-- I had a really, really nice weekend. In fact, I pretty much achieved a perfect Saturday: I woke up, showered and got ready, went out to brunch at the Seward Cafe, sat around and chatted for four hours, drove to Edina to meet up with Rob (who's in town!) and Heather, and we drank coffee for quite a while. Heather had to head home, so Rob and I walked two doors down from the coffee shop, and I had falafel for dinner. That's a perfect Saturday. Eating and then sitting around having interesting conversation until it's time to eat again.

-- I ordered the buckwheat pancake with fruit and yogurt at the Seward Cafe. The last time I got it, the yogurt was in the middle of the pancake, with the carefully-sliced fruit artfully fanned out around it. I brought my SLR this time to get a better photo, but when I got my plate, the fruit and yogurt had been slung on top haphazardly. It made me laugh. It was outstandingly delicious, though.

-- On Sunday, I went to Half Price Books and found two Elvis Costello CDs for under $5 each (Spike and The Juliet Letters). I've amassed so many of his albums in such a short time recently that I haven't been able to fully appreciate them all; I've listened to Blood and Chocolate a couple of times all the way through, for example, but it hasn't really sunk in yet. It's the obsessive side of me kicking in (wanting to have every album I come across), but there are worse things to obsess about.

-- I've been exclusively using my Bialetti to make coffee in the mornings, but when Alex made the best coffee ever in her French press, I decided to give my own another chance. I've always followed the rule of using two tablespoons of grounds for every cup of coffee (which I think is technically considered to be six ounces of water, not eight) and using water that hasn't yet come to a boil. But yesterday (and again today), I dumped in three tablespoons and turned the kettle off as soon as it boiled. So good.

-- I do not like when Beany appears to be keenly watching something under the baseboard heater, as she was doing a moment ago. On a similar note, one of the guys in my acting class said he saw a rat in the school theater we gather at. A rat! I wish I would have seen it too.

-- Today I did my three-mile run outside. It was very grey and cloudy, and I had to run into the brisk wind during the first half, but I still finished just under my usual pace and didn't keel over, so it was a success. My first 5k of the season is on Saturday, and I'm excited! I even bought a copy of Runner's World (the UK edition, because the US issue was all about weight loss), which I will now return to reading.

-- Look at Beany, bravely trekking through the snow. The weather was SO nice today that I had to let her out. She didn't seem to take notice of the snow, but I suppose that was because she could pretty much just walk along on top of it. She also went up and down the back path a few times, until she realized she'd stepped in a puddle. This seems to be a cat thing: she was walking along the damp path, looked up ahead and noticed there was puddling, and then looked down to realize that she was already standing in water. Much distasteful lifting of paws and awkward rerouting ensued.

-- Speaking of thaws and the resulting puddles, late winter is just a bad time to get your car washed. I treated mine to a gas-station car wash that left it very shiny indeed, which meant that I had to drive on tip-toe all the way back home. That was yesterday, and when I went out to the supermarket today, an oncoming van splashed into a pothole and threw dirty water right across the hood of my car. Heart breaking! So even though I knew it was completely ridiculous, I grabbed a sponge, a bucket of soapy water, and a towel when I got home and wiped it off. Completely normal.

-- Also completely normal? That guy who was wearing short sleeves while chipping away ice from a parking lot today. That's how we do it in Minnesota!

-- I was setting up my automatic estimated tax payments today (I already filed my 2009 return ages ago and got my refund), and as I was filling in the amounts for my MN state income tax, I actually had a pang of, 'But that's not enough!' As in, how can that measly amount possibly cover my share of what it takes to keep the state running? Not that I have extra money to be paying them, but I did feel a bit bad. I should sponsor a loon* or something.

* That's the Minnesota state bird, in case you haven't brushed up on your MN trivia lately.

-- Recently, all my at-home dinner planning has gone like this: 'Okay, a huge pile of broccoli, asparagus, and kale. What goes with that?' Last night, I sauteed everything with onion, shiitake mushrooms, and a couple slices of fake bacon (and had a cranbran VitaTop on the side). Tonight I sauteed the green veg with onion, chickpeas, and black olives (with Ezekiel sesame toast on the side). I season everything with soy sauce, nutritional yeast, cumin, and chili powder. If I were allowed to use only two spices in cooking (not baking), I think they'd have to be chili powder and cumin. Until somebody else suggests something, in which case I'll change my mind.

-- Katie asked about the races I've entered. I've only ever run one 5k, which was the Race for Life in London. That was in 2006, and it was the reason I started running in the first place. I think I saw an ad for the race on the Tube and decided that it would be a good goal to aim for. I continued to run on a treadmill after that, although I stopped when I moved into my house. I joined the gym in December 2007, I think, and started running again, but then got plantar fasciitis and switched to yoga and elliptical for a long time. Last winter, I was determined to get back to running for real and enter races, but... I didn't. So right now is the first time that I'm back to routinely running 5k (3.1 miles) on the treadmill since 2006. Entering the races has definitely given my motivation a boost, especially since I'm now training for a 10k!

-- Yesterday, Alex hosted the be all and end all of Sunday brunches. Rainbow pancakes. With -- wait for it -- edible glitter. It's definitely bizarre (and awesome!) to eat something so vibrantly hued, but it really didn't take very much gel dye to color the pancake batter. Everybody's Sunday was enriched. And Alex, you should let me come over some time and take photos of your house. We can have a special house-tour entry.

-- You know what? I feel great. It's been sunny (well, not right now, because it's 11:30pm, but generally... during the day), I've been running, I'm on track with work, I have amusing friends, I get to wake up tomorrow and eat oatmeal and do a runner's yoga download. Things aren't too bad.

-- It's that time of year again: primroses are only $2 at the supermarket. How could I possibly resist that? I couldn't. We're still a long way off from seeing primroses growing outdoors in this part of the world, but I'm taking their potted presence as a guarantee that spring will eventually arrive.

-- I went into the supermarket for a box of Honey Smacks. I left with Honey Smacks, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, juice, and kombucha. I'm like some sort of weird, reverse impulse shopper who can't stop herself getting the healthy food as she passes by.

-- I had a dream the other night that I went outside, and the herbs in my garden were starting to grow (also, the snow had melted, I guess). I also recently had a dream where I was in Japan and another during which I lost a friend's identical-twin infant (who doesn't exist). The garden dream, though, was almost certainly inspired by the fact that last year's potted amaryllis has started growing again (I hid it away in the basement for a couple months to force it). When I told Julie about the dream, she said, 'Aw, you had a spring dream!' That's what happens when you live in Minnesota.

-- I picked up a copy of Daniel J. Levitin's The World in Six Songs today. I loved his first book (This Is Your Brain on Music), so even though this one seems to have mixed reviews, I'm looking forward to reading it. In fact, I think a successful Saturday tomorrow would include much reading, Glenn Miller records, and perhaps a bit of kitchen organization. It doesn't take much.

I'm going with a loose breakfast theme today.

-- I've gone through several different oatmeal variations over the past few years, but this is how I've been making them lately: I cook about 1/3 cup oatbran in 1/2 cup almond milk + 1/3 cup water (roughly). I add a packet of stevia, a few shakes of cinnamon, several drops of concentrated coconut flavoring (I got this last weekend, and I want EVERYthing to taste of coconut now). After about four minutes, I turn the heat down and add a quarter cup of beaten egg whites, while stirring. I let it cook for another minute or so and then dump it in a bowl, add a tablespoon of almond butter, artfully arrange the banana slices, and top with a couple spoonfuls of pumpkin flax granola. Complicated much? But I love it.

-- To answer Jessie's questions on my last post, there's a layer of cream cheese on my toast/English muffins before I put the jam on top. I'm not a HUGE fan of plain cream cheese by itself on toast, etc, but it's magic when paired with jam. The sausages are Morningstar brand breakfast links. I prefer their products over Boca, although they don't score as well in the protein department (for the burgers, that is). If you can get your hands on Quorn's 'chicken' tenders or turk'y burgers, stock up.

-- I was a loyal PG Tips drinker in London. It costs the same to get a box of Yorkshire Gold or PG Tips here, though, which seems like an injustice, as I reckon PG Tips should be cheaper. So, to stick it to the man, I feel like I should spend my $4.99 on Yorkshire Gold. Given the choice, though, say, if somebody from the UK were visiting in March, I would like an enormous box of PG Tips.

-- Right now, I switch between having oatbran and English muffins for breakfast. And I recently stopped going to the gym Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday and started going Monday-Wednesday-Friday instead. This has been a blessing, because now I can alternate between my two breakfasts every day of the week. I can't eat oatmeal on days that I run (too sloshy + not enough staying power), but I don't like having to wait two whole days to have it again. Problem solved. Crisis averted.

-- Two of my top moments in any given (average) day: 1. Sitting down with my breakfast and coffee in the morning while I listen to the radio. 2. Crawling into bed at the end of a long day, with my flannel sheets all warm from the heated mattress pad. That I'm conscious for very little of the time between those two events (er, in the right order, that is) is like a bonus.

I had the absolute pleasure of visiting the Casket Arts Building today. It's one of the renovated factories in NE Minneapolis that now houses artists' studios. I wasn't there to check out any available spaces today, although I would love to someday have a studio-office here. The shot above is of the common area on the second floor. I'm so head-over-heels in love with the light (here's the same space from a slightly different angle) that I would gladly take photos of the building all day long. For free.

Anyway, today I've got a bevy of answers for the more house-related (and general lifestyle) questions I got. There was quite a lot to talk about, so click the extended entry for the questions and answers.

I've had a nice day -- my run this morning went really well, so I took the plunge and registered for three races this spring, including a 10k, which is going to take some training (I generally run 5k or less when I go to the gym). It definitely feels great to have something to shoot for, though! Sometimes, between waking up later in the day and going to the gym, I wind up not having a real lunch (just a Luna bar or something after I run), and that means a meal gone missing that would usually contain a lot of veggies. So I bulked up on my green at dinner tonight -- broccoli, asparagus, AND kale. So good.

Anyway, time for part one of the questions and answers! The second part will be the questions pertaining to the house and my living situation and other such things, so tonight's Q&A is sort of a grab bag! I'll put everything in the extended entry, so click to read my answers!

-- I was going to go to REI before dinner and then stop at Trader Joe's to pick up some food; I'd been thinking about their tomato bisque. But then I decided to wait until tomorrow for REI, which meant I could just stay at home and proofread (zombies!), but I still wanted that soup. So I thawed out some tinned crushed tomatoes I'd frozen (not IN the tin, of course; I'd used half of a 28oz can in another recipe) and made a simple soup, and the secret to making it good was the tablespoon of cream cheese I stirred in. And because I'd made tomato soup, I had to make a grilled cheese to go with it. I'm kind of in love with this photo. So much that I'm not too modest to say so.

-- One drag about being awake later in the night is that I just had the urge to go out and remove all the rubbish from my car (gum wrappers, receipts, etc). But it's dark out and winter, and I should just wait until tomorrow. (I will.)

-- Oh, actually, before my REI-before-dinner plan, I was counting on making a quick trip there after I went to the gym. But I forgot my wallet, which meant that not only couldn't I go to the store, but I also couldn't get a coffee. So I just headed home. Which turned out to be rather fortuitous, as I pulled into my alley right as a UPS truck turned onto my street. I got to my front door (via the house, from the garage, which is out back) right as the UPS guy was ringing the doorbell. Good timing! (The parcel was a package for review, in case you were wondering.)

-- I have not seen a single minute of Olympics coverage, because -- yes, I'm going to say it -- I don't care. And because I don't have a TV. I love that there are athletes who do amazing things and achieve their dreams and that the world tunes in once every four years to acknowledge their skill (or mock their costumes?)... but I really couldn't care less about watching it. I know -- I'm cold and heartless. Oh well.

-- Thanks to the Olympics being so important, though, all the shows I usually watch on Hulu are airing repeats. That means that I went in search of something new to watch, and I found Being Erica. After watching an episode, I realized my mom and I once happened upon it on TV, but I called 'boring' and asked her to change the channel. But that was before I knew it was Canadian and had the actor who played Eric in Wonderfalls. Excellent.

-- Only one person has commented with questions so far. Are you all really so incurious? Have I just been so thorough in what I write as to leave nothing answered? I will be forced to make up questions and pretend that other people asked them. Don't make me do that! Here are possible categories: vegetarianism, living abroad, owning a house, gardening, zombies, running, running from zombies (not really), cats, oatmeal.

-- Sometimes it seems like I take pictures of the same meals over and over and over. Because I do (well, not THE same meals, obviously). I should work on not doing that so much. If it makes any difference, I was out of my usual plain yogurt today, but I found a (not expired) cup of plain Greek yogurt in the fridge, so that's what I had. What? It makes no difference to you at all? It's actually really boring?

-- Alex's professional site is go! The site is so uniquely* her, so if you like what you see there, you're sure to get on well with the lady herself. You can see the many services Alex provides, if you like; basically, if something in your life needs to be more awesome, she's your woman. Hire her! So she can afford to drink coffee with me!

* Something can't actually be so unique; it's either unique or it's not. I'm educating through misuse.

-- I wanted to listen to some music this morning, but nothing on my computer immediately sprung to mind as being quite right, so I put This is Glenn Miller on the turntable. As soon as it started playing, I had that 'why do I ever STOP listening to this?' feeling. It's perfectly laid back while not being evening music, like a lot of the mellower stuff I have is. I listened to it while I reorganized my freezer, and that was how I spent my Valentine's morning.

-- In the afternoon, I went over to my parents' and helped my mom decorate sugar cookies. It was sort of perfect: I wanted to decorate cookies, but I didn't actually want to eat any, nor did I have anybody to immediately pass them off to. But she's bringing them to work tomorrow, so I got to have the fun without the consequences (consequences = cookies, in this instance). Although I bought the animal-shaped cookie cutters from Ikea yesterday, so it's only a matter of time before I need to try those out.

-- The above is a crop of this photo, taken at the Palmengarten in Frankfurt. That has to be one of my favorite photos that I took in 2009, for the texture and and contour of the leaf, the water droplets, depth of field, and the contrast of the black background. It has nothing to do with today, but I didn't have any photos I felt like using for this post!

-- It's been very exciting watching my friend Alex get ready to strike out on her own as a freelancer (I will link to her professional site if/when she gives the okay, so you can pay her money to make your life better), and the positive energy has been infectious. I started working on my own professional site to drum up more freelance projects, but it's a bit nerve wracking. Even though I'd be sticking within the realm of what I know (editorial and design work), it's scarier to do so with only my name to back me up. But I've got to pay for my imaginary office-studio somehow.

-- I finally caught Beany's cat laugh on 'tape'. I'm sure other cats do this, but she's the only cat I've ever known to make this noise while leaping in the air. She is a happy cat.

-- Soft serve was achieved today at Ikea (and it surpassed even the dreamy expectations I'd had for it), and I found the boxes I needed for the kitchen. It was a fairly quick trip, but because it's right next to the Mall of America, I got stuck in a huge queue on my way in (off the freeway). I seriously hope that The Day Before Valentine's has been declared the new Black Friday, because if that's the usual number of people who go to the MOA on a regular Saturday, that's just insane. Maybe people were carrying out their patriotic duty (to shop) this President's Day weekend. I bet that was it.

-- I've had a string of failed meals lately. It started with the breakfast above: I recently bought some Kashi instant oatmeal packets, and I added too much water; the blueberries I thawed were too seedy; the raspberry yogurt had a strange texture (I almost always buy plain yogurt and flavor it myself, and nine times out of ten, when I decide to 'treat' myself to a pre-flavored yogurt, I think it's too sugary or otherwise weird). Then I tried to make bread rolls for my dinner, but the yeast must have been dead, and the soup I thawed to go with it was disappointing and watery. (I scrapped that meal entirely and started over.) And the pumpkin soup I tried concocting this evening wound up in the bin. So, you know, it's not all kitchen successes all the time, here.

-- On the topic of food and failure, I just realized that I completely failed to eat any real, non-breakfast food today. I woke up late, had my usual Ezekiel English muffin meal, ate a Luna Protein bar after running (these are new, and the cookie dough flavor is ridiculously good), had yogurt and cereal in the afternoon, and dinner was oatmeal. I DID, however, blend spinach with apple juice and drank that with dinner. It's much better than it sounds.

-- I've been waking up late because I've been staying up just as late, for no particular reason. Even though I'm sleeping the same number of hours, the waking time seems to fly by much more quickly. I keep getting to about 11:00pm and thinking I haven't done much (objectively, I can see that I've been doing exactly as much as usual), so I haven't come up with anything to write about here.

-- I'm very excited that it's the weekend now, though. I've got a few plans, including meeting Alex at Ikea to get $1 soft serve and stock up on Swedish organizational devices. It's no secret that I love ice cream (and eat it almost every day), but soft serve is in an entirely different category -- an awesome category! I'm not sure that my fantasy dream house would have a dishwasher (loud and smelly), but it would definitely have a soft serve machine tucked away somewhere.

-- My latest out-and-out obsession is with having a studio-office in one of the great converted buildings around town. I've been trying to figure out how many more freelance projects I'd have to take on to swing the rent (answer: more), which actually isn't exorbitantly expensive. And I'd be sure to be SO productive in a brick-walled, high-ceilinged space with huge windows, many houseplants, Wings posters, a big table, floor lamps, an easy chair, and an electric kettle. For example. And I could invite people to my office and pretend to be a PI. This is a genius plan.

-- I was going to go to the gym today, but then I spent about 45 minutes shoveling, instead. We didn't get as much snow as the east coast, this time around, but we haven't had much melting action since it started snowing in December. Heaving a snow-filled shovel allll the way to the top of the bank is getting less and less fun. But it's not so bad, really.

-- Beany wanted to go out after I finished shoveling (and was heading back out to take photos). She can't hold in her tiny cat brain that it's cold right now, so she goes out and then wants to get right back inside. I think it's a bit scarier for her now that the snow is so much deeper than she is tall; she was much more curious when she could still see above it.

-- Just a minute ago, I was wanting something small to eat, so I looked in the cupboard and realized I hadn't opened the Snack Toast I'd bought in Sandstone. I get this stuff from time to time, though not for a while, and it was on sale for cheap -- and they had the blueberry flavor, which I'd never seen before. Crunchy!

-- I went to bed at 1:00am last night, and I woke briefly at 5:00 to the sound of my neighbor shoveling. I used to wake up at 5:30 when I worked in London, but the thought of somebody being awake and outside at 5:00am seems unfathomable when you fell asleep just four hours earlier. Luckily, I drifted off again pretty quickly (although not before having to get up and take away TWO different toys from Beany, who had apparently also decided it was morning).

-- I made a very good wrap today that included pickled beets that my uncle made. Sometimes I like to think back to child-me and imagine the shock and disgust she would have over the things I enjoy eating now. It's particularly good if I've put together an entire meal of previously undesirables. Like Sunday's lunch: tofu + kale and whole wheat toast with hummus. Well, I probably would have eaten the toast. Dry.

-- I've never understood how people can exercise first thing in the morning. Not only am I starving hungry when I wake up, but I also have no energy for running if I haven't had a good meal in the last couple of hours. I can even tell a difference when I eat oatbran for breakfast instead of what's in the photo here (because the English muffin, etc has more protein, I guess).

-- Elvis Costello played a new song at the show last Thursday, and I listened to the rebroadcast on Sunday, and now I can't get the song out of my hand. It's fantastic. And not yet recorded in a studio, I guess, so I can't just listen to it whenever I want. I hope it's a taste of what's to come with his next album.

-- I had leftover macaroni and cheese and some black beans in the fridge. Put your hands together, and you've got something delicious... assuming you had first put the macaroni in one had and the black beans in the other. Because I'm trying to say that it's a good combination.

-- There's a Logitech program that turns your iPod Touch (or iPhone) into a remote touchpad that you can use to control a computer. It's going to take some getting used to, but I'm excited to try using it while proof-reading, as resting my hands on the laptop for hours hurts my wrists. Even if it turns out to be not so practical, it's still kind of awesome.

-- I got new pillows today! If I wake up tomorrow without my sinuses trying to burrow to freedom via my ears, it will change my life. It's ridiculous how itchy the inside of my head gets while I'm sleeping. Does this happen to other people? I suspect the real solution is to lie on my back and not breathe through my mouth while I'm asleep, but I also suspect that that will never happen.

-- Here's a random survey of absolutely no consequence: What sort of coffee do you order when you're out? I almost always get a small, decaf Americano, and I add my own splash of half-and-half. Sometimes, if I'm feeling fancy, I'll ask for a single pump of sugarfree vanilla, but then the coffee tastes too good. Usually, I like for it to balance on the line between okay and decent, because then I won't drink it too quickly.

-- One of my favorite things to eat in the afternoon is yogurt, usually with cereal (and fruit). There are a lot of things I enjoy eating, but there's something about yogurt that makes me feel very peaceful afterwards. Maybe it's something about the dairy -- there's not a lot of other dairy that I eat (besides ice cream, which is so sugary it shouldn't count).

-- I don't have a TV, but I do have a big iMac, so if I'm at home, I usually watch something on Hulu in the evening. Pretty much all of the shows I like are on Hulu (with the exception of How I Met Your Mother, although I can watch that on the network's website), so I'm used to watching programs at least a day after they've aired. Even before I got rid of my TV, I'd lived with a digital recorder since 2005, so it's been a while since I had to worry about watching something when it aired. Since I'm at the cabin, which has normal (satellite) TV, I was able to watch Bones at 7:00 on Thursday. Oh my gosh, the pressure! I was convinced it would start before I could tune in, so I couldn't stop looking at the clock.

-- Another drawback to watching television like a normal human being is that you have to watch so many commercials! I'm used to seeing one ad during the commercial break, that's all. And, you guys, the McDonald's Big Mac snack wrap thing? That is one of the most disgusting ideas I've ever heard (as far as food goes). I don't eat at McDonald's (I hardly ever eat at fast food places, just because it's not my thing, but I very purposefully don't eat at McDonald's), but what other people do is their business. However, if you've had one of those wrap things -- especially if you ordered it thinking it was a 'snack' or some sort of healthy alternative -- well... I'm very disappointed in you. That might make me a huge snob, but at least I'm not a Big-Mac-wrap-eatin' snob. Shudder.

-- One of the neat things about cable satellite TV is that the cable networks syndicate shows. Three episodes of Bones in a row? Yes, please! Also, is That 70s Show ever going to seem less funny? I mean, a lot of Friends episodes seem a bit tired when I watch them now (maybe that's because I've seen them too many hundreds of times, though), but That 70s Show is holding up really well. Perhaps it's because it was 'dated' to begin with.

-- I met up with an 'old' friend today, somebody I studied in Scotland with. We were both super excited and had a great time reminiscing, and we realized that we'd never seen each other on American soil. There's something wonderful about getting together with somebody who shared such an important part of your life with you; I can tell my other friends stories from my time in Scotland, but none of them really knows what it was like. Too bad he lives in Duluth, which is about three hours from the Twin Cities, so I can't hang out with him as much as I'd like. We're going to try to go snow-shoeing sometime, though, if he can find show-shoes for me to borrow. That's the sort of thing they do up north.

-- You might remember (although I hope you have more important things to store in your memory) that I was staying up until 1:00am most nights a while back. But then I went to Frankfurt, and the time changes reset everything, so it was more like 11:00pm for a while, then midnight, and I've been back to 1:00am for almost a week now. I don't really care when I go to bed (although I prefer staying up late to waking up too early), but I can't turn off the light even a minute before I'm ready to fall asleep, or I'll toss and turn. The strange thing is that, even if I wind up eating breakfast at 9:50 in the morning, I'll be hungry for lunch about an hour and a half later. I had a late-ish start today, so I had a slightly-smaller-than-usual breakfast. Waffles are good.

-- I had my first acting class last night, which was a lot of fun. And tonight was my second French lesson. Community ed is amazing. I'm also sort of impressed by how much easier it is to learn French at my current age than it was to start learning German at twelve years old. I'm sure a big part of it is having already learned a foreign language and being familiar with the process. But you're supposed to get worse with languages as you get older (and I'm sure there's a wall to hit somewhere here; it's hardly as though I've already conquered the French language). Maybe that year of Montessori kindergarten has just been lying dormant all these years, waiting.

-- Alex asked what sort of cereal was in my last post, and the answer is Honey Smacks. I was going to try making my own when I finished with my last box, but then I ran out of enthusiasm for that project. So more refined sugar it is. I only eat Smacks with yogurt (well, once I had some for dessert), because eating a bowl as actual cereal would just be a rush of sugar and then a big crash.

-- I suppose I had better pack for the cabin now. And fold all that laundry over there. And do the last of the dishes. And maybe tidy up a bit. Thank goodness it's only 11:30 at night -- plenty of time yet to be productive! Weird.

-- Beany must have the best life ever. She has a warm house to live in, gets to cuddle with her favorite person (me) even when it's inconvenient for that person, she has a ridiculous assortment of toys, she gets to go outside when it's nice (but doesn't have to sit out in the cold or worry about getting hit by cars), and she gets to lick out the bowl when I've finished with my yogurt. Yep. The best.

-- I'm excited to go to the cabin this week, even though it's going to be cold out (but I'll be indoors, so whatever). It's my mini holiday, except I plan on getting some work done, because I might as well. But I now have three books to read: Dawkins' latest, Proust Was a Neuroscientist, and Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia, which I just picked up from the library today (it was on hold for me). Reading!

-- I found out this afternoon that Elvis Costello will be appearing on the February 4th performance of Prairie Home Companion. They're screening it live at cinemas across the country (I think across the country), but I swooped in and got myself a fifth-row ticket for the actual performance. Hooray! I've come to the conclusion that, when going to shows you're really excited about, it's almost better to go solo, because you can get a better seat. I assume he (Elvis) will be playing some of his new bluegrassy stuff, since that fits in with the tone of PHC. I got that new album for Christmas and am loving it much more than I expected to.

-- Oh, I'm also hoping to do some drawing while I'm at the cabin. I'd love to do another downloadable something, like the paper house pack. Would you still be interested in paper houses, even now that the holiday season has passed? They wouldn't be wintery; I'd like to have one with a little garden, and perhaps a school house. Who doesn't like useless papercraft, right?

-- My Barney Butter (ordered off Amazon.com) arrived Saturday afternoon, and I was away Sunday and Monday, so today was my first chance to have it for breakfast. It's so good. I've also been experimenting with adding egg white to my oat bran (I stir it in once the bran is almost done, then stir it over the heat, so it can cook). The egg flavor is definitely in there, but it makes it taste like French toast!

-- Speaking of French, today was my first French class through community ed. I studied German in school, of course, but the majority of my friends took French, and I've always wished I could speak that language better. I think I'm going to excel in this class, because French really plays to my strengths -- namely, my tendency to trail off when speaking out lou...

-- My new point-and-shoot camera (a birthday present) takes video, and today I uploaded about a minute of how Beany and I play. I've been trying to explain this particular 'game' to people lately, but I'm not sure it's always clear what a strange cat Beany can be. I like how Booty is in the background and wanders off at the beginning of the clip and then returns at the end. Continuity. And I think my favorite bit is Beany following me off at the end. The way she looks up at me to see what we're going to do next kills me.

-- When stores started having those self-service registers, I really resented them. I had worked at a little supermarket when I was in college, and there was no way I was going to scan my own groceries without getting paid for it. But my local grocery store installed four of these 'fast lane' registers, and I don't think I've used anything else since. I often just have to pick up a few items, and it really is so much faster to ring them up without having to wait in a line. Plus, I like doing things I'm good at, and I reckon I'm pretty good at scanning barcodes and keying in numbers -- I was professionally trained back in college, after all.

-- The Vikings were victorious yesterday, and I headed home from the cabin this morning. I got back around 1.00pm, after making a few stops, and managed to keep myself busy until the sun had gone down. I don't really like taking photos after dark and with lamps on, but this is what (part of) my living room looks like in the evening.

-- I stopped at an outlet center on my way home, and then I went to Subway for lunch. I am 99% sure that I have never, ever ordered food at a Subway (having not been to one since I was little and didn't do my own ordering). The feeling was very much the same as when I get confused and embarrassed at shops in Germany. I don't speak fast food!

-- I also went to Michael's (with a 40% off coupon) and bought a 36"x24" canvas, onto which I will Mod Podge my map of Canada (technically, it's a map of the highways of Canada and the northeast United States). A little jar of Mod Podge was $6, so I passed, knowing for sure that I already had at home either the exact same stuff or, at least, a bottle of white glue that I could water down. I'll let you guess which of those two I was able to find. Oh wait, there's a third option: neither. Arg.

-- So instead of Mod Podging, I finished piecing together the front and back of the new quilt for my bedroom. I was going to sandwich it all together tonight, but it's so big (a queen size) that I'll have to rearrange some furniture in the living room to be able to spread it out. Tomorrow. The cats are already SO EXCITED to help.

-- While I was away, it seems a new set of spammers found my blog. I moderate every comment, of course, so I just had to delete a bunch of pending comments instead of worrying that they'd already been published. What I find perplexing, though, is that 90% of the spam comments go into the normal 'pending' folder. Actual comments, however, almost always get filed away in the spam folder. And Movable Type doesn't (as far as I know) have a 'See What You're Doing? Now Do the Opposite' button. Oh, how I wish I had such a button for everyday life!

-- Also, an aside to my Twin Cities readers: I only heard from one person about getting together! Don't be scared! I was only kidding about needing you to protect me (I'm a pretty good scratcher).

Today was extremely full of good things. Here are some of them.

1. The peach jam I've been using was nice enough, but I was very happy to have a new jar of Mountain Fruit Co. raspberry jam for my English muffin today. (The table was also nice and tidy this morning, because I put all my necessary junk -- crosswords, journal, pen case, paper, etc -- in a basket, finally.)

2. I wore a dress I got on my birthday (it was $3 in Old Navy's clearance!). I obviously liked it enough to get it, but every time I had tried it on at home, I decided it wasn't what I wanted to wear out. But when I put it on today, it was suddenly super comfortable and pretty.

3. I went to the tax man. After two years of miserable tax appointments, I am very, very happy to say that I'll be getting a big refund this year! I practically went broke trying to pay my estimated taxes based on my 2008 income while earning significantly less in 2009 (not very clever, I know), but it was worth it to not have to OWE this year. Hello, savings account!

4. I treated my car to a celebratory car wash in honor of my tax refund. And not just the basic one, but The Works. With tri-color foam and everything. It was magical. I'm pretty sure everybody noticed how clean and shiny my car was on the drive home. It'll just take one more trip out in the slushy streets to get it dirty again, but it was nice to at least remove a layer of grime mid-winter.

5. I got a shelf to put in my bedroom closet, and it really helped me find a home for a lot of shirts. Organizing the bedroom still has a looong way to go, and it's like a ridiculous, nonsensical puzzle. I go through clothes, put them in piles, and some of them disappear into drawers. Then I go through everything again, put them in new piles, and more of them disappear. I don't have a clue as to what I'm doing, but it seems to be very methodical, and I'm liking the results.

6. Reading all the lovely delurking comments was excellent. I visited the sites of everybody who left a link. It was interesting to see what you guys all blog about -- lots of crafts and some foodie stuff. I'm not sure I would have been able to guess what the 'demographics' were for twelve22 in that regard; I used to be all about crafts and now... sort of a bit of everything. So, thanks to everybody who commented! Please do so again!

7. This isn't so much a good thing for today, but perhaps it could be a good thing of the future! It seems like there are at least a few fellow Minneapolitans (and St Paulites, hiss -- but this is for you, too) in this neighborhood of the blog world. I'm thinking of organizing a friendly get-together -- next week, maybe? -- either dinner one night or lunch next weekend. Local suburbanites welcome, as well. Drop me a line at anna.torborgATgmail.com. If it's a group thing, it's way less scary in a person-from-the-internet-is-going-to-kidnap-me way; we just have to make sure the goodies outnumber the baddies (and I can't run at the moment, so somebody will have to be prepared to protect me, if things get rough).

8. One last-y last good thing. I couple people mentioned my mug in last post's photo, and while it would be funnier for me if I made people continue guessing who was on it, I'll just say. It's a This American Life mug, which shows the succession of hosts into the future. It starts with Ira Glass (you can see it a bit better in this photo) and goes through various human hosts, a brief stint by a talking cat, and then a robot. You know, once humanity falls to our evil robot overlords. Best mug ever? Yeah.

Some lists for you today.

1. Food items that I wish I had a free, lifetime supply of (part of what could be a much longer list!):
-- Zevia sodas
-- perfect, tiny Honeycrisp apples
-- Whole Foods Soy Crispettes (cheddar)
-- Newman's dried mixed berries
-- Barney Butter
-- Mountain Fruit Co. jam
-- Yorkshire Gold tea
-- Nature's Path Pumpkin Flax Plus Granola

2. Recent occurrences that wouldn't have happened if I weren't a home-owner:
-- The new drawer organizer I bought fit perfectly in the space I had, and it made my day.
-- I listened to a friend's story about her broken oven, and when she apologized for being boring, I had to admit I found it all rather fascinating.
--I keep getting excited when I think of uses for my new vacuum: the mattresses! upholstery! the car!

3. Things I'm currently proud of:
-- I have my tax man appointment tomorrow and am 95% ready (have to double check my interest income).
-- I've been taking it easy with my injured ankle, even though it's tempting to test it, and I really want to get back to running.
-- I'm making progress with my big house overhaul, slow as it is, instead of just sitting around and wishing I'd start.
-- I'm blogging regularly.

4. Things I would like:
-- For Booty the Cat to magically gain three or four pounds.
-- For the world to just take a break from disasters for a while. It's too much. The reporting is heart-breaking.
-- For everybody reading this who has a blog to leave a comment, so I can check out your blogs, especially if you've never commented before. (You can comment if you don't have a blog, too.) Apparently today is National Delurking Day? I didn't realize that until I checked just now (but I think there are probably a few dozen 'official' delurking days).

P.S. -- I thawed out a piece of my birthday cake today. It froze amazingly well.

-- Minnie spent the night here yesterday. I made her a squeaky pillow (I'd found a plastic squeaker in the hall closet when I cleaned it) and baked dog biscuits, so I think she had an alright time. I don't think I ever explained Minnie's departure, but my parents adopted her from me in February 2008. They already had a dog that Minnie loved, and she's really a dog's dog. And I'm a cat person. So everybody was/is happy in the end.

-- I went through the clothes in my closet this evening. Well, a first pass. I think I'm going to have to go back when I'm feeling a bit more brutal, because there were several items I know I should part with, but I'm just having doubts at the moment. Honestly, I'd rather store something in a plastic bin down in the basement than have that moment where I see something cute and think, 'Oh, I used to have a [shirt/skirt/etc] just like that! Darn.'

-- Getting back to Minnie, I thought it was pretty funny how the cats behaved while she was here. They're often quite skittish at my parents' house (although that could just be because Sasha, the other dog, barks and barks and barks), even though they're fine at the cabin, so I know they don't mind being somewhere new. So maybe it's just because they were on their home turf, or maybe they even remember when Minnie lived here, but it was just no big deal. We all sat on the sofa together. When I gave Minnie her canned dog food this morning, Booty really wanted some (the cats only get wet food after [my] dinner). So he just stuck his head in the same bowl. Those crazy animals.

-- And speaking of animals, there's a new Radio Lab here, about the minds of animals. And if you've never listened to Radio Lab, and you're the sort of person who likes interesting stuff (with a science-y flavor), check out all the episodes. I particularly like the ones about music, and my friend Alex likes the episode about death.

-- I realized that finishing my big house clean-up would be a great excuse to have a small party. Like a second house warming. And maybe I can put out some of the choicest pieces of culled junk for my friends to take (assuming I find anything that fits that category). And make a cake. Presumably, setting a date for such a party would give me a deadline for the overhaul, but I don't know that I'm THAT committed -- going through every room could take some time. It's so tiring making decisions about what to keep and what to discard; I have to take lots of breaks.

-- I made bread yesterday, because I'd been thinking for days how good some toasted, homemade bread would be for breakfast. Last night, after finally doing what I needed to do to make that a reality (that is, having baked the bread), I realized I didn't want toast for breakfast. No way. I'm totally committed to oatbran and Ezekiel English muffins right now (not all in ONE breakfast, of course). So I had some toast for my afternoon snack instead. Problem solved.

-- Every few months, my next-door neighbor calls me to ask a question about the children's book she's written and is trying to get published (not by me). This is the only thing I can remember her ever calling about (which is fine), yet every time she says, 'Hi, it's your neighbor, _____,' I get that sudden called-to-the-principal's-office panic (not that I was ever called to the principal's office). What have I done? Did I shovel my part of the sidewalk the wrong way?

-- I've been trying to get several books ready for print, which means lots of time spent finishing off covers. I generally do just the front cover of a book ahead of time, for catalogues and such, and then do the full cover -- spine and back -- nearer to print time. So that's what I was doing. And as I finished with the third cover, I realized that all those current books are horror and/or fantasy. And I had a private cackle of glee, because how awesome is it that I design covers for those sorts of books?

-- I recently figured out how to make iTunes fetch album artwork (yeah, yeah, yeah -- I hadn't actually TRIED before), and I just used the little Apple remote to make my iMac play music, so now it's displaying the album cover. Classy. I haven't figured out, though, how to make my iPod sync up and fetch the new artwork, short of first deleting the music from the iPod and then reloading it (which would be a pain, since I don't have my entire library on the iPod).

-- Having the album artwork on my iPod is important, by the way, for when I'm at the gym. Because when I casually choose a new song as I run, I want people to glance over and think, 'Hey, she's listening to The Jam while she works out. She's so cool.' Then they will not notice my red face or judge the speed at which I'm running. Everybody wins. Especially The Jam.

-- I miss the gym and the rich fantasy life I have regarding what goes on in the minds of everybody there. Is my ankle better yet?

-- Sometimes I can't decide what to have for my afternoon snack, and when oatmeal pops into my mind, I think, 'Oh, can't have that -- that's what I had for breakfast.' It just seems wrong to eat the same thing twice in one day. Luckily, I did not have oatmeal for breakfast today! My snack oatmeal was particularly good, too. Yum.

-- My ankle is feeling a bit better today. It doesn't really hurt much anymore (although, that's exactly what I would have said a week ago, right before it got a lot worse), but it's still slightly swollen and feels a bit 'funny'. I was adding new songs to my 'running' playlist, which meant trying to imagine running, to see if each song was high-energy enough, and I could tell that my ankle wasn't up for even imaginary running. And that's the latest in AnkleWatch 2010.

-- I did some stuff with weights and my arms this morning, and I'm already starting to feel it. That's not so much down to my killer workout as it is to the feebleness of my arms. I wish I weren't so afraid of the great unknown that is the weight machine section of my gym. I miss the gym (not really). I miss running (yes, really). Sad face.

-- I tried sleeping with the wave sounds last night, and I'm not completely sold on it. The pros are that A) I don't have a fan blowing (at the wall, this time of year), which I'm sure kicks up dust that irritates the inside of my head and B) the clock radio is on my nightstand, which means I can turn the noise off when I wake up without having to get up first. So I can lie in bed until I'm ready to face the world. The main con is that there's a loose connection somewhere inside the clock radio, and you have to get it set up just right so that there won't be any static. And even then, I keep listening to hear if there's any trace of static... instead of falling asleep. I would say that I slept decently last night more in spite of the waves than thanks to them. But I'm going to give it another shot. And maybe try to fix the connection, at some point.

-- And finally, the Zevia soda winners! I used random.org to generate three numbers; the first was the 'grand prize' winner, and the second two were the... other winners. Annnnd, the winners were BreAnna, who will be getting an entire case of Zevia soda -- a four-pack of each amazing flavour; Dawn and Christine will each be getting a mixed six-pack, with one can of each variety. Winners, I've e-mailed you for details. Thanks to everybody who commented! I hope you can find Zevia wherever you are and give it a try. Seriously worth it!

-- I went for a walk yesterday, because it was just so beautiful outside (I took this photo on the parkway at the end of my block). Unfortunately, it was also really cold (just under 10F), so I didn't even make it a mile from my house before I decided to turn back in consideration of not freezing my legs off. The sun felt nice, though.

-- I still haven't gone running since I hurt my ankle; I thought I might today, but it was a little sore when I woke up. I haven't started going too stir-crazy yet, but it's been over a week since I ran, and I'm missing it. The effects of running regularly are sort of like what I imagine a successful course of ECT must be like: I can still think of the various worries I had before, but they just don't make me anxious anymore.

-- Before I set out on my walk yesterday, I pulled on an extra pair of Smart Wool socks, so I was wearing one medium-weight pair and one heavy-weight. (If you know Smart Wool socks, you'll know that that's some serious some-wearing. If you don't know about Smart Wool, and if you've ever had chilly feet, you really should check them out. They'll change your life.) Of course, I forgot I was wearing two pairs of socks when I got back, so I wore them the rest of the day. I also found a really nice North Face stocking cap when I was looking through boxes for something else, so I wore that all evening yesterday. My house is the fashion capital of North Minneapolis.

-- Since the New Year is always a chance to spend two and a half weeks being organized and productive, I made a little weekly planner PDF for myself to print out. I keep a daily journal (mostly a record of what I've done, after the fact) and have a year-at-a-glance calendar on my fridge, but I like having a disposable sheet to organize my thoughts and tasks. Since it was already all PDF'ed, I thought I'd make it available, if anybody needs something similar. This is a lo-res jpeg of the colour version, so you can see what it looks like. You can right-click and download the colour PDF here or go for the basic black-and-white version here. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.

-- Don't forget to sign up for the Zevia give-away! You've gotta be in it to win it.

-- Whew, what a week! Tuesday was my birthday; Wednesday was spent finishing up the last of my presents and then wrapping them; Thursday was Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family; Friday was Christmas with my parents; and yesterday was Christmas/Boxing Day with my dad's side. That's a bit too much holidaying!

-- I had one of my best birthdays ever this year. My cake went together without much fuss (that's it above, and here it is pre-cutting -- it's 'German Coconut', with filling/icing made using this recipe; the coconut cake itself isn't worth making again), and then I spent the day with my mom, eating good food, getting massages, and finding ridiculously good deals at Old Navy. AND I received two packages with products for review -- Zevia Sodas and Newman's Own Organics. More on that at a later date.

-- One of my birthday presents was a little Sony point-and-shoot. I had an Olympus that I really liked until it mysteriously stopped working after six months. Now I can take photos when I'm out and about without having to lug around my SLR, which isn't always convenient. And the new camera takes nice photos.

-- It started snowing on Thursday and didn't really let up until Saturday evening. And then it snowed a bit more today. Since the cats and I had packed up and were at my parents' for three days, that meant I had to shovel all the snow this morning. Luckily, thankfully, some kind neighbour had done my front path, so I only had to worry about the back path and the driveway. It took about an hour, but it was sunny, around 20F (which isn't too bad, don'tyaknow), and I had a new Elvis Costello album on my iPod. Snowy.

-- The bad news with the snow was that I had to hop through it while packing up the car on Christmas Eve, and I managed to hurt my ankle. I didn't even land on it very hard or twist it much, but I knew I'd landed wrong as soon as it happened, and it's been bothering me ever since. It's nearly back to normal now, but it gets achy every few hours. I've been slightly distressed, because I've been enjoying running lately, and I don't this to mess it up.

-- Christmas itself was very enjoyable. My dad's side of the family usually celebrates in the afternoon/evening, but the gathering was pushed to Boxing Day, due to the snow. So my parents and I (and the cats and their dogs) did our usual thing in the morning (presents, brunch) and then lazed around for the rest of the day. I read comics and drank tea out of my new favourite mug, which I got from my aunt on Christmas Eve (which is when my mom's side of the family gathers). Perfect.

-- Even though I only turned one year older last week, it seems to have had a dramatic effect. After I got home yesterday, I kept thinking about how I could assemble and use my new vacuum in the morning and then clean the floors with my new slippers. I think I might have had my most excited reaction to opening that particular gift. I hadn't even asked for them, because how could I have ever imagine such perfection existed?

-- Happy Sunday! I don't go to the gym very often on the weekends, but I had running dreams the past two nights (not running away dreams, which are more frequent, annoyingly), so I packed myself up and got on a treadmill today. And it was pretty awesome. One of my strange running habits is that I 'chew' half a piece of minty gum the entire time. It keeps my mouth and throat from drying out, which is really bothersome otherwise. And the mint makes me run faster. (Not really.)

-- It seems like there's been a lot of hype about 'the week before Christmas' this year. Or I've noticed it more, at least. There have been more big sales and people saying, 'What are you doing the week(end) before Christmas?' Maybe it's just because the holiday is on a Friday this year, but so help me, if Christmas starts to take over the entire week beforehand (and, thus, my birthday), I will start my own personal war on the holiday.

--Speaking of Christmas-week rivalry, I've been monitoring the forecast and have started a competition between my birthday and Jesus' supposed birthday. At the moment, he's got about three degrees on me, but I have SUNSHINE. Nobody's going to notice 25F versus 28F, but that sun won't go unappreciated. Take that.

-- I was thinking the other day about super powers, except not the usual kind (flying, time-travel, invisibility, etc). More like mundane super powers. Some of my top choices are as follows:

1) The ability to blink and be dressed in the morning. I hate having to get out from under the covers and then pull on a sweatshirt, etc. Those fifteen seconds that my arms are uncovered are the worst.

2) The ability to magically transport my kitchen garbage to the bin outside. Even better would be the ability to turn all my trash into pure energy, which I could then use to power my home.

3) The ability to broadcast my thoughts through the radios of other people's cars. Then I could say, 'Thanks,' or, 'Whoops!' or, 'For the love of god, drive faster!' And scare the crap out of people.

-- Okay, that photo is actually of yesterday's breakfast. There's nothing like a Sunday morning.

-- Alex and I distributed gingerbread cookies to her happy coworkers today. Everybody was particularly excited about the MPR station map cookies I made, which was a relief. It could have gone either way: kitschy and funny or lame and pathetic. I did it with the former in mind.

-- Generally speaking, people just love a Minnesota-shaped cookie. It's a delicious state.

-- I used the box that my MacBook came in to transport the cookies (in the three layers). As somebody said, 'That's the second best thing that can come in a MacBook box!' I kept the first. (A couple of years ago; I didn't just get a new laptop or anything.)

-- I packed my gym bag and brought it with me, so I could have a run after my cookie elf duties. New socks! New gym shorts! New shirt! New headband to hold back my bangs! It should have been the best gym day ever, thanks to my Target shopping this weekend, but I forgot to pack one key element. Let it suffice to say that I had to stick to incline walking instead of running. And it wasn't my shoes.

-- This afternoon, I didn't have very much yogurt left for my usual snack, so I mixed in some applesauce. It wasn't bad, but it was very strange. Is it dairy? Is it fruit? Unidentifiable!

-- I finished watching the first season of How I Met Your Mother (I stretched it out to three whole days!). I was saying yesterday that it was laughable to think of the characters as being my age, both because of the way the behave and the obscene amounts of money they seem to drop on a whim. But I was listening to the actor commentary tonight, and I realized I could imagine a group of my friends sounding pretty similar. I guess real people are just less fake.

-- When I came home today, the cats were asleep on the sofa. Booty greeted me, but Beany kept sleeping, even though I called her name about five times. It wasn't until I moved my desk chair that she woke up; I guess that's what it took to alert her to the fact that her environment had changed. I like to think that's because my voice just wove itself into her subconscious. She probably dreams about me nagging her.

Some odds and ends that don't deserve their own posts:

-- I don't really get a runner's 'high'. Instead, after a good run, I get runner's exhaustion, where both my brain and body are just about as relaxed as they possibly could be. It's just as good as a high, I would say, because everything just seems quieter. I do, however, get a slow drip of delicious endorphins throughout the day, so I wind up being inexplicably content with life.

-- Honey Smacks are pretty great. I don't think I could eat a bowl of them for breakfast (might as well eat a candy bar, for all the sugar they're covered in), but I do enjoy them. I'm tempted to buy plain puffed wheat (or rice or millet -- or combine them all!) and try to make my own with actual honey or agave or something a bit less HFCS-y.

-- I've got a couple free passes for a particular movie theater, and I'm greedily thinking of using them both on my own. I don't go to movies very often, because I get bored sitting around, but my casual perusing of recent movie listings has made me realize something. When I watch a movie on my own (usually on an airplane), I more often than not gravitate towards foreign or independent films, the kind that leave me thinking afterward. But I'd never want to see that sort of movie with somebody else. I don't have any conclusions to draw from that, except to point out that I also listen to public radio while I'm alone, but I can't imagine having it on if somebody were over (even if we weren't speaking).

-- I rarely raise my voice with my cats (although Beany does sometimes need a bit of yelling at when she's 'knowingly' done something really, really bad), and I never hurt them, yet somehow they're really obedient. I mean, obedient for cats. Booty sleeps on the sitting part of the sofa half the time (and on the back of the sofa the other half), and if I want to sit down, all I have to do is politely say 'excuse me', and he moves. Clearly I exude calm, assertive energy, or whatever it is that makes cats think you're in charge (control of the food supply, probably).

-- I eat ice cream most nights of the week, because I've found that doing so is one of the keys to a happy life. My current flavour of choice is Edy's (Dreyer's in other parts of the country) Mint Cookie Crunch. Since I go through a carton of it every week or so, I'm well aware of its place in the freezer case at my local supermarket. So imagine my horror when I cracked open a new container the other day to realize I'd bought Mint Chocolate Chip by accident. I blame the stockists. And if you're thinking there can't possibly be that much difference between the two flavours, you're mistaken. Mint Cookie Crunch is like the magical love child of Mint Chocolate Chip (which is okay, except for the horrible chocolate chips that just get all jammed up in your teeth) and Cookies 'n' Cream. I can't actually think of anything that could make it better than it already is. I suffered through two days of the impostor mint ice cream before admitting defeat and going back for the real deal.

-- Beany is such a funny cat. Sometimes she leaps straight up into the air because the urge strikes. And if I stand at the window and call, 'Beany, Beany!' in an urgent voice, she dutifully comes running, already excited about what must be outside. She was the one who spotted our bunny friend outside today, though -- that's what she's watching above. Every time I empty a roughly cat-sized container of something, I put it on the floor for Beany. She's so predictable.

-- I finally finished the knitted fox I started making years ago. Literally years ago; I made the first 1.5 pieces while I was still living in London. I lost interest until a few weeks back, and it didn't take long once I really made an effort. The pattern is from Lucinda Guy's And So to Bed. The only problem is that it's grey and only slightly smaller than Beany, so I had a bit of a boggle earlier today when I looked into the living room and saw two Beanys by the coffee table. I'll have to lock it away. But I'll try to take a photo first.

-- And on the topic of 'finally', I also finally roasted the pumpkins from my garden. I grew three, but I think I mentioned that one of them was rotten inside. It was easy to tell when I picked it; it was much lighter than the others. I carved that one for Halloween, but the others have been sitting around looking autumnal for weeks and weeks. But I want to decorate for the winter holidays, so the pumpkins had to go. This is what the big one looked like chopped in half. I roasted the pumpkins, then peeled them (pretty easy once they're cooked), then mashed them with a potato masher, and THEN I pureed the mash in the blender. I got eleven cups of puree from that one and five from the smaller pumpkin, so sixteen cups in total! I've been draining it through cheesecloth for a few hours, though, and I've removed about 2.5 cups of liquid already, so it won't be quite that much in the end. Once it's drained, I'll freeze it in one-cup portions for baking.

-- I've got total day confusion. Last night I felt like I should be getting ready for the week to begin, and I have the same feeling right now. I keep remembering that tomorrow is only Sunday, which means I've been celebrating every half hour or so. Sundays are the best!

-- I made some good headway on my to-do list today. I had to go out in the afternoon to buy a radiator key (I love Ace Hardware) and pick up a few groceries, and I really had my heart set on a store-bought cookie for my afternoon snack. The supermarket was all out of their individual bakery case ones, so I wound up buying a package of Pepperidge Farm chewy chocolate chip cookies. Even though I enjoyed them, they were so (too) sweet and insubstantial feeling; I was sure I'd have a sugar crash after about an hour. But no -- I was fine until dinner. Hooray.

-- Then, come dinner-time, I was all set to have a big baked potato with cottage cheese. But my potato was green; I'm sure it wasn't green in the store a few days ago! Luckily, I had 1.5 smaller sweet potatoes (I only need half of one the other day), so I almost had what I wanted. Maybe it's the running or the changing of the seasons, but I've been craving more carbs and protein and less raw veg, and I'm going with it. I have however, also been wanting loads of broccoli cooked until it's falling apart, which I've been eating at both lunch and dinner the past few days. But raw veg is making me feel a bit bleurg right now. Go figure.

-- I've been trying to bleed my radiators, but I have a feeling this could take weeks. Air seems to escape for about thirty seconds, and then nothing happens. No leaking water, and the tops of the radiators still stay cold when the heat it on. If I wait and try again, I can get more air to come out, but only ever for about thirty seconds. Curse you, radiators that I otherwise love! (I only have two old-fashioned radiators; the rest of the house has baseboard radiant heat.)

-- I watched a History Channel program on Ben Franklin last night (on Hulu), and I learned about, for the first time, the glass armonica. Holy wow! That's the best thing I've ever seen.

-- One of my at-home chores was to tidy up the guest room, which had become cluttered with various homeless bits and pieces. It wasn't a huge task, but I was glad to get it done, because it meant I could leave the door open to let air flow in there (it's one of the rooms with the old-fashioned radiators, so it's been chilly). I keep a bedsheet over the guest bed, so the cats won't get hair on the quilt and pillows, but twice I discovered Beany curled up UNDER the sheet (she loves being under blankets). And then, when I was in the living room, I heard a crash and discovered that she'd climbed on top of the big cabinets in there and knocked down the one model horse I have on display (my favourite, of course) and broke one of its legs. Why? She's a bad, bad, wicked cat.

-- I've had the most vivid dreams the past couple of nights, the kind where the events and feelings linger with you the whole day. I think it might be due to taking Benedryl before bed. I get most allergy-y at night, and I also like the knocking-out effect of Benedryl, but I might have to go without tonight. Not because of the dreams (which were actually nice, and I'm feeling rather wistful about them), but because it makes me feel sluggish when I'm trying to get ready for the gym after breakfast. If it's not one thing, it's the other.

-- A couple people commented recently about my zipper tutorial. I'm not sure what happened, but the 'Continue reading...' link managed to bust itself; even though I could see that it was still there in the 'extended' part of the entry, it wasn't displaying. So the tutorial was moved to the main body of that post, which should still be at the same address as always (which is here). I should make a special button for it on the sidebar, as it's far and away the most frequently followed link to this site. People love learning how to put in a zipper! For now, you can just search for it by using the new search feature.

-- And I really like that feature, by the way. I mean, I've always been able to search my own entries through Movable Type, but it's nice that other people can too now. I tested it out by searching for 'cats', but it turns out that I mention cats in almost every post, so it didn't really prove anything.

-- I realized today that my itchy finger stopped itching. I don't think it's itched for two or three days now. Gone as quickly as it arrived. What was that?

-- I found a plugin and related widget to manage links on the sidebar, so links are back. As I was tagging links so they'd automatically fall under the proper category, I was realizing how many blogs are sort of multi-purpose. A bit like this one, I guess. Even though certain blogs are under 'crafty', they're just as likely to be 'foodie', maybe. It's either a sign that certain bloggers have been around long enough to garner an audience that's interested it whatever they say... or that they've been around long enough to cease to care about 'focus'. I never claimed to care in the first place!

-- I think our streak of warm, sunny November days will come to an end tomorrow. It was nice while it lasted. I caught the sunset above a little while before I started making dinner. The short days get us all every year (and it's disappointing to not have the light to take dinner photos), but they're not so bad when the light bit has been particularly bright.

-- I came back from running errands today to find the cats all snuggled up on the sofa. They always get along, but they don't really have much reason to get close until it starts getting cooler outside. Then they ramp up the cuteness. Beany is like a real-life Japanese cartoon, no? So happy!

-- Why does it take forever to build up endurance for running, but then if you, like, eat a leisurely breakfast and get to the gym five minutes later than usual, you've lost it all? I've also realized that the 'reward' for doing well during a run (while in the process of rebuilding endurance) is having to run even further the next time. Sounds like punishment to me! Clearly, I have a love-hate relationship with running. Except by 'love', I mean 'casual interest'.

-- Speaking of the gym, though, ever since I started going again, I've been sleeping an obscene number of hours every night. Obviously, I've just jinxed it, but it was nice while it lasted.

-- Since Beany's Cat-A-Wheel is currently stationed next to the end of the sofa, sometimes she sits inside and we play a game not unlike 'chicken'. I rest my chin on the arm of the couch and we stare at each other -- rather intensely -- until her pupils completely black out the irises of her eyes. That's always the point where I back away, because I know what happens when she goes all saucer-eyed, and I rather like having my face attached to the front of my head. In one piece.

-- One of my fingers is itchy. A lame thing to complain about, I know, but it itches! I've inspected it and can see no cause (apart from the constant scratching). I tried cortisone cream, to no avail, so I think the next step is a string that I'll tighten every day until the offending finger is no longer a concern. It's not like it's a thumb or pointer or anything.

-- One more cat story. They're not usually allowed in the bedrooms, but every so often I'll let them in when I wake up, so we can loll around and have a cuddle. I must have accidentally done this two days in a row, because every morning this week, Beany has been waiting expectantly outside my door when I open it. I haven't let her in, because I don't like to encourage pushiness, but I wish I could use her memory for useful things. I have a cup of coffee every morning; can't she learn to make it for me?

-- So, the internet claims the Zeilgalerie has been around since 1992, but I never noticed it until this year. Maybe it was always behind a particularly large bit of the scaffolding that seems to migrate down and around but never leaves the Zeil, which is the main drag for chain-store shopping in Frankfurt. I'm glad I went in, though, because it's a stunning building. I come from a land where we put rollercoasters inside our malls, and I was still impressed. It's a bit dizzy-making, though. [I noticed a few days later, as Janet also pointed out, that this is the 'MyZeil' mall, and it did actually just open this year!]

-- I went to get dinner for take-away this evening at the same local kebab place I had my falafel sandwich the other day. That was the only other time I'd been there, but the same guy was working, and he remembered to speak to me in English (by his own volition; I didn't refuse to speak German, or anything). Makes a person feel like a regular. I'm probably one of very few Americans wearing a stripy scarf and constantly carrying a Kleenex, though. Memorable.

-- I've been sharing my hotel-apartment with Mister Legs, a spider with a tiny body, but with probably a good three-inch leg span (at least!). He hung out by the curtains for most of our time together (on the ceiling), and then one day appeared in the corner of a room, then a different one, and now... I'm not sure where he is. I'd be more comfortable if I DID know, but I'm feeling surprisingly nonchalant about it. That is, until sometime in the future, when I realize he's RIGHT... BEHIND... ME! (I saved you the trouble, Rob.)

-- I wasn't so impressed with the hotel breakfast at first (and I didn't have the time when the bookfair was on), but I've been going every day this week. Partly because I can have a tiny glass of orange juice AND free coffee, but also because the lady brings me a perfectly soft-boiled egg. They have never before been a part of my life, but now I'm considering staying here just for the eggs. Or maybe I'll hire her to be my live-in egg chef. Or maybe I'll just start making my own. Part of the enjoyment is the luxury of them simply appearing five minutes after I sit down, though.

-- I have kept absolutely no sort of schedule while I've been here, as far as when I sleep. Actually, apart from the few nights when I woke up at 3:00 in the morning, I've usually slept until 6:00-7:00am most days. But I'm pretty sure that lights-out has ranged from 10:30-1:30. That's not really of any interest, except that it's about a quarter after 10:00 right now, and I'm thinking, 'Hm, I could go to bed in just a little while. Or stay up for a few hours.' It hard to know if you're tired without some sort of reliable routine!

-- After staying indoors yesterday, I was ready to get out and make the most of my Wednesday. I went to Mainz and Wiesbaden and really did have a pretty good day. I finally made it to the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz; I guess I've only ever been there on Mondays in the past, when most museums are closed. It was interesting, and now I know that they keep their Gutenberg Bible collection in a giant vault. With some biiig doors.

-- I'd been looking for a camera bag for some time, and I hadn't been able to find a ready-made one that was just-right enough to justify spending money, but I couldn't work up the enthusiasm to make my own, with all the padding and zips I'd want. So when I saw this one in a camera store in Mainz on Monday, I was tempted to buy it, but everybody knows it's dumb to buy something in Europe if the same thing is sold in the US (it's always more expensive here). Some internet searching led me to believe that that particular Crumpler bag is actually only sold in Germany, though, so I excitedly purchased it this morning (in white, and NOT for 50 euros, thankfully). It's just what I wanted -- something made for a camera, with no extra 'bag' to weigh me down, yet with enough space for my wallet, keys, etc. Perfekt.

-- I also had a much less stressful conversation with the camera shop salesperson, as I first asked if I could try out the bag with my own camera and then apologized for my German being so horrible (in German, of course -- I might sound like an idiot, but I did study the language for seven years, so it's not like I can't speak at all). He simply said, 'Kein Problem!' and that was that. He still had to put up with my butchering, and I had to ask him to repeat things, but at least my crapness was out in the open. A life lesson, that.

-- Wiesbaden sure is a pretty town. It's hard to know where to start; there's a lot to look at. Mainz and Wiesbaden are situated on opposite sides of the Rhein, and I think Mainz will always be first in my heart. I had the absolute delight of chatting with somebody who's currently living in Mainz (though she's originally from further north in Germany) while I was at the bookfair, and when we were talking about the area, she gave a little eyeroll when she said, 'Wiesbaden' -- just as I would when talking about 'St Paul'. Like, 'Man, those guys are weird over there!' Maybe it's just because I come from a river-divided metro area, but I find mock rivalries like that very funny and charming. Wiesbaden, indeed.

-- I bought some organic applesauce the other day, and when I had some for the second time this evening, I had to check the ingredients. It's made of only apples, but the texture is so unlike any applesauce I've ever had; I would have sworn it contained... agar or something. It's just a bit too smooth and silky. I had to stand in the kitchen and perform scientific evaluations of it by the spoonful, straight from the jar. You know me: anything for science.

-- Bookfair is over! Holiday is go! Hey, everybody, let's get sick! Dang it. I still headed into Mainz today for a nice walk around and a look at the shops. I need more money, is what I've decided. I don't know why Rob won't play the lottery with me (now you have to imagine me with a jabby stick, with which to further annoy Rob).

-- I had this Apfel Kolatsche for my afternoon snack, and it was a bit decadent, if you ask me. But why come to Germany if you're going to agonize over every pile of sugar and butter you put into your body, right? The base wasn't really sweet, and it had apples on it, so it was pretty much fruit on toast. And I hear streusel is packed with vitamins. You might remember that I'm particular about plates and dishes (but not in an obnoxious way -- oh no!), and while the tea cup I've been supplied with is rather nice, the one water glass in the cupboard seems a bit dodgy. So I've been drinking water from a newly-empty yogurt jar. Bonus -- just add the lid, and it becomes a travel mug!

-- Speaking of yogurt, I became overwhelmed with choice at the Biomarkt this afternoon. I finally settled on date+nuts (I can't remember what kind of nut, and I'm sick, so I can't be bothered to get up and walk fifteen feet to the kitchen). A special flavour for autumn! I also grabbed some veggie Schnitzel and veggie Frankfurters, the latter of which tastes almost exactly like a tofu-dog, except with a different sort of smokiness. Not bad.

-- The unfortunate thing about being in Germany is that I become an idiot. My grasp of the language is so poor-to-mediocre that even when I can stumble my way through the first two-thirds of a conversation, I wind up completely bombing after thirty seconds and have to end with a wide-eyed, confused (and mostly terrified) look. And, of course, everything I do manage to say doesn't make me sound like a genius, either. I get a little better every year, but spending only 1/26 of my time in Germany (and a good portion of THAT in an English-speaking fair hall) doesn't exactly keep me sharp.

-- And since I mentioned the fair, I might as well say that it went alright. It was very slow, but I met some new folks and had a few good walk-by's (people stopping at the stand without a meeting). But mainly I thought Big Thoughts and learned a lot that I wouldn't have otherwise done had I not gone. And, I hate to say it, but I might have had a bit of useful networking after-hours (I have traditionally not been a schmoozer). One big do was up the top of a posh hotel, and I remembered to bring my camera this year. Not a bad view, eh?

-- I expanded my group of Frankfurt friends this year when I got invited along to dinner with several people who work for various image libraries. I know, right: what are the odds of me getting along with men and women who've chosen to work with photos for a living? But they were indeed a lovely bunch of people. I also spent time with friends from previous years, including Gwyn, whom I never once made a sandwich for, despite his inviting me along to various enjoyable dinners. To make up for my lack of gratitude, you should visit the very best open access picture library and engage in some image-based commerce.

-- Time now to make myself a cup of tea and focus on killing germs (whilst lounging in a suitably on-holiday manner). To the kettle!

I've been busy tending to all the things that don't really need doing around here. I used to be one of those people who would start packing two weeks before a trip, but these days I seem to wait until the last minute. Instead, I've been doing a bit of sewing in my spare time.

I rearranged the living room, as you know, part of which was swapping a bookcase for a bench to hold my turntable. Now one doesn't have to magically know where the buttons are as one reaches under a shelf to play a record (although that did keep people from wandering into my house and messing with my vinyl). Look how festive, with the pumpkin. I have to put the grilles back on the speakers, but they need to be de-cat-fluffed first. Speaking of, Beany quite successfully snuck into every photo I took of my living room this morning. But then I had to redo this one, by which point she'd fallen asleep elsewhere.

One of my sewing projects was this quilt, which developed from a few needs -- the need for something better to keep cat hair off the back of the sofa, the 'need' for something autumnal, and the, well, desire to not finish a patchwork project that I'd started a while ago. I had cut and pieced together some strips, planning on making a throw blanket, but I quickly grew bored with it So it wasn't TOO much additional work to turn it into a long, narrow, sofa-back cover.

I also have been working on dresses/tops here and there recently. I made this one a few weeks back, although it's probably my least favourite of the Japanese patterns I've tried out. You can read my various complaints on flickr, but mainly it just comes down to it being too 'cute' for me. I like this one much more, though. I think I have fairly narrow shoulders, in relation to my other dimensions, and both of these recent dresses fit 'just so' with the sleeve placement -- better than most store-bought clothes, and I'm not even having to tailor it to myself. Obviously, I like to wear dresses over jeans; I think people generally fall into two camps (love it or think it's stupid), but you can politely keep it to yourself if you're not a fan.

I suppose that now I've run out of things to sew, I should start thinking about packing. Although I still don't have the perfect camera bag...

-- If you've been wondering where I disappeared to, you can blame Lost (as I am doing). Where there used to be a neat little timeslot in my evenings for updating, it now seems like the perfect opportunity to squeeze in another episode.

-- I rearranged some furniture the other day, so now the sofa is in front of the small living room window. It always seems wrong to block a window, even if it's only the bottom ten inches or so, but it's really the only wall I can put the couch against. As wrong as it might be to put furniture in front of a window, it's even more wrong to put it in front of a door. I moved my big bookcases out of the living room for the first time, and put them in the piano room. They sort of dominate, but at least the room feels less like a glorified hallway now.

-- I roasted the smallest of my butternut squashes on Monday -- I've missed the smell of roasting squash! The butternuts will probably wind up being eaten in various savoury dishes, but I'll puree the pumpkins for pies and bread.

-- We've had nothing but gloomy weather lately (with the pleasant exception of today), and there was pretty solid rain on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday morning, I was lying in bed when I became aware of a dripping noise somewhere above me. It sounded like droplets of water falling into a little puddle. As the day went on, the dripping stopped, but one of the seams in the sheetrock ceiling became discoloured along the edges of the tape, and there was a small but definite water mark. I used a big needle today to pierce a hole between the two pieces of sheetrock, in case there was standing water up above, but it seems dry now. Not at all ironically, this is happening right where there was a crack in the original ceiling (you might remember we replaced it after I moved in). Sigh.

-- Anyway, enough with you guys. I have Lost to watch!

-- I was struck with a need to make gingerbread yesterday. I'm sure something must have set it off, but I'm not sure what. So in between doing other things, I whipped some up this morning. I used this recipe, sorta, except with a handful of changes. I only did half a batch (one loaf pan), subbed in strong coffee for the stout, did half oil and half applesauce, omitted the cardamom -- oh, and I didn't actually boil the molasses mixture, but the coffee came straight from my Bialetti, so it was already hot. I also put in half a cup of raisins (whatever had been telling me to make gingerbread in the first place also wanted raisins in it -- weird, right?), but unfortunately, I tossed them into the flour mixture before I stirred it in with the rest of the ingredients, so I didn't realize how thin the batter would be (very thin!). Needless to say, the raisins all sunk to the bottom, and a lot of them stuck to the pan after baking. Whoops. The flavour combo (of the raisins that DID stay in the gingerbread), though, is just as I had hoped. I'm putting it in the 'win' column.

-- So, Rio gets the 2016 games. I can understand why it's exciting for a country/city to host the Olympics... the attention, the boost to the economy, etc. But I find it hard to believe that anybody LIVING in a candidate city thinks it's a great idea. I mean, obviously, lots of people do, but all I remember about the campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London was complaining. Stratford, which is the main location for the London games, was between where I lived and where I worked in London, and I am soooo glad to have got out before the craziness hit. But, you know, good for Rio.

-- I discovered this TV show that I think might really take off: Lost. Have you heard of it? Ha! I've been steadfastly refusing to watch for the past five years, or whatever (actually, I did try watching it when it first premiered but couldn't get into it). And I had been tempted to check it out when they put it on Hulu, but I wasn't ready to travel down that rabbit hole. Well, I finally bit the bullet, and it's sucked me in. I'm a Mac user; I'm watching Lost -- what's next on the list of popular culture that I've been denying myself? Will I go out of the house wearing leggings and no skirt? (Answer: NO.)

-- Back to the gingerbread: it's funny how, as it was baking and the aroma was filling the house, I skipped over autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving and immediately jumped to feeling Christmas-y. Molasses and ginger are powerful ingredients! I still can't believe we got gypped of pleasant, mid-60F weather, though. The high today is in the 40s. I might as well start singing Christmas carols, I guess (as if I ever stop).

-- I went up to Sandstone today with a couple of friends, hoping to get our 'October Fest' on. Well, they clearly stuck with the 'c' and kept it two words to denote the lack of true Oktoberfest spirit, because it was kind of a let down. But we had A) tasty diner lunch, B) a walk around the town, C) a look at the Hinckley flea market, and D) a visit to Tobies for bread purchasing. Oh, and we got to see my parents' new propane tank!

-- We checked out the old Sandstone school again, because I recently learned that it's being offered for $55,000, although there will be a couple million bucks' worth of renovations required. You can see through the window how the paint is just peeling away. The hardwood floors in the classrooms and gymnasium have buckled, and the entire third story is covered in insulation (on the floor), from an attempt to cut heating costs to the rest of the building some time ago. There's mold everywhere inside and (probably) many leaks. So, pretty much a wreck, but it's so beautiful from the outside. Sigh.

-- I was sitting on my sofa earlier this evening, and the lilacs just outside the window were filled with shouting sparrows. I hadn't really noticed how loud they were until they all suddenly stopped. I guess a hawk must have flown by, because it was as though somebody had just pulled the plug. Except for one little extra peep, and then some shushing. (I may have imagined the shushing.)

-- I can't remember what my last item was going to be. But I'm very pleased that tomorrow will be Sunday. The newspaper comes, which means I can peruse the ads and get the answers to the last few clues I missed from last week's crossword. I can drink coffee and do whatever I want all day long. Which is more or less true about any other day of the week, but it's better when it's on a Sunday.

-- When I went to my parents' yesterday afternoon to pick up the rose plant, I'd been instructed (via e-mail) to take some of the zucchini bread 'butts' that were wrapped up on the counter. (The middles had gone to work with my mom.) I don't know if other people do this, but that's how we refer to the semi-undesirable, leftover part of anything. Like a cigarette butt, I guess. Just don't go to Red Lobster and complain to the waiter that you've been given 'crab butts', when really Dungeness crab legs are just a lot smaller than snow crab's. That's one of my clearest memories of eating out as a child. (It wasn't me who did the complaining, of course.)

-- I've been doing laundry all day. All day. As I brought a load up an hour ago, I realized I'd put the first one in twelve hours previously. Okay, so I haven't been very attentive to switching machines and bringing stuff up, but that's still a long time. I'm bored with it. But my sheets will be so cleeeean tonight!

-- Halfway through my laundering marathon, a man from the gas company came by to do a routine safety check of the meter. As I was leading him downstairs, I suddenly became very conscious of how I duck every time I pass under the point where the high stairwell ceiling becomes the regular basement ceiling. Then I thought that it was probably silly to do so; I'm not THAT tall. But I checked later, and I definitely would bean the top of my head if I didn't duck. There's no point to my telling you this, but these are the valuable experiments that working from home affords.

-- I took two Benadryl last night before I went to bed, and I slept blissfully, from about 12:30 until... 9:00? I can't remember; I had a Benadryl hangover. I'm tempted to do the same tonight, but I have to leave for the Sandstone Octoberfest at 9:30 tomorrow, so I should wake up at a reasonable time. Both friends I'm going with said, 'Sure, 9:30! I'm an early riser! No problem!' This is a very strange reversal of roles for me, suddenly being the one who wants to sleeps in (especially when I made the schedule). I'll set my alarm for 8:00 and therefore wake up at 5:30. Considering that, I suppose I should probably go to bed soon.

-- I've finally got a rose bush for my garden! My mom picked this up on deep discount -- a Sven shrub rose, one of three hardy cultivars produced by the University of Minnesota. The others are Ole and Lena, obviously.

-- Yesterday, I ate the second (of two) apples that grew on my tree this year. Even aside from the expected bias towards one's own garden produce, I have to say it was an amazing apple. I can't wait for more apples next year!

-- Jean's lists (in the comments on yesterday's post) reminded me that I would also take language classes if I could afford it. Heck, I'd take half the community ed classes if I had the money. Not only would a be rich (in this hypothetical reality), I'd also be frighteningly skilled and well educated. Intimidating.

-- I made Susan's baba ganoush today. It uses less tahini than a lot of recipes, but I think it's amazingly smooth and rich -- but I would recommend starting with half the salt and garlic called for and adding more as you want it. I didn't weigh my eggplants, but I used two medium ones, which I thought should be enough, and it's off-puttingly garlicky, even when I don't have to be around anybody else. I think I'll blend in some silken tofu to take it down a notch.

-- I learned today that the clusters of seeds in a roasted eggplant will seriously very nearly make me heave. I don't even like thinking about it. I am a bit weird about seeds (not the seeds that you plant, so much); even a blob of semi-dried tomato seeds on a cutting board is a bit off-putting. Most seeds are alright, but it's when lots of little ones gather together that's the worst. I don't know what it is, really. It makes me think of insect eggs or spores or... bleeeeaurg.

-- At some point during the day, I realized I was going really slowly -- both driving and walking through the supermarket -- and then I figured it was because I only got about five hours' sleep last night. Why wake up at 6:00, brain, if we only went to bed some time after 1:00? This is not helpful. I did get an almost two-hour nap in this afternoon, which would explain why I'm awake without problems right now. I really don't mind staying up late (as opposed to not being able to fall asleep -- I ususally fall asleep really easily), but I reckon I still deserve a decent number of hours' sleep.

-- On a related note, I would estimate that 75% of the naps I take involve sleep paralysis now. I think it's a self-perpetuating thing; I worry about it happening, so it does. I know exactly what's going on when it happens, so it's like the lamest kind of lucid dream ever. I could just stop taking naps and avoid it altogether, but then what's even the point of working from home?

-- Happy autumn, one and all! I was hoping for more rain today, but no such luck. (I mentioned the rainy forecast on Sunday and was puzzled by my friends' disappointment. Then I remembered that they don't have gardens and so aren't obsessed with rain the way I am.) I DID decide to bring in the first pumpkin, though. There are two more still ripening on the vine, bigger than this guy. But how perfect, how orange! I'm not a seasonal/holiday decorator, really, but I'm feeling festive this year.

-- The sun came out for a bit this afternoon, so I got some shots of my refashioned shirt. I started with one way-too-big, long-sleeved polo, and a t-shirt of a similar make and model, both from my college wind symphony and band days. I removed the sleeves, lined the placket and collar, took them in on the sides, and then reattached the sleeves. The (grey) t-shirt now effectively lines the polo and can't be removed; it'll be a good, heavy shirt when it starts getting cooler out. And when it does, I can pop the collar and show off the Liberty print I used for the details. I haven't decided if I'll put buttons back on the placket; it's not as if I'd use them, anyway.

-- I tried going for a walk today (as I do most days) when the sun came out in the afternoon, but some sort of city pumper truck was going down the parkway, watering the new patches of dirt they've installed (and, presumably, grass seed). But they were more effective at wetting down the pavement and forming puddles that I regrettably (and not intentionally) stepped in. So I was cross about having soggy jeans and shoes, which seemed to fill up with grit (I hate grit!) and make my walk miserable. To top it off, I only got about five hours of sleep last night, which really hit me as soon as I stepped out the door. So I cut my walk about halfway through, came home, and had a quasi-nap.

-- I have so many projects right now. The usual work stuff, but mostly just personal things: sewing, writing, tinkering. Actually, I have more plans for projects than actual works in progress. I blame inertia. I would shake my first, but it's easier to let it remain at rest.

-- Another picture of Booty and me. He's my outdoor buddy. When I was getting my afternoon snack + tea ready, I asked if he wanted to go outside, which he did, so I let him out before I finished gathering everything up. He was still waiting on the step for me when I opened the door again, and he very excitedly followed me back to the patio. Being outside is good, but sitting on a lap outside is the best.

-- I had a piece of chocolate bread this afternoon (as you can see), and I put just the smallest amount of dark chocolate peanut butter (Archer Farm's brand) on one half. I've been meaning to try this for a while, thinking it would be good, and it was. Really good. As if there were any other possibility.

-- I discovered a mini catalogue for Joules Clothing in my nightstand (the catalogue had come in an issue of Country Living or some-such that I got last time I was in the UK). I think it's fair to say that I want every single article of women's clothing that they sell. I flipped through it last night, thinking I might see if there were anything I could try to make myself, but it's the sweatshirts I like the best. Still, I did a bit of refashioning this evening, and I wound up with something I'll show you tomorrow (if there's enough light to photograph).

-- I keep forgetting to mention this, but I've had two Clif bars recently NOT microwaved, and they were the perfect level of chewiness. The one I had a while ago that nearly broke my jaw was obvious stale, because these were fresh and were really quite nice. So I take back what I said about Clif bars being too chewy. They are now utterly flawless.

-- I had a very thrifty outing this afternoon. I finally finished a roll of film, so I brought it in for one-hour developing. While I waited, I went to Sears (the ONLY department store left in the sad, sad local mall) and tried on clothes, but I didn't buy anything. When I picked up my photos, I paid for them and walked out of the store and then had a look. The contrast was really low; they're all muddy and washed out. My first thought was that I could probably fix the problem if I scanned them in, but that kind of made having prints totally pointless.

I hadn't got more than five feet out the door, so I went back into the store, where I was immediately intercepted by the manager. I tried to explain what was technically wrong with the photos, but I guess contrast isn't something they can control (this was only a CVS, after all). Awesomely, however, I got a full refund AND kept the prints. THAT is customer service! Still sort of defeats the purpose of having shot on film. Not sure I can be bothered to take the negatives somewhere else. Oh well.

-- Last day of summer, last day of summer! Quiiiiick, you've got thirteen minutes (CST) to finish doing summery things!

-- Some nice clouds earlier this evening! Since my house is only one story and is surrounded by other houses, I never get to see any great sunsets, but I was pretty happy with pink clouds. I don't suppose anything will ever compare with the views I had on the Thames, but too much beauty can ruin things. (The first two were sunrises, the third was a sunset.)

-- I paid a visit to the newly opened coffee shop in my neighbourhood this afternoon. They don't have a website (I'm tempted to offer to remedy that...), but they've done a great job fixing the place up. I really hope this is a sign of things to come for my little North Minneapolis neighbourhood -- the coffee shop was preceded by the opening of a fancy barber shop just down the street, as well as a little corner store. I couldn't help thinking of things to recommend, though -- playing music or having a microwave so people can reheat their coffee, say. I'm still waiting to become a professional opinion-giver. I had a really good one this weekend, but I can't remember it now.

-- I toiled in the sun after dinner today, moving the perennials from the corner of my yard to the side, so that I could plant two cherry bushes (Nanking Cherry, to be specific) that my mom had bought before deciding she had no place to plant them. I'm super excited and hope they grow quickly because A) cherries!! and B) they will obscure my view of the ugly alley with its ugly garages and ugly conversion vans.

-- I made Minnesota-shaped apple shortbread this evening. I haven't yet tasted them, but they look AWESOME (as if there were another option!), and I'm pretty sure they'll be delicious. I'm still sad that the cake shop (where I found my cookie cutter) was out of apple essence/extract/oil/whatever, but I carried on and mixed in chopped dried apple. I will give a full report tomorrow, after I've done some scientific taste-testing.

-- Happy Sunday, everybody. You've still got an hour and ten minutes left in CST to enjoy it. Well, less, once I've actually posted this. Hm. Happy Monday, then. I managed to have late nights both Friday and Saturday, but not because I was doing anything; I just wasn't tired enough to sleep. It's definitely a vicious circle: a couple nights of lying awake make a person nervous that it'll happen again, upping the chances that it actually will. So I'll update instead of even thinking about bed.

-- I had a nice Sunday in St Paul (downtown, no less -- it IS possible!). The Twin Cities really are good for having interesting stuff to do and nice people to do it with. And I had a tasty portobello sandwich (really a burger, as it was on a soft rye bun) before listening to ridiculously talented young people perform (flute, viola, voice) in Mears Park.

-- I was looking through old digital photos and found two of my backyard, taken the day I had my final walk-through before closing. Here and here. That was in the middle of December, but it's still incredible how barren it looks, considering this is what it currently looks like (mmmmmm, neatly trimmed lawn). When I had my tomato party, we were talking about my ash tree, and I was saying that that (and a tiny corner of perennials -- the reddish area behind my mom in that first photo) was the only thing in the yard when I moved in. I've put a lot of work into the gardens in the last three years! Hard work, too. Whew.

-- I dried some apple slices in the oven this morning, to be used in some cinnamon apple shortbread cookies I plan to make. With my Minnesota cookie cutter, of course. (I picked the apples here.) I also boiled down some tomatoes for sauce, so I was very happy to eventually leave the house, as oven+stove+warm day did not make for the most pleasant temperature indoors. It was still 83F the last time I checked, which is pretty close to as hot as it ever gets (inside) during the summer. What's up with that, September?

-- Time now, I think, to go read This Is Your Brain on Music. I started it a while ago and was very enthusiastic, but then got distracted for no good reason. It's full of amazingly interesting little bits that make a person annoying to be around, as that's all one wants to talk about after having learned said bits. Sort of like anything they mention on Radiolab. (But watch out for that parasites episode. It's hard to stop thinking about hookworms once you start.)

-- Okay, this looks more like dinner than the last photo, right? But it was breakfast! No, not really. It was dinner. I'd been thinking about making eggplant parmesan for a while, and when I found myself in possession of both fresh mozzarella and shaved parmesan, I sort of HAD to make it. I didn't use a recipe; I just layered sauce, breaded eggplant slices, cheeses, basil, and tomato. It tasted very nice, but the skin of the eggplant was really tough! I usually cook it with the skin on and have never had a problem, but it was impossible to cut this time. I wound up having to sort of peel it away from the rest. Not ideal.

-- When my mom was over the other day, she noticed the morning glory that's growing in a crack on my patio. I had already known about it, and I pointed out the volunteer tomato plant that was growing a bit further down, also in the patio. It's like I can't STOP things growing around here. It's a good problem to have.

-- I saw The Time Traveler's Wife today, and I thought it was pretty good. I read the book when it came out, and I can't remember it well enough to know how closely the movie followed its plot, but I enjoyed them the same amount. It's a clever story and an intriguing idea, but it doesn't seem (to me) to strive to be anything bigger than what it is. I like that.

-- Speaking of clever, my friend Alex has launched a new site called The Uncommon Cube. It's about cubicles and workspaces and is really very interesting. And there's a short interview with yours truly about working from home. Go! See! Be amazed by the mighty cubicle. I have promised to send tens of hits her way, so don't let me down.

-- After many months of searching for (and by 'searching for', I mean 'thinking about') a Minnesota-shaped cookie cutter, I have found one! I'm not even sure why I like the idea of Minnesota-shaped cookies so much, but I do. Obvious Minnesota cookie flavours would be apple, maple, or loon. You can taste the spots!

-- It looks like breakfast, doesn't it? But it was yesterday's dinner. I ran errands with my mom in the afternoon, so I had my afternoon snack (zucchini cake!) later than usual, meaning I wasn't that hungry for dinner. Oatbran to the rescue.

-- Maybe the whole breakfast for dinner thing threw me off schedule, because I realized when I crawled into bed that I'd forgotten to update. I usually like to do it late-ish to late in the evening; I feel like I have to have structure to my nights, or I wind up wasting time just watching shows on Hulu or surfing the web. Both are fine pursuits, of course, but it's a sort of boredom that breeds boredom -- I wind up succumbing to inertia and never get around to doing any of the things I want.

-- Speaking of structure, I've been going to the coffee shop a few times a week in order to make sure I get enough proof reading done (easier to do without the distractions of home). And I've even been looking forward to the colder months, when I can get back into the routine of going to the gym in the mornings (a life-saver when daylight hours are few and it's too frigid to get outside and do things). I'm feeling much more positive about the changing of the seasons, in general. Last winter wasn't so bad, and although we had a really nice summer this year, I keep hoping for cooler temperatures already. I know I'll regret saying that in a few months!

-- There's a discount bakery somewhere near my parents' house, and my mom visits every couple of months. One time, they had chocolate bread (with chocolate chips!), and I very much enjoyed the loaf I was given. But then it was gone. And the bakery, they did not have the chocolate bread (with chocolate chips!) again for a long, long time. But then they did! So now I do, too. Hooray.

-- Through a series of links, I found myself at Cake Wrecks, and the third cake on this post actually made me laugh out loud. And I laughed more and more as I read each of the numbered items under the photo. I'm looking at it now and laughing all over again. I might print that out and put it on my mirror so I can see it every morning (not really), and I'll never again be sad.

-- I brought in another eight or ten pounds of tomatoes today. The German Striped hadn't been ripening any for a while, but I got loads today, including four that were well over a pound each (two were over 1.5lbs). They'll probably become sauce to freeze, as they're so fleshy.

-- I had a really happy day today, thanks for asking. It was warm and sunny, which was pleasing, but as I was taking a walk around the Seward neighbourhood (I had been proofreading at the coffee shop), I was thinking about how it's supposed to cool down and rain tomorrow, and that's something to look forward to, as well. Then a bluebird landed on my shoulder. Wait, no. But I DID see a hedge that had been shaped into a giant, dodo-esque bird. It was amazing.

-- I made some mighty fine pancakes this morning. First, I sliced and cooked a McIntosh apple (in a pan, with some cinnamon sugar on top), then I used my Whole Grain Milling multi-grain pancake mix (I usually just mix it with enough water to get the right consistency). I arranged the slices on the pancakes once I'd poured them onto the skillet, and voila. The multi-grain mix is lovely in a bland sort of way, so the tartness of the apple went really well. Two thumbs up.

-- Last night, as I was doing the dishes, Beany came over to stand by me. She does this. Because I had most of my weight on one foot, the very edge of my heel was off the ground. Just the very edge, mind you -- not even half the heel. Well, she must have purposefully placed her foot there (which is something she would do), because when I shifted my weight, I could feel a fuzzy toe underneath. I didn't even really step on it, but she ran off, all upset with me. As if *I* had put her foot there! Honestly.

-- I mowed the lawn today, in anticipation of having people over tomorrow. It had gotten rather long, and it's still very lush from all the rain we got a while back (and the mild weather since). When the grass is dry and scraggly, mowing it is a chore; it's just something I have to do to keep it looking less awful than it otherwise would. But when it's green and healthy, it's kind of the most exciting thing ever. It goes from being a bit wild to looking perfectly manicured, all with a few (dozen) passes of the electric mower. It's a lot like the first few strokes of a roller when you're painting a room and get to see what it's going to look like. So easy, and such a difference.

-- Beany alerted me to the presence of a fuzzy bunny rabbit in the backyard yesterday evening. I've seen a couple rabbits recently, but there's been no garden damage. In fact, this particular one was hopping through the (long) grass, expertly uprooting weeds and eating them. It deserves some sort of medal for that. You can see the tassels of my corn field (er, six stalks of corn) through the window.

-- Having finally bought more soba the other day, I was able to make spaghetti for lunch today. I've written about this before, but I love soba noodles so much more than regular wheat pasta. Why doesn't it come in other shapes? My veggie bolognese was made with Morningstar mince and some of the tomato sauce I made yesterday, which is the best I've ever made. Hooray for me. AND my grape jelly/jam set up. I win.

-- I decided to invite some friends over to distribute tomatoes and show off my garden (somebody needs to see how amazing the lawn looks, never mind all the plants), so I'm looking forward to that on Friday. I get a bit anxious about hosting events, worried that nobody will show up, but I'm trying to be a more devil-may-care about this. After all, I've been assured that my pal Alex will be in attendance, and we're scheming to make tomato-flavoured drinks. Awesome or awful? We'll be the judge!

-- I had a Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch Clif bar today, and the peanuts tasted very 'off' (the rest of the bar tasted fine). Just my luck -- it was probably the one Clif product to actually have a recalled peanut in it and not get pulled off the shelf. I'll have the peanut poisoning now. Okay, not really -- but, still... disappointing.

-- Happy September! I'm not sure what this feeling is, but it's almost like... excitement... about autumn.

-- I've got some odds and ends to mention today (tonight, I suppose -- almost tomorrow!). I snapped this photo right after I watered the plant on my kitchen table; it took a while to soak in. I think it's some sort of rubber plant, although it doesn't look exactly like what an image search for said plant turns up. I've had it since I was in college, and it's managed to hardly grow since then (new leaves grow and old ones fall off, however). Although... I bet I have a picture of it somewhere. I might have to look for that later.

-- I spent another pleasant day at 2nd Moon, and I managed to (re)finish (re)proofing the book I had just finished working on when my MacBook died. I felt I deserved a pain au chocolat for my effort, and it was definitely a delicious reward. I popped it in their microwave for fifteen seconds, so it was all warm and melty. (Fifteen seconds in a microwave seems to be a thing with me.)

-- After work, I went to the dollar store (for plastic bags and a giant car-washing sponge), and I was reminded that I've been meaning to make a stick+string style toy for the pet cats. So I got out the box of dowels (no, really) when I got home and whipped one up with some jute twine and ribbon. The cats approve. I had Beany running around for over a quarter of an hour (I got bored before she did). It's good practice, what with mousing season coming up in a few months. Awful, but true.

-- I'm totally loving Ai's flickr photostream -- and blog here. It's so inspiring to see great photos of food that are similar enough to what I eat to seem tempting, but different enough to be intriguing and novel. I find myself suddenly craving udon.

-- I've bought my plane ticket and booked a little flat for my time in Frankfurt this year (I'll actually be staying just outside the city). I'd spent so much time mulling over the different options that it feels like a huge relief just to have settled on something. And it'll be a very satisfactory something, I think. I can't wait to get myself to a Bio-Supermarkt and nom some German veggie cold cuts (they do exist!).

-- I like to stay up late and then think about my pals in the UK waking up early; maybe we're awake at the same time, but on different 'days'. I think I might have to head to bed now, though. Have to fit in a few games of solitaire, or I'll never get a good night's sleep.

Huh. Turns out the internet is full of people who like talking about Star Trek and computers. I would have never guessed. You geeks.

Just a last word or two about the MacBook debacle, and then I'm done with it. First of all, I DID figure out the two-fingered tap thing. I didn't realize that I hadn't even turned on single-finger tapping (shouldn't that be the default? I thought it was!), and once I did that, I was given the option for secondary clicks. All is right with the world.

Secondly, I have a back-up system in place for my iMac; I was just lazy and hadn't got round to getting the MacBook to back itself up as well. I figured I didn't keep much on my laptop -- and I didn't, really, but it was definitely enough to be painful once it was gone. Anyway, speaking of back ups or the lack thereof fills me with self-loathing, so we shall now draw that line of discussion to a close.

On to happier topics -- Swiss cake rolls! Little Debbie ones, in particular, and ones pilfered from my parents' sweet jar (at the cabin), specifically. Some junk food delights from my youth really haven't held up for me over the years, but I have to admit these were pretty good. Shockingly sweet, but, you know -- good. I have to accuse them of Wagon Wheel syndrome, however. I'm a Swiss roll deconstructionist (more literally than philosophically -- I nibble the chocolate off each end, then eat the rest of the chocolate before unrolling the cake, eating it as I go), and I'm pretty sure it used to be easier to remove the chocolate coating, as it was more substantial.

I spent today alternating between proof reading and sewing (and eating Swiss cake rolls, although that happened just the once), and while the proof reading wouldn't make for interesting viewing, here is the shirt I made. It's a pattern from a Japanese book, made from fabric I thrifted for two bucks. I knew from the start that using this silky, rayon-blend (probably 100% rayon, actually!) would drive me nuts -- if you even glance at it, it slips into a puddle on the floor. And if it's already on the floor, it spills into the next room. I swear I would spend ten minutes carefully pinning a piece, only to pick it up and have all the pins fall straight out. Practically.

But I like it, I've decided. It actually looks its least billow-y (tent-like) in the photo I linked to (which was taken in the overcast, evening light; my apologies); I took it in an inch on both sides before I hemmed the bottom, and it's still just a bit too big (I know it's supposed to be a loose, easy fit, but it's a bit much). I think the next time I make a pattern from this book, I'll go with the smaller size and see how that works. I really like using the patterns and 'instructions', though. It's somehow SO much clearer than English-language patterns!

Okay, one last computer thing (it's not related to the MacBook, so I'm allowed). I was thinking about the uselessness of the voice command feature on OS X 10.5, but when I was turning off my iMac last night, I realized its perfect function. I'm not sure if this is actually a command, but if it were, I could finally say, 'Sleeeep,' a la Dark City, pass my hand in front of the screen, and have it blink off. I mean, that's already what I do every night, but I'd feel more powerful if I didn't have to press any buttons first.

Hello, there! It's certainly a summer's day here, but even the hot sun doesn't feel too bad outside the cabin, with the breeze blowing across the yard. Some bits and pieces:

-- I bring a cooler full of food when I visit the cabin, so nothing from home goes to waste while I'm away (and to save money, generally). I found a little tin of Heinz beans in my cupboard at home, so I made myself a fairly traditional veggie fry-up for lunch, mushrooms and tomato included. I guess the eggs were scrambled instead of fried, but it's still pretty good for the middle of America.

-- I went outside last night to try to catch a glimpse of the Perseids meteor shower. I'd heard it would be best between 3:00 and 4:00am, but I settled for 11:30pm and saw a few little fizzly ones and a brighter one streak across the sky. Perhaps even more impressive was just the night sky itself. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I hadn't gone out at night before (although it HAS been overcast a lot of the times I've been here). It's not like being a million miles away from civilization here, but it's far enough away from the cities to make the stars stand out. It's hard to even pick out any constellations when there are so many stars! I'm no astronomer, but I think I saw the Milky Way directly above -- does that seem right?

-- I suspect the woman who works at the deli in the supermarket here (where I internet from) is not a trained barista, because my Americano was wincingly strong. But, like a potent cocktail, it seemed less and less shocking the more I drank. I'm actually hovering about two inches above my seat, now. In related (supermarket) news, did you know that Chris' Fairway was home to the 'Best Bagger Champion' in 1992, '93, '94, and '96? I assume they've won more since then, but that's all the further the poster goes. Say, did you know there was such a thing as 'Best Bagger Champions'?

-- With my most recent crop of cucumbers, I made Alton Brown's bread-and-butter pickles. They're pretty good, although you shouldn't be tempted to sample them before they've had a chance to sit in the fridge for a good long while. Warmish cider vinegar is exactly as bleaurg as you'd think.

-- What else, what else? That might be all. Check out those black bear salt and pepper shakers in details, though.

Things I like: French Meadow's 'Woman's Bread' (the next best thing to my own homemade bread, which I haven't been bothered to make lately), peanut butter, jam (but not PB&J), coffee, and warm apple sauce with raisins. That's what I had for breakfast yesterday. I mainly stuck to yogurt for breakfast while I was at the cabin (well, yogurt + donut, sometimes), which I like, but it was nice to come home to my usual fixin's.

I normally have one cup of coffee + almond milk with my breakfast and then a cup of tea in the afternoon, but I somehow wound up drinking almost five cups of coffee (plus one cup of tea) yesterday -- three of the five were decaf, though. They didn't seem to affect my ability to be tired right on cue last night.

I can't believe it's August already. I know, I know -- time, flying, etc -- a tired subject. But it's true. According to my photos, my first tomato was ripe on the third of August last year. I'm not even close to that this year (except for a couple of 'yellow pear' cherry tomatoes), but I did find these bell peppers today. I didn't even realize there were any growing on the purple plant yet!

I keep my pepper plants caged in with chicken wire (protection from squirrels), so I really have to make an effort to move the leaves around and check for fruit. I went to the trouble today and was rewarded. They're pretty small, but that's okay -- I can't believe how purple-y they are. Speaking of purple-y things, my eggplants (one Japanese, one regular) are doing really well this year. The plants themselves are much bigger than they have been in past years, and there are lots of eggplants growing.

I also wanted to share this photo of my new terrarium. I've wanted to make one for ages, but it wasn't until I was walking around the woods at my parents' cabin that I realized I finally had a source of moss. I got the jar at the Hinckley flea market, put the terrarium together, and brought it back with me. So now part of the Sandstone forest is in my house. I like getting a good lungful of the damp, clean air inside the terrarium -- it's like the opposite of getting stuck in a cloud of secondhand smoke. So nobody ruin it for me by saying there are millions of spores or something floating around in there.