I feel compelled to write about this because it just seems impossible, and that is after I have seen the game highlights from several sources (not all showing the same highlights). *Follow the money!

I looked at the highlights of this game and repeatedly, I found it difficult to imagine: 1. That Carolina lost this game playing as well offensively as they appeared to be doing. 2. That the other team ran up a score of 70 points.

50 points in a college football game is normally not a “losing score.”

I think Mack Brown “manned up,” taking responsibility for the outrageous loss saying, “I hired everyone, so ultimately I AM RESPONSIBLE.” And he is, but I don’t feel any animosity toward him, as a man, or as a coach. Shell shocked? Yeah, that may be the current feeling, but I still want to see the whole game to try to make some sense of this.

Out in the distance is a question which is asked to try and make some sense of this final score. Were points “shaved” or manipulated to come up with this lopsided outcome? Did gambling have anything to do with this loss/win? Was their a great deal of money either won, or lost on this game? More than is usually wasted in gaming the game?

Closer to home is the question to the Defense of, “How did you let this happen.” This question would need to be directed to the defensive players and to the defensive coaches. This outcome is the equivalent of someone giving you a “snuggy” or pulling down your drawers in gym class in front of a bunch of girls (if you are a guy). If you remember those tough, eaked out, hard fought wins for the rest of your life, surely (and you don’t have to call me Shirley) you’re going to remember ] you are going to remember being spanked in front of thousands of people on a Saturday afternoon.

Is this the greatest football loss in Carolina Football history? And, James Madison isn’t even on the radar (until now) as being “a hated rival.” Wouldn’t you have to think, “They aren’t even in the same league as Carolina?” Well obviously, they proved that statement last Saturday, but definitely not in the way any Carolina fan might want or approve of. This year at that moment, “We (Carolina) don’t deserve to be on the same football field, wasting our opponents time and efforts, and producing such a shitty product for all to see.” And, this isn’t the kind of thing you want to put on display in some Carolina Football Museum.

How do you ever bring your defensive team back from this? “It was an off week.” “We underestimated our opponent.” “We’ve got to cut down on our mistakes.”

Now this game fiasco occurred at the same time that Mark Robinson, the current Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, is facing an outrageous, if proven, scandal. A political career ending scandal that makes you wonder how a person could run for and be elected to the position, and serve a full term as a Lieutenant Governor. I mean, what group of stupid assed Republican leaders got together and said, “Hey this Mark Robinson would be great as Lieutenant Governor or even Governor someday?”

Hey, I’m against abortion. I definitely think chopping up a fetus is equivalent to killing a human being. It’s not like a fetus in a woman is going to turn out to be a three headed dog, or anything other than a human baby when it comes to full term. That’s not to say that a baby instead of being healthy and “normal,” might instead turn out deformed or retarded for life, either a long or short life.

Some years ago, I was living in Jacksonville, North Carolina. A prominent doctor that performed abortions had moved to Jacksonville from Chapel Hill. I recall reading one of his ads in the local newspaper, “The Daily News.” What caught my eye, was a phrase that was included in an ad for this doctor’s women’s clinic. The phase was, “Be good to your baby before it is born.” I thought that phrase was sort of ironic. If you can be good to your baby, before it is born, then wouldn’t having an abortion elicit the phrase, “Kill your baby before it is born?” *I cut the ad out and kept it for a while.

I believe that a woman should have the right to choose, but with that right comes a great responsibility, and ultimately destroying a fetus IS killing a child.

So he’s against abortion. But, it’s the way that he delivers his message. ABRASIVE to the nines! If you’re going to choose to be that offensive in the manner in which you deliver your message, then you would be stupid to think that when “the other side gets a chance” they’re not going to be just as abrasive “right back at’cha.”

Several months ago I was “feeling out” the idea of Mark Robinson becoming the Governor of the Great State of North Carolina with a friend of mine. And to my surprise, my friend rather than agreeing with me that Mark Robinson seemed a really odd choice for an NC Governor, said that he thought the negative press against Robinson was invalid and that Robinson would be his choice in this Race. Made me think. Wasn’t going to make me vote for the opponent, but made me think of why someone would vote for him. I had thought that I might vote for Mark Robinson because nothing would prove the Republican leadership more inept than a perpetual embarrassment in office.

But have I learned nothing? After all years ago I changed political parties. Having been a registered Republican for 35 years, I switched to the Democratic Party, not because I believe in what Democrats were saying or proposing, but because I wanted to vote against Hillary Clinton. And who was she running against? Well Barak Obama, of course! She lost, he won, and he won again. And Barak Obama, socially, would be on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to Mark Robinson. Quiet, thoughtful, soft spoken but determined. *I’m not saying that I agreed with everything that President Obama was hawking.

So, I switched parties. But, I didn’t switch back after my Hillary/Obama vote. I remained a registered Democrat waiting. And, what happened was that the Republican Party seemed to make odd/wrong choice after odd/wrong choice for their candidates. They failed repeatedly to give me a reason or a candidate that I could get behind “solidly.” And I waited to feel good about voting for a Republican who had higher ideals. So in 2016, with Hillary Clinton running against Donald Trump, I chose not to vote for either candidate. First, I couldn’t believe that Republicans would actually present Donald Trump as a viable Candidate for President of the United States. And Hillary Clinton just had an agenda I couldn’t get behind.

Donald Trump’s visit to the Whitehouse proved chaotic. Severely chaotic. He ruled by instigating chaos, and it is tiring. It’s obviously tiring because you just had to look at the waves of noble Republican servants that filled positions in the Government because they wanted to “serve the common good.” And the waves of those same sincere servants that became frustrated and stepped away from service “for the good of their family.”

What happens when you get rid of wave after wave of qualified staff? Well eventually you end up with shit. The best and the brightest are going to step up and win out at first. But, if you frustrate them to the point of their leaving the game, the next row of candidates are not going to be the best and the brightest. They are going to be the second best and the second brightest. Repeat this process enough and we aren’t talking about best and brightest. We are talking about family and ultimately the “riff raff” that thought it thinkable to attack the US Capitol. So many good, staunch Republicans have stepped away that we now have the dreggs in leadership. If there are any of the “old guard” then they are going to have to step up, and suffer, rather than choose to step aside and let shit rule.

I’m not sure that I see a scenario where the old guard take back control of the Republican Party. And slapping a picture of an elephant, or a small American flag pin on someone doesn’t make them a Republican at heart. I have a photo, a scene from the original Star Trek, in which there are two mortal enemies shown side by side. One of the actors in this scene was Frank Gorshin, who also played “the Riddler” in the original Batman. The irony is that both of these persons are painted half white, and half black right down the middle. And we find their only difference is that the side of their body on which the white or the black color is shown is just reversed. A right or left Twixt dilemma. But they humorously, to the audience, are in a death match to destroy the other because of this unfathomable difference. Well, when this episode of Star Trek originally aired, I think both Republicans and Democrats (and even Independents and the Unaffiliated) would have agreed upon the absurdity of this scenario. I’m not sure that would be the case today. In fact for many years, probably since the Tea Partiers first uttered the phrase, “It’s our way, or no way,” Republicans began to only want it the Republican Way. There would no longer be any compromise, and “the other side” would be demonized. Hey, “the other side” be he Republican, Democrat or Independent isn’t some inhuman piece of shit that comes from Hell, and wants to destroy America, and the American Way. We are all infallible human beings with warts and all that are just trying to make the best of what we are given… or what we can take from those weaker than ourselves.

Working together, even if it means compromising, gets more people “across the line” than concluding that only half of us are going to make it, and we’re going to make damned sure we are the successful half. America was built on successful compromise. I don’t think that I’m living in a generation that can successfully protect America from foreign attack. We’ve walked away from God, and we can’t even work together within our own Party to get things done in Congress.

There was a change in America with the 9-11 Attack. It’s obvious because since that attack we have had one American President with the first name of Barak, and we may have another President with a first name of Kamala. And, God forbid, a woman become the American President.

America has been attacked, and a great part of that attack was from the inside. You can’t have an American President telling the American people that you can’t trust our Electoral System. Especially since it was never proved to be true. You can’t get much more subversive than that. If the American people can’t trust our election process, then why vote, all is lost already.

I’ve temporarily (hopefully) lost one of my new hearing aids. My left ear was itching and so I took out my hearing aid, and twisted the cotton off of a cotton swab so that I could scratch the itch with the stick end of the swab. But then, the rest becomes fuzzy. I don’t recall getting up from my chair. I didn’t see the hearing aid on the table next to my easy chair (but the cotton swab is there). I had the burgundy “throw” on top of me.

I then thought that maybe I had laid the hearing aid down on the throw, but had moved and it had rolled off into the creases of the chair or onto the floor. I stood up and shook the burgundy throw, and nothing. I took the colorful, fall themed table top that I use for the seat of my easy chair and shook it, nothing. Hmm. Eventually, I checked the creases of the chair, and even found that there was a removable cushion. I looked under the cushion, nothing. I’ve lifted the chair from the front, from the back, a couple of times, and have even turned the chair on it’s right side and still nothing… other than I see the chair is broken, severely. There were two wooden braces that go across the bottom of the chair, and one of them had busted near one edge. There was a bent metal wingnut that had deformed that apparently had held that end of this brace. I’m guessing that the foot rest, which hasn’t worked for quite a while (it is semi-extended out so that I can rest my legs on it) stopped working about the time that the wooden brace broke.

Now that I see how badly the chair is damaged, I may just get another. I’ve seen one like it, but not as good a quality (not La-Z-Boy) for about $400. *I’ve just gone online and found a nice looking recliner (modern style) at Lowe’s. **Still trying to figure out exactly what “no motion recliner” means. I’ve read and explanation which didn’t clear things up, and I see a recliner labeled as “no motion” but the back lays aback up to 135 degrees. It doesn’t reference being able to swivel the chair either? I don’t know, but the Lowe’s chair is only $290 – $302.

Swivel Recliner Chair, PU Leather Reclining Chair for Living Room, Modern Recliner Sofa with Footrest, Dark Brown

Gray Faux Leather Standard (No Motion) Recliner for only $239. ***Already read a couple of reviews which tell me not to buy this chair because it is poorly made and breaks in 6 months or so.

Oh, my, my!

So after I inspected the chair thoroughly, I thought, “Maybe the hearing aid had bounced away from the chair and not into or under it. So I looked around, and still no hearing aid. *I still was thinking that it must have got caught between one of the chair’s creases and had just not shaken loose. And then just one more thought, “What if I left the other hearing aid in my car.” But that would mean that I must have imagined my ear itching, and that I had taken that hearing aid out of my ear before scratching the itch with the cotton swab stick. **Wouldn’t that last alternative be much more worrisome that a hiding item in my easy chair? Yes, it would!

I put my shorts on, with the suspenders, and then put my vibrant pinkish shirt on over the suspenders. Normally, I don’t put the shirt on over the suspenders because I have to remove the shirt before dropping the suspenders to pull my pants/shorts down. I walked out to my car, and noted that some of the ground was wet and it appeared that there had been some rain overnight. I walked around the car to see if the tires appeared to be inflated, and then walked back around to the driver’s side door and opened it. As I stuck my head inside, yes, there it was. The other hearing aid was in a little slot near the gear stick (not a stick drive, but automatic). Oh, my! I probably took out one hearing aid as I went in to shop either in Pate’s Farm Market or a little later in the Walmart across town.

But the worrisome part of this is that I had imagined that I had a hearing aid in my ear. The ear had itched, and I had removed the hearing aid before scratching the ear. The part that I know I didn’t imagine was that I had twisted one end off of a cotton swab so that I could use the stick part of it to scratch the ear better. *Well, I don’t see the swab with the twisted off end, but I could have easily thrown it away. But, if I didn’t then I guess I imagined that as well. Oh, boy.

“Oh, hell yeah.” I was just looking for the cotton swab, and as I was moving stuff on the table, I heard something drop to the floor. I look and my daily drug container had fallen off and I see tablets on the floor. I hope the morning & evening tablets didn’t mix. *They didn’t. Only one tray top popped open.

I bought some more raw peanuts at Pate’s yesterday. I’ve bought several batches this season and they have all been good. I bought some fresh okra. The okra are getting smaller and tougher looking, but they fried up nicely yesterday. I happened to look for the Noosa Yogurt in Walmart yesterday and found it. I bought one of the slightly larger containers, which is probably about 9 oz. Their small container is 4.5 oz. I bought their Raspberry Yogurt and it was good too. They may not include fresh fruit as I had thought with the blueberry, but it may just be a fruit flavored jam in the bottom. But, their yogurt is smooth, thick and nicely tart. I paid $1.98 for the larger container, but only $1 for the smaller containers (at Food Lion), but it looks like Food Lion is trying to get rid of this yogurt. If their prices are not too expensive, the Noosa Yogurt is worth buying compared to the textures and quality of other yogurts.

[NOTE 10/03/24]: So a day or so ago, I realized that one of my hearing aids had stopped working. I first thought that it had just run out of energy and needed to be recharged, so I put that hearing aid back in the charger. Later I took the hearing aid out of the charger and put it in my ear. Normally the aid will beep and then I will hear a slight hiss as it starts to amplify the outside noise. But, no. It was still dead. At some point I look back and see that the charging plug has been pulled out of the wall outlet, so I plug it back in. Oh, and I switched the charging bowl in which I put the hearing aid, in case it was the charger and not the hearing aid. I also changed the cabling, which I had switched around using the hearing aid charging cable in my car and using the Chromebook charging cable for the phone & hearing aid in my apartment. Nope. I’m going to have to contact Audion and see what to do about fixing it myself, or getting them to send me another one. I did take out some kind of insurance so this shouldn’t be a problem. [end NOTE]

*I may have been talking to Jeff Mitchell at lunch the other day when I realized that the Easy Find Lids are not a product of Tupperware, but of Rubber Maid. So what I wrote below was meaningless because Tupperware is having the problem, and Bill is using the Rubber Maid products.

All things come to an end, but the recent announcement that Tupperware was filing for bankruptcy, was disappointing. Why? Well, I have used the Tupperware Easy Find Lids sets for many years. I think I always bought it from Walmart and I’m pretty sure I’ve bought at least two 20 item sets. Clear plastic bowls with red tops. I still prefer the lids that don’t have the vents.

Sears came and went. By the time she went, I wasn’t a regular shopper, but it is difficult to imagine how popular Sears was when I was growing up. There was no Walmart or Amazon, or web. You got the seasonal Sears catalogs, looked though them, and perhaps folded the page corners to remind you of something you liked on a page. The Christmas catalog was a separate issue. Many of the pages were not in color.

Surprisingly, Roses Department Stores have lasted to present day. How? I rarely go into a Roses, but there is one near a Food Lion that I frequently visit. I think I was looking for a chess set the last time I visited this Roses and they didn’t have it. A combination checkers/chess set (using the same red & black board) with cheap shiny plastic pieces was always a part of the games in the toys section of a store.

Bang Bang Potatoes

Sauce

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 T whole buttermilk
• 1 T Sriracha chile sauce
• 1/2 T sweet Thai chili sauce
• 1/2 t rice vinegar

I just had a thought that if I like the flavor of this sauce, I might start using it for my hash browns at JK’s. *So, I just made a small “batch” of this sauce and… it’s okay, but not quite memorable. It looks like Yum Yum sauce (which I like on my egg rolls at Maguro’s.

I’m now thinking of adding some of the other spices listed in the Bang Bang Potatoes recipe to see if that will put this sauce “over the top.” The other spices were to be added directly to the potatoes. — I just tried a bunch of spices and none actually improved this sauce greatly. I added onion & garlic powder with smoked and regular paprika. Nope. I added amchur and tamarind powder, cilantro leaves, celery seeds. No matter where I tried to go with this, failure. Oh, well. But, the new spice jars do make this process easy.

**I haven’t been to Maguro’s in quite a while, but I liked their Thai Basil Chicken for lunch. I had it about once a week back during Covid. ***Russ and Deborah took me to Maguro’s for the first time, for my birthday. Russ had the Thai Basil Chicken and Deborah and I ordered something else, but I kept looking across the table at his meal and thought it looked pretty good. Mine was okay. At some point Russ asks something like, “What’s that hot thing in this.” I thought I saw a slice of jalapeno. As I recall after lunch they were planning to spend the afternoon with me to celebrate my birthday, but as I walked to the parking lot, I was already feeling stomach uneasiness and knew I was going to need to go to the bathroom, so I “bowed out” and told them I was going back home. Which I did, but next day I drove back up to Southern Pines and to Maguro’s and I ordered the Thai Basil Chicken for lunch.

It was soooooo good! It was worth coming back the next day, and for many other lunch specials for the next couple of years. The chicken had a unique flavor. The fried rice was good, and the spring roll was delicious. They had a sweet sauce, but I later asked for some Yum Yum Sauce and it was good too.

This dish wasn’t always prepared the same way. Sometimes it didn’t have any jalapenos. Many times it had mushrooms, which I like, but not in this dish (and sometimes I would pick them out). It did have colorful sweet bell peppers almost always. The spring roll was fried crispy and had a good filling. I guess it didn’t have chopped cabbage like egg rolls. I did find that when I didn’t eat all of this dish at lunch, I could take the rest home in a “to go” box and add some more onions & peppers and it might even be better than what I had experienced at lunch… but not always.

Talking about the spring roll and egg rolls, quite a few years ago, but after I had come to Fayetteville to work (August 1995), there was a Chinese restaurant near the corner of Tokay and Ramsey Street, where the Baskin Robbins has been for many years now. It was called “Good Luck” and it had a small dining area with maybe four or six booths. They had the best egg rolls I’ve ever eaten, and I am speaking about ever in my whole life. These would be the best egg rolls ever like Seaboard Station’s fried chicken is the best I’ve ever had (in my whole life). I think I was told that they double fried the egg rolls, and they were bigger (fatter in diameter) and had a crispy shell. Two egg rolls would make a meal easily.

There was a large Chinese take out box on a pole out front (next to Ramsey Street). It had the name of the restaurant painted on it’s side (maybe two sides) and although I never saw it move, I’m thinking that it might have been an electric rotating sigh at one time. I think the main chef was an old Chinese gentleman, and I figured that when he finally became sick, or maybe even died, that they had no one that could cook those delicious, special egg rolls. One of my first food losses.

Food losses? Well, I think I’ve lost the really delicious Margherita Pizza from “Sticks-n-Stones” Restaurant in Greensboro, NC. The last two times I’ve been there this pizza just hasn’t tasted as good, and I’ve had many of these that were so good that I would actually stop, briefly, and say to myself, “That’s a really good pizza.” I first heard about this exceptional pizza from a morning TV show. They said that Sticks-n-Stones was one of the three best artisanal pizzas in the United States. When I heard that I told myself that I was going to go there and try one. And, I did and it WAS really tasty. I think I read or was told that they had a wood fired pizza oven that helped make these pizzas so special.

Lost foods? There was a Chinese restaurant near the Red Lobster Restaurant in Fayetteville. It was called “China II” and it was located on the corner of McPherson Church Road. The Hibachi Grill came to town and it wasn’t too long after that that China II closed up shop. I guess they couldn’t compete. But, China II had a Jalapeno Pork dish (on their buffet) and I would get that almost every time that I had lunch there. I have tried to repeat the flavors of this dish, and have come relatively close, but have never quite made it perfectly at home. Cooking cubed pork with jalapenos and with a little garlic powder might go a long way. *As I recall I loved the spicy flavor of this dish, but as good as it tasted at lunch time, when it was burning my asshole at 3 am the next morning I always regretted it. I did think several times it would be wonderful if you could get that jalapeno flavor without the jalapeno heat, but it was years later that I saw a jar of “Tamed Jalapenos,” which were without much heat.

Wendy’s hamburgers? Several years ago, I was eating one of the basic Wendy’s hamburgers and began to think that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I once had. After I came back to work from lunch, I googled about this and found that Wendy’s had changed their basic burger. I think they changed from a sesame seeded bun that was steamed before serving, and the hamburger might have also been steamed in the process because both bun and burger were warm and moist. Well this change wasn’t for the better. I must have saved the chain money, but if it chases away enough customers it wasn’t worth it in the long run. Still Wendy’s hasn’t gone out of business, but I haven’t been to Wendy’s in a long time.

Subway lunch combo? For many years, Subway offered a lunch combo which included a six inch sub (your choice of bun, meat and veggies) and you could have chips or a cook with that, and a drink with free refill. The Subway that I visited for lunch, for many years, located on Raeford Road just down from the Harris Teeter (now between HT & Publix) stopped offering this special about two years ago. I haven’t been back since they first told me about no longer offering the special. But, during tough economic times, I appreciated that they offered a cheap & delicious lunch.

Almost forgot this loss. Hunan Garden Chinese Restaurant on Raeford Road in the Harris Teeter shopping area. I went to this restaurant for many years, and they had good food even changing ownership at least once. But then one day I go for lunch and order and I ask the waiter if they can change out the rice for more veggies. And, to my surprise, the waiter told me they couldn’t do that. After the waiter left I thought about this for a while, and finally came to the conclusion that I had switched out rice for veggies many times in the past. Later I found that the new management had said to no longer do this.

I was also thinking that the egg rolls didn’t taste as good as I remembered. And, now I would say, “they weren’t as good, because their flavor had changed.” It wasn’t me, that had changed. So, all those years of good will that had accumulated “went out the window” with the new ownership. I noted that they closed off the side entrance and created a new one facing Raeford Road, but I don’t think I’ve ever returned to this restaurant since they made that change. I just saw it “in passing” in my car.

[NOTE 09/19/24]: I bought a bag of Russet potatoes at Food Lion. They had an unusually dark brown skin and all were approximately the same size, small. But, this is exactly what I wanted. I’m a Type 2 diabetic and I don’t need a lot of starch in my diet, but I also don’t want to cut out potatoes all together. Normally when you buy either potatoes or onions in a bag there is an assortment of sizes included. But as I said, these were ALL the same small size.

I was a little wary of their dark skin color, but I guess that’s a fear ingrained from my youth;-) No, in a potato, I thought their skin might be tougher. But they weren’t. I have baked several of these already and the whole potato is tender and delicious. I don’t have to cut a larger potato in half to get the exact portion I desire.

The company that packed these potatoes was Nature’s Way Farms of Faison, North Carolina. This surprised me. I guess I think that most potatoes come from Idaho, but this produce packer is “local” and I often drive nearby when traveling on I40 (going to/from Jacksonville, NC to visit family). I would also like to compliment this company on an effective web site. I am a retired web master from a small, local university, and I wouldn’t think that a local agri-producer would be this “on the ball” regarding both a good product and good communications/advertising via the web. *I hope they won’t mind if I try to visit them sometime in the future. [end NOTE]

I had some Noosa Blueberry Yogurt today. I was shopping at a Food Lion that I normally do not frequent and thought about buying a cup of yogurt to eat before I ate lunch. I’ve made the mistake before of buying yogurt that doesn’t actually have real fruit in it. The Noosa container was smaller than others, but it appeared that there was actual fruit in the bottom. The yogurt itself had a better flavor and you could scoop the fruit and jam into the start yogurt with each spoon full.

Food Lion was selling this yogurt at a substantial discount. Only $1. I’m guessing that they will discontinue Noosa soon.

I just saw a Noosa commercial on TV and there was an Aussie announcer so I guess Noosa is an Australian company.

01/01/25: The Noosa yogurt was delicious, but I eventually found the Greek God’s Yogurt (plain) at Harris Teeter and it has been good for me.

[NOTE 09/17/24]: At the end of the growing season last year (2023) I tried three distinct peppers: trinidad perfume, brazilian starfish and the biquinho. I put them in a seafood chowder that I made that included: cod fish, chopped clams, shrimp and bay scallops, with a cream base. The cod fish has a unique fibrous texture. The chowder was very delicious and it was both hot physically and spicy hot, but not too hot. I don’t like really hot peppers, but do like those with a little heat that have unique flavors.

So this season I went up to the State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh each week and slowly at first the peppers began to appear in Ronnie Moore’s vendor space. They separate the peppers both by individual pepper, and also between hot & mild peppers. They charge more for hot peppers.

I don’t recall which of these three peppers I saw this season, but I know I didn’t see all three, even though I asked about them each time and even late into the season, and my last visit, I noted that the number of the different varieties had severely been reduced. [end NOTE]

I am able to easily grab spices now as I begin to cook. I currently like to add a little vinegar with some Agave Nectar and some sweetener. But also, I added some Amchur (mango powder), some Tamarind powder, garlic powder, freshly ground Long Pepper & S, and a little ground mustard.

I had bought two good sized pork chops at Publix. The two chops weighed a little over a pound so I cut one in two so that I would have a single portion of about 4 ounces. I baked a small Russet potato (for 4 minutes) in the microwave and I also cut up some lettuce, tomato, onion and sweet bell pepper and added a little Ranch dressing to it.

I like the mango powder because it is a little tart and then the vinegar & sweetener add to that sweet/tart flavor.

I enjoyed my meals yesterday and two of the things I measure, my weight and my resting blood sugar level were very positive this morning. My resting bgl was 123 (excellent for me), and my weight was 253 lbs. My weight has fluctuated over the last week and yesterday I was 255.2.

I used my last Rybelsus pill this morning so tomorrow I guess I can start my Ozempic shot. This is a once a week shot like Trulicity was for me. I don’t think that the Rybelsus was working as well as Trulicity had been, both for keeping my bgl down and reducing my weight. And at my last doctor’s appointment with Dr. Norem she admitted that Rybelsus was not as effective as Trulicity.

I see online that alternatives to Trulicity are Jardiance, Metformin and Glipizide. I am currently taking all three of those and have been for several years.

Not sure which level of Ozempic I am starting out with. Probably their lowest dosage, so I may have to ask Dr. Norem to increase the dosage level.

I had proved that I could control my A1C effectively at my appointment before the last one I had, but at the last appointment my A1C was almost back to the previous high level, somewhere over 7. But before I had gotten it down to 6.7. There is no way that I want to start taking insulin shots on a regular basis, although I would imagine that they have migrated to the way you take Trulicity or Ozempic. The shots are kept in the fridge, and you turn the knob at the top and place the shot on your stomach and then press the button. You hear the spring release the needle and there is a slight discomfort and then in about 5 seconds you hear the spring pull the syringe back into the holder. Then, you just throw away the used needle.

I have to pay attention to what I eat and how I fix it. I can’t add “Cream of…” Celery or Mushroom soup to create a gravy because this throws off my bgl. I can’t eat a bunch of bread, although I can eat perhaps one slice of bread at a meal, and some rice crackers at another, and polenta at another. That satisfies my hunger for bread. I can have a small baked potato, just not every day. I can have an ear of corn once a week (in season) or maybe some garden peas but not a whole can in a day. I like garden peas in my tuna salad, and I did “cheat” the other day and made some garden peas with country ham and added a few slices of Anne’s pastry. The pastry is not something I can have every day, or in great quantity, but this turned out very well.

I liked steamed asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. I also like squash, brussels sprouts and zucchini. I almost always add onion to my cooking. I like tasty tomatoes and okra (in soups or fried). And I like carrots in my stir fry, or glazed with some Cary’s Sugar Free Syrup. I like various beans but they affect my bgl also. However, I can fix lentil soup (andouille), or I have a shrimp/kielbasa/zucchini dish that is consistently good. I like salad and went through a Greek Salad period at home a few months ago. I bought Romaine lettuce, feta cheese and kalamata olives and with a little onion & tomatoes, and enjoyed homemade Italian dressing (red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, and sweetener).

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere the bag of Russet potatoes I bought were all about the same size. Small, and small is what I currently like. I don’t need a lot of potato and if the potato I am cooking is too big I just cut it in half. These Russets also had an extremely dark brown skin, but it wasn’t tough and I ate the whole potato with some margarine and sour cream. The four minutes cooking time might have been almost too long, because the skin of the potato had begun to wrinkle, but the potato wasn’t dry or tough.

[NOTE 09/27/24]: Hurricane Helene came through quickly mostly west of here, but I see there was quite a bit of damage in Rocky Mount. I think they may have said that there were 15 people injured by the high winds that came through.

I had a pork chop (with the Tamarind and Amchur (Mango) powder, Agave Nectar, Equal, lime juice, vinegar and S&P. It was good again. I like those flavors together. I also steamed some cauliflower (added a little Toasted Sesame Oil after it was cooked) and a few asparagus stalks and a little polenta. [end NOTE]

the question comes up regarding a space vehicle’s name. You need to know “what was Apollo’s sister’s name.” To which I answer, “Helga the Slut.” The correct answer was “Artemis.” I guess that’s why I was never chosen for one of these teams in high school.