irresolute

I really dislike New Year's resolutions. Maybe since I associate them with falling off after 6 weeks, I don't think they're useful or effective. I always think, "Oh, well that's something the person won't really keep up through March," or that they only half-heartedly want to accomplish it. On the other hand, I don't necessarily think that about goals. I feel a person can set a goal and they have a fairly good chance of achieving it. It's the same thing, just a different word, so I don't know why I have those connotations. Increasingly, I feel the need to reassess and set new goals at year end, which is deliberately something I really didn't do before. Blame it on some type A personality shit.

Last year, I wanted to cook two new recipes a month and learn how to cartwheel. Trying two new recipes a month was pretty successful - here's a catalogue of some recipes I've tried this year and enjoyed. I have some new ones in my recipe folder too. I'm not making an intentional goal to try new recipes this year since I feel it's stuck with me pretty well and I have lots of inspiration to try new recipes. Don't they say it takes 6 weeks for something to become a habit? Well, I think I've got this down. In fact, tonight I'm making roasted butternut squash and bacon pasta.

Cartwheeling? Nope. Still don't know how.

I've got a few I've been kicking around for this next year:

• 100 books in 2012. I kicked 75 books in 2011's ass (currently on number 102 for 2011) and I think I can do it again next year.
• 3 half marathons - Green Bay in May, Red, White and Boom in July, and one more in the fall. I wanted to do two last year and only did one, mostly for financial reasons.
• Cut out meat one day a week, for health and environmental reasons. Probably Mondays.
  
• Progress on our net worth, specifically through building savings and paying down our smaller debts. I know goals are more likely to be accomplished if there's a specific, measurable goal, but we haven't sat down and figured that out yet. But those are the things I think we can hit, based on some initial calculations.

Good? All right. Bacher out.

babies and stuff

A note to the world:

Many people I know are pregnant or have birthed. That's awesome. Babies are cool. I'm especially looking forward to my new nephew, Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All Mason Badass Bacher and have grown fond of watching videos of Hattie (one of the Lincoln Roberts-Days) do things like roll over and be bounced around to silly noises.

However, I am totally content with a gentleman and a dog. We do pretty well, the three of us.

Not that anyone asked... just that babies seem to be all around and in people these days, and they seem super excited about it, whereas I am super excited about the homemade sesame chicken I made for dinner tonight.

That is all.

Book update:
I did get a Kindle. It is awesome. In fact, it increases marital hand-holding a significant percent as now I can lie in bed, hold the Kindle with one hand and hold Andrew's hand with the other. No more rationed hand-holding! I am also at book #95 for the year and 100 looks to be very good. I may even shoot for 104 - an average of 2 books per week.

Purging update:
I'm 95% done with the original purging plan. I used the last bottle this week - buffalo sauce that I poured over chicken wings in the crockpot. I have one bar of soap left, which will probably be opened this weekend. Still working on the tea lights though... there were a lot of those.

All right. Sesame chicken time. Bacher out.

first world problems

I think Sam is in another shedding phase. He's dropping hair left and right, usually in clumps on the floor. Yay black dog hair and light brown hardwood floors!

My goal for reading this year was 75 books. I finished my 75th book on October 8, which was Donald Rumsfeld's memoir, Known and Unknown. Blech. Andrew always asks me why I read memoirs from politicians in the Bush administration (Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Cheney) if I disagree with their politics so much. It's because they've taken the time to explain their reasoning and the rational behind their decisions and actions and I want to understand why they made those choices. Plus, I've read memoirs from Bill Clinton and Madeline Albright, but there just happens to be a slew of Republican memoirs being published now.

So since I've met my 75 goal, I've upped it t0 100 books in a year. I'm currently at 89 right now so it's very doable. Here's what I've read since September 15:
68. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
69. Not Becoming My Mother, Ruth Reichel
70. Run Like A Girl, Mina Samuels
71. Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, Lois Frankel
72. Freakonomics, Steven Levitt/Stephen Dubner
73. The Leftovers, Tom Perrotta
74. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford
75. Known and Unknown, Donald Rumsfeld
76. To Be a Runner, Martin Dugard
77. Superfreakonomics, Steven Levitt/Stephen Dubner
78. The Greatest Music Stories Never Told, Rick Beyer
79. Devil’s Knot, Mara Leveritt
80. The President and the Assassin, Scott Miller
81. In My Time, Dick Cheney
82. The Violets of March, Sarah Jio
83. Why We Buy, Paco Underhill
84. How I Killed Pluto, Mike Brown
85. Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, Lauren Redniss
86. Secret Daughter, Shilpi Somaya Gowda
87. Killing Kate, Julie Kraemer
88. Blood, Bones & Butter, Gabrielle Hamiliton
89. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

My favorites are Unbroken, The Leftovers, Freakonomics/Superfreaknomics, How I Killed Pluto, Killing Kate, Blood, Bones & Butter and The Night Circus.

Since I read so many books, I usually get a ton out from the library at a time.

I'd like to get a Kindle so I don't have to go to the library every week and also so I don't have to carry multiple books around with me at once, say if I'm almost to the end of a book and think I'll finish it before I get home. It would be a good Christmas present, yes?

But here's the thing: The library doesn't have nearly as many ebooks as it does actual books. I looked at books I've currently requested and it's about 40-50% available in ebooks. Otherwise, Amazon does have a lending library system, but you have to be a special member ($80/year) and you can only borrow one book a month. ONE. That's not reasonable for me. I also don't want to buy ebooks all the time, since those are $12-16 per book. So if I get a Kindle, it might be a half and half thing, where I borrow on Kindle if possible and otherwise get a hard copy. Man, my life is so hard.

Here's pictures of Sam to cheer you up from thinking about all the problems I face in life:

Sam and a lobster treat that Mom and Harry brought back from Maine.

Sam clearly also has a very difficult life as well.

Here's what I'm making for dinner tonight: Crock pot mac and cheese.

And HOLY CRAP. This is double stuffed acorn squash like a fall explosion in your mouth. I highly recommend it:


Ok. Time to go de-dog hair my apartment. I will save all the hair for a homemade pillow for Sam to lay his little doggy head on, since it was his hair in the first place.

Bacher out.

P.S. Oh yeah, Kari is in the country.

sharing

So... How you doin'?

Since Katie shared the books she's read, I will give you mine so far in 2011:

• Born to Run, Christopher McDougall
• American Wife, Curtis Sittenfeld
• Ordinary, Extraordinary People, Condeleezza Rice
• Decision Points, George W. Bush

It leans pretty heavily Republican with American Wife (fictional story based on Laura Bush's life), Condi and Bush's memoirs, but don't worry. I'm still liberally liberal. I set a goal of 75 books in 2011 and I started my 6th last night. On track!

Tomorrow, Mom, Harry and I leave for a trip to Honduras. We'll visit Kari, that one girl who is my sister. I fit everything I'm taking in one backpack. It's amazing. I'll share pictures once I get back.

I've recently been turned onto brussels sprouts, specifically their deliciousness when tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper and then roasted. I've always been a fan of sweet potato fries.

So good. For reals. I had a brussels sprouts craving the other day, which is on par with ridiculous. Andrew, after saying he didn't like brussels sprouts, apparently tried them for the first time and has grown to like them.

The only bad part about this situation?

Being forced to share.

80 book update - two months to go!

60 book update! Well, I've bumped it up to 80 books in 2010. Here are the books from October:

65. The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson
66. Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson
67. Salvation City, Sigrid Nunez
68. The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
69. Dirty Sexy Politics, Meghan McCain
70. Every Last One, Anna Quindlen
71. Heat Wave, Richard Castle
72. Between Two Worlds, Roxana Saberi
73. Work Hard. Be Nice, Jay Mathews
74. Sex at Dawn, Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha

I really liked The Ghost Map; it's a great nonfiction book about epidemiology and cholera. Makes those stories about cholera in Haiti seem even more pointless - we know how cholera spreads and how to survive it. The only reason people are dying is because of poverty. Plain and simple.

Also liked the Stieg Larsson books. I'm waiting on the last one... hopefully soon! I'm near the top on the waiting list. Every Last One was surprisingly good, also.

I actually really like the majority of the books I read last month. I won't say which one I liked the least because that would be singling it out. It'd be a hard pick; I really like most of them and was indifferent bordering on slight liking for the rest.

So I adjusted my goal from 60 books in 2010 to 80 (I hit 60 on August 31, fyi). I think I'm going to have to adjust it again, just to keep it realistic. I'm already halfway done with book 75, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Or is it tracking now? Am I not motivated by a goal, but has the goal helped form a year-long habit? I mean, I've always been a big reader, but each year I read a little more than the year before. 2007 - 47; 2008 - 53; 2009 - 63; 2010 - upwards of 75. I'd say not being a student, riding the bus, and close proximity to a library have all contributed to this being a banner year in the 50 book challenge.

If only I had this kind of foresight and discipline in all my other goal setting...

nerdiness exposed

So I've been thinking about this for awhile now...

but tonight I finally ordered Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. Soooo excited. SO excited.

While downtown perusing today, I went into a bookstore and flipped through it for the first time. It's literally a thousand pages and I am going to gush over every one of them. Not only does the book have the basic way to cook a dish, it also suggests variations you can add. It does more than just give you the recipe - in a way, it teaches you how to cook in a manner where you can improvise and add your own ideas. I

How to Cook Everything was on our wedding registry but not purchased so I used one of our gift cards to order it online. I'm so psyched to start cooking from it. I made Andrew's birthday dinner of Chicken Parmesan from one of Bittman's recipes. All right, time to stop geeking out now.

Now a 60 book update... I made it past 60 books already! Goal completed! Since there's still a few months left in 2010, I'm altering my goal to 80 books. Right now I've read 64 so it's very do-able.

Here's the last few I finished. Bold are ones I particularly enjoyed:
51. Black is the New White, Paul Mooney
52. Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer
53. So Sexy, So Soon, Diane Levin and Jean Kilbourne
54. Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery, Millett
55. Picking Cotton, Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Ronald Cotton
56. What Einstein Told His Cook, Robert Wolke
57. Orange is the New Black, Piper Kerman
58. Denial, Jessica Stern
59. What Einstein Told His Cook 2, Robert Wolke
60. The Commitment, Dan Savage
61. The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
62. Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier
63. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
64. Opening Skinner’s Box, Lauren Slater

Right now I'm on Paul Tough's Whatever It Takes about Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone, with Mary Karr's Lit and a book titled Lincoln's Melancholy checked out. Not to mention I still have 27 books on my library request list. Who else is psyched about Mark Twain's autobiography finally being released after 100 years? Or The Ghost Map on the discovery of the spread of cholera and germ theory? Or Meghan McCain's and Tim Gunn's new books?

God, I'm a nerd.

But I am serious about Mark Twain's autobiography. I bet it's going to be awesome.

a little bit of everything

So... I haven't written anything for awhile. Not because my life has been particularly exciting, because it hasn't. Well, maybe a little bit.



Scones with raisins and nuts.


Chocolate cheesecake for Andrew's birthday! It got a little cracked in the middle - I think if I had taken it out of the oven 3 minutes earlier it wouldn't have cracked... next time.

Chicken Parmesan (with window ledge basil) for Andrew's birthday dinner, recipe from Food Matters by Mark Bittman. We substituted eggplant for mushrooms.


My bruise from giving blood. Pictures are of Day 2 and Day 10. I had the bruise for two weeks, just disappearing before heading east for the JCLorst wedding.

We're not very coordinated. Also, Jake is a fight instigator while Rachel just wants to love.

And then Andrew's high school friends Ross and Linnea got married last weekend, which meant Andrew stood up in the wedding and got to dress classy-like. I enjoyed it.

They really liked those suspenders. I may or may not have encouraged some suspender-action. Your call. Also, I think that's a fantastic picture of Ross (red tie).

Window ledge basil and cilantro! It's doing pretty well in its present condition. I switch between worrying about over-watering and under-watering. They get plenty of sunlight and it's been so hot lately that I've been watering them daily to make sure they don't die. If they die, I can't eat them.

This little cilantro plant didn't turn out too well... I think too much sunlight/heat. Oh well, I can put something else in that pot.


The street broke open and gushed water last week. They're still fixing it (often loudly at 7 AM). There was literally a crack in the street and a bubble of water coming out of it. I don't know how it happened, but it flowed for 24 hours before the city had someone down there. You can see in the picture where the crack is - at a downward angle away from orange vested-dude where the water is shiny.

My DJ set from DDPP last week:

Kari - expect a CD with your package. It's sitting on my counter and I just have to write a letter, burn some CDs, find a present and then mail it. Also, I really wanted to buy a Toy Story 3 padded envelope to send to you, but I thought it might look too fun and someone would steal it.

I am on book 53 for the year, which makes me within sight of my 6o books goal. My last ten books have been Codex, Lev Grossman (Not as good as The Magicians - skip Codex); Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver (seasonal recipes!); Buying In, Rob Walker; God in the White House, Randall "what I like to call ..." Balmer; Pearl of China, Anchee Min (very good! couldn't get into her Madame Mao book though); Picking Bones From Ash, Marie Mutsuki Mockett (recommend it); Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon, Larry Millett (Holmes in Minnesota - yes!); The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin (enjoyed it); Black is the New White, Paul Mooney (really funny. I want to see more of his stand-up now); Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer (about Pat Tillman's life, death and ensuing military cover up).

Ok. I have to go buy some QTips. I ran out on Saturday and it's hard for me to do without them. They're one of the things I'd bring to a deserted island. Yesterday it was difficult for me to shower and then not QTip my ears. I can't go on like this much longer.

Bacher out.

penne with asparagus and peppers

So... the penne with asparagus and peppers was DELICIOUS. So good. I don't even think it was because I was more hungry than usual, just that it was, in fact, incredibly tasty.


Here's the recipe. I only added one red and one yellow pepper and I think two might be a pepper overhaul. Also, I sauteed them instead of charring, but I think I'm going to try charring next time. Just to see the variety in taste. We also didn't peel the asparagus, but c'est la vie. I substituted wheat penne as well, just because I like wheat penne.


Penne with Asparagus and Peppers
servings: 6
1 lb medium asparagus, peeled, tough ends removed and cut into 2" pieces
2 yellow bell peppers, charred, peeled and diced
2 red bell peppers, charred, peeled and diced
1 tsp minced garlic
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp kosher salt plus 1 tsp
3/4 lb penne
1 1/2 tbps minced fresh thyme (couldn't find fresh so used dried)
3/4 cup finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
2 tbps butter
1/8 tsp grounded black pepper

In a skillet over medium heat, boil asparagus in lightly salted water until it begins to soften, about one minute after the water boils. Drain. Add the peppers and garlic to the skillet and toss one minute. Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil and set aside. Bring six cups of water to a boil in a pot and add one tablespoon of salt. Add the pasta, cook to just before it reaches al dente, and drain. Return to the skillet to medium heat and add the cooked penne and fresh thyme. Stir and simmer five to seven minutes, or until the pasta is al dente. Mix in half the cheese plus the butter, and remaining salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

via Bicycling May 2010

Mmm, so good. I also did a decent job of portions and making sure I payed attention to when I was getting full. I picked up Mindless Eating from the library today and it looks interesting. I feel like I've been eating way too fast lately, partially as a result of eating with 3-5 year olds for lunch. Between getting kids to taste the food they don't like and dodging sneezes that fling fish sticks in my face (for real - last week. So disgusted), I feel like I just wolf everything down so I'm ready when they're ready. It's nice to remember what it's like to eat with grown-ups.

I also opened up a bag of French Roast coffee from Alterra today and the beans are so shiny and delicious smelling... it's going to be a good morning tomorrow. Is tomorrow Thursday already? Maybe it's just today, but I'm ready for it to be the weekend again.

another list and other things

60 books up to this point:

The Family, Jeff Sharlet
The Film Club, David Gilmour
Righteous, Lauren Sandler
Death in a Prarie House, William Drennan
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortonson and David Oliver Relin
In Tongues of the Dead, Brad Kelln
Manhunt, James Swanson
The Heroines, Eileen Favorite
Che’s Afterlife, Michael Casey
Slam, Nick Hornby
Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me
Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
The Hardest Questions Aren’t On The Test, Nathan
Brain Rules, John Medina
Team of Rivals, Doris Kerns Goodwin
Offbeat Bride, Ariel Meadow Stallings
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
Shakespeare Wrote For Money, Nick Hornby

I just finished book 18, which means I'm three books ahead of schedule of 5 per month. I really enjoyed Team of Rivals and provided a lot of details about what made Lincoln a great president. He was very gracious in dealing with people, even when they didn't deserve it. At the time, some would say to a fault, but usual it meant that people were very loyal to Lincoln when he needed it. Her Fearful Symmetry got a lot of press as Niffenegger's second novel after The Time Traveler's Wife, but I wasn't as grabbed by it as her first novel. It was an interesting concept, but I couldn't like her main characters. They were too whiny, too unbelievable. It was interesting, but I wouldn't read it again. The Heroines was also kind of annoying.

There haven't really been any fiction books this year that really grabbed me... Hopefully something good will come along soon. I've got Food Rules by Michael Pollen at the library for me right now with some others requested. I've been waiting for Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna for months now, along with The Magicians (Grossman), Juliet, Naked (Hornby), and The Abstinence Teacher (Perrotta).

As you can tell from book number 16, there may or may not be a wedding in my future. Well, there will be weddings (5 so far this summer. Seriously?) but I suppose my own is in the works. That's right, another one bites the dust. I mean... whoo hoo marriage? Marriage!

Ok, kidding. I'm pretty psyched about it. The engagement was in talks for awhile but then I kind of jumped the gun and proposed to him on the fly. I ambushed him at the door with a loaf of his grandmother's zucchini bread and asked him before he could get both his boots off.

The big bash will be next year sometime, either spring or fall. Yeah, we've got some concrete details down for sure. We've got to save up some money to get things in motion, but I also think it would be helpful to get an idea of how much we need to save also. Which means a guest list, an idea of where things will be, etc.

I don't know if you know this, but I'm a little bit Type A. Ok, more than a little bit. I'm a Type A in Type B clothes. I've slowly begun to realize it in the past few years, but it shouldn't have been any surprise... I mean, I wrote an 80 page paper in college for fun, went to grad school, organized massive community events on a weekly/monthly basis, serve as president of the leadership team where I currently work, etc. Andrew is considerably less Type A than I am, which is nice but I don't want to feel like I'm running things. I feel like my own personality type will feed into the myths about weddings and "brides" that I despise.

I really hate gender stereotyping and the wedding industry is plagued with it in the worst way. Example: We got our fingers sized at a jewelry store so we could order our rings online. I asked all the questions and did the majority of the talking, but upon leaving, the salesperson shook Andrew's hand and not mine because, of course, he's going to be bankrolling the ridiculous diamond bling (These are our rings, btw. No diamonds).

So while most people expect the lady to plan most or all of the wedding (and go crazy about it), I want ours to be planned with equal input and effort and a fair division of labor. This is where my Type A-ness will be difficult because at times I feel like if I don't do something myself, it won't be done right. Generally, not just in relation to this. Andrew's opinion is important to me so I don't want to steamroll him, but that's my general nature. He knows this already, so it's not like it's a surprise. We'll just have to be careful in navigating it.

I'm intriqued and appalled by the wedding industry in general but I feel like it's watching sausages being made. Except at the end you don't have sausages but a marriage. Maybe? Did that metaphor work? Cross out marriage and put wedding. Marriage will be good, wedding will be the sausage. Except I generally like weddings because there are open bars and dancing. Fine, no sausage metaphor.

I just sneezed 4 times in a row. Allergies? No!

Maybe I'll get my hair cut this afternoon. I've been needing it. I think I last got it cut in November.

Official training for the Belling begins next week. It'll be nice to have some kind of structure to my workouts.

Maybe I'll make something different for dinner tonight. Stop by the grocery store after the proposed haircut?

Time to go blow my nose. Bacher out.

books and books

Ugh, I just finished a TERRIBLE book. It was faux-Da Vinci Code in that it was a modern-day mystery novel set around a historical document or event. I won't lie; I enjoy them. Their attempts at historical/theological scholarship always start off about half-right but then the author just takes it to a new, completely hypothetical and 99% inaccurate place. The scholar in me hates that but the reader in me can gloss over it if the plot's good enough.

This book, however, was just terrible writing paired with a predictable and not-too-thrilling plot. Really? Running away to Canada is your exciting chase scene? It started off by being set at the Beinecke, Yale's Rare Book and Manuscript museum. It's a fantastic building with a warm sheen to it - the walls are made from 1 1/4" thick marble which allows for amazing lighting.


He didn't describe the building at all, which makes me even wonder if he went to New Haven at all. Argh, authors not doing their research!

Anyway. In Tongues of the Dead - Terrible. Don't even bother. At least I finished it, making it my 6th book of 2010. Next up is Manhunt: The 12-day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson. The review I read said that it glorifies John Wilkes Booth, even comparing him to Jesus. Why, oh why do I do this to myself?

50/60 books update

I suppose since it's a new year, I should let everyone (heeey Mom) know how the 50 book project went. Every year I track how many books I read cover to cover and aim to read at least 50. In 2007 the first year I attempted, I fell short by 3 books. In 2008, I read 53 books. In 2009, I read 63 books, my most yet. Here's some numbers on the books for you:

July had the most books with 10
February had the least books with 0, followed by December at 2
74% of the books were read after graduating from YDS
6 books were for academic purposes
9 books on teaching
39 books by women
17 books on feminist/GLBTQ topics or themes
11 books on religion
7 books on race
18,109 pages read

Some recommendations from the year:

Speaking of Faith, Krista Tippett
The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich
Loving Frank, Nancy Horan
The Unit, Ninni Holmqvist
A Map of the World, Jane Hamilton

I'd be hard pressed to choose between Loving Frank and The Unit as the favorite for the year. I can't tell you how many times I've referenced Loving Frank (about Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick) in passing conversation, usually ending with "and then they were ax-murdered and the house was set on fire."

For 2010, I've upped my goal to 60. Although I reached that number this year, I was unemployed for several months and went through a lot of books this fall. Although 50 is still ambitious, I would like to continually challenge myself. I'm not sure what the rest of the year looks like, but I'd like to attempt 60 anyway. I've already finished one book - The Family, by Jeff Sharlet.

I'm also contemplating other goals I'd like to achieve this year, but I'm not quite ready to share them yet. It depends on waiting for other people to make decisions about my career. Two weeks from tomorrow!

lime and chili

I just decided never to put my relationship status on Facebook ever again. I spent 10 minutes looking through the profile of a girl from high school because she changed her relationship status from "married" to "it's complicated." I don't need some random person I knew years ago to search through everything I've put online because I randomly (or not randomly) changed a setting online. The people who need to know about my relationship status will know because we're good friends and talk on a regular basis while the people who don't need to will just have to rely on something besides Facebook. Besides, the internet is taking away the fun of high school reunions. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing anyway, so there's no need to go back and have awkward conversations trying to bring up flattering information without looking like a jerk.

I made corn tortillas yesterday. Here's some pictures:


Cookbook, masa flour, soon to be dough


Tortilla balls and my first flattened tortilla.


Cooking in the pan.


Finished product with sour cream, lime and chili pepper seasoned chicken, cheese and cilantro leaves. Delicious. Could have been a little more moist, but overall pretty decent for a first try. I picked up Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday cookbook from the library and have been trying a bunch of those recipes. I made lime ice a few days back, tortillas yesterday, who knows what tomorrow? A lot of the ingredients are similar for dishes, so it was easy buying supplies. I think I'll try a jicama salad tomorrow. I really do love jicama, especially jicama sticks. Mmm. Martha Stewart has jicama sticks with a chili-lime dip, whereas I've just made them seasoned with chili power and lime.

Time to go read. I'm a good chuck into Louise Erdrich's The Plague of Doves, and I like it. I've always enjoyed the weaving and tension between Christianity and Native American religions and the colonial religious repercussions on reservations. I've previously read The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, but this is her latest book.

bikes and books

I'm going to fight someone.

Ok, maybe not someone, but my bike for sure. I wanted to adjust the brakes today, so I wrangled with my front brake for awhile before I realized that it was tight enough. It's a byproduct of the handle design that makes it seem looser than it really is. Booo.

Then I fiddled with the back one for awhile and now I can't seem to get it back to its original tightness. I took a break and checked some stuff online, so we'll give it another go here shortly. I'm frustrated, nonetheless.

No illusions; I am not a bike mechanic.

Ugh. Got to fix the bike quick, so I can grab a book and go read by the lake. I just finished book 25 of the year, which is good. I was lagging behind there for awhile, but I caught up by having only leisure reading and lots of time on the bus. Here are the books I've finished since getting back to MPLS:

• Me and Mr. Darcy, Alexandra Potte
• Speaking of Faith, Krista Tippett
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
• The Hip Hop Wars, Tricia Rose
• The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Ernest Hemingway
• Spanish Lessons, Derek Lambert
• Strawberry Tattoo, Lauren Henderson
• Potential, Ariel Schrag

I'm also doing a much better job of reading more books written by women, people of color and non-straight authors. There's 6 women, one out lesbian and one Black women author. Although I suppose Hemingway kind of stands in the face of all of that... I figure when I read something misogynistic, I might as well go all the way. Hah. I have a big stack of books borrowed that I need to read, but the library books get some priority since they've got a deadline. Yesterday I picked up a Mexican cookbook, one of Ellen's books, the graphic novel by Schrag, and John Hodgman's book. I forgot how great the downtown MPLS library's bookstore is. All of the books they discharge from circulation are sold at cheap prices - most expensive one I saw was $3 (a collection of sermons and lectures by Rowan Williams. I was going to buy it, but no cash and I'm living light these days).

Ok. I need sunlight so I'm giving the bike one more chance to be fixed nicely before I throw it off the back porch.

blaaah!

I went to the farmer's market this morning and came home with an apple pie. Not only did I buy a pie, but Olivia and Amir both bought pies. So we now have three homemade pies in our house. Potentially dangerous and definitely delicious.

Apart from the pies, my day today has slowed considerably in relation to the past 10 or so. I'm not completely done with work, but yesterday was crazy busy and stressful. I'm a relatively laid-back person (ok, completely laid back), but I just about hit the ceiling yesterday. I can only think of one other time before this when I was as stressed as I was yesterday, and then it manifested itself when I burst into tears because I couldn't pass a truck on a 2 lane highway. My body feels physically exhausted from yesterday - the arches of my feet hurt, my legs are sore, I'm out of energy. It's completely out of character for me to be that stressed, and it's interesting my body responded by forcing me to take a break. I was going to anyway, but I'm definitely moving a little slower today. I also haven't gone for a run in a week or so, and I'm betting that hasn't helped my stress level either. Signs of stress around the house include frequent yells/screams, often in the style of the "kittens inspired by kittens" girl, and jumping up and down on our couches and chairs, sometimes everyone at the same time. Yeah, we're cool.

So what did I do yesterday/this week that stressed me so much? Well, I handed in three papers, for starters. One for GLBTQ Pastoral Care, one for Death in Music, Art and Liturgy and one for Film and Liturgy. I wrote my gaycare paper last week, so that was taken care of by Saturday. That one was on GLBTQ youth in rural/small town areas and building community. I wrote my Death paper at the beginning of the week, finishing Tuesday after going to Spring Fling and seeing the Decemberists play. I wrote that one about Imitation of Life (1959) and its depiction of a black ars moriendi (art of dying). Then I wrote my Film and Liturgy paper on The Secret Life of Bees (2008) and how it establishes the domestic as a sacred sphere, in particular, for black women. That one I wrote Thursday and finished on Friday, trying to get it done before the Community Dinner that night. In addition to finishing three papers, I also had a Community Dinner, Div School Idol and an after-party at our house. Friday morning I had to shop for the dinner, then later in the afternoon, pick up the grills and start the cooking, plus arrange the whole thing. Thankfully, I had many helpers and many hands for the task, so I was a little less crazy. I kept getting impatient with the charcoal, wanting it to light faster and be ready faster, but my friend helping me just reminded me that I had to wait for it to light up, it wasn't going to help if I kept spraying it with lighter fluid. Doesn't mean I didn't spray it around at first, cursing the flames.

So today I'm taking a break. I read a book that I picked up last week, The Unlikely Disciple. The author came to YDS and gave a talk/signed books, and it was really interesting. The author did a semester at Liberty University (Jerry Falwell's college) and wrote about his time there, presenting the students in very nuanced and interesting ways. For someone who studies religion and thinks that Christians are often viewed unfairly in simplistic or negative ways, I liked that he didn't take the easy way out and call everyone crazy or sheep-like. I'm now at 13 books for the year, which is technically behind schedule. I imagine the pace picking up once I'm done with schoolwork. Also, out of the last four books I finished (since mid April), 3 of them were for school and the last one is about a Christian college. I do this to myself, really.

Other than that, I might watch a movie? On my self-appointed days off, I almost don't know what to do with myself. This happened at the beginning of spring break, too. I feel like I should be doing work and I don't know how to not do work. I have one paper left to do, and I'm writing it on Jesus movies. It's 8-10 pages and I'm guessing I'll have it done quickly. I've written about Jesus movies so much that it's almost like second nature. It's on an aspect I haven't written about before, so it's still fair game academically. I remember when I was writing my honors project and one day I sat down and just wrote and wrote and wrote. I think I wrote the 40 page section on The Passion of the Christ in 2 1/2 weeks or something... One night I wrote 10 pages on the history of the Christ film like it was nothing. A little scary, but I like to think it means I'm knowledgable.

Kari moved into our apartment this weekend and Mom's in town helping, so I've been getting pictures. I wish I was there and not here driving myself insane. Soon, soon, soon.

Well, I'm going to go eat some pie and watch a movie. What a crazy idea, huh?

randomness

Random thoughts on this very nice spring break Saturday afternoon:

-Need to be careful in rolley chair. Can either get too dizzy from spinning around or unexpectedly roll away from desk while trying to prop up feet, resulting in my feet falling on the ground as opposed to sitting on my desk like expected. The angle of the floor is not kind.

-re: conversation with Tim yesterday. The concept of a person not being whole without another person annoys me. I feel I am complete as a person by myself - I don't need someone else to validate me. Tim agrees.

-Pad Thai. Why does it come with shrimp?

-Gorgeous spring days like this (57 degrees) that make me reconsider my desire to move back to the frozen fields of Minnesota. I have my window open, people.

-I'm finally back to a pre-sickness running pace. I did a 5k distance yesterday and there's the 5k run in town tomorrow that I was originally going to do with Duncan, but I don't think I'm doing that anymore. She's in El Salvador being awesome and monitoring elections and I don't want to overextend myself before the race in Minnesota this Saturday. I want to be in top form so I can beat the pants off of SOME people (coughSarahcough).

-The Yale Club of New York is one place where I will never feel like I fit in or fully comfortable. I'm looking at you, dress code, portraits of presidents, and general pretentious atmosphere.

-My friend Dave knows of some really really delicious restaurants.

-Why do Macs sound like they're eating a disc everytime you put one it? Horrible grinding noise and I think the inside is a portal to another dimension. Most of the time it's not, though.

-I need to work on my 50 books in 2009 list.

-Sometimes I need to take my own advice.

That is all.

Success! 50 books in 45 weeks!

I've done it! I've accomplished my goal of reading 50 books in one year; in fact, I've finished weeks ahead of time. Here are the last 15 or 16 books from my list:

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Truth and Beauty by Ann Pachett
Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows by J.K. Rawling
Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding
Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer
The Art Thief by Noah Charney
Awkward and Definition by Ariel Schrag
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Basic Christianity By John Stott
Discovering an Evangelical Heritage by Dayton
Crazy for God by Frank Schaeffer
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory by Randall Balmer

Italicized means it I read it for school, although the titles kind of give them away. Combined together, I read 14,474 pages with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows being the longest at 759 and the shortest being Awkward/Definition by Ariel Schrag at 84 pages (it's a graphic novel). Women authors made a fairly impressive showing at 21 strong, and although they mostly wrote the fiction books I read, with some exceptions. I'm not too sure on the racial makeup of the authors, but I'm fairly certain most of them are white. I know that Cornel West (Democracy Matters), Khaled Hosseini (A Thousand Spendid Suns), Judith Weisenfeld (Hollywood Be Thy Name), and Barack Obama (Dreams of My Father) are people of color, but I'm not sure of any others. I'm also unsure of the sexual orientation of my authors - unless they state it specifically, I really don't know. Last year I had Dan Savage and Emilie Townes on my list, but I'm not sure about this year. I also had 26 women authors last year, which is more representative of the gender breakdown in society.

So goals for my next 50 books - more diversity in general including, but not limited to, racial, ethnic, gender and sexual orientations.

Huzzah!

When I listen to The Current (Minnesota Public Radio's alternative station), I write down songs that I like, and I kept writing down Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs. Finally yesterday or the day before I bought their latest album and the single Maps, both of which are amazing. I'm in love with Phenomena, Cheated Hearts, Gold Lion and Honeybear. Pretty much everything they have, actually.

My life is so boring and so is this post

I wish I had pictures to post, but they're all stuck on my camera... I think my cord to upload them is at Kari's place. If I could upload them, they'd all be awesome 4th of July pictures showing me having a rockin' time. Woooo!

French 1002 has started up and I've got my first test tomorrow. It's all about food, so at least it's something relatively useful if I ever travel to a French-speaking land - although I'd like to think everything I've learned so far is useful if I ever travel to a French-speaking land.

A few weeks ago I hung out with my former roomies, KT George and Amy. We're hanging out again this weekend and I think we should do it until I leave. Roommate solidarity!

Seriously, if I had pictures this'd be way more interesting.

In other news, I just finished my 39th book of the year, which means I'm way ahead of schedule and only 10 away from completing my goal of reading 50 books cover to cover in one year! Whoo! Right now, I've read over 11,400 pages and the year is just over halfway done. Crazy!

Ok. I promise pictures next time, I swear.

Life without Kari

Kari comes back soon!  I'm not going to lie; my life has been a little stagnant since she left.  Well, not completely boring.  On Friday, Andrew, Drew, Amy, Jeff Matzke and I went over to Katie George's swanky apartment and played board games - Andrew is surprisingly good at Apples to Apples and I'm not sure why.  It might be a fluke.  We'll see.  Then yesterday Drew and I went to the Twin Cities Pride Festival.  They were giving out a ton of free stuff - I got some cool buttons and two reusable grocery bags.  Pretty awesome, if you ask me.  Someone was also selling a "I (heart) MPLS" t-shirt that I wanted, but I'll just have to show my TC love some other way.  

Friday was the last day of the first French session.  Now I have a week off until the second class session starts and I'm going to sleep in every day!  Awesomeness!  It's nice because now we can leave for GB earlier for the badass 4th of July weekend coming up.  Fireworks!

I've been riding one of Kari's bikes around while she's been gone.  The 84 bus that goes up and down Snelling is either 2 minutes early (so I miss it) or 5 minutes late (so I miss my connecting bus to the U and am late for class).  It's only a 20 or 25 minute bike ride, so I'm leaving the house at the same time anyway.  Now that Kari's coming back soon, I'm not sure if she'll want it back and I'll ride her other, shitty bike or not.  Anna and Amy bought some bikes at a trade sale this past weekend, so I'm going to see if after Anna gets it tuned up, if I can ride her extra bike.  It's a road bike so that's a step in the right direction.  I'm planning on buying a bike once I get back to New Haven.  Through craigslist, I found a guy who fixes up bikes as a hobby and I emailed him and he's going to fix one up for me between now and when I get back.  There weren't a ton of bikes for sale when I looked this week so it's kinda nice to have it all taken care of ahead of time.

I'm going to go make hard-boiled eggs from the massive pack that Kari left here.  I can't eat 18 eggs alone, plus I haven't had hard-boiled eggs in a long time.  Ok, May was the last time, but seriously, before that it had been a long time.

50 books update:

Lincoln and Douglas - about the 1858 Lincoln/Douglas senate debates

The Mermaid Chair - pretty good

Right now I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife (KT George lent it to me) and it's pretty good.  Interesting concept and how she structured the book/how the time travel works is interesting.

If anyone wants to read Kari's blog from her trip to Peru, she's been updating it while she's there.  Here is the link:  Peru!

50 books in 2008 update

Last 6 books I've finished:
Have a Nice Doomsday, Nicholas Guyatt
Jesus Freaks, Don Lattin
Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (highly, highly recommend)
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver (love)
The Dracula Dossier, James Reese
This Common Secret, Susan Wicklund

Books waiting to be read:
Plotted, Shot and Painted, J. Cheryl Exum
Breathing for a Living, Laura Rothenberg
The House of God, Samuel Shem
Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush, Eric Boehlert
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco (on my reading list for 5+ years now... the day I finish this will be the day I get a real job)
God's Problem, Bart Ehrman
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, Louise Murphy
I also have Nick Hornby's How To Be Good waiting as standby. I've already read it but I know it's good.

Books I've started but haven't finished:
Shakespeare's Wife, Germaine Greer
The Veil Unveiled: The Hijab in Modern Culture, Faegheh Shirazi
The Call of the Weird, Louis Theroux

Most of the books waiting to be read are library books so I have to have somewhat quick turn around, or at least renew them. Some are from the U library and some are from the Minneapolis Public Library, so the non-U of M books need to be returned in about three weeks. I'm getting a lot of reading time in while I'm on the bus to and from work. It's about a 35-40 minute bus ride, so I get plenty of reading time.

Andrew comes home today!

Long overdue update!

Well, I've successfully handed in papers, moved out of my apartment, flown home to Wisconsin, enrolled at the University of Minnesota and returned to the Twin Cities for the summer... all in the past week.

It was my great grandma's 90th birthday party this past weekend, so I was able to see my extended family for the first time since Christmas, plus we all congregated at a bar with pictures of the pope. Not too shabby, if you ask me.

I wish I could have spent more time in Green Bay, but my summer class started today so I needed to be back. My mom got a cold this weekend, so I could have stayed at home with her to cook her soup and take care of her! We went to downtown DePere for the Memorial Day parade, which was fun. Kari says she wants to be a Civil War re-enactor after seeing them in the parade. I got sunburned.

Today was my first French class since high school. It was pretty good... A lot of stuff I remembered quickly and some I didn't. I looked up my instructor in the U directory and apparently she's not even a PhD student but a Masters candidate. I don't have any problems with her teaching the course or anything, it's just a little depressing that we're at the same education level and she's teaching a class. True, it's Beginning French, but still. She's getting paid to be there and I'm the one paying her. When do I get to start teaching classes? I think I'm going to put together a syllabus on Jesus movies for a teaching opportunity through the residential colleges at Yale. Non-professors apply to teach self-made seminars at the residential colleges, so I'm going to apply for that at the beginning of the year. I'm going to work on my syllabus over the summer and get feedback from the various advisors/professors I've worked with over the years. Take that, French instructor! Just kidding. She seems cool.

I told Kari that after one day of class, I can already tell the difference between MY schools and a public state-school education. hah, it's fun pretending to be elitist. This is the third university I've been enrolled at... lots of fun.

Andrew comes home on Saturday! yay! I'm excited. I miss him.

I've passed the halfway mark for my 50 book goal. I finished Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love before I left New Haven and The Dracula Dossier (soon-to-be-published) the other night. Now I'm 30 or so pages into Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer, a book I've been wanting to read and one that Tessa highly recommended. Exciting. Now that I'm a U of M student, I'm going to get an ID card tomorrow so I can check books out of the library. When I told Kari, she said I was like the guy in Breakfast Club who gets a fake ID so he can vote. At least I'm not committing voter fraud.