more about weight and ideals

According to the interwebs, if my wrist stays the same, I should have a waist of just over 25 inches. I have about ten inches more than that. But also according tot he interwebs, waist and hip should be about ten inches off eachother, and I do have that, so... I'm horribly fat, but in perfect proportion?

I don't know why I look at those charts. I keep wanting to have some sort of goal, something to compare to, but all it does is make me think that the charts want me to be way too skinny. When I weighed 100 lbs, which is 20lbs less than they say my ideal is, I had a 24 inch waist.

But also also according to those charts, my neck is good, and my arms and calfs are below where they want them to be. So... it's just my butt that's huge. Got it.

I lost two pounds this week, and I'm pretty sure it's because we haven't turned the air on yet. It's warm in here, and that makes me less likely to sit around eating when I'm home. And it's hot outside, which makes me less likely to want the heavy, starchy things I usually eat at work. I've pretty much switched naturally and without any trouble at all to what I call my Summer Diet-- I just don't want solid foods more than once a day, I don't want heavy starches, I don't want heavy or greasy meat. I want juice and apples and berries and sorbet and lemonade and sweet tea and yogurt. So I've been eating less, drinking more, and sweating like a pig, and I'm down two pounds. That doesn't sound like much, but I'm really short-- it shows. Already, my waist is narrower, and that corner of my hip that was starting to look like a shelf is starting to smooth out again.

I think I'm okay with this. I'm aiming for 130 first, to see if I can get it, and I'm under 150 now, so it seems easier. Then I'll see about 120, which is what I weighed when I started college and what the charts say is the upper end of ideal-- it's where I was comfortable. Less than that, and a stiff breeze can knock me off my feet. So there we go. I'm still on my same plan, even after all those charts.

sf in real life: A New ET-Seeking Project To Locate Dyson Spheres And Halo Worlds - Space - io9

A New ET-Seeking Project To Locate Dyson Spheres And Halo Worlds - Space - io9

How awesome is this? Even with science basically telling them they're loons, people are still out there looking for other life in the Universe. As someone raised on Carl Sagan, I fully endorse this, and as someone who write and reads scifi, I think it's super-awesome. Cuz here: Sooner or later, we'll be too many for this planet, or we'll mess it up, or we'll use all the resources, or we'll realize that we need to be more spread out to avoid an asteroid or something, and space is the only place to go. It's natural that we'd want to know what's out there and what they did to get there.

Mulberries Treat Insomnia, Arthritis, and More

Mulberries Treat Insomnia, Arthritis, and More:

I just posted gushingly over on the Food Blog about the mulberries all over the yard, and while I was looking through the google hits that came up as I was looking for pictures, I found this lovely bit of info, from the article linked at the top:

"The mulberry itself is called sang shen, and enriches the blood and yin. It can be used to treat dizziness, tinnitus, insomnia and premature graying of hair. In Chinese medicine, the dose is 6 to 15 grams a day, and is often used in syrup form, taking advantage of the berry's natural sweetness. It is known to contain carotenes, thiamene, riboflavin, vitamin C, tannin, linoleic acid, and stearic acid. The berries can also be used to treat constipation (when due to blood deficiency.) (2)

Mulberry leaf is called sang ye, and is used to treat fever, headache, sore throat and cough. It is also used to clear red, sore, painful eyes, both internally and externally as an eye wash. (3)

Mulberry root bark is called sang bai pi and stops coughing and wheezing, while also promoting urination to reduce enema, especially of the face. In European herbal traditions, the root bark is used as a decoction, to get rid of tapeworms. (4)

Mulberry twig is sang zhi, and helps relieve arthritis in the joints of the arms. Clinical research has also shown an immune effect from drinking an infusion of mulberry twigs: patients with reduced immune function showed an increased rate of lymphocytes (white blood cells that defend the body against disease). (5)"

today is brought to you by...

big orange felt poppies, whatever the heck Maybelline thinks Irish Mist looks like, WTF Bangs, bad overcast-weather headaches, financial aid angst, and purple fingers from picking three ziplock bags of mulberries this morning.

This is from after that two pounds of mulberries-- see the staining? It's a shame my webcam is sort of washed out; it was a nice color.

Later this week, or maybe next week, I'll be making jam with them and an apple (for the pectin), and then I'll share it with everyone. The trees went from 0-falling fruit literally overnight yesterday, and I was working both jobs and missed probably as much as I got; the harvest is crazy good this year. All season last year, I only got, like, a cup and a half!

so it's almost my birthday...

and even though I'm telling people I'm turning 46, it's actually a more... important number. You know what it is if you know me.

And since this is about a month ahead of time, I'd just like to say: I'd like a nice party. Preferably not on Memorial Day Weekend, which is crap to have a birthday on, and preferably not planned by me, because I'm not good at planning parties and no one will come. And I'd like nice new things-- clothes and books and such-- that I can use for school, or else, anything off this list (or things inspired by it).

Barring that, I'd like a night where we all get together and eat good food and drink fruity rum-based drinks and wear pretty dresses or the male equivalent and everyone tells me how awesome I am. Because it's my birthday.

And thus starts my countdown. C'mon guys. It's a special year, and I'm tired of my birthdays being lost in the shuffle of that stupid weekend.

what i learned today

- I've managed to loose just enough weight that I can fit into the middle-skinny jeans that I found when I was cleaning my room today! None of the corduroys, and none of the dress pants, and none of the real skinny jeans, but the ones in the middle, that I wore to work when I worked at the restaurant before I got a lighter-workload job and gained weight!

- The knock-off nerf dart guns are way way stronger than the name-brand.

- I really can't leave WalMart without buying all sorts of things I never thought I'd need, and yet totally do.

- City of Glass will never ever be in paperback, only because I've been waiting for it for months and I want it to match City of Bone and City of Ashes, and because both Walmart and Target and the publisher all hate me. Also, that's bad sentence structure and I don't care because it's fan-tantrum and it's better than most of it's kind.

what I learned today

- The Magic Eraser is no match for large numbers of scuffs on stairs, no matter how hardy Mr Clean promises me it is

- The lady up the road is convinced that Gou is going to attack her kids, even though he's never intentionally hurt anyone, and would probably do nothing more than knock them over because he doesn't realize they're little

- Pollen is my arch enemy

- Uncorrected proofs are hard to read because of their uncorrectedness