We do ... insulate the hot water pipes

This could easily be the post about the energy audit that we got from our utility, but instead, it's about our insulating the pipes in our basement that radiate heat.

As you can see, it's a little ham-handed. I had to use twist ties to keep one section closed, and there's another section where I should have used it, among other defects. Almost every home-improvement project I've ever tackled has produced in me both pride — for having accomplished something new — and embarrassment — for having not done it professionally.

Even having not handled every corner well, and for not dealing well where ceiling hangers break the run, and blah blah blah, we're keeping the vast majority of the heat that was bleeding into the basement in the pipes, where it belongs.

So why could this have been about our energy audit? 'Cause they did come, but most of what they suggested, we'd already done, and most of what I asked for, they don't do. Like, insulating pipes.

Speaking at Commonwealth Club

I will be speaking on the topic of food addiction at the Commonwealth Club of California, the oldest public affairs forum in the country, on Feb. 28. I'll be joining a fabulous panel of researchers and clinicians: Nicole Avena of Princeton and the University of Florida, Eric Stice of the Oregon Research Institute, Vera Tarman of Renascent Center of Toronto, abd Elissa Epel and Andrea Garber, both of the University of California at San Francisco. I am very excited to be part of the roster, not to mention to be appearing at such a great institution. Ticket information here; if you come, please stay afterward to say hello.

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