Month: December 2006

  • French Women Don’t Get Fat



    Sleepless and Prattling

    I am not sleepy, and I have a lot of things I want to go on about.  Therefore, this entry will be rather long.  To save you the trouble of having to slog through the whole thing, I’ll put the important stuff in bold. Then, you can just skim or read what interests you.

    1. Linda U. is a wonderful friend!
    I have to give an initial to Linda as Linda S. was my favorite professor in college, Linda T. is my aunt, Linda U. will be gushed over, Linda W. is a dear friend here in PA, and Linda Z. is my dear neighbor.  Currently the positions of Lindas V, X, and Y are open, if you fit the bill.

    When I first met Linda, I thought, “Here is someone I want to be friends with!” (The excitement made me think using improper grammar.)  And, we have been great friends since that day in August 1992.   She has given me some wonderful presents through the years: a lovely angel for my collection, the little slice of cake pin I wear every year on my birthday, and a cake she baked and drove for seven plus hours to my house. 

    This year, she wrote me and said, “I found the perfect present for you!”  She was absolutely right. It arrived today: a Jane Austen action figure! 

    Isn’t it wonderful to have a friend who know you so well? She’s the greatest!

    2.  My passport also arrived today.
    I’ve never had a passport before.  I’ve always thought, “Gee, if I have to flee the country or if someone says to me, ‘Hey, let’s go to Paris for the weekend,’ I’d be unable to leave.”  Now, I need not worry on either count. Actually, I still probably need not worry.  

    Strangely enough, my passport expires on my birthday 2016.  It’s funny that they wound up issuing my passport the day after my birthday.  (TGD’s passport also expires on my birthday, so it’s not like a car registration or anything. Random chance!)

    3. Mozilla Firefox version 2–the best browser ever!
    I know that many of you will say, “Huh?” but if you don’t have Firefox v.2, I highly recommend you download it. (Why not? It’s free, and it’s so much better than IE or Netscape!)  Not only does it have the great feature of a Google search bar like Internet Explorer has, it also has the convenient tabbed browsing of Netscape. But, what sets 2 apart is that there is a built in spell check!  Any word I type incorrectly while on the web is underlined in red. I simply have to click inside the word for spelling suggestions.  No more copy and paste into Word for blog comments and such! 

    4. Our pickle broke.
    There is a German tradition of having a pickle ornament for the Christmas tree. The one who first finds the hidden pickle in the tree gets something.  (At our house, you get to say, “I found the pickle!” and move it to some other tree branch.)  But, two days ago, the shards of the glass pickle were found underneath the tree.

    Libby went online to find us a new one,and found the identical glass pickle on eBay.  Since I was always assuming the glass pickle would break anyhow, I suggested that she make one out of clay instead.  Being a talented and resourceful girl, she quickly made us a mini-gherkin. 



    Didn’t she do a good job?  I like the bumpy warty-ness of it.  She was even gracious when I accidentally burned it while baking it.  She said, “Oh, we’ll just paint over it,” even though she spent quite a bit of time mixing clay colors to get just the right shading. 

    You can read all about the German pickle myth HERE.

    5. Superman Returns–slow,but entertaining.
    TGD and I watched it tonight. It is slow, but I liked it. TGD said, “Dull. It’s a chick flick.” He’s right. If you are a “chick,” you should enjoy this “flick.”  I do not like the fact that Lois Lane is now an unwed mother living with her     fiancé.  But, I like the fiancé, and I even liked Lex Luther.

    6. French Women Don’t Get Fat is worth the read.
    I just finished     Mireille Guiliano’s French Women Don’t Get Fat.  It’s not a diet book, but a lifestyle book. Why don’t French women get fat? Why don’t they spend hours at the gym? How can they drink all that wine and eat all that fatty food?  Mireille explains “The French Paradox” in an interesting, conversational style.  Basically, French women try to build exercise into their daily life (take the stairs, take a walk), eat all things but in moderation, eat a lot of fruits and veggies, and savor pleasures when they are in season.  For example, now they would eat a lot of squash and apples and pumpkin things.  In the summer, it’s tomatoes and such. 

    I liked what she had to say, and I find that I do many of the things she suggests. However, I did glean some ideas which I hope to incorporate into my life.  (Sit ups don’t take that much time. Eat what’s in season. Vary your menu. Avoid empty calories. Save up for the best things. Eat dark chocolate.)  There are even some recipes in the book that I might try.

    She has another book which I have on request at the library which should be right up my alley. It’s about rewarding yourself.  I’m very good at that!

    7. Since God rested on the seventh day, I shall rest on number 7.

    I haven’t forgotten Pride and Prejudice! Perhaps Friday afternoon I shall post a nice reading schedule and fun ideas.  They’re churning in my little pea brain (or P&P brain–HA). I just have to write them down.  Where’s that quill pen?