« February 2007 | Main | April 2007 »
March 29, 2007
No Impact Man
"For one year, my wife, my 2-year-old daughter, my dog and I, while living in the middle of New York City, are attempting to live without making any net impact on the environment. In other words, no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets… "
Posted by lisa at 08:54 AM
March 27, 2007
h'uhwh'a?
so my house is like...
...clean.
i mean, as clean as it ever gets. cleaner than usual. and that includes the outside.
i just have this weird feeling like there isn't that much hanging over me. i mean, there is, but i'm just not feeling it right now.
weird.
i guess what it is, is that my mom is going to see the house, and my brother the landscaper/horticulture student is going to see the yard, and i don't see anything that's going to embarass the heck out of me when they get here. they could walk in the door right now and i would be all like, have a seat! want something to drink? oh, you have to see how cute the back porch looks. etc. like an adult.
Posted by lisa at 09:57 PM
March 26, 2007
the retribution of the bees
today after work, i mowed the back yard, removing the vast majority of the purple flowers.
as i sat down to eat dinner in front of the tv, i picked up the tivo remote, and was stung instantly by a wasp i didn't see.
DON'T FUCK WITH ANYTHING THAT HAS A STINGER, MAN.
Posted by lisa at 07:09 PM
March 25, 2007
it's honeybee time
over the course of the weekend i did many things, most of them today. the result is a clean house (as clean as it ever gets, anyway), and an ever more hospitable screen porch, and two reasonably respectable looking cars (from the outside, anyway).
i put up some little twee lights on the back porch, the kind of lights that are sort of inherently janky (a word that keeps repeating in my mind like a bad song) but i've installed them in a non-janky way so hopefully the jankiness and non-jankiness will cancel each other out.
this evening i watched who killed the electric car? (my personal favorite moment is the guy with the hummer who says the problem with the EV-1 is that no one is going to want a car that you can't pimp out and show off), and now i'm watching my Ultimate Nightmare Battle on Iron Chef America: Battle Chicken Egg. NYAAAGH!
i also decided to try margarine as a replacement for butter on toast and stuff. the result, because i have lame supermarket bread, is similar to moist paper. sigh. there really is no substitute for butter.
Posted by lisa at 11:15 PM
March 20, 2007
Equinox
it is (very nearly) spring. just under an hour, the vernal equinox will officially occur. another pink world has its spring clothes on.
funny, just today i was thinking how nice fall is. for some reason i always long for a season other than the current one.
that doesn't mean i won't enjoy driving around with the top down this week.
Posted by lisa at 11:08 PM
March 19, 2007
laying poly
i crouched awkwardly over the small section of floor that had to be brushed by hand with polyurethane. i had to finish before i could move, or the poly might not go on correctly.
me: i'm going to fart.
j: ha ha! is it going to be a big smelly one?
me: YES.
and a short while later...
me: you'll notice that i sacrificed my dignity in favor of your floor.
J: yes, that was very good of you.
Posted by lisa at 11:03 PM
March 16, 2007
My first 'vogs
For the longest time I thought my first pair of Fluevogs were the black Angels I bought back in the '90's, but a current ebay auction leads me to believe that that is not true.
When I was in college (which was well prior to the time in my life when I could afford to buy a pair of new Fluevogs), a friend who was from Boston gave me a pair of very pointy black shoes-- shoes that looked exactly like the shoes above. They had belonged to her sister originally.
I loved those shoes. They were so pointy! So odd! I wore them until one of the heels started falling off, and then i'd keep wearing them and slap the heel back on whenever it came off.
I think a few years ago I gave them to a thrift store, sadly. Now I really wish I'd kept them. I never cottoned on to the fact that they might be Fluevogs-- by the time I received them, any markings inside the shoes had been worn away.
Posted by lisa at 08:16 AM
Durham was once filled with people
I don't read Endangered Durham religiously, but I do like to catch up or at least look at all the pictures about once a week.
The author says, "I have to throw in this picture," and indeed, I am so very pleased that he did. It's of downtown Durham in the late 1940's, and the street is completely filled with people! I don't know if it's part of a holiday event, or if people were just Christmas shopping, or what, but I have never seen a gathering like this in Durham, ever. It's like Times Square on New Year's Eve. Wow.
Posted by lisa at 07:58 AM
March 15, 2007
From Treehugger: just start bailing!
"Why do we debate whether Kyoto targets are achievable? If your boat is sinking, do you worry about whether this or that rate of bailing is achievable? No. You start bailing for all you’re worth, and if you’re not making it, you bail faster."
Posted by lisa at 10:38 PM
March 13, 2007
RIP, Bob Groves: The Starlite was your life
The owner of the Durham Starlite Drive-In, Bob Groves, died Friday, March 9, 2007.
This is very sad. I had been thinking of going to the Starlite soon, with the nice weather. Bob worked at drive-in theaters from the time he was 13 years old, living in Cumberland, MD. He'd been running the Starlite since at least the 70's, I believe. With Bob's passing, I imagine the future of the Starlite is uncertain. For the sake of Durham and Bob's memory, I hope it passes to new owners who continue to operate it as a drive-in.
I am very, very sad.
Posted by lisa at 11:35 AM
March 12, 2007
Moses helped
My favorite photo of the weekend:
I didn't see the gnome-tipping incident happen. I just looked over, the gnome was somehow, mysteriously, laying on his little plastic side, and moses was intently progressing away from the scene of the "crime".
Posted by lisa at 11:38 PM
the dark people have left my land
farmer girl, 2007. the fine weather and lack of injury, illness, and other (more pleasant) distractions this weekend was duly taken advantage of.
mowing, tilling (by hand), clearing branches and logs, planting caladium rhizomes, cleaning up the shade bed, and sowing cool weather seeds - spinach and salad - were all accomplished.
saturday was hard work day, sunday was a peaceful day, with work, yes, but more quiet. sunday i cooked up big batches of food, veggie marinara, roasted root vegetables, and rosemary pork loin. then in the evening i baked apple bread. i cleaned all the freezer burnt crap out of the freezer and stocked it neatly with small, clearly labeled packages of the things i'd made.
with care, i could live easily for a month on the food i have in the house now. i still have many fresh vegetables that need to be made into things and frozen, but that will have to wait until Pi day is over, because i've decided to try my hand at making pie from scratch. tomorrow evening will be occupied with the rolling, fitting, filling, and baking of this pie.
oh. the title of my post. while i was turning the soil in my herb and vegetable garden, i saw no earthworms. not one. it was quite disturbing. one wonders if there's something amiss in that bed. i did transfer a couple of wigglers from the shade bed (where they seem very happy) into the main garden.
today i celebrated having usable daylight after work by mulching the big beds in the back yard. i have to say that i'm glad they moved the time change up. i like having light in the evening.
it's supposed to be nearly 80 tomorrow. this is why i own a convertible.
Posted by lisa at 10:43 PM
the kitty who turned into a pea
this occurred to me this morning when moses curled up into a perfect ball next to me.
there once was a kitty
who turned into a pea
so he could go
walking around with me
he curled into a ball
and then he turned smooth
and then he turned green
and then very small
my little pea-kitty!
i put him in my pocket
we went to the store
we went to the sea
we rode on the train
under the city
and when we came home
he was still with me
i put him on the bed
and he grew big, and brown
and quite furry
he said to me: Maiow!
and we talked of the day
the store, the sea and the city.
Posted by lisa at 08:56 AM
March 10, 2007
the Very Crowded Bistro
i kind of have the use of my finger again. it's not healed but i started using one of those really teeny little bandaids instead of a big one, and somehow this translates into being able to type normally again.
:|:
last weekend was the weekend of walkable bistros. friday night j and i walked to a place near his house, a small place but comfortable (except for the bar). the food was a little disappointing but the atmosphere was nice.
saturday night we had a late-ish reservation at a place that just opened in an old diner across the street from J's house. we walked in and the place was both incredibly tiny and incredibly jammed. every table, every seat at the bar was taken. a waiter took our names and we sat on a little bench to wait.
then in came the ass people. the large group of people who all tried to stand in the tiny available space in front of our little bench. it was like the reverse of a clown car. first two women came in. then two more people. no, three. no, here comes four. five. jesus. and they were all these well-dressed, shallow yuppie types.
the women with their asses closest to my face were talking about an exercise class. i remember one of them saying, i hear the downward dog is really good. heh.
so about thirty minutes after our reservation time, we finally get a chance to grab seats at the bar and they give us a beer on the house. as we're contemplating a second beer, they tell us our table is ready and proceed to show us to the worst table in the house.
yes, even in the world's tiniest fancy restaurant, there's a bad table, and it's a doozy. it's dead in the middle of the single row of tables, it's about five inches away from the table next to it, and that five inch space is occupied by a metal pole.
at the table on the other side of the pole was an oddly mis-matched couple. J later diagnosed them as being on an internet date, and i was inclined to agree. the man looked exactly like steven spielberg and was dressed quite badly. the woman was very fit, and tan, and was wearing a clingy tiger-print dress that revealed an amount of her impressive cleavage that some might consider excessive. for instance, the person sitting next to her might feel endlessley confronted by the excess of her bosoms.
i spotted a much nicer table being cleared and asked if we could sit there. as we sat happily at the better table J said good work, girlfriend.
then we saw them seat a big, big guy at the pole table. a guy J said he recognized. we looked him up later; he's on the local city council. i realized we'd displaced this man whom all the staff had recognized. i felt a little bad, but then he and his preppy companion struck up a conversation with the young women sitting between them and us (not the breast lady, who was quite enthralled with her conversation with steven spielberg), and they seemed to be quite content.
so the food was actually amazing. probably the best restaurant meal we've had together. we started with their version of shrimp and grits-- the grits were made with chorizo, and the shrimp were just really good. J had beef tenderloin with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus (i think), which doesn't sound as special as it was. i had flank steak with risotto which also doesn't sound as special as it was. and then we shared a piece of macadamia cheesecake.
we stayed for a long time, and made snarky comments about everyone there, and left very happy.
Posted by lisa at 11:38 PM
March 06, 2007
spring cleaning
oop, i wrote this but never posted it...
i don't know why, but getting my teeth cleaned today was a completely miserable experience. there was really nothing different about it; no cavities, no fresh tortures. just the same old ones.
:|:
spring won't be here officially for another two weeks, but i really feel like spring cleaning. the house, the garden, the cars... i want to get a lot done. i've even started pondering the possibility of using more of my (largely untapped) home equity line for more substantial improvements to the house.
Posted by lisa at 02:50 PM
March 01, 2007
asceticism update
that's... a joke. this diet is anything but ascetic, really.
i'm still frequently hungry, but after i learned to get a balance of macronutrients in each meal, and spread the points out more evenly, the painful hunger was gone. for the most part, it's tolerable and doesn't really bother me.
last week i saved up all my "splurge points" and then took J out to dinner at the angus barn saturday night. i had so many points that i could consume that night that i thought there was no way i could eat them all in one sitting. well, in part due to being seated a half hour after our already late reservation, and in part due to the angus barn being what it is, i proved myself wrong. oop.
anyway, learning experience. don't try to eat all the weekly points in one night, and be at least a little strategic when dining out.
this week i made the interesting discovery that i can have my favorite jesus chicken meal at lunch and still have enough points for a reasonable dinner. however, i'm not likely to meet the guidelines for veggies and fruits for the day if i do. i'm not sure how i feel about this. can i really lose weight eating that stuff? and even if i can-- is it really a good idea? probably not. that means it's something i shouldn't do often, and it will simply take self-control to avoid it.
anyway, i have lost some weight, and it is all i hoped it would be in terms of flexibility. i love that i can eat cereal and pasta and bread on this diet. i eat a lot less meat and don't really miss it. i am much more acutely conscious of saturated fats than i used to be.
my plan to start swimming is on hold until my finger no longer needs a bandage. next week i have got to work on getting up earlier in the mornings so i can exercise. that will be a job of work.
oh, and tonight for dinner i had a grilled cheese sandwich and chicken noodle soup. it was a happy rainy night meal.
crazy.
Posted by lisa at 10:21 PM