Someone was interviewing McCain on the TV as I did my treadmill time yesterday and I was finding him very interesting.  He was maintaining, somehow, that our status in Iraq was “military success” and maintained the “complete success” would follow.

I sort of thought that military success means your troops are no longer dying in hostile engagements, but there you are…

But I got to thinking about how none of the candidates seem to give any credit to the complexity that is Iraq – and Afghanistan, for that matter. It’s not just a matter of saying “we don’t seem to be able to succeed, so let’s leave”.  We went in there (wrongly, in my opinion) and we trashed their infrastructure.  If we just leave, they’ll be left without roads, schools, sanitation, power… And in their desperation, imagine their gratitude when those nice wealthy Taliban folk come in and build jihad schools and community centers…

So it occurred to me that invading a country is like adopting a puppy.  You think it’s gonna be a great idea but once you get the little guy home, you discover he chews up your favorite shoes, pees on the rug, and barks maniacally at your mother-in-law.  At that point, though, you’re stuck.  You committed to care for this little guy for the length of his life – so you resign yourself to ruined shoes and smelly house for years to come while you patiently try to teach him some manners.  You watch him like a hawk.  You shut him in the bathroom while you’re at work so he won’t ruin anything, then take him for long walks every evening so he will get the exercise the bathroom denied him.  (And with a secret smile you regretfully inform your mother-in-law that she just upsets the dog so much; maybe she should stay in a hotel when she’s in town?).

I’m not sure what the puppy-equivalent behaviors in Iraq are – I’m about as politically unsophisticated as they come – but I wish I heard our presidential candidates acknowledging the issue and discussing options.

When Koshka died, I was disappointed to realize that I had very few pictures of her floating around.  So I’ve resolved to be better about snapping shots for these two.  I have a little digital camera on my desk so I can grab it the moment they start to be entertaining  🙂

But sometimes those best moments are things that you can’t photograph because moving would spoil the picture.  When I woke up this morning, I was lying flat on my back with my legs sprawled in a sort of V shape.  And there between my legs, in perfectly parallel poses, were the cats – the little one in the point of the V, the bigger one further out.  Both wrapped in a ball with nose tucked under tail. 

There’ll never be a picture of that moment but it was pretty entertaining. 

I suppose that’s a good reason for journaling… now I’ll be able to remember this in the future…

The “Which 80s Movie Scientist?” Test

Your Score: Ray Stantz

149 Heart, 157 Genius, 126 Cool, 142 Excitability

Dr. Raymond Stantz – (Dan Aykroyd)

Ghostbusters (1984)

You are Ray Stantz! The heart of the Ghostbusters. You’re well-meaning, smart, and you have a childlike sense of wonder about the world. You might get taken advantage of, every once in a while, but it’s okay… You’re doing your part to help save the world.

“Gozer the Gozerian… good evening. As a duly designated representative of the City, County and State of New York, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension.”

I am scanning in a folder of old (junior-high and high school) papers and creative writing that appeared on my bookshelf.  I figured the mementos would be, if anything, safer and better preserved in a backed-up electronic form. We do live in flood and hurricane country, after all.

As I skim the work, I am concluding that I was a better writer between the ages of 12 and 17, than I am today.  Not that I was an especially great writer then, but I think I’ve gone downhill since.

Meanwhile, this month’s book club book is “Now, Discover Your Strengths”, which is one of those personality profile books where take a little quiz that tells you how to live your life and then read a book about the quiz results.  One of their contentions is that we start with a brain that has many diffuse neuronal connections, and over time you lose some connections in favor of reinforcing others.  They maintain that this translates on a macro scale to a lifetime of losing some skills in favor of strengthening others.

I want to disagree simply because I don’t like the idea of losing skills.  But – if they’re right – what skill have I gained in return for the loss of my writing skills?  And how can I parlay those into a career I really love, instead of just tolerating on the good days?

(Why yes, that’s a glass half-full thought but it IS Thanksgiving… why be pessimistic?)

I do feel like I accomplished a few things this weekend… some decluttering, some cleaning, some administrivia errands, and some general relaxation.

I scanned a pile of old documents – things I’d like to have records of, but don’t need hard copies*.  The total residue was a full bag of shredded stuff and an additional half-bag of stuff that didn’t require shredding.  That cleared out enough space that three file boxes became two, and shifting things around I now have three free shelves in the library.  I’ll move stuff from the guest room shelves out to the library – so I’ve furthered my goal of getting the free space in the guest room to do some built-ins.

I also got in some work outside and managed to clear enough trash off the patio and out of the garage that the enormous trash can is full… and there’s a pile by the recycling bin as well.  But I’ll need to do much, much more before the garage is usable as a woodworking space again. 

I find myself measuring progress in the square footage of horizontal space (shelves or floor) reclaimed.  I need to clear probably another 30 shelf-feet of stuff from the house before I’ll feel truly decluttered.  And I dunno how many from the garage.

I managed to work out both days.  I watched several entertaining home-improvement podcasts.  I answered a few emails. 

I read most of “Three Cups of Tea”, a novel about a guy who started a charity to build schools in rural Pakistan.  The backstory comments about the politics in Pakistan over the past 20 years have given me interesting insights into the current Bhutto/Musharraf (spelling?) confrontation – as Bhutto’s being painted by the press as a white-hat now, but it sounds like Pakistan under her and Sharif was rife with corruption and misery.

How is it Sunday night already?

* * * * * * * *

*Fr’ex, I scanned all my old electric bills.  I know I don’t need them for any documentation purposes, but I want the usage data on file so I can compare old to new when I do a home improvement that’s intended to save energy.   Comparing the pre- and post- data after installing the new, more energy efficient air conditioner, for example, was impressive.  In the summer months, it’s saved me up to a hundred bucks per month and that’s despite a sharp rise in prices during that time.

I’m going slowly.  Hope to correct some of that this weekend.

la_directora suggested pictures.

And, since the kitties’ new grandparents have all requested same, I happen to have some!

Enjoy… no doubt more will be forthcoming.

Well, I always knew my husband’s tendency to flirt with other girls would get us in trouble.

In this case, he was out doing the week’s errands and shopping.  And there in the shop window… was Judy. Their eyes met and he felt compelled to go into the store and meet her.  Within minutes, they were in love… gazing into each other’s eyes, with him stroking her soft hair and running a gentle hand over her cheek. 

But K’s an honest fellow, and immediately came home to tell me what happened.  And I love him and want him to be happy – so I agreed to go meet this Judy, and see whether we got along.  Perhaps we could modify our lifestyle, invite her to join our lives. 

Then the plot thickens.  We were there in the store, introducing me to Judy, when I looked up and… our eyes met.  Gracie.  Her slim build, her graceful bones, her intelligent face.  I realized my life could not be complete without Gracie in it. 

So we introduced Judy to Gracie.  They seemed willing to put up with one another in return for the chance to be with their respective beloveds.  Some negotiating took place, and by last night, we had a full household.

 See, PetCo works with a local animal rescue agency and on Saturday mornings, they host animals for adoption.  Judy,  a black shorthair with white bib and paws, was rescued as a kitten; her “foster mother” found her behind a commercial garage and no mother or other kittens were in sight.  Gracie, who is is solid grey in color and has a siamese’s build, appears to have been abandoned at about six months of age.  Both are now around a year old and have lived with volunteer foster families before being put up for adoption – Judy to become used to humans, Gracie to get fed up and healthy. 

  We did a short experiment in the store bathroom, to see whether Gracie and Judy could stand being in the same room as one another.  They seemed to do OK – mostly ignored one another.  And the rescue service brightly informed us that for adult cats, the adoption fee was two-for-the-price-of-one.  And… well…. anyway, now we have two cats.

At home, we’ve found two of the most opposite personalities you can imagine.  Judy has been quite reclusive.  She took hours to even be willing to hop out of her cat box.  Once out, she has hid under furniture and only ventured out to eat or use the box.  She will allow K-=
 to pet her a bit, and can be bribed with treats to come be sociable.  But so far she hasn’t seemed ready to face more than the single bedroom we’ve confined her to.

Gracie… ah, well, Gracie’s another matter.  She spent a few hours exploring the bedroom we’d initially confined her to, and then announced she was ready for more territory.  She’s a perpetual motion machine and tells us loudly about everything she finds; she’s siamese-like in voice as well as shape. And when she gallops through the house I find myself suspecting we actually adopted a herd of elephants.

Anyway, it’s early.  I know we’ll be learning a lot about our two new roommates in the coming days.  No doubt I’ll be one of those people who talk all the time about her cats, for a while.

Often, when I suggest a multivitamin supplement to patients, I am told “Vitamins make me hungry”.  For people who are trying to watch their weight, this is a significant concern.

I’ve always been intrigued by nutritional aspects of health, though, and the recent controversies about the role of vitamin D in cancer prevention have piqued my interest still further.  I’ve started screening more patients for Vitamin D levels and an awful lot of the population is deficient.

Additionally, I am intrigued because of personal experience – recently my metabolism has seemed very slow; my energy levels are low and my weight ballooning despite regular exercise.  My ability to improve my athletic performance has been crappy, too.  At a recent vacation, I ate reasonably, exercised a lot (average 5 miles brisk walking in hilly territory daily) and still managed to gain 5 lbs in a week.  Then, I started taking a prenatal vitamin around a week ago (am not pregnant) and am finding that my appetite has been very, very lively since taking it.  So, curious how that increased hunger was affecting the weight gain, I stepped on my scale this AM – and found that extra 5 lbs was gone along with a few more. 

So of course I got curious.  Maybe vitamins make me hungry, but also increase my metabolic rate?  I hit the library.

Turns out there’s intriguing stuff out there about the role of micronutrients in energy metabolism.  Zinc deficiency, for example, is associated with metabolic slowing and difficulty with athletic performance.  And zinc’s one of those nutrients that is a little hard to get unless you eat lots of red meat.  I looked at my prenatal vitamin – nearly 200% of the US RDA in zinc.  Hmmm.  The old Centrum-like vitamins I used to take have about half that.  Iron deficiency also may be associated with metabolic slowing, and again a prenatal vitamin is likely to supercharge me with iron.  Thiamin is essential for healthy carbohydrate metabolism.  Riboflavin is involved in mitochondrial function, which links directly to metabolic activities.  Pantothenic acid, Niacin, Biotin, Vitamin D, and calcium all seem integrally tied up in metabolic rate… as do microelements like selenium, cobalt, mylybdemum, manganese, chromium, and phosphorus.  And it appears if you’re regularly physically active, your need for all of those elements is higher.

A week’s experiment on myself hardly makes for a scientific finding.  And the medical literature is astoundingly thin on info about the relationship between micronutrients and metabolic rate, or micronutrients and athletic performance.  But having winnowed out what studies exist, I’m very intrigued.  I think I will start pushing my patients to take the vitamins even though they get hungry – because if the vitamins speed their metabolism and increase their available energy, they’ll be a lot more likely to be healthy!  And me, I think I’ll keep taking that prenatal vitamin no matter whether I decide to reproduce or not….

OK, I was somewhat successful in my stated goal for the day.  I took a large load of books to be “released” as BookCrossing books, leaving only a smallish box of books remaining to be labeled. 

Tomorrow I have clinic but will try to devote a couple hours in the evening to something sedentary but organizational – maybe scanning old documents and shredding the originals.  I don’t really need a hard copy of the expired 1996 home elevation certificate, do I? 

Definitely need to bring the leftover Halloween candy in to clinic to give away to the staff and the kiddies, tomorrow.  Otherwise it’ll all go to waist…

So tomorrow’s goal:  label this remaining box of books for book crossing; scan a couple folders of archived files; get rid of candy.

Oh, and compose that letter to the grad school telling them I’m dropping out.  That’s important.

I did several hours of CME today, though. That was worthwhile.