Monday, September 30, 2013

Dinner

Still calorie starved from tough mudder. Tasty.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Refinished bar!

At mom's house. More photos to follow, but here is the finished product (with re-centered print, and newly hung light.)

Not bad for a $10 garage sale table,  and about 10 hours of work.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

No, that is NOT poo!

It's red curry paste.

p.s. if your poo looks like that, you should probably consult a medical professional.

Crown of thorns

Or, what happens when you decide to ride your high pressure, singlespeed tires off road along the Sacramento River. I have thorn resistant tubes and didn't suffer any flats, J's bike had both tires flat (and i didn't save the approximately 35 or 40 thorns i pulled out of her tires.)

Work

Cleaned both toilets and both bathroom countertops.
Fixed the height of the bike hanging rack in the garage, repaired the other one.
Repaired both flat tires on Bert, J's fixie/singlespeed flipflop. 
Trimmed the hedges.
Fixed the neighbor's sliding closet door.
Did laundry.
Swept the garage.
Organized tool pegboard.
Did travel planning. 
Headed over to mom's house soon to work on my to-do list there. 
Phew.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

More bike as cargo vehicle

This time the mountain bike. Just 'cause.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Hanging out

5/9 of the current posse.

Nails

Last night i sorted a bunch of (new, never used) nails. Here are a few of the fails.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

More food porn!

Last night's Mustardy Kale Salad, for mom's bday.

Vegan Indian bike ride food porn!

Certainly not the best Indian food I've ever had, but very tasty in the middle of a 60 mile bike ride in Folsom, California.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Christmas!

Just kidding. Fresh basil prep for mom's bday tonight.

Friday, September 06, 2013

Filthy

Another in a series about cleaning the home. Here is a couple weeks of not sweeping:



Granted, we have 99% hardwood floors (only the master closet is carpeted) but that just means the dirt would be hiding in the carpet.

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Reading; Under the Tuscan Sun

I really love reading. Like, it's in my top 20 favorite things to do in the whole world.

Unfortunately, I often don't make time for it at home, and so a bulk of my reading tends to be when I'm traveling, and especially when I don't have access to an internet connection: so, largely on planes and trains and buses, and also in hotels.

My fantastically smart sister was all up in my grill that I should get a tablet or e-reader. I balked for months, since I already have enough gadgets and technology to power a small island nation, and as it is sometimes end up taking several different devices (and chargers, and accessories) with me on trips. But I also like to travel light (a recent three day trip from Atlanta to Washington, DC, to Baltimore, and back, was all contained in my old Camelback Blowfish, but at the cost of not taking my netbook, and so having to do all of my computing on my phone. (I know: First World Problem.)

Anyway, I finally broke down and got one. E, you were damn sure right: I love it.

To illustrate how much of my reading occurs while traveling and in hotel rooms: through mid-August 2013, I had read 12 books, for a total of 3819 pages. While in Dubai for about 5.5 days, I read another six books, for an additional 1789 pages.

By far the worst book that I have actually finished this year was New York Times bestseller (for more than two and a half years) and New York Times Notable Book of 1997, Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home In Italy, by Frances Mayes. I usually try to make a few notes after the book entry when I put it in my journal, and my notes for this book are "weird, affected, neo stream of consciousness blathering". I can't claim to be the only one to feel this way. At greater length, this Amazon reviewer hits the nail on the head (no pun intended.) So does this reviewer:
Verbose, cliché-ridden, superficial, and materialistic, this book stars not Tuscany but Frances Mayes, who treats Italy like a gigantic mall. In her view, Italian architecture, food, wine, art, history, and even people exist only as products to decorate the author's personal Disneyland.

So does this one:

This book was a horrendous waste of precious free time. Mayes is pretentious, boring, and a bad writer to boot. I have no idea why the book was so critically acclaimed. 







Monday, September 02, 2013

Vegan hamburger night!

At mom's house.

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Sacramento vegan dinner finished!

Vegan Sacramento dinner!

To take to mom's house. Pickle brine braised tofu, caramelized onions, and red peppers and green onions about to be cooked