Life is Healthy

Development of oil refinery and fuel processing which is planned by PT Pertamina (Persero) in the country was only able to suppress reduction of fuel imports for 25 percent of current oil imports more than 40 percent to 15 percent.

"Construction of the refinery was to decrease the gap between imports and domestic production capacity," said Director of Marketing and Commerce Pertamina Achmad Faisal at the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources Jakarta, Monday, August 31, 2009.

Faisal said, the current domestic premium consumption reached 123.889 million barrels, while domestic refinery capacity 68.553 million barrels, as well as domestic premium consumption growth per year to reach 5.68 percent. However, with the construction plan of new refineries and additions of refinery capacity from Balongan, premium production is estimated to be 164.999 million barrels.

Faisal admitted, if the refinery capacities are to be constructed may be enlarged in the future Pertamina does not need to import more premium, we can even exports Minyak Solar / High Speed Diesel. "In 2017, if the refinery is completed, the production of diesel fuel could reach 200.840 million barrels. Meanwhile, domestic consumption 171.893 million barrels," he said.

Pertamina plans to build three refineries, ie Bojonegara with a capacity 300 thousand barrels per day (bpd) of early stage will be built with a capacity of 150 thousand bpd and is expected to operate in 2015. Development of Tuban refinery with a capacity of 300 thousand bpd and is targeted to start operating in 2016, and the expansion of Balongan refinery with a capacity of 200 thousand bpd and is targeted to start operating in 2015.

On the same occasion, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said that the slow realization of the construction of oil refineries, among others due to the amount of investment needed and the low of margins.

"Therefore, in order to support the development of an oil refinery in cooperation with BKPM, Directorate General of Oil and Gas, Ministry of Finance, BPH Migas and Pertamina to discuss incentives support for refinery investment," he said.

I finished lunch a little while ago, and now I have a "sticking" pain in the right side. I think I may still have pleurisy and pneumonia, too. It feels really heavy under my ribs—like my abdomen is full of fluid. I feel like a watermelon.

Today is a pretty emotional day for my little family.

Tomorrow, my youngest, will start Grade One at a new school. While that's a pretty big deal in and of itself (at least it's the same school his big brother attends), this also marks his last day at the day care housed in his old school.

My family has been involved (except for a few years between kids and when D. was in home care), with the Glebe Parents' Day Care since 1999, when S. was a toddler. It's a great day care but the staff at their First Avenue program are truly exceptional.

When S. was "emergency airlifted" out of First Avenue in Grade One, they re-opened the day care an hour early so that staff could meet him at the bus (his temporary school was further away and the school day ended earlier) for the rest of the term (from February until June).

And, earlier this year, when I needed a space to launch my book, the staff offered their wonderful facility free of charge. They decorated it so beautifully and there was even a message on a chalkboard in the washroom telling me how proud they were of me.

And those are just a couple of examples.

This past week end, D. and I made a poster-sized card with a photo of our family. We all signed it. We also made cookies (I burned the first two batches, my spouse did the baking of the last couple, as I was becoming hysterical). We also gave them a bottle of gourmet chocolate sauce to pour in their coffee.

D. and I made cards for the three teachers who hosted the book launch. I want to make scarves for all three of them but of course, only one was finished. D. had me paste photos of the scarves in the cards for the other two, so that they would know what they are getting (I made a "Lace Ribbon" scarf for J., T. is getting a "Clapotis" and, if I can manage the pattern, I want to make "Juno" for A.)

I had T. and D. deliver it all to the day care, confessing to my spouse that I am "emotional coward." Apparently, the staff and T. have decided that I am not to be let off the hook, though, so S. and I will join T. when he goes to collect D. at the day care this evening.

There might be tears.

These photos were taken first thing this am and are thus not particularly flattering. I just wanted a photographic record.

To distract myself this, I thought I'd do this nifty little book meme that Sassymonkey wrote about at BlogHer:

"Using only books you have read this year (2009), answer these
questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It’s a lot harder than you
think!

Here's the meme with my answers. If you haven't read enough books so far this year to answer all the questions go back as far as you need to get enough books. If you've played it on your blog leave a link so I can go visit."

I was planning to do it even before I noticed that Sassymonkey had used my book to answer one of the questions but that particularly tickled me.

Describe yourself: Dragonslayer (Bone #4, Jeff Smith)

How do you feel: What It Is (Lynda Barry)

Describe where you currently live: Three Day Road (Joseph Boyden)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go? Toronto Noir (Janine Armin and Nathaniel G. Moore, eds.)

Your favorite form of transportation: Walk Through Darkness(David Anthony Durham)

Your best friend is: Tipping The Velvet (Sarah Waters)

You and your friends are: Casting Spells (Barbara Bretton)

What’s the weather like: All the Colours Of Darkness (Peter Robinson)

You fear: The Price Of Darkness (Graham Hurley)

What is the best advice you have to give: Nobody Move (Denis Johnson)

Thought for the day: Don't Look Twice (Andrew Gross)

How I would like to die: A Good Death (Elizabeth Ironside)

My soul’s present condition: Hurry Down Sunshine (Michael Greenberg)

Phylicia Rashad, age 61, (of Bill Cosby Show fame) has lost 35 pounds. She looks and feels fantastic. She joined Jenny Craig as a spokesperson in December and it's taken her eight months to lose the weight. She says it's not rocket science. She believes she can keep the weight off as she lost it quite gradually and she intends to keep up the regular exercise. See her in this Jenny Craig promotional video below.

ExxonMobil ensure its subsidiary company, Mobil Cepu Limited, began to flow the oil from Blok Cepu this afternoon (31 / 8). "The flows for start-up (initial production) from the field of Banyu Urip to the Mudi facility," said ExxonMobil spokesman Maman Budiman in a short message.

Initial production is estimated at five thousand barrels per day. He said the drainage of oil through the pipeline will be owned by Pertamina / Geolink. Initial production target of Blok Cepu should be done at the end of last year. But it continued to stretch the target until could be done this afternoon.

Government targeting the initial production of Blok Cepu reached 20 thousand barrels per day. Executing Agency Head of the Upstream Oil and Gas says to start in mid-September will produce a new 15 thousand barrels per day and will increase gradually.

Director General of Customs and Excise / Dirjen Bea Cukai, Anwar Suprijadi states, the weapons arrested by Philippine authorities are legal export goods in accordance with customs procedures that carried out by PT Pindad.

"It (the weapons) has notification of export of goods from Tanjung Priok, Jakarta and depart on 10 August. So it's all are official, because the papers officially completed," Anwar said in a visit to the Port of Belawan.

Related to the possible errors of perception on the part of the Philippine customs, according to him, it could been happen. This could be due to a lack of communication with the buyer and the ship manifest report was incomplete or not reported in the table of contents of cargo transported. "Charge on the ship is a weapon. If not reported it to be a problem," he said.

However, Anwar continued, officially PT Pindad has exported to the specified requirements. However, if change of weapons was carried out in the sea, possibly it could just happen. "If there are changes in the sea we do not know, because we control only up to the Tanjung Priok," he said.

Earlier Philippine customs officials have detained a cargo ship "Capt. Ufuk" in Bataan, carrying about 50 guns, on Thursday night (20 / 8). When checked, found rifles made by Pindad type SS1-V1, several other military equipment, and long guns branded Israel "Galil", similar types of assault weapons that are accurate within a range of 300-800 meters.

In addition to weapons, Filipino officials are also holding 14 crew members from Georgia and Africa. The ship departs from Port of Georgia and stopped in Indonesia to take the goods, before sailing to the Port of Mariveles.

The Indonesian government is still awaiting confirmation from the Philippine government related to the findings of this Panamanian flagged ship. Meanwhile, a spokesman of PT Pindad, Timbul Sitompul, said the number of weapons found in the Philippines was the order of the Philippine government and Mali. "The Philippines ordered ten units P2 gun type of weapon and the Government of Mali (South Africa) ordered a number of long guns SS1-V2," he said.

WARNING: This blog entry is rated PG or PG-13, depending on your standards. There’s no food porn, I promise, but there is a wee bit of *ahem* s-e-x. Nothing that’ll make you want to light a cigarette, but a little blush-worthy, at least for me.
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“Researching” my book last year led me to the basement and the box of journals I keep in a box waaaaay in the back of the third shelf, behind Christmas decorations and another box filled with every paper I wrote in college. (I was an English major with a writing minor. It’s a VERY big box.)

I’ve kept a journal since sixth grade and I still have the small hard-cover blue diary I began when I started “going with” my boyfriend Ricky. Since then, I’d amassed quite a collection of cloth-bound, spiral-bound and leather-bound journals.

I dug out the one I kept in 1989 when I was newly divorced, had just started college and was working full time. I weighed 170 pounds. When I was 300 pounds, I’d have given a body part to weigh 170, but in 1989, it made me self-conscious. Throughout the journal is the line, “I wish I was 30 pounds lighter…” After a blind date, I wrote, “He is gorgeous and nice and funny and I’m sure I’ll never see him again. He’s too everything for someone like me. I know what kind of men care about me (for longer than a night) and he’s not it.”

Poor me, right? *eyeroll* No need to feel sorry for boo-hooing me because a few pages later, the name “Jace”* starts popping up. (*Not his real name, but I’m using it because in Greek it means “healer,” which will become clear by the end of this blog.)

Here’s my story of Jace.

I was out with some colleagues for a drink before picking up my kids, making dinner and watching “The Cosby Show.”

You know how busy bars are during happy hour – you have to practically yell to talk to the person next to you. But within the hum and laughter, I heard a voice that was definitely not Minnesotan. I casually glanced over my shoulder. Sitting on a stool adjacent to me was a broad-shouldered, dark-haired man wearing a tailored suit. He set his drink on the bar and caught me staring. He grinned. My insides turned to Jell-O.

My friends finished their drinks and asked the bartender for their tab. From the corner of my eye, I saw the dark-haired man glancing at me as he talked with his friends.

‘Crap,’ I thought. ‘Do I stay or do I go?’

I did a quick mental assessment. I was a size 14 and wearing a forgettable skirt and blouse with the buttons undone one hole lower than at work. I’d also freed my hair from its barrette. Hardly stunning, but I was still in good standing with the Pretty Face Club, and thanks to a little liquid courage, I felt sufficiently attractive.

I turned around and smiled at him just as his friends went to get another drink. I leaned over and asked him, “Your accent. Is that Italian?”

He smiled a wide perfect-teeth smile and said, “No. I’m Greek.”

Oh my.

My friends said their goodbyes and whispered, “Call us tomorrow” as the man moved his stool next to mine.

“I’m Jace,” he said. “Who are you?”

I said, “Lynn,” but when he said it, he pronounced it “Lean.” Oh the irony.

Within 45 minutes I learned he held a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and worked for a consulting firm on the west coast. He lived in a corporate apartment when he was in Minneapolis, and his family lived in Greece. He was thinking of buying a Porsche, and was currently reading a German translation of “War and Peace.” I had to pinch myself because he was so dreamy, then I remembered my kids and dinner and “Cosby.” I said I had to leave and he wrote down his personal number on his business card.

“Call me,” he said, and I floated home.

The next day my inner fat girl wondered what a handsome, well-dressed, worldly man like Jace wanted with a frumpy overweight secretary with kids? The woman with the loosened blouse and free hair and subtle wine buzz disappeared in the night, but I knew I needed her help to convince the fat chick to call this guy back. It took a few good hair days and some tough love, but I called him.

“Lean, baby” he growled.

He asked me to dinner for the following Saturday and we agreed that I’d pick him up since I didn’t want my kids meeting Mommy’s new friend. When I got to his apartment, he greeted me at the door, all 6-foot 2-inches of him, with a smile so devilish that Satan himself would have turned around and run the other direction. That’s what my better judgment did, but the rest of me walked in and he locked the door behind me.

We exchanged nice-to-see-you-agains and sat down on the couch. CNN was on TV and “War and Peace” was on the coffee table. As we talked, I tried to avoid his gaze because his eyes were like pools of melted chocolate. If that’s all I had to worry about, we might have made it to dinner that night, but there was no avoiding his accent. It was like an aural massage.

I didn’t care whether mistake or good fortune lay ahead, but I finally decided to get brave and look him straight in the eyes. He placed his large soft hands on my face, smiled and whispered “Baby,” then wrapped his lips around my mouth like a lid on Tupperware. My body went totally limp and he moved me on to his lap like I was as light as tissue paper.

My fat girl was screaming, “There’s a light on! Don’t let him see your stretch marks! My God, what are you doing letting him touch your breasts while you’re in that upright position! You know you should be lying down!” But what I was feeling was enough to send that fat chick packing. For a few hours, I didn’t think about my too-large hips or my mother-of-two apron belly. I just let myself feel.

‘Where did he learn this?’ I kept thinking, because I was signing up all future boyfriends for that class.

I know confidence has to come from within, blah blah blah, but meeting Jace and going toe-to-toe with my fat chick, even for a little while, helped me see myself in a new light.

Jace was so good looking that women would buy him drinks when clearly they could see we were on a date. It was intimidating (because of course ALL those women were WAY better looking then me, right?), but Jace always focused on me when we were together. I began to see that this was more than a physical thing, though not exactly a “love” thing, either, in the traditional sense. I knew that from the start and never tried to change it. I just let things unfold, which was so unlike tight-gripped, control freak me.

Jace was as passionate about conversation and debate as he was about sex. I’d just started college, but he treated me like I had a Ph.D. He was fascinated by my life – my little old podunk life. He asked me questions about my reading lists, taught me about foreign policy from a Greek perspective, and encouraged my writing. That he believed in me opened the door for me to believe in myself. How do you thank someone for that?

We saw each other on and off for a few years until his project in Minneapolis was complete. He went back to the west coast and I moved to the east. I thought about him once in awhile over 17 years, and finally last year, I looked for him on the Internet – not because I was unhappy or needy. I was writing about that time in my life for the book and I was curious about where he was and if it was possible to let him know what an influence he’d been in my life.

He was easy to find. I sent him an email asking him if he remembered me. Not an hour later I got an email back. Yes, yes, he said, I remember you. He asked me where I lived. As luck would have it, he was going to be at a conference in Pittsburgh the following month and, fully sanctioned by my husband, we made plans to have dinner.

I won’t lie. I was scared to death to see him, like I was that insecure girl at the bar all over again. But when I saw his fabulous grin and he hugged me and said, “Hello, Lean,” I knew I’d made the right decision to contact him. Our friendship transcended the years and we talked for hours.

When I explained I was writing a book, he said he knew I could do it. When I thanked him for all he’d done for me physically and intellectually, he said he didn’t understand. How did I not know then that I was a good and worthy person? I just sighed. He hadn’t changed a bit.

But I had.

Spokesperson for Indonesia-Malaysia Eminent Persons Group, Musni Umar in Jakarta said, EPG urging Kementerian Hal-Ehwal dan Keamanan Dalam Negeri Malaysia (Home Affairs and Internal Security Ministry) to investigate, dragged to court and punish the perpetrators of broadcasting Tari Pendet delivered by the Discovery Channel for Malaysian tourism promotion conducted by a third party.

Eminent Persons Group also urge Malaysian Govt. to investigate the actors who change lyrics of the Indonesia Raya songs contained in www.topix.com/malaysia, and the issue of abuse against migrant workers who allegedly committed by Malaysian police.

"This investigation is important, so it does not happen again in the future. EPG expect all parties in the month of Ramadhan to be level-headed, impatient and self-control, did not incite the various provocations," he said.

EPG, according to Musni, has developed and delivered a number of recommendations to the government of Indonesia and Malaysia, which, Insya Allah, become a solution to overcome the various problems in the relations between the two neighbor countries.

"We condemn the action and urged the Indonesian and Malaysian police to prosecute the perpetrators, dragged into court and punished with as severe because the act is a crime and a form of provocation," he said.

by Talin, Software Engineer, Blogger (Mountain View, CA)

It's fitting that our newest birthday present was announced first on Twitter. Starting yesterday, the Blogger Navbar includes a new button: "Share."

Water shortage in southern Iraq threatens two million people

And what is Turkey's solution to this crisis for the Euphrates River? Why build more dams to divert even more water of course. There is no "democracy" in any place where people are deprived of the basic necessities of life. So much for our "occupation." It's bad enough we forced Monsanto seeds down their throats to ruin their agriculture, but now they don't even have enough water to water the seeds. Why is it everywhere we go we bring nothing but misery to the people who live there? The Middle East is already an arid water scarce area.

They cannot afford to have climate change along with multiple dams and wasteful practices adding to their crisis. Once again, the sun shines bright in the sky and all people can think of is using water for electricity that they need to grow food and survive because it makes contractors and politicians rich, and can also be used as a political weapon as the Ilisu Dam in Turkey is one against the Kurds.Restore the Marshlands, give the seeds back to the farmers, tear down the unncessary dams in Turkey destroying history and being used as political weapons, and invest in solar power in this area to save water. These dams have displaced thousands of people and denied water to those who need it to live. It isn't as though the solutions aren't there, but of course they are always the solutions that make someone money that only matter.It is time for the Middle East to come into the sun.


Excerpt from article:

Martin Chulov in Nasiriyah, Iraq guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 26 August 2009
Two million people face life without water
Link to this video

A water shortage described as the most critical since the earliest days of Iraq's civilisation is threatening to leave up to 2 million people in the south of the country without electricity and almost as many without drinking water.

An already meagre supply of electricity to Iraq's fourth-largest city of Nasiriyah has fallen by 50% during the last three weeks because of the rapidly falling levels of the Euphrates river, which has only two of four power-generating turbines left working. If, as predicted, the river falls by a further 20cm during the next fortnight, engineers say the remaining two turbines will also close down, forcing a total blackout in the city.

Down river, where the Euphrates spills out into the Shatt al-Arab waterway at the north-eastern corner of the Persian Gulf, the lack of fresh water has raised salinity levels so high that two towns, of about 3,000 people, on the northern edge of Basra have this week evacuated. "We can no longer drink this water," said one local woman from the village of al-Fal. "Our animals are all dead and many people here are diseased."

Iraqi officials have been attempting to grapple with the magnitude of the crisis for months, which, like much else in this fractured society, has many causes, both man-made and natural.
Two winters of significantly lower than normal rainfalls – half the annual average last year and one-third the year before – have followed six years of crippling instability, in which industry barely functioned and agriculture struggled to meet half of subsistence needs. "For thousands of years Iraq's agricultural lands were rich with planted wheat, rice and barley," said Salah Aziz, director of planning in Iraq's agricultural ministry, adding that land was "100% in use".

"This year less than 50% of the land is in use and most of the yields are marginal. This year we cannot begin to cover even 40% of Iraq's fruit and vegetable demand." During the last five chaotic years, many new dams and reservoirs have been built in Turkey, Syria and Iran, which share the Euphrates and its small tributaries. The effect has been to starve the Euphrates of its lifeblood, which throughout the ages has guaranteed bountiful water, even during drought. At the same time, irrigators have tried tilling marginal land in an attempt for quick yields and in all cases the projects have been abandoned.

"Not even during Saddam's time did we face the prospect of something so grave," said Nasiriyah's governor, Qusey al-Ebadi. Just east of the city, the Marsh Arabs are also on the edge of a crisis – unprecedented even during the three decades of reprisals they faced under the former dictator.

"The current level of the Euphrates cannot feed the small tributaries that give water to the marshlands," he continued. "The people there have started to dig wells for their own survival. There is no water to use for washing, because it is stagnant and contaminated. Many of the animals have contracted disease and died and people with animals are leaving their areas." Nowhere is Iraq's water shortage more stark than in what used to be the marshlands. Towards the Iranian border and south to the Gulf, rigid and yellowing reeds jut from a hard-baked landscape of cracked mud.

Skiffs that once plied the lowland waters lie dry and splintering and ducks wallow in fetid green ponds that pocket the maze of feeder streams. Steel cans of drinking water bought by desperate locals line dirt roads like over-sized letter boxes. The Euphrates, once broad and endlessly green, is now narrow and drab...

end of excerpt.
_______________

It matters not what part of the world you live in, or whether you are French, American, Israeli, Palestinian, Iraqi, Pakistani, etc. you have the right to clean water, food, health, and to be secure in the place you choose to live. War has provided NONE of those things, particularly for this region of the world, and it is now primarily the fault of the US that these people now suffer as well as the fault of other countries looking to gain from their misery.

It surely makes someone like myself not even have the motivation to continue to try to talk to people to make them see that poltiics, religion, and more than anything else, GREED (that spans all religions, non religions, and politics) has now deteriorated our world to the point where humanity is becoming obsolete.

When climate change along with all of these factors runs the Fertile Crescent, one of the most historically rich areas of the world and the cradle of agriculture dry how many who ignored these warnings due to their own apathy and prejudices will then start to care? Well, you will be too late then.

This is part one of eight parts. Refer to the link here:

Flow-The Movie

to watch the other seven parts.

Please spread it around.

Thanks

A much quieter and more subdued group this week. A moment of panic struck me when only HALF the group turned up at the tapas!? On Sunday they all had shown up except for one, which gave us an even number of Anglos and Spaniards.

Punctuality was again an issue on many occasions, although its harder to keep track of time here as the city is a big distraction, it is still important for the program.

I felt my energy levels drop considerably this week; tiredness, group energy, I don’t know why, but not on top form. (perhaps I'm getting old… …er)

Missing Sandra and Pitu that’s for sure!

There was a lot happening in the 'outside world' which gave opportunity for lots of diverse conversations – Michael Jackson’s MURDER! The South African woman who won the gold was alleged to be a man; which in turn gave rise to discrimination claims. The Italian lottery winner and of course England winning the Ashes (sorry Marisa, get in my son!) There’s a weeks worth of gossip there alone ;)

There was a lot of interesting and strong personalities on the program which kept us entertained – intentionally or not. A few cliques too which didn’t help to make the group inclusive :(
I noticed that this week that we had a couple of non native English speakers (which is unusual), accents are one thing (and great as a comprehension challenge) but non natives is a different thing altogether, in my opinion.

A quick tour of the city was a welcomed break from 'the office' and a chance to get some photography done too. It was a quieter group as I said but enjoyable and fun non the less, the party rocked and then rocked some more in the city; but I really am getting too old for that.

Vaughan Town - Salamanca - Program 174

I must be the most naïve blogger in the world. I had no idea it was a courtesy to put a “Food Porn” warning in the title if a blog entry mentioned food. I apologize to anyone who’s had food cravings or binges after reading one of my blogs.

Today’s entry is all about food. Healthy food, albeit, but food nonetheless. Binging on this stuff will only give you a really bad case of gas.

I love Taste of Home, particularly its Healthy Cooking Magazine. I found this recipe in the regular Taste of Home magazine, but it could easily have been in Healthy Cooking. It’s vegetarian, low fat, hearty and packs a great lemon-cinnamon punch. It’s my new favorite soup. And I don’t say this lightly since I’m a huge soup fan. This is really good stuff for 3 Points for a 1½-cup serving. My only advice: don’t overcook the potatoes.

(FYI: I substitute 2 cups of carrots for the butternut squash when husband Larry’s eating this since he isn’t a fan of the cucurbita moschata (I heart Wikipedia).)

Moroccan Chickpea Stew

Ingredients:

1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 cinnamon stick (3 inches)
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
4 cups vegetable broth
2 cups cubed peeled butternut squash (or carrots)
1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas or garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 medium red potato, cut into 1-inch cubes (1 cup)
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes (2 cups)
1 medium lemon, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 small zucchini, cubed
3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

Directions:

In a Dutch oven, sauté onion in oil and butter until tender. Add the garlic, cumin, cinnamon stick and chili powder; sauté 2 minutes longer.

Stir in the broth, squash, chickpeas, tomatoes, potatoes, lemon and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes and squash are almost tender.

Add zucchini; return to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5-8 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Discard cinnamon stick and lemon slices. Stir in cilantro. Yield: 9 servings (about 2 quarts).

Cauliflower & Broccoli

Here’s what I’ve learned about roasting cauliflower the right way (as opposed to my normal hurry-up-and-roast-already): Cauliflower TAKES TIME. It took me a year to figure this out. But taking time to do it right is well worth it.

I hate cutting up cauliflower. It’s like wiping off spitballs or Styrofoam on your cutting board – impossible to clean. Those little white florets stick to everything. But last week, using my hands instead of a knife, I broke the cauliflower apart into little pieces over my ceramic roasting pan to catch all the little white bits. Worked great! I threw in some minced garlic cloves, sprinkled some pepper and a tiny bit of seasoned salt on top, sprayed it all with Pam, and put it in a 375-degree oven.

After 20 minutes I tossed the mixture and set the timer for another 20 minutes. I tossed it again and set the timer for 10 minutes. I checked on it occasionally, but it took the full 50 minutes to be Lynn Done. Time and a lower temperature produced THE best roasted cauliflower I’ve ever had. I used to eat it after roasting it for 30 minutes thinking hard and chewy (in other words, RAW) was how I was supposed to eat it. But I’m not that raw kind of gal. I like my food caramelized, soft, dark, really cooked. I order my toast nearly burned, I like the “burnt” potato chips, and when I ate meat, I preferred chicken or turkey thighs.

My new-found knowledge about cauliflower applies to broccoli, too (however, I sliced it rather than rip it apart with my hands). I sprinkle it with pepper and garlic powder, coat it with Pam, and roast it for 20 minutes, after which I toss it again, give it another 20 minutes, then watch it and test it until it is Lynn Done. I throw on some parmesan cheese and called it dinner. Well…PART of dinner. Tonight I added this:

Portobello Mushroom and Bell Pepper Sloppy Joes

1 T. olive oil (or you can eliminate the oil and sauté the veggies in a bit of vegetable broth)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 small bell peppers (I prefer sweet red peppers)
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 pound portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
2 T tomato paste
1-2 T Worcestershire sauce (2 T will give you a nice tangy flavor)
1 t dried oregano
½ t Tabasco

Heat the oil (or broth) in a large skillet coated with cooking spray. Add garlic, pepper and onions. Cook until slightly softened. Add the mushrooms (and a little more broth) and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are softened and liquid is absorbed.

Add tomato sauce and paste, Worcestershire, oregano and Tabasco. Stir well. Cook until thickened.

Spoon mixture on to your favorite bread/bun/wrap/Arnold’s.

Makes 4 servings

I’ve missed sloppy joes. I haven’t had them since my ground-turkey-eating days. I knew I could substitute Boca or something like that, but I wasn’t real enthused about it (too much sodium). Then I saw this recipe in O Magazine last month. I tried it tonight and really liked it. My new motto: Give me veggies over fake meat any day.

So there you have it. My new favorite foods. None of them will bring about world peace, but they make me happy after a day of writing and fussing and running around. The veggies also make great breakfast side dishes. I love a good smoothie and some green tea and roasted broccoli before a workout. I used to eat 2 cups of Frosted Mini Wheats and drink a quart of orange juice and called myself healthy…

*shaking head*

Tomatoes are ripening everywhere so I bought some Romas and Big Boys at the farmer's market on the way home from P'burgh today. Tomato sauce and chili....you will be mine.

These are some illustrations for the post I wrote on August 10, about our trip out east. Thanks to my sister in law, B. for taking the horse photos. There is NO WAY I was letting go of the reigns long enough to point and shoot.

I'm going to the gym in the morning, despite the way I feel. I'm really disappointed that no one can seem to figure out what's wrong with me. I'm getting more frustrated as the days and months go by. I have been set back in my weight loss program by months.

I'm eating low fat, trying to exercise as much as possible, but still gaining weight and the pain in the right side isn't improving. It is also spreading across the stomach--but headquartered in my right side. By now, I think this is something serious. But all of my medical tests have been inconclusive. I'm awaiting the results of some blood and fecal tests now. I imagine they will show nothing as well.

Well, I gotta get up at 5 a.m. So I'm off to bed. I hope my medical issues don't discourage anyone from fighting the War Against Fat. I will get better soon, and I will be back in the shape I was six months ago. I figure as long as I write it down, I am making a commitment. And I have committed to exercising with a trainer at least two per week for the fall semester here at WVU. So I will be there in the morning.

P.S. Funny thing. Most of weight gain has been in my middle.

It's a highlight of every summer for my family, and this year's Ottawa Folk Festival was no exception (although we did miss S. a lot. He's staying with his Grandma and going to comedy camp. He says they spend their days doing improv routines and watching highlights from Saturday Night Live. The kid is in heaven). And this year, despite forecasts to the contrary (and some really nasty looking storm clouds) the weather was perfect.

I think I kept the rain away through sheer force of will.


This is Vishtèn, a group we really liked from PEI and the Magdalen Islands. Other highlights for me included James Keelaghan, the Good Lovelies and a workshop called Outstanding In Their Field that featured Digging Roots (excellent musicians, great voices, hard rocking native musicians), the Arrogant Worms, Charlotte Cornfield, Tall Trees (the teenage winners of this year's "rising stars" award. I was really charmed by them) and Stewed Roots. I also think I might have fallen in love with Victoria Vox and her ukelele.

My spouse and I both loved James Hill and Anne Davidson.

Every folk festival has moments of magic. T. (whose personal highlights were a lot like mine), D. and I all agree that those moments this year came courtesy of the Common Ground Cross-Cultural Collaboration (couldn't find a link to explain this amazing process of bringing together artists from all over North America and throwing them together to make music):

"When the artists are having fun it is infectious. Our final daytime show ended with the whole group getting off the stage and leading the audience dancing around the room. One of those special festival moments."

Earlier this year, a number of our users complained about their experience on the receiving end of a DMCA complaint. Much commentary at the time focused on claims that we were removing blog posts at the behest of music labels, that we were not notifying users, and that we weren't providing users with any recourse if they were linking to the music with permission. Though we noted at the time that we hadn't changed anything and were still following our documented policy, we realized that there was room for improvement. Over the next several months, we talked with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and ChillingEffects.org, and reached out to a number of users to find out what they'd like to see in our policy moving forward. We're happy to make those changes our latest birthday present for our users.

First, a quick review: the DMCA is a U.S. law that says that a copyright holder (a music label, for example) can notify services like Blogger if they see cases where their content is being used without permission. Once we're notified by the music label and we believe the claim to be valid, we are then obligated to remove the content—otherwise we could be found liable for its continued use. Up until today, when we received a DMCA complaint, we would send an e-mail to the owner of the blog, forward a copy of the complaint (usually a fax) to ChillingEffects.org (more about Chilling Effects here), and delete the post.

There were several problems: first, some of our bloggers hadn't updated their e-mail addresses in years (Blogger's been around a while!). Second, ChillingEffects.org needed to review the faxes we sent to ensure that they weren't inadvertently publishing personal info, sometimes causing lengthy delays in the publication of the complaint. This meant that the blogger couldn't see the substance of the complaint—often for months. Finally, the post was gone! Posts that contained dozens, even hundreds, of links were removed from the Internet because of one link, and often the blogger didn't know the link wasn't acceptable.

Starting today, we've changed how we handle these situations:

• DMCA Complaints are handled via a web form. This form makes data intake easier, and makes it possible for us to share information with ChillingEffects.org without passing along personally identifiable information. It also allows us to notify affected bloggers more efficiently, as we provide information on not only the blog post in question but also the actual link(s) at issue.
• Complaints are sent to ChillingEffects.org automatically. ChillingEffects.org will have a copy of the complaint soon after Blogger receives it, making it possible for the blogger to find the complaint by searching for their blog's URL at ChillingEffects.org.
• Blogger notifies affected users through their dashboard as well as by e-mail. While we hope all of our users keep their e-mail addresses current so we can notify them in case there's anything important (hint, hint), we also went further by putting a big status message at the top of their dashboard to let them know about the DMCA complaint.
• Blog posts are reset to draft status and are not deleted. Now that users have the info they need to know specifically what the complaint was about, they can edit their post (found in their blog's dashboard status message, as well as by searching for posts in "draft" status) to remove the offending content and republish the post.

Today's scheduled post is being pre-empted by a story I want to share with all of you.

My younger son, D., had an appointment at the dentist's today. I decided to turn the day into a special outing and go out for lunch and then to the movies (G-Force. I still do not like rodents).

When the movie was over, he announced that he had to go to the bathroom. As I wrapped up a phone call with my spouse and went to open the bathroom door, a man stepped towards me and said, "I think he's way too old to go in there with you. He looks like he's at least four years old."

I thought he was kidding. I smiled and said, "He's six."

"Six! You really shouldn't be going in there."

He was serious. And outraged (I'll bust some stereotypes and tell you that he was young - no older than early 30s). As I stepped around him and gently pushed my son through the door, I heard him say, "I'm going to talk to the manager."

I was flabbergasted.

D. was quite upset as he has been really reluctant to go into the women's washroom for the last year or so (although lately he's gone in with me when we are out alone without complaining).
He was mortified.

I am not an overly protective parent nor am I prone to paranoia. I also know all that so many more children are harmed by adults they know than ones they meet in the bathroom at the movie theatre.

However:

He can barely reach the taps in public washrooms, let alone the soap dispenser.

He often can't get the stall door to close.

Sometimes, he can't get it open.

Despite his protestations, he's afraid to be by himself in an unfamiliar place.

He's six years old. And it is still several years before I am going to let him out of my sight in any public place.

When I was six years old, a stranger exposed himself to me.

I let my 11 year old go into the men's room by himself. Once, when D. had a friend with him at the movies, I let both boys go in together and stood outside with my heart in my mouth until they re-appeared (I asked if they had washed their hands. My son said, "Yes!" His friend said, "No, you didn't!").

I think the answer to "When is your child old enough to [fill in the blank]?" depends very much on the individual child and on the parents' comfort level (I often say that it's really good that my boys have two parents, otherwise they would never be allowed to do anything). I am, however, very comfortable asserting that my six year old will be coming into the women's washroom with me for a while yet.

And what's the big deal, anyway? Women's washrooms have stalls. It's not as though D. is peeking under the doors. When I went to university, at least one of the residences had only co-ed bathrooms. Now that was weird - brushing my teeth in the morning and having some guy walk by in a little towel.

How do you handle the bathroom situation when out with your kids? How do you feel when you see a child of the opposite sex in a public washroom?

More than two months after the death of world superstar Michael Jackson or Jacko on June 25, the U.S. authorities finally issued an official statement which confirmed that the death of the King of Pop is a murder by giving a lethal drug overdose.

As quoted by the U.S. media, officials of Los Angeles coroner's office, on Friday issued an official statement stating that propofol aka hard drugs and tranquilizers Lorazepam as a strong cause of Jacko's death.

LA coroner's office also found other drugs detected in the body of Michael Jackson, which is a mixture of sedative Midazolam and Diazepam; Lidocaine pain killers and stimulants Ephedrine.

However, at the request of the police and the Los Angeles County district attorney, the office is still sealed complete autopsy report of Jacko's death. Since the death of Michael Jackson on June 25 - he suffered heart failure at his home in Los Angeles, police investigation of the case is directed at the content of drugs in the body of Jackson.

Investigations are also directed to the performance of doctors, especially his personal physician - Dr. Conrad Murray, who handles Jackson when the king of pop was dead.

According to media reports, the Los Angeles police would bring the case to the prosecutor, which is likely to issue criminal charges of premeditated murder. Dr. Conrad Murray is a person who is suspected of killing Jackson accidentally - this is mentioned in a search warrant to the Conrad's office.

Meanwhile, Entertainment Tonight (ET) on Friday afternoon cites reaction from the Jackson's family about the autopsy results released by the Los Angeles coroner's office.

ET quoted Jackson's family saying that they praised the performance of coroner's office, the Police and the Los Angeles authorities and hope that justice for Michael Jackson soon reached.

by Wiktor Gworek, Software Engineer, Blogger (Krakow, Poland)

In April, we announced that we wanted to hear from you about your wish list for features in Blogger. Many of you said that the label gadget should be more flexible. Today we are rolling out two enhancements to the label gadget.

Label Cloud

Previously, the label gadget showed a list of labels—and by far the most requested enhancement was to present the labels as a "cloud" instead of as a bulleted list. That's now supported in the gadget directly:

Once enabled, the more popular labels appear in a bigger font than the less popular labels:


Selected Labels

If you've been on Blogger for a while, you might have more labels than you know what to do with. Don't want to show all of your labels in the widget? No problem: go to the label gadget settings and choose "Selected labels." You will be able to select a subset of labels to be displayed in the widget:


We hope you like it!

This is one of many features announced as part of Blogger's 10th birthday. Happy Birthday!

Some archaeologists found the ruins of the old shrine that estimated have age of more than 2500 years, including a church, cemetery and temple, in western Turkey, according to the semi-official news agency Anatolia.

The ruins were discovered in the area of Old Town Myndos, in Tavsanisland in off coast of a small town Bodrum, Mugla province in the western part of the country, said Mustafa Sahin, excavation team leader, as quoted by the report.

He said as many as six skeletons found in each grave near the church. There are many churches in the Ancient City Myndos, diocesan center in the era of the Byzantine or early Christian period, he said.

Excavations at the Ancient City Myndos begins in Gumusluk village in the small town of Bodrum in 2004, said Sahin.