Just for the record, I was not ignoring you. I didn't and still don't feel very chatty.
Happy Birthday Painterwoman where ever you are these days.
Ceejay - I completely agree with you about the stress and weight gain. They say that stress increases the production of cortisol which contributes to the dangerous belly fat. A good reason to think twice before getting all worked up. Ceejay - why the interest in celery? It's more of a flavoring agent than anything else. Not much in the way of calories or nutrition with that one. Just like cucumbers. They bulk up the food but that's it.
Mel, I'm really glad to hear that the scale numbers are going down for you.
I hate those cold rainy fall days. Really gives you the sleepy noddies.
Ruth - I really don't say y'all although I write it some time. I hate to say it but I guess I sound more like Sara Palin dropping the g's off ing ending words. Guess I need to work on my diction although people down here tell me I have a fun accent.
Rose - so sorry to hear about Teeka. She was very loved and sounded like she had a great life with you and now she's gone to the rainbow bridge to play with the other 3FC lost pups. I'm sure Hershey will look after her
Madcat - congrats on getting the ticker moving - you are doing very well!
Carla - what madness are you up to lately?
Hope you are feeling better Shy.
Ok, so Shad has her whinging about Mel's ticker and yes indeed, when I read Mel's latest recipe I did the
about OLIVES yet again.
I have tried alot of things but have not had occasion to use polenta yet.
Shad - thanks for the link on the 4 ingredients. But for those of us in the states, I think I'll use kraftfoods.com. You can plug in 3 ingredients that you have on hand and it will come up with some recipe suggestions. The problem with your website is not only the metric measurements but also the terms. Is beef mince what we would call hamburger or ground beef?
I still remember my food lesson with you in the grocery store years ago. Amazing how we both speak English but call things completely different terms. I daresay you might have a mix of more British terms like crisps and chips. Although I do enjoy looking at the recipes for the exotic sounding ingredients and trying to figure out what some of them might be.
Sounds like you are having quite the go round with the walls. I hope you get them fixed stopping short of having to replaster everything. Enjoy your new saw - those things scare me
Michelle - it sounds like the reaction you are having is also what some people experience with Niacin. DH took it once and never again. Although the fact that it clears up with Benedryl surely sounds like an allergic reaction. Could be wheat, soy, milk or whey protein or even eggs. When I was going to the allergist, he said our bodies sort of recycle every 7 years. That's why we "grow out of things" or all of a sudden develop a reaction to something that never bothered us before. I sure hope you don't have food allergies because that's so hard to monitor and occasionally you will see companies put out a warning that they forgot to list an ingredient on the box that will cause people problems. You might have to learn how to cook after all girl
You could roast up a chicken (or get one of the rotisserie cooked ones from the grocery store) and make several meals out of that - chopped on a bed of salad greens, into a wrap with veggies and mustard or light dressing, made into chicken salad or just sliced up au natural with some fresh cut vegetables or even a side of the Birds Eye Healthy Brand frozen vegetables. Chicken Cacciatore is really easy to make - chicken, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, garlic, salt and pepper - serve it over rice and it makes several meals. Brown the chicken with a bit of oil and some chopped garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Dump in a can of tomatoes - use the flavored ones with basil and oregano or garlic and onions. Add a large can of tomato sauce. Bring to bubbling and then reduce heat to simmer and cook for an hour. You can use chicken breasts tho I prefer the thinner chicken cutlets. This is good with chicken thighs too tho they aren't diet friendly.
Roast Beef - 1 eye of round roast. Wash, season with salt, pepper, onion salt. Put it in a cooking bag with about 1 cup of water. Stick it in a 300 degree oven for 4 hours. (This would be a weekend project). Slice it thinly and leave it in the au jus because otherwise it will dry out. The reason you cook it in such a low temp oven and for so long is to make sure it's tender. Mix in a jar of beef gravy if you like gravy and done. You can have meat and veggies or open faced hot beef sandwiches or if you're feeling sinful, chop it up over a baked potato.
And I have a bazillion soup recipes although soup takes more chopping and prep work and I don't know where you draw the line at "I hate cooking"
Well in the course of composing this I have walked away 3 times. The last time DH and I were discussing what to paint one of the upstairs bedrooms. There are alot of shadows on the wall and it really does change the colors depending on the overhead lights and which wall you are looking at. We must have tried 20 sample colors already. I had purchased some cream printed fabric Venetian Shades that have green leaves and roses in shades of light rose and dark rose. There are also tan and gold accents. After going round and round, DH put the curtains on the recliner in my Mom's room and it's a perfect match. However that is a deep maroon color and we were worried that it would be too dark. So we're going to put chair rail up 2/3 of the wall, paint the top half the dark color to pick up the shades, the chair rail white to match the woodwork and paint the bottom 2/3 of the wall a cream color with just enough "cream" to provide a slight contrast to the woodwork. I swear I never thought it would be so difficult to pick a paint color.
But at least that's decided. DH wants to take a week of vacation in 2 weeks with the intention to get the painting done.
And I need to get on with things here too. I have spent far too much time at the computer today (which is why taking a break sometimes can be a good thing). I need to decide on a desert to make for our neighborhood cookout on Tuesday, have groceries to pick up and I need to get to bed early tonight as we will have to leave by 7:00am to get to the hospital on time. Oh and I also have to stop at the pharmacy to pick up those all important Valiums. I am trying to stay optomistic about this although it is difficult because no amount of ice, heat, anti inflamatory - over the counter or prescription is doing a diddly bit of good for the pain. To me, that doesn't sound like something easily fixed. But we'll see.
GOOD LUCK!
I NEED SOME PLANS TOO 
IT COULDN'T BE DARKER OUT IF IT WAS 8PM INSTEAD OF AM!! I WAS WONDERING WHY I WAS SOOO SLEEPY. PULLED THE CURTAINS BACK AND FOUND POURING RAIN. NASTY DAY. FOR SURE MOTHER NATURE IS LETTING US KNOW THIS IS REALLY FALL!
