Ive learned alot since my last post here...

Ive learned that people are self-involved, greedy, ignorant, mean and often often so damned stoopid that I generally want nothing to do with them.
Ive learned that I shouldnt own animals as Im not able to cope with their death(s) or the inevitable guilty feeling that I could have, should have done more for them somehow.

Ive learned that my family is an indescribable nightmare and will never be the decent human beings I have all too often hoped for.
Ive learned that when beaten down by karma or the Fates theres always worse things yet to happen
No small wonder Ive developed an unflinching knack for negativity.

For the upcoming year Id like room to breathe as ive been suffocating on misery for the past year
I'd like to lose the pounds that're doing me no good.
I'd like to lose the "things" that weigh me down to the past.
I'd like to start doing more charitable works.

Most of all I'd like the Fates or Karma or whatever it is to leave me alone for the nxt year.
If they will do this I will work harder on being a better human being because if the last year has been some sort of punishment then I assuredly will endeavor to do better (although I'll be darned if I can figure out what Ive done that was heinous enough for the level of abuse thats been heaped upon me in the last year)

Im not a blogger, Im definitely no writer, I dont know how people do it and stay on subject LOL
But if anyone can learn anything from what Ive written, I hope it is that you can endure just about anything and giving up should never be the preferred option.

Merry Christmas
Happy Holidays
Seasons Greetings

Current Mood: sad

Like the subject says...
Im not a writer and I CAN be a big whiner *grins*
I just dont want to publicly illustrate my tendancy to whine by publicly posting a stream of diatribes.
As a result, please note, I havent posted a THING here since Feb 2009 LOL

Today's post: eating healthy.
Dont run away, this will not be a sermon!

Just to say, Im back to my prior 'eating healthy' endeavor & sad to say my exercise mainly consists of 2 mile walks (in the fresh air) on my days off (3X a wk)

Ive been concentrating more on menu planning & seeing where THAT goes...
Presently the menu has been:

Breakfast:
at home: fiber one waffle w/ real maple syrup
                 hard boiled egg
                 Dannon Light & Fit yogurt w/ fresh fruit & sprinkled w/ grape-nuts cereal
                 decaf tea w/ splenda & 1% milk
at work: cold cereal w/ 1% milk or a fiber one muffin
               hard boiled egg
               decaf tea w/ splenda & non-dairy creamer
Lunch:
at home: tuna salad w/ mayo & chopped onion in a lo carb whole wheat wrap w/ sl. tomatoes
                 Gala apple
                 water w/ Benefiber
at work: turkey breast on whole grain bread w/ mayo & sl. tomato
               Gala apple
                water
Dinner:
              My Chicken Caesar Salad
              Gala apple
               water
Snacks:
lg. navel orange & hard boiled egg
OR
Dannon Light & Fit yogurt w/ fresh fruit & sprinkled w/ grape-nuts cereal

The aforementioned menu has afforded me @ 1650 cal per day lately and better still, Ive enjoyed the food, which is EXTREMELY important as Im an emotional eater.
If healthy food isnt enjoyable I wont succeed @ the change!

Here's the ingredients for the aforementioned dinner salad:

85g chopped romaine
50g chopped tomato
25g chopped gr. pepper
25g chopped yellow onion
4 oz poached chopped chicken breast
2 tb. Hormel real bacon bits
1.5 tb Bolthouse Farms Caesar Parmagiano Dressing (yogurt based dressing)

place all ingredient into either a covered bowl or a gallon ziploc bag
Shake VIGOROUSLY to distribute dressing evenly.
Dump onto plate & enjoy!

Granted it's only a distant relation of a true Caesar salad, but who cares? I LOVE it!

Current Mood: blah

There are three main things in this life that I've totally slacked on. My home, my health and my finances. In a lame-arsed attempt to face it all, I decided to see what other people had to say on the subject.

The internet can be a wonderful thing...

For my home I tried the FlyLady system. it took half of last year to figure out what the frell she meant half the time, with her blathering. But I think I get the gist and after slipping over the holidays and the subsequent death of my mother, I'd like to get back to it.

For my health I found a great place called Sparkpeople. Last year I lost 50 pounds before I slipped during the aforementioned holidays and my mother's illness and death. I'd like to lose another 50 pounds this year, so time to get back to it. I even bought an elliptical to use, along with my treadmill.

For my finances, I dunno. Don't get me wrong, I love Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman but honestly, they really don't seem to be apropos fo the poor and the below poverty level folks. Still looking into this...

So those are the BIG goals...more later

Current Location: by the sea
Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: Pat Benatar~We Belong

This is the time of year when many people participate in swaps...Christmas Stocking Swaps, Holiday Ornament Swaps, Holiday Cookie Swaps, the list is as varied as the hosts imaginations.
But as with any organized event where you witness some of the finest, most generous people, there's also an ugly side.

Swaps can attract some of the worst kind of people...the greed, the selfishness the baser inclinations of folks just seem to come out. If the focus is more on what you receive than on what you give, then the greedy and selfish win.

I always feel simply terrible when I hear that someones partner has failed to follow through with their obligation to send something. Worse yet, they go into hiding without bothering to beg off or apologize or anything. They walk off with the swap package and leave their partner, who spent time, effort and whatever funds they could scrape together, doing absolutely nothing in return.

Should the givers expect something in return? well...YES...it's called a SWAP for a reason, duh! In no way are they selfish or greedy for expecting that which was agreed to. On the flip side it is unconscionable that someone would agree to participate in a swap, accept what is sent them but send nothing to their partner in return.

To compound this is the utter lack of excuse or apology for failing to fulfill their part of the agreement. In this day and age of internet interaction there is NO excuse for not offering up an excuse and an apology for their inability or even unwillingness to follow through.

I did just once, have to back out on a swap. Difference is, I contacted the host of the swap and let them know I couldn't participate after all and offered a sincere apology for the inconvenience. I would never display such lack of manners as to flakeout on an obligation without apology, so I can only surmise that those who do, have no manners OR are only in it for the goodies they'll get.

Death in the family? A 30 second email telling your partner or the host is not unreasonable.
A sudden mishap with your budget? Again a 30 second email with a heads up to your partner or the Swap host is not unreasonable.
You just plain forgot? So TELL us!
Just about any excuse is forgiveable IF you communicate it to the parties involved.

After having to beg off from my first swap, my embarrassment kept me away from swaps for a few years. I just didn't want to embarrass myself by begging off from another one. But the funny thing is, I LOVE to give people presents and I missed that part of swaps.

Then this year (2007) I got involved with this cooking website and once again I'm introduced to Swaps, holiday themed due to the time of year. I'm nervous, but I sign up for several. a Holiday Cookie Swap, a Holiday Ornament Swap and an "I Can't Live Without It" swap.

The Ornamnet Swap was a great idea! I love Christmas and shopping for decorations is my second favorite thing about Christmas. I converse by email with my partner in the Swap and I GO shopping! Then bad news arrives...my partner has flaked out on at least 2 other swaps and is refusing to answer queries. I'm thinking thank heavens that I found out before I shipped her package!

I'm disappointed but another person has offered to partner with me so I agree and we begin discussing likes and dislikes. Eventually I go shopping again this time for the new partner and ship the stuff off to her (in Oklahoma! I'm in the North East!).  She tells me she's shipping hers to me sometime today, so I forget about my original partner that flaked out on me without excuse or apology. I'm disappointed but I'll get over it.

Then there's the Holiday Cookie Swap, only this time I expend effort baking cookies, time buying little trinkets and spend $25 to ship not one but TWO packages! I kid you not, the very NEXT day I'm informed that my partner has, you GUESSED it! Flaked out!

So now I'm out the time effort and cash having sent out two packages of cookies and trinkets to an ungrateful greedy wretch! No excuses, no apologies and hiding from all attempts at contact. Now I'm not only disappointed, but I'm disgusted at her selfish behaviour and I'm angry because she's gonna get two lovely packages from me! I feel like she's being reawrded for her duplicity with NO consequence!

Yes, I was offered a new partner once AGAIN, but I refused. Why? Because I don't want to go through it AGAIN. Not to mention I blew my budget on the original, UGH, partner and have nothing left for a new one. I won't have some stranger sending me something when i can send nothing in return or because they feel SORRY that my original partner flaked.

So is it any wonder that I view my next Swap, the "I Can't Live Without It" Swap with tons of trepidation? Will this one fail me too? For the 3rd time in a row? Am I jinxed? Am I just SO beyond naive to think that they'll do their part?

So far the odds are against a good outcome...
It's frustrating especially since there's no way to screen jerks out of participating and no consequences for failing to follow through...that is, unless you believe in Karma or purgatory, LOL.

Instant Karma's gonna get you...

Current Location: by the sea...
Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: James Carrington's "Ache"

I viewed Scripps purchase of my favorite food site, Recipezaar, last August with great trepidation. Any one who's been through having a company being bought out by a large conglomerate will understand why.
Nothing good ever seems to come of it. They either completely absorb it and shut it down or they're so utterly incompetent they inadvertantly destroy it soon after purchase.

Imagine my lack of surprise and later my utter disgust when just this last Halloween they decide to transfer the website from the site's original servers in Seattle to the conglomerates servers in New York. No surprise, that's when the feces hits the fan.

Worse yet they don't back up the website before making the attempt leaving it's members, both paying and non-paying, high and dry.
Depending on who you speak to, the difficulties with access seem to be completely random. You can find just as many people able to use a site feature, as you can people utterly unable to.

Then in typical conglomerate fashion, they completely ignore member complaints by refraining from providing any real detail about what they are doing, IF anything to correct the problen. There have been 3 updates in what is now almost 13 days of chaos and each one inevitably causes a cascade effect that disrupts accesss to more and more features for more and more users.

Scripps has been regretably silent when asked what is being done to correct the problem and how much longer it'll be before access will return to normal for ALL members.

Thus far the only information posted was when they gleefully announced that an old 'bug' regarding the erroneous appearance of ads on the Favorite Topics pages of premium members had been fixed. This set off a not unexpected outburst from non-premium members, that accused Scripps of being so out of touch with their newest acquisition, that instead of having ALL of their IT dept working on the access difficulties they decided to piddle around with something the majority is utterly unable to see much less get peeved about.

As it stands now, Scripps appears to be in no great hurry to correct the problems they're responsible for.
Scripps appears unwilling to even address their Recipezaar members (memberships totals in the 5 digit neighborhood) publicly with an explanation of what happened much less a details of, or timetable for, repair.

Visit the Forums there and you'll find premium memberships being cancelled and members that had planned on purchasing a Premium membership for themselves or family or friends for Christmas are now backing away from the idea permanently.

This is a consequence that Scripps, having paid about $25 MILLION to acquire Recipezaar, should be paying attention to. But they're not...
Let us know when the funeral is going to be held Scripps, for Recipezaar, so that we may attend and weep for what was once a premiere recipe site on the 'net!

Current Location: by the sea...
Current Mood: frustrated