I think I joined blogguiltfree.org the other day. I’m not sure. When I clicked “submit”, it took me back to the same page, and I can’t find my blog listed. I’m just not sure . . .
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I’ve decided to try participating in NaBloPoMo for April. I don’t think I have ever blogged every day for a month, in any blog or online diary I’ve ever had, but the challenge might be a good thing. I don’t know yet whether I will stick to the theme or not, and I don’t know when members get to find out what the theme for the month is, but I’m going to give it a good try to blog every day. Some of it may (likely will) be silly stuff, though . . . be forewarned! (I’ll be really lucky if the theme is silliness!)
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I finally posted the picture of my hair on the floor of the beauty shop. It’s been over two weeks since I got it cut and it took that long to get it out of my phone. It wouldn’t go by email or text, so I finally sent it via Bluteooth to my other phone and then transferred it to the computer via the USB connection I have for that phone. (I still need to get one for my newer phone.) I still don’t get it, though, why photos that are even smaller file sizes than that one won’t transfer, by email/text or Bluetooth. But anyway. Eventually I’ll get the USB cable and that (hopefully) should solve the problem.
So is it just me, or does the pile of hair on the floor look bigger than my cat?
I was leaving a comment on Hormones & Highchairs‘ blog (my apologies to mamachun for leaving such a long comment) and I mentioned that several companies have very good labeling policies with regard to allergen ingredients.
I did a search to find a list of those companies and I found this thread on the celiac.com forums, entitled Companies with exemplary labeling practices (which is where I got my very imaginative title for this entry). This poster went to a great deal of work to compile this list and I for one appreciate that work!
I’ve tended to gravitate toward Kraft and Unilever brands for quite awhile now because they were the first two companies that I learned had those policies, and I have a hard time remembering the other companies. I may print out this list and carry it with me, for that reason.
I thought it might be helpful if I posted the list here as well. Please click the link above to see the thread for the poster’s documentation of their communication with the companies and links to the companies’ web sites.
So, here is an alphabetical list of Companies With Exemplary Labeling Practices (specifically stating when ingredients are made from wheat, rye, barley, or oats [or other known allergens]):
B&G Foods
Blue Bunny
ConAgra
Del Monte
General Mills
Hain Celestial Group
Hormel
Kraft
Kraft’s Largest Brands as of the date of this entry include the following (keep in mind, of course, that some of these brands may actually have no gluten free products):
A1
Alpen Gold
Breakstone’s/Knudsen
Capri Sun
Carte Noir
Cheez Whiz
Chips Ahoy!
Club Social
Cool Whip
Cote d’Or
California Pizza Kitchen
Cracker Barrel
Crystal Light/Clight
DeluxeDiGiorno/Delissio
General Foods International
GevaliaGrand Mere
Handi-SnacksHoney Maid
Jack’s
JacobsJell-O
Kenco
Kool-AidKraft
Lacta
LULunchables
Miracle Whip
Nabisco
Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs
Newtons
Nilla
Nutter Butter
Onko
Oreo
Oscar Mayer
Philadelphia
Planters
Polly-O
Premium
Prince
Ritz
Royal
Simmenthal
South Beach Living
Stove Top
Tang
Tassimo
Toblerone
Tombstone
Trakinas
TriscuitVelveeta
Wheat Thins
Lee Kum Kee USA
Marzetti Brands
McCormick
Nestle
Newman’s Own
Sara Lee
Unilever
Unilever’s Food brands include (as of the date of this post):
Ben & Jerry’s
Bertolli
Breyers
Good Humor
Hellmann’s
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter
Klondike
Knorr
Lawry’s
Lipton
Popsicle
Promise
Ragú
Shedd’s Spread Country Crock
Skippy
Slim·Fast
Wish-Bone
Unilever’s Non-Food brands include (as of the date of this post):
Axe
Caress
Degree
Dove
Lever 2000
Ponds
Q-Tips
Snuggle Laundry Products
Suave
Vaseline
I’d like to add, also that Walmart uses very clear labeling (and will often include the words “Gluten Free” when applicable) on their store-brand products. (You can also find a list of gluten free name brand products that Walmart carries by checking Walmart.com.)
Ok, I absolutely love The Big Bang Theory. I normally don’t laugh out loud that often when I’m watching TV, but this show gets me at some point every week. I was telling a friend of mine about it last night and told her I’d email her some YouTube clips, but then I got to thinking that it might be fun to post them here instead. She reads my blog, and maybe others might enjoy them too.
I may (just may) have gotten a little carried away with all the clips I collected, but I assure you there are even more on YouTube. (No, I haven’t linked to every single one.)
So, to start, this is an interview with Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon:
Here is an interview with Johnny Galecki, who play Leonard, and Jim Parsons:
This clip is cute. Raj Koothrappali can’t usually talk to women. (He just squeaks.) They’ve done a few cute episodes where something enabled him to talk to women, and it’s always funny.
This one was good. The sandwich thing is a good example of how Sheldon has to have everything predictable and just-so (cracks me up):
Another example of Sheldon’s “anality” (is that a word?):
And stay out of his spot on the couch!
This is good, too:
Here’s another good one:
And another:
And another:
And yet another:
The Problem With Teleportation:
Love this one:
I’ll stop soon, I promise.
Really. Soon.
This is a minisode of one of my very favorite episodes. Quite possibly my very favorite.
Ok. That’s all for now.
Monday nights on CBS. Except I think I read somewhere that it isn’t on tonight. :-(
Earworms are quite a bit like obsessional thoughts. Like obsessions, the melodies tend to pop into your mind unannounced, take your attention, are not especially desired and sometimes even a little distressing. Like those with obsessive thoughts, people with earworms try unsuccessfully to supress them. But, the more you try to get rid of unwanted tunes or an obsessive thoughts, the louder they get and the more often they come back. And earworms, like obsessive thoughts crop up more often when people are worried.
I wake up most mornings with a song in my head, I hear songs from commercials over and over for sometimes hours after I’ve seen or heard the commercial. Sometimes I don’t even know when or where I heard the song that is relentlessly playing on in my head. Often, if I am working on something (this generally means something on the computer), I’ll hum or sing part of the song over and over until it becomes so irritating that I have to “change the song”. I do this by purposely singing the one song that (for whatever insane reason) doesn’t irritate me: Sh-Boom, by The Crew Cuts. Yep, the one from 1954. I don’t know why it doesn’t bug me, but launching into “Ya-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, Sh-Boom, Sh-Boom” just makes it all better.
There is something to be said for choosing which worm you allow to hang around in your ear.
I have a coworker who loves to good-naturedly antagonize me with annoying songs. I should never have told him about my song-sticking tendencies. He will walk around the office whistling “Yellow Submarine”, and then leave, laughing with pride for his accomplishment.
But it’s ok. Because Life Could Be A Dream, Sweetheaaaart!
Every time I see one of these Payless Shoes “Buy One Get One Half Off” commercials, I sigh in frustration.
BOGO means “Buy One, Get One”. Not “Buy One, Get One Half Off”. That, obviously, would be BOGOHO. Why do they not realize that?
And, I suppose, a person who just can’t pass up every opportunity to buy one and get one half off might be called a BOGOHO ho . . . but that’s probably irrelevent in this argument.
I got my hair cut today. Short. I wore it short for most of my life because I have a lot of hair and it’s very curly and woolly and difficult to take care of when it’s long, and most people through the years have said I look better (and younger) with short hair. I can’t argue the point that short hair looks better on me, but I have wanted long hair all my life. I’ve tried to grow it long several times only to give up in frustration when it got too hard to manage, but this time I made it between two and two and a half years. It was the longest it had been since I was about 14 years old. It was probably about three inches past my shoulders.
Well, it reached the point that it took a long, long time to rinse the shampoo and conditioner out, and it hurt every time I combed it because it would tangle to badly in spite of using good conditioners, so my morning routine was complicated with extra time and pain.
This morning, I woke up with the stiff neck and sore shoulder/upper-upper back muscles that I get periodically when the fibromyalgia flares up, and I was almost in tears while I was combing my hair, because tilting my head and raising my arms to reach and to work through the tangles really, really hurt. That was when I finally made my decision. It just (sniff!) isn’t worth it.
I went at lunch time and got it cut. The lady who cut it understood my disappointment at having to give up on the long hair dream, and she made a braid in the back and cut it off for me to save. I’ll put it into a plastic bag and stick it in a drawer so I can remind myself periodically of how long it was.
It does look better short. And I know I’ll appreciate the ease of taking care of it, and how much more quickly my getting-ready in the mornings will go.
I had another reason to go back to short hair, also. Coloring is a problem. I can’t seem to color it without glutening myself, and glutening myself every three to four weeks is just not good. I can’t afford to have someone else color it for me, and I don’t know of any gluten free haircolors (though I suspect there are some out there). Before I went gluten free, though, I had tried just about every haircolor on the market, it seemed, and the brand I’ve been using is the only one that really covered the gray. I even stopped using their conditioner and would only use mine, knowing mine is gluten free, and I would shampoo the color out and condition afterward, but it’s just not possible to not get at least one drop of dye-water either in my mouth or up my nose before I’m done.
One alternative would be to have someone else color it, but I can’t afford that, which leaves the other option: not coloring it anymore (which requires cutting it short) and letting the gray all grow in. I have a whole lot of gray (white) hair. I will probably look ten years older than I am by the time it grows in. I’m not happy about having to let the gray come in when I’m only 45 (in a couple months), but weighing all my options, it seems to be the only realistic one.
And maybe, since everyone says I look younger with short hair, it will balance out with the fact that I will look older with white hair, and I’ll look the same age I’ve been looking, which is still probably older than I actually am.
I just had an idea, when I talked with my sister after she watched American Idol tonight. I don’t normally watch it, but she does, so I asked her how many contestants were left. When she answered, I immediately said, “I can see this becoming the new way to teach kids math, instead of the ‘You have so-many apples’ technique that was used when we were kids.”
It goes like this. Say to your child, “You have thirteen American Idol contestants and Simon makes two of them go home. How many are left?”
It would work with any number of reality shows, in fact. Hmmm . . ..
I got my hair cut today. Short. I wore it short for most of my life because I have a lot of hair and it’s very curly and woolly and difficult to take care of when it’s long, and most people through the years have said I look better (and younger) with short hair. I can’t argue the point that short hair looks better on me, but I have wanted long hair all my life. I’ve tried to grow it long several times only to give up in frustration when it got too hard to manage, but this time I made it between two and two and a half years. It was the longest it had been since I was about 14 years old. It was probably about three inches past my shoulders. 
