I'm allergic to the world and a corn free recipe.

First the allergy fun: I just finished 4 rounds of allergy testing, as in 4 allergy testing appointments with skin prick testing all down my back and some times with shots down my arm too. Round 1 was vindicating, but not helpful. It showed I was allergic to grass and trees. It was vindicating in that anyone who has ever been annoyed with me refusing to touch grass (i.e. sit in the awful stuff) can now, kindly go choke on something.

Allergy testing round 2: LIFE CHANGING. Not fun. I had an anaphylactic reaction to the testing. It was delayed so I left after the testing and had to come back in. The short version: 1 week on a hefty dose of prednisone, a RX strength antihistamine, an OTC antihistamine, crap tons of albuterol (nebulizer and rescue inhaler).  The biggies were household dust and animals. No more denial about being allergic to the geriatric cat.  The other realization: OOOOH SO THAT'S WHY I ALWAS FEEL SUPER CRAPPY WHEN CLEANING AND AM USELESS AFTER!!! I've changed how I clean and now get more done and have some energy left over (DO NOT DRY DUST, PEOPLE! BE SMARTER THAN ME!).  Also my husband has started helping with the housework I shouldn't be doing so much (dusting mostly). Huge run on: And I've been using the HEPA vac and the carpet cleaner a lot more and there's a HEPA filter in the bedroom and I've been using this allergy spray stuff, washing bedding more often attacking the cat with Simple Solution cat allergy stuff and allergy wipes and just plain getting out more. WHEW that was long.

Round 3 (which was delayed over 2 weeks to make sure I was fully recovered from round 2): Amazingly was pretty uneventful (I was allergic to some stuff but not enough to knock me out for 2 weeks).

Round 4: FOOD!!!! GLORIOUS FOOD!!! They did 52 skin pricks on this one. I was so very, very scared. The food allergies were the reason I went to the allergist.  Amazingly, no horrific reactions! They weren't able to test for all the foods I suspect (this is probably good, I'm just assuming allergic to them for now). The biggie here was CORN. I'm not very allergic to it but it's in EVERYTHING. I MEAN EVERYTHING. Not just corn syrup and corn starch, EVERYTHING!!!! My freaking toothpaste had corn in it, shampoo, 3/4 of the food in my house, etc. I'm allergic to some other foods too but they're easier to avoid (shellfish, avocado, rye, melon).  I'm trying to avoid food I'm allergic to to see if it makes me feel better.

I'm anxious for the follow up with the doc. I'm hopeful that she'll say not to worry so much about the corn allergy so that I can occasionally eat at a restaurant, buy produce somewhere other than just the farmer's market, eat occasional cheese. It's 100 degrees out and since I'm avoiding corn, I can't eat ice cream, fml. I'm obsessing over it. This can't be healthy, right?

Anyway, I'm trying for 1 week to not eat anything I'm allergic to (tried last week and failed daily, DAILY). We'll see. I'm going to eat some weird things this week, I think.

Corn free recipe 1: Bastardized spring rolls! <--yummy and completely unlike spring rolls aside from the roll part)

Rice wraps (Greenland brand rice paper--they have rice and tapioca)
tofu--one package(careful--some of this has CORN IN IT!) I found one that I think is corn free. This should be soy you stupid companies.
Flax seed--about 2 tsp
Coconut oil about 2 T
fresh green beans from the farmer's market--around 5-7 (the ones at the store are probably covered in corn or ripened artificially with corn because 'Merica must put corn in everything, for funsies!)
cilantro 
basil  (both fresh and from farmer's market/homegrown)

Slice tofu, and beans as desired. Cook tofu, beans flax seeds in coconut oil. Prep rice paper per package (you soak it for a few seconds).  place small amount of tofu, beans, flax in rice wrapping (I didn't drain the coconut oil). Add sprigs of basil and cilantro. Wrap it all up like a tiny burrito, and repeat until you've used up all your filling.

My family liked them so much they demanded I make them 2 nights in a row. It's a win.

Window shopping for houses *sigh*

So I'm window shopping for houses. I'm not in a position to buy right now (my kingdom for a garden--grr). I just found one I really really want. I can't have it, but it's awesome. It's even (relatively) in my current neighborhood. There's an orange tree (OK so oranges grow like weeds around here and they're stupidly cheap, but still, mature fruit tree yo). It's big. There's a guest house (my husband wants a guest room in our next place which is nice in theory but I want space and privacy and breaks from guests when they're around)--so little guest house would be awesome. And the kitchen made me swoon (it needs an island or something but it's huge and pretty). It's not even all that expensive ($300k). I need to start saving up a downpayment (not for this house, it'll be gone by the time I'm ready to buy again, but surely something cool will be on the market).

Really, seeing my garden demolished affected me more than I thought it would.  Now I want a new garden and house. And I want them here. Ohh, I didn't mention the laundry room. this house had a great laundry room even better than my house in far far away land. OOOH. I hate laundromats. I hate carrying laundry up and down the apt stairs every week.  Bain of my existence. I've looked at other apartments in the neighborhood but the price difference for one with washer dryer hookups is such a significant increase it's not worth it.  Le sigh.

My Old Garden is GONE

Ya know what's weird? Seeing your house a little over a year after you moved out of it. I was looking at the property manager's listing for renting the house today (joy of joys we're between renters--ugh). There's a pic of the backyard. My garden is GONE. The grass is gone. Also, the wine racks I left in the basement are still there (but in the kitchen). I shouldn't have looked. It's kinda messing with my head to see my house all weird and empty. The garden was the worst though. I was promised a plot in the community garden when we moved here (it's been full the entire time and no there's no waiting list--ugh). The part of the garden I could see for sure in the pic was the newer "kitchen garden" section.  I had the most awesome herbs. 

I had Navajo Tea plants (4), Chamomile, Salad Burnett, chives, rosemary, 2 varieties of thyme, a couple varieties of sage, lots of basil (but that's an annual anyway though to a point it will self seed). Last I saw that part of the garden there were a lot of things growing in it. I had some vegetables in there too.  Now it's very packed dirt. Everything I did to it, all the turning the soil, planting everything, everything is gone. 

I didn't think I cared much. I don't intend on living there again. Seeing the garden hurt a bit. I was partly OK with a couple pots of herbs in the apartment window because I had this big garden I could theoretically go back to (though I wouldn't because I don't want to live in that city). 

Ah well. To my garden, farewell old friend.  And to anyone looking at my house, just rent the damn place already!!!!  

Getting in shape is exhausting.

I'm exhausted and I blame exercise. I even made an appointment with my personal trainer this week (an appointment I'd been putting of for oh, about 6 months.  So yeah, that was an hour and a half worth of inspiring torture. I'm now set up on more of the machines at the gym and know how to use them. I can have  a session with D. every week. So in the 7 months I've had a gym membership, I've had one before this week. And it was a short one. I work out an average of 15-30 minutes every week or so at the actual gym not counting swimming with the kiddo (amount of exercise there is highly variable but we swim about 2 times/week). In theory, I'd like to go to the gym and do all that fancy schmancy weight lifting and cardio crap. In practice, I'd like to sleep for 3 days.  I'm not buying the exercise equals lots more energy thing just yet. We shall see.

What happens in L.A. when it rains? We hide indoors!

Seriously, no one goes out when there's weather outside the norm (sunny, mid 70's, no wind). Lord help the locals when it gets to be below 60 during the day. This is frustrating when arranging play dates for my kiddo on slightly chilly days but has the benefit of getting the best parks all to ourselves. This also works for the pool at the gym (no one thinks to go swimming if it's lightly raining out even if it's a heated indoor pool, thus swimming on rainy days is a favorite activity).

Anyway, today I'm hiding indoors from the nice light misty rain. I'm tackling my bedroom. I had grandiose visions of selling the giant piles of clothes that I own but don't wear.  This was going to pay for the giant piles of clothes I just bought. Then I went through my drawers and reality smacked me in the face. There's a REASON I don't wear most of that--it's total crap. I kind of think that Goodwill is going to slightly hate me when I donate this stuff. Hello 20 year old PJ's, stretched out T-shirts, button down shirts that wrinkle so badly that I doubt it's even possible to fully iron them and they're missing a button. Wow.

My "to sell" box has 1 shirt, 1 dress and 1 pair of pants. the Goodwill box is big and overflowing.

My genius moment was to designate 1 drawer for swimsuits (we swim a lot, I have a lot of swimsuits and they wear out fast so it's good to have a lot). I quickly determined the drawer was way too big to waste on swimsuits but I noticed an organizer box thing (one of the fabric kind like the one in the ad below). So, I cleared off a shelf of books I never look at and put the suits in the box. Now they're more easily accessible for quick trips to the pool/beach. My new tankini is right on top--squee (like the one below but with a skirt too and with green flowers on it. Yay. And the most accessible shelves in my bedroom are now more useful to me. The poor books were relocated to the closet.


I will never be a professional organizer but maybe eventually I'll be organized. I need a few more rainy days though.

On Spring Holidays (St. Patty's and Easter)

Right before St. Patrick's Day, I always buy 2 corned beef roasts--my husband thinks I'm insane. In a family of 3, we eat corned beef and cabbage enough meals in a row that no one wants to think of any of those foods for a while. This year, rather than forcing 2 rounds of this on my family, I went with Reubans for the second round. And oh, we are all so very, very happy. Yum.

As for Easter, it's coming up this Sunday. I'm not much a fan of Easter. Before Shithead neglected his dogs to the point where they killed my bunnies for funsies (and anything else they could get their big teeth on), I used to give our buns an extra treat on Easter (cuz I'm goofy like that). For the record, Shithead's dogs were sent off to a lab rescue where they will be well cared for and kept away from small children and animals.

At any rate, I'm not that big on Easter, but I'm OK with doing the Easter Bunny thing. The Easter Bunny may have gone a bit overboard on shopping. But it's OK. I looked at our friendly neighborhood Target and our friendly neighborhood dollar store. They had the same stuff but the dollar store stuff was roughly a quarter of the price. So, the Easter Bunny shopped there.  This year, the Easter Bunny is bringing Piglet a bunch of puzzles, a bunny ears headband (the only part that came from Target), and a bunch of candy.  The Easter Bunny gave me a bag of Jelly Bellies (What?! Don't judge me! It's not robbing my child if I eat the candy before Easter! And there's another bag anyway). 

There's also a free Easter Egg hunt at the park closest to us on Saturday!  Sounds like a giant nightmarish clusterfuck so, naturally, I think we'll go! 

PLEASE PLEASE, don't be a Shithead. Don't adopt animals you won't take care of. Before you buy that live Easter Bunny, remember that the little guys live to be 6-12 years old, so if you're not willing to commit 12 years to them, just buy the plush or chocolate varieties.  Oh and if you are considering adopting a bunny, wait a few months because a couple months after Easter, shelters get flooded with "Easter Bunnies" by Shitheads. 

K. I'm gonna go eat another sandwich now. G'night.

On Money

I've finally gotten my cash rolled over from the pension plan from my previous job into a nice happy little IRA. Yay the corrupt evil bastards are no longer in control of any part of my cash.  That said, I'm finding managing it myself a bit nerve wracking.  Just by nature of it being my "retirement fund" it feels more important and I'm more afraid of losing it. On the other hand, it feels very strange for it to be separate from my usual brokerage account. It sure would be nice to be able to combine the two (ah if only there were no tax implications--seriously, I cashed out my retirement once--don't do that--OMG I was so screwed on taxes that year and I got so little of my principal--ouch).

I need some of my friends to become investors so I have people to chat with about this crap. My closest friends all seem to be of the "no savings at all" variety--sounds terrifying to me.

I'm hemorrhaging cash a bit faster than I'd like. Sigh, time to come up with some additional income sources. I'm trying to put off getting a job as long as possible. Some sort of part time work from home thing would be cool. Piglet benefits from having me around a lot. I still need more resetting time and I'm still working out what I want to do next.   I'm not running out of cash but if I'm not exactly breaking even. I probably shouldn't obsess about this when I'm sick.