Friday April 21

Yesterday evening I came back to the apartment and compiled my grocery list for  this upcoming Saturday. It has a lot of veggies, milk, yogurt and  cereal the usual good Organic food

I will play by ear depending on how hot it gets. In case it is being  hot enough, there is always ceviche to make using the fresh Salmon. I am currently unsure about the upcoming temperature, so I am taking this plan of mine with a grain of salt, that is ready to be adapted to the weather condition for the weekend. I might by some Tilapia fillet instead. It is a sustainable farmed fish.

I came back home and the slow cooker was done.  The flank beef steak with a lot of good veggies was ready. As seasoning I used pepper and salt, a couple of bay leaves and a few branches of the Rosemary of the plants outside the apartment. I used a whole yellow onion and a full garlic head.

I put the head of garlic inside without peeling. It is definitely good this way. It gets soft and tender and the skin is getting so moist it is eatable.

The meat  cooked slowly and it is absolutely flavorful.

I toned down the use of spices as it masks the real flavor of the meat.

Here it is the final results.

The only observation I have is that next time I will need to brown the meat on a skillet.

Last time I use this method with an excellent result.

I had it for dinner. Afterward I went to the gym. 

I signed out at 5:35pm and arrived at 6:05pm as I walked over there. I was late and able to get the last part of the class of  bodycombact with Scott. He is a very kind person.

At 6:30pm the class was over so I took the chance of working on my own  until 7pm.

 I  worked on this short program:

1) Vertical chest press 3x20 setting 3

2) shoulder press 3x20x45lb

3) compound row 3x20x50lb

4) crunch 3x20x40lb

Finally stretching accurately.

At the gym a nice lady introduced herself to me.

Her name is Amanda.

I left at 7pm and walked back at the apartment where I  signed back  at 7:35pm

Once back at the apartment I got a snack with a banana and creamy peanut butter.

Protein from the peanut butter, carbs and potassium from the banana

I slept well and woke up this morning fully refreshed.

I had a good home made breakfast

This morning I had an ordinary  head ache nothing major. Very likely related to yesterday gym activity. I link it with an increase of blood pressure during the same day or the day before.

I reported to nursing, Suzanne was there to give me a couple of Tylenol. It worked and everything is fine.

It is always like this, following an intense sport activity. I get wrapped up in doing my physical exercise, I push my body and in the present moment I am fine.

However the following day I am going to nursing to report a head ache.

This is the way my body works out. 

Anyway after my Tylenol  I walked in the park.

Obviously the flower near the apartment are a wonderful subject in the morning. Too hard to walk by and to  ignore it.

In particular these roses are so perfect, it is  hard to believe it is real.

This morning I walked in the park near the apartment. Walking steady with fluent movement of my legs.

My own shadow on the bench

The peaceful park atmosphere of the morning. Despite they told me no newspaper. I roamed free over there, just becuase I like it.

I took the van  and went to AAC.

Over there I read the newspapers, the kiosk at the apartment was completely empty. Normally the AAC has a newspaper available.  So I had the one from AAC  and read it until 11 am when it was time for me to come to my work program at the Homes of Hope.

Alex drove me  here from  AAC.

Here I am  filling  my blog that serves me as memory refresher . 

Also I am reviewing my writing  as I am catching many grammatical and spelling errors.

While the other patients stayed at AAC and were provided lunch over there, I came here at my work program. As always I had brought my lunch. A piece of the flank steak from yesterday with potatoes and carrots. I also had brought with me a  grapefruit, which is very good. I like it very flavorful.

Afterward I did not need any coffee. I am definitely working hard in staying away from the caffeine in the coffee for as much as I can.

This weekend I am planning to buy some decaffeinated coffee at Trader Joe's. It will have the flavor but without the adverse effect of the caffeine.

Also I am planning to buy a bag of frozen artichoke hearts.

I am going to use it to make a sauce with the anchovies for my pasta.

Here is the recipe .. it is called pasta alla puttanesca

I do not eat much past nowadays .. we will see how it goes  

Thursday April 20

Yesterday evening I came back to the apartment and distributed the latest schedule of the week.

The patients that wanted to sign on for  certain activity were free to do so.
I was asked by the receptionist if I wanted to sign on for anything.

I did not wanted to sign on for any activity.  I like to do my own independent sport program and being  by my own.

I politely declined. I rather control my time and my activity rather than being left at the dependence of somebody else.  Control what you can.

I  do not enjoy  any longer going to the movie outing as it stands  I feel better in doing otherwise.

I typically give all the outing money as offering at church. It I feel it is  best this way.

So yesterday I had my minestrone soup from the day before and then went off to  the gym.
I signed out at 5:15pm.

I walked there on time for my class. I had cycle with Cassie Tessandori and later body pump with Sylvia Walker.

In the  static cycle  the resistance of the bike is varied to emulate a real world experience.

I  participated to the class in a  positive way.

Afterward there was a class of body-pump with Sylvia. I applied my self focusing on range of motion and a bit increasing the weight I am using. My body is getting stronger and my legs are bending a bit more. Anyway I  worked happily at the gym. I pushed myself a bit more.  I have been recuperating physically for the past years.

At 7pm it was time for me to leave and to get back to the apartment.

At the gym they gave me a cup full of candies.

I picked it up and brought it back with me.

I walked back from the gym and signed on at 7;30pm 

I got a peanut butter and banana before bed.

I already distributed the candies at the CNS reception. I brought  here at the Homes of Hope the peanut butter bar I received.


I had a good  night and slept well.

This morning I wake up with a strong headache.  I am speculating that it  is the result of yesterday physical activity.

This morning I  had money management completed  the usual amount $75 and $24.

The park is nice in the morning.

I had a very healthy breakfast with Oatmeal, peanut butter and honey. I had also blueberry, milk and cereal. A bit of coffee but I am getting off it lately. I am trying to stay out. Even at the dentist I was told it is best to avoid staining one's teeth. In practical terms everything we eat can stain and will stain depending on the level of acidity and pigmentation. You see anything you eat is contributing to the same purpose.

The flowers at the apartment are really doing  fine

my mother sent me the picture below of her flowers from Italy.

She is saying they have been  eaten by parasites.

I have been recommending her to use the following natural trick.

It is based on letting soaking a broken cigarette in water for a while.
Then using that water to vaporize on the flower.

She agrees with it. She also  mentioned that she does not have access to any body that has cigarette in her surround. So this matter is resolved.

Before leaving I set up the slow cooker with the Flank beef cut I had purchased last Monday at Trader Joe's.

I used celery stalks, carrots, potatoes. I went outside to grab a few Rosemary branches for the cooking

I patted dry the meat, then I  seasoned it with salt pepper and dry oregano.

I coarsely cut the vegetable and set it at the bottom of the pot. 

At  the top I placed the seasoned meat. A couple of bay leaves.

I let it cook on low. I set at 8am this morning. It will be done by early afternoon after six or seven hours.

I like cooking with the slow cooker. Last time I have cooked a brisket. It was a large piece of meat.

This time the Flank is  a more reasonable size. Beside I have applied far less spices than before.
Last time it was spicy. I had followed the recipe and dose recommendation.

This is the map of the cut in a beef. The Flank comes from the portion under the belly.
The brisket I cooked last time was coming from the mid location  above the front legs.

This is my work place at the Homes of Hope

A nice desk,  my laptop with the outlet on the wall.

Time to leave, see you tomorrow
Giuseppe

Wednesday April 19

It has been a hectic morning.
I had a 8am dentist  appointment .

I had a quick healthy breakfast with Oatmeal, creamy peanut butter  and honey. In addition milk, cereal and blueberry.
I went to Dr Jue for a dentist appointment. Miss Desire' cleaned my teeth carefully. She also applied fluoride paste  and took several X-ray images of my teeth. Desire' was in charge of all the non medical part.
She mentioned that her eldest son is working in S. Barbara as a software engineer.

When she was done with her part,  Dr Jue the dentist came for me. He checked the developed X-ray images for any sign of cavities. He also took time to look into   my mouth for any abnormal growth. He pulled my tongue sideways so he could inspect the base. He was busy for no more than 15 minutes overall. He gave me a clean bill of health.


Everything is well. My night guard got cleaned with  the ultrasound machine.


Next appointment :TBD. Typically this  is a year by year appointment.

Veronica an NRS from CNS  came with me to make sure I was going in and out the appropriate door.

I had no copay and everything went smoothly.

I collected a few stickers and then called for transportation.

 I already started to distribute the stickers around at AAC and here at the Homes of Hope.


I got into a crowed bus with all the other patients - there was only a single seat left such is the patient overcrowding nowadays.

Afterward I was taken at AAC for a bit. I butted head with my Case Manager - telling her I am in no cooperative mood to be there for any time. She plans for me to stay there and work on a "project".

In my experience and opinion the word project is highly  misleading for her envisioned idea.

Indeed I told her in no blunt terms her 'project' is not mine hence she is welcome to work  on it by herself.
I am a highly independent and stubborn person when it comes to serious matter.

My Case Manager mentioned with a laughing silly face I am not any way doing anything at Homes of Hope so I can skip for  one day.

I am not accepting her directions nor her little proposals .

She said being open to what CNS proposes you...  dear CNS please a bit of dignity,  end of the story.

Yesterday evening I made a minestrone soup with Organic ingredients.
Celery stalks, carrots, potatoes, onion, butternut squash and several garlic heads.
These are all the ingredients before washing

After washing the veggies it was time to cut it into medium to small bits

The soffritto was  going in the large pot and I was cooking using Coconut Oil.

Healthy cooking habits are hard to eradicate.

I ventured in the garden down the stairs to get a few branches of fresh rosemary.

I added it  to the broth with a few bay leaves.

 I seasoned the broth with dry herbs and a bit of pyramid salt.

 I added a bit of  Organic Medley Brown rice and some quick cook rice.

At the end as always a few spoons of  Olive Oil and Parmesan Cheese.

It came out so good. I filled two bins with.  I  put it in the fridge for the next few days.

While cooking I wrote a sad and somber tone  letter to my mother in Italian.

I sent it to Italy for her. 

The correct amount to Italy is four forever stamps.

This corresponds to about a  dollar worth of stamps.

The mail from US to Italy is definitely faster than the mail coming  from the opposite direction.

Her mail took two months to get here. My mail takes a couple of weeks max for reaching her in Verona Italy.  Obviously there is a highly dysfunctional mail distribution once the mail gets to Europe.

The Italian mail system is as slow as the snail pictured below.  

A good allegoric  image it if you will.

The picture is from this morning.

Yesterday I spent my afternoon busy bat the apartment. I was  cooking and writing, no gym.

My piriformis muscle in the back is getting better. At time it has been very painful for me. I am trying to  tone down on the heavy exercise and to stretch it in the morning.

This morning I had the first portion  of my money management completed. It was a very easy one as I gave back the whole $24 for the outing. I had no opportunity to spend it.  I gave back the grocery shopping receipt I spent last Monday . I did not go on Saturday as a regular schedule because I was  elsewhere.

As usual while I was walking next to the roses I took a couple of pictures

While I was next to the roses I chatted a bit with Jean the gardener of CNS.

He talked to me in French, so we started talking in French as it is a language I am very familiar with.

He told me in French that Dr. Ashley is also speaking a good French.

So one more information I did not have before.

The usual walking in the morning  before catching the van to the dentist

Tonight our elder Chicco will be studying at home while our younger Lapo will have a playdate with a friends of his.

New schedule to distribute at the aparrtment and for the ones who like to go to the movie they will be free to sign.

I am frankly quite uncertain about this matter, seriusly

Enjoy the reading

Giuseppe

Tuesday April 18 2017

Overall I am doing fine.

I had no headache thus far and I have been sleeping well.

My brain was obviously feeling the change of pressure in the air.

It is raining today. I am speculating that my head has become sensitive to the atmospheric pressure.

I will need to check if it does correlate more than with a single day.

Well, it is finally raining again today.

The flowers are soaking in the rain. I believe it is good for them to get as much as water as possible.

The rain is all over the park.

It has been  hard for me to take a walk over there as I got my feet wet.

This morning my breakfast was very quick in order for me to get the bus.
I had oatmeal, peanut butter and honey. A yogurt with a bit of cereal and blueberry.

I rushed outside to get the newspapers and here is when my feet got soaked wet.

Yesterday evening I walked to Trader Joe's by myself. Over the weekend I was in La Canada so I had no time to do grocery shopping.

I then arrived unexpectedly over there where I purchased all good and Organic food.
Jamie - in blue shirt- was surprised to see me on an off day.

She was shopping for her family and she had a list to follow as well.

I purchased all good food. I was able to find the risotto with mushroom  in a box.
I plan  to try it within the next days.

The brisket was too expensive for me  this time to buy.

So I purchased another cut of meat with a lot of marble.

I had a new supply of stickers for the kids.

I spent $109.12 .

And I am supposed to be shopping only for four days as this Saturday I am going for shopping again.

My afterthought is that if I were a company I would have my balance sheet in such a poor status that I would have to declare bankruptcy. 

Cassie the supervisor came to pick me up afterward. She drove me back to the apartment.

*********
I was not able to find the Riso Arboreo for making the risotto. They do not have it at Trader Joe's.

After some searching I found it  available at the Target store.
Well perhaps it is not so stringent as I would have to figure out a way to get there.


It is also available on line. Nowadays it is all available on line.

*******

At the apartment I tagged all the food and put it away. I hung the grocery list to the wall of my bedroom as I always  do.
It is going to be there for another time to serve me as a guideline.Each grocery list I am compiling is based on the food I had the previous time. I mark down the latest food that I find at Trader Joe's and the one that is not available with them. It has been working well thus far.

This morning I went to the AAC, where I participate to the activity of reading the newspaper to the folks over there.  Then at 11am I came here for my work program.

Simona and the boys are fine. When I called this morning the boys were already up and running.
She was getting ready for her day. 
The boys today have piano lesson.

I inadvertently wished my sister Isabella happy birthday. I am clearly off  as much time goes.

She is my sister Isabella. One year older than I am  and tree years older than my brother Francesco is.

My sister is very energetic.

She has built two different business thus far. They are both in Germany where she lives.

The first one is her main activity as representative for high end fabric textile products.

The second leg of her activity is based on a completely different subject.

She is providing dresses for Tango activity, hence the name of Dimensione Tango.

This is another picture from my mom's balcony in Italy.

She is showing that the plant of oranges she has on her balcony is undergoing an abrupt change;

The temperature of the air has dropped down significantly in the past days. It has been going from 23C (73F) down to 12C (53F). In doing so the flowers that the orange plant was starting to make have been disturbed. Hopefully this is not a major disruption for the plant

Even the temperature in Bakersfield has dropped to 18C (64F). I have been underestimating the change in temperature.
I prefer the cold temperature as my body works better in the cold, and my blood pressure can stay low.
However if it is too cold I start to sneeze like today. 

Today the plan is cooking dinner and perhaps gym if it is nor raining, we will see how it goes later  today.

This is a good reading regarding the correlation of atmospheric pressure and programmable shunt.

Monday April 17

Well, I have been having recurring pain spasms in my head, where my shunt is located on the top right side of my skull.
At time the pain is also moving down to my right eye, and I feel it pulling backward from the inside.

It is perhaps a nerve associated to my head injury.

When it is too hot I feel it hurting also  when I have a lot of agitation in my head  is hurting.

The past few days it has  been OK, yesterday the pain has risen again as I was coming back at CNS. today it is still there.

It drives me nuts and make me feel poorly.

I do not drink much coffee at all. I actually drink it only in the morning. The rest of the day I do not drink any coffee.

Last Friday April 14th  I was taken by surprise back from Home of Hope to AAC.  I had  been given  no information insofar how long I had to wait there.

My program is rather different from what happened on that day.  In fact once I am done at Homes of Hope I typically return to the apartments on Gosford. From there I am going to the gym.

Anyway I was left dangling outside  AAC without any bit of information. I waited for a little standing next to a small wall. I was hoping somebody would have come forward with any information,
I am not to be overheating in the sun.

After a while waiting there I was told by Candy to come inside and to "work" on the computer.
I am in no way to take order in good spirit by Candy. I am not aware of her qualifications. Where more advanced or required by the job market she would not be there. So I looked at her with disbelief of what I was hearing.

I decided to  called  a taxi.
I picked one out from  the web,  is called Best Taxi.

 It was there  in a few minutes.

I took it  to get back at the apartment.

It costed me $33.75

Anyway this is the price of having a service on the spot.

I got in trouble for it. However I have also made my point.

Afterward I went to the gym.
There was no Zumba so I was more than happy to follow my own gym program.

Here is reported below for everybody record.

Chest, Shoulder, back muscle, abdominal and again back muscle.

I came back to the apartment by walking on my own.

I left at 6:40 pm and signed back in at 7:10pm

Over the weekend I was back home in La Canada. So no grocery on Saturday evening
I was back from Saturday April 15 to Sunday April 16. Last Sunday it was Easter.

On Saturday morning we first took Chicco to play tennis at his tennis club. Lapo wanted to bring his racket and folder as well. However he had no lesson on that day.

He was happy he was allowed to do so by Simona.

In the evening we went to have a pizza at our favorite Italian pizza place in Pasadena.
It is called Settebello

We started with some good arancini.

Lapo contributed as well to eat arancini

Chicco was both reading and eating

He is eating as much as I do.

He  got a pizza margherita with buffala verace, he was happy

I had the same pizza with some extra topping of crudo ham slices.

At the end we all shared  a focaccia alla Nutella.

The boys and Simona had a good time.

It was all delicious and very Italian meal.

On Sunday morning April 16  we went to church at S.Bede in La Canada.

The church was packed as it was Easter Sunday.

Simona and Lapo found a place to seat right in the bench in front of the church altar.

Myself and Chicco squeezed in on the back seat next to a nice lady.

Since  I was next to Chicco I gave him a $20 for the  offering.

There was no Sunday school because it was Easter Sunday.

I do  not remember what we had for lunch,  we went home for a while.

We stayed there and then we went to spend the Easter Sunday with dear friends.

We first went to the mall to Glendale looking for a dress for Lapo for his first communion.

Simona was relieved because she could find all she needed for dressing Lapo at a very convenient price point.

In about a month on  May the 13th is he doing his first communion at S.Bede.

While at the mall we had a fun demo at the Tesla booth.

Lapo was let into the car and had a lot of fun.

Here is the latest Tesla model. It is a nice SUV.

Speaking about car my wife confirmed me that I will never be able to drive again and that the current therapy at CNS is complying with this matter. 

So I have ingrained in my mind no more driving for ever. Acceptance of the status quo is acceptance of the status quo. I have a shunt and I have been scared for life.  No more work, no more travelling no more great experience.

Later during the day we were  invited at the house of Bob and Raffaella. Their house is located   in  Beverly Glenn on the hills of LA.

This is Bob our host.

He is a full  professor at at UCLA of Mechanical Engineering

Stefano, Jen were also present.

He is a professor at UCLA, she runs her own company

Here is Bob's grilled lamb for Easter. 

In this picture our youngest son Lapo is being nice to Raffaella.

Raffaella is Bob's wife.

Here are all the boys checking the result of their eggs hunt.

Lapo was skillful in getting a lot of eggs.

Both Chicco and Lapo had a very fruitful egg hunt.

Next to Chicco you will spot Lapo and then Luca. Luca is Bob and Raffaella's son.

The other two boys are Renzo and Dario and they are the son of Stefano and Jen.

Stefano is a full professor at UCLA. 

Raffaella has been landscaping the garden at her house.

All native Californian vegetation.

She told us all about it.

She is a real expert of the local plants.

Today no gym as It is my grocery shopping day

This morning was a cloudy day... better this way

Enjoy

Giuseppe