Birthday, etc.

So I bet you all are wondering how my birthday went!

(And I assure you the reason for my delayed report is NOT because I have been hungover since then.) :D

Well, Geoff and I had a lovely time in Palm Springs.

We first went to an outdoor bar/restaurant called Azul, which was wonderful, but a little pricey.

We hung out there for a while, and I ordered my first drink! It was a raspberry Mojito! (delicious).

However, the bartender made our drinks SO STRONG, that after two drinks (the second was a raspberry lemon drop martini, I would later discover was a $13 drink...) I was pretty much set for the evening. Hence, I am sorry to say that I do not have any photos of my birthday. But, I assure you it was full of fun, walking up and down the strip of little stores and restaurants in Palm Springs, stopping every once in a while for a drink. I think at some point we had Nachos too.

Thank you all for the birthday present money, which I received in the mail, and for the happy loving wishes and phone calls I got during the day. :) It was great to hear from you all.

On a completely unrelated note, Geoff and I did this really awesome thing last week, which they call "Flavor Tripping". (It's completely safe and legal and all that so let me explain first.) And don't worry. It's not a drug or anything.

There are these tropical berries they call "Miracle Berries", or "miracle fruit" which, after eating, give you the illusion that sour things taste sweet. They make these in small

 tablets now which can be bought online, usually coming from Asia. They did an article about these "Miracle Fruits" in the New York Times not too long ago... you can read the article here, if you are interested. Anyway, my housemates Laura and Bryce had bought a box of these to try out, and they gave us their last two tablets. We put them on our tongues until they dissolved, (about 30 seconds or so,) and then went about the house, trying to eat everything strange we could get our hands on. To our astonishment, the results were INCREDIBLY powerful. 

Lemons and Limes tasted like candy... (I actually ate like, an entire lemon as if it were an orange. They were my favorite...) Balsamic Vinegar was stran

ge tasting, but not bad! Tabasco Sauce was incredibly sweet, but still had the after-kick of spice. I put a ton on my tongue... delicious! Guinness tasted like chocolate, and Corona just tasted... strange.

I wrote down everything we tried, and Geoff and I rated them:

Lemons -- K (A+) G (A+)

Lime -- K (A) G (A)

Tabasco -- K (A-) G (A-)

Pickle -- K (C) G (too grossed out to try) 

(It just tasted like a sweet pickle, really...)

Corona -- K & G (B)

Vinegar -- K & G (C+)

Wine -- K & G (B)

Guinness -- K (B) G (B-)

Horseradish -- K (B+) G (too scared.)

Spicy Brown Mustard -- K (B-) 

(tasted like honey mustard.. bleh.)

Minced Garlic -- K (B) G (B-)

Anyway, I highly recommend the experience! It's a lot of fun to try, and it's actually a really great thing for people with diabetes... makes not sweet things taste really sweet... gets your sugar fix without you eating sugar! 

I will warn you though, if you eat too much of this weird stuff, you might want to limit yourself... all that acid from the sour fruits gives you an interesting feeling in your tummy sometime after the tabasco... :P  Bleh!

I love you all very much, and Geoff sends his greetings to you too.

Take care of yourselves!

Much love!