Unfortunately, this You Tube video has its embed capabilities disabled, so I can only give you a link to follow instead of showcasing the video here on my blog. But this is worth following and watching to the end. The video is 8 1/2 minutes long, but you’ll be amazed the entire way through. It will change everything you *think* you know about animals that can paint.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk
~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com
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OMG! People, I’ve lost 30 pounds so far! I am not kidding. It must be due to how I’m eating, as I’m not exercising as much as I should. I’ve been doing my part in trying to move MORE throughout the day, such as parking far away from the store so I have to walk, trying to go up and down my stairs more :P, playing Rock Band drums on “hard” - hey, even though it’s not a hard work out, my body is moving, and a moving body is burning calories. Heck, even a stationary body is burning calories, but you get my drift. LOL
I’ve noticed recently that I’ll be really hungry by mealtime, but when it comes to making my plate, I only want smaller portions. I look at the portions I used to eat and think dang! That was a lot of food. Yesterday for lunch, I had half a ham sandwich, ten wholegrain rice-cake chips, and a small cup of yogurt and I was stuffed. Dinner time was pork chops, of which I cut some meat off of mine and even so, didn’t manage to eat it all. I ate most of my baked potato, half of my corn, and about half of my unbuttered roll. I just couldn’t eat it all.
These changes are only for the better. I’m starting to think like a skinny person, I’m noticing. A smaller amount of food fills me up nowadays, and I’m keeping my calorie intake between 1500 to 1800 calories a day (except for the days I “cheat”, which is usually Friday and/or Saturday). I used to eat about 3500 calories a day, just whatever I felt like. Fast food, chocolate, 3 rolls with dinner, a huge bowl of ice cream.
The big change for me is thinking of food as fuel for my body rather than an entertainment or some kind of reward or solace. I don’t really cheat during the day, meaning, I don’t pour myself an extra half cup of cereal. I don’t take another handful of chips. I don’t double up on my snacks. I do, however, still have the cravings and the urges to do that, so I’ll drink some water before I eat, that way, I feel more full when eating the portions I should be eating. Then, I get used to being full with those portions, and before I know it, the thought of eating more makes me go, UGH, no thanks.
What’s really helped me is finding the 100 calorie packs of junk food. LOL If I want salty chips, I grab one of the small 100 calorie bags. If I want chocolate covered pretzels (one of my favorite things), I grab a 100 calorie pack sold by Hershey’s at Costco. Sure, it’s only got two medium sized pretzels in the pack, but it gives me that taste of chocolate I crave at times while giving me a light snack if I’m not too hungry.
Anyway, I’ll probably only shout out when I lose ten pounds at a time, as every five pounds might be a bit excessive. 
My goal is to reach a 50 pound weight loss by the end of May. I’m going to be buying a new bike the beginning of May, so I’m hoping that will seriously help me with some weight loss. Sometimes it’s hard to get out and walk, but riding a bike is fun and is something I can do with the kids and not have it feel like “work”.
Probably not going to get the “Karma” beach cruiser from my Hottie post, I’m thinking about getting a pink Townie with black Hawaiian accents - a black seat with white Hawaiian flowers, black handlebar grips with the same pattern, and black fenders with the same pattern, not to mention a black bag that fits between the frame bars with the Hawaiian flowers as well. Think this bike, but in this color. 
YAY! The big three-oh. I’m feelin’ good!
Ever since I was first married, I’ve wanted to own a cast iron skillet. I’ve heard such good things about them. Never bought one, though, because I was always “scared” of the care I’d have to give it, as I liked the convenience of popping my pans in the dishwasher or hand-washing the non-stick ones. This whole “oiling” nonsense was for the birds. I don’t have time to baby my pan.
Boy, was I wrong.
After 12, almost 13 years of marriage, my DH gave me my first iron skillet this past Christmas. Lucky for me, it was pre-seasoned. Bonus, as I was still wary of the whole seasoning process. According to the directions, you need to spray it with PAM the first time you use it. Okay, did that. Then, after every use, merely wash it out with hot water and a non-abrasive, non-metal scrubber. Once it has been rinsed, you thoroughly dry it, then spray it again with PAM, let it cool, and put it away.
OMG, it’s *that* easy?!?
Away I went. I ended up using the plastic scrubbers Pampered Chef gives you when you buy their stoneware. It’s just a flat piece of plastic, with one pointy edge and three rounded edges. It scrapes my skillet with ease, without scratching the surface of the iron, eliminating the seasoning, or promoting rust. Using HOT HOT water softens the crusties, allowing you to scrape them away. The beauty of the cast iron is the fact that the flavor of the food stays in the metal, making every subsequent meal you cook THAT much better.
After it’s scrubbed, of course I wipe it down immediately. That’s one of the rules of owning cast iron. Do NOT let it sit with water droplets inside of it and NEVER NEVER NEVER soak it in water. After it’s dry, on goes the PAM until it’s all glisteny, then away it goes back in my cupboard. I actually prefer caring for this pan rather than caring for my others. It’s so EASY, a child can do it.
And let me tell you, everything I’ve made with it is **drooly**. Oh yeah, this guy makes the best food evar. In an effort to get it infused with all kinds of flavors, I’ve been using my skillet more and more. It’s only the 12 inch size, but now that I’m in love with cast iron, I want to get all kinds of sizes and shapes.
They’re not even expensive! They sell them here at Fred Meyer for like $12 for a small one, $15 for a 12 incher and like $21 for a 15 inch. In fact, my brother-in-law’s niece just got married recently and for her wedding gift, I bought her a cast iron skillet. If she doesn’t LOVE that thing, there’s something wrong with her. LOL I only wish I’d had this skillet when I’d first gotten married. It would have made all those meals on a shoe-string budget taste SO GOOD.
So, rules for cast iron are:
Never soak it in water.
Never wash it with soap, only hot water rinse.
Never use a harsh metallic scrub pad (like an SOS pad or copper scrubby - try to find a dedicated plastic scrubber if you can. If you get a bristled scrubber, make sure it’s only used for the skillet, because if you ever soap it up for any other use, that residue could get into your iron)
Always oil your pan: peanut, canola, vegetable oils work, as well as PAM, however, do not use extra virgin olive oil. I don’t exactly know why, but I’ve read that on a few websites.
Cook fatty, oily foods the first few times you use your skillet, like bacon, fried chicken or the like.
Believe me, you’ll be so excited to use your skillet every single day, you’ll want to buy more too! In fact, now that I know how to care for one, I wouldn’t mind finding some rusty ones and trying to restore them. The seasoning process isn’t that hard; you scrub off the rust, wash it with light soap (the ONLY time your skillet should ever see soap), then dry your skillet completely, put your “naked” skillet into a cold oven, then turn it on to 300 degrees. Once it’s at 300 degrees, carefully take out your skillet, oil it with a light coating (stress the light), then put it upside down on a cookie sheet and bake in oven for one hour. For older skillets, you might have to season it two or three times. But it’s really not THAT bad of a PITA.
It won’t be long before your cast iron skillet glistens and gives you scrumdiddlyumptious meals. I actually have NOT made cornbread in mine yet (GASP! I know), but only because cornbread is loaded with carbohydrates, and since I have diabetes, it isn’t that great of an idea. Perhaps one of these days I decide to “cheat”, I’ll make some chili and cornbread. By that time, it should be really yummy, since I’ve used the skillet so very much.
Happy cooking!
~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com
Amazon.com is perhaps one of the last existing and most successful “dot coms” from back in the day. It has grown to become a corporate giant on the web, carrying just about every book under the sun.
A few years ago, Amazon bought MobiPocket, which is an online e-bookstore that sells a certain type of electronic books. Before this purchase, you could buy Adobe PDFs and other forms of eBooks on Amazon’s website. But Amazon removed ALL other eBook formats in favor of their one and only MobiPocket. Now, you cannot buy an eBook on Amazon unless it’s MobiPocket or Kindle, for their proprietary eBook reader (whose files cannot be read on any other device).
Now, Amazon is doing this again, however, with print books.
Recently, they bought a POD (print on demand) publisher named BookSurge. I have no personal experience with BookSurge, but I’ve heard scuttle that their POD offerings aren’t as streamlined as Lightning Source’s books, the POD extension of Ingrams, the largest book distributor in the world.
Well, Amazon is now telling small press publishers (of which I am published) to switch their POD services to BookSurge or face a virtual “blackballing” by having your “buy” links removed from your authors’ listings. Whiskey Creek Press has already had their listings tampered with by “Goliath” Amazon. I’m not sure what POD service they use, but it seems as if it’s only a matter of time before they sink their teeth into my publishers, Samhain Publishing and Champagne Books.
Both of these publishers use Lightning Source through Ingrams. We are unsure what Amazon will do with these listings, but it seems grim. Many authors are crying foul, that Amazon is trying to monopolize the eBook/Print industry from small press publishers. And of course, there’s a fee for converting your POD books to BookSurge, the cheapest I’ve heard about is $299 per book. This is all hearsay, as I haven’t read any reports to support this, but it’s rumor floating around the blogosphere at the moment.
If Amazon succeeds in their iron fist tactics of “print through OUR POD publisher or be gone!”, then a lot of small presses won’t have the opportunity for growth that they had in the past. Samhain, for one, grew by leaps and bounds once they listed their print offerings on Amazon. New companies might not have such an opportunity in the future, especially if it costs an arm and a leg to convert the eBook files to BookSurge’s print program, capital the smaller presses just don’t have.
The short story is this: You might not be able to buy any more of my print books through Amazon.com, aside from what’s available in their MobiPocket and Kindle store. Other booksellers such as Barnes & Noble and Borders are uneffected by this, so you can still purchase there. However, since Border’s online site is driven by Amazon, who knows if they’ll blacklist the “other” POD books as well.
This could be a devastating blow to electronic publishers everywhere trying to get their foot in the door with print. It was electronic publishing that turned the print world on its ear with hotter romances and paranormal romances. Now, everyone is jumping on the erotic paranormal bandwagon, even big name New York publishers. If electronic publishing isn’t allowed to flex their proverbial muscles on Amazon any longer, will the potential they had to drive the market be lost?
Only time will tell.
~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com
I’m sure a few of you have heard of this author, Bronwyn Jameson. On a whim, I checked out one of her books at the library because it was a contemporary cowboy story in the line I want to write for, Silhouette Desire. It just so happens this book was set in the Australian Outback. Awesome.
Little did I know the book I read was the first in a series. It was entitled THE RUGGED LONER. Soon after, I went back to the library and checked out the other two books in the series, THE RUTHLESS GROOM and THE RICH STRANGER. All I can say is:
“WOW!”
lol
These books are what you might expect from a romance with angst and misunderstandings and all those things. But what got me with Bronwyn’s writing is the emotion. The showing vs. telling. The beauty of her prose. I love the way she tells a story. Silhouette Desires are between 50K and 55K words. That might sound like a lot, but these books are pretty thin if you’ve ever seen them at the store. What impresses me about Ms. Jameson’s work is the amount of emotion and depth she’s able to capture in such a small word count. I’ve read a lot of categories to get into the swing of them (as I’m planning on writing one at some point), and she’s one author who stands out to me as someone who really knows her craft well.
I decided to pick up another of her books that was outside of this series just to see if it could compare to them. The book I chose was JUST A TASTE, a book in another series by a whole bunch of Desire authors about the Ashton Dynasty. While the book started out slow (as I have no interest in wine making :P), the emotion and angst were still there between the main characters.
The tension in her stories is thick and the way she writes it is like savoring a fine Swiss chocolate amongst the Hershey bars. While we all love the Hershey’s, sometimes it’s so wonderful to indulge in the expensive, glorious chocy.
I believe I’ve found a new favorite author. If you want to check out her books for yourself, you can find Ms. Jameson on the ‘Net at www.BronwynJameson.com.
~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com
All right, folks, I knew (finally) a few days ago who I would feature today. DH and I recently watched a movie called “American Gangster“, starring one of my favorite actors. I’ve actually lurved this man for years, I’m surprised I haven’t featured him yet. He’s made it to my “Top 10 Men I’d Leave DH For”, even though I’ve never compiled a list of my Top 10. Heh, perhaps I should do that sometime. It would be fun. Maybe a Top 13? One of these Thursday 13’s perhaps I will do that. Anyhow, I’m getting off course. Who have I chosen this week? None other than Mr. Denzel Washington.
Mr. Washington also has the honor of being my first black hottie. I’ve pretty much loved the man in any movie he’s done. He’s just so suave and cool, you just know he’d treat you right.
I especially love Denzel with facial hair. In fact, I love facial hair in general. How ironic that I never write any of my heroes with a mustache or goatee. Perhaps it doesn’t “translate” well to the written word, but when men have facial hair that works for them, like my DH or Henry Ian Cusick, it’s so friggin’ sexy. At the Oscars this year, Denzel was a presenter, and he had a goatee. Mmm, yummy.
It’s the swagger, the smile, the intensity, that makes him hot. You know he’s also kind-hearted, and according to Wikipedia, a devout Christian. To me, those are hot traits as well. You know, Denzel has filled his career with box office hits. For once, I’d love to see him in a romantic comedy, or perhaps a comedy in general. I suppose he has been, if we count “Much Ado About Nothing” or “The Preacher’s Wife“. But it’s been 12 years since the release of the last one. Perhaps he’s due for another?
Congratulations, Denzel Washington. You’re Becka’s Hottie of the Week!
Good Lord, I don’t know what I’m doing, but these pounds seem like they’re melting away. In fact, I’m almost worried at how rapidly I’m losing. However, perhaps it’s due to the fact my body is trying to adjust to this new diet and the extra things I’m doing to take the weight off.
It’s shocking because I freely admit I don’t exercise every day like I should. This past week has been particularly bad for me - I’ve hardly gone out and walked at all. However, running down the short hill on our cul-de-sac with my youngest daughter teaching her how to ride has probably helped out in that regard.
I fully expect to plateau soon, and in fact, I’ve already had one about 11 pounds ago. For over a week and a half, I was stuck, not losing, not gaining. I have no idea what I did to break through that plateau, but perhaps with this diet my metabolism is changing.
When you’re losing weight, the first few pounds are always the “easiest”, as you kind of shock your system. It isn’t until you get to say… pound 100 that you’re finally feeling the burn. So far, I’ve lost about 15% of what I need to lose. But I’m finally seeing results in the mirror. You know how it is, everyone can see results but *you*.
Well, I wanted to lose 25 pounds by Easter. Done!
Next goal, please. Okay, how about another 25 by the end of May? We’re going on a camping trip with our circle of friends and I would LOVE to tell them I’ve lost 50 pounds.
But that’s assuming this rapid weight loss continues. I’ve lost 25 pounds in 51 days. To quote my dietitian, “Dang, do you EAT?” lol Perhaps it’s the combination of eating less, being active more, and taking Metformin. She says that drug is an appetite suppressant and she’s seen doctors prescribe it to people who need to lose weight. DH says I’m “cheating”.
Hell, I’ll cheat my way to thin any damn day of the week!
~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com
So I’m a little late posting this, so what? I couldn’t think of anyone I wanted to post this week, so I decided to shake things up a bit. I *did* fall in love this weekend. With what, you say? With a bike. 
DH has a bike, and our two oldest kids have one. We just bought a new bike for our youngest daughter, and she’s furiously learning how to ride it (almost there!). Now, we’re going to get our boy a bike in the next two weeks to a month, and at some point, we’re going to get me one too. The ultimate goal is to have family bike rides at the beach or on bike trails, or heck, even where we go camping. So which bike do I absolutely adore? The Electra Cruiser named “Karma”.
It’s paint job is called “purple fade”, starting at pink and fading into purple. On the fenders is a gorgeous, fancy gold paint job.
Isn’t it LURVLY? Wow, it was so beautimous that I instantly said to myself, “I MUST HAVE THIS BIKE.” I haven’t seen it in person, but I can’t imagine it would look so awesome in pictures and not be breathtaking in real life.
I can’t post the next picture on my blog as it’s way too big… It’s basically the same pic as above, but bigger, showing it in all its glory. **Le sigh**
http://www.suusbikeshop.nl/2006/img/artikel/ECRL053.jpg
Congratulations, Electra Karma Cruiser. You’re Becka’s Hottie of the Week!
~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com
