These streets were made for walking

A friend over at The Nuthouse shared a link to www.walkscore.com, which purports to show how walking-friendly your neighborhood is by charting the distance (as the crow flies, btw, which is not equal to walking distance) to various amenities. My neighborhood received a very respectable 77 out of 100, rating it as “Very Walkable.” I was, frankly, shocked. Looking at the list of “amenities” they cite within 1 mile, however, shows where the disconnect exists. For “grocery stores,” 3 separate 7-11 stores make up 3 of the 8 they list. The others consisted of several small ethnic markets and a now-closed supermarket 0.7 miles away. While I love–and shop at–at least one of the small markets, they don’t offer any fresh foods or staples like milk. For milk I’d have to go to one of the 7-11s, and pay at least $1 more gallon.

To me, this does not make our neighborhood such a great walkable place when doing errands.

Grocery Stores

0.32 Mi

7-Eleven Food Store

0.46 Mi

7-Eleven

0.48 Mi

Food Star Supermark

0.52 Mi

7-Eleven

0.54 Mi

Grocery Store of Ba

0.59 Mi

El Encanto Grocery

0.7 Mi

Giant Food and Drug

0.71 Mi

Aladdin Halal Marke

Restaurants

0.29 Mi

Burger King

0.33 Mi

Wendy’s

0.36 Mi

Mom’s Pizza Restaur

0.38 Mi

Boston Market

0.38 Mi

Papa John’s Pizza

0.41 Mi

Thai Square

0.55 Mi

Bangkok 54 Restaura

0.55 Mi

Matuba Japanese Res

Coffee Shops

0.5 Mi

Dunkin’ Donuts

0.75 Mi

Rappahannock Coffee

1.31 Mi

Starbucks Coffee

1.32 Mi

Starbucks Coffee Co

1.34 Mi

Daily Grind

1.4 Mi

Star Buck Coffee

1.4 Mi

Starbucks

1.46 Mi

Murky Coffee

Bars

0.72 Mi

L a Bar & Grill

1.27 Mi

Bailey’s Smokehouse

1.35 Mi

Sheraton National H

1.37 Mi

Jay’s Saloon and Gr

1.44 Mi

Buffalo D’s Sports

1.46 Mi

The Westin Arlingto

1.49 Mi

O’Sullivans Irish P

1.51 Mi

The Liberty Tavern

Movie Theaters

0.56 Mi

Arlington Drafthous

1.23 Mi

Regal Entertainment

1.23 Mi

Regal Ballston Comm

1.23 Mi

Regal Cinema

1.67 Mi

AMC Loews Shirlingt

1.97 Mi

AMC Theatres – Cour

Schools

0.34 Mi

L-3 D P Associates

0.45 Mi

Our Savior Lutheran

0.48 Mi

Henry Elementary Sc

0.48 Mi

Strayer College

0.49 Mi

Tech. Ed. & Career

0.59 Mi

Barcroft Elementary

0.59 Mi

St. Thomas More Cat

0.62 Mi

Arlington Unitarian

Parks

0.35 Mi

Alcova Heights Park

0.59 Mi

Arlington County Go

0.6 Mi

Doctors Branch Park

0.76 Mi

Walter Reed Communi

1.06 Mi

Glencarlyn Park

1.08 Mi

Arlington County Go

1.22 Mi

Maury Park

Libraries

0.49 Mi

Arlington County Li

1.41 Mi

George Mason Univer

1.41 Mi

Law Library

1.42 Mi

Arlington Central L

1.43 Mi

Law Library

Bookstores

0.63 Mi

BC Comics

1.15 Mi

Book Ends

1.17 Mi

Carlin

1.27 Mi

Harvest Christian B

1.32 Mi

B. Dalton Bookselle

1.6 Mi

Kinder Haus Toys

1.64 Mi

Al-Hikma Book Store

1.69 Mi

Barnes & Noble Book

Fitness

0.42 Mi

Gym Technologies

0.65 Mi

Journeyoga

1 Mi

Tranquil Space Arli

1.16 Mi

Golds Gym & Fitness

1.26 Mi

Curves

1.27 Mi

Sport & Health Club

1.27 Mi

Sport and Health Cl

1.32 Mi

Iyengar Yoga Center

Drug Stores

0.61 Mi

Rite Aid

0.66 Mi

CVS/pharmacy

0.7 Mi

Giant Food and Drug

0.73 Mi

Giant Food Inc and

0.75 Mi

CVS/pharmacy

1.07 Mi

Harris Teeter

Hardware Stores

0.55 Mi

Allwine Associates

0.69 Mi

Concord Express Inc

1.3 Mi

Lee Hardware

1.38 Mi

Ibelong Networks

1.42 Mi

Duron Paints & Wall

1.55 Mi

ABC Distributors In

1.58 Mi

Marine Corps Exchan

1.78 Mi

Blinds To Go

Clothing & Music

0.3 Mi

Euro Lantino

 

Back!

It’s been such a busy month since we left for Turkey that I hardly know where to begin…hopefully it goes without saying that we had a wonderful, fabulous time, and were all sad to have come back. I’d like, at some point, to do some more in-depth posts on Turkey, and perhaps later this summer after my summer class is finished and we’re not sick with the killer flu and I have time to breathe more time for reflection, I’ll be able to do that. For now, it will have to suffice to say that the trip was amazing and I fell in love with everything about Turkey.

Did I say killer flu? Ahh, yes, I did. Although not the non-swine swine flu (although, really, how do they know? none of our doctors asked to do a culture, or whatever it is they can do to identify viruses…) it nonetheless was an un-welcome home gift that I did not need after just being out for three weeks. So, if any of you are suddenly struck with a high fever, go straight to bed and be prepared to injest more fever reducers and ice pops than you ever thought you could. For at least the next week. Good times!

 

Weight Watchers: Day 43

Holy moly, day 43. I can hardly believe it–it doesn’t feel like it could have been that long already. And yet, here I am, having just passed the 10 lb mark this morning. I seem to have settled on losing around 1.6 lbs per week, which is just awesome. Having my parents living with me these past three weeks has been great, as we’re all on the plan and can cook together.

The secret so far? Fat-free, sugar-free pudding (1 point!) for dessert and air-popped popcorn with salt and spray butter (also 1 point) to help fill up. I was never too much of an evening muncher, but having both popcorn and pudding to look forward to makes you forget you’re even on a diet.

Of course, daddy comes home tomorrow (hurrah!) and that will probably shake up the eating…given that he’s got the metabolism of an olympic athlete and is always, always hungry. And happy to put away roughly 4 times what I can eat should eat at a given meal! The upside is more time to exercise now that he’s home…

 

Weight Watchers: Day 20

“Day 20″ sounds so much more impressive than “a little over 2 weeks,” doesn’t it? Or, is that just me?

Impressiveness aside, it’s actually going quite well. Allotting points is definitely helping me make better food choices and better portion choices (and isn’t that the whole point? *snicker*) and I haven’t yet felt terribly deprived. Probably because I’ve been sticking with my one big “luxury” of having two (or sometime more!) cups of tea a day. It’s been a long time since I had desserts regularly, and we never have kept many sweet or junky foods around, so not having chips, cookies, candy et cetera hasn’t bothered me a bit. My big sugar intake has always been tea: Three cups of tea with milk and sugar adds up to 6 points per day, which is a pretty sizable amount when you only have 22 points to eat for the day. I’ve slowly been switching out some of the sugar for Splenda, and right now I’m actually having a 0 points cup of tea (Splenda, no milk).

Obsessive tea drinking aside, I’ve so far lost 4.2 pounds. Which somehow is about 1.4 pounds per week. And while I’d love to be one of those people who loses like 5 pounds the first week and then 2 pounds a week after that, if I can keep trucking along at 1.4 pounds a week, I’ll be just fine!

 

We’ve been sick, sick, sick…

You know that awful flu sweeping the nation? Like a new dance sensation, only the sensation is of wanting to crawl into bed and never come out? Yeah, it’s been fun. Fun like only two sick babies and a sick husband can be. I think my favorite was the night I spent half the time with my violently shivering husband and the other half curled up with my thrashing, moaning toddler. It was a long, hard, sleepless, alternately-sweaty-and-freezing night.

Now, though, we are on the mend. They are all better. I am the only one still sick. My cold has turned into something lingering, something with really sore throat and yucky gunk that I won’t describe in too much detail. My doctor, gem that she is, said “try some allergy medicine, they are over-the-counter now.”Gee, thanks. A few days of my husband’s Allegra-D have worked wonders on allowing me to breathe through my nose, but still no relief for the sore throat. Of course, all I probably need is a quiet day, where I drink tea and honey and don’t talk at all.

HA, HA, HA. Oh, I’m wiping away tears–and not all of laughter–now. A quiet day? Here’s my average day (one at home with the kids, that is):

Kerem, don’t push Ceyda, she’s a baby and it hurts her. Ceyda, don’t bite Kerem. NO BITING. Why is the sky blue? The sky is blue because the light from the sun comes through little drops of water in the air. Because mother nature made it that way. Because she likes blue skies. Because blue is her favorite color. Because she likes blue. I don’t know Kerem; have some cheese.

 

Our First Pee!

Yes, it’s true. For the first time, our little boy used the potty for what Fisher-Price intended.  I was so excited, I called daddy in to see. (He was rather more blasé about it.) I’m crossing my fingers that this could be the beginning of the end of diapers. It’s been increasingly more on my mind as his 3rd birthday approaches. Okay, it’s not till April. That’s approaching! Thus far he’s shown, shall we say, a decided lack of interest in the potty. Offers of “Would you like to sit on the potty?” are usually met with a firm no. “Would you like to wear big boy underpants?” sure, he’s all for that. As long as there’s no potty-sitting involved. We’ve been pretty laid-back about it, noting to ourselves that no one goes to kindergarten still in diapers. (Or is it, no one goes to college still in diapers?) This week, however, I attended the information night for a local preschool program, Montessori, which I’m incredibly excited about. The literature they passed out notes that all children must be potty-trained. Eeek.

Now, really, we have a full 6 months before school starts. By then he’ll be over 3 years old, surely he’ll show interest in using the potty by then. Nonetheless, I was determined to step up the training. And by “step up,” I mean actually start. So, last night we sat on the potty and read a book, nothing happened, but he was agreeable about the whole procedure, so I thought that was a good step in the right direction. Tonight we sit again, and we talked, and I didn’t think anything had happened, but lo and behold when he stands up, his little potty has a little deposit! Success!  Hallelujah! Our son won’t go to college in diapers!

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes…