One of my favorite types of pancake.
Really simple, too. I also like chocolate chip and banana ones. You can put pretty much anything into pancakes.
A while back, using a recipe from an old German cookbook, I made spinach pancakes with hollandaise sauce. It was surprisingly good, and probably the most 'unique' ones that I've made.
It was buttery, savory, and tasted fresh. Yesterday was Chocolate Cake Day. One of my favorite types of cake. Although, there are many different kinds of chocolate cake...
I haven't been feeling well for the past week.
It's some sort of lower gut thing. Usually when I'm sick, I have a headache, runny nose, cough, etc. Even if it's not a cold. Like that's what my body naturally does when something's not right. But, I didn't have that this time.
I kept thinking that it was something I ate. I became severely dehydrated, and there were some scary signs when I went to the bathroom...(I won't go into it. Grosses out/scares me just remembering it.
) I was very dizzy, nauseous (came extremely close to throwing up a few times), felt like a ton of pressure was on my lower abdomen, felt warm (although I didn't have a fever), somewhat sweaty across my forehead, felt some very painful abdominal cramps, and other strange symptoms. Eventually these things were only increasing and getting worse, so I called the consulting nurse's hotline on Sunday. I was hoping it could easily be remedied somehow at home. After talking for a while to the nurse, she became somewhat panicky over me.
Saying I needed to either go to Urgent Care or the Emergency Room right away. She kept stressing that as soon as I hang up, I should go to either of those. She said to immediately call the hotline back, if things got worse after coming home from seeing someone. Not sure what they could do if that happens...
So, I reluctantly went to Urgent Care. They noticed that I was severely dehydrated and gave me fluids through an IV. The machine was on a fast mode and made kind of a robotic toy sound.
I've used IVs before, but I don't remember the machine being that noisy. I think they wanted a slow drip in the past for me. They said it'll be about an hour to go through the whole bag. I started to feel some relief about 15 to 20 minutes into it. My lips weren't as dry, wasn't as dizzy, and overall kind of felt like I just came back to life.
Interestingly, after having an hour's worth of fluids pump into me, I didn't need to go to the bathroom right away. I guess I really did need that.They ran a few tests, but nothing big came up. My sodium level was a bit low. They noticed that it looked like I had been fighting something in my system from the results. The doctor said that it was most likely some sort of virus. He labeled it as gastroenteritis or 'stomach flu' on the paperwork. I've had gastroenteritis, and it wasn't like this.
He said I should do some testing at home, and bring it back to them. It's something so gross that I just can't bring myself to do. I feel like throwing up just looking at the 'kit' they gave me.
Some of the containers say things like 'poison- don't drink' and are filled with formaldehyde. That in itself is scary.
The smell of formaldehyde makes me nauseous. So, on the whole, it doesn't look like I'll be able to do it.
He also told me that I should have an all-liquid diet for 24-36 hours, and after that gradually adding bland solid foods. He said soups, broth, oatmeal, and mashed potatoes would be fine for the liquid diet part. He also gave me anti-nausea meds. They're really small, and kind of look like grains of rice. Also, that I should drink fluids in between meals. (I felt like I was going to float away...
) The all-liquid diet was a bit difficult for me...
We didn't have very much soup left. In fact, we just had one can of chicken noodle that I promptly ate for dinner after we got home. I had oatmeal for breakfast, which was pretty good. That's another thing, I actually had an appetite still. Things didn't taste any different. Had some cream of rice for lunch. I made it kind of savory with adding a little bit of garlic, dill, and a few other things. Pretty tasty.
Had chicken broth with a Greek seasoning blend for snack. That was good, but not filling. The night before I had beef broth and some spices for another snack, but again, it wasn't filling. I was super hungry by the time the 24-hour mark hit.
I had some mashed potatoes with garlic, chives, dill, and...BBQ sauce for dinner. The BBQ sauce made it even more awesome than the 'usual'.
Made like a double portion for myself since it was the only thing I had for dinner. Had some chocolate cookies to start the 'transition' to more solid foods. Also, had stale soft graham crackers with Nutella and some mini marshmallows on top for my after dinner snack. I needed some serious comfort food after all that.
Yesterday morning I made a breakfast that wasn't my 'norm'. Usually it's bread (most of the time, challah) and a little margarine, or a turkey sausage breakfast sandwich. This time I scrambled an egg (with dill, garlic, and dried onions), cooked rice in a beef broth, and had a couple of maple chicken sausage links with a little added syrup (it's not really maple syrup, but has kind of a hint of it). It all turned out really tasty.
A lot of flavor. Had some of the leftover rice with my snack afterwards. So it was like having more awesome later in the day...I'm feeling a lot better than I was. Although, I still get dizzy and nauseous every so often. I know exactly when those anti-nausea meds stop working.
Occasionally still getting the abdominal cramps, too. (They're some of the most painful feeling cramps I've felt. Not like the 'monthly' kind...) I don't feel nearly as dehydrated as before. So, I must be slowly coming out of it. I probably should still be careful about things. Also, I still feeling weak.Pandora Hearts is getting crazier. The story is very complex, and just as you think you're getting it, they throw another twist. I think the story in itself is very well done. Jack was/is really demented. Technically everything is based on Lacie and Jack. Lacie is Alice's mother. They just switched the letters around. If Lacie never met Jack, or she was killed when she was supposed to, none of the mess about the Abyss would have happened. There wouldn't be a tragedy in Sabrie, Alice and her twin wouldn't have existed, there wouldn't be an 'Oz', the Pandora organization wouldn't exist, etc. Basically, the whole story wouldn't have happened. As demented as Jack is, he's very interesting. He can not die. He ages backwards until he's a baby, then ages normally until the day/age he was taken into the Abyss. (The Abyss rejected him, saying that his soul was too twisted. That's saying something, considering the Abyss itself is pretty twisted.
) Then, he ages backwards from that time, again. I liked that they called it a broken watch that was constantly rewinding. The watch at the beginning makes more sense that way. Over so many 'rotations' his soul is slowly eaten away, until eventually he disappears from his own memory. It's just his body that'll keep going forever. Oz has his body. He has only a small remnant of Jack left in him. (Jack has been on this weird 'rewind' for 100 years now. That's a lot of rotations.) Instead, he has the soul of B-Rabbit or a stuffed rabbit that gained a soul in the Abyss, inside him. He had his memories as being B-Rabbit erased, until recently. He finally remembers everything, or so he assumes. Ever since Jack's body (as Oz) had become a baby again, he was living as a normal human. He had his own separate memories. This kind of reminds me of Haven, in a way...
The weird thing that I'm not quite getting is that Alice also has B-Rabbit's powers. But, they did say that technically B-Rabbit's soul is split between 2 stuffed rabbits. But, I thought one of those rabbits disappeared...Also, many of the main characters are over 100 years old and were there in Sabrie when the 'tragedy' happened. They should be in the Abyss, and yet they're not. Their memories were erased until recently too. What's up with that? I guess they'll explain it later. Also, noticed that it's still ongoing. So, there's a lot more to the story. The anime stopped WAY too soon. Most of this stuff wasn't even touched on during it.
Since Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler hadn't updated yet (not surprising, since it appears to only have a chapter a month out), I caught up on Ao no Exorcist or Blue Exorcist. There were about 4 more chapters up since the last time I read it. That was kind of a nice treat. It's still ongoing too. Only, their updates are much slower. They managed to save Izumo from the crazy scientist who only thought about impressing Lucifer. The Illuminati apparently has Lucifer, and are helping him find a way to recover to what he used to be. Interestingly, his father is also Satan. (For a while, I thought in the story they were the same person...) So, Rin, Yukio, Mephisto, Amaimon, and Lucifer are technically siblings. Rin and Yukio are half human, though. Lucifer's now hooked up to machines and can't even stand on his own. He has a hard time keeping a human-like appearance, too. Izumo was forced to have the 9-tailed fox demon possess her. Her family has had a connection to the 9-tails for generations, but that connection gets weaker with each generation as well. Most of the time they keep fox familiars. Her mother had successfully merged with it, and she was going to die soon. The organization was studying its longevity/regenerative properties, so they needed someone to step in before she died. (From their findings, they tried to test it on a large amount of people. They all turned into zombies.) Otherwise the 9-tails would die with her. Izumo tried her best to take control of it, but it started to reject her. Luckily, Rin popped in and he freed her mom. Her mom took back the 9-tailed fox, and eventually passed out. Everyone assumes she died, but we don't really know. After being hospitalized for a bit, Izumo found out that her little sister was living a comfortable and carefree life with a family who seemed to really care about her. The only sad thing was that she didn't recognize Izumo. She seemed to have forgotten her own mother, too. The only thing she remembered was the fox charm Izumo had. Sad, but at least she knows her sister is safe.
I'm really liking Karma from Assassination Classroom. He was just introduced in the most current episode. Very interesting character. Although, he's really sadistic, brutal, violent, etc. He's very intelligent and seems to be one of most misunderstood students. He was the first person to inflict any damage on Koro-sensei. And it was quite a bit of damage. (Not life threatening, but maimed him pretty good.) He also got to Koro psychologically, but Koro got back at him in some of the best ways possible. He's against hurting any of his students, but that doesn't mean he can't discipline them in other ways. It was really hilarious. He did so many things...Like when he found an octopus on his desk with a knife stabbed through it, he quickly made takoyaki (octopus balls) and stuffed the piping hot things into Karma's mouth. Since Koro looks very octopus-like he associates with them. Another time, something was thrown at Koro, but he dodged it. In that time, he was able to paint Karma's nails and cut his hair a bit. He's super fast, he can move at the max speed of mach 20. He's an alien after all. What made Karma join that class was him brutally beating his previous teacher. The teacher came close to dying. (Not sure if he did. Karma said he was as good as dead, though.) He acted out because that teacher told him that he'd believe him no matter what, and that he was on his side. Then he severely wounded one of the top 3rd-year students while saving a bullied student. The teacher betrayed him, and said he was only siding with him before because of Karma's grades. He wanted the credit for having such a bright student. He didn't believe Karma's story, and reprimanded him. Karma came back and brutally beat him after that. Karma kind of lives up to his name. His opinion of Koro changed quite a bit by the end of the episode. One of the things that helped was what happened when Karma jumped off a cliff. He had his gun pointed towards Koro as he fell. He thought that since Koro thought of them all as precious, he'd have to come after him. Otherwise, it'd be against what he stands for. He thought he could shoot him as he tried to jump after him. He didn't know that Koro could just go down the other side of the cliff at top speed, and lay himself out like a spider web across some tree limbs to catch Karma. He made himself sticky so Karma couldn't shoot him once he was caught. I really like Koro, too. He's 'unique', and seems to eventually know how to deal with each student.
Finally was able to start watching Ouroboros. This is based off of a manga. It's very interesting, and has many actors that I love. I'm used to seeing Shun Oguri play detective roles, but in this one he plays a yakuza boss. Not really used to Toma Ikuta playing a detective either. He did it in Maou, but he seemed much more 'stiff'. Both actors have appeared in several shows together in the past. But, I think it's been a while since they last did one together. They play the main characters, Ikuo and Tatsuya, in this one. They went to the same orphanage when they were little. Yuko, who they looked up to as a sister-figure, was one of their teachers and took care of them. She was killed in front of them. They tell a policeman with a gold watch what they saw, but he told them never to talk about it again and covered the case up. They make a pact to solve the case and exact revenge on the people who covered it up. 15 years later, Ikuo is a detective, and Tatsuya is a yakuza boss. Ikuo's arrest rate is the highest at the police station, has an extremely good sense of smell and taste, and comes off as an overall good person. Tatsuya has made it to where he is with his good looks and intelligence. No one can tell if he's being serious or not. They're still working together to find out what really happened and who covered it up. (Ikuo can do it through 'legal' means, and Tatsuya through his underworld connections.) They now know the gold watch was a sign of some elite organization that the policeman was apart of. It's interesting so far. The only thing I haven't really liked, but seems to happen in many 'revenge'-based shows, is that they'll kill anyone who had a hand in the case in some way. But, maybe that'll change.
Finished my Hanukkah-based drawing. I'm thinking I might just settle for this one out of the many ideas I had based on the holiday. It was supposed to be like a series of drawings where the original characters from my novel, Alliance, are celebrating Hanukkah in some way. They're not necessarily Jewish in the story. Although, we don't really know if any of them are...I didn't go into things like religion. But, it would have just been a fun thing to do. Maybe they were celebrating with someone who was? This one's of Shadow, my main character, watching the candles on a fully lit menorah. It was a different perspective than what I'm used to, but I think it turned out ok. Still need to iron out his hairstyle...The menorah went through a lot of different stages. I wasn't sure how I wanted it. I think what I decided on was best, though. It's colorful, and the design seems interesting to me. I also kind of wanted to color something in with my colored pencils, and this gave me an opportunity. That was kind of fun. Not sure if I got the shading right. The other drawings would have been things like 4 of the main characters playing dreidel, with their expressions, and Junko winning. Another was Sin making a ton of Hanukkah-based foods, displaying it on a table, and everyone gathering around that table oohing and ahing over it. Another was everyone singing, and maybe some of them drinking in the background while they did so. There were some other ideas, too. Maybe I'll do them next year...Maybe I'll do a Tu B'Shevat-themed one next. Since that's coming up quickly. (It's our New Year for the Trees. A minor, but nice holiday.) Not sure. Or, maybe something entirely different with them. We'll see. I'll post the drawing I just finished on dA, after I take a look at it in Photoshop. Shouldn't take long.
Rosie seems to be responding to me being sick. She's been staying close to me lately. Closer than usual. Gives more kisses (or tries to clean me more often. Not sure which), hugs me a lot more, will sit next to my feet when I'm on the computer (she doesn't do that too often), even more talkative, and early yesterday morning she tried to sleep up close to my head on the pillow. That last one was even more rare for her. She likes to sleep on my legs, feet, or next to my legs somewhere. When she was up near my head, she turned around and faced me. It was kind of creepy. And, then she turned her back to me, purred deeply, and kneaded the bed on the other side. Maybe she was trying to make me feel better?
She doesn't do that even when she's cold.
