Sunday Sundries--Memorial Day Desserts

I always thought it was weird saying "Happy Memorial Day." I spent several late May days on the Wabash River Bridge and various cemeteries with the Job's Daughters, singing "Nearer My God to Thee."

This was a Masonic organization I belonged to in my teens. The DeMolay (boy's equivalent organization) would have someone play "Taps" and a woman from the VFW Auxiliary would throw a wreath off the bridge. After all:

My buddy, Mark Lipinski, recommended a lovely blog:

From Death to Ice Cream: Ideas for Fully Celebrating Memorial Day

Megan Cox discusses how to celebrate the dichotomy, letting kids visit a cemetery, go to the town parade and then enjoy the cookout.

One part of the holidays I really love is getting together with family and the food. I've been obsessing recently about desserts. When haven't I been obsessing about sweets?

Truth.
I love these things and I want to share with everyone:

One of my characters lives for dark chocolate, as do I. Hubby and I were in Hawaii for our 15th wedding anniversary and I had carefully packed some dark chocolate nuggets. My husband saw them and decided he was going to start eating chocolate again. I was distraught. I didn't bring enough to share. He gave up chocolate for a couple of years. I could never do that:

I do try to stay with the dark chocolate and I gave that to one of my characters.

I do have some Godiva Dark Chocolate Pearls in my purse. I haven't told my husband.....
I've tried to lose weight again. This made me smile:

I tease my husband about looking at other women's, um, assets. I sneak an admiring look every once in a while too. I may be fixated at this, I admit:

He loves horror movies. I have to admit, I was intrigued by this:

Wouldn't this broken glass cupcake be fun for Halloween?
I have some stationery with this on it:

This isn't exactly chocolate, but isn't this cool?

I have a package with two boxes of brownie mix that I got because they promised that for each sale, the company would contribute to the USO. Well and because they are brownie mixes....

Be cool and try not to drool over this one:

I don't know. It's almost too much. Almost.
One of my characters goes to Japan and I'm fascinated by their odd food options.

This display is of all the different Kit Kat flavor options.
Okay, enough talking about it. I'm going in to dig through my secret stash and get something sweet!

Have a good and peaceful Memorial Day--appreciate the sacrifices of those who went before and those you have with you now. And go get some chocolate!

Sunday Sundries--Chocolate and Sweets Edition

While things won't be apparent to anyone else but me, I've started organizing the stuff for Fate and Faith in a different way. I had everything on my computer, including thousands of silly kitteh pictures and snarky eCards, and my husband reminded me that it was slowing it down. They are all on flash drives now, soon to be copied and secure in a firebox in the basement and a safety deposit box at our credit union.

Respect my paranoia. And back your $#&% up too, okay?

So, anyway, let the fun begin, as I access my thumb drive.....Guess who made a pan of dark chocolate brownies last night?

This is definitely a destination, when we go to Vegas next year for our 25th wedding anniversary. Part of my novels are set there, so if I get off my lazy a$$ and get published, I can deduct some travel expenses as research. This is the World's Biggest Chocolate Fountain at the Bellagio Hotel on The Strip.

I am so there.
I posted this on Facebook and got lots of laughs:

ROFLOL! This is truth:

Thank God I've been able to lose weight and keep it off by indulging moderately.
Speaking of:

 Was able to get some new clothes yesterday, but I immediately went to the "fat girl" section of the store. I looked around until I realized I could actually shop at the regular sized section. The selection and prices are so much better and I'm grateful. But, there will always be:

Truth. But it melts with body heat, so it can't hold you in the dark.

Love this one:

Maxine is one of my heroes. Then, I found another one:

If I'm not mistaken, those are some malted milk balls....
A philosophy of life:

Well, except things like broccoli and lettuce, but you get the idea.
And finally, I have some note cards with this sentiment:

Please and thank you. Y'all have a great week!

An Even Bigger Adventure or Countdown to Thanksgiving

In 2003-2006, I was working for a state agency that required me to travel between a third and a half of my life. Dad died in 2001, we'd sold my parents' house in 2003 and Mom was in a nursing home, then passed in 2004. My husband had a seizure in 2004 and was told he couldn't drive for six months. And I got the crazy idea in my head I could get by on less than six hours of sleep a night.

Needless to say, my immune system was a wreck. My asthma started acting up, the allergy tests came back I was allergic to EVERYTHING (seriously!), I could not lose weight and my family doctor kept pumping me full of antibiotics, because I have a heart murmur and there was concern if I let my near-constant strep throat go untreated, it would damage the defective heart valve further.

So, yes, it sucked to be me. This continued on until 2011. I finished my eighth (that's 8 folks) round of antibiotics last week and I got fed up with it all. I'd asked my doctors about a systemic yeast infection several times before and both smiled, with the unspoken "Don't worry your pretty little head."

I did massive research and found said systemic yeast infection has the side effects of bloat/inability to lose weight, high blood pressure (taking a med for that), high cholesterol (taking a med for that) and inflammatory allergies, most specifically mold (took three allergy shots a week for seven years). Jeez, Louise, does that sound familiar? This correlated over multiple sites, not just the ones selling supplements and stuff.

TOMORROW, I am starting a "colon cleanse" specifically designed to get rid of that yeast infection. I will also be taking a pro-biotic to repopulate the good bacteria in my gut. I will also be starting a diet that is more strict than the South Beach Diet. This is the tough part.

I will be eating lots of salads, vegetables and lean meats. I will NOT be eating:

Breads, grains, cereals, corn, rice, pizza crust, pasta, etc. My husband took me to say goodbye to pasta last night at Olive Garden's "never ending pasta bowl" promotion. The nix to starches includes potatoes. *sigh* I also won't be eating:

Yeah, that includes the extra cheese I had them put on the pasta and the pizza buffet I ate at Old Chicago Friday, saying "goodbye." Now, they have several things I can still eat, as does Olive Garden, but I sure will miss it. I can, for whatever reason, still have butter.

Another thing I'm supposed to avoid is fruit. This is killer. I got one apple, one pear, a small container of watermelon and the smallest package of cherries at the store yesterday to savor today. For tomorrow, the sugar in the fruit would feed the nasty yeast in my gut. *sigh*

Another thing--what uses yeast to make it yummy, besides bread? That's right, kids, beer and wine. Now, my parents were alcoholics, so I rarely indulged, but better believe that I had a glass of wine at Olive Garden.

The hardest, most difficult, suckiest part of this whole thing is:

That's right. No CHOCOLATE, no refined sugar (Stevia is the only sweetener I'm allowed), no Hersey's Dark Chocolate with Almonds, no DeMet's Treasures Dark Chocolate with Carmel, no Mounds bars, no--I think I'm going to cry. :::pardon while I have a moment of mourning:::

I SWEAR I can do this, because you know what? I only have to do it for eight to ten weeks. I can eat lean meat, lots of salad (most dressings have vinegar and sugar, so I got some hummus and will flavor some mayonnaise). What's at the end of November, kiddies? That's right, Thanksgiving! Oh, the mashed potatoes, the pies, the dressing, the, well, everything! And I'll be feeling better, I'll have lost weight, I won't have to take three prescriptions a day, my allergies will be better (Fall is bad because of, you guessed it, leaf MOLD and pollen) and I'll be "cured" of my sugar cravings.

So, I promise not all of my postings will be about cravings or how my doctors will probably call me crazy, listening to hacks on the interwebs. I will challenge them to re-test me after this is done to see if it works. But, after all these years of doing it their way and trying to fire up my immune system, I'm going to try to soothe it down. This is also called an anti-inflammatory diet. It will help prevent stuff later on, like, well cancer.

Pray and think good thoughts for me, okay? I'm going to need help to not dream of chocolate for a while....