Summer Loving

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Kate

Why hello there! I have a moment in the midst of this crazy work week to post an update, and while I have Other Topics brewing in the back of my mind, I thought I take this time to make a list of all the things I am obsessively loving at the moment. When life brings you stress, make a list of good things. Always works.

My new Kindle is fantastic – I have dithered for years about buying one, and finally put one in my shopping cart about a month and a half ago. It took me a while to pull the trigger, but I love it. Reading on it is easy and fun, downloading new books is a breeze, and I don’t have to clutter my house with my silly leisure-reading books. I can save shelf space for my Literary Intellectual-Type Books instead, and walk around reading the latest ridiculous vampire novel with no one the wiser. Oh yeah, baby.

I have also been re-watching Parks & Recreation on hulu, which I am loving just as much as ever. This past season was so great I just decided I wanted more, so I started over at the beginning. I’m halfway through season 2 right now. I’ve also occasionally been re-watching old Simpsons episodes at W’s (the guy) house as he has a bunch of seasons on DVD. Back in college my friends and I used to watch two episodes a night, every night, but in the past 10 years I really have not watched much of it. It’s a pleasure to return to. Best episode ever? “Bart’s Friend Falls in Love,” the B-plot of which is Homer’s subconscious vocabulary builder tapes. “But Marge, the boudoir is where the gourmand metamorphoses into…THE VOLUPTUARY.”

We’ve also introduced our dogs. Egon got to meet two new friends: a chihuahua and a Jack Russell – Shih Tzu mix, who are both very enthusiastic and adorable. They seem to be getting along just fine in the park, but all three are boys, so we will just have to see what happens if they all three are in a non-neutral space together. Things could get pissy if you know what I am saying and I think that you do.

Yoga classes have been great as well – I’ve been hitting a class a week or so and would like to do more, but right now I am nursing that recurring hip-flexor injury and trying to take things easy. At any rate, yoga seems to be a good thing. In classes lately we’ve been trying lots of adventurous poses that we had never really done at my gym before. Crow, bird of paradise, head stand, and eka pada koudinyasana. I haven’t been able to do all of them perfectly but I love trying and knowing I am getting better. Today, I tried a headstand for the first time since gymnastics class as a kid, and I was able to do it easily against the wall. Soon to try: no wall, and coming down from headstand into crow.

On the way home, I was treated to this gorgeous sunset:

I made the Malabar spinach from my CSA again, and I am currently having a glass of this gorgeous Oregon Pinot Gris (a gift from a friend whose plants I am watering):

while I catch up on blogs. I have about 70 unread posts in my feed right now so I’m about to hop on over and see what you’ve all been up to.

Are you loving anything lately?

Dinner from the Farm

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Kate

Let’s talk about food tonight, shall we? (Anything to get that blog post about work off the top of the page, I think.)

Anyway, I am having a lovely night tonight after getting plenty of work done at the office, picking up my weekly bag of CSA produce from the farm, restocking on all my other groceries, going on an easy untimed two-mile run (testing my hip after a mild injury), and sitting down to a simple, wonderful dinner and a big fat glass of wine.

Here’s what I’m having:

Almost everything on this plate is from the CSA. There are whole carrots, small potatoes, and rutabagas, all cooked in the oven at 450 for about 25 minutes with a little spritz of olive oil, salt, and pepper. This is the easiest way to cook vegetables, especially roots, and I LOVE what it does to the flavor — ESPECIALLY the carrots. If you have never had carrots made this way then you are not truly living.

Anyway, on the baking tray along with the vegetables I had the slices of tofu. It’s Twin Oaks tofu, made on a commune-type farm in Virginia. If you buy this, hippy farmers (not Monsanto) are getting your money. It’s non-GMO and completely organic, and it comes with herbs already in it and is dense enough not to need to be drained. It’s the easiest tofu to bake ever: slice it, put it on the baking sheet, bake at 450 for 25 minutes, turning once. That’s all.

On the stovetop, I made Malabar spinach for the first time. It’s new from the farm this season and it looks completely different from regular spinach. Huge, tough-ish leaves and big fat stems. I sauteed the stems with some olive oil and an onion (also from the farm) and then added the leaves and a splash of vegetable broth near the end. It turned out great — the spinach really held up but was tender and tasty and the onions carmelized a bit. Excellent.

This type of dinner is my favorite way to eat when I’m getting vegetables from the farm: I just make everything as simply as possible and appreciate the real flavor of the fresh vegetables. For some reason, everything seems to taste more real, more like itself, with more of its own flavor, when it comes fresh from the local farm. Shut up. I know that sounds idiotic but it is true, dammit. Again, the carrots. It’s unbelievable how, well, carroty they are.

If you’re in the mood to read more of my thoughts on food, there’s my post on vegetarianism and how I got started over at Rose-Anne’s place, plus a new post at Bodies in Motivation about how I incorporate plant-based eating into my training for running and triathlon. I listed some of my favorite pre- and post-workout meals and snacks as well as tried to deal with the protein question.

Food! It’s great, am I right? What are you eating lately?

Protected: Blogging about Work

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Kate

Woo

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Kate

I promise I am not going to complain about my crazy summer schedule in this post. SWEAR. The crazy part is almost over, anyway, and I really have it pretty great — my officemate and I were talking about this the other day, in fact. We both used to work in banks, and, in comparison, the work schedule of a teacher (who can take prep and grading work home, to do in pajamas) is roughly a million times better.

So what else to tell you about, then? Well, the full heat of summer is here and it is, dare I say, delicious. It has been a bakingly oppressive 95-99 degrees here lately (I don’t think we have officially hit 100 yet, but the “feels like” index is up there for sure). Normally this is the exact thing that I tend to hate — the roasting, hot, humid, temperatures. The necessity to blow-dry my hair in the nude lest I get my fresh clothes all sweaty before leaving the house. The et cetera, et cetera of it all. You know.

But strangely, this summer, I am loving it. Ever since my weight loss efforts of two years ago, I tend to run pretty cold. Even sitting in the air conditioning for too long has me covered with goose bumps these days. I’m sure my body will regulate soon but for now I am appreciating the heat. Even if it means getting up to run at 6:00 AM or coming back from my bike rides with a crust of salt all over my body. Bring on the heat!

Speaking of which, I think it is time for me to tell you that I have been going out on dates with a boy. I KNOW. I never do this sort of thing. I am a lone wolf! A life-time singleton! I walk my life through a vast desert of dry spells! But not for the moment, anyway, and I am thoroughly enjoying myself.

This blog is not a place where I like to say a lot about other people, really. For one thing, it’s ME ME ME all the time (I mean, who pays the hosting around here? ME), but for another thing, it feels weird to write too much about people who don’t even know about the blog, you know? Awkward. But, that being said, I will tell you a couple of things about this dude:

Thing one: this dude is not really what you would call a “dude” at all. For example, I have never actually touched a door in his presence. For another example, he actually pays attention to things I say and remembers them and is interested in them. While I certainly do not require a suitor to open doors for me, I now think listening and paying attention should have been things I required all along. Live and learn.

Thing two: we had plans to get together one night, and here is what he did. He cooked dinner and brought said dinner, wine, dessert, and a movie over to my house. With his own dishes. And he took his dirty dishes back to his house afterward expressly so I would not have to do any clean up. I KNOW. I KNOW. Sweet fancy Moses. Guys reading this, take note: that is a good way to pitch your woo.

In other news, here are some recent daily photos for your visual stimulation:

Bike rides are one of the best parts of triathlon training.

New Malcolm-X-ish spectacles from Zenni Optical. I highly recommend their stylish frames and ridiculously low prices. Apologies for the facial expression: I tend to have accidental bitchface a lot. I was in a good mood when I took this!

Huge new work desktop computer makes the office like a theme park. Twitter and blogs are now enormous! (Wait, I’m supposed to be doing work on this thing? Missed that memo.)

Me and Eegs. Just cold chillin’.

[161/365] Finally happy hour. Bourbon and a copper bar top.

Bourbon, copper bar top. Much-needed happy hour.

I spend a good amount of each day staring at this.

What I spend too much of my work day staring at. Mundane items made faux-artsy via the Instagram App.

Well. Suffice it to say, things are busier than ever over here, but I certainly can’t complain.

Finally, I have a guest post up at Rose-Anne’s blog, Life, Love, and Food. You might know her as a commenter over here, but I hope you are reading her blogs as well — she also writes a fitness blog, Feels Like Flying. Rose-Anne is an incredibly thoughtful and interesting writer, and a thoughtful and generous person as well. She celebrated Vegetarian Month over at her food blog, and asked me to contribute a guest post. If you want to read about how I decided to cut animal products out of my diet and the related changes to my life, click on over there — and stick around for her great food writing and recipes, too.

Until next time!

Doing It

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Kate

First of all, thanks so much for sharing all your thoughts on the post below. It is interesting to see the different ways we all integrate blogging (or don’t) into our everyday lives. Such a smart, thoughtful, and interesting conversation in the comments!

Next week begins the busiest three weeks of my summer, when all of my classes overlap. After that, I’ll go down to two classes and then just one. My schedule is weird, y’all, but I am most of all incredibly grateful for the work this summer. I wasn’t sure everything was going to work out, but it did! And now I barely have time to feel stressed out about it because I am quite simply too busy.

I kind of love that actually: when my day is so packed with training, work, errands, and the occasional social event that I don’t have time to sit around thinking about my schedule; I just do it. Maybe those Nike ad writers had a valid point after all.

This philosophy also applies to my weekends right now, too: long runs and rides, big blocks of grading time, domestic business, and perhaps a date. At any rate, in the interest of brevity, may I offer you a few of my favorite photos from the past week?

As you can see, life is good. What’s going on with you?

Effing the Ineffable

kateo dot org

Monthly Archives: June 2011

Summer Loving

Dinner from the Farm

Protected: Blogging about Work

Woo

Doing It