Win. Or make the guy ahead break the record.

A recipe to try

2011-06-22T17:34:00.000-04:00

I know very few people who profess an enjoyment of eggplant. I am not particularly fond of it myself. However, this recipe is an excellent way to prepare eggplant that can be enjoyed by anyone who likes gyros. If you "saute" the eggplant in water and use non-fat yogurt and cheese then this is a nearly fat-free meal. For those who really can't stand eggplant in any form, try substituting tofu or chickpeas.

A note on substituting tofu: As with eggplant, I am not particularly fond of tofu. However, I have learned a few things that make it more palatable. First of all, I always use extra firm tofu since I invariably use it in a cooked dish where I want texture. Secondly, I have discovered that to aid it taking the flavor of the dish, I must dry the tofu as much as possible. This can be done by draining the tofu then pressing it between paper towels. I usually go through lots of paper towels and use a heavy cast iron pan to do the pressing. It also helps if you slice the tofu so there is more surface area to dry. The final "trick" to having tastier tofu is to marinate it. If you have dried it first, it will marinate better. For this dish I might marinate the tofu in balsamic vinegar.

Eggplant Aubergine Gyro

I like to mix the sauce and vegetables and then put it in the pita breads. I also "sauté" the eggplant in water
instead of oil and I do not add the olives because I don't like them.

1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cups tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced
1/3 cup scallion, diced
1/3 cup kalamata olive, pitted, halved
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
2 Tbs parsley chopped
1 Tbs chopped fresh oregano
1 large eggplant, trimmed and diced into 3/4-inch pieces
2 Tbs olive oil (to saute)
4 pita bread

1. Preheat oven to 350. Toast pita bread in oven.
2. Prepare veggies and mix everything except the bread and the eggplant.
3. Saute eggplant in oil over medium-high heat 3 minutes. Add to vegetable mixture.
4. Mix the cooked eggplant with the other veggies, spoon onto warm pita bread and eat.

Original Source: http://www.food.com/recipe/eggplant-aubergine-gyro-171352

Freedom

2011-02-28T12:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my in-laws were visiting. Before church they asked if they could take Joseph with them for a few days or a week. My first reaction was, "Oh no! I couldn't possibly allow that!" Then I went to church all by myself. Ah! All by myself. It had possibilities. If Joseph weren't here I could fix the shop roof and play with my new power tools and go shopping or out to eat or take the dogs to the dog park or.... hmm....

So after his short nap we loaded him and his things in the car with the in-laws. He did snuggle with Dad or I for about thirty minutes prior to their departure. However, his only request to his dad once he was in the car was that Daddy close the car door. He didn't even look back at us as they pulled out of the driveway.

He is, apparently, doing just fine. Michael has called a few times to check on him, but I figure that if anything comes up, they will call me. Besides, there are so many things I can get done! Like writing in my blog! And wood working. Did I mention that I am making pens now? Spouse is going to deal with the business end of things and I will make the pens. He hopes to make vast amounts of monies. Or at least enough to pay for the hobby.

Savannah

2010-08-16T10:55:00.007-04:00

Since moving to Augusta I have wanted to visit Savannah, Georgia. There are dozens of historic attractions and museums in Savannah and many websites list which ones are where, but I have yet to find a website that tells you about the museums and how much they cost, without sending you to the respective dozens of individual websites. So I thought that I might make a list and perhaps somebody else will find it useful sometime. Please note, however, that I am compiling these prices from various websites that may not have been updated recently and this page will likely not be updated. I can not be held accountable for any change in price from those listed below. Also, there may be other discounts not listed below.

Ticket Prices in $

Attraction Adult Child Age for free

Juliette Low Birthplace 8 7 5 & under

Old Town Trolley Tours 25 10 3 & under

Mickve Israel 5 donation per person suggested

Telfair Museum* 15 5 5 & under

Owens-Thomas House* 15 5 5 & under

Jepson Center* 15 5 5 & under

Isaiah Davenport House 8 5 5 & under

Andrew Low House 8 4.50

Sorrel-Weed House 10

Ships of the Sea Museum 8 6 7 & under

Savannah History Museum+ 5 4.50 5 & under

Roundhouse Museum+ 10 4 (6 and under!)

Old Fort Jackson+ 6

Tybee Island Light Station 7 5 4 & under

Wormsloe State Park 5

Mighty 8th Air Force Museum 10 6 5 & under

* Admission includes a one-time visit to each of the Telfair Museums three sites (Telfair Academy, Owens-Thomas House, & Jepson Center) for a week-long period following the date of purchase. General admission fee also includes regularly-scheduled docent-guided tours.

+ Call for current pricing!

2010 Visitor Guide

It has been awhile

2010-07-12T20:41:00.000-04:00

But on the bright side, I have gotten lots of other good stuff done. But you see, the real problem is that I am a lists person. Several months ago I made a list of things I wanted to get done everyday. Like feed the dog. The list provided spots to check off each item, everyday, until mid-May. Then my list ran out. And my printer ran out of ink, so I couldn't print a new list. Therefore, I didn't get anything done. Like blogging. And every month I would look at the price of ink and decide that it really wasn't necessary. Not as necessary as chocolate ice cream. It finally dawned on me this week that I could use pen and paper to write out my list on graph paper, giving me a place to mark off each task everyday. So now I can remember to blog.

You will be happy to know, I am sure, that the diet is working as it ought. My total cholesterol has dropped from 225 down to 155. All the other numbers dropped nicely, too. We are finding that, with less salt and oil, we are tasting the vegetables more and are enjoying our food more. We also noticed that we have little to no desire to eat food from fast food restaurants any more, even when we are quite hungry. Quite an interesting change, really. The diet tends to be more expensive than our previous diet because we buy so much fresh produce. It takes a lot of produce to keep us full. Which is the main reason we are not completely following the "eat a huge salad everyday" part of the diet. It is just too expensive to do so currently.

Furthermore, I picked up a book titled In Code by Sarah Flannery. An excellent read for any math fans or people interested in the math behind cryptography. After mentioning to my dear spouse how fascinating I found the book he quickly dug out The Codebreakers by David Kahn from the back room and handed the old volume to me. It is from 1967. I know, that isn't all that old, but there is a newer edition out. I have found the book to be vastly interesting. Spouse flipped to the back of the book and pointed out the sections in the index that I would likely find most interesting, but for no particular reason I started right at the beginning and have found all of it to be interesting so far. I don't know if I would be interesting in cryptology or cryptanalysis as a career since I really don't want to spend all day everyday working on a computer, but so far it is an interesting study.

Joseph continues to grow and be amazing. He signs much more now than just a few weeks ago. I love spending time with him. Unless it is after 6pm. Then I just want him to go to bed. The garden is requiring water twice a day but has delicious tomatoes and peppers that we use as fast as they turn ripe. The cat is ensconced in the shop quite happily. The dog has been clipped nearly to the skin and if he has had a recent bath he is allowed inside on hot days.

That's it for now.

How does my garden grow

2010-04-20T10:18:00.000-04:00

Quite well, actually. I left for a week to visit my parents with Joseph and I left detailed instructions for watering and caring for the garden in my absence. Michael rose to the challenge and when I returned everything was beautiful! I had brought some new plants home with me as my parents had plenty of mint, lemon grass and lilac seedlings. The mint and lemon grass have survived and are growing well. The lilac is still iffy but she might make it. I was quite pleased with the mint, which I have planted in a container, considering how invasive the plants are. I did not plant it when I returned home at 2 AM and the next day I started to replant it only to be interrupted by Joseph. I promptly forgot all about it and the mint plants lay on top of the dirt, drying out, overnight. I had little hope in the morning when I picked up their limp, withered stalks. Thinking of how hardy mint tends to be, I planted them anyway and watered them well. Lo and behold, the next day they were spritely and cheerful looking! The only plants that are not doing well is my chive plant and my pepper plants, all of which I started from seeds. Some of my plants have not sprouted yet, notably the yellow squash and the passion fruit vine.

Square Foot Gardening

2010-03-29T20:17:00.004-04:00

My parents introduced me to square foot gardening last year and I thought it was a great idea because I have a distinctly black thumb when it comes to growing plants. Later in the year they sent me the book All New Square Foot Gardening. Now this method is nearly fool proof if you follow it, or so the book says. I am all for fool-proof gardening. From what the book tells me about traditional gardening, I would not have been a very successful row gardener. I don't want to till my soil or pH test it or any of that stuff. And I certainly would not get around to weeding it as often as would be required. Fortunately with the SFG method, none of these things are necessary. The website has all the information you need to start your own, so I won't go into any of that here. I just wanted to show off my fancy new garden. I only have a few things planted right now and I am waiting a week to buy another bag of vermiculite to fill my second box. We are starting small this year with only two 4'x4' boxes and the 2'x2' box I made last fall. I would love to plant more but I think that I would like to "get the hang of it" before going all out. Besides, with just my husband, the baby and myself, we don't need a ton of produce. I am still figuring out what to plant and when to start the seeds and everything. I am hoping to place the 2' box on top of the corner of my second 4' box and grow corn in it. I love corn. Really. I can eat it like candy. Or like graham crackers, in my son's case. I plan to post updates every few weeks so you, too, can see how my garden grows.

Kissing

2010-03-24T21:37:00.005-04:00

I suppose that when a second or third child comes along in one's family each of their new accomplishments is overshadowed by a "been there, done that" sentiment from seeing the first child do those same things. Fortunately, I still only have one child so every new thing that he does is amazing and noteworthy. For instance, yesterday was the first time Joseph ever kissed me. Often when I pick him up I kiss his nose and declare, "kiss!" Yesterday, when I picked him up, he leaned in, touched his lips to my nose and, as he was leaning back, clicked his tongue, his closest approximation to the kiss sound. Michael was the happy recipient of Joseph's kisses today.

It is fun and interesting to watch Joseph learn and study things. He has recently started carrying his toy phone around, jabbering into it for fifteen minutes at a time. Today as I was working on my garden fence, he lounged in his camp chair with a sippy cup in one hand and the phone held firmly to the side of his head with the other hand. He jabbered loudly while waving his sippy cup around. At least until I started drilling holes. The drill was a temptation too much to withstand. I did not accomplish much at that time.

For anyone who looked at my menu, I am happy to say that the meals listed on that menu have lasted us two weeks. This is a good thing because the grocery bill for that menu was large. But if that much food lasts us two weeks, then the bill was quite reasonable. Most of the items on the menu were new to me, and we have enjoyed most of them. Some of them we will not eat again, although they were not bad. Some of them are definite keepers. The last rendition of 15 bean soup turned out particularly well and I wish I had written down everything that I put in it. The spaghetti (on the menu from a previous week) turned out better than expected since we substituted whole grain pasta for the normal pasta and we replaced our usual hamburger meat with diced extra firm tofu. We also added a number of vegetables to the sauce. Next time I hope to have extra mushrooms on hand to add, too.

Foster's Holly

2010-03-16T08:21:00.001-04:00

In our backyard we have four holly plants that look like the plants pictured here. The other day I left Joseph outside playing alone for a minute to come in and do something. When I came back out I was rather horrified to see a crushed red berry in his hand and a big grin on his face. Snatching his face in my hand I swept my finger through his mouth and found nothing. This did not reassure me as the berries are small enough he could have swallowed them already. Much to his displeasure I carried him inside and called poison control from my cell phone which has an 801 number. I was connected to poison control. In Utah. They happily informed me that there are no poisonous red berries that grow. In Utah. So I went back to searching the internet and discovered what kind of bushes I have and that the berries cause barfing and diarrhea. Small child showed no signs of either and I presume from that that he never swallowed any or enough to cause a problem.

So last night I dreamed that I left him outside playing and when I went out he had a mouth full of black berries (the red ones from the bush had turned black later in the year in my dream. On the real plant they don't do that I am pretty sure). Not a reassuring dream to have. So today I will be purchasing plant clippers and trimming all the pretty, enticing berries within child's reach from the bushes. While I intend to keep my eyes on the wily child, I know that I will not keep my eyes on him every second that we am out there. Furthermore, he is still too young to understand from discipline that he should not do something. So I think the safest solution, like outlet covers and keeping sharp things out of his reach, is to keep the berries out of his reach. My bushes may look funny for awhile, but better that than an evening in the ER. If anyone has ideas on how to keep small fingers from exploring forbidden berries, I would love to hear them!

Success

2010-03-13T21:17:00.000-05:00

I am in charge of activities at the church I attend. This position is not necessarily complicated. In fact, among positions to have, it is a reasonably easy one. That does not mean that I did not spend half the night awake last night worrying about what might go wrong tonight during the first activity for which I was in charge. My main worry was that no one would show up. Then I had to worry about whether anyone would be there to help set up. Then I worried about having to clean up all by myself. Of course, with a congregation as awesome as the one I attend, none of these worries were even remotely possible.

Within one minute of my arrival at the building another car pulled in. And then another. Mind you, I was more than 30 minutes early. Less than ten minutes later we were inside setting up. The activities committee had charged each organization with assignments for presenting information about being prepared for emergencies and long-term unemployment or other difficulties. While I was bringing in bread rolls and plastic-ware, each group had already chosen the room in which they would present their information. Whew! One worry off my mind. Before I had finished brining in my crockpot, someone was inquiring as to how many tables and what kind I wanted set up. Wow! A second worry crossed right off my list in less than five minutes.

Then more people showed up! And they brought food to the potluck. Woohoo! People and food to feed them with! Everything was going so well! And I did not have to do a thing! But then I had to worry about if the Red Cross speaker would show up while we were still all eating. Fortunately, someone was kind enough to say the opening prayer, the rotations through the information booths did not descend into mass chaos, and, just as everyone finished their last rotation, lo and behold, the Red Cross speaker arrived! She gave an excellent presentation to which everyone listened quietly, even the children were well behaved and quiet. There was enough food for everyone and even a few rolls left over for me to take home. Oh, and did I mention that we had homemade root beer? It was excellent! I particularly enjoyed the floods of "smoke" that issued forth when the dry ice was added.

Fortunately, I had the forethought to save a plate of food for our speaker because by the time she finished, there was hardly a morsel left, except the bread rolls. While she ate I chatted with her and kept her company. She is a very nice lady and very well educated. We were fortunate to have her come speak to us. By the time I wished our guest good night everything was cleaned up and put away. All I had to do was dry a handful of dishes, collect my things (and the used table clothes) and wander into the night. What a great success! And I owe it entirely to all those who participated and helped and attended. Thank you!

Shopping list for yesterday's menu

2010-03-12T15:20:00.000-05:00

This shopping list includes ingredients for everything on yesterday's menu. The recipes provide at least enough food for two adults and a 14 month old child. Most of the recipes are actually enough for four adults, ensuring plenty of leftovers. While I usually plan12 meals (lunch and dinner) each week we usually only need 8-10 of those meals. This means that we will be stocking up for food storage or for when there is more than two weeks between paychecks, etc. This menu is all vegetarian.

Menu for a week

2010-03-11T20:31:00.000-05:00

I will add links to the recipes that are already on the web and a shopping list tomorrow. I hope.

New Car!

2010-03-09T14:00:00.000-05:00

We have bought a new car. Well, new to us. It is a 2008 Mazda5. An excellent minivan. On the small side of minivans, in fact, it is likely the smallest minivan out there. I believe it was built on the chassis of a Mazda6, so it has the car engine and gas mileage (25-28 mpg highway) and it has the handling of a car. However, it has dual sliding doors and seats that all fold down. It does not have as much cargo space as regular minivans, you almost have to have the back seats folded flat to carry anything, but that is working fine for us. Our particular car came with a 6-CD changer and a sunroof. Awesome. One of the other features that I have wanted and it has is that you set the temperature and the car automatically keeps it there, just like your thermostat at home. Lovely. It is a pretty red color and has a few scratches and bumps, but nothing noticeable from any distance. Joseph slept all the way home from Atlanta in it and enjoys when he is allowed free reign in the car.

New Books

2010-02-24T13:43:00.001-05:00

So far I have not come across any new information about cholesterol, but I did finally receive my new books in the mail. One I mentioned in my last post is Cholesterol Protection for Life. I have not read much into it but my brother's synopsis was, "Eat as much fruits and vegetables as you like, have starch once a week and animal products once a month." I am not sure that I will go that far into this diet, but I will certainly be paying more attention to what I eat. I was surprised to hear that starch is one of the things I should not eat a lot of. I love starch, mashed potatoes, corn, rice, pasta, bring it on! Unfortunately starches cause a decrease in High Density Lipids which is the good cholesterol. Of course, endurance exercise uses mainly starches to fuel the body, so it is not surprising that endurance exercise increases HDL. Now I am not talking about hours and hours of exercise. I have read that 30 minutes of continuous exercise is sufficient to increase HDL, and for each 10 minutes longer per session there is a corresponding increase in HDL levels.

The other book I bought is Base Building for Cyclists. Since my HDL levels were not low and I tend to ride for at least 30 minutes at a time, I do not plan to cut back much on my starch intake.

Cholesterol

2010-02-18T06:51:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I received a call from the doctor's office informing me that my lipid count was too high. I was preoccupied at that moment so I really had no idea what the nurse was talking about until she said, "low cholesterol diet and vigorous exercise at least three times a week." Oh. Well, since all of my family has high cholesterol, I was not very surprised with the news. Fortunately my cholesterol is not so high that they immediately recommend drugs.

My brother is a doctor-to-be and so I mentioned my cholesterol to him and he recommended a book to learn about diet changes that will lower my cholesterol. While waiting for this book to arrive I have been looking up research related to cholesterol, diet, and exercise. Currently I have discovered that while it is certain that exercise improves one's cholesterol, there is some controversy as to how, how much it improves cholesterol, how much and what kind of exercise are necessary, and what type of cholesterol (HDL or LDL) is affected.

Recent studies, this one in particular, show that High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) increase with increasing exercise session duration (the longer you exercise the better). As I understood the article, the intensity of exercise correlates with Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) concentration, so the harder you exercise, the better.

Most of the studies I have come across so far are studies of obese or "at risk" populations. I have been searching for studies of "healthy" population. I will let you know what I find.

Playing in the snow

2010-02-16T15:56:00.000-05:00

We had fun playing in the snow last week. Joseph enjoyed it very much and was quite irritated with me when I insisted that he come inside. I made a snow man, but I only had broken dog biscuits to use for the face and one button. I am sure that the dog biscuits that did not turn into soggy mess were enjoyed or hidden by the dog. The snowman fell over a few hours later and quietly melted away, although there is still a half-square-foot lump of snow left as a remnant.

By Sunday almost all of the snow had melted except in the shadows of trees and homes. By Monday the snow was all gone but we had a cold rain. M. took J. after his morning nap and that left me free for a lovely bike ride. I pedaled through the cold damp to the Mazda dealership where I am negotiating obtaining a Mazda5. No suitable vehicles were yet available, so I pedaled home into a stiff headwind.

My speed to the dealership must have been pretty fast because even with the headwind my average speed for the 26 mile round trip was still 14.5 mph. I know, for most guys that isthe speed you go when you aren't pedaling, but for me that is a reasonably fast average for the route I took. The last long (30 miles, I am working up!) ride I took I averaged about 16 mph, however there was no rain, hardly any traffic and the route was mostly flat. The ride was enjoyable and almost all of the drivers were quite nice.

Let it Snow!

2010-02-13T07:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had a winter storm. I did not expect such an occurrence. It was a lovely snow, perfect for snowmen. And when I have built a snowman I shall add a picture of him.

About an hour after the first photo I took this photo. You can see the snow is falling thick enough that the trees across the way are less distinct and the sky is darker even though it was not that close to sunset.

And this one was taken the next morning (today). Shortly before it stopped snowing we measured the amount of snow on our picnic table out back and it was just at four inches. We also lost power for more than four hours last night. It was kind of fun doing everything by candlelight. We had to bundle up and put several blankets on the bed to sleep. J. had three layers of clothes on! Before the power went out J. was flipping through his book of animal sounds that I have read to him often; when he flipped to the duckling page he said, "Quaak." Then, rather amazed, I said "moo" when he flipped to the cow page and he replied, "mmmmm!" When I told my husband about this, he figured the quack was random chance, but then we heard J. behind us repeating, "quaa quaa quaa." It was quite amusing.

Cool things my son does

2010-02-12T10:59:00.000-05:00

I know that all of you long time parents (anyone with more than one kid) out there probably won't find this amazing or cool because, well, all your kids did that too. Earlier. Better. Faster. It really does not faze you anymore. However, since I am still a newbie parent, I still find every progression very interesting. For instance, this week my son wandered off down the hall and after a few minutes my husband went to check on him. J. was sitting in his room by himself flipping through one of his picture books. A few minutes later he toddled into the dining room where we were, carrying his book and sat on the floor and flipped through the book. But the best part was a few minutes later when he stood up, brought the book to me and climbed into my lap so I could "read" it with him. Even better was when he got down, went away, and came back with a different book for us to look through.

We recently obtained a cat whom we have named Bedina, Arabic for "fat girl". She is fluffy. J. loves to play with her. Last night she was laying on a piece of tissue paper from an unwrapped present and J was tearing bits off, which B would bat at, setting J to giggling.

Biking has not received much attention lately; moving my bike into our sunroom has made biking on the fly easier. It is less of a hassle to stop in the middle of a ride on my rollers and pop in the back door than when I had my bike and rollers out in the shop.

I have posted a few new articles that have caught my eye. I have not managed to read either of these yet.

And finally I have started using Magikey to enter genealogy information with help from the makers of that fine product.

Spectacular Grand Canyon

2007-08-01T22:29:00.001-04:00

Since it has been about a year since we were married, my husband and I decided to take a trip to the grand canyon. We spent one day each way driving and three days at the south rim of the canyon. The trip to the canyon was interesting. We use Microsoft Streets and Trips to plan our route. Southern Utah is really very beautiful and the route took us along some very pretty vistas. At one point the road we were driving on continued in a dirt road and the paved part took a sharp left. We, naively believing that MS Streets and Trips would not put us on a dirt road when we selected the option of 'quickest route,' turned left and promptly came to a toll booth at a state park entrance. Upon querying the personnel there we discovered that MS Streets and Trips had in fact put us on a dirt road. Not only that, but after giving our four-door Nissan a concerned look, the lady informed us that we had better not try the road our route suggested. However, there was another road, about five miles back that we could pass with our car.

That should have warned us. Furthermore, we should have known we were in for something interesting when we noted that every vehicle passing us in the other direction was a four-wheel-drive truck or jeep. The occupants of which gave our car a strange look as they passed. The first mile of the road wasn't too bad, just a normal dirt road with potholes big enough to eat tires and washboards that will shudder your car off the road. Then the road went straight down along the precipice of a cliff, while turning sharply to the right. Promptly at the bottom the road shot up out of sight, still along the same cliff edge but this time turning sharply to the left while apparently becoming a single lane. I was just glad no one came over the top. When we did reach the top (poor car) we were again plunged downward and around a corner, fortunately we were no longer along the edge of the cliff. This was because we were at the bottom of a wash, complete with a little (fortunately shallow) creek. After creeping up the other side of the wash a few more steep ups and downs, with the associated potholes and washboards and we were finally out of the worst of the road, meaning we could finally travel at the posted speed limit of 25 mph. It only took us an hour and a half to traverse the 34 miles of 'passable' dirt road. I would hate to have seen what the impassible road we were supposed to have taken was like.

We finally made it to Page, Arizona at about 1:30 pm. We were still 100 miles or so from the Grand Canyon, but we had not yet had lunch and we were quite hungry. Upon entering Page I saw a sign for a Pizza Hut and suggested that we eat pizza. Michael was amenable and we headed further into town. When we came to the Pizza Hut Michael saw a pizzeria off to the left and suggested we go there. That sounded better than Pizza Hut so there we went, disembarked from our car and chose a table to sit at. Soon a waiter came by and got our drink order. Returning a few minutes later with our drinks he took our order then disappeared. We waited hungrily, sipping on our drinks. Another group came in after about ten minutes and were seated by us. Shortly thereafter they had drinks and bread on their table. I eyed their bread but stayed seated. Not very many minutes later they also had appetizers. We had been seated for about 25 minutes by now. Another group came in and were seated, soon to have drinks and bread, and promptly thereafter, salads, too. Michael was becoming antsy and I was debating asking the next table over for a slice of their pizza. We had now been waiting with only drinks for 35 minutes. We finally flagged down a waitress and asked for our waiter. She said she would find him. Five minutes later she returned and said he was making our salads. We glared and mentioned that we had not ordered salads. She apologized and asked what we had ordered. We got up and as we walked out suggested that any food would have been acceptable, we had been waiting 45 minutes and not even gotten bread! So we left. Loudly.

And took our way over to Pizza Hut, where a large line of foreign speaking people were debating what kind of pizza they wanted. We just wanted anything, so we left. Fortunately we spied a Mexican food place not far away and were quickly seated and enjoying a large bowl of chips and salsa. Our food orders were also quickly delivered and we consumed them rapidly. My hunger had been slightly appeased from the chips and salsa, so I only wolfed down the first two or three bites of chicken fajitas. Then I started to eat more circumspectly, cutting the chicken into bite sized pieces before stuffing them into my mouth. This is how I came to notice that the chicken pieces were still raw in the middle. I discovered that I was not hungry at all any more.

After obtaining a replacement dinner (no they did not take it off our bill) we quickly made our escape out of Page hoping never to return.

Yet Another Energy Bar Recipe

2007-06-19T22:34:00.000-04:00

1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp powdered cocoa
1 tbsp molasses
3 tbsp honey
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/3 cup chopped trail mix

If you have a gel flask, then just mix the first four ingredients. It makes a nice tasty gel. The nutritional content is as follows:

(first 4 ingredients only)
Carb: 72.5g (290 cal. = 75.5%)
Fat: 8g (72 cal. = 18.8%)
Protein: 5.5g (22 cal. = 5.7%)
Total cal.: 384

With oatmeal:
Carb: 98.5g (394 cal. = 74.3%)
Fat: 10.5g (94.5 cal. = 17.8%)
Protein: 10.5g (42 cal. = 7.9%)
Total cal.: 530.5

Disclaimer: I made this recipe up after looking on line at several other recipes. If this recipe happens to appear anywhere else on the internet, I don't know about it and don't mean to be thieving.

Music for the Masses (of riding I do)

2007-06-19T22:22:00.000-04:00

I keep meaning to write more often, about all the interesting training and riding and other such stuff I do. But then I get busy or forget or want to sleep instead. Sleep is very important. If I get enough sleep then I can ride more, which I like! I try to get at least seven hours of sleep every night. This week that did not go so well since I had an all night experiment to attend one night. It was rather amusing though. I arrived home about seven AM Thursday morning. After eating and checking email I couldn't keep my eyes open any more so I went and laid down and fell asleep almost instantly. It was about eight AM at that point. Exactly at ten AM I sat upright in bed and proceeded to get up and wander aimlessly around the house. I later realized that I had not been really awake when I got up. After doing mostly nothing for an hour I went back to sleep for another two or so hours. I was still tired, but I managed to enjoy the rest of the day and get to bed early.

Saturday I needed to be at work all day again, so I took my long ride Friday morning. I went out to Uinta National Forest and climbed up to Tibble Reservoir. From the base of the climb to the reservoir is about six miles. This took me an entire hour to climb. It doesn't seem all that steep, but it is steep enough. I also didn't really want to go anaerobic during the climb so I kept to an easy pace.

I did not have my usual fuel to drink while I rode. This is not a problem for rides under two or so hours, but after two hours of just water I start to bonk even if I have eaten a large breakfast. I did not eat a large breakfast Friday but I did stop at the Bagelry to nab a bagel that fit nicely in my jersey pocket. Along with the bagel I took a baggie of trail mix and a plastic wrapped energy bar concoction I had made. The three of these enabled me to finish my ride although I was still fairly hungry by the end since I only finished off the bagel, and I didn't touch the trail mix. The energy bar was tasty but since I had to squeeze it from the plastic wrap it was not so easy to eat as quickly as I needed the calories. I ended up eating about half.

And my new MP3 player arrived today. It is great!

Stress (in very large doses) Can Kill

2007-06-04T22:23:00.000-04:00

Did you know that too much stress can kill you? Of course, too much of anything can kill you. Mind you, it has to be a lot of stress for a very long time. And stress is cumulative. So, if you are stressed about your job and whatever relationship you are in and finances and then you physically stress you body, your body can react badly. This falls into the category of overtraining.

Overtraining is when you do not give your stressed body time to return to its normal baseline between sessions of stress. This is why when you are training hard you should check your heart rate and your weight every morning. An increase in heart rate of 10% above normal means your body has not recovered from the previous day's workout. Furthermore, a decrease in body weight of 10% or more means you failed to adequately hydrate yourself the previous day. Another thing to check for during heavy training is how long and how well you slept. If you slept 10% less than normal, that is also a bad sign, but not in and of itself indicative of overtraining.

I mention all of this merely because this last week I worked out at the gym hard Thursday night then I rode hard on Friday and Saturday my HR was up by more than 10% and my weight was down from the previous day a few pounds. So I skipped riding, but I did go do an outdoor labor service project and helped clean a camp ground. I was quite tired and very, very thirsty for the rest of the day. Abnormally thirsty, I would get up in the middle of the night to chug 20 oz of water. That night, I woke up around 3 AM and was just awake. For an hour or so. Insomnia is another sign of overtraining. Sunday morning my HR was still extra high and I was still very tired and thirsty. So I spent most of the day laying down and reading or sleeping. By that evening my HR was back to normal, for which I was very glad.

This morning I spent some time adjusting my training schedule to give me more days off but longer rides on the days I do ride. I believe this will help my body better be able to accommodate the stresses I will be inflicting upon it.

New Tires Good, Flats Bad

2007-06-01T10:02:00.000-04:00

So I was pelting down a hill yesterday when I hit a hard bump and noticed that my bike was riding unusually stiff all of a sudden. I looked down and sure enough, going 35 mph I had blown a flat. I carefully slowed down and hauled my bike onto the side of the road. A quick inspection of the tube showed the malefactor - the valve was almost ripped out. I am not sure how such a thing could happen, but I suppose that a weak spot had developed there and so when the pressure peaked by hitting a bump, it just blew out. Fortunately I always care and extra tube and a bike pump. Unfortunately, the pump no longer will get my tire pressure above 60psi. But that is usually enough to limp to the nearest bike shop.

I hope I don't get a flat today since now I have used up all my tubes and have no extra to carry with me. Riding off!

Getting a tune up

2007-05-31T12:10:00.000-04:00

The weekend of my bike brake-nut hunt my husband convinced me ("Here is money, get a tune up!") to get my bike in for a very long over due tune up. I decided that I would also obtain a professional bike fit that same day. I had heard in the past that just a generic bike fitting would be good enough for all but the most elite cyclists. Recently, however, it dawned on me that my knees and feet would thank me for obtaining a proper bike fitting before riding 10s of 1000s of miles. So I went over to the nice folks of J.R. Smith Coaching and had them pull out their fancy biometric tools while I sat serenely pedaling on my bike. The end result was raising my saddle 0.5 cm, changing my cleat position just a tiny bit on my right shoe, and pulling my aerobar uprights back towards the handle bars by several cm. The new position seems good so far, but I haven't ridden much since the fitting.

The tune-up was completed by Revolution Mountain Sports. They did a good job, the bike shifts better and the brakes are set better. Furthermore, they replaced my ratty bar tape. The new wrap job is excellent, for which I am very pleased.

I also bought new tires, since the ones on my bike had spots where the underlying threading was no longer under-lying. The new tires are very nice, and yellow! Now I have a pretty black bike with yellow tires and it looks sweet. I wanted yellow bar tape, too, but I failed to mention that to the shop. My bike also received a bath the night before the tune up. Surgical-prep scrub brushes are really great for bike cleaning.

Why getting a regular tune up is a good thing

2007-05-31T11:54:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago I was walking towards the elevator to leave work, wheeling my bike along when I noticed a strange squeaky noise emanating from my bike. As anyone with a bike knows, strange squeaky noises should be looked into immediately lest something break and you die. So I stopped and looked down to examine my bike. The cause was immediately evident. My front tire was flat. Very flat. Flatter than I can get it by letting all the air out through the valve. I always carry an extra tube and my bike pump so the flat did not worry me. However, when I went to pop the front wheel off, I discovered that one of the nuts holding my front brakes together was broken in half. Half was missing and half (okay a little more than half) was still clinging to the bolt. This concerned me. So I took TRAX (the local train system) home. Saturday I spent an hour hunting various bike shops and hardware stores for a nut that would fit. Unfortunately, as many bike manufactures do, the nut was proprietary and had a non-standard thread pitch. However I was able to find a nut that would screw on a little bit, and with a few washers to make the connection tight and a bit of duct tape to ensure the whole assemblage does not come loose from road vibration I was up and running (or riding) again.

Spring: The Best Time of Year

2007-05-17T10:10:00.000-04:00

I love the spring. Currently we are having beautiful weather. It is getting into the 80s everyday and by the time I get out the door in the morning, it is already nearly 70 degrees. I am very fond of warm weather. Today will make the fourth day of riding in a row. I haven't ridden that many days in a row for quite some time. I slept quite well last night and when I woke up my heart rate was quite normal, which is encouraging. I hope to be able to ride tomorrow, too. Tonight I will go to the gym and weight train.

I have been leaving for home and work at odd times, so traffic has not been a problem this week. For the most part, drivers here in Utah seem to be extra courteous, which I very much appreciate. I think I have been getting better, yesterday at a stop light my HR dropped to 100 within one minute of stopping after 40 minutes of riding.

Wasatch

2007-05-15T21:06:00.000-04:00

Well today I tried a new route in to work. I climbed up to Wasatch Blvd and followed it along until it emptied out onto Foothill. Actually, I followed the bike path from Wasatch to Foothill. Foothill was not as bad to bike on as I had thought it would be. However, it does go from two lanes, one of which has a nice wide shoulder, to three lanes with no shoulder. Fortunately, it was past rush hour and all the traffic elected to stay in the two left lanes to pass me. This route has more climbing than my normal route, but it was not too hard. I did take it easy, dropping down into my very utmost lowest gear numerous times. Wasatch Blvd is a nice road to bike on, it has a bike lane almost the whole length. Getting to Wasatch isn't so much fun since I, currently, use a route that takes me past a freeway entrance/exit. Perhaps next time I take Wasatch I will pick it up further south to avoid that intersection.

It was nice to see that my HR stayed in normal ranges with a max of 175 today. In the past, it has told me that my max was 238 or 232 or some such horrendous number. I don't exactly trust my HRM since often I look down and notice it is reading my HR as 0. Since 0 would be dead, and I am clearly alive, I imagine that electrical interference is causing problems.

I only put sunscreen on my bare legs today and I seem to have obtained a minor sunburn on my arms and face. I guess I will have to go back to liberal application. I just don't like the sticky/slimy/residue-y feeling that cheap sunscreens leave and I am too cheap to splurge on expensive sunscreens. Perhaps a fancy sunscreen company will deign to sponsor me so I can use good sunscreen for my races and training. Anyone know of a good sunscreen company???

Bad at Blogging

2007-05-12T21:02:00.000-04:00

Okay, well it has been a month since I last posted anything at all. I guess I am not very good at blogging. However, since I suspect that no one reads these anyway, it probably doesn't really matter much. On the other hand, if I want to impress potential sponsors who may just find their way to this blog, I had better have a descent training blog or they will think I am a loser. Which, I am not. I am just a little be too competitive to be a loser.

Since I last posted the weather has become increasingly beautiful and warm, enticing me to ride more days out of the week. This week I only rode three days. My husband and I decided to go with a Gold's Gym weight trainer and this week we completed two strenuous workouts. I am quite sore. But it is the good kind of sore.... I suspect that these workouts and staying up rather late last night were why my heart rate this morning was rather higher than it should have been. I probably could have gone riding anyway, but I have plenty of time to train for the TTT so I don't want to ruin my training by pushing too hard right now. Last week I took an easy week and I think that I took it too easy. This is why it would be good to have a coach. While I did not complete my 100 miles this week I expect that I shall be able to complete it next week.

I find that going to bed at the same time every night is beneficial to my training. My body seems to like having a routine and I tend to wake up at the same time every morning anyway. Another thing I discovered this week is that if I eat a breakfast that has some fat and protein in it (ie not just a bowl of cereal) I do not bonk on my ride in to work. Although this should be obvious to any serious athlete, sometimes these things just take a bit of time to percolate into my consciousness.

I have spoken with one coaching company and I have sent merely one sponsorship inquiry out as of now. I will send out at least one more tonight and I may write a letter or two to be posted on Monday.

As a random side note, My husband bought a sewing machine for me for my birthday and I have been sewing lots of great clothes ever since.

Really This Time

2007-04-14T11:16:00.000-04:00

I have been slowly adding mileage to my weekly training schedule, this week I am at a paltry 70 miles, which will be completed later today with a 41 mile ride. My husband and I have discussed and decided that I should go ahead and try to do the RAAM next year. This means I will have to requalify this year, which I am planning to do at The Texas Time Trials. This, I believe, is the closest race to me (geographically) and one that is far enough away (chronologically) that I have enough time to train for it thoroughly.

This try at the RAAM I will hire a coach because last time I tried to train by myself I did a really bad job. So if anyone knows of a good long distance coach.... I am also trying to find sponsors and funding. I may enlist a charity's help in this. I have heard that if I pledge to raise X dollars for a charity then they would be willing to fund my race as long as my race costs are only y% of X dollars.

Currently I am finishing up my second semester of my PhD program, training for a race, planning two races, trying to figure out a very detailed budget for sponsors and perhaps writing an Access program to track my sponsor finding efforts. I do have a 15 page paper due Monday in one of my classes along with a couple of presentations due next week, also. And I am sleepy...

Anyway, it is time to go ride. Bye!

Sunny days

2007-03-22T23:36:00.000-04:00

Monday was another beautiful day for a ride. In fact, every day this week would have been good for a ride, but I am only up to 60 miles for my total mileage this week, so I have to be picky about my rides. On Monday I again went out towards Sandy and continued on until I was all the way down in Draper. It was quite pleasant even though I had to stop and buy a Clif Bar to eat during the ride. It was very tasty. I am particularly fond of the almond fudge variety, which, fortunately, Revolution Mountain Sport had one.

Traffic was not bad even though I did not get home until 4:30pm. The ride out took longer than the ride back because of a light headwind on the ride out. Or perhaps the ride home was down hill. I don't know.

Today I went to Gold's Gym and did some core strength training on the weight machines there. I hope to get there again on Saturday despite also planning on a two hour ride that same day. But it is spring break, so I don't have homework, and my house is clean. So I can go ride. Hurray!

Beautiful Weather

2007-03-17T23:20:00.000-04:00

This week we have had beautiful weather here and I rode to the Trax station most days on my mountain bike. Tuesday I rode all the way to the U and back on my road bike, a round trip of 21.8 miles. It was a bit cold in the morning, my lung protested, and the last three or so miles in is all uphill. Not just little hills either. Big monster hills that I creep up at about the pace of a grandma in a walker...

However, today was another gorgeous day and I couldn't resist going for a ride. I had heard that 900/700 E. is a good road for riding and I have seen cyclists out that-a-way, so I decided to head out that way until I used up one of the two water bottles I was carrying. About half an hour into the ride I realized that I had not put sunscreen on, but I wasn't too red yet, so I kept going. I rode out about 12 miles. It was perfect weather and the road was Michigan-flat, so no hills to huff and puff up.

I rode 23 some-odd miles in an hour and a half and thoroughly enjoyed them. I even found a bike shop on the route that can work on my road bike. All these roads and rodes are getting very confusing. Despite my, now itching and painful, sunburn, it was really a delightful day especially since spring break is next week.

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T22:13:00.000-05:00

Cycling
So it has been awhile since I last wrote but I was having fun visiting family, watching Michael graduate, enjoying Christmas and taking time off from school and work. It was all quite entertaining.
However, after two weeks off my bike, I decided that I should not try to race the 500 mile portion of the Heart of the South. Fortunately I found a replacement race that will accomplish the same goal but it occurs in a much more reasonable time frame.
The Race Across Oregon occurs at the end of June. It is approximately 540 miles, 40,000 feet of climbing and it has a 48 hour time limit. Michael said he will crew for me, as will Dawn-Marie and likely my dad. The race will cost at least $1500. Anyone want to sponsor me?
I am looking to find a coach but I doubt I will be able to afford to hire a coach, but who knows? It doesn't hurt to look. My website has my training mileage goals and achieved mileage on the training page.
Perhaps Michael and I will join Gold's Gym in the near future and I will add weight training and swimming to my routine. Currently, since I don't like riding in the cold, I have been doing the last week or so of mileage indoors on my rollers. I usually watch a movie while I ride. Action movies are best, but not those that have really fast camera work. That makes it hard to stay balanced in the middle of my rollers. And I hate falling off my rollers.
For Christmas I obtained a book called Bicycling Medicine. It was really great. I enjoyed reading it greatly. It had a lot of good information about nutrition and injury prevention and diagnosis. During the Adirondack 540 one of my knees started to hurt. This book gives good information on how I can change my bike's set up to prevent that occurring in the RAO.
Another book I recently enjoyed reading was Slow Fat Triathlete. The author's writing style is really quite funny and down to earth. Even though I feel no need what so ever to try triathlons, I very much enjoyed the book and it is a great resource for any beginner in any endurance sport. In my opinion at least.

Research
I have recently re-read the A. Branner 2004 paper. It is quite interesting and I encourage you to read it. Meanwhile, research continues in the lab and I continue to learn new things and how to use the programs and equipment necessary to work in my lab. I have started to create a database to hold some of the data that we obtain from our experiments so that we will better be able to manipulate and view the data we obtain.

Training Again and Story Time

2006-11-25T18:11:00.000-05:00

I decided to start training again in hopes of riding in the Heart of the South 500 at the beginning of April 2007. So last week and this week I rode in to school - an 11 mile ride each way. It isn't too bad except that the last three miles in to school are all up hill. No really. They are. In fact last week, I rode the 1.25 miles between the two buildings my classrooms are in and it took me more than 10 minutes! But then, I am still pretty slow.

Furthermore, at the beginning of November, my eldest brother mentioned to me and my third eldest brother that he was writing a 50,000 word story during the month of November and we should do so to. So we did.. are. My website shows my current progress. It has been lots of fun, but I still have 11,000 words to go and only 5 more days.

Residue Nerve Stump Function

2006-10-28T15:51:00.000-04:00

So this morning I went into work to help with the experiments being run this week. So I did that instead of riding. I also have a good bit of homework to get done; such as reading the Residual Function... article linked on the left. This article is a few years old, but still has a good bit of significance. We know that when a limb is amputated the brain area associated with the amputated limb is reassigned to other tasks to some degree. Also, because of disuse, there is some nerve degeneration that will occur in the nerve stump. Because of these problems it was unknown whether or not the nerve stump could be used to move a prosthetic limb or relay sensory data to the brain.
This article relates an experiment that showed that the stump could relay motor and sensor information from and to the brain. Further experiments need to be done as to the longevity of this ability, since this experiment was limited in scope. Furthermore, this experiment used a very few electrodes per amputee, many more will be needed for true functionality. Also, the electrodes used in this experiment, as is the standard with such experiments, used percutaneous (through the skin) connectors. More permanent solutions are being pursued in many laboratories including telemetry, percutaneous carbon connections and osseointegration. My website has a bit more information about this subject.

St. George Weekend

2006-10-23T13:43:00.000-04:00

Cycling:
The ride was rather nice. It was cold and quite windy the entire 30 miles. Joel caught a ride to the start with me. There was no where to use the bathroom at the ride start, which was unfortunate, but gave great incentive to reach the first rest stop quickly. I started off with all the fast people just because it was fun and downhill. At the first climb I dropped off of the front group and granny-geared my way to the top. Part way through we rode through a construction area with large 1" high metal plates in the road with deep sand patches on the right and the opposite lane of traffic on the left. I came upon this area just after a cyclist had gone down due to this mess. Fortunately he was unhurt, but his bike needed some work. Further on, in the midst of a long climb I came across a rider with a flat and no spare. I gave him my spare tube since it is good Karma to aid a cyclist in need. I was glad to see a sag van pull up behind us since they had a good floor pump and I only had a pathetic old mini pump.
At the first rest stop I found Joel (quite cold) had waited for me to show up. He decided to return with me instead of doing the full 100 miles as he had originally intended. It was nice to have someone to ride with even if he is much faster than I am. He was kind enough to drag me up the hills and into the head winds. A few miles before the end I dropped off his wheel and he rode in with another rider and I finished at my own snail's pace. A reasonably nice ride, all in all.
After we changed back at camp my husband drove us over to Snow Canyon and we scaled the Cinder Cone volcano. That was very tough but neat to have done.

In the beginning (of this blog) ...

2006-10-18T22:23:00.000-04:00

Cycling:
This weekend my husband and I will be traveling down to St. George so I can ride in the Tour of St. George. I wanted to do the 65 mile ride, but after struggling up a not-really-steep hill for 1/4 mile, I've decided that the 30 mile route might suite me better at this point.
Last week I rode a total of 20 miles. At one point my heart rate hit 240, so I need to give myself more time to acclimate.

Research:
This week there was a very interesting seminar on biosensors. The sensor is a partially bound double DNA helix attached to a gold electrode that has a fluorophore bleacher associated with it. One strand, B, of the DNA has a fluorescent end that, while bound in the double helix, is held away from the bleacher. Strand A of the DNA has a strong affinity for the target of the sensor. When the target is present, the double helix unbinds so that strand A can bind to the target. Strand B then falls into close contact with the bleacher so that target presence can be 'seen' by the absense of emitted electrons. See this page: http://www.chem.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/plaxco/index.shtml for more information.