Annette, I picked up Great Gardens of England from the library Tuesday and have watched all four DVDs. Although I enjoyed walking through all those gardens and listening to their owners comments, this video set wasn't what I was expecting. I guess I thought I'd be going to gardens like Sissinghurst or the ones at very large estates or public gardens in England, with huge castles and a maze or two. But glad I watched them before I purchased the set. Sure do give a person a wealth of ideas though, plus I was amazed that the gardeners did all that tending and work themselves! Simply gorgeous borders, and the woodland gardens were wonderful. Those were my favorites I think. All that planning and designing, whew. Thanks for the heads up on this DVD set. My cousin saw it on the "hold" shelf at the library before I picked it up and wrote me a note saying "I wished that I had reserved this!"

It's late so I'm just going to respond train-of-thought to your questions..... RE your exercises -- that's a lot of the stuff my last PT had me doing -- I think it's general leg strengthening stuff and probably all very good stuff to do, but the exercises the new PT gave me really get the butt and outside of the hips, which is what I need, apparently, to cure the IT band stuff. And it takes so much less time -- if I hustle, I can do everything in 10 minutes. re: pilates being too boring and slow-paced -- the more advanced winsor workouts are much faster-paced with less explaining. See if you can get a hold of the Maximum Burn series - she goes very fast in that one. There's a 20 minute one and a 45 mninute one. I think they're both out of print, but there are usually plenty of used copies on amazon (cheap!) re: your arches -- I think high arches are big contributors to knee pain. I'm sure you already did this, but make sure you have the right shoes -- high arched feet need neutral/cushioned shoes -- any sort of stability or motion control shoe will just screw you up further. I have Nike Zoom Vomero 4's -- they are the cushiest shoes ever but they don't last long -- my last pair needed replacing after less than 200 miles. You may want to see a different podiatrist for a second opinion on your orthotics -- I've seen a few and each one has a different opinion on what kind orthotics to make me. I have a set of old orthotics from my 20s and sometimes I wear them to run, sometimes I don't. I don't think they make much difference actually. (Part of me thinks podiatry is a hocus-pocus kind of field!.) A good book to read is "Running Injury Free" by Joe Ellis. He is a podiatrist but very knowledgable and I found it fascinating how he took people's weird pains and traced them down to all kinds of crazy causes (one woman had hip pain that he traced to a tiny nail that had penetrated the sole of her running shoe and was very mildly poking her as she ran -- she didn't even realize it was there, but it was throwing off her stride to such an extent that it screwed up her ankle, knee and hip. But anyway, he spends a lot of time talking about how people's arches and foot structure can really cause issues all the way up the leg - it's interesting to read. re: how long I foam roll - I usually foam roll for a few minutes. You are supposed to stay on each painful spot for as long as you can and at least 20-30 seconds. I will roll til I hit all my painful spots (some twice) or until my arms get tired from holding me up (I find that you have to be pretty acrobatic to get yourself in some of these positions, LOL!) If you have painful spots, you need to roll. The first time I did it, my right IT band didn't hurt at all -- not one bit -- when I foam rolled it (and of course, my right knee didn't hurt). My left IT band, on the other hand, was excruciatingly painful the whole way up and down my leg. I rolled for maybe 3-4 minutes total (it hurt so bad I had to stop) and the next morning, I felt so much better. When I rolled again (I was doing it twice a day at first, now just once a day), there were far fewer painful spots, and now I find that if I keep up the rolling regularly, I can roll and not find any painful spots at all (and then I'm done in like 20 seconds!). Basically, if you feel any pain when you roll your IT band, you've found a problem and you just need to park there on the roller and let the roller work the knot out. Seriously -- in just days, with proper rolling, you should be feeling far less pain during the rolling itself and of course, less knee pain during all your activities. re: the fluid in your knee -- the fluid in your knee might never go away but it is probably not causing your pain. I have tons of fluid in both knees (docs think it is from the trauma of the accident) but other than making really loud crackling popping noises all the time (seriously, in my first set of PT, people could hear my knees popping from across the room when I was doing those step-ups and stuff - it was gross!), it never hurt. The pain is caused by the muscles around your knee pulling your kneecap all out of whack. Once you release the tension in your IT band and strengthen the other muscles around the knee to hold your kneecap in place, it won't be getting yanked all over the place and your pain should go away or at least become a lot more managable. Good luck!

Posted by foodonastump "So couldn't this "potential difference for more energy to transfer" have an effect on not just the braising liquid, but also on the meat that's in the vessel? Or was America's Test Kitchen completely dillusional when they experimented with cooking pot roast in a dutch oven, in an oven at various temperatures and found: "We then tested higher temperatures to reduce the cooking time. Heat levels at above 350 degrees boiled the meat to a stringy, dry texture because the exterior of the roast overcooked before the interior was cooked and tender. The magic temperature turned out to be 300 degrees - enough heat to keep the meat at a low simmer while high enough to shave a few more minutes off the cooking time." Excellent questions. First, It seems to me that we can all accept that: 1. To the meat in the liquid inside the vessel, it makes no difference where the 212F heat comes from. By the very definition of thermal energy, there is no difference between heat from the oven, stove, coal, candle, -------. 2. However, to the meat, how long the meat stays in the 212F will make a difference. To tenderize the meat, it is important to cook it long, in the ATK experiment, as they stated, they cook the meat at 350 but shorter time, therefore some of the meat is tougher. "By the way, the oven cooking time for their pot roast is 3.5-4 hours after the liquid comes to a simmer, stove top. And yes, with an internal temperature of 210 degrees they themselves called the roast "overcooked", in quotes. In other words it was a desirable result in this case. Again, unless they're dilussional, it sure sounds to me like there's 212, and then there's 212. And that generations of cooks weren't wrong. " I don't think that generation of cooks were wrong. Cooking with a covered Dutch oven inside an oven will produce wonderful results. Whether that will have more delicious end results than doing it with the Dutch oven on the stove top is my question. "Last note - you asked why do it in the oven rather than stove-top. ATK found what LindaC mentioned above: "After a few rounds of stovetop cooking, we felt that it was too difficult to maintain a steady, low temperature, so we began pot-roasting in the oven, starting out at 250 degrees. This method required no supervision, just a turn of the meat every 30 to 40 minutes to ensure even cooking." I can understand that. For the purpose of the repeatability of the experiment, as in any experiment, it is important to maintain recordable and verifiable environmental conditions, and that is much easier done in an oven which has a limiting thermostat. There is no practical way to do that on the stove top. However, I am not sure for everyday cooking anyone would have a problem to get the Dutch oven to be on simmering low-fire setting on the stove top. ---------------------------------------------- BTW, ATK has provided much very useful and important information to the public, however, most of their tests are done in somewhat informal settings. To confirm a true test of 350F vs. 300F in the quality of the meat, I believe the experiment must be done in an oven with an electronic PID type of thermostat which has the ability to control the environment to 0.1 F resolution. Mechanical bi-metal or capillary hydraulic type of thermostats in normal ovens can vary as much as 30F to 50F. Humidity of the cooking environment should be monitored, and a chart recorder should be in operation to record temperature swings throughout the entire cooking time. Because testing by individuals chewing is highly unreliable, it depends on subjectivity, and where the meat from the same cut is taken for the chewing. Proper way to do it perhaps would be using a durometer tester. Finally, no test result is to be considered conclusive until the same test is performed by another independent testing facility. Bottom line: Stewing using a Dutch oven in an oven will make wonderful and delicious stew. However, beef "tenderness" cooked at 212 F is very different texturally than beef tenderness cooked at 135F. dcarch

Our local meteorologists are great! One has been at the station over 30 years, and he is a big part of the community. He has a funny weather-related name so he jokes he was destined to do the weather. He does a lot of community service such as food drives and works with the humane society and animal care and control to feature adoptable pets. He was in a bad car accident last spring and was off for several months to rehab, and he was missed, but he is back and doing all his good things. They hired a female meteorologist while he was out on leave, but they have kept her on. Another meteorologist is awesome at social media and will even live broadcast from his home office when bad winter weather is predicted. One thing I do not that if bad winter weather is predicted, they will lead in with the weather and then have you wait for the full details. Everyone is watching for the weather! I think if there is a tornado warning in the area, they said they have to be on the TV to interrupt normal programming.