Saturday, April 19, 2025

Awake.

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Sleep was very good.  Long?  I don't know.  I can't remember when I went to bed.  I think I was asleep a good hour or two before actually laying down, if you know what I mean.  I don't remember some large chunk of the last bit... probably even three hours before sleeping.  Was I waiting for food to finish?  Or slogged down trying to digest the meal?

Food was good though.  Warming a dose for shortly.  Forgot to add the green beans last night, so am adding them this morning.   Some small bit of old veggies, a bid of new, meat, and sauce.  Hoping to make gravy.  Not quite this early, but later.

Very good.

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I was wrong, in my assumption.  The bone-in roast took less time to cook.  Odd, in the oven, if memory serves, it works just the opposite?  Or... did I just make a mistake in comparing via memory?  Who knows.  Then again, maybe I just lost track of time tonight?

It isn't mush, still pretty good.  But definitely done.  So I added everything back into the pool, and will eat in a half hour.  Well, the twenty minutes left of an half hour warming.  Uhm, hungry.  Quite looking forward to  a nice slab of pork roast, a potato or both, some rutabaga, carrots, and onion.  Well, and some of the juice.  I should make gravy but... I won't.  Or... maybe?  Do I have a small saucepan?  I do... a bit of cream, thickener, and butter would get that done well, quickly.  Maybe?  No... I'll do it for my next meal, though.  Just... a bit tired, from this long cook, and else, through the night.  Bleh.  Next time.  I'll even add sweet peas.  Yes I will, to the gravy.

A bit surprised.

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The potatoes finished rather quickly, after that last post.  I got to them before they became mushy.  I took three for dinner, put the other two in with the veggies on reserve, then set the crockpot to the warm setting.  I did refresh the roast, a bit ago.  The water was too cold to really do much for thawing, so I replaced it with fresh warm water, and set a timer for an hour.

It'll be a while before that is finished cooking.  Four hours, I can hope.  If more like five or six hours?  I'll start checking at three and a half hours, as with the roast beef.  This one is bone-in, so that usually takes longer.  Looking forward to something good to eat.

The broth is still good.

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Just out of meat.  Forgot to set the pork roast out yesterday though.  So... I started warming the liquid.  Added the last of the new potatoes.  Not good for diabetes, but it is food I can, will, eat.  Though, too, I put the pork roast into water, to help thaw it.  Slightly warm, not hot.

The idea is to have a few potatoes, with butter.  Then hope the roast is thawed by then.  If so, add it.  Let it cook for four hours?  Or so.  Then add the veggies that remain, and the last parcel of mushrooms, for half an hour as the roast just finishes.  Nothing fancy, but it really does work.

Friday, April 18, 2025

A bit of a headache.

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I did stay up excessively long, a few times in a row.  That right side of my body, falling asleep from time to time, pins and needles, really had me worried.  Though I found, after pushing through a bit later last night, that pushing things doesn't help either.  It was starting to twitch again.  So I pushed to close up shop, getting on to bed.

My mother called today.  Got through!  I wasn't sure I wanted to bother answering.  I have been answering, but she just sticks on the phone, doesn't talk.  It worries me so.  But, okay.  I... answered, anyway.  This time she talked.  She said she is using their (the nursing home's) phone.  But that can't be.  I have my phone on "do not disturb", which means a call from a phone number not in my list won't ring through.  She's just gaming, I think.  Or she is old and ill enough that... she... isn't always... aware.  I'd say it's a fifty fifty thing.  She's a gamer from her childhood... that kind of girl... no woman.

Some.

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Again, not bad.  Just... not good?  I was able to eat some of it.  The rest will be put out.  Oh well.  I did try.  I did get something in.  I'm not ill.  I'm just not full, or... satisfied.  Not terribly hungry either.  Though I'd really like something.

Hmm... I do have more of the bread, keto peanut butter, and keto strawberry jelly.  It's not the best for my blood sugar, but it's... edible.  Butter, too.  Adding butter might help balance the carbs?  And... keeping it to three slices?  Yes, maybe.

Not the best.

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The process?  I did very well.  The steak was cut just right, to what would be how I think I would like it.  The oil was brought to the right temp, so that the meat sizzled, without burning.  The spices were simple, but worked fairly well, for their part.

However, the steak was a bit old.  Not bad, just... old.  And the oil wasn't very good.  Not rancid, just... dated.  Those two things combined to make the meal... uninteresting.  But now I really am hungry.

A few things.

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The steak seems good.  So, I am leaving it to warm for an hour, then will dice and fry it.  I am hungry.  Might make italian dressing (vinegar, oil, and spices and herbs de jour).  Though... all together, or one as a side?  Maybe a bit of both, if hungry enough.

The other thing is a few vids about a tool.  Not one of the old standbys, a newer tool to me.  But not completely new.  I've used it several times, perhaps many times on the lower end of that pool.

Thursday, April 17, 2025

Wow.

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I checked, after waking.  The snow was all gone.

I began tinkering, looking around online, reading what of the news I find to generally have some fact involved.  Bits and pieces, these days.  Most folk who offer some news wait for a while to make sure it's legit.  Or have it pretty much from the horse's mouth.  Not president Trump, so much.  He... says he is doing something, then often doesn't, or does some of it, or lets the courts eat it, or... whatever.

Can't be sure when.

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It wasn't too much later, after posting.  I didn't see it coming.  Thought I would have a sense of it, and do some things.  Then again, I did get Sassy fed, checked to phone... putting it into airplane mode, setting up do not disturb on top of that, shutting it off, and then plugging in to charge.  A few other things?  I don't know.

Now, as I was crawling into bed?  I wouldn't have even remembered, save that when I took a quick peep outside, I saw something somewhat shocking.  I had to get my glasses, to make sure.  Something seemed to be falling out of the sky, but it couldn't be?  Could it?

Noon?

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By when I woke, sure, or closing on it.

I keep heating the water, to brew tea.  Then forgetting.  This is the third time I have heated water.  Hoping it will be the charmed time.

When did I go down?

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Not too awfully long after the last post.  I got my shoes and socks off?  Shoes off.  Was going to take my socks off.  Got one of my shirts off.  Was trying to figure out how to get more off.  Though it would be easier upstairs, if I didn't think I could sleep.  Got up there, got my trousers off.

Then, sat, to get my socks off.  A group, both a compression sock under, and a knee high thick wool hunting sock over.  Added compression, and some warmth.  What a struggle.  Got those off, finally, after serious work.  My legs are swollen, badly, though just in the lower areas, not up above the knee.

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Got to it.

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Thank God.  Thank friends.  Thank God for friends.  He arrived, and got me out.  I hadn't been able to sleep last night, at all.  Since... the last time I woke up.  My legs were getting fat, water retention.  Hurting.  Other... things wrong?  It was rough, but I stayed up, once it got beyond a certain point, or I wouldn't have awaken to go.

Three things, to start.  Drivers license... I have a temp, but that is good enough.  The new new one will be here within the month.  Probably.  It is what it is, I won't balk at it.

Dinner.

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Finally.  It just took much longer to cook than I had thought.  Having sliced the rutabaga, and broken the cauliflower down, I thought an half hour would do.  No?  An hour then, surely?  Nope.  Two hours.  And, really, closing on three, to get it edibly soft.  And I like a bit of bite in my veggies, so this wasn't taking them to even soft.  Just softened.

I won't complain.  The meal was very good.  I finished off the roast.  There is juice and veggies remaining.  I'll put that back in the bowl, cover it, and doing something with it tomorrow.  I am quite pleased with it.  I might grab another chuck roast, stick it in, add more cauliflower, tomorrow?  Maybe.  I was quite happy with that, and I'm not strictly a pot roast sort of guy.  It was the searing, and then watching the cooking closely.  Plus the right veggies.

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

A new brew?

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Not really a brew.  A bit more beef froth, half of one of the cauliflower heads broken down to somewhat larger bites, and the rutabaga sliced as apples... and sampled.  Turnips are good, fresh.  Rutabaga are just a bit sweeter.  One is closer to a neutral potato taste, without that dusty flavor.  The other is closer to an apple, just not quite as sweet.  Even with a bit of that crunch I miss.

Set to go, on high, in the crockpot, with the liquid from the previous 'brew' cooking poured in as well.  I'm giving it two hours.  Then will test. If things seem reasonable, I'll add the meat and any other veggies back into the pool.  I am hoping that the cauliflower will make a solid potato replacement.  Cauliflower can be a bit solid, in my gut.  But I have been mostly eating it raw, or just slightly cooked.... blanched really.  I'd like to see what a longer cook time will do.  Mash and butter, have with beef, or pork, or else.

Cycles are off.

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Everything is off.  Not feeling good.  Sick kid syndrome.  Nausea, my old friend, is back.  Hunger isn't really there.  If I could get food in, or when I do, it will be appreciated.  Probably.  Then again, a third of the time I have eaten, recently, food has been not only not helpful, but not good for my situation.  That is just how it goes.

I am hoping this is more temporary.  But it may not be.  This may be how it is from now on.  Still, I have, through time, gotten more or less ill... for brief or longer periods of time.  I'd hate to have thirty or forty years of just this though.  But, it's not been that much better, the last forty years.  Ugh.

Monday, April 14, 2025

Chislic?

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Had to look that up.  Oh, yes, sounds very good.  I made a beef form of it, with the leftovers of my last steak.  My problem?  I chopped the dices too small.  So, they were a bit overdone.  Not horrible, but... just... not as good as it could have been.  Like?  Yes, yes I like.  Lamb, beef, pork... deep fried, or solidly seared, cubes, I'd say closer to half to full inch squares, or half by inch bits, I'll... be working on sizing, and how to fry it better.

I am burned out on steak, as whole cuts.  But could still eat it this way.  Lamb would be fine, too.  If that is pretty pricey.  Pork as well.  With beans?  In a soup?  With lettuce in keto tortillas?  Lots of ways you could do that.  A simple salad, with these added as the crunchy salty bits.  Oh, yes, I think so.  Sort of... excited.

Ugh.

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Things needed done.  And were.  Took everything I had to get them done though.

I finished the 24 hour urine test... for heavy metals.  As well, at the last, there was enough extra to do the standard ui.  But... I had to get up, through the night, and go downstairs to pee... they want most of it through that time.  And, since I pee a lot at night (sometimes), that's... when I had to do it.

Sunday, April 13, 2025

Have to laugh.

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Ever watched a woman suggest she is single, and happy, as she hits a certain age?  Oh, she can say whatever she wants.  But, even as a guy, that's not a happy place to be.  I will say I am where I am because Most women I have met have been subpar.  Don't try to spin that, suggesting I am not all that.  That... doesn't matter, from my perspective.  Further, I have met far more women who would gladly take me than women I would even consider taking... in the available market.

No, she isn't happy.  She may have come to and understanding.  Perhaps she realizes she is too much of a problem, compared to what she offers.  She has to realize when she is no longer fertile, she just doesn't have the draw.  Biologically, her body changes.  It isn't as... alluring, to men.  Sure.  But happy about it?  Not on your life.  I'm not happy about it, if I might have found some comfort in it.

Very rough.

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Up to... two, three?  Awake at 14:00, in pain.  Kidneys hurt.  Why?  I can't say.  I think, yesterday, I pushed.  Just getting that meal through ended up being too much work, in my condition.  Not sure what the problem is?  Oh, perhaps I forgot medicine.  Though... the medicine is half the problem?  Just a different portion of the problem?  Bleh.

I plan on putting some of the roast, veggies, and juices in, and heating those in a bit.  A quarter or third or half of what remains?  At least of the meat.  Not sure about the veggies.  Maybe all of the veggies remaining?  Then peeling and slicing the rutabaga, adding more celery slices, and... something else?  As well, possibly, turning the juices into a proper gravy?  Maybe.