My New Blog

Later today, I will post my first entry to my new blog HappyBumbleBee. This new site will focus on vegetarian, vegan, raw, organic, healthy foods and meal preparation from the perspective of a dyed-in-the-wool meatatarian. Because my wife Caroline is a vegetarian, I only prepare veg meals at home – for the carnivorous experience I go on the hunt at restaurants.

At first, I was averse to the idea of eating carrots and sprouts, therefore, it has taken quite a while of cooking organic, veggie, healthy meals at home to arrange my perspective to allow me to enjoy good vegetarian cooking. I have had to branch into many an ethnic cookbook and be open-minded enough to try different veggie meals and restaurants in order to experience the breadth and scope of what vegetarian and vegan cooking can be and, recently how great RAW foods can be.

While remaining omnivorous, I have come to hold with a certain disdain the need for people to cling to the idea that the labels of vegetarian, vegan, raw, Ovo-Lacto vegetarian, etc., are lifestyles to be held in near-religious esteem, instead of being more inclusive and recognizing that it is better that society adopt more healthy life choices that include a variety of these things. Thus, it is with this idea of helping us meatatarians better understand and enjoy the world of those leaf-eaters that I am launching HappyBumbleBee.

Bungled Jungle at the Renaissance Festival

Suzanne Montano and Pat Landreth of Bungled Jungle at the Renaissance Festival in Arizona

These are Suzanne Montano and Pat Landreth with the newest addition to our little menagerie of creatures created by these two wonderful artists. Suzanne and Pat are Bungled Jungle, based in Salida, Colorado, and for the past ten years, Caroline and I have been customers of theirs as we periodically adopt one of these handsome er, um….things? You can check them out from now through the first weekend of April at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. The smile on this guy and having the perfect spot in the kitchen helped us in our decision-making.

Hey Nunnie Nunnie at the Renaissance Festival in Arizona

Update: as I’ve been stating in various other posts, I’m updating some of my old blog entries here in 2023 to round them out with the photos I couldn’t include back in the early days of posting due to bandwidth limitations. And so it is here at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. The original post still lives at the top of the entry but starting with the ladies from Hey Nunnie Nunnie! I’m adding these images for Caroline and my memories.

Renaissance Festival in Arizona

It was still early in the morning with all the personalities of the festival at the entry gate welcoming those of us who show up when the event get’s underway.

Renaissance Festival in Arizona

A lot of the performers here we’ve seen for years.

The Wyld Men at the Renaissance Festival in Arizona

The Wyld Men about to get dirty with a crazy performance in the mud.

Dextre Tripp at the Renaissance Festival in Arizona

A man of great talent we always try to catch is slack wire walker, fire juggler, and all-around masochist Dextre Tripp at the Renaissance Festival in Arizona.

Caroline Wise and John Wise at the Renaissance Festival in Arizona

As I look back at our photos I can’t help but have nostalgic feelings about those days, except back then there were lots of plain old wholesome families that would visit, our last trip to the far east valley saw a festival as a place for exhibitionists and bikers to strut around showing cleavage, tattoos, and black leather.

Dinner with Carolyn Lim

Caroline and John Wise at the Siamese Kitchen Thai Restaurant with Carolyn Lim

We had dinner with Carolyn Lim this evening at the Siamese Kitchen in Phoenix, Arizona. Carolyn used to work with Caroline but is now doing some contract work until she has enough in savings to hit the road for another journey out on the planet where she will continue her search for that defining moment of being where she might stumble upon a perfection in time and place that will allow her to find ultimate happiness – something a routine in a material-driven paternalistic society has failed to deliver. Oh yeah, the Thai food was pretty good. The photo was taken by Carolyn.

Return from Dallas

New flat panel monitors at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona

Caroline flew home today after her short jaunt to Dallas. The Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has been undergoing some renovations, two of the upgrades are outstanding. The first you cannot see in my photo, it is the paging and announcement system – it is crystal clear, you can actually understand what is being said! The other upgrade is shown above, the old CRTs with poor readability that were high overhead are gone and have been replaced with these large flat screens at eye level that make reading incoming and outgoing flights a breeze.

Going to Dallas

A plane taking off from the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona

Caroline left today for a brief business trip to Dallas, Texas. This was the third time she has flown in the past five years, all times without me – I’ve not been on a plane since the year 2000. Not that I don’t want to, it’s just that the opportunity hasn’t arisen and I have enjoyed the drives. That will change in April as we make our way to Hawaii.

The site where JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas

The site where John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The man in the suit is Mike Waltman, Caroline’s boss at I-Sites in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Wild Oats

Ken the produce manager at Wild Oats in Scottsdale, Arizona

I met Ken Cetro, the Produce Manager here at Wild Oats in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the guy really impresses me with his love of presenting the best organic produce selection to be found in all of Arizona. From heirloom tomatoes and fresh horseradish root to napa cabbage and porcini mushrooms, if you need most any gourmet organic veggie, Ken here at Wild Oats is a near sure bet to have what you need. Now he just needs to brush up on his cooking skills so he can better tell me how to use that giant celery-like veggie he sells called Cardoon.