Week one in a (protein-rich) nut shell: Week End

I had made it to the weekend!!

This was pretty cool...I had set a goal (granted, one with low expectations, but a goal nonetheless) and was close to seeing it through. When your goal is to "dabble" in something it makes it pretty easy to follow through.

And dabble in the vegan world I did. Or flirted, if you will. During the last week of January, 2011, I made the effort to make healthier and kinder lifestyle choices.

I ate meat once over the course of the week, as opposed to daily.

I consciously avoided dairy and white sugar, though I know of a couple of times when I slipped up on the dairy thing.

I tackled a few recipes in The Kind Diet, and had been really, really impressed.

So impressed, in fact, that I thought this vegan thing might be all right to continue trying out for a little while longer.

So impressed, in fact, that I went to Ikea and bought a bunch of jars to house the grains and beans and seeds and oats and spices and other things that would likely be recurring characters in our kitchen endeavors.

So pretty :)

Rob the husband was so impressed that he offered to make a vegan meal for breakfast Saturday morning, one I could take to go since I had play practice that day.

Saturday 1.0: Cherry Almond Smoothies

These were great. Rob found the recipe at Whole Foods the night before and was totally excited to try it out. He made it twice over the course of the day. The first batch had a little too much almond butter for his taste, since he's a fruity guy and really wanted the cherries to stand out more. So the second time around he used more cherries and less almond butter and it was indeed better. He tried these again with raspberries the following week, which wasn't as good...a bit too sour. The cherries really went better with the nutty almond flavour in the smoothie. Awww, my husband prepared a vegan breakfast.

Saturday 1.0 cont...Thin Mushroom "Pizzas" (p. 220)

We were going to a birthday party on Saturday night (a Transformers themed birthday party, actually...so awesome) so we made the pizzas for a late lunch. These were a bit pricey, as the dried mushrooms were probably one of the more expensive items we purchased during the epic Whole Foods grocery buy, but well worth it. I love mushrooms and olives (Amy's mushroom and olive pizza is one of my faves), so I was eager to try out Alicia's vegan version.

We had a bit of a hiccup when I realized that the Ezekiel tortillas I had bought not even a week earlier had gone moldy. Boo. I suppose I should have known enough to keep them in the fridge as I got them from the refrigerated section at Whole Foods, but I didn't, so Rob offered to save the day and did a quick run to IGA.

If you're a mushroom fan like me you will love these.

The tofu cream makes a unique pizza sauce, although the amount of tofu cream that came out of the recipe was way more than I ended up needing...we threw a lot of it out the following week :(  In the future I'll just plan for another recipe that uses the tofu cream to make within a few days of the pizzas, or try halfing the recipe. We paired these up with some arugula with a simple balsamic vinaigrette and we were good to go.

Alicia actually featured her mushroom pizza on her Kind Life website last month...it is most definitely worth trying. I'm totally going to give this less superhero version a try too.

Later that night at the Transformers birthday party it was pretty tough avoiding temptation with soooo many yummy foods around....especially cupcakes!! I made sure to load up on the fruits and veggies, scored some delicious crackers (didn't get to check to package to see if they were vegan but whatever), and ate some noodles even though I'm pretty sure they weren't vegan either.

But the effort was there! And I didn't touch the meat (but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to). It's a lot easier to avoid meat when out and about than it is to avoid dairy, because you pretty much know for sure whether something has meat in it or not, but the dairy factor is always a bit uncertain.

And just like that we entered the final day of our maiden vegan week.

Sunday 1.0 was pretty lax...Rob continued his cooking streak with veggie dogs for lunch...

After my first Japadog experience a couple of years ago I started putting wasabi mayo on my hotdogs (soooo goooood), and I was kinda choked that I couldn't have wasabi mayo on my veggie dog if I was going to keep it vegan. Unless they make a wasabi vegenaise?? There's an idea. One can always dream...

OK...I seriously JUST realized after writing the above lamentation that all I need to do is add some wasabi to vegenaise and I have wasabi vegenaise. Problem solved. I actually feel a bit dumb right now and am contemplating just deleting the whole thing about the wasabi mayo, but then again, maybe I'd rather not.

We headed out Sunday evening for dinner at Earls with some friends and their adorable little daughter. This was our first restaurant outing since starting the vegan experience. Alicia offers lots of tips in her book about how to handle eating out at non-vegan or vegetarian restaurants, and it turned out not too bad. I ordered my favourite Rocket Salad minus the chicken, parmesan chips and goat cheese coulis.

The only thing I really missed was the goat cheese coulis...that stuff is crazy delicious. But I still enjoyed my dinner, and by the end of it wasn't really missing the goat cheese as much. Rob went a little less vegan...he had the Mediterranean Linguini, minus the chicken (yay!) but kept the parmesan cheese and feta (meh). Baby steps, baby steps. They were still baby steps in the right direction. And I did have a few bites of his pasta (which was delicious), so I suppose I wasn't totally innocent. We have some Earls gift cards to use up in the near future, and I think that Mediterranean Linguini will be my next choice...I'm really curious about what it will taste like minus the cheese.

Overall, by the end of the first week I was feeling content. There were no real feelings of deprivation...only a little temptation here and there when delicious things stared me in the face (like on Monday 1.0 when I bought cupcakes for a friend's birthday from Cupcakes of all places, and I had to avoid the samples...that was actually pretty brutal, not gonna lie). But at home, grabbing snap peas out of the fridge to gorge on when I came home from work instead of a box of Purdys was not too bad. Because the Kind Diet meals were so tasty, I felt completely satisfied after eating, and because the desserts were so incredible, this actually felt doable for a longer stretch. Rob was totally on board, making this SO MUCH EASIER than I imagine it would be if he wasn't (I have a seriously awesome husband...I really do).  Making the time to cook was going to be an issue, but Motivation didn't seem like he was going anywhere, and I figured that as long as he decided to stick around, I'd take advantage of his presence.

And if Motivation stuck around long enough, maybe I'd start noticing some of the benefits Kind Lifers mention...weight loss, more energy, clear skin, an overall feeling of well being and centeredness, a clear head and a clear heart...ok...getting a little Kumbaya for my own good, I know. Gonna stop there now before I feel compelled to pull out the tambourine.

I guess it's only fitting to end my Week One Vegan Experience Summary with something super awesome, and I don't trust myself to come up with something awesome enough. So instead I offer up Wil Wheaton's latest Stupid Cel Phone Video to wrap up what was truly an unexpected and encouraging week.

Week one in a (protein-rich) nut shell: Part Three

After breaking my 2-day vegan streak I was excited to get back on track. But before I regale the blogosphere (blogosphere...such a bloggy word) with details of the remainder of the maiden vegan week, I need to get back to this meal plan thing for a minute.

If I had realized before how helpful a meal plan was, I think I would have significantly cut down on the amount of processed food I've filtered through my system over the years. Maybe I was just entertained with the novelty of this experience, but it was actually sorta kinda exciting to get home and know what the plan was for dinner on any given night AND rest assured that we had the ingredients to make it happen. I totally see why people are so into this. It makes life easier. Who'da thunk predictability can be a good thing?

Anyways, on to day four.

Thursday 1.0: Ginger Pasta with Zucchini *but I used asparagus because I left the zucchini off the shopping list...oops* (p. 238 ) / Gingered Green Beans with Hijiki *minus the hijiki* (p. 258) / Creamy Sweet Kabocha Squash Soup (p. 253)


Pasta never fails to satisfy.

This dish had great flavour. The ginger made it a bit zingy and the tofu added really nice texture. I was a bit disappointed that I overlooked the zucchini during our epic grocery buy, but the asparagus proved itself a really decent substitute. I never used to be a fan of whole wheat pasta, and now I can't imagine why that was.


The ginger-fest continued with the gingered green beans.

I left out the hijiki even though it was supposed to be a major part of the dish because the green beans were not on the meal plan for the week. I just happened to notice them in the book when I started making the pasta and thought they would compliment the meal nicely. Spontaneity! It worked out well, and the ginger in both dishes was not overwhelming and made my hands smell pretty awesome (if your idea of awesome is hands that smell like ginger). I suppose I should put hijiki on the grocery list for a future Whole Foods trip so I can appreciate the dish as it is meant to be appreciated.

And the easiest part of the meal to prepare...

Alicia absolutely loves kabocha squash, and this was my first time cooking with it. The soup was so incredibly easy to make...just boil the squash in water and mush everything up and you have soup. Stupid simple. I ended up putting it in the blender to make it super smooth. The soup had a slightly bitter taste that I wasn't the biggest fan of, but Rob really enjoyed it, and when he took it to work for lunch the next day someone suggested that he sprinkle some nutmeg over it. I resolved to definitely try that the next time I made this soup, but with butternut squash, which I assume would be sweeter.

Overall, a stellar, satisfying meal for Thursday night.

Friday 1.0: Whole Foods Buffet

Having done more cooking during this week than I would normally do over a few months, Rob and I decided to let the good people at Whole Foods cook dinner for us on Friday night. We've always been fans of the Whole Foods buffet, but we were especially grateful to see how many vegan options they had now that we were looking for them.

This meal was amazing, and looked super colourful and pretty too. Rob really enjoyed the vegan nacho cheese (9:00 on the bowl, which I actually thought was pretty gross), and I fell in love with the Thai red curry squash (1:00 on the plate). OMG this was AMAZING...sweet and soft and warm and coconutty and absolutely PERFECT, so I am now on the hunt for the most incredible Thai red curry squash recipe ever.

It was really inspiring nearing the end of our first vegan week to reaffirm how many vegan options we had available to us. Unfortunately, I realized afterwards that the spinach orzo I so thoroughly enjoyed had feta cheese in the dressing. Oops. Other than that I think we did pretty darn good. Pretty darn good indeed.

Week one in a (protein-rich) nut shell: Part Two

Day one of the vegan experience was successful, which made it relatively easy to continue the experiment into day two...


Tuesday 1.0 - Risotto with Oyster Mushrooms, Leeks and Peas (p. 228)/ Baby Bok Choy drizzled with Ume Vinaigrette (p. 264)

It turned out the mushrooms I bought were brown crimini and not oyster. Oops. 


This was the first time I made risotto on water and not broth. It was still flavourful with the stellar combo of mushrooms, leeks and peas, but I wonder if there is a reason I can’t make it on a veggie or mushroom broth. Hmmm...

The ume vinaigrette was one of the most unique things I’ve tasted. Ume vinegar is super salty, and I thought it’d be overwhelming on the bok choy, but it was a really great balance of flavours, and had a very pretty pink colour. I found myself really enjoying the risotto that soaked it up on my plate too. 

Going through Alicia’s recipes, I noticed she seems to use umeboshi vinegar and umebosi plum paste quite a lot. I had never heard of this stuff before, but my first experience with it gets an official thumbs up, as does our day two dinner. 

And for dessert...Mochi Waffles with Lemon Rice Walnut Syrup (p. 286)

Another first this day...cooking with mochi. This stuff is super super hard, and it softens as you heat it up. I cut up strips of it, put it in the waffle iron, and oddly enough, it kind of puffed up and turned into a waffle. Though the lemon-walnut rice syrup was very tasty, I wasn't super impressed with the waffle. I didn't dig the "ricey" flavour and it was a bit hard to chew. Maybe the flavour and texture is something my non-vegan palate will eventually come to appreciate, as my brain is still used to waffles being soft and fluffy and covered in fruit and whipped cream. Because my Whole Foods Guru really sang mochi's praises, I resolved to try this again, as a waffle, but next time with flavoured mochi...I've seen it in cinnamon I think. I'll also try cooking it for slightly less time, which might help with the tougher texture. A learning curve, for sure. 


The fact that I was actually thinking about "next time" at this point suggested that maybe we would make it through the week's meal plan after all. 

Which brings us to day three...

One of the things I have started doing, which is new to me, is preparing my lunch the night before work. I would normally rarely eat lunch at work (on really busy days I'd barely even notice I was hungry), but it became quickly apparent that a) not eating wasn't really getting on board with the healthy aspect of a kinder and healthier lifestyle and b) purchasing lunch from the school cafeteria in moments of extreme hunger would be seriously limiting in terms of vegan options.

So I made quinoa.


Wendesday 1.0 - Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts (p. 224) / Crispy Peanut Butter Treats (p. 184)

I've only had quinoa (which I pronounced as kin-oh-ah until recently) a few times, and I really like it. But I think I've always had it prepared on broth. This version is prepared on water, and while the basil gives it a nice, fresh flavour, the dish isn't super exciting. Rob the husband actually texted me to let me know his thoughts on the quinoa when I packed it for his lunch...

Oh Robert :)


I will try it next time (still thinking there's a next time!) on a veggie or mushroom broth, and perhaps one day my palate will learn to appreciate quinoa for what it is with no bells and whistles.

The crispy peanut butter treats, on the other hand, were delightful.

Mmmm...just like a peanut butter rice krispie treat. Like all Alicia's recipes so far, this was super easy to make. Definitely easier to stir than traditional Rice Krispie treats, as the brown rice syrup is less sticky than marshmallows. I used raisins instead of chocolate chips to make it a bit more superhero. It made a really great snack, and didn't last very long on the kitchen counter between the two of us picking at it. We're not at superhero status yet, and portion control isn't quite factoring into the equation at this point.


The quinoa was for lunch. We had dinner plans that night with friends at their place. When my lovely friend found out we were trying out the vegan thing for the week, she messaged me asking if that meant that dinner needed to be vegan. Since we were just easing into this whole thing, I was happy to eat whatever was the plan for dinner that night, but I offered to bring a vegan dessert. So we had a very un-vegan Wednesday 1.0 dinner (chicken paprika and egg noodles...which were definitely worth breaking the 2.5 day vegan streak for. YUM.) 


But we followed it up with a very vegan dessert...Alicia's chocolate peanut butter cups, of course. I swear those things are spiked with crack. I know there shouldn't be crack in them, because I make them from scratch, but it's like the combination of ingredients somehow causes a chemical reaction that creates a form of crack. Those things are just ridiculously yummy and make me feel ridiculously happy. Kinda like Tylenol 3. 


Was that an inappropriate prescription drug reference? Oh well, I plead new blogger ignorance. I'll be pleading new blogger ignorance as long as I can. 


I have a feeling the peanut butter cup is going to be a recurring character in this blog.

Week one in a (protein-rich) nut shell: Part One

Summing up the first week of this vegan experience might result in an insanely loooong blog post, and I'm still not sure if that's ok...so I guess I should break it up or something? Yah, perhaps.


I had never made a meal plan before. I had never really considered it necessary, because that's something that only hyper-organized domestic engineers or supermoms do. I think I always knew that even if I did make a meal plan, it would be too easy to deviate from it at the first sign of inconvenience and succumb to a bowl of popcorn doused with white cheddar seasoning (which has served as dinner on a coupl...several occasions). 


A meal plan for the week was necessary in this case, though, because grocery shopping for random ingredients wouldn't have worked so well. So I got out the purple mini post-its, bookmarked a few of the especially awesome looking Kind Diet recipes, scored a bunch of Visa points at Whole Foods, and proceeded to lose my vegan virginity.

Monday 1.0 - Polenta Casserole with Seitan (p. 223) / Caesar Salad (p. 175)

The polenta casserole looked delicious in the book...

My version did not look quite as firm...

I think I misread the recipe...I used some leftover polenta I had and just a little bit of cornmeal, along with more cauliflower than I think I was supposed to. The result was a mushy and runny (but still quite tasty) casserole. 

This was also my first time eating seitan. This stuff does not look appetizing coming out of the package, but it was very nice in the casserole. I will definitely be repeating this one...and hopefully doing it right the second time around.

Alicia has these little writeups before every recipe, and her commentary on the caesar salad was “This is the greatest Caesar salad on the planet. Period.”

Now, Rob the Husband and I are huge Caesar salad junkies. I grew up on my mom’s amazing homemade dressing, and have found some very decent bottled substitutes for the days I want to be a lazy cook (which is pretty much always). Alicia’s claim that this was the best Caesar salad on the planet period, though encouraging, was not something I expected my non-vegan-slightly-snobbish-when-it-comes-to-Caesar-salad-palate to agree with. I was no more optimistic as I was putting the ingredients into my magic bullet. Almonds? Tahini? Dijon? Seriously? None of these computed with my Caesar expectations. But I suspended disbelief, blended everything together, and had a taste. 

Wow. 

Just, wow.

**side note...the salad is on the right of the pic...on the left is my runny polenta casserole on some wilted spinach...clarification just in case the casserole looks like a giant crouton**

This was good. Very, very good.

The dressing is very tangy, flavourful, and bold. This isn’t just delicious as a vegan option; this is delicious. Period. I didn’t even miss the bacon bits and parmesan, which are staples in my caesar salads. If vegan food was going to be like this, I was seriously starting to think this week wouldn’t be so difficult after all. 

I have also been converted to homemade croutons...I will never buy them again. Making your own is SO EASY and they are SO YUMMY. Rob the Husband was eating the leftover croutons like a snack afterwards. 

The only thing I thought I would try differently next time is maybe halfing the amount of mustard in the dressing and subbing in some vegenaise. Because we eat a LOT of Caesar salad, more as a meal than a side, the mustard becomes a bit strong over the course of the meal. But overall, I’m so thrilled to have found my new caesar salad :) Yay!

And for dessert...

Ahhh peanut butter cups. The reason behind this whole vegan odyssey. If these didn’t deliver it would have been tragic. But they delivered. Oh, did they ever. I mean, peanut butter and chocolate is pretty promising, but non dairy chocolate? I used vegan chocolate chips from Whole Foods’ 365 line, as the carob chips I tried were yucky...chalky and salty. Bleh. These 365 chocolate chips, however, tasted like...chocolate chips. And melted beautifully and poured silkily over the peanut butter and seriously, how is this desert non-dairy?? 

Doesn’t matter. It’s delicious. 

Vegan day 1 = Great Success.

Vegan-ish

Loved Loved Loved Tuesday's Oprah.


What are the odds? I start flirting with the vegan thing and a week into the journey they air Oprah's 1 week vegan challenge. Crazy informative, honest, and inspirational episode.


Motivation is pretty pleased with himself. I think he might have some pull with Harpo Studios. This timing thing is working out frighteningly well.


And I learned a new word..."Vegan-ish." I resolve to use it several times this week.

"Welcome to The Kind Diet."

I love exam week because it means no extracurriculars. Sure there's still tons to do, what with marking those lovely exams and preparing a couple hundred report cards, but when you're doing 14-16 hours a week of extracurricular high school activities (including on Saturdays and Sundays), getting that time back for one beautiful week might just make you wanna get your Balki on and do a little Dance of Joy.

I'm pretty sure exam week was a major reason Motivation stuck around for this vegan endeavor. He figured this (Jan. 21-28...yay exams) was the best week to embark upon my Kind Diet adventure, he wanted to make sure I got off to a solid start, and he knew we should take advantage of a rare school-free weekend. So after church on Sunday morning, when I would normally be heading to cheerleading practice, the husband and I headed down to Whole Foods for our first vegan shopping excursion.

*side note...don't bloggers usually have clever pseudonyms for the people they mention in their blogs so they don't have to use their real names? Rob the husband needs a clever blog alias...hmmm...I shall call him Wentworth Miller. But then I might get used to calling him that and the lines between fantasy and reality may blur and then I might call him Wentworth Miller in the real world and he'll be like, "Huh?" and I'll be like, "Oops" and that might get awkward, kinda like this side note. So screw it; we'll just stick with Rob*

Armed with an impressive grocery list we set out to tackle the aisles.

I had never heard of a lot of the stuff on the list (umeboshi plum paste, seitan, mochi, tahini, tempeh, shoyu, daikon, peanut butter), so it was a bit like a treasure hunt. It was actually kind of exciting to find the more obscure items. And I just gotta say, the staff at Whole Foods are awesome people (seriously, in their spare time I know they rescue blind kittens from trees and knit scarves for baby giraffes living in cold climates). A young lad stocking the shelves saw me looking rather confused and asked if I needed help.

The poor boy didn't know what he had gotten himself into. It was like when you ask someone how she's doing (not really expecting an answer much more elaborate than "Fine, thanks" because let's be honest, nobody really gives a crap) and getting a detailed breakdown of her hectic day and ingrown toenail and frustration with the price of ferret food nowadays.

I proceeded to inform him that yes, indeed, I needed help, and rambled off a bunch of things on my grocery list that I probably didn't pronounce correctly. He wasn't sure where to find the seitan (which, fyi, is pronounced say-tan, not satan, as I soon discovered), and decided that I needed a more powerful jedi to take me under his wing, quickly tracking down just the employee/guru for the job. Not only did this man direct me to the seitan, he also guided me through the surrounding fridge sections where I found like six other items on my list (treasure hunt score!). I apologized for my denseness (because I'm crazy apologetic like that) and explained to him that I just started reading Alicia Silverstone's cookbook and most of this vegan stuff was foreign to me. He was superduper nice and extremely knowledgeable, and spent a few minutes giving me tips about how he likes to prepare some of the foods I would be buying. Then, as we parted ways he said,

"Welcome to the Kind Diet."

And then he went back to nursing orphaned baby dolphins.

I friggen love Whole Foods.

Genesis...Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. 


This whole thing started because my bff saw Alicia Silverstone on tv making chocolate peanut butter cups, and she really wanted some.


So on Christmas day 2010, I was gifted with my belated 30th birthday present, Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet. Bookmarking p. 183 (the chocolate peanut butter cups) was a note from aforementioned bff, briefly reflecting on our younger days watching Alicia on the big screen and acknowledging that even though I'm not vegan, the recipes seem fresh and fun, and she hopes I find time to read the book and try them out. 


Every couple of days I would pick up the book and start reading. And then ponder and flip through a few recipes and decide I don't have time right now (because I'm crazy busy like that) and go back to other things. But I never put the book away. It was always in plain sight on the kitchen counter, or on an end table, or by the bar sink. Unlike other things that I leave all over the house (because I'm crazy messy like that), this book did not go neglected for weeks at a time. I always came back to it, every couple of days. The more I read the more I started thinking that some of this stuff really makes sense, despite being completely contrary to the things I grew up believing. 


Which brings me to Thursday, January 20 (well, technically Friday January 21st). This was the night (or early morning) I decided (after staying up reading til 2am) that I didn't want to hum and haw anymore, and I did want a lifestyle change, and I could do it on my own terms, with no labels and no expectations. The first flicker of motivation set in, and I went to bed with a stupid smile on my face, feeling content.


So content, in fact, that I woke up at 8:11, nineteen minutes before three of my English classes were scheduled to start their term exam.  Which I was supposed to be supervising. And I still hadn't counted out my exams for the other supervisors. That was a bit of a hectic morning. 


But I digress. The point is that when it came to this Kind Diet thing I was motivated. Motivation and I don't have the most stable relationship, so I didn't expect it to last past the end of the day. When crazy teacher stuff takes over (which it always does), you pull out the frozen pizza...which I did...and followed it up with movie theatre poutine while watching the King's Speech later that night. 


I thought Motivation would surely feel offended by my blatant disregard for the insights that had sent me to bed feeling so content the night before, but he stuck around that weekend. He very sneakily steered me towards the curry prawn rice bowl at Moxies on Saturday night, when the plan going in had been a burger (yes I'm aware that a prawn curry rice bowl is not vegan...baby steps, baby steps). Motivation stuck around on Sunday during our epic grocery buy at Whole Foods, where we stocked up on all these vegan meal building blocks that I had never heard of...good times. And I realized that Motivation is sticking around because I had made it very clear going into this that this would be a lifestyle change on my own terms with no labels or expectations. Yes, setting low standards can result in an underachiever, but at least that underachiever still achieves something. 


So here we go...on board for this project are my dashing husband and I. The objective, as stated on my facebook page:


Not going vegan...lots more to that lifestyle to consider...just dabbling for the time being (or as Alicia calls it, flirting) with the intention of making healthier and kinder lifestyle choices :)


Been at it since Monday (Jan 24). Been posting pics of my attempts at the Kind Diet recipes on my fb page this week. Had a few people now (including my dashing husband) suggest that I try the blog thing. 


I always thought that if I had a blog it would be about our adoption, but that process has just been long and frustrating and there are never any updates for us in that area, so that blog would quickly turn into me just ranting about stuff. I've made the transition from frustration to apathy during the tedious waiting game, which is a much easier place to be, so I'll just keep it that way. 


I'm not gonna lie to you Marge, this is a bit intimidating. I'm already second-guessing my use of the term "bff" and the adjective "dashing" and my personification of Motivation...and being an English teacher doesn't make you a writer... it just makes you even more ridiculously self-conscious about everything you put out there. Incorrect usage of ellipses in the last sentence, I'm sure.  


And if cd ever reads this I just know he'll be the first to point out any embarrassing errors to get me back for that soar thing. Is it too late to say "I'm soary"?


Holy Jiminy that was a long first post. I probably violated some blog etiquette or something. 


Crap...now the pressure's on to end my first official post with something witty and insightful. I'll just borrow the end of Wil Wheaton's last blog post. I love Wil Wheaton. He also says I'm not gonna lie to you Marge because he's awesome like that...


The next time some idiot says that gaming and gamers are antisocial, I think I'll mention this ... and then punch them in the dick.


Hmmm...I guess it works.