Ryan and Debi Cragun’s Blog

We just bought a new multi-function printer to do a bunch of scanning (it has an auto document feeder and dupluxer so it will scan both sides of a piece of paper) and are looking to get rid of our relatively unused Canon Pixma IP3000.  I got it for $5.00 when I purchased a new laptop last year and we’ve used it a total of about 10 times since then (paid for itself).  It’s a nice little color inkjet printer.  It usually costs about $100, but since I don’t want it or need it, I’m giving it away - you just have to stop by and pick it up.  If you’re interested, drop me a line.

Debi and I worked on a project together these weekend - the construction of a digital picture frame out of an old laptop. You can see some photos of the project below:

The study started today and, rather than ease into things, I was given a few slices of cow right out of the gate:

I admit I was a little anxious about eating it - it’s been 7 years! Anyway, I bit into it and found that meat isn’t really that good. I can think of tons of vegetarian food I’d rather eat. Also, it’s about 4 hours later and I think the damn stuff is still sitting in the bottom of my stomach. Of course, that could also be the medication I have to take (bile acid), but I can’t say for sure. Anyway, this study has already done one thing for my vegetarianism - convinced me that I’m really not missing much. A mildly upset stomach isn’t too big a deal. I’m not dead nor vomiting, so I guess my body can still handle meat… Kind of…
Oh, and here’s a breakdown of the 3-day rotating menu I get to follow for the next 18 days:

Menu 1:

• Breakfast

• apple juice
• skim milk
• cinnamon raisin bagel
• cream cheese
• frosted flakes cereal

• roast beef sandwich with au jus (the picture above)
• dijon mustard
• peaches
• pretzels
• rice krispie treat

• chicken broccoli rice casserole
• bread
• green beans
• dinner roll
• salad with dressing

Menu 2:

• Breakfast

• orange juice
• skim milk
• plain bagel
• cream cheese
• froot loops cereal

• chicken BBQ sandwich
• applesauce
• chex mix
• fig newtons

• sliced turkey
• mashed potatoes with gravy
• corn
• bread
• dinner roll
• salad with dressing

Menu 3:

• Breakfast

• grape juice
• skim milk
• bread for toast
• jelly
• corn pops cereal

• turkey salad in pita bread
• pears
• tortilla chips
• picante sauce
• snackwell’s cookies

• roast beef
• rotini noodles with gravy
• broccoli
• bread
• dinner roll
• salad with dressing

Fun!

Caught wind of this in the NYTimes today - it’s an uncensored political cartoon called Lil’ Bush that debuts on Amp’d Mobile. Wow! Hilarious, but dead on and definitely uncensored. Must view for anyone critical of the Bush Administration (basically 99% of the world’s population these days).

Debi forwarded me an email about a study they are conducting at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital looking at bile acid and genetics about six months ago. In the initial email they seemed to indicate they were looking for vegetarians as participants, but I must have misread the email. Anyway, the study involves some intriguing procedures (taking stable and radioactive isotopes that are tracked using x-rays and such), but the interesting component is that they provide all of your food for 18 days… and that food has meat in it! No big deal, except I agreed to participate. So, in the interest of science, from September 12th through the 29th I’ll be a meat-eating vegetarian! I also won’t be going out to eat during that time as I am limited only to what they give me to eat. The study coordinator is probably as intrigued as I am to see what happens to me when, after 7 years of a no-meat diet I start suddenly eating meat again. I’m not sure what will happen. It should be interesting.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we went to the Cirque du Soleil performance of Quidam on Saturday with some of Debi’s co-workers.  It was, as always, amazing, but I think we all agreed that we had seen better Cirque du Soleil performances.