Journal

The Tigers of the Dale of Beaver

After a day of earning wages, our hero’s plan for the evening was to help disassemble a cooking implement to send home with his parents for a birthday celebration.

This was a challenging task, as two of the four there were on restrictions of one sort or another. Slowly, but surely, bolts were removed and pieces loaded to head out.

Clearly everyone had been around a bit too long, as one of the many tigers located in the Dale of Beaver leaped over a fence, crossed the modest land holdings and charged in. Fortunately, the hairs on our hero’s back stuck up and he ducked to the side.

The tiger leaped over our hero and turned to attack others. Our hero had no choice but to stand and charge. Our hero blocked routes to his partner and parents. The tiger charged again, roaring. By luck our hero was able to redirect the charge away again.

The battle continued, swipes and punches were exchanged. Our hero fought on and with a moment of time and a burst of adrenaline, our hero was able to leap in the air and do an elbow drop on the back of the tiger.

Our hero yelled out, mostly in pain, but the tiger decided to cut his losses, and charged off.

Our hero’s mother, father and partner went to help, but clearly something was wrong.

After a bit of safety and a drain in adrenaline, our hero went inside their humble home to try and clean his hands. When attempting to do so, our hero noticed something poke up through his skin near his left elbow.

Our hero and partner sent his parents home, instead of sharing a meal. Our hero and partner headed to a nearby medical facility.

Apparently there had been quite the night, with many people who appeared to be sick, others who may have had their own interaction with tigers.

So let this be a warning to those who come visit to the Dale of Beaver, there are tigers and they can be aggressive.

During a recent performance at the temple theater, I have taken to heart, “If the story is boring, add a tiger”.

2024 - Week 16 Cooking Results

This week took a bit of a turn, Computer interaction has been harder then normal. My left arm and hand are mostly useless right now. My schedule has been off, and it takes a lot longer to do things. Shannon is being extraordinarily helpful as I get used to this temporary condition.

My lower arm is broken in two places near the elbow. I have scraping along my belly, bruised knees and a broken toenail. After an Emergency Department visit on Wednesday, and a consult with an orthopedic surgeon specialist on Friday, I have a conveniently regularly scheduled primary care provider appointment on Monday, and a cardiologist appointment, Tuesday leading into surgery on Thursday.

Overall the experience has been painful, but interesting. After hearing of a friends own arm break I may got of easy, pain wise. There was a period of pain and shock, but after I got my arm into a comfortable place it wasn’t to bad. I had to move it for x-rays (showed large break and indicated small break) and a CT scan (showed shattered part of small break). and when they put a partial cast on. and, at least for the cast, I was on some heavy pain killers.

For a lot of things, it just takes longer. For some, minor adjustments, and things are ok. For some others, I haven’t figured it out yet (bread bags, zip bags, cutting with one hand, etc). For work typing takes quite an extra amount of time. I’ve had it been suggested to use voice to text, which I’ll try Monday.

Sausage

A quick dinner before we ran off to see Happily at the Varsity, The movie was darkly enjoyable.

Chicken Salad

I used leftover pulled chicken, that I ended up not using on a salad, and made a nice chicken salad. A good easy Sunday meal,

Eggs and Hash Browns

Need to make freezer space, so this is came up as a thing to do. Good things.

Toad in the Hole

Yeah…skipped will come back later to it.

Glazed Salmon

Dropped the salmon into the freezer.

2023 - Week 39 Cooking

I went to my follow up primary care provider appointment, and I’m back to being just barely mildly anemic, which, by comparison, feels pretty good. I have one more test this week, small intestine study, and after that I should be at about as normal as it gets. Everything else appears to have gone back to normal and I’m supposed to stop taking my iron supplement. So progress. I started using the iOS 17’s mood tracking to keep closer track of what is going on, and even though the times of darkness are there from time to time, so far, content or neutral feelings are what mostly gets recorded. Which is as I generally expect.

Balloons from Hospital Stay - Helium Loss

After my hospital stay, we brought home the balloons and they slowly lost height over time. I had a funny idea of making it into a race to the bottom, which people seemed to enjoy. So here is the photo set over time (June 18, 2023 through August 21, 2023).

Hopefully Máni will be able to make it back into the living room, now, since the balloons scared him. The same with the ceiling fan, which is why we never turn it off now, so perhaps that talks to some trauma he had as a very young kitten (son of a feral mother).

2023 - Week 34 Cooking Results

Sausage

Chili and cheese hot dogs…they were ok.

Bangers and Potatoes

I thought I had some additional potatoes then the ones I bought at the farmer’s market. However, they had gotten a bit gross, so I tossed them. So less potatoes, but bangers…good things.

Eggs and Bacon Sandwich

Delayed

Chicken Salad with Kimchi

I followed this for the most part, but did end up skipping some of the oil, and the sesame seeds, though I added toasted sesame seed oil and then adding mayo. I figured it probably wouldn’t be great to eat tiny seeds when I was about to have a colonoscopy. I liked this overall it was nice, however when I was fasting the next day to prepare for the colonoscopy, it was there, tempting me, calling me to eat some of it. But I resisted.

I had my 4th or 5th colonoscopy earlier this week, less than 5 years after my previous one. The prep was a bit different, though that may be that I forgot the last time, and a kind of annoying change. Waking up early, drinking the last quarter (more like fifth) of the solution wasn’t exactly how I wanted to spend my morning. Things turned out ok. One benign polyp. After we stopped by 5 boroughs bagels. I ate the bagel with smoked salmon and capers, while Shannon drove us home. I felt awake, but after trying to watch a show, I started to nod off. I went upstairs and napped for a good 3 hours. That night, we picked up sandwiches at the Cheese Shop for dinner.

Going out to pickup dinner on Saturday, I realized that Ingersol Live was going on as parking was challenging. I did find a spot, and got in and out right quick.

2023 - Week 33 Cooking Results

Sausage

Bacon and Cheddar, good things.

BLT

The tomatoes were starting to go, so I grabbed some of the cherry tomatoes and sliced them for adding to the sandwich. That plus hook’s 3 year, mayo, bacon and a sourdough bread. Good Things.

Eggs, Tomato and Bacon Scramble

Chopped up a tomato added that after the bacon was almost done, then let the eggs fill in the space. Pretty good.

Skillet Tortellini with Sausage and Cherry Tomatoes

This is so easy to put together and with the fresh cherry tomatoes, good things.

Brazilian Chicken and Rice

Easy to put together. bought a new spice grinder for the purpose of grinding annatto. The one I had before is more ore less basically useless. I added a bit of extra water, to control the rice a bit more, and everything really cooked up as expected. As I’m not quite sure what a Brazilian flavor profile is like, i’m not sure what else to add to this, but I did add a couple of dashes of hot sauce for my own bowl. It was good, easy to do and has lots of leftovers.

Lamb Burgers with Corn with Cherry Tomatoes, Ricotta Salata

In trying to get that iron in my diet, lamb and beef are around the same, so why not do that?. Good things. I made a side salad and used feta instead of the Ricotta. Everything came together pretty well and I was happy. The combination of the tomatoes and the corn with some fat and acid, was quite good.

I made my first trip down to the farmer’s market, since I went to the hospital in June. It was nice to get there early enough to avoid the general ruckus, but still feel the presence of others. I even didn’t have my headphones on for most of it. I picked up a few things, ate some breakfast and then headed home. It was pressing my abilities a little but I got through without feeling faint, which is a positive. I have been feeling a lot more normal and with the normal amount of energy.

Progress

After a couple weeks with quite a bit of an iron supplement, my latest hemoglobin reading was up to 10.8 g/DL (up 2.2), so I’m gaining ground on getting back to normal after a bit of a set back.

Things that seem to be returning to normal is the relative difficulty, because of to much energy, falling asleep before 10:30 PM, now that seems more to be a bedtime marker, like I have previously set my watch to remind me.

However, my ferrous sulfate reading is still a bit low, looking at the history, it’s quite a bit lower then the reading from several years ago, but that seems as a meaningless context right now. I suspect I’m using almost all the ferrous sulfate is being used to generate blood. But I guess we’ll see the next time around.

After a just shy of 8 weeks of sobriety, I broke my streak by having a bit of Connemara peated whiskey on the rocks. This was after we got home from seeing Barbie (which was delightfully subversive). This was a general test to see how it impacts me. Generally it went about as much as I expected.

Setback

While I haven’t been normal, I had felt that I was getting better, but about a week and a half ago I started to feel drained, even with the lower marks that I expect. Friday 7/7 I even had to take a nap before the end of the work day. I messaged my provider earlier in the day and asked for another CBC test, which he approved.

After I got the test, on 7/10, it was noted that my hemoglobin had dropped a bit to 8.6 g/dL, which is still above the level that I left the hospital, but lower then 6/19 test after my last doctor appointment.

I have taken a a nap here and there during the day, limiting it to 15 minutes usually, and I was prescribed a lot of (OTC) iron supplement.

This is not the first time I’ve been on iron, as I have had anemia in the past, but it’s been the first time in a while.

I have a follow up blood test in a couple of weeks, to see how my body is doing, but it’s certainly frustrating to not be me.

As it stands, because I am uncertain what the impact will be, I am now at an unintentional 6 weeks (42 days) of sobriety.

2023 - Week 28 Cooking Results

Sausage

I used the second set of the Smoking Goose’s Kitchen Sink Sausage. Still quite good.

(Western) Iowa Loose Meat Sandwiches

Last time, I thought that it would be 2.5 teaspoons, and I think I was about right. Another half a teaspoon probably wouldn’t hurt, but again, this is pre-ground Costco pepper, so there is probably some loss here. I went back to the spongy plain white buns, but used a pre-sliced “sharp cheddar” (known mass market brand) and that added a bit, but not exactly what they wanted. Topped with ketchup and mustard, as it should be. I think that’s about what it should be and I’m pretty happy here.

Brown Butter Scallion Noodles

Super fast. I added some pre-cooked chicken and toasted them with the noodles. Good dinner.

Spicy Potato, Bok Choy and Shallot Hash

I suppose the potatoes that I go where not “Medium” as one of them were larger then the half pound that, after dealing wit h that this came together with a bit of the Bok Choy from Blue Gate to make a nice meal. I used the Lola’s Original hot sauce and it was a nice meal.

Beef Stir-Fry with Bok Choy and Green Beans

As my wife is not a huge fan of (non-ground) beef, I had to be very careful in the slicing and cooking of this as to make it relatively tender. I made this on a Saturday since there was a lot of prep and waiting. I meant to start earlier but I had done some kitchen cleaning, when up stairs and meant to just catch my breath a bit, but ended up falling asleep for a bit. I eventually got up and took a shower and started cooking. I made some Moroccan mint tea at the same time as well. I did make one minor error where I combined the sauce into the beef, but was able to adapt a bit but pulling the meat out and then cooking the sauce a bit longer when it would’ve normally gone in. I also added a bit more oyster sauce at the end to cover for that adaptation. Overall, pretty good.

Egg and Sausage Muffins

Crooked Gap breakfast sausage patties, Eggs, a bit of Challerhocker. Good times.

2023 - Week 27 Cooking Results

Sausage

I saw Smoking Goose’s Kitchen Sink Sausage at the cheese sho, so we bought that. Quite good.

Mac & Cheese

ehhh…I mean I had to add more spices, cause I had to. I Alton’s remains my favorite.

Hamburgers

With the 4th of the July on hand, we stayed in cause I pushed myself way to much over the past weekend. So some burgers, some chips and dip and an early night.

Broiled Salmon With Chile-Lime Mayonnaise

I didn’t find the harissa at the store I was in, the one I had in my fridge was a wee bit moldy, so that got tossed. So I used a bit of the Momofuku chili crunch (standard) the mayo and the brushed the salmon with that and broiled then baked. Not a bad audible call.

Hot Honey Peanut Noodles

Very fast, quite good, simple.

I had planned on going to the Mountain Goats show on this past Wednesday, but after over exerting myself, and having to have a end of day and close to end of day naps, I figured it would be very hard to stand for 2-4 hours in a warm humid concert (possible), as the combination of heat and humidity makes me tired real fast. My doctor took my suggestion and I’ll be able to get a mid appointment blood test to check on my levels.