At long last

It's taken me quite a bit of effort to get this sign (they're in high demand, which is good). Finally I laid hands on one. I figured I had better commemorate it here before some rat bastard steals it.

Gooooooooooooooooo team!

Blast

I had almost finished sewing myself a really beautiful handbag (if I do say so myself) when I did something to my sewing machine. The bobbin wheel isn't spinning in concert with the needle. I'm going to have to take it to get repaired, and who knows how long that will take. I WANT MY HANDBAG, DARN IT.

Dispatch from Charlotte

This week I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina, for a work-related conference. Here's a fun fact that I learned in the elevator at my motel: the N.C. Commissioner of Labor is some unfortunate soul named Cherie Berry.

The conference has been really fun so far, believe it or not. The seminars have been interesting (and believe me, if they hadn't been, I'd have been snoring on the table, because I got in pretty late last night). And this afternoon we got a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour of Hendrick Motorsports. I'd show you pictures, but what we saw was Top Secret, so we had to put our cameras away. I will say this much: For a sport with such a redneck image, NASCAR is the geekiest, most gearheaded thing I have ever seen in my entire life. They fine-tune the cars on special metal slabs that are leveled to the zillionth of an inch. It's like the Space Program in there.

Probably my favorite things I saw at Hendrick were the semi trucks that serve as the teams' mobile offices. The upper level of each truck stores two cars simultaneously: the driver's favorite, and a spare in case he crashes during warm-ups. The bottom level is like the most tricked-out tour bus you've ever seen. It's kitchen, garage, and high-tech communication center all in one.

In case anyone wonders, no, I did not see Jeff Gordon or Dale Jr. or any of the other drivers! Just lots of industrious crew members doing lots of industrious things. I came away feeling oddly warm and fuzzy--I suspect all the people there really love their jobs.

I'm staying in an affordable chain motel out on the periphery of town. I picked it because it's near the city's brand-new light rail line. The rail system turns out to be a total delight. Not only is it fast and easy to use (it takes me about eight minutes to get to the convention center downtown, and the trains run constantly), but the people who ride it are so friendly. On my way into town this morning, I had a really nice conversation with an older woman who was on her way to work. On my way back, I talked with a nice Honduran guy named Angel who is on month five of a six-month work visa. This sort of good cheer is what you get when you mix mass transit with southern hospitality, apparently.

I'm exhausted and I have to be up early, so that's it for now.

A trip to the mountains

Water levels still low at Lake Lanier (the green in the foreground is a bridge beam):



The mind-blowingness that is Burt's Pumpkin Farm near Dawsonville, Georgia:



Rouge Vif D'Etampes pumpkins...and me in the background:



Our haul:



The path to Amicolola Falls is paved with recycled chopped-up automobile tires. It feels dreamy under the feet:



And the falls themselves are totally incredible:



We also got apples, lots of them, but didn't remember to take any pictures of the apple houses. Oops!

Exciting autumn plans

We're opting out of our usual Athens Locally Grown sales this week so that we can drive up to the mountains on Thursday and get our apples and pumpkins. I'm so excited I can barely contain myself--I was so worried we wouldn't manage to do it this year.

We will be buying a few extra pumpkins to sell off the front porch, I think...if for no other reason than to irritate a local lady who last night ruined a meeting of an organization I belong to by quoting Deut. 18:9-12 in full and announcing that Halloween-ish things were an abomination in the eyes of God. "Stricken" doesn't begin to describe the look on the face of the hostess, who had filled her home with beautiful holiday decorations. All religious questions aside, the whole thing was just unspeakably rude.

I am thinking of making a Dr. Who jack-o'-lantern. I would make the Torchwood one, but I don't think Captain Jack looks like Captain Jack.

Woo hoo, comments are back!

Rescued by the Haloscan people!

Dumb luck

On my way to the farmers' market this morning, I noticed that gas was $3.51 a gallon. Four hours later, when I left the farmers' market and pulled into the gas station, it was $3.41. Let's hear it for procrastination! So glad I waited.

Business was slow today, but on the bright side, I was able to lay hands on some really wonderful homemade wheat bread (much better than I could make myself--and the woman grinds her own flour), as well as some cabbage, sweet potatoes, and zucchini.

In other news, the nice Haloscan people are working with me to fix the comments problem, so we should be back up and running soon. Part of the problem, for me, was my upgrade to the new type of Blogger template with drag-and-drop capabilities. As soon as I changed over, my html metamorphosed from something I understood fairly well to a black box of "wrappers" and "skins" and cryptic variables whose purpose I could not determine. Anything I have managed to accomplish since then has been...well, see the title of this post.

The spoils of battle

As I mentioned yesterday, I was an idiot and forgot to actually submit my order at Athens Locally Grown, which meant that I was forced to go on a sort of local foods raid of all the grocery stores in town. What I got was mostly inferior to what I would have gotten at ALG, in that it wasn't as organic or as grown-by-people-I-actually-know, but it wasn't bad. Instead of being from about a 75-mile radius, it was from about a 150-mile radius. All in all, better than blindly buying South African oranges and Indonesian tilapia.

I should mention, before I show you what I bought, that there are a lot of things we don't need to buy. We have a garden full of vegetables (yes, even in mid-October): a few tomatoes, lots of eggplant, cucumbers, kale, mustard greens, bitter melons, and peppers of every possible description. We have herbs, from basil to sorrel to parsley. And we have a freezer full of our own chicken, plus some local grass-fed beef, wild Gulf shrimp, and a 16-pound chunk of pork. We expect to take delivery of half a lamb later this month.

We also have already socked away some locally ground wheat flour, cornmeal, Carolina Gold rice, and grits. We have canned and frozen vegetables including tomatoes and borlotti beans. And since right now is the tail end of the muscadine grape season, we have more of that glorious fruit than anyone could stand.

So with that introduction, here's what I found at Kroger and EarthFare. First, the things that were actually grown in the area:



Clockwise, from the upper left: Organic milk that was certified in North Carolina (this is the one item whose provenance I have the least certainty about, but beggars can't be choosers when they forget to order their raw milk from 70 miles up the road!); boiled peanuts from central Georgia; lettuce and bean sprouts from western North Carolina; Georgia chicken breast (for those times when I need something quick and don't want to defrost a whole one of ours); butterbeans from western North Carolina; and sausage from a Georgia town about 45 minutes west of us. There were Georgia potatoes, too, but I forgot to take their picture.

Second, the items whose ingredients might be exotic, but which were made by local companies:



Clockwise, from the upper left: Terrapin India Brown Ale from Athens, Ga.; Red Brick Ale from Atlanta; Red Rock Ginger Ale from Atlanta (no HFCS!); tofu and fresh lo mein noodles made in the northeast Atlanta metro; organic fairtrade coffee roasted about 70 miles away in South Carolina; and bread from the very same Athens-based company I would have gotten it from if I had remembered to order it from the buying club!

Note the absence of one of the beers in the photo. Several more of them appear to be missing this morning...

One of the first orders of business, as far as cooking all this bounty, will be a big wokful of chicken lo mein, using some of the chicken breast, the lo mein noodles, the bean sprouts, and some of our own greens.

A major goal I've set for myself is to drive up to the north Georgia mountains, as I have in years past, to get pumpkins and (even more importantly) apples. Oh, and sorghum syrup, too--my pancakes simply aren't as good without it. But I'm really busy right now and I have a work-related conference in Charlotte coming up in a little more than a week. Gas prices are also a major deterrent. It's possible that I won't have time to go to the apple houses at all, and that makes me sad. No! I have to find the time. I just have to.

Eat Local Challenge FAIL

Oh, man. When I went to look at Athens Locally Grown today so that I could fulfill all the orders other people had placed with us, I found my own order still sitting in my shopping cart, disabled because the ordering period is over. I never actually placed the order, so now I don't get goat milk yogurt or raw cow's milk or goat stew meat or locally ground coffee or locally baked breads. The breads I can make myself, but jeez, now my enthusiasm is mighty low. I was really looking forward to all that stuff.

I had meant to post a photo of my haul this evening. I still will, but now I am going to have to do some serious scrounging while I am in town.

I would ask if anyone knows whether you can make goat milk yogurt out of frozen goat milk (we do have some in the freezer), but my comments are still botched, so, er, e-mail me!

Oh bother

As you may notice, I've tried to do a bit of sprucing up around here. (Since it doesn't appear that I'm going to get around to doing any major renovations, it's the least I can offer my beloved blog guests!) Unfortunately, I'm having some trouble with the Haloscan comments installer, and while all my comments do still seem to exist, none of them can currently be viewed.

If anyone has any experience with Haloscan (or, indeed, enough grasp of html to help me figure this stuff out!), can you please e-mail me at jlswedberg at y@hoo dot c0m?

In the meantime, let me see if I can get my wishlist and other sundries going again!

Call the waaaaahhhhhhmbulance

For a long time, I've had really good luck with the Netflix shipping center in Atlanta. They turn around my movies and TV shows in one day, meaning that even though I have the ultra-cheapie one-at-a-time plan, I can see two per week if I make sure to stick them in the mail the next morning. I've been maintaining a steady Tuesday-and-Friday schedule.

Today my Netflix didn't come. My whole schedule is shot. And there is NO DR. WHO WITH DAVID TENNANT and NOTHING TO DISTRACT ME FROM THE DEBATE TONIGHT.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Also, apropos of nothing

Is anyone doing NaNoWriMo? I'm doing it sort of informally because I'm breaking the rules: Instead of a novel, I'm going to work on a cookbook.

Et vous?

Chirpy

Has anyone else here in the south noticed that there seem to be a whole lot of mockingbirds this year? Today one was sitting in one of our butterfly bushes, singing his head off at me. He was so cheerful that I had to stop and listen.

This year was extraordinary for butterflies, too. I don't know if that's a function of some natural cycle, or just the fact that we had a 100-foot row of zinnias this summer.

Aaaaggghh!

It's October! And I promised you guys CHANGE and NEWNESS in October!

Here's how far behind I am: I forgot the Eat Local Challenge had started, and somewhere in the back of my head I believed that I had another month to think about blogging it.

Well, crap. This is an inauspicious new beginning.

To tide you over until I figure myself out, here is a picture of the doorstop I just made for my friend L2. It's from Lotta Jansdotter's book Simple Sewing.



I love it, and so does she! It was supposed to be filled with dry beans or rice, but L2 has six dogs, none of whom can really be trusted not to get curious about foodstuffs, so I stuffed the top half lightly with fiberfill and then inserted a t-shirt fabric bag full of pea gravel in the bottom half. I may make more of them. If I hadn't spent so much time futzing with the eternally screwed up tension on my sewing machine, it would have taken me only an hour or so.

Why, hello!

I know, I know--this blog has been silent lately. I just haven't been feeling it. I think it has run its course. But I do have some things to say, and I don't want to lose contact with any of you, my friends and readers.

My current thinking is that I will launch a completely new blog at the beginning of October. All I'll say right now is that if it happens, it will be a completely different blog from this one. I also think I'll be posting only weekly, but with much richer content per post.

I will keep you informed as the date approaches!

xx

Off with our Ed

For a long time we've wanted to do something about the fact that Crazy Neighbor Ed watches our every move. He's some kind of deviant, we think, and it's creepy to be, e.g., weeding the garden or picking blackberries and then realize that he's standing on the property line staring at us.

We may be close to CNE Removal. Well, he'll still be there, but he won't be able to see us.

We have been wanting to put up a fence, but we couldn't justify the cost when the fence wouldn't actually contain anything. Then our beloved L2, who works at a building supply store, told us that wooden fence panels with warped boards and other minor defects are often put on sale for a fraction of their original price. "We're in!" we said.

Today she came to tell us that she has reserved 11 slightly out-of-kilter panels for us. That's at least 2/3 of what we need! So we gave her the cash. No doubt the rest of the panels we need will turn up soon.

With friends like this, we can obscure our enemies. :-)

Where we've been

St. Martin, French West Indies. We like it very, very much indeed. (Do you think they will let us immigrate?) Everyone was so friendly, and the snorkeling and beaches were spectacular.

We caught nasty colds on the plane, though, so I am not particularly talkative or energetic. Just very happy and grateful for the wonderful vacation.

Birthday #38: mixed results

We are NOT going to talk about the fact that I woke up this morning to a bobcat-killed turkey hen. (RIP Amelia, you sweet girl. I even forgive you for that time you dealt me a flying karate kick to the face.) The poor s.o. is trying to figure out a way to protect the other birds. Anyone know anyone with guard llamas to spare? It's hard to protect against something that slinks through your electric fence without disturbing a single strand of wire.

So remember, NO TALKING ABOUT THAT. Unless you have llamas. It is my birthday, and I don't want it to be all about dead poultry.

Instead, we are going to talk about cake: fresh banana cake, filled with banana creme patissiere. Obviously I was going for taste, not glamour.



The dishes from it are already done. :-)

P.S. A shout-out to the "outlaws," who gave me the world's cutest rice cooker and the world's most awesome craft book.

Late spring thing

Yesterday we took Mr. Cairo to another Bark in the Park at Turner Field. It was wonderful, just like last year. Actually, the weather was significantly nicer this time around--breezy and 75 instead of glaring and 95. But it's hard to ever, ever, complain in a baseball stadium full of happy dogs and happy dog owners.

Here's a joyful photo of me and Cairo. I'm making an effort to have my picture taken more often, because it recently occurred to me that my aversion to the business end of a camera has meant that there are precious few pics of me as an adult in existence! I am here. I exist. Voila. :-)



The big news around here is that the s.o. and I purchased a dishwasher as my early birthday present. It is a portable that will be able to be converted into a built-in when we remodel the kitchen. I love it so much that I have practically built a religion around it. The other day the s.o. walked into the kitchen to find me sitting on the floor with Gracie (who is a little spooked by the big white cube that makes watery noises), murmuring into her ear, "Do you know what that machine does, Gracie? That machine makes mama happy."

Now the s.o. jokes that if he really wants to freak me out, all he would have to do is wheel it into another room and hide it somewhere.

Throwing a few comments over the wall

•This makes me incredibly nostalgic!

•The roses are in bloom. So nice.

•Don't use L'Oreal RevitaLift Night cream. I was foolish and vain and I bought some. It gave me a nasty case of perioral dermatitis that I'm still trying to get rid of. I left a nastygram on their corporate web site, but haven't heard back yet...although part of the problem might be that I made it clear I didn't want coupons for more of their products. :-)

Update: They refunded my money! As in, they actually cut me a check. I have to admit I'm rather impressed.

Oh, and Diana, I haven't even managed to get to the drugstore to pick up some hydrocortisone yet, but a mild salicylic acid exfoliator, plus a light allergy-tested moisturizer, has helped bring things back to normal. I'm still afraid to wear makeup, but I'll get there.