After making some rolls for myself and M night before last, I had a LOT of ingredients left, so we descended on friends L and J last night, bearing sushi ingredients, and made a whole mess of rolls.
Everything turned out good. The rice was not 100% done enough, but the difference here was subtle. Now I REALLY want to have an actual sushi party with lots more people and share the joy :)
Here’s the details if you are interested. Ingredients, tips, etc
Today’s meme brought to you by mactavish:
http://www.antispin.net/~martine/cgi-bin/insanity.cgi?gconnor
Try it with your username or your friends’
New picture! It is not a great picture but it shows off my new summer haircut.
This is mostly so that those of you who know me won’t scream when you see me.
Bigger version here.
I have added some friends to my friends page. Welcome back :)
I have set up some groups that allow me to watch some friends’ journals and not others, depending on my mood at the time. So if you’re on my friends list, I may or may not be reading your journal religiously, but you will still have access to any friends-only posts I have made (though these are rare).
You don’t have to add me to your friends list… I won’t be offended either way.
I am going to give the “half-assed” diet another try. The idea (as explained to me by Ambar) is to eat half of what you normally eat, and you will lose half your ass.
So I am taking baby steps, like asking for “no rice” with the cafeteria meals, getting salad instead of entree selection, half a doughnut instead of a whole one, etc. I managed to avoid pizza twice this week by getting salad instead. I got Chicken Marsala from By Th Bucket (reasonably cool italian place) and put half on a plate and half in a tupperware.
I’m discovering that leftovers are cool. Leftovers are, of course, much more effective if you stop eating *before* it’s all gone.
Anyway, I have dropped 5 pounds in a week or so, not a big deal, but I really want baby steps here. I’m looking for a lifestyle change, not a clever thing I can do for 5 weeks and get a brand new shape I can’t maintain.
Days passed Sunday-Friday: 6
Days with 15 min exercise: 5
Days we had restaurant food: 3-4?
Weight Sunday: 272
Weight Friday: 267
My doctor gave me a new prescription for blood pressure (Lotensin). The old one (Lopressor) seemed to make me incredibly tired, like I couldn’t wake up even after sleeping 8 hours. But, it looks like it is doing the job of keeping my BP down.
My leg feels better. I got pretty much all the mobility back, in terms of range of motion, but still the ankle and toe are both really weak. The ankle muscle is the one that pulls the foot up, and the toe muscle is the one that points my big toe up. I can move my ankle with some resistance (like the other foot resting on it) but it’s not enough strength to walk around on my heels. The big toe has almost no strength to overcome resistance though.
I went walking today and went for a short bike ride yesterday, so hopefully I can keep it up, just doing a little bit each day. I was sitting here yesterday morning, thinking to myself, “Am I satisfied with how I look and feel today? If not, what am I going to do about it *today*?” I think I will go back to my system of watching portion sizes, and trying to exercise at least as much as I eat from restaurants, and see how that works for a while. Easy does it, I guess.
Work is cool; we announced a cool internal documentation site, which has a search feature and a dynamic real-time navigation bar, so that is good.
I gave my grandmother an old PC that I had lying around in various pieces, and she was not sure she would be able to handle the technology – they used computers before at her work, but this “mouse” was something new. But she seems to have picked it up quickly, and she signed up for email on her own and sent me a message. That was quick!
We went up to see M’s grandmother this weekend, to take the couch up there for her extra room. Renting the truck was not fun. The new company I called (Budget/Ryder) took my reservation, but called the next day to say they didn’t actually have a truck, to fulfill the reservation. Like, someone else had failed to bring the truck back, I asked? No, just that at the time I made the reservation, they were not able to check to see if one was available, they just took my info and called back the next day to say there was a problem. The local guy who called me said that I would have to call the central number again, and the lady at the central number said that she filled out a “wait form” for me, and that I would have to call again in the morning, to a third number, to see if there was a truck. I said, I don’t want to do that, I would rather call another vendor who will make me a reservation and actually *honor* it. So I called U-Haul and all was well.
That’s all for now.
The back and leg pain is getting better. The doctor had given me instructions to take advil (at about the max dosage) and do some stretches, and also apply heat, etc. Well, I had stopped taking the advil and doing the stretches because it was starting to get better, but I think I stopped too soon. I started the stretches and advil again and it’s helping more this time. Stretching my left hamstring hurts like Hell but it feels MUCH better after having done it.
Blood pressure: after testing low at the doctor’s office (146/80) I was encouraged, but after testing myself during the day, I’m back to being high again, 161/90. I guess that’s better than the 171/100 that it was before starting. I don’t like how the medication makes me tired.
I read the book The Relaxation Response – it is quite interesting, and hopefully the technique will be helpful. It’s basically about how to relax the mind and asserts that this practice (like meditation, but demystified and simplified) provokes a “response” in the body, which is the opposite of the “fight or flight” instinct that powers our adrenaline and renal systems… I am thinking I would like to try some mind-relaxing sessions to see if they help with the blood pressure and general stress levels.
Another strange and disturbing dream. Continue reading
Has anyone else been reading the Thursdayfolks Friends page? I have been reading it on and off. Reply here to let me know.
