Wednesday, May 6, 2009
With Star Trek Coming Out Soon...
...I started wondering...do you think Vulcans all just have Asperger's?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Perception of Portion
There's really no doubt that Americans have no perception of portions. We routinely gorge on super-sized meals and it's no challenge to find meals in sit-down restaurants that are well over a thousand calories.
But there is something that can help. Use smaller plate.
That's the whole idea behind the undiet book, The 9-Inch "Diet": Exposing the Big Conspiracy in America. The idea behind this book took root when the author and his wife purchased a rather old lake home and in the process of furnishing it went to the local We-Stock-Everything-Mart and bought new dishes. Upon returning home, he couldn't fit the dishes in the cupboard. At first he thought the cupboards were too small; he realized that the cupboards were the correct size for his grandparent's generation.
Since that time our portions gradually grew larger and larger. Today's dishes won't fit in yesterday's storage areas.
The book reads as a sad commentary on how large America has really become and how other countries, lagging behind our obviously advanced western culture, can't quite fathom how Americans can eat so much. The book reviews everything from airline seats (and weight surcharges and allowances because of our expanding waistlines, as well as challenges of Americans fitting on planes in the rapidly aging airline fleets) to movie theaters having trouble "packing them in" when renovations call for larger seats to fit expanding patrons. It even packs in several anecdotes like the one about a certain European company that rhymes with eye-tree-ah trying to figure out why they were selling out of vases when they opened a store in America.
Our portion sizes fit nicely on a 10 to 12 inch plate. Other countries that don't have the obesity problem we have in the US (although they are apparently starting to show our western influences) use plates that are...you guessed it...nine inches. This simple change fools our brains into thinking we're eating more than we really are! Over time the minor savings really adds up.
I definitely recommend reading this book. It is chock full of "food for thought" and is a very quick read. Whether you are dieting or just interested in food there's something you can take away from this book and it will leave you with something to think about next time you hit the buffet or walk by the concession stand at the theater.
But there is something that can help. Use smaller plate.
That's the whole idea behind the undiet book, The 9-Inch "Diet": Exposing the Big Conspiracy in America. The idea behind this book took root when the author and his wife purchased a rather old lake home and in the process of furnishing it went to the local We-Stock-Everything-Mart and bought new dishes. Upon returning home, he couldn't fit the dishes in the cupboard. At first he thought the cupboards were too small; he realized that the cupboards were the correct size for his grandparent's generation.
Since that time our portions gradually grew larger and larger. Today's dishes won't fit in yesterday's storage areas.
The book reads as a sad commentary on how large America has really become and how other countries, lagging behind our obviously advanced western culture, can't quite fathom how Americans can eat so much. The book reviews everything from airline seats (and weight surcharges and allowances because of our expanding waistlines, as well as challenges of Americans fitting on planes in the rapidly aging airline fleets) to movie theaters having trouble "packing them in" when renovations call for larger seats to fit expanding patrons. It even packs in several anecdotes like the one about a certain European company that rhymes with eye-tree-ah trying to figure out why they were selling out of vases when they opened a store in America.
Our portion sizes fit nicely on a 10 to 12 inch plate. Other countries that don't have the obesity problem we have in the US (although they are apparently starting to show our western influences) use plates that are...you guessed it...nine inches. This simple change fools our brains into thinking we're eating more than we really are! Over time the minor savings really adds up.
I definitely recommend reading this book. It is chock full of "food for thought" and is a very quick read. Whether you are dieting or just interested in food there's something you can take away from this book and it will leave you with something to think about next time you hit the buffet or walk by the concession stand at the theater.
Guess My Age
How old do you think this cheeseburger is?
If you said four years old, you'd be right!
This is a plain McDonald's cheeseburger, roughly four years old.
I keep it in a plastic container in my cupboard.
I read once that the preservatives in fast foods make them "nearly immortal". So one day on a lark I set aside a cheeseburger to jokingly find out what would happen. The burger didn't rot, it didn't really change color, it just dried out.
I didn't do anything special to it. It's just kept in a plastic container in a small cupboard shelf above the microwave. It even still has the original wrapper with it.
I don't know how many prepared foods can sit that long without growing mold or sprouting legs. Apparently McDonald's cheeseburgers can. How many of them are sold a day?
If you said four years old, you'd be right!
This is a plain McDonald's cheeseburger, roughly four years old.
I keep it in a plastic container in my cupboard.
I read once that the preservatives in fast foods make them "nearly immortal". So one day on a lark I set aside a cheeseburger to jokingly find out what would happen. The burger didn't rot, it didn't really change color, it just dried out.
I didn't do anything special to it. It's just kept in a plastic container in a small cupboard shelf above the microwave. It even still has the original wrapper with it.
I don't know how many prepared foods can sit that long without growing mold or sprouting legs. Apparently McDonald's cheeseburgers can. How many of them are sold a day?
Tentative Steps to Eating "Normally"
I found exactly two 1-cup size storage containers in our big box-o-storage-bins in the kitchen this morning. I packed for breakfast:
one scrambled egg.
two thin strips of ham steak
one small slice of cheese from a HelluvaGood (is that the brand?) cheddar block.
I figure my meal is not to exceed one cup, no matter what, and these fit into the container without any problem. I also figure since these are solids these aren't actually filling the volume of the container...that one-cup storage size holding all those items would actually probably fill 1/2 cup if I pureed everything.
Maybe I'm being optimistic...I'm trying to be realistic (believe me, it still HURTS when I sneeze or cough, I can't imagine how much excruciating pain vomiting would cause so I'm trying VERY hard to avoid it!). This, I think, fits the guidelines for size of a meal. I also was aiming to fill some of the requirements of the meal as outlined at the nutrition class...calcium is a must (cheese!), protein is a must (ham...well, all of it...I even used a real egg instead of just egg white for my first meal to see how I'd handle it, plus some added nutrition from the yolk...).
I ate it very slowly. That less-than-a-cup of mass took me about an hour to eat. No vomiting! No pain! Yay!
I had a feeling after last night's dinner in my gut that came back after breakfast. I'm not sure it's fullness, per se, although it could be that and I'm just unaccustomed to it. It's not pain. It's not nausea. It's not hunger. It's hard to put my finger on...but for now I'll write it off as borderline satiety.
All I do know...that was good. If you ever want to appreciate food try eating Jell-O for half a month then try having a good tender piece of ham with a hint of cheese, maybe a small spread of dijon mustard on it...good stuff.
I'm still sore and can't take painkillers right now. I have aches. My gut has stiff pains at times, I think from scar tissue or healing. I get frequently lightheaded and dizzy, perhaps from low blood pressure. I have trouble remembering all the medications I have to take. I have trouble keeping straight what proteins I need to get, the minerals, the timing of how to take things. I get emotional and cranky. I still get freaked out by the weird hole in my stomach (it is slowly getting better, so far don't think it's infected) which oozes blood and I have to change it's stinky dressing twice a day. Waves of fatigue make it hard to focus and get through the day.
But that ham and cheese and egg...boy oh boy that was good.
one scrambled egg.
two thin strips of ham steak
one small slice of cheese from a HelluvaGood (is that the brand?) cheddar block.
I figure my meal is not to exceed one cup, no matter what, and these fit into the container without any problem. I also figure since these are solids these aren't actually filling the volume of the container...that one-cup storage size holding all those items would actually probably fill 1/2 cup if I pureed everything.
Maybe I'm being optimistic...I'm trying to be realistic (believe me, it still HURTS when I sneeze or cough, I can't imagine how much excruciating pain vomiting would cause so I'm trying VERY hard to avoid it!). This, I think, fits the guidelines for size of a meal. I also was aiming to fill some of the requirements of the meal as outlined at the nutrition class...calcium is a must (cheese!), protein is a must (ham...well, all of it...I even used a real egg instead of just egg white for my first meal to see how I'd handle it, plus some added nutrition from the yolk...).
I ate it very slowly. That less-than-a-cup of mass took me about an hour to eat. No vomiting! No pain! Yay!
I had a feeling after last night's dinner in my gut that came back after breakfast. I'm not sure it's fullness, per se, although it could be that and I'm just unaccustomed to it. It's not pain. It's not nausea. It's not hunger. It's hard to put my finger on...but for now I'll write it off as borderline satiety.
All I do know...that was good. If you ever want to appreciate food try eating Jell-O for half a month then try having a good tender piece of ham with a hint of cheese, maybe a small spread of dijon mustard on it...good stuff.
I'm still sore and can't take painkillers right now. I have aches. My gut has stiff pains at times, I think from scar tissue or healing. I get frequently lightheaded and dizzy, perhaps from low blood pressure. I have trouble remembering all the medications I have to take. I have trouble keeping straight what proteins I need to get, the minerals, the timing of how to take things. I get emotional and cranky. I still get freaked out by the weird hole in my stomach (it is slowly getting better, so far don't think it's infected) which oozes blood and I have to change it's stinky dressing twice a day. Waves of fatigue make it hard to focus and get through the day.
But that ham and cheese and egg...boy oh boy that was good.
Monday, May 4, 2009
And Another Milestone is Passed
I had my four-week nutrition meeting.
It was a little haphazard...there were tidbits here and there that seemed contradictory at times; for example, I am supposed to now go from pureed foods to "soft, moist foods". In the sample breakfast, 1/2 a piece of toast.
Unless drenched in butter I don't think I'd count toast as a "soft, moist" food.
After several notes on needing calcium supplements and watching protein, then doing some very vague notes on foods...I asked, "Basically, you're saying we can try whatever we want, as long as the meal is less than a cup or is about the size of my palm, and the stomach tolerates the food?"
"Pretty much."
So I guess I can eat what I want as long as I have three or four meals a day and keep the portion of the entire meal to a very small amount and I'm very very careful about signs that I'm about to yark or fill my shorts. And the foods must be "soft" foods.
So after this meeting my wife drove to Panera for dinner. I ordered a pick-two of French Onion soup and a Cafe Ham and Swiss sandwich on rye with dijon mustard. I ate a little bit of the bread...the mustard was to DIE for!...and the meat and cheese on the half-sandwich happened to be about the size of my palm ("a portion of meat you should be aiming to eat is the size of a deck of cards...", she said)...it took longer than usual to eat, but I ate the ham and cheese with no obvious discomfort. And again...the mustard was fantastic.
The flavor of the ham with that slice of deli swiss was utterly delicious. I probably could have eaten more of the bread, but I wasn't really hungry (wasn't really full either, at least not in a way that I was accustomed to feeling full). My wife picked up a take-out container for the soup and that was that. My dinner was a good sized portion of ham and cheese with delectable dijon mustard and just a touch of rye bread.
I'm confident that in due time an entire meal will be something like a sandwich or half a sandwich. It's fantastic to think that this will be enough for an entire meal, not a sandwich with XYZ together!
The gist of the meeting with the nutritionist is that my "dieting" lifestyle will be entirely focused on portion control. I don't avoid fats. I don't avoid carbs or whatever other fad diet is the current "thing". The only thing I avoid is sugar and I have to focus a little more on nutrition...eat proteins because I need it for muscles and body composition, for example, while breads will make me feel too full to get the nutritional part of my mealtimes. I need to limit my portions and not graze or snack.
The weight loss surgery is supposed to offer feedback; I am supposed to feel uncomfortably full if I eat too large a portion, or end up with the runs and chills and palpitations if I have sugars. I didn't get the uncomfortable feeling while eating tonight. But I don't feel hungry, and that was the other effect the surgery was supposed to have; my hunger should be head hunger and my physical hunger shouldn't really be a factor right now.
There are flavors and textures and experiences that I am looking forward to trying. I don't think there's anything wrong with anticipating this. I am going to be mindful to keep my portion sizes small because if the whole negative feedback thing isn't working in my particular case, I need to keep an eye on what I'm doing.
My stomach has always been made of steel. Maybe to some degree it still is. Maybe it is still hyper-tolerant of foods and such...I may be one of the rare ones that have to be pushed to have dumping syndrome or vomit from the introduction of foods. But I'm not exactly going to try pushing the issue.
So tonight was a good night! Now I just have to see how much of the waters I can navigate without hitting an iceberg...
Yay!
It was a little haphazard...there were tidbits here and there that seemed contradictory at times; for example, I am supposed to now go from pureed foods to "soft, moist foods". In the sample breakfast, 1/2 a piece of toast.
Unless drenched in butter I don't think I'd count toast as a "soft, moist" food.
After several notes on needing calcium supplements and watching protein, then doing some very vague notes on foods...I asked, "Basically, you're saying we can try whatever we want, as long as the meal is less than a cup or is about the size of my palm, and the stomach tolerates the food?"
"Pretty much."
So I guess I can eat what I want as long as I have three or four meals a day and keep the portion of the entire meal to a very small amount and I'm very very careful about signs that I'm about to yark or fill my shorts. And the foods must be "soft" foods.
So after this meeting my wife drove to Panera for dinner. I ordered a pick-two of French Onion soup and a Cafe Ham and Swiss sandwich on rye with dijon mustard. I ate a little bit of the bread...the mustard was to DIE for!...and the meat and cheese on the half-sandwich happened to be about the size of my palm ("a portion of meat you should be aiming to eat is the size of a deck of cards...", she said)...it took longer than usual to eat, but I ate the ham and cheese with no obvious discomfort. And again...the mustard was fantastic.
The flavor of the ham with that slice of deli swiss was utterly delicious. I probably could have eaten more of the bread, but I wasn't really hungry (wasn't really full either, at least not in a way that I was accustomed to feeling full). My wife picked up a take-out container for the soup and that was that. My dinner was a good sized portion of ham and cheese with delectable dijon mustard and just a touch of rye bread.
I'm confident that in due time an entire meal will be something like a sandwich or half a sandwich. It's fantastic to think that this will be enough for an entire meal, not a sandwich with XYZ together!
The gist of the meeting with the nutritionist is that my "dieting" lifestyle will be entirely focused on portion control. I don't avoid fats. I don't avoid carbs or whatever other fad diet is the current "thing". The only thing I avoid is sugar and I have to focus a little more on nutrition...eat proteins because I need it for muscles and body composition, for example, while breads will make me feel too full to get the nutritional part of my mealtimes. I need to limit my portions and not graze or snack.
The weight loss surgery is supposed to offer feedback; I am supposed to feel uncomfortably full if I eat too large a portion, or end up with the runs and chills and palpitations if I have sugars. I didn't get the uncomfortable feeling while eating tonight. But I don't feel hungry, and that was the other effect the surgery was supposed to have; my hunger should be head hunger and my physical hunger shouldn't really be a factor right now.
There are flavors and textures and experiences that I am looking forward to trying. I don't think there's anything wrong with anticipating this. I am going to be mindful to keep my portion sizes small because if the whole negative feedback thing isn't working in my particular case, I need to keep an eye on what I'm doing.
My stomach has always been made of steel. Maybe to some degree it still is. Maybe it is still hyper-tolerant of foods and such...I may be one of the rare ones that have to be pushed to have dumping syndrome or vomit from the introduction of foods. But I'm not exactly going to try pushing the issue.
So tonight was a good night! Now I just have to see how much of the waters I can navigate without hitting an iceberg...
Yay!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Interesting: How Much Sugar, and I Love Buffets!
I came across two interesting bits of information related to diets. The first one is a website that shows you, visually, how much sugar is in various food items. At the time of this posting the site is crawling because it is experiencing a sudden surge from being posted on sites like Reddit, but it should die down sometime tomorrow.
The second was advice on eating at all-you-can-eat buffets from a TV show on The Food Network called Food Detectives.
To summarize the advice, you have to remember: Survey, Face Away, Sit Far Away.
The guest on the segment discussed findings from studying people's behaviors at buffets. He said that distance played a role...sitting further away made it more inconvenient to get up and get that second or third plate, but also gave people time to reflect and ask themselves if they're really hungry or just want more from convenience. He cited the example of a study where a secretary with a bowl of chocolates ate something on the order of nine pieces when the bowl was on the desk, but four when it was placed six feet away.
Another observation: people who sat with their backs to the food were twice as likely to be thin in build.
He also identified two behaviors often found at the buffet; there was an overweight guy he called the "digger". If he liked the food, even kinda liked it, it was scooped onto his plate. He grabs a plate and starts going through the line, scoop scoop scoop, plop plop plop. The second type was what he called the "browser". The browser was kind of laid back in line, surveying everything first, looking at what was appetizing and what wasn't. After seeing what was available the browser would then go get a dish and start going through the line. In their studies, the browser was four times more likely to be thin in build.
So there you have it...survey, face away, sit far away.
One last bit of advice he shared...use the smaller salad plate as your entree dish. Without thinking about it you will eat less. The plate holds 20 to 30 percent less (which will be 20 to 30 percent less going to your waist) than the 12 inch plate.
So buffets don't have to be terrible things. You can go enjoy them. You just need to be mindful of what you're shoveling into your mouth.
The second was advice on eating at all-you-can-eat buffets from a TV show on The Food Network called Food Detectives.
To summarize the advice, you have to remember: Survey, Face Away, Sit Far Away.
The guest on the segment discussed findings from studying people's behaviors at buffets. He said that distance played a role...sitting further away made it more inconvenient to get up and get that second or third plate, but also gave people time to reflect and ask themselves if they're really hungry or just want more from convenience. He cited the example of a study where a secretary with a bowl of chocolates ate something on the order of nine pieces when the bowl was on the desk, but four when it was placed six feet away.
Another observation: people who sat with their backs to the food were twice as likely to be thin in build.
He also identified two behaviors often found at the buffet; there was an overweight guy he called the "digger". If he liked the food, even kinda liked it, it was scooped onto his plate. He grabs a plate and starts going through the line, scoop scoop scoop, plop plop plop. The second type was what he called the "browser". The browser was kind of laid back in line, surveying everything first, looking at what was appetizing and what wasn't. After seeing what was available the browser would then go get a dish and start going through the line. In their studies, the browser was four times more likely to be thin in build.
So there you have it...survey, face away, sit far away.
One last bit of advice he shared...use the smaller salad plate as your entree dish. Without thinking about it you will eat less. The plate holds 20 to 30 percent less (which will be 20 to 30 percent less going to your waist) than the 12 inch plate.
So buffets don't have to be terrible things. You can go enjoy them. You just need to be mindful of what you're shoveling into your mouth.
Bariatric Cravings?
Lately I've noticed that I actually have had a bit of a craving periodically. I don't know if it's the smell or flavor, but I want mustard. Weird?
Does anyone else who has had bariatric surgery have cravings?
Tomorrow is another milestone day...I have another dietary class in the afternoon, hopefully graduating to something resembling non-pureed foods.
It's been a hard road. Hopefully things will keep getting a little easier...
Does anyone else who has had bariatric surgery have cravings?
Tomorrow is another milestone day...I have another dietary class in the afternoon, hopefully graduating to something resembling non-pureed foods.
It's been a hard road. Hopefully things will keep getting a little easier...
Mirror Neurons and Empathy?
I was listening to a podcast recording of Kathy Sierra from the Creating Passionate Users website; she was giving a talk where she talked a bit about a kind of pseudo-mindreading ability we naturally possess thanks to parts of our brains made of mirror neurons. These are pretty darn neat.
Turns out there are parts of your brain that fire both when you do something and when you observe something happening.
In other words, if you're a chef, certain parts of your brain will fire up as you recall recipe and food information and as you perform functions like mixing and whisking your culinary concoctions. As we train the brain, those parts become more trained, making the task easier.
When these chefs see other chefs...or nonchefs...cooking, these same areas of the brain will fire up, as if they're doing what they're seeing. It's kind of like training the brain without doing anything.
In the talk, Kathy said that this was discovered when a researcher walked into a room where a monkey was wired for an experiment that involved neuro-mapping. The researcher was eating an ice cream cone, and each time he licked it the sensors blipped in a part of the monkey's brain that should have gone off only if the monkey was eating the ice cream cone...but the monkey was sitting and watching the researcher.
Neat, huh?
There's some evidence to suggest that people don't have or use mirror neurons. It's controversial to some degree, but apparently it's another field of study since it was proposed. I became kind of curious though...what if empathy, the ability to "put yourself in another person's shoes", is an extension of mirror neurons at work? Or maybe a mix of mirror neurons running a virtual simulation in our heads (the process, in theory, happens subconciously; we're unaware of it happening) mixing with our ability to evaluate consequences of actions?
I'm not a scientist nor is neurology a pet hobby. I haven't any idea how accurate this could be much in the same way that every armchair politician seems to think he knows what's best in Washington. But I still think this is an interesting tidbit of information and am curious about the implication of mirror neurons and how their existence could have implications for learning.
I suppose it's kind of disconcerting to think that most of American teenagers are doing nothing more than reinforcing how to slack off and text each others' cell phones...
Turns out there are parts of your brain that fire both when you do something and when you observe something happening.
In other words, if you're a chef, certain parts of your brain will fire up as you recall recipe and food information and as you perform functions like mixing and whisking your culinary concoctions. As we train the brain, those parts become more trained, making the task easier.
When these chefs see other chefs...or nonchefs...cooking, these same areas of the brain will fire up, as if they're doing what they're seeing. It's kind of like training the brain without doing anything.
In the talk, Kathy said that this was discovered when a researcher walked into a room where a monkey was wired for an experiment that involved neuro-mapping. The researcher was eating an ice cream cone, and each time he licked it the sensors blipped in a part of the monkey's brain that should have gone off only if the monkey was eating the ice cream cone...but the monkey was sitting and watching the researcher.
Neat, huh?
There's some evidence to suggest that people don't have or use mirror neurons. It's controversial to some degree, but apparently it's another field of study since it was proposed. I became kind of curious though...what if empathy, the ability to "put yourself in another person's shoes", is an extension of mirror neurons at work? Or maybe a mix of mirror neurons running a virtual simulation in our heads (the process, in theory, happens subconciously; we're unaware of it happening) mixing with our ability to evaluate consequences of actions?
I'm not a scientist nor is neurology a pet hobby. I haven't any idea how accurate this could be much in the same way that every armchair politician seems to think he knows what's best in Washington. But I still think this is an interesting tidbit of information and am curious about the implication of mirror neurons and how their existence could have implications for learning.
I suppose it's kind of disconcerting to think that most of American teenagers are doing nothing more than reinforcing how to slack off and text each others' cell phones...
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Made It Through The Day So Far
I was determined to make this a terrific day. So far, it really has been!
We woke up, got around, and headed out to grab a quick breakfast of greasy goo at a BK (I had eaten my puree in the car when we first headed out; I wanted to eat it while it was toasty warm from the microwave, wife wanted the french toast sticks, little guy wanted two breakfast sandwiches; we have a policy in the family now where he got one and was told he'd like that because he didn't need that much fat in the morning) and then we went to the festival for a little while first to meet with my parents so they could hang out with the baby dude.
We had the visiting out of the way and little guy got to ride a few rides before we went to FREE COMIC BOOK DAY at the nearby comic store. We had plenty of good books picked up there including a couple for the mini dude and handed off a card to the owner of the comic store as a thank you for helping with the tire during our last shopping trip there; we stuck in a couple Darden's gift cards so maybe he and his wife will have a free evening out on us.
My wife was looking for a book that was supposed to be released recently so we headed to Barne's and Noble. I was proud of myself for not going too crazy with yet more books...I literally have a bookshelf filled with titles I've yet to get through...but I got a magazine and a couple relatively inexpensive titles to add to the shelves. Little Guy got his fill of trains including a new set to add to his own collection and a book or two, then we headed off to lunch at Panera because they have a customer microwave that let me heat up my puree and my wife really loves their food. A quick stop at Target was taken after that and the it was back to the art festival so we could leisurely meander around on our own time.
We picked up my painkillers waiting at the local Walmart pharmacy and we were good to go. I also had spent quite a bit of time on Percocet since I knew it was going to be a big and busy day and I wanted to keep the soreness I've been feeling from getting to me.
Today was really a wonderful, wonderful day. The kid got a little cranky at times but I think he had fun too.
Notice there was just one kid?
The daughter made arrangements to take the SAT's today. I was proud of the fact that she paid for the test herself, followed up on getting things ready for it...although I don't know if she ever prepped or studied for it...she managed to get up on time, she arranged for a ride, and I'm assuming she had supplies but I don't know. When I took it many moons ago I had to bring pencils and such for the test. I don't know if it's still the same way.
I noticed, though, that she got a ride with her boyfriend this morning to the test. The boy has never expressed an interest in college. I thought she'd be driving herself, but I wondered if he was taking the test because she was. Afterwards she went to the art festival with him for awhile; we met up with them there for her to ride some rides with her brother, seeing as she was half the weight we were.
However, all is not gummy bears and rainbows. She had an attitude about infringing on her free time with her boyfriend by having to play with her brother, who utterly adores her. She texted her mother asking if she could go to her boyfriend's house or if she had to go home...mom didn't reply, and instead of assuming she should go home, she went ahead to do what she wanted to do and hang out at her boyriend's house. When her mother did note this in a semi-snarky text message observing that she went ahead and did what she wanted to do, instead of coming home she continued hanging out with boyfriend, and I'm pretty sure the movie's been over for a couple hours now.
This was on top of her hanging out with boyfriend last night after being told to make sure she did the dishes after school...and she didn't bother.
She's also on student council at school and was supposed to be planning some kind of kickball game to take place Friday afternoon; apparently she did zilch planning and zilch work on it, blaming her co-commitee members and saying she couldn't get ahold of them.
I was just starting to get mad there...this girl sent over three THOUSAND text messages on her phone last month. She has instant messaging. Telephone. Skype for free chat/voice/video conferencing. She's at school with these other people. She has access to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, even the school has its own forum server where she could ask for permission to add a topic to host a virtual pow-wow session for planning items. But she couldn't find a way to get in touch with these other kids, the most connected generation in history.
So she's got a surprise ready tomorrow. She's going to be mowing...we need to refill the gas tank and add oil before she's ready to go, as well as remove an apparent mouse nest in the air intake on top of the engine, but when she gets out of work at six tomorrow night she's going to have some mowing to do. After that she can help her brother pick up his room. She's been slacking, pushing her freedoms a bit much, and it's time to pull on the leash a bit.
I kept asking myself if I was justified in being rather angry with her after her recent behavior. I was proud of her for following through with the SAT thing until I found out she was basically using it as an excuse to hang out with boyfriend some more...my wife seems to be agitated with her as well for her behavior so I don't feel too bad. I became more irritated when the wife went to the shed to check on the state of our gasoline stores while I checked the oil on the mower. My wife found that the things the daughter was supposed to have organized a month ago consisted primarily of throwing everything right at the entrance rather than actually organizing things and we were basically idiots for trusting a then-16-year-old with having done the work she said she had done.
So...irresponsible in living up to the resume-padding title of student council member, not doing dishes after she was told twice to do them yesterday, hanging at boyfriend's instead of getting the work done she was supposed to get done, ignoring the not so subtle common sense precaution of coming home first when she didn't have an answer of where she should go, giving the exasperated attitude when asked to spend an hour with her little brother who adores her and hadn't seen her all day, not actually following up on organizing some bags of salt and a couple bags of recyclables and such in the shed (which is her primary chore in the house; trash and recyclables), not taking the not so subtle hint to get her arse home after she finally did ask about it...I'm not feeling too bad about having her spend her non-working hours tomorrow at home doing penance.
Overall this was a fantastic day. The daughter wasn't doing enough to ruin the day. The son had a few moments where the lack of a nap triggered a few fits that threatened to ruin part of the shopping trips, but he settled down after basically learning that whining was going to get him nowhere in getting his way.
I don't know if I could have asked for a better day that didn't involve being on vacation so as to escape our worries for a few days!
I'm tired...extremely very much totally tired. The daughter came home and got a long rambling speech on her future and responsibilities and etcetera etcetera...and while I'm healed quite a bit, I'm still finding those times that surprise the hell out of me where I think I can do something simple and end up going woozy from bending over to pick something up. Apparently running around as much as we did today took a lot out of me; I nearly fell asleep on the couch around seven o'clock. So you can imagine that I'm in dire need of sleep right now. I probably have a number of typos in this post that right now I'm not caring enough to fix...so goodnight, everyone.
We woke up, got around, and headed out to grab a quick breakfast of greasy goo at a BK (I had eaten my puree in the car when we first headed out; I wanted to eat it while it was toasty warm from the microwave, wife wanted the french toast sticks, little guy wanted two breakfast sandwiches; we have a policy in the family now where he got one and was told he'd like that because he didn't need that much fat in the morning) and then we went to the festival for a little while first to meet with my parents so they could hang out with the baby dude.
We had the visiting out of the way and little guy got to ride a few rides before we went to FREE COMIC BOOK DAY at the nearby comic store. We had plenty of good books picked up there including a couple for the mini dude and handed off a card to the owner of the comic store as a thank you for helping with the tire during our last shopping trip there; we stuck in a couple Darden's gift cards so maybe he and his wife will have a free evening out on us.
My wife was looking for a book that was supposed to be released recently so we headed to Barne's and Noble. I was proud of myself for not going too crazy with yet more books...I literally have a bookshelf filled with titles I've yet to get through...but I got a magazine and a couple relatively inexpensive titles to add to the shelves. Little Guy got his fill of trains including a new set to add to his own collection and a book or two, then we headed off to lunch at Panera because they have a customer microwave that let me heat up my puree and my wife really loves their food. A quick stop at Target was taken after that and the it was back to the art festival so we could leisurely meander around on our own time.
We picked up my painkillers waiting at the local Walmart pharmacy and we were good to go. I also had spent quite a bit of time on Percocet since I knew it was going to be a big and busy day and I wanted to keep the soreness I've been feeling from getting to me.
Today was really a wonderful, wonderful day. The kid got a little cranky at times but I think he had fun too.
Notice there was just one kid?
The daughter made arrangements to take the SAT's today. I was proud of the fact that she paid for the test herself, followed up on getting things ready for it...although I don't know if she ever prepped or studied for it...she managed to get up on time, she arranged for a ride, and I'm assuming she had supplies but I don't know. When I took it many moons ago I had to bring pencils and such for the test. I don't know if it's still the same way.
I noticed, though, that she got a ride with her boyfriend this morning to the test. The boy has never expressed an interest in college. I thought she'd be driving herself, but I wondered if he was taking the test because she was. Afterwards she went to the art festival with him for awhile; we met up with them there for her to ride some rides with her brother, seeing as she was half the weight we were.
However, all is not gummy bears and rainbows. She had an attitude about infringing on her free time with her boyfriend by having to play with her brother, who utterly adores her. She texted her mother asking if she could go to her boyfriend's house or if she had to go home...mom didn't reply, and instead of assuming she should go home, she went ahead to do what she wanted to do and hang out at her boyriend's house. When her mother did note this in a semi-snarky text message observing that she went ahead and did what she wanted to do, instead of coming home she continued hanging out with boyfriend, and I'm pretty sure the movie's been over for a couple hours now.
This was on top of her hanging out with boyfriend last night after being told to make sure she did the dishes after school...and she didn't bother.
She's also on student council at school and was supposed to be planning some kind of kickball game to take place Friday afternoon; apparently she did zilch planning and zilch work on it, blaming her co-commitee members and saying she couldn't get ahold of them.
I was just starting to get mad there...this girl sent over three THOUSAND text messages on her phone last month. She has instant messaging. Telephone. Skype for free chat/voice/video conferencing. She's at school with these other people. She has access to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, even the school has its own forum server where she could ask for permission to add a topic to host a virtual pow-wow session for planning items. But she couldn't find a way to get in touch with these other kids, the most connected generation in history.
So she's got a surprise ready tomorrow. She's going to be mowing...we need to refill the gas tank and add oil before she's ready to go, as well as remove an apparent mouse nest in the air intake on top of the engine, but when she gets out of work at six tomorrow night she's going to have some mowing to do. After that she can help her brother pick up his room. She's been slacking, pushing her freedoms a bit much, and it's time to pull on the leash a bit.
I kept asking myself if I was justified in being rather angry with her after her recent behavior. I was proud of her for following through with the SAT thing until I found out she was basically using it as an excuse to hang out with boyfriend some more...my wife seems to be agitated with her as well for her behavior so I don't feel too bad. I became more irritated when the wife went to the shed to check on the state of our gasoline stores while I checked the oil on the mower. My wife found that the things the daughter was supposed to have organized a month ago consisted primarily of throwing everything right at the entrance rather than actually organizing things and we were basically idiots for trusting a then-16-year-old with having done the work she said she had done.
So...irresponsible in living up to the resume-padding title of student council member, not doing dishes after she was told twice to do them yesterday, hanging at boyfriend's instead of getting the work done she was supposed to get done, ignoring the not so subtle common sense precaution of coming home first when she didn't have an answer of where she should go, giving the exasperated attitude when asked to spend an hour with her little brother who adores her and hadn't seen her all day, not actually following up on organizing some bags of salt and a couple bags of recyclables and such in the shed (which is her primary chore in the house; trash and recyclables), not taking the not so subtle hint to get her arse home after she finally did ask about it...I'm not feeling too bad about having her spend her non-working hours tomorrow at home doing penance.
Overall this was a fantastic day. The daughter wasn't doing enough to ruin the day. The son had a few moments where the lack of a nap triggered a few fits that threatened to ruin part of the shopping trips, but he settled down after basically learning that whining was going to get him nowhere in getting his way.
I don't know if I could have asked for a better day that didn't involve being on vacation so as to escape our worries for a few days!
I'm tired...extremely very much totally tired. The daughter came home and got a long rambling speech on her future and responsibilities and etcetera etcetera...and while I'm healed quite a bit, I'm still finding those times that surprise the hell out of me where I think I can do something simple and end up going woozy from bending over to pick something up. Apparently running around as much as we did today took a lot out of me; I nearly fell asleep on the couch around seven o'clock. So you can imagine that I'm in dire need of sleep right now. I probably have a number of typos in this post that right now I'm not caring enough to fix...so goodnight, everyone.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Smooth Sailing Still Has Waves
Like I've said...I'm excited about the weekend.
But there still seems to be issues with my emotions keeping in check.
I got home last night to find that the dog...our overgrown moron of a dog we saved from the pound...had half-pulled down the blanket I put on the window. See, this dog has the habit of jumping up on the couch to look out the window, thus slobbering all over the window, pulling the curtain over the couch, and knocking things off my desk and onto the floor. Again. It's an almost daily occurrence.
This dog has cost us time in the ER after my wife decided to take an ill-advised shortcut of taking the dog out by standing on the porch with a long leash and the dog, all eighty pounds of her, decided she saw something worth chasing and took off, pulling my wife through the air until she landed on concrete pavers below. After I'm fully recovered she'll need to go to the doctor's to determine if she needs surgery on her knee.
She's eaten two leashes and two harnesses.
She's eating shoes while we're gone...that only ended when we bought a plastic tub to store the shoes in.
She craps on the floor when she's mad at us for leaving; I got angry at burning electricity (and the life of the flatscreen LCD TV) to appease her and so we compromised on leaving a radio on to keep the dog company while we're out for more than an hour. Otherwise, we come home to a sewer pile on the floor. Multiple sewer piles.
I thought she was going to damn near kill me when she pushed her paw into my incision to "launch" herself from the couch while I was recovering at home. Even with Percoset...OUCH.
She barks at nothing, or worse, barks ferociously at some visitors, or jumps on them repeatedly unless they give her food despite our efforts to break her of this habit.
She's taken off when she escaped her leash or tie-out to run to the neighbor's house. Usually it's when we're guilty of being lazy and three feet from the porch one of us lets go of the leash, thinking she's going up the stairs and instead she bolts off to the side. I learned my lesson the first time she pulled this on me. Other times she had escaped her collar.
Oh...and she's destroyed a collar.
She seemed such a sweet dog at first. She probably still could be. But she has me SO FRUSTRATED. My wife has said we'll take her to training. That would have to wait until summer, when someone is home with her enough to enforce the training. Plus there's the cost of training.
All my pets growing up were apparently trained by my dad. I asked him how he does it...he shrugged and said, "We got them as puppies. Wasn't hard."
This overgrown doofus was fully grown when we got her from the pound.
I turned red at her once again getting dirt on the couch and pulling on the curtains AND thwarting the blanket on the window to keep her down, and my wife just gaver her exasperated, "I'll look at getting rid of her..."
I don't want to get rid of her. I promised my son at potty training that once he was a "big boy", he could get a puppy dog. He really wanted one because he remembered the promise for months. That's an accomplishment for a two year old. We also spent several hundred dollars and some hazard time on icy roads getting this dog fixed and the other usual vet bills.
I just want her to BEHAVE.
It's frustrating to have a pet that rules over you instead of the other way around. I wish I could trust her, that she'd stay in the yard and not have to be kept under lock and key at all times like a prisoner. Every time my daughter or wife takes a shortcut with her, is lax with the leash, anything...I cringe. I don't want her near me while I'm recovering for fear that her paw will rip the (much smaller and slowly healing) wound open more when she decides to leap at me. And she's definitely not stupd...she's like a teenager. She's selectively stupid. She knows not to jump on me, and she stays off the couch when I come into the room. she knows.
I simply get so frustrated...and last night, making things for selling at the art festival, daughter whining to go to the boyfriend's tonight, getting student grading work and notes online for their reference (second job...),...all the little frustrations and irritations...I just plain blew up. A growing well of anger and frustration at everything in life just made me want to ram my head into a wall. Fortunately it manifested itself as just being very testy and agitated with a bonus of yelling after a short fuse being lit from a bit too much whining from the children, but still it was one of those moments where I really felt like I needed a time-out from living, some kind of escape from life.
Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's not the recovery, maybe it's just me, and I'm somehow imbalanced and unable to deal with life and its frustrations.
But there still seems to be issues with my emotions keeping in check.
I got home last night to find that the dog...our overgrown moron of a dog we saved from the pound...had half-pulled down the blanket I put on the window. See, this dog has the habit of jumping up on the couch to look out the window, thus slobbering all over the window, pulling the curtain over the couch, and knocking things off my desk and onto the floor. Again. It's an almost daily occurrence.
This dog has cost us time in the ER after my wife decided to take an ill-advised shortcut of taking the dog out by standing on the porch with a long leash and the dog, all eighty pounds of her, decided she saw something worth chasing and took off, pulling my wife through the air until she landed on concrete pavers below. After I'm fully recovered she'll need to go to the doctor's to determine if she needs surgery on her knee.
She's eaten two leashes and two harnesses.
She's eating shoes while we're gone...that only ended when we bought a plastic tub to store the shoes in.
She craps on the floor when she's mad at us for leaving; I got angry at burning electricity (and the life of the flatscreen LCD TV) to appease her and so we compromised on leaving a radio on to keep the dog company while we're out for more than an hour. Otherwise, we come home to a sewer pile on the floor. Multiple sewer piles.
I thought she was going to damn near kill me when she pushed her paw into my incision to "launch" herself from the couch while I was recovering at home. Even with Percoset...OUCH.
She barks at nothing, or worse, barks ferociously at some visitors, or jumps on them repeatedly unless they give her food despite our efforts to break her of this habit.
She's taken off when she escaped her leash or tie-out to run to the neighbor's house. Usually it's when we're guilty of being lazy and three feet from the porch one of us lets go of the leash, thinking she's going up the stairs and instead she bolts off to the side. I learned my lesson the first time she pulled this on me. Other times she had escaped her collar.
Oh...and she's destroyed a collar.
She seemed such a sweet dog at first. She probably still could be. But she has me SO FRUSTRATED. My wife has said we'll take her to training. That would have to wait until summer, when someone is home with her enough to enforce the training. Plus there's the cost of training.
All my pets growing up were apparently trained by my dad. I asked him how he does it...he shrugged and said, "We got them as puppies. Wasn't hard."
This overgrown doofus was fully grown when we got her from the pound.
I turned red at her once again getting dirt on the couch and pulling on the curtains AND thwarting the blanket on the window to keep her down, and my wife just gaver her exasperated, "I'll look at getting rid of her..."
I don't want to get rid of her. I promised my son at potty training that once he was a "big boy", he could get a puppy dog. He really wanted one because he remembered the promise for months. That's an accomplishment for a two year old. We also spent several hundred dollars and some hazard time on icy roads getting this dog fixed and the other usual vet bills.
I just want her to BEHAVE.
It's frustrating to have a pet that rules over you instead of the other way around. I wish I could trust her, that she'd stay in the yard and not have to be kept under lock and key at all times like a prisoner. Every time my daughter or wife takes a shortcut with her, is lax with the leash, anything...I cringe. I don't want her near me while I'm recovering for fear that her paw will rip the (much smaller and slowly healing) wound open more when she decides to leap at me. And she's definitely not stupd...she's like a teenager. She's selectively stupid. She knows not to jump on me, and she stays off the couch when I come into the room. she knows.
I simply get so frustrated...and last night, making things for selling at the art festival, daughter whining to go to the boyfriend's tonight, getting student grading work and notes online for their reference (second job...),...all the little frustrations and irritations...I just plain blew up. A growing well of anger and frustration at everything in life just made me want to ram my head into a wall. Fortunately it manifested itself as just being very testy and agitated with a bonus of yelling after a short fuse being lit from a bit too much whining from the children, but still it was one of those moments where I really felt like I needed a time-out from living, some kind of escape from life.
Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's not the recovery, maybe it's just me, and I'm somehow imbalanced and unable to deal with life and its frustrations.
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