Ribs

Ribs I
On Saturday I slow-cooked a big rack of ribs in my sporty slow-cooker. Oh my goodness they smelled the house up something wonderful. I ate three for supper. They were big. Awesome, falling-off-the-bone, sauce-just-right, yummy yummy dance for joy. Tilly ate the bones. On Sunday late afternoon I turned the ribs back on thinking I'd have another ribby dinner. I didn't QUITE forget about them, but I had had a late lunch and wasn't hungry for supper at supper time, and since I'm the only one in the house to eat my slow-cooked ribs, they left the front element of my brain. [How come no one ever says that? They say 'put it on the back burner' lots, but never say when they're using the front coils. Weird.] I kept smelling them through the evening, and because it's a SLOW cooker I never thought I could burn anything in there. Wrong-o. If you leave stuff in there long enough, it burns. At 9pm I went to get some and found a large black mess. I picked a few out to see if they were scortched or just blackened, and the meat was not charcoal, but it was VEEEEEEEERY black, all the way through. Terrible loss! Oh woe betide the ribs of yumminess! They hath forsaken me. Sniffle.


Ribs II
I have a cough. I've had it since the day after the day I came back from North Bay for the Spa Weekend. So that would be March 16th. It started off not so bad, loose, no stuffy head to accompany it, just a little rattley cough that stayed. About a week later it started to tighten up a bit. Coughing wasn't so easy. Had to use vicks vaporub at night. A few difficult nights. Let's say that started last Wednesday. Coughing fits at work are AWESOME, let me tell you. Coughing fits in general are spectacularly fantastic. I love them. I've had a lot of practice and now am really good at them. Sunday night I had a particularly bad coughing fit, and afterwards my right side ached. Saturday morning I had another really bad coughing fit and that was NOT fun because the ache became real pain in my ribs. Grimace-of-pain-on-the-face pain. At work people who'd had broken and bruised ribs before sympathized and offered suggestions of holding a pillow tight against your painful ribs when coughing, and I discovered the support does help ease the pain. I made it through my day, but at home it just got worse and worse. Sleeping last night was terrible. Getting ready this morning was painful. And after I came back from walking Hayden to the bus, the coughing fit I had was so bad and so painful I decided to call off work and am headed to the clinic after Jake gets home. I don't think it's broken, but I just want to make sure. Also ibuprofen is not working to take the edge off the pain, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get something a little stronger.

Aspartame

For all you diet pop drinkers and gum chewers and other "diet" junk stuff eaters, I ask of you to read this website.

http://www.sweetpoison.com

I was at work, reading my package of gum (I was actually looking to see if there were an expirey date or not) and in big bold letters it said after the ingredients "Aspartame contains phenylalanine." So I looked it up. I have often heard before that aspartame is worse for you than sugar, but never took the time to discover how much worse. How much worse could it be? you ask. Well, if you don't take the time to read that website and all the revealing information within, here are a few key points [I added the bolding]:

Aspartame is the common denominator for over 92 different health symptoms at the root of modern disease.

Phenylalanine is a neurotoxin and excites the neurons in the brain to the point of cellular death.

Aspartame dissolves into solution and can therefore travel throughout the body and deposit within any tissue. The body digests aspartame unlike saccharin, which does not break down within humans.

Adverse reactions and side effects of aspartame include:

Eye
blindness in one or both eyes
decreased vision and/or other eye problems such as: blurring, bright flashes, squiggly lines, tunnel vision, decreased night vision
pain in one or both eyes
decreased tears
trouble with contact lenses
bulging eyes

Ear
tinnitus - ringing or buzzing sound
severe intolerance of noise
marked hearing impairment

Neurologic
epileptic seizures
headaches, migraines and (some severe)dizziness, unsteadiness, both confusion, memory loss, both severe drowsiness and sleepiness paresthesia or numbness of the limbs severe slurring of speech
severe hyperactivity and restless legs
atypical facial pain
severe tremors

Psychological/Psychiatric
severe depression
irritability
aggression
anxiety
personality changes
insomnia
phobias
Chest palpitations, tachycardia
shortness of breath
recent high blood pressure

Gastrointestinal
nausea
diarrhea, sometimes with blood in stools
abdominal pain
pain when swallowing

Skin and Allergies
itching without a rash
lip and mouth reactions
hives
aggravated respiratory allergies such as asthma

Endocrine and Metabolic
loss of control of diabetes
menstrual changes
marked thinning or loss of hair
marked weight loss
gradual weight gain
aggravated low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
severe PMS

Other
frequency of voiding and burning during urination
excessive thirst,
fluid retention, leg swelling, and bloating
increased susceptibility to infection

Additional Symptoms of Aspartame Toxicity include the most critical symptoms of all
death
irreversible brain damage
birth defects, including mental retardation
peptic ulcers
aspartame addiction and increased craving for sweets
hyperactivity in children
severe depression
aggressive behavior
suicidal tendencies

Aspartame may trigger, mimic, or cause the following illnesses:
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Epstein-Barr
Post-Polio Syndrome
Lyme Disease
Grave’s Disease
Meniere’s Disease
Alzheimer’s Disease
ALS
EpilepsyMultiple Sclerosis (MS)
EMS
Hypothyroidism
Mercury sensitivity from Amalgam fillings
Fibromyalgia
Lupusnon-Hodgkins
Lymphoma
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)

These are not allergies or sensitivities, but diseases and disease syndromes. Aspartame poisoning is commonly misdiagnosed because aspartame symptoms mock textbook ‘disease’ symptoms, such as Grave’s Disease.

So does anyone want the rest of my case of Diet Dr Pepper? Half-price because it's full of poison.

Spring!!

Today we were supposed to get 10 cm of snow. Instead we got rain! I'm stoked. They're still saying we may get snow tonight, but I don't think it will. I keep checking my now-exposed garden for my daffodil sprouts. I have no idea when they should be appearing, but I figure the ground LOOKS thawed.. and it's almost April... I think it'll be any day now. Of course I could be way off. This is my first year of daffodils. In addition to them this year I think I'll have tomatoes and peas again, marigolds because Carol said they keep bugs away, zuccini, aaaaand.. um... some other kind of flowers. I was thinking also of having a large hanging basket of morning glories and letting them trail down instead of twine upwards. Think that'll work? [it would take a miracle]

My front garden is shady until later afternoon, so I looked up what flowers like shade. Marigolds are not on the list. I think I'll put them on the side with my peas, tomato, and daffodils. I did find out that Bleeding Hearts and Bugbane are both very pretty flowers that like the shade. Bugbane repells bugs as well.

I'm getting excited!!

March's Picture Catch-Up

You've all been so patient waiting and waiting for the pictures I've been promising. Here they is.

The new face of choice of my boise. I don't know where they picked it up. Probably daycare. These are the first couple of pictures from my new camera, which I got for my birthday to replace the spa weekend that was cancelled.

I should say the SPA was cancelled. The weekend was not. I went to North Bay and left all the boise at home, and Carol left her gurls with BJ and Chantelle (as seen below) was lucky enough to have all her three kids at her mother-in-law's house for the weekend. LOOK OUT! Three Mammas all kidless and looking for a good time! We didn't actually have to go far for a good time, Chan is Carol's neighbour and she'd prepared a FABULOUS and YUMMY meal, and we gave each other spa treatments.

We had yummy wine. Yes. I said yummy wine. I liked it. (I don't usually like wine at all) And very appropriately called Girls' Night out!

Yummy feta bruchetta appetizers.

Beautiful decor.

Home-made bread and buns with red pepper butter individually served in rosettes.

The Main: pork with three different kinds of mushrooms sauteed and served with roasted and herbed mini potatos and honeyed carrots.

Dessert was home-made tiramisu. FANTASTIC.

After supper we had pedicures and painted toenails and did facial treatments too.

Mindi! MY foot! Look! And funny toe separators.

Lookout. Aromatherapy hydrating masked madwoman.

Biore Nose Cool Masked Avenger!

Some of our later night drinks: 7up and grenadine and cointreau for Chan (in the middle) and strawberry daquiries for me and Carol.

Making our midnight cheese-dip snack.

Eating our late night cheese dip snack.

And then moving on to St Patrick's Day, I made cupcakes for my team. The one at the very top is a DX cupcake for Jake. Wrestling reference.

Hayden showing me he doesn't have a scraped cheek.

Sage's scraped cheek. He fell off the equipment at daycare and had a partial black eye and scabby cheek and nose for a while.

Last weekend was cousin Rachael's birthday party which Hayden and I went to. Hannah was there looking like a very grown up little girl. They had a good time together, and played in the 'tent' that was set up in Elizabeth's guest bedroom bunkbeds.

Playing "naptime".

Cutie Pie!

Carter! Rachael's dog.

We went to the library on Sunday afternoon and there was a little boy who came along, 4 years old, named SAGE who pointed out to Hayden that they had the same boots. They had a good time together.

Hayden shows off his new face again.

Little Sage wouldn't pose for any pictures, so he rolled around on the floor, pulling books off shelves.

Last week Sage pushed all his goldfish crackers into his sandwich.

And then decided he wanted to show me The Face. Her's The Face getting ready.

And there It is.

Camera? Pictures? The Face? I want to join in!

Before the March Break Thaw, I was walking back to the house from taking Hayden to the bus and noticed some birdy footprints in the snow. I thought I should capture it and write a blog about it. Not a whole blog, as it turns out, but this much anyway.

Why I Quit Facebook and Other Stories

I guess I owe my fans (fans? or readers? readers.) I mean readers an explanation as to why I quit Facebook. Because I wanted to. I didn't know BJ joined facebook. I thought he would've been like you, Carol, all untrusting and stuff. Facebook was good while it lasted. I reconnected with a whole whack of people I never would've reconnected with, except if I bumped into them in Yorkdale Mall at Christmas time. Which is how I reconnected with Iris from highschool. But we can't all be at yorkdale mall looking in the right direction at the right time in the right overly crowded corridor of the right wing of the right big ass mall ALL THE TIME. So yay for Facebook. I got to know a few people from my teenage years a little better (Christopher W.C. for example) and made new friends (Cathy L for example) and chatted with old friends and updated the world on what I was feeling at any given moment. But I was not happy. Jennifer was not happy with the voyeuristicness of Facebook, amongst other things. They change the format very frequently. Why are they messing with it so much? They need more change control. At my job, it takes months, nay YEARS to get things changed. No that's not true. But it feels like it. I felt like a lot of the control I thought I had was not had, over privacy mainly. I hated getting 20 invites to dumb applications a day. I hated being invited to join all these worthy causes, and being made to feel that if I didn't join, I would've then personally and single-handedly PREVENTED the cure for breast cancer, or cauliflower ear, or whatever. Plus there was that article that Carol showed me about the terms and conditions of FB that were in such fine print, who in their right mind would have time to read such a long and tiny fonted bore-fest? But apparently Facebook owns everything you upload, write, create, read, publish, or even think of. Forever. You can't delete your profile, you can only deactivate it. It is still there. Along with all your photos, thoughts, blogs, comments, etc etc etc. Which they now own. So goodbye yellow facebook.. side blog. See next paragraph.

Um.. has anyone ever read the lyrics to Good Bye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John? here they are:
When are you gonna come down
When are you going to land
I should have stayed on the farm
I should have listened to my old man

You know you can't hold me forever
I didn't sign up with you
I'm not a present for your friends to open
This boy's too young to be singing the blues

So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can't plant me in your penthouse
I'm going back to my plough

Back to the howling old owl in the woods
Hunting the horny back toad
Oh I've finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road

What do you think you'll do then
I bet that'll shoot down your plane
It'll take you a couple of vodka and tonics
To set you on your feet again

Maybe you'll get a replacement
There's plenty like me to be found
Mongrels who ain't got a penny
Sniffing for tidbits like you on the ground

I feel like I've got to take drugs for these words to make sense. Yellow Brick Road is an allusion to the Wizard of Oz, which is in Gay circles the Movie to beat all Movies, and anything referencing the movie is hinting gay hints. So considering that Sir Elton is gay, and that this song was put out before he was (haha - I don't know if that's true or not, because I don't know when he came out of the closet but it sounded funny) but it still doesn't make sense. Putting gayness behind him? Like, trying to be straight? Was he? But those sunglasses.. those suits.. who was he kidding? Anyway side blog now over.

I'm going to bed.

Spring Has Sprung

I have a new camera. I have lots of pictures to share. I have such a large memory stick in my camera I am not forced to unload my pictures after every photo shoot. This is bad news for you.

I am going to do this soon. I have a few blog ideas I need to write. I will write them. You can then read them. Not today though. I am going to bed. And tomorrow night I have a poker tournament (the semifinals of Q92's Ultimate Poker Challenge. 100 people qualified and the top 8 will go play the final table at a real casino in Sault Michigan. Top player will receive $3500 entertainment center.. tv, blueray, other stuff, from Biancos).

Anyhoo.. yah.

Oh and I quit facebook. So this is where your Jennifer News will be gotten. Hm. I guess that means I should update more frequently.

Accident Prone

Today has been quite the disaster, in Sage's world. He's been sooo clumsy! I don't know if it's because maybe he's gotten a lot taller lately and his balance is off with his new height, or maybe he's just in a huge rush, I don't know. Today he fell off the bed, fell loads of times in the living room, tripped twice on the way INTO the grocery store (scraping of all things his forehead on the second fall), poked himself in the eye at the checkout, and then when I was closing the front door after all the groceries were inside, he held onto the doorknob unbeknownst to me, and when I pushed it closed quickly, he was pulled forward with a jerk and his face bashed into the corner of the living room doorway, and he cut both lips. Poor kid. I felt so bad. And then later on, he threw a box of DVD-Rs with cases up into the air, it landed on my knee and I spanked his bum.