Daddy and Charity Bake Banana Bread

Dad and Charity getting ready to bake

******WARNING this post contains a large amount of photos******

[I decided to make this more a photo essay, but every now and then you might see some narrative. 🙂 ]

Well in an attempt to keep a certain  someone occupied and make sure that my wife got a break, I had to come up with some other things to do.  We had some bananas that were “on their way out” and attracting some very annoying fruit flies.  I hate fruit flies.  So I came up with a solution that solved many problems at one time.  If I made banana bread that would take care of the bananas.  If Charity helped me that would keep her occupied and my wife could go and take the break that she really, really needed to take.  The finished product would also be desert  for after dinner and, of course, enough would be left over (from two loaves) for a midnight snack!  Woo Hoo!

Here is Charity ready with the mixer. Watch out ingredients

The "offending" bananas

I had to  figure out which banana bread recipe to use and that involved first deciding

which recipe book to use.  My wife, thankfully, made this part a little easier for me.  One of the books had the ingredients already doubled (good thing since I wanted to make two loaves of banana bread) and so figured that was the one she used most often.  I love it when  a plan comes together.

Preheating the oven to 350 degrees

The ingredients all in the mixing bowl and ready to mixed

This was also part of Charity’s school for the day (in case you haven’t guessed, we home school) so she was helping me with the measurements of the ingredients and then she was determining (by means of subtraction) how much we still had to had of certain ingredietns.  She did a fantastic job.

Charity mixes the ingredients after we add them to the bowl.

After all of her math, Charity was rewarded with the  privilege of mixing the ingredients together (which had to be mixed at speed #2 on the mixer for 2 minutes.  I also tried to capture this in move mode.  I’ll try to put a link to the video below, but I’m not sure if it will work here or not.

View the Mixing Video here

Now the ingredients have been mixed and its time

This photo (taken by Charity) is of the mixed ingredients just before being put into the bread pans.

to put them into the bread pans!

Oh my I forgot all about the bread pans and have not even prepared them!  We to use stone baking pans because the cook more evenly.  (Is that true, not sure but it sounds good).

OK… got the pans ready and now its time to put the batter in.   Well a still picture would not do that justice, so its time for another movie!  My camera lady (Charity) is ready so here we go!

Click Here to see this exciting process!

In the oven and ready to go!

The “loaves to be” are now in the oven on the top rack and ready for some serious baking.   Its already beginning to smell like banana bread.  Can’t wait until the real thing actually makes it out of the oven……Patience……Patience

.

Oven timer is set for 55 minutes

Charity enjoys the beater! Her "just desserts" after a job well done

mmmm! Thats good stuff.....

Really good!

Here we are half way thorugh the baking process. Looking good.

Just out of the oven and piping hot!

Out of the bread pans and onto the rack. Can't wait to eat it!

And eat it we did!  Although I did not  photograph it… we had banana bread for desert after dinner and boy was it good.  It was good enough that I even didn’t mind sharing half a loaf with friends and having them be too critical of my cooking experience.  Wonder what  we’re going to bake tomorrow!

My Sleep Study

How did I get there

A sleep study!

Why in the world would anyone want to subject them selves to a night (or more) “under the microscope?”

Well, in my case,  1) Even though I sleep (granted only an avg. of 4 hours/night) I walk around tired and very rarely refreshed.

2)  Often times I wake up with a headache, which I have come to understand could be due to a lack of O2 to the brain, due to sleep apnea

3) I wake up on occasion to find my wife gone from the bed!  Why?  She’s out sleeping on the sofa (leaving me alone in our rather large and nice, warm bed that I  would rather NOT have to sleep in by myself).

4) After my wife kept telling me that I should probably participate in a sleep study (and I kept shrugging if off) I feel asleep on the commuter bus (not at all uncommon) next to a lady who witnessed my sleep behavior and who had participated in a sleep study… and, further more, who had the same insurance provider that I do.  Her testimony that the sleep study and then use of the CPAP machine (not to mention that sleep apnea is what killed a famous football player) was enough to finally sell me.

So, armed with all of this, I called my Primary Care Physician (because you can’t do ANYTHING in the Kaiser health plan system without the blessing of your PCP) who was only too glad to give me a referral to the sleep center.

Step 1 — Qualifying

The sleep information class…. now there was an experience.  All patience who participate eventually end up as part of a sleep study, I found.  The first visit is a screening to see if you even need to be considered for sleep testing.  Well, based on my “scores” I passed that one with (I guess you could say) flying colors.   But I’m always so special that I can’t do things the easy way.  There were a few others there who I was sure would also make it to the study stage.  We had to watch a video as part of the class.  They dimmed the lights and played it.  Many of the participants slept right through it.  Made me wonder if I was really a candidate!  Where as many other people would get a device that you could take home with you to monitor your sleeping and give them the necessary results, I had to go into the Sleep Center to be observed because of possible complications with my epilepsy.  So the Sleep Center called me and we set up the appointment for as soon as I could conveniently arrange it ( 1 month out).

The packet of information that they sent for me to fill was massive!  Think War and Peace and you’ll have a pretty good idea of how many pages of questions that I had to answer!  OK, so maybe that is a “slight” exaggeration.  Suffice it to say that it took me two evenings to fill everything out.  Falling asleep in the process on the first night (how ironic, huh?) did not help matters any.  On the second night I found that I only had two pages left that had to be filled  out.  The rest of the massive pack was for my “reading pleasure” and information.  Talk about dry reading.

The Study

The bright, cheerful “receptionist” (who, in my opinion had no business working alone for an entire

Me all wired up and no place to go.

night shift) I found out was also the sleep therapist.  Her bedside manner was great.  Inside of no time (while she was busy attaching wires hither and yon on my person) she knew my whole life story, my hobbies, my likes and dislikes and the names of each of my seven children and what they were currently doing.  I brought a few things with me to do (opting the leave the laptop at home) but scarcely had time to read only 1 short chapter in a book before turning in for the night.  I was fitted with a CPAP device before testing began, in the event that I would have to use it at some point during the evening.  I, of  course knew that it would not be  necessary.  NOT!

The technician  had to get her “preliminary readings” and make sure that the equipment was OK and that I did not have to use the rest room.  I of course let her know that I had already taken care of the restroom business and that once I go to sleep I don’t usually get up until the morning– not even to go to the bathroom!  So, I settled in for the preliminaries:

“Open your eyes.”

“Close your eyes.”

“With your eyes open, look left to right.”

With your eyes open look up and down.”

“Clench your teeth”

“Hold your breath for 10 seconds”

“Blink 10 times”

“While holding your breath, move your stomach in and out.”

“Move your left foot.”

“Move your right foot.”

When that was all done, I was ready to be studied!  It took me all of 2 minutes to fall asleep.  It may have taken longer under normal conditions, but I was asked to make sure I did not take any naps at all before the tests (so much for the morning and evening naps on the commuter bus ride).  Now that  I was asleep, the technician set to work.  I woke up a little over an hour later.  If I needed to signal her I was told to take the blood/oxygen sensor off of my finger, would bring her in immediately.  Well, it was time to  try it out.  I took the sensor off and she was in the room inside of 5 seconds.  Rather sheepishly I let her know that I had to use the bathroom. 🙂  She did her magic and wrapped my wires around me and off I went.  I soon came back and she was there waiting for me.  Took 30 seconds and got me all plugged back in.  Then asked if I thought the room temperature was comfortable.  It was a bit chilly to me.  She agreed.  Soon after she exited the room I heard what I assume was the heater come on.  The room warmed up to a comfortable temperature in no time.  Some time after realizing that the room was warm now, I fell asleep.  That was 11ish.

Next thing I knew it was 2:12 AM and the sleep technologist (her name was Jean, by the way) was back in the room and informed me that she was going to (as she said) administer the CPAP apparatus.  Upon hearing that my only question was… “how bad?”  Her one word answer was, “Severe!”  Then as she hooked up the breathing device she went into more detail about how I snored constantly and continued to wake myself up.  She was amazed that I could get to  a state of deep sleep so quickly without the CPAP.  But up to this point she was able to record ALL stages of sleep.  I’m such a good patient!  😀  After getting me all hooked up with the full face mask she activated the machine from her workstation in the other room.   Inside of 15 minutes she was back in the room.  The full face mask was giving me some problems making the necessary seal.  We went with just the nose apparatus and that worked much better.  Aside from numbness in my arm (probably due to the sensor on my finger) every thing went just fine.  But in my estimation, everything had been fine to begin with.

When Jean came in at around 5:28, (I had been laying there awake since 5:00-ish) she did inform me that the snoring stopped immediately and that I did not have any more abnormal breathing problems while connected to the CPAP.  She had to go back to her station to finish things up.  The e same readings that she got for the preliminary readings she had to do again for the end of the study.  Mine was a double study because the diagnosis and the administration of the CPAP are supposed to be two different visits.  Apparently, for the last 6 months, they have been providing this in the same session.  Praise the Lord… one less session.

So, to make an already too long blog post not much longer, after the “official” analysis of my results, it looks like I am going to be the proud owner of a CPAP device for home.  She indicated that she thought my insurance would cover the entire price, but I have been told that they will pay for half.  If they do cover it all, what a blessing!  But they also told me that I would have a co-pay for the sleep center visit and I did not get charged anything!  Who knows, I might be getting a bill in the mail.

Well, that’s my experience thus far, expect to see more once I have the CPAP machine that I am almost certain to acquire.  Stay tuned  right here… Same Bat time…. Same Bat Channel  (Boy, showing my age on that one)

Cleaning Up the Home Office

The time comes every now and then when you just have to clean up… especially if you’re telling everyone else that they have.  Well that time has come for me as well.  My home office space was in dire need of some, shall we say, long awaited attention.   I discovered, in the course of my cleaning, that the entire mess was not mine– go figure.  Some things were added to my office area, because there was no place else to put them…I guess, I either found places for or threw away (and they, very likely, will not even be missed).  Many  of the out of place things were mine (tools in particular) but they were not out of place because I put them there.  Its seems that I had plenty of help in that area.  Thank you very much for all of you out there who helped me make my office space so….. well liked and well used.

Well, be those things as they may, the office area needed to be cleaned up.  Most of the mess that I was solely responsible for had to do with the work surfaces for my computer desks.  I pretty much don’t even allow anybody else to put stuff in that area.   Had that been the only problem, it would not have taken too long to clean.  I also have to admit, that I am responsible for the vast number of computers that were lying about; from ailing laptops to working and non-working desktops.  They certainly were not stored in the most optimal way.  I just haven’t been able to get back there and do anything with them. As you will see, THAT, has been taken care of.  It was an ordeal and there were many unplanned interruptions; but then are interruptions ever planned?   The cleaning process encompassed the entire day.  I got nothing else done, but there are some benefits.  1) My chair can once again  go where it once was able to to move to before.  2) My wife can now reach the tools that she says she has had trouble reaching.    3) Things on the workbench are once again accessible (these may have been inaccessible by design) to everyone. 4) The room looks inviting and clean and not “junky” any more.  With Nanowrimo coming up, I may be spending more time back there for peace and quiet!

So…. all of that having been said, I chronicled my progress on video and I am posting those videos here for you to view.

Here is what the office looked like when I began the process:

This video show the work about 60% done, but I was running out of steam quickly, mostly due to all of the interruptions.

And at last, the finished work:

You are welcome to leave comments and let me know what you think!