They're trying to mess with our chocolate! Mockolate is real!

So, there is an industry lobby group that is pretending to be made up of concerned citizens who want to "modernize" the definition of chocolate to allow it to be made with transfat, artificial sweeteners, and just a bit of chocolate flavoring. That's not exactly what they made it with on "Friends" when the guy who used to play Lenny had Monica make a bunch of things with "mockolate", but not far off. Yuck! I don't want chocolate like that. And this at a time when they're starting to say that a bit of dark chocolate can be good for the heart, because of all the antioxidants in it (tea, too, supposedly). Why on earth would they do it? To make more money, of course! Supposedly there may be a shortage of the real stuff, so in order to keep the populace supplied with cheap chocolate (marked up of course), they think they need to make fake chocolate and pass it off as real. Why not use that other fake chocolate, carob? It's actually not that bad, as long as you don't think of it as chocolate. It's brown, it's sweet, and depending on how it's made, it can actually melt in your mouth.

Anyway, let's tell them we'd rather have expensive real chocolate or even carob that the junk they are trying to get the government let them pass off as real. Where do I sign up to do this?

Baby carrots -- they aren't really baby carrots

OK, so I knew this already, but still. Ugh~
http://www.wisebread.com/baby-carrots-the-frugal-idea-that-isnt

Cheney's lesbian daughter has a baby

So, Cheney's lesbian daughter recently had a baby with her lesbian partner. He's gotten his photo take with their child, his grandchild, but the baby's moms were not in the picture. Wonder why? According to this site it's because they are trying to play both sides of it, getting points from lesbians for acknowledging their lesbian daugther's baby, but leaving the lesbian daughter and her wife out to keep from angering the religious fundamentalists who support the Republican party. Boy, what a mess!

One Hour no power

To help spread the word about global warming, a group of people have decided to ask everyone out there to unplug and turn off everything -- TVs, cars, etc. -- for one hour at noon on Sunday July 1, 2007. Since everyone would use their local time, not everyone everywhere would have everything off all at the same time, but it would be all the same day, which would still be quite effective.

How much impact would all of this have? Has anyone calculated it?

http://www.onehournopower.com/

Alki/Seacrest beach in Seattle

We went to the beach in West Seattle, and the weather was perfect. We saw sea anenomes, lots of barnacles, some mussels, seaweed, and seagulls. He chased some seagulls, and interacted with a toddler boy who came by for a few minutes. Lately he's really been wanting to play with other kids, like every single day! Totally opposite of the way he used to be. It's amazing how much they can change. I'm sure the trip to see Stacy had an impact. I'm so glad we went to see her. I know it did him a lot of good.
It was such a beautiful view of the Seattle skyline and waterfront, and ferries and other boat traffic going by. The area looks a lot like the coastal areas of the Bay Area, particularly bits of Alameda and Berkeley. Kind of quaint. I forgot my camera or I'd add some pictures. On the way, and on the way back, we got to see the Port of Seattle, with all the Container ships being unloaded and loaded and moved by tugboat and such. Pretty cool.
We didn't stay that long because C wanted to see the lighthouse out that way, but when we got there it was closed. An elderly man sitting in front of his garage told us about another one north of there, which we tried to get to but got lost. I think next time we'll just stay at the beach we start out at. Carkeek park next time, because they have a playground there, and a train goes by right there.

C fell asleep on the way home. So it was harder for him to get to sleep tonight. But I'm still up! I should go to bed!

No more corn for us!

Well, I had hoped that at least ds could have some corn in his life, since he loves it so much, but after some major intake of corn, he got nosebleeds each time -- once only a few minutes after eating it! He had kettle corn two Saturdays in a row, and each night, he woke up in the middle of the night with a nosebleed - the second time both nostrils bled. Then the next day, we had Mexican food, and he ate half a fried corn tortilla, a bunch of tortilla chips, and part of a steamed corn tortilla, and on the way home his nose started bleeding. And later on, and this is one of those too much information things, he passed bloody mucus on the potty. Mind you, that day he'd also had a chocolate covered ice cream bar and a bunch of Xylitol gum (and Xylitol is usually made from corn), but I think it was the corn. Since he hasn't been having it, he hasn't had any more bloody noses (or bowel movements). Sigh. I already knew it can give me a migraine when I eat it too much, but I had hoped he could at least have it.

He has had nosebleeds in the past, especially if he eats a ton of fruit and nothing else. I'm thinking it's the salicylates. I hope not because he loves things that are high in salicylates! But really, he had gone a while there with very few nosebleeds and now all of a sudden, when he's eating lots of corn, he gets lots of them. And this was the first time he had passed blood as well, even counting other days when he had ice cream.

Maybe some day. Maybe just whole kernal corn.

Wow, the weather has been great!

The weather here has been really nice -- in the upper 60s during the day, but cooler at night. The sun has been out just about all day every day for most of the week, which is such a nice change! I love this weather! Can we please have more of it? I would love to have it like this for the rest of the summer!

Cute dogs

This is too cute:

Funny Dogs & Even Some Cute Ones!!!

the honey chicken

OK, so I made the chicken. Now, it didn't cook as long, and I had it on high to compensate, so I can't say for sure, but I didn't like what turned out. It was entirely too sweet for my taste. Then again, I only put in six chicken thighs instead of eight, but still...I kind of had a feeling it would be too sweet, but wanted to try it anyway since it's made from 100% SCD legal (allowed on the specific carbohydrate diet) ingredients and since lately it seems like most of my cooking has depended on tomatoes for flavor. Maybe if it were to cook more the chicken would soften up. And maybe the fact that I left the skin on and the bones in changed it a bit. But the main problem was the sweetness - the honey plus all those dried fruits just made it taste like candy. Not my favorite. This one will be going in the recycle bin! Sigh.

Crockpot honey chicken with dried fruit

So I think I'm going to give this a try but with bone in skin on thighs because they are much cheaper:
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup mixed dried fruit pieces
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup chicken broth
1 onion, chopped
Cook for 8-9 hours on low in a slow cooker
http://busycooks.about.com/od/chickenrecipe1/r/chixdriedfruit.htm?p=1
It's basically cooked chicken with honey and dried fruit. I think the recipe needs to explain what goes where in the crockpot -- I know usually you put the veggies on the bottom, but what about the honey and the chicken broth? Do you pour them in on top of everything? Should the fruit go on top of the chicken so as to flavor it, or underneath so it gets moist?

You Tube

This was done 15 years ago. I wonder what this girl is doing now?