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/
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http://www.realmilkaustralia.com/
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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.