tour de antioch

ever since bwe bought a bike 2 weeks ago, my urge to join the pedaling masses has been insatiable.

i caved in on saturday. took the plunge even. i got a great deal on a bike that i pretty much couldn’t pass up, and i couldn’t be happier with it.

does anyone else in the middle tennessee area that reads these ramblings ride? if so, what are some of your favorite routes?

truffle shuffle – 7.27.07 (happy 27th edition!!)

if you know me, you’ll know that i love the 27th day of every month. so, today being a friday, it’s a little extra awesome, because it means i survived another week slaving away for “the man.” today’s even better because i’m leaving a little early to get my first haircut in five months. without going into all the details about why this is a big deal and why it’s kinda special to me, i’ll just say that i feel like it’s a treat to get a haircut today.

it’s been a good week. i started a new workout program through inner strength this week, and i’m definitely feeling the effects of my efforts. i bought the new skateboard, which i plan on actually riding tonite. bwe and i spent quality time together this week for the first time in what feels like months, and i’ve made progress on my super secret project.

going bike shopping this weekend, and i’ll be working in the backyard on the whole deck/building project, getting things clean and ready for the big finish. hoorah, hooray!

so that’s my week. it’s been a good one. hope yours has been good too, and that you enjoy this week’s truffle shuffle.

1. rise – doves (lost souls)
2. the weight – the band
3. chasing ghosts with alcohol – gomez (how we operate)
4. can’t help falling in love – elvis presley (elvis: 30 #1 hits)
5. ten little kids – the jayhawks (tomorrow the green grass)
6. meadowlake street – ryan adams & the cardinals (cold roses)
7. the whole night through – josh rouse (under cold blue stars)
8. murmullo – buena vista social club (buena vista social club)
9. intuition – feist (the reminder)
10. i got a feeling – rick nelson

kick, push

let’s hope this isn’t the first sign of a mid life crisis, i sure don’t plan on kickin’ the bucket when i turn 62!!

settle an argument…

we have a cafeteria at work. on friday’s they make omelots (i’m not a fan, so i stick with my bagel & peanut butter). some folks at work order their omelot in the following way, “i want ham, mushroom, onion and cheese,” while others simply say, “i want ham, mushroom and onion.”

both get cheese, which leads us to the argument:

is cheese an automatically included ingredient in an omelot? or, do you need to ask for cheese when you order an omelot?

i contend that it’s a base ingredient, and therefore need not be requested (unless you’re requesting that it be left out).

the guys i work with think that you should ask for it.

which way’s right?

save the predators

the time is now, well tomorrow actually.

most of you know that i’m a die-hard hockey fan, and a die-more-hard predators fan. many of you also know about the drama surrounding the team: attendance, the impending sale of the team, and the prospect of the team leaving nashville.

the middle tennessee area has the ability to show the rest of the country, as well as our neighbors to the north, that nashville is a top flight city, and a top flight sports market, by making our presence known at the “save the predators” rally tomorrow at the sommet center (the arena downtown). the rally is in the evening, from 5-7, and 104.5 will be hosting a ticket drive all day long.

here’s my request: if you like hockey, come to the rally. if you like the preds, consider buying a season ticket package (they start at $230). if you like a team in the western division, but not the preds, buy a rivals pack so you can see your team play, and give the rest to friends or charity if you won’t or can’t use them. heck, you can split a couple of tickets with a friend or two. if you own a business, buy a package. take a client to a game. give them to clients & employees (it’s a tax write off). if you’re a fan, ask the businesses you frequent to buy a package (see reason above). bottom line: do something.

hockey’s a great game, and nashville is lucky to have one of the best hockey teams in the WORLD. help me keep the predators in town for years to come. if you see me at the rally, say hello.

visit savethepredators.com for more info on the rally tomorrow and how you can help!

speechless

as seen at the maryland farms taco bell this afternoon. and people wonder why the rest of the world has a negative view of the south.

good job, asshat.

bountiful harvest

regular readers know that bwe & i have purchased half a share in a local farm and receive a quarter bushel (sometimes more depending on availability) of vegetables each monday. in case you don’t know, this is commonly referred to as community supported agriculture, or csa. we chose to use long hungry creek farm, run by the barefoot farmer, for a few reasons, one of which being that we’d met him at a screening of the future of food (a great, but really scary documentary).

we’ve chosen to participate in a csa for a number of reasons. first, we’re reducing our footprint by reducing the amount of miles that our vegetables travel before their final destination (our mouths). most of the vegetables in your grocery travel anywhere from 1000 miles to 2400 miles. how’s that for fresh? second, due to the time to harvest, pack, ship and merchandise grocery veggies, they lose a lot of their nutritional value. our veggies? they travel 75 miles from the farm to our front door and are usually picked they day of or the day before they’re delivered. that means they have more taste AND they have more nutritional value.

we also want to support small farming, thank you willie, neil and coug, and it doesn’t hurt to have a little more of a macrobiotic diet.

i decided that it’d be a neat way to learn to use my camera to start taking pictures of the veggies we get each week, and maybe to talk about how we’ve used them. here’s my first crack at it:

some of this is actually from last week, but i couldn’t resist taking a picture of this beeee-you-tee-ful squash. we’re getting boatloads of squash right now.

these are also from last week, but we did pick up a new bunch of beans this week. a little onion, a little olive oil, and a little bit o’ salt and, voila!, tasty green beans.

we started getting carrots 3 weeks ago, and they’re getting larger with each week’s harvest.

leeks. we still haven’t figured out how to cook these. they usually wind up in our compost bin.

swiss chard

this is our 3rd week of getting potatoes, and they’re pretty much letting us take all we can eat each week. good thing i LOVE potatoes!

clockwise from left: basil, parsley, dill. we’ll use the dill to make pickles from last week’s cucumbers.

we also got a TON of pan patty squash and i think some other odds & ends, but bwe had them in the fridge before i could take shots of them, damn her.

anyone else using a csa? anyone have a good recipe using leeks???