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[starlitshore]

Personal
- I applied to two jobs yesterday. Both related to teaching/education. Both requiring cover letters and tweaked resumes. Job hunting is so time consuming!
- My grandfather has Alzheimer's and is a bit of a TV addict (I come by this honestly) so my mom and I spent 2 hours on the phone with Bell sorting out their new Fibe package and daaaaamn Canada is so fucking expensive.
- I'm very frustrated at grocery stores here. All the Free From stuff is just not as good as Sainbury's and Waitrose. :\
- Baked these gluten free banana muffins this afternoon. Not bad, actually. Less dry than I thought and decent with chocolate chips. (Note: I used Robin Hood gluten free flour.)
- I've fallen down the YouTube rabbit hole and discovered a LOT of music videos with wlw. I may have to create a masterpost at some point.

Fandom
- Marvel: Today I saw for the first time this incredible fanvid by @harleivy called Welcome to the Age of Female Superheroes. Go watch!
- Meta/Personal: Interesting meta post on slash fic and drag culture from franzeska & my comment here
- SPN/Design: Today on things I didn't but definitely did need to know, apparently Jensen and Danneel Ackles own literally my dream home wtf (a little less wood/more white in that sitting room and I'm sold). Literally *_*
- HANDMAID'S TALE SEQUEL! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!
- The other night I finished watching The Bodyguard on Netflix and :O Review to follow!

Politics (Edition:...ffs conservatives are the worst)
- Climate Change is a thing that is happening people.
* Even CNN says so (Shout out to CNN for doing an about-face and slamming Trump since January)
* So guess what, Trump? As the Great Stephen Colbert demonstrates: You're an idiot of the first order. (Bonus: "I've heard better explanations of weather from toddlers on Benadryl.")
* And guess what, Ford? SO ARE YOU
* And of course the PC's released their Climate Change Plan today, which I'll have to read into further. But surprise, surprise, it involves funding for and deregulation of private companies. >___<
- The Oshawa GM plant is closing and I have mixed feelings. I'm YAY for the environment and NAY for Ontario.
* But let's be clear, Mr Ford: GM closing their Canadian operations because they want to build electric cars is NOT Trudeau's fault as you claim but rather is LITERALLY your fault for getting rid of our Green Energy Plan and associated funding. Fuck you.

In Other News
- Good: This is the reason I don't bother with 'influencers' -- how gullible? Rock on, Payless!
- Bad: StatsCan has announced that hate crimes increased by 47% in Ontario in 2017 and that the "increase was largely tied to more hate crimes targeting the Muslim (+207%), Black (+84%) and Jewish (+41%) populations". I'm not even surprised since this world is going to hell in a burning dumpster.

I prescribe a lot of tea and baked goods while listening to holiday tunes and blocking the world out today.

Comments

[starlitshore]

That must have been so scary. How's he doing now?

I don't believe I'm Celiac (or if I am, it's mild) but I definitely have an intolerance. I suffered forever and then decided to try avoiding gluten as a test, and everything immediately improved.

I'm the worst for doing the same old thing. Here's to getting out of our ruts!

Right? Infinitely cuddlable.

Aw! What are their names?

[spikedluv]

It was pretty scary. He lost 20 lbs in about 2-3 weeks, and (because of having celiac for so long) didn't have 20 lbs to lose. We finally had him taken to the hospital where the doctors later told him they didn't think he'd make it. (He was normally about 155 and couldn't gain weight no matter how hard he tried [the opposite of me *g*], so about 135 when he went in. He was skin and bones. I remember realizing I could see his ribs when he changed into the gown.)

Once they figured out what was wrong and he started eating GF he did a 180 and got better quickly (aside from his insides having to heal necessitating more colonoscopies than he wants to think about, lol). He eventually put the 20 lbs back on plus 35 more! He's leveled out at about 190 now and he feels so much better. (Enough so that he thinks it's okay to cheat some days. *head desk*)

I'm glad you figured out what was making you feel bad and that you're feeling better now.

I don't know if Pip cares about my rut, but I care about it, so yes!

The terrier mix is Beauregard (named after a Civil War general, since Pip is obsessed with reading about it; the dog we had before, until he was 15, was named Shiloh), and the lab/shepherd is Ticonderoga (we couldn't find another good Civil War name that we liked so we went with my mother's suggestion of a Revolutionary War site *g*). We definitely call him Ti for short (and Beau), unless we need the longer name for yelling purposes, lol!

I talk about them enough that they have their own tags! Here's an entry where I posted a photo of the two of them taking a pause in their playing, which is very unusual. Normally when I try to get photos of the two of them together they come out all blurry.

[starlitshore]

Oh wow, that's terrifying. You must have been so worried! I'm glad to hear he's so much healthier now.

Yeah, for me it was constant stomach/abdominal pain, ongoing skin problems, fatigue, etc. After not eating any gluten for two weeks, it had all cleared up. It was amazing and the most depressing thing ever. I love all baked things. Haha! Oh well, I've dealt. It's been almost a year and I'm definitely still adjusting but everyone has been really supportive. They're all really happy for me because I was unwell for most of the last 15 years and couldn't figure out why no matter how many blood tests I'd had.

Those are all interesting names -- definitely more original than "Spot" or "Shadow". ;) They're beautiful boys!

I ended up with the flu, so I don't have the puppy after all. But I'll post pics of him later! I have a bunch on my phone.

[spikedluv]

It's great that you figured out what was wrong. I don't know why it's so hard to diagnose. Maybe in the past they wouldn't have thought of it, but now there are a lot of people who have it. (I am thankful that he was diagnosed when he was rather than 10 years previously because there is so much information available now.)

I have found that baked goods (cakes & cookies) don't have much of a flavor difference between regular and GF, but bread (and pie/pizza crust) OMG! The bread is so bad. Pip has tried so many brands in search of one that is better than the rest, but it's still not great.

That sucks! Because of the flu ~and no puppy. I hope you feel better soon.

[starlitshore]

I don't understand the difficulty of diagnosis either. Doctors are really weird about even saying you have an intolerance because it's tough to tell without a biopsy. But apparently you have to not be avoiding it in order for the biopsy to show anything? Argh.

YESSSS the bread is so so bad. It's made it easier for me to kick my pastries habit at least, which is a good thing. I guess?

I HAD THE PUPPY YESTERDAY! I had to give him a bath and brush him and blow-dry him (it's -12C so can't leave him wet) and he fell asleep in the middle like he was at a spa. *_*

[spikedluv]

Here they can do a blood test, but yes, you have to still be eating the gluten for them to tell you are sensitive to it. Weird. But they don't even think of checking for it sometimes.

The bread, god. Ick. Right now we're using a brand called Canyon Bakehouse, which is the best we've found to-date. That said, our local store just started carrying a new brand of texas toast bread (thick) that I picked up to see if it tasted good as French toast (for him; I'm eating regular bread, lol). And his mother (who I think I also told you turned out to have celiac, which they caught after Pip was hospitalized) found a local cafe that serves some GF stuff and she's started ordering bread from them that she says is pretty good, so I just picked up a loaf this morning. We'll see if it's really any better than the usual. o_O

Aww, I'm imagining him being so relaxed and happy that he fell asleep while being groomed. I like to play with Ti's big floppy ears or itch him under his collar and watch his eyes close in pleasure. *g*