Collected Thoughts

The great purging continues.

I've gotten rid of all the herbs and spices I don't remember buying or that I remember being around for a year. It won't cost that much to replace things from buying in bulk at the co op.

Also got rid of pantry items. Found 3 cans of expired evaporated milk. Expired in 2004 and 2005. Everything is still a mess because I'm going at this such a hodge podge but it's all forward progress and that's good.

I have cleaned out the freezer and fridge.

Anything I can't remember buying was tossed. I also found an organizational book I bought, this one is about organzing your home over the course of a year.

It also has journal writing exercises and a dream board... I don't think I'll do the dream board, but I'll probably do the journal thing.

Also there are monthly things to do to make a habit. I also uploaded more pictures to flickr- although I think there are duplicates and I just need to scan more there are so many!

I still feel over whelmed when I see things everywhere. All the visual clutter. One thing I did was take down all the pictures and stuff from the walls and that helps. But I realize I want things on the wall -- not a ton a couple pictures per room. But With all the stuff around that's too much.

So that's another goal I guess -having less stuff so I can enjoy pictures.

I have Dreamwidth codes - 7 of them

Let me know if you want one!!!

I am super bitchy this weekend. I'm all pissy my weekend is almost over. WoW pissed me off, everyone in the entire world is getting on my last nerve.


I'm pretty sure I'm pmsing. I'm feeling bloaty and slightly not quite crampy but achy. Oh and I want to eat everything in sight.

I feel like I need a vacation from my weekend. I wish I could call in sick tomorrow but 1) I only have about 1 day of sick leave and 2) BIG BOSSES are coming tomorrow so that would look bad.

I really really hope I'm in a better mood. I may take a 1/4 of seroquel as preventative measures.

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately about minimalism and I'm getting more interested in getting rid of stuff. Also I'm looking at a (hopefully!) move across country this spring so I'm trying to figure out if I really want to move things 1300 miles away.

It doesn't look like i'm making any great strides in purging things, but stuff is getting slowly moved to the guest room (Mom wants to have a big garage sale in the fall). So it's slow, but I'm trying not to get overwhelmed and there's so much stuff...so I'm doing a bit every day. Mostly it's been books. I'm torn between wanting less clutter and also wanting to be surrounded by BOOKS!! but for right now I'm compromising and anything I haven't read and is easy to get at the library it's going at least for now.

Also for Mom's birthday I really want to get her a flickr account so she can post pictures of E but she needs to set up a yahoo email account and I'm waiting on that. In the meantime I've decided to scan all these old pictures we have and post them to my flickr account and spread the link around so that family can see them. I have people from b.org friended but I don't thinkt hat should be a problem maybe I should have made a separate account -- oh well I can always make another account.

The oven works great. I actually cooked tonight. I made Stuffed Peppers. The real recipe is from Clean Eating Magazine and was Mexican stuffed Poblano Peppers. But poblanos are probably too spicy (I can't even believe I'm saying that...) I substituted red and yellow bell peppers, I also omitted the onion and tomatoes. And I used quiona instead of brown rice.

It needed something -- I used tiny amounts of chili pepper and cumin (not even a 1/8th of a tsp each). For a side I made quacamole. I've found I can eat small amounts of lime and lemon juice. And crackers since I didn't have any chips.

I did , uh, have some diet coke(s) this weekend so I'm paying for that. Pain in my kidney area. If I make these peppers again I may bump up the spice some and see what I can tolerate.

My stove arrived and is installed. I haven't used it yet since I was starving after work and got drive thru.

Also I wanted to pick a recipe and actually try something out. I've been really lax on the stuff I should avoid with the IC but I haven't been in too much pain. Or any pain.

However, I have been avoiding the major trigger items like yogurt, acids, fruit, and tomato. And actually I realized after eating veggies and meat mostly for a while and then going back to eating rather unhealthy when Mom was here (and then keeping that pattern after she left) I really felt a whole lot better eating healthy than eating crappy. Which shouldn't be a surprise but I realized a lot of the "minor" things I felt and just thought well that's how i am, are not in fact how I am. It's the crappy way I've been eating.

Now that I have a way to actually cook well I'm going to be trying to go back to eating healthy. I actually liked it better. It should be obvious -- eating good food makes you feel good -- but sometimes I need to experience the consequences of something for the lesson to stick.

Well I will have one at the end of the week. Local appliance stores for the win. I went in, the guy asked me what I was looking for I told him Whirlpool and the specs I wanted - convection not so important, sealed coil and dual burners more important. And he only showed me Whirlpools. Of course he did show me one that was out of my price range - it was a convection that did the conversion for recipes, but it was too expensive.

So he showed me another one (all on the computer since they don't have a huge inventory) that was nice, dual burner, sealed coil. Totally within my price range. But the burner size was 6"/9" dual with a 12" burner. No warm zone. And he looked at another one which was $150 more but has - 2 6" burners, a 6"/9" dual burner with turbo heat, 9"/12" burner , SteamClean, warm zone, keep warm oven option, delay start, and convection option. But it doesn't do the conversions.

I got that one. I'm not sure how often I'll use the convection option but I like the burner options and the steam clean and if I wanted those 2 things this was the stove to get.

I cannot WAIT to cook with a stove that works. Next weekend yay!

Adventures in stove buying.

So it's settled we're getting a mid range prices free standing rather than the cheapest slide in option.

Went back to Sears to look at Kenmore and Whirlpool. Found a Kenmore I liked with a 9"/12" dual burner and a warming zone, self clean. Decently priced for stainless steel finish or black.

Then saw a Whirlpool with the steam clean option that Mom has now said that she thinks is a good idea. It comes with a warming zone, 12" burner and a 6"/9" dual burner. And is close in price.

But i'm going to go check a local appliance place for Whirlpools.

There was one saleslady who approached me and I asked her the price for everything - tax, delivery, removal, etc. She said there's a rebate for that. The price seemed decent. She offered me this warranty that covers a bunch of things for 3 years at 150 or so. But that would push the price of the stove in to the higher price range. So I'm not sure.

I looked around some more and the sales lady kept approaching me. oh! She asked if I was going to put it on my Sears card and I said no. That I paid off my credit cards and I'm not adding anymore.

So then she shows me this open box item. And it was NICE. Marked down about $200, so it was in the $900 range, dual burners, warm zone, steam clean and convection option. But with delivery and everything it was going to be right back more than I wanted to spend. So I told her, I appreciated her showing it to me but it was out of my price range. She said I could put it on a credit card.

So I told her again, I don't have a credit card. It's out of my budget and I'm only buying what I can afford. She pushed the credit card again, I'd get a discount and I could pay it off. I told her no, I'm not going to get another credit card. I'm only paying with cash (well with a debit card, but still cash). I started to walk away and she tried -- you can get a discount just for applying for a card.

Finally I turned to her and said "I'm not getting a credit card and if you push the issue one more time I'm walking out of the store."

"well you don't have to get upset!" She got all indignant.

"I should not have to tell you five times I'm not getting a credit card."

After that I kept looking around but decided to sleep on it.

Thing is -- I would have bought the Whirlpool with the steam clean option if she'd just not pushed me. But then I walked to a different department to get away from her and by that time I decided I didn't want to buy anything.

I know she probably gets commission or some bonus if she signs up x number of people but still don't keep badgering. I said it's out of my budget and I'm not getting a credit card and I'm not spending that kind of money.

Had a good doctor's appointment today. The Nurse practioner (not physican's assistant, I got confused) seems to believe that I should be able to keep this all under control by diet. But she suggested I add an antihistamine and antacid daily to help my bladder from getting irritated. And she gave me an other prescription for symptoms.

Unfortunately I have a UTI again. So I have a prescription for that as well.

Tonight I actually used black pepper. I didn't use a lot but I could tell it was there I took a bite into a piece of squash with a...not a chunk of pepper but a coarser piece and it was really peppery!

If I feel okay pepper is back on my menu and I'll figure out the next thing to add.