I am officially on vacation until January 4th!

I now have a Blackberry Bold 9700. Brother Tim refers to it is "crackberry."

I still console myself that I was "blogging" before blogging was a word or cool back in '90.

toasted pita bread
olive oil
chickpea hummous w/ garlic & lemon
fat olives
parsley w/ lemon
feta cheese cubes

Last night, a guy slapped me on the ass. He was my dart partner for a tourny. It wasn't copping a feel; it was more of a "go get 'em, girl" encouragement while I finished the game with a 3 round, 9 dart out. Playing darts in competition is replacing my other lost sports.

I've lost weight. My knees feel better. I lost a shoe size - I guess because my feet aren't as flat or my toes aren't as chubby. I went down another pant size. So, with some new clothes acquired, I have to get rid of clothing in the spirit of the 100 Thing Challenge. I'll go through the closet tomorrow and cull the herd.

I've been playing darts with intermittent progress. I'm going to play in a blind draw tourny tonight - or maybe not. I'll go down and see what's happening. The bar is a smoker and I hate smelling like smoke afterwards.

In the category of "what was I thinking?" I almost asked a gal home last week.

I've been re-reading "Inevitable Illusion" for some insight.

At the butcher shop, today, I had a small sip of a local cab-shiraz. Delish. I picked up a bottle to take over the holidays.

The gutters must be done tomorrow. I must climb the ladder. I can do it.

I picked up a new scent from Aveda last month. Nice. I hardly wear perfume, but I'm feeling girly.

I'm also planting the bulbs (daffodils, tulips, gladiolas, and the nekkid ladies) in front of venus.

I managed to get a few shallots out of the garden with another harvest of parsley, oregano, and thyme. I'll be drying herbs this week.

It's Saturday night. Have you hugged your loved one tonight? Do so.

I actually bought a needle and threads to reattach some of my buttons and sew a couple seams. Normally, I would turn everything in to the cleaners for tailoring by the seamstress. I just told myself that it was within my skill set to sew on a button. Also frugal. Next thing you know, I'll be darning socks the correct way instead of just saying, "Oh darn!" and tossing them into the rag bin.

Fascinating.
Psychology Underground: http://www.slate.com/id/2235474/pagenum/all/

Item: Change. Da Boss has taken an SES job. He is leaving us. I've been with him for 11+ years.

Item: The new drug (humira) is WORKING! I have more mobility in fingers & wrists by late afternoon. Still have morning stiffness. Have acute pain, but not "baseline" pain. Not dancing a jig just yet, but being cautiously optomistic. Still practicing good judgement and continuing all the lifestyle changes.

Item: I've accomplished another of my (career) goals for 2009. I'll review to see what is possible for the remaining time this year.

Item: My presentation on Monday night at Vincennes University had about 140 people.

Item: I stopped at a local coffee store in a small town in Illinois and got a great tip for a scenic drive. Fabulous!

Item: I managed to get a project done last weekend. (under the nice cut tag - cuz nothing says lovin' like an lj-cut!)

Item: Also baked biscuits last night.

( weekend projects - garage and baking )
Yum!

With butter and honey. Strawberry jam.

Gorgeous!!

G'morning.
( Picture Post )

Going to look at 40 acres about 75 minutes from town. $3600/acre. No improvements. No buildings.

Satellite from Goog

During a walk in the neighborhood, my neighbor who had the apple and pear trees I used to forage from stopped me for a chat. I had offered to prune the trees but he decided to cut down the pear and the apple trees. He left one apple tree in the far back corner (It's deep on his property so I didn't know it was there). He was wondering why it didn't fruit this year. I told him that apple trees need to cross pollinate and there weren't any other apples close so the remaining tree probably wouldn't bear fruit. He was disappointed. Oh well.

Have to take the bottom half of the wall (wainscoat, panel, sheet rock) out of the basement. Mold. Mildew. May have to take more depending on where the water is coming from. LA was extremely helpful.

Hail, Melusine!

( pictures of the basement horror wrought by water )

Everything is fixable.

waterfowl rehabilitation
waterfowl habitat
duck pond
coi pond
mushroom farm
waste water treatment plant
giant sump pump for neighborhood
hydroponics
rain forest habitat
community hot tub
community indoor pool
growth chamber for duck weed
algae pond for biofuels
local source for blue-green algae (nutritional supplement)
slime mold park
phantom of the opera get-a-way (just add candles, boat, organ, and a beautiful opera singer)
venice-in-peoria (just add gondola)
hot mineral springs thermal therapy (@$50/pop)
papyrus factory
ice skating (turn on the AC!)
foot washing before prayers

rubber ducky testing facility
sponge farm
loofa farm
dolphin tank
aquatic fun park
salt water fish tank

beach front property (just add sand)
lake view property (down the stairs)
wave pool
giant puddle for splashing in your rain boots
photo shoot for "singing in the rain"

So, there I was. Thinking about greenhouses. Getting upset because the big project would 1) look like crap and 2) be horribly expensive and 3) I might not use as much as I think. Four season harvest not so good last year. This year, slightly better in the Fall. But what about winter? So Plan B. Getting glass windows for my raised bed to form a greenhouse. Where to get windows? Freecycle. No luck. Enter the crappy (and I do mean crappy) basement. My beautiful basement causes me so much trouble. I get that cleaned up. Thank you to friends who know friends who have mega- wet vacuum with outside exhaust hose to get the water OUT, out of the basement (and into the garden). Thanks to plumbers named Mark and Kyle (and their apprentice James). Now my back hurts and I have to take a muscle relaxer. Anyway, so I'm carrying up more leftover stuff (my stuff is stuff - your stuff is shit *g. carlin*) to get the wood scraps, copper pipe, old galvanized steel vent, and other leftover construction shit out of the basement area to facilitate drying when I find a plethora of screens and old aluminum single plane glass and plexiglass windows. None of them fit my (newish) windows so I assume they are leftover from the previous owners. Freecycle, here I come! Somebody who needs these exact size storm windows before the winter scores! Except for saving two or three of the big 3' by 4' (estimated) windows for greenhouse covers. How cool is that?

Today, I have to call the sanitary district so they can check their end of this thing. I need to spray bleach on the floor (tile or concrete) and along the baseboards. I'll have to pull off the wainscotting and check the drywall for mold/mildew and to let it dry. The dehumidifier is running nonstop. The fans are moving air through the basement.

At work, it is evaluation time. Stress. What did I do over the past year? What are my goals for this year? How did my people do?

It's also time to write my five year plan for research which is incorporated into the National Program. Can I project what will happen in 5 years? or 3? or 1? Sure, in my fantasy world where I always prove my hypotheses, the data form straight lines of correlation with R=0.9999 and equipment never breaks.

My hands. My arthritis is manageable. The bloodwork is normal. So Why Do My Hands Still HURT?? How about 10 years of typing? In 9 years, I've written over 50 manuscripts. I spend 60% of my time working on the computer. Repetitive Strain Injury. The solution? STOP typing. I'll see what I can do. I'm going for nerve conduction tests once I see Doc. I obtained the voice recognition software at work and am practicing dictation. It's different to say words I think versus type them. The lag period to hands allow for on-the-spot editing while voice does not. Work will be supportive. I need to pump out all my writing projects before T-day so I can rest over December and January for therapy etc.

Whoops...big update. Need to head to work.

...but all I got was a blank page.

I opened the garage this morning and a half dozen chickadees flew out.

A poem from my childhood

When all the cows were sleeping
And the sun had gone to bed,
Up jumped the pumpkin,
And this is what he said:

I'm a dingle dangle pumpkin
With a flippy floppy hat.
I can shake my stem like this,
And shake my vine like that.

Okay. Just...creepy.
******

This pumpkin made three dishes: salty roasted seeds, pumpkin tort, and challah bread.

( Yummy pumpkin challah bread )
beautiful egg-washed loaf of pumpkin challah bread - subtly pumpkin with ginger & cloves

I refilled my meds today. The pharmacy did not have enough pills of my MTX and gave me six only - one dose for this week. They will have the full prescription by Friday. They did not charge me for the meds. I tried to go without tramadol today and felt nauseous, dizzy and achy. Since this thing started back in October, I haven't really felt "right." My training sessions gave me a boost and a distraction to the overwhelming fatigue. I could close my eyes at any time and nod off to an unrestful sleep. My left hand is now painful to go with my right. I am no longer assymetric. I guess I'll call the doctors again since I can barely move my hands in the morning after a painful night. I have no grip strength and can't twist things. I've been wearing my braces to no discernable benefit.

I spent the weekend cooking. Pumpkin challah bread. Pumpkin souffle. Italian ragout. Pasta.

( tomato & herb goodness )

I took DitL pictures of the bread making from pumpkin to loaf. I'll post later.

I'm enjoying No Impact Man's recently published book. It's an engaging read which tells a story. I like it a bit better than Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barb Kingsolver as I have an urban existence. I was disappointed by The Power of Less from Zen Habits as it was a rehash of the blog.

For those of you snorting out there who remember one of my goals for 2009 was to NOT read junk that did not apply to my life thereby wasting my time and energy, I would argue that I don't avidly seek out the information like I used to do. I tend to peek once or twice to AFFIRM my lifestyle choices and pick up new (or old) ideas. So there.