A friend just sent this from the local elementary school – click here for the video of their recent Ladybug Release day. It’s only 3 minutes, but it’s a lot of fun. Her husband is the cinematographer/”interviewer.”

What’s your favorite part? I have to say mine is either the gal dressed up as the Ladybug (and her comeback to the “Tastes like Chicken” question) — or the little boy who raises his hand after the little girl gives the perfect answer in “Pick Me! Pick Me!” fashion, then thinks a little, and says “Um…what she said.”  Ha!

Today’s entry in San Francisco IdealBite goes like this:

Ever seen da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”?

The Bite

Then you know food can be art. And that’s what the founders of Slow Food International - a nonprofit devoted to bringing back whole foods that are cooked and savored slowly - are all about. If you’re into food prepared the old-fashioned way (and with sustainability in mind), add slow foods to your daily menu for a more vibrant…er, palate.

The Benefits

• Eating becomes art. Getting to know ingredients, producers, and the cultural history behind our foods makes for more soul-satisfying meals.
• An easel way to avoid empty calories. Many additives in processed and fast foods are chemicals that lack nutritional value and sometimes wreak havoc on your health.
• Painting a greener landscape. The slow food movement promotes biodiversity of crops, organic farming, and the preservation of family (not factory) farms.
• An energy-saving Renaissance. Example: The production of a 1-pound box of cereal requires almost seven times as many kilocalories of energy as it provides in nourishment.

OK, you know, it’s the last one that gets me. I keep harping on posts like The Story of Stuff (long, but worth watching), but those are the things that astonish me.

When I posted my comment today on IdealBite, I was reminded of my Podcast 8 about Life-Affirming Rituals, including Saying Grace (start at 25:00 for this portion). As you may remember from that one, a student of mine wound up losing weight, literally just through the act of thanking the “folks” that had gotten the food to her. She used to eat in the car, standing up, junk-food-on-the run. When I suggested she and her husband start saying Grace over everything they ate, they originally balked because they “don’t do that God thing.” I explained that wasn’t what this was about — this was Giving Thanks to the farmers, truckers, plants, animals, etc. that got that food TO them. The actual physical energetic “beingness” that went into what they were putting in their mouth.

Once she started doing that, first, she found it ‘disrespectful’ to eat standing up. And in the car. She and her husband felt weird saying grace over take-out boxes, so they put the food on plates. Which made them stay at the table longer, and the Grace started them talking about something besides Their Hard Days. Ultimately they started cooking.  And she started losing weight.

If you have my book, check out page 127 for a reminder about Mindfulness versus “Guilt-Ridden Scarfing” — and a discussion about “sensory awareness” when eating. It also talks about Living CAMP (check out the “eating a banana” link).  If you don’t have my book, it’s not pretty, but I have a PDF copy of the page for you here as I originally sent it in to my publisher: guilty-pleasures-sidebar-page-127

How’s about starting a quickie Thankfulness Practice, today?  You’re GOING TO EAT IT ANYWAY, my dear, so…why not?

I receive The Organized Life ezine - I wish I could link an RSS feed, but either I am an idiot or I just can’t find it - so the link here is to their latest article on Mother’s Day gifts.

Emily Wilska gave some great ideas for Mom’s Day gifts that can help, as she said, ”bring more organization and less stress to the lives of the ladies you love.”  Here are The Tips:

1.  Tastebook is a new service that lets you create personalized cookbooks that include both recipes from your own collection (or your mom’s) and from the voluminous online archives of Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines. Choose a cover and a theme (you can even upload your own photos), select and organize recipes, and customize your book.

2.  If Mom is overwhelmed with junk mail, sign her up for 41 Pounds or Green Dimes, both services designed to significantly reduce unwanted mail. Because both of these require a little bit of work (such as filling out Do Not Mail postcards to send to direct marketing services), you might include in your gift an hour or two of time to help get Mom up and running. (While you’re at it, go to Catalog Choice and help her stop unwanted catalogs from cramming her mailbox; the service is free.) Another clutter-clearer is Shoeboxed, a service that will scan any and all of your receipts and upload them to an account on a private, secure website.

3.  Last but not least, consider giving Mom something only you can give: your time. Most people I know (including myself!) have at least one or two organizing projects they’d love to tackle if only they didn’t have a dozen–or more–other things on their To Do list. Giving your mother a hand with the project of her choosing is a simple but powerful way of saying thank you.Remember that, with any project, it’s smart to keep things on a reasonable scale (don’t try to attack every closet in the house or 20 years’ worth of photos at once). If Mom’s project of choice is a large one, you might spread your offer of time over a few weeks or months to keep things moving forward without burning out. And at the end of the project, why not take Mom out for a celebratory lunch? You’ll both have earned it.

Great Tips!!!

Hey Grrls!

Can I tell you one thing? I’m in LOVE with Lisa Quinn (host) and David Corona (cameraman). I am honored to have been asked to come back to View From The Bay (ABC) to chat about another portion of my book - on feng shui. As you know, I’ve done two podcasts on feng shui (I actually just linked them on my Home Page to make it easier) - but this was my 3 minute “down and dirty” feng shui episode.

Now, if someone could teach me to MENTION THE NAME OF MY WEBSITE when I say “go to my website” - I would be Golden!

If you’d like to see the video - click here!

Yes, fine, so you know now that I’m way behind on my reading… so sue me…

 DoshDosh.com is an online forum that I really enjoy. I just read an article on re-thinking Comments on Blogs that was great and I wanted to pass on, and in particular a comment by Wendi Kelly at Life’s Little Inspirations.  She said:

“…I am often one to leave a comment if for no other reason then I don’t like to be a lurker, or leave you thinking it was a boring or bad article when I really enjoyed it. I am a newer blogger and it feels weird to me to have 36-40 ( or whatever– the ratio is the point) views on a post one day and then four or five comments. I feel like…hey? Why won’t they talk to me? So I want to make sure I at least say hi, I stopped by and this is what I thought.”

I completely agree with this. I am a little stunned that I have had pretty much no comments since I started up again, after publishing my book. It’s the weirdest thing. I see that folks view, but don’t comment.

It certainly could be that I’m not doing it, either. I will often pull up blogs when I’m on the run, scroll through them on my Blackberry, and because it’s a PITA to comment through the Crackberry, I “say” I will comment later, and never do.

So, a May Resolution is to try to be a better Commenter myself… in the hopes of attracting the same!

Hey… I told ya I was trying to clean up my online To Do/To Read list today…

Here is an organization that I found while investigating items for our Kentucky Derby vodcast — LUPEC — Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails. I’m sad because it looks like this site is not being maintained - last link was in 2007 - but it’s such a great idea, and has some great cocktail recipes, so I’m going to knock on their virtual door, and see if anyone answers!

BTW, the reason I wound up there was looking for a definition of “Julep” — and any website that uses Ladies…Preservation…and Cocktails in its first line grabs my interest. This is their definition of “julep” — as Mr. Martini told me during the vodcast, a “julep” is really a sort of drink “type” (like a “sour” for example) - I think he’s even going to do his next podcast on the subject of sours because, as with “juleps,” hey, I didn’t know there was more than just one. Fun for the summer!

[1] julep \Ju”lep\, n. [F., fr. Sp. julepe, fr. Ar. & Per. jul[=a]b, jull[=a]b, fr. Per. gul[=a]b rose water and julep; gul rose + [=a]b water.] 1. A refreshing drink flavored with aromatic herbs; esp. (Med.), a sweet, demulcent, acidulous, or mucilaginous mixture, used as a vehicle. –Milton. Honey in woods, juleps in brooks. — H. Vaughan. 2. A beverage composed of brandy, whisky, or some other spirituous liquor, with sugar, pounded ice, and sprigs of mint; — called also mint julep. [U.S.] Source: Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. 

In this podcast I am extremely honored to offer you another full induction from Master Hypnotherapist Susan Bird. The final of three full inductions, this session builds from the clearing and cleansing you did in the first induction, and the growing of your Manifestation Tree from the second induction. In this culmination of the three episode set, you examine, prune, and nurture your Tree and your Lake into the heathiest, best, most energetic manifestation of your Goal to live your Best Life in the Now! 

If you have comments on this episode, please call the Listener Comment Voicemail at +1 (206) 350-3537, e-mail sandy [at] beabondgirl [dot] com or leave a comment below.

Click the red button below to listen.

 

 Hypnotherapy Podcast with Susan Bird (3 of 3): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

NO. This is not going to be a commentary on women’s undies. :-) And if ANY of you can give me a small hint how to make the text wrap around photographs, I would be eternally grateful….

So anyway, I heard the other day on NPR a great way to stop a drippy water faucet (especially in, say, a hotel).  Take unwaxed dental floss, tie it to the end of the faucet, and then string it down into the sink.  The water will follow the floss down, and voila! Stop making that annoying noise.

The other thing I’ve seen folks very cleverly use unwaxed dental floss for is cutting sheet cakes, and even cheese. So this morning (after flossing) I was curious, and hit Lifehacker.com to see what they had to say.  Under their ‘Clever Uses’ and “MacGuyver Tips’ section, they had some great choices (including the two above). Check them out! My favorite is the “wristwatch survival kit” where the poster suggested using a hollow wristwatch to store dental floss, vitamins, match heads, and the like. Now THAT will take some SERIOUS packing skills!

I wanted to give a quick shout-out to Zandria’s blog on BlogHer. I am woefully behind on all my blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds and the like… it definitely takes discipline to scan through them every day. I know I need to set up a page where all the feeds, blogs, etc. “go” - but I haven’t quite gotten around to figuring out how to do that (Hi Sallie - yes, I know, you can’t believe it. I will. I swear.)

Today I was catching up on Zandria’s blog, and one of her comments was on being Single, and “doing something you’re not so good at/trying something new.” I wrote about this in my book, and she has a great perspective.  

When I was single, I did sort of a “regression analysis” (hey, I’m an attorney, so sue me) on the best places to “meet guys.” I had been bashed by relationship and was “older” then (late 30s) and really liked being “in relationship” so I wanted to figure out how to get back into one without doing something insane like hitting the bar/dance club scene. What it came down to was basically NASCAR and golf as being super man-rich “environments.”

I went to NASCAR with a grrlfriend and - yikes, boring beyond ALL boredom (if you’re a NASCAR fan I apologize), and SO LOUD.  But golf, even though I am AWFUL at it, was a GREAT thing. You can just go out and hit balls at a driving range, take some beginner classes (they’re always dead cheap — they try to ‘reel you in’), go to Play It Again Sports and get a golf set for not that much… and you really DO NOT have to be good.  There is a golf course in EVERY country (even Madagascar), and going and playing there you will ALWAYS meet guys, and it’s fun. The pro shop will have clubs for you to borrow.  If you decide to be a little more “interesting,” you can get a vintage putter for example, and just bring that -that’s the club that folks will comment on. (I have one from Scotland that was made from the rudder of the Queen Mary.)

Remember - I am TERRIBLE at golf.  But so long as you don’t hold the rest of your 4-some up (just pick the ball up, and tell them you owe them a beer… they’ll love you), it’s a GREAT place to meet guys, and you can tell their actual personality right off, too. (A guy I was kinda interested in threw his CLUB when he was upset at a shot he made and it BROKE - a handmade graphite club - NO THANKS. Step a-waaaaaaaaay from the Crazy Man…)

There are also groups just for women (e.g., EWC - Executive Women’s golfing Club) nationwide, where you get together with other professional women, usually on like a Tuesday or Wednesday after work, play a round and then have a glass of wine and laugh. It’s a fantastic networking thing, too.

Remember tho - it’s a game…. :-)

 S

PS:  My husband doesn’t play golf (figures, huh?) and so I’m a little out of practice now, but it’s on my “list” to get back to. It was such a great way to meet people and it’s good exercise too, if you don’t ride a cart.