Happy Easter!

I wish you a joyous day!

Consider me intervened.

I'm not a drinker, I don't do drugs or even smoke cigarettes anymore.  But I needed an intervention.

My daughter is a vegetarian.  I swear I didn't raise her that way.  And apparently she and her husband have been trying to eat better, more fresh foods, more "clean" eating.  Yay!  For them, that is.  Ahem.  Last week my daughter brought me shopping in order to help me make some healthy choices and maybe consider some better alternatives to what I normally eat.  We bought things we had to put in bags ourselves, some refrigerated, very little frozen anything.  There were green things in my cart.

Shudder.

This week I ate hummus (which I have objected to for YEARS because of the texture), sweet baby bell peppers (I don't LIKE peppers), kale (didn't even know what it was), radishes, carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, and all manner of things deemed to be healthy because they are as close to their natural state as possible.

And I liked it.  WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME????

Tonight I splurged and made homemade pizza.  Dani had picked out some whole wheat pizza dough for me,

so I made pizza with kale, peppers, minced garlic, Parmesan cheese as well as soy "cheese" and a little mozzarella.  Very different for me since there was no greasy pepperoni and the cheese was not piled high enough to cover anything else that might be on it.  And it was still good!  I only ate 2 pieces.  My son on the other hand, polished off the rest.

I know myself well enough to know I will backslide quicker than you can say bigbackside if I try to be extreme about the whole thing.  So I'm not thinking of it as a diet, just as Dani said - trying to think of food differently.

And I won't give up everything I like, just try to find healthier ways of eating them.  Like my latest favorite ice cream (I'm still in shock because it's not chocolate) Blue Bunny Birthday Party - it's awesome.  Still eating it - just changed my portion size to a custard cup.  Wow.  That custard cup looks huge in the picture.  I swear it's not!

Coincidentally, I got results back from blood work I had done a week ago, my cholesterol is high, triglycerides, etc.  So it's time to make a change.  Wish me luck!

And thank you Dani, for loving me enough to be gentle and for not shoving me into this.  I love you Honey!

Should I do something productive on my day off tomorrow?

Now why on earth would I do that??

I stand accused!

I visit clients at their offices frequently now.  This is new to me and for the most part, I enjoy it.  Yesterday I had 2 appointments, one right after the other, and the second one lasted most of the day.  Toward the end of that appointment I got a call from the 1st client.  Apparently the girl I had worked with there had her purse stolen.

And they thought I did it.

The woman on the phone was the office manager and she bounced around from "her purse was here and when you left it was gone" to "well I thought maybe you accidentally picked it up" to "she's going to have to file a police report ..! " like that should frighten me into confessing or offering to return the bag.  She even told me "somebody used her credit cards!"  What did she want me to say??

I was flabbergasted!  I go to a location as a representative of the company I work for, and while some of my grammar and fashion choices may be criminal - my behavior isn't!

It's funny because I saw the one girl for maybe 15 minutes.  The woman on the phone I had never spoken to before.  They don't know me from Adam.  So I shouldn't care that they might think I could steal a purse.  Logically, they were trying to figure out who was in the office, when the last time she saw her purse was, etc.  And maybe I was the only stranger they saw that day.  But being accused of something like that really sucks.  I know they were not accusing BetteJo, a person they know and whose character they could judge.  They were accusing the only person they could think of who was a stranger and might have had the opportunity.  So I should be able to not take it personally. But there is a part of me that kind of hoped they would have the police check with me so they could compare the location and time the credit cards were used to my parking receipts and proof of where I was and when.

But no.  There was no contact today, the client did not call back, the police did not contact me, and I suspect I will not hear any more of it.  But it bothers me.  There was controlled anger in the voice of the woman I spoke to, like she was furious because she felt she knew I was a thief and she was attempting to scare me into giving something away.

I'm sure with all the vet bills I have, it wouldn't surprise some people if at 53 years old this crazy cat lady turned to purse snatching to buy kitty some more insulin.  I mean - I have made some major changes in my life in the last year, why not turn to crime?  SHEESH!

While I don't expect an apology, it would be nice to have some kind of resolution because - as of now?  I remain in accusation limbo.  And I don't like it.

Maxine Monday

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Frantically researching readers!

The minute I heard that Google Reader is going away, I started searching for a replacement.  Currently I have my blog feeds going to 3 different readers, as well as still having Google Reader active.  Because you know, losing my blogs would be a tragedy akin to the extinction of oranges.  Or something.

That first day seeing my panic, my son sent me a link to an article about alternatives to GR.  Did I just read about them?  NO!!  I downloaded some of them, transferred my feeds, exported, copied and pasted until my chubby fingers were sore.

Do I know which one I am going to go with yet?  NO!!!!!  I admire people who make quick decisions.

I looked at Feedly - something about it didn't appeal to me.  Could I tell you what?  Nope.  Just .. something.

Currently I am running a Chrome extension called Slick RSS.

It's pretty basic, was very easy to import my feeds, but so far I have not found a way to stop it from always listing the last 15 posts from every blog when I click on one I want to look at.  Whether the posts have already been read or not.  Still .. it's not bad.

Another Chrome extension is Feeder.co.

This was super easy to set up and it's a drop down list, maybe for someone who reads blogs as a bit of an after-thought.  It does put a number next to a blog that has a new post, it's alright in a minimalist kind of way.

The 3rd reader I am using has been the most difficult.  So of course I like it the best.  It's called The Old Reader.  Sounds like a pair of comfy old shoes.

I tried to import my subscriptions and the site told me there were 33,000 other users ahead of me.  The next day it went down to 4600.  Later that evening it went up to 77,000 and the site started telling people to stop checking the imports, that they would let you know by email when your import was done.  I have not received an email and the sites you see above are ones I added myself.  I don't like the colors either.  But so far it's the one that is most like GR and since I am bad with change - I am willing to try it for a while before I discard it.

You can bet there will be more readers tried and more abandoned before the carnage is done.  Oh the humanity!

And did I mention how mad I am at Google?  I really need to see if there are any Firefox extensions worth trying out.

Let me know if you find something good!

Happy #$&@ing Spring!!

.. and a pox on all those local weather people (every. single. one. of. them.) who insisted on reminding us over and over in the last 2 days that we were in the EIGHTIES at this same time last year!

I know you can feel the joy.  I can feel it too when my teeth stop chattering long enough!

Maxine Monday

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No really, it's me!

Y'know how annoying it is when you find a TV show you really like and then it's taken off the air?  Or you LOVE a certain food item and they decide to discontinue it?  These things happen to me all the time.  I'm really thinking it's me.  I mean - do these things happen to anyone as often as they happen to me?  Some omniscient someone, giver and taker of all things, knows when I like something - anything - and takes it away from me.

Not too long ago Google announced they were shutting down iGoogle which I use as my home page.  I haven't bothered to look for something else yet but there - that's another example.  I really LIKE iGoogle and they are taking it away.  It MUST be me.

Now it's Google Reader.

We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.

Really, I'm sure I'm the only one who is totally reliant on Google Reader to read all my blogs, right?  No?  OH!  Well then I need to apologize to the other people who will be highly inconvenienced by the demise of their favorite reader.  I shouldn't have liked it.

I'm sorry.

Oh, and I DO like Blogger so get ready all you blogspot people, that's probably next.  I'm really, really sorry.

**added - HAVE I EVER MENTIONED HOW BAD I AM WITH CHANGE????
Ahem.  Just sayin'.

Tales from the road

Some parts of Chicago just aren't very pretty, or very safe.  Tuesday this train blocked my way from getting to a client on the other side of the tracks.  Watching it move slowly past the waiting cars was agonizing.  And then it stopped.  Just stopped.  It sat, and sat .. people were turning around and going the opposite direction. But .. my client was on the other side of the tracks, it was a really long train, which way would I try to go around it??  So I sat.  And sat.  No lie - almost 20 minutes total, from the time the lights started flashing to when those barricades finally lifted.

At least it wasn't the same neighborhood I was in on Monday, with boarded up houses, HUGE pot holes in the streets and a couple guys walking a pit bull and an angry mastiff along the cracked sidewalk.  Yikes! Small favors ..

Maxine Monday

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Out my kitchen window

From cold, wind, and snow to rain, mist, and fog.

These are not black and white photos!

Veggies? What are those?

Doesn't look fabulous but it tasted great!

I'm no cook, take my word for it.  And I don't like most foods that are healthy - although I really wish I did.  Tonight I took some frozen cauliflower and roasted it with olive oil and garlic and season salt.  On a whim.  My son just went into the kitchen for seconds saying "that cauliflower is pretty good .." OMG!  That doesn't happen at my house.  Maybe I just need to find more ways to make the healthy stuff taste better to me.

Sounds like a mission.

Maxine Monday

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Stuck in traffic ..

.. again.

How do you entertain yourself?