Time to get rid of more shit.

This may or may not be the first in a series of posts of stuff I'm getting rid of. After a hectic couple of months (years?), I finally have time and incentive to sit down and go through some more boxes.

There is a part of me that enjoys the memories that some of this stuff stirs up, and there is a much larger part of me that cannot believe I've been dragging this crap around the continent. In this case, since 1987 (okay, my long suffering mother held onto these for a while. THX, MOM!)

These are first place ribbons from a single season of swim team, 1987. For the record and posterity, there are:
5: backstroke (this was my best stroke)
3: freestyle
1: breaststroke (I'm honestly baffled by this one)
3: freestyle relay
3: medley relay

And one from 1986:
1: freestyle, heat winner at championships.
This was after another swimmer's parents told me to breathe less, and I learned to do the 25 yard freestyle at a sprint without breathing.

Well done, Boston Fire Department MAINTENANCE IVISION

I hope you maintain Engine No 43 better than you maintain your building.

Hippie slop!

Tempeh, ONIONS, Anaheim peppers.

It's Planning Man O'Clock!

Tubs packed for tomorrow's container load-in. Whee!

ONIONS!

ONIONS! ONIONS! ONIONS!

this is what $30 in quarters looks like

When your landlord doesn't want you to move out.

We'll see. 

vegan Philly cheese steak!

Yup. That.

Smells

Smell is such a powerful memory trigger. I'm working with 3-IN-ONE Oil, and the distinct smell is making me kinda nostalgic for my childhood.

UPDATE: I was just looking through previous posts, and pondered how old this can (of still completely good) 3-IN-ONE oil is. I realized the pricetag is a hint. Woolworth went out of business in 1997. 

food porn!

It's been a while since I posted, but mostly I have to beg your pardon, dear readers, for how long it's been since I posted FANCYPANTS VEGAN GRILLED CHEESE!

This is mostly leftovers: tidy, broccoli, caramelized onions, and pepperjack Daiya on whole wheat.

I'm packing to go to a couple quadrennial shindigs to provide medical support to protesters. Should be interesting.

I'll likely be quiet for several weeks here. Get in touch directly if you want!

Onion O'Clock

PAGING A1, PAGING A1: onions available in Boston. Repeat: onions available in Boston. Please advise.

Pickle In A Blanket, Fancypants Vegan Gourmet Style

Going way back here: A1 and I shared an apartment in Denver. There, the (in)famous Pickle In A Blanket was born. This culinary revolution consisted of a bunch of cheap shreeded cheese melted onto a flour tortilla, with a half Claussen dill pickle on top, a pile of mayonnaise unceremoniously plopped on top, and a shake of black pepper.

Now (back) in Boston, we have a more refined, grownup, vegan version:

That's Daiya vegan cheeze on a tortilla warmed in a skillet, caramelized ONIONS and garlic, Just Mayo, sri racha sauce, and still the star of the show: a half Claussen dill pickle. As much as I gobbled down the originals by the dozen or so per week, I gotta tell you, this ones tastes better.

Radish greens!

These are radish greens about to be sauteed with garlic and olive oil. They came (attached to radishes) from Daily Table, dailytable.org, an  awesome nonprofit grocery store in Dorchester that sells perfectly useable and safe and tasty food that isn't picture perfect for the corporate supermarkets, or is past its silly and arbitrary "best by" date. It was founded by the former head of Trader Joe's.

Example? Sure: how about a half gallon of Cedar's brand hummus, or baba ganoush, for $3.99?!? For the record, they both freeze in smaller containers just fine.

Orange juice price comparison at Boston Logan airport

Because everyone's hair is on fire over allegedly long security lines at airports, I showed up to Boston Logan airport 2.5 hours early. I then had one person in front of me in the security line, so I have some time to kill. The really intensive patdown and bag check after TSA's piece of shit machines flagged my bag for "explosive residue" did eat up about five minutes. Breakfast burritos strike again? I did receive excellent guest service from the lead TSO.

Anyway, I now have a couple hours to fill. I wanted some orange juice. But I didn't want to pay the outrageous prices. So instead I'm entertaining myself comparing the cost of bottles of orange juice in terminal C at Boston Logan international airport. For consistency's sake (and because this IS science, right)?), it is all 100% orange juice. All per ounce prices rounded to the nearest penny.

Green Express, gate C32
Tropicana 15.2oz, $2.99 ($0.20/oz)

Hudson News, gate C29
Simply Orange 11.5oz, $3.99 ($0.35/oz)
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

Go Go Stop, gate C29
Tropicana 12oz, $2.79 ($0.23/oz)

Wolfgang Puck Express, food court opposite gate C27
Simply Orange, 11.5oz, $2.79 ($0.24/oz)
Naked Juice, 15.2oz, $4.39 ($0.29/oz)

Johnny Rockets, food court opposite gate C27
Simply Orange, 11.5oz, $2.79 ($0.24/oz)

Hudson News, opposite food court / gate C26
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

Starbucks, mini food court near gate C10
Naked Juice, 15.2, $4.39 ($0.29/oz)

Hudson News, sorta near gate C8
Simply Orange 11.5oz, $3.99 ($0.35/oz)
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

Potbelly Sandwich, b/n gates C11 and C15
Tropicana 12oz, $2.35 ($0.20/oz)

Hudson News, gate C15
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

UFood Grill, gate C19
Tropicana, 10oz carton, $2.99 ($0.29/oz)

Dunkin Donuts, gate C20
Simply Orange, 11.5oz, $2.19 ($0.19/oz)

Conclusions? Well, you can draw some of your own. In short, Dunkies wins it, closely followed by Green Express, which of course has way shorter lines (or usually no line at all.)

And fuck you, Hudson News, since despite your virtual monopoly of airport convenience stores all over America, and the massive purchasing power you have as a result, you nevertheless sell the most expensive orange juice, by far, of anyone, including for crying out loud Starbucks.

And since 100% orange juice is regularly available at Boston area supermarkets (Star, Stop & Shop, etc) for $2.50 for a half gallon ($0.04/oz) and is rarely more than $3.99 for a half gallon ($0.06/oz) let's just call this all a gigantic ripoff facilitated by the asinine TSA prohibition against bringing in more than 3.2 fluid ounces of liquid toiletries, and more than 0.0 ounces of orange juice.

Baltimore, here I come!

Kids

Things I had to explain to a seven year old recently: the U.S. role in Nicaragua in 1984, and what a Ghost Bike (ghostbikes.org) means.

#BostonMarathon #MarathonMonday

I've never seen so many day drunk 18-22 year olds in one place at one time. #BU #BostonUniversity students, good luck with Boston Marathon Monday!

Boston Marathon Monday

As long as you're nowhere near Copley Square, or Beacon Street, or Commonwealth Ave, or trying to walk, bike, or drive anywhere in central Boston, and not taking the Green Line or the Red Line, "Patriot's Day" / Marathon Monday is quite pleasant.

Too bad I still live on Comm Ave, near Beacon Street, and have to take both the Green Line and Red Line today.

Related: the MBTA really dredged the bottom of the pond to find overtime staff to wear high-vis vests and filthy jeans and play Rent-A-Cop for a day with constantly chatty radios to meanmug people for their outrageous temerity to bring newspapers or Dunkin Donuts coffee cups into the T system. Really, residents of Boston, who actually live here, and pay taxes here: HOW DARE YOU?

Checking off the list

Totally gratuitous pic of the Rhode Island State House. And ominous clouds.

Shiggy

Just did some moderately intense shiggy after geocaching. Well worth it.

Providence, I kinda love you, and kinda don't. Let's talk.

My hotel in Providence

I've lived in apartments with just barely more square feet than this hotel bathroom I got with points.

Tasty Burger

Who would have thought Tasty Burger at the Back Bay Station would have such a tasty vegan option? Turns out the veggie burger is vegan if made as a lettuce wrap, as explicitly stated on the menu.

It's more like a salad than a burger, which is fine, and for six bucks, was quite tasty, and a nice alternative to just eating cashews and peanuts on the commuter rail to Providence.

Moving

Yep. That.

Farewell, friend

I bought these soccer shorts at a Big 5 Sporting Goods in Colorado Springs in late 2001 or early 2002, along with an identical lighter blue pair. They both served well, and now as I'm packing up for another move (this time just across town) I'm purging clothes.

As you can see, I've mended nearly every seam on the garment, by hand. I use what is essentially a double threaded, somewhat excessive overcast stitch that I sometimes refer to as the "hippie stitch". It holds!

These shorts have played soccer, coached youth soccer, run half marathons, and served as sleeping shorts for over a decade.

They've lived in three countries, and ten US states (and visited most or all of the others). For the last couple years, they've mostly been in semi-retirement status, out to pasture except when I can't find their replacements, or am going somewhere where destroying or losing my clothing is a reasonable possibility. Now the elastic is completely shot, I have backups, and, well, it's just time.

Travel well and dream big, friend. Go hang out with all of the other well loved shorts in the sky. If you see my dad's famous orange shorts, say hello for me! (And please tell them I'm sorry about that April Fool's incident. And that mom was in on it.)

p.s. the quilt in the background also dates to 2002, made for me by my lovely friends B and R. It's in much better shape! 

Hippie slop food porn, Cleveland edition!

Yep: In Cleveland for a few days, so it's potatoes and... wait for it... ONIONS!

Fancypants vegan grilled cheese

On fresh local sourdough, with Daiya, grilled onions, roasted red peppers, Tofurky "roast beef", pesto, dijon mustard.

Delicious!

Sinks, drains, and downright nastiness

Longtime readers of my blog know that I have a special hobby of cleaning out sink drains and p-traps. Check out my home renovation label for some earlier examples. This time around, though, it wasn't just a random whim to go hunt some biogoo: our apartment bathroom sink was starting to empty scarily slow.

I have now far surpassed my previous record for grossest nastiest yuckiest foulest thing pulled out of a drain or p-trap:

For size reference, those (in)famous needlenose pliers are just under six inches long.

Our apartment building was built in 1935, but I would roughly place the pink sink (and toilet, and bathtub) in the 1950s era pink bathroom craze, during which this delightful website, Save The Pink Bathrooms, estimates that perhaps one in four bathrooms built in the era had pink bathroom fixtures.

Anybody want to hazard a guess on the last time this sink drainpipe was cleaned out?

dinner!

Today's installment of last night's dinner:

Cauliflower, tempeh, carrots, fried polenta, and fresh basil on brown rice. Simple but delicious. 

FOODPORNPALOOZA!

I had a bunch of food porn shots on my phone that I finally got around to dealing with. Usually this is just cropping, but the blogger app for android sucks, and often fails to upload for no apparent reason, and with no explanation.

So, without further ado, here is a bunch of backlogged FOOD PORN!

Miso seaweed noodle soup, and fried tofu. I'm not gonna lie to you: this one was damn delicious.

Fiore's Bakery in Jamaica Plain. This is the "Steak Bomb" sandwich. Tasty, but kind of uninspired for $9: it's essentially a pressed panini with a scattering of salad greens and a basic balsamic vinaigrette.

The Buffalo Bomber from Veggie Grill in Portland, Oregon. Yes, this place is a (small) chain. Yes, there are local vegan options in Portland (though relatively few downtown, where I was staying.) Why do I consistently go to a chain, when I could choose local? Because Veggie Grill just does it right: all vegan, tons of choices, ridiculously friendly staff, great pricepoint.

Tempeh Reuben and tempeh skewer at Cafe Yumm, Eugene, Oregon. Eh, fine. A reasonable go-to when you need vegan options, but not a place I go out of my way to go.

Vegan pizza from Sizzle Pie in Eugene, Oregon.

Some random Asian noodle stir fry with puffed tofu and fried wontons. Basically Asian-themed hippie slop. It did the trick, but wasn't all that amazing.

Springtime salad

It's been in the 60s and 70s in Boston: 76 a couple days ago, which shattered the record for the earliest that temperature has been reached in the year. #globalclimatechaos?

With the warmer weather, I'm beginning to move away from the soups, stews, and chilis I've been making (despite how mild the winter was.)

This is an Asian tofu salad, with blanched Chinese spinach, other Asian greens (I forget which I picked up), scallion ribbons, soba noodles, and carrots.

The dressing was also the marinade for the baked tofu, which was more or less just randomly pulling things out of the fridge and shelves, and putting them in the blender: apple cider vinegar, the liquid from pepperoncinis, pickle juice, mustard, soy sauce, tahini, white miso paste, canola oil, sesame oil, garlic powder, ginger powder, lime juice. Kinda random, but it worked out well. Having a rocket powered blender helps.

Today is looking like bike rides.

Hello spring!

Food porn!

After almost a week in Oregon, with almost entirely takeout and restaurant food, I was really excited to get back into the kitchen last night. We ended up with a four part one bowl meal that was damn delicious, and pretty too!

This is a spicy two bean stew with eggplant and tempeh;
fried polenta hearts;
pesto with broccoli and scallions;
and a (homemade, of course) kalamata tapenade.

YUM.

We ate this while watching the first episode of season four of House of Cards. I have to say that I wasn't as impressed with it as past seasons. It is, of course, still smart, beautifully produced television. But it felt a little more... affected? We'll see. 

Irony

I'm emailing a friend about irony now, and it reminded me of this great comic from The Oatmeal (one of my favorite webcomics, but tread carefully, it can easily wipe out an afternoon if you start reading the archive...) 

Long before I had a blog, I saw this wonderful flyer posted at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (yes, my millennial friends, back in the dark ages, when people put up photocopied dead tree to advertise events, rather than create a Facehole event.) 

It read, completely un-ironically, something very close to "UMass-Amherst Anarchist Club Monthly Meeting: Student Union Complex, downstairs, Room 123, next to the ATM." 

Thai tofu red curry, veggie broth, and pineapple broccoli

With fresh Thai basil as garnish, ave brown rice. Nom. Nom.

ONION RINGS!

Delicious vegan onion rings. What else to say? Sufficiently filling and heavy that we could only finish about half of them. So I'm about to re-fry them for lunch.

Yum!

Tools

As any of my readers who have ever watched me painstakingly clean one of my leatherman multitools (with rubbing alcohol and Q-tips and occasionally chopsticks) I really love my tools, and try really hard to take good care of them. I have hand tools that date from the 40s, 50s, and 60s that are still in good shape (not to mention my collection of manual hand tools that can stand in for power tools when, ummm, there is no electricity.)

With all of the moving I've done in the last couple of years, sadly, a few things have fallen into the void.

I had a bunch of drill bits and driver bits, as well as a beloved pair of needlenose pliers that had gone the rusty route. (And some of you know the biggest story behind the history of these needlenose pliers. Hint: it partially takes place near an alma mater of both of my parents as well as my sister.)

So I soaked them in a vinegar and water solution for a few days, then scrubbed them with 0000 steel wool, then neutralized the vinegar in a baking soda & water solution, then scrubbed them again with steel wool, then wiped off the excess, then wiped them with 100% acetone.

I guess many people would have just thrown most of this stuff in the garbage (or thrift store donation pile.) Not me.

Cookie baking party!

Yep, pre-staged cookie ingredients, for molasses ginger cookies, that we're taking to a cookie baking party. How adorable is that? 

An end of another era

I bought my Camelbak Blowfish in spring 2002, to go on a mountain biking trip in Moab. I have loved this pack close to death. It has been to six continents, and on countless adventures.

You can see the places I've sewn it, and can't see other places that I've repaired it:

The Playa is a cruel mistress, and both main zippers failed in August 2015. I cleaned and lubed the everliving hell out of the zippers, but they continue to fail. I sewed a new zipper into the smaller exterior pocket, and made the expansion zipper for the main pocket the primary zipper (by sewing the main large pocket shut with dental floss) but alas, this wasn't meant to last. At least not for more than 14 years.

After a bunch of ebay'ing with a bunch of packs that really weren't what I wanted, and without bladders (~$30 to replace) I realized I should just suck it up and get the new version of the same pack. Other than the candy apple red, I'm super happy with it. 

Vegan pizza

That... kinda looks like Australia.

Right?

You see it, right?

"Quick" pasta

Fake chikn, fried artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes and garlic, fried onions and Serrano peppers.

ONIONS, DAMMIT.

What else to say, other than it's the beginning of a vegan hot dog bar extravaganza?

super deluxe vegan taco bar!

Okay, dear readers: enough of that political ranting crap. Let's get back to the core mission of this blog: FOOD PORN!

Take a look at this super deluxe vegan taco bar, with convenient labels. It look longer to edit the photo this way, but seemed easier than trying to describe them in text in some sort of a lopsided logarithmic spiral.

The grand total cost for this vegan taco bar feast, and a couple days of delicious leftovers? Somewhere around $12-13. How is this possible, you ask? Most of the produce is "Manager Special" from the Super 88 Asian supermarket across the street. The most expensive thing was the package of tempeh.

Longtime readers of this blog will know that I almost never shout out to brand name products. But Just Mayo by @hamptoncreek is that rare company who I think deserves it. Their product is hands down the best vegan mayo on the market: it just leaves the competition in the dust. They're basically the only product I'll consistently go to the Big Box Store Who Shall Not Be Named But Which Starts With W (because "W" sells Just Mayo for $0.12/oz, while at the Star Market across the street it's $0.43/oz.) And this kinda is random, but they have a very pretty website chockablock full of vegan food porn.

Hampton Creek really sealed the deal last year when I had a problem opening a couple jars due to the lid being essentially glued to the safety seal. (I'm strong, and have very strong hands. And these were very, very hard to get open.) I contacted them through their website with the product coding and dates on the containers, genuinely intending to only give them a heads up since I really love their product. They responded very quickly, very kindly, and asked for a physical mailing address to send thanks. Let's just say that their thanks was awesome.

Okay, enough corporate lovefesting. Back to delicious leftovers! 

Presidential election 2016

I dunno if any of you have heard, but there is an election for president of the United States in 2016.

Does it sound weird for me, a self-professed radical leftist, to say that I think I might prefer Michael Bloomberg over Hillary Clinton? (This is assuming Bernie won't be on the ticket. Or Nader. Or Feingold.)

There is a part of me that thinks that, at least when I'm listening to Bloomberg, I generally know what the smoke he is blowing up my ass is.

And maybe I'm still burned by actively volunteering for Bill Clinton in 1992, then watching the horror show that we got for eight years of the Clinton presidency (see, e.g., DOMA, PRWORA, IIRIRA, AEDPA, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, NAFTA, maintained the so-called "War On Drugs", pioneered "extraordinary rendition", authorized logging and clearcutting of old growth forest, and on, and on.) I'm not saying Clinton wasn't an extraordinarily gifted politician: he certainly was. He was one of the foremost orators and extemporaneous speakers of the last half of the century. He was also fundamentally conservative, and his positions and policies made Reagan and Nixon look like bleeding heart red diaper babies.

/rant

I almost made the below paragraph another post, but decided to keep the theme of the presidential election all in one post. Hopefully, this might be about the last you hear from me (anytime soon) on this year's presidential election...

I continue to wonder, as some of the pundits and talking heads did in the beginning, if Trump was paid by the Democratz to run. What a gift to Hillary Clinton that jackass is. Surely Sarah Palin was paid off to endorse him: the combination of tragicomic buffoonery with those two is just impossible to imagine without some palms being greased.

In all of these things, we reap what we sow, and honestly we don't have a great history. If we elect a hateful bigoted racist xenophobic classist elitist clown like Trump, it won't be that different than electing a B- grade movie actor who played short man to a chimp.

Move to Canada?

Overheard in a restaurant in Portland, Maine:

"Sarah Palin, yeah, sure, she went to law school. I'm pretty sure. I think. I'm 99% positive."

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

A view to Portland Harbor

When I regularly made photography, a long time ago, I came to accept that there were certain things that our eyes could see, and our senses could be lit up by, that simply couldn't be meaningfully recorded on film.

Yes, it was film, but the same holds for megapixels on my spacephone.

The sun is dancing in a bright glare over the harbor, the wind pushing the water along in a billion tiny diamonds.

I can't be the only person in downtown Portland who has been delighted by this this morning. But it wouldn't surprise me if in the only one who has now spent ten minutes looking at it and appreciating it.

Portland vegan breakfast

It's almost like they knew I love bikes at Local Sprouts Collective here in Portland. I mean, I don't think the cashier saw my bicycle spoke bracelet, or bicycle keychain.

Unfortunately the vegan tofu scramble was kinda underwhelming. But the place is delightful.

Deluxe vegan grilled cheese!

With fresh basil, tofurky, and bread baked around the corner in Brookline at Clear Flour. Yum!

Storage unit moving vehicle!

Also showing off my fancy new reflective tape.

Vegan fetruccine alfredo pasta bar!

Not a heck of a lot more to say on this snowy wet slippery Boston night.

Leftovers fried rice

Yep, just about what it sounds like. Brown rice, curried carrots with ginger, tempeh, banana peppers, onions, and (not leftover) spinach.

Even with my choking like mad for a few minutes when I added the banana peppers, it is thoroughly delicious. 

Ummm... Zucchini?

Res ipsa loquitor.

Pending lasagna.v

Vegan lasagna!

Pretty much just what it sounds like, with lots of caramelized ONIONS!

2015: a year in books

As I have for a number of years, I'm posting some numbers of the books I read in 2015.

The basics: in 2015 I completed 29 books, for a total of 8,583 pages. This put me significantly ahead of 2014, when moving five or six times left me only with time to read 19 books, for 6,406 pages, and closer to 2013, when I completed 30 books for 8,903 pages.  None of these figures include books I didn't finish, since I'm happy to put a shitty book down if I have any better options.

As for 2015 highs and lows: some of the best books I read included a couple shorts ones by a favorite author, Cormac McCarthy: Child of God, and The Gardener's Son.

Cliche though it may sound, Room by Emma Donoghue was excellent, if dark as fuck. (I have no real interest in seeing the movie.)

I also really enjoyed Paper Towns by John Green, as cute, moving, incisive, if somewhat improbable coming of age fiction. I mean, it's hard to not enjoy a book that has teens doing fairly realistic urban exploration of abandoned buildings.

I also finished some really shitty books, notwithstanding my note above. Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris was one of the worst books I've ever finished in my life. It's stupid, contrived, forced, and feels like little more than a throw-away to meet a contract with a publisher that people only bought because they like This American Life. I really should have put it down, but it was kind of like rubbernecking a really bad pileup on the interstate: you know you shouldn't look, but you kind of can't help it.

Going Home by "A. American" was just plain fucking bad. I genuinely really like dystopian and post-apocalyptic books (and movies), and I'm willing to put up with some prepper silliness to read the genre. The basic storyline was cliche and trite and predictable, but not in itself terrible. The tinfoil hat conspiracy theory nonsense was... just that. But the most irritating part was the constant, relentless name brand product placement that did zero to advance the story. I swear there are single sentences that contain three or four name brand product placements, like, "I crawled out of my Brand A sleeping bag, pulled my Brand B boots on, grateful for clean Brand C socks, and located my Brand D backpack while chambering a round in my Brand E .45 semi-automatic with Brand F hollowpoints..." And this nonsense went on on nearly every one of the 388 pages. It was awful.

If you wonder if I'm overstating it, you can read Chapter 1 on the book's Amazon page. Here's one example:

"Lying beside the driver’s seat by the door was my ESEE 5; I laid it on the pile. I put the Devildog on the pile as well. As my EDC, it had a number of things in it that I would need. There were two spare mags for the XD, an Otis tactical cleaning kit, a Sylva compass, a Wilderness Outfi tters SOS survival kit, Swedish FireSteel, and other assorted items that I thought essential."

Here is another:

"I walked around and grabbed a couple of bags of Jack Link’s Beef Jerky; all I could think about was the Sasquatch commercials. Chuckling to myself, I went to the aisle with the little packs of meds and grabbed a few Excedrin packs, some Rolaids, and two packs of Imodium pills."

I actually made a point to finish two more books in the last few days of 2015 so that this piece of crap wouldn't be the last thing I finished in the year.

So, that's the report. Dear readers: what did you read in 2015 that you loved? 

Who knew?

It turns out that it's an absolutely real possibility to set a cookie on fire in a microwave.