Real Men Wear Skirts

The local paper today carried a Washington Post article about a new store in Manassas, Virginia, called Kilted Nation. How awesome is that – a whole store dedicated to contemporary kilts for the macho-est of men! The purveyor of this boutique is Brad Hutchins, a former bodybuilder. We’re not talking about traditional plaid Scottish kilts, either; he sells sporty kilts, formal kilts, even “utility” kilts for workmen. All I have to say is that it would take real free-swinging balls to walk around in a man-skirt in public on a regular basis.

Joy! ...and disappointment...

Last night I cooked myself some tasty scallop-and-red-pepper-stuffed tilapia and roasted my first-ever butternut squash.  It was seriously the most fabulous thing I’ve eaten all summer.  I was in such heaven that I ate the entire squash myself.  I even called my mother, who apologized for not feeding me more veggies as a child.  Butternut squash is now at the top of my list for garden additions next spring!

Later on, though, I got a hankering for some ice cream.  I drug the poor DH out of the house on the guise that we needed to drop off my library books, and we headed to my favorite place, Sheridan’s, for a hot fudge custard sundae.  I’ve become spoiled; this is the best ice cream (OK, frozen custard) I’ve ever had.  But alas, it was closed!  So DH suggested Dairy Queen, and in a fit of stupidity, I agreed.  Mistake!  It was awful.  I’m totally ruined by Sheridan’s and now DQ is just not a viable substitute.  Drat.

Today, I’m joining two local guilds: the Child Saving Institute Guild and the Girls Inc. GirlFRIENDS.  As a first year active in the Junior League of Omaha, I think this is a great time to put myself out in the community and see what I can do to help.  I’m already signed up to help the CSI Guild at their Touch-a-Truck event next weekend, so we’ll see how that goes.  If nothing more, I’m donating money to two very good causes.  I’ve got two friends on the GirlFRIENDS board, so I also know that I’ll enjoy the company during events. J

 

 

It came from afar...

I’m eating pineapple.  Yeah, it’s definitely not local, but sometimes you just need foreign fruit.  I made myself ill eating peach crisp last week (in a good stuffed-like-its-Thanksgiving kind of way), and I spend the weekend slapping ginger-peach jam on slices of bread.  I needed a local-fruit break. J  Just a brief holiday, I swear.

So, I found a stick in the yard that the DH hadn’t got around to throwing out – yea!  A new compost bin stirrer!  J  The compost badly needed to be stirred…and it badly needs more “browns”.  It’s more than a little stinky – it’s gag-inducing bad right now.  Unfortunatley a lot of our paper waste is colored, and we don’t get the newspaper.  I’ll have to dig through the newspaper recycling bin at work for some black-and-white print…

 

Spoken Morse Code is the most annoying sound ever

Someone in my office found the need to verbally recite Morse Code patterns today, and I’ve been bitching about it every since.  Why on Earth anyone would need to do this is beyond me.  This individual then proceeded to find some recorded clips of Morse Code on the internet and played them for us.  For 20 minutes.  If I wasn’t allowed to wear my ipod during work hours, I don’t know what I would do.  Probably drag my desk into the hallway…

So anyways, not the greatest start to my work week! J  The weekend was pleasant enough, though.  Met some friends for drinks on Friday night, helped with a charity road race on Saturday morning (where this cute little high school boy tried so hard to impress me with his knowledge of Christian rock and boxing – it was adorable), then headed to the West O farmer’s market.  I still have plenty of stuff left from last week, so I decided to branch out a little, buying my first butternut squash and a very large beet – the latter I was promised could be wrapped in foil and baked like a potato…we’ll see.  Saturday afternoon was spent in my yard pulling up sod from around the house and putting down weed-guard fabric and mulch.  It was the most beautiful day we’ve had in a long time – about 80 degrees and sunny.  SO much better than the near-100 temps we’ve had recently, and it wasn’t raining for the first day in a week.  The weather only got better as the day stretched into evening – the DH and I spent most of the night in midtown at Dundee Days.  My friend Maria was celebrating her birthday and this was obviously the place to be – great music, cheap beer, sitting under the stars watching little kids try to dance.  The first band we’ve seen before:  Oxygen, a Dave Matthews-esque jam band that does an awesome cover of the Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic.”  The second band was a swing band, the Prairie Cats.  They were amazing, and Maria kept dragging guys up to dance with her – I guess she takes a swing class…  No chance of getting the DH to do that, I’m sure. J  The third band was…I’m not sure, actually, because by that point, the fact that there were 2 port-a-potties for well over a thousand people convinced me that we needed to retire for the evening.  J  I’m not a fan of public facilities, especially not ones without running water.  Ew. 

Sunday was spent curling my hair for the Diva Soma Corps photo shoot, then heading out with ML and pals to the local comedy club to see the Erotic Hypnotic himself, J. Medicine Hat.  Word to the wise, if you’re going to be hypnotized, don’t do it in front of co-workers.  Or your mother.  What are these people thinking?!? 

 

Dude, you're so lucky!

That’s what the DH’s new band mates were telling him last night.  It seems every time they’ve come over (last night was practice #5), I’ve been cooking something or have been otherwise occupied in the kitchen.  Last night I made peach crisp with the last of the weekend’s peaches. (More on the way apparently – my lovely mother-in-law is dropping off bags of frozen peaches and cherries from their yard this weekend).  Let me tell you, peach crisp and vanilla ice cream is the breakfast of champions!  But I digress…

I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately.  Between chopping, peeling, blanching, boiling, canning, stir-frying, and baking, we’ve gone through quite a bit of really great food this summer.  I guess that’s what happens when you limit the conventional convenience foods and cook with fresh, local ingredients.  

I’ve always been a little food-obsessed.  I’d rather be in a supermarket than a mall – even just to window-shop.  When my second-grade art teacher introduced us to collages, I pasted together photos of food and built my own grocery store.  Since food is pretty much on my mind at all times, I figured it was best to start focusing on “real” food – fresh veggies and fruits, meat and dairy from happy cows, etc.  I can’t say it’s doing much for my waistline, but my digestive system and conscious are all the better for it. 

I just hope the DH doesn’t think this is a result of my donning the title of “wife”!  I enjoy cooking, but all motivation escapes me the moment I am expected to perform.  He better just enjoy the good life while it still captivates my attention – and he better keep up on the dishes!

 

Let's Jam!

Only slightly delayed by the tornado warning in our area last night, I managed to knock out 8 small jars of peach-nectarine jam. I was inspired by Crunchy Chicken’s ginger-peach preserves, so I added some candied ginger to each jar as well. The jars sealed correctly, so I’m crossing my fingers that the jam sets up this time! I’m still working my way through the peach syrup from my last jamming session!

I used a couple more of the nectarines for dinner – I made this amazing Hoisin-Marinated Steak with Nectarine Salsa! Mmmm… As a side, the DH made some broccoli and cheese, and I sautéed some multi-colored string beans (have you ever seen purple string beans before??? I haven’t…). A very good meal. The steaks were purchased from the farmer’s market, as well as most of the veggies (the tomatoes and peppers were from my garden). I think the DH is warming up to local food – he didn’t flinch when I brought up a CSA membership next spring, even inviting me to make a compelling case for our participation. I think I’m winning this one… J

Unfortunately the storm threw my evening schedule out of whack entirely, so all I really got accomplished was the jam. No reading, no Wardrobe Refashion. L However, I did make a little progress cleaning up the basement, as we sat out the sirens below ground!

One of THOSE weekends

Exhausted on Monday, as usual.  It was a busy weekend, mostly good, some definitely bad.  My poor baby-dog was still sick on Friday afternoon when I got home.  To add insult to injury, the DH and decided to finish the dog’s haircut (it’s starting to become a two-day project – he squirms and whines too much) then give him a bath.  Then he threw up again.  It quickly became a low-key stay-at-home kind of night, watching movies on the couch and following Ryker around with a towel in case he yacked on anything else.  

My parents showed up later that night and we all woke bright and early to head to a charity fun-run.  Yes, we are one of those silly families that goes to road races for fun! J  This one wasn’t bad – it was the 2-year anniversary of the first race my now-husband/then-new-fiancé had ever done.  Plus my sister and nephew joined us and we got to check out the Lincoln Farmer’s Market.  Wow, what a selection!  Heirloom tomatoes and a rainbow of peppers like you wouldn’t believe; the Old Market FM doesn’t carry this much variety.  It was hard to comparison shop, but I got a great deal on multiple pounds of peaches and nectarines, plus some peppers, onions, an odd cucumber, raspberries, and some ground lamb.  We sampled salsas, fruit butters, fish, root beer, and ostrich meat.  

Saturday night started off good, as we headed out for ML’s birthday party, but ended poorly – the DH and I got into an argument at the bar, effectively ruining any fun I’d been having.  I won’t go into details, but neither of us was happy until the next day…we’ve made up.  As usual, we tried to find the positive aspects of this fight – what things we could use to make our relationship stronger, as well as what NOT to do during a fight!  Oh, well – all’s well that ends well, and hopefully ML is not too grumpy with us for staging the whole thing during her bar crawl… J

Sunday was a bit more relaxed.  I did yard work, finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (I highly recommend it!), and worked on a new Wardrobe Refashion project while waiting for ML to come over.  We went out for sushi to celebrate her actual birthday as well as the fact that she passed her Roller Derby skills assessment!  Woo-hoo- way to go! 

 

 

One Sick Puppy

I’m an awful pet parent.  There was a story in the local news about a vicious canine virus circling our area, and the vaccine every dog needs to prevent it.  I immediately rushed Ryker to the vet for this shot, with the blessing of the DH.  The vet warned me to keep the dog under observation for a few hours, in case he turned out to be the 1 in 5 dogs to have a bad reaction from the vaccine…  Well, he was the 1-in-5, and several hours later, he got pretty violently ill.  I was up all night with him, washing our bedding and towels and following the poor dog around the house to make sure he didn’t puke on anything I couldn’t clean.  By 5 a.m., everything was out of his system, and I fell asleep.  Needless to say, I didn’t make it to work on time this morning.

I had my dear sweet husband call the vet – turns out this story was propagated by the manufacturer of the vaccine and most dogs do not in fact need it.  Generally, the DH is under the opinion that the benefits of vaccinations far outweigh the risks, but this was not the case here.  A 20% chance of allergic reaction should have been our first clue.  I am very not-happy right now – both with the drug company for needlessly pushing a medication with such high risks (and I’m sure they thought it was OK, since it was only a DOG vaccine and not for HUMANS!), and with myself for not researching the issue a little more.  I just hope Ryker won’t hold a grudge.

Dude, your wife is kinda weird...

That’s the thought I’m sure was rolling through the minds of my DH’s guests last night.  He had some guys over from a new band – they’re looking for a drummer – and I had decided to keep myself busy in the kitchen while they jammed downstairs.  When they arrived, I was deep into a salsa canning session, as well as baking zucchini bread, and working on an embroidery project.  I’m sure any one of those activities would have made me look like a good little housewife, but I was doing all three at once.  Add to that the fact that I had two loads of laundry drying on the clothesline when they all ventured out onto our back deck, and I’m sure they were surprised I was wearing shoes. 

Is all this stuff I do now weird?  I guess it is all pretty traditional and domesticated, but I’m not doing any of it because I have to – I’m having fun!  Cooking, baking, sewing, and making things are just hobbies to me.  

I ended up canning 10 jars of salsa – 8 pints and 2 half-pints.  I made 5 mini-loaves of zucchini bread from the last of my garden zucchini – had to sent the poor zucchini plant off to an early grave.  I finished the embroidery project I mentioned, but that’s it as far as sewing-related goodness goes.  I wanted to start on a skirt to match the top I did as my first Wardrobe Refashion, but I also had to spend a good portion of my evening comforting the schnauzer-mutt who was totally freaked out by the sounds of death metal radiating from our basement.  I’m not sure our place is the best practice space…

 

Just the two of us...

My DH and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary this weekend. Despite the enormous array of things that we could have been doing with other people, we decided to just spend the weekend together, obligation-free. For me this meant saying no to helping with the grand opening of the new belly dance studio, which was very hard to turn down as this is my favorite extracuricular...but I figured that my sweet DH turned down 8 potential gigs with his (former) band for Saturday night, so the least I could do was be "us-selfish" instead of "me-selfish" and do the same. I think it was a good decision - we had one of the best weekend we've had in a while. We started Thursday night with a picnic at Jazz on the Green - I secured us a great spot by showing up hours early with a blanket. We continued on Friday night with the YAP Art Crawl (with ML and Ev), hanging out in the Old Market with a bottle of wine for a few hours afterwards. Saturday was filled with walking the dog through the Farmers Market, doing house stuff together, and then heading back to the OM for dinner and a carriage ride.

Local band A. Symbiot was playing at a West O club, so we met up with some friends there...unfortunately I overstuffed at dinner and was nearly dozing off during the show - quite the task considering we were in a loud smoky bar with blaring live music... :)

Sunday we celebrated our actual anniversary date by eating the wedding cake that's been sitting in our freezer since last August...for year-old cake, it wasn't bad! We then drove South to help out at the Raven's Nest 5k, a dauntingly muddy and hill-packed trail run. For a 5k, it was a doozy! We assisted with pre-registration and then headed out on the trail - I took 3rd in my age group. Woo-hoo! :) A nap was in order upon our arrival home, at least for the DH - I spent my late morning/early afternoon chopping veggies for salsa and making coleslaw from my FM bounty. We attempted to spend the evening at the Plain White Tees free concert, but a brutal thunderstorm rolled through town after we had barely sat down. The 3 hour rain delay was longer than we were willing to sit in the car, so we headed home for the night. Other than that slight disappointment, I'd have to say it was a pretty good anniversary weekend - it will be hard to top for sure!

Shopping without plastic bags

Last night my DH and I managed to buy over $140 worth of groceries without acquiring a single plastic bag.  J  There were a few items that didn’t make it into bags, but for the most part, everything fit into our 4 nylon bags and my net farmer’s market bag.  I was amazed – I thought for sure we would have to get a couple of plastic bags, but nope!  The DH was embarrassed, for sure, but we went through the self-checkout aisle in the first store, and in the second store we only bought 4 items, which we just carried out by hand.  So it can be done, and he is willing to put up with it “because he loves me”.  Well, that works for me – the ability to put up with my wacky ideas is one of the many reasons I love him too.

 

Here we go!

Tonight will be our first grocery expedition since I purchased the reusable bags – I’m a little nervous as to how the DH will react.  When I first got them and proudly help up a bag, he turned a little pale.  Great.  He was all amenable to the idea when I first broached it…back when it was just an idea, I guess!  But when it became a reality, his demeanor was not quite to accommodating…  We may be going through self-checkout for this first trip! J 

As much as I’ve loved local eating, I will say that I’m looking forward to buying a couple of items I shunned during July that aren’t available here – good yogurt for example (I couldn’t stomach the local stuff, unfortunately), as well as maybe a pineapple…they just don’t grow those here in Nebraska! J

I'm ruined!

Ack!  My taste buds have evolved!  Crappy food no longer tastes good!  Now, I’m sure that this is a good thing, of course, but it’s almost disappointing…  You know how you have a favorite childhood food – some horribly processed junk food – that you remember tasting so good?  And then you eat it as an adult and it’s just not as good as your memory of the food?  I don’t know if it’s because the company that makes said over-processed-but-delicious crap changed their recipe and the food truly doesn’t taste the same, or if your taste buds mature and develop the ability to reject such junk and appreciate the finer culinary thing in life.  I’ve had this happen with several foodstuffs I loved as a kid.  But now it’s happened in such a short period of time I can almost pinpoint the second it happened (let’s say July 24, 2:37 PM, just for fun).  Junk food – cheap candy, soda pop, packaged baked goods, and the like – rather suddenly do not taste good to me.  It must be all the fresh food and homemade goodies I’ve been indulging in this summer.  Or it could be some sort of taste bud-brain connection now that I’m paying more attention to the ingredients that go into our commercially produced food.  Either way, I’m eating much healthier and consciously.  This is something I plan to continue as much as possible, but every once in a while, you just want JUNK!  And now that rare processed-crap treat is ruined for me.  I’m sad. :P

On the other hand, my homemade salsa rocks!

 

On the bright side...

Well, my overbooked weekend was really stressful and not a lot of fun.  I’m very tired today, but it’s not the usual “I had so much fun, I can barely move” exhaustion that I typically exhibit on Monday mornings; it’s more of a “this better get better fast” worn-out and grumpy tiredness.  Oh, well.  Not that it was all bad this weekend; in fact, I think that despite all the unpleasantness, we might actually come out ahead after the smoke clears.

What happened, you might ask?  Let’s review the bad stuff, and then I’ll try to find the silver lining:

Friday night we had a belly dance performance at the PS Collective.  I did a solo.  As I climbed onto the stage, I started to realize that I could not for the life of me remember how my choreography started.  The song has no intro – I start dancing on the first beat, but I could not recall what I was supposed to do.  Man, that was embarrassing.  The bright side?  I was forced to smile big and improv and no one would admit that they could tell a difference.  Phew.  Plus we got some exposure to a new audience, since most patrons were there for the bands…

Saturday night, my DH decided to part ways with his band.  He played drums for this band since Thanksgiving, and while he thoroughly enjoyed the experience, some recent events lead him to the decision that this was the best time to walk away.  The bright side?  He is free to pursue original music (they were a cover band) and I no longer have to spend my weekends in smoky bars listening to the same 3 sets.  We’ll be able to spend more time together, with less stress and heavy lifting (although I was becoming quite the roadie!).   

On the way home from his final gig that night, we got pulled over!  I can’t even remember the last time I was stopped, but here we were in the middle of nowhere digging out registration and proof of insurance…  The bright side?  No ticket and the cop let us know that a rear brake light was out.  The light itself was not a “bright side” exactly, but the fact that the brilliant man I married had salvaged the light bulbs from the last tail light he accidentally busted, and was able to fix the problem himself for free – that’s definitely bright! J

Sunday morning, ML and I sprinted away from the starting line for our second Lake Wehrspann 10k.  We did it last year, and a full 12 months must have been enough to dull the painful memories of the first attempt, because this was a long, agonizing run!  I pulled my right quad and my hips got so stiff that I could barely stand up or sit down without some major effort.  The bright side?  This was #6 of my 8 qualifying races for the Run the Magnet series I am doing for the 2^nd year in a row.  I finished in under an hour and I’m not limping too badly…

Other bad things include a monster headache, a messy kitchen from salsa making, and our treadmill going on the fritz this morning…

So, a not-so-good weekend, but I think we’ll be all the better for the experience…

Let me throw in a couple of all-good happenings, so I don’t seem like too much of a whiner:

I made salsa!  I never had before, and I not only made up a huge batch, I also canned it with my new (old) canner.  I have 4 pint jars of super-spicy almost-all local salsa in my pantry now, and we’ll try it out tonight.  All of the tomatoes were from my garden, the peppers (bells, sweet, and jalapeño) onions, and garlic from a local farmer’s market, and the cilantro was a garnish on my chicken lettuce wraps at a local food-fest we attended yesterday.  I think the idea of his wife wrapping up free herbs in a napkins and stuffing them in her purse while at a public event was less embarrassing for the DH than the thought that I would otherwise spend our money buying the same herbs later, although not by much. 

The DH and I completed a project together without screaming or breaking anything in frustration.  The space under our deck was overgrown with weeds and the lattice we threw up when we moved in was starting to look pretty sad – we never quite finished the initial intended project.  So Saturday morning, we pulled down the fencing, and yanked out all the weeds.  We graded the surface, put down weed-control fabric, some pretty red mulch, and voila!  It looks much nicer and now I can landscape the rest of the yard without this eyesore in the corner.  This was one of the few times we’ve done any kind of home-improvement effort without a major fight.  Very cool!

I’m looking forward to a pretty boring week as we rest up for our anniversary next weekend…hopefully drama-free!

What was I thinking?!? Overbooked as usual

Our weekends are seldom boring around here.  Exhausting, maybe, but never without excitement.  After a late night of Jazz on the Green, I got an early start today so that I can rush home and prepare for a belly dance performance tonight.  Some of the Divas are dancing a set between two bands at the PS Collective tonight.  One of the bands, Soul Plexus, I know and like.  The other, Space Age Polymers, I’ve never heard of, but am looking forward to seeing what they have to offer.  The DH has offered to meet me there after he gets off his late shift, but I’m hoping I can just meet him at home – we were both up late last night and have a busy day tomorrow.  In the morning, we’re headed to the farmers market, then to do some fun-and-exciting yard work.  The area under our deck has taken on a life of it’s own and I’d really rather not show it off during our planned late-August party.  If we have time after that, we might head out to the Taste of West Omaha festival (or put it off till Sunday…).  There will definitely be a nap in store for Saturday afternoon, after which we will head to the Woodcliff Corral near Fremont, NE for the SideCar 69 gig.  I’m bringing a pillow for the ride home – I will definitely need to sleep while I can, as ML and I signed up for a majorly hilly 10K early Sunday morning.  That wasn’t smart. J  Then, if I can still move, I’ll sew for a while, or finish yard work.  If I can’t move, I can read for a few hours.  This Sunday is Super Diva Sunday, our once-monthly all-troupe meeting and practice.  Since the grand opening of the studio is next weekend, I’m guessing it will be more meeting than practice – we’ll probably be cleaning and preparing the studio.  Yea.  Who doesn’t love cleaning?  (That would be…ME!)

I’m already tired and the weekend isn’t even here yet!  I don’t want to even think about next weekend  - the Art Crawl, our anniversary, another race, and a concert…

 

 

Local Food Month Wrap-up

Well, August is here, and Local Food Month is officially over.  Not that I’m running to the imported section of the grocery store anytime soon or anything…

I’d say overall it was a fairly fun and successful month of local eating.  I didn’t make it to the farmers market every weekend, as I took a couple of road trips, but I did explore a couple of different farmers markets around town, as well as roadside stands, and my DH even got into the act with a local cantaloupe surprise.  Ooh, and our garden is bursting with zucchinis and tomatoes now, so much that we’re almost a little sick of them!  (Almost…) 

For the most part, I was able to limit myself to local meat, veggies, dairy, and bread.  This wasn’t the case on either of my roadtrips, nor so much when my mother visited, or we went to brunch with the in-laws, but as those occassions were intended to be fun I didn’t jump up on my local food soapbox and lecture everyone…

One of the best moments during LFM was talking to the founder of the Village Point Farmer’s Market while I was helping out at our Junior League HIP Kids booth.  Here a great (ugh!) photo of me at the booth.  This gentleman was one of the most enthusiastic promoters of the locavore lifestyle that I’ve ever talked to in person.  He was so excited to hear about LFM and went running back to the main booth to bring me magazines, fridge magnets and other resources.  

Another great moment was eating the first cherry tomato out of the garden.  Wow!  I’m not usually a fan of plain tomotoes, preferring them to mix with other flavors, but this was unbelievably good!

I’m completely sold on the locavore diet.  Thanks for the challenge, Crunchy Chicken!