we had some sad cranberries last night after the joke. Yum!

Sorry about that Ao. I will call today.

Ha ha

what are sad cranberries called?
blueberries

The good news about large family dramas is that they prepare you for faculty dramas. Accidentally (and luckily), I was left off a few department e-mails. New chair nominations due by Nov. 20th.

Frozen collards are healthier than fresh sweet potatoes in almost every regard except Vitamin A content (proteins, sugars, carbohydrates, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, etc.).

Canned collards are similarly healthier, except they have a high level of sodium and 1 gram of fat.

Peanut butter and apple for +50 today.

Fair warning: I'm gonna try and pull out of last place in exercise points here shortly. Hopefully get signed up with the gym tomorrow for lunch time workouts.

rsj, the 5k people called me. it sounds like they don't know that you are running the 5k. so you might want to fix that.

Probably not...maybe the frozen...nto, what does your "official" health standard say? There ARE lots of fresh greens in the supermarket that I haven't tried. I just wish artichokes and asparagus were cheaper since those are the two my kids will eat.

Really? Canned and frozen collard greens are better for you than a plain sweet potatoes?

If you can't find them fresh, you can either get them already prepared...in a can, or you can go to the frozen section and find mustard greens and turnip greens in bags alongside the spinach.

They may be difficult to find given that they are a 'spring green', but the Bozeman community is known to demand weird things from time to time.

Hm, you just reminded me I forgot to pack a vegetable this morning.

Hoping to make it some time this week to the grocery store to search out collard greens. May come to regret that if it smells like sauerkraut.

Opened that can of southern style collard greens last night. It smelled more like sauerkraut than bacon fat. Yum. I'm the only one that ate 'em though.

Oh, man!

Well I guess that just leaves Matthew to find out if all the snorkeling workout negates all of the Fried Puerto Rican food and Bacardi you will be consuming next week...

My teeth are clean and healthy. Can I get some points for that?

I love that this competition has gotten us out cross country skiing almost every night. And my points aren't adding up fast, but I've lost 4 pounds...so it's already worth it.

Yeah, but my goal is to eat more fruits and veg. Not 1 and not 5. So I don't think that rules no matter how you slice 'em are going to align with that one.

That and my other goal is to work out on a regular schedule, rather than the binge and purge schedule I have now. And the competition is ruining that goal as well, constantly feeling the need to go workout more.

So reluctantly I have pulled myself from the competition, as it's not meeting my personal goals. I'm glad to see you all getting healthy. I can't wait to participate in healthy activities with you at Christmas. Eric, I'll see you on the 23rd for an 'Ohler hockey game'.

+1,000,000,000 for laughing comparing Eric's drinking habits to Frank's coke addiction.

Left-over garlic pepper pork for lunch is awesome.

On a side-note: I think I just brought my lunch from home for the first time working here.

You are not "challenging yourself further while staying within the rules of the contest". (You could even do 10 points per serving with a max of 50).

You clearly have options which give you incentive to reach 5 servings per day while remaining in the contest. Of course, if you think 5 servings per day is too difficult of a challenge to achieve then those options would appear to be disincentives.

The hard alcohol deduction does not violate the rules of the contest at all, so that's great that you've added that challenge to yourself.

I am challenging myself further, by giving myself more points for more veg/fruits. And giving myself negative points each time I drink hard alcohol, like Vodka Tonics.

I looked for the highest nutritionally ranked vegetable I could find. I thought it was going to be sweet potatoes, but it turns out it was collard greens. I figured nobody currently regularly eats collard greens, so this would be relatively fair for everyone and might encourage someone to (re)try them out. It's only a week long challenge, so it's not much time for habit forming challenges. According to that article, just 3 servings of collard greens per week was more beneficial than 28 servings of mixed vegetables. (In full disclosure, sweet potatoes/yams might be next week's vegetable, conveniently in time for Thanksgiving.)

Eric's negative points were taken into account when accounting for most improved. Due to those negative points, Frank almost won with his reduction of 3 cokes per day to 2 (or is that 3 beers at lunch?), but the hockey prevailed.

ao: If you wish to challenge yourself further while staying within the rules of the contest, you could limit yourself to +50 only for the 5th serving.

I remember vinegar, but there probably was butter and garlic too.

Does "cooked right" mean cooked in bacon fat?

In full disclosure, my points are on the sheet as indicated by the rules. hotdog and french fries -500 one beer -150. Todd Snider doing 'Alright
Guy' +10000.

Actually collard greens are very good if they are cooked right. You'd probably have to go South to find them cooked right though.

Collard Greens?? I thought you wanted to make feasbile goals. Let's start with finding vegetables that we might actually enjoy eating.

Eric won that challenge eating hot dogs and french fries and drinking vodka tonics all night. Good work, Eric.

Eric, in full disclosure, I'm now giving myself additional points the more fruits/vegetables I eat, because that's one of my healthy goals.

That cross-country note got me some points on Saturday, and volunteering to teach belaying to the Big Brothers/Sisters program got me some free rock-climbing time this afternoon.

I think Eric won the 2nd week challenge of beating your 1st week, with his weekend hockey games giving him the edge.

Bonus for this week: double vegetable points for the day if you eat a serving of Collard Greens (post cellphone shot if you've got it). I don't even know where to find Collard Greens, so I'll have to do some looking. Apparently they are very nutrient dense.

Okay Doughers, Eric, Edgardo, Veronica and Roman we need gift ideas up for you. At least sizes and vague descriptions of what you're into now.

Hot Tubs are great, but sometimes you have to wonder if they're worth all the work. (For those playing at home...yes. yes they are)

-150 for the next week?

Christmas 2008 presents don't count.

First four Christmas presents done. Whoohoo.

Look what
we did during class today

We measured 20" of snow on the deck table. The driveway seemed considerably deeper.

Hrm, that made me go look up the bozeman police report:

A woman threw a shoe at a security guard at an establishment on East Babcock Street.

Police helped an intoxicated man find his home.

A chicken got loose and was in a neighbor’s garage.

A man cursed at a person’s dog when the person did not give him any money. He was warned for using “inappropriate language.”

Police warned a man for punching an ATM.

Our crime alerts are now predicting the future:
On 11-13-09, at approximately 7:15 PM, a female student was walking near Stevenson Hall on ISU campus, when an unknown subject approached her and attempted to grab her keychain wallet. The victim screamed and fled to a nearby building to notify the police.

More than fruit cake or fruit roll-ups they do.