Random Photos On My Camera

So, I snapped this pic on my camera phone in Superstore the other day.  Because it’s the stupidest product ever and I just had to share that with you.

This is a “tea bag squeeze.”  As in, a gadget that you use to squeeze out your tea bag.  Seriously.  Am I the only one who thinks that there is something wrong with someone who would own a gadget the sole purpose of which is to squeeze out tea bags?

When I went to upload that photo to Flickr to share it will all y’all, I discovered a whole bunch of photos on my phone that I’d taken thinking, “that is so bloggable,” but for some reason (probably because I got distracted by something shiny), I’d neglected to blog them.  Such gems include this sign that I saw in a restaurant:

… just a bit different than your usual “you only have one mouth, just take one napkin dammit!” signs.

Also, these Pride cupcakes, whose picture I took this past summer when I was in T.O.:

Mmm, cupcakes.  And contrast those with this:

A package of powdered poutine mix.  Powdered? Sacrilegious!  Mon Dieu!

And speaking of French, does “dressing” really translate to “farce”?

Weird.

French item #2.  I took this photo in an airport somewhere (although I don’t remember where).

Whores taxes. Hee hee.

And, finally, my camera phone allowed me to capture a series of photos which show why you can’t get work done with a cat in the house:

“Here, I’ll just sit here while you work”

“I know, I’ll work the mousepad for you!” (This is when the cursor starts jumping wildly around the screen):

“You are working too slow! Let me do it!”

And that is why you got that email from me that said, “as;oidfhjaskdf55555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555.”

My Terrible Memory

Exhibit A:

I appear to have forgotten both my blanket (which I brought to keep me warm on the plane) and a jar of honey (from the bees that live on the farm where my dad keeps his birds) at my sister’s place. I realized that I forgot my blanket in the car on the way to the airport yesterday (it was too late to turn back to get it), but I have only just now discovered the missing honey.  I remember wrapping the jar in a plastic bag (just in case it broke in my luggage), but it is most definitely not in my luggage now. I’m sure it’s sitting on the coffee table at my sister’s place.

Exhibit B:

Today at work, I was chatting with a co-worker in her office about logic model development and I told her that, having just recently created an evaluation plan using a logic model, I had a few documents that I could send her to give her a bit of an introduction to the topic.  But I was on my way to go grab a cup of tea, so I said, “I’ll email those when I get back to my office.” And then I switched my ring from my middle finger to my index finger.  It’s sort of like the old tie-a-string-around-your-finger to remember something trick.  I knew that if I didn’t have my ring on the wrong finger, emailing those documents would completely slip from my mind before I even got to the caf to get that cup of tea.

Exhibit B:

Tonight while cooking dinner, which consisted of French fries and a wrap with refried beans/tomatoes/green onions/lettuce/yogurt, I decided that I would also roast a squash for my lunch tomorrow.  So I put the fries in the toaster oven and the squash in the real oven.  The fries needed to cook for 20 mins, so I set the microwave timer to beep for that.  And then I set my stopwatch function on my watch to time the squash, which needed about 45 mins.  In retrospect, I should have set the timer function on my watch to beep after 45 mins, rather than setting the stopwatch to count up, thinking “oh, I’ll look at my stopwatch and once it gets to 45 mins, I’ll remember to take the squash out of the oven.  After 20 mins, I ate my delicious dinner while watching clips of the Colbert Report on the Comedy Network website AND PROMPTLY FORGOT I WAS COOKING THE SQUASH.  An hour and 45 minutes later, I was wondering why my apartment still smelled like French fries. And then I went into the kitchen to wash the dinner dishes and make some tea.  Once there, I wondered why it was so damn hot in my kitchen.  And then I yelled, “Oh my god, I forgot the squash!!”  My apartment didn’t smell like French fries, it smelled like cooking squash. Poor, poor burnt squash.

On a related note, researchers at UBC have recently discovered a new brain disorder called “developmental topographical disorientation,” in which people have trouble orienting themselves in an environment (also known as topographagnosia) despite any apparent brain damage or other cognitive impairments.  It means they get lost really easily.  I’m pretty sure I have this, as anyone who has ever been with me on a trip will attest.  And by “trip”, I mean pretty much anywhere outside my house.  The researchers have created a website and I was going to take their “Test Your Skills” test to see if I have D.T.D., but it’s not up on their site yet.  It says to come back in a few weeks.  I intend to, but I’m pretty sure I’ll forget before then.

Pig Party!

Today was the day of my niece’s pig-themed birthday party!

The menu included “pig slop” (a.ka. soup) and pigaroni and cheese.

with a pig-in-the-mud cake for dessert:

The birthday girl blowing out her candles!

And gets to enjoy the pig cupcake!

Happy birthday, little piglet!

Babies for Obama

In honour¹ of today’s US Presidential election, I give you this: Babies for Obama:

I saw this over at Feministing, where I also read that in the U.S., if you bring in proof of voting, you can not only get free ice cream from Benny & Jerry’s, but you can also get a free silver bullet and sleeve¹ at the New York and Seattle locations of Babeland sex toy store.

Given the pathetic voter turnout in our recent election, maybe Canada needs to look into this free-ice-cream-and-sex-toys-for-voters idea.

¹Yes, I am spelling honour with a ‘u,’ even though I’m talking about the U.S. ‘cuz that’s the way we Canucks roll.
²I especially like that this particular model of sleeve is called “The Maverick”^a
    aJust don’t picture John McCain using “The Maverick.”^{i
        i}I *told* you *not* to picture it.

Grumpy Mood

To the man who blew past me at about 70 km/hr when I was stopped at the crosswalk on Main St. tonight,

You came within 3 ft of killing the pedestrian who was IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET!  Yes, I realize she was crossing the road at an unlit crosswalk on a dark and rainy night wearing all black, but she was IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!  You are driving a car and you should really be looking out for people who are IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!  Here’s a tip: when you see that the car in the next lane (i.e., me) is stopped at a crosswalk, you may want to consider that there may be a person IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET! Also, when I yelled at you at the next stoplight (because, despite your ridiculous speed and lack of consideration for the safety and life of a young pedestrian, you didn’t actually get any further ahead than the next stoplight!), your dismissive shrug, as if you cared not that you nearly killed a person, was not appreciated.

---

To the man to drove by me very slowly and stared at me the entire time while I was loading my hockey gear into my co-op car,

Yes, I play hockey. Yes, I am a girl. Get over it.

---

To the girl who shoved me, hard, down to the ice, from behind, at the blue line, after the whistle and then said, “Sorry!”,

I did not believe that you were sorry.

---

To my brown shoes that appear to have disappeared from my apartment without a trace,

Was it something I said?

---

To the too hot french fry that burned the roof of my mouth when I bit into it,

You were supposed to be delicious, not injurious.

More new shoes

Shocking, I know.

My friend Therese is in town for her cousin’s kids baptism, so we met up for dinner (poutine at The Templeton) and shopping (for shoes, of course). First we went to the Aldo liquidation outlet on Granville and I found a super hot pair of red boots. Marked down to $70, plus 50% off. How often do you find boots for $35?? The only hitch – they didn’t have my size!! The horror, the horror!

Not to be deterred, we headed next door to the new Payless store, where Therese got two very cute pairs: one a shiny brown pair of flats, the other, an adorable open toe pump… in tweed! For serious!

As for my shoes, despite trying on virtually every heel they had in my size, I ended up with this pair:

Which I quite like. So cute! So comfy!

P.S. Don’t forget to scroll down to my previous post and let me know who you think is the hottest NHL hockey hottie!

All math should be taught via foodstuffs

Not sure how to cite this one. It came from here.  Props to my friend Dan for posting this in Facebook.

Countdown to the new hockey season!

Ice cream cake sporting my hockey team's logo. Mmmm, ice cream.

My hockey team had a year-end pool party this past weekend, commemorating our championship, Vegas tournament, trip to provincials in Kelowna and all around hockey good times. The party was held at team captain Karen’s parents place – they have the super awesomest backyard ever, complete with pool¹, hot tub, and multiple BBQs. We were further spoiled with goalie Meghan’s husband, Chef Brian, cooking us a gourmet dinner². And then, to top it all off – a Dairy Queen ice cream cake AND a cheescake!

We also got to see a slide show of photos from the year – in addition to professional ones we had taken of us in action on the ice, there were photos from our fundraiser pub night, Vegas and Kelowna. All of which are no-Facebook, no-Flickr, no-blog. For reasons that I’m sure you can imagine! Then there was also a presentation to one of our team members, Nancy, who retired at the end of the season after an illustrious career with the Blazing Blades. Her jersey was framed and her number (44) has now been retired in her honour. We are hoping that she’ll come back to coach us in the new season!

Speaking of which – it starts next week! I’m so stoked, because I’ve totally been missing the hockey. And now that I have my superhuman vision, I’m sure to tear up the ice this season! I’ll keep you posted, because I know you are just *dying* to hear all about it!

¹Although I was technically supposed to go swimming for a full two weeks after my laser eye surgery, I went for a swim, but just made sure not to put my head under. And to go in the pool before everyone else got in so I wouldn’t risk getting splashed in the eyes. I can’t wait ’til my eyes are reading for swimming!
²And, professional chef that he is, he accommodated my vegetarian ways by making me my own special chickpea creation. Which was AWESOME!

Nom Nom Nom at the Naam

Sarah at Tsunami Sushi

Ah, the Naam.  One of my fav restaurants in Vancouver, and one of the places that Sarah gets to at least once (and sometimes more) on every trip to Vancouver. This trip has had us eating at not only the Naam and the Eatery, but also Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe (great veggie burgers), Tsunami Sushi (not highly recommended), and Cactus Club (yay yam fries!).  Nom nom nom.  Also, we went to see Tropic Thunder, where Sarah used a variety of Famous Player gift cards and I used Scene points, so the grand total for both of us to watch the movie was $2.30.  Our frugality rocks!  TT was a pretty friggin’ funny movie – best part, in my humble opinion –  (quasi-spoiler warning here): the movie trailer at the beginning with Robert Downey Jr & Tobey Mcguire.

So, yeah, Sarah and I have been having an awesome time just chillin’.  Since Sarah has already done virtually every touristy thing in Vancouver on previous trips here, and since we hardly ever get to just hang out (given the 4000+ km between us), we’ve had a nice time just hanging out and catching up.  Going for walks. Hanging out by the water.  Having tea. Eating at various eateries. Endlessly riding the #7 bus.

Also, I had my one week post-op check-up to see how my eyes are doing since my laser eye surgery.  My optometrist was very impressed with my eyes, saying things like “Wow, you must be a really good healer!” and “Your eyes look like most people’s look after a month, and it’s only been a week!” and “You are the poster child for laser eye surgery.”  I do have an unattractive looking subconjunctival hemorrhage, which I noticed looked worse last night than it had the previous day, but my optometrist explained that it’s normal for subconjunctival hemmorrhages to look worse before they look better.  Essentially, it’s like having a bruise, caused by blood vessels bursting due to the suction used during the surgery. But since your eye is clear, it’s bright red instead of being black & blue like a normal bruise.  The reason it looks worse today is because gravity is pulled the subconjunctival blood down, where it sort of pools near the iris.  It’s harmless and will go away over the next few days.  But, because I’m me, I decided that you all would want to see a picture (quasi-grossness warning here).

My eye lashes are kind of clumped together due to the sticky lubricating drops I put in every two hours.  I’m sure that it’s religiously sticking to my eye drop regimen, as well as wearing sunglasses at all times when I’m outside, that is helping me recover so fast.  Well, that and the lab accident involving a radioactive rat that happened when I was in grad school, giving me superhuman healing powers.

Hallelujah, it’s raining squirrels!

I meant to mention this yesterday, but totally forgot what with the sleepiness and all: I didn’t forget to write about the next Prime Minister in my Sunday series on Prime Ministers. Rather, I chose to take the quasi-long weekend holiday off from the series. Sure, Canada Day is Tuesday (tomorrow), so it’s not a real holiday weekend, but I’m pretty sure no one actually went to work today because who wants to work on Monday when Tuesday is a holiday? And the next Prime Minister in my series is Brian Mulroney and I just couldn’t bear to write about him on Canada Day weekend.

In completely unrelated news, a squirrel fell out of a giant tree in my sister’s backyard today. They have this mullberry tree that is constantly dropping berries, so we are used to hearing (or getting hit by) falling berries when we are out there, but something massive (massive relative to the size of a mullberry anyway) fell with a giant thud. And for some reason, my initial reaction was “oh my god, a coconut just fell out of that tree!” Because apparently I think I’m in Hawaii. But the squirrel got up and scurried away; coconuts, not so much with the scurrying.

And, in even more unrelated news, Almost Dr. Dan came up from Guelph to join us for dinner and we went to this vegetarian Indian buffet and I ate so much that I think I’m going to barf. So. Freaking. Good.

So, in conclusion, the Prime Ministerial series will resume next Sunday with an entry on Brian Mulroney; I ate so much Indian food I want to barf; and hallelujah it’s raining squirrels!

Happy Belated Father’s Day and other, unrelated Monday news

I tried to call my Dad for Father’s Day yesterday. Given that he wasn’t at home when I’d called on his birthday¹, I thought it was extra important that I talk to him for Father’s Day. But when I called, the phone line was all super static-y and, from what I could make out amidst the static, Toronto² had some sort of a rainstorm/flood/natural disaster that ruined the phone lines. And my dad wasn’t home.

He did try to call me back upon his return, but the phone line situation had not improved, so the conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi Dad!

Dad: <garble> Hello? <garble> <garble>

Me: Hi! Your phone line is really bad! I can hardly hear you.

Dad: <garble> Thank you!! <garble>

Me: Um, Happy Father’s Day?

Dad: I <garble> can’t hear you <garble> <garble> ..alk to you later<garble>

And so I had to resort to this text message. I honestly don’t know if my Dad knows how to deal with text messages³, so I hope he got it. Because I did want him to know that I was wishing him a happy Daddy’s day. Even if he is a Maple Leafs fan.

In unrelated news, this sour cream that I had in my fridge appears to have expired over 1000 years ago:

It passed the sniff test, though, so I think it’s OK. I mean, it’s already SOUR cream.  What’s it going to do, get more sour? 😉

In also unrelated news, my 3-game point streak ended with last night’s 6-1 loss. I blame the fact that I re-taped my stick and clearly my good luck must have been in the old stick tape, ragged as it was. I have to say that, despite what the score says, we played a good game… there were 44 shots against us, so our goalie, Megs, did a wicked good job in net. And I drew a penalty when someone just couldn’t keep up with my mad puck handling skillz and hooked me, sending me down and spinning into the boards. Plus, we only had 7 skaters for half the game. Memorable quotations from last night’s game include:

• Why is that girl walking off with a bra from the bench? and
• I don’t have any socks and I’m not wearing any underwear.

And, in my final bit of unrelated news, I’ve discovered the secret to being productive after work: don’t sit down. Usually when I get home from work I sit down on the couch to “relax” and “unwind” for a few minutes. Maybe play a few moves on Scrabulous. And then I don’t get up. Dishes pile up. Laundry remains unwashed. Cupboards remain bare. Dinner consists of a nuked burrito⁶. But since it was so sunny out today, when I got home I didn’t sit down, I quickly changed into some running clothes to get out for a run in the sun. And I ended my run at the grocery store, so I could pick up some grub, what with the cupboards being bare and all. And, you know how they say you shouldn’t grocery shop when you are hungry? Well, when you had an apply for breakfast, a light lunch and haven’t yet had dinner AND just ran 5 km – doubly so. I bought sooo many groceries I could barely carry them all home⁷. On the plus side, since I’d just been for a run, I was totally craving fruits and veggies, so at least it was all healthy food. Once I got home with my many, many groceries, I was sooo starving that I still didn’t sit down – I immediately began to cook. And not only did I cook myself some tasty veggies tacos (with 1000-year-old sour cream), but I also sautéed a bunch of veggies to supplement the leftover pasta that I made yesterday for my lunches this week. As my taco veggie mix simmered, I put away the groceries. And then I ate said tacos, and did the dishes. And put all my scattered laundry into a laundry bucket⁹. And prepared the coffeemaker for tomorrow morning’s coffee¹⁰. And then I made some tea. And *then* I sat down. And now I’ve written this nice long, super-footnoted posting.  So there you have it folks, not sitting down is the secret to my post-work productivity.

¹I left a “happy bday” message with my mom, but it’s just not the same
²Well, Toronto suburbs, anyway
³My sister⁴ got him and my Mom cell phones two Christmases ago that they use “for emergencies only,” so I have no idea if they text or not.
⁴She is the good daughter. The one who gave them a grandchild and cell phones. And a computer (for Dad) and a fur coat (for Mom). I’m the one who can’t even complete a phone call for birthdays or parent celebration days.
⁵One girl showed up about halfway through the second period because she was stuck in wicked traffic, so we had 8 skaters after that.
⁶This may or may not be an exaggeration.
⁷Part of this was due to the fact that my favourite organic, fair-trade Bolivian coffee was on extra good sale⁸, so I had to buy 3 bags of it. And part of it was due to the fact that they now have those little baskets for putting your groceries in when you are in the store that have wheels and a long handle. So you wheel them around as you fill them up, never realizing how freaking heavy it will all be until you are done checking out.
⁸Instead of the standard $1.50 off the “regular” price that it usually is, it was $4 off!
⁹And I would have done the laundry, too, if only my landlords weren’t already using the washing machine.
¹⁰This is the one and only task that I *always* make sure to do, no matter what other chores I ignore.

Bananagasm

Another year, another Pacific Spirit 10 km run. I was rather disappointed with my time (1:03:37.9; pace 6:22 per km¹). I really have no idea why I was so damn slow- it’s difficult to tell really how fast you are going because (a) it’s a trail run, so you are weaving all around the trails rather than running on straightaways and that makes it hard to gauge your speed, (b) there are other people all around you running at a variety of different paces, which also makes it hard to gauge your speed. I suppose the most logical explanation is that last year, I ran the half at the Vancouver International Marathon the week² before the Pacific Spirit Run, so I was at my peak fitness level; this year, I’m only partway through my training for the Scotiabank half marathon, which isn’t until the end of June, so I’m not up to the shape I’ll be in by the time the marathon comes around. Alternative hypotheses as to why I sucked at the PSR this year include:

• I ran with Marla, my 3rd generation iPod, which is larger than the 2nd gen iPod I ran with last year. The extra weight of the larger iPod significantly weighed me down.
• the race shirts were, inexplicably, comically large and all the extra fabric of my so-called “small” shirt weighed me down.
• the 10 lbs I’ve gained since this time last year weighed me down.
• my bib number was 1200. Having such a distinguishable number was too much for me and I choked under the pressure.

• I spent too much time thinking about the fact that I was running while I was running. Usually in a race I get “in the zone” and I don’t even think (that much) about the fact that I’m running (although, quite honestly, I have no idea what I usually think about). Thinking things like “Dear god, I’ve been running for 50 minutes and I still have TWO MORE kilometres to run??” makes you really feel tired.
• age-related sarcopenia.

On the plus side, I did beat *everyone* in the females aged 65 and over category. Take that, grannies!

I still had a great time, though, despite my sucky performance. It’s a beautiful forest to through and it’s always³ nice to see the volunteers cheering you along at every turn. But, by and large the best part of the race is the race food they give you after you cross the finish line. Sure, it’s just oranges, bananas, mini-muffins and yogurt – stuff you could eat on any given day – but after a race it is the most delicious food you’ve ever eaten in your life. Psychologists will tell you⁴ that one’s motivation for things is enhanced when they are in a state of deprivation – acquiring food is more gratifying when you are really, really hungry. And thus, race food is the tastiest, tastiest food you will ever eat. You’ve never had oranges so succulent, muffins so fulfilling or yogurt so divine as the ones you scarf down before you even leave the food tent. “Bananagasm” was how one of my teammates described it. After the banagasms, we went to Enigma for a team brunch, which was awesome. The food there was excellent; the coffee, doubly so⁶. And it’s so nice to just hang out with the team, some of whom I haven’t seen since we ran this race last year. Since we don’t all run together (everyone else on our team is *much* faster than me), having the brunch after makes it feel more like a team thing. Props to Dr. Kim for organizing the team and the brunch!

And thanks, again, to my 9 sponsors, who helped me raise $291 for dementia research (our team, as a whole, raised $1,091.00). It’s going to a great cause!

¹Compared to last year’s time of 58 minutes, 47.8 seconds (pace = 5:53 minutes per km)
²I just typed this as “weak.” Freudian slip!
³Well, except for when you hurt your foot and have to limp the last 6 km of a half marathon. Then the cheers of the volunteers saying “You are doing a great job,” even though you know you aren’t, leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
⁴In fact, psychologists DID tell me, at our post-race team brunch. I ran on the Brain Research Centre team, so was surrounded mostly by brain scientists. You know how people will say “it’s not brain surgery”? These guys *do* brain surgery⁵. I ❤ brain scientists!
⁵We all agreed that doing surgeries was far and away the most fun part of grad school.
⁶This may, of course, have been part of the bananagasm phenomenon

Veggie Marshmallow Update

These Sweet & Sara veggie marshmallows are the bomb¹.

Since it costs a freaking fortune to have them shipped from the US², I decided that it was high time that I once again emailed the local fru-fru organic grocery stores to tell them that they really, really should carry this product.

One grocery store has, thus far, ignored my email.

The other, at first, told me that “this product is not available in Canada yet.” Hmm, really? Ever heard of a little thing called “importing”? I mean, I know that we hardly do any trade with the USA, so it might be complicated. So I wrote back and informed them that the Sweet & Sara website says that other BC companies stock this product, but just not ones that are in Vancouver and I’d like to be able to get them here (translation: your competition is getting this product). That got their attention and I received not just one, but two, emails informing me that they will be looking into this ASAP.

Lesson learned: squeaky wheel gets the marshmallows.

¹Remember when everyone used to say things they liked were “the bomb”? Ah, those were the days.
²And, since Canada Post has “issues” with bringing them to my house.

Thoughts on a Flight From Edmonton to Yellowknife

• Why, oh, why didn’t my travel agent tell me there would be a free meal on my flight? Because “chicken or pork” really doesn’t work for a vegetarian. It didn’t even occur to me to request a veggie meal, because it’s only a 1.5 hr flight and in the south, you don’t even get meals on a 5 hr flight anymore. I guess I’ll have to make due with my salad and yogurt/fruit parfait that the flight attendant got me from one of the meaty meal trays. And the peanut butter cups I bought in the airport ‘cuz I assumed there would be no meal. And which I made the mistake of reading the label of. 280 Calories, 15 g of fat. And don’t get me started on the ingredients. But, you know, you can really taste the TBHQ.
• I really should fly north more often. You get a free meal, a hot towel and I have three seats to myself, so I can spread my books and papers and laptop all over the place.
• Why don’t we give tips to flight attendants? My flight attendant is super friendly and helpful! Although it was strange that when she saw my boarding card she said, “Uh oh, Air Canada”¹. But she’s been totally friendly and helpful, so I guess she’s not holding it against me that I’m from the south²
• {Break for dinner}
• OMG. What I mistook for a yogurt/fruit parfait was actually a dish filled with about 7/8ths whipped cream, and 1/8th tiny cubes of fruit and cake. O. M. G. – delicious!!
• A bubble just popped up on my screen “Wireless network unavailable.” Thanks, Windows!
• My toes are froze⁴. I suppose [snicker] I could put my boots back on, but I just can’t stand wearing shoes on a plane.
• I just heard the flight attendant say that we are going to land soon. I must go to the bathroom! I always go to the bathroom on flights, even if I don’t have to go.

¹This flight is Canadian North, but my YVR to Edmonton flight was on Air Canada, which is where I got my boarding card from.
²It probably helps that I’ve been saying things like “Wow! We get dinners and hot towels? I’m going to have to fly north more often!”^3
3I’m such a suck up.
⁴With apologies to Grammar Girl, I couldn’t resist the rhyme.

YVR

Sitting here at YVR, waiting for a plane to take me to Edmonton. Sure, I *could*¹ be working on my lecture for Friday², but instead I can’t resist writing a quick blog posting, offline, to be posted when I next encounter wifi. Recalling my last trip to Alberta and the lack of anything edible on the other side of security, I picked up a veggie patty sub for my lunch³. A sub on which they put waaaaay too many jalapeno peppers and now my mouth is burning like the seventh level of hell. Oh well, I should be happy that at least this time I get to eat real food, as opposed to jalapeno potato chips for dinner.

That’s really all I have to report. Which is to say, I have nothing to report. I guess I will work on my lecture after all =)

¹Where could = should.
²Which I’m actually quite far ahead on compared to most weeks, actually.
³Also may be the last time I see any vegetarian sources of protein for the next couple of days.