July 2008 – akaemi.com
 

Month: July 2008

So two days into my no-dairy experiment, and, well, nothing much seems to have changed.  I’ll spare you all the details of my exact digestion woes, but my after-eating state of being seems much the same.

So it looks like I may have to move on to wheat.  :'(  Not for another week though, I need some time to get used to the idea …

On the plus side, I did discover rice milk!  One of my neighbors who had her son on a lactose and gluten free diet for awhile tipped me off to it.  Apparently, if you suddenly go crazy with the soy, you can really mess up your hormones.

When it comes to milk alternatives on cereal, I vote for vanilla rice milk over vanilla soy.  It’s obviously not the real deal (i.e., the cat won’t touch it), but, at least for me, there’s no bitter after taste.  And it’s way less sweet than lactose-free milk, so I can eat sugar cereals with it! 

Cheddar-flavored rice “cheese” slices – fuhgeddabout it.  Might be ok for cooking, in small doses.  Not good on sandwiches.  Or plain.  In retrospect, I should have gone with American-flavored – at least American cheese is barely cheese to begin with …

Vegan parmesan-flavored … bits – ok on pasta with marinara sauce.  It’s not the real thing, but with just a dusting, it adds that parmesany essence.  More than that, and it becomes obvious that you’ve just covered your food in parmesan-flavored sawdust.  Mmmmm, sawdust.

And of course, fresh fruits and veggies!  In addition to strawberries, this week I splurged on cherries and sugar snap peas.  And some more grapes.  For the freezer.

Dairy-free, chocolate soy “ice cream” bars – surprisingly good!  Though not wheat-free, so that means I’ll have to eat them all this week.  (Such a sacrifice, I know.)  They’ve got the texture of ice cream down, and the chocolate ice-cream flavor seems to mask the non-milk aspects of things better than some of the vanilla soy “ice creams” I’ve tried.

So, even if I never go dairy-free, I’ve discovered some new foods!  The rice milk and soy ice cream might just stick around.

Today at church, I had the honor of giving the opening prayer.  Which meant the bishop announced that I was going to do so.

So when I got to my sunday school class, li’l g (not his real name) who only knows me as ‘sister b’, was very intrigued as to what, exactly my first name was.  And what kind of name it was. 

So, parents, your kids do pay attention to that first hour of church!  Er, or at least the first 10 minutes of that first hour …

So in my quest for dairy-free chocolate, I checked out the vegan chocolate section of my local wegmans.  It was almost a no-go, only one of my 7 options was really dairy-free.  All of the rest ‘might’ have contained traces of milk.

I’m no vegan, so I don’t really know the rules, but I thought they had some rule against no-animal-product eating.  And, well, traces of milk certainly sounds like an animal by-product to me.  Also, from what I understand, it’s a  whole philosophy of life, not just a way of eating.  So it would seem to me that a vegan would only want to buy products from companies who also espoused that way of life – or at the very least, took it seriously enough to devote a wing of their factory to vegan-only.

But, what do I know, I’m not a vegan.  It sure would make my 10-day dairy free challenge go a lot easier if I could trust that vegan=no dairy.

Since high school, I’ve noticed that sometimes after I eat, I feel … unsettled in my stomach.  Occasionally it results in the sudden purging of my stomach contents, but usually, if I just take it easy for an hour or so, I’m fine.

I’ve never really thought much about it, just been annoyed by it when it hits when I’m out running around and don’t have the pleasure of just waiting it out. 

I have long suspected that I have some kind of food sensitivity/intolerance/allergy, but I’ve   never wanted to do anything about it because the most common triggers (according to the internets) are milk and wheat.  And I loooooove me some chocolate chip cookies and milk.  And ice cream.  And breakfast cereal.  And pizza.  And cheese in everything.  And my daily chocolate.  My dear, dear, daily chocolate.

It’s seems that the last few years, things have really ramped up, so I’ve decided to finally do something about it.

So, this week, it’s goodbye to dairy.  :'(  And do you know that there is dairy in EVERYTHING??  And if I give up wheat, too, that means I can’t eat anything except for lettuce and strawberries.  Good thing I like strawberries.

During my two weeks off, I was fairly active. And I didn’t eat as much as I normally do. Which meant my li’l britney belly started to disappear and my pants don’t fit no more …

It’s not that I was trying to eat less – I’m a big proponent of eating whenever I’m hungry. It’s just that I wasn’t hungry! I did a little googling, and I actually found that exercise is a natural appetite suppressant. According to ‘them’. On the ‘internets’.

But now, I’m back to work, and it’s back to constant eating: breakfast at 6 am, second breakfast at 9, lunch at 11, afternoon snack at 2, post-work snack at 5, dinner at 6, after-dinner snack at 8. My belly will be back in no time!

back to work

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I headed back to work yesterday, which is good, because I really like spending money.  And buying stuff.  So a paycheck coming in really helps make that habit work.

Yesterday was filling out forms and learning about benefits and policies.  The boss man chatted at me for a few minutes in the afternoon to talk about what I was going to be doing, but since it was the first time in, well, 17 days that I had pulled myself out of bed before 7 am, it was mostly in one ear and out the other … 

This morning was meeting all the bigwigs and getting computer accounts.  And this afternoon was setting up my computer!  Eclipse and plugins (wtp and subclipse), tortoisesvn, tomcat, all the necessities.  I’m toying with the idea of buying a textpad license, I do so love textpad.  Even if you can’t edit hex in it.

I pulled down the code I’m going to be working on and determined it’s a spring-based web app.  With test code!  It does so warm my heart to see test code.

And, I get a window office!  It’s a 3 person office, but my desk is right in the window.  On the 15th floor.  Overlooking a hotel pool.  So when I get bored, I can look out and see little bitty peoples swimming.  (Seriously bitty – I can’t tell what gender they even are.  Promise.  So I’m totally not pervy.)

There’s no place on my desk for my batmobile, I have cupboards over my desk instead of open shelves like my last desk.  Which really is a shame, the batmobile is awesome.  And a half.  It should be shared with the world.

There’s also no parking garage … which I lamented as I got in my 100 degree car this afternoon to head home.

All in all, though, I’m still glad I took the new job.  🙂  I’m even looking forward to getting in nice and early tomorrow to buckle down and get to work.

Alas, tis the last day of my vacation.  It’s a good thing, too, because I am EXHAUSTED.  Between walking all over DC and Baltimore, and painting my basement (NOT as easy as it sounds), my body is sore and quite ready for a nice, relaxing desk job.

Got up early today to attend the baptism (and worship services) of one of the neighbors.  We sat right up front, so the husband got the honors of video taping the little guy’s baptism.  At just 6 months old, he was rather composed and calm for the proceedings.  (The baby, not the husband.  Though the husband was also quite composed and calm.)

Put together my Sunday school lesson (complete with a match game!), then headed off for another 3 hours of church.  And only 2 of my kids showed up, so all my efforts couldn’t be fully appreciated.  Should have gone with hangman, no preparation needed there …

Decided the trim doesn’t need a second coat and put the basement back together, as much as it can be.  Need to buy some bookcases, vertical blinds for the sliding door, a skinnier printer cart, and a couple of comfy fireplace chairs.  After I, um, start getting paid again.

All in all, it’s been a great 17 days – even if my delicate programmer hands are now calloused and scratched up.  A few days at the new job should fix that right up.

Up early to go see the new batman flick!  The theater was surprisingly full at 9:30 in the morning.  And they do make popcorn and pizza at that hour.  Most people had the good sense to leave their under-12-ers home, but there were a few young ones in the crowd.  A man in front of us brought his 8 and 10 year old boys – and I have a feeling his wife may be less than pleased when she’s dealing with nightmares for the rest of the week.

But, back to the movie:  it is nothing short of awesome.  And a half.  While Iron Man is my favorite movie of the summer, The Dark Knight is probably the best movie I have seen this summer.  And I have seen A LOT of movies. 

Heath Ledger is brilliantly demented.  The story is full of unexpectedly sick turns, that by movie’s end, had me starting to descend into the crazy, anarchic world that the Joker lived in.  And it’s not a nice place.  There were a few cringe-inducing moments that had me not wanting to look at the screen, but I have a weak stomach when it comes that sort of thing.

So go see it!  But leave the kids at home.

Did some more painting – surprise, surprise.  I think I’ll be able to finish up next weekend …

I am currently enjoying a bowl of apple slices, strawberries and frozen grapes.  And a bowl of cool whip.  And a bowl of caramel.  I love fruit, it’s the perfect thing for dipping in sugar!

Laid in bed till after 9 because my feet said so.  Any time I thought about getting up, my feet convinced me otherwise.  Turns out, squatting for 6 hours is tuff on the balls of your feet.  Most especially when you do it barefoot …

Finally got up, put on clean, pretty clothes and headed to AC Moore for some little paint brushes.  For painting in tiny little spaces.  That my fireplace is full of.

Made a 10:45 am stop at McDonalds to pick up a burger, fries and fruit parfait to get my day started off right.

Painted a banister, trim, and fireplace.  Did not finish the trim.

The mail man brought me my new internets!  Oh, happy day.

The bathroom tile man stopped by to see what he was dealing with.  What he is dealing with is a room with no subflooring.  Or shower drain.  Oy.  I gave him a key so he could get started on Monday. 

Papa Johns brought dinner, and I called it an early night.  Didn’t finish the trim or any doors, but 8 hours of painting is plenty.

Painted from 7:45 am to 11:15 pm.  (Two bathroom breaks, two cheezit/tuna salad/frozen grape breaks.)  The basement is much larger than it looks.  But I got two paints of the purple/gray on, and it looks great.  I painted over an unsanded patch, but I didn’t much care, seeing as it’ll be behind my new bookcases.  Whenever I get a job and make some money to buy new said bookcases.

Fell asleep dreaming of the pattern that paint rollers make when they put paint on the walls.  Seriously.  Because that’s what painting for 16 hours will do to ya.

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