Maintainers weekly chat July 18-24
 

Monday starts a tad late today; it's summer, you know.

My week is being busy with the repainting/renovation we're doing at home. I continue to have to move my STUFF about to get it out of the way. I continue to wish I didn't own so much. People might do well to suffer occasional forrest fires, just like forrests, to clear out the underbrush, LOL.

Bill-- you just beat me with starting the thread! Is there a way to delete my thread I started right after you?

(this is what I posted in the other thread)

My summer is quickly disappearing. It hasn't warmed up yet here so it doesn't feel like summer yet. I am trying to plan a quick trip to Santa Barbara and San Diego this week to visit colleges with dd. What starts off as something easy, quickly gets complicated when I take into account the dogs and cats. I have to find someone to come and feed the cats three times a day as they eat special food. We will board Jozi assuming they have room where we normally board her. I have to decide where to board Dewey as he's never been away from home. The bad thing is I'll have to board them from Wed-Sat as we'll leave too early and get back too late. I'm off to make reservations, hotel plans, etc.!
__________________

Bill~as I age, I find that I need less and less STUFF. I realized several years ago that I had been quite materialistic in my younger years. I wanted this and that. Now I realize it is all just STUFF and if I were to lose any of it, well, so be it. It's just STUFF. Photos are the only real thing that I would miss. That and all my passwords for internet sights (you know, the important ones like banking). So we keep most of our photos together so if we were to experience something as devastating as a fire (although here it would more likely be the "Big One" earthquake) we can quickly gather them to take with us. I've already solved the password issue with Last Pass.

Michele~I'm also planning a trip right now. In a few minutes I need to get on the phone and make some reservations at RV parks along our route from So Cal to Anaconda, MT for a family reunion. Three days up and three days back with four days at the reunion. It will be nice to get away. DD will come and stay at our house and take care of Ringo along with her new kitty, Mahler. We'll take DS and Chico with us to the reunion. Chico travels well, but gets a little anxious being left alone in the RV for some reason, but he should be okay for short periods if we need to leave him.

DH and I went to see Harry Potter yesterday. Good movie. Makes me want to read the books...I've tried a couple times in the past and could never get into the first one. Now that I know the story (from all the movies) I might get into the books easier and see just what it is that was left out of the movies.

We also went to see Tree of Life. It was, um, interesting. Beautiful cinematography, but some of it was a bit superfluous IMO. The volcano stuff was a bit too long. DH said it reminded him of an old movie where they traveled into space and there was similar nonsensical stuff (I want to say he said 2001 A Space Odyssey, but I'm not sure).

The weather here was nice enough for golf both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Saturday, I beat DH! Five pars and a birdie to his four pars. Sunday was a complete turnaround--he got 11 pars and I only had two. My shooting was just off. That and I bought a new putter that gave me troubles in the beginning. I think I've figured it out, but not sure if I like it or not.

I am trying to sort and unstuff as I may be moving. Little things cause so much stress . Why do I need 3 coffeemakers ? Why do I have shoes from 15 years ago that I MAY wear sometime? Decisions, decisions.....

Michele, the summer does feel like it's going extremely quickly!

We went to see HP this weekend too. Saw it in 3D, since I'd never been to a 3D movie before, but found that it didn't really add anything. I enjoyed it, but DH fell asleep. :lol: He hasn't read the books and didn't remember the last couple movies so he didn't know what was going on.

I'm going to the endocrinologist and the rheumatologist this week. We'll see what medication changes they make. In the meantime I'm having trouble getting a handle on my weight and I'm over my red line. My biggest problem seems to be snacking, so I was thinking I'd go buy some diet snack bars (the kind with extra ingredients to make you feel full?). Any recommendations?

I can't do 3D movies - they nauseate me for some reason, and give me a headache. I don't mind, since I wouldn't want to pay the extra money anyway!

Stuff. Oh, stuff. Having recently helped my parents move, and having moved a lot myself (including overseas and back) I am as firmly anti-stuff as I can possibly be . . . and yet I still have tons of crap! :) But I can't have too many books, which are the heaviest things. Sigh.

Alinell - What is Last Pass? I'm forever forgetting online passwords.

Jessica - No suggestions on snack bars, sorry, but I hope your docs are able to adjust your meds well.

Rejoice with me, everyone, it's the last week of summer classes - woo hoo! After Thursday, I'm free for 3 glorious weeks!

Jen~Last Pass is a web service that, depending on the internet browser you use, keeps your passwords for you (you only have to remember your Last Pass password to gain access). On my Mac at home, it works flawlessly. Here at work, I use a combination of Chrome, Firefox and IE (because some sites aren't supported by some browsers) and it isn't so flawless, but it does keep my passwords. You can read more about it here.

Morning all,

I was in a rather cranky mood yesterday, so I tried to just get to bed sort of early last night and "start over" today. Of course it's tough on a Monday. :dizzy: I did get to bed pretty early but was still tired, but I think that's just from my cold, which is almost gone, and I'm sure the sleep did help. It rained all weekend, so BF and I didn't get to go on our scalloping trip that was for my bday. We will do it when the weather is nice, but I was still a little disappointed. At least my bags are unpacked, laundry done, floors vacuumed, and bathroom cleaned. Emma was driving me nuts yesterday. She didn't like being cooped up, but when I took her out in the rain, she would barely do her business before wanting to go home. At least I got her out for exercise before the rain Sat. So my weekend wasn't very exciting after Friday night, but was somewhat productive.

I'm looking forward to seeing the new HP when I can get to the city. I just Netflix-ed the first half of the movie to refresh myself.

Jen, enjoy your upcoming vacation! You must have "senior-itis" right now.

Jessica, I actually don't like "diet bars" because while they're low calorie, I don't find many very filling! I look towards things like Luna bars and Clif bars that have a little protein and fiber, or will make things myself (but need to be kept in the fridge, at least until the day I eat them) - but I always read labels to make sure they have some substance if I'm buying them. Some of the Kashi granola bars have a little bit of protein and fiber and I like those. I also really like raw nuts as a snack (pre-portion) because they're so filling. Are you really hungry or are you boredom eating? If it's boredom of course I'd go to other options you can eat a lot of for few calories, like carrots, grapes, watermelon, plain popcorn. I hope the doc can find a good med adjustment for you. Are you still unable to work out?

Allison, it sounds like you had a nice golfing weekend!

Michele, gl with all of your planning.

Bill, I really need to take a page from your book! I really need to go through my clothes, and some other boxes. I've definitely become more selective about what I'll acquire but am still bad at letting go of things I don't use. I've been meaning to for about a year... yeah... haven't done it yet.

The sun is shining today so a good walk for Emma is definitely on the books tonight, a theatre board meeting, and maybe a short gym workout. Good thing I've got leftovers to eat for dinner. Have a good week everyone!

Am in post-workout (physio exercises) bliss-out. Bill, I am going to give two cache-pots to Oxfam. But our real difficulty is books, obscure, out-of-print books. The DB has just imported about 2' of secondhand books (shelf space) but has not exported any. And he's only 11. I blame the parents.

Food not bad but could be a lot, lot better. Too many carbs and not a huge enough quantity of veg on the recent national tour. Still, I'm home now.

I've gotten really good at getting rid of stuff, without getting a whole bunch more. My rule now is one item in, 3 items have to go out. Living in small spaces helps a lot. DH is the hoarder of us two. I put out a "Free" box on the lawn quite regularly and he rarely contributes.

DH still has every pair of shoes he's ever bought himself. If he pays money for something he keeps it, even if it's been sitting for years, is totally worn out, or doesn't work. SIGH. He's trying to keep my stuff too now! I've found several things from my "Free" box secreted downstairs in his "lair". SIGH.

My Monday was totally uneventful except now I have to disconnect the downspouts at my dad's house. The City had it as a voluntary thing for years but now it's "mandatory" and you get fined if you don't comply. SIGH.

Good evening all!

Dagmar :tired:

Megan, I don't know if I'm actually hungry or if it's boredom. A little of both I think. Part of it is that I've been eating too much lately and I feel like when I do that my stomach expands, so it takes more food to fill it. I just need to get over the hump of eating less for a couple weeks so that my stomach will shrink back to being full on less volume. At least, that's my mental image of my stomach. :lol: I do like Clif bars, but aren't they like 300 calories? I was thinking I need something more like 100 cals. I suppose I could do half a Clif bar...

And as to working out, I sort of can but I sort of can't. I tried to go back to doing light lifting and promptly injured my achilles tendon. Right now it seems like I can handle some biking and pilates and maybe a little swimming. My current plan is to do pilates more frequently and try to bike more. I can't bike more than about 45 mins max though because it hurts my hands too much, so I just need to work on biking harder instead of longer.

Actually the other day I went on a bike ride where I was trying to go fast, so I was talking out loud to myself as I was riding ("Come on, go faster, you can do it!") and some guy rode up behind me and I'm sure he heard me! :o How embarrassing.

I'm missing Dewey right now! I called the place we board the dogs (Dewey has never been yet) and they wanted him to come for a trial for a few hours. It is a place where they let the dogs play supervised in small groups all day and then kennel them at night. I am like a nervous mom wondering how my baby is doing at day camp and wondering if he's old enough to go to sleep away camp!

Jen-- what are you going to do with your three glorious weeks off?

Hello hello! I already feel behind on the thread and it is still Monday. :)

I also saw HP this weekend twice, the first time was at a theater with really bad sound and picture, so we went to the better one to see it again. Totally worth it. Loved it. Will maybe go see it again tomorrow night with my neighbors who didn't see it again after we all saw it at the bad theater.

Michele - Dewey will be just fine. :) Enjoy your trip!

Jessica - I've been overheard talking out loud to myself while running, too. I figure if the people who hear me are out there in the heat I'm out there in then they are as crazy as I am.

Birchie - we have so many books... I had even more as a child but lots of them got sold or thrown away when I was in college, which I regret. Not that i would have room for them now, but I still miss them.

Bill - I have too much stuff, too. We have cleaned out more times than I can keep track of, yet stuff still piles up.

Megan - glad that your cold is getting better!

I just got back from 5.5 miles at the park - hot, hot, hot out there. 93 degrees when I got there, and I swear I felt every degree of it. whew.


Jen - three weeks off, wow! Enjoy it!

Allison - cool on the new putter and winning the golf game! My brother likes to golf, but is terrible at it to hear him tell it.

SB--"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." Anna Quindlen

SB~when my children were little and they were invited to a birthday party, they were allowed to choose a gift of their choice for the friend and I picked out a book to be given as well. My DD is (was) such an avid reader all through school. She would read her assigned 20 minutes and diligently (yet without desire) record her 20 or 30 required minutes and then spend the next 3 hours reading "for pleasure." She never liked the "work" involved which often just meant recording the number of pages read, the book name and author and the genre of the book. My son, although not nearly as avid, does enjoy a good book as long as it gives him a laugh or two. One year, my DD cleaned out her closet (where her books are stored) and boxed up FIVE boxes of books to be given away. I donated them to the elementary school that DS was attending at the time. A few years later, she did it again and we donated three boxes to the local library that was setting up a teen reading room. Makes me proud my kids enjoy books.

Jessica~in regards to bars: I like the higher protein bars like Atkins and of course the high protein and low calorie bars from Medifast. I've enjoyed a lot of other bars (Lara, Clif, FiberOne) but none have the protein punch AND low calorie that I look for. One point--if you buy the Atkins, don't get the ones covered in "chocolate." Instead get one that has chips and maybe a "chocolate" base. They taste a lot better.

Perhaps your DB could have used my hard-cover, six volume set of Wintston Churchill's The Second World War to take up another two feet. I got it cheap at a yard sale - over DW's protest - by agreeing that I'd get rid of it when I'd finished, or in two years, whichever came first.

Alas, at the rate I was going, it would have taken me longer to finish than the war took itself. So, I had to let it go to another home. I love pithy Winston Churchill sentences but six volumes felt unpithy.


Love it!!

Finally checking into this thread, after day of being constantly in motion at the office, and discovering why I like you people so much.

When I moved to my current apartment, I moved 36 cartons of books.

Now ask me how many cartons my mother is still storing for me at the family home. In particular ask about the guest room bed at her house, which has no mattress, because it is filled in with cartons of books, stacked to a certain height, with an antique coverlet over them. (It simulates the look of a mattress quite well, I must say.)

I fear I am the only person in this thread who hasn't seen Harry Potter. I have never seen any of the Harry Potter films & have not read any of the books. No grudge-holding here, just a lack of interest & a lot of other books on my list ahead of it. (Ask me how many of those 36 cartons I've read & how many are part of my Mount To-Be-Read.)

Birchie, I keep meaning to ask you about the Murdoch telephone hacking thing. Do you think this could actually bring down Cameron's government, or are they distancing themselves from the Murdoch empire as much as possible? We have several former newspaper reporters at my office. My boss advanced quite far in the Associated Press before jumping ship, quite presciently, as it turns out. So that whole story has us riveted.

So embarrassed to say I read all the Twilight books and went to see the first movie. We, DH, DD and I, then watched the second one and laughed our heads off as we finally saw how stupid the series was (and as soon as DD home, we'll watch and laugh at the third movie which is being DVRd right now). But the HP movies are much more complex and I'd love to read them if only I had time. So many books, so little time.

Oh, and the Murdoch thing with the whistleblower being found dead. So much drama!

No, you are not the only one, I have not read a single HP book or seen any of the movies. I love to read but HP just doen't appeal to me.

Nice how many of us are "book" people. I had more books than anything else when I met DH. He complained that they were taking up a lot of space (he used to read but not much since I've known him) and I did give a bunch away when we moved to this house.

I kinda dread having to get rid of all my mom's books when my dad leaves that house. There are 3 rooms full of floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Our local libraries and charities don't accept books any more. I can't see myself throwing them out (most are hardcover versions with easier to read typefaces) so I don't quite know what to do with them.

It seems that every time I sit down to read DH shows up after about 20 minutes and starts clamoring for attention. I'm so glad he has the band thing twice a week. Gives me a chance to sit and read! My cats are really good pets for that. They curl up beside me and purr as I read.

On the weight front DH brought home (and hid) ice cream Sunday night. I found it yesterday morning and we finished it off last night after a lot of bickering about the eaves disconnects I now have to get done. Next time he does this I will just throw it out. We both agreed that it would make us sick (and it did - twice for DH) but sometimes we still fall into "it cost money so we have to eat it" mode.

Good Tuesday all!

Dagmar :tired: and :barf:

Dagmar - Your local libraries and charities don't accept books?!?!?!? This astounds me. I wish I lived closer, because I would take them! :) Well, some of them, I'm sure.

Books are a continual source of budgetary woes for me. I'll impulse buy books in a heartbeat, which is something I would never or rarely do for pretty much everything else (save music). Darn my lack of self-control - maybe I need a "book tracker" as well as a calorie tracker? And, like you saef, many of these books are just added to my pile of "to-be-read" books.

I plan on attacking some of that book pile during my three weeks off. It's three weeks on paper, but of course there's work to be done: a couple of faculty meetings toward the end of the time, syllabi to put together, and my office is in desperate need of being organized. I'm also working on a research project for presentation at a professional conference. Sounds vacation-y, huh?

I am making a trip up to Louisville, Kentucky to visit family (my sister, her family, and my parents all live there) as well as to Indiana to visit a friend. So that will be a nice time.

silverbirch - I, too, am interested in a Brit's opinion of the phone hacking case and resultant fallout. Every day it seems a little more serious to me.

alinell - Thanks for the info about Last Pass. I'm slightly paranoid about having all my info in one place, but that might be a trade-off I'm willing to make.

Jessica - I like the ThinkThin bars, they are pretty yummy and make me feel nicely full. They do have sugar alcohol though, which causes tummy upset for some.

--me too! In fact I just impulse bought this one The Elements of F*ing Style. My friend posted it on Facebook and it looked amusing. It'll be interesting to compare it to the original which I've owned for years!

I sell some of my excess books on Amazon.com. Helps offset the amount I spend on new ones. Of course, it means I have to be prepared to package them and mail them in a timely way, but that's pretty easy for me.

Jay

I sell some of my books on amazon.com too. I also trade books on paperbackswap.com. I love them! You post your books that you want to get rid of. Others request your books and you mail them. It is free except for the postage. I have a big wish list going....whenever I get to the top of the list (for popular books), I get the book in the mail. As a librarian, with a house full of avid readers, you can only imagine how many books we have in our house. They are in every room. Truly need to organize and purge them.

I was going through my bookshelf last night after this discussion and found that DH and I have four copies of one paperback Star Trek book, two new and two lightly used. I need to check out selling them on Amazon or paperbackswap.com!

JayEll and Michele, how do you estimate/price the shipping? I have books coming out of our ears and I often think about selling them.

ETA: I'd encourage ya'll to give the HP series another try. Truly the books are far greater than the movies and the uproar. There are lovely elements and they are full of inspiration, good vs. evil, laying down one's life for others, timeless themes.

Or to quote Stephen King:

"Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend."

Love that. :)

Shannon, was it one of the Peter David ones? :lol: Imzadi, Q-Squared? I fear I'm exposing my nerdly roots . . . :o

DH and I are also bookies. :rofl: That is obviously not the correct term but I don't know what is. We turned one of the rooms in our house into a library and are running out of shelf space again, but there is only room for about one more bookcase in there. I organize the books by topic, then subject, then alphabetical by author. DH can't figure out my system for some reason and just sticks things everywhere, then I get annoyed when I find something like "A Concise History of Mexico" sitting in between a bunch of fantasy books. :lol:

We've sold books to Half Price Books before to get rid of them. At this point I think the only ones we want to get rid of are duplicates. DH sometimes will buy a nicer edition of something then they just pile up.

And I second the recommendation to read the HP books. They are quite good. It's a bit difficult to get through books 4-5 because Harry is being an annoying emo teenager, but worthwhile. ;) I'm a big fantasy fan though. Currently reading Carol Berg's Bridge of D'Arnath series. DH meanwhile prefers Russian literature, classics, and history. He's reading a chemistry textbook from the 60's right now. :shrug:

Love HP too! Great characters and story lines. I can't imagine anyone not liking them.

Pricing for shipping-- Amazon gives you a shipping credit (I think it is 3.99 per book). If you ship media mail (slow), it covers the cost. I don't like to sell on Amazon because you don't make much, however it is a book that is in demand, you can make some $$. That is why I trade most of them on paperbackswap. You have more flexibility-- you don't have to ship immediately--- you have a few days. I LOVE it!

Anyone have any good recipes (easy) using a polenta tube? I have some polenta and I'm looking for something to do with it.

Also, I'm very worried about my upcoming road trip. For the past several months, I've had severe muscle cramps and spasms in my legs if I'm in the car over an hour. I've told the doctor and they said it could be related to my thyroid being underactive (which it was), so I've been on an increased dose for about 2 months. The last time I was in the car for about 1.5 hours (about a month ago), I was in excruciating pain. I'm scared this will happen again. We'll be in the car for 6 hours Thursday to get to the first college, then another 4 hours to drive to the second town. The next day we'll have at least an 8 hour drive home. I've told dd I may just have to make frequent stops to get out and walk around as that is the only thing that seems to help. Anyone experience anything like this and have any suggestions? If not, just wish me luck!!

Also rivetted here. It's difficult to know how things are going to go. Cameron's been in Africa on a trade mission, cut short from five days to two when things got worse. He decided not to steam straight back as it would look like panic. I dread to think what pose he's going to strike as he arrives back in Blighty. The Murdochs were appearing before a parliamentary select committee this afternoon - interesting. I expect you'll have seen clips. And Rebekah Brookes is there now. And another select committee was interviewing two from the Met(ropolitan Police). I think the Cameron government is distancing itself from NewsCorp as much as possible, but being a bit late about doing it. The Conservative Mayor of London (Boris Johnson) has referred queries about Cameron's future to Downing Street. That sounds either a bit ominous or Boris is being a bit careful. The whole business is a dreadful mess. When added to the way other problems are being dealt with by the Government, and if the Opposition get it right, I suppose the Cameron government could be forced to go to the country (= call an election).

As an aside, AP had a great picture of Rebekah Brookes in the FT yesterday. She was looking wrecked and her blouse was gaping slightly. Astonishing that the FT ran it.

I went to Cambridge, my alma mater, a few days ago and stood in the market place looking at the old cinema. I saw 'Watergate' there. That was pretty startling at the time. The years dropped away and I was 19 again.

Jessica - a bookie in Britain is someone who takes bets for you, who keeps a book. "Nip down to the bookie, dear, and put a couple of quid on Davie Boy in the 3 o'clock at Doncaster." I'd say 'bibliomane' might be the word.

Thank you for all your kind words and encouragement about our book problem. midwife - such a great quote. Thank you. The SO and I merged our holdings a few years ago quite successfully but procreation has produced even more. The car has its difficulties, too. And Bill, there is a brilliant (and rude, of course) Winston Churchill saying about the United States which has made an reappearance in some places about the US debt crisis. I hesitate to repeat it here.

I went to the gymn this morning and have eaten fairly well all day. I have also been at work all day which has helped, despite it being fairly heavy duty stuff. Talk of drugs rings and police at the gymn so I'll be watching out. As Suzanne 3FC says, "It's always something."

Thanks for being here, everyone. It really helps.

Oh, finally, Harry Potter. I have not seen any of the films. I read one of the books quite a few years ago when the series was tipped as important (presumably JK had just signed a big contract) but decided I preferred Diana Wynne Jones if I wanted children's fantasy. I have passed platform 9 3/4 quite a few times on my way in and out of King's Cross railway station.

:grouphug:

I just returned from a funeral. Clearly I don't know much about different customs. The widow wore white. Well, the whole family did. Is that a Catholic thing or a Filipino custom?

I've read all the posts but the funeral gave me a headache (was it the incense or the crying?) and I can't think clearly enough to respond.

Alinnell, I think it's a Filipino custom.

Jay

Busy thread! Ducked in at my parent's house (technically it's mine now) to take another look at the downspouts and remembered there were boxes of books in the garage too. Probably been used as racoon bedding.

And yes Jenmusic our library system has decided to no longer accept books. Our hospitals don't let anyone stay long enough to get through a magazine, never mind a book, and all of our thrift stores seem to only stock clothing now.

Allison I think a number of the asian/east asian countries wear white at funerals. Anyone have any idea why we wear black? I confess I don't know - have just been going with convention though I wore dark grey at the last funeral I attended.

Silverbirch Is it Rebekah Brookes who is known as the "Witch of Wopping"? In the latest photo in our press she looks quite messed around.

michele My legs tend to cramp when I'm dehydrated or needing potassium (I eat a banana and I'm fine). Maybe something similar is happening with you?

midwife "Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend." :rofl: Stephen can be a pretty funny guy (but he's severely in need of an editor who can prune his own books back)

I am going to take DH on a walk tonite (no leash though sometimes I'm tempted :p) and give him cantalope chunks to snack on if he insists on watching TV. I will thin him down if I have to kill him to do it :kickbutt:

Dagmar :coach: :drill:

Dagmar - the Witch of Wapping?? Crikey. It's very probably her as News International's HQ is in Wapping (part of London). It's known as Fortress Wapping. I should get out more and study the media even more than I do. Thanks for the tip-off. Crikey.

Michele, I make this layered eggplant & polenta casserole, as a substitute for lasagna, but I'm not sure whether it meets your request for simple:

http://www.marthastewart.com/348932/...nt-and-polenta

I play with it a little. I don't fry the eggplant slices -- I roast them on a cookie sheet in the oven. When assembling the thing, I add a layer of cottage cheese or ricotta mixed with basil. I may also add a layer of spinach sauteed in garlic & a bit of basil & oregano. I have also tried a layer of roasted vegetables. I have considered using veggie sausage crumbles or ground turkey but haven't remembered to do that yet. All of these variations work well as long as you do the overlapping "paving stone" thing with eggplant & polenta & use sauce as the mortar & finish with some parmesan on top.

Wiretapping & phone hacking ... yes ... only the technology is new.

I wonder if you mean the movie that was released in the U.S. as "All the President's Men," with Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman. Perhaps it was given a different title for the U.K. release.

When I went to school as an undergrad, every other person in my journalism classes had been influenced to some degree by that movie.

Now I think perhaps people would rather develop iPad apps.

Is anyone else tired of the heat? It's predicted to reach 98 degrees on Friday & to remain at 96 degrees on Saturday. I think this is a weekend for me to head north, into the countryside, & not to venture into the city.

Here's an idea: I could read a book.

ETA: Birchie, "bookie" also has that meaning in the U.S., with a vaguely disreputable whiff. It also sounds a bit archaic, like something out of Damon Runyon. We have -- well, had -- Off-Track Betting parlors that are legally sanctioned & would serve the same purpose. But people in the U.S. prefer casinos and lottery tickets to gambling on horse racing. Particularly popular in the northeast is the so-called "Indian" casino, run by Native American tribes, whose tribal lands are exempt from certain U.S. regulations. (My mother adores these places, unfortunately. They're like visiting a nice mall but she might win a little money, which she likes: Something for nothing.)

Saef-- that looks yummy-- thanks for posting!
I found a recipe that I had dd make-- it was for spicy polenta bake. It ended up being too spicy for her (I bought medium enchilada sauce and it was pretty darn spicy). I liked it though so I'll have a lot of leftovers! It was super easy too.

Dagmar-- I had thought it was potassium originally and have been eating/drinking/taking extra potassium so I know it isn't a lack of potassium. Wish it was an easy fix like that though.

Last batch of essays graded and last classes today! Tomorrow is a field trip to a local museum and then the CNN Center for a tour. None of my students seems to be interested in the phone hacking case - I can never tell, really, what current events will or won't be of interest to international students. The Casey Anthony case fascinated my students, but mostly because of the differences between our legal system and theirs. Natural disasters, politics, and war hold no appeal for discussion most of the time. Understandable in most cases, but sometimes those seem like all that's on the news!

I have never made polenta. Being from the South, it seems like blasphemy when I could just have grits. :) But, since we're sharing recipes, I've decided I want to try beets. I've never, to my memory, had a beet before. The deep red pickled beets on salad bars just look icky to me, but someone suggested roasting them. Does anyone have any beet suggestions? Is this even beet season?

alinell - Many Buddhists wear white for mourning, and in many parts of Asia white is the color for mourning. Once, while living in China, I brought flowers to a home I was visiting (very culturally appropriate). They were white flowers (very culturally inappropriate!). Thankfully, my cultural faux pas were regularly ignored or forgiven in China. Good thing - I messed up all the time.

michele - I know you're a librarian, at a school, right? I have to admit to a love of YA literature. Any book recommendations you have for me, I'll gladly take. I hope your road trip goes well. Do OTC pain killers help?

Jen, to roast whole beets you cut off the tops (leave a little bit of stem and leave the roots and skin), wrap them in tin foil, and bake at 375 for about an hour, depending how big your beets are. When they can be pierced easily with a fork they're done (like baked potatoes). After you let them cook a little bit the skin will come off easily and you can cut off the top and tail. You don't want to cut them off before roasting or the juice will leak out. :) One of my friends says she times her beets by smell. You want to roast them until you can smell them cooking, then when you realize you can't smell them anymore and have a "OMG I forgot the beets" moment, they will be perfectly done.

You can also peel raw beets, cut them into chunks, spray a pan with cooking spray, toss in the beets, spray them with cooking spray, and cook at 450 for about half an hour, depending how big your chunks are.

Or, you can make borscht! I can dig up a recipe if you need one but you can google it. I <3 borscht.