Hi. My Name is Dull

Pretty sure I should just have it legally changed. *YAWN* at my own self.
I just skimmed through here. Though I did stop blogging for awhile, though for a reason, still..... can I be a little more *borrrrrrriiiiingggg????*.
I should probably get some stuff caught up on here before I go judging myself. Although...I'm feeling like I should go bungee jump off Big Ben or something to push it a little more.

I have been off of facebook for 9 days now and my randomness is really starting to have a panic attack. Can you tell? hahaha. I was technically allowed to log in on Sunday but I did not. Mostly b/c I was too lazy to get off my ass and find the password I'd hidden. I wasn't having withdrawal at all either though...so ya know. LOL.
I did log in for a few minutes last night, so that I could fix the errors with my blog feeds. ONLY to find out that they apparently found out what *I* was doing and now they will no longer allow blog feeds to post through facebook automatically starting on the 22nd. Bastards.
Seriously. See what seems to happen EVERY time I try to make a big change? Oh well....if anyone wants to keep up with me and my wicked awesome exciting life....you better follow me all by yourself then.
At any rate. I didn't go into groups, I didn't do messages or anything else. I fixed my issue and logged back out. Only to find Chrome saved my freakin pw. So yet another catch 22 here. For the last couple of weeks my blogs WILL feed through during my hiatus....if I change my PW so I don't know what it is, my browser automatically puts it in b/c on average I'm too lazy to keep up with PW's. If I change it again and hide it....yep, blogs won't feed through. I may have gotten it off of there, but most likely it's still there.
So now it's left up to my stellar will power. Which is pretty stellar sometimes.

I'm just finding myself getting a little socially bored. Whilst trying to force myself to have x number of things DONE prior to making any plans with friends etc.... I'm probably shooting myself in the foot now b/c I'm getting bored. Therefore, finding other avenues to waste valuable time.
So, of course I will be staying off FB as planned. It's really not that hard either, kind of like quitting smoking, reese's cups and dr. pepper. It's a lot worse in your mind than in reality. LOL
I just need to once again, reassess further.

Until then, I should probably take my kids to school.
Expect some photos later. ;)

Autumn Colours. Getcha Some!

(Yes I did spell that right actually. ;)  )

For anyone that is awed by the amazing colours around this fall, I came across this AWESOME site.
It names the best places for fall foliage and actually updates what stage the leaves are in! How freakin cool is THAT???

Autumn Updates

So if you're itching to get out and get your Autumn on....here's a killer resource. :)
It always seems to me that the leaves begin to turn and then in some cartoon move, the trees shake and they're bare the next morning. hahaha.
I was pretty excited to come across this. I think it's a stellar time to do a little Sunday driving! :) I'm a dork like that though.

Enjoy!

perfectionist

"If you don’t have time to do it right, 
when will you have time to do it over?" 
- John Wooden 

8 years ago today....

I married my best friend. I stepped onto an aisle and into a new life. 
A life like I never imagined I'd have.
I can't believe it's already been 8 years. I cannot believe where our lives have gone and what all we've done together in so little time. How much more we have to see and do together.

:0)


The weather today is exactly like it was on our wedding day too. :o) 

"Alone we can do so little;

together we can do so much." 

- Helen Keller

Food. The Bane of my Existence.

Seriously. It is.
Not for the reasons you  may think though.
This is a whiny blog. **I am frustrated. This is a vent. Carry on....** LOL
Perhaps it will come off that way, but more so, it's being written out of SHEER frustration. I am nearly in tears at the moment, for some reason. It gets to me EVERY great once in awhile but it seems it is coming more often lately. I'm sure it is due to my persistent vow to get healthy. However, very few people in this world can TRULY understand how incredibly DIFFICULT it is for someone like me to be able to maintain a healthy diet.
I swear if one person rolls their eyes and snarks anything about junk food I'll slap them here and now. I do NOT have a junk food problem actually. Thank you. I don't eat fast food at all. Less a pizza once in awhile, though I much prefer the restaurant or home made kind instead. I do fight with chocolate sometimes, but I can honestly drop it just as easily as I can pick it back up. I think the main reason I even have to fight with myself about it sometimes is just due to the complete and utter BOREDOM of my taste buds.

I have what you call "Oral Allergy Syndrome" which easily translates into, I can't eat any freaking thing that is very good for me, much less easy. It translates into IT FREAKING SUCKS ASS to be healthy. It means that more than anything, to calorie count...I basically have to "starve" and not eat much at all.
I have had this my entire life. I appreciate it when people attempt at helping by offering up suggestions, but in all honesty...over the past 33 years, out of hunger...I've probably already thought of it and tried it. So thanks very much but your 5 minutes of thinking on it, is not likely to help, but most likely will irritate me when I'm venting, or anywhere NEAR as frustrated as I currently am.

I'm attempting allergy shots, but the allergy clinic on base is just about useless. So with my current level of frustration I'm beyond irritated with them as well. The chances of this helping at all is about 5% out of none. So I doubt my record of always being the 1 in 5 billion person in the world of statistics will ever actually fall in my favor. I think that only works against me. So I'm not really all that optimistic about it, even IF we ever get this shit underway. Which I'm now not holding my breath for either.

So to top it off, with ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the stuff I already cannot eat. We'll add in my reflux/ulcer issues. Yeah. Those don't help either. I know a lot of people come up with some stupid ass excuses, but quite frankly...it is yet another reason I want to slap people when they look at me all stupid when they offer up a helpful suggestion and I give a reason why it will not work.
Case in point....I have a glass of milk every morning. I do not drink water first thing in the morning. Never ever have water on an empty stomach. WHY?? Well...it actually feels like I've had a big glass of battery acid about 45 seconds after I chug a big sip. That is why. WHAT? That's insane. So says you. Please, step into my body for 30 minutes, then you will see. Trust me. Even milk, if not very quickly followed by food, will cause nausea. Juice? Oh please don't even go there. PLEASE. That is battery acid with a side of gasoline and rubbing alcohol at least.
That's just trying to get me through breakfast. I've only been up for half an hour. Now let's make it through the rest of the day..... every. single. day.

Basically, I could probably stick to a diet of water and bread and still go over my calories, have some sort of stupid reaction to it and then die of taste bud boredom anyway. I get SO angry when I see so many people "trying to get fit", so they say, and they just pass by all the stuff I'd love to get to eat. Hardly any calories, LOADS of vitamins and minerals and whatever other bits of natural goodness I don't even know about, and they don't have anything to eat. Though, I don't know, it just comes from my judgement as I look at them and read the info on these foods and how much I could eat every day if only I could have an apple. Though, I am not them...so far be it from me to say for sure. I am still envious and irritated.

You know I always want to throw out a big old "eff you' some days. Today would be a prime time for that.
I can cut out EVERYTHING nearly, still have to eat next to nothing and cap out on my daily caloric intake and then half the population could go off and eat a freaking apple and just don't? OMG do you have any idea how GOOD those are? I've tasted one a few times, paid for it dearly but wow how YUMMY are they? Healthy! OMG!

I started worrying a great deal about what all I don't get health-wise by not being able to eat these things over the past few years. Of course I can take vitamins to try to make up for it, but..... yes, you guessed it. My stomach bites back. Seems where I don't have an allergy to it, then my stomach hates it and then just beyond that.... I just damn well don't like the other stuff. I try to force it down but it will come back.

So...I started drinking a v8 daily. It was nearly impossible at first to have one daily. I'd have too strong of a reaction to it, but I've worked up to it. Some days I react to it anyway, so I  know I've not actually accomplished much, I think there are just other factors at work that either do or do not contribute. Either way... it kills my stomach and some days causes my face, lips, eyes to swell and some hives. Today.... I've got all of the above. Puffy swollen face, huge lips (damn if some ppl don't pay big money for that), red splotches on my face and a few hives down my neck. All for the sake of trying to gain just a bit of healthy stuff.
I have just been getting more frustrated than EVER really, the last few days. I am so SICK of it all. It is so completely and totally unfair. Yes I said it. I will slap myself later. God forbid I be unable to eat the food I am actually lucky enough to have. What a load of crap eh? I am blessed enough to HAVE the food, but cannot eat it. Ironic now isn't it? I WANT the simple, cheap and natural vs. the sugared, chemically laced, hormone injected, fat harboring God only knows what other crap is in it stuff.
I want an apple. I would relish in getting to eat a banana. Sliced up cucumber.

If you wonder...imagine it like this:
I cannot eat raw nuts, raw vegetables, raw fruits, eggs, fish, or olives. I cannot stomach the after taste of yogurt, no matter how hard I've tried to deal with it. When I say raw, I mean if it is to be tolerated by me, it has to be thoroughly cooked, and that is only for some things. I often still react to foods even if they are cooked. I cannot go to person's home and just eat away at everything. I often either have to pass completely, pick through things, have a piece of bread or ask incessantly "what's in this? what's in that?' which I just don't really do anymore b/c I find it rude and it usually leads to the most annoying of conversations with random tips I've likely never thought of.
Oh but anyway...the raw thing. I can eat things if they are cooked? Yes.....and then sometimes no. As mentioned thoroughly cooked, a lot of foods can be tolerated. Though a large portion of those things, I gag on the texture. I've even asked to be hypnotized to see if that would work, to get me passed my issue with textures. No one will do it apparently, but yes I'm actually THAT desperate. Which says a LOT coming from a control freak such as myself.
So.....basically food is, indeed, the bane of my freaking existence.
I can't imagine others having to think SO much about their freaking FOOD. How easy it must be to go through life and just eat whatever. Willy Nilly....with out a care in the world.

So. In closing of my frustrated, whiny, random post today.... food sucks. It sucks, to me, to even complain about it b/c as I said I'm lucky to have that problem rather than nothing to eat. It's just another one of life's ironies I guess. I've been damn hungry before, and now I can put food on the table I just can't eat half of it.
Why can't I be allergic to cookies and chocolate and stuff like that?

Now...I leave you with this:
If you can't eat fruits, nuts, vegetables, eggs, fish and olivey products. No fast fried foods. No cakes and cookies, chips or candy. No spicy foods. Water in moderation. No juices. Milk in the proper conditions.
What does that leave you with?

Roll your eyes. Then try it for a week or two....

I *KNOW* I'm weird....

...but I LOVE this kind of forecast! LOL.

For some reason, weather like this morning (which was low 50's and heavy mist) I can't stand to stay indoors! It is my FAVORITE weather to go out and work out in.
Hey it's like a free a/c with mister chasing me around. So I don't have to continue my search for minions to spritz and fan me while I work out, as I have searched for these past few years.


Trying to soak up all I can...b/c we KNOW there's no forecast like THIS in Texas! ;)

Strolling through Cambridge

I'd call it a series if I felt like pressuring myself into HAVING to do it. However, that generally makes me NOT do something. Therefore, something you may or may not see a bit more often from me..... "From the Hip" shots. Quite literally, shots taken from the hip. Generally, shot while walking, but overall just a snap or two or twenty of the way the world looks as I walk through it.
Random places, random things that catch my eye. Sometimes, I might focus it in, but not always...
I've got a lot of them really. Random things I've photographed while living here in England, shots I took 'for' someone else. With someone else in mind, something someone else, somewhere else may have taken interest in, or found funny....or purely because I just felt compelled to shoot it that day.
I do try to take a day here and there to have nothing in particular to do but take my camera along and shoot at will.
Today...I'm sharing Cambridge on a rainy fall morning. :o) Shot last week in the city centre.

Enjoy...


I wonder stupid things when I walk around. Like...I wonder how many times someone was walking down this very path over the past few centuries and thought up something amazing? Maybe a historically famous play was thought up right on this path? Perhaps a vaccine that is normal and everyday to us now? Who knows....but I'm goofy enough to wonder stuff like that when I'm walking around. ;) I guess one of the smartest cities in the world doesn't really seep into the pores of everyone. ;) Hey I try though. ;)

 It is always amazing to me, the amazing artwork on buildings here, that no one likely really ever notices due to the regularity of it. Like this...I wish there was a story on a plaque next to it so I could know what it was about. :)

 So I can't go one post w/out at least ONE black and white....

 Tiny little wall graffiti :)

 I just wonder if Gap would sell me those. What I wouldn't give..... hehehehehehe

 I just wouldn't be able to get past the name

 I might need to go buy that. *LOVE* it. Dig the refection as well :)

 In all that dreary. In all that white...there is still a rainbow ;)