too. The best part is that since it's telescoping, I can take it down and store it in the garage when it suits me. It'd be nice to fly the flags every day, but I want to display them on important days that call for the honoring of our country, etc.

Last night I was one of 43,803 people who watched the Astros unfortunately get beat in their home opener by the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was a shame that we couldn't hold the lead no matter how slim it was. I blogged some comments on the SportsJustice blog voicing my disdain for Houston fans booing one of their own. IMHO it's just part and parcel for the way people have slipped more than one notch in their personal how-to-behave in public persona's. These are the same people, no doubt, that cut you off in traffic, yak too loudly on their cell phones, can't wait in line two minutes because they have no patience and even fewer manners and generally think ME FIRST is the natural order of the day. In my dictionary they are pictured under JERK. Still and all, I was happy to be there thanks to my good friends Paula and Larry for giving me the ticket and the ride for my birthday present.

My birthday. Gak. I'm now more than 50 and less than 80. Big whoop. The good part is I'm still alive. The bad part is I'm never going to get any younger. When I look back down that long winding road that was my life to this point I'd best be happy with the choices I made as the opportunities are less and less an option. For the most part I am happy with my life so far from my cradle to Depends....not that I'm into the whole pee-when-you-sneeze thing YET. I've got some great kids fathered by a wonderful man who loved me despite my various character flaws. I've been blessed with friends who love me for who and what I am and more than a few of them accept me the way I am and don't try to remake me into their image of what I should be. The one that does makes me laugh and that is valuable in its own right. Oh and I'm one lucky old broad too, that doesn't hurt a bit.