Happy Halloween, Y'all!

Best Christian T-shirt EVAR

Seen over at Letters From Kamp Krusty.

No longer unemployed...

Rick started his job at the Winstar Casino tonight. This is a huge answer to prayer; he doesn't have to deal with any gamblers, he just has to help keep track of the people who turn loose of more than two grand in one visit -- this helps keep drug-money launderers from doing too much bidness there. Obviously they're still going to do what they do, but at least this way they are prevented from doing too much of it at once.

Y'all pray that he is able to manage the all-night-long thing, at least for ninety days when he can then put in for a different time slot or job.

Our finances are still dire, but this will begin making inroads and helping us begin to catch up.

Adam's codpiece?

A branch of my little fig tree in the backyard. It's a happy little fig tree, considering it gets absolutely no extra attention from me. I didn't get any of its fruit this year; I believe the skwerls stole all of them before I could pick any. Maybe next year.

I canna beLeaf this

Okay, sorry. The canna puns have got to go away. I promise, this is the last one. Until I think of a stupider one, and then all bets are off.


In the meantime, enjoy the rich green striations on this canna leaf.

Okay, y'all are really gonna think I'm weird, but...

I have found a new favorite snack: Dried Shredded Squid.

Yeah, I know. That sounds really, really weird. I guess from a USA standpoint, it may be. But if you like beef jerky or turkey jerky, this is just "jerky" made from shredded squid. It's got a few seasonings (salt, sugar, MSG -- how can you go wrong with that combo?), but other than that, it's very simple. They also make a hot-n-spicy kind, but I decided to just try the basic one first.

I ordered it from AsianFoodGrocer along with my soba and furikake, just as a lark to give it a try. I am now hooked on this stuff. If you like calamari, shrimp, etc., and you also like beef jerky, you will probably like dried shredded squid. You can also find it on Amazon.

Canna You Believe It?

The cannas in the backyard are still gamely blooming, even though it's getting nippier and nippier all the time. I love the hot orangey-red color of these particular cannas; the person who planted them chose wisely.

It was a spectacularly beautiful day today, just the right kind of day to take nice photos like this one.

BOOMER Sooner

My OU Sooners demoralized Kansas today, 35-6. WOOTWOOT!!!

Happy Caturday

Time for the between-the-shoulderblades anti-flea stuff today. Dude hates this stuff, for some reason. Bijou doesn't like it, either. But it's better than having fleas.

This morning we're going on a family outing to the Goodwill store, then having lunch together. Alice pointed out to Rick & me that we hadn't had a "family meeting" in a while, and she wanted to have another one today. Nevermind that we generally only call those when there's serious bidness afoot; I think she just wants us all to go out as a group. I'd rather sleep in, but to humor Alice, I'll go along.

Plus, you never know what treasures you might encounter at Goodwill.

I'm just not that tough

Tonight was Football Friday Night, and a home game for Ballyhoo. Unfortunately, we're playing a highly-ranked competitor, so we are going to get our hineys handed to us... but that is okay.

The main problem for me tonight was that it was FUH-REEZING COLD. I just don't tolerate being cold anymore like I used to be able to. I managed to make it to halftime and told Isaac it was time to head home. I think he was even glad about that, though -- he was freezing, too.

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain...

We're under a flash flood watch tonight here in Cooke County, Texas. As I type, the rain is pouring down outside (and it has been pouring like this all day long). Rick found a wet wall upstairs this morning; we're hoping it's just a leak in the washing machine drain, so he's got the pipes turned off upstairs -- but it certainly won't dry out in this weather, so we may be waiting a little while. It'd be nice if we didn't have our house collapse in a sodden heap.

The kitchen ceiling is leaking, as well. I love old houses.

Funeral

Tomorrow, the Wood family will be traveling to Dallas to our Uncle Bob's funeral. He was Rick's sister's husband; I blogged about him recently a couple of months ago.

I would've liked to have stayed home from school today because I still wasn't feeling totally steady, but because I'm going to be absent tomorrow, I figured it'd be better if I could try to stick it out for the day. Ended up, the cheerleaders needed me to help drive them somewhere after school, so I'm glad I went anyway.

I'm going to go to bed early tonight. Tomorrow's likely to be exhausting, just from a traveling standpoint. The funeral's in Dallas, but the graveside service is in Fort Worth. We'll be attending both.

Meniere's, again

I had to spend a good portion of the afternoon and evening in a horizontal position today, thanks to my screwy inner-ear issues. Nausea, vomiting, profuse sweating, dizziness, roaring tinnitus... the works. I happened to be riding in someone else's car, but thankfully we were close by mom & dad's house, so I had them drop me off there. I lay on the sofa with my head perfectly still for several hours, and finally was able to ride lying down in mom's back seat to get back home. Thanks, Mom... I sure am glad you were close by when I needed you. :)

This is annoying to the extreme. I vote for this thing subsiding and going away on its own. PLEASE.

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A skunk has just wandered into the backyard. The aroma is incredibly pungent here in the house. I normally don't get bothered too much by skunk smell (unless it's ON me or ON my dog), but tonight I'm a little leery of strong odors. Yuggh.

The big game!

Okay, so the game result wasn't QUITE what we would've wanted... although it was not as bad as it could've been... but we had a nice time nonetheless.

I brought the yummy Pumpkin Dip stuff that I posted about the other day:

I added a lot of red food coloring, but that burnt-orange pumpkin stain is difficult to remove once it's present. [sigh] I did my best.

I also made a bowl of guacamole... but by the time I got a photo of it, it was almost gone:

I put six avocadoes in this batch, plus some cumin, fresh garlic, fresh onion, tomato, cilantro, lime, salt, and Cholula hot sauce. That's it.

I love guacamole! Rick went to a lot of trouble hunting down ripe avocadoes for this batch, even though he wasn't going to get to enjoy it because he was feeling sicky-sick and stayed home. So I made sure there was a little left over and I brought it home to him. Don't know if he's even going to be able to consume it, but I was thinking of him anyway.

Being sick is no fun. I actually pushed it a little too hard today, really... I am exhausted just from the drive down there and back. But it was fun anyway, and one hates to dispense with tradition unless it's absolutely necessary. We knew Pop and Mom wouldn't be able to celebrate with us, so we felt a renewed sense of urgency to keep up the normalcy of how things go in this family.

Miss Ava was quite fond of the gingersnaps (wearing them AND eating them):


And we made the traditional Giant OU Cookie:

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-YOU!! We love our Sooners!!

Caturday Nap

It's a very important day for the rest of us... it's the Red River Shootout weekend, in which mortal enemies OU and Texas meet on the battlefield gridiron. We humans have plans.

The cat? Not so much. Unless you count napping in as many different positions as possible.

Who I am on the inside

This photo was taken at our first rent-house on Merced Street in Des Moines, sometime in 1996 or 1997.


This photo was taken on Thanksgiving 1997; we had just brought Alice into our lives and were wading through the adoption process, and I was getting ready to undergo my first bariatric surgery procedure in about another month. I weighed 265 at this point; I now weigh 125.

I have always looked something like this, although this was my highest adult weight. Looking "skinny" doesn't really register in my mind, even though I know that I do now.

This fat girl is still with me and will never fully leave me. She is an integral part of who I am today. She helped me learn several valuable lessons: first, that beauty is not determined by a person's weight or physical shape... second, that ALL of God's children have issues and that some of them show and some don't. But no-one is inferior simply because they're fat. Or thin.

Oh, and one more thing: I have learned that prejudice goes both ways. There are lots of thin people who look down their noses at fat people simply because they're fat... but there are lots and lots of fat people who automatically do not trust someone who's thin, probably because they feel inferior and perhaps because they've been MADE to feel inferior in the past.

It's a shame that more people can't just accept people for who they are, right now, flaws and foibles and all.

That girl in the pictures up there was just as cool and nice and smart as the one writing this post. AND beautiful.

Pumpkin Pie Dip

Saw this over at Taste of Home and thought it sounded amazingly yummy:


Ingredients

* 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
* 2 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1 cup canned pumpkin
* 1/2 cup sour cream
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* Gingersnap cookies


Directions

* In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Beat in the pumpkin, sour cream, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and ginger until blended. Serve with gingersnaps. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 4 cups.


Nutrition Facts

1 serving (2 tablespoons) equals 64 calories, 3 g fat (2 g saturated fat), 10 mg cholesterol, 23 mg sodium, 8 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, 1 g protein.

Tongue-In-Cheeky!

Promising Pre-Med Wins Nobel Prize in Medicine

The Nobel Prize Committee announced today that it is awarding the Prize in Medicine to Jimmy Duncan, a senior at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York, for getting a 97 on his bio-chem final.

“The Committee felt that Master Duncan has shown great promise with his outstanding grades,” said Dr. Leif Quisling, chairperson of the Nobel Prize Committee. “It is our fervent hope that this award encourages him to do great things in the future, such as find a cure for cancer.”

The committee was first alerted to Jimmy Duncan when they came across a YouTube clip of Duncan’s class presentation on his career goals.

“We were particularly struck by his unbridled optimism,” said Dr. Quisling. “Duncan closed his passionate talk with these inspiring words: ’And we can end cancer in our lifetimes if we all work together really, really hard!’ It is exactly those kind of empty platitudes that impress this committee. Far more so than anything so gauche as actual achievement.”

Mr. Duncan was somewhat blase’ about the news. “I was lying in bed playing a little X-Box before heading off to school when my mom yelled, ‘Jimmy, you’ve got a phone call from Stockholm!’ It was pretty cool, yeah.”

Western Day

It cracks me up that they have a "Western Day" spirit-day at Ballyhoo... for a large percentage of our student body, that would be typical clothing every single day.

I borrowed my dad's awesome hat and my friend Melanie's awesome belt and fabulous fringe-y chaps for the occasion. The boots -- well, they're all mine. Justin Ropers, made of ostrich. Very, very comfy. They're not the latest rage in cowboy boots, of course -- those would be the Ariat FatBaby or Crepe Sole boots. Martha wants some of those for Christmas, believe it or not. Cracks me up -- eventually, I suppose peer pressure wins out. Three years ago, when we moved here from Des Moines, she would've sooner died a painful slow death than wear COWBOY BOOTS.

But my Justins? I bought them used on eBay last year. They're serviceable, durable, and non-trendy. I'll never have people looking askance at me for wearing them around these here parts. I probably won't take them with me to NYC next month, though.

Good Stuff

Panola Cajun Jalapeno sauce is GOOOOOOD!! It's a vinegar-based pepper sauce with a nice, green flavor and a mild bite.

Rick and the kids like to buy Buffalo wings, but the pre-packaged frozen Buffalo wings usually contain some kind of corn syrup in the mix, so I'm left out. Last night I made myself some chicken and added a little salt and Jalapeno sauce... surprisingly simple, I know, but since I was Jonesing for spicy vinegary chicken, it worked nicely.

Happy Caturday!

Something that weighs heavy on my mind

I worry from time to time about various things. One thing that never EVER leaves my mind, however, is the worry that some weirdo predator dude will bother Alice.

Alice is especially vulnerable. Not only is she Asian (which some men just seem to fixate on), she is very tiny AND she is unable to physically resist or even verbally defend herself.

Today I read a pretty decent article outlining some Guidelines for Protecting Special Needs Kids from Predators over at Type-A Mom.

As parents of special needs children, it can be a daunting prospect to keep children safe. No matter how well they are watched, our children are still vulnerable to those that would prey upon them.

I'm probably never going to completely get away from that fear... but it's good to know that I'm not alone in my concern.

Another NYC trip in my future?

Yes, I'm already going to NYC next month for my birthday, thanks to my BFF. But it looks like I'm going to be accompanying a group of students to NYC next June as well.

I love traveling, and I love my students. What's not to love about a trip where everything's planned out and taken care of? I love the kinds of trips where I'm on my own, but sometimes it's nice to have someone else doing the planning and the meals and stuff.

I'd also like to take Isaac along on the trip. We shall see if that works out.

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I have been SO STINKIN' TIRED every evening when I get home from school. I would hate this if I didn't love my job so much.

This is the first year I've really felt like my class is beginning to "gel", that I'm actually teaching art and not just treading water or staying afloat. I really love my new classroom with its closets (!!) and its sink and its tile floors. I love that it's at the front of the school building, close to all the action in the office and in the hallways.

The hair

I'm not accustomed to fixing it yet, so it doesn't look too wonderful, but I love the color that Mary put on it. The main base color is a nice rich brown, and there are occasional blonde and then purplish-red highlights intermingled in it:


As a girl who's been doing the red-head thing for quite a while now, it's a nice change. I like it. It's a lot shorter than I usually go, too.

Weekend wildflowers

On the way home from my hair appointment yesterday (which began as one of the most beautiful days I've ever seen), the fall wildflowers were out in profusion and I couldn't resist stopping by the side of Highway 82 between Sherman and Gainesville to capture a few of them.

Here we have an Engelmann Daisy (Engelmannia pinnatifida). They're quite abundant in ditches and roadsides right now.



This cute little seedpod is a mystery to me right now, but I'm on the trail of finding out what it is. It belongs to a long, skinny vine and it was out amidst the Johnson grass in the middle of nowhere. The seedpods were abundant, and when they ripen they're brown but the same triangular balloon shape.

UPDATE: I'm quicker than I thought. This is a noxious weed called a Balloon Vine (Cardiospermum halicacabum). Some folks also call it "Love In A Puff"... bwaha!! Anyway, I can see how it would develop into something rather annoying in a yard, but out in the middle of nowhere it's kinda cool-looking.



This little gem is called a "Leavenworth Eryngo" (Eryngium leavenworthii)... it's so unusual-looking, I just had to stop and catch some photos of it. Apparently it's tempting enough for a bumblebee, too. The color on these things is nothing short of amazing.



And this beauty, which in its clumps looks like an exploding fireworks display, is a "Gayfeather" (Liatris spicita).

As soon as I'm able to get a good photo of my new 'do (hint: I'm now a brunette), I'll post it.

OWWW

I have what may be the worst headache I've had in several years. I'm pretty sure it's just a factor of the weather, hormones and allergies coming together into the perfect storm, but I am miserable. I'd sleep, but I'm not sleepy. I just hurt.

I have taken Sudafed and Excedrin. I know it isn't a caffeine headache because the only caffeine I ever get anymore is when I occasionally take Excedrin.

If the headache subsides at all, I'll blog later. I got some great photos this weekend.

UPDATE: My hearing is acting up pretty intensely now. I had forgotten that headaches are also a symptom of Meniere's, as well as the hearing anomalies. I was also dizzy this morning. This is a Meniere's thing. Yecch.