Reading: Raw food and others

I am reading up on Raw Food.
Wikipedia entry on raw food
Three Hartford Courant journalists adopt a raw food diet for 30 days
So does Steve Pavlina

I can see some benefits: less prep time; less energy used; less meat; fewer preservatives, additives, toxins and chemicals. I'm interested in juicing too.

I would like to work toward a diet of 70% plant, 50% raw.
I am reading:
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown -- EAsy Money, High Rollers and the Great Credit Crash by Charles R. Morris.
Japanese Etiquette: an Introduction, by the World Fellowship Committee of the Tokyo Young Women's Christian Association
Ball Blue Book of Preserving (what I'll be doing all Labor Weekend, I guess -- preserving fruits for the winter)

Toni Tennille's Lentils Vinaigrette, recipes from Bragg

Toni Tennille is half of the musical duo "The Captain and Tennille." She posted this recipe on her blog.


LENTILS VINAIGRETTE
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1 1/2 cups lentils
1 quart water
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 red onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 ribs of celery, chopped
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 pound (about 2 quarts) mixed salad greens
Ground pepper to taste
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Put the lentils in a medium saucepan with the water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until the lentils are tender...about 25 minutes. Drain and return to the pan. Add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, 1 tablespoon of the vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix gently and set aside.
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After the lentils have been cooking for a while, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large frying pan, over moderately low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent (about 5 minutes). Add the carrots, celery, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender...about 10 minutes.
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Remove the vegetables from the heat and add 2 tablespoons of the vinegar. Combine the cooked lentils with the vegetables.
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In a small frying pan, toast the sliced almonds over moderately low heat, stirring frequently, until golden brown.....about 5 or 10 minutes. You can do this ahead of time, if you like.
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Shortly before serving, stir the toasted almonds and chopped parsley into the lentil mixture.
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Put the salad greens in a large bowl and toss with the remaining 3 tablespoons oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Serve the lentil mixture over the greens. Makes enough for six to eight people. Healthy and delicious!
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And remember, you can adjust the salt in the recipe according to your own taste and health requirements.

The accidental housekeeper

It's been hot. We've drawn the awnings down, turned on the fan. I have the bright idea of renting a Rug Doctor from the supermarket, and clean the upholstery on the sofa and chair, and the carpets. We now have damp, clean cushions to rest on. My sorrow is that I did not think to clean our upholstery more regularly. It's a joy, actually, to dump out the grey-brown water and accompanying filth into the tub. Not such a joy to clean out the tub afterward.

So tempted to go on a major purge and get rid of 30% of our junk.

Noise

I'm reading The Power of Now and am learning lots. The practice toward enlightenment is one that takes patience, dedication and self-discipline, however.
Pretty much everything I do: child-rearing, working, marriage-wise requires all that, but I don't believe I have enough patience, dedication and self-discipline to make it through.

Advice from Helen Gurley Brown on how to life life to its fullest. Why not?

I'm particularly irritated because our delayed bathroom countertop has the wrong circumference hole for our faucet, it's hot, I had to endure some third-rate pabulum sixties Muzak, a poorly edited menu (erratic Capitalization of nouns which is hard on the Eyes), who actually has seventy-five/hundredths of a cent, which is 0.75¢?) and a pencil drawing of Kurt Cobain as representative artwork at a restaurant which had changed hands. Whenever I see .75¢ I think it takes one hundred of those to make seventy-five cents. What's so wrong or bad about $0.75, or 75¢?

Giving blood, then doing work after that. Such a chore to work through the noise of the neighbors' dog who must bark at everything and everybody, to work through my general dissatisfaction, but at least I'm learning that there is joy in holding things and situations up to the Light, where the Truth is, and there is Reward from working through pain. It's the journey to acceptance that's blistering me.

I do recommend The Power of Now by Eckhard Tolle, by the way, even if I am still Ms. Grumpypants. Off now to buy plants and see about a replacement battery.

Aargh!

this may be evaporative, as it is cathartic.
My scooter battery died when I was in rush hour downtown. Thankfully I could easily push it onto the sidewalk, and into a parking lot.
I had my appointment with my optometrist. I have glaucoma. My left eye is doing okay, my right eye is not. I am tiffed about the bill, as my husband's idiot insurance provider (oh be thankful you Canadians and Brits) won't cover my service. I pay it anyway, and tell my optometrist I'm moving back to Canada (as soon as I can find someone who's willing to buy a duplex with me, that we can rent out. He asks me if I have many relatives left in Canada. I don't. He asks me where my parents are. There's a long pause.
"They are cremated," I said.
He looked at me. "You're not at all old. How did they die?"
I couldn't believe he'd ask me this. Although now in retrospect it makes sense -- he probably wanted/needed to know if they had something like diabetes that I might have inherited to get the glaucoma. So I tell him: cancer, 1999, mom; heart attack, 2002, dad. Then he wants to know if they ate the way I do.
"No. Different education levels, different income levels. I eat much better." I talk about their vices. He tells me stress is a big killer. He tells me to watch the stress. Yeah. Exercise. Some support around the house would be good. Does housework count as exercise?
I'm irritated though, because I gave up coffee and have only a wee bit of alcohol, for the sake of glaucoma, and my right eye is getting worse. I walk frequently. Maybe not enough. It chafes me that there doesn't seem to be enough diet or exercise or anything personally I can do. At least in Canada I could take medical marijuana, but that would harm my body in other ways so it's not worth it.

Fourteenth anniversary today

Apart from that, here are some links I found interesting:

Using the Web to learn a new skill -- I keep telling myself I will learn pivot tables and PHP this way...

Interview with Julie Morgenstern, author of 'When Organizing Isn’t Enough, SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life'.

My husband is proving to be a good declutter partner. He cleaned the garage. I cleaned out the upstairs bathroom. Together we donated some of our more interesting books to a women's shelter fundraiser. I have more to tackle, but I feel better seeing less paper mess.

1962 Critics' Poll, Sight and Sound Magazine

Yet another "Films I need to watch" list, this from the top twenty. I have not included the films I've already seen:

Ugetsu monogatari (Tales after the Rain) -- Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953.
Greed -- Erich von Stroheim
Ivan the Terrible (Ivan Groznyi) (parts I and II) -- Sergei Eisenstein
The Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin) -- Sergei Eisenstein
La Terra trema (The Earth Trembles) -- Luchino Visconti
Zero for Conduct (Zéro de conduite) -- Jean Vigo
Hiroshima mon Amour -- Alain Resnais
Pather Panchali (The Song of the Road) -- Satyajit Ray
The Childhood of Maxim Gorky (Detstvo Gorkogo) -- Mark Donskoi
Ikiru -- Akira Kurosawa (this is playing next week locally)
Nazarín -- Luis Buñuel
Oktober -- Sergei Eisenstein

Here's the 2002 Top Ten List from the Directors -- excusing the films I've seen already.
Godfather II
Rashomon
Seven Samurai


Lots of Chaplin in the top twenty! My sister-in-law is not a Japanese cinema buff, so I am learning the films by myself. I did see "Floating Weeds" which was beautifully choreographed and acted. I must see "Tokyo Story" soon.

Where art thou, Swivel?

Swivel Magazine: A Nexus of Women and Wit was one of my favourite periodicals. As it was published in Seattle, I'd occasionally daydream about meeting the editor or a local contributor.

Swivel has a Website but no issue since October 2007. However, there is a book list:

This Is Not Chick Lit edited by Elizabeth Merrick
The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry
The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard
An Invisible Sign of My Own by Aimee Bender
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You by Amy Bloom

Mean Season by Heather Cochran
Wide Eyed by Trinie Dalton

My Misspent Youth by Meghan Daum
Almost No Memory by Lydia Davis
Monkey Food by Ellen Forney

A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That by Lisa Glatt

Bending Heaven by Jessica Francis Kane

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
A Year in Van Nuys by Sandra Tsing Loh
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
Self-Help by Lorrie Moore
How to Breathe Under Water by Julie Orringer
See Through by Nelly Reifler

Big Cats by Holiday Reinhorn

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
What the Truth Tastes Like by Martha Silano

The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club by Julia Slavin

Nonrequired Reading by Wislawa Szymborska
The Secret Language of Sleep by Evany Thomas

Animal Crackers by Hannah Tinti

And Now You Can Go by Vendela Vida

The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

If you want a look at what I've been missing since October, here's a link to some excerpts.

Here's a virtual cemetery of zines I've loved and lost:
To-Do List edited by Sasha Cagen
Mystery Date by Lynn Peril
Bunnyhop edited by Noel Tolentino and Seth Robson
Ben Is Dead edited by Darby Romeo
Action Girl Comics edited by Sarah Dyer

nothing to you, everything to me

Soundproof was a community channel show back in the 1980s, featuring local acts and alternative videos. I learned about alternative music here and had a crush on Dave Toddington.