GAPS Diet Begins!

In an effort to manage some of my residual health issues I've seen a doctor who I trust and like who treats patients very differently than a standard MD. As such, he has prescribed the GAPS diet which I started a couple weeks ago and have been enjoying and struggling with ever since.

Some of the wonderful things about it are:
- it is the first thing to clear up some recurrent skin issues (other than steroids which only work for a time then fail)
- some of the foods I've made have been better than the standard bread and cheese fare I used to partake in
- it causes me to be very creative in the kitchen which has been fun!
- the baked goods I make from coconut flour and nuts are so good I don't miss cupcakes at all, sort of
- I love fresh and dried fruit which nicely replaces much of the sweet stuff I used to consume

Some of the hard parts about it are:
- dining out with friends outside of San Francisco is very difficult to do effectively because I live in a beautiful organic, locally bought food bubble
- dining out with friends in San Francisco almost always requires me to ask for something on the side
- with my massive sweet tooth, there are still many occasions when I want a Kara's cupcake...
- my work place is very much a food culture where we celebrate birthdays monthly with cakes and where breakfast pastries are brought in for meetings

More to come with recipes, observations, and general comments about my experience. In the meantime, check out a photo of my breakfast, above, with a muffin made from pecans, banana and honey and topped with honey ghee; a bowl of farmer's market fresh plums and apricots; and a bowl of eggs sunny side up with cooked onions and red peppers topped with avocado.

Day in the Park

My uncle and his partner came to San Francisco for a visit on their way to other Californian stops. I had the pleasure of spending the day with them in Golden Gate Park... First we hit up the deYoung for the Impressionist exhibit.















Then we walked out and there was a civic band playing at the Music Concourse bandshell. The park here reminds me of the Tuileries, in Paris.
















Then we enjoyed the Botanical Garden and all it has to offer on a sunny Sunday afternoon during Memorial Day weekend. After a break in the late afternoon, we walked down 17th Street to enjoy surf and turf at Catch. This place happily surprised me. Since I'm not a seafood eater, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to provide the fresh seafood that my uncle desired while still providing myself with something enjoyable. Boy, was I wrong!

The Niman Ranch rib eye was delicious and they were happy to substitute grilled asparagus for the starch it came with. Being able to sit "outside" on the enclosed patio was also nice since the weather was beautiful! My guests had tuna tartar that they agreed was nicely done. Then, they enjoyed soulful seafood dishes including a mixed grill that they were pretty happy with, as well. Overall, the weekend was a success and I enjoyed myself immensely playing tour guide to two wonderful guests!

Point Reyes Birthday

Some friends and I headed to Point Reyes for a hike to the beach and a walk through Point Reyes Station for one of the gals' birthday.


We, of course, had to hit up Cowgirl Creamery and the adjacent little lunch counter. Fulton Valley Farms roast chicken is some of the best chicken I've ever had! We picnicked outside and enjoyed the warm weather and yummy nibbles.

Then we wandered up and down the main drag checking out Point Reyes Open Studios. We also joined the line for Bovine Bakery, checked out Toby's Feed Barn where some of us got farm fresh fruit and honey.
What a beautiful way to spend part of Memorial Day Weekend!

San Francisco Stairways

As I've mentioned before, my mom gave me a fantastic book on stairway walks in San Francisco. Inspired by the book and the few stairway walks I've taken, I've been snapping photos of the many stairways around San Francisco. Because San Francisco is built into so many hills and valleys, they are everywhere! Here are some snaps from around town...

Joice Street steps downtown off Pine Street

Steps up Lone Mountain, USF

Very LA-esque steps coming down Lone Mountain, USF

Steps at Alta Plaza Park, Pacific Heights

Steps in Golden Gate Park

Impressionists and Golden Gate Park

This morning, I went to the opening of the Birth of Impressionism exhibit at the de Young museum. It is truly a nice compilation of works that are both well known and not as well known. An amazing sight to behold in the four rooms they are housed in. Some of my favorites were The Magpie by Monet, The Floor Scrapers by Gustave Caillebotte, Birth of Venus by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Gare Saint-Lazare by Monet, and one whose name I can't remember but was the opening painting of a tall nude figure with a mirror. And, of course, Whistler's Mother was great to see in person.

After enjoying the exhibit, I wandered through Golden Gate Park and snapped some photos of the beautiful spring time scenery. The flowers are all in bloom and everything is so green. Funny to think I was in the City when I took these.

The gardeners are doing something really great near the Academy of Sciences.
This is just a taste.

This bed of bright purple flowers were tucked away in all their glory, barely viewable from a path below them. It took some meandering to find a place to get up close so I could take photos.

This reminded me of the Road Not Taken.

These looked like elephant knees.

And, oh how I love the California Poppy!

Weekend in LA (part 4 of 4)

My last day, I woke up and enjoyed my last humongous breakfast at the hotel. The Hollywood Hotel is not the best hotel in Los Angeles but, the breakfast and gated parking lot made it worth the $90/night I spent for my room.

Then, I picked up cupcakes to die for from Auntie Em's in Silver Lake and went off for another one on one Grinberg session before playing tourist around downtown Hollywood. Ate lunch at the Hollywood and Highland Center, saw folks setting up for the premiere of Prince of Persia, then walked around Hollywood snapping art deco architecture and the flowers peeking out between the asphalt between buildings.

Check out some of my best shots...

Weekend in LA (part 3 of 4)

Another day of pain. Grinberg is one of those things that wrings you out in the best possible way and today was no exception. After yesterday, I was ready for anything and that's what I got. Along with some decent Japanese fast food for lunch, laughs with two new friends who I really enjoy, sharing with people who started off as strangers and now feel more intimately acquainted with me than some of my best friends.

We capped it all off with amazing middle eastern food and friendly conversation until late at the Hummus Bar and Grill in Tarzana, a sports bar serving hummus, big fat pita, and other traditional delights. Strangest combination I've ever witnessed in a strip mall.

The other food/beverage places I checked out today were:
Food + Lab - yummy coffee and European canned and jarred goods for sale
Crazy Rock N' Sushi - okay Japanese food - I enjoyed chicken teriyaki

Weekend in LA (part 2 of 4)

Spent Saturday transforming my pain with Rachel Putter... It was intense and wonderful all at the same time. I met wonderful people, enjoyed a beautiful lunch in a park, and talked a lot about pain of all kinds. Grinberg is one of my favorite things to do.

After a day chock-full of all that, I hit up Fatburger down the street, took it back to my hotel room and watched some bad TV. What can be better than that on a Saturday night in LA?

Weekend in LA (part 1 of 4)

Los Angeles is a short flight from San Francisco and in the same state but, it often feels like thousands of miles away. I've participated in the pointless, one sided NorCal vs. SoCal feud most of my life and have spent probably fewer days there than I have fingers and toes. This weekend, I'll make my way to West Hollywood for an adventure in body work via the Grinberg Method by attending a weekend workshop called Transforming Pain. It seems apt a year after my surgery.

My first afternoon was spent with my regular Grinberg practitioner at her beautiful studio in an old warehouse space full of artists and a theater, in Atwater Village. She recommended I check out LA's Fairfax district of West Hollywood and more specifically, the Farmer's Market at Third Street and Fairfax and the Grove next door. It's amazing that these two venues are right next to each other and share a parking garage because they couldn't be farther from each other on the spectrum of "down to earth" and "super-scene".



Farmer's Market snaps

And... the Grove.

I had jambalaya and corn bread at a New Orleans inspired kiosk for dinner and a crepe with Nutella at the French Crepe Company for dessert. Mmmm... Then, I meandered over to the Santana Row-like shopping street at the Grove popping into Anthropologie and Zara. I hoped to spot Heidi and Spencer or similar B-list reality stars but, no dice...

Immigration and Wine Bars

Tonight I headed with some co-workers to a World Affairs Council lecture called Right to Home: Confronting the Global Crisis on Migration and Displacement. I've been to some amazing lectures at the Council in the past and this one was equally as interesting and provocative. Last year, I saw Achak Deng, the person whose story was told in the book by Dave Eggers, What is the What. That was an amazing talk!

The panelists for the Right to Home conversation all represented organizations that take into account that the people everyone is talking about when they refer to migration and immigration and border crossings and displacement are just that: People. So much of the policy discourse that is taking place today forgets that, instead offering up solutions that treat those people like a commodity, like something to be traded. It was a thought provoking evening and was made more-so by the conversation I had with my colleagues afterward.

IDEX was a co-sponsor of the event and has been hosting happy hours on a monthly basis. After this event, a bunch of folks headed over to rouge & blanc, a wine bar on Grant Avenue, downtown. Since I'm not currently imbibing, I'm probably not the best to comment on this place but, I just wanted to highlight that it had nice ambiance and my friends and I were able to sit on a couch and have good conversation without yelling. All of the food on the bar menu had cheese on it, which I'm not currently eating either but, it was a nice bar menu. Lots of yummy small sandwiches including a croque monsieur, which my friends partook in and enjoyed very much.

Wildflowers in the Gold Country

For Mother's Day, a visit to mom and dad's house in the Sierras was imperative. It's less than a three hour drive away from San Francisco and one of my favorite places to go. We enjoyed a great Mother's Day brunch at the Grill, which used to be the Pine Mountain Lake Country Club. It was an awesome spread with Belgian waffles, slices of fresh and hot beef and ham, lots of bacon and sausage, and later on, fresh pasta cooked while I waited. Almost the whole family came and enjoyed it heartily.

We ended up spending a beautiful afternoon looking at wild flowers on Old Ward's Ferry Road, a winding one lane drive through the picturesque hills. When I was small, my parents accidentally drove up this road seeing it as a fairly direct route between Groveland and the nearest shopping town, Sonora. They tell fond stories of Oma, who was visiting from comparatively flat Wisconsin, leaning into the middle of the car as they swung around corners, her side of the car feeling as though it were hanging off the edge of a cliff. My mom, who is currently about the same age as Oma was then, proclaimed that she understood why Oma would do that as my dad careened down the road.

Here are just a few pics from that journey.

Cinco de Friend's House

This Cinco de Mayo was spent eating delicious Mexican inspired food with friends from work and talking about interesting topics including (but not limited to by any stretch): how we each view feminism, the Third Wave Foundation, and the US Social Forum.

It was interesting to learn how the different generations represented learned and felt about the word "feminism". My generation, Generation X, had differing opinions but, most of us shared the sentiment that it has a bad connotation based on how the generations before ours used the term. Those folks that are part of the Millenial Generation had a different view, not necessarily seeing it as "bad" but not representative of the multi-layered issue of gender that is impacted by race, class and sexual orientation among other things.

It's been awhile since I've spent hours discussing ideas and ideals like that. Truly a great way to spend the Cinco de Mayo holiday!

Land's End

At the eastern-most tip of San Francisco, there is a beautiful walking path that follows part of an old train line that used to bring people from downtown to the beach, Sutro Baths, and the Cliff House. Adolph Sutro was Austrian born but, became San Francisco's 24th mayor. He was the mastermind behind the many beach-side attractions and also created a park where he once lived in a modest house, now called Sutro Heights Park.

A friend and I spent the afternoon walking the Land's End path, checking out the spring flowers, the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay. I forgot I was still in the City.