redbird | beach walk/socializing (Reply)

alanro and his partner Jeanne are in town for the weekend, staying with Loren and Lauryn. Alan suggested that

cattitude and I could take the bus down to Burien and we could all go for a walk along Puget Sound. That sounded like a good idea, so we went down there yesterday afternoon.

It was a nice spring day (I know, but this has been the warmest winter on record here), with lots of cherry blossoms visible along the way. We went to a park near Lauryn and Loren's home, looked at the waves rolling in, and picked up rocks and shells. Mostly we looked at them, and got Jeanne to identify some, then put them back. I put three small stones and one shell (with a barnacle living on it) in my pocket.

Visiting Lauryn and Loren meant we got to spend some time with their cats, which was good. There was also assorted conversation, tea, and eventually dinner at a good Greek restaurant near their home. Unfortunately, I seem to have discovered a food allergy, fsvo "food": my hosts don't keep regular sugar in their house, and Lauryn offered me an artificial sweetener, Truvia, which is a mixture of sugar, stevia, and erythritol. I noticed shortly after finishing my tea that my tongue was itching; I asked for a Benadryl, which took care of the problem. At the time I thought "I haven't eaten anything new today," thinking of the tea as black tea, ginger, and cinnamon, forgetting the sweetener. Both Lauryn and I thought of the sweetener as the likely suspect a while later. I'm not sure the erythritol was the problem, but it seems probable (I've eaten actual stevia leaf without a problem); fortunately, it shouldn't be too hard to avoid (I took yesterday's last cup of tea black, which was fine).