Don’t try to read my mind, it’s scary in there.
I am thankful for…
Many things. My health (such as it is these days), my family, my honey, my honey’s amazing family who were so wonderful this past weekend, my friends, my cat, and the fact that I can visit snow and not have to live in it.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!
…slowly…
Gosh, the picture makes it look so bright and gaudy! One of these days I will take a picture in natural light. I just have to find a minute when it isn’t dark, and that is difficult these days.
So, the President is coming to Phoenix today. Whoo. (Insert dripping sarcasm here.) Apparently he is here to give John Kyl a boost for his bid for reelection. They are having a fundraiser, and supposedly they will be raising all kinds of money for Kyl’s reelection campaign.
After some really interesting conversations this weekend, about various aspects of the political process, including a very interesting idea that proposed to make all political fundraising illegal, I started to think. What if the money that Kyl and Bush raise were sent to the State of Arizona to help fund All Day Kindegarten or one of the other State initiatives? It wouldn’t completely fund a program, but there would be a big dent in the gap between what we have and what we need.
I’m just sayin’…
My seasonal allergies have been REALLY bad this year. To the point where I decided that I HAD to get a prescription from the doctor. After taking Allegra and Flonase, I’ve been feeling pretty good. A couple of days ago, I noticed that my throat was feeling kind of froggy. I didn’t think much of it and just assumed that I must have inadvertantly eaten something with corn in it.
Yesterday or the day before, I happened to be perusing the Accidental Hedonist’s website, checking to see what new HFCS (high fructose corn syrup)-containing items had been added to the list, and what comments people had left recently. One happened to catch my eye. The comment was from a woman who has a severe allergy to corn. She mentioned that many allergy medications have corn products as one (or more) of the inactive ingredients. So off to Google I went!
I looked up Allegra and nothing seemed problematic… except for the ‘pregelatinized starch’. Hmmmm… ‘Starch’ in the United States usually indicates the presence of corn (the corn industry is HUGE here), so I emailed the company that makes Allegra, Sanofi-Aventis. When I got home tonight, I had a message from a very nice gentleman who informed me that, in fact, the ‘pregelatinized starch’ is derived from corn.
So I started to look up possible alternatives to talk to my doctor about. Google and rxlist.com are my new best friends. Just google
” [medication name] ingredients” and see what comes up.
Zyrtec: Corn starch (”sugar syrup” in the liquid form; read: dextrose, maltose, or other corn derived sugar). And for my lactose intolerant friends, yes, it has lactose in it. Don’t ask me why, I can’t fathom it.
Claritin: Corn starch (and lactose). No big loss here since it doesn’t do anything for me.
Alavert: “sodium starch glycolate” Doesn’t sound good. The ’starch’ is probably derived from corn.
I could go on.
Oh yeah, and my acid reducing meds have corn starch, my BC pill has corn starch… WHERE DOES IT END???
The moral of my story. Check the INactive ingredients on your medications as well as the active ingredients. There might be something in it that you are allergic to. Some people, like me apparently, are very sensitive to allergens and need to steer clear of the allergen completely. I guess I’ll go find myself a neti pot. Bleh.
My first night in Pasadena was a late one. I got to the airport at 5:30 PM, had the scissors that I forgot to take out of my knitting kit confiscated, waited to board the plane, and then somehow didn’t arrive in Pasadena until 8:30. It was 9:30 when I arrived at the hotel, and I was pooped, but there was a cute boy waiting for me in the lobby.
I met some of E’s coworkers, and chatted with them for a bit before they all headed up to bed. E knows me altogether too well, and suggested Indian food for dinner. I have this obsession with Indian food, thanks to my parents who made it a regular part of our eating out habits in NYC. I was starving because I hadn’t eaten anything since 12 PM or thereabouts, so we headed out pretty quickly, after a change of clothes.
One of the best things about Old Town Pasadena is the fact that you can walk everywhere. We set out from the hotel and were at Akbar in no time at all. I was a bit distracted by all of the different food options along the street, proof that living in Phoenix has renewed my appreciation for good local food. Living in the land of strip malls can do that to a person.
Akbar is kind of trendy. It’s like what I’m used to from NYC, but LA-style. I mostly find all of the foo-foo stuff kind of annoying, but the metal water glasses were kind of cool. In doing research about the restaurant when I got back to Phoenix, I discovered that Akbar is part of a chain, a chain of the modest variety though, not like Starbucks.
I know, I know, you didn’t come here looking for my diatribe on chain restaurants; you want to know how the food was. Well, it was good. Quite good. We got the requisite papadum (lentil wafers) and sauces to start. I would never order it special, but I always enjoy it when it comes to the table. Usually the trio of sauces includes a spicy mint and coriander sauce, tamarind sauce, and a chutney of one sort or another. My favorite of the sauces is the mint/coriander. Strangely, this trio included what appeared to be pico de gallo, rather than Indian chutney. I didn’t try it, and E said it wasn’t that great. No big loss.
Like I said, I was really hungry, so we kind of went crazy on food. I ordered the Mint Chicken Kabob (large chunks of white meat chicken, marinated in what appeared to be a yogurt-y version of the papadum topping, cooked in a tandoor), E had lamb… Lamb Saag, I think, and we ordered lentil dal, vegetable rice, and garlic naan to share.
The chicken was sooooo good. It was like the mint/coriander sauce all over and inside the chicken. YUM! I don’t like lamb except in certain situations, so I didn’t try that, but I was told that it was good. The dal was excellent - not runny like it sometimes is. I had to order plain rice after the veggie rice arrived. The veggie rice looked good, but it had corn in it. Neither of us even thought to ask. Corn in rice? Oh well. The plain rice was perfect- just rice and a little bit of fennel seed. No peas (thank goodness)! The naan rocked - LOTS of fresh garlic and a little bit of parsley. I just wish they provided more than one piece per order.
I will definitely go to Akbar again. The service wasn’t particularly good, but it was clean (as opposed to the last place in Phoenix that we went), and the food was good. Go, check it out. Let me know what you think.
Akbar Indian Cuisine
44 N Fair Oaks Ave
Pasadena, CA 91103
(626) 577-9916
Well, here’s what I decided on:
I wanted to do it with some really high quality wool yarn, but I just couldn’t find anything that I liked, that wasn’t going to put me in the poor house. I feel weird about using Wool-Ease, but that would just be my yarn snobby-ness coming out full-force. It feels quite nice, actually, and the chance of my being allergic to it is very slim.
Plus, I made up for it by purchasing some lovely Noro Silk Garden at Skein in Pasadena. It looks sort of garish, but that’s the flash. It’s much more subtle in person.
Of course I discovered upon returning to Phoenix, it’s $3 cheaper at the Fiber Factory, and $5 cheaper on Ebay. I had to buy some more on Ebay to have enough for this. I guess it kind of balances out, right?
Happy GIS Day everyone!
GIS Day is a global event. Organizations all over the world that use GIS, or are interested in GIS, are invited to participate by holding or sponsoring an event of their own. My office sponsored a GIS Day event on Monday, because we couldn’t find a room available today.
GIS Day is part of Geography Awareness Week, which was created by the National Geographic Society. There is fun stuff for kids to do at the National Geographic Society webpage.
And don’t forget to give your favorite map geek a hug today!
I wish. But I am in Pasadena, which makes for some interesting food opportunities.
I went walking through Old Pasadena yesterday and happened upon some interesting looking stores and restaurants along the way. One of them was a restaurant called “Kuala Lumpur”.
I’ve never had Malaysian food before. I live for Thai food, Japanese food, and prior to my allergy issues, Chinese food (especially dim sum, though I still do dim sum occasionally). I’ve eaten Burmese food several times, and I have Korean on the list of foods to try. But never Malaysian. Why, probably because I live in the white bread capital of the southwest. But I digress.
Kuala Lumpur is a small restuarant, with no more than 15 tables. But don’t let that confuse you. The food has a big taste. We started with leek dumplings (Teo Chew styyle with shrimp, pork, Chinese leeks and a sesame/soy/green onion sauce.) These are the sort of dumplings that you are used to from Chinese restuarants, but with a lighter and a more interesting taste. For our entree, E had Nasi Lemak (beef and chicken rendange, sambal ikan bilis, calamari, peanuts, eggs, and coconut -pandan rice. I had Coriander Chicken, which sounds kind of boring, but it was really quite interesting. The chicken comes in a sauce with coriander, cilantro, chili, cumin, and yogurt. You also get coconut-pandan rice (lovely steamed rice with a light coconut flavor), acar (a Malaysian pickle that is out of this world - more on that later), and gailan (asian broccoli).
While the chicken was quite good, and very interesting, the thing that really made the dish was the pickle. No cucumber here, just cabbage, carrot, jicama (maybe), pineapple, tumeric, chili, and the usual pickle suspects (vinegar, sugar?, etc.). When I saw “acar” on the menu, described as “Malaysian pickle”, I had to try it. I figured it would be something like I imagine kimchee to be. Sour, stinky, and an acquired tasted. It was, instead, quite lovely. Hot because of the chili, but sweet with fresh pineapple, and crunch with the veggies. I definitely have to find a recipe and or a local source when I get home.
I would definitely recomment Kuala Lumpur to anyone interested in good food at a reasonable price. Next time I’m going to try the Roti Canai (sesame oil pancakes served with your choice of chicken, beef, or veggies). The woman at the table next to us had it, and it looked really interesting.
Kuala Lumpur
69 West Green Street
Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 577-5175
Closed Mondays
I’m posting about the Walk as the mood strikes, so the stories are a little bit out of order. Please bear with me…
Nancy and I were looking pretty happy on Day One:
This was taken by Sean at about 6:30 AM. We were happy and carefree, with only an inkling of what was ahead of us. We were idealistic, full of energy, and ready to WALK! And I should mention, that I kept blinking when Sean was trying take the picture. That’s why I look like I’m on drugs.
I was chipper (as chipper as one can be at that hour of the morning), and soon we were traveling along Van Buren to Galvin Parkway, and through the Desert Botanical Garden:
Our first pit stop was just around the corner (sort of). Each one has a theme, and this one was “Hollywood”. Each port-o-potty had a gold star on it, with a name:
(They repeated themes, so this pic is actually from Day Two. I’ll share more on the name in the star later.)
Each name was a famous person (not necessarily from Hollywood) who had breast cancer. Names included: Kate Jackson (Charlie’s Angels), Olivia Newton-John, Dr. Jerri Nielsen (the physician who had to do her own biopsy in the Antartic), and Hon. Sandra Day O’Connor. This list goes on. Inside the door, there was a quote from the celebrity or a breast cancer statistic. Kind of a sobering way to start the day.
At major intersections along the walk, we met various volunteers who were responsible for making sure that we were able to cross safely (and that we didn’t cause any accidents). We also saw these folks riding bikes alongside us, riding up and down the route to make sure everyone was okay. At one of our first intersections was a biker guy with a Honda motorcycle and a radio tuned to some good classic rock. We danced a bit - YES, I said we danced a bit. I wasn’t tired yet (though I admit that there was other dancing along the way that ocurred during very tired moments and not so tired moments). At one of the next intersections, we met Mary Lynn and the Breast Vest.
Now I should tell you that Mary Lynn (apologies if I’m spelling it wrong) is VERY crafty. She had made several trips to Michael’s prior to the 3-Day. When I say crafty, I mean CRAFTY. Drum roll please…
I give you, Mary Lynn and the Breast Vest!
I mean, who needs a boring old safety vest, anyway? I should sell these at work. The construction guys would LOVE them!
Give me a bra, sequins, and a pink boa any day! And how exactly do I know that it is the “Breast Vest”? On the back, in red sparkly letters (meticulously applied to the reflective stripes) are the words “Breast Vest”. I wish I had a few more seconds to take a picture of the back as well, but alas, it was time to cross the street.
Mary Lynn was awesome. She cheered us on with high energy all through the walk. Dancing and cycling (not all at once) and just generally making us all feel like we really could make it all the way.
Thanks Mary Lynn!
Okay, spinners are not evil, but they are terrible enablers. I am trying so hard NOT to pick up another hobby… but that roving… the beautiful roving… *sigh*
