Abby's and Joe's Birthday weekend

At Gelato Mundo, where the men-folk gig out on Thursday nights.


The birthday girl with Sizzling Apple Pie a la mode


After seeing Dark Knight at the IMAX and indulging in Mexican

TLN OTM

The Mr loves using acronyms. HBEs (hard boiled eggs) in the morning. We live in PB (Pacific Beach). SDTs (sun-dried tomatoes) on our pizza.

I came up with a few of my own. Our abode is TLN (The Love Nest):


And you can find it OTM (on the mountain):


I did a little photo tour of TLN and you can check it out by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.

Sunset in La Jolla

Cooking with Gusto

As I have mentioned to many of you, my main job this summer is to cook dinner for my husband each night.  I find something to do with my day:  gym, yoga, beach, reading, doing classwork.  Then at around 3:30 or so I begin to plan out my culinary adventure for the evening.  We have both been enjoying this tremendously.

It took me a while to admit it, but I have been battling a chronic illness now since November.  It's IBS and nearly one in five Americans lives with it.  I wasn't sure what was going on for the longest time and even after a doctor gave me a preliminary diagnosis, I did not want to believe it was true.  It's diagnosed by ruling out other, more dangerous things.  If there is no sign of the scary stuff they just shrug their shoulders and say, maybe IBS?  And the worst part, besides never really knowing for sure what's going on, is that there is no known cure and you deal with it for life.  Mostly what it has meant for me is tummyaches everyday with varying levels on the pain spectrum.  Not fun.

About two weeks ago I was so frustrated I started trolling the internet for more information on web-boards to help me find some relief, either through lifestyle, diet or maybe herbal remedies.  I found information on all of these options.  But the single most helpful information I found was from a woman named Heather Van Vorous.   She had this great cheat sheet for basic dietary rules on her website and best of all:  a cookbook.  This woman has suffered with this illness for most of her young life (over 20 years) and has found ways to manage her symptoms mostly through diet.  In her own words: "Most typical American meals, whether home-cooked or in restaurants, were simply intolerable.  What I needed was a way to bridge the gap between knowing what to eat and how.  I wasn't about to sacrifice my health, nor was I willing to forego great food, so I had to find a way to create recipes that were both safe... and scrumptious."

Well, let me just say this has changed everything for me.  First of all, I can now manage most of my symptoms now, too.  I still try things on the no-no list because it's still hard to believe I can't continue living my life as I have for 30+ years.  I gave up coffee.  (COFFEE!!) And I have to say that it has been worth it.  I still drink caffeine but from Yerba Matte and Green Tea Lattes.  Second, I have to tell you, the recipes this woman has created are OUTSTANDING.  I have become a very good cook using the recipes in this little manual.  If you don't believe me, come over for dinner some time.

Last night we had leftover Vietnamese Lemongrass Ginger Chicken (which was almost better than the first time - and after the first time I told the Mr, "This is the best meal I have ever prepared.") with Rice Noodle Salad with Shrimp and Mango.  Today I made little pizzas with cherry tomatoes and tofutti cream cheese in the toaster oven (Amazing! - and my own interpretation of one of Heather's dishes) along with Smoky Sweet Potato Soup.  

So basically we are both in culinary heaven over here.  I love eating great food and knowing I will feel just fine for the rest of the day.  It's tremendous!  And the Mr sure enjoys all these homemade delicious delights.  I'll have to take some pictures of dishes next week.  They are divine.  And I mostly feel great these days.  I refer to Heather a lot in conversation about food.  As in, "This one is from Heather." Or "Heather recommended this."  Or "Heather said so."  If you hear about her in a later post, now you will know my new friend.

I wish you delicious meals eaten with great gusto wherever you are.  Bon Apetite!

Sightseeing

The Mr and I have had the opportunity to do some mid-week sightseeing.  There are some pics posted on the link at the bottom of the page.  Tuesday we went to Balboa Park.  Check out the album!  There's info in the captions.

FIRE

Over-achiever

I am also a student this summer.  I'm taking an online course in School Finance as part of Principal School.  I thought it would be a breeze.  And it could be.  If I weren't such a darned over-achiever.  

But I'm also sometimes a lazy over-achiever and I'm kicking myself for taking hours away from my weekend time with the Mr in order to finish the latest assignment on time.  It was an 8 page paper but mine was 15 pages.  It was interesting, but not as interesting as hanging out at a friend's pool which we didn't get to do since I had a deadline.

No more.  I'm doing the next assignment early and during the work week.

So, it's not all fun and games up here OTM.  We might still have enough evening time to go light a fire, though.  Not arson, it's recreation.  Apparently they have these things called "fire pits" around here and you can go light fires in them.  The Mr brought some wood back from his work site and I'm going to see what this fire thing is all about.

By the way, we saw Wall-e on Friday night.  It was cute but formulaic.  The animation, though, was pretty incredible.  Just wondering what anyone else thought...