Trivia

I wish I understood better how Weight Watchers points work--I went to Joe T.'s and had Mexican food tonight, and one meal ate up half again my daily allowance (I get 19 points and I think the meal was 21.5). Since I've been good most of the week, my weekly total isn't bad. Tomorrow's weigh day, which is an unfortunate circumstance--no time for that extra food to settle in. But my main question is how do they balance activity points against food points--I do have 7 activity points (yeah, I exercised every day), and if you added those to the 22 left in my bonus points, I'd only be down 6 points from a perfect week. I guess it will all tell when I step on the scales tomorrow. Tonight's occasion was a meeting of the Societ of Professional Journalists. My neighbor and friend Carolyn Poirot invited me to accompany her, and I saw lots of people I know, most I hadn't seen in ages. The program was a pair of critics talking, and it was interesing (should have had my hearing aids in!). I was most interested in what Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy said about using Facebook and Twitter--I realize I underuse Facebook in ways that could promote my books, and I signed up on Twitter but have never figured it out.Oh, well, another learning curve.
Several years ago my neighbors bought me a bird feeder, and I loved seeing the birds come and light on it. Of course squirrels got a lot of the food, and then I had rats n my attic. The exterminator said he wouldn't have a bird feeder near the house, but I liked having it outside the kitchen window. Of course, I didn't know the rats were to come when I bought lovely, stylish glass hummingbird feeders for myself and the neighbors as a thank-you. Neither of us have ever had a hummingbird--Jeannie tells me the little fluttery creatures are much more drawn to the cheap, bright plastic kind of feeder. Meantime, mine hangs there, it's once-red fluid now a pale pink, and I need to take it down. But today I looked out the window and saw a hummingbird flitting around my plumbago--I watched for several minutes before he flew away. Next year: more plumbago.
Another bit of trivia: did you know that UNESCO declared Iowa City the third City of Literature in the world, behind Edinburgh and Melbourne--pretty heady company for an Iowa university town. I went to two years of college in Iowa (a small private college) and never went near Iowa City, but of course we've all heard about it's outstanding creative writing programs in the years since (a long time, believe me). Still, who could have imagined it would rank so high? Hurray for the Midwestern prairies!