this was taken in 2010 on the st. ben’s campus in front of the chapel. i had just gotten my 50mm f/1.4 lens and made jane be my test subject. one of the nuns came out of the chapel and offered to take our picture.
last night i was driving to rochester with nate and realized that i STILL feel like any day now we’re going to go back to st. cloud to our house in st. joe. i’ve been down here for 2 years now and it’s just not the same 🙁
(looking forward to farmers’ market eggs!)
even though nate doesn’t have a job and money’s tight, i still want to move forward with gutters, which means a deck is right around the corner. i still want a yard this summer, dang it! money or no money! sometimes i wish i could just forget about money and make things look nice. boooooooooo.
things this summer i want to do:
-gutters
-garden
-flowerbed in the front
-plant a tree in the front yard
-do something about the fact that i can see my neighbors’ firepit and party area while i ‘m standing anywhere in my living area
– if not a deck, put fake patio stuff on the ground in the back so i can sit out there in a chair
in recent light of studies saying fat and cholesterol are not as bad for you as previously thought (surprise surprise), nate thought it would be interesting to know which fast food place would be better for you from a keto, atkin’s, or other low-carb diet stance: subway or mcdonald’s. i thought, well that’s easy enough to find out just from their nutrition facts pages. they put all that stuff up online, so it SHOULD be easy.
(we’ll see as i’m doing this on the fly.)
i think ultimately you need to compare two equivalent sandwiches. i’m not going to compare a big mac to a veggie flatbread sandwich. so, taking a look at each menu and thinking like the average joe walking in to each place, i’m going to compare a double cheeseburger and a 6″ cold cut combo. i’m going to add cheese and a sauce to the cold cut combo to make it somewhat comparable to the burger.
double cheeseburger:
cold cut combo on italian bread with american cheese, cucumbers, green pepper, pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and light mayonnaise (why light? to get the calories equal.):
Comparison:
burger: 440 cals, 210 from fat, 23 grams fat, 1.5 trans fat, 35 grams carbs, 2 dietary fiber,
7 sugars, 25 protein, 8% A, 2% C, 30% calcium, 20% iron, sodium 1050
sub: 440 cals, 190 from fat, 20 grams fat, .5 trans fat, 45 grams carbs, 2 dietary fiber,
8 sugars, 19 protein, 15% A, 20% C, 40% calcium, 25% iron, sodium 1460
that sodium blows my mind.
so, let’s say your subway choices lean toward the boring. try on a turkey sub, provolone cheese, olive oil sauce:
380 calories, but you’re still looking at huge amounts of carbs (more because i chose wheat bread this time around – way to be healthy!), but the dietary fiber is a little higher. i put on more veggies so your vitamins are up.
ok, so let’s see what the worst of the worst can do:
mcdonald’s bacon clubhouse crispy chicken sandwich [which is breaded and fried] vs. subway italian bmt with italian herbs and cheese bread, cheddar, mayo and olive oil, and bacon (plus a few veggies).
chicken: 750 cals, 340 fat cals, .5 transfats, 65 carbs, 4 fiber, 16 sugar, 36 protein, 8 A,
25 C, 30 calcium, 15 iron, 1720 sodium (whoa)
bmt: 710 cals, 400 fat cals, .5 transfats, 46 carbs, 3 fiber, 9 sugar, 29 protein, 15 A,
20 C, 50 calcium, 20 iron, 1820 sodium (more whoa)
the only plus side to eating the bmt is that you get some veggies on there.
for being “healthy”, subway sure doesn’t seem healthy. unfortunately, when a person walks into subway and puts a bunch of veggies on her sub, she is sort of disillusioned into thinking that her food is healthy. not necessarily the case.
**********************
let’s see what MY meal i eat a mcdonald’s comes in at (the only meal without devil’s syrup) vs. what i would get at subway:
6-piece chicken nuggets w/small fries vs. chicken breast on italian herbs and cheese.
mcd: 510 cals, 260 fat cals, 0 transfat, 47 carbs, 4 fiber, 0 sugar, 16 protein, 0 A, 10 C,
4 calcium, 8 iron, 700 sodium
subway: 560 cals, 260 fat cals, 0 transfat, 45 carbs, 3 fiber, 7 sugar, 26 protein, 20 A,
30 C, 50 calcium, 15 iron, 1160 sodium (holy cats)
even though the carbs are high from the french fries, given the lack of sugar in the mcdonald’s meal, i’d choose the nuggets and fries over the sodium-laden sub. (yes, yes, veggies are great, but the piddly amount they put on the subs does not make up for the huge slab of bread that surrounds them.)
this is all just another reason to stay home and cook.
i keep having dreams i’m back working at merrill. i am put right back into the mix, and i’ve forgotten everything i learned there. i miss some of the people there!
that’s the only dream part of this post. i talked to my brother the other day about his easter plans, and he mentioned that he’s thinking of moving back to MN sooner rather than later. he’d probably live in my basement! that’s exciting.
welp, it’s sunday night and i’m trying to get rid of this wannabe cold that’s got hold of my sinuses right now. could be allergies, too, for all i know. what i do know? i’d like it to go away, thanks.
i have a farmers’ market cookbook that i bought a couple years ago, so when i start getting my good from my garden this summer and picking up stuff from the market here in town, perhaps ill do a run through of the recipes in the book. that might be a fun way to blog for a month!
i’m at the bar in st charles with liz, and i’m feeling pretty woozy after 3 drinks, i’m old and it’s sad. 🙁
boooooo the queen of refuse booooooo.
i’ve tried to make bread in the past, and really didn’t have a ton of luck. yeast and i don’t get along very well for some reason. but, i’ve had a lot of luck with pizza dough lately, so i thought i’d give bread another go.
i used the french bread recipe from this site. pretty simple: flour yeast, salt, and water. mix, knead, let sit, form loaf, let sit, bake. the “secret” is to throw a half cup of water in the oven just before you close it to get steam in there for a crusty crust. (seems a little counter-intuitive, but it works.) i was worried about the lack of sugar in it, but the yeast did its job and it tastes great.
and omg is it crusty!
circa 2001. really drunk.
“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet;”
-Juliet
“The only three things a guy should want change to about his girl is her last name, address, and her viewpoint on men.”
-kid cudi [whoever he is]
it’s hard for me to articulate exactly why i kept my last name instead of changing it to match nate’s. part of me loves my last name; part of me thinks it’s an archaic tradition; part of me thinks it’s unnecessary and there are really baseless reasons to change it. and then there’s the whole gender equality thing on top of all that. it’s really an amalgam of reasons in my head.
today one of my friends on fb (more like acquaintance) asked what people would start calling her once her name changes, since they use her last name to address her. someone commented she could keep it, and she replied, ” I know I can. I just consider it an honor that he wants to share his with me.”
to which i wonder: would he consider it an honor if she wanted to share HER last name with HIM?
(my guess is no. some guys are horrified at the thought of taking their wives-to-be last names.)
but first, i’d like to explore the archaicness, the absolute medievalness of the term MAIDEN NAME.
maiden (adj.) “virgin, unmarried,” c.1300, from maiden (n.). The figurative sense of “new fresh, first” (cf. maiden voyage) is first recorded 1550s. Maiden name is from 1680s.
maid (n.) late 12c., “a virgin, a young unmarried woman,” shortening of maiden (n.). Like that word, used in Middle English of unmarried men as well as women (cf. maiden-man, c.1200, used of both sexes, reflecting also the generic use of man). Domestic help sense is from c.1300. In reference to Joan of Arc, attested from 1540s (cf. French la Pucelle). Maid Marian, one of Robin Hood’s companions, first recorded 1520s, perhaps from French, where Robin et Marian have been stock names for country lovers since 13c. Maid of Honor (1580s) originally was “unmarried lady of noble birth who attends a queen or princess;” meaning “principal bridesmaid” is attested from 1895. Maydelond (translating Latin terra feminarum) was “the land of the Amazons.”
a couple takeaways: maiden is a term from 1300. maiden name is from 1680. in 1200, unmarried men were known as maiden-man. why don’t men have a pre-marriage label these days while women still do? we don’t call young men “master” anymore. so really, not too far off from being medieval.
i propose we strike maiden name and start using first lastname. using maiden name just conjures up visions of showing up on a doorstep with 12 cows and a bag of gold after an arrangement made by two fathers, never to see her family again. women were property! we are no longer property, so why do we continue to use terms that harken back to that?
ok. this is going to be extremely disjointed, only because my thoughts are so disjointed about this subject.
it’s assumed that women will assume their husbands-to-be last names. society expects it; little girls dream of it; high school crushes scribble it (guilty!). only eight percent of women keep their last names these days compared to 23% in the 90s , according to one article. another states that 35% are keeping their last names. what? let’s get the numbers straight here people. both articles were written in 2013 – perhaps a more aggregated and random national sample should be polled. but the article with the 35% had a good point – people are getting married later in life and establishing an adult identity well before getting married.
next point: “it’s just a name.” i had a friend’s wife say that to me. “i’m still me. i’ll still be XXX, but it’s just a name.” ok, so juliet had her say, but if it’s just a name, WHY CHANGE THE ONE YOU HAVE?
i have heard some weird stuff regarding last name changings. one, working in kmart. a coworker was wondering why some celebrity still goes by her maiden name when she was married to another celebrity. oh, he mused, maybe it says it on the marriage certificate and she just goes by her other name. the thought NEVER crossed his mind that she may have kept her last name.
next point (see? disjointed as crap!): if women are happily willing to change their names, go through the short-term trouble of getting name changes sorted out, and men in general aren’t… what does that say about men and marriage? why are women willing to change for men but not vice versa? (i know; i know; there are some men out there who are willing to change – my cousin was. there are some men out there who just don’t care – like nate – but i’d be willing to bet that most men out there are like “uh, no way i’m changing my name. you have to change yours.”) does it just “confirm” that women are the weaker sex? why should i be expected to change my name while men won’t even consider it?
another point: ok, so some ladies out there really do have crappy last names, and i can understand wanting to get rid of a beast when the getting’s good – one of my friends has a very long polish last name. understandable she’d want to drop that. olson? smith? nelson? brown? i’d probably change it.
point: kids. ok, ok, so you’re having kids and you want the kids to all have the same last name and you want to be a family. why is the name thing such a huge ordeal? there are so many split families and different last names out there as it is, that i wouldn’t think it would be that huge of a deal these days to have a mom whose last name is different that that of the kids she’s picking up.
point: i feel like when a person changes her last name, it’s like she’s turning her back on her past, growing up, and other family members. yes, it’s a new life, but you don’t just drop your old life like they did back mid-millennium. i think this is the rub of my beef with changing my last name. it ties me to my mom, dad, sisters, and brother. while getting married brought nate into the fold, nate does not have the background and history with me like those other peeps do. perhaps my family experience growing up is non-traditional in the sense that we all really like each other and our dysfunction is one grown from and into love, but if that’s the alternative to wanting to throw the past away with a walk down the aisle, i’ll take it.
one thing i’ve seen lately that i really like the idea of is adopting a new last name – a combining of the last names of the two people getting married. THAT i think is a perfect solution. it shows you are committed to each other and willing to share the best of each other while keeping the past alive.
NOTE: i judge the crap out of ladies who change their last names, and i’m sorry. i know i have regular readers who changed their last names. in fact, i only know ONE reader who KEPT her last name (hi liz). like i had my reasons to keep my last name, i realize others have reasons to change their last names, whether that’s to distance themselves from a crappy childhood – i hope not 🙁 -, ease of naming children, or heck, just because it’s what you want to do. i need to get past that judgey part of me. what’s in a name, right?
my tomatoes are sprouting! this is good news. i’m hoping they fair better than the last time i started tomatoes indoors. we’ll see what happens!
meanwhile, i’m still running growlamps in the office and feeling like an outlaw…