PunkiePixie

PRAYERS/THOUGHTS/VIBES/ETC PLEASE!

PunkiePixie — Thu, 06 May 2010 02:35:34 +0000

PLEASE SEND YOUR PRAYERS/VIBES/MOJO/WHATEVER to my friend’s cousin’s boyfriend… he’s in a bad place and needs your help!

there’s no easy way to explain… so i’ll have my friend Magpiebard from Ravelry.com say it herself

Whatever, whoever, however you believe… and even if you don’t… think real hard and hope.

Just got a call from my mom.

My cousin’s fiance is Mexican. He was here illegally – went back home and worked his ass off, and is up for a visa in 3 months. They want to get married as soon as they can.

In the outskirts of Mexico City, it’s bad. 3 hours ago, he and his best friend were walking home from work.

Drug dealers shot his friend down in the street – for no other reason but “they can.”

Carlos was shot as well. He had the cell phone my cousin bought him. He called her.

From a hole in the ground, somewhere out in the country. He is shot. He doesn’t know where he is. He has no money – nothing to bargain, barter, beg with. He called to ask her to pray, to tell her he loved her, and to say goodbye. The last words she heard were “They are coming back” voices she didn’t know… and a click.

The police – no use. Things there are just too bad. No way to track the cell. No one to reach out to. My uncle, a retired cop has already made desperate calls – the death of the friend confirmed. Carlos being shoved by laughing dogs into a truck – confirmed.

I know this is… a lot. But whatever you believe – could you spare a moment tonight and pray? Pray for a man alone and hurt – and most likely going to die. Pray for my cousin – she can’t reach him. Can’t help him. And most likely is never going to even have a body to bury. To say she is loosing her mind, faith, everything is a light version. I’m scared for what she might do, try to do.

And I couldn’t blame her. All I can think of with a ache in my gut is if it was my husband…. I’d likely be dead by morning. Either at my own hand, or cut down by whoever was left after I tore through them.

I.. I don’t know what to do. I can’t get to her. I can’t DO anything, damn it. All I can think of is just to get as many souls reaching for them all as possible.

There is no happy ending to this that I can see.

Anne Bonney

PunkiePixie — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:17:21 +0000

She was a pirate before it was cool for a girl to be a pirate! I’ve always admired her for her bravery and for her ability to put up with the other pirates!

I’ve now named my latest knitting project after her and I decided to have that project be my first successful knitting design!

Here’s the pattern for you to test.

Please let me know what needs to be fixed, clarified, or whatnot so I may make this a better pattern. Please bear in mind that I’d like to either send this in to knitty.com or figure out how to sell it online.

Thanks so muc in advance!

Anne Bonny convertible mittens

The death of a legend, July 4th, and recipes…

PunkiePixie — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:29:05 +0000

let’s face it, i’m wicked bad at writing new posts for this thing. somehow, an unemployed girl from CT doesn’t have the time to update a blog. between running errands, weight watchers meetings, and busting my ass at the gym… somehow I can’t find the time to update a blog! LOL…. pathetic.

anywho. in my time away from this thing, Michael Jackson died. my dad told my mom over the phone who then told me. i was out shopping at Evergreen Walk in South Windsor with my mom (i needed to look for new clothes… again. i shrank down to a size 10 now!!!!). i was sitting on a bench and had just finished some ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. and that’s when i got the news. i didn’t believe it, so i dug out my iPhone and googled it. i went nuts looking for a trusted source and finally found an article on CNN.com that confirmed it. i didn’t believe it until i got home and saw the non-stop coverage. but even then i didn’t believe it. i grew up with Michael Jackson, he couldn’t be dead!

The next day, i went on iTunes and i purchased the Thriller album and Michael Jackson Number Ones and a few other singles like “Leave Me Alone” from the Bad album (kind of a weird name for an album IMHO), “Remember the Time” from Dangerous, “You Rock My World” from Invincible, and “They Don’t Care About Us” from History: Past, Present & Future. I loaded them all into my iPhone and i’ve been listening to them nonstop. I’ve found that the song “Thriller” is a great workout song… same goes for “Bad,” “Smooth Criminal,” and “Billy Jean.” not sure about “Remember the Time,” “You Rock my World,” or “They Don’t Care About Us” as I haven’t listened to them at the gym yet. They all make great driving music though! It still hasn’t truly set in that one of my childhood heroes (Madonna was my other hero) has died and is now gone. I never imagined a world without Michael Jackson, for me, there’s always been a Michael Jackson and it almost felt that because of that, there always will be a Michael Jackson.

Michael, you will be missed and i hope you know that you have always been loved and always will be loved despite your idiosyncrasies & strange behavior. Your music and dancing were just beyond genius, and i have always been a fan of your early social work. Thank you for the memories! May you rest in peace.

I know I’m late in the game in blogging about Michael’s death…. but as i said before, it’s taken quite a while for me to process it.

On to happier things!

Today is American Independence Day. I’m not sure if we’re going to see the fireworks over in the neighboring city (they’re getting blasé), but my aunt did come over and we made some amazing food and ate our late lunch feast outside on the back porch. We finally figured out the secret to fall-off-the-bone tender pork ribs and made some Weight Watchers® friendly creamed spinach! My aunt brought over a fruit tart that she picked up at the supermarket & my dad grilled up a few tomatoes. We filled up and it was an absolutely wonderful feast!

If your curious, here’s how I made the pork and the spinach.

Perfect oven-baked pork spareribs
note: this will take you 2 days to prep and 3 hours to cook! do this when you have time!!!

5lbs of pork spareribs (this fed 4 and we had leftovers!)
1 bottle Stonewall Kitchen Roasted Tomato Grille Sauce or the sauce of your choice. UPDATE: i’ve also made this using Bone Suckin’ Sauce which is a Carolina-style BBQ sauce (read: sour not sweet). i now prefer it with the Bone Suckin’ Sauce.
1 gallon sized zipper seal storage/freezer bag
1 large bowl
1 roasting pan
a hell of a lot of aluminum foil
and quite a bit of free time or something else to do.

1) Rinse pork and cut into smaller sections so it’ll all fit in the zipper bag.
2) shake the sauce and dump 1/4 of the bottle into bag. add the pork one segment at a time and massage the sauce into the meat before adding more sauce then meat. make sure to finish the bottle.
3) remove as much of the air from the bag and make sure to seal the bag as tightly as possible.
4) massage the sauce into the meat and make sure to move the sauce around the bag to completely cover the ribs.
5) fold the top of the bag under the meat and place the package in a large bowl and place in fridge.
6) after 5-6 hours, flip the bag over making sure that the top of the bag is still folded under the meat. leave to marinate overnight.
7) when ready to cook, preheat the oven to 300ºF (149ºC). while the oven heats up, wrap up the meat VERY tightly in aluminum foil. no gaps, no tears, no holes. double wrap it if you have to! you don’t want any steam escaping and make sure to add all the marinade into the packets. place the packets in the pan and cover the lot with even more foil.
cook at 300ºF (149ºC) for 3 hours. DO NOT OPEN THE PACKETS! DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN! YOU WANT TO KEEP THE STEAM IN if you don’t your final product will be DRY
9) once done, turn off oven and leave in there to steam. do not open the packets.
10) when ready to serve, pull meat out from the oven and place in a serving dish (we used a Pyrex baking pan) and dump all the drippings and marinade on top.

—

Weight Watchers® friendly creamed spinach
note: this one’s quick, so you can do this last minute

1, 10oz bag of spinach leaves.
2 wedges of Laughing Cow light cheese Original Swiss
2 wedges of Laughing Cow light cheese Garlic & Herbs
Cooking Spray (like Pam)
Onion Powder, to taste
Garlic Powder, to taste
Salt & pepper, to taste

1) spray a large frying pan with Pam and warmup on high heat.
2) while pan heats up, wash and dry the spinach (i don’t trust the “triple washed” statement on the package)
3) turn heat down to medium-high and add spinach to the pan. cover with lid and let steam for 5 minutes.
4) remove lid and add all 4 wedges of cheese, Onion & Garlic powders, salt and pepper.
5) once cheese is melted, remove from heat and serve immediately.

serves 4 people and should be about 1pt per person. it tastes just like creamed spinach and will not kill your diet. i think it’s 4, 1/2 cup servings, but i’ve never measured.

Have a happy 4th of July! and Michael Jackson… wherever you are I hope you are happy

It’s been a while…

PunkiePixie — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:57:34 +0000

Quite a bit has happened in my boring little world since my last post. Where to start?

I made a new friend, that’s always fun! We met on Ravelry.com, my addiction, and she invited me to go and spend a day chasing after alpacas at an alpaca farm here in CT. OMG that was one of the most fun days of my life. The alpacas are totally cute and shy! But I could spend hours, and did, just looking at them and taking pictures. With my luck, I left my camera at home! Noooooooooo! But, the camera on my iPhone came to the rescue and I was able to take a bunch of pretty decent pictures that way. And here are those pictures.

Another thing that’s been going on is my weight loss. I’m now down to 50lbs lost if I go by my scale here at home. That was a “HOLY SHIT” moment! I started crying once I did the math. I never thought I’d lose 50lbs in 1 year and be under 190lbs, hell, under 200lbs. I had given up hope, but because I had given up that hope on ever being under 200lbs, it made the weight loss even more sweet.

Now, you might ask, how does one lose 50lbs after giving up hope? Easy… I take it one day and one pound at a time. I had enough hope to lose the first 10 which gave me inspiration to lose the next 10 and so on. I also did it s-l-o-w-l-y that’s the key! I didn’t want to lose 10lbs in a week, I wanted to lose 1lb a week and if I didn’t, it wasn’t the end of the world, I just kept trying. I started working out and eating less and cutting out manufactured foods (including those food that are first dreamed up in a chemistry lab) I even stopped drinking milk! I joined Weight Watchers once I saw a plateau, an it helped me figure out portion sizes and navigate my choices (I was making a few bad ones… too much cheese). What gave me this confidence? Getting my life in order and that took a layoff.

WHAT????? Yes, getting laid off helped me immensely. It made me see myself through the eyes of a future employer. I might be cute and totally qualified, but because I was plus-sized, I was getting overlooked. It gave me a bit more energy and desire to lose the weight. Once I made this decision and as the weight came off, I got the confidence to go back to school. First, I tried grad school and got rejected from all 3 schools I applied to. Then, I tried community college and got accepted! I start in the fall. I met the disability advisor and worked with him to come up with ways for me to be able to take my classes and be accommodated (I can’t write without experiencing pain. Some days I can’t even write an address or do simple math out by hand!!!). All of this is because I’ve dropped 50lbs and went down 4 jeans sizes. Squeeeeeeeee!

One small child…

PunkiePixie — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:39:03 +0000

No no no no NO I don’t have kids, but I have lost 50 pounds. I did some googling and found out via this page that that’s the weight of an average 7-year-old. I’ve seen the changes in little things, like having to buy new clothes and how my friends and family react to some of the pictures I post to Facebook. But, I never really saw it in myself as it’s hard to judge weight loss and body changes on my own. I do know I look a lot better in my clothes and that’s it. And then… I went on vacation.

When I got to my resort in Vero Beach, FL, I unpacked my bags and put on my bikini. I haven’t worn a bikini in years and I’ve never really felt comfortable in one, but I threw it on without thinking twice. On my way out to door, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. You know the kind of glimpse, it’s when you least realize it and it’s at an angle that you never really look at yourself from and therefore really catches your attention. I stopped dead in my tracks and after I picked my jaw up off the floor I realized that 1) I was in a bikini and 2) I really was 50lbs slimmer! I was a completely different person from the one I was when I was last here nearly 2 years ago when I was 50lbs heavier. I didn’t realize how much 50lbs can make a person change, I thought my friends and family were just being polite and/or supportive, I didn’t know that their reactions were to a very significant change in my appearance. I was blown away.

The best part of all this? I went down to the beach and I noticed some of the guys checking me out! But I didn’t get to enjoy it for long, we had to get off the beach after a few hours and head to the local grocery store to pick up some food for the duration of my stay here. The next day, I headed down to the pool as the ocean was a bit too rough that day. I took off my sundress and ran to the locker room to shower off before taking a swim. Of course, I was bikini clad. I noticed a few heads turn as I walked from my lounge chair to the locker room and I thought nothing of it until I passed by another mirror. Again, I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye. I slowed down a bit and studied myself. I realized that yes, I looked hot and figured out what was turning heads… my halter top was barely concealing my 34F/DDD breasts! I made sure they were secure, which they were, and carried on to the locker room to take my shower.

These stares and head turns continued. My favorite? I went to order a pizza and a nearby shop and the kid behind the counter could barely look me in the face (I was wearing a low cut tank top with cargo shorts by this point in the day and my skin was nicely tanned but not burnt thanks to SPF 50 sunscreen)! He was totally distracted by my chest and my hotness! I flirted a bit and totally milked the attention despite my parents being a few steps behind me. Later, I ran into him in the lobby of my resort and I was wearing my little bikini covered up by a breezy tube dress. His jaw dropped. I smiled to myself and kept walking.

After an after dark trip back to the pool, I decided to just go back to my room wearing nothing but my bikini and a towel tied around my waist. My room is in the main building of the resort and there’s no dress code here. The stares I got were mainly from men, but they were appreciative. I did get some jealous stares from women and I soaked it all in; the better to boost my ego! Hehehehe! Today, I did the same, I wore nothing but my bikini and a cute gauze skirt that I picked up at an Old Navy back home and I caught quite a few stares; I soaked it in yet again.

I can’t believe the amount of self-confidence that I have now and how proud I am of my body. But, I worked very hard to get to wear I am now. I went to the gym 3x/week and kicked my own ass while there by working out for nearly 3 hours each trip! I gave up processed foods and artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, and high fructose corn syrup. I also gave up cane sugar opting instead for agave nectar. I also started preparing my own meals that are high in whole grains, lean proteins, and veggies. I gave up liquid milk and ice cream because I’m lactose intolerant and eat sugar sweetened frozen yogurt when I get a craving for a frozen treat and put Silk’s soy creamer in my coffee or Silk light vanilla soy milk. I’ve given up so much and it’s been so hard, but it’s now easy and second nature for me to grab a banana instead of a candy bar when I’m looking for a snack. I’m also much more active than before, I just have to move! All the things I gave up doing have lead to giving up 50 lbs worth of excess weight… that 50 lbs is one 7-year-old less on my frame and I intend to lose another 7-year-old before the year is over. I joined Weight Watchers to help me turn that lost 7-year-old into one 13-year-old off my frame.

Four Points of YUM!!!

PunkiePixie — Sat, 02 May 2009 01:50:33 +0000

I got hungry tonight so I checked my Weight Watchers tracker to find I had 4pts left. Not wanting to make a cheese sammich & not having much in the fridge to work with, I opted to get creative with what I had which turned into this

Pasta Fresca
(makes 1 serving = 4 WW points)

31g whole wheat pasta, uncooked
1 cup grape tomatoes, cut
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, cut into strips
1 large clove garlic cut roughly
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
Ground cinnamon, pinch
Agave nectar, 1 drop
Dried basil & oregano to taste
Onion powder to taste
Salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta per package instructions. While pasta cooks, cut fresh & dried tomatoes and garlic.

Strain pasta & place on side and place pot back on heat. Add oil, tomatoes, garlic, cinnamon, basil, oregano, onion powder, agave nectar, salt, & pepper. Stir until the mixture is hot.

Pour over pasta and add cheese. Serve immediately.

New blog, new start

PunkiePixie — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:05:04 +0000

I had another blog before, but I haven’t posted anything there in a year. The main excuse, I’m never on my Mac anymore and never on a PC because I’m unemployed. I use the Internet funtionality of my iPhone to access the web & it works well for me. Plus, with mobile versions of facebook & twitter, I’m set!

But I have noticed that both FB & twitter have their limitations & despite wordpress.com not having a mobile version, I can use the editor from my phone. Due to this newfound freedom to blog anywhere, I decided to start blogging again. That and I’ve had a lot of requests from the wwtweets twitter group to post recipes & other things (tips, etc). So to honor losingmythigh’s recipe request, I will kick off this blog with a recipe for veggie pita pizza.

Veggie Pita Pizza(3 Weight Watchers–TM–points)

1 Joseph’s flax, oat bran, whole wheat pita bread
2 tbsp low-cal, low-fat marinara sauce
1 tsp olive oil
17g of shredded mozzarella cheese
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 cup frozen broccoli
1/2 cup roasted peppers, packed in water
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, NOT packed in oil & cut into strips
& whatever other veggies suit your fancy.
Dried oregano, to taste
Red pepper flakes, if desired
Salt, to taste
Onion powder, to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil & spay lightly with Pam. Place pita on cookie sheet & top with sauce, garlic, & veggies placing cheese on last. Finish with olive oil, oregano, salt, onion powder, & red pepper flakes.

Place pizza in oven & cook for 10 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes & serve.