Ugly isn't everything

I am posting a recipe. I originally happened on the idea while stumbling on the web with StumbleUpon. I loved the idea, was not happy with the recipe - cookies? no eggs? weird. So, I shelved it.  Last night I realized it was either housework, taxes, or baking.  Hmmmmm - I do have a very lonely unopened box of Oreos. I think I have cream cheese from a dip idea I never pursued. I have an instant resource from creative chefs all over the country (I LOVE food Bloggers) - Taxes will be there all weekend, and I reallllllly hate to clean.

I started with a recipe from Kirbie's Cravings, and it sort of morphed into the ugliest cookies I ever saw. I have a vast array of willing and able taste-testers, all of them will overlook ugly, if the presentation is sound.  and by sound, I mean if I say "I made cookies," they respond. Quickly.  It's a little Pavlovian.

The Darling Husband, The Gym Girl, her entire team, coaches, parents and random stray children at the gym - siblings and what not, all seemed to love them.  Some even declared them "not ugly." I have seen their pets.  They may not be the most discerning when they love something.

The amazing thing is, I wrote down what I did before it left my head completely.  I actually have a recipe!

Cookies and Cream Cookies

(ugly cookies)

1 cup butter

1 8oz package cream cheese

½ cup brown sugar

¾ cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

2 Tbsp whipping cream (or milk)

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3 cups flour

2 cups crushed oreos

1 cup chocolate chips, chopped

1 cup white chocolate chips, chopped

Preheat oven to 350^oF. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper – don’t skip this

With an electric mixer beat until smooth all ingredients except oreos, flour and chips.  Stir in flour. Stir in oreos. Stir in chips.

Drop cookies by rounded teaspoons onto parchment paper. Bake at 350^oF until bottoms are a light, golden brown – 12-15 minutes. Take out of oven, and leave on pan for 2-3 minutes before removing to rack. 

Let cool – serve with milk.  Yummy!

Swirling bits of chaos

Time stops for no man. I finally get my first Lymphedema patient on Monday. I am excited. I'm also kind of freaking out. I spent all of last year studying. I spent the first week in October in intensive training and practice. I spent the last part of October, talking it up, training staff, figuring out supplies, etc. Now I sort of don't remember even the basics. Thank god my classmates took copious notes. I am posting this blog on my tablet. Expect typos. I hope they are amusing, 'cause I have no intention of trying to fix them all. We are spending the weekend at Disney's Caribean Beach Resort. Really lovely. A little to cheesey, plastic, disneyesqe for me, but, very nice. I have two extra gymnasts with me. They competed yesterday, and as a whole the prep-ops did a fabulous job. My gym girl does not compete until tomorrow, so today it is sleeping in, Old Towne and playing Sherpa to a trio of teenagers. The girl never ceases to amaze me. She took 2nd place in a county wide writing contest for her short story "Memories." I am really proud of her, she wrote it as a class assignment, then took it upon herself to submit it. We all sort of forgot about it until they called her Thursday. They are going to present it at her school. Her language arts teacher does not know she entered a contest. I have an interview with Florida Hospital Tuesday. It is a per dime position, but as unstable as Medicare and home health is right now, I am considering discussing full time with them, if they see a position in the future. None of my current companies seem to have any interest in developing a Lymphedema program. Florida Hospital Orlando has Lymphedema treatment at all levels of care, hopefully they will institute that in Tampa, also - it will be nice to have support, and stability would be good, too. Life is full, and fun and a little twirly. I love a good roller coaster.

Lost buddy protocol - FAIL

Well, 2nd ever salt water dive and my biggest diving fear happened.  Lost the child. Water was murky, we were with another diver, they were taking pictures, I was watching them.  I had one on each side of me, him just barely in sight, went slightly past the little girl, in the direction we were heading - looked at a fish, and - GONE!
Apparently, she saw him heading the other way, and followed, thinking we would lose him, and did not grab me, thinking I saw it also. I did not panic.  She is a strong swimmer, we know where the boat is, small dive group, responsible captain and crew, buoy markers all along the reef, sort of an enclosed circle, so she is not going to be lost at sea. I swam in a little circle, to see if I could catch site of them, then went up to the surface to try and see them.

OK - protocol is to regroup on the surface - but on this particular dive, the surface was full of moon Jellies - so I went back down (fail).  This is apparently when they came up.  I came back up, got the attention of the people on the boat - and they pointed in the direction that they saw my buddies, I headed out toward them (underwater, to avoid Jellies - again - FAIL). I realized that I was swimming away from the boat, with the current, and I was going to have a very difficult swim back, and I was down more than 2/3rds on air. (Triple Fail)

By the time I got back to the boat (exhausted) they were also heading in - less than 5 minutes behind me.  I'm such a loser dive buddy. The little girl did get to see a nurse shark.

The 2nd dive was just the two of us, and it was awesome - visibility was better, she was just as careful about keeping me in sight as I am with her, and we popped up near the boat and rode the current toward it.  SPOTTED EAGLE RAY.  Huge, breathtakingling beautiful, a giant underwater butterfly floating by. A couple of baracuda, the requisite Christmas Worms, lots of pretty little tropical fishes, cool coral, my favorite dive to date. 

The third dive out we had our experienced buddy with us again. We suggested swimming into the current, and floating back to the boat, taking pics on the way back (duh - it is what we should have done the first time).  This dive, I kept the girl in my sight, she tried to keep him in her sight, and I knew that if we lost anybody it was not going to be each other.  I think triple buddy teams only work well if EVERYONE is committed to keeping the group together, visibility was poor again, but I learned the trick of looking for bubbles floating up, it was the only way that we were able to keep track of our third buddy. When it came time to head back toward the boat, our buddy took charge of navigation, and we over shot by several hundred yards.  Another brutal surface swim against the current. Oh - another SPOTTED EAGLE RAY!  If I don't see an octopus soon, I may revert to rays as my favorite sea creature, at least they are accessible. 

Did I mention that I started the day stomach sick and throwing up? even before we got to the boat? under the surface was the only place I felt good all day. 3 hard swimming dives on 1/2 a piece of toast - not good.  When we got back I could only manage a little soup.  The very concerned girl child tried to talk me out of diving, but the Groupon was paid for, and going to expire before we got back down there - so dive we did!

The rest of the week consisted of time in Key West including the butterfly gardens and a creepy guided ghost tour. We met Robert the Doll, you can "like" him on FaceBook.  Every trip to the keys includes a stop at Schnelby's winery, to get wines that we share with our lovely host, Ginger, over dinner. Ginger is an amazing person, great friend, and over achieving work-a-holic, so cooking her dinner is about the only way I actually get to see her when we are down.  This year Schnelby's is adding beers to their tastings, and some are really good - looking forward to finding some in local restaurants. We spent a very cool breezy day at Bahai Honda state park flying kites and hanging out.  Really do not want to go back to work tomorrow. :-(

       

Holiday HoopLah

I had every intention of blogging regularly.  But, no.  Busy may be an excuse.  Or lazy.  I'm going with busy.  I am right now on Day 2 of 7 days off.  Woohoo.  And I am already bored.  Tomorrow we get all the kids, and we are taking them to Busch Gardens.  

The boy is 21.  Holy crap! We took him out for beers and pizza.  He likes good beer, thank God, we told him that we would buy him beer, but only if he chose quality.  Good boy! and, he picked a nice feta/spinach/roasted garlic pizza.  He spent NYE swing dancing!  When did he get cultured and fun?  Makes us proud.  Chicago is good for him, but we do miss him.

The sorta daughter is moving to Chicago next week.  She has been visiting family all month, so we have not seen her for Christmas - she will be at BG with us tomorrow.  I can't wait.  I am really going to miss her when she's gone.  She is really the only sister my Darling Girl has ever had.  She has tons of brothers, half brothers, step brothers and pseudo brothers, but just one sis.  14 is not the best age to have your only sister move across the country. This means I am probably going to be forced to let her go to Chicago and hang out with her big bro and sis this summer.  Hard to be a helicopter mom when the munchkin is that far away.

After BG, the Darling Girl and I leave for the keys.  We have a dive trip scheduled on Wednesday - hopefully the seas will be calm.  I really need to get back in the water before I forget what I'm supposed to do.  

Pebbles came through her surgery spleenless but happy.  Almost back to being the same bright, tail wagging, always in the way, annoying fuzz bucket she had been before.  I little more of a lump dog than she used to be.  She did walk with me every day this week, so we are on the way to a full recovery.

 

There's no place like home

Tampa has banished pan handling.  This is not unusual, most cities and counties in Florida have gone this route.  It is unsightly, and dangerous, and make almost everyone uncomfortable.  When the ban happened I heard an immediate sigh drift across the city.  "We" suddenly do not have to be bothered by "them." My daughter and I are concerned about some of the homeless that we have come to expect on certain corners.  I'm kind of opposed to giving money - and I don't regularly carry cash.  But, I almost always carry an extra sandwich that I give to someone, and I buy bottle water from the ones that attempt to be productive, and not outright begging.  And, yes - I am admitting to being judgey, and trying to justify it by being less judgey than others, and even admitting a mild discomfort and curiosity about these people that I used to see every day.  

I am nearly positive that it is part of Tampa's overall beautification program while we gear up for the Republican National Convention this August.  Pretty roads, effective signage, street sweepers (really - I've seen them), and of course all of those nasty homeless off the streets.  I don't predict a serious crack down on the Occupiers (yes, they are still at it, a handful of very dedicated protesters) until July.  I think the city/state officials are just hoping they will get bored and go away.

Who are these homeless, anyway?  Why can't they just find a job? Why are there so many?   Things I worry about are - if they aren't pan-handling - where are they getting money? or food? The shelters and charitable organizations are struggling for donations, more mouths to feed, less funds to do it with.  They no longer have the humiliating option of looking me in the eye and saying "please." It only lessens my discomfort while I say "no."  Jail may be good for a square meal - maybe - they will drag a homeless person down and book them, but I doubt if we have the space to really hold them all. We certainly are not going to care for them until they get back on their feet.  

Please don't toss out the "it's what they choose" line to justify the fact that we don't care.  Yes, they may have chosen to leave an abusive situation, or been tossed out by families that cannot survive another day of living with alcoholism, addiction, or mental illness, but these are "choices" made in extreme circumstances. I hope to never be in a situation where this choice is even on the table.  Forty percent of Florida's homeless are families. Whole families.  Husband, Wife, Children.  Or just mom and kids.  Or dad and kids.  Choices get made, and statistics show that people that are homeless because of job loss and evictions tend to be very short term.  People that have bootstraps to pull will pull them.  We are Americans - we are a tough lot.  But -  combine abuse, mental illness, addiction, illness, old age, or youth with a really bad situation and things may quickly spiral out of control. 

Florida is notorious for its population of homeless veterans. Nationwide veterans account for 50% of the homeless population.  28% of those live in Florida, California and Texas.  Only 11% of all vets live in these states. There are more homeless Vietnam era vets than there were casualties during the entire Vietnam conflict. 

Statistics are shifty.  The homeless are counted only where they can be found.  If you are in a hospital, or prison, or facility for treatment of mental disorders, you don't get counted.  You don't get to be a homeless statistic until they let you out with no resources and you end up on the street.  If you are in a rural area, or the wilds, you don't get counted. 

There is a little lady that hangs out on the corner, sitting on a bus bench.  She has been there ever since they passed the no-panhandle ruling.  I never saw her pan handle, so her appearance on the bench was a surprise.  She keeps her belongings neatly folded on the bench below her, or in the pull cart near by.  She sleeps in a carefully made cocoon behind the bench that she folds up around her while she sits.  We bring her hot soup on cold nights.  She is not there today, and neither is any of her stuff. I hope she is OK, and hope wherever she is she gets a comfortable bed and a hot meal or two.  If she does not come back, I hope it is because she found a comfortable place to be, and people to look out for her.