Countdown to Cruise 2010!

I just looked at my Facebook counter and it's now less than a hundred days until the cruise! Just a mere 94 days separate me, Ricky and the other Williams Family from the warm sunny Caribbean. We leave on January 2, 2010 and head to several stops on our 7 day cruise. I'm most looking forward to Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos Islands because I've heard it's amazingly beautiful with crystal blue waters and wonderful snorkeling. Other ports include: San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands and Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. Initially I was totally against any cruise that goes to the Bahamas because I've heard it's crowded and very tourist laden. However, this island is privately owned by Holland America and is supposedly mostly untouched. I'm anxious to see it in person but it looks beautiful online.

In preparation for this, Ricky and I have been working on our fitness. For the last 5 or 6 years, I've tried my best to get into working out. Honestly, it was never something I had to worry about before as my weight has never been an issue for me. With age come changes and even though I've been blessed not to have too many adverse changes I do know that eventually, it's coming. Instead of waiting until it IS a problem, I've decided to attack it head on. Ricky has been helping me train my arms to be more shapely and toned. In return, I have been helping him train his abs with some moves I learned when taking pilates. Everyone says this but working out even when you are exhausted gives you so much energy! You can work of stress you never realized you had. I've been trying to go at least 3 days a week but I was so sore from my first arm workout with Ricky that I had to take a few days off. Note to all women: We are not built like men. I'm convinced that pull ups are not something we are designed to do. Needless to say, I did seven at my first attempt, with assistance, and my goal is to be able to do 10 without help. Ow.

Cooking at home with Ricky is probably one of the biggest joys we have shared together since being married. We both love cooking and at times we have a small battle to see who can make the best dish. I am a firm believer in cooking with fresh natural ingredients--this includes butter and heavy cream (in moderation!), but also fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and seafood, natural herbs and whole wheat pastas. I'd much rather have a small amount of butter than a whole stick of margarine. I will use Splenda only because it's made from sugar but since Ricky hates it we still use regular sugar for baking and sweetening tea. Overall, things are going well. I'm feeling myself getting stronger and Ricky has noticed a significant (positive) change in how his clothes fit him. We keep telling ourselves that these changes are not just for the cruise but for our lifetime! With a history of both high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and cancer in both of our families being proactive with good exercise and diet is not an option, it's a necessity.

If you're looking for a nice, healthy way to prepare tilapia, I stumbled across this in the Whole Foods Application on my iPhone:

Broiled Tilapia with Parmesan and Herbs

290 calories per serving

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided

2 tbsps of low fat mayonnaise

2 tbsps of fat free plain yogurt or sour cream

2 tbsp of olive oil

Juice and zest of one small lemon

1/2 tsp basil

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tbsp sea salt

1/4 black pepper

4 tilapia fillets

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl except for the fish. Place the fish in a baking dish and coat with mixture. Place dish in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Preheat broiler and cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Place each fillet on the aluminum foil and make sure to cover each piece in the marinade mixture. Broil in the oven for about 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Top with remaining Parmesan cheese.

The "Spirits" of Texas

Last Saturday we took a leisurely trip to the Hill Country in New Braunfels, Texas. Located about 30 minutes from San Antonio, New Braunfels is a beautiful nature-based town where you can go hiking, take a ride down the Guadalupe River on a raft, explore the historic town of Gruene and visit several vineyards. We went for a wine tasting at Dry Comal Creek Vineyards. I had heard that Texas wines are good but I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the wines we were able to sample from Dry Comal Creek. I enjoy dry white wines and their Sauvignon Blanc was pretty tasty. They also make a FABULOUS sangria from their house wine that is served frozen, like a slushy. It's delicious and will be made in the Williams Family Home. If you are interested in making it yourself, here is the recipe:


Thanks to drycomalcreek.com....

6 oz. can frozen orange juice concentrate plus
1 can of water
6 oz. can frozen limeade concentrate plus
1 can of water
1 liter Hill Country Fair grapefruit soda (chilled) (found at HEB) 1 bottle Dry Comal Creek Foot Pressed Table Wine
DIRECTIONS:
Blend frozen limeade and orange juice with water. Add Foot Pressed Table Wine. Add chilled Hill Country Fair grapefruit soda and freeze until slushy, then serve. Garnish with orange
(You can substitute the HEB grapefruit soda with Sam's Club Sparkling Water in one of the citrus flavors.)

We loved the vineyard and will definitely be back. They also have a grape stomping festival every year where the patrons stomp the grapes used for their foot pressed wine! All the participants get their name on the back of the bottles for that year. We will be participating in 2010 for SURE!


The grapes for the year have already been harvested but I'm determined to see them on the vines next year.

Award Winning Wines!

I wish I had gotten the name of our wine server. He was really nice and is moving to China today so he won't be there when we return:(

Ricky has mentioned for a while that he wanted to visit the Flying Saucer--a bar and restaurant known for it's fabulous selection of imported beers.

We ventured out to the San Antonio location with some new friends including my pals Dr. Norma, the pediatric dentist and Dr. Nandini the fabulous pediatrician from our sister clinic in Pleasanton. You can join the UFO club (Ricky did, of course) and receive a personalized swipe card to keep track of all the beers you drink. Once you reach 200, your name is put on a golden saucer (a plate, not a cute small UFO like I was envisioning at first) and you get a party hosted at the Flying Saucer where you complete your grand task. On our first trip Ricky had two beers so he's still got 198 to go! Thanks to Garrett for suggesting the Allagash White! I really like it and I'm not the world's biggest beer drinker.

Ricky worked intently filling out his UFO application.

This is blurry, sorry, but it's the wall of "Flying Saucers", patrons who have completed their entire beer menu!

I am currently working on plans for when my parents visit us in December. If they are interested, we'll be going to see the Lion King--On Broadway at the Majestic Theater in San Antonio. If they aren't interested, Ricky and I will be going together for sure! I've heard great reviews about it for years and have ALWAYS wanted to go. If any other Texas have suggestions, I'll gladly take them.

Times, they are a-changing

With the ever growing debate about health care, everyone keeps asking me what I think about it. I work in a community health center which, in theory, caters to the needs to the underserved and non-insured. In the past, it has generally been the case that people without dental insurance are relegated to low quality or no care. I'm proud to say that my office has state of the art equipment (including digital x-ray) and does not look like your typical community health center. I am 100% committed to providing the same care for the patients I encounter here as I will my patients in private practice. It is sad, though, that many patients have already told me that I'm "too good" to be working in this office. That tells me that years of experience have shown them that the care they receive cannot be as good as what their insured counterparts experience. I think there is a terrible misconception floating around in the general public about the type of people I see in my clinic. First of all, I would guess that less than half of my patients are on Medicaid, as Medicaid only covers dental treatment for people less than 18 (or less than 21 depending on which state you live in) or pregnant women. I only work on pregnant women in emergency situations (with the exception of a cleaning) so I rarely see that portion of the population. Instead, with the shift in our economy, I am seeing a different segment of society. Well dressed, highly educated formerly employed people who have beautiful veneers and crowns from the days when they were employed (or better employed) with dental insurance are flooding my appointment book. Our offices takes several dental insurance policies but if you don't have insurance, they bill you based on your income. I have one patient who is an engineer and designed the first electric car in the state of Texas. He was working overseas with a global intiative for solar energy when he was downsized. Recently, his home was sold in Houston and moved to Floresville where he lives in a modest home with his wife. What does he do now? He works for the state work force coalition helping other unemployed people find jobs for dollars on the hour. I asked if he planned on getting back in the engineering field and he laughed and said, "Dr. Williams, at my age I was about to be out of working. Period. Now I have no retirement and no insurance. I'm too old to compete with current workforce so I'm stuck." A patient from last week is three years older than I am and came in with a cavity. A dentist from another community center told him to just get the tooth taken out even though it's well within the realm of being saved. He recently moved to Texas to escape the cost of living in Southern California which he could no longer afford. Previously, he worked as part of the ever growing biotech industry until he was injured on the job. Without disability insurance he was forced to sell his large beachfront home and move here. He cannot work and is trying to get his prior employer to pay for the back surgery he desperately needs. I hope I can make his life a little easier by fixing one tooth but the sad reality is, a cavity is the least of his problems.

Healthcare reform is a complicated issue. So many people are screaming and fighting in the streets about while they have little insight into what life without viable insurance is like. Our current system isn't working for the majority and it's time for a change. Is the proposed plan perfect? No, but there has to be SOMETHING that's better than our current system. I just hope people can stop fighting long enough to find it.

Labor Day Weekend

Well, the day has finally come that I can celebrate my first Labor Day as a real wage earning Laborer! How exciting. Ricky and I spent most of the weekend relaxing and running errands but it was definitely nice to have a break from work. I had hoped to take a trip to New Braunfels, TX to go tubing on the Guadalupe River but Ricky showed little to no interest in the idea so we ended up staying home. I was able to spend some time at our pool which was a fairly decent alternative. Plus, I bought myself an iPhone which has been keeping me pretty entertained. I've bought a lot of cool things but "the I" as I call it, is by far the coolest. It will probably get it's own blog entry after I learn how to use it. I already have my fair share of apps thanks to Mary Jacqueline who shared an...um...extensive list of her iPhone applications.

After about 6 weeks in Texas, we have found there are things in Texas that are a little different than the average state....

1. People are OBSESSED with the "Lone Star" symbol. (see above) It's usually a boring, ugly copper colored star inside a circle. They put it on their front doors, on fences, on lamps, on EVERYTHING. It's so ugly. I refuse to conform.

2. Ricky and I live in Bexar County. In case you missed it, that's B-E-X-A-R. I assumed that was pronounced "Bex-ar"....wrong. Apparently the accepted pronunciation is: "Bear or Bayer." I really have no idea why or how that works but when I said "Bexar" to the woman at the DMV, she laughed hysterically.

3. Speaking of the DMV, I was shocked to find out that local DMV offices in Texas cannot print your drivers license on site. Instead, all of your information has to be sent to Austin to the Department of Public Safety where the license is processed. It takes 5 to 8 weeks to get your license mailed to you and in the meantime, you get a lame paper receipt to use as a license (it doesn't have a picture on it either!). Oh, and in the event you ever want to get a Texas Driver's License, here's what you need to take: current driver's license, birth certificate (original only) or passport, social security card, receipt from your car registration (not the sticker that's on your car), proof of insurance and if you're female and have been married less than a year, an original marriage license. I fully expected them to ask for a vial of my blood or a stool sample in addition to all that stuff. Ugh.

4. Bakeries in San Antonio all advertise the best Kolaches. I have been seeing this all over town but had no idea what a "Kolache" was. I envisioned something like a donut or an eclair but was disappointed when I saw this picture at a local gas station:

So, in San Antonio, Kolache = Pig in a Blanket

As most of you already know, I'm obsessed with coupons. It just annoys me to spend money that could be saved by a free piece of paper. Ricky and I have made it our goal to save as much as possible during our grocery shopping with manufacturer and store coupons. On a recent trip to Wal-Mart we saved almost 12.00 in coupons! If you're looking for good deals, check out coupons.com. You can print coupons specific to your shopping needs for free. This week, for example, there is a 75 cent coupon for General Mills cereals. We printed it since Ricky eats cereal by the box and were prepared to use it at Wal Mart. Thumbing through the Sunday paper we saw that Walgreens is having a sale this week and all GM cereal is 1.99/box (as opposed to 3.00/box at Wal Mart). With the coupon you can get Cheerios for 1.22/box! Okay, so maybe it's not that exciting but it pretty much made my day.

Finally, I hope everyone was able to participate in the faaaaabulous Chick Fil A promotion today. By wearing your favorite team's logo, you could get a free chicken sandwich. Ricky and I joined several other San Antonians for a nearly free lunch and got to see all the teams represented by patrons. (We were the only ones representing Kentucky, of course!) The funniest "team gear" is shown by the guy below. I guess he couldn't find a jersey or t-shirt in time for lunch. Hahahahaha....