Keeping up with the Flintstones

As weeks go, last week was pretty much devastating. I spent most of the weekend recovering, and yesterday, I got back on the horse. More research. More phone calls. More questions. And soon, I will be out of this horrible cycle and back to my old snarky self again.

Today SG and I headed to Costco, where we has a Paleo book sighting in the wild:

 It's exciting to us- where we live seems to be some kind of vegan mecca, and going to the local bookstore can be stressful. Actually, any shopping here is stressful: the amount I spend at amazon.com is outrageous, but it's worth it not to have to deal with people looking through you at the grocery store and then having several traffic-related near-death experiences on the way home. Let the UPS guy deal with that crap. (Sorry, UPS guy. I know you think it's funny that you have a shelf in your truck dedicated to my own personal use.)

So: the bookstore. I wanted to get a copy of The Vegetarian Myth a few months ago: which is a pretty amazing book. HOWEVER. I couldn't find it anywhere. You see, the B&N near us has a pretty creative way of shelving books. So after much fruitless searching, I went to the kiosk, and asked the woman there where it was. And she became absolutely enraged. It was like I had requested a copy of "Killing Babies For Fun And Profit." The least obnoxious thing she said was, "I assure you, I am a vegan, and we DO exist."

The old me would have rolled my eyes and left. However, the grass-fed beef must be doing something because I retorted, "You know what? I don't come here to be judged for my taste in books. I do plenty of shopping online, but I thought I'd help stimulate the local economy. Amazon certainly doesn't judge me: and I doubt your manager would, either!"And I stalked off, with her following behind me with a flurry of apologies.  And I did eventually get the book, which she made a point of telling me, was in the "Theoretical Fiction" section- or something similar. Right by Religion.

And of course, she seems to be there every time we come in: long limp grayish hair, sallow skin, stooped posture. And every time SG pokes me and says, "There's your friend." And I wonder, kind of sadly, how much of that is due to her vegan diet.

We went to that same B&N over the weekend, in an effort to cheer me up, and did our usual rounds- magazines, Photography (SG) Knitting and Crafts (me) and then we meet up in the Cooking and Food section. And (unlike our Costco sighting) it is like PULLING TEETH to find Paleo cookbooks. There will be a few of them together- but typically, they're dispersed throughout the Gluten free section, or the special diets section, or the diet and fitness section. I know there are other local Groks besides us though: I keep seeing tidy stacks of Paleo books set out together on the "new releases" tables: even stuff that's not new, and obvs not supposed to be there, so I know it's not stocked that way. I have noticed that Paleo magazine is also more prominently displayed- we used to really have to dig for it.

Anyway, I had a huge stack, and SG had one of the leather bound reproductions of the classics he loves so much. And I said, "Hey, Steven Rinella has a new book out! I think it's called Meat Eater?! Let's get it." And we looked. And looked, and looked. And then I had to admit defeat. Ugh, I didn't want another scene. So I sidled up to the kiosk and asked the young man (very softly) "Do you have "Meat Eater" by Steven Rinella?

He crinkled his brows. "OK, let me look it up."  And did some typing. And then said, "We don't have a book called, "We Meet Here"."

So I upped the volume a little bit, and explained my rabid vegan story, and he laughed, then rolled his eyes and said, "Don't worry; I had ribs last night, and they were DELICIOUS." Whew! It was like a secret handshake.

As it turns out, Meat Eater is in the Sport and Recreation section.

Unwinding

What an amazing weekend!

SG and I have not been away on our own together just to relax in...well, let me think. Probably since our trip to Italy in the summer of 2010. And I am not going to knock that, but time spent running errands of visiting family or celebrating holidays is just not the same as time spent- just being, and enjoying each others company.

We usually have the dogs to worry about as well- while they are good travelers, it is stressful to stay with family, because well, they are dogs. Putting them in a kennel up here runs about $200 plus for a weekend, which is pricey! We eventually decided to try entrusting the neighbor's kid with our house keys, and while the doggies were evidently upset initially, there was no destruction or suspicious staining when we got back. And judging by the amount left in the bag of grain-free doggie biscuits, they got pretty spoiled in our absence!

We went all over the place: As soon as we got out of the gloomy Bay and the sun came out, the top came down on the convertible, and it was like that scene in The Wizard of Oz where everything turns to color. Zooming towards the Central Coast playing 80's music was an amazing feeling of freedom- something I don't think either of us have felt in a long time.

When we got to Carmel, we caught up with my parents- they had plans all weekend, so we only checked in with them at intervals. We made our dinner reservations well in advance, and meandered down to a great Greek restaurant, Dametra Cafe on Ocean Ave. for lunch. We just spent the whole afternoon walking around, and headed down to the beach in time to do a circuit before the tide came rolling in. SG took tons of pictures, and I took the opportunity to do my best Karate Kid impersonation on a stump.

By the time we made it back up the hill, it was time to get cleaned up for dinner. Bistro Giovanni is within walking distance. it's not super-fancy, but the food is amazing. We spent a few hours talking and eating, tucked into our cozy corner.

We had a lot to talk about. Our lives are changing remarkably quickly. If all goes well, we will be moving and starting a family relatively soon. Everything is still in the planning stages, but things seem to be moving amazingly quickly. I feel so blessed and lucky. As long as we don't freak out, we will be fine!

After a leisurely jaunt home, we checked out some of the footage from the opening night of the Olympics.

The rest of the weekend was similarly relaxing- lots of eating at amazing places, and wandering around. We checked out Fisherman's Wharf, Cannery Row, and of course, the Monterey Bay Aquarium. SG is rediscovering his love of photography, and we got some amazing shots of the octopus and jellyfish.

Sunday, we packed up and hit the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Both SG and I had gone waaaay in the past- and I have to admit, we were disappointed with it this time around. It was hot, and sweaty, and crowded, and the food was pretty much not "easy" for us to eat. We ended up leaving pretty quickly, without trying any of the garlicky delicacies. The decision was to "salvage" the day by heading to the Gilroy Outlets, which was a pretty good decision. We'd actually discussed the things that we needed to round out our respective wardrobes, so I got a pair of black slide wedges, a silver peacock feather necklace, a black leather wristlet purse, a cute summer-weight denim jacket, and one impulse buy- a magenta cotton shrug. SG found a pullover and a deep forest green shirt- I was thrilled to see they have "tall" sizes at Eddie Bauer, because it is hard to find stuff that fits him otherwise! And he got two wallets at the leather place, which was long overdue.

So we got home in plenty of time- which is good, because I had two appointments today (more on that later). I admit, neither of us really wanted to come back, but it was wonderful to come home to a clean house, and two dogs who were very VERY glad to see us.

All in all, it was a seriously awesome 10th anniversary weekend, and I feel like my batteries are recharged for the first time in longer than I care to admit!

Weekend

I am off to enjoy some sun and relaxation this weekend- and am keeping busy, in an effort to quit obsessing. It will be nice to see good friends and family!

We are taking a truckload of things down to our storage, including the bread machine and toaster. They were wedding gifts, which is why I never got rid of them. And who knows?   Maybe I can turn the bread machine into a festive planter.

Exorcism

Hallelujah! I'm HEALED!

 I am pleased to report that I made it through Adventure Sunday with ZERO ice cream.

Back in the day, I would have gone on some kind of sugar bender, rationalizing, "Well, I already messed this up- better make the most of it! I'll start over on Monday."

There's been a lot of debate on Paleo blogs of late: There are some people who take an inflexible, super-low carb approach. Even FRUIT is gonna kill you. Blueberries- FORSOOTH! You eat dairy? Excommunicated! Urgh.

While some people like to pretend that Paleo is some religious institution (Mark and Robb can fight out between them who gets to be the Pope) I think people lose sight of the big picture. Why are we bickering? We're talking about health. Shaming people into wanting to get healthy does not work. People who are learning about something, don't want to learn about it from some inflexible jerk, who is standing over them with a ruler, waiting to slap their knuckles if they "screw up."

Voila! Starbucks!

The most fabulous aspect about eating this way is that screwing up can be a part of it. It's a constant process, an experiment you are running on yourself. I am a pretty good example of 80/20. I eat Primal/Paleo about 95% of the time. So when things (like the ice cream thing) happen, I can just take it in stride. The scale certainly didn't reflect it. And today, when hubby asked me about ice cream, I was able to happily say, "No thanks- I feel better without it. But how about an iced venti unsweetened green tea from Starbucks?"

This, x2. Good Times!

We went out to a nice lunch. There's a burger place near us that is decent- they serve something called a Mt. Tam Burger that has sauteed onions, cheese, avocado, and bacon on it. Typically I will order that, hold the bun, with a garden salad, no croutons, and Oil/Vinegar. Hubby let me order that plus an iced tea, and then told the waitress, "Why don't you just bring two of everything?" She said something sweet about the two of us being cute. Oh yes, we are FREAKIN' ADORABLE.

I could only eat half of that beast. Then we meandered over to Starbucks (instead of ice cream!) and took the truck to get washed. I was bored at the car wash. Taking pictures when you are bored? Good times.

Next, we headed over to the bookstore. I keep buying new knitting and craft magazines, reading them, and socking them away. I have been meaning to look at Paleo magazine, and figured, well, what the heck? I started searching, and enlisted hubby's help. Then we went and got a sales guy. He finally managed to dig it up- it was shoved allll the way in the back on the racks. We may have made sure it was more prominently featured before we left.

 Hubby was very taken with the blonde vixen on the cover. But evidently, other things are catching his eye, as he kept flipping through the magazine. Score! He asks me questions sometimes, but I am not up to answering more in-depth stuff, about the science of it all. I am really excited. Hopefully, the 60/40 he has been doing will get fine-tuned a little more. He was talking recently about how much better he feels when he avoids gluten. Woohooo! Progress!

Adorable tamari-filled goodness.

I was supposed to spend time with a friend of mine today, as she was coming into town. She texted to ask me if I wanted sushi- score! I filled up the on-the-go water bottle and poured tamari sauce into one of these guys (I got mine from Cost Plus):

There's a great place by my house that has great quality sashimi, undyed pickled ginger, and puts it all on top of a bed of shredded daikon radish. Perfect. Then we went to go see Magic Mike. It was indeed magical.

I came home to find hubby happily reading another magazine we got today: Cooking Wild. All about eating food you've hunted, fished, or foraged for. HE picked it out! He also announced that he'd ordered a digital 6 issue (1 year) run of Paleo magazine for us.Wow!

As days go, I have to say, this one went pretty well.