Random Experiments

Granny G Video #1

2008-08-18T00:11:00.004+09:30

This is a video for my grandson, Ricky "Roo". In this episode (I plan to do more of these), I'm showing him a new toy that I'm putting in the mail to him tomorrow.

3 Aug 2008

2008-08-03T23:52:00.001+09:30

My blog has moved to Random Experiments II on my newly updated website.

Please update your bookmarks and come visit!

Sat 26 July

2008-07-27T00:46:00.001+09:30

08:04:00   8.7  / 156  Fasting   
13:29:00   6.4  / 116  Pre-Lunch 
22:32:00   13.1  / 235  Post-Tea

Driving Totals:
* Anytime: 1445 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 600 mins of 600 req (DONE)

Total Steps: 2745

Breakfast: 1/4 Bagel with blue cheese, plus cottage cheese
Lunch: 2 eggs, bacon and 1/2 bagel
Tea: Minute steak roll ups, salad

Notes: Worked on my personal site today, getting my photo album sorted as to how things are displayed and deciding on how best to set up my blog.

Fri 25 July

2008-07-27T00:44:00.001+09:30

07:02:00   8.6  / 155  Fasting   
12:50:00   5.3  /  96  Pre-Lunch 
19:03:00   10.3  / 186  Pre-Tea

Driving Totals:
* Anytime: 1445 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 600 mins of 600 req (DONE)
30 Mins

Total Steps: n/a (lost the data)

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: leftover lamb meatloaf on a roll with cheese and lettuce, cottage cheese
Tea: Fish & Chips

Notes: Had dressing change today. The wound is looking good. Did some grocery shopping with Rod, then back home again. I thought I finished up a project, but it has a few issues that will have be worked on on Monday. Went to Breastroke meeting with Jenny and we had a glass of bubbly each, chocolate, bickies, chips, crackers. Then came home and Jen stayed for Fish and Chips.

Link(s): On Peanut Shells and Email Archiving

Family Refuses To Turn Beloved Two-Headed Bearded Dragon Lizard Into A Freak Show (And good on them, I say)

Thur 24 July

2008-07-25T00:29:00.002+09:30

Driving Totals:
* Anytime: 1415 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 600 mins of 600 req (DONE)
50 mins driving time.

Total Steps:

Bike:
* mins after lunch
* mins after tea

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll and left over lamb meatloaf
Tea: kfc

Notes: I haven't done my stats today so those details will have to wait until tomorrow.

Just wanted to note that today is a very Red Letter day. I got a lot done on a website I've been working on, and I reached my night time driving quota tonight. Whoo Hoo! I've also added another set or two to my new online photo gallery on my new site.

Link(s): The 7 Types Of Bad Bosses According To Star Trek (And How To Survive Them)

Wed 23 July

2008-07-23T23:40:00.002+09:30

04:05:00   8.0  / 144  Overnight 
07:57:00   7.6  / 136  Fasting   
11:47:00   6.7  / 121  Post-Bfast
23:29:00   7.2  / 129  Post-Tea

Driving Totals:
* Daytime: 1380 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 585 mins of 600 req
20 minutes driving to Flinders Medical Centre today

Total Steps: 1749

Bike:
* mins after lunch
* mins after tea

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: leftover lamb meatloaf, half bagel w/ blue cheese
Tea: Yiros meat, chips, salad

Notes: Happy Birthday Ricky! My grandson is 6 months old today.

Had last laser and MLD treatment today. Buses have been packed lately. The first bus of mine that came through had a sign I'd never seen before 'Full Bus' and was only letting as many passengers on as what got off (two). The next bus was packed as well but I was able to squeeze in.

I finished the July Monthly Scavenger Hunt this morning, as I only had one more piccy to upload and took care of that. Phew! My set can be seen at: http://flickr.com/photos/flitterg/2693701629/

Link(s): Numb Skull.

Tue 22 July

2008-07-22T23:58:00.002+09:30

07:08:00   8.8  / 158  Fasting   
19:04:00   4.8  /  87  Pre-Tea   
22:50:00   6.7  / 121  Post-Tea

Driving Totals:
* Daytime: 1360 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 585 mins of 600 req
15 minutes daytime.

Total Steps: 7439

Bike:
* 0 mins after lunch
* 5:30 mins after tea

Breakfast: bran pancake
Lunch: 2 eggs, 1/5 bagel with blue cheese
Tea: lamb meatloaf, mashed potatoes, veggies, salad

Notes: Had my usual Tuesday RDNS appointment this morning. As per last week, Rod went to the library and after having my dressing changed I took my walk at Colonnades. I felt very pleased with myself as I'd covered quite a bit of ground, but after coming home and having lunch instead of getting on with stuff I had planned to do, I ended up crashing and napping for an hour. That wasn't too bad, but it took me a few hours to get it together afterwards and get the cobwebs out. It wasn't the best of days as far as arthritis goes and there are times when my hands swell up and stiffen up quite a bit while I sleep (doesn't matter if it's a night time sleep or day time nap), and today was one of those days. After tea this evening, and once I'd had a stint on the bike, I'm now feeling more alert and stuff, but of course now it's the end of the day. Bah, talk about annoying.

I think I'm getting the hang of the usb pedometer now. First, I've resigned myself that the program's calendar data is always going to be a day out. As in when I upload my data in the morning, it counts it as the current days totals. I don't always remember to do the upload before midnight, so doing it in the morning, and then pressing the button on it till the lights blink is what makes it 'work' for the rest of the day. So I can deal with that, as long as I know what the routine needs to be.

Link(s): I so need to give this advice a go: Inbox Zero: Schedule email dashes

Mon 21 July

2008-07-21T23:11:00.001+09:30

07:24:00   6.5  / 117  Fasting
13:48:00   5.6  / 101  Pre-Lunch
16:54:00   4.6  /  83  Post-Lunch
20:28:00   6.6  / 119  Post-Tea

Driving Totals:
* Daytime: 1345 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 585 mins of 600 req

Total Steps: 5565

Bike:
* 5.15 mins after lunch
* 5.30 mins after tea

Breakfast: bran pancake
Lunch: tuna and low carb japanese noodles, salad.
Tea: black bean beef stirfry, pork in plum sauce, noodles (take-away)

Notes: This morning I had an appointment with Dr. Ling, as opposed to my regular GP as he's on vacation. She is so thorough, and gentle. I made the appointment because of needing scripts to be re-done, but as I had the sinus problems over the weekend (and for the last few weeks in general), and as she asked, I told her about it, and then the rib/side pain and that my breast still hurts, etc. She listened to my heart, my lungs (which are clear, so the gunk is all from my sinus'), checked my sides and reassured me that these are muscular pains probably from coughing, and checked my ears, throat and nose. I have a lot of fluid behind both ears. That explains a lot too. So I'm back on antibiotics, and she redid all the scripts that needed redoing. She asked if there was anything else that needed attention, and as you know I've been considering switching to her, and this appointment really showed me the difference, so I asked if I could be her patient and she was delighted. She went over a few notes about my history, and I'll do the full exam thing that they have which includes a full family history, etc. We'll schedule that for after I've had a bone denisity test, which she says I need as I've been on tamoxifen for the breast cancer and its important to get a baseline done. She weighed me, and I like her scales better than mine. (LOL). Anyway, I am pleased I made the decision. And yes, for family members reading this, I know... I was brought into the world by a Dr. Ling. No relation, though. :-)

While waiting to have my scripts filled, I browsed the aisles at Coles (grocery store) and as I was by myself, as I did a month or so ago with pasta's, I went on a label reading spree for low carb snacks. I actually found some too... but to my surprise, the rice crackers are NOT low carb, by a long shot. However, Pringles makes a 'lite' Rice chip that IS low carb... only 15g carbs / 100g. Compared to 85g carbs / 100g for any of the rice crackers. So I bought a couple of cans and had a couple chips with lunch. Very tasty too. MUCH nicer than rice crackers.

Lately I've had a knack for people, mostly of the 'senior citizen' age group, simply start talking to me as if they've known me for a long time. Saturday it was a 78yr old lady who sat down next to me as I was taking off my wind cheater and stuffing it into my shopping bag, if it weren't for her great-grandson offering a distraction, I'd probably still be there listening. Today it was another older lady looking for a whistling tea kettle, which I helped her find. And on the way home, I stopped to take a pic of a lost shopping cart (we call them 'trolleys' here), and a fellow walking by asked what I was taking a picture of, so I showed him the pic and explained about the Monthly Scavenger Hunt and that I had plans to use the pic as an example of something that's a '4Wheeler'. He was amused.

The rest of my day has been working on a site migration (no not my website, another one). My friend Patty dropped by with some clothes for me, via her Mum. Very nice tops all for winter, which I really really need. Well needed as I think I'm pretty well set now.
Rod had to go return something so I told him if the chinese place was open to pick us up some tea. Otherwise pick up some marinara mix so I could make seafood stirfry. Luckily the chinese place was open and so no cooking for me tonight. :-) And what with the exercise bike, I had an excellent after tea reading too. Very pleased about that.

And, the latest scratchy ticket out at the moment is a double crossword one for $5. Last week I bought one and used it for 2 days. I did the first game one day, and saved the next one for after my next walk, and I won $11. Saturday I picked up another one and after I got home today I finished the 2nd game. Another $11. Neat.

Link(s): Perfect Choc Chip Cookies - Just looking at the pic on this story, and reading the description... OMG, what a diet wrecker!

Sun 20 July

2008-07-21T23:10:00.001+09:30

07:53:00   7.8  / 141  Fasting   
12:19:00   6.3  / 114  Pre-Lunch 
18:59:00   7.2  / 129  Pre-Tea

Driving Totals:
* Daytime: 1345 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 585 mins of 600 req

Total Steps: n/a

Bike: n/a

Breakfast: bran pancake
Lunch: scrambled eggs w/ bacon and cheese
Tea: 2 slices (thinner crust) pizza

Notes: Was 'ok' in the morning aside from a nasty sinus headache. Finally gave in to it after lunch and had a long nap (till 5!). Spent the evening napping, dozing and watching TV with Rod, then went to bed and slept through the night.

Sat 19 July

2008-07-21T23:09:00.001+09:30

08:02:00   7.4  / 134  Fasting   
11:25:00   6.5  / 117  Post-Bfast
16:58:00   6.4  / 115  Post-Lunch

Driving Totals:
* Daytime: 1345 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 585 mins of 600 req

Total Steps: 2800 (see note below)

Bike:
* 5 mins after lunch

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: 2 eggs, bacon, mushrooms and 1 slice toast
Tea: oyster steak and salad

Notes: I really don't think I've got the hang of the new USB pedometer yet. I'll get there though.

Had walk (Saturday lottery). Sinus headache, but not too bad.

Fri 18 July

2008-07-19T00:02:00.001+09:30

07:25:00   8.6  / 154  Fasting   
08:28:00   9.2  / 166  Pre-Bfast 
13:58:00   5.1  /  91  Pre-Lunch 
16:35:00   5.8  / 104  Post-Lunch
18:38:00   5.4  /  98  Pre-Tea   
22:17:00   6.8  / 123  Post-Tea

Driving Totals:
* Daytime: 1345 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 585 mins of 600 req

Total Steps: 2719 (but see notes below)

Bike:
* 5 mins after lunch, 1.8k
* 5 mins after tea, 1.4k

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll and cottage cheese
Tea: hot and spicy fish with a handful of chips

Notes: Had RDNS appointment for a dressing change today. It's looking good, but have an area of skin where the tape goes that's tring real hard to have an allergic reaction. My side is still sore today, but somewhat better than it was.

After RDNS, went to Woodcroft to do grocery shopping. We stopped The Warehouse (now called 'Sams Warehouose) and had a look at some speakers and I tried out the exercise bikes and one that was on sale ($79.95 off) was an elliptical one, that moves your arms as you pedal so you get some additional benefit from it, and as it's a good kind of movement for me in helping to reduce the fluid in my arms, I decided to get it. It wasn't in my plans for today, but it was a really good deal. Rod let me get a headstart on putting it together and I was doing well (albeit slow) but I was quite grateful for his help.

I want to use the bike on a daily basis and make it part of the 'routine of my day', but I also don't want to over-do it so I think 5 minutes after meals would be a good starting point and once I'm used to that, I can start increasing the time. The other thing I'm trying to do with it is interval training which is you work on it really intensley for a set amount of time and then cool down for an equal amount of time, and keep repeating this pattern. Apparently people loss more weight is they use this method. That'd be nice. I really really need to drop at least 10k.

I wore my pedometer on a lanyard today, so numbers might not be quite accurate. Worth trying to see how well it fairs though.

I put a few pics on Flickr - a couple new postcards from Angeliina in Finland and a nice pic of Kelsey and Lynn with a horse (Lynn's I think) because I needed a pic for the scavenger hunt ('horseback riding').

Wish I could say I've done more today, but alas, I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Link(s): bugger, I lost them when I rebooted tonight.

Thur 17 July

2008-07-18T00:03:00.001+09:30

08:00:00   7.2  / 129  Fasting   
16:58:00   6.4  / 115  Post-Lunch
21:48:00   8.3  / 149  Post-Tea

Driving Totals:
* Daytime: 1290 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 585 mins of 600 req

Total Steps: 2733

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll and cottage cheese
Tea: kfc - chicken and 1 whole wheat roll

Notes: Got up this morning and did my usual routine but had a sinus headache and my right side (where the hole is) was hurting and I felt a bit groggy so I went back to bed until 11:30.

Today I had my 2nd laser and MLD therapy. She noted that the area around the bandaging looked bit swollen and made sure the laser was directed on that whole area. There are actually a few areas that are laser-ed... my wound, the scars on my back and the scars on my reconstruction. During treatment I mentioned the sinus thing and she spent a few minutes doing some therapy on my face, neck and scalp. OOoo, nice. She said it wasn't a full treatment but I'm welcome to come in for a full one anytime. Nice to know. And it did help. It seemed like my side hurt more after treatment, but that could just be a perception thing. It was sore before I had treatment and is still sore tonight. And the weather sucks so my arthritis is being unhappy as well. Tonight it's my right hip aching. Tomorrow it'll be something else. I'm learning that this is just the way it is with me.

I drove to the appointment, and then Rod drove himself home, and I took the bus home. I made a stop off at O'Halloran Hill to pick up some of the Asian noodles that are extremely low carb, and picked up some Vietnamese cold rolls for our snack tonight. I took a few pics of the beautiful green (because it's winter and rainy) paddock across the road, including a few shots with the sheep in it, but didn't cross the road and do a good job as it was really windy and it was a bitter cold wind. And there I was with a very heavy bag, no glove, no scarves, no jumper, no jacket. UGH! It seemed like a very long 15 minute wait. It took an hour after I was home before my ears stopped hurting.

Our plan was to do shopping tonight (Thurs nights the stores are open until 9pm), which would have given me the last few minutes I need for night time driving, but we decided to stay home instead. We can grocery shopping tomorrow after my RDNS appointment. I'm kind of glad of that since I was/am quite sore still and this allowed me to take a Panadeine Forte to help with the pain. And it has helped.

My evening has been spent going through my photo archives looking for scavenger hunt items. I only have about 4 more items/pics to find.

And, last night after I did my blog, I made a discovery -- the USB cable for my new pedometer ALSO happens to fit my freebie glucose meter - the small one that's a bit like a long thick pen. Now I just need to get the software for it installed. I've run into a little problem with that though, so I'll have another go with it tomorrow. Nice find though - it sure beats paying $29 for the cable.

Link(s): none today. Haven't had a chance to read all my RSS feeds today. Normally I do that in the morning.

He is SO cool.

2008-07-17T20:17:00.001+09:30

100_2207,
originally uploaded by Katzilla_dances.

Isn't my grandson just the hottest coolest baby ever?? !!

I love this little guy.

Wed 16 July

2008-07-16T23:41:00.001+09:30

07:21:00   7.1  / 128  Fasting
18:01:00   5.1  /  92  Pre-Tea
23:15:00   7.2  / 130  Post-Tea

Driving Totals:
* Daytime: 1290 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 585 mins of 600 req

20 mins night time driving.

Total Steps: 5493

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: thai curry tuna, lettuce and sprout salad. Yum.
Tea: Sausage and roll.

Notes: Spent the morning doing work related stuff, and had planned to work on my website this afternoon. However, after lunch my new pedometer arrived so of course I had to install the software for it - on my VMWare Windows because 'naturally' it uses %^&*& proprietry software. (GRRrrr). I think I may have solved the problem of why I couldn't get the USB TV thing working with VMWare a month or so ago while in the process. Turns out there were a couple lines in a file in /etc that needed uncommenting in order for USB stuff to work with VMWare. So, will try the TV thing on the weekend, for sure. There's pretty much nothing to the pedometer. Just a hook so it hooks onto clothing, and a USB slot. That's good as it means it doesn't talk at me, and it can't be accidently reset. The software's a bit daggy, but at least it works. I took a walk and ran some errands and when I came home it told me I'd taken 3982 steps, which is about right for where I'd walked.

I stopped at the medical centre and made an appointment with my GP so I can get some prescriptions renewed. I have been debating really hard on whether to change doctors or not, and even which doctor to choose for this appointment. Funny, it was a decision made for me. My usual GP is on vacation this week and next so I'll be seeing the doctor I've been thinking very hard about switching to. I guess we'll see how this appointment goes and I'll decided from there.

There was a computer meeting tonight and as the topic was GNU/Linux we decided to make an appearance in support of our favourite operating system. It was quite a good presentation, though I personally would have skipped a lot of the basic hardware related stuff and showed more of how it's not that different from what people are already using, but it works without crashing. Different strokes though. I won a couple of door prizes tonight too. One was a beautiful Azalea plant.

I really like knowing the history of my plants. Like this one will always be from the computer club, and I have some great spider plants going that our friend Erik gave me from his many hanging baskets of them. I'm not sure where I'll plant the Azalea, I'll have to look up what it does best with and any requirements. This one has beautiful double-pink flowers with white lacy edges. Really nice.

Link(s):

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/crap-idea/
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/asimov-laws-robotics.php
http://laughingsquid.com/lightening-strikes-woman-as-she-is-shooting-video/

Tue 15 July

2008-07-16T22:44:00.001+09:30

15:05:00   5.8  / 105  Post-Lunch
23:11:00   6.3  / 113  Post-Tea

Driving Totals:
* Daytime: 1290 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 565 mins of 600 req
30 mins daytime driving

Total Steps: 9987

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll w/ cottage cheese
Tea: Subway

Notes:

Am adding these notes the next day. Quite a busy day though. Went for my dressing change in the morning and then had a good walk at Colonnades (a bit chilly for outdoor walking) while Rod went to the library. On my 'walk' I picked up a 3 pack of yoghurt starter, had my glasses adjusted, and wandered around with a cup of cappuccino (bought more for the fact the cup would warm up my hands than for the caffiene). Came home, did the security upgrade for Drupal which wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be and then while typing an Email to my step-mom, I just couldn't stay awake and had to go to bed.

Link(s):
This one made me laugh out loud:
Vegan Zombie T-Shirt

Mon 14 July

2008-07-16T22:33:00.001+09:30

07:59:00   6.2  / 112  Fasting   
11:23:00   7.1  / 128  Post-Bfast
12:39:00   6.5  / 117  Pre-Lunch 
15:37:00   6.8  / 122  Post-Lunch
19:17:00   5.4  /  97  Pre-Tea   
22:34:00   6.8  / 122  Post-Tea

Driving Totals:
* Daytime: 1260 mins of 2400 req
* Nighttime: 565 mins of 600 req

Total Steps: 3620

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll w/ cottage cheese
Tea: Tandori / Portuguese Chicken

Notes:

Funny that yesterday I worked on my breast cancer web page and moved my chemo pics to the photo gallery as I noticed last night that once again, my eyelashes have disappeared. All the 'visible' ones must be on the same re-growth schedule since my having had chemo. I wonder if others have noticed this phenomenon?

Sun 13 July

2008-07-14T00:04:00.001+09:30

06:24:00   7.4  / 134  Fasting 
11:44:00   5.3  /  95  Post-Bfast
13:48:00   5.0  /  90  Pre-Lunch 
16:43:00   7.2  / 129  Post-Lunch
19:46:00   4.9  /  88  Pre-Tea   
22:45:00   7.6  / 137  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1260 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 565 mins of 600 req

Total Steps: 3291

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: Scrambled eggs w/ bacon & mushrooms 1 slice toast (Helga's Wholemeal)
Tea: Pizza. 2 slices. (thinner crust)

Notes: I'm pleased with the after lunch results today. Normally I have the low GI / high fibre bread, but as I knew my readings were at a quite reasonable level, I tried a slice of the thick wholemeal bread I picked up for Rod yesterday. I love wholemeal bread, and this is just excellent bread, for sure. And I had a touch (say maybe a teaspoon or less) of strawberry jam on the toast. Yum. And my after lunch reading was normal 7.2 - right in range. Yay!

I spent a pleasant day working on my own website and it's really coming along. Inadvertently the page I worked on today was the breast cancer one, and the old site had an additional page tucked away with photos relating to chemo and radiotherapy. Well, if you've noticed my recent Flickr uploads, these pics are now on Flickr and have been made part of my photo gallery, which uses Flickr sets. As these were the first gallery pics I've added it took a fair amount of time to get things displaying how I want them. It's not exactly what I'd like, but without hacking into code, it'll have to do. And I'm not 'dissatisfied' with the results - just I had something else in mind on how it would all look and fit together. This evening I copied the breast cancer web links to the new site's Links area. A lot of the sites were gone, but some of the most interesting ones are still available. And of course, I added the Breastroke.com site as well. Naturally! It just seemed quite a realisation that although I was working on 'other things' (photo gallery displays, web links), the back drop to this for the whole day was breast cancer. It's probably the most time I've spent on that topic for ages. And ironically, the link I have to share tonight is one that my son sent me, and was quite interesting reading.

Accidental fungus leads to promising cancer drug

Sat 12 July

2008-07-12T23:59:00.001+09:30

07:25:00   6.5  / 117  Fasting   <br />11:42:00   6.6  / 119  Post-Bfast<br />16:41:00   6.8  / 122  Post-Lunch<br />19:19:00   4.5  /  81  Pre-Tea   <br />23:36:00   6.2  / 112  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1260 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 565 mins of 600 req

Total Steps: 6153

Breakfast: bran pancake
Lunch: 2 eggs, bacon, mushrooms and 1 slice toast (low GI)
Tea: steak, stir-fry veggies. Very few carbs

Notes: Had a walk today but forgot my pedometer. Took it off when I changed my pants and forgot to put it back on again. So since my usual walk up to the shops including a walk around Coles is a bit over 4000, that's what I'm giving myself, plus whatever's on the meter from before my walk and after. I ordered a new pedometer today too: [Have a look]

Got a good start on converting my personal website over to Drupal. It's actually gone very smoothly.

Tonight for tea I tried using bean sprouts as 'noodles' as well as made stirfry veggies. I found they're too crunchy to use as a pasta substitute, and for my tastes, they really need to be with other veggies. I didn't actually 'finish' my tea tonight as by time I got to finishing up the stirfry veggies and bean sprouts, I was quite full. I wish that'd happen more often. I'm sure it'd be a big help in losing weight.

Worth1000.com had (has?) a Photoshop Christmas movies contest. Very funny stuff.

Fri 11 July

2008-07-12T00:50:00.001+09:30

12:54:00   6.3  / 113  Post-Bfast<br />16:19:00   8.1  / 145  Post-Lunch<br />18:50:00   6.3  / 113  Pre-Tea   <br />22:42:00   6.3  / 114  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1260 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 565 mins of 600 req
30 mins daytime driving

Total Steps: 3425

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll w/ cottage cheese
Tea: fish & chips

Notes: A friend of ours from the old Fidonet days (back before the Internet became popular) passed away. I wrote a little bit about him for the Homestead mailing list, website and the CBM Fidonet echo (such as it is these days). Here's what I wrote:

Russell Prater, Former CBM Fidonet Moderator

I received news today from Phil Heberer, a long time Commodore Fidonet member...

-------------------
It is with great regret that I inform you that another of the circle of e-friends from the old Fidonet CBM echo has gone on to meet the Lord. Former CBM Moderator Russell Prater died Monday, Jul 7, 2008, from complications of diabetes. He was 69 years old. May God rest his soul.

Phil
-----------------

Russell was the moderator of the CBM Fidonet echo for many years, back in it's hey day when hundreds of messages would flow through nearly every day. He often joked that moderating the echo was a bit like 'herding cats'.

What I loved most about Russell was his sense of humor, fairness, and his belief that 'what goes around comes around', which was part of his Commodore friendliness. He helped create a lot of little utility scripts - some that are part of Rod's QWKRR packages, and was always willing to help people with technical problems. I once spoke on the phone with him when he helped walk my former husband through adding additional drive numbering switches to my 1581 drive. He was as friendly over the phone as he was in the echo.

I'm very saddened to learn of Russell's passing. We've lost a wonderful soul.

--------------------------------------------

Today's XKCD comic, Good Morning, gave me quite a chuckle. I know I've used the technique described quite a bit. - Love this comic - it sure fits me to a tee. Though most of the time lately I've become a 'normal' !!! person and get up in the early morning and conk out around midnight or so.

In the 'things that make you go hmm... Dept. Box falls from sky outside a Saginaw business
It's the LAST paragrph.

Had a dressing change today. The skin still red (way above where the hole is - it's likely from the opsite tape that's used to hold the dressing on), but otherwise everything looks good.

The first Email I received upon returning home was about Russ, and that blew the wind out of my sails for a bit. I went outside and had a good think about the things I liked about him, and wrote it up when I came back in. Rod took the news hard as well, as he and Russ used to share a lot of mail with each other, and they really did a lot of 'work' on lots of little bits of programming code, not to mention a whole lot of humour and comraderie. We're both sorry we didn't keep in better touch with him.

This afternoon I couldn't get settled. I ended up tidyng up my desk, making up a to-do list, and then picking the easiest/quickest thing on the list to do so I could say I've done something. That seemed to help. I did a few of the list items and tonight added a few more ticks off the list. Nothing too hard, just stuff that needed doing. I didn't go to Breastroke today as I am quite sore in the rib area (left side this week) and had extra pain killing meds so figured I was better off taking it easy here at home.

Thur 10 July

2008-07-10T23:14:00.001+09:30

07:50:00   6.0  / 108  Fasting   
11:32:00   6.7  / 121  Post-Bfast
16:32:00   5.9  / 107  Post-Lunch
20:12:00   4.4  /  80  Pre-Tea   
22:34:00   6.4  / 116  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1230 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 565 mins of 600 req
35 mins night driving

Total Steps: 4749

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll w/ cottage cheese
Tea: KFC, about 5 chips and no green tea (pretty rare for me)

Notes: Worked on drupal site today, doing member lists via 'views'. Turned out quite nice, IMO. Then tackled the same with the files and particularly the minutes folder, but wasn't quite as successful.

Late night shopping tonight. We went to Seaford so I clocked up some extra driving time. What with price of petrol these days, I've limited our trips to grocery shopping @ Seaford to once every 3 weeks or so. I also reckon if we don't need that much in the way of groceries there's no point (aside from driving time for my logs) in going that far every week.

Had KFC for tea tonight as is our usual for Thursday nights. Was busy reading stuff and forgot to drink my tea after dinner, but it actually proved useful in that it just proves that if I only have chicken and very few chips my glucose levels are quite good afterwards -- even without any extra help from drinking green tea.

I'd hoped to do some work on my own website tonight but doesn't look like that's going to pan out since it's after 11pm and I'm yawning and quite sleepy.

Wed 9 July

2008-07-10T00:27:00.001+09:30

07:26:00   6.3  / 114  Fasting   
11:45:00   6.4  / 115  Post-Bfast
17:16:00   5.7  / 103  Post-Lunch
23:07:00   7.3  / 131  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1230 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 530 mins of 600 req

Total Steps: 4426

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll w/ cottage cheese
Tea: ham and cheese on foccia bread, cottage cheese, salad

Notes: Was up early this morning and finished doing stats set up for breastroke.com, and managed to add a recipe to the breastroke site as well. I had ordered a battery powered electric sweeper a few weeks ago that showed up the other day but required several hours charging before it was ready to be used. I tried it out today and it works very nicely. Cheap - only $20, but as the battery died on my old Electrolux 'The Boss' cordless vacuum, this is an inexpensive alternative. The battery for the other is half the price of a new model and there's no guarantee on the dang things. Anyway it works great on some of the rugs there are around the house and quite nicely on tile and plain floors too. Good buy.

We had some errands to run this afternoon and just before we were about to leave, Wayne from Oncara dropped by with the most
gorgeous framed certificate of appreciation from Oncara Inc (Old Noarlunga Commercial and Residential Association Inc) in appreciation of our services to them. Blown away! Was totally unexpected and wow, it's great to be appreciated. :-)

Late this afternoon, I finally found a nice way of importing and showing Flickr images to Drupal sites. It's the "Embedded Media"
module, which includes several additional modules packaged with it. Now I'm just learning how to create views on the images it imports. And it has what I wanted - the title of the image, description, and tags. Working on this has taken up most of my evening and I hope to be able to do some great stuff with it for my personal site.

I found this link in the 'news' today: Baby's smile 'like taking cocaine' for mums. Gave me a smile.

Tue 8 July

2008-07-09T00:06:00.001+09:30

08:17:00   7.5  / 135  Fasting   
12:18:00   6.1  / 110  Pre-Lunch 
15:55:00   7.2  / 129  Post-Lunch
23:28:00   8.4  / 151  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1230 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 530 mins of 600 req

Total Steps: 6180

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll & cottage cheese
Tea: satay pork & veggies, 1 slice low GI bread

Notes: Returning to regular updates because Chris asked me to, and I promised I would. I had a dressing change this morning. The hole hasn't shown much difference in size since I started going to the RDNS clinic (I think I started there in April), but it is drying up a bit and looking better. Had a cough the other night that made my whole right side where the hole is hurt, but it is getting better now. It didn't seem to have any visible effect on the hole. Starting on Sunday, I had some odd redness show up on the skin but it looked like irritation from like my last dressing change, so the nurse put some extra barrier wipe over that area today.

On way home, stopped at discount chemist for allergy tabs and decided to get the bare minimum and go home and order these online. 30 for $25 when I can get the same stuff online for the same price, but a quantity of 50. Ordered 2 boxes as I'm tired of running out of the stuff. These are 24hr tablets that due to my skin allergies and the bandaging I've had for the last 16 months, I have to take twice a day to keep from having bad rashes with the bandaging. Expensive but worth it as a skin breakdown would be really bad news.

A few weeks ago I ordered a small ceramic heater to use outside that finally arrived yesterday. Love it! Much nicer than the old heater we were using. It's tiny and looks like a pair of speakers. Good week for it to arrive too. Yesterday morning was the coldest morning in 3yrs. We're having a whole week of rain, which may seem gloomy, but it's really needed so I won't complain.

Had lunch out on Saturday with the 'Lunch Group' - we get together on the 1st Saturday of the month. This time we went to the Old Noarlunga hotel for lunch. Was quite nice. Rod and I had the 'Salt & Pepper Chicken' which was excellent.

On Monday, I had lunch out with the Breastroke girls at the Marion Hotel. This is a rare treat as it's not something we do very often, maybe once or twice a year. One of our members is caring for her elderly mother and rarely gets to come to the meetings, and was able to have some respite time on Monday so we got together with her, and farewelled another member who's off to the UK for the next few months.

Oh, and before I forget it, y'all get on Twitter and then you can follow my occaisonal comments and daily BGL stats. Here's a link to get you started: http://twitter.com/gaelyne

I wanted to start work on converting my website to Drupal, or at least work on adding views to another site, but neither happened. I got stuck trying to find some way of showing Flickr pics as a slideshow or gallery and have the titles and descriptions show. I never got any further.... I did, however, write a blog entry. That's better than 'nothing at all'. Anyway, tomorrow will be better.

3 July 2008 - Commodore Homestead migrated to Drupal

2008-07-03T23:41:00.001+09:30

It took a little over a week, but I've finally finished migrating the Homestead website to Drupal and moved it to it's new home on the web. You can see it at homestead.vcsweb.com

The older site was being heavily web-spammed - in the last few days I'd rec'd over 140 news submissions that were totally bogus. The new site has a few things in place to stop those types of shenanigans.

Anyway, just thought I'd note another site update and now I'm going to go celebrate with a sugar free hot chocolate. :-)

Remember me?

2008-07-03T00:17:00.001+09:30

Sorry I've sorta gone underground for awhile. I've been very active with working on websites and learning new stuff. It's probably the most my brain has been 'engaged' in a long long time. I just don't seem to be very good at switching tasks lately so I've been rather dogged with the stuff I've been working on.

My upgrade to Ubuntu Hardy Heron went very well. Probably the easiest full upgrade I've done yet. I stayed with KDE v3 though as from all that I've read, v4 still has quite a few kinks. Probably the hardest thing was sorting out how to print from VMWare Windows, a necessity as an order came in for a CD and the only program I have that has the labels I make for these is in Windows. Bah! Once that was sorted out (I spent all evening on it and then Rod told me an easy way and it worked first time), everything else just fell into place.

OOhh, I see my download of pics of Ricky has finished. I had to hassle Terry for these so I better go look. :-)

Gee, I want more. He is soooo cute. I will have to put a couple pics on Flickr and there's one I've picked out to put on my phone for the background as well. Shame about all the red eye pics though. I'll be having to fix those.

The Commodore website I started a zillion years ago is getting spammed - not that the public can see it, but so far in a weeks time I've receive 141 Emails to approve news stories that are nothing but junk links to crap. So, since Drupal is a perfect system for a community website, I started moving the site to Drupal and will finish with it in the next day or two. It also has some built in things to keep spam from web form abuse to a minimum which is why I've pushed to get this move finished. All seems to be going well with it and it looks quite nice.

I finished the June Monthly Scavenger Hunt on Flickr, with only a few days to spare. This month's is interesting. Anyone have a pic of a Power Ranger toy I could use??

Rod's finished this semester and is home until the next one starts in a few weeks. This is good because once he 'catches his breath', I have lots of honey-do's for him.

I'm just about recovered from having the crud a few weeks ago. My RDNS nurse seems to have it now. We both commented on the fact we've had flu shots this year too. This had to have been a strain that slipped through the cracks.

Rod fixed the new pedometer - I think I wrote in my last entry that it had been really annoyingly going off constantly talking at me. He had fixed it so she quit talking, but unbeknownst to me until that night, it turns out it also wasn't counting steps. It's taken care of now and she does speak, but only when I want her to, so that's good.

A few weeks ago I ordered a ceramic heater for the patio. It's multi directional - so half of it can point in one direction (like towards where Rod sits) and the other half can be pointed towards me. I only paid $29 for it, but have been hanging out waiting for it to arrive. Today the place I bought it from Emailed me to let me know that they found out it was a different model to what they advertised and they tried to get the right one from the manufacturer but haven't heard from them. They offered me the one that they do have (it's not a lot different but apparently the controls aren't in the same place) or a refund. Hopefully by tomorrow it will be on its way as I'll take this one. It's still multi-directional, small, same price and ceramic.

Last week was the last week the lady who normally delivers my parcels was working. She officially retired on the 1st. Shame as I really liked Kathy. And the new one, which I haven't met, didn't impress me today. We were home, the door bell isn't broken, the shutters were up, the car in the drive, but instead of delivering my box (batteries I ordered cheap), there was a card in our letterbox - they couldn't have come to the door at all. Grr. And I'd been looking forward to meeting the new delivery person too.

In case you're wondering about all my stats, well I'm still doing the glucose readings, which have been pretty good, but as far as journalling stuff goes, I have taken a rest. I'd much rather spend my energy at the moment working on creative stuff as I have no idea how long this burst of creativity will last and I just feel like I should give it everything I have as it's been so long since I've felt creative. I haven't been walking as much, but I also have to work with the weather, and when it's super cold and rainy I've been more inclined to stay home rather than risk having the 'crud' return.

My back/side is doing very very well. The last 3 dressing changes have been excellent with dry bandaging. The size of the hole hasn't changed, but the fact it's no longer draining is a very good sign that it shouldn't be long now.

OH - last week we had a near disaster. I had an appointment we were getting ready to leave to attend when there was a huge hissing sound from the loo. Turns out a pipe in the wall had corroded and water was spewing everywhere. It only took a couple minutes for Rod to run out and turn the water off, but in that time there was at least 2 inches on the floor. Thank god it travelled into the bathroom and didn't touch the carpet for the back bedroom. We had to have a plumber come in to fix it. The pipe that corroded was a galvanised pipe, which is odd because the rest of the piping was all copper. The plumber wasn't as dear as I anticipated ... phew. We had lots of realisations though. Rod just happened to be home that day, and if he hadn't I'd probably sill be running in circles trying to figure out how to turn the water off. We were also running a bit late -- to our advantage -- if we had left earlier, we would have come home to a completely flooded house. So, disaster averted. PHEW!

I think that's about it as far as catching up goes. I'll be looking into DA to see what's new there tomorrow.

Cheers!

Catch Up 14 June - 20 June 2008

2008-06-21T01:36:00.000+09:30

My son reminded me that I hadn't posted a blog entry in over a week, so I thought I'd better do a bit of a catch up.

I still felt quite unwell all last weekend (I wrote on the 13th about not feeling great) and started taking antibiotics on Sunday. I am feeling much better, but it took a few days to be able to build back up to the same activity level that I'd been at before the 'crud'. From what I can gather, I had a cold or some other virus that then turned into bronchitis.

I am still deep into learning and experimenting with what I can do with Drupal (a website content management system). I've spent a fair amount of time on learning how to code so that my glucose readings from my current website can be added into Drupal in a couple of different ways. I'm still working on it. The purpose, aside from being able to convert my personal website to Drupal, is to also learn everything I will need to know in order to do similar with other websites I work on. Exploring and learning new stuff has really been a joy at times. It's nice to give my brain a bit of a workout and to be thinking of other things besides my health, especially last weekend when the crud was in full force.

Monday I had an appt with the breast cancer clinic. My GP had referred me there a couple of weeks ago because I have some pain under my arm on the left side (the cancer was on my right), and he thought it should be checked out. I had a mammogram, and everything came out OK. I don't need to see them for another year. I don't even have to keep my appt with them in September for my 7yr check up. While being VERY pleased about this, and I saw the mammogram, it really is quite clear, I still have the pain under my arm. So I'll be going back to the GP about this sometime next week.

My new 'talking' pedometer proved to be a real problem when it just would start talking at me for every little brush of the 'talk' button. I had Rod 'mute it' for me, and well, he did such a great job, it no longer works. So with no pedometer and not feeling well at all, I didn't do much walking the beginning of the week, but by Weds or Thurs I was finally able to take a good walk and have continued since. Rod's going to have another look at the pedometer for me to see if he can fix it. If he can't, I'll order one online.

Last night (Thurs 19 June), there was a TAFE ceremony for IT students who have completed studies in various certifications. Rod received his certificate 4 in Network Security. He is just finishing the advanced diploma in the same subject with only 2 more weeks to go. The ceremony for that will be in Adelaide, apparently near the end of the year. He's worked very hard for this. More pics can be seen in my Flickr photo set.

I bought a new external hard drive that arrived this week. The only thing making it 'external' was the case, power plug and USB cable. What's inside is a Sata drive, which happens to be not only what my computer can handle internally, I also had a slot and cables for it, plus it'd be faster if we put it into the computer itself. So I asked Rod to do this for me today while I was at my Breastroke meeting. I also had a bit of cable changes I wanted to make and had planned to do this on my own, but since the computer had to be pulled out in order to get the drive in, I jotted down my list of changes (mostly extension cables added for the cameras), and Rod did all the physical stuff this afternoon.

The new hard drive is 500gig (wow - biggest I've ever had), and while it's nice and works and all that I still can't quite make use of it yet as I've decided that since I plan to upgrade from Ubuntu Feisty Fawn to Hardy Heron, I may as well use the new blank drive for installing Ubuntu on as that way I'll have far less work copying stuff and being a faster drive than what I am using, that'll be great for me as well. Then I can use my current drive for storing videos, photos, music and software downloads -- without having to copy a bazillion files to another drive. The files can stay right where they are. So, installing the new operating system will be done next week. I'm looking forward to it, just to see what's new.

Tonight, since the cables have been extended, I was able to move my personal web cam back to where it was before I got my new desk a few months ago. It used to be attached to my monitor, but having the new desk meant it no longer reached my monitor. So that's back to normal, and I've also found for this particular camera double sided tape really makes all the difference in the world. I can pretty much but it anywhere and the tape does a great job of keeping it in place.

And last, ever since he was born, the background photo on my mobile phone has had a photo of my grandson. It's a great place for it because I look at my phone a lot during the day, and I find myself talking to his picture as if he's in the room with me. I really love him to bits, even though we haven't met in person. Oh, and it's winter, so hopefully soon Terry and Jennifer will send me back my lovely warm wrap that Ricky has been cuddled in, so I snuggle up in it knowing he's had it wrapped around him too.

Must end this.... am so tired tonight and geez, it's nearly 1:30am. Zzzzzzzzzz

Including PHP includes on a Drupal multisite set up

2008-06-14T00:16:00.001+09:30

I'm adding this snipped just in case it helps someone else, or maybe someone else might have a better solution and share it. Either way, it's good to share.

Drupal is set up on our servers as a 'Multisite' set up... so that several domains/web sites all use the core software but have individual things like themes (how things look) and modules (various ways of doing things) that are for each individual site. I've set up a testbed type site, and I'm now testing for doing things like PHP programming so I can include some of the stuff I use on my personal site. That way once I work out the kinks, I can convert my website to use Drupal too.

The hard bit has been being able to use 'include' files that can be used many times over by my software. The big issue is where to put these files so they are safe, and yet so the web server and the Drupal software can find it, while keeping it separate from the other Drupal websites and the core software. I tried lots of things to get this to work.

There's a command for Apache (the webserver) to tell it where to look for PHP include files. This would only work if I put it in the main file that affects all websites, so that wasn't a good solution. I tried using an .htaccess file in the main folder but that didn't work - the command is ignored for security reasons, as it should be).

In the end, it turned out to be a variable defined at the top of my web page that looks like:

$inc_dir = "/PATH/TO/CUSTOM/INCLUDES/HERE";

and then where I want to include the file in my code, I just have:

include("$inc_dir/FILENAME.inc");

That's it. Very simple. Now I can go on to sorting more complex issues out. If you know of a better way to do this, please leave a comment. I'd be happy to hear from you.

Fri 13 June (Happy B'day Mike!)

2008-06-14T00:07:00.001+09:30

09:38:00   6.3  / 114  Fasting   
13:03:00   5.7  / 103  Pre-Lunch 
15:12:00   6.8  / 122  Post-Lunch
19:16:00   4.9  /  89  Pre-Tea   
23:00:00   10.1  / 181  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1050 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 505 mins of 600 req

W: 91.5 (not feeling well hasn't helped with this at all. ugh)

Total Steps: 2150 so far (forgot my pedometer when we went grocery shopping)

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll and cottage cheese
Tea: fish & chips

Notes: It's my former hubby's b'day. Happy B'day Mike! I still feel rough. RDNS nurse said I looked pale and asked if I'd seen the GP yet. No. Have appt at BC Clinic on Monday. My new meter arrived today along with a kit to return the defective one. And comparing just the regular display on both models shows my old one was hard to read even without the backlight - there's a real difference between them, so obviously there's more wrong with it than just the backlight. I'm amazed and pleased they replaced it so quickly.

Missed Breastroke today. I ended up napping during that time, which was probably best for me at this point. Uploaded a real mix of stuff to Flickr this evening, which started off because I rec'd a new butterfly postcard in the mail from Angelina in Finland. What a nice surprise to my day. This evening I solved a little PHP coding puzzle that I had with using include files on a multisite installation. Now I can get into converting my own site and the VCSWEB site to use Drupal since sorting out how to do this was pretty much the key requirement for me to be able to include my own PHP coded stuff on our various sites. I'm really pleased about it - and it was so simple.

I'm taking 2 Panadols and 1 Panadiene Forte every 4hrs. This means I'm taking an extra 500mg paracetamol than I should, but 1 of each isn't working, and if I have two of the Panadiene Forte's I wouldn't be able to function.

Thur 12 June

2008-06-14T00:05:00.001+09:30

07:58:00   7.1  / 128  Fasting   
11:34:00   8.3  / 150  Post-Bfast
12:53:00   6.6  / 119  Pre-Lunch 
16:20:00   6.6  / 119  Post-Lunch
17:16:00   5.3  /  95  Pre-Tea   
22:42:00   6.1  / 110  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1050 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 505 mins of 600 req

W: 91

Total Steps: 4071

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll and cottage cheese
Tea: KFC - 5 wings, half chips & gravy.

Fluids: 3 litres

Notes: Had an appt today, but she rang up and rescheduled. Very rainy nasty day. My glucose meter's backlight stopped working, and I've only had the thing since April, and had to put in a new battery then because there was no backlight. So I rang and asked about this and they are sending me a new one that should arrive tomorrow or Monday. We skipped grocery shopping last night as I wasn't up to it and it was pouring down with rain.

Wed 11 June

2008-06-12T00:11:00.001+09:30

08:12:00   7.8  / 141  Fasting   
13:11:00   5.1  /  92  Pre-Lunch 
15:44:00   5.3  /  96  Post-Lunch
17:22:00   5.3  /  95  Pre-Tea   
22:40:00   6.1  / 110  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1050 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 505 mins of 600 req

Total Steps: 8411

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll & cottage cheese
Tea: lamb chops, veggies, potatoes

Fluids: 3.1 litres

Notes: Did a few loads laundry today, and took it very easy hanging stuff. My method is to hang everything on hangers and then put the hangers on the clothes line. It keeps things very tidy and it's easier for me than trying to clip things to the line with my arms over my head. My left side is still quite painful, but wasn't bad earlier today until I went for my walk. Apparently walking with my purse on my shoulder is a no no at the moment. No, the shoulder doesn't hurt, just the ribs/muscles under the arm, and around to the front. I had planned to go to Cunninghams as I haven't been there in awhile (a cheap shop) and the Salvation Army 2nd hand store, but the pain changed my plans a bit. I knew I'd be fine getting there as it's downhill. Getting back home would be the hard part, so I opted to get a scratchy instead.

Not sure if I've mentioned but I'm cutting back on the scratchies. I'm still taking my daily walk, but try to limit buying scratchies to Saturdays and maybe one or two other days. After over 6 months, it's pretty obvious to me that as much as I might enjoy doing these, there's really nothing to be gained by it aside from a few minutes of enjoyment. I can get just as much pleasure out of doing a sudoku game while having a cup of tea.

My fasting BGL was a bit high this morning because I woke up early (pain) and needed something to eat as I had an upset stomach from the pain medication. I had a couple crackers with vegemite, which always settles my stomach.

Tue 10 June

2008-06-11T00:21:00.001+09:30

08:05:00   6.7  / 121  Fasting   
13:06:00   5.4  /  97  Pre-Lunch 
16:30:00   6.7  / 120  Post-Lunch
18:35:00   5.0  /  90  Pre-Tea   
21:48:00   7.9  / 142  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1050 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 505 mins of 600 req
15 min driving this morning

Total Steps: 11,343

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage on a bun, cottage cheese
Tea: home made chilli (very very hot - "No Mercy") and 3 low carb tortillas

Fluids: 2.625 litres so far

Notes: This morning was real mixed bag. I was up around 3am because my right side was very sore. I had a cough, and pulled a muscle or cracked a rib or something on the LEFT side. Arg. I went back to bed and drifted in and out of sleep until 8am when it was time to get up. If it hadn't been a day that I take Rod to school (ie driving), I'd of taken a Panadiene Forte (like Tylenol with codiene), but alas, I needed my wits about me. Took Rod to school, had my dressing changed by the RDNS nurses, who both told me I should see my GP as it was obvious I was in a lot of pain. Walked to Colonnades as I usually do for my walk, and while browsing, realised I had to go to the loo. The first one I went to was 'closed for cleaning'. Finally found another one and as I was unzipping my jeans, the zipper got stuck... in my skin. So there I am, leaning against the wall of the stall, both left and right rib cages hurting, trying to get the zipper down without having to resort to outside help or tearing my skin, and really wondering where this was going to lead. As I'm struggling, I bumped my pedometer, which promptly fell into the toilet. My little red Kellogg's pedometer has survived a heck of a lot over the last few years, but it has always had a bad tendency of either falling off at the most inopportune moment or getting occidentally reset. Well, this was the end of that pedometer. Sigh. Shortly thereafter my skin finally came unstuck. Phew. It was only a tiny bit of skin that had been caught, but of course I didn't know that before it finally came free.

So my next project was finding a new pedometer. I was really annoyed as I really don't have $20 extra to spend on one and that was the going rate I'd seen for them the other day in one store. So on a whim, I tried Kmart and managed to find one that 'speaks', has a cover (so as to not get occidentally reset), and a better type of clip. It also speaks the time, has alarms, a stop watch, and calibrates stride length for giving distance information. All for the hefty price of (drum roll ... ) $4.00. I was tempted to buy 2 so as to have a spare.

The next thing I wanted to see if I could find (although I had my doubts I'd have much luck) were Shirataki noodles. These are Asian noodles that have very low (nearly zero) carbs. I didn't find them, but I was rewarded. One of the 'continental' shops carries items from all over the world, and ... oh, on a day I really could use just a little bit of 'comfort food'... Reeces peanut butter cups. I bought 2 packages. And amazingly did not sit down and eat a package immediately. I did have some later, but made sure it was with my lunch and because of that (and making sure I had lots of protien to balance it with), and did lots of physical stuff afterwards, my afternoon BGLs were still in the normal range.

The rest of the day was pretty normal. The pain in both sides eased considerable this evening, which happened to coincide with when a very windy rainy period came along. Hmm. I'm not sure if it's just I took enough pain medication or if it was the weather, but either way, both sides are much better than they had been, and I'm very grateful.

Mon 9 June

2008-06-10T23:50:00.001+09:30

02:16:00   5.4  /  97  Post-Tea  
09:47:00   6.9  / 124  Fasting   
13:22:00   4.3  /  78  Pre-Lunch 
17:25:00   7.8  / 140  Post-Lunch
19:24:00   6.1  / 109  Pre-Tea   
22:31:00   11.5  / 207  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1035 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 505 mins of 600 req

W: 90

Total Steps: 9823

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: scrambled eggs and 2 crumpet toasts. In a lot of pain from cracked rib or muscle pulled.
Tea: 2 sausages w/ saurkraut on hot dog buns. Should have had only 1 bun.

Notes: Holiday (Queen's B'day). Think I broke a rib or pulled a muscle right where the hole is in my side. Ouch. Walked to chemist to pick up antihistamines. Started batch of yoghurt. Lawn mowed.

Sun 8 June

2008-06-09T17:37:00.003+09:30

07:34:00   7.6  / 136  Fasting   
14:07:00   6.2  / 111  Pre-Lunch 
22:09:00   5.1  /  91  Pre-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1035 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 505 mins of 600 req

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: 2 eggs, bacon, mushrooms and 2 crumpet toast
Tea: 2 slices pizza (thinner crust)

Notes: Ran out of antihistimines.

Sat 7 June

2008-06-09T17:37:00.001+09:30

08:04:00   7.2  / 129  Fasting   
16:52:00   5.1  /  91  Post-Lunch
23:05:00   9.6  / 173  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 1035 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 505 mins of 600 req
30 mins day time driving.

Scratchy: $4 on $3 7246 steps

Total Steps: 7246 so far

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich w/ low GI bread
Lunch: seafood platter (Lunch group)
Tea: 2 steak sandwiches with cheese. Minute steak, low GI bread. Next time only 1 sandwich.

Notes: Lunch with Erik, his Mum and Ann. Driving was terrible today. Had a very nice walk this afternoon on the walking trail.

Fri 6 June

2008-06-07T17:58:00.001+09:30

07:39:00   7.7  / 139  Fasting   
13:25:00   5.1  /  92  Pre-Lunch 
19:43:00   10.7  / 192  Pre-Tea   
23:17:00   8.6  / 155  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 980 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 505 mins of 600 req
65 mins day time driving.

Total Steps: 7255

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich w/ low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll and cottage cheese
Afternoon Tea w/ Girls: Lots I shouldn't have had.
Tea: fish & chips

Notes: RDNS dressing change, Lymphedema treatment (laser and MLD). Rod instructed on how to do the MLD. Breastroke meeting. Julie and Audrey came and it was wonderful to see everyone.

Mon 2 June - Thur 5 June

2008-06-06T00:11:00.001+09:30

Mon 2 June

Scratchy: no win. 2659 steps

Total Steps: 3144 + 172 so far (counter reset)

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich
Lunch: sausage roll and cottage cheese, leftover chicken wing

Tue 3 June

Scratchy: no win. 4878 steps

Total Steps: 4400 + 4211 so far

Breakfast: egg & bacon mcmuffin
Lunch: sausage roll and cottage cheese
Tea: chicken schnitzel

Wed 4 June

Scratchy: last one except for saturdays. No win. 4924 steps

Thur 5 June

05:52:00   7.8  / 140  Fasting   
09:43:00   7.1  / 127  Pre-Bfast 
13:02:00   6.3  / 114  Pre-Lunch 
16:38:00   6.6  / 118  Post-Lunch
21:20:00   6.1  / 109  Pre-Tea   
23:44:00   6.9  / 124  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Driving Totals: Daytime: 915 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 505 mins of 600 req
60 mins night time driving.

First Banana Feeding

2008-06-03T17:46:00.001+09:30

I just watched a video Terry and Jen sent me of little Ricky having his first solid food on a spoon. He's so cute, and he certainly figured it out pretty quickly too.

In comment to Terry -- have had no problems wearing the geek earrings - Fira asked me a while back about what metals I can wear and I thought she was asking for herself, but turns out she was being sneaky. :-)

I don't know the metal for sure for these earrings, but I can either wear real silver, or pewter without any problems.

I was just looking at baby toys today. I miss my grandson! Waah! (that's me waahing, not the baby).

Wed 28 May -- Sat 31 May

2008-06-01T12:45:00.001+09:30

I have been apparently running a fever and the psuedomonas infection has made a re-appearance in my wound as well. Of course I didn't really know this until my RDNS appt on Friday, and I finally had to admit that yes, I have been feeling pretty off for a few days now.

While I let things like updating my BGL records and stuff slide, I have been very productive on the web side of things. Yesterday I completed the Breastroke site, which has been 'in the wings' for almost a year now. I was able to complete it as I've been learning and exploring using Drupal (a website content management system) and things just fell together really quite well. I got a bit nuts with working on it and leaving other stuff (like updating my own personal stuff) a bit behind. I've always found the computer to keep me busy and distracted when I've been a bit on the unwell side, and so I think this also played into things the last week. It's great to have something interesting and challenging, and I've learned so much in the last week. This is the first I've really felt that lovely 'spark' I used to have a long time ago. It's nice.

On the other hand, maybe that's just the fever talking. At any rate, I plan to continue to take it easy and I have a GP appointment for tomorrow (Monday).

Tue 27 May

2008-06-01T12:36:00.001+09:30

Driving Totals: Driving Totals: Daytime: 915 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 445 mins of 600 req
1 hour night time driving

Notes: See: The Misadventures of Rod and Gaelyne

What a cool concept

2008-05-31T21:03:00.002+09:30

Look for this to be in use on websites I develop in the future, for sure:

What is ReCAPTCHA?

I'll write more personal stuff as soon as I'm caught up. Meanwhile, I just had to make note of this. It's just such a neat idea.

The Misadventures of Rod and Gaelyne

2008-05-28T10:44:00.002+09:30

Yesterday Rod had a full day at school, and I had my usual Tuesday RDNS appointment. I drove him to TAFE, and walked over to the hospital to see the nurse and get my dressing changed. After, I had a walk around Colonnades and then went home. This is more or less the way Tuesdays go these days. I spent the afternoon looking for Drupal themes that would fit for one of the sites I'm working on, and then installed Drupal locally (the one I've been setting up is on another server) so I could check it out from the very start. All went well. No problems. Rather incredibly easy install. Was just having a look around the new installation when Rod came home from school.

"Hey you feel like going out for a drive", he asks. "Richard over at "XY Blah" (yes I made that up) has a problem with his computer and we need to go see if we can fix it." Mmm, I remember going to XY Blah's last year while Rod set up their computers and network. I spent the afternoon wandering around town, wishing I'd had a camera with me, and had beers at the little town's three pubs while doing sudoku puzzles. I made comment to Rod that I couldn't think of how to get there, but what I didn't say was I was thinking that 'I know we have to go through Meadows, but can't remember anything after that'.

So we hop in the car, and as I'm driving up to the traffic light on our road, Rod tells me that Google maps says I can either get on South Rd and stay on it or I can get on the expressway and then get on the South Rd and stay on it. I opt for the expressway as it will save us going through several traffic lights. It's just after 6pm, so either way was heavy traffic. I thought to myself that you don't get to Meadows from the South Rd, but didn't speak up. Rod was confident, he'd looked it up on Google maps, so fair enough.

Once back on the South Rd, after we passed through several small towns, traffic eased up and driving would have been a bit easier if it weren't for the the winding and hilly roads. Going through Myponga, I pulled the car off the road so I could have a small break as I was getting rather white-knuckled which with arthritis isn't a nice thing. We get to Yankalilla, and it looks nothing like what we both knew it 'should' look like. We drove on to Normanville, and I pulled off into the parking lot for the hotel, which seemed to be the only place in town open. Rod noted the time on my time sheet for driving (as a 'Learner' driver, I have to use a log book and accumulate driving time), and we'd been on the road for an hour. I was tired. We have some old map books in the car so we each had one, and I found things that looked familiar, such as Richard lives on Venerable Rd which happens to be in Maccelsfield - a long, long way from where we were, in the opposite direction. (Rod had been certain he lived in Yankalilla).

So the next obvious question was, OK, so if he isn't in Yankalilla, where does Richard live? Rod tried to ring him on the mobile but there wasn't an answer. We went into the hotel and asked for a phone book - first Rod looked in the yellow pages (a separate book), and then the local (not Adelaide) white pages and nothing. So we went outside to regroup and I rang Vicki on her mobile but got her voicemail, so next I tried another friend, knowing that they are computer people so they'd be able to look up what we needed to know. Just my luck, they aren't home, but Kirstie says she'll look it up in the phone book for me and txt me back the answer. While waiting, I thought I'd fix Vicki's home phone in my phone since it's had the wrong info in it (an extra digit) for ages now, and if she's home, she knows how to search for stuff online. Joy, it worked and she was home. I asked her to look up the same info, and I also further explained that about the fact we were in Normanville, and I was pretty sure we need to be in Macclesfield. I got off the phone with her (same deal, she'd txt me back as soon as she had the info), and Kirstie rang. The address she gave me was correct - but it was XY Blah's address from a year ago before they moved. Rod went back inside to see if he could look something else up in the phone book, and while he was away, the txt from Vicki came in, which started with an LOL (shorthand for 'Laughing Out Loud'), and the address was ... Macclesfield. I was right.

I got in the passenger side and told Rod he was driving for a bit and I'd probably have another stint maybe on the way home. "OK, but you're the navigator." Fine. I grabbed the good map book (one of them has missing pages - and the missing ones happened to be what we needed), and using the 'flash' from my phone camera (the light stays on rather than flashing), attempted find where we were, and where we needed to go, and how to get there, all while Rod's driving, going back the way we came. As you may recall, 'back the way we came' is very winding, twisting, and hilly. In the last few years, I've learned that I can't try to read something when on roads that have lots of curves. Especially on an empty stomach, which by this point it was long after we should have had our tea. I'd checked my readings while waiting for Vicki or Kirstie to get back to me, and it was at 4.9 -- which isn't too low, but much lower and there'd be a problem. Well, with the motion sickness I suddenly had, my sugar levels dropped, and I was suddenly hot, nauseous and if I wasn't incredibly pale, the only other colour I could be was green. I rolled down the window (it was quite chilly out) and practically did the dog thing with nearly sticking my head out the window. Rod asked a few times if I was OK and if I wanted him to stop the car. I told him I'd BE ok as I knew that was true, and no, to keep going. Stopping would only put off what I needed - a meal.

We finally got to Mt Compass, which wasn't really even half way to where we needed to be, but it was the first town with anything open - the pub. I sat outside at their picnic tables and did my best to regroup myself. I just felt so... green. Ugh. The pub had counter meals, but their kitchen was closed (it was now after 8pm). Fortunately here in Australia, most pubs will have toasted sandwiches available anytime, usually at quite reasonable prices. It's not much, but so better than having an empty stomach. We each had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich and diet coke. By time I finished half of mine, my colour was coming back and so was I. Phew.

Back on the road again, I still felt a bit off, but it was better than I had been feeling. We went in search of Strathalbyn Rd, found it, and after awhile reached it and stopped at the (thankfully open) petrol station where we had to fill up the tank and I bought a sausage roll. The sausage roll helped tremendously and made all the difference in the world for me as far as the motion sickness went (it was totally gone), and we were off again. We saw a sign that pointed down a road saying 'Macclesfield 9', so we turned on it. Idiots. The road turned into a dirt road, and we really got quite lost in the middle of NO WHERE, at night. Luckily the road we were on was actually on the map, and weirder yet, I'd been on a before a few years ago when a friend and I went to a conference in Mt Barker. We followed the map to get to a main road and ... we were back on the same road we'd been on before we turned off, only further down it.

We did end up eventually getting to Richard's place, at about 10:30pm. Rod had told him we'd be there by about 7:30pm. Talk about late. So we fixed his computer booting problem, ran a spybot check (or two, since Rod hit the wrong button and closed the program after it'd finished the first time around), and at 5 minutes to midnight were back on the road again... well, the RIGHT road this time, the one that goes through Meadows and isn't quite so twisty. Only problem was that by this time it was foggy. Not just a little, but VERY foggy. No, I wasn't driving, I let Rod take this stint too. I know my limitations. We were home just a bit after 1am.

Lesson learned: Make sure to have snacks on hand. Speak up when something doesn't sound right. And sadly (for Rod), contrary to what he's trained me to believe, he really isn't right all of the time. And when that happens, I must write about it, because it sure isn't an every day occurrence! Nah Nah, I was right. :-) I can't gloat too much though. I really should have spoke up much earlier - like before we left home would have been good, when we could have looked things up before going to the end of the Fleurieu Peninsula only to find out we should have been in the foothills of Mt Barker (you really can't get much more opposite than that!)

I'm including a link to a Google map I customised to show our misadventure. Here's the link: Going in a BIG circle.

[Edit] ... On looking at the map, it proves a few things.

GPS Navigation would be handy thing to have, indeed.
The going around in circles thing shows what can happen when you're looking at a map page in a book and don't have the 'whole picture'. If I'd of seen (or known) that we could have gone straight back up to Willunga, then to Meadows, and then to Macclesfield, it would have made our trip a LOT shorter.
Even this map doesn't show the getting lost on a dirt road part of our adventure.

[/Edit]

Sun 25 May

2008-05-26T11:57:00.001+09:30

08:36:00   7.7  / 139  Fasting   
12:40:00   6.8  / 123  Pre-Lunch 
17:48:00   6.2  / 111  Pre-Tea   
22:53:00   6.8  / 122  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 915 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 385 mins of 600 req
130 minutes driving time today.

W: 90

Scratchy: no win. 3548 steps

Total Steps: 5063

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: scrambled eggs and 2 crumpet toast
Tea: 2 slices pizza (thinner crust)

Fluids: 2.6 litres

Notes: Went out for a drive today and visited some of our favourite places while playing with the new camera. I'll put a few up on Flickr and add the link here. Well here's the link -- I uploaded bunches in different sets so you may as well start with my photostream to see the latest uploads.

I accumulated over 2 hours driving time today and boy was I bushed by the time we got home.

A sweet geeky surprise

2008-05-26T11:31:00.001+09:30

A sweet geeky surprise,
originally uploaded by FlitterG.

OMG, this is such a geeky Mothers Day surprise!

Thanks, Kerstin! I LOVE them!!

Sat 24 May

2008-05-25T19:40:00.001+09:30

08:39:00   7.3  / 131  Fasting   
11:30:00   6.6  / 118  Post-Bfast
15:48:00   7.1  / 127  Post-Lunch
19:48:00   5.1  /  92  Pre-Tea   
23:00:00   9.9  / 178  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 785 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 385 mins of 600 req

W: 89.5

Scratchy: no win. 4270 steps

Total Steps: 6955

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread (med slice)
Lunch: 2 eggs, bacon, 2 crumpet toast
Tea: steak and noodles

Fluids: 3.2 litres

Notes: Took my walk after lunch. Spent day working on a web site that uses Drupal as it's CMS (Content Management System). I managed to change code in a module (only for cosmetic reasons), learned how to add PHP snippets to pages, and got something working in a way I'm really happy with. Overall, I'm really quite pleased with the Drupal CMS. I'll very likely use it in other projects in the future.

Fri 23 May

2008-05-24T12:07:00.001+09:30

07:58:00   8.2  / 147  Fasting   
11:06:00   7.7  / 138  Post-Bfast
13:27:00   5.2  /  94  Pre-Lunch 
19:53:00   11.4  / 205  Pre-Tea   
23:59:00   6.1  / 110  Bedtime

Driving Totals: Daytime: 785 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 385 mins of 600 req
40 mins daytime

W: 90

Scratchy: no win. 3760 steps

Total Steps: 7003

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread (med slice)
Lunch: chicken and avocado
Extra: Munchies with Breastroke girls
Tea: fish & chips

Fluids: 2550 litres

Notes: RDNS today. Hardly any exudate. Skin a bit sore looking still from a week ago when she probably didn't use barrier wipe on my skin before using the opsite tape. Drove to appt, then went to Capt'n Christies for Pepsi Max but they're under new management or ownership and no longer carry it. Not impressed with the fact they have less of the 'fun' stuff like various schnapps and stuff either. Good thing about going there though - had to do a 3-point turn because one of the streets Rod directed me down was different than how he remembered it, and I parallel parked for the first time in about 14 or 15yrs and it turned out really well. Went to Breastroke and met up with many I hadn't seen for awhile. Jenny and I came home together and she stayed for Fish and Chips with us. We were supposed to go to a party, but we both ended up falling asleep until around midnight so no party going for us.

Thur 22 May

2008-05-23T00:16:00.001+09:30

08:03:00   7.1  / 127  Fasting   
13:24:00   4.6  /  83  Pre-Lunch 
15:18:00   7.2  / 130  Post-Lunch
20:48:00   4.8  /  87  Pre-Tea   
23:31:00   7.8  / 140  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 745 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 385 mins of 600 req
45 min night driving

W: 90

Scratchy: no win. 6537 steps

Total Steps: 11693

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: Tuna on low GI toast
Tea: KFC

Fluids: 3.3 litres

Notes: Did 2 loads of wash this morning. Took my walk after lunch. Tonight is late night shopping.

Wed 21 May

2008-05-22T15:14:00.001+09:30

07:30:00   7.3  / 131  Fasting   
10:42:00   6.1  / 110  Post-Bfast
16:59:00   7.0  / 126  Post-Lunch
18:40:00   4.9  /  88  Pre-Tea   
21:34:00   7.7  / 138  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 745 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 340 mins of 600 req

W: 90.5

Scratchy: No win. 5901 steps

Total Steps: 7762

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: Tuna on low GI toast
Tea: Yiro

Fluids: 3.325 litres

Notes: Have added fluids to the list as I seemed to have both slipped from drinking enough water (or anything that doesn't have milk in it) and keeping track of it as I had been on the fridge. By putting it here I hope just to push myself that bit further to get enough in a day. Where this makes a difference is in flushing out toxins, keeping arthritis swelling to a minimum and helping with the sinus/bronchits issues. Spent the day working on websites, aside from a walk in the afternoon.

Tue 20 May

2008-05-20T23:54:00.001+09:30

08:02:00   6.7  / 121  Fasting   
10:16:00   7.7  / 139  Post-Bfast
13:05:00   5.0  /  90  Pre-Lunch 
16:55:00   5.8  / 104  Post-Lunch
19:11:00   5.2  /  94  Pre-Tea   
22:35:00   6.3  / 114  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 745 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 340 mins of 600 req
15 mins this morning.

W: 91

Scratchy: no winner. 8300 steps

Total Steps: 11169

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll w/ cottage cheese
Tea: portuguese chicken w/ low GI bread

Notes: Took Rod to school this morning and went to RDNS for my dressing change, which is looking good, aside from the skin around it that didn't have barrier wipe used on it last Friday. It's a bit rashy from the tape. Went shopping for a winter coat/jacket. It's one of those things I haven't really needed until now. Lots to choose from, but none in the price/size range I wanted. I ended up buying a 'wind cheater' (that's Aussie for 'Wind Breaker' which here would mean someone who farts). I reckon I'll be wearing warm clothes underneath so the wind cheater will keep the wind and the rain out, and really, what more do I need? Got home, had lunch, Rod came home from school. Made a great tea tonight. Portuguese chicken. YUM. Spent evening working on a site I've been contracted to do.

Mon 19 May

2008-05-19T23:20:00.001+09:30

08:13:00   8.8  / 158  Fasting   
11:07:00   6.5  / 117  Post-Bfast
15:49:00   7.1  / 128  Post-Lunch
19:23:00   5.2  /  93  Pre-Tea   
22:14:00   8.6  / 154  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 730 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 340 mins of 600 req

W: 91

Scratchy: none

Total Steps: 4889

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll w/ cottage cheese
Tea: seafood stirfry w/ oyster sauce and noodles

Notes:
My new camera arrived today!! No walk due to rain. Did use the exercise bike though. Have had very few steps today... I have been busy working on a site and really must admit to not being 100% and that really shows in my fasting reading. Been 'coming down with a cold' for several days now, and maybe it's just finally hit. I've been dozing at the keyboard again tonight, but think it's because I was up quite early (around 7am or so, possibly before). I'm going to post this and then probably go to bed before I really fall asleep at the keyboard.

Here's the best piccy I took today with the new camera...

Sun 18 May

2008-05-19T00:17:00.001+09:30

09:11:00   6.2  / 112  Fasting   
12:12:00   7.1  / 127  Post-Bfast
16:58:00   5.3  /  95  Post-Lunch
20:04:00   5.6  / 101  Pre-Tea   
22:59:00   8.7  / 156  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 730 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 340 mins of 600 req

W: 89.5

Scratchy: $4 on 3 3880 steps (down the strand and back up again)

Total Steps: 4889

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: scrambled eggs, 2 crumpet toast
Tea: 2 slices pizza (thinner crust), trail mix

Notes: Very short walk today as I'd planned to do a circuit from The Strand to Pocock St up to Hillier Rd and home, but just before I was about to leave there was a helicopter circling that particular area as it searching for someone. Turns out they were looking for a car that was part of a crime scene. So I only did part of the walk. That, and I wore my bike jacket which I haven't worn for ages. It's leather an warm, but I have NO IDEA how I wore it all the time years ago before we had the car. The thing is HEAVY. Halfway through my walk, my neck and shoulders were aching and in the end I ended up taking it off and carrying it home. It weighs 1.5k on it's own, and that's without my phone, keys and camera.

I spent most of the day working on adding buttons as products to the honey site I've been working on. Quite a tedious exercise, but it's done and the work has already been paid for tonight, so that's nice. Here's a link - Honey Treasures4U - I've put a lot of hard work into the site, so I hope it does really well.

Tonight I spent some time reading up on Joomla, a Content Management System (CMS). I've been working on a site that uses another CMS, Drupal, so I reckoned it would be a good thing to check this one out too. I like it, but it doesn't have the level of user access control that I need for at least one site I'm working on. I may keep experimenting with it for either my personal site or for another site I may soon be working on.

Tomorrow my new camera might arrive, and I'm looking forward to checking out and putting it through its paces.

Sat 17 May

2008-05-18T23:58:00.001+09:30

06:31:00   7.2  / 130  Fasting   
11:23:00   6.0  / 108  Post-Bfast
19:30:00   5.6  / 100  Pre-Tea   
22:02:00   8.8  / 159  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 730 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 340 mins of 600 req

W: 89.5

Scratchy: no win. 3323 steps

Total Steps: 5434

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: 2 eggs with bacon, 2 crumpet toast
Tea: minute steaks w/ 2 low gi slices bread and salad. Have been munching on homemade trail mix all evening.

Notes: Had to take a quick walk in between rain showers this afternoon. Made trail mix for the May Flickr Monthly Scavenger Hunt - so I could take a picture of it. Now we get to eat it. Yum! This was the last item I needed for the hunt, so I made a mosaic of my entries (shown below) and now I can just vote on other folks entries for the rest of the month, which is really quite fascinating. I must apologise again to Steve though, for including him and his drum kit as my entry for 'headache'. HIS drumming is excellent and I can listen to it all day, but the photo is included because there's someone who lives behind me who's drumming does give me a headache. And popping over to take a photo isn't possible.

Trail Mix

May 2008 Monthly Scavenger Hunt

Fri 16 May

2008-05-18T23:40:00.001+09:30

Heather's B'day. 9:30 Lymphedema Clinic 11:45 RDNS Clinic

07:44:00   7.5  / 135  Fasting   
12:07:00   6.4  / 115  Post-Bfast
14:01:00   4.3  /  77  Pre-Lunch 
18:47:00   7.2  / 129  Pre-Tea   
21:12:00   8.9  / 160  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 730 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 340 mins of 600 req
20 minutes driving in rain on expressway

W: 88 (according to super-calibrated scale at lymphedema clinic)

Scratchy: None.

Total Steps: 4599

Breakfast: sausage roll
Lunch: sausage roll & cottage cheese
Tea: Fish & chips (and a couple small squares chocolate)

Notes: Had my long awaited appointment with the Lymphedema Clinic. I've been give specific breathing exercises to do 5x a day to help drain the excess lymph fluid, and he recommended I have laser and LE massage therapy specifically mapped to drain the area of my back. He mentioned that laser therapy will also help kill any bacteria in the wound as well, so that's a good thing. Bad thing is the cost, which isn't covered so has to come out of our pockets. $90 a session which includes both the massage and the laser treatment. I have to rearrange the appt time as well because Rod needs to be there so he can learn the technique for the massage, which will save us money if he can do it.

We then went to the RDNS clinic for my dressing change. Nothing exciting about that. Then off to a community centre to update their computers for them. Came home and had lunch. I'd planned to stay in for the rest of the day. It was very cold, windy and rainy. Jen called though and so I ended up going to the Breastroke meeting with her. There were only 4 of us but it was good to catch up and just enjoy a tea and some biscuits and chat together.

Neat site with Adelaide pics

2008-05-17T00:20:00.001+09:30

I stumbled into this site while looking for pics of articulated buses to show Chris. Well worth a visit if you've wanted to see what the city looks like. In and Around Adelaide

Thur 15 May

2008-05-15T23:53:00.002+09:30

06:55:00   6.4  / 116  Fasting   
11:12:00   6.8  / 122  Post-Bfast
15:51:00   6.8  / 123  Post-Lunch
20:28:00   7.1  / 128  Pre-Tea   
23:03:00   5.8  / 105  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 710 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 340 mins of 600 req
40 mins driving tonight.

W: 89.5

Scratchy: no win. 5318 steps

Total Steps: 5652

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll and cottage cheese
Tea: roast pork, 1/2 potato, lots of carrots

Notes: Every night before I go to bed, I jot down my final number of steps for the day in a notebook I keep by my bedside. Then the next day I either try to remember the number to add to my journal or drag the notebook into the office for reference. Earlier this week, I decided to have little post it notes near the notebook so I could jot the number down and take it into the office with me. So when I got dressed yesterday, I popped the postit onto my chest, figuring I'd see it in the webcam pics and jot it down in my journal. Later in the day, I took the bus to go to the community centre and once seated (after passing lots of people on the bus), I scratched the base of my throat and OMG, there's the postit note on my chest!! You know you're a geek when....

I spent a lovely day at home working on web projects for about 4 very different clients/projects. And had wonderful readings all day too. We went out grocery shopping this evening which gave me nearly an hour of night time driving.

Wed 14 May

2008-05-15T09:27:00.001+09:30

08:10:00   6.7  / 120  Fasting   
18:55:00   6.2  / 111  Pre-Tea   
22:04:00   7.1  / 128  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 710 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 300 mins of 600 req
15 mins this afternoon

W: 89.5

Scratchy: No win. 8184 steps

Total Steps: 8635 so far

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll from Jesters Pies. Can't say I'd recommend these. Rather bland.
Tea: Yiros lamb meat.

Notes: Village Walkers today. Went well. Bought 3/4 length gel inserts for my shoes before walk. Not sure about them as they have a texture to them I could feel on my feet, but probably helped as I didn't have as many problems with cramps. I also did the stretching exercises as well before hand. Then went off on bus to Colonnades as I had a Workskil appt. Basically just a catch up (health, etc) and for once all my news was mostly on the positive side. Picked up some milk and took photos of apples for the Monthly Scavenger Hunt. I did photos this morning of my fogged up mirrors, but I don't know how they turned out yet. Ran into A. at Colonnades - she was shocked that Rod wasn't with me (I don't think we've ever run into each other when we haven't been together), she was so thrilled that I had my 'L's too. Then I met Rod after his classes and drove home. Sorta missed the driveway and got the curb a bit on the turn in. Ouch.

Now home working on various websites and catching up with all my paperwork. My desk seems to be covered in little white reminder notes at the moment.

Tue 13 May

2008-05-13T23:44:00.001+09:30

08:07:00   5.8  / 104  Fasting   
12:29:00   5.2  /  94  Pre-Lunch 
15:57:00   5.8  / 105  Post-Lunch
19:23:00   4.9  /  89  Pre-Tea   
23:05:00   6.8  / 122  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 695 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 300 mins of 600 req
15 mins this morning

W: 90

Scratchy: No win. 5869 steps

Total Steps: 10,035

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich on low GI bread
Lunch: sausage roll & cottage cheese
Tea: seafood stirfry with my own invented stirfry sauce, and low carb noodles

Notes: RDNS dressing change this morning. Went well. Drove Rod to TAFE this morning. Took my walk at Colonnades. On suggestion of one of my fellow Village Walkers, I bought gel heel inserts for my shoes. She said it helps with back pain and helps cushion walking. Apparently (after she made the suggestion) she's a physio. They seem to be a help, so definitely worth the try. She suggested this after I mentioned having an abscess in my back. So hard with new people to know what and how much to tell them about my health stuff. Just enough so they understand that I'm not a power walker. LOL.

Yay!! I bought the camera. I'm so pleased.

I finally got to see the pics and videos of baby Ricky, and the way he reacts to stuff on these, I'm sure he and I are kindred spirits. Gee he's a cutie pie. When the new camera comes and as long as it does video like its supposed to, I will try to have a weekly chat to the camera for y'all (but mostly for Ricky!). ;-) Anyway, I better get back (? Maybe I should start first) to work.

The sauce I used for tea tonight I mentioned in my April 28 notes. And I said there I thought my high reading was due to the 3 min noodles and not the sauce. Tonight, with a reading of 6.8, I proved that theory. Excellent!

Hey, it's 11:45pm and I haven't dozed off once. YAY!

Mon 12 May - A new record for me

2008-05-13T14:33:00.002+09:30

07:47:00   5.8  / 105  Fasting   
10:55:00   7.4  / 134  Post-Bfast
16:25:00   7.4  / 134  Post-Lunch
18:31:00   5.3  /  95  Pre-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 680 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 300 mins of 600 req

W: 89

Scratchy: $7 on $5 (ticket was for Sunday and Monday). 13122 steps

Total Steps: 14531 (a new RECORD for me!!)

Breakfast: 1 small slice leftover pizza (thinner crust)
Lunch: hot dog on the run
Tea: fettucine carbonara (Thanks, Terry, Jennifer & baby Ricky!)

Notes: Took walk around The Strand and back up early this morning, hoping to catch a photo of low level fog. No such luck, but at least I got an early start on exercising today. Went and did walk with the Village Walkers and then went to shops for bread and stuff and walked home. I bought Rod a pink sticky bun from Bakers Delight - all proceeds go to BCNA (Breast Cancer Network Australia). He was shocked that I didn't want part of it, didn't have one on the way home, etc. Nope, I bought it to support BCNA and as a treat for Rod. My pleasure was seeing him enjoy it all to himself. :-)

It isn't even 3pm and I've racked up a record breaking (for me) 13,000 steps for the day already. I'm kinda blown away by that! The rest of my day will be at the computer though. Aside from tea. Am trying to figure out how we can have take away some how. Terry & Jenny suggested I go out for a meal and its stuck with me). Maybe the Emu for a pub meal.

We did go to the Emu for a counter meal. Was lovely. Was (for me) decadent. No, didn't involve any chocolate at all, it's just their portions are very generous and I'm sure I had more than my fair share of carbs for one meal (cough, ok, maybe for 3 days).

.....

I fell asleep at the computer last night before the pictures of Little Ricky that Terry sent me were finished downloading and Rod made me go to bed and said I was a danger to myself and didn't want to see me do myself harm. (Somehow my glasses ended up on the floor which was freaky). He was telling me about someone at school that fell asleep in front of her computer at home and came in with lots of scrapes and bruises... she'd hit the corner of her desk when she fell out of her chair. So maybe Rod's right and I shouldn't try to stay awake because it doesn't work and I could end up doing all kinds of stupid things. It just annoys me I can go from 55mph to ZERO and snoring in under a minute. Frustrating.

Sun 11 May

2008-05-12T10:02:00.001+09:30

06:51:00   6.7  / 121  Fasting   
11:34:00   5.7  / 103  Post-Bfast
20:02:00   5.0  /  90  Pre-Tea   
23:05:00   7.9  / 142  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 680 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 300 mins of 600 req

W: 89.5

Scratchy: No walk today, but over 8000 steps

Total Steps: 8879

Breakfast: low GI toast w/ cheese and vegemite
Lunch: scrambled eggs, 2 crumpet toast
Tea: 3 slices thinner crust pizza. (Big improvement over the last several weeks).

Notes: Spent the day again working on stuff around the house. Mopped both inside and completely swept and mopped the patio. It needed it after the last dust storm we had. Rearranged patio a little bit.

The most annoying thing after putting in a good days effort was my dressing started to leak and the fluid on my skin was like acid. I took a shower and took the dressing off in the shower and oh it was just so nice to clean my skin in that area myself. I can't reach the hole to change the dressing, but at least I could get the fluid off the rest of my skin and give it a good scrub. So Rod changed the dressing and it's feeling much better now. Just kinda ticked me off that it was reminding me I'm not done healing.

Sat 10 May

2008-05-10T23:30:00.001+09:30

08:46:00   6.3  / 114  Fasting   
11:37:00   6.0  / 108  Post-Bfast
19:48:00   4.6  /  83  Pre-Tea   
23:17:00   7.3  / 132  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 680 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 300 mins of 600 req

W: 89.5

Scratchy: no win. 9880 steps (but had 6200 before even leaving home)

Total Steps: 12320

Breakfast: low GI toast w/ cheese and vegemite
Lunch: 2 eggs, bacon, 2 crumpet toasts
Tea: chicken, 2 slices low GI bread

Notes: I really want this camera. The price seems good and it does all the things I want. I could buy it with PayPal funds, but I'm holding back just in case it ends up on sale or the site does a free shipping thing.

Spent all day doing household stuff. Did laundry, vac'ed, dusted, etc etc. So now at nearly 10pm, I'm pretty beat. (Fell asleep several types updating stats tonight).

Fri 9 May

2008-05-10T23:29:00.001+09:30

08:05:00   8.3  / 150  Fasting   
10:49:00   7.5  / 135  Post-Bfast
13:38:00   5.1  /  92  Pre-Lunch 
16:35:00   7.1  / 127  Post-Lunch
18:56:00   5.7  / 103  Pre-Tea   
21:50:00   10.6  / 191  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 680 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 300 mins of 600 req
20 mins this morning.

W: 89.5

Scratchy: no win. 5002 steps

Total Steps: 6462

Breakfast: toasted 1/2 sandwich with cheese and proscuito
Lunch: salad, cottage cheese, 2 low carb tortillas (1w/ cheese, 1 w/PB). Took my walk after lunch.
Tea: Fish and Chips.

Notes: RDNS this morning. Dressing was very saturated so she suggested changing even daily if it needs to be done. Nancy dropped in before we left for appointment. I had my walk in the afternoon and stopped at bank on my way by. Window shopped for cameras while out and Target had a few on clearance. I jotted notes (Product name, manufacturer, etc) so I could compare item pricing on ebay and look up reviews and such.. Mind, I really am just browsing at the moment.

5:48pm ... just nodded off. Must be time to make a change and stretch a bit.

Thur 8 May

2008-05-09T00:06:00.001+09:30

09:38:00   6.8  / 122  Fasting   
12:18:00   8.9  / 160  Post-Bfast
16:27:00   6.2  / 111  Pre-Lunch 
20:59:00   4.4  /  79  Pre-Tea   
23:41:00   7.1  / 127  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 660 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 300 mins of 600 req
50 mins night time.

W: 90

Scratchy: no win 6141

Total Steps: 6808

Breakfast: 1 slice low GI toast w/ cheese
Lunch: 3 small sausage roll bits, cottage cheese
Tea: kfc

Notes: Took lots of pictures of buttons today. Worked on a few different projects but honestly don't feel as though I've got anywhere with anything. Did late night shopping (which means the stores stay open past 6pm) tonight, which gave me another 50 mins of driving time. I'm halfway there on the required night time driving hours. Wow.

Rod has a nasty nasty rash everywhere at the moment. We think it's from the antibiotics he's been taking for one of the areas where he had teeth removed. It's listed as one of the side effects. He sees the dentist in the morning so will ask about it. Otherwise, I'm sending him to the GP. We've ruled out soap and laundery detergent/softner as I don't change products due my own skin allergies.

Wed 7 May

2008-05-08T00:25:00.001+09:30

07:47:00   6.4  / 116  Fasting   
11:10:00   8.1  / 145  Post-Bfast
14:05:00   4.3  /  77  Pre-Lunch 
16:27:00   6.6  / 118  Post-Lunch
19:13:00   4.6  /  83  Pre-Tea   
21:56:00   8.1  / 146  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 660 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 250 mins of 600 req

W: 89.5

Scratchy: $4 on $3 steps 6832

Total Steps: 9736

Breakfast: toast w/ PB & drop honey
Lunch: Bakers Delight roll with butter and cheese, cottage cheese
Tea: 2 thin pork steaks grilled, stirfry veggies, 1/2 ramen noodles (Rod had the other half).

Notes: Wow, slept through the night last night. Spent morning working on this new project and further exploring Drupal, and then left at 11:30 to catch the bus to go up to the Reynella Community Centre as it's the day that the 'Village Walkers' have our walk on the walking trail. I did better today at keeping my own pace and walking on the side of the path (where the stones are) so my ankles get good movements, as per instructions from GP. Thought I'd quit about half way to the first road, but after a brief stop to let my calves settle down, I managed to do the rest of the way. Meanwhile, I'd let the others go ahead as those ladies are far faster than me. I am still having problems with my ankle trying to turn sideways when I walk for any distance, and that in turn pulls on the calve muscles which is really quite painful. But the key is to stop and rest it before the pain gets too much. Then I can recover from it and carry on much further. If I ignore the pain it means I definitely will have to stop before I plan to, and then it takes a LOT longer to recover from. After finishing the walk, I got on the bus home and took it to the shopping center stop, where I did my usual walk routine (in other words, I bought myself a scratchy). I'm on a slight winning streak at the moment. $10 on Monday, $15 yesterday and another $4 today.

After lunch, I worked some more with Drupal, but took a break when my eyes started closing... and went off and did non-computer stuff for awhile. And, here I am back at the computer again. Hopefully I will be able to stay awake for the rest of the day. (Fingers crossed)

Tonight I caught up on some reading and then added a few entries to the Monthly Scavenger Hunt group on Flickr.

Tue 6 May

2008-05-08T00:21:00.001+09:30

08:31:00   6.3  / 113  Fasting   
12:36:00   5.3  /  96  Post-Bfast
14:08:00   5.7  / 103  Pre-Lunch 
19:36:00   4.6  /  82  Pre-Tea   
22:19:00   10.9  / 197  Post-Tea  
23:22:00   8.1  / 145  Bedtime

Driving Totals: Daytime: 660 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 250 mins of 600 req

W: n/a

Scratchy: $15 on $3. Steps 6344

Total Steps: 9365

Breakfast: egg and sausage mcmuffin
Lunch: sausage roll & cottage cheese
Tea: Satay beef stirfry with packaged rice

Notes: Had dressing change at RDNS, which means I went to TAFE with Rod this morning. Walked from TAFE parking lot to hospital and back again, then behind the school to Colonnades. Had a quick breakfast, walked to end of Big W, then to Woolies and picked up some marked down meat for tea. Was back home by about 12:30, and home in the nick of time before it started pouring down. Spend part of afternoon discovering how to use Drupal, which is a 'Content Management System' for setting up websites. This is for my next project that I'm working on. About 2pm, I was overcome by 'couldn't keep my eyes open' and napped for a couple of hours. I am so getting tired of this 'can't do anything I'm enjoying without falling asleep' crap. I'll be right with something and busy learning and doing and all of a sudden my eyes are closed and I'm snoring. I'm just so over it. Spent rest of evening learning for this project as well as spending time having tea with Rod and watching some telly.

Mon 5 May

2008-05-06T15:03:00.001+09:30

07:33:00   6.1  / 109  Fasting   
11:02:00   8.3  / 149  Post-Bfast
14:12:00   4.1  /  73  Pre-Lunch 
16:39:00   6.8  / 123  Post-Lunch
22:14:00   10.6  / 190  Post-Tea  
23:11:00   8.4  / 152  Bedtime

Driving Totals: Daytime: 660 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 250 mins of 600 req

W: 89.5

Scratchy: $10 on $3

Total Steps: 8303

Breakfast: low GI toast w/ PB and honey (a tad more than usual - it was Orange Blossom Honey)
Lunch: sausage roll and cottage cheese
Tea: 1 pc chicken, 1/2c noodles, veggies and low GI bread. Probably more protien would have had better results.

Notes: Went on a different walk today with the 'Village Walkers' at the community centre, on a really nice pine tree lined walking trail.

Sun 4 May

2008-05-05T16:45:00.001+09:30

07:19:00   7.0  / 126  Fasting   
10:52:00   7.1  / 128  Post-Bfast
12:19:00   7.1  / 128  Pre-Lunch 
19:38:00   5.6  / 100  Pre-Tea   
22:33:00   9.1  / 164  Post-Tea  
23:44:00   6.8  / 123  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 660 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 250 mins of 600 req

W: 90

Scratchy: None

Total Steps: 1968

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich
Lunch: 2 eggs, bacon, 2 crumpet toasts
Tea: 2 slices pizza, 1 slice low GI bread (experiment, will try again next week)

Notes: Did well right up until 2pm when suddenly I couldn't stay awake and decided to take a nap. I asked Rod to wake me up at three, and he tried, but I was too out of it. Ended up sleeping until about 5pm. Not in my plans, that's for sure. Had a very fruitful day. Finished the honey website, fixed a long standing problem with my computer sending out mail from script programs, solved the issue of Rod not being able to log into my computer, and probably a few other things too. Think a lot more could have been done if I hadn't fell so hard asleep though.

Sat 3 May

2008-05-05T16:43:00.001+09:30

Lunch Group Lunch today.

09:12:00   8.1  / 145  Fasting   
12:13:00   6.6  / 119  Pre-Lunch 
16:52:00   6.1  / 109  Post-Lunch
20:08:00   5.8  / 104  Pre-Tea   
22:35:00   9.2  / 166  Post-Tea
01:05:00   7.2  / 130  Bedtime

Driving Totals: Daytime: 660 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 250 mins of 600 req
80 mins today

Today's Trip

W: 89.5

Scratchy: No win. 5745 steps

Total Steps: 7425 so far

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich
Lunch: chicken BLT on turkish bread. Lunch at Findon Hotel. Delicious!
Tea: Steak and noodles

Notes: Excellent lunch out today with the Lunch Group, and I got in 80 mins of driving (40 mins each way) in busy city-like traffic.

Fri 2 May

2008-05-02T22:13:00.001+09:30

09:38:00   8.3  / 149  Fasting   
11:54:00   7.3  / 132  Post-Bfast
15:17:00   8.2  / 147  Post-Lunch
18:25:00   5.2  /  94  Pre-Tea   
21:06:00   8.7  / 156  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 580 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 250 mins of 600 req

W: 89.5

Scratchy: No win. 4588

Total Steps: 7815

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich
Lunch: sausage roll (old brand) and cottage cheese.
Tea: Fish & Chips (new brand of fish this week)

Notes: Not a lot to write about today. Spent the day working on the honey site. Had my walk. Used the gym ball in the office all day. Not real happy with today's readings, but I really haven't done much out of the ordinary. As the sausage roll is different from that I'd been using the last week or so, next time I'll have one less (they come as 5 mini rolls that snap apart - today I had 4 mini's, next time will try 3 instead).
My wound area itches today. I have a bit of a 'roll' off to the side of the wound that was touched by the exudate the last week or so and the skin is quite irritated. If you've ever had thrush, that's about the level of itchiness and discomfort. It's really amazing (and a few nurses have made this comment) that my skin has held up so well considering I've had this now for nearly 14 months.

Thur 1 May

2008-05-01T23:56:00.001+09:30

09:47:00   6.4  / 115  Fasting   
12:29:00   6.3  / 114  Post-Bfast
16:19:00   7.9  / 142  Post-Lunch
21:55:00   6.4  / 115  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 580 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 250 mins of 600 req
20 min this morning. 50 min tonight

W: 90

Scratchy: None. Lots of walking today though

Total Steps: 6628

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich
Lunch: 1/2 ramen noodle cake in seafood bisque (Cuppa Soup) w/ cottage cheese
Tea: China Cafe: thin noodles, bbq pork in plum sauce, steak & black bean sauce

Notes:

Well you know, there's a silver lining. My appointment with the Plastics Treatment room went very well today. I showed the doctor the print out from the pharmacy with all of the antibiotics I've been on the last 13 months and we discussed the fact that as soon as I'd finish a treatment, the problems would be right back again, which apparently psueodomonas (the type of infection that I have) is one bug that this is one of its characteristics. So we're taking a different approach by using a silver dressing (Aquacel AG), and continue to use another silver product (Acticoat) after the wound is exudating less. This should give it the best chance to heal and resolve the psuedomonas infection issue at the same time. I found a really excellent website that explains what the Aquacel AG does, how it works, etc. With animation even. Here's the link: Aquacel AG

I really feel I was listened to, respected, and that alternative solutions were put forward that has better options than surgery/no surgery. I did express what the two GPs have said, and found out that my breast surgeon has had a meeting with the plastics group on the subject of me, and whether or not going back in is a viable consideration. Apparently this took place in either January or February. Nice of anyone to have let me or my GP who raised this issue with the breast surgeon, know about it, or it's outcome. Anyway, I'm just glad a dialogue took place.

So, it looks like I'll be off the antibiotic merry go-round for a bit. Won't that be nice?!

The rest of my day was spent being busy working on a couple of different projects. Rod came home from school around 5, and we left to do our weekly shopping around 6 or so, after it was dark so I could do some night driving. We picked up a 2 gig SD card that was on sale, so now I'm transferring my photos and music to it so I can use it in my photo frame. This frees up my 4gig flash drive to use for copying videos to it to watch on the photo frame. So now I'll always have music and photos available on the frame (it has multiple slots for various types of memory).

On my suggestion, we had tea at Cafe China, where we sometimes pick up take-away. So instead of getting the same meal 'to go', we ate there instead. My thoughts were that this would make sure we didn't shop on an empty stomach, wouldn't be having a late tea, and could maybe walk off some of the meal since we'd be grocery shopping. It worked a real treat (my after tea BGL was only 6.4). Of course, at the shopping centre, I parked on the opposite side of the building from where we needed to be, so that gave us both some extra steps too.

Well it's a bit late now and if I don't stop here I could be sound asleep at the keyboard in the next 5 minutes.

Wed 30 April

2008-04-30T23:57:00.001+09:30

07:29:00   6.7  / 120  Fasting     
11:07:00   6.9  / 125  Post-Bfast  
13:09:00   5.5  /  99  Pre-Lunch   
15:33:00   7.0  / 126  Post-Lunch
19:53:00   4.2  /  76  Pre-Tea     
22:50:00   6.9  / 124  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 560 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 200 mins of 600 req

W: 90

Scratchy: No win. 5288 steps

Total Steps: 7539

Breakfast: half toasted cheese sandwich
Lunch: sausage roll w/ cottage cheese
Tea: pork chops w/ potato, onion. My signature chop dish, made in an electric fry pan.

Notes: How lovely being able to just type about stuff without having to do anything with my stats.

Rod had classes all day today and I planned to spend the day working on client related stuff, and definitely did that. Mind, the project took a little longer than expected, but the overall result has been good. I needed to basically take my PHP web form software and adjust it so my client could use it for his project. It actually turned out quite well commented and he was able to take it and add all that he needed to, so I feel I was successful in creating something easy to use that I can archive up and have available for other clients if they need them.

I did have a bit of an interruption just before lunch time when a reminder popped up to tell me I have an appt at Flinders tomorrow for my wound. Couldn't ask for better timing as I took the last of the antibiotics on the 17th and just a day later the wound started having extra exudate that's greenish and this has only increased in volume since then. If it weren't for this appt tomorrow, I'd probably be ringing RDNS to have the dressing changed a day sooner... no kidding, Rod's even marked the dressing twice now to be able to see how much extra fluid is showing.

Usually the doctor I see at the wound clinic (actually it's the 'Plastics Treatment Rooms', has been nothing short of amazingly biased, insensitive, prejudiced, and very assumptive ... all things I hate to say about anyone let alone a woman. So I have tried to have some information on hand. First of all I made sure to get a written report from the RDNS nurse so that yesterdays' note about the extra fluid and tinge of the dressing are noted. And then I rang the doctors office to get the details of the last swab that I had and what antibiotics I've been taking. Fortunately I was able to search this journal and find dates and details. That's why I write about this stuff, so I have a record I can turn to in the future. Then I had a brilliant idea. I asked the chemist if they could print out a list of all the antibiotics I've been on for the last year. They were actually able to get from the beginning of March last year. The print out is for all medications I've had in that time frame, who prescribed them, dosage, etc, and the pharmacist highlighted all the antibiotics. It's not an insignificant amount.

So my plan is to, if I get the same old lines and attitudes, to ask for a multi-disciplinary review with the wound management clinic, plastics (who are the main ones I deal with), and my breast surgeon, who has had 2 different GP's talk to him about why more isn't being done with my wound. And I think I'm within my rights to request this. I would just like to see some people doing some talking rather than taking the word of one rather jaded, biased, rude, insensitive registrar. I realise not a lot can be done, but having had 2 GPs have very similar opinions on this that doesn't match what the treating registrar says, I think it's important to take it a bit further.

And while I'm not happy to have a new infection going, I am glad that they get to see it in this state as all my other appts have been while I've been on antibiotics, and that's because I've been on a LOT in the last thirteen months because this keeps re-infecting. So, I have amunition this time around. I did last time, too, but hopefully this time I have more "stand up for myself-ed ness".

Tue 29 April

2008-04-29T23:43:00.001+09:30

07:01:00   6.6  / 119  Fasting     
12:41:00   5.8  / 104  Pre-Lunch   
15:11:00   7.5  / 135  Post-Lunch
19:15:00   4.1  /  73  Pre-Tea     
22:18:00   8.7  / 157  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 560 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 200 mins of 600 req

W: 89.5

Scratchy: no win. 5128 steps

Total Steps: 7539

Breakfast: sausage roll
Lunch: sausage roll w/ cottage cheese
Tea: chicken enchilladas

Notes: Whoo Hoo! I've been working on a little project so that the stats on Sugarstats.com get updated automagically. And it works! Yay!!

One of my biggest hassles at night was updating my daily glucose stats on Sugarstats.com. I wish I had a dollar for everytime I've dosed off just copying the information from my own stats system to theirs. I like theirs as it has better charts and long range stuff than my own, and that's why I use it. Subscribers get the ability to upload stats from their meter's software, if the meter is supported, but most of mine haven't been, so it didn't make sense for me to subscribe, it wouldn't solve the problem for me. They had an Email option, but any of the Emails I've sent haven't gone into my account. Another option they had was for Twitter, so I signed up on Twitter, and then signed up on Twittermail.com so I can send the automated Emails to that address. It then gets sent to Sugarstats. I put my little script file into a cron job that runs every 15 minutes, checks to see if there are any additional stats, and if there are, it sends them in an Email. Look ma, no hands! LOL. So now I can spend more time typing stuff here rather than putting myself to sleep doing things that computers should do for us.

I took Rod to school this morning because I had an RDNS appt to get my dressing changed. The dressing from the weekend was quite wet and oozy but she didn't make any comment on that. I let her know it's been itching me, and apparently where it was itching the skin is not looking too good. Part of the problem was where and how they put the tape so I got her to do it the way that 'works for me' and so far, so good.

I bought chicken enchiladas today for our tea from a poultry butcher shop at the mall. How sad that this was Rod's first taste of an enchilada because they used ITALIAN seasoning in it instead of Mexican. Ugh! I shall have to make our own using low carb tortillas next time. Mind, these were still pretty good, but NOT what I had in mind, that's for sure.

In other news, on Flickr, I have finally succumbed and joined the Monthly Scavenger Hunt group. I've been watching Vicki's entries each month for ages now and I finally decided to give it a go, starting with next month's list. Each month you get a list of 20 words/phrases, and then you search your photos or take a photo and upload it to Flickr and tag it for the group. When you're finished for the month, you can make a mosaic of all the pics you put in for the hunt and add it to the forum on the group. You also vote, and have your photos voted on. It's all confidential though, so no one sees what you've voted on stuff. I've been voting on pics a few at a time every day and it's addicting, so have had to limit myself to just 3 at a time. Otherwise I end up discovering an hour has gone by. LOL.

This is what Vicki had to say when I told her I'd joined...

(21:37:37) < oh!!! :) :) :) welcome!!!!!!!!!!!! fun group and you don't have to get the whole lot if you run out of month. the voting booth is cool as well - there are some great interpretations and lateral thinking to the theme, many make me laugh out loud

(21:39:00) < oh and don't forget the MAIN rule!
HAVE FUN!

(21:39:47) < also pics can be from your archives they don't have to be taken that month. you actually get to a point where you take pics of 'things' just in case of a future hunt :)

(21:41:42) < D's not interested (so he says - yeah right!) but is often coming up with a suggestion for a category as we drive around etc. I know read out the list to him at the beginning of the month and keep him updated as to which pics i am still hunting for as the month goes on.
(21:41:00) > Can people see what vote you've given?
(21:43:02) < no and that is the beauty of it - no hurt ego's - what does happen though is that the top 3 aggregate scores get acknowleged and the top scoring pic becomes the next months group icon.
(21:46:09) < the voting booth is quite a feat - it doesn't score your pic on the amount of votes - so if you pic went in on the 1st of the month by the end of the month it would have several hundred votes but someones whose went in on the last day of the month would have say 10 votes, it averages the votes by the amount of votes. every pic must have a minimum of 5 votes to be able to be averaged evenly. in the voting booth there is an option of voting on pics with less than 5 votes - so the votes are weighted and then averaged
(21:48:16) < what does happen at the end of the month is the vote categories top 3 are shown with an aggregate score but the other members also put up a mosaic of their favourites from each category. you don't have to vote to put up your favourites in a category.
(21:49:18) < the voting booth also keeps track of the pics you give 10's to so you can view them later when you are selecting your favourites per category so you don't have to remember which pics you really liked (and so scored a 10 to)
(21:49:32) > that's neat. voting is kinda addicting though! LOL That's really clever.
(21:53:28) < it is. early in a month i do category by category (and usually ones i have already decided on my own pic to enter so i am not influenced by ideas) and some of the interpretations are quite good. some are obscure and i can't see how the pic fit the clue and many are ordinary. i tend to start as a base of 5, if i thought it fitted but didn't grab me i score 5 or 6 or 7. if i didn't understand the relevance or thought it didn't fit the clue well i score lower, it it made me laugh or go 'yeah' then it gets a 10, if it is good but didn't make me laugh it gets between the 7 and 9 - that's my scoring method

Anyway, I reckon Diane, Chris and Fira might be interested in joining too. I think it's a great way to be creative and have fun at the same time. And for me, it'll be great incentive for finding places to drive to on the weekend. :-)

I think that's about it for today. It sure is nice to share my thoughts without dozing off. Am really glad that I got the automation set up. Another good thing about it is that if I haven't had time to update my blog, You can still see I'm doing readings and stuff on either Twitter or Sugarstats (links to both my areas on each are on the sidebar to the right on this page). So it'll keep Diane from worrying about me when I sometimes go off the computer for a few days. ;-)

Mon 28 Apri

2008-04-29T21:07:00.001+09:30

08:17:00   5.9  / 107  Fasting
11:07:00   7.3  / 132  Post-Bfast
14:15:00   5.8  / 105  Pre-Lunch   
17:18:00   6.9  / 125  Post-Lunch
19:21:00   4.8  /  87  Pre-Tea     
22:21:00   9.1  / 163  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 545 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 200 mins of 600 req

W: 91.5

Scratchy: no win. 3046 steps

Breakfast: toasted half cheese sandwich
Lunch: sausage roll w/ cottage cheese
Tea: seafood stirfry. Probably too many noodles.

Notes: Had a very quiet morning and had an appt with David in the afternoon to go over plans for a website we're working on together.

In between work stuff, I managed to get caught up with Neighbours episodes that were on my flash drive so I could watch the episodes on my digital photo frame out on the patio. One nice thing about this is that I used to snack while watching this show, and now I'm watching it in another location I no longer have that urge/craving. The fact I edited out the commercials might also have helped a bit.

Tonights tea had a lovely sauce that I created myself using sweet chilli sauce, Nandos lime marinade, and Nandos hot sauce, along with about 1/3c liquid from my crushed garlic container. It turned out excellent. And I do think the sauce (which was a limited amount) wasn't the cause for my high after tea reading, but rather that I had it with 3 min noodles. Will have to try the sauce recipe again in future and see how my body handles it.

Steps: 6262

Sun 27 April

2008-04-29T18:17:00.001+09:30

10:08:00   6.2  / 112  Fasting
12:36:00   7.3  / 131  Post-Bfast 
16:10:00   7.2  / 129  Post-Lunch
19:27:00   5.5  /  99  Pre-Tea     
22:22:00   8.7  / 156  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 545 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 200 mins of 600 req

W: 89.5

Scratchy: none.

Breakfast: 2 leftover chicken wings
Lunch: Scrambled egg and 2 crumpet toasts
Tea: 2 slices pizza

Notes: For our drive today, I drove to Mt Compass, and then back to Willunga where we parked and walked up and down the main street. Unfortunately I left my camera at home. There's a really big hill at Willunga, so I have experienced it in both the chugging uphill direction and the flying downhill, trying to maintain a speed of 80km. Very fun.

When I first came to Australia, I had my very first freak out in a car while on this hill. Vicki's late husband Ray was driving, and when we got to the hill, it has passing lanes, so he passed a few slow cars -- in passing speed. OMG, it freaked me out and I valiantly tried so hard not to show it. I used to have panic attacks in cars all the time in Michigan. I don't much here in Australia, which is what makes that experience all the more memorable.

Willunga is a nice quiet little town full of botique shops. We window shopped and then stopped at the Alma (a pub) where instead of having a beer while listening to the Sunday afternoon band, we had yuppy cappichinos. L-Platers and their driving supervisors have to have a zero alcohol level. Still was a good band, a nice cuppa, and it got us out of the rain that started just as we reached that end of town, and our car was parked in the centre of town. The outing gave me another 80 minutes driving time too.

Steps: 4405

Sat 26 April

2008-04-27T01:20:00.001+09:30


07:11:00   9.2  / 165  Overnight
08:40:00   7.8  / 140  Fasting     
10:53:00   6.4  / 115  Post-Bfast
13:09:00   4.2  /  75  Pre-Lunch   
15:36:00   5.6  / 100  Post-Lunch
20:44:00   7.8  / 140  Pre-Tea     
23:01:00   7.9  / 142  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: mins of 600 req

W: 91

Scratchy: No win. 5852 steps

Breakfast: 1/2 slice banana bread w/ PB
Lunch: 2 eggs, 2 crumpet toast, bacon
Tea: steak, noodles.

Notes: Rainy day. Found a $10 bill on my walk today. Picked up the new batteries for my new meter and the backlight now works likes a charm on it. I especially like that it can light up the area where the strip is. Pretty nifty. Painful walk home, but made a bit easier by taking my mind off of it... looking for possible other bills just lying waiting for me to find them. :-) Did a lot of video related stuff today and I suppose that also includes watcing a movie with Rod in the late afternoon/early evening.

Steps: 8169

Fri 25 April - Anzac Day

2008-04-26T00:25:00.001+09:30

07:50:03   6.8  / 123  Fasting     
11:42:40   7.5  / 135  Post-Bfast
13:16:14   5.8  / 105  Pre-Lunch   
15:49:55   6.7  / 121  Post-Lunch
19:11:17   6.3  / 113  Pre-Tea     
21:57:12   7.4  / 133  Post-Tea

W: 88.5

Scratchy: None (public holiday)

Breakfast: 1 low GI toast w/ PB and SF maple syrup
Lunch: Snowy River sausage roll (smaller) and cottage cheese
Tea: fish & chips

Notes: Sugar free maple syrup with my toast this morning was a bit of an accident - I meant to grab the honey instead. Still, it was quite tasty. Today is a holiday and my plans are to have a house day instead of a computer day.

After lunch I made homemade banana bread (with Splenda instead of sugar) in my bread machine. It mostly turned out OK. The bottom half was denser than the top though. Spent day doing odd bits like rearranging my closet and drawers, converting TV files to watch on my photo frame, and generally keeping low key as Rod's working on a project for school and we're both hoping he can have it finished before Sunday as I'd like to spend at least one day of his school holiday with him doing something other than school work. Although it was a quiet day, I've really quite enjoyed puttering around. :-)

Steps: 7110

Thur 24 April

2008-04-25T11:31:00.001+09:30

08:14:16   7.4  / 133  Fasting     
11:08:12   8.0  / 144  Post-Bfast
13:17:22   6.6  / 118  Pre-Lunch   
16:00:06   6.9  / 124  Post-Lunch
20:46:49   5.2  /  93  Pre-Tea     
23:24:37   8.1  / 146  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 490 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 175 mins of 600 req

W: 88.5

Scratchy: No win. 3678 steps

Breakfast: low carb tortilla w/ PB (think I over guestimated amt of PB to use)
Lunch: Egg sandwich on low GI toasted bread. 2 eggs
Tea: KFC

Notes: Day started out early as had RDNS clinic appt at 9:15am. Dressing and wound looked pretty good. Nurse and I discussed Dr. Lim's comments and she asked what I wanted. Heck, I just want it to be healed, really. Not fussed about the means to get there.

Before we left for the RDNS appt, my new Freestyle Papillon Mini was delivered. I didn't even get to open the shipping box before leaving home though. Talk about having something to look forward to when I got home!

After RDNS, I drove to the Reynella pharmacy to pick up antihistimines as I can get them there cheaper than what I used to get them online for. Only thing is, the online ones came out of the credit card whereas buying in person means spending my own cash. Boo Hiss. One nice thing with driving though is Rod's kind of captive... if I want to go somewhere I don't have to ask anymore, I can just drive there. :-)

I spent all afternoon checking out the Freestyle Mini. It is a bit different from my other meters and took some getting used to, but nothing that made me upset with it or anything. It does need a new battery though (it take two). The backlight wasn't working on it and so I tossed it to Rod last night to see if he could sort it out and as it happens if we reverse the batteries, I have a light, but the rest of the meter doesn't work. Well, that's not very good. Unfortunately today (am writing this on Friday) is Anzac day, so I won't be able to get new batteries for it until Saturday. Another minor downer is that when I first set the time it was on 'PM' and should have been on 'AM'. So my first few trial tests have the wrong time. No worries, until I learned you can't delete data from the meter. The software only lets you delete the entire patient or a whole days worth of a patients data. Still, I can use my own database and make it correct there, so I'm not all that fussed. And yes, the main thing that makes me a very happy camper is that the data cable I already had for my Caresens monitor works fine with the Freestyle Mini. Yay! Another nice thing is that it exports data in a pretty straight forward manner.

I happily spent the afternoon and part of this morning (Friday) working on scripting code so I'll be able to easily upload the data to my database. It's finished now, and I'm very pleased both for meeting the challenge and that it all works.

The Freestyle mini does read a little higher than my Caresens, but it uses a different method of assaying the blood to get the results. Another nice thing - all prior meters I've had, have had the ability to read results from other places besides the fingers, but required a special lancer attachment that cost extra and didn't come standard. The Freestyle included the extra bit. Yay! I have little marks all over my inside forearm from learning how to use the thing... looks like I have measles or something... and then I discovered I get much better results and less marks if I use the out side part of my forearm. Ah, live and learn.

Reading a few forums, I've read that some people don't like the fact that you have to press a button after putting in the test strip in order to get it started on making sure the coding is correct and telling you it's ready for you to test a blood sample. Almost every other meter on the market 'comes alive' as soon as you put the test strip in. I actually like the 'press the button' feature. It means I can get all set up and only when I'm ready to lance my finger, I can press the button and by time I have a sample ready for it, it's ready for me. I hate when devices rush me.

Went late night shopping (stores stay open to 9pm on Thursdays -- and yes, that's considered 'Late Night shopping' here) last night and chose a place a bit of a distance away so I could have some night time driving. Oh yea, night time, rush hour driving on the 2 lane expressway. Eek. (Yeah, I know. 2 lanes for an expressway... but ours is reverse - it changes directions twice a day). And it really WAS rush hour, and an L-Plater is only allowed to go 80km instead of the allowed 100km on the expressway, so yeah, I had a bit of traffic behind me!

Along with the driving minutes, I've also added a 'W' entry in my journals. These are for the daily weight measurements an RDNS nurse suggested I take. I have the list from the last week or so (as long as I've been doing these measurements) below. I'm really kind of blown away by the results. The tests are done in the morning before eating anything and with nothing on - not even glasses.

91.5 Thur
92.5 Fri
93.5 Sat
92.5 Sun
91.5 Mon
90.5 Tue
90.5 Wed
89.5 Thur
88.5 Fri (today)

Steps: 4206

Wed 23 April

2008-04-23T23:59:00.001+09:30

09:54:53   7.2  / 129  Fasting     
12:38:38   7.7  / 139  Post-Bfast 
14:10:54   5.3  /  95  Pre-Lunch   
16:19:26   8.6  / 154  Post-Lunch 
19:38:58   6.0  / 108  Pre-Tea     
22:18:10   9.4  / 169  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 450 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 115 mins of 600 req

Scratchy: 1 free ticket. 3476 steps

Breakfast: 1 low GI toast, 1 egg
Lunch: 2 low carb cheese tortillas and cottage cheese.
Tea: Stroganoff w/ ground beef and lower carb egg noodles

Notes: The day started off full of energy and promise, but I dozed off after lunch while watching a tv show with Rod and it's been sorta downhill ever since. I did manage to get invoices done and mailed out though. Did the invoices this morning and didn't end up mailing them out until this evening. Not very happy with myself as have lots to do and not a lot of time to get some of this stuff done. I really didn't 'need' a nap today, nor did I plan for one. Am so tired of doing anything remotely relaxing and dozing off. Bah!

Link to the Flickr pics from last weekend (Sorry I forgot to add them to that day's blog).

Steps: 4794

Tue 22 April

2008-04-22T22:04:00.001+09:30

08:06:50   6.7  / 120  Fasting     
10:56:53   7.6  / 136  Post-Bfast
12:18:33   6.8  / 122  Pre-Lunch   
18:44:10   5.1  /  91  Pre-Tea     
21:41:53   6.9  / 124  Post-Tea

Driving Totals: Daytime: 450 mins of 2400 req // Nighttime: 115 mins of 600 req

Scratchy: No win. 5768 steps

Breakfast: crumpet toast w/ PB & drop honey.
Lunch: cuppa soup w/ 3min ramen noodles and cottage cheese
Tea: Yiros meat (lamb) & chips

Notes: RDNS appt went well. Still a bit of green ooze so will keep Thurs A.M. RDNS appt and will discuss swab/antibiotics with GP today when I get my flu shot. Stopped at chemist on Beach Rd for diabetes supplies. Stopped at Heathers store for USB faceplate, to move one 2.0 slot from in back to the front. Picked up mailing satchels for sending off bookcrossing list books. Picked up flu vaccination from chemist.

Later, walked to GP office, had flu shot and Dr. Lim looked at hole in my side. He was the GP that originally sent me to the hospital last year when the abcess was found. He said it's never going to heal correctly or quit oozing unless they go back in and clean up what's behind it properly. (This is similar to what my regular GP has voiced several times). I explained that the Flinders Plastics Treatment team (they're the ones who did the abscess surgery, as well as the reconstructive surgery) have said repeatedly 'no surgery. let it repair in its own time', mainly because I'm diabetic and heal slowly. He asked who my breast surgeon was and I told him. He said I know him very well. I'll have a word with him. And wrote himself a note that he tucked in his shirt pocket. I did mention that my other GP had also talked with the same surgeon, but that he (the breast doctor) has to tow a line with the plastics people so as not to get any one upset. (Fsking politics, I'm telling you). Anyway, that was interesting - to have a second opinion on my ongoing saga. He didn't see a need for further antibiotics.

Afterwards, I posted off a bookcrossing book I couldn't finish and am sending on to the next bookring participant ('The Almost Moon' by Alice Sebold. I just couldn't cope with the gruesomeness of the events. I dropped off some prescriptions and got my hair cut.

Tonight I've been reading Email (catching up as I'm a bit behind) and will shortly be doing my stats and then trying some more things with printing my neighbours photos for her.

Steps: 6967 so far

Mon 21 April

2008-04-22T00:09:00.001+09:30

Mon 21 April

09:21:52   7.4  / 133  Fasting     
12:33:55   7.0  / 126  Pre-Lunch   
19:46:28   8.1  / 146  Pre-Tea     
23:20:41   5.7  / 103  Post-Tea

Scratchy: No walk.

Breakfast: Low GI toast w/ PB & drop honey
Lunch: low carb tortillas with cheese
Tea: 4 chicken kebabs/kabobs (chicken on a stick)

Notes: Woke up with joints aching today and my right foot swollen a bit (I have slippers that are loose and require me to wear socks. Today they were tight on the right side). My hands were swollen too. Had to take my ring off. Normally I come good in an hour or so, but not today. By 11am I went for a lie down as I wasn't feeling very awake. Slept till Rod came home at two. Had lunch and watched TV with Rod. Then dozed again until 6 or so. After tea I went for another lie down and slept until 11pm or so. My brain just doesn't want to engage and I just hurt in almost every joint it seems. bah!

Steps: 3445

Sun 20 April

2008-04-21T00:15:00.001+09:30

00:40:46   7.7  / 138  Bedtime     
07:02:38   6.7  / 121  Fasting     
11:12:10   7.9  / 143  Post-Bfast
12:42:28   5.4  /  97  Pre-Lunch   
15:48:25   7.1  / 127  Post-Lunch
18:54:59   5.4  /  98  Pre-Tea     
21:51:40   8.9  / 160  Post-Tea
22:54:13   7.3  / 131  Post-Tea

Scratchy: I owe myself one. Will get a $5 crossword scratchy tomorrow.

Breakfast: Low GI toast w/ PB & drop honey
Lunch: scrambled eggs, 2 crumpet toast
Tea: 2 slices pizza (it's Sunday)

Notes: Today was filled with discoveries. My neighbours asked me to print some photos for them and bought me a big 100ct package of kodak photo paper to play with. Turns out, I can use the pre-sized photo paper with my printer and it even does copies, albeit I'm not happy with the colour on the pics. I'm going to try scanning them and printing to see if I can get the pics better colour-wise. But now that I know, I'll be printing more pics of baby Ricky, for sure.

Laundry has been getting higher on my to-do list every day this week, and so today I did 3 loads. At the same time though, I decided to have a really good test of what cleaning products work at getting out stains and what doesn't. I've tried this before, but by time the clothes were out of the wash, I couldn't remember what I'd used for what shirt. So today I got clever and wrote notes describing each shirt as briefly as possible but so I'd know which one) and then what I used to treat stains with. Well did I ever learn something. I tried 4 different approaches. 1st - Regular spray laundry stain remover, 2. plain white vinegar, 3. Orange Power spot and stain remover (it's for carpets, but it also says you can use it on just about anything. It's a citrus based cleaner). and 4. One shirt was pretreated with vinegar and baking soda. This last one was a bit messy for my tastes. As in I wouldn't want to use on to treat every item of clothing needing pre-treatment. The results? Pretty amazing.

Positive results (where the item of clothing had all stains removed) :

Stain Remover: NONE!
Vinegar: 2
Vinegar & Baking Soda: 1 (very good job, actually)
Orange spot remover: 4

Negative results (where the item of clothing still had stains):

Stain remover: 3
Vinegar: 2
Orange spot remover: NONE!

Wow, so I won't be buying that brand of stain remover again. Or any other as the Orange citrus stuff works better. If I were in a pinch though, vinegar & baking soda would certainly get another look in, but it's too messy to work with.

We went out for a drive this afternoon so I could have some practice time. I need 50 hours driving time in order to get my 'P' (Provisional) license, and 10 of those hours need to be at night. We didn't have any real plans on where to head to today, so I told Rod I still needed to get my walk in for the day, so where could we have a nice walk, hopefully on a beach somewhere. We ended up at Silver Sands. I took some nice piccy's and a couple movies that I've uploaded to Random Experiments. It was great to have a good walk on the beach, and to see the sunset and moon rise. I drove along a really long stretch of road along the coast which was also good as it let me really learn about the accelerator with this car, and pretty much learn how to keep it at speed. It's a really light touch, as are the breaks. Sheesh, not at all like my old Dodge Charger or any other car I've ever owned. The trip home was after the sun set, so the time driving counts as night time driving hours, which is cool. All in all, a very pleasant late afternoon.

Tonight I have uploaded pics to Flickr, looked at new pics of my grandson, watched a couple videos of my son, DIL and grandson, made some voice recordings on my phone that I uploaded to my eldest son's directory for him to download. This is a great find as it means I can talk to him, for once, without him interrupting me. Teehee! I'd been using my mobile phone's voice recording features for notes and such lately but tonight I found out I can easily convert the files to something other people can listen to them with (mp3) and then I can just Email them or whatever. Great find though. Maybe if I get the nerve up, I'll record a lullaby for Ricky. I'd have to have the house to myself for that first though. And later I can read him stories. :-)

Well it's getting on and I haven't done my stats yet so think I better do that and then get this uploaded.

Steps: 7935 so far

Sat 19 April

2008-04-21T00:13:00.001+09:30

Sat 19 April

09:51:44   6.9  / 125  Fasting     
13:36:10   6.6  / 119  Pre-Lunch   
17:36:34   6.6  / 118  Post-Lunch
20:07:34   6.8  / 123  Pre-Tea     
22:50:07   9.8  / 176  Post-Tea

Scratchy: $6 on $1 4049

Breakfast: Low GI toast w/ PB & drop honey
Lunch: Hokien noodles w/ tuna and thai dressing
Tea: marinara stirfry w/ thin noodles

Notes: Todays walk was very painful. The osteoarthritis is slowly turning my right foot towards the right, and when I walk, the muscles on the outside calf just scream at me because they're being stretched in ways they aren't meant to be stretched in.

Steps: 5468

Silver Sands Beach

2008-04-20T20:08:00.006+09:30

It's Sunday and our day to go out for a drive so I can get my practice driving time in. Today I told Rod I wanted to go somewhere that I could have a nice walk on the beach and we ended up at Silver Sands, which is just the other side of Aldinga. If I figure out google maps I'll show you on the map. Anyway, I took some great pics which I'll be uploading to flickr shortly, and I'll add a link here once they're online, but I also took a couple of videos I thought you might like to see.

The first video is on the beach at sunset and the 2nd video doesn't show it too well, but there's a full moon in one direction and the setting sun in the opposite. I tried to show both, but I don't think the moon is very visible. The sunset is stunning though, and a bird, as if on cue, flies in from the right side of the view, turns just a bit and flies out of the shot on the left. Couldn't ask for better timing.

Here goes:

1st Video:

2nd Video:

Here's the link to the pics

Cheers!

Fri 18 April

2008-04-18T23:29:00.001+09:30

11:19:49   5.9  / 107  Fasting     
14:28:00   6.1  / 110  Post-Bfast  Low GI toast w/ PB & drop honey
20:51:50   7.4  / 133  Pre-Tea 
23:14:00   8.0  /         Post-Tea

Scratchy: no win. 5506 steps

Breakfast: Low GI toast w/ PB & drop honey
Lunch: Wendy's hotdogg
Tea: Fish & chips.

Notes: Slept in a bit. Had RDNS appt at 1:15. Dressing had green ooze on it. Will decide on Tuesday if I need to get into the doctor's office of if it'sOK to have Rod change the dressing on Friday afternoon. Took walk today at Tafe and Colonnades after having my dressing changed. Had Rod drop me off at Jen's and went from her place to Marion (another Mall) and was with her when she picked up a gorgeous bed throw from one of the Mystic Moon type shops. OMG, it's silky cyan on one side and the other is a patchwork quilt of beautiful shimmering patterns, beads, sequins, etc. Stunning. She didn't mention her front seat might be wet from a plant she'd had in the car earlier and there I was walking the mall with her with a very wet butt. LOL. From there we went to the Breastroke meeting and that was wonderful. While she was in the pool I learned how to use the voice recording feature on my phone as I've been meaning to get that figured out, and changed a few ring tones that needed adjusting, and basically tooled around with my mobile phone until she was finished. I sure will be happy when I can join the girls in the pool.

Steps: 9327

Thur 17 April

2008-04-18T22:29:00.001+09:30


01:05:11   6.8  / 122  Post-Tea  
04:08:25   13.1  / 235  Overnight
09:00:06   6.5  / 117  Fasting     
11:57:39   8.2  / 147  Post-Bfast 
13:24:53   6.2  / 111  Pre-Lunch   
19:23:05   4.3  /  77  Pre-Tea     
22:17:27   7.7  / 138  Post-Tea

Scratchy: No win. 5665 steps

Breakfast: toasted cheese & vegemite sandwich (2 slices) as experiment.
Lunch: 2min noodles with chicken soup and worst cottage cheese ever. Bleh! Dairy Farmers brand.
Tea: 3/4 Subway sandwich.

Notes: Worked on honey site most of the day. Spending evening updating my own stuff as I'm very behind. Took last of the Cipro antibiotics tonight. Started putting my stats online. Hadn't done this since the 10th! Sheesh.

Steps: 8660

Wed 16 April

2008-04-18T22:12:00.001+09:30

06:35:11   8.1  / 145  Overnight
09:10:25   7.2  / 130  Fasting     
11:50:24   6.8  / 123  Post-Bfast 
13:25:32   5.8  / 105  Pre-Lunch   
16:36:01   5.6  / 101  Post-Lunch 
19:58:29   5.1  /  91  Pre-Tea

Scratchy: $2 on $1. 5674 steps

Breakfast: 1 slice low GI toast w/ PB as experiment. Success!
Lunch: Ham & cheese sandwich on low GI bread, cottage cheese.
Tea: Fish Stick sandwich. Worst fish sticks EVER. Bleh!

Notes: Wow, well the low GI bread works for breakfast. Neat. It'll be nice to have a bit of bread back in my life again. I had an appt with Workskil today, and of course I drove there. I must be doing OK as I had a police car keep a very very polite distance and he didn't stop me for anything. Tea was awful tonight. I made the fish sticks in the oven and they were all very very hard and crunchy beyond reason.

Steps: 7832

Tue 15 April

2008-04-18T01:30:00.001+09:30

07:52:46   7.1  / 127  Fasting     
12:11:37   7.4  / 133  Pre-Lunch   
15:39:38   6.7  / 120  Post-Lunch
20:01:40   5.7  / 103  Pre-Tea     
23:09:39   8.1  / 146  Post-Tea

Scratchy: No win. 5877 steps

Breakfast: the usual
Lunch: sausage roll & cottage cheese
Tea: Chicken soup with noodles. Very yummy.

Notes: Bought a loaf of Low GI, High fibre bread from Baker's Delight. They had given me a free sample a few weeks ago that gave me good BGL results so thought I'd buy a loaf and experiment with toast for breakfast and such. Got way sidetracked looking into how to install the new DVB-T device without much luck

Steps: 9248

Mon 14 April

2008-04-18T01:19:00.001+09:30

07:39:12   7.1  / 127  Fasting     
11:34:16   6.8  / 123  Post-Bfast
15:21:43   6.0  / 108  Post-Lunch
19:51:52   5.2  /  94  Pre-Tea     
22:48:10   6.6  / 119  Post-Tea

Scratchy: No win. 7819 steps

Breakfast: the usual
Lunch: 2 pieces of chicken
Tea: Chili (store bought, microwave bowl kind)

Notes: Rod had last 2 teeth on top pulled in the morning. I spent most of the morning doing housework. Had a quick lunch and then off to the RDNS clinic. On way home, the posty delivery truck was just pulling out of drive, so flashed lights and waved. She turned around and so we got our package without having to pick it up. It was my DVB-T USB stick so I can watch HDTV on my computer. Well, once I get it installed and get the drivers sorted out. Also in today's mail was an envelope from my daughter, 'Fira Flame' who sent me a business card, magnetic calendar with her business card on it (way cool), and a neat postcard with her art on the front and advertising her services on the back. It also had her new address on it, too. No letter, but that's OK. :-) Once we were home again, I spent rest of afternoon finishing my housework project I started earlier in the day, then went for my walk. As I owed myself a scratchy from Monday, I treated myself to a $5 scratchy to cover both yesterday and today. Spent evening trying to get my new TV card going without much luck.

Steps: 9785

Sun 13 April

2008-04-18T00:50:00.001+09:30

08:56:33   7.3  / 132  Fasting     
12:10:09   7.2  / 130  Pre-Lunch   
18:21:37   4.8  /  86  Pre-Tea     
23:17:14   7.0  / 126  Post-Tea

Scratchy: No win. ?? steps

Breakfast: the usual
Lunch: scrambled eggs
Tea: 1/2 Ham & Cheese on roll (snack), then pizza later.

Notes: Too late to get a scratchy when out grocery shopping so bought a $5 crossword scratchy on Monday to cover for both today and Monday. Very late pizza. Lots of driving time. Did slow manuevers in Maslin Beach parking lot (the big lot by the sea, not the high lot where the weirdos hang out).

Steps: 10889

Sat 12 April

2008-04-18T00:22:00.001+09:30

07:51:28   8.9  / 161  Fasting     
11:06:37   8.3  / 150  Post-Bfast
12:17:36   6.4  / 115  Pre-Lunch   
14:52:43   8.9  / 160  Post-Lunch
20:13:01   6.1  / 109  Pre-Tea     
22:51:18   9.7  / 174  Post-Tea

Scratchy: No win. 3697 steps

Breakfast: the usual
Lunch: 2 eggs, bacon, 1/2 bagel w/ lite cream cheese
Tea: steak and salad

Notes: Aside from walk, spent day in. Think I was trying to catch up on reading news feeds.

Steps: 5987 (*) Not sure why the asterisk?

Fri 11 April

2008-04-18T00:12:00.001+09:30

07:27:34   7.4  / 134  Fasting     
11:27:14   5.3  /  95  Post-Bfast
12:17:04   6.1  / 109  Pre-Lunch   
14:52:30   8.4  / 152  Post-Lunch  
18:41:22   6.8  / 122  Pre-Tea     
23:02:57   8.0  / 144  Post-Tea

Scratchy: No win. 4119 steps

Breakfast: the usual
Lunch:
Tea: Fish & Chips

Notes: Follow up appt with Woodward. Tests normal. Referred me to the sleep clinic.

Steps: 8131

Thur 10 April Update

2008-04-10T21:50:00.001+09:30

08:51:13   8.4  / 152  Fasting     
11:43:18   8.5  / 153  Post-Bfast
14:12:00   5.1  /  92  Pre-Lunch   
18:10:57   6.6  / 119  Pre-Tea     
21:09:34   8.0  / 144  Post-Tea

Scratchy: No win. 4191 steps

Breakfast: the usual
Lunch: Wendy's hotdog
Tea: KFC

Notes: RDNS again today. Went well. She (a nurse that hasn't seen me before) commented that my back feels hard. I explained it was either the cavity that I still have, but it's not connected to the hole in my side, or it's lymphedema or a bit of both (most likely). Bought myself 2 pairs of traky daks (track pants) and a pair of long johns today. $8 each for the daks and $5 for the long johns. Not bad. Drove Rod to Tafe and he had only one complaint (I didn't indicate at one of the roundabouts).

And, let the freebie diabetes glucose meters wars begin! I got a letter from Medic Alert (the braclet people) today letting me know that from now on Members will receive a choice between 2 different glucose monitors made by Abbott. WAY cool, because one of them is one that I've wanted but its price always put me off. So I sent in the form telling them which one I want immediately. If you're reading this and an Australian that's diabetic, I can give you a thing so you can get the meter too, but you do have to become a Medic Alert member. But hey, that's 2 free meters in 2 weeks. I love it. I'll really be able to give these a good try and then decide which one I'm going to stick with. Since I get the strips for a very low price from being on the NDSS, the only other thing is the price of any cables and/or software for being able to easily get my data into the computer. I have to order the one for the MWD Pen Sensor as it turns out that micro USB cables are not all as common as I thought they were (and Rod discovered that too). The cable for the Freestyle Papillon Mini is like $69 (for SA Diabetes members - more for the general public), and it comes with software. However, as my regular everyday meter uses a serial cable too, I hopefully won't need to buy a cable, and I can download the software from the website. I hope that's the case as it's the one meter that I have always wanted to have but because of the cost for both the meter and the cable (over $100 for both), I've shied away from it. Two things it has going for it is that it's tiny, and it's backlit. Oh, and uses even less blood than my current meter.

Well here I go nodding off again. Sigh. Time to go do something else so I can wake up a bit.

Steps: 6776

Wed 9 April Update

2008-04-09T21:48:00.001+09:30

08:28:27   7.6  / 136  Fasting     
13:03:31   5.8  / 105  Pre-Lunch   
16:37:34   5.8  / 104  Post-Lunch
18:38:13   5.1  /  91  Pre-Tea     
21:22:27   7.4  / 134  Post-Tea

Scratchy: $2 on $1 4897 steps

Breakfast: the usual.
Lunch: salad with chicken and cottage cheese.
Tea: stirfry veggies w/ thin noodles and 2 pcs honey soy chicken breast

Notes: Had an appt with my GP for test results, which overall were pretty good. Looking back on the appt though, I pretty much think he called me a liar but phrased it as I have a 'perception problem'. I've always kept him apprised of my walking stats and such and yet because my weight has increased (honest, I swear I gained 10k in a weeks time, a few weeks ago. One day my pants were falling off me and the next nothing fit) he seems to think that I am making up numbers like my steps in a day. I'm not. I have a pedometer. I write what I eat in diary entries. Anyway, I'm not happy about that. I also showed him how my right ankle is turning my foot out to the right, and he told me to walk on uneven surfaces. He decided to run a TSH test on the blood still at the lab and called it in. This is due to maybe my weight change isn't me lying about my activity and food intake - it could be due to a thyroid problem. He said he doubted it though because it doesn't fit with my 'activity level'. Which is when I told him I fall asleep at the computer constantly. I love how my activity level is a lie and yet not a lie at the same time. I will get the results back on Friday when I'm to go in for my flu shot. The thing is, here you get a prescription filled at the pharmacy for your vaccine and take the vaccine to your GP appointment for the shot. Well, the pharmacy is out of vaccines and apparently a lot of the other ones are too. So if it's not in on Friday, no flu shot until the vaccine does come in.

Both yesterday and today I have crashed in the late afternoon, totally exhausted and dropping instantly off to sleep. I think some of it is because I'm hardly sleeping at night. Apparently last night I yelped in my sleep in pain and not only did I wake myself up, but also woke up Rod (who can sleep through just about anything). So I'm probably crashing in the afternoons from lack of sleep rather than excessive caffiene use.

Here are my test results:

HBA1C: 6.8 (up from 6.7 in December)
Cholesterol 3.4
Tri 2.1
HDL 1.3
LDL 1.1
Vitamin D: 80 (60-160 is normal).

Steps: 7593

Tue 8 April Update

2008-04-09T21:11:00.001+09:30

01:11:31   8.9  / 161  Bedtime     still high BGL.
06:59:20   6.6  / 119  Fasting     woke up early - arthritis.
15:16:17   8.9  / 160  Post-Lunch  lemon chicken, noodles, shared w/ Rod. 
23:11:06   8.0  / 144  Post-Tea    Yiros.

Scratchy: no win. 4920

Breakfast: the usual.
Lunch: Food court chinese lemon chicken and noodles, shared with Rod.
Tea: Yiros.

Notes: My appt went well today with the RDNS nurse. I see one RDNS nurse and each client is scheduled for 15 minutes (which is longer than my GPs regular appts). The nurse I saw had met me before (as a visiting nurse), and she even remembered that I use green tea to help control my diabetes. I spent the rest of my morning trying to track down a USB type A micro cable. None to be had locally. I met Rod for lunch as he was between classes and then took the bus home. Did quite a bit of walking today too.

Steps: 8703

Mon 7 April Update

2008-04-09T21:10:00.001+09:30

09:21:29   7.5  / 135  Fasting     
11:40:05   7.9  / 143  Post-Bfast  The usual
14:14:03   8.1  / 146  Pre-Lunch   
16:47:04   8.9  / 160  Post-Lunch  sausage roll & cottage cheese
20:01:28   4.3  /  78  Pre-Tea     
22:49:03   7.0  / 126  Post-Tea    leftover roast beef w/ gravy & egg noodles

Scratchy: No win. 6567 steps

Breakfast: the usual.
Lunch: sausage roll & cottage cheese
Tea: left over roast beef w/ gravy and egg noodles

Notes: Exciting postal mail today. A box of Pooki from Catch of the Day, and the MedWatchDog glucose sensor pen arrived today. It's a glucose meter that's basically shaped like a mp3 player that's about twice as long. It has a USB connection, but I don't have any cables that fit it. It's a newer 'micro cable' that I need.

Steps: 8511

Sun 6 April Update

2008-04-07T09:05:00.001+09:30

06:16:39   8.6  / 154  Fasting
13:44:05   4.2  /  75  Pre-Lunch   
17:01:18   8.7  / 157  Post-Lunch
18:27:54   6.2  / 111  Pre-Tea     
21:27:51   10.0  / 180  Post-Tea

Scratchy: No win. 3631

Breakfast: Usual.
Lunch: scrambled eggs and two crumpet toasts.
Tea: 2 slices pizza, garlic bread.

Notes: weird day. weird dream. Woke up 'early' due to arthritis pain, and then after I'd been up awhile I realised it was even earlier since the clocks needed to be adjusted for daylight savings. Made a cup of dark roast coffee using a new plunger system I bought the other day on clearance. Was excellent coffee, but unfortunately I'm coming to realise that the caffiene is putting me to sleep. Rod got up, and I kind of traded places with him and went back to bed for an hour or so. I had the strangest dream that I was trapped in some school/hospital with younger people, and there seemed to be no escaping the place. Was sort of fuzzy all day long, and then had a cuppa with Rod an hour or so ago and ended up taking a nap in my rocking chair on the patio. Bugger, because I really like the coffee, and I know that reducing the amount I drink is going to lead to a headache. But still, the point of the coffee started out for the caffiene to stay awake. Obviously that's not working for me.

Yesterday I discovered that I can watch the TV shows we've taped on our PVR (sort of like a VCR but it saves the video to files on a hard drive. As our PVR is networked, we have been copying stuff I've fallen asleep watching (seeing a theme here?) to a folder on my computer, basically to save space on the hard drive of the machine. Well, I found out that using a couple simple commands on my linux box I can convert the TV files into an .avi file. I can copy these files to my USB flash drive, stick it in my digital photo frame I keep on the table on the patio and watch stuff whenever I'm taking a break. I'm so rapt with this, as I figured I'd never see these shows as I don't often watch TV in the bedroom except at night, and that's where the PVR is. So TV on the patio, of sorts. :-)

Funnily enough, what caused me to make this discovery was that Rod bought me a USB HIGH DEF DVB-T (TV) Tuner for my computer (for a song) and I was looking into whether I could convert the stored files into something that let me watch the shows on my digital photo frame. So over the course of the weekend I've managed to convert all the stuff I've missed, and have watched about half of them. I'm even all caught up with watching Neighbours, and I'm always about a week behind on that show. Not any more. :-)

On another note, I was saddened to learn that Wally Bronner of the incredible, magical, amazing Bronners Christmas Store passed away. I know he had a strong faith in God and said he'll be making sure the decorations in heaven are in place, but it's still sad that he won't there to great folks at his store, and have chats about decorating and Christmas. He was a one of a kind person. My condolences to his family. A few weeks ago either the Saginaw News or TV5 had a fill-in form on their website to send Wally messages. I sent him a message starting with 'G'day from Australia!' and thanked him for the wonderful memories I'll always have of many family trips to his most amazing store. I don't know if he received any of those messages from the website, but I hope he did.

Steps: 6235

Sat 5 April Update

2008-04-07T09:03:00.001+09:30

08:18:54   7.8  / 141  Fasting     
11:21:22   8.6  / 155  Post-Bfast
19:20:38   7.3  / 131  Pre-Tea     
21:53:05   8.1  / 146  Post-Tea

Scratchy: No win. Steps: 5163

Breakfast: Usual.
Lunch: Thai Green Curry Chicken and Jasmine Rice
Tea: Chicken bits and chips

Notes: Lunch at Flagstaff Hill. Gee it's expensive there. Nice salad bar, but still awfully pricey. Pretty non-descript day. Worked on honey site.

Steps: 6892

Fri 4 April Update

2008-04-07T09:02:00.001+09:30

08:07:17   8.1  / 145  Fasting     
13:06:53   6.5  / 117  Post-Bfast
14:21:33   6.6  / 119  Pre-Lunch   
16:42:17   8.6  / 155  Post-Lunch

Scratchy: No win. 4437 steps

Breakfast: usual
Lunch: 2 chicken wings, cottage cheese, Mac & cheese
Tea: Lamb stew

Notes: Rod had 3 teeth extracted on his right side today. I've had a walk and now plan to do some photoshop work and a bit of housework. That storm the other day pushed in all kinds of DUST/DIRT, again. Gee this is getting old. At least this time I have some really good microfibre cloths which should make cleaning up a log easier

Dang, Falling a sleep at the keyboard and it's only half past five.

Steps: 6631

Thurs 3 April Update

2008-04-03T23:47:00.001+10:30

10:27:57   6.7  / 121  Fasting  fasting blood test this AM
13:07:47   5.7  / 103  Post-Bfast  
16:54:35   5.0  /  90  Pre-Lunch   
19:17:45   7.0  / 126  Post-Lunch
21:53:42   4.5  /  81  Pre-Tea

Scratchy: $3 on $2. 3855 steps

Breakfast: Ham and Cheese bakery roll and cottage cheese
Lunch: Toasted lamb sandwich made with sample Bakers Delight low GI bread.
Tea: KFC.

Notes: Walked to GPs office for blood tests, then picked up a scratchy ticket and a ham and cheese roll for my breakfast and walked home. I drove Rod to school in the early afternoon (I think he's starting to like being chauffuered). I took a stack of requested paperwork to Centrelink, and then wandered around waiting for Rod to finish class. Drove to Woodside and picked up a 2-tier garment rack for $20 at The Warehouse. I let Rod drive home.

We had a very late lunch. After it got dark, we left to do shopping, with me driving (in the RAIN, at NIGHT). For my driving log with my Learners license, I have to have 50 hours of driving experience and 10 hours of that has to be at night so we went shopping at our 'old' shopping center at Seaford, just so I would have the night time driving experience. After we got groceries, I drove us to the KFC near where we live and Rod had me go through the drive through, which even the guy at the one counter told me how to manuerver the next curve because apparently everyone hits either kerb (left or right) as it's pretty poorly designed. We had to wait for our order and then apparently there was a mix up so they gave us extra chicken, 2 big tubs of potato and gravy (of which I can only have the gravy), an extra lg chips and for good measure they added a bottle of Pepsi. Wow, that was nice. And I can't believe I've had over 14k steps... mind, the stuff I did this morning seems like it was a year ago. I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight.

I made an appt for next week to go over the test results with the GP. I also made double sure that both my iron and HBA1C were being tested. Last time, the lab didn't do the HBA1C which was rather annoying.

As I'd been in the bakery a few days before, the sales girl recognised me and offered for me to try their new low GI bread. They had pre-wrapped slices to give away to regular customers. And I was pleased that unlike some other breads I've tried, this bread really did not cause my BGLs to spike. So, that freebie was well worth it. I'll probably get a loaf to keep in the freezer. I don't have bread that often, but it'd be nice to have some available that I can have without any problems with it.

Steps: 14,819

Wed 2 April Update

2008-04-03T23:21:00.001+10:30

07:02:15   7.7  / 138  Fasting     Woke early - wind gusts 65kph
10:50:37   10.8  / 195  Post-Bfast  
13:28:45   6.1  / 109  Pre-Lunch   
19:30:49   7.8  / 141  Pre-Tea     
22:15:05   8.9  / 161  Post-Tea

Scratchy: no walk. Wet, rainy, cold & I wasn't up to it

Breakfast: crumpet toast with PB and drop honey
Lunch: 1 big bowl of self pity (aka chicken curry noodles), cottage cheese & chocolate
Tea: yiros meat pack and a few chips

Notes: BANG! Something crashing outside woke me up this morning. As I sat up, every joint in my body creaked and moaned, telling me that winter has arrived. I put on slippers winching as the little joints in my toes complained at me. I put my robe on and stepped out on the porch to see what had woke me up. The first thing of note was that the bins we'd put out the night before (it's trash day today) were on their sides. The recycle bin had all our last 2wks worth of plastic, paper, etc threatening to become airborne missles. I looked over at the two metal doors for our covered 'half garage space' (well it's not a car port nor is it a garage, I have no idea what to call it) and one of the doors was violently opening crashing against the other door. It does that when it's extremely windy but today it looked like it might just get sheared off if it didn't get dealt with. And being only in my robe in a gale force wind and only partially awake, I decided I'd better get a coffee, get dressed and be a bit more awake before I went out to do clean up. I went to go back inside and in a flash of a moment, the screen door ripped from my hand and then came back as quickly as it'd opened... smashing right into the first joint on my right index finger, which was already being somewhat sore and stiff with arthritis. Oh, I think I said a few four letter words several times over... Nice start to the day. Sigh.

So I got my coffee, took my drugs, sat and woke up a bit and then went out front to deal with the carnage. To my surprise, the two bins were upright and hardly any recycle stuff (of our own) was visible. But, the large recycle bin was upright and instead of being next to the road, where I last saw it lying on its side, was in the middle of the yard. It was also empty, which was confusing. I thought everything had just blown away. As it turns out, our wonderful neighbours saw the bins and put them upright, and let me know that the recycle truck had just been by a few minutes before. Phew. I ended up taking that bin around the yard and picking up other peoples recycle items that had escaped their bins. I wonder if half of ours is down the road? I really think the council should let us put this stuff in bags because every fortnight when its recyc week, I see stuff that had to either come from our recyc or someone elses, always a bit further up the street from our house. It's very silly having recycling if it's going to be loose in the bin and escaping to become neighbourhood litter.

Anyway, I spoke to the neighbours on both sides, meeting the ones on our right for the first time as they moved in there a few months ago. Good thing I put my dentures in before I ventured outside!! (LOL)

So now it's hours later and actually colder outside than what it was at 7am. And my fingers are being very grumpy. I used Voltaren on them and am giving them a bit of exercise while I write this. That way they can't complain about not being allowed to move about and get lubricated. And now I feel like I need a nap. Sigh. I am actually quite frustrated at the moment. I can't seem to conventrate and I have so much stuff on my to do list. ARG!!

Added later: Well I had some lunch and took it easy and still hurt so finally took a Panadiene Forte with codeine around 4:30 and then slept from about 5 to 6:30. I've felt like a zombie all night. I did some work on some graphics this evening but on a better day I'm sure I'd be finished with it. Tomorrow I have a fasting blood test so I can't have anything but water from now until then.

Honestly I think today wouldn't have been so bad but normally winter arthritis just creeps in slowly as the days slowly get shorter and colder and the weather gets rainy. Today was like being plunged suddenly into mid-winter as far as the arthritis goes. No easing into it slowly. I can't believe this is the same body that walked 12,000 steps the other day or has accomplished as much as I have lately. It's a reminder that I'm on disability for a reason. Anyway, that was my day.

Steps: 5241

Wed 2 April Update

2008-04-03T00:45:00.001+10:30

Scratchy: no walk. Wet, rainy, cold & I wasn't up to it

Breakfast: crumpet toast with PB and drop honey
Lunch: 1 big bowl of self pity (aka chicken curry noodles), cottage cheese & chocolate
Tea: yiros meat pack and a few chips

Notes: BANG! Something crashing outside woke me up this morning. As I sat up, every joint in my body creaked and moaned, telling me that winter has arrived. I put on slippers winching as the little joints in my toes complained at me. I put my robe on and stepped out on the porch to see what had woke me up. The first thing of note was that the bins we'd put out the night before (it's trash day today) were on their sides. The recycle bin had all our last 2wks worth of plastic, paper, etc threatening to become airborne missles. I looked over at the two metal doors for our covered 'half garage space' (well it's not a car port nor is it a garage, I have no idea what to call it) and one of the doors was violently opening crashing against the other door. It does that when it's extremely windy but today it looked like it might just get sheared off if it didn't get dealt with. And being only in my robe in a gale force wind and only partially awake, I decided I'd better get a coffee, get dressed and be a bit more awake before I went out to do clean up. I went to go back inside and in a flash of a moment, the screen door ripped from my hand and then came back as quickly as it'd opened... smashing right into the first joint on my right index finger, which was already being somewhat sore and stiff with arthritis. Oh, I think I said a few four letter words several times over... Nice start to the day. Sigh. So I got my coffee, took my drugs, sat and woke up a bit and then went out front to deal with the carnage.

To my surprise, the two bins were upright and hardly any recycle stuff (of our own) was visible. But, the large recycle bin was upright and instead of being next to the road, where I last saw it lying on its side, was in the middle of the yard. It was also empty, which was confusing. I thought everything had just blown away. As it turns out, our wonderful neighbours saw the bins and put them upright, and let me know that the recycle truck had just been by a few minutes before. Phew. I ended up taking that bin around the yard and picking up other peoples recycle items that had escaped their bins. I wonder if half of ours is down the road? I really think the council should let us put this stuff in bags because every fortnight when its recyc week, I see stuff that had to either come from our recyc or someone elses, always a bit further up the street from our house. It's very silly having recycling if it's going to be loose in the bin and escaping to become neighbourhood litter.
Anyway, I spoke to the neighbours on both sides, meeting the ones on our right for the first time as they moved in there a few months ago. Good thing I put my dentures in before I ventured outside!! (LOL)

So now it's hours later and actually colder outside than what it was at 7am. And my fingers are being very grumpy. I used Voltaren on them and am giving them a bit of exercise while I write this. That way they can't complain about not being allowed to move about and get lubricated. And now I feel like I need a nap. Sigh. I am actually quite frustrated at the moment. I can't seem to conventrate and I have so much stuff on my to do list. ARG!!

Added later: Well I had some lunch and took it easy and still hurt so finally took a Panadiene Forte with codiene around 4:30 and then slept from about 5 to 6:30. I've felt like a zombie all night. I did some work on some graphics this evening but on a better day I'm sure I'd be finished with it. Tomorrow I have a fasting blood test so I can't have anything but water from now until then.

Honestly I think today wouldn't have been so bad but normally winter arthritis just creeps in slowly as the days slowly get shorter and colder and the weather gets rainy. Today was like being plunged suddenly into mid-winter as far as the arthritis goes. No easing into it slowly. I can't believe this is the same body that walked 12,000 steps the other day or has accomplished as much as I have lately. It's a reminder that I'm on disability for a reason. Anyway, that was my day.

Steps: 4810 so far

Tue 1 April Update

2008-04-01T23:43:00.001+10:30

08:18:17   8.9  / 161  Fasting     
11:14:07   8.0  / 144  Post-Bfast  crumpet toast w/ PB and drop honey.  Wasn't as active this AM as usual.
13:51:07   5.4  /  98  Pre-Lunch   
16:35:31   7.6  / 137  Post-Lunch  sausage roll & cottage cheese
19:11:31   5.0  /  90  Pre-Tea 
22:27:39   6.2  / 112  Post-Tea

Scratchy: No win. 6448 steps

Breakfast: crumpet toast w/ PB & drop honey
Lunch: sausage roll & cottage cheese
Tea: roast beef, potatoes and veggies

Notes: Rod had classes all day. I couldn't take him to school as I was expecting an RDNS nurse to come this morning. She came around 11am. Spent morning and afternoon working on honey website and doing 3 loads of laundry. I took my walk after Rod came home this afternoon.

Steps: 7887 so far

Mon 31 March Update

2008-04-01T20:44:00.001+10:30

07:10:06   8.2  / 148  Overnight   
08:10:33   6.7  / 121  Fasting     2c green tea
12:06:04   6.6  / 119  Pre-Lunch   My walk today was 8088 steps.
15:30:03   7.7  / 138  Post-Lunch  
18:39:55   4.9  /  89  Pre-Tea     
21:25:04   8.6  / 155  Post-Tea

Scratchy: $3 on 2 steps 8088

Breakfast: crumpet toast heal w/ drop of honey and PB
Lunch: sausage roll & cottage cheese
Tea: satay pork w/ stir fry veggies and rice

Notes: Man what a busy day. I drove Rod to Colonnades (aka 'the Mall') and took my daily walk while trying to find a mop handle for the mop head I bought last week. Funny thing, Kmart has a great stock of brooms by the same company that made my mop head, but not a great stock of mops. Whereas Big W (the other side of the Mall) has the opposite. So first I went to Kmart, then to Big W, and then back to Kmart again. I ended up buying a new broom (I'd wanted a new one anyway) and it happens that the mop head fits the handle so killed two birds with one stone.

I walked back to the car at Tafe to leave my stuff in the boot, then went through Tafe to the Noarlunga library where I picked up a book on various ways to play with a gym ball. From there, I caught the bus home and spent a busy afternoon working on a few different projects. I probably racked up the most steps EVER for me (since using a pedometer all the time, anyway) today. Over 12,000! Amazing.

Steps: 12697