Rambling with Words

These turn upside down what I've always think about when someone says "summer picnic".

1. Grilled watermelon

2. Mayonaise can reduce the chances of spoiled food. From the NY Times:

"This is the time of year when food poisoning typically spikes, and one popular picnic ingredient that always attracts suspicion is mayonnaise.

But studies cast doubt on that.

Most commercial brands of mayonnaise contain vinegar and other ingredients that make them acidic — and therefore very likely to protect against spoilage. When problems occur, they usually result from other contaminated or low-acid ingredients (like chicken and seafood), improper storage and handling, or homemade versions that contain unpasteurized eggs.

One prominent study published in The Journal of Food Protection found, for example, that in the presence of commercial mayonnaise, the growth of salmonella and staphylococcus bacteria in contaminated chicken and ham salad either slowed or stopped altogether. As the amount of mayonnaise increased, the rate of growth decreased. When temperatures rose to those of a hot summer day, the growth increased, but not as much as in samples that did not contain mayonnaise.

For backyard chefs, some high-risk foods in summer are raw shellfish, bulk ground beef (health officials say a single hamburger can contain meat from hundreds of animals) and unwashed fruits and vegetables.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Despite its reputation, mayonnaise can reduce food spoilage."

I've been doing more reading lately. Part of it is that it is so hot in the summer that I don't get out as much other than going to work.
( Reading, walking and history . . )

I got back from NYC a week ago and it's been a busy month between getting ready to go, a busy 2 weeks in NYC and a busy week when I got back.
( Work stuff. . )
( Traveling by bus. . )
( New York, New York . . )
( And back again . . )

This morning I went on a tour of the U of A campus to see their great collection of trees. It was led by Doug Koppinger as an outreach program for Trees for Tucson. He was aided by Elizabeth Davison, the director of the University of Arizona Arboreteum, which is the whole campus and the only campus that is an arboreteum.
( Trees and more . .  )

I ate on Saturday, cleaned and cooked on Sunday, saw a film on human trafficking on Monday and worked my butt off today. Did I pay attention? I did.
( Pay attention! )

I spent a lot of today paying attention. We had an afternoon of team building while throwing balls at each other using nylon stockings, playing a team type of rock, paper, scissors but with different words(mosquito bites bear, bear eats fish, fish eats mosquito), balancing on a cable and climbing a wall. This was all done to teach us teamwork and how to work together. It was fun but I wasn't good at it.

I can't catch, throw, run, climb or balance on a cable. With the climbing and balancing I was a spotter as I don't have good balance or the strength to climb the wall even with people pushing me up and people above pulling me. The other activities I could participate in but wasn't very good at. It's all very well to say that everyone's contribution counts but when I have minimal contribution it's not fun. Also I work with a bunch of extremely competitive people, which I'm not, so too often the others efforts went into being the BEST team player.

I like team building that takes less physical ability and/or strength and more working out problems as a team. So today I did pay attention but it wasn't at something I liked to do or was comfortable doing.

Today was a redoing day. Nothing major but it slows things down when I feel too busy to double check and then have to take more time to fix it. I've noticed that I get more done when I slow down just a little and pay more attention to what I'm doing. It's hard because I want to get things done and there is always more to do. Today, when I slowed down I got more done. Duh!

Now I can be slow and not paying attention when I'm thinking of something else or day dreaming or just tired. Just slow isn't the answer, paying attention is.

I realized today how much time in church I spend not paying attention. Not major disconnect but just realizing I missed something because I was looking for the next hymn, or wondering about after church, or thinking about something I needed to do. I liked that they used the New Zealand Lord's Prayer which I like much better than the usual one.

This is the first time I've been in a while so it was enjoyable to listen to the liturgy and sing the songs.

After church I went to a Women's Brunch Meeting that I found through Meetups. I always like brunch and now, once a month, I can have it with a bunch of people I'm getting to know. We went to a mexican restaurant so we had chili rellenos and burritos as well as eggs and bacon. They also had the salad bar going and the roast beef so you could call it any meal you wanted.

Paying attention, staying in the moment is a lot like meditation in that you can only do it for about 10 seconds before you find yourself thinking of other things. All day I tried to and it was hard.
( Think about the trash! )

Ok, I'm going to try for one resolution a month. Life is in such an upheaval between the issues due to my father dying and some major changes at work that I decided that since life is just not normal right now I might as well try making some positive changes. Instead of trying to do a bunch of changes at once I'm going to try for one a month. Even if it doesn't work it will give me something to think about that I have some control over and even just a little control will be nice.
( Pay attention! )

Tuesday I stayed home after a massive headache hit late Monday afternoon. I was barely mobile by the time I got home and totally exhausted, so I crashed and took the next day off. It wasn't a "normal" sick so I think I'm still dealing (or not) with the stress of my father's death.
( Relax! Relax! . . )

This seems to be a Pima County week.
( Transit )
( Architecture )

This has been a busy weekend. Yesterday was the annual Cats in the Community day when University of Arizona staff, faculty and students get together to help a non-profit in the community. About 400 of us showed up at Primavera to help them spruce up. They are the largest organization to help the homeless and nearly homeless in Tucson, of which there are many due to our mild winters. We did everything from making picnic tables to painting the transition housing to cleaning up the used clothes room.
( Read more )

This is cool! http://www.globe.gov/globeatnight/. They want people to help track pollution in the sky. I think I'll try it in a day or two.

I went to an Archaeological Institute of America lecture this evening entitled "Origins of Zeus: The Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project", presented by Mary Voyatzis and David Romano. It was very interesting. They have found artifacts back to 3000 BC and evidence of sacrifices for nearly that long including some items that probably came from Crete, the other claimant for being Zeus' birthplace. Archaeology is so much fun. I don't know if I would enjoy sitting in the sun digging for hours but I enjoy listening to what others have done.

This has been a very upsetting week. I went to Colorado on Thursday of the week before to attend my father's birthday on February 18th and instead held his had while he died. He was 94 and his body and mind wore out. It's so sad but he very much did not want to be kept alive on tubes. The nursing home was very good and did everything they could to keep him comfortable and without pain.

I'm not even close to processing my father's death. It took a few months for my mom's death to really hit me.
( but life goes on )

I did something and my back went out last night so, after a night of little sleep and much pain, I'm sitting here trying to decide if I should go back to bed, do some stretches or take more ibuprofen while watching the morning shows.
( daytime angst )

Ok, I'm late again. I got back from a great winter break to hit a wall of stuff to do at work so I'm finally doing something after getting off work besides crashing.
( Winter Break roadtrip . . )

Movies - 2007
( Movies . .  )

Books I've Read in 2007:
( books! books! books! . . . )

It's been a while since I posted and much has happened. I took the bus to the pacific northwest to spend Thanksgiving with my son and his family. The buses weren't nearly as busy as I expected so they are either putting on more buses or less people were traveling. Christmas will be an absolute zoo so I'm glad my daughter and I will be driving.Of course being with my grandson, 2 1/2 years old, was a highlight of the trip. I very much enjoyed visiting my son and daughter-in-law but a 2 year old always beats out the competition for cuteness. He talks all the time but I have trouble understanding it all so I needed a lot of translation.
( and the saga continues . . . )