DAY SIX ALKALINE YEAR

GEMISCHE INTO GEMISCHT

October 2, 2009 Breakfasted royally on emmer cereal, cooked yesterday and refrigerated, with raisins added today. Emmer is puffy when cooked, and luscious with raisins. Also had a banana and half a grapefruit. Most people in their 70s are on one drug or another with which they're not supposed to eat grapefruit. My husband's doctor allegedly said that drug has the same effect as grapefruit and that he should cut down on the drug if he eats grapefruit. This is total hearsay in my part and should not be admitted as evidence! The fact remains that grapefruit is tasty, nutritious, and that because I've not been diagnosed with anything for which I should take the drug, I can take full advantage of food I like.

Deep sleep last night and feeling wonderful today! Only meeting is an island consortium that considers how to get more arts enrichment into the schools. I represent the Orcas Lions on that. The only social occasion is Friday Night at the Lower, our good pub where Jack consistently meets his son John & his wife Patty, for end-of-week conviviality. Jack drinks Pepsi-Cola and I prefer a glass of Pinot Gris or Pinot Grigio. However, as that is off my list, I'd better avoid temptation for tonight. I could go and take my trusty water bottle, but usually eating is part of the scene. Their meals are fish & chips (once adored) or chicken wings, and although they include a good cole slaw, I''m not certain enough of my ability to stay alkaline, to allow myself to enjoy the scene. Maybe someday they will include pH 9.5 water on the menu and make money doing it!

Tomorrow is a luncheon for a close friend, and I'll take a salad just in case. Avocado, chopped peppers, tomato & lettuce dressed with lemon juice, olive oil and freshly-grated pepper. Not unusual, but comfortable.

On Sunday, I'm in charge of the monthly breakfast at our Emmanuel Episcopal Church, an 1880s building looking down the seven-mile reach of East Sound. The village of Eastsound took its name from the Sound but the Post Office back in the 1940s said it had to be one word for the village and so it has remained. I've recruited friends to bring casseroles of their choice, and my choice is--you guessed it--a huge vegetable gemische. Will go to the Farmers' Market tomorrow to get some of the vegetables, and my friend Jan (whose babysitter I was as a teenager, now a more experienced grandmother than myself) gave me a big bag of Orcas-grown tomatoes. By the way, I tried to look up that g-word on Babel.com but they don't translate Yiddish apparently. Likewise drew a blank on etymology.com. Will keep trying.

LATER --Found Yiddish-English translation online--aha!--I was spelling it wrong! The word is gemischt, which means "mixed." That sounds as good as any for those veggie-grain combinations. Took the remaining serving from night-before-last gemischt to the arts consortium at noon; it tasted very good. During the meeting they kept passing a platter of cookies around and I had no trouble in abstaining.

Ran into my hair-cutting pal, Lili, in the market; she had a free half-hour so she came out home & renewed my haircut. She had straight hair most of her life and in her middle years it turned curly! I wish, I wish!