Thank You!

For the past couple of weeks, I've been stuck on replying to compliments, complaints, and just plain old comments with a "Thank you!" like David Sedaris says in "SantaLand Diaries" after a guy tells him, "You look SO f***ing stupid."

Thank you!

There's something about how he says it that makes it get stuck in my head. And, I haven't listened to Holidays on Ice since December 22.

I did, however, listen to Naked while driving to my parents' this weekend, so maybe that stirred it up.

The trip also stirred up my sinus problems. Once I hit Cape Girardeau Friday night, I was sneezing up a storm and otherwise feeling like crap. Yesterday evening on my way back into St. Louis, I ended up stopping at a walk-in clinic, where I received a diagnosis of sinusitis and an antibiotic prescription.

I also received compliments on my blood pressure, which was 111/72. I DID NOT say, "Thank you!"

Okay, so maybe you've figured this out, but this post has nearly nothing to do with recipes or my cooking or knitting or other crafts. Why? Because I've been feeling crappy. Also, I've been reading.

My Current Book
I'm reading What to Eat. The cover of the book is, unfortunately, a bit misleading. The tag line might make you think it's another book touting the latest miracle foods or some fluffy thing about nutrition.

In reality, it's a smart, accessible analysis of the food industry and the politics behind what makes it into the grocery store. It's really, really good, and I highly recommend it. Unless you want to do your grocery shopping in an uninformed manner, read this book.

Of all the disturbing things I've learned about the influence of lobbyists and Big Food on the FDA and other regulatory agencies, I'm actually most distraught knowing that the whole "baby carrot" thing is a bunch of baloney. Actually, it's a bunch of carrots. Regular carrots. Cut up and shaped to look like miniature carrots. Porkchop keeps making me feel stupid for not thinking about this before, but I seriously believed that these were dwarf carrots! I've been duped!!

On Saturday night, I woke up 3 times with the same bad dream. Some asshole conservative food producers were trying to revise the USDA's organic standards to make them pretty much meaningless. This bad dream actually nearly happened a couple of years ago. Under pressure from lobbyists, the USDA nearly revised the standards to allow sewage sludge fertilizer, irradiation, and some other non-organic things.

I'm glad to be reading this book, but it also makes me nervous to eat anything from the grocery store.

Last Week
Thursday was the highlight of my week because the present Porkchop had meant to be delivered on Wednesday arrived at my office.

A box of 18 truffles from Bochner's chocolates in Iowa City (one of the few good things about Iowa City). I haven't found truffles in St. Louis that measure up to those from Bochner's, so it was an especially sweet (ha!) gift. Yay!

The pictures I took of my truffles are kind of bad, so look at the website. Actually, their website could use a few more pictures.

I also received flowers on Wednesday. Yay!

Work Busy-ness
We are hosting a seminar next week. The research panels on Friday are open to the public and are only one day of a four-day long stretch of craziness. Seriously. Who wants to begin a conference each day at 8:30 am and end after dinner around 10:00 pm. Also, I have to be at the school at 7:00 am. Crappers. I will be so tired. Also, probably not updating this here blog.

Random Things

Number One
Last Wednesday, in the middle of a day of super crazy busy work stuff and sinus congestion delirium, I took a walk to the library. On the way, a guy walked past me, and I noticed that slushy water was getting kicked up from his boots onto his lower pant legs as he walked.

And I thought, what about mud guards for boots? Kind of like guards on bicycle wheels, but on the backs of boots.

And then I thought about Oskar Shell and his "what abouts" and smiled.

Number Two
I was reading the Little Birds blog this morning and clicked a link to this blog. I scrolled threw it and noticed the post on February 17 (my dad's birthday, FYI, and the reason I went to see them) in which the blogger drew pictures of other people who share her name.

One of the other people is from my hometown, and I went to school with her.

How random is that?

On that note, good night!