Surprise!

How do you like my new place?

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to edit the html code to make the heading picture span across the header up there. I want the picture to fill up the space. Can anybody help me? I probably just need to go find a blog template with a picture that goes across the top and copy and paste that part of the html code into my template and delete mine. Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about?

Thanks to my hubby for making the picture collage of all our animals! Ain't it cool?

If I've forgotten anything over in my sidebar that somebody needs or wants, let me know by leaving a comment.

MRI & "Stuff"

I just got back from getting the MRI. Dang, it took two full hours! I thought it would never be over. I've never had so many itches I couldn't scratch! Ha-ha. At least it was a really wide machine and my head nearly stuck out of the top of it, so I didn't feel claustrophobic at all this time. Of course, I won't have the results for a few days probably. I can pretty much guarantee what they'll tell one of two things:

1. There's nothing wrong! We don't see anything! (That's what another doc told me for a full year before I had the last surgery.)

2. You have some scar tissue from your previous surgery and we need to go clean it out. Ugh. Just kill me instead please! Not that it was horribly painful or anything, but it sure was a pain in the ass with having to wear a back brace for a month or so. I don't even remember how long it was now. It was April of 2002, and I can't even remember what I had for dinner last night so give me a break, will ya?

And while I'm whining and complaining, I have one more thing to bitch about...my freakin' feet are killing me! It feels like my arches are about to break into tiny pieces just like you see on cartoons. I absolutely have to start wearing supportive shoes all day every day, even in the house. Bleh. I can't relax with shoes on! WAH!

That's one thing I thought was weird about Barnaby. When he gets up in the morning and gets dressed, he ALWAYS puts on shoes and socks whether he's going anywhere or not. I think that's weird! My shoes don't go on until the very last thing before I leave the house, and they're the first thing to come off along with my bra, assuming there's no company here. If we do happen to have company, the shoes still come off first thing, but I'm forced to leave the bra on lest I scare everyone half to death with my floppy breasts and beaming headlights. Hee-hee. They're not THAT floppy! I was just trying to be funny. You stop trying to picture me and my floppy breasts! Stop it, I say!

Okay, enough of that silliness.

I'm sleepy (surprise!) because I had to get up before the butt crack of dawn at 5:00 a.m. I'm taking my shoes off and taking a nap! I refuse to wear them to bed, so there.

Author's Note: I started to name this entry "Floppy Titties!" but decided against it. It would attract too many tittie pervs. Go away, Tittie Pervs. You are not welcome here.

I wish I could make a Tittie Pervs sign with a diagonal line through it to post here. Ha-ha. I don't have the time or patience, though. I must sleep. I'm delirious and saying the word titties too much. It must the the radiation.

WTF?

Well, I see I have screwed my blog template all up trying to add something to my sidebar. What a doofus! How did all my sidebar stuff end up at the bottom?

Please excuse my mess. I'll fix it tomorrow, or maybe I'll just surprise you and completely change it again. Hmmm...

Two Short Videos!

I'm calling Sammi a "pumpkin head" at the beginning of the first video. I wanted to clarify that because it kind of sounds like I'm saying the F-word, but I'm not. I always tell her she's a pumpkin head because her head is round and looks like a pumpkin to me. Excuse the blinding whiteness of my arms and legs. Obviously my fake tan wore off.

The second one is Barnaby getting Little Boy to shake hands. As usual, he's acting like we beat him regularly. We don't.

Now that I've figure this out, maybe I can do a video entry!

I'm Hot

This is the City of Allen water tower -- one of them. Every time I see it, I think about a guy I used to work with. His wife had problems with depression for years, and they had four small kids. One day she drove up to this water tower and committed suicide by shooting herself in the head.


That was really a feel-good story, wasn't it? Sorry.

I love this t-shirt. In fact, I'm wearing it today!

We made it to the clock shop Saturday and dropped the clock off to be cleaned and oiled. But we didn't, however, make it to the book store, the shoe warehouse, or Starbucks. Barnaby decided he was hungry and just couldn't wait until we were finished shopping. I had told him we should eat on the way home because if I ate first, I'd be too miserable to do anything else. And that's exactly what happened. I intentionally didn't eat much hoping I'd be okay, but nope. It was extremely hot in that restaurant, and I sweated my ass off and got miserable.

I'm going to make a very general sweeping statement here. Too bad if I offend you. Why do foreigners not know to turn the damn air conditioner up so it's cool in their restaurants? I swear, Asians and Mexicans and Indians all insist on owning every damn restaurant around here, and then they keep it so miserable in there, it's impossible to enjoy yourself. Don't they know us Americans are delicate and spoiled rotten? We are the people patronizing your damn restaurants, nail salons, and cleaners, DAMMIT. Turn the damn air on full blast!

I may or may not be irritable from the heat. You decide. It may or may not be the reason I'm fantasizing about getting a pool. I should wait until the winter and see if I still want one. They may have better prices then anyway.

Remember when I told y'all about the Hormel Roast Beef Au Jus and how great it was? Well, I saw the below recipe in a magazine and it got my mind going (uh-oh, always trouble). There are a ton of things you could do with this really great-tasting roast besides just having roast. I got one plus all the ingredients to make this stew, and I also got another roast to make some beef enchiladas. When I make the enchiladas later this week or next, I'll post the recipe. I'm going to make one up using stuff we like. Anway, here's the stew recipe from Better Homes & Gardens magazine. It looks simple and delicious. I couldn't find the frozen potatoes it calls for, so I'm just going to use some red potatoes I already have and roast them myself.

Summer Stew

17-oz pkg refrigerated cooked beef roast au jus (see link above)

8-oz pkg peeled fresh baby carrots, sliced

3 1/2 cups water

1/2 of a 16-oz pkg refrigerated rosemary-garlic roasted red potatoes

14 1/2-oz can fire-roasted tomatoes with garlic

2 Tbsp snipped fresh oregano or 1 Tbsp dried

Pour juices from roast into a large saucepan; set meat aside. Add carrots and 1 cup water to saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, 3 minutes. Add remaining water, potatoes, tomatoes, and oregano. Return to boil; cover and simmer 3 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Break beef into bite-size pieces and add to the stew; heat through. Season with salt to taste.

Sounds yummy and really easy, no? With a salad and bread, it's a great meal in no time. I'm making it this week. Here's the nutritional info if you're interested:

Per serving: 253 cal, 9g fat (4g saturated), 64 mg chol, 948 mg sodium, 20g carbs, 3g fiber, 25g protein (wow, lots of protein!)

I had some other stuff I was going to talk about, but now I've forgotten what they were. Ha! Oh, well, I'll be back later if I think of them.

I just remembered one...We went to Walmart yesterday evening and had a big debate beforehand about whether we should take showers and change clothes before we went. We decided not to and left. While we were in the store, Barnaby walked up behind me and said, "You don't look very skanky at all!"

Uh, thank you. I think.

I just remembered another thing...Barnaby made some short videos of the dogs Friday evening. I think he managed to get my white legs and no-make-up face in all of them. If I can figure out how to cut out the parts with me in them, or if I just get brave and say screw it, I'll post one or two later this afternoon.

Coffee, Clocks, Books & Shoes!

We are going to take the clock in our living room to the clock place to have it cleaned and oiled today. We bought it for our 4th wedding anniversay, although we didn't have a wedding so I guess it's really a marriage clock. We've had it for 12 years and have never had it cleaned or oiled or anything, so I figured it was time. If I can get out of there without buying another clock, we'll be lucky. I love clocks. I could be Crazy Clock Lady AND Crazy Dog Lady. In fact, for our last anniversary (#15), I wanted to get a cuckoo clock but never followed through. I had no idea that's how you spelled cuckoo clock. I always thought it was coo-coo clock. Who knew?


Anyway, the clock place is right next to Starbucks, a big book store, and a giant shoe warehouse. Man, all the things I love all on one block -- clocks, coffee, books, and shoes! I don't really want to get out in this hot weather, but I think Barnaby is getting annoyed with me for staying in the house for days on end. Picky-picky.

I want a pool, y'all. I've been thinking about it more and more lately. We got an ad in the mail Thursday from a pool company, and I stared at it for a long time. I just wonder how big of a pain in the ass it would be, and how much it would add to our electric bill. I need to do some research before I decide for sure so I can give a presentation to Barnaby telling all about it and why we need one. Don't laugh. I'm serious. He'd be more likely to go for it if I put together a PowerPoint with all the facts. Here he comes. I have to go before he reads this.

Bye!

Yawn, Stretch, Burp

Well, it's all of 8:58 a.m. and I think I'm going to take a nap! I'm so sleepy sitting here at the computer that I can't keep my eyes open. And I've even had a giant cup of coffee. Y'all just try and keep up with me and my active lifestyle.

I might wake up enough later to make another even more interesting entry.

Update: It's now noon (I slept for three solid hours!) and I feel so much better. My doggies were so good and slept right along with me. Sometimes you just need to go back to bed and start over later.

Scabs & Bruises...Gross!

Sammi, the Cutie Pie

Abbey, the Goofie Old Woman

She WOULD NOT sit still with those glasses on. Hmpf.

Abbey had a stroke last Thursday night during her sleep. She's fine except that half of her face droops and she has no muscle strength over there. She drools out of that side of her mouth now, and she walks with her head tilted to that side most of the time. Poor thing. Rest assured that she feels fine and is not suffering in any way. I wouldn't allow that to happen...if you know what I mean. Shhhhhh!

Fletcher, the Man

This little guy is a holy terror. I hope he calms down once his nuts are cut. That was really crude of me. Sorry. I mean, I hope he calms down once he is neutered.

I think that's a crotch shot of Sammi in the background. Sorry about that too.

Last night's supper was meatloaf and Crash Potatoes. The potatoes were fantastic.

You can find the recipe HERE.

Went to the dermatologist yesterday finally. My skin is good, except for a weird place on my face on my right upper cheekbone. It's been there for a few years and is flesh-colored but raised a little bit. He took a biopsy of it. So now I have a pretty scab on my face -- ugh. How gross. He also got rid of those little red bumps on my nose. Those are not bloody or anything, and it doesn't show where he took those off. He used an electric needle thingy. I'm not sure what it was and didn't ask.

I had some kind of strange foot happening last Thursday. I got up from my desk and started to walk and had a sudden pain in the bottom of my right foot. It felt like I stepped on something really hard like a rock, and I lifted my foot to see what it was but nothing was there. I put my foot back down and started to walk again, but it hurt too bad to walk. So I sat down to inspect it closer, and watched as it slowly turned black and blue. When it stopped, I had a bruise the size of...well, just see for yourself:

I just spilled my full cup of coffee all over the living room floor. I need to go get more before I fall back to sleep.

Anyway, the foot thing...It was some kind of spontaneous blood vessel rupture, I guess. I couldn't put pressure on it or wear a shoe for a couple of days, but it went away very quickly. The bruise on top of my foot was gone in three days, but the bruise on the bottom is still faintly there today.

Both of my feet are sore, and I think it has something to do with all my floors being wood or ceramic tile now. I have really high arches, and I think it's too much hard surface for them all the time. My Aunt M.J. warned me about that when my last floors were put down. She said her feet got really bad when she replaced all her carpets with ceramic tile, and she has to wear shoes with padding all the time when she's in the house and orthodics during the day. It was causing her arches to fall and plantar fasciitis.

I know all my aches and pains are facinating. Try to tear your eyes away now because I really do need to go and get that coffee now.

I don't have any work so far today, so I'm going to go visit my mom and dad later this afternoon. There really is nothing going on around here, except the sun is boiling us all here in Texas with 110+ degree days. Who wants to do anything when it's like that outside? Not me. Oh, wait. I never want to do anything anyway. Never mind. It's just hot is all I'm sayin'.

I really am going to fall asleep if I don't go get that ... z z z z z z

The Epiphany

I know this is going to sound weird but ...

I was given the below information about myself in a dream on Tuesday. I already knew I had these feelings, but it never occurred to me that they were from other people/animals, there is a name for it, and there are ways to help you deal with and use it, if you so choose, to help others. Of course, I've heard of "animal psychics" and such, but I just never equated it to myself. I've read two books on the subject of HSPs over the last two days, and I have several more books waiting.

If you are rolling your eyes and don't believe in these sorts of things, take your mouse and click the big X in the top right corner of your screen. Oh, and bite me too.

Hello. My name is Pam, and I'm an Animal Empath. To a lesser degree, I am also an Intuitive Empath.

Animal Empathy: The gift of talking to animals and understanding their needs. Animal empaths feel the emotions of animals.

Intuitive Empathy: The gift of feeling the emotions of other people.

There are many other types of Empaths. Research the Internet if you're interested in any others.

*************************

The below information about Empathy and Empaths was obtained from the Internet, not from a dream. I just wanted to clarify that.

There is a difference in Empathy and Sympathy...

Empathy is the identification and understanding of feelings or situations without having direct knowledge of the feelings or situations. Sympathy is compassion or commiseration. Empathy is direct understanding. The person who empathizes for another has the same emotional experience as the person currently suffering. Sympathy is merely pity for another.

We all can be empathetic to a degree, but Empaths have no choice. It is possible to learn to turn your empathy on/off or up/down, so that it doesn't interfere with daily life.

Empaths are highly sensitive people (HSPs). This is the term commonly used in describing one's abilities (sensitivity) to another's emotions and feelings. Empaths have a deep sense of knowing that accompanies empathy and are often compassionate, considerate, and understanding of others. Generally, those who are empathic grow up with these tendencies and do not learn about them until later in life. (Hello, Pam! This is why you think you're crazy!)

Empaths are often very affectionate in personality and expression, great listeners and counselors (and not just in the professional area). They will find themselves helping others and often putting their own needs aside to do so. In the same breath, they can be much the opposite. They may be quiet, withdrawn from the outside world, loners, depressed, neurotic, life's daydreamers, or even narcissistic. Animals are often dear to the heart of empaths, not as a power object, but as a natural love. It is not uncommon for empaths to have more than one pet in their homes. (Geez, sound like anyone y'all know?) They are sensitive to TV, videos, movies, news and broadcasts. Violence or emotional dramas depicting shocking scenes of physical or emotional pain inflicted on adults, children or animals can bring an empath easily to tears.

How To Tell If You Are Highly Sensitive

1. You are deeply affected by all aspects of your life. As a Sensitive Soul, you have great emotional passion, intensity, and depth. You may have been told that your emotions are “too much.” You are sensitive, caring, and easily affected by the energy and emotions of others. These qualities make it easy to lose touch with your needs and desires.

2. You have heightened perceptive skills. A Sensitive Soul is intuitive, highly aware, and keenly observant of the subtleties of your environment, including energy, light, noise, smell, texture, and temperature. You may also be empathic or even psychic. Your perceptive skills operate in the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual realms. You tie together things you see into complex and original concepts. This makes you a visionary.

3. You have a lower tolerance for stimulation than others. Because you receive so much information from your surroundings, your threshold for what's "too much" is significantly lower than for those around you. This means: a) You may be seen as shy or timid; and b) You may feel uncomfortably dissimilar to others because you respond so differently to stimulation.

4. You are highly conscientious and thorough in all your undertakings. A Sensitive Soul makes a great employee. You concentrate intensely and process multi-source information. However, you require privacy, uninterrupted time, and little or no pressure in order to do your best work.

5. You have a strong relationship with aesthetics and art. As a Highly Sensitive Soul, you have a passion for beauty, art, and aesthetics. You may be highly artistic and creative yourself. You easily create beauty and comfort. Seeing things 'out of alignment' can actually be physically or psychically distressing.

6. Your inner life is just as intriguing and inspiring as your outer life. You likely have a rich, complex inner life and are highly imaginative. You may find it challenging to connect to 'real world' priorities and realities.

7. You absolutely require private time alone in order to feel replenished. Up to 70% of Highly Sensitive Souls are introverted. But even extroverted sensitives need downtime to rejuvenate, often in a darkened, quiet room.

8. You have a strong spiritual connection and depth. If you are Highly Sensitive, you experience a profound spiritual connection with the divine and/or spiritual realm. You 'see' a lot in what appears common. Because of this you may feel impatient with the truly mundane.

That's all for today. Talk amongst yourselves...

Be a Rock Star

Rockstar Roasted

Coffee & Energy Drink

This stuff is YUMMY! Usually the canned coffees are too sweet for me, but this one is good. It's still sweet, but not too much. There is a "Light" version, but I haven't been able to find it around here yet. Once I find it, though, this will definitely be a once-a-week treat. It's too expensive to have more often. I paid $1.50 for a 16-oz can, and that was the sale price at Target. The regular price is $1.99 each. I guess that's still cheaper than 16 ounces of ANYTHING at Starbucks.

I bought one can of Rockstar Roasted and one can of Monster Java coffee and energy drink when I bought this. I haven't tried the Monster yet.

The Rockstar Roasted is 220 calories for 16-ounces. Rumor has it the "Light" is only 100 calories, but I don't know for sure. I need to do my homework and look it up online if I'm going to tell y'all about it here, huh?

I Forgot to Tell You...

And I know you're on pins and needles waiting to hear...

I took the last steroid pill this morning. It has definitely helped the pain ease up quite a bit, but the numbness is still there. I'm pretty sure that's not a good sign. I guess I'll go ahead with the MRI on the 30th and see what's going on back there.

Oh, and I also forgot to tell y'all...Barnaby found Tori Spelling's book and brought it home to me! I read it this weekend, and it was even better than I anticipated. Good stuff! I loved it.

I've decided that the name Barnaby makes my hubby sound like a dork and he's not, so I'm going to think of a new name. Not that his real name is a huge secret or anything, but I just think I shouldn't use it. I'm going to think of a ver studly name. Is studly even a word? You know what I mean. Maybe I'll watch a soap this afternoon and see if there are any good names that come up. Those guys always have manly-man names that nobody would have in real life. Then again, maybe I should just pick a regular name like Bob or Joe. Hmmm. I'll have to think about it.

I'm off to the bank and post office. Later.

White Teeth/White Castles

Okay, check this out...

Here is a picture I took of Sammi & Fletch this weekend.

Now here I've blown up the picture so you can see Fletch better. I have not altered this pictgure in any way other than blowing it up. Do you see the white on his mouth? Those are his bottom teeth! Barnaby and I are always laughing at him because he is always showing his teeth. They are so white and perfect, they look like dentures. I'm not kidding...he really looks like he's got a mouth full of fake white chompers. When I saw this picture, I laughed so hard I cried. I didn't notice when I took the picture that he was doing it again. Hee!

Okay, now on to some good and easy food. You'll be a hero at your house when you make these, especially if you have boys.

Homemade White Castle Hamburgers

The Ingredients

White Castles

1 lb hamburger

2/3 package onion soup mix

1/3 cup milk

1 Tbsp smooth peanut butter

1 pkg small soft rolls (I made mine, but store-bought would be fine)

Dill pickle slices

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Thoroughly mix the hamburger, soup mix, peanut butter, and milk. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and press the hamburger mixture in a very thin layer into the pan (see picture below). The thinner, the better.

Wrap the rolls in foil. Place the rolls and the hamburger in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Drain the grease from the hamburger and slice into squares the size of the rolls. Split the rolls and place a meat square and a layer of pickles on each one and replace the tops. Smash down the tops and pig out!

My husband informs me that this is the proper way to eat these -- no other condiments. I have to agree that these are best when eaten plain with only pickles. Of course, you can add mustard and all kinds of other hamburgery stuff if you want. I'm just passing on the information. I've never been to a White Castle and eaten a fresh one myself, but I've had the frozen ones from the grocery store. They don't have any restaurants in Texas.

This is what the hamburger should look like once you get it on the cookie sheet. Depending on the size of your pan, you may not fill the entire pan. It will shrink up away from the sides of the pan once it's cooked.

Do I Look Like Dolly?

I'm going to hurriedly post these before I lose my nerve...
It's the hair I bought at the mall.

" You so pretty!"
"Men like long hair."
"Oooh, it look good. You need this one!"
Shoot! I should have put the jewelry in. Oh well. Bye!

Pictures! Products!

Who loves ya? I do. Happy Friday, y'all!

Action Shot

Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake

I made it this morning. The Recipe is HERE

My Favorite Summer Drink: Sour Lime

Get you a big ice tea glass, fill it with ice, pour carbonated water over it, squeeze the juice of half a lime into the glass, stir, and enjoy. You can add salt if you like. When we were kids, we'd put so much salt in it, I don't know how we drank it. It's good though. Try it!

My New Favorite Cleaner: Mr. Clean Febreze

I'm obsessive about cleaning my kitchen counters, and this stuff smells great. I still like Lemon 409, but this is really good too.

My New Favorite Bath Soap

It's grainy and smells good.

Coconut Oil

Better than K-Y or vaseline, and that's all I'm sayin'. Except that it's solid inside this container and becomes liquid when it meets warm skin.

Sammi & Phoebe. Phoebe is pissed because Sammi is on her bed. What a bitch.

Mr. Fletcher is always at my feet. He loves me.

Little Boy hoping I drop something while making the cake.

Nothing Interesting

I didn't post an entry yesterday? I would have sworn that I did. Hmmm.

I went to the doctor about my back yesterday afternoon. I'm on the "roids" starting today. They usually start working pretty quickly for me, but I usually get an injection instead of pills so we'll see. He offered pain meds, but those don't do anything but keep me awake so I declined. I have an MRI scheduled for July 30th.

I spent hours yesterday looking at comforters, quilts, and bedspreads online. I don't really need one, but I love them. If I won the lottery, I'd have a new bedspread every week. And sheets, and a mattress pad, and a really thick mattress topper, and a new blanket too. And I'd have my personal painter paint my bedroom to match. My bedroom would be big with a fireplace and a kitchenette in the corner.

I saw the biggest dog I've ever seen yesterday. I've seen Great Danes before, but this one was really huge. Having him would be like having a cow in the house. I had a friend that had a female Great Dane, Casey, that stayed in the house. She seemed really huge, but not as big as this guy. I bet it would cost a bunch to feed one. I wonder how much they eat?

I have no plans for today. I guess I'll do some things around the house, like laundry, and maybe read some. I just started a new book yesterday...THIS ONE. Work is slow. I guess everybody is on vacation or something. Oh, and I have to pop steroids all day. I have to take six today, and then one less every day after that. Hopefully it won't make me hungry. That's one of the side effects listed. Usually they do just the opposite to me, so maybe they won't.

Okay, I'm a big bore. I'm leaving now.

Spelling, Baking & Shopping

I'm so grossed out right now. I sucked up a fly through my straw just now while drinking my iced coffee. GAH! That has to happen once every summer or it just doesn't feel right. Remember when I did that last year and I took a picture of the fly I had rolled around in my mouth? Just GAH! That's nasty!

You'd think I'd learn and stop leaving the lid off of the coffee pot to let it cool before refrigerating it. It's not like there's a swarm of flies in my house at all times or anything, but we do kill at least one a day. They fly in through the back door when I open it to let the herd of dogs in 10,000 times a day. I swear the flies just hang around the back door waiting for me to open it so they can get inside where it's nice and cold from the air conditioner.

I didn't take one picture over the weekend. Sue me.

We did go to the mall because I wanted to go to the book store and get Tori Spelling's book. What? I like her! Don't y'all watch her reality show on Oxygen? It's called Tori & Dean Home Sweet Hollywood now. It used to be Tori & Dean Inn Love, but they sold their bed & breakfast and moved back to LA so they changed the name.

Anywho...her book was sold out and nowhere to be found, and it was sold out online, too, and it's not going to be available on Amazon.com or at Target until July 16th. Hmph. Guess I'm not the only one who likes her.

I made some baked spaghetti yesterday that was yummy. I made the whole recipe but split it into two casserole dishes and froze one for later. I should do that more often. Here's the "recipe" I used:

Baked Spaghetti

1 lb angel hair, cooked according to directions on pkg.
1 lb hamburger meat, browned
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 (16-oz) can chopped tomatoes
1 large jar Classico Spaghetti Sauce (I used Tomato & Basil)
1 (12-oz) can tomato juice
Garlic Powder, Oregano, Salt & Pepper, to taste
2 cups shredded Cheddar and/or Mozzerella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil the pasta and drain. Brown the hamburger meat with onions and green pepper and drain if necessary. Add tomatoes, spaghetti sauce & spices, and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray. Add the pasta and sauce and stir to mix. Pour some or all of the tomato juice on top of the spaghetti. This keeps the spaghetti from getting dried out and soaking up all of the sauce. Add the cheese and mix again. (Or you can just put the cheese on top and bake it that way, but I like it mixed in.) Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes until hot and bubbly.

I really wanted to make another recipe that I got online, but I didn't have any cream of mushroom soup or mushrooms. You basically just replace the jarred spaghetti sauce with a can of cream of mushroom soup and add a jar of mushrooms. Other than that, it's the same recipe. I'm still going to make that one later. The recipe is at Allrecipes.com among all the other Baked Spaghetti recipes.

Let's see...what else?

Oh, I bought some hair extensions at the mall. I was attacked by these Asian ladies who sat me down and fawned over me and stuck all kinds of crap on my head before I knew what was going on. They were talking so fast, and I didn't understand hardly anything they said. All I know is my hair looked fantastic, and I had lots of it. They'd put one hairpiece on and stick a bunch of jewelry in my hair and giggle and laugh and say how pretty I was, and they'd say to Barnaby, "You wife, she's so pretty, yes?" Ha-ha-ha! And they'd giggle and laugh and rip that out of my hair and stick something else in and say, "Oooh, you so pretty!" And they'd rip that off my head and pin something else on and say, "Oooh, that looks pretty! You have lots of pretty hair now! Men like long hair! Your husban, he like it! You need this one too!"

And so I bought a big bag of hair and hair jewelry like an idiot. Whatever. It was fun. And damn expensive, I might add. I just said what the hell and charged it. I rarely ever do that.

I got some fabulous tee shirts at Express. They had half-sleeves, which you can rarely find anywhere, and they were longer in length than regular tee shirts. I hate that tee shirts are too short on me most of the time. I must really be long-waisted or something. Anyway, they were perfect, so I bought two of them. They were on sale for $9.99 and then I got 20% off of that, so they ended up being $7.99 each! Woo-hoo.

I'm going to go stick some hair and jewelry on my head. See ya.

You're Pretty

Happy Independence Day America!

I've got to dig my camera out and take some pictures this weekend. It's been lost in a messy office drawer since the new floor was installed and I had to moved everything out of my office. I do that and get some pictures to post. Even if they make no sense and have nothing to do with anything, it's better than nothing. Dang, that sentence was confusing.

I'm having a super-duper serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor malfunction, or estrogen surge, or brain cloud, or hormone funk, or the crazies, or someone replaced my meds with sugar pills, or I'm just a pain in the ass.

I hate to cry. It's very sad. And that was a very stupid thing to say, and it also kind of made me laugh. Very profound. I should write a book called Memoirs of the Obvious. Or something.

Okay, let the porch-sitting commense. Off I go. But first I'm grabbing my camera.

4th Plans

I told Barnaby yesterday that I plan on spending most of the holiday weekend in my rocking chair on the back porch, starting tomorrow morning or maybe today if I don't get any work in. It's going to be hot, but hopefully there'll be a breeze. It should be in the mid-70s in the mornings, and that's pretty comfortable for coffee and breakfast on the porch. There will definitely be lots of iced tea and the least amount of clothes possible later in the afternoons. I have a few sundresses I'll put to good use. I also have a few books I haven't read yet that should keep me entertained. The dogs will love all that time outside. They usually won't stay outside very long unless we're out there with them. What a bunch of butt danglers.

I got my purple binder out last night where I keep all my recipes. I'm making cornbread salad sometime today and needed to make sure I had all the ingredients. While I was looking, I decided to make Ramen Noodle Salad and fresh green beans & new potatoes over the weekend too. I bought some fresh salmon at the store, and Barnaby is going to smoke it for me. I love smoked salmon mixed with a little mayo, lots of cilantro, and chopped tomatoes, and eaten on Triscuits. YUM. It's a perfect lunch for hot days.

I need to make an appointment with a back doctor next week. I've had what I first thought was a pulled hamstring in my left leg (since all that walking I was doing before the dogs got sick), but I now know is a pinched sciatic nerve. I've had a big section of my right calf that has been numb for about three weeks now, and the pain that was just in the back of my leg is now in my ass, leg, and hip. Ugh. Three ibuprofen and three Tylenol at the same time don't do a thing to relieve the pain. Good news is I can get in certain positions where it doesn't hurt. I need to get an MRI and see what's going on in there. Maybe I just irritated it and it will get better with anti-inflammatory meds or something. I definitely don't want back surgery again.

That's it for today. Y'all have a safe and happy holiday! I'm sure I'll be posting over the weekend.

Public Therapy Session

I was feeling fat before I stopped at Old Navy yesterday, but now I feel REALLY fat. Probably because I am!

I tried on a whole pile of clothes, but everything looked like crap. If I was feeling particularly nervy today, I'd tell you how much weight I've gained so far this year and how much I weigh. I weight nearly every day and keep a log of it so I know exactly how much it is. But I'm not feeling particularly nervy (is that even a word?) so I'm not going to tell you. Just trust me.

Do you know that I didn't lose one pound after I had the Lap Band taken out and converted to a VSG? Not one. I guess I was starving to death because it was screwed up, and when I could finally eat without choking, I couldn't control myself. I don't eat that much at one sitting because I can't, but I guess I'm eating more often and the wrong things. I guess? No, OBVIOUSLY, Pam. Own it.

Bleh -- I don't want to talk about it anymore.

But I'm going to. Ha. Just one more thing.

I've spent $30,000 to get control of my weight, and I'm still overweight. The only way I could lose it and keep it off was to choke and throw up every time I ate. But that was going to kill me, so I was forced to have it fixed. And as soon as I could eat again, the weight slowly crept back up because I don't have a shred of discipline.

AND I'm reverting right back to my anti-social/social phobia ways of the past when I was just getting better. We're invited to some friends' house for a couples get-together thing and poker, and I just cannot make myself go. I just can't face all those people having gained all this weight since last time they saw me. I just can't do it. I suppose I think they'll all gasp behind my back and talk about how fat I am. I honestly believe that, even though if somebody else was saying it, I'd tell them how dumb that is and that probably nobody will even notice. But they will notice. I mean, even my dad noticed!

I need to get off this subject. It's making my heart hurt. I've gotta go.

Please no comments on this post. This was really just for me. That's one of the great things about having a blog for me. I can get stuff "out there" instead of it stagnating inside me. That supposedly helps, ya know.

I'll be back with something that is hopefully more uplifting later. I don't know how this happened. I didn't mean for it to.

So no comments please. Thanks. Ta-ta.

Howdy

Lordie, it's been longer than I thought...sorry. I got my ass kicked with work while my partner was on vacation. She's back and, of course, we have nothing now. Ain't that the way it always goes?

So since I was in my office 24/7, nothing happened of interest. (Okay, 24/7 is an exaggeration, but still. I did nothing except work and sleep.)

Let's see. Yesterday I made some Zattaran's sausage jumbalaya for dinner. It sucked. Don't bother. It was greasy from the sausage, and there was nothing else in it except rice and spices. Bleh.

I made some Country Style Beef Ribs on Saturday. I tried the simplest recipe I could find on Allrecipes.com and they turned out fantastic. Are you ready for the super-simple recipe? You just place the ribs on a large double-layer of heavy-duty foil, pour your favorite bottled BBQ sauce over the ribs and wrap tightly. Refrigerate overnight. Remove the foil package and place it into a 13 x 9 baking pan. Bake them in the oven for 5 hours at 275 degrees F. They were falling apart and delicious. I placed mine on a baking sheet lined with foil and broiled them for about 3 minutes to set the sauce, but you don't have to do that. I'm not sure it added anything. I also threw together some potato salad with lots of mustard, a little mayo, chopped onion, and dill pickle relish. Then I poured myself a REAL, fully-sugared and caffeinated Dr. Pepper with lots of ice. It was so good.

Are you hungry now?

You'd think I'd have more to say since I haven't written for a week, but I got nothin' else. See ya.