And suddenly, it was spring

I've been spending most of this past week indoors feeling like something that's been stepped on. This morning was the first that I've felt half-human, and was dying for some fresh air. I peeked outside and discovered that lo and behold, SPRING had arrived sometime in the past few days!




It was sunny! And warm! Apologies to you punctuation purists out there, but I feel the extra exclamations are well-warranted in this case.

Anyway, I happily dug out a peasant skirt, sleeveless t-shirt and sandals. I'm a huge peasant skirt fan. I love the feel of material wishing around my legs as I walk; I've always found pants somewhat suffocating. Peasant skirts go in and out of fashion (ok, mainly out) but I've never paid much attention to fashion trends; I just love wearing loose and swirly skirts.

I walked down to Cobbs Breads; someone had put a coupon for a free loaf of bread in our mailbox. My loaf of Country Grain was still warm when I picked it up:



Dropped by the fruit market for some fresh raspberries, strawberries and bananas. And then (I saved this for last) visited The Chocolate Messenger to check out their sugar-free selection.

I mentioned last week that my doctor had reported that my blood sugar was high enough (borderline high) that I should cut down on sweets. I've decided that I'm going to play it by ear until my next annual check-up. I'm not going to get obsessed with what I can and can't eat, nor am I going to cut out all chocolate. I'm also not going to worry about cutting down on carbohydrates, etc...I'll work on the sweets first, and see what my next check-up says.

I'm going to save real chocolate for special occasions, savouring it all that much more, and investigate alternatives to satisfy my sweet tooth, plus try to get out of the habit of always craving somewhat sweet after every meal. It'll be tough at first, I know, but I figure healthier for me in the long run. And speaking of running, I also plan to ramp up my exercise schedule.



Above: I bought three sugar-free truffles from The Chocolate Messenger. I've had the dark chocolate truffle so far, and it was very VERY good. I wouldn't have known it was sugar-free from the taste.

So it doesn't look I'm going to suffer much. There's little danger of me overdoing sugar-free chocolate -- most store-bought sugar-free packages are plastered with "EXCESS CONSUMPTION MAY CAUSE LAXATIVE EFFECT" warnings which are somewhat off-putting, plus (as I've mentioned before) I've rapidly discovered that sugar-free doesn't necessarily mean low calorie.

My doctor's warning, however, was a good wake-up call, prompting me to start investigating sugar and sugar-free info. Thanks so much to those of you who have offered advice and encouragement. If I come up with anything that I feel might interest others as well over the next while, I'll post it in Blatherings.

Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy the rest of this fine spring day and luxuriate in the ability to walk around for more than a few minutes without needing to fall over.



Livejournal comments

sick

Still sick. I seem to be lagging a day behind Jeff in symptoms; I'm crossing my fingers and hoping he wakes up today feeling great. We've been sleeping in separate rooms so we don't keep each other up with our coughing, etc. in hopes that one of us recovers enough to take care of the other.


(Click image for bigger version and cat name plea)

The other night we had fish sticks for dinner. They actually weren't bad, considering we just had to stick them in the oven: High Liner Multigrain Tilapia Breaded Fillets. My sister (yay for sisters!) brought by homemade chicken soup and muffins the other day.

Other bright spots in this germ-laden week so far...

I found out that my Beadbrain Skullshaker from the Snyder family glows in the dark!



The happy face balloon from Mich, Marilisa and Simon is still floating:



And I found a sugar-free chocolate chip cookie that actually tastes okay:



One thing I'm quickly discovering, however: sugar-free does not necessarily mean low calorie. I also picked up some sugar-free chocolate from the drugstore to try out. To all those who offered helpful advice and encouragement: THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Back to bed.



Livejournal comments

Chocolate deprivation and Skullshakers

So the conversation at my doctor's this afternoon went something like this...

DOCTOR: "So your blood tests came back and everything looks good except for your blood sugar levels. They're too high."

ME: "Oh?"

DOCTOR: "You had high blood sugar levels before, as I recall..." (flips through records) "...so I think you should cut down on sweets from now on. Anything with refined sugars."

ME: "Refined sugars? You mean like..." (swallows hard) "...CHOCOLATE?!?"

DOCTOR: "Yes, that's right."

Putting things into perspective, I know there are plenty of things that the doctor could have told me which would be far worse.

But as many of my friends know, I'm a bit of a chocolaholic. Well, maybe MORE than a bit of a chocolaholic. And I LOVE decadent desserts.



In general, I try to cook and eat healthy foods. I exercise regularly. I had figured that with those in cards in play, I could get away with indulging my sweet tooth whenever I wished. Well, looks like I was wrong. :-(

On the positive side, I don't have to cut out sweets completely. I'll be able to appreciate them even more when I do have them. It'll be better for me, healthwise (yes, I'll chanting that over and over again, with gritted teeth....). I'm going to do research to find out more about high blood sugar levels, how to lower them, sweet substitutes. If any of you have experience or knowledge to share, I'd appreciate it.



Sick today, so had to cancel on visiting with Sue, Dave and Tom this evening; I was going to watch Tanya Huff's Blood Ties premiere episode with them. :-( Disappointed about that, and now the chocolate news (ok, sweets in general...but you know it's all about CHOCOLATE!)...well, it hasn't been the greatest day.

But then the postman rang the doorbell, and look what showed up:



A wonderful birthday present from the Snyder family: a genuine Beadbrain Skullshaker for my rhythm instrument collection, woohoo! THANK YOU to Scott, Amanda, Zoë and Will, and thanks especially for the bright spot in an otherwise greyish day.

:-)



Livejournal comments

Four books

Life has been a tad hectic lately and I haven't been able to read as much as usual, so I decided to make up for it this past weekend. In addition to attending a wonderful Great Lake Swimmers concert on Saturday evening, I spent a great deal of the weekend reading.

One of the greatest pleasures of life, as far as I'm concerned, is reading an entire book at one sitting. I managed to do this FOUR TIMES in the past few days. Jeff and I seemed to have both picked up a bit of a bug, and have been spending much of the weekend indoors. Mine has been happily buried in books.

Even more happily, all of my reads were excellent, the kind of stories that draw you in and compel you to keep reading until the very last page. They were:

How To Get Suspended and Influence People by Adam Selzer. Aimed at young adults, this had a ton of clever writing and laugh-aloud humour. I had a chance to chat with Adam (who is also a talented songwriter and musician!) at GAfilk and will be interviewing him for Inkygirl. More about the book in the interview.

Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time by Lisa Yee. I loved the first book in this series, Millicent Min: Girl Genius and loved Stanford Wong even more. I adore Lisa Yee's characters, PLUS she's funny, PLUS her characters have heart. Both books made me cry at some point, and I can't wait to pick up So Totally Emily Ebers. I'm also a big fan of Lisa's Livejournal and hope to meet her in person someday.

The Sea Of Monsters by Rick Riordan. Sequel to the acclaimed The Lightning Thief and second in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, this is an action-packed story aimed at 9-12 year olds. A great read.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, author of one of my all-time favourite books, Goose Girl. My twelve-year-old niece lent me her copy and warned me that once I started reading it, I wouldn't be able to put it down until I was finished. She was right! I'm going to have to get my own copy. It's not as lyrically written as Goose Girl, but I *loved* the characters and the story.



Livejournal comments

Stars Fall Home

Above: Beckett Gladney's gorgeous cover for Seanan McGuire's new CD, Stars Fall Home. I played flute on one of the tracks, Dorothy, which focuses on the heroine of Wizard of Oz. Great song and gorgeous harmonies!

I was also tickled to discover that Seanan had drawn illustrations of all the musical guests; you can see mine to the right. In addition to myself, guest performers include: Paul Kwinn, Michelle Dockrey, Tony Fabris, Amy McNally, Kristoph Klover, Alisa Garcia, Luis Garcia, Margaret Davis, Deirdre McCarthy, Kris Yenney, Beckett Gladney, Arlene Hills, Mich Sampson, Mike Whitaker, Jeff Bohnhoff, Maya Bohnhoff, Erica Neely, and Merav Hoffman.

You can find out more about Seanan's new CD on this page, and you can pre-order your copy for $15 here! I am SO looking forward to getting my copy.



Will Write For Chocolate has been updated (click image above to see a bigger version). This week's topic: Why do YOU read blogs? Click here to read the post and answer the survey.




The new and improved Filk FAQ has been updated. I've been gradually moving the site over to a new server as well as converting it to Wordpress format. Current survey: Stage etiquette tips for performers. Respondents' answers will be integrated into the FAQ.



Photo by Allison.

Video O' The Day

And now I'm going to try embedding my first YouTube movie. I first met Acacia Sears in a filk circle years ago, and was blown away by her voice and the energy she put into her performances. Her first album with Sleepy Records recently debuted: Dialtones ($12). I bought my copy a while back before she signed with Sleepy Records; one of my favourites is "George's Tongue" (words by Neil Gaiman).

You can hear a few of her songs on her MySpace page (which includes a recording of George's Tongue, yay!). The song below is a video of one of Acacia's original songs, "Autumn."







Livejournal comments