Oh, the weather outside is frightful ...

Everyone around here keeps talking about "the snow of '08" and lamenting that we're only 2 weeks into winter so there's bound to be more. Well, it's here. All day I was expecting rain, but nope! It started snowing. Real snow .. not the ice crusting of 2 or 3 days ago.

Carol came home yesterday and I had to relinquish the garage (we take turns) so my car was parked on the street because I hadn't moved it. I went down a few hours ago to park it in the driveway, hoping that it will give me a little respite from snowfall. I just looked out my window and what I can see of my car is completely white. I had cleared all the windows when I moved it but they are completely whited out now. The street isn't completely blanketed because of the traffic, and it's really not a major snowfall when one looks at the lawns -- maybe an inch? But an inch on a car is a LOT! I'll have to run out there early tomorrow and warm the car up before I head out. Dang.

I wanted to mention how much I enjoyed seeing everyone when I was home. Some people I didn't get to visit with long enough (Pat, I promise...next time we'll do lunch together in that cool cafeteria!) and even though I technically was home for a long time, there was so much to do that I didn't have time to do all I wanted. So much to do and so little time to do it.

When I went to Farmers (the new building) to see whomever was there, I went to lunch with Barb, Lynda, Joyce, Leslie and Cathy at Red Robin .. across the street from the office. During lunch I had call on my cell phone. There aren't too many people who call me on my cell phone. I knew most of them were at work and I was eating lunch with the others. I answered the phone and it was Carlos! My co-worker here in Hillsboro. Turns out he was in PLEASANTON! Actually on Hacienda looking for the office building. He supports that facility as the Avaya engineer. How funny is that! I seriously think he just missed me so much he made up an excuse to see me. When I went over to the office to see Jaime, there was Carlos .. big as life.

Here's a little "who knew" tidbit. Several years ago I had a food allergy test done. I'm allergic to 7 foods and eating them cause me to have a dry cough and/or my throat will swell. One of the items I'm allergic to is quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). I'd never heard of it. My sister told me it's a grain that's used in South American countries for flour and such ... not to worry, I'll probably never see it!

One night, while at Eric's, Stacey made a delicious spaghetti supper. When we're about halfway through it, she asked me how I liked the pasta. It's really good! say I. She smiles really big and tells me that it's made with QUINOA! How about that! She proceeds to tell me all the benefits of this great product ... and I'm laughing to myself. What are the odds? She felt bad when I told her I'm allergic to it, but why would I go around telling people I'm allergic to quinoa?

To add to this story, after I get home, I make a run to Costco and you know how the food samplers are out in force. There was a new cracker/chip that I tasted and it was pretty darned good! It has flax and sesame and just lightly salted. The carbs were decent. I bought a bag and they tasted just as good when I got them home. While eating them (and after consuming several) I was reading the bag. I read everything..if there's no book handy I'll read labels, ok? Huh. One of the ingredients in this great tasting product is .. you guessed it .. quinoa! I swear, I will now have to read every friggin' label because it appears this product is now invading the northern continent.

I was told that if I purge all the foods I'm allergic to for 30 days, I can reintroduce them one at a time in small amounts and I may be able to build up a tolerance for one or more of them. The problem is one of the main things I'm allergic to is brewers' yeast. Doesn't sound like such a big deal until you realize brewers yeast is used to make vinegar and vinegar is a main ingredient in just about every condiment known to man. I don't know if I can make it 30 days without ingesting anything that has vinegar in it! I gave up bananas, I drink soy milk but I've not been able to go without all dairy products (sour cream - yogurt - cottage cheese!). Maybe that will be one of my 2009 goals. To make it 30 days without my allergy foods. Can I do it? I don't know .. stay tuned!