Belated Friday five.

 

I think we're gonna need a bigger grill

Five things I have recently done with an abundance of suburban house-sitting zucchini, in no particular order:

• Buckwheat zucchini bread.  (I subbed sorghum flour - my new favorite flour! - for AP flour.)  Due to the aforementioned abundance of zucchini, we've tried numerous variations on this recipe, including muffins instead of loaf bread, subbing mashed banana for applesauce, adding currants, adding dark chocolate chips and walnuts.  It's BREAD THAT I CAN EAT (!) and I can't complain about any of it, although I lean less toward the currants and more toward the dark chocolate chips and walnuts.  But it's really alllll good and I will happily eat the currant muffins tomorrow morning.
• Zucchini bread with chocolate chips.  As much as I wanted to love this recipe, it was only good when compared to the above recipe.  To be fair, it could be that I used sorghum flour for the almond flour.  But we are still enjoying the leftovers of this too.
• Zucchini cakes.  At first I thought this was actual cake and I got very excited.  Upon reading the recipe one evening I realized it was a breakfast thing, so we tried it... twice... and it was good, but not something I would make if I didn't have an abundance of zucchini on hand.  Don't skimp on the dill and salt the zucchini for a good half hour before embarking upon this one.
  
  
  
• Stuffed zucchini with tomatoes and mozzarella.  O. M. G.  So tasty.  So. Tasty.
• Grilled zucchini. I can't believe there are actual recipes for this.  I mean, you just slice it, throw it on the grill and enjoy.  Who really needs a recipe for that?

I miss that Weber

I ate bread, and it was OK. And then it wasn't OK.

It's been about eight weeks since I started my potato-free, wheat-free, no-dairy-plus-grains adventure.  Other than occasional memory lapses, I've committed wholeheartedly to the diet.  I just feel so great, why wouldn't I?  (Although I still have zero energy where running is concerned... frustrating.)

Wednesday night we cashed in our 2-for-1 Chinook Book coupon for the Oregon Culinary Institute.  Their motto is "Training Kitchen Ninjas"; more fitting might be "Training Tattooed Hipsters"... but whatevs.  I'd been once before and had a great experience, so I checked the menu last week, verified that it seemed mostly safe, and reserved a table for their fixed price 4-course dinner.

And then the night came.  We were celebrating. I was weak.  (I miss bread.)  I was also experimenting a bit - maybe now that my system is happy, a little indulgence would be OK? 

It was a good lesson.  And a fantastic meal as well.

All I have to say about the starter is this:  whoever decided that speck ham and peaches were a perfect pair should be the next president. 

grilled speck ham wrapped peach, 

 flageolet bean fritters with calabrian chili aioli

Well, maybe that's not all I have to say about the starter.  The peaches melted in your mouth, and the salty/sweet combo was wonderful.  The bean fritters (what I should not have eaten, exhibit A) were quite tasty too, although the aioli was a bit too creamy or oily - we couldn't decide which.  For the record, I only had a tiny taste of the fritters.

Next up: salads.  And what I should not have eaten, exhibit B.

salads of arugula and fennel, summer greens with figs
... and that darned bread

 
in addition to learning that I need to stick to this diet, 

I also learned that I need more figs in my life

The tender figs in the salad were bursting with flavor and paired deliciously with the olives and other vegetables.  My arugula and fennel salad was bright and spicy.

In total I probably ate about a piece of that bread, breaking off little chunks at a time and eating lots of "me-friendly" food in between.  It was good, but it wasn't that good.  Not good enough to scrap eight weeks of progress.

sauteed salmon with sweet corn, chanterelles and bacon

grilled carleton farms pork chop with speck ham and roasted veggies

The salmon was pretty basic, but the pork chop was possibly the highlight of the evening.  Sorry, pigs, but it was a ham, bacon and pork chop kind of meal.  (Notice the lack of reference to "what I should not have eaten" here.  Ha!)

Maybe this is common in fancier restaurants or with fixed price meals, but I loved that there was no rice, no grains, no pasta - just meat and vegetables.  Simple, healthy, how food should be.

creme brulee and caramel nut tart

And for dessert, I planned to just try the caramel nut part of the tart and ended up eating half of the tart shell too (what I should not have eaten, exhibit C).  It was tasty, the whole cream ice cream was tasty, the creme brulee was tasty...  And I should not have eaten any of it in that combination.  Just the creme brulee or ice cream would've been fine, I think.

This was the point where I resigned myself to the forthcoming pain.  Oddly, it hit me about 16 hours later, instead of the usual four.  But it hit me hard, and lasted quite a while.

Which is not to say that I won't eat bread again. 

But it's going to have to be some pretty damn good bread.

Belated Saturday HOTD.

backyard picnic
followed by hammock nap...
suburbs could be worse

Eau d'suburbia.

lawns and dogs and flags
soccer moms and cul de sacs
and miles of long roads

hour plus commute
coupled with 9-9 work week
is quite exhausting

yes the bus ride sucks
but reading two whole chapters
almost compensates

after a week here
arcade fire's album now
makes a lot more sense

“Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”

So yeah, I watched Julie and Julia a few weeks ago.  Mostly for Meryl - god bless that woman, she is amazing - but also because of all this homemade DIY cooking I've been doing lately, and also because I've been on a "books about writing" kick so I thought I would change it up a little and watch a movie about writing (among other things)... And also because it just happened to be at the library one day a few weeks ago.  God bless the Multnomah County Library too, while I'm at it.

As expected, Amy Adams got on my nerves (I can never tell, is it her, her characters or a little of both?) but like Julia, "Julie" had some gusto.  Some real drive.  Over 500 recipes in just one year?  That trumps my 90-haikus-in-a-quarter project by a long shot.  (But who's counting?)  I was happy when she finished her last recipe.  And I wondered if, after that endeavor, she went back to life as usual - or did she embark upon a whole new crazy adventure?

I'm sure Wikipedia would have an answer but I honestly don't like her enough to look it up.  I do, however, associate with the soul-killing office job and the need to create and achieve and feel fulfilled outside of office hours.

I'm not sure how to best manifest this in my own personal life right now.  DIY food, cardmaking, reading, writing are all fun but time-consuming (and sometimes expensive).  By the time I get home, do some sort of exercise and eat, it's 9pm.  My spring chicken days of staying up past midnight and getting up at 6am are long gone.  And right now we are housesitting in suburbia, which means a much longer commute and housesitting duties like watering the beautiful garden that provides our dinner each night and spending hours and hours petting the adorable kitteh.

 

beautiful garden that provides our dinner each night

 

adorable kitteh

Rough life, I know, but I have even less time for time-consuming activities.  So for now, I bide my cubeland hours and work on Plan B.

And while I'm doing that, I watch the sunset.

Can you see the sunset real good on the West side?
You can see it on the East side too.

Thank you, lady who blocked the intersection as the light turned red and I started to cross the street.

really amazing
how your heartfelt "i'm sorry"
turned ire into calm

(File under: and I'm not being sarcastic.)

"Sounds efficient." Indeed.

forms in triplicate
same question answered ten times
lather rinse repeat

Backpacking menu.

Dinner, night one:
- reheated black eyed peas, zucchini with spices, salami

eaten with a spork, of course!

- Dagoba chocolate bar with Justin's peanut butter (so backpacker-friendly!)
- Pendleton whiskey in Mr Flask
- Bandit wine (so backpacker-friendly!)

Breakfast, day two:
- coffee
- oatmeal with Trader Joe's dried cranberries and vacuum fried bananas (which reconstitute nicely, turns out!)

Five-turned-ten hour hike snacking:
- Trader Joe's dried plantain chips
- aforementioned trail mix bars
- rice cakes with Justin's peanut butter
- Spanish mix from Whole Foods (our pantry is never without these days)
- Cost Plus mini sausages (really gross if you actually think about them, but so tasty)

Dinner, night two:
- see Dinner, night one

the usual suspects getting into the wine

- ginger tea


Breakfast, day three:
- see Breakfast, day two

All in all, not much prep work and plenty of sustenance for the three hour tour... I mean, 10 hour hike... on Saturday.  And no tummy issues.  Win win!

Want. Comfort. Food.

And thus begins the TMI portion of this post.

It seems inhumane that I should be denied gooey, warm, doughy pizza whilst enduring a sinus infection and the early signs of PMS.  But I guess this is my fate.  I've never been one for chocolate, really, but dark chocolate and peanut butter it is tonight.  Along with a screening of Julie and Julia.

And thus ends the TMI portion of this post.

So far so good, otherwise.  I've managed to stick to the foods I can eat, remember the separation of grain and dairy, and enjoy some delicious indulgences...

U-Pick berrypallooza

... a lovely raw meal at Blossoming Lotus on Sunday evening...

walnut pizza crust and cashew "cheese" - soooo delicious

followed by a wonderful tofu/quinoa dish and walnut falafel

and ending with me-friendly pecan pie

 
... and a delicious walnut banana pancake concoction on Sunday morning.  Must get that recipe.

I've also been inspired to make my own almond and coconut milk, since the store-bought variety contains Vitamin A Palmitate and various other bad-for-me things.  (Links are more complicated than the recipes I actually used - which just included soaking almonds/coconut overnight and blending with water, which turned out perfectly sweet on their own - but I'm dying to mix in cinnamon, vanilla and dates to see how that changes the flavor.)  And kale chips!  Six dollars at the farmer's market?  Pshhaw.

Who knew this could be so easy and so very delicious?  Well, I do and now you do. 

I have to say, between the whole milk, whole yogurt, whole cheese and all these nuts I will gain 874 pounds on this endeavor, but dammit, it will be worth it.

Kinda sorta like the Regal Beagle Larry. Only not at all.

I don't think I've mentioned Larry yet.

You may or may not know that about two years ago, I got hit by a taxi in Buenos Aires.  Nothing was broken but a lot of my left side was bruised and damaged from the incident.  When I got back to Portland I didn't have a job right away so I spent about $1000 of uninsured cash on acupuncture, and by the time I was insured I was still hurting but I found a wonderful chiropractor who healed me for a few weeks at a time.  At that point I was also suffering tension headaches from staring at a computer screen all day, and from sitting all day.

A few weeks ago my naturopath recommended that I get an appointment with Larry, teller of awful jokes.  Really awful jokes, she insisted.  Really, really awful - because he would hurt me so good, and telling really bad jokes was his way of distracting from the pain.  She alleged that Larry, who did not take my insurance, would fix me in one visit.  She also recommended another coworker of hers who would fix me and might take my insurance, but it would take a few visits. 

I resisted for a week.  I liked my chiropractor a lot, he seemed to get me, he got the issues I was having and he relieved them on a temporary basis.  But when I went back to my naturopath to have my food intolerance and other lab tests done, I'd been having chronic shoulder pain for a few months in addition to all the other back pain.  Larry had an opening the next day.  Which was, apparently, unheard of.  And I'd gotten to the point where I said to myself, "holy *&$% , you're 37, could you just accept a little help on this already?"

So I sucked up the cost and hopped on the chance.  I even went to my appointment prepared with a good bad joke from PIC to share with Larry - "a rabbi, a priest and a penguin go into a bar - the bartender says, 'what is this, a joke?'" ba dum bum.

Within 5 minutes of meeting Larry the next morning, I was dubious.  Whereas my naturopath spent about an hour with me on my first visit, questioning every single issue/habit/ritual/food I put into my body/family history, Larry literally watched me walk into his office and diagnosed me on the spot.  He didn't ask any questions.  ANY.  As far as I know he didn't even read my medical history to know about my taxi incident.  But he immediately knew that my entire left side was damaged, and he got to work.

An hour later I walked out feeling better but still dubious.  Larry had given me a great PT workout, stretching and working parts of me I didn't know needed stretching and working.  But when we were done, I asked about a follow up appointment or stretches or anything I should do to keep on with the healing.  He said, "just move."  Really.  That's all he said. I was seriously thinking I'd wasted my money.

The next day I barely felt any twinges of what had been plaguing me for months.

Three weeks later, after regular but small bouts of running and regularly hiking and walking whenever possible, I basically still feel no pain.

I will never doubt alternative medicine again.  It's not for everyone, and surely you've got to find your groove, but once you do, I doubt you will go back.

Gluten- and potato-free carb loading?

With this new low-carb-ish diet, one thing I do wonder about is exercise.  About a year ago I ran a half-marathon and was training to run Hood to Coast.  For the past few weeks I've barely been able to do a few laps around the local park without getting tired and out of breath.  A few miles into the 5-mile hike on July 4th, and my leg muscles were tired and achy.  This morning's 3-ish mile hike required a mid-afternoon nap.  (Granted, it's bloody hot in Portland right now, which isn't helping either.)

Bars and Gu and loads of pasta helped with all that running.  Obviously, that's not really an option now.

It's been pretty frustrating.  I know that my body is adjusting to the new food routine and that there are a myriad of other ways I can get carbs and find the energy to run.  We did try some delicious trail mix bars this morning on the hike (with dark chocolate instead of milk, of course), and Lundberg rice cakes with peanut butter are my new favorite snack. 

But with everything else I have to think about, that just feels like one more thing right now...  Patience patience patience.  

Belated Friday five.

Five foods I can eat!  In no particular order:

• Zucchini shredded into "pasta" strands with soy curls, ricotta cheese and arugula pesto
  
  
  
• Mashed, spiced strawberries and rice granola
  
  
  
• Hard boiled egg salad with toasted pecans, bacon and homemade bleu cheese dressing (subbing Vegenaise for mayo and strained plain yogurt for sour cream)
  
  
  
• Blackberry and basil smoothies
  
  
  
• Pear and pecan salad with bacon and the aforementioned homemade bleu cheese dressing, with ginger beer in celebratory champagne glasses - because, hey, why not?
  
  
  

One day I will get tired of bacon.  Today was not that day.

Not even close to Wednesday three.

Three questions I'm tired of answering in response to my food intolerance, in no particular order:

• "What's in it?"
• "Jeez, why are so many people gluten intolerant now?" 
•  "Aw, so no more cookies?"

(The last two would be totally valid questions if they weren't uttered in a disgusted, unsympathetic way.)

And my answers, respectively:

• This is a question I ask myself about almost everything I eat right now.  I am tired of hearing myself ask it, no matter how good I feel.  Because inevitably it's something I really want to eat but there is something in "it" that I shouldn't eat - case in point, peanut sauce yesterday at the sushi restaurant.  We didn't even ask, mainly because I wasn't too sure how accurate the answer would be, so I just enjoyed the veggie roll without delicious peanut sauce or soy sauce.  This too shall pass (patience patience patience).
• "Because there is no food in our food."  This is not some trendy Portland thing.  My general health over the last few weeks is testimony to that.  My theory on the increase in symptomatic people, after trolling the internet for the past few weeks for information and recipes, is that many people are intolerant to potato, gluten, corn, dairy, you name it... but modern medicine can't diagnose it.  A regular doctor might give a food allergy test but this wouldn't identify intolerance per se, just things that make you swell up and/or die if you eat them.  And why are we intolerant to all of these things?  Because we've spent a century eating processed crap and fast food.  I recently watched a documentary on diabetics who went on a 30 day raw diet and almost all of them were able to go off their insulin.  That's insane to me.  And the more people identify their food intolerances successfully through non-western means, the more other people go to naturopaths for relief. 
• "You want delicious cookies?  Learn how to bake."  I also got this question the last time I quit my job, and this was my answer then too.  In all seriousness though, there are yummy treats I can still eat, but I still love to bake and baking gluten-filled sugary goodness takes less effort (and cash) sometimes.  So yes, I will still bake. 

I suppose I shouldn't complain too much though.  Because this is still new to me, I initiate or instigate many of these conversations, so as soon as I get tired of talking about it I'll stop having to answer the questions.  Patience patience patience.

I need a modified V-chip.

Did I mention no grain + dairy within 4 hours?

D'oh.  Or duh.

Pretty sure the reason I felt crappy yesterday was the yogurt and me-friendly granola.  The reason I felt a little crappy this evening was the cheese and me-friendly crackers.

I'm trying not to feel defeated.  Really, I'm trying.  But I'm sad again.  I was so excited to find granola I could eat, crackers I could eat.  I forgot the combo part. 

But - beets and greens and walnuts and goat cheese?  Fine!  Pesto and turkey meatballs and spaghetti squash?  Fine!  (I {heart} spaghetti squash - I actually just did a little dance thinking about pesto and spaghetti squash.)  Strawberries and me-friendly granola?  Fine!

Until I get in the habit, though, if I could just get a short shock every time I think "me-friendly" means I can eat it with whatever, that would be great.  Can someone hook me up?

In the meantime I'll just keep eating lots and lots of bacon.

Whiskey is fine. Something else, not so fine.

Currently on day 7 of this adventure.  I can't believe how fine I've felt.  It's been a bit disorienting, actually, waking up in the morning really ready to face the day.  I'm trying not to be sad with all the time I've lost feeling crappy.

I've confirmed that whiskey is fine (hooray!), and trace amounts of iodized salt in peanut butter and Earth Balance butter are fine (double hooray!  or the other hooray around).  In the last few days PIC and I have spent lots of time in grocery stores reading labels.  It's both informational and time-consuming, and has led to several results that have made me very happy:

• actual rice cakes (that have no wheat or potato) and peanut butter as dinner on Friday
• Mary's Gone Crackers crackers that I can eat with whole milk cheese 
• quinoa pasta that was awesome with some leftover pesto
• and lots of obvious choices of fresh fruits, veggies, and whole milk dairy products

And several results that have made me sad:

• "natural flavors" are in EV. ERY. THING - do you know how hard it is to avoid "natural flavors"?  what the hell is a "natural flavor" anyway?
• yeast (that I should not consume) is in Bundaberg Ginger Beer, our staple in New Zealand that I was so excited to recently find in Portland
• and in general, I can't believe all the processed crap that's in the food I once ate

PIC and I have also spent lots of time reading recipes, and carefully following them, or carefully modifying them to not include wheat and potato, and up until today I have felt amazing.  So that's all good.


But today was the first day I felt crappy.  Really, utterly, like-before crappy.

I'm really not sure of the cause - we had very-me-friendly huevos rancheros (with allegedly me-friendly corn tortillas that I had with no problem yesterday) this morning, then yogurt/fruit/(allegedly) gluten-potato-free-granola for lunch, then greens and black eyed peas and bacon for dinner, with some me-friendly crackers and cheese in between.

But sometime between morning and lunch I started feeling crappy.  Perhaps it was something in the salsa with breakfast?  It seemed OK, other than the iodized salt and possible trace amounts of "natural flavors".  And then for some time after lunch I felt really crappy too.  Perhaps the granola wasn't as me-friendly as it claimed to be? 

I really don't know the cause.  I do know that after about 6 hours and a dinner of greens, black eyed peas and bacon, I feel much better.  I guess I'll just have to try the salsa and granola in silos and see what happens.

This is going to be a lot of work.  Mentally, physically and emotionally.  But after a week of feeling good, I'm up for it...  Thank goodness it's a short week.

I predict a lot of salads in my future.

Day 4 of feeling great - so far, so good.  I had a momentary panic about figuring out where to go to lunch today to celebrate something with a coworker, but then my smart partner in crime reminded me that sushi is fine.  So the coworker and I enjoyed a lovely sushi lunch in the park.  And last night after wandering around adult night at the local children's museum slightly tipsy and starving, PIC and I discovered a delicious rice chip type concoction which blew me away. 

Fake meat is not okay (sadness = no more 'chicken' salad from DC Vegetarian, no more Morningstar 'chicken' nuggets, no more tofurkey sandwiches).  But real turkey is good, and I secretly really love turkey. 

I ate half the package of turkey last night
(not eating carbs makes one pretty hungry!)

I also not-so-secretly love bacon which is totally fine.  Coffee is fine, whole milk cheese is fine, Breyer's ice cream is fine and as I already mentioned, wine is fine.  The jury is still out on whiskey, but I'm giving it a try tonight just to see what happens.  (So far, so good.)

But yes.  A lot of salad in my future.  Three cheers for Portland summer farmer's markets!

Lots and lots of tots. And then there were none.

Operation Get Healthy began with a naturopathic appointment to assess fatigue and chronic stomach pain a few weeks ago, a potato and gluten intolerance diagnosis on Thursday (plus no dairy within 4 hours of grains - I KNOW, right??), followed immediately by a blow-out gluten, potato and dairy/grain-filled weekend in homage to all the food I will not be eating for the next month while I try this diet out to see if it helps.

so long, tots... you will be missed -

but bacon? luckily, you got the green light

In addition to lots and lots of tots, there was Ken's Artisan Pizza (Bay Area peeps, think woodfire oven + Arizmendi) AND homemade woodfire oven pizza (not our woodfire oven, sadly but obviously), beer, egg tortillas, enchiladas and chips/salsa, and lord only knows what else.

There were also lots of vitamins and minerals: gluten and potato-free B complex (special order only), two times the fish oil, four times the vitamin D, cordyceps mushrooms for "frolicking" (doctor's words), thyroidinium 4CH drops for energy, and mineral replenishment via calc fluor cell salt "until it stops tasting good" (doctor's words).

this is just for the morning -
I'm gonna need one of those weekly pill boxes

After the blowout weekend, Monday morning I especially felt like crap.  A great way to start the experiment!  (I should probably note at this point that the doctor recommended this, in so many words - she is really wanting commitment and encouraged me to get it all out before starting the diet full force.)

I started Day 1 checking labels on everything and narrowing down my options.  Breakfast was a kale/spinach/peanut butter/West Soy soy milk smoothie (soooo good, trust me on this), lunch was plain black beans and rice, afternoon snack was Trader Joe's dried mango and dinner was a beet/tomato/goat cheese/walnut salad.  And wine.  Wine is OK, did I mention that?  THANK GOD, wine is OK.

as seen in Everyday Living, best $5 investment I've made all year

Monday night I made it through the Mountain Goats concert without yawning too much, and this morning I woke up without an ache in my gut for the first time in... I can't even remember.

Let me reiterate that last point.  I've read and heard stories about chronic pain, where people just live with it for years thinking this is how life will be, and one day they are relieved of said pain and it's like they've been given a whole new life.

I'm not saying I've begun a whole new life.  I'm just saying that this morning I woke up without an ache in my gut, and I can't remember the last time that happened, and I smiled. All day today I was very aware of having no pain.  It was interesting, and it made me happy and sad all at the same time.

Food today included an egg scramble of sorts this morning, yogurt/fruit/almonds for lunch, an apple for a snack (note to self: take a jar of peanut butter to work), homemade parsley hummus and veggies pre-run, and another beet salad type meal for dinner post-run.  And wine.  Of course. 

beet greens, stems, cumin/cinnamon walnuts, goat cheese... and wine - YAY wine

Something in the vitamin/mineral concoction made me a bit hyper-sensory today so I have a call in about that (I suspect it's just my brain adjusting), but gut-wise I still feel fine.  Totally fine.

Honestly, I don't think anyone I know, not even those closest to me, has any idea of the extent of my chronic discomfort over the years.  I'm excited to see what the next few weeks bring.  I hope for lots more energy - and lots of interesting new recipes!

Or three glasses. And a little help.

be crafty: part one
an old atlas, some photos
and a glass of wine

Summertime, when the 3Q goals are easy.

We're not quite at the end of 2Q but it's close enough.  To sum up the last 3 months:

• laugh more - check (helps when you live with someone who comes up with "a priest, a rabbi and a penguin walk into a bar - the bartender says, "what is this, a JOKE?"")
• cook more - check
• spend more time outside - check... enjoying the local scenery with lots of walks home from work, lots of running in the park and cemetery (is that rude? I can't decide, it's just so peaceful and pretty)
• anything on The List - not quite yet 

And a week early, I bring you the next 3 months:

• practice patience
• get healthy
• be crafty
• anything on The List

The first was developed after the aforementioned volunteer training.  I have a seriously low tolerance for people who monopolize conversations, think the rules everyone else follows do not apply to them, and have little or no respect for others.  Not only do I have a low tolerance, I have a non-existent poker face and no brain-mouth filter in these situations.  This is a problem in general.  I need to work on it.

The second is from a recent possible diagnosis of gluten, potato and combo-grain-and-dairy intolerance.  Did you know that potato is in everything?  EV. ERY. THING.  Including low-fat everything, which goes against the habits I've developed over the last ten years.  On the plus side, I now have a license to eat full-fat yogurt and drink whole milk; on the minus side, I need to build in an extra 20 minutes for each run.  I'm a bit sad about it but I'm trying to treat it as a fun experiment, at least for the next four weeks while I try it out and see if I feel better.  Worst case scenario?  I develop the most kick-ass recipe for gluten free soy cheese pizza this side of the Mississippi...!

The third is because every time I am crafty, I have a lot of fun. Period the end.

The unspoken goal is to blog more during my food intolerance experiment.  I've run across interesting and helpful blogs on food intolerance in other random searches, and I hope to be able to post some supportive experiences, interesting recipes and/or helpful information for the next diagnose-e. 

And here... we...  go!

Which leads me to 3Q goals.

class for volunteers
way too many know-it-alls
shut up already

spending two full days
with twenty chatty cathys
makes me crave silence

it's true what they say
patience is a virtue but
so is common sense

don't understand how
you have something in response
to everything said