Birthday breakfast

One guess where my birthday breakfast is (in addition to Rolla, Missouri.)

Freedom

I recently watched a really amazing cover by Pink of Janis Joplin's classic Me and Bobby McGee. I really had no feelings either way about Pink before this, but the cover was fucking spot on. Pink was sweating raw energy.

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose..."

Right now, freedom is being able to openly pick the boogers from my nose ring on the BART train because everyone around me is so buried in their phones and devices.

Headed to play indoor putt putt golf with K and 3+ year old niece V!

Yard decor

Bartholomew enthusiastically approves of Mom's yard decoration!

Delightful visit with family, now headed to the Bay Area to see A1, hopefully more family, and be interviewed for one of my favorite podcasts!

Amtrak #51

How is it that the Republicans manage to fuck everything up so badly? Do they try? Or are they just that stupid?

Can't fix stupid.

Sigh.

Train snack

Bartholomew would prefer banana flavored, but accepts that long distance Amtrak trains are a culinary captive audience situation.

Toot Toot! All Aboard the Tofu Express!

Making hippie slop for wraps for tomorrow (and potentially the next day).

Nom nom nom!

Avocado Toast

Confidential to W: I think your overall assessment is jaded, BUT: there IS avocado toast in Anchoragua!

Goodbye to another old thing

Well, buddy, this is farewell. You've been reasonably faithful over the years, and I kept you around long after one of your front wheels broke off.

Perhaps your finest moment was carrying a laser printer (and a whole pile of other heavy crap) to and from Puerto Rico.

You flew to and from at least a dozen states, and drove through at least a dozen more. You got to live in four different time zones!

But when your side handle broke off, you got really hard to manage, and I always had to find a wall or pole to lean you up against due to your missing wheel, and one of your best features, spinning, wasn't there anymore.

I know that (literally) curbing you isn't the most dignified exit, but I just can't see the thrift store accepting you in your current condition, and don't want for that kind of sadness to be your end.

You lasted much longer than your 22" sibling, whose telescoping handle got unfixably stuck halfway up, and also got bashed to hell and had to be repeatedly repaired by duct tape.

(Anyone remember when Samsonite used to be really fancy luggage?)

Travel well to that great baggage claim in the sky!

UPDATE: As I tried to pull your telescoping handle up to move you out of my very cramped room, it's also not working. Is this in solidarity with 22", or are you just sad? 

My tum tum, and hallucinations

I'm not normally one to blog with status updates, but this one has a couple interesting twists.

I have a moderately bad stomach bug of some kind. Not too hard to believe, since I spent three days in court with all sorts of people, visited a museum, saw a movie, and the lovely household that was hosting me included someone who had just gotten over a bad stomach bug. I projectile vomited yesterday evening, and have had diarrhea x36 hours. Cold sweats all night, aches, low grade fever, the usual.

So I'm hydrating, only consuming water, tea, broth, and electrolytes; might introduce bananas or applesauce tonight or tomorrow, depending on how I'm feeling (right now that sounds unpleasant.) I'm also tracking all of my input and output (which might make for a really disgusting blog post soon. We'll see.)

That's the boring stuff.

The much more interesting stuff to me:

1) the human body is a pretty amazing thing. I had a seven hour Amtrak trip home yesterday. While I didn't feel great, it wasn't horrible. But then within about two minutes of being home, as I was beginning to unpack, my body immediately told me it was time to vomit. I literally ran to the bathroom, and did so rather explosively. It pretty amazing that the body and brain can communicate in this way.

Confidential to my body: THX THX THX for not making me worship the porcelain steel god on a long distance Amtrak train! 

2) even more interesting, both last night, and this morning, my sense of hearing, and sight, are both significantly more intense than usual. I mean, I live in a big old 120 year old house, so there are always house sounds. But I mostly tune them out. I heard creaks and stuff so much more last night, to the point it was a little scary. Saw stuff that is always there, but it was so much more vivid. Last night it was to the point where I was beginning to wonder if I was having auditory and visual hallucinations. I thought I heard music playing, though the only other person in the house who could have been playing it, I've never once heard music from that room (it's down the stairs and behind two doors.)

There is one shower that I use almost daily, and there is a particular shampoo bottle in it that makes a single, slight popping noise every morning when it warms up from the warm water. This morning it was a sharp crack, to the point where it actually startled me a little bit.

Folding my laundry last night actually winded me a little bit. So I'm taking today very easy, which is a good excuse to listen to podcasts and catch up on sewing projects and the like.

Renwick

Bartholomew receiving light therapy at the Smithsonian Renwick Gallery.

Plane food!

Okay, since 100% of responses (N = 1) want me to keep this blog going, I guess I will. You're welcome, W!

GARLIC.

Why not add an entire head of rough chopped garlic to those onions?

ONIONS.

Obligatory shot of a whole bunch of onions, in a super fancy cutting board (a torn up pizza box.)

Headed to Wild and Wonderful!

With snow bike, and XC skis.

Hope we get some snow!

Road trip vegan

A dressed up trader joe vegan masala.

Four onions.v

This, my friends, is four onions. FOUR.

Travelin' hippie slop!

This was our back to Default dinner in hotel room in Reno after Burning Man. Greasy, delicious, hot, didn't come from a vacuum sealed bag, had tons of vegan protein, and someone else cooked it. CHECK!

These are from Golden Flower Vietnamese Restaurant in Reno, which we could see from our hotel room window. It's a big open room that was populated with a bunch of just-post-grimy Burners, so takeout was a nice option.

After an eleven hour Exodus from the playa, and sleeping sitting up in the compact car on the side of Highway 447 from 2am to 6am, and then running all over Reno finishing up Burning Man returns and errands, this was a lovely dinner. Also breakfast before flying out the next morning.

Refrigeration, reschmidgeration! It's amazing how Burning Man can lower your food safety standards. (Another reason I'm glad I'm vegan.)

vegan Philly cheese steak!

Yup. That.

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!

My hotel in Providence

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