I'm going to take a break and care for my husband. He's home and still a bit yellow from internal bleeding, plus he brought home a cold. Pain level is a four, partly due to headache and coughing.

Ugh, what a week. At least everyone is alive.

John's out of the hospital. He's going to be tender for a while, but that's expected. At least he gets to come home, with all his important bits intact.

My parents just left after fetching their motorhome, so it's back to business as usual.

Spleen is here to stay

So, John's spleen is going to be okay, it seems. He got to walk around a bit and is hoping for a shower. His pain level is a four, but he's still queasy, probably from the meds. He's got at least a couple of days left in the hospital, because they want to see him holding down solids, but I'm hopeful he can fly home on schedule.

Spleen, cracked ribs.

My husband had a snowmachine accident on vacation. This is day two of him in the hospital with a lacerated spleen and cracked ribs. Headache, vomiting, pain...the works. It's under control, but of course I'm not thrilled to be here when he's there. Not that I could do more than the nurses are doing, but still.

Meanwhile, I'm doing what I can do here. Updating him to first class, talking to the nurses, making sure he's discharged with his charts and records, etc. I'm also sending my family to comfort him when possible, poor guy. At least his labs are looking good; he'll likely keep his spleen.

Which is good, because we need our spleen.

Snippet: Ancient history

Got over my aversion to SE and I'm working on it. Think I objected to making a secondary romance, so I went ornery instead and embraced a character's stereotype. Much more satisfying, and a bit unusual for me.

Also, discovered the fun of checking out e-magazines from the library. Food Network awaits at the end of the day.

Also, loved the Agents of Shield segment last night. Lots of movie info. Captain America rocks!


Snippet:

She blinked, clueless. “Thonis.”

“You might know it as Heracleion. It was an Egyptian city near Alexandria…” He frowned. “I suppose it was before the founding of your country. Ancient history, to you.”

“I’ve heard of Alexandria. There was a lighthouse?” It was hard to grasp the scope of his crime, to feel outrage for something that had happened long, dusty years before she was born.

“Among other things. The Fates felt the humans were justified in their grievance and gave them the power to imprison me.”

“Can’t imagine why,” she murmured. Lovely. She had a psycho killer in the house. She rose to put away her bowl as much as to put distance between them and stumbled woozily, dropping the dish.

He caught her elbow. “You need to feed.” He set the bowl on the end table and guided her to the door, ignoring her protests.

It was dark outside, and the crickets were chirping madly. Cara was immediately taken with the feeling of grass under her bare feet. It tingled pleasantly, and she knelt to run her hand over the lawn, enjoying the springy texture. She dug her fingers into the turf, gasping when she touched loam. A surge of green energy flowed up her arm, curling through her body like smoke as it filled the emptiness food couldn’t touch. It was a high like laughter and sunshine, as comforting as a cup of tea on the front porch with an old friend. She was filling up, becoming uncomfortable, but didn’t want to lose the feeling.

“You need to slow down,” Tremor said, but she barely heard him. She was growing uncomfortable, but she wasn’t sure how to shut off the flow of energy, until it suddenly shut like a spigot. Immediately she felt miserably full, like she’d eaten too much Thanksgiving dinner. She groaned, but curling up hurt. Standing wasn’t any better, and her skin felt too tight, as if she would burst.

Tremor snorted with amusement. “You’ll have to sleep it off, love. Next time you’ll know.”

John's in AK for two weeks, so we'll see how much I can get done before he arrives. I'll have guests for a couple of days next week, so that'll be interesting.

Meanwhile, tonight is Worst Cooks, tomorrow is Agent's of Shield (kid's favorite) and Wednesday is Save My Bakery. You see a pattern here...

Working on SE. I'll throw up a snippet soon.

Worchestershire Sauce recipe

Worcestershire Sauce

The real stuff has soy and wheat. This is my tasty alternative.

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp ginger

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp cloves

1 tsp onion powder

¼ tsp cayenne

½ dry mustard

½ c fish sauce

1 c vinegar

1 tbsp lime juice

½ tsp horseradish

1. Combine dry stuff. Whisk in wet stuff and bottle. Keeps in the fridge for months.

Herbs n Gargoyles

Alternative medicine is a wonderful thing. I'm taking feverfew to help with seasonal allergies (had a lot of rain kicking up mold lately), and I'll be planting my own supply shortly. It's a perennial, so that's exciting. I'm still very happy with the detox effect of the homemade khol, and I'm going to try some internal charcoal on some cysts my dog has.

Oil pulling: I've heard of it, but admit it sounds like a lot of work swishing oil in the mouth for 20 min. I guess I do wonder if the true benefit isn't the facial workout from moving your face muscles so much, rather than the oil. It makes sense that it would massage the sinus from the inside, making them drain.

However it works, some people swear by it. Anything that works without doctors or drugs is a good thing.

I'm working on a short gargoyle story in the I & H world. Needed a break from Tremor, and this is fun.

Maple Apple Butter with Rosemary

Had a killer GF brisket sandwich with homemade fruity BBQ, homemade pickles n whole grain mustard and maple rosemary apple butter. The smoked meat was almost buttery, and the apple butter rocked my world.

At home I made pear butter with rosemary and maple flavor, brown sugar and pinch salt, because I didn’t have apples. The rosemary and maple really elevate it. Not a fan of plain apple butter, but I’ll happily make this stuff!

 

Dreamed I was eating sheep cheese last night, because in my dream it was okay. ARGH! If only. I never dreamed of eating so much in my life. I'm coming up on one year for this stupid allergy, so I must be in mourning. Didn't know that was possible for a food, but there you go. At least I should be able to move forward after it's out of my system.

Unexpected benefits to Indian Khol

I'm sleeping like a baby and my sinuses are crystal clear, sense of smell acute. The only thing I've done differently is using my homemade kohl. Looked up charcoal benefits and it's used for infections, toxins, heavy metals and poison removal (which I knew), and viruses, which I didn't. I can't yet guarantee that it's the charcoal helping my breathing, but I know it's absorbed by the eyes and conveniently positioned by my sinuses.

The Indians believe it helps clear toxins, but they also say the water of the eyes is due to toxins being washed out. Since my eyes don't water with rice bran oil, I assume the ghee they use is to blame for the eye irritation. It might be acid, since it's a fermented product.

Anyway, because I don't think the eye watering in their version was beneficial, I also wrongly thought the detox theory was overrated as well. Silly me.

Anyway, it wears well and looks smashing, so I'll keep using it.

Also, the homemade perfume is helping my lungs stay clear, giving me energy. Plus, it smells good and is super inexpensive, though I did have to tweak my recipe as the scent changed as it aged. Using a drop of lavender and orange in my dryer is making the clothes smell good and I think it's making them cleaner. I should probably add it straight to the laundry soap, but I'm worried it will wash away. One way to tell, I guess.

Will be fun to put it in a book.

homemade kohl

Indian women have been holding out on us. I hardly wear eyeliner, but now that I react to most all of them, I felt challenged to find or make one I could wear. After reading these sites on Indian eyeliner, I couldn't wait to try it:

wildturmeric: Homemade kohl/kajal:   Any makeup for women will be incomplete without applying eyeliner. We call this traditional eyeliner kohl/kajal. Though I am not a p...

Wise She khol how-to

This was my setup:

That's a small cast iron pan under the bread pan. I switched out the cups for shorter mugs since I wanted to get maxim soot on the pan. Next time I'll do this outside, because it smokes. A lot. In hindsight, I should have know that, since the goal is to produce soot. 

That's rice bran oil in the pan, but any veggie oil will do. I used an oil soaked rag held up with a bent paperclip as a wick (emergency light, anyone?). My rag was burning out before my allotted 20 min, so I tossed a bit of paper towel in to produce more smoke. 20 min produces a scant amount of soot, but it was enough for a trial. I used a chopstick to scrap the pan and stir in a bit of rice bran oil. Later added a smidgen of cornstarch in an attempt to lighten it, but that doesn't do much except extend the product (although the initial product was quite satisfactory if you like black liner). Applied with edge of toothpick, since that's what I had on hand, and swiped my lashes with the edge of the toothpick to mimic mascara. Results are quite dark and satisfactory, at least as good as commercial eyeliner. If I were making more, I'd used a drop of lavender or rosemary oil as a preservative.

I'll have to experiment and see if I can achieve brown eyeliner, my preferred color.

So far I've got lotion, foundation, liner, mascara and tinted lip balm, and I hate to admit it, but they are better than what I used before the allergies rocked my world.

Knox Bavarian

I didn't have brandy or liqueur, so I used rum and chocolate extract. Skipped the crust. Used canned coconut milk for the cream, though I might use half almond milk next time. Turned out well, satisfied the craving for something cold and creamy.

Excuse me, I have to match make a gargoyle couple.

Just the way you are.

I think Pitch Perfect is oversexed, yet I've watched it a million times for the singing. Youtube has the riff off, which I'm watching now. Also on a Bruno Mars, Just the Way You Are kick today.

My daughter has discovered the joys of computer art and is living on the laptop, while the boys are celebrating a snow day with endless xbox. Waffle burgers for dinner.

Writing is like pulling teeth today, but I know why and I'll get over it. Meanwhile, listen to Bruno. You are special just the way you are.