I had oatmeal. Seriously. Ladies...
This is like that commercial for cholesterol medication....
I had three cups of coffee and a Camel Light for breakfast.
Didn't you quit smoking? (I realize the answer to my question is contained in comment 3.)
I eat shit like you for breakfast.
I had 3 cups of coffee and a bap, with a couple of sliced sausages in it and some ketchup.
Didn't you quit smoking?
For about four months at the beginning of the year, but it didn't take. I'm still smoking less than half a pack a day, but I had dinner with friends the other night that said Chantix is a miracle drug. That's probably the next stop, because I'm all about the better living through chemistry.
a bap
That's not how we choose to refer to Baptists here, but I'll bet it was filling
re: 9
Me too. I stopped for about 7 months this year. I am back to about a pack a week. A couple a day plus a bit more at weekends.
11. 9 s/b 8, I think...
That woman in the link at 6 looks exactly the kind of unhinged you get from living on black coffee and fags for too long.
Cafe au lait, croissant, tobacco.
Is there really any other civilized option?
------
"For about four months at the beginning of the year, but it didn't take."
Quitters never win. Winners never quit.
This collection should be cross-referenced with the BMI table.
Coffee and toast with apple butter and a children's vitamin. Day in, day out, every weekday.
On the weekends, 'Smasher just has oxycontin and vodka for breakfast.
My hardest-core smoker friend quit with Chantix. He said it also helped him cut his drinking.
He said it also helped him cut his drinking.
Dammit, there's always a catch.
18: Why a children's vitamin? Are you just that fond of Fred Flintstone?
He's kept the pot smoking at a pretty good level, though.
My own breakfast, now half-consumed, is here.
"A masterpiece of early 21st century photography. The can of V8 ... the chicken salad in a pita ... the absence of utensils of any kind -- all of these are beautifully chosen and set together with a artlessness that is beautifully deliberate, right down to the lack of focus in the shot. But surely it is the paper plate, complete with lavender flower border, that is the touch of genius conveying to the viewer all the pathos of the singleton life approaching middle age." -- Sotheby's catalog entry, Unfoggedobilia auction, August 2077.
Omelette with cottage cheese. Peanut butter on some crazy German pumpernickel. Fruit (apple and banana I think).
Apple butter? That sounds good.
I have one of these every morning while waiting for the bus. But I have a healthy lunch including a piece of fruit, often two pieces of fruit, AND a fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt, ladies.
I try to bring in an egg to have with the lunch, but recently have had a distressing tendency to bring in Lance brand peanut butter crackers to fulfill the same need for saltiness. At least it's the kind that is described as wholesome on the Lance website, which is everyone's first source for nutrition information.
I'm having Bill Clinton order you extraordinarily rendered, Gonerill. I confess I did go to an empty office and frame the picture as drably as possible, but it's not as if there are any pretty settings here at work.
Now I'm going through the photos and assigning them the names of unfogged commenters.
Wow, dudes in those photos don't eat much. I'd need about three of those wimpy breakfasts to make it to 10am without gnawing my arm off.
Ogged, your pita sandwich looks like the great things available from Shawarma restaurants in Toronto, except that it is gross because it has mayonnaise in it.
Those people look like Angelenos to me; eating just isn't the done thing.
Weekdays: Cup of tea in nice old Fire King cup.
Weekends: Various and sundry. Saturday was crackers and baba ghanoush at about 4am, after which I went back to sleep; Sunday was yuppie co-op pizza at about 10am, following upon a short bike ride.
Breakfast annoys me.
When I lived in Shanghai, my foreign-teacher friends and I would get together before class for melon-flavored yogurt mixed with the uncooked local version of malt-o-meal. It tasted better than it sounds.
I had a toasted English muffin for breakfast, with butter. I'd prefer something with more protein in it, but the traffic flow through the kitchen is tricky on weekdays.
I'd prefer something with more protein in it, but the traffic flow through the kitchen is tricky on weekdays.
The oatmeal bars I eat have protein in them. Not to turn this into Oatmeal Thread Part 33 1/3 or Granola Bar Thread VI: Jason Lives, but they are about 350 times as filling as granola bars.
Coffee, and either cereal—Q. 100% Natural the default—or, because I can't eat that every day without gagging, a bagel with (usually) peanut butter.
I have an ineradicably bad attitude toward anything calling itself a bar that isn't a cookie. I'd rather be hungry than eat Purina Bachelor Chow. (I'm not defending this as reasonable, just identifying bar-based breakfast options as something I don't plan to explore.)
Breaking: By compiling an algorithm from the photographs on the linked page and applying it to ogged's breakfast, I was able to digitally reproduce ogged's face.
Someone else will have to supply the results. That's as far as I'm willing to take the joke.
Are you borrowing B's random strong opinion generator now?
bad attitude toward anything calling itself a bar that isn't a cookie
LB insists all future meetups be held here.
Yum. One slice of bacon already consumed, and oatmeal only due to lack of english muffins and avocado.
38: We tried that before in this thread, and then Ogged told me he'd never really loved me.
Are you borrowing B's random strong opinion generator now?
That can't be it. B's random strong opinion generator requires one of ogged's tentatively held opinions as a raw material input.
37: The Jocolat bars by Larabar are pretty tasty.
bar-based breakfast options
Depends on the sort of bar. Pass the gin.
Why a children's vitamin? Are you just that fond of Fred Flintstone?
Because I'm one of one million strong and growing. Children's vitamins are cheaper and don't upset my stomach. My very considered scientific analysis suggests that taking two kids' vitamins is equivalent to taking one adult vitamin.
Not severely OT insofar as it relates to my breakfast routine (or, more precisely, the disheartening interruption thereof), I was given this by my doctor. I am quite frankly utterly astonished by the incompetence it displays. Who thought it was a good idea to have two separate lists, one of prohibited food and one of allowed food? That's silly on its face--which list am I supposed to pay attention to? For example, can I have brown rice? How am I to know? I was considering some avocado maki last night -- white rice (okay), avocado (???) and seaweed (???). Could I have eaten it? And what possible reason could there be to disallow fried eggs but allow any other type (given that so far as I can tell butter or oil are okay)? What property is shared by all fried eggs that is not shared by any of poached, scrambled, or hard-boiled eggs? I'm fairly certain there's none. And must I cook my cantalope and watermelon? That seems clearly to be what this says, but surely that can't be right, can it? And I won't even get into the illiteracy of the title.
This does not do much to inspire confidence in the doctor's professional competence. Don't they do these procedures just about every day? What possible reason could there be to have such an unprofessional, ill-conceived, logically incomplete and totally unhelpful list to hand out to patients?? I don't understand this at all. It's total bullshit and makes me very angry.
I blame the Mineshaft. You better hope they find cancer or I'm going to be extremely pissed at the lot of you.
Even the crappy hotel buffet I'm at this week had decent oatmeal. And they had the decency to not charge me $10 for a buffet where I only eat oatmeal.
My preferred breakfast is a toasted bagel with butter, but ever since I moved downtown I've been lacking a suitable bagel source and have been trying out various substitutes. Tortillas work pretty well, but they aren't quite substantial enough. Lately I've been eating dried fruit because I had a tray of it (sent by a relative after my dad died), but it's almost gone. When I was going to services at 6:30 AM I would go out for a croissant or something before work, but I'm not doing that anymore.
Oh, and I shoudl have noted: the blurred words of sloppy photocopying are in the original.
What property is shared by all fried eggs that is not shared by any of poached, scrambled, or hard-boiled eggs? I'm fairly certain there's none.
The hard, burnt, crunchy bits around the outside of an overcooked fried egg? I can't think of anything else. But that is a shockingly incomprehensible list -- I'm assuming that there's some underlying principle of 'indigestibility': foods that will leave debris in your intestine days later. But the list doesn't track anything I thought I knew about that very well.
Brock, I'm pretty sure they want you to avoid anything that might leave behind chunks and/or make your insides funny colors. Fried eggs are more likely to be chunky than other eggs, so they're out. I'll bet avocado is fine, but seaweed is probably not a good bet. Just be conservative, or you'll get two colonoscopies.
48: When my mom had hers they just told her to avoid fruits and vegetables for three days or so. I think the main consideration is fiber content.
52: but fried anything else is okay??
And there might be some chemical reactions that we don't know about that account for some of the hard to explain items.
but fried anything else is okay??
No, only roasted, baked or broiled.
Just be conservative, or you'll get two colonoscopies.
Liberals love colonoscopies.
Yeah, I think I get (based on outside reading) that the main idea is to avoid fiber and funny colors. I'm mostly just shocked and appalled by how bad this handout is. If the doctor had drawn it up by hand off the top of his head that would be one thing, and I wouldn't think it so bad. But this is a standardized handout they give to everyone for a procedure they presumably do daily. WTF.
57: where does it say that on the handout?
where does it say that on the handout?
I'm extrapolating from the instructions for preparing meat.
41: A really excellent breakfast is English muffins, topped with mashed avocado, topped with thinly sliced or grated sharp cheddar, broiled.
I mean, I see it in the specifically-allowed meat section, but not in the excluded section, nor any instruction about frying generally (for things other than meats).
If the doctor had drawn it up by hand off the top of his head that would be one thing, and I wouldn't think it so bad. But this is a standardized handout they give to everyone for a procedure they presumably do daily.
Probably what happened is that the doctor drew it up by hand once, then decided to just type it up and hand it out rather than make a better one. Damn lazy doctors.
59: It really is godawful. It should have a 'restrict your diet to this' list, an 'on no account eat this' list, and a description of the principles involved so you could guess about foods on neither list. And it should be properly proofed and so on.
Just be conservative, or you'll get two colonoscopies.
Liberals love colonoscopies.
I thought that was libertarians?
Anyway, the 2nd one is 50% off.
aside: why oh why can't < i> tags span lines here like god intended?
62: That does sound both tasty and easy. Much like some people I know, but that's neither here nor there. I'll try it tomorrow.
On an unrelated note, the trackpad button on my laptop has started sticking. This is incredibly annoying.
That list doesn't make sense. First, it's a "recommended" list of food "you must avoid;" second, cabbage and kale are disallowed but broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower are okay? As we all know, they're the same damn thing.
Do I have to cook my cantalope?
We're taking off in a really gross direction here.
I had a single, perfect, apple for breakfast. It was round, sweet, and shiny!
If we make it so that tags span lines, y'all would have to put in line breaks by hand. Is that what you want? No, it is not.
Probably what happened is that the doctor drew it up by hand once, then decided to just type it up and hand it out rather than make a better one. Damn lazy doctors.
Shouldn't a handout like this come with the colonoscope or something? I mean, there's no reason for every individual practitioner to come up with their own list. This is the sort of thing that seems like nationalized health care would be likely to improve -- everyone getting a colonoscopy would be handed Gov't Handout 834-37b, or whatever.
73 would presume that doctors agree about this sort of thing. Which isn't true.
69: There's a leaves/fleshy plant material distinction there, isn't there? I could see leafy stuff flushing through differently.
72 Isn't true. You need dwim checking of the input, but it isn't that bad.
74: But some of them are wrong, and should be informed of the fact. Individual flair is all very well, but there have to be objectively ascertainable best practices for what to eat before a colonoscopy, ferchrissake.
Brock, instead of complaining, you should take this opportunity to have nothing but pudding for a week.
74: Yeah, like I said, the instructions my mom got were much simpler.
Individual flair is all very well, but there have to be objectively ascertainable best practices for what to eat before a colonoscopy, ferchrissake.
You'd think so, but there doesn't seem to be a consensus on what they are.
You could make several dozen copies of the handout and just eat those.
75: True, but Brussels sprouts are basically little cabbages. Also, what about kohlrabi? I'd call the doctor at 2 in the morning and ask if it's okay to eat kohlrabi.
LB hasn't had much experience telling physicians they are wrong, I see. Since they live in an artificial world where everyone has to pretend they have inhuman powers of knowledge, intuition and accuracy, it really hurts their brains to have it pointed out this is not true.
Part of the problem is that `best practices' is an objectively moving target (often quickly) in much of medicine, but can tend to be fixed for individual physicians. The better ones work against this tendency very hard.
I think they mostly want to discourage people from having nothing but trail mix and french fries all week; they're going to give you stuff that'll clean you right out anyway. And don't forget to ask for a picture of your colon.
It seems pretty clear to me, Brock. You should be eating jelly and rice for every meal.
Another potential problem is that as i understand it the abdomen is pretty much mystery-land for medical science still, so there are competing theories for most of this stuff without objectivley seperating evidence,
78: you know, you're absolutely right.
65: My guess is that like with a lot of medicine, they don't actually have principles yet, just practical experience ('we didn't get a good picture. what did you eat?') I don't think they have principles for knowing what meds interacts with the birth control pill beyond 'probably everything. use a condom.'
I usually eat yogurt of some sort in the mornings, with either tea or coffee, and a glass of water.
LB hasn't had much experience telling physicians they are wrong, I see.
Hah. If she counts as a physician before she actually got the license, I've been telling Dr. Oops she was wrong for about 33 years now.
There's that Steve Wright joke about eating an entire package of oreos before his dental appointment because he has a crush on the hygienist. Seems like oreos might make for an interesting colonoscopy.
LB, that doesn't count for two reasons ... first she hasn't fully transformed yet, and second all family interactions are based on regression to when you were 12 years old.
she hasn't fully transformed yet
The woman's a hardbitten attending transplant surgeon -- she's supposed to get worse than this?
92: Whups, I misparsed `before she actually got the license'. Doesn't matter, as the second clause holds.
I hate to make breakfast habits. Cereal is good, and oatmeal, but so is two eggs on toast. This morning, to my shame, I had leftover Chinese food. Bean curd orange flavor, y'all.
The best thing I ever did for myself was giving up my addiction to tea. I'd drink a huge pot of hideously strong Scottish Breakfast tea, which I adore. With milk, I'd sometimes be okay, but most days, it made me throw up. Could I try making it weaker? Sure, but then it's not as good. Could I try drinking less of it? Perhaps. It was always worth it.
Finally, I got back to good old coffee and the shakes. Never figured out why tea makes me puke.
Caffeinated tea makes me skittish.
Coffee makes the world go 'round and the birds sing and puts a song in my heart.
Really strong iced tea makes me puke too (more often dry heave). Peet's ice tea is a particular offender.
The best iced tea is from Mcdonalds.
The best iced tea is from Mcdonalds.
That may just win this months `most wrong statement on Unfogged' prize.
I wonder if tealimia is widespread at all. I became quite proficient at casual yacking.
I have that reaction to very strong tea occasionally, but not often, and it only kicks in for tea stronger than I actually want to drink -- I'll let it steep too long, drink it anyway, and then be ill.
The best iced tea is from Mcdonalds.
Not a southerner, I take it?
Someone at the pool was saying just a day or two ago that McDonald's iced coffee is really good. I've never had either, so I don't know.
i looked at the first dozen or so photos, and my main reaction was that the people were all very beautiful. in a nice way.
it made me like the photographer a lot, because the photographer was very generous to the people.
i mean, it's not like they are all drop-dead gorgeous, just that they were photographed in a way that was respectful and generous and brought out their best sides.
i like it when people use their talents to make other people more in love with the human race.
the alternative, of rubbing our noses in the ugliness of human beings, doesn't take much talent.
Brock, the point about banning fried eggs. About six years ago there were a couple of studies which suggested that acrylamides, which are produced in the burnt crunchy bits of fried food, might be carcinogenic. About four years ago there was another batch of studies which suggested they weren't. I'm not sure whether the debate has been fully resolved yet, but it's leaning to the not so bad after all side. In any case the people who produce this kind of literature are usually out of date.
I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you. The dietary profession goes into full moral panic mode about a new product every six months, and nine tenths of it turns out to be overhyped. I'm sure you eat more healthily than 99% of Americans anyway, because you're bright and aware.
The only secure correlation is that if you eat food you will eventually die.
The only secure correlation is that if you eat food you will eventually die.
I'm not sure that's a good correlation at all, really, given that you'll also eventually die if you don't eat any food at all.
And I know a bunch of people who eat regularly and haven't died.
105--
i had that very thought, brock!
now: if we can only ascertain that non-assholes did *not* have that thought, then we'll have a new secure correlation!
I'm having the thought that I'm not Brock.
It's a perfect correlation! Likewise is the correlation of not eating and dying! Thus perishes the flesh.
108 fails the Granger Test of Causality.
109--
sure, but so what?
brock was using cock's postulates.
Brock was using cock's postulates
Actually, 108 fails under Cox's first axiom as well. So bite me.
the photographer was very generous
Very nicely said. The spirit of taking pleasure in good food is absent in fact from the WF stores I've been in, full of shoppers who seem harried and/or brand-obsessed, and eyerolling or indifferent staff. The contrast with the cheerful staged setting and happy-looking food wrappers only makes the place sadder.
Most tea contains tannins; milk gives them something to do, if you don't care for it in your tea (I dont), maybe yogurt.
111--
dude, if you're going to spoil the joke by spelling his name right,then spell his name right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch%27s_postulates
Correlation is not t3h causation!
The Granger Test is not supposed to be dispositive W/R/T causation.
117: That's because it has to allow for a time turner, of course.
dude, if you're going to spoil the joke by spelling his name right,then spell his name right.
I was thinking of Cox's theorem, the first axiom of which is "The plausibility of a proposition determines the plausibility of the proposition's negation; either decreases as the other increases."
Not to sound snooty, but it would never have occurred to me that he was referring to Robert Koch, because I mentally pronounce that name with a long "o" and a gutteral "ch" at the end.
119--
i don't take it as snooty at all.
it's just that this blog does a brisker trade in cock jokes than coke jokes.
i've never run into r.t. cox before. cool--wrote a book about electric eels.
(though it shocks them, i know).
McDonald's does have good iced coffee. They use Newman's Own Organics which is relabeled Green Mountain coffee. Green Mountain Coffee is really good so long as you drink it properly prepared. The coffee that comes out quickly when you use the prepackaged, individually-wrapped grounds from them is flavorless, because the coffee isn't in contact with the water for long enough.
That's just another way of saying, I know that some of you have this stuff at your offices (Hi Brock), and you shouldn't judge Green Mountain Coffee on the basis of the prepackaged stuff.
94- but most days, it made me throw up
96- makes me puke too (more often dry heave).
98- I wonder if tealimia is widespread at all
Hmmm....
88- I don't think they have principles for knowing what meds interacts with the birth control pill beyond 'probably everything. use a condom.'
McDonald's does have good iced coffee. They use Newman's Own Organics which is relabeled Green Mountain coffee
Similarly, Dunkin Donuts coffee is the same as Chock Full o' Nuts.
I was thinking of Cox's theorem, the first second axiom postulate of which is ...
p(A|B) + p(~A|B) = 1
really the issue is that p(die|eating) = p(die|~eating) = 1 because it's not an event in the sample space implicit to the comments.
I had a mocha and a blueberry scone, then an apple when my sugar level dipped about an hour later. Once I started the new job, the pull of the coffee shop right downstairs in my building became irresistible and my sugar consumption went way up. I really need to break that habit before it becomes too entrenched.
In a similar vein to the breakfast photos: photos of the inside of fridges from around the world.
Re 124: Look, I'm just a simple humanities major, but if p(die|eating)= 1, then p(~die|eating) = 1-p(die|eating), and since there is real world evidence that p(~die|eating) >0, the statement fails to satisfy one of Cox's conditions ("Plausibilities should vary sensibly with the assessment of plausibilities in the model").
On second thought, I am retracting 126, having just seen through the error in my logic. As I said, I'm just a simple humanities major.
KR: I was teasing you, but also pointing out that the event lies outside of the sample space, so these don't even make sense to write down. Which is in some rough way equivalent to your observation, but really it's more fundamental.
Oatmeal, made with mostly slow-cooking rolled oats, a dollop of oat bran, and some dried fruit (apricots today), served with a goodly dollop of plain yogurt to cool it down and keep me going until lunchtime. I eat pretty much the same thing most weekdays.
I had a banana, an apple, and a satsuma. Also a small bowl of muesli with goji berries and orange juice. Also a very large rainbow mug of very strong Fair Trade coffee, with hot milk.
As the weather gets colder, I switch from cereal to oatmeal, preferably made on the stove with ginger and dried fruit, but from a packet in the microwave if necessary. Mostly, I hate breakfast because I want to have ham or bacon every day and can't. 'Smasher's apple butter sounds pretty tempting, though.
Unfrozen caveman humanities major?
Your mathematical notation, your Greek letters and obscure symbols, they frighten me.
This morning I had old leftover pizza. (Yay!) But not from Zachary's. (Boo!) If I had the money, I'd eat poppy-seed bagels with lox if not every day, then every few days.
Irish Breakfast Tea, if steeped too long, makes me nauseated as well. You really have to take the teabags out after a minute or so, max.
McDonald's does have good iced coffee. They use Newman's Own Organics which is relabeled Green Mountain coffee.
What? How the hell did you know that?
Green Mountain Coffee is really good so long as you drink it properly prepared.
The coffee that comes out quickly when you use the prepackaged, individually-wrapped grounds from them is flavorless, because the coffee isn't in contact with the water for long enough.
How can it be properly prepared then?
Similarly, Dunkin Donuts coffee is the same as Chock Full o' Nuts.
What? How the hell did you know that?
Similarly, Dunkin Donuts coffee is the same as Chock Full o' Nuts.
What? How the hell did you know that?
Your question caused me to look this up, and I learned that Sara Lee Coffee, which makes the private label coffee for Dunkin Donuts, recently sold the Chock Full o' Nuts brand to Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA. So it is no longer strictly accurate to say that it's the same thing.
How I knew this in the first place is confidential.
The Granger Test is not supposed to be dispositive W/R/T causation
Yes, these days you really need a DAG graph to say anything about causality.
Has B. been around today? She's not standing knee deep in the koi pond with PK, watching the house burn?
Texted her a few minutes ago, haven't heard back. Probably dead. But I think the fires are affecting Malibu and points south, and B lives north of there.
But I think the fires are affecting Malibu and points south
This is true, and mostly the wind there is from the NE right now. On the other hand, most of Southern California is on fire right now. Pretty smoky down here, even far away.
The San Diego Wild Animal Park is about to burn down, too. Mmm... rhino-que.
Like Mt. St. Helens but with more smoke.
135: Ned, you're sounding awfully cryptic. Newman's Own includes the Green Mountain logo on their coffee. I had independent verification from the train station/local history museum/ roasting location in Waterbury, VT.
Obviously, the prepackaged stuff isn't properly prepared.
What does "properly prepared" mean?
For that matter, what does "prepackaged" mean? Pre-ground coffee rather than beans? By that point it is already impossible to properly make coffee out of it?
Not funny, TJ. I know you're just kidding around, but the San Diego Wild Animal Park is amazing, and has done a ton of important conservation work for a number of critically endangered species, including rhino.
The sky in Irvine, by the way, currently looks right out of a science fiction movie; it's felt like late afternoon since early this morning, and it's still drizzling flakes of ash. Last I checked, however, there have only been a very small number of school closings and (voluntary) evacuations.
Whoops. Just as I say that, the power goes out at the local Starbucks and Albertsons. Knock on wood.
Bah. They have been going on about it on the radio, saying that the rhinos and other large animals know to run into the ponds when the fire gets too close.
It is an awesome park, btw, but if we can joke about Ogged's partial kidneys...
saying that the rhinos and other large animals know to run into the ponds when the fire gets too close
That's too bad, because braised rhino, while tender, does not have that extra layer of flavor you get from the maillard reaction.
Since this thread has already been derailed a bit, it seems like an appropriate thread for bringing up an unrelated topic: the Red Sox. Would any New Englanders be up for a Game 1 meetup on Wednesday? I e-mailed some of you, but if I left you off the list it's not because you're not welcome. Either you're a lurker whose e-mail I don't know or (come to think of it) a regular who hasn't been to a meetup and hasn't posted an e-mail address, I don't have you in my contacts or the only e-mail address I have is not pseudonymous.
And...there's a house fire, two or three blocks from the UC Irvine campus, where I (and others who frequent this blog, I believe) live. It's been reported to 911, and the thick, black smoke seems to have turned to white, so that's good, I guess.
the thick, black smoke seems to have turned to white
New pope!
How much of the California National Guard is in Iraq?
The College of Cardinals is in exile in Malibu?
Has Mel Gibson's father's faction gained power?
154: Maybe they've just stopped throwing the computational linguists on the blaze.
155: I don't know, but there sure seems to be a lot more people left than I would have thought who both know how to fly and have access to helicopters. The local news brigade, alone, could probably staff its own regiment.
No thread is appropriate to bring up the Red Sox.
As of March [2007], the California National Guard had 818 soldiers in Iraq, 264 in Afghanistan and 47 in Kuwait.
There are 20,000 members of the California Nat'l Guard.
Actually, it's from the pdf that's probably the second link in the seach you did, LB. I'm trying to find an easily linkable source on the California National Guard site itsef.
No, I just got lazy with the linkage. # of soldiers in March 07, 20,000 soldiers.
152: I just might be able to swing a Wednesday meetup. What's the venue?
Red Sox #1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooooooooooooo!!!!!
Likewise, the Patriots. These titans share the light of the sun that shines brightest on faithful hearts or something like that.
Why, thank you everybody for worrying about me. As I said to Ogged earlier, I'm far too cool to catch fire.
PK is in Stockton with my dad, Mr. B. is in Denver on a business trip, and I drove down to LAX this morning to drop him off after my usual breakfast of coffee + a cigarette. Traffic sucked and the wind was a fucking bitch and the sky is all smoky and yes, it is raining ash (not heavily enough to really show up on a photo, as Ogged suggested--it's more like the kind of very dry very light dust of snow you sometimes get when it's really cold out). Open the car door to step out and fill gas? The other person is covered in ash. That kind of thing. The Pacific Coast Highway is closed, part of the 126 (east from Ventura) is closed, and we got to see helicopters flying *very slowly* to dump water on the fire, but no actual fire itself (last year we did see flames a couple times). I imagine it is very difficult to fly a helicopter dangling a huge load of water in heavy winds without crashing. The ash was a lot worse yesterday than today, and I decided American life is very weird because we went out for dinner and a movie despite the ash blowing around, which seemed like an odd thing to be doing, but since evenings sans PK are few and far between, we weren't going to let some piddling wild fires ruin our night out.
The cat is unhappy about the ash and wind, though, and keeps bitching but doesn't actually want to go outside.
That cat obviously needs a blog.
Glad you're OK.
Glad you're doing okay. I hope the apocalyptic visuals are providing a certain amount of aesthetic pleasure.
My girlfriend got sent home from work in Orange County because the air quality was smoky smoked. She called me from the train station to ask if the delay was posted online and whether the flames had consumed the train. (I originally wrote "taken the train", but that seemed confusing.)
170: Actually yesterday the light was amazing, and the sun was a pathetic little pink disk. Which was kind of cool. The blowing ash is just a pain, though.
Yeah, I probably *caused* that fire.
Glenn Beck: "I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today."
We've been having steel cut oats every morning for a month now. Among the things discovered:
1) You can cook a big batch once a week, then shwack individual portions in the microwave with no appreciable difference in flavor.
2) Mrs. Chopper brings the oats to a boil the night before, then lets them soak on the stove top until the following morning before cooking them.
3) Throwing dried fruit in during the second simmer is quite nice, and can be used to give the whole thing some variety--this week it's apples and currants, with three sticks of cinnamon.
4) YMMV, but I think skim milk is fine to finish (heavy cream would be optimal, but I didn't choose oatmeal as my new breakfast choice because my LDL was too low). I dunno about soy milk, ogged, but it might be worth a try.
5) Co-ops sell the oats in bulk--much cheaper than the $6 tin I bought the first week. I think we've got breakfast for the house down to under a buck a serving, even with the dried fruit, honey, etc.
6) I've had some really excellent shits the last month--the extra fiber does great things. You're welcome.
it seems like an appropriate thread for bringing up an unrelated topic: the Red Sox
You America-haters may be entirely indifferent to the World Series, but there's at least one good reason to hope the Red Sox prevail.
Yeah, but do they fund-raise for Bush?
Schilling apologized for that. But if he loses his start against the evangelicals, I will suspect sabotage.
176: Charming!
Anyway, he's wrong. The coasts are Dems, but once you get a few miles inland, not so much, nope.
Most of the places that are burning are pretty solidly GOP, looking at the maps. I mean, Pepperdine? Good call, Beck. Buncha hippies they got there.
Also just so people aren't worried, the storage space with my records in it is okay so far.
Orange County is *solidly* liberal, didn't you know, Sifu?
184: You should just store your crap here in my garage. Everyone else does.
The cost of doing it will be helping us move.
188: heh. Moving heavy things is exactly what it cost to park my car where it is now. I just got done paying back that debt this weekend. I'm not sure but I think I might like the traditional way of paying for thingsl.
Although, depending how you answer a couple questions (How many floors in your house? Does the furniture upstairs actually fit down the stairs?) it could be a hell of a lot easier than the parking scenario was.
Honey, I live in Ventura. I don't think they even *make* two story houses here.
I'll believe it when I see it. That second story can leap out at you when you least expect it.
Actually they do make two story houses, it's true. But not very many.
