I wish I could be as eloquent as some of my fellow bloggers about the news of Heidi’s decision to go forward with her life. I too will miss her presence deeply. She has made a big difference in my life and the way I approach the diet. As I am one to always be looking for a loophole that I can squeeze through to bend life my own way, Heidi always made me feel that I have the knowledge, and it is up to me to choose which way I am going to go. I can’t blame outside forces for the consequences of my food and lifestyle choices.

(This is not true for golf, though. We golfers get to blame everything and everybody for our bad shots.)

I chose badly yesterday. Hubby rented a tractor and knocked down all the scotch broom and blackberry bushes that have been encroaching on our yard. We got a very large bowl of fresh, ripe blackberries to eat. They are just lovely berries. Normally, I will just pick berries and eat them off the bush. But, “somebody” wanted a pie. And I made it for him. I sabotaged the beneficial berries with sugar and wheat. He says it is the best one I have ever made. I cut off two small slivers of it to taste, and I must agree I did a great job with this one! Can you really blame me?

Tomorrow I leave for an intensive barbershop singing weekend in Yakima. More middle aged women having fun again. It will be a lot of workshops and teaching. Should be fun. Should be a lot of eating challenges. Heidi, I hope you are whispering in my ear a lot this weekend!

Got back yesterday from our second long-weekend motorcycle trip this summer. This time we did what is called the North Cascades Loop. There are two really scenic routes along the northern part of Washington. They start in Seattle and end in Winthrop. So, you don’t have to come back the same way you came.

It was great weather, if not a bit too hot. We always wear full ‘leathers’ (well, in our case it is Kevlar) no matter how toasty it gets. While were east of the mountains, temperatures got up into the upper nineties. We definitely wanted to keep moving or it was sauna-land. We stayed in a nice lodge that had a reputation for great food. And, yes, it was really great food. Thursday night was a really tender Ellensburg rack of lamb. I had them substitute rice for the potato. The appetizer was a lovely mushroom thingy wrapped in philo and a really rich dipping sauce. A wonderful bottle of zinfandel the waiter chose for us made it all come together. Hubby had a duck breast that he also raved about. I just had a couple bites of his dessert. I’m sure there were many hidden avoids there, but I sure couldn’t taste them!

Friday we took a ride over to the Grand Coulee Dam. I’d always wanted to see it. It’s big! There have been a lot of forest fires in that part of the state, and the air was very thick with smoke. The scenery was pretty lost because of it. Had a big digression and ate a hamburger (with bun) on the road. There wasn’t much else to choose from. Dinner was another gastronomical wonder from the Lodge kitchen. I went to Avoid Heaven for the meal. Started with a quail appetizer. The entrée was a nice rare piece of buffalo (okay, that’s not an avoid, just neutral) but there were potatoes with it. A dessert came automatically with this meal, so I ate the whole thing. It was a huckleberry tart with some sort of sherbet….at this point my memory is a little foggy, because there were two martinis before this evening’s bottle of wine. I definitely had too much to drink.

Of course, I woke up with the stuffiest of heads. Oh well.

Anyway, the ride back home was lovely. We rode through a town called Leavenworth. It is a Bavarian village. All the stores and banks and hotels – everything – are built so it looks like a really quaint southern German town. Very touristy. We stopped for gas and rested in one shop. Hubby ate a thing called a Chocolate Bomb. I saw bananas hanging over the counter, and just had to have one. All I could think about was how wonderful a banana would taste. And it was wonderful. My body was obviously craving a replenishment of potassium from three days of sweaty riding.

I’m glad to be home. I’m spending the day catching up on laundry. Too pooped to get on the treadmill. Later today is 9 holes of golf with a friend and then to his house for dinner. More eating challenges ahead!

"A”

There once was an ‘A’ girl from Boulder

Who thought diet hype was a bother

She calmly did yoga

And ate all her soya

While shunning the red meat before her.





“AB”

There once was a man with type AB

Who earned many stripes in the Navy

His diet was crazy

But he sure wasn’t lazy

As he cooked up his turkey and gravy.





"B”

A woman jogged by with blood type B

Chasing a rabbit with much glee

She caught it quite fast

Cooked it up with wheat grass

And savored the flavor immensely.





“O”

While ‘O’ man was running a long race

He wanted to pick up his slow pace

So he wolfed down beef jerky

And quicker than Murphy

He won with a big smile on his face.

I’ve been feeling guilty about not blogging enough. Sometimes it’s hard to think of a subject that interests me enough to think that anyone else might be remotely interested.

I was hoping hubby and I were going to be able to get away for another long weekend next week. Looks like that isn’t going to happen. Too many things happening with the business to allow both of us to be gone at the same time. That is disappointing. He needs a break. At this point, I have more free time than he does, so I can take mini-breaks out on the golf course, and singing in the chorus, and once in awhile losing myself in a TV movie. Hopefully by this fall we can see clear to go away somewhere together.

I’m doing well food-wise this week. I’m maintaining my new weight set point pretty well. I was up a little after the weekend. I had succumbed to eating a hot dog Sunday night while selling them at the fair. I was just too hungry. I couldn’t leave the booth to get water, so I also drank some diet Pepsi. I can’t believe I used to drink that stuff every day! Woke up with the puffiest eyelids on Monday morning! But I was back to normal by Wednesday morning. Now I want to lose some more. I’m never satisfied with myself.

The weather has remained hot. Very unusual for this area. I’m loving every minute of it. It does make it difficult to walk for an entire round of golf. I only walked half the round on Tuesday and hitched a ride with a friend to finish. I feel guilty when I do that. Half the reason for playing golf is for the exercise.

Went to the driving range early this morning with the daughter. We are trying to encourage her to pick the game up again. She was really good when she played on the high school team. After that I scarfed down a hunk of colby cheese and went to a Pilates mat class. Got to work and ate a cup of cottage cheese and am drinking a lot of water this afternoon. I should get in my fruits and vegetables at dinnertime.

Ya gotta love summertime!

They say it will be 88 degrees today. I believe it. It was 79 already by 10:30. It will be the third of our 5 or 6 hot days we get in a year. Not worth putting air-conditioning in the house, for sure. But with the computer in the upstairs, I’ll be bugging out pretty quick. It gets mighty hot up here.

There is an annual community fair here every summer. There is a myriad of food booths manned by local community groups. Plus rides, games, a parade on Saturday, and a big fireworks show on Sunday night. The combined men and women’s barbershop choruses sell hot dogs every year. I’m pulling a couple shifts there this weekend. It’s just mad! There is every kind of avoid foods for all types along the mid-way. I’m watching very unhealthy looking people pass by stuffing their faces with corn dogs, elephant ears, corn on the cob (if they were all A blood type, that would be okay), snow cones, ice cream and foods I can’t recognize. I feel horrible feeding hot dogs on white wheat buns to all these kids. Then, to make matters worse, we are also selling Pepsi products full of corn syrup and I-dunno-what-else poisons. Oh, except for the diet one with aspartame. Of course, if this weekend were just a one-time splurge for these folks, then it would be okay. But, I’m afraid it probably isn’t so.

Okay, now I’m going to talk out of the other side of my mouth. I’m going to a one-time splurge tonight! It’s a summer party that we ‘bought’ at a charity auction last year. So, these folks who are hosting the party will have tons of food and drink. We are inviting two other couples, also. We did donate quite a bit to the charity for the party, and it’s almost 100 percent sure to be a good time. So, I am not going to worry about what they are serving and will eat it ALL! (And I will wake up in the middle of the night with a stuffy nose, and will probably have a bout of heartburn by the middle of the day tomorrow). I know the consequences.

Okay, I’m sweatin’. I’m outta here!