Cheese Burgers and Corn Dogs

Editor's note: To my few male readers, don't let the title of this post fool you, you will probably find this post boring.

Since Monday, I've been on a carb fast. No bread, pasta, rice or potatoes or anything else made with flour until Saturday the 31st.

I've never been one to diet. I'm more concerned with eating whole foods and a balanced diet than I am severe, eliminations of entire kinds of food.

Same with working out. I much prefer being active to "working out".

So why the austere and bleak two week fast? Its an experiment.

I've never been unhappy with the way that I look. I'm pretty lucky in that even when I do gain weight I maintain my shape (meaning: my round parts get rounder). I'm tall enough that I can carry some extra weight better than if I were shorter, but the future makes me nervous. Because the sad truth is, its all up hill from here. Whether its babies, other womanly things or just a slower metabolism, its only going to get tougher and tougher to maintain the way I look. Another stark reality: if I go up one more size I won't be shopping at my favorite stores anymore. And that is the most sobering and motivating thought of all.

Thus the experiment: What will it take for me to lose/maintain my weight? Since the beginning of the year I've been working out more consistently than I have since high school. I've seen results but not anything anyone else would notice.

So if exercise won't do it a change in diet is in order. One of my challenges with that is I already eat pretty well. I'm naturally inclined to want good food (Don't get me wrong I want bad food pretty often but I'm pretty good at moderating and controlling myself).

Which leads to the carb fast. I'm going to Arizona for Spring Break in a week and the motivation of being in a swim suit for the first time in the season is helping me along.

So far it hasn't been too tough. I've been having eggs and yogurt for breakfast, salad for lunch, soup for dinner. I'm nervous for the weekend. It'll probably be tougher to do without the structure of my work day. The hardest time of day is 3-4pm. That's when I just want something quick and its hard to not eat a cracker or cookie.

I just really hope I see results. Or I'll be mad.

Tonight I started thinking about what I wanted to break my fast with. I'm thinking a grilled cheese...

It's Elmo's World

Last week I reached the end of my 30 Rock queue on Netflix (the horror!). Casting around for something else I watched the documentary titled "Being Elmo" which as I'm sure you can deduce is about the creater/actor/muppeteer that gave the world the little, red, furry monster Elmo.

(Is anyone else surprised that the person responsible for such a lovable child-like character is a tall, handsome, big hearted black man. I may have a type...)

The documentary was charming. Its no secret that I love the Muppets. And you'd have to have a real stone cold heart to not feel a little warm and soft inside when you see Elmo hug a sick child and tell him "Elmo loves you" followed by that adorable giggle.

Fast forward to this week. My classes are currently learning about the things of historical importance in the early 20th century. We've been learning about radios and radio plays. Next week they will create and produce their own radio plays. In preparation we covered a bit on sound effects. I found myself searching through videos of a voice actor named Fred Newman who was a sound effect guy on A Prairie Home Companion and Between the Lions. He also, apparently was a frequent visitor on everyone's favorite Street. The one Elmo lives on.

I showed the kids this video of Fred visiting Elmo and demonstrating some mouth noises. It was incredible to see their reaction. Elmo had their complete attention. They were smiling and laughing and more than a few, without any self-consciousness or prompt followed along with Fred's "popping" demonstration. These are teenagers. Responding to Sesame Street . Delightful.

Maybe my lessons would be more engaging if I used a sock puppet from now on.

(I showed the kids clip from A Prairie Home Companion before the Sesame Street one and upon seeing Fred Newman, one of the kids (an African refugee no less) yelled, "That guy is on Sesame Street!" Cute.)

Scene from a friendship

Jill got a laptop this month. The following is our gchat from our respective rooms last night.

This is how we talk now:

10:28 PM Jill: can you make a word out of these letters? ENPPELIZ

10:29 PM me: Penile? Who are you playing? That's not very appropriate

haha

Jill: haha no you have to use all of the letters

it's that drawing game...

me: zepplin

zipline

10:30 PM zeppelin is it

Jill: What the crap is that?

me: a blimp

10:31 PM Jill: I was going to say that he drew a blimp...

is that another word for a blimp? weird!

10:32 PM me: blimps and zeppelins aren't actually the same thing but its the closest thing to compare it to

a blimp is what you see floating above a baseball game advertising good year

a zeppelin was used as a form of air travel before planes became really popular

10:33 PM zeppelin's turned out to be a bad idea because they were filled with hydrogen which is highly flammable

pretty dangerous way to travel

Jill: well I'm happy to say that I've learned something new today.

me: so glad you have a computer now so we can really talk to each other.

10:34 PM Jill: are you copying this from a website?

me: no

I'm a history teacher

Jill: you so smat

me: was that on purpose?

Jill: yes

me: whatev

I promise we're still not gay.