Tag: life

Food. Delicious Food.

Between my self  and Mrs. Di over 400 pictures were taken of our New York City vacation.  The vast majority of those are of museum exhibits.  Really awesome museum exhibits but the reality is that they’re not the best taken pictures, and to anyone besides us they’re just not that interesting.  That doesn’t bother me, they perfect for what they are a chronicle of our vacation.  I’m not going to plaster pictures of every little thing at the Metropolitan Museum that I thought was great here, because chances are you’re not interested as interested in Roman Egypt as I am (but you should be!)  What you will find is something that everyone is interested in:  food

Despite all the food I ate in NYC I didn’t take as many pictures of it as I should have.  You’re not going to see the delicious spicy tofu soup I had in K Town, nor the incredible spread that accompanied it.  I don’t have any pictures of the delicious doughnuts we ate at Doughnut Plant; creme brulee, apple cinnamon, vanilla bean, etc.  Also missing is all the wonderful food bought and eaten of the streets.

“So what do you have to show us already?”

The thing that I was most envious of during my trip was the sheer variety of ethnic cuisines to be found in the city!  I’m sure that you could eat at a different restaurant featuring a different food style every day of the week for the entire year.  I feel lucky living where I do, in a college town with a racially diverse population that enjoys ethnic cuisine that’s close to two major metropolitan areas but it doesn’t hold a candle to New York City…

PS – I forgot to mention the bars… There are a lot of them.  They stay open ’til four in the morning.  I only went to this one:  McSorley’s.  They have good ale.

Garden meet Dog

I’ve been gone for a while…  Real life has a way of making demands on one’s spare time and during the last month I haven’t had much time for anything, even my own life.  August is over though and not only do I have time to catch my breath but to update this blog too!  Lucky you!

So what has happened over the last month or so?  Not much personally, because I haven’t had time to do anything.  I did experiment with letting our dog Jake stay out in the backyard while I was at work.  Jake usually stays in his kennel during the day but I wanted to see if we could trust him out in the yard…  turns out we can’t!  I kept him out for three days for around eight hours a day and the first two he was an angel.  That third day, not so much.  It seems Jake got bored with lying around in the yard and chewing on his toys and moved on to exploring the garden…

See those large gaps in the greenery?  That is where a zucchini, cucumber, and pepper plant used to be…  Jake also ate several tomatoes and eggplants as well.

Luckily, Jake didn’t get his mouth on everything in the garden.  I still have plenty of heirloom tomatoes and some good-looking basil.  If the weather stays mild I believe we can get another dozen or two tomatoes out of the summer garden before it has to be torn out and the winter garden put in.

A Cycling Story in Four Parts

Part One:  The Bike

Part Two:  The Pedals

Part Three:  The Shoes

Part Four:  The Injury

FIN

So I bought a bike this weekend.  Not one for going to and from work or just putzing around town.  This is a serious bike for serious cycling!  Said bike also came with special pedals and shoes.  The kind you clip into.  This isn’t a big deal when you are cycling but it makes it difficult at times when you stop and need to stand.  I spent 20 odd minutes this evening practicing clipping in and out.  It didn’t seem to difficult, just a twist of the ankle and you’re free.  So I went on a quick  mile bike ride and everything was going great.  I knew I was in trouble right about the time I thought to myself, “Hey, this isn’t so hard.  Everything is just peachy.”  Very soon after, I hit a patch of grass, over corrected, tried to stabilize myself with my feet, realized they were attached to the bike and skidded to a stop mostly using my knee and thigh as a brake.   Things weren’t too bad and I mostly crashed in the “correct” fashion, laying the bike and yourself down on the ground.  Still the leg is scrapped, as are the shoes and the pedal.  The new bike (made from delicate aluminum and carbon fiber” seems alright so…

I’m going to count this as a win.

Continued Adventures in Gardening

Next time I write about the garden hopefully it is in the context of me gorging on its bounty! Considering we had a long winter and a cold spring, how early I planted, and the fact that this is a first attempt at gardening I’m impressed with myself. The garden really seems to be doing well, despite the tomato plants just sitting there not giving me tomatoes. I’m excited to see how much we get of the garden this year and how much more I can get out of it next year.

When did I last write about the garden?  In April, May maybe?  I don’t recall and despite that fact that right over there to the right of this text box is a tool to help me find it, or perhaps even a direct link to the entry I’m thinking of I’m not going to bother looking it up.  I’m going to go with it has been awhile.  How do I know?  Look at that picture up there!  Last time my tomato plants weren’t the same size as me, nor were the zucchini plants growing outside of the planter.

So what all do I have going on in there?  Besides the hyperdeveloped tomatoes and zucchini?  I’ve got some soybeans growing, which I’ll be eating as edamame.

The cucumbers are starting to come in, they are still tiny, around the size of an adult’s pinky finger

My pepper plant is really starting to produce, everything is still to small to eat but there are a lot of them on the plant.  I wonder if I should prune it back in order to make the plant focus on fewer peppers?

What else is there in the garden box…?  I have an eggplant as well and it’s started blooming but there isn’t any fruit on it, yet.  I didn’t take a picture of it.  I have some pole beans too but , they haven’t produced anything either.  The beans have grown all over their supports and have co-opted the tomato plants as well… I’m hopeful they’ll start producing soon.

Despite the monstrous size of my two tomato plants there still isn’t any fruit on them.  My tiny cherry tomato has started producing though

That is about it.  Next time I write about the garden hopefully it is in the context of me gorging on its bounty!  Considering we had a long winter and a cold spring, how early I planted, and the fact that this is a first attempt at gardening I’m impressed with myself.  The garden really seems to be doing well, despite the tomato plants just sitting there not giving me tomatoes.  I’m excited to see how much we get of the garden this year and how much more I can get out of it next year.

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