Outside my window it is dark and warm, low 80s with a nice breeze from the ocean.

I am thinking about friends and how much I desperately miss them. The phone is nice, so is texting and email but I NEED their bodies. To hug and lean, to touch and smell, to breathe their air and be in the same physical place as they are. I so miss them. Here in Houston my friend finding has been rather sparse. Oh I meet people but between my awful schedule and my general asociality with just a smidge widge of misanthrope, well, you can guess that they finding kindred is not very easy.

 I am thankful for my friend family far flung though they may be. From the smallest child to the oldest geezer they are all dear dear dear to me. I am so thankful for their patience with my odd solitary ways and my sporadic engagement of them. For their willingness to converse on a wide and sometimes shockingly diverse range of topics with me, for their ongoing belief in me and love. I am so grateful for them.



From the kitchen, I made low carb/gluten free blueberry muffins that were rockin' good. Here is the recipe, adapted from here.

Grace's Blueberry Muffins

12 ounces cream cheese, soft
5 eggs
2/3 cup Splenda, sugar substitute
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cups Whole Almond Meal
1 cup unprocessed wheat bran (Use oat bran if you are gluten intolerant)
1 teaspoon baking powder
Zest from one lemon, or 1/2 t of lemon extract (which is what I had on hand)
1 ½ cups blueberry, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Plop muffin liners in a 12-cup muffin pan. Put cream cheese and two eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat with a flat beater until smooth and fluffy. Add the other eggs one at a time, beating briefly after each. On slow speed, stir in the rest of the ingredients except the blueberries. When mixture is well blended, stir in the blueberries.

Fill each muffin pan almost to the top. (The muffins will rise only slightly.) Bake muffins for about 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. These muffins freeze very well. Thaw at room temperature. Each muffin has 5.6 carbs and 8.5 grams of protein.


I am wearing navy blue scrubs and running shoes. It was a sit down kind of day so no need for the old nurse clogs.

I am creating carbon dioxide

 I am going to Dallas in a couple weeks to take my last certification test for a while. When I pass I will be a certified auditor. Until I go I am going to be a studying fool.

 I am reading "Rinkitink in Oz: Wherein is Recorded the Perilous Quest of Prince Inga of Pingaree and King Rinkitink in the Magical Isles that Lie Beyond the Borderland of Oz" by L. Frank Baum

 I am hoping to find a new job that will still allow me to teach AND make enough money to pay my student loans and pay out of pocket for my masters, soon after I finish my certification gauntlet.

 I am hearing pages turning, the air handler handling air, traffic going by outside, a lecture going on down the hall, very peaceful.

 Around the house I got a carpet a few weeks ago. I have had just wood floors in my living room since I moved here 4 years ago. My friend Phil gave me a piece of carpet for my living room and now my toes happily dig into the pile while I read in my big comfy chair.

 One of my favorite things I really love to eat avocado with lime and salt.

A few plans for the rest of the week nothing exciting, just studying

 Words I am pondering "Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause." M. Gandhi

 Here is a picture I am sharing Taken at a dinosaur bone and foot print site near Dallas: