Notoriety

So, we finally made it into the Unshelved comic strip. After our vending machine incident, I wrote up the whole vending story and sent it to Gene and Bill for possible use in their strip. Last week the first sequence appeared. Looks like they aren't running the whole story sequentially, but I can hardly wait for the final episode. Stay tuned!

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without*

I wanted to find a shampoo that came in bar form, in my efforts to reduce my dependence on plastics and minimize my carbon footprint, but wasn't having much luck. Then someone recommended Ralph's Thriftway for an unrelated product, and there I found this J. R. Liggett's Shampoo bar. It's everything I was looking for and then some: minimal packaging (wrapped in biodegradable paper), no preservatives, no animal products, 100% biodegradable, pure olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, New Hampshire spring water. There was a J. R. Liggetts in my hometown growing up. This is "from an old New England recipe." So, spoiler-alert: this will be my stocking stuffer of choice this year.

This discovery also came serendipitously at the same time I was already reminiscing about my Yankee childhood. Rich and I are planning a trip to New England for our 33rd anniversary, so I am busy putting together a list of (33) places for us to visit.

(*Old New England saw)

Yes, I had a yard sale yesterday. I don't like to do yardsales, and I only made $15 on my "stuff," but there was a Higher Purpose to the sale, and on that count, it was a huge success. I was following a prompting of synchronistic proportions. I have a friend who has a Very Hard Life. I check on her periodically and do what I can to help out. Last Tuesday I phoned her and discovered she is moving out of her apartment and moving into a trailer to share with a friend, as she can't afford to live alone and pay the rent. She needed to get rid of tons of stuff that now won't fit in the one bedroom she will be alloted in the trailer. We're talking couches, tables, boxes of "stuff." The catch--her landlord doesn't allow yardsales where she lives. The Synchronicity? My community was holding its semi-annual yardsale in 4 days, and I would just make the deadline to register for it if I did so that very day. So I did. And I got another friend to come with his truck and haul her stuff to my place on Saturday. The heavens smiled in more ways than one, as we enjoyed a beautiful day of sunshine, good conversation with each other and the garage-salers who stopped by. She sold the bulk of her stuff, made $100+ in the bargain, and knows I really care about her. So, yea, I could have been doing tons of other things yesterday, but I followed the synchronicity to its successful conclusion.

Fasting or Starving?

I've discovered an interesting phenomenon. If I go more than 4 hours without eating, my stomach growls and I can only think about what and when I can eat next. But if I am fasting, and I am prayerful about it, I can go all day without thinking of food or feeling hungry at all.
I know this is just a side benefit but it helps to reinforce in my mind that there is a difference between fasting with a purpose and just going without food for a period of time.

Say, what??

Maybe he thought it was April 1st...I got a strange email from our facilities guy today. I had asked for Tall Kitchen Garbage bags, as the ones the custodians have been using in our kitchen are the HUGE heavy-duty "lawn & leaf" ones and it is wasteful. The bags fill up the container such that there is no room for the trash! I told him we also have the small bags, for the containers in the public area of the library, but we really could use an in-between/medium size for the kitchen.

He wrote back, "No problem, I will take care of it. I will bring you a bigger trash can, or can cut the current trash can down a size to fit the little bags..." umm..let's try this again...

Mathematical law of reverse weights and measures

So, I've already admitted that math/numbers is not my forte, but this just baffles me: I fought the battle of the bulge since last September when I got serious about nutrition in an effort to lower my cholesterol. The Formula goes like this: there are 3,500 calories in a pound. My goal was to have a negative Energy Balance of 500 calories a day, resulting in a weight loss of 1 pound/week. (energy Balance is the number of calories consumed minus the number of calories expended.)  I managed, through cutting out (and I mean really cutting out) desserts/sugar, ramping up the fruits/veggies, and burning over 500 calories/day in rigorous exercise, to lose 14 pounds in 7 months (more math: that's 2 pounds/month or a reasonable, if less spectacular 1/2 pound a week). Then yesterday, I decided to eat a cookie....(ok, maybe 5 cookies...but I'd been deprived for so long and these were sooo good!) And...you guessed it! Gained almost 2 pounds in one day!! And the Universe laughed. By the way, if anyone is interested in that cookie recipe, I'll share the love.