Tuesday 06 March 2007: Heidi is happy because her old jeans fit again and Sarah is sad that her new jeans don't anymore - it's back to normal here!

Sarah says:
After having a good chicken salad lunch at my place with a new friend, I headed to Heidi's for our daily photo op. By the way - a good chicken salad means the following: take your chicken breasts and cut them into three long pieces and dry them off a little. I used to be really bad at putting a good outer-crust on chicken (and fish) but my mom taught me the trick to make it right. You have to mix your store-bought ground breadcrumb mix-thingy with some flour. Then throw in spices, which with chicken always means a little Cinnamon and a salt and pepper mix and some dried coriander. You mix that up and put a little in a shake-it bag. In the meantime not only do you dip the chicken in egg before you shake it in the bag - but also again after. This is what helps the crusty mix stick and cook well in the pan. It's also good to put all the coated cutlets in a cold fridge for a while. That sets the outer coating even more. Then put it in a pan that has a good layer of hot oil and fry away. Drain that oil off the cutlets with paper-towel and then stick them in the cold fridge again. While waiting for them to cool down, take a bunch of small glass bowls and put your fixings in them. I always like to do that for presentation. It looks nice and makes it fun food. I had a big bowl of mixed greens (romaine salad for crunch, spinach leaves for health (try to eat them every day), mescalin(?), rocket, and some other mixed ones along with grated carrots and grated celeriac). I had another bowl of strong chopped shallots. Another of chopped red peppers. Another of chopped avocado. Another of tomatoes. Another of chopped mushrooms. Another of thinly sliced Parmesan cheese. And another of olives. And lastly one of a good herb white dressing. The fun part comes when you put it all together. It's not all that different from that steak sandwich Heidi and I had the other day except it's chicken and it's not in bread. You can pretty much use this formula for anything I find!

So Heidi and I hung out for a while as YMA had her daily fruit. And time flew. I picked up my kid and am about to watch Little House on the Prairie with her. I can't wait! I love that show. That show raised me and gave me morals I'm sure. I actually miss watching Seventh Heaven with my kid each night. It abruptly ended on Belgian TV and we are eagerly awaiting it's return. I wonder why I like such bad moralistic TV? It is so cozy to watch. It makes you feel good I guess.

Did you know that Heidi loves the show Neighbours and records it to watch it every day? When I first moved here, I used to do the same. Neighbours and Eastenders. Those two shows were sadly pretty much my whole existence back then. If I had time, I'd still watch them! Every now and then I still catch Days of Our Lives when I can. I'll even watch it in French and Italian sometimes. I think I have always been a TV addict. TV brought me up actually! I am proud that I haven't totally overdosed on TV since I have been at home all these months. I have watched my share of it for sure. Way too much at that. But I even have my limits these days and luckily have to be an example to my kid so I have to turn the TV off even when I'd love to watch it for hours.

So it seems knitting is the latest fad of fads. For those of y'all that are into it, may I refer you to a knitting blog called Sharing Needles belonging to my cousin's wife and a friend of hers. She and her co-writer have got quick wit and a nice style so it's fun to read even if knitting isn't your thing. My cousin's wife, Rebecca, has got a book coming out in 2008. More on that of course as the time comes closer. Maybe she'll let me have a Face The Day contest and one viewer can win a signed copy or something - or a leg warmer knitted by her!

So the week is going fast and tomorrow is already Wednesday! Too fast really. I am happy to report that my cough is finally freaking going away thanks to the prescription I got from the doctor last night. On the cough medicine package it actually says: "for an annoying dry cough". I couldn't have expressed it better. With a dry cough, however, the problem is that there is nothing to "express". You just heave and heave and it hurts. I felt like my prostheses was going to fly out of my spine the other night. My back pain came back! A massage from the physio-therapist hurt it even more again! That's because I over-used the muscles around the prostheses from coughing. Ridiculous! I even watched this video again today to be reminded exactly how the prostheses was put into my back to be reassured that a massive cough couldn't dislodge it. There are no screws holding it in or anything so I was paranoid! Silly really - but I still have to get used to the idea of having this foreign thing in my body. It doesn't feel like a full part of me yet. I guess it will over time. Does that fake disc in the photo below look like it can come out of my spine from a heavy cough, sneeze or laugh? It's held in by slits in the bone alone. Is that enough? I guess it is but I have to convince myself still. In the meantime, I'll just be very careful and I'll keep suppressing my cough! Stopping myself from laughing hard might be a bigger challenge. Is there an anti-Prozac pill perhaps I can take to make me never laugh hard again? Wouldn't that be really funny if a big laugh made that disc fall out? All right. Enough is enough Good night!