Wednesday, November 30, 2011

November Diet Quality Card

november diet quality card

The good news is I am wresting back control of my diet card, the bad news is I am doing it with ramen. FSM bless that noodly brick of comfort. I do dress it up a bit, I put in tofu, a scoop of frozen peas, a scoop of frozen corn, and then I drop in an egg and stir it all up. I don't use the soup base that it comes with, I use dashida which was my mom's universal spice. Am pretty sure that it is MSG that makes it so delicious. Also where it says one package of ramen is three servings... misprint?

I can't manage eggs for breakfast right now, I am relying on peanut butter toast. Il est okay. I begrudgingly started eating peanut better apples again, but now I like them again. Il est okay comes from, I think, a New Yorker cartoon about how the French really feel about Jerry Lewis.

This is a Friday diet card, I'm home all day and it's the sweetie man's night to cook. He's been cooking from Cressida Bell's cookery chart, which is brilliant. He is almost through Tomatoes.

Fall Break

I always end the second month of the quarter with a diet quality card, and by "always" I mean this is my second time. Then I take a twenty day blog break until the first day of the season, i.e., I am on break from the 1st through the 20th of every third month. Be seeing you December 21st.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Movement and Muscles at the Wrist
 flexion and extension

Not only does supination and pronation go on at the wrist end of the radioulnar joint, but the radiocarpal joint is an ellipsoidal joint that is capable of circumduction—i.e., you can flex and extend your hand at the wrist and also move it from side to side as in abduction and adduction. But the book only covers flexion and extension at the wrist, so here's that:

biggie flexes her hand at the wrist biggie hyperextends her hand at the wrist

What movements happen at this joint?

Flexion is when you pull your hand toward the inside of your forearm, decreasing the angle between the two segments—i.e., you bend your wrist. Extension is when you straighten your wrist. That is, you increase the angle between your forearm and your hand by pulling your hand toward the back of your forearm.

What muscles make these movements happen?

wrist flexion wrist extension

The muscles that flex your hand at the wrist are your flexor carpi radialis, flexor carpi ulnaris, and palmaris longus and the muscles that extend your hand at the wrist are your extensor carpi radialis longus, extensor carpi radialis brevis and extensor carpi ulnaris. Very easy to remember and understand, the flexors are anterior muscles that pull the hand toward the inside of the forearm when they contract and the extensors are posterior muscles that pull the hand toward the back of the forearm when they contract.

What exercises make these muscles work?

Wrist flexors can be exercised with wrist curls and grip strengthening exercises, and wrist extensors can be exercised with reverse wrist curls and racquet sports such as tennis.

My wrist flexors and extensors are pretty weak, I know this because they're what burn out when we have to carry those boards loaded with skatecourt tiles down the stairs for track teardown.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Bones of the Wrist

wrist

What bones are at this joint?

The bones at the wrist joint are the two bones of the forearm, the ulna and radius, and the carpal bones of the hand that my book does not name and that are not properly drawn on my skeleton. I guess from a training perspective, wrists are a little bit of an afterthought. Poor wrists, lower extremity gets all the love! I love you wrists, she typed. Also "gets all the love," ha ha.

What type of joint is this?

Now that I am looking at my supplemental sources ::cough Wikipedia:: the wrist is a hella complex joint, and there's way more going on than it says in my book. So I will simply say for our purposes:

  • the radiocarpal joint is an ellipsoid joint that is similar to a ball and socket joint

What body part moves this joint?

The muscles that work your wrist mostly originate mostly in your upper arm, but most of the meat of them is in your forearm.

What body part is moved at this joint?

What we are talking about is how muscles in your forearm move your hand at the wrist, but there are other actions at the wrist that being left unsaid for now—

Friday, November 25, 2011

Winterval Advent

I've been asking around, but it seems to me like Christmas did used to be normal-sized when I was a kid. Maybe a soupçon of "the commercialization of Christmas," unless you grew up with my dad whose idea of a Christmas story was this chart that he worked up proving that Jesus was born in July because God wouldn't send the Baby Jesus to freeze to death in a barn. My dad, charts, me, I KNOW. But anyway, it seems like Christmas has steadily grown over the years at a sort of gradual pace that seemed organic and therefore unstoppable. I feel like people always complained about Christmas, but with a sense of there goes the neighborhood and nothing you can do about it. Until Christmas decorations started going up before Halloween, then we realized that we had a monster on our hands that we have to do something about. When Nordstrom sends out a note that their Christmas decorations will not go up until after Thanksgiving, it actually occurs to you to hope that proportion might be restored. That's the moment it feels like we're in, and not just about Christmas.

shop chicago for the holidays

Hope spurs action, sometimes big actions, but more important to me small actions that we could have been taking all this time and maybe we wouldn't have found ourselves in this situation. Except I think that getting ourselves into situations is basically the human narrative, and when the human narrative finally gets interesting is when we take matters into our own hands. When we make things ourselves, which is why I love derby in a nutshell—it's a DIY sport. Derby kind of is the change that I want to see in the world and that I hope people will keep voting with their dollars for.

A way to make money blogging is to write about things that people can want and things that people can buy, which I'm not that interested in. Because the amount that I actually want or buy isn't enough to generate that kind of content. Blogging more than you actually want and wanting more than you actually buy and buying more than you actually need is just clutter to me. I'm not against blogging or wanting or buying, just against blogging and wanting and buying for feeding the giant maw of consumerism. When you blog or want or buy something, it should be for some purpose. It can be for a purpose like I need four different hat, scarf and glove sets for my four different coats, I need to have a set in every coat pocket and save three minutes of searching and matching every time I go out. I did the math, it adds up to like thirty hours per year!

In fact I'm sharing the same pair of black gloves between my play and pastime outerwear, and I can never find that damn pair of gloves. When I do find them, I don't know where to put them and they end up on the towel shelf in the bathroom. Look I can have brain surgery, or I can buy another pair of gloves. I'm never going to put together a page of this season's cute gloves, I'll show you the pair of gloves I got instead of having brain surgery.

The coolest thing that's going to happen to me next season is that I get my own WCR trading card, which Urban Folk Circuit voted with their dollars for. I was introduced to them by my furious upholdin' wifey T.S. Helliot, and it is a match made in heaven. I mean, right? People making their own stuff, the hottest thing there is. So tomorrow I'm going to their November market at Double Door to vote with my dollars for gloves to go with my WCR Dickie's jacket and for the change I want to see in the world.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Pumpkin Bread Pudding
 with cashew cream

pumpkin bread pudding in the works

Let the bread soak up the pumpkin batter overnight.

Happy Thanksgiving!

a one pound loaf of nice bread
2 cups almond milk
1 can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
butter

For the cashew cream
1 cup cashews
3/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Trim the heels off the bread, then cut it up into bite sized cubes. Whisk the pumpkin, sugar, vanilla, and spices into the almond milk in a large bowl. Toss the bread cubes in the milk, cover and let soak for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

Also soak the cashews in a small bowl with enough cold water to cover them.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 9" x 13" baking pan. Put the soaked bread in the pan, cover the pan with a sheet of buttered aluminium foil and bake covered for thirty minutes. Remove the foil and bake uncovered for ten more minutes, until lightly browned.

While the pudding is in the oven, drain the cashews and blend with almond milk until totally smooth. Stir in vanilla and nutmeg.

To serve, ladle cashew cream over scoops of bread pudding.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

You Are Who You Choose To Be

20111118_juicebox

Reference: The Iron Giant. Obviously.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Movement and Muscles at the Elbow
 summary

  flexion extension pronation supination
anconeus   X    
biceps brachii X     X
brachialis X      
brachioradialis X     X
pronator quadratus     X  
pronator teres X   X  
supinator X     X
triceps brachii   X    

Monday, November 21, 2011

Movement and Muscles at the Elbow
 pronation and supination

The elbow does this other freaky thing, though. I mean, imagine if your knee did this.

biggie pronates her forearm at the elbow biggie supinates her forearm at the elbow

What movements happen at this joint?

Pronation is when you turn your forearm so your palm faces down, and supination is when you turn your forearm so your palm faces up. Mimi Furst told me that the way she remembers this is, supination is how you would serve soup.

Are you not freaked out by this? You can totally rotate your upper arm at the shoulder and your forearm at the elbow independently of each other!

What makes this happen is the radius pivoting in the radioulnar joint. So you can also see the difference between a pivot joint and a ball and socket joint. A pivot joint just pivots on a single axis, a ball and socket joint moves in all directions.

What muscles make these movements happen?

elbow pronation and supination

The little doodles are to show that supination is palms up and pronation is palms down.

The muscles that pronate your forearm are your pronator teres and pronator quadratus. I think because they are more medially located, they turn your forearm in when they contract. The muscles that supinate your forearm are your biceps brachii, brachioradialis, and the monster truck of muscles, the supinator. These are more laterally located, so they turn your forearm out when they contract.

What exercises make these muscles work?

Basically your pronator muscles can be exercised by doing resisted pronation, and your supinator muscles can be exercised by doing resisted supination.

My favorite trick involving this joint, though, is to get people in a proper position for tricep pushups. I don't have pictures, so imagine and do this along with me:

  1. hold your arms out in front of you, palms and insides of your elbows facing up
  2. without moving your elbows, flip your hands over so your palms face down
  3. now flip your hands up
...so if you were in plank position, your hands would be flat on the ground and the insides of your elbows would be facing forward. When you do pushups in this position, your elbows go back for a triceps pushup instead of winging out to the sides as in a wide arm pushup.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Movement and Muscles at the Elbow
 flexion and extension

Flexion and extension is probably what you think when you think what the elbow does.

biggie flexes her forearm at the elbow biggie extends her forearm at the elbow

What movements happen at this joint?

Flexion is when you pull your forearm toward your upper arm, decreasing the angle between the two segments like the definition of flexion says. Or more simply, when you bend your arm. Extension is when you straighten your arm. That is, you increase the angle between your forearm and upper arm by pulling the former away from the latter.

So you see the difference between a hinge joint, which the elbow is, and a ball and socket joint, which the shoulder is. You can move your shoulder six ways from Sunday—flex, extend, abduct, adduct, rotate in and out— but the elbow is pretty much open and shut.

What muscles make these movements happen?

elbow flexion elbow extension

The muscles that flex your forearm are your biceps brachii, brachialis, brachioradialis, pronator teres and supinator, all anterior muscles that pull the forearm toward the upper arm when they contract. The muscles that extend your forearm are your anconeus and triceps brachii, both posterior muscles that pull the forearm back when they contract.

What exercises make these muscles work?

Biceps brachii, brachialis, and brachioradialis can all be exercised with arm curls, pull ups, upright rows, and rock climbing, all of which involve flexing the forearm. Exercises for pronator teres and supinator involve their primary movements, pronation and supination, and will be covered in the next post.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Pasta with Pea Pesto

pasta with pea pesto

Okay back where we started, with peas. If you were wondering, the difference between me and Smitten Kitchen is the difference between her pasta with pea pesto recipe where she's shelling her own peas and blanching and then plunging them into an ice bath and reserving some of them so that the final result is like a light green dress with dark green polka dots, and me ripping open a bag of frozen peas and occasionally leaning over them to smell if they're cooked and thinking cooked peas smell like burnt hair but no, those are my braids hanging over the burner.

1 lb frozen peas
2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lb pasta

Bring lightly salted water to a boil over high heat in a large saucepan. Add peas and cook until tender, about five minutes. Drain.

Put more water on for the pasta.

Put the peas, garlic, walnuts, parmesan cheese and nutmeg into a food processor and process until roughly chopped. Drizzle in the olive oil and process until smooth.

Cook the pasta until al dente, about ten minutes. Drain. You may want to reserve a cup or so of the cooking water in case your pesto is very thick.

Return the pasta to the pot and stir in the pesto, thinning it out with reserved water as desired.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Bones of the Elbow

elbow

What bones are at this joint?

The bones at the elbow joint are the humerus or upper arm bone, and the the two bones in the forearm called the ulna and radius. It may help to remember that the ulna is the bone on the pinky side and the radius is the bone on the thumb side.

What type of joint is this?

There are actually two joints in the elbow, three really, the joints that connect the upper arm bone to the two forearm bones and the joint that connects the two forearm bones to each other that, freakily, is actually a moving joint:

  • the humeroulnar and humeroradial joints are hinge joints that work as a single joint
  • the proximal or superior radioulnar joint is a trochoid or pivot joint

What body part moves this joint?

The muscles that hinge your elbow are mostly in your upper arm, but the muscles that pivot your forearm at the elbow are more in your forearm.

What body part is moved at this joint?

The part that is moved at your elbow is your forearm.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Fall Pastime Outerwear

fall pastime outerwear

Fall pastime outerwear is my WCR Dickie's jacket, which has a giant WCR patch on the back. Which brings me to the question of hat and gloves: WCR hat, too many logos? And I'm wearing the second pair of Xhiliration gloves here. I'm so inclined to leave it at that, maybe just knit myself a blue scarf for when it gets colder. I'll probably wear this in winter too, just over my snowsuit.

You can also see a peek of my fall pastime wear: probably a t-shirt over a long sleeved t-shirt, my summer short shorts with striped tights, and my fatboy boots. I have told the sweetie man that this is fashion forward. But also I haven't gotten around to getting new jeans and not a lot is fitting around my thighs. My fatboys get a lot of all around wear; they're cute and they're comfortable, so they're hard to beat.

I found this pattern for a one-seam skirt that I hope to have time to make over league break. I need work skirts, too. Sigh.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Chocolate Cinnamon Egg Soda

chocolate cinnamon egg soda

an egg
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
almond milk
seltzer water

Mix the cocoa, sugar, and cinnamon with a tablespoon or so of hot water into a smooth paste, then beat in the egg. Fill a third of a pint glass with almond milk, stir in the beaten egg, and top off the glass with seltzer water.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Movement and Muscles at the Shoulder
 summary

  flex extend abduct adduct horiz abduct horiz adduct int rotation ext rotation
supraspinatus     X          
infraspinatus     X X X     X
teres minor   X   X X     X
subscapularis   X   X     X  
deltoid
   anterior
X   X X   X X  
   middle     X          
   posterior   X X X X     X
teres major   X   X     X  
coracobrachialis X     X   X   X
pectoralis major X     X   X X  
latissimus dorsi   X   X   X X  

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Pasta with Roasted Corn Pesto

pasta with roasted corn pesto

This is good like woah. It's even easier to put together than my earlier vegetable pesto recipes, because the vegetables can roast while the water is on for pasta. Roasted garlic is a lot mellower than raw, so you can kick it way up. And corn, who knew, there's no sugar or anything but be prepared for a mouthful of sweet.

1 lb frozen corn
up to a whole head of garlic, cloves smashed and peeled
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lb pasta

Heat oven to 500 degrees. Empty frozen corn into a baking pan and scatter garlic cloves into the corn. Roast until corn is at least a little bit charred, stirring occasionally. It will take just about as long as it takes to boil the water for pasta, so put that on right now.

Put the corn, garlic, walnuts and parmesan cheese into a food processor and process until roughly chopped. Drizzle in the olive oil and process until smooth.

Cook the pasta until al dente, about ten minutes. Drain. You may want to reserve a cup or so of the cooking water in case your pesto is very thick.

Return the pasta to the pot and stir in the pesto, thinning it out with reserved water as desired.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Movement and Muscles at the Shoulder
 internal and external rotation

Let me introduce you to the rotator cuff muscles, which you can remember by the mnemonic SITS: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. These are the first four muscles I ever learned, I remember thinking at the time that all these muscles were going to be just gibberish; but they actually make sense to me now, which is cool! Your supraspinatus attaches from above and your infraspinatus attaches from below the spine of your shoulder blade to the top outside of the larger knob of your humerus, your teres minor attaches from the upper axillary edge—the edge by your armpit— to the back of the larger knob. (Teres major, by the way, attaches from the lower axillary edge to the bit leading up to the front of the smaller knob.) Subscapularis attaches from the front of the shoulder blade to the front of the smaller knob.

So you can see in your mind that these four muscles basically lash the ball of your arm into the socket of your shoulder blade, and they do a fine job when what you mostly do is swing your arm while walking. I'm going to go so far to say, though, that your shoulder was not really designed to smash people with and really recommend a) don't smash people with your shoulder, and b) I know that you're totally going to smash people with your shoulder and also people are going to smash their shoulders into yours, so you better strengthen your shoulder.

Three out of four of these muscles are involved in internal and external rotation of your arm at the shoulder, so the book recommends internal and external rotation exercises to as rotator cuff exercises. Supraspinatus, however, is primarily involved in abduction, and the other three are involved in adduction and horizontal adduction, so I also recommend abduction and adduction exercises.

biggie rotates her arm internally at the shoulder biggie rotates her arm externally at the shoulder

What movements happen at this joint?

Okay so, actual rotation of the arm, as opposed to circumduction, does not involve the arm moving to and from the side, the arm hangs straight and the ball of the arm turns around like Linda Blair in the socket of your shoulder blade. I mean, not all the way around like Linda Blair. Pretty far around though, your shoulder is a mobile mofo of a joint. Internal rotation is when the arm turns, well, in toward the shoulder, so like when you turn your elbow to face front. External rotation is when you turn the inside of your elbow to face front.

Another way to isolate internal and external rotation is to flex your forearm at the elbow and pin your elbow to your side, then pulling your forearm toward your body internally rotates your upper arm at the shoulder and pulling it away from your body externally rotates your upper arm.

What muscles make these movements happen?

shoulder internal rotation shoulder external rotation

The muscles that internally rotate your upper arm are your subscapularis, anterior deltoid, teres major, pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi. The muscles that externally rotate your upper arm are your infraspinatus, teres minor, posterior deltoid and coracobrachialis. Amongst the rotator cuff muscles, the one in the front pulls the arm toward the front and the two in the back pull the arm back; anterior deltoid and pectoralis major in front pull the arm toward the front, posterior deltoid in back pulls the arm toward the back. All perfectly sensible. Teres major and latissimus dorsi are in back, but they attach to the front of the humerus; so when they contract, the arm internally rotates to the front. Coracobrachialis is in front and attaches to the inside of the humerus, so I don't quite get how that works; but the book says it is only slightly involved in external rotation, so I shan't struggle with that.

What exercises make these muscles work?

As above, going through the motions of internal and external rotation basically exercises these muscles. Rotating the arms, with or without small weights, with arms hanging straight, flexed, abducted, or with forearms flexed and elbows pinned to your sides all work. Tennis serves and baseball pitches also work the rotator cuff, which you probably already know because rotator cuff injuries are so common in those sports.

These are small, easily injured muscles, so I really do mean small weights! Seriously start with two and a half pound weights, or even one pound weights. Also make sure to keep your shoulder girdle muscles stable—i.e., depressed and adducted, pulled down and pinched together in back—when exercising your shoulder muscles to stabilize your shoulder and protect it from injury, which is what your shoulder girdle is for!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Fall Play Outerwear

fall play outerwear

Key elements of fall play outerwear involve however many layers of track jacket, small black hoodie, and fury track jacket are needed for the weather. The kind of thing that gets me excited is promoting small black hoodie to play outerwear, small black hoodie got no love last season when convict and camo hoodies came on the scene. And you know what else I found in my closet, Buffy hoodie. Man, I love Buffy hoodie! I will wear Buffy hoodie for winter. My basic fashion ethos is, Wear everything that you have.

No hat for play outerwear, because play is basically synonymous with skating and I'm already wearing my skate bandana, and also play is synonymous with biking and I'm wearing my bike helmet. Unless it's raining or Kola and I need to have a captain's meeting in the mobile office, I bike to practice. I never bike to work, but sometimes I bike to pastime and then I get confused what to wear.

Every season I get those two-packs of Xhiliration gloves from Target for two dollars, cut the fingers off one pair for fall and keep the other pair for winter. The fingerless ones gradually unravel, and the sweetie man suggested them I could hem them—but they're two dollars, actually they're one dollar because they're two dollars for two pairs. It is the best bargain in all of fashion. Also I always lose gloves, I don't want to lose a pair of gloves that took four hours to hem all the little fingers and thumbs.

No scarf for play outerwear, because both track jackets zip up to the chin.

But for biking, I have this extra layer of stretch pants to keep my legs warm in transit. They're perfect, just a thin layer because you warm up after a few blocks.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Vanilla Nutmeg Egg Soda

vanilla nutmeg egg soda

So I am having this problem with Coke. The husband of a friend of mine told me once that telling himself how bad smoking was for him never helped him stop, he could only quit smoking when he admitted to himself what good smoking did for him. Which sounds so dangerous, but desperate times call for desperate measures and I think it's desperate when I'm fretting in bed and then I think go to bed, tomorrow is work and you can have a Coke at work and fall sleep like an angel.

I'm busy and overwhelmed. It's just slightly beyond me to get together three good meals a week. I'm not even hungry for food. I just need glucose. Especially when it's stressed, your brain needs glucose. When you can't be bothered to cook and you need sugar for your brain, a Coke is like cracking open a can of peace of mind.

Okay, I can work with that. Something cold and sweet and easy to drink to calm my brain. What if I get an egg in and at least get some protein. Also it can be my answer to the egg cream. Which has no egg and no cream, but chocolate yes. Oh my god why is it called egg cream.

an egg
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
almond milk
seltzer water

Beat the egg very well in a small bowl with the sugar, vanilla, and nutmeg. Fill a third of a pint glass with almond milk, stir in the beaten egg, and top off the glass with seltzer water.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Movement and Muscles at the Shoulder
 horizontal abduction and horizontal adduction

biggie horizontally abducts her arm at the shoulder biggie horizontally hyperadducts her arm at the shoulder

What movements happen at this joint?

Well now, this may just look like Biggie is abducting her arm. But imagine instead of her arm hanging at her side and lifting up and away from her side, which would be abduction, that Biggie first raises her arm forward—i.e.,flexes her arm—and then moves her flexed arm out to the side; this combination move is horizontal abduction at the shoulder. Horizontal adduction is when the flexed arm returns to front and center, and a bit beyond as pictured is horizontal hyperadduction.

Because your shoulder and hip are both ball and socket joints, you can "rotate" your arm and your leg through this whole series of movements: flexion, horizontal abduction, abduction, horizontal (backwards) adduction, (backwards) adduction, and extension. This is not actual rotation though, that is coming up next. This cone-shaped sequence of movements is called circumduction, and demonstrates the great range of motion at your shoulder and hip joints. I mean, your elbow does not do this.

What muscles make these movements happen?

shoulder horizontal abduction shoulder horizontal adduction

The muscles that horizontally abduct your upper arm are your posterior deltoid, infraspinatus and teres minor. The muscles that horizontally adduct your upper arm are your middle deltoid, coracobrachilis, pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi.

What exercises make these muscles work?

Not specificlly covered in the book, but you can see here that fly-type arm exercises would work the muscles involved in horizontal abduction and adduction at the shoulder and also those involved in abduction and adduction at the shoulder girdle—serratus anterior and pectoralis minor, trapezius and rhomboids.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Pasta with Cauliflower Pesto

pasta with cauliflower pesto

I'm gonna tell you this because it's good, but hold on because I have an idea. This is really good though, I like cayenne with cauliflower a lot. But Bork is working on a butternut squash pesto recipe and says that so far she can taste the garlic but not the squash, and truthfully I could dial down the garlic too. I guess raw garlic works with basil pesto because basil has a strong flavor, so maybe less garlic for more delicate flavors? Or roasted garlic? Or roast the vegetables and garlic together bring up the vegetable flavor and bring down the garlic a bit? Roasted cauliflower and garlic pesto TK...

1 lb frozen cauliflower
2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lb pasta

Bring lightly salted water to a boil over high heat in a large saucepan. Add cauliflower and cook until tender, about five minutes. Drain.

Put more water on for the pasta.

Put the cauliflower, garlic, walnuts, parmesan cheese and cayenne into a food processor and process until roughly chopped. Drizzle in the olive oil and process until smooth.

Cook the pasta until al dente, about ten minutes. Drain. You may want to reserve a cup or so of the cooking water in case your pesto is very thick.

Return the pasta to the pot and stir in the pesto, thinning it out with reserved water as desired.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Movement and Muscles at the Shoulder
 abduction and adduction

Remember ab means from and ad means to, and as long as I brought up planes of movement, abduction and adduction are movements in the frontal plane—i.e., from side to side.

biggie abducts her arms at the shoulders biggie adducts her arms at the shoulders

What movements happen at this joint?

So abduction at the shoulder is when you move your arm away from the side of your body, and adduction is when you move it back to the side of your body.

What muscles make these movements happen?

shoulder abduction shoulder adduction

So you can imagine, both anterior and posterior muscles are used to lift and lower your arm out to the side. To keep it from being pulled forward or backward, right? For abduction, it's your anterior deltoid, middle deltoid, and posterior deltoid and also your supraspinatus and infraspinatus on the back side of your shoulder blade. For adduction, it's your anterior deltoid and posterior deltoid again, your subscapularis on the front side of your shoulder blade and your teres minor, teres major, coracobrachialis and the ones that make the most sense to me, your pectoralis major on your chest and latissimus dorsi on your back. I mean, right? Because the muscles that contract to lift the arm would have to be higher, and the muscles that contract to lower the arm would have to be lower?

What exercises make these muscles work?

Where I'm going to get to with this is, you can get at exercising your muscles by exercising your entire range of motion at any particular joint. So here, lateral arm raises would work all the muscles involved in abduction and sdduction.

But I have to learn what the book says for the test, and the book organizes exercises by muscle more than by movement: lateral "butterfly" exercises for deltoids, pushups, pullups, and bench presses for pectoralis major and anterior deltoid, dips and pulldowns for latissimus dorsi and teres major.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Fall Hobby Indoor Outerwear

fall hobby indoor outerwear

If there were a license for fashion blogging, I would have it taken away for posting so many pictures of myself in these shlumpy sweats. But, there isn't! Ha ha!

Hobby wear is what I wear for not leaving the house, so it's indoor wear. Which makes this indoor outerwear, which I wear because my house is so damn cold. You lose body heat through your head and through your joints, so you can stay pretty nicely warm by just covering them. Just lightly does the trick, I made myself this hat—two of them, actually—from the cutoff legs of my stretch capris. Honestly it was so cold, I just rummaged in my craft dresser for anything to put on my head for the afternoon. I thought it was a t-shirt sleeve, but a stretch pants leg is even better. It's the perfect fabric for an indoor hat, a little bit thick but not too thick—warm, but lightweight. And it's stretchy, so it's snug but not tight. So, in case you happen to have cut up stretch pants around. All I did was round off the crown of the hat and sew it up, do you need instructions for that?

The armwarmers I'm wearing are the first armwarmers I ever bought, just plain black jersey. That was before I knew that you could cut the toes off socks and tights to make cuter cheaper armwarmers.

I'm so happy about this, I might sew on ears and whiskers just for fun... probably not though, now that I'm warm.