I'm heading to the doctor on Thursday for my knee. I'm hoping that he will be able to tell me why I'm in ever-lovin' agony going down stairs, going up stairs, sitting in a chair, not sitting in a chair, breathing, walking upright, that kind of thing. If there's one thing I hate, it's inconclusive doctor visits. I've had too many 'well, let's just wait and see on this one' appointments. I realize making a diagnosis takes time but Jesus H, I took a 3 hour lunch just to be here. Break me off with the Patellar Subluxation and let's get on with it.

In the mean time, I've busied myself with all variety of Exciting projects. Let me tell you. The first being the New Diet. After Martin and I came back from Whistler, where we had eaten our weight in bagels and Guinness*, we made a pact of sorts to eat better for a while, a week or two, just to even things out. Get back to basics so to speak. We've all read about Martin's feelings on keeping it below 180. And in general my fondness for being able to fit inside the house. So it didn't seem like a bad idea at the time. We decided to cut out cheese, bad carbs (rice, crackers, white bread, etc), sugar (in the form of pints of ice cream Martin likes to hoover apres dinner) and alcohol. We also tried to be mindful of portion-size, at least during the day at work, when Martin has been known to eat 4 yogurts, 6 bagels, half a jar of peanut butter, 2 protein bars & 3 Odwalla juices before lunch. It's been tricky all week making dinners that conform to these rules, provide enough protein and fiber yet still let me get my buzz on. I'll admit, it was incredibly hard not to drink this week. It was a tough week in many respects and I did have wine two nights and sake on Sunday. I also had a beer on Friday when Martin threw in the towel and ordered a pizza (now tell me, at that point, is it so wrong to drink a beer?) in which I promptly did damage control by making a kale and cabbage Roughage Bomb salad. I think I prefer notions to ultimatums. When you say I absolutely can't have something, I kinda want it. I've made dishes with bulghur, red lentils, I even attempted onion noodles. I heard the recipe on NPR. Of course, this French chef was making "No-Carbonara" with butter, cream, parmesan and bacon. And when you've got butter, cream, parmesan cheese and bacon, who gives shit about noodles anyway? But he made the noodles from from blanched onions. Long and stringy like noodles. No one ( I don't know who this 'no one' was) could tell the difference, they couldn't figure out it was onions. So I was intrigued, I wanted to give it a try. Many tears later, I had my onions in the steamer basket. I was to steam them until 'translucent yet al dente'. Easier said than done. I thought they were too crunchy but were indeed totally translucent.

Probably won't be making them again any time soon. At least not without the cream & bacon.