Day 50

11) Master 10 breakfast recipes (0/10) Tropical Breakfast Risotto; Grapefriut Sunrise

On Sunday morning I made Tropical Breakfast Risotto again. That fed me every morning until today. I've decided next time I'm going to use real pineapple though. The canned stuff just isn't the same. The reason the recipe calls for canned is so you can use the juice, but I'd just assume get some juice in addition. Maybe do something crazy like use papaya juice or something.

10) Master 10 dinner recipes (0/10) Baked Chicken Breast with Honey Mustard Sauce & Fennel Green Beans

Last night Serena and I made this together, except she substituted tofu and vegetable broth. I've completely eliminated the Super Carrot Raisin Salad from the mix as doing two recipes simultaneously is challenging enough. These two alone combine nutients up the wazoo anyhow. Serena and I concured we both like our green beans a little softer than they turned out, but mixed with the fennel and onions it was all quite light and crunchy, making it good as a salad the next day. *sigh* Cooking regularly is time consuming, at least right now. The feelings of accomplishment and nourishment keep me going though.

77) Walk on the beach 2 times a week for a month (6/8) 5/6/07, 5/12/07, 5/18/07, 5/19/07, 5/20/07, 5/23/07

I've taken Serena with me on about half of these trips since she lives right there. Wednesday though, we went to the Cliff House beach instead. We walked all around what once were baths. We went through that cave at the end of which some guys were finishing up fishing (fishermen are everywhere there's a beach). Serena told me how her sister's friend had died climbing some rocks at this spot. A wave crashed up unexpectedly behind him. "This is why I go for more controlled risk taking, like roller coasters," I told her.

53) Volunteer 50hrs (7/50) Food Bank 4/18/07, Homeless Children 5/2/07, Sprucing up the Botanical Garden 5/19/07

This past Saturday, I, with just 2 other volunteers and one of the 11 gardeners at the Golden Gate Botanical Garden, set about attacking some weeds in an area just left of the pond. Owen, the gardener, also gave us a brief tour of all the projects going on there. I was never aware that this place was in such constant renovation. There's going to be a stone sitting area built from stones from a missionary Hearst had broken down and transported here with the idea of rebuilding it. When that proved impossible the stones were donated to the park and scattered by use in various projects. The two other volunteers consisted of a documentary film graduate from Stanford (who'd resently had his film about the blue finned - or maybe it was silver backed - tuna in a festival) and a freelance writer specializing in cocktail research (who's job enticed me only because he gets sent all over the world). I have it on good authority though (Luby's dad) that the work/pay ratio of journalism isn't worth it.