Alamo

It took me about three and half hours to get there because I had to get some groceries, lunch, and gas. And I got caught in a couple nasty thunderstorms. Yes, thunderstorms do happen in Arizona.

So the weather was bad Friday. We were under shelters for most of the night.

Saturday was on and off rain. The high at the ranger station was 67, and the lake temperature was 68-70 degrees. So the water was warmer than the air. But it was still too cold to stay in. And the rain came and went all day, so after a couple hours huddling under shelters, we gave up trying to spend the day on the lake. But we had a fire that night and made smores. My cinnamon Chebe rolled thin wasn't too bad as a graham cracker substitute not too bad.

Sunday, we woke up to sunlight. So we went for a day on the lake. It was too cold to float in the water, so we pulled up to a cove, set up a shade tent, chairs, and kicked back and drank. One of the guys tried to fish, but after his pole broke in half, he gave up with his one small trout. I put sunscreen on three times that day. It wasn't my SPF 70, but I thought the 50 would be fine.

After we packed up the boat, and got the boats back to camp, we cooked dinner. Then the matchmakers and I piled in my car and drove to Wayside. Nobody has seen the new place since the last bar burned down, so we went to check it out. It was a local "dive bar" but at least there was some sort of wine to drink (don't ask). Since they wanted to close, we had one round, and drove back to camp.

Monday I woke up at 4 AM sick. Like the stomach bug sickness my fiance had the weekend before. And there was no beer there I could drink. So I tried to keep down the gatorade and water while we packed up camp. And then to add the cherry to my wonderful weekend, I was sunburned on the shoulders and feet. So wearing socks and shirt hurt with every movement.

And the group wants to come back for the 4th of July since it'll be a three day weekend. And I don't think we'll get the same luck with the weather again. So I'm expecting to be a crispy critter, but at least we'll get to float around in the lake.

more celiac rants

I have three more things that I now have to avoid (or try):

Natural Flavoring or Natural Flavor. Dryer's admitted that a natural flavor that was in the chocolate mouse ice cream was derived from wheat on their new package. So I spend the extra money and get Blue Bunny and keep that container of yummy in my freezer. But I know there's natural flavors in a lot of things, so it's going to be hard to avoid it. But I've suspected for a while now that the natural flavors was the source of my gluten.

Hydrogenated Soy Protein. I read somewhere that Hydrogenated Vegetable Protein contained gluten. Silly me, I was looking for the words "Hydrogenated Vegetable Protein" and never finding it. This weekend, I pondered out loud "isn't soy a vegetable?" Granted, the company was in various stages of intoxation, but they said "yes". And the beans that were offered in the group setting had "Hydrogenated Soy Protein". So I'm looking for that now.

Partially Hydrogenated Soy Protein. That's in most of the Balance Bars, which I have been going through the last couple of months. For the reason above, and my frequent episodes of gluten exposure, that's on my "no-no" list.

Isn't is almost easier to do the dark chocolate and wine diet? But I'm seriously bummed that after three years, I still feel like a clueless dolt that can't figure out what is okay to eat and what isn't. Hopefully I'll get past this feeling soon.