Tag: stomach

Getting Ready for the Holidays

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Friends and Family, HolidaysLeave a comment

This is the image from my webcam to show my progress so far. It’s very hard to really tell what it is at this point because of the angle of the image but it’s a Christmas stocking for one of my relatives. It’s a snowman holding a broom with a mouse in it. The snowman is wearing a top hat and a scarf and he has a squirrel on his shoulder.

There is a deer which you can clearly see then a rabbit next to him but I haven’t finished him so he’s hard to see.  Then to the bottom right of the stocking is a fox which I haven’t even started. Well, I started his feet but that’s it.

When I finish I will post the finished product so you can get a better image. Yesterday I worked on the white of the snowman stomach and I started his scarf which by the way is not an easy thing to do lol.

I have 9 more days to finish this. Do you think I can do it? I keep saying “Oh it’ll only take me a few days” well it’s been a week that I’ve been working on it but because of back problems I can only work on so much of it at a time before I have to stop. Yesterday I drank a red bull and got a lot more done but not as much as I would have liked.

I still have to finish the other stocking that I made for Jordan with the Santa on the front. Since that one didn’t come with the red felt for the back, I had to go buy some at Michael’s. I cut the piece out so all I have to do is sew it on. But I’ll wait to do that when I can sew this one up at the same time. Yes they have to be sewn by hand because if I use the sewing machine it will screw up the pattern because some of the pattern is right against the edge of where I have to sew.

You know speaking of sewing, I wish that I knew how to quilt because I think I could make some awesome Christmas stockings with that. That would be so awesome.

Anyway, I need to get back to work lol.

Happy Thanksgiving

On By Michel McDonaldIn Friends and Family, HolidaysLeave a comment

Today is a day that most people spend with their families, watching football, having uncomfortable conversations about their love life or gossiping about the black sheep (that’s me) who did or said what to who. Eat great food and open the button on their pants and unzip their zipper to let their stomach expand so they can breathe and it’s perfectly normal. There might be a fight, someone might come out of the closet, but at least you are with the ones you love.

I miss that.

We’re going to Hometown Buffet today with Venda then we’re gonna go see the movie Unstoppable. I have seen a commercial or 2 about it but I think it came out a long time ago so it’s probably in the little tiny theater. It’s not my choice but that’s what we’re going to see.

On Thanksgiving people usually say what they are thankful for. Well, I am thankful for my health (generic I know but it’s true) and my freedom. I am thankful that I have little drama in my life. You know us gays, always with the drama. Well, not this one. I try to keep all the drama out because what’s the point really? I am thankful that we have the cutest dog in the world who loves us. I am also very thankful that we have a home, a roof over our head with food in our pantry and fridge. And most of all I am thankful that I am in a relationship with the most wonderful person and that relationship has lasted over 16.5 years and is still going strong.

Well, it’s time to go. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful Thanksgiving day with your families wherever you are. Stay safe and don’t drink and drive!

Back Problems

On By Michel McDonaldIn HealthLeave a comment

I don’t know what’s going on with me lately but it seems that since I got that new bicycle seat I’ve had nothing but back problems.  It could be that I still don’t have it adjusted right, I don’t know for sure.  I’m sitting back in my desk chair with the vibrate turned on the upper back selection and it does help some.  Sometimes I go sit in the shiatsu massage chair and that just hurts.  I have to sit funny for it to even get to my shoulders.

What happened is a few mornings ago I wasn’t wearing my bipap machine mask because sometimes I can’t breathe with it on so I have to go without for 1 night.  So when I sleep without it I sleep on my stomach and I sleep so weird that it puts a crick in my neck.  So I can’t put all the blame on this new seat but it doesn’t help my back either.

Yesterday I went on my morning bike ride despite the bad neck/shoulder pain but this morning I decided I was in too much pain to go out so I stayed home.

I’m really thinking about going to the chiropractor again because I get massages 3 days a week and they make me use their gym which helps with my weight loss lol.  The last time I went there I think I lost 10lbs in 1 month from using their gym doing the machine exercises as well as the ball exercises.  Maybe that will help me out some then I can learn what exercises I can do at home on my home gym so I will start using that again.

The only issue right now is that I’m broke.  I mean totally broke.  I have $1.75 available in the bank lol.  So I can’t take the bus there and they moved to across the street from the DMV which is a very long bus ride.  I wouldn’t want to take my bike because well, I’m going there because of my bike and I don’t have the proper locks for my bike yet until I get money.  So I’m kind of stuck until I get money.

I hope the pain will go away soon because I don’t have any pain pills or the money for them.  I do have a couple ibuprofens still for my carpel tunnel syndrome and I’m seeing that doctor on Friday so hopefully he will renew that for me.

Hunger Pangs

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, FoodLeave a comment

Yesterday and today were Chips days off so I didn’t ride the bike the entire weekend.  I thought my body was getting used to the new diet or the new portions, in fact it was doing pretty good.  So I was a little confused today when I had my slim fast shake at 11:45am, I was really getting hungry.  But then at 1:45pm the hunger pangs came back with a vengeance.

For the last couple of weeks that I’ve been on the slim fast and measuring my portions my hunger pangs haven’t been bothering me so I don’t know why today.

I decided that I couldn’t wait until 6pm to eat so I just ate an energy bar, a Tiger’s Milk bar.  But then Darrin said hey let’s go to the store and get some steak for dinner to BBQ.  So we went and even got some salad stuff and a can of beans because what’s a BBQ without beans and salad?

Unfortunately he couldn’t wait for 6pm since he didn’t even eat any lunch so we ate at 3pm lol.  Which was ok for my stomach I guess but then when 6pm came around I started getting hungry again grrrr.  And now, it’s just turning 11pm and guess what?

Well, I gotta take an ambien anyway to get me to sleep, I can’t sleep without it because the BiPap mask keeps me awake so I gotta take a pill to be able to fall asleep with that thing.  The Ambien doesn’t really work without food so I’ll eat a banana, that should work.

I’m out of cereal so tomorrow morning I’m going to just have a slim fast shake.  I wanted to limit myself to 1 shake per day or if I had a very light dinner then just add the shake.  If you haven’t noticed, Slim Fast is expensive lol.  So that’s ok, I can actually have a shake for breakfast and then later tomorrow buy some more Raisin Bran cereal for breakfast the next day.

Bicycle

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

I woke up at 7am with the alarm clock with the intention of leaving the house at 8:30am or when Darrin left for work.  But then I realized that I might be getting a package in the mail any day now so I just decided to wait another hour for the mail.  It’s a good thing I did because she left a big package on my doorstep and didn’t even ring the bell.  She just left it there.  If I wasn’t home when she dropped it off then someone could have taken it.  It was the Big City Slider Station from Publishers Clearing House lol.  Yeah I know, I could have gotten it from Wal-Mart but I can pay for it over the next 4 months.  I don’t have the money to spend at Wal-Mart right now.

Before the mail came I thought that I would go to Albertson’s real fast and see what they have in the way of energy bars.  When I get to a certain point my stomach starts hurting because all of a sudden it’s like I’m starving or something.  I don’t know why it does that so I wanted to get some energy bars.  They aren’t too bad I guess, most of them are a bit expensive like $1.50 – $2.  But then I saw the Tiger’s Milk bars which were only .89 cents but they also had a tag that said buy 1 get 1 free.  So I bought 3 of them and got 3 for free.  I’m going to have to go back later and buy 20 more for $10 lol.

So then I went to the bike path and didn’t stop for any rest, I was going to just rest at a Yokuts park just before Beach Park but then I figured that Beach Park is right next to Yokuts park so I might as well just keep going to Beach Park.  When I got there I sat on the cement bench and grabbed my Tiger’s Milk bar and enjoyed it.  My stomach was a little tiny bit hungry but it wasn’t too hungry but this Tiger’s Milk bar filled it.  I sat there for probably 15 minutes then I went on my way back the way I came to come home.

When I got home I took the bicycle computer off and when I opened the back door the dog (toy chihuahua) was jumping up for me to pick her up and I did then I started walking in the door and went to reach for the doorknob to close it and the computer fell out of my hand.  OMG!!!  I picked it up and it was flashing numbers as if I had just taken the battery out and replaced it so it wanted me to set it up.  This means that I had lost all my information.

Luckily I had looked at the info before I got home so I kinda knew what my trip odometer was.  It was about 10 miles which was the same exact amount of miles I went on April 17th so I just wrote down the same miles.  Also I looked at my average speed and it was 12.2 so I wrote that down on my sheet (and in the bike computer stats in the Spark People page).  My time was about the same as April 17th also so I just put 52 minutes and no seconds.  I don’t know how many calories or fat calories that was but I’m not really concerned.  The reason I say that is because going 12.2mph burns more calories than going 11.8mph.  Not that much but still, the numbers wouldn’t be the same.

So that’s it.  Tomorrow I’m going to leave at the same time as Darrin since I’m not expecting anything in the mail.  Well, I did buy him some ties for Church with crosses on them but I’m sure they will be in a small enough package that they can slip it into the big box outside.

Krod Mandoon

On By Michel McDonaldIn Humor, TVLeave a comment

Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire premiered on Comedy Central last night at 10pm and I have to say it was hilarious.

It looked like it was a spoof of a show like Hercules and Xena from the 90’s.  Sean Maguire is very good in this role as Krod Mandoon.  And I have to say he has an awesome body.  His stomach alone is enough of a reason to watch this show.

It has an awesome cast of characters who are just so hysterical.  Especially the bad guy played by Matt Lucas who I remember from Little Britain USA which was on HBO.  He is just so funny.

If you haven’t seen the series premiere then you have to watch it when it repeats.

Currently it is on Thursday nights on Comedy Central at 10pm.  Don’t miss it because it’s hilarious.  If you don’t find it humorous then watch it to see Sean Maguire half-naked lol.

Deadly Pet Toys

On By Michel McDonaldIn PetsLeave a comment

We got our Toy Chihuahua last year so we’ve had her for maybe a year and 2 months.  When we first got her we went to PetSmart and bought her this little toy that is a green frog with a squeaker inside of it.  She loves that frog.  She’s always playing with it and her favorite thing is to bite down on the squeaker to make it squeak.

She’s chewed the hell out of that frog and she’s even torn the fabric so that she was able to access the squeaker and she chewed the tip of it off.  This was like 6 months or so ago.  I took the squeaker out and threw it away when I realized what she had one.

About a month ago I found the spare squeaker that came with the frog and there is an access in the back of the frog with Velcro so you can remove the one inside and replace it.  Well, even though she chewed the hell out of the stomach it didn’t occur to me that she might try to chew the spare squeaker the same way.  I don’t know why.  I forgot that she did it to the first one so it didn’t really occur to me to not put the second one in there.

Today Darrin was laying on the couch talking to his brother on the phone and our dog Flower was laying next to his feet just going to town on this frog.  I saw how passionate she was chewing on this thing and it didn’t occur to me that she might have been chewing the tip of the squeaker.

Darrin got off the phone and I noticed that she was clawing at her face.  I went over to her and picked up the frog and she didn’t try to get it back, she was still clawing at her face.  She had this look of horror in her eyes.  I could tell she was in trouble but I didn’t know what to do.  I looked at the squeaker and the tip was gone.  The part that makes the squeaking sound was laying on the couch where she was laying all by itself next to the frog and I realized she was choking on something.

I put my finger in her mouth and I could feel it in her throat but I couldn’t get at it.  I accidentally pushed it in her throat and she was struggling still.  I knew she couldn’t breathe at all.  I told Darrin to blow inside her mouth to help her out but he didn’t know what I meant.  He put his lips up to her mouth and blew on them, I grabbed her and put her entire snout into my mouth and just blew and then chip squeezed her chest and you could hear a popping sound, the plastic piece shot out of her mouth and fell onto the floor.

OMFG!!!  I was in total panic mode, I didn’t know what to do.  I didn’t know what I was doing when I blew in her mouth, I thought I was helping her but at the same time I would’ve been hurting her.  If it weren’t for Darrin squeezing her chest she would’ve been dead.

I immediately threw the frog away and took a picture of the squeaker.  You can see in the picture the piece that she had stuck in her throat, it’s the thing that the arrow is pointing to.

squeeker

I can only imagine what might have happened if we weren’t home to see this happening, what we might have walked in on one day.  I might have been on my bike ride and come home to find a dead toy chihuahua laying on the living room floor or on the couch.  Or we might come home from the movies or from going out to dinner.  I will never ever buy another toy with one of these things in it ever again.  And if I find a toy that has one, I’m going to take it out first.

My aunt Louise takes them out.  When I went to visit her for Christmas in Texas someone bought her dogs some toys and she took the squeakers out but I didn’t know why, now I know.  They are killers.  But her dogs are a lot bigger than mine, like Golden Retriever sized dogs.  Our dog is smaller than a cat.  Like half the size of a cat.  I never even imagined this would happen but now I do and I’ve learned from it.

When Playing Becomes Scaring

On By Michel McDonaldIn PetsLeave a comment

I have a 3lb Chihuahua.  She likes to play.  She LOVES to play.  I was holding her and blew on her neck, you know like when you blow on a baby’s stomach and it makes a farting sound and it makes them giggle.  Well, I can tell when she’s laughing because she starts sneezing and, well, I can tell.  And so I kept doing it and she thought it was funny, she was having fun.  Then I did it on her side and all of a sudden she got real serious and PEED on me.

I don’t know what’s wrong with her.  Whenever I’m playing with her I kiss her and stuff but whenever my face goes anywhere near her side all of a sudden she gives me this look of horror and starts peeing on me.  It’s like she’s scared all of a sudden that she thinks I’m gonna just start chowing down on her.  As if, she only weighs 3lbs, she barely has any meat on her at all.

We’ve had her for a year, don’t you think that by now if we were going to eat her we would’ve eaten her already?  What’s up with that?  I mean it’s not like we’re fattening her up to prepare her for Thanksgiving dinner, I mean, Thanksgiving has already passed.  LOL.  Poor thing.  I really love her, she’s so cute and so funny but… I don’t want to eat her.

Star Wars Battlefront II

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

Wow.  I never knew how fun this game would be.  I guess it’s the Star Wars version of Socom.  I tried the demo of Socom Navy Seals but I couldn’t get into it but if you add some rebel soldiers and a wookie then perhaps I’d like it better hehe.

At first Darth Vader kept killing me but I’ve learned to avoid him at all costs.  I hear him breathing in a cave but rarely see him anymore.  I can win the levels that are on a planet (well, 50/50) but when I’m flying in space I have less of a chance of winning for some reason.  It’s harder to fly a spaceship and shoot because no matter what your spaceship is always flying.  You can’t stop flying to focus your fire on the other ships weapons or shields or whatever.  You have to shoot then fly up or down or whatever, fly away for a bit then come back and shoot some more.

I played it for about 2 hours straight this afternoon and my eyes are so blurry from it because I start out with the PSP near my stomach then next thing I know it’s near my face.  That’s when I know I have to stop for a bit when it’s near my face and my eyes can barely see it with my glasses on and I have to start using the bifocal part of my glasses to see then those get too blurry lol.  It’s time to put it in stand by mode for a while.

Well Fed Dog

On By Michel McDonaldIn PetsLeave a comment

We have a toy Chihuahua named Flower and this little dogs stomach is about the size of a walnut.  Maybe smaller.  Well, she is always so hungry and she acts like we starve her to death lol.  When I open the fridge door she runs in the kitchen so fast because she thinks she’s gonna get something.

I hate it when animals beg because they make you feel so bad for them.  I try to trick her by pretending I’m done eating then go lay down and watch tv but she’s smart.  She knows that the food is still on my desk and she stands by my desk and looks at me waiting for me to go give her some of it.  I can just see what she’s thinking….

“If you’re not gonna eat it, give it to me”.