What was your best new discovery in the year 2015?

self-love

I mean that at age 52 I completely love and accept every aspect of myself. Weight fell from my shoulders when it happened. I am infinitely calmer and have untold peace of mind. It only required 30 years of meditation.

Fennel. Never bought it before, now I always have fennel on hand. I put thumbnail pieces of raw fennel or sauteed fennel bits in salads and anywhere else I see fit.

Raw beets. I cut beets like matchsticks and serve them as appetizers and in salads.

Both are crunchy with lots of flavor.

Feline Supplement 221

Average life expectancy for men has fallen another 1.7 years to 74.6.
Also:
“Superbug gene outsmarts antibiotic.
A new gene that makes bacteria highly resistant to a last-resort class of antibiotics has been identified in China, and doctors are warning of the global implications.
The gene, called MCR-1, makes bacteria resistant to a class of antibiotics known as polymyxins, which are antibiotics of last resort, used to fight superbugs.
The discovery is described as “alarming” by scientists quoted in a Reuters article. They called for urgent restrictions on the use of polymyxins, a class of antibiotics that includes the drug colistin, widely used in livestock farming.” -found in The Idaho Statesman, Dec., 9, 2015

Happy New Year!

My hypothesis-
This year, I attempted to ascertain if laundry could indeed, wash itself.
Various scientifically sound experiments on the subject have failed, up to this point in time.
There are, however, a few days left in the year.
Still attempting to prove hypothesis as true!

It’s getting cold out now. Will have to end testing period on the 31st/12.
Trashbags, paper towels and old window curtains are not conducive when feeling cold and performing scientific experiments!

That rats can make great pets. They are small and make little noise and smart and affectionate, just like tiny dogs. You can teach them tricks or just cuddle with them and pet them.

I wish I had one but no one sells them here :(

A little Italian cafe within walking distance of my home.

When I shower, there’s a tiny area to the left of my belly button that tickles immensely.

The health benefits of sauerkraut, and how easy it is to make at home,

Post-hernia surgery, I learned that constipation can be more painful and miserable than anything I’ve ever experienced.

My best discovery—though certainly not a pleasant one—was to stay really far from a semi trailer truck making the same turn.

I’ll spare you the gruesome details except to say, thank goodness for good auto insurance.

I’m not there yet, @Hawaii_Jake, and I’m to be 55. Congrats. I hope it’s smoother sailing from here in.

I don’t remember that I’ve tried raw fennel in my adult life, @jaytkay. Where do you use it besides salad?
Do the beet sticks stain? I’ve never heard of eating beets raw, but it makes sense. I like most root vegetables better raw than cooked.

Does it make your tentacles treacly, @ragingloli?

Less land mass, more disease. Nature at it’s most self defensive, @kritiper.

But surely, you discovered something new this year, @msh? Like, maybe, Dove Dark Chocolate Covered Whole Cranberries? lol

Westerners have a hard time getting over the rat’s appearance, @Mimishu1995. But, when I was a kid we kept hamsters for years and years. I think it suits you!

I have, literally, nothing within walking distance of my home, civilization wise, @flutherother. An Italian cafe with homemade pasta and pastries sounds wonderful. I discovered a fantastic Indian restaurant in a town I visit a lot.

It’s the little pleasures, @ucme. Although uncontrollable giggling every time you shower could make you suspect.

You make your sauerkraut right in the jar, @bossob, or in a crock or vat? I don’t eat enough to try making it, but a friend makes hers right in the jars.

As long as you’re okay, @Pachy. Did you get them to total it so you could get new?

That my ability to trap mice ends when I see one in its death throes.

Also, that it’s fun being a band’s groupie. (Don’t ask for details!)

@janbb I’m having my best catching success yet with Tip Traps, but you still have to kill and dispose of the critter.

Twice now, I’ve caught the mouse before we noticed any signs it was even there.
I weight the traps in a bucket of water until the…er…subject um,er…expires. If you just throw the trap away after, that’s still only a couple bucks to be rid of the pest.

Luckily, the mice are gone for the moment.

I had those traps set at the auction building and the house, and both of them caught a mouse before we were aware that there was one. Early warning.

I’m sold. A trap that mice actually seek out. A dark tunnel with delicious food in it. What more could they want?

I don’t remember that I’ve tried raw fennel in my adult life, @jaytkay. Where do you use it besides salad? Do the beet sticks stain?

Sauteed fennel is good on pork chops and in lots of soups and side dishes, like beans.

Yes, the beets stain as much as you would imagine.

@ibstubro !!! Wait! What? Dove makes Dark Chocolate Covered Cranberries??
Holy cow! I gotta wrap another window curtain around me and get to the store!!!
D’ya think they’ll forget that I got barred for life there? Shoot- and the chocolate isle is in the back. Perhaps if I run really, really fast….

Outrigger canoe racing last March. It’s my new kick! I made it on an old paddler team (over 60) to compete in Brisbane Australia (World Sprits) in May 2016. Fun stuff!

I’ll check the fennel out, pass on the stainy beets, @jaytkay. :)

There’s not hurry, @msh, the Dove Cranberries will be there for a while…I’m keeping demand high.

Wow. Super cool stuff, @gondwanalon. You’re gonna live forever.

I discovered that I enjoy and appreciate living in town (a small town) and I now prefer separate living areas. I’m done with open concept living.

I have come to believe that you adapt to, and appreciate, whatever your current living conditions are, @dammitjanetfromvegas. That’s a commendable attribute. ACK-scent-u-ate the positive.

I don’t know how I would react to having neighbors again. Probably not well.

@ibstubro It helps that both of the homes adjacent to us are empty. We are in our mid 40s and the youngest couple on the block. It’s a quiet neighborhood.

@ibstubro, yes—it was a total. I got a new car.

Well, even if you get neighbors now, @dammitjanetfromvegas, at least you’ve eased into city living. :)

Super great, @Pachy. Come on over…I’ll let you take my Camry for a spin.
Just don’t bring it back.

Food - My experiments with goat’s milk cheeses are proceeding nicely. I’ve had success, I believe, with a recipe for Stilton Bleu in which I added saffron for coloring, tangerine essence for the fruity tang, and a bit of sage. I was very surprised at the pleasant results. It is a very pretty bright orange with swirls of green (sage) and small blue nuggets. It has a very nice taste and should go good anything as the strong flavor is impossible to overpower. It might even go well with Port. Unlike many goat cheeses, this one promises to age well and harden. It may be the acid in the tangerine zest.

Artist - Anna, the daughter of my fruit vendor, Kita. He does very nice, naive, native art often using local organic materials such as palm, shell, etc. I have two of her tribal masks hanging in the living room.

Medicine - I discovered that my interest in Medicine is waning away like an old memory.

Person - Grigoris Tsouris, a fellow sailor and Greek exile from his student activist days back in Athens after the military junta that removed Social Democrat President Popandreu from office in 1967. According to Greg, the junta was ultimately responsible for the corruption in succeeding conservative governments and oligarchy which is responsible for the disaster in Greece today. A structural engineering student back in Greece, fe did well as a construction sub-contractor in NYC. Actually has had sit-downs with D. Trump (Doesn’t like him—says nobody really likes him.) He knows the Aegean Sea and it’s island very well. It’s been OK for him to go back home for some time now. I’m trying to talking him into sailing both our boats to Mikonos late next summer. He has family on those islands and knows people and my few American dollars will go a long way in Greece right now. .

Place - Off the coast of the island of Hispaniola, about 10 miles SSW off Cabo Pardenales near the Haitian/ Dominican Republic, is the tiny resort island of Isla Beata. It’s a very nice, low key place, and very expensive. But about 10 miles SW of Isla Beata is the even tinier island of Alto Velo. It is about 150 acres, surrounded by coves rich in shellfish and other seafood, the soil is extremely fertile from millennia of guano droppings, and there is a cave at the NW side of a sharp 350 rise on the SW end of the island. Someone planted bananas, mango and papaya trees some time ago and they are thriving. There is a pocket of fresh water about 20 feet under the surface in the center of the islet and rainwater is plentiful. One could keep goats here. There was no evidence of recent human activity when I found this place last year. It’s an amazing little place, very pretty and very quiet and it is always heartening to know that there are still thousands of these little forgotten places on the globe.

Clothing - I discovered a second-hand store in West Palm Beach (the working class town across the intercoastal waterway from wealthy Palm Beach) wear Gortex clothing including $500+ sailing outerwear and $150 pants sell for 2 to 5 dollars each.

Homestuck…