This is the Green Goddess, the delicious entree I had at the Life Alive Organic Cafe in Central Square, Cambridge, MA. I also had a Superhero juice which was made from apple, carrot, spirulina, cayenne, garlic, honey and even contained apple cider vinegar. These people know how to whip up some fast, healthy, delicious stuff. There are currently two of these establishments in operation and they're opening a third this spring. In my dreams Life Alive supplants McDonald's and people in America walk around with a glow--instead of looking pasty, misshapen and tired. Ouch. Was that mean? I'm sorry to anybody who might have taken offense; but then, I doubt anybody feels like they're doing their body a favor by eating at McDonald's. I don't know, it just astounds me that you can buy crap at every corner, but you have to go out of your way to get tasty nutritious fare.

Yesterday we made our long way home from Boston--the Green Line to the packed Trailways bus to the drive down lonely Route 9. But it was well worth it, that's for sure. I enjoyed every minute of my time visiting family in the big city. I woke up this morning in a languid state, content to just enjoy the view out the window. After a couple cups of tea and a big bowl of Mike's Muesli and blueberries I tapped a few trees, dropped off our seed order and got a pot of bean soup going. Now, though, I need to pack again, as tomorrow we drop Judy off at the airport, visit the Sweet, then attend a workshop on Monday in Bangor. We're practically jet-setters, I suppose, outside of the fact that we don't travel on jets.
Darn me, I almost left out the most important thing. This morning I shaved with the free shaving cream that Alice gave me from her coupon haul. She also sent us home with toothpaste, deodorant, mouthwash and various other sundries. And not only that, it's all the ritzy stuff, like Tom's of Maine, that I would normally be too cheap to buy. So when it comes to couponing, my sister is a wonder. Come to think of it, she's a wonder in every way.

The time has come for me to chronicle the toes-to-bar demonstration that Kevin requested at the parkour course. As you can see, Kevin has moves most people could scarcely imagine, let alone emulate. At first I thought, "hey man, this isn't going to work if you don't at least get your feet off the ground," but as it turned out he completed the exercise and flew off the bar before I even completed one rep. When we were younger I might have been wounded to be bested so effortlessly, but now, what can I say, I am humbled.

OK, this is the photo where I show my love for Cousin Kevin. In the next post I might have to poke fun at him--depends how he treats me when we do Linsanity at the the sports bar. Having a fantastic time here in Boston. I think we've walked about a 100 miles. I just had a vegan lunch (Kevin's treat!) from a food truck and it was delicious. This followed a fitness walking tour that Alice led us on that included some gear shops and a new fitness facility and the parkour circuit down on the Charles River--but more on that later. Right now it's time for a nap.

Reporting live from Boston! Yeah, that's right, the Birch Wisdom goes mobile like Roger Daltry wailing. Mobile, mobile, mobile... yeah! Yeah, so anyway, calm down. But soon as we got off the bus we came across this most fascinating sight. The demolition of a building was carried out while protecting the original facade. Now a new skyscraper will go up in its place while a wee bit of history is preserved. Neat.
So after that I took us a couple of miles out of our way on our paved backpacking journey--as I am wont to do when I rely on my instincts for direction. Now our dogs are killing us as we wait for Chris and Alice to get home from work. Luckily Max is already here to keep us entertained--if you can call watching him eat, drink and stare into his laptop entertainment. Side note: I just saw a smile cross Jake's face and I'm pretty sure he was thinking, "Dad thinks I slurp my tea?!--listen to uncle Max, now he makes some noise!" On second thought, he's just laughing at his Hunter Thompson book. People with the same genetic code are sometimes oblivious to the emanations of their kind. It's left to me and the Sweet to take note of these trifles.
But back to Max. When we were kids my father used to say, "all Max does is eat, sleep and watch TV." So that was my little takeoff on that up above, and I've probably mentioned that quote before. I just don't think you should mention something just once when you have the opportunity to rub it in again and again and again.
Well, that's it for now, but I promise a full report on Alice's coupon mania in the near future.

I love a chili Sunday--but not so much as I love my Chilly P. !!!! 'Course she left me for the weekend so the absence is making my heart grow fonder and fonder. But then, on the other side of the coin, she left crowin' over the fact that she was going to see Jessie Sweet and I was not, and that's more like a dagger through the heart. Plus, you know what, Jake and I had a great time doing man stuff. For instance, we just got done enjoying some serious Linsanity. For all you sports fans, let me break it down for you: the New York Knickerbockers defeated the champion Mavericks with Jeremy Lin scoring 28 points to go with 14 assists and 5 steals. Spike Lee, who's slated to make an appearance at Colby, was sitting courtside in a facsimile Harvard jersey with Lin emblazoned on the back. Go Colby, go Harvard, go Spike, go Linsanity!!!!

As I write this post I'm enjoying a cup of loose leaf Oolong tea. I watched a surprisingly fascinating documentary about the search for the best tea in China. Aficionados say that once you drink loose leaf tea you'll never go back to tea bags. Apparently the tea that goes into tea bags is not only inferior but likely grown with the use of pesticides. The guy featured in the movie could smell a handful of tea leaves and instantly know whether it was "organic." He didn't use that word, and as far as I could tell, neither do the Chinese, but he had to travel to distant regions to find old farmers who did not use chemical fertilizers. You wouldn't think it would be this way because they have these competitions in China where the winning tea is valued at thousands of dollars an ounce. But you know how it is: big business is big business.

There is one certain somebody I wish was joining me for a cup right now. My sweet Jessie turns 20 today. Oh my beautiful child: Happy Happy Birthday.

Looking forward to Friday. Jake and I will do the final squat crazy workout, then settle in for a night of Linsanity. I used to love to go to Knicks games, and in fact can remember the very first game I attended when I was 12 years old. I can also remember the first (and so far only) game that Jake attended. He was four years old and not quite ready for the cacophony of Madison Square Garden. No matter how much ice cream and other junk I bought him, he just kept tugging at my arm, begging to go home. Now I'm sure Jake would be more than happy to go to a game, but for some reason Machias does not have an NBA team. Anyway, I truly thought I was done being a basketball fan--had completely lost interest. But man, do I wish Jeremy Lin the best. It is just such an awesome story. I guess nice guys don't finish last after all.

Long time coming, but I can finally do a good old-fashioned push-up. Might seem like nothing to you, but makes me want to rejoice. I've had to do some serious work-out modifications since injuring my shoulder, and though I was able to stay in shape by focusing on squats, it just never felt right leaving out this body weight stand-by I've been doing since high school (I actually won a push-up contest in gym class once, but I don't have the trophy to prove it). Anyway, as I've always said, no matter how fancy a gym you join, you can never beat a workout comprised of push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. If you don't believe me, ask a Navy Seal.

What else? Well, happy St. Valentine's Day--and, of course, an especially big smooch to my Chilly P.

Though not, hopefully, a case of "too many cooks spoil the broth," more than one man in the kitchen can lead to a reckless disregard for a recipe. Jake and I decided to whip up some African Sweet Potato Stew. It called for two pounds of sweet potatoes, but since we had one more than this magic number, we figured we'd add a bit, which then led me and my mad mind to double just about everything else (carrots, red pepper, celery, onions, garlic--which I quadrupled, easily; coconut milk, tomato), along with substituting my homemade almond butter for peanut butter. Needless to say, our pot just about overfloweth. But, as Jake said, even if the end result isn't too tasty, at least it's healthy.

Low tide at Broken Glass Beach.

If you ever spent time with me shopping for food you'd get to hear me rant about the common myth that eating healthy food is too expensive. But since only my immediate family is saddled with that burden, I'm going to share the love right here.

Now, as I've mentioned, we tend to buy a lot of our staples in bulk, which definitely lowers our cost-per-meal, but, the truth is, if you're willing to go the route of grains and beans, even shopping at the grocery store is pretty cheap. Also, we've started using more dried beans (rather than canned) which cuts their cost in half. One other thing: we're actually at a disadvantage in that we only have one grocery store. We compensate for this deficiency by buying food through a co-op and a farmer's collective. Kind of gives you a bit of that off-the-grid feeling, so, in the end, it's a net positive. Plus, as everybody knows, local is better.

Pulling myself back from that digression, what I would simply like to do here is point out the cost of a typical meal in our household. Keep in mind that it costs a family of four about $22 to eat at McDonald's and that our meals are quick and easy to prepare. OK, so last night's ingredients:

Quinoa .50
Beans .65
Spinach .99
Diced tomato 1.25
Garlic .15
________________________
Total: $3.54

And we had leftovers!

OK, I confess. I have a cold. I wasn't supposed to get sick because I drink my apple cider vinegar. In fact, I haven't been sick all winter so I was convinced the folk remedy was working, and, in fact, perhaps it was helping to reduce the incidence and severity of the usual common cold. Yet, in the end, perfection will not be mine. As if ever...
But, the thing of it is, I have always had this strange predilection to blame myself whenever I get sick. I don't, like a normal person, think, oh, I got a bug. Instead, I badger myself for some self-perceived bad habit or behavior. Even now, truth be told, I can't help but think these sniffles could have been avoided.
You see, on Wednesday I came home from work and told Cara that I felt like my body needed a rest. But then I felt like I'd be letting Jake down if I didn't go out to the shed and do the Dan John workout. Well, as I probably mentioned, that particular workout left me feeling like an over-cooked strip of bacon. So naturally my immunities were down, and, bam, here I am, lost in a pile of tissues.
Not that anybody cares. We ALL get colds. But hasn't it been fun, prowling around inside my neurotic mind?

View from the tree-stand of the back forty. I took my repose and listened to the trees. How infrequently do we do nothing? You know what I'm talking about, the humanbeing thing. And it's not nothing, when you think about it; perhaps, in fact, communing with nature is the highest ideal. Puts me in a good place, that's for sure.

Today I finished the last of the blackberries we picked and froze last summer. There is something about eating fruit in winter that fills you with a special brand of sunshine.

The last couple of days could only be classified as a fake-out spring, so warm and sunny, to be followed tomorrow by double-digit snowfall and single digit temperatures. Hey, but that's Mother Nature's job: to keep the human folk guessing.

I guess I'll just have to spend the day feeding the fire and putting the water on the boil for black tea--harmless vice or first step on the slippery slope? Reminds me that once upon a time I wanted to open up an espresso bar called Caffeine Dreams. That was back in the day when people read books and sat in coffee joints actually talking to each other and not on their cell phones. So long, long ago...

Front page story in the Bangor Daily News today said that 30% of children in Washington County live in poverty. No surprise to me, but sometimes when you see something in black and white it hits you sort of different. I remember when I first moved here how much it blew my mind how people could live with "million dollar views" but have no food in the refrigerator. Well, nobody will ever accuse anybody around here of being part of the "1%", but don't go thinking this is an isolated problem: 1 out of 5 children in America live in poverty. Shame on us.

You know how I love my Jack LaLanne quotes. I came across one today I hadn't heard before: "Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you have a kingdom."

The elixirs will, however, keep you running to the bathroom. I go from green tea to water to apple cider vinegar to red wine to just plain having to go...

Yeah, I know, too much information.

Today was workout #11 of the Dan John program. Though the man is my son's guru, if I ever have the honor to meet him I will have to let him know that his prescriptions are just about killing me. But then you know how it is with the bitter pill... it's bitter.

I stand alone re: Madonna. Everybody I talk to tells me she was fabulous. Years ago Cara and I saw her in a Broadway show. Afterward we stood at the stage door and watched her come out and get into her limo. There was quite a scrum and it was lucky she had burly bodyguards. The price of fame, I suppose, but to us it just seemed kind of scary.

That's why I've limited my blog to 34 followers. Too much attention makes me nervous.

I'm an ice road walker. Thank goodness for Yaktrax.

Let me give you an example of how you can take the boy out of the city but you can't take the city out of the boy. I eat rolled oats for breakfast most mornings. I especially enjoy them with blueberries, banana and dates. But every time I dump a few dates out of the bag I look at them and think, "man, do those look like cockroaches." Not the most appetizing thought, I'll grant you that. But it's beyond my control.

Do you know why you give your bride-to-be a diamond ring when you ask for her hand in marriage? Because she's going to be your "rock" for life. That's what I've come to realize, at any rate.

Madonna. They should have had a billboard behind her with her plastic surgeon's phone number. I mean, for real. You see, I have this fantasy that when I turn 50 (in just a shade over a year) people will say, "but doesn't he look good for his age." But who the heck can look like that?

No matter, a few miles on the odometer gives you that je ne sais quoi. Which is why I tell my wife not to bother dying her hair. Gray is sexy.

This is our new truck farm. We're growing micro-greens on the windowsill so we can have fresh micro-nutrient rich salads even when it's cold and crusty outside. Thanks to a timely suggestion from Stan, we'll most likely be doing a "gutter garden" this summer--more on that later. And, hard to believe, it's just about time to be thinking about the 2012 maple syrup season. Oh, don't we abound in nature's pleasures!