Ohhhh dear, it’s going to be another one of those still-full-from-yesterday days…

On the way to the book club last night, I tested a piece of organic sugar-on-the-go from the package I received yesterday:

Who knew Neman’s made breath mints? I certainly did not. Anyway, as far as cinna-mints go, it tasted like a cinna-mint.

When I arrived, Amanda set me right up with a delicious pear martini.

We actually discussed the book — something that has never ended up happening in any book club I’ve attended before! I think it helped that (1) this book, Those Who Save Us, was really intense, moving, and thought-provoking and (2) Amanda, Meghan, and I were the only ones there for the discussion portion. (P.S. Amanda and Meghan live there, so I was actually the only one there :P)

Amanda and Meghan had prepared a substantial spread of goodies to get us through the chat.

A port-wine cheese ball with melba toasties:

(I think I ate about five of these over the course of the night.)

Baby carrots:

(Probably ate about 20 of these.)

Jelly Bellies:

(Errr, the jar was full when I arrived and empty when I left Sorry, Meghan!)

Peanut m&ms:

(See comment above about jelly bellies.)

And peanuts:

(Ditto. Yup, I mindlessly housed about two cups of peanuts in the space of three hours. Was I hungry for any of it? Nope. At least my body is now swimming in healthy fat …)

We also went to town on the snacks I brought. The last single-serve bag of kettle corn from the pack I found at work:

And, the star combo of the night, Newman’s protein-infused pretzels (a close examination of the ingredients list seemed to indicate that the protein comes from pea flour?) with Nutella for dipping:

Demonstration:

(I might have repeated this action 12 or more times.)

Willie arrived in the midst of all this and had never tried protein-infused pretzels or nutella, so we peer-pressured him. Game face on:

The aftermath:

(You may not be able to tell, but that’s a look of pure pleasure. Really.)

Willie is also very thoughtful and aware of my compulsion to eat everything in sight, so he brought us a six-pack of Dunkin Donuts:

Left to right, top: powdered chocolate frosting-filled, Boston Cream, powdered cinnamon-apple-filled; bottom: chocolate-frosted with sprinkles, jelly-filled, strawberry-frosted cream-filled.

I had the winning idea of cutting all the donuts into fourths so we could try little tastes. Which led us (or me at least) to try many tastes:

Soon after the donut demolition incident, Damon, Laura, and Owl arrived. And things start to get fuzzy.

It started out innocently enough, with Owl boldly getting the ball rolling on the still-unopened Newman’s bite-sized chocolate chip cookies:

Everyone loved these. I had two:

The innocence continued with a simple pass-around-the-pretzels-so-I-can-try activity:

Amanda somehow noticed a striking difference between these pretzels and all those that had come before. Her evaluation was poetic and beautifully-phrased, but I can’t remember it.

Things kind of deteriorated from there as everyone got carried away with the idea of doing a product review. Meghan and Amanda administered a blind taste test on Willie:

And on Damon:

The boys took it seriously:

Interestingly enough, even in the blind taste test, everyone preferred — and noticed a striking difference between — the regular store-brand pretzels and the extra crunchy and subtly salty protein pretzels. Perhaps even more interesting, both Willie and Damon guessed that the store-brand pretzels (the non-preferred product) were actually Newman’s because they assumed that an organic and protein-infused pretzel could not possibly taste as good as a less-healthy and no-regard-for-nutrition-or-the-environment brand.

Amanda said it best:

I will definitely buy Newman’s Own Organic protein pretzels next time.

Newman’s should hire her.

In conclusion, my tummy hurts this morning. And my planned 10-mile-run (as opposed to accidental) with Kate is imminent. And I am hoping that the run will leave me feeling rejuvenated and refreshed and like I ate whole grains and produce last night instead of a trash can.

How are you faring this morning?