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Jul. 26th, 2008
Jul. 25th, 2008
11:35 am - Pretty Things
For the last several days, I have been resisting the urge to buy frivolous things. I don't really need anything in particular at the moment (though more gardening tools would be nice), which is generally a sign that this itch to shop is a "retail therapy" form of restlessness. Instead, I'm guessing that the sensation will dissipate if I have a bit of time to spend pursuing some form of crafting enterprise, whether it's cooking or sewing or drawing pictures. Or even planning out some future expeditions. Or reading something other than Small is Beautiful (contains some good ideas, but it's dragging along).
Part of the problem is that roughly every forty-five minutes, I must get up from my desk to go and watch ants for about 15-20 minutes. So I have just enough time between scans to either fritter my time away or chip away at other projects.
I think the weekend will help all of this.
01:21 am - Hey Mr. Producer
So...
I have completed my first season as an Artistic Director of a professional production company....
I have announced my 2009 season, the first season I've completely created myself, so if this season fails, it's on my head. Trying to 'pay for it' will be a head ache. One musical theatre piece, one rarely done french, one pucinni classic, and then of course a world premier. No, I'm not ambitious.
I'm doing what many of you thought I never could do... and the realization and question remains, did I do it to prove you wrong, or because it's what I wanted?
There have been a couple of guys in my life of late. One old. One new. One young...far too young. Nothing really to report on any of them. One is not attainable, one is not ready to open himself up to me, and the other is just not smart enough to get that I'm the right stuff...lol.
Don't you love that NKOTB are back? Cracks me up.
Jul. 24th, 2008
09:34 pm - Make an Offer.
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )
10:21 am - Next, photographs of some desert food-collecting
The weekend before the insanity all began, my friend L and I went out in search of some delicious mesquite pods. These are a native food that was a staple in the diets of native Americans in the southwest. After getting some experience collecting the pods in Phoenix, I kept on seeing delicious-looking trees down in Tucson and was repeatedly tempted to abandon my hunt for ants, leap out of the truck, and collect tons and tons of pods. Anyway, here's how things went in Phoenix.
Step 1: Locate tree without many pods, and climb up in it to find the few that are ripe:
Step 2: Locate a second tree with beautiful, red-veined pods and pick a whole bunch. Many trees have pods that are yellowish, but the red- or purple-veined pods are much sweeter. If you ever go looking for mesquite pods, I recommend taste-testing every tree that you collect from, to make sure you're getting the best of the best. If you collect, you will want pods that are still on the tree but that are dried out and that make a nice rattling sound. The Sonoran mesquites hybridize readily with Chilean mesquites, so each tree will have slightly different pods. Here are our buckets half-full of pods:
Also, sometimes you might be fooled by non-mesquite trees. Towards the end of our collections, I accidentally ate part of a pod from a non-mesquite tree that was utterly terrible (the branch was dangling down in the middle of a mesquite tree). Fortunately, I figured out that it wasn't any good and spat it out right away.
Step 3: Spread out the pods to dry for a while--you can put them in the oven for an hour (I want to say at about 175 degrees), or, if you live in Arizona, you can spread them out on the back seat of your car, where they will cook quite naturally if you leave your car in a sunny spot for a few hours. [Aside: L has decided that one of these days she's going to bake cookies in her car. Brilliant, no?]
Once the pods are dried out, they will keep for a long time. In November, a hammer mill is going to be brought up from Tucson (at Native Seed/SEARCH), so we can have our pods ground up into flour. Then the REAL fun can begin! I have also just ordered a cookbook that portends to be awesome, called Fruits of the Desert, by Sandal English. My aunt T had a copy, and it has some excellent recipes that use mesquite beans and flour. If it weren't for the fact that I'm tired of going to Tucson, I'd be pretty tempted to go back and collect more pods. But I think that instead I will be focusing my energies on collecting and processing prickly pear fruits.
Inasmuch as I'm kind of depressed about being in Arizona right now, it's things like food-collecting that give me some small comfort and cheer. Oh yeah--I also finally got around to planting some tepary beans in my back yard, too. We'll have to see how they do. My planting is a bit on the late side, but both L and D have also planted some, so we can at least compare notes about our experiences.
10:12 am - Hokay, photographs.
So for the little jaunt from Seattle to Portland (200 miles in 2 days), I brought along my father's voice recorder to dictate notes about things along the ride. We're still working on digitizing the recordings (which include some real gems about putting the "man" in manicure, and about a bicyclist who decided to give up riding in favor of testing out a push mower at a garage sale). However, I've finally gotten caught up with the picture backlog in between the moments when I've been working on research, so here's the first of several photo posts. You'll have to visit the gallery to see the whole set, with captions. I've got the sweetest FrankenBike setup ever.
08:54 am - Selling off my Bruce Campbell collection!!
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )
Jul. 23rd, 2008
11:57 pm - Major League
Funny observation from the movie "Major League" - in the final game against the Yankees, the shortstop on the Yankees is wearing #2.
08:15 pm - Ха!
Чувак разорвал помолвку с девушкой, когда узнал что у той слишком много долгов. Девушка стала судить чувака и выиграла 150 тысяч баксов. Мораль очевидна.
04:40 pm - X-Files
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )
08:31 am - So it's going to be one of those days.
I got to school early, but managed to leave my wallet, planner, and cell phone at home. That might call for a quick jaunt homeward.
06:20 pm
Сдал сегодня теорию без подготовки и ни одной ошибки.
А завтра экзамен, практика на Яблчокова, я не готов и вообще не сидел на мотоцикле несколько лет...
12:30 am - surprise... the irony is that Plato's depiction in this painting is modled after Leonardo DaVinci
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Jul. 22nd, 2008
11:31 am - Regrets: The Long Short Summer
Now that I finally have a bit of time to sit and breathe and think, I can't help but think of everything I've been missing. I had created a lot of plans for my time in Seattle, ranging from picking raspberries to turn into jam to visiting Cafe Flora to doing some shopping. On top of that, my family had made plans to go to Mt. Rainier, where we might have picked huckleberries and thought about my cousin Zack. The third anniversary of his disappearance is coming up. Plus there was the annual family get-together last Sunday, which I haven't been able to attend for the entire time I've been in Arizona.
These are hard things to sacrifice in the name of a small handful of ants. They make me ask myself, how do I get out of this madness? It seems unwise to turn and flee after five years of hard work. Honestly, I can't let myself dwell on it for too long. I will return in wintertime. I must emphasize mesquite pods and astounding sunrises and good friendships instead.
Jul. 21st, 2008
11:35 pm - And you are...?
I may have eaten my first radish tonight. The peppery flavor took me by surprise.
How I got to be this old without coming across a fairly common vegetable, I have no idea.
10:48 pm - Old Great Albums - Alan Parsons, Tales of Mystery and Imagination
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