Monthly Archives: February 2007

Night Shades are High Phenol

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Eight days of nightshade freedom and I haven’t been really well yet. Well, earlier today I thought I was better. But then I had supper and my hand and my knees and my legs hurt.

I decided to put in currants, since that’s the only thing I ate tonight that’s not normal for me. And it’s not a nightshade, but it is high phenol and so are nightshades. So maybe it’s a high phenol intolerance and not just a nightshade allergy. That would be bad, though.

Here is a short list of high phenol foods, which you would want to eliminate or at least reduce to prevent overload, is food dyes, tomatoes, apples, peanuts, bananas, oranges, cocoa, red grapes, colored fruits, and milk.

Here is the Feingold list of highly phenolic/high salicylate foods: Avoid anything — food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, art supplies — that has any of the following ingredients: Synthetic/artificial colors and flavors [for example, FD&C colors, vanillin], BHA, BHT, TBHQ, [all the preceding are made from or related to petroleum], Natural Flavoring (may contain salicylate), Natural Coloring (may contain salicylate), Aspirin and products containing aspirin or salicylic acid, Salicylates, Almonds, Apples, Apricots, Berries (all), Cherries, Chili powder, Cider & cider vinegar (apples), Cloves, Coffee, Cucumbers & pickles, Currants, Grapes & raisins, Nectarines, Oranges, Paprika, Peaches, Peppers (bell & chili), Plums, Prunes, Tangerines, Tea, Tomatoes, Wine & wine vinegar (grapes), Oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylate). Other items to consider are perfumes and fragrances, nitrites and nitrates, monosodium glutamate [MSG], Hydrolized Vegetable Protein [may contain MSG], sulfites/sulfiting agents, benzoates, and corn syrup [made from hydrogen sulfide + corn starch and many other added chemicals].

from Angelfire on Autism

I know I have bad allergic reactions to some fragrances, like my mother’s favorite Red. And apparently I need to drop currants from my diet. Too bad. I was really enjoying them. I’ve only been eating them about a year. I like them a lot. (Maybe that should have been a hint to me.)

Other related posts:
Discussion of solanine in nightshades and how it isn’t really an allergy. But it acts like one. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And an allergy by any other name hurts.
A collection of internet comments on nightshades that were relevant to me or my family.
Night Shade Allergies, my post with the most comments, I think.

A Few Words on Sex

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Sigfried, Carl & Alfred has a great collection of comments on sex.

My favorite, because it redeems me thorougly since I have never been guilty of this, though knowing my reading habits one might suppose I have been…

“My girlfriend always laughs during sex —no matter what she’s reading.” – Steve Jobs, found[er] Apple Computer

They were funny. My last quote from the list:

“According to a new survey, women say they feel more comfortable undressing in front of men than they do undressing in front of other women. They say that women are too judgmental, where, of course, men are just grateful.” – Robert De Niro

Mr. Right

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His age: 42. He’s three years younger than I am, though lots more in life experience. (I grew up young.)

How tall is he? 6’1″ which is great for wearing high heels or for being cuddled.

How long have you been together (married)? 18 years

How long did you know each other before you got together? What does “got together” mean? We met in June, went out in July, started dating in August, and got married in October.

What physical features attracted you to him first? Hmm. Height? He made me laugh. That’s what attracted me first. Second was that he was such a gentle man.

Eye color: Brown, tiger eye color (the stone not the animal)

Hair color: Once was sandy blonde, now dark and mostly shaved off

How did you meet? In Animism class at Mission Seminar.

How serious is it? Very

Are you “in love”? Absolutely. And I like him too.

Do your parents like him? Yes. My dad said, as we started up the aisle, “I think you got a good one.”

Do his parents like you? Mostly. They think I’m the reason we left the cofC for a while; they’re not to hip on that.

Do you trust him? Absolutely. No question.

Would you share a toothbrush with him? Yes.

Would he let you wear his pants? I steal his sweats when I want to really grunge out.

Does he smoke or do drugs? No. Never.

Do you have a shirt of his that you sleep in? No.

Do you like the way he smells? Yes. Seems like you’d have to in order to get to 18 years.

Can you picture having kids with him? Not anymore, no. We have two.

Does he have a temper? Not really.

Are you happy to be with him? Absolutely!

Does he embarrass you in public? Never.

Does he have any piercings? No. He did once wear a clip on earring to his parents’ home. His grampa offered to wrestle him to the ground and his dad offered to cut the earring off.

Does he have any scars that you know of? Hernia holes from when he was a baby and after we married.

Is he a party dude or stay at home? Stay at home.

Is he outgoing or shy? Er, no. He’s an introvert, but he’s a good talker when he gets going.

Does he love his mama? Yes

Would he hang out with you and your friends? Only if I wanted him to.

I got this meme from My So-Called Homeschool.

The Wild Animal Kingdom

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is us?

Chimps make spears, hunt bushbabies, eat the meat, and lick their spears.

Ants don’t like each other, but different ant species coexist because some are better at finding food and others better at guarding it.

Western scrub jays stash food when they knew that they would be facing a food shortage. True this was done in a controlled environment, but it seems like if it works there it will work in the wild as well.

Animals are a lot more like us than we’ve thought.

Differences between moral and ethical.

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It may sound like a strange thing to discuss at a gun education meeting, but we did.

They said moral is principles of right and wrong.

Ethics are the societal opinions and accepted standards of conduct.

…Interesting thought here. When we try people we try them based on our ethics, not morals, because we in the US no longer have a moral base for our choices.

I can’t blog without you…

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My husband is a computer programmer. He’s my IT dept. And he’s the reason I can blog. Something went wrong with my blog. He contacted Dreamhost and got it fixed. I wouldn’t have even known to contact them. I appreciate all his work. I love my IT dept.

The Cold War Returns with a Bang

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“…a Russian general warned that Poland and the Czech Republic risk being targeted by Russian missiles if they agree to host U.S. missile defense bases.” from Yahoo News.

We’ve been talking about the Cold War at our house. My eldest has no understanding of the concept of being afraid of the USSR. “They never did anything.” “Just because we have nukes doesn’t mean we are going to use them. Why would it mean they were going to use them?”

If two countries that used to be under the USSR iron fist let the US put in bases which are intended to be used to protect us, they’ll get bombed by the Russians. That doesn’t sound too over the top to you? It’s exactly what we were afraid of all those years ago.

Not to be too hard on him. My son wasn’t even conceived until after the iron curtain dropped.

What is in a name?

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“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” wrote Shakespeare.

But is he right? Today’s news included the fact that the color of orange juice is the primary factor in determining whether people think it tastes good.

Maybe a rose called a pickladabom wouldn’t smell as sweet.

Maybe a person called by another name would be another person.

Throughout history there have been cultures who did not call each other by their true names, for these held power. There have been others whose nicknames were all negative, because to say something positive would be to call out the evil spirits.

My eldest is named from my belief system. His name means “The Lord is the god of me.” (Okay, that’s a rough translation, but…)

But my son has decided to be an atheist. He has no names which are not from my belief system. Even his last name is historically from it. So what will he be called? Does he want to be called something else?

He hasn’t said.

But he has talked about his desire to call his oldest son Ted. He likes the name Ted. So he asked me what it is a nickname of. I told him Theodore. What, he asked, (Because he knows I have a hobby of knowing what names mean or because he asks me everything so he doesn’t have to look it up?) does Theodore mean. When I told him it means “God lover” he decided he needed some other name for his son. To date Tederval is winning in the sweepstakes for child names for my grandson. I don’t dislike Tederval at all. But I am sad that my son has eschewed Theodore because of its meaning.

And even worse that he has turned against it because he has turned against God.

This post on naming was brought to the forefront of my mind by Daring Young Mom’s post on her son Magoo.

Letting go of babyhood

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My boys are teenagers and have been for a while. But I have a hard time letting go of the toys, games, and books that they played with as tots and toddlers and funny young boys.

But our church is having a garage sale to benefit an inner city mission, so I’m doing the spring cleaning it takes to get a lot of wonderful memories out of the closet and into boxes so that someone else can make new memories with them. I think it’s a great idea, but it’s hard to do.

We liked to do-it-yourself on games. I found a handmade space game E created. I’m keeping it. And if I find space ship erasers, I will buy them to go with it. I can play it with my nephew and save it for my grandchildren. I remember the medieval game we created for M’s third birthday party or his fifth- we did the same theme for both. We had so much fun iwth it. We still use the bingo game we made from that time. We had a lot of fun making our own games and then using them over and over again.

I gave away the clown costumes I used to wear when the boys were small. I gave away the alien costumes from E’s birthday in 2000. We had girls from church over and my mother was an alien too.

I gave away the werewolf make-up, since I don’t do face painting anymore for church or preschool.

I put their chess sets from chess club in the giveaway box. I almost think I should take them out, but I won’t.

I gave away a lot of the dress up clothes I got because I figured their friends who came would bring little sisters over. None of the kids their age have sisters that young. When did we all get so old?

I love my boys. They are growing up. It’s hard to see that, to remember it, and to deal with it well.

This spring cleaning will be a bit harder than usual, because I’m throwing out the idea that my boys will ever be little guys and play goofy games with me again…. at least until they’re fathers in fifteen or so years.

Spring Cleaning

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I did three hours worth of spring cleaning today. I got three bags of trash, four loads of leaves, four give away boxes and bags, and one closet clean.

I have a lot more spring cleaning to do.

Why Men Ignore Their Wives

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is the title of the article. But really it is an article saying that people don’t do well for or in connection with those they see as controlling.

Are wives really the biggest controller in men’s lives? Does my husband see me that way?

Babies Remember, then they forget

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Just like the rest of us. Except that apparently they forget more. Which is why folks don’t remember much about being little. Most only remember highly emotionally charged events.

I remember falling off the rocking horse outside and cutting my head open on the stones. I would have been 18 months old then.

Sometime between age 1 and age 2.5, I rolled down the stairs of the church. I remembered it all my life and about twenty years ago, was in that church again and saw the stairs and thought, “Oh, so this is where that happened.”

I remember rolling down the hill in Austin, in a car, being alone with my brother. The oldest he could have been was 18 months, which would have made me two and a half.

My niece, when she was seven months old, said, “You scared me!” when one of my son’s popped up around her and she wasn’t expecting it. Now, at nine months, she just says “no” and “momma” and “dadda.”

My son, at age eight months, said, “I love you, Mother.” when I came home from work. He didn’t say another full sentence till he was one.

But I am pleased to know that they may be forgetting these things because they have so many other things they need to remember.

Abortion Apathy

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One of my students, who is a medical practitioner in her home country and is studying here to regain her accredidation, wrote that abortion based on sex is not ethical (Don’t kill girl babies because they are girls.), but that abortion in general is fine because some people are not ready to have babies. Could I just argue that I’m not ready to have any girl babies? Would that be okay?

Jeff O’Bryant wrote that 3000 soldiers have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war. And in that same time period over 5,000,000 abortions have occurred. Why are people so concerned about the first and so uncaring about the second?

(I thought 5 mil was a little high. Apparently not.)

Eating Allergies = Pain

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I am allergic to nightshades. I went two days without eating any. That doesn’t sound like very long, does it? But yesterday at noon I went with my dad to a Mexican restaurant. After lunch, I had to pull myself up the stairs. I woke up this morning with “morning pain” in my fingers and feet.

After only two days of no nightshades I was feeling better. Maybe it would be worth it to give them up. Honestly, about half the food I eat I am allergic to. If I want to get on with my life with much less pain, say 75% less than I deal with on a regular basis, then I need to give up those foods.

No more Hawaiian Chicken at Steak and Ale. (The rice has peppers in it.)
No more Thousand Island Dressing. (Tomatoes.)
No more hamburgers with anything on them except lettuce. (I could have pickles, but I don’t like dills.)
No more marinara, tomato sauce, pizza sauce.
No more dip at Churrasco’s. I can still have the plantain chips, though.
No more mustard.
No more ketchup.
No more queso.
No more Mexican steak.
No more Mexican food, period. Unless I get cheese and chicken quesadillas and the chicken hasn’t been marinated.
No more tomato soup.
No more macaroni and tomatoes.
No more french fries.
No more potato chips.
No more ranch style beans.
No more baked potatoes.
No more barbecue.
No more honey mustard dressing.
Nothing spicey.
Nothing with tomatoes.
Nothing with potatoes.
Nothing with eggplant. (Not a big loss there.)

So what could I eat?

Breakfast at Burger King.
Dr. Pepper.
Macaroni and tuna.
Hamburger gravy.
R’s chicken spaghetti.
That really good macaroni and cheese that Mrs. Nash makes. (I better get the recipe.)
any soda I want
Tostitos, Doritos, and Fritos
cheese
peanut butter
bagels
plain hamburgers
plain cheeseburgers
wheat thins
cream of chicken soup (Maybe. I called Campbell’s and they couldn’t tell me what spices were in the soup.)
Ron’s mom’s chicken and rice casserole.
Plain beans.
Plain homemade burritos.
Quesadillas.
Zio’s cheese and alfredo “enchiladas” – I don’t know what they call them, but that’s what they are.
Chili’s cheese sticks. As long as I don’t eat the marinara.
Ice cream. Any kind.
Churrasco’s steak
Pancakes
Orange rolls
Chicken, beef, pork.
Cinnamon
Cloves
Some restaurant foods.
Honey seared chicken at Pei Wei
Zingers
Protein bars

Apparently last year I made it through a week without nightshades. And I know that in 1998 I made it through four months without any. (Of course then I had some and went to bed in excruciating pain.)

So this week I will have gone three days without nightshades.