That said, I’d like to share with the world a bit of information that could prove useful to anyone looking for pet insurance.  The big name in pet insurance is VPI, so that’s what we got for our beautiful bulldog Bula.  The first several encounters with VPI was typical of much insurance:

1. Have a problem.
2. Submit a claim to get reimbursed for said problem.
3. Receive a reply for the insurance company stating that either they denied your claim, or are reimbursing you for a small fraction of your claim due to some compensation schedule.

I read tons of articles: Those that think that vaccinations are a government conspiracy to control the masses, to those that suggest that not blindly accepting FDA recommendations is unpatriotic. I also bought “The Vaccine Book” by Dr. Robert Sears, a daemon of the latter camp. Regardless, I found several of his points appealing, and so we decided to go with his recommended “alternative” vaccination schedule. For your convenience, it is listed below, along with a spreadsheet I created to track this schedule.

* 2 months: DTaP, Rotavirus
* 3 months*: Pc, HIB
* 4 months: DTaP, Rotavirus
* 5 months*: Pc, HIB
* 6 months: DTaP, Rotavirus
* 7 months*: Pc, HIB
* 9 months: Polio (IPV)
* 12 months: Mumps, Polio (IPV) (See 3rd UPDATE)
* 15 months: Pc, HIB
* 18 months: DTaP, Chickenpox
* 2 years: Rubella, Polio (IPV) (See 3rd UPDATE)
* 2 1/2 years*: Hep B, Hep A (start Hep B at birth if any close relatives or caregivers have Hep B)
* 3 years: Hep B, Measles (See 3rd UPDATE)
* 3 1/2 years*: Hep B, Hep A
* 4 years: DTaP, Polio (IPV)
* 5 years: MMR
* 6 years: Chickenpox
* 12 years: Tdap, HPV
* 12 years, 2 months*: HPV
* 13 years: HPV, Meningococcal (once Meningococcal vaccine is approved for age 2, Dr. Sears will move it there and delay Hep B by 6 months)

Here’s the presentation:

Check out the project on github.

One afternoon, I happen to see a tweet from her mentioning a ticket give-away to a Jonathan Gold and linking to this blog post.  So I followed the directions and tweeted, and forgot about it.  Then I got a DM from Sarah (TheDelicious) linking to this post, which I correctly presumed would be announcing the winner.  I hadn’t presumed I’d won the contest though, and I did!  This has to be one of the first contests I’d ever won, and it was a good one to win if you live in LA and like food.  Details of the party can be found on the Zocalo Public Square site, but in summary:  Some of LA’s top restaurants and bars provide finger foods and creative libations, while you listen to soothing latin music, enjoy a panel discussion featuring Jonathan Gold and several key players in LA’s restaurant/bar scene.  All of this is $500 value that is helping raise funds for Zocalo.  Awesome right?

The night was excellent and I’ll simply share some pictures rather than write much of the experience.  I will mention my favorite dish both for flavor and for originality:  Bacon-wrapped Matzo Balls with Horseradish aioli, courtesy of “The Gorbals.”

And now, the photos:

Yum.

Any excuse to try new food experiences is a good excuse.  dineLA’s “Restaurant Week” just wrapped up (ok, maybe not “just”:  it wrapped up almost 2 weeks ago, but I just had a baby boy, so this post was delayed going to press) and I loved it.  Many restaurants in LA participate, which means they offer a prix fixe menu consisting of one appetizer, one entree, and one dessert.  I would have preferred two entrees and no dessert, as I think many participants scale back the portion of their entree for this offering.  So you don’t get stuffed, but it’s generally tasty.

Let me share the establishments that I visited during this event, along with pictures.  I won’t be doing much post-game analysis, but wanted to share some food porn.

First I went to dinner at ”Gordon Ramsay” at The London hotel in West Hollywood.  I later found out that Ramsay sold the restaurant and is no longer affiliated; maybe you should change the name then?  My selections here were pan roasted scallops, Pacific black cod, and a chocolate souffle with vanilla ice cream.  One line summary:  Everything was tasty, but uninspired.

Next up, I went to Wolfgang Puck’s “Red Seven” in the Pacific Design Center; conveniently and not coincidentally, this is the building in which I work.  I’d been to Red Seven before (due to convenience) and had found it to be a solid lunch spot to grab something tasty and slightly overpriced.  My expectations weren’t not very high, but I was pleasantly surpised by the creativity of the dishes.  I ordered an heirloom tomato salad, Korean short rib with kimchi sauce, and a mango custard with candied cashews, raspberries, and pineapple.  All dishes were tasty and I feel that I received a good value (although I could have used bigger portions, natch).

The last restaurant I’ll mention is Jer-ne in Marina Del Rey.  Situated inside a Ritz Carlton along a road I often drive, my wife and I had been wanting to try Jer-ne for a while, and now we had the chance.  First impression:  underwhelming; severely underwhelming.  The staff was more interested in chatting amongst themselves than finding us a table, and our waiter seemed clueless about the menu, not to mention that he exuded an air of “Joe Budweiser”:  not the elegant help you’d expect from a fine restaurant.  Anyway, the food:  I ordered a butternut squash soup that was pretty good; the highlight here was the freshly torched cedar that really convinced all of my senses that it was autumn and this was an autumn dish (nice touch!).  My wife started off with some mexican shrimp that were big and delicious.  Filet mignon all around for the entrees, and they were small but tasty.  Finally, dessert:  My wife ordered a deconstructed peanut butter and jelly dish that looked as nice as some innovative sushi rolls I’ve seen; it was tasty too!  I ordered pumpkin creme brulee, and it didn’t dissappoint.  One other note-worthy comment:  I ordered a drink that contained Patron Silver and muddled berries, but when it came out, it was basically Patron on the rocks with a few decorative berries.  If I was up for partying at the time, I would have been grateful, but to call this a cocktail from the bartender’s menu is a generous title indeed.

See my flickr highlight photos of some of the dishes mentioned above.

So I’ve been eating a paleo / primal diet since maybe June or July of 2008.  The idea is to eat the high quality, nutrient-dense food we evolved to eat, rather than the highly processed and refined stuff (most often grains and sugars) that make up so much of the modern diet (and has arguably led to the “(degenerative) diseases of civilization”:  diabetes, cancer,  heart disease, autoimmune diseases, etc.).  I am not “dieting” in the sense of weight-loss:  I am thin, weighting 165 pounds at 6′1″.  I am eating this way for the health of it.

How has eating a paleo diet affected my health?

For one, I am hungry a lot less.  I used to eat what “conventional wisdom” told me was healthy:  whole grains, little saturated fats, little red meat, smoothies, etc.  I would often snack throughout the day on such a diet, and this isn’t surprising as carbs/sugar cause an insulin spike, which make you even hungrier (not to mention that sugar is more addicting than cocaine!.  Now, I am rarely hungry, even when I fast (do this: it’s good for you!).

I feel higher energy, and a clearer head.

Enough subjective talk; let’s look at some numbers! Below find my lipid profile:




What to note: After eating a paleo diet for a year, my triglycerides were down 21.15%, VLDL was down 20%, and HDL was up 23.81%. Total cholesterol and LDL were both up, but I am not at all concerned about that as both are within a healthy range, even by conventional standards.

If you are curious about the science behind eating this way, check out Gary Taubes’ “Good Calories, Bad Calories“, or if you are lazy, watch this video:

I plan to update my lipid panel spreadsheet every 6 months, so stay tuned for updates.

Mike Perham, the memcache-client maintainer, documented how to do this (”Using memcache-client 1.6.x in Rails < 2.3″).  His hack works great if the memcache-client gem is installed, but not if you vendor the gem.  I like to have my gems under source control, so here is a how I hacked ActiveSupport to use memcache-client 1.7.4.

Working great so far :-)