Tom's Diary

Log

09:30 AM:  I awoke to a dark and dreary day today; haven’t had one of these in quite some time.

09:45 AM: Morning chores today include:

• Bathing,
• Cat duty,
• Dispensing Mom’s meds,
• Clutter reduction around the house.  With so many people visiting here these days, I feel compelled to give the downstairs a once-over each day or every couple days, to keep it organized and spiffy.
• Laundry (Mom’s whites today)

10:25 AM:  It’s raining very hard right now and the skies are barely brighter than twilight.  Plus, we just heard a fairly loud rumble of thunder, just like you’d hear during the summer.  Hmmm.  I wonder if a thunderstorm in November makes this day an Indian summer day?

10:30 AM: Worked on   adding new categories   to this blog.

11:40 AM: Removed some duplicate title tags from this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog.

02:02 PM: Removed all duplicate title tags mentioned in Google’s latest report (today) from the   Tom’s Diary   blog.

03:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless.

04:45 PM: Wrapped up   Garrett’s computer problem.  He came this afternoon and picked up his Dell laptop and seemed quite pleased with the results of reinstalling the operating system.  Him and Mom sat and watched music videos from   you-tube   on it for close to an hour and it worked flawlessly the whole time.

09:20 PM: [Emmy] left me a voice mail, saying that she didn’t wish to talk tonight.  Apparently she’s not feeling well, and the Penguins are losing at the moment.  So she’s not in the best of moods and would rather we just talk tomorrow.   No problem.

09:40 PM: [Jack] called, and I read him the list of models attending the upcoming foot party this weekend. He decided not to go himself this time, in order to save funds for Christmas and perhaps a holiday foot party in December.  Unfortunately, I’ll be attending neither party. 

01:45 AM: Applied the latest firmware update to my Sangean Internet radio.  Afterwards, I noticed that it now re-initializes the network every time you turn it on; prior to this update, network initialization only occurred during the first turn-on after power is applied.  Not a big problem, but this does delay the stations playing for twenty to thirty seconds.

03:00 AM: Applied Google advertisements to the pages of this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog.  I’ll play with them in the coming days to determine the best settings, sizes, and positions for them.

03:15 AM: Well, I think I’ll go and journal into the audio recorder for a while, and then head for bed.  It’s been a very productive day here at the blogs and I’m keenly looking forward for more of the same tomorrow.  So look for more writing and post categorization then.  Take care.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Blog Additions: 2009-11-19
• Diary Revisions: 2009-11-19
• Garrett’s Computer Problem
• Mom’s Status: 2009-11-19
• New Categories: 2009-11-19
• Salsa as Soup

Today, I either added or modified the following posts in this blog for improved clarity, appearance, indexing, and search-ability:

Tom Hesley

07:05 PM: Revised and extended the following posts:  

• My First Spring Concert
• Mid Life Crisis Thoughts

10:50 PM: Wrote the following posts: 

• Salsa as Soup 
• First CB Radio Purchased

Enjoy!

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2009-11-19

Have you ever looked for a tasty but convenient way of adding highly nutricious yet low-fat and low-sugar fare to your diet?  Well, in my numerous campaigns to lose weight over the years, I’ve often eaten pre-made salsa right out of the jar.  It is low in calories and fat, and practically all vegetables.  Plus, it contains lots of cooked tomatoes; a food that experts say reduces colon cancer and a host of other ailments.  Salsa’s contribution to the great flavor you get when you eat it on corn chips is unmistakable.

So I wondered what salsa would taste like, by itself.  Sometime in the nineties, my curiosity got the best of me, and I tried it, and discovered that salsa is wonderful to eat right out of the jar.  Indeed, in 2001, the last time I lost over thirty pounds, a sixteen ounce jar of that deep orange liquid salad was all I’d eat for lunch on a typical day, and the pounds just melted off at a rate of two per week in February of that year.  Indeed salsa works well to enhance the effectiveness of dieting to lose weigh and supercharge the immune system because of its high vegetable content.

But after eight years, salsa from the jar grew boring to me. So I stopped eating it for a while.  But then last week, Mom heard about a salsa chicken recipe, in which you put about thirty-two ounces of salsa in a crock pot with two pounds of chicken breast pieces.  Then, you cook it all day, and then dig into it for supper.  We tried that, and the chicken made the dish quite filling, while the salsa in it made it taste very, very good.  Surprisingly to me, the hot salsa tasted as good as, if not better than, cool salsa right from the jar.

So today, I was scrounging around for something to eat for lunch, and there in the refrigerator, was a full jar of Carita salsa.  But the thought of eating that  stuff at thirty-five degrees seemed none too appealing, as I’d always eaten it at room temperature during the 2001 diet.  I prefer it on the warmer side because  as I’ve progressed through my forties, my teeth have become more sensitive to cold.  These days, even thinking about eating chilly foods can make me shiver and shudder.  Brrrrrr!  Get it out of here!  Further, we had no done chicken around, and I really didn’t wish to cook any; all we have right now are frozen breasts and wings.

But then, I remembered just how flavorful the hot (temperature-wise) salsa was last week in that chicken recipe, and wondered how a   salsa soup   would taste.  What if I just put the salsa in a bowl and heated it for four minutes in the microwave?  Well, I did that and I must say that salsa makes a great, albeit non traditional vegetable soup.  Specifically, it’s vegetable soup with a Mexican twist; it’s got lots of tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, (though it’s missing the carrots) and other spices, and had the consistency of a   Campbell’s Chunky Soup.  That is to say, it was thicker than what I would call a typical soup, but still soupy enough to qualify as a soup.  It filled me up, and in fact, the energy I’m consuming in writing this piece is coming from that satisfying lunch.

Now there’s probably no food that’s good in unlimited quantities and the same is true of this.  The Carita salsa I used today has lots of sodium (over 5000 grams in one 24-oz jar).  Thus, you’d only want to eat this a time or two a week, and if you’re sodium-sensitive, you’d want to find the no-salt-added salsa.  But at only 315 calories per jar, salsa qualifies as an effective alternative to the higher fat lunch items that people generally eat and that help keep our nation obese.  So if you’re looking for a highly satisfying yet healthy food for your diet, try eating this salsa soup.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Easy Spaghetti Squash Recipe
• Parmesan Oatmeal
• Today’s Business: 2009-11-19

I’ve added the following categories today, to the   Tom’s Diary   blog:

• AM Radio
• Amateur Radio
• Audio
• Citizens Band (CB) Radio
• DJ Business
• First Experiences
• FM Radio
• Ham Radio
• Internet Radio
• iTunes
• Mid Life Crisis
• Old Time Radio
• Satelite Radio
• Winamp
• Writing Business

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2009-11-19

Log

09:00 AM: Blood sugar: 106.  Nice.  No coverage needed.

02:00 PM: Blood sugar: 120.  No coverage needed.

07:30 PM: Blood sugar: 146.  Covered this and her supper with 8 units of log insulin.

11:30 PM: Blood sugar: 257.  Covered with 20 units of log insulin.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2009-11-19