heh I’m surprised the surgeon didn’t have someone else seeing the patients for as I’m told most surgeons have the social skills of a wolverine
Our housekeeper was so happy about the cherries that she went home and filled a bag up with bunny poop and gave it to me! I have such good friends!!!
Evening all. Swimming has been accomplished (1625 yards in two 30-minute sessions), 3rd of 4 loads of laundry is in the washer (2nd should be done drying just after this message), and BLT’s are happily assimilating in my belly, so the world is alright. Need to get the garbage out in a little bit for tomorrow (Moanday was a holiday so probably won’t be picked up until Firday but won’t take the chance). Still have a crossword to solve before bedtime.
Ooookay… 
Cookie, sounds like a lovely place…
Sunny, hope the ‘cleansing’ isn’t too bad and the colonoscopy goes well.
Ok, need to take the shirts out of the dryer and start shredding the paper pile for taking out in the garbage. All y’all take care.
Ya gotta love leftovers. Dinner tonight was leftover lettuce (w/blue cheese dressing), leftover asparagus (cold, with Miracle Whip), and ⅓ of the leftover aspara nikumaki with leftover sesame dressing. Wifey had yoghurt (not leftover).
I woke up early (for me) and called the vet at around 7:45am, and was able to get a noon appointment for Bailey. She did fine overnight, and seemed to be feeling better this morning; I almost didn’t call, but ultimately I decided that I still wanted a doc to see her. Then I went to two appointments of my own: I had some blood drawn, and a follow-up with my nutritionist (both in the same building, which was nice). Afterwards I stopped at the grocery store to get more canned chicken for the doggy, and was only home/working for about an hour before it was time to go to the vet. The doc checked her temp and a couple of other things, and said to keep up the meds and that her system should settle down after a few more days. I was worried that the anti-diarrheal might make her constipated, but he explained that it didn’t work like that. The appointment was worth the time just to get that question answered and to know that he wasn’t concerned. Happily, she seems to be much more comfortable today; she’s moving around more like her usual self. 
Fingers crossed that this trend continues. We both appreciate all of the good wishes!
The nutritionist appointment went well. She made a minor adjustment to my supplements. The office scale showed my weight as being 1 pound less than the last time I weighed myself at home, which was nice: usually, I weigh more on their scale. 
Now I’m waiting for the lab results to start coming in. I might have shot myself in the foot in terms of my blood sugar, because I absentmindedly ate some dried pineapple last night…sweetened…and I’ve been snacking on it for a couple of days. 
It shouldn’t screw up my A1C, but my fasting glucose might come back a little high. We’ll see. I’ll go over the results with my surgeon’s nurse practitioner on Monday.
I’m feeling the fact that I woke up early and did some stuff today…I think an early-ish bedtime might be in order. I really like the book I’m reading, and sometimes I stay up a little too late with it: I’m hoping that turning in early will let me read for a while but still go to sleep at a decent time.
Sentences like this are why I love the MMP!!! 
Up from naptime, watching hockey. It’s National Olive Day, so I’m having a martini.
And Alex Catt is 7 this year, so she should hang around for a few more years.
< waves eastward >
Yay!
Should I have maybe mentioned that I took it right outside and scratched it into the dirt around the 'maters?
I hope Bailey’s recover continues stress free. I’m glad your health seems to be doing well too!
Yogurt is very easy to make and fresh usually tastes better than store bought. Have you ever considered doing that for wifey? As long as you use whole milk, it will fit with your low carb diet as well.
For those who needed to know, the jam gelled nicely but it’s too sweet. I should have used two lemons or something else sharp to cut the sweet. Oh well, I’ll take it to the resort and we can eat it on toasted sourdough. Toasted with the toaster I will be bringing.
I’m intrigued. Tell me more. I love yoghurt, but I’m afraid of the carbs. If I can make a carb-friendly version, I’d love to hear about it.
Hubs is low carb and says that whole milk is OK and that cream is even better when it comes to staying low carb. I lurves my carbs so only really know what he says and what he is willing to eat.
That being said, most commercial yogurt is made with low fat or even (shudder) skim milk, just a total waste of calories IMO.
Before starting, you need a way to ferment your babby cheese. You can spend a bunch of money on really nice electric makers, you use the pilot light in your oven, make a light box or come up with something else that will keep the milk at 120F for at least 8 hours.
You can buy commercial yogurt and use that as a starter (something like sourdough starter), buy yogurt starters or use cultured buttermilk (you will want to play with that to get the taste you want).
Once you think you are willing to bother with all that, remember to always add two cups of heavy cream per gallon of milk as you are heating it.
Let me know if you want complete instructions, they will be kinda long because you haven’t indicated that you cook milk often and I’ll want you to get this right the first time lest you just give up.
I promise, it really is worth the bother.
Can I just say I love all y’all. Seeing your stories of pet drama, and kid drama, and now yoghurt drama, is one of the best parts of the day.
Bag of bunny poop Snerk
Go Bailey!
Hers are always good. I love her measured, literary pace unlike most mystery novels. She builds and deploys fascinating characters too. I always feel like I’m in the Village of Three Pines watching it all through a window rimmed with frost.
Electric stove/oven. I do have a slow-cooker, but I don’t know the temperature of the lowest setting.
That’s probably going to be too hot. I made my first lightbox with a foil lined cardboard box and an incandescent lightbulb, but nowadays I just fill a small ice chest with warm water and check it through the day.
Do you remember seeing those cast iron stoves pioneer women used to slave over? The top thingy was for making yogurt and rising bread.
That’s how easy and common yogurt was and still is.
You can do this whole thing in your sink if you want to.
Always start by sterilizing your work area, tools and containers. Do this first so you don’t need to stop later. While you probably don’t need to bother with this for yogurt, good habits are better than bad ones. We use Star San but there are many other food friendly ones out there.
Start by mixing half a gallon of whole milk and a cup of cream in a pot, then gently heat it to 180F. GENTLY! This should take at least half an hour with you stirring it when you walk by. (Use an up and down motion whenever playing with milk, it helps move the heat up from the bottom of the pan.)
Once it’s at temp, cover and hold for 5 to 25 minutes depending on how thick you want it to be. This is the ripening process.
Pour the warm milk into a jar and give it an ice water bath to cool it to 115 as quickly as possible. Pour half a cup of the warmish milk into a bowl and mix the starter and milk until combined. You are doing this because you don’t want to shock your good bacteria. Now pour the milk and starter into the jar and stir for 20-30 seconds. Seal the lid and put it in it’s warming place for 8-10 hours, or longer if needed. You will need to play with this as well.
When it’s ready, it will be slightly firm and you will be able to see some pulling away from the sides of the jar.
It’s ready to drink now, or you can put it in the fridge and chill it for 6-8 hours to thicken.
You can make it even thicker with powered milk but it’s really hard to get whole fat powdered milk so you probably won’t want to mess with that. You can also drain the curds through a cheese cloth lined colander for 4-10 hours if you want to play with Greek style yogurt.
Do be careful with this. Playing with milk is kinda addicting and causes even normal people to start speechifying.
We lurves you too!!! How’s the new dawg search going?
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave
When I was in college, I had a Salton yogurt maker and I loved it! I pretty much used it till it died. I may have to get myself another - I’d forgotten how much I liked it compared to the commercial stuff.
I was dead asleep when the alarm went off - first time in a few days that I didn’t wake early - wish I could have kept sleeping, but I’ve got the kids again. Looks like the rain isn’t due till after I get rid of the grands - maybe we’ll venture out into the yard? Depends on how I feel. Roxy does fine out there, but Tobias is too young to do anything by sit in the stroller like a lump.
I finally got access to all of my accounts and our new credit card is set up with VISA notifications. Now all we need is a winning lottery ticket, and I can stop fretting about bills… 
OK, I’m not really fretting about bills - I just want a winning lottery ticket. And not one of those louse $2 scratch-off tickets - I want one of the biggies - multi-million, dammit! Is that too much to ask???
Yeah, probably. Especially since we don’t buy tickets. Always something…
Happy Thursday!!
Morning, mumpers! It’s 17c/62f out there today and mostly cloudy. Weather app says “Cloudy with a slight chance of a clown flash mob. Because that’s not fucking scary at all”.
It’s the start of the public holidays for the Queen’s jubbly weekend so no irk for me. 'im indoors has decided to irk today but that’s ok, his boss said he’s fine with that. I got up when his alarm went off, had breakfast and a cup of tea while faffing on farcebook. Just finished a Rockfit class and having another cuppa before heading for a shower. Early-ish lunch, then I am spending the afternoon at a local pub where my friend’s cat rescue has a stall so I’ll be helping with some fundraising for a few hours.
After that, back home to make dinner as it’s my turn to cook so I got chicken out of the freezer and shall transform it into curry later.
So…the exercise class I do is an online one through a monthly subscription and has a farcebook group where people tend to post about the classes, there are votes for future classes and suchlike. I posted a couple of days ago saying that I had tried this month’s “special” which was a pop/punk theme and although I got a quarter of the way though, I wasn’t enjoying it so much, and swapped it for another class from earlier in the month. That post was declined by the group admins, presumably because I dared to say I didn’t like a class. That has me all kinds of peeved now.
Morning all. Woke up about 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so up and typing. Need to fold most of the stuff I washed last night and take some dry cleaning to the shop I use, but not much else on the agenda. Hot and dry seems to have been the pattern this week, but the Weather Wizards are giving us a 60% chance of rain this afternoon with a high of 86F.
boo fae, obviously they figured others might pile on if you spoke truth, so they had to muzzle you quick…I suspect yours wasn’t the only post declined.
JtC, don’t do yogurt but nice of you to provide the information to those who do.
Oopsie, continuing best wishes and virtual scritches to you and Bailey repectively (unless you like scritches too…).
OK, need to take pills and be about the day. All y’all take care.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis < snerk > 69! < snerk > Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 97 and N.O.S. for the day. Another hawt day in south Jawja! The agenda for the day includes makin’ chili in the slow cooker, as we are down to one quart container in da freezer, gassin’ up twuck, goin’ over to the church house to take care of candle duty, sloth, nappage, and some possible quality cee-mint pond time. Sup shall be beastloaf, green beans, mac 'n cheese, and cornbread.
Oopsie glad Bailey is doin’ better and yay for the good checkup for you.
JtC I thought it was nice of your housekeeper to give you a bag of rabbit poop.
Sunny hope the purge was not too awful and the scopin’ goes easy today.
BooFae but you said bad things about the exercise class! You gave a contrary opinion! It’s just not fair for you to do that!
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah,
Happy Thursday Y’all!
Good morning everyone.
It’s currently 52 degrees with an expected high of 74, mostly cloudy skies and scattered thunderstorms starting this afternoon. In other words, it’ll be muggy. Tomorrow we’re back to rain.
I had to drive to the office yesterday since the second Wednesday of the pay period is my third work in the office day. I was busy and there was far too much to do.
At least today is my Friday. Tomorrow I’ll renew my license plate tabs. It completely slipped my mind and they expired the day before yesterday. I only remembered when I saw my license plate after I parked at work yesterday. That was a face:palm moment especially considering I often drive with a heavy foot and had I been stopped, it could have been a two-fer.
I have lots on the work agenda today. I’m reaching serious burnout, which is what usually happens around this time of year. I just need to get through June and July and then I’ll be on vacation.
I’m glad Baily is doing better.
I suppose I should finish my coffee and finish loading up the dishwasher. You all have a nice day!
I’m whooped. The sciatica is really acting up today. I felt like I was gonna barf in Trader Joe’s. Time to lie down for a while.