summer reading

I'm on vacation. I love vacation.

On Friday, I packed up approximately one months-worth of stuff for my 6 days off, and headed north. I've always been an over-packer. I think it is in my genes (once, when my family went to Alaska for 3 weeks, the airline representative asked us if we were moving). Case in point: I brought 6 books for my 6 day vacation.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love reading and in fact I read a great deal, but i can't spend every day reading. I've come up to the Adirondacks to relax and play with my family- and maybe work on a few house projects (gotta love wielding an axe). Here's the thing: I like options. I'm also indecisive. I mean what if I'm not in the mood to read one, or I don't know, four of these books. I've got to have a couple I can still get into. So here's what I've got:
I've got some thrillers and mysteries, not exactly high brow, but pretty damn fun to read. Then a couple of non-fictiony things that various people have recommended. And then I've got that big fat one on the bottom. Maybe you've heard of it?

So here's the deal on that one. I'm an irrational idiot. Yup, that's right. For some reason I got it into my head that I had, had to re-read all the others before I could continue on. That was a few years ago and I never managed to get around to it. Then the last book came out, and I still haven't gotten around to it. But these days its dangerous to walk around for fear of people talking about the movie. I can't very well walk around slapping my hands over my ears every time someone says Harry Potter. So I'll read it and hope the other books come back to me. Plus I have, have to read books before I see movie versions of them. I feel pretty strongly about this (see the second sentence of this paragraph). Maybe that's why I don't see too many movies these days.

So for this reason, at least in part, I started my summer reading with Julie & Julia. My sister recomended it to me a while ago, but it was another thing I never got around to. Then I got a Borders coupon, that I just had to spend, and saw this in a display for the upcoming, you guessed it, movie version. I snapped it up and have started reading it- and now maybe I can see the movie in August. I'll tell you more about it, but it's cocktail hour.

Cook this today (no. 6)

Whew! Sorry it's been so long, hopefully you haven't been starving.

sweet

Yum. Find rhubarb. Now.

I made this for my lab's group meeting today. Now don't you wish you could come?

Ack!

How is it possible that it has been nearly a week since my last post. That is horrible! Wait- why wasn't anyone yelling at me. Or at the very least a little concerned about my absence... hmm maybe because I'm one of the few to actually read this thing, and yelling at one's self isn't generally very effective.

Anyway, you haven't missed too much. I'm getting back into the swing of things at work, so that is taking a bit of effort. Friday I did get something cool in the mail:

It wasn't actually a surprise, but I am still entranced by Amazon's 2-day shipping. As well as the fact that they have the best garlic press collection I've ever seen (this one has two inserts with different size holes!). So now I have a whole bunch of new recipes to play with!

Otherwise my weekend consisted of the outdoor photo shoot I set up for my pottery. I used to take pictures inside my apartment, but with leaves on the trees around my house, it really resembles a dark cave inside. Not ideal for photography.

So imagine this (sorry I forgot to take a picture): me, my camera, pottery, the table I usually use to hold my portable grill, 3 plastic bins of crafts (stacked, to make a higher level on the table), and one roll of white paper for the background being held in place by a Coleman fuel tank and pink lab tap set up in the front lawn of my apartment house at 10 a.m. Sunday morning. I'm sure I was entertaining to my neighbors.

The only other notable thing I did was finally watch the netflix DVD that has been sitting around my apartment for the last 2 months (I'm really bad about watching them). So yes I just paid $20 to watch one DVD. At least it was good. So below is the copy of Bread & Tulips that can finally go onto its next destination.

FfNl: CSA adventure

So, my good friend Alice is out of town for the month of July, and kindly offered me the opportunity to pick up her CSA share at West Haven Farm. I love CSAs, they are a great opportunity to get really good food and support local agriculture! Maybe some year I'll actually get around to signing up for one. Anyway, yesterday was my first pick-up. Now you would think after 10 years in Ithaca I could find almost anything in a 30 mile radius without getting lost. Unfortunately that is not the case. For some unknown reason I always seem to get routes 96, 79 and 89 all hopelessly confused in my tiny little head. So after what we'll call a senic tour of the area, I finally made it to the pick-up place- a cool little barn where you sign in and then pick out your produce (they have a white board to tell you what your share is). This week I got a huge heap of veggies: kohlrabi, turnips (two kinds), kale, chard, lettuce, spinach, red cabbage, broccoli, snow peas, summer squash, basil, parsley, dill and garlic. I also got to cut a few other herbs in the plot next to the barn. I love fresh produce (Thanks again, Alice)!

So last night for dinner I made up a tasty little dish of brown rice, chick peas, fresh steamed broccoli and kohlrabi with feta cheese. Yum.

Bacon Jam ?!?

I've been waiting for the opportunity to show off my sock bacon (above), and thanks to The Pioneer Woman I found this:

Skillet Jam On It

Gotta get some.

And now there is one more blog to follow.

Still Sleepy

I'm back! Given the absolute disasters that could have happened (I flew into and out of Chicago on United amidst a system-wide computer glitch: imagine long lines and mass chaos), it was relatively painless and my bags(absolutely amazing) and I arrived only 2 hrs later than expected. Then I ate a really good burger at the Ale House and watched the 4th of July fireworks (which oddly are never on the 4th). Then tumbled into a deep and dreamless sleep. The sleep of the exhausted traveler.

There is only one thing... I think my brain may still be somewhere stuck in O'hare ( I am still randomly speaking the few portuguese words I know and am having problems with simple tasks). Then again perhaps it is just tiredness. Either way, hope it finds its way home soon.

It's good to be home, but right now the whole trip seems somewhat surreal- hard to believe it actually happened. Also it is a little weird to see all this stuff that is mine, I got used to having a lot less. Makes me itch to clean stuff out. I bet that feeling lasts about one week.

Thats if for now, but be sure to check back to follow my continuing adventures...

Sleepy

It is funny how much less time it takes to pack for a return journey. I guess it isn't surprising, as really there are no decisions to make, it's pretty much just shove everything in- with perhaps dirty clothes relegated to a plastic bag. In total, I think it took me about 15 minutes to pack up my stuff last night. Which was good because it let me spend more time on my last night here with friends and allowed me to get one more morning here at the lab (and one last post here).

There is only one problem.... my last night here ended around 4 am this morning. I got a fantastic send off and one more chance to practice speaking portuguese under the influence of a wee bit o' alcohol. I'm what you might call exhausted. A normal person might have slept in, but no I was up at 7 and couldn't go back to sleep. So here I am.

I figure if nothing else, the late night will make it easier to sleep on the plane.