Vegetarian Diet

For the past week, I've been a vegetarian.  It's been good.  It was really hard one day when some chicken chowder soup with bacon was offered to me, but I had the cheese bread instead. For lunch on Friday, I went to a Thai restaurant and had tofu in my dish instead of meat. While I think I prefer meat to tofu, the tofu was good. The only reason I prefer meat is because it's what I'm used to, but the tofu was prepared in a way that tasted good and had good texture.

While I don't plan on being a vegetarian, it made me realize that I probably eat too much meat. As a Mormon, we have been given a "Word of Wisdom" on our diet, and it says that meat is "to be used sparingly." I don't think that most Mormons follow this very well. There are other things that we are very strict to follow such as no coffee, no tea, no alcohol, and no tobacco, but for some reason, we're okay with having meat at the majority of our meals.

At work today, we were discussing how a pilot from Australia found it interesting when he moved to the US that he was not allowed to drink at all during lunch. Where he is from, one drink is acceptable. They are expected to be adults and not drink more than is unsafe. We discussed this idea and that the problem with this is, where do you draw the line? I responded to this point with "That's why I don't drink at all." And it's true---does one cup of beer, one cup of coffee, or even drinking tea a couple times a week hurt you? Probably not. Some things may even help you, like drinking wine occasionally. It's when it's impairing you mentally whether through the affects of alcohol or an addiction to caffeine that's the problem. Still, where do you draw the line? It's just safer not to drink at all.

So, what am I going to about meat? While I don't think abstaining from it entirely would be good for me, I am going to cut back. I'll try not to cook with it much and try to choose items on the menu with less or no meat. And maybe I'll be more meat conscious like my mother by buying grass-fed beef.

Live from Paris: Flying Free Trips Sneak Peek

I'm a bit behind on updating my trips. Here are the trips you'll hear about soon:

Flying Free Trips:

#3: Utah (I need to find a picture to post first...)
#4: West Virginia
#5: North Carolina
#6: Paris/London

And here's the Eiffle Tower at night during the 5 minutes of sparkle.

Sewing Project #3: Awesome Apron

I found this amazing fabric at the Bernina store: it's covered in the golden ratio! That's right---phi, aka 1.618 aka my favorite number. This is the design covering the fabric, but trust me, the fabric is super cute. I've been trying to figure out something to make with it, and I was like "Aha! An Apron!" And I began my search for a solid blue fabric to match the blue golden ratio. I was thinking a solid blue background with golden ratio pockets would be amazing. Unfortunately, during my search at my new favorite fabric store, I found nothing quite right. But, fortunately, I found something better! The perfect fabric for the perfect apron: Italian food fabric with Italian food names, along with a contrasting musical fabric. I love Italian food, and I love music. Perfect combo for an apron. The project was rather time consuming due to the homemade edging, but I love it! It came almost perfect except that the food fabric is upside-down, but then I realized that means the cook can read it perfectly.

 Next week: yoga pants. Maybe they'll be golden ratio pants?

Sewing Project #2: Decorative Pillowcase

I found some cute fabric at the fabric store which I purchased to match my bedsheets. Here's a tip of advice: the color of something in your head isn't always accurate. So, the pillow doesn't match, but oh well! It's cute. Plus, it worked quite well as a sleeping pillow on the airplane. Even though it's supposed to be a decorative pillow, I don't care. It's my new airplane pillow. I finished sewing the buttons while flying on an airplane, so it fits.

I made this pillow with the fancy Bernina machine at the store. I think I like my machine better than the bernina, except that my machine isn't heavy duty. I guess I'll have to save the heavy fabrics for a more heavy duty machine. The pillow is complete with a center focus fabric surrounded by a border, and the back has both fabrics with buttons to connect them. Plus, I discovered a neat furniture store with cheap pillows (without the case).

Flying Free Trip #2: Seattle

Two of my favorite friends decided to run the Seattle Marathon in June since they were planning to be there. "Hey Blay*, guess what? I found out there's a marathon the day after our conference in Seattle. I'm turning 26, so it seems fitting. Awesome, right?" Reply, "That's an awesome idea Barb*! I've always wanted to run so much to cause my knees to be in constant pain. Sounds like the perfect ending to a business trip." Then they ran, and ran, and ran. Several times a week. Talk about time-consuming. After watching all their hard work, I wanted to find out first-hand if it was worth it, so I went to watch them finish. They both did so well! Both under 4 hours and 30 minutes. Seattle was neat too, but not as exciting as seeing them cross the finish line.

I didn't take many pictures, but here's one with Barb.

*Names have been modified to protect the privacy of my friends.

Flying Free Trip #1: Las Vegas

I've decided I need to document all the places I go so that I don't forget. A few months ago, I went with my coworkers to Las Vegas for dinner. We watched the beautiful fountains at the Belagio, walked around a bit, ate a delicious buffet, and then went home. It was a fun first trip.

While there, I saw the hugest picture of Donnie and Marie ever and some creepy creatures at the Belagio.

Sewing Project #1

My plan with sewing project #1 was to make something that obviously looked handmade. Funny mistakes and non-straight lines are all part of the project. It ended up turning out better than I thought. My sewing machine gave me difficulties though---lesson learned... buy a good expensive sewing machine; it's worth it. Don't get me wrong, I really like my sewing machine, but considering it broke already, I'm less than pleased. I just hope the 1st-year warranty covers the entire cost of the repair. I ended finishing up the project on my mother's sewing machine which is super-old yet works like a charm.

Anyway, here it is. A cute bag! It includes fleece lined double-sided quilted fabric with a zipper and a side handle.