Most of you who follow my blog know that I'm not a tech savy person. I throw remote controls if I can't get them to work. You try to figure out what the 6 remotes do and then remember how to operate them each time you want to use them. Oh so much fun...NOT!!!!
This past week we upped our technology knowledge and got smart phones, don't know why, had trouble operating the last ones we had, as we never did figure out how to use the darn things beyond talking, texting, taking photos and setting the alarm. I may have used the Internet a couple of times while shopping and trying to find ingredients for a recipe or two. Other than that Nada, but they were free with a 2 year contract.
The new phones we have...if an oven was attached it would bake a cake plus mix the darn thing. Hold your horses pardner...there's an app for that!
Dave and I both got the Samsung Galaxy s2 Skyrocket Android Phones. For $20.00
each, refurbished in white, we felt it was a good deal. It has more bells and whistles than my fairly new laptop computer and is faster too. Our daughter upgraded to an iPhone for a penny, refurbished. Can't beat a deal like that. We are on 4G and she is on 3G but she's in the Cloud now with her iPad, Nano and her iPhone and I found out we are too so to speak. That means you can share your information from your iAnything. We can share information from our computer to the phone through Google. It was amazing when they transferred my photos from my old phone to the new one it picked up all my pictures that I had on my blogs and what I had stored in Picasa on my computer.
We had to take Dave's phone to the ATT Store to get his contacts, photos and videos transferred to the new phone. While waiting, a very nice young lady named Heather, had a phone like ours and showed us what all we could do with it. AMAZING!!! All the free apps out there...some are just hysterical...GottagoP shows you the locations of all public restrooms. It has GPS and you go to the map and it shows you where you are. No more getting lost...maybe. I'm always lost! I used the code scanner on an advertisement for a grocery store the other day and pulled up a neat video on an Oklahoma City chef and how he made his brisket. How cool is that.
I love texting and being able to see my conversation with the other person instead of having to toggle between two applications to know what the conversation is about. A definite plus in my book. I'm still trying to figure out how to do some things but I'm beginning to get the hang of it. I can even read books on it but don't know that I want to as the screen is fairly small, not quite four inches across if your turn it to the side view, but I could if I wanted too. I can Skype as well, as it has a front facing camera and a back facing camera with a flash. Getting to use free Wi-Fi, that's a plus too if I don't want to use my phone's planned mega bites (300mb)which is not much.
I think I could get use to this and not toss it across the room out of frustration...maybe there's an app for that!
Happy trails...
I know purebred dogs are more likely to have seizures, but I never expected our big boy to have them. He is half German Shepard and half Lab. and a whopping 106 lbs. Fitz short for Fitz William Darcy is a gentle giant. To give you a kiss he will take your whole hand in his mouth and gently gum it.
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| Fitz William Darcy |
He started having seisures about a year ago. He has had 5 that I am aware of. Our other dog Lizzy short for Miss Elizabeth Bennett is very mothering when he has these episodes. Most of the time she is the one to alert us. The longest duration was a good 12 minutes. Most last about 5 to 7 minutes. I wish I knew what caused them. Is it the ear drops that I have to put in his ears? Is it the scolding I give him when he has gotten up on the counter to grab food while I'm away. I wish I knew.
Love your furry friends as they are the only ones that will listen to you and not judge you.
Happy trails...
When you live in Oklahoma you learn to keep an eye out on the sky. Such was the case yesterday at 4:00 p.m. when a tornado hop scotched its way across Norman, OK. Weather conditions were, as the weather forecasters like to say, "Ripe" for an outbreak. We have a young man working in our office as a student assistant and is getting his degree in Meteorology. He was giving us instant updates as to what was happening with the weather. Still it was a shock when the sirens blew and we had to head for the hallways on the first floor of our building.
I guess we have felt safe here in Norman because for as long as I have lived here, 40 years now, we have never had a tornado run its path through the center of the city. We have had tornadoes hit on the outskirts of the city but never through the city. Praise be to God that only three people were slightly injured and most of the damage was roof and tree damage. Some businesses were heavily damaged but we were lucky in that it could have been so much worse.
We're not out of the woods yet. The weather man is predicting weather that will be far much worse than the May 3rd tornado that was in 1999 for today. So once again we will make our preparations, don our helmets, put the dogs in the tub with us and throw the mattress over the top of us to ride out the storm. Oops, Dave gets to do that as I have to sing in a performance tonight.
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers...
It's one of those days where the weather conditions are right for severe weather, whether we like it or not. Conditions are ripe for a severe breakout of tornadoes, all I can say is it's going to come whether we like it or not so the best plan is to be prepared.
Just so happens I am singing tonight, tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon in an America Premier performance of "The Creation" by Haydn that will include a stunning ballet. It will be streaming "Live." I have it linked so you can watch at either 8:00 p.m. Saturday or 3:00 p.m. Sunday. I do hope you can catch it as it will be fabulous.
Happy trails...
As many of you know I was diagnosed with Diabetes in September and have been on a quest to loose weight and get my blood sugar under control without medication. There are many tools that I've been using to do this. One is my Bayer Meter that I test my blood with every day. Another is the Diabetes DTOUR Diet book by Prevention. Diabetic classes, my Doctor, Nutritionist and Trainer. My ever so faithful sidekick Calorie Count on the web where I journal my food, water intake, log my blood sugar along with any notes that I need and monitor my "Vitals." Last but not least I also use The Diet 4 Idiots website.
I hit a wall, more commonly known as a plateau, at the beginning of March and no matter what I did I could not get past "The Wall." Last weekend I decided to go back to "The Diet 4 Idiots" plan starting as of last Monday, which I had lost 40lbs on 4 years prior for my daughters wedding. I was on the program for 4 months. It's considered confusion eating. You can choose up to 30 foods out of the 46 foods from their eating list and from that they develop, in an instant, 4 meals a day for 11 days that you eat no matter the order, the only rule is to stop eating before you feel full. I even get to have frozen Yogurt twice during the eating cycle. You will drink lots of water. For breakfast this morning I had coffee with 4 slices of ham and walnuts. For lunch I will have 4 chicken tenders cooked slowly in a skillet with EVOO spray seasoned with Lemon Pepper. Dinner will consist of a bowl of green vegetables (Broccoli) and fresh Strawberries with my evening snack being cottage cheese with roast beef slices. Tomorrow is my veggie and salad day all day long. This day I really look forward to, as one of my favorite meals is pinto beans with spinach and shredded Parmesan cheese. I get to eat fresh veggies and I love it! After staying on this for eleven days the last three days rounds out the two weeks with anything you want to eat. Then you (can) start all over again and generate a different eating plan with the same foods or choose new foods. There is Bacon, Sausage, Eggs, Tuna, Halibut, Orange-roughy, Shrimp, Walnuts, Peanuts, fresh Strawberries, Grapes, Pinto beans, Baked beans, frozen Yogurt, fresh fruits of all sorts and this is just a small listing of what you can choose from. The most interesting thing is that my urge for snacking on junk food has ceased. I feel good and I'm losing weight, finally getting past the wall and the other benefit is that my blood sugar is dropping as well. Do I plan to stay on this forever? No! This is to get me kick started and help me adjust my eating pattern. One could stay on it for a long time depending on what you chose for each rotation.
Did I have to pay for this? Yes. However I only paid one time to have access to the plan and can use it any time. It says you will lose 9lbs every 11 days, for some people that may be true but for me I lose an average of 2 lbs. a week which is safe weight loss. Do I feel deprived? No. The only day I have trouble with is the second day which is all fruit except for a humongous deli sandwich that I have on Pumpernickel bread with lettuce, tomatoes, red onion and mustard at the end of the day. I'm not a big fruit person, but this time I did manage to get by with Apples, Oranges, Grapes, Grapefruit, Peaches, Strawberries and my Deli sandwich.
Will I miss all the goodies that one would have for Easter dinner today? Not really. I know there's a reward at the end of this and I have already achieved a 3.5 lb loss. Want to know the rules? Here they are.
DIET RULES:
The Diet Rules are fairly simple.
*First, you may eat your 4 Daily Meals in ANY ORDER.
This means that you don't have to eat MEAL #1 first and MEAL #4 last each day. For example, if you want to eat Meal #3 for breakfast then you can, or if you want to eat Meal #1 for dinner then you can...
You must eat all 4 meals on the day they are scheduled though ---- but you may eat them in ANY ORDER.
Here are the rest of the simple rules:
You will follow this 11 Day menu, and at the end of the 11 Days you may take 3 "Cheat Days" where you can eat ANYTHING YOU WANT for 3 straight days.
Then, after that 3 day period you may GENERATE A NEW 11 DAY MENU by visiting our site again.
The new menu will shift foods around differently throughout the 11 Day period, and thus your calories will be shifted around as we mentioned on our web site.
However, you will be allowed to choose many of the same foods if you wish.
Remember that the Diet Generator shifts the "calories" around every 11 Days (by assigning the foods in a different manner every 11 Days), but the overall foods chosen may be the same every 11 Days -- if you want (or they may be different if you like).
Happy trails...Happy Easter...
Three weeks ago our friends Bobbie and Jim emailed to say the two Linda's were going to be working in our area and gave them our phone number to see if we would like to get together.
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| Linda and LindaS |
Last Sunday evening we went out to Lake Thunderbird and met up with the Two Linda's. What a delight these two ladies are. We had a great time. But how do you keep them straight when writing? Ok here goes, Linda and LindaS. Linda had put together a wonderful selection of fresh veggies for grilling. Summer Squash, Zucchini, Mushrooms, Red, Yellow and Orange Bell Peppers in a lovely marinade. Since they are vegetarians they had tofu sausage links and for Dave and I, Turkey sausage links. We sat outside and had wonderful conversation while the meal was being grilled on their
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| The Three Musketeers |
Alas it was time to go even though we hated for the evening to end. We had to get home so our doggies could have a bathroom break and eat dinner. I also had laundry to finish before work on Monday.
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| Linda, Me and LindaS |
We have found new friends and look forward to seeing them again and following their travels and adventures.
Happy trails...
Went to the Dr. this morning to check on my Diabetes and got great news. I have lost 10% of my body weight which equates to 23lbs. YES!!! Now I start on the next 10% which will be 21lbs and hope to reach that goal before our new grandson gets here in July. My Diabetes is doing good, managing it without medication and doing my best to stay healthy. I will say this...I managed to stay well this past winter, when everyone around me was so sick, no cough, no sniffle, no stomach flu or any other kind of flu, I did this by including
Green Valley Plain Kefir, lactose free in my diet (You've got to check out the recipes on this site!). I drink 8 oz. once a day, in the evenings and I really swear by it. It's sort of like Buttermilk but better.
I will try anything if it will help me to stay well.
If you are in the Norman area you can find it at Natural Grocers.
Happy trails...
