Table

Check out my once basketball court and future table!!!!

So Pretty.

Eben Barnett Carlson

Me and my dad. (I was 14 months and too cute for words).

Maybe 1996ish?

Self portrait during his dead fly and rotted cantelope phase. This picture only included an apple.

I dreamt about my dad last night. I love dreaming about dad and I wish it happened much more frequently. When I dream about my dad I have him back, maybe for only a bit, but he's there I can see him and talk to him. And, of course, in real life I can't do that. When I wake up after these dreams I feel a mixture of happy and kind of melancholy.

A couple of my friends have had parents die in the last month. I will be going to my second funeral in a month this week. Maybe that is why I have been thinking about my dad. I have not been to any funerals since my dad died. Actually, I did not really goto a funeral when my dad died. My family or my dad's family doesn't really do funerals. My dad actually wrote in his will that he did not want a funeral of any kind. In the end we threw a party for him then later had a much smaller get together of family when we 'buried' his ashes. We all thought, even given the interdiction, my dad would have been tickled pink about the party and the stories.

I don't think about my dad all the time, but when I do, I really just want to be able to talk to him. There are so many things about my life I would like to share with him. Otto, he would love Otto. When I was growing up I had a dog named Nellie. When I went to college Nellie kind of became my dad's dog. Nellie adored my dad. She went every where with him - even walking him to the bus stop every morning (which involved crossing a really really busy street by herself on the way home). I would love to discuss my work with my dad. My dad was an attorney and would probably have some good insight into the world of investigations. My dad always told me not to become any attorney, but he might like investigations. What would he think about Obama? The Iraq war - the only time my dad and I ever disagreed on politics was about the first Iraq war, he thought Sadam was evil, like a Hitler and needed to be removed.

My dad was super crazy smart (he spent his friday evenings discussing physics for fun), funny, lazy (that's where I get my ability to sit around and read a book rather than cleaning a really messy house), a bit of a slob (ditto), kind, terrible with his own finances, a scratch golfer, a great photographer (he took the picture of himself), and a great friend. He may not have been great sharing his feelings, but I know he loved me and my brother and sister more than he could ever express. I saw it sometimes. He died 9 year ago on November 9th. He was 61 when he died, one year older than he ever thought he'd be.

I love you dad!

Hood Canal in the Fall

A day in the life with no wheat, dairy, or sugar.

So somehow I find myself two weeks into a two month period with no wheat, no dairy and no sugar. I went to see a naturopathic doctor a few months ago to get rid of some stomach issues I have had forever. Tests to see if I was sensitive to wheat or dairy proved inconclusive, so now we're 'cleaning up my digestion'. That seems to involve giving up just about everything I used to eat.

And it's a little strange.

First we wanted to see if I was sensitive to wheat, so I didn't eat it for two weeks. That was pretty easy. I have given up wheat before. You can still eat all kinds of nice things like chocolate, palak paneer without the naan (I love palak paneer), roasted vegetable quesdillas without the quesdillas - okay that's just roasted veggies, but with cheese and sour cream who can complain. So really it wasn't bad. There are plenty of comfort food, bad for you items in a wheat free world. Plus, I could drink, well wine anyhow.

Next, I gave up dairy for two weeks. My doctor wanted it to be absolutely pure, so I couldn't even eat things that were produced in a factory with dairy (mind you, there are a lot of 'vegan' items produced in factories with dairy products or with 'trace' amounts of dairy - pretty much anything chocolate). Now in my old world, dairy was pretty much my number one protein source morning noon and night. To say I ate a lot of dairy was an understatement. That last time I went to a naturopath (mid 90s maybe) he suggested I use the 'blood type' diet. I am B+ and according to the blood type folks, B+ needs to eat dairy. So I always figured dairy was my food, I needed to eat it and a lot of it. So, giving up dairy was huge. I do realize there are lots of vegans in the world, but I had never even considered it. What was my new vice? Well, there were some rather tasty vegan cookies that they sold at work. I started eating a lot of potato chips. Really, the very saddest part was that I could find no chocolate to eat!

But that was the old world - just no wheat or just no dairy. I was living large. Now what is there? I'm pretty much left out of any comfort food, junk food game. Plus, it seems that alcohol is all sugar, so really I'm not supposed to drink much of it. (I think there are a lot of things that are 'all sugar' some of which I may be eating, but I have decided not to explore that too fully.)

So what do I eat? Today I had quinoa and eggs for breakfast. Rice cakes and PB for snack. A big salad with lots of veggies and some canned salmon plus some rice for lunch. A pear. A hemp protein shake, some gluten free crackers with PB, and some squash soup for dinner. Tasty huh?

So, crazy things about not eating wheat, dairy and sugar. Anything slightly 'sugary' is SO SWEET. I had a juice last night and it was like I was eating super sweet ice cream with chocolate sauce. Really, it was too sweet. I couldn't drink it. The only juice I really like now is grapefruit juice. What else? I'm skinny. I've lost about 5 pounds in two weeks and I eat ALL THE TIME. I eat lots of fat. It doesn't matter. At least for now, my digestion seems super sized. Maybe that will change, but at the moment I have pulled out all my super skinny clothes. And the final thing, is socializing. It's hard, you really have to think about and plan any outing involving food. I can't even imagine going to some one's house to eat, because I would be so annoying. At the moment, I pretty much just eat before I go out. Restaurants? Kind of scary because I'm never sure what is in what I am eating.

So six more weeks. We'll see how it goes. Will I waste away to nothing? Will chocolate chip cookies be too sweet and I'll never want to eat them again (chocolate chip cookies are my number one favorite food group). Will my stomach never hurt again? Will I ever be able to go on a date without my date thinking I'm a crazy person?

I'll keep you posted.

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Nothing

Daisy and boot.

Daisy and boot in formation.

Otto unsure of boot.

Otto: "Why is this happening? Save me?"

So today we're going to talk about, well, nothing. So here's the deal. I have been trying without success for the last couple days to find a new blog topic. I could talk about politics or the economy, but:

a. NPR has been pledge driving, so I may not be cutting edge in my political knowledge.
b. I am sick to death of the presidential election.
c. the economy is so terrifying at the moment, who can think or talk about it, or even fathom it is really happening.

I could talk about my social life, but you don't want to hear about that. Well maybe you do, but since it only seems to oscillate from boring to stupid and back, I certainly will not be blessing the internet with those tales.

I could talk about how incredibly hard my crossfit class was tonight, but I've already talked about that way too much. Plus, the class was too complicated to explain.

Or, I guess I could talk about Otto and Daisy, but although I find them infinitely entertaining, my audience may not.

So, you may get the chance to explore all the above in the future, but at the moment I am going to talk about nothing of importance, also known as 'my new boots'.

I decided a few months ago, that for fall/winter this year I needed a pair of black boots that I could wear with the fun socks that are all the rage these days (nothing better than a good pair of socks). I have been looking endlessly and really wasn't happy with any of my choices. They needed to be flat and most importantly they needed to be calf length. I found one super extra perfect pair at Nordstrom that may have been Chanel or something, but they were $1200!! Anytime I mentioned my quest to a sales associate they proceeded to walk me around the floor showing me boots I wouldn't be caught dead in.

Well, (on the edge of your chairs yet) I found them! I had to drive the sales associate crazy trying them on about 500 times, but they're kind of exactly what I was looking for. Get this, I think I have worn them more than my clogs since I got them. Is that possible? So, this is really a happy/feel good/happily ever after story to get you through these dismal economic times.

There is one sad spot in this happy tale. I have yet to get a compliment on my boots. Okay, I got one, but it was from someone with no taste, so it doesn't count. I guess it's possible no one but me likes my boots and my crazy socks, but that's okay. Everyone else is just wrong!

Is it a basketball court? Or a desk?

Basketball flooring for sale (no I didnt get the S)

My future desk, pretty huh?

With the help of some gentle nudging from some friends and acquaintances I have come up with the (possibly) brilliant idea to make a desk from an old basketball court. Well, the idea (not mine) was first to build/buy a desk for my kitchen to replace the large Ikea cabinet that is currently there. There never was a great place for the desk in my back bedroom and now that I'm wifi, I can have my computer anywhere. Then, I some how brilliantly got the idea to go to Earthwise Salvage to see what I could find that might become a desk. As I was heading off the Earthwise, I suddenly remembered that my friend Amy has a table someone made for her from a piece of Leilani Lanes (yes the bowling alley). So when I got to Earthwise and saw basketball flooring right in front of me, it seemed like fate. I'll keep you apprised on desk developments. I'm not usually so out of the box!