Austin

As I sit here in bed with the worst stomach flu of all time, I decided it was the perfect time to get these pics of my trip to see my Sister Katherine and her family in Austin, TX posted.

I know I keep saying this after every new city I visit, but I am really serious this time: I want to live in Austin. It is the coolest city!! Here are a few highlights of my trip:

Hanging out with these little monkeys, S and V.

We rode the Zilker Zephyr in Zilker Park.

Awesome.

Canoeing on Town Lake. Downtown Austin is in the background.

Of course we made a trip to the ENORMOUS and beautiful Chi O house on UT campus.

Mmm... Dublin Dr. Pepper. Even now when you couldn't pay me to eat anything, I would drink a Dublin Dr. Pepper. It is made with Imperial sugar cane. No HFCS, aspertame, etc. Just delicious Texas sugar. And Austin is the only place to get it. On second thought, it's probably a good thing I don't live there.

We went swinging at Zilker Park. The weather was freakishly good - like 85 degrees and sunny every day. It felt so nice!

K, Rudy's BBQ... can I get an Amen? It is indescribable unless you been there.

Go. Eat. Enjoy. You won't be disappointed.

A major highlight of the trip was that one of my best friends in the world drove down to Austin from Dallas to hang out for a day. It had been a year since we were in the same vicinity, let alone the same state. Spending 24 hours together chatting, giggling, and staying up WAY too late was amazing. Thanks again, Kara, for making the trek with little Gracie in tow. I loved seeing you!

Gracie, smiling for the camera while eating lunch with V.

She and V are merely a month apart in age. It was very fun.

The ever gorgeous Kara. Love you!

(This is what you get for leaving this little gift on my camera!)

It was a week full of sunshine, laughing, humidity, delicious food, running, Candy Cane JoJo's (pictured above), Friday Night Lights, NCAA basketball, and family. Totally ideal! We had a great time. Thanks, Kath and Trev, for letting me come and stay. It was truly a treat!

Cool!

I finally made it out to see the Homer Warner Informatics Center at IMC. It was pretty neat.

Although this doesn't really look like Gramps, it was pretty close and still cool.

Snowman

The snow was just right for a snowman: thick, heavy, and very packable. My snowman skills are seriously lacking, but he ended up turning out alright.

Mom caught me in the act.

Sure hope the snow at Alta is fluffier than it is down here tonight!

How Grace C's It

Alright. I kind of hesitate to do this, but I'm going to anyway.

I overhear or am included in conversations dealing with nutrition (outside of school) basically every day. I love it. Seriously. However, there is one topic that has come up multiple times recently, and although I refrain from bursting bubbles face to face, I need to get it out now.

A long time ago, someone (my theory is that it was the Florida orange people...) decided that they were going to tout oranges and citrus as being immune-boosting due to the vitamin C content. And boy did they score with that one. With zero scientific evidence to back it up, the masses bought it hook, line, and sinker. Then, as if that wasn't enough, some school teacher in California came up with Airborne which has taken off as a popular "immune-supportive" supplement, including but not limited to megadoses of vitamin C and zinc. Awesome. Since then, multiple other products have emerged (Emergen-C, etc) that continue to promote this association between resisting/fighting a cold and vitamin C.

Okay. Here's the real deal with vitamin C. Vitamin C (aka: ascorbic acid) is an antioxidant. Simply, it serves as an electron donor to reduce free radical content in the body. The theory behind this is that we inherently have endogenous free radicals in our bodies all the time, but we also have endogenous means of dealing with these free radicals, keeping our bodies in a reactive oxygen species homeostasis of sorts. The problem is that just by doing anything, including breathing, exercising, smoking, or being in the sun, we exogenously increase our free radicals. Bummer. However, we have also exogenous means of combating that as well. Enter: Antioxidants! So, vitamin C is important for reducing free radicals in the body. In addition, we know that vitamin C plays a role in several reactions that occur in the body, namely iron absorption, collagen synthesis (which keeps our teeth in our mouths- a discovery which contributed to the connection of vitamin C to scurvy) synthesis of neurotransmitters, fatty acid utilization, etc.

There is no evidence that supports the idea that taking lots and lots of vitamin C will help you fight a cold. None. Sorry.

I should also mention that taking large doses (We're talking about anything over 500 mg/day here... ) of vitamin C is a huge waste of money and potentially bad for several reasons. 1) The more you take, the less is absorbed. Anything you don't absorb will simply be excreted as waste. 2) Many of the vitamin C supplements come with zinc too. Zinc inhibits absorption of vitamin C. 3) There is also something called renal threshold, which means that when you exceed a certain point in the body, excess vitamin C will be filtered out in the urine, and flushed. 4) A byproduct of vitamin C metabolism has been linked (again, this lacks sufficient scientific backing) to development of kidney stones. 5) Megadoses of vitamin C are thought to be PRO-oxidative, actually contributing to free radical content in the body. This is still being researched, but is generally supported at this point.

Adult men need 90mg/day and women need 75 mg/day of vitamin C. There is an upper tolerable limit (which is the amount that shouldn't be exceeded without experiencing side effects, in this case diarrhea) of 2000 mg/day. A good goal to shoot for is somewhere around 200 mg/day. This is easily achieved through the diet as long as it includes a variety of fruits and vegetables.

The bottom line here is that supplementing with vitamin C probably isn't going to hurt you as long as you're not exceeding by too much the 500 mg mark. If you think it helps you out, by all means, go for it. But there are a lot of misconceptions/myths about vitamin C, and after refraining from telling people to their face that they're flushing money down the toilet (literally), I needed to get it out.

Bridges and Benches

I have a weird thing for bridges and benches. I love them. When I travel, I can't help but find them everywhere possible, take pictures of them, and usually visit them repeatedly if possible. This is especially the case with benches though. There's something so friendly about the thought that a person stumbled on a place so lovely that they felt like a bench must be constructed there so that everyone could stop and gaze on that same spot. Like you've been let in on a great secret.

I have a bench of my own that I frequent. I lovingly refer to it as "my bench." I like to think I am my bench's "only person," but it isn't in the nature of a bench to be exclusive or play favorites. I'm fine with it. It looks out west over the valley and is a short, easy walk from home. I kind of think that everyone should have a bench of their own to visit regularly, think about things, and enjoy being outside.

I walked there today in the snow.

(and took some phone pics along the way)

So much snow fell. All the branches were drooping.

This is my bench. It sits in a quiet place beneath a small tree and nearby a light post.

It is high up on my list of favorite places to exist.

After sitting on the bench for a bit, naturally I decided to make a little snow angel in the untouched snow nearby, dedicated to my Grammy Amy, as per usual.

It all made for a perfect Sunday walk.

WSPR

I love the beach. I think it's part of my DNA. So when I found out that I was speaking at the Western Society for Pediatric Research conference in Carmel, California, I got pretty excited. I hadn't spent much time on the California coast north of Newport Beach, but Carmel definitely didn't disappoint. It is a lovely, half-mile long beach set up right next to the fabulous Pebble Beach Golf Course. The most free-time we had was the first day there and we couldn't have asked for nicer weather. Of course, I walked to the beach as quickly as my feet would carry me.

I dipped my toes in the FREEZING cold Pacific Ocean.

Much too cold for swimming this time of year.

I was happy to be there.

The actual town of Carmel shouldn't go unmentioned. It is picturesque, quaint, and charming with every nook and cranny looking like it's out of a Thomas Kinkade picture.

The flowers were blooming and the air smelled of blossoms already!

The streets were lined with fantastic shops complete with leaded glass and Dutch doors. There were patisseries and boulangeries every block that filled the air with the smell of baking bread and cinnamon.

This was the most amazing fromagerie I have ever seen. The Carmel Cheese Shop. They let us try as many cheeses as we wanted. Double cream smoked gouda, alsace muenster, beecher's flagship cheddar, aged gruyere, Humboldt fog, Leerdermeer, etc. I had intended simply to taste, but definitely didn't leave empty handed...

Best grilled cheese ever.

Carmel was such a nice and welcomed break from the cold, Utah winter. I will definitely be returning there, but next time with my golf clubs!

Side note: The conference itself was also great. Speaking in that kind of setting was definitely a new, frightening experience, but a good one. I'm glad it's over though.

Grace and Grace

For years, I have been enjoying recipes from the famous Ivory "Favorites" cookbook. I'm talking serious Warner family classic dinners that have hailed from the pages of this thing. Delightful, delicious recipes. I honestly believe that everyone should own one.

So recently, when I found out that there was a follow-up cookbook, "Keeping Up," I was eager to get my hands on a copy. Thanks to the Boyer girls for the tip! They regularly post recipes from this book, and luckily, my mom gave me a copy for Christmas. We were pretty excited to get cooking and it wasn't long before we were 3 or 4 recipes in and loving every bite of it. So, my mom and I have decided to take our own Julie and Julia-like adventure and cook our way through "Keeping Up." Grace and Grace: Grace Warner and Grace Ivory Rock. (Sans the blog.)

So far, it's a total success! We make a new recipe almost 4 out of 7 nights a week, and have yet to be anything but delighted. I'll report when we finish, but in the mean time, I totally recommend purchasing one of these babies. Trust me. You'll be very glad you did!

Keeping Up