Lura Thoughts

Best Gelato in the World!

Okay, I've only had gelato in maybe two other places, so I guess I can't really say that this is the best in the world.  But it is really, really good, and the best that I've ever had.  The gelato at Gelato Bacio on Pearl Street in Boulder is all homemade.  According to their sign in the store, gelato is supposed to be more dense and has less air pumped into it than regular ice cream.  All I know is that the smallest size looks very small, but ends up being more than I can eat.  The flavors change from day to day, but one of my favorites is malted chocolate chip. I stole this picture from another blog:

And while I'm on decadent foods on Pearl Street, Spud Brothers, also known by us as The French Fry Place, is a must.  Who would think that a place could subsist by selling french fries?  This place has it wired, though.  On top of the french fries you can have any kind of topping that you'd like.  My favorite is the baked potato fries, which come with cheese, sour cream, and bacon bits.  I actually tried their low-fat fries, but they were, let's leave it at saying that they're not the best.  If you're going for something so bad for you, you might as well make it really bad.

In case you're wondering, neither gelato nor baked potato french fries are recommended on the Slim4Life diet, nor are they recommended by the Deeptone instructors. 

Yellow Dog Democrat

Apparently my last post was a little confusing to some.  My picture of John McCain with his family pets made it look as though I am pro-McCain, which I would be if I voted based only on who has the best pets.  There was no picture of the Obamas with their pets because, of course, they have none.  They only have the promise of a pet.  If they ever were to get a pet, though, I would recommend yellow labs, but maybe that's just my bias.

During the Kerry/Bush election, Peter Boyles of the local radio station KHOW talked about "Yellow Dog Democrats", which are people who would rather vote for that yellow dog running down the street than vote for Bush.  That pretty much sums up how I felt.  This time around, the Presidential Pet issue notwithstanding, I actually feel good about voting for Obama rather than just voting against the Republicans and McCain.  However, this season, I'm still a Yellow Dog Democrat, and in that spirit I have a proposal for President should something happen to Obama:  Chip and Scout for President.  At the very least, they're smarter than our current President, and they're awfully sweet!

Chip for President and Scout for Vice President! 

Here you can see their concerned faces as they ponder the economy.

Judging Presidents by their Pets

Anybody who reads this blog knows that I am an animal lover.  As a kid, we had a menagerie of animals, from dogs, cats, and parrots to horses, cows, and burros.  I remember feeding the burro out of a bottle when she was very little.  I heated her formula up in a pan on the stove (this was in the days before microwaves!), and filled a large coke bottle fitted with a nipple with it.  She would head-butt the fencing while she watched me hurry out to feed her. 

I never had any problem judging a husband by whether or not he was an animal lover.  The man that I married already had two cats, who I inherited when I married him.  Even though I was just the step-mom to those kitties, Boots bit me on the ankles as though I were part of the family.

So I don't think it's completely unreasonable to judge a Presidential candidate on his pets.  Luckily for me, the Rocky Mountain News had an article about this subject here.  According to the article, John McCain and his wife Cindy have, and I'm not joking here, two dozen pets.  Because of the high number of fish, it's not actually that large of a number, because, really, nobody counts fish as pets, do they?  They have three dogs, one cat, two turtles, a ferret, three parakeets, and 13 saltwater fish.  That adds up to about 10 real pets.  All I can say about that is, "Holy Cow!"  That's a lot of pets!

The Obama's, however, have none.  That's right.  None...yet.  The Obama's have revealed that a dog was a negotiating chip for Barack's run for the white house.  The girls have been promised a dog, win or lose.  Having daughters myself, and knowing how much pressure they can put on the family to get a cherished pet, I could just see the conversation:  Barack -- "I'm running for President!"  Kids -- "That's great, Dad, but when can we get a dog?"

The McCain's get points from me for having animals, but I'm thinking that maybe 10 real animals is a bit much.  How many dog-walkers, housekeepers, or whatever are needed to give all of those animals the attention that they need?  So they get points for being pet owners, but I'm going to take away points for having too many.

I'll assume the Obamas are sincere in their reasons for wanting a dog, and that their announcement of a pending pet is not some ploy to get votes from people like me.  So they start with zero points, but I'll give them a credit for promising to get one soon.

The win here goes to the McCains by a slight margin.

I'm thinking I probably won't vote based on this issue alone.  I'm really not a wedge-issue voter.

Jared Polis: 1, Jay Marvin: A Man in Need of Anger Management

Yesterday when I sat to read the newspaper, an article caught my eye on the front page of the Daily Camera about the spat that local talkshow host Jay Marvin was having with Jared Polis.  For the unitiated, Jared Polis is running for Congress.  Apparently Jay's issue was that the Polis camp was "badgering" him about the time slot that he would be on the show, and had stopped by the day before to badger his producer. 

So let me say this:  If this hadn't have been on the front page of the Daily Camera, I would never have tuned in, so score one for Polis.

The podcast is available on the KKZN website for anybody who would like to listen here, but I don't know for how long.

There is no doubt, though, that Jay was remarkably hostile towards Polis, while on the other hand I found Jared Polis to be quite pleasant.  I'm sure that I would have lost my temper had I been on the receiving end of Jay's rudeness.

For full disclosure, I served three years on the District Parent Council for Boulder Valley Schools, and Jared came twice during that time to speak to us on a couple of different subjects.  I personally found him to be competent, insightful, and intelligent. The words "wicked smart" come to mind.  He was an able defender of Bill Ritter's policies during the race for governor at one of the meetings.  I've also met him once at a very large social function, and I greatly doubt that he would remember the exchange or remember me, but again I found him to be articulate and quite pleasant. 

So to summarize, I'm fairly pro-Polis for Congress, and neutral Jay Marvin.

When I saw the article in the newspaper, I chose to listen live on the computer, which has the very cool ability to allow me to instant message Jay Marvin in real time.  I IM'd him three times during the interview.  Several hours later, Jay e-mailed a response to me, and that's where the real fun started.  Clearly, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to be a radio talk show host. Keep in mind that the response to my IM came four hours after I sent it, so I'm not giving him any slack about being confused because he was in a hurry.  Here is the e-mail exchange, starting with my first IM to Jay.  As e-mail threads are typically read in reverse, I've reversed the order so that it makes sense, and I've edited out the To's and From's, but everything else is exactly as we e-mailed:

message (from me): Man, Jay, you're not coming off too well here, dude.  You sound like you've got a real chip on your shoulder.  Jared sounds like he's being pretty nice.

From: "Marvin, Jay" JayMarvin@clearchannel.com : Sure if you think not answering the questions is being nice. If you think giving money to Swift Boat Vets is OK then I guess I don't sound very good.

Jay

Me:  I don't think he gave money to Swift Boat Vets, I believe he received money from them. 

What is your implication?  Do you think that by accepting money from the Swift Boat Vets that he is indebted to them?  That he is secretly supporting Bush?  He was pretty clear that he did not receive money from the organization, but from individuals.  Perhaps that is something that should be investigated by a reporter; have these guys individually given money to other candidates?

 I have to admit that I too am curious as to why those individuals would support somebody as left as Polis.  He has been an opponent of the war from the beginning, and he supports gay rights.  But perhaps that is a question that could be asked of Mr. Polis in a less hostile fashion, or one that could be asked of the donor.

Even Dan Caplis treats his on-air guests with respect when they have the guts to go on his show.

From: "Marvin, Jay" <JayMarvin@clearchannel.com> : Yes, he did. And I checked with the Udall and Fitzgerald camps and both told me they would not take money from them, and if they did they would return it. I think what it means is Polis has no scrupples.

Jay

Me:  Let me see if I am getting this right...You're saying that Jared Polis contributed to the Swift Boat Vets?

Jay:  No. What I'm saying is he took money from them.

*********

LOL, I have to say, I just gave up.  When I IM'd Jay originally, I had a feeling that any response would be hostile and sarcastic.  But Jay went even further!  He said the opposite of what he meant twice, he refused to engage in any meaningful discussion of what exactly is wrong with taking money from individuals whose opinions you don't share (are candidates going to interview each donor now before taking their money?), and I made the point in the third IM that I doubt very much that an individual's $2000 donation is going to make a large impact on somebody who has put $3M into his own campaign:  I doubt they believe they're buying access or influence.  I'm sure Jay's time is limited, and I sure wouldn't make fun of somebody who can't spell in a quick e-mail (although I do hate it when my politicians lack scrupples!), but rather than reply with hostility, sarcasm, and an innaccurate statement (twice!) to a listener, how about either ignoring me, or, better yet, replying with respect and a meaningful argument?

 

 

 

The Things Dogs Do

Probably one of the most exciting things, at least for people who already have kids and have no life, is to get a puppy.  You imagine all of the fun things you're going to do with your dog -- he'll ride in the car and be your buddy, he'll chase a ball, he'll hike with you.  You imagine fun times with him licking your face and lying at your feet. 

You know when you first get that puppy that it means being up all night with a puppy that has a bladder the size of a pea, and you know that you'll probably be needing to get your carpet cleaned in a couple of weeks.  But that all seems like a small price to pay for the kind, sweet best buddy that always acts like you're the most amazing thing in the world every time you walk in the door, even if it's only been a minute that you've been gone taking out the garbage.

But, just as with kids, having a dog has challenges that you just didn't imagine when you got it.  When my dog Chip was only 6 months old, he came down with a 6 month case of clostridium, which is a fancy word for diarrhea.  Lots, and lots, and lots of clostridium.  I never in a million years imagined that I would be collecting "samples" and driving them across town to the vet for analysis.  I could just imagine what the police officer would say if I got pulled over for speeding:  "Do you know how fast you were...Whoa!  What's that smell?"

Dogs also come with a variety of other problems, such as when they get little doggy viruses and can't keep their dinners down.  That's when it's an advantage to have little dogs, and unfortunately I have yellow labs, which aren't the largest breed going, but it sure seems like it when they have little doggy stomach viruses.

My latest challenge, though, came today when I took the dogs up to Dry Creek, which I've blogged about before.  Dry Creek is a beautiful place where the dogs can run off-leash.  I like to go there when I want to get a jog in and I don't mind them getting a little wet.  Contrary to it's name, Dry Creek has a very wet creek running through it, which is perfect for keeping the dogs cool on hot days.

I was coming around to the end of the first lap, and then noticed that sticking out of my dog's mouth is the front end of a dead prarie dog.  It looks recently dead -- not too stiff yet or greyed, but clearly not too fresh.  I stopped and yelled at my dog, "Scout!  Drop!  Bad Boy!  Drop!" to which he completely ignored me.  I discovered that by stopping, he had more opportunity to crunch and work the thing into his mouth more.  Right then I had a choice.  I could either reach over, grab him, and with my bare hands pull the thing out of his mouth, or I could continue to yell and pretend that maybe it might work.  I'm sorry, I couldn't bring myself to touch the dead little critter.  Then it occurred to me that my dog couldn't eat it if I kept him moving, so I started running again, calling him after me.  I have to admit, that did make a difference.  He was having a hard time running, holding on the the prairie dog, and chew it at the same time.  Not too much of a hard time, though.  He eventually got the thing down, claws and all. 

This was perhaps the single most gross thing I've ever had to witness with the dogs.

The vet said that there would probably be no side effects with the prairie dog, but he gave me antibiotics to give him anyway.  We kept an eye on him, and I was surprised to see absolutely no ill effects.

Tomorrow we're going to the Lafayette Dog Park.  And it's going to be a long while before I let the dog give me any kisses.

Cindy McCain

I just watched Cindy McCain on the Today Show this morning.  I remember reading about her a long, long time ago in Good Housekeeping, and was very impressed with her.  She founded and ran the American Voluntary Medical Team from 1988 to 1995, which organized trips for medical personnel to provide emergency care to disaster-struck or war-torn third-world areas. The article in Good Housekeeping was about her work and how she was led to adopt a child from Bangladesh, giving the little girl the medical attention that saved her life.  Cindy will go a long way in helping McCain get votes, whereas Michelle Obama has already been a disadvantage for Barack.

Can't I just vote for Cindy McCain for President?

Hiking the Mesa Trail at Chautauqua

Today was absolutely gorgeous in Boulder, so I decided to take the dogs to my favorite hiking place, Chautauqua Park.  I couldn't believe it when it actually got up to 65 degrees by 8:30 when I started.  I was feeling a little overdressed in jeans and a sweatshirt!  Of course, it's supposed to snow tomorrow.  You never know what the weather is going to be like here.

Mesa Trail is a nice one at Chautauqua because it's not as steep as some of the others, but you can still get a good workout.  The road leading from the parking lot is steep and hot, and there's no shade, but once you get to the trailhead, the trail is cool and shaded.  You can travel a long way on the windy Mesa Trail.  It will lead all the way from the parking at Chautauqua to NCAR, and even further south to Eldorado. 

The dogs don't care about the view of the Flatirons or the blue sky, they just run around and smell everything.  They missed a fox that escaped while I was taking their leashes off.

Hiking with the dogs is a different prospect than just taking them to the park or to some of the other trails that we go to.  For Chautauqua, I have to bring a backpack that will hold their leashes, lots of water, a water bowl, and of course, since there are no trashcans along the trail, you have to pack the dogs' waste out, if you get my drift.  I find that I don't care to carry a baggy full of poop too far, so it's nice to have a pocket in the backpack that has been designated just for bagged poop.  Now I just need to remember not to lend this particular backpack to the kids anymore. 

One of the nice things about hiking in the off-leash areas with the dogs is that the other dogs that you run into tend to be pretty well-mannered.  Chip and Scout also like the other hikers.  For Chip, every stranger is a potential BFF.  He basks in their compliments. 

If you go up to Chatuauqua, you can tell why Colorado has such a low rate of obesity when compared to other states.  You see people of all ages just out on a walk there, going on long hikes with packs, and often there are those who do trail running up there. I can never figure out how the runners do it, mostly because the hills are steep, the air is thin, and there's lots of rocks on the trails, as well as dogs trotting along the trails, all creating several obstacles for the runners.

At the bottom of Mesa Trail, near the trailhead, there's a little stream that's about the dogs' best chance to get a drink and get a little wet and cool.  The dogs always get a second wind after splashing around in it.  The snow was still melting a bit, too, so there was a little bit of mud along the lower areas.  Lucky me, the dogs careened through there, splashing mud everywhere, including on my face, arms, and shirt.  I didn't include a picture of that.  I did decide, though, that stopping for something to drink on the way home was no longer an option.

The nice thing about hiking in Chautauqua is that when we get home, the boys are all tuckered out!

Public Education, BVSD, and Me

I don't know about you, but I keep hearing on radio talk shows and in the media all about "the state of public education."  I've been hearing about this for years, probably ever since I was a kid.  I personally went to seven elementary schools in five states, and I could attest to the fact that there was a difference in the quality of education at each place.  Sometimes I would find myself moving to a place where I was ahead of the apprpriate grade, and sometimes I'd find myself behind.  The similarities between the different schools, though, were greater than the differences, and I always seemed to get along.

Now my kids attend a high school and an elementary school in the Boulder Valley School District.  I've never had a complaint about their education.  As a matter of fact, I'm pretty amazed sometimes by the high quality of the teachers and their dedication to teaching.  The people on the radio talk shows who are complaining clearly aren't going to my kids' schools! 

My fifth grade daughter just had to turn in a research paper on the Civil War.  This paper was so extensive and so full of detail that it was easily one to two years ahead of anything I had to do in fifth grade.  Following the outline given by the teacher, her paper came to two and a half single-spaced typewritten pages, not including the bibliography.  Yes, they actually had to include a bibliography.

One thing that I always enjoy doing is helping the kids out with math.  For some reason, I was always particularly good at math.  It's funny, because I was good at other subjects too, but for some reason I can remember Reimann Sums from Calculus like it was yesterday, but I couldn't for the life of me remember the date of the Civil War (okay, I can remember it NOW, after reading Marlo's report, but I couldn't before).

So Darby is taking Advanced Algebra II.  How hard could that be, right?  After all, it's pre-pre-Calculus, and I still remember Calculus.  And any issues I had with Darby's Geometry class last year really had more to do with the stupid book than my own lack of memory of it -- her book would have theorems and leave out the last word that turned out to be really important.  Some dufus at BVSD thought it would be cute to use this book that left out all of this important information, presumably because that way the kids would have to pay attention and fill in the blanks.  But it also had the problem of not allowing a parent to flip through the book to find a pertinent theorem to help figure out her homework.

But anyway, back to Advanced Algebra II.  I've been trying for the life of me to figure out why this subject is so much harder than any of my math classes were at the time, because, believe me, it is!  Darby just got done with Quadratic and Other Polynomial Functions, and I'm like, cool!  Completing the square!  Quadratic function!  How hard is that?  Uhhh, pretty hard.  Here's the Rational Root Theorem from her textbook:  "If the polynomial equation P(x) = 0 has rational roots, they are of the form p/q, where p is a factor of the constant term and q is a factor of the leading coefficient."  Isn't that funny?  I was just thinking that exact same thing while I was driving Marlo to soccer.

Uhhh, okay, at least they didn't leave out any essential word, like they did in her Geometry book.

I asked myself, is it that I'm so far removed from math anymore?  Or am I just a little dumber now?  Or is her math really a lot harder?  My answer came in going through the sample problem.  In the solution to finding the roots of a polynomial equation, the first step was to first graph the function (and it includes a little picture of the screen of their graphing calculator), to see if there are any identifiable x-intercepts.  Ahhh.  You see?  Because these kids can now use their graphing calculator the way that we used to use the NASA Supercomputer, they can do so much more.  Now, asking the kids to do the simple problems that we used to do would result in their simply plugging equations into their calculators and getting the correct information every time.  Math has actually evolved from the simple math that I learned, to allowing students to use graphing calculators, to publishers of textbooks realizing that kids are using the calculators, and now integrating the calculators into the curriculum.  They've taken math to the next level, allowing the kids to solve what used to be really very difficult problems back in the stone age when I was in school.

Fifth graders are writing research papers at a much higher level than I would ever imagine, math homework problems include questions that I only learned how to solve in my high school physics class, and I would conclude that the quality of public education seems to be just fine, at least here in Boulder.

And see?  I've proven it now.  School is harder than when I was a kid.  It's not that I'm just a little dumber.  Maybe.

Slim4Life Complaints

I love my Lijit Wijit.  If you're not familiar with Lijit, they're a company that let's you put a searchable wijit on your blog (see the right side of my web page), and then people can search all of your information that they might be interested in.  The really, really cool thing about having this wijit is that you, as a blogger, can check out who has read your blog, how many people have read your blog, and what they've searched you about.  I was impressed when I logged on to the Lijit website to find that I have been searched from all over the world, in places that I can't even name (I never was very good at Geography!). 

My blog tends to have a lot of different subjects, and I have no idea if any of my thoughts are interesting to anybody, but of all the things that I've been searched about, Slim4Life seems to pop up the most.  Deeptone runs a close second.  So I was surprised when I saw that I've recently been searched several times for the words "Slim4Life Complaints."  The irony of seeing that today was that I had just commented to my husband this morning how happy I am with the Slim4Life diet, and that of all the diets and "healthy eating" programs that I've tried, I keep coming back to Slim4Life. 

So I thought I'd relate just why it is that I enjoy Slim4Life as a diet, although I don't really like to refer to it as a diet because it's really just a good way of eating that perhaps we should all follow. 

First, I like Slim4Life because it always works for me.  Whenever I choose to go on the program, write down everything I eat on the sheets that they provide for me, and actually follow their eating with no cheating, I ALWAYS lose weight.  That's a good thing for when I've been snacking on the Starbucks pumpkin loaf a little too often. 

Slim4Life is also a very well-balanced way of eating.  It includes several portions of fruits and vegetables.  As I've said before, there's nothing like being on Atkins for a couple of weeks to make you crave an apple!  The problem is that when I find myself eating sloppily, just picking stuff up out of the cabinet, I find that my own portions of fruit goes way down.  If I'm eating pumpkin loaf, why would I want an orange for breakfast?  When I eat healthily, though, I actually look forward to a good orange or apple, or cup of strawberries. The program also includes lean protein and a very limited number of carbs.  While it's not a "Low-Carb" program, by nature the number of carbs are limited, but not to the extent that you have headaches or fatigue.  I actually have a lot of energy when I eat this way.

In addition, I actually like the supplemental foods that Slim4Life sells.  I've compared their bars with ones that you can buy at the grocery store, and the Slim4Life ones taste good and they still have more protein and less carbs than most. 

I also like the fact that when you eat according to their guidelines, you don't have to count calories.  The number of calories is limited, but by following their rules, you don't have to worry about it. 

One drawback to Slim4Life, of course, is the cost.  What you're paying for is not really the diet, because anybody could eat this way, but the counselors that keep you on track.  When you know you're going to go see a counselor the next day, suddenly that cookie doesn't look so good to you.  I have heard from people, though, who have told me that they aren't going to cheat on this diet because they paid so much to be on it, so in some ways the cost could be a benefit.

The only real drawback to Slim4Life, is that it really is mostly a low-carb, lean-protein, fruits and veggies kind of plan, and after a while I get sick of the limited number of foods that I'm allowed on it (no sauces, no rich foods, no fatty meats, no cookies).  Whenever I overeat, though, or over-indulge, I get sick of the way that I've been eating, and I find myself going back on Slim4Life because it makes me feel more healthy. 

Except for that pumpkin loaf.  I could eat that every day.

Intruder Alert!

I think I've mentioned my two yellow labs.  Scout is the youngest one, and he will be celebrating his one-year old birthday on April 11.  When asked if the dogs are smart, I like to say that they are very sweet.  Nothing proved me more right than the other night when Scout was walking by a kitty statue that we've had on the cabinet for years. 

  We've had Scout for eight months now, and until recently he and the statue have been living together quite happily.  As Scout walked by this statue, he did a double-take and commenced with heavy barking at the statue.  When he finally settled down, I think a little embarrassed because of our laughter, he laid with his head on top of Chip and growled lowly at the statue.  We all feel much safer now.