The Mini Cooper, The Crabcake, and Everything in Between

Tales from San Francisco...

The Mini Cooper

When cruising along the coast in your super cool coop (in front of a cop), please remember to maintain at least the minimum speed limit.

Mr. Coop was driving MAYBE 20mph right infront of the CHP (California Highway Patrol). Once we rounded a curve on the mountain and a turnout* opened up, the CHP dude flashed his lights and pulled Mr. Coop over.

Sean and I in unison said, "Thank God!". Mr. CHP wrenched his door open and slammed it as he stormed towards Mr. Coop. Sean and I were "LOAO*"! As we passed (window cracked) we heard "7....8....", I quickly figured out that he was counting the number of cars Mr. Coop was holding up. We were number 8.


The Crabcake

I have a small obsession with Crabcakes. I LOVE THEM! I ate two of them while in San Francisco. Can't get fresh seafood in the middle of the desert. CC number one wasn't as good as CC number two, pictured below.

Crabcake sandwich. I prefer my CC without a bun but this beauty was oh-so-yummy! Minus the healthy crap like the tomatoe and cucumber, it was delicious!

SEE! Delicious.

So....I am now on a mission to find the tastiest Crabcake. Here's the order so far...

#1 - Smith & Wollensky Steak House, Las Vegas, NV

#2 - Knuckles Bar & Grill, San Francisco, CA

#3 - Pompeii's Grotto, San Francisco, CA

This is my one 'Anytime Freebie' when it comes to the diet. We're all entitled to a little fun, right?!

If you have a yummy crabcake recipe, please share. I have no idea how to make these things, which is probably for the best, but I'd love to give it a try.

In the spirit of trying things, I gave a Mojito a go. I had a sip of one while in Vegas with my sis and I had one with my CC from Knuckles. Yummy too!

On to other San Francisco notes:

- DO NOT visit China Town between the hours of 8:30am and 10:00am. IF you do, avoid any and all produce markets. Madness! I'm willing to bank that fresh produce is only shipped in on Saturday mornings. The one morning we were cruisin' the mean streets of China Town, San Fran. ;)

- DO take the cable cars. So much fun BUT, try to get a seat because you will (most likely) get a little too close to the guy or girl holding on for dear life beside you.

That's all I got. Time for bed...

*Turnout - An area along a roadwaywhere slow drivers are supposed to pull over so people like Speed Racer Sean can pass. :)

*LOAO - Laughing Our Asses Off

San Francisco and Coastal Cruise - Picture Heavy

Sean and I celebrated our anniversary by taking a trip to San Francisco. We had a lot of fun and I took some 200 pictures. Here's just a few.

We took the fast way there, not much to see.

But I couldn't stop staring down the rows and rows of perfectly a-lined fruit trees and produce plants.

Crossing the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge headed into San Francisco. I saw the Golden Gate Bridge but I didn't get a picture of it.

San Francisco

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge from San Francisco streets.

Heading out to check out the sites.

On the famous San Francisco Cable Cars

China Town

Some of what China Town is selling. LOL!

How would you like explaining that street name every time you gave out directions?

The street we walked up to see what I believe is the crookedest street in the US. My shins and ankles still hurt. I think this walk was Sean's favorite part. It was either for the entertainment value of hearing me bitch about the steepness of the streets, or it was the proud factor when we made it up the 3 blocks without stopping.

Lombard Street & Moi

Lombard Street and Sean

Alcatraz

On the back of a Cable Car. This picture looks like a photoshop but I swear it's real. LOL!

Leaving San Francisco. Sad to be going back home to reality, it was great to forget for a few days.

A little piece of us remains in San Francisco.

The rest of the photo's are from our drive home. We decided to take the scenic route and drove down the coast. It was beautiful but long, and curvy.

Hearst Castle

Entering Santa Barbara

Thank you to the Hubs for creating a better anniversary than the last. And for letting me ride shotgun the whole way so I could take pictures. I love you and I can't wait for next year. :)

Just A Quick Note

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. We did, and those 4 (or so) added pounds were worth it. Hopefully I'll walk them all off while in San Francisco!!! Yay!

I'll be back on Monday with tons of pics and I'm sure, stories to tell. Until then, have a great weekend & good luck if you're braving the chaos of shopping this weekend. We may stop at Old Navy (outlet) on our way out but that's the extent of our shopping this weekend.

Turkey Day, Here I Come

Happy Thanksgiving!

That was the first (and so far last) turkey I cooked on Thanksgiving, thanks to the help of my fantastic friend Lisa. This year, I'm just in charge of mashed potatoes. Yes!!

This week has been madness!!!

• Doctor Appointments
• Holiday Party
• Rude Military Wives
• Getting Ready for Anniversary - Yay!
• More Doctor Appointments
• Business Stuff and More!

Whew!!!

Let's see, working out is going well. Definitely making progress and no looney knees since the first two. No more heart palipitations either since the first two. Thank goodness!

I'm hanging up the 'Mommy Bag' on Friday and the Hubs and I are running away for the weekend. Lots of pics to come. :)

Had my swallow test today and it seems like all is ok in there. We'll see if the Doc has anything different to say. I think that's about it, you're all caught up now.

Have a very happy, safe, and delicious Thanksgiving. And to all the dieters, remember, calories don't count on holiday's.

Endurance...

Where did you go?

Because you're not here with me anymore. I worked out yesterday for the first time in about 10 months and I did horrible. Eight minutes into the elliptical machine my left knee gave out. Luckily, I caught myself and all was good.

Today, on the elliptical machine again, the same knee gave out on minute nine. Some improvement so I can't complain. My neuro actually asked me about my leg strength at a previous appointment and he thought my right leg was weaker. I don't know if the knee giving out thing is related to MS but just to make me feel good about my fitness level right now, I'm gonna say it is.

My supplements are underway, the diet's going well (cheated last night and it was YUMMY), and I'm working out. Yay Me! Now I just need to hold on to every little bit of motivation I can to maintain it.

And That's Why...

The Hubs and I are running a half marathon next year. I am so crazy for agreeing to this but I think it'll be a great motivator to get out there and exercise, stay healthy, run, and.... run some more.

It's later in the year so I have enough time to build my endurance and kick some ass! Did I mention that I hate running on pavement? I'm a treadmill girl, so..., this could get ugly.

BUT I'M GOING TO DO IT!

Hold me to it, ok? In case I get scared, or weak, or think I'm going to die.

To think that in less than a year from now I'm going to run 13.1 miles. HA! Crazy.

Nutrition, and Heart Palpitations - Good Times!

Last week I mentioned that I was starting my new diet. One week down and so far so good.

Starting weight: 163.6

Today's weight: 160.0

I saw my nutritionist today and he said 155lbs is a good weight for me judging off of my BMI and height. Sounds good! Now if I can just get on the exercise wagon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~INTERMISSION~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I started this post yesterday afternoon but had to stop after experiencing what I now think was heart palpitations. It ended up lasting about an hour and a half but 30 minutes in I texted the Hubs to see what he thought I should do.

He suggested I call Shared Solutions, the "Care Center" if you will, of Copaxone. It never dawned on me to call them and after I read his text I started crying. I have no idea why but a few minutes later I got on the phone with a nurse from SS. I told her it had been happening for about an hour at that point and that it comes and goes. With it, I feel shaky but not on the outside, I feel like the inside of my chest is shaking. Wierd.

She said that palpitations is a side effect of Copaxone but since I took it almost 8 hours earlier she found it odd that it was happening now and wasn't sure if it was directly a result of the Copaxone. She said that if it continued to happen for another hour that I should go the the ER.

"Great!" I thought. "Our first weekend of no soccer games or errands to run and I'm going to be stuck in an ER". I called the Hubs after talking to the nurse and burst into tears again. I was perfectly fine while on the phone with the nurse, joking even. But something about hearing my Hubs' voice made me very scared of what was happening and I gave in.

Luckily, about 20 minutes after the phone call my palpitations started to taper off. My chest felt a little shaky for another hour or so but after that I was good.

I guess I need to start keeping track of all this crap. I'm gonna find a fancy journal and fill it with MS crap, dates of symptoms, and whatever else falls under the "WTF" category. :)

I Can't Catch A Break

I think I have a bit of writers block. I'm sitting here away from the chaos that is 'life', and I can't seem to get a thing out of my mind and into this blog post. Maybe it's because I'm preoccupied with all the other crap my brain is sifting through at the moment. Who knows.

Every evening when I lay down for bed it's like some teeny persons living in my mind say, "All right, she's ready for bed. Now, lets flood her mind with millions of thoughts and see how long we can keep her up!" Those little bastards!

Do you watch Seinfeld? I feel like him in that episode where he wakes up in the middle of the night to write down a joke and come morning, he can't understand what he wrote. Except, I don't write the stuff down and I usually don't even recall it until the following evening when I'm ready to lay my head down again. Damn teeny people!

Anyway, would you like to hear my recent issues? Aside from striking veins, needle phobias, and the fainting feeling almost everytime I inject, I am now experiencing throat swelling (or something that feels like it).

FANTASTIC! Really! No, not really.

Here's the thing, it started about ehhh 6 weeks or so ago. At first I thought I was becoming lactose intolerant because it only occured when I ate ice cream. So I layed off the ice cream for a bit until one day I said "screw this" and I ordered a vanilla cone from McD's. Bad move. I had the throat tightness feeling for almost 3 hours after that.

Then it started happening with my Honey Nut Cheerios. So again I thought, must be the dairy. But I was wrong, I had a sandwich one day, dairy free to test my theory and sure enough, throat tightness.

Yesterday I mentioned this to my Doc and I described it like this:

"After I eat I immediately feel like my throat is closing up. Or, that my food is just sitting right there (imagine me pointing to my throat right above my collar bone) and I can't get it down. When I drink, I feel no relief. I also get chest pains that sometimes feel heavy or sharp."

She said, "sounds like you have blah blah." "What?", I said. She again say's, "sounds like you have blah blah." She has such a strong accent and talks so fast that I couldn't understand the 'disorder' and probably wouldn't be able to even if it was written clear as day.

Anyway, she's setting me up to have a swallow test. This will involve drinking some Barium that coats the esophagus (Sounds lovely, I've heard it taste like chalk. I don't know why anyone would taste chalk in order to offer up that comparison but whatever. ;)) and then having a few x-ray's.

Yay! More radiation exposure for Sarah!

We'll see how it all goes. I don't have it scheduled yet so I can't really say when I'll know if I just have esophagus spasms or something worse. (Please God don't let it be anything worse. PLEASE.....)

The rest of the appointment went fine. I requested blood work which is so crazy for me to do because I usually decline when Doc's try to draw blood just to 'check things out'. But I needed to check a few levels like B12 and Iron so I can be on top of my supplement game. :)

Tomorrow (Friday) I see the Nutritionist who has the best doctor name ever! Dr. Peper (pronounced Pepper). HA! I won't mention it to him/her though, I'm sure he/she is tired of hearing it. "Hey, your name is just like the soda!"

Ciao for now!

I Hit a Vein Today

It HURT!!!

Really bad.

It was in my left thigh, I fired and everything was fine. I waited my 10 seconds as the Copaxone slowly transfered from the syringe into my body and when I pulled the Autoject away, I almost passsed out.

BLOOD!

LOTS OF IT!

At the very moment I saw it I thought, "Ugh, that's not good". I cleaned it up and luckily it stopped bleeding pretty quickly. I sat on the side of the tub for a moment and took a look at my new word art, For My Life! "Yes, it is" I thought.

I cleaned up the 'scene', applied an ice pack, and went into the living room and sat next to the hubs. He asked, "What's wrong?" and I just shook my head, "Nothing". Clearly lying.

I knew the veins hurt like hell. Lesson learned. Mark the 'shot spot' before applying heat so I can actually see what I'm doing.

A Birthday and Whiplash

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!

Today is my favorite man's birthday, my husband. He is the big 25 today. Wink! Wink!

The dictionary has not published the right words to truly express my love for this man. He is supportive, caring, a great father, a hard worker, an entertainer, a lover, and all around charming.

He still blows me away with that beautiful smile of his. Well, not the one in the pic above. He didn't want me photographing that event, but I didn't listen. LOL! Maybe I'll share the rest of the photo's another time, panties and all.

Anyway, to MY Mr. Ellis, I love you now and forever. Happy Birthday!

On to the Whiplash, or something like it.

On Sunday we took advantage of our grown-up time (and the free for military promo) and went to Knotts Berry Farm.

Unbeknownst to us, we rode the bumpiest ride first, GhostRider! Sean said, "There aren't many wooden roller coasters left, we have to ride it!" I said, "That's because they're crap and they're just waiting to be torn down."

Turns out, we were both right.

The ride was fun if you take away the jolts, jerks and scrambled brain feeling. Half way through I remember thinking, "maybe this wasn't such a good idea." I use to be a pro at roller coaster riding, nothing phased me. Now, I can't ride anything too bumpy or it'll screw up my whole day.

After Ghostrider I immediately got a headache but I came prepared with Tylenol. I was determined to have a good day with the Hubs.

After the 'ride from hell' we rode the one in the background. I was a bit freaked about getting vertigo from all the spinning but that ride was the BEST!

I love riding roller coasters with my husband, all he does is laugh and laugh and laugh. And once it stops he always says, "I don't know why I do this to myself". LOL! He say's he doesn't like roller coasters but he's lying. :)

A Great Impression

(Click image to visit A Great Impression)

I have to send many thanks to Mary Zimmer over at A Great Impression. She helped my idea of inspirational word art on my bathroom mirror come to light.

I wanted something that would act as a daily reminder as to why I am fighting, injecting, dieting, and so on. I thought the words, "For My Life" were simple enough and to the point.

The lettering was super easy to apply and the hubs was more than happy to help. Thanks Babe!

It's worth it.