nic at night

new website

2007-01-06T14:57:00.000-05:00

This blog is now defunct, but you can still find me at my new online home: beingnotdoing.org.

cakes

2006-11-15T16:44:00.000-05:00

I have never been super into making cakes, maybe because I don't like cakes that come from mixes and am intimidated by the idea of making cakes that don't. However, when they involve fruit, they somehow seem less like scary hard-to-make cakes and more like something else that is easy to make. Like pie except with batter instead of crust. In lieu of making sense, I give you the recipes.

Apple Cake, from Simply In Season

5 cups apples (unpeeled and chopped)
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour [I didn't have any, so I just used white]
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 cup nuts (optional) [I didn't use nuts, as I'd forgotten to buy more after using the walnuts in the blueberry coffee cake]
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk or cream [I used rice milk]
1 tbsp flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour sugar over sliced apples, toss, and let stand. In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs, then mix in oil and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients [flour through nuts, if you're using them] in a third bowl. Stir flour mixture into apples alternately with egg mixture. Pour into greased 9x13" pan [it's more like 'spoon and spread,' as the batter is thick and the apples are plentiful]. Bake 50-50 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. While cake is baking, mix milk, brown sugar, and flour in a pot, and heat to boiling. Remove from heat, mix in powdered sugar, and drizzle mixture over hot cake [this mixture was good, but the cake was plenty sweet without it and I will probably leave the topping off in the future].

Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread, also from Simply In Season

[to make a 9x13" cake, you need to double this whole recipe]

1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp water
2 ripe pears (peeled, cored, and sliced)
1 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour [I just used white, I really need to buy some whole wheat flour]
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp each ground nutmeg, ground allspice, salt
1/3 cup butter (softened) [I used 5 tbsp, as 1/3 cup is a pain to estimate from a stick that's 1/2 cup long and marked into eighths; I suppose if you were fanatical about accuracy, you could mush the softened butter into a measuring cup, but 5 tbsp worked out fine.]
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses or honey [I used blackstrap molasses]
1/2 cup buttermilk [I used rice milk]

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter, and stir in brown sugar, sugar, and water. Pour on the bottom of baking dish, and arrange sliced pears on top of the syrup. In a bowl, stir together dry ingredients and set aside [an optional addition here is fresh grated ginger root; I used 1 cup of small pieces of candied/crystallized ginger instead]. In another bowl, mix softened butter and brown sugar until 'fluffy'; beat in egg. Add to dry ingredients alternately with molasses and milk. Pour over pears in dish, and bake for 30-35 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean). Remove from oven and cool for 3 minutes, then turn over onto platter [or, in our case, a cutting board].

These cakes were both delicious, although quite rich. Especially the gingerbread, since I doubled the pears and topping for the size of the dish, but not the batter. Don't ask me why, it seemed like a good idea at the time. And, well, truthfully: I quadrupled the butter in the recipe, likely because I was more groggy than I realized that day, from fighting off a change-of-weather cold. So, it was a lot like gingerbread pudding, with the layer of pears and butter-soaked cake being half of the whole thing rather than just a topping. Really tasty gingerbread pudding, I must say. But still, not my most accurate baking effort ever. Consider it an optional variation.

National Novel Writing Month strikes again

2006-11-14T19:38:00.000-05:00

For the fifth year in a row, I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month. The difference between this year and the past 3 years is that I might actually make the word count this year, and win, as I did in 2002.

The other difference is that Dana is participating with me, so we have a friendly word count competition going on in the house. His word output is a bit faster than mine, so if we sit down to type together at night, I have to spend some time the next day boosting my words to retain my coveted spot ahead of him. Informally, we're challenging the city of Zürich, Dana's former place of residency, to a word war, on behalf of our new home town of University Park. Last I checked, they had crept ahead of us. If we have a sudden burst of verbosity, or just feel like taking it to the national level, we've got our sights set on the country of Luxembourg, but we're currently trailing them pretty dramatically.

Of course, it's only halfway through the month. And, it's not over until it's over!

real people eat quiche

2006-11-10T14:39:00.000-05:00

In September, we decided to make quiche for the first time. I don't remember exactly what motivated us; we might have had a lot of eggs hanging around. At any rate, we made two, and they were tasty.

Gruyere Quiche, from Molly Katzen's Sunlight Cafe

crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tbsp cold water

[The instructions for this are only given for an electric mixer, so I'll just tell you my own, in case you don't know how to make a pie crust by hand.] Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter, until the mixture is uniform and resembles coarse meal (no bits of butter larger than peas). Add water and mix with a fork until it sticks together into a ball. Roll out, and place inside pie plate; refrigerate crust until filling is ready.

filling
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cups sliced onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dry mustard [I used mustard seeds, as I didn't have dried mustard]
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 cup thinly sliced red bell pepper
1 cup (packed) grated gruyere [I used emmenthaler, as we couldn't find gruyere]
3 large eggs
1 cup milk [I used rice milk]
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Saute onion in oil for 5 minutes, then add salt, herbs and mustard; cover pan, lower heat, and cook for 15 more minutes. Stir vinegar and bell pepper into the onions, raise heat to medium, and cook uncovered for another five minutes, then remove from heat. Whisk together eggs, milk, and black pepper to taste.

To assemble quiche, sprinkle cheese into crust, then spoon vegetable mixture on top of the cheese. Slowly pour milk mixture over the vegetables and cheese. Bake on a baking tray in the lower third of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes [longer for rice milk or watery fillings] or until custard is set. Cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Zucchini Quiche, adapted from above recipe and one in The Vegetarian Epicure

Follow directions as above, except omit all spices except salt and pepper, and substitute:
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 lb zucchini, sliced and blanched [cook 3 minutes in boiling salted water, then drain]

To assemble quiche, mix cheeses and sprinkle over bottom of the crust. Layer cooked zucchini slices on top of cheeses. Pour milk mixture over vegetables and cheese. Bake as above [this quiche took longer to bake, with the more watery vegetables].

Both quiches were tasty and we enjoyed them for almost every meal for a good week. The first I found salty, and a bit strongly-flavored for my taste (I'm not a fan of the Swiss cheeses), but Dana really enjoyed. The second I liked a lot, as it was more like a zucchini pie or frittata, but Dana found it mild and not that interesting (he's not a fan of the zucchini).

election night excitement

2006-11-08T00:40:00.000-05:00

What a year to return to living in a state with actual elected officials! We turned on the interweb to follow tight races in our own state, the Governor and Senator for Maryland, and we have been on the edge of our seat for hours watching the precinct reports trickle in for the Virginia Senate race.

But, truly, I have been waiting for the House to turn back away from insanity for a decade now. Not that any of them, except maybe Bernie Sanders, are true progressives, but they're a marginal improvement. I'm just happy to see people going and voting. The state-level elections are exciting, too. It's no surprise that our local elections went all Democrat, but I am finding it freaking hilarious that the entirety of the New Hampshire State Legislature is now Democrats as well. I guess they figured they weren't living free enough.

I figured I'd be in bed by now, but my fascination is proportionate to, although emotionally inverse to, the late-night 2000 election debacle. Since we don't have cable tv, however, we're reduced to pushing the refresh button on our browsers over and over. That'll have to get old sometime before dawn.

blueberries blueberries blueberries

2006-11-07T13:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's cooking spree got me thinking about what I've cooked this fall, and specifically what I baked with all of the blueberries I brought back from Canada. Usually I eat them fresh at the rate of about a quart a day until they're gone, but this year I had lots of very ripe, small, and flavorful berries, and I choose to do some baking instead. Well, truthfully, in addition, since I continued to eat them in my cereal and feed them to Ernest.

However, 7 quarts of blueberries go a long way, and this is what I made [with very few adjustments; this is baking, after all, not free-form meal creation].

Blueberry Pie, from Williams-Sonoma's Pie and Tart cookbook

basic pie dough
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose white flour [I use King Arthur's because that's what I can buy around here]
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch cubes [I find it difficult to cut up the butter without melting it too much, so I just cut the stick into quarters and then use a pastry cutter to cut it into the flour]
3 tbsp very cold water [I put the water into a measuring cup and stick it in the freezer when I start making the dough, and it's then 'very cold' by the time I need it]

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, and salt. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the water and mix with a fork just until the dough pulls together [when making 2 rounds, I make them separately rather than doubling the recipe, as I also find it difficult to divide the dough evenly when rolling out the crusts, and end up handling it way more than I want to and/or having one super huge crust and one that barely reaches the edge of the pie plate]. Transfer the dough to a work surface, pat into a ball, and flatten into a disk. Lightly flour the work surface, then flatten the dough with the rolling pin, lift and give it a quarter turn, and then roll out to a round at least 12 inches in diameter and about 1/4 inch thick [I roll out on a very lightly floured sheet of wax paper, with saran wrap between the dough and rolling pin, which keeps it from sticking and doesn't require a lot of additional flour].

filling
4 cups blueberries
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice, strained
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Place rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make 2 dough rounds and roll them out as directed above. Press one into the pie plate, and leave one flat, and set aside in a cool place [I usually just put them the pie plate and second rolled-out round in the fridge while I make the filling, and then put the assembled pie directly in the oven, rather than chilling the whole thing afterwards it's together]. Place the berries in a large bowl, sprinkle with lemon juice, and toss evenly. In a small bowl, mix remaining ingredients except butter, and spread the mixture over the berries, tossing to distribute evenly. Immediately transfer to the dough-lined plate and dot with the butter. Place the second dough round over the top, folding the edge of the crust over evenly. Using a small, sharp knife, cut an asterisk 4-5 inches across in the center of the top to allow steam to escape during baking [at this point, you either chill the pie until the crust is firm, about 20-30 minutes, or you put it in the oven if you've already chilled the dough]. Bake 50-60 minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling is thick and bubbling. Transfer to wire rack, and let cool completely to set, 1-2 hours. Serve at room temperature or rewarm in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes just before serving.

This cookbook is one of the best investments I've ever made for $17. Each and every recipe I've made has been delicious, not to mention making me look like a master baker. This time, we made two pies, one for the house, and one to share at bridge. I haven't made blueberry pie before, because of my preference for eating the berries fresh and my opposition to purchasing berries from a store, but I have to say that it was really good. Even better cold straight out of the fridge, as the filling really firmed up nicely. If you like pie for breakfast, this is a good one. And, I discovered, you can find this and other pie recipes online at the Williams-Sonoma website. Who knew.

Blueberry-Lemon Muffins, from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

wet ingredients
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4-1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

dry ingredients
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

additional ingredients [from your chosen variation; the book offers 4 types]
1 1/2 cup blueberries [I probably used 2]
1 tbsp freshly grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients, then stir in the additional ingredients and mix well. In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Combine wet and dry, being careful not to overmix the batter. Spoon the batter into oiled standard muffin tins, and bake for 20-25 minutes, until puffed and golden [they didn't change color much, so I tested with a toothpick rather than going on appearance alone]. If you are using mini-muffin trays, only bake for 10-15 minutes. Each plain muffin is listed as having 220 calories, I don't know how much the blueberries change that.

I think this may be the first batch of muffiins I've ever made outside of childhood, and even then I don't remember making muffins very frequently. They were tasty, and you can definitely taste the lemon. I might put in less zest in the future.

Corn Scones, from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

1/4 cup butter or margarine [I always use butter, as margarine generally has whey, so I don't have a recommended margarine brand]
1/2 cup low-fat or whole milk [I use rice milk]
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup currants [I never use currants; in the past I've used 1/2 cup of dried cranberries and this time I used a cup of fresh blueberries]

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter. In a small bowl, mix milk and brown sugar, then pour in the melted butter. In a separate bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, salt and baking powder, and mix thoroughly. Stir in currants [or whatever else you're using], add the liquid ingredients to dry and stir until just combined. On a floured board [I usually just use wax paper on the table to avoid using extra flour], press the dough into a circle about 1/2 inch thick. Slice the circle into eighths, separate the wedges, and place on an oiled baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until puffed and golden [again, these never get noticeably darker when I make them, so it's hard to tell by sight when they're done]. The recipe also notes (a feature of this cookbook) that each scone is 195 calories, if you care.

This is one of my favorite recipes, I used to make it periodically in grad school because it was quick, easy, and tasty. This time, I made a double batch of these, planning to freeze some for the future, but they were so good we just ate them that week.

Buttery Blueberry Coffee Cake, from Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates

1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional) [I didn't use them]
2 cups blueberries

oat topping
1/4 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup toasted* chopped nuts [I used walnuts, as that's what I had]
1/3 cup unbleached white flour

*Toast nuts on unoiled backing tray at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes, until fragrant and golden brown.

batter
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour [I just used my general purpose white flour, as I didn't have wheat flour; the book recommends Hodgson Mill's wheat pastry flour, which Whole Foods and most coops sell]
1 1/2 cup unbleached white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
12 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 cups nonfat plain yogurt [I'm not sure I got nonfat, now that I think about it; I just used Stoneyfield Farm plain yogurt]
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9x13 baking pan and sprinkle with sesame seeds, if using, coating bottom and sides. Rinse and sort blueberries, and set aside. In a small bowl, combine all the topping ingredients and mix well. In a large bowl, sift together [I don't have a sifter, I just mix the flour with a fork] flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, eggs, yogurt and vanilla until thoroughly blended. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with as few strokes as possible to form a uniform batter. Spread batter into pan, sprinkle on blueberries, and cover with oat topping. Bake for one hour, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes before serving.

This was also the first time I've made a coffee cake. While it was delicious, I found it a little rich for my taste, likely because of the yogurt (I've become used to baked goods made with rice milk). Also, I either overmixed the batter or my baking powder was way too old or both, because it wasn't that fluffy, which added to the impression of heaviness.

Ok, now I can't wait until next summer's crop arrives!

stocking up on curries for the winter

2006-11-06T21:43:00.000-05:00

One of the things I was really looking forward to after leaving my teaching job was cooking more, using the cookbooks I've acquired over the past ten years. Since coming back from Windsor in August, I've cooked quite a bit. Not every day, but we've tried a lot of new recipes, including two of the three curries I made and froze this week. Recipes [with my changes in brackets] here for your enjoyment.

Potato Curry, from The Vegetarian Epicure (the original book)

6 medium-size russet potatoes [I used 12 red ones]
3 tbs Ghee [I used safflower oil]
1 tsp each salt, cumin seeds, turmeric, ground coriander
1/2 tsp each mustard seeds, cayenne pepper [I doubled all of the spices because I find the original recipe too mild]
2 cups water
1 cup yogurt
2/3 cup cooked peas [I used frozen cut green beans, because the peas were totally freezer burned]

Heat the oil and add the spices, letting them simmer for 2-3 minutes. Cube the potatoes and stir them in until they're coated with spices and oil, for 5-10 minutes. Add 2 cups of water, lower heat, and simmer for about 1/2 hour, until potatoes are tender. Add yogurt and peas, heat for 5 more minutes and serve.

Curry of Eggplant and Potatoes, from The Vegetarian Epicure (the original book)

2 medium eggplants [I used about 6 baby ones]
3 large russet potatoes [I used 6 red ones]
2 bell peppers [I used 1 red and 1 green]
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp each of ground ginger, turmeric, mustard seeds, cumin seeds [I doubled these, except for the ginger, which I ran out of after 1 tsp]
1 1/2 tsp salt [I doubled this, too, which was a total mistake--given that the eggplant slices were soaked in salted water overnight, I should have left out the salt entirely until the end]
1/2 tsp each of cayenne pepper, ground cinnamon, ground coriander [I doubled all these as well]
2 cloves garlic, minced [doubled again]
2 1/2 cups water [added 2 more cups at the end, to dilute the over-saltiness]
4 to 5 firm red tomatoes

Wash eggplants, slice them, salt them well [and soak in water overnight]. Press out the excess water and slice into cubes. Cube the potatoes and bell peppers. Melt butter in large skillet, add all spices and minced garlic. Saute for several minutes, then add eggplant, potatoes, and peppers. Toss until coated with spices, then add water, cover pan and let simmer for about 20-25 minutes. Remove cover and cook over medium heat for 15 more minutes. Slice tomatoes into small wedges, and add. Serve when tomatoes are heated through.

Red Lentil Coconut Curry, from Simply In Season

1 large onion, minced
1 tbsp garlic minced [I used about 6 cloves]
1 tbsp ginger root, peeled and minced [I used about 3 inches of root, peeled and grated]
2 tsp curry powder [I used 1 tsp ground coriander and 1 tsp mustard seeds for this, since I don't actually have 'curry powder']
1/2 tsp each ground turmeric, ground cumin, black pepper [I doubled these]
1/4 tsp each ground red pepper and ground cinnamon [I doubled these, too]
2-3 bay leaves
1 can coconut milk [I use the reduced fat kind]
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce [I used tamari]
1 cup tomato sauce
2 cups red lentils [I used green, because I discovered I was out of red after I'd already started cooking, but red would probably be better, as they're lighter colored when cooked and come apart more easily]
5 cups water
1 head cauliflower, cut into little florets
1 large sweet potato, cubed [I used 3 small ones]
1/4 head cabbage, cut into chunks [I left this out, as I didn't have any]
1-2 cups peas [I used frozen]

Saute onion in either coconut butter (taken off the top of the can if the can is frozen [not really possible with the reduced fat kind]) or oil until translucent. Add the minced garlic and all the spices, cooking for three minutes over lowered heat, stirring to avoid browning. Add coconut milk, tomato sauce, and soy sauce, and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring often. In a separate pan, cook the lentils in water for 15 minutes, then add both lentils and liquid to the main pot. Add cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and cabbage and cook over medium heat until tender. Add peas at the very end, and serve when peas are warmed.

The first curry we ate half of for dinner the other night, and the other half is in the freezer. The other two I cooked tonight, and we taste-tested and then put all of both into the freezer. We might have them for our anti-Thanksgiving Harvest Feast, but more likely we'll just eat them at some point later in the winter when we're in need of something warm and spicy. There is some disagreement in our house about the best level of spiciness of curry, so I might recommend trying it the mild way first, unless you, like me, find curry recipes found outside of true Indian cookbooks to be too mild as a general rule.

For our actual dinner tonight, I cooked a recipe that I found online. With, of course, some variations.

Chicken and Bok Choy, from Cooks.com

8 oz chicken, in small slices [I used a package of breasts, free-range et cetera, of course]
3/4 tbsp soy sauce
3/4 tbsp corn starch
1 slice ginger root [I used 3 inches of slices]
4 slices garlic [I used 6 cloves of slices]
1 lb bok choy
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt [I left this out entirely, given all the soy sauce in the recipe]
1 tbsp oyster (or soy) sauce [I used soy, as I didn't have any oyster]
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp corn starch
1/4 c water [I left this out, too, and just used the liquid from the bok choy]

Heat oil in a pan, add chopped bok choy, water and salt, and stir fry until greens are limp [I include most of the stems as well, because I like them]. Take off heat and set aside.

In another pan [or the same pan, if you set aside the greens and liquid in a bowl], heat oil and saute chicken slices with the garlic, ginger, and 1st set of soy sauce and cornstarch. Mix the remaining soy sauce, cornstarch, and sugar together, and add them and the greens with liquid back into the pan when the chicken is cooked. Let it cook for a few more minutes, and then serve.

This was really yummy with all the extra slices of garlic and ginger, I can't imagine what it would taste like without them. Bok choy and soy sauce, I suppose.

More reports of what I've been cooking and eating when I have another chunk of time to type them in. In the meantime, eat well and prosper.

year in review

2006-10-05T01:34:00.000-04:00

So much has happened this past year that a year in review post seems merited to get things back up to speed:

November 2005: Our friends got married in a neat town on the Bay and my family came out for a non-traditional Thanksgiving.

December 2005: I went to NYC to participate in a photo project undertaken by the lovely Jennifer Loeber. We hosted a cookie party as our holiday party, and both agreed that we were perhaps a little too controlling out of our concern that everyone get to sample everything and have plenty to take home. This year's approach will be CookieParty.v.2: Loosey Goosey.

January 2006: We rang in the New Year with Peaches at The Black Cat, where I insisted on buying champagne for my (former) student who was working the door. Over MLK Day, we traveled to Canada to see my grandparents in their new digs.

February 2006: I let everyone at work know that this would be my last semester teaching and began looking for a less expensive apartment to move into. I actually completed two knitting projects, both scarves, so now my toddler friend and I have matching winter attire.

March 2006: After investigating our options, we decided it might be possible to actually buy a place versus renting. We looked at almost everything under the sun in our location and price range, and I cried more frequently than I would have liked at the sheer ugliness of many of the options. After a couple of weeks working with our excellent agent, we found our house and had our offer accepted!

April 2006: We stressed out about forms and utilities and moving details, but everything fell into place. We closed on the house, our landlady found new tenants to take over the last month of our lease, our movers actually showed up, and our friends were (as always) exceedingly helpful in shuffling our plants, art, and pet hamster to our new home in the near-burbs.

May 2006: I taught my last college sociology class. I skipped my 10 year college reunion to visit my brother in Indiana, where I was also lucky to get to see some good friends I hadn't seen in ages, many of whom are now proud parents!

June 2006: I put a flower bed into my front yard. And answered a lot of questions about student grades. And slept the sleep of the teacher on summer vacation.

July 2006: I went to Canada, picked a lot of blueberries, saw a lot of cousins, researched my French-Canadian ancestors, and went to a couple of concerts, only one of which included a bright orange frozen drink. Also, Ted resurrected my computer, for which he is my special hero.

August 2006: I picked a few more blueberries, learned how to make stained glass mosaics, saw several good friends, and visited Toronto for the first time in years, made all the more enjoyable by the enthusiasm of my newly-relocated-hosts.

September 2006: I discovered a pond near us with enough wildlife to keep me occupied every day. I started the great ivy-out project in the back yard, and made plans to get the roof fixed, the trees trimmed, and the plumbing repaired. I also started a ceramics class and bought a pedometer.

And there you have it.

oh my beautiful liar

2005-11-03T00:18:00.000-05:00

Eleven and a half years down the line since that missed show in Boston, I can now say that I've actually seen Trent in concert. This time around was in a hockey arena, and we were way the heck up on the slant, but what can you do. I likely appreciated it more, with the larger body of work, and the me being less rooted in the drama of being 19. More distance = more entertainment, less angst, a winning combination for a Wednesday night. And, our fears that it was going to be like that godawful painfully bad Janes Addiction show four years ago were completely unfounded. Apparently being an active musician and/or not a drug addict for the intervening decades does something positive for one's ability to perform one's own music (yes, I'm talking about you, Perry).

Several things stick. 1: Trent can play instruments; who knew [likely everyone between the ages of 30 and 40 besides me]. 2: Trent, godfather of crescendo rock [the performance of which comes full circle as a subtextual tribute to Johnny Cash]. 3: some fans are cuck-a-loo, not in those myriad good ways (you know who you are, Mr. I-give-CBGB-a-bad-name Fabio Impersonator [she clearly does not want to make out with you, we can all see that!]).

And finally, even though he didn't play 'The Downward Spiral,' I found myself thinking about Jay during the concert, at the end of a train of connections that started with a general curiosity about how many of the kids at the show recognized 'Burn,' even with the degree to which young people hooked on Trent might also be violence junkies [although in nosing around in the discography, I see that 'Burn' is on the deluxe edition of Downward Spiral, so likely more than I initially figured]. I remember Jay's obsession with the Faces of Death videos, and that whole summer I was home from college and didn't call him, didn't even think to wonder if he was in town. So, Jay, I'm sorry. I still wish more than anything it hadn't come to that.

rock concerts and the like

2005-10-14T13:09:00.000-04:00

This meme about first concerts making its way around the interwebs has gotten me thinking about what I really count as my first concert. For me, it's much like the first kiss -- what I remember as The First really wasn't at all, it was just the first one that seemed to matter (sorry, Dave).

It's the same with concerts. Technically, my first concert was seeing Whitney Houston at the Minnesota State Fair in 1987. And, to be fair to the event, it was a real experience -- moving through crowds of people, standing on the end of benches to be able to see over the heads of the mobs of adults around us (I was tall at 12, but not that tall). Whitney was at the top of her game, and the whole country loved her in 1987, pre-coke, pre-Bobby, pre-bones-sticking-out-everywhere.

When asked, though, I always cite seeing the Chili Peppers in Indy in 1991 as the first time. Even that's not entirely fair, because there were dozens of shows -- local, largely free, mainly involving people I knew -- in the intervening 4 years. But the Chili Peppers show was the first one I had to pay for, beg my parents to let me attend, travel out of town for. It was the first one that could truly be called a Rock Concert, it was inside, and my friends and I were going without adult supervision to Market Square. I remember the feel of the folding chairs set out on the court for general admission, and I can still hear the crowd booing Smashing Pumpkins, yelling 'go back to Chicago and bring out the Chili Peppers,' and then being mildly impressed with Pearl Jam. I remember being swept near the stage, losing my friends in the crowd and having a view mostly of the underside of John's guitar. Mostly I remember the exhiliration, of being 16 years old and feeling like I was on top of the world.

Since then, you could divide the shows I've seen neatly along gender lines. With friends from Bryn Mawr and grad school: the Indigo Girls, Ani D, Tori Amos, Shawn Colvin, folk singers galore. With the best boy and others: Echo & the Bunnymen, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, Gang of Four, Thrill Kill Cult, Psychedelic Furs, Pixies. And then there are the ones I drag others to: Cibo Matto, Camper van, the Giants, the Killers, Live.

I've seen many great shows, and several terrible ones where I lucked out with the opening bands -- James making up for being dragged to Duran Duran over Christmas break, Live as the surprise opener for a should-have-stayed-broken-up Janes Addiction. Oddly, though, some of my sharpest concert-related memories are of shows I didn't get to see. The NIN show I was supposed to see in Boston in 1994 that I missed because I didn't get my finals done in time. The Madonna and Prince tours I was too young to be allowed to travel out of town to see. Violent Femmes last month in Baltimore, that we couldn't be arsed to drive to see at an ouside show on a rainy night. And of course, Lollapalooza II that I missed in three consecutive cities to go on a family vacation, where I walked around in my Chili Peppers t-shirt(s) and commiserated with a boy from Guelph who was moping around the lake in his Chili Peppers shirts (you out there, Colin Kennedy?). While heart-breaking at the time, I consoled myself with having seen the aforementioned great show 6 months earlier.

And, we're seeing NIN (again) in three weeks.

all in a day's work

2005-09-25T01:00:00.000-04:00

1. The action down at the White House was great. I couldn't stay all day, but I jumped in with the Jammin for Justice folks and the Socialist Party kids (you know I can't resist those "No war but the class war!" banners, they warm the cockles of my heart). Plus, they had radical cheerleaders.

Besides going off on some media folks (for which I apologize) who were involved in a lot of pushing as Cindy Sheehan and the Rev moved through the crowd to get close to the White House, it was all good.

2. At our friend's open house today we discovered that they own the house that Henry Rollins lived in as a teenager. While the fact that it was his former house was neighborhood lore, it was confirmed when Henry stopped by yesterday. That's right. He's in town for something involving Ian MacKaye's family (possibly his sister's wedding? we're not exactly sure) and just stopped by the old neighborhood. As a result of this visit, though, we learned a bit more about the house. For example, in the basement (finished), he showed our friend (who subsequently showed us) the pockmarks in the plaster from where he and Ian used to hang out and shoot BB guns at the wall. That's right. Henry was invited back for the open house today, but politely declined as he had other (presumably Ian-related) plans.

Unfortunately, our friends didn't have any film in the camera, so there are no photos of Henry's visit. They're buying themselves a digital camera for Christmas.

DC kind of day

2005-09-24T11:31:00.000-04:00

Today: first I walk down the road to attend a peace march, then it's on to a friend's open house to admire two new bathrooms.

I can hear the sirens down at the White House already, so I'll be sure to bring my camera and see what's what. No small amount of them appear to be converging on the Ryder truck across the street, which is, in all likelihood, just some people picking a bad day to move in. Not that our street is officially truck-free, but DC Metro's not too fussy.

Roll...Bounce!

2005-09-23T22:40:00.000-04:00

I haven't enjoyed a movie in the theater so much in a long time. Seriously, the movie is great. It made me feel like I was 6 years old in Chicago again, since the movie is set there in the year I learned to skate in a little playground on Hyde Park Boulevard. It made me remember my little metal put-on-over-your-shoes skates with an adjustable screw on the underside that I had all through elementary school, zooming around in driveways, up and down the sidewalk and around and around in my friends' unfinished basements. It made me feel like I was a 6th grade supahstah at Skateaway (you know, that cheesy country bar down on the levee...that's why it's a big oval, yo).

I had this flash memory, when the kids walk into the new rink for the first time, of being 15 and taking my out-of-town friend skating, after she begged me to do so. I had forgotten about that, the rink on the edge of town, with the goofy music and the sketchy clientele. In high school I spent more time at ice rinks than roller skating (and even that wasn't saying much as we only went a few times a year at most), and that week when she was down from Chicago on her spring break is the only time I can remember being in a roller rink after the age of 12.

There's a lot about the movie that's great, but the fact that it makes you feel like jumping up and skating backwards to the groove is truly the best part. That, and the old guys in the audience with their old school roller team tshirts.

fitness and the life

2005-09-20T14:25:00.000-04:00

The most amazing thing has happened: my back has healed. Granted, it's not perfect, and the shoulder and thoracic spine still need some serious adjustment. But, for the first time in over a decade, I am cleared to swim. Already I'm feeling more like my self, having only been in the pool for laps once. So after pausing and being filled with gratitude for the folks at Crossings who have worked on me for over a year to make this happen, I'm moving on to articulating my long-term fitness goals. My body is chomping at the bit for exercise, and I'm reminded that underneath all the jammed up joints and twisted around muscles, I still have a pretty solid foundation for the endurance events that I like the best.

Being laid up at home with the Toddler Flu (tm) for the past three days may not seem like the best time to set workout goals, but I haven't had anything better to do than sniffle and think about what I'd rather be doing. Along those lines, I keep coming back to the following:

cycling: Ever since my Bike Hounds team leader did the Montreal to Boston AIDS ride [that's her in the third photo down], I've been wanting to be in solid enough shape to do it myself. It's a 5 day ride over difficult terrain, with minimal (although solid) road support. I'd need a road bike, not to mention needing to learn to ride with clips. But completing this ride would make my day.

running: I have no true desire to learn to run per se, but I am itching to complete a triathlon. Given that my knees are never going to be marathon-class joints no matter how long and hard I train, I'm thinking a nice little 'sprint' triathlon, where I only have to run 5k or so, is what I'm shooting for. It's nice to look at the distance listings for those and be able to say now, even in the shape I'm in, that I could do the swimming and biking part, cake. Of course, I realize that doing the swimming and biking parts back to back, as fast I can, and then running at all, let alone 5k, is, well, a bit harder. But still, there's something about 15 miles being less than the distance between pit stops on a distance ride that makes the whole thing more doable. Plus, there's a triathlon club in the area, so whenever I'm fit enough to not embarass myself completely, I'll give them a call. And again, I only have to think back on my first group training ride two years ago to remember that it only gets easier after that. At the very least I now know to bring water everywhere I go!

swimming: My main goal with swimming is to get strong enough to surf again. Being in the pool feels like home, so it's easy for me to build in regular laps as part of a training program. Truly, though, I don't see myself on a master's team or anything like that. It's fun, and it's a means to an end. Since I have to travel to surf no matter what, I'm thinking the Costa Rica camp is the way to go. I'm thinking I could twist an arm and get my college buddy, the multi-sport outdoor diva, on board for this trip as well.

So there you have it. Step 1 is starting the workouts, and the JCC around the corner from us is where it's happening. In addition to being the most convenient, the JCC is my kind of gym: small, sparsely populated, big on basics, with as few hardbodies as it's possible for a gym to have. Over the next few years I hope to be able to say I did all of this. In the meantime, biking and swimming updates will keep coming.

the past on the other end of a camera

2005-09-18T02:32:00.000-04:00

I'm going to NYC next month to participate in a photo project that requires a photo of me at 15.

As unlikely as it might seem, I don't have photos of me at 15 lying around. After digging through my boxes in storage (easy to access, since 'storage' is currently a friend's basement), I located my old photo albums and high school yearbooks. Old albums yielded surprisingly few photos of me at 15; having acquired a real camera, I was occupied with taking photos of anything and everyone else. I have (comparatively) loads of photos of me at 16, 17, and 18, but only three that are definitely 15. While none of them is great, at least they are the right range.

It was much more interesting to browse the photos of other people, though, particularly from the yearbooks (which, while traumatizing at the time, are endlessly amusing now). The conclusions I (and my esteemed card-playing friends, who were suitably curious once I emerged from the basement with yearbooks in tow) came to were these: my friends and I all had too much hair, we all wore too much flannel, and berets appeared on our heads way too frequently. I must say that I laughed and laughed and laughed at the theater arts club photos, just out of sheer enjoyment.

Besides the general nostalgia for days spent eating pizza and watching scrawny boys with too much hair bail off of handrails, there were more specific things I remembered from the assortment of photos. Chief among them was Jonathan. I'm sure I saw him again over the next year, but that photo is the last clear memory I have of him, that evening with Jason and Tim, out on the wall by Garcia's, goofing off and taking photos before I went off to college. They both signed my yearbook that night, which I know because I just, well, brought it out of the basement this evening.

Rest in peace, little buddy.

hurricane aftermath

2005-09-06T19:17:00.000-04:00

I had lots of chatty things I was going to say about my trip back from Canada, my stop in Ann Arbor, and the beginning of the semester, but they all seem to pale in the face of the ongoing public health disaster in the South. I won't rant about the politics and the funding and the weaknesses of planning that have contributed to the quality of the response, because that's all over the place.

Really, I only want to say that I'm glad to be able to help. DC is housing 300 displaced persons in the Armory, and I've called to put myself on the list of volunteers. I hope to be able to be there working on Friday, and I'm thankful that I managed to keep Fridays clear. The Canadian Embassy is hosting a fundraising breakfast that we'll attend (for which the contact person is someone who lived in the house with the horribly leaky roof before we moved in, but that's completely tangential). I'm just glad to be able to give a few dollars more than the donation we already sent in.

Seeing a notice in the coffeeshop around the corner, inviting donations of "music suitable for the elderly" to the displaced veterans who are now located in the DC area, got me thinking about donating music suitable for young people. Once folks get established, and once I get a sense of what's needed at the Armory, I'll think about bring some by.

What more is there to say, really? I'm grateful that my friend who used to live in NOLA moved within the past few years, at the same time that I'm saddened by never having visited the city she loved so much. I wish there were more that I could do, and I'm grateful to the reporters who are sticking it out. I can't watch the news for too long without getting a splitting headache and being filled with anger, so instead I talk to people and focus on my job.

blog address

2005-09-02T14:12:00.000-04:00

for a while now, my blog has been living somewhere else. you can find me, and it, at http://www.umich.edu/~nlucier.

oh Canada

2005-08-12T12:03:00.000-04:00

I've been in Canada for the past 10 days or so, picking blueberries. Not too strenuous, as I've been, well, picking blueberries since I was old enough to know the difference between blue, red, and spider. I brought Pearl with me, intending to ride between where I'm staying and where I'm picking, but I've only done that once so far. Because there's a heat wave, and it's nasty out there. This week may be my week, as it's cooling down to the mid-80s most days. I'll see how it goes.

After picking berries, I've been going to the movies. And I have this to say about the movies: going alone, in the middle of the afternoon, in grubby clothes that are a mix of pj style pants and biking tops? It's fun! Truly, it is fun, I'm enjoying it a lot. Especially since the same bored teenagers take my money every day. Since they're Canadian, they're not surly or rude, but since I'm Canadian, I can still tell that they're bored. Also, it seems like every time I pass a teenager walking in Windsor, they're in full goth gear. Don't they know there's a heat wave on? Don't they have skateboards? Don't they have friends with cars?

Returning to the movies, my assessments are these: John Cusack is still cute as pie, and I will still pay to see him in the theater, but I really am over that intensely needy neurotic thing. I mean, his bumbling characters warm the cockles of my heart, but I shudder to think of actually interacting with any of them. Ok, I mean, I wouldn't turn down coffee and a biscotti, but dating would be completely out. The other actor who does intensely needy neurotic really well is Joe Fiennes, and the same goes for him. Coffee and a biscotti, buddy. The other thing about this week is that I really enjoyed Sky High. I love being the only non-parent adult in the theater, laughing at all the grown-up jokes. But Sky High is a cross between The Incredibles and Harry Potter. A funny and cute cross, preceded by both the Narnia and Goblet of Fire previews, with the bonus of having Lynda Carter stomp out of a room (in heels) after excaiming "I mean, I'm not Wonder Woman!" and a boppy soundtrack full of remade 80s favorites. This is definitely a film for people our age who had kids right out of college and would now be the target parent audience.

Um yeah, so that's what I've been doing. After teaching in July, a little outside labor is welcome, and I'm sure after another 10 days, a little inside teaching will be welcome upon my return.

This slightly sun-addled post brought to you by the Windsor Public Library.

'arry Potter

2005-07-16T02:39:00.000-04:00

This is the first year that I've gone out of my way to get the next Harry Potter instalment early. I, and apparently 600 other people, reserved the Half-Blood Prince and went up the borders in Wilver Spring to pick it up. It wasn't too much of a wait, and I did get to take one plastic wand to the lost and found and then 2 searching small children to the lost and found to retrieve it (I guessed they were looking for it as a 10 year old girl in a hat and cape marched purposefully by, trailed by a 7 year old boy who was trying to keep up and saying "well, where are all the places you've been?").

The only other eventful aspect of the evening was killing one roach and then having another one crawl out from behind the booth in the first place we went to eat (the sushi place by the Macaroni Grill in Silver Spring). Despite having already placed our order and the hostess's assurances that they were "beetles" (um, yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaah, of the cockroach variety), we left.

And then, imagine my surprise when I discovered the misuse of 'site' on page 10, only a couple of minutes into my metro platform reading! How many editors read this book? It's on page 10 fer cryin out loud! I was a little irked at the idea that I'd stayed up until 2 in the morning in order to buy a book with such an obvious mistake (but not irked enough to scan the page in at 3am to show you). I figure the UK readers are all over that, barring the chance that it's only an error in the US (Scholastic, that would be educational-books-for-kids-that-aren't-supposed-to-mix-up-site-and-sight) edition.

So there's that. And now, to bed, perchance to read.

ride up Rock Creek Trail

2005-06-20T20:44:00.000-04:00

distance: oh I don't know, about 10-12 miles, that's still my hourly hybrid rate...
time: 1 hr riding, 4 minutes resting

Today I decided to head north along Rock Creek, jumping onto the trail at the same spot (just over the P street bridge). The big public secret about DC is that it's all downhill from Maryland to Virginia, so after a while it's hard to ride only north-south loops in good conscience. Or rather, I save those for my days of rest.

This time I followed the trail up past the zoo, past Pierce Mill, and up Beach Drive a couple of miles. As I was just getting started I passed a woman on a bike with saddlebags and a backpack; I directed her to the not-very-well-marked path and didn't think too much more about it. On the way back down (having turned around, taken a break on a tree stump, and cruised downhill) I passed her again at the start of Beach Drive. Chatting with her there, it turned out that she's biking the whole country, having started at "the Alabama-Florida line" on May 16th. I didn't catch her name, but she told me she's on a personal mission and is praying for people. So if you see her between here and Niagra, or swinging west through Montana, give her my regards.

The Rock Creek Trail is nice in the middle of a week day, when there's no one around and the woods are quiet. It's never nice coming back up from that trail, though, as the only way back to civilization is up one of your choice of whomping big hills. Being a creek, you see, it's firmly in a valley. Today I chose my favorite the whomping big hills, Adams Mill Road. About that route I have only this to say: why put a speed bump at the top of a hill roughly akin to the trail to Machu Picchu? Why, god, why? It bears saying that I did not, in fact, fall off my bike on the speed bump. Nor did I splat a kid, which is presumably what the speed bump is there to prevent. So, good job, speed bump! If you weren't there, I would have flown through that crosswalk! Ok, right, enough about the speed bump.

The rest of the ride home was uneventful. Also, I did not scrape my knee carrying the bike into the house today.

mid-morning ride to the airport

2005-06-19T15:30:00.000-04:00

distance: ~ 12 miles
time: 1 hr of riding, 5 minutes of resting

Saturday I woke up early and decided to finally go out for a ride. It's been so hot here that I haven't been out on Pearl since Memorial Day, and I'd really been wanting to get down by the water again. I thought about going on the Captitol Crescent trail again, but that imperceptible incline tires me out and it's not the most interesting ride around. Instead, I decided to go down by the river and see how long it took to get to the airport.

From my house, I went down to P, around the circle, and across the bridge to jump on the Rock Creek trail, which is almost exactly 1 mile. I followed the trail around to the bridge, about another 2 miles, and even went the circuitous route up through the construction at the Lincoln rather than dashing across 4 lanes of traffic (I didn't feel like getting off my bike, and I'm not the best dasher in the world, I prefer to stroll). Once over the bridge, I headed south toward the airport along the Mt. Vernon trail, unwittingly joining lots of other folks participating in the Clean Air Ride. Which is fine, I'm all for Clean Air. I stopped for a break at the airport parking lot (it's not really the airport parking lot, but rather the parking lot by the trail where lots of people come to sit and watch the planes take off from the airport), about 3 miles further along (according to the driving directions at yahoo maps, at least!).

From the airport, I followed the trail back up past the bridges all the way to the Key Bridge and back over into Georgetown, about 3.7 miles (they really need to make a mapping program just for the bike trails, because it's a pain in the arse to try to extrapolate from the parallel roads. I'm just sayin...). Back home from there was another 2.5 miles, bringing the ride total to just about 12 miles.

I really need to get a new battery for my bike computer and save myself all this yahoo mapping. But there you have it.

On a more qualitative note, I saw not much out of the ordinary. The trail really filled up by the time I was heading back, between 10-10:30am, with lots of walkers and kids and strollers and people with headphones on. It was a good reminder to go out earlier in the day if I don't want to be braking and swerving all the time. I remember the same being true of the Capitol Crescent trail, especially the tip by Bethesda (walkers tend to go along the Canal towpath on the Georgetown end, at least when I've been there).

All this mapping has been good for one thing, though: it appears there's a waterfowl sanctuary just there at the parking lot where everyone stops to look at the planes, so I'll have to check that out. Just maybe not today.

the pixies

2005-06-14T15:37:00.000-04:00

Even after seeing the Pixies six months ago in town, we gladly planned to trek back out to Merriweather to see them all over again up there. Since Dana had to be out of town, I went with a friend, renting a car in Virginia and making the drive after picking her up from work. This time, we arrived early, and had time to get some food and find our seats (again in the pavilion) before both the rain and the opening bands started. It was the kind of night when the rain, mostly pretty light, was welcome, as it cooled everything down and provided a mellow backdrop to just hanging out and waiting for the main set.

What can I say about the Pixies? They rocked out and it was a great show. The energy was high; not quite the same mania of the December show (even on their second night in town, the hall was just vibrating with the excitement of seeing them together on stage again) but still enough to keep everyone out of their seats the whole time. I didn't allocate much brain space to remembering the set list, as I planned to order the concert cd for Dana. The best moment of the show was the interruption by a roadie to tell the band (and, by extension, us) that Surfer Rosa had just gone gold, and to present each of them with their little framed/mounted plaque/certificate thingies to commemorate the event. I didn't think to get photos, but a couple are available on their tour blog. The whole thing was pretty freakin neat, actually.

My only complaint, and it's more a regret than a complaint, was that I couldn't see much of Kim. As in December, she spent much of the show back by the drums just playing away, and she and he both were completely blocked from view by the bank of speakers on our side of the stage. Moreso than usual, then, the songs with her on vocals were my favorites, as she stepped forward to her mic and into view. And, no, I didn't scream out "we love you, Kim!" although I'm sure some people were.

big night out with the Maryland teens

2005-06-09T13:32:00.000-04:00

Last night, to kick off the summer right, we went to see the Killers with one of Dana's coworkers. The show was at Merriweather, an outdoor ampitheatre about an hour out of town in Columbia, MD, and because we're old we bought seats in the pavilion and arrived just in time for the end of the 3rd opening band. It wasn't clear if the event was supposed to be in the festival vein, with all the bands of similar standing, or if there were just 4 opening sets (our interpretation of choice).

At any rate, the lineup was geared for the young. The ratio of teenagers to adults was something like 14:1, with the ratio of parents to non-parents at something like 100:1. So there we were, an island in a sea of screeching youngsters and their chaperones.

Thankfully, the show itself was good. I was a bit worried that the new-new-wave post-post-punk sound wouldn't translate well to a live show, but these boys from Vegas had a lot of energy and the singer came through with a surprisingly robust voice. The screams of "We love you, Brandon!" from the row(s) behind us added quite a bit of excitement to the event as well. The kitsch of the whole thing appealed to us older fans, as the stage set was straight out of Vegas, with plush red velvet and rhinestone style lights blinking out their name. And, I must say, you also had to be d' âge certaine to be able to appreciate the way the band's cigarillo pants made them look like the Monkees.

With the exception of a small dehydration-related meltdown leading to the pumping of three times its worth in quarters into a rest-stop vending machine to obtain one 500ml bottle of water, the trip back to the city was pleasantly uneventful as well.

wild ponies

2005-05-31T13:31:00.000-04:00

The big attraction of Chincoteague, which I didn't know about before deciding to go there, is the wild pony herd. They live on the part of the Assateague barrier island that's in Virginia (it's that little bit off the coast that looks like an island on a map of the state). The herd is owned by the local fire department, and driven across the channel to Chincoteague island each July. The foals are then sold at auction, so that the herd doesn't get larger than 150 horses (a cap that's maintained because of their location in a federal wildlife preserve).

It took us most of the weekend to piece together all this information, even with the knowledge that the horses were made famous by a book written 65 years ago by Marguerite Henry, the horse book lady. Not being horse people, we couldn't really still grasp why everyone seemed so excited about the horses, but we did enjoy the goofiness while we were there. On Saturday night, we went to the first live show of the season at the Pony Centre there. The Center is owned and run by the family that bought Misty's granddaughter, Misty II (daughter of another famous pony), some years ago. It's basically a barn with an indoor arena, where they give pony rides and show the horses, many of whom are descendents of Misty. So we went to the show, and were duly entertained by the (quite tall) teenagers riding the horses around. We also got to see one of the colts they have for sale, the black and white pinto (apparently the black and whites are both more rare and popular, so we were encouraged to ooh and aah over the colt, which wasn't difficult as it was really cute). It was neat to look around inside the arena, as the family has collected a lot of Misty-related merchandise, including posters from the movie and some models and toys that are no longer being made.

The youngest in the family, Kenneth, is pictured in the horse trading card of Misty II, and he offered to autograph them for me. In the photo on the card he's about 4 years old; he's 16 now and quite a bit taller. It's not a stretch to say that his boots almost touched the ground when he was on Black Mist. I'd already decided to get some pony-related presents for my cousins whose first communion I was missing by being on vacation, so I got Kenneth to sign a card for each of them.

riding in the Chincoteague refuge

2005-05-30T13:30:00.000-04:00

We spent Memorial Day weekend down in Chincoteague, VA, which was dinkier than I'd imagined. I think I'd imagined a place of Block Island size/style, and it was smaller and more of a fishing village.

The refuge itself was great, with several trails through the salt marshes and along the dunes and beach. Saturday morning I woke up early, because of the laughing gulls, and decided to head over before people started swarming the beaches. I did a bit more than an hour of riding. My bike computer's still out of commission, so I don't know the mileage; from the map and how long it took given that it was pretty much entirely flat, I'd say it was about 12 miles. It was lovely to be out at 6:30am, and funny to see quite a few people out in front of their houses setting up for the day's yard sales. I was the only bike on the road, and the only people driving into the refuge were fishermen in trucks. On the trail, I did see a couple of hikers and another cyclist or two, but I mostly had the place to myself. There were birds everywhere, and that early in the morning there were also mammals -- I saw loads of rabbits, one of the little brown deer they have there, and half a dozen whitetails fighting on the path (I chose a different route rather than ride through a bunch of frisky young deer). That morning I also saw quite a bit of pony poop, but no actual ponies. I did ride down the trail that connects the marsh loops to the beach, but that was pretty gravelly and I decided to skip it in the future.

Sunday morning I slept in later, and went out around 8:30am. I again rode for an hour or so, and that morning I did two loops around the main marsh (called the Wildlife Loop, it's a paved three mile road that encircles the area where most of the birds can be regularly seen). There were lots of people out on the road that morning, and I got to use my martian bell and train some kids in how to move to the side. I didn't see as many animals, but did see the more common birds. This trip was more of a bike ride and less of a bird-watching excursion; I zoomed along the side of the marsh with the wind at my back and got a good workout coming up the other edge. It was a lot like riding on Hain's Point, actually, when there's a good breeze coming off the river. This ride was about 10 miles, and just about an hour -- I made it back up to the motel with just about 15 minutes to get my free breakfast.

Finally, on Monday I had breakfast first and then did another loop, just down to the marsh and then once around and back. On this ride, I discovered that there were telescopes on the lookout platform, so I spent quite a bit of time off my bike and looking at birds with them. There was a kid there who'd ridden up on his bike as well, and I told him the names of many of the birds, which he then described to his parents in Russian. It was nice to talk to a kid interested in birds, as it made me feel that I had knowledge I could share, in contrast to when I talk to older bird-watchers and I'm the complete novice. I did also go back with Dana later in the morning, before we left the island, to show him the telescopes and identify a few of the birds we weren't sure about.

It was a good feeling to be out on the bike every day, although I could feel my shoulder tightening up over the weekend. I'm looking forward to getting out on the trails at home again this summer.

first ride of summer

2005-05-26T13:09:00.000-04:00

distance: approx. 11 miles
time: approx. 1hr 10min [including getting in & out of the house]

Today I finally did what I've been planning to do all week: got up and went for a ride pre-breakfast and pre-shower. My goal for the next few weeks is to return to doing regular short rides, starting with an hour, several times a week. I'm still at the first level of my p.t. exercises for my shoulder (I've been told I have about 3 levels before I can swim), so I'll be doing those every day (soon to be twice/day) as well. With a little luck, that will keep my shoulders and neck from getting too banged around.

It felt great to be back on Pearl and out and about. I rode over to the Capitol Crescent Trail in Georgetown, which is almost exactly 2.5 miles from our house, and then went 3 miles down it and turned around. I love that the WABA page describing the trail talks about the "imperceptible grade" that you're going up the whole (10 mile) way to Bethesda. It may be visually imperceptible, but you'd have to be a complete dumbass to not notice that you are d r a g g i n g in the Bethesda direction and flying coming back to Georgetown. Granted I'm not the fastest pedaler in the west[ern hemisphere], but it took me 25 minutes to go 3 miles one way and 15 to come back. That means it's an hour and a half to Bethesda and 45 minutes back. I need to keep this in mind for future rides, that it's basically free miles if you turn around rather than doing a loop. Which is likely why the training rides I used to go on take you through Bethesda to Rock Creek Park rather than turning around and lettting you cruise back in, eh?

I should get an evaluation this afternoon on how my back is doing and, assuming all's clear, I'm going to bring Pearl with us this weekend and ride a couple of times on the trails down there while Dana sleeps in.

one or two things have happened lately

2005-05-21T11:46:00.000-04:00

Last night we saw Gang of Four! Just as the NYC review promised, it was a great show, we didn't even notice while we were there that we were up hours and hours past our bedtime. These four old (for pop rockers) guys jumping around on stage were orders of magnitude better than the four old guys who were Duran Duran jumping around on stage, and that was over 10 years ago so the ages aren't even truly comparable. At any rate, up until the strobe on the very last song of the main set, which gave me a head- and stomach-ache all at once, we had a great time singing along and cracking up at the, well, goofy dancing. And, they ended with their cover of 'Sweet Jane' as the last song of their second encore, so I was happy.

Last weekend, I got Pearl out of the shop with new brake pads and a drive train clean-up. Nothing else was seriously wrong with her, except that I still need to figure out how to replace the battery on my bike computer and/or just replace the whole thing. Since I've been cleared to ride, I'm looking forward to getting back on the trails. From our new place we again have easy access to most of the area paths, so as soon as it stops pouring down buckets of rain in the mornings I'll be on the road again. One major benefit of not training for an endurance ride: not ever having to start a ride in the rain.

Earlier that week we also had a visitor from Ann Arbor, in town for a transportation government safety conference thingy. We walked, we talked, we ate, we slept (her on the ever-popular air mattress, which is standing the test of actual use quite well). I hope to be able to see more of her when I'm back in the area this summer, on my days off.

The weekend before that, I finally went to see the Modigliani exhibit. I enjoyed it, but wasn't all that impressed with all the flat blue-'eyed' portraits. The caryatid series was striking, but his controversial nudes and portraits of certain attractive dandies were the best of the paintings themselves. But enough about that, as others blather better about art than I.

And that's May. For Memorial Day we're joining the vacationing masses to drive over the bridge and down the shore to a little island that we've never visited. Should be good fun.

princeton progressives come to dc!

2005-05-12T12:19:00.000-04:00

how bout those ivy leaguers? I hope to be able to get down to see them, and maybe have my moment in the sun spouting sociological theory to further the cause of participatory democracy, but they may be heading back up tonight.

nothing nearly as dramatic is up with me, and even if there was, I wouldn't have time to tell you since I have to go to my last class of the semester. right now!

burning media question

2005-04-27T16:23:00.000-04:00

so, what is the "right" reason to go on a show like "the bachelor"? having tuned in out of a morbid curiosity regarding the car crash looking for a place to happen that is the o'connell brothers, I am fascinated by the moral cache that seems to come from being on the show for the right reasons.

it seems like everyone on the show can only be there for terrible reasons, yet they all claim to be there for the right ones and either reassure each other that they believe that to be the case (as with the women to charlie) or zing each other with the accusation that clearly they're wrongly motivated (as with the women to each other). but money, notoriety, a desire to be the trashy center of attention for weeks on end, boosts to paltry careers -- are any of these any more wrong than another? or am I missing something obvious? it seems a huge stretch, even for a reality tv show, to ask us to believe that people are looking for love or even attraction or even getting along.

maybe I'm the only one who cares, but mine is an honest inquiry into our current cultural scheme. I am perfectly happy to pull up a chair, pop open a beer (ok, more likely a bottle of my new favorite low end wine), and evaluate these people if only I know the rules. for example, is it ultra-rhode-island-tacky for one of the women's grandmother's to tell her to get the bachelor in bed lickety-split, or is it just the name of the game?

before it seems that I'm rearranging my schedule for this show, I must say that I'm satisfying most of my curiosity by surfing the web during my office hours and spending my evenings with slightly more edifying activities. this past monday I finally got to see the alvin ailey company, as part of the kennedy center's "masters of african american choreography" series, and it was an amazing show. the audience was fantastic, cheering and clapping at each transition. the energy reminded me of being at the feminist majority conference in 1996, when just being in a room full of women was electrifying; I can't think of the last time I've been at an event with so many black people in a space of that size, and the dynamic was thrilling.

music, mostly

2005-04-20T10:10:00.000-04:00

music's been on my mind this month, with the kickoff being our april 1st salon. it was interesting to hear how so many of us came to music, and in a group of folks who mostly don't play instruments we were surprisingly devoted listeners. compared to those of us who described surviving high school as geeks by memorizing songs, artists, labels, and band histories, I'm hardly "obsessed." when I hear that I think of the greek guy I knew in england who had over 1,000 cds in little plastic jackets and archival bins, which didn't stop us from only ever listening to bob marley, autechre, or the pulp fiction soundtrack.

nonetheless, I still drool every time we go into our new local record store, and end up leaving with several things I've scrounged from the used shelves. this tendency to be overwhelmed with selection, and therefore drop more than we plan, is likely why we don't go that frequently. it's sort of like being a vegetarian for years and getting used to only ever having one option for dinner, and then living in the explosion of all-vegan cafes. too many choices. being unashamedly delighted with the new wave revival, though, I'm happy to finally be able to rock out at work with folks like the killers. saturday's trip ended up being dominated by bands beginning with "the," with me being likely the last person on earth to finally pick up things I've just been mooching off people I know for years, like the strokes and the mescaleros. shopping from the used shelves is, however, the advantage to being always just that good bit behind the times. and of course, every time we stop in we get to hear about upcoming shows, the latest news being that gang of four is coming to town at the end of the month. which means my tour of duty with bands that haven't toured in over a decade will continue into 2005, with a kraftwerk show figuring prominently (gang of four and the pixies are different, since, you know, I like them).

our other musical adventure of the weekend was seeing the magic flute at the kennedy center. it was a really lovely performance, made all the more entertaining by what the critics might refer to as its timelessness. often this means that it's classic and traditional, but here it was more that we kept wondering (1) what year it was written in and (2) what year it was designed in, since both answers seemed like they should be "1967." the costumes were amazing and colorful, and the set was really well-designed, they were just a lot more on the psychedelic side than we were expecting. not having read the libretto, I didn't know the story was as fantastical as it was. that's not entirely true, I suppose -- I did know it was about a prince who uses a magic flute to go on a quest to save a princess. it was a lot of fun to discover just how fantastical the production was, and it made us laugh to hear the teenagers a few rows down exclaim at the intermission "this should be called the magic flute on crack!"

as a point of reference, the show was quite reminiscent of the "blue snake" performance at the end of the company, which is generally a boring film that I don't recommend. but the dancing is good, and the visuals of the final performance are beautiful. I likely wouldn't have rented it at all, but domingo rubio was one of the dancers in the ballet hispanico performance that I saw a couple of weeks ago, and I was curious about the mention of the film in the program.

the kiwano, or: don't eat ornamental plants

2005-04-11T18:19:00.000-04:00

so, at whole foods last week I picked up some odd-looking "exotic" fruits:

they looked like an odd cross between a mango and a star fruit, which piqued my curiosity. never having seen one before, I promptly bought two (because 2 is better than 1!) and went home to look them up on the internet. I discovered that they were kiwanos, described as "spiney ornamental melons," with tangy pulpy insides, full of seeds covered in goop (kind of like pomegranates).

slicing one open, I discovered that they did in fact have pulpy seedy insides, as advertised:

once I'd sliced it open, I was at a bit of a loss as to how to go about eating it. granted, the slimey green quality of the inside had me a little dubious, but I was determined to persevere. I'm not sure why, given that I'd just recently discovered that the melon was "ornamental," but I hadn't been completely turned off yet.

in order to eat the jelly without swallowing a bunch of seeds, I scooped the insides into a bowl:

close-up, capturing the near flourescent aspect of the green pulp:

it was at this point that I believed I exclaimed, on the phone to a friend, "this looks like food out of harry potter!" again, this might have been a good point to stop and reconsider the wisdom of the plan to actually eat this "fruit," but I decided I'd come this far, I might as well taste it.

so I did. and, well, it tasted nasty. tangy and odd and slimey and sort of bubbly and pretty much what it looks like it'd taste like. gross.

of course, I promptly carried it into the other room to try to feed it to dana, all the while telling my friend with whom I was still having a phone conversation that she should rush right out and buy one, because it was so disgusting!

and then, about 1/2 hour after swallowing at most a teaspoon, I got agonizing stomach cramps and thought I was going to die. given that whole foods likely wouldn't sell something poisonous, we chalked the stomach cramps up to my acupuncture treatment earlier that day.

but still: don't eat ornamental plants. the end.

allergies

2005-04-11T09:49:00.000-04:00

as it turns out, I'm allergic to flowering trees. not all flowering trees, one presumes, and not all the time. just here in dc, where there are upwards of 300 kinds of flowering trees and bushes, and they just all seem to be in bloom all the time. april is the worst month, with both the largest variety of trees in bloom and among the highest pollen counts in the country.

I took some small amount of pride in not being allergic to anything, but moving to dc has ruined my 27 year record of being allergy-free. I still contend that it's not really an "allergy" to sneeze when the pollen is so thick in the air that one walks down the street through a mild yellow haze, but I can no longer blame it on the moldy metro trains, colds from my students, or water-saturated house walls.

well, especially since generic claritin has been clearing it right up.

cliffs of moher, visited sunday, march 20th

2005-04-05T17:09:00.000-04:00

the first major sight-seeing event in ireland that we have recorded on the digital camera (because the gazillion rolls of film aren't developed yet) is our trip to the cliffs of moher. the day we went it was windier than the really windy days from my ride training. it was also really misty (it was early in the day, and the climate on the west coast there seemed much like the san francisco area -- foggy in the morning, burning off clear midday on sunny days), so we couldn't see as far along the coast as clear days (compare to this guy's photos on a sunny afternoon).

it was so windy, that we got a little hysterical as we were walking around (coming off the hysteria we'd had the day before careening through the mountains). on a less windy day I would have been more than tempted to hop the guard fence and get photos of us on the edge of the cliffs, but I was having to work to stay upright to walk along the path so I ruled out the precarious options early. we climbed the tower there (built about 30 years ago for visitors; whether as a wind shelter or for the views, it's hard to say).

from this photo, you can tell how misty it is (that hump in the background over d.'s shoulder is the coastline). you can also tell the difficulties we were having in taking photos, as our hair was blowing in our faces. however, we're actually blocked from the wind here by the telescope stand on the top of the tower.

this is more what it was like the rest of the time, complete with european tourists looking at us like we were lunatics.

the cliffs themselves were amazing. even with the wind I could have stayed there for hours just watching the waves and the seabirds. the scale was daunting, too -- without a person as a reference point, it's easy to miss how tall they really are. which kind of puts lemmings into perspective or might make us answer differently the "if everyone else were jumping off a cliff..." query.

recent books

2005-04-01T12:10:00.000-05:00

while stalled on swann's way, I've had a couple of quick reads.

the new memoir, smashed, which I picked up to consider recommending to my students, turned out to be fascinating. as I told my college friend on the phone last night, I was tempted to require all my high school and college friends to read it and then schedule a conference call. the way that she handles socio-cultural aspects of both gender and drinking is impressive for a book that purports to be just a memoir, especially in an age when so many are flooding the market and one is tempted to remind authors that by in most cases, not much happens by age 23. reading this book, I was reminded that in fact quite a lot happens in high school and college.

in gatwick, waiting for our puddle-jumper to knock, both dana and I were able to pick up new books. so I read the latest adrian mole, and he read the new sci fi release by iain banks. adrian mole was entertaining, as always. it's a bit eerie how well he ages with us. I keep hoping that at some point he will seem less familiar, but apparently I'm as equally surrounded by lovable geeks at 30 as I was at 15. which means I laugh at all the jokes, and then have to wonder who's watching me empathize so enthusiastically with this fictional bumbler. in nosing around online, it appears that I've missed at least one book in the series in the past couple of years, though, so I'll have to remedy that. sue townsend's non-fiction writing is supposed to be equally bitingly funny, so I might pick up some of that while I'm at it.

since the new year, I've also read the mommy myth, which I highly recommend. I've assigned chapters of it for both my gender and deviance classes, and we'll see how the discussion goes. it seems more academic than the book that's getting a lot of press, perfect madness (which I've also picked up but haven't read yet, so I could yet change that evaluation). in both cases, though, the framing of the current cultural context of motherhood is spot on.

national poetry month

2005-04-01T10:42:00.000-05:00

welcome to one of my favorite months, not least because it's national poetry month. when I lived in ann arbor, students used to write different poems on the ground in sidewalk chalk each day, and it was always a surprise to me to walk onto campus and suddenly have familiar words leaping up at me in pastel letters. the surprise and fun of it always seemed completely appropriate for ushering in the spring.

when faces called flowers float out of the ground
and breathing is wishing and wishing is having-
but keeping is downward and doubting and never
-it's april(yes,april;my darling)it's spring!
yes the pretty birds frolic as spry as can fly
yes the little fish gambol as glad as can be
(yes the mountains are dancing together)

when every leaf opens without any sound
and wishing is having and having is giving-
but keeping is doting and nothing and nonsense
-alive;we're alive,dear:it's(kiss me now)spring!
now the pretty birds hover so she and so he
now the little fish quiver so you and so i
now the mountains are dancing, the mountains)

when more than was lost has been found has been found
and having is giving and giving is living-
but keeping is darkness and winter and cringing
-it's spring(all our night becomes day)o,it's spring!
all the pretty birds dive to the heart of the sky
all the little fish climb through the mind of the sea
all the mountains are dancing;are dancing)

e e cummings

dc connections

2005-03-31T14:15:00.000-05:00

for the first time, this week, I've felt that the jobs we have in dc are somewhat unusual. being here, it's easy to get used to all the bumbling 22 year olds working on capitol hill, for senators and representatives, nonprofits, and the like. it doesn't usually seem odd that a friend from high school works for a senator on health policy issues, just (I suppose) as it doesn't seem odd that other friends are doctors, lawyers, professors and such.

this week, though, I got to call my friend for a work-related request: to ask if my aunt & cousins could get a staff-led tour of the capitol. it's largely coincidental that they're from michigan, so the senator is actually their senator, which means that they themselves could call the office for a staff-led constituent tour (which not many people know is an option). it was funny to feel like I was on the inside track, though.

and, they should be on the tour right now. I hope they like it; I've never been!

vacation

2005-03-27T20:32:00.000-05:00

we're back in north america.

our whistle-stop tour of ireland (as my cousin called it) was grand. love-ly.

full of: hedges, sheep, old men, old sheep, drunk old men, lambs, old men on bikes, black-faced sheep, old men weaving, cows, gorse, rocks, hysterical laughing while trying not to crash the car by running into any of the above, gale force wind, pelting rain, wee mountains, sheer drop-offs, fish, geese, lots of really common birds that still necessitated looking them up in a guide book, boiled potatoes, fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, hash browned potatoes, wet feet, wet socks, wet jackets, lumpy beds, heart attack on a plate every morning, et cetera.

also some beer and lots of really old buildings, the descriptions of which most frequently included the phrase "...and stood until cromwell came and smashed all the windows / burned the roof."

no whiskey, though, although we came home with 2 whiskey glasses and 2 bottles of scotch from the duty free.

more later; for now, my own bed!

knit happens!

2005-03-11T11:57:00.000-05:00

one of my goals for my 30s, despite being several years behind the trend curve, is to learn to knit. so, I've accomplished that! I suppose now I can modify that to "knit something" and then still have something to strive toward for the remaining 97% of the decade.

I was at caribou with a student and noticed a group of people knitting. seizing my chance, I asked them if the group was a private group of friends or if it was an open gathering, and they invited me to join them. I discovered that it was the logan circle stich-n-bitch group, and that they meet at least once a week in my neighborhood (sometimes at coffeeshops and sometimes at a knitter's house). one of the guys there was nice enough to show me the basics (casting on, knit, purl) and then fill me in on the local shops where I could get yarn and needles (he recommended knit happens in alexandria, and another person recommended stitch dc in georgetown, noting that it's more of a boutique).

while being proud of my accomplishment (it helped that my volunteer teacher was saying "that's right, that's perfect!" almost every stitch, which boosted my confidence), I was also relieved to find out that the technique he taught me is the one in the stitch-n-bitch book I picked up in ann arbor (as mentioned, just in time for the second more advanced one to come out!) so that I can refresh my understanding if/when I try it on my own.

I've talked with a friend (our bridge night hostess) about wanting to knit, and I just might get myself together to get some yarn and needles and bring those and the instructional book to her place tomorrow night. armed with my new-found knowledge and her crocheting experience, how bad can we be?

coming up for air midweek

2005-03-09T15:04:00.000-05:00

it seems like wednesday is the day I pause and regroup, with the first item of business upon regrouping then being to realize that it's wednesday.

I got to see a lot of my friends this weekend, which was nice. friday night was our monthly salon, where the topic of how we relate to money was a good one. it didn't take much prodding to get us going (and, as usual, some of us needed a little prodding to keep quiet. I'll leave it up to your prodigious imaginations to consider where I fall in the group). rachel was also in town for a conference, so we got to spend saturday evening together. since we only see each other in person every few years, it's good that we just pick up where we leave off when we have time in person. so, much silliness ensued. on sunday I got a chance to catch up with scott, and confirmed that polly's is really best for brunch. like the luna cafe, they don't add milk/cream to their hollandaise sauce, which makes the brunch that much more attractive to non-dairy (but not vegan) vegetarians. he then got lured into dana's sunday game, so he might become another regular with that. it is definitely entertaining eavesdropping on them as they play, which is what I spent most of the afternoon doing, while also finishing up jonathan strange....

while out with rachel, we ran into one of the few other people I know in the area, a woman that I went to grad school with. I hadn't realized she'd moved to dc to write up, but we're going to get together this coming weekend to catch up on things. with luck I'll also get together with zeki, from my AIDS ride team way back when, for some dog-walking and general catching up.

in between the grading of papers and cleaning of the house and planning of the trip to ireland, I was reminded this week of the fun people who are already in my life, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of them as spring rolls around. seems like this time of year I always look back on winter and think, "what was I complaining about?" it's nice to realize that even those things that seem oh-so-serious at the time just get a bit easier when the sun shines.

jeans

2005-03-02T12:35:00.000-05:00

I can tell that I'm internalizing my age, because I'm wearing jeans more when I'm teaching. when I started teaching college classes, I was 23. like most grad students, I dressed pretty much like most of my students, but since I was working with professors on most of the courses my authority wasn't an issue.

when I started teaching post-grad-school, I was 27. because I was teaching a night class, most of my students were my age or older, and I tried to dress up more so that they'd listen to me. ok, now I know that when people are paying someone to teach them something at night after going to their regular job all day they pretty much listen no matter what the person is wearing, but there was still this element of being taken seriously that I was concerned about.

I've continued like this, wearing my Lawyer Clothes to teach, through the past 3 years. but this semester, I've been wearing jeans a lot more. ok, jeans with jackets and collared shirts, but still: jeans. I can't figure out if this means that I don't care if they like me, or I've become adept at controlling them through fear, or that I no longer believe they will continue to confuse me for a 25 year old if I don't dress the part.

probably some of all of the above.

living in the south & the constitution

2005-03-01T15:00:00.000-05:00

one of the weirdest things about living in dc is the reality that we're living in the south. not just "the farthest south we've ever lived," although that's certainly true. but below the mason-dixon line. which, in case you didn't know, runs along the top of maryland, and along the bottom of pennsylvania. while I like to argue that the qualitatively relevant line is the line of secession (putting dc and maryland in the "north" for civil war era purposes), that's just because I'm a northerner in pretty much every possible way.

lately, it seems like virginia just keeps giving me more and more reasons to renew my vow never to live there (a tough one to keep for many middle-class people in this area, as the statewide cost of living is much lower than dc or much of maryland), to the point that even dana agrees there's pretty much no way we're ever going to be voluntarily in the position of paying taxes to "that state."

now, I concede that many states in all parts of the country are rushing to pass homophobic laws In These Difficult Times. yes, I fault all those other states, too. but virginia is in the vanguard of states trying to not only be homophobic themselves (by preventing gay people from adopting children or gaining status equal to married couples), but are trying to negate any arrangements made in other states that might *gasp* grant rights to gay people that virginia denies. while virginia, I'm sure, just believes its being really clever and thorough (and yes, I do think of the state itself as a malevolent being of sorts), there's such a appalling disregard for the basics of inter-state relationships that it's concerning in and of itself.

what the hell am I talking about? I'm talking about the full faith and credit clause (article iv, section 1). ok, yes, normally things like discussions of what articles of the constitution actually say are tediously boring and make most people's eyes glaze over. but, consider this: you buy a car in dc, you expect to still own it when you drive it to virginia. you decline to be an organ donor on your dc license, you expect that to still be honored in virginia. you rent a car in dc, you expect it to still be yours to drive in virginia. complete no-brainers, especially on the small-state coast. in the other direction, it doesn't matter that you're only 20 and can't buy alcohol in the u.s.; if you go to canada, you can drink there. ok, so: you adopt a kid in dc, you expect to still be their parent in virginia. you marry someone in dc, you expect to still be married in virginia.

this is where virginia has gone off the deep end, by refusing to recognize legal arrangements entered into in other states. it's one thing to deny those things to people in your state, but the whole concept of the freedom to travel or, basically, buy things in other states and take them home, is based on the presumption that contract entered into in other states (especially contracts entered into with other state governments, which is what marriages and adoptions are) are recognized as valid wherever you go in the u.s. (a reasonable presumption, given that it's one of the few affirmative provisions in the admirably brief original body of the constitution).

so yes, other states are refusing to grant marriage certificates to couples where both people are of the same gender. other states and counties refuse to allow either second-party adoptions by someone of the same gender as a child's biological parent or adoptions of children by two people of the same gender. ok. but only virginia is refusing to acknowledge contracts entered into in other states as valid in virginia.

and we're not talking about things, we're talking about people. it's one thing to say that the car you bought in another state has to meet certain criteria to be driven on our roads (as virginia also does wrt window tinting). it's a completely different thing to say, *poof* that deed's not valid here.

perhaps it's nerdy of me to be incensed by how blatantly this violates the full faith and credit clause than that it violates equal protection principles. but interpretations of the equal protection clause don't yet protect you from denial of the right to marry, but the full faith and credit clause always protects contracts that you enter into that are legal when and where you entered into them.

the upshot is that it's wack. one of the gifts I gave my parents this year for christmas was a donation to an organization that helps protect the rights of gay and lesbian parents (moral of the story: if you encourage me to give a donation to charity in your name, I will, in fact, go ahead and do so). I haven't actually made the donation yet, because I was searching for a local group to give to, which looks to be equality virginia. receiving a letter from them in the mail reminded me of this whole nonsense.

if dc weren't entirely overseen by a congressional committee, I'd be tempted to work to get the city council to pass a law refusing to recognize any contracts entered into in virginia. since it is, I just bitch about it whenever it comes up.

snow day

2005-02-28T12:39:00.000-05:00

in anticipation of another snowstorm, the university is closed again today. much like last thursday, we have a notable lack of accumulation, but a winter storm warning for the area. unlike last thursday, though, I checked before riding the metro out to work, so I'm enjoying some time at home rather than being one of few people working on a nearly completely silent campus.

lacking a current photo (the camera battery is charging, I'm a bit behind the ball on that) I give you this:

.

so it's just like that on a different street. oh, and minus about 28 inches of snow. yup.

spring cleaning

2005-02-27T12:44:00.000-05:00

both literally and not, that's what I've been up to lately. after riding out the winter since the election, I'm emerging to get things in order now that spring is in the air.

it's hard not to look ahead to the summer, as the next few months will be full and likely zoom by. visits by friends, family, and our own trip to ireland have march booked. april looks to be lots of grading and wrapping up the term. then it's may. lynne promises to have me back in the pool in the summer, so I diligently keep on keeping on with the shoulder strengthening exercises. then in july I'll be teaching a soc course for maryland's young scholars' program, and in august back to the farm to help harvest those berries.

after chatting with chip this week, I'm considering my webspace and using it a bit more creatively. that may be june's project, but it's nice to jot down ideas as they come up. I'm considering, finally after all these years, running our own server. it would also be nice to set up a bbs for the salon group and have that be stored locally.

as always, there's no lack of things to keep us busy. what with home, work, and the ever-loonier political landscape, there's rarely a dull moment.

see you on the other side

2004-11-01T21:31:00.000-05:00

if I can hand these out at not one but two (2!) capitol hill halloween parties, surely (surely!) y'all can vote tomorrow.

october

2004-10-25T14:23:00.000-04:00

what a poor web presence I'd have with only 12 posts a year. but I've been busy, she whines.

I've been hanging out at kos's place for a while. it's a nice balance between the mainstream media twilight zone and living in a bubble. the efforts to remain sane from within the belly of the beast are helped by going to concerts where they play funny clips between songs (not just of the fans, either) or who just generally exhort you to use your brain ["we hate golf. we like baseball. bush is golf. kerry is baseball."] or whose entire tour is appropriately themed. so we've been doing that, yeah.

also, my ~~gazillions~~ hundreds of students have been producing more work for me to grade. or have been doing the work I produce for them. which I have yet to grade. but I persist.

the highlight of october has been that the calder / miro exhibit finally opened at the phillips. so I've gone to it several times already and have given a standing inviation to everyone I know to join me there on the weekends. there's so much life in the show, it's rejuvenating after each busy busy week. I also got a chance to go thrift store shopping with sienna, who was in town this past weekend, and I'll likely see more of her over the winter.

for the last week of october I exhort you to drink strong coffee, proudly display all those kerry signs, visualize victory, and keep on keeping on.

yes no maybe

2004-09-28T16:40:00.000-04:00

we went to see tmbg in towson last thursday. it's weird to see a band live for the first time after listening to them for 15 years. it was great. I highly recommend it.

busy like houndstooth

2004-09-07T18:06:00.000-04:00

the past couple of weeks have flown by.

of note, classes started. they're full. of students. whom I'm now generally 10 years older than.

also, we entered the ass end of the 20th century by purchasing a scanner, combo dvd-player/vcr, and both a mini fridge for my office and cd-cassette player (you know, the small machine known as a "boombox" mid-century) over labor day weekend.

I then celebrated labor day by, well, laboring. we did celebrate labor day eve by having a house-warming grillfest, so it was all good.

in recognition of the greatness of finally having a scanner, I give you this:

live, circa 1993

demolition derby

2004-08-22T13:37:00.000-04:00

not having ever been to a demolition derby, I didn't expect the one at the montgomery county fair to be so much fun. it rocked. I could do without inhaling carcinogens for hours on end, but the smashing and yelling and fires breaking out completely made up for it.

we went with jack and beth, expecting to see their friend's brother actually compete. he didn't make the registration deadline, but we stayed for the show anyway. we picked a car to root for each round (or rather, 6 different cars) and got into cheering for our car to smash the crap out of each other's cars. I had a knack for picking cars that stalled within the first couple of smashes, although jack and dana picked some winners.

several funnel cakes and a ferris wheel ride later, we called it a night. but not before we wandered through the animal section and got snarled at by the pigs.

late summer developments

2004-08-20T11:14:00.000-04:00

dana is now an official g-man with a top secret security clearance, despite living with an odd canadian and having lots of foreign friends. while this makes his job easier, it makes our lives a little more weird. I could tell you why, but then...you know the drill.

I got an unexpected visit from levi last weekend, which was nice, since I'd missed him in ann arbor. he, mike, and tony were in town for "work." so I got to hang out and "work" with them at the willard, where levi had managed to score a small apartment for the weekend. we also went for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, where we enjoyed ourselves despite a few cutlery mishaps (we were the last people there at the end of what must have been a very long night). we then met up with ed briefly at the local 16, and then hung at the house for a while, with levi and mike nodding off as I scared tony with stories of how to succeed in law school.

all this going out reminded me that I need to hang out more at places like the black cat. or in another city. too many bottle blondes with fake orange tans and protruding hipbones traipsing around on the arms of lugheads, I mean congressional interns. there's only so much adams morgan a person can take in a lifetime, and little dips in and out for dinner are nice, but I just feel older and weirder every time I stay past 11pm.

however, the good news is that I'm feeling great and these rare moments of city-inspired grumpiness are just that: increasingly rare. if I make it through november feeling this good, I'll be living in a whole new world. until then, I plan to enjoy my last summer weekend and chill as much as possible in anticipation of a full-on return to work next week.

another rainy day salon in DC

2004-08-13T11:52:00.000-04:00

since I got back, it's been pretty grey and rainy. my apologies for bringing the weather with me; I hope this means it's all sunshine and cool breezes in canada.

today's rainy day task is preparing for salon. we've been hosting them regularly since february, and we've acquired a core of enthusiastic regulars. tonight will be larger again, with some absent folks returning and at least one new face. it's been a great time, watching salon grow. I have worked to hand it over to the group, and not feel like I'm responsible for every direction it takes. it's certainly taken some interesting turns, though, and reminds me that the sociological lens is not what everyone sees through, as normal as it may now seem to me. I'm curious to see how it evolves in the fall, as we're going to have to generate a new list of topics. I'm interested in talking about our relationships to our work, and how/when we relax (two discussions), and I'm sure other people have some ideas kicking around.

musical confessions

2004-08-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

I really like blink-182. and I can't even blame it on my cousin, as I liked them before I spent weeks with him. but, see, there's that scrawny one with the dag nasty tattoo. and they're so....young. and...stupid. you know I can't resist that.

I can still blame sum 41 on andy.

ok, but see, I introduced him to green day, the ramones, and dag nasty while I was there, so I"m not hopeless.

um, yeah.

back in the city

2004-08-10T10:33:00.000-04:00

after 3 weeks on a farm in canada and a raucous weekend at a wedding in georgia, I'm back home for good.

in canada: I picked 300 quarts of blueberries, learned to use an ocean kayak, taught several 14-year-olds the proper usage of such key phrases as "craptastic," and got a farmer's tan.

in georgia: I stayed in a beautifully restored hotel, bought a dining room table, stuck my head in a cooler of ice longer than anyone else, and was told I was a "smokin hot broad!" pretty much nonstop for 2 days. in fact, the groom's brothers were like maryland versions of p.j. mcclimans and the bucks, so there was an instant connection there and we pretty much hung together the whole time.

I also got to spend some time in ann arbor, checking out art fair, going on a trek around town, and of course drinking (iced tea) at conor's. almost everyone there is married or pregnant or both, I'm finding.

just before I left, we also hosted kathy & chris for a couple of days and were happy to show them around the city. it's been a busy summer for visitors, and we're expecting to see mina in a couple of weeks and possibly my brother.

mary stuart masterson

2004-06-27T12:58:00.000-04:00

I got to meet mary stuart masterson on friday, before seeing the play that night. she signed my movie cover "with love."

those who know, know. those who don't need to get a better favorite actress. so there.

tuesday night excitement

2004-06-24T13:47:00.000-04:00

skinny puppy = good

food poisoning = bad

2004-06-22T13:17:00.000-04:00

they're using all the songs of our youth to advertise crap on tv.

this is worse than the 80s being retro.

also worse than being able to sing along to everything they play at whole foods.

if the ads weren't for things like herpes medication, but we were instead stuck at the point in the 90s when they were advertising volkswagons with industrial tracks, it would be bearable.

instead it's yet another reminder not to turn the tv on more than a couple of times a month.

I understand better why my parents didn't find the classic rock stations quite as entertaining as we did.

new addition

2004-06-17T09:38:00.000-04:00

as of two weeks ago, we have a new addition to the house.

he's here.

weekend sightseeing

2004-05-31T16:41:00.000-04:00

steph was in town for the long weekend, so dana and I again got to see some dc sights that we usually don't take in. thankfully, it was not as blazing hot and humid as the previous weekend when we all turned to little prunes walking around on the mall. the weekend was cool and rainy, so much so that we stayed in several nights and had to close up the windows.

on friday, when dana was at work, steph & I went down to see the rivera exhibit at the east gallery. it was small, but well worth the trip. after that, we went to the thai place near dana's office for lunch and then visited the main library of congress building. the mosaics throughout the halls are lovely, and we had a fun time on the tour, hearing the history from an elderly volunteer. you could easily spend hours looking at all the inlays and frescoes (the paintings were not technically frescoes, as apparently they were done on canvas, cut out, and plastered onto the walls and ceilings. but they provide the desired effect of appearing to be. similarly, the mosaics were not done directly on the walls themselves, but set into beds and transferred to the walls in sheets). after that we were museumed out and took the metro home, where we had bread & cheese for dinner and watched several brainless movies for hours on end.

saturday, in an attempt to avoid all the hoohah on the mall, we walked downtown to the national museum of women in the arts. the building was more ornate than I was expecting, and the sponsorship plaques that were everywhere struck me as a bit crass. it was a little odd to be perusing art in "[evil well-known weapons manufacturer] hall," complete with gilt ceilings, marble floors, and elaborately carved cornices. the special exhibits were interseting, though, and it was worth the trip just to see the two frida kahlos that were on display, as I'd never seen an original of hers before.

after that we snacked and then visited eastern market, where I finally caught up with the artist I'd been looking for since we moved out here. I'd seen her pendants when we'd first arrived in 2002 and had been kicking myself since then for not buying one. after window-shopping through the stands, we headed back to the house to freshen up for dinner. we took steph to la tomate, where the service was disappointing. this was unfortunately a bit of a theme for us, as we brought steph to several of our favorite places and they weren't really up to par. after dinner we set steph up for her early morning training run (I was sending her out the capital crescent trail to bethesda) and then went to bed.

sunday, after we'd all slept in, steph & I went to georgetown to wander about, have lunch and see a movie. everything went according to plan, and we returned home for a pasta dinner and...yet another movie. since dana had the day off on monday, we braved the mall and visited the botanical gardens. althouth small, some parts of the conservatory were quite pleasant, notably the children's garden (in an interior courtyard) and the desert section (which reminded me of my favorite part of phoenix). the outdoor garden across the street is really the best part, with the central fountain and the wildlife garden off to the side. I'll have to go back when the weather's nicer and see how many familiar birds I can spot. after the gardens, it was lunch and then back home to get steph off to the airport.

it was lovely to see steph, and for all the walking around we did, the weekend was surprisingly restful. and, for all the time we spent outside, I only got attacked by cicadas twice.

weekend visitors

2004-05-23T14:57:00.000-04:00

matt and allison were in town for the weekend, so we got to explore a bit more of the city. on friday we went up to asylum, a goth bar complete with (purposefully) dead roses on the table. the hip hop was incongruous, but the veggie fare was great, and three out of four diners agreed that it was entirely appropriate for a goth bar/pub to exist in the year 2004. the dc veg guide recommended it, and as with the recommendation of the falafel at el khartoum, the veg guide was spot on. after dinner we walked down to the mall and visited the new WWII memorial, the vietnam wall, and the lincoln memorial. after hopping into a taxi to get us back home, we christened the deck and made good wine-drinking use of the 1/2 hour before the rain started pouring down.

yesterday we spent another long hot summer day down at the mall, after taking them to the luna for brunch. we saw the dinosaurs and wandered through the rest of the museum for a while. we then trekked up the hill and recovered in firehook on penna ave. after a swing by eastern market, we came back to the house to shower and change for dinner. I at least was completely melted from the day in the sun, and was happy to cool off and sit down for a good meal. we took them to our favorite italian place, la tomate, in dupont circle, where we again sat outside and caught the cooler evening breezes. then it was over to the helix lounge, which we'd been curious about since cedric stayed at the hotel. besides being in danger of falling off the other side of both the age and trendiness curves, we had a good time. they served oddly named soda-pop drinks in martini glasses, but that seems to be the national trend of late. then it was back to the house to cool off, shower for the 3rd time, and go to bed.

this morning we went for brunch at a place around the way, rosemary's bistro, and (can you guess?) sat outside. the food was good, and we even managed to locate some of this year's periodical cicadas to satisfy matt's curiosity. we unfortunately didn't know that there was an exhibit on at the smithsonian, but there were enough around to catch them au naturel. then it was off back into the car for them and back in front of the fan for me.

undergrad thesis on war rhetoric

2004-05-14T11:16:00.000-04:00

I am frequently impressed with the kinds of work some undergrads produce for their honors theses, but this report on bush's rationales for invading iraq takes the cake. let's hope it gets some press beyond the university paper.

summertime

2004-05-13T11:40:00.000-04:00

although this semester is one that takes a licking and keeps on ticking, it's finally coming to an end.

having a few months with no responsibilities beyond becoming a migrant berry-picker sometime mid-july, this seemed like a good time to launch this more general blog.

after two years out here, the season's goal is settling into dc. pearl needs a tune-up, the deck needs some furniture, and the spare room needs a futon for our future houseguests. and then, we'll be ready to roll.