But can you call it pizza?

One of my guilty pleasures is pizza. Always has. And thanks to a couple Canadian companies, I still can enjoy pizza. I had been using Arrowhead Mills gluten-free pizza dough. But having to make the dough was a pain, thus pizza was an infrequent treat. While I just can't call and have it delivered. But then I get to put as much as I want to on it....

My first gluten-free pizza crust I bought was from Kinnikinnick. 7" premade pizza crusts. Although there's no instructions on ideal temperatures, I found that baking at 350 for about 10 minutes does the trick. It's pretty good. I don't taste anything that screams "hi, I'm gluten free, can't you tell?" So far, I've only made pizzas with it, but someone on the listserv likes to coat with butter and cinnamon sugar for a desert. I could see that as being yummy.

The second gluten-free pizza crust I bought was from Glutino. Again 7" pizza crusts (how come I never see anything premade that's larger than 7"?) Again, no instructions (darn Canadians!!) so I baked it like the Kinnikinnick ones. This is a crispier crust. Which is a nice change of pace. But it has that stiff gluten-free taste to it when you chew it. Plus it created all these fine crumbs that made a bit of a mess. Then during the baking process, it tended to bubble up in the center, spilling cheese on the drip pan.

So in order of my absolute favorite to least favorite:

Arrowhead Mills mix.

Kinnnikinnick pre-made 7" crusts.

Glutino pre-made 7" crusts.

I guess I'll still have to make the mix as a treat every now and then. It's the closest I've found to a typical pizza crust.

Another stupid drug commercial

I've already ranted about the commercial of Ambien reporting a side effect of sleepiness. Duh, isn't that why you're taking Ambien?

Tonight's stupid drug commercial is Avodart. THey warned that women shouldn't handle Avodart due to risk of a specific birth defect. I assume it's regarding women of child-bearing age. The commercial shows a couple in which the woman went through "the change" years ago.

It's not as stupid as some, but it's still silly.

Worth a bag of candy

Friday I called the operator of the sort machine. I setup an experiment that needs a sort on Wednesday.

I saw her schedule had her free at 3:30. I thought it was perfect timing. So I setup the experiment, assuming she could do it for me at 3:30.

No call back on Friday.

No call back on Monday.

Tuesday I'm freaking out. I go searching for her, eventually finding her. She looked at me and said "Sorry, I should have called you. I can't do it on Wednesday."

In trying to pick my heart off the floor, I learned that the sorter (even though it's in use until 3:30), she needs an hour to set it up between samples. Apparently the sort before me isn't lymphocytes.

She saw my puppy dog eyes, sighed, and asked how many cells I'd have and what needed to be sorted.

I had to admit that I have no idea, but I'm hoping to have five million cells, and it's going to be a simple sort for DP cells.

She then made my day with "If it's going to be that few and that simple, it won't take long to sort, so I'll do it."

*dances*

Needless to say I'll be bringing a bag of treats of some sort with me to the appointment. Normally it'd be something chocolate, but I don't want to insult her because the operator and her office mate are both heavy. I guess I'll try and find something like Life Savers or Jolly Ranchers. What's the proper thing to do?

Nicknames

This is a question for the girls (guys can answer it if it won't embarrass the significant other):


Since I've been with my boyfriend, my chest has grown a bit. I now notice them in my peripheral vision as I walk down the hall. I also notice that when I try and look guys in the eyes, their eyes are pointed elsewhere.

I don't wear many shirts that show cleavage. They're pretty much for boyfriend when I do wear them. Wearing low cut shirts showing a taste of the goods is so 20's. So I'm trying not to invite glances at my goods.

Boyfriend's not complaining about having more to fondle. He's even given them a name. Okay, the name applies to both, but I still think it's cute.


Does your significant other name your goods under the bra?

New Iraq

I don't claim to know a lot about what's going on in Iraq. I know that the country lines were drawn by outside forces and told to get along. But Sunni and Shiites hatred for one another has been present for much longer.

This is why I don't understand religion. Most religions preach about loving your neighbor, but if they're not your religion it's okay to kill them. That's what the Crusades was about. The Sunni and Shiites are more confusing since they both started as the same but one difference. So that makes it okay to kill the other?

Where are the Kurds in all this? Sitting back and watching Sunni and Shiites kill each other it seems. If one side loses, it's more political power to them.

Frustration

I hate the policies the University goes through for the simplest things.

I suppose I should say that I'm frustrated that I am having to figure these things out.

For example, I got some supplies at the hardware store on my way home. They're a University vendor, and they happily charged the account. They got my fund number, ID, and name.

I normally give it to the department secretary. She then gets a form online and fills it out. It then gets signed by an authorized signer (which is not me). It gets sent somewhere in the University system. That then authorizes payment from the grant.

With out payroll secretary on permanent hiatus due to the accusations, the graduate secretary out sick from her chemo, and the department secretary on a week's vacation. That leaves our department manager.

So I ask her if I can leave it in the box for the department secretary, or should I give it to her. She said she'd better get it processed and not leave it in the box. I offered to fill out the form and give it the signer to autograph. She said "No, I'll do it - I just don't know which form it is."

This is one of several incidents that she has admitted to not knowing how to do something. Yesterday it was that she didn't know how to access our corporate FedEx account to see what has been shipped recently. Lucky for me, the graduate secretary did do it before she went home sick.

Why are we paying you $60K/year for? The more I have to figure out should be added to my salary. I'm supposed to be a lab tech, not a fiscal manager.

Smart doctor

Boyfriend is still having problems. It's GI related, and that's about as much as I care to elaborate on. Since I've been aware of his problems, I've been tempted to ask him to get tested for a celiac panel. But it became clear that he won't go to the doctor until it gets bad.

It's finally getting bad. Last week he underwent a CT scan with barium. Found out after the scan that he's allergic to contrast dye. Silly guy almost left the clinic until he noticed the hives. He sees the specialist tomorrow regarding the CT.

But he had a physical with his primary doctor. She's been following up with him about these problems (after all, you need to see the primary care doctor to get a referral to a specialist). Ruled out the liver, and a few other things. Then ordered a bunch of blood tests yesterday.

So I asked boyfriend what she ordered. There's the basics related to a physical such as a PSA, and cholesterol. But she also ordered a celiac panel. I should send flowers or something - it took several specialists and three rounds of blood work before they ordered a celiac panel on me.

Yeah, so he's getting the panel done, and he didn't have to ask for it. He's getting the blood drawn tomorrow. I told him to make sure that the celiac panel the lab will do includes giladin, trans-glutaminase, and endomycin. While most doctors don't consider only giladin positive as a celiac, I was only anti-giladin positive (off scale positive). I had the tests repeated for a year including testing for IgA deficiency. I'm not IgA deficient, but never registered for trans-glutaminase or endomycin. Almost two years later, the biopsy put all doubts to rest - as in there's no vili.



The funniest thing is that one time I told boyfriend that I wondered if he was a celiac too. He laughed and said "but I'm not skinny". Doctors are assuming that when I lost 40 pounds in a month it was the start of my celiac disease. But I put back those 40 pounds, and am back to healthy/slightly heavy frame.

I've had another reason to suspect he had celiac, but it's a laughable reason. But if I'm right, I'll explain the logic of my luancy.

Yeah for the rain

Just in the nick of time, fire restrictions are being lifted in parts of the state. In my neck of the woods, Coronado National Forest has lifted all fire restrictions.

But I'm more interested in Coconino National Forest. That's where the real forests, the Cinders, and cooler weather is. Now maybe boyfriend, and our matchmakers can make it out to Dead Horse State Park or the Cinders. Here is the latest conditions in Coconino. Much improved over banning anyone into the forests.