Kale chips

Dad and Judy were kind enough to grow kale for me in their garden this summer. Last night I harvested a grocery bag full of kale.  Today I made kale chips.  The kale shrinks down quite a bit, so it's pretty easy to eat a lot of kale if you aren't careful.  Some people have a hard time digesting kale, so it's best to go easy on it.  I juice kale and put it in smoothies all the time, I didn't think I would have an issue.  But oh man.  I have over done it.  I have the worst stomach ache! 


I planned on making this a kale chip recipe review, but I now have a total aversion to kale chips.  I can't even look at them.  I haven't even put them away, I could barf at any moment.  At this point, I don't ever want to eat kale again. Let's just say when the kale departed, I was very glad I was only a couple feet from the washroom.  Cautionary tale of kale.

moving weight

Ah yes, that awkward moment when you realize you have stumbled into something you shouldn't have.  I was at the Aldergrove lake trail, and decided to see where a well travelled side trail went.  It was basically a goat trail through the bush up a steep hill.  It rained a lot yesterday, and the trail was pretty muddy, tough going.  I got to the top of the trail and it opened up into a clearing. ... I was in a berry field?  Why is there a trail up to a berry field?  I walked all the way along the length of the field trying to find out where to go from there.  It took me about 5 minutes to walk all the way to the end, nothing but barbed wire.  How was I going to get back to the main trail from here?  But there was no where else to go except south into the berry field or back the way I came. 

Along the back of the field was a 6 inch diameter pipe that ran the length of the field.  I noticed that someone had spray painted the pipe with arrows.  I figured the arrows must be pointing the way to go.  They pointed me back to the steep muddy trail I had just come from.  The trail was marked with spray painted words "TD Black."  I have no idea what that means.  The trail was so muddy and steep, I had a hard time going up, I really did not want to go down the trail.  But there were no options. Down I went, with a stick in one hand, grasping on to whatever I could to stop myself from falling. About half way down, I stopped to rest.  It was then that I realized that I had traipsed through some sort of stinging nettle or poison oak.  4 hours later, my legs are still on fire.  

By the time I reached the end of the goat trail, I had figured out what this trail was all about.  No one is going to climb up a hill like that, that was 20 minutes from the parking lot, in the middle of the park to go steal strawberries and raspberries.  But, this berry field is on Zero avenue, and the arrows were pointing the way out of the field.  Yup, I had stumbled along a drug smuggler's trail.  Whoops!  Sorry about that... moving on.

 

When the going gets tough, poo on the floor

Yup. this is where we're at.  Poop on the floor.  This is the cats rejecting the new flushable cat litter.  It looks like chicken feed, and they are having none of it.  After having this happen three times, I got the message.  So we have temporarily gone back a step to non-flushable litter, and there is no hole in the middle of the pan. 


Today I bought another brand of flushable litter.  Fingers crossed.   I have only found 4 flushable litters, two of them are made with wheat.  Not an option for me. 


I have noticed a major advantage of flushable litter.  The smell factor.  It's much less smelly, as soon as the cats visit the toilet, (they get some cat treats and then) I flush it away.   No more awkward elevator rides down to the dumpster with a bag of shit and piss with some poor person giving me "the look."  You know the, did-you-just-pooh-your-pants look. 




Despite this bump in the road.  Things are going along really well. 

Rock Climbing!

This really isn't the best picture is it?  I can't fix it.  I'm on the far right.  Oh well, I'm glad someone thought to take a picture at all.  So after my disastrous experience with meetup.com, I decided to give it another shot.  It was really fun, but really hard.  I learned that I have a bit of an issue with heights.  I climbed all the way to the top once, and then looked down to tell the instructor I was coming down, OMG.  Lesson learned, Hilary does not look down.  Today is the day after, and I am so sore!  Mostly my arms and whatever the muscles are that are under my armpits.  It's a whole body work out, there are not many parts of me that are not at least a little sore.  My neck is okay, but I'm dying to get to massage therapy tomorrow.  My hands were so sore when I left that I was having a hard time holding the steering wheel!  Next time I think I might tape my hands up a bit. 


Verdict?  Rock climbing is highly recommended.


(note I am scheduling blog posts into the future,  as I had a back log of things to post about.  This actually happened over a week ago.  My massage therapist put me back to rights.)

Cat Toilet training

Well week one is over. 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

It was the best because I have hardly any kitty litter to sweep up.  The cats used to love the feel of flinging cat litter off of their four paws as they stepped out of their box.  It went everywhere, and created dusty conditions that really stood out on my dark wood floors.  It took about 24 hours for the cats to accept the new place to do their business.  I read that some cats don't and they either hold it in until they are sick, or use your bed/sink/laundry basket/carpet.  My secret? Cat treats.  Each trip to the cat box earned a handful of cat treats.


It was the worst of times because Salem sits in the middle of the Litter Kwitter and pees over the edge and on to the floor every single time.  It's not the end of the world because it's onto the tiles and it takes a minute to clean it up and wash the floors.  But it's annoying.  She's doing fine on number 2's.  Marley is a toilet rock star, she totally gets it.  We are supposed to stay on this stage for 2 weeks until they don't pee/poo in other places in the house.  Since they have never done this, we are moving on. 

So today we are moving to the next phase.  There is now a small hole in the middle of the litter "box".  If we're lucky they will start accidentally doing their business down the hole (and not freak out).  It will maybe also teach them how to perch correctly, since Salem won't feel so comfortable sitting in the middle.  Hopefully this will fix Salem's crappy squatting.  We have also changed to flushable litter so any litter that gets pushed into the toilet won't be a problem.

Update, Salem did not think the change was a good thing from 3am to 5am last night.  She voiced her displeasure - keeping me up half the night.  We compromised by me putting the Litter Kwitter on the floor for her to use instead (she was happy with that arrangement).  In the morning, the Litter Kwitter went back up on the toilet, and she used it again (no pee on the floor!).  I'm thrilled.  Marley thinks the hole is fun.  She keeps putting her arm down the hole and splashes around with the toilet water.  She also likes to push litter into the hole to and watch the splash.  So basically she's a 2 year old child learning about the potty.  I'm cautiously optimistic.

If a car rusts in the forest...

Today I went along a different part of the park that I usually walk in.  I had never gone down this path because it said it was the way to the dog park.  I assumed that it was not far down the path, and so never went that way.  Today I decided I would check it out.  My dad and step-mom have adopted a puppy, and I have asked if I can take him for a walk sometime or dog sit.  I thought I should check-out the dog park for him.  Turns out, it's about a kilometer down the trail.  My eyes spotted this up the hill from the trail I was on. ...

Judging by the trail that encircled the car, I wasn't the only one that wanted to check it out. 

It had clearly been there a long time.  There were no seats left, the tires were gone, the interior was gone as well.  I couldn't even tell what make of car it was, looks older than the 80's. 

No motor, no hood. I'm not sure how it got here. There is a road about 50 meters up the hill that runs parallel to the car. In between there are a whole lotta trees. I figured someone must have dumped it, and it was too much trouble for the parks workers to pull it out of there.

Ferns growing in the middle of it.

 This made me think of a scene in Footloose, where the characters go to an abandoned train car that was covered with quotes from books that were banned.  This car was covered in writing, but none of it was Hemingway.  Then I started to think about Christopher McCandless- the guy that Into the Wild is about- he sold everything, and went travelling.  He eventually ended up living in an abandoned city bus in the middle of the forest in Alaska.  He made some stupid mistakes and ended up being too weak to save himself and he died in the bus. 



Lots of people hike in to see the bus.  Hiking in Alaska is on my bucket list, although I'm not sure I need to visit this sad bus.  I've seen pictures of the inside, it's still full of his belongings.  It's all been left as a monument to him, and his way of life.  So then I started wondering if someone had died in the car in front of me, and maybe it was a sad accident that I just didn't know the story of.  And then I left, because I was getting sad over a rusty car in the forest.

Hottie of the Game - Stanley Cup Edition

Say what?


That's right we've got a hottie of the game!  So exciting.  So who's it going to be?

Willie Mitchell!! A couple of Canucks are representing on the LA Kings team. I say once a Canuck hottie, always a Canuck hottie. Plus he buys his shirts at the Salvation Army, he's staying humble, not letting his hottie status go to his head. Congrats to the LA Kings, if we had to lose, I'm glad you went all the way.

It has begun

That's right, the toilet training has begun.  It's going to be a long road of baby steps and cat treats.  We skipped to step 2, Litter Kwitter on the toilet.  Step one is Litter Kwitter on the floor, in the bathroom.  Too easy.  I haven't taken away their old litter box, and they are still using it instead.  So far they are just playing the new litter "box".  We'll be in this stage for about 2 weeks.    The next stage has a little hole in the middle for them to get used to.   Then the hole gets bigger and bigger.  If all goes well, they'll be perched on the toilet seat in about 2 months.  If all goes wrong, they'll be pissing on my bed.  I'm pretty confident in the cats, they have already learned some good tricks- how to play fetch (Marley), how to ring a bell for the balcony door to be opened (Salem), how to open cupboard doors (although I didn't teach them that) and how to push doors open (Salem). 

Perk of Country Living

Salmonberries!  One of my earliest memories was sitting at the pig pen feeding the pigs salmonberry leaves until they had green frothy beards hanging from their chins.  The pigs were my babysitters when my sisters were at school and mom was busy doing mom things in the house.  Pigs love salmonberry leaves.  I love how much food there is in the forest, if you know what's there- and it's all free.  Everyday I pick a big handful of salmonberries along my hike.  You pretty much never see salmonberries in the store, I think I saw them for sale once.  Do people not know how delish they are?  It doesn't look like many other people are picking them.  More for me!  

I have thought of one drawback to moving.  Right now I live close to the farms that ship their produce into the city.  It is kind of nice to be able to buy flats of berries fresh from the farmer.  Today I went to visit a farmers stand that just opened up a couple days ago.  Maan Farm on 790 McKenzie Road, Abbotsford.  It's early in the season, and it looks like they aren't selling any of their own produce. It all looks like the same stuff that's in the grocery store.  They also have some gourmet grocery items, a dairy section, and frozen locally made foods like perogies, stuffed potatoes.  I think they also have a restaurant/cafe, but I'm not sure, it wasn't set up yet.

They didn't have any organic produce- which was the whole reason I went.  But in a couple weeks they will have their no-spray berries.  I'll go back then and check it out. 

 I think it will be a fun place to go visit with kids.  They have a picnic area, a play ground, tractor rides, a petting zoo and corn/sunflower mazes.  But it's not free to do all of those things, but it would be a good way to spend a hot summer afternoon. 

Does it Float?

So I've been doing the math, and a float home (and moorage) would cost about the same as an apartment (and strata fees).  Hmmm.  A float home could be kinda nice.  Nice views, feed the ducks, see seals from your couch.  Peaceful, but still in the middle of it all. 

However, I just watched a couple documentaries on the Sumatra and Sendai tsunamis.  The mental picture of a tsunami hitting is still pretty fresh in my mind.  Maybe a float home is not a good idea.  Plus, the smell of diesel in the air, and I would never swim in the Fraser River, and the front door in the picture above seems to be missing something.  Plus I'm not sure about the whole maintenance thing, and I'm not sure how mortgages would work on a float home.  Do these things sink?  What about mold?  All things to think about.  The float home above is listed for $78,000, so definitely an  affordable option. 

Why am I thinking about these things?  In the next month I have a meeting.  It's like a professional development thing where I decide the direction I want my career to go.  I need to have a goal- shouldn't been too hard for me right?  I love goals.  I make goals to make more goals.  Problem is any job I apply for in the future needs to be part of my professional development plan.  I can't just spur of the moment pounce on whatever job posting comes up.  So I need a plan.  Option A, would mean eventually moving to Victoria for a job that appeals to me quite a lot.  Again fricken tsunamis.  Will all of Victoria be destroyed?  How far from downtown would I have to live to survive a tsunami?  Is it true that there are a lot of sailors in Victoria?  (and now the theme from Top Gun is in my head). How does the cost of living compare?  Googling these questions has really got me nowhere. 

Option B is to plug along as I am.  Not having an ambitious plan looks bad, it means I might as well not plan on anything different for the next 2 years, and it's unlikely that I would be selected for any jobs that I do apply for.  Lack of ambition seems to be frowned upon- and really, that's not me.  I've been very good at cooling my ambition lately.  I don't even look at job postings everyday anymore as much.

Option C, I go for something in between, making my goal to have a very specialized job, that would limit my ability to do anything different after that.  It would also probably limit me on where I could work.  Maybe there is an option D, which would involve changing to something completely different, but I don't think I want that right now.  So where do I see myself?  I don't know.  I know that I want to move out of the valley, and back to the city for a while.  I want a bit more hussel and bussel.  Can't I just put that as my plan?  That's the only thing I know for sure.  So somehow I need to make the work plan fit with my original plan of living on the other side of the river. Or on the river, whatever.

Potty training

I think I talked about this before?

About six months ago I bought a system for potty training cats.  But I ended up buying the wrong thing.  I bought the bonus items and not the actual system.  On it's own it wasn't usable, and it wasn't worth the cost of returning it in the mail.  Today I decided to buy the rest of the system that I meant to buy before.  The cost of cat litter has gone up, so if it works, it will pay for itself in 3-4 months.  Plus cat litter is gross.  So I'm going to give it a shot.  Or maybe it's more accurate to say that the cats are going to give it a shot.  Here is the plan:

It looks easy as 1-2-3.  I'm sure it won't be.  I give it a 50/50 chance of success.

Hello Possum's!

A blog post that read referred to readers as  "my darlings, my dears".  Another blog calls readers "my lovlies."  It made me smile that someone would write that (and not come off as fake).  Who talks like that anymore?  And then it made me think of Dame Edna.

I loved Dame Edna, she always referred to her fans as possums and my dears.  No one under 75 says that anymore.  I thought Dame Edna died, but just the character died.  Maybe she'll return one day with her gladiolas and her friend Madge.  I'm sorry blog readers I don't have a term of endearment for you.  Maybe one day. 

Stats

I love the new stats feature on blogger.  Above is the list of the most common words people searched that brought them to my blog.  There is a definite hockey theme here. How does Bieksa not even rank?
My blog is pretty heavy on the Kesler pictures too, I would have thought there were other puck bunnies google-ing him too.  Sorry, it's a long way until the next hottie of the game series.

Petr is drawing the people in too. I did a quick search to see what other pictures are available.  Nothing too exciting, and then I saw this smiling dimpley face.  Hellllloooo Petr.  This isn't even the same Petr Sykora, but whatever.  Looks like he plays in a Russian league and had a pretty good year.  He made the cut as the first official non-official off season hottie.  Look me up if you want to come to Canada and leave mother Russia behind.

















And this is driving traffic my way as well.  Interesting.  Thanks for the plug 5 years ago.  Not sure I feel the same way about carnies though.  I assume this was Whitney's doing?

Rainy May Day- rambling update

Yesterday I went for a hike in the rain and got soaked through to my underware.  It wasn't too bad, except I looked like a drowned rat.  I'm glad I didn't see many people on the trail.  I don't have real rain gear anymore, so I was ill equiped.  I've been waiting around for the rain to stop before I head out, but it looks like that isn't going to happen.  No hiking today. 

The size medium workout gear arrived, and it all fits.  I wish I had consciously thought about what I was doing when I started, it would have been nice if I had weighed myself or took a measurement or two.  I think I weighed somewhere around 180 in September, and I remember thinking that all of my jeans had shrunk in the dryer.  The scale doesn't really tell me too much.  I weigh myself maybe once a month when I'm at the grocery store.  Lately I've been hovering between 155 and 160.  I've been wearing my skinny jeans for a while now, I remember I couldn't do them up, and the thighs were too tight.  Now they are loose, and I have been taking them off without undoing them.  And the scale is not budging, so I've been weighing myself less and less because it's going to drive me insane.  I'm happy loosing inches... for now.

Next ramble.  Watermelon.  I wasn't a fan, I thought it wasn't very flavourful.  Watery, not sweet, hardly any taste.  My taste buds have totally changed.  Now I'm totally obsessed with watermelon.  It tastes so differently to me now.  I can't get enough.  The other day I brought a whole mini watermelon for lunch.  It can't get any easier packing lunches: 1 watermelon, 1 spoon.  Done. 

Next ramble.  Dogs.  I keep thinking it would be nice to have a dog to take with me hiking.  As long as I'm renting this isn't going to happen.  So for now I'm researching.  I want a smaller dog, bigger than a Chihuahua, nothing breakable, but not so big that it's going to kill my cats.  Smaller than 20 inches because most stratas don't allow dogs bigger than that.  I want it to have enough energy to come with me on a hike, but not so much energy that it's a full time job exercising it.  I want it to have short preferably black hair, no long hair.  And I don't want a puppy.  I have no interest in the house training phase.  At first I thought I wanted a boston terrier or a pug, but they are pretty played out.  Too many medical problems, and they have breathing problems.  The leading candidates:

Manchester Terrier- it's bigger than a mini pincher but smaller than a doberman.  This is Dimitri, I think I'm in love with him.  I would adopt him tomorrow if I owned my own place.

Rat Terrier- bigger than a Chihuahua, and less crazy than a Jack Russel Terrier.  They are smart, and easy to train, and are really good at agility courses (think Super Dogs). 


And then there are these awesome dogs from Taiwan.  Lots of smaller dogs, strange mixed breeds.

it's like a little mini chocolate lab, short legs.

or this little mini black lab/terrier type thingy.

How can you say no to this little face?  Shiba Inu and Formosan mountain dog mix

But I guess it's taking a bit of a risk adopting a Taiwanese dog.  Some of them were street dogs, and some were abused.  Most of the dogs above were rescued when they were puppies so they aren't wild dogs.  Most of them are still in Taiwan, so you don't get to meet them first. 

The coolest looking dog (but he's not for me)

See what I mean?  There taiwan dogs are different from what you usually see.  It's like a Dalmatian and a border collie or something.  Guaranteed to have a super crazy high energy level.

What sort of dog person do you think I would be? 

Pet Peeve

Huggggggggggggggggs

The internets solution to not being able to physically hug someone.  Every time I come across this little sentiment, the first thing that comes to my mind is... Fuck off.  If the intent is to give the person some comfort, then use your words.  Express something that has some meaning.  A word does not have more meaning the more g's you add. 

There is a raw food website/forum that I belong to.  I joined when I first went raw, but stopped checking in because one of the main moderators cannot write a sentence without typing Hugggggs.  It's included in her emails too.  She sent me a hugggggg for my birthday.  I respect this woman less and less and I would punch her in the arm if I ever met her in person.  I just popped in to the forum to see what's up.  Huggggs flung all over the place.  It looks like this hugggg thing is catching on with the other middle aged women.  Now everyone is doing it.  

Thanks for the hugggggg, sending you a huggggg too! 

Fuck off.  I can't stand it.  I'm not a hugger in real life, and I'm not a virtual hugger either.  I only know one person who actually uses the multiple G approach online.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog, but just incase you recognize yourself in this.  Take my advice, stop it.  No one wants your fake huggggs. 

Does this annoy anyone else or am I alone on this?

Jim the Realtor

I don't even know how I stumbled on this youtube channel, but it's amazing.  Jim was a high end realtor in California, but when the market tanked he ended up selling foreclosures for the banks.  He takes us on a tour of homes on the market.  He has the most sarcastic, dry sense of humor.  He is so honest, there is no sugar coating a piece of crap house.  The best part, often he is the realtor trying to sell the house!  Some examples:

I had no idea that people would actually trash their homes when it goes into foreclosure.  Some of the homes people take all the doors, fixtures, appliances, and anything of value.  One guy even took the toilets and then poured concrete down the drains.

Last weekend I was sick laying on the couch watching his videos.  I learned so much about the why the housing bubble burst and why things aren't going to improve quickly.  Here's why, a house goes into foreclosure, then the bank tries to sell it.  A realtor lists the house for the bank for less than the vlaue of the house, but doesn't allow for the house to be shown, and it gets no offers.  But they aren't worried about it because they already have a buyer lined up.  So then they go to the bank and say look, it hasn't sold, so let's lower the price.  The bank agrees.  Then their buyer offers less than the current listing price, and the bank accepts it to get rid of the debt.  The bank assumes the realtor has done their job, and the price is an accurate value for the house because there was no interest at a higher price.  So now the banks have lost money on that house (and lend less money out because they are losing money on foreclosures).  But the real problem is that now that selling price becomes the new benchmark for the neighbourhood.  So then the next house that lists uses that shady dealing to price their house.  Jim the realtor drives around and showes how this is driving the prices down, and how it is causing people to become up-side-down on their mortgages.  So interesting!

I found one!

Today I was at a team building day for my job. Its on the other side of town near my favorite organic veggie place. While on break I noticed a community garden across the street. I just went and checked it out... And guess what? They have a huge compost bin!  It's right out there in the open. So I should be able to pop in there whenever. Problem solved. I admit that I had considered deleting my last post because I thought the lack of compost bin might be my undoing. Now I think I have no excuse.

Note this also my first attempt at mobile blogging. Not too difficult.

Challenge

If you were to take a peek into my garbage (god knows why you would want to) you would see fruit peels, bits of veggies, pulp from my juicer, almond milk containers and ... kitty litter.  I've been thinking that with the exception of the kitty litter, everything I throw away is either recyclable or compostable.  But I live in an apartment, so I don't have a composter, and the cats have not grasped the concept of using the toilet.  For a while I was flushing my juicer scraps, but I was concerned that I was going to plug it, so I stopped.  When I know I'm going to go to my dad's house, I'll store up the scraps that the chickens will like and I bring those with me.   

I feel bad throwing out stuff that I know doesn't need to be thrown out.  So I have given myself a challenge.  Ready?  My challenge is to not throw out anything except for kitty litter, and coconut husks and mango and avocado pits (cuz they don't break down very well).  Hang on.  Did I just announce I'm becoming a hoarder?

Nope, I'm going to try to either compost or recycle everything.  Is it possible?  I'm going to find out.

Here is the plan.  My freezer is empty except for some frozen fruits.  For now, I'm going to freeze all of my compostable scraps and then taken them in bulk to my Dad's.  I can already see the flaw in my plan.  Quantity.  My freezer is going to be packed full in less than 2 weeks.  My crappy city has a compost pick-up, but only for single family homes, and they don't allow for drop-offs..  For now it's a pilot project, and was supposed to be expanded this year, but nothing so far.  So I looked at other nearby cities, they don't do drop-offs either.  I cannot believe how hard it is to compost if you live in a condo.  Most cities that pick-up compostables, do not do pick-ups from multi-family complexes.  Considering more multi-family complexes are being built than single family homes, I think this will have to change. 

Worm composting is an option, but from my experience, worms are delicate.  Their home can't get too hot, or dry, or wet or cold.  I would feel bad if I killed them, and I would have to bring them inside in the winter to keep them alive.  Not really wanting to do that. 

I think I might have found an option though.  It's a community demonstration garden... with 7 compost piles on site.  I wonder if I can sneak in and compost bomb them?  I'm going to find out. 

Have any tips for me?  Do you have a compost pile, if so, can I come and give you my compostable bits?

Self Diagnosis/ Diagnosis by Google

It's been a long time since I've blogged anything mental healthy. 

I've been thinking a lot about my diet and how it might seem a little crazy to other people.  I've also been thinking a lot about my control issues.  The two things are tied to each other.  I blame a lot of it on Celiac disease. I didn't need to be hyper aware of what I was eating until I needed to avoid gluten.  So I now have a long list of foods I will never eat again, and a short list of foods that I will eat.  I was watching a TV show about eating disorders and extreme diets; quelle surprise to see my exact diet diagnosed as an eating disorder.  Hmmm.  Is eating unhealthy food required for good mental health?  They were going on and on about how being a control freak went hand in hand with eating disorders.  Made me start to thing about that.

What's psychology girl to do?  Go online and do a questionnaire of course!  The verdict?  Strong tendency towards bulimia.  Maybe, but don't you have to barf all the time?  Celiac disease use to make me barf, and now I have a huge aversion to tossing my cookies.  I refuse to drink to excess just to avoid it.  The person with my diet in the tv show was diagnosed with anorexia.  I was surprised when the results for me came up bulimic.  So maybe it has more to do with the person and less with the diet.  Fuck that, I'm not going to start barfing. 

So then I thought I would do a couple more questionnaires and see how I'm fairing! 
1) I do not suffer from a social anxiety.  - Interesting, because I actually kinda thought I did!
2) I don't suffer from anxiety in general.  
3) I have some depressive symptoms - Interesting, I've never felt so good!  So then I took another test and answered 'yes' to 1 out of 10 questions.  So I'm good.
4) OCD - I answered 5 questions out of 8 questions 'yes'. "Your score is 63%. You have indicated that you have several symptoms that fit the criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)".  I already knew that hello deodorant :)
5) PTSD - (Post traumatic stress disorder) answered yes to 45% of the questions. 
6) I also don't have any personality disorders.  Although the first time I did the questionnaire I had three different personality disorders!!  Then I realized I answered some questions wrong.  What a relief!
7) Schizophrenia-  not a bit. 
8) bi-polar - nope

The questionnaires are interesting, but the results don't mean I have any of these illnesses.  I did find it interesting that I scored higher on some scales and lower on others and that I got completely different results depending on the questionnaire.  There were very few questionnaires that I didn't have at least one positive response.  For example, the depression scale asked if I sometimes had a difficult time sleeping.  Everyone has trouble sleeping from time to time.  And one of the anxiety scales asked if I had headaches and neck pain.  My answer was "often," but that's because of my car accident, it has nothing to do with anxiety, but a questionnaire doesn't know that.    

On the surface, the results make me look like a bulimic, obsessive compulsive troubled by her past.  That's like a character from a book!  I'm not nearly that interesting.  And no, I don't believe that I really have any of these illnesses.

Campbell Valley Park

The daffodils from the Bradner daffodil festival.  I love the combo of yellow and green.

 I haven't posted a picture of a juice for a while.  This one was so pretty.  Kiwi, granny smith apple, cucumber, mango and spinach.  Really yummy.

The weekend started off with a dinner in Langley at the Olive Garden with the 4 people I trained with.  The food was pretty good, I splurged on gluten-free pasta.  It was great to catch up with my old co-workers.


Today I went for a different walk.  I went to the Campbell Valley Regional Park in Langley.  I thought it was a couple minutes further west of the Aldergrove Lake park.  It wasn't.  It was a lot further than I thought.  On the map it was just a couple of blocks, I didn't take into account that they were neverending country blocks.  It was a pretty enough walk, but it was very flat, not challenging.  Even more annoying, the trails were really, really busy.  A tour bus full of asian tourists pulled up just as I arrived.  Not a good sign.

I did the main part of the trail, it only took maybe 35 minutes, and then I was back at the parking lot.  There is another trail that is 11Km, that is more of a horse trail.  I backtracked to a side trail that was much better but still totally flat.  The main trail was just a gravel road, I preferred this sort of trail, even with the mud.

I might go back to this park to do the longer trail.  But next is the Houston trail in Fort Langley.  The receptionist at massage therapy recommended it to me.  Apparently it's going to kick my butt.

Tomorrow is sushi lupper (lunch and supper) in New West with Whitney. Feels like a whole lotta driving this weekend.