bierkergaard

Continuing on yesterday's theme of bad food that feels good to eat, today's "Foods That Kill" is bacon. Maybe the Food Network would be interested in my doing a show? When I eat bacon, I tend to go all out. I make and eat nearly the whole package all by myself. Oink, oink. BTW, cooking tip, cook bacon in the oven on a deep tray and not a frying pan or a griddle on the stovetop; a friend of our used to work at Oscar Mayer and passed along this tip. No mess and spattering. I save a couple of strips for Lina. The rest, I chomp down with the ferocity of a wolf. Then, it will be months until I do it again. I have to let the arteries clear and the heart bounce back. A bacon hangover of sorts. As I write, the remnants of bacon flavor is dissipating in my mouth, but it will live in my heart both physically and affectionately for quite some time. One thing I plan to explore in eternity--I figure I'll have the time--is to research the dietary laws of the Old Testament, suc...

Today we had a new student breakfast at school consisting chiefly of donuts. A newer student who came in last year after our new student breakfast in September 2010--and missed the donuts--happened to be walking by the cafeteria during the breakfast and made the case that we owed him a donut. He looked so pleadingly that I gave in. Boy, he was happy as if he had never had a donut before but had always heard tales of their wondrous nature. It is hard to conceive of a foodstuff worse health-wise than the typical donut. Simple carbs galore-- refined white flour, sugar, high fructose corn syrup--the very definition of empty calories. Pre-diabetes land-mines. Yet for all my healthy-eating, I fully acknowledge that sometimes the goodness of the donut transcends mere nutritional considerations. It makes us feel good, the ultimate comfort food. It has a psychological benefit that outweighs its terrible components. And sometimes, it is not merely tolerable to eat a donut, it is just downright g...

Jimi Hendrix penned these lyrics in his song "Bold as Love." My red is so confident he flashes trophies of war And ribbons of euphoria. Orange is young, full of daring but very unsteady for the first go 'round. My yellow in this case is no so mellow. In fact I'm trying to say it's frightened like me. And all of these emotions of mine keep holding me From giving my life to a rainbow like you. But I'm a yeah, I'm bold as love Feelings and emotions, like children, can sometimes be relegated to the kids fold-out table of life while adult facts and logic sit and dine at the main table. We as men are taught early to put our emotional crayons in their box as a rite of passage to adulthood. So, we need some encouragement to see feelings not as estrogen-like female traits. A booster shot from the Bible which aptly shows that God has kick-ass emotions such as anger as well as vulnerable feelings such as pity--the whole box--should sharpen up those crayon-like emoti...

I had a rather unpleasant encounter with the couple who lease our townhouse this afternoon. The lease is until June 2012 and they want to break it. They had the opportunity to assume a mortgage for a house of a relative who is going bankrupt and wanted to move out to move in there. So they took it. I warned them that they had better be careful and have the contract vetted by an attorney so that the house would not be sold from underneath them some time in the future. I don't know the ins-and-outs of bankruptcy but the scheme sounded fishy. I am happy they have a home...I am just hoping that they are not among the millions of the suckers who took the bait and now are going to get reeled in to a 30 year trap. The couple seemingly expected that we would release them from their lease. The presumption bothers us...we are possibly talking about a lot of money until finding another tenant. This time of year, after school starts, it becomes harder and harder to rent a property. I have bee...

After school and before Open House in the evening I headed down to the local Borders bookstore. I pretty much surmised that it was shut down but I didn't want to stay at school for the four hours until when the evening program started and figured that I would give it a shot. I was hoping to pick the carcass if it was still open seeing if I could get a meaty book bargain or two. I thought it might still be in the process of closing down. When I called on my way, there was no answer. That was a pertinent piece of evidence in me concluding closure. Nope, it was DOA. I headed to Starbucks and while I sat in my chair drinking a Tall Pikes Peak coffee, I saw that a friend had posted on Four Square that he had checked in Hearts and Minds Bookstore in Dallastown, one of those Indie Bookselllers, due south of where I was about 15-20 minutes away. They specialize in thoughtful Christian books and just thoughtful books in general, with CD's, and a minimum of Jesus knick-knacks. So, coff...