The Eugene Saturday Market

Two days after I moved to Eugene, my sister and I were driving around, and chanced upon a gigantic gathering of people. We parked our car, got out and asked someone what was going on. He looked at us as though shocked that ignoramuses like us had been let out of whatever institution we must have hitherto been locked up in.

"It's the Saturday Market", he said.

That was my introduction to the oldest weekly open-air market in the U.S. (see wiki page). I went a few times last year until it closed for the winter, and then I regretted not going more often.

It opened up for the year again today - the first Saturday in April. It was cold and wet, but I went, and am happy I did. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I did not. I bought hazelnuts and a large batch of Spring greens that you'll see in my salad pics all week.

My favorite part of the Saturday market, however is the food:

Leek and Onion Pasty at Cousin Jack's Pasties

Some kind of cheese and veggie thingy at a Mexican food stall. Tasty!

And local hazelnuts - wonderful to snack on!

Over the rest of the day, I also ate:

Broccoli-Potato Soup w. Blue Cheese and Sourdough Bread

Champagne - really fitting because I'd love to be in France right now!

Detoxing is Difficult

The title says it all. It is ridiculous how quickly I got "unused" to taking pictures of everything I eat, or else I could have documented all the crap that I ingested yesterday. Not good! I'm restarting the detox today. Starting with a salt-cleanse from the MC diet. I am not a big fan of a cleanse like this, but I thought I needed to give a boost to this new start.

I was supposed to eat a few portions each of a bunch of different kinds of food (recommended by Fast Track Detox. Although I ate most of what was recommended, I did not eat all. I did a pretty good (although difficult) job of not giving into my cravings. I was supposed to avoid all sugars, caffeine, alcohol, and gluten. I did this also, for the most part - I had some roasted green tea, and some honey with a fruit-dessert.

I weighed in at WW and lost 0.2 lbs. Which is amazing given that I was not at all eating what I ought to have been eating. This brings my weight-loss over the past four and a half months to 7lbs. Not bad, but could have been better. I wanted to do the weigh-in today because at the end of the detox, I want to see how much this has helped with weight-loss. The main idea of the whole detox is to cleanse my system, but it wouldn't hurt to shed a few pounds. :-)

I also did something feel good. And something slightly feel-bad. The bad first - at a dance last week, I met a really nice man who was very friendly. He was handsome, charming, and had the most penetrating pair of eyes I have ever seen. I left with a mini-crush on him. I was at the post office today sending off some tax-stuff when he popped up again behind me, and said hello. After an initial fluster and a really heart-felt smile, I had the awful realization that I was wearing the exact same clothes that I was when I first met him. Now, this ought not to have been such a big deal. I am sure that most people wear their clothes again and again. But irrationally, I clammed up immediately, blurted out something really stupid, wished him goodbye, nearly forgot his name in the process and made a rush for my car. I was kicking myself later for this. I am a world-class idiot!

Now the good. Since I have only recently moved to Eugene, I am still in the process of finding the service providers I will regularly go to. I was referred to a wonderful local firm of mechanics by a friend. They don't advertise, and don't even have a sign above their garage. I did not understand why at first, and when asked, they said they had more than enough customers and are not looking for more unless they show up like me, having been referred to them. And I can understand why! They are wonderful - a group of five men who are personable, charming, and wonderful mechanics. They fixed my car beautifully, charged me a ridiculously cheap price, and three weeks later gave my car a free follow-up check. I offered to pay, but they wouldn't take it. I have never come across a mechanics' garage that does that for you. That was about 3 days ago. Slightly before noon today, I took them a box of gourmet chocolates to thank them. I was a bit apprehensive - I don't know that gourmet chocolates are the best gifts for a bunch of male mechanics. I ought not to have worried about stereotypes though - they were like a bunch of little boys - enthralled at the gift. They assured me that the chocolates would not see the other side of one o'clock. That made me smile all day long.

No gourmet chocolates for me. This is what I ate today:

Breakfast
Mooong Dosa w. Sambhar, Blood Orange, Unphotographed Orange Juice

Lunch
Salad w. Greens, Plum Tomatoes, Strawberries, Carrots, Mozzarella Cheese
Homemade Orange-Balsamic Dressing w. Olive Oil

Tea
Walnuts
Unphotographed Roasted Green Tea

Dinner
A decidedly Asian Dinner -
Persian Sabzi Polo - leftover from Nowrūz celebrations
Indian Bottle Gourd Dal w. Tomatoes
Carrot/Green Onion/ Brocolette Stir-Fry

I made the Stir-Fry using the Bragg's Seasoning sent to me. Yum!

Banana w. Walnuts and Honey. I also had this after lunch (unphotographed).