Well, it’s official. As of this morning, Wendy and I are now both on the “South Beach” diet. It felt like we were buying out Kroger’s entire produce section last night. I wish we had a more convenient, better stocked produce section near by. That, or I think we need a second refrigerator to store all this stuff! I cooked the first item this morning — something called a “Cheesy Frittata.”

We were on this diet once before, and did pretty well on it. Unfortunately, we “fell off the wagon” when I fell off my bike. So now we’re trying again. One of the biggest challenges from last time, other than produce storage, was the rather time consuming chore of putting togerher a meal plan for the week, and then figuring out what groceries we’d need. This time, we’re turing to technology to help. Wendy’s got a piece of software called “Mac Gourmet” that we’re going to try. She’s going through the painstaking process of entering the South Beach recipes. Once that’s done, it will be much easier to create weekly menus and shopping lists.

Wish us luck!

That last video I posted got me thinking — I think I need to “up the ante” when it comes to my geek factor. Sure, I program computers. I play World of Warcraft. At one time, I even had an official chess ranking (though not a very high one). I also do some geocaching, play around with FourSquare and Twitter, and I’m active in community theater. But I also ride a motorcycle, which I think would count against me.

Well, there’s one geek “badge of honor” that I DON’T have — I don’t play Dungeons and Dragons. What makes it even worse is that, while I don’t play, my daughter DOES! This unnatural state of affairs should not be! So I’m looking for people in the Baytown/Houston area who might like to take me under their wing (or scale, as the case may be). Or, failing that, perhaps find other like-minded geeks who want to learn together.

So, who’s up for it?

Dork, and proud of it.

HT Tom Cottar

Wiesenthal Center accuses Presbyterians of declaring war on Israel.

I find this very disturbing. I certainly agree that the Jewish people in general, and the state if Israel in particular, have faced enormous challenges to their existence. But to say that we, as Presbyterians, are declaring war on Israel because of this document is ridiculous!

I have not read this document, so I may be way off base here, but I’m certain that there’s nothing in it that calls for the elimination of Israel. To quote:

“We want to be sure to say to you in no uncertain terms: We support the existence of Israel as a sovereign nation within secure and recognized borders. No `but,’ no `let’s get this out of the way so we can say what we really want to say.’ We support Israel’s existence as granted by the U.N. General Assembly. We support Israel’s existence as a home for the Jewish people. We have said this before, and we say this again. We say it because we believe it; we say it because we want it to continue to be true.”

Israel has a right to exist, but I don’t believe that ANY nation has the right to exist at the cost of repressing another people. It’s my perception that Israel is guilty of that repression, but I’m perfectly willing to be proven wrong. Israel should be willing to have it’s actions and motives examined, in a calm, rational manner.

Wow. The last time I posted something here was when the producers was going on, almost a year ago! It’s been so long, I didn’t even realize that this site had become infected with a worm. Not that enough people visit this site to matter, but that’s pretty bad none the less. Nothing here about me taking up the motorcycle, and nothing about the resulting accident.

As I’ve been feeling that a little introspection might do me some good, maybe I should see about reactivating this thing. Does anybody actually READ it?

If You Give a Bank a Bailout… « bald man blogging

Too true. Anyone who’s had kids in the last 20 years or so will probably recognise the pattern.