To meat or not to meat?

It hit me last weekend. I was at the grocery store in the check out line. I had all sorts of veggies, brown rice, lentils, soy milk, soy ice cream. The clerk was looking at my groceries and commented on how healthy I eat. And then she said, "That must be why you look the way you do. Are you a vegetarian?" And I realized, "Yes! I am." She asked, "For how long? A year?" "Not quite a year," I said.

This week is my fourth week experimenting with The Kind Diet. On the 28th of February, I will have been a vegetarian for one month. (So my "not quite a year" was a bit of a stretch. wink, wink.) And I have been eating almost vegan for most of the past few weeks. It's not been nearly as difficult, or as much of a sacrifice, as I thought it would be. I didn't eat that much meat to begin with. But I love cheese, and eggs, and ice cream and yogurt. I've found, however, vegan replacements for almost all of those things and they are, for the most part, surprisingly good! I can't say that I've really missed anything. Except sugar, which is a whole different story. But I'm getting used to that too. I have not yet even tried to give up coffee. Maybe some day, but not today for sure.

My husband, the Great White Hunter, gets it now. He's not giving up meat, and that's okay too. A few nights ago, he grilled venison burgers for him, and a couple of veggie burgers for me. After we ate, he asked me if it was okay to put them all in the same container in the refrigerator. What a guy! Although just a few nights before that, his hunting buddy came over so they could fill out their forms to mail in to get permits to hunt deer later this year. They were looking over everything else they could hunt for, and I heard him say, "Janet used to always want to shoot her own turkey. Hey, Janet! We're going to put you in to hunt turkey. Okay?" Um, hello!?!? I'm not eating meat. Why on earth would I want to kill something?! Sigh . . .

I wanted to tell you a simple story . . .

I wanted to tell you a simple story about an interesting bit of trivia that my husband shared with me a couple weeks ago. But since I haven't written much here about my husband, I wanted to describe him a little bit first.

My first attempt at describing the hubby was, "My husband is what you might consider the ultimate man's man. He is strong and tough, smart and witty, and definitely fills his role as the hunter in our hunter-gatherer relationship. I especially like having him around because he can fix darned near anything."

However, not wanting to ever write anything erroneous here, I thought I should check to be sure that my understanding of the term "man's man" was, in fact, correct. I mean, after all, I'm not a man, so do I truly understand the whole "man's man" concept? I really don't know. So I looked it up.

Urban Dictionary defines man's man as: "He always shaves and wears clothes that fit. He's worldly, educated, and a gentleman. He thinks that buttoned shirts are not just for special occasions and that newspapers have more than one section. While he is polite, he is not a pushover. He will swear when he needs to, but will try to control his temper. He can handle his liquor and keeps himself in shape." Um . . . nope, that's not it exactly. There's a lot there that's not my husband. Will go days without shaving. Buttoned shirts are for uber special occasions only. Is polite most of the time.

Mans-man.com states: "They're charismatic. They appeal to both sexes. They're down-to-earth and affable. They're leaders. They have a sense of style. They're cool under pressure. They're mavericks. They're winners. They're masculine. They're the kind of men other men respect and look up to. They're the kind of men that women swoon over. A Man's Man is fiercely loyal to his friends. He's the guy who will give you the shirt off his back without question." Okay. That's a little closer. He's definitely down-to-earth, he's masculine, and would, without a doubt, give you the shirt off his back.

Maybe the term I was looking for was "manly man."

Urban Dictionary again: "Manly Man A man who is comfortable in his own skin, but doesn't use skin care products. Someone who drives a vehicle with "muscle" but knows where to draw the line. i.e.- you won't need a ladder to get in. A man who loves women, but not all at the same time. *see playa. Protective but not overly aggressive. Prefers big dogs over cats. Masculine sans machismo. Heterosexual, period. Soap? Irish Spring, of course. Brad Pitt is not a manly man but George Clooney and Paul Newman are." Some of this fits too. No skin care products, drives a truck, likes big dogs especially Labradors. However, not a playa.

So maybe I'll skip the label and just describe him.

He is a friend to everyone he meets, he's the life of the party, he loves to laugh. He is a hunter and a fisherman. He is jeans or shorts and t-shirts, and flip flops. He is a mechanic, a carpenter, and an all around Mr. Fixit. He is a mean barbecuer and great omelet maker (even though he's allergic to eggs). He is a history buff and a proud American. He is a stepfather and a grandfather, aka wagon puller and bubble blower. He is rock and roll, and just a little bit country. He is a blue eyed, (used to be blond) bald headed, rugged (ala the days without shaving) middle-aged man.

And he's mine!

So, what was the little story I wanted to share? A couple of weeks ago, after spending an hour or two watching the History Channel, the Hubby asked me if I knew how Maybelline mascara/eyeliner came to be. I did a quick mental search (I really wanted to say, "Well, yes as a matter of fact I do!") but came up with nothing. It seems that many millions of cakes of eyeliner and many billions of tubes of mascara ago, a young scientist saw his sister mixing coal dust and Vaseline and applying it to darken her eyes.

And according to Wikipedia: "The Maybelline Company was created by New York chemist T.L. Williams in 1913. Williams, then in his early 20s, noticed his younger sister applying a mixture of Vaseline and coal dust to her eyelashes to give them a darker fuller look. He adapted it in his little laboratory and produced a product sold locally called Lash-Brow-Ine. The product was a local hit, but the awkward name held it back. His sister, who inspired the product, was named Mabel. So T.L. Williams re-named it Maybelline, a combination of Mabel and Vaseline. It is under this name that Maybelline has achieved its now legendary status in the field of cosmetics. In 1917 the company produced Maybelline Cake Mascara, "the first modern eye cosmetic for everyday use" and Ultra Lash in the 1960s, which was the first mass-market automatic mascara."

Well isn't that a fascinating tidbit of trivia to stash away!

I think I'll keep him.