Beartooth Pass. Mmmmmm. When I'm not on dial-up, I shall post pictures.  

We started keeping a list of what we'd seen in the way of living creatures, because there weren't very many!  

1 crow.

1 unidentified songbird, grey.

1 robin (heard, not seen)

several chipmunks, 1 very fat and greedy.

massive numbers of grasshoppers and butterflies.

Once we got into the park, things began to look up and we could add:

1 grizzly bear (!!)

several herds of bison

1 more crow

3 antelope resting in the rain

a very large herd of elk

a smaller herd of elk lounging on the courthouse lawn

an infestation of fishermen who were clearly scaring away all the moose

Up in Billings to see Stephanie off to Russia.   She leaves this evening at quarter to 5 or so.  Tomorrow, we're plotting getting up early (ugh) and driving through Yellowstone (woo!) on the way back to Dillon.  

This may require a trip over Beartooth Pass (hooray!!).

I haven't posted anything for, um, a really long time.  Probably nobody's even reading this anymore, because there's Never Anything To Read!

My excuse for the last two weeks is that I was at Darla and Michael's and waaaay too busy playing to be bothered.  (did it work??)

So anyways, we took a drive up into the mountains the other evening and saw two moose.  We also saw a bunch of cows, snags and stumps who were immoosinating.  Evil immoosinators!  Immoosination should be prohibited!

Three !s in one post... surely that makes up for 3 months of no posts?

Well, well, well, well.

Who knew that Alberta was such a font of reason and civilization?  Not me, for sure, but now that I do know, I am mightily impressed!

Breakfast, I will have you know, is at 8:00 before convention and at 7:30 during.  7:30!  What sanity!  What brilliance!  I still plan on sleeping through it, but it's the sheer wonder of the thing that has me in raptures.  I wonder if I can bring back with me any of the infectious air....

On the other hand - I am speaking twice.  This is not so civilized.  Some of the preps crew are not speaking at all, which would be highly civilized if I were on the preps crew.  As I am not, it is quite a barbaric custom.  

hooray for prunes!

For 15 years, Dr. Bahram Arjmandi has studied how our bodies react to certain foods. His latest study followed Jeffery and more than 100 other women to see if bone density could be improved just by adding dried plums or prunes to their diet.

"I have never seen anything this consistent that not only prevents bone loss but increases bone mass," says Bahram H. Arjmandi, Ph.D., R.D., Professor/Chair of the Department of Nutrition, Food and Sciences at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Dr. Arjmandi's several successful animal and human studies document that special phenolic compounds in dried plums up-regulate growth factors linked to bone formation (such as IGF-1) and counter the activity of factors that inhibit bone formation (such as TNF-alpha). It probably also helps that prunes are one of the foods highest in antioxidants and also contain generous amounts of various key bone nutrients including potassium, boron, and copper. While Dr. Arjmandi has found other natural substances capable of halting bone loss, prunes were the only food found to actually restore lost bone.

This summer Dr. Arjmandi and colleagues will complete a landmark, controlled human clinical trial on prunes and bone health. For this study, 120 post-menopausal women have been taking either 100 grams of prunes (9-10 a day) or an equivalent portion of dried apples for one year. While it will be a few more months before all the research data is in, thus far 30 women in the prune group have had at least a 6% increase in hip bone, and one woman had an exceptional 11% increase consuming prunes over the year. Preliminary data from a segment of research subjects found that all prune-eaters showed at least some improvement in bone mass by six months into the study.

Interesting, no?  Ladies - rev your engines!  Eat them prunes!

If you are inclined to join us, take Dr. Arjmandi's advice and start slowly with a few prunes a day, working up to the full 9-10 over time. I have found soaked or stewed prunes are easier to digest, and Dr. Arjmandi has found that prunes do not lead to either weight gain or increased blood sugar levels. Also they should help build new bone in men as well as women.

We read in Joshua 4 this morning, where the children of Israel crossed over Jordan.  A lot was mentioned about the 12 stones, and about telling your children what they meant.  I remember hearing how my parents (grandparent... great-grandparent...) heard the gospel - when I was young it was just like a story mom and dad told us.  An exciting one, too - I had the names of the two workers who came to my great-grandma memorized, I remember.  Still do, for that matter.

It's sunny today - at the moment.  Ha.  I hope it stays that way!  

donedonedonedonedone

Hooray!  I'm done!