If you ever have the opportunity, go see Sherman Alexie. I’ve been seeing him do readings since I moved here. Twenty years ago it was in a classroom at Clackamas College.
We’ve both come a long way since then.
I have another week or so of the insane busy. Then a return to the amazing content that you’ve come to expect from me. Ahem.
Every time I look in the yard I cringe because there is so much work to do out there and it seems like I’m never here when the weather is decent.
I just got back from 4 days in LA at a hotel by the airport doing a writing workshop than ran from 9am to 7pm.
It was amazing and exhausting and I’m glad I went.
Here’s a terrible photo from my room which shows my view of the runways facing toward the ocean. I could barely hear any airport noise at the hotel, but noise from the hallway at 3am: loud and clear.
I hear I missed an earthquake by less than 24 hours.
What a shame.
I had a great time but didn’t sleep super great.
I took today off to regroup.
Another busy few weeks ahead.
Great opener yesterday. Perfect weather. We came back from 3-1 at the half to tie New York 3-3. It’s going to be a great season.
I have these on all my spice jars. I never shake my spices.
Every time I use a spice I take this thing off, pour or measure out the spice I want, and then put this thing back on.
Last weekend I had about 4 spice jars out and was wrangling all these stupid things and I thought, “Why do I even keep these?”
So I took them off and washed them and put them in a drawer in case I change my mind later although really it’s just going to be something to throw away someday.
Remember the 150 bulb project? Very soon we will be enjoying the benefits. Check out these nubbins.
That’s not supposed to be all 150, I planted them in batches in the front and back. Although there is one area where I thought I planted a bunch and there is not a nubbin to be seen. This year I will photograph the results and keep track for next fall.
Here’s Kalif, back in action.
Timbers preseason started yesterday. Yay.
I was going through my photos from preseason last year and wondering why I took so few photos. Probably because I was freezing my buns off and didn’t want to take my hands out of my pockets.
Yesterday wasn’t gruesome but this lizard girl was a tad colder than she would have liked. At least it wasn’t raining. Still was super fun being back at the stadium and saying hi to all the familiar faces from last year.
We have an extra-crazy busy schedule for the next month or so. I am preemptively freaking out about it today. Posting here even scarcer than usual.
It’s February 15 and that means at your local grocery store they’re putting away the Valentine’s candy and breaking out the Easter candy.
I just had my first Cadbury egg of the season! To be honest, I was a little disappointed. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it’s been in a warehouse since last season. It wasn’t the best Cadbury egg I’ve ever had. Meanwhile, I’m on a huge sugar high right now. That’s going to feel great when I crash in 15 minutes.
Let me tell you about the best tv channel in the history of anything ever.
I like to keep the TV parked on a particular station so that when I turn it on I don’t have to see a snippet of any kind of show that I don’t like. For a long time the channel was the Syfy channel but they sometimes show Saw or some other gross horror thing and I don’t like that. Then I had it on Fox Soccer for awhile and that wasn’t too bad except I’d get sucked into soccer.
Then I discovered the Science Channel. It’s channel 272 at our house.
They have this series called: How It’s Made. They show you how stuff is made: clothespins, cough drops, swords, highlighter pens, water skis, laundry soap, taco sauce. The list goes on and on. Do you know how cool it is to see how things are made? Conveyor belt pr0n for days.
I think this show should be mandatory on airport TVs. Also any place that does car-related work.
Still lots of crows downtown. They weren’t around yesterday but back at about half-force this morning.
The NYT Dining section seems to be in an endless race to out-stupid itself. A couple of weeks ago there was an article about people who seriously injure themselves when putting their fingers into the sharp bits of their immersion blenders.
Then there was an article about the overweight chef who likes to eat a lot including a pizza and bucket of wings when he gets home from work. He goes to the extreme step of hiring a ‘food strategist’ who churns out so many ludicrous quotes I’m going to go ahead and link to the article so you can read it yourself. (Sneak preview: “Let me put you on the Concorde to thin.”)
Then there was the article this week about dinner kits. All the various ingredients are measured out and packaged together. You cook it yourself. Let me point out that I am not mocking the idea. There will always be a need for simplified meal preparation. Why not this? It seems like it would be especially valuable for people who eat away from home often because of travel and work obligations and don’t have a well-stocked kitchen.
But this is a quote from one entrepreneur who runs such a service, “When we started jobs in New York, we realized that cooking dinner is really, really hard.” He goes on to say, “There’s not enough time in modern lives to recipe-select or grocery-shop.”
Why not say, this is a great alternative for folks who don’t prioritize cooking or find themselves bringing home a pizza and bucket of wings because they’re too tired at the end of the day. But “really, really hard?” He sounds like a second grader. I’ve got a bazillion activities that I’m juggling and I manage to recipe-select and grocery-shop. Is it that my life isn’t modern?
Let’s think of some articles to pitch to the NYT. They’ve already covered kitchen danger, food makes you fat and cooking and shopping are hard. What else? Washing dishes is no fun! Ethnic foods have weird ingredients! Sometimes couples don’t like the same foods!
Leave your ideas in the comments.
