The Dreaded 'C'

Greetings from Iowa! Carl and I made it in on Saturday afternoon, and after a short stay in Minneapolis for some Mall of America/ Cabela's shopping and a tour of Lauren's college campus, we got to Spirit Lake yesterday afternoon. We only had minimal flight difficulties in our layover in Atlanta- I knew I was overdue for some bad travel luck and sure enough, I was right. Carl is really enjoying the cold weather (easy to do when you know you're only in it for a week), and is already scoping out some spots to go ice fishing. Here we are, in front of the moose/elk sculpture at the big Cabela's outside of Minneapolis. This is one of the few times I've seen Carl actually get excited about shopping.

Today marks the start of another challenging week for the ABC's of 2012. Yesterday I picked 'C'- cheese. After tearfully bidding it farewell at dinner last night I think I'm ready to be cheese-less, but I know this is going to be difficult, even despite my determination. So why am I giving up cheese? Besides love, isn't cheese what makes the world go round? Well, maybe not. It's my goal to eventually give up all animal products, except for the occasional fish that Carl brings home from work. There's countless reasons to remove animal products from your diet, from a health standpoint to animal cruelty issues to environmental reasons. I don't intend to get overly preachy on here, so I'll leave it at that. If you're interested in hearing more I can recommend some great resources that elaborate on the aforementioned reasons in a much more eloquent and coherent way than I ever could. Wish me luck getting used to the absence of cheese in my life! I'll be back soon to share more of our Iowa adventures.