The event was a HUGE success! We ran out of saliva kits! Nearly 700 people signed up in around 5 hours. If you are still interested in contributing your might to this massive effort against cancer, we are thinking about setting up another recruitment event at the Ride for Roswell event! Watch this space!!!

(e:mike) and (e:libertad), thanks so much for making it! I am so sorry we wrapped it up earlier than we thought - we hardly expected such an enthusiastic response! People were so motivated they dragged their entire teams to sign up! I think I must have consented more than 200 people personally. I feel drunk with happiness that people still believe in honest population research. I swear, I felt my life was worth living when I saw so many people. (e:James), I was delirious when I saw you! Thank you SO MUCH for coming and donating!! You ROCK! m/ :)

It's time to join the fight against cancer, everyone!! It's time to spit it out of our planet! Quite literally...



We are asking you for a donation of a teensy bit of your saliva and a bit of your time for Cancer Research.



With the help of the saliva you donate, we can pool together information from a large number of people with and without cancer and find answers to the question of why some people get cancer while others don't.



With the help of the questionnaire we send you to fill out, we will try and figure out what kind of lifestyle changes will reduce the risk of cancer.



Though you won't personally benefit from donating your saliva, this is your chance to make a personal difference against cancer!



Your small and personal but incredibly valuable gift to cancer research will go a long long way!!!!



We need more weapons than ever to fight this scourge called cancer! Pitch in and spit it out!!!!



See you all at Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure at Delaware Park's Rose Garden tomorrow morning!! Comment, drop me an email, post a chat if you have any questions!!



Together, we can research this evil little disease out! :)



Come and spit for the cure!! June 13 (Saturday, 7:00 AM to 1:00PM, Delaware Park Rose Gardens)

My microwave just decided to throw in its nukey little towel. The turntable won't stop turning and the light won't shut off till I pull the door open. It doesn't start heating till I push the start button but the turn table and the light keep going as long as the door is shut. This is creepy so I have unplugged it.



... which has made me realize what a shocking amount of dependency I have on my microwave. It's especially disturbing considering I just started using a microwave around three years ago. I remember having had to consult a manual to figure out how the contraption worked the first time I used it.

Earlier this evening, I made a pit stop at PriceRite for Ginger - a tiny piece of it that weighed less than a third of a pound. I think the ominous sign was when the cashier checking out my groceries pointed at the twisted little piece of root and asked me what it was.

Personally, I think no one on this planet should go through their life without getting acquainted with ginger. I was debating the pros and cons of telling her what an awesome seasoning the tiny root makes but I stopped mid-thought when I saw my total bill. I was expecting a bill of less than $10 but I got billed twice the amount:



I would have walked out without making a fuss about any of this but I felt really ridiculous paying $6.46 for a piece of ginger as big as my thumb! I asked her to re-check. She weighed it twice but the total didn't change. One of the managers ambled over and agreed that it was an unreasonable amount to pay for ginger. After what looked like some super-involved physics and computing research, they found that the scale added more than 2lb to everything.

At that point, I should have just left that ginger piece on the counter, asked them for a refund and walked out. Quite unfortunately, however, my frugal shopping senses kicked in. I noticed that I had paid $6.47 for 3 medium tomatoes. I asked them if they could reweigh the other produce on my list.

For some mysterious reason the manager told me: "I will do the tomatoes but I am definitely not doing the onions!" My mind started meandering toward possible reasons. Did he have a massive allergy to onions? Did the peeling and almost psoriatic red onion skins gross him out? Was he psychologically traumatized by the flavour of onions? Why single out onions? Was he French? I was almost ready to pay this extra $10 to know the answer to this conundrum.



Moral of the story: Ginger helps you get some refunds but it can't help you solve elemental mysteries.

The big confession is that this is my first time baking or even cooking with eggs. The results are surprisingly rather pleasant.



I really expected some kind of hard sedimentary rock - considering my former eggless ventures but this one sliced pretty easily and didn't stick to the glass.



Though the recipe called for a truckload of butter ( ), quite possibly, this might be the one of the more healthful cakes I have ever eaten.



I tossed in a granny smith, some almonds and peanuts in addition to the carrot so it is slightly on the more-moist side. Oh, and I freaked out last minute about using only oatmeal flour so I tossed in some toasted bulghur wheat - the fibre value might have gone up 50% because of that. Hehe



According to the label on the package, the hens were apparently running around in a carefree manner eating vegetarian organic poultry feed when they produced the light brown eggs that I bought.



The carrot-tag claimed that they were grown in an "certified" organic environment and the almond-pack says they are from a "green practices" farm. The butter is organic too. The Coop made a killing business out of me yesterday. Hahaha



The oats were packaged and sold by a ubiquitous brand that has a cheruby and probably gouty old man as its mascot. The bulghur wheat is from Lebanon.



The peanuts and apple, unfortunately, didn't have any special qualities listed. I am assuming the spices are pretty generic as well.



As usual, I had no sugar at hand so I used only honey. As a result the cake is very mildly sweet. One slice contains less than 1/2 a teaspoon of honey. If you are looking for a sugar-overload, this is not it.



I think I might be bringing it to the BBQ tonight (is it still on?)

---

Notes:
(e:Terry): Less eggs
(e:leetee): More flour.
(e:Paul): Ripe bananas
(e:libertad): More honey
James (I think or was that Robert?): Dates as a binding agent

I love you all. :)

My Lemon and Coconut flavoured Green Lentil Power Dinner.

I have been keeping watch over what I eat for the past two days using the CRON-o-meter. It's an experiment to see if I am eating a balanced diet and where my macro and micro nutrients are coming from. The whole exercise is pretty involved. It's like maintaining a food diary but you get immediate nutrient data read-outs.

[box]On May 18 I had
1. Milk, nonfat, fluid, with added vitamin A (fat free or skim) 3 cups
2. Chickpeas (garbanzo beans, bengal gram), mature seeds, cooked, boiled, with salt 80g
3. Nuts, almonds 15
4. Apples, raw, with skin 1 large (3-1/4" dia)
5. Chewing gum, sugarless 1 piece 5.4
6. Water, tap, municipal 1.8 liter
7. Bananas, raw 1 medium (7" to 7-7/8"long)
8. Tea, brewed, prepared with tap water 3 cup (8 fl oz)
9. Oranges, raw, all commercial varieties 1 large (3-1/16" dia)
10. Bread, pita, whole-wheat 28.5 g
11. Peppers, sweet, green, raw 40 g
12. Onions, raw 30 g
13. Hummus,c ommercial 2 tbsp
14. Cereals ready-to-eat, GENERAL MILLS, CHEERIOS 5 g

A total of 963 calories, with 45g proteins, 172g carbohydrates and 16g lipids with around 90% vitamins and minerals.[/box]


[box]On May 19 I had
1. Nuts, almonds 18
2. Apples, raw, with skin 2 large (3-1/4" dia)
3. Apricots, dried, sulfured, uncooked 1 half
4. Dates, deglet noor 3 date, pitted
5. Cookies, oatmeal, prepared from recipe, with raisins 3 cookie (2-5/8" dia)
6. Cream, fluid, half and half 1 container, individual (.5 fl oz)
7. Coffee, brewed from grounds, prepared with tap water 1 cup (8 fl oz)
8. Milk, nonfat, fluid, with added vitamin A (fat free or skim) 2 cup
9. Peanuts, all types, raw 5 g
10. Milk, dry, nonfat, instant, with added vitamin A 4 tsp
11. Chewing gum, sugarless 1 piece
12. Bread, pita, whole-wheat 28.5 g
13. Macaroni, dry, enriched 16 g
14. Mustard Greens and Vegetable Saute 0.75 of full recipe
15. Cereals ready-to-eat, GENERAL MILLS, CHEERIOS 5 g
16. Water, tap, municipal 1.8 liter

A total of 1476 calories, with 65g proteins, 254g carbohydrates and 31g lipids with around 100% vitamins and minerals.[/box]

Strangely, I have begun to feel guilty every time I eat a random almond or down a cookie just because I am recording them all in the software. It will be really interesting to see whether my diet actually changes because I am watching it.

In other news, I am volunteering for a cancer prevention campaign called "Spit for the Cure" on June 13.



My department at Roswell is collaborating with Susan G. Komen's race for the cure on June 13, 2009 at Delaware Park Rose Gardens. We are hoping to recruit as many people from the community as possible to donate their spit (saliva) for cancer prevention research at this race.

If anyone is interested in participating and giving 15 minutes of your time and spit for a noble cause, this is a perfect opportunity! :) Swing by the Roswell Park Cancer Institute's Spit for the Cure tent on June 13 from 7:30 AM to 1:00PM.

Bufwiki is alive!

Someone (David Monroe) who came to Buffalo from Rochester started a Bufwiki. :)

Sign up and start wiki-ing your Buffalo experiences and reviews! I am so glad Bufwiki is finally here.

Though I am never ever going to be able to make myself use this much butter or finely milled flour in ANY of my cooking, I can't help but dream about making pastry and pie crusts.



Its a completely insane and impractical obsession.
Aaaargh.