Sometimes I Feel Like I'm in the Dark Ages...

This phone company is going to drive me crazy!! I tried to get online this morning and there was a recording that "my call could not be completed as dialed." So I tried to call a neighbor to find our if here phone was giving her fits. Same message. So...I tried a long distance number and it worked. Now that led me to call the phone companies 800 number. They put me on a call back list, wouldn't even let me hang on. After a while they did call back and I reported the problem. I was told they would send a repair person out within 24 hours. At this point I'm setting here having withdrawals from blogging and started to pace the floor. I mean, have you ever had the blog-DT's? They aren't pretty, I can tell you. Within 15 minutes they subsided when I got a call from my phone company again.

Hold on a minute, my boiled eggs are done. Be right back...

Sorry that took so long, I had to stop and eat them while they were hot. Boy, was that ever good. Two semi-hard boiled eggs and a cheese biscuit with a little light butter. YUMMMMM!!

Where was I? Oh, yeah...It seems that they have run out of phone numbers in my state, finally, and they are having to change over some equipment while they get the new area code going. Which means that I have to put my area code in front of any local numbers that I'm calling. That's fine, but I did tell them that it would have been nice to have gotten some kind of notice of this happening. It seems that they did send some mailings out. Of course I didn't get one, go figure.

Now, I'm back to my Internet dial up problem. I'm pretty computer savvy at least with software and can pretty much figure out anything given enough time. But I was afraid the DT's would start again so I bit the bullet and called tech support to get them to work me through changing the telephone number for my dial up. I knew how to do this but I just couldn't remember how to get to that window. With these old brain cells of mine I guess the old saying goes, "If you don't use it you lose it."

As you can tell, it worked!!

Now I can't remember what I was going to blog about this morning. Durn those brain cells.

Hope you have a great weekend, and I hope yours didn't start off as frustrating as mine.

An Old Recipe...

Here's a recipe that most people will love. Sorry, but it isn't low in calories. There's just not much of a way to do that. It's been so long since I've made it (around 30 years) that I don't remember how much it actually makes. So what I've done is list the nutritional value for the TOTAL recipe. So when you see the nutritional values please don't faint away.

Homemade Granola

6 cups Rolled Oats
2 cups slivered Almonds
1.5 cups Sunflower Nuts
1 cup Sesame Seeds
1 cup coconut
1 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup brown sugar


Combine first 4 ingredients on a cookie sheet and bake at 200 degrees for 15 minutes.

Mix remaining ingredients with the warm ingredients.

Spread out on cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cool and scrape off.

For TOTAL recipe:
Calories 8,892
Total Fat 554 g
Saturated Fat 96 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 212 g
Monounsaturated Fat 238 g
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 176 mg
Potassium 10,558 mg
Total Carbohydrates 1,177 g
Dietary Fiber 219 g
Sugars 155 g
Protein 227 g
Vitamin A 1.4%
Vitamin B-6 402%
Vitamin C 10.3%
Vitamin E 723%
Calcium 560%
Folate 451%
Iron 758%
Magnesium 1,042%
niacin 281%
Phosphorus 1,,62%
Selenium 408%
Thiamine 899%
Zinc 661%


Now, if you add up all the cups and half cups of the ingredients and divided it out to be 1/2 cup servings it would be approximately 312 calories for that half cup. But you'd actually have to make it and see for yourselves. That is if you want to try it at all. I haven't made it since my girls were little but we all LOVED it and it's packed full of vitamins.

See the USA in Your Chevorlet...

Do you remember that commercial? If you do you are like me and older than dirt :o)

I made the rice pudding (click for the recipe) using soy milk and other substitutions and it turned out G-R-E-A-T!! I usually just buy soy milk because it is lighter in calories and higher in Omega-3's. I'm not crazy about drinking it like I am whole milk, but on cereal, in coffee and for cooking soy milk works fine.

What? Two posts in one day? And here I told y'all that I wasn't in the mood to post. Actually I'm still not much in the mood but I just had to share this recipe with you, in case you like rice pudding.

A Few Mini Vacations...

I haven't been much in the mood to blog lately. Don't know why because I'm not down or blue. I think I just feel boring. There's not much going on in my life to write about. So if I'm not around for a while here and there, not to worry. I'm still reading and commenting on your blogs just not writing one of my own very often.

And mentioning commenting...I was reading and "trying" to comment on blogs on Monday and for some reason the word verification wouldn't work on blogspot. Think they have it fixed now because I just tried it this morning and it's working again. So if you were expecting me to comment on your blogs earlier and I didn't, at least I tried.

I do have one question for anyone out there that may have tried this. Has anyone tried to make puddings with soy milk instead of whole milk? And did it work? I've been dying for some rice pudding and I have the egg beaters and Splenda to use as substitutes, but don't know if the soy milk will work. I may just try it anyway. I've got Dinah Shore's recipe and it is just wonderful. I did set down last night and work out the calorie difference and it will only be 90 calories (instead of 200+) for a half cup. That's the way I always ate it before, 1/2 cup here and there and it usually lasts me a week. If it works I'll post the recipe.

Off to make some cheese biscuits for breakfast.

A Book Review...

I highly recommend Charlie's book. It is very informative and interesting as well as humorous. In one of the early chapters he summarizes a lot of the diets out there now and how they work. He does emphasize how dieting is just a tool and we all have to find the right tool for us. And there's just the right amount of humor thrown in. I give it two thumbs up!!

We've got about 6 inches of snow. WHEN WILL IT END?!?!?!? Is it just me or does this winter seem to be longer than the past ones? I know, I know, I'm wishing my life away.

I figured out yesterday how to foil the sand man. I decided to have a cup of hot tea, and I like it really strong, in the early afternoon. Maybe because I brewed it so strong, but I was still wide awake at 11:00. I had to get on the computer and play some mindless card games to make myself drowsy.

Hope your week is starting out just the way you want it to.

Just a Day in the Life of Me...

Boy did I ever get a good laugh this morning reading your comments on yesterdays post. Now I know who my true friends are, YOU.

She is a cantankerous old lady (one year younger than me :o). She usually says what she thinks and especially with me. After I posted yesterday I decided to go look in the mirror to see what she was talking about. The only thing I can figure is that she is jealous that I've lost so much weight or it is my shaggy hair. I haven't had a hair cut in a while because I'm trying to let it grow and it really needs shaping. Either way I don't pay much attention to her. She is also the county gossip and story teller. When she's telling me a story about someone in the county her husband is behind her shaking his head no. I think she truly believes what she says because there is usually a little bit of truth in it. She just embellishes it a whole lot. A couple of examples are: The UFO lights that several have seen including her, on the next mountain over from us or the mountain lion she's seen and heard accounts of on our mountain or the ghosts she sees regularly. I just take her with a grain of salt. She's even seen ghost Bob Cats!

On a happier note, I forgot to mention something nice that happened at the post office yesterday. When I walked in the post office I could hear my letter carrier talking in the back. First of all you have to picture my post office. It's very small as post offices go. I would guess that the whole building is no more than 30 feet square if that. The person working the counter came up to the front and was helping me take care of my business when my letter carrier sticks her head around the corner of the sorting shelves and is amazed. She screeched, "OMGoodness, I didn't know who you were until you began to talk." She proceeded to tell me how great I looked and asked how much I'd lost. That's another reason that what the neighbor/friend said later in the day didn't upset me much.

I was so sleepy yesterday evening at around 8:00 that I just couldn't keep my eyes opened any longer so I just went to bed. Boy I'm taking a nap today if I get tired because that was a horrible nights sleep. I was wide awake at 10:00, forced myself to go back to sleep and it happened about every 2 hours like that all night long. When I get sleepy early in the evenings like that I usually push myself past that wall somehow but I just didn't feel like it yesterday. Never again, I'll tell you.

Before I closed my eyes last night I did manage to read the first chapter of the book and I think it is really going to be a good one. Oh, I didn't tell you, but I bought mine from Charlie, not Amazon, and he personally signed it for me!

One nice thing about going to bed early yesterday was that the munchies didn't hit me and my eating was really, really good.

Hope your Sunday is WONDERFUL!

From the Horrible Looking Old Lady...

I'm still hangin' in there.

Went off the mountain today to pick up the mail and got a nice surprise. Well, sort of a surprise, because I knew it was coming but just didn't know when. I ordered Charlie Hills' book "Why Your Last Diet Failed You and How This Book Won't Help You on Your Next One." I haven't started it yet but will tonight and will let you know how it is. Charlie writes over at Back to the Fridge. If you haven't checked him out, drop on over for a chuckle or two.

An interesting thing happened this afternoon. One of my neighbors came over for me to help her sign up electronically for Social Security. The first thing she said when she walked in was, "you look horrible." I just smiled and said thanks. She's the one that keeps encouraging me to quit losing weight and is having a hard time losing any herself.

Hope your weekend is going well.

Another One Bites the Dust (craving that is)...

I'm still here. And I'm doing fine. Just taking some time off from blogging once in a while. As you've probably noticed I have been reading and commenting on your blogs. I just don't have much to talk about.

Sure is cold here but thank goodness we haven't gotten the snow that has been predicted. Just a dusting after the "little" ice storm on Wednesday. Glad that wasn't as bad as they said it would be.

Eating has been fine except for yesterday. I was watching something on television and saw french toast. I just had to have some so I jumped up and made myself one slice with some homemade maple syrup. I was terribly disappointed with it and now that it is out of my system I won't be wanting it again for a while if ever. It just amazes me that when I do that I am not satisfied like I thought I would be. Is that happening to you? It seems that my body just doesn't want all that bad stuff anymore. Course I haven't tried my two faves, KFC and Taco Bell Burrito Supreme. I'm kind of afraid to try them because then I won't have anything to dream about.

I'll leave you with this picture that I keep in my mind and on the desktop of my computer.

I'M READY FOR SPRING!!

Ho Hum...

Not much going on in my life.

Had an appointment to get the doggies groomed today but cancelled this morning when I woke up to sleet and freezing rain. No sense driving in that stuff unless it's an emergency or a necessity and I can put the dogs off for another week or so if I have to.

Have been eating healthy.

NJ daughter won't be coming for sure this week. Guess I'll just have to find ways to entertain myself. I could start spring cleaning but as far as I'm concerned that's a dirty word right now in more ways than one.

Have a great HUMP DAY.

All's Quiet on the Home Front...

Yeah, yeah, I know I could freeze those muffins, but I DON'T WANT TO. I did well yesterday and only had one. And I even stayed within my calories :o)

I have some pumpkin custard in the oven right now. And the Cool Whip Free thawing. That will help keep me out of the muffins. I love that stuff.

Could you believe that the satellite TV people called me today and asked if I wanted to get satellite Internet? I don't think their right hand knows what the left hand is doing there.

Started crocheting something really different this morning. It's a wrap of sorts but really different. Will post a picture if it turns out.

Otherwise it's a quiet and boring day.

Hope your Monday hasn't been too stressful.