I partook of the Apricot power bar this morning which had to be held together with white school glue. These power bars do seem to have the consistency and taste of either pemmican or sawdust. I did have a bit of a fellow walker's bar whose brand name I cannot remember that can be had from Costco. And that bar was really good. While trying to remember the name I happened upon this website as I searched for nutrition bars http://www.elitefitnessinc.com/nutritbar.html which ran on and on about the different kinds. More than I really needed to know in the end.

Happy Valentine's Day! And with that we can pretty much throw the healthy diet out the door. Bob took me out of contention by leaving a card with a heart-shaped box of chocolates on my office chair. For a moment I waffled on having chocolates and coffee for breakfast or something reasonably healthy - I settled for lasagna which seemed sort of midpoint in the food pyramid.

Mid-morning I did a 5+ mile walk with a purpose. Off to Radio Shack I went to get a remote controlled car for Bob's Valentine's Day present. One hates to put a price on love but "on sale" certainly swayed me. I naturally spent some time checking out the wheel alignment, speed across carpeting versus the kitchen floor and other such important aspects of the purchase once I got home.

Sending off donation forms and envelopes to my friend, Margaret, who will distribute to the non-computer folk in her area. If nothing else I am rich in friends.

Hydrate, Hydrate, Urinate, Stretch

Obviously hydrate means to drink a lot of water and Gatorade (to keep one's electrolytes in balance, whatever they are) and if you do the first part, then you will definitely need to do a u-turn into the loo to do the third part of the mantra. The stretching is supposed to be done each hour or so throughout the day. Even Parade magazine had an article on all this (hydrating, stretching...they didn't mention the loo part) and how it keeps your joints oiled and moving. The sad part of all this is - that it works. Having walked five miles today I am not sore, of course I have been drinking water as though a drought was about to knock on the door. But in the past week I have been drinking about twice what they recommend you drink per day - 8 glasses - so I can down almost 16 with nary a blink. Makes one wonder how dehydrated I was before.

The bad news is that alcohol, coffee (say it isn't true!) and teas actually deplete your body of liquids so you are not encouraged to imbibe of them too much. Have they called Starbucks? What if everyone in Seattle thought this way? Our whole economy would crash.