Summer Resolutions Revisited, Part I

In June, I wrote an entry with my summer resolutions, meaning things I wanted to accomplish over summer break. I had planned to write a quick update, but some of the resolutions deserve a little more time, either because they got done or didn't get done and the story of why and how is interesting to me. Today, I'm tackling #5 and #6: Walk two miles a day and work on strength and balance. This resolution was supposed to be about buying a Wii Fit, but I felt that that was going to be impossible since the Wii and the Wii Fit were nowhere to be found.

So, I'll start with walking two miles a day. I did this with a handful of exceptions. Having dogs to keep healthy makes this one pretty easy. One of the joys of having a dog is how easy it is to make them happy and excited, and all I have to do is get up every morning, throw on some clothes and say, "Let's go for a walk!" and Marcel's tail starts wagging and he starts jumping all over the place. Madeline, being the more sensible of the two, would rather sleep longer, but she comes along anyway. My neighborhood dead ends at a creek, so we walk to the creek and back and that is one mile. We do it in the morning and in the evening and that's my two miles. The nice thing is that a lot of people walk along the same path and I get to know my neighbors (actually my neighbors' dogs--it is a strange phenomenon that dog owners can name most of the dogs in the neighborhood but not their owners). The not so nice thing is that I had fooled myself into thinking that this was making me more fit. About a month ago, my friend D invited me to go along on her dog walk, which is about three quarters of a mile up a hill. I went, feeling that my daily walk surely had prepared me for this. Uphill walking is a whole different thing, it turns out. I was literally gulping for air. I tried again a week later. The next time was easier, and I plan to continue trying.

Thanks to kind friends and family, I did get the Wii Fit. My friend E, who loves shopping as much as I hate shopping, called me from a Walmart in late June. She had just found two Wii's. Walmart would only allow her to buy one, which was for her sister, but she called her son, who kindly drove down and bought the other for me. The Wii has some fun games on it, but it was the Fit software and balance board that I wanted. That's when Cameron went into action. He found a site that tracked where popular electronics could be found. He began checking it every morning until, one morning, in early July, he found one for me and ordered it right away. Soon I was ready to become fit!

When you first turn on the Wii, you are asked to make a Mii. This is an avatar that is supposed to look like you. You work with a menu that offers you many choices in eye types and colors, skin color, face shape, etc. It's kind of creepy how close you can come to making a copy of yourself.  Aging is a problem.  In real life, there are so many indicators of age:  hair loss or loss of hair shininess, loss of skin tone, weight gain, great wisdom.  The Wii has no such indicators, so men can add facial hair, if they have grown any, but women and men without facial hair are stuck adding wrinkles to keep from looking twelve.  You can also change your avatar to reflect changes in you. I cut my hair this summer and I noticed I was depending upon my glasses more and more, so now my avatar has a haircut and wears glasses.  So my Mii ages along with me, which is absolutely delightful.

Imagine getting up in the morning before the sun is up.  Bleary-eyed, you walk down to the room that contains your Wii Fit.  You turn it on and happy music fills the room.  You are told to turn on the Balance Board, which is a white plastic board (about 12 x 18 inches) that remotely talks to the Wii console.  The board's avatar comes on the screen, standing on end and tells you to step on.  You do and the board says, "Oh!"  In English, the word "oh" must have a hundred meanings and we can interpret all of them.  The meaning of this "oh" is quite clear:  I did not expect anything quite this heavy to step on me.  Then music that I can only describe as robot thinking music comes on while the Wii calculates your weight.  Then, in a voice that sounds like Shirley Temple doing an impression of Mickey Mouse, it says, "That's Obese!"  

If your BMI puts you in the obese category, as mine does, it's not a bad thing to face reality, though I wish I could turn off reality every once in awhile.  But, in case, after five minute or so of exercising, you forget you're obese, the Wii kindly helps you out.  As soon as it measures you as obese, it makes your Mii swell up to a larger size.

The activities are fun, and I've been going strong with them for more than 55 days now. I don't think I'd recommend the Wii Fit to someone who already has a workout routine. I don't think it would be challenging enough. In fact, I'm finding the aerobic menu to be kind of easy, but still very enjoyable. But there's also a strength, a balance and a yoga menu and I find all of these still very challenging. I also am guessing that there will soon be a Wii Fit part 2, which I will buy immediately. I love the rhythm boxing option, where I do ten minutes of boxing the air, while my Mii is hitting a bag. It's a great stress reliever. The running in place option is boring because, well, you're running in place, but at least you get to see your Mii run past waterfalls and cliffs. It's also fun that all the other Mii's you've made are running past you, sometimes falling down, other times encouraging you. So, when I'm running in place, I see my mother, Cameron, Marin, Marin's boyfriend, PJ, and Marcel and Madeline.

The funniest one is a balance game in which you suddenly appear on the screen dressed in a penguin outfit while standing on an ice floe.  You need to shift your weight on the balance board to make your Mii slide left and right on its belly.  Why?  Well, so you can watch a copy of yourself in a penguin suit catch fish that are jumping out of the ocean in its mouth.

The best thing is that being able to complete some of the Wii challenges has made me gain confidence in trying other activities. For example, I have started to look for more difficult workouts on the television's On Demand Menu. I look forward to exercising. Eventually the fun of the Fit will probably wear off, but I am hoping that it will be replaced with the fun of other ways of being active.

But I still wake up to the same two words every morning, and changes are slow, but instead of big losses, I have to try to be satisfied with slightly better fitting clothes, and a little more energy.  The other day, I was sitting in a chair that I have sat in often and I went to stand up.  Only after standing did I realize that I had always grabbed the arms of the chair to get up, and I didn't this time.  Small changes, but at least in the right direction.

Thou Hast Thy Music Too

Except for Earth, Wind and Fire's "September," I don't think there are any upbeat songs about autumn. There's September Song, which I hate, and California Dreaming, which I like, but both are pretty depressing, wishing away autumn. Then there's the equally depressing genre of songs about the ending of summer. These, like Boys of Summer and 4th of July, Asbury Park (I know, but read the lyrics) are really about the end of youth, so they tend to be kind of meaty, and I like them a lot. A few years ago, I went to Alaska in early August and it seems that everywhere I went, the residents were talking about autumn coming. It's not a date on the calendar there. You really could feel it in the air, in the angles of the sun, etc. But, for perhaps the first time in my life, I wanted a vacation to last longer and summer in Alaska was so pleasant (beautiful fruits and vegetables, salmon, blue skies, wonderful smells, all without horrible heat or humidity), that I actually felt that end of summer depression.

But Alaska was an anomaly for me. Autumn is by far my favorite season. I love everything about it: the quick change in the length of day, the smells (in my case, the smell I associate most with the start of autumn is the overripe grapes on my grapevine, which is accompanied by the sight of the birds that come for the feast), the colors of the leaves, the end of the last heat waves, and the evening chill. I love that it is also the best time to plant new things in the garden. This is definitely not the end of youth, but the beginning of something.

Autumn is still a few weeks off and we're going through a heat wave, but today at the Farmer's Market, its signs were unmistakably there. I walked over to the corn booth, where the owner told me that this was their last week until next July. I stuff myself with corn every year for two months, so that last week leaves me feeling bittersweet. I bought eight ears and vowed to appreciate every bite. But then, I turned a corner and there were apples! I hadn't seen an apple (a locally grown one) in months. I bought a couple of pounds of them and reminded myself that the foods of autumn are on their way and that peaches and melons and berries will still soon make way for apples and pears and brussels sprouts. One of the great things about September is that you will find all of these things together for a short period.

I'm such a pragmatic person in most ways that it surprises and amuses me (and probably those who know me) that, for me, going to Farmer's Market is not just about getting nutrition so I can live another week. It's more like a religious experience. I feel like I'm doing the right thing shopping there, I enjoy its cyclical nature, and I revel in the smells, the colors, the tastes and the textures of the various foods. One time, PJ saw me choosing some produce and told me that I was putting on my Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa) face.

The reader may notice that I did not say that I enjoy the sounds of the Farmer's Market. No, I did not because I do not. A recent trip to the Farmer's Market involved a woman who was getting on in years and a head shorter than me (I'm 5 foot 1 inch) repeatedly asking a vendor where the bananas are in a kind of bullying way. The man clearly didn't speak much English, so I smiled at her and said, "You won't find bananas here. They're not grown in this area." To which she narrowed her eyes and angrily said, "I have bought them here before!" I apparently hadn't made a dent in this woman's resolve because she continued to bother the vendor for a couple more rounds of questions until she gave up and went away. No doubt she's still searching for that papaya, mango, pineapple and banana booth.

I know that in many, many countries people are used to bargaining over prices. I realize that this comes as naturally as breating for the people from these places and that I shouldn't find this behavior as offensive as I do at Farmer's Markets, but it just seems that these farmers aren't exactly getting rich off of their produce and that we should all be happy to help them out. I am trying to get used to people who try to bargain in a non-insulting way, but I really hate it when people insult the produce when they don't get their way: "You are charging two dollars for THIS? Look at it! No good!" And then there are the customers who need to take Economics 101. A couple of years ago, I was waiting my turn at the blueberry booth. For only a handful of Saturdays every summer, these women show up with their mountain blueberries. They are delicious beyond words, and pretty expensive. Right now, they're charging six dollars a pint, but on this day when I was waiting my turn they were four dollars. It was about 10 in the morning and the Farmer's Market still had two hours to go. There were only two pints left and I was standing behind this woman who was rather aggressively trying to get these women to lower their price. She even had them weigh the pint of berries, and when they came in less than a pound, she declared triumphantly that they were charging four dollars for less than a pound. I wanted to scream at this woman. How could it not be obvious that these women were going to be able to sell their blueberries at the price they were asking long before the market ended? I got my turn when the customer gave up in disgust. By the way, I have accidentally found out that there are nice ways to get Farmer's Market bargains. I only bring so much cash, and I will often go to a booth with my last two dollars in hand and say, "Can you give me two dollars' worth of those?" The vendors are often very generous, especially if it is close to closing time.

Back to music. I appreciate artists, really I do. They put themselves out there in a way that I can only dream of. A good singer/musician can even enhance a shopping experience, and I have heard some good ones. I have a friend who has played at our local Farmer's Market to much crowd enjoyment. Recently, I was pleasantly surprised by the talents of a Beatles tribute duo, and found myself reluctant to finish shopping, enjoying the bright sunny day and the boppy tunes that seemed to fit well. Today's experience was more typical, though. There is a woman who has a decent voice who sings mostly covers of Brenda Lee songs. That type of music just doesn't seem to fit a Farmer's Market. She clearly has created an entire lounge show in her head. If you're listening as you shop, before you see her, you imagine that she's wearing a long sequined dress and she's being accompanied by a jazz combo. She does a little talking between songs and in the middle of songs, she'll stop singing and say, "C'mon, play it, boys." When you actually make your way over to where she's singing, you'll see a woman standing alone with a microphone and a boom box. Instead of that sequined dress, she's wearing a pair of polyester pants and an oversized print top and she's saying, "Play it, boys" to a CD. Although, in another setting I might enjoy her show, in this setting I feel uncomfortable as I pass her. But at least she can sing. Sometimes the musicians do not have that talent. The music does not drown out the bargain hunters, but just gives me something that I have to try and filter out along with the voices of the shoppers.

Four out of five senses aren't bad, so I'll keep returning, trying to listen to the sounds in my own head, like the voice that keeps telling me that autumn is coming.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

My summer break has ended, though it never feels totally over until the students show up, and that happens in a few days. Of course, the end of summer break means the beginning of hot weather. We have been told to prepare for 40 students in a classroom this year, as opposed to our usual 32. The idea of 40 adolescents being packed into our rooms (fingers crossed about the air conditioning, which often doesn't work when we first return) on a hot day after they have made it through a day that included P.E....well, you get the picture. In California, we're still waiting for the budget to pass, which means that we can't get things we need, like teachers to relieve the class size problem. In addition to all this, we have no network at our school right now, which means no television, printer or internet. It's hard to feel positive, and yet I know that all of our staff will be welcoming and positive on the first day of school. We realize that it is not the fault of children that California makes such a low priority of meeting their needs.

For those of you who don't live in California, or those of you who do live in California but have not visited a school in a bit, let me take you on a tour of a typical classroom at my school. Let me add that my classroom is, luckily, not typical. A few years ago, there was a plan to bring ninth graders to our school, so money was obtained to build them a beautiful new science building, complete with lab facilities. Never mind why it was not considered necessary to have facilities for sixth to eighth graders. The building was built, and the plan to move ninth grade was nixed for many sensible reasons that should have been obvious on the day the plan was hatched. So, we ended up with the type of room that all children should have for a classroom. But, let's visit a more typical room. It has one door and no windows. That's right. Right here in the Bay Area, near the Hayward fault, which could relieve its pressure at any time, we pack up to 42 people into a classroom that has only one exit. Don't worry, though. Every room has a little crowbar and a single gallon of water in case of emergency. The classrooms were pretty small and crowded with 32 desks, but now there are 36, and teachers are having to arrange these desks so that everyone can see the board. Additionally, all of our new students (one of the middle schools in our district was closed at the end of last year due to shrinking enrollment) have created the realization that sixth graders cannot have lockers this year. So, a sixth grade classroom with one door, no windows, 36 desks, and possibly 40 students, will have 40 backpacks packed with books, binders and other things to add to the fun.

It's hard to say who is to blame for this lack of planning and foresight. Anyone you ask will blame it on someone else. The school board, superintendent, state, Democrats, Republicans, foreclosures. The list goes on.

Our school has only three rules, which we spend the entire first week on:
Be Safe
Be Respectful
Be Responsible
It occurs to me that it may be hard to tell kids to follow these rules when they are forced into a system that does not follow the rules. A crowded school is not safe; the situation shows little respect for teachers and other staff or students. Most importantly, the mess I'm walking into was mostly avoidable. In fact, most people at our school who have little power to make decisions (secretaries, custodians, teachers, technicians) can recall at least one time (for most of us, several times) where we made it clear to someone who could make decisions that we were worried about safety, space, technology. Someone needed to be responsible and make the responsible decision. Instead, we got:
"I know it's difficult, but we know that you can make it work."
"Our hands are tied until the budget passes."
"There's a chain of command in this district. Have you gone through it?"

So, here lies the moral dilemma. Society entrusts us with the important job of educating the next generation of adults. Parents trust us to not only educate their children but to keep them safe. What happens when we feel that we can't do both?

Would You Like to Borrow my Tweezers, Ms. Kahlo?

I had a lovely afternoon in San Francisco today, though it started a little less than lovely. I have been enjoying a very quiet summer in the suburbs and I had forgotten how loud a city can be. The difference was pretty jarring. I felt like an aging Southern Belle who needed her "tonic" to soothe her nerves. It was a reminder that I'd better become accustomed to noise again because in two weeks I'm back to seeing 180 adolescents a day. They have city noise beat by many decibels.

PJ and I had a nice lunch and then he very kindly walked me to the Museum of Modern Art and used his membership to get me in, specifically to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit. I often have a love/hate relationship with modern art. Just when I think that I am really enjoying the pieces I'm looking at, I'll turn the corner and be confronted with a giant canvas covered only in white paint and then, instead of thinking that I don't like it or that I don't find it interesting, I get upset because I feel like I should be "getting" some understanding from the piece. I feel like everyone else in the room is thinking about how the white canvas makes you contemplate only texture without figure and color and if they could read my empty thoughts, they would shake their heads sadly and move on to look at the single black box on the floor. So I was grateful to PJ for this quote in his blog from The Cutting Ball Theater's artistic director. Referring to his avant garde festival, the director, Rob Melrose, wrote in the program: "Sit back, enjoy and let your mind be washed over with these beautiful words and images." I decided I would let the art just wash over me and forgive myself for not understanding.

It turns out that this is a much more enjoyable way to see modern art. Don't like the urinal on a pedestal? That's okay; just move on. Leave it to someone else to contemplate the beauty of this common object. Drawn to the giant curtain made of pieces of silk flowers sewn together in a cascade? Excellent! Do not worry that you do not see how the curtain reminds us that negative space is an important aspect of art, as the card on the wall tells us. (By the way, I loved the silk flower curtain for its gigantic size and because someone actually came up with this insane idea, and made me want to go home and make one).

This does make me wonder about modern art. If much of it is made not to be understood but to just wash over you, that makes it very different from any art that came before, in which the point seems to have been either to communicate or to decorate a practical object. Does that make modern artists more self-centered? Should they care whether or not the viewer understands what they are trying to convey?

I saw much that I liked today. I was mesmerized by an area that was painted to appear to be the light and shadow caused by the sun streaming in a window in autumn. The artist had painted the shadows, but it seemed so real. Three different seasons through the same window were depicted in different rooms of the museum. I also loved that an artist had taken simple white shirts and folded them in several different ways. My favorite piece in the museum's permanent collection is Diego Rivera's The Flower Seller . I love it for its spectacular colors and touching depiction of the two workers who must load and carry the flowers, and because most artists paint a picture and then frame it, but Rivera seems to have decided that he had a canvas in a frame and that the figures in the painting would just have to fold and bend their bodies to fill the frame.

And from Diego Rivera we segue into Frida Kahlo. This is an incredibly popular show. The crowds were large, which is a shame because there is definitely an intimacy to Kahlo's work. In fact, I found myself wondering if she ever meant for thousands of people to have this kind of access into her life. The paintings are almost all autobiographical, which is part of what has been responsible for the cult that has grown up around Kahlo. Many different groups of people who see themselves as underrepresented or underserved have seen a fellow sufferer. Add to this that she was completely overshadowed by her more famous husband (who cheated on her with HER SISTER!!!) and you have a bona fide symbol for many causes. Make no mistake. Frida Kahlo did suffer. She was in pretty constant physical pain, she was disappointed in love, and she longed for a child. And this suffering is made palpable in her paintings. I found the most affecting to be one that she painted after learning of one of her husband's affairs. She is lying naked on a bed, her body covered with stab marks and blood. Her husband, fully dressed, looks on. The blood is even smeared onto the frame of the painting.

I felt almost shamed for looking at the paintings. They seemed way too personal to share. And here I was confronted by the opposite of what makes me uncomfortable about modern art. Here I was, being moved but made uncomfortable for the sake of an artist who is long gone. I found myself wondering if maybe she should have not included herself in the paintings. Couldn't she depict her emotional pain using another subject or some abstract figures? So, I stood there in the museum, realizing that maybe I don't want to know so obviously what the painting is about. Maybe I like and understand those canvases with nothing but squares of different colors better than I thought. Still, the paintings were very, very moving, and in many ways as jarring as the outside noise.

If you go, don't miss the photographs or the short film of Kahlo and Rivera. It became clear to me that my image of Frida Kahlo as a shy, simple woman who quietly painted was very wrong. First of all, she was very attractive by today's standards. Her looks were probably pretty exotic for the 1930's, though. I'm pretty sure she knew exactly what she was doing with her famous elegant peasant look. It suited her looks, it made her stand out, and it was easy to accessorize with great earrings and bracelets, along with flowers for her hair. Okay, she should have plucked her eyebrows, but everything else looked good. After viewing these, I came to the conclusion that she probably would have enjoyed her cult status.

Me? I would have hated it.

I left the museum with my new attitude still intact. I let the outside noise wash over me. Thanks to the strong Euro, I heard many different European languages being spoken by tourists. I looked around me to see what they must be seeing for the first time. San Francisco is a great city for tourists. I walked with the stream of tourists to the ferry building, where I always now feel at home. I bought two chickens and some rustic bread and I went home.

A nice way to almost end my summer vacation.

A Weekend in the Country

When I saw the front porch and the redwoods on the website, I was intrigued, but then I saw the hammock and that was that.

When I was young, a vacation was a given. I was well into my late teens before I realized that not every family took annual vacations. On Mansfield Drive, where I grew up, lots of families did not take annual vacations, but they were living paycheck to paycheck. I did understand that there were things that people couldn't afford, but it came as a surprise that every family that could afford it didn't pile into a car once every year and go somewhere for a few days. My best friend in elementary school, Sandy, lived the most exotic life because she sometimes went to Hawaii to visit relatives. The rest of us, though, went to visit closer relatives or went camping. Because I grew up in the fog belt, it didn't take much travel to get somewhere that felt like it was "away" and vacation-y. If the daily temperature rose past 70 and if swimming was available, we were very happy. Every few years, we would go to Disneyland, which was the most exciting trip of all. One year, we even took a long road trip, driving all the way to the Washington/Oregon border. I was thrilled with Crater Lake, which we saw along the way. We had learned a little about volcanoes in school, and here I was looking into the mouth of an old volcano, which had filled with the bluest water I'd ever seen. I also learned that my family probably wasn't very well suited to taking long road trips.

I mostly loved our vacations, which made me want to give my children annual vacations. I also wanted for all of us to see more. Our annual vacations became pretty interesting trips: Washington D.C., Seattle, Alaska, Yellowstone, London. In addition, there was some camping and, of course, Disneyland. We saw a lot, but it was the trip to Alaska that opened my eyes to what was missing. In Alaska, we did a few days of road trips. It seemed wrong to travel that far to only see the state from the water. I also didn't think I'd really like the cruise part too much. I'm not a cruise person, I told myself. I was very wrong. There is no such thing as a cruise person. The ships are huge and they offer so much that I can't imagine anyone not having a good time. Mostly, you could find me on deck somewhere in a chair, reading. When we pulled into port, we would walk around town for a few hours. The thing was that I wasn't in charge. Someone else was doing all the driving. And it was so quiet out on the ocean. When I came home, I felt more relaxed than I had in my entire adult life.

I understood, for the first time, why people go to places like resorts. I also understood the beauty of my family's close to home camping vacations. Forced relaxation can be a good thing. So, this year, I wanted to go somewhere that smelled of trees, and that was quiet. My brother and sister-in-law and mother joined me for a few days at a house in Cazadero, near the Russian River. It was very nice and, when I came home, I forced myself to slow down my pace. Some of my summer resolutions may not happen and that's okay.

By the way, the little country markets where one buys food....well, let's just say this is not The Waltons. I was hoping for baskets of berries picked that morning by local people which I would cover with lightly sweetened cream that had been milked from a dairy cow that very morning. Instead, I got something akin to an inner city 7-11. But that's another story.

The BS is as High as an Elephant's Eye

Rant alert!

The Corn Refiner's Association is taking out full page ads in many of today's newspapers (thanks, PJ, for the heads-up), running some television commercials, and giving us a website, sweet surprise, to inform us about many different kinds of sweeteners.  Why, you may ask, would a group that makes High Fructose Corn Syrup want you to learn about sugar, honey and aspartame?  This information allows one to create an interesting division between nutritive and non-nutritive sweeteners.  The corn refiners kindly give you information on those non-nutritive (in other words, non-caloric, sweeteners), but one suspects that the real goal is for the reader to lump HFCS, sugar and honey into the same wholesome category.   In this case, nutritive means calories only, not vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, or fiber.

For those who don't already know about this, meaning you haven't had a conversation with me in the last twelve months, high fructose corn syrup is a sweetener that was so inexpensive when it was introduced in a big way in the early 80s, it soon became a major part of most Americans' diets.  After reading about it in The Omnivore's Dilemma, I put myself on a HFCS free diet.  Like many people, I try to eat as many natural, non-processed foods as possible, so it wasn't all that difficult to keep high fructose corn syrup out of my diet in a big way, but it was difficult to keep it out of the shopping cart.  This is because it shows up almost everywhere.  So, while I might be planning a simple meal of barbecued chicken, potatoes and fresh vegetables, I would have to pass on a jar of barbecue sauce and on a premade salad dressing.  Needless to say, most sodas are out of the question.  Now that I've made a concerted effort to not buy anything with HFCS for an entire year, I thought I'd survey my kitchen:

I found it in Honeymade Graham Crackers, Greek Salad Dressing, corn syrup (even though corn syrup is different from HFCS, even corn syrup uses it as a sweetener) and a barbecue sauce.  Check your own kitchen out.  It's amazing where it turns up.  PJ found some in dried fruit!

So, how bad is the website?  I couldn't find any outright lies.  It's kind of the Fox News of websites in that it just leaves out important details that would give you a fair and balanced view of things. Here are some examples:

1. The body metabolizes all sugars the same.  Maybe.  The jury is still kind of out on this one.  Some studies suggest that the higher fructose to sucrose ratio of HFCS causes difficulty for the body when it is processed by the body.  This information is left completely out.
2. High Fructose Corn Syrup won't make you obese.  It is true that if you only ate HFCS and nothing else, you would die before you became obese, but the site fails to mention that there are much better ways to get nutrition, and that this country's obesity problem completely coincides with the introduction of HFCS into our diets.
3. (My favorite)  HFCS is not less natural than sugar and honey because they all need processing.  Yes, they are all processed.  Honey is poured through a filter to remove impurities.  Sugar has some lime (not the fruit) added to the cane or beet juice in order to pull out some impurities and then it is filtered and solidified (this process goes back hundreds of years).  High Fructose Corn Syrup?  Too many steps to write about here, but it involves corn to cornstarch, then treatment with several enzymes, then carbon absorption and several evaporation steps.
4. U.S. Food Manufacturers continued use of HFCS is based on the benefits it provides rather than its price relative to sugar.  Oh my!  This is probably as close as this site comes to a lie.  It is true that HFCS, because it is a liquid does keep foods moister and has some other benefits.  However, this is not why it is used in sodas, for example.  Up until very recently, farmers grew far, far more corn than the world needed.  The government would buy the excess and sometimes just let it rot.  At the same time, the government put tariffs on imported sugar.  So, HFCS was an answer to everyone's prayers.  Ignore the plight of the sugar growers (which is another sad story in itself), ignore that we could have used that excess corn land to grow other things (if you want to get sick, read the part in The Omnivore's Dilemma about how we are forcing the nation's cattle to eat corn when their stomachs are evolved to eat grass).  Ignore what growing nothing but corn in huge quantities does to the nation's farmland.  

Why this ad campaign now?  Well, I'm guessing that the high price of corn due to its use in ethanol is making HFCS rather close to sugar in price.  (And here is our next big ethical dilemma:  do we really want our farmland being used to literally fuel our cars instead of feeding the world?)  This, coupled with consumer interest in getting away from HFCS is probably making a lot of food manufacturers think twice about what they should be using to sweeten their foods, if they need to sweeten them at all.  Do we really need salad dressing to be sweet?  

By the way, lest you feel sympathy for the Corn Refiner's Association:  as far as I can tell, it consists of seven companies, not individuals, and those companies are involved in making cornstarch, dextrose and ethanol along with high fructose corn syrup.  I think if we all stop eating HFCS, they're going to be okay.

If You Can't Stand the Heat

So, my summer resolutions were kind of slowed down by two days of work and a horrible heat wave. I was complaining about the heat to my sister, who asked what the temperature was. I complained, "90s!" This was followed by a moment of silence where I realized that my sister, who lives in St. Louis, was probably less than sympathetic. Seriously, though, it was very uncomfortable and the state is burning up, which it's not supposed to do until September/October. This is going to be a tough year.

Yesterday, I had a day off and I decided to not try and work through the heat. Instead, I spent the entire day reading Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. If you like Hollywood movies from the 1930s (and if you don't, I don't want to hear about it), I think you'll love this book, which reads like a screwball comedy. It was charming and funny and a very quick read. But I think that there's more to it than that, too. I think it was a look into the inner life of a woman who has been invisible her entire life, but who finds that she has skills that give her some power. And though we only see the other main character through Miss Pettigrew's eyes, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that the beautiful blonde young woman with pretty loose morals was actually very intelligent and kind.

This morning when I woke up, it was at least twenty degrees cooler than it had been for several days, meaning that I could get back to my cleaning frenzy. It was time to work on the room I most dreaded...the kitchen. Here is a before and after of the worst cupboard:




A clean cupboard does something to my soul. Sad, but true. There's a sense of peace that comes to me when I look at it, and the hope that I can keep it that neat (though I've had my own kitchen to take care of for twenty-nine years now, so the odds are against me that I will change). Anyway, I can enjoy it for a while, and I can enjoy my orderly kitchen for an even shorter while. If you know my kitchen, you can have fun listing what I changed. And I've been saving for some changes in my kitchen. Feel free to weigh in on what you would change.






Now, back to my cleaning frenzy.

Everything but the Glass Slipper

I haven’t blogged Groomer Has It for a bit, so I have missed telling about the insane and scary and tight skinned dog psychic and the grooming van challenge, in which the groomers were judged on their driving skills and told that a van accident is unacceptable at “this point in the competition.”

We begin with Kathleen’s exit. She did not tell her client about cutting the dog’s nails too short. Jorge really wished for her departure, which could be foreshadowing of what will happen to him this week. This week’s Quick Sniff begins with a message to meet Jai, the host, at the Dog Park. Each groomer is given a booth, which looks hilariously like Lucy’s Psychiatrist Booth in Peanuts. They have to decorate it themselves and prove their business savvy by getting customers and grooming, setting their own prices.

And, as they begin to decorate, their booths look quite a bit more like Lucy’s booth with hand-written signs and prices. Artist’s booth, “Doggie Depo,” is in the worst location, so his strategy is to lure customers over by undercutting Jonathan’s prices, which Jonathan says are “Manhattan prices.” If it was about anything but dogs, I would probably applaud Artist’s business savvy, but I’m not sure that having low, low prices is the right strategy for dog lovers. Why isn’t he undercutting Jorge’s prices? Jorge has no prices. Jorge has a very smart strategy. He tells the clients that it’s a competition and they should pay what they think is right.

Everyone seems to be busy the entire time. At one point, Jorge has a lull, but it doesn’t seem to last long. Jorge’s strategy seems to be working well. We see him getting $20 bills for nail trims, while Jonathan is only charging $4 and Artist, $2. Later, it seems that people are paying less and less. While the suspense builds as we wait to see who has made the most money, Jonathan makes fun of Artist’s sign because it is not centered. He doesn’t mention the spelling of Depo. Artist tells the confessional camera that Jonathan is an “arrogant prick.”

Jonathan ends up winning. He pumps his fists into the air, yelling, “New York prices!” Catchy.

The actual challenge for this week is to hand-strip Wire Haired Terriers. Apparently, Wire Haired Terriers need their hair pulled out by the follicle or else the follicle can become infected.

Artist says that he has never stripped. Jorge hand strips a lot. Jonathan says that hand stripping is one of his favorite things to do.

Artist is at a large disadvantage because he is the only groomer who has never stripped. So, he should be eliminated, but it is starting to look like the producers are turning this show into a Cinderella story, with our guy from the streets being the most deserving winner. The edits are showing Artist as kinder and kinder and his competitors as, well, arrogant pricks.

Though Jonathan is not one of the judges, he tells us that he did an amazing job and that he should win. Jorge, master of stating the obvious, tells us that this could be the grooming that makes you or breaks you. Artist is asked what he could have improved upon and he, following in Jorge’s footsteps, says that he could improve upon his technique.

I realize watching the judges’ discussion that the judges have started to talk about Artist as if he is one of their pets. Xavier says, “He learns quickly, he catches on, and he’s attentive.” I’m surprised they’re not petting him, other than figuratively.

Speaking of which, Artist is named this week’s Best of Show because he did the best job for someone who has never done this job before. Jonathan will compete against him in the finals. Jorge has to take his ego and go home.

Summer Resolutions

It seems fitting to change my blog colors with this post.

I doubt that I'm the only teacher who makes summer resolutions instead of New Year's resolutions. My summer resolutions tend to get done, unlike New Year's resolutions. I think there are several reasons for this. I am just coming down from an exhausting schedule, especially at the end of the year. Teachers, who quickly become accustomed to having more days off than anyone but firefighters, become exhausted by the two long, vacationless periods in the year: from September to November and from Spring Break (which was very early this year) to mid-June. The end of the year involves cleaning and often packing up classrooms, entering final grades, end of the year awards and ceremonies, and goodbyes for students, retirees, and those let go. I have several side jobs, too, and many of them end at the same time as the school year. Paperwork needs to be done, reports filed, letters of recommendation for colleagues written. This is my long-winded way of saying that one of the reasons that summer resolutions get done is that it takes some time to come down from that feeling of constant rushing, so I take advantage of it at first.

There's a weather component, too. Here in San Leandro, near the San Francisco Bay, summers are often mild, causing me to feel like doing things. Those who know me know that as soon as the thermometer hits 80, all bets are off. I am not fit for human company, unless that company doesn't mind spending time with an incoherent, sweaty and miserable lump. But as long as we stay in the 70's (or even better, 60's), I like working. Western culture, with its January 1 New Year, sets us up for failure. Who wants to start exercising or quit bad habits when days are dark and you are feeling like hibernating?

But I think the main reason that summer resolutions can get done is that summer vacation ends, so summer resolutions must end, too. So, the resolutions have to have reachable goals. The typical New Year's resolution is a rest of your life resolution. Too long. Too scary.

This is a rare summer for me, where I'm not spending much of the summer working. So far, I have eleven working days planned. That will increase as we get closer to August 19th, when all of this comes to an end, but for right now, I feel like the possibilities are infinite.

So, here are my summer resolutions. They won't all get done because it isn't possible, but my first summer resolution is to revisit this list of resolutions in late August and blog about how I did (perhaps there will be pictures!)

1. A thorough cleaning of every room in the house (including drawers and closets) along with needed repairs in each room.
2. Start the new school year with a well-tended garden that does not embarrass me.
3. Finish the quilt I've been working on for several years now (there will be a photo if I finish). It has been a long time since I've started a new one, and I'd really like to. And, PJ, I will help you start yours, too.
4. Get my backyard fence rebuilt. Parts of it fell down in a storm this year, mostly because they had rotted.
5. Walk at least two miles every day.
6. Find an activity to do that helps with strength and balance. This was going to say "buy a wii fit," but it appears that the market will keep this from happening. Our sinking economy causes Nintendo to prefer to sell them in Europe instead of here.
7. Paint my bedroom and make it feel less cluttered.
8. Go through my curriculum unit by unit, and attempt to make it more interesting to all my students.
9. Read a lot (this one is purposely left vague because I haven't picked out all my summer books yet, so I haven't decided if I'll spend several weeks on a meaty book, or read shorter books).
10. The one I'm most excited about: Build a Stickley-style trestle coffee table (N, another teacher, is kindly going to help me with this)

We'll see what happens. And I do mean "we" because another resolution is to blog at least twice a week until August 19th.

Won't Get Fooled Again

So, Groomer Has It is down to the final four: Artist, Kathleen, Jonathan and Jorge. So far, this show has not had any big surprises or upsets. If that pattern continues, then Artist should be saying goodbye on today's episode.

The episode begins with Jonathan and Kathleen telling the camera how much they are disliking each other. Perhaps my guess about today's elimination is wrong since every episode tends to begin with foreshadowing about who is being eliminated.

The Quick Sniff takes place at a dog rescue organization, or so we are led to believe. But, surprise, there is no Quick Sniff this week. This is the elimination challenge. Jorge is a bit upset about there being no Quick Sniff because, he tells us, "I was hoping to play with something today." Oh, Jorge. I suppose you can do that later.

So, I'm starting to think that I'm right about either Jonathan or Kathleen going home because there is no formal judging. This week is about that giving back part that was discussed in episode one. Four dogs will be groomed and hopefully adopted. The groomer of the last one to get adopted is the one who will go home.

There are four dogs to choose from. Kathleen, as last week's winner, goes first and falls in love with Teddy, who is the male breeding dog from a puppy mill. He is in the worst shape and was treated horribly. He is so matted that he feels pain when walking. But she doesn't pick him because "it is a competition." Now, readers, remember this moment because it will come back to haunt Kathleen over and over again in the episode. Let's explore this decision: there are only four dogs to choose from. There are four groomers. So, each dog will get special treatment from a groomer who will do his/her best to get the dog adopted. Kathleen didn't choose Teddy, but that doesn't mean that he just received a death sentence.

Artist comes next and picks Teddy, even though he and the other groomers think he just committed competition suicide. And sure enough, Teddy is so matted that he has to be shaved completely, which reveals his sores. It is not a pretty sight. The other groomers are in awe of Artist for making such an unselfish choice, and it seems to bring out the best of some of them. Jorge finishes his dog and Jorge helps Artist with scissoring.

Jonathan has a very pretty black Pomeranian and Kathleen has a white dog that looks like a cockapoo. Jorge has the female breeding dog that was rescued from the puppy mill. All the groomers are shown actually caring that all the dogs, especially Teddy, find homes.

All the groomers are sent out with their newly groomed dogs to try to talk people into attending the adoption fair. Artist seems to be the most charming of the four. People seem to be drawn in by him and his enthusiasm. Teddy, despite being a bit unattractive, is a very friendly dog. Jorge realizes that telling the story of his dog, the breeding female from the puppy mill, draws people in. Plus, the dog is really cuddly. Kathleen is seen trying to steal away Jorge's customers. Jonathan seems to be having no luck getting anyone interested in his dog. He might want to rethink calling potential customers evil. More foreshadowing?

Later, at home, Jonathan says that he will be mad if he gets sent home due to a challenge that has nothing to do with grooming. Can't blame him, but only one of these competitions has been completely fair (the wire dog challenge). They all have had randomness as a factor.

All four groomers are showing their best sides, truly caring about adopting all the dogs. As if Artist wasn't saintly enough in this episode, he actually is responsible for Jorge winning the challenge when a client doesn't want Teddy. Artist realizes that Jorge's dog might be a good match. All of the groomers are in awe of Artist's kindness.

Jonathan is next to adopt his dog out to a cute little girl who keeps saying that she wants to take the dog home.

Now, it's down to Kathleen and Artist, and there really is some suspense. We have Kathleen, who got first choice and who chose what seemed to be an easy to adopt dog, and we have Artist who did the right thing and everyone knows it.

The next client to come in is a guy whose girlfriend sent him because she liked Kathleen's dog. It seems like it'll be a slam-dunk, but the dog doesn't seem to like the guy very much, instead preferring Kathleen. Artist, waiting for clients, looks dejected. Kathleen, at this point, really should have suggested Artist's dog, but she doesn't. The guy signs adoption papers.

I'm feeling pretty bad for Artist, though he did a good thing and should be proud. The judges show up to, I think, say goodbye, but no! Artist is not being sent home after all. I'm pretty sure that the producers of the show decided that they didn't want to receive hate mail the rest of their lives.

So, a kind of sweet episode.

Next week looks funny again. The groomers are paired up and sent out in big grooming vans to make house calls. It looks like lack of driving skill becomes an issue.

Hey! I just realized that they must have planned to not eliminate someone this week all along. Otherwise, they couldn't do the grooming van episode the following week. When will I learn not to trust reality television, even on Animal Planet?