Carolina on My Mind

I spent the weekend with my mom in Asheville, NC. The reason for going in the first place was a concert by one of my favorite artists, David LaMotte. While we were there, we sampled several local eateries, took a historic trolley tour, shopped, enjoyed the architecture and personality of the city, and toured Biltmore House, seen here. There's plenty of pictures on my Flickr page, which you can get to by clicking on the thumbnail to the right. I was really charmed by Asheville. It reminds me of a very small Portland, OR. Very hippie-ish. Mom made the comment that it was sometimes hard to tell the hippies from the homeless. But the downtown, small as it is, was full of people, artists, and bustling shops. Besides our hotel room and meals, we also contributed to the economy through a few purchases. I bought some luscious alpaca yarn to make a scarf for myself. Mom bought a beautiful red leather love seat. It just barely fit in the C-RV, with less than an inch to spare in all directions. Whew! It was a whirlwind weekend and both Mom and I came back more tired than we were when we left, but it was a lot of fun, too.

Belated Birthday Love

Bday Ballgame, originally uploaded by kyredbutterfly.

Meant to get this posted over the weekend, but oh well! I knew there was a surprise coming, but I just didn't know what it was (sort of). Anyway, on Thursday night Mom whisked me off to the ballpark to have a fun night with the girls. Here's most of us hanging out pretty early on in the evening. Mom, Linda P., and Lisa S. are missing from the shot. Thanks to everyone for coming! And a big, huge thanks to my Mom for getting us all there and giving us such a fun night! Even the weather cooperated and made things pleasant. I had a blast and it was a great way to usher in the new (for me) year!

Happy Birthday, Kat!!!

I have to give a shout out to my friend Kat, whose birthday it is today. It's also Dragon Boat weekend in Portland, so Kat, I hope your birthday is just a ton of fun! Josh, I'm sure dinner last night for your wife was righteously good (you can take the girl out of the '80s, but you can't take the '80s out of the girl).

Life List for the New Year

Today is the big day where I turned 35. It feels a bit momentous, though I don't really think it is. But because of that feeling, I started working on a list of things I wanted to do during my 35th year on this little planet of ours. The following isn't everything on the list (I do have a few secrets to keep) but it's representative of my whole list:

1. Learn to sew, using the brand new - to me - sewing machine Chrissie sent to me. Just awesome. I am sew excited! *groan*


2. Learn to play chess.


3. Use the Cuisinart my mom gave to me, on "loan."


4. Plan meals and take advantage of the farmers' markets in the area.


5. Prepare for yard sale this fall and pack along the way for move next year.


6. Get back to walking regularly.


7. Stop using the TV as "background noise" - get up and move, listen to music, or just enjoy the silence.


8. Ride the van to work daily so you can save on gas.


9. Clean out paperwork and files; take stuff to shredder at bank.


10. Walk the labyrinth regularly and become more attentive to my prayer life.


11. Blog and Flickr more frequently.


12. Take more pictures.


13. Read at least three classic novels a year.

There are several other things on the lists, like projects around the house and more detailed ideas about some of the above, but this is a start. One that makes me feel good about myself. I have already put a few of these ideas into practise: I've read The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas, have been good about getting to the van pool on time, been to the farmers' market, and am carrying my camera with me everywhere I go.

Christmas in May

I love how alike Kat and I are. We clicked right off the bat when we met in law school, the very first day she rolled into town and stopped off at the school. After a year with some pretty bizarre other roommate antics (including a stopover at the mental ward of the local hospital for one roommate), Kat and I shared apartments by ourselves for the next two years of law school. After that little nugget of information, can you blame us?

Anyway, besides just liking each other off the bat, we soon discovered we were born a day apart. So for both of us, birthdays are coming up within the next week. Happy early birthday, friend!

We also have tons of other things in common, one of which is our apparent inability to get gifts sent off in the mail on time for a birthday or holiday. (I can't remember exactly when I sent her Christmas package, but I believe it was late February.) A couple weeks ago a box arrived from Portland. When I opened it, I found a treasure trove of "Christmas" goodies! Wouldn't you love to have gotten all these things? And believe it or not, I love, love, love that my Christmas present came in May, because it's totally random and out of the blue and instead of being lost in the haze that is the holiday season, all of these great gifts stand out and will always be remembered.

So, my fellow Gemini friend, just know that come September or October, start looking for a package to arrive on your front porch. It'll be right on time.

Catchin' Up

Whenever I get into a conversation about food, I always tell people that I love to cook, but I don't bake. Not that I can't bake, I just don't like to. Mostly because I'm the only one cleaning up after myself in the kitchen and baking requires getting a lot of stuff dirty. Add that to the need to precisely measure ingredients and all desire flies out the window. The only thing that really has ever interested me in baking is bread. And by bread I don't even mean bread-machine quality bread, but artisanal quality bread. Suspecting it takes a lot of know how and talent to achieve that kind of bread, I kept going back to local shops and purchasing rather than trying my hand at it in the kitchen.
Then I came across the No Knead Bread recipe that's been storming through blogs for two years now (I never claimed to be cutting edge!). Flour, yeast, salt, water. That seemed simple enough. In the back of my mind I kept hearing this voice that said "Surely you could do that." And so I finally got up the nerve and tried. This loaf was my first attempt. It was delicious! I was so impressed with myself, even though it obviously is a pretty easy thing to do, given it's popularity. I've since made one other loaf, adding in some wheat flour to make it slightly healthier.
I've also recently purchased this book, again on the advice of multiple blog gushing (like this one) over its wonderfulness. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet. I'm doing what the book asks, which is that you read about why it works and how it works before jumping and with both feet and doing normal bread baking things that won't work with this basic recipe. Oh, and I also checked out the website along with the errors page that explains the mistakes in the book. Key things, I think, for making it work. I'll report back soon!

Yo, Oregon!

Hope you voters and friends in Oregon are enjoying your primary day as much as we are here in Kentucky. Of course, in your vote-by-mail state, you've probably sent in your ballots already. We have way too much "vote hauling" (read that to mean, in most cases, "vote buying") to actually enjoy the luxury of sending in our ballots. I voted on the way into work, so I'm taken care of, too.

For those of you here in KY or in OR, get out there and vote if you haven't already. It's your civic right and duty, and personally, if you don't take advantage of this opportunity, I really don't want to hear your opinions on the state of the state or nation. You had your chance.

But I must say, it's kinda nice to be the center of the news media universe for something other than our lack of education, poor health, or post-storm trailer park interviews!