Mary Louise Eklund

Tag: health

Happy 2014!

Dusting TV Set with a feather-brush from the National Archif of the Netherlands as a member of the Flickr Commons No known copyright restrictions.

**Blows the dust away and gets out broom**

Why hello there! It’s been awhile since I’ve been here. Lots has happened and not so much has happened. I do have a good excuse as to why I’ve been gone.

First off Miss Mo my female kitty got worse. It was very sad. She died and we did discover that the issue was a fast developing spinal cancer. I still miss her very much. She was a very special girl.

Miss Mo at the Vet’s. She made a number of visits before the spine cancer took her.

Next Mike graduated another post-grad program in Norfolk. It was another trip there for a few days. I was very proud of him. While there we went to Colonial Williamsburg. I made lots of great picture. Yes I’ll do a very belated post about them.

Then there’s work. A few times we’ve had short staff for medical reasons, people moving, etc. At times I’ve work full time rather than part time to help out. I love what I do so I don’t mind. BUT for me it’s a side thing.

Finally my writer’s block broke. Yes I furiously wrote 41 chapters of a whole new story, 21 chapters on my Urban-fantasy with a rural setting, and about 12 on my steampunk novel. The muses were so demanding I’ve been cramming in writing where ever I could. Now my goal is to go to an event in Madison by their continuing education branch where I can do pitches to publishers and agents. Oh to get an agent! My focus will be on the whole new story and getting it prepped as that muse is the most demanding.

He’s a cadet now. He’ll be commissioned as an officer upon his graduation. This photo is from his graduation from basic earlier this year.

Aaron is doing well in college and in ROTC. He got a full scholarship in bio-chem from them. He loves having his own small apartment. No roommate problems that way. Being one who has to report to PT at 5:45 am with roommates who think 10:45 am classes are early can be difficult.

The holidays were nice. Our big present this year was a new furnace and boiler. Our 30+ year old one finally gave up the ghost. Heat is a must in Wisconsin and a new system isn’t free. So each time the radiators bang with a surge of new heat we wished each other a very Merry Christmas.

Did craft fairs again this fall and winter. They went very well. Now maybe I’ll make time to get an on-line shop up in 2014 along with a book agent and a few novels sold! Eh? why not dream big!

Mike and I took a vacation to Florida in the fall. Again we enjoyed an airboat tour. Also we managed to not go to a single amusement park. Did hit the beach though!

Wonderful airboat tour to ourselves!

Health wise 2013 was one of improvement. My 2012 surgery seems to have helped many issues. It’s a slow and gradual process getting healed and stabilized but well worth it. Sadly as you get older bouncing back from such things goes slower than I’d like.

Finally for Mike – he’s nearing the end of his Navy career and retire looms on the horizon. I don’t know what we’ll do with ourselves. We’ve spent all our relationship with our lives accommodating the Needs of the Navy first and foremost. Now, there will be no monthly drills, no 2 weeks or more of active duty, no call ups – just waiting until we need to collect retirement. However that might be pushed off another year or two if he can. Captain Mike loves his Navy.

Yep Blue is the leader and the cause of frequent screen repair in the summer. As you can see his brother hangs back to ensure all is well.

Our remaining pets the two Furry Boys – Red and Blue are facing problems of aging cats. Red has chronic kidney insufficiency. Blue had hyper thyroid. They both take medication regularly. They are healthy and happy but aging like the rest of us.

As for comics… Yes I’m still into them. Saw Thor The Dark World and enjoyed it. However I do agree Tom Hiddleston’s Loki got the best lines. Then again I’ve always enjoyed snark (sarcastic humor). As for reading – I am behind. As in a few short boxes behind not counting those I only get in digital form. So be patient with me, I’ve been writing more than reading. However if there’s an issue you really want to chat about – shout out to me and I’ll be sure to move that title to the top of the catch-up list.

I guess that gets everything caught up about me and mine. Hope you and yours are doing well, had a great holiday season and are looking forward to 2014.

January 1, 2014
Still Working But Behind the Curve

Let me explain without getting to personal – I’m having some minor medical issues, nothing too serious but needs tending. I’ve been working through the appointments to have a procedure that’s the first step to address some of the issue. Let me tell you getting insurance, doctors of various disciplines, hospital departments, and our schedule to all work together is a big job. Finally I’ve got the schedule date then to back schedule all the pre-op stuff… that was completed yesterday. It’s takes about as much planning as the D-Day invasion!

Also planning a week long genealogy research trip to Tennessee and Alabama. On the way dropping Mike off at his parents and picking up my mother. Which means I have to hire care for the felines and canine family members, make arrangements for garden care, and all that stuff. Also helping Aaron get settled in while dealing with his house being robbed. I’m still keeping up with my class and writing while preparing for craft fair season.

With all that, everyday life, and generally feeling icky because I need to get that procedure – I’ve fallen a bit behind. I think I should be caught up shortly now that I’m not spending eternity on the phone or in a waiting room. I have a list of topics I want to write about: Pricing jewelry, story of Miss Mo my kitty, photo post of military museum tour, photo post of the golden pyramid house, completed comic book arcs, and a few more topics. So there’s a preview of what’s to come as soon as I’m not so far behind that I have to look up to see my own tushie.

In the meantime enjoy the serene beauty of yet another rose from our visit to Leu Gardens in Orlando last October.

Until Next time!

September 13, 2012
This Time I’ve been In The Kitchen

Long break again but at times real life gets in the way of blogging life. I’ve been diagnosed with diabetes (type 2). Which with other issues put me into poly glandular failure. I’m now being treated by the endocrinology pavilion of Froedert Hospital in Milwaukee. I have to be honest they have improved my life immensely so far, many issues I’ve complained about for years are improving with their management.

Which leads us to why I was in the kitchen I have to eat breakfast. It is one their requirements and has always been a personal bodily requirement of mine. However I wake up hungry NOW and/or too groggy to cook. I have dropped my carbohydrate intake due to diabetes (it’s not just sugar but ALL carbs not having a sweet tooth my sins were bread, rice, potatoes, peas, corn, etc.) I looked around for recipes I could do in advance that were low-fat, high protein, and low carb. I came upon one – Spinach Quiche Muffins and thought of one bacon & egg cups. Today was the day I hit the kitchen and tried them.

First up are the Spinach Quiche Cups

low-fat, low carb, high protein Spinach Quiche Muffins

First thing I never do a recipe as written I monkey with it. This one I replaced eggs with egg substitute, regular cheese was replaced by non-fat, chopped onions were replaced by dried minced onions. Why the changes? One obvious reason was to drop number of fat grams. The onions were because sometime ago I made some spinach omelets and froze them in single servings when thawing out I had to drain them. I knew I needed all the help absorbing spinach moisture as I could so dried onion would do that. Also instead of making 12 small ones I went for 6 regular muffin sized. In the original recipe a serving was 2 now it’s one.

Okay you’ll need foil baking cups. I found a light spray of non-stick spray before you put the cups in and in the cups after putting them in the pan added in removal later. Sometimes a bit of it bakes out and the spray on the exterior of the liner helps with that.

10 oz of frozen chopped spinach thawed and drained well. I put mine in a bowl and let it thaw in the fridge sitting on a corner to drain. Then when I opened the package I took out the spinach and squeezed it into a ball with my hands to get out as much moisture as I could. It wasn’t dry but it didn’t drip and when torn apart in the bowl with a fork it was still leafy.

Add to the flaked spinach in the bowl 3/4 cup of egg substitute (if you want real eggs 3 eggs well beaten), 3/4 cup of non-fat shredded cheese (I used cheddar), 1 small bell pepper chopped, and 1 generous tablespoon of dried minced onion. Mix all of this together and divide into your 6 foil cups. I could put it in with a fork it’s that thick. Bake at 350 F for 20 minute until firm. If you are going to eat them right away let stand 5 min to firm before eating. Yes they do freeze and I’ll let you know about thawing tips when I get there.

According to my MasterCook program (I don’t know how accurate but it does for me, it’s up to you to decided if you want to use it. I’m just sharing what information I have) a serving’s nutritional data looks like this for one serving: 66 calories, 1 gram fat, 4 grams carbohydrates, 10 grams protein, and 2 grams fiber.

Next up was my idea of Bacon & Egg Cups from various pictures I’ve seen about. Here’s my versions of them.

Bacon & Egg Cups fresh from the oven

Here I used low-fat Turkey bacon. I stood in the meat department comparing nutritional labels of the turkey bacon and settled on Jennie-O out of what my store had to offer. I used large eggs for six of them and I used 1/4 cup of egg substitute for the other 6. I didn’t spray the pan as it was still greasy enough from the run of Spinach Quiche Muffins. However next time I will be sure to give it an even coating of light spray there was a bit of stickage. I first put a slice of bacon lining the edge of each cup. The I used half a slice to line the bottom. I found if I tore the half into half again (two fourths of a slice) I could position it better to cover the bottom. Then with the real egg I just broke the egg into the cup now made of bacon. For the egg substitute I poured in the quarter cup into the center. I salted and peppered the tops of the eggs and baked for 20 min at 350 F. Here’s what they looked like when they came out.

Bacon & Egg Cup – with real egg

Bacon & Egg Cup with egg substitute

Aaron ate two regular egg ones and one egg substitute one for lunch pronouncing them good. He wanted instructions for his kitchen in his house this fall. I told him to which he said “I’ll need a muffin pan.”

Okay again according to my MasterCook program here’s the nutritional data per serving. Using an egg it is: 125 calories, 9g Fat, 1g carbohydrates, 10g protein, and 1g fiber. Using the egg substitute it is: 76 calories, 4g fat, 1g carbohydrates, 8g protein, and 0g fiber.

As always I love to hear from you. If you try these let me know how they turn out and what you did to make them your own. Until next time!

June 16, 2012
Did You Know I…
I often see people do a list of “10 Things You Don’t Know About Me.” I always find at least one thing I have in common with them that I didn’t know about. Since I’ve not been posting for a while (health issues, improving thanks!) I thought a good post to get back into this would be a 10 Things list. So here is my 10 Things You May Not Know About Me.

Image reproduced under the Fair use doctrine for commentary and criticism under US Copyright law
1. I love comic books. I always have and always will. **Let the Geek Flag Fly** Actually I have a pull list mailed to me monthly. For those of you not into comic lingo a pull list is a list of comic book titles to which you subscribe. The big companies DC and Marvel aren’t great at managing subscriptions nor do they offer all titles for subscription. The small companies like Dynamite don’t offer subscriptions nor do Indies like Zenotrope. So if you have a local comic shop you go there fill out a pull list and they make a mailbox for you pulling those titles as they come in. Our local comic shop burned so I use Midtown comics for my pull list and they mail them to me monthly. If you want to read my comic book reviews I post them over on my Google+ account.
2. As a rule I don’t like chick flicks. I’ve never liked goody-goody sappy things. I hated Little House on the Prairie and the Waltons. I did like Hot L Baltimore and All In The Family. Just an example from my early days of not liking the sappy movies.
1. I didn’t like My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This doesn’t mean I don’t like love stories or happy endings, I do. I just like a story with meat and realism to it. I find these movies shallow and insulting to women.
  Image reproduced under the Fair use doctrine for commentary and criticism as well as parody under US Copyright law
2. I worked in radioactive waste processing. Yep, I was a Regulatory Compliance Specialist. I helped with NRC rules, RCRA rules, EPA rules, OSHA rules, and so on. I taught courses on RCRA compliance. What heck did I just say? Well I worked doing internal inspections of the various processing of radioactive waste for the alphabet soup of laws that applied. Just so you know I went into that job supporting the use of nuclear energy. I left years later thinking until we know what to do with waste beyond make it smaller and leave it sitting in the desert to watch it for thousands of years – we shouldn’t be making radioactive waste for anything except lifesaving medical reasons.
  Created using Printshop
3. I love the paranormal and fringe stuff. Now I don’t buy all of it nor do I discount all of it. I find it fun to read or listen to radio shows. This is a pretty wide topic to me it can be anything from ghosts, aliens, crypto creatures, time travel, conspiracies, and anything weird. Some of it astounds me people actually believe that stuff. Some of it makes me think about what DO I believe and why. Some of it makes me wonder just how much do we know about physics and such. All of it helps me come up with story ideas.
  Licensed image from Printshop
4. I don’t like chocolate or sweets in general. Honestly I’d rather have mashed potatoes & gravy, a good au gratin potato or more steak than dessert any day. I don’t like ice cream and for my birthday want to impress me take me out to a Mexican or Sushi place. You won’t see me posing with a cake. I’m all into savory and my aversion to sweet goes as far as not caring for most fruits. Ruby red grapefruit is my favorite with salt is my favorite!
5. I’m sodium deficient most of the time. Yep I salt heavily but when it comes time for my routine blood test I’m deficient. It has to with adrenal malfunction – my body doesn’t absorb salt very well.If you eat dinner with me and see me salting don’t fret my blood pressure when I checked in for surgery last week was 118/62 and I was stressed for surgery but had taken no medication yet. So my heart can take it and my body needs it to avoid pains in my legs and general body pain due to malfunctioning nerves that don’t have enough sodium.
  Image licensed from PrintShop
6. I love true crime/missing person stories. I find nothing fascinating that a good mystery and the best ones come from life. Sure it’s great to learn the end but the others fascinate me too. I’ve read all the books by John E Douglas a famous criminal profiler. My most frequently recorded channel is Investigation Discovery.
  My favorite channel. Image reproduced under the Fair use doctrine for commentary and criticism under US Copyright law
  
  My heart breaks for the victims and their families. Still I can’t help but be fascinated with how cases are investigated not just the forensic side but all aspects. I’m always intrigued about why someone does such crimes. Why does A react to the situation with crime while B in the same situation doesn’t? Also good plot twists are based on things that can really happen. The plot turns I want to write are inspired by the real twists of life.
7. No animal creeps me out, none. Mike doesn’t like big bears (Kodiak, Grizzly, etc.). Aaron thinks orangutans are creepy. Sara finds Aaron etymology collection gross and creepy. I can’t say any of those things bother me. Sure I respect big bears and hope to never meet one face to face. I find Orangs fascinating as they are one of our closest genetic relatives. Bugs – heck you’re reading the writing of a girl who used to love to play with bugs, especially those roly-poly ones you find under damp rocks or in rotting trees. So no I don’t find rats, bats, snakes, bears, big cats or anything creepy. I do have respect for wild beasts and venomous critters but don’t find them any creepier than people. Actually I find people creepy occasionally.
8. I can read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. I took classes for two years to get the basics of reading it. Why? I figured if it was so important to them to write all over everything the least I could do is read a bit of it to see what’s going on. I’m a writer the biggest thrill for me is to be read I don’t see that being any different 4,000 years ago. I studied Middle Kingdom glyphs and can muddle through the basics of an idea that’s written, stumble through Old or New Kingdom stuff. I love history and I love the beauty of ancient Egyptian designs even their writing was beautiful art. So I satisfied my curiosity about the very lean basics of how to read their hieroglyphs.
9. I enjoy solitude. I think I need more alone time than most people. Not that I’m not a social person, I am, I can be. Yet I love quiet days alone with my thoughts. I think that’s the root of my love of reading, photography, and writing. Those are all things you do alone, just you and your thoughts. I’m not a hermit by any means but for me to travel alone, have dinner out alone, to stay home alone, isn’t a bad thing to me. I just like time to myself to process and create things. I just always enjoyed going my way. Maybe that comes from being an only child raised in area where I didn’t have playmates except in school hours. Maybe it’s just my personality. Either way my good friends concur that I do need more alone time than most people. Too much interaction time makes me grumpy, I feel overwhelmed and become annoyed. I guess it goes without saying I don’t like being in crowds…
So there you go. Did ya learn something about me? Do we have more in common that you knew? Am I an odd bird as they say down South? As always I appreciate you reading and any stars, shares, and/or comment are greatly appreciated. Until next time!
May 10, 2012
Always seems to happen…

Things are going well. I’m on a roll. Then WHAM! I get sick and it knocks me off my feet. Then I spend a week catching up. Yep on that cycle again. This time it’s a stomach virus that hammered me Wednesday night. Solid food and I are in negotiations today. The negotiations broke down yesterday. I’m not suffering alone, Aaron’s girlfriend has it too. The good news is I’ve got enough reserves to take this with Gatoraid support. I’ll be back in a few days now I think I’m going back to bed.

In the meantime enjoy this rose from the Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida

I enjoyed photographing roses in the Leu Gardens

You can give me a shout out at all the usual locations.

Until next time!

January 7, 2012