Time Cures All

Thank the Goddess! The pain situation improves. The flare is not completely over. And I'm so rarely totally pain-free that I remember those days like special occasions. But I am much improved today, and I haven't degenerated into a two-handed door opener, which was my fear. I noticed myself starting to get better a little after lunch yesterday. Normally as the day progresses I do get less stiff, less pain, just on a regular typical everyday. But when I'm in flare, I can get worse, which is what was going on the past couple of days. Yay! The worse is over for now. I seemed to get more work done yesterday too, which was good. Cuz I'm starting to freak out a little.

Today I will go outside and walk to the post office and the cafe and go to dinner and a movie. This is good.

Last night I watched Transamerica with Felicity Huffman. She's a woman playing a man being a woman, trans-gendered is the term I believe. She was up for a lot of awards last year, and won a few, but still I thought I'd have a hard time getting past the fact that she is really a woman to begin with. It's very interesting though, I was skeptical but she had me believing within the first 10 minutes. It's a good movie. Funny by times. Interesting. See it, if you haven't already. Though I'm likely the last person on earth who hasn't.

Tonight I am going to see Volver with Penelope Cruz. Should be good. It was up for awards recently at the Golden Globes. I don't really have time to go to movies, to be watching DVDs. But sometimes you just gotta take the couple of hours and do these things so you can return refreshed to your tasks. Like last night, I got a lot of work done after I watched the movie. So that was good. Going out tonight and seeing people and having real adult face to face conversation will stimulate some brain cells maybe.

I've been concerned lately about my brain cells. I seem to be forgetful or something. Lots of things on the tip of my tongue that I can never spit out. Knowing what word I want to use and not being able to remember what it is, having to look it up in the reverse dictionary by its meaning. Forgetting simple spellings and having to check. So, I've started taking folic acid every day. Will add more brain foods to my diet like blueberries. And I've started doing a Sudoku Puzzle online every morning.

It was not easy to get myself to do this because we all know how much I dislike numbers and figuring things out like that. Crosswords, yes. Anagrams, no. In the beginning I couldn't solve a puzzle correctly to save my soul (or my brain, as the case might be). Even the single star easy puzzles took a good half hour to 45 minutes to figure out correctly, if I could even do it at all. This was before Christmas sometime, when I decided this would be a good mind exercise for me.

They put a new sudoku on Pogo everyday, just one. So now I'm so much improved at these things that when I go there in the morning to do the new one I'm often disappointed if the puzzle is only rated one or two stars difficulty because that's too easy. I'll have it done in five minutes. Now, I love to see four of five stars shaded in.

I keep seeing sudoku puzzle books at magazine stands, but I haven't purchased one. I talk out loud when I do them. Talk to myself. Figure it all out orally . . . which would not be good for the train and I don't really have time to do any more than the one I do now at home. Though it might be nice to have some to do while I was in Miramichi. Yeah, I should buy a book.

Yesterday I made guacamole (yes, again, I need the nutrients in avocados) and salsa. Yum, yum, yummy! Mom got me this Miracle Blender thing for Christmas that I've been dying to try ever since, but just couldn't seem to find the time. Making these things from scratch, actually takes a bit more time than just popping some toast or throwing a potato into the microwave. And I've been in a crunch. Plus my kitchen has been in a perpetual state of disaster these past couple of weeks, so I haven't been willing to throw new appliances into that mix. Until yesterday.

I made the cutest little cup of salsa! The cup that you put your ingredients in to chop and mix also serves as a storage container. There are lids and everything. There's a blender base and then all these attachments. I guess this would be the generic brand of the Bullet that I saw on the TV infomercial awhile back. It worked fantastic for the salsa! Though I didn't have my bearings and went a little too fine this time. The avocado proved to be too . . . thick? dense? There are two blades though, and I might have been using the wrong one. So, after a few tries I did the guacamole in the manual food processor that Stacy gave me.

Still, it was fun and the result is so delicious. Eventually I want to make a lot of my own condiments, like peanut butter and ketchup, because then you can control the ingredients, the sugar, and it's all natural and fresh and has to be healthier for you. I had some of the salsa with my eggs this morning, instead of ketchup. Of course, the last time I bought ketchup there was a sale so I have a couple of bottles here that I do have to use up before I can go au natural.

I'm looking forward to making some smoothies using the blender attachment and also some juices . . . because apparently it's a juicer too. How cool is that?

And that's my ramble for today. Adios amigos.

Mood: chipper
Drinking: coffee
Listening To: humming, ice sliding off the roof
Hair: gawd!