Saturday, January 31
Wednesday, January 28
honestly now...
...boys, does this REALLY make you want to eat more veggies??
leave it to the lefties at PETA to come up with that as a SuperBowl ad. thank goodness (in my opinion) it didn't actually make the final cut!
chicken broccoli fettucine
Another recipe we just tried was my take on classic chicken fettucine (with a twist to use up some items sitting in the pantry).
Chicken Broccoli Fettucine
by: cvo
4 chicken breasts, rinsed & cleaned
1 pad butter, no salt
1 dollop vegetable oil
dash salt, pepper, garlic powder
handful spaghetti or fettucine pasta, high fiber/protein
big pot water
pinch salt
1/2 head onion
2 cloves garlic
1 head broccoli
1 can cream of broccoli soup
1 canful nonfat milk, organic
lg dollop ricotta cheese
smidgen salt (to taste)
dash pepper (to taste)
dash basil, dried (to taste)
dash parsley, dried (to taste)
sprinkle parmesan cheese
1. Clean up & rinse 4 chicken breasts. Preheat oven to 350.
2. On stovetop, brown butter in a skillet and then add oil. Heat on high until almost smoking (don't burn!). Start an additional pot of water to boiling for pasta.
3. Add meat to skillet and fry until browned. Remove to oven-safe pan and transfer to oven. Cook meat in oven until done (190 degrees internal temp - about 20-30 minutes).
5. Meanwhile, chop up broccoli, onion, & garlic. Cook on stove with a little oil until softened.
6. Add pasta to boiling water at this point and cook for 8-10 minutes.
7. Add ricotta and can of cream of broccoli soup to veges in pot; fill now empty can with milk and add as well.
8. Season vege pot with salt, pepper, basil, and parsley. Stir. Taste. Adjust if necessary.
9. Once all ingredients have finished cooking, put pasta in a bowl, layer with cut up cubes of cooked chicken, and top with vege fettucine sauce and sprinkles of parmesan cheese!
Serves 4
cranberry coconut cookies
Mom and I are having a nice time experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen. We've worked out a good process too - I dirty the dishes and she puts them in the dishwasher. LOL Well, and I help put them away too.
I had a hankering for some really oaty cookies the other day and came up with this low-everything recipe. I'm in the process of tweaking it still (I'd like to lower the carbohydrate calories more and increase the proteins), but it's pretty yummy the way it is.
Cranberry Coconut Cookies
by: cvo
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup egg substitute (or 3 egg whites)
1/4 cup butter, w/o salt - room temp
2 tbs milk, nonfat organic
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup whole oats
2 tsp cinnamon, ground
1/2 tsp basking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup cranberries, dried
1 tbs coconut, dried
1. In your main mixing bowl, combine all wet ingredients until smooth and well mixed.
2. In a seperate mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients until well blended.
3. Add dry to wet and mix well.
4. Add cranberries & coconut to the mix. Blend until just combined.
5. Scoop dough with small ice cream scoop onto cookie sheets.
5. Bake in oven at 325 degrees, about 12-14 minutes. (They will stay mounded and not flatten out like you might expect.) Should come out kinda gooey in the middle and firm on the outside. Don't bake too long, or they'll dry out! Will make about 18 cookies (or more if you make them smaller...or less if you eat the dough before it gets to the oven!!).
I'm testing out a new recipe calculator, so I figured up the actual stats per cookie for y'all...
For the next batch, I want to try to substitute some of the sugar with molasses (I'd LOVE to try agave nectar if I can get my hands on it around here, but I have no idea where I could by THAT in Yakima), add some powdered milk for extra protein, maybe decrease the wheat and add some All Bran for extra fiber, and use some applesauce to replace some of the butter.
If you have any other healthy substitutions you'd make, let me know!
Monday, January 26
substance
A long-lost friend out of the great state of Missouri made a request for more posts of my thoughts, things I'm passionate about, and the stuff that lights me up. [Posts of substance are what I heard him ask for. As if the latest trekkie news or the cutest thing my kitties just did aren’t substantial enough?!? heh! ;)]
I'm not sure if my unemployed brain still knows how to be substantial, but I told him I'd give it my best shot. So this is for you D.T.S. (BTW - hope you're feeling much improved today and your French kids bring you a polished apple from Yakima!)
Well, here I am again. It's 2:00am and I still can't fall asleep at a decent hour...for the umpteenth night in a row. I do enjoy this time best of all, though. It's so quiet. Everyone is asleep, including my rambunctious kitties.
What do I do at all hours of the morning? I listen to myself think, while tapping my toes to my favorite country songs and fiddling with my many art projects I start but don't finish (that's another post - some are so secret I can't mention them on here yet.......S.M.!).
What do I think about? All kinds of things. Lately it's been pondering my move. Playing through all the different psychosocioeconomic impacts the experience has had on my life and others. Pondering "did I make the right decision to move down there? am I making the right decision to move back here, as opposed to staying down there or moving somewhere else? what's the best decision?" Each question seems to bring up 10 more questions all their own, with 10 additional off-shoots, and before I know it I'm 100 steps down a mental path I can't even remember how I started. I've had to set aside my artsy stuff in favour of journaling lately, just to try to keep my thoughts straight.
If nothing else, it's helpful that this move - to wherever I end up - feels like definite closure to at least one chapter in my book. I love closure. Especially clean-cut closure. So that's a really good feeling right now. But I'm realizing after having been Home for a while that there were a couple chapters back before SoCal that I had thought I'd left open. I guess somehow I thought I could just jump back in and wrap them up once I came back Home - whenever that would be - knowing I wouldn't be gone forever and always. It's a very odd sensation to come back and realize some chapters do, in fact, close themselves, though - whether I pen a seemingly satisfactory ending or not.
Life moves on, with or without. I knew this, of course. We all do. We've all experienced it one way or another. But it's the finding of my place again (even among longtime dear friends in a town I grew up in, yet sometimes don't recognize anymore) that's been a big challenge for me...yet again. So much of life is a sine wave, and I left while we were all at a high point, with part of me secretly hoping I could always come Home and scamper back up that mountain we were all on a year ago and life would be the same amazing high it once was: familiar, comfortable, stable, known, and full of adventure and living with gusto. I want it back! All those memories and the friendships that grew despite distance - they gave me sanity for a year in California! I built dreams in the face of time around these things.
[Don't roll your eyes. Yes, so what...I'm a hopeless sentimental idealist. Everybody needs one in their life. lol]
But coming back I see time has moved forward, as it always does. All prior chapters are closed, whether I like it or not. And this new one? Well, it begins in a valley…not on a mountain. Some folks have left the scene, some will be leaving soon, some have returned, and some - thankfully - are still around in all the familiar places. The old life is there in some form, I suppose. But it's definitely not the same life I pictured coming home to.
Having been through a few valleys before, though, I've learned the value of walking through them hand-in-hand with those dearest to you. When the waves turn again - as they ALWAYS do - the mountain tops are that much sweeter for the experience of having gone through it together. I'm so thankful to be near so many of my dear ones again, especially after being away for so long.
At the heart of all this, though - this, trying to find my place again - has been a surprising set of nagging questions I thought I had figured out answers to years ago: what's the purpose of my life? what do I feel most accomplished doing? why am I under these stars? what am I MADE for?
So, why not blog about my soul I guess. After all, the goal of this post is to provide you with the latest of my substance, right?
I feel as though I've had all the things, dreams, and people I've built my life around torn away from me, one by one, this past year...and what's left of me and my life feels very exposed and utterly raw right now. To summarize… All my favorite, precious, and to some degree necessary objects (my bed, sofa, cooking equipment, clothes, just to name a few) have been in storage. I slept on the floor for a year without so much as chairs for company to sit on or a TV to watch – sacrificing for the day I was promised I would get called to the next big thing in Texas. But that all went sideways with the economy. My health tanked. I’ve managed to not catch a bug for a month now, which is a record for me since August. My back still kills me most days and I’m the curviest I’ve ever been in my life (which is kinda fun for the cleavage - as long as I’m being honest – but good heavens I want to fit my old clothes again and feel healthier). My plans for my future seem to be vaporizing like rain off a SoCal sidewalk the more time passes. I pictured being married with kids by now, but somehow it seems my biological clock has stopped ticking...or slowed so much I can barely tell it's still there. And guy prospects?? Let me know if you know of any interested in an unemployed gal. lol But seriously - not necessarily a good time to date if I'm asking the questions I'm re-asking myself. So, my last honest intake survey of my life? Yeah, it wasn’t great. I think you get the picture, so we really don’t need to go into more detail there…at least not here.
Which all brings me back to what we’re talking about anyway: a new chapter. Valleys are valleys because there are mountains. And mountains wouldn’t be mountains without the valleys. I’m reserving major decisions about all these things until I start feeling the earth climb under me a bit. The chapter has only just begun anyway. Who knows how the rest of it will read at this point…let alone the rest of the book.
Until then – and to answer your question from earlier D.T.S. - I’m doing alright. Sleepless in Yakima, but doing fine, all things considered. Your prayers are always welcome. :)
"Life Ain't Always Beautiful"
Gary Allen
Life ain’t always beautiful
Sometimes it's just plain hard
Life can knock you down, it can break your heart
Life ain’t always beautiful
You think you're on your way
And it's just a dead end road at the end of the day
But the struggles make you stronger
And the changes make you wise
And happiness has its own way of takin’ it's sweet time
No, life ain’t always beautiful
Tears will fall sometimes
Life ain’t always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride
Life ain’t always beautiful
Some days I miss your smile
I get tired of walkin’ all these lonely miles
And I wish for just one minute
I could see your pretty face
Guess I can dream, but life don’t work that way
But the struggles make me stronger
And the changes make me wise
And happiness has its own way of takin’ it's sweet time
No, life ain’t always beautiful
But I know I'll be fine
Hey, life ain’t always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride
What a beautiful ride
I'm not sure if my unemployed brain still knows how to be substantial, but I told him I'd give it my best shot. So this is for you D.T.S. (BTW - hope you're feeling much improved today and your French kids bring you a polished apple from Yakima!)
Well, here I am again. It's 2:00am and I still can't fall asleep at a decent hour...for the umpteenth night in a row. I do enjoy this time best of all, though. It's so quiet. Everyone is asleep, including my rambunctious kitties.
What do I do at all hours of the morning? I listen to myself think, while tapping my toes to my favorite country songs and fiddling with my many art projects I start but don't finish (that's another post - some are so secret I can't mention them on here yet.......S.M.!).
What do I think about? All kinds of things. Lately it's been pondering my move. Playing through all the different psychosocioeconomic impacts the experience has had on my life and others. Pondering "did I make the right decision to move down there? am I making the right decision to move back here, as opposed to staying down there or moving somewhere else? what's the best decision?" Each question seems to bring up 10 more questions all their own, with 10 additional off-shoots, and before I know it I'm 100 steps down a mental path I can't even remember how I started. I've had to set aside my artsy stuff in favour of journaling lately, just to try to keep my thoughts straight.
If nothing else, it's helpful that this move - to wherever I end up - feels like definite closure to at least one chapter in my book. I love closure. Especially clean-cut closure. So that's a really good feeling right now. But I'm realizing after having been Home for a while that there were a couple chapters back before SoCal that I had thought I'd left open. I guess somehow I thought I could just jump back in and wrap them up once I came back Home - whenever that would be - knowing I wouldn't be gone forever and always. It's a very odd sensation to come back and realize some chapters do, in fact, close themselves, though - whether I pen a seemingly satisfactory ending or not.
Life moves on, with or without. I knew this, of course. We all do. We've all experienced it one way or another. But it's the finding of my place again (even among longtime dear friends in a town I grew up in, yet sometimes don't recognize anymore) that's been a big challenge for me...yet again. So much of life is a sine wave, and I left while we were all at a high point, with part of me secretly hoping I could always come Home and scamper back up that mountain we were all on a year ago and life would be the same amazing high it once was: familiar, comfortable, stable, known, and full of adventure and living with gusto. I want it back! All those memories and the friendships that grew despite distance - they gave me sanity for a year in California! I built dreams in the face of time around these things.
[Don't roll your eyes. Yes, so what...I'm a hopeless sentimental idealist. Everybody needs one in their life. lol]
But coming back I see time has moved forward, as it always does. All prior chapters are closed, whether I like it or not. And this new one? Well, it begins in a valley…not on a mountain. Some folks have left the scene, some will be leaving soon, some have returned, and some - thankfully - are still around in all the familiar places. The old life is there in some form, I suppose. But it's definitely not the same life I pictured coming home to.
Having been through a few valleys before, though, I've learned the value of walking through them hand-in-hand with those dearest to you. When the waves turn again - as they ALWAYS do - the mountain tops are that much sweeter for the experience of having gone through it together. I'm so thankful to be near so many of my dear ones again, especially after being away for so long.
At the heart of all this, though - this, trying to find my place again - has been a surprising set of nagging questions I thought I had figured out answers to years ago: what's the purpose of my life? what do I feel most accomplished doing? why am I under these stars? what am I MADE for?
So, why not blog about my soul I guess. After all, the goal of this post is to provide you with the latest of my substance, right?
I feel as though I've had all the things, dreams, and people I've built my life around torn away from me, one by one, this past year...and what's left of me and my life feels very exposed and utterly raw right now. To summarize… All my favorite, precious, and to some degree necessary objects (my bed, sofa, cooking equipment, clothes, just to name a few) have been in storage. I slept on the floor for a year without so much as chairs for company to sit on or a TV to watch – sacrificing for the day I was promised I would get called to the next big thing in Texas. But that all went sideways with the economy. My health tanked. I’ve managed to not catch a bug for a month now, which is a record for me since August. My back still kills me most days and I’m the curviest I’ve ever been in my life (which is kinda fun for the cleavage - as long as I’m being honest – but good heavens I want to fit my old clothes again and feel healthier). My plans for my future seem to be vaporizing like rain off a SoCal sidewalk the more time passes. I pictured being married with kids by now, but somehow it seems my biological clock has stopped ticking...or slowed so much I can barely tell it's still there. And guy prospects?? Let me know if you know of any interested in an unemployed gal. lol But seriously - not necessarily a good time to date if I'm asking the questions I'm re-asking myself. So, my last honest intake survey of my life? Yeah, it wasn’t great. I think you get the picture, so we really don’t need to go into more detail there…at least not here.
Which all brings me back to what we’re talking about anyway: a new chapter. Valleys are valleys because there are mountains. And mountains wouldn’t be mountains without the valleys. I’m reserving major decisions about all these things until I start feeling the earth climb under me a bit. The chapter has only just begun anyway. Who knows how the rest of it will read at this point…let alone the rest of the book.
Until then – and to answer your question from earlier D.T.S. - I’m doing alright. Sleepless in Yakima, but doing fine, all things considered. Your prayers are always welcome. :)
"Life Ain't Always Beautiful"
Gary Allen
Life ain’t always beautiful
Sometimes it's just plain hard
Life can knock you down, it can break your heart
Life ain’t always beautiful
You think you're on your way
And it's just a dead end road at the end of the day
But the struggles make you stronger
And the changes make you wise
And happiness has its own way of takin’ it's sweet time
No, life ain’t always beautiful
Tears will fall sometimes
Life ain’t always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride
Life ain’t always beautiful
Some days I miss your smile
I get tired of walkin’ all these lonely miles
And I wish for just one minute
I could see your pretty face
Guess I can dream, but life don’t work that way
But the struggles make me stronger
And the changes make me wise
And happiness has its own way of takin’ it's sweet time
No, life ain’t always beautiful
But I know I'll be fine
Hey, life ain’t always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride
What a beautiful ride
calling all trekkies!
If It's Hip, It's Here just blogged on the latest in New Star Trek Merchandise. Before too long, you may be able to have your very own captain's chair replica teleported straight to your living room!
Beem me up, Scotty!
Saturday, January 24
homecoming
Well, it's official: I'm moving...again.
My lease in SoCal expires the end of January and I've given my notice. I'm heading back down in a couple weeks to weed out my year's accumlation of stuff, pack whatever I can into my RAV4, and roadtrip on home. Thankfully, one of my good friends from back home (M.L.) volunteered to accompany me on the drive, so at least I won't be alone on the return trip home!
Seems like I am making moving a semi-annual event either way. I should be a pro at this by now, eh? Definitely not something I ever wanted to put on my top 10 list of "most experienced at...". I'm so sick of packing up my immediate belongings only to move them to a different location every six months, and never seeing the rest of my stuff which just sits in storage. Hopefully soon I can put down some roots for a good while...a solid year or two would be a nice change, AT THE LEAST!
The job search will be on full-blast come February. Although I'm not limiting my search to just Yakima, it is the place I most hope to find work these days. But, the pickings are slim at first glance. I'll proably end up wherever work actually is. Just not in SoCal. Please. No more SoCal... I'm so sick of fed AND state taxes absorbing nearly 40% of my paychecks, rent being 3x the national average, and gas shooting up last summer to almost $5/gal. Not to mention that very unsettling feeling I would get in the pit of my stomach every time I'd read yet another article about long overdue earthquakes. And don't even get me started on what it's like living in 949, surrounded by SoCal girls (ever see Bravo's Real Housewives of OC? yeah. sadly, it doesn't dramatize far from the truth - at all! I'm dead serious.)
I'm so ready for the PacNW!!
Don't get me wrong. There were some nice things about living in SoCal: convenience to every store imaginable (when you had the money to spend), proximity to the beach (if you like sharing murky water and stinky bay smells with lots of people on the beach - including the SoCal girls who wear their bikinis with their ugg snow boots on an 80+ degree day, just 'cuz it's phat like that), and waking up knowing that it's going to be yet another sunny day (for the 200th frickin' day in a row).
So I learned something about myself with this move: I am a die-hard PacNW girl. Give me my tevas with socks in the winter. Give me my gun-shootin' beer-drinkin' pubmates, from a hole-in-the-wall that doesn't have another like it in the country. Give me my seasons where I can melt in the summer and slide on ice in the winter. I want my country with wide open spaces where there isn't a skyscraper or noisy airport nearby. I want to smell fresh air every day. And I want to hug a pine tree. Yes, you heard me. HUG a pine tree. THIS is where I belong.
Thursday, January 22
a nice surprise
The last two times I've gone to pay my tab at Bob's Keg & Cork, somebody has already taken care of it for me...without leaving any word as to whom to thank for it! I'm sure curious who's done it!
Wednesday, January 21
counting hairs...
(click picture to enlarge)
Inauguration at the United States Capitol, Washington D.C., January 20, 2009.
Satellite image courtesy of GeoEye.
Every time I see a satellite image of us, I'm struck by how tiny we really are in the grand scheme of things...all of us people under the stars...and yet:
"Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."
-Luke 12:6-7
Tuesday, January 20
mmmmm...chocolate!!!
is this a possible lead on why I can't resist oreos, if I know they are in the house???
Saturday, January 17
cat litter canundrum: help me pick a new favorite!!
Ok, so I've officially about had it up to *there* with cat litters.
So even they don't leave me a 100% happy housecleaner or kitty mom.
Yesterday I tidied up the guest bath (which doubles as my kitties' bath as well) for a visit from my brother + 2 guests. You know what took the longest to clean? It wasn't the dreaded awkward corner shower. No; it was the remains of kitty-litter with charcoal additives, combined with moisture from a damp bath, stuck & smeared in tight corners on the floor.
How's that for an image?
Yeah, not so great - I'll be the first to admit! (Don't worry - lest you begin to question your next visit to me, I sanitize EVERYTHING...multiple times. You should really be worrying about my cleaning OCPD instead, but that's a whole 'nuther blog post...)
My problem today is finding my dream cat litter.
Alright - all my friends with cats who've told me I should try Fresh Step Multi-Cat because it's your absolute favorite and you won't switch to anything else, plug your ears...
I hate this litter. Well, love hate. It does a pretty nice job of covering odors, isn't very dusty, and clumps at the faintest hint of moisture. BUT! It's way tedious to clean up and tracks EVERYWHERE...and the moment it encounters a tiny bit of moisture - it sticks and is such a pain to get up. And it hasn't been for a lack of trying different litter-mats for Dallas & Bear to walk over on their way out of the box, either. Given what it does to my floors, I'm also feeling very concerned about what it must be doing in my kitties' GI systems, after they unstick it off their paws...ick! And I hear the stuff just sits in landfills, taking forever to decompose.
So I'm planning to switch back to what I used to use for my next box of litter (which is likely this weekend), unless you guys can help me with any other options?
I started Bear & Dallas out on Swheat Scoop and Word's Best Cat Litter. Both are made of biodegradable natural products (wheat and corn, respectively) that aren't harmful if ingested and are much easier on the environment. Both get the job done in the clumping /absorbing department (plus are flushable instead of scooping into a garbage bag!). They are much dustier, though (which is extremely noticable on a solid black cat after it finishes covering its business). The amount of tracking seems about the same, but is more manageable because it doesn't include charcoal and doesn't glue to the floor as horribly. Also the smell of the litter can remind me of grain silos at times...and I REALLY don't recommend dumping baking soda in the box to try to remedy the smell issue, based on personal experience. lol Talk about a DUST problem!!
So even they don't leave me a 100% happy housecleaner or kitty mom.
Do you swear by a particular litter? If so, please help me pick a new favorite by dropping me a line or two!
Thursday, January 15
new favorite: toothpaste & mouthwash
I used to be a dyed-in-the-wool Crest girl.
But for the past two years I have been on the search for a toothpaste that doesn't leave my mouth full of 'stringy' white pieces. (If you've ever had this happen, you know exactly what I'm talking about!) My dentist says it's caused by the tartar control agents in the toothpaste making the skin slough off (ewww!) and to use toothpaste that contains less of those tartar ingredients.
So I've gone through several different varieties, in search of the perfect toothpaste. Everything from Colgate to Sensodyne to natural/organic kinds from places like Mother's Market and Whole Foods, all in a vain attempt to find something that doesn't give me such a gross mouth! Of everything I've tried (up until last night), my favorite's been Nature's Gate Creme de Anise:
But I would still get 'the stringies.' :(
But for the past two years I have been on the search for a toothpaste that doesn't leave my mouth full of 'stringy' white pieces. (If you've ever had this happen, you know exactly what I'm talking about!) My dentist says it's caused by the tartar control agents in the toothpaste making the skin slough off (ewww!) and to use toothpaste that contains less of those tartar ingredients.
So I've gone through several different varieties, in search of the perfect toothpaste. Everything from Colgate to Sensodyne to natural/organic kinds from places like Mother's Market and Whole Foods, all in a vain attempt to find something that doesn't give me such a gross mouth! Of everything I've tried (up until last night), my favorite's been Nature's Gate Creme de Anise:
But I would still get 'the stringies.' :(
BUT! after trying a sample from my latest trip to the dentist, I'm hooked on a different brand: Biotene!!
I used it for the first time last night, and not only are all the stringies completely gone, but I woke up WITHOUT morning breath!! (And here I thought morning breath was a given in life?!?!)
I found the full sizes at Target, so I'm sure most any place (Walgreens, CVS, Bartell's, etc.) would carry it.
Seems the product contains enzymes, in place of the usual tartar ingredients, that get rid of the SOURCE of tartar: bad bacteria. Also, the mouthwash doesn't contain any alcohol (an ingredient which has now been linked to oral cancer). It is so much more tolerable to gargle than Listerene or Scope...not to mention seems to do SUCH a better job and leaves my mouth feeling clean and fresh!!
I give Biotene five stars on the first night. I'll keep you posted after a solid week!
Tuesday, January 13
Saturday, January 10
something else to make you smile
Cat makes cameo in German TV weather brief. :) too cute! (cat tries to kiss him & points at the map)
something to make you smile
how many of these do you remember from years past? (I can remember kids attempting a lot of these out on the playground during recess. LOL)
Thursday, January 8
good news for all us bubble-butts!!
Throughout time and across genres, I think singers have long known something our general MODERN culture seems reticent to appreciate and accept.
For instance: K.C. and the Sunshine Band sang about it in "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty;" Sir Mixalot let everyone know his preference in "Baby Got Back (I Like Big Butts);" Trace Adkin's marveled about it in "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk;" and even the infamous S.M. masterfully created an epic Cottage-night favorite with an ode to his "Callipygian" mystery girl!
And of course it can't go without mentioning a very beautiful gal, whose iconic figure drives the paparazzi & photogs wild - J.Lo:
So now, the latest in research has this to say about the topic…
Having a Big Derriere May Be Good for Your Health, Study Finds
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
foxnews.com
news.com.au
Women can stop worrying about pear-shaped figures — fat bottoms have been scientifically proven to be a sign of good health.
New research, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, suggests the fat responsible for producing the pear shape flaunted by celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce may be active in protecting women from diseases by releasing certain hormones.
Buttock and hip fat may protect women against type 2 diabetes, researchers from Harvard Medical School found.
When buttocks and hip fat from mice was injected into other mice, their bodies easily used the blood sugar-regulating hormone insulin and lost weight.
They were also able to make better use of insulin, the main hormone linked to diabetes.
People with the apple shape, where fat is stored around the tummy, can be more prone to type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Those with pear-shaped bodies, where fat is collected in the buttocks, are less likely to have these disorders.
Researcher Dr. Ronald Kahn insisted that not all fat was bad for health.
"The surprising thing was that it wasn't where the fat was located, it was the kind of fat that was the most important variable," he said.
"Even more surprising, it wasn't that abdominal fat was exerting negative effects, but that subcutaneous fat was producing a good effect.
I think it's an important result because not only does it say that not all fat is bad, but I think it points to a special aspect of fat where we need to do more research."
Scientists also monitored the health of the mice given the fat transplants. When it was inserted into the tummy area, the mice lost weight and their fat cells shrank. The researchers will now try to identify the hormones.
Tuesday, January 6
something I wish I'd know about sooner...
Thanks to my 2nd cousin Mark, I've been introduced to hulu! Oh, how I wish I would have known about this site all those months I lived without tv. LOL So now, I am introducing it to you!
(Thanks Mark!)
Miss the latest episode of Lipstick Jungle or The Office? You can find it here. Feel like a movie? You can find it here too.
Best yet: it's free. :)
(Thanks Mark!)
Thursday, January 1
henri cartier-bresson
I just finished watching an interesting documentary on the Sundance channel about Henri Cartier-Bresson (color photo below), the father of modern photojournalism. He was inspired to become a professional photographer by the center photo of the running boys; a picture taken by Martin Munkacsi: Lake Tanganyika.
It's just amazing to me how Cartier-Bresson was able to capture such expression and character with his camera. His pictures seem so timeless, as though they carry life into perpetuity.
I've been on an a real art-kick these days. It feels so good to have time (& energy!) to exercise my right brain! I miss the days when I would check out a free museum pass from SPU's SUB, ride the bus downtown Seattle and watch all the 'different' people of the bus culture, and end up at the SAM...transported through time as I walked through the various exhibits. I miss getting into the Seattle Symphony for $10 on student discount, getting the best seats in the house, and being utterly moved by the music...feeling almost completely absorbed by it.
It's been over a year since I've had such a visceral response to the beauty of art. Little wonder it's felt like part of me has been in a coma.
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