The Life and Times of My Feet: An intro

Ever since my mom bought me my first digital camera, pictures of my feet have been ubiquitous. I'm not entirely sure why I choose take pictures of my feet, they just happen. It might be like my way of saying "I was here." And my feet have been many places! They've been to many interesting places and it's kind of interesting to see all the things my feet (and me) have done.

My feet getting ready for my first 5K.

My feet in Tony's hammock tent in the Boundary Waters.

My feet following a path at Dublin Castle in Ireland.

Andy and my feet on a boat in Lake Superior.

My feet on their way to work at the U of M after a Spring Break snowfall.

My feet on tree roots on 5th Avenue in New York City.

My feet made their way to the top of a playground in Glasgow, Scotland.

My feet snowshoeing while orienteering in Theodore Wirth Park.

My feet on the sand at Dublin Bay.

My feet on a frozen and snowy Lake Nokomis.

My feet and the found plastic cow "Clinton" at the James J. Hill house.

Sometimes other people took pictures of my feet. This is Kim, me, Andy and Jon at the Scavenger Hunt.

My feet on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco.

My feet hanging while I sat on the soon to be wrecked ATV.

Andy got into the foot action on our first date over the Mississippi River.

My feet on the square in Rockville, IN.

Sometimes my feet get dirty sometimes, this is at a kegger to raise funds for the Student Associate for Non-profit Enterprise.

Sometimes my feet pictures are not stylish. This is at a party while wearing leg warmers and long johns. Tequila and beer make anything sound like a good idea.

The Life and Times without Cheese

I've never had a test that said I was lactose intolerant. But my brother might be. And one of my most popular blog entries includes the very searchable phrase "horrid farts." I know, this isn't what you want to read about while you snack in front of the TV. So I'm warning you now, it doesn't get better.

In that blog post in September 2007, I decided to lay off the milk products for awhile. Well, I can guarantee you that didn't last long. Andy supported me while I purchased something strange like almond cheese, which was a disaster in making cheesy chips. The almond "cheese" solidified so hard immediately after coming out of the microwave that we had to bang the chips on the plate to get them apart. Cheese substitutes just don't cut it. Much to the detriment of my bowels.

I've since realized that I'm addicted to cheese. I LOVE cheese, cream, butter, yogurt, and sour cream. Somehow, I have managed to put soy milk instead of regular milk in my cereal and my mornings are much more manageable. But I haven't gotten to the point where I don't eat cheese. It's too hard. Everything delicious has cheese on it. Here is a list of delicious things that are best with cheese/dairy: sandwiches, pasta, tacos, cheesy-chips, yogurt with frozen fruit, salads, toast (including garlic cheesy toast), pizza, eggs (and egg sandwiches), corn on the cob dripping with butter, lefse, and ice cream.

Recently though I've been getting terrible stomachaches and they're distracting. I can't concentrate at work and I hold my breath while walking around. And that's no way to live. So with Andy's prodding, I've decided to go cheese free and keep a food journal with my symptoms. Hopefully in 2 weeks I'll be able to not eat dairy and feel like a million bucks. I vowed last night not to have dairy and so far today I've eaten buttered popcorn and had four cheese sauce on my pasta for dinner (though no cheese on top!). We'll see how this goes.

To get my encouragement up, I will make a list of delicious things that don't include cheese/dairy. Help me out if I've missed something: fried rice, noodles (like for holidays), cranberry sauce, sliced pears, olives, applesauce, salads are OK without cheese, beer, whiskey, chicken, bacon, tomatoes (are still delicious without mozzarella), carrots, green beans (French cut!), tea, tofutti cuties are good, and actually tofu ice"cream" in general is good.

Here goes!