Five good things for this rainy Friday:
Been cooking up a storm with my CSA produce this week. Butternut squash soup, squash scones and spicy tomato jam. I’m particularly happy with those last two recipes. The soup was tasty too but it can be done so many different ways. Next time I might go for a curried version.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
I’ve been enjoying some downtime at home lately. Well, the sickness-induced downtime wasn’t quite so enjoyable, but it did force me to slow down a bit. Which I needed. And in the coming days I hope to complete Operation Lady Cave. But I’m already itching to get out again. Mirah is playing at The Cedar tonight. As much as I enjoy her music I’ll likely be skipping it. I have to remind myself that there is plenty on the horizon, now that it is October. A friend is moving to D.C. and is throwing himself a couple of going away parties this weekend. The weekend after that I am shooting another wedding and attending FallCon with my son. Then mid-week after that the lad’s school is closed for a few days so we’re staying in Duluth, with a day trip planned to Wisco. Specifically the Bayfield/Madeline Island area, with a stop for pumpkins along the way. We’ll have to haul ass on the way back to the cities to attend some friends’ wedding. And that night is BruteHeart’s record release at The Hexagon with Milwaukee’s amazing and mysterious The Chain and other locals Gay Beast.
Also just around the corner? National Novel Writing Month. I wasn’t planning to attempt it this year but yesterday I woke up with story ideas rattling around my head. That tied into a few other notions I’d had. I haven’t managed to complete a novel since 2004 but I do enjoy trying. Like author Dan Fante said, “I don’t write books. I write pages.”
Bonus: A trashy True Blood tidbit.
Plus: I shouldn’t be so afraid of phyllo dough. It can’t be that hard to work with! I vow to veganize this Squash Bisteeya recipe sometime soon.
And: Utter silliness but it made me chuckle. Especially enjoyable if you’ve spent a lot of time downtown Minneapolis.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The winds have died down and my body is on the mend. I’m about to head out into a calm, sunny (though chilly) afternoon. But first, a quick burst of five good/weird things.
*pew pew pew*
Bonus nugget. I’ve been enjoying the new Echo & the Bunnymen single, released today - I Think I Need It Too.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Listening to quiet sounds now on this Sunday night. The boy put himself to bed. The dishwasher is running. It is raining lightly. But the winds are whipping about. The gusts were so strong earlier today that our boulevard tree was snapped in two. Had we been home the topheavy portion would have landed directly on my car. Thankfully we were away and it fell in an empty driveway. But when we pulled up to our house, after an afternoon of adventuring, it took my brain a long while to process what I was seeing. I just kept sputtering. “The tree? What the hell?” Some helpful neighbors were outside and had already called the city. A crew came by not long after with chainsaws. The tree has been sectioned off but not yet removed.
Anyhow, all bundled up on my couch I pondered all of the awesomeness that has been happening elsewhere over the weekend, and even closer to home, but I’ve been missing out on all of it.
At least the lad and I had some good times. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (Bruce Campbell!) in 3D. Bowling. Swimming. Redeeming gift cards he received for his birthday. Dinner out at E Noodle and at Midori’s. And I highly recommend Big Stone Mini Golf in Mound, MN. From there it’s a quick jaunt to Minnetonka Apple Orchards, but damn if that isn’t a spendy proposition. $30 to pick our own honeycrisps. Still, enjoyable.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Well, maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned needing to rest. My body took that as a signal to completely give up. I’ve spent most of the week flat on my back in bed, or faceplanted on the couch, like a pinned butterfly. Exhausted, achey and barely clinging to consciousness. And with all the sleeping the dreams have come flooding in. Strange ones. But seems like it’s been strange times in the real world too. Weird weather always captures my attention. Like the biblical rains in Atlanta (a friend there joked that he’s had to tear up all of his furniture to build an ark). I’ve been particularly fascinated by coverage of Sydney’s post-apocalyptic Spring Equinox dust storms, flickr has groups going, like the Red Sydney Project.
Bonus: American-style cupcakes in the Middle East
Plus: Would love to visit Kitaro’s Teahouse in Tokyo, to see their Mini Monster Peepshow upstairs.
And: Minneapolis climber plans to tweet from Mt. Everest
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
I could use another weekend to help me recover from the last one. Overall it was action-packed good times, kicking off on Thursday night with a magical visit to the landscape arboretum. But Friday was a little touch and go. It was clear that junior bowling league had been misrepresented to us. We arrived to find that the other children appeared to have been bowling since before they could walk. Little pros, each and every one of them. The coordinator is going to work one-on-one with the lad, on his form, and hopefully he will gain confidence as the weeks go by. Saturday was better. I dropped the boy off at the beach, to hang out with his bio-dad, while I headed to Chuck and Lori’s Totally Magical Wedding - as their guest, and also as their wedding photographer. It was great fun but I stayed out and up far too late. Especially since the next day was my son’s 10th Birthday Party at Pump It Up Party Zone! I’ve been taking a lot of naps since.
Five good things:
In news of the sad…I discovered that a longtime flickr contact, Superlocal, passed away suddenly. For years we’d commented on each others’ photos, mostly food-related ones. I enjoyed the way he captured everyday life. In particular his shots of strangers on the subway in Seoul and various offerings from street vendors. It’s only fitting that the last shot in his photostream is of a tall soft serve ice cream cone (strawberry & green tea). Some remembrances of Emil Goh.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Melatonin is magical to an insomniac like me. Busy brain + lots of stress = sleep defiance! Some time ago a friend recommended the melatonin as a remedy. I finally bucked up and bought myself a bottle. Last night I took some around 9:30pm. By 10:30pm I was out cold, and slept soundly without waking until 5am. Then I fell back to sleep until 7am (whoops, neglected to set the alarm clock). But during that two hour window I had some startlingly vivid dreams. Not sure if that’s a typical side effect of melatonin intake. But it is something I can live with, in exchange for some solid sleep. Because my sleep-deprived waking life has become downright dysfunctional.
Speaking of dreams and dreaming and dreaminess, flickr has launched a fantastic new feature. Flickr Galleries, “unleashing your inner curator.” I’ve been receiving lovely little notices when other flickr users add my photos to their galleries. Now I just need to poke through my oodles of favorites, pick a theme and get curating!
And now a mish-mash of five things from strange to awful to awesome:
Not so dreamy? I’ve added a few more outtakes to Clockwork’s headshot set. Including some silly photos of myself. Eep.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
My beautiful boy turned ten yesterday. TEN YEARS OLD! Wowzers. Guess he really is the BIG little man now. We celebrated the day by providing his class with vegan donut holes for snacktime. After school my ex-husband picked the lad up and the two retrieved his bio-Dad and his lovely girlfriend. Then the lot of them drove over to my office to grab me, and we all carpooled to Space Aliens Bar and Grill for some quality arcade time, moderately decent pizza and fries, and gift opening. In the arcade we managed to accumulate over 1600 “tickets” - to be traded for prizes. And what did my son do? He used fully half of those tickets to acquire a gift for me (a big plush kitty stuffed animal). He is unbelievably sweet. He still loves me. For now. But I swear I will never ever live this down. It keeps turning up on the regular.
Five good and/or interesting things for today:
Tomorrow night we’ll continue birthday week festivities, by hanging out with one of the boy’s former (and all time favorite) teachers at the Landscape Arboretum. And Sunday will see us hitting up Picnic Club for brunch, just before the big big birthday party at PUMP IT UP PARTY ZONE. I’m a bit tired just thinking about it, but it will buttloads of fun.
Monday, September 14, 2009
All weekend I couldn’t shake a feeling of wrong-ness, as I’d spent the entire year thinking I’d be elsewhere at this time. I had planned to return to All Tomorrow’s Parties, in New York. But those plans fell through in an incredibly disappointing fashion. And the disappointment was exacerbated when I found out about Dirty Three’s set, with Nick Cave on piano. The NY Times and their take on ATP: Indie Rock Enhanced With Mildew.
I did have a few consolation prizes. Friday I took my son bowling and then signed him up for junior bowling league. We’re both excited about that. Saturday afternoon I saw some old friends and that night I joined some others to see Low, performing for free at Lake Harriet. Sunday I nearly finished repainting the Lady Cave and did finish watching season five of Lost. And tonight the lad and I are going to see Dirty Three at the Southern Theater (sadly without Nick Cave, I’m sure).
It was probably for the best that I skipped any weekend travel. Lately I feel like I’ve been biting off more than I can chew as it is, while also aware that there is so much more I could be doing. I don’t want it all to turn me into a big glowing stress orb. Instead I sort of feel like a little squirrel, frantically preparing for the long winter ahead. And more than ready to fully embrace hermit mode. But first I need to get through the next couple of hectic weeks…of birthday festivities (for my son), weddings (to attend and to shoot), an annual IEP review at the school, and painting/repainting and some furniture rearranging. And hopefully a few little road trips before the snow starts flying. Then I will most certainly retreat to my Lady Cave for the winter, with relish.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Yesterday I nearly took my son to see the movie 9, as the date was 9/9/9 and he is only 9 years old for a few more days and all. But after re-watching the trailer and reading Ebert’s review I figured it might be just a touch too scary for the lad, despite his love of Corpse Bride. And of all things Tim Burton, really. Instead I plan to preview the movie before he sees it.
Five good and/or just plain weird things:
About the below photo, taken at my house on Labor Day, everyone seems to think Pete looks sorta scary and tough: “and a great portrait of an intimidating dude + popsicle from Helados y Paletas La Chiquita” Perhaps I’ll have to post the photo taken a moment after this, when he was clearly laughing at himself.
