100 posts

happy friday everyone.


i am enjoying a really nice day off following a number of days at work and the final (crazy) push for the end of the 100 mile diet event series. it's nice to just sit, listen to some music, check out my favorite blogs and have some time to write on my own. i also bought a dress... good day all over i think!

this is going to be a random one, so hang in there.



first off, i want to send out a THANK YOU to everyone who helped all of the 100 mile events happen. and to the friends and family who rushed to my aid when i wrote a slightly-freaked-out post about how the last event might be canceled. as it turned out, there was no need to worry (i have learned from this experience that everyone procrastinates), and that (sadly) some folks got turned away. nevertheless, the celebration dinner was a delicious, huge success. everyone at CP did an amazing job, and i think folks had a pretty good time! good news is that CP is going to do a series of farmer-inspired dinners, so you didn't totally miss out! also, they're offering cooking classes starting in january. awesome.


moving on from the 100 mile diet, i have a few other little things to share...

this is my 100th post on this blog! i've been thinking for a while that i wanted to start a new bloggy project when this one hit post 100. needless to say, i still don't have a clear vision for what that new project would be, so there's not really any news to share. i might have to push my deadline back. the only good idea to date was something called "every day" with photos or simple lines of text sharing the day with you all. i was thinking it would be a 365 day project.
i am actually quite attached to the title "the dangling conversation." it really seems the perfect way to describe what i'm doing here--chatting out into space, leaving my words dangling in a one-way conversation. sometimes it feels oddly lonely, and other times awesome to have this conversation going with whoever might run across it.
all that said, i'm thinking seriously about re-vamping this blog or starting a side project... so stay tuned, if you want to.

totally unrelated, but i'm 99% sure i've found a camera bag that i like. i've been wanting to get one ever since i inherited my film camera, and i really like the style of this one. and there's space to throw in my little beat up digital guy too, which is great. what do you think? (image found here.)



and finally, one of the things i've been enjoying most lately is retro-fitting recipes to fit our 100 mile diet options. e and i have made some pretty good meals lately, which is a nice change from the first few days of the diet when we had no idea what to do. recent successes included white cheddar and basil stuffed chicken breasts, as well as several different mixed berry cobblers (i'm slowly learning the ropes of whole wheat butter crusts--maybe when i perfect it, i'll post it).
despite this, we pretty much have a constant hankering for carbs. pasta is intimidating, so today i'm turning to potatoes. how about latkes for dinner? oh man, a crispy edged, fluffy, eggy latke with poached eggs (which i've never made!) and greens. yes. i'm hungry. thank you, smitten kitchen for inspiring me with this recipe and this one. yummy.


stay cool out there.
(maybe this beautiful video of iceland will help! enjoy.)

favor to ask

hi everyone,

so i know many of you don't live in mac anymore, but if you know people who do, will you please spread the word?

the 100 mile diet challenge has been my major summer project this year. i've sunk a good number of hours into it, and now the last event in our series might have to be canceled because of lack of attendance. the event is an amazing 3 course dinner prepared by some of mac's best chefs and served at community plate restaurant downtown. if it happens, it'll be happening this thursday, the 25th, at 7pm. it's going to be amazing! needless to say, i am bummed that it might be canceled.

all the details are on the slow food blog.

help spread the word!


thanks,
b

i finally did it

this morning was the first morning of the 100 mile diet, and i was pretty bummed to realize that my plans to go to a cafe and write today were hamstrung by that endeavor. i really do love spending many hours in cafes...

the alternative to the cafe was my desk. now, some of you (sam) know what a terrible catastrophe the "study" in our apartment is. cat hair and dust and it seems to be the room all of the random crap ends up in (not that you're random crap sam, but i'm sad you have to wedge yourself in there among it!). that said, it's not exactly a place where i feel inspired to write. and so today was spent, instead of at a cafe, in a serious cleaning session. i dusted, i scrubbed a little bit and vacuumed a lot, and dragged around my huge, heavy old desk until the room looked fresh and focused enough to be a place i wanted to spend some time in.

i've been wanting to attack that back room for a long time, but it was daunting in its chaos. another thing that made it daunting were the two or three boxes of school stuff that i packed up after graduation, deposited in the corner of that room, and promptly ignored... for more than a year. it was high time i sorted through those. i found some weird stuff (like flea spot medicine for the cat), but mostly i found reams of paper--much of which now resides in my recycling bin. i had so much paper in that room! old assignments, file folders of carefully organized notes, receipts from two years ago (brilliant financial planning that was), and just piles of tattered paper. it took me about an hour to go through it all. some was jettisoned immediately and without regret (*cough* social methods file), my careful and detailed notes from social theory were harder. as were the many drafts of various poems and essays. i did end up keeping a few things (favorite essays that i wrote--one of which had a glaring grammar error in the first paragraph (dang it!), some favorite readings from various classes, a lot of folders and notebooks to be reused), but the majority is gone. and guess what? there's room for a chair in that room! a nice, cozy reading chair. i might have to go in search of one!

mondays have become my cleaning day it seems. some kind of cleaning project is usually undertaken in the company of loud music and messy clothes. it's pretty rejuvenating for me to do some scrubbing on my days off, and nothing is more gratifying than a clean counter, bathtub, or desk, even if it is the only thing in the apartment that is shiny.

hopefully i will be able to my newly reclaimed desk for some serious writing efforts in the coming weeks. i've always wanted to be one of those people who rolls out of the bed in the morning and does some writing. we'll see if round two with this desk will be more lucrative.

b

time away

just got back last night from 5 days in washington with erik's family. we went on a bike ride, went boating, tossed frisbees, ate a lot of food, sang happy birthday twice, played with dogs, decided we need to figure out what we're doing so we can get a dog.
this morning i'm finishing packing for a 4 day backpacking trip with my family (sunscreen, bug spray, sunscreen, food). time away is refreshing, though i was glad that it felt good to be home last night, even for a very little while.

homes are important. most of the blogs i read write a lot about their homes. check out this amazing home. i'm jealous of their pantone mugs and polaroid camera prints.

be back soon.

b