March Madness

Things have been busy around here. For one, I finished a most amazing book, What is the What, which I highly recommend. It just might change the way you think about the world, as it demonstrates quite explicitly that we are all connected. I think it also has given me a more enriched perspective into the lives of the African refugees with whom I'm working; though none of them are Sudanese, many spent years in the huge Kakuma camp in Kenya where Valentino lived for so long. This is the same camp, for instance, where one of the youngest gardeners, an 18 year old Somali Bantu man, was born, and where he managed a large market garden that was run entirely by children.

Which brings me to another topic - what IS the what? To try to figure it out, I've been doing lots of yoga, some chanting and lots of listening to the Tao. I made a sign by my desk at work: be a pattern for the world. Yes! I will be! Let me be a shrine of love, an alter of hope. Let me be a pattern for the world!

We're also been doing tons of bowling with our league. Very, very fun!!

Unfortunately it's too action packed and all the photos turn out blurry. You get the idea, though - Greg, Graham, me and Kat; tulsi tea; french fries.
And boy you should've seen Gahlord and Sara-Paule dancing at the Radio Bean a couple weeks ago before Louis's show! It was hands down the best dancing I've seen so far in 2008.


And now... to Easter Sunday... and WAFFLES!!! Yum, quite good with last summer's blueberries and a little maple sizurp.
The Chef



I am now considering this waffle and blueberry and sizurp meal to be a bit of a last supper, since yesterday, I saw my naturopathic doctor, and she had some bad albeit totally expected news - CANDIDA!! I know, I know, I have a yeast beast. I've had it for many, many years, and I have totally ignored it, except for when I've fed it whole batards, family-sized packages of gummy bears, entire batches of cookies, bags of tortilla chips and many, many ice cream cones.

Well, now I'm going to try to get rid of it forever, which involves eating no simple sugars of any kind, including fruit and high glycemic vegetables, and eating very little carbohydrates (1 pint of whole, boiled grain every other day), for as long as it takes for the beast to die. The candida, along with an extreme insulin sensitivity (which by the way is probably hereditary, Ms. M&M Drawer) and my multiple Poly-Cystic Ovary Syndrome-like symptoms, have been working together to prevent the absorption of minerals and protein, so I'm on pretty serious supplements, enzymes and anti-fungals. In other scary health news, my thyroid is "under functioning," something that hopefully will be reversed with the resolution of these other two/three things. On the plus side, my doc confirmed that I should indeed be a vegetarian and probably even a vegan, and that my Lyme Disease is totally gone, and that I should exercise like the horse I was in a previous life. One day in, and I must say - I feel pretty darn good!

So you're probably wondering, what does a low carb vegan eat for breakfast? Of course! Tofu and shitake stirfry with miso and a huge side of steamed kale with a lemon squeezed over it!!

Snack update: pecans, walnuts, pepitos, sunflower seeds and MORE KALE!