The Intermittent Paleo Diary, and Occasional Artist

Well, it's been 43 days, as of 13 December! Weight is down below 72kg (hooray), but more importantly, my clothes are fitting better. A reminder arrived from the doctor's surgery yesterday, wanting me to go get a blood test (HbA1c) - I'll go do that next week - see how things are going.

I think my blood sugars have settled down. I know for sure that it only takes a small amount (read, less than a fist-sized piece of kumara) of carbohydrate to shoot my bloods up to 14!!!!

But I'm enjoying LOTS of protein (especially shrimps - nom nom!), and the whole leafy vege thing. Not really missing carbs, tho I have an occasional craving for sweets - satisfied with a (very small) handful of dried fruit, or a small munch of a "Primal Bar" that I found at Nosh - lots of nuts and seeds with a bit of dried fruit - no soy or wheat!

I attended a Paleo Seminar last week, run by Julianne Taylor, of ZoneDiet - I actually learned some new stuff, and it was really good to be able to talk to an expert. Only 6 women attended, so it was an almost 1-1 experience. Almost enough geek-science-nerd stuff to satisfy me! COFFEEEEEEEEE - no more coffee - it's a bean whose proteins mimic gluten! Yep, that's why I would have stomach cramps and the runs 30 minutes (yes, that quick!) after a cup of coffee. And I even managed to get a paleo dinner - at the roast shop next door to the venue. Pork, carrots, kumara. Yum.

I've received three fantastically awesome packages in the mail this past fortnight. The first was from Jean Parker, a talented artist from Tennessee. I'd admired some encaustic pieces she'd done, and commented about how hard it is to get the little boards from R&F down here.

This is what she sent me:

There are some fantastic ATC specific paper embellishments, a half-dozen ATC sized encaustic boards, a big board, brochures, Santa ATC's, napkins, and some other bits and bobs! In particular was an encaustic piece (end of the centre row on the right) of a pot sherd - just beautiful. I actually had to wait a day before I had time to open it.

The second package was from Ruth Rothberg, and were my 4 Carousel Animal ATC swap cards: a llama, a horse, a giraffe, and a lady, with a handmade Carousel stamped card from Ruth:

And then, today, this magnificent collection arrived from my friend Emma Gessel, who lives in Utah:

I'd ordered the 3 textbooks thru Amazon, and had them sent to Emma, so I could pay her for the real postage cost, rather than Amazon's gouge. Volumes 1 and 2 of 'The Story of Christianity'. 'Biblical Interpretation' is for a course in exactly that, which I'm attending on campus next year - really looking forward to that, and it will involve learning some Greek and Hebrew! There's also a book on Digital image techniques - a play/text book! There are a bottle each of Citrasolv and Purell, which I want to use for image transfer techniques. There's a half-dozen rolodex cards - gonna have to be patient for package two to arrive with the rolodex machines! - and - wait for it ... MY VERY OWN PHASER! How cool is that! It looks a bit like the Starship Enterprise too. And it comes with a couple of rounds of ammunition - black tape! Yeah, I know, it's actually an 'original' Dymo labeller - but it's still darn cool! Happy happy dance time!

Also in the mail today - my Academic Record arrived from Laidlaw - I passed Theology with a B! Thank goodness I had good marks for the internal assessments. The exam itself had a B, C, C+ and C-. I got an A- for Introduction to the New Testament. I really don't do well on the 'softer' subjects!

Also included was someone else's exam paper - their student number is 1 digit different from mine - and they did EVEN WORSE!!!! I'll phone Laidlaw tomorrow and see what needs to happen to it to get it back to its real owner.

It's been a busy month, and I haven't really got much done in the way of art. WIP's are:

Fabric ATC 'Valentine' - I added the flower lace and 'hearts and dots' to the background of purple fabric with metallic stitching and red bias. It goes off to player #3 in the round robin for completion.

I've started my 'Christmas' themed fabric ATC's - but they need more work - hate sewing with metallic thread!

Also started - and it's very time consuming - is an altered book for another round robin - the pages are all gessoed, and I plan to stick a door inside, that opens onto my 'theme' instructions - doors, gates and trees. Here's the image I intend to use:

I'm hoping to get these completed on the weekend, and out on Monday!

Monday is 'screw-tops' on the posts day - oral surgery for the dental implants - ugh. Thank goodness for credit cards!

Kama - Mr Bear - black dog. Got a fluid filled ear last week. Lancing it didn't help - it just filled back up again. Took him to the vet. Two options: leave it, and have it turn into a 'rugby-cauliflower-ear' or ... have the layers stitched together. Of course, he's over 7 now - so requires a bit more tlc than a younger dog (not that he acts like an adult yet!) So, $800 ish later, I have a dog with a quilted ear:

We're going to take him to get his stitches out tomorrow afternoon after work. Oh,what fun!

Now, you know how I keep saying I'm stressed out, and don't have enough time to do the things I want to do, and wasn't going to volunteer for anything else ... and honestly, I did delete the remark almost immediately after I'd made it ...but it was too late ... I wasn't quick enough, and it had already been seen ...

Anyway, the upshot is, that I'm going to be doing copy editing for an organisation called New Urban World/ISUM (International Society for Urban Mission). I met Ash Barker and Dave Timms earlier this year at a Misseo Dei workshop, and while I didn't find my mission in life, I met some amazing, dedicated (and possibly crazy) people. I'll be very proud and pleased if I can make even a small contribution to their work.

It would be really neat if this is a new direction for me - I've gone from editing Traveller Rule sets, to two books for Alistair Brown, and now this! Tomorrow, I will conquer the world! Mwahahahaha!

This is kind of ironic, actually, since I was suffering from severe anxiety attacks at the end of last week/beginning of this week. Non-stop, uncontrollable crying, rapid heart beat, nausea, the works. Part of the problem is that I associate Christmas with bad stuff happening (marriages ending, losing children, losing friends), and partly my increasing problems coping with groups of people. Sunday last week was a bad day people-wise, and both Saturday (work function) and Sunday - Church and church function - will be challenging for me. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's people I know, or strangers (tho strangers are much much worse - [strange as in - not people I willingly associate with - yeah, like work colleagues]) Hopefully I can successfully fake it!

That's it for tonight. More next week maybe! If I have time ... after I've done some art, and read some more paleo sites, and looked at my Biblical Interpretation textbook, and my Digital Impressions text/play book .... and edited some copy ... and and and ....

Oh, and I almost forgot:

My beautiful Becca - wearing her Christmas present!

xxx