Just Pass Me By

Normally we do not go to the little casino during the weekend, but dad wanted to go and I didn’t think anything would be wrong with it. During the week the cigerette smoke never gets to me and I still can breath okay, so I thought it would be well enough ventillated tonight. I have asthma which I have talked about before and cigerette smoke always gets gives me troubles with breathing. If we continue to go to the little casino then we will need to go during the week when the smoke isn’t to bad or I might need to find the Blue Advantage face look and that not fun. My lungs still hurt and bugging me when I take a deep breath, or when I walk fast which isn’t a good sign. Means tomorrow I might have trouble if I can’t sleep well. I don’t go to the doctor unless I am really bad and can’t breath at all this is a allergy type of problem and will go away in a day or two with taking my meds.

It seems like Spring might be finally here. I love Spring, Summer and Falls, I don’t exactly care for Winter months. The past couple of days have been nice, yesterday we had some rain at night but rain is a good thing for growing and it needed.
Even though I am sneezing a lot right now because I keep forgetting to take my Allergy meds, I love Spring, watching flowers grow and birds pick on my cat Otis. Otis every morning when I leave for work looks out the window for me. Tonight my husband came home and wanted to go for a walk with me, I didn’t exactly feel up to walking because my ankle still a little tender. I manage to almost twist my other ankle again that would have been cute. My husband and I walked around a very long block it was at least a couple of miles but it felt so nice. This would have been prefect weather for fishing today, it wasn’t to cold nor to hot, the fish probably would have been happy to bite.
I wish Hubby and I could walk like this almost every day but I know he don’t like walking. Walking is a good way to loss weight if it is fast and brisk, so is swimming. Maybe it will release some prohormones for us or something and make us happier. During the winter I start getting cabin fever half way through that does not go away until Spring time. Normally Winter means I do not go out much and no walking which I like to do. The severe cold triggers my asthma so I have to stay inside more. My husband doesn’t like walking, so often if I want to walk it by myself and that not so fun. I hope tomorrow I am not going to regret standing on my foot half the day and then walking a distance, but I just couldn’t pass it up when he wanted to go for a walk. It might be a month before he asks again.

I have lived with asthma which sometimes can cause a lot of problems for me. A few years ago when it was at it worst, I had to be on FMLA in order to keep my job. I had another friend who I had advise to get this because she had worst and more medical problems then I. FMLA is Family Medical Leave Act, my boss advise me to do this because she didn’t want to fire me and I had already missed almost all my absentees for the year. At the time I had fairly good health benefits, and had a very low co payment.
My best friend has Fibromyalgia it is very hard for her, she also has a lot of other medical problems. She like me works, and tries to keep her Health Insurance through her company because not many insurance companies want to cover preexisting conditions. Some companies will require you have them for a year before they deal with the preexisting conditions. Her like me when times where hard tired to get help through the state but never could seem to get on health insurance, because we where able body and where earning a little bit of money each month just enough to not be able to get their help.
Health problems is something people have to deal with, and go through. My husband parents have problems due to aging, they are covered by Dad old job Health insurance and medicare I am glad they are cover by that I am not sure if it is medicare part d or what it is.
Right now even through I have job that offers health benefits, I am not working so I am not getting those benefits which means, I can’t deal with my asthma with meds. I know there are many commercials out there if you can’t afford your meds we will help you. Well that great if a person can see there doctor.

Okay how do you get 32 a month on a machine which costs 899 but was marked down to 699, and get it paid off in a year. Their add just does not add up to me. Mom and dad has someone trying to sell them a air purifier, that is 899 and they are trying to get mom and dad to make monthly payments on this. First Mom and dad have a air Purifier, so what wrong with their current one.

Today we where going to make a trip down to mom and dad but before we lift, we found out that there was a blizzard warning, so we decided it was safer to remain here and go next weekend. While talking to mom and dad we found out they decided not to get this air purifier, I am worried because the sales person seems to be very pushy and I do not want her to be pushy with mom and dad.

Mom and Dad deserve to be on vacation with at a place like Hilton Head rental and not worrying about bills and paying someone else their money for a product they probably can do with out. I was fairly disturbed this morning when the lady was telling me, mom and dad told her I have allergies and this air purifier was a cure all. When people start telling me it will heal my allergies and asthma it worries me for other people. I do not fall into this trap very easily because I know from experience not to stop meds or claim oh gee it takes away asthma. I will say my asthma has gotten better since I have been more careful with what I am eating. Food allergies are really the only thing a person to deal with because you just have to remove that irritants in your diet. Respiratory allergies due to pollen and other things like it I do not believe can be cured by a air purifier because those will always be in the air.

Next weekend we will need to go and find out where mom and dad are financially, talk to their neighbors who are preparing meals, and cleaning for them. We need to find out how they are doing and if there are any more concerns for their well being.

Oh so cold, I woke up last night and had to turn up the heat. Normally I do not need to turn up the heat once we get the apartment to the right temp. It has been warm lately and we got hit with a cold snap. Living in Minnesota can be a challenge during the winter for people like me who do not get to go out to much because of Asthma. I am used to this being a problem, at least I have a work out room near me apartment and can get their with out to many problems. The main problem is during winter sometimes the house can be unhealthy because of in door allergens I am used to this.

We have sprung a leak under our sink, I wonder how long it been leaking because it starting to smell musky down there. So I am pretty sure there is some mold or something growing under the sink. That aught to be fun to clean up. Mold is always hard, I know a bleach solution works sometimes, I wonder how well Pine sol would do. The only thing I used the water for is cleaning dishes, running the dishwasher and some cooking. I do not drink the water, I don’t drink any tap water. A few years ago I got a parasite from a rest stop in WI, maybe WI rest stops should do a Phase I environmental test or something.

Minnesota normally has okay drinking water, but I just don’t much are for the taste of the tap water here. I am not sure what it is maybe I am used to Washington Tap water, but not sure there is any difference between the water. All tap water is filters. I ran out of water so I did the Honey can you please go to the store and get me water. Nice thing about being married, you can always ask hubby to help you out. Since he knows I don’t do well in winter he is more then happy to help. I miss summer

Let me begin by saying I am not like most women. I do not like shopping at all, I don’t mind it if I am shopping for someone else to give them a present. I like giving things to people. Now when it comes to me, I want to do as little shopping as possible. I hate buying clothes, food and other things needed around the house. I will do it because it needs to be done, but I hate it. Today I went to Cubs, they are a good store to go to. I am used to having to read the ingredients for my allergies but one thing I haven’t have to do is pay attention to Sodium, so now I am looking at ingredients and sodium because we all know I can’t give my husband something that has a huge amount of Sodium.

There are lot of things my husband enjoys including lunch meat which is so high in sodium I feel wrong buying it for him. I don’t want to have to make his lunches to, I don’t have time for that I work full time, and soon will be going back to school to finish off my degree, so home cooking lunches just is not feasible. I love my husband, the best solution I can come up with is make extras for dinner and tell him bring that and eat it. He would probably enjoy it. I am a good cook. I guess that is a blessing for us. I know how to cook. I got my mom and grandma cookings abilities, they never taught me how to cook.

I have learned most of my cooking skills by experimenting. I have a couple of friends who told me they would like me to teach them. I told them I would be willing to do that if they would like. I like baking and cooking it is enjoyable.

Today at Cubs I went right away from work, it was busier then I expected. alright I said I don’t like shopping, I don’t like dealing with cowards of inpatient people. I try to be patient but lately I haven’t been very patient. I was about ready to cry at cubs because everything me and my hubby like for lunch was so high in sodium. I can’t help but feel more and more responsible for his health problems because I wasn’t cooking homemade, I wasn’t taking care of us correctly. It falls mostly on me because I am the one who cooks.

One of his favorite soups or chili sodium was 1140 mg, I like the soup to but after seeing that I bet I could make it and make a lot lower in Sodium. I know premade food has to to have some amount of sodium in order to keep good. I am just starting to find it frustrating that everything He looks is probably very unhealthy, at the same time I realize I can’t say we can’t have this or that, because when we say No to our selves sometimes we will crave it and give in and eat to much of it. So it is best to allow it once in a while and then not eat other thing that have a higher amount of sodium.

Last night my husband and I went out to dinner with our friend who set us up. She wanted to go out to dinner. There are a few places, we can go out because of my allergies. We tried a branch of a restaurant we have never had a problem with and normally they handle my allergies fairly well and are accommodating. I guess when they open the new store here in my neighborhood they took all the good workers from all the other restaurants in the area. I was not impressed, I asked simple questions about simply how they made something and they couldn’t answer my question. They where unwilling to look, it was not busy.

We finally decided it would be best not to eat there no sense in possibly causing an allergic reaction. They where rather rude about my asking questions. I hate asking questions but it important to now, because forgetting to ask could be a serious problem.

My husband and I go to a couple of Kosher Restaurants in the area. They are wonderful, we don’t have to worry about the keeping of the grill, because if your kosher there are certain rules that are to be followed. The restaurant we went to last night you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathrooms. So I picked at their grill and cooking area, I have to be honest I am surprised of how clean they kept it. I cook often at home, and well I don’t keep things that nice looking while cooking.

When I ordered, I asked the Waitress, how things where made. When she didn’t know what all was in it she go and find out. The nice thing about this place is most of their dinners had a list of ingredients this is important for me it reduces my asking questions down a lot. My husband and myself eat kosher also so there are a lot more options at a kosher restaurant for us then at a normal restaurant. It’s nice not to have to tell them hey pork will kill me, and not to have to ask what kind of grease is being used or what’s been cooked in the grease.

Pork is a real serious problem for me, so I am always careful when I order sometimes I end up only getting stuff not cook on the grill. So it a lot of salads, and sometimes they try to sneak the pork in on you. I don’t know why but it just seems like all the none kosher restaurants are getting on this big everything has to have pork in it. If I wasn’t allergic to it I still would not eat pork. I do eat Kosher and it for religious reasons, but I don’t think I would be so careful to avoid it. I wouldn’t worry so much about the grill possible still having it on it or if they cook in the grease something pork. It wouldn’t matter healthwise.

My husband after finding out some of the things restaurants do, has for the most decided to not get fries because of the cooking pork in it. Well the waitress at our kosher restaurant was more then happy to help and answer question. What I do not get is why is it so hard to ask questions and find out the correct information for a customer. Would they do this to someone with a peanut allergy because they simply felt the need to be lazy. I realize being allergic to pork and beef isn’t a common allergy and it not my fault my body has a problem with it. I didn’t say hey have a allergic reaction it will be fun…

I have noticed some restaurants like KFC, in larger Muslim community will not use pork products. This is great it, shows KFC knows something about making customer happy, but you know there are plenty of Jewish Community in the USA with a few KFC around but they don’t do the same. I just find it odd that they would do it for one major community and not do it for another community which is just as major and large. I don’t have a problem with Muslims neither frankly I don’t care what a person is. I think KFC has the right idea, to make the customer happy, but at the same time I think it important for anyone in the Food industry to understand their community areas, and to understand allergies.Would I eat at a Muslim restaurant I probably would just don’t know of any in the area, and normally when i find restaurants that work I tent to stick with the restaurant or branch.

The thing that bugs me with my experience last night with my husband is that the restaurant was slow that we stopped at first, there was maybe 4 or 5 tables with people at it. They probably felt they had made their customer happy for the day and didn’t need to worry about making another one happy. They had plenty of staff on, so it not like they where short staffed. They had the time to go and look up ingredients, wouldn’t have taken long. Now my Kosher restaurant which was full of customers, and probably didn’t have as many staff working took the time out to find out the ingredient in the same product at the other restaurant. The Waitress did it happily, she didn’t have a attitude about it. She went and looked it up, came back and told me what was being used in it. It took her maybe 2 minutes to do this, so why couldn’t the bigger restaurant which I am sure has more customer darking their door steps, then the Kosher Restaurant in a more Jewish Neighborhood. Don’t get me wrong I am so glad they have good customer service and that they take the time out to make sure their customers are happy. But if anyone didn’t have the time to find out an ingredient it was her.

I guess my solution to the problem is to just go to the Kosher Restaurants and put my money where it would be better spent!

I am allergic to Pork products they make me ill. Some restaurants handle my allergies very well. Some of them, we don’t even risk it. It has gotten to the point when I go out to eat, I have to ask them questions like. ” Do you cook pork products in the same deep fryer? ” “Does this have pork lard in it?” We have been at restaurants which do not understand the allergies and give us miss information. Lucky when i go out to eat my husband and most of my friends now about the allergies. Some restaurants will tell me the items I can eat their and which I need to avoid.

Tonight was my birthday, and i wasn’t going to cook dinner for my husband. I also didn’t want him to cook and make my kitchen messy. So We went out. We tend to go to the same restaurants where the staff know us, and know what my needs are. I don’t like making their jobs harder, and normally I tip nicely.

We went to Chili’s, I was impressed that they had a print out available for me. I was able to find out what each of their products I was interested in. No other restaurants have offered me. When I asked the hostess, my question she decided it was best to get a manager. Someone who would be able to answer my questions correctly. The manager came over and talked to my husband and I, he had taken the time to find out which allergies, I had and what i was interested in. After we decided I wanted, he printed off the ingredients for me