Some relatively interesting things have happened.  I’ve started aching all over.  Not like I’m sore from exercise (I am decidedly not) and not quite like aching like the flu.  The only thing that I can think of that comes close is the way I felt when I had to take vocodin for two weeks after a surgery.  By the second week, I’d wake up from a drug-induced sleep and feel achy and as though I wanted to stretch out of my skin.  It feels like that now.  Not excruciatingly painful (I’m able to work just fine), but it is uncomfortable and makes it hard to sleep.  Which, ironically, is all I really want to do.

Other people who have done this have told me that days two three and four are the hardest.  I am hoping that holds true for me as well.

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I made another food discovery today.  Avocado.  Oh my lord are those things delicious!  I took another box of quinoa and mung beans (bleh) for lunch yesterday but I also took a perfectly ripe avocado and a tomato from our garden and added them.  The quinoa and mung beans worked nicely for bulk (they are almost flavorless, despite having added four or five times the amount of spice I would have normally added – ahhh the power of salt!) and the avocado satisfied my want to eat something.  I did miss adding salt, but the little green fruit proved to be quite tasty on her own and I am grateful.  Both that I decided to eat one yesterday and that I bought a bag of four.  The Farmer’s Market near work is tomorrow and I think getting ingredients to make guacamole is in order.  If only there were chips.  I wonder what happens when you dry out boiled mung beans in the oven…

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The crabbiness factor has gone down a bit, although this morning I walked into a door jamb in my sleepiness and seriously considered driving my fist into it for a split second.  Fortunately, I haven’t felt this same hostility toward other people.  At work in the evening, I actually found myself in a fairly good mood and wanting to be social, which was a surprise.  I was expecting this process to make me more hermit-like, but weird muscle cramping aside, so far I seem pretty happy.

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Onward to day three.  I’m very curious about the weekend and what will happen when I don’t have the built in distraction of 10 hours a day at work.

Until tomorrow.

Cheers.

*This is 110% Modern Jackass, but I’ve been wondering if the pain is being caused by the lack of salt in what I’m eating.  It doesn’t seem highly likely that it would be so bad so quickly, but then, who knows.  Salt is the one thing I really don’t worry about eating, because I have low blood pressure.  I don’t think I eat excessive amounts of salt (my husband would probably disagree), but I don’t skip it if I want it.  My step-mother had to go through dialysis (here comes the Modern Jackass part!) and would cramp, especially in her legs, during treatment.  The remedy was to put salt back into her body.  Completely ridiculous self-diagnosis, but it’s the only thing I can think of for the way I’m feeling.

Hey there! I’m in Abu Dhabi, UAE until October 28, working at the 3rd annual Middle East International Film Festival. While I’m away, I don’t plan on doing much cooking (there’s a hot plate in the hotel room with me, but not much aside from that), but I do plan on documenting some of the foods I find here. So far I’ve found this wonderful milk substitute pictured above to go with my instant Nescafe, something called “special local meat sausage” and “veal bacon,” along with a slew of absolutely delicious foods that our crew was treated to a couple of nights ago by ADACH, the festival’s parent organization. The UAE celebrates Ramadan, which is in full swing, and the daily fast is broken every night with a meal called Iftar, right after sun down prayer. The Iftar we attended was at the Emirates Palace Hotel (which will also be a film festival venue) and featured an overwhelming number of beautiful dishes – unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera! But I have no doubt that much more is coming our way in the next 7 weeks, so I’ll put as much up here as I can.

If you just can’t get enough of me, feel free to follow my travel/work blog. I’m going to miss Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks for October (but not September – I managed to get both in before I left – hooray!), which is a bummer but I’m looking forward to November when I can be with all the daring lovelies once again.

Cheers!

I love this Improv Everywhere project. It follows all the key baking-ninja guidelines – make people happy, do it for cheap and have a good time while you’re doing it.

Cheers.

Registration now open!

The Invitational lands in downtown Los Angeles, CA on April 25, 2009!
Los Angeles State Historic Park
1245 N. Spring Street Los Angeles, CA 90012
12:00pm – 6:00pm
Competition starts at 1:00pm
Admission Fee: $5. Competition Fee: $10

See you there?

Cheers.

*Thanks to the 99 Cent Chef for posting this piece of awesomenicity!

Cheers.