Treat yourself

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pudding: Two Points, 10 Servings

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces fat free cream cheese (room temperature)
• 8 ounces Cool Whip Free
• 8 ounces fat free sour cream
• 2 pouches 100 calorie packs Honey Maid Thin Crisps (crushed)
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup Splenda
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. Beat cream cheese, Cool Whip, sour cream, lemon juice & splenda together.

2. Add pumpkin & pumpkin pie spice, mix until well combined.
3. Pour mixture into 10 dessert dishes (ramekins or muffin tins).

4. Top with small handfuls of crushed Honey Maid Thin Crisps.

5. Chill in fridge for a few hours, until set firm.

The swine flu, or did it?

Yeah... Here you go Linz, this post is for you :)
Friday - 10/30
Small cough develops, more of a throat tickle than anything. Almost like my asthma is acting up. I decide to go home early at 4pm. By 9pm my fever has started. At 10:30 I'm feeling really hot and our ancient ear-clicker thermometer doesn't think I have a fever. The headache sets in and the body aches start. I'm coughing regularly by now. I send Kylee to buy a new one but there isn't an ear clicker thermometer to be found for miles around. She picks up a 10 dollar under the tongue digital thermometer. It works great and tells me I'm at 102.5 degrees.
Saturday - 10/31
I read the symptoms for the swine flu and I have all the usual symptoms. I get a Dr. appt and he confirms my self-diagnosis and prescribes Tamiflu since I have asthma. Sorry Halloween, I'm going to have to pass. I stay home and Kylee takes the kids out Trick-or-Treating. By Friday night, I am way tired of the constant headache. It's bad enough to have the flu but the constant nagging head-ache is just no fair!
Sunday - Monday - 11/1 to 11/2
I feel the same... achy, headache, cough, fatigue, fever... I lay around all day taking numerous 2 hour naps. I hardly even feel like goofing around on the computer or watching TV.
Tuesday - 11/3
Hurray, my fever is down! I'll be right as rain in no time...
Wednesday - Monday 11/4 to 11/9
or so I thought. The headache doesn't go away, the fatigue is still debilitating and the cough is not going anywhere. Good thing I have lots of sick leave saved up.
Tuesday - 11/10
I think I'll go to work today. Maybe I can hide the cough and my headache is finally gone. After 2 hours of work, I'm so tired my boss sends me home.
Wednesday - 11/11
1/2 day at work. The cough is barely improving. A coworker complains to my boss that I shouldn't be at work.
Thursday - 11/12
I have the energy to get through a day of work but I'm spent when I get home. The cough marginally better.
Friday - 11/13
I put in a full day at work. I attempt a workout, I get about 1/4 of my workout in before I get dizzy and quit.
Saturday - Friday - 11/14 to 11/20
I go to work but have no energy for much more than that. I still cough up small amounts of junk regularly and I don't even bother attempting exercise. Each day is marginally better than the last. Boy this thing just won't give up.
Saturday - 11/21
I take the kids out shooting guns in a brave attempt at feeling all better but by the time I get home, I'm done for the day...
Sunday - 11/22
I think I might be making real improvement today.
Monday (today)
I finally, finally feel 99% better. I do about 1/2 my normal workout during lunch break. I barely cough all day long and I cook dinner while Kylee takes our son in for a double ear infection.

The rat race

This is a parable of two rats. The first rat was good at the race. Every day the door opened and he ran the maze as fast as he could and enjoyed his reward at the end of the maze. The second rat was also good at the race but quickly tired of it. He knew he was capable of much more than a silly maze. One day he climbed the wall of the maze and danced and flipped and cartwheeled on the top of the maze wall. He was captured by the researchers and never seen again.

Thank you Lindsey

We had lots of fun at your house for the 4th of July!

Goji Greens - Update 3

There are 3 starts in the vermicompost but none in the crosslinked polymer.







The control group is doing well - a few more seeds decided to sprout. I think maybe it has been too hot recently to germinate many seeds.

Goji Greens - Update 2

There are 20 little starts in the control group.








No starts in the other 2 groups.

Germination in 9 days

Experiment 2925C - Update 1 - 17 JUNE 2009

Control Group 9 Days to germination: The control group started germinating today. About 1/3 of the seeds have sprouted.

Goji berry starts

Experiment 2925C
Subject: Goji Berry Seeds
Variables: Normal potting soil, Crosslinked Polymer, Vermicompost

Inquiry: How much does the initial planting medium affect germination and growth of Goji berry seeds?
Study duration: 10 weeks
Measures of Success: Seedlings will be measured for height, width and number of leaves
Method: Goji berry seeds were purchased from a local vendor. Germination rate is unknown. The control group was planted in normal potting soil about 1 week ago. Today I planted the rest of the seeds either in either agricultural grade crosslinked polymer or vermicompost harvested from my european nightcrawler bin.
Here is the crosslinked polymer. I added approximately 1 cup polymer to 1 quart water but quickly found out I need about twice that much water.






Adding the polymer to seed starting trays









Vermicompost on the left, polymer on the right

Garage gardening

I've seriously scaled back my greenhouse plans. Kylee bought a decent self for the garage for starting plants. I do have a nice vermicomposting system. Right now I'm growing worms and their castings in two tubs but I committed to scale back to one tub soon. I harvested a full bucket of worm castings yesterday. Ok I did have help from my unbelievably loving wife who helped sift through the dirt and put the worms in the new buckets. I really did marry the right woman. Alyson and Camille befriended the 12 year old adoptee, Yuliya, in the neighborhood. She is from the Ukraine and is really a sweet child. We had a really fun time for our anniversary. Thanks again Jensen's for watching the kids for 3 nights :) We love you guys! Here's a picture from the adventure.

From 256 Shades of Grey

Greenhouse gardening

Quick post today...
I went with my dad to the Greenhouse gardening class at Thanksgiving point today. I went last year and had a great time. We planted lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, glacier tomatoes, spinach and swiss chard. I'll post pictures next week when they have sprouted. Did you know most garden veggies like 75 degree soil for germination? So my brain is thinking of ways to make my own greenhouse and make it one that the rabbits can live in so it would have to be heated during the winter and cooled during the summer. I've also been thinking about trying to find someway to get the kids involved in a micro-business. Worms promised to be that business for me as a kid, but they always died. My wife also sold worms from her backyard as a kid. So I've been doing some research and I think I may have struck on a plausible business plan.
Step 1: Clean out the shed, insulate the walls, properly arrange the stuff thats in it to give us one free wall. Install electicity to the shed and hook up an air conditioner/heater unit ( we already have a window unit in the garage).
Step 2: Move the rabbits into the newly thermally controlled shed.
Step 3: Buy/Make a worm bucket farm
Step 4: Buy red wigglers and start the worm farm
Step 5: Start seeds in the shed, grow them in garden.
Step 6: Sell worms to pay the electricty bill for the shed/greenhouse combo

It is pure genius I tell ya... The rabbit pellets and garden waste feed the worms. The worm sales pay for the electricity in the shed/greenhouse. And I get all the 'free' plants I want from my shed/greenhouse. This should be a self-sustaining system and that makes me happy!