On avoiding a public shaming

Tags

bikes, homeownership, music, spring, yardwork

Our little neighborhood newspaper does a pretty good job of keeping people up-to-date on what’s going on around here. It has a great events calendar. It keeps track of which businesses are opening and closing. Usually there’s a couple of actually informative pieces. It also runs a hilariously passive-aggressive monthly feature, as seen above: Good Neighbor/Eyesore. 

New Orleans, je t’aime

Tags

dining out, food, New Orleans, Nola, travel

I returned from a work trip to Orlando on Friday to find the house intact, my cat not caring if I had been gone (he was play-dating with Kirby Ditges-Manning) and the basil deader than a doornail. One relaxing weekend later, I’ve purchased a new basil plant and earned Timmy’s affections once again.

Yes, but patience is not MY virtue

It’s been an…interesting…week. I can’t say too much about it because it has to do with work and I don’t like to write about my job much on the Internets, so at the risk of being a person who cryptically writes things and doesn’t give enough details about them (here’s looking at you, Kristen), I’ll just say it’s been a tough week. 

You’re my hero

I cook according to the weather a lot. I realized that yesterday when I considered grilling for dinner, and thought, “Oh, it is going to be too cold.” And then I thought maybe I’d make soup or chili and I said to myself, “Oh, it is too warm.” I’m a regular Goldilocks. Is this weird? Do other people make dinner based on the weather forecast? It makes planning meals in advance darn near impossible, at any rate. 

I’m so excited

…and I just can’t hide it. Fall might be my favorite season, but spring makes me really enthusiastic about things. Such as:

Like a pioneer

Tags

Creative Needle, hobbies, old people things, quilting

I recently read an article about how it’s interesting that all the habits us bougie young folks have used to come from a place of necessity: preserving, growing our own food, raising animals, brewing beer, curing meat, sewing, and things like that. These are things our grandparents and great grandparents did because they didn’t have a choice, but it’s become sort of a luxury to be able to pursue these interests in the modern age. Like we’re making our own little time machines, for fun.

Happy spring!

Tags

kale, mushrooms, recipe, soup, spring

While I was on my business trip, all I could think about was how I couldn’t wait to get home so I could actually cook my own food. And then I got home and failed to do that at any point last week. See, I got a cold, and I couldn’t taste much, and Kevin was gone and it’s no fun to cook for one person. So, I, um, ate Totinos pizza and macaroni and cheese and quesadillas? Maybe? I’m so ashamed.

Let’s all learn together!

Tags

Lucky Peach, reading, slacker

I’m going to shamelessly admit that this is a filler post – I got sick after my trip, and then we visited the family in Glenwood over the weekend and all of a sudden I hadn’t written in more than a week! So, hang in there, I’m going to write something amazing and real tomorrow, hopefully about mushrooms.

Until then, I leaned some interesting things today during my lunch break from my Lucky Peach magazine and I wanted to share them with you! Lucky Peach is a quarterly magazine about food published by McSweeney’s and I’ve been reading it for a very long time because it is very large. All these little tidbits come from an article called “On Molecular Gastronomy” by Harold McGee. I’d love to link to it, but you can only read it in print.

I’m closer to the end than I am to the beginning

Tags

books, dining out, excercise, running, Weight Watchers

I wish my travels were more like this.

I’ve been traveling for work the past week or so (only a week!?!?), exhibiting/speaking/attending two different conferences in two very different places (Pennsylvania and Louisiana). I’m not very good at being away from home for this long while I’m by myself, so I’ve tried to keep myself busy. 

Let there (finally) be light

Tags

electrical work, light fixtures, lighting, projects

This is the most exciting day I’ve had since we moved into this house. Seriously. It is more exciting than moving day. It is more exciting than when I painted our bedroom. It is more exciting than when we finally, finally got our washing machine down the stairs.

You see, today is the day we finally have a light fixture in our entryway. And it is glorious.