Some history. Last year I had an idea that I wanted to make a gourd bowl. Sadly, I couldn’t get ahold of a gourd with a long enough stem attached to it.

This year, as the summer ended and fall began, I headed to the local farmer’s market and came across a gourd I’m going to try to dry. It has a nice stem and a relatively smooth exterior. I’ve no idea what I will make from it if I can dry it successfully but that’s for another time…

The next week I picked up an acorn squash. It has a nice stem too, so I figured why not give it a try? It’s got a nice rounded shape so maybe I can make a little bowl!

I’m a bit conflicted now though. eHow says I shold be drying the gourds outside in my garage, but the American Gourd Society says I should do it someplace warm with good air circulation—which means inside. My apartment gets pretty warm from time to time, but I would say its got great circulation. Plus, do I want a slowly molding gourd hanging from my ceiling? It seems weird that I will be following eHow vs a group that specializes in gourds, but nonetheless that’s what I’m doing.

My two gourds are currently hanging in my garage–their drying cycle has begun! I might take the take the AGS advice on how to clean/treat the gourds, but that won’t be until tomorrow.

So I will update here when I check for and wipe off the mold and when the gourds are (hopefully) successfully dried!

“1 in 6 adults and almost 1 in 10 children suffer from a diagnosable mental illness. Yet, for many, the stigma associated with the illness, can be as great a challenge as the disease itself. This is where the misconceptions stop. This is where bias comes to an end. This is where we change lives. Because this is where we Bring Change 2 Mind.”

Take the time to watch this PSA. Watch, learn, feel, understand.

cartoon by Tim Campbell. Posted on Cagle.com.

Once again I have an editorial cartoon that sums up a situation so beautifully that I have to share.

I’ve loosely followed the discussion of Rush Limbaugh’s membership in a group looking to buy an NFL franchise. Frankly I think Limbaugh is too polarizing a person to be a leader in the NFL, and I think it was wish for the other members of his group to kick him to the curb.

I can also appreciate how NFL players would not be a fan of having Limbaugh in the league after his famous comments on Donovan McNabb or after his recent comments about blacks and whites needing to ride on segregated buses. Limbaugh, for many reasons is not a suitable business owner for what is ostensibly a family business.

All that being said, it’s not as if the NFL doesn’t have a bit of a race problem of its own. For years there have been complaints about the Washington Redskins as a name for a franchise team. The fact that “Redskins” is a racial epithet cannot be denied. The idea that the courts have ruled in favor of allowing Washington to keep that name is offensive as well.

Thank you Tim Campbell for such a poignant work.

After watching her — and I must confess, I have no experience or knowledge of her outside of this airing– I can’t fathom why The View would select Elisabeth Hasselbeck over her. I started watching The View in the Summer of 2008, and throughout that time I have gained little respect for Hasselbeck. In fact, I have anti-respect for her. From what I’ve watched she does little more than parrot what GOP leaders or right wing commentators have to say. I’ve seen only one occasion when she disagreed with the far right even when they were clearly in the wrong.

In the brief time Campos-Duffy was on the show today, she was articulate, and seemed to clearly be expressing her own opinion. Let’s be clear: Campos-Duffy is a conservative, as is Hasselbeck. What she appears not to be is a tool.

I don’t know what criteria The View used in selecting Hasselbeck over Campos-Duffy, but they should reevaluate. Almost every day I saw her, I wondered if Hasselbeck was the only conservative voice The View could find in the correct age bracket. Clearly, she is not.

Bill Getty, whenever you have the opportunity, get an actual independent thinking, well spoken conservative voice on the show. Campos-Duffy would be idea, but you may have lost her for good–go do the work and get conservatives a good co-host.

and

Both of these commercials make me want to buy Dove products. Sadly, I can’t. Dove, and its parent company, Unilever, test their products on animals.

Dove, I love that you are making a statement about our culture through your campaign–even if it is part of an attempt to capture more of the market. Heck, that’s what capitalism is. I’ll take your positive message.

However, your practice of testing on animals, and truthfully your partnership with Walmart show a distinctly different side to your business.

Please, bring your business practices in line with your cultural message so I can use your products!

It seems so anticlimactic because honestly after the hellish workouts of weeks 5 and 6 doing 200 seemed EASY. Notice I say seemed easy…it was definitely a challenge, and there’s no way on Earth I could have even come close to completing this 6 weeks ago. But it’s neat that although I’m proud and excited to have finished, I miss the heart pounding successes I had on those days of high 200s and 300s.  A hearty thanks to the 200 sit ups people for posting this workout program!

The final instructions allow for pauses if necessary, and recommends breaking the final 200 into smaller parts.  During my 200, I pulled my legs down into a butterfly stretch several times, and once or twice pulled my legs down to give myself a full length body stretch. None of the breaks were more than 10 seconds–and were likely far less–and I never moved off my back. Funnily, I lost count between 196 and 200, so I did 201. Amazingly weird time to lose count.

So here I am to say, the program was a success for me, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to strengthen my core.  From here I will go back to the week four workout so I can maintain and maybe continue to strengthen my core.

Not only to I want to remain healthy, I just don’t know what my morning would be like without this every other day workout.

Thanks again 200 Situps people!

Total leg drops today

This feel so anti-climatic. I did my leg drops today, and frankly it sucked. Maybe I do better when I’m doing them at 5 a.m. versus 8 a.m. I don’t know.  I finished them all, and it was hard. But I didn’t end with the recent exhausting exuberance of the last several times. I did the sets, I struggled with some–some at an earlier time that I would have thought.

The sets were 33/33/45/45/34/34/27/27/max 90… I did 92.

I lost count in one of the 45 sets and may have done less than I was supposed to. It sure didn’t fee like I did less, but I think I may have. To make up for it, I hoped to make to 100 in the final set, but I didn’t. 92 isn’t too bad though.

I still took 45 or more seconds between sets, with substantially more before the final set.

In the final set I rested at 50 — legs upright, and at 60 I pulled them down to the butterfly stretch. From there, I paused again twice in the 70s.  Also, I got powerfully hungry during today’s workout.

I’m not feeling great promise for my 200 test that is coming up. I’m supposed to hydrate and eat well for the next few days and then give it my best shot. Here’s to hoping that I don’t have and of the spine-shift issues, since I don’t really know how to correct that without stopping and moving.

I will say that I feel so blah about my workout today, that my trepidation of having to do the 200 test early on a weekday is now lessened. I think I may perform better then. We shall see.  My guess is that this 200 leg drop journey will not be ending on Final Test day and that I will be revisiting week 6 again. We shall see.

For the life of me, I can’t seem to understand that I’m not excited that I did 370 of these things today…

picture taken from slate.com

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Spitting on the sidewalk is disgusting. People who walk by have to see it lying on the ground and change their course to avoid stepping in it.

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Spitting on the grass is disgusting. People who walk by can’t see it, and not knowing to avoid it may step on it—in their bare feet.

Total leg drops today! (unless I did 351 by mistake)

You know what’s nice to see?

30/30/35/35/30/30/27/27  — well it looks nicer with each number only once on the chart, but still, it’s nice low numbers.

You know what’s not nice too see?

80

What a horrifying number to see for a final set.

You know what makes it worse?

Not remembering if you did your second set of 27 or not. That happened to me, so  I did 27 either two or three times, I’m not sure which. I’m going to guess I only did it twice, both due the ease of completing my final 27 and the relative ease of my 80.

I had to pause at 50 and 72, when I dropped my legs into that butterfly stretch like last time. And I’m okay with that! It seemed to be my back today that made the challenge greater. I can live with that too since I’m trying to strengthen my whole core.

Week 6 day 3 doesn’t seem so scary right now.  But I’m still not confident about 200 at one time. Getting closer though! 324 today is a big leap!  (and what if it was 351??)

Total leg drops today!

Today I thought I would fail. And maybe I did.  I’m not sure.

I did complete all of my leg drops, but I had to pause several times–especially in the last set.  I also took probably a two minute break between the 4th & 5th sets (but to be honest, a bodily function was a partial cause of that).

Today was 60/75/38/35/max 75(80)

There was no set I could get through without pausing.  To be fair to myself, in the first 4 sets, I never broke position. Whether leg up or leg down, when I paused I just kept my legs where they were. So for the first 4 sets I know I didn’t fail. I have to admit though (chuckle) that just looking at those numbers yesterday made me want to stop the program. The this morning I woke up an hour early and then proceeded to dream that I couldn’t go back to sleep and that I would be able to sleep late if I only would go to sleep. Not the best mental shape.

Last set: killer!  I made it into the 30s before I even needed to pause, which I think is pretty impressive. Here’s where I’m not sure if I failed. At 50 and 60 when I paused I brought my legs into a kind of butterfly stretch. I stayed on my back, but I don’t know if that counts as a cheat. My body needed it, and it made me able to go on but I just don’t know. I paused at 68 again and then whipped out 12 in a row to get 80.

Part of me wonders if I should drop to the first column, which today was 38/45/30/22/max 60, but that just looks too easy at this point. Whodda thought I’d ever say that!?

So on one hand I think it’s a success, on the other I want to be able to go without pausing. Looking ahead though, it seems like pausing may be acceptable in the final test. If that’s so, I guess it’s okay here too. And I’m pretty darn pleased that I can do 283 of these suckers! So you know what? I’ll call today a success. I did my 283, and I didn’t vomit, and I sweated like a pig. Isn’t that what a workout is all about?

Ready to move on to day 2, motivated, but not confident. That 200 at one time still seems far out of reach.