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[theinevitable]

Earned some points back: strip steak and sweet potato hash browns for dinner. YUM. Anyone have any hash brown tips? These were pretty awesome, but I think there was something missing that would kick it up a notch.

Also: I need a little alarm that goes off and reminds me that a smallish strip steak costs the same as going to some mediocre fast-food place for dinner.

[miles]

Good chicken-fried steak is goddamn delicious.

Yes. For some reason in my last position at work we'd always get into discussions about chicken/country friend steak/chicken. Food and usage debates. I always started the discussions of course but they always went for it.

[miles]

Fucked up my back again today. It's been a couple years I think, but not surprising because I'm in the worst physical shape of my life and I helped a family member move all weekend. It was feeling stiff last night, but the very last piece I moved out of the truck earlier today was this slab of concrete I should not have lifted, and when I stood up, there it was again. Not as painful as the first time I experienced it like 13 years ago (which initially and very briefly felt like what I imagine a knife to the back would feel like, but I'm sure that's just because I'd never felt it before). Anyway, fairly confident it's just a strain, because it's happened several times since then and that's always the diagnosis and it feels exactly the same, but it still hurts (though I'm not in the kind of pain Keith is experiencing) and limits my mobility. Although I know from past medical advice and personal experience that walking helps much more than parking myself on the couch, tempting as that is.

Anyway, for those of you who have this issue, aside from long term stuff like me obviously needing to strengthen my core muscles and lose some serious weight, what short term remedies have worked best? Probably not going to see the Dr. unless it's still bad come Wednesday. But any advice on stretches, ice/heat packs, drugs and anything really, is much appreciated. I have of course looked at shit online have some material from when this has happened in the past (somewheres around here), but I'm always interested to know what's worked for different individuals.

And of course, long term advice is also welcome and appreciated, like specific exercises and stretches that have helped you avoid this kind of shit.

[theinevitable]

my dad does this stretch that involves him lying on his back and my mom sitting on his curled-to-the-chest knees. Do not do this without consulting someone who knows what they are doing, this might just be my dad being weird. When they do this he screams in a really intense sexual pleasure/pain way.

[jaydub]

My sore back always benefitted from lying flat on my back on the floor with my legs up on the couch.You can't stay like that forever, but it gives you some peace while you regroup.

[Nabubrush]

Muscle relaxants and opiates, they've never let me down. You'll want to chase them with a double of some kind on the rocks.

Seriously, my back is pretty fucked right now and has been for about six months. Part of it is that I have some posture issues that end up creating sort of a catch-22 deal. If you work in the same position for extended lengths of time, check out your ergonomics.

[jay-ell]

Ibuprofin and/or naproxin sodium for the inflammation. Lying flat on one's back on the floor with the feet elevated or at least the knees bent -- if you can get down there without feeling like you're going to snap in half. Muscle relaxers can help, but only to a point, and they knock me out, so I don't take them unless I'm in too much pain to get out of bed anyway. Also, alternating heat and cold.

I am a cheapskate, so for cold I just use a bag of cheap-ass frozen peas or a gallon-size freezer bag filled with ice, wrapped in a kitchen towel with a rubber band on each end so it looks like a Christmas cracker. For heat, I fill an old tube sock with dry rice and tie off the cuff, then nuke it in the microwave for about a minute and a half -- it stays warm for an hour or more. I alternate 20 minutes of cold, then take a ten-minute break, then twenty minutes of hot, lather/rinse, repeat as needed.

That's what they told me to do when I had a lower back injury during my second pregnancy and I couldn't take anti-inflammatory medication at all. As soon as you feel like you can move without pain, try to walk it off, but don't lift or bend until you're absolutely sure it's gone -- last time I had back problems, I re-injured myself just by clearing the dirty plates off the dining room table after dinner.

[theinevitable]

My gf's uncle asked her to housesit his apartment, which is big and fancy in downtown Chicago. She turned him down because she is scared of being alone. So I guess she is going to live with her parents until they die, and then move into an old folk's home.

When people say racist/bigoted shit to me my impulse is always to say something even worse back, directed at them. So, in reality, what I do is pretend I did not hear it. It is interesting to me that so many of my coworkers are gay and also insane bigots. Muslims and Asians  got it pretty horrible in this town.

[jay-ell]

My former neighbor, who is black, used to rail some hate speech on Hispanics. It made me pretty uncomfortable, but it would have been worse to be a white chick calling out a black guy on being racist, so I never said anything. Looking back, I probably should have -- he was kind of a crap dude anyway.

[theinevitable]

would it have been worse to be a white chick calling a black dude racist? Why?

This guy continued throughout the day and I never really figured out what to say to him. He told my coworker he couldn't give him a ride home because "that isn't a neighborhood a white guy should be in after dark." This neighborhood is... really nice. Most of my fancy downtown-office-job-working customers live in this neighborhood. I said "oh, actually I live right there, I think the area where (coworker) lives is fine."
...so then he apologized to me, and said nothing to my (black) coworker who had asked for the ride. Who was standing right there.

Yesterday, in our new apartment searches, my roommate found a house for sale. The minimum monthly mortgage payment for this 5 bedroom house is considerably less than our rent for a three-bedroom. This is how people get in trouble. Both the "buying a house" part, and the "in a bad neighborhood but it's so cheap part."

[jay-ell]

Today I'm gonna get absolutely fed up with trying to convince my husband that yes, he does take thirty minute showers, and instead of arguing about it I'm just going to passive-aggressively hang a clock on the bathroom wall.

I wonder how many days it will take for him to notice it's there?

[theinevitable]

I used to take 30-minute showers. I don't really know how I did that. Maybe my ADD has gotten better. I definitely remember realizing at a certain point that I had been staring at the wall for 10 minutes and hadn't even touched the soap or anything. I'm sure my parents thought I was jackin' it or something... nope. Just staring at the wall.

[KeithHernandez]

I totally still do that.  It has actually gotten worse for me.  I was always very "smart" or like, you know, with it, efficient, whatever.  Then smoking pot enough kinda made me do stuff like that.  So, at 15, I was probably taking 8 minute showers, now, at 27, I do that thing inev was talking about where I am just standing there for like 15 minutes enjoying myself, looking at a wall, and then I'm all fuck, I haven't even started showering yet.

[side_show]

Sometimes I end up taking a 30 minute shower.  Something about the water hypnotizes me and I get lost in my thoughts some times.  It's not my intention.  It happens most when I'm stressed.

What my hubby does is he'll get ready for his shower, go into the bathroom, turn on the light and fan, and then leave and end up in the office on the internet for hours.  The funny thing is, if I happen to pass by and notice the light and fan are on in the empty bathroom and switch them off, he will sometimes go back, turn them back on but, then get distracted again. 

We both procrastinate in our own unique ways I guess.

[smick]

where I am just standing there for like 15 minutes enjoying myself, looking at a wall, and then I'm all fuck, I haven't even started showering yet.

I hope this is where I go when I die.  For like...ever.

...

Well... my own shower, not Keith's.   I guess Keith's is fine...we just like... don't know each other.   

I'm sorry I made it weird, Keith.  I'll stay in my own shower.

Sorry.