I just love the sci-fi theme of alternate universe. If you want things to go down a different path, they can, and everything that happened before can still be true- Cart Blanche to make it the way you want it, whatever it is. Wouldn't that be nice? It would save a whole lot of people a whole lot of heartache.
Sometimes it's nice to get away from reality for a while. DH and I had a date tonight and we went to see Star Trek. I loved it! It was nice to step into the story and relax.
Befor that, we took Little Boy Blue to the zoo. He's such a daddy's boy. It's not even funny. It sucks when DH works the night schedule. We had two good quarters schedule wise, so I guess it was time for the crappy one again. It's hard for all of us, but especially LBB. Right about the time we get used to it, it'll change again. LBB gets excited because he's looking forward to DH being off all day. Add the zoo into that mix and you get one ecstatic little boy. He had a good day watching all the animals- and bugs sharing it with daddy.
Then we came home and worked outside for a while. It was nice to get things done. The lawn looks good and I scrubbed the mommy van's carpets. Being that it is the mommy van, it won't stay clean for long- but it looks nice now. Cleaning relaxes me. My husband thinks I'm OCD and my sister thinks I have Ausbergers. I'm sure neither one of them has ever perused the DSMR so I won't worry about it too much. But maybe they are both right. :) I still want everybody to accept that to be a functional weirdo, is really normal. :)
My issue is that I worry too much.
We are about to start another round of work with the allergist and I'm actually tryng not to think about it. We are seeing a new doc. He's the head of research in our area, and really good. To do better, we'd have to drive to NY once a month. We'll see how this goes. LBB doesn't need to focus on it either because he's scared and our next appointment is weeks away. Pray for us that one day his dairy allergy will be gone, or at least not life threatening.
I'm upset about the news of my FFPM classmate. I feel for his family, too. No one cares to be pitied, and I'm sure this guy would hate it. I won't go down that road. It's better that we do what we can. I offered childcare and meals, but I'm not sure they need/want that right now. What I can do is pray.
Lot of praying going on, now. I need some help with it.
I got on thinking I'd blog about the movie, but I don't really feel like doing that. It was good. I really enjoyed it. I'll probably even watch it again, which is saying something. Tell you about it later.
Take care you all.
Be safe.
Today I found out a guy from my rookie class was suddenly given a terminal diagnosis, with little time left. He's young and has kids. He is a real upstanding, all around nice guy; Never said an unkind word to anyone. I am praying for him and his family. If you pray I hope you will add them to your prayers. I hope your prayers will be better than mine. I'm just not sure what to say to God about this. It sucks and I hate it. I've settled for praying for comfort for him and the family; praying that the love they share will sustain them.
I'll have more details later, but I wanted to doc the dosage of a new glutaraldehyde product I'm using to combat the Black Brush Algae which has started in the big tank.
I'm going with "Metricide 14" which my aquatic plant group members use frequently. It's much cheaper than Seachem's Flourish Excel, but you have to buy it by the gallon. And the amount of glut is different. Excel is about 1.5% glut whereas Metricide is 2.6%.
The dose to combat BBA when using Excel was twice the bottle directed maintenance dose of (not initial dose) of 5 cc per 50 gallons. For my tank that was 7.5cc times two.
Here's where I estimate: I need to increase the the Metricide by about 25% to be twice that of Excel.
So 7.5cc times 1.25 = 9.375 cc
9.375cc/5 = 1.875 teaspoons
I'll add just under two teaspoons of Metricide 14 for my 75g tank, every day for 14 days then do a major water change.
Hopefully this will be effective. I was advised a much higher dose (1cc/2gallons) by someone else in the group, so I figue my lower calculaton is at least safe. If it doesn't kill the BBA as well as Excel did, then I'l reassess.
New versions of my oat muffins and Sourdough breads.
Strawberry Banana Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
Bowl of Wet ingredients:
1/2 c Strawberries mashed
1 small banana
2 oz of applesauce
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c Rice Milk
1 c oats
1/4 c Canola Oil
Bowl of Dry ingredients:
1 c Bisquick
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp baking powder
Mix the rice milk and oats together (I used Old Fashioned because I prefer the texture, but any will do).
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and put paper liners or spray (like "Pam") in the muffin pan.
Mash the fruits and throw that in, along with the rest of the first 7 ingredients. The oats need to set in liquid for about 10m. They are usually ready by the time I've done the rest. In another bowl mix the dry ingredients.
Throw the dry into the wet and mix. Don't over stir. Spoon into muffin pan and cook for about 22 minutes. They should be lightly browned and a tooth pick inserted in the middle of one should come away clean to show they are done. These are so good for breakfast. I also frost them when my son needs a non-dairy cupcake at some food event.
I also have another bread variation. A local health food store now has reasonably priced, white (finely ground) unbleached, unbromated flour which is perfect for bread. And the price of Spelt has gone down as it's become more available. It has at least 15% more protein than it's regular wheat cousins. It also has greater iron, potassium and B vitamin content. But I just like how this tastes!
Spelt Sourdough
makes 10 buns or a medium loaf
1/4 c room temp or warm soymilk
1/4 c warm water
2 Tbsp instant (mashed) potato flakes
1/2 c sour dough starter
1 1/4 c Spelt flour
1 c regular bread flour
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
mix it together, knead for 10 m and let it rise to twice it's size
(however many hours later, depending on your starter, mine needs at least 6 hours)
punch it down and roll it on a floured suface into a 10 inch roll, cut at 1 inch intervals
roll each into a ball and place on a floured pan
let rise again to double size (less time than before, mine takes about an hour)
bake at 375 degrees Faherenheit for about 20 minutes.
The same store now has hard red (whole) wheat flour, so I am using that in my recipes that call for whole wheat. More on that once I have experimented a bit.
I don't know why the wait is still so hard. You think with the decision to stick, there'd be some peace. But I keep getting my hopes up. I have been following the referrals from China. There was a big batch last month and rumors of a big batch again this month. Not like before the slow down big, but bigger than in the last 6 months. Instead referrals seems to be being held due to swine flu. That is the rumor anyway. Nothing official is being said, the referrals are just later than usual. It's harrowing. Last week I was looking at children's books about adopttion again and thinking about my daughter. Today my boy played with a little girl and her baby sister at the playground. He held the toddler going down the slide (with her mother's help). It was so bitter-sweet watching them.
I was treated to a four song show when I picked my boy up from Preschool today. He also planted an impatien for me and decorated the pot. He wrote in green, because he knows it's my favorite color. What a sweetie. I've gotten lots of hugs today and I'm totally absorbing it. Gotta remember these days when he hits his sullen teen years! All the moms looked tickled. It was very cute.
My Mother-in-law just came for a visit and we were glad to have the time with her. We also got to see my husband's sister and aunt, which was nice. Little Boy Blue was so excited. He pretty much had constant attention for two weeks. He totally ate that up.
Unfortunately my MIL had a small heart attack two days ago. She's back home, on the other side of the country so we were waiting by the phone for info for a few days. She went in for a procedure and her doc said things are good now, so we are relieved. If you pray, please say a prayer for her good health going forward. Thank you God!
We did our Mother's Day restaurant dinner with my sis last week- Thank you again KC. My dear husband is replacing the breaks on the mommy-van Sunday, which is what I wanted more than anything, so I will do a simple grill out for lunch with my sister's family and our parents. I've kinda had a week of Mother's Day. It's been really nice.
We have just been busy here and not online much. LBB is in soccer and swimming right now, plus school or speech every weekday. We are planning to go to the amusement park today for the first time this year and it's been open for three or four weekends already. We've been working on the yard and DH is going to get more paint today so we can resume the interior decorating. Busy. But Happy.
