August 17, Happy Birthday, Charlie

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Dear Charlie, happy birthday to you. And many, many more!!!
I will try to make a birthday cake.
We are going to be packing and moving. Looks like Roger will help us.
We will be moving the first week in September.

Dr. Jay's birthday, August 12

Happy Birthday, dear Jay, happy birthday to you. And many, many more.
It looks like Charlie will retire soon. They want him to work overtime 10 hour days and often Saturdays on top of that, It seems just too much. So we are thinking of going back to Morehead City and packing up and selling our beach house in Newport and buying a house in beautiful Arkansas.

Visit Us Before We Move; Southwest Airlines"

When will we leave Fort Campbell, Kentucky? Charlie is on a travelling team modifying six aircraft here. The team has to do it correctly or people will die, so time is not a consideration. His assignment here will last as long as it takes for the team to do the job the best possible safest way. The current estimate is that the team will be finished sometime between October, 2009 and December, 2009. Then the team moves on to modify another group of aircraft in Pennslyvania.
Last night we saw an unusual and good movie from Netflix, "A Man Called Horse". It is timeless and may be just as relevant one hundred years from now as when it was made.
Anyone who wants to visit us, we have a sofa-bed in our small living room. The nearest commercial passenger airport is Nashville Metropolitan Airport (IATA code is BNA) at 1 Terminal Drive, Nashville, TN 37214, phones are (615) 275-0147, -1675, and it is 73.91 miles southeast.
For an airline, I would choose SWA - Southwest - www.southwest.com and click on "Travel Tools" which gives a calendar displaying fares on each day, and one can choose the lowest fares which are called "wanna get away". Today I see some one-way $99 fares starting August 19, 2009.
One could use the Jarmon or Clarksville Airport Shuttle for ground transportation to Hopkinsville. See www.flynashville.com/Ground_trans/bus.aspx for phone numbers of about eight shuttle companies to make appointments and get estimates.
Our apartment is in a cove a few feet off the main drag which is about 2500 block of Fort Campbell Boulevard. See you soon ?

Flu and Star Anise; Tamiflu; Spices

Monday morning, July 27, I got hit with flu symptoms, all of them. Tuesday I felt 50% better and today I feel about 80% back to normal.
There is a lot of talk about vaccinations and flu vaccinations. I won't get a flu shot because the flu virion is constantly mutating and the vaccine is merely a guess as to which of the thousands of virions to protect against.
I am concerned with child vaccinations which are now being given to young infants, way too young in my opinion. Why don't they wait until the child is at least 8 or 10 years old ? 50 years ago, smallpox was the only vaccine given. (Later it was found that it also provided immunity against some of the Herpes.) When a kid got chicken pox or measles or mumps, he stayed home and stayed in bed a week or two and his mother babied him and nursed him while his brothers and sisters tiptoed around. He was a star ! Autism was unknown.
Tamiflu (oseltamivir) is made from star anise mixed with talc (lung, skin and ovarian cancer), saccharin (cancers), propylene glycol (anti-freeze), iron oxide (aging), blue, red, and yellow dyes (carcinogens), titanium dioxide, maltodextrins (GMO corn), sorbitol, and on and on.
Tamiflu (oseltamivir) fights the flu because its active principle, shikimic acid inhibits the release of flu virions from the host cell. So far, scientists are actively fermenting GMO's (E. coli) and are making synthetic shikimic acid, but the yield is still too low, so the star anise, a seed from a bush grown in China, is also used.
Shikimic acid is also found in chinchona (quinine) tree bark, all of the sweetgum tree, the gingko biloba tree and from Christmas tree needles by a company called Biolyse Pharma in St. Catharine, Ontario, Canada.
And remember, the bioflavenoid, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory pain-reliever pycnogenol comes from the bark of the French maritime pine tree.
Sunshine prevents flu. So does frequent hand-washing. So maybe I will go outside nude and lie in the full sun for 20 minutes or so right at noon so I can get some of the important vitamin D3 that cannot be put into a pill, it can only be made in the skin when real sunshine hits it.
Why not make your own star anise tea? Knowledge that all the spices are microbicides has been passed down for over 10,000 years by our ancestors. After all, that is why Columbus discovered America in 1492 - looking for spices to preserve food.
I think I will make a tea by steeping star anise seeds and sweetgum tree seeds and some pine needles in freshly boiled water for 15 minutes. Maybe I will add cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg and just drink it all day.
The adult dose of Tamiflu is 75 mg. twice a day for 5 days.

Pennyroyal; Library of Forbidden Knowledge; Sister Zeus

July 22, 1998 - Gabi's birthday!!! Happy Birthday to Gabi.

Great weather here, they say it's cooler than usual. We seem to get refreshing rains quite often. Poor Janice is sweltering back in L. A.
We have lots of trees and plants and wildlife, and Fort Campbell has a huge wilderness area. Yesterday Charlie passed three Amish buggies on his way home from work, he takes the back roads leaving the fort.
A museum here is named "The Pennyroyal Museum" after the pennyroyal that flourishes here. Pennyroyal is in the mint family, similar to spearmint, and is used as a cooking herb, as a flea and insect repellant (the concentrated oil) and the tea is used to cause abortion, stimulate labor or menstrual flow. The American Pennyroyal is called Hedeoma pulegoides and the European Pennyroyal is called Mentha pulegium.
The name "pulegium" is from Latin for "flea". Pennyroyal is called "fleabane", "mosquito plant" and "tickweed" because it is an insect repellent. It is also called "Pudding Plant" because it is used in cooking puddings and stuffings. Medieval herbalists called pennyroyal names such as Pulioll-royall, piliole-rial and Pulegium Regium. It is also called "squawmint" because it stimulates the uterus to contract to cause menstruation, abortion and labor contractions. Long ago, Aristophanes, in 421 BCE, identified pennyroyal as an abortifacient.
Recipe: For abortion: Make an infusion by steeping a full ounce of leaves and flowers for 15 minutes in a pint of freshly boiled water and drink a cup of tea up to four times a day for a maximum of five days. Do not eat grapefruit which depletes the liver enzymes.
Option: Add the oil infusion below. Another option: Add a plaster to the abdomen. Make a plaster by soaking wool flannel or cotton cheesecloth in a strong tea or oil infusion (but never essential oil) of pennyroyal. Know that you are inactivating your liver enzymes at the same time you are stimulating your uterus and know that you will be in an unpredictable and dangerous zone. I would take R-alpha lipoic acid (in divided doses, up to 800 mg. per day) to help my liver.
The dose to cause abortion is getting close to the lethal dose. So if doing the tea, the oil rub and the plaster together, only do it a day or two and listen to your body and stop at the first sign of any abnormality. (It seems to me that it would be better to pay a medical doctor for an induced abortion since abortions are currently legal.)
I want to say that no woman would ever want an abortion if the loving and caring father was there to help her to have food and shelter and to take care of her during and after her pregnancy.
Note that the pennyroyal tea is more effective for abortion when combined half and half with blue cohosh root (Caulophyllum thalictroides) in a tea.

Why it can kill you: Stop the use of pennyroyal at the first sign of nausea. Pennyroyal might make you sick or kill you if you consume too much or for too long . Sick people should not use it. Its activity is from its volatile oil, pulegone which is converted to menthofuran by the body which inactivates liver cytochrome - CYP450 A26). People have died taking prescription drugs and eating grapefruit because grapefruit uses up a lot of liver enzymes and combined with medications, the liver runs out of enzymes and is unable to function and the person dies. Pulegone affects the uterus and the liver and the nerves and the kidneys. So one could die from an inactivated liver from too much pulegone.

(Rest in peace, Kris Humphreys, died August 14, 1994 - She used Susan Weed's book "Wise Woman Herbals for the Child-Bearing Years". But her pregnancy was ectopic, tubal, outside the uterus so pennyroyal could not abort her. She kept using too much pennyroyal too long. Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: "Pennyroyal Tea".)
Never use the essential oil for abortion. Drinking even a few drops of the essential oil is lethal. One should never use the concentrated essential oil on the skin, because it will be absorbed into the blood stream. The essential oil should only be used as an insect or flea repellant.

See http://www.sisterzeus.com/
for Sister Zeus's "Library of Forbidden Knowledge" for information on fertility, herbal contraception, abortion and the like.

Recipe: Make an oil infusion by soaking the macerated plant in a good oil, like olive, walnut, jojobe, grapeseed for a week. For up to five days, rub this oil on the abdomen, on the Achilles tendon and on the heels (acupuncture points) to stimulate the uterus to contract.
Pennyroyal (pudding plant) was used to flavor meat puddings and stuffings in medieval cooking.
Recipe: To make a stuffing or a meat dressing, mix 2 cups of bread crumbs with an ounce of chopped pennyroyal, 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper and 1/3 cup of honey. Moisten with water or any soup or stock, and stuff a chicken or roll up in sliced meats.
Pennyroyal in small amounts has been used successfully for centuries for medicinal uses: a garland worn around the head to ease giddiness, weak feelings, to ease headache; tea for whooping cough or any cough; tea for sudden chill or cold; tea for indigestion; tea for anxiety; tea for gout; plasters applied to bruises, burns, boils, tumors and insect bites.

The tea is often sweetened with honey.

Nomad living

It's nice to live as a wanderer. I have found that I use things daily that I did not pack and that I packed things that I thought that I needed, but I do not. I am remembering that there is a difference between "need" and "want". I appreciate items which are light-weight and small.
Living "light" and lean feels good.
KY is scenic, clean and serene. The air and water are clean. Traffic is light. I like the wildlife. The people in Abilene ( they call themselves "The Big Friendly" ) were quite open and about the nicest anywhere, the people here are much shyer. And there is a big difference in culture. The performing arts here are rare, and in Abilene they were richer and superior in every way, even superior to Los Angeles and Hollywood. Abilene was a wonderfully sophisticated city with less accompanying wickedness.
One amazing thing: this town has a population of 32,000 and the corporate chain stores are here in full force. Almost all of the shops here are nation-wide chain stores. I have only found one local restaurant, "Dots", named after its fried grated potato balls. Their food was excellent and at least some was made in their kitchen, and was not just heated processed commercial food.
Except for "Dots" and "Peebles" (a department store) I have not so far seen even one local shop. There is a Rite-Aid, a Walgreens, the usual car parts chains, the usual fast-food chains, grocery chains, and of course, a WalMart Super Center open 24 hours. We have a Salvation Army and a Goodwill and many, many Christian churches, but none of any other faith. The name of the county is Christian County.
This town is also called "Hop Town" because people used to hop off here to buy liquor because it was legal here but not in surrounding counties.

Fresh unprocessed milk - against the law in KY

Raw milk sales in KY are illegal with one exception.
It seems I can buy fresh milk here only if I have a written prescription from a doctor and then only for goat milk.
So it is against the law to buy fresh cow milk here in the land of liberty and freedom.

Isn't this crazy?

Miracle: found address book; movie - "FRESH"

Be careful what you ask for, you may get it! I asked for the miracle of finding my old address book and this morning it turned up deep in the pocket of a briefcase. Thank you!!! It has been lost since last November, and its loss was a frustration for the past 9 months.
We are unpacking and at the same time planning a future move to Willow Grove, Pennslyvania sometime between October and December, 2009. Meanwhile, Kentucky seems nice. I have found a farmers' market open Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Now where is the fresh milk?
I look forward to viewing the movie "Fresh". I read about it on Ana Joanes (Huffington Post) and the link is www.freshthemovie.com/. Apparently "Fresh" will be the first in a series of movies on healthy food.
Michael Pollan, a wonderful food journalist and an author ("Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals", "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto", "The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World", and more) appears in the movie.
"Fresh" also features urban farmer Will Allen, a former pro-basketball player, and the founder of Growing Power, an organization which now grows and distributes healthy food in Milwaukee and Chicago. Mr. Allen recently received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" of $500,000 for his work with healthy food.
Farmer Joel Salatin , owner of the beyond organic Polyface Farm, is in the movie and he has written six books, most recently "Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front".
One can buy the "Fresh" DVD for $20 and I may do that instead of searching for a screening. One can buy the movie and show it free at home to up to 20 people without red tape. If one wants to sell tickets, one can buy the movie and rights to sell tickets to a maximum of 50 people for a total of $50, and up to 100 people for a total of $100. I hope people do this, and spread the fresh word.

Vacating & Driving away; ETSY.COM

Phone is now cut off, we plan to get up tomorrow, donate the bed to the Salvation Army, and drive away.
Do you know about www.etsy.com/ ? It is the eBay for hand-made and crafts.
Many problems with address changes because my address book with a lifetime of passwords, serial numbers and the like was lost November, 2008. I have to contact people and tell them I lost my password, or customer number or ID and wait for them to verify and then follow up the next day or later. It is really a mess. Just when I think I have recovered, another lost information pops up and causes a problem. Today I tried to change my address on the state bar website, but my password is in my lost address book.
Not to mention I am cut off from some friends I have known since the 1950's and have no way of finding them. For example, Barbara Spivey, my friend from third grade through high school is now lost.
And I wanted to send Maria a birthday card May 22, but her phone and address is lost. I only have addresses for the "A"'s, those were the only ones I had time to copy before it was lost.
I am asking the Universe for the miracle of a found address book.

See "Nourished Magazine" for a collection health commentators in Australia.
See Rami Nagel for curing (not treating, curing) tooth decay.
See - adambetcher- ( on Twitter.com ) for many good health-topic links.

Abilene is a wonderful city - stable, sophisticated, helpful people, wonderful culture together with agriculture, farming, rodeos. They call themselves "The Big Friendly".

Skin & Guts,

We really only have one skin, or one gut. They are the same. Of course, the cells change as the skin changes at the lips, rectum, nostrils, eyes, ears, penis, vagina and goes inside the body from outside of the body. It is all one organ, the largest organ in the body.
Why do we care? Everything that touches the skin is absorbed into the body. More will be absorbed from an oily liquid than from a vinyl sofa, but at least a few molecules of anything we touch will get into our bloodstream. I even read a theory about prostate Cancer caused by sitting for many years on a plastic chair.
Read the labels on suntan lotion, make-up, deodorant, everything that will go on or in the body and they undoubtedly contain harmful chemicals and preservatives. Of course, the body can detoxify small amounts of toxins, but what if all your clothing is plastic, all your plates and napkins are plastic, all your furniture is plastic, everything you use or touch is plastic??? And it is proven that some plasticizers are carcinogens.
I prefer to make my own lotions, shampoos, toothpowder and the like. See Dr. Hulda Clark's book "The Cure for All Diseases" for some recipes. It is sold at www.newcenturypress.com/. I like her recipes because they are passed down for generations and use safe ingredients. See Dr. Mercola's site at www.mercola.com. One of his articles today discusses dandruff and shampoos and he cautions about shampoo chemicals absorbed into the scalp.
One of the most common problems are the types of toxic alcohols used in creams and lotions. I prefer to use triple-distilled vodka to make underarm deodorant and other grooming items. Vodka is ethyl alcohol (ethanol) and one probably cannot use enough as a cream, lotion, or deodorant to get drunk.
There are special large cells called "apocrine" glands under the arms and in the groin area. These soak up efficiently whatever cream, cologne or deodorant that is put there, so it is important to use pure products there, or better, make your own.
The transitional mucuous membranes (mouth, rectum, eyes, penis, vagina, nostrils) are especially absorptive and anything put there goes into the blood stream. Something put into the rectum is absorbed directly into the bloodstream and avoids the saliva enzymes, the stomach acids, the duodenal pancreatic enzymes, the liver. So if you put drugs or drinks or suppositories into your rectum, they will bypass normal digestion and go directly into the bloodstream. This is dangerous, and I read of some college men dying because they put too many martinis into the colon trying for a fast and cheap high.

Moving Update

Yesterday we saw "The Producers" at the great Paramount Theatre with its twinkling stars and slowly moving clouds on the ceiling. It was the best play I have ever seen, this troupe could do Broadway. The lead actor is a TV 5:00 p.m. news anchor. They were all as good as it gets. I am so impressed with all the talent in this town.
In the morning, we drove a chest of drawers, a box of plates, some dictionaries, some other books, a wire shelf and other things to the Salvation Army and donated them.
We also packed up maybe ten large and medium boxes of household items. We've been taking a box every other day to donate stuff since we were informed of the transfer.
Still some packing and planning left and we are very busy with this move.
Janice sent me the link to legal argument in the Anna Nicole Smith case which would be fascinating to hear, but I am just too extremely busy right now.

Concentrated poisons in foods...

Reading an article in the Spring, 2009, Volume 10, Number 1 , page 44 issue of "Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts" which is a magazine from the Weston A. Price Foundation.
The article discusses high fructose corn syrup - HFCS- in detail, which to me seems to be present in all packaged foods. And to make matters worse, it's usually the first or second or third ingredient on the label. At least they are putting HFCS on the label, GMO's and soy are not listed or are put under unrecognizable names. There are many tricks, called "creative food marketing" to trap us into ignorance.
And, of course, HFCS is a GMO (genetically modified) since the corn it is processed from is GMO.
I notice that GMO's are never identified and they are in most packaged foods but not listed on the label. Take cheese, for example. Rennet is an natural, healthy enzyme from the stomach of a nursing calf. If the label does not say "rennet" the cheese is likely made from E. coli bacteria or fungi which are genetically engineered to produce enzymes similar to natural rennet. Some raw plants (thistle) may be used, but are not, by the food makers. The only cheese I can find with rennet is European and a few mail-order artisan cheeses. I have stopped buying even Tillamook since 90 % of their cheese is not made from natural rennet, but from genetically modified fungi and bacteria. (See the Jeffrey M. Smith link at the bottom of this page to learn why GMO's are toxic.)
HFCS is a sweetener which is concentrated and cheap - the motive for the food manufacturers. It goes directly from the gut to the liver (fructose has a different metabolic pathway from glucose) and can cause cirrhosis and death just like in drunkards.
HFCS causes obesity. Prove it to yourself: cut out all drinks except water for a month and see if you lose any weight. (* You will.)
HFCS causes high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and depletes minerals.
HFCS is a source of toxic mercury in our foods.
Apparently Mother Nature meant for us to eat whole, sweet, tree-ripened fruits only in the short time they are in season. Sugar gluttony cannot be tolerated by the body year-round. Robbing a beehive in the late summer and eating that honey would be great, since our bodies have evolved to accomodate an occasional seasonal feast.
Another concentrated food poison is MSG which stimulates the "umame" taste buds. Delicious, meaty taste. Seaweed kelp contains fabulous nutrients and is a rich source of iodine and minerals and I try to eat a little with each meal. But MSG is way too concentrated (it is made from seaweed kelp) and MSG is so strong it could actually cause death if the dose were large enough.
Another concentrated toxin is carrageenan. It is concentrated from Irish moss seaweed or purple seaweed or red seaweed. The regular seaweed is a healthy nutrient, but when concentrated and used in food preparation it causes tiny holes in the intestines. This is because it is such a strong detergent that it melts tiny holes in the intestinal cell membranes. (Nonoxynol-9, a spermicide, is also a strong detergent that puts tiny holes into the cell membrane of a sperm and thus acts as birth control - the same mechanism of action as carageenan.) Read labels and you will see carrageenan in all products which can separate into oil and water, such as salad dressings, milk products, and in ice creams and in cheeses.
The food manufacturers use carrageenan liberally, it is cheap and its detergent action keeps the processed food materials together.
If you drink soy milk with carrageenan for several years you will probably be told you need surgery to cut out the top left part of your colon between the transverse colon and the descending colon. More and more people are getting this surgery.
And by the way, I avoid soy - see Dr. Kaayla Daniel's book "The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food" and you may want to eliminate it as a food for humans, too. Check out www.wholesoystory.com/.
"Hydrolyzed vegetable protein" and other terms are used in creative marketing to sneak soy concentrates into food.

Human bodies are great at getting rid of small doses of poisons such as MSG and HFCS and stress and viruses and bacteria and the like. But when over-whelmed with concentrated poisons, the body will eventually succumb to obesity, diabetes, aging , cancer, heart attacks and the like. Yes, stress is a poison. Sweetener overdoses are maybe our main food poison.

Back to the WAPF article, I wish everyone could read it. It goes into detail and cites scientific proofs. It also explains why commercial agave nectar is also processed with GMO toxins (label will say "hydrolized inulin syrup"), meaning GMO used) and no good as a sweetener. A trick is to call agave "chicory syrup" - same thing. (Real chicory is dandelion root.) The original healthy agave syrup is made from yucca sap, but the store agave is made from the root - big difference.
Warning: Agave (yucca) is dangerous (because of its saponins) during pregnancy or nursing.
And of course, beets are now GMO's. So I'll stick to honey or raw dates or fresh fruit juice I squeeze myself or real maple syrup or real cane sugar.
It would be best for me to just avoid sugars completely, all carbohydrates are addictive, sugars and alcohol more than most.

Q: Why can't I buy fresh milk? A: It is a Crime

Ridiculous that I cannot drink raw milk. Did you know that it is a crime for the dairy to sell it to you? One must sneak around like a drug pusher and hide the milk and keep silent about it. I myself have not done this, but I have seen people with coolers sneaking around, looking in all directions before swooping down into the cooler to take out a bottle of milk to quickly and surreptitiously pass it on to the drinker.
About 1995 I bought some store milk and tried to make cheese. I had a rotten, disgusting mess which I threw out. Then I learned that the pasteurized, homogenized milk has been too processed to use for any kind of cooking.

Not so long ago, people used whey in all kinds of healthy fermentation and made their own cheeses.

Now many people tell me that milk makes them sick.

Then I learned that lactose intolerance is not present in fresh, unprocessed milk because raw milk has nutrients and enzymes and is digestible. The milk was not making them sick, it was the processing.

Ron Schmidt' s book "The Untold Story of Milk" is one I glanced through and it looks good. I plan to read it soon.
Fascinating Links - http://www.realmilk.com/
-and-
http://www.realmilkaustralia.com/
-and-
Weston A. Price Foundation link at the bottom of this page gives unbelievable stories of people charged with the CRIME OF RAW MILK.

I notice all kinds of good people being charged with the crime of giving people fresh, unprocessed milk. "Something is wrong with this picture."

I found out about an organization called "Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund" and I joined. Link is http://www.farmtoconsumer.org. We need to fight back.

I resent the FDA (government) telling me what I can eat.

Continuous Nursing as a Contraceptive...

Today I'm reading through "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" by Robert M. Sapolsky and on page 132 he discusses how prolactin suppresses ovulation (it suppresses estrogen and progesterone) and how breast-feeding may be effective birth control if done in a continuous way.
The way to keep the prolactin circulating so that it will stop ovulation is to keep it in the bloodstream by breast-feeding the baby about 1-2 minutes about every 15 minutes around the clock.
The original affluent society which sits around with lots of free time and mostly talks, dances, sings and plays games is the tribal hunter-gatherer people. They only actually work maybe an hour a day. The tribal mothers nurse 1-2 minutes at a time and nurse about every 15 minutes and will nurse during the night. They naturally get pregnant every 3-4 years.
In America today, a mother will nurse a long time each time, maybe 30 minutes or more each time. She will nurse maybe 6 times a day. She will avoid night nursing. The tribal mother will nurse maybe 50 times or more a day. Nursing 6 times a day is not enough to stop ovulation.
So when the mother goes out to dinner without the baby, she may ovulate.
Sperm can live four days. Suction or manipulation of the nipples to stimulate nursing would keep the prolactin circulating.

Lots to do for the move...

Kind of overwhelmed with the move. I need to keep track of all the bills coming due and get them paid on time since we will be on the road back and forth about ten days and we have several residences so this is difficult. We probably won't get settled and know our new temporary address until the middle of July.
We plan to drive back and forth about 4,000 miles. Will it be possible to visit Mark and Alice or Jay and Julie along the way? Probably not, but we will try.
I'm going to pack a food suitcase with tins of sardines in olive oil, some good cheeses, Bragg's vinegar, some raw olive oil, mason jars of pecans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and I will buy fresh mixed greens along the way and make salads.
Today I hope to pack up some books we bought at the big annual library book sale and media mail them to Jami, Gabi, Mark and Roger.
Excited and busy, busy, busy.

Packing, cutting off services; Turkey & Dressing

Exciting to move to Kentucky, I've never been there. I plan to call the Salvation Army and Goodwill and schedule pick-ups to donate furniture. I made a list of subscriptions, clubs, insurers, banks, credit cards, many businesses to notify to stop service or to change addresses when I get my new address. It's a long list.
I'll be using my cell phone after about July 6 or so when the 325# is disconnected, so email me if you need the mobile number.
Abilene has been a truly nice town and I would recommend it to anyone. The people are exceptional. I think a lot has to do with the population of maybe 115,000. It is the most sophisticated city I have ever seen for its size.
Chicken or turkey with cornbread dressing
Recipe: First -make cornbread, second -make dressing, third -stuff chicken and bake.
The cornbread is best if it is a day or two old. Get non-GMO cornmeal or make your own cornmeal by dehydrating organic corn and grinding it in a blender. Make cornbread: oven 350.

• Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a cast iron skillet or other baking pan.
• Large bowl: sift together 1/4 cup flour, 1 1/2 cups cornmeal, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt.
• Medium bowl:Beat 2-3 eggs until foamy, add 2 cups of liquid (milk or buttermilk or water or any combination). Stir the wet egg mix quickly into the dry cornmeal mix.
• Pour batter into skillet and bake until you smell it and it looks done, about 50 minutes.
  

Dressing: (amount for turkey, halve the amounts for chicken or other smaller fowl)

• --4 cups of crumbled cornbread (may substitute 1-2 cups with crumbled toast)
• --1 - 2 cups of chopped onion
• --1 - 2 cups of chopped celery
• --all the chopped giblets: liver, gizzards
• --lots of sage, a spoon or more of salt, a spoon or more of freshly ground pepper
• --1 cup of raisins (or chopped prunes or any chopped dried fruit)
  
• --a chopped apple (or any other fruit in any combination)
• --Use just enough water (or any soup or liquid) to make the mix moist. It is optional to beat 1, 2 or 3 eggs with a little water and stir them in the dressing to bind it. I prefer it crumbly without the eggs.
  

Turkey or Chicken (or duck or pigeon or any fowl or any flesh): It has already been plucked and soaked in salt and rinsed. Turn on the oven. I prefer a low temperature with a long bake. So I might bake several hours at 250 or less. One might bake about an hour or two at 350.

Separate the breast skin from the flesh and stuff dressing between the flesh and skin. Stuff dressing inside the body cavity as well. Place dressing all around the chicken or turkey and put any extra dressing into a separate baking dish.

Bake until wonderful odors waft around the kitchen and then you will know it is done. Or cut into it and see if it is still bleeding.

Moving On; WAPF meeting; Bible Wine Recipe

Yesterday afternoon, June 22, Charlie just got the news he is to report on July 8 to Fort Campbell, Kentucky to work on CH-47 helicopters. When that contract is completed, the team moves on to Fort Drum, New York, then on to Willow Grove, Pennslyvania, and next ??? Each job lasts as long as it takes to fix however many helicopters at that location and no one knows how long each job lasts. Time is uncertain and no one can make an estimate since there are too many factors and too many organizations involved. For example, an air force contract may say they can bring in a certain number of helicopters and the job lasts as long as it takes to get the repair done right. Time is never an element since people later die in plane crashes when repairs are based on time. So the criteria is a perfect repair no matter how long it takes.
Yesterday evening, we went to a meeting of the Weston A. Price chapter and heard Dr. Ken O'Neil speak about enzymes. He was quite knowledgable. He recommended a book "Enzymes: Fountain of Life" by Lopez, Williams and Miehlke and he recommended writings by Dr. William Wong for further research.
Really ridiculous that fresh milk is against the law in Texas. I have to own a cow to get unprocessed milk. I notice that I can no longer buy merely pasteurized cream, but now it is all ultra-pasteurized which will destroy even more nutrients and any surviving enzymes.
Enzymes are necessary to all the metabolic processes of the body. They are catalysts which set off chain reactions. If one gets a high fever, such as 105 degrees Fahrenheit, the enzymes begin to get cooked, the proteins are precipitated, just like frying an egg. This is why people die from a sustained high fever.
Enzymes are especially critical to digestion. They are in all raw foods, and in the amount needed to digest that food. We and the plants have evolved millions of years for digestion to occur. A fresh, raw, non-GMO pear has all the enzymes in the right amount for our bodies to digest it properly. Fresh, unprocessed milk has the enzymes in it to digest it. Pasteurized, homogenized has had its enzymes and other nutrients destroyed or warped. This is why people are lactose intolerant with store milk, but have no problem with raw milk. (Gluten intolerance is because of all the foreign DNA containing pesticides, herbicides, foreign microbial DNA, in the GMO grains' DNA. Our bodies have not developed enzymes to digest GMO garbage so more and more people cannot eat commercial grains' gluten without a problem.)
Bible Wine - a recipe for home-made wine: Three things needed: 1-grapes, 2-whey, 3-a glass jug. Obtain a glass or ceramic container with a lid. Obtain the darkest PURPLE GRAPES you can find, and the grapes must have SEEDS. Smash the grapes very well, seeds and skins included. Option: strain the juice, but not mandatory. Place about 2 quarts of the juice in the glass container. Add 5 ounces of WHEY from fresh, unprocessed milk from a pastured bovine.
The way to make WHEY is to let the milk set out at room temperature for a few days until it sours and separates. The liquid is whey and the curds are further strained to get cottage cheese, this is the curds and whey little Miss Muffet was eating.
Mix the whey and grape juice and let stand in the covered glass container at room temperature for about 4, 5, or 6 days. Drink your Bible Wine with its resveratrol and pycnogenol and other nutrients.

Pasta

Yesterday I made lasagna, it came out most wonderful. Three basic ingredients: pasta, cheese, and a sauce. One may use a slow cooker and let the sauce cook overnight.
The most important thing is to only use fresh, wild local ingredients and to avoid GMO's and processed ingredients. Try to make your own pasta, your own sauce, pick your own herbs, get your cheese directly from the cheesemaker who does not use enzymes, GMO's and other shortcuts to cheese-making. It's easy to make your own soft cheese but one must start with raw milk, cheese cannot be made from the processed, homogenized, pasteurized store milk which is like buying your eggs already fried.
The sauce can be made of any fresh pureed vegetable cooked in water. People usually use tomatoes, but one may use any vegetable. Add any herbs, good ones are oregano, parsley, thyme. Very good to add minced fennel, onion and especially garlic. One may add flesh as desired, and it can be any flesh: beef, lamb, fowl, or fish. While the sauce cooks a long time, add more water or buttermilk or any juice or any other liquid.
When ready to assemble, select a pan that will hold the lasagna pasta layered with sauce and cheese. Set the oven to medium high, 300 degrees maybe. Boil water, add a pinch of salt and a spoon of good oil (olive, walnut, avocado, sesame, coconut) and add the lasagna pasta and cook it at least halfway.
Grate some hard cheese (without GMO's which are how most are made nowadays, European cheeses seem best). Have ready some soft cheese such as cottage cheese, ricotta, or any soft cheese.
Now for the assembly: Oil the pan, add a layer of pasta, add soft cheese, cover with sauce, add a layer of hard cheese. Repeat: pasta, soft cheese, sauce, hard cheese. Keep repeating until your pan is full. Bake. When you smell it, it will be ready to eat.

"Nutrition and Physical Degeneration"- WA Price

I'm eading Rubin's book (The Maker's Diet") which is good. He lays out eating based on biblical quotes such as Genesis 1:29 which says "every seed-bearing plant..." and wouldn't this knock out hybrids? I do not eat seedless grapes or seedless watermelons, for example, because they don't seem natural. GMO plants are not made from natural seed either, but rather from foreign DNA shot-gunned into the plant food DNA. I try to avoid them, but they are not labelled and are surely in all processed food. I agree with Rubin's conclusions because the bible is based on thousands of years of human culture which are passed on to us from the ancestors' nutritional do's and don'ts.
Then he talks about avoiding flesh from scavenger fish, fowl and animals. I believe this, and try to avoid all farmed fish such as tilapia and try to buy only wild or at least free-range pastured meats. It's interesting to go into a restaurant and see "fish" on the menu and when I ask what kind of fish, the waitstaff goes blank and stutters and one never can get a straight answer from their superiors. It's a cover-up!
Then he discusses Dr. Weston A. Price's nine+ -year expedition to 14 countries on five continents to research nutrition, and Dr. Price's strongly supported conclusions that health was based on unprocessed foods. In every case, when modernized foods were introduced, within one generation degenerative diseases previously unknown got a stronghold.
Rubin goes into the science of food digestion and includes the neural part which is often omitted. The mind is vitally important to eating and nutrition and he discusses this. He also includes sunlight, cleansing, exercise, sleep, clothing, plastics, plane travel, vaccines, sugar, fresh milk and many other ideas relating to nutritional health.
I especially like his quote from Proverbs 17:22 "A merry heart brings good health".
The next section presents his 21 most healing herbs and then 14 essential oils.
After the plant medicine section, he has a large and excellent recipe section. He presents some recipes from my favorite cookbook by Sally Fallon: "Nourishing Tradions". Some recipes are from "The Lazy Person's Whole Food Cookbook" by Stephen Byrnes which my local library does not have and I have not seen but I intend to look into it.
I think one will get a lot out of this book in many ways.

Two Troubling Thoughts

The first troubling thought:
Here the city has a monthly evening downtown street festival with a theme. June's theme was cars. Yesterday we went to Carwalk. The city blocked off a downtown street for about four blocks and special cars (antique, muscle cars, unusual cars) were parked up and down the blocks in the street. Street vendors and displays were located all along the sidewalks and some of the stores had special sales or gifts. The contemporary art museum and other businesses were open. The Grace Museum was free. A band was performing at Minter Park which is a charming tiny memorial park with a lovely fountain one story high dedicated to the private citizen who Willed it. It was a nice event and the featured cars were interesting.
Then Charlie saw a doppelganger, someone who looked like a very nice man, Mike,a machininst Charlie had worked with for years in North Carolina. Charlie told him "You look like Mike, a man I used to work with" and the man looked at him blankly and said "No". But the woman with him said to Charlie "His name IS Mike". They started talking and it turned out that he WAS Mike but that he had lost his mind organically through the solvent metal-cleaning chemicals he had used daily in his work. His wife, Beth, said that he had been forced into early disability retirement and then she started naming off other men in the machinist department who had lost kidneys, developed cancer, and died from various causes attributable to the same solvent. Charlie was shocked. He had worked in another department which interacted daily with the machinists and knew them all. We said goodby, but the rest of the day Charlie kept coming back to Mike, he was just haunted by the shocking deterioration of Mike and that he could not even recognize Charlie. I know he will keep mentioning it from time to time and what a shame it is.
The second troubling thought:
We went to a congregation meeting and the topic was remodelling. The temple is beautiful and looks like it was done yesterday. It is immaculate, not one smudge or fingerprint or blemish anywhere. The congregation has retained contractors to advise them and the contractors have advised getting rid of the antique embossed wallpaper, getting rid of the antique wainscotting, getting rid of the old but excellent quality antique molding and panelling that cannot be purchased today, getting rid of it all and painting everything for a fresh, new look. They said the decorating is dated and needs to be replaced.
Well, I disagree! Would they redecorate Buckingham Palace or the beautiful buildings in Paris and throughout Europe just because they are dated??? I think not!!! I think the charm of the building is in its dating. I mentioned this privately to the congregation president and he replied "It's been this way over fifty years, and I guess I am just tired of it". Well, it's their call, I will restrain myself and keep silent. "Silence is Wisdom" , a yiddish proverb from the Talmud Mas. Yoma 4 b.
Today we will attend a 5:30 pm dinner at the Szechwan Restaurant with those of the congregation who choose to attend, and at 7:00 we plan to go to the Friday evening service. Tomorrow from 7 am to 11 am is the farmers' market and all day is the week-long high school rodeo at the fairgrounds. And tomorrow evening at 5:30 is dinner theatre with the play, the Fantasticks at 7:00.

"Bird the Hyena", June 11, 2009

HYENAS: Crocuta crocuta, named for their yellow crocus flower color, spotted hyena, cape wolf. The females are significantly larger than the males and are the leaders of the pack. An alpha female will be at the top of the clan, her daughters next, then the young sons, and last of all the mature, small, passive adult males at the bottom of the clan social order.
The females have large, long (sometimes seven inches), stretchy phalluses, larger than the males, and they use them to urinate, copulate and to give birth. Can you imagine giving birth through a penis? Their vulva are fused into their penises. The females have scrotal bags full of fat instead of testicles. Hyenas are sneaky, vicious scavengers and the females are the aggressors in eating and in sex and in all aspects of the pack life. Females in heat mount the least aggressive males and thus choose their inseminators.
I've been kind of oblivious to the constant clandestine social flirting that seems to go on constantly. Since I've been with Charlie, it is unavoidable. Almost every time we go out in public, the women flirt at him. Charlie does nothing to encourage this, au contraire, it is obvious he is with me, attentive and holding my hand or with his arm around me. Even so, the women act like I am not even there and just blatantly smile at him and start handling him, batting their lashes, preening and showing the backs of their wrists, smiling, raising their eyebrows, flipping their hair, fondling their earrings, exhibiting all the classic body language of a sexual advance. Sometimes this clandestine behaviour becomes overt.
One recent occasion: Last Friday we went to dinner at Little Italy and an older blonde woman came up to Charlie and started talking to him about how many people were in the restaurant. When she left, he said she had been rubbing her breasts against his shoulder. I could not believe it! She did have shoulder-length bleached blonde hair and heavy make-up but she had to be in her eighties! So Charlie said "She'll be back. If you don't believe it put your arm there and see". Sure enough, she did return and started another brief chat and left. Charlie said "She did it again and she'll be back". This time I did put my arm on Charlie's shoulder and sure enough a third time she came up and pushed her breasts hard into my arm and started rubbing them back and forth and up and down and around and around while telling Charlie the restaurant would be much busier later. So I stated "You're rubbing your titties on my husband's shoulder" and she kept right on rubbing them on my arm until she finally realized it was my arm. Even then she had no shame and kept on talking. I had to physically block her. I told her she should go talk to the piano player who was sitting by himself nearby alone on a break.
Another recent occasion: June 4, we went to the Grace Museum for a fancy reception. We were sitting at a table enjoying our wine and brie and hors d'ouevres. An older blonde woman quickly came up to Charlie and snapped his picture and then put her arm around him and asked if it was OK, and could she take another? Charlie looked startled and looked at me and I said "No! Stand by the buffet and I'll take a picture of you over there". But then I reconsidered and said "Oh, OK, stand behind Charlie and I will take one of you". Wouldn't you know she leaned over pushing into him closely! I took the photo and then she took one of me. I asked her name and she said "Bird" and spelled it. She took my email on a napkin to email me the photos. Then she leaned over right into Charlie's face and said to him "You're cute!!" and went running away up the stairs.
An older occasion: On my very first date with Charlie at our high school reunion, two blonde women actually crowded up to him competing for his attention, forcing me into the background, until he was forced to tell them outright "I'm with her" to make them back off.
I'm going to have to think about a proper response since this keeps happening. It is rude and disrespectful to me while inferentially flattering Charlie.

Barbequing Flesh; Cheating on Meat

"Barbeque" means to cook outdoors on a grill. But I bake meat with three flavorings: sweet and sour and spices - in the indoors oven at a very low temperature for at least 8 hours and the ribs taste wonderful.
The low temperature in cooking with sweeteners avoids the Maillard reaction, which gives toxic carcinogens and has other bad effects upon nutrients.
For "sweet" I use sugar, honey, fruit or omit entirely. For "sour" I use wine, vinegar, lemon or any citrus juice or omit it entirely. For "spices" I use thyme, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, or the nightshade chilis or anything else or omit them entirely.
As soon as I got out of bed early this morning, I put some ribs into a covered baking dish. I covered them with hot spices very freely. I put on the spices with the intent to make them too hot to eat. The spices were whole dried cayenne and various chili peppers I finely cut up with scissors. I thickly spread on the hot chilis. I baked them in the oven 30 minutes at 400 degrees, and now will keep cooking them for twelve hours at 175 degrees.
I meant to put them into the oven last night right before I went to bed and let them cook overnight and all day at 175 degrees. This seems to be the best way to get that good barbeque taste, spice it as strongly as you can and cook it as long as you can.
An angry word to the butcher: Lately when one buys ribs, there is a groove cut between the bones where someone has cut out the meat and robbed it! This is abhorrent! I will not buy ribs that have been mutilated in this manner to cheat me of my meat!
A cautious word for health: All chilis, peppers, paprika (not black pepper) are nightshades in the Solanaceae plant family. My research shows that a protein in nightshades bioaccumulates in the human body around the joints as it ages and over time can cause arthritis. A youthful, healthy body will flush out these toxins but the more you eat and the older you are, the higher your chance for arthritis. Solanaceae includes deadly nightshade, belladonna, jimson weed, nicotine tobacco, paprika, bell peppers, cayenne peppers, all chilis, tomatoes, eggplants, and potatoes. It may be that potatoes are less harmful since one eats the root instead of the fruit. But potato leaves can be deadly. So I try to avoid all the nightshades and I will eat sparingly or none of today's barbeque.
My non-nightshade barbeque sauce uses salt, honey, turmeric, ground mustard seed, black pepper, finely minced ginger, and vinegar. But yesterday Charlie expressed a taste for nightshade barbequed ribs.

The Grace; and the Snake

Thursday, already June 4, 2009, this month is going as rapidly as May did. This evening we plan to go the the Grace Museum, wwwthegracemuseum.org. It has five gallery spaces and three different permanent museums (History, Art, Children's) and is right in the middle of downtown. One can usually park free within one block and we can drive there in five minutes. What a difference from the big city with $10 parking and 30 minute drives to go anyplace! Here one arrives relaxed and ready to enjoy. I notice a big difference. I am reading a book "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" recommended by Eden's father, Dr. Alan, and the book documents the various stress hormones that remain in the body for hours after a stressful event, I can feel the difference.
This city is sophisticated and cultural and strongly supports its vigorous artistic community. The performing arts here are of the best quality. We have had a ball!
A great song I love is "The Snake". Go to www.songza.com and put it in the search box. Another music site is www.tropicalglen.com. I do love music and hope in the future to start playing again.

Carrying a Burden

Today I hope to finish some paperwork I need to mail to a witness for a hearing. Jami's comment: "Sounds like an important hearing". No, not at all really. I got an unwarranted parking ticket and posted bail for $47 and asked for an administrative hearing because there was no sign prohibiting parking. What is important is my witness who will go to the trouble of appearing at the hearing and presenting testimony and evidence. And Alan who will babysit adorable Eden while Jami plays lawyer. The importance is that the witness and babysitter will do this for me. I am grateful to have this support which is way more valuable than the hearing or the $47.
The hearing is my part of making things right for all of us. We should not get tickets without due process and without warning. It is unjust punishment. All the trouble and expense I have gone to is my gift to social justice.
Now that I have done all I can to right this wrong, I let go of the burden of injustice. I have done my part.

Lightning storm...

This evening we drove 15 miles to a 50 acre ranch for a cook-out at the girl-friend of one of Charlie's co-workers, Terry. She was cute and nice, a divorcee raising a 3rd grader and a 6th grader and today was their last day of school. The food was standard but good, hamburgers with accompaniments and chips and dips. It was spitting a few raindrops so Terry cooked outside and we ate inside.
She has lived here 17 years and is from Nova Scotia. Apparently her husband abruptly left her with the two kids and went off with another woman. She is a registered nurse.
After eating, we all went outside and sat and stood around and watched the lightning. Here the lightning puts on quite a show, it streaks all across the sky over and over again with only sometimes a bit of thunder. There might be one giant streak of lightning running from the top of the sky to the horizon, or it may light up in a giant web across the sky. We saw the lightning when we were driving there and it was still going on as we drove home.
Yes, the lightning could have been dangerous. I think, though, that it was pretty safe since it looked far away out toward the horizon, this may have been an illusion. There were metal chairs to sit on inside a metal shed. We didn't stay long outside and were the first to leave. Two of the guys kept spitting and I thought they were feeling brave to be in danger.

Looking forward, we may leave Abilene

Charlie got an email saying he would be going ("you will be going") on the repair travel module, meaning we will be moving soon, probable not earlier than a month, though, since it takes time to arrange things. So we are keeping in mind the transience of life and geography.
The only thiing that doesn't change is change.
Today I ran the roomba, did some cleaning, and filing and paperwork. Still waiting for paperwork from Chase in the mail, waiting for Fidelity to link accounts, need to keep checking online to see that things get done.
To me, for sure, doing things by snailmail with paper hardcopy was much faster, more efficient and better than doing things electronically. The old way was for certain much faster. In the information age, we are losing information.

Last day of May, where did May go so fast?

Sunday, May 31, 2009 - Where has May gone? It flew by. Charlie and I are doing very well and I am so pleased to be with him. For weekend breakfasts I made pancakes. I made the barbequed meat again, and yesterday also a meat loaf that was good: mostly meat and eggs with a little minced onion, celery and carrot (mire pois). We have been watching movies and eating Haagen Daz ice cream at home, saw "Private Benjamin", "Outsourced" and "Taking Chance" - all were good.
I just read a book on eating and it seems that short fat glasses cause people to drink more - this would be good for water glasses. It says that larger plates cause people to eat more food than they do when food is served on smaller plates. People who chew longer eat less. I knew this because the gut hormones, ghrelin and leptin have more time to act.

"The World's Fastest Indian" movie on Burt Munro

2005 movie: We watched Anthony Hopkins re-enact the true story of part of Burt Munro's life focussing on his speed record still standing today. At age 68 in August 26, 1967, Munro set the world's record for SPEED in the category of under 1,000 cc engines. Munro still holds the world record, no one has yet gone faster. Can you believe he went almost 200 miles per hour (190.07) at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, and he was 68 years old !!! Born at home (Herbert James Munro) on March 25, 1899, with a stillborn twin sister, he died in his sleep from heart failure on January 6, 1978. He married in 1927, and fathered a son and three daughters.
Even more astonishing is that Burt set his current world speed record on an old 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle manufactured to reach speeds up to 54 miles per hour. Munro worked on it for years and tinkered it up to higher and higher speeds with parts he personally made in his garage. Truly amazing !
If you decide to see this movie, be sure to first watch the Special Features interview with the real Burt Munro, it will make you appreciate the movie even more.
AND the movie is an excellent psychology study of the human spirit, and is inspiring in every category. Anthony Hopkins said it was his best role ever.
I think that Jami just had a tooth filled. I do hope that they correctly sized and placed the filling correctly so that there is no toothache pain from the filling pressing on the nerve root. May we have a calm and pain-free Jami.

Freedom Day is May 27

Today is my liberty day, a day of thankfulness for my freedom. I intend to relax and be mindful in the moment. I will keep a smile on my face, joy in my heart, and sunshine on my body.
I love life and feel gratitude for love, life, and liberty.
Thanks for my children and family and friends and neighbors. Last, but not least, thank you for my Charlie.
And on a sad note, Clayton mailbox vandalism, sheriff notified, and mailbox has been replaced. Now tv, phone, inet cable cut, I will just cancel these services to Clayton.

Charlie bought some blue mouthwash and after I gargled with it, my teeth were blue. So you know what I did next. I made my own mouthwash. I recycled my green Carlson's cod liver oil bottle, put vodka in it, added just a few drops of peppermint oil, wintergreen oil, and eucalyptus oil. It came out wonderful but strong so I added a bit of water. I made my own label and taped it on the bottle. Great!
For years I have made my own toothpowder. I purchased some toothpowder for the container and when it was used up, I re-filled the container with Arm & Hammer baking soda which is alkaline and good for teeth. For general household cleaning, I also use baking soda instead of Ajax, Comet, etc. However, I do buy Bar Keepers Friend because it is oxalic acid and when the sink does not clean up well with the alkaline baking soda, the acid Bar Keepers Friend will do the job. I plan to find a source to buy oxalic acid and then I will re-package it in my own container and label.
We went to the ballet "Tune In and Turn Out: Dancing Our Way Through TV Land" ( www. abileneballettheatre.org) at the Paramount Theatre and they are really, really good. Two of the dancers will go on to the Joffrey. One of the choreographers (Lindsay McGill) is as good as it gets, she could work on Broadway. I love live entertainment.

5-22-09 - Muffler Day

Friday, today is another beautiful day in Paradise and Charlie got off work early so it is even better. He is off work Monday, 5-25, for Memorial Day, so we have almost a four-day holiday. The muffler of the Blazer fell apart, so he went to Pep Boys and bought some parts and crawled under and fixed it in just a few minutes, he is a genius.
We went browsing-shopping in several stores, and did not buy much but looked around a lot.
In the evening, after dinner, we watched DVD movies from the public library and ate ice cream. The movies were bad, but we enjoyed being at home together.

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifUneventful so far.

Today is warm but pleasant, about 85 degrees. The weather is similar to Los Angeles but even milder. 85 here feels cooler than 85 there. An uneventful day so far. My liver and onions came out great. And I want to recommend www.responsibletechnology.org which was started by the author (Jeffrey M. Smith) of "Seeds of Deception" and "Genetic Roulette", two excellent books and the website has a list of GMO foods and many, many scientific references to proof of dangers and toxins in the food offered to us today by the profit-motivated giant food companies. Please note that I am all in favor of capitalism and "caveat emptor" (buyer beware). Because of the poisons deliberately put into the DNA of our food, I refuse to buy any genetically altered foods such as non-organic corn, soy, squash, tomato, and others.

5-27: My Annual FREEDOM FROM HELL Day

WARNING: Avoid this post ! This post contains unpleasant, sick material. It is very personal may NOT be helpful or entertaining to you. You may want to just skip it entirely. I believe mental illness is contagious, and this post describes depraved mental illness. I recommend that you go to a different post. Here goes: When I was young and dumb, a virgin at 18, I married a devil, Gene. Being young and stupid about people, I did not even recognize that he was a bona fide paranoid schizophrenic with severe BPD - personality disorders as well as multiple drug abuse. I had no idea that it was possible for people like him to even exist. I had been loved and pampered by my parents and teachers and was praised and admired by everyone for eighteen years. I won awards and contests and was first in everything, your outstanding "good girl". Imagine my shock and surprise at the first abuse when I was suddenly back-handed hard, right across the face, unexpectedly and without reason. An instant transformation from Teachers' Pet to Prisoner-Slave. I had no one to guide me, no parents, no aunts, no uncles, no grandparents, no friendly adults to tell my troubles to, only three younger siblings with their own problems.
It worsened from there, my life was in danger many, many times with knives, guns and physical abuse. I miscarried from his beating me and kicking me in the stomach with hard boots. He loved to put out cigarettes on my torso where the burns would not show. He strangled me unconscious several times. He loved to play Russian roulette, pointing a gun loaded with one bullet at my head and pulling the trigger. He would put a thin towel on me and beat me with whips and belts and sticks on top of it since he explained that this would keep some of the bruises from showing. He kept a constant watch on me since he knew I wanted to escape, I could not even defecate unless he was standing over me with a loaded gun, usually cocked. His beatings would come without any cause or any warning or any schedule and in between them he would sometimes apologize profusely. He repeatedly threatened me and told me of the different abuses and tortures he intended to do to me. He would drive me to work or school and be waiting to pick me up, always stalking around the work or school peeking in and watching me. I was simply his prisoner. Although I did now know it at the time, I was conditioned into Pavlovian constant fear of death.
He was also a pedophile for young girls, age 6 or so and he would often go out and say he had been at a school or playground. I sat next to him in a Shakey's Pizza restaurant when he groped a young girl's vaginal area for a long time (she was too shocked and confused to do anything ) when he saw her father go to the restroom. When the father returned from the restroom, the girl told on Gene. The father called the police and Gene ran out to the car with the father chasing him. I silently prayed for the father catch him and for the police to arrive in time, but he got away. I was horrified at Gene and at one point was able to report to the police from a college phone but the policeman answering the phone refused to take his information and instead made fun of me. At that time I was too much of a young greenhorn to know what to do next.
He had many more sick depraved inclinations. He liked to hurt animals. After he tortured Jaspar, a gold cat I acquired, I made sure never to have any pets. I was properly brain-washed into constant fear of death. There is much more that I could say, but I will stop here because it is sickening relive this. Let me just say I wish Gene literally to burn slowly in hell. He was human in his body but not in his soul. He deserves to never have been born.
I finally escaped from him on May 27 wearing a blonde wig. I had arranged with a friend of a psychiatrist to get a ride to California straight from the last exam. I had met a psychiatrist at college in the lunchroom and told about my situation. I asked for help to escape. Gene did not work, like a pimp, he always took all my money from my work but over the years I managed to sneak some money into hiding so I paid the friend out of money I had secreted in the hem of a coat to let me get a ride with him. I had lied to Gene and told him the last day of school was the next day. Back then, it was difficult for me to tell any lie even when my life was in danger. This is how stupid young people can be. Needless to say, I had a bad case of post-traumatic stress disorder for many years.
So you can see that May 27 is a holy day to me, a sacred day of freedom and liberty and healing. For years now I use this day to feel joy and to meditate and be grateful. I know now that "No one can do anything to you unless you let them" ( a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt who did not live by it) and I regret my stubborn promise to myself to stick with it and make my marriage work. I strongly believe in divorce. I wasted years of my life with unnecessary suffering but I am grateful that I finally ran away. "Geography is everything" - a quote from the serial murderer Ed Gein. Joy, optimism, meditation/prayer, moderation, mobility, service, love.

Community Chorus and Community Band

We went to an evening concert: Such talent, it was nice and in a wonderful setting - the Paramount Theatre ( www.paramount-abilene.org ). Free, but we gave a $20 donation. The community has established the Celebration Singers, Inc. with 501(c)(3) tax deductible donations and The Abilene Community Band. The performers are all free volunteers and the donations support college music majors. This is such a good idea, I wish all communities would do this.
The full chorus performed some Broadway numbers, and then some soloists and three different sextets sang. The band played several songs and one was really a tickle - a tuba and piccolo duet.
The third portion was the chorus and band performing together. This was the first time I have seen two conductors perform simultaneously. At one point, the chorus and band performed the same songs and the band conductor and the chorus conductor stood side by side and each conducted their group at the same time.
The barbequed ribs came out great. The secret is long, slow, low temperature baking. I baked them in a covered clay dish which held in moisture and kept them tender and soft. It's almost impossible to over-flavor this way.
The sauce came out great. I used only three ingredients for the barbeque sauce: hot red pepper flakes, vinegar and sugar. The pepper flakes were so old and musty and flavorless that anyone else would have tossed them, but I thought of the Egyptian mummies buried with plant materials and of how plants were grown from those old seeds thousands of years later. The spirit of the plant is still there. So, anyway, I soaked the old pepper flakes in some warm water and charmed them back into life. The sauce was excellent.
I tried several times to see the movie, "The Last King of Scotland". Last week I found the book at the Salvation Army thrift shop for 69 cents so now I understand that I was meant to read, not see, this story. The book seems very well written and the author, Giles Foden, is a man in his thirties who now lives in London. Can you believe it, this is his first novel!!!
Oh, and by the way! On page 4 of the program for the concert was a full-page ad for Suddenlink (remember my 5-15-09 post on them?). The middle of the page said "Unlimited local and US long distance." $93.00 per month with inet and tv. What rats! Talk about adding insult to injury! I can't wait to switch my phone service.
Today I plan to cook liver and onions. I bought the grass-fed beef liver for $5 a pound at the farmers' market from slowpokefarms from Joy Hedges, our Weston A. Price chapter Leader. I will first slow-fry some thinly sliced onion in butter and when golden I will add thinly sliced strips of liver and salt and freshly ground pepper and will gently fry until done. I love liver, and it is loaded with B-vitamins and nutrients. Some dip their liver in flour, or gently pound it in flour a la Meuniere, but I prefer it plain. Yesterday I toasted raw sunflower seeds in butter and salt, and I may sprinkle them over the liver and onions. Or maybe just a sprinkle of parsley. We'll see.

Links to two good sites.

www.janicebrenman.com
A good legal/Anna Nicole Smith - Howard K. Stern/interesting news blog.
www.westonaprice.org
A wonderful site for good health. Nutrition. Recipes. Science. Trustworthy. I think it is my favorite source regarding health.

Perfume: Story of a Murderer

Saw the movie and recommend it, it was quite unusual, had Dustin Hoffman and the rest were unknown actors which helped make it more real. Accurate psychology of an abused child who matured into an adult lacking empathy for others so murder was of no consequence to him, he failed to bond or identify with other living beings.

I tried making perfume before and it was easy. I took lavendar flowers and leaves from my backyard and put it in my blender. I added olive oil (to absorb the essential oil - like dissolves like) and added vodka (a natural anti-bacterial to keep it from rotting) and ground all in the blender. I let it sit for a week or so. Then I strained it and bottled it. That's all, I did not distill as they did in the movie. The lavendar perfume lasted about ten years, and I still have some.

Next time I make perfume, I will try to use a fixative: orris or storax. Orris is merely iris root and it somehow holds odors. So dig up an iris bulb, carve it into a shape or cut it into small pieces and dry it slowly. I had one carved into the shape of a nut and odored with camphor and I kept it in a sweater drawer to repel moths. Storax is dried resin from the sweetgum (liquidamber) tree. So scrape off the drippings and dry them to hold perfume.

From the movie, which showed enfleurage techniques, I see I can use butter, lanolin, jojoba oil, basically any fat to absorb the flower oils. I want to avoid oils from GMO's since whatever is put onto the skin is absorbed into the blood, at least a small amount.

Today I plan to bake some beef ribs in the oven in a closed pan with a sweet (sugar) and savory (vinegar) sauce at a slow temperature, maybe 190 degrees F. for about six or more hours. It'll be barbequed ribs.

Mama's birthday - May 17, 1921

Honoring Bertha Darla Jean Slayton, my wonderful mother.
Thank you for all you did for me.
You always did your best and always tried hard.
You deserved much better than you received.
I so hope that your life improved dramatically after February, 1958.
I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU.

the Better Business Bureau - http://bbb.org

I should have started with the BBB. I wanted landline phone service and got a flyer in the mail from suddenlink advertising phone, internet and Tv for $93.00 plus tax per month. The flyer said "Unlimited local and U.S. long distance." those are the exact words. But the bill is for more, and after calling and complaining several times and getting a credit, the bill is still over the written promise. What is the worst thing is that DAVID SHERRILL said "I will call you back by May 5 for sure and we will credit you or not, but for sure will call you before May 5." Well, they never called. I wish I had immediately filed a complaint with the BBB.

May 15, 2009 - Jan's birthday

Happy birthday to you, Jan! Just heard Julie's dad is ill, condolences and a fast recovery wished. Health is so important, and I can tell a difference from what I eat. Tomorrow is the first day of the farmers' market and I look forward to buying. Yesterday I made my medieval baked dish of turnips, rutabagas, layered with sardines, anchovies, black olives and Jarlsberg swiss cheese. Charlie made a wonderful stir-fry dish of chopped cabbage and chopped beef sausage. We are waiting for a Netflix movie, "Captain Newman, MD" starring Bobby Darrin who was nominated for an Oscar for this role. We will probably receive it tomorrow. Just returned "Boogie Nights" which I had been wanting to see for years, it was not that good because the writing and plot were choppy but the casting was excellent. Jan's blog is getting a lot of action, go to www.janicebrenman.com and leave your comment.

May 14, 2009 -tomorrow is Jan's birthday

May 15 - the day before my criminal procedure final exam. My law school let me take the exam about 6 weeks later, and I did fine. Labor started early in the morning, was it 5:00 am or so? I did have a horrible experience at UCLA and because of that horror I had my next baby at home on purpose, and ever since I have strongly been in favor of home births.
There is a DVD movie, "The Business of Being Born" by Ricki Lake that I wish every single parent-to-be would watch. It is truly eye-opening and educating. Childbirth is such an important subject that I would have this movie shown to every person as soon as they reached puberty in my Utopia.
Here in the year 2009, I am relaxing at home, doing a bit of hand laundry, plan to bake a tasty turnip dish based on a medieval recipe, plan to make some follow-up phone calls solving daily irritations made by corporations. Many years ago life was easier because business was done by individuals who cared. Today, things are likely to be handled by someone who does not share a common culture or language and basic understanding is more difficult. Also it is likely that the worker earns the minimum wage and does not intend to stay with the company for long, so it is hard to care about customers. So I find myself spending much more time fixing things than I did years ago.

check out www.janicebrenman.com

Yes, it is great - see the latest on Howard K. and ANS - I love her blog!