Helloooooo, I’m back! Had to run down to Palm Desert to help out Mother of Carbzilla (MOC) who was in a big panic. Getting there and back was an adventure in itself (two hour delay getting there, canceled flight getting home), but I’m safely back in the dreary rainy PNW now.

The BEST part of the trip was that I got to hang out with Deb from SmoothieGirlEatsToo!She was kind enough to come out from LA, and we had some great meals and lots of laughs. She is just as warm, generous and genuine as everyone says. If I had a sister, I think she’d be Deb!

After strolling though the Palm Springs Art Museum, we had a terrific dinner at Johannes – a must if you’re in Palm Springs!We started with a raw brussels sprout salad that was very good – hadn’t thought to eat brussels sprouts raw but it worked! I had the Cheese Spaetzlen which was fabulous but really rich so I only ate half. Since my flight home was cancelled, we had another chance to meet up for lunch, and we went to a big favorite for us both, Native Foods!I had the nachos but everything there is DELICIOUS! Deb will report in on what she had, I’m sure, and my mom had the Portabello burger. We were so busy talking that I was very remiss on the food photos – it was way more fun to focus on the company!

Deb also came out to my mom’s one day, and we had lunch at Fisherman’s Market & Grill in Palm Desert. OMG – they have the BEST fish and shrimp tacos! Nothing like sitting out in the sun with fish tacos, cole slaw, and good company! It was a hard trip to come home from, let me tell you!

Undocumented: numerous trips to the awesome frozen yogurt places that are all over the desert! (It’s 100 degrees, after all) Seattle just doesn’t have those pay-by-the-ounce, add-your-own-toppings places like they do down there. (Um, maybe because it’s still 63 degrees and it’s JUNE!)

Let’s see…on this trip I also had Chicken Pasta Primavera, Korean BBQ, Amy’s Pizza, Carrot Cake, In & Out Burger (YUCK – what’s up with the fans of this place?), and my all-time fave, El Pollo Loco. So sad they’re not in Washington!

Needless to say, the scale was not my friend this morning, but I consider it a blip in the road that was well worth it. My mom and I really connect over food, so be it.

A million thanks to the amazing Deb who made the trip extra fun! I see many meet-ups in our future! Can’t wait to meet Derek!

And now back to my regularly scheduled life …

As we make our way back to “normal” around here, we’ve begun to notice that Summer is slowly creeping in. Finally!

We’ve had some good progress in the garden:We harvested a fat handful of yellow snap peas, and, even better, a large plateful of garlic scapes:

Browned with butter, sherry and Hawaiian sea salt - HEAVEN!

We’d never eaten scapes before, and they were delicious. Very mild in flavor – like a garlic-flavored asparagus. Can you really go wrong with anything that’s been sautéed in butter?

Our future crop will be potatoes:

Chris planted them in recycled Theo Chocolate organic cocoa bean bags ($2 each) along the side of the house where they’ll get great sun. We got this snappy planting trick from the amazing Annette from Sustainable Eats.

Our blueberries are also doing well, and we expect lots of fruit from them. What’s not doing well AT ALL is our raspberries. Good thing we get invited to a large raspberry picking party every year, because it’s literally gonna be slim pickens over here.

I’ve been terrible about photographing my food but I did make this last night:It’s a grilled Portabella with chicken, couscous, and a little parmesan cheese mixed together. I then baked it at 375 degrees for 20 mins. They were delicious and very versatile – leave out the chicken, and it’s vegetarian! Change up the spices and the meat, and it can go Italian or Mexican. In any case, they were super easy which is the name of the game these days.

Our little patient is hanging in there. Here he is post-shave. If you’ve never seen a shaved Maine Coon, you’re in for a good laugh. We wouldn’t have put him through the stress if we didn’t know he loved it so much. PS. When your vet insists on vaccinating a cat who’s in heart failure, adamantly tell them NO! That’s the Reader’s Digest version.I’m off for a quick trip to take care of some family business. When I get back, it will be all about taking inspiration from those of you who hit your workouts hard!

Are you feeling Summer yet?

For you weather nerds, Seattle has set a new record for itself by going the farthest into the year without hitting 75 degrees. That must seem strange to those of you who have been sweltering for weeks. Fortunately, the sun is out in full force today and to “sweeten” the day, I’ve won my second giveaway ever! Whoohooo!I won Allie’s NuNaturals Stevia giveaway! I have to say it takes very little to cheer me up, and this absolutely made my day. Dork much?

Once things have settled down around here, I plan on hitting the weights again and trying out some new recipes so the Stevia will come in handy! If you missed it, I’ve lost 17 lbs since Jan ’09 (I’m more than halfway to goal. A goal I’ve been at twice before, for the record) through clean eating and following a low-sugar, low-carb plan (Belly Fat Cure), but I have to admit that I’ve been really slacking off in the workout department. I just have to take care of one more piece of business, and then I’ll have my time back to myself to get on that.

Thanks Allie!

Happy weekend everybody!

Does it take much to bring a smile to your face?

Where’ve you been, Carbzilla? Probably a pretty popular question among my four faithful followers (I’m kidding. I know there are at least 10 of you out there).

I’ve been at Sea. Literally and figuratively.

Let’s go with the literal first:

After a drizzly morning of beachcombing:

How cool is that crane just hanging out?

We headed a bit north for a very cool adventure:

Ahoy!

Chris had planned a Tall Ship Cannon Battle excursion for us while our nephew was visiting! Washington State has two Tall Ship replicas (the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain), and they take passengers out and shoot off cannons. It’s an 11 year-old’s dream voyage! It was very cool to see how the sailing rigging operates and how the crew works together to get it all going – hoisting the sails,  calling out instructions, etc. (The ships are also under motor power so there’s no chance of getting caught with no wind. I believe that’s called Dead Calm, but that may just be a Nicole Kidman movie if the internets have the final word on the subject.)

As one would imagine, the pace can get a little slow on 18th and 19th century battleships. Fortunately, while we weren’t looking, the Captain had decided to play a little game with our nephew and his new friend (isn’t it amazing how kids just make friends wherever they go? Oh wait. I still do that).Each boy had a string from wrist to wrist but one string had been passed though the other and then secured so the boys were essentially tied together. They were told they had to figure out how to get undone without cutting the string. I believe they were also told they didn’t have to lift their feet or go up and over each other’s head. But, believe me, that didn’t stop them. To say that hilarity ensued is like saying Johnny Depp has had a wee bit of success with the Pirate movies.

I thought I was gonna wet my knickers I was laughing to hard. They tried everything. At one point, my nephew had to take a break so he could “brainstorm.” OMG, they were so funny. Best shipboard entertainment ever!The Captain finally had to show them how it was done after they’d threatened to kill each other, jump overboard, etc. Whatever anyone does when the tension and frustration get too high. The solution is a bit complicated, but I can’t give it away – mostly because I don’t really remember.

Good times.

I didn’t photograph my eats for the weekend, but I did pretty well. I did split fish and chips with my nephew, and it was incredible. I love that big flaky cod, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve eaten something fried. We had hot Krispie Kreme donuts at the house, and I managed to stay far away from those. All in all, we ate pretty well considering we were kinda “on vacation” too.

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Personally, I’ve been a bit of rough waters here. Not only did I lose my job, but then my employer appealed my unemployment benefits. I believe we call that “adding insult to injury” though that’s not the legal term. I was about to learn all sorts of legal terms from my new lawyer. Hooray! I’m officially an adult! I’ve had to hire a lawyer!

It was the most stressful week of my life as I prepared testimony for my phone hearing. I secured a lawyer the Friday of Memorial Day weekend at 4:30 pm, and even though she was out of town the entire week between the time I hired her and the day before my hearing, we made it work. I was out of my body with stress the day of the hearing – I had slept one hour, my palms were sweating, I was having delusions that this was all a bad dream….it might have been the scariest day of my life so far.

And then, my former boss was a no show. She never called in. I sat there listening to a silent line, while the judge also waited, thinking that any minute she would announce herself and we’d be off and running for an hour of stressful testimony. It was the longest ten minutes of my life. Suddenly, the judge ruled in my favor, and we were done. I bubbled with tears when I called Chris. I needed sleep. I needed to calm my body down. I needed this to be over so that I could move on.

A few days prior to my hearing, Derby, our big cat, started coughing and was having trouble breathing. I took him to the vet, and she believed he was in heart failure. Who would have thought a vet visit could cost more than a lawyer, but it did. With medication and a shot of something, Derby was feeling much better, and I told him he was not allowed to die this week. I really could only take so much, and I already felt that I was falling into an abyss. The prognosis is a bit undetermined, but we’re not paying an arm and leg to tell us what we already know: he’s had a heart condition since he was about 3, and we knew his life would be shortened by it. He’s 10 now and has had a great life. Every day with him from here on out is a gift.Is there any good news? It’s a small token, but in the last few weeks I’ve rapidly lost weight so that my total loss since January 2009 is 20 lbs. I don’t know how it happened (because I haven’t exercised in over two months), but I might have gone into hyperthyroidism which is not necessarily a good thing. In any case, now is the time for regrouping and regaining stability and strength.

Both literally and figuratively.

Thanks a million to all my blog/Twitter friends who’ve been so supportive over the last few weeks. Words cannot express how much I appreciate all the best wishes you sent my way. Your kind words  and encouragement made all the difference.