the best thing: sliced bread

magic thrift store shopping powers activate!
wandering through my favorite thrift store a few weeks ago i found a zojirushi bbcc-n15 1.5lb loaf bread machine for $7.










i thought at first it had all its bits because it came with the manual and spare washers and repair instructions... a friend told me i was missing the paddle. ok, how bad can it be, right? i got the machine for $7 and as long as a paddle was less than the complete set up on ebay [it's a discontinued model] then i'd be ahead of the game.

shower rod to the rescue

here i am, sitting down to write what i thought was a follow up entry but when i went to find the original blog to link to, it turns out i apparently never actually wrote it. i took the pictures though, so i'll just give you both parts at once.

3 minutes and some cable ties

cooking dinner tonight i nearly knocked the clorox wipes off the counter again. grrr. then i thought i needed a better place for them. still near the counter but not in my way. i realized they are just about the height that my upper cabinets are deep.

ice cream.. mmm: plantain

i've actually never heard of plantain ice cream anywhere but i wanted to make it. i don't especially like bananas but i love plantains. and i've heard good things about freezing bananas to make banana ice cream. well, they're family so i gave it a try. i started with ripe plantains from the store, not green. the green ones would not be nearly as sweet.
when i say ripe plantains, for this it doesn't matter if they have bruises all over. actually i've never found a plantain that bruised all the way through their very thick skins. get a dark yellow one, not a green one for dessert stuff. the riper they are, the more starch has converted to sugar. after you freeze it, it will be even sweeter. you could easily use bananas for this the exact same way.  

quick and dirty guide to my health

here's a little something i wrote up for my friends to read to help avoid those wacky awkward moments around my weird health situations. since you probably don't actually know me if you are reading this the background is 

replace your failing memory - with a memory card

dedicated tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/3829ydl

my short term memory is shot. maybe it's the MS, maybe i'm just getting old [34, in case you wondered] so i've been gradually finding ways to make my memory card replace my memory. the key to this obviously is my pocket sized point and shoot camera. spare batteries and ridiculously inexpensive memory cards help a lot [dealextreme is my preferred camera accessory store and they don't pay me to say that]

oh, you want me to get to the meat of the subject? ok, here's a few of the ways i use digital memory in place of my organic one.  

happy anniversary to me

3 years ago today i was in the ICU being asked by a doctor "how long have you been diabetic?" to which i said "i'm what?"

i got asked all kinds of questions that day. like "why aren't you in a coma?" "why aren't you dead?" and my favorite, asked of one of the nurses who shushed a particularly insensitive doctor "what? she's awake? with THAT BG reading?"

yep, not only was i awake, but i'd been walking around with high blood sugar like that for a couple of months. i'd been to 5 different doctors who all wrote it off as something else, told me to go home, get some rest, and try these special eyedrops [or whatever]

since i am upright, employed, in possession of all my original organs in good condition, have my eyesight and all my toes, i say this is cause for celebration.