Planned Quran-burning could endanger troops, Petraeus warns – CNN.com.

• I have no recollection. Must get back on track with recording meals.

August 9

• I don’t remember what I ate, but I did go to the gym for some cardio and weight training. Yay cardio and weight training!

August 10

• Breakfast: frosted flakes, the kind from Whole Foods – unfortunately these flakes are not frosted enough. Plus they do this weird texture thing where they stick to my teeth.
• Lunch: homemade pad thai, plus an orange
• Snack: cinnamon sugar pretzel and vanilla rooibos tea
• Dinner: salad with avocado, crab, grapefruit and cheese. Plus ice cream!

August 11

• Breakfast WF frosted flakes again. I might start adding sugar.
• Lunch: last of the homemade pad thai, then bbq chicken and beef stew from Au Bon Pain – very spicy, cleared my sinuses temporarily. Also got a vanilla frappuccino with toffee nut syrup shot – actually too sweet, I think.
• Snack: cheese, rice pudding. Not together.
• Dinner: homemade drunken noodles! I used namya sauce that I got from the Asian market. I made it with chicken, shallots, tomatoes, Thai basil – pretty similar to pad thai except for the sauce.

August 12

• Breakfast: raisin bran and frosted flakes.
• Lunch: my drunken noodles.
• Dinner: a burger and some chips. Probably ice cream.

August 13

• Breakfast: raisin bran and frosted flakes.
• Lunch: drunken noodles. I don’t tire of Thai food easily.
• Dinner: roast. Ice cream for dessert.
• Exercise: 30 mins on the elliptical. I got lazy after that.

August 14

• Breakfast: sausage
• Lunch: spinach salad with tomato and roast beef, plus some bread and butter
• Dinner: burger. Ice cream for dessert.
• Mental health: I finished Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo while getting some sun on the beach =) Unfortunately, I don’t always get enough sunscreen along the lines of my swim suit and sometimes get burns there. So I kinda look like neapolitan ice cream in some places.

August 15

• Breakfast: pancake with maple syrup
• Lunch: spinach salad with tomato and roast beef, plus some bread and butter, plus some cantaloupe
• Snack: ring bologna
• Dinner: drunken noodle

August 16

• Breakfast: raisin bran and frosted flakes
• Lunch: crab cake melt at Cosi with Darryl. Funny, they pack a snack bag of carrots instead of chips now if you ask.
• Dinner: last of the drunken noodle, ice cream

August 17

• Breakfast: grapefruit and avocado
• Lunch: experimental pad thai made with silver noodles. I’ve concluded that even though pad thai is great, making it with these noodles is even better. Note to self: even though the silver noodles (thick, round tapioca noodles in the refridgerated section) are somewhat moist, they still do better with a soaking in hot water before stir-frying.
• Snack: okay I went a little crazy. Two bowls of frosted flakes, some ice cream, and some rice pudding with whipped cream. That whipped cream did me in, way too much sugar.
• Second snack: apple and cheese. The apple is usually an excuse to eat the cheese.

August 18-24

• Vacay with Mom and bro in South Carolina = no tracking of meals. Let’s just say Southern food is not friendly to the anh health plan. Mmmmmm biscuits and gravy!

August 25

• Breakfast: two sunny side-ups
• Lunch: sweet potato burrito at the food cart. I forgot how good food carts can be!
• Snack: large chai tea latte
• Dinner: a grapefruit tossed w/ 1/2 an avocado and cheese, plus 1/2 a slice of roast
• Exercise: 2-mile run. Slowly working back into routine. Ohh, biscuits and gravy.

August 26

• Breakfast: iced decaf caramel macchiato
• Lunch: salmon sushi roll and tea
• Dinner: cereal and a piece of roast, maybe?

August 27

• Dinner: I hadn’t seen Mital since she started med school! She was curious about Vietnamese food, so we checked out Vietnam Cafe in West Philly. I tried the banh cuon, which they have dubbed “Vietnamese ravioli.” I guess if it’s a wrapper of savory meat filling, it’s a variant of ravioli? The ca kho to (anything “kho to” refers to clay pot; ca = fish) was also good.

August 28

• Breakfast: cereal
• Lunch: grapefruit avocado salad
• Dinner: at Jenn’s! chicken in salsa marinade, brown rice and green beans. Butterscotch chocolate chip cookies, which I baked – we would have had twice as much, except that I knocked over one pan and burned myself upon reflexively grabbing it. Alas, the spinal circuit kicked in and I dropped the pan, spilling all the cookies. Well,if I was going to lose the cookies anyway, I kinda wish the circuit had kicked in sooner so that I wouldn’t have burned myself as badly.

August 29

• Breakfast: cereal
• Lunch: sea salt brownies from Trader Joe’s, baked salmon, and grapefruit avocado salad
• Dinner: udon noodles with an egg dropped in.

August 30

• Breakfast: pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and apple jelly
• Lunch: grapefruit avocado salad, baked salmon

August 31

• Breakfast: large chai tea latte and ham and egg wrap at Cosi
• Lunch: turkey cheese avocado sandwich
• Dinner: KFC. It was a splurge. So, so good. Do the specifics of what I ate really matter? I know it wasn’t good for me. Plus ice cream.



CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive – TRENDING: Palin’s full speaking contract revealed « – Blogs from CNN.com.

The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is (Part 1) – Opinionator Blog – NYTimes.com.

We Americans, whether Muslim or Christian, whether Jew or Hindu, whether of faith or no faith, were all attacked on 9/11 by terrorists who can only be described as criminals. We oppose the exploitation of the pain and suffering of 9/11 by political opportunists. They only divide our country and undermine the principles of pluralism, religious freedom, and security by fostering hate based on fear.

Perhaps one reason this statement resonates for me is because I never realized that tapping into people’s pain and fear could be the outright goal of a political strategy, or rather the strategy itself. I know that’s naive of me, but somehow I’m still startled by the thought that the public, including me, can be manipulated so insidiously.

California interfaith leaders to back ground zero Islamic center – CNN.com.

Guard suspended for tackling deaf shoplifting suspect – CNN.com.

Theater Talkback: Who Owns Sheet Music? – ArtsBeat Blog – NYTimes.com.