My Big Toe Hurts

Friday night when I was working at the restaurant, towards the last hour or so, my big toe on my left foot just started throbbing.  Like someone was poking a knife into it.  I just chalked it up to that my feet were just hurting, and I came home, put my feet up for about 45 minutes and then we went to bed.  Saturday I woke up and something was wrong.  My big toe was all swollen and just gross looking.  I don’t need to give you any more details, because chances are, you are eating a meal as you read this!

We thought it might be an ingrown toe nail, so Tony had me soak my feet in epsom salt for an hour.  Yep, a good hour.  When I took my foot out of the water, it looed even worse!  But he picked at it (what a wonderful husband who doesn’t mind digging into my toe!) and while it hurt like a MF, he pulled part of a nail out and it was enough to release the pressure.  I was wondering how I was possibly going to be on my feet for seven hours that night in the bar.  I just wrapped it up really well and hoped for the best.

We went to Tony’s friends funeral.  It was open casket, both of which we weren’t expecting, and I don’t know why.  Bob was called “Biker Bob” and as we pulled into the funeral home, we knew we were in the right place because there were dozens of different motorcycles outside from Harley’s, to custom bikes and choppers.  Bob was 59, and he was divorced with two older children, then got hooked up with a young girl probably half his age and they had a son who is now 8 years old.  They had videos running in the room of different photos of him, and his young son was running around with other kids pointing to the video and saying “that’s my Dad” while he Dad lied in a casket not 10 feet away from him.  I wonder if you can actually grasp the concept of your parent dying at the age of 8?

We stayed about an hour, Tony saw some friends he hadn’t seen in years.  I had to head to work, but we had time to stop and grab something to eat.  We had taken separate cars, so I was just following him.  As soon as I saw the direction he was taken I was happy – Yu’s Mandarin!   The other day I posted a picture of Tony smoking a cigar, and his son made a comment “Slim Thug.”  Tony wanted me to take this picture to send to Joe and his wife.  He’s probably lost 20 pounds in the last six weeks.  He eats healthier than me!  You know, because I love my cheese!

Tony ended up getting a cup of wonton soup and potstickers for his lunch.  Me?  I went with the spicy Taiwan Beef Noodle Soup.

OMG.  Words cannot describe the depth of flavors going on in this dish.  First sip of the broth I got ginger and garlic.  Next was the heat of chili peppers.  The meat was fall apart tender, and the baby bok choy was crisp tender.  I am having the leftovers for lunch today – I am just adding more veggies to it – water chestnuts and zucchini.  I also like that you can watch them cook in the kitchen.

So Saturday night, I was supposed to be in the bar by myself.  Awesome!  They removed the middle tables for the dance floor, so I basically had an 8 table station.  Sounds like a lot, but really the bar is a mixed bag.  Some people are there to eat dinner, some just to have a drink before dinner, or some having after dinner drinks.  But it ends up all evening out by the end of the night.  I ended up with four tables pretty quickly – two for drinks and two for dinner.  All of a sudden one of the bartenders comes from behind the bar and says that she’s going to be a server in the bar too.  WTF.  So she says “you got the first four tables so I will take the next four.”  Huh.  Turns out her next for are all 4 tops, they all eat dinner – then we switch back and forth.  Sadly, all of my tables are drinks only, while hers are all food.  By this time I am pissed, I know I am not going to make as much money and my foot is killing me.

So I told her that she could close, and after my last table paid at 10:20 I was out the door.  I can’t really complain though – I worked 11 hours over the weekend and came home with a total of $350 – which is around $31 an hour – not too shabby!

Yesterday we both slept in – until 10:30!  Sipped on coffee, I did some computer work, made Tony and I a quick breakfast – um, turns out Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage has 500 mg of sodium for two tiny sausage patties!  I’ll have to see if they made a reduced sodium one, or I could just make it myself.  I helped Tony sharpen the blades of the mower, and then while he mowed the lawn, I mopped the kitchen floor.  Our fire pit needs some work – it’s a bit over grown!

I had forgotten I bought all the stuff to make my baja fresh salsa last week and never made it.  So I grilled up my tomatoes and jalapeno – I got them extra charred on the grill – look at the deep color of this salsa – so smoky and delicious!

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Baja Fresh Salsa

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

The secret to this salsa is the charred veggies - that gives the salsa that great smokey flavor.

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Ingredients

• 7 firm tomatoes
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
• juice of 1 lime (about 1 tablespoon)

Instructions

Toss the tomatoes, jalapeno and garlic (left in paper – thanks Tony for that idea!) in a bit of olive oil. When grill is at temperature, grill until they are charred – turning every 10 minutes or so. You want to make sure they are really blackened.

Put everything in the food processor and process until smooth. Cool before eating.

Notes

This is zero WW points.

Did you make this recipe?

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I then went to the store – had a great grocery shop – only $69 (well $73 if you count the peanuts I bought for the squirrels!).  We ended up doing a chicken on the Weber.  I made baked potatoes and we split one and I had grilled broccoli on the side.  I must have been hungry, because I never took a picture of my dinner plate!  I put sliced lemon on the skin.

So last week I was:

This week I am:

So I lost 1.4 this week!  I’ll take it.  If I keep that up, I could lose up to 8 pounds in a month – my next goal is to see 159.9 again!  And your welcome for the Band-Aid on my toe – you don’t want to see what’s going on under there.  I am going to try to get into a foot doctor or our GP this week – nothing worse than having an infected toe for a diabetic!

So I hardly ever remember my dreams.  But this morning I clearly remember it.  Tony and I were on vacation and we were walking to dinner.  We had no idea where we wanted to go, but all of a sudden I turn around and Tony is gone.  Huh.  So I keep walking thinking I’ll find a good place to stop and eat and call him to tell him to meet me.  Only I look down at my phone and it’s completely dead.  So I start walking through a neighborhood in the direction I think our hotel is supposed to be, when I find a bunch of people on a porch and ask if they have an iPhone charger.  They do!  So as I am hooking up my phone I ask them, since they are locals, where they like to eat out.  The woman said “Land O Lakes Emporium.”  I laughed and said “doesn’t that meat that everything there is made with butter?” to which she said “Yes, that’s why everything tastes so good!”   Do you remember your dreams?

Alright, time to get the show on the road and put my food together.  I think I’ll swim today because of my toe, but we’ll see how it feels later today.  Happy Monday – make it a great day!