Kidney stones (again) & Smart Heal bandages

With what I saw in the toilet this morning & the incessant pain I felt last night, I am done with this kidney stone business. I lived most of my life without a single problem & here in these past 6 to 9 years I've experienced enough of this shit.

I had a horrible night. I thought it began with pain in my lower left back & it just kept going. And then I had discomfort in my gut like 3 days of Thanksgiving leftovers lead to a mutiny in my colon or something. I almost didn't get any sleep because of having to adjust my position to get comfort. At one point, I enlisted the presence of a big Lysol can to press on my back for relief. It was Very Hard to get sleep with all of this crap going on. Somehow I did.

Wake up & do things & take the morning pills. Have to pee. Barely poop anything for what I felt. Peed as expected but I take a look... And there's red in there. And it's not like the amount I saw 2 weeks ago, it's like "oh hey we made a thingy & this is proof." So yeah. Kidney stone. It's happened before as I recall. The pattern of suffering & discomfort is accordingly the same.

On a positive note, a patch on my right leg shin area which formed a blister which I popped, drained, picked the dead skin off, then was having a hard time healing & was just red from blood on the surface & not really stinging or irritating me... at least for a couple of weeks prior... I got 2 boxes (not cheap) of Equate "Smart heal" hydrocolloid gel bandages. Ideal for large areas, drug free, & helps reduce scarring... I put 1 on there & covered it last Sunday. Had to change it today & took a look. No longer bloody! Skin has regrown & healing cleanly.

If I compared this to anything, it would be those burn patches I used to get at Walgreens.

Heart Cure Watch & insufferables

I finally finished a VHS tape to DVD transfer project for a friend's daughter & translated something for another friend & I'm hoping to resume working on episodes even if for my own bewilderment. I have been collecting raws & scripts for Wonderful, have all of Adult PreCure from earlier, & the rest of Wide Open Sky PreCure. I might have the movie but I need to check. Oy vay.

One thing I finally did one day last week was get some more enjoyment from the Delicious Party PreCure Heart Cure Watch... I decided gosh darnit I'm figuring out the Okosama Lunch thing... And good thing I researched it. If Kome Kome hasn't grown up yet - don't use it! Also oddly enough discovered this device with a camera (which you can't offload pictures it captures so why the heck) can scan specially crafted QR codes & unlock content!!

I found & scanned the 1st code on the instruction sheet - a strawberry room design. Then a nice guy on YouTube showed codes on the bottom of Recipipi thingies. Some of those scanned. 1 did not & later found it won't work until the Okosama Lunch data module is used. And then I had to deal with insufferable YouTubers who were "Oh here's one but I won't show you right now - no spoilers until after the show ends!" & then NEVER DOES SHOW THE CODES. And 1 Reddit user who was going to hack the codes & figured there were 101 possible codes - but Instead of Publicly making his chart accessible you had to ask for it in a private message. Why do people do this? Why act like this? It's not a secret club!

I found a PreCure Fandom Wiki page with the codes, where they are found, & what they unlock. There's a few missing. So I spent a couple hours unlocking Cure Finale, the bakery, the fruits parlor, the park - from codes! There's a few more (mostly letters), & 1 code unlocks the Melon Pan at the grocery store & Cure Summer shows up. I must be the last owner of these devices to find this out.

Today's Do

Today went well for doing things. First time in a while.

Cleaned cat pan & took that out along with my trash. Almost forgot the list of refills I needed. Found my packet of money from last month with loser lottery tickets to check.

After rehearsing for a few days doing things around here with no pain relief buffering my activities, I was able to get down & out & over to the doctor. Lady doing blood draws was good this time as she distracted me about eating correctly & losing weight to the point I didn't feel the nail in my arm as she got the NPO sample.

Got back in my vehicle & ate a thingy of tamagoyaki & rice with Marumiya Chicken & Egg furikake. It had absorbed some moisture overnight from the hot rice after I stuck it in the fridge. Tasted delicious!

Went back through to the credit union & back to DDM. Got refills for what I needed but did not know they had filled 3 on the 1st. Aside from the 5 I really needed was a Super Tall 6 month supply of Metopro LOL. I didn't ask for that...

Shopped for what groceries I could get there & nowhere else. There was a Lot I didn't buy. Friskies canned food for Poofball had only 2 cans of Tasty Treasures Turkey Paté on the shelf... Harumph.

I bought a bag of Cat Chow Indoor to see how Poofball does with it. Oddly enough, DDM has it cheaper than Meow Mix Indoor & it's not kitten food. He seemed to like it by taking a couple sample nibbles & then racing around like a nut but maybe he was just happy to see me back?

And while I don't like paying $3 fricking 69 for a 2 liter of pop, I had to try 7up Shirley Temple flavor - pomegranate & cherry. They even had Sweet Popcorn - peppermint drizzled & 1 other flavor.

Everything made it home & now I shall recharge.

I WANT MY 88 CENTS SALAD MIX BACK....!!!

Since when did salad mix at the Alliance Walfart start costing over $2 a fricking bag??? Seems like after all this time supply chain issues should be cleared up & it can go back to 88 cents a bag.

Cole slaw mix is under $2 a bag. Maybe I should switch to that. I could start getting heads of lettuce & shred that. I'd need that stuff we used to rinse fresh cut vegetables in at LJS to keep it fresh longer, aside from rinsing uncooked vegetables because food chain issues. I mean I could go back to buying Romaine & chopping that.

Though in recent weeks my scale has indicated I've been losing weight when NOT eating salads, so maybe trying to lose weight that way wasn't working... Trying to starve the body & so it went into starvation mode & held onto fat.

I should look into more dried stuff & crock pot recipes methinks. Smoked turkey sausage cut up in stuff. Hmmm.. Fiber & protein together...

Is it even done....?

Well, here is my latest Crockpot Creation. I had to let this run on Low for 20! hours because the cubed potato wasn't done after 10 hours & even THEN the garbanzo peas never really got a cooked softness to match. It's still edible, has a nice flavor, & I can't complain. The chick beans are just texture for this but at least soft enough to eat.

Dried Garbanzos, underwear, cat hangout

Today I finally set up the crock pot with a dried Garbanzo Bean recipe calling for 1 pound bag dried garbanzos, 3 pounds cubed red potatoes (I used Idaho), 2 pounds (? Recipe said Packages) smoked sausage, sliced & quartered (I used a 2 pound Italian Chicken Sausage pack someone left downstairs - cooked it yesterday in hot water in the Dutch oven & cooled it immediately after) & Spanish Vigo seasoning which I was not able to find so I used 1 packet of Goya Spanish Yellow Rice. I'm hoping the seasoning is unique enough to give a distinct flavor in place of the saffron I should have been able to get. I added a chopped onion because why not.

Judging by the date on the bag, those Garbanzo beans are at least 5 years old. I don't know how long they keep while dried, so they could be older. Recipe said to use Chorizo for authentic flavor & to thicken the soup to remove some chick peas & mash & return to the crock pot 1 hour before serving. I think the rice will do that anyway.

Changes next time I would make:

After soaking the garbanzos overnight, I would reserve 2 cups of the soaking water so when the 4 cups of chicken broth / stock got added it wouldn't be necessary to remove some liquid before adding the cut up sausage & putting the lid on. I have it to add should it cook down. And I would use only 2 pounds of potatoes.

8 to 10 hours on low. Supper will be late tonight.

Also finally tried the underwear from Big Dude Clothing in the UK. I think I finally got something which isn't going to rip out in 3 months & nothing will "fall out." All the cheap DXL Harbor Bay product I was using all had the same odd ripout wearout pattern on the right side (as worn) while the left side was basically intact.

Also Poofball had odd behavior last night after I finished with some Computer Stuff I was doing by hanging out next to the bathroom wall next to the toilet. No explanation; he was just there. He wasn't sick, hadn't thrown up, or crapped on the floor.

Have I been eating the wrong stuff?

This morning on the scale I got a number that's 12 pounds off my usual. The number has been dropping over the past few weeks more or less but dropping anyway. The one thing I must be doing differently is a general avoidance of eating salads.

Salads were touted as THE way to lose weight. And why not? It's all VEGETABLE matter. Maybe it works for some people but not me. I have had weeks of 6 salads for 6 days at supper but I'd actually GAIN weight. But my recent diet of a sammich at supper with a serving of Arroz con Gandules (a rice dish) is doing something different.

The salad is loaded with Water & puts my digestive & other parts into Starvation Mode. It's got to be. I also add stuff to my salads so they're more like a meal like low sodium options - no salt canned peas, crunchy tortilla strips, diced onion, green pepper, sliced mushrooms... The occasional crumbled hard cooked egg. And Blue Cheese dressing. Measured to the GRAM.

So now I eat more complex starches & more fiber. More proteins. Getting good sleep. Really watching my water intake. And trying to get physical activity. That's my hardest thing to do. I'm going to keep observing.

Arroz con Gandules

Tonight, inspired by my favorite streamer, Maika Mallow, I finally made Arroz con Gandules aka Rice with Pigeon Peas aka Puerto Rican Rice. I may season it extra hard next time without increasing the sodium even though I followed the recipe I found exactly as written. The rice turned out a bright orange which may not come through in these pictures, adjusted for blue hued LED lighting & my cell phone's potato camera. I'm also now a fan of Sofrito, and excuse me if I want to eat the stuff right out of the jar! I did substitute regular sliced pearl black olives for the ones the recipe said to use because I'm not a fan of green olives regardless of the name.

This took a while to assemble because the ingredients aren't the usual things I buy. But I can rest assured I have enough to make this again & I likely will. I even took the time to whip out my Sushi rolling mat & with a sheet of nori made a maki roll with this rice, & I have to say this made it even better. I didn't have to simmer for more than 20 minutes - something I worried about because of the directions to heap the rice in the center & then put aluminum foil over it & then the lid. ALSO REMEMBER THE ADOBO. Yeah, I forgot but still put it in while simmering.

And now I get to taste it cold tomorrow to see if the flavors come through better than when it's freshly hot.

Hacking the postal service is almost too good

So anywho, get Shinobu's package ready. And last Saturday was a no-go. So today I try again. This time with my Rollerator so I can sit. Oh and I need help with that fricking head liner. Like either rip it out or fricking stick it up with something because jamming the Rollerator in & out ripped more of that disgusting thing off & I'm about to take scissors to it.

So I get in the Spangler post office & it's a different guy. Cool. He might know how to send a parcel internationally.

I pause here to state I have Shinobu's address in Japanese postal style. Postal code at the top, sender's name at the bottom JAPAN in roman letters at the very bottom.

And in kanji. I've done this before in Minerva with No Problem.

Either this guy is a comedian or what but he gives me a hard time about the address being in kanji & he can't read it. He has "not enough info to work with." I say it'll work - Japan is the only thing they need to know. Give me a declaration form to fill out & it'll work. Once it gets to Japan, it'll be fine. So eventually he relents & gives me a form to fill out.

Gone are the simple green declaration stick on forms. This is a more involved form. And man do they have a huge list of stuff Japan does NOT want you to send there. No copyright infringing items? No knives, swords, cremated ashes unless properly documented & handled & sent to the proper place. The list is crazy. Oh - be sure to weigh the items you put in your parcel. They need to know that. Never mind the total weight with packaging.

Anywho, I have no problem filling it out. He serves a couple other customers while I do my form filling and when he's ready, I hand him the form. He keys in the stuff I wrote, double checks my bad hand writing & gets it done.

$33 to send it First Class International. Yikes. Have air mail post rates really gone up that much? How do senders from outside the U.S. charge so little?

Anywho, his printers print the stickers needed & a receipt. The customs form has a tracking number. After 8 years, it is sent.

Orzo Pasta

Made Orzo pasta tonight for the 1st time. It's like rice but in pasta form. I used the recipe / directions specified on the back as I had no plan at all for it.

Instead of olive oil, I used the last dregs of a nearly empty bottle of Canola. Recipe said to toast the orzo in a sauce pan for 2 mins & stir. I felt at least 5 minutes without burning would be sufficient for a decent color. Canola has a higher smoke point & won't add to the flavor, so for my 1st time that's okay. I do have olive oil so should I get another 98 cent box of orzo, I have the option.

32 ounces of chicken broth was asked for, but I used 3 chicken bouillon cubes dissolved in 4 cups of near boiling water to cut the sodium. 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper is the seasoning but I might use more next time. The recipe even asked for an additional 1/2 teaspoon of salt but I eschewed it.

Bring to a boil, set to low & simmer for 5 minutes. I let it simmer for 7 because pasta. Removed from heat, added 2 tablespoons margarine (unsalted), and let it sit for more than 5 minutes. Liquid absorbing time. Then stir in 3 tablespoons lemon juice.

It came out quite nice. I added the remainder of a open can of Diced Tomatoes & sprinkled a bit of grated Italian blend cheese over. 250 grams for a serving. Orzo this way is actually quite good. I think the diced tomato added some flavor.

I had no plan for supper & I bought this on a lark for no reason. And now I have the chance to taste this cold tomorrow.