The shocking truth about Kefir!!!!

Public service announcement:

I found out some interesting information about Kefir that anybody who consumes it should know. I found this out by personal experience and wanted to make sure that this occurrence is made public so that the next time it happens I will know you will know what is occurring. This is truly a shocking experience that will undoubtedly catch any Kefir drinker unaware.

First, let me set the scene: I am at work getting ready to drink my Kefir smoothie for a snack before lunch. I go to the break room to obtain afore mentioned Kefir from its container in the refrigerator. I proceed to shake it up to get all of the elements thoroughly mixed and re-blended (it has been a couple hours since its original making). The newly re-blended Kefir is then transferred to a Styrofoam cup for quick and easy consumption (some regard is given to the environment but then quickly pushed to the side). The container that the smoothie was originally in is then cleaned and dried so that there is no “funky” smell later on as I am not going to put the empty container back into the fridge to keep it cool and stink-free. I am now free to bring my treat back to my desk and enjoy a little pick-me-up. While I am walking down the hall back to my work station it happened. I was shocked and stunned at the same time. I think that what has just happened may have happened before but I’m not sure…it could be déjà vu. Anyway, the event that I am talking about is the fact that the foam on the top of my smoothie just shocked my upper lip. Kefir can conduct electricity apparently! I don’t know if it was holding the static electricity build up or if I am to blame as we do have carpeting in our office. Just the same, thought, I was shocked…literally! Since the déjà vu thing I have decided to actually document the incident for future reference. You know, in case it happens again. That way I will know that it really did happen before and I won’t be racking my brain wondering if the “shock” triggered a repressed memory or is unlocking a secret portal in my brain to an alternate level of consciousness.

Second, let’s look at what happened and try to come to a conclusion as to why, how and what caused it to happen. Okay…Kefir shock is the issue (not the shock your body goes into during a toxic cleansing but an actual electrical shock). The Kefir smoothie was contained in a plastic lidded container in the refrigerator. The Kefir smoothie was shaken up in the plastic container before being transferred to a Styrofoam cup. Both the plastic container and Styrofoam cup are known to hold static charges on their surfaces. So, did the charge come from the cup or the original container…or even me (from scuffing my feet across the carpet)? But, better yet, why was it held in the foam of the Kefir? Were there maybe a lot of minerals of the metal persuasion in my smoothie? Does milk foam naturally carry a charge? Does pineapple juice carry a charge along with its natural bite?

So many questions. Questions I am not going to answer. At least not right now. If you have any answers or insight, please, let me know. Otherwise, please be very careful when you consume a Kefir smoothie. You probably will want to avoid doing this while pumping gas, around the use of pure oxygen (or any natural gas for that matter) or anywhere where there is a chance that combustion may occur from the slightest of sparks.

This concludes my public service announcement. Thank you.

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Back from the coast

I am currently of the mind that I am a hurricane repellant or something.  It rained all of five whole minutes while my family and I were at the coast.  We awoke twice to rainbows (pictured here).  I was really hoping for a little rain; but, noooooooo!  That all hit at my house at home!  And then went up to find my family in Ohio to tell them that I had scared it off and it was seeking its revenge on them.  There weren't many waves to speak of at the beach in Port Aransas.  The picture in the previous post is what everything still looked like.

At any rate, I was glad to get home to my little kitties.  When we left it had completely slipped my mind to say goodbye to them before I walked out the door...so, I felt a bit guilty the entire time I was gone.  I even had dreams about my little love, his sister, Sweetie and Nos.  Speaking of my kitties, please keep Sweetie in your prayers.  She isn't eating like she used to and has lost a lot of weight.  She seems to be having some allergy issues (which happens because she is always getting into something that doesn't agree with her).  Hopefully she'll get better soon.  She is still the "big fluffy" but you can actually feel her backbone.  We can't really get her to eat much (we've even tried sardines without much success). 

Oh, typing of sardines reminds me, my Mexican had to go to the store to purchase the afore mentioned sardines for Sweetie.  He knows I am trying to eliminate soy not only from our diets but also from our animal's.  He said it took him quite a while to fine a tin that didn't contain soy.  The one he ended up getting had the lovely little fish packed in olive oil.  I would think that fish oil would be the oil of choice for packaging fish in...wouldn't you?

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Texas waves to be compared to...um...Texas waves

This is a picture of this time last year of the wanna-be waves at Port Aransas, Texas (Aug 2006). The year before there were no waves at all to speak of. It was like walking into a wading pool. The only good thing about the no waves was that you could clearly see anything that was in the water so you didn't have to worry about stepping on crabs. Since there is a bit of a squabble going on at sea I would suspect that the waves would be a bit larger this year. I will at least give a picture of that if there isn't anything else picture worthy this time around.

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Tropical Storm Erin?

Well, it seems that the Texas coast knows that I and my family are headed there way tomorrow and have made arrangements to make sure we get wet--whether it is by the likes of the nasty gulf coast water or by the precipitation that will be falling over it. Hum…at least once I get out of the “beach” water I can quickly get all of the sand and salt washed off!

Note to self: leave aluminum beach chairs at home…use only plastic things outside.

I totally love the rain; so, this will only cause mild dampening upon the ground and will utterly bring no ill effects regarding vacation! My family may think otherwise. Oh, well; they'll get over it.

If presented with the opportunity I will take some pics so that the three of you who read this can see how deadly a rain storm in already water saturated Texas can be. Oh, and a first hand account of the terrors of a tropical storm (if it even completes its formation into one).

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I look like a cherry tomato

I just had to post this because it seems funny to me. You have to understand, this is just one of those thing regarding the way I think. I have always been one who is critical of my looks and appearance. You know, bad hair days, bad face days and all of that. Well, it was about two years ago that I decided I needed to get back into good health and a good shape rather than round and expanding. So, I looked at some pictures I took of myself to chart my progress in August of 2005. No, I will not show these pictures right now nor will I take a more recent one than the one that is on my profile (which is only about a month old). Once I reach my goal I may show the before and after. Just as a little background, since I started this weight loss endeavor I have gained at least 16 pounds. Yuck!

At any rate, I have decided to take up my pursuit of better health and a desirable shape again. I had been working on the internal for a while and actually made some good progress this weekend in that arena. I began experiencing what is called The Herxheimer's Reaction. This is when all of the toxins in your cells, liver and other organs begin purging all of the bacteria that is dying that have been living there for so long. This happens because all of the bad bacteria begin to die off and flood the blood with toxins that need to be removed from the body. The really fun part of this reaction is the way it feels. It is nearly flu like and not altogether lovely. I was mostly tired and headachy. I also suffered from heat flashes and cold chills. This made it rather hard to sleep too. Despite these icky feelings I can already feel myself improving! I have quite a bit more energy and that is always a plus for somebody who has only wanted to sleep for the past 20 years.

The worst part of the "reaction" is that my face is as red as a cherry tomato. Everybody who has seen me today is certain that I got a sunburn. I know the worst of the cleansing is over...hopefully the facial showing will not continue for too much longer. I'm going to the coast later this week. I don't need a real sunburn on top of my cherry-ness!

As a side not, I started on the external change-up this weekend too. I am joining a new gym which is less than half of what I used to pay for that "high-end" one that I went to for so long. Since I have been working out in the morning I can actually feel my body's metabolism kick up as I really feel when I need food and certain substances rather than just a growling tummy. It has really lifted my already high mood in only two days.

So, stay posted. I'll let you know if my face gets back to it's pasty porcelain color and when I'm able to fit comfortably back into my regular non-fat clothes:) When the latter occurs I will show forth my beauty in almost all of its glory (Ha!)...as long as it's not a bad face day, bad hair day, not too humid, my eyes are bright and green, the mud puppy stays away and that I'm not too covered with kitty hair. For those of you who don't know me too well, I am not capable of true conceit (I may convince a few that I am) and I am one of my own worst critics. I love making fun of myself, it helps me deal with what I see as my imperfections (which are great in number to my eyes).

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My Little Love...again

I just had to post this picture of Maja...if you've already seen it then just don't look:)

He was sitting in my bedroom window watching the rain trickle down the glass. Isn't he beautiful?

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Mouth Sounds Re-visited

I think I may have found a way to make the mouth sounds from my neighbor's popping gum go away! I found today that when I heard her start popping all I had to do was get out my cell phone and put it on record mode. I wanted her to hear how loud she is. Well, wouldn't you know it? She stopped! I wonder if she has a camera over here watching me or something. I am going to have to remember this tactic for next week to see if it really works. If it doesn't, then I will post the recording here for all to hear!

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Sourdough Spice Cake

Last night I made my Mexican a sourdough spice cake for his birthday. Well, I actually had to start the day before and let the starter (which is already over a month old! yeah, he is SDS2 is doing so well) ferment some of the ingredients and then make it last night. It turned out wonderful! It's about as close to made from scratch as you can get as I did use my own hand made butter and I even ground my own nutmeg and cloves. I didn't have any fresh ginger or cinnamon so pre-ground got used for those.

Just as a side note, if you grind your own cloves (this does not apply to nutmeg where you use a hand grater) make sure the container that they are being ground in is not plastic. I found out the hard way last night that clove oil is really hard to get off of plastic and even alters the texture and appearance of the plastic. I don't yet have a grain mill; so, I had to use my food processor for the job. It did okay...but, now I really want a grain mill! It smelled so good in my kitchen and the fresh spices really stood out in the cake.

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Keeping the mouth sounds at bay

I have figured out how to keep the dreadful mouth sounds from my workspace neighbor to a minimum. In order to block out the sound of her popping her gum incessantly I have to have my radio on, my air purifier on and be printing a crap load of stuff (using the printer at my desk, of course). If I have all of these things running I can almost block out the sound of her popping. Almost. In the past I had asked for nice ways of letting her know that her sounds were bothering me. Simple things do not work with this person. I even mentioned it to her earlier this week--in a round about way..."Do you hear that? Is that your gum? Goodness, I was worried that something was broken on my printer. That's quite loud." I guess I should have stated that I wanted it to stop; but, I thought that would go without saying. I was wrong! So, just about every day after lunch sometime I hear the dreaded popping of gum mouth sound. Occasionally in the morning. Please pray that God gives me the ability to block out the sound so that I don't just snap one day and go off on her. That wouldn't be too good or nice of me.

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What's in your nose?

Well, I had my rhinoscopy done today. It was rather fun. I found out that I do indeed have a fuzz wad in my throat...it's actually a polyp. It's not too big that they need to go in and remove it; they'll leave that as a last resort if I just can't take it any more. Even then, I'd have to go to an ENT (ear nose and throat doctor). I think I can live with it for now. At least I know there is something there and I'm not just going more crazy. On a side note, I did find out that I have a slightly deviated septum. This too is only minimal and requires no surgery at present. I would suspect that if I were to get kicked in the face again while swimming that the current diagnosis might change a bit. Since I don't plan on joining any swim teams anytime in the near future I don't think I have to worry about that. (For those who don't know, I had my nose broken in high school---I was at swim practice and one of my own team mates accidentally kicked me in the nose and broke it.)

My daughter went with me to the appointment today. She was a riot. She kept asking me if I had cleaned out all of my boogers so that the doctor wouldn't have to see them when they started the procedure. She also took a picture of the camera with her phone camera. You can clearly see that it is not a good picture but also that the camera wasn't quite the 35 mm I had been expecting. My nose, therefore, remains normal looking and was not stretched out any at all. I am getting feeling back in it and have been sneezing like crazy. That feels funny! Have you ever sneezed while the inside of your nose was numb? I hope you never have to experience it; but, if you do try not to let the phantom snot feeling get to you. I have been wiping my nose for almost an hour and have yet to find what it is that I think I'm feeling.

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Munchies

I am so craving a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup that I can barely contain myself. Only problem is that it is not on my diet. And I don't have enough change to get one out of the vending machine here at work. I want one so badly that I don't even care how it looks! Well, it's not going to happen; so, I opted for the next best thing. Frozen chocolate chip cookie dough from Pioneer. We have some in the freezer in the break room that is community property. I think there's only two to three people who get into it...so there is plenty! I went ahead and scooped out some chunks and put them into a small cup. I am enjoying them at my desk knowing that the sugar is not good for me nor is it going to help me in my endeavor to lose weight. Oh well! Some craving are just too strong for any will power to handle!

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Do you have a flag?

This article here brought the words of Eddie Izzard to mind from his "Dress to Kill" standup routine regarding Britain:

• We stole countries! That's how you build an empire. We stole countries with the cunning use of flags! Just sail around the world and stick a flag in. "I claim India for Britain!" And they're going, "You can't claim us, we live here! There's five hundred million of us!" - "Do you have a flag?" - "We don't need a bloody flag, this is our country, you b******!" - "No flag, no country! you can't have one! Those are the rules, that...I just made up."

So, it would seem that Russia has decided that the strategy of olden Britain will work for them in areas that are not inhabited by people. If anybody ever walks down to the sea floor at the north pole they will see Russia's flag and know that they were there first. "Ha ha, I beat you!" is all the flag seems to say to any other country at current. Hum...I wonder why. Well, you can read the article to find out more...I just had to post about Eddie because that spot so fits what Russia did:)

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I'm alive

I thought I'd do a quick post to let everybody know (well, the three of you who read this) that I am still alive after yesterday's potential Styrofoam poisoning incident. I have been rather busy today with work and doctor's appointments; so, the post is going to be shorter than most.

I went to the doctor this morning to try to find out what the "fuzz wad" feeling in my throat is from. The nurse wasn't able to see anything. I therefore had to schedule a procedure for next week where they will stick a camera up my nose and push it down my throat to see what the deal is. I hope it's not a 35 mm or anything...that would hurt (not to mention it will leave a mark). I believe the procedure is a rhinoscopy. I will let you know how it goes at any rate. Hopefully they won't find a fruit sticker in my throat or anything like that. But, if they do then at least I'll know for sure what is causing the discomfort (I guess that would be better than a fur ball).

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Oh no, what have I done?

I think I may have poisoned myself. I don't know for sure. I do know that it didn't dawn on me that I may have until I saw the results of what I did. Okay, let me set the scene. I am sitting at work with the sniffles. I have a bottle of Vicks Vapo Steam and I am sniffing it straight. This doesn't seem too strong, I say to myself. So, I get the bright idea that since it is made to be used in a hot steam vaporizer that adding it to some boiling hot water would do the trick. Off I go to the break room, I'm at work, to get a cup of hot water from the coffee maker. I do this and return to my desk to add the water soluble liquid. Immediately I can smell those lovely fumes. A smile crosses my face as I am pleased with myself for thinking of this. In between sniffs I cover the cup to keep the fumes and heat inside. I don't want to get the whole office to have clear sinuses at once! Any way, I continue to sniff my concoction for quite a while until I notice something. I had used a Styrofoam cup and it seemed to be disintegrating before my eyes. There was a line around the entire diameter of the cup right at the water line. This line looked like I had burned the foam in the microwave or something (not that I have ever used a microwave or heated something in Styrofoam in one). It wasn't blackened or anything...it was just starting to vanish. I had to dispose of my liquid before it decided to take over my desk as I could see its plan for escape was really taking shape. Here is a picture of the cup after the liquid was discarded:

I guess camphor eats through Styrofoam?

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