But enough about politics

Thanks for your comments yesterday, as well as the previous day. Bloggers love comments (hint, hint)! I left a reply, but I guess if you don't subscribe to the comments, you wouldn't know unless you came back and read the post again later. And who has time for that?

It looks as if the social-media pressure on Rush Limbaugh is working, in so many ways. Advertisers are bailing, stations have begun to drop the program and he continues to apologize. More importantly, President Obama's poll numbers are rising, particularly among women voters.

If only we could pressure Congress and get similar results.

My congressman is a Democrat, but he votes carefully so as not to upset the Southern Democrats who've kept him in office for 35 years. Don't get me wrong: I like him. I've met him, talked with him, visited his offices in West Virginia and in Washington, D.C. and will work hard to keep him in Congress. But he and the other moderates could and, in my opinion, should take advantage of the current huge lean to the left.

Don't get me started on our junior Senator.

Okay, moving on! It's Tuesday, and that means weigh-in day around here. Nine weeks in and I'm eight pounds down. I was able to get back on track this week but I gotta tell ya: Taking it off is so much harder and so much less fun than packing it on.

You've probably already figured that out, right?

weheartit.com

Although navigating Other People's Cooking wasn't really fun at all, now that I think about it. I was anxious and peevish and hungry. I'll probably never get to the point where I can just tuck into a big plate of forbidden fruit with joy and pleasure, but I hope I can get to the point where food is fuel. Not pleasure, not entertainment, not something to look forward to, not a battle, not a drag. Just food.

I'm guessing if you're reading this you might be hoping the same thing for yourself.

Eating lots of vegetables certainly turns food into fuel. I've been in a cooking slump lately, and it would be good to get that "I love to cook" mojo back again. Because I really do love to cook. The chopping and prepping is part of the cooking but lately it's Just Another Chore. I guess it comes down to making the decision to do whatever it takes to further my goal of once and for all getting rid of this lard.

So simple. And yet so hard.

We had lots o'snow yesterday morning so I worked out on the elliptical here at home. It's melted quite a bit already and it's going to be in the 60s today – spring in the Middle of Nowhere! – so look for a photo on Facebook later from my outdoor walk. And maybe tomorrow there will be one here from some fabulous South Beach-friendly new recipe I've found.

Better start looking …

What we've got here is failure to communicate

(I can't even type that subject line without hearing the Captain's slow drawl from Cool Hand Luke.)

Thanks so much for commenting yesterday. Your input reinforces my core belief that there are some savvy women out there who could whip this country into shape in a heartbeat, if only you were in charge.

©someecards.com

I could barely tear myself away from Facebook yesterday, where the comments continued to mount up regarding what I am now calling The Limbaugh Incident. The amount of misinformation, beginning with El Rushbo himself, is staggering.

For instance, he apparently thinks birth control works like the little blue pill – you need to take one every time you have sex.

Many, many Facebook comments went along these lines:

I don't care if you take birth control, but don't make me pay for it!

No one is saying birth control should be free, or paid for using taxpayers' funds. The issue is, as LG commented, whether insurance should cover it. As someone who has not used birth control for 37 years, I didn't even realize contraception was not covered. (Can you believe my doctor agreed to perform a tubal ligation when I was 24 years old? Would a doctor do that now?)

If you don't have a prescription plan as part of your health insurance coverage, you will be paying out of pocket. But if you don't have a prescription plan, you're paying for all your prescribed medication with your own money.

This is the lastest of many (every) health care issues that leads me back to the idea that single-payer should be the law of the land. PPACA doesn't even come close to guaranteeing universal coverage.

My problem now is that I pretty much surround myself with like-minded people who agree with me. I've no one to convince that I'm right. Those with whom I associate and interact already know I'm right, because they're right as well. Heh. And honestly? I don't like to fight, or even cajole.

I like to be a good example. If I can state my case simply, calmly and clearly, and if I can back it up with credible sources, then I'm done. If one doesn't wish to listen to reason or if one would rather make up the facts, I might as well move on to someone with a more open mind.

Which is why I won't be calling in to talk to Rush today.

In case you missed it …

I don't always agree with Maureen Dowd. Usually, but not always. Her column in today's NYT is a great analysis of The Limbaugh Incident.

Question du jour: DIscuss

If you're against abortion, how can you also be against contraception?

I just read a Facebook comment and subsequent conversation which began with a woman saying she's suffered guilt and shame because abortion was "too easily accessible" when she was "young and vulnerable."

Well, I remember when abortions were illegal. You had to go undercover to a shady practitioner to get one, or travel long distances and spend a ton of money to find a reputable doctor willing to perform the procedure. You risked your future fertility and your life when abortion was not accessible.

No one is in favor of abortion. It's a gut-wrenching decision. Preventing abortions is a good idea, so should we encourage drug companies to develop "treatments" for raging hormones? Should we spend more research money to develop cures for the conditions that drive couples to terminate wanted, planned-for pregnancies?

Adoption is a good idea, too. I know several couples who have adopted children but they all traveled long distances and spent a ton of money to bring their children back from foreign countries. Where, apparently, abortions aren't performed. (Here's a rundown of abortion policy around the world.) If U.S. law prohibited abortion, would there be more adoptions here? Or would there be more back-alley, coat-hanger abortions?

Doesn't it make more sense to make contraception accessible? Of course it does.

This whole political storm about women's rights comes down to this: It's a man's world. Still. After two generations of fighting for our rights, and a Supreme Court decision, men still want to be in charge of our bodies. They want to say who, when and how to have sex, and they want us to shut up and like it.

Okay, it's not just men. There's Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter. And the woman who wrote that Facebook comment.

So. Now you know where I stand. How about you?

PizzaPizza

Friday night used to be pizza night here in the Middle of Nowhere. Because of my new schedule, I'm going to move it to Thursday. This week, however, it's tonight.

Last week I tried a 100% whole-wheat crust to which I added wheat gluten, ground flaxseed and wheat germ. It tasted good, but it was heavy, dense. And the recipe only made enough for one crust.

My old recipe ( a combo of white and wheat flours) made two crusts, one for now and one to freeze, and the frozen one always had a better texture than the fresh one. Really, I should probably just spend one morning making pizza dough and freeze lots of them. That's how organized women do it, right? REALLY, I should probably spend THIS morning making pizza dough. Hmmm. Y'all are so good to help me plan my day. Heh.

©Debora J. McNeer

Mmmm, pizza, pizza!

I broke down and bought a bag of King Arthur White Wheat Flour – at almost $1/pound, it's pretty spendy, but it will work well in my favorite crust formula. I have onions, peppers, 'shrooms and olives for toppings, along with a little bit of sausage. Add a big salad, and a Phase II South Beach dinner is served.

I had a good workout at the gym yesterday. I've been using the machines for lower body – leg press, adductors, abductors – and free weights for upper body, with the addition of a couple of the pulldown machines for back and shoulders. I joined the gym January 23 and have progressed from NO dumbbells to 15-pounders. I'm amazed at myself. I hope to walk today, weather permitting.

I'm still posting daily photos using prompts from FatMumSlim. Today's is "neighbourhood." Since FMS is in Australia, she's already posted hers, and it's a real 'hood, with houses right next to each other. I don't even think of where I live as a neighborhood. I truly live in the Middle of Nowhere, I haven't been kidding about that. I hope to be inspired when I walk today to come up with something. I guess that's the point of the prompts, right? To inspire your creativity?

And speaking of prompts, this month's theme at BlogHer is "Whether." So far I've chosen not to use the prompts. But after four solid months of daily posts, the well is beginning to run dry, despite the rain we've had lately. I feel stale and tired and repetitive. How many times do you need to read about dumbbells and pizza and the weather, oh my?

As I might have said previously, however, the prompts feel like homework. I've been out of school for decades now, and I don't need no stinkin' homework. I do need some inspiration, however, so I might just step out on that limb, take a risk, live on – gasp! – the edge. It's been a while.

And we're back

After 20 hours without power, everything started humming again. I wasn't here to celebrate; I was at a client's. A client who had power.

Another client meeting this morning, the gym afterward and then I need to really, really, really work on getting organized. Meal planning and decluttering are high on my list. You see, I will soon be employed.

I've worked part-time at a local garden center the last two summers, casually and only one or two days a week. But this year I'll be suiting up and showing up three days a week, doing both production (which I love) and sales (which I will learn to love). I'm excited! I've previously bartered my labor for their plants, but I'm officially on the books this year.

(This decision was a direct result of the raccoon incident. Had I been the bite victim, it would have been a horribly expensive Big Deal for the owners.)

Look what's up. I took a stroll around the garden yesterday and popping up above those winter weeds are two rows of Egyptian onions. It's so cool to see real food growing this early in the season. These onions develop "sets," which then fall over and replant themselves, giving them their other name: the walking onion. Four short rows of garlic also are developing nicely. My hope is to have enough garlic left this year to plant my own, rather than ordering new stock, which I've done for three years. We love our garlic around here.

So what else. Oh! The Blunt amendment was tabled yesterday, no thanks at all to West Virginia's junior senator, who crossed the aisle and voted with the Rethuglicans on this one. He's been called a DINO (Democrat in Name Only) and this vote truly proves it. A side note: a movement is afoot to rally in every state capitol and in DC on April 28, 2012, to protest the War on Women. If you're interested, more information can be found here.

Back to my organizing dilemma: If you have developed a meal-planning strategy that works for you and your family, and don't mind sharing it, I'd love some ideas. Pinterest has been helpful, but your personal experience would be moreso in determining if a plan will work for me. There are two hard parts to my oh-so-lovely days here in the Middle of Nowhere:

1. Figuring out what to have for dinner
2. Answering my husband's daily question: "What's for dinner?"

(He doesn't cook, yet another favor his mother never did for him. I absolutely cannot understand his unwillingness to learn, however, considering how much he loves to eat. I used to worry about his meals when I went out of town without him. Not any more. He's certainly smart enough and old enough to navigate the kitchen; the fact that he refuses to do so is not my problem. So there, honey!)

Powerless

If you're in recovery, you know what powerlessness is.

And if you live in the Middle of Nowhere and a tree falls on a power line, you *also* know what powerlessness is.

Today is an excellent time to practice the Serenity Prayer.

Also? It's hard to type a lengthy, bitchy post on a smartphone keyboard. You can thank me now for not trying to compose one. Heh.


Sent from my U.S. Cellular BlackBerry® smartphone