I like-a the Yam (vegetable)

What more can I ask of a trail mix? Mt. Jefferson's mix has everything to please: raisins, cashews, coconut, dried fruits and true love.
I added currants, too!

I went with Sara last weekend to get an Irish Coffee (mmMMMmmm) in front of central library to pump up for the homelessness documentary we saw called Great Speeches from a Dying World. We looped around the museum where the film was being exhibited and several times, quazi-lost, we sprung sight-seeing discourse and meanwhile, a word I use a lot, Sara was making ironic comments (in hindsight) like, "They show a lot of really good films here", pointing in the direction of the theatre in pursuit.
It was truly moving and we were so lucky enough to have attended a screening where the director was present to answer questions. I liked when someone in the audience asked, "Wasn't it hard to go and see these people everyday and not try and offer them something, money or food or anything to give them immediate help?" and the director, a young man about your or my age, very matter-of-factly responded along the lines, "No. I had nothing to give them. I was staying with friends I had no job just my camera. Once Tomey (one of the homeless folks) came to see where I was staying and he said, 'Well, this shit sucks!'"
This director also did a small film as a homage to the great Werner Herzog but I'm not in the know on that details of that one.
This weekend she (Sara) and I ate brussel sprouts together (a recipe with orange juice, butter, and ginger!) and we stretched before going to play drunken Uno with the gang at a local bar, the Florida Room.

The smoking ban is just about to start here. Its strange to watch the bars doll up their patios to accommodate their smoking patrons for the predictably tumultuous weather of this town.

I find a spider in every which place. A one Mr. Webster was caught lurking in the corners of my shower this afternoon, in fact. I called in the french troops under ColonelLoriel's command, to take care of business and "leave behind no prisoners", I say!
Unlike me to be violent... but its better than being ambiviolent, no?

I hadn't seen the sun in a while and I am passively observing the toll that it is taking on my job- search routine. Instead of taking a walk around town I wait for call- backs on my couch for what seems like milennia and then resort to answering CraigsList posts with cover letters that might say To Whom It May Concern, for the love of God, hire me.
Although, I finally got an interview with a video rental place. Ha!

I made chips out of the rutabaga Jon brought from the farm. (The chips were mediocre not the root itself! ) For those of you communicating in math:
chips < the root.
He and I went to get some Ethiopian food and see a local improv troupe, the Liberators, at a new venue down the street. It was funny for us to get out and have a night out on the town, when in reality the dinner and show were all just 45 seconds walking distance from our homes. We also tried to watch this Fellini movie but I think on account of the four or so batches of popcorn overflowing in my kitchen, the movie was sort of abandoned in place of popcorn-clean- up and disaster relief.
Although, we were productive enough to start my garlic garden in the back yard. We used some of the compost already back there and it looks pretty cute actually. Maybe I can find time to post a neat picture of the neat rows.
Yesterday we finally got a chance to bottle the beer (way later than we were supposed to have, apparently) and meanwhile in sanitizing bottles and adding the priming sugar I was able to bake an apple crisp with apples from this weekend's short trip to the farmers market.
The bottling went okayyyy. We ended up adding a touch of root beer extract in the brew. I don't really know how this is going to turn out. But who cares, its my first brew.

My latest observances of the Northwest gardening and farming lifestyle lead me to conclude that I have never experienced such a fascination with passion. If it could be that the dirt on your hands when we sit to eat dinner were that very same specs of dirt from the potatoes we've cooked, and our hands were the very tools which brought the food to the table, wouldn't it all just be so wonderful and seamlessly orchestrated? I want so badly to finish reading my Maritime Northwest Garden Guide and await the tasks at hand for January! Right now the yard is really a distraught mess. I have some cilantro and mint seeds growing in the kitchen and also, I fear for the life of my cactus... poor guy. No sun for 3 days this past week!

The cactus soil I got him is great though. There is clay and humus and pumice.
He'll just eat it uppppp! Too bad he is a cactus because hes the closest thing I've got to a warm, Texas embrace.

I listen to Kvrx when I miss Austin a lot. Also, Aaron's sister was interviewed about her knowledge of the raw foods diet. The interview is great, although... there is much more to this hilarious news segment than just the diet. Everything about it makes me miss the damned REPUBLIC OF TEJAS. (Hint: the link for the interview is a click on the yam)

Great news! I just got a letter in the mail from my friend Robby from Denton, Texas. He is moving to Portland soon! Woo hoo!

What's a good antonym for philistine?

I nailed down the 2x4s to my bed frame because they often shift in the middle of the night and then I wake up curled up in a mattress cocoon/pit. It sounds nice, but its actually really strange. I can't familiarize the experience. Take my word.

I found some wood by my trash too so I am taking the liberty to paint a Bienvenidos sign to hang on the fence in front of my door. I am very hungry for an ice cream shake right now.

I recently added harrumphing to my vocabulary. You ought to do the same, if I may make such a bold demand. Also, I love when critics review authors as unapologetic. I feel that I ought to be the same as an author of this blog. I have no remorse for you fools!

Other words I learned: truculent and bumptious. I use them with great frequency.

Jon dumped this really enormous projector in my house and when Paul came over with Wes the other night we both researched and found out the light bulb is a $30 1000 watt bulb. !!!! one thousand!!! There is a light blub specialty store close to me (I know!) and I may go and see about it but I may not. I might not mostly because there is a piece of broken glass that was lying next to it and it definitely looks like an essential piece for reflection or something. Anyhow, the lens is still there and that makes it so intriguing. Paul has the grand idea to steal bugs from my garden and make them fight and project it. There is also a huge piece of equipment in the basement, where there was once a darkroom, and I found out its an enlarger!

People here are impressed with my Spanish skills but I mostly laugh to myself when I think about all of the speakers in Texas.

I recommend some of the articles in the latest issue of The Believer. I don't know if I still get mine sent to Pearl, but if I do, can someone check that out for me? Anyway I learned about the four humors in a funny way, and so can you!


This is for Nick. Maybe I'll make a trip to Crater Lake and see you in Corvallis sometime?



Ugh. OK. thats enough.