Rather predictably, given all the stress I'm under, I have fallen ill. Seems to be just a simple cold, or maybe even shorter than that- a bug of some kind. I've been forgetting to take my supplements, too, and had a couple emotionally kicks to the gut, so it doesn't even slightly surprise me that my immune system dropped the ball.
The weekend was pretty nice, though. I got sick on Sunday, but on Saturday Chris took me to the zoo. We only walked around for a couple hours, because we had a late start and he had other things planned, but I did enjoy seeing all the critters. Particularly the ones I'm happy not to meet anywhere else. They have an adult male lion and at least one tiger there, in addition to the bears, chimpanzees, monkeys, birds of all kinds, and various insects and reptiles.
I was vaguely troubled over the chimpanzee exhibit. Chimps, you know, are 99% identical, genetically, to humans. You can guess, by that figure, that the remaining 1% accounts for a lot. Chimpanzees, for instance, don't make enormous buildings filled with recorded history and cover them with artwork. Nor do they plant and tend gardens of entirely useless but beautiful flowers. Apparently, 1% of genetics plus a lot of time, accounts for culture, history, and advancements. It still bothers me some, though, that we keep creatures so similar to us in enclosed spaces.
Though if we're being fair, this is a pretty big enclosed space. They all are. The zoo doesn't stint on space for its bigger animals. The tiger exhibit had three different areas, with reinforced metal tunnelways between them. Some days, if it pleased, the tiger could walk between those areas. One of them was mainly water, since tigers swim. Another was grass and trees. I don't think we saw the last area, but hopefully it was also quite large.
Each exhibit was a game of "Spot the Animal." Because the critters weren't crowded in, it was sometimes challenging to find the inhabitants. Chris was better at that game than I was. But we did get a lot of exercise going up and down stairs, which was good because we'd brought lunch, but Chris also snagged some funnelcake fries. Complete with cream cheese icing. They were delicious. Unfortunately, a yellow jacket and a wasp thought so too, so I ate mine quickly.
After the zoo, Chris had a surprise for me. He drove us off into downtown GR, where we stopped a a little shop called the Cheese Lady. Turns out it's a hidden gem; the place specializes in cheeses of all kinds and has over 100 varieties at any given time. Cow milk cheese, goat cheese, even sheep cheese. I still wince a bit at the strongness of goat cheese, but we picked up three kinds of cheeses, one of which was an Iowa-made cheddar with some crunch in it. The cheese contains "protein crystals" which don't taste like much, but do add texture. And of course the rest of it is wonderfully delicious cheddar. It's strong cheddar, but also creamy to my taste buds.
The final stop was a jerky store we'd run into a few weeks back. I love jerky. In most cases, I can't have jerky. It's almost invariably beef, and if it's not beef, it's turkey. Both industries are large and riddled with animal abuse in the name of efficient production. This place, however, has bison. It also has pheasant, wild boar, alligator, kangaroo, venison, ostrich, and others. So we got a bundle of various meats, that I might satisfy my craving for jerky. It'll make good road food, too.
Sunday I got sick, as I mentioned, but we also went to church as usual. Then we came home and chopped up a bunch of AWA beef we'd found at the farmer's market, along with tons of farmer's market fresh vegetables, for beef stew. I love beef stew, and Chris knows it. So while it's a pain for him to put everything together (even if I help), he makes it sometimes when we can find the ingredients. This time he made a triple batch, so there is a lot of beef stew waiting for us in the freezer now. We had it with sourdough bread and some of the fancy cheddar cheese I mentioned above.
So that was very nice. It was a most pleasant break from folding tons of origami flowers, fiddling with messy wedding details, and stressing about all the things yet to do. At this point I've had my last chiropractic appointment for over a month, which I can only hope won't shoot me in the foot too badly. Same with LENS. I won't be back for appointments until December 1st, so that is unfortunately plenty of time for my brain to try to regress in LENS. I have more than enough supplements to keep them going the whole way through, though, so at least that won't fall by the wayside unless I let it.
This weekend we drive for Connecticut! Wish me luck!
The weekend was pretty nice, though. I got sick on Sunday, but on Saturday Chris took me to the zoo. We only walked around for a couple hours, because we had a late start and he had other things planned, but I did enjoy seeing all the critters. Particularly the ones I'm happy not to meet anywhere else. They have an adult male lion and at least one tiger there, in addition to the bears, chimpanzees, monkeys, birds of all kinds, and various insects and reptiles.
I was vaguely troubled over the chimpanzee exhibit. Chimps, you know, are 99% identical, genetically, to humans. You can guess, by that figure, that the remaining 1% accounts for a lot. Chimpanzees, for instance, don't make enormous buildings filled with recorded history and cover them with artwork. Nor do they plant and tend gardens of entirely useless but beautiful flowers. Apparently, 1% of genetics plus a lot of time, accounts for culture, history, and advancements. It still bothers me some, though, that we keep creatures so similar to us in enclosed spaces.
Though if we're being fair, this is a pretty big enclosed space. They all are. The zoo doesn't stint on space for its bigger animals. The tiger exhibit had three different areas, with reinforced metal tunnelways between them. Some days, if it pleased, the tiger could walk between those areas. One of them was mainly water, since tigers swim. Another was grass and trees. I don't think we saw the last area, but hopefully it was also quite large.
Each exhibit was a game of "Spot the Animal." Because the critters weren't crowded in, it was sometimes challenging to find the inhabitants. Chris was better at that game than I was. But we did get a lot of exercise going up and down stairs, which was good because we'd brought lunch, but Chris also snagged some funnelcake fries. Complete with cream cheese icing. They were delicious. Unfortunately, a yellow jacket and a wasp thought so too, so I ate mine quickly.
After the zoo, Chris had a surprise for me. He drove us off into downtown GR, where we stopped a a little shop called the Cheese Lady. Turns out it's a hidden gem; the place specializes in cheeses of all kinds and has over 100 varieties at any given time. Cow milk cheese, goat cheese, even sheep cheese. I still wince a bit at the strongness of goat cheese, but we picked up three kinds of cheeses, one of which was an Iowa-made cheddar with some crunch in it. The cheese contains "protein crystals" which don't taste like much, but do add texture. And of course the rest of it is wonderfully delicious cheddar. It's strong cheddar, but also creamy to my taste buds.
The final stop was a jerky store we'd run into a few weeks back. I love jerky. In most cases, I can't have jerky. It's almost invariably beef, and if it's not beef, it's turkey. Both industries are large and riddled with animal abuse in the name of efficient production. This place, however, has bison. It also has pheasant, wild boar, alligator, kangaroo, venison, ostrich, and others. So we got a bundle of various meats, that I might satisfy my craving for jerky. It'll make good road food, too.
Sunday I got sick, as I mentioned, but we also went to church as usual. Then we came home and chopped up a bunch of AWA beef we'd found at the farmer's market, along with tons of farmer's market fresh vegetables, for beef stew. I love beef stew, and Chris knows it. So while it's a pain for him to put everything together (even if I help), he makes it sometimes when we can find the ingredients. This time he made a triple batch, so there is a lot of beef stew waiting for us in the freezer now. We had it with sourdough bread and some of the fancy cheddar cheese I mentioned above.
So that was very nice. It was a most pleasant break from folding tons of origami flowers, fiddling with messy wedding details, and stressing about all the things yet to do. At this point I've had my last chiropractic appointment for over a month, which I can only hope won't shoot me in the foot too badly. Same with LENS. I won't be back for appointments until December 1st, so that is unfortunately plenty of time for my brain to try to regress in LENS. I have more than enough supplements to keep them going the whole way through, though, so at least that won't fall by the wayside unless I let it.
This weekend we drive for Connecticut! Wish me luck!
Wishing you MUCH more than luck on your trip! Love and grace to you both!
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