Miscellanea

Oven-roasted salsa recipe

Posted on February 13, 2017. Filed under: Miscellanea |

Whoops. I bought tomatillos and peppers weeks ago to cook into my pozole, and never got around to using them, except for the lone jalapeño. What could I do with tomatillos and a habanero before they spoil, when I have too many other recipes in the cue to make pozole again in the near term? Do tomatillos even spoil? The pepper was looking wrinkly…

I consulted the web (as usual) and found some salsa recipes, but none that really appealed to me, so I blended a few of them and came up with an outrageously delicious result. Without further ado, as I hate food blogs that ado repeatedly before the recipe, here it is.

Ingredients: chop all ingredients, toss with a little oil, salt, and pepper, and place on a baking sheet, on lightly oiled foil for easiest cleanup.

• About 8 tomatillos
• 1 onion (any variety)
• 2 cloves garlic
• Pepper – I used a habanero, but choose your favorite(s)
• Fresh cilantro
• 1 lime

Roast first four items at 400’F for 30 minutes, then scoop everything (drained, but not squozen) into a blender or food processor. Add a big handful of cilantro, squeeze in the juice of half of the lime, and puree. Enjoy!

My “Quick Fix” Plan for Getting Lean in a Hurry

Posted on November 11, 2012. Filed under: Miscellanea |

If you need to get ready for a reunion or other special event fast, or want to kick-start your clean eating lifestyle, my quick fix plan could work for you. I will explain a practical way to shed body fat quickly by eating real food – no weird cabbage or juice diets or dangerous pills here, just high-quality protein and vegetables. At 5’6” and around 138 lbs, I generally eat up to 200g of protein and under  50g each of fat and carbohydrates while on the Quick Fix, but l don’t count macronutrients. The plan is designed for fat loss while maintaining and building strength.

Works for me.

While you could continue following a version of this eating approach for the long run (adding more fat into your diet), I regard it as a short-term solution because I really like a wide variety of food, and I find this menu pretty boring. You also need to be creative with vegetables to get the micronutrients you need for health. Fourteen days is a manageable amount of time to commit for most people, though you may see good results in the first week. If you are getting great results and want to continue, go for it.

One warning: if you have never attempted to remove grains and sugar from your diet before, you may experience a few days of unpleasant symptoms as your body adapts to other fuel sources. I had headaches and felt hot, cold, and/or woozy for about three days. Sticking it out through these first few days is entirely worth the effort, and when your body adapts, you will feel better than ever. Say goodbye to post-meal sluggishness and afternoon tiredness!

1. Commit! Talk with everyone who lives with you, and get them to agree to support your Quick Fix (and maybe even join you!)  Post a calendar or some other way to count the days, so that you can cross one off daily. Record your weight and get your body fat measured if possible. Take a “before” photo of yourself.
2. Set up your kitchen for success; shopping in advance is particularly critical.
   1.  Clean all of the junk food out of your kitchen, including anything with corn syrup, sugar, or grains. Throw it out or hide it on a high shelf – just get it out of sight. Also hide dairy products and alcohol from yourself. Get rid of any soda that you have. (Plain seltzer water and unflavored sparkling mineral water are fine, but check club soda for sodium content.)
   2. Buy 3-5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts, fresh white fish, white tuna (packed in water), and/or shrimp. (That’s enough to start – you will need to buy more.) Organic chicken is the best choice, but at $6-7 per pound, it’s not feasible for everyone, so I recommend Sprouts market for hormone-free chicken that frequently goes on sale for $2 per pound. (Avoid deli meats, which are usually full of additives including starch and sugar.) Prepare the chicken by grilling it or roasting for 20-25 minutes at 375’ – cut a piece at the thickest part after 20 minutes, and if you see pink, leave it in a few minutes longer, but before it dries out. Chop the chicken into roughly 1” cubes. You can season the chicken with herbs, Old Bay, grilling spice, or any other seasoning that contains no sugar. Salt is not off-limits, but use as little as possible. Shrimp can be grilled, roasted, or stir-fried with a little soy sauce and stored in the fridge, but fish is best fresh and cooked to order.
   3. Buy a lot of spring greens, baby spinach, and any other leafy green vegetables that you like. You may also include cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, and other non-starchy vegetables.  Do NOT buy fruit or starchy vegetables like butternut squash or potatoes; you can add these back later. If you have a sweet tooth, buy a jar of cinnamon sticks, which you can chew for a slightly spicy and sweet appetite suppressant.
   4. Get some quart-sized storage containers ready for meals to go.
   5. Schedule sleep. Rearrange activities that will prevent you from getting 8 hours of sleep, even if this means reducing gym time. Insufficient sleep will cause you to crave sweets and other foods that you are going to shun on the Quick Fix, so make every effort to ensure that you can hit the sack early every night. Your sleep will improve as your body adjusts to clean fuel, creating a beneficial feedback loop!
   6. Plan to make time to cook. The Quick Fix foods only take a few minutes to prepare – less time than it takes to pick up drive-thru food – and you will enjoy the fresh taste. You may even find that cooking becomes your new hobby,  as long as you are not rushed and can allocate a few minutes for the kitchen. I recommend getting sharp knives and learning to use them properly.

Once you have commitment, a fridge stocked with cooked lean meat and vegetables, and a plan for getting enough sleep, it’s time to start! Here’s the game plan for Quick Fix execution.

1. Eat ONLY when you are hungry, and then eat until you are satisfied – not necessarily full, but ready to stop eating. If you wake up and are starving, eat; if not, wait until you are hungry. You can have a cup of black coffee or tea if desired, and you can drink all the water you like anytime.
2. When you are hungry, drink some water, and prepare yourself a bowl of leafy greens with an ample portion (6-10 oz, depending on your size) of lean meat on top. You can also include vegetables on the side.  For breakfast, you may prefer mushrooms and onions to greens – chop them up and sauté or even microwave them (start with 4 seconds on high). Do not use oil or butter.
3. Pack meals for work. Fill up two storage containers full of greens and 6-10 ounces of cooked lean meat. Mix it up; making one chicken bowl and one shrimp bowl is more interesting than eating only chicken. Eat one bowl when you are hungry.  Give your system 15 minutes to catch up and feel full after eating before tearing into more food.
4. Try not to snack, but if you get hungry, eat more protein (lean meat) and leafy greens first. If you have an unbearable a sweet craving, chew on a cinnamon stick.
5. You can eat as much lean protein and leafy greens as you want. Your total calories will drop, but you should not be hungry very often.
6. Be sure to get to bed on time each day, and get lots of sleep!
7. Exercise moderately. If you are accustomed to five CrossFit workouts per week, you can continue with your high-intensity routine, but expect your performance to decline temporarily. If you are a runner or cyclist, restrict your long run or ride to medium distances – perhaps 6 miles running or a 35 mile bike ride. Also add some body weight exercise: three days per week, do 3 rounds of 10 pushups and 15 situps, or 25 burpees (increase to 50 as you  get better at these). If you currently are not exercising, walk for 30-60 minutes three-five times per week, and add a few pushups, situps, and/or burpees before and after you walk. Exercise will supercharge the effects of the nutrition plan.
8. Do NOT weigh yourself until you reach Day 14! At this point (or later if you choose), weigh in, get another body fat check, and take an “after” photo – send your info to me!
9. During the last few days of Quick Fix, think about how you will sustain your improvements. Chances are you won’t be eager to dive into the next loaf of sourdough that you see, but other indulgences may tempt you. Choose your sustainment plan in advance. I recommend a transition to a modern paleo diet or other ancestral eating method, reintroducing a wider variety of vegetables and healthy fats such as avocado and coconut oil. Planning, shopping, and eating when hungry are still key. Occasional indulgences in wine or tiramisu are also fine, but keep these treats under control – I know firsthand that too much wine can reverse hard-earned results. Chances are that sugar, breads, and alcohol will make you feel crummy anyway. Stay away from soda and artificial sweetners. In any case, make time to cook, and EAT REAL FOOD to improve your health for life.

One last note: to reiterate – this plan is intended for FAST RESULTS over a SHORT TIME PERIOD only. Because you will probably be changing fuel sources and eating fewer calories than usual, your body’s hormone balance will change. The idea is NOT to go into starvation mode so that you pig out and undo your results as soon as you finish the plan; stay ahead by keeping your fridge stocked with meat and veggies, so that you can respond to hunger with the right foods during and after your Quick Fix.

I can help with extra support, ranging from more specific meal plans to personal coaching with daily support via email or text, through DNA Personal Training – ask me for details!

Race Report, and Digging Poo

Posted on October 4, 2011. Filed under: Miscellanea |

I used to run marathons, but am now in a more zen-like running place in which I run how I feel, without a watch. For the last few years, I have run the Jim Click Run ‘n’ Roll 8k on the Univ of Arizona campus; a few years back I ran with the double stroller and passed Army ROTC cadets (slugs!), and more recently I have run to break 40 minutes. This year, I woke up feeling chipper and planned to give it a shot – just blaze it.

Until my 6-year-old got up and said she really, really wanted to run.

Okay, get dressed, we have to leave in 5 minutes.

I made the mental shift, preparing to run the 3k at her pace. However, I was happy that she wanted to try. We drove to the U, parked and trotted to the registration table, forked out the moulah to enter, pinned on numbers, and bam, voila, running partners for the 3k race. She swung around on the Wildcat statue as the brass section of the marching band entertained the crowd.

The wheelchair athletes took off. The 8k runners took off next, and then we toed the line.

We ran at least 200 yards before the whining started. “My legs hurt!” “ow!” The complaining and begging to stop continued for about 3/4 of a mile. My daughter has run miles while playing, and the feint nearly set me off. I will never understand why children take the negative approach to getting attention, but she wore my patience down to the edge of fury. Dammit, I sacrificed one of my favorite races of the year for this??!

After a quick meltdown on the curb at about the 0.75 mark, where the men’s swim team sauntered past (the swim team walks slowly on land), she got up and started running. She passed the tanned, long-legged swimmers, several other children, and even some adults. She ran and ran…all the way to the end, where she wiped out in the grass and rested, until she saw her PE teacher and got up to cheer. Her PE teacher is the top female master runner in the area, but that’s another story. She collected her ribbon and her eegee (ice, sugar, and fruit frozen into a brain-freezing insulin spike of a treat), and miraculously recovered well enough to want to play Frisbee.

Not bad for a first “real” race. Next time, I just hope we can skip the whiny part!

"Before"

***

After the morning’s running adventure, the biennial Poo Fest began. I’m not sure whether I enjoy Poo Fest. There’s something pleasantly visceral about mixing 6 cu ft of steer manure into the garden, but the work makes me sweaty and very stinky. The tomatoes were growing like crazy but not producing, and the peppers were pretty well beyond interest

Mmm, yeah.

Poo Fest starts with a quick stop at the nursery, followed by the Clearing of the Garden. Buying manure is something like paying taxes; you spend money and get a lot of crap. The summer garden inhabitants, lovingly planted about six months ago after the last Poo Fest, were ripped from the ground and relegated to the dumpster (because I don’t have the time or patience to chop them finely for compost). Next, I ripped open all six fabulous bags of poo and dumped them on top of the somewhat spent soil. Our garden has a communal tiller, which means that I get to combine machinery, small engines, and gasoline to create my fertile organic eutopia-to-be, and it’s a heck of a lot easier than shoveling all that sh*t. (Aside: one of my favorite Gabrielle Giffords comments mentions how her years of mucking stalls was good preparation for working in Congress – different shovel…) The tiller dragged up a water bottle and jammed on a huge rock at one point, but I managed to churn up the whole garden, hopefully deep enough to encourage cauliflower, lettuce, broccoli, peas, and other cool-weather crops to grow.

About two and a half hours later, I had a refreshed garden plot, with eggplant and pepper plants moved to the end (where the onions will go after those last summer plants die), and some strawberry plants and one remaining okra at the other end. Next week we will plant seeds, and a new cycle of growth will begin.

I love Arizona’s year-round growing season. How boring to have to stop gardening in winter!

Getting schooled

Posted on September 27, 2011. Filed under: Miscellanea |

It’s my own fault.

I decided that I wanted to go back to teaching. I have always enjoyed tutoring, and I loved being a teaching assistant in grad school. I loved it so much that I voluntarily taught stochastic processes, the hardest junior-level course in my department, during my last semester of Grad School Part 2. I won a teaching award from the students for that effort.

In the years since I graduated, I have often looked into returning to teaching, but never acted on the idea. In July, when the head of my old department asked for help with some uncovered classes, including a critical required undergrad class, I jumped at the chance, and rearranged my day job schedule to accommodate my return to teaching. I was excited to finally have the opportunity to get back in the classroom and exercise what I thought was my gift to help students understand complex concepts.

Two months later, my perspective is completely changed.

I don’t regret deciding to try teaching again, but I cannot believe how much time it consumes. I literally have lost any free time I had on weekends and evenings. I am now in a constant state of preparation: planning the next class lectures, homework, exams, projects, quizzes…and fortunately only having to grade for one course. I have over 90 students in my undergrad class, and several of them are remotely located. They sent a pre-exam “help” email today, essentially asking me to re-teach the entire course to date. I don’t know if I am just that ineffective or if they are not too quick, or haven’t been doing the homework; in either case, their struggle compounds mine.

My grad class is another story. I have free reign over the course content and enjoy the seminar-style discussions. However, the prep work is immense and requires a lot more creativity than the other course needs. The students are sharper and more engaged, which is both a blessing and a challenge. Since I don’t have a grader, I am constantly behind in my work for this course.

I no longer have time to bathe my kids and put them to bed. I am cramming in a few minutes to hurriedly type this post. I haven’t seen Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert in weeks, and I desperately need a vacation, but can’t take one until December.

Several factors contribute to the drastic difference between my current teaching effort and my previous experiences. Previously, I only taught one class, but may have graded more than one at a time. Preparing lectures is a lot of work. I never had more than 40 students, and it’s hard to work a crowd of 90 – while I have connected with some, many remain anonymous. I dislike not knowing the students but I just don’t have the energy to invest in getting to know all of them, as I still have another day job and two kids who miss their mom.

Perhaps the most striking difference between Teaching 1.0 and 2.0 is the implementation of technology. Automation is supposed to make life easier. Instead, it raises expectations, and the increased capabilities require time to feed. I spend hours making sure the teaching system online is current and correct. I miss teaching on a white board using handwritten notes; instead, I prepare charts for each class. I am broadcast across the state and recorded on video. I will never watch those videos – I just don’t want to know how I look.

I never get to bed before 11pm now, and I wake up around 5am, so am constantly sleep-deprived, which is aging me too fast and diminishes my ability to think on my feet. I struggle to answer questions in class because I just can’t think clearly. One unfortunate day, I had a very strong desire to just quit and walk out about 5 minutes into class; I resisted, but the awkward pause showed me that I had crossed a line. I kicked into perseverance mode. I’m now methaphorically running my 13th marathon, but it will last a lot longer than 26.2 miles.

My birthday is December 11, and it’s also my freedom date. My goal is to submit all the grades before then. Wish me luck.

Meanwhile, I need to get off WordPress and get to work!!

What has 8 legs and climbs on noodles?

Posted on September 5, 2011. Filed under: Miscellanea |

Tonight, I violated one of the basic rules of living in the desert, especially during monsoon season when the critters come out: never go outside barefoot in the dark. I noticed that the toy box on the pool deck was open, so I went out to close it in bare feet.

I’m not sure who was more scared – me or the tarantula. He/she/it jumped out of the dark, scampered past me, and jumped in the pool. Odd way to handle the situation, but I am not exactly an authority on tarantula thought processes…though I do know that they can jump. He/she/it seemed to be floating comfortably, but I figured I would call on my old lifesaving skills anyway and offer it the courtesy of a pool noodle, giving it the option of escape to dry land. The tarantula accepted immediately, scuttled up the noodle, and may have ended up in the spa – I’m not sure as I was out of the pool area pretty flippin’ fast at this point.

Uuuungh, shudder…just a little creepy. Nevertheless, I still find tarantulas somewhat endearing – they’re furry and cuter than those spindly brown spiders or scary black widows – and to me, random tarantula encounters are part of the charm of the desert. Rick would not agree; when he stepped on a baby rattlesnake in the garage last week, also sans shoes, the word “charm” was not part of his reaction.

***

I baked this weekend…occasionally I break out the coconut flour and eggs, and concoct some near-paleo bite that usually involves chocolate. I started with chocolate cupcakes with (flourless) peanut butter cookie dough baked in – you freeze the dough, chop it into chunks, and insert them right before baking, so that they don’t bake the whole way through. Frosting? Started with chocolate, but messed up by using baking chocolate instead of chips, so it came out very rich and bitter (fab for me but not sure about the intended recipient, our newly 13-year-old neighbor). Therefore, I took a second pass with almond butter icing, made with powdered sugar and therefore PLENTY sweet enough.

If the thought of double chocolate peanut butter cupcakes doesn’t float your boat, the coconut cupcakes with key lime icing might appeal. (The lime wasn’t from a key – it’s actually Persian lime icing, but tasty all the same). Now I’m thinking that coconut twinkies filled with lime icing, using the same recipe, would rather rock. Hm.

***

Meanwhile, on the healthier end of the spectrum, the tomatoes are growing again in the garden, but they’re nowhere near as plentiful and fabulous as they were in June. The peppers and eggplants, however, are cranking out the goods. I peeled, salted, rinsed, and roasted a load of eggplant this weekend, and it’s fabulous…so smooth and creamy that it’s hard to believe it’s a vegetable. I also finally understand why the master gardeners recommended waiting to plant eggplants and peppers: the plants that I installed in March are tall and strong but not producing small vegetables, whereas the late transplants are smaller, more bountiful plants. I will add this tidbit to my growing mental gardening reference, and I hope that I can remember it long enough to recommend to the masters that they tell people about the consequences of planting too early. I dismissed the tip in the spring because I thought they meant that the eggplant wouldn’t do anything yet. I had no idea that the results in the fall would be so drastic. Another 20 years of desert gardening and I’ll be an expert!

The elementary school down the street has a new garden, with plots and plumbing but no fencing, irrigation tubing, or toolshed yet. I hope to “move in” soon, as this location is within walking distance of my house. My dad’s garden was right in the backyard, so the new plots still won’t be as convenient and bountiful as their East Coast cousins, but we have a year-round growing season to make up for it.

***

Day tripper, and Grocery Musings

Posted on August 27, 2011. Filed under: Miscellanea |

I went to LA on Thursday on a day trip, shaking out of a much-needed deep sleep at 5am to dress, get on a plane, and go sit in a boring meeting. The weather in LA was gorgeous outside, sunny and cooler than Tucson. Unfortunately, I was expected to bring along detailed information that I did not have on a topic that I do not understand and that I find very boring, so the trip was a waste…

…up until the part when I went to Pinkberry in the airport, after bailing out of the meeting early, and tried the peanut butter flavor. Oh. My. God. It’s incredible. It didn’t quite make my day and make me feel better about traveling for no reason, but it sure was delicious.

I also had a nice chat with my row-mate on the plane and got home at a reasonable hour. Not all is bad in the world, even though the trip didn’t do anything for my job-related morale.

******

Look out, Oklahoma! You’re getting a Sunflower Market on Tuesday, and my friend JD from the produce section is going to be there to help with the grand opening. I advised him of my opinion of OKC (not somewhere that I want to live), and he promised to try cow tipping. In return, he handed me a huge, dripping chunk of red watermelon, out of nowhere. Delicious.

I love seeing the same people regularly at the grocery store. Many people comment on how Tucson is a huge small town – this observation became pointedly common after the shooting in January – and community is very comforting. Smiley the butcher hooks me up with the freshest fish, and JD and some of the other guys in produce always have a smile and a joke…and don’t mind me commenting on their nice melons. The checkout ladies have huge sparkly nails in one case, and a daughter about Natalie’s age in another…as well as a teenager. They come up to me to say hi when I am in the store. Obviously, I’m quite the dedicated customer in return. I don’t particularly like one of the other Sunflower stores in town, and while the third one is newer, I’ll stick with the one that knows me, thank you. If only they had grass-fed beef…

******

Saturday morning = 9am gym for R, 10am Irish Dance for N, 11am swim lessons for both, and a 12:30pm massage for me. That, ladies and gentlemen, is good planning.

Teachers

Posted on August 11, 2011. Filed under: Miscellanea |

“When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall “

– Kodachrome, Simon and Garfunkel

In recognition of the first day of school, which is today in our district, I recall and would like to salute some of my favorite teachers.

I was lucky to attend a pretty good high school, with mostly competent, supportive teachers.  A few were not the best at imparting knowledge to young minds, but most managed to prepare me well for college and life beyond. Some caricatures stand out in my memory, such as Mr. Ayotte, my chemistry teacher, who wore fish ties and overalls and occasionally let us make explosives. For Halloween, he dressed as a wizard and performed experiments that involved chemicals changing color from orange to black; we even made glow-in-the-dark slime once. Mr. Morgan, my precalc teacher, reminded me of Guy Smiley and projected his voice, even in one-on-one tutoring situations. My history teacher, who I can picture but whose name escapes me at the moment, was a mild-mannered, slim older man who once deliberately scared the hiccups right out of me. Mr. Baxter in Modern World History, a tank sergeant in the Army National Guard (or reserve, not sure) called all the girls “fraulein” and the boys “comrade” or “private,” and I liked him enough to be his student aide/grader, which was a lot of fun. I never got to enjoy Mr. Vizas, another well-loved history teacher and Vietnam vet who has since passed on to teach the little angels. Even Mrs. Cage, our counselor, was great, though we made a lot of fun of our vice principal who will remain unnamed.

I sometimes joke about how Intro to Wines was one of the most useful classes I took in college, though I have engineering degrees. Similarly, the two most influential teachers I had in high school – as measured by enduring impact 20 years later – were in English and…driver ed.

I was an A student. In eleventh grade, I got my first C or D (I forgot which) on an English paper in Mrs. Pittenger’s class. She was on a lifelong mission to rid her part of the world of passive voice and other writing fouls, one student at a time. She issued very specific guidance, which I probably (hopefully) still have somewhere, such as:

Be specific: use “jalopy” instead of “jeep.” Avoid using “things.”

No passive voice! Don’t use “there are” or “there is.”

If you start a paragraph with “there are three things…” you may go to hell.

By the end of my first semester with Mrs. Pitt, I had learned to meet her expectations and write well enough to achieve A grades again.  Senior year, 11 or 12 of my classmates and I embarked on the odyssey of her AP English class, which involved an agonizing foray into the worlds of Faulkner, Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe, as well as more entertaining material such as Catch-22.  I wrote a sixty-four page paper in three parts – yes, in high school – about the Life and Works of Katherine Ann Porter.  Pitt even accompanied me to a celebration of Porter’s 100th birthday (estimated, as the actual date was unconfirmed) at the University of Maryland, at which we met many famous and often elderly literary critics. Best of all, I learned a priceless skill that has served me extremely well through college, two rounds of graduate school, a dissertation, numerous studies and reviews published by the Federal Advisory Committee for which I worked during the past nine years, and God knows how many carefully crafted papers and emails. I will always be grateful to Mrs. Pittenger for teaching me to write well, and never hesitate to give her the credit when complimented on my writing. I repeat this mantra often: “I had an excellent high school English teacher.”

On a different end of the spectrum, I am grateful to my driver education teacher, Mr. Agnello. He looked like an older and wiser 50’s throwback – dark crew cut, sometimes scowling countenance, and a sharp wit. He gently teased the bubbleheaded girls in class, and razzed the boys, as he coached us through the fine points of scanning, driving at night, and swerving – a skill I put to use three months after getting my license when a van turned left immediately in front of me, thus avoiding t-boning the idiot. He ran the simulators for us – three on a tree! – and I believe that his favorite lesson was the one in which the student driver crashes, and Mr. A threw a pile of metal trashcans onto the linoleum floor, so that they crashed loudly and abruptly enough to make us all jump out of our chairs. I still use the skills I learned in driver ed nearly daily – check the bilnd spot, cover the brake, fix the mirrors – and I wonder how other people learn to drive without learning from a guy like Mr. Agnello. Judging by the morons I see on the road, his skills are sorely needed!

Here’s cheers to all of the teachers who slave away for crummy pay all year, serving many roles ranging from educator and mentor to counselor, surrogate parent, coach, and peacemaker.  Your role in the world is criminally undervalued, and your work is tough. As the parent of a first-grader, I hope you love your job and keep working hard to do your very best.

To Mrs. Pittenger, Mr. Agnello, and the rest of the DHS faculty, as well as other great teachers I met before and after that – Miss Kulin, Mr. Sutton, Mrs. Kirklin, Mr. Vidrick, Prof. Ruina, Prof. Mankin, etc. etc. – THANK YOU!

Why I Like the Duchess of Cambridge

Posted on August 10, 2011. Filed under: Miscellanea |

Kate Middleton (Wales, Windsor, whatever)…the media can’t leave her alone, and I’m sure that the blogosphere has had its say. Nonetheless, I will pitch in my tuppence about Duchess Kate. I think she’s fab for the following reasons.

1. She has been photographed in cowboy boots and hat, and she rocked it.

2. She has been photographed wearing the same outfit more than once. The snotty tabloids said she recycled her wardrobe. I say she’s normal – she wears things more than once, like most people, perhaps because she likes her clothes. Who cares if she wore a dress to more than one wedding? It’s pretty, and why not?

3. She is a fellow member of the pilot-wife sorority. (I suppose we have some guys in the group, too, but it’s still mostly a sorority.) Given that her spouse is in a rescue unit, she probably has heard a few drinking songs and endured some silly traditions…and I bet she was a good sport.

4. She doesn’t feel the need to make a statement about everything or anything. She’s just present, elegant, and seems to quite have her own mind.

5. Anybody who looks comfy hanging out with the Queen has got to be okay.

6. She wears jeans and grocery shops, sometimes all at once, just like a normal person. (Unlike a normal person, she shops with paparazzi stalking her.)

7. She doesn’t seem to care that her little sister is getting a lot of attention. Good – she’s secure, and Pippa absolutely rocked the cream silk, so good for her too.

8. She bagged Prince Charming, but made him work for it. You go girl.