(actual type of vitamins I bought)

But I spose that is the issue: you don’t really notice what a vitamin does. For all its obvious benefits, that one pill may very well have done wonders for me. The last couple months (by moving the vitamin bottle out of the cabinet and onto the counter next to my toothbrush – amazing!) I have been actually taking one every night. But here I am, 60 pills later, and I am not sure if I am any healthier. When I take an aspirin, I know when it works because my head stops aching. Same thing with most medications that a doctor provides, anti-biotics for an infection, pain meds, sleeping pills, there is some measurable result, usually. The only thing different about me now is that I  just bought my first a new bottle of vitamins before the old ones expired.

Is my B6 level higher? I think so, according to the bottle, I ingest 150% of my daily recommended value.  Same figure for Vitamin E. Is 300% of B12 good? Seems excessive. I realize that each of these is good for me in general, but really, aside from what I am told by the wikipedia, how can I really tell? Each pill contains:

1 Tablet. Amount Per Serving: Vitamin A 3500IU, Vitamin C 90mg, Vitamin D 400IU, Vitamin E 45IU, Vitamin K 20mcg, Vitamin B-1 (Thiamin) 1.2mg, Vitamin B-2 (Riboflavin) 1.7mg, Niacin 16mg, Vitamin B-6 3mg, Folic Acid 400mcg, Vitamin B-12 18mcg, Biotin 30mcg, Pantothenic Acid 5mg, Calcium 210mg, Magnesium 120mg, Zinc 15mg, Selenium 105mcg, Copper 2mg, Manganese 2mg, Chromium 120mcg, Potassium 100mg, Lycopene 0.6mcg.

Vitamin C helps with immune systems, though (right?), so perhaps that is keeping me a little sharper during Swine Flu Days. But what about lycopene? 0.6mg of that. Only 3% of my potassium, sadly. 100% of Folic Acid. w00t! In truth, aside from the mental knowledge of my improved health, I don’t feel any different. I’m still tired all the time, I still grow a patchy beard when I try, and I still can’t see things far away without them looking a little fuzzy.

I’ll keep taking them though – they are right there, afterall. They aren’t hurting me and I prolly should keep doing it. We’re supposed to, right?

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I left Dubuque last Friday, and stayed in Cleveland the first night. The next day I drove to Cooperstown, NY, getting there in the evening. All of the hotels were either full or ridiculously overpriced for the holiday weekend. I ended up staying in a cabin at a campground. Not only did my cell phone not work, but their wireless didn’t get to the cabin – talk about roughing it.

The next morning, I had planned on going to the Hall of Fame. As I packed my truck up, I discovered that I only had one shoe in my possesion. I knew that I had been wearing them the day before, and I hadn’t really done anything outside of my truck – it must have fallen out of the passenger side or something. Losing a shoe! That sucks! Right? I had spent 3 years molding them to my feet exactly. A new pair is not only going to be less comfortable, but also cost me 60 bucks.

Screw that.

I thought back, and remembered having stopped only once the previous evening, to move some things from the back of my truck to the cab. The sky ahead looked like it was about to pour. It was pretty neat looking, so since I was stopped I took acouple pictures while I was there. And then it started to rain. Hard. And it pretty much rained for the next 12 hours.

But, I, thought, had photo evidence of the exact location of where my shoe may have fallen. It was worth the trip, backtracking a dozen miles to milepost unknown – I just had to match the terrain to the photo, right? Here are the pics.

Actually, as I was driving back down that road looking for big field there in the picture, that right there on the side of the road was one solitary shoe. An adidas, soaked, but still alive. Unwearable for a few days, but still my cinderella-fitted shoe.

I always wondered why there are so many shoes on the sides of roads, I spose this semi-explains it.

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Cardio for Indie Rockers

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No real surprises. The Bible Belt is well girded, and aside from those cold northern oceanic states, people are all sorta religious. Seattle is still not a proGod place, but I could have told you that.

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One of the shows is called The Cisco Kid.

It is about a sorta classic kids Western mold, a brave western caballero who wears a silly sequined outfit and has a fat and oafish sidekick with a silly accent. I looked it up on the internets and found that it was orignally a radio show which had over 600 episodes, On TV it ran for 6 years, and had over 150 episodes.

My favorite part is that at the begining of the show it says O. Henry’s classic character, the Cisco Kid. But it turns out, “in O. Henry’s original story, he was a non-Hispanic character and a cruel outlaw.” Which is pretty much the complete opposite of this show.

It is in color, which is novel, and the stories are thin but fun. Here is an episode at the Internet Archive.

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Here is the bluff that we can see from our windows at Sunset.

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Alex Trebek, with his greasy hair and dago mustache.

Dan Quayle, the forty-fourth Vice President of the United States, 1989–1993. I haven’t made fun of him since he sent me an autographed picture. So you shut your mouth too.

Christopher Knight, formerly known for cracking voiced Peter Brady, but lately as the VH1 celebrity reality shows. Keep the faith, indeed.

Tim Roth, who was one of those that I never expected to get anything back, cause he’s one of those cool guys who doesn’t need the approval of silly fans who live in South West Washington, so why waste his time signing a picture and mailing it?.

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Anyway, today I got a book in the mail, which is not very mentionable. But before I tossed out the packaging, I noticed that there were some really neat stamps on it. Not just that, but older, very random stamps from the early 1980s (1980 and 1984 Olympics!). Since the value never changes, just postal rates, they are just as usable. But I thought it’d be a pity to just toss them. So I scanned them for everyone else to enjoy.

(click the picture for detail)

PS. Philately is the study and collecting of revenue and postage stamps
PPS. If you sign up for PaperbackSwap, put me down as a reference, so i can get a free book, k thanks.

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So here are my first two experiments:

The first ones were round jobs, boules, which i used the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. But I realized that I don’t want short cuts. I want real bread.

I then decided to start looking for real recipes for boulangers in France, and came across this one. It was for baguettes. Here are the results:

Well, I will keep trying.

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