A Souvenir for Michael

Saying on the shirt:

"More people have read this shirt than your blog. 0000002"

I found this t-shirt on the despair.com website and thought it would be perfect for Michael. Now he can taunt me without ever saying a word.

Of course I'll have to order the XL size for him, which somehow strikes me as poetic justice.

The Mystery of the South's Weight Problem Revealed

After spending the last week traveling through the Deep South, it’s no surprise it ranks as the most obese region in the nation. At every restaurant, I struggled to find high quality fresh produce to eat, or simply, anything not fried. I knew this of course, growing up in Georgia, but back then I didn’t care.

As a teenager working at Bojangles I lived off of chicken and biscuits. Especially biscuits. God I love those flaky, buttery pieces of goodness. And nothing was better than a biscuit made by my friend John. As the best Bojangles biscuit boy, he always worked the Saturday morning shift, because that was the biscuit rush. It’s like Krispy Kreme on a weekend morning in Richmond. Cars blazing through the Drive-Through, people pouring through the store, all buying doughnuts by the dozen. In the South you load up on biscuits by the dozen.

Well, that and anything that’ll fit in a deep fryer.

In Search of Beignets

Stage Three of Le Tour de South was New Orleans, Louisiana, the capital of gumbo, jambalaya, and beignets (French style doughnuts).

Having sampled the first two already, we planned on stopping by the famous Café Du Monde for beignets and coffee on our way out of town. The café is located on Decatur Street next to a beautiful park called Jackson Square. I was looking forward to sitting quietly under the awning, sipping on a rich brew of French roast, sampling the sugary French treat, and watching the tourists pass by. It was going to be a leisurely start to the day before our drive to Natchez, Mississippi.

A quick note: I realize beignets are not exactly a sanctioned food on the In8 plan, but I was going to splurge. You know, because I’m on vacation. (There's that bad vacation self-talk. The kind that leads to overeating and poor food choices. I know, I know!)