Category: Personal

Looks like we’re hitting that summer news dry spell for the gun issue. Happens every year. So expect we’ll be taking some brief excursions into other topics as they come up. I’m a bit behind today, because I had a dentist appointment this AM, this time a routine cleaning. Dentist says it’s now time to crown the tooth he’s been bugging me about for a while, along with the usual bit about flossing more. So that’s going to cost me. I also just signed a contract for painting and other repairs on the outside of the house. I think it’ll make the house look much better, as well as protect it from further damage. I’m happy to finally be getting ahead of stuff, but I get nervous when I’m spending a lot more than I’m taking in.

I guess the lesson is to take better care of your teeth, and your house. I can blame previous owners for a lot of the house, but I’m afraid no one else has owned my teeth. That one is on me.

I came down with a cold this Friday, and Sunday the cough got bad enough that I started taking my favorite medication, which is Nyquil Cough. Apparently Nyquil is basically high-fructose corn syrup and alcohol, which I was surprised about because it tastes pretty bad. I figured it was artificially sweetened. Nope. About 20g of pure sugar carb per dose, and I was taking one to two a day for the past couple of days. Ooops. Now I know to check medicine.

In other news, I’m looking for a drug in pill or gelcap form that just has cough suppressant in it without the anti-histamine. But I can’t seem to find just cough medicine anywhere. I’m guessing because the kids abuse it, so they mix it with something else that will mess up the high. Except that kids abuse Nyquil cough too. I hate that these days you can’t seem to just buy single function OTC drugs. It’s either got to have anti-histamines or acetaminophen in it, neither of which I want. I’m pretty convinced this is the reason. Could we introduce something that kids can get high off of that doesn’t involve having to suffer through colds with crappy medicines?

Bill Quick has some advice and a pretty stunning example of how low-carb can work. That’s very encouraging. I’ve had a few people say 100g a day is too high as an upper limit. I’ve seen mixed advice on this. I’ve seen advice suggesting that as long as you stay under 100 day, you’re still in low carb territory and will burn fat. South Beach Diet starts off with 50g a day based on a 2000 calorie diet, which is below the calories I need for someone of my height and weight. I know Atkins is about 20g. I’m going to do my level best to keep it around 50g, but there are going to be days when I get closer to 100g. If it doesn’t work, I’ll think about reducing further. But for me, the idea is to start something I can stick with. I’ve tried just calorie reduction before, and I end up wanting to mug someone for a bag of chips after a couple of days. Truth is, reducing carbs will reduce my calorie consumption as well, but the question is whether I will want to mug someone for a bag of chips in a few days. If I can maintain it, and I’m dropping weight, even if it’s slowly, that’s what I’m going to stick with. If I don’t drop weight, I’ll reconsider.

UPDATE: I should note I found this study to be interesting, which shows that a low-carb ketogenic diet still beats the low-glycemic index diet, in terms of weight loss. But suggests that since participants in both categories both lost weight, that there might be substantial benefit to a reduction in carbs, but sticking to low glycemic carbs. That’s kind of what I’m trying now. Granted, these study participants have full blown type II diabetes, which I do not have, but I’m probably on my way if I don’t do something about it.

So I’ve decided I’m starting to resemble the stereotypical OFWG (old fat white guy) a little too much for my taste. I can’t do much about the old, and can’t do much about the white, but I can do something about the fat. I’ve looked around and done some research a bit, and believe that a reduced-carb diet is the way to go. I say reduced, because some of these low-carb diets practically have no carbs in them, which just seems unhealthy. I’m going to try to keep my carbs under 100g a day on most days, with one day a week where I don’t give a crap what I eat.

I’ve been learning French cooking as well, going through the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. I’m not going to be like that women who cooked her way through the book as a publicity stunt, but I’m trying to learn the basics. The French diet is heavy on fat but relatively moderate when it comes to carbs. I decided this venture was a good segue into trying to lose some weight by cooking elegant, but smaller portion dishes that don’t heavily feature carbohydrates, but nonetheless will be filling enough I won’t feel like I’m starving myself.

Anyone out there dropped weight? What has worked for you?

Quarterly meeting today, and this evening is bird eviction. We’ve had a Starling nest in the side of the house. They are fully mature at this point, and upon opening exterior a bit to be able to reach in there, one of the juveniles flew out, and appears to be capable of full flight. I’m giving the mother a chance to fledge the rest of them. I stuck a camera up there the other night, and all the fledges have full flight feathers. Time to go! They have gone well over their standard 21 day nesting period, and the contractor is scheduled to come tomorrow to patch the hole, so I don’t have much choice other than to be the ruthless landlord. Starlings are a nasty invasive species that displaces native bird populations, so I don’t honestly feel too sorry if mama Starling feels like her fledges need a few more days. It’s eviction day. The landlord has spoken.

We’ve got rain in the forecast for the next seven days. We burned through all the nice, bright sunny days fixing issues with the roof that were unexpected, so we’re going through this weather with noting but tarpaper between the house and the weather. Last night we got a leak which came down the ceiling fan and soaked part of the bed, unfortunately, so up I go into the attic crawlspace with buckets at 4AM. I had to tack old business cards to where it was coming in to keep the water from following down past where I was putting the buckets, and that seemed to work.

Everything I’ve read about roofing says the paper should keep the weather out temporarily, and its working fine on the front roof. A call is in to the contractor, who is coming over shortly to look at it. Fortunately, I’m a lot less cranky than I was last night.

Finally closed on my refinance early this evening. It’s good to finally have that out of the way, pay a lower monthly payment, and pay less interest to a bank overall. Banks have gotten much more careful with mortgages since the financial crisis, as I had to provide quite a bit more documentation than I did for my original mortgage. With that out of the way, I can focus on more pressing difficulties with the house, like this:

What neither my contractor nor I can believe was that it was only during Hurricane Irene that we noticed water coming through the ceiling. I had to wait until I found a job before I could think about getting someone out again, and we never again saw water. A few weeks before our contractor started, I noticed the drywall drooping down a bit in a spot. I used the very sophisticated technique of poking the drywall with my finger, which went clean through with no real resistance. A bit of poking around up there I felt moisture immediately. The insulation has been soaking up water and slowly rotting the drywall. The real miracle is that it didn’t come clean down.

The good news is that the joists don’t look like they took it too badly, so some new sheets of plywood, and at most a bit of sistering with a 2×4 to have a hardy surface for fasters, and I think we’ll be back in business. The good news is I’ve bottled my wine:

Because after what my house is doing to me, I’m going to need it.

Actually in the chair right now waiting for the dentist. Posting will come later. Getting a crown impression for the tooth that was root canaled.

Sebastian is finally back from Boston. This morning was incredible. It’s been far too long without that kind of relaxation. He finished up and then, BAM, things were ready to go again. No recovery time to speak of at all. Don’t even get me started on the force. Wow. It’s never been that powerful before. It’s amazing knowing that it can last just as long as a person can take it. It was so freakin’ HOT and STEAMY!

Of course, I’m talking about our new water heater which was finally finished today.

Due to travel, out-of-stock parts, and scheduling issues, the installation had to be split up in two and they finally made it out here early this morning. The plumber warned me that the flow rate would be lower than what we were used to, and while I was a little disappointed since higher water pressure makes washing my mass of hair much easier, I was willing to accept it. Turns out that it went the other direction because the water pressure is outstanding.

I let Sebastian take the first shower with the new water heater, and I jumped up to grab my towels so I could see if this thing was really as good as promised with not having to wait for hot water. I didn’t even stick my hand in to check the temperature first, I just jumped right in. Amazing. Seriously awesome. Hot water on demand and as much as you want with higher water pressure than before.

Don’t tell Sebastian, but I think I’m in love with the new tankless unit. Hell, I’m even excited to do laundry again.

Got in last night, went out for dinner with Bitter in Philly, and crashed. It’ll take me a bit to get caught up with everything. I appreciate everyone’s patience through the light posting. I think I’ve reached my convention quota for the year. Politics aside, every time I’ve gone to Boston it’s been a good time. It’s a great city.