last night i decided last minute to go to caroline's to grill before my 9pm shift. nick and i had to stop on the way to get food and the only nearby place that was open was zingermans. for shame. such a loss! so i was forced to buy Niman Ranch Knockwurst at a price which was surprisingly cheaper than the online cost. hmmm....fascinating. at any rate, nick went with the wild boar sage sausage "made with meat from feral swine," which i guess sets it apart from the wild boar sausage made from domesticated pig. i, myself, would have gone with the rabbit and ginger sausage. yum!

writing about all of this meat reminds me of my trip to cabela's last week with a few of my carnivorous friends. i don't know how long a vegetarian would last in that place without passing out, what with moose heads adorning every wall and a giant dead stuffed animal diarama right in the middle of the store. i found it interesting that all of the animals in the diarama were either fighting, hunting or being hunted. what could it mean? might it have any connection to the cabela's t-shirt reading "it's great to be at the top of the food chain"? maybe, amidst all of that hunting and fishing gear, if you start feeling, oh, repulsed by the idea of killing something, you can look over to the diarama to remind yourself that every animal spends all their time hunting or being hunted, so you're just, you know part of the food chain, right? uh, yeah. but who am i? i eat meat...meat made from feral swine.

last night a. and i made the bestest and tastiest dinner! grilled salmon in the new fish basket (thanks cabela's!) with grilled pineapple salsa, over quinoa. we are becoming grill masters. i'm getting all excited about buying my own grill, which i'll have to do when i move. grilling is a wonderful wonderful way to cook. it's my new favorite. maybe next week we can grill some big ol' steaks.

a. made the best sesame soba noodle stirfry last night with broccoli, cooked carrots that were not at all gross, shitake mushrooms, tofu and ginger. i ate it cold for lunch today and it was still mighty tasty! what with this summer break thing going on, we're eating so much better than when we had homework to do. and tonight we're going over to adnarim's for dinner. woo hoo!

just had dinner at The Mission, a Mexican-ish restaurant down the street from my hotel. i ordered the "Healthy Burrito," named so, from what i can tell, only because it was not deepfried. it was stuffed with cheese, rice and beans. oh, there wasn't meat in it, either. does that make it "healthy"? at any rate, it was mediocre at best, but i'm full so it was marginally successful. it also came with a very non-healthy but supertasty basket of fried tortilla chips. they were fabulous. the salsa left much to be desired, sadly, but the chips stood on their own.

down the street form the restaurant was Carl's Jr., a fast food restaurant found only on the West Coast, from what I can tell. there are t.v.'s propped up against the window facing the sidewalk, so when i walk by, i see these men, dining alone, all staring at the t.v.'s with glazed-over looks. but it kinda looks like they're staring at me with glazed over looks. it's very disconcerting.

in eugene:

+Rita Burrito at Saturday Market, amongst the hippies. if you ever wondered where they all went to, they're here! full force.
+Big bag of sweet snap-peas from the Farmers' Market which were so so so good. fresh! snappy! sweet! the Farmers' Market here is huge and there is so much variety.
+Tempeh grill (tempeh slab with cheese, veggies and bbq sauce) at the Glenwood, a cute little hippie-ish (surprise!) restaurant in eugene. with ann's friend superpower could be the ability to seperate shredded recycled materials.

this morning, crappy hotel restaurant food: canned pears and apricots (my favorite!), half a grapefruit, waffles with fake syrup and coffee with honey. and a lovely conversation with a woman from Bend, Oregon who is here to visit her hospitalized cousin.