short takes

[cellio]

This video is a hilarious compilation of feline "I meant to do that" moments, some of them probably even real. :-) Thanks to cortego for the link.

Dani's birthday was yesterday. I bought him a copy of Puerto Rico, a Rio Grande game, because that many of my friends can't be wrong. :-) So now we just have to get some locals together to try it out.

After several days of silence the third-party seller (through Amazon) said he'd refund my money. I don't think he ever shipped the DVDs. What an annoying twit. And according to his feedback, he's done this to lots of other people too. (Feedback also suggests that promised refunds don't always happen, so we'll see.) Why in the world would you set up shop and then not bother shipping, when your customers can get their money back through Amazon and Amazon can presumably nail you? I mean, it's one thing to rip off individuals through your own shop; most of them don't have the resources to nail you for small-stakes amounts, so you can probably rake in some loot. But the idea of being able to hide from Amazon or eBay or the like seems...unlikely.

This afternoon we helped Ann and Karen move. It went well, and the final unloading of stuff went much more quickly than I expected.

Mid-afternoon they passed around Luna bars, which I'd never had before. The one I had was pretty tasty, and according to the nutrition information, provides much better bang for the buck than other nutrition bars I've encountered. I may have to keep a stash of these at work. (Ironically, I just read the latest Consumer Reports, which had an article on nutrition bars, and it pretty much panned them all. Different strokes, I guess; they tended to use chocolate-flavored bars for their tests, and I much prefer non-chocolate flavors in such things.)

I wonder what bad things happen if you average well over 100% of RDA on Vitamin A. The nutrition-tracking software I use thinks I'm tending rather high on that, presumably because baby carrots are among my favorite munchies.

Thursday night is Shavuot (and Friday). The service starts at 7:30, with late-night study beginning at 10. (Tradition calls for staying up all night studying Torah, though we usually finish around 1:30 or 2.) I don't think there's any way I can get home from work, prepare dinner, eat dinner, and walk to shul in time for a 7:30 service, so maybe I won't try and will instead just go for the study (and the morning service, of course). I'm not sure yet. I don't want to skip the evening service, but I also don't want to bail from work early enough to make it feasible. And I don't think something like ravioli (which cooks quickly) is really ideal for a festive holiday meal.

Shavuot meals are traditionally dairy. Mmmm, cheesecake. :-)

Comments

Luna Bars

[ealdthryth.livejournal.com]

The lemon one (lemon meringue maybe) is quite tasty. Also, there are some tasty Balance bars and Zone Perfect bars. They are both designed to go with the Zone diet (40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat). Eldred likes the Yogurt Honey Peanut Balance bar, which is non-chocolate.

[eub.livejournal.com]

The "Tolerable Upper Intake Level (http://www.cc.nih.gov/ccc/supplements/vita.html)" of vitamin A is only about three times the RDA (though you're not likely to see toxicity until ten or twenty times it). Happily, what your carrots have is a precursor, beta-carotene, which has essentially no toxic level. You may just turn yellow.

[cellio]

Oh, ok. I can stay away from 10x or 20x. :-) (My software thinks I'm tending to come in around 2.5x. Haven't turned yellow yet.)

Thanks for the URL. Looks handy.

[steven.livejournal.com]

Kashi GoLean bars are the thing. Perhaps not ideal on the nutritional scale but certainly fewer calories than a meal ... yet the things are so fiber-rich, they expand in your stomach. You'll be full for a long time.

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Luna bars are one of the only nutrition bars I've tried that doesn't taste like chewy cardboard, and also makes me feel full. However I've found the flavors to be hit-or-miss... I like the lemon and chai tea flavors but the key lime and the orange taste like cleaning product to me.

[cellio]

Ooh, that sounds like a great idea. Thanks! (So, um, where do you get edible flowers if you don't have them in your yard? If you buy them, how do you know they haven't been sprayed with chemicals? Or can you wash flowers without them disintegrating?)

Since we're in different cities, it's ok if we bring the same dish. :-)

:-) My congregation doesn't have a tikkun potluck, though that sounds like a wonderful idea to suggest for next year. I'm just talking about what we'll eat at home before I go.