I had a lovely weekend with my dad's side of the family in Western Iowa! I don't know what it was exactly but we all connected so well at this reunion, especially the women. We all got talking about corporations which led to talk about food and eventually I let my true obsessive BTD theory colors shine. I brought the book and the Unibars in case anyone was interested in trying them, and one of my aunts actually took the book overnight and was reading it with her daughter (one of my cousins in high school).

Of course, as usual, like anyone else's family reunions there is always plenty of food that is not A friendly. There were meatballs (which I ate), there was nacho cheese sauce and chips (you guessed it), and there were many hard liquors to satisfy our Irish Catholic urge to drink, a lot. I personally had a lot of fun juicing an organic grapefruit that I brought from MPLS and then screwing up most of its BTD beneficial qualities by adding a hearty shot of gin.

This subsequently led to my walking around singing the Klus version of Snoop Dog's classic hit:

"Rollin' down the street

Smokin' endoe,

sippin on GIN AND JUICE!

Laid back

(With my mind on my money and

my money on my mind)."

Ahem, how old are we?

This question I've posed to myself rhetorically numerous times in the course of this past two weeks, especially when watching for the first time the cult(?) classic Super Troopers with a co-worker.

The next day we had a picnic with many of the same foods, and again, Erika the space cadet had a lot of fun talking about her new age hippie dieting concepts which somehow I think were not completely discarded by all the listeners. After all 1)I'm at my ideal body weight so I must be doing SOMETHING right and 2)There is such a fine line between genius and insanity and I think sometimes people do see the genius, haha.

Brings me to Sunday evening....had a lovely meal, albeit alone, at the French Meadow Bakery and Cafe. Nummy!!!!

Started with a "flight" with breads dipped and spread in the assortments: chicken liver, artisan butter, sheep cheese (Manchego as I recall), chevre, and the freshest fruitiest olive oil you can imagine enjoying. I skipped the olive part of the flight since they are avoids and did I mention that I really don't like olives?

I also sipped on a red and now I don't remember which red it was. I think it might have been a rioja, but that doesn't seem right. It certainly was not my favorite red, but it went quite well with what I'm about to explain....

Next came the main course which I barely had room for after the flight but decided to take it on with gusto! Juicy moist cod in a buerre blanc sauce with chervil along with red barley risotto and brocollini (what the hell is that anyway?). Well, IT WAS FABULOUS!!!

Due to the Sunday evening special, I then took home a complimentary slice of the bakery's Key Lime Pie picked from the sweets case. Oh, I've died and gone to heaven! Lord have mercy! I'm in epicurean love!

Well, that's about all for now. One other thing that perhaps sort of describes my state of mind right now given everything that has happened with Grubster and other anonymous third parties. Someone asked me if I attract drama. I wondered about this for so long, thinking oh my gosh I'm such a bad dysfunctional person if I do attract drama.

Then I realized that within the last three years my life has been a lot like a swamp. It seems very still and boring although the stagnant water seems to attract mosquitos and the mud settles at the bottom while the algae floats on the top. Suddenly, a speed boat, tornado or other disruption comes along and all the water turns cloudy and unstable. Chaos in its highest form takes over and there seems to be no way to stop the acceleration. Finally the source of the chaos withdraws and the false sense of peace comes over the swamp again.

Well, I think I'd like my life to be a little more like the Mediterranean sea which has its perils and lots of motion but generally doesn't make the most dangerous waves. Wish me luck on this one, hee hee.