Bird Mystery

It's a cool morning with lots of action at the feeder.... Cardinals, Blue Jays, Chickadees and Sparrows. Earlier this week, there was a small, blue and white, nuthatch type of bird that I haven't been able to locate in my edition of Sibley's Guide to Birds.
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Don't you hate that???
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No worries. I'll solve this mystery soon enough

Sundance Parents

Joanne and I went to a nice reception for Sundance parents put on by Julie Savage and Muffy Paquette tonight at Julie's beautiful home on Flint Street in Marblehead. What a good group of people! They seem to be very enamored with the new school and said that the kids seem more comfortable in it than the previous location. Muffy and Joanne both made nice speeches.
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It was good input to the business decision that we made last year to move.

Fart Facts

Remember Bob Wojcik? That sinister soliciter of subterfuge? That harrowing harbinger of happenstance? Yeah him. He's the one that put my marathon training on ice with his calf stretching advice.

Well he's trying to get back into my good graces by giving me this really interesting documentation from the Mayo Clinic on farts and farting.

Just when you think he can't do anything worse, he sends me this stuff.... and totally redeems himself.

What is intestinal gas?

More than 99 percent of intestinal gas is a mixture of the same odorless gases that are present throughout the environment. These include nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and sometimes methane. But the exact composition of this mixture varies from person to person, depending on body chemistry and diet.

The nitrogen, oxygen and most of the carbon dioxide in intestinal gas come from the air you swallow when you eat, drink, chew gum or smoke. Chemical reactions in your stomach also produce some of the carbon dioxide content of gas.

Bacteria normally present in the large intestine produce the hydrogen and methane in gas. These bacteria feed on undigested food and release gases during a process called fermentation.

Which foods cause intestinal gas?

Carbonated beverages may cause gas. So can carbohydrates because they often contain indigestible sugars, starches and fiber. For example:

• Lactose. Milk and milk products such as cheese and ice cream, as well as some processed breads, cereals and salad dressings, contain the sugar lactose. While most people can digest lactose with no difficulty, some have trouble because they don't produce any or enough of the enzyme lactase, which splits lactose into digestible parts. Without lactase, milk and other lactose-rich foods ferment in the intestine, releasing excessive gas. People of African, Asian and American Indian descent are most likely to be deficient in lactase.
• Fructose. Onions, artichokes, pears, wheat, and some soft drinks and processed foods contain this sugar, which may be difficult to digest.
• Sorbitol. Apples, pears, peaches, prunes, and some sugar-free foods, candies and chewing gum contain the sugar alcohol sorbitol, another compound that's hard to digest.
• Raffinose. This sugar is found in beans, cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus and whole grains.

Rice is the only starch absorbed almost completely by the small intestine. Because rice starch never reaches the large intestine, gas-producing bacteria don't break this starch down. But other starches, including potatoes, corn, noodles and wheat, are gas producers. Dietary fiber, found in beans and wheat bran, also tends to produce gas. When research subjects ate a diet in which half of their calories came from pork and beans, they experienced a tenfold increase in their normal gas production.

Pumped Up

Yesterday was a high adrenalin power day for me in business. Gained traction on all fronts and identified some very exciting prospects. If everything that was presented to me yesterday hits paydirt, a lot of people will be taken care of.
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It's important not to get carried away by the adrenalin at times like this. But I vastly prefer it to getting my ass kicked. Best to find a middle ground.

Get Out of Towne

I got a lot of emails from you disgusting Peeps about my roommate Bob Towne.
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No.... He is not the UniBomber. That guy was picked up years ago.
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No.... He was not flexing. Even in college, he was pretty ripped.
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If you want to get really off the wall, I'll post a photo of our buddy, Joe Collins.
So get off my ass. What the hell does your roommate look like?????

Downward Slide

This is my roommate from UMass, Bob Towne who now runs a BLM district in Washington State.
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Bob.... what have you done to yourself????
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How could you let yourself go like that? You should never have let yourself get so out of shape.
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I'm pretty sure that I can still kick your ass.
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I've included a picture of myself when I competed for UMASS thirty odd years ago. No need for an updated picture, because I really haven' t changed much.
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I'll admit that my hair has gotten a bit grayer... but that's it.

Picking Priorities

Emily Ingardia again proves why she is an all time awesome Peep by finding this wicked cool T-shirt on line.
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I know that I should be marketing a full line of Nanepashemet POTW stuff, but there is only so much time in the day.
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Then I'd have to get in the mail order business... so when would the Dory get built????
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Sometimes you just have to compromise.

Impressive Win

Pats won by 4... 24-20. And they had to come from behind to do it. We'll take the win though.
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New England had the most penalty yards in franchise history, yet still won the game against the undefeated Colts in their own stadium.
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This is one special football team... undefeated at 9 and 0.

New England vs. Indianapolis

Tommy O'Shea says that the Pats are going to blow out the Colts tonight. "Totally waste them!", he says. T goes on to predict a 49-21 victory. I tend to agree.
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Nanepashemet prediction is New England by 15.

McD vs.BK

So you're out on the road, been driving for three hours, skipped breakfast and have a crisp twenty dollar bill in your wallet. Its noon time and you are freaking starving when a roadsign says there is a McDonald's and Burger King at the exit 1/4 mile away.
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I hate to pose this dilemma, but where do you go??? Which junk food emporium do you turn to??
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First of all, I always go to the drive throughs. The chances of acute exposure to general public cooties is too strong if you actually enter the restaurant. So I always stay in my truck and eat in the parking lot. Therefore, the decor of either establishment doesn't enter into my choice criteria.
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And at either establishment, I'll be ordering a double.... Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese at McDonald's or a Double Whopper with Cheese at BK. Also, because I'm basically weak, I always get the fries and eat them first. I buy a milk because I'm health conscious.
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So most of the time, I'll choose McDonald's. It's not because I like the Quarter Pounder better, it's really because the Double Whopper is messier to eat, and I'm a wicked sloppy eater. There's nothing worse than ketchup stains on your jacket.

Celtic Pride

Just when you thought it was too good to be true for sports in Boston, it gets better. The Celtics are back with Kevin Garnett bringing back memories of Robert Parrish and Bill Russell (yes, I remember Bill Russell and even saw him play).
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When I was a kid, I would take the T to the Boston Garden and watch the Celts manhandle all comers. We would inevitably have obstructed seats in the old Garden. Sometimes you actually couldn't see the opposite goal. To try to get better seats, we would run all around the Garden, and we always went to the locker rooms at half time to see the players walk by. I knew every inch of that dirty old smoke filled Garden. It was great and the Celtics never dissapointed.
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Then in college, we had the fantastic Cowens-Havlicek teams that no one really talks about since the Bird era seemed to eclipse those teams. Joanne and I never missed watching a playoff game on TV, no matter how nice the weather was outside.
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After Bird, McHale and Parrish retired, and the Celts started to stink, we lost interest. But now there appears to be a new big three with Garnett, Allen and Pierce.
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I'll still be concentrating on the Pats this season, but the new Celtics are worth keeping an eye on.

Oh Baby

Joanne is in her glory this weekend, since we're taking care of grandson,Will. He's dressed up in Harley Davidson baby gear that the DiMatteo's bought for him. Katelyn is on the way home from South Boston to participate in the intensive goo goo gah gah bash.
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The double bonus for grandparents is that it brings back a ton of memories that you thought that you forgot about. Babies are neat.