The Summer of 1979

This is one of my favorite songs.



Cruel To Be Kind, by Nick Lowe.  I've heard it a lot on the radio lately and always have to listen through.  You don't always know why a song means something to you, but sometimes you figure it out.  The other day, it was bright and sunny and I was driving down near the beach, the song comes on and suddenly I remember all the beach trips with my uncle Greg.  He was about 10 years older than me and would take me down to the beach to hang with his friends.  We had a lot of fun back then.

I'm not in touch with him anymore, since we had a falling out when I was 16 or 17.  I've seen him since, but I've given up trying.  We were very close and I didn't want to keep hoping, so I just stopped hoping and stopped trying.

When I looked up the song to see what year it was on the charts, I found lists of top hits of that year.  Here's one.

There are a lot of songs that are big for me, but the weird thing is that it seems impossible that they can all be from the same year.




I think this was a biggie for a lot of people. My whole neighborhood had this album and we all played it to death. My friends next door had big speakers that played out at the pool. I remember running home wet to get my album when Mark's copy wouldn't stop skipping.




Unlike Cheap Trick at Budokon, no one else on the block liked Supertramp, so I listened at home. Three years later, this would be my first concert. My older friend Paul had an extra ticket and couldn't find another Senior who wanted to go with him, so I got to go. I dug out my old copy of Breakfast in America to get ready in the days before. The concert was great. The Band opened up for them, and Paul, who had a beard, took care of buying the beer at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater.




Another one that we all had. Back to not knowing the "why" about a song... When I hear any song from The Game I smell strawberry bubble gum. Why? What happened to me and strawberry gum?




I have no idea why I know this one. Vague feeling that it's from hearing it at my next door neighbor's (not the pool neighbor, but the other side), but who knows... I'd never even heard of the Stranglers until Gal sent me a youtube link to Golden Brown about six months ago.

1979 is also the year I got hooked on my favorite band, Pink Floyd.  Although, it was from hearing The Wall, which is now my least favorite Floyd album.  It's the only one that I never listen to, so I won't be posting any depressing videos today.

I also got introduced to ELO and Deep Purple that year.  BOC was a favorite, too.  I'm almost embarrassed about that one. 

I'll end on The Knack.



It's hard to believe all of these are the same year. 1979 was a good one, I guess.

What's with all the sugar?

I understand the people who don't want artificial sweetener, but what's with the rash of products suddenly advertising that they now use real sugar?



This Pepsi's better because it's made with sugar?  We hear about (and taste) regular Pepsi and Coke products from neighboring countries that are made with sugar and "boy do they taste better" because of the sugar.  Never mind that the formula for sodas for each country are taste-tested and just plain different. 

Snapple has commercials advertising their new versions using sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). I'm sure they're tasty, but those uneducated on nutrition will think this is better for their waistline than the old Snapple... Nope.

I'm no fan of HFCS, but not because of it's nutritional properties (or lack of), but because it's cheap and has become ubiquitos in our packaged foods.  Sweet sells and with HFCS being super cheap, it's used to sell A LOT!

HFCS has gotten a lot of bad press, so I'm hoping it's going to be used less.  Buuuut, I'll bet sugar gets a bump for it's "naturalness" and HFCS stays the course.  No need to sell less sweet stuff, right?

Emotional Eating Sighting

I'm at Starbucks, and there's a woman practically making love to her cheese danish. She's not eating it like she's ravenous or anything. It's slow and careful, concentrating on every little taste and sensation.

It's sights like these that make me realize just how close our emotions are tied up together. How food brings out emotions and how emotions can make us crave food or certain foods.

This girl with the cheese danish is small and trim. Does she have this under control? Seems like it. What about the guy at the office who turns to the candy machine when his work isn't going well? He's not small or trim. Quite the opposite. Not in control.

I'm an emotional eater, and it's always a struggle when things get crazy, sad, lonely, and stressed not to eat and eat and eat. Being aware of this does help me. Sometimes I can channel it into other areas, like training, or housecleaning. Sometimes I merely manage it and find a way to make it go away. Harder, but sometimes doable.

At the very least, be aware of your own emotional links to and from food. Acknowledge them and see if you can find a trick to channel them. Somehow...

Semi-Random Listing Of Events That Happened Over The Last 35 Days

In no specific order of chronology or importance.   ...or relevance.  This stuff just happened since I've been away.

The JPFitness Summit was a great little vacation, seeing old friends and meeting knew ones. This was my third Summit, and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

I just spent over a month with Galya, and each day was better than the last. It was wonderful to get to know her over and over again. Blah, blah, blah...

Gal in Long Beach

Here's a DMB song...



...featuring Lucky and Elizabeth from General Hospital.  When you're looking for an album version of some songs, you get a log of choices (Lulu and Logan, also from GH, etc.). Please enjoy the daytime tv lovefest (I just watch it for the song, really!) while you listen to some older Dave Matthews Band. No tears, please.

Gal and I kicked butt (on one event, in which Gal carried me, basically) at Chris's Couples Fitness Competition. Go watch the video. Thanks Chris, for the generous editing that makes me look awesome!

After the comp, Alan Aragon and family came out to play. We had a nice lunch and some healthy dessert!

 

Take a look at this poster.

 

Sandra Bullock is 5'7" and Ryan Reynolds is 6'2".  This poster seems a bit off scale.

She looks even shorter, here.  

Excuse the gibberish...

We got some Vibram Fivefingers.

Tony and his snake, Albino, take a walk around the lake.

 

Allie hates the camera.

I'm sure there was more of interest, but I'm tired now.  Later!

vacation

With Galya in town, work continuing, the JPFitness Summit, kids, and Galya in town, I sometimes go the whole day without turning on the computer.  So, I'll call this a vacation and leave it at that.

When not even my backlog (backblog?) can save me...

I've got like a million blogs ready to go in my "drafts," or so I thought.  Hmm...  none are ready for the public eye.  Note to self, next time I have a three a week, spurt, go for one a week on the "publish" button.

Pandora is great for when you hear a new band, song, or artist.  Plug it in to a new station and fine tune from there and see where it takes you.  It doesn't let you listen to specific songs, though.  You have to rely on it's algorithms and thumb ups/downs to take you where you want to go.

I'm sure there's a better way (place?), but youtube.com is good for seeing the relationships between songs, bands, artists.  The six degrees of separation/Kevin Bacon things.  I still haven't seen that movie...  I like bacon.

Here's a fun (for me) find.

The Move, a precursor to ELO. Here's Wild Tiger Woman.  Sweet clothes.



It's a little reminiscent of some "Flight of the Concords," but these guys at The Move guys are serious.


Here's some ELO, although the song is brought forward from The Move.  Do Ya is the name.  ...and there's some serious cowbell!



No video, but I didn't care for the live versions.


Here's the Traveling Wilbury's. A lighthearted and fun group (again, I think ELO was trying for serious, despite Do Ya) with an amazing lineup, including Jeff Lynn from ELO/The Move.



Handle Me With Care

Busy, busy, busy...

I've been soooo busy with work.  I wish I had more time to write, but until I do, all I can do is keep scratching down my ideas.  The list grows long...

In the meantime, a work related thing you might find interesting.  We (Xerox) use a company called Direct Smile to provide customized images that are specific to a customer.  It might have your name, company name, etc. worked into the picture.

It's pretty cool and you can try it for yourself if you like.

Direct Smile

Obviously, it's not manually done when we contact thousands of people at once, but you get a feeling for the underlying technology.  Enjoy!

It actually IS cold in Starbucks

I got tired of thinking it's just me, so I brought a thermometer with me.  66 degrees and cold air blowing right down on top of you equals "yes, it's cold."

If you check around the internet, you'll see the conspiracy theorists say that the colder temp of a Starbucks is designed to make you buy and drink more coffee, but that seems smart, well planned, and complicated to keep up without employees spilling the beans (haha).

I'm sure it's bad A/C and thermostat placement, combined with the recent addition of the blast furnace sandwich ovens that are positioned pretty near to the HVAC controls.

I'll admit that I'm probably more susceptible to cold than many people, being fairly lean and having a shaved head, but when my hairier friends head to the car to get jackets and stare menacingly at the vents blowing air imported directly from the North Pole, I'm inclined to believe that it's not just me.

The good news is that Peet's coffee is nearby and not cold.  They have free wifi and their coffee is often better, too.

The bad news is that Peet's is a little more expensive and their desserts are better.  I'm taking the chance and risking the good desserts so I don't have to wear three layers of clothes and a beanie, just to keep computing, like I am right now (in Starbucks, actually considering how much more comfortable I'd be if I also had a pair of gloves and a scarf to keep the FUCKING cold draft out).

My Newest Starbucks Name

I thought I had them all pretty much all listed.  Today, I add "Rola" to the list.  She didn't even say "what?" and try again.  She asked my name and wrote it down like she hears that one all the time.

nom is the new meh

I know this will just be annoying to those of you who regularly nom things like seared ahi salad on mixed greens with wasabi ginger dressing, but for some reason the bad usage and overusage of "nom" has bugged me from day one, almost like "meh" used to. The use of "meh" bugs me a little less now, because now it's ubiquitous.  People no longer use it to be clever, they just use it. 

I think this post is my first experience typing the word "nom."  I've never had it in me to use it.  Some people can get away with nom, some can't.  I don't want to try.  It's like my dad saying "lol."  Oh please...

Is it possible that I was influenced negatively by my first encounter with "nom?"  Someone telling me that they were nomming a fanciful feast that's best savored, not eaten with abandon?

I get what nom is supposed to imply; one could, I suppose, nom pizza, ice cream, cookies, salty snacks, junk food, and all that stuff.  But, if you're nomming "porterhouse steak in drawn butter and Stilton cheese, broccoli, and sweet potato fries" or "vennison, morel, and parsnip stew,laced with rubbed fresh mojave sage" and telling the world about it on facebook, then you're just soooo awesome. 

Don't get me wrong, I like that you're having that stuff, but you're eating it, not nomming it.  Eat it slowly and tell us the recipe, please.


From what I gather, the term "nom" comes from our friend Cookie Monster.

Cookie noms cookies, not Lindt 99% dark chocolate chunk with pan roasted English walnut cookies.

Keep that in mind before haphazardly nomming again.

Median Flowers

 
On Southern California afternoons, the freeway onramps and median strips take on a tiny marketplace atmosphere, with men and women selling whole bags of fruit or nuts, balloons, and other little things.  On Fridays, they really focus on the flowers.  The flowers are basic, and are set out in big black buckets on the side of the road.  Basic, but they look like the tiny premade bouquets you might get at the grocery store checkout line while you're picking up the steak for tonight's dinner.

At the intersections, cars slow and stop, windows go down and up as flowers and bills are traded.  The stop lights turn to green again and the line of cars moves on.  Sometimes a car pulls slightly to the side to buy something, blocking traffic a little bit.  No one honks; that seems a good sign.  Maybe people forgive the little inconvenience when they think it's for a good cause?

Every Friday I drive by, wondering if the man with the bucket will still be there.  I also hope he will be there in six weeks, or in three months, next year, and forever after.  Whenever I need him...

He's there this week, and wishful thinking makes me look at the bucket again, like every time.  I usually slow but keep moving.  This week, next to the bucket is a stack of oranges, bagged and ready.  It's a lot of oranges for one guy who doesn't really eat fruit, but I slow and stop anyway, put the window down, and I trade five dollars for the huge bag of navel oranges.  Before I pull away, I stop and point to the flowers, too.  Usually, they are red roses, but this week they are gerbera daisies.  More dollars are exchanged, and I have a little bouquet in hand and head on home.  ...to eat the oranges I didn't really want and water the daisies I don't really need.  ...yet.

Why did I buy these?  Practice makes perfect?  Build it and they will come?  ...stick any other trite little saying you can think of there.  Either way, I hope I'm at least doing my part to keep the guy in business until I do need him.

In a mellow mood...

No hidden messages, the Embed strings just happened to be in my clipboard.

Waiting For You




Forever




Woman In You

Synchronicity and Life's Little Unappreciated Material Things

It starts with something small. The modern day equivalent of a cool Cracker Jack prize.  ...and for you youngers out there, Cracker Jacks used to have actual toys in them.  Small, yes, but dice, a plastic ring, a little game, etc.  Not just the stupid sticker or temp tattoo like you find now.  I think I might have had the very last little plastic ring EVER to come from a Cracker Jack box, but who knows?  Anyhow, I gave it to this girl in 2nd grade.  She was waaay cute, with dark hair and cute hypnotizing lips and sat next to me in the 70's equivilent of GATE class.  Friday's Cracker Jack romance, Monday's heartbreak, since over that very weekend, my Mom basically picked up the household and we moved down the street, but to a totally different city, unbeknownst to me.  Who saw that coming?.  Fuck!  Cracker Jacks used to have more peanuts, too.  Jerks!  I hate Cracker Jacks.

Ok, back on track.

Anyhow (and that's a word that's a sure sign that you don't know how to properly structure your writing; a an overused tool to jump subjects where you really shouldn't have jumped (but I digress).).*

So, back to that something small that so exciting**...  it's hard to explain what I mean, so I'll illustrate.

My friend Tony once said he was going to have a good day because there was an extra drumstick toe in his drumstick bag.

If you don't know (I didn't), the toe is the pointy part of the cone, deliciously filled with a nugget of chocolate.

The toe from another Drumstick had broken off and made it's way into his Drumstick bag.  What are the odds of that?  That means somewhere someone else got shafted.  Anyhow, it's one of the best parts -- delicious AND keeps the melting ice cream contained -- although I'd never heard it named before.

By the way, the Drumstick toe is a new thing.  When I was a kid, the cone tip was just an empty tip which collected melted ice cream until it eventually sogged out enough to start dripping through onto your pants.  I love Nestle!  I hope they take over Cracker Jack and bring more joy back to my life.

Here's a short list of things that bring unexpected little joys to my life.

• Slightly popped popcorn kernels -- after the wholly popped ones are gone, these are the ones you eat before you throw out the ones that did nothing.  Crunchy and tasty little treats.  Trader Joe's actually makes whole bags of these things.  Never tried them...  It's just not the same.  However...  
• Change in the newspaper coin return
• Change in the payphone coin return
• An extra treat falls from the vending machine spirals
• Two bottles of Diet Pepsi come out of the machine! OMG!
• Starbucks runs out of drip coffee right as you order, so you have to wait five minutes, but it's free OR they offer up an Americano! 
• As they pick up the cookie, it breaks, so they toss it and a WHOLE one in the bag!  Road to fatness, but come on!.  If it's meant to be, it's meant to be!
  

I'm sure I'm missing a ton of obvious ones, but that's off the top of my head.

There's a weak moral to this blog, as illustrated by the Drumstick toe.  One person's loss is another one's gain.  Don't let that go to waste, and always check your bag, lest the universe go spinning out of control as one person's loss turns into no one's gain...

Oh, and also...   One person's loss is another one's gain.  I said that already?  Can't be said enough.  Next time you're saddened because you get home and realize that you forgot your change in the coin return, think of the guy who finds it later.  When a quarter rolls under your car and you're not dressed to crawl under there, think of the kid who'll find it and do more with it than you ever would have.  When the bag of trail mix gets stuck hanging in the vending machine, remember that trail mix only sounds healthy, it's not -- some skinny kid who actually needs the calories will now get two.  Synchronicity.

If you think of something good to add, post a comment.

Here's the astrisked things, in case you forgot. 

*  I gave up on the sentence.  It's my blog, I do my own thing.  Bet you didn't even notice that the whole sentence was "Anyhow."

**  girlfriend excepted, as that's another blog post entirely

Escabeche (Mexican Pickled Stuff)

$6 for a jar of pickled veggies doesn't sound all that bad until I tell you that I'm going to eat it in one sitting.

I love pickles, and Mexican reigns #1 with escabeche.  Italian is a close 2nd with giardiniera.  Either one is a good side dish or snack, but that bottle's pretty much one serving, despite the label's claim of 14.

It Mexican places, I always hope for some good stuff besides salsa at the salsa bars, but it's usually just carrots, onions, and jalapenos..   At Rubio's it's just jalapenos.  Oh yeah, with a sliver of carrot per hundred jalapeno rings.  Why do they even bother with the carrots?

Enter Taco Mesa!  Last week at Taco Mesa, I had some amazing stuff.  Cauliflower, carrots, onions, garlic, chilies, spices, oil, vinegar.  Faced with a delicious bowl full of raw ingredients, merely mixed together into a heavenly pickly treat, I was forced to admit that there's really no way that it could be hard to make.  So, I decided to make my own.

Here's take one.

This tastes less blurry than it looks

Escabeche #1

Makes 1 or 14 servings

12 oz cauliflower
10 baby carrots
1 pasilla chili
8 bay leaves
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
lots of ground pepper
1 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil

Get a saucepan that's big enough to hold all of the cauliflower and carrots, plus water.  Fill the pan with water about 3/4 of the way and bring it to a boil.

Cut the cauliflower into bite size florets.  Cut the carrots into strips or disks.  Add the cauliflower and carrots to the boiling water and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Drain.

Put the cooked veggies and all the rest of the stuff in a zip lock bag.  Squeeze the air out and seal the bag.  Refrigerate overnight or for a few days.  Eat in one or fourteen sittings.

Nutrition for one serving:  400 calories, 31g Fat, 25g Carbs, 5g Fiber, 2g Protein.

or

Nutrition for one serving:  29 calories, 2.5g Fat, 2g Carbs, 0g Fiber, 0g Protein.