Stepped in dog poo five minutes ago. Changing it up from the vomit, looks like. Thanks, guys!
Took a 3 oz. shot of straight up wheatgrass juice this morning, felt like 5 prenatals on an empty stomach. OOf!
Later, ran 7 miles. Not hard. Holding back a little bit for the weekend winter run.
No crappy food since the day after Thanksgiving. Haven't died. People were worried. We're changed only in that we feel happier about everything. Like, say, I stepped in dog poo five minutes ago and didn't write a Facebook status about how that's a sign of the universe telling me what it thinks of me.
It's just poo.
Happy on that level.
The 'shit happens' mentality.
My other pal--same diet--said to me, "I'm never going back." We should get tattoos. I feel like we survived heroin together. It's nice having a friend who knows you don't turn into a crusty looking freak (beyond the usual) after making this commitment. A couple more months of this and I'm expecting 'could give a shit' impenetrability.
Too preachy.
Snow's lovely outside.
My first kombucha's a week out from being done. Smells like kombucha under the cabinets. I'm so fascinated by the "mothers". They're like pet jellyfish that don't move and smell like vinegar ...So, like dead jellyfish I keep preserved in a jar. Pet dead jellyfish in jars. Adorable. I rub their glass jars every day.
Once Tom finishes my office, I'm going to have a cabinet filled with floating cultures in jars.
Why did I waste so much time reading Cosmo? I should have been growing things in jars all along.
My hair smells fantastic. I got that shampoo with the carrot extract. *sniff* Whatever it takes, man.
Hawaii Five-0 needs to stop doing reruns.
Dropkick Murphys can't get here fast enough!!
Super Bowl excitement. I'd get it too if we knew Peyton was coming back next year. One football to the face for everyone calling him old. If I can still throw a football, he can! Bastards.
Currently reading: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Also....Just Kids by Patti Smith, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Brew Like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus, On Painting by Leon Battista Alberti, Herbal Antibiotics by Stephen Buhner, Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz, and The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners by Wolf D. Storl.
Next time someone asks me what I do, I'm gonna say "Wortcunner."
If you're a Facebook friend, you know I've got a crush on the Wheatgrass Trucker.
Wishing I could go see The Descendants and Warhorse, but everyone I'd go with's afraid they'll cry.
Currently drinking (right this second): Teavana's white chai w/ ginseng vitality.
2012.
NOT gonna let it be 2008.
So.
I'm a land pirate.
Wortcunning land pirate waiting on her heirloom seed catalogs, excited about a lot of good things.
Most of them involving mud or sweat.
Hugs and kisses.
Punk out to The Meanest Times if all other coping mechanisms are failing.
p.s. For Valentine's, send Endangered Species Chocolate. Pick wants to save the dolphins. I'm just glad they don't enslave kids. (Another Facebook rant you mighta missed.) Jack can eat the vegan chocolate, as milk chocolate's out for the lad these days, so... this is me endorsing Endangered Species Chocolate for the ones you love.
© Copyright 2012 Angeline Larimer
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Thursday, January 05, 2012
You are what you put into yourself
So many unpublished posts on the topic of diet and how it effects everything.
Notepad next to me has scribbled: "pepsin/marshmallow root (for small intestine)"
15 conversations with 15 different people (at least) over the holidays about what it all means, these sensitivities leading to mood alterations because of poor nutrition quality...
But since I've been on this diet for over a month, I can't seem to sit and offer any advice to anyone else on the brink of making their own decisions. This is something you have to do for yourself. The research, the commitment, the sacrifices. I won't even bother mentioning how much weight I lost. That's totally not what this is about.
This is something I've known needed to be done for a long time and have subconsciously been gravitating towards for years...
When so much information flooded me at once, pointing to the probability that Jack's got a malabsorption issue with his digestion, that was it.
No more artificial food additives, preservatives, added junk to make foods more addictive, processed, refined, added sugars, no "fortified" foods (which have to be fortified because the processing of them made them nutrition less). So no more fast food, no more easy to pop in the oven frozen food, no pizzas piping hot at the door a half hour after calling, no more turning up the nose at the produce aisle because it all goes bad before the more enticing longer shelf life stuff runs out...
That's where we started.
That was a good place to start. Made what came next a lot easier to handle.
Jack's tests revealed high IgG antibodies for predominantly dairy foods, but also wheat. Gluten was not as great a number, but several foods were on the second tier alongside gluten. Also, seven of his neurotransmitters were elevated. Two of them extremely so.
IgG doesn't mean he's allergic so much as his body developed antibodies to proteins slipping through his mucousal lining not fully or properly digested. Why would they not be properly digested? How could they get through his digestive cell walls? What does it matter anyway? Apparently, and this is all news to me, if you have these peptides in your system, they build up and create problems in the brain that cause every behavioral issue we've been suffering as a species over the course of humanity ...it's just that there's a much higher amount of behavioral suffering going on now because of a collision of modern medicine with our shitcrap food (+ pollution). We need our food as a society to last a long time on the shelf because nobody cooks home cooked meals. We need it boiled down and refined and over processed so a lot of it can get made, get packaged, get shipped over the country, get eaten six months to a year later.
It's fantastic we're not starving to death, except we sorta are.
People crave and eat more because they get so little nutrition from food.
I know this from juicing. One glass of veggies and I'm full. A super-sized cheeseburger meal and I'd still be digging to the bottom of the kids' bags to finish off their spilled over French fries.
It's unfortunate we're not intelligent enough to make the best foods for us just as convenient and affordable to purchase...
Or AREN't we?
After a week or so of freaking out a bit in the health food stores, waiting in line behind label readers (I need to start taking reading glasses to the store), turns out it's not so hard eating right.
Plus I just went hard core and bought bulk online, so it's not as expensive, either.
We now have the benefits of a food co/op at the push of a button.
When I consider how much less we spend eating out, I'm guessing the numbers even out.
And even if they don't mouthful to mouthful, we don't need to eat as much (meat, for example), because we get more nutrition per bite.
AND, when we're older, our health bills are going to be so much less than average.
Hell, if I can get away with achieving old age without needing any medication, I'll keep drinking spinach daily from now 'til my 100th birthday.
I'm lucky, though. I have my garden. I have new incentive to bother canning, freezing, drying, even. This will also equalize the food bill, not to mention add even more reassurance as to the healthy contents of the foods we eat.
This will put people off who smell lots of extra work (or don't have the time).
But I have a dramatic sense of personal fulfillment again.
Control.
Could be because I'm eating an impeccable diet.
The last ten years I couldn't help but notice how modern medicine has been pushing drugs. You're depressed, anxious, can't get on top of life, can't make two and two come out four and the vicious cycle repeats itself, so someone decided to start messing around with the neurotransmitters and skipped all those steps that should have been taken in between, such as encouraging--insisting upon!--a healthy HEALTHY diet. Mostly clean and organic raw vegetables (the really healthy ones, I mean). Meats without antibiotics or hormones...and not a lot of them, mind you. A couple servings a week, no bigger than 6 oz cuts. They should have started with the basics and worked out to drugs, but until someone believable finally insists it's the food making us sick, that's what doctors are going to do...prescribe medication. Because they know diet and exercise goes over like liver and onions.
Casein & gluten (dairy and grain proteins) are the most difficult to digest. Undigested proteins start to clog stuff up and cause problems, the same as (I'm assuming) cholesterol and plaque buildup in the arteries. Dairy/casein and gluten IS IN EVERYTHING processed. This is why I imagine these two proteins have become a big issue. We eat far too much of them.
And we don't eat beneficial bacteria in our over processed diets any more, which means all of us are at risk for digestive problems.
People with digestive systems that function properly could still have non-behavioral obvious digestive issues that they don't know about such as long term cloggage...gas, poop problems nobody ever talks about... but what I've been submersed in these last few months is the likelihood that more and more people I know have "leaky gut".
If undigested proteins are leaking out into the bloodstream from the intestines, you get a chain reaction of biological events that cause all sorts of psychological-seeming issues. You get neurotransmitters out-of-whack, for instance. Mildly you get foggy brain. Severe, you get diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer's, depression, etc.
Or so the research is suggesting these days.
All I know is that while educating myself on all of this, I've come to realize I knew nothing about my body before, and totally ignored the effects of food. I took my health for granted far too long. I ate things I always ate and shrugged and imagined what's bad goes out the other end...
So long as I exercised, I could eat whatever and be healthy.
Maybe that's true for now, but I don't want to be 60 and aching in all my joints, struggling with eyesight, memory, impulse control, lack of energy or enthusiasm, lack of self esteem, feeling thirty years older than I really am, essentially. I've opted through all of this to begin a life of prevention and maintenance for the long haul.
And so, after a month...I can't physically bring myself to drink a soda. Especially diet sodas. It tastes like chemicals. I can't do it.
I drive by fast food and shake my head in anger.
I get food cravings for random strange foods like Doritos or cheesy burritos or Raviolios and I realize that my mind obsesses about it because the manufacturers of those foods made them addictive. Not because I lack self control...I do not lack self control... but because my chemistry was tricked into needing it.
Try fixing your gut. It is the healthiest thing you'll ever do for yourself. In our case, we can't eat casein and gluten until we're sure the leak is fixed, so we have to substitute all the foods we used to eat containing those two proteins with ...turns out... all the healthy foods we forgot existed.
We can't put cheese or butter on our vegetables any more, so we eat them without and after a week, the notion of cheese or butter on any vegetable began to turn my stomach. (Like maple syrup on spaghetti.)
Christmas dinner was a horror fest. Not my mom's. My mom made a beautiful roast with oven roasted veggies in a veggie broth with gluten free bread from the breadmaker and a big bowl of steamed broccoli (no butter). My children ate every morsel. No one left the table unsatisfied. That's something I've noticed...when I'm hungry, I'm hungry--you have to eat BEFORE you sense your sugar dropping or making that meal for yourself is gonna be tough, but after I eat (and half the old portion size does the trick) I am no longer craving anything. I'm up for doing an activity. I'm done thinking about my stupid food. I'm not tired...I'm all, 'Let's go!! Let's do stuff!'
We got a juicer when I started suspecting Jack has digestive malabsorption issues, and we've used that contraption more times than all the other counter top appliances combined, though the rice cooker's getting quite a workout. I now know that if I juice spinach, carrot, and apple into 8 oz. and drink it before starting dinner, I'll get enough of an energy boost to keep working for at least two hours. No sugar crash.
What I used to do was eat cheese.
Now I drink vegetables.
But the biggest thing that's made a difference, the most dramatic reaction to any of this, was the cut back on sugar.
I decided to do this going along with the notion that the gut has an overgrowth of bad bacteria that feeds on all the sugars and carbs that are so prevalent in our current American diet. I figured there was no hope fixing the leak if the body was fighting against the invasive bacteria, and since I can't help shaking that a long stretch of antibiotics is what caused all this imbalance in the first place, sought out other means to killing bacteria in the gut.
So.
No sugar. Starve them out.
Day one of doing this, everyone lost their shit (behaviorally).
Sugar is in way too many foods that we'd been eating.
Including ketchup.
It was like every single bacteria in my son's gut united and screamed, "GIVE US THE SUGAR NOW!!!"
It was awful.
I cried a couple of times.
We were all in terrible moods for three days.
And then Jack was sleeping all through the night. The OCD like tics were fading.
I'd also started him on a probiotic, and the combination of the two really seemed to make a big difference.
But the holidays hit us and the holidays are pure sugar wrapped in frosting with more sugar on top.
And people kept giving me looks like I was a crazy lunatic bitch for telling him to put down cupcakes. And he's a great kid, so I caved a couple of times and tried to reassure him it didn't bother me (otherwise, he had no intention of eating it).
For the most part, he's been fantastic about all of this. He didn't care about the cookies, pies, chocolate covered chocolates, etc., but he did miss his beloved ketchup.
We caved and went back to organic cane sugar ketchup.
Not a big deal, people say, but until I get my PhD in bacterial annihilation, I remain unreassured by the gentle 'You're doing more than most as it is,' advice.
He has since been put on digestive enzymes, omegas, specific digestives for gluten/dairy, and I rotate vitamins from D to C and a multi-vitamin.
Plus, and I can't stress this enough, the probiotics.
Honestly, he was pretty amazing the day after he drank a kombucha (which has naturally created enzymes, probiotics and antioxidants), but I'm not a health care professional and Jack's not a big fan of kombucha.
He craved fast food cheeseburgers and fries the first two weeks of all this. "When are we going to McDonald's again? Are we EVER going back? Am I NEVER getting another cheeseburger?"
After awhile, I kept hearing, 'Where's my heroin?' screaming from his gut.
Now he doesn't say it as much. In fact, he self regulates more maturely than any other adult I've ever known to do something like this.
And Pickles is no longer weepy at night before falling asleep. She's the opposite. She's happy! She's giggling before she conks out. It's really REALLY fascinating.
I'm withholding other observations of how Jack's doing with all this for now. There have been some cool changes. But these things take time. It can take more than four weeks to get the casein protein flushed out of the body. I'm just getting started with figuring out where enzymes are produced in the body and pondering whether or not the pancreas is the source of the imbalance or something else blocked the enzymes from getting to the intestines...if the bacteria was the first problem or a breach in the mucousal lining... How much of genetics we talking about here? Etc. I see changes in him, but I see changes in ALL of us. So I'm giving it more time before getting excited.
In the meantime, I can feel good that he's eating the way humans should be eating.
Which reminds me, I have to go start dinner.
Happy New Year, everybody!!
© Copyright 2012 Angeline Larimer
Notepad next to me has scribbled: "pepsin/marshmallow root (for small intestine)"
15 conversations with 15 different people (at least) over the holidays about what it all means, these sensitivities leading to mood alterations because of poor nutrition quality...
But since I've been on this diet for over a month, I can't seem to sit and offer any advice to anyone else on the brink of making their own decisions. This is something you have to do for yourself. The research, the commitment, the sacrifices. I won't even bother mentioning how much weight I lost. That's totally not what this is about.
This is something I've known needed to be done for a long time and have subconsciously been gravitating towards for years...
When so much information flooded me at once, pointing to the probability that Jack's got a malabsorption issue with his digestion, that was it.
No more artificial food additives, preservatives, added junk to make foods more addictive, processed, refined, added sugars, no "fortified" foods (which have to be fortified because the processing of them made them nutrition less). So no more fast food, no more easy to pop in the oven frozen food, no pizzas piping hot at the door a half hour after calling, no more turning up the nose at the produce aisle because it all goes bad before the more enticing longer shelf life stuff runs out...
That's where we started.
That was a good place to start. Made what came next a lot easier to handle.
Jack's tests revealed high IgG antibodies for predominantly dairy foods, but also wheat. Gluten was not as great a number, but several foods were on the second tier alongside gluten. Also, seven of his neurotransmitters were elevated. Two of them extremely so.
IgG doesn't mean he's allergic so much as his body developed antibodies to proteins slipping through his mucousal lining not fully or properly digested. Why would they not be properly digested? How could they get through his digestive cell walls? What does it matter anyway? Apparently, and this is all news to me, if you have these peptides in your system, they build up and create problems in the brain that cause every behavioral issue we've been suffering as a species over the course of humanity ...it's just that there's a much higher amount of behavioral suffering going on now because of a collision of modern medicine with our shitcrap food (+ pollution). We need our food as a society to last a long time on the shelf because nobody cooks home cooked meals. We need it boiled down and refined and over processed so a lot of it can get made, get packaged, get shipped over the country, get eaten six months to a year later.
It's fantastic we're not starving to death, except we sorta are.
People crave and eat more because they get so little nutrition from food.
I know this from juicing. One glass of veggies and I'm full. A super-sized cheeseburger meal and I'd still be digging to the bottom of the kids' bags to finish off their spilled over French fries.
It's unfortunate we're not intelligent enough to make the best foods for us just as convenient and affordable to purchase...
Or AREN't we?
After a week or so of freaking out a bit in the health food stores, waiting in line behind label readers (I need to start taking reading glasses to the store), turns out it's not so hard eating right.
Plus I just went hard core and bought bulk online, so it's not as expensive, either.
We now have the benefits of a food co/op at the push of a button.
When I consider how much less we spend eating out, I'm guessing the numbers even out.
And even if they don't mouthful to mouthful, we don't need to eat as much (meat, for example), because we get more nutrition per bite.
AND, when we're older, our health bills are going to be so much less than average.
Hell, if I can get away with achieving old age without needing any medication, I'll keep drinking spinach daily from now 'til my 100th birthday.
I'm lucky, though. I have my garden. I have new incentive to bother canning, freezing, drying, even. This will also equalize the food bill, not to mention add even more reassurance as to the healthy contents of the foods we eat.
This will put people off who smell lots of extra work (or don't have the time).
But I have a dramatic sense of personal fulfillment again.
Control.
Could be because I'm eating an impeccable diet.
The last ten years I couldn't help but notice how modern medicine has been pushing drugs. You're depressed, anxious, can't get on top of life, can't make two and two come out four and the vicious cycle repeats itself, so someone decided to start messing around with the neurotransmitters and skipped all those steps that should have been taken in between, such as encouraging--insisting upon!--a healthy HEALTHY diet. Mostly clean and organic raw vegetables (the really healthy ones, I mean). Meats without antibiotics or hormones...and not a lot of them, mind you. A couple servings a week, no bigger than 6 oz cuts. They should have started with the basics and worked out to drugs, but until someone believable finally insists it's the food making us sick, that's what doctors are going to do...prescribe medication. Because they know diet and exercise goes over like liver and onions.
Casein & gluten (dairy and grain proteins) are the most difficult to digest. Undigested proteins start to clog stuff up and cause problems, the same as (I'm assuming) cholesterol and plaque buildup in the arteries. Dairy/casein and gluten IS IN EVERYTHING processed. This is why I imagine these two proteins have become a big issue. We eat far too much of them.
And we don't eat beneficial bacteria in our over processed diets any more, which means all of us are at risk for digestive problems.
People with digestive systems that function properly could still have non-behavioral obvious digestive issues that they don't know about such as long term cloggage...gas, poop problems nobody ever talks about... but what I've been submersed in these last few months is the likelihood that more and more people I know have "leaky gut".
If undigested proteins are leaking out into the bloodstream from the intestines, you get a chain reaction of biological events that cause all sorts of psychological-seeming issues. You get neurotransmitters out-of-whack, for instance. Mildly you get foggy brain. Severe, you get diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer's, depression, etc.
Or so the research is suggesting these days.
All I know is that while educating myself on all of this, I've come to realize I knew nothing about my body before, and totally ignored the effects of food. I took my health for granted far too long. I ate things I always ate and shrugged and imagined what's bad goes out the other end...
So long as I exercised, I could eat whatever and be healthy.
Maybe that's true for now, but I don't want to be 60 and aching in all my joints, struggling with eyesight, memory, impulse control, lack of energy or enthusiasm, lack of self esteem, feeling thirty years older than I really am, essentially. I've opted through all of this to begin a life of prevention and maintenance for the long haul.
And so, after a month...I can't physically bring myself to drink a soda. Especially diet sodas. It tastes like chemicals. I can't do it.
I drive by fast food and shake my head in anger.
I get food cravings for random strange foods like Doritos or cheesy burritos or Raviolios and I realize that my mind obsesses about it because the manufacturers of those foods made them addictive. Not because I lack self control...I do not lack self control... but because my chemistry was tricked into needing it.
Try fixing your gut. It is the healthiest thing you'll ever do for yourself. In our case, we can't eat casein and gluten until we're sure the leak is fixed, so we have to substitute all the foods we used to eat containing those two proteins with ...turns out... all the healthy foods we forgot existed.
We can't put cheese or butter on our vegetables any more, so we eat them without and after a week, the notion of cheese or butter on any vegetable began to turn my stomach. (Like maple syrup on spaghetti.)
Christmas dinner was a horror fest. Not my mom's. My mom made a beautiful roast with oven roasted veggies in a veggie broth with gluten free bread from the breadmaker and a big bowl of steamed broccoli (no butter). My children ate every morsel. No one left the table unsatisfied. That's something I've noticed...when I'm hungry, I'm hungry--you have to eat BEFORE you sense your sugar dropping or making that meal for yourself is gonna be tough, but after I eat (and half the old portion size does the trick) I am no longer craving anything. I'm up for doing an activity. I'm done thinking about my stupid food. I'm not tired...I'm all, 'Let's go!! Let's do stuff!'
We got a juicer when I started suspecting Jack has digestive malabsorption issues, and we've used that contraption more times than all the other counter top appliances combined, though the rice cooker's getting quite a workout. I now know that if I juice spinach, carrot, and apple into 8 oz. and drink it before starting dinner, I'll get enough of an energy boost to keep working for at least two hours. No sugar crash.
What I used to do was eat cheese.
Now I drink vegetables.
But the biggest thing that's made a difference, the most dramatic reaction to any of this, was the cut back on sugar.
I decided to do this going along with the notion that the gut has an overgrowth of bad bacteria that feeds on all the sugars and carbs that are so prevalent in our current American diet. I figured there was no hope fixing the leak if the body was fighting against the invasive bacteria, and since I can't help shaking that a long stretch of antibiotics is what caused all this imbalance in the first place, sought out other means to killing bacteria in the gut.
So.
No sugar. Starve them out.
Day one of doing this, everyone lost their shit (behaviorally).
Sugar is in way too many foods that we'd been eating.
Including ketchup.
It was like every single bacteria in my son's gut united and screamed, "GIVE US THE SUGAR NOW!!!"
It was awful.
I cried a couple of times.
We were all in terrible moods for three days.
And then Jack was sleeping all through the night. The OCD like tics were fading.
I'd also started him on a probiotic, and the combination of the two really seemed to make a big difference.
But the holidays hit us and the holidays are pure sugar wrapped in frosting with more sugar on top.
And people kept giving me looks like I was a crazy lunatic bitch for telling him to put down cupcakes. And he's a great kid, so I caved a couple of times and tried to reassure him it didn't bother me (otherwise, he had no intention of eating it).
For the most part, he's been fantastic about all of this. He didn't care about the cookies, pies, chocolate covered chocolates, etc., but he did miss his beloved ketchup.
We caved and went back to organic cane sugar ketchup.
Not a big deal, people say, but until I get my PhD in bacterial annihilation, I remain unreassured by the gentle 'You're doing more than most as it is,' advice.
He has since been put on digestive enzymes, omegas, specific digestives for gluten/dairy, and I rotate vitamins from D to C and a multi-vitamin.
Plus, and I can't stress this enough, the probiotics.
Honestly, he was pretty amazing the day after he drank a kombucha (which has naturally created enzymes, probiotics and antioxidants), but I'm not a health care professional and Jack's not a big fan of kombucha.
He craved fast food cheeseburgers and fries the first two weeks of all this. "When are we going to McDonald's again? Are we EVER going back? Am I NEVER getting another cheeseburger?"
After awhile, I kept hearing, 'Where's my heroin?' screaming from his gut.
Now he doesn't say it as much. In fact, he self regulates more maturely than any other adult I've ever known to do something like this.
And Pickles is no longer weepy at night before falling asleep. She's the opposite. She's happy! She's giggling before she conks out. It's really REALLY fascinating.
I'm withholding other observations of how Jack's doing with all this for now. There have been some cool changes. But these things take time. It can take more than four weeks to get the casein protein flushed out of the body. I'm just getting started with figuring out where enzymes are produced in the body and pondering whether or not the pancreas is the source of the imbalance or something else blocked the enzymes from getting to the intestines...if the bacteria was the first problem or a breach in the mucousal lining... How much of genetics we talking about here? Etc. I see changes in him, but I see changes in ALL of us. So I'm giving it more time before getting excited.
In the meantime, I can feel good that he's eating the way humans should be eating.
Which reminds me, I have to go start dinner.
Happy New Year, everybody!!
© Copyright 2012 Angeline Larimer
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
"I know what yellow looks like..."
Amazon, you need to hire product review editors. Also, there should be an exam to determine a reviewer's ability to properly assign a reasonable star value.
One star ratings should be reserved for such product disasters as, for example, 'Jack-in-the-box came out of the box, then stabbed my terrier to death with a shiv that he fashioned out of his spring.'
NOT: "Recently I finally was able to afford to buy a mixer cover for my kitchenaid mixer, so I decided I wanted the yellow, since it is my favorite color. I know what yellow looks like, even the picture of the cover is yellow, however the color I got instead of what I wanted is a dull gold color. I'm going to keep it even though it is'nt what I wanted and expected, because I have heart problems and I dont want to walk to the post office and have to pay shipping costs out of my pocket to return this to the company."
My suggested rewrite: "Three Stars because IMO the yellow is more of a gold color, and I am very particular about my yellow. Other than that, the product was great, so I've decided not to exchange it."
Good lord, person. I sure hope you get to feeling better! Not being able to walk because of a heart condition just might be skewing your perspective toward the negative a little bit, though. One star for a gold mixer cozy instead of yellow? That's like beating the waiter because the tea was unsweetened.
This is probably why Europeans hate us, from reading our Amazon reviews.
And now you know I was shopping for KitchenAid mixer coasters. Pretty much decided I'm not going with the yellow now.
© Copyright 2011 Angeline Larimer
One star ratings should be reserved for such product disasters as, for example, 'Jack-in-the-box came out of the box, then stabbed my terrier to death with a shiv that he fashioned out of his spring.'
NOT: "Recently I finally was able to afford to buy a mixer cover for my kitchenaid mixer, so I decided I wanted the yellow, since it is my favorite color. I know what yellow looks like, even the picture of the cover is yellow, however the color I got instead of what I wanted is a dull gold color. I'm going to keep it even though it is'nt what I wanted and expected, because I have heart problems and I dont want to walk to the post office and have to pay shipping costs out of my pocket to return this to the company."
My suggested rewrite: "Three Stars because IMO the yellow is more of a gold color, and I am very particular about my yellow. Other than that, the product was great, so I've decided not to exchange it."
Good lord, person. I sure hope you get to feeling better! Not being able to walk because of a heart condition just might be skewing your perspective toward the negative a little bit, though. One star for a gold mixer cozy instead of yellow? That's like beating the waiter because the tea was unsweetened.
This is probably why Europeans hate us, from reading our Amazon reviews.
And now you know I was shopping for KitchenAid mixer coasters. Pretty much decided I'm not going with the yellow now.
© Copyright 2011 Angeline Larimer
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Pepperoni Pizza Fan
LitPS retro:
Going through my Flickr stream, trying to get organized before more projects...
Saw this.
Sniffled.
*Little Jackie, summer 2008 at the Indiana State Fair. He's like in college now by comparison. Usually people say time goes fast 'Don't miss it!' and I roll my eyes, but three years has clearly been a lot of changes for this boy.
Man.
Slow down, life!!
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
When did fall happen?
Halloween came and went.
October for that matter.
It's been pretty outside.
I've been dizzy (not literally).
Lots going on. Lots good within our foursome. Lots weird for others in a negative way that doesn't have much to do with me, but I know all the details anyway.
That's how time flies. While pondering the details.
Pick picked this rose and presented it to me at the end of a rotten tomato fight. I'd been making a pot roast & two pumpkin pies, so I'd gotten down to the garden with my camera a little too late for action shots. The kids and their pals were tired out and the afternoon light was dull and gray.
She doesn't pick the stems no matter how many times I've suggested it, so I carried this rose around between my fingertips, trying to click the camera one handed.
The dogs came running, wanting pats, and I lost the flower in the wind. The petals blew apart and the cocker spaniel pounced the remains.
And that was October.
Friday, October 28, 2011
The true holiday nut around here...
(Found on my desk this morning... Pick's Christmas Gift Shopping List)
Mom/ chapter book (Mrs. G, too)
Jack/Mario Party (any of them)
Dad/ mixed nuts + a paper airplane
(I have no idea what to get Tom now.)
© Copyright 2011 Angeline Larimer
Mom/ chapter book (Mrs. G, too)
Jack/Mario Party (any of them)
Dad/ mixed nuts + a paper airplane
(I have no idea what to get Tom now.)
© Copyright 2011 Angeline Larimer
Thursday, October 27, 2011
I don't really know much about pumpkins.
I always get so much more traffic this time of year.
Truth is, Tom bought four pumpkins a week and a half ago, and they've been sitting on the kitchen island, gutted but not carved. The insides are starting to turn blue.
I...well...suck this year at holiday enthusiasm.
Halloween is usually our thing, but my brain's still stuck somewhere back in early September. Maybe even March 2008.
Feel free to leave links to your favorite pumpkin related recipes, carvings, stories...so that the poor people showing up here right now will get a little of their Google's worth.
And I love you all.
(Grabbing keys--third pick-up of the day in t-minus 20.)
© Copyright 2011 Angeline Larimer
Truth is, Tom bought four pumpkins a week and a half ago, and they've been sitting on the kitchen island, gutted but not carved. The insides are starting to turn blue.
I...well...suck this year at holiday enthusiasm.
Halloween is usually our thing, but my brain's still stuck somewhere back in early September. Maybe even March 2008.
Feel free to leave links to your favorite pumpkin related recipes, carvings, stories...so that the poor people showing up here right now will get a little of their Google's worth.
And I love you all.
(Grabbing keys--third pick-up of the day in t-minus 20.)
© Copyright 2011 Angeline Larimer
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Jack and the Backseat
Blogged about some OCD-like occurrences with Jack a few posts ago.
This has started up some very interesting conversations. In some cases, I've felt a little like a priest.
Yesterday, after Bob Evans, we all piled into the same car which I'd physically removed Jack from last summer, because he would not sit in or exit from the driver's side backseat. Passenger side was always fine. For some reason unexplained, he could not sit behind the driver.
Yesterday, after Bob Evans, I got into the front passenger seat, Tom to drive, Pickles in the middle back, and Aunt Em ... she sat behind me.
None of us thought anything of it. We were engaged in conversation.
Then I heard, "Uh...mom."
"What, Jack?"
"Look at me." I looked over my left shoulder and caught him grinning at me.
"You're sitting in ...the seat!!"
"Yep!" Larger grin.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes!" He clicked on his seat belt and everything.
"Wow. Good for you!"
"Thanks. I knew you'd be pleased."
We made no more issue of it for the remainder of the drive.
Soon as we got home, I grabbed him and gave him a gigantic hug.
"I wasn't scared at all," he said.
All on his own.
With a fan club.
© Copyright 2011 Angeline Larimer
This has started up some very interesting conversations. In some cases, I've felt a little like a priest.
Yesterday, after Bob Evans, we all piled into the same car which I'd physically removed Jack from last summer, because he would not sit in or exit from the driver's side backseat. Passenger side was always fine. For some reason unexplained, he could not sit behind the driver.
Yesterday, after Bob Evans, I got into the front passenger seat, Tom to drive, Pickles in the middle back, and Aunt Em ... she sat behind me.
None of us thought anything of it. We were engaged in conversation.
Then I heard, "Uh...mom."
"What, Jack?"
"Look at me." I looked over my left shoulder and caught him grinning at me.
"You're sitting in ...the seat!!"
"Yep!" Larger grin.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes!" He clicked on his seat belt and everything.
"Wow. Good for you!"
"Thanks. I knew you'd be pleased."
We made no more issue of it for the remainder of the drive.
Soon as we got home, I grabbed him and gave him a gigantic hug.
"I wasn't scared at all," he said.
All on his own.
With a fan club.
© Copyright 2011 Angeline Larimer
Thursday, September 29, 2011
My Amazon is not quite so perilous, but still a Victorian-like obsession
Today's Amazon indulgence (this is where you'll really be tempted to judge me):
Three books by or about Freya Stark. Why three books? Because of the 'consider these other two, then buy three and save' Amazon feature. That's why.
Why Freya Stark? Because...
I was having lunch last April with my pals Carey (awesome and just turned 40, but you'd never know that because she's awesome--or you WOULD know that if you're over 40 and appreciate what real awesomeness is, and I only mention this anyway because it's a milestone we're all processing together/a big reason for this long overdue lunch that finally got put on our busy schedules), Amos (equally awesome, just starting her second trimester of her first pregnancy--known her for almost 25 years), and Mrs. G (age 85--adorable, wonderful, incredible at math, word puzzles, and making me laugh when everyone else might not be sure it's okay to laugh/also Amos's mother).
We met at Petit Chou.
I had (I always have) the Crêpe with Potato and Goat Cheese, the Caesar Salad, and a (couple of) champagne cocktails. Nice of me to drink in front of my pregnant friend, no? She told me to have one for her. Plus, her mother was there to make sure I didn't get too stupid.
[I have a champagne theme running (see post about Wall Street mockers). I promise I didn't walk outside, find a less fortunate person (some shlub buying bulk food at Whole Foods for example) and stand over him with my drink, giggling about how futile his efforts are. I just drank.]
At such lunches, one ends up discussing books. Carey was tempting Amos into joining her book club. Mrs. G. was laughing at me for dribbling on myself, then said to her daughter, "She's cut off." And also, "I only drink Maker's Mark." I love her.
The book Carey had just finished was Like Water for Elephants. This was a title I had debated, mostly waiting on a good review from a trusted source. My interest wasn't because of the movie. Carey, Amos, Mrs. G and I are all people who've lived near Peru, Indiana. The Circus Capital of the World.
(If I was Amazon right now, I'd pop up--'Might I also suggest: The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day. "Enjoyed it very much. Especially because the bull elephant incident happened 1/4 mile down river from where I used to catfish fish.")
I am partial to Depression Era circus stories, and I'm protective of the culture, as I am a former circus performer myself.
Good lord, I can't finish a thought any more.
Carey gave the book a thumbs up, as well as The Help. Also, Mrs. G had nearly finished Jack's copy of Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson, which he needed the following day to do his book report, so -- pregnant Amos drove tipsy me and Mrs. G over to the nearby Barnes & Noble.
And IF you walk into a Barnes & Noble, you will almost certainly end up needing to buy a bunch of other books .
George R. R. Martin posters were everywhere! Excited announcements about his upcoming book signing in coordination with his book release.
"YOU HAVE TO COME SEE HIM!" a B&N employee gasped at me.
The thing was, I've been pecking away at a fantasy genre story for ......how long has it been since the first Lord of the Rings movie came out? I'm sort of a "reluctant fantasy" writer (more magical realism), in that I don't want dragons or orcs or magical creatures, but I do like historical fiction, ...but I don't know history well enough to pull it off, or maybe I enjoy just making things up, 'The HUNS never did that!!'
'That's because they're the HONS!'
Anyway, I have been reading mythology, non-fiction, biographies, gardening books, etc., for years, but no fantasy since Tolkien. I picked up the first book of the Song of Ice and Fire series, and as soon as I did that, the same excited B&N woman who'd jumped out at me from some happy realm hidden behind the 'Upcoming Books' display said, "OH! We've got all four books on sale today!"
"There are four?"
"Soon to be FIVE!"
"Oh. (yipes) Five?"
"Yes, yes! He's coming. George R. R. Martin is coming!! You can't miss seeing him. It's going to be so wonderful!"
How could I not buy all four books after that? She was so happy.
And when I rang up my new library (which also included The Help and Like Water for Chocolate Elephants--I know that's easy, but it's also asking for it), she made me PROMISE to come and get my books signed in July.
[Amos did not get a book. She perused the What to Expect section, but maintained self discipline, said she wasn't quite finished with her Keith Richards biography, and besides, she enjoys the local library, which we also have one of where I live, but ...it's all Amazon's fault for what I've become!!]
Mrs. G picked up her own copy of Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson, then had a lovely chemistry going with her assistant, and opted to pick up Bloody Crimes as well, "But I'm giving it to you after I'm done with it," she said. I have not yet read Bloody Crimes OR Like Water for Elephants OR THE HELP...BECAUSE...
The Song of Ice and Fire series is thousands upon thousands of pages long.
I originally intended to finish all five books before meeting Mr. Martin, but I think at the time of his book signing in July, I was only halfway through the third novel. With three hours of waiting for my turn, I cut that down to 3/4ths of the way through. They are BIG books.
(My hair was frizzy because of the humidity outside.)
This is me meeting George R. R. Martin. By meeting, I mean he was exhausted by the time he signed my books, looked up at me between each signing and since I couldn't come up with anything to say that didn't seem desperate (in my head), he said, "Thanks for coming out."
That was it.
No, 'You remind me of a character I'm writing. Why don't you stay a bit so I can study you after this thing. Maybe grab a coffee?'
'I know a nice French place nearby.'
Oh, I'm kidding.
Hee.
He was nice. I mean, for the 30 seconds I had with him.
Me being the smart ass that I am, when asked by my graduate school alumni newsletter coordinator to mention any recent achievements, I responded: 'Angeline recently met George R. R. Martin, best selling author and the fantasy industry's next billionaire at a book signing in Carmel, at which he told her, "Thanks for coming out," and her mind was blown.' No doubt the alumni newsletter editor is going to print that. Right next to the classmate's blurb who was nominated for a Tony this year. I'm cool with it.
*Been reading since April, and I am currently halfway through book five of, Dances With Dragons. I'm so burnt out, I just want my life back. It was fun at first, but no one should read more than three books of the same fantasy series in a year. This is my opinion. Maybe I just need ONE couple to be in love, and therefore, should go back to reading non-fictions. Which I intend to do. Just as soon as I read...*sob* 500 more pages of this Song of Ice and Fire series.
What the hell does any of that have to do with Freya Stark?
If you've read The Song of Ice and Fire series, you know that the names Frey, Freya and Stark are all over those books. Amos asked how the series was coming along a few weeks ago, and I rambled on my complaints about the Freys betraying the Starks.
"You know there's a famous woman explorer named Freya Stark, right?"
No. I did not.
THAT is why I've ordered books by or about Freya Stark. Because I'm following George R. R. Martin through the fantasy inspiration card catalog.
And after selecting the Freya Stark books, got three more recommendations for Gertrude Bell (Who? I didn't know, either, and I can't have that!)...so I got hooked on her, as well.
What I was really supposed to be ordering was a pink boa for Pick's book report next month. She has to dress up in-character and she chose Judy Moody.
A pink boa, three Judy Moody books, and all the rest (see above).
I am willing to join a support group.
(If Peter Dinklage gets greyscale, I am going to be VERY upset.)
© Copyright 2011 Angeline Larimer
Three books by or about Freya Stark. Why three books? Because of the 'consider these other two, then buy three and save' Amazon feature. That's why.
Why Freya Stark? Because...
I was having lunch last April with my pals Carey (awesome and just turned 40, but you'd never know that because she's awesome--or you WOULD know that if you're over 40 and appreciate what real awesomeness is, and I only mention this anyway because it's a milestone we're all processing together/a big reason for this long overdue lunch that finally got put on our busy schedules), Amos (equally awesome, just starting her second trimester of her first pregnancy--known her for almost 25 years), and Mrs. G (age 85--adorable, wonderful, incredible at math, word puzzles, and making me laugh when everyone else might not be sure it's okay to laugh/also Amos's mother).
We met at Petit Chou.
I had (I always have) the Crêpe with Potato and Goat Cheese, the Caesar Salad, and a (couple of) champagne cocktails. Nice of me to drink in front of my pregnant friend, no? She told me to have one for her. Plus, her mother was there to make sure I didn't get too stupid.
[I have a champagne theme running (see post about Wall Street mockers). I promise I didn't walk outside, find a less fortunate person (some shlub buying bulk food at Whole Foods for example) and stand over him with my drink, giggling about how futile his efforts are. I just drank.]
At such lunches, one ends up discussing books. Carey was tempting Amos into joining her book club. Mrs. G. was laughing at me for dribbling on myself, then said to her daughter, "She's cut off." And also, "I only drink Maker's Mark." I love her.
The book Carey had just finished was Like Water for Elephants. This was a title I had debated, mostly waiting on a good review from a trusted source. My interest wasn't because of the movie. Carey, Amos, Mrs. G and I are all people who've lived near Peru, Indiana. The Circus Capital of the World.
(If I was Amazon right now, I'd pop up--'Might I also suggest: The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day. "Enjoyed it very much. Especially because the bull elephant incident happened 1/4 mile down river from where I used to catfish fish.")
I am partial to Depression Era circus stories, and I'm protective of the culture, as I am a former circus performer myself.
Good lord, I can't finish a thought any more.
Carey gave the book a thumbs up, as well as The Help. Also, Mrs. G had nearly finished Jack's copy of Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson, which he needed the following day to do his book report, so -- pregnant Amos drove tipsy me and Mrs. G over to the nearby Barnes & Noble.
And IF you walk into a Barnes & Noble, you will almost certainly end up needing to buy a bunch of other books .
George R. R. Martin posters were everywhere! Excited announcements about his upcoming book signing in coordination with his book release.
"YOU HAVE TO COME SEE HIM!" a B&N employee gasped at me.
The thing was, I've been pecking away at a fantasy genre story for ......how long has it been since the first Lord of the Rings movie came out? I'm sort of a "reluctant fantasy" writer (more magical realism), in that I don't want dragons or orcs or magical creatures, but I do like historical fiction, ...but I don't know history well enough to pull it off, or maybe I enjoy just making things up, 'The HUNS never did that!!'
'That's because they're the HONS!'
Anyway, I have been reading mythology, non-fiction, biographies, gardening books, etc., for years, but no fantasy since Tolkien. I picked up the first book of the Song of Ice and Fire series, and as soon as I did that, the same excited B&N woman who'd jumped out at me from some happy realm hidden behind the 'Upcoming Books' display said, "OH! We've got all four books on sale today!"
"There are four?"
"Soon to be FIVE!"
"Oh. (yipes) Five?"
"Yes, yes! He's coming. George R. R. Martin is coming!! You can't miss seeing him. It's going to be so wonderful!"
How could I not buy all four books after that? She was so happy.
And when I rang up my new library (which also included The Help and Like Water for Chocolate Elephants--I know that's easy, but it's also asking for it), she made me PROMISE to come and get my books signed in July.
[Amos did not get a book. She perused the What to Expect section, but maintained self discipline, said she wasn't quite finished with her Keith Richards biography, and besides, she enjoys the local library, which we also have one of where I live, but ...it's all Amazon's fault for what I've become!!]
Mrs. G picked up her own copy of Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson, then had a lovely chemistry going with her assistant, and opted to pick up Bloody Crimes as well, "But I'm giving it to you after I'm done with it," she said. I have not yet read Bloody Crimes OR Like Water for Elephants OR THE HELP...BECAUSE...
The Song of Ice and Fire series is thousands upon thousands of pages long.
I originally intended to finish all five books before meeting Mr. Martin, but I think at the time of his book signing in July, I was only halfway through the third novel. With three hours of waiting for my turn, I cut that down to 3/4ths of the way through. They are BIG books.
This is me meeting George R. R. Martin. By meeting, I mean he was exhausted by the time he signed my books, looked up at me between each signing and since I couldn't come up with anything to say that didn't seem desperate (in my head), he said, "Thanks for coming out."
That was it.
No, 'You remind me of a character I'm writing. Why don't you stay a bit so I can study you after this thing. Maybe grab a coffee?'
'I know a nice French place nearby.'
Oh, I'm kidding.
Hee.
He was nice. I mean, for the 30 seconds I had with him.
Me being the smart ass that I am, when asked by my graduate school alumni newsletter coordinator to mention any recent achievements, I responded: 'Angeline recently met George R. R. Martin, best selling author and the fantasy industry's next billionaire at a book signing in Carmel, at which he told her, "Thanks for coming out," and her mind was blown.' No doubt the alumni newsletter editor is going to print that. Right next to the classmate's blurb who was nominated for a Tony this year. I'm cool with it.
*Been reading since April, and I am currently halfway through book five of, Dances With Dragons. I'm so burnt out, I just want my life back. It was fun at first, but no one should read more than three books of the same fantasy series in a year. This is my opinion. Maybe I just need ONE couple to be in love, and therefore, should go back to reading non-fictions. Which I intend to do. Just as soon as I read...*sob* 500 more pages of this Song of Ice and Fire series.
What the hell does any of that have to do with Freya Stark?
If you've read The Song of Ice and Fire series, you know that the names Frey, Freya and Stark are all over those books. Amos asked how the series was coming along a few weeks ago, and I rambled on my complaints about the Freys betraying the Starks.
"You know there's a famous woman explorer named Freya Stark, right?"
No. I did not.
THAT is why I've ordered books by or about Freya Stark. Because I'm following George R. R. Martin through the fantasy inspiration card catalog.
And after selecting the Freya Stark books, got three more recommendations for Gertrude Bell (Who? I didn't know, either, and I can't have that!)...so I got hooked on her, as well.
What I was really supposed to be ordering was a pink boa for Pick's book report next month. She has to dress up in-character and she chose Judy Moody.
A pink boa, three Judy Moody books, and all the rest (see above).
I am willing to join a support group.
(If Peter Dinklage gets greyscale, I am going to be VERY upset.)
© Copyright 2011 Angeline Larimer
Monday, September 26, 2011
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