Your husband is wrong when he says no one pays attention to the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. They traveled all the way to the Army base my husband was stationed at years ago in Japan, a trip that was booked as a morale booster for the troops. A ton of people showed up for the meet & greet with them, got photos with them & their autographs. It was bonkers.

It's been busy for me! Lots going on at work, and I just competed at a national level powerlifting meet last weekend in Austin, TX. So training up to that took a lot of bandwidth, and I'm now enjoying a very long-awaited break. But it's still not a true break, as I'm working this Memorial Day weekend. Oh well. I started my summer reading with the Kamogawa Food Detectives. And I'm looking forward to seeing my nephew get married in July.

@sarah too , I chuckled at your comments about how it rains all the time in the Killing. Since it’s an adaptation of a Scandinavian tv show, it seems to me that most of their crime dramas are so dark. Literally- their cinematography & lighting budget seems limited, lol. I tried watching an Icelandic crime drama years ago on a flight to Europe and gave up bc I had a hard time seeing it! Has anyone seen the Greatest Night in Pop documentary on Netflix about the making of We Are the World? It’s such a fun and breezy watch. And the project manager in me was very impressed with Quincy Jones’s ability to take these disparate vocalists and get them together for one pivotal song in under 24 hours. That’s a stressful assignment. It was fun to learn that Cyndi Lauper’s over abundance of bracelets literally interfered with the recording 😂

Slow cooker/pressure cooker meat is awesome, especially beef. I sometimes put an eye of round roast in the slow cooker with cumin, chili powder, garlic and onions, with water, and let it sit there for hours. When it's done, I shred it with a fork and I eat with salad, or turn them into tacos. It's very fuss-free and minimal prep. Fish - If you're near a Trader Joe's, their salmon and mahi mahi burgers in the frozen section are awesome. They don't take much prep to cook - either bake in the oven, grill or cook over the stove. I also like to marinade salmon, mahi mahi or tuna fillets in teriyaki sauce or a lemon juice & garlic marinade, then bake them.

I finished listening to the Evaporated: Gone with the Gods podcast recently, and I give it two thumbs up. Jake Adelstein is one of its hosts, and he's the author of Tokyo Vice, which was adapted into a tv show on Max. It's about the thousands of people who go missing every year in Japan. Many of them decide to disappear because of debt, illegal activity catching up with them, or in the case of some women, they're fleeing from domestic abuse. Very riveting. I found it curious that Japan doesn't maintain a database of missing persons, unlike the US. And Japanese culture generally shrugs at the notion of a person going missing, almost as if it's a given due to the individual's circumstances. If the Evaporated were to turn into a Netflix documentary, I'd watch it.

@hayley and @sarah too I appreciate your reading lists. I just started Delia Ephron's Left on Tenth because I recognized her as Nora's sister, and I adore Nora Ephron. I'll hopefully be able to start "The Maid" aftewards, too. I placed a hold with my library, and it will be a six week wait. 😫 Ugh!!

I tried beef protein powder a long time ago, and ugh, it was the most disgusting protein powder I've ever had. Egg white protein powder is close to that, too. The only plant-based ones I've liked are the ones that Vega and PE Science sell. My favorite protein powder is a whey/casein blend.

Skwigg's comment that she's currently reading the Autobiography of a Yogi made me think about the books I finished in 2023. My reading went way up ever since my work commute became a train-based one, and I got a Kindle. But I'm also proud to say I stopped the habit of slogging through books I didn't vibe with. I started David Sedaris' Calypso, and after 50 pages, decided it wasn't my cup of tea. Nope and I moved onto something else that was much better. In no particular order, the books I really enjoyed in 2023: Pema Chodron - How to Meditate Gretchen Rubin -Life in Five Senses and Better Than Before RF Kuang - Yellowface Emma Rosenblum - Bad Summer People - this was drily funny, and has the bitchiest characters Jane Pek - the Verifiers Richard Osman - the Last Devil to Die - a "cozy" mystery, though there's still a lot of murder Peter Attia - Outlive Grady Hendrix - Horrorstör If anyone wants to share their reads, I'm game. I want to add to my Kindle collection. 😃

@Hayley, making plans is so not my jam, LOL. I tried organizing a get-together of a bunch of college friends, and it took 2.5 days for plans to come together, and only half of the original invite list is actually coming out to meet next Saturday. But it's still something. And TBH, a lot of us have so much going on. For example, I met up with a friend at the PA Renaissance Faire yesterday, and she's kind of a caregiver to her sister (she lives independently, but has a lot of health issues). So I can't take it personally when she says it's very likely that December will be the next time we can meet.

It's been a while since I posted in here. So I'm sharing this Paula Pant podcast episode I just listened to that is all about loneliness: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7KgawwAqkx2XapwKqhWDsp?si=425a255057f74a71 It's a very easy listen - under an hour - and an easygoing conversation. Because I moved to a new state about two months ago, the topic of friendships is weighing on my mind. How am I going to make new friends? How am I going to keep the friendships I've made? It seems overwhelming, especially since I seem to spend so much of my time at work, and then at the gym. Then I realize both are still potential sources of friendships, too. I sometimes overthink things :-P

Spy Ops isn't so much conspiracy theories. But the Pope John Paul episode delves into that territory since no one has figured out who actually ordered the hit. The assassin, Mehmet Ali Ağca, was merely acting on orders,. And his story's details kept changing so often (I believe in the episode, one of the commentators says he delivered 23 different accounts of the shooting during his trial), it's hard to pinpoint where the truth lies. And Ağca then says the assassination attempt was the third revelation that was disclosed at Fatima, which if you ever want to go down a rabbit hole, read "Fatima apparations," and you will be socked with a lot of stuff, LOL. I haven't found time yet to watch the last episode, but I'll probably do that this weekend.

I'm almost finished with Blue Zones, and I dig it. The areas featured have a holistic system, what we in the Veterans Health Administration would call "Whole Health". It isn't just the food we eat, the activity we do. It's also our social connections, a feeling of purpose and meaning, and a community where its members respect and care for one another. Pretty cool stuff! I am almost finished with Spy Ops on Netflix. If anyone is into secret-squirrel spy stuff like me, you'll enjoy it. The first episode was "eh," but starts picking up steam with the Panama Invasion. Then the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul episode is simply bonkers. One of the proposed theories is that it was really a cardinal within the Vatican who ordered the hit. And that's the least crazy aspect of it. ETA: Because of the writer's strike, I'm leaning into Korean dramas and just finished Juvenile Justice. That was so dark and overwrought, but I loved it. And I usually want to stick with fluffy and comedic tv shows, so it must have reeled me in.

Some of the things I just wrapped up watching include Stranger Things, Cobra Kai, and the latest & last season of Aggretsuko. I found a lot of this most recent season of Stranger Things to be plodding, and it was only in the last two episodes, I feel, that the momentum got really good. Cobra Kai's latest season was awesome!! But I'm a huge fan of the movie franchise and was so stoked to see the characters of Kreese, Terry Silver, Chozen Toguchi, and even Mike Barnes return, in addition to Daniel and Johnny. The martial arts fights were spectacular and while a lot of the plot was corny, I didn't care. I know what I like and this was comfort-viewing for me. I started watching Physical:100 on Netflix and it's a Korean reality show where 100 of the fittest people from different disciplines (CrossFit, bodybuilding, military Special Forces, MMA, and social media influencers) go through various challenges. I'm digging it so far. And while I'm on the topic of Korean tv shows, I'm also watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo, which is about a trial lawyer with autism, and her struggles navigating work and her personal life. It's not all dead-serious, though, and I appreciate that there's a good deal of humor suffused throughout the show.

I sometimes watch Abbott Elementary, and will probably start watching it more regularly since it‘s set in Philly and I now live part-time in the city. A lot of it is a workplace comedy, but the education system material makes it distinct. The character on the show who’s an uber-Eagles and Phillies fan, btw, isn‘t so far off in depiction 😏

I really liked the first two seasons of Stranger Things, and am now making my way thru the current season. The only current criticism I have is the episodes have been waayyy overlong and I’m of the school of thought that storyline gradual buildups are mostly unnecessary. But I still enjoy it and can’t wait for the next season to drop, which will be a while. Speaking of House of Cards, I was thrown off the set once, when they were filming the Underwood for President episodes. I wan wandering around taking pictures of set production, a big no-no, and the crew told me I really needed to leave. And they made sure I deleted photos from my iPhone 😂

Just thinking out loud here - why is it so hard sometimes to do things we know will make us feel better? Or for me, anyway. On Christmas Eve, I was hungry and tired. Yet I didn’t want to eat even though I knew I‘d feel tons better with a proper meal. Instead, I had a grande coffee from Starbucks with sugar cookie syrup and milk 😬 And a bag of chips. Hardly sustenance. I eventually ate later that day. But I couldn’t really get into the swing of things and picked at my plate. Even the Christmas cookies were barely touched. I think I just had a very, very hard time on Christmas, and it showed.

@skwigg it’s Dermatologica‘s Clear Start Blackhead Clearing Fizz Mask. I was a bit hesitant when I first purchased it since it’s supposed to take a preemptive strike against acne breakouts, and I don’t have acne. But I’ll be damned and say that it does a terrific job at getting rid of blackheads, and in a low-key way. I love empty pores, too, 😂

My best recent skincare find has been Coola's 50 SPF facial sunscreen with a white tea scent. I can't go to any other brand at this point, because it goes on incredibly light AND smells good. I find that most facial sunscreens smell dreadful. I got a fizzy blackhead-clearing mask from Ulta a few months ago that I really like. I'll need to check and see its name, but it works within 5 minutes. I put it on my nose a few days ago, and in under 10 minutes was able to get rid of two stubborn blackheads that had been bothering me.

Can you change to a whey or whey/casein blend for protein powder? They generally taste waaaay better than any premium plant-based ones. I particularly like PE Science's vanilla cake pop protein powder. That said, their chocolate vegan one is pretty good, and you can get a decent protein per serving portion.

@skwigg , your thoughts about metabolism, eating and longevity reminded me of a comment I recently saw in an FB group. One woman posted that in order for her to lose weight, she needed to eat 1200 calories per day. And that she is 5‘5” and 126 lbs, 30% body fat. I wanted to reach into the screen and tell her she needs to gain muscle. I mean, no wonder she is miserable. She thinks she is in bad shape, but doesn’t eat enough to feel good, which would probably make her more willing to be physically active, and is another key to feeling fantastic about oneself. Oh yeah, I feel that fat+carb combo a lot these days too, especially when it comes to animal fat and carbs. A BLT sandwich with real bacon can bloat me up pretty well, which is why I started eating tempeh bacon. It’s not the same, but admittedly, probably better for my heart health, too.