And now the latest in weight loss, PSA and fun

Scale check in:  208.  Yeah.  It's down and I'm happy.  

I know it would probably move faster if I worked out but I don't so it is what it is.  This isn't a race.  I don't care how fast it comes off just as long as it comes off.  

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

Read this.

Now go spend $20 at a locally owned business.

Thank you.

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

Fun time

For you new readers my husband & I own a store in Sparks (Reno) NV.  Half is tie-dye clothing that he makes and the other half is vintage, nostalgic and costumes.  

We cater to the Burning Man community.  

I sew custom costumes.  My challenge right now is to figure out how to attach a penis to a lime green bunny suit.

We get in all sorts of crazy clothing. Right now I probably have 30 petticoats in stock.  I've got masks, hats, fur robes, sparkley dresses, blouses and tons of animal print things.

Burning Man doesn't happen until Labor Day.  It's 8 days of 50,000 people partying in the desert about 90 miles east of here.  

But thanks to the economy people are planning early.  

We've been slammed the past few days and I'm thrilled. 

Tomorrow night I get my picture taken for Controlled Burn, the fire conclave that I'll be performing with at Burning Man.  

So it's Burning Man season early and I couldn't be happier.

Yeah!

Fat not-so-funny stories

Tricia  wrote on Friday about breaking a chair while waiting at the eyeglass dr's place.  It got me to thinking about all the things that have happened to me over the years being overweight.

The thing about being fat, overweight, obese is that it comes on slowly.  It's not like one day I woke up and weighed over 300 pounds.  (Well I did but you understand.)  The weight came on slowly.  

I'd see pictures of myself and not believe that it was an accurate picture.  Kind of like hearing your voice for the 1st time.  You don't believe you really sound that way.  

Buying clothes "Well they're making clothes smaller these days.  They just don't fit the way they used to."  Uh huh.

Mirrors are avoided.  At least full length mirrors are.  Even now we only have 1 mirror that I can see part of the upper half of my body.  And that's in the entryway!  

I asked Steve if he had any embarrassing moments being overweight.  He once broke a toilet seat at a friends place.  It was a wooden one and living in the desert those things dry out & break easily.  He said that when he sees that guy he still brings it up.  "Remember when your fat ass broke my toilet seat?? HA HA HA!!"  

I can remember a couple of incidents.  

1.  In Vegas for a convention.  There was a chair massage booth & I wanted to get one. Massage therapist looked at me & said "You're too big for me to massage.  I don't want you to break my chair."  

It felt like the world had gone silent and everyone stopped to look at the fat woman who wanted a massage.

2.  Being at an amusement park & the safety bar didn't *click* into place so I had to leave the ride.

3.  People constantly asking me when I'm due.  Touching my belly to feel the baby.  "Is it kicking?"  

I used to say I was just fat & not pregnant.  Now I just lie & say 3 months! 

4.  Little kids telling me in their honesty that I'm fat.  Yeah that's fun.

5.  In my single days being the fat chick who went out with the hot friends.  Having the great personality & being  the one the guys would call for advice on how to get my hot girl friend to go out with them.  

The strange thing is that I have always been very comfortable in my skin.  Once when getting my aura red the reader told me that I had a "thin person's aura".  

I know I know I know.  I'm doing something about it. 

Well I've been doing something about it for most of my life.  And I will continue to do something about it the rest of my life.  

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Spring has sprung in our yard.  Finally.

The lilacs are starting to bud, the peonies are coming up and I've told the peach tree numerous times to wait on blooming.  Bloom now & we'll have that final freeze in May and NO PEACHES in July.

The thing about living in Reno is our short growing season.  (No, Reno's not near Vegas. Reno's near Lake Tahoe in the north western part of the state.)  We're at 5000 ft elevation & have 4 seasons.  

We also have extreme temperatures in the summer with day time highs in the 90's -100's and dropping down at night to 60.  

Officially our last freeze is Memorial day weekend and our first freeze is usually early Sept.  

That's why I grab ahold of spring.  It means that in just a few months summer will be here!  Yeah!

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

Crystal necklace set

I finished the necklace set yesterday.  For those of you who don't know about this let me tell you the cliff notes story.

The crystals were originally Nana's.  My Sister wanted me to create a necklace & earrings for her to wear next weekend at her daughter's wedding. 

I had enough to create a bracelet.  Hopefully everything is right with the world and it all fits.

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

Food Food Food

I'm uninspired. I'm going to revisit my earlier posts and start back on getting recipes going every day.

I have the same thing every day for lunch:  salad with goat yogurt as a dressing, turkey patty cooked in my cooker at work.  

Snack:  rice cakes with either pesto or coconut oil with almond butter.

Same thing Same thing Same thing Same thing Same thing

Did I meant the same thing everysingleday?  Yes.

And how are you? 

Ahhhh a day off

Today is my day off.

All alone in the house.  Me.  By myself.  (Well Me & the dogs.)

Now don't get me wrong.  I love hanging with Steve but I rarely get a day to myself.  And with our spring/summer season right around the corner I won't be getting a day off for about 6 months.

I cherish days like today.  Getting little tasks done:  kitchen cleaned, bathrooms cleaned, caught up on laundry.  Oh yeah.  And I may even take a nap!  

In my happy little world I wouldn't leave the house today but I'm returning clothes, looking for Spanx & have to mail off some photos. Plus tonight I work the box office at the theater.

This will be a good day!

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

Food prep

My kitchen counter looks like this every morning.  Big bags of veggies, plastic containers for lunch and figuring out what to eat during the day.  See the big bag on the right?  That's spinach. I'll go thru 2 of those big bags a week.  Next to it is broccoli crowns. A bag of those a week isn't a big deal for us.

This morning I was im'ing with a friend and she said she rarely eats veggies. She was surprised that I have veggies in my eggs.  

The only veggies I'm not a fan of is boiled or creamed.  We either eat them sauteed, roasted, raw, steamed or stir fried.  I love raw spinach.  I have at least 2 servings a day.

See my knife?  That's the secret to having a good kitchen.  I love that knife.  I travel with it. My Mom said that I was a gourmet because of that knife.  I bought it at a restaurant supply store for $35.  It's balanced, heavy blade and feels good to use.  I get it professionally sharpened about once a year.  The rest of the time I have a steel that I use. 

Invest in a good knife.  Don't get those ones that you see at the home shows with the "never needs sharpening" blade.  I've got a few of those and honestly I think they're going to the thrift store next time I clean out my drawers.

Hold the knife in your hand.  Feel the balance.  

I've got "name brand" knives.  Heinkel, Calphalon, Chef Works and none compare to the one I bought at the restaurant supply store.  

One more knife tip:  When scraping food off the cutting board turn your knife over so the blade isn't doing the scraping.  It dulls the blade.

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

BOOTS!

Remember the other day when I was talking about my boot fetish?

Here's one of my pairs.

These are custom made.  I designed the flames and how I wanted them to look.  The shoe maker did the rest.  You can't see it but on the back heel is the Burning Man logo.

These are made from 4 different hides:  buffalo, elk, cow & goat.  

The buttons are made from elk horns and blown glass  buttons.

There's a 2" platform on the bottom and the insole is lined with sheep skin.  

Since they were made custom for me they are the most comfortable shoes I own.  

They were pricey.  Let's just say I'm not getting any b'day, christmas, valentines or anniversary presents for a couple of years and leave it at that.

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

12:12 Tuesday

Working on my Sister's necklace.

As I've said in previous posts my oldest Niece is getting married on April 4th.  My Sister got a beautiful crystal necklace from our Mom that used to belong to our Nana.

Sister is wearing it with her dress at the wedding.  She's asked me to restring it and make a pair of earrings to match. 

I think these crystals are over 100 years old or close to it.

Nana was born in 1881.  It's now 2009.  

As I was working on the necklace I kept this in mind:  "These will probably be passed on to one of my Sister's grandchildren.  I am part of a legacy by making this necklace."

Even as I write this I'm crying.  

It's an honor to be making this necklace that was part of my past and will be used as part of my Nieces future.

Anti Candida diet phase 2.

Guess who mis-read the original cleanse instructions. Yeah. That would be me.

Phase 1 was suppose to only last 6 weeks.  We did it almost 3 months. So this morning we started phase 2.  

Not much difference from phase 1 except my one sweet treat is now gone. 

Our morning drink was cranberry juice concentrate, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar & 1 tsp grade b maple syrup.  Now it's just 2 tsp cranberry juice concentrate and water.  And since we've not had anything sweet in a while it wasn't bad.  (Way to clean out those kidneys!)

We can slowly start to reintroduce fruit and other grains, nuts into our diet. 

Steve was excited because one of the breakfast items was buckwheat pancakes with vanilla. Guess what we're having on sat morning!

I added grapefruit pectin to my morning green drink.  Tasted kind of weird but I know I'll get used to it just like I did with everything else over the past 3 months.

I'm not hip to adding any fruit at this time.  It's not really in season and I'm not a fan of off season, picked too soon, trucked 1000 miles fruit. 

I am excited to add other nuts.  Funny how it's the little things like nuts give us pleasure.

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

Girl Scout Cookies

This is my PSA for the day.

My friend Robin's troupe has been in here twice selling cookies.  She told me that they only make 30 cents a box!  WTF??? 

So today they were here 4 hours & sold a record 18 boxes.  18 x .30= $5.40  profit.  Four hours.

Don't buy cookies.  Write them a check.  Find your local troupe.  Save the calories.  Help send a girl to camp.  

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

Biggest Loser

Carlos cracks me up.  He pretty much summed up how I feel about BL.  

Quit crying you guys.

Seriously.  

Put on your big girl panties and just deal with it.

"I'm just going home."  Ok.  Go.  Let me help you pack.

And Bob is no longer Bob.  I'm calling him Bawlb.  QUIT CRYING!

But please enjoy your 100 calorie packs of jello, Fiber one, chewing gum, and save the landfill Britta!

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

One last thing

YOVILLE has been down all day.  ALL DAY!

My addiction needs feeding.  Badly!  argggg!

Hello 10%!!! Hello 209!!!

Guess who's lost 10% since Jan 4th?  Yeah.  That's right.  This bitch right here.

209 is what the scale said 2 days in a row.  232-209 = 23 pounds or 10%.  

232 front view

209 front view

232 side view

209 side view

It's a wonderful start.  

Now onto my next 10%:  189. Yes!

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

Guess who's hat shipment arrived today.

I love that his beard is stick way down below the bottom of the mask.

Big party here on April 11th.  "Yuri's Night" is a celebration of outer space.  

Oh yeah.  

Did I mention that I've lost 10%??

Sexy Boots

Sexy Boots

Thigh high platform.

Size 11 (too big  for my size 10 feet)

Patent leather that stretches over my calfs & thighs.

Great with a school girl kilt.

Here's the deal about boots.  I love em.  I have 7 or 8 pairs.  And I'm always on the look out for more.

Owning a vintage clothing store only supports my boot habit.  

And I have some really cool, interesting customers that I buy from.

I live in Nevada. Nevada is the ONLY state in the USA where prostitution is legal.  Ever watch "Cathouse" on HBO?  That place is about 30 mins from me.  

I have no problem with legalized prostitution.  The girls are STD tested once a month, it's taxed and they make bank.

I have a couple of customers who work at the brothels and they bring me clothes, shoes, boots, costumes, etc.  I figure the clothes aren't worn all that long and plus they're fun to have in the store.

Most of the time they just want to trade for other clothes.  

They're open about what they do and are willing to answer any and all my questions.

One told me that she doesn't do the line-up, she won't be on the HBO show and she gets about $2000 per "party".  She splits 50/50 with Dennis (the owner).  She doesn't take new clients and most are booked on line.  (Yeah.  I thought so too when she said $2000.)

Her houses are 100% paid for & she teaches the other girls how to save money, make investments so that they'll be ok once they leave the trade.

I make no judgement about these women.  I just think it should be legalized in all 50 states.  It happens all the time and by controlling it, taxing it and making sure no STD's are spread it just makes sense.

BTW:  There have been no reported STD's spread by any of the legal brothels in Nevada.

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

And now for something a little lighter.

May I present Lily and Ruby.

I had a Girl Scout troupe hanging out & selling cookies today.  My friend Robin had asked me if they could come by & sell this weekend.

Sure!  Bring em down.

I let people dress up all the time.  There weren't many customers today due to the crappy snowy weather.  So sure.  You can dress up but here's the rules:

1.  No fighting.  If you fight over something you're done.

2.  Respect the clothes.  If something breaks, tears or ends up with a hole come & tell me.  (I have more adults breaking zippers and stealing buttons so kids trying on clothes are NOTHING to me.)

3.  Put it back.  You can't try on a 2nd outfit until #1 is hung back up with all the buttons buttoned, the zippers zipped and the shoes put back on the rack.

4.  Pick up the feathers.  Enough said.

Lily has more style at age 8 then I have at age 48.  That kid is classy.

Ruby is 3 and I pretty much dress like her.  "Hey!  Everything is red!  It must match."  Please note her sequined horns.  I wear those almost every day.

NSV:  I wasn't tempted at all by the cookies.  Friends came in & bought a couple of boxes, opened them up & offered me some.

"No thanks."

"Oh right.  You're on a diet."

"No, I'm allergic to wheat.  Thanks anyway."

Looking at the box:  Wheat flour, corn syrup,  corn starch, soy lecithin.  No, no, no & no.  

And AND I didn't feel deprived.  Yeah!

They're coming back on Weds to sell and they left the boxes.  Not even tempted.  

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

Tonight's dinner:

Roasted chicken breast with roasted veggies in same pan.

Been a while since I posted a recipe.

This is easy peasy!

Pre-heat oven: 375

In a roasting/baking dish:

2 Chicken breasts: seasoned w/ fresh lemon juice, dry mustard, oregano, salt, pepper, garlic & chili powder

4 small red potatoes

Broccoli

Asparagus

Carrots

Yellow bell pepper

All veggies were tossed with olive oil, salt & pepper.

Bake 1 hour or until chicken is done. 

YUMMY!!!

Arggggg! My new addiction.

Yup. Yup. Yup.

I'm addicted.  Not to Facebook but to one of their silly stupid games.

Yoville.

Are you on Facebook?  Come be part of my crew in Yoville.  

You get a job at the Widget factory where every 6 hours you check in & get coins.

Coins allow you to decorate your apartment in Yoville.

Oh no!  You better eat something because your energy is going down.  So head over to the diner, the beach or the night club.  You can buy energy at those 3 places.

CHALLENGE someone to either tic tac toe or Rock Paper Scissors and you can make another 200 coins every 24 hours.  If I max you and you don't max me you better gift me.  And don't give me another fire extinguisher.  I already have one. (thanks Pinktini!)

Rate my apartment, please.  That way I'll make more coins.

Right now I'm saving up for place settings in my kitchen where I have a retro 70's red fridge & stove, 50's table with 4 chairs & shag carpeting.  

Sheesh.  

I'm pretty sure it's 12 year olds and middle aged women (I'm 48) playing this damn game.  

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

I've taken a back seat to my 12:12 pictures.  I mean how many pics of me eating do you really want to see?  yeah That's what I thought.

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

Food

You know that feeling how great you feel when you've lost weight.  You feel all clean inside & you think "Why don't I do this all the time? Why do I have to go off track and binge?"

That's what I'm going thru.

I feel great.  I feel healthy.  

My hair is thick & shinny.  My skin glows. 

And

I want to just be bad & binge.

But I can't.  

This is my health we're talking about.  

I binge I get sick.  I don't want to be sick.

So tonight for dinner I had a HUGE (like almost half the package) bowl of brown rice spaghetti. I threw in a couple of handfuls of spinach, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and ate it all.

I think the servings were for 2-3 other people but they missed out.

So in my sick, convoluted mind I'm bingeing on food that  is ok for me to eat.  Just the portion is wayyyy outta control.  

Today's craving came outta nowhere.  Salted roasted cashews.

Can't do cashews because they're full of mold.  (Bet you didn't know that.  Same with peanuts & pistachios.  Dr. Claire told me once that she'll never ever have those 3 nuts ever again because of the high mold content.)

And since I've spent almost 3 months on the anti-candida there's no way I'm going to mess it up with moldy food.

So when I binge (like the big ole one person pasta feed tonight) I do it with ok'ed foods.  

This is a mind change for me.  I finally realized that when I cheat I'm not hurting anyone but myself and this was a HUGE realization for me.  Yeah. I know.  You've known it all along.  Sometimes I'm a little slow to the bus.

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

Oh and if you want something fun to watch go to youtube.com & put in "Facebook in real life".  There's a bunch of very creative videos.

Just not motivated

Yup.  No motivation this morning.  Nothing to say.

Left the camera at the store so no 12:12 pics.

I need to get off my rear & get my lunch together.  But I'm  just not motivated to do it.

I wanted to just eat eat eat last night.  Made "healthy choices" but still didn't feel satisfied.  

That's the thing about eating right.  And about being on this cleanse.  I've come so far that there's no way I'm going to screw it up by bingeing on bad food.  

Oh and my new addiction:  Yoville on Facebook.  Stoopid stoopid stoopid.  

On the plus side:

Petticoats are ALL DONE!!!  Yup.  Done done done.

Ok.  I'm sorry this isn't all inspirational and stuff but I'm just not feeling it today.  

Have a day.

Weds Weds Weds

Thank you to all who voted yesterday on my dress.  My sister called & said that I looked "Dowdy & Matronly" in outfit #1.  That's how I felt in it so it's going back to Ross.  ("Do you love it?" No.)

I'm going to take dress #3 with me this morning to Lame Giant & see about Spanx.  (For all the boys out there:  Spanx is a giant girdle for the whole body.)

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

Anti-Candida diet update.

Wayyyyy back in Jan, Steve & I started an anti-candida diet.  Here's the link to the first post talking about it. 

We had committed to 3 months of no sugar, fruit, fermented foods, etc.  

In the 3 months:

--Steve's dandruff has disappeared

--My yeast issues under my breasts & belly have disappeared

--Toe junk is almost gone

--I've lost 21 pounds, Steve's lost about 15. (He's not the scale junkie like I am.)

We're not to have red meat but have had it a couple of times. (I love corned beef & cabbage! It was sooooo good last night.  Steve's making hash this morning for b'fast.) 

Food cravings have pretty much disappeared.  

Steve is still getting sinus infections and has a rash all over his forehead & nose.  The neti pot has taken care of the latest sinus infection.  

Both are signs of candida infection.  

So we're going to continue on.  

We're feeling healthier and that's a great thing.

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

12:12 pm: Looking cute in my St Patty's day outfit.

It's my reflection.  But it also gives you a good luck at part of the store.

I love my green Doc Martins.  

Happy St Patty's Day!

Happy St Patty's day!

I'm filling the crock pot with pearl onions, corned beef, carrots, potatoes and of course cabbage. It will be nice to come home to after working all day.

Steve's been invited to play his wash-tub bass at one of the bars tonight so I'm guessing that's on tap for us.  

Scale this morning:  209!  Then 210!  Then back to 209!  So I'll take 210.  209 would give me 10%.  

My oldest niece is getting married next month.  My stress factor for "what to wear" has been incredibly high.  It's an evening wedding in San Francisco.  Not quite a formal affair but pretty damn close.  

She's been great.  "Just wear what you're comfortable in." Somehow I don't think sweats, t-shirt, no bra & slippers is what she has in mind.  

I found 2 dresses yesterday plus  I have a dress in the back of my closet. I'll take pic's of all 3 and you guys can help me decide.

Note to my friend Teri:  Max Volume was in the store yesterday.  I tried the dresses on to show Steve & Max decided to chime in on the fashion advice.  (Note to everyone else:  Max is a local dj that's worked in rock radio for the past 30 years.  Think "Johnny Fever" from "WKRP in Cincinnati".  He called me "cutting edge" and "trendy" yesterday.) (And no, I don't believe Max Volume is his given name.) 

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

12:12 pm Monday

Enjoying Steve's chicken soup

For the past couple of weeks Steve's been buying a whole chicken.  We eat off it for a couple of days & then he makes soup.  

I take a big container of chopped veggies & spinach, put them in my rice steamer & top with the soup.  It's nice to have a hot lunch once in a while.

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

Dresses.  Please vote!

Click on the photos to see details.

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

#1.  A 2 piece outfit.  

Sage green jacket (I'll be moving the button and taking it in.)

Brown 2 layer flowwy skirt with giant flowers on top layer.

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

#2: Plain black shell dress with 

oriental theme'd silk over piece.

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

#3.  2 layered dress.  Black with giant polka dots

Hard to see but a cute neckline with frills out of the same fabric.

Sleeveless with extra frills on top.  

I may find a small swing jacket or shrug to cover my arms.

Brides of March pub crawl, weight loss goals & more!

You're going to love this one.  Some of you will relate, some of you just won't understand.

All week I've been helping people get their costumes together for the "Brides of March" pub crawl.  As usual I don't have a costume or any idea of what I'm going to do.

It's Saturday morning, I'm at the store.  The day before one of my customers had tried on a long poofy slip that goes under a wedding gown.  It's marked with a 28" waist.  I liked the way it looked on her & decided that I would try it on.

I shimmied it up over my rear & my belly.  The zipper is open all the way and there's no way it will zip.  I look in the mirror & decide it's not really what I want. 

And then I discover that it's stuck.  As in not going up, not going back down.  I'm stuck in this thing.  

I have on a white blouse and am wearing one of my big chunky necklaces.  My hair is pulled back into a bun.  And now I'm stuck in this giant puffy to the floor skirt.

Customers would come in & I'm behind the counter so they can't see the skirt until I come out from behind the counter.  And why was saturday the day of "I've never been in your store before.  Thought I would check it out." customers?  They have no clue that I do wear costumes once in a while but from the waist up I look presentable.  

I get the tilted head like a dog who's heard a strange sound look. 

"Going to the Brides pub crawl?" I'd ask.  

ahhhhhh. Ok.

Going to the bathroom is a challenge.  How do those brides do that?? 

I try later in the day but no.  It's not going anywhere.  It's stuck in the middle of my belly where I have a dividing line where my underwear sits.  Wanna feel fat?  Get stuck in a pouffy skirt.

211 pound woman in a pouffy skirt.  Pretty pretty pretty.

I call Mr. T'dots in the afternoon.  "I'm stuck in a skirt.  Guess I'll wear it tonight.  Could you bring me my leather corset, my leather boots & my small purse?  I'll change here."

Somehow the S & M bride was born.  

After wearing it for about 10 hours the waist must have relaxed enough because I was able to step out of it when I got home.  

I felt sexy, fun and great once the corset went on. Funny how being bound up in leather makes a pouffy girl feel sexy.  

The "S & M" Bride 

Brides of March 2009. 

Love my leather corset!

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

Mr. T'dots looking lovely in pink.

It was a fun day.  We did a ton of walking, didn't have anything to drink except tonic water.  

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

I've plateaued with my weight over the past 2 weeks.  The scale is stuck at 211.  I really want to lose another 5-6 pounds by my nieces wedding on the 4th.  I'm thinking of rejoining SparkPeople for the food journal.

I've  become accountable by my daily blogging but now it's time to up the ante & really figure out how much I'm eating every day.

I know my issue is still portion control.  Multi tasking while eating doesn't help either.  I'm eating b'fast right now while I blog.  Big bites, not chewed properly before swallowing. Suddenly my plate is empty & I've not tasted a thing.  

This weeks goals:

1.  Finish those damn petticoats!  I have 6 left to mend

2.  Clean off craft table at store

3.  Finish my sister's necklace

4.  Rebound 5x this week.

More traveling, more fun, more family, more 12:12

It's been a crazy, exciting & go go go week.

So much to say but I don't have time.  I'm off to open the store & will check in later.

She's getting married!!!

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

Sisters. You can't do anything about it.

I'm your sister.

12:12 friday March 6.  Lunch at the Costume Convention

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

12:12 Saturday March 7.  Driving to So Cal.

Hard to see but the sign says "Beach Cities".

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

12:12 Sunday March 8

Mom & me on the way to the bridal shower.

I'm back. Home. Yeah!

I'm home.  I've been home since Monday night.

I needed a few days to regroup and work on other things rather than spend the time blogging. I'm probably going to break this blog up into a few days.  Lots to tell, lots to share.

I left last thursday & drove to Vegas.  I had scored a room on Orbitz for $19!  (Here's my travel tip for the day.  When you get to a hotel & ask for a refrigerator tell them it's for medicine. They won't charge for a fridge that's being used for medication.)

The drive from Reno to Vegas is long & tedious.  Nevada is pretty much a desert.  With nothing else but a few small towns, brothels and long ago abandoned mines. 

The Long road. 

But every now & then you run across a gem.  Something that makes you stop & take pictures. In my case I'm part of this gem.  

Art cars in Goldfield, Nevada.

How am I part of this gem?  I dated the artist.  Rocket Bob.  Yup.  Sure did.  I have a really cool 50's kitchen table that I got out of our small relationship.  It's covered in coke lines.  Other than that it's in great shape.  And no, none of those coke lines are mine.  Food has always been my drug of choice.  

Rocket Bob & I would spend weekends going to garage sales & flea markets looking for dolls, toys and misc squawk for him to take apart & epoxy onto his cars.  

After Steve & I opened the store Bob came by & offered me a couple of cases of Pee Wee Herman dolls.  Silly me for turning that down. 

Artwork made from bombs in Hawthorne, Nevada.

There's a park that has giant flowers also made from bombs.  The strange thing is Hawthorne is a military town. I'm not really sure of the history behind using bomb shells as art but it's kind of cool to see.  And disturbing at the same time.

Thur, March 5, 12:12ish Near Walker Lake

I'm saying 12:12'ish because there's a part of driving hwy 95 that my cel phone jumps ahead 2 hours.  Steve's phone doesn't do it but mine does.  I have my alarm set at 12:12 pm and I noticed that the stereo said it was after 12:12. I looked at my phone & sure enough it said it was 2 something.

Heading to Las Vegas BABEEEEEEEEEE!!!

On the road again

I'm heading out right after I finish this blog.  I'm going to Las Vegas for a costume convention.

I'm super excited and am looking forward to taking 100 pictures.  But I'm sad that I'm going alone. My travel partner dropped out due to $$ and her dog is suddenly having seizures. Wanna join me?

Believe it or not I found a room on Orbitz for $19 a night.  It's the cheapest I've ever gotten outside of staying with friends. 

A friend also scored me 2 tickets to these guys:

Blue Man Group

Sending me to a costume convention is like sending the alcoholic to the wine convention.  

Here's the scary part for me.  Since I have so many food allergies and have been doing an anti-candida diet since the 1st of the year food is an issue.

Sure I'm packing food and am good about eating what I pack but schlepping around my cooler and packing food to eat while I'm at the convention isn't very convenient.  I will be parking about a mile away from the convention center & it's not like I can just pack a sandwich to throw in my backpack.

And leaving the convention to go eat really is a pain.  I  know I'll figure something out.  

I'll be back late Monday.  You all have a great weekend!  

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

12:12 pm 

My friend showing me her nails

EAT your VEGGIES!!

photo borrowed from:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_1&listing_id=18557778

I love veggies.  Love love love them.  It's not a problem for me to get enough servings.  We go thru big bags of veggies a couple of times a week.  

So it's strange for me to meet people who don't care for veggies.  Huh? (picture my head tilted like a dog that's heard a strange noise.)  How can you not like veggies?

My ex husband didn't like any veggies until we got together.  Turned out he had never had anything fresh.  Everything he had was from a can or creamed.  (God love that ex MIL.)   

Growing up we had a huge garden.  The family still talks about Mom planting the big row of parsley.  I think we had every parsley recipe known to man that year.  Dad had a giant compost bin. He was organic when Dow Chemical had other ideas.  

Nana canned, froze and served us fruit year round.  The one thing I'm not a fan of is oranges. We had 3 orange trees growing up and to this day I really have to be craving an orange to have one. 

Today in my own garden I have a peach tree that came out of our compost pile.  We get peaches about every 5 years and those have to be the most delicious peaches I've ever eaten. 

Mr. T'dots has 2-3 compost piles going all the time.  We don't have a garbage disposal.  (No dishwasher either. Or microwave. Now it's your turn to tilt your head and make that face like a dog that's hearing a strange sound.)  We used to start out own tomatoes until we discovered the local county extension sells organic starts.  

I'm dreaming of our garden this year.  It snowed last night and I'm so over winter. Reno has a very short growing season and such intense temperature swings that gardening here truly is an art. 

So eat your veggies.  Don't know how to?  It's simple.

Figure out what you like.  Start there. 

Like carrots?  Great!  Google "carrot Recipes" and see what you get. Not a fan of salads?  Could be that you're not a fan of head lettuce.  Try spinach or a mini green's blend.

My challenge for you is to figure out how to incorporate veggies into your life.  Pick one that you've never and this week try it.  Try it raw, steamed, sauteed, baked.  

Just try it!

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

12:12 Tues

I forgot my camera.  Oops.

Family, travel and Food

Family.  Love em or not.  Fortunately for me I love em. 

My oldest niece is getting married in April.  I spent this past weekend in San Francisco staying with her and her fiance.  Her shower was on Saturday.

My niece did something wonderful for me.  She told the hostesses about my food allergies & gave them a list of what I can/can't eat so that I'd be able to eat at the shower.  I had packed some food but ended up taking it all home.  Not only did I eat to my hearts content I took part of left overs with me.

One of the hostesses is a vegetarian and said "I'm so used to not being able to eat anything at gatherings it was no big deal to make sure you could eat."

Love that woman.

Love my niece for doing this for me.

Me, Bride-to-be, Mother o'Bride.

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

Food Food Food

This anti-candida diet is getting to be tedious after 2 months. 

Mr. T'dots and I have become bored with our food.  (This from the same person who posted "Rule of 5" and "Ethnic Tastes" last week.)

I really need to do some shopping and more prepping of our food.  Change things up a bit. 

I'm heading to Vegas on Thursday for a convention.  I booked a room and will be taking my cooler full of stuff.  But then I'll need to shlep my food over to the convention and figure out how to keep every thing cool & ready to eat while I'm walking around getting catalogs.  We all know that convention food is expensive & I'll have no clue what's in the dish.

There's no way I can go off what I'm doing just because I'm not prepared.  

This is about cleaning my body out.  Not letting crap in. Right?

Oh and I may have an extra free ticket for Blue Man Group on friday night.  Any takers?

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

12:12 Friday

Steaming a wedding gown

March 14th is the big "Brides of March" pub crawl.  It's where everyone dresses up in bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses and other wedding related costumes.  No grooms.  All the men are dressed like brides or bridesmaids.  

2007 Brides of March

Mr. T'dots so pretty in pink! 

Yours truly looking so fresh in an all silk flower number.