A Week O Food

Here is all the food we eat in a week (approximately). The cat does not count as food, he is a member of the family. However, in a pinch, we would consider all options.

Water - 3 gallons
Pineapple
Extra virgin olive oil
Cat food
Garbanzo beans (organic)
Buckwheat pancake mix
Orange marmalade
Peanuts (organic, unsalted)
Raisins (organic)
Bananas
Red onion
Apples (pink lady)
Apples (fuji)
Orange pepper
Mango
Falafel wrap
Tomatoes (Roma, 8)
Purple potatoes
Sesame bars (3)
Whole wheat tortillas
Avocado
Eggs
Butter
Emergen-C
Orange juice
Olives (garlic-stuffed, jar)
Milk (whole)
Black beans (can)
Almond Nut-Thins (crackers)
Kashi GoLean Crunch cereal
Cascadian Farms Honey Nut O's cereal
Baby spinach (organic)
Asiago cheese
Carrots (organic)
Beets (can)
Turkey meatballs
Homemade viniagrette salad dressing
Clementine tangerines
Feta cheese
Yogurt
Hummus

Not pictured:
Small cookies and cream gelato
Small dark chocolate ice cream
Homemade whole wheat bread
Homegrown basil
Homegrown cilantro

Zack and Miri

Patty and I watched Zack and Miri (Make a Porno) a couple of weekends ago.  A comedy about a down on their luck pair of friends who make a porno and find love and material success.  It sounds ridiculous and though it offered many funny moments, I must say that I found it disturbing how the movie portrayed their enterprise as acceptable and praiseworthy.  It tried to have a feel-good ending with Zack and Miri being married and having a successful porno business.  Very strange.  Disturbing how porn has become so mainstream. 

 

I few years ago I would have called my current self a prude.  It's not that I have a problem with sex or bodies, I just think the cavalier attitude toward sex is way messed up.

Garage Ceiling

A 10 foot piece of ceiling fell out of the garage a few weeks ago.

 

This is the patch job.
 

Spring colors in Central Texas

Flutter

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My Face

Because you miss looking at me.

Welfare for the Rich

There's been a lot of talk about tax payers funding our economy, which it's fairly well documented is quite effective at distributing wealth disproportionately to the richest of us.  I read the following quote on a newspaper website which puts another spin on the issue of taxpayer supported welfare for the rich:

 

Universities, especially those that maintain cauldrons of original research, are incredible engines of economic development. That is why so many pharmaceutical companies start up, for example, within an hour's drive of major research universities, like California's Berkeley and Stanford.

 

The person who wrote this was advocating more development of research universities to spur economic development. 

 

My interpretation of this is that our tax dollars fund universities, which leads to research that benefits the marketplace.  Sure these companies employ people and put out some truly useful goods and services, but are the taxpayers getting our full return on that investment?  When that company lays people off, do they have a safety net?  Are they being paid fairly even when they are employed?  Are those goods and services beneficial, or are they actually harmful?  Are historically under-supported people (aka, people targeted for destruction) being lifted up by this "economic development," or is their subjugation being reinforced?

 

Questions, questions.  I haz no answerz. 

 

 

Re(a)d (About) Meat

I found this article interesting.  Usually these health articles are kind of vague and scary, but this one tries to spell out the specific amount of red meat, etc. that was used in the study and explains exactly what the results were in more detail than usual.  Plus it involved 500,000 people, so it was a very expansive study group.  The group was 50-70 year olds, but I think it's relevant for anyone.

 

Looks like eating about 3.5 ounces of red meat per week will keep risk the lowest.  Possibly harder is less the conclusion I draw to eat less than 1 ounce of processed meat per week (anything cured, dried or smoked). 

 

Quote from the article: 'You don't have to be a vegan. You don't have to be a vegetarian.' But you really need to cut out the sausage and the pepperoni and the baloney, all those processed meats, or have them very little. You also need to be careful and cut down your red meat intake. Have it [only] a couple times a week." 

 

http://www.utsystem.edu/benefits/newsletter/articles/09apr_wel.htm