This is the first political post on this blog this year, and it’s pretty long. If you aren’t interested in reading more, feel free to skip. Please remember to keep comments polite.

A woman on the ballot for VP??? My first thought was that it sounded too good to be true! I remember as a kid when we named our cat for Geraldine Ferraro, Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984. I wasn’t expecting a female VP this election cycle, so I was really surprised when a friend told me about John McCain naming Sarah Palin as his VP choice. The choice made sense, though, choosing a woman could pander to the upset Hillary Clinton supporters, and possibly swing female voters to McCain.

When I first started reading about Sarah Palin, I was impressed: she’s an active and involved mom of 5, she calls herself a hockey mom (I think that’s the Alaskan version of a soccer mom), she enjoys outdoor winter sports such as ice fishing and snowmobiling, she’s well-loved in the community (85% approval rating!), she’s been an active partner in her husband’s fishing business, and she became involved in government - city council, mayor, and then governor partly to clear out the corruption and excessive spending in the Alaskan government. She’s type of woman that mothers of daughters want to point at - you can do whatever you set your mind to do! Sarah Palin sounds like someone I’d like to have coffee or lunch with - definitely a strong, unique, and fascinating woman. (Even if her office has a the skin of a grizzly bear her father shot on the sofa)

After I got over my initial “oh wow! a woman!” excitement, I looked at her stand on issues that are key for me. Any remote possibility of me supporting her politically disappeared completely at that point. Read the rest of this entry »

This is clearly a week for food in our family! I signed the contract for my dairy-free book with a bunch of recipes, and now MG is featured in a Hack College entry about cooking in dorm rooms.

Whatever will come next? BG being interviewed by the newspaper for her mad cooking skillz? LG’s “recipe” of ham wrapped around grape jelly featured in a cookbook?

I’ve been hanging out with the designers from shirt.woot for the past few months. It’s been fun to see how tshirts are created, how the community works, and how designers improve their skills over time. They have also helped me to laugh, smile, and just be goofy while I was stressed about my grandmother’s health, family issues, my own health, the book, etc etc etc. They’re Good People, and I’m thrilled to see their designs being printed at other places, like Tee Fury and Designs By Humans. Most of these friends are also more than happy to test out my recipes for The Book, too (assuming they can cook). It’s great to also get opinions about the taste of the recipes from folks who don’t have to cook “special” foods.

If you’ve ever bought anything at Threadless, I have another favor for you. If you haven’t before - go pick up one of their shirts that are on sale for $9 or $12 until Monday If you don’t want to buy a shirt, you can still go there and register (but then I don’t get any “points” for referring you), and then vote for my friend Sharp. I was brainstorming with her when she came up with this design months ago, and I’m thrilled to see how it has evolved into this design! It’s now up for voting at Threadless - just click on the “I’d buy it as a T” and then “5″
PS - while you’re at Threadless, check out the awesome vampire shirt that glows in the dark AND reacts to sunlight!

Every week there is a Derby at shirt.woot, where people vote for their favorite designs. Voting starts midday Friday, and ends midday Thursday. The top 3 vote-getters are printed Fri, Sat, Sun. Right now there are a few great designs by some of these wonderful friends, so please check them out! Clicking on the design thumbnail will take you to the full design, where you can vote if you have bought anything from any of the woot.com sites. If you haven’t bought anything, may I suggest BG’s favorite, Oh Burned!!! by JadenKale, which she recently modeled at the beach.

This week’s theme is “At the Luau”, so if you’re interested in any Hawaiian themed shirts, this is a good time to vote for a few you’d like a chance to buy! (You can vote for as many or as few designs as you would like) Some of our faves this week, in alphabetical order by designer’s name:

Ansharp’s Sometimes I explode, and I don’t know why
Chris Risse’s Tiki Gods Bless This Limbo Pole
• EyesLikeSugar’s Monsters like luaus, too
• Geekfactor12’s Fine Young Cannibals
• JadenKale’s Tiki Treat
• Patchitect’s Oh! The Cocanity!
• Sokowa’s Luau Fire

A couple other fun designs are the always-unique- Edgar’s (Title eaten by giant fruit.); Tgentry’s Tiki Beast from 50 Fathoms and Luau Beast from 90 Fathoms; rglee’s How Baby Islands are Made and Maiself-tai; and SkekTek’s Let’s All Go To The Luau!!!. Happy voting!

Hope everyone has a great (if rainy on the East coast) weekend!

Today dawned sunny and warm. These last few days of sunny, summery weather help my mood so much!

Yesterday was an amazing day. My book contract arrived, and I signed it, and it was mailed off to the specialist I’m working with. He signs it, sends it to the publisher, and then we get $!

Then we went to the beach with a friend and 2/3 of the dogs (dogs are allowed at the beach after Labor Day). Jack hung out at home while Harley and Ra came along for the ride. I took a few pics you can look at them here. We had a wonderful time, and really enjoyed the beautiful day.

If you’ve visited here over the past few years, you know that I’ve been living with Chronic Lyme disease and chronic pain, as well as a few other diagnosis. Yesterday was the first day i walked up the hill from the beach without collapsing or needing the inhaler. It was a Good Day!

After the beach I tested a few recipes - mmmm, donuts!

I ended the day exhausted, but happy. May we have many, many more days like that!

A quick linky post this morning to alert you that the new food allergy blog carnival has been posted.

My post last night about my upcoming dairy-free book is part of the carnival.

Don’t forget to check out the new recipe for Lentil and Sea Veggie soup. We will be testing the egg free version of the Chocolate Donuts today. We really suffer

Now off to write more…

A few updates:

• The girls’ school year started today with a big bang. And then a lot of other noise while the people across the street took down a tree.

• I have a new soup recipe and an updated donut recipe on the recipe blog
• I now have an actual signed agency agreement with a literary agent. This is real!
• I’m working with a top allergist from New York who is helping with sidebars and medical information. He’s also affiliated with FAAN, and he’s a genuinely nice guy.
• I now have a contract coming to me from Penguin books, who publishes the “Complete Idiot’s Guide” books. I am officially writing “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Dairy Free Eating”!!!
• I blockaded myself in my bedroom last weekend to write

I should also be getting an advance soon - which makes it all the more real! This means that I am working my butt off reading, researching, and writing. I’m rewriting my recipes into their format, and writing about how to start a dairy free life, what to look for, etc.

I never thought 10 years ago when we first started this adventure that we would have accumulated and outgrown so many allergens, or that I would have learned so much. We’ve avoided dairy, citrus, gluten, soy, corn, egg, and berries. Plus we delay introducing peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish for the first 3 years. We are now “only” avoiding dairy, gluten, and berries.

However, because of our experiences, I’m trying to make this book friendly for people who are not only dairy free, but also gfcf, gluten-free, and/or dealing with other allergies. I’m also notating it for vegan diets.

This is a lot of work! It’s going to be 200+ recipes, and about 150 pages of writing that isn’t recipe related. I’m also going to be needing recipe testers, random people to tell me how awesome I am, and patience. I need it all finished by mid-December, so I’m going to have to miss NaNoWriMo, and possibly the idea of seeing my family on weekends.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me, visited the recipe site, commented, or read this blog. You are all awesome! I’ll be catching up with email soon. Really.

A final GIANT shout out to Jennifer and the beans who sent the agent my way after they found her eating dairy free while breastfeeding page! Keep that amazon wish list up to date, Jennifer!

Please comment or email me if you’re interested in recipe testing - I would love to have people in different parts of the US.

We’re watching summer wind down here on Labor Day weekend, and enjoying the last days of summer beachiness with our friends.

After this weekend, though, we can bring the dogs back to the beach, and there will be less competition for prime spots!

Here’s a mosaic of a recent beach trip with our friends B & Z and their mom. Moms are never in the pictures, of course!

LG’s birthday came with a dead hard drive, so I’m a few days late with the update.  But she had a wonderful day with plenty of Hello Kitty and Barbie.  Then she got to go shopping with gift cards for books, toys, shoes (of course!), and a computer game.  What more can you want?

Do you remember reading the Phantom Tollbooth as a kid? If I remember right, the kid gets stuck in the doldrums, as a real place.

Right now, between the vacation, my trip to CT to help grandmothers, and then coming back to 4 cases of chicken pox, I am stuck in the doldrums. I’m totally wiped out, and I know I’m dropping balls I should be juggling.

Thoughtful posts will resume soon. Really. I promise.

In the mean time, here’s a picture of LG in the pool on our vacation. Isn’t she adorable? Can you believe she will be 5 on Monday? wow.

I’ve got a lot going on here with the girls and B recovering from chicken pox and me trying to catch up on things from being gone for 2 weeks. I feel so unsettled!

I’ve got a quick beg today - if you have ever bought anything at woot.com, you can vote in their weekly contest. I’ve put up my designs here to beg for a vote or 3.

But now my friend has a chance of winning. This is the friend who helped make the shirt pictured below of the family tree for my father’s side. So, please vote for the tin man with the wind-up mouse! And the 6th place is also a good friend - so please also vote for the mercury mad hatter

And now a quick shot from the Big Family Vacation it’s missing my younger brother, but this is dad, step-mom, step-brothers, and me: