Generalismo

No kidding.

This picture is from earlier today. I think it might be just a bit worse now, but that’s to be expected as far as my brain can rationalize. The pain was pretty bad about 6 hours after the surgery - before I had gotten the painkiller from the pharmacy and after the novicane had worn off. I alternated between humming and moaning and groaning, paced the floor and wrapped my arms around pillows and my exercise ball. I don’t know why any of those things seemed to help, but they just did. But anyhow, today my mom went shopping for me, which was so nice, and came back with all kinds of soft foods to eat. So I’m not going to starve! I made some vanilla pudding which turned out pretty good considering it was basically reconstituted powdered milk, sugar, an egg yolk, a little butter and some vanilla. And on a whim I sprinkled some clove in there. The month of food has come to a close though, if you haven’t noticed, so I guess I’ll move on
Some lady said it took 10 days for the swelling to go away. We have three different places to sing at  on Saturday. THREE. The middle one will only be a few songs, but the morning (8 am!) and afternoon ones are going to be extremely interesting. I wonder how effective Ibuprofen is at relieving swelling. No trumpet playing, of course. But I can’t just stand up there and not do anything!

All in all, I’m so thankful that this happened to me. I haven’t been in a car accident, I haven’t contracted a fatal/chronic disease, and it’s all temporary. And I have access to modern painkillers if I need them, and plenty of good food and water! It is really nice to get them out after I’ve had so much trouble with them at inconvenient times (on the road far away from my dentist, for example). The pain is amazingly bearable and I haven’t been on pain killers very consistently. I’ve taken half a dose so I can get to sleep better.

I have some interesting footage from various points in the road, including before I got to the office to have them pulled, and after the novicane had worn off and I was really feeling all the lovely stuff they did in there. I’m going to hold off just a little longer so I can have footage from all parts of recovery, and then put them together in one video.

One of the strangest things is the way my gums back there ‘itch.’ It’s not a real itch, it just feels like it’d feel good to go and pull my teeth out again. I’m not sure how to describe it. But it’s much more preferable to pain!

Posted by Bonnie under health

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I wrote up a post the other day and assumed it posted itself when I clicked the publish button. Not so! It disappeared

Very saddening, but oh well.

I had shared a recipe for Pannu Kakku and wrote out all the PRICES for the ingredients and my estimate for the cost. To put it shortly it cost about $2.80 for a pan that feeds 11! I guess I don’t know how much breakfast generally costs because I never do the math, but I’m figuring that’s pretty cheap. A lot cheaper than I though, considering it’s a “special” breakfast here.

So if you’re getting tired of eggs and toast or whatever you normally have for breakfast, try this It’s like a soufflé, I think.

This recipe is for two 13×9 pans or a giant pan.

Pannu Kakku

6 eggs
6 cups milk (using 5 cups gives a more firm texture)
2 tsp salt
1 stick butter
2 1/2 c. flour

Put one half stick of butter in each pan and put in oven*. Preheat to 425 degrees. Beat eggs, add milk. Add salt and flour. Pour into pans (in which the butter has melted).

Cook for 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve hot with syrup. Mmmm. Enjoy!

*Do not leave pans in oven with just the butter in there for an extended period of time! I left them in too long the other day (the butter started to burn) and when I took one of them out and put it on the metal plate on the counter it shattered instantly.

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Our weather has been, to borrow the local vernacular, wicked nice. It’s been blue skies, 80, dry, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I need to stop in case any of you are getting nasty weather! Wouldn’t want to rub it in. I just can’t get over it. It’s like a dream come true - summer feels to have arrived. It’ll probably get cold again (we get frosts till May 31 sometimes!) but it’s nice while it’s here.

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I keep starting a new paragraph and then forgetting what I was going to say. I wanted to link to someone, or bring something to your attention. Well, I guess I’ll put a video up. This is old footage. I can’t do these now. I have done two workouts in my attempt to get the muscles back and the first time I went all out:

full pull ups (pulls): 2×3
full chins: 2×3
negative pulls: 3×6
negative chins: 3×6

By the end my muscles were shaking pretty bad and I was exhausted. I was so sore two days after I could barely clasp my hands behind my back. I had to swing them behind me. The soreness was still lingering after 6 days! On the 7th day I set my video camera up, stretched, and put my hands up on that perfectly sized branch that I need a chair to reach, and pulled. Nothing happened. Hm. Tried again. Nothing! It was so embarrassing. I talked with someone I know of from a women’s bodybuilding site I used to visit and he said try lower intensity, higher frequency. In other words, I should be doing something like just as many pulls/chins as I can, and then only a few negatives, and do it every other day. He said do high intensity if you want big lats (upper back muscles. They lend to the “V” look with a small waist and big shoulders). Heh…well, let’s not go there. I’ll just say I’d rather be able to do 25 in a row than look like Mr. Universe

So after all that explanation, here’s the vid.

Posted by Bonnie under exercise, food, health, recipe

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I house-sat with my mom recently and to put it shortly, it’s hard to sleep in someone else’s house when it’s storming outside and the dog is crying and barking for hours in the middle of the night. And you have a toothache. The schedule went something like:

10pm go to sleep
12pm wake up  with a toothache, thinking (hoping) it’s almost morning
1:00am wake up to check if morning is any closer
1:30am wake up because tooth is really hurting
2:00am wake up because dog is barking - just after falling asleep
2:30am dog is still barking and whining. I start to wonder if there’s something
out there. Of course at that point, I think all of the hairs in your ears must
stand on high alert and I must have heard every creak in the house. My blood
pressure probably also rose!
3:00am remember that the last time the dog barked in the middle of the night
there was a rabid racoon on the grounds and realize she doesn’t normally bark
all night (but what can I do about it, as I can’t see anything out there?)
4:30am wake up and realize it’s only a few more hours to morning! And amazingly,
sleeping with on my back with my head straight up and down alleviates some of my
toothache
5:00am still dark. No point in getting up and waiting around for hours to leave
6:30am alarm goes off and I realize that I actually have slept for a few hours during the night!

The drive over was really neat (if I could put it that way.) It was almost whiteout conditions in the valleys of the road where the fog almost completely obscured the way. And it was swirling fog. It was whiter than I have ever seen, and kind of spooky! Like something from a movie. I somehow managed to drive there, although it was slow going and I had to look at the posts on the side of the road to see where I was going at some points, with almost no idea where I was in the road.

Now yesterday during the day I went shopping, and I bumped into a ton of people I haven’t seen since we went on our last tour, and some I haven’t seen even from before then. One person told me I looked tired. I think I’ve been getting less sleep now that I’m getting up earlier. I intend to go to bed early (9:30pm or 10pm?) so I can get up at 6:00am without a thought of remaining in bed, but I always tend to find
something to do, and end up staying up till 10:30 or 11pm. Someone has said “If you burn the candle at both ends it’s brighter,” but it’s also said that it extinguishes faster that way!

Posted by Bonnie under health, sleep

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Principles often apply to not just one, but many areas. Once in a while I’ll find an article online and think YEAH - that’s it exactly! This guy, who happens to be a great musician, has written a lot of articles at his site. While some of the things he writes about I don’t agree with, there’s a lot both spiritually and musicially that you can consider. Some of the things he says about music just strike a chord in me. They inspire me. Here is Ron Block,  a man of many talents.  

I put a sign above my desk where I practice and spend a lot of time. It reads “DON’T WORRY ABOUT RESULTS, JUST DO THE RIGHT THING.” It’s so easy to get caught up in the here and now pleasures of life. We eat until we’re fat because more than enjoying the pleasures of being thin enough to do normal things in life, we enjoy today’s chocolate (I just ate some!). Rather than saying no to sin, we’d rather enjoy it right here and now. When I get caught up in seeing RESULTS, I don’t do what I’m supposed to, because results don’t show immediately. But if you focus on doing what you know is right EVERY time, results will follow and you can enjoy them without worrying about them.

Posted by Bonnie under exercise, food, goals, health

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Who hasn’t popped a mint or a piece of gum containing peppermint in it and felt that
rush of coolness? I had done this thing mindlessly in the past, but while eating a piece
of minty chocolate I wondered, what exactly is the peppermint doing in my mouth? We
all know that water evaporating off skin can cool the body, but when you
put something with peppermint oil in it, there’s not necessarily any water
in it to evaporate, and it happens in your mouth also, so what’s going on?

What I found about this one was quite interesting. It turns out that even
though peppermint is not physically cool, it turns on “coolness” receptors,
called Cold Menthol Receptor Type 1 (CMR1).  These CMR1 receptors turn
on between 8 and 28 degrees celsius, or 46.4-82.4 fahrenheit.

This article says scientist have been working on a substance that turns on
these CMR1’s and is 250 time more cooling than peppermint when applied
to the skin. How would that feel applied on a 110 degree day? Ahhh!

It’s interesting to note that there are two other temperature receptors
that have been discovered, these being on the other end of the scale - they tell
you your chilli pepper is hot. These two receptors are VR1 for hot, and VRL1
for super hot.

Next time you help yourself to a peppermint patty you can tell yourself you’re just testing
out your CMR1’s and making sure they still work.

Posted by Bonnie under food, health

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Most of us have done hard work or exercise and the next day felt sore, more sore even than during the activity. This is known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness - DOMS. What is going on in our muscles to make us feel pain?

Scientist don’t agree on what exactly is going on, but most agree that it’s in part due to the fact that muscle fibers are being torn. During exercise cell membranes are ruptured. This is the reason rest is so crucial when trying to build muscle. You need hard workouts, but you also need rest to recover and let your muscles repair themselves. The percentage of tissue torn is small, this site says less than 5 percent is affected.

Studies also show that eccentric (lowering) movements contribute more to DOMS than the concentric movement, or the lifting phase. An easy way to remember these two terms is to think “Eccentric” is “Extending,” such as during the extention of a bicep curl. When you push off the floor in a push up you are performing the concentric phase of the movement, when you lower yourself you are performing the eccentric part of the exercise. Both parts are important but eccentric movements only can be helpful if the exercise is too difficult to perform the concentric movement. Doing only the eccentric part of an exercise is also called a “negative”. For example, if you want to be able to do a pull up on a door frame but aren’t strong enough yet, get a chair and hoist yourself up to the “up” position of the pull up. Then curl your legs up behind you, putting your full weight on your arms and slowly perform the eccentric part of the exercise. If you work at this exercise consistently (allowing yourself sufficient time to recover between sessions), you’ll be able to do a full pull up before long even though you were not performing the concentric part of the exercise. Here’s a page with more on how to do a pull up, including a section on negative pull ups.

Why can you do a negative pull up but not a regular pull up with both the concentric and eccentric phases? Muscle fiber can handle 40% more weight during the eccentric phase than during the concentric and if used correctly can lead to a lot of muscle growth. That means if you weigh 200 pounds and can do a full pull up, you can do a full negative with an extra 80 pounds.

Posted by Bonnie under exercise, health

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Check out this article about a 29 year old woman in China who
recently found she had 23 needles in her body, allegedly stuck
into her by her now dead grandparents, who were disappointed
by the arrival of another girl in the family.

Doctors suspect they wanted to kill her because her family preferred a son. Some of the needles were pushed into the fontanelle, the soft spot on the head all babies have before the bones knit. Ms Cuifen, now 29, was a second granddaughter, leaving the family no chance to produce a treasured boy child.

The Chinese government reckons it has prevented 400 million births,
abortion being a widespread method of family planning, and sometimes
infanticide. These killings have contributed to unbalancing the population
of men versus women, men outnumbering women by 37,000,000.

During the fiscal year 2005-2006, Planned Parenthood performed a record
264,943 abortions, making a profit of $55.8 million and using $305.3 millions
of our tax dollars.

For a little comparison, in the Revolutionary War we lost 25,324 of our troops.

In World War II, spanning several years, we lost 405,399.

What’s the difference between killing girls because they are considered a
nuisance to society, and killing babies in general because they’re a nuisance
to our lives?

Posted by Bonnie under health, statistics, world

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There are approximately 301,139,947 people in the United States of America. The national population in 1900 was around 76,094,000.

The largest American city is New York City, with about 8,168,338 people. I tried to find the stats on the smallest town, but the results seem inconclusive with many claims to the smallest town. The people at Yahoo pointed out there are some ghost towns - would those qualify as the smallest, having no residents at all?

An American woman has an average of 2-2.1 kids each, having dropped from 3.5 in the 1950s. 2.1 children per woman is considered the minimum for maintaining a population.

44% of women aged 15-44 are childless, with the highest percentage of childless women being made up of those with incomes over $100,000.

Read more stats on child/woman stats at this report from census.gov

Try to find out what the population of your own town or city is. Consider looking at older records as well to see what the current trend is.

Posted by Bonnie under health, statistics

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A few weeks ago someone from Red Cross called and asked if I wanted to donate blood again. I had been waiting for the super-local one that I can walk to, but I figured why not go to the one a few miles away! Thinking about my readers, I asked my sister if she would tagalong and take pictures. I thought it might be a good chance to show people who have never given blood before exactly what the process entails. To be eligible, you must be at least 17 or 16 years of age (depends on state), weigh at least 110 pounds, and meet a few other requirements.

Last time I went the lines were terrible even though I had an appointment. This time I made the appointment for the earliest slot they had and there was no backup at all. I arrived with my positive ID (required) and was given a sheet to read with information about donating blood. I was also given a short survey asking questions such as “How tall are you?” and “Are you pregnant?”
After I finished I was given a number and was told to wait in the waiting area they had set up. Due to scheduling ahead, as I said, the wait was minimal. Here I am, looking a bit overhappy that someone is going to stick me with a needle in a few minutes!

Next the nurse called me over and she took a sample of blood from my finger for an iron test, stuck a disposable thermometer under my tongue, took my pulse and blood pressure. After a short questioning, she told me to wait in a chair near the beds. There was no wait though, a nurse called me over almost before I could sit down. This nurse double checked my stats (as written on my report thingy that they printed out from their database, as I’ve dontated before) and asked me if I was allergic to iodine.

I relaved on the bed while she wiped my arm with iodine. Then she gave me a small white tube to hold and put a blood pressure cuff on my upper arm. She asked me to squeeze the tube and then she inserted the needle. It was practically painless - hardly more than a mosquito bite. She also scanned the barcodes on 5 or 6 small vials - blood to be tested for certain diseases.

      Now Now the actual blood donation was occuring, my blood draining to a small bag attached to the bed. The nurse instructed me to squeeze the tube every 5 seconds or so. Last time I was told this is only to ensure circulation remains satisfactory. I raised my head once to look and one of the nurses said I ought to keep it down. I assume the elevation might have made me lightheaded. I was still able to spy on the process though, by turning my head and looking down.

After the donation was finished another lady came over and asked me how I was feeling. She detached the bag, scanned the barcodes on the vials once more and started to fill them. I was surprised how fast they filled up and she explained that they have a little bit of vacuum. I didn’t just give blood, they sucked it out of me! She then removed the needle in my arm, took off the blood pressure cuff, put a piece of gauze where the needle had been, and asked me to raise my arm straight up and apply pressure to the gauze.

I did that for probably 2 minutes and then she took a look. It was still leaking, though only slightly, so she asked me to do it another minute. After this I was given a pink sheet of paper with call back info (in case I had questions, or discovered I was HIV positive), and sent to “the canteen.” The canteen consisted of a table with some bags of snacks and a guy behind the table giving out snacks, water (or juice) and free tee shirts.

The only thing left to do was compare nutritional value between Oreos and Chips Ahoy! I found, surprisingly enough, that Oreos no longer contain hydrogenation. The ingredient I found on the package most likely to be the filling was highly oleic canola oil. But back to blood donation!

I left feeling fine and the greatest pain from the whole experience was ripping off one side of the bandage to show my little brother the hole they took the blood out of. Talk about the senstivity of the nerves located near you hair roots!

Here is a list of interesting facts on donating blood from Blood Center: (you can read even more here!)

20 Quick Facts About Donating Blood

A person can donate blood every 56 days.

One donation of whole blood can help up to three different patients.

Every three seconds, someone in the U.S. needs a blood transfusion.

Over four million American lives are saved each year by blood transfusions.

Approximately 60 percent of the population is eligible to donate, but less than five percent of those able actually do so.

Over 30,000 pints of blood are used each day in the U.S.

An accident victim can use 50 units of blood and an organ transplant patient can use more that 100 units of blood.

One out of every ten hospital patients needs blood.

Nearly 300 units of blood must be collected each week to meet Scott & White’s needs.

Whole blood cannot be made synthetically; healthy people are the only source.

All blood types are needed; often the common blood types are the most frequently transfused.

The average adult body has between 10 and 12 pints of blood. After one pint is donated, the body replaces the fluid portion within 24 hours, the platelets within two days and the red blood cells within 56 days.

Red cells are usable for 42 days and platelets are only usable for five days.

One pint of blood is roughly the equivalent of one pint.

There are four main blood types: A, AB, B, and O.

AB is the universal recipient, and O negative is the universal donor.

The actual blood donation usually takes less than ten minutes.

A person cannot contract HIV/AIDS or any other infectious disease from donating blood.

A person could optimally donate up to six or seven times per year.

If you are able, please consider donating blood. It’s practically painless and all in all, it’s kind of fun. I even got a package of oreos out of the whole deal

Posted by Bonnie under health, statistics

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