My knitting has gone to the dogs...

Intolerance, meet religious freedom.

2010-09-07T17:51:28Z

I just received this in my email this morning from someone I know:

A Christian Nation cannot put up a Christmas scene of the baby Jesus in a public place, but the Muslims can stop normal traffic every Friday afternoon by worshiping in the streets. Something is happening in America that is reminiscent of what is happening in Europe .

This is Political Correctness gone crazy.Scary! Isn’t it?

This is NYC on Madison Ave

This is an accurate picture of every Friday afternoon in several locations throughout NYC where there are mosques with a large number of Muslims that cannot fit into the mosque – They fill the surrounding streets, facing east for a couple of hours between about 2 & 4 p.m. – Besides this one at 42nd St & Madison Ave, there is another, even larger group, at 94th St & 3rd Ave, etc., etc. – Also, I presume, you are aware of the dispute over building another ‘high rise’ Mosque a few blocks from ‘ground zero’ – With regard to that one, the ‘Imam’ refuses to disclose where the $110 million dollars to build it is coming from and there is a lawsuit filed to force disclosure of that information – November can’t come soon enough.

This is in New York City on Madison Avenue, not in France or the Middle East or Yemen or Kenya. Is there a message here???? Yes, there is, and they are claiming America for Allah. If we don’t wake up soon, we are going to ‘politically correct’ ourselves right out of our own country!

PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY CHRISTIAN AMERICAN YOU KNOW!!!!

Included in this email are pictures of Muslims in New York praying outside their overcrowded mosque.

I dithered about replying to this, because I hate to get into political or religious arguments in email, and this one is both. However, I decided I just can’t sit back and let crap like this go past me without saying anything about it. Completely disregarding the obvious logical fallacies in the email, I sent a simple reply:

Just FYI.. I happen to believe in a little thing we have that’s guaranteed by our constitution. It’s called freedom of religion. That means the freedom of any citizen to worship (or not worship) in any way they see fit, and it’s not anyone else’s business but their own.

What’s next? Putting Muslims on a national registry? I’ve seen it called for already. Making them wear a crescent moon sewn to their lapels to identify them? What’s the harm? Maybe we should round them all up and put them into camps so they can’t influence good Christians.

Let’s not forget history, or we will be doomed to repeat it.

‎As I read on another site recently… “There is no ‘unless you’re a Muslim within X yards of a national tragedy exception’ to the free exercise of religion.” Get over it, people. This is beneath us.

How to forward emails… … without pissing people off. I’m sure all of you...

Delicious Salsa

2010-09-06T21:14:14Z

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been in a nasty fibro flare, and haven’t been up to doing much of anything. Fortunately, I’ve been feeling better the past few days, so I’m not only up to posting, I’m prepping dinner!

My friend with the garden has loaded me down with tomatoes and peppers and basil and Swiss chard and grapes (oh my!), so I decided to put some of it to use this evening. I’m going to make chicken fajitas again, this time with a large selection of peppers. I don’t even remember all the types. Here’s a quick peek in the bag:

I chopped up the tomatoes she sent home with me, plus about 4 assorted peppers and an onion. Added some salt, cilantro, garlic and lemon juice (I’m out of lime juice – sad) and now have a lovely salsa to go with dinner tonight. Yum!

I’ll post pictures of the finished product later… right now it’s sitting in a Ziploc container in the fridge getting cold and melding all of those lovely flavors together.

I’m not even hungry and I’m looking forward to dinner already!

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Meme Tagged!

2010-08-22T19:10:03Z

I’ve been tagged by Spyderkl over at Evil Mommy… and while I normally ignore these things, I had to respond to this one. HAD TO. Even though it took me almost 2 weeks.

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

Spyderkl, thanks for thinking of me! Not sure what I’ve done to deserve an award, but I do really appreciate it. :)

2. Insert award into post.

3. Name 3 things you like about yourself.

I can cook and bake, and people love my food.
I can take pretty pictures without even trying very hard.
I’m pretty darn good at figuring out technical crap, and can even build my own computers.

4. Post a photo that you love.

I took this picture a few years ago, midwinter, on top of Molas Pass. The wind was blowing about 40 MPH down where I was standing, and I bet it was blowing even harder on top of the mountain. I like how the snow blowing off the top of the mountain blends in with the cloud behind it.

5. Tag 5 people to pass the award to.

Tag! You’re it!

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Pain and Placebo

2010-08-18T15:14:19Z

Yesterday I went to see my new pain doctor. Good news? I like her a lot. She listens. From what I hear from a lot of my friends with chronic pain problems, this is rare. I feel happy.

She also does acupuncture. Unfortunately, I am extremely skeptical about acupuncture, and most peer-reviewed studies show that it’s no better than placebo. Unfortunate, because if I “believed” in acupuncture, the placebo effect just might work. It’s amazing what the mind can do if you “trick” it into believing things. However, if you know something is a placebo… it won’t work. Stupid brain.

I went along with the acupuncture anyway. At this point, I was willing to attempt to fool my brain into believing that it was going to work. Well, not so far. I’m a bit sore in a few of the places the needles were located, but other than that I feel pretty much the same. I’m going to go back in a few weeks for another round, but I don’t have high hopes.

We’re trying a new med to help me sleep at night (Zanaflex). I took 1/4 of the max dosage, and as Brian said, I might as well have taken a Tic-Tac. Wound up taking my Ambien after midnight, because I could NOT sleep. I pretty much feel like 10 miles of bad road this morning. Going to kick it up a notch tonight and see if that helps. Sleeping is good, and I do not get enough, ever. Hopefully this works, but since I’m going back to see the doc in two weeks, we can try something else if it doesn’t.

So, to recap: Pain doc is awesome, and I’m going to really like working with her, but the first round of attempted treatment is a bust. At least I have someone to work with me to help get this pain under control, and I do have physical therapy to look forward to.

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Simple and Delicious

2010-08-18T02:14:25Z

Broccoli and turkey sausage… yum!

I found a pound of turkey smoked sausage on sale at the grocery store for about $1.50, and added some fresh broccoli crowns (also about $1.50). Pan seared the sausage for about 5 minutes on high, then added the broccoli to cook a bit while I waited for the rice.

Serve over rice with soy sauce. Simple, cheap, and delicious… and with the turkey sausage, relatively healthy, too.

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Apollo

2010-08-17T02:26:06Z

Just a random picture I had to share… Apollo was napping on the floor with “his” pillow and his elephant. So cute!

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Venn Diagrams

2010-08-13T21:10:34Z

No related posts.

Fibroduck

2010-08-10T01:47:36Z

My Fibroduck arrived this weekend! I’ve been waiting for a few months for her to show up… the previous duck decided to go wandering on the way over the pond from the UK. Maybe he’ll show up someday.

What is a Fibroduck, you ask? According to fibroduck.com:

Why FibroDuck is travelling the world

Fibroduck.com is owned and run by Jamie Goodwin – Freelance writer and former stand up comedienne. To contact Jamie direct: jamie@fibroduck.com

The aim of fibroduck.com is to raise awareness for Fibromyalgia, whilst making you smile.

We are a non profit making, doing it for fun, awareness campaign. We do not raise money for any charities.

Can you or anyone you know help FibroDuck travel around the world? If you would like to take part, please order your Duck from our shop. The duck is always free, you only pay postage costs. If you have problems ordering please email admin@fibroduck.com

If you want a Fibroduck of your very own to help raise awareness of Fibromyalgia, head over to fibroduck.com and order one! You only pay shipping from the UK, which was about $6 when I ordered mine. Get one for everyone you know!

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Monday Happy List

2010-08-09T15:47:29Z

It’s Monday again! I know everyone is so happy to start a new week, right? Well, to celebrate, it’s time for the Monday Happy List. Here, in no particular order, are five things that make me happy.

Having Will home again. I didn’t realize just how much I missed having him here. Looking forward to school starting and getting him back on track.
Podcasts: Yep, podcasts. Thanks to video podcasts and Hulu Plus, we have eliminated all but $10 of our TV bill, for a savings of around $70 a month. If you’re into tech, I highly recommend TWiT or Revision3 for all your tech viewing needs.
Computers: The more I have to stay at home on bad days, the more I appreciate having a computer and a connection to the outside world. I really don’t know what I’d do without it.
My guitar: I only know three chords so far, but I’m really enjoying learning to play.
Coffee. Why? If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t be writing this blog post. Hooray for caffeine!

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Easy fajitas for dinner

2010-07-31T01:43:45Z

I’m cat sitting for a friend at the moment, and I have permission to raid her garden while she’s gone. It’s a beautiful garden, I’ll get some pictures of it in the next day or so. While I was over there this evening, I picked some assorted peppers to use for dinner.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make, so I started with an onion, julienned the peppers, and added garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.

I had a few boneless skinless chicken breasts, so I chopped those up and browned them, with the same seasonings.

Mmmm.. chicken. I then added the onions and peppers back in and heated everything up.

After this, I heated up some tortillas and served with cheese and salsa… dinner!

I’m stuffed, by the way. I really wish I had the energy to have a garden of my own, this was absolutely amazing. Simple, but sooo much flavor.

I’ll have to raid the garden again tomorrow.

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