I <3 Bacon

I put two special items on my Christmas list this year because so far I just haven't been able to bring myself to buy them. I'd seen them popping up in stores for the last year or two, but I just knew they probably weren't going to be as good as I'd hoped.

Well turns out I DID get them for Christmas, and so now I've had the opportunity to try them guilt-free and not feel bad about throwing them away if they were terrible. Thus far I've had difficulty in bringing myself to using them in fear of ruining a perfectly delicious sandwich or meal, but I HAVE tried them a little. Here are my experiences thus far:

Bacon-Salt: I tried this on some popcorn because I know this same company makes a product called Bacon Pop. It actually was pretty good. X didn't like it at all, but I plan to put it on all my popcorn in the future. I think it'll be a good strategy in the future for ensuring that she doesn't HOG all the popcorn on our movie nights ;) Here are some other ways I plan to try this in the future:

• Scrambled Eggs
• Steamed Veggies
• Sandwiches

Baconnaise: First off I have to say that this doesn't smell anything like bacon to me. Its' like a weird combination of thousand island dressing smell and Worcestershire sauce - but that's still not quite it. I've had it on a sandwich or two and couldn't really taste anything (this could be due to the fact that X says I barely scrape any mayo on my sandwiches anyways). But Friday night I did the ultimate taste test - a Tuna Bacon-Salad Sandwich! It actually wasn't half-bad, and surprisingly enough it actually did kinda taste like bacon. Some other ideas I'm trying to talk myself into:

• Deviled Eggs
• Celery Sticks
• Fry Sauce
• Egg Bacon-Salad Sandwich
• Bacon Dip (yes - dipping bacon INTO it)

If I haven't grossed you out already, why don't you give it a shot and leave a comment with your most disgusting (or even good) ideas on how I can use my new bacon-substitute products? And if you are interested in trying some of these products, just remember what they say - Baconnaise is "For people who want heart disease, but are too lazy to make the bacon". Cheers!

I Once Was Blind, But Now I See

Alright, I'll admit it - those aren't the exact lyrics from "Amazing Grace", but those words are exactly what've been in my head for the last 30 hours... because I got LASIK surgery! In 10 minutes time I went from 20/220 vision to 20/15! For those of you that aren't eye-lingo savvy, 20/220 means that objects that are 20 feet away from me would appear like something 220 feet away from someone with good vision. Now I can see things at 20 feet as if they were 15 feet away!

It has been a long journey for me up to this point. Back in the 8th grade I noticed that my eyes were constantly tired and I was always squinting. I couldn't see the board very well in class, so I'd often sit up front. My teachers finally said something about my squinting, so I went in for an eye exam. Much to my dismay I found out that I needed glasses. At that time however my eyes weren't that bad. Around 20/60, but still bad enough that I couldn't see what was written on the board very clearly. Over time my eyes got a little worse each year, and around the time I was a senior in High School I knew I was old enough to get LASIK. I asked my eye doctor, but he said I needed to have a stable prescription for a couple of years so that my eyes wouldn't change after the surgery. That was around the time I took up contacts.

Contacts were both a blessing and a curse. No longer did I have to wear nerdy, easy-to-fingerprint glasses, but my eyes were ALWAYS dry and it was a pain to maintain them and keep them clean. I went through numerous brands and styles of contacts, each allowing more and more oxygen to the eye (in theory to prevent dry eyes), but none seemed to work well for me. I finally found a brand that didn't dry out my eyes nearly as bad as the others, and as a plus I was able to keep them in for up to a month at a time! The only problem is they were like $300/year, plus I had to pay for a new eye exam & prescription each year. After my 2nd year of dealing with the hassle and price of these contacts, I decided it was time to look into LASIK again. It turned out my prescription hadn't changed for the last 3 or 4 years, so I was a perfect candidate! I booked a free LASIK consultation, put some money aside in an FSA, and set the appointment for a time when X was going to be in town so she could drive me home after the operation.

Which brings us to yesterday. We went in around 3:30, I put on some sterile attire, and proceeded to get this done to my eye. (Warning: The video has some "eww" moments, but it is far less graphic than some of the other LASIK videos on youtube) P.S. this isn't me in the video.

We went straight home, I took some magic pills, and slept for the rest of the night. Now I just have to put drops of antibiotics and steroids in 4 times a day and keep my eyes lubricated as needed. The hardest part is remembering not to rub my eyes - I wouldn't want to tear off the cornea flap!

Here are some pictures-

Right after my surgery - my eyes were pretty red

I think the medicine was starting to kick in...

The day after - most of the redness is gone but there was some hemorrhaging (the doctor said this is normal)

An extra large & purple hemorrhage :)

My ninja goggles that I get to wear at night to make sure I don't accidentally rub my eyes while asleep. Don't I look dangerous?

Overall I am extremely satisfied. Or as satisfied as I can be just a day after my surgery! I'll keep things updated (as much as I do with other things on here) as time progresses. If you have ever considered LASIK or have any questions, now you know someone whom you can go to for answers!

To Walk Where Jesus Walked

This is an original road where Jesus walked

Last month X and I spend two weeks with her family in the Holy Land. I've been so busy since getting back that I haven't had a chance to blog about it yet, but I hope to get on it soon. With over 700 pictures to sort through, it is going to take some time, but I'm going to try to do it in chunks so it isn't such a massive novel of a blog.

See you soon! Shalom.

I'm Famous!

The other day I stumbled upon this link. I was surprised to see a blurb about me on the GE website! You never know who is going to see what you write on your blog. Keep an eye on my TOP 5 Blog for an upcoming post about the dangers of blogging.

Christmas Tree

Can you believe this is OUR tree? We got a new (used) tree from the classifieds this year, and we bought some nice ornaments from Target. Growing up we've never had a "nice" tree with matching ornaments, and it was always something I've wanted to try. Let us know how you think it turned out!

Father Candy

I just had to post this picture of the candy poster X made for me <gulp!> LAST YEAR for Father's Day. :)

Click here to enlarge

Sorry for all these belated posts, I just want to get through them all so I can go onto more recent things.

King of the Tube

Over the 4th of July we were able to go boating with some friends in the ward. We have two lakes within 30 minutes of our house, so a lot of people in the area have equipment to do all sorts of fun water stuff. We enjoyed water-skiing, wake-boarding, tubing, and canoeing. I even got to drive the boat!

Towards the end of the afternoon things started to wind down and we got a little bored. Me and Kyle (another guy from our ward) decided to have a little fun and to play "King of the Tube" (think King of the Mountain, but the winner is the last one still on the tube).

Kyle and I prepare for battle

We struggled mightily to try to knock the other person off. At this point we were having fun. This is the last time I think either of us smiled that day.

As things progressed and we still hadn't knocked each other off, the boat driver started going faster and hitting harder waves. At one point we were turned completely vertical and we hit a huge wake. CRACK! Kyle and I slammed into each other sideways, and we both let go. I had the wind knocked out of me (isn't that one of the worst feelings ever?), and it was at that point that I was grateful to be wearing a life jacket! It wasn't clear who let go first, so we decided to call it a draw.

The end of the battle - for now...

That whole week I could barely move. My side hurt so bad, and it hurt to move between any sitting, standing, or laying position. After a week of pain and not feeling any better, I decided to go to the doctor to make sure I hadn't done anything really bad. The doctor told me I probably had some broken ribs, but that it was pointless to get an X-ray because there is nothing they can really do for it. The next week at church Kyle told me that his ribs were broken too! So let this be a lesson next time you are tempted to play "King of the Tube" - don't do it unless you want to be in pain for the next 6 weeks!