I think I'm finally healed enough to blog about this. There are some mildly graphic references to the red stuff that flows through one's veins below, so if you find that sort of thing bothersome you might want to read about something else...

Before I start with the story, I want to make a disclaimer. We had been to the gym that afternoon, so I wasn't exactly looking my best in the picture right there. Normally I look better for my mild medical mishaps.

10 days ago, Kristine and I were preparing a dinner to take to friends of ours who just had a new addition to their family (um, a baby, in case that wasn't clear). The menu was dry rubbed roast pork tenderloin, garlic mashed sweet potatoes, broccoli amandine, and chocolate chip cookies (because who doesn't love CC cookies?). This was a Weds, and we were making our delivery on Thursday, so we were just prepping.

We got the loin rubbed down and in the fridge and I was cutting up the sweet potatoes. You know how hard and fibrous those things can be, right? Well, although I was being very focused on the task at hand, the just-sharpened knife slipped.

I was suddenly bleeding - more than I thought was justifiable. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to stick my finger in a glass of cool water that I had recently been drinking (sometimes under stress, we do odd things). It looked like fruit punch gatorade in less than two seconds.

I couldn't get the bleeding to stop to see how bad things actually were, but I was under the impression that I had cut myself. You know, like a long narrow trench of suffering. At some point, though, we realized that I had actually cut off a piece of the pad of my finger. This was confirmed when we found the piece of my fingertip. Gross? Yes, very. It was a roundish piece about 3/8" in diameter - still stuck to the knife. This was the point where Kristine took control.

Kristine in control is usually a good thing, but she was a little freaked. I was kinda laughing, which didn't help things all that much.

The bleeding just wouldn't stop. I eventually gave in at about 9:00pm (about 30 mins after the unfortunate incident). We headed to the Urgent Care at UMC, which turned out to be a bad choice since they no longer have an urgent care. I really didn't want to pay the ER rates, so we headed off in search of an urgent care.

We were totally thwarted. We even had friends Brandon & Stacey looking online for evening urgent care centers while we drove half-heartedly towards St. Mary's hospital. Even with all of S&B's efforts, we ended up in the ER there. Who knew that there were no evening urgent care centers in a town of this size??

Our experience at St. Mary's was great. The people were incredibly friendly and we were taken care of quickly. We were put on their FastTrack, which meant that we'd see a PA instead of an MD. I was fine with that. I was still bleeding through everything they gave me, but didn't really think I was going to bleed out or that my very existence was in danger.

I think the kicker of the whole thing was when the PA came in, looked at it for maybe 5 seconds, and says, "I could *pause* put a band-aid on there if you want.". A band-aid. I had those at home. Nonetheless, I requested said band-aid.

The nurse came in a few minutes later with something called gel-foam that she used to actually make the bleeding stop (wonders never cease!), then wrapped it up in gauze (you can see her handiwork above). She then gave me the requisite tetanus shot (it had been 11 years, in my estimation). We were out the door after a total of 90 minutes there.

The big remaining question: how much did that band-aid cost? I haven't received the bill yet, but I'll update when it comes in.

So what are the lessons learned?

• If you're going to cut off a small piece of your body, do it during normal business hours.
• Band-aids can work wonders.
• St. Mary's can efficiently process patients.
• Sweet potatoes are evil.

And I'll leave you with that.

Oh, wait, one more funny thing: we took the small piece of my finger with us (wrapped and on-ice) in case they wanted to sew it back on. The PA: "It'll just grow back.". Silly us.

-TFD

Feast or famine. That really seems all-too-appropriate for a food blog, doesn't it? I have times when I'm not really sure what I'm going to write about, and times where I've just got so much stuff running around my brain. Right now, I'm in the latter situation.

Because of that, I'm going to cram two fun and exciting recent happenings into one post. The danger here is that this is going to be way too long and full of extraneous details. *Sigh* I'll understand if you don't make it all the way to the end.

Odell Brewing
Last night, they were in town to launch their Tucson presence. They (Kirk & J.R.) spent some quality time at Plaza Liquors, then a couple of hours hanging out at 1702 (where we were stationed), and then whisked themselves off to Old Chicago. To protect identities, I'm going to refer to the members of my party as K, S, & B.

Things officially kicked off at 6:00, but S & I got there a little after 5:00. They're right across the street from work, for cryin' out loud! K arrived shortly thereafter. Then the good folks from Odell, bearing gifts. I think we all ended up with bottleopener keyrings, t-shirts, & coasters (those might not have been giveaways - I may have actually stolen them). B came a little later still, having gone to work out first (go B!).

I was fortunate to have been Tweeting when they got there (although I think my tweets became slightly less coherent as the evening continued), and I may or may not have been tipped off to keep my eyes on Twitter at about 6:30. I did, and I ended up winning a 750ml bottle of Woodcut #2, which retails for about $25.00. I'll looking forward to popping that open sometime in the near future.

So we sampled their three beers (IPA, Easy Street Wheat, and 90 Shilling Scottish ale), and I still think that their IPA may be my favorite beer ever. I mentioned it in my Postino post, and it's just that good. The others were good as well, but what can I say? I'm an IPA kind of guy. K enjoyed the wheat, S was in agreement on the IPA (and we usually see eye-to-eye on beer), and B.... well, I don't seem to remember which she liked! I remember her really liking their yellow t-shirts (although she didn't end up with one), but I'm fuzzy on her beer preference.

To wrap up, it was a good time with good friends, good pizza, and good beer. What more does one need?

Julie & Julia
Before I start talking about the movie itself, I want to thank Arizona Public Media for the guest passes to the sneak preview. We enjoyed the movie and appreciated you sponsoring the event itself.

Kristine, Gale & I went to Old Pueblo Grill beforehand for a glass of wine and some appetizers. Steve was going to meet us at the theater because he was out buying a Volvo or something silly like that. He had chips & guacamole and the tostada sampler. The machaca tostada was a hit all around. We didn't discuss the guac too much, but it seemed a little flat to me. It could used more zip, delivered through lime juice, or even some salt...

Ok, so the movie is everywhere. You've heard all about it. You've read all about it. You know what to expect. I did too.

Some of the things I'd heard weren't entirely accurate, though. Amy Adams was roundly panned. I think it was Gourmet magazine who advised bringing reading material and a penlight for those sequences (harsh!)... She was not nearly as good as Meryl Streep, but c'mon! That's Meryl Streep she's up against! And Meryl Streep was brilliant as Julia. There were many times I forgot that it wasn't Julia Child on the screen. Some of those scenes took me back to when I was a youngster watching Julia on TV and thinking, "I could do that". Which I then did.

I found it to be a lovely tribute to her memory, with a slightly weaker story of self-empowerment thrown in with it. Of course, I'm not a film critic, and neither are Kristine & Gale, who both gave it thumbs up. I'd like to be able to say that Steve liked it too, but the whole Volvo-buying process took longer than anticipated.

Ok, that's it. I'll stop now. I think I've probably done longer posts, so I'm happy that this one is as short (and yes as lively!) as it is.

Thanks for reading.

-TFD

I’m happy to eat just about anything. I have a daughter who only eats things that weren’t once happily walking/flying/swimming around their natural (or cage-related) environment. Yep, I eat meat, and have a vegetarian daughter.

We were all vegetarians once-upon-a-time (and for 7 years), but I fell victim to a bacon incident about 3 years ago and haven’t looked back. So having spent quite a bit of time as a veggie myself, I can understand where she’s coming from and don’t feel like it’s ‘just a phase’ on her part. Holy cow, she’s been vegetarian for the last 11 of her 15 (well, she turns 15 in about three weeks) years!

She’s tried eating meat (and fish, and fowl) on a couple of times at my urging, but it’s just not working for her. My younger (12y.o.) daughter will eat meat for the most part.

If we were the type of family that just ate out all the time, it really wouldn’t be an issue. But I really like to cook. I don’t like to cook so much though, that I want to make two separate meals (or even entrees) every night. I also don’t always want to leave the meat out of dishes and mix at the table – curries and such just aren’t the same! I like tofu and meat substitutes just fine, but don’t want them all the time.

So I’m trying to figure out how to respect her decision (one that I had a strong hand in her making in the first place) yet still have meals that will make everyone happy. Do I have her make her own meatless entrée every night (making sure that it’s not a PB&J)? Do I just give up and go back to being vegetarian when she’s home? Do I force her to eat meat? Do I make her pick it out of what I make?

I’m curious if there are any other folks out there going through the same thing. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

*Apologies to Michael Pollan for co-opting the title of his awesome book, and apologies to you, dear readers, for the unashamed use of clipart in this post.

-TFD

Hi All!

In my continuing efforts to make my blog more useful (than what, I'm not entirely sure), I've decided to add a calendar of Tucson Food Happenings.

It's still a work in progress, and it may or may not work out in the long run (maintaining a calendar can be a big pain in the behind). In the meantime, though, if you hear of any food related events going on, please let me know about them. I'm happy to post things as they come up!

If this works out, I may try to expand it to include recurring events (happy hours, weekly specials, etc), but for now I'm looking more at one-time things.

So drop me a note if you know of things going on, if you have any comments/suggestions, or if you have a good source for foodish happenings!

PS: I moved the calendar down to the bottom of the blog because of formatting issues. Once I make it pretty I'll move it back up top!

-TFD