week of 9/17/2012 in review

• meals.  MON. roasted chicken, kale & tomato, parmesan cauliflower.  TUE. pot roast w/ roasted cabbage rounds.  THURS. tomato cobbler w/blue cheese biscuits & collards.  FRI. spinach stuffed portobellos w/ sweet potato fries.  SAT.  black bean & corn stuffed peppers, spinach, and sweet potato fries.
• jobs.  freeman sullivan.
• volunteer.  alemany farm.  orientation to install solar PV on low income housing w/ grid alternatives.
• house.  helped matt feed 1,000+ ft. of PEX under the floor / in the ceiling of the basement and position the irrigation stuff.  primed and painted back foundation wall.  halloween cat craft :)  the new fence is in as is the patio!

mitt romney and the 47%

what i appreciate about his comment is that it's elicited responses that include nice pie charts and infographics.  i'm a nerd.

did i mention that i love the sf public library?

they digitized and geocoded old photos.  zomg.  check it out!

the 1940 census

today, fencers are taking down the tall poles on which people hung their clothes to dry.  i looked up our place in the 1940 census.

72 years ago, frank barranti (36) lived at 549 anderson with his wife nina (33) and 2 children, june (12) & frank (7).  they rented the house for $27.50 per month. frank was a clerk in the fruit & produce industry, making $1,716 / yr (among the highest reported pay on that page).  frank completed 8th grade while his wife completed "H4" (?).  like many residents of the neighborhood, frank was born in italy.

frank & nina grew up during world war i, and they spent their twenties living through the great depression. by the date the census was taken (april 1940), war would have just broken out in europe but the us wouldn't become directly involved until 1941.  at 36 years old, frank would have escaped the 1940 peace-time draft but would have had to register for the draft in 1941, post- pearl harbor.

it blows my mind.

p.s. i would like to add that the national archives & records administration rocks.  the interface for the 1940 census is pretty great, especially compared to the digitized version of the 1930 census (by another library, not nara).

week of 9/10/2012 in review

the fog horns sounded all weekend, but bernal hill was safe from the clouds!

• meals made.  MON. taco salad.  THURS.  chickpea & cauliflower stew w/ chard.  FRI.  lao yellow rice & duck w/ green beans.  SAT.  ramen w/ mushroom, chard, and poached egg.  
• jobs.  sustainability accounting standards board.  obama campaign via alumni.
• volunteer.  alemany farm, right next to a housing project in the neighborhood.  harvested radishes strawberries cherry tomatoes, weeded, hauled compost up the hill, planted lettuce.  best part is taking veggies home :)
• hang out.  dinner @ weird fish w/ ruiwen.  after dinner tea @ samovar w/ eddie.
• arts & crafts. made an awesome planter from old fence pickets w/ matt.  making great progress on block print table cloth :)

schnapsen

matt and i just started playing this austrian trick-taking game called shnapsen.  it's a 2-player game with only 20 cards.  there are a lot of fules, and we're still learning the strategy.  it's really fun though, and surprisingly complicated.

week of 9/3/2012 in review

• a legumey food week.  TUE.  black beans & brown rice redux.  WED.  spicy red lentil soup + tomato salad.  THURS.  ratatouille.  FRI.  pork chop w/ mushroom cream sauce + potato + green beans.  SUN.  green lentil soup w/ mushrooms & chard.
• jobs applied to.  data crunching for the obama campaign.
• saw people.  bbq with our across-the-street neighbors.  it was fun to hear about the block's history and its colorful residents.
• plants.  finalized landscaping plans -- successfully appeased dissenting neighbor with wine and obtained consent from a sometimes grouchy neighbor to tie our fences together.  (neighbor diplomacy skills are getting better :) acquired yellow mums, aloe plant, and kale seeds. 
  
• crafty.  block-printing & sewing a linen table cloth.
  

food thoughts

i think about food all the time.  here are a few thoughts:

• diy.  i'll put things like sweet bean paste, tomato sauce, and chicken stock on my grocery list.  then, debate myself in the aisles and decide not to buy these things. i have time to make a healthier, fresher per-unit version.  i like the economy of it too.  ok, $1.50 or $3 isn't much.  but, i might already have a chicken carcass in the freezer or a pile of super delicious tomatoes on the counter.  so why not use it?  i don't do this for everything!  we have jars of mustard, tubes of harissa & tomato paste, and those dashi granules too.

• not gourmet.  i don't like fussy cooking.  a restaurant recipe for chicken stock probably makes really awesome soup, but it also requires boiling & discarding lots of chicken meat.  that kind of stuff is fun to do occasionally, but most of the time, i'm aiming for value while still being vegetable-ful, seasonal, fresh, and interesting.  on the weeks i get the farm box, i plan meals around whatever is in the box and adapt recipes to accommodate.  leeks, onions, shallots?  they're all kind of the same idea!  maybe the adaptations violate culinary rules, i don't know.  it tastes okay to me, though, i'm not that discerning.  on the off weeks, i try to make one semi-adventurous meal and then spend the rest of the week trying to use up the odds & ends -- half an onion, fistful of basil.  repurposing leftovers is fun too!  that's what pizza and omelets are for :)  

• not healthy.  i realized, as i repinned a recipe from a friend's "healthy recipe" pinboard on pinterest, that i don't think of recipes as healthy or not.  (the big categories in my head are vegetable vs. non-vegetable, adaptable vs. fussy, sweet vs. savory.)  i think, it's because i have all kinds of other rules about food.  like, cookies and fried foods are okay if i make it myself.  because baking and deep-frying is such a pain (to me), i don't do it often.  also, i don't buy many snacks (with the exception of nuts).  so, all of the food in the kitchen is probably relatively okay.  though, it's sad sometimes to eat a spoonful of peanut butter or honey after looking through all the cabinets for a snack. 

there's always a way

one of the things that happens when you are an unmarried woman approaching 30 is that everyone starts to talk about your shriveling eggs (and impending inability to have children).  if it doesn't occur to you to worry, it will soon, because that's what people talk about.

being me, i worry.  (but, i also started worrying about saving for retirement at 10 years old.)  after reading a nice book this weekend, the language of flowers, it occurred to me that while i'd like to have biological children, it's not the only way.  i can adopt.  i can foster.  i can volunteer to work with kids.  and that's okay too.

anyway, it felt freeing to come to the realization that there's always a way, even when it's about having kids.

ultra light

i try to buy light stuff and carry minimal hiking gear, but i can't get the weight of my stuff below 30-35 pounds.

after a quick inventory, i realized the tent, sleeping bag, and pack alone weigh 9 pounds.  the 2-3 pounds here and there adds up!  that's when the advice in this series of videos started to make sense.  next year, i think i'll sell one of my big three items and try an ultra-light version.  and maybe i will cut off my toothbrush handle, switch to tablets for water treatment, and leave the books at home.

week of 8/27/2012 in review

a fun but not productive week.

• my tofu house with lauren evan heather matt.  wandering sf with keqin.  dinner with sibo.  breakfast with kosar.
• meals made.  TUE.  black beans, corn, zucchini, avocado, egg w/ rice.  THURS.  shiitake & chard with udon.  FRI.  mapo tofu & asian greens.  SAT.  two potato vindaloo & green bean w/mustard & tarragon salad.  SUN.  swiss chard & pasta.
• movies watched.  my grandmother @ bernal outdoor cinema festival (fabulous).  god bless america (horrible).  being elmo:  a puppeteer's journey (great).  a documentary about slacklining.
• jobs.  none.
• neighbor relations.  i want to cut down an ivy-covered post, which i believe is technically matt's.  neighbor wants to keep it for privacy.  the landscapers say to bribe them with a good bottle of wine.  
• we spent labor day weekend at a cute cottage in the hilly part of mill valley.  strolled around town, hiked 8 miles in the mt. tam area, visited slide ranch, ate food & watched movies.  a good time.