Vegetarian Reprogramming Works
I scribbled all kinds of notes for possible posts and I'm going to blob it all into one because tomorrow is computer-free day.

When I got married I had been a vegetarian for quite some time. It's hard to remember how long now but I think at least 10 years and I was strict. No clam dip. No: "I'm a vegetarian except I eat chicken and fish." I think I even toyed with veganism on and off.

I gave it up because I was having a hard time staying warm during the winter and a naturopathic Chinese medicine doctor (for real!) suggested I think about adding a little bit of meat back into my diet. Once I got used to the idea, I never looked back and I exaggerate little when I say my spouse was ecstatic.

We recently went to a party with a friend of Bob's who he hadn't seen since we got married. You should have seen the look of relief on her face when she found out I'd crossed back over to the dark side. She said she'd make barbecue. I whipped out my datebook: when? when? when?

While I enjoy eating meat I don't eat a lot of it and very rarely beef. Last night Bob was kinda cranky and he thought a Steakburger for dinner would make his night so I said: let's go for it.

Steakburger is a local favorite with excellent milkshakes AND a miniature golf course. If I'd met Bob 30 years earlier, we'd probably gone on a date at the mini-golf. Of course, I would have been 13 and he would have been 20 so it would have been creepy but why get caught up in the details of our pretend scenario?

My 3 regular readers might remember that my digestive system freaks out if I eat too much fat (or overeat or pretty much overindulge in *anything* super delicious except for booze, thank heaven for small favors) so I was a little nervous about eating a hamburger but Bob was so happy and I didn't want to cook. Guess what: it was fantastically magically delicious. The whole bun, sauce, grilled meat and shredded lettuce: texture and yum. I could have inhaled the whole thing in 3 bites. Bob also got fries, which my digestive system totally hates, but they were the steak cut and insanely good. I woke up at midnight and was aware of my innards but nothing to cry about. I think we will be returning to Steakburger.

This morning I ran a bunch of errands and when I got home around noon I was starving and all I could think about was: a Steakburger would sure be good. Instead I decided to finish off that tiny bit of lasagna from the other night only it was gone. So then I got tamales out of the freezer and treated myself to those.

After an hour or so of crippling laziness I pulled myself together and decided to crank some Cult, Electric which is an awesome record, and I rocked out around my kitchen and realized how much cooler I am than stupid lawyers [long story omitted and besides, how cool can a lawyer be?] and made some granola.

My hero Mark Bittman did a homemade granola recipe recently and I cut it out but didn't try it right away thinking: come on, how great can it be for the trouble? Then one of the blogs I read wrote about this exact thing. And she tried the granola recipe and proceeded to eat nothing else for days.

"Well, if it's that good," I thought. I finally got enough ingredients together and made it this afternoon and oof, it smells like heaven in a pan. I've tasted a few nuggets but I'm going to test it tonight for dessert with some yogurt. This may be a life-defining recipe.

I've seen daffodils around town and on the Portland Flickr Stream but this is the closest I have in my yard. The photo is crap because my hands were all yucky because I just emptied my compost bowl into the compost bin and I touched the slimy stuff in the bottom of the bowl to get it all in there. I couldn't hold the camera properly.

Yesterday I was at the downtown mall on my lunch hour. I find that I rarely take a real lunch. I always think I'll just leave early and then I don't leave early so I'm trying to get out of the office for a bit in the afternoon. I have an Ann Taylor gift certificate and I do this every freaking year: I wait until all the Spring stuff is out and I hate pastels and I hate capri pants. I don't mind if you like them and you wear them. For me, I hate them. Not negotiable. I found maybe one thing I sort of liked and I wasn't in the mood so I didn't even make it to the changing room.

While at the mall I heard this song and wanted to cover my ears. I guess it's an exaggeration to say The Waterboys is one of my favorite bands but I love their music and it always sounds good to me. This was a cover of "The Whole of the Moon" which is one of my favorite songs and it was being sung by what I refer to as a bleating pop singer. Who? Why? My iTunes store search (which I use for research but do not support because of DRM) says it's Mandy Moore. Why Mandy, why? You were so wonderful in that movie where you had cancer and made me weep but why sing this song?

My other topic has to do with The History Channel. I'm not one of those people who says they only watch TV if it's the Discovery Channel or the History Channel or something educational. I like shows with vampires, superheroes, pirates, dragons and especially all of those at the same time. But I read about this History Channel thing on The Dark Ages so I taped it and it was awesome. It's amazing how the decisions of one person had such incredible impact like old Clovis converting to Catholicism and poor Justinian "I just pulled the empire together and married an exotic dancer and now we all have the black plague". Great show.

For tonight, I have the DVD of The Science of Sleep directed by my hero Michel Gondry and starring the adorable Gael Garcia Bernal. I fell in love with it when I saw the trailer.