Something to do

I'm trying to figure out a small project that I can complete today without going crazy that will help put me in a better frame of mind. Any suggestions?

Yesterday was pretty much a write-off as far as accomplishments go. I spent a lot of time doing sudokus and napping on the couch.

The house is a mess (surprise!) in part because we're still rather overcome with boxes from the recent move-in. The other part is that we need to make room for much more *stuff* I also have a few pieces of furniture I'd like to be rid of. Actually, there's a lot I'd like to get rid of. I've been considering a yard sale for a while now. I'm living in an environment that's about 15% comfortable.

The yard is a mess as well. However, I think cleaning something might just be the winner in my plan to deslothify. The problem is, I think, that once I start to clean, I tend to get distracted and move my focus on to other projects, resulting in often unnoticeable dents in many different areas.

Total change of subject. Does anyone else feel self-conscious when wearing a red top and khaki bottoms? I once got mistaken for an employee when checking out at Target in such an ensemble. Problem is, that combo is really really common and fits well with my default fashion technique: mix and match neutrals.

Bleh

Yuck. I'm sick. At least I think I must be. Yesterday I took a nap, and today I did the same, only for much longer. I'm feeling out of sorts, very under the weather, and also quite down, which I alluded to yesterday. Down enough to be concerned. Bad thoughts are beginning to invade my quiet (when healthy) mind.

I just deleted a long vent about work. Let's just say I'm not very happy right now, and I'll leave the specifics inside of me, where they belong much more so than here on a blog. Oh how I wish I could rant. I wish I could responsibly feel comfortable detailing the whys of my work malaise. Ah well.

Ok, enough of the bad.

The good:
Our Marianne was kind enough to let me swing by this morning to pick up a large, heavy sack load of pears from her tree. She's had a bounty crop this year, and I appreciate the donation. They'll ripen up in the next couple of weeks, and then I'm considering canning them as whole fruit.

I planted beets, radishes, broccoli and carrots in my community plot today. I purchased cabbages, broccoli, carrots, kale, and probably 90 more things to plant at home, but I've not been able to drag myself out there.

Ok, the forced reporting of The Good feels just that: forced. Again with the invasive negative thoughts (Hey! Pessimism is catching! I'm surrounded by it daily, so no surprise, I suppose). Might as well roll with it.

Birding yesterday SUCKED. The trail I took hadn't been trod since Spring migration, I'm pretty sure. The waist-high weeds hiding the trail were the main tipoff. There were screaming children, a couple of Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers, and weirdest looking mottled-breasted, quiet-voiced Carolina Wren I've ever seen. I realized I've not seen the majority of summer residents even once this season. No Indigo Buntings. No Tanagers. Jeeze.

I let a few kilos of beans rot rather than find time to process them.

I don't have a working stereo in my car.

Bubba is so chill as to seem absolutely insipid when I want him to be cheery.

I went out to meet a girlfriend for drinks last evening and had zero fun. This despite her buying me a drink and appetizer at the extremely fancy restaurant she'd chosen. And also despite being hit on by a good-looking man whose middle name was literally Danger. He handed me his bank card as proof. My reply (out loud, even) was that I felt like I was in a bad movie. He swore we'd met before. We hadn't.

"I'm running out of things to say," or "Looks like I'm depressed again."

How It All Works:

1) Copy the list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional: Post a comment at Very Good Taste, linking to your results

The 100

1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding (I think. It was in Spain.)

7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp (Maybe?)

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn or head cheese (Thanks to Jamie!)

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters

29. Baklava

30. Bagna cauda

31. Wasabi peas

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (I've had both, but not together)

33. Salted lassi

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted Cream Tea

38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects

43. Phaal

44. Goat's milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (HA HA HA HA! I've never had a Big Mac!)

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin (This one confuses me)

64. Currywurst

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost or brunost

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail

79. Lapsang Souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom Yum

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare (If they mean rabbit, consider this bolded)

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

How many have you eaten?

Again?

Whoa. Fall planting has crept up on me. It's hard to remember that August is the time to start everything from a second planting of summer squash and cukes to cold weather greens. Yikes.

The problem with my minuscule garden space is that I often have to rip things out in order to fit the new season's crop. Eggplants are already out, as are the cukes. Figuring out the logistics of ripping out my non-productive tomatoes while still supporting the sungold is going to break me.

To plant--today? Beets, carrots, cukes, greens, radishes, summer squash and turnips. To plant when the supply store opens and I can get to it: Brussels sprouts*, cabbage, broccoli.

Oy!

*Why, yes, I AM a glutton for punishment!

Burro

Dude. Bubba and I are home alone tonight, and I just played the video for him. OK, well, not FOR him, but just to see him again. He BARKED! A LOT!

And earlier when I had my friend Suze over for dinner after a matinee, he nicked the half loaf of bread we'd left on the table when we went outside to enjoy the fresh air for a bit. BUBBA! You're not supposed to do that. You don't eat steak scraps from the trash, after all. I suspect you're as carbo-loving as I am. The only time you seem to beg is when I've got crackers or an english muffin in hand.

Speaking of carbs, my oh MY. You have to make this for your loved ones. Don't let tell them the ingredients. For that matter, you might want to blindfold yourself AND cover your ears and sing LA LA LA while you make it. I'm not that dexterous, so I just resigned myself that it had better taste DAMN good. Instead of canned tomatoes, I used sauce that I had made yesterday, boiling down fresh tomatoes until they were literally half the volume they were to begin. There was an unfortunate forgot-to-stir incident during the sauce making. Just for the record, burning tomatoes onto the bottom of a pan will not ruin your sauce so long as you don't try to scrape the crap while the sauce is still in there. Just dump the sauce into another pan and cry that you've perhaps ruined your stockpot. The sauce will even be better for the burning, though, because it will taste as though you've roasted and caramelized the tomatoes somewhere along the way. Crazy.

I've never ever made a pasta dish that was so simple and so delicious. Actually, I may have never eaten a pasta dish that was that good, period. I tossed a handful of fresh basil in at the end, which made it even better. Suze and I both had two gigantic helpings, and I'm barely restraining myself from going into the fridge for a snack.

Do it. Seriously.

p.s. Suze never comments, but she does lurk. Just for that, here's a bit of dirt on her--she cried during the matinée of Mamma Mia we watched today. Somehow I did not, though I got a bit misty. Really, though, I think I may have just been lusting after Pierce Brosnan. Twentyish years older seems less of an issue than it did in the Remington Steele days. It left me so overcome that I spilled an entire HUGE Diet Coke on a young girl as we walked back to the car. Then I knocked my glass of wine onto the tablecloth. Thank god the wine was white, because so was antique linen table covering. More about Suze: she loves Bubba, too, and commented that he was rather catlike, for a dog. This as he lolled on her lap, paws up.

Excellent. Twenty minutes to write this means I still haven't gone back to the fridge for that leftover pasta. I might have to make that sauce for the next 12 meals in a row. I'll put the cardiologist on speed dial, don't worry.

Not stupid. Just slow. There's a difference.

Let me introduce you to Bubba, The Most Relaxed Dog on the PlanetTM.




(Can you tell I've been in Michigan recently?)

Art (Not that kind)

As long as I've been alive enough to remember, my dad has been enormously overweight. Back at the end of January, as I believe I mentioned, Dad had some kind of gastric bypass type surgery. There was quite a long time where he felt like extreme crap, but it looks like that part is over with for the most part.

One hundred and fifteen pounds later, he looks like this:

I can put both arms all the way around him when we hug, and he's a handsome devil, but by far the best part is that he's been able to go off of almost all the medicine he took as a result of being so overweight. We went to lunch, and he ate 1/4 of a sandwich and two spoonfuls of a divine strawberry soup. Cheap date.