Last week, I made a bunch of chocolate cookie dough in a misguided attempt to use up the chocolate chips in the house, mostly so that I would stop eating them. It didn't really help much, as I now eat the chocolate chip cookie dough, with the chocolate chips. I need to stop, though, and before I eat it all, as these sugar rushes are given me nasty headaches.

Well, in addition to making the cookie dough, I actually baked some of the dough, making two dozen cookies and promptly eating six of them. I put the rest into containers and gave them to Kris to take to work. Like I need containers of cookies lying around.

Uh... no.

After our Velocity workout this morning, and after the shower, I was looking at the two cookie containers, wondering if the cookies were still good, since they weren't fresh baked any longer, and were actually 3 days old.

"Eh," Kris said, "my coworkers will eat them no problem." He continued to look at the containers, "Heck, I could write 'Poison! Eat at your own peril!' on them and they'd probably still get eaten."

"Ick," was my witty reply.

After a few moments of silence, during which Kris and I continued to clean up our post-workout clothes and such, Kris asked, "If I do write 'Poison! Eat at your own peril!' on the boxes and someone ate them and died, am I liable?"

"Uh... yes?"

"Because I liken it to a gun. Do you think the NRA will support me in the right to bear poisoned cookies?"

*blink* *blink*

"Maybe it could be the 28th ammendment!"

"Yeah, you'll get 37 states to ratify that one."

This morning's workout was five rounds of

Run 8 lengths of the track (or 8 x 50m for a total of 400m)
30 box jumps
30 squat wall ball tosses

I finished reading Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, by Fritz Haeg today. It's a quick read, being a series of essays about the origin and state of front yards of grass lawns in the United States, followed by a series of impressions from the households who have broken away from said grass lawns and planted food producing gardens in the their front yards. The book isn't a how-to guide on how to replant a front yard with an edible garden, though it does include a general outline on how one might do so near the front. It is an entertaining read for those who have a desire to do more with a front yard than mow it week after week.

Some interesting facts from the book include:

Lawns are pretty much a monoculture of two or so species of grasses. Given biodiversity is a sign of a healthy ecosystem, the lawn monoculture is a sure sign of a systemic problem.

The expanse of green grass in the United States has its origins in English aristocracy, where lawns were a symbol of wealth. Similar to the way pale skin was a sign of wealth in that a tan was a "lower class" sign of needing to work outdoors, lawns were a show of wealth stating we have land that doesn't need to be planted for food production.

Of course, even the English lawns were still USED for something (lawn bowling, lawn tennis, etc.), unlike the American lawn, which provides a "demilitarized zone" between the public and the private home, one that most people won't cross.

Lawn grass happens to be the biggest crop in the United States, covering over 30 million acres, costing people over $25 billion a year. More pesticides are used on grass lawns than on farms. More pollution is produced from an hour of a gas-powered lawn mower than a 300 mile drive in a car.

I'm already a convert to the idea of planting a front yard with edible plants (or yellow ones!), so my like of the book is unsurprising. The when-to-plant guides in the back of the book, as well as the resource sections is fabulous, but not enough of a reason to keep the book. So, I've decided to send the book on its merry way via the Book Crossing philosophy. I'll wait to see if friend wants it first. Otherwise, it's off to a community garden for flight.

I hope to finish up the front yard some time over the next few months, with the birthday present from Kris. I'm still torn between a California meadow and a front yard garden, with Kris wanting the former and quite leery of the latter.

15 overhead thrusts
20 m walking overhead lunges
15 overhead squats
20 m walking overhead lunges
Run 6 lengths (240m in 6x40m shuttles)

4 rounds

I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.  For "How do you know
Kitt?" I've listed you as "other" since there is no category for sweet babou... /sigh 

- Kris