One thing at a time...

Yesterday I hauled ass and actually submitted a university assignment on time. I'm still playing some earthquake catchup. At least I feel like I am catching up, even if my scales suggested to me this morning that I might need to avoid fueling all that catch up activity with chocolate and then celebrating it with a few vino's. 

This morning I had my very first needling.

(image swiped from Google)

I was terrrrrified, but the lovely Justin, who is a Chinese trained, Canadian acupuncturist, went easy on me with a 'gentle' prodding.  I don't think I will ever be one of those people that loves and looks forward to acupuncture sessions (it did pinch when he put the needles in.. sometimes..ok, once...), but I am impressed that my lower back already feels looser. 

Before that stabbing session, I had to deal with a thing.... again.

Have you ever.. I mean ever, tried to keep a cast on a cats foot??? On Sunday night we found him in the garden, surrounded by plaster and bandages and with a triumphant look on his face. Victory! Today I had to stuff him back in the cat bag and I think we were both apprehensive that the vet would  want to give it another go.  Thankfully the bones are no longer grating and we all get a reprieve from the pathetic nightly cast-chewing performance. As you can see, he is still not putting weight on the offending limb if he can help it. We are supposed to stop him jumping and climbing, but as soon as I released him he leaped onto my desk. Worst . patient . ever.

He's not the only sickie in the house today either.  Sistasana is a snuffling mess and Miss J has a coughing thing going on.  I'm determined to not get it, and so far have been successful. I've increased the vitamin C consumption to about 8g a day and seem to be staying well while those around are dropping like flies.

For those of you that find Ascorbic Acid a bit .. acidic, here is a trick that I learned from a couple of Sana people (a contributor and a customer) - mix the ascorbic acid with about 3/4 that amount of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, not baking powder) - so.. to 1 tsp Ascorbic Acid, 3/4 tsp baking soda. This buffers the acidity and also gives it a slight fizz. You can then sweeten it with a little stevia and the effect is quite yummy - stevia works well with tangy flavours, not so well with sweet flavours like chocolate (gives a nasty aftertaste). I've been planning to develop a premixed version of this, but for now you will have to D.I.Y.

Now I've got an essay to write on ameliorative vs. transformative Community Psychology interventions.  I'm sure it will be 1000 times more exciting than it sounds...

Chocolate and family

You will just have to imagine the goofy smiley faces at the airport yesterday, because I forgot my camera. Not surprising considering it was damn early.

It was most awesome to see Miss J and entourage. There was hugging, and squealing and much rapid conversation in some very quirky English. Miss J told me, with some frustration, that she was finding it hard to remember her English words because she speaks 'too much German every day'. I'm just amazed that in less than a year, she has become fully bilingual.  

The plan for the day involved settling everybody in, letting them relax, going foraging for supplies at the supermarket then getting together for a family dinner, which was roast chicken, veges, homemade mayo and, of course, vino.

Somebody fell asleep pretty much mid-bite. That's jetlag for you.

Of course the flip-side of that kicked in at 1.30 a.m. when she became fully awake and didn't go back to sleep until 7.30.  :-/  There was a stage, about 5 a.m. when I could have quite happily stuck her back on a plane to Liechtenstein. I think that was when she poked her head in the bedroom door and said "Aunty Sara? I'm hungry!' Needless to say, I'm terribly sleep deprived today. Also, during those solitary midnight hours, Miss J found some amusing ways to occupy her jetlagged little mind - like covering Monty in Barbie plasters to help his healing process... and decorating The Programmers laptop with 'My Little Pony' stickers. I also believe there was some astounding amount of easter egg consumption - and for once, it wasn't my fault.

The chocolate demolition that occurred at afternoon tea today, however?  That was me.  That's my easter plan.  One chocolate splurge - the rest of the meals just the usual fare. Indulgence without guilt.   The sugar crash isn't sitting too nicely on top of 3 hours sleep though...

I'm interested to hear how other people deal with food-centric events.  How do you handle easter? In the past, I tried abstinence but just felt left-out. I've also tried the 'it's only one day so I'm going to wallow in chocolate all day long and then fall asleep with a messy face and surrounded by shiny wrappers' strategy, but didn't like the next day regret. So the controlled indulgence is my compromise. It was quite decent, I'd say about 750-1000 calories - Creme egg plus half a chocolate bunny and a few other miscellaneous treats, but this is better than the 3000+ cals that it could have been if I'd been depriving myself and then cracked under the pressure.

And just to be sure that the day was balanced with the correct amount of vege-ness:

Today we harvested.

It weighed in (with The Programmer holding it while standing on scales) at THIRTY KILOGRAMS. That's my sister (Sistasana) standing next to it. She just had a baby. Nobody said life is fair.

Everyone wanted to pose with The Pumpkin.

I'll cut into it tomorrow and see what the inside is like before making a decision about what to do with it. If the smaller ones of the same species are anything to go by, it will be more suitable for soup than pie.  

So far, there have been no scary aftershocks since the fam arrived. Apparently there was a little rumble this morning but Sistasana and I were too busy gossiping with the neighbours to notice. It's been a very quiet week and definitely feels like the earth is calming down and settling to a greater degree than we have experienced for a while - probably since September last year. However, I still gave the visitors a 'safety features of this house' talk and rehearsed everyone in what to do if there is a biggie. I'm sure they think I've really lost it this time.

Today...

I have a toxicology assignment that has to be finished and submitted by tomorrow evening, so please excuse the lack of actual words in this post.... I'm all worded out...

I did manage to get out to the organic shop, which is busier than ever because people are getting smart to the fact that supermarket shopping in post-quake times is just a recipe for insanity:

I only needed a few things. Being Friday, Mamasana was coming over for din-dins. She bought the vino. The plastic glow on the bottom right is a bag of mushrooms, which I used to make a mushroom and red wine sauce.

Tomorrow, I've got a little situation to deal with:

Monty has hurt his foot. I've given it two days because cats are really quite good at healing but he doesn't seem to be improving. I've grabbed him for a good squeeze and it's clearly not broken, doesn't seem to have anything in the paw pad, but he won't walk on it. Pfft. This already looks ex-pens-ive....

Also, I am taking ALL the cats next week for FREE MICROCHIPPING. This is courtesy of the SPCA and they are doing it out of the money that was donated after the quake. So THANK YOU BIGTIME to anyone that sent funds. Microchipping is really the best, and sometimes the only, way to reunite pets with their owners in a disaster situation.

Now, I need a few opinions on this one. To harvest or not to harvest, that is the question. The photo is not very well edited, but can you see my shoe to the left? I'm not sure it can get any bigger... but it is an 'American Giant' pumpkin and I have never really seen how big they can get. I know I have some American readers. Does this look fully grown to you?