The last few weeks have been great, and although I have neglected this blog, I am determined to pull my finger out and write more.

Over the last few months, I have been more and more interested in different sporting events, and have been amazed and bewildered at some of the things I have witnessed.

I am actually surprised at how much I enjoy going to these events, because it is something that I never considered in the past.

I have attended a few football matches that have really gotten me interested in the sport.
It isn’t just the game that fascinates me, but everything that goes along with it, especially the atmosphere.

There is one instance in particular, where someone was giving running commentation, that I cannot fail to mention.

Boxing Day (the day after Christmas), I went to a Hull City game that I will never forget.

We played the Wolverhampton Wanderers, and one of their players happens to be a gypsy - apparently part of his contract states that he has to live in a house. Anyways, some of the guys in front of us were doing a great commentary, and one shouted out “I bet you had roast hedgehog for your Christmas dinner”. It still tickles me to hear this.

I have been happily surprised to also see that a majority of the negative connotations about football are untrue. I have seen very little racism, only a couple of small fights in the away stands, and generally a great love towards fellow team supporters. Sure there is swearing and some taunting, but all in all, I wouldn’t miss a thing. This is definetly a sport you want to encourage the whole family to get involved with - I cannot wait to take Ariel to a game.

A couple of weeks ago we went to see professional darts in Sheffield - what an eye-opening experience!

I expected to get there and see lots of old men smoking pipes and drinking ales, but that misconception couldn’t have been further from reality.

The crowd was a very young, and very chavvy (white trash) clientele. This made it all the more fun, as everyone was relaxed and there to have a good time.

We supported a darts player from Canada called Darth Maple, and took along light sabres to cheer him on with.

We had a great time with these, and the guys in the rows next to us were using them as microphones to sing into when the players made a good score.

And last, but not least, the hockey. We went to yet another game yesterday, and had an absolute laugh!

It was the Hull Stingrays vs the Manchester Phoenix, and man did we annihilate them!

We got to meet the mascot:

Cropper made ordering hotdogs look sexy (too bad they weren’t REAL dogs):

We got to meet some of the Player’s wives (I should go into a rant about the type of person minority sports attract - i.e. obese, socially retarded, LOUD, etc. but I will leave that for another time):

We then got to see a fight:

Went for a drink with the buddies, and then we walked back to my car in the snow:

(check out my new AMAZING bag - thank you honey)

All in all, a great time was had - and although in the past I have slated sport and never understood it, I am really into it now.

I have just updated my weight ticker and have only realised:

• Not only have I lost more weight, I am now within a “NORMAL” BMI Range
• I am within 10 pounds of my goal weight
• I have lost, in total so far, 151 pounds.
• I am now a US size 10/12 - something I haven’t been since I was about 12 years old
• I can wear small/medium sized stockings

Two years ago, I woke up each morning wondering what I was going to wear to hide my fat, and when I was going to eat again.

Amazingly, I have completly changed my attitude towards food and exercise, and I could not be happier.

Now, I often park outside of town and walk to work. Yes, me, walk. I don’t get out of breath, my feet don’t hurt, and quite often, I wear some very sexy shoes. With heels and everything!

I am so happy about my progress and how far I have come, it brings me to tears.

Tears of joy are something I have only experienced very rarely in the past, and lately, they have made a more regular appearance in my life.

Thank goodness for waterproof mascara. Maybe it IS maybeline!

Last Thursday, I have the lovely opportunity to see the Darts Championships live in Sheffield.

We supported Darth Maple, and although he lost, we had a great time.

Here are some photos:

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It’s something I haven’t done in awhile, so I thought I’d try answering reader questions today.

You can ask me anything you want, from the personal to the professional to the philosophical and anything else you can think of.

I can’t claim to have expert answers on anything, but I’ll do my best, and will profess ignorance when applicable.

Today I’m going to expand to answering 50 questions. If I get busy, I might not answer them right away. If I don’t get to your question, I apologize!

After I answer the 100 questions, I’m done!

I hope everyone enjoys this fun little feature.

So: Ask me anything you want!

Dry ingredients:

- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt

Stir in small bowl

Wet ingredients:

- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
- 1 stick (1/4 pound or 8 tbsp) butter, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup honey

Blend in medium bowl:

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in two additions.

Add Chocolate

I’ve used chocolate chunks hacked from a huge chocolate bar, broken up smaller chocolate bars, and semi-sweet chocolate chips. All worked out great.
Stir them into the mix.

Cover the bowl and put in the fridge for 30-40 minutes so it’s easier to handle.

Ovens lie.

It’s a fact of life that some ovens will tell you that they’re at the temperature you want and be off by a full 80 degrees. In my previous apartment, the oven was nice and new and had lovely digital controls. It was also a horrible liar.

If I wanted the oven to be at 450, it would let me know it was ready when it was only 370. Five minutes later it would stabilize at 430. That’s a full five minutes of your dough being cooked at the wrong temperature, completely throwing you off.

So long story short, buy a thermometer and stick it in the oven. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to work so you’ll know what the true temperature is.

For this recipe, you’ll want it at 350 Fahrenheit or 175 Celsius.

Roll up the dough

I roll my dough into balls about 1.25″ (3cm) wide. You can go a little bigger if you want. I’ve found that a little bit of variation does not have a noticeable effect on the cooking time. Put them onto a buttered cookie tray.

The trays I use are insulated ones. Getting fancy cookie trays may seem a bit extreme, but there was a period last year where I got a bit obsessed and these have been totally worth it.

So now that you’re sure your oven is at 350F/175C and it’s stable at that temperature, put the dough in for 12 minutes.

Don’t overcook your cookies

After 12 minutes the cookies will not look ready, but take them out anyway and put the whole pan out on the counter to cool. Do not touch them!

Oh, you’ll want to touch them. You’ll want to put one in your mouth right away, your tender tongue be damned, but don’t do it. Really.

OK, so you did touch one and it seems fragile and undercooked. That’s why you need to let them cool for 5 minutes before moving them to a rack or a plate.

Yay!

You waited for the cookies to cool and now they’re good to go! You can eat them now or save some for later. These are good on their own or combined with other sugary treats. Like ice cream. Ice cream loves these cookies and vice versa. Let the love flow.

To get the fresh baked warmth and goodness feeling back, quickly zap in a microwave or briefly toss into a toaster.

Eat.

All of this time, I thought I was experiencing dumping syndrome, but have discovered I have reactive hypoglycemia, due to my gastric bypass.

Reactive hypoglycemia occurs soon after meal rich with carbohydrates. It happens in several conditions:
1. Very fast glucose absorption due to total or partial stomach removal (gastric bypass);
2. Congenital fructose intolerance;
3. Leucin intolerance, and
4. Idiopathic type (probably psychosomatic).

Although symptoms vary according to individuals’ sensitivity to the elevation and decline of glucose levels, some of the more common symptoms are:

• fatigue
• dizziness
• light-headedness
• sweating
• headaches
• palpitations
• depression
• nervousness
• irritability
• tremors
• flushing
• craving sweets
• increased appetite
• rhinitis
• epileptic-type response to rapidly flashing bright lights

Thank you Melting Mama for introducing me to this phenomenom, now I can understand it!

If anyone else has any information, I would be very happy if you could contact me.

You will now notice the new link at the top no longer says “gallery” but now says “facebook photos“.

Seeing as I am addicted to facebook, and usually use that for my latest images, I thought it would be best.

You can still see the old gallery here.

One of today’s secrets at PostSecret really touched me (click to open full size):

Wanting to spend time with your partner is wonderful. If you didn’t want to spend time with them, there would be a problem with your relationship. But, a relationship isn’t exciting when you don’t have new things to share with your partner.

When you spend time apart, you are able to come home and tell your partner about your day. But, when you spend every moment together, you have nothing new to share with each other.

You may also notice that the joy of spending every moment with each will begin to wear thin. This is because each partner will enjoy different things.

Yes, you will have common interests, or you wouldn’t be together. But, women may want to watch chick flicks, while men want to restore and old car. The time you spend apart will be rewarding. But, if you don’t spend time apart, you could ruin what you have. To put things simply, you have to be able to have fun on your own before you can begin to enjoy having fun with someone else. Depending on someone else for your happiness is not healthy.

Okay, now that I’ve explained some of the downsides of spending too much time together, let’s move on to what you can gain from spending time apart.

First of all, spending time apart allows you to never take your partner for granted. When you spend time apart, you have time to actually miss your partner. Even if you just work at different jobs, it will be rewarding for your relationship.

When you get home at the end of the day, you will have so much to share with each other. There is an old saying, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” When you spend time apart, you ache for your partner. You long for the next moment that you’ll be together. This is something that can only be achieved through spending time apart.

There are several different ways you can spend time apart. The first thing you should do is work for different companies.

Working together often destroys relationships.

Also, have different hobbies. This doesn’t mean that all of your hobbies should be different, but you should have at least one thing you like to do on your own.

Last, but not least, go out with your friends. People put their friends on the backburner too often when they enter a new relationship. Go out with your friends and enjoy a good movie or a great game. When you get home, spend time with your partner enjoying a nice meal or even a board game.

Just remember, spending time apart does not mean that you don’t love your partner. It simply means that you care about your relationship and making it last. I love my boyfriend more than anything in this world, but we both know the importance of spending time apart. When we cook dinner together, after a long day at work, we have so much to share with each other.

We value this time together and know that it wouldn’t exist if we didn’t spend time apart.