Thought of the Day 2010 #48 - Mother Hens

I spent some time today with a woman with the classic Mother Hen
syndrome. She hasn't had kids of her own, so I think that probably
exacerbates the problem. She'll ask a question or offer something and
if I say "No, thanks," she will ask again and again until either I feel
the need to yell NO and hurt her feelings or just cave to let her be
"motherly." It seriously drives me batshit crazy. I try to avoid her as
much as possible, but I don't want to be rude as she is a very nice
person...a very nice person who wants to be ever so *helpful* even if it
kills both of us. AAAAAAAck.

Thought of the Day 2010 #47 - Global Shift

Forget global warming, I feel there's some major tectonic plate movement
going on. The magnitude of the earthquakes seems to be increasing. Of
course I say this with no genuine knowledge and just a gut response to
several large seismic events over the past several years. So, really,
forget you ever read this.

Thought of the Day 2010 #46 - Time Passing

I'm sure I've mentioned the fact that I feel time is passing too
quickly, and I've probably touched on the feeling that I currently don't
have the ability to manage time consistently. But have I mentioned the
sheer panic I feel when I realize I've been in Utah for seven years??
Panic. Seriously.

Thought of the Day 2010 #45 - Brilliant Idea for Pharmacies

Ever get a prescription at the pharmacy? Ever get a refill? Or refills
every month? Yeah, you end up with a new bottle each time. Oh, and each
bottle is packed in a bag and a huge piece of paper is stapled on the
outside with the drug's info. A super amount of waste involved here.

My idea is that most pill refills should be provided in small,
translucent, biodegradable wax envelopes. The envelope could have a
handy shaped tear edge that would aid in emptying the pills into the
existing bottle. The envelope could have an identifying, warning-filled
sticker on the outside for the anal and litigious amongst us.

The switch from plastic bottles for prescription refills would save
money *and* the environment.

Thought of the Day 2010 #44 - Pointed

Is there a point to pointed questions?

formspring.me

What was your favorite childhood TeeVee show and how old you were you when you stopped watching it?

I really remember loving Gilligan's Island, Little House on the Prairie, and Hogan's Heroes. Aside from Little House, I'm pretty sure they were already in re-runs at that point so I watched them in the afternoons after school. I would guess that the last time I saw Gilligan's Island or Hogan's Heroes with any regularity was probably when I was 13 or so. Little House is very Mormon friendly, so I end up seeing that fairly often now. I had no idea that I had missed so many episodes growing up. :-)

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Do you have any secret talents?

Yes, of course. But if I told you what they were, they wouldn't be secret.

Ask me anything

Thought of the Day 2010 #43 - Time yet?

Is it time for Spring yet? The cold winds cut to the bone today... :-(

 

Thought of the Day 2010 #42 - Outed

Living in Utah and not being Mormon can be tricky business. I've been
told that at certain church meetings, church leadership will ask
members if they know of any non-members. Yes, of course, they tell them
that they know me, a non-member. Yippee.

What does this mean aside from the horror of being outed as a
non-member? They will call and ask if the missionaries can come over. Or
sometimes the missionaries show up on the doorstep.

It's not a big deal, but it gets a bit old. It's not like I go door to
door asking people whether or not their religion is BS or not. I figure,
maybe naively, that they have already thought about religion and that
it's probably a done deal and that there's no reason to confront anyone
I don't know well about such private beliefs.

Alas, instead, a few times a year I have to stand steadfast in my
beliefs and go head to head with kids just out of high school who have
been trained to convert. They haven't yet lived on their own nor had to
face difficulties outside of the family womb.

I end up explaining my take on the world and religion's place in it.
Their shiny, happy faces end up seeming oh so concerned that my lack of
faith is wrong. Good times all around.

Each time I go through this I say that next time I will just claim to be
a devil worshipper to scare them away. My only fear is that they will 1.
put this on my permanent record or 2. come bearing torches and still
hope to get to the third lesson.

Thought of the Day 2010 #41 - Long Week

After a week filled with twice as many work hours than I normally work,
it's only the wee hours of Sunday and I'm already dreading Monday
morning. The next several weeks will be beastly and I just want to float
in a giant pool to forget it all...

Thought of the Day 2010 #40 - Updates

I updated the Photo Selections of the Week today and spent a good amount
of time flexing my Photoshop and self portraiting skills which are
woefully rusty. I need to do this more often. It's fun and it feels
good. Kind of like exercise, but without the sweat.

Going Wild

Is this the spittin' image of me, or what? Create your own here: http://www.buildyourwildself.com/. Thanks to the ever talented Flossy-P for the idea!

 

Thought of the Day 2010 #39 - Grey

Why does no one select grey as their favorite color? It's such a
wonderful color with symbollic meanings. Moody, neutral and intelligent.
Grey can support and encourage other colors like non other. It can
fortell the impending rain. It can warm a winter's night as a wooly
blend. It can be heathered or flat, imagine that. It can be cool or
warm, blue nor yellow can. Ahhh, lovely grey.

New Baby Quilt

I made this one over the past week or so. All of the top is done with applique rather than piecing. I'm pleased with how it turned out and I'm really starting to get a hang of the machine quilting, especially on quilts this size.

 

Thought of the Day 2010 #38 - Death

A co-worker of mine died in a freak accident in her back yard earlier
this week and was found today. It's one of those not-so-subtle reminders
that life is pretty delicate. Be careful out there, OK?

formspring.me

If you had to throw away either your TV or your computer, which would you choose?

TV, definitely.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

How do you feel about bleeped swear words and censored naked bits on pay-TeeVee like cable and satellite?

Depends upon the channel, I guess. For instance, Disney should bleep and blur. Most channels shouldn't be required to do so. I suppose some choose to do it for their demographic, and that's fine. I really think the channels on cable and satellite should be free of advertising. We ARE paying, right? And these days we're paying A LOT for the cable feed. In addition, I really wish we could pick and choose which channels are on our cable feed. I don't watch anything on easily half of them.

Ask me anything

Thought of the Day 2010 #37 - Smoke

Bad part of casinos, especially those with aging air systems -- smoke!
It makes my contacts cloudy and in turn causes fatique quickly. Gimme
fresh air and I'm quickly rejuvenated. There ought to be smoke free
casinos in Vegas. Well, really, they should all have smoke free areas.
Of course, that's only when I'm in charge of everything in the
world..and, of course, everythingg is perfect.

Thought of the Day 2010 #36 - Celeb Fatty Treatment

Apparently fat celebrities do get mistreated like the rest of us
fatties. Kevin Smith (Silent Bob) was pulled off a Southwest plane today
because he was a "safety risk" sized fatty. Read his tweets about the
ordeal and his reaction:
http://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith

Thought of the Day 2010 #35 - Baby Formula

When did they start putting corn syrup in baby formula? (I guess this is
more just a question than a thought.)

test

test

Thought of the Day 2010 #34 - Vegas

On this night before a road trip to Vegas, my friend Alexandra asked me
if I wanted to go to... (wait for it...) Vegas! That's right, it will be
three months and three trips in a row to Sin City. Come July, I plan to
be back there yet again. That's a lot of Vegas.

Thought of the Day 2010 #33 - Regretting Vacation

I hate the urgency of getting everything done at work prior to going on
vacation, even short little trips! Sometimes, it's so stressful that I
wish that I wasn't even going to go. *pout*

formspring.me

Photo of the week #200 has got to be one of the sexiest poses I've ever seen! Are you ever going to do more along those lines?

Thanks for the compliment. I don't have any in the works, but I'll never say never!

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Milk chocolate or dark chocolate?

Yes, please!
I usually prefer milk chocolate, but there are some decent non-wax type darks that are yummy, too.

Ask me anything

Thought of the Day 2010 #32 - Valentine Memories

Several Valentine's days in a row, my family would go to a hotel in
Minnesota called Paul's Place. I really only recall it being on
Valentine's day weekend 'cuz of the brown lunch sack I would bring with
cherry lollipops, Valentines with elephants on them (I always took the
fat animal Valentines personally, even though I doubt much thought at
all went into their selection for fellow students), and a box or two of
chalk message hearts.

Paul's Place = swimming pool. They had a pool, a hot tub and a cold
plunge. The latter we used just for self torturing pleasure.

I remember spending hours upon hours in that pool. I also remember not
being a very good swimmer, so I'd hold on to the edge of the pool a lot.
So much so that I lost my finger prints one year. Oh! One other fun
memory was the first closed circuit television camera and view I've ever
seen. Having a view of the pool was awesome, so we'd know how many other
peeps were in "our" pool.

Overall, good pool time family memories!

formspring.me

Did I just day desert or dessert?

You said desert, but I covered all the angles!

Ask me anything

formspring.me

What's the most amazing desert you've ever had?

Most amazing desert - Death Valley in one of it's most glorious blooms.
Most amazing dessert - hard to pick. There was this awesome, amazing fudgy brownie that I had one time...and I could never find again. Can't duplicated it in a recipe either. I think it was a Borders in Minneapolis, but even repeat visits there, I couldn't find it again. *pout*

There was also the mile-high lemon meringue at the Brother's Deli pie when i was a kid. YUM! I didn't care so much for the meringue, but the rest of it was awesome.

I really love fruit pizza that I make from scratch with a shortbread crust. When the fruit that goes upon it is fresh-fresh, it's devine.

There really are so many...that I can't pick just one.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

I guess I have competition. What should I do to make me stand out above the rest? Gary

I'd say you have competition! Especially since I'm married. :-) Standing out from the rest -- intelligence, sense of humor, even tempered, and that je ne sais quoi. Eh, but everyone says that, right?

Ask me anything

Thought of the Day 2010 #31 - Food Memories

I've been asked a question about food through Formspring.me that I will
try to get to tomorrow. It brought to mind some food memories, akin to
"The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on HGTV. Combine that message with a message
from Facebook, and I'm tossed into a distinct memory of the best beans
I've ever ate. Mexican restaurant in Memphis (don't ask where, I don't
recall) had the best tex-mex beans. They were spicy, saucy, whole beans
unlike what most Mexican places put on the table. I've never had any
like it, and yet 8 or so years later they're still fresh in my mind.
It's funny how scents, and tastes can be so vivid. We've had cameras for
over 200 years and yet we haven't been able to create scent or taste
memory books yet? Maybe it is because it's so hard to get it "right"?
There are so many subtle nuances to aromas/flavors that would make it
pretty complex, but you'd think we'd be getting close developing a
scent or taste recorder? Maybe someone is working on this? Hope so.

Thought of the Day 2010 #30 - Decent Weather

We've had a relatively minor winter thus far, and I understand the east coast is getting hit pretty hard again this weekend. I am a bit jealous! I want something weather-wise to complain about!

Picasa Love

Two minutes to a fun eagle collage. I tell ya, if you haven't tried Picasa...you are missing out.

Taunted Bald Eagle

I took these pictures last weekend. It was a very patient eagle until I started taunting it.

 

 

 

formspring.me

Approx. how many jars of jam do you make in a typical year?

In 2008 I made 350 or so, and 2009 a little over 500. I ramped up production because of a decent crop of fruit and because I was selling so many on Etsy. I had decent sales at the beginning of the fall and right around Christmas. I've sold 115 jars so far and have given away about 90. So, that leaves me with a LOT of jam. I'm pondering a jam sale later this month, so if you're interested, keep an eye on Etsy or send me an email.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Since you do a photo of the week, do you think you'd ever do a video of the month?

Hmmm..I hadn't really thought about doing it, but it's a great idea! I was hoping to have an excuse to buy a new Canon camera...and that might be a great one.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Good evening Kathy. I'd like to know when and how did you meet your hubby, and when did you knew he was the one? Thanks

Initially we met online, through email. He saw me on this site and started sending me emails. Several years after the first email, I sent him and email saying that I was going to be at a Vegas bash and asked if he would like to come down and meet me. He did! That was approximately 7 and a half years ago. Time sure flies!

Ask me anything

formspring.me

How did you get to be such a smart beautiful funny sweet outstanding outrageously balanced babe? Talk about a gift to humanity! :)

Thanks, oh, and your check is in the mail. :-)

Ask me anything

Thought of the Day 2010 #29 - Project Runway

Watching Project Runway makes me regret that I didn't go to the Fashion
Institute of Technology when I was accepted way back (mumble) years ago.
Although I dislike the word "fashion", I've always been interested in
textile design. Ah, well...

formspring.me

What do you think about weight loss diets? Each time I've been on one, then gone off it, I've ended up heavier than I was before. :(

Weight loss diets can work for some people. I've known genuine successes. The people who have lost and kept it off the longest make significant changes in their eating and activity levels. There is no miracle diet unlike what the advertisements tell you.
I also want to add, that people are fat for a myriad of different reasons. Anxiety/emotions, hormone imbalances, overeating, depression, inactivity, and more than likely a combination of those. No one diet will work for everyone.

I think if someone genuinely wants to lose weight, there are ways to do it, but for each person, that path will be different.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Cat your clothes always look so beautiful. As a fat woman how do you find good looking clothes that suit your style and look good on you? Where there any hits and misses along the way finding clothes that suit you and your style?

Thanks for the compliment! I often worry that most of the photos on here of late have me in my "travel clothes"...black skirt and various tops. Gotta travel in comfort!

I shop at a lot of different places online as there are no fat girl shops in Utah aside from Lane Bryant and Torrid. Oldnavy.com, avenue.com, eshakti.com, ullapopken.com, loveyourpeaches.com, junonia.com. Those are the primary spots. And, yes, there have been lots of hits and misses at each. Sometimes it's the quality. Sometimes it's the fit. Ya just never know when buying strictly from online. Ulla Popken used to be the most reliable, but it's really not any longer. Now I find that Old Navy is the most reliable for sizing, but quality is hit and miss.

I also make some of my own clothes, which again are hits and misses only because I often need to resize a size 18 pattern to fit my girthier frame. While I've gotten *pretty good* at resizing, once in a while I do make errors and I end up with a pile of half sewn boo-boos.

Ask me anything

Thought of the Day 2010 #28 - Blogger.com, FTP and Upcoming Site Changes

I found out today that Blogger.com is going to discontinue FTP
publishing in March. They claim that only a minor percentage of their
patrons use FTP. I know why that is...when I tried to set up an FTP
based blog a few months ago, they buried the self-hosting FTP settings
pretty deep...no one would want to bother with it.

This blog, and obviously the main page of this site, is recreated daily
through Blogger's FTP publishing. Because I have a sh*tload of non-blog
content behind the main page, I cannot move my domain to the Blogger
servers. So, I'm left with a couple of options -- move my blog to a
subdomain of catay.com like blog.catay.com or move to a different blog
publisher which opens up more cans of worms. I would feel bad about the
second option because I've been with Blogger since the days they were
begging for donations to keep them alive during their startup days. I
sent in my donation and received the free stickers. Woot! Now, of course
they're a part of Google's empire. They've come a long way!

Whichever way I end up changing this site (and a few others) there will
be some significant changes coming.

Thought of the Day 2010 #27 - Cereal

I'm in a serial cereal eating pattern right now. Can't get past breakfast without some crunchy goodness and milk. Yum!

formspring.me

You were one of the first proud fat chicks I found on the internets, and you've always been an inspiration to me. What were the defining moments for you on your own journey of self-acceptance?

This is a tricky one, because there's little awakenings happening every day. I think self-acceptance is a constant journey, ya know?

Over the past couple of hours I was trying to think of actual defining moments, and just a few come to mind.

An early one, was when I was a 12 year old kid, a public health nurse was summoned to my home because I was a fat kid. Talk about making me feel like a freak. But I held my own that day and I took a stand and refused to get weighed by the nurse. It was clear I was fat. There was no purpose for me to step on that scale. The nurse was shocked that I refused and luckily, my mom supported me when the nurse looked to her to get my fat bum on the scale.

Looking back to my childhood and my mid-20s, I think the primary thing that got me through was my focus not just on my appearance. I was successful in my school life and my career not because I was fat or despite of the fact I was fat. It was a non-issue, or at least I didn't think it was, and maybe that obliviousness aided me in being successful at most of what I tried?

I do recall the little successes I had boosted my self esteem and encouraged me to take further risks. I took a lot of little risks, but looking back, I wish I had risked even further because I think I could have reached even loftier goals.

There were times when I struggled with self-acceptance and self esteem, and there still are, but I know that when I choose to take risks, to step out of the comfort zone, I can fly. And I think everyone else can do the same, too. All it takes is a little risk.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Any current favorites in the recently released movies?

Most of the movies I've seen recently have been new to DVD. Tops in my mind from the past couple of weeks -- Hurt Locker, Food Inc., and 500 Days of Summer. The latter I expected to be solely a teen flick, but it turned out to have a lot of depth and good music.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

I'm a large person and have a terrible time finding a comfortable computer chair. Do you have any suggestions? --Kathy

I found that doing a butt-test at Office Max or other stores that offer chairs is the best way to go. My current chair is an Office Max butt-tested variety that I picked up about five years ago. It had one issue with a wheel about a year ago, but with a quick presto-change-o wheel replacement, it's good to go again.

When the wheel was a problem, I ended up buying a Safco Uber Big and Tall chair from online. As promised in the name, it's BIG! Plenty of butt room! Unfortunately, it was completely uncomfortable for me 'cuz I'm on the short end of things at 5'5" and because it's made for taller folks, the minimum height was just way too high. I had to have a foot rest to keep from cutting the circulation off my feet as they dangled over the edge. I ended up giving it to my step-daughter who LOOOVES it. So, depending upon your leg length, it may or may not work for you.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Hey sis, what is the meaning of life, the universe, you know, everything?

Well, typically I'd say '42', but recently it's 'cream cheese'.

Ask me anything

Thought of the Day 2010 #26 - Asking

I'm pleased that I received a couple of "Ask Me Anything" questions.
I've put the question box over there, on the right ---�
The answers will appear here on my blog and on
http://www.formspring.me/cataycom where you can also ask questions. So,
ask away! What have you got to lose??