Marblewood

Carne Adobada

2011-06-02T21:34:00.000-05:00

This recipe is altered a little from the awesome Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison.

2-3 lb of braising meat (I have used various cuts of pork, beef, and turkey thighs)
8 oz dried New Mexican chiles, stemmed, seeded, rinsed
2 C chicken or beef stock
1 medium onion, chunked
4 garlic cloves
2 tsp cider or sherry vinegar
2 tsp dried Mexican oregano
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp salt (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 300F. Oil large, covered baking dish like a dutch oven. Put meat in dish.

Prepare sauce by roasting damp chiles in one layer on a baking sheet and roast them in the oven for 5 minutes. THEY WILL BURN, so keep an eye on them. Removed from oven and cool. Break into 2 or 3 pieces each.

In a blender, puree half the chiles with the stock. I treat to keep a little texture, but puree until pretty smooth. Add to meat. In a second batch, puree the rest of the chiles and the remaining ingredients. Pour this mixture into the meat, and mix until the meat is well coated.

Cover and bake until meat is tender and sauce has cooked down. This will take 2 to 3 hours (less if turkey). If the meat is done, but the sauce still seems thin, remove the meat and cook the sauce down in the oven or on the stove top.

Power of thinking. Period.

2010-03-11T23:02:00.000-06:00

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts In Our Time. It's a production of the BBC that spends an hour talking in depth about science and art and history. I feel very smart when I listen to it. Smart, smart, smart. Every so often they have a broadcast that I listen to about 5 minutes of, say "well, that's not for me," and move on. An hour of Schopenhauer isn't always what I want to listen when I'm on the treadmill.

From the BBC website

But they had something the other day about the infant brain that got in and stuck. Now that they can put the hairnet of electrodes on babies, they can actually see the parts of the brain that light up in response to words. Part of the discussion revolved around how verbal stimuli can activate the motor cortex. That is, when I read or hear the word "kick," the part of the brain that works the kicking lights up. This is something that they can see in infants even before they can generate their own language. But it also happens with adults.

This is not earthshattering news. I've seen enough ski-racers on TV working through course as they stand in the gate, their eyes closed and their hand tracing out the course, to know that muscle memory can be reinforced by memory as well as muscles.

I guess the thing that struck me was how this was an involuntary thing. The ski-racer is obviously working hard at visualizing the course, and it's a practice that she cultivates. But the babies aren't. This is something that is hard-wired and running in the background whether I like it or not. It's part of the operating system.

Words are powerful. A word is an abstraction turned into a physical movement of breath or hand. Every word I say or think or heard said is reinforcing itself in my brain, causing my brain to practice the motions that bring that word into the world.

I think I need to be more careful. Focusing on saying the words and hearing the words that make me more like what I want to be and challenging the words that don't.

Hobbit hotel

2010-03-09T07:58:00.003-06:00

I'm travelling for work, and I'm staying at a Super 8 in Iowa. I mistakenly reserved a handicapped room, which was corrected when I checked in. As I look down on the showerhead in the shower, I wonder when I reserved the hobbit room. I guess the round door should have been my first clue.

Kitty vacation home

2010-03-04T19:44:00.001-06:00

Better than the easy-shred cardboard box that he was living in before.

Kitchen chemistry

2010-02-25T21:33:00.002-06:00

I spent a very long summer in Spain a million years ago doing field work. I blew through the books I had brought and the only remaining English language reading material was a USA Today that someone had left in our apartment. I read every single word, including the classified ads and the box scores.

In the Features section, there was an article about making soap. Not just melting and molding soap, but making soap. When I got back to the States, I bought some Crisco and some Red Devil lye, and I got after it. It was a miracle of science. You mix the dry lye with distilled water and watch as the temperature shoots up to 150F. You let it cool, then you mix the lye solution with the liquid fat and it starts to congeal. You wrap it up in a blanket, and it gets hot again as the reaction progresses. The next day, its solid, and its soap. Magic! At minimum, serious kitchen chemistry, safety goggles and all.

For a couple of years, I was a tiny bit obsessed with soap. I even rescued an analytic balance that was no longer precise enough for the lab, but was more than adequate for my purposes. A milligram of lye is miniscule.

Then I looked around and realized that I had enough soap to last me several years.

But I got a couple of homemade bars from a friend a couple of months ago, and it got me thinking about saponification again. This batch is made with coffee, which is supposed to take the smell of onions off your hands. I don't know how much I believe that, given how denatured all the organics must get by the reaction with the lye, but the grounds are scrubby and the color is interesting. The fats are corn oil and coconut oil, which I used to be able to buy in the popcorn section at the grocery store, but now has to be found at a Whole Foods or at an Indian grocer. Scented with lavender, rosemary, and grapefruit.

Curvature of the earth

2009-07-16T16:40:00.001-05:00

An elegant and low-impact solution to living as close to the middle of nowhere as you can be in the continental US -- Brewster County, Texas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/garden/16location.html?ref=garden

Recycled shipping containers, still used as containers, with the doors to keep critters out and the contents in.

Perfect pi

2009-07-16T10:09:00.002-05:00

I don't have kids, so this is the closest I can get to baby photos.

I'm an eternal optimist, and I've made a lot of pizzas, trying to get the crust right (given an electric oven). This is the closest I've gotten. It's ROUND. It even has a lip.

I used a pizza crust recipe from a Flay cookbook, with a little more olive oil than I normall use. Half whole-wheat and have all purpose flour. This was the second half of a batch I made a month or so ago and froze. I am a firm believer that a little icebox time works wonders on dough. I think the key this time was the extra effort getting the initial ball of dough round before I started stretching, then using the weight of the dough itself to stretch itself as I turned it. Toppings are nothing fancy.

Dundee Christmas (fruit)Cake

2008-12-28T17:09:00.001-06:00

I pooled my Christmas checks and bought myself a KitchenAid stand mixer, something I've been eyeing for a long time. I broke it in by making Dundee cake, a Scottish Christmas cake. I don't know the history, but I assume from the name that it was created in Dundee, the port of entry for oranges in Scotland and the motherland of marmalade. Basically, it is a fruitcake that people will eat, especially if you call it "Dundee cake" instead of "fruitcake." Better yet, don't call it anything, just be coy and make people taste it first, preferably with a suitable beverage.

The recipe below is one I got from my mother, who got it from who-knows-where. You should use good quality dried -- NOT CANDIED -- fruit. I usually use some mix of cherries, cranberries, and raisins. I've also used dried blueberries, currants, and apricots.

Some other things that might be interesting to try would be:

* Addition of chocolate somewhere
* Use of marmalade instead of orange rind and orange juice
* Fortification with an orange liqueur, whisky, or brandy.

1 C butter
1 C sugar
5 eggs (that's right -- 5 -- it's cake, not medicine)
2.5 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 C mixed dried -- NOT CANDIED -- fruit
2 tsp orange rind
2 Tbsp orange juice
1/2 C whole roasted almonds

1. Pre-heat oven to 300 and grease a 9" tube or Bundt pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add slowly to egg-butter mixture.
4. Fold in dried fruit, then orange rind and orange juice.
5. Pour batter into cake pan and decorate the top with the whole almonds.
6. Bake for 1 to 1.25 hours. Take out of the oven before it is totally done because the cake will continue to bake a little out of the oven.
7. Dust with powdered sugar.

Why cats are inherently funnier than dogs

2008-12-21T22:33:00.004-06:00

Cats always have an unshakable belief in their personal dignity and importance. It's always funnier to watch a banker slip on a banana peel than a clown.

Cincinnati-Style Chili

2008-12-21T13:47:00.003-06:00

Had Texas-style chili at Oklahoma Joe's yesterday, made with Blvd Bully Porter. It was very good, with cheese, jalapenos, and onions. But it really got me in the mood to make Cincinnati chili, something you really can't get in a restaurant anywhere in KC.

After looking around online, I was really struck by how varied the recipes are, mostly in the list of spices. The other thing that got me was how similar the mix is to a curry OR a mole. The spice road connection between India, the Middle East (the true home of Cincinnati chili, which was invented by Greek immigrants in Cincinnati), to Spain, then Mexico.

The recipe I ended up working with Gourmet, via Epicurious.

1.5 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 lb ground beef (I used 93%)
2 2/3 Tbsp spicy chili powder
1 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne or chile arbol powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
pinch ground nutmeg
1 bay leaf
beef soup bones
1 C water
1/2 C beef broth
8 oz canned tomato paste
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp molasses
1 tsp fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce
salt, pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in dutch over and saute onions and garlic until onions are soft.
2. Add ground beef and brown thoroughly.
3. Add spices (chili powder through nutmeg) and heat for about 1 minute.
4. Add bay leaf, soup bones, and liquids (water through fish sauce).
5. Cook uncovered for about 1 1/2 hours, keeping liquid just above beef. Top off with beef broth as needed. Adjust seasoning as needed.
6. Continue to simmer until desired consistency, probably another 1/2 hour.

I assume he's a carbon-based lifeform, at least.

2008-11-12T21:46:00.003-06:00

Me: Did the dealership call and say we could come pick up the car?
Him: Yeah. They said we could come get it whenever.
Me: So, what was wrong with it?
Him: I don't know. I didn't ask?
Me: . . .
Him: I didn't really care what was wrong with it. It's working now.
Me: . . .
Him: That's why I got a new car -- so I wouldn't have to think about it.
Me: You know how we talk about how we wonder what's going through the cat's brain when he's just staring at the ceiling? I think I have a better handle on that.

Stock options? Prozac in the water fountain?

2008-11-12T21:23:00.002-06:00

I went by the Midtown Marketplace Costco today to buy an enormous box of Kashi Go-Lean crunch, an enormous box of CFLs, and an enormous box of Ziploc bags. (As an aside, it's amazing how fast I transformed from someone who made fun of people who bought enormous boxes of stuff to someone who is trying to figure out where to put eight 32-ounce boxes of chicken broth.)

As always, everyone working there was friendly, and helpful. One -- notably the guy who does the final arcane blessing before you leave the store -- is always almost ecstatically cheerful. Compared with the crappy service that I regularly get in so many stores, I wonder what Costco's secret is. And I wonder if it's just the Midtown Marketplace Costco or all Costcos. Do they get stock options? Do they get free HD TVs for their Christmas bonuses? Was their last job just that awful?

Posole Rojo with Chicken

2008-11-10T22:11:00.006-06:00

Got to love the new Dutch oven. I'm going crazy making various concoctions of meat in red sauces. Amazing how many different things you can do with meat in red sauce.

Today was Posole Rojo with Chicken, liberally adapted from the Cook's Illustrated Best Slow and Easy Recipes

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, sliced into crescents
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp hot chili powder
2 tbsp chile arbol powder
2 tsp dried Mexican oregano
3 tbsp minced garlic
salt
pepper
3 C chicken broth
1 28-oz can hominy, drained and rinsed
1 C canned diced tomatoes
1/3 C soy sauce
8 skinless chicken thighs, skin removed and fat trimmed, bone-in
lime wedges, corn tortillas

1. Put oil in dutch oven over med-high heat, heat until shimmering. Add onion, tomato paste, chili powder, dried chile, oregano, garlic, and 1/4 tsp salt. Cook until onions are soft, stirring frequently.
2. Add 1 C chicken broth to deglaze pan.
3. Add remaining broth, hominy, diced tomatoes, and soy sauce and mix well.
4. Salt and pepper chicken thighs. Add chicken and settle into mixture. Bring to simmer and reduce heat.
5. Cover and simmer for at least 2 hours, or until chicken is tender.
6. Remove from heat and allow chicken to cool in stew. Skim excess fat. Pick chicken off bones, and return to mixture.
7. Reheat to serve and serve with lime wedges and corn tortillas

Happy to see me?

2005-08-19T18:19:00.000-05:00

Recently observed in Tama, Iowa.

Now I know why Dave Lennox always has that smile on his face.

Migrations

2005-08-15T21:45:00.000-05:00

The big Sturgis rally just wrapped up this past weekend. I was I-80 today, on my way to Cedar Rapids, and their were definitely more bikes on the road than normal. My favorite was the couple with the Quebec plates. Laissez les bon temps roulez, indeed!

More interesting were the stealth bikers. That is, the big-ass, brand new F-150s pulling trailers with Harley decals. Or even bigger-assed RVs pulling trailers. Or enormous RVs with hatches in the back, so the bikes can be pulled into the RV living room, I guess. It seems to defeat the purpose of a rally, though, doesn't it? If you don't actually ride the bike to Sturgis? That makes it more of a convention, it seems.

In other news, I've been seeing tons of monarch butterflies around Kansas City. Just all of the sudden, flying around, hanging out in the clover. It seems a little early for the migration -- usually they start to show up in September. Flying around in circles, but with a net southward motion. Sort of a dilly-dally rally.

Gen-u-ine Hatch green chiles

2005-08-15T21:17:00.000-05:00

When I stopped by the Price Chopper on Friday, there was a sight for sore eyes -- Hatch green chiles and a big, big roaster. I bought a couple of pounds and took them home to admire them. Then I set to work. The first item on the menu was a recipe for Hatch green chile salsa from Chuy's in Austin.

Chuy's Hatch green chile salsa
2 quarts water

1/2 lb fresh tomatillos
1/2 lb fresh serrano chili peppers

1 lb roasted sandia green chili peppers

1/3 bunch cilantro

3 medium garlic cloves

, peeled
1 medium white onion, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Place water in large pot and add tomatillos, serrano chiles, Sandia chiles, cilantro, garlic and onion.
Bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
Strain liquid into a container and place solid ingredients in blender. (You may have to work in batches.)
Add 1/2 of the strained liquid to blender and blend until smooth.
Add lime juice and salt and blend 30 seconds.
Chill before serving.

Note: This makes a lot of salsa. And, no matter what you think, you really will need a 1/2 pound of serranos to make it decently hot.

The best thing about the salsa is the smell when all the ingredients are simmering. Hoo-boy!

I take that back . . .

2005-08-10T10:12:00.000-05:00

I really can't tell any difference in the cake. Very yummy . . .

A cake without eggs?

2005-08-09T22:55:00.000-05:00

Preposterous!

Well, not that crazy, I guess. But certainly not expected coming from someone whose favorite cake recipe calls for six (also known as a half dozen) eggs. I don't feel bad about eating eggs. I buy the free range, family farm eggs. The chickens get to run around and eat grubs and do their chicken thing. The family farm that supplies the eggs to the stores here in KC include little letters inside the cartons, letting me know whether Dolly has finally foaled or not and whether they managed to get the hay in yet. When I lived in Lawrence, the local 4-H club project was supplying eggs to the Community Mercantile. You never knew what you were going to get when you opened the carton -- pointy, freckled, brown, white, or green (I do! I like green eggs and ham!). I remember one dozen that had two double-yoked eggs. Some poor chicken was having a bad week.

So -- let's hear it for eggs!

But when I saw the recipe for a vegan apple-spice cake at Saucy, I thought it might be interesting to try. For the sake of science, of course, and hot on the heels of the well-received stealth tofu dessert I brought to the last WNR I attended. The recipe is:

Apple Pistachio Spice Cake
2 cups all purpose flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cardamom
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup applesauce
1 ½ cups peeled, diced apple
½ cup roughly chopped pistachios

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9- or 10-inch bundt pan.

Sift together all the dry ingredients into a medium bowl. In a large bowl, whisk together oil, brown sugar and applesauce. Stir in dry ingredients gradually, adding apples and pistachios just before the batter is fully combined. Do not overmix.

Batter will be thick. Spoon the batter into prepared pan and smooth out the surface with a spatula or knife. Bake at 350F for 32-38 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cake springs back when lightly pressed.

I made a couple of changes -- walnuts for pistachios, half whole wheat flour, and double the ginger (by accident). On the whole, it did turn out pretty well. Dense and spicy and apple-y. But, I have to say, not quite right. It's just not the same without an egg.

El Nuevo Choppo

2005-08-07T13:24:00.001-05:00

Living in the transition between the prosperous uniformity of Johnson County and the hardscrabble diversity of Wyandotte County makes for some interesting experiences. One mile south of my house is Mission Hills. One mile north is the Family Dollar Store and the Merriam Lane Flea Market. One mile east is the Country Club Plaza, but just north and west of our house is a neighborhood that may not be on city sewers.

This is just a roundabout way of welcoming the new Price Chopper to Roeland Park, on the site of the old Venture (remember Venture?) building. The old Price Chopper (aka El Choppo) was a decrepit building that was patronized by huge numbers of Hispanic shoppers coming in from the Dotte. El Choppo was the best place in town to go shopping if you loved Latin cooking and needed a couple of pounds of fresh tomatillos. It also looked like the building was about to fall down.

With the corner being renovated, the old El Choppo was coming down (future home of Lowe's), and a new Price Chopper was going up next door. I watched with some concern -- the new store was shiny, very JoCo on the outside. I crossed my fingers.

Whole sugar cane, only $2.99 each!

The new store opened on Wednesday, and it was everything I wanted. Gorgeous produce, with a big variety of chilis, squashes, and fruits. Lots of bulk dried chilis and beans. A beautiful meat and fish market -- with both chicken feet and whole red snapper, both whole pork shoulders and chicken cutlets. A bakery with pan dulce and Farm to Market breads. When I saw the gleaming tortilleria, I admit I choked up a little.

The best thing about the store (other than it kicks ass!) was the mix of people shopping there. Fairway foodies, and little abuelas squeezing the same fruit. I love living on the crossroads of Kansas City!

Rock star

2005-08-07T13:24:00.000-05:00

Greg at Blayney's, doing his first Saturday of the month thing.

Check out his website for more details about upcoming gigs. Also -- and this is exciting -- songs to download, coming soon. He's in the studio right now, mixing some rough cuts he made last weekend.

Our long national nightmare is over

2005-08-04T13:06:00.000-05:00

Finally, Greg has some idea where he is going to be working for the next month or so, and a better idea of where he might be in the months after that.

Just a little history. After weeks of "Will they? Won't they?" speculation, Greg finally got the word that he would definitely be laid off. Luckily, he still has contacts from his consulting days, contacts who have been head-hunting him over the last few months. His first choice was a company he'd worked for before, one that had a potential long-term project here in town. We'll call it Canadian Consulting. He even took some vacation time to do a week of training with them in Dallas. All well and good.

Then the swirl began.

First, he was offered a week of work in Dallas, that would probably be followed by a month of work in Charlotte, NC. Then he waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing definitive on Charlotte. A recruiter looking for someone for a couple of months in Las Vegas called. Nothing definitive on Charlotte. Greg started talking to the Las Vegas folks. Then another recruiter looking for five months in Virginia Beach. Las Vegas is postponed. Virginia Beach is coming up on the outside, pulling out in front. But wait, coming from way back, its Charlotte-with-a-possibility-of-KC! CWAPOKC is making a play! CWAPOKC and Virginia Beach are neck-and-neck! I can't believe it! It's CWAPOKC by a nose!

So, Charlotte it is. For the next month or so. With trips home on the weekends, of course. From the looks of it, there is definitely work to be had out there, and all of it well-paying. My big hope is that the KC job comes through. I'm really not looking forward to a year of out-of-town work. The upside is that I will be getting a lot more knitting done.

Easily entertained

2005-07-05T13:02:00.000-05:00

I took a big bowl of change to the bank today. I like taking change to the counting machine at the bank. It's like a slot machine for people who don't want any chance that they are going to lose money. You dump everything in the hopper, there are a lot of jingly noises, the counter keep going up, and when it’s all done, it beeps. Very entertaining for someone with a short attention span. Even better, you take the little slip of paper over to the teller, and she gives you real money to replace the nuisance money you had before.

Today was the first drop-off of the washing machine era, resulting in a grand total of $85. It’s amazing how the money density increases when you don’t have to keep skimming off quarters.

Duck and cover!

2005-07-04T21:55:00.000-05:00

I apologize for my lack of diligence in posting. With Greg out of town, I promise to update regularly this week. But I had to take a quick moment -- Roeland Park is like a war zone! I have never been anywhere with this kind of density of private fireworks operators. To put that in perspective, I once spent a 4th of July in Paragould, Arkansas, where they take incendiary devices seriously. Seriously, we had to dodge flying bottle rockets in the parking lot of the high school while the big civic show was setting up.

Paragould didn't hold a (roman) candle to Roeland Park. And I don't mean little firecrackers at irregular intervals and little roly-poly first graders with ice cream on their faces and sparklers in their hands. I mean a non-stop barrage of giant, near-professional fireworks, liberally interspersed with small-arm firecrackers and big, honking, M-80 blasts.

I suspect the proximity of Wyandotte County is a partial explanation. There are 3 or 4 fireworks dealers that have set up shop just on the other side of the county line -- I suspect they are illegal in JoCo. And because Roeland Park is the transition zone between the Dot and Mission Hills, they do allow small fireworks, although fountains and rockets are illegal. But just like speeding, everyone is pushing the limit a little bit. I guess they feel that as long as they are blowing something up, they might as well blow up something big.

I'm just glad I bought a hose last weekend . . .

The good of the many . . .

2005-06-20T22:12:00.000-05:00

. . . outweigh the good of the few, or the one. That Spock was a pretty smart guy.

A photo of the sprawling camp, from the Lawrence Journal-World's excellent photo coverage.

Wakarusa. That little toddler of a festival that managed to bring together the seemingly incompatible jamminess of String Cheese Incident and the short-story songcraft of Wilco. Put simply, it rocked. Great setting, great bands, relatively cheap beer that doesn't suck. Ozomatli brought the house down. They rebuilt the house, and The Gourds knocked it down again. Calexico was as good as hoped. Rose Hill Drive was an arena rock Hansen that hypnotized Greg with the power of rock. Matisyahu was the best Hasidic reggae beatbox I've ever seen (no, really, check that link out). And so on.

So, how can I put this delicately? If there is to be a Wakarusa 2006, Pipeline Productions and festival organizers have to make a concerted effort to de-emphasize the recreational substance aspect of the festival, at least from an official organizing position. Especially in light of the unexplained death of one festival goer on the last day of the festival. Especially given the fact that the festival takes place on state property, rather than a private farm. Especially given the local press coverage and official website forum posters that made constant references to drug use. In future, the festival needs to have some official distance. Meaning no "own-grown" stage. Meaning some control over the products offered for sale by official vendors. Meaning that forum posters are encouraged to take discussions of party favors offline, the same way that forum moderators discouraged discussions of sneaking in to the festival without paying.

I'm not saying that the festival needs to start taking a hard line with the actions of the festival goers themselves. With 50,000 people attending and better than 12,000 people camping out for four days, there really isn't a whole lot that can be done to crack down on small-scale activity. Just that they need to create some official space between the festival and the activities of the festival goers. A little discipline now will ensure that the festival will continue to prosper in the future.

A very busy week

2005-06-20T21:42:00.000-05:00

Last week was the official end of the 2005 wedding summer. Rob and Corinna got married in their backyard, in a lovely cermony, surrounded by friends and family. When it was still raining on Saturday morning, we were all getting a little worried, but it finally cleared up in time for the ceremony, and it was a beautiful afternoon. Of course, when we walked over to the little park across the street for wedding pictures, we had to wade across giant mud puddles. An enduring image of the event is Corinna hitching up her wedding dress about her waist to get across the water. She is truly a woman of no pretensions. Also very tall.

Then a week in Iowa for a little out-of-town work. We were in Des Moines, staying at the surreally-named Comfort Suites At Living History Farms, a big chain hotel made to look like Grandma's house. Well, Grandma's house if she had a indoor pool and a happy hour. That would have rocked -- but I digress. I was a little concerned that I would have to get up at 4:00 am to milk the cows, given the name of the hotel, but I was reassured that we did not have to do any chores while staying there.

Then, finally, this past weekend was the big Wakarusa Music Festival (of which more later), an event that will put Lawrence on the map in the next couple of years. Granted, the map will be a little grubby and not super-reliable and, if you use it, you're likely to end up at Taco Bell at 2:00 in the morning, but the map nonetheless.

Again, phew.

A recent conversation last Wednesday with Greg sums up:
Heather: I'm really looking to this weekend.
Greg: I'm really looking forward to next weekend.
Heather: What are we doing next weekend?
Greg: Nothing. . .

Cat haikus

2005-06-09T13:01:00.000-05:00

Greg recently sent me some cat haikus that he had found on a website.

I was inspired to post some of my own:

I jump on the blinds
Water! Water from the sky!
I jump off. You laugh.

Toy is under fridge
Oh, when will this torment end?
I can lick my butt

New cat in bathroom
Tiny paws fit under door
Howling displeasure

By the way, the first is about a water pistol. It's supposed to be an effective way to train a cat. I found that it was just an effective way to wet a cat.

Being bizarre is not a reason to keep somebody out of this country

2005-06-08T11:40:00.000-05:00

But being an ax murderer should be.

I don’t want to say that border officials aren’t doing their jobs. But if they can’t stop this guy from entering the U.S., maybe we’re not giving them all the tools they need. Gregory Despres entered the U.S. from Canada, spattered with blood and carrying a blood-stained chainsaw, a homemade sword, and various other tools of mayhem. Oh, and a 10-inch swastika tattoo on his lower back. To their credit, the border officials felt that something might be slightly awry – they questioned him for two hours – but they had to let him enter. He was a naturalized citizen, and the border officials didn’t have any test kits to determine if all the red spatter was “blood or rust or red paint.” What they didn’t know was that Mr. Despres had brutally murdered his next door neighbors. Maybe we should chip in to buy them some Luminol.

An interesting sidestory was provided by Canadian news sources.

Eddie Young, a 38-year-old fish-plant worker, sat next to Mr. Despres in the customs office at Calais, Maine, while the agents processed them. Mr. Young was on his way to catch a flight to Mexico with friends, but was detained when the officers noticed on his file a 20-year-old drug conviction in Ottawa.

Too bad that Mr. Despres hadn't been picked up for possession. Then he'd be a real criminal.

June showers, June flowers

2005-06-07T13:43:00.000-05:00

Stan Herd's corn maze of a fossil fish, Pendleton's County Market

This weekend we also went out to Pendleton's to take a look at flowers for Rob and Corinna's wedding next weekend. Pendleton's is a family farm on the rich alluvial soils of the Kansas River. They supply beautiful flowers and vegetables to local farmer's markets, as well as allowing folks to pick their own. They also sponsor and play host to some of Stan Herd's crop art. To get there, you just drive out on 15th Street from East Lawrence. It's funny, because you're driving along on 15th Street. It's pretty standard residential, then the yards get bigger, then you see the road's not paved anymore, then you see a house with a horse in the backyard. You go over a hill, cross the railroad tracks, and -- boom! -- you're in the country. Full on country with silos and barns and fields of new, knee-high corn. All within about 3 miles of downtown Lawrence and the Douglas County courthouse.

Mom and Corinna and I drove out to Pendleton's. We'd gotten about 6 inches of rainfall on Friday and Saturday, and there were big pools of water standing in the fields. But the front had gone through already, and the weather was fresh -- cool and breezy with big puffy cumulus clouds on a blue sky. We had been thinking to look around and see what was in season. Pendleton's lets you pick your own flowers for a substantial discount. However, Mrs. Pendleton (I guess she was Mrs. Pendleton -- she certainly was the proprietor), told us that it was still too early in the season. Too late for rhubarb, too early to let us tramp around, overpicking her perennials.

She did, however, run down the prices for us, including prices for bouquets, and everything was dirt cheap (as befits a farm, I suppose). Almost as cheap than it would be if we bought the loose flowers ourselves. She was also super helpful and accommodating. And not one "why are you only thinking about flowers now, one week before the wedding." I'm sure she was thinking it, but she was expert at keeping her eyebrows in their fixed, upright position. Corinna will be carrying peonies, boutonnieres will be thistles for the kilted men (I'm assured that they are tiny and not at all sticker-y [although that seems a little un-thistle-like]), and table arrangements will be grab-bags of whatever is blooming and looking nice.

Now we just need to cross fingers and pray for not-rain.

Party people

2005-06-06T09:39:00.000-05:00

After Greg's show at Blayney's on Saturday --

OK, this wasn't going to be the main topic of this post, but I have to mention this. Greg plays a regular, 1st Saturday of the month gig at Blayney's Irish Tavern in Westport. It's a chill set. Greg is a singer-songwriter, and I gets up there and does his thing. One man, one guitar. Southern rock-folk-protest-country thing. He's playing on Saturday night, and this guy in short shorts rolls in on roller skates. Skates (which is his actual nickname, not the one I gave him) chats up the women at the bar, to wit, me and Jess. Then he goes over and talks to Greg a little. I can't hear what they're talking about, but Skates then pulls out a set of little bongo drums out of his backpack. Greg, having seen him talking to us at the bar, thinks we know him, and he lets Skates sit in. Everything turns OK, because Skates is an OK drummer and he takes off after a couple of songs, but the whole thing was Lawrence-y or Austin-y. It made me a little nostalgic.

So, where was I? That's right -- after the show. After the show, we went to this party/fundraiser for the Urban Culture project. The Urban Culture Project runs a couple of galleries near 12th and Grand, just north of the big pit being excavated for the H&R Block building. They also sponsor a Third Friday art show. Going up there is fun -- it's still very DIY, in a way that First Friday probably was when it first began. Of course, when Block building is finished and the arena starts to go in, it will be right in the middle of the new development. So climbing property values will probably push the UCP to start working on some other block. It's the urban development lifecycle, replayed in downtown Kansas City. The circle of life.

Sorry, another digression. Where was I? That's right -- after the show. After the show, we went to the fundraiser at Boley gallery. It's an unfinished looking space. All the interior walls and ceilings have been taken out -- you can see all the conduit and wiring, and large white canvas panels have been put up dividing the room into smaller galleries. (There is also an old vault, which seems like an attractive nuisance, but, anyway.) When we showed up, they had a group of hand drummers, about 5 or 6 drummers, all very good. By the way, the one we talked to later knew Skates -- I guess the guy was practicing in his front room one day and Skates knocked on his door and told him how great he sounded. Of course, Greg was bopping around during the drumming. Then there was a DJ, and Greg and I were really bopping around. Strangely enough, only a few of the other people at the party were dancing, even though the DJ was really good. Maybe it was still too early. Maybe they were just too cool. Either way, why not dance? I bet Skates would dance . . .

national trinity

2005-06-03T19:02:00.000-05:00

Now, I'm not the kind of person who likes to go on about "Freemason, this" and "Illuminati, that" and "Girl Scouts, the other thing." And, certainly, I don't want to encourage the kind of thinking that led to the movie National Treasure. But I did notice something when I was in Washington, DC. I was looking at a map of the Mall, and I saw the triangle formed by the Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Memorials. I started thinking about the three memorialized presidents, and they seemed to me to form a trinity of their own.

The first, the easiest -- Washington, father of the nation. I don't think I need to go into great detail about the meaning of the monument. Let's just say that I was in for some extreme psychological analysis when I brought back so many photos. And I don't think I need to explain why Washington is the father.

Next, the son -- Lincoln, the martyr for the cause. Lincoln was a man and a god. He came from a humble background and ascended to the highest office of the nation. Ultimately, he was sacrificed for the national sin of slavery. His monument is a tomb.

Finally -- Jefferson, the spirit. More than anything else, Jefferson is identified with words and ideas. He is the motivating force. The monument is about light and air.

So what do you think? Am I a crackpot?

I don't have any idea how this statue in front of the Smithsonian fits in. I'm working on it . . .

Thank God that's over

2005-06-02T21:20:00.000-05:00

It's not as big as you think (Photo credit)

So, finally, that's over.

I must be the only WASP in Kansas City whose wedding lasted two weeks.

Greg and I trekked down to Austin and San Antonio over Memorial Day weekend -- partially to hang out in Austin, partially to (finally) finish the wedding festivities. A couple of his relatives have reached an age at which cross-country travel for a weekend is neither advisable nor desirable. And others of his relatives still have multiple small children in school. Again, advisable, desirable, blah, blah, blah. Add to the mix -- my parents taking a little road trip to San Antonio for a little vacation.

When Worlds Collide!

That's exaggerating a little. Greg's parents and my parents seem to get along pretty well, or, at least, they've decided they're going to get along (I'm not sure if it really makes a difference which). But people getting along with people has been the biggest stressor of the whole affair. Integrating my life with someone else's is hard enough. Expecting that my family and friends will integrate their lives with those of Greg's family and friends -- it's a wonder this ever works.

But back to the Austin trip. Saturday night featured a party at the home of a couple of archeologists who were fixing to split town for Flagstaff. It was a very Austin party, featuring:

a keg of Real Ale Full Moon Pale Rye Ale (super hoppy, super tasty)
a job-site 5-gallon cooler full of sangria (!) (I really have to emphasize that -- !!)
several people that Greg knew from elementary school in Lubbock (I'm not sure I'd remember anyone from elementary school if I hadn't seen them since 6th grade)
a multitude of dogs
lots of grilled food
hot salsa
And, and I swear I am not making this up, fire jugglers. Fire jugglers.

Sunday featured a hangover (cf. sangria), gingerbread pancakes, apricot beer, singer-songwriters at the Gingerman (featuring the amazing Ernie C. Ernst and a woman who was like a happy Lucinda Williams, if you can imagine it), and a rocking show at the Saxon Pub featuring someone I knew in elementary school, . Of course, I'd seen him more recently, Guy Forsyth. Monday was advisable, desirable, etc., etc. Tuesday we came home.

Phew.

And I'll do what I have to . . .

2005-05-27T19:32:00.000-05:00

to ensure there's plenty for me.

Just settle down . . .

2005-05-27T19:31:00.001-05:00

Be patient -- there's plenty for everyone.

No, wider . . .

2005-05-27T19:31:00.000-05:00

Of course, the cake photos were some of the best from the wedding.

I love cake.

"There was magic abroad in the air . . ."

2005-05-27T19:28:00.000-05:00

I may be right, I may be wrong,
But I'm perfectly willing to swear
That when you turned and smiled at me
A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.