With home grown lettuce! (red sail lettuce, if anyone cares)
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Winter garden in Sacramento
The lettuce and broccoli are kicking ass, as are the radish and fava beans in the back yard.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Vegan sandwich food porn!
Damn, that's a good looking sandwich!
From the bottom up:
Toasted fancypants San Francisco sourdough
veganaise
peppered Tofurky
avocado
spring mix greens
sauerkraut
tomato
dijon mustard
sourdough
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
View from here
From the South Lake Tahoe branch of the El Dorado County Public Library, where I'm using the wifi while mine gets straightened up.
Friday, November 01, 2013
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Wraps for dinner!
We'll see how many i go through before my redeye (ugh) to JFK.
Puerto Rico this week!
Monday, October 21, 2013
Friday, October 18, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Friday, October 11, 2013
Sunday, October 06, 2013
Friday, October 04, 2013
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Somewhat Tough Mudder
For an event that bills itself prominently as "Probably The Toughest Event On The Planet", ummmm... it wasn't. And this despite being at Northstar Ski Resort in lake Tahoe, with a starting elevation of around 6300, and going up near the top elevation of 8600. And despite the fact that neither me nor my sister in law actually really trained. (She trained more than I did. I decided to just suffer through it.)
I mean, it wasn't EASY, for sure. Jumping into a 20 foot long dumpster filled with icewater (the so-called Arctic Enema) and swimming through pitch darkness to go under the bar while getting kicked in the face isn't easy. Crawling under dangling electrical wires which are shocking you repeatedly isn't easy. Doing all this, in addition to 18 other obstacles over 10.5 miles, is surely not easy.
But toughest event on the planet? Not so much.
There were several irritations which I fully expect the company who runs this ultra successful, massive money making event to continue, and to fully ignore their survey results.
1) Tough Mudder soaks you for money at EVERY goddamn turn.
Okay, I knew it was going to be expensive. Fine -- it's not cheap to rent a ski resort, even off season, and construct a bunch of silly obstacles (most of which are staffed by volunteers.)
But after the $110 registration fee (we registered semi-early -- it went up to $200 cash only on the day of the event) we still had to pay a mandatory $10 "insurance" fee. Perhaps you've heard the phrase "Cadillac Health Insurance"? Well, due to J's job, I have Ferrari Health Insurance. Nothing in their sillyass one off excess coverage policy is going to do anything to help me.
Then you have to pay $20 for close-in parking (for which you still have to walk, and then take a gondola, or walk further, to the start line. Only want to pay $10 for parking? No problem: you can take a 45 minute shuttle bus each way.
Then you have to pay $5 for bag drop. WTF?!? Oh, but this is okay, because it is supposedly donated entirely to charity. Tough Mudder makes a big deal, throughout the day, about their support for the Wounded Warrior Project. How much do they actually donate to Wounded Warrior you ask? ZERO. They give reduced registration fees for people to raise money themselves for Tough Mudder, and the volunteer staffed bag drop area gives money to Tough Mudder. This has supposedly amounted to $6.5 million dollars and counting to date (they have a ticker on the front page of their website.) By their own figures, at a VERY low end estimate, Tough Mudder has taken in around $64 million in registration fees since 2010. And not given a single dollar directly to charity.
And this isn't counting gas, housing, etc., but that's what you get for doing events that are 100 miles away from where you live.
2) It was ridiculously organized in several ways.
Despite the challenging elevation, Northstar was, logistically, a horrific venue for this. Parking was absurd, and no, there is no other way to get there. You have to take a ~10 minute gondola to get to the base of the event. They stopped running the gondolas which took spectators up the hill (my brother had to walk back down.) There was ZERO signage indicating where the shuttle buses back to the parking at Boreal was (which was not in the same place as my brother was dropped off) so we wasted about 30 minutes taking the gondola down, asking of the kind but mystified 16 year old working the parking lot, and going back up. And we weren't the only ones.
Their volunteers on the Off Road Vehicles need to quit driving like coke addled former teenage pop stars. The assholes in the gigantic Northstar SUV (an Excursion, IIRC) need to have their fakie siren taken away from them. Neither need to be blasting by us on the dirt trails we're competing on.
They need more volunteers who actually monitor the speed at which people go in to the various obstacles, so people don't get bunched up in potentially dangerous obstacles like the Arctic Enema.
3) The One Banana policy.
At the three or so food stops along the entire 10.5 mile course, there were signs indicating the One Banana Per Person policy. Which was actually a single banana that had already been cut in to thirds. $110 AND I ONLY GET ONE THIRD OF A BANANA?!?! And plain water. No sports drinks, no additional electrolytes. (I'll confess I did skip the single gel-candy-energy option since the last time I ate one, it pulled a crown off of my tooth.)
Not to mention the finish chute, with the self-important rentacops at the end, where it was a One Cup Of Water Policy, a One Clif Bar Policy, and One Beer Policy. I Don't Always Drink Shitty Beer, But When I Do, I'm Limited To One.
And after you're out of the chute, don't you DARE dream of asking to go back inside to pick up your finisher T-shirt that you didn't see. You'll probably be bodily blocked by a rentacop, who literally yelled at me "YOU AREN'T GOING BACK IN THERE!" Fortunately a nice volunteer kindly went and got my shirt for me. Confidential to Rentacop: you suck, and take your job way too seriously.
Outside of the chute, everything costs money. Everything. I've run locally organized 5k fun runs with far better during- and after- event snacks and drinks. In fact, pretty much every single athletic event I've done in my adult life has had better and more snacks and drinks.
4) Repeat obstacles suck.
Dear Somewhat Tough Mudder: you have 40 or so obstacles to choose 20 from, and you repeat the Kiss of Mud? Why?
Okay. [/rant]
In summary, I'll do other mud run type events, but Tough Mudder is lame.
I mean, it wasn't EASY, for sure. Jumping into a 20 foot long dumpster filled with icewater (the so-called Arctic Enema) and swimming through pitch darkness to go under the bar while getting kicked in the face isn't easy. Crawling under dangling electrical wires which are shocking you repeatedly isn't easy. Doing all this, in addition to 18 other obstacles over 10.5 miles, is surely not easy.
But toughest event on the planet? Not so much.
There were several irritations which I fully expect the company who runs this ultra successful, massive money making event to continue, and to fully ignore their survey results.
1) Tough Mudder soaks you for money at EVERY goddamn turn.
Okay, I knew it was going to be expensive. Fine -- it's not cheap to rent a ski resort, even off season, and construct a bunch of silly obstacles (most of which are staffed by volunteers.)
But after the $110 registration fee (we registered semi-early -- it went up to $200 cash only on the day of the event) we still had to pay a mandatory $10 "insurance" fee. Perhaps you've heard the phrase "Cadillac Health Insurance"? Well, due to J's job, I have Ferrari Health Insurance. Nothing in their sillyass one off excess coverage policy is going to do anything to help me.
Then you have to pay $20 for close-in parking (for which you still have to walk, and then take a gondola, or walk further, to the start line. Only want to pay $10 for parking? No problem: you can take a 45 minute shuttle bus each way.
Then you have to pay $5 for bag drop. WTF?!? Oh, but this is okay, because it is supposedly donated entirely to charity. Tough Mudder makes a big deal, throughout the day, about their support for the Wounded Warrior Project. How much do they actually donate to Wounded Warrior you ask? ZERO. They give reduced registration fees for people to raise money themselves for Tough Mudder, and the volunteer staffed bag drop area gives money to Tough Mudder. This has supposedly amounted to $6.5 million dollars and counting to date (they have a ticker on the front page of their website.) By their own figures, at a VERY low end estimate, Tough Mudder has taken in around $64 million in registration fees since 2010. And not given a single dollar directly to charity.
And this isn't counting gas, housing, etc., but that's what you get for doing events that are 100 miles away from where you live.
2) It was ridiculously organized in several ways.
Despite the challenging elevation, Northstar was, logistically, a horrific venue for this. Parking was absurd, and no, there is no other way to get there. You have to take a ~10 minute gondola to get to the base of the event. They stopped running the gondolas which took spectators up the hill (my brother had to walk back down.) There was ZERO signage indicating where the shuttle buses back to the parking at Boreal was (which was not in the same place as my brother was dropped off) so we wasted about 30 minutes taking the gondola down, asking of the kind but mystified 16 year old working the parking lot, and going back up. And we weren't the only ones.
Their volunteers on the Off Road Vehicles need to quit driving like coke addled former teenage pop stars. The assholes in the gigantic Northstar SUV (an Excursion, IIRC) need to have their fakie siren taken away from them. Neither need to be blasting by us on the dirt trails we're competing on.
They need more volunteers who actually monitor the speed at which people go in to the various obstacles, so people don't get bunched up in potentially dangerous obstacles like the Arctic Enema.
3) The One Banana policy.
At the three or so food stops along the entire 10.5 mile course, there were signs indicating the One Banana Per Person policy. Which was actually a single banana that had already been cut in to thirds. $110 AND I ONLY GET ONE THIRD OF A BANANA?!?! And plain water. No sports drinks, no additional electrolytes. (I'll confess I did skip the single gel-candy-energy option since the last time I ate one, it pulled a crown off of my tooth.)
Not to mention the finish chute, with the self-important rentacops at the end, where it was a One Cup Of Water Policy, a One Clif Bar Policy, and One Beer Policy. I Don't Always Drink Shitty Beer, But When I Do, I'm Limited To One.
And after you're out of the chute, don't you DARE dream of asking to go back inside to pick up your finisher T-shirt that you didn't see. You'll probably be bodily blocked by a rentacop, who literally yelled at me "YOU AREN'T GOING BACK IN THERE!" Fortunately a nice volunteer kindly went and got my shirt for me. Confidential to Rentacop: you suck, and take your job way too seriously.
Outside of the chute, everything costs money. Everything. I've run locally organized 5k fun runs with far better during- and after- event snacks and drinks. In fact, pretty much every single athletic event I've done in my adult life has had better and more snacks and drinks.
4) Repeat obstacles suck.
Dear Somewhat Tough Mudder: you have 40 or so obstacles to choose 20 from, and you repeat the Kiss of Mud? Why?
Okay. [/rant]
In summary, I'll do other mud run type events, but Tough Mudder is lame.
Oh, shit! Trash Day!
Once again I was sitting here at my desk when I heard the garbage truck on the block. SHIT! I forgot AGAIN to take out the trash! Since both J and I are gone this weekend, I didn't want to leave yucky trash in the can. So I ran to the hall, jammed some shoes on, and ran out to the back yard to take out the trash can. Which is empty.
And then felt pretty good about the fact that in a week we've generated close to zero trash (there was a half bag in the kitchen which I decided to take out just because we're going to be away.) And last week the can was only about 1/3 full, after emptying every trash can in the house.
Notably, the recycling bin fills up much more quickly, so we're surely not perfect on the reduce, then reuse/repurpose, then recycle, then discard spectrum. But we're doing pretty good!
And then felt pretty good about the fact that in a week we've generated close to zero trash (there was a half bag in the kitchen which I decided to take out just because we're going to be away.) And last week the can was only about 1/3 full, after emptying every trash can in the house.
Notably, the recycling bin fills up much more quickly, so we're surely not perfect on the reduce, then reuse/repurpose, then recycle, then discard spectrum. But we're doing pretty good!
Monday, September 30, 2013
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.
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
Monday, September 16, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
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
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.
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:
So does this one:
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
Sunday, September 01, 2013
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
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Ahhh, home.
Really, I wasn't even gone for that long. But poopin on your own toilet, drinking your own (delicious, strong) coffee, doing laundry, drinking the homemade fuzzy water from your Sodastream rigged to a 5 pound cylinder, showering in your own shower, troubleshooting your own fucking piece of shit Comcast high speed wireless. Yeah, the good life.
On the list for today:
take CRV containers to recycling center
mow my lawn
mow mom's lawn
recycle corks
go to the library
clean up garage to get ready for brewing this weekend!
On the list for today:
take CRV containers to recycling center
mow my lawn
mow mom's lawn
recycle corks
go to the library
clean up garage to get ready for brewing this weekend!
The Lufthansa Senator Lounge at DXB
This is the small, but very, very pleasant Lufthansa Senator Lounge at the Dubai airport.These are reclining lounges. They felt good after a long day.
electricity
For a crystal clear visual on what using turning on the air conditioning does:
Guess which day I ran the A/C?
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Vegan food at IAH
I forgot to mention: i was pretty dubious when web searches kept repeatedly indicating that the Houston airport was great for vegan options.
i was genuinely impressed: Zpizza, Mango Taco Truck, and a salad bar are all within about 200 feet of each other on the C concourse. And i walked by another half dozen easily workable options.
i was genuinely impressed: Zpizza, Mango Taco Truck, and a salad bar are all within about 200 feet of each other on the C concourse. And i walked by another half dozen easily workable options.
Houston airport vegan lunch!
After an aggregate of around 17 hour on airplanes, and four still to go, the "Berkeley Vegan" from Zpizza was a really nice lunch. Now I have a stupid seven hour layover here at IAH, but fortunately have access to the United Club and its showers.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Vanity
I've been wondering for several days what is in the "vanity pack" in my hotel bathroom.
The entire contents, for the vain visitor:
four q-tips
a mini emory board
a single band aids.
Weird.
Today is functionally my last full day in Dubai, as tomorrow I check out of the hotel, wander around in broiling heat and humidity, then sneak back into the hotel for a present to my seat-mate on the 13 hour flight back to the US: a shower in the fitness club locker room.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Vegan hotel room snackie wackies!
More Dubai style.
The camera kinda washed it out and didn't do this pretty plate justice. Stuffed grape leaves, hummus, hummus with eggplant, bread, and Indian "pickle."
The triple whammy of jet lag, intense heat and humidity, and being woken up every fucking morning around 0440 by the call to prayer have really kicked my butt. I had to take a three hour nap this afternoon, so now I need to stay up until midnight or so.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Vegan hotel room snackies - Dubai edition!
All over the incredibly hot and humid Dubai today, and still have to go back out to the souqs in search of the illusive wild coffee mug (most of my readership knows exactly what this is about.)
Today:
Jumeriah Beach Walk (sucked, but putting my feet into the Arabian Gulf was nice)
Burj Khalifa (for being the world's tallest building, the trip to the top is only worth doing if you're a check it off kind of person)
Dubai Centre For Special Needs Charity Shop (total fail: doors locked, complex deserted)
Ibn Battuta mall (surprisingly beautiful interior architecture, but it's still a shopping mall)
Karama Shopping Centre souq (meh - lots of crap, but no coffee mugs)
Still got a couple souqs to try for mugs, but it's looking dire.
The food is interesting:the hummus is almost more tahini than chick pea, the weird quasi-ganoushj so-so but edible, the grape leaves eh.
Foot wash at the top of the tallest building on earth
My feet were kinda dirty from the beach parking lot. A bidet is a great foot wash!
Friday, August 23, 2013
Just 'cause
I wanted to figure out how to do screenshots with the tablet.
Confidential: it's hot as fuck here. Time to go wander around again in the heat!
Dubai!
I know, incredible picture, right?!? Actually just testing out blogging with the blogger app on my tablet. And about to walk out the door to visit the tallest building in the world. So some better blogging may be on the way!
But it is awfully nice to have a full kitchen in my hotel room. Haven't eaten out yet...
Saturday, July 27, 2013
New Jersey Pizza, Flagstaff
It was unfortunately not that great. Incredibly friendly staff, and went out of his way to confirm that their vegan cheese doesn't have casien. But it was still kind of greasy and notsuper tasty.
Flagstaff on balance, however, is lovely. J and I put out on the short list to consider for retiring. Yes, it's THAT lovely.
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