Bicycle Safety

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And no, I’m not talking about your safety while riding a bicycle. I’m talking about the safety of your bicycle. 

I just opened our resident portal here in California to report that my kitchen light is flickering when I saw a note that two bikes had been stolen from our supposedly secure parking garage. Having had one of our vehicles broken into already and seen people in the garbage dumpsters who I’m pretty sure don’t live here, I have never considered leaving my bike in the garage. 

Instead, when I’m not riding it, my bike lives in the entry way,

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or next to the stairs (both of which David hates, but I get busy you know),

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or on the balcony which really makes the most sense to me.

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There are lots of bike riders in San Jose. When you ride around you see bikes locked up but that’s clearly not enough because, additionally, you’ll see they have a wheel or the seat removed for extra safety.

It was really interesting when I was home in Tulsa last week. I was getting into my car after picking up my pizza (vegan) and noticed a family ride up on bikes. Well, maybe it was a family with a lot of kids or a family with their kids and their kids friends. But in any case, there were at least eight people and eight bikes. 

Do you know what they did when they got to the front of the restaurant? They got off of their bikes, parked them and went in the door to eat. There wasn’t a lock among them. All the seats stayed in place as well as the wheels. 

I reflected about the bikes here in San Jose and came to the conclusion that bikes are much safer in Oklahoma. 

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not, though. Does it mean Oklahoma has less thieves? Less active people? Better things to steal? 

As I ponder this, I’ll continue to ride my bike and keep it safe. In the living room. I mean on the balcony. 😉

Promised Post Pageant Donut

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We stumbled upon Psycho Donuts on one of our morning walks a month or so ago. I loved how the outside was decorated. We didn’t go in but when I got home, I investigated a little further and decided that after the pageant, I was going to Psycho Donuts and have a donut. 

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This morning, in a radical departure from my normally ultra healthy diet, we indulged.  It was truly difficult to decide which one of these amazing donuts I wanted to try. I asked the man in front of me if I could take a photo of his box and he said, “Sure”. 

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After we ordered, he ordered 6 more! It really is a tough decision.

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We decided on the Rocky Road (David) and the S’Mores (me)

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They were served up by this very pleasant health care provider. 🙂

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We also had a cup of coffee. I had the dark roast which was excellent and David had the lighter roast. 

Oh yum!!!!

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We grabbed some napkins for the sticky deliciosity.

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Sat at a cute table. 

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It was amazing. Afterwards, I was buzzed to the max, ready to walk another 1397 miles. David just wanted to sleep. 🙂 

Although it’s not in my usual repertoire of food choices, I’m glad we tried Psycho Donuts. It was awesome! 😀

Book Review: Everybody Rise

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Everybody RiseEverybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really loved this book and didn’t want it to be over. I really loved Evelyn and I wanted her to be successful.I was cheering for her!

Evelyn, isn’t from old money but, rather, new money. Her father, a plaintiff’s attorney has set the family up pretty well but Evelyn always feels on the outside looking in. She does have a few well placed friends from when she was in school and uses these connections to try and help her with her new job for a website called People Like Us, a sort of upscale facebook.

After talking Camilla Rutherford into joining the site, Evelyn becomes entranced with her world and becomes her almost instant best friend. Racking up thousands and thousands of dollars in debt trying to live up to people who have trust funds, her world starts caving in around her when she learns that her dad has been indicted.

I was happy at the end of the book that Evelyn seemed to have figured out what was important and was on her way back towards success.

Loved it, great book! 🙂

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The Strawberry Tree

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Yesterday, I videotaped part of my walk so you could see the strawberry tree. Then I ate the strawberry I picked up.

Y’all, those things are awesome! Really, really sweet. The outsde is pretty bumpy and I didn’t care for it so much but the insdie? Delicious! David wouldn’t even try it. His loss. I didn’t die so it’s all good. 😀

Here’s the video. 🙂

 

Book Review: If I Could Turn Back Time

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If I Could Turn Back TimeIf I Could Turn Back Time by Beth Harbison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book! When Ramie is almost 38 years old, she has an accident where she hits her head really hard. When she wakes up again, she’s in her 18 year old life.

She knows it’s weird, can’t figure out why she’s there. She wonders if she should be trying to save her dad from his early, at age 52, death. Or if she shouldn’t have broken up with her high school boyfriend, Brendan. She does things a little differently than she did the first time around but isn’t sure that’s what she’s supposed to be doing.

Then she wakes up as a pregnant 26 year old, married to Brendan, and she’s miserable. This life really does’t feel right to her and she really has no idea what to do in it.

When she finally wakes up in the hospital, it’s been 3 weeks since she hit her head and she’s experienced a lot of things in her dreams. Or were they dreams? She tries to explain it all to her best friend, Sammy. She wonders if she will ever find her true love.

I loved this book so much, I just couldn’t put it down. Two thumbs up for If I Could Tun Back Time! 🙂

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The Bong of Health

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I start every morning with warm lemon water. 

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While I’m warming the water in the kettle, I take my lemon and peel it, being careful to leave as much of the white pith behind as possible. Then I cut it in half, take out as many seeds as I see and toss it in the Vitamix. I add 32 oz of warm water and blend. Voila! Instant detoxifying healthy hydration. 

TannyRaw, whom I follow on YouTube, pours hers into a glass vase and calls it the bong of health. Although I haven’t gotten a vase to drink mine out of yet, I still call it that because I love the terminology.

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Here are some benefits of drinking lemon water in the a.m.

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Now why wouldn’t you want all of that? 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking and Falling

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You know how I’m always going on and on about walking? Well, it turns out it’s good for you. ::hee hee hee:: I found this video when I was looking around the intenet. It’s pretty funny. 

 
It’s true that the benefits of walking just 30 minutes a day are numerous. I’ve been walking consistently for 10 years now. What started out as a way to get out of the house so we could talk about our nephew who was a bit of a handful has turned into something I would miss terribly if I had to go without.

I sleep better, feel better and look better. We are always surprised how, at 54, we are on no prescription medications when so many people we know, who are younger than us, are. It’s become a way of life for us. 

It can for you, too! It’s super easy, inexpensive, and fun. I just found a new walking path that I really love the other day. It has several hills but also STAIRS! The stairs go under the CalTrain tracks and when I get to them, I run up and down several times. I’m up to 14 now.

Yesterday when I walked, there were work guys at the other side of the tunnel. I asked one guy if it would be okay if I ran the stairs and he said it would be fine but he didn’t really seem like he meant it so I told him I’d just do them tomorrow. 

As I walked, I remembered the stairs down to the Guadalupe River Trail where I typically ride my bike. When I got there, I ran them. 

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And fell.

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These stairs are a little wider than the other set I usually run and I think I just adjusted wrong. But I’m okay. My face and phone (nor anything else) aren’t broken and I just have a couple of bruises.

Anyway, all’s well that end’s well. Get out and walk today. It’s such fun and you’ll feel better for it. I won’t even expect you to do stairs. Yet. 😉

Mamey…An Interesting Fruit

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What IS that? That’s what I wondered when I saw this football shaped, sort of sweet potato thing on the produce table at the Mexican grocery store. I couldn’t find a sign to tell me what it was so when I came home, I googled “football shaped fruit” and I came up with this photo:

Clicking on the photo told me it was a mamey.

As I was watching the people I follow on YouTube, two of the guys were talking about the mamey sapote and how absolutely delicious it was. Now I was really intrigued.

It’s kind of pricey so I wasn’t willing to try it before hearing that it was really good. Plus, I wasn’t sure how to know if it was ripe. But after watching Fruit and Strength and Whole Future enjoying a mamey in their videos, I was ready to give it a try. 

I bought a mamey and it was quite far from being ripe. I bought it before we went to Oklahoma so I figured by the time we got back it would be ripe and ready to eat. It was.

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I opened it up and took the big seed and stringy things out. Then I tried it. Hmmm. Well, it’s supposed to be the texture of a ripe avocado and it was. But the taste that had been described was not what I tasted. I couldn’t finish it.

I’m not sure if I got a bad one and, maybe if they go on sale one day, I might try it again. Until then, I’m glad I gave it a try and I’m now ready to try jack fruit. I saw one at the regular grocery store the other day but, again, it was pricey. I have no idea how to tell if I’m getting a good one or not so I will save that. 

I found, on Yelp, a fruit market here in San Jose where they will help you pick out a good fruit and they have more exotic varieties. That’s on my list of places to visit! 🙂

White Shorts Are Just So…White

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A couple of weeks ago, my pageant director made a change in the wardrobe requirements for the pageant. She had originally said we needed denim shorts for an event where we would wear our pageant tee shirts. I was happy with that because I saw that the contestants last year had to wear white shorts and white shorts are not something I wear. Ever.

White shorts are just so … white.

And see through.

But the wardrobe change that came forth was white shorts instead of the denim shorts. Along with that, white shoes. I don’t wear white shoes. Ever.

Except walking shoes but those get dirty so fast they are white in name only.

This change threw me for a bit of a loop. Being new to San Jose, I wasn’t sure where to find a store that I could buy white shorts from. Now, after searching for white shorts, I’m a pro at finding any store in a 50 mile radius. And I think I can get there without using GPS. Bonus points.

By yesterday, I was really running out of options and the pageant is two weeks away. I have two pairs of white shorts here at the house. One that I ordered online that doesn’t fit and one that is my plan Z if I can’t find plan A.

My biggest problem is the fact that my waist is so small compared to my hips. There is always a HUGE gap in the back when they fit everywhere else. I went into one store last week. I saw there on a rack, “Gapless Waistband!” I was so excited!

“Get me into a dressing room with a pair of those shorts!” I told the sales lady.

I rushed to try the shorts on seeing the finish line of my white short search looming in the near distance. 

I put the shorts on, zipped them up, and… probably the biggest gap I’d seen in any pair of shorts I’d tried up to that point. In fact, it was so big, I actually came out of the dressing room to show the sales lady.

“You see? This is what I’m dealing with,” I said as she sadly shook her head.

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So yesterday, in one of my last ditch ideas I thought of Lane Bryant. Over the years of being overweight, I shopped at Lane Bryant a lot. They have cute clothes. They also have long jeans that are truly long. They start at a size 14 which is where I am right now. 

I went in and walked up to a lady folding shirts. 

“I need your help urgently to save my life,” I said.

“Okay,” she replied, not looking up from what she was doing.

“I have to buy a pair of white shorts for a pageant I’m competing in in two weeks. I’m not having any luck and I hope you can help me.”

She finally looks up. “We don’t have your size here.”

OMG! Did I just hear what I thought I heard??!!! She doesn’t have my size.

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Stunned, thrilled, happy, excited, I trailed after her as she went to get a size 14 off the rack and take it to the dressing room. I never told her what size I was but size 14 is the smallest size they carry. 

The shorts fit, they look good. Woo hoo! While I was trying to calm down because of the fact my search for white shorts was finally at an end, I completely forgot what she had said to me earlier until after I left the store.

I paid for the shorts, thanking her profusely for saving my life.

She said, “You’re beautiful. Good luck in your pageant!”

I thanked her again and left. As I was going down the elevator, I remembered again what she said to me about not having my size. 

White shorts purchased + being told at Lane Bryant “we don’t have your size” = day made! 😀

Book Review: If It Haint Broke

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If It Haint Broke (The Ghost Handlers, #6)If It Haint Broke by MIaureen Hardegree
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a great book! The sixth in a series about a high school girl who is able to see ghosts and help them move on to the next life.

This book is about Heather Tildy, who is a freshman at her high school. She’s worried about her big date for homecoming with her crush, Drew, who is a junior. In the bathoom at school, she’s approached by a ghost. She knows that if she connects, she’ll be sucked into helping her so she tries to avoid her as long as possible.

Eventually, it’s not possible and the starts to learn about Wheatherly Raines, a girl who supposedly committed suicide at her school 20 years prior. As Heather and her best friend, Zach, delve into the events surrounding Weatherly’s death, they come to the conclusion that she was suicidal and that something else must be the cause for her death.

As they go through figuring everything out, they do some bold things that aren’t looked upon favorably at their school. Heather and Drew have their homecoming date which was nearly derailed by another girl, and didn’t turn out like Heather planned. But all ends well. She solves what’s keeping Weatherly around, allowing her to move on, and she ends up with Drew.And that’s how the book ends.

Such a cute story and I plan to read the books that came before!

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