Yahoo! Answers is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

Brittney West told me the other week that Yahoo! Answers is a really cool website and I should get on and ask any question I want, and it will be answered, and that answering questions is even more fun than asking. And I was like, Britt, it sounds cool, but it can't be as cool as you're making it out to be.

I was wrong.

Thousands of questions are being asked by people all over the world, by the hour. As a member of Yahoo! Answers, I get to answer any question I want.

The questions are broken down into categories. I spend all my time in the Health-Diet & Fitness section. I can't describe the elation I feel each time I answer a question related to diet or fitness, off the top of my head, thanks to the many many books I have read on this subject the past months. So far today, I've answered 18 questions.

This is it. I've found my calling. No need to spout off to friends, family, or my BLOG anymore about what to eat, how to exercise. I can answer questions by the MINUTE on what to eat, how to exercise, what constitutes one as an anorexic, and my favorite so far, "Should I stop eating artificial sweeteners?" (I've already blogged about this). I literally feel joy in my soul right now because I have an outlet for all my now-useful nutritional and excercise information.

Ask ANY question you want, and it will get answered. It made Time.Com's 50 Best Websites of 2008 list.

Because Harvard Business Review Said So...

Apparently splurging on over-priced items is good for your health in the long run, according to the Harvard Business Review. Read the article on Wall Street Journal Online.

All self-imposed limits have just gone out the window.

Take that, World! Science is on MY side.

Best Oatmeal and Chocolate Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins EVER by ME

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Muffins:
2 c. Whole-grain Wheat flour
1 1/2 c. Whole-grain oatmeal
2/3 c. sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
2 c. milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. salt
6 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. applesauce

Mix together dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking poweder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon). Beat together eggs with milk. Add to dry ingredients. Add vegetable oil and applesauce. Fill muffin tins. Yields about 24 muffins. Bake @ 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I changed the Betty Crocker Oatmeal muffin recipe around to make them more moist and healthier than the regular one. I made them last night and, according to everyone who has tried them, they are AMAZING.

Chocolate Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins:
2 c. whole-grain wheat flour
1 1/2 c. oatmeal
1 1/2 c. sugar
4 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 1/2 c. chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
1 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
4 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
2 c. milk

Mix together dry ingredients (flour, oatmeal, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder). Beat eggs together; add milk and vegetable oil. Alternate mixing dry ingredients in with egg mixture. Beat until lumpy batter forms. Add 1 3/4 c. chocolate chips. Put into muffin tins. Sprinkle rest of chocolate chips on top of muffins. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. Makes approx. 24 muffins.

These muffins have gotten the best reviews so far by my guinea pigs. (Thank you Jill, Neil, family, and office of SBS)

Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death, Zogwarg Queen!

Confession: I'm a closet pyro. I LOVE fire. I LOVE matches. I love seeing things lit on fire. I LOVE bonfires (at the beach, not in Provo Canyon). Good example: Spring Break, 8th grade, in Claremont at my grandpa's house hanging out with Carol. I spent most of the time lighting matches and playing with all her candles (she had a lot). Kept me busy while she was at work. Bad Example: I lit my hair on fire blowing out birthday candles for my 14th birthday. Inadvertently created layers in the front.

I cannot contain my excitement for the holiday tomorrow. It combines all of my favorite things: swimming, barbequeing (although I don't eat meat, I find the aroma intoxicating), fireworks, parties, concerts, lots of people, matches, family, friends, food, parades.

I'm just sad there was no trip to Vegas to get the really GOOD fireworks. Like M-80s. So I could make tennis ball bombs. And light them and throw them up high in the air.

Whatever, I'll just have fun with my over-priced, cheap, "California-legal" fireworks. And get dangerously close. And throw the lighted spin-y fireworks at people so they freak out. (Tawnie: consider this your warning).

God Bless the U.S.A. Thank you for producing a holiday that coincides with my fire fetish.

Oh, and thank you, Founding Fathers, for signing the Declaration of Independence and fighting for our freedom and all that too.

Um, yeah. I'm still more grateful for the opportunity to ignite things that explode into pretty colors.

I Got In A Fight With A Hershey's Chocolate Bar and I Lost.

I lasted yesterday and (so far) today with out my vanilla Diet Coke! I DO have will-power! :) :(


But... I just ate a miniature size Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate bar. Ok, maybe two. Ok, maybe three.

My charlatan consuetudes are going to keep me out of heaven.


I need to atone for my deviltry. Or at least stop preaching the frightening (to me) nutritional facts at every family meal.


But the chocolate is SO GOOD.


Help!!??!!


Healthy or Hershey's? Healthy or Hershey's? Healthy or Hershey's?


ACK. I just Googled what I ate and it has PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED OILS IN IT (trans fat, worst kind). AND high-fructose corn syrup, which is the most refined sugar product available. And the worst kind of sugar one can consume. I'm well on my way to having CAD.


This is what happens when it is slow at work and I have unlimited access to Google anything I want. Geez. I just need to get over it and over myself. And I need more friends in Bakersfield (most are out of town) to occupy my time with so I don't obsess over what oils and sugars and fats I am eating and what they are doing to my digestive system. Thank goodness Tawnie is coming into town today!

I'd like a Diet Coke with Vanilla and extra ice. Hold the cancer, please.

Around 2 PM every afternoon, I get sooo sleepy (I believe these are called the "sleepies"?). Definitely nap time for Tracie. I head on over to the Sonic around the corner and get a Large Diet Coke with Vanilla, extra ice, which comes to a total of $2.03 (woot woot).


However, I am somewhat slightly obsessed with what I put in my body, thanks to "Fast Food Nation", which sparred my moment of enlightenment (EW MCDONALDS... NEVER AGAIN!!) and started the snowball rolling down the Nutritional/ Ethical/ Moral Information Mountain. I was baptized into the Church of Healthy Food Freaks in March 2008. I didn't realize how much crap there is in the grocery store/fast food places/restaurants. I try to eat raw foods only--unprocessed, clean, pure, fresh, no chemicals or preservatives.


And yeah, okay, I KNOW Diet Coke does not qualify as a "raw food". But I get really tired, ok??


Diet Coke may not have any calories, but it is chock full'o artificial sweeteners, mostly ASPARTAME. Warning: For those of you who like diet colas and other low-calorie snacks or drinks: Don't read the following excerpt. Continue on in ignorant bliss 'til your insides start rotting from the chemical crap storm you put in there.

"When aspartame was put before the FDA for approval, it was denied eight times... Aspartame has been blamed for a slew of scary maladies, like arthritis, birth defects, fibromyalgia, Alzheimers, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes. When methly alcohol, a component of aspartame, enters your body, it turns into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is toxic and carcinogenic. Laboratory scientists use formaldehyde as a disinfectant or preservative. They don't f-ing DRINK it... When aspartame is combined with carbs, it causes your brain to slow down its production of serotonin. A healthy level of serotonin is needed to be happy and well balanced. So drinking soda can make you fat, sick and unhappy." (Skinny B, 14, 32)


Ok, so, do I want to die "unhappily" being happy, sipping my vanilla Diet Coke with extra ice, rotting my insides with FORMALDEHYDE, and dance the Dance of Hypocrites as I spout off to friends and family about how red meat/any processed meat has an unquantifiable amount of carcinogens and toxins and partially hydrogenated oils ruin the digestive system?


Or do I give up EVERYTHING that is bad for me, including Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Diet Coke (the very thought hurts my heart), and practice what I preach?


I don't know! I don't know! The moral tug-of-war in my head is exhausting. It's so hard when those "sleepies" hit and I need my legal upper.


Countdown to Moment of Truth: Will I or Won't I Stand Up For What I Believe in? What do you think?: One hour, 39 minutes.

Ache, Crave, Desire, Hanker, Itch, Long, Lust, Pant, Pine, Pity, Want, Wish, Yen

The ONLY thing that gets me through the day without:

1. Clicking the "Purchase" icon on (example) the Victoria's Secret Shopping Check-out Page and

2.Shopping in general after work

is---cue drumroll---chanting the following Miracle-(dubbed miracle by me because it WORKS) Mantra:

"My credit score/financial future/growing savings account is MORE IMPORTANT than this _____________ (insert potential merchandise item)."



I can say no.

I CAN say no.

I can SAY no.

I can say NO.

Note to self: Must Fight Intense Internal Craving to Buy Lots Of Pretty New Things.

Fancy-Shmancy

Click HERE to listen to (most of) the below playlist.

Or you can go listen to it at the top right of the page. Because I'm freaking cool and figured out the HTML code to put it on my blog.

Soundtrack to My Life: Summer '08

I'm slowly learning how to use HTML: You can click on the name of the song and it will take you to the lyrics!

1. Lupe Fiasco - Hip-hop Saved My Life
2. Rilo Kiley - Silver Lining
3. Bob Marley - Could You Be Loved
4. Duffy - Mercy
5. Usher - Love in this Club
6. Annie - Chewing Gum
7. The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour
8. Sia - Little Black Sandals
9. John Legend - Used to Love U
10. The Bird And The Bee - La La La
11. Ornella Vanoni - L' Appuntamento
12. Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks
13. Ruff Endz - Someone To Love You
14. Mika - Grace Kelly
15. Duffy - Serious
16. Garbage - I Think I'm Paranoid
17. Sia - The Girl You Lost to Cocaine
18. Incubus - Pardon Me
19. Collective Soul - Run
20. Nikka Costa - Everybody Got Their Something
21. Lenny Kravitz - If I Could Fall in Love
22. Hole - Celebrity Skin
23. Frank Sinatra - The Best is Yet to Come
24. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
25. Akon - I Wanna Love You
26. South - Paint the Silence
27. Beyonce - Crazy in Love
28. Heart - Alone
29. Camera Obscura - Lloyd I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken
30. Nelly feat. 'N Sync- Girlfriend

31. John Legend - Slow Dance

32. Mariah Carey - Touch My Body

33. The Coral Sea- Look At Her Face

JAMES IS A NUTMEGGER-HEAD!

So last night I fell asleep at 1 AM but because of the SAN I took (Sunday Afternoon Nap), I woke up wide awake at 3 AM and couldn't fall back asleep til 5.


And I got to thinking... Crap, I'm really sad that my brother James and his girlfriend/my sister-in-law-even-though-it's-not-official- but-I'm-going-to-still-call-her-that, Alysia are moving to New Haven, CT where James will become a "Yalie", perusing the aisles of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Sterling Memorial Library, used in the Indiana Jones films (Cool!).

I'm going to miss my brother, who not only took my birthday away from me (we share the same birthday, May 11th, James in '82 and me in '86. And I realize that technically James was born first but I still say he pilfered the one day I could call my own), but also left scars on my back from the pinching wars we had when I was 10 and he was 14.

I can't believe I'm going to freaking miss his sarcastic remarks about my reality TV fetish and my new-found vegetarian lifestyle. I'm going to miss the DDR/Guitar Hero mania. Not so much his DDR outfit--------------------->

But definitely the parties. James and Alysia always added to the "cool family" factor.

Ok James, I guess it's cool that you got accepted to Yale, will be getting two master's degrees and a Ph.D., and have a full-ride/fellowship and will become a Yalie Socialite for the next 7 years.

And I guess it's cool that I'm moving to New York City next summer and New Haven is on the end of the Metro line so it's super easy for me to visit.

And I guess it's cool you're going to the same school as Rory (Gilmore Girls).

But it's definitely bizarre you will be known as a "Nutmegger" instead of a "Conneticutian".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutmegger

I love wikipedia. They know EVERYTHING.