Month: April 2007

For the past year and a half I’ve been getting migraine headaches.  I get the whole aura thing with the jaggedy lines and then I usually get a dull headache that lasts for a couple of days and makes me so tired.  I felt somewhat alarmed about this because I hadn’t had any in years.  Really the worst ones I ever had were the ones I got while pregnant with Sarah.  That’s 27 years ago.  So I thought that maybe there was something majorly wrong with me.

So I looked on the internet (rather than go to the doctor) to find out what could be the cause.  There were lots of suggestions – hormone replacement therapy, bright lights, stress, caffeine, aspartame etc.  I tried changing my HRT dosage.  I don’t take much because of all the worries about breast cancer.  Anyway, that didn’t seem to do the trick.  I tried wearing sunglasses a lot to cut down on bright lights.  As far as stress is concerned, I have a pretty non-stressful life.  (except when people leave angry comments!)  I only drink a little tea and no coffee or chocolate so I don’t ingest a lot of caffeine.  Finally, I cut out aspartame in Equal, diet soda and wherever else I had been using it.

 Well, golly gee, the headaches stopped.  Since last November I have only had two and they were when I had accidently had aspartame.  So I am passing this along to you as a suggestion, if you are getting headaches, particularily migraine headaches, try cutting out all products with aspartame in them.  If you want a non-caloric sweetener try Splenda, it’s a different formulation and, at least in me, doesn’t cause headaches.

Certainly there must be better people than  Alberto Gonzales, who can’t recall what he can’t remember in regard to the firing of eight federal prosecutors, and Paul Wolfowitz, who has lost credibility with his European colleagues over securing a post for his girlfriend, for the jobs of Attorney General and President of  the World Bank.  In my opinion, the fact that the White House has unshaken support for these men calls into question the judgement and ethics of the Bush administration. 

Every year we try to plan one exciting trip.  Something out of the ordinary of traveling back and forth to Utah.  In honor of our 35th anniversary we are taking a cross-country road trip.  The idea is to end up in Boston (where it all began) on our anniversary and have dinner at the same restaurant that we did the day we were married.  Also to visit the Star Market where I suggested that John either pay me the money he owed me or marry me.  And his office in the basement of Building 4 at MIT where he uttered the romantic words, “Well, will you?”  I had to guess what he was talking about.

We will be going through Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Illinois, then over to Niagara Falls (seems a romantic place to go), New York, Massachusetts, down to New Jersey, then spend some time with my sister in Maryland, over to western North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas (to visit our nephew in Dallas), New Mexico, Arizona and finally back to Utah.  It should take a little over 60 days.

My request to you is to let me know if there are some places you’ve visited or stayed that were really exceptional along our route – inns, parks, factory tours, oddities etc. I’ll be blogging along most of the way depending on whether there is an internet hook up or not.  So I’ll post pictures and give you my impressions.  We’re leaving mid-June so leave a comment about where you think we should go.  Thanks!

Recently I got a couple of nice comments about Jon and his, let’s say 2 minutes of fame on Mythbusters.  Well, I went to the site where I can approve or disapprove comments and instead of checking the box that said approve, I checked the box that said spam.  So many apologies to the commenters. Do you think you could send the comments one more time?  Please?

I wish that there had been more Hookslide and Jonathan in the clips that they showed on Mythbusters.  After all, the guys were there for over 7 hours of taping.  But, as I realize, the show is not called the Jon and Hookslde Hour. 

The concert on Thursday was really good.  Jon even got to sing a solo since they brought in two guys from Boyz Night Out to do his drum-bass part.  He sang Long Train Running.  Now Hookslide will probably go on hiatus as one of their members is moving East for a year.  It will be sad to not be able to hear them sing.  We are the ultimate groupies.

In case this is the first time you are ever reading this blog, today, Wednesday, April 11, 2007, is the day that Jonathan and Hookslide make their national television debut on Mythbusters, The Discovery Channel, 9 PM.  There’s also a live Mythbusters concert at the Little Fox in Redwood City, CA on Thursday, April 12 at 8 PM.

Since John and I are in “eat-down” mode in preparation for a trip to Utah, I made the fabulous Apple-Rutabaga Soup which is served at the Inn at Little Washington.  Actually, I think I’ll start calling it Seasonal Soup because too many people probably think, yuck, rutabagas, or, huh? rutabagas, what are they?  Anyway, it could be called Apple-Carrot, or Squash-Sweet Potato, or Maple Syrup-Rutabaga Soup since all these ingredients are figured in prominently.

You’ll notice if you followed through to the recipe, that it calls for a stick of butter and heavy cream.  Certainly, those ingredients make it super creamy, rich and yummy but I’m using a tablespoon of butter and half and half.  It will still be terrific.

So I am settling down tonight with my bowl of soup garnished with a lemon slice (perfect for cutting through the creaminess) and some chives, tuning my TV to the Discovery Channel and watching our own huggie bear, Jonathan, singing and buzzing (you’ll see) his way to his five minutes of fame.  Hope you’ll be watching too.

Only three more shopping days until Jonathan and Hookslide are on Mythbusters!  Remember to set your TiVo (or watch live TV) Wednesday, April 11 at 9 on The Discovery Channel.

 But what to buy during your last three shopping days?!  Well, you’ll need some munchies and perhaps some pleasant beverage.  But perhaps you’d like to have an upscale party for the Mythbusters event – a little pate, maybe some shrimp, and some stuffed figs.  If you are east of the Mississippi you should  definitely get some Cape Cod Russet Potato Chips.  (These are no longer available in our part of California.)  Then sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

Only 6 days until Hookslide on Mythbusters!

For those of you who have somehow not heard,  Jonathan (our son) and his band, Hookslide, will be appearing on the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters this coming Wednesday (4/11) at 9 PM.  The episode is called “Voice Flame Extinguisher.”  The premise is  “Jamie and Adam set out to discover if it’s possible to put out a fire using only your voice.”  And guess who proves the myth!  Well, I’m not telling so be sure to watch the episode.

For those of you on the West Coast, be sure to attend Hookslide’s Mythbuster’s Party concert at the Little Fox in Redwood City, CA on April 12.  For more information go to http://hook-slide.com/.

The other day when I was watching something or other on TV that we hadn’t TiVo’ed, there was this commercial from GE.  It had to do with desalinating ocean water so arid countries could have water for drinking and irrigation.  Now this isn’t a new idea but they were all revved about it and called it eco-imagination.

But wait, here’s an eco-imaginative idea.  Or, better yet, an eco-fantasy.  There’s all this gloom and doom about global warming and how the ice caps are going to melt and Florida will be come Waterworld.  But suppose we take all this extra water and desalinate it.  Plenty of water for all the world to drink and irrigate.  Oh wait, what to do with all the salt?  This could be an eco-economic (or eco-nomic) opportunity!  Take all the salt to some third world country with a shoreline, offload it, add some neon and you’ve got AlpenSaltz, a new place in warm weather climates for eco-skiing. 

If this isn’t the solution’s solution, what’s your eco-idea?