My daughter is babysitting. My son is life guarding at the pool. My husband is at his office. I'm happy to be home alone. During the school year I have the house to myself most mornings before I go to teach. During the summers I rarely have a moment to myself unless I stay up late at night.

I pulled yesterday's leftovers out of the refrigerator for lunch, and didn't even warm them up: salmon, asparagus, pumpkin, and jicama fries.

After I finish writing this blog, I will turn on the stereo and tackle accumulated paperwork and necessary housework. I'm hoping the weather will permit a swim tonight. We've had thunder showers pop up every evening for days, canceling lap swim and preventing running. I've done one kind of exercise or another at the house, but it doesn't make me feel as good as a long run or swim.

I know I abused the original meaning of the song title that I used as the title of this blog. But it does feel natural to be alone after a satisfying lunch anticipating a productive afternoon. And it will be exciting when everyone comes roaring home with noisy tales of their adventures of the day.

Call me a snob, but I used to think of generic or store brand products as being inferior in quality to the highly recognized, big brand name products. That opinion was reinforced in my early young adult years when I bought generic strawberry preserves and found the leaves still attached to the strawberries. Not appetizing! Since starting the Blood Type Diet, however I have found to my surprise and delight that some store brand products contain fewer additives and fewer avoids than name brand products.

For instance, all of the nationally advertised cooking sprays contain avoids. However the low priced Hill Country Fare generic contains only Canola Oil, soy lecithin, water and propellant. I now use it for all my baking.

I had never looked at the ingredients in salt until Heidi's column mentioned that most salt contains a Type O avoid - dextrose. Even the health food store brands contain dextrose! But my store brand generic salt contains no dextrose, only two anti-caking agents.

I have written before that the two Type As in my family are not ready to give up tomato products. One of the reasons is pizza and another is sloppy joes. After I started the Blood Type Diet, I was going to make sloppy joes with ground turkey instead of ground beef, and put my sauce on a large salad while the As had theirs on bread. I know I should make my own sloppy joe sauce, but the main advantage of this meal is that it is fast, so I was using the nationally advertised brand. I looked at the label and the #2 ingredient was corn syrup. No more sloppy joes for me! Yesterday my daughter had a friend over and they wanted sloppy joes for lunch. As I was picking up a can of sauce, I noticed a store brand next to the name brand. There is no corn syrup! Sugar is the #4 ingredient and there are no chemical additives. Sloppy joes for me again!

Not all store brands are better. The store brand of black-eyed peas contains as many chemicals and avoids as the big name brands. Bush and Eden are the best canned black-eyed pea choices in my stores.

It's not that I was having second thoughts about the four avoids I ate at my parents' house over the weekend, but I was wondering if there would be any noticeable consequences. The avoids were: breading on a chicken entrée, ½ of a corn on the cob, 2 pieces of cheesecake (on two different days - shame on you if you thought I ate two pieces at one time). So there was a small amount of wheat, some corn, some milk products, and some refined sugar (sugar is officially neutral for O, but I do not believe an excess of any refined food is healthy for anyone)

My weight did not change at all. That was good news. I have observed that sometimes after a meal in a restaurant my weight will be up 2 - 3 pounds for several days. This always happens if I eat the sauce on beef & broccoli at a Chinese restaurant, so I now order Chinese without any sauce.

My stomach was fine. Too much wheat can make my stomach feel unsettled or bring back my indigestion. There was a time when I would have felt even the small amount I ate over two days, but this time it did not push me over that threshold. That tells me that some base level of inflammation or sensitivity is improving.

I rode my bike for 45 minutes last night, and I did notice an ache in my right knee. That's the second time I've had an achy knee following a weekend trip. I'll have to watch that.

Both of my parents grew up out in the country, and both of their parents had huge gardens. I asked if they ate collards, kale, or turnip greens when they were children. My Dad made a face and said, "Oh yes, but as little as possible." My Mom liked cooked greens, but remembered her mother washing and washing and washing to get all the dirt off the leaves. Hurray for modern produce methods so I only have to wash and wash.

Cute quote from Adrian Rogers, "A little girl was overheard praying ‘Dear God, make the bad people good and the good people nice.'"

Music: 'String Quartet in Four Parts: Nearly Stationary' by John Cage

Yesterday was full of extremes, mostly emotional.

The morning featured its regulation dose of austere training; the almost standard hodge-podge of line drills, forms, kicks, stretches and chi-qong like breathing exercises. What makes the particular instructor that I train with so unique is how he weaves the disparate elements into a greater realization, which then becomes the lesson for that class.

In today's class we used the most basic form* taught to all white belts, then removed all the 'hardness' from it. Blocks and punches became open-handed, almost Tai-Chi like apparitions; stiff forward movements and stances became sinuous, each flowing from the hip and into the next.

One of the newer white belts is my friend and patient Michael, AKA 'Gerard' in ER4YT. 'Gerard' was the fellow headed for the liver transplant who never actually went down that path. 'Mikey' continues to do phenomenally well, so well in fact that here he is, grunting and sweating with the rest of us.

My time in the office went well. One returning patient was a gentleman with throat cancer who is almost ready to get his trach tube removed, as they no longer see any signs of disease. Another new patient was a young women with strange skin rashes that nobody can figure out the cause of. Not too surprisingly a type O who eats a lot of wheat and dairy.

Then had to bolt down a bowl of lentil soup and head over to my daughter's school for their choral performance. Both of our children have gone through the local Montessori school to the 6th grade, and if nothing else, these kids can sing! Cute little songs about 'painting with the wind' and other similiarly happy motifs.

Being around an event full of Montessori parents (at least in Connecticut) is sort of like discovering that the Soviet Politburo has suddenly moved to Esalen. In the old days, nobody wanted to be the first person to stop clapping after one of Stalin's speeches, so they installed a bell and rang it so everyone could stop at once.

We needed a bell --Not that the kids didn't deserve it.

The event was actually a part of the school's 40th aniversary celebrations, which takes place all this week, so the songs were interweaved with little speeches by past and present luminaries, one of who gestured backwards with her hand and used the phrase: 'look at your beautiful children, these children are the society of the future.'

I found this statement rather depressing, considering the screwed up world these children are destined to inherit. Some society. Can we possibly mess it up any further for them? At some point in time, in their new society, when the grown-up version of these kids write their history, how will it read?

Here is my guess:

The Second Thirty Years War, variously referred to by some authors as the 'SUV War,' 'The Well-Poisoners War,' 'The Land For Dead War' or 'Liberty/Terrorist Victim War', was waged by ideologic extremists of all varieties and cultures, in a vacuum created by inequitable wealth distribution, lack of individual expression and environmental deterioration.

But hey, I'm just an aging hippie.

* A form [or 'hyung' in Korean, 'kata' in Japanese] is a series of programmed moves along a pattern. It's goal is to develop one's technique and refine their nomindedness, i.e. relying on the innate rather than the conscious.

Good for martial artists, bad for political leaders.

My daughter and I made a quick two day trip to visit my parents. We had a wonderful time, with lots of good conversation.

As far as the BTD, I did more than an hour of 5-minute isometrics in the car both going and coming. That was a good all body workout. Friday night I went for a walk after dinner with my Dad. I hope that when I'm 86 I will still be walking more than a mile at a nice pace.

My parents are both Type Os. They like meat, and my Mom fixed a delicious roast. They have always eaten a lot of fruits and vegetables. They are curious about the Blood Type Diet. They read the "Food, Beverage, and Supplement List" I gave them last summer, and have made a few changes. They now use soy milk instead of cow's milk for example. But I wouldn't say either of them really follows the diet.

I ate four avoids. One was the breading on a chicken entree. The other three were family favorites. I could have declined, but to tell the truth I enjoyed them. They rolled back the clock and made me feel like a girl again.

Does the title of this blog refer to the home I grew up in or my home with my husband and children? The answer is both.

My son took a course last spring called Introduction to Fiction. He studied some of my all time favorite novels like "The Moonstone" and "Wuthering Heights." The only book on his course list that I hadn't read was "Dracula". I'm reading it this week.

I finally put the book down a few minutes ago to clean up the kitchen and to do 20 minutes of weight work. While I was cleaning and exercising, I tried to think about a blog. But Dracula is on my mind.

It is an incredibly suspenseful book - both for the characters and for the reader. It's interesting how many times one of the characters urges another to eat something to keep up his strength. One of the things that makes the BTD easy for me to follow is that I don't skip meals or measure out servings. I eat often, and I eat until I'm satisfied. Skipping a meal never saves me time, because it adds to my stress and that makes me less efficient.

I got so involved in the plot, that I found myself as tense as the characters. So I snacked more today than usual. But it was all good Type O snacks: figs, prunes, apricots, watermelon, and homemade sweet potato chips.

My son just came in to give me a hug and say good night. When he saw what I was writing, he started laughing. "Hmmm," he said, "I wonder what type Dracula was."

My daughter thinks she might want to major in interior design, so she asked if we could go to Half Price Books and see if they had a computer program that lets you design houses. It sounded like a good idea to me, so off we went. She found just what she wanted for $4.95. Then I asked if I could look through the cookbooks. There like a piece of gold in a muddy stream was a treasure - "The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread". It is more than 200 wheat free recipes, with bread machine instructions. Surely among that many recipes I can find a sandwich bread that is beneficial for my husband and daughter and neutral for my son.

Last night I seasoned the left over buckwheat with a little onion, a little garlic, a little olive oil, and a lot of celery seed. It was very good, and went well with smoked turkey. Tonight with the leftover turkey we had kohl slaw (that's what we're calling Paul's shredded kohlrabi with lemon juice and olive oil), butternut squash, and watermelon.

Because of orchestra practice I knew I would miss lap swim tonight, so I ran two miles in the neighborhood. I feel so good after I run. On the way home from orchestra I had the radio on, and I heard a man say, "The disciples didn't say, ‘Lord teach us to heal.' They said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.'" I got to thinking about that. I believe that in the Blood Type Diet there is a tool that God can use to bring about healing using the foods that he created. But I want to make sure that always in all things I have my priorities in line.

When I first started blogging I was in the middle of a project to try all of the Type O beneficial foods. There are foods in every category that I had never tasted before, but that now are favorites: lamb, adzuki beans, artichokes, parsnips, beet greens, and mangos, just to name a few. I have not found guava, chicory, and some of the beneficial fish in my local stores but I'm still looking.

Now I'm going to try the foods that are beneficial to my Type A husband and daughter, and neutral to me. Neither my husband nor my daughter like trying new foods, so they are not enthused about my idea. They would rather stick with their old favorites. Is this a Type A characteristic? My son and I will take a taste of something new, just to see what it's like. I remember as a child going to unusual restaurants (Indian or German for example) and watching my Type O parents order different items from the menu just so they could try more new foods.

I digress - back to the subject. This week I cooked buckwheat. I followed the cooking procedure in "Joy of Cooking" which is slightly different from RECIbase. I browned 1 cup of buckwheat in 2 Tbsp. of oil. I added 2½ cups of very hot water, brought it to a boil, then covered it and simmered it for 30 minutes. My husband really liked it. It reminded him of hominy, but I thought it was more like rice. The kids ate it but were not overjoyed. I think the key may be to find the right seasoning. I'm smoking a turkey this afternoon, and will see if I can make the leftover buckwheat a more exciting side dish for tonight.

New foods that are Type A beneficial, but Type O avoid may forever remain a mystery. I probably won't cook something that I would have to throw out if neither of the As would eat it.

Disclaimer: This blog is NOT to encourage anyone to cheat on the Blood Type Diet. I have no intention of backing off my strict compliance at home or my best possible compliance away from home.

However, this plan of eating is powerful enough to give results to people who only go half way.

After my "Cutting pills in half" blog a few days ago about my husband's improving health, I got this note from Elaine. She is an O (like me) and her husband is an A ( like my husband).

"I just wanted to share what happened with my Type A, husband. He won't fully commit to the diet, but does not miss red meat. I have made changes in his diet where he is pretty much compatible with the exception of chicken or turkey. He just got his cholesterol results back and they were all below the normal range. He has had to take medication and has had high cholesterol since they started checking for it. So the diet must be doing something. I cut his Lipitor in half. The doctor thinks this happened because of medication and wanted him to keep taking the stuff. If it never helped before, then I would say the diet had something to do with it."

If you (or members of your family) aren't willing to fully commit to the Blood Type Diet, don't give up! Add in a few more beneficials and pass up a few more avoids. As you start to feel better, you will realize your body likes this diet, and that will help you move from half way to all the way.

After church lunch on Sunday was at Souper Salad. I arrived at the table with a mountain of greens topped with carrots, tomato, broccoli, eggs and taco meat. My son said, "Now that's a Type O salad!" It was encouraging to see the choices the rest of the family made. Type A daughter got lots of salad with a bean and rice taco. Type O son chose Caesar Salad with meatball soup. Type A husband made a huge salad and had 3 bowls of soup. A few months ago he would have gone straight to the potato bar. Everyone is getting closer to eating for their type with no nagging on my part!

My Dad is a real Texas cowboy. He is also an electrical engineer, a classical pianist, a computer whiz, and a Biblical scholar (reading the New Testament in Greek). But he wouldn't brag about any of that, and he would be unhappy with me if I told you he is the most genuinely humble person I know.

I learned my love of the outdoors from my Dad. When he left the ranch to work for an electric utility in the big city, he wanted to spend his vacation time in the wild. Most of our family vacations were to national parks where we hiked and rode horses. Many evenings after dinner, my Dad, my sister and I would take long bicycle excursions always looking for parks or bits of land that hadn't been developed yet.

My Dad has a great love of learning. Every night at dinner he would ask my sister and me, "What did you learn at school today?" He expected an answer, and I began to see that even in a day I considered boring, I had always learned something. Often a fact my sister or I had learned developed into a family discussion around the table and ended with my Dad looking for more detail in the encyclopedia.

He cautioned me against going after change for the sake of change; however he is open to a new idea that has substance and merit. Most of my boyfriends had trouble holding up their end of a conversation with my Dad. I began to look seriously at the man who would later become my husband when he and my Dad both enjoyed talking to each other.

My Dad is a man of few words, but the words he says are worth listening to. I will emulate him just say: I love you, Dad.

My husband has been on blood pressure medication since 1989. He has been on cholesterol medication for a year and a half. When he went on the blood pressure medication the research at the time blamed salt for blood pressure problems. He agreed to try a low salt diet. His food tasted so bland that he was miserable. He decided he would rather take medication and enjoy his food.

When I started the Blood Type Diet a year ago I started nudging him in the direction of a Type A diet. He likes some of the foods I've added to his diet (especially soy cheese, lentil soup, nut crackers, and a multi grain wheat free hot cereal) He doesn't miss beef at all, and is glad I'm serving more fish. He's not ready to totally commit to a Type A diet, but freely admits that I've had wonderful results on the Type O diet.

A month or so ago he began to complain that when he stood up suddenly he got dizzy and light headed. He said that his blood pressure readings had been lower and wondered if that could be the cause. It was time for his physical, so he and our doctor talked about it. The doctor ordered blood work, and we'd been waiting for results.

Not only is his blood pressure down, his cholesterol reading is down as well. The doctor said to go to half the dose of both medications for 6 months, then come in for more testing. So I bought a little guillotine, and we're cutting his pills in half.

He won't give the BTD full credit, but he admits the BTD might be one of the factors that has caused the change. As for me, I will keep on nudging in a Type A direction.

Before I was sidetracked by my book, I had been experimenting in the kitchen. I put two recipes on RECIbase because they were enthusiastically endorsed by my family.

If you've read my blogs for long, you know that I like some greens better than others. Spinach and beet greens are my favorites, followed by Swiss Chard. Collard and turnip greens are good. Last on my list was kale. None of the family liked it, and I was the only one who would eat more than a token amount. Ever the optimist, I hated to give up on a food that was beneficial to Os and As. I can't remember how I first put black eyed peas, kale and onion together. It may have been randomly tossing left overs into a bowl for a quick lunch. They tasted good together. I waited a few days, cooked them together on purpose and served them to my family. I was hoping for acceptance - I got approval. Both my husband and son liked the combination. Glory be! My daughter only eats her greens raw. So she did not try the whole dish, but even she picked out some black-eyed peas and said they tasted good. I put the instructions on RECIbase under "Beneficial Veggie Trio." The only thing I wish I had included in the recipe is a note that you cook it in an 8 quart pot, not because it makes a huge amount, but because the kale takes up a lot of room until it wilts.

I had two zucchini bread recipes. I decided to see if I could adjust them to be acceptable for both As and Os. I wound up merging them, using what I thought was the best of both. The big adjustment of course was that both original recipes called for 3 cups of wheat flour. I had four kinds of flours in my freezer: spelt, kamut, rice and rye. I used 1 cup each of spelt, rice and rye. The texture of the muffins was very good: neither dry nor gooey. The rice and rye flours are beneficial for my As. The three flours are neutral for us Os. You can find them on RECIbase as Zucchini Muffins.

I'm still experimenting with a bread machine recipe for good sandwich bread. Spelt alone and spelt with rice taste good and work as a bread to serve with dinner. But they are too dense for sandwiches. My husband and kids eat a lot of sandwiches, and I want to come up with something all three of them like.

When my daughter was in first and second grades I tutored reading in her classroom. The teacher would send me in the hall with a group of struggling readers and they would tell me that they didn't like to read.

"I love to read," I would respond. "In fact do you know what happens? If I am reading a really good book, I can't stop. I keep right on reading. And sometimes we just have peanut butter sandwiches for dinner because I forget to cook." They would giggle, and someone would ask my daughter later in the day if it was true. It was!

Well, now that I know about the Blood Type Diet, peanut butter is no longer an option for me. But today I was totally caught up in a book.

The 8th book in Jan Karon's Mitford series came out last winter. I've been waiting for summer to read it, but when I went to check it out at the library, and there was a waiting list. At last it was my turn, and my son picked it up yesterday.

I started off being responsible: read a chapter, do a chore, read a chapter run an errand. Then I reached a point where I couldn't put it down. I let a load of laundry sour in the dryer. It's after midnight and there are still dirty dishes in the sink. I had a blog about zucchini muffins written in my head, but I never wrote it down. But, oh, it was a good book!

First a quote from my daughter. I bought a bag of Soy Crisps, and my kids finished them off in one sitting. My daughter said, "These are a bazillion times better than chips."

Now today's blog. Because I am a professional journalist, not a health care professional, I am very cautious about giving advice to people who write me with specific questions. Linda recently asked about an area of nutrition that I had dabbled in several years ago. After mentioning one book on the subject that I liked and one that I didn't, I got philosophical.

Before the Blood Type Diet, I was always reading interesting theories about nutrition: vegetarian, low carb, high fiber, no sugar, no salt, mega vitamin, herb, juicing, homeopathic, and on and on. The more I learned, the more confused I became. So much of the information was conflicting. Everyone had statistics that almost everyone benefited from their program.

What I like about the Blood Type Diet is that it explains why some things work for some people and don't for others. For example - I read glowing reports about echinacea, and bought some. It really helps my daughter get over a cold. It never did a thing for me. Dr. D'Adamo says echinacea is beneficial for As and avoid for Os. Another example - Lots of people swear by the benefits of apple cider vinegar. I like it and find it helpful. It does nothing for my husband. Dr. D'Adamo says vinegar is neutral for Os and avoid for As. I took Vitamin E for years - sometimes as much as 800 iu per day, because everything I read said it would help bleeding problems. Dr. D'Adamo says Vitamin E is good for As, but causes bleeding problems for Os. (I wish I could get my money back!)

I still read about nutrition. (I read a magazine from the Health Food Store today, while I was waiting for my daughter at the orthodontist's office.) But everything I read now is second place to the Blood Type Diet lists. I read an article about blueberries. They are beneficial for As and Os, so we'll all eat more of them. I read another article about men eating more tomatoes. Not my A husband! I'm trying to get him to eat less tomato. He can get lycopene from beneficial grapefruit. When I read a study that says 80% of people get great results I wonder what blood type the people in the 20% who don't get great results are.

The Blood Type Diet lists trump all the other lists.

A couple of bloggers have mentioned becoming obsessed with food because of the Blood Type Diet. I asked myself, "Am I obsessed?" The answer is no. The reason I know the answer is no is because I have been obsessed with diet and exercise before.

When we got married, my husband decided I should run. I could not even jog ¼ mile when I started, but I grew to love it. I planned my evenings around our run together. One day my mom called me at the office. She was fixing one of my favorite foods for dinner and invited us to come by their house after work. The first thought that crossed my mind was, "If we go, I can't run." That was obsessive. I recognized it. I forced reasonableness back into my exercise plans.

When I read my first nutrition book and became a health nut I was obsessive. One reason I often blog that people are more important than food is because of hard lessons I learned back then. Once I was part of a group that went to clean the house of a lady in difficult circumstances. To thank us she had prepared bologna sandwiches on white bread. I snubbed them because they weren't healthy. I saw in her eyes that I hurt her feelings. At holidays I remember rejecting traditional foods because they weren't made with whole grains. Alienating family and friends over food is obsessive. (Funny, now I hardly eat those whole grains I was so obsessed with then)

Because I'm the mom, I'm responsible for food preparation for my family, but my world is much bigger than my kitchen! I'm involved in activities that have nothing to do with food or exercise. I blog in the hopes that I can encourage someone who is trying to make the Blood Type Diet work in a busy family. But, the BTD is not my life. It is a means to an end. It gives me energy and helps me feel good so I can do all the other things I want to do in my life.

Today is my one year anniversary on the Blood Type Diet. In that year, I have never thrown caution to the wind and willfully pigged out on avoids. I am 98.5% loyal to the diet at home. There are a few packaged items that have an avoid listed near the bottom of the ingredient list, but those are the only exceptions at home. In restaurants, I make the best possible choices. I do not use the fact that I can't find a completely compliant meal as an excuse to order a really bad choice.

In social situations I may eat a few avoids. There is no point in offending someone who has prepared a meal for me. People say "I love you" with food, and rejecting what they have cooked often equates to rejecting them. There is also a psychological benefit to not using the word "never" about food. I don't have to say I will "never eat another piece of pizza." I don't eat it at home, but sooner or later friends will invite us over for pizza and a movie. When they do I eat a lot of vegetables off the veggie tray and a little pizza. I remember how good it used to taste. I can enjoy a homemade dessert without doing my health any lasting damage.

In my year on the diet I have seen lots of changes in my health. No more indigestion or GERD; no more bursitis in my shoulder, no more warts. Headaches are rare and mild. I've lost 15 pounds and a dress size. My muscle tone is much improved. I have more energy and require less sleep at night.

How am I celebrating the day? Breakfast was my usual fruit and nut mixture. My husband chose a seafood restaurant for lunch after church. Most of the entrees were breaded and fried, so I took a chance on the gumbo. It was excellent and loaded with beneficial vegetables. Dinner will be a ground beef patty, leftover turnip greens, and calabaza squash with Italian seasoning. As soon as the sun goes down, I'll run two miles.

My son was born on Ronald Regan's birthday. I have a vivid memory of being in the hospital room with my husband and my baby, watching the State of the Union Speech. We were indescribably joyful that day holding our precious baby, only a few hours old. The President seemed to speak to us when he talked about the sacredness of life. He had the same hope for the future of America that we had for the future of our family.

I was not sad when I heard of the former President's death. I have a firm faith that those who trust in Christ will have a much better life in heaven. I smile to think that after a 10 year battle with disease, he is fully restored in the presence of God. But watching the funeral today did make me realize how much I will miss him.

It's the character of the man that set off these feelings. He believed in individual responsibility and individual opportunity. That's the same quality that makes me adamant that I don't want a doctor or an insurance company or a government bureaucracy managing my health. He was both witty and tenacious, qualities needed by everyone, including school teachers and moms. He believed that God had a purpose for his life. And millions of people now living in free countries enjoy the fruit of the pursuit of that purpose.

There will never be another Ronald Regan, but I pray that God will raise up leaders around the world who will emulate his stand for morality, freedom, individual responsibility, optimism and faith.

My daughter and her friends send each other e-mail with interesting trivia and jokes. Today she showed me one called "Bet you didn't know this." One of the items said "Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair."

I said that while the statement was true, the reason why it was true was more important. We looked up copper and zinc in a nutrition book and found that both minerals are needed for proper brain function. I said, "If you eat healthy food and take your vitamins, then your body has the copper and zinc it needs. When you find copper and zinc in someone's hair, it also means that they are getting enough copper and zinc for their brains, and that means they are able to think better." My daughter eats healthy so she can stay slim. Just then the light dawned - by eating healthy she can be both slim and smart. She likes that idea.

It reminded me of another bit of trivia I read in Reader's Digest: "Doctors are unable to determine the cause of 37% of physical symptoms reported by patients." I suspect the truth is that most of those 37% are people who don't feel good because they are eating foods that conflict with their blood type. How well I remember my doctor finding inflammation in my stomach. But she had no idea why it was inflamed or how to make the inflammation go away. When I started the Blood Type Diet, I stopped being part of that 37%!

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32

Fellow blogger Paul Buckless often shares recipes, and this week I tried two of them.

When I wrote about cooking kohlrabi, Paul commented, "You can also grate it raw and dress with a little lemon juice & olive oil." I didn't find kohlrabi again until this week. The produce manager told me it wouldn't really be in season until August. The kohlrabi I found was not the freshest, but I bought it anyway, because I really wanted to see if I liked it raw.

It was crunchy and reminded me of cole slaw. There was none of the turnip taste that it had when I cooked it. My daughter turned thumbs down, but my son and I both liked it. Next time I may add more lemon juice or some grated lemon rind. Definitely we like kohlrabi better raw than cooked.

One of my goals for the summer is to get a repertoire of breakfast food that is traditional enough to appeal to my daughter, but good for her blood type. Today I tried Paul's Oat Shortbread Biscuits. An ongoing joke in our family is that if we try something new and it is good we say, "Try it you'll like it." But if it is really outstandingly good, we say, "Don't try it. You won't like it. I'll have to eat it all myself." My daughter was really hungry when she came in from swim practice. When the biscuits came out of the oven, I tasted them first, shook my head and said, "Don't try it…" She grabbed one, and another, and another. When her brother came in a short time later, he said, "What smells good." She said, "Don't try it…." and he grinned.

There was only one problem with the Oat Shortbread Biscuit recipe. It may make enough for Paul and Sue, but it was NOT enough for two teenagers. Next time I make a double batch.

Saturday was so hot and dry that I thought it might not rain again until September. Now it has rained for 30 hours straight, and I wonder if we're going to have a Seattle summer.

The kids and I went to the library - a good rainy day activity. The library air conditioner must have been expecting a hot summer day, because it was refrigerator cold in there. That was when I thought about running. It was nice and cool outside - a rare opportunity for a comfortable summer run. All I needed was a 30 minute window with no rain. One time in the afternoon I got as far as block from the house before the rain started up again.

I kept yesterday's promise for an earlier dinner. When I called for everyone to wash hands at 7:00, no one believed me! Finally about 10:15 there was a break in the rain. The radar showed more showers coming, so I announced I was going for a quick run. My husband said, "Are you sure that's a good idea? Is it safe to run alone at this time of night?" With those two questions he was really saying "I'm concerned about your safety" and "I love you." I was disappointed to miss the run, but I'll be content with sit ups and shoulder shrugs.