EBay NOW (What!?!?!)

I'm sure I've mentioned my dismay at the Ebay NOW commercials I've heard on Pandora.

The first one was some dude at Delores Park who didn't want to harsh his mellow by running around the corner to get sunblock when he realized he was getting a sunburn.  He pulls out his smart phone, uses the Ebay NOW app to order sunblock. Delivered to his person in about an hour.

By that time you would totally be sunburned. We have a CVS or Walgreens on just about every corner in San Francisco. He could take 5 minutes to walk around the corner to get some sunblock, but really he should have sunblocked prior to going to the park. Once you start burning, you aren't really going to stop it.

The other commercial is a dude having a BBQ.  Oh noes. We're out of charcoal.  What does he do? Pulls out the smartphone, uses Ebay NOW and orders some charcoal.  For delivery. In about an hour.

I'm pretty sure when I decide to hold a BBQ, I check to see if I have the basics. BBQ. Charcoal. Meat.  You know, the things that make it a BBQ.  I'm also pretty sure that my guests are likely going to come hungry.  I don't want to put the meal behind by up to an hour waiting on charcoal.

Well, Justin used Ebay NOW today and it was perfect.  He was in need of NERF.

Our closest retailer is City Target (or as we call it, Rape Target).  City Target is somehow different than regular Target. This means they have higher prices, less stuff and bad attitudes.  They DO NOT honor Target prices. They will only price match their OWN ad (Not the Target ad, only the CITY Target ad).

So instead of going to Tanforan or Redwood City to go to Target, he used EBay NOW.  Order placed. Order Accepted. And we had NERF delivered to our doorstep in about 40 minutes. With a $5 delivery charge. Say what?!?!

If you need to return an item, they will even pick it up and return it for you!

The only drawback is the limited service area for now.  They are testing in San Francisco, San Jose and New York City.

Here's Justin's video review.

DANGEROUS PRODUCT WARNING - Gyros Precision Tool

If you use a Dremel (or any Dremel like tools), beware of Gyros precision tools that claim to be compatible with Dremel tools).

Justin Kelly went to use the saw blade attachment and just about lost his hand.

In all our years of using Dremel, store brand Dremel accessories and even a generic flea market dremel, we've never had a mandrel bend as soon as the unit was turned on.

In fact, we've never had a mandrel bend. EVER.

Dem Bones... (chicken bones)

I have to admit I've gotten REALLY lazy about making (and drinking) bone broth as of late.

It's probably been a month or more since I've made any and really, I've consumed so much broth in the last 6 months, it was starting to make me a bit queasy.

I usually use the remnants of a chicken I've either made or purchased (thank you Costco Bachelor Chickens for being so convenient).  Most of the time though, the broth won't gel.

Why is this important, you may wonder?  Well, it's a good sign that the collagen and gelatin have leached from your carcass and are readily available for your body to utilize.  It's actually a sign of a good broth. If you get it to gel, you've done a great job.

I've found the key to getting a good gel pretty much every time is using chicken feet.

I read about it in Nourishing Traditions.

 

I was a bit off put by the idea of putting a bunch of feet in my broth.

But I went to the market in Justin's neighborhood and purchased a package of feet (this was a few years back and chicken feet are remarkably hard to find - if you are looking, check your local Asian or Hispanic market. You'll be hard pressed to find them at Safeway or Raley's).

I threw those feet in with my carcass and veggies and let it simmer away.  It didn't seem any different until it cooled down.... Chicken Jello.

Since that time, chicken jello has become a staple of my diet.  When I started AIP back in January, I was consuming broth with every meal.  I had considered GAPS, which used broth based soups for every meal, but wasn't that willing to commit.

I can say with pretty good certainty that my joint health is markedly better when I am getting a good and continuous source of gelatin and collagen.  I don't sound like a bowl of rice crispies when I move.  Lay off the broth for a while and it's back to snap, crackle and pop.

It also is a great food to soothe your intestines and help improve digestion.

But when you are drinking that much broth, it gets old. Fast.

Enter gelatin.

It blends in pretty easily to whatever I'm drinking. I add it to cold beverages, hot beverages and the like. It seems to blend in pretty easily if you add it to a small amount of room temperature liquid before adding it to hot or cold liquids. 

I'm drinking it three times a day currently to see if it has similar effects.  I'll let you know how it goes. If my knees stop making a snapping noise, I'd say we're good.  (the snapping sounds far more painful that in actually is)

I found this list at my mom's house the other day. This was the list I went to my doctor with in 2011 outlining the pain I was in (and had been in for as long as I could remember). I'm glad to say that it's 2013 and aside from the occasional flare up (usually of my shoulder or hip), I'm free of most of those symptoms. 

Might I add that I'm not taking ANY NSAIDS or anti-inflammatory medications for probably the first time in my adult life.  Through diet and lifestyle changes, I've managed to turn all of this around (though it's still hard to straighten my hair - so I don't). 

Gone Camping!

We went to Yosemite for 5 days and 4 nights and it was awesome!

Living in San Francisco has given me a new appreciation for "the woods." I grew up in "the woods" and hated going camping there (it was like camping out in the backyard). I always preferred the coast because it was a change of scenery.

I have to say there are definitely times I miss "the woods" now. Living in San Diego or Sacramento didn't make me miss it so much, but San Francisco definitely makes me feel as though I need some sort of return to nature on a regular basis.

I had only been to Yosemite once before (on a school trip with Justin) and we only got one day in the park. We decided to go back and do some exploring for our "honeymoon."

We stayed two nights at the Yosemite Bug Rustic Resort in Midpines, about an hour away from Yosemite. While driving into the park (and out) took a while - there is a place where the road was consumed by a landslide and a one lane bridge is the solution they came up with, it was totally worth it. We had a tent cabin, access to their health spa and didn't have to cook dinner or breakfast!

Normally, I wouldn't really care about cooking (I do it all the time). We did the Panorama Trail hike on Monday (8.5 miles from Glacier Point to Happy Isle).

We started here!  At Glacier Point - Elevation 7214

The view from our starting point!

Our finish point. At Happy Isles - Elevation 4000

All I can say is Eff the Mist Trail portion of the hike.  I'm not usually bothered by heights but this was sketchy, super sketchy.  There is a stretch that is a 12 inch wide staircase that has people both coming up and down with a rickety metal pole serving as a rail...... 

Once was enough... The "stairs" to the top of Vernal Falls. 

Apparently the John Muir Trail intersects near Nevada Fall, which would have taken us around the stairs of doom. We can say we did it. And once was enough!  The rest of the hike was great (about a 3200 elevation change over the course) and I got some cool photos. 

We camped two nights in the park as well. We stayed at Tuolumne Meadows camp ground and were pleasantly surprised about the "lack" of bugs.  I was sort of expecting something similar to the swarms of mosquitoes that attack a car the second it stops moving at Wright's Lake (both share similar elevations and wetland type areas).  We did use bug spray (and busted out the electric wand), but it wasn't necessary to wear a net headpiece or anything. 

We drank a lot of cold ones as one should when camping.  We took it easy. We took the shuttle (most genius feature of the park). We took pictures.  We climbed the dome across from Olmstead Point. 

We did not see any bears. That's the first thing anyone asks when they hear you've been to Yosemite.  I've seen more bears at my mom's house (and at the Folsom Street Faire). I did see a deer ford the river, a marmot and insanely tame squirrels.  I didn't see any hawks. I also didn't see much fungus. 

 

Hey guys. Look how many tricks I can do.  

Justin made a new friend. 

One of the few examples of fungus! 

One of the most exciting parts of the trip was that my beloved Sony V3 camera began working again prior to the trip.  I hadn't been able to use it for 2 years. It always said "ACCESS" when you would turn it on. I went to try one more time, and lo and behold it worked!  

I like my Panasonic T3 because of it's durability, but it doesn't take the same quality of pictures that the V3 does. I have a macro lens and wide angle lens for it and I am content to take macro photos all day long. I've had the V3 for probably close to 10 years now and nothing compares to it. It has NIGHT VISION. Seriously. 

The T3 is waterproof, shockproof and can withstand extreme temperatures.  I can take it places I would never take the V3. But the V3 takes far superior photos.  

I could go on and on forever considering the number of photos I took, but I'll save those for another post.  

AND REMEMBER: