Carnival Breeze general pics

This post will contain some pics of the ship and of islands, maybe some people.  If you have questions about the pics, ask and maybe I'll answer!  

NO Standing.  WTH???

A fork in the road.  Next edition:  wildlife

Carnival Breeze food pics.

Some call it food porn, I don't know why.  Maybe they do something with their food that I don't know about, I'm not going to ask and I'm not going to judge what you do with your carrots before or after you peel them.

The ship has a lot of food.  I could find some stats, and maybe I will...it's a huge amount of food.  We did a galley tour once and we did a behind the scenes tour once, getting to see the coolers, the freezers, the refrigerators. We also saw some dry storage, too....huge amounts of food is prepared and a huge amount is wasted.  There are starving people in all of these countries that we're visiting....but no way to get that food to them.  So we feed the fishes late at night.

The first thing we do when we board a ship is have lunch.  That's about all there is to do, other than walk around, and since you've got some carry on luggage with you, who wants to carry that crap around any longer than you have to?  Note:  some people say "schlep" and I don't know why.  Personally, I think it's a foreign word and I don't speak foreign languages...maybe some day Rosetta Stone will give me a free copy of something and I'll learn it, but don't hold your breath.

We got to the ship pretty early after checking in at the airport cruise desk.  It was cheaper for us to shuttle back to the airport and cab to the cruise port than to shuttle to the cruise port.  Plus we were able to check in at the airport and that enabled us to go right thru when they were ready.  So we were on pretty early, but our room wasn't ready until later, they always estimate 1/130.  So off we go up for lunch.  It's hard to remember which side is which, which way is which, so I generally get turned around, which is no big deal if I'm alone, because I never leave anything on the table that I want to keep...unless I know exactly where I'm going and have enough bread crumbs so I can get back.

Food at the buffet is average...nothing very good, but nothing terrible either.  On our MSC cruise, they had the best sausage linkys that I've ever had.  It was probably made from goat scrotum and llama lips, utilizing goose rectum for the casing...but if so, they washed the goose poop clear out of it, because that was good sausage.  On the days that I ate upstairs for breakfast, I went to the burrito station, partly because I was able to find it, and all I could find elsewhere was cereal and grapefruit.  F'ing grapefruit don't taste anything like grape fruits, either, you know?  They taste like my ex-stepmonster and her older sister and brother stared at them while they were growing on that poor tree....and you can bet that tree got no hugs during that glare-fest.  I like grapes.  Sometimes I peel them with my teeth and imagine that OH never mind about that.

I probably should have taken a pic of the Blue Iguana burrito place and it's salsa station.  Back in the good old days I had a light duty pocket camera for those pics and 2 years ago I took a lot more food and general pics, too.  Sadly my favorite pocket camera, a Pentax 7 mp Option L30 died after being dropped in the minivan on the Hawaii trip.  It was turned on at the time, so Val could see the pic of what we were looking at.  Poor dead camera....I've tried to find another one, but have not been able to find one at a reasonable price.  :(

Ok, now for some pics.

 Desert plate first day

 Tea

 Sushi appetizer

 I don't remember what this was

 Best smoothies on St John, with free rum if you wanted it.

 Pumpkin squash yam vegetabletarian entree.  under the crust it was pretty good

 Val's seafood pasta

 First tea day, the girls didn't go and asked me to show them what was served.  :)

 Starfish and conch, fresh...

 Debi enjoying a "Guy's Burger"

 Val's sister sent a cake for her birthday

 I too had a smoothie in St John

 Maaaaaa

Robin also sent strawberries.  Must have cost a fortune.  Thanks....she loved it.

 Debi enjoying her smoothie

 Weird seafood trio, salmon, some tartare thingy and seared ahi?

 Froggy Legs! not too tasty, though, which was sad.

 Mango cream soup enjoyed the easy way, thru a straw.

 More dry fish, mahi mahi this time.  The redfish and the snapper was also dry.

synchronized mermaids swimming in a sea of spinach slop

So if you ever saw all the pics we had posted from the first cruises, you know we didn't take very many this year.  

Every night we ate dinner in the main dining room, dumbly named Blush.  The anytime dining room is called Sapphire, and that's where we ate breakfast most days.  We enjoy having the same waitstaff each night for dinner, even though they are "supposed" to remember what we like and want and have it ready each night...for example, each night I had iced tea, Val had a diet coke.  The other 2 would change up their drinks, but I had to ask many times each night for the tea.  I also had coffee every night, and that was kinda hard to get too.  We each had the same bread every night but had to point it out.  Not really a big deal, certainly nothing to complain about to anyone that can do something about it.  

There's an Italian joint on top of the boat that charges $12 pp for dinner.  Lunch is free, and I can see why.  We sit around about an hour waiting for a table, they give us the order sheet but they don't tell us to turn the thing in.  They don't tell us the drink station is self serve.  Finally they bring the grub, and it's crap, absolute rubbish.

There's a sushi joint which we walked past a lot, but didn't partake--I don't know what the cost was.  It looked good, smelled good.

There's a steakhouse that charges $30 each, but we didn't go there either.  Why pay for dinner when dinner is included with the purchase of our trip?

There's a place near the sushi place that was free, apparently.  I didn't figure that out until the last day...that could have save some steps, oh well.

Room service is also included, but I didn't have any of that, either.  Pizza is available all day, skipped that too. I only had ice cream from Lido once, got plenty of that as dessert after dinner.  

All pop comes from cans, most people pay $60 for an all you can drink pop sticker.  That's for 8 days, and includes tax and tip.  Coffee, iced tea, lemonade, milk, hot chocolate are all free from Lido and a few other places.  Bottled water is outrageous, but lots of people buy it.  Tap water is good and free.  A glass of beer was over 6, fancy drinks were nearly 10.

And that is all I have to say about food today. 

Carnival Breeze 8 days, an overview.

Yep, we went on a cruise last week...and we went on the newest and largest ship that Carnival Cruise Lines has.  The ship is 6-8 months out of the shipyard, holds 4200 or so passengers and has about 1400 crew.  I think it's about 1100' long; width depends greatly on elevation/altitude.  

This was a "bloggers cruise".  You may recall a time when I copied and pasted a fine bit of prose from John Heald, the senior cruise director and "brand ambassador" for CCL.  He's been writing this blog thing for several years, and they've had 6 annual cruises to celebrate the blog.  600 guests (they call us guests, even though at home, when you have a guest, you don't make them pay for food, beds, drinks, cokes, including a 15% tip on EVERYTHING) were signed up for the bloggyness, which meant we got a few different experiences than the rest of the people on board.  Some different shows, a free drink party, etc.

The cruise is out of Miami, and we went to St Thomas (actually went to St John), Antigua, Tortola (actually went to Virgin Gorda), and Nassau.  Turns out we went to Nassau twice and San Juan, also.  Lots of sick/injured people on this ship. 

CCL thinks enough of John that they named this ship after his dog, a German Shepherd.  I've only seen one pic of the dog, and he's a great looking dog.  I'd find it and post it, but it's also got his kid in the pic.  So, here's a dog pic.

This was Duke, this pic was taken in late June of 2010.  It's June in the pic, that's why the snow looks moldy.

Some people think I'm always negative and look to find the bad in everything.  Those people are not totally wrong, but not nearly right, either.  To prove this, I'll post some more pics.

 Rust!  Right on the front of the boat, overlooking a crew only deck.  This spot is right on top of the rail, visible to anyone with functional eyes.

 What the hell is this crap?  Sold in a shop called "Cherry on Top", a candy store.  The next pic is from the same place.

 Yeah, $6 for a glass of beer that isn't very good.

 The only sunset that I saw on the whole trip.

Dirt!  

Ok, I'll show you what else I saw on the crew only deck.  Please extend my thanks to AlGore for inventing zoom function on cameras.  I'll post 2 pics demonstrating the zoom, too.  Those pics will be of our traveling companion, Jim.  Weird how many people think Jim is my brother.

The rust pic and the butt pic were taken from the same place, just pointing the camera a different direction and depth of field.  :)  The last 2 pics were taken from the same location, pointing the same direction, just using the zoom.  Pretty big ship.  St Thomas, the sky is as blue there as anywhere else!

Our room was located right off the middle set of elevators, a pretty decent location and a decent room once I got Val to quit throwing a fit about lack of storage space.  All of our crap fit just fine.  The beds were terrible, about as soft as a Fred Flintstone bed.  They use 2 small beds to make a queen sized bed, which is weird when you have the beds separated....in the small rooms (cabin) that we always get, having the beds separated allows for more room.  It was different in this room, but better, as Val was having to climb over the bed to get in.  The desk is right at the foot of the bed, so separating them shoved her bed against the wall.  Hard to describe, should have taken a pic, I guess.  At the head, there's a narrow closet on the left.  Next to that is a lamp/table/cupboard, then my skinny bed, her lamp, and her bed.

In a normal room that we'd get, the closet thingy would be somewhere else, and the beds could be shoved apart about 3 feet, thus giving much more room in the room.  Suitcases go under the bed.  

The house is so quiet...I hear the clock ticking, and that's it...the fridge is not running right now, there's no other sounds.  The ship is so noisy...music everywhere, ventilator fans, toilet suctions, engines, motors, elevators, dingings, kids stomping, doors slamming, etc.  And as I write this I wonder:  will I cruise again?  So much of it is not fun....getting to the port, for example, started Thursday night to diesel away on Saturday.  There is so much standing in line:  at the buffets, to go to the shows, to get in to dinner, to get off the ship, to get on the ship, to get coffee, to get water, to get lemonade.  

So many of the seating areas of the ship are not very comfortable.  Deck chairs make my ass go numb, other chairs either lean back too far, are not wide enough for my big butt, or just look gay.  Seriously.

I didn't attempt to sit in or on either of those.

I spent a lot of time looking for a cool, quiet comfortable place to sit and read.  I spent a lot of time being disappointed and annoyed.  So many people running around barefoot and mostly shirtless were complaining about being cold.  If you're cold, put on a sweater, because I know that you'd raise hell if I were running around naked.  

Overall:  I had a good time.  I enjoyed most of the shows, most of the entertainment, the food, the ports, etc.  The next entries will likely be 2 days, there won't be a minute by minute accounting of what I did; you'll think I spent the entire time in the toilets.  :)

Knapp Monarch heater

In recent weeks, I've posted many obscure status messages on FB, maybe some of them have confused you.  Probably you don't care, and that's ok too, I guess.  

Last one first?  Sure.  Several years ago I bought an electric heater at goodwill or someplace.  Maybe I got it out of a dumpster, I don't remember.  It's a Knapp Monarch Co, model 303 or 33 whatever.  I just learned it's an Iowa company, well, Monarch was, Knapp was from ST Louis.  

Anyway, it's old...it has a steel base, and a chrome fronted reflective dish with a 1000 watt element in front of it.  The guard to keep cats out of the element is missing, I may be able to use a fan guard on there, I'll have to check.

The cord was rather frayed where it exits the back of the dish, so I removed it, and temporarily installed a cord to test the element.  IT works, so I proceeded.  Actually, that's not exactly true.  I cleaned the base and painted it first. 

Thanks to ebay, here's some pics.  Mine is not quite like the lower pic, but the upper pic is exactly how it looked, the fray and cord is exactly the same.

I cut off the cord, removed that little round cap, and hooked up a cord to test.    It works, so I attempted to use that cord, which was 14/2...plenty big enough to carry the current of 1000 watts....which is about 8 amps.  Doesn't fit thru the ceramic cord relief, which doesn't seem to work all that well.  I could remove it, but the thin steel would cut the cord.  

What I did is this:  there's a hole in the base, to hang the unit, I suppose.  I used that hole to bolt on a bracket, bolted a switch box to that, ran that big cord to the switch and then used a piece of 16/3 with the green wire removed to connect the heater to the switch.  The 14 cord is fairly long, which is nice, and when Christmas is over, we may use the remote outlet switcher unit to control it.  Or I may buy another one.

To ensure the connection was good on the element, I tinned the wire and wrapped it around the stud...I'm sure the PO tossed it because it wasn't working, due to the burned wires in that frayed mess.  Plus one side was kinda rusty, I suppose it was getting hot due to the extra resistance/bad wires.

Knapp Monarch made all sorts of stuff...irons, fans, waffle irons, curling irons, blow dryers, mess kits, therm a jugs, and hog troughs.  Lots more items, too, I'm sure.  Yes, I painted the switch box and bracket to match the base. Switch and cover are ivory, however.  This isn't American Restorations, after all.  :)

halloween crash

A friend crashed his motorcycle on Halloween.  I say it that way because (if I understand the story correctly) he caused the crash.  As I understand it, here's what happened.

The friend was westbound, crossing a 4 lane divided highway, speed limit is 55.  He successfully crossed the northbound lanes but got hit by a southbound  vehicle.  

That stretch of road is wide, straight, flat, with no obstructions other than the normal signs, and not too many of them.  

The vehicle was equipped with day time running lights, which is good, since Crash's brother said it was one of those colours that blend into the road and sky.

So....what happened???  Was there a blinding reflection off the windshield?  He should have been able to see the car coming south from a long ways away.    He was only wearing a half helmet, so there wasn't a dirty shield in the way, no obstructions from the side of the helmet.  

I was in the area yesterday, and at that intersection straight ahead is the sun.  If you look north, the sight line is clear, same for south.  Somehow he didn't see that dumb car, it's sad.

I stopped in the DQ where the guy that saved his life works.  I thanked him, of course, then suffered thru a peppermint blizzard.

The friend is in the VA hospital, had another surgery to remove infection from his spinal surgery a week ago.  

Look twice for motorcycles, and biker friends....look 3 times for those damn cars....they are everywhere.

garage cleaning

Garage cleaning, autumn 2012

We've talked before about how garage cleaning is a bit like having ADHD, right?  Here's how it went this morning:

Enter garage and turn on the lights.  Look around and swear.  Wonder where to start.  Go sit on the bench for a few minutes, see the pickup and remember that it's sick, better look at it for a few minutes.  I gather up the 4 gallon latex paint cans to take inside, while I'm going in to get the keys.  Sit down at computer, check FB.  30 minutes later, I have to pee, too much coffee.  Done there, grab keys and look at engine for a little while, I see nothing wrong, no surprise there....there's not much wrong, so the problem will not be obvious.

My main work bench is about 2 feet high with stuff, better start there.  Put away some tools, some parts and stuff I've bought, hang some light bulbs on the pegboard, put the plastic sacks in the sack full of sacks. Put the pliers in the can o'pliers, screwdrivers in the rack.  Put the box of screws on the shelf where it belongs and then find a pkg of screws that belongs in the box. 

The sales tax people didn't pick up their lawn sign, so I pulled it and put it in the garage, now to better store it...cut the zip ties, but I can't get the sign wedged behind the plywood in the corner, oh well, leave it for now.

You know how it goes, this belongs on that shelf, oh, hey, there's a small sack of fertilizer.  Autumn is the best time to spread that crap, or so I've been told by AlGore and the internet, so back inside to get some of those nitrile gloves, pour the fert into a little bucket and spread it.  Where's that other sack, this one didn't cover the whole yard...ah, yes, right where I left it last fall, on top of the snowblower.  The crap feels like it's solidified in the sack, that's nice...if it is hard before the sack is open, what will it be like in the spring after sucking up atmospheric moisture all winter.  :(

Lawn sprinkled, I wonder what else I should do while the temp is so nice.  It's 10:30, do I have time to clean the gutter?  Sure I do.  Maybe I'll install the gutter toppers on the east side of the house.  I set off around the house with the ladder in one hand, the box of toppers in the other.  Yeah, the shingles are stuck down very well, there's no way to get the toppers installed the way they're supposed to go.  Descend from the ladder and tripped over a steel rod sticking out of the ground about 4 inches.  What the hell?  I wonder if it's a survey stake.  I wonder if I can pull it out.  Not with my bare hands, even after I kick it back and forth a few times, it's a lot looser, but I'll need pliers to get it out. If it is a survey stake, the neighbor has had his fence on my side of the property line all this time.  About 3' worth.  Oh well....more for him to mow.

East gutter clean, I check the south end of the west gutter, it's full too, but I can see that under the topper is clean, so I see that they're working as advertised.  

Better put the cover on the grill, wish I could remember to do it the same night as we grill, but once the fire is off and the door is shut, I forget about it.  

Cover the mower with the bucket I had used to transport all that squash, and basically, I didn't get much done. 

I did, however, go for lunch with a friend and then rode my motorcycle for 140 miles to get some beer that is only available in WI.  BTW, it's only 80 miles round trip to WI.  :)  I did put StaBil in the gas again, so just in case....it'll be ready.

I've got another full day of work in the garage before it'll be done; can't wait.

buckwheat for breakfast

Celiac disease?  Gluten intolerance?  No one knows...for sure.  What we do know is that we paid $6000 for a scopey experience and they found some ulcers in my stomach or maybe the small intestine.  Of course they don't know what caused them, but one thing could be this celiac sprue thingy.  

So I cut back on foods containing gluten, started eating more whole grains, vegetables, etc.  I just realized tonight that at the same time I cut out the Crystal light style kool aid lemonade stuff I'd been drinking.  :(  

The good news is that I felt better right away.  More energy, less lethargy, sometimes occasional repeated redundancy, and a few other improvements.  You don't care to read about my experiences in the bathroom, do you?

I had attributed the improvements to less gluten, but maybe it is because I'm not ingesting artificial sweeteners. 

If you are my FB friend, you may have read about my breakfast experience the other day.  I'm enhancing it tonight:

• 1 cup buckwheat
• 1 cup rice
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 3 cups milk
• 4 cups water
• 1/4 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 apple cubed
• handful raisins

put all that stuff in a crockpot and turn it on low till morning.  It will derive the sweetness it needs from the apple and raisins.  It's really not a lot of cinnamon, but sometimes cinnamon has upset my sizable stomach.  

You wanted to see what buckwheat groats look like, right?

I may add a spoonful of peanut butter in the morning to my bowl, and I'd add a sprinkle of millet like Angela suggested, but I don't have any.  Some chopped walnuts or pecans would be a nice addition, too.  I'm thinking I may have to add more liquid to it.  Dunno.  If I do, it'll be coffee.

I'll add that one possible downfall to eating this style of breakfast, and maybe the body will get used to it, is that the bowl contains a lot more liquid than I used to take in that time of day, and I've had to pee more often in the morning.  Given my occupation....that is kinda dangerous.

UPdate.  Hey, dates would be a nice addition.  As surmised, there was not enough liquid, now I've got some nice crustybrownness to scrape out of the crockpot.  I don't know why or if my crockpot gets hotter than the newer units, but it seems to do that a lot.  There was also not enough salt, but that's easy to change.  An apple that doesn't cook away into mush would be good, too.  But anyway...it's an easy way to make a lot of hot breakfast for a large crowd,  but maybe next time I'd use a timer so it only cooked 3 hours or so.  

lurker day

Love Our Lurkers Day 7 has Arrived!

A lurker is someone unseen. They peek in and listen to our conversations. They watch and learn. Sometimes, they may wonder, but they make no sound. Maybe they're a little bit shy or nervous or don't know quite what to say. A lurker is someone unseen. Until today, that is...

Fear not, dear lurkers, because we too are fascinated with the same subjects that brought you here. Better still, today is your day! It's Love Our Lurkers Day. This is your opportunity to poke your head up just enough to say hello. Since you and good people like you constitute more than half of our readership, we bloggers are curious about you.

We're glad that you're here and don't mind you reading anything you like. But if you could write a short introductory comment, that would be simply fantastic. If you will, please tell us your name (it doesn't have to be your REAL name), the part of the world where you live, and maybe a little bit about you're interested in reading more about.

Apparently this LOL thing has been going on for 7 years, but since I've only had this bloggy thing for 1.5 years, I didn't care about it at it's inception.

BUT I CARE NOW!!

Take just a minute comment...either here or on FB or send an email.  thanks

MoviPrep, it's what's for dinner...

615 mix and drink 1st course  

Right away I feel the poison racing around my guts...also start feeling a little sleepy, eyes not focusing.  headache.  feeling like glucose is low.
635 drink 2nd course
645, drink 3rd
655 feel urge to fart....tentatively let it go...
703 4th 
708 more urges to fart, wonder if it is safe...not going to tempt fate.
710 wife cooks dinner, mocking me.  Pretty sure that when she needs to go, I'll be on the pot.  haha

711 tummy noises, the urge to fart intensifies.
713 chills
720 cramps
730 first eruption
745 wonder if I need to head back
800 oops, need to change clothes now.  :(

I know that what I ate did not smell like that. yuck

hungry!


One week later:

Moviprep, the dinner for those going in for a colonoscope.  I'll say this, right up front:  None of it is as bad as expected.  Except the smell of the gooselike emissions.  If what I was about to eat smelled as bad as that, I'd skip dinner, thank you very much.  I'm here to tell you that I've never said that my dumpings smelled like flowers, but this was several times worse than normal. The cat was looking around for a dog to blame it on, if you can believe that.  And I've been in the same room when the cat drops his load, and won't cover it.  Proud little fucker.  I should kick his stinky little ass for mocking me.

Ok, so all of that at the very top is notes I took after mixing and taking the prep solution.  The directions state that you can suck on either a lemon or lime wedge or suck on ice right before drinking it.  I didn't find the taste to be a problem, kind of a lemon lime laced with salty pool water.  Rather viscous, it left an unpleasant film in the mouth after drinking.  

I found myself holding my breath after swallowing it; not that it tasted bad, but I knew it was going to be bad.  I wanted it to taste bad because once it was in, it felt bad.  The stuff I was provided is only a quart at night and another quart in the morning...and it comes with a mixing jar.  Reusable, too!  

Directions also say to pay attention to how your body reacts to the gut bomb, since you'll have to time your travel to the clinic between rocket blasts.

BTW, since you have to drink a pint of water after the quart of doom, go ahead and sip hot coffee  after you drink each serving of your delicious supper and breakfast.  It cuts the film of nasty out of your mouth, leaving you much more happy about anticipating the rump reaming you're about to enjoy.  

I kinda quit taking notes because I was more irritated than anything about the whole ordeal.  I'll confess, I was almost hoping they'd find something wrong with the insides of my ass just to sort of justify this whole experience.  

There, the secret is out, my bowels are as healthy as can be, or so they say.  Yay.  I think there's still a little problem there, but I'm not going to tell you about it yet.

I think I finally went to bed about 11, it'd been most of an hour since the last explosion, and yes, I did have to change clothes due to "an accident".  Yeah, my house isn't that big,  I guess I shouldn't have been sitting on that bucket. ;)  I got up about 5:30 and took the first dose right away.  2nd dose was  a bit late, I was tempted to gulp all that crap down right away and be done with it, but I was afraid that there could be severe repercussions, so I didn't.  Interestingly, since there really wasn't anything to move on out, there was no more awful-dead-skunk-next-to-a-hog confinement/turkey farm smell.  I didn't know what to expect, and it's a good thing I paid attention to what was going on, because the intake nurse Ratched wanted to know "what my bowel movements were like".  She also asked how I reacted to IV anesthesia, to which I told her the story of my wisdom tooth extraction, long story short I woke up to the pounding of a hammer and chisel in my mouth.  I figgered after that she'd make a note to give me a little extra.  Nope, that was not the case at all.  Clearly she didn't like me and wanted me to experience a little more of the procedure than most. 

By 9:20 when we departed on the long drive to the clinic (.75 mile) I was hungry, had a headache, was grouchy, irritable, and we hadn't even really started yet.  I took my earpod, cranked some tunes, which helped.  Took my dumbly named ebook device, and thankfully didn't really have time to use it much.

Spent way too long with the nurse asking a whole bunch of questions that should have filled in automatically when the form accessed my medical records.  Why doesn't this happen? GRrrrrrrrrr finally to a different room, undress, put on this gown thingy, keep on your shoes and socks.  Sit and wait. 

CUTE little girl tried a couple times to start an IV thing w/o success.  I did find a small bit of my humor when the dude came to help her, she was saying something about getting a good flash; I replied that I certainly had not flashed her, because I couldn't stand the humiliation.  You had to be there.  Too bad you couldn't see me with the robe thingy on, my light blue hat on, earpod thingy blasting into my ears, I almost didn't hear the scope nurse call me.  I could see just fine, though, and the other guy in there didn't jump up, so I did.  This nurse was nicer to me, even though she was going to have to look at my hairy naked ass.  Poor girl, I should have bought her some flowers.   Or chocolate, but maybe with her job she doesn't like chocolate.  I bet her favorite flower is a tulip...she's from Holland MI.  

At the clinic, everyone asks, where are you from.  I always say:  From down by KMart.  They almost always look confused for a minute...and some of those that don't ask "which one".  To which I reply:  there is only one in town. 

There used to be 2, but it closed before I moved here.  I moved here in 1993. Get with it, people.   Live in the PRESENT!

Tiny little doctor came in, introduced herself, blah blah blah, lie on your left side, etc.  They squirted some stuff in the IV thingy and next thing I know, my eyes are open, I can see a tv sort of, kinda blurry and feel a snake prowling around my guts.  I squint at the tv, it's got a large intestine on it and it seems like I could see the snake in there, too.  Sucks having poor eyesight.

I feel them pulling the snake out, which was different, then I may have dozed off, don't know.  I didn't try to move, but I don't think I'd have been able to move.  I didn't feel anything but the snake moving around in my guts. Weird.  When they turned the bed around, I was awake, they commented on it...I said:  I was supposed to ask how I'd get the results?...blah blah.  They gave me more dope...I don't remember a single thing about the upper scope experience, they said that they change the scope, which is good, because it'd probably taste terrible.  I think I remember them saying something about sending some polyps off to pathology, they must have been nothing to worry about.

Woke up in recovery, got dressed, took off.  We went to John Hardy's for lunch, I ate all of mine and luckily they screwed up the taters for Val, so they brought her another set, I ate those too.  I was really very extremely hungry.  Val dropped me off at home, I sat down to do something or read something but went to sleep instead.  I slept for 3 hours or so, and felt pretty good when I woke up.  BTW, I expected to find some sort of lube, but no, nothing.

The first "real B M" post scopey was a rare treat.  That's about all I'll say about that.  Yuck.  Luckily we were in Plainview at the time, so I got to share it with some dude that stuck his head in.  When I was washing afterwards, I saw a can of spray, so I hosed the place down.  Yep, dude, once I flush, my poo smells like potpourri.  I was worried that I'd have another opportunity to perform, but no, I got to take it home.  

The results were delivered via a email message, I wonder if she would have called if it had been bad news?  I hope so.

Take my advice:  pull down your pants and slide on the ice.

 

Culinary experiments

Culinary experiments for the day:

I had a very small buttercup squash and thought it'd be perfect to use the way that my friend Gracie suggested:  stuff it with a meatloaf and bake it.  And that's what I did.

I had bought a pkg of "ground turkey" which I can't imagine that it's ground at all....I'm certain that it's mechanically separated, which means it's pink slime...comes in a tube.  I cut it open, dump it into a bowl.  Into the bowl I added 2 eggs and some warm flat beer.  

I don't know why I added the beer.

I chopped up half an onion, 2 mushrooms, smashed some corn chips, dumped in some seasoned HyVee bread crumbs, seasoned with salt, pepper, and "Canadian chicken" spice blend.  

I also added a small red coloured pepper that Owen gave to me.  I cut off the top, scraped out the seeds, and chopped it up pretty small.  Since it was red I didn't worry too much about it, promptly forgot all about it.  

This Canadian chicken spice blend is the same as Montreal Chicken spice, just a different brand.  I got this at Sam's club because I'm a cheap bastard.

Somehow, before I went into the bathroom, I didn't get washed sufficiently, and found out how hot that pepper was going to be.  I didn't exactly have a burning sensation when I peed, it came later.  If you know what I mean.  

Of course, if I were truly cheap, I'd just use the salt and pepper and suffer with poorly seasoned food.

I washed the little squash, knocked off the stem, and sawed off the bottom of the thing.  Scoop out the seeds, spoon in the meatloaf mix.  To make sure that it didn't rot in the fridge, I dumped the rest into a loaf pan, baked the 2 side by side on a cookie sheet.  

The cookie sheet is actually the lid for a cake pan.

Sadly, since I don't make meatloaf often, I didn't put in quite enough salt.  Nor did I cook it long enough.  :(  Since the loaf pan was not much more than half full, I pulled it out after 40 minutes and turned the squash around just in case the oven has a hot/cold spot.  When it had cooled a bit, I sampled it.  Pretty good, needs more salt.  :(  OH well, easier to add salt than to take it away!

After an hour, I pulled it out, and let it cool a bit.  Put it into a bowl, and sat down to eat.  Couple bites in I see that it's not done.  3 minutes in the microwave took care of it and tested it with the thermometer to make sure.  

Next time?  I think I'd sprinkle a bit of salt in the squash to season it too.  I'd  sprinkle some bread crumbs over the top or corn flakes, something like that.  The loaf held together just fine; I was worried about it being too wet, actually.  I figgered it would not be greasy/oily since the turkey is so lean.

However.

Once I got done eating, scraping out all the squash from the skin...I was still hungry.  Luckily I had some ripe bananas and some apples...since it was time to go back to work, those are bus friendly and quite portable.

Speaking of bananas....

I had 4 of them that were almost too ripe for eating, I ate 2 of them over the course of the afternoon and thought about what to do with the other 2 before they rotted.  

Hmmmmmmwhat to do, what to do?  A banana dessert makes sense, Fogo du Chao makes one that Val loves, so I tried to find a recipe.  No luck, but I found a recipe for something similar.

Peel the bananas, slice.  Throw a chunk of butter into the skillet, coat the slices with brown sugar.  When the skillet is hot, put some in.  Cook until they have some color, turn down heat and flip.  The other side will cook much faster...when all slices are cooked, pour in some bourbon or brandy or cognac or rum; flambe off the alcohol, boil to reduce the sauce.  Pour over the slices or ice cream, or add whipped cream or put onto cereal or oatmeal or pancakes or waffles or french toasty.

Reggie wanted to know if it was Bananas Foster.  No, no it's not.  But is quite close.  And it was delicious!  

Been a busy day in the kitchen...hey, do you want to hear about my scope experience, learn about my medical problems???

Sleep Number bed

Sleep number bed, first impressions and delivery review.

Val went to the state fair and bought a sleep number bed.  Who does weird crap like that?  We do, I guess. What's my sleep number?  Dunno.  Yet.  I've never been in the store, like a lot of people do before buying the bed, and the store personnel suggest having AT LEAST an hour of time to dedicate to the bed buying experience.  

What kind of person wants to sell sleep number beds?  I should go to the store to find out.  Think about this...you will spend an hour or 2 with prospective bed buyers, and you will see them lying down for part of this time.   Gravity changes the appearance of some body parts.

I'm not sure how much it cost, and I'm pretty sure that I don't really want to know.  I do remember spending $1800 for the bed that we've been sleeping on for the last 10/12 years.  (maybe longer)  I recall it being delivered on Memorial Day buy one dude, (they said they'd send 2) so I had to help haul the damn thing up the stairs.  (Heavy)  After a few years of the bed frame sagging, we took the frame out from under the box spring/mattress and pretended we were hippies sleeping on the floor.  No, we didn't take drugs and have wild sex parties...we just pretended to be hippies.  BTW, removing the frame didn't really solve the sagging problem.  :(

I really enjoyed this bed, it was soft and warm in the winter, it was soft and warm in the summer, soft and warm in the spring, soft and warm in the fall.  I did not use copy/paste to do that, and I should have.  Yes, I'm a dumbass.

The Sleep number bed is f'ing cold.  Except when it's hot.  Ok, I'll admit that we have changed blankets at the same time, Val took the white comforter thingy off and put on the quilt her mom made for us last winter.  I'm going to put a fleece blanket under that quilt thing, see if it helps. There's been a couple mornings when I've awakened covered with sweat,  and all I was doing was sleeping.  Maybe I was fast asleep?  Whatever.

We've had it a week now, here's delivery:

Delivery guy called Val, said they'd arrive at 9:30, and assembly should take 46 minutes.  They showed up at 10, left at 11.  Bastards.  They did not introduce themselves, cursed the whole time they were carrying up the parts, complained about the smallness of the house, banging parts and pieces into the door frames, etc.  And when they brought down the old set, they did not install it correctly onto the frame...it overhangs the headboard mounts by several inches...so we'll get to take it apart to fix that.  Yay, more exercise.

When they were done assembling, I hear "uh, we're done up here".  I mutter: does that mean I'm supposed to come up and look at it?  He showed me every page of the book, and inflated both sides to 100.

100 is about as soft as asstroturf on concrete.  I was going to suggest that the asstroturf would be installed in the bed of a Chevy ElCamino, but there you have the hope of a rust hole or a soft spring....and yes, I know I misspelled astroturf.   It's more fun that way.

At bedtime, I found the remote and lowered the setting to 50, they recommend changing it by 5 or 10 at a time.  Screw that, at 50 its about as soft as a good hotel bed, one that I can sleep on w/o waking with a backache.  Dropped to 45, and left it for a while.  I've since lowered it to 40.  

My current problem is that I don't like to lie on the edge of the bed so that my arm falls off.  But if I don't, it's like I'm lying on the side of a hill, which sucks. I did that once camping at Lake Icolda, which is just north of Corning.  The tent didn't have a built in floor, it'd been raining a bit so the ground was kinda wet.  The sleeping bag, clever! had a nylon or vinyl bottom/cloth top so that you'd stay dry and clean, except that since the tent had no floor, and the nylon was slippery, I kept sliding half out of the damn tent, until I turned over so that the cloth was in the mud, then I stayed the rest of the night inside the leaning tent of Icolda.  Yes, I froze that entire time, I hated camping.  

I suppose camping can be fun if you have the right gear, plenty of clothes and you like that sort of thing.  I know, instead of that stupid gif you want a pic of Val in the bed...maybe next week.  

I find that when I'm alone in the bed, and I'm in the center of the ravine, my ass is split by the baffle between the bladders, which must be sort of like wearing a thong.  I'd get one and try it, but you know I'd then have to post a pic of my hairy ass in the thing, and I don't want you to have to bleach your eyes, so I'll skip that entire experiment.

You're welcome.

I can't imagine what it'd be like if one of us liked it set at 75 and the other at 40...it'd be like having a mesa and a canyon in the same 5' wide bed.  Could make for some interesting/painful/inventive/frustrating rumpy pumpy.  I will just imagine how that would be....with my knee sliding off the hard side onto the soft side, plunging to my near death experience, spraining/straining several somethings in the process.  That would be an interruptus moment, to say the least.

So, a week in, I can't yet tell you to go buy a sleep number bed.  We've got 3 weeks to keep trying it before we can't send it back, we may have to call customer support or visit the store, to see if the grand canyon can be mitigated.  Feel free to share your experiences, esp if you have a sleep number bed thingy.  What's your number??