Hitting the Road August 28
No blog-love for a few days, as we'll be in Annapolis with
Kimberly's family for the weekend. Have a swell holiday!
Farewell, Joyce August 27
As much as I loved my Joyce Chen
teapot, it wasn't working,
as Kimberly reminded me this evening. Once again, the water boiled without
letting me know (there's no whistle or horn or shrieking apparatus), completely
evaporated, and the fumes from the baking dry cast-iron pot alerted the smoke alarm
that something was very, very wrong. The pot is now in the wastebasket, and I'm
in the market for a new one.
Earth Fare August 26
EarthFare has the best vegan chocolate chip cookie I've
tasted. While Whole Foods uses a harder palm shortening for its cookies, the
EarthFare cookies have only liquid canola oil. Much softer, and much tastier.
They also have a bigger selection of vegan baked things: s'mores, brownies,
cookies, cakes, muffins, etc.
Another excellent product I found there: Annie Chun's maifun
rice noodles. Just drop the dry noodles into hot broth with sliced green
onions and a few mushrooms, and 5 minutes later you can ladle out warm bowls of
deliciousness.
First Day of School August 25
The girls started the new school year today. New lunchboxes,
bags of new supplies, new classrooms, new friends, all very exciting. They're
still riding Bus #345 with Ms. Erika. Today's lunches: cheese sandwiches, sliced
apples, salted almonds, and chocolate milk. Yum.
The Weekend So Far August 23
I liked Tropic
Thunder. Robert Downey Jr. stole the show.
Well, so did Jack Black. My favorite part was the campfire scene with Jack
Black strapped to the tree. I cried from laughing.
The girls appeared in a Robin Hood performance last night as
part of their Missoula
Children's Theater camp. Emma was a guard, and Jane was a skunk.
I've forgotten to mention it, but since August 12th I've been eating as a vegan might eat, such
was the effect of The
China Study on me. Then a friend handed me a book called Healthy
at 100, and it only reinforced what was in the first book. The next step in
my nutrition research is to find a pro-meat book. (I've read the Weston Price
writings, and they're not convincing enough.) Specifically, I need a pro-meat
book that shows, through vast amounts of published peer-review research, that
eating meat, dairy, and/or eggs prolongs life and prevents cancer and heart
disease.
Backing up. Kimberly took Friday off because SisterTiffany is
in town. We ate breakfast at Parker
& Otis and then saw the movie at Southpoint.
After chocolate and apples at Rocky
Mountain, I hung around Barnes & Noble looking at vegan books while
Tiffany and Kimberly underwent pedicures. Early dinner at Rockwood
Filling Station, Robin Hood show at 7, dessert later at Francesca's.
I spent 3 hours on my bike yesterday, 3 1/2 hours today.
Here's hoping for an early bed time, 'cause I sure am dog-assed tired.
Movie August 21
Today there will be no links that entice you to waste
hours and hours of your time. I promise. Just today.
Tomorrow we're going to see Tropic
Thunder in a real movie theater! I'm excited.
Psychology August 20
My friend Judy sent this
link of online experiments. I did only the musical
interval test, which was good fun, and I scored a 95%. I'm down with the music,
yo, apparently.
Teachers August 19
The kids' teacher assignments are in! Jane's 1st grade
teacher at Hope Valley
will be Ms. Royal. Emma, 4th grade, will have Ms. Miller and Ms. Garcia. Open
house will be Thursday night, and school starts Monday. When did the babies grow
up?
LMAO August 18
The YouTube bloopers got to me, specifically this,
this,
this,
and this.
Tropic Thunder August 17
If anyone sees Tropic
Thunder, let me know how it was. I
think I'd like to see it. The clips and fake trailers for the characters'
previous movies are hilarious.
Word Fun August 14
I think job satisfaction surveys should include the option
"gruntled." It is a word, and we should use it more.
A Few Things August 13
Gary sent me a Zach
Galifianakis video today, and it's growing on me.
Another Hitchcock update: I enjoyed Torn
Curtain after recovering from witnessing the blasphemy of Mary Poppins in
bed doing God-knows-what to Newman's Own.
Gene
alerted me to the Music Genome
Project. I tried it, and it's wicked cool.
While eating dinner with friends I was trying to remember the
name of the movie where Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline are married and they're at
this guy's house and he lives in Hollywood or somewhere nearby and I think he's
a producer and they have a party and then Latino women come in the morning to
clean up after everyone. No one could help me, but after flipping around
the Web for a while I figured out that it was The
Anniversary Party. It's been a while since I saw it, but I don't think it
was good.
In The News August 12
I'm a big sucker for a heartwarming Olympic
athlete story.
And look,
yet another rail line in Mongolia.
That Kelly Rowland should take
it easy.
Wear more red!
Yes! Clay's
a dad.
I should stop now, or this will get out of hand.
Media Update August 11
It's time for a brief media update. Movies first. Karakter: Very good. I highly
recommend it. Suspicion: Not a Hitchcock best, but still Hitchcock, and Cary
Grant is adorable.
I spent a few weeks slogging through the first half of last
year's Best
American Short Stories, but I can't finish. I noticed long ago that short
stories in places like The New Yorker are bleak and depressing, as
if a short story has to have themes of depression, loneliness, and
sadness to be a good short story. Blech. I'm done with it.
At the moment I'm reading The China
Study. So far, so
interesting. I like books on nutrition. Some day soon I'll start one of those
Michael Pollan books.
The Day I Was Born August 7
The #1 song in the U.S. on the day I was born was something
called "Honey" by someone called Bobby Goldsboro. I found a short clip
on the Web, and hoo-boy, am I glad I don't remember it. Check
yours here.
Aw, man, I had to go and look up the songs for high school
and college graduation. The "artist" Madonna was there for me both
times: "Live to Tell" and "Vogue." Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.
DQ August 6
Not that I didn't already know Frida could sing, but hoowee,
she's still got it.
hcwdb.com August 5
Damn you, Gary and Jen. Damn both of you for showing me Hot
Chicks with Douchebags. The site presents yet another obstacle to my goal of
turning off the computer early in the evening.
National Night Out August 4
Tomorrow is National Night
Out. We're having a street party
pot-luck thing and a flashlight walk. I hope the temperature cools down to at
most 96 by dinner time.
Miscellaneous Weekend Things August 3
The claim processing for Jane's emergency room visit in June
is finally wrapped up. WakeMed in Raleigh submitted the claim to Aetna. Aetna
paid it, and we paid a $150 emergency room co-pay. Her scar is healing well.
I rode a total of about 12 hours on my bike last week.
Saturday morning I biked to soccer, played soccer, snagged a cleat in Walter's
shoe lace, twisted my ankle and sprained it, and had to get a ride
back home (Walter drove me home; a good man). I'll probably be on soccer hiatus for at least a month.
I borrowed a bunch of Winter's Solstice Windham Hill CDs from
a friend. I love those.
The girls slept at a friend's house last night while we
ate at Vin
Rouge and then saw The
Dark Knight. It was good, action-packed, semi-goofy fun. I recommend it.
Earlier in the week I watched The
Trouble with Harry. Excellent. Much lighter than other Hitchcock films, and
it had Jerry Mathers in his pre-Beaver days (just try to resist that set-up).
Mug Shot
July 31
Okay, I would not have recognized Andy
Dick from this
picture.
Organic Food
July 29
Two very helpful lists over at Dr. Weil's place:
12
foods you don't have to buy organic, and
12
foods you should always buy organic.
Strawberries and grapes I'd known about for a long time. I'd
recently heard about peaches, the way the full thickness of the skin soaks in
and holds multiple pesticides that can't be washed away. Oh, and I knew about
potatoes too. Monsanto, in particular, has developed a potato seed engineered to
produce its own insecticide as the plant grows and to incorporate that
insecticide into every cell of the leaves, stems, flowers, roots, and spud.
Yummy.
I'm surprised to see broccoli on the "doesn't
matter" list. And of course the "doesn't matter" list may not
consider long-term effects. For example, Central American banana farmers,
because of our year-round need for bananas, are spurred to use pesticides that
may harm local birds by killing so many organisms so low on the food chain.
Complicated.
Sugar
July 28
Have I mentioned how much I love whole cane
sugar? I mix it
into my morning yogurt or granola. Tasty.
A New Food Co-op
July 26
I just mailed in our form to do our part for Durham
Central Market. Thanks to Valerie
for the tip.
Porch
July 24
I squeezed in some more porch priming and painting this week.
The thing is now presentable enough to have its picture taken. This
link shows some of the construction, with final pictures at the end.
Who Knew
July 23
I learned two things today. What nation supplies the most
crude oil to the United States? The U.S. itself. And what nation comes in second
for supplying the U.S. with crude oil? Canada. Source.
Omraam Gets All Horticultural
July 22
"A gardener who has failed to sow any vegetables is not surprised when he sees none growing. He simply says to himself: This is normal, old man. Since you have not had the time to sow carrots, you have no carrots. But you have lettuces, parsley and onions, because you have sown them.' Yes, when it concerns fruit and vegetables, human beings reason correctly. But they know nothing of the moral and psychological realms: they believe they will harvest happiness, joy and peace while sowing violence, cruelty and spitefulness. No, they will harvest violence, cruelty and spitefulness. But because they do not understand this, they are surprised and rebel against what happens to them. When they learn to keep watch over themselves and to spread only seeds of light and love with their words, their feelings and their thoughts, their destiny will improve."
Omraam Mikhaλl Aοvanhov
Hot
July 21
Hoowee, what a sweaty day. I was able to wring out my shirt
several times. And when I've drunk a gallon or two of water and I think I've had
enough, I force myself to keep drinking because it's hard to keep up when it's
this hot. The humidity feels like a heavy blanket.
Birthday Girl
July 20
Jane turned 6 on July 18th. Happy Birthday, Jane! The
"Littlest Pet Shop" party was held Saturday. Great fun, water balloon
relay race, crafts, cake, presents, etc. Pictures here.
Starbucks
July 19
Oh no, what ever will we do now that Starbucks is closing stores?
Here's a map by state.
Cats and Dog
July 17
I'm a sucker for a heartwarming animal
story.
Mr. Jones
July 16
I want a fluffernutter sandwich. There's no marshmallow fluff
in the house. It's on the shopping list.
Development
July 15
Durham's Inter-Neighborhood Council is considering adopting a
resolution on development practices in Durham. Background here,
proposal here. And here
are some other resolutions the INC has adopted. I confess my head has been in the
sand, because I would have thought such things were already part of normal
policy. Silly boy.
Another Random List
July 14
I was able to replace the broken sliding door handle on our
minivan thanks, in part, to the forum at the "Odyssey
Online Community." I love the Internet.
As a former I.T. support guy, I loved this
(language alert), sent to me by current-I.T.-person-sister-in-law. I nearly
urinated several times.
I watched Rope
for the first time last week. Wow. It's good. This Hitchcock fellow has talent.
Currently in the movie queue: Starbucking
and Trekkies 2.
One of the 50 beers on tap at Tyler's:
La
Chouffe. Tasty.
My bike is in the
shop getting a new chain, tires, and a tune-up. I'm excited.
Carnavalito
at Brightleaf
Friday night was good. The girls danced. They were sweaty.
Books I've recently started and couldn't finish: Philip
Roth's Everyman, Norman Mailer's The Castle in the Forest, Salman
Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. I felt no resonance with any of them.
Moving on.
Point of order: my mistyping taught me that Amazon.dom
resolves to Amazon.com. (I
get that, say, Google buys bunches of variations like Gooooogle,
but I don't understand how dot-dom works at all.)
Two Things
July 10
The 2005 Kitfox red is exquisite.
I don't like the way the seafood guy at Whole Foods says
"What else for you?" when he hands me my fish. I know, I know, it's
that old sales strategy of never giving the customer a chance to say
"yes" or "no," because "no" is so easy. I'm aware
of that, but it's still annoying.
Bruno
July 9
Sacha Baron Cohen is at it again, this time as Bruno.
Music
July 8
It's been a long time since I've provided any updates on my
listening habits (other than Weird Al videos on YouTube). For the past week I've
been listening to this,
this,
this,
and this.
The Monteverdi I own, everything else is on loan from the Durham Public Library.
As I type this, Paul Winter is playing. Probably my favorite Paul Winter thing
so far is The
Man Who Planted Trees. I'd first heard it in 1992 on Music
from the Hearts of Space, one of my all-time favorite radio shows. Alas, the
Durham radio crowd doesn't lean that way, so no one here carries it. Stephen
Hill, like, totally rocks.
Movies
July 7
Get Smart was good. Fun, entertaining, cute, campy, etc. I
liked it. Roman de Gare was excellent: an interesting plot, intriguing
characters, well-constructed scenes. It was very engaging, one of the best
movies I've seen in many months (and I'm not just saying that because the Carolina
Theater serves fermented beverages on tap).
Lapham
July 3
I've been reading Lewis Lapham's writing in
Harper's and Lapham's
Quarterly, and I recently stumbled across this online
interview. I liked his description of interviewing for the C.I.A.
Some Things July 2
Trader Joe's has a very good hot
sauce. It's inexpensive ($2,
I think) and contains only peppers, vinegar, and salt.
Tomorrow morning Jane will have her stitches snipped out.
We just watched a DVD called Brats.
It didn't quite fit with my experience as a civilian foreign service brat, but I
suspect that military brats will like it. There's discussion of the emotional damage
suffered by families. That was nice.
I never saw Bull
Durham. Should I watch it?
News Item July 1 There is an archive going back to 2005, but who reads archives?
And server space is limited.
I imagine this Anwar fellow is unaware of the humor in his
intention to fight "every inch" of his sodomy
charge.