Fiber, Fiber And More Fiber

Hi all.

No new job yet. Still working on that.

I'm currently trying to survive working nights – it's amazing how much my internal clock despises this. I just can't get into the swing of it.

This is probably due to the fact that after working 11:00pm til 7:00am, I'm still expected to be back online by late morning.

I'm rocking four hours of sleep, at best. Thankfully, this won't last much longer, then some other poor idiot gets their turn. But that's a story for another day.

Aside from feeling like shit due to lack of sleep, I've felt like shit in general for the better part of two years now, which I've attributed to having gained 20 pounds.

A note to my relatives reading this – yes, I know. You don't think I need to lose weight. I was too skinny before. Appreciated, but it doesn't help the psyche, especially when I can't get my Irish-potato-picking-line-backer shoulders into that knockout dress hubby bought for me six years ago.

Sorry Mom..... you know I love you :-)

Anyway, I found another diet that sounded reasonable and promising. Eating healthier might make me feel better, after all.

I haven't gotten all the way through the diet book part yet, but I can see it involves a buttload (HA!) of fiber, in the form of oats, groats, insane amounts of veggie, and more oats. Apparently I'm expected to poop out all the excess fat.

Yes, I know, it's cleansing. I'm down with the oats. I even like oatmeal. I'm just a little nervous about spending that much time in the toilet.

The main gist of the book appears, so far, to be: cut the crap out of your diet (not literally, as you will be doing a lot of this), eat fresh things, lots of fiber, exercise, and watch meal portions. Duh.

Okay, so the recipe book does have some good info. I've made a few of the dinners, the beef stew and the chicken cassoulet, and they're not bad. Mostly, they just need some bang. Like extra garlic and spices. Blair's Death Sauce is always helpful. Besides, it's all natural – that's what we're going for, right? It's got no calories and no fat. WIN ! Just don't use more than four drops. Hubby refers to it as Wow-wow Sauce (thanks Mr. Pratchett).

I also found most of these recipes make enough for at least eight people, and I need to cut it in half, or I've got leftovers for a month.

The exercise part is difficult to work in due to my current schedule. I'm hoping once I'm off working nights, my daughter and I can go running again.

I'm thinking though.....maybe I should get Leonidas a leash and walk him. Heh. He needs a bit of exercise, he's looking a bit tubby:

Nuclear

This morning, I was overtaken by a stench so rotten, so foul, it made me gag. I heard the scrape, scrape, scraping of giant, fuzzy paws in the litter box, two rooms away. I tried to put it out of my mind - and nostrils - hoping the toxic cloud would dissipate.

It did not.

Leonidas produced a bowel movement so caustic, had he (and his nuclear progeny) been at Thermopylae, the Persians would have disintegrated on the spot.

I got out the biohazard suit and performed the extraction. I survived, but I think all my nasal hair fried off.

His diet hasn't changed, so I've no idea why this happened. Maybe he got into something left in the sink. Or he ate a bug....like a stink bug.

A really big stink bug.

This Is Spartaaaaaaah!

We have a new member of the family. He is named Leonidas, after the King of Sparta.

"Leo", for short.

He's 9 weeks old, and as feisty as a little lion:























We've wanted a kitten for a while now, but found it nearly impossible to find one with "no strings attached". Apparently in our area of Pennsylvania, the only place you can get a kitten is through a breeder or a rescue shelter. We ended up driving out of the area to a reputable, old-style pet shop.

The local chain pet stores only sold kittens from the rescue shelters. As I've mentioned in an earlier post, they require you to fill out an application, which asks for information that is, quite frankly, none of their business. For example:

Do you rent or own your home?
Name of landlord?
Name and phone number of a reference who does not live with you.
Do you allow (shelter name) to visit your home after adoption?
How many children and adults live in your home, and what are their ages?
Do you plan to declaw the cat (I know from someone who adopted one of these cats, they do not allow you to declaw anyway).
Please list all your current pets, and include age and sex of pet.
List all pets owned in the last 5 years.

There's more, but I think you get the idea. On top of that, the kittens come pre-named, and they reserve the right to remove the kitten from your household if they're not satisfied with their "inspection" of your house. As I said before, it feels like your "borrowing" their personal pet.

I realize there's a lot of arseholes out there that abandon cats, and this application process probably began as a means to weed out people who tend to do this. I really can sympathize with that. But in some cases, the list of requirements for kitten adoption is getting a bit weird.

As a side note, I read an interesting story about 2 weeks ago. An elderly couple was denied adopting a puppy.