>Ü< CareaBearaSara >Ü<’s Neighborhood

Sarah and me saw something on tv the other week, where a guy was wearing a bad tuxedo from the 70's --- you know the kind, with the powder blue shirt with the ruffle down the front & on the cuffs. I told her that when me & her father had gone to our high school Senior Prom, he had worn a pink tux. It had a white ruffled shirt, but the tux jacket was BRIGHT pink, with black accented areas. She had the nerve to giggle at that...so I dug out these pictures to show her.

The pictures are faded --- both the hot pinkness of the tux jacket and the loudness of my Flower Power dress were MUCH brighter 35 years ago. Also, that's our very first car and it was a BRIGHT pukey lime-green (puce?) color --- which was also a product of the 70's.

Here's 1973 coming at you full-force --- my later-to-be-husband and me on our way to our Senior Prom in June 1973:

Me 22

Me 16

Show us the last thing you bought.

Green is good.

Keep Austin Weird. Support Local Businesses.

I heard "Creator" on Grey's Anatomy last season, then forgot about it.  Then Nora put it on her MySpace, and I got hooked on it again.  I looked up some other stuff by Santogold, and I'm liking what I hear.

Just a little warning about the second video.  There is some heavily stylized and allegorical violence.  I thought it was very creative, but you may not.  Fair warning.

Do you like to drink hot cocoa but feel guilty that you are not sipping green tea along with the (misinformed) health fanatics? Feel guilty no more.

Researchers from Cornell U have discovered (why they did this study, who knows, but hey, all in the name of good health) that hot cocoa is chock full of antioxidants. It makes green tea look weak in comparison. Cocoa contains twice that of red wine and three times as much as green tea. (Dontcha love it when they figure out stuff that was supposed to be naughty is actually healthy? Have you seen "Sleeper" with Woody Allen? I love the bit about in the future, they figure out that cigarettes and steak are good for you. Hilarious.)

dark chocolate is good for your heart (and tastebuds)

Phytochemicals can prevent cancer, heart disease, and other unsavoury ailments that make you die or at the very least, your wiener stops working. (I wrote about teas, and fyi, green tea is not healthier than black tea. In fact, black tea contains an antioxidant that is even stronger.)

Dr.l Chang Lee of Cornell said ."Phenolic compounds protect plants against insects and pathogens, and they remain active even after food processing." (Yay)

Why not just eat dark chocolate bars instead? Well, cocoa has about one-third of a gram of fat per one-cup serving, compared with eight grams of fat in a standard-size 40-gram chocolate bar. This is NOT your average two dollar a box, instant stuff that they put all that added crap in. You will have to get the real thing, or instant stuff that has less additives. (Sod the fat content, I like fat in choclate bars. I think fats keep your skin nice and plump, to be honest. How about brownies instead....yum. Weee, maybe all the dark chocolate I eat is my secret to looking 35 at 45. Daily at 3pm is Chocolate Time.)

Some nutrition info:

Hershey's cocoa: Serving Size: 1 tbsp; Calories: 20, Total Fat: .05g, Carbs: 3g, Protein: 1g

Droste (a Dutch company) cocoa: Serving Size: 1 Tbsp. (5g); Calories: 15, Total Fat: 1g, Carbs: 2g, Protein: 1g

Tesco (UK) hot cocoa: Size: 200; Calories: 110, Total Fat: 4.1g, Carbs: 9.8g, Protein: 7.6g

Ghiradelli hot chocolate mix ingredients: Sweet ground chocolate and cocoa (contains: sugar, cocoa, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin, vanilla) --- not bad! 4 Tbsp; Calories: 140, Total Fat: 1.5g, Carbs: 34g, Protein: 2g  

Hershey's Special Dark candy bars Serving Size: 5 pieces; Calories: 230, Total Fat: 13g, Carbs: 24g, Protein: 3g

Hershey's Dark kisses Serving Size: 1 Kiss; Calories: 20, Total Fat: 1g, Carbs: 3g, Protein: 0g

Newman's Own Organic dark chocolate bar Serving Size: 1 bar (79g); Calories: 400, Total Fat: 26g, Carbs: 48g, Protein: 3g; grown organic and also as buffer zones for rainforest preserve

The Beast: DOVE Bar (original with ice cream) Serving Size: 1 Bar; Calories: 260, Total Fat: 17g, Carbs: 26g, Protein: 3g

- Bad

• Losing my temper at the new girl at work on Saturday. Very badly. I believe I have a severe anxiety issue that has to get addressed.
• Another coworker made a comment yesterday (Tuesday) as she left that made me feel like crap for the rest of the shift. Thankfully, the rest of the shift was only an hour long.
• Sara has been getting on my nerves.
  
• I have been saying "yes" to every coworker who wants a day off, and to every friend who wants help with something, and to every party this summer. I have been on the road between work and my mother's house so much in the past two weeks that I've got a trucker's tan and I've spent $100 on gas. I have stretched myself too thin and I am EXHAUSTED.

+ Good

• Talking to John again. I missed him so much. It had been nearly an entire month.
• Sushi, movies, and friends at my house for my birthday.
• The woman behind the counter gave me a free DVD rental because it was my birthday.
• Oh yeah, it was my 19th birthday on Monday.
• Fried Dough pizza at the carnival yesterday.
• Taking a walk in a cemetery in the dark with John.
• Having sex in the cemetery with John... yeah, wtf?!
  

Did y'all know that Walmart sells poison?

DSC00746

There are two fishing poles out in the shed that weren't there yesterday. I get a little kick in the gut when I think about them, one of those happy-sad feelings that is both a hug and a pinch.

Yesterday after work, Lee and I took tacos over to my grandparents house. My grandmother has always had a thing for Taco Bell tacos. We had dinner and a little catch-uppy chitchat. Afterwards the sun had gone down enough that we could venture outside to sit in the shade and enjoy their yard.

With my grandfather wheelchair bound for 7-years now, and my grandmother recently recovered from surgery and not able to get around like she used to, they've had to let go of a lot of hobbies and passtimes. But one thing that amazes is me is that they STILL have the best veggie garden in our little corner of suburbia. We left with a bag of cucumbers big enough to hold us over for the rest of the summer, if they wouldn't go bad first.

Anyway, after we marveled over the veggies and chatted with the neighbors, my grandfather started gesturing for my grandmother to go into their garage. After a while, he made it clear through their quiet and intricate way of non-verbal communication that he wanted her to get out his fishing poles. He wanted Lee to look at them and see if he wanted them, since he isn't using them anymore.

Lee was incredibly touched. And so was I. My grandfather loved fishing. His favorite thing to do was get up well before sunrise on a Saturday and head off to plant himself and his fishing gear by a riverbank. Now and then, he took me or went with my father. But mostly, he went alone, because he loved his solitary time with nature even more than he loved the act of fishing itself. That he's unable to enjoy that passion in his retirement years, when he could go every day if he wanted to, makes me want to cry. Him wanting to give up those poles is his way of saying "this part of my life is done, and I want someone who will enjoy it as much as I did to have them." It breaks my heart.

But it also makes me feel all warm and grateful inside that the person he wants to have them is Lee. He recognizes in my sweetheart that side of himself, that early-to-riser who is both healed and inspired by being alone with the woods and a body of water.

My grandfather can't say the words. But I recognized something in the way he held the poles reverently after my grandmom handed them to him, and then how he gently handed them to Lee. I saw it in the way they examined the poles together - Lee talking with words and Grandad with his hands and his eyes and his nods, about how too much time languishing in the garage has battered the poles a little but a fixin' here and there will make them good as new. 

He can't say the words. But in every action and in his smile there was mourning for his own past and a warm and loving approval of the future I have chosen - the simple and age-old happiness of a man who sees a bit himself in the guy one of his own little girls has brought into the family fold.

Today is Wednesday that means Thai Truck for Lunch in Meguro. I saw fellow Vox member Shin waiting in line and got to talk with him for a little while.

Thai Truck Lunch

Thai Truck Lunch

Thai Truck Lunch