Sloth: The Man with the Hammer

[Sloth the Enduring]

3/14/17 Tuesday - Pie Day

 

No pie was eaten. I did, however, eat a whole bag of jelly beans instead of riding the trainer and give myself a belly ache that prolly won't go away for a while. It was a bad headspace day, which may or may not be related to my acting stupid. School stuff again. Anyway...

 

Training: no. Zero days in a row.

Eating: no. Zero days in a row.

Spending: used petty cash to buy juice for student of the month celebration, bought family pizza pies.  Accts balanced. 

 

[peelout]

 

[Xena]

4 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Training: no. Zero days in a row.

Eating: no. Zero days in a row.

 

New streak starts tomorrow :-)

[Sloth the Enduring]

On March 13, 2017 at 5:42 PM, lynneta said:

It may limit what I can do but it won't.stop me.hope your wife is not in too much pain.

 

Feel better sweetie.your doing awesome!

 

  She pops a lot of Advil and her hips get achey, but it doesn't stop her either. 

 

On March 13, 2017 at 8:09 PM, Xena said:

Wow that's kind of crazy. Good for you planning ahead on the savings.

 

I feel weird saying this, but I'm glad you were wretchedly ill with plague (rather than having it be slothbelly, requiring some kind of return to more miserable misery diet).

 

The planning ahead was inadvertent, the district just informed us that this was the year. I was putting extra away to pay for trips down south. There will either be two (Florida and Texas) or one long one. 

 

On March 14, 2017 at 2:47 AM, Big_Show said:

That sounds like the exact thing I'm using YNAB for - make it easier to cope with the unexpected, but also the expected-but-really-far-off-still-oh-crap-it's-next-week

 

I took a look at YNAB and it looks good, but I don't want to deal with that much right now.

 

On March 14, 2017 at 4:40 AM, Yasha92 said:

Bi-lingual anecdote... I'm trying to learn Mandarin Chinese at the moment and one of our homework tasks was to make a name for ourselves based on our English name. Teacher had to re-name me because I accidentally named myself "Boogers". Fail.

 

I'd have kept it, being called Boogers in Chinese is awesome. I read today that almost all third generation Latinos are functionally mono-lingual like the rest of 'Merica. I assume they can still swear and order beer and food in Spanish. 

 

On March 14, 2017 at 7:23 AM, elizevdmerwe said:

Oh I think some learning did happen, it will come out at some point when someone blows on a straw to irritate you As soon as I have good earplugs, I'll let the boys have a go as that sounds too much like the South African vuvuzelas - very loud on one note.

With regards to the kids at school and their parents: would be nice if the parents could be put in detention at times. I see it in HS sometimes as well. Little Johnny acts a certain way because his parents couldn't care less, or also has that attitude, or parents are too busy to really pay attention, etc.

 

Speaking more than one language isn't always nice. Most of the time I'm trying to find my way between British English, American English (I'm picking up) and South African English (no it isn't proper British English, even if it is supposed to be). What I love about multiple languages is that some languages just have "that word" that describes a feeling or situation perfectly!

 

I need a vuvuzela for my collection of noisy implements. 

 

Three Englishes is too damn much; it's an absurd language. 

 

On March 14, 2017 at 7:39 AM, The Most Loathed said:

worked out ok for this guy

 

 

On March 14, 2017 at 8:31 AM, DJtrippyT said:

 

 

<img class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" data-extension="gallery_Images" data-fileid="https://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/gallery/image/17082-cd49af6716fc33ef4ebab654c668d6c5jpg/" src="https://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/uploads/monthly_2017_03/large.cd49af6716fc33ef4ebab654c668d6c5.jpg.0564a7e3c055531feb8568831fc5cdef.jpg" alt="large.cd49af6716fc33ef4ebab654c668d6c5.jpg.0564a7e3c055531feb8568831fc5cdef.jpg" />

 

Sad? It looks like a great place to meet someone. 

 

On March 14, 2017 at 8:37 AM, DJtrippyT said:

 

You're better than me, I would have just pushed him down the stairs...

 

 

One of the trainers in my gym has been doing a bulk (very successfully; he now resembles a grizzly bear) and as part of his cutting routine he's doing 1,000 (actual number) sledgehammer slams on the giant tire... every day

 

 

 

Sounds like a rotator cuff injury. Maybe send him teh 10'000 swing workout. 

 

On March 14, 2017 at 9:00 AM, Xena said:

 

Hah!

 

But as an introvert, cooking for myself, drinking some wine and playing with the cat doesn't sound so bad ;-)

 

I agree, only with cider and dogs. 

 

On March 14, 2017 at 0:12 PM, EricMN said:

I used to tell people that I kept having kids (I have five) because they're free labor. Turns out "free" is a funny word.

 

Most of the women who work the counter at the Chipotle where I eat lunch more regularly than I'd like to admit speak Spanish natively and if it weren't for their bilingual capabilities, I'd be reduced to pointing and grunting.

 

"Free" labor that would be easier to do your own damn self. 

 

The thing to do is to go to Chipotle even more often.  When they start making your burrito without talking to you is the zone you want to be in. 

 

13 hours ago, Bearlee said:

So now that things have settled down at school and you are getting your finances figured out when are you going to set up your GoFundMe.com account so we can support your race? And will there be Sloth merchandise we can buy to support team Sloth?

 

Also, at the hammer race will there be a group NF photo?

 

As far as I know, it's just TML and myself at the hammer race.  If he'll wait up I'll get a post-race selfie with him. 

 

I haven't officially signed up for the ride yet. I don't always trust the missus' yeses. There's a disconnect between what people say and what they mean that I don't always catch. 

 

4 hours ago, peelout said:

 

 

You're not wrong brother. It's my whole damn life. 

[Xena]

11 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Sad? It looks like a great place to meet someone. 

Brilliant :-)

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

5 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I'd have kept it, being called Boogers in Chinese is awesome. I read today that almost all third generation Latinos are functionally mono-lingual like the rest of 'Merica. I assume they can still swear and order beer and food in Spanish.

Can confirm, this gringo speaks better Spanish than some Hispanics.

[lynneta]

Just checking.in on you.hope your feeling better..time to focus..you got this. 

[lynneta]

6 hours ago, Xena said:

 

New streak starts tomorrow :-)

I agree keep pushing through. Always a chance to start again

[Rooks]

19 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

No pie was eaten.

 

I survived Pi Day as well.  Unfortunately, I was ambushed with Pi Day Pie that was leftover from Pi Day the day after Pi Day.  And by ambushed, I mean it existed in our break room.  I resisted for about 2 hours before caving.  Stupid sugar being so good.

[Sloth the Enduring]

On March 15, 2017 at 2:20 PM, peelout said:

 

 

You're not going to like yesterday either.  Just move along.  Try again tomorrow. 

 

3/15/17 Wednesday

 

Headspace was better.  I didn't eat lunch because busy. It was a circus day, so we headed there after work. As I cleaned out my lunch bag I discovered I hadn't taken my ADD meds, in fact I've forgotten them all week.  I take a non-stimulant that has to build up in my system.  Withdrawal may or may not explain the weird headspace. I took the pill on an empty stomach, which made me sick, so I hit the vending machine at circus, which meant a candy bar.  

 

When we got home I put the kids to bed and fell asleep on the rocking chair where we read before they did (because meds?),  I ended up on the floor and slept there all night. At some point someone put a blanket on me, prolly Slothboy. Sleeping kept me from having dinner and riding the trainer.  

 

A string of fail that could have been averted if I could remember to take my meds on schedule. 

 

Training: No.

Eating: No.

Spending: No spending, accts balanced. 

 

[peelout]

9 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

You're not going to like yesterday either.  Just move along.  Try again tomorrow. 

Training: No.

Eating: No.

Spending: No spending, accts balanced. 

 

I'm starting to get meme savvy. 

[Shello]

Qbert is on non-stimulant ADHD meds that are the same way.  On the few occasions where he ended up off from them and had to regain equilibrium he would be a zombie for days, falling asleep in the weirdest places.  Which reminds me, he's almost out and has no more refills.  I have an appointment to schedule. 

 

 

[Xena]

If nothing else, it's good that there seems to be a simple explanation and a pretty straightforward fix.

[turboseize]

On 13.3.2017 at 11:49 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

3/13/17 Monday although I'm already Friday tired.  Stupid DST. 

 

I'm sitting near a Chinese woman at circus class, her conversation is slipping in and out of German, proper English, and Chinese. I realize most of the world is bilingual or better and I feel inadequate.  

Being bi- or multilingual also seems to have considerable health benefits. Bilingual persons seem to suffer less (and later) of dementia and Alzheimer than monolingual persons. But for this to qualify, you need to use both languages regularly. Just having learned french at school and then forgotten everything is not enough...

The nice thing about learning one language: it makes learning other languages easier. At least, languages of the same family. Speak German and English? Great, now you can understand Dutch (and some north German dialects unintelligible to southern Germans), and have a much easier time learning Nordic languages. (Definitely works for Swedish. Even before I started learning Swedish, I could read Swedish texts and understand about 50-70%, just by association to similar German and English words. Spoken Swedish is a completely different matter, as there are some weird sound shifts, though. And once I spoke German, English and Swedish, I had no problem understanding both written and spoken Norwegian, and reading Danish...).
Learned Latin at school? Definitely helps with French. Learned Latin and speak French? Now Spanish becomes a breeze... I did not learn a single word of vocabulary for my Spanish class in school. Later, I found out  - mostly by chance during travel, and by a Brazilian girlfriend - that I can even read Italian, Portugese and a bit of Romanian, although I have a hard time understanding spoken Italian and I am completely lost when someone speaks to me in one of the latter two languages.

Being monolingual would scare the shit out of me. In 2007, on my second arctic circle road trip, we got stranded in a VERY small town in rural Finland. Our debit card would not work at the gas station... which we found out after filling up. (We had even asked the cashier before, but she was blonde. At least that was what the manager told us. "Why did you even ask her? She's blonde!"). So we had to find a cash machine, to somehow get cash to pay our tank of diesel. And while the staff at the gas station, like most younger people in Europe, spoke proper English, the town itself was deserted. No soul to be seen. And no English signs or signposts whatsoever. (This was a very remote place and not very touristy, which was why we were there in the first place. The second reason was because my grand-gradfather had been wounded on the road leading to this village, and If you are already nearby, why not figure out where exactly...). We finally found a bank and a cash machine. But the interface was Finnish with no possibility to switch to English... somehow it worked out in the end, but all this was very unpleasant.
Speaking a few germanic and romanic languages and knowing a tiny bit of slavic* got me around Europe rather comfortably. Even if you can't speak the local language, at least you understand a bit of what is going on around you. 

Not having a single clue, like in rural Finland, was a very disturbing experience. One day, I will learn Finnish. Perhaps I won't find the time until retirement, but some day, I will. Just in case I might get stranded in rural arctic Finland again. 


Ok, back to your situation.
If I were to start learning languages, I'd start with Latin. Because Latin has influenced, be it in grammar and vocabulary (romanic languages), or in vocabulary alone, every single European language. Even Russian has it's share of words with Latin origins! And, perhaps even more important, because Latin grammar is very complex, but mostly logical. Learning Latin means beginning to understand grammar. Not only Latin grammar, but grammar in general, how grammar structures and makes intelligible nearly any language. This is probably the biggest help in learning other languages. You would probably never find anybody whith whom to converse in Latin, but Latin is a great foundation for becoming multilingual.
The languages an US citizen might be most interested in would probably be Spanish (Mexico, but also hispanic US population) and French (Quebec), which are both romanic languages, so transfer from Latin is not a big deal.
 
*I speak just enough Russian and Polish to pay at  a gas station and to order food and a beer at a restaurant, and to tell a girl that she looks great. So I really don't speak those languages at all, my vocabulary is extremely limited. I cannot lead a meaningful conversation, but at least I won't starve. Also, this seems to be enough to make sense of road signs in Eastern Europe and on the Balkans, with the exception of Greece and Albania.

[The Most Loathed]

multilingualism is a function of utility. In college I go to a low level of conversational German. I've forgotten nearly all of it because I have no reason to use it. It's virtually impossible to learn and retain a language without having fluent people around to practice with.

[turboseize]

That is the beauty of the internet.

[Sloth the Enduring]

On March 15, 2017 at 6:54 PM, Xena said:

Brilliant :-)

 

Thanks

 

On March 15, 2017 at 11:56 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Can confirm, this gringo speaks better Spanish than some Hispanics.

 

Interesting.  It makes sense in Minnesota, but I would have thought Latinos in Texas would have the opportunity to maintain their language. 

 

On March 16, 2017 at 0:35 AM, lynneta said:

Just checking.in on you.hope your feeling better..time to focus..you got this. 

 

On March 16, 2017 at 0:41 AM, lynneta said:

I agree keep pushing through. Always a chance to start again

 

Thanks for checking in.  I'll always keep keeping on.  It's just some times are better than others. 

 

On March 16, 2017 at 9:11 AM, Rooks said:

 

I survived Pi Day as well.  Unfortunately, I was ambushed with Pi Day Pie that was leftover from Pi Day the day after Pi Day.  And by ambushed, I mean it existed in our break room.  I resisted for about 2 hours before caving.  Stupid sugar being so good.

 

I love pie.  If I had the opportunity I would have succumbed too.

 

On March 16, 2017 at 3:22 PM, peelout said:

I'm starting to get meme savvy. 

 

Oh, that hurts.   although I am impressed with your new found meme-a-bility. I can't wait until you discover how to gif. 

 

On March 16, 2017 at 4:43 PM, LadyShello said:

Qbert is on non-stimulant ADHD meds that are the same way.  On the few occasions where he ended up off from them and had to regain equilibrium he would be a zombie for days, falling asleep in the weirdest places.  Which reminds me, he's almost out and has no more refills.  I have an appointment to schedule. 

 

 

 

Interesting to know. That matches what I went through. Solving ADHD with something that needs a schedule is absurd. There should be implantable meds or at least a long-term patch. 

 

On March 16, 2017 at 6:36 PM, Xena said:

If nothing else, it's good that there seems to be a simple explanation and a pretty straightforward fix.

 

Yep.  Using @peelout's keystone habits, my meds are associated with breakfast and breakfast (and eating in general) has been haphazard since I cut out all of my trigger foods. 

 

On March 17, 2017 at 4:42 AM, turboseize said:

Being bi- or multilingual also seems to have considerable health benefits. Bilingual persons seem to suffer less (and later) of dementia and Alzheimer than monolingual persons. But for this to qualify, you need to use both languages regularly. Just having learned french at school and then forgotten everything is not enough...

The nice thing about learning one language: it makes learning other languages easier. At least, languages of the same family. Speak German and English? Great, now you can understand Dutch (and some north German dialects unintelligible to southern Germans), and have a much easier time learning Nordic languages. (Definitely works for Swedish. Even before I started learning Swedish, I could read Swedish texts and understand about 50-70%, just by association to similar German and English words. Spoken Swedish is a completely different matter, as there are some weird sound shifts, though. And once I spoke German, English and Swedish, I had no problem understanding both written and spoken Norwegian, and reading Danish...).
Learned Latin at school? Definitely helps with French. Learned Latin and speak French? Now Spanish becomes a breeze... I did not learn a single word of vocabulary for my Spanish class in school. Later, I found out  - mostly by chance during travel, and by a Brazilian girlfriend - that I can even read Italian, Portugese and a bit of Romanian, although I have a hard time understanding spoken Italian and I am completely lost when someone speaks to me in one of the latter two languages.

Being monolingual would scare the shit out of me. In 2007, on my second arctic circle road trip, we got stranded in a VERY small town in rural Finland. Our debit card would not work at the gas station... which we found out after filling up. (We had even asked the cashier before, but she was blonde. At least that was what the manager told us. "Why did you even ask her? She's blonde!"). So we had to find a cash machine, to somehow get cash to pay our tank of diesel. And while the staff at the gas station, like most younger people in Europe, spoke proper English, the town itself was deserted. No soul to be seen. And no English signs or signposts whatsoever. (This was a very remote place and not very touristy, which was why we were there in the first place. The second reason was because my grand-gradfather had been wounded on the road leading to this village, and If you are already nearby, why not figure out where exactly...). We finally found a bank and a cash machine. But the interface was Finnish with no possibility to switch to English... somehow it worked out in the end, but all this was very unpleasant.
Speaking a few germanic and romanic languages and knowing a tiny bit of slavic* got me around Europe rather comfortably. Even if you can't speak the local language, at least you understand a bit of what is going on around you. 

Not having a single clue, like in rural Finland, was a very disturbing experience. One day, I will learn Finnish. Perhaps I won't find the time until retirement, but some day, I will. Just in case I might get stranded in rural arctic Finland again. 


Ok, back to your situation.
If I were to start learning languages, I'd start with Latin. Because Latin has influenced, be it in grammar and vocabulary (romanic languages), or in vocabulary alone, every single European language. Even Russian has it's share of words with Latin origins! And, perhaps even more important, because Latin grammar is very complex, but mostly logical. Learning Latin means beginning to understand grammar. Not only Latin grammar, but grammar in general, how grammar structures and makes intelligible nearly any language. This is probably the biggest help in learning other languages. You would probably never find anybody whith whom to converse in Latin, but Latin is a great foundation for becoming multilingual.
The languages an US citizen might be most interested in would probably be Spanish (Mexico, but also hispanic US population) and French (Quebec), which are both romanic languages, so transfer from Latin is not a big deal.
 
*I speak just enough Russian and Polish to pay at  a gas station and to order food and a beer at a restaurant, and to tell a girl that she looks great. So I really don't speak those languages at all, my vocabulary is extremely limited. I cannot lead a meaningful conversation, but at least I won't starve. Also, this seems to be enough to make sense of road signs in Eastern Europe and on the Balkans, with the exception of Greece and Albania.

 

You are impressive. If you can get food, beer, and flirt the rest are details. 

 

I took German in high school, but our teacher died and I spent a year not learning.  I took Spanish for a summer in college, but I just couldn't memorize, in retrospect I was having a lot of difficulties with ADHD at that point in my life. But the biggest problem was I never saw the point and didn't put the effort in. If I was to work on a language now It would be Spanish because it would have so much utility for me. 

 

On March 17, 2017 at 8:36 AM, The Most Loathed said:

multilingualism is a function of utility. In college I go to a low level of conversational German. I've forgotten nearly all of it because I have no reason to use it. It's virtually impossible to learn and retain a language without having fluent people around to practice with.

 

While I was an educational assistant I picked up enough sign language (ASL) to give directions and converse with special needs students just by happenstance. I thought it might be my thing, but I never used it again after I became a teacher and I can't remember a scrap of it. 

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Update for the last few days.  I'm back on my meds and my brain seems much less broken. I did enough Yoga, riding the trainer, and shovelglove to keep from disappointing @peelout.  I had a piece of cake on Friday.  There was a little event for one of the teachers that I actually talk to who is moving to California. 

 

I dont remember Thursday.

Friday - I went to the auto-show with my dad and Slothboy. It was fun and also very slow because of St. Patrick's day and Friday night.  We were able to hop in and out of cars all we wanted.  Jeep had an indoor four wheeling track that was a lot of fun. 

Saturday - big Slothbelly blow out.  It seems like a piece of cake shouldn't have had such a big effect. I may still have the flu from last weekend. I slept a lot again.  We also went to the zoo for a bit. 

Sunday - I slept a lot and took the kids to my school's play.  I'm about to train.  I've decided to start eating wheat again; we'll see how it goes. 

[peelout]

52 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Update for the last few days.  I'm back on my meds and my brain seems much less broken. I did enough Yoga, riding the trainer, and shovelglove to keep from disappointing @peelout.

[Sloth the Enduring]

 

I think you need to keep working on it, maybe you're not ready for gifs yet.

[Elastigirl]

Sorry about the slothbelly. The thing about baked goods is you never know really how much dairy is in them (unless you bake them yourself or know who did) It could be a half a cup of milk or a quart of cream. Same with the frosting.  The cake you ate may have had more dairy in it than you realized. Another thing that I found was my lactose tolerance would go up or down, and it was especially sensitive after I'd been sick. My advice for adding back in the wheat is to make sure there is no dairy in it, then you can be a better judge of what is causing the stomach revolt.

 

[Mrs Van]

15 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

While I was an educational assistant I picked up enough sign language (ASL) to give directions and converse with special needs students just by happenstance. I thought it might be my thing, but I never used it again after I became a teacher and I can't remember a scrap of it.

But when you need it again, you'll pick it up quickly and remember as you use it. Will be easier than learning a different language from scratch.

[turboseize]

16 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

 

You are impressive. If you can get food, beer, and flirt the rest are details. 

 

Not impressive at all, just was lucky enough to go to school in Europe. One foreign language is mandatory nearly everywhere on our side of the pond, and at least at those secondary schools in Germany preparing for university, two foreign languages are mandatory. I was especially lucky because the school I attended put great emphasis on foreign languages (though at the expense of STEM, which is haunting me now during my architectural studies...). 

I can, however, confirm that food, beer and beautiful girls are great starting points for improved language skills. I would never have learned my few polish and russian words without the hot eastern european girls girls at law school. 
And all that practice definitely helped when I met my (future) wife a few years later. Guess what, she's Russian. It's a pity though that I have never learned proper Russian despite us being together for over a decade now, but as her German at that time was extremely bad, we decided to speak German only, as improving her German was very necessary for her studies and later her work environment. Now, she's fluent, but we somehow we missed the point of switching to Russian... so my Russian was dwindling, as her German skills skyrocketed.
 

Quote

I took German in high school, but our teacher died and I spent a year not learning.  I took Spanish for a summer in college, but I just couldn't memorize, in retrospect I was having a lot of difficulties with ADHD at that point in my life. But the biggest problem was I never saw the point and didn't put the effort in. If I was to work on a language now It would be Spanish because it would have so much utility for me.

Just go for it! If you can't find the time to actively learn a new language, you could just start by exposing yourself to the foreign language more. Listen to spanish radio stations, watch spanish films (first with english subtitles, then with spanish subtitles, and then without subtitles).
That, by the way, is also how I learned swedish. I never took swedish classes until university (free credits without any effort!). I just listened to swedish radio online, and I got my mother's learning cassettes and played them on my daily drive from home to the garrision and back. At first, I understood nothing, and then, suddenly, after the brain had had enough time for some associative play, the "fog" cleared and I understood some words, which allowed to grasp the context of the dialogue, which in turn allowed to understand even more words... and somehow/somewhen you will get an intuitive feel for the grammar, too.
I picked that up from a good friend of mine. He is in online commerce, selling car parts for Volvo and Saab, and some day he decided that being fluent in Swedish would surely help his business, but he had no time to spare to attend swedish classes. So he bought literally crates of DVDs with swedish crime television series and crime movies, and every evening, enjoying his Feierabendbier (remember: we're Germans), watched an episode, following the subtitle schedule outlined above. Half a year later he was fluent in Swedish...

By the way, that is also what I do to prevent my French and (puny) Russian from deteriorating any further. We do have a French and a Russian radio station in Berlin (french state-run RFI and Berlin based privately operated Radio Russkij Berlin), so it is one of those that I am listening to while driving... are there a hispanic local radio stations where you live?

 

(Immersing into a foreign language definitely works wonders. My brother wrote both his bachelor and master thesis on environmental research projects in Ecuador and later worked several years in Guatemala and Ecuador. When he flew to Ecuador for his first nine months there, he did not speak a single word of spanish. When he came back, he was fluent... Talents are spread very unevenly in our family. I got the artsy stuff from my mother, my brother inherited the natural scientist's brain of my father. He is NOT very talented regarding languages, so if he can pull this of, everybody can. Speaking of people without any talent for languages: even my father learned to speak and write decent swedish after living in Sweden for a few years...)

[turboseize]

PS: the more I think of it, foreign languages are like (physical) fitness. Use it or loose it. Getting started is the most important step. Doing something (that is getting a tiny bit of exposure through radio/TV/movies or just hanging out with native speakers) is infinitely better than doing nothing, as long as you are consistent.
Aren't those the very same phrases we keep preaching to new rebel recruits?

[Sloth the Enduring]

17 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Sorry about the slothbelly. The thing about baked goods is you never know really how much dairy is in them (unless you bake them yourself or know who did) It could be a half a cup of milk or a quart of cream. Same with the frosting.  The cake you ate may have had more dairy in it than you realized. Another thing that I found was my lactose tolerance would go up or down, and it was especially sensitive after I'd been sick. My advice for adding back in the wheat is to make sure there is no dairy in it, then you can be a better judge of what is causing the stomach revolt.

 

 

Pastry is full of dairy is a lesson I learn, forget, and relearn over and over again. When cake was handed out the teacher standing next to me said, "I need more frosting" and took my cake and gave me hers.  I can't imagine she was teasing me 'cause I've never talked to her before.  Weird moment.  If I wasn't supposed to be avoiding sugar anyway I would have been all "Hell no!" up in her grill. And yes, I've been scrupulously reading labels to make sure here isn't milk in my wheat.  I don't want to ruin the experiment. 

 

10 hours ago, elizevdmerwe said:

But when you need it again, you'll pick it up quickly and remember as you use it. Will be easier than learning a different language from scratch.

 

Shortly after I read this I went down to the office and ther was a hard of hearing woman who was having a very difficult time getting people to answer her questions. ASL would have been very handy right then. 

 

8 hours ago, turboseize said:

PS: the more I think of it, foreign languages are like (physical) fitness. Use it or loose it. Getting started is the most important step. Doing something (that is getting a tiny bit of exposure through radio/TV/movies or just hanging out with native speakers) is infinitely better than doing nothing, as long as you are consistent.
Aren't those the very same phrases we keep preaching to new rebel recruits?

 

I downloaded a Spanish app.  I spend a lot of time waiting for the Slothlings staring at my phone. Let's see if I can make that useful time.