Weighing in

Weight Watchers tells you not to have unrealistic expectations about your weight-loss goal, because sometimes there are periods of stasis and also periods of reversal. So it was with me - weighing in this week I've gone backwards, gaining four tenths of a pound.

So I felt discouraged, and on my way out the door for my morning walk, I had to talk myself into going the full length. I was cold, it was wet, and what the heck good was it, anyway?

I'm glad I shook off the feeling and continued on. Because if I hadn't, I would have missed this view of the setting, lop-sided moon, over the mist-covered mountain.

Here on the way back up the hill 15 minutes later, the mists are clearing away and the moon has disappeared.

Weight Watchers tells you to re-examine your eating habits if you experience a gain. Are you tracking accurately? Did you do something differently this week? Did you slip? Do you need to shift your exercise into a higher gear? I've got some thinking to do.

How's your week starting?

Big storm adventure

We've been hunkered down indoors all day. The rain hasn't let up. In the afternoon, it got heavier, and as we watched weather websites online, we saw dark red storm cells moving in on our part of the mountains. The rain pounded on the roof, overflowed the gutters, filled the storm-culvert beyond our yard. The jacaranda tree next to the house tossed in the wind, and gusts curling around the windows and chimneys moaned and howled.

At 4:19 the power went out.

See there's Jack looking out the window.

I went outside and gathered up some lanterns and lamp oil and some botanica candles - which are my favorite candles for times like these, because they have so much fuel and they're safe. [The Man I Love] found the hand-crank radio in the cupboard and some flashlights. I filled the lanterns and got them lit.

We pulled our chairs up to the window, looking out at the storm. The announcer on the radio said that the storm was just hanging over the Santa Monica Mountains and Malibu - and it was true. Gone were the strong winds of earlier in the afternoon. Now the trees were still and the rain just pounded straight down, relentlessly. The weather reporter said it was expected to rain two inches per hour.

We peeked out the front door. Here's our front steps, with its own little waterfall.

What to do? The phones don't work, if you have a typical modern wireless phone (oh, where is that cheap old push-button phone that doesn't need electricity?). Even our cell phones didn't work - couldn't get a signal.

Our laptops worked, but couldn't get on line without power to the modem. So our only lifeline to the world was the hand-crank radio. It got darker and darker.

We opened the dark refrigerator and poured two glasses of wine. A package of crackers and a bunch of grapes; a wedge of packaged cheese. [The Man I Love] opened a little can of smoked oysters. The candles and the lanterns gave a warm amber light. Jack lay down on the floor between our chairs. We watched out the window as the rain came down, listened to it pound on the roof, and listened to the radio.

It didn't sound good. Traffic reports told of mudslides on the 405, closures on Sepulveda. Storm cells moving in. Water over the roadway on Topanga Canyon Boulevard at Old Canyon. Cars being washed away.

It got darker and darker. We carried our lanterns into the living room. We gathered blankets. [The Man I Love] could use his Droid to read a downloaded book. I thought about how long the food in the fridge would last if we avoided opening the door.

I started cleaning the wicks of some of the candles to keep them from guttering out. Hey! That really made a difference! It's a lot more bright!

Oh, wait. The power's back on. The familiar hum of the refrigerator, the clacking as my printer boots itself up again.

Three hours with the power out. Some pioneers we are.

It makes you think, though, doesn't it? Keep your emergency supplies in order, friends. You never know. My thoughts are with those in more dire circumstances, everywhere.

UPDATE at 9:51 pm: So much for the calm. The wind is back with a fury. We're keeping those flashlights and candles handy.

Rainy day, wet dog

It's been raining since late last night.


Jack's been out in it this morning. It's amazing how much water his coat can soak up.

Sorry, L.A. Marathoners. Hope you finish soon and dry off.

Pink Saturday - Holi Festival

Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

It's pink, it's purple, it's every color in the rainbow! Holi is the name of a spring festival celebrated in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and other countries where there are Hindu communities. In 2011, Holi is celebrated on March 19 and March 20.

People celebrate with bonfires and by throwing colored powder and colored, scented water at one another. The celebration commemorates the miraculous escape of Prahlad, a devotee of the god Vishnu, from the fires of the Demoness Holika. The festival really celebrates the end of winter, and people let loose.

Here in Los Angeles there are several Holi celebrations taking place. One is at Will Rogers Beach in Pacific Palisades, near our home. I'm hoping to stop by and enjoy - and will share what I see with you all.

Photos taken from online sites.

FAD Friday

Did you know that Venice, CA has an ordinance to protect the ducks in the canals from undue molestation and harassment?

Here at FAD Friday (Fuck-a-Duck Friday!!!) we should feel equally protected. You are free here to express whatever you might want to tell the world to GO FUCK A DUCK! you can vent your feelings here.

Let's get it on, friends! Let 'er rip!

St Patrick's Day feast

Since I'm doing Weight Watchers this year, I guess I won't be having corned beef, cabbage, mashed potatoes with butter, and a few pints of Guinness.

Ah, well. Here's a photo of the St. Patrick's Day feast we held last St. Paddy's Day, with our son and his friend Kate, brother-in-law Davy and his wife Kurly, on the Gulf Coast near Tampa, FL.

What if I just burp to celebrate?

UPDATE: Gilly's question in the comments made me look into the history of corned beef as a traditional St. Pat's day food, and it's fascinating. What the British think of as corned beef was invented in the 18th century, and is chopped up beef put in a can, and preserved with nitrites so that it could feed armies and navies and be shipped to the colonies. Many of the packing and curing factories were in Ireland, using Irish cattle that grazed on land that the British had cleared of Irish farmers and peasants.

Irish people were generally too poor to buy the canned preserved beef, and resorted to eating potatoes they grew on the poorer soil, with maybe some salt pork for flavoring.

In 19th century America, Jewish immigrants made a cured beef product with salt - koshered. Because it was cheap and available in the urban neighborhoods Irish immigrants shared with the Jewish community, over the generations it became identified as a Irish ethnic food.

So, Gilly - you're right, it's a different corned beef than you're familiar with in England. It's a beef brisket, cooked in a spiced brine.

L' Chiam! Slainte!

Clown clothes

I have no shame anymore. I just throw anything on in the morning.

Pajama top? pajama bottom? I'm not ashamed to wear them out on the street.

So I'll pull on a pair of jeans or sweatpants, but leave the pajama top on under my jacket.

Or sometimes I sleep in a t-shirt, and pull on pajama bottoms in the morning to keep my legs warm while I fix breakfast. I'll wear them out on the street.

But you know what's weird? I draw the line at wearing both outside at the same time. That's just not right.

Crocs - the only place I'll wear them is on my street in the morning.

A colorful scarf around the neck because my chest gets cold. An old cable sweater. Or a zipper sweatshirt jacket I got from my mom.

Capri-length yoga pants. It's cold, I need socks. How about these lime-green soccer socks?

I used to care more about what I wore on the street. Then I met a neighbor, wearing her plaid cotton pajama pants at four in the afternoon.

And then I met another neighbor on a morning dog-walk, wearing pajama pants printed with dog pictures.

OK.

Anything goes. I guess. Even Crocs.

The floating world

"The Great Wave off Kanagawa," Katsushika Hokusai, about 1820 - from Wikipedia Commons. In the public domain. Click to "embiggen."

Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints produced during the later part of the 18th century and the first part of the 19th century. "Ukiyo-e" means, literally, "pictures of the floating world."

One of the most famous artists of the genre was Katsushika Hokusai, who lived from 1760 - 1849. And one of his most famous prints is the one above, titled "The Great Wave off Kanagawa."

Created in the 1820s and the first in a folio of prints called "Thirty-Six View of Mount Fuji," it shows three fishing boats tossed on turbulent seas while the peak of Mount Fuji appears on the horizon.

"The Floating World" is a notion taken from writer Asai Ryoi's 1661 novel "Tales of the Floating World". It takes the Buddhist teaching that life is transitory and nothing material lasts forever, and, rather than counseling us to focus on the spiritual, instead celebrates the enjoyment of fleeting pleasures when you have the chance.

One translation goes:

... Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; ... refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world

It was an urban culture; entertainers, courtesans, actors and merchants enjoyed themselves in the city of Edo, or Tokyo. They told stories, attended theatre, read novels and bought pretty things. Books with scenes of urban or rural life, or travel were very popular. Illustrations of popular theatre, myths, or ghost stories sold well. Woodblock prints made picture books inexpensive - from each carving hundreds of prints could be struck and sold.

"South Wind, Clear Sky," Katsushika Hokusai, about 1830. Click to "embiggen."

In the 1840s, Japan opened its ports to Western trade after many years of isolation. As western technology like photography became popular in Japan, these woodblock prints fell out of favor at home, but in Europe they inspired artists such as James Abbot McNeill Whistler, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Frank Lloyd Wright and Mary Cassatt. Claude Debussy is said to have written his symphonic suite "La Mer" after viewing Hokusai's print of "The Great Wave off Kanagawa."

These fresh and brilliant Japanese images revitalized and inspired American and European arts just at the same time Japan embraced American and European technology, giving rise to an era of rapid industrialization and growth.

It's been over a hundred years since American Admiral Matthew C. Perry entered Japanese harbors and our two nations began our relationship. We've been enemies and allies. America defeated Japan, devastated it by fire, helped rebuild it, and watched it overtake us.

When one of America's greatest cities was deluged by storm and flood, Japan helped us. Now we need to help them. People are hungry, thirsty, and without shelter. And now as we watch, it experiences the worst crisis of its history, as the nuclear crisis at Fukushima unfolds.

Sara-yashiki, or "The Plate Mansion Ghost" - Katsushika Hokusai, 1830s. Illustration of ghost stories. The ghost of a murdered woman rises from the well where she was buried. Click to "embiggen."

It's a floating world. Things drift, dissolve, go with the current. You can't contain them or escape them. Water finds its home; oil floats and so do houses pulled from their moorings; vapor and unseen things waft through the crevices and up from the depths. Minute particles travel on jetstreams across continents and oceans, linking us all across the earth. How will we deal with it?

Although Hokusai's "Wave" is one of the most familiar images of Japanese art in the world, when I see it now, after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11 and the fears of today, it amazes me afresh with its terrible power.

In the face of towering waves that dwarf the very mountain itself, the fishing boats with their brave sailors deftly navigate them. The sun is in the East, on the ocean - it's morning and the water sparkles with a terrible beauty. Hokusai, inverting the traditional formula of landscape composition, places the tiny pyramid of the mountain as the still point around which the swirl and movement, the jagged crests and spangled droplets, the storm and the exhilaration all revolve.

What can we do to help bring the sailors back to safe harbor? What can we do to shelter them and ourselves?

You can see an exhibit of the art of ukiyo-e at the Library of Congress site, here.

Weighing In

If you don't get out and walk, you'll miss the blooming jasmine.

I've completed the first week of a return to Weight Watchers. I weighed myself this morning and I've lost 1.8 pounds.

What are the biggest changes I've made over the week? Well, there's two that stand out.

Bunnies eat veggies

First - although I often think of myself as having a pretty good diet, I realize now that I was not eating enough vegetables and fruit. Weight Watchers recommends at least five servings per day. With prompting from their plan, I've added these back in. Sometimes it's as simple as tossing a tangerine into my purse for an afternoon snack. I've started a morning routine of making carrot and celery sticks for my lunch. I've tried to add vegetables back into my dinner - in recent months it had just felt like too much trouble.

Second - I walk the dog every day. But in the past, especially with a cold and wet winter, my dog-walking has been ....shall we say...."results oriented." That is, I've only spent as much time as it takes for Jack to do his business. This week, I've returned to the idea that the walk should last a certain amount of time, and should cover a certain distance. I'm walking a mile each morning, with some serious uphill work. I'm planning to extend that to 1.6 miles next.

Because I did this before, it's easy to fall back into some good habits I learned the first time around. I know, for instance, that oatmeal for breakfast fills me up and keeps me from getting too hungry mid-morning. I know that protein for lunch - meat, egg, or fish - fills me up more than salads. Sushi is a great Weight-Watchers lunch, because it's protein and low in points. I know that soup is hot, satisfying, and almost zero points. It's good to remember the list of low-points snacks that help slake the mid-afternoon hunger - mini pretzels, low-fat string cheese, Ry-Krisp crackers, and frozen peas!

I remembered how you can plan for a little indulgence by taking an extra walk to earn more activity points.

I also recognize the bad habits I fell into, like indulging in that bowl of M&Ms on the reception desk! Just deciding to not have cheese on my sandwich makes a big difference.

C'mon, let's go for a walk!

Right now I'm feeling pretty good about this. I don't know how long I'll feel this way, but my plan is to try to stay on it until at least June, when we are going to travel to London to see our son.