Update and a Product Review: GoPicnic Meals

Today I got home from my two-week AF Reserve tour.  Having to get on a plane and fly to my two-week tour is actually a first for me...unless you count the year I deployed, which I'm not.  I'd have had to fly to that one no matter where Dave was stationed :-)

A tad chilly in Omaha this morning -- they had to de-ice our plane before we took off!

No details about the work I did, it's the same as what I always do, which is challenging work, but rewarding when all's said and done.  I happened to be on night shifts -- which I was two years ago -- and it's seeming like pulling night shifts is getting harder and harder on me.  Perhaps it's the time I'm putting between having to work nights, perhaps it's my getting older?  I don't know.

Dave has back surgery on Monday.  The super-perceptive will start to realize a trend.  For those who haven't been reading for as long, "let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." (to quote Indigo Montoya).

It's autumn, and it seems it's time for Dave to have surgery again.  His back has been deteriorating pretty quickly this year, in part from the more intensive fitness regime he's had here.  After talking to several peers here who have had successful back procedures, he decided to meet with a neurosurgeon who suggested Dave would be a candidate for a procedure called an AxiaLIF.  It turns out his case made him a candidate so he goes in on Monday, but should be out of the hospital on Tuesday.  If the procedure is successful, Dave's recovery will be quicker than a traditional vertebrae fusion procedure.

This post from 2010 will provide a little more detail on his past surgeries.

I've a couple posts brewing that I'll get up here in between surgery and Halloween updates.  I'll start with this one.

Another shameless pitch...

I came across these products at the little bookstore/sundries store at the airport during this trip.  I bought them for meals while I was working, since I stayed in a hotel with no fridge or microwave.

For about $7 (airport prices) these little meals were organic, well-balanced and sensibly-sized.  The meal on the left is gluten-free: tuna salad, rice crackers, applesauce and dark chocolate.  The meal on the right is salami, processed asiago cheese spread, crackers and trail mix.

These GoPicnic meals are shelf-stable and fit nicely in my backpack for when I went to work.  Each of the meals weren't more than 350 calories.  The clerk at the airport shop told me that the salami meal could go through security, but the tuna meal couldn't because of the larger container of applesauce.  This particular airport store was on the ticketing-side of security.

When you open up the box, you're greeted with individually wrapped parts, and a very fun box:

These were the contents of the meal pictured on the right above.

Fun nutrition facts.

Fun food facts.  I love that peanut butter statistic!

I loved the Sudoku puzzle at the bottom of the box.  I saved it for several days thinking I might have time to work on it, but I didn't...

The final verdict?  I liked everything except for the trail mixes that were included with each of the meals.  The nuts seemed soft, probably because of the lack of preservatives (which is a good thing).  All of the ingredients are top quality, with no artificial flavors, colors, high-fructose corn syrup, trans-fats or MSG!

If you see them at your local airport, I recommend them!