Uh... ...wow.

(Found via Shortpacked!)

It's a DDR post!

I have SO not been on this but I sucked it up and did a workout today. Time spent, I'm a little unsure of; I took some breaks in between the 3 sets of 5 to catch my breath. Something like 45 minutes in all, probably. Basically I started up and my body went, "DDR? Today? SERIOUSLY?" but I kept at it. I went a little lower difficulty (mostly 4, a few 6 foot songs) and picked favorites and fun songs so I got in all 15. I ended with a heart rate of about 144 so it was quite some exertion. My knees suddenly protested at the end of the set so it seems it was just the right amount of pushing myself.

The scale this morning said I've lost 39 pounds. It's probably more like 37 and I was having low water weight, still, it's a resumption in the downward trend and that's good. The lower my low-bounce weight is the lower my average weight for the whole week is, and that's really what I'm looking at now.

Last week, I was asked to share a food words about my food stamp challenge with the New York Times website.

250 words is not a lot of space to get into what I found to be the myriad issues and problems with the SNAP program and modern American foodways and all the political, economic, social, spiritual, philosophical and ethical concerns therein.

For those coming here from NYT, have a look around. I've written about them, some of them in depth, on this blog, particularly from October 24-November 25 when I was doing the proper challenge.

Another one of the commenters made a good point: if poor people eat too well on food stamps, they're accused of living off the taxpayers' dime. If they choose processed foods, the same people will denounce them as lazy or uncaring about their health or the health of their children.

Here's what I learned from my challenge: it's possible to eat well on a food stamp allottment. It takes a lot of skill, a lot of work, a lot of planning, a lot of time, and a lot of social capital. I have those things, but I am also not living in poverty. My experience was only a faint facsimile of what it's really like, and I'll never judge an assistance recipient again based on their choices.

Been off the bento bandwagon these past few weeks; but got back on with a vengeance today! below is the bottom tray from my kidlet's bento:


Two flower-shaped onigiri made with ham and a little ponzu plus steamed edamame.

( More pics and notes... )

The love in this bento, manifested in the rather crudely-made bell pepper heart, is partially for my boyfriend, as this was the bento I made him for today's lunch (mine was similar, but no heart), and partially for the quiche! I love quiche, and I've been dying to try these mini quiches from JustBento for weeks. Upon further review, I discovered the recipe for these quiches were the product of a guest post by jokergirl! You rock, jokergirl! Seriously. I tried the sun-dried tomato and feta variety. They were TO DIE FOR.



The non-quiche part of the bento is rotini with sautéed fresh vegetables (red bell peppers, carrots, onions, and zucchini) and chick peas. Veggies and marinara sauce are underneath the pasta.

I just had to give myself a pat on the back for this: Today was the first day EVER that the WiiFit had me in the nice yellow "Normal" range instead of the nasty orange "Overweight" range! I got so used to hearing the *disappointed sound* for the overweight range that when I heard the *happy normal* sound and saw my Mii give a thumbs up instead of looking down at her belly, I almost didn't know what was going on!
Anyone else have a moment like that?
I'm down to 146lbs!

I'm working at a framing shop, part-time, starting tomorrow. I get the feeling they really need someone for the admin side of things, but they said they'd need me around for overflow, too.

It'll be good having a little extra cash around, for the holidays and for starting up my little book conservation projects.

Yay!

Cooked salmon, baked pears in apple juice on the left, pasta, stir fried broccoli and cranberries on the right.

Prolly.

The word being horribly mangled in this case is "probably" and it makes my skin crawl. Please don't ever write or type or, especially, say "prolly" if you can at all avoid it, at least not during any sort of communication with me, either direct or indirect. I would very much appreciate it. Thanks a bunch.

Brandon and I have been watching the series John Adams starring Paul Giamatti. It's a really amazing series. It doesn't shy away from the dirtier side of the fight for independence, and how sometimes these idealized patriots did atrocious things.

Also, I'm a big fan of the portrayal of John and Abigail's relationship - about how much they respected each other and depended on one another. They based it on the letters between the two, over the years. I can't think of many media presentations of marriage that's so sweet and tender. They don't show John as overbearing and they don't make Abigail out to be whiny and clingy. She misses her husband and it makes her concerned when she doesn't hear from him, but it's not unreasonable. They each have moments of weakness but they communicate. It's refreshing.

We're about halfway through, and we're really enjoying the performance. Good acting, good script - I highly recommend it.

I like today's bento especially because of the nice color combination.




On the front are some christmas cookies (later put in an extra bag), behind peas, tomatoes, zucchini, pear and physalis.

Behind are Linguine Carbonara.

( more )

Only one bento last week



It was a bit weird really. Japanese Potato Salad, inarizushi with spicy mayo and prawns and mange tout with sweet chilli and lime. Too much mayo!

Big hugs and squeeful thankyous to americonedream , glockgal darlas_mom , kerryblaze , naadi , tbranch , coffee_n_cocoa , and rickey_a , and sun_chan for the virtual snowflake cookies! Nom!!! XD

"The Smallest Tree" Bento Box has a story that I wrote.

Read about this bento box on hapa bento.

Omygoodness! My design is a finalist in the Holy Clothing contest! *dances*


( summer version )

Dare I beg and ask you to vote for me? Would that be wrong? *really needs a new summer dress since she's lost weight.*

Falafel, a tiny cucumber, carrots and two different candies in the foreground. Homemade potato salad on lettuce in the background.

;)

My bentoblog: http://wererabbits.wordpress.com

Because I am a great big scavenger, I picked up a little cabinet the other day. Around here, one way we recycle stuff is to leave it by the side of the road with a "free!" sign on it. (Did you know that a "kaja" is a Scandinavian jackdaw? Yeah. I found that out when I visited Sweden back in '96. Hah. Maybe that's why Great-Grandma didn't like her name...*) But yes, I dragged a busted cabinet home. It was so lonely there on the sidewalk... Phil was rolling his eyes at me until I shocked him by telling him that I actually had a PLAN for it already. (That isn't always the case, sometimes I'm just thinking: "I can use this somehow! Yay!")

Anyway, it needs work, but it is just right for a base to the lovely doll house that Master Payne built for my daughter a couple of years ago Christmas. The girl wants to decorate it to look like the Haunted Mansion, but with touches of pink. (She's got that whole pink and black thing going.) We have really cute little Jack, Sally and Zero dolls that are just the right size, but the whole thing will really benefit from having a cabinet underneath for keeping extra toys and furniture out of reach of the dog. Because, you know, "Woof! Dog eat everything!"

Like I need another project. Still, I even have a tiny plasma globe--it will make a fantastic light fixture. And the Muppet Labs action figures came with some great lab equipment that will fit right in. No, really, the doll house belongs to my daughter. I just help play with it.

*Hm. Edit: I should point out that I actually like the name, especially since I found out what it means. So very appropriate...

I love me some cheesy so-bad-it's-good horror movies. I caught this one a couple nights ago and it is by FAR the most unintentionally hilarious spider movie in cinema history. I laughed so hard at the airplane scene that I had hiccups for the following 30 minutes. Pure gold, I tell you. Here's a clip from that scene...oh, and the .12 to .14 mark? I want that as an animated icon. Now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7BNfqBk8Ls&feature=related

Ineffective flailing and girly screaming for the win!

They had a U.S. flag. They had a Bible. They had a perfect copy of the U.S. Constitution. They were called "Yangs" aka Yankees (the white people) and they were fighting the "Kohms" aka Communists (the Asian people, or "yellows" as Kirk himself called them).

Really, Star Trek? I mean, just come on. I'm still trying to apply the MST3K Mantra here, I really am, and I know this was the sixties, back when television was just... different or whatever. And I totally get that these were just thinly veiled commentaries on the society at the time and all that good stuff. But even so, Star Trek, for me to seriously attempt to maintain a suspension of disbelief, it requires that you at least try, okay?

If it were just this one episode in isolation it would be one thing, but this one was only a few episodes after the one with the Nazis, which was itself only a few episodes after the one with the Chicago Mobsters, and before that came the one with the Roman Empire. I swallowed things like that because you at least tried to explain that the craziness in those was the result of contamination by Earth-men a hundred years in the past (or, you know, just six years in the case of the Nazi thing, which is itself kind of hard to swallow). But in this case, with the flag and the Constitution and all, you don't even do that much. It's just there. For no reason at all. Actually, come to think of it, you similarly didn't explain away the whole Roman thing either. Huh. I guess I bought that one simply because it was the modern Roman Empire (modern as of the sixties, anyway), and the novelty of Roman soldiers carrying machine guns or them doing their gladiatorial combat on a TV sound stage rather than in an actual arena. Or something. Well, whatever, I will give you this much though, Star Trek. All of that still isn't quite as bad as the first season episode I mentioned previously where you had that planet that was physically exactly like Earth.

I'm going to keep going, Star Trek, because I like you. I really do. It's still fun, despite the crazy nonsensical stuff like this. But even so, you've still gotta at least try. I have to say that I like you much better when you're defeating computers with illogic or fighting giant space amoebas, rather than when you're philosophizing about the Cold War and wars-by-proxy and stuff like that.