Suburb of Heaven

Bemo's father is in the hospital, about to go into heart surgery tomorrow or Monday. Any good thoughts in his direction would be appreciated. Bemo holding together ok but obviously apprehensive.

Play-reading group read Tom Stoppard's Arcadia yesterday, and I really, really liked it. Perhaps even better than Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Actually, scratch that, I definitely loved it more than R&G. It just really worked for me, and I want to see it performed.

Trying to put together my lecture for Monday, but things keep conspiring to stop me. Will have to bust my butt tomorrow.

Thanks to the air show in town today, there have been Blue Angels flying over fairly frequently. I wish I could go see them, but I didn't want to fight the crowds for the air show. I've seen the Thunderbirds before, but I don't think I've ever seen the Blue Angels.

Squash casserole in the oven; it smells delicious. Squash, sour cream, cracker crumbs, cheddar cheese, garlic salt, a little onion (just for flavor).

Had a crochety old lady moment today. Unfastening my bike from in front of a downtown coffeehouse, a very young (high school? College?) dude walking past hollered at me a couple of times in some sort of cheerleading way, and then stood in front of me with hand outstretched to receive a high-five. I was not dressed in any team gear and was plugged into my earbuds, and it took me a second to figure out what the hell he wanted. After a moment, I just said, in my best who-the-hell-are-you-and-why-do-you-speak-to-me tones, "Go away." He left, complaining about my lack of spirit, or something. I pedaled off, bemused.

Test drove our new little cheapie hibachi today, and alas I botched the setup, resulting in a dense smokey taste that will likely stay in the back of my throat for the next year and a half. Burgers were cooked and consumed, but I can't say they were good, exactly. Will try to improve next time.

Did roll up some nice lumpia Shanghai for the dojo picnic tomorrow. Have discovered my big error - egg roll wrappers are just too thick...I've wanted spring roll wrappers all this time. We picked up a slew of them at a nearby Asian market and I'm very happy with the results. They cooked through, and are the right size and texture, instead of being these giant things where the wrapping never quite cooked through correctly.

Bemo's birthday on Monday. We should bring a cake to the dojo picnic in his honor. Will try to remember.

During the cookout today, Bemo announced that I had grey hairs. Well, I knew I had, but apparently they're proliferating around the top of my head with wild abandon, where I hadn't noticed them. Don't know how I feel about that. Well, I do know how I feel, I just don't know how intensely I feel it.

Have read and enjoyed Lev Grossman's The Magicians.. However, following it up with a reread of The Secret History and listening to Marc Maron's interview with Todd Hansen may have been too much bleak/angsty/dark, edgy art all at once. I know it was too much reading about people drinking, anyway.

Also finally got around to reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and found it a pretty thoroughly mediocre book. Will probably watch the new version of the movie on account of Daniel Craig, but the book was stodgy and full of characters without any life to them whatsoever, and endless descriptions of things I couldn't care less about, like computers booting up. I made it to the end only because I plowed through it in a couple of days, and have no impulse to ever reread it or read the rest of the books in the series, because I just don't care one whit about any of the characters.

Have watched a few eps of The Pacific on DVD. Didn't grab me as much as Band of Brothers did, but I was bustling during the second disc, so that may have been part of the reason I wasn't drawn in. Also my problem of telling people apart when they're all dirty and in helmets continues. Also also, either our tv is incredibly sucktastic (a valid proposition) or the night scenes were meant to be so dark that the actors are barely visible.

Also watched a little bit of the first season of The Electric Company. It was really working an interesting vibe, and I'd like to compare it to Sesame Street of the same year (1971). I think TEC must have been more slangy and edgy and hip, but I'm not certain.

Ah, the co-op. Where I can have an interminable conversation with an 80+ year old woman about air conditioning filters, show a woman where the non-dairy, gluten free mac'n'cheese lives, so her kid can have something that looks "normal" while they try to figure out what he's allergic to, and flirt with a cute, dim young man in a long prairie skirt who was trying to get to Oregon eventually "because the energy is better there, you know?"

Also, I was so proud of myself for roasting a gorgeous whole chicken, and then I realized I had left the little "diaper" on the bottom by accident. I'm working on the idea that it's still safe to eat. It will be dismembered tomorrow for salad and sandwiches.

Also also, there was racquetball played (very badly) by me and the Bemo, and also some walking and light jogging on the indoor track, and then I went and undid it all by making chocolate chip cookies. Seriously, I need to cut this shit out. Eating at night is my biggest bad habit.

The cake I made for a co-worker's birthday went over very nicely. It was a recipe from Penzeys, a butter cake with caramel icing. It was devoured and I got a nice egoboo.

The very strange looking but reportedly delicious Broccoli Romanesco, a member of the brassica family. Working at the co-op introduces me to some interesting vegetables.

Hey, guess who here is stress eating like a mofo? Who just made cake (which was a disaster, but still tasted really good. So, a tasty, tasty, buttery, disaster)? Who is attempting to dive headfirst into a bag of Trader Joe's veggie chips? (Note: very little veggie involved.)

I'm determined to make Feb the month of Finally Losing the Goddamn Ten Pounds That Stand Between Me and a Sub-200 lb Weight. To that end, most of my grocery shopping today was for stuff that will help me regain some control over my eating. But, my friends, I seem to be waiting until midnight on the 31st to regain that control. Trill it with me - streeeesssss eeeeeeaaaating!

Favorite Recipes and Menus from Our Kitchens to Yours, by the Good Housekeeping Institute, 1930. Another find from an antique shop in Kentucky. It's the usually amusing mix of surprisingly sensible advice and really boggling stuff, like the discussion about acid foods, where they dispel an old rumor about acidosis with some new scientific information...that I think has been completely disproven since. Ah, well. Science marches on.

Here's some of what they have to say:

Avoiding Food Fads and "Diets" - --Some strange beliefs about food and food combinations have long persisted which are not based on fact. We refer to one on p. 11 as to acid foods producing acid blood. Many still believe they should not eat acid fruits and milk at the same meal, while there are those who are sure that lobster and ice cream at the same meal will make them ill. Many believe that fried foods are indigestible when as a matter of fact it depends upon how fried foods are fried. we discuss this on p. 131. Bananas have often been listed as indigestible food but we know know that this is not true provided they are eaten when thoroughly ripe.

Vegetarians warn us to go vegetable-wise while a few years ago a diet composed largely of meat had a host of followers. There are still those who advocate a diet of raw food entirely. Others point the way to health through fasting, and we have still one-sided readymade "diets" offered for various ills. Part of the folly of adopting any of these diets is that they are often restricted to a few foods and therefore maybe lacking in food value. Provided that we are in normal health and that we do not overindulge there are no foods we need avoid or that we cannot safely combine in one meal. All special diets should be prescribed and supervised by physicians. There are those, however, who are sensitive to certain foods, after eating which they suffer in various ways such as having an outbreak of "hives" or a violent sneezing attack, similar to "hay fever". These people suffer from a "food allergy" and once they are sure of the offending food or foods they should avoid them.

A Simple Guide to Healthful Meals - If in planning your meals you see to it that each day they include the following foods or types of foods you may feel satisfied that you are providing healthful meals.
1. One pint of milk, as a beverage, or used in soups, sauces, or desserts.
2. One serving of fruit, raw if possible.
3. At least two generous servings of non-starchy or green vegetables (such as carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, string beans, cabbage, beets, etc). One of these should be raw whenever raw fruit is not served on any one day.
4. One serving of meat, fish, or a substitute such as an egg or cheese dish.
5. Breads (including whole wheat), starchy vegetables such as potatoes, dried peas, beans, lentils, etc, cereals ready-to-serve and cooked (including whole grain), desserts, butter and cream to complete the menu and satisfy the appetite.

If any member of the family is overweight have them cut down on the foods in 5 above, especially those rich in fat, i.e. cream, butter and rich desserts such as pastry, rich cakes, ice cream, etc., sufficiently to lose weight slowly and steadily. Have the underweights drink one quart of milk a day and increase the amounts of food in 5 sufficiently to gain weight steadily. Everyone should drink plenty of water and take out door exercise every day. It is well to check up on your weight from time to time to keep the right weight according to age and height.

Two rectangles of pate brisse chiling in the fridge for another bacon-mushroom tart and my first attempt at a Nutella one. The sweet one is for tomorrow, when Bemo and I will schlep over to a co-worker's house to eat chili, carve pumpkins, and toast the seeds for later eating.

Unfortunately, cooking seems to be a definite stress-reaction for me. I shouldn't have spent all the money I did at the grocery. It's going to be another tight month.

Enjoying the slightly warmer weather, since the past two days have been really chilly. The windows are open again and the cats are basking in window sunbeams.

Am contemplating going out and seeing if I can jog. Unsure as to whether this is a good idea or a quick trip to shin splints and large amounts of pain and/or humiliation.

Am contemplating putting up some of the genuinely 19th-century envelopes I own up on Etsy. If I do, how much should I charge for them? Should I sell them individually, or in sets or two or more? I'm thinking people would buy them for crafting purposes, obviously. The paper is quite nice and people like the copperplate handwriting. Plus, some of them are charmingly soot-stained.

Tried the egg-in-toast baked thing, and got mixed results. For one, it comes out pretty bland, with thyme being the dominant taste, which isn't what I'm looking for. For another, no fusion seems to happen, where the various components meld into a satisfying hole. Instead, the egg sits primly in the hole, the ricotta remains a thick layer on top, and the bread sits between them like a surly chaperone. It may be a fault in how I set things up in the pan, I'm not sure. Bemo thinks the recipe deserves to stay around for tweaking, so I may experiment with it later. The mushroom bacon tart of the night before was, however, an unqualified success. Really yummy.