I love the dinner round up around here. We eat well, we buffistas.

So the class went well! Only two other people there, but Thursday night is always small. But the routine was good, fit the time frame well, and we all got a work out. So there!

Casual thought spurred by dinner discussion. How big a role prejudice plays in food taste. For example: I love chocolate. That includes chicken mole, and cocoa powder in chile. But: when someone puts chocolate on cheesecake - well that's blasphemy! And I suddenly realized that I can't really justify it - just how I was raised. Chicken breast with (unsweetened) chocolate mole sauce was an occasional treat from the time I was little. Watching the horror on my parents face when they encountered chocolate on cheese cake was also something I remember from when I was little. Its really that simple.

Dinner tonight was a salad, leftover rotisserie chicken, and stuffing, cranberry sauce, and fried apples from Cracker Barrel.

Lunch was actually the best meal of the day. My co-workers and I ate at Vox 306, a new bistro-style restaurant owned by the family that brought fine Italian dining to my hometown. We ate on the patio in perfect weather, and my prime rib flatbread with avocados and wasabi mayo was out of this world.

How big a role prejudice plays in food taste.

I think prejudice is a stronger word than I would use. [edit: not that I am questioning yours.]

But do we feel comfortable with the things we were raised with? Sure. I think a significant number of people branch out from that but there is a reason that "comfort food" is very often food from our childhood and varies in each person and culture.

Oh, P's daughter, L, ate a slug last year while P tried to garden. So hopefully she'll be an adventurous eater. And her first breakup could be really horrifying to her mom if that's her comfort food. She also ate a few rocks.

DH decided we needed to eat out last night so I had blackened snapper, curried cauliflower and a baked potato. It was yum.

Hanging at airport. I checked my ranking on my March madness brackets and I am at 56th %tile. Not bad considering I base my picks on places I like to visit. Hence UNLV disappointing me.

But do we feel comfortable with the things we were raised with? Sure. I think a significant number of people branch out from that but there is a reason that "comfort food" is very often food from our childhood and varies in each person and culture.

Both my parents think it's really gross to have a glass of milk with a meal that includes meat. Neither of them keep kosher, but they grew up in homes with traditional Jewish food, where putting a glass of milk on the table with dinner just didn't happen. They've got no problems with, say, chicken parmesan, or a cheeseburger, but having a glass of milk with it would just be wrong.

I had a sandwich from Panera for dinner last night. I realize that I had bacon with every meal yesterday. Yay eating out!

I really want to go to Trader Joe's on my way home tonight and buy All The Things, but I should probably clean out the fridge and freezer first, right? Meh.

Woke up last night with bad cramps that I thought might be contractions (I'm 35 weeks today, so it would be early but, as I understand it, not too dangerous for Sprog if I were to go into labor now). The fun part: M is out of town for the weekend. So I lay there for an hour or so trying to figure out what was going on and what I should do: call the midwives? call M? go to the hospital? Fortunately they passed (I'm guessing the issue was digestive in nature) and I was able to fall asleep again eventually, but man, I'm sleepy. And it's grey and rainy here and I just wanna stay on the couch and watch movies all day. t /whine

Have you had Braxton-Hicks contractions yet, Kate? It could have been that.

Can you call in sick for the day and take it easy?

Amy, that seems like the other likely possibility. I thought that B-H contractions were supposed to be painless, but at my last midwife appt she said they could sometimes feel like menstrual cramps, and I've felt some mild cramps in recent weeks that were probably Braxton-Hicks. The ones last night were more intense, but from what I can tell, that's not unusual.

I'm saving up all my vacation/personal time for after the baby comes, so I'd rather not call in sick unless I'm actually too ill to go into work, but it sure is tempting today!