Thanks! We're expecting a boy. Our older son is looking forward to having a little brother to do crazy boy things with. We're planning to call the new addition Jan Kwasniewski Optimus [Lastname]. Okay, just kidding on that bit!!!!

BTW, on the morning before my other son was born, I had an urge to go to the deli and order about a dozen different kinds of top quality lunch meat. I was standing there in my hugely pregnant state, ordering a quarter pound of this, a half pound of that... the other customers were quite amused.

I went into labor that night, and after the delivery, I was starving. The hospital's gluten-free meals just weren't cutting it. I phoned home with instructions to pack a cooler with meat -- and especially to make to sure to include all of the tongue and headcheese. So my friends who were helping out were rifling through the cheese drawer, looking for "headcheese." When my husband explained what it was, they were amused (but not really surprised; they're familiar with my eccentricities ). And when the cooler arrived, I devoured just about everything in it... probably at least a pound and a half of assorted fatty meat products... in one day.

This was long before I'd heard of Dr. K, and I didn't tend to eat those things all that often, but I guess my body knew what it needed. You know what, though? That deli was the most well-stocked, traditional one in our area, and now even they don't sell tongue any more. I've been trying to find a local supply for the last few months, without any success. (I usually avoid nitrates, but I'm willing to make an occasional exception for such a delicious and fatty product. Homemade tongue just doesn't taste nearly the same, at least not the ways I've made it. And I'm sure it would freak the nurses out if I pulled out a whole tongue, plonked it on my tray, and started slicing it up...)