Sunday, August 26, 2007
Sunday again
It is Sunday again, afternoon this time. It's not as sunny as I thought it was. I'm making lasagna, and I think I have a wee cold. Have been watching The West Wing, which is great of course. First season. Next is Gilmore Girls, but honestly, I need a break from the non-stop DVDs. It's not healthy to watch so many in a week! At the same time, I could have stood one more West Wing episode, and was really expecting at least one or two more, since the exciting cliff-hanger ending came on the 3rd disc, not the 4th. But I ignored the fact that it really was an exciting cliff-hanger ending, and that 22 episodes fit well on 3 discs but not so well on 4, and that I had actually watched 22 episodes. The 4th disc is extra stuff - very disappointing. So i put the 2nd season on hold at the library, and promptly suspended it so that it doesn't come in the next week, because although I would like to find out what happened right away, many more things will occur in that first episode of the 2nd season, and I will not stop with only the first episode, and I have other things to do. Like go visit my sister! :-) Saturday, whether she wants me or not. Yay, it will be fun! Must dig out my bathing suit. I hope it still works - it's been a long time since I've worn it. Too darn cold here.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Sunday rain
It is Sunday, and it is raining. It feels like morning still, but it is actually afternoon. Why can't weekend mornings go on forever? They are the best times of the week. Now that it is afternoon, I have to move around and do errands and clean my apartment and get all the weekend chores done.
Here are several things:
If you like flamenco music with a twist, listen to Rodrigo y Gabriela. They are fabulous; try out the video links on the "media" page. They are Irish, surprisingly. Well, Mexican actually, but they live in Dublin. Did I say they are fabulous?
I just finished watching Season 2.0 of Battlestar Galactica. I watched it yesterday while I finished up my decade-long butterfly cross-stitch project (yay! if I had a digital camera, I would show you what it looks like, but I don't). Great show, raises all sorts of questions, and I have only Season 2.5 left. Very sad. Kind of weird, the show is.
Did you know that so-called "extra virgin olive oil" is often not olive oil at all, and even if is olive oil, it may only be virgin or even lampante (lamp oil). Or a mix. There's a huge amount of fraud, and it goes back for millenia. I don't really care if my olive oil is extra virgin or just virgin, although I would prefer not to eat lamp oil, but I really do care if, instead of getting pure olive oil, I am getting hazelnut oil. Yes, that's right - some producers put in hazelnut oil instead of olive oil. Or maybe soybean oil or sunflower seed oil or whatever, but the point is: undocumented hazelnut oil. For those of us with food allergies, this fraud is not just annoying, it could be deadly. Hazelnut oil may or may not contain the allergens, depending on how it was processed. Higher temperatures mean fewer allergens, but then again, roasting hazelnuts may either lower or increase the level of allergens, and the first nut I reacted to was a roasted hazelnut. And all that preparation-specific allergen level business has been studied only in relation to people with pollen-related hazelnut allergies (oral allergy syndrome; this link claims that this does not involve an actual allergy to the foods, but that these foods might cause anaphylaxis, which could cause death - sounds like an allergy to me), and not in people with systemic hazelnut allergies, possibly because those allergies are more severe. After reading info on this stuff this morning, I don't know what to think. Since I have OAS, I will probably have less severe reactions to hidden hazelnut oil, but it's not a given, and looking up "hazelnut oil" in Google takes you to lots of sites extolling its glories but none of its dangers. If people want to eat nuts, that's fine, but why do they have to be so pervasive in restaurant rood and pre-prepared food? "It's great in salads" says one website - swell, will my server know that there is hazelnut oil on the salad before he or she gives it to me? On Friday, I told the waiter at an upscale Italian restaurant that I was allergic to tree nuts, and he looked at me blankly. He must have understood the words, though, because soon a woman in white (not a chef, but someone higher up than a waiter) came and asked, "Tree nuts?" There was a blank look in her eyes, and absolutely no understanding in her voice. How in the world can you work in an upscale restaurant without knowing what a fucking tree nut is??? Half their dishes had tree nuts, so they really need to know what they are. And these people have worked there a long time. Apparently, people with food allergies not only have to eat at home all the time, but they have to cook everything from scratch, and they have to raise absolutely all their own food - vegetables (easy), fruit (assuming they can eat any), flour, oils, meats (vegetarianism is not an option for these people), milk and eggs (if they can those), and anything else they might want to make the food actually taste good.
Frack it.
Here are several things:
If you like flamenco music with a twist, listen to Rodrigo y Gabriela. They are fabulous; try out the video links on the "media" page. They are Irish, surprisingly. Well, Mexican actually, but they live in Dublin. Did I say they are fabulous?
I just finished watching Season 2.0 of Battlestar Galactica. I watched it yesterday while I finished up my decade-long butterfly cross-stitch project (yay! if I had a digital camera, I would show you what it looks like, but I don't). Great show, raises all sorts of questions, and I have only Season 2.5 left. Very sad. Kind of weird, the show is.
Did you know that so-called "extra virgin olive oil" is often not olive oil at all, and even if is olive oil, it may only be virgin or even lampante (lamp oil). Or a mix. There's a huge amount of fraud, and it goes back for millenia. I don't really care if my olive oil is extra virgin or just virgin, although I would prefer not to eat lamp oil, but I really do care if, instead of getting pure olive oil, I am getting hazelnut oil. Yes, that's right - some producers put in hazelnut oil instead of olive oil. Or maybe soybean oil or sunflower seed oil or whatever, but the point is: undocumented hazelnut oil. For those of us with food allergies, this fraud is not just annoying, it could be deadly. Hazelnut oil may or may not contain the allergens, depending on how it was processed. Higher temperatures mean fewer allergens, but then again, roasting hazelnuts may either lower or increase the level of allergens, and the first nut I reacted to was a roasted hazelnut. And all that preparation-specific allergen level business has been studied only in relation to people with pollen-related hazelnut allergies (oral allergy syndrome; this link claims that this does not involve an actual allergy to the foods, but that these foods might cause anaphylaxis, which could cause death - sounds like an allergy to me), and not in people with systemic hazelnut allergies, possibly because those allergies are more severe. After reading info on this stuff this morning, I don't know what to think. Since I have OAS, I will probably have less severe reactions to hidden hazelnut oil, but it's not a given, and looking up "hazelnut oil" in Google takes you to lots of sites extolling its glories but none of its dangers. If people want to eat nuts, that's fine, but why do they have to be so pervasive in restaurant rood and pre-prepared food? "It's great in salads" says one website - swell, will my server know that there is hazelnut oil on the salad before he or she gives it to me? On Friday, I told the waiter at an upscale Italian restaurant that I was allergic to tree nuts, and he looked at me blankly. He must have understood the words, though, because soon a woman in white (not a chef, but someone higher up than a waiter) came and asked, "Tree nuts?" There was a blank look in her eyes, and absolutely no understanding in her voice. How in the world can you work in an upscale restaurant without knowing what a fucking tree nut is??? Half their dishes had tree nuts, so they really need to know what they are. And these people have worked there a long time. Apparently, people with food allergies not only have to eat at home all the time, but they have to cook everything from scratch, and they have to raise absolutely all their own food - vegetables (easy), fruit (assuming they can eat any), flour, oils, meats (vegetarianism is not an option for these people), milk and eggs (if they can those), and anything else they might want to make the food actually taste good.
Frack it.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
parrot therapy
Did you know that U.S. Army veterans are working with parrots as part of their therapy? Yep, they work with abused parrots that have been rescued, and they help them recovery from their abuse. Helping the parrots helps the veterans. You can hear about it here. It brought tears to my eyes; I almost started crying on the ferry. Then again, I'm a softie. It would be nice to help out a parrot in need. We could have a big aviary where they could fly around. It would have lots of plants that would somehow thrive in ways that my houseplants do not. One of my plants is dying, I fear. The soil was bone-dry, so I watered it. The leaves immediately turned yellow and then brown and fell off. So I decided not to water it. Then the soil became all dry again, and the plant, what was left of it, looked very sad. So I watered it. And the remaining leaves are turning yellow. It is the kind of plant that looks great when you first get it, lasts a few years, and then collapses. I don't remember its name, but apparently it is known for this. This is the second time it has collapsed. The first time, I went east for the summer, and when I returned, the people left in charge of it had resurrected it. I'm not sure how. Maybe I should give some nice plant food.
It is Saturday and I have to work. Too many things are due next week, things that are nowhere near done. Actually, one thing is near done, but another thing is in bad, bad shape. So I'm going in to work this morning. Pretty exciting, I know.
It is Saturday and I have to work. Too many things are due next week, things that are nowhere near done. Actually, one thing is near done, but another thing is in bad, bad shape. So I'm going in to work this morning. Pretty exciting, I know.
Monday, August 6, 2007
white pelicans
Do you like pelicans? How about white pelicans? Here is a picture of them at Blackwater Wildlife Refuge in Maryland, taken by Bob Quinn, who takes a lot of great bird pix there. I wonder if I can put it in the post? I think it's cool. And I have nothing else to write about, except that I am off to Portland tomorrow night for a meeting on Wednesday, and then back up Wednesday night. Super thrilling.
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