Explanation 1: if you keep a birding list (birds you’ve seen and identified), you keep a life list and a continent list and maybe a state list of your home state and maybe if you’re really feeling like you want to be detailed a list of your home town or county or local park or… You get the idea. For those of us who keep a North American list, a bird visiting from Mexico, is a rare bird on our NA list. So, lots of birders will travel lots of miles to add a bird to their NA list. There are some 900 indigenous species. I’m really not crazy. It is a great hobby. A friend at work described it as a live version of “Where’s Waldo”, after seeing a picture of a Ferrugenous Pygmy Owl (an owl about the size of a woman’s fist).

We had gone to Texas for a vacation and to see if we could spot, or even hear, the Ferrugenous Pygmy Owl. It was the only Owl indigenous to NA that we had not seen.

Southern Texas weather in the winter can be anything from sun shining 70 degrees to ice storms. We were not worried about the weather, but it would have been nice to have some sunshine. So we were not surprised that we we spent the week walking in the rain for 5 days. It was just like home. Birding in Seattle can be 50 degrees and raining in July. I brought two pairs of shoes- good thing. One pair dried while the other pair got wet. I was talking to a gentleman from Michigan, who was there to see the Heron and he was saying how warm it was. One man’s warmth is another man’s winter. It was a good reminder of why I like Seattle in the winter. My miss spent youth was time spent in Chicago.

Explantion 2; Whataburger is a fast food chain in the southern US. They make, in my opinion, the best fast food burger in the US. I know everyone has their favorite. Whataburger does it for me!

We ate like pigs while we were in the valley. I think I made 2 stops per day at Whataburger for meal combo #2 a double cheeseburger with jalepinos and fries and a soda. Plus, dinner out every evening. Plus, the “free” breakfast at the hotel. I expected to gain a bunch of weight. That was part of my plan because we have a big dieting competition at work the first quarter of the year. I wanted to weigh in with an extra 5 pounds. I managed to gain only 3, but I was still happy with it. I might have gained more but we did miles of walking every day.

Most of the birding hot spots in the Valley no longer allow you to drive in. Bentsen use to be a big campground. They closed it off with the exception of 5 rustic campsites that you have to pack into. So, you pay for a day pass and walk all day. They have been nice enough to add benches to the park for us old timers who need to rest occasionally.

We ended up with a nice tick list of birds for the trip. We saw the Heron. We heard the owl. We saw a friend from Michigan we hadn’t seen in 7 years who came down to see the Heron. All in All a nice trip.

Weekends during college revolved around cramming as much boozing and partying into 48 hours as you could. Then, you hit the books on Sunday night during Sunday Night Football to be ready for Monday morning. I think they still do the same thing. According to my children, you betcha!

There’s no kids living at home, so weekends are peaceful and quite. Never boring and a change from the hectic times at work. Don’t get me wrong, work is great. Part of being successful is about shutting it off from time to time and taking a deep breath.

Having company for the weekend is always fun. No one ever falls outside the fish rule if thy are visiting for the weekend. (Fish rule- after three days fish stink!)

A few weeks ago, we had kids over the weekend. It was great. Really! I got to cook pancakes and hotdogs and macaroni and cheese. I think I cooked more carbohydrates in one weekend than the previous 3 months. Having kids help me with dusting and dishes and cooking and laying around on the floor playing and reading stories.

I love having family visit. Again, Really! Maybe for the same reasons. I cook for everyone, which I rarely have the time or energy to do during the week. Or, it is an excuse to try a new restaurant. Family visits always include playing cards. When it’s just the two of us we play cribbage. When you add a family member or two, you get to play Pinochle or Euchre. Well, we could play two handed pinochle, but we play so much alike two handed isn’t as much fun.

So after three weekends in a row with company, I should want a weekend to myself, but I really don’t feel that way. I wish it wasn’t almost the end of football season. I wish it wasn’t 8 weeks until a family weekend event. By the time summer comes and people start visiting again, I’ll be really happy.

The average middle class family didn’t fly anywhere. The average white collar worker didn’t fly to meetings on a quarterly basis. When did it become acceptable for everyone to fly. I’m sure there was some part of deregulation in 1978 or maybe it is just part of our weird economic boom in the 1990s that made it possible for everyone to afford an airplane ticket to some hither to unknown part of the country unless you had more than 2 weeks vacation and your family did well in the car. Even my Uncle, the big time Salesman, had a regional job that kept him in the car, on the road, for the majority of the year.

I really thought hard about my Dad’s career and when he went on a business trip. He would go to the Chicago furniture market. He never hit the other big market event in High Point, NC. I don’t believe he flew anywhere for work during his entire career with Sears.

My parents drove everywhere. The first time I remember them flying was their 25th wedding anniversary trip to California. They flew to Vegas, their first trip there. Then, they went on to LA. From there, they drove up the coast to San Francisco and flew home. They were nervous as hell. I had several copies of their itinerary and every phone number in the world in case of an emergency. My younger brother was staying with me. I had a new baby. This might have been the first time after his birth that they were alone. I know they left my sister and I at my Uncle and Aunt’s house once. We made such a stink about how terrible it was, they never did it again. Sorry- Mom and Dad.

After retirement, they took a couple trips to Vegas. My Dad’s cousin retired there. They did a couple other trips. My mother’s level of discomfort grew after she fell in a hotel bathroom in Vegas and they didn’t do much traveling after that point. They made a few trips to Washington, especially once my sister and I were, both, living there. My father’s questionable health and my mother’s bad hip made it difficult. They drove to see my brother, both in New York and North Carolina.

I flew to a wedding in Minneapolis in the 70s. My parents drove from Chicago and picked me up at the airport. Why I didn’t drive with them or how I afforded the trip is a mystery to me now.

I remember saving for a flight from Detroit to Chicago for my Dad’s 60th birthday. My sister was in Spokane. I wanted him to understand I was financially set. Everything he had done to get us off on the right track had worked. Getting on that plane for a day trip to take him out for lunch was some sort of passage. Only a successful person could just jump on a plane and visit her dad. It is really weird to think back on it now.

My grandmother, no drivers license, use to fly to NYC or Miami to visit relatives. She has the cash to jump on a plane when she feels like it, but she got mad when they took away the senior’s discounts. Heck, she’s 100. She has wore out her welcome with most of us, so she doesn’t leave Chicago much anymore.

So, here I am sitting in Palm Springs getting ready to fly back to Seattle. I leave in 2 days to go see my son in Indiana for the weekend. My husband just got back from Kansas City. I am flying to Chihuahua, Mexico in 3 weeks. Two weeks later we are flying to Houston for vacation. Someone at work asked me if I had time to fly to Indonesia to visit a customer and I should go to Long Island to yell at my favorite supplier sometime in the near future.

Can’t you close your eyes and smell the turkey roasting in the oven. Being a traditional Midwest family, my Dad was the turkey cooker/carver. My Mom would be busy making chopped liver (ok, that’s not traditional unless you’re Jewish) and sweet potatoes with marshmallows and pies. My Mom’s cupboards are a wonderland of bowls and accessories for condiments.

My Dad was big on sitting down together and watching the Macy’s Parade. Basting the turkey during every other commercial break. He loved watching the morning cartoon host on WGN hack up a turkey almost as much as I love Dan Akroyd doing his imitation of Julia Childs. It was so much fun to spend the morning with him in the kitchen.

Thanksgiving has other memories. Some are stranger than others. Having the family, the whole family, in the house was always a good time. There was a pull out table in the dining area that seated most of the adults. The kids had there own table elsewhere in the house. That table always amazed me and it was such an event to get the case of table leaves out and put them all in place. The table normally sat against the wall, maybe 24 inches in depth, but pull it out and it sat 12 people with ease. The chairs fit inside the bottom part of the unit. Once the table was set up and the chairs were out, I could sleep inside the silly thing.

So, I’m 13 and sick as a dog on Thanksgiving morning. I would give you the gross details, but I’ll laugh to myself and know it will suffice to tell you I started my first period that day. Much thanks was given, that year, to my sister for figuring out what was wrong with me when I thought I was going to die.

My first year in college, I came home for the long weekend and proceeded to get so drunk on Wednesday night that I threw up right through Thanksgiving. I somehow managed to eat left overs on Friday. Needless to say, I never drank Mad Dog 20/20 again.

One of my favorite pictures of my two older children was taken Thanksgiving of 1978. I found a piece of dark velvet material and put the kids on it for a picture; a 6 month old and a 2 year old leaning on their elbows with great smiles and giggles. I was in a hurry because I did the whole thing on the pool table and I knew my Dad would kill me if he came down into the family room.

There is a blur of wonderful family get togethers and then Thanksgiving of 1990. I’m very pregnant. I put the turkey in the oven and took the big kids to see Home Alone. Five minutes into the movie, my water broke and labour started. I made it through the movie and through serving dinner. I was afraid to eat having spent an earlier labour throwing up the evening’s dinner. I made it to the wee hours of the morning to let the doctor have a peaceful Thanksgiving dinner followed by a Friday morning delivering my beautiful baby boy after delivering someone else’s little girl. There have been many pumpkin pies with birthday candles since then.

There are lots of cooking memories. My first ham- oh, my g-d! Being a good Jewish girl, I had no idea. I was trying to cook a special meal for a new beau. I used pineapple and cloves and such. But, I didn’t know there was a paper coating that was suppose to come off. At least you can’t really ruin a ham. But it sure didn’t have the sweet, spicy flavour I had hoped for!

There was my sister’s frantic call from 2200 miles away asking “what side of the turkey goes up, when you put it in the pan?” I really tried not to laugh. I could just see her with a great big turkey as big as her. Trying to figure out which side is the breast. If she didn’t make the best pumpkin pies in the world, I would make more fun of her. I did try to explain how to pick the turkey up by its arm pits and describe what part of the wing needs to be facing her, until I realised she really couldn’t pick the turkey up. She had this great knack for calling with cooking questions that still make me giggle just to remember.

There was a great Thanksgiving of Beanie-Weenies in North Carolina, when we got stuck in a traffic jam and couldn’t get back to my brother’s in time for dinner. He had the older kids while we were on the coast for a couple days. By the time we got back to his place there was nothing left but a pile of bones and dirty dishes.

A couple years ago, I decided to do some crazy lemonade cleanse. I managed to be in the middle of two weeks of fasting when the family was coming for Thanksgiving. I cooked the whole meal, minus my sister’s pies and my sister-in-laws rolls. I never touched a bite. I have a tremendous amount of will power when required.

This year, it looks like we will be on our own; no family, no kids, just a day in PJs. Maybe we’ll have a turkey. Maybe we’ll have a ham. Maybe we’ll have a Thanksgiving Pizza. I’ll put on Pieces of April. I’ll cry when she pulls the turkey salt and pepper shakers back out of the trash can. I’ll laugh when she tries to mash the raw potatoes. I know she is right on with her description of the holiday; there was this time when they realised they just couldn’t make it alone. I’ll pull out my copy of Molly’s Pilgrim and think about my family. I’ll take a nap during the afternoon football game and think about traditions. I will spend the day giving thanks for a rich and full life.

Some solutions are a little tougher to get in place, when you are on the lower half of the organizational chart. Always make sure there is a person in the middle of the company chart who can elevate the issue to the right people. A lot of times, I am that person.

In a class, many years ago, we looked at the difference between problem solving and decision making. The techniques are similar, but different. First you need to understand what you are dealing with; It boils down to the following definition of a problem;

Are you concerned?
Is it new and different?
Is the cause unknown?

If you can’t answer “yes” to all three questions, you are facing a decision and not a problem. Generally speaking, we are here discussing the issue because someone is concerned, but when emotion gets tied into things, sometimes, even the brightest people in the world get hung up on the fact; they are not the person who has to make the decision. They are the person who need to provide the data to the decision maker and subsequently act on the decision whether they like the answer or not. There are times when that is simply, not an easy task.

Many companies are haggard with decision makers who can’t or don’t. They bind up their organizations without understanding the consequences that follow. In this tough economy, it is just not acceptable. I am not afraid to tell people; if you don’t like the answer go to the next level of the chart. Always be prepared to provide a defined set of data (without emotion), and remember presentation and timing are important.

I spent some time this morning reviewing a variety of problem solving techniques that I haven’t used in a long time. I am preparing for a brainstorming session with two groups at work who are, internally, suppliers and customers of information for each other. I spent several hours this week listening to the issues within each group. I asked each person did they have solutions in mind. It became frighteningly visible (It’s Halloween.) that neither group understands the problem. Hence, the brainstorming session.

It doesn’t matter what technique you use, it is about being able to state the problem simply enough to go out there and find the multitude of answers that gets everyone headed in the right direction. Should I be surprised that these teams are made up of very dedicated intelligent people? No, I helped hire some of them. Should I be surprised that someone with a business degree doesn’t understand an email from someone with an Engineering degree? No, I am blessed with a firm understanding of both. Should I be surprised that a supply chain person’s email response was short and concise and “sounded” rude to the receiver of the email? Definitely No, people do not understand the perception of the written word.

I love working with engineers. Getting them to boil down a complex problem into 6 words or less is a fun challenge. Sometimes it is a pulling teeth sort of episode. I pulled out my two front teeth when I was 5 because I wanted the money from the tooth fairy. I have that kind of tenacity. So, that becomes my mantra; 6 words or less. I am a great practitioner of the 5 Why concept;

late for work
why
the car wouldn’t start
why
the battery was dead
why
the car door was open all night
why
the kids played in the car and left the door ajar

Does each answer, actually cause the statement just above? If not do it again. The secret is in the investigation, the brainstorming of potential causes, the data collection to quantify the information, etc..

(In the example above; remember to complement the employee who only came in late, rather than taking the whole day off trying to get the car going. Make sure they are not going to go home and beat the kids, if you are inclined to get that involved.)

As part of my job, I review Corrective or Preventive actions. I go to the investigation part of the form first. If it is empty, I send it back to the owner and have them fill it in. When a problem is fully understood the why-why method is simple and gets us quickly to the actions- which goes back to decisions.

As a facilitator/problem solver, I, often, find myself in the position of facilitating the team efforts to determine who are the decision makers who refuse to act. When you do a Cause and Effect diagram; don’t forget the other Ms. We always include; manpower, mother nature, methods, measurement, machines and material. What about; Management and Money???

Management, often, does not realize the mess they have created by lack of action or conflicting targets in different teams. I’m surprised by Machiavellian managers who make sure they point teams in opposite directions and sit back and wait for the sparks to fly. We leave bosses not companies. This, when realized, is a common cause for resignation.

I include this concept in my training. I make sure people know there is someone who understands where the frustrations are coming from. If the solution is to get a VP to make a decision. I will make it happen. I create an environment of trust so that people will not be afraid to voice those issues for discussion and assure the team can continue on as a cohesive group.

Not all companies allow a person like me to be part of the flow. It’s not always pretty. I always walk in with, at least one, solution and a demand for action in a timely manner. If your company does not have someone like me, or create an environment where an open door policy is really an open mind policy. I’m sure your resume will be out there soon enough.

Remember; it was the whistle blowers who saw the problems and escalated until someone listened who brought down Enron and the rest.

Act on fact!

So what made this so much fun? I don’t know. The first time out was to pick up something for someone at work. I live down town, so people have me pick stuff up for them all the time. I’m use to it. I can spend someone else’s money. No problem. But the second time out- cloths! Yuck! We had just eaten a great happy hour meal with our guys. They went back to the house and we had instructions to bring back strawberry ice cream. Maybe it was the shot of tequila. Maybe we hadn’t seen each other in quite a while. Maybe I was just in the right mood and the smell of new cloths brought back memories of trying on school clothes.

I had given my sister a sweatshirt for the Seahawks game, joking that it was a late birthday present. her birthday was 10 months ago. She was looking for something to wear with it. I knew we are both, kind of, low on cash. We were looking for Seahawk colors and work cloths. I normally run into a store pick up a baggy anything in the color of the season and run back out before I feel like I can’t breathe. I wasn’t sure she was going to want any more than green tights or a black turtle neck, but she was so jazzed about the choices, she wanted to try stuff on. This would normally send me into panic mode. The last time I went into a fitting room was with my granddaughter buying her a dress for a family event.

I can say, my sister and my granddaughter are the opposite in the dressing room. My sister is pretty critical of herself. (I do the same thing.) My granddaughter thought she looked like a princess and beautiful in every dress she tried on.

Suddenly, my sister has an arm full of cloths and she’s headed for the fitting rooms. I was looking at what she had and I realize the three outfits she has in hand are all things hanging in my closet. Mind you, I never tried any of it on. I’ve lost a lot of weight the past month so I thought I would check to see if I could go a size smaller. I throw off the schmatta I have on and throw on the dress, look in the mirror and I’m done. She is still the the booth, mixing and matching and thinking. I decided to sit in the booth and give her my unsolicited commentary. I guess I just relaxed enough to enjoy the moment and watch her look at herself in the mirror. She looks at her (little) belly- I tell her to put a scarf on and let it hide her stomach if she’s really worried. “That’s what I do!” She looks at her butt- I tell her booty is ok. “think J-Lo or Beyounce!” She’s being really serious and I am laughing and enjoying myself.

We are shaped the same. I’m 5 inches taller. We are classic pears. We are about 20 pounds apart and wearing about the same size. Just like my “borrowing” clothes from her during High School, everything is just shorter on me. In HS it allowed me to be on the edge of getting sent home. Now, the dress on her is the shirt for me. I wonder where we got the genetic structure. Mom is an apple. Dad was a rectangle. I try to see them in us as we get older. There are little bits here and there, but it is in a smile or our walk or the way we put our hands on our hips and watch kids.

I had a boss, in my recent past, tell me I was bound to get in trouble for my potty moth and I needed to learn how to dress for work. I had a boss not to long ago tell me I should learn how to dress for success. I told them both- clothes have nothing to do with working hard and earning respect from your employees or your peers. I once had a peer tell me; Lucky your smart, because you sure dress weird. I was never sure what that meant, but I took it as a compliment. That would be me!

We both agreed on was our husbands would be critical of what we wear if they watched us leave for work in the morning. For her, she leaves before he sees her. For me, I throw my coat on really fast if he is going to think I am on the edge of inappropriate. The difference is I would leave anyway.

So, back to shopping. I’m looking for colors I like. My sister is looking for colors that look good. I’m looking for comfy cloths for a 12 hour day. My sister is looking for the edge of professional. I’m telling her how our tastes are the same. She is telling me we are different as night and day. I bought a scarf and matching dress. She bought three sweater dress things and a turtle neck that matched them all and then went back for a scarf. We were laughing the whole way home. We even remembered to pick up the ice cream for the guys!

Can you smell it?
Can you touch it?
Can you imagine the crunch, with that first bite?

It’s not that I take any food for granted but I started thinking about all the memories that include this very basic fruit. Childhood to today; apples are sweet thoughts.

My folks had this thing. We were suburban kids being raised by city parents; they wanted us to be intimate on some basic levels with the food on the table. From apples and peaches to buying a beef for the freezer (yes, I watched them butcher our winter’s meat one year)

I don’t remember the first time we headed out to an orchard to pick-our-own, but I remember climbing the ladder under someone’s watchful eye. You could reach out and pick an apple and put it into a bag while crunching on a round globe previously tugged from the branch. Fresh, crunchy, tart, everything I wanted in a fruit.

There were apples dipped in honey for the sweetness of the new year. There were apples wrapped in a rich brown blanket of caramel. There was apple cider served with hot doughnuts that left greasy fingers covered with sugar coating to lick clean. There were apples in our trick or treat bags with popcorn balls before we lost our trust in our neighbors.

There is apple sauce served with potato pancakes. There was the time my mother’s Aunt Frieda showed up in a camper from Oregon and decided we needed to learn how to make apple sauce. A recipe I still have tucked away written in her scratchy penmanship. There are a hundred apple pies looking for the right combination of crust and sugar. There is apple crisp that is much easier to make.

There were new and unusual varieties of apples in Alaska that were shipped in from New Zealand. Today they are common place on the grocery bins, but they were a new tasty treat for hungry campers on a limited budget. There are Delicious, Jonathans, yummy Granny Smiths and Galas. There are red, yellow, green, streaked, shiny or dull.

There is a pairing of apples and cheese. There is apples and wine. There is Boone’s Farm. There are appletinis.

There is the look on the baby’s face when you put that cold sweet apple flesh up to a toothless grin the first time. There are my grandmother’s hands working a paring knife to remove apple skins; talking to you and looking at you, magically never cutting a finger. I still have to watch what I’m doing!

They might be the fruit of Adam and Eve. They were planted in our school day memories with stories of Johnny Appleseed. They are old sayings; An apple a day keeps the doctor away. They are new sayings; If you’re not hungry enough for an apple, you’re not really hungry.

Sweet memories delighting all the senses in fruit drawer in the fridge.

I ask my self the standard questions; what do I really do in this work space? what does my day look like? What do I really need to do my job? It was actually quite funny, the list; I do email. I write documents. I do problem solving for which I like to go to the problem; I believe in CSI. You need to be at the scene of the crime to figure out what to do next. Now the tone is set for the plan.

I had spotted a computer stand on wheels earlier and confirmed no one was using it. That became the starter kit for the new office.

Turning 360 degrees: I have, all crammed into the space; a book case, a dorm room refrigerator, a three drawer cabinet, 3 boxes of reference material, 3 desk paper holders, an in box and a multitude of unnecessary plastic objects. Oh, and a chair of standard office variety. Hhmmmm??? what to do first? 5s of course (or CANDO if you don’t like, or can’t remember the Japanese; Clean, Arrange, Neatness Discipline and Ongoing improvements)

I have to sort through all the paperwork laying around to see what can be thrown away. I made a decision; If I hadn’t looked at it in 2 weeks, it was gone. I made quick work of the paper holders and the in box. I ran around to the storage areas after dropping the office supplies back where I got them, looking for stuff that could hang from the half walls and a couple clip boards. Found what I needed and moved on.

I hung a low profile rack and moved the organized paper work on to the wall. My desk top, once I got to it, I discovered, was in 3 pieces. They hang from the half walls. I went to the facility manager to assure that when I took the desk top down, the walls would not collapse. He came over to check out the configuration and determined I was in a stand alone section. I had already come up with a plan for no walls, but this saved me a little time. I needed a screw driver to get the desk down, which made the FM a little nervous. With a wink and a nod the IT Director, who just happened to be in the area, promised he would be around and keep me out of trouble. The FM left for the day, while I continued on. The IT guy, being true to his word, did come back and help me later in the day. Probably good idea in case I dropped a piece of pressed board desk on my head or foot or something. I do have that klutz thing going from time to time. Besides, it was nice to have company (that I can talk to).

With the first piece of the desk down, the fridge is exposed which means I can clear the next section of the desk. This one off and set aside means the top of the cabinet is open for the phone and a couple of other things while the corner section comes down. Unplugging and untangling computer spaghetti is always fun; how did this stuff get all tangled? I haven’t moved my computer equipment since I moved into the space 9 months ago.

Now exposed are the 3 boxes of reference material, my trash can and a space heater (I must have been cold last winter??). I sort through these to discover I have one box of reference material and 2 boxes of holiday decorations, a collection of mint containers (including some Simpson classics; Invest”mints”, Postpone”mint”s, etc…) I remember buying a couple of the little boxes at- ok, get focused, get back to it. I stack the two boxes in the corner. I roll the chair out of the space. I move the trash can to the outside of the wall next to the community coat rack. I set the space heater in storage. I won’t need it if I’m standing during the day. I roll the desk in.

The desk helps me go vertical. It will require that I stand up during the day, so I trade the plastic pad for the desk chair rollers for a rubber mat from the production floor. There is a shelf underneath for the phone. I have a flat screen monitor which leaves me plenty of space for the stapler, tape and hole punch I need in the area. Wait, I use the phone more than the paper work utilities. Yes, I do have to keep hard copies of some of the stuff I create. Not all customers will look at computer records.

I don’t want tea or water or food near the computer, so the fridge becomes the food center. I eat all day. I’m a grazer and I hate running to the cafeteria! The cabinet can hold the pen, pencil, markers, highlighters, etc. I have left. I clean out the fridge while I’m at it.

I rearranged all the pictures, the calendar, the phone listing on the walls to put them in the appropriate place for the new lay out.

I put the desk pieces and the chair in the storage room as instructed. I put the screw driver on Bob’s desk as he asked. I drink some water and start answering email. I get a “Wow! you really going to stand up all day?) from a passing engineer. I answer the phone. I’m feeling very refreshed and ready to go. Turns out it’s time to go home. I head for the bus knowing the apartment could use the same effort. I wonder if he’ll play along.

Mind you, I understand good, sound, nutrition, but that isn’t going to make me eat a piece of meat the size of a deck of cards, year in year out. I know the food pyramid and all the portion sizes- I am a child of the 60′s. We learned all that stuff in school. But, how would you go to a baseball game without eating garlic fries, a Major League Dog, a Kidd Burger and chocolate covered strawberries?

Here it is the end of Baseball season and what do I do? Go to the old stand by.

That would be Atkins or Atkins like diet; High Protein-Low Carb. I will empty the house of all the normal junk food and choose a snack food like broccoli or frozen pre-cooked chicken in reasonable portions. I pull out all the recipes; like, my favorite, Meatza Pie; It is a great pizza recipe that substitutes the crust for a pound of spiced ground beef pressed into a pie pan before you add all the allowable toppings. When I was younger, an additional love of this diet was; after the first two weeks, you can drink shots of Tequila or Vodka, as long as you don’t drink mixers and beer chasers, you are still staying inside your carb count. Give me a food, any food, I bet I know how many grams of carbohydrates are in it!

A couple years ago, Beyonce did a lemonade diet to get into those tight costumes for “Dream Girls”. I actually lost 10 pounds in 10 days and hung on for over 2 weeks. I didn’t put it back on as it shrunk my stomach enough that I stayed with small portions for 6 months. Then work got stressful- maximum negative stress and just like everyone I run for my favorite comfort foods; hot bread and butter, pizza (buy a pizza, eat a pizza), French fries or baked potatoes loaded up with all the goodies. You’d think I was sick of that stuff, but I still keep lemons and raw rice syrup and cayenne pepper at work. I love that spicy lemonade tastiness. Just not all day.

South Beach is a fun little version of Atkins. The young lady, who cuts my hair is doing South Beach with her sister. She and I are going to compare every three weeks.

I have a few words to say about Weight Watchers. I have tried this three times. I just can’t eat all the food they want you to eat. It is too much to think about at work. Maybe if you had a pal doing it with you, you could be successful, but I’m a manager, so I have no pals at work. I know this is a really good way to teach yourself how to eat a sound balanced diet. I just can’t quite get there. So I have never had much success here.

One thing I hate to admit; I have tried a bunch of those diet pills and patches and, well, you’ve seen the adds. I’ve tried a bunch. I was, kinda, bummed when they stopped selling ephedra. I’m sure I’m healthier for it!

I love food. I enjoy eating. All in all, I suspect I am just fighting the natural place my body wants to be. I have pictures of smiling (dead) female relatives who all weighed over 180 pounds and none of them are over 5’3″. I look forward to throwing out all those britches. In the meantime, I’ll just suck it up and deal with it being one of those things I’ll deal with until I retire and can, permanently, put on a shmatte.

Note: definition from “Joys of Yiddish”-Shmatte- “rhyme with “pot a”. Polish: szmata; a “rag,” “piece of cloth”. 1. A rag. “That you call a dress? It’s a shmatte!”

2. I love my kids. I had dinner with my baby girl this week. Just to be sure we could visit before school starts. Once the quarter gets going, she’ll be busy. Busy is good. She brought over a friend and it was a great evening of card playing. Talked to both boys this week. They are both ok. The 14 years that separates them in age keeps me on my toes when I talk to them. I sure can’t give them the same advice if they ask. And, you’d be surprised how similar their concerns are! I like being able to talk to them as adults. I still feel like a Mom, but there is a big difference in the emotion tied up in my worrying. I am working hard at not being (too much) the typical Jewish Mom. My darling daughter says I do pretty good at staying out of the mold.

3. My feet are killing me. This is a whiny moment, so skip it if you want. So, I screwed up my achilles tendons over 4th of July weekend. Both of them! They are still not healed. I have fought with finding a pair of shoes for weeks as I broke two toes shortly after I broke down and went to the doctor about the tendons. Actually, the desk nurse made me make an appointment after the 3rd call. The doctor wants me out of my Earth shoes until I’m better, maybe permanently. So the flats I bought are too tight with the toes taped together and I’m limping around trying to find another pair of shoes. I finally find shoes. I have to go on line to buy some retro Tevas for the weekends. Then, I have a bad bout of eczema on the bottom of my feet. Yes, I’ve had this on and off for 3 years. So, by the end of the day my feet ache sooo bad. Like I said, pretty whiny.

4. I changed my diet this past week. I decided to do 8 weeks of high protein, low fat. I need to clean my system out after a baseball season full of garlic fries, Major League Dogs, Kidd Burgers and Beer! So, 2 weeks of staying under 20 grams of carbohydrates to send the body into Ketosis and then 6 weeks of staying under 60 grams. I am attempting to do this with all grass fed/free range meat. I will go back to Quinoa and Chia after the holidays.

5. So, in spite of my crappy feet and in conjunction with the diet change, I have upped my morning workouts. I added 15 more minutes which is the max setting on the “”My Fitness Coach” WII software I’m am using for my exercise these days.

6. I fell asleep on night this week with my hair wet. It looked like the late, great, Gilda Radner in her one woman shoe, singing “Lets talk dirty to the animals”. Check it out on You Tube. I loved it, even though I had to calm it down a little for work. I left for the bus humming ” the rooster says good morning with a cock a doodle do…” Note; make a donation to the Gilda house.

7. I wish I had more time to write.

8. Yesterday evening, driving south on I-5 on the way to dinner, the sky was full of huge clouds reflecting the the sunset and showing off Mount Rainier in all it’s glory. I tried to take some pictures with the phone, but you just can’t do it justice! Living in the shadow of a volcano. I love the Great Northwest.