August 14 - September 6: Grocery shopping, praying mantis, basketball, Santa Barbara

I've been on a gluten-free diet for about 70 days. People often ask me if it's hard to stay on the diet. The hardest part is eating out, since I don't know what's in the food. So, this is forcing me to go to the grocery store, but I don't mind since it's cheaper.

I was walking through Albertson's the other day, and look what caught my eye!

Special, gluten-free Rice Krispies! I thought Rice Krispies were already gluten-free, but I'm not complaining. What I appreciate most about this is that "Gluten Free" is so prominent on the package.

From Grocery shopping

Later, I was at another Albertson's with my friend Nick. We saw Cinnabon pastries, which can be warmed in the microwave. How long do you think that takes?

The box says "3 secconds"! A misprint?

Actually, only a few minutes ago (as I'm writing this), I saw a guy microwaving a cinnamon roll from Panera Bread. He had it in an enclosed plastic box and set for 1 minute, but we told him to stop after 15 seconds. 15 seconds was plenty, so I guess Cinnabon knows what they're talking about.


Once or twice a week, I visit some friends at a software/business group called Atlas. We help each other with programming. Recently, they got a pet praying mantis.

The mantis' name is Darrell (not to be confused with the Atlas founder, Daryl). He (or she?) was just a baby when we got him, so he's been molting. I assumed Darrell would just break out of his old skin, but it's like he just slipped out of his old exoskeleton.

How did he get his legs out?!


We feed flies and crickets to Darrell. Darrell will eat them only if they're alive.

Poor cricket.

From Praying mantis

Here's Darrell!

From Basketball

The church I attend, EBCLA, has a summer basketball league. I didn't play, but several people in my Bible study were on a team, so I watched a couple games. In the last game of the season, they won by one point!

I hope all the teams had fun!


On Labor Day weekend, my Bible study group made a day trip to Santa Barbara. It was my first time there.

Below is a view from the pier.



Doesn't it look beautiful?

Santa Barbara has a main street which is very long and has lots of shops. However, we had lunch at Panino, a sandwich/salad shop a couple blocks away.

I had the curry chicken salad, which was perfectly tasty.




After lunch, we walked up and down the main strip and to the beach. Some people went kayaking, and some went to a coffee shop. Kayaking was only $12 per hour per person, so I may try it next time!

Here, we are waiting for a dinner table at Pascucci. Less than half of our Bible study group came on the trip. On the other hand, almost half our Bible study group came on the trip!

From left to right, it's me, Nancy, Peien, David, Daniel, Nat, and Vince. Daniel, Nat, and Vince were our resident photographers, so that's why these photos look so good. Nat's photos are here, and Vince's are here.

At dinner, I was able to levitate some of the silverware!

(Some of the knives were magnetized, for some reason.)

Pascucci's had gluten-free pasta. Yay!

After dinner, Peien wanted to visit a pub. As he informed me, a pub is quite different than a bar.

We ended up at The James Joyce, an irish bar (pub) featuring live music. They also had infinite peanuts, pool was only $1 per game, and soda was only $1. Nice place!

From Santa Barbara

Vince took this great photo of me playing pool. Thanks, Vince! (How did he do this? Was there a mirror on the ceiling?)

Since this photo looks so cool, let's pretend I made the pool shot. :-)