I went out last night and saw some nifty bands at the Save Our Arts benefit, and had a great time making a spectacle of myself on the dance floor.

Out in the parking lot, OnlyBurger was serving burgers and fries from their newly repaired truck. I had an excellent experience on their grand opening before I went gluten-free. Chatting with them last night, it turns out that they have a number of gluten-free customers who purchase their hamburgers with a lettuce wrap. The buns are grilled separately from the meat, so this is truly a gluten-free meal. Way to go, guys! I'll definitely be purchasing that in the near future.

Their website uses Twitter to post their plans, and shows where their truck is using GPS, which is pretty cool. They will be at the Beaver Queen pageant tonight, which sadly I won't be making, since this is a working weekend for me. I definitely recommend seeking them out - they're the best burger around.

I've been having a really rough week, and it's been an exceedingly busy past couple of months. So it is with some surprise that I noted when I got home last night that one of my most procrastinated to-do items has suddenly been done for me. Some kindly person took pity on me and raked my front yard.

I have no idea who did this, although it's almost certainly one of my neighbors. My yard is the cruddiest one on my block, and I never have time (nor a lot of times, the expertise) to deal with it. I certainly know how to rake, but every time since the beginning of November that I have scheduled time to do this, something has come up, like getting sick, straining my back, or rain.

So to whichever of my neighbors has taken pity on me and kindly, anonymously raking my yard, thank you. I really needed that this week. And it's a reminder of how no matter what kind of bad things happen, there are still people who do good.

Addendum: It turns out my leaves were not actually raked, but the grass has grown long enough to cover them up a bit if you're looking at night or from a window. Oh well, it was a nice thought, anyways. Mowing in January??

I had another delightful Thanksgiving yesterday at Maura and JP's house. I went over early to help Maura with cooking and cleaning since her back is in bad shape right now, and had a good time visiting and hanging out. We made the turkey and the polenta, which was an interesting thing that I'd never participated in making before. After cooking the corn meal and some water in a double boiler and stirring frequently, you have to work with it very fast because it solidifies quickly. After we got it into a baking dish, Maura put some lovely parmesan and butter on top and baked it - turned out lovely.



Maura does things in a stone soup manner, so everyone brought something to contribute. We ended up with quite a smorgasbord:

Appetizers:
two types of soft cheese
a very tasty salami from Parker & Otis
hummus
black olive tapenade which totally rocked if you like garlic
asparagus with beurre blanc
pickled shrimp (recipe coming soon)
a salmon/cheese spread which I would like to have had more of
and probably more that I've forgotten

Dinner:
stir-fried broccoli with slivered almonds which I made from this recipe, and which turned out a little sweeter than I expected but still good
polenta
the turkey, which cooked really quickly but turned out great
Joe's ham and ham gravy which was, as usual, out of this world
dressing
mashed potatoes
regular gravy
pureed carrots with cardamom and other spices that was amazingly flavorful
3 types of homemade bread

Dessert:
lemon curd tart
tiramisu
pumpkin caramel whipped cream pie
pecan pie
chocolate chip cookies
... and probably some others that I was trying not to notice so I wouldn't be tempted to eat them

I did end up cheating on the gluten-free diet, and I am suffering some effects today, sadly. I actually was going to try to be very strict with myself and then suddenly I discovered that I had totally unconsciously cheated already when I grabbed some pizza-dough bread to eat the olive tapenade with. I hadn't even thought about it until after I'd eaten a few pieces. So once that line had been crossed, I decided to eat two other things with gluten: Joe's awesome ham gravy and Beth's lovely lemon curd tart. But I did stop myself from eating any of the other tempting wheat-based things like the dressing, the other gravy and other desserts, and the homemade bread. As a result, I think this is the first time in recent memory that I haven't overstuffed myself with Thanksgiving dinner. I was comfortably full, but no more.

After dinner, as things were winding down, someone put on The Wizard of Oz. I hadn't seen it in a few years, and I was quoting it as I went along as were Maura and, surprisingly, Michael. It was a lot of fun. People would pop in from time to time and occasionally sing the songs with us. It really was a joyful end to the evening. I started to pontificate about how this movie represents a female vision quest, and that I couldn't think of any other similar female-oriented vision quest stories. (Maura jokingly suggested "Flashdance".) Then I started talking about the use of the color red in the movie (the ruby slippers, the poppies, the red sand in the hourglass, the red heart for the tin man, the reddish balloon at the end that carries the Wizard away) at which point I think everyone in the room decided I was insane.

I can't tell you how important this movie was to me growing up, as I pointed out not long ago. I think that Dorothy's journey was an inspiration to me. Can anyone think of another heroine that is similar?

Thanks so much to Maura and JP for hosting us all again!

Bizarre weather today. It was like fox wedding weather, only with snow instead of rain. It would snow shower violently for five minutes, then burst forth with bright sunshine, only to snow heavily again a few minutes later. I find that photographing snow falling is nigh-on impossible.



For dinner, I made an old recipe that my Dad invented which I haven't made in a very, very long time. I'm going to call them Copeland "Fajitas" because they are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike fajitas. Even back in high school, it was pretty difficult to find anything like authentic Mexican food anywhere. That's my excuse. It actually has more resemblance to some of the Indian food I make nowadays than to anything Mexican. I still like it, but it may not translate to other folks. All amounts are approximate, since I wrote the recipe down without many amounts about, er, 20 years ago.

Copeland "Fajitas"
Brown 2 cloves of garlic and 1/2 large thinly sliced onion in olive oil with a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a dash of soy sauce. I usually add a sliced bell pepper or two here, one green and one yellow or red. Remove from frying pan. Brown 2 thinly sliced chicken breasts in the pan. After browning, add salt and wine vinegar, steam until chicken is cooked. Once vinegar has reduced, add a little more olive oil and brown the chicken again. [I'm sure there's some way to streamline this process, but that's what it says...] Add gravy and spices as below. Cook til gravy thickens and chicken gets the flavor. Serve with flour tortillas [or, in my gluten-free case, over rice.]

Gravy:
1 lg. can of tomatoes
1 fresh tomato, quartered
1 jalapeno
handful of fresh parsley
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
dollop of Heinz Chili sauce
dollop of peanut butter - but don't overdo this, may want to stick to 1 tsp.
blend to mix

Spices (approximate):
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
splash Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Pretty bizarre fajitas, huh? Still, I thought they were yummy.

While Hurricane Gustav is busy hammering Louisiana, there's a threat that's closer to home in Hurricane Hanna. It might be on my doorstep this coming weekend. The thing is, I'll be out of town when it hits. I wonder if this is a good or a bad thing. If a tree fell on my house, I'm not sure that being present for it would be any better than being away for it.

Right now, Hanna is only category 1, so perhaps I shouldn't be too worried. On the other hand, it could turn into a Fran or a Floyd. That wouldn't be pleasant.

By the way, I highly recommend the book North Carolina's Hurricane History by Jay Barnes. It has lots of amazing photos and stories.

I'm in downtown Durham near Brightleaf Square with a bunch of friends. We're trying to find someplace to eat. There's a new place in downtown proper called "Ransom" that one of us, *Dirk, knows how to get to. He insists that he knows the quickest route to get there, but I disagree with him and say we should go a different direction. It becomes a contest to see who is right, and who can get there first. I take off running in the direction I think is right and *Dirk sees this and takes off running, too. (The other friends start lagging behind, so somehow they end up getting into their vehicles to follow us.)

I get to the first corner very much ahead, and *Dirk seems a little miffed at this. I then consistently beat him - it turns out that I'm a must faster runner than he is. [This is entirely shocking to me as I have never been a fast runner irl.] Finally we get to the building where the restaurant is, but I'm not sure where it is within the building, so I let him catch up and tell him he has to show me where the restaurant is. So since he's a little ticked off at this point, he runs into the building, in the parking garage area of it. So I think to myself, "Oh yeah?" And then I quite handily take off and fly, and zoom at a rapid pace to where he is.

*Dirk looks at me with total astonishment and says, "Wow, are you a superhero or something?" I reply, "Yes, and this is my super power."

The End.

==================
Analysis:

I know that this is directly related to some stuff happening in my life right now that I'm not really capable of blogging about at the moment, or maybe ever. Let's just say that this is probably hormone-related.

I do have a lot of flight dreams, to the point that it's sort of in my dream arsenal for dealing with any situations that arise. And it's almost always fun.

I am curious to know why the restaurant was named "Ransom". I tried looking up anagrams for it, but didn't get anything that was a real obvious hit. I'll have to see what comes to mind later.

This is only the second dream I've had that focuses on downtown Durham, the other one being the scary clown nightmare. Durham was much prettier and friendlier of a place in this one.

I commute about 40 miles round-trip to and from work every day with the new job. I actually enjoy my commute - it gives me time to gear up for work and to let it go at the end of the day. It feels like my home and work life are more separate now. Plus, I have an inner speed demon who likes to be let out now and again.

I commuted all around D.C. and Annapolis in my previous jobs, so I'm used to commuting, and I'm a good driver (although not one of those driving naturals that I have ridden with on occasion.) I know how to let people by me if they're going faster than I am by getting out of the frakking way when I see someone coming up behind me - a skill that has apparently been lost on most Triangle drivers. I have never before seen so many idiots who pull deliberately into the left hand lane in front of someone going faster than they are, and who then proceed to create a roadblock with someone going the same speed as them in the right lane, causing big pile-ups behind them. Grrr.

That said, I don't do aggressive things unless forced to, like when someone will just not change to the right-hand lane when I'm patiently waiting (sometimes on their bumper) for them to do so. If they really make me, I will pass on the right, but only after considerable time allowing them to understand that they needed to have changed lanes some time ago.

In other words, I've become one of those jerk Yankee drivers that southern folks hate. So I found it rather amusing that I had the following experience the other day.

I was on the way home up 147 North, and I was in the left-hand lane, going ~8 mph over the speed limit. Traffic was flowing nicely, and no one was blocking me for a good stretch. Then I see a station wagon coming up behind me pull one of those sudden-lane-shift speed demon zig-zag moves that I generally avoid. The person then proceeds at a rapid pace to close in on me. Seeing this, I change to the right-hand lane so he can get by me. The car is probably going 15-18 mph over the speed limit. I've had my moments of doing similar things, but not on 147 during rush hour.

The car passes me, and I get a look at the station wagon's bumper, which shows, to my surprise:


Photo yoinked from Barry at DE, who has details about the Durham Pace Car program.

I also found this (horribly mistitled) video on youtube:



Now, I'm a big evil gas-using, environment-corrupting, dangerous speeder, but at least I'm not a hypocrite about it. And I have sense enough to have some limits. And I drive a Civic instead of the gas-guzzling ancient station wagon that passed me.

And, for the record, I've never had a speeding ticket. *knock on wood*

I went with my friends Chris S. and Melanie to see a couple of nifty free concerts in downtown Durham last night. First, I showed up a bit late for the Warehouse Blues performance by George Higgs and Lightnin' Wells at my old stomping grounds at West Village. It was nice to see, and brought back memories of when I first moved back to Durham. The crowd was very friendly, and I saw a couple of people there that I knew, and one more that I had never met in person before but know from the blogosphere. Also, a tourist from Greece who was in town for the Rice Diet program struck up a conversation. These are some of the reasons I love Durham. :) Also, the concert was sponsored by the Music Makers Relief Foundation, which supports life-long musicians with basic living necessities, instruments, and tours to help their careers. Seems like a worthy cause.

When that was over, we went to Carnivalito at Brightleaf Square. I was mesmerized by the dancing - some fantastic salsa dancers were doing very complex group dancing. During a music break, I went up and asked the guy who appeared to be calling the dances for the group and asked if they were part of a salsa dance lessons group, and he gave me his business card for stepbystepsalsa.com. Now I totally want to start lessons there. It was beautiful and exciting at the same time.

I've found that it's easiest for me to go to the Durham Farmer's Market if I do so before 10:00 a.m. I hate crowds, and it just gets way too crowded around 10-12. If I still worked in town, I'd definitely check out the Wednesday evening market which just opened recently. In any case, here's my haul from today:

fresh strawberries, perfectly ripe
pickled okra from Bonlee Grown Farm (YUM!)
hydroponic tomatoes
fresh asparagus
fresh broccoli
fresh cauliflower
fresh cucumbers
fresh eggs from Little Tree Farm
a giant head of butter lettuce
locally-raised pork garlic bratwurst from Brinkley Farms
rosemary bread from The Angels Nest Farm and Bakery
a couple of bunches of purple and yellow irises

Support your local farms!

So my friend Jeff is getting a lease on one of the about-to-open new apartments in the Old Bull building here at the American Tobacco Campus. I'm incredibly jealous. I got to go with him on a tour of two units he was trying to decide between. They're both great apartments, and he has chosen the larger, slightly cheaper, more comfortable place over the slightly more expensive, a little more difficult corner space with the FANTASTIC VIEWS.

Jeff made the right decision, although I totally would have gone with the views. I'm a sucker for that stuff. In any case, I'm a confirmed, mature old house owner and I don't need a sexy new apartment in my life. Do I? No, no, definitely not. *pine*

Views from the Old Bull and the Noell buildings and some other random ATC shots start here:



Not comprehensive at all. Jeff's photos have more thorough looks at the apartments (as opposed to the views, which were what I cared about.)

It's a race to the finish to be the first Durham blogger to post about Toast, which opened today in downtown Durham. Bull City Rising, Eat at Joe's, and Durham Foodie were all there, and perhaps more that I didn't recognize. The turn-out was pretty huge, and aside from a few minor things, seems to have gone very well by the time I left. I think I may come in third with this post if I'm lucky. ;)


Click for food pictures

I went with three of my coworker friends, so I got to see a variety of their offerings, and all were considered good. These were the things we tried:

panini
* rapini, sweet Italian sausage, roasted garlic, asiago fresca
* proscuitto, mozerella, tomato
* spicy tuna, olivada, fennel, lemon
* grilled chicken, roasted peppers, mozzarella, salsa verde

soup of the day
* cannelini bean, tuscan kale, sausage

also
* warm olives with orange, rosemary, garlic, crushed red pepper
* brownie biscotti with walnuts and (we think) currants

Everyone seemed to enjoy their meals and would go back again. The clear winners of the menu were the brownie biscotti and the marinated olives. The soup was hearty but a little on the bland side. The grilled chicken panini was reportedly a good standard for the less adventuresome, and they did not skimp on the meat in the prosciutto panini.

Toast is within easy walking distance of the American Tobacco Campus (although coming across the tracks can be a bit dicey - best to go down to the light at Blackwell.) I'll probably go back next week. :)

Addendum:
Oops! Sorry, DurhamFood! I got the face right and the blog wrong. :( I'm really bad with names, and DurhamFood and Durham Foodie are just too similar... ;)

I went out to the Korean restaurant Chosun Ok last night for the first time, and I really enjoyed it. I haven't had Korean in I can't tell you how long - probably nearly 10 years. Annapolis has always had a very poor selection of ethnic cuisine (although the seafood can't be beat.)

I went with k and b, and also critter and his wife CA. We had a good time sharing and tasting others' dishes. I got the pork bulgogi, which was mighty tasty, and shared an order of steamed dumplings which were fantastic. Both k and I agreed that they might be the best dumplings either of us had ever had. I also had a house salad, and their ginger dressing is the best I've had in the area, hands down.

I also got to taste some kimchi pancake (or bindaetteok), critter's stir fried octopus which was nicely tender, k's pork belly which had been cooked in a nice spicy sauce with kimchi, and b's beef dolsot bibimbap. I would have tried CA's tofu soup, but I'm not a tofu person.

All of the sides were good, but the kimchi and the pickled spicy cucumbers were just awesome. There were potatoes in a sweetish brown sauce, broccoli with a small amount of spicy red sauce, mung beans, and some kind of marinated tofu (which again I avoided.) There was so much food and it was all so good that I definitely ate more than I needed to. Still, it was a wonderful experience, and I recommend it if you get a chance to go there.

:(
This goes to all the people and the town that I love so well. There's almost nothing that I would give to be back there right now.

I hope to be in Durham for the rest of my life, and make it my final resting place.

Addendum: I was feeling sad and rejected last night after hearing several comments over the past few days while at restaurants in the area about "stupid snowbirds" and realizing I was one of them. Although wait staff were in general very courteous, the locals were cold. It's not that friends of mine in Durham don't feel the same way about, well, Duke students more than any other population, but the atmosphere in Durham is just much more friendly in general. At least, from my perspective. Plus I was just feeling homesick. :)

Today I spent failing to do any of the "Oh geez my vacation is over tomorrow and I was going to get so much done" items that I've failed to do over the past 11 days. I wish my vacation could last another week.

But there was one very nice New Year's thing which I did today. I went to my pal Michael's New Year's Day party. We ate black eyed peas and collard greens, for luck and wealth, respectively, and some corn bread, all of which were mighty tasty. (Michael: I liked this year's collard greens better than any I've had of yours, which is saying something, since you always do them well.)

Michael had rented some Christmas-oriented movies, including Bad Santa, which we failed to watch last year. Alas, Michael will have to wait for next year to try to watch it again, since the tape I brought won the popular vote.

What I brought was A Muppet Family Christmas, which I recorded off of Nickelodeon in 1996, I think. This is one of my favorite Christmas specials of all time, although it's been a number of years since I watched it. I have the unedited version - I ended up buying the prefab VHS issue, but there were several scenes cut, apparently due to music rights issues, so I ended up keeping my home-recorded version instead. It also has some cheesy mid-90's commercials for things like Nintendo Gameboys whose graphics now look ridiculous.

I was surprised at how wonderful it was to watch it with this group - several folks were really into it, and there was much laughter and merriment. And it had been long enough since I'd seen it that I didn't remember many of the jokes, and could enjoy them as though they were new. At one point someone said, "I feel heart-warmed" and I found myself agreeing. Honestly, I think that's the most Christmas spirit I've felt this year for some reason - I haven't really been able to get into the spirit of things this year as much. I blame the drought.

In any case, I hope you all have a very merry New Year, as my first day of it has been. I have the feeling that it's going to be a good one.

While I'm at Mom's in Annapolis for the next couple of days, I am experiencing a novel Christmas treat - I am able to indulge in long hot showers. Since the drought in Durham is so bad right now (to the point where the papers have been reporting that we'll probably go to Stage V water restrictions in January), I have been taking only a 4 minute (on average) shower. I do this by turning on the radio and jumping into the shower at the beginning of a song, then making sure to get out by the time the song ends. This doesn't leave much time for getting the necessities done, and doesn't leave any time at all for thoughtful reflection, which was my previous tendency when showering.

I have so missed my showers. This is far and away the biggest sacrifice I've had to make in order to cut my water usage by 50%.

Which is why this morning was so wonderful. It took me about a minute to realize that there was no need to rush, at which point I indulged in a wonderful, peaceful showering experience where I took the time to cleanse every inch of my poor, neglected, parched hide. And I get to have two more days of this. Sigh.

Then it's back to the usual showering crunch back in the desert of Durham. Someone needs to organize a rain dance.

Apparently, we'll be breaking temperature records this week. I think that even when I lived in San Diego it was wetter and chillier on my birthday than it will be in Durham this week.

This just ain't right. I think if you still believe that global warming is not an issue, you have to seriously have your head up your butt.

Addendum:
I reserve the right to delete any and all comments on my blog at any time, especially if they're cowardly anonymous postings. Enough said.

The seasonal tower lighting was at the American Tobacco Campus (where I work) last Friday. My first opportunity to see it was last night. It was as cold as a you-know-what when I was standing out there taking these photos, and unfortunately, they're still all blurry as my night shots tend to be. But some of the shots aren't too bad.

Last night, I got dinner with my friends kph and b at Watts Grocery, and it was fabulous. Better than the brunch experience I had a month ago, which was good, but not this impressive.

We split a couple of appetizers: the Fried Green Tomatoes with shrimp remoulade and the Fried Chicken Livers served warm with grilled baguette and sherried onions - both were very good. For my entree, I had the Apple glazed Pork Porterhouse with double-stuffed baby beauregard sweet potatoes, sauteed lemony escarole, and creole mustard sauce. It was outstanding. I wish I were enough of a foodie to describe why it was so great, but all I can tell you is that it melted in my mouth, and the sweet potatoes were an excellent accompaniment.

I tried both kph's and b's entrees as well, and all three of them were very good, but I think I won. ;) b had the 12oz Hand-cut Ribeye with Buttermilk Smashed New Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Pimento Cheese Butter and Jim Beam Brown Sauce, and it was very tasty. kph had the Molasses Chile glazed Organic Salmon over collard green risotto in its pot licker, which was also good, although a little on the sweet side for me.

Both b and kph had desserts, but desserts aren't generally my thing. They did look yummy, though.

In general, I can't believe that this place is so well priced - the food is very much worth every penny. I'll be going back there again as soon as I can.

Afterwards, I found out from my friends Chris and Melanie that Six Plates was having its opening night, so we went to join them there. I had already eaten, but I got a glass of wine (don't ask me which kind, I don't know from wines). I got a tour from co-owner Sherry Everett. The decor is very nice, and the space seems very inviting - they've done a great job. I'll be going back there on my birthday to try some of their food. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Really great sunset tonight - the world looked red, especially with the leaves from my crepe myrtle on the ground:



Thanks to both kph and Maura for inviting me to their shindigs tonight. If I were feeling up to it, I totally would have gone.

Sitting here on the couch, I suddenly spotted a bird out of the window - a small hawk. I grabbed the camera and took a few shots of it:



About a second after the last shot I took in that set, the bird dove into a bush it had been sidling up to. Presumably it was hunting a bird that was nesting inside the bush. I believe that it made off with the bird after a few seconds of rummaging inside the bush, but my view was limited.

I thought the bird might be a Kestrel, since it was so small. I looked it up in my Audubon book, and it turns out that it's a Merlin (Falco columbarius columbarius), a.k.a. "Pigeon Hawk." This was a female since she had a brownish color rather than being slate-colored. I've never seen one before. Apparently, it winters in the Carolinas and preys on migratory birds.

CORRECTION: It turns out after looking at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology site for a while that this bird is in fact an immature male Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) - not nearly as exciting. It was the yellow eye that gave it away.

CORRECTION TO THE CORRECTION: After doing *more* research online, it sound like it is very hard to tell the difference between Cooper's Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipter striatus), especially in the immature stages. Looking at this comparison on the Cornell Ornithology site, I now think that this was a Sharp-shinned Hawk, especially because it was about the size of a Jay, and has the white eye stripe. Also, now that I can see the tails of these hawks as examples, I'd say it does not have a broad white stripe on the tip of the tail, and the feathers do appear more squared than rounded. On the other hand, if you zoom in on the photo of this guy, he has some little blush-like patches on his cheeks that seem to match the "reddish cast on side of head and nape" as listed for the immature Cooper's Hawk. Also, his beak looks a lot more like the Cooper's Hawk's than the Sharp-shinned's. Anyways, it's just another point that this thing is REALLY FRICKIN HARD TO IDENTIFY. And my Zoology skills are rusty.

A nice Thanksgiving treat, in any case. :)

This reminds me of a time shortly after I had moved to Durham where I saw a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) downtown. She was perched on a street light outside of my church, sitting there plain as day. There was no mistaking her markings. And she was huge - females tend to be larger than males. She seemed very unconcerned with me as I walked a circle around the street light to get a good look at her. I speculate that she was one of the birds that was raised by humans and so probably was quite used to being looked at. Apparently, Peregrines like urban environments since they resemble the cliffs that they were originally used to, and pigeons abound.

Addendum: I still like to look at the shamanistic meanings of seeing animals, whether in reality or in a dream. In any case, it looks like falcons indicate the need to plan carefully how to reach a goal and then act on it.

I guess I just inched a couple more percentage points toward neo-paganism. ;)