Gloating Over Gas Prices

My sister doesn't envy much about me living in the South, but she does wish she could have our gas prices.

Two days ago $2.93

Today $2.88

Ya'll come back now, y'hear?

Tropical Storm Ingrid

I don't like that they've named a potential hurricane after me. I want to be associated with the image of a nice Scandinavian girl with blond pigtails in a dirndl serving mugs of hot chocolate, not floods and death and destruction. (I do have a dirndl very much like the one seen here except mine has a rosy pink bodice and a blue apron. I don't fit into it any more but I'm sure I have it somewhere.)

I've only recently begun to like my given name. As a child it felt embarrassing to have an old lady's name like Olga, Helga, Gertrude, or Mildred. As a young adult some of that feeling lingered but added was also the feeling that it was so not exotic and beautiful. Now I like it. It sounds like all the good things about northern Europe and has actually really fit me all my life. My understanding is that my father chose that name for me in part because of the beautiful Ingrid Bergman. It could be worse, right?!

For some reason I am beginning to embrace my ethnic origins. I would like to relearn German and learn more about the two countries my parents came from. I'm still not a fan of the boisterous Germanic band music associated with beer and good times, and I've never been a fan of heavy Germanic foods (even less now that I'm mostly vegan) although my mother's Wienerschnitzel might make me reconsider. This does not mean I am giving up my love of things Middle Eastern or my status as a honorary Persian, but I am Ingrid... Ingrid of German and Austrian heritage, genes, and identity.

Auf Wiedersehen!

I'd Like To Start Blogging Again...

... the question is why? I'm not sure I have to answer that question but it might be good mental exercise to come up with a response.

Writing is a way to put my thoughts and ideas down on 'paper'. Other people probably write in private journals, but it's rare that anything I'm thinking about is too sensitive to put in this blog. Nobody reads it anyway, so I'd probably be safe even with the touchy stuff. The worst thing I might do is offend a reader with my vitriolic vegan sentiments. I enjoy photography and perhaps some of what I post would be nothing more than sharing images that strike me to be worth sharing. Sharing our family gatherings is also a nice blog topic. I'm never as fast as my first born at posting those to the web; I may leave most of that to her.

Obstacles to blogging? Time, with a capital "T". Now that my husband is retired I have more time to spend with him (yay!) and less for personal, solitary activities. Blogging means sitting upstairs on my PC since that's where I store my photographs and where I can be alone with my thoughts. Spending time with him will always win out over time with my keyboard. Time should also be spent on personal improvement: exercise, learning, reading, and cooking healthy foods. Time. One of the few things we still haven't learned how to manipulate.

So here I go again... I hope.

WHOOT! I Love PCRM

Queenie, the dog recently pictured on a Good Medicine cover was killed at Wayne State University in the course of heart failure experiments. PCRM exposed those cruel and ongoing experiments and has been pushing for a better approach to heart failure research.

On November 26, 2012, Wayne State retaliated by suing PCRM, hoping to stop us from accessing public records that detailed its experiments. The University aimed to bury any further information, arguing that disclosures would be an “unwarranted invasion” of the “privacy” of the university’s experimenters. Other experimental laboratories, most notably UC Davis, have tried a similar tactic, in hopes that the public will remain in the dark about what goes on behind the laboratory door. PCRM fought back, arguing that the public has a clear-cut right to know what animals go through in research laboratories, how government research funds are spent, and how research on heart failure—a condition that affects a great many people—is being carried out.

PCRM’s senior counsel Leslie Rudloff flew to Michigan for the hearing, which took place this morning. Ruling from the bench, Judge Susan D. Borman rejected Wayne State’s arguments, explaining that Wayne State’s basis for withholding public records went well beyond the Freedom of Information Act’s allowed exemptions. The experiments that the public is paying for—and that are continuing to kill dogs like Queenie—cannot be hidden from view. With the court’s decision in our favor, it is now essential to throw the light of public scrutiny on these experiments so they can come to an end.

~ This was taken directly from an announcement by PCRM

No-Rooz 2013

Let me begin by saying that I will only use initials from now on in my blog after a conversation with A last night. If you search the net for her name some of what comes up is family blog entries with her name in them. She and I feel similarly that we don't really want so much personal info so readily found by a simple Google search. Fortunately most of us have different initials, the exception being my husband and first born daughter, so he will now go by H.

Technically No-Rooz was last week; we celebrated Saturday as it was the first day we were all together. It began with a scrumptious breakfast at IHOP. C and K couldn't even wait to dig in for a family picture!! We had a nice southern waitress named Sheila (aren't all southern waitresses named Sheila?) who took good care of our every need.

I can't tell if C is looking at the Haft Sin table or his reflection in the mirror. If you go to the Haft-Sin link it will explain what's on the table and why.

I love K's outstretched hand as Baba hands out Eidee.

 

The giant is cheating by standing on his toes.

  

Our sabzi turned out really good this year.

 Notice the beautiful cloth H's sister sent us. I love it.

The next tradition is referring to the poetry of Hafez for guidance on the answer to a question. H first rubs the pages while repeating a Farsi version of abracadabra then opens the book to the page with the answer. Click here if you'd like to try it.

 I love listening to H read Persian poetry. It's so musical.

G receives his fortune via the reading of Hafez:

Apparently "doosh" means several things. In Farsi it means either in the past or shower, in French it means shower, and to me it means something else entirely. I had to quit taping because I needed to laugh.

A lady in the grocery store took one look at the girls and asked if they are twins. Really? Sisters, yes. Twins? 

 Nama with her blue-eyed bubsy.

With both sweet bubsies!

 We met up with Ricardo at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant and brought him home to dye easter eggs. It's always good to see him.

I don't know if my sister remembers giving the girls this book, but the company who printed it put in our daughters' names as well as that of our cat (Rainbow) and the girls' town and school. It's a story about a smell monster who steals all the scents for himself. K LOVES it!

C gets in one more game (of Trouble) with his auntie A before heading back home.

Sadly both of my birthday balloons (sorry I don't have any pics of my birthday celebration - I was busy blowing out candles and opening presents) which were tied to C and K's wrists to take home were accidentally released into the wild. C was blaming K for letting them go and seriously cried at the loss, so this picture is for him. His balloon is still in our tree while K's took off on an adventure.

 

 My birthday flowers in my owl vase. I named my vase after Wesley the Owl.

We had such a fun weekend. A is still here but leaves tomorrow to visit friends in DC and Hoboken. Can't wait till everyone comes back HOME.

A "Special" Cake

Saeed did a good job remembering my birthday with a cake this year. This is what I found on the kitchen counter:

I blew out the candles, lifted off the cover, and ...

Apparently the fellow behind the counter wasn't the usual cake decorator and may, in fact, have been one of their "special" employees. Is that the politically correct term these days? Anyway, Saeed said he was very serious about his work and handed it over without any hesitation. Personally, I loved it. It has a lot of character!! Tasted good too.

Gettin' Some Help From Obi

Every time the kids come home I spend the previous weekend washing all their bedding so they have fresh clean beds to fall into. I get lot of help from the upstairs kitties. Here I am trying to pull off Shirin's bed sheets.

Our New Office Has A Skeleton

It's hard to imagine I'll be coming here every day instead of 200 S. Herlong. I think we'll be on the third floor. At least I'll get some exercise with those stairs. This is the view from the front; the back looks out at I-77. It looks so much bigger driving by on the interstate. So far all we've done is picked out chair/wallpaper from samples. It would seem like such a fantasy if I hadn't see the Fort Mill and Steele Creek offices go up. I can actually imagine working in there!

Chappu And Her Best Friend

Chappu loves Frosty. He is big, burly, and sometimes a bit prickly, but she follows him around and licks his head when he lets her. He has learned to tolerate her affections and truth be told, I think he likes it.

Frosty makes a delicious pillow.

Bliss.

 

Here she has squeezed in while he was sleeping.

The Word Is Finally Coming Out Of Our Doctors' Mouths...

...even in the South. :-)

Local Cardiologist Touts Plant-Based Diet for Optimal Heart Health

by Melanie Kilgore-Hill
Posted: Monday, February 4, 2013 1:56 pm

Dr. David Huneycutt.

In a recent study by the American Heart Association, 2.3 percent of Tennesseans reported having ideal cardiovascular health and 11.2 percent reported having poor cardiovascular health – each worse than the U.S. average. While chess pie, sweet tea and deep fried you-name-it have made the American South a culinary Utopia, our arteries are paying the price.
David Huneycutt, MD, FACC, a cardiovascular disease specialist at TriStar Centennial Heart & Vascular Center, encourages patients to adopt a natural, noticeably un-Southern approach to trimming inches and cutting cholesterol.  Time and again, Huneycutt has seen patients achieve dramatic results by adopting a whole food plant-based diet. A whole food plant-based diet contains plenty of fruits, veggies and unprocessed grains. Drastic? Absolutely. But for patients at high risk for heart disease, drastic diagnoses call for drastic solutions.

Why Plant-based Diets Work
“There is typically some resistance to any dietary advice, and we still tend to want the typical western diet that’s gotten us in trouble,” said Huneycutt, who follows the diet himself. He tells patients to let food be their medicine instead of relying solely on pills to manage their problem.
This change in diet is especially important after someone survives a cardiac event. The less clogged or hardened the arteries, the less stress on the heart while it is recovering and regaining strength. Heart survivors successfully adopting this lifestyle change are often able to manage cholesterol and blood pressure with reduction in daily medication and regain their pre-heart attack strength.
The science is simple. Saturated fats and cholesterol found in animal products and vegetable oils increase cholesterol and often are high in sodium. Cutting fat intake to a very low level is difficult if not impossible when calorically dense foods are in the picture. Concerned about fat? No worries. Huneycutt says the typical whole food plant diet averages a fat intake of 10 to 15 percent – essential fatty acids found naturally in grains and beans.
“The roller coaster of the American diet we’ve been riding for 20 years says you can still eat the same toxic, fatty foods, just do it less and control portion size,” Huneycutt said. “That is extremely challenging, because it’s not aggressive enough, and it’s hard to just cut back on some of these foods. With a plant based diet there’s no need to control portion size.”

~ Courtesy of Nashville MedicalNews