Recalls and doctors and worry, oh my!

I haven't been doing much of my usual writing lately, but there is a reason.  I've been busy doing a lot of research for a very important private client:  myself.

It's not just my blogging here that's been affected, although I'll be the first to admit that this blog is hardly scintillating reading.  Even so, the fact that my life has inexplicably turned into an episode of House deserves its own blog.  Or several.  I'm still deciding how best to approach it, but I do know that my recent medical travails-- and the pain and unpleasantness that looms in my near future-- can help lots of people.  I just haven't decided yet how best to approach it.


One thing I haven't had to worry about personally is J&J's expanded Tylenol recall, even though it's gone beyond kid's OTC drugs. I've written this excellent article covering the expanded Tylenol recall-- which in addition to Tylenol covers Motrin, St. Joseph Asprin, Rolaids and Benydryl. Luckily for me, I'm not a big fan of Tylenol, although the expanded recall will probably scare most households, and not just in Dallas, either.  Actually, we do have some Rolaids around the house-- I'll have to go check the lot numbers to see if they've been recalled before DH reaches for the bottle.

No appointments with any of my expanding army of crack medical professionals today.  Which gives me plenty of time to have a heart to heart with the insurance company-- a task I've been dreading and putting off for weeks now.  Looks like the next person to reach for the (hopefully not subject to recall) Rolaids may be me.

Monday. Blech.

Another Monday, and it looks like a Monday, too-- all grey and foggy and generally unpleasant outside.

My foot is still bothering me.  The bruising has really set in now, and my little piggies are black and ugly.  It's swollen, too.  I was thinking that nothing is broken after all, but now I'm starting to reconsider.  The hubster thinks I need to go to the doctor to have it looked at.  Maybe he's  right, but I kind of hate to waste the money if all they're going to do is tell me to stay off it for a while.  It's not as though there's a chance that will happen, either.

Put up a couple of new recipes:  this one for some awesome creamy polenta with mascarpone cheese and cream that you can make in your crock pot or slow cooker, and a recipe for green beans with pine nuts.  Yes, I still do hate green beans, but everybody else seems to love them and isn't cooking about making people happy?

That cat's happy, anyway.  She's curled up on my lap, which is making it hard to write.  It's not good for my foot, either-- the extra pressure from her weight is making it throb.  O well, it's time to get ready so I can tend to GF's Pomeranian.

My foot. Italy's boot.

The charity dart tournament on Saturday went fine and I had a fantastic time-- right up until I got home and broke my foot on a rogue rock in our driveway.  Spent all day yesterday on the sofa with my foot up and iced down.  I should proably be doing that today, too, but life marches on and I must limp along with it.

New article up at Examiner today, a vegetarian recipe for Meatless Monday: Spicy Italian Lentil Soup Ponza style.   Meanwhile, my Japanese Soba noodle recipe from last Monday STILL hasn't indexed.  I'm getting annoyed, and I don't know whether linking to it again will help or hurt at this point.

So, yeah, we're still rocking that whole Vegan Month thing at Examiner.  And one of the Vegetarian Examiners-- from Cleveland, I think-- wrote an article of outrage that Sarah Palin has nasty things to say about vegetarians and vegans in Going Rogue.  Oh, and now she writes about being shocked at the response from the ultra right.

I'm sure that article has made her a lot of money, but was she really surprised at any of it? Really?  I mean, cheap shots, sensationalism and wading around in moose blood like she's some sort of Julia Child for the New Frontier is what La Palin is all about, right? 

Well, that and hypocrisy, but that goes without saying, too.

Pee Wee Salinas and the Dallas Tamale Festival

The Festival del Tamal is tomorrow.  I love a good tamale and the relentlessly cute Irvin Pee Wee Salinas will be performing, so it sounds like a day full of win.   I wrote an article about it here.

To every thing, fail, fail, fail.

Today has been full of housework and fail. 

Although fail and housework might be more accurate.  And I was hoping to get so much done today, too!

All that, and this recipe for delicious soba noodles tossed with veggies and topped with yummy Asian peanut sauce that I wrote for Meatless Monday still hasn't indexed with you-know-who.

Why, the only thing that could possibly make this this day better is to get my ass whipped at darts-- which is, of course, exactly what I'm heading out to do.  Go me.

I'm still stuck on Monday

So, yesterday when I got up-- not necessarily bright, but very early-- the internet was out.  And by the time the hubster stumbled out to greet his day 2.5 hours later, I had just, finally, got it back up.  My computer was still rebooting, hadn't got a thing done but fix it.

Monday: 1; Kat: 0.

Today still feels like Monday.  (sigh)

Two new articles up at Examiner, and important ones:  my easy basic vegetable stock recipe , and today's article  on how to turn that master stock recipe into dozens of ethnic stock recipes so you can make all sorts of ethnic foods.  Pretty cool, right?  Bookmark it, my friends; it's good stuff.

Oh, and I made some soup.  Awesome soup.  I'll be posting the recipe soon, methinks.
And now, I have to go brave teh grocery sotre.  More Monday, I'm afraid.

I am a slave to my insomnia.

Or at least it feels that way.  Up at 3:30 this morning once again.  It's frustrating, because I tell myself that at least I'll get things done and it never works out that way-- my brain is far too mushy at that hour, and it stays that way all day long.

Another article up at Examiner yesterday.  This one's about the Addison WorldFest and I really, really want to go.  They're serving Efes!  No word on lamacun, but there will be Adana kebap and doner and borek and a bunch of things that I've been missing lately for some reason.  Maybe it's because tomorrow is Turkish Republic Day? 

I did a totally awesome world food slideshow that hardly anybody will look at, either, I suppose.  It was a pain in the butt but at least it's complete and it's better than the stunted Piazza di Spagna one I did to go with the Slow Food article.  So that's something, I suppose.

Darts tonight.  Must remember to take my fatalism, along with plenty of beer money. (sigh)