Butternut disaster

Last night was the second time Brad and I and our friends Joel and Bekka met for dinner party club (man, we really need to think more about what to call this - really, "dinner party club"? Ew). Since Bekka and I cooked last time Brad and Joel were up yesterday. When I came home in the afternoon I peeked in Brad's grocery bag and was a little bit shocked to see not pizza dough or hamburger buns or taco shells, but butternut squash, red onion, and artisan bread. I had been wondering how things would turn out, because we have two guys who eat meat and don't do much cooking, and two girls who don't and love to cook, but the groceries showed a lot of potential for vegetarian delights.

When Bekka and Joel got here the ladies sat at the table eating an appetizer of bread and several bread dipping options served in ramekins (Brad: "Joel, we're going to put this stuff in ramekins." Joel: "A ramekin? What's a ramekin?" Bekka: "Joel, you know, like the big white one I have." Joel: "A ramekin? What's that?" Repeat.) I had just decided to get out the camera and take a picture of the boys in the kitchen when, while attempting to peel the squash, Brad sliced his whole finger off.

It wasn't really his whole finger, but a pretty serious, very gushy cut in his left middle finger. Squash fell on the ground, Bekka and I ran around looking for bandages and tape, and Joel examined the wound. It bled a lot for a while, and then they ended up wrapping it tightly in gauze and securing it with duct tape.

Of course this would be the one month of our entire lives when Brad doesn't have health insurance. That's right: this is the one time EVER that Brad hasn't had medical insurance. He's in an off month between being covered through his old job and the new one, and when he went to apply for temporary coverage to get him through October, he was already past the deadline, so here we are, just waiting for November 1. Joel thought he might possibly "need a stitch." Would we have seriously considered the possibility of stitches if he were covered this month? I think so. It was bleeding a lot. But knowing it's 8 pm on a Friday night and the only thing open is probably the super expensive emergency room limits what you're willing to seriously consider.

Very professional bandaging

For the time being dinner preparations just went on. I jumped in and did some quick peeling of the squash while all of the chaos was going on, and then got out of the kitchen so the guys could finish up. They made Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad (as seen on Smitten Kitchen, who got it from Orangette, who got it from somewhere else), and it was DELICIOUS. The tahini dessing is fantastic. Everything about it is fantastic. Except that there aren't any leftovers for me to eat today.

Ramekins!

This salad might cost you a finger, but it's worth it

For dessert we ate brownies and ice cream, and then Bekka and I went to the store and bought some New-Skin, and when we woke up this morning Brad's finger was still attached - so far, so good. Because if he loses a digit over peeling squash for dinner party club, it could really cast a pall over the whole operation.

So hot right now

Have you lost the pulse of pop culture? Me too, but I'm pretending I'm on it. Things I'm loving right now:

• Ben Folds, who we saw perform with the Spokane Symphony on Sunday at The Fox. So fun! So much orchestration! And I loved the disjointed crowd - the dressy symphony season ticket holders, intermingled with the uber casual Ben Folds fans pleading for Folds to "Rock this bitch!"

• The September Issue - holy cow, what a cool insider's view of the life of Vogue, Anna Wintour and her insanely far-reaching influence over the world of fashion, and the Creative Director, Grace Coddington, who's more of a free-spirited artist in the commercial world. It's really great. My brain can't even contain all of that fashion.

• Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men. Beautiful, quiet, informative, heartbreaking, often hilarious. Keep your eyes out for riding lawnmowers - not for indoor use.

• Where the Wild Things Are - it looks perfect, the music is great, the characters are developed and believable and sad and funny. For what it's worth, I think it really captures the destructive yet cuddly yet angry yet loving yet stubborn yet dependent nature of boyhood like nothing else I've seen. Of course I'm an outsider when it comes to boyhood, but from what I've observed, this movie really nails it.
  

There is more to life than food...

...But apparently that's all I want to blog about. First, a quick Fresh Abundance update: I forgot to order my fourth variety box last week. But I still had a few things left from previous weeks (potatoes and yams, a couple of pears, celery, onion, a couple of peppers, Swiss chard), so I made a delicious minestrone out of most of that stuff (no pears or potatoes or yams) with a recipe I modified a lot out of Gourmet. Because really, I just don't have two hours to spend on soup most days. I also don't eat pancetta. So instead of cooking the first group of ingredients (through chard stems) for a leisurely 45 minutes, I went with about 15. The soup was still delicious. In your face, Gourmet! Maybe a few tips from me would have saved your little magazine.

That was a joke.

And on to the main event! Cookies. I made some flourless oatmeal cookies last week and they were a big hit. I was a little nervous because I hadn't gotten to taste the cookies before I brought them to class the night I baked them, but they were very popular and also, I am in love with them. I made about 50 cookies with the amount of ingredients shown below. The original recipe is for "monster cookies" but I think mine were just people-sized cookies. I also used a combination of white and dark chocolate chips instead of other chocolate candies - and I'm pretty sure I used WAYYYYYYYYY more than the one cup originally called for. Probably more like one cup of each kind of chocolate. Probably more like one cup of chocolate per cookie. Brad and I ate every single cookie that I didn't take to class, too - and that doesn't usually happen. If you knew for certain that there were no traces of gluten in your oats (like Bob's Red Mill, or quelque chose comme ca), these would also be officially gluten free.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Monster Cookies
About 4 dozen cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, slightly softened
1 1/2 cups creamy natural peanut butter, well-mixed
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
About 2+ cup chocolate or mix-ins (follow your heart)

Preheat oven to 350F and line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper (or Silpat).

Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in baking soda, then oatmeal and mix-ins.

Drop onto cookie sheets with an ice cream scoop and flatten slightly. Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes or until done. Do not overbake! Don't you dare!

Remove from oven when slightly golden. Let cool on the sheets for a few minutes until they have firmed up enough to remove to wire racks.

My bizarro best

Last week I signed up for a produce box, delivered to my home for free, from Fresh Abundance. This is something I did a couple of times about a year and a half ago, and loved and thought I would continue to do forever and ever, with one "variety" box of produce (a.k.a. seasonal grab bag, selected by Fresh Abundance, not me) arriving on my doorstep every Friday. Well, I did it exactly twice and then forsook Fresh Abundance altogether, probably because it's not exactly cheap. A variety box costs $35. To me, this was too big a chunk of our ideal grocery budget.

But recently I've been doing some thinking, and here's what that thinking has revealed: I think most of my diet should come from things that grow in from the ground: fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, beans, etc. Not EVERYTHING. Oh no, let's not get crazy. I'm going to eat cheese and eggs and ice cream. But if, as most health/diet experts would advise, I made the majority of my diet fruits and vegetables (really good, local, in-season ones), those fruits and vegetables should probably merit a big chunk of my food budget.

So, back to my variety box. I got a lot for my $35, all of it organic, most of it local. I'll list everything just so that you can take in the vast majesty of it.

• 3 apples
• 2 oranges
• a whole bunch of the best nectarines I've ever had
• a few peaches
• a few bunches of grapes
• several pluots
• two pears
  
• one head of red cabbage
• one giant head of romaine
• one HUGE onion
• 2 potatoes
• 3 or 4 carrots (THE BEST CARROTS OF MY LIFE)
  
• a bag of green beans
• a red pepper
• a jalepeno
• another unidentified pepper; it is tiny, which makes me think it might burn my mouth off
• a gigantic bunch of cilantro
• a ginormous bag of tomatoes

This is a lot of produce, way more than I would normally eat in a week. But I am trying, and it's been fun for me, and so I keep looking for recipes that will use some combination of the menagerie of abundance I have here. Last night I made Indian food with potatoes and onion and carrots and peppers and coconut milk and spices, and served it with quinoa and a lot of cilantro (which I thought I HATED, I must add, but it is so good with Indian food, apparently), and it was fantastico.

Other times, I just get panicky at the thought of all the produce in my refrigerator and start flinging things together into bowls and eating them. Which brings me to the weirdest ever BEST FOOD EVER.

Sarah's Bizarro Cabbage and Bean Salad
Now, the reason why this is so freaking bizarro to me is because I thought I didn't really like cabbage, especially not purple (or red) cabbage, especially not as the star ingredient in anything. In fact, yesterday, I was so unconfident in what I made that when I was eating at work I hid it from view whenever anyone passed by, to avoid scorn and ridicule. But, omg, it is delicious, with the best texture and flavor. I am in love with my bizarro salad. I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup chickpeas or kidney beans
1 cup chopped red cabbage
some chopped olives
lemon juice
olive oil
sriracha
sunflower seeds
feta

So, you simply and wonderfully combine everything through olives, put in some lemon juice, olive oil, and sriracha to taste, top it all with a little bit of feta and a handful of sunflower seeds, and then indulge in the surprise treat of your life.

Happy birthday

Good morning world,

After that oh-so-bloggy last post, I had to stop blogging for a few days. But I'm over it now. And today is a very important day. It is the birthday of my most faithful of readers, Miss Danyeal Jones. Danyeal is a Johnny-Flynn-loving, Emmy-godmothering, world-traveling, barefoot-in-the-summertime best friend of mine since junior high whose history is littered with terrible birthdays. I hope that someday we will live together in the same city. Happy birthday, Danyeal!

The neat freak

Fact: Emmy hates being dirty. She cleans her paws and face like a cat, will go awkwardly out of her way to avoid mud puddles, and won't even let sprinkler water touch her sensitive hide. But for reasons unknown, about once a year, our meticulously clean little dog finds something incredibly disgusting and gets it all over her petite self. Last year, she rolled in some sort of unnamed animal poop while she and Brad were vacationing at Priest Lake and had to have a bath, immediately. Since they weren't at home Brad had to use Head and Shoulders instead of dog shampoo, and she's been flake free ever since.

Two days ago, Brad and I took Emmy for a walk and for some bizarro reason, she rolled in a bunch of overripe plums. She smashed so much onto the top of her head that it seemed like she had covered it in gel, and it looked like she had gashes of plum blood on the sides of her body. When we got home she jumped onto the couch right away and I shrieked because I didn't want plum blood on it, but it turns out that all of the plum had hardened, much like hair gel, and was no longer leaving stains. So, it was into the bathtub with Emmy again, but this time she had her Pina Colada doggie shampoo.

She can be a little bit annoying sometimes, but even in the midst of that she always makes me laugh, and there is just nothing nicer than having a little dog live with us. Even when she gets water in her beard and drips it all over the kitchen floor, every day. Even when she jumped up to pick plums out of our backyard tree and broke her foot and had to be taken to the doggie emergency room. And especially when she greeted us at the front door one night with such an excited wag of the tail that the vet officially diagnosed her with a tail sprain. That's love.

Best food ever, Bellingham edition

There are always a few things Brad and I HAVE to do while we're in Bellingham, and when we make a list of those things, food we must eat usually makes up about two thirds of it. So, I ate all sorts of good things - pizza at Rudy's, a burrito at Taco Lobo on my first-ever visit there, and a shockingly good cupcake (because really, you usually know what you're going to get with a chocolate cupcake, but this one was outstanding) from a new-to-me, oh so hip and trendy cupcake place in Fairhaven. Have I mentioned that I want to open my own cupcake place? Well, I do. Anyway, I ate a lot of good things, but there were three highlights.

1. Yam Alechiladas from Boundary Bay
When we were living in Bellingham I don't think that Boundary Bay served a huge menu of delicious food like they do now, because I think the first time I ate there was two years ago. This time I got their yam alechiladas (which I'm sure means that the enchilada sauce is enhanced by a little Boundary Bay ale), and they are really, really, really, really good. I wasn't expecting something amazing, but they are amazing. I wish I had taken a picture or something so that I could remember what exactly made me so enamored of them. But I'll just say that if I recall correctly (I am a great food writer!), they are spicy, a little bit sweet (but not too sweet, oh no), full of yams and beans and cheese and sauce, and garnished with some salsa and sour cream.

2. The Cookies 'n' Cream ice cream at Mallard's.
Now, much like the really good cupcake I ate, I was not expecting to fall in love with something so run-of-the-mill (and something I so frequently consume) as cookies and cream ice cream. But it was so good, with huge cookie chunks and (shock!) sweet, creamy vanilla ice cream. I can't put my finger on why, but it is just better than other cookies and cream. I ate said ice cream right after I ate way too much of my enchiladas. Totally worth it. You have to sacrifice for the things you love.

3. Cinnamon Chip bread from Great Harvest.
I don't know if this is offered at other Great Harvests in the world (it's not in Spokane), but at Bellingham's Great Harvest they have this cinnamon chip bread that comes as a round loaf with this, shall we say, crust of cinnamon sugar on top. My longtime college roommate and sometime soul mate Kathryn introduced me to this delight, which is, more specifically, fantastic bread with little pockets of cinnamon and sugar sprinkled throughout and that addictive crust on top. I hadn't had any of this delicacy in years, but while Brad was spending way too long at Everyday Music (formerly Cellophane Square), I thought I should take a walk up to Great Harvest to see if Saturday was one of their Cinnamon Chip days (because a bread this good can't be put out each and every day, or people in the know would go crazy - it must be released in small, regulated doses). And it was just such a day. The bread was better than I remembered it, and Brad and I snacked on it for three days, even sneaking it into international waters on our ferry ride to Canada.

Party people

I just got back from the second ten-year reunion I've attended in a three-week period. Sorry Bothell High class of '99, but Lewis and Clark is the clear winner in party planning. Probably because there wasn't much planning involved at all with LC's - it was super casual, at a bar, no tickets to buy, no name tags to make ahead of time, no elaborate skits featuring masked friends wearing cougar costumes, etc. This kind of party was just more my style. They didn't try very hard, and that took the edge off.

The highlight of my night was probably when a high school friend of Brad's, a guy I had first met about half an hour earlier, came up to me and asked if I was having a good time. I said, "Yeah, this is the best night of my life." Which made him laugh a lot. So we chitchatted for a minute and then he goes, "OK. So how can we turn this around? Do you know any jokes?" And I don't really, so I told him so. So THEN he starts TELLING ME DIRTY JOKES! And high five-ing me after them! And I'm a stranger to him basically, and I feel like he shouldn't want to offend me or something, as the wife of his high school buddy Brad, and I'm laughing like a maniac, not at the jokes, but just the freaking weirdness of it all. I hope he's got some new dirty material ready by the time the twenty-year rolls around. Apparently I love that stuff.

Dinner party

Tonight my friend Bekka and I (hi Bekka!), along with Bekka's boyfriend Joel and of course Brad, had our first of many dinner club parties together (I don't know what we're really going to call this, but that name was super awkward). Bekka and I cooked this time, while Brad and Joel immersed themselves in the world of Whale Wars in the living room, because we are domestic goddesses, and they are big nerds. We made the Anasazi Bean Burgers, as seen at such places as The Elk, Moon Time, etc. (except we made them with black beans instead of the elusive Anasazi), roasted red potatoes, and a really good quinoa salad/pilaf type thing, with red bell peppers and tomatoes and zucchini in it. I wish I could tell you more about the quinoa, but Bekka was the mastermind for that part of the evening and I really don't know what all went on. However, the bean burgers are REALLY GOOD and REALLY EASY (although they took about 473892 years tonight since I never read recipes well enough beforehand to really know what's going on), and the roasted potatoes were perfect.

And then we played Settlers of Catan, which is a nerdy-sounding game, and it IS nerdy. But playing it is less nerdy than when, after Joel finally won (after about, oh, two hours), he and Brad started chanting "King! Of! Catan!" and doing their Harry Caray impressions. Dinner party club is going to be great.

Summertime travels

Brad and I got back yesterday from our little summer vacation: Bothell and Seattle for a Mariner game, a few days in our beloved Bellingham, and then off to Victoria, BC to revel in queenery (I made that word up). Now, what I am about to attempt to do is this: upload and post some pictures from our trip on this very blog! This should not be very complicated. However, I tried to post some pictures of my flower garden last week and it ended in disaster, with a cluster of five tiny photos, out of order, at the top of my screen, and no way to write words around them or put them in the right order. So, here we go.


We went to the Mariners vs. Yankees game on Thursday. Yawn! Every time I go to a baseball game I bequeath the responsibility of protecting my head from a fly ball on someone who will actually be watching the game, since I know my attention will drift to daydreaming and people watching after the first inning. Brad agreed to be my protector, and I survived unscathed.


Shortly before this picture was taken, I spent half an hour hiding out at the Mariner Team Store buying Brad that hat. He asked me, "What's better? Standing in line at the team store, or watching the game?" The answer was obvious.




We were in Bellingham from Friday until Sunday morning, and we spent a large chunk of Saturday reading books at Boulevard Park. I can't tell you how much I love Bellingham. It makes me happy just being there. On both of my Bellingham mornings I woke up and ran and ran and ran along the Interurban Trail and just loved being alive. Someday we will move back.




One of the things I pride myself on is my fine photography. This is probably most evident in the "glamour shots" I take of Brad. Just look at that face. He can't get enough.


We did a drive by tour of our former Bellingham homes. This lovely abode in the York District neighbors Nelson's Market and was my home for two years. It used to be green. Now it features red paint, a boat trailer, and a heavenly anointing of light.



Brad's cousin Staci is great and let us stay at her house in Bellingham. We had a lot of fun with her, and on our last night we all went to the Archer Ale House to play the aforementioned dart game we made up, Shrauge (the artful combination of Staci's last name, Shrum, and our last name, Hauge, obviously).

Brad, mere moments after his humiliating defeat. Good job Staci!

Game faces. Shrauge is not a game for the fainthearted.

And after we ate at all of our favorite places (EXCEPT LEMON GRASS! Lemon Grass is closed! Why didn't anybody tell me?!), met up with friends, browsed the farmers' market and bookstore, and mastered the art of darts, we ferried over to Victoria for a couple of days. It was great to just sit around the harbor and watch the boats and seaplanes (did that sentence not just make me sound about 70 years old?). We went to a great concert (Manchester Orchestra and Silversun Pickups, plus a little Cage the Elephant for good measure), and just loved being on the water and out of town.

The harbor.

And, I hereby proclaim myself the master of adding photos to my blog! I finally did it. I have entered the space age.

Queen of darts

We are moving on from Bellingham tomorrow and going to Victoria, so, goodbye forever! Or maybe we will have ample internet access and no goodbyes will be necessary. Who knows what might happen while we're visiting America's hat?

Tonight we spent a long, long time at the Archer Ale House. Brad totally dominated Staci and me in the first two rounds of darts. HOWEVER, Staci won the third round with a whopping 308 points (we played to 301 - is that completely weird? we made up a bunch of rules and then taught those made-up rules to a bunch of drunken 60-year-olds, who proceeded to break them left and right). And guess who came in with triple digits each round? Yes, that's right. Me. Queen of darts. 200 points behind my competitors, but what sportsmanship I displayed.

Bellingham

Brad and I are back in Bellingham for the weekend and, as usual, as soon as I got here I wondered why I ever left. Today we spent forever browsing at Village Books, wandered around Fairhaven, ate way too big of a delicious dinner at Boundary Bay (Yam Alechiladas = ! My Yam Alechiladas are like, whoa), ate even more when we got ice cream at Mallard's after dinner, walked along the water (where I took "glamour shots" of Brad), and then capped it all off by lounging around at his cousin Staci's house watching The Soup. Tomorrow I'll run at one of my favorite places, check out the giant farmers market, meet some buddies for Rudy's pizza, and laze about at Boulevard. And all the while I'll be recycling like a mad woman and watching out for the millions of bicyclists racing all over the place. Oh, Bellingham. Every time I get here I realize just how much I've missed it.

Magically modified spicy soba noodles

It's that magical time again: BEST FOOD EVER!

So, on Tuesday I made something that was so very delicious that I had to write down notes immediately, lest I forget my night of total kitchen deftness and not be able to re-create this ever again. I started with a recipe from Smitten Kitchen for spicy soba noodles. But, I made some modifications here and there, because of my deftness, and because Albertsons does not have green onions! Who is manning the store over there? Seriously.

Sarah's Magically Modified Spicy Soba Noodles
(although this spontaneous title might imply otherwise, this meal is not drug induced)

Sauce

• 1/3 C water
• 1/3 C soy sauce
• a few squeezes worth of Sriracha (I'd recommend doing this to taste, for those spice babies out there)
• 1 T packed brown sugar

Everything Else

• 1/4 C (or so) unsalted peanuts, shelled
  
• 2 T minced giner
• 1 T minced garlic (2-3 cloves)
• 4-5 largeish mushrooms, sliced
  
• some red onion, chopped or minced (I used about 1/4 of a large onion)
  
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 bag of prepackaged slaw mix (or just use a regular old head of cabbage - I had leftovers from yesterday, but I liked the mix because it had some carrot and radicchio in it)
• 1 package soba noodles (mine were from the refrigerated section of the grocery store)

So, here's what you do. First, make the sauce. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium, until the sugar is dissolved; remove from heat and set aside.

In a skillet of sorts, heat the peanuts for a few minutes until they're golden brown. (You could also stick them in the oven for a few minutes.) Set aside. Put a little bit of oil in the pan, and add the ginger and garlic. Saute for a minute or so. Add the mushrooms and the red onions and cook for about 5-6 minutes.

Then, scoot everything over to the side of the pan so you have a little room to work with. In the cleared space, scramble the two eggs. Then mix the egg in with everything else. Add the cabbage mix and cook for 5 or so more minutes. Heat the noodles as the package says (mine just said to microwave them for 1 minute to loosen them up), then toss them into the pan. Pour the sauce and peanuts on top, and ta-da! It's spicy and so good.

I also sauted some blanched green beans with chopped red onion, salt, and pepper to have on the side. AND - Brad ate ten of them! Ten green beans! The only thing he picked out of this entire vegetable-laden meal was the mushrooms. That is big news.

Best Food Ever

So, this blog kind of cracks me up because it is so all over the place. Which really just means that I am all over the place. But, if I haven't made it clear before now, I love food, and I want my blog to be at least partly about food. So, I had the idea tonight that I could capture my love of food - things I eat out, things I make, etc. - in a delightful regular post called The Best Thing I Ate All Week. Or The Best Food Ever. I'm not sure which one yet.

So, for this week, we (apparently, I have introduced the royal "we" to this blog, hello!) have a couple of contenders. First, did you know that at Ben and Jerry's, you can get two different flavors on a "small" (small is definitely a relative term) scoop? It's true! Last night, pre-500 Days of Summer, I indulged in just such a double-faceted scoop. For my first flavor I chose Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch, which is good but, if we (hello again) are being blunt, just average. For my SECOND flavor though, I chose the amazingly extraordinary, exceptionally delicious, forever endeared to my heart Oatmeal Cookie Chunk.

Oatmeal Cookie Chunk is the kind of flavor that I really don't think I should like that much. I am not the hugest of lovers of oatmeal cookies, and I am kind of neutral in how much I like cinnamon, but this flavor brings together a bunch of things I only sort of appreciate to form The Ice Cream of My Life: sweet cream cinnamon ice cream with chunks of oatmeal cookie and fudge. And also chunks of plain old chocolate. It is the best. You must try it.

And the other Best Food Ever would have to go to the smashed chickpea salad I made tonight, which I put on top of some of that arugula I guilt tripped myself into buying the other day, and some of the tahini sauce my best friend Deb recommended, all on some toasted pieces of this very mysterious sourdough bread I guilt tripped myself into buying at a different farmers' market today. It was all so very tasty. And when I looked at my plate, which also featured some baby carrots, I felt like the vegetarian of the year. I mean, seriously. What a plate of produce and local baked goods and health, health, health. It was really, really good, but still, when I spied all of that over-the-top good-for-me-ness all together, it actually did make me laugh. In high school I was fine with going to Denny's at 11 pm and ordering a side of fries and a milkshake. Who have I become?!


PS: I know that Ben and Jerry's does not scream health, health, health! and that I therefore am horribly contradictory and/or hypocritical and/or completely out of touch with reality. But I am going to just allow that character complexity to add to what I referred to earlier: being all over the place. Both things are true. Most of my diet screams health, health, health! And the rest screams, ice cream!

Oops I did it again

My friend Elizabeth tagged me in a note on Facebook with all of these many questions. Thanks Liz! I should note that this survey took me a while, so I did some on Thursday and some on Friday morning and some on Friday night.


1. What time did you get up this morning?

6! 6 AM! Every day! (This was my Thursday answer. My Friday day off answer is 9 AM! We slept in!)

2. How do you like your steak?

I like it not at all.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?

Ooh, the cinema. How elegant! Harry Potter.

4. What is your favorite TV show?

What a complicated question. The still-airing show I get most excited about is LOST. This summer, I am anxiously awaiting Mad Men and Project Runway.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

In the Pacific Northwest! Lucky me.

6. What did you have for breakfast?

Kashi Go Lean cereal with craisins and walnuts, and a chai tea latte. (Thursday answer! On Friday, I awoke at the luxurious hour of 9 AM to find that Brad had made delicious blueberry pancakes, from scratch, and coffee. Thanks buddy!)

7. What is your favorite cuisine?

Big salad.

8. What foods do you dislike?

Canned green beans, cucumbers, meat, fake cheese, Boca burgers, cottage cheese, casserole, things with creamy centers.

9. Favorite place to eat?

I am in love with the Picabu Bistro lately. I love their falafel, and I love their summer salad menu, and basically everything I've ever had there. PLUS, Brad and I get their VIP discount when we go in, because Brad went to high school with the owner's son. And sometimes free drinks. I like to whisper "VIPs in the house!" when we walk in.

10. Favorite dressing?

My own homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive?

My vehicle is a Subaru Outback. I can't drive Brad's vehicle because it is a stick shift and I never learned how to drive one; whoops! I am a bad wife.

12. What are your favorite clothes?

I have a hard time liking my own clothes.

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?

Oh, everywhere. I don't even know where to begin.

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?

Half full. Unless it's a cup of ice cream.

15. Where would you want to retire?

Well, not Florida. That's for sure.

16. Favorite time of day?

I like the early morning, as long as I've slept enough, which almost never happens. I like the evening when the sun is setting.

17. Where were you born?

Edmonds, WA.

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?

As if I care! I guess I would say college basketball.

19. Who do you think will not tag you back?

I think I didn't tag anyone.

20. Person you expect to tag you back first?

Come on...

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?

Stop asking me about tagging! Enough is enough!

22. Bird watcher?

No, but I think it runs in the family. Ask me later.

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?

Morning ish.

24. Do you have any pets?

Yes, one dog, a funny lady named Emmy.

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share?

Well! I've been hoping you would ask that, survey!

26. What did you want to be when you were little?

A teacher.

27. What is your best childhood memory?

Hmm. Going to my grandparents' "Beach Place," perhaps.

28. Are you a cat or dog person?

Dogs, dogs, dogs.

29. Are you married?

Yes. It is almost our SIX YEAR ANNIVERSARY, which is completely insane. September 7.

30. Always wear your seat belt?

Always.

31. Been in a car accident?

No, but I don't like to talk about it, because I'm afraid I'll jinx myself.

32. Any pet peeves?

I have quite a few, but I can never remember them when asked. If I can think of them I might post them separately.

33. Favorite pizza toppings?

I love love love the "Saxon" pizza at Benniditos: artichoke hearts, mushrooms, goat cheese, mozzarella, and pesto, with tomato and garlic sauce.

34. Favorite flower?

I don't really have one. I do love peonies though. I wish they bloomed longer. I was very disappointed with how long mine were pretty this year. And dahlias! Big fat flowers are my thing.

35. Favorite ice cream?

I love a lot of ice creams. No plain chocolate, and I don't usually get the fruity flavors. And no marshmallows!

36. Favorite fast food restaurant?

Wendy's.

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test?

Nine times. Just kidding, zero.

38. From whom did you get your last email?

Um, from someone I work with. I think.

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?

Hmm. Well, I wouldn't do that. If I did, maybe this year's Nordstom sale. Or maybe Anthropologie? Or a home store.

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?

Hmm. Let me think. I spontaneously bought a two pack of Softlips chapstick at Target today. I am really flying by the seat of my pants!

41. Like your job?

I like it pretty well.

42. Broccoli?

Sure, why not. When I was at the Spaghetti Factory recently I was offered some broccoli with mizithra, and it was really delicious.

43. What was your favorite vacation?

Probably the London/Rome/Florence/Paris trip we went on a couple of years ago. Or New York and Boston. Both trips were fantastic.

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?

I went to the Spaghetti Factory, home of the broccoli with mizithra, for my grandpa's 90th birthday, and there were lots of people there. Also, Autumn and I had a fine dining experience at Taco Del Mar in Ellensburg on our way back to Spokane on Sunday, with her foster baby.

45. What are you listening to right now?

Not listening.

46. What is your favorite color?

Green, I think.

47. How many tattoos do you have?

No thanks.

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz?

OMG, you are so self-absorbed, quiz!

49. What time did you finish this quiz?

Um, what? It's 11:52 right now. I am really dedicated to this posting every day business.

50. Coffee Drinker?

Yeah. Two cups this morning, one cup this afternoon. I avoided it for a long long time, but I love being a coffee drinker.

When the living's easy

My brain is tired! My brain! I just started two posts that I then discarded when I decided they were stupid. One was about riding my bike to work. The other was a few delicious recipes. Both of them seemed like a waste of everyone's time after about thirty seconds of writing.

So, instead, what? I'll just say that I love this summer. I've never had such a free, uncommitted, easygoing summer before. Last summer was technically just as free time-wise, but I had just left the bank, and readjusting to a whole different style of life was still overwhelming.

This summer is different. I have loved reading on the front porch, waking up early and running, hanging out at coffee shops with my laptop and attempting to write (sometimes I've also hated that), checking out more books from the library than I could ever read, getting ice cream at The Scoop, biking to work, hanging out with high schoolers, watching Alias, reading and praying and being quiet in the morning times, writing articles about rodeos, and just having TIME to do whatever I want with.

When school starts again in September I know the stress and the pressure will be back, and I'll be short on sleep and generally unrelaxed until June. That's because I'm a perfectionist, not because my program is trying to beat me to a pulp. And it will be good for me in some ways and exhausting in others and it will all work out okay eventually. But I want to remember how restful (even though, honestly, I haven't been sleeping all that much) these few months have been, and how rejuvenating this time off has felt (even though this heat is trying to melt me). It feels good to love life.

Fembot

I don't know how many of my tiny pool of readers are Alias fans, but as I've mentioned a few times, Brad and I are watching the episodes on DVD this summer. We're most of the way through season 2 now and all I have to say is (and I hope this isn't much of a spoiler): fembot?!

I've heard that this show devolves into something really weird by the later seasons. But I've been so in love with it for these past few weeks that I'll be really sad if it starts to get too bizarre to function. So far, it's just a little bit weird, but I'm starting to get scared. Sidney, Vaughn, and JJ, please give me at least one more good season, ok?

Back in the biz

I ran six miles today, and I could not be happier about it. Six miles is how far I was running on average, five times a week, a few months ago. Then, while I was training for Bloomsday, my IT band got all sensitive and whiney and started causing me hot, unignorable pain. That was April 15th. It's been more than three months since I've run 6 miles during a single run, and I cannot express how much I've missed my regular running habit. I've been out there over the past month or two, slowly slowly slowly building back up to real running, but it's been different. For one thing, I have to run slowly right now, because that's easier on my leg. I also have to run on pretty flat surfaces, with almost undetectable inclines, which eliminates pretty much every running route I really love.

And even more, oh, I don't know, aggravating about getting back into the running biz, is that fact that my mind can't wander while I'm running like I like it to. I think the thing that has really hooked me on running is the space it's given me to just think, to pound out stress, to let my mind go, without any limitations. Somehow, running makes normal distractions and self-doubting disappear. But now that I'm getting over an injury, I have to think about how my leg is feeling while I'm out. Was that a twinge of pain? Was that a moment of hotness? Is my IT band grinding way too close for comfort over my knee joint? I can't really lose myself in other things because I can't really forget about the little nuances of what my body is actually doing.

The six miles today weren't great thinking time, but I did listen to a This American Life podcast, and I did tour some unexplored neighborhoods, and I did briefly visit a McDonald's, not for a sundae, but for a drink of water from their bathroom sink. I'm sure the manager there is not a big fan of thieves like me, who sneak their giant sweaty tomato faces into the building without bothering to buy even an Egg McMuffin, but I don't care. I used to steal a drink of water from that bathroom two summers ago, while I was training for a marathon, barging in like a hot mess, just like I did today. Stopping at McDonald's felt good, as if I had remembered about an old tradition, something my real runner self would do. Running isn't doing much for my mind yet, but the McDonald's trip bodes well for the future.

The real thing

What I don't understand is, why, in my Breyer's (allegedly) All Natural Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, is there a deliciously authentic vanilla flavor, and yet there is no vanilla on the ingredient list? The only thing I saw that might be vanilla is "natural flavors," but what are those, really? I'm confused.

And I'm starting to wonder if maybe I just shouldn't eat ice cream as often as I would like to. All of the "light" flavors I like are from Dreyer's and I have recently learned that they all have creepy partially hydrogenated things in them, and this Breyer's thing seems sort of suspicious. Plus, I think I eat too much sugar. There, I said it. I didn't want to have to admit it, but it's true. I'm a health fiend but also a dessert fiend and the more I look at ice cream labels, the more I'm wondering if I've been treating myself to too much of a not-so-good thing.

It probably makes sense that dessert should be more of a real celebration than an every day non-event. I'd probably enjoy it even more if I only had ice cream once a week or something devastating like that. Especially if the ice cream I ate was really, really bad for me and good, like the ice cream from my favorite place, The Scoop. The idea of holding out for the good, real thing, and settling for less of the crap, is one of those little nuggets of smartness that extends way beyond snacks. You can start out thinking about something harmless like ice cream, and then the next thing you know you've entered a vortex and your mind is on your old job and all of life's little papercutting compromises again.

Good things take time, and effort, and they usually aren't ready the second you want them, which is also a good thing. Almost every need or want can be met almost within minutes, at least in my little corner of the world, and I think it conditions us to think that we shouldn't have to work hard for anything. Thus, helicopter moms, canned beans, and Netflix. Not bad things necessarily - canned beans and Netflix are my daily bread. But in addition to all of the other bad things it leads to, choosing stuff just because it's convenient means settling when it comes to quality and, ultimately, real satisfaction.

Maybe tomorrow I won't have any ice cream at all. But it's just as likely that I'll give in to a sudden urge for a McDonald's sundae.

Two thoughts

It's late and I have to get up early, and I have only two thoughts:

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is much better the second time around.

2. I am in love with Alias, and don't know if I have a bigger crush on Sidney Bristow or Jennifer Garner.