Then There's Maude

     I really have no idea what to write about tonight. The last couple of days have been nominal at best. Rather boring to be frank. I do have some news about Baby Girl. I'm a little worried about her. She was acting a little strange and clingy last night, and I found out why this morning. Her right ear is swollen like a hematoma, and it's spread down the side of her face. I'm keeping a close eye on it, and hoping the swelling will go down, but there is some slight bleeding going on as well. I've been cleaning it and putting a warm compress on it from time to time, to help it out. I had some left over antibiotics from before, so I gave her half a pill this morning, I'll do that each day until I think it's not improving or getting worse, then it's to the vet. She has been through so much in her life, that I only want her to be healthy. It breaks my heart seeing her this way. She seems pretty comfortable now, which is good. That could be a positive sign. I'll keep you up to date.

     I'm doing a test run for the Pepper in a can contest. I made another can added the soil mix that I plan on using and planted some poblano seeds in it from the poblanos I got for the grocer store last week. This will be awesome on two fronts if it works. I find out that my soil mix is good and ready to go for the 11th, and I get a start on a poblano plant, which will give me fresh poblanos to stuff.

     I'm excited about this contest, cause it's something I've never done before. Listen, my life is real boring now, so I got take what I can and make it exciting.

     I finally got a good picture of a pepper blossom today. I think they are so beautiful for tiny little flowers that produce pods of lethal heat. This is from the Rainforest plant. I can't remember how hot it is, but I think it's in the 100,000 SHU level. I'll have to look it up before I actually eat one. Over the last few days, this plant has exploded with buds and flowers. This one was wide open and in a good position to get a shot of it. They normally hang down, so it's difficult to get a good angle.

   That plant currently has two small pepper pods on it, so it's look like it might be prolific. There are at the very least 15 other buds forming. I'm hoping this is a tasty pepper, cause I'm going to have a bunch of them.

     I don't have any pictures of the Cherokee Purple, but I counted 25 live tomatoes on them today. That doesn't include buds and flowers. I'm going to be up to my knees in tomatoes soon, and I couldn't be happier about that. I might have to finally look up how to make salsa. I'll put my own spin on it, since I don't like cilantro and I know that is an ingredient in most salsas. Never been a fan of salsa, but maybe if I make my own, I'll love it. I'm all up for just eating the tomatoes with a little salt and pepper on them as well.

     Ok, let's talk about a couple of Netflix shows. I watched the first season of AJ and the Queen, and loved it. It was co created by RuPaul, who plays a drag queen that gets conned out of her life savings that she was going to use to open her own club. She goes on a tour to recoup some of the money and pay off the joint credit card that she had with the conman, when she finds AJ stowing away in the back. AJ is a 9 or maybe 10 year old little girl that is running away from her drug addled mom to live with her grandfather. She's foul mouthed and fantastic. You really get caught up in the blossoming relationship between AJ and Ruby Red, that's RuPaul's drag name in the show. If you want a heartwarming story with a lot of laughs, give it a try, you won't regret it.

     I started watching the 3 part of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. I love very installment of this show thus far. It's fun in the language they use since they are centered around being satanists. That means instead of "hell's bells", its "heaven's bells, and "for heaven's sake", is "for hell's sake". It just fun to see a twist in roles. That's kind of like a series of books I've read were the villain is actually the good guy, and vice versa. It's brilliant writing, and not easy to do. You have to forget yourself and write from the point of view of the character, otherwise you will naturally slip up due to your own cultural conceptions. This season, or part, Sabrina becomes the Queen of Hell as the Dark Lords heir. I'm only a couple of episodes in so far, and it's just as good as it has always been. This time it looks like the big baddy is going to be the old gods, but I'm still too early to really know what is going on. I just know that a traveling carnival is in town and they just sacrificed a guy to grow a plant that is more than likely going to end up being some superior being. I should point out, that even though the show is flipped when it comes to a religious stand point. Sabrina and her family and friends are naturally good characters. Good as in morally good. One of Sabrina's tasks as Queen of Hell is to collect damned souls. When she finds out that I kid killer keeps stalling by offering sacrifices, she out foxes him and sends him to hell to be punished in extreme ways. Once again, if you want a fun show with a cultural twist, give CAOS a try.

     Well, I think I did pretty good despite the fact that I had no idea what to write about tonight. I'll keep you updated on Baby Girl on Sunday, and maybe I'll have more to say then. I'm not expecting much to happen between now and then, but life has many unexpected changes. Peace in and goodnight.
 

Peppers, Peppers Everywhere

     I did some crazy stuff today. I really should define crazy for me. It means something unusual but not really exciting to anyone else. Anyway, I still had peppers left over that were beginning to rot, so I too all the good ones left and dried them to make more powder. I'm down to my last half a vile, so I was going to need more anyway, and with winter taking full hold, my chances of getting any more super hots before the spring was pretty slim. I'm hoping this will last hold me over.

     That is a mixture of chocolate and yellow moruga, 7 pot brain strain, and ghost peppers. I dipped my finger in it to try it out, and it's insane. Imagine putting the tip of your index finger in salt, that is how much I had on my fingertip. It burned immediately and for a long time after. I loved it. After I got as much of the powder out as I could and in a small container until I make more pepper salt, I took some cacao nibs that I have and ground those up to combine them with what pepper powder was left. I took a small taste and it was hot, but not what I was hoping for, so I added a little moruga salt as well. I took a 100% cacao dark chocolate Baker's bar and melted it down, added the spicy cacao powder to it with some monk fruit. When it was good and mixed I poured it out onto some foil to cool in the freezer. While I was waiting, I licked the spoon and was once again a little disappointed in the heat. I knew it wouldn't be as strong as the powder alone, but I was really hoping for me. Once again I feel like I need to reiterate how a jalapeño used to be way too hot for me, and now I'm chasing the burn with almost every meal. Take yesterday for example. I made bacon and eggs and almost didn't add a pepper because I was so low on them. I ended up cutting up the last habanero that I had and threw it in, it was to die for. Back to the chocolate bites. after about an hour I took it out of the freezer and cut it into bite sized pieces. While I was cutting it all up I took a small shard that broke off. It was intense. I was no longer disappointed. It hit the sinuses immediately. If I had a stuffy nose, it would have cleared it up completely. This is the time that I remind you that I haven't been sick a day since I began keto. Just saying.

     That chocolate looks innocent, but I guarantee you that most people won't be able to handle it. Despite the monk fruit that I added, it's still biter, but that is ok. Oh, should I mention that chocolate is a fermented food, and actually helps gut bacteria? Dark unsweetened chocolate can be very healthy for you. All the garbage that is sold as chocolate is bastardized so much that it loses all it's health benefits. If you can get past the bitterness, you can enjoy a treat from time to time, and if you throw some pepper powder in there, you can enjoy a treat that will slap you back.

     I made the stuffed poblanos again yesterday with what I had left from the last time. I tweaked them a bit and they came out really good. This time when I roasted them, I went the full 15 minutes. I added salt before the first roast, with a little olive oil to help it stick. Right before adding all the toppings, I salted it again, since baking and cooking cooks off some of the salt. Instead of shredding the cheese, I sliced it and laid it on top. The shreds just got lost since they melted much easier. Oh, and I added two whole, seeds and all, habaneros to the meat mix. They were out of this world good, and I can't wait to make them again.

     Those are tomatoes on top of the meat and under the cheese. Give it a try some time. Oh, The larger poblano began ripening, and it gave it a slightly sweeter flavor. It had a little heat to it, but once I had all the ingredients on, it would have completely masked it, so that's why I added the habaneros. Once again, chasing the heat. Oh yeah, this is what two whole habaneros look like chopped and ready to go. And yes, I dumped all that in the meat just before spooning it onto the peppers.

     That's the tip of a chef's knife so that you can have sense of scale. They were big habaneros too. I'm so happy that my grocery store sales them by the pound. I usually only get 4 of them and it comes out to $.54. Pretty awesome right. I hit the grocery tomorrow and I'll be getting some more. I might just try and max it out at a dollar, that will be around 8 peppers. While I'm waiting on my scotch bonnets to sprout and grow, this is what I will have to do.

    Speaking of the seedlings and plants. I still have one more scotch bonnet on the plant, with a new flower in bloom. It could grow one more pod before it goes dormant for the rest of the winter. I'm shocked it even produced another bud. That is the last one though, I don't see any others forming.

     I have a bunch of scotch bonnets the sprouted, with 5 of them popping in one peat pod. It's going to kill me to cut 4 of those back. I'll wait until the first one grows it's true leaves to trim them back. That way I know it's the strongest. I had one Plum gum and some 7 pot bubblegum sprout as well. I still have quite a few more. I thought that caramel reaper was beginning, but it was just a trick of the eye. It's only been a week, so there is plenty of time for them to still poke their heads out.

     The plants that are growing peppers are doing good, but I'm a little conference, because my Jemez dropped a tiny pepper yesterday morning. It's doing ok today, so it may just be an odd occurrence. Even my buddy lost a pod the same morning. The Rainforest which had some pods on it before my lawn man blew them off, has two pods, and a whole bunch of buds starting again. My Purple Buquinho has two flowers on it right now, and they are looking strong, while the ghost has a new flower. I'm really hoping this one pollinates and forms a pepper. It dropped all it's other flowers, but it has some new growth going. The tomato plants are going crazy with 14 tomatoes that I can find, and at least that many more flowers and buds. I'm going to have a lot of tomatoes.

     Do you know what those are? If you said strawberries that are supposed to be forming in June, then you are right. Cool right? My grandfather had a strawberry patch when I was a kid, but I was so young, I can only barely remember it, and I definitely have no memory of what they looked like in different stages of maturing. It's pretty fantastic to watch. There are 6 berries forming on it, with a few more buds coming in behind them. I still have no clue as to why it's producing fruit now, but I'm not arguing with it. I'm going to eat those berries as soon as they are ripe.

     As for the other berries, they have kind of stalled. The Blackberry bush hasn't grown in weeks, nor has it had any new foliage growth. The blueberry bush has berries forming, but it is taking forever for them to ripen. I think the strawberries will be ready long before the blueberries are, and the blueberries were forming when I got the plant months ago. The strawberries popped up in the last two weeks. Not really complaint, just perplexed. 

     I said I was going to talk about AJ and the Queen, but I'm already running pretty long, so I'll save that and part 3 of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina for Thursday. Oh, I do have a favorite song of the week. Yes, I own it's been a while since I've done that, but nothing has stood out to me lately.

     Favorite Song of the Week is from a band that got it's start during the grunge era. They are even considered the godfathers of grunge. They have consistently put out albums whether you knew it or not, and their new album which is coming out in March is being heralded as one of their best albums yet, and if they first single form it is any indication, it's going to truly be a great album. This song has brought me back to the fold. I haven't really listened to them since their third album, so it's kind of exciting that I'm enjoying them once again. The band is none other than Pearl Jam, and their new song has an old familiar sound to it, but it's not really theirs. First reviews were throwing around Bowie and Prince, but those people were wrong. It was a David but the wrong David. David Byrne is the David that Eddie is channeling in this song, and the instruments even sound like a Talking Heads song, and a really good Talking Heads song at that. See if you don't hear it when you listen to it. Here is Pearl Jam with their latest single "Dance of the Clairvoyants".

      I've been listening to that song on loop since it came out late last week. I can't get enough of it. I really hope you enjoy it. I'm calling it a night. Peace in and goodnight.

Lessons Have Been Learned

     I'm having a hard time figuring out how to write tonights post. I have a bunch of things I can talk about, but should I talk about some of them in particular. I guess the first thing which ties in with the other thing that I could talk about is well, every once in a while I'm reminded of why I can't trust most people. You know, the people that say they are going to do something and then never follow through. The first thing though is more of a lesson learned about myself, and it's a lesson that I already know, but took the calculated risk, or uncalculated, I guess it's all in how you see it. In the middle of last week I reached out to my crush. I only asked if there was any light on her schedule opening up to have that dinner date. I have yet to hear back from her. This is that lesson about putting myself out there. I knew this was a bad idea, but since it was a new year, and a new decade, I foolishly thought that maybe, just maybe a different result would arise from it. Since I sent the message through the DM of a social media app, I know that she has seen it. I would have been ok with a, "Hey nothing is opening up yet." or, "We are always busy this time of year, but I'll let you know.". The good news is, that the attitude that I took going into this, is still intact. I expected to fail so failure won't effect me. Don't get me wrong, I'm bummed, but this time, it's only on the surface. I can rub it off with a workout or 50. I didn't say it wouldn't take time. Ok, maybe I did, but not like these things have effected me in the past. I'm going to be ok.

     The other thing is basically the reason why I don't ask people for anything. They generally fail when it comes to coming through. There are very few people in my life that will actually follow through on a promise, and it is usually something that they offer up without even being asked. I will accept help, I just usually don't ask for it, because of the let down, and that small number of people are simply incredible.

     I got a text yesterday from an old friend of my mother's. They were in town and wanted to know if they could stop by. There was no way I was going to say no. Usually Sunday is wide open and they asked to come and visit on that day, so I told them any time they wanted. As usual, plans didn't go as smoothly as I wanted. Someone took my mom out for lunch today, but I made sure that they had to shorten their time with her, so that she would be back for her visit. They made it back in plenty of time, so although the plans were altered, they worked out wonderfully.

     I wouldn't tell my mom who was coming to visit. I wanted it to be a surprise, but that may have been an error on my part. She would continuously guess who it was and several times asked if it was her mother and father. She has reverted so much at times, that she doesn't know that they passed away decades ago. It's heartbreaking. If I would have thought about it, I would have just not told her someone was coming to visit at all, and just kept everything behind the scenes so that it would all come together. Despite those difficulties, it was a fantastic visit, and the surprise worked out in the end. It lifted my mom up a great deal to see old friends of hers. I could also see the confusion on their faces when my mom would misremember or make up events. Oh and when she would talk about me as her brother or as if I wasn't there. It gets awkward, but they handled it with grace. They each thanked me for taking care of my mom and wanted me to keep them up to date on how things are going with her. I will of course do that. It's always good to see my mom smile like she used to.

     On to the update about me, myself, and I. I can't tell you how great I feel after that 96 hour full body reset. My energy levels are through the roof. I'm feeling beyond healthy, and there are no side affects of my fast. I will weigh in tomorrow to see the total results of the fast. That will let me know exactly how much weight I truly lost and where I go from here. No matter what the weigh in says, I'm over the 145 lbs goal. I'm on to my 15% body fat goal. I hit 145 for 3 days straight and that is good enough for me. I know that water weight will adjust my weight and I'm not worried about that. That is why I'm all about the body fat measurement now. The scale means nothing to me. I will still grab those numbers, but they aren't the penultimate of where I am now. I did check body fat again this morning and I'm still at 16.9%. That is solid. Also, just because I hit goal, that doesn't mean I can just go out and eat anything. I did go to my favorite pizza place on Pizza Friday and had a normal pizza, but that is it. Remember I would go for a normal pizza about once a month before I started the final push to goal. Having that cheat meal won't destroy you. It is just a meal, and as long as you see it that way, you will have no worries. I don't see it as doing anything bad. I don't see it as some triumphant victory, because I ate garbage food and lived to tell about, it is simply one meal out of 14-21 I will have during the week. Does that one meal have repercussions? Absolutely, but if I just eat the way I normally do, those will be overcome in no time. I'm not correcting (punishing) myself by fasting to fix it. I'm not doing extra workouts or cardio, I'm just living. The greatest thing that I learned through this whole process is, how to have a good relationship with food. Me and food get along now, and that means a much healthier me.

     Speaking of food, this was my dinner tonight. All cooked on the grill. It's been a while since the grill has been in play. Yes, those are grass fed/finished hot dogs. I reached out to my buddy and told him I was trying to figure out how to put habaneros in with the meal, and he mentioned cutting the dogs open and stuffing the habaneros in and then melting cheese on top. It was pure genius, and those hot dogs blended beautifully with the habaneros. It was so good. I do think I should have cut the brussel sprouts in half before putting them on the grill. They were good, but a little undercooked. I diced the grape tomatoes and sprinkled moruga salt on them as well as everything else. It was spicy heat goodness all around. I really love the way I eat now, why would I ever go back to eating processed garbage food? The asparagus was perfection. I brushed a little olive oil on near  the end and then salt and pepper. The moruga salt came after plating. If you ever want an outstanding meal, and you are anywhere near me, stop by, I'll make you a meal that will blow your mind.

     Ok, now on to garden news. First picture is of the first Cherokee Purple tomato that began growing. There are 14 total on the plants that I could find, and there are at least that many flowers or buds on the plants that should all turn into more tomatoes. We are going to have a lot of tomatoes soon.

     That's about the size of a baseball right now. I think it may be nearing the end of it's going cycle and will start ripened soon. I can't wait to have a purple and red tomato.

     The next picture is the seed tray. I got some sprouts after only a week, so the top has come off and I'm hoping more and more will sprout. The big germinators are the Scotch Bonnets from my own plant. These are the seeds from that cool shaped pod. So I'm really excited about them. The rest are from the seeds that I planted in the last tray that pretty much failed. I still have 3 seedlings that have survived to this point, but I'm not holding on to hope of them lasting. I'm going to baby this tray so that they are all successful.

     Here is the new thing I'm excited about, and it involves peppers. My buddy turned me onto a new Facebook group that is a growing contest. It's called Pepper in a can. You simply grow a pepper plant in a 12 oz. can. You can grow as many as you like, but at the end of the season you can only submit one for judging. I've decide to grow 4 plants. The Berry Cream BBG, which has black leaves, The Caramel Reaper, Orange Habanero, and Scotch Bonnet. I really like the flavor the Scotch Bonnets ok. The more plants I have the better. Anyway, you have to cut the top off the cans so you can grow, so that's what I've done over the last few days. This is the result.

































     The Berry Cream is going in the black can, the Dr. Pepper gets the Caramel Reaper, the Virgils Orange soda gets the Orange Habanero, and the Pepsi gets the Bonnet. I can't plant until Feb. 11th, so I have plenty of time. I have my seeds ready, I just need to mix some soil, but I'm going to wait until it gets closer to the sowing date. This is going to be fun. I'll be growing them mostly indoors, but I'll take them outside for natural sun during sunny days. These are going to be glamour plants that will produce fruit but more than likely on a smaller scale. Kind of like a bonsai, but not really. There is a practice called bonchi, that is miniaturizing chili plants. I may do that next winter with some of the yearlings for fun. It looks really neat and it's a way to keep your plants alive during harsh winters. Not really an issue here in Florida, but it will still be fun.

     Ok, I feel like I've gone on way to long tonight, so I better cut things off here. Peace in and goodnight.

The Results Are In

     I still have about an hour and half to go before I hit 96 hours, which will be 4 solid days without food. Yeah, I went over the 84 hour mark and straight through to a full 96. Here are the results. I weighed in this morning, and I'll weigh in tomorrow morning, but I can't give you that number until Sunday. Today's weigh in, was 144 on the dot. I lost a total of 5.2 pounds this fast, and although I'm definitely hungry now, I'm feeling really good. I did measure the waist, since that will disappear when I eat, but the last measurement was at 32.5 inches. That is the measurement around the circumference of my belly botton, not down below where I wear my pants. I only took one GKI measurement and was at 1.12 yesterday evening, that put me at high therapeutic ketosis. I'm sure that I'm lower at this point, but It really isn't necessary to measure at this point. Today was a bit of a rest day, so I only did my cardio this morning.

     In a little over an hour, I'm braking my fast with my Sun Warrior Warrior Blend shake mixed with the Collagen powder. I haven't broken a fast this way, so I'm curious to see how it goes. I'll let you know how it goes on Sunday. An hour after that, I'm going to make a good meal of chicken, asparagus, cauliflower, and cherry tomatoes. It's going to be outstanding.  Oh yeah, I have pictures. The first one is the standard shot.

    I should mention that I took these just before writing this, so they are as fresh as you can get. Now the rest are the shirtless variety. A couple of shots like all those other shirtless ones, and then a few cheesy shots showing that fasting does not deplete you of muscle.

     I may look a little flat, since my body is depleted of food, but you can tell that I'm healthy and not weak and feeble like those against fasting will tell you. Ok, now for the cheesy shots. I couldn't resist.

     Yes, I'm flexing in all of them, but that is only so you can see that muscle is still there. Yes, I also have along way to go before I'm happy, but I'm very proud of the body that I now have. It took 10 months of hard work and will take many more months of that same hard work to get where I truly want to be, but I'm on the way, and these photos are proof of it. The bottom line, is Keto works, and works really well. If those photos aren't proof, I don't know what is.

     Now on to some other non sense. It was really cold today, and I may have lost a couple of seedlings because the feels like fell below freezing this morning. I won't know for sure until tomorrow, but it's not looking good. All other plants did really well, and I'm pretty happy about that.

     I decided last night, that I might want to start growing poblano peppers. I don't know why, it just struck me as something that I may want to do. I went to the grocery store today and bought 4 good sized poblanos, so that I can make stuffed poblanos for dinner tomorrow. This will help me decide if it's a good idea to grow them or not. They have a very mild heat, that is jalapeño level or less, so it might just be a nice little slightly spicy meal. Of course, I'm going to punch it up a bit. I also bought a few orange habaneros to add to the meat mix. The idea is to take ground pork, spice it up taco style, slice some tomatoes up, and then throw them in the poblanos with some grated cheese on top. I'm expecting it to be really good. Once again, I'll let you know on Sunday

    Oh, I am very aware that I'm writing this on Wednesday, and I could just update you with the normal post tomorrow, but I'm doing this one in place of the normal post and calling it a week early. You're just going to have to suck it up and enjoy what you get.

     My shoulder is killing me today, and I'm pretty sure it is the cold weather that is doing it. It was feeling 100% for a couple of days, and then over night it began hurting. It actually woke me up at one point in the night as I was rolling over. I've been doing exercises to try and strengthen the area without overdoing it, but it's hard to figure out what is going to spring it into painful action. I'll just keep dealing with it.

     Well, that's all I have for you. Oh, with my final weight goal having been obliterated, I'm moving on to my new goal of body fat percentage. That will be 15% and when I get there I'll reevaluate everything from there. I did take a body fat percentage over the last few days, and I'm getting a 16.9% reading. If that holds up, then I only have 1.9% to go. I'm pretty sure that is a much bigger number than it looks, so I have my work cut out for me. Peace in and goodnight.

There's Some Good News For A Change

     Day 3 of the fast, and I decided to go for 4 full days. That will come out to 96 hours. I woke up this morning feeling great, and during that new thing I was talking about doing, but not telling you what it is (still holding back that info for now), I extended that portion of my workout far beyond anything I've ever done, so I figured why not extend the fast for another full day. This will give me that stem cell production that I was looking for, and do it in spades. I don't feel hungry, but I do want to eat, just for the sake of eating, and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Probably bad, since it's only a desire to eat, and not really feed myself.

     I did weigh in, and measure myself this morning. I don't expect any of these numbers to stay after I break the fast though, but one will have me at goal. I weighed in at 145.6 lbs, this morning. I expect to lose at least another pound by tomorrow. That will have me surpassing goal, which equals as a hit. That will have me moving on to the next goal, which is lean mass vs. body fat. That goal is 15% body fat. I did take a body fat measurement as well, and I pulled a 16.9% body fat reading. Getting closer every day. The last measurement was my waist, and I really don't expect this one to last due to the fact that this measurement me be skewed because my stomach is completely empty. I lost another half inch. in my waist. I'm using that measurement as more of a guide though. The WtoH ratio at that measurement is .485. That gives me a real good idea of just how much I still have to take off my waist to hit a solid .48. That probably means I need another full inch from my waist. I'm hoping to do this will gaining lean mass, which means I will lower my waist while gaining weight. I fully expect that my ideal weight and body appearance will be in the 160 lbs range. I'm going to do the so called impossible, by gaining muscle and losing fat. It can be done. I've been doing it already, I just have to take it to the next level.

     I forgot to show you this picture of the new seed pods I planted. My other tray was annihilated. Only two seedlings have survived, and they are both the Morgulah. I'm happy about that, but disappointed about losing the rest.

     The left is the plan, while the right is the finished product. I'm going to be extra cautious this time around and ladle these pods with kid gloves. I want them all to germinate and grow true leaves before I do anything with them. I may even keep them inside the whole winter, to make sure they are hearty before I put them outside. I know we have some cold days in front of us.

     This morning was the coldest day of the year so far (43 degrees here) and I was outside at 4:45 in the morning with no shirt on doing that portion of my workout that I'm not talking about. A couple of reasons for this. The first is, that's how I've been doing it since the beginning and see no reason to really change that, and second, there are incredible benefits to working out in the cold. You know how you see people doing those cryogenic pods? Well they are doing that because cold activates your brown fat. It makes it start it's shiver affect and you actually burn fat, so when I'm doing my workout in 43 degree weather with a windchill that makes it feel like 35 degrees, I'm all in on the fat burning. This is on top of the massive fat burning effort the my body is already going through by feeding off my fat while fasting. It's a good old fashioned double whammy.

     The moms had a doctor appointment this morning. It was her quarterly check up and it went really well. The doctor does want her to eat more, which I want as well. Sometimes she can get distracted while eating and decide that she is done. There is also the fact that she eats like a little kid now, and gets grumpy if there are vegetables on the plate. With that, let's get to the negative part of the visit. The doctor informed me that medicine is not an option for her dementia. She is too far along the medication won't do anything for her. He mentioned that her mental activity is that of a 5 year old, which is probably right based on what I see. She does have her moments, but her comprehension level is far below what she used to be. We had this discussion in front of her (which I hate), and she didn't understand a single thing we were talking about. She asked me to explain it to her as we were walking out of the doctors office. I did in a way that was positive. I told her that she has dementia which means that she forgets things from time to time. She was ok with that, and even agreed with it. Now for the good. Despite him wanting her to eat more, because her weight was down to 114.6 which was 20 lbs less than two years ago, he said everything was great. Her BP was outstanding, and he mentioned something that blew me away. My mom has A-Fib. If you don't know, it means he has a leaking heart valve. He said today when he was listening to her heart, that she had normal rhythm and the swoosh of the A-Fib was barely noticeable. That shocked me, like you wouldn't believe. I'm really looking forward to her going back to her heart doctor in April now, so I can hear what he has to say. How great would it be if the diet she is on, is actually healing her heart? Wouldn't that be crazy?

     That is all I have for tonight. My body is starting to wind down, due to lack of sustenance, so I'm going to take it easy, and get ready for my last day of the fast which is tomorrow. I'll be breaking fast at 6:33 tomorrow which will make it a full 96 hours. That will set my PR for fasting, and I'm pretty excited about that. Peace in and goodnight.

The Fast Is Slow

     I'm around the 24 hour mark on the 72 hour fast. I'm finally beginning to feel hungry, so the trick with eating a pepper as part of my last meal, has been a huge success. I opted for a snack type of meal since I had already eaten dinner around 4 in the afternoon, and I wanted my fast to start later in the day. I went with a nut bowl of walnuts and macadamia nuts, with a freshly picked Scotch Bonnet.

     That Scotch Bonnet was good too, and the burn was nowhere near as bad as it was the first time I had it. I don't know if that was just that it was a low level bonnet, or that my tolerance is just that high right now. It could also have something to do with what I ate earlier in the day, but I'll get to that in just a bit.

     It was a hot pepper kind of a weekend. I finally picked the Orange Habanero that had been growing on one of my plants. It is a very small plant and produced only one pepper, despite several buds, and that one pepper was super tiny.

     It had a nice citrus flavor with very mild heat. I really enjoyed it, and wish there were more, but those plants are moving real slow. I have other plants that I planted long after those, that are flourishing and much bigger now. They will come around, it's only a matter of time.

     Yesterday morning I woke up with my game plan of having a bonnet in my breakfast, so I made bacon and eggs with one of the bonnets cut up in the eggs. That one kept some heat despite being scrambled up in the eggs. It was good, and added great flavor to my eggs, but the big heat was coming.

     My buddies wife did an amazing thing and bought us each one of those chips on eBay, and we chose yesterday to do it, since he was in my part of town. Oh, and we made a video doing it.



     As you can see, we survived, but it wasn't easy. I will say, that the biggest part of the challenge is the aftermath. About 20-30 minutes after eating it, I got what are known as the capsaicin cramps. They don't feel like cramps though. It basically felt like my stomach was trying to twist inside out. It was mild for about 15 minutes and then it really hit me hard for 5 minutes or so. I felt like throwing up, but I pulled through. That part really sucked, but in the end I think it was worth it, to try the world's hottest chip. I said in the video that it tasted weird, and that is only because I had never experienced a flavor like that. It was a good flavor and somewhat sweet. As I said in the video we are looking forward to their next chip. Even knowing what is going to happen to my stomach when I eat that chip, I'm still in for doing it again. Oh, and my eyes are fine, as soon as I shut of the video I went and washed my hand and wiped my hands with a damp cloth and they were great after that. That eye burn was real though, and it indeed sucked.

     I did take a picture yesterday to document how I looked before starting the fast, and also so I could update my before and after photo. This is it.

     I weighed in yesterday morning at 149.2 pounds. That sets the start weight for the fast, I'll weigh in again on Wednesday morning, which could be the day after I break the fast. I'm having some thoughts about extending the fast an extra day for stem cell production. I'm still mulling it over. My original idea was to break the fast with bone broth and then wait to eat again until the next morning, but I just wait until the next morning, and I can get in on the amazing benefits of stem cell production. The body begins producing stem cells at around the 72-84 hour mark, and as you may know from the stem cell controversy of a few years ago, they have amazing healing properties. The whole controversy is that doctors were using fetal stem cells, and some people believe that is wrong or immoral. I'm not getting into the discussion, but I'm going to tell you that you can do your own stem cell therapy, but it takes a great deal of effort. That effort being a minimum of going 84 hours without food. I did an 84 hour fast my first time out doing an extended fast, and that was long before I knew all the benefits of it, so I think what I'm saying is, that I'm going for the full 84 hours. There is also the added benefit of how much money I'm saving on food costs. Pretty cool side benefit huh?

     I'm going to go get me some more water with salt in it and call it a night. I gots to get up and do my morning workout, which has changed a bit since I last spoke to you about it. I'll get into details later, but I'm doing something I never thought I would do. Take that and wait for what is coming, HA.
Peace in and goodnight.

The Spectacle And The Debacle

     I got the joy of hearing how my relative that calls my mom everyday, has lost their mind. This all came with how I'm a horrible person that hasn't been around and has abandoned my mom. This always happens when my name is brought up, and it is absolute torture to hear. No matter what the reality is, and how I know the truth, it is torture. I've asked my relative not to talk about me, but it seems that my wishes aren't to be granted. It is much easier if I'm never brought up and if I am, saying you know nothing about me goes a long way to getting her to let go of it. This is what I've been doing lately, and it works. "Do you know my brother (me)?" "No, I don't know anything about him." "I didn't think you did but I thought I would ask." That is the entire conversation. It can happen a few times a day sometimes, but it ends quickly, and I don't have to hear her horrible a person I am. I've given up and trying to get her to acknowledge who I am. I'm just the guy that takes care of things, or guys. It varies from day to day. I'm either that one guy, or one of many.

     On the bright side, I may get more than an hour this weekend to myself. My relative that picks my mom up for lunch each weekend, is going to meet up with an old friend of hers. This can go one of two ways. They spend a lot of time with each other, or they only have a quick lunch and they are back home around the 1 hour mark. I get it, people don't want to be reminded that she is no longer the bright and energetic woman she once was. They don't want to be around her with her loss of memory and near constant confusion. I have no choice in the matter, and even if I did, I wouldn't have it any other way, Despite my need for more time for myself, this is the sacrifice I chose to make knowing full well what was in store for me. I knew she would eventually forget me, and not know who I am. I knew there would be moments of such confusion that she would lash out with violence. I knew all of this. We will get through this, it only remains to be seen how it truly affects me in the end.

     I'm pretty excited about the 72 hour fast coming up this weekend. It's been a while since I've gone longer than 24 hours, and I'm so ready for it. I posted an article to the website yesterday about it, and I'm hoping a few more people will jump in. I have two people that are doing it for sure, and I believe we are all starting around the same time on Saturday, which will be after dinner. I am going to dow one thing different this time though. Right before I start the clock, I'm eating a hot pepper. It could be a Scotch Bonnet from the garden, or the other Red Moruga that my buddy gave me. I haven't decided which one I'm putting down, but I'm going into this one with that thermogenic magic that peppers have. Call it turbo fuel for getting things started. I do have one Bonnet in the kitchen, and one ripe on the plant, with two more following right behind it. They will surely be ready by Saturday. Who knows, maybe I'll lose my mind and eat 3 of them, that would be something right there. Could be pretty epic.

   

     I got to eat this bad boy today. Picked fresh from the garden. That is a Pink Beauty radish right there. It had a mild flavor, but came to life with a little salt. I simply sliced it up and went at it. I love being able to eat things that I grew myself. It's pretty amazing, you really should try it. I have a bunch of Cherokee Purple tomatoes growing right now, with more flowers budding and blooming each day. I think there will be around 15 in total when it is all said and done this round. I also had a real big surprise yesterday when I looked at my Junebearing strawberry.

     That is a strawberry blossom right there, and there is another one that is a day behind it on the other side of the plant. The craziest part about it is, the plant that it is on. You may have noticed that I said Junebearing. That flower is 6 months early. I have no idea why it is fruiting already, but I'm not arguing with it. This was a wonderful surprise on a pretty miserable day. Just about all of my pepper seedlings died, and my lawn man not only shredded some sunflower seedlings that I had sprouting, but he blew the peppers off my Rainforest plant with his blower. I was devastated. All that work and I had it taken away. The area where the sunflowers were I had no idea that he would go in there with the weedwacker. There was no reason for him to be in there but he was. I replanted more seeds yesterday, and put a barrier up so that he wouldn't go in there anymore. I will have to talk to him about pointing his blower towards the gardens though. I can't have someone inadvertently sabotaging my garden success. 

     Back to the fast for a second. I do plan on doing a weigh in on Saturday morning to get a start weight and a way in on Wednesday, the day after I break the fast, for a final weight. Which reminds me, I lost another quarter inch on my waist, that put my WtoH ratio at .462. It's not .48 yet, but it's getting there.

     Ok, I'm calling it a week and I'll see you on Sunday with details on the Saturday weigh in. peace in and goodnight.

There's A Fast A Coming

     As a fan of baseball, I just want to get this out of the way. It came out recently that the Houston Astros cheated during their 2017 championship run. Today the team fired the manager and general manager. They were fined and suspended by MLB, but in my opinion that isn't enough. MLB need to set a strong precedent for this type of cheating and need to not only suspend those involve, but vacate the pennants that the Houston Astros won that season. I know the argument is, that you don't know they would have lost if not for the cheating. Well you also don't know that another team would have won had the playing field been fair. The only fair thing to do, is vacate those pennants and declare no Championship team for that season. There I got that off my chest, and now we can move on to less important things in life.

     Things are going along rather dull lately, which is kind of a good thing. I did force myself to have a recovery day yesterday. That is when I do absolutely nothing physical. Normally even on my rest days, I end up doing something. Cardio, light lifting, something. Yesterday I did nothing of an active fashion, and it was hard to do. I would get a little bored, and want to go grab the dumbbells and throw them around a bit, but as soon as I would stand up, I would remember that it's a recovery day, and no means no. Believe me, this is a good problem to have. When was the last time you had trouble just not working out? I'm guessing never. The biggest reason for this recovery day, is that my shoulder flared up again, and is once again slowing me down. This in turn gets me a little down, since I can't do what I want and need to do to make my body the way I want it to be. Best way to recover, is to actually not do anything to aggravate the recovery process, which means keep it at idle, which I did with great struggle yesterday. Oh, I'm back at it today though, and I'm specifically hitting my shoulders in my evening workout.

     I have my quarterly 72 hour fast coming up this weekend. I do have a couple of people doing it with me, which is going to make it kind of fun. If you remember, last time everyone that wanted to do it with me, chose to do it on other days than me, and didn't even bother to tell me how they did. I do hope that they succeeded, but I haven't heard word one about it. This time, I'm in close contact with the others that are joining me on this 72 hour journey and we are holding each other accountable. It's not easy to do, but nothing worth doing is ever easy. I have been prepping this week, by cutting out my ghost pepper chips. I've developed a wee bit of an addiction to those chips, and they aren't keto at all, so this week no chips allowed. I still have 4 bags left of them, and have managed not to buy any more of them. I will hold off until a few days after the 72 hour fast, to have some again. This fast should put me at my goal weight. I only have 3 pounds to lose, so it isn't beyond belief for me to hit it, and then be done with my weight goals.

     Once I hit that goal weight, I will transition to body fat percentage. The first BFP goal will be 15%. I'm not that far from that in number values, but dropping 3% of body fat, isn't an easy task. Once I hit that goal, I'll see how I feel about everything and decide if a new goal is in order. By the way, this way of reevaluating my goals as I reach each goals has taken me this far, and it has worked out much better than setting an "ultimate goal". This is more of a go with the flow approach, but it is non stressful and not full of time frames. I have only once put a time frame on a goal, and I failed in glorious fashion. When that happened, I went back to the go with the flow approach and have thrived as I did before. Yes, it is important to set goals, but don't let those goals be the bane of your existence. They will take you down if you let them.

      A quick garden update. I have a new pepper on a new plant, and I'm pretty thrilled with that. This is the Rainforest pepper plant, and you can barely see the little tail on the pepper sticking out, but it's there, and it's growing.

     There are other buds forming, so that won't be the lone pepper. The other plants are doing well, and I have 3 tomatoes growing on the Cherokee Purple right now. I also think I have some strawberries beginning to form, but I'm not complete sure of that. I'm going to be eating good soon.

     I got a glamour shot of the fish pepper with the phone. I played around with the portrait mode and put one of the filters on it, that takes out the background. I think it came out pretty neat, so here it is.

     Pretty cool right? I love the variegated leaves on it, they look so pretty.

     I forgot to tell you that I got my new outfit for the date. I went with black pants, they are kind of like black jeans, and a purple polo. I'll be wearing my purple Chucks to top it all off. I still don't have a day set, but I'm ready when she is. I thought about putting it all on, and getting a picture so you could judge me on whether it was good enough, but I decided that I didn't care, and I'm going with that look regardless of anyone's opinion, Yeah, I'm a rebel like that.

     I'm cutting this short, so I can start my evening shoulder workout. Oh, quickly, before I go. I did go see Spies in Disguise today with the moms. It was really fun and much better than I expected it to be. There were quite a few belly laughs in it, and I'm hoping they have sequels to it. Go give it a look see, if you are in the mood for a funny and fun movie. Ok, with that, I'm out of here. Peace in and goodnight.

It's Alive

     I knew today was going to be rough, when I woke hour at a tim up at 11:30 and found my mom's door open. That means that she was constantly getting up during the night, and not sleeping well, which meant for a jam-packed confusing day for her. I got through it though. On days like today, it doesn't matter how upbeat or positive I am, it isn't' enough to jump over the hurdle of dementia. People, take care of yourselves so this doesn't' happen to you. The only thing currently going in my favor is, that I won't have anyone to be a burden too.

     The other thing that made things rough is that my family member that takes her once a week for lunch and what not, has been eliminating the what not. That gives me just over an hour of time for myself, and it really isn't enough time. If I keep my sanity at the end of all this, it will be a miracle, but I'm doing the best I can.

     There is also the problem with my cable an internet provider. For weeks I've been telling them that it is their lines going into the house that is the problem. One of their techs even said the same thing, and I believed that he had fixed the problem. The problem is intermittent services. The problem with it is, that when one thing goes out, they all go out. That is how I knew it wasn't the in house equipment. Today I called again, and got a support agent on the phone. They always go through the same speech. Today however, when he went to do the remote access of the modem, the cable went out, and he wasn't able to access it. Which finally confirmed what I've been saying. They are sending a tech out tomorrow to specifically work on the lines going into the house. All of this morning the cable was going in and out. Right now it's working, and I'm actually surprised. It was real bad, to the point that it would go out for an at a time. I really hope that they finally get this fixed. When it's working the service is outstanding, but when it's like this, it is frustration on top of frustration. Yeah, it was real difficult to stay upbeat and positive today, of all days.

     On to different subjects, and you already know that means the garden. Listen this is my life now, so you are going to hear about it. I went out to check on the plants in the early evening just after sun fall and found that something had eaten one of the tomatoes on my Cherry Red plant. This has happened twice before, but the tomatoes were always on the ground. This is what I saw

     I texted that picture to my buddy, and he said it was a bird, but I'm not so sure. I think it may have been a mouse, just based on the times that this has happened. This time it was in early evening, but the other times were during the night. That has me leaning to mice, and I did have that mouse problem in the past. I fixed that inside, but outside it a whole other story. Anyway, I quickly picked the nearly ripe tomatoes like the one it had eaten, and took them in the house to finish ripening. These tomatoes are so good, so I understand why the little demon would be snacking on them, but they need to stop. Those are my tomatoes.

 

      If you look closely, you will see peppers on there. That is the Bulgarian Carrot, and the Jemez Pueblo. They are both growing pretty fast, as far as I've seen peppers grow. The only thing I can compare it to thought, is my habanero, which stalled it's growth, and the Scotch Bonnets, which took some time to get to a mature size, and then even longer to ripen enough to eat. Oh I have pictures of Bonnets coming too, just hold on to your hats. I'm pretty excited about theses two peppers, cause they are different than everything I've been eating. They are more on the mild side of things, especially the Jemez. It's around Jalapeño level heat. I think the carrot is closer to 100 thousand though, so still packs quite a punch. The carrot will be bright orange when ripe, hence the name Bulgarian Carrot, and the Jemez Pueblo is a larger sized pepper at 4-5 inches long and is a brilliant deep and rich red. Oh, there will be pictures of those when they are ripe, I'm getting the Canon out for those shots.

     I did finish processing all the photos I took the other day, and I'll be releasing them slowly on the CS Photography Instagram page. It feels good to take picture again, even if it's still plant life. It is always fun to see the world through a lens. it always takes on new characteristics.

      Remember when I told you about the Marshmallow plant? Well there is the little sprout just breaking the top of the soil. That was yesterday, today it is fully up with it's seedling leaves spread and collecting light. It's already quadrupled in size, so it is a definite grower. I can't wait to see how it grows and taste true marshmallow.

     Ok, final picture of the night. It is the two Bonnets that I picked today. I tried to get fancy with some phone shots, and this is what I came up with.

     They are such beautiful peppers, and quite tasty too. I sliced up that one on the left and put it on my burger patties tonight. It retained most of it's heat, which is unusual when you cook with peppers. You generally half their intensity easily, if not more when you cook with them. I simply sliced these up and placed them on the nearly finished burger and then put some aged white cheddar over top of them. It was so good, and had a real nice heat to it. I really like these peppers. I had the top crown of the pepper with no place to go, so I just popped it in my mouth. It hit pretty good, and I instantly go the hurps. If you didn't watch my last video, then you have no idea what the hurps are, but they are a thing.

     Ok, I'm out and going to go stress eat. It's still going to be healthy. It will either be a Quest bar and a diet soda, or a nut and berry bowl and a diet soda. Either way, I'm eating my frustration tonight. Peace in and goodnight.

It Comes With Pictures

     I have two things I want to talk about right off the bat, which I forgot to mention on Tuesday. The first one is a milestone I reached on Tuesday, but since it is so routine for me, that I forgot all about it. As of Tuesday, it has been 3 years since my last drink of alcohol. I knew it was coming up, but since it isn't even the slightest deal anymore, I forgot about it when it was time to write the post on Tuesday. I wish I could say that it has been a struggle, but it really hasn't. I will say that without it, I feel much better. This was the case even before I changed everything about the way I eat, which of course has me feeling better and healthier than ever. There have been moments over the last 3 years when I thought it would be nice to have a drink, then I would remember how I could never have just 1 drink. It wasn't worth going down the rabbit hole to have a tasty drink.

     The second one, is the dream I had Monday night going into Tuesday morning. It's rare when I dream, although I have had several dreams lately, and it's even rarer when I can remember every detail of a dream. This one was clear and vivid, and like none other that I've ever had. It had to do with spiders, and even after looking up dream translations of spiders in dream, I still have no idea what it was about. Here is how it went. I was outside looking after the frontyard garden and found myself near the front of my car, when something caused me to look up. When I did, there were dozens of very large spiders above me spinning a canopy of a web in a straight line from my neighbors house to mine and they were just reaching the point where they were over my head. Tarantulas were the first thing that came to mind, but I can remember saying in my dream that they were wolf spiders. Wolf spiders can be large, but not as large as in my dream. These spiders were varying in size, that went from the palm of your hand to the size of a frisbee. It was really weird. It wasn't scary at all, it was just weird. I watched them as they spun that web directly over my head and just kept going. I woke up before they reached the end of my house. When I looked up translations, it said for the most part it was good things. New relationship, money coming your way. Tarantulas were the bad thing. I think it was poor health or some kind of illness coming your way, but as I said, I remember saying wolf spiders. I haven't had a dream since, so no spider follow ups.

     I got the camera out today, and took some glamour shots around the garden. I haven't processed all of them, but I got a few for you to check out. These will be making it on the CSphotos Instagram in the next few weeks, but you get a preview right here. It also shows off the garden a little bit in some up close fashion.

     The first is the Cherry Red tomatoes, which I ate some of for dinner tonight. They were so good. There really is a difference in the taste of something you grow yourself. The freshness is undeniable.

     Next is one of the newest additions to the garden, and it a star of the front yard. This is our purple Impatients. It only produces one flower at a time now, but they are rather beautiful and quite eye-catching.

     Of course, the Scotch Bonnets were going to make an appearance. That is the newest ripe pepper on the plant, with the upper left corner beginning to ripen. By the way, that one in the top left corner is about 80% yellow as I type this right now. I'm going to leave them on the plant for a few days, and let them simmer, then I'm going to eat them, because they are delicious, and hot. I do have one more picture of the Scotch Bonnet, and that is all I processed this morning with my final selection which I will post at the very end, cause it's a special photo.

     That shot gives you more of the mustard yellow of the one that is nearly ripe. It ripened quite a bit differently than the others have. All the others ran down from the stem, where as that one just started fading from green to yellow all over. I'm not sure what that means for flavor or heat, but I'll find out.

     Before I wrap this up for the night, I have to tell you about the freakout I've been having lately. I already told you how I went against my grain and asked out my crush. While I've been waiting for her schedule to clear up, I've been worrying about what I'm going to wear. Since I've lost all this weight, I have no nice clothes to wear on a date. I'm going to need to go out and buy a new outfit just for the date. I'm also trying to figure out what would be the best way to go. Button down shirt? Long sleeve or short sleeve? Polo? Or save money and just go casual. I have no idea right now, and I'm freaking out thinking she is going to give me a day before I have a chance to figure it out, so I'm kind of hoping that it takes her a while to have an evening off. That's weird right? Here is how I look at it. If I didn't make a conscious decision to do something I wouldn't normally do, I wouldn't be going on a date any time soon at all, so if I have to wait a while, it's not a big deal at all. There is also the fact that she is worth waiting for, in my eyes anyway. I have no idea what anyone else thinks, and I really couldn't care less. Like how I phrased the properly and didn't blow it by saying "could" care less? Yeah, that's a real big pet peeve of mine. I saw a dude wearing shirt once that said I could care less, and I asked him just how much less he could care, and it blew his mind. I got a good laugh out of it. Anyway, that is all I have for tonight, peace in and goodnight.

3 Leafs Are Better Than 2

     I'm tired, but not worn down. Despite feeling tired, I feel really good. Better than normal, which is such an odd feeling, but I think it's one I have to get used to. I took a picture today and posted it to Instagram with a jokey caption of "Doing my best impression of Easy E and failing.". It was the black hat and sunglasses that reminded me of Easy. The thing is though, even though that was jokey, I felt really good, and thought it was a good picture. Do you know how rare it is for me to think a picture of me is good? I'll tell you, it's about as rare as a unicorn sighting. When was the last time you ever saw one of those? Exactly. Don't worry, I'm going to share the picture here so you can see it. I wouldn't leave you out.

     I took my mom to see CATS today, and I have to say, that when it started, I hated it, but I turned the corner by the end. I had one big problem with the movie that lasted throughout, and that was the CGI sets. You could tell that the all the sets were CGI by the unnatural placement of the characters feel on it. The shadows were weird, and sometimes they appeared to be floating above it. My eye catches things like that, and it bugs me to no end. That aside, there are a lot of great performers in the movie, but two stood out to me. The first is Jennifer Hudson. Her singing performance is top notch, and her final performance in the film is the most moving that I have ever seen. The emotion in which she sings is out of this world, and for that performance alone, I think you should see it. The second is Sir Ian McKellen. He of course plays an old grizzled cat that is near the end of his days. He plays a performer in the film and does the role true justice. I never saw the actual musical and I'm sure they left some things out for time restrictions of a film, which made the story very disjointed to me, but it was a fun and fantastic film. The lyrics are up and down. They go from really good to awkward. It's that whole musical thing of singing something you should be saying deal. That is my biggest pet peeve about musicals. It makes the songs seem very unfinished. This is also why Jennifer Hudson shines. Memory is a true song, lyrics and all. It's not full of that awkwardness of trying to tell a story through written word that was never truly meant for music. I gained a new found respect for her with this role, and once again her voice is fabulous.

     The best part of the movie though, was something that wasn't even in the movie. My mom had seen the musical decades ago, and loved it. When I gave her a choice of movies to see today, she picked that one, not remembering what it was. She just liked that it was about cats. Several times during the movie, she was singing along with it, and that brought a smile to my face each and every time. There are still memories locked inside her head, and from time to time, they sneak out.

     I got to show you this picture of one of my seedlings. It's an unusual occurrence, but not necessarily rare. It is when a seedling sprouts with 3 leaves. Some believe that it is going to be a productive plant, or that its going to be very strong. I can't say one way or the other, but I get the idea behind each of them. 3 leaves from the start would denote productivity, since it already has 1 more leaf than the standard seedling. Strength because it has one more leaf for photosynthesis. It all makes sense. I of course hope that both reasons are correct, and that it is a strong very productive plant.

     It's still very small, but I can already tell that it's going to be one of the ones that I keep a very close eye on, so that it will be the best it can, like the fish pepper. I will baby this plant until it just won't let me anymore. I still have two pods that haven't sprouted anything, they could still sprout, and to make up for the 3 leaf, I have one that spotted with no leaves, so It's pretty much not going to make it. If it does it will be a miracle. It's a double, so I already have s strong seedling going of that variety. The others that haven't sprouted are doubles as well. The only real problem with them not sprouting is, that I won't be able to give that variety to my buddy. That was the plan. I planted double so that he would have them as well. Some of the pods have multiple sprouts in them so I might still be able to give him those plants. I'll see once they get bigger and stronger.

     One more garden paragraph, and then I'll shut up about the garden. I finally picked the cool shaped Scotch Bonnet today. I wanted to wait for more of the bonnets to ripen, but they are taking their sweet time. The one other that has begun to ripen has paused for the last day. There is still a small swath of green at the top of it. It will be ready soon, but I didn't want this pepper to rot on the vine, so I picked it. I'm going to cut it open tomorrow and extract the seeds from it. The idea is, that they peppers that you think have the best shape, are the ones that you save seeds from. The plant that grows from those seeds are more likely to produce fruit that resemble the parent pepper, and this is one cool looking pepper.

     I mean, come on, that is one beautiful pepper right there. It has a great shape and I hope to reproduce that shape on the plant I grow from it. I plan on planting the seeds tomorrow right after I pull the seeds from the pod. They don't get any fresher than that.

     Ok, before I hit you with Favorite Song of the Week. I have a quick health and fitness update for you. I did weigh in yesterday and hit 148.6. Still haven't hit that goal of 145 yet, but it's coming, and despite only losing a pound in the last few weeks, I've lost another quarter of an inch on my waist. My waist to height ration is at .496. I'm getting closer and closer to that .48 that I want so badly. It's going to happen, despite what people think when they see me, I have a lot of fat left to lose. I'm still losing body fat, and the slow down in weight loss is clearly because I'm putting on muscle, which is outstanding.

     Ok, time for Favorite Song of the Week. You really had to see this one coming, since I started out talking about this performer up at the top of this post. It is none other than Easy E. He was gone way to soon, and I was on his side with all the turmoil of his break from NWA. I would mow the lawn and listen to those albums all the time. Yes, I was the lily white kid listening to those "Gangsta Rappers", and I loved every song. Here is Easy E with "Cruisin' In My 64".



     The dude was incredible at slinging lyrics. If you haven't listened to any of it before, give it a listen now. They were all pioneers and deserve respect. Peace in and goodnight.