Puddle Jumping in DCThe amazing thing about the human furnace is that after about 15 minutes, my eyes had adjusted and I was so warm that my hand were sweaty and I was considering removing my gloves.
Runners World can help you decide what to wear too. Although I always add a neck gater (in periwinkle, please) if it's cold enough for gloves and a hat. There's something about not having wind hit the back of my neck that just makes me much happier.
Usually when you run on the national mall in Washington DC, there are dozens of other runners out there with you. I don't know why, but not tonight.
It wasn't that cold; 32° is lovely for running. The park service plows the paths so after a snow fall, it's one of the only off-road paths that's certain to be cleared. The mall was in pretty good shape tonight (packed snow and gravel, no ice) but only a few hardy tourists milled about among the office workers hurrying across the mall to the metro.
When I say the mall was desolate, I mean that I only counted 6 other runners.
"I think we agree, the past is over."
- George W. Bush (1946 - ), On his meeting with John McCain, Dallas Morning News, May 10, 2000
Remember how I said that I'm not really a political junky? Well, I'm not. And here's the thing: neither is most of America, be they red, blue, or some shade of purple. Snarky political commentary doesn't move them.
I've been reading a lot about how a 21st century public is concerned with postmodernist values- quality of life issues like balancing economic growth with protecting the environment and consumers. Unfortunately for Kerry supporters, to the casual observer, Bush and Kerry sounded awfully similar on many of those issues. Both candidates used buzzwords like “freedom,” “fiscal responsibility,” “environmental stewardship,” and “the American way” liberally as they described their policy proposals. The Democratic Party did not do a good enough job defining the differences between the candidates on compelling issues that favor democrats. And, postmodernist values did not feature prominently in this election dominated by an Iraq war and economic policy.
Now, granted, no sitting president, uncontested in the the party primaries, has lost re-election in more than 50 years . . . Still, my husband once said to me, “I don’t know what it means to be a Democrat; I just know that I’m not a Republican.” Voters without a party affiliation to fall back on are forced to make decisions on nebulous attributes like leadership. Bill Clinton initiated a strategy of trying to beat Republicans on traditionally Republican issues. While it worked for the terribly charismatic Clinton, Kerry couldn’t pull that off. Until the democrats agree on what it means to be a Democrat and figure out how to communicate that to the public, it will be tough to win national office on the issues.
A few organizations seem to understand that the Democratic Party can't be defined during a presidential election at the same time as the party defines the candidate. Unfortunately, I'm not sure they can do it without the Democratic Party which appears to still be running against Bush.
I agree with the president (and he is the president) - the past is over.
Now, can the democrats move on? In the mean time, can environmentalists break out of the partisan trap? For a brief moment in the early 1970's (I missed it), environmentalism was truly a bi-partisan issue. How do we prevent the GOP from ramming through the president's "mandate for reform" (see resolution #3) and dismantling cornerstone environmental and social insurance laws along the way? And if the Dem's can't do this, how long until we ditch'em?
Okay, now you probably need a laugh so: watch "This Land" from JibJab (big, big file).
The District of Columbia voted 9:1 against George W. Bush.
And now George W. is my only elected official with any power. The residents of the capital of the United States (W. might say "capital of the free world" but I'm not going to go that far) have no voting representation in Congress. Regardless, we're shelling out $12 million for security today. Every other president paid for that out of the federal budget, but not W.
And a really good thing I didn't know that before I went for my run or I never would have left the house.
This is the mid-atlantic; we don't do 18°. It was 60° a couple of days ago! I'm whining . . . . . . and I really don't have much to whine about.
"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Washington Post has an infuriating article about how greed is keeping the world from seeing one of the best documentaries about the civil rights movement. If you ever get a chance to see Eyes on the Prize, don't pass it up. I haven't even seen all of it, only the segment on Freedom Summer '64.
That and Berkley in the 60's were documentaries I saw during my sophmore year in college that lead me to believe that student activism inevitably changes the activist - how can it not!
1.) Share Jen's muesli! 
Which she will graciously put in your own bowl to keep you out of hers. It's still better from her bowl so don't hesitate to nip a few bites from there if you can.
2.) Fly up and wipe your beak on Jen's shoulder. 
That's why it's there right?
3.) Fly madly around the room until Jen interprets your not-so-subtle request for a bath. 
The shoulder doesn't really get the beak clean after all.
4.) Fly back to Jen's head. 
5.) Check out what's in here? 
7.) Test how hard it might be to chew through the bag of nutraberries. 
8.) Do a happy dance complete with happy chirps when the magazine, travel guides, and newspaper conspire to construct a handy Bug-sized cave on the dining room table.
9.) Celebrate with some kale-on-the-cob! 
10.) Re-fortified, go conquer the bubble wrap in the living room! 
5. Make the Bug Blog more socially relevant.
Considering how much time I spend thinking about social issues, it's striking how little I've put in the blog. There are a couple of reasons for that . . . . I'm not a political junky like some people I know. I don't follow the personalities and the pundits so I don't have a witty retort for all their foibles. And, nothing becomes irrelevant as fast as politics. Guess I'll have to work around that. So let's get started.
Should chemicals really be innocent until proven guilty?
We've know for years that fumes released from overheating polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE or Teflon®) coated cookware are toxic to birds (See Dupont's rebuttal citing anecdotal evidence about how other household hazards are more dangerous to birds and featuring a pretty little parrotlet hen - not mine). Now "EPA is seeking as much as $300 million in fines from chemical giant DuPont Co. . . . for failing to report its studies of the possible dangers linked to"(1) the Teflon® manufacturing process. Apparently, Dupont has contaminated drinking water in West Virginia and Ohio with a chemical used to make teflon that has potentially significant but as yet unclear effects on human health. The Environmental Working Group is accusing EPA of being too wimpy on the issue - likely.
Most people refer to all non-stick cookware as Teflon®, but Teflon® is a trademark name and PTFE is found on lots of products made by companies that don't use the name. It's on household appliances, upholstery, and carpeting to make it easier to clean. It's used in industrial processes, it's released into the environment, and it's not regulated at all. It's not alone.
Want to scare yourself s**tless? Checkout EWG's Body Burden report on the chemicals found in people. Teflon and other chemicals that suddenly make headlines when a new study highlights how little we know about their effect on human health indicate a bigger problem - the ridiculous way that the U.S. regulates chemicals. By the time we're concerned about a chemical it's ubiquitous - PCBs, DDT, etc. The government needs to revoke the innocent until proven guilty policy and require extensive pre market testing.
Now what? Man, I wish I had the answer.
I'll just do these backwards so the pattern is consistent.
4. Water the plants
It's harder than it sounds.
3. Teach the bird to come on command.
Bug and I have started clicker training. She's too fast for me. She's got step up on the stick and bite the popsicle stick down. I need a plan.
You might be asking "how is this relevant?" Manners and other useful behaviors can be taught using the same technique as clicker training but tends to work better if the bird has mastered a few tricks and knows the routine.
2) Run 26.2 miles on October 30, 2005
Can you tell I like big goals? I ran the Marine
Corps Marathon in 2001 and have run a bunch of 10Ks and a couple of 10 milers
since. 
However,
when I last ran it I thought "every four years seems about right"
and, low and behold, it's 2005.
The AIDS Marathon Training Program, who I trained with in 2001, advocates a very low milleage approach. We averaged fewer than 18 miles a week including the marathon and a 26 mile training run - which is good for my knees. In 2001, the program raised $3 million for the Whitman-Walker Clinic - which is good for a lot of medical care.
I have so many. I'm not sure that's it's all possible but hey, how many New Year's Resolutions are? Maybe if I broadcast them into cyberspace, I'll feel more accountable for them.
1.) Loose 30 pounds before I turn 30
Hummm. I've been tracking my diet on 
I recommend it for anybody regardless of whether you want to loose weight. It's
educational - from a getting to know yourself point of view. It's tedious when
you get started but if your diet is repetitive like mine, it gets faster. I
sat down and calculated some common home-prepared meals - like pasta with homemade
sauce and Mac's stirfry - and created custom entries for them. I don't bother
adjusting for when Mac substitutes tempeh for tofu - close enough. It's all
an estimate anyway. I find that holding myself accountable for what I eat, reduces
mindless munching. It also helps me focus on finding the nutrition in my food.
Lastly, it makes me dread eating out - so much harder to calculate - which isn't
a bad thing for my budget, really.
I've used the site periodically for the last couple of years. I tend to enter stuff for a month and then go six months without doing it and then decide I need to check up on myself again. When I first started, I was training for the ill-fated DC Marathon and discovered I wasn't eating enough fat - can you believe it? So I started eating more nuts and lowfat, rather than nonfat, yogurt. There's a function for publishing your diet log online but I don't see that happening.
According to their calculator "The deadline for your goal is 258 days (36 weeks, 6 days) away. To meet your goal you need to lose about 0.814 lb per week." That's actually entirely reasonable.
To loose one pound of fat, you have to burn 3500 more calories than you eat.
So, I have to burn 407 calories more per day than I eat. That's the equivalent of running about 3 miles a day. Since that's a bit tough on my knees, I'll have to substitute in some biking & yoga.
Wow, this is getting long. Should I unveil these one day at a time?
Some good resources:
The Healthy
Body Calculator - the best "how much do I need to eat?" calculator
that I've found
Activity
Calorie Calculator - find out how many calories you burn in one minute of
water polo (or a bunch of other stuff.)
I just got back my photos from our family vacation in St. Lucia. They are posted here.
We were surprised by how few birds we saw on our hikes and tours on the southwest corner of the island near Soufriere. The answer to our inquiries was that birds don't like the smell of the nearby sulphur springs . Oh.
There were lots of birds at the resort (my parents were seriously splurging) stealing anything they could off the breakfast table. Here are a couple of shots from our balcony and at afternoon tea.
Lesser Antillean Bullfinch (male & female)
Incoming! 
Got it! 