kismet09

my office still doesn't have a/c. the only difference is that in the new building, the bathroom requires going up or down one floor. so i'm trying to stay hydrated and drinking lots of water, but then i have to go to the bathroom, which means a long walk and stairs and just getting all hot again. life is hard.

having two livejournals, fb and twitter makes it really complicated, figuring out what to put where. i originally splintered scrabblek8 off of this journal so that i could keep that part of my life/friends separate from my "real life," but now they're just so intertwined that it's starting to feel silly. but, there are plenty of people in scrabble who i don't want to know that much about my life outside of scrabble, and there are plenty of y'all who read this who couldn't care less about the scrabble, so i guess it's fine. y'all who read all my internet blathering will just have to tolerate some redundancy here and there. in any case, i'd like to keep up with this journal better than i have been in the past year or two, because i like being able to go back to it and reference what i was up to.

so, that aside... this past weekend. was so good. there is a lot of Maine to explore, and i get excited about it. as usual, our trip included farmers market, food, beer, yarn, coffeeshops, and random browsing through shops. it's nice to have my amazon wishlist with me at all times on my phone - i can be out shopping and see something great and jot it down there, to see if i really want/need it, or if it was just the moment that caught me up. of course, i'd rather buy the things themselves at small businesses if i'm going to buy them, but having amazon as a centralized wishlist is helpful.

our first stop was Bath, ME. it was pouring down rain, but i will brave the showers to visit Halcyon Yarn. i picked up some birthday swag for woolarina, some Zino to make socks for Tim, and some Rios because every time I see it, I must buy it. We visited the farmers market, looked at the water, and jumped back in the car. Visited a few more businesses and markets along the route, including the State of Maine Cheese Company, grabbed a hot dog at Wasses, played a couple of games on Scrabble at a coffee/book shop in Rockland, and eventually checked in at the Old Granite Inn. We had the smallest, most economical room, but it was still perfectly fine for our needs.

Went to Primo for dinner, which I already posted about. The menu changes every night, so if I lived there, I would have to talk myself out of going every day, even if just to read the menu. We walked around the grounds first, checking out the gardens, the chickens, and the very tame pigs. Looked up descriptions of the various salumi on offer with my phone, and settled on boar lombazini, which was basically meat candy - salty and smooth and great. The service at the table was excellent, and they wrote "Happy 10th Anniversary" in chocolate on my dessert plate, reminding me of the "congratulations" written similarly on my plate after we got engaged (rather publicly, at a restaurant).

On Sunday, we went to the Farnsworth Art Museum (thank you, NPR member card, for the 2 for 1 deal). There was a special exhibit of Andrew Wyeth's art, and an exhibit by Paul Caponigro, a Maine photographer. This was my favorite piece - just a bunch of broken ice, taken in Newton, MA. Headed back home, took a long nap in the car, casted on a sock, had lunch at an indian place in Biddeford.

10 years! still hard to believe.

I went to the UNH computer store yesterday and went ahead and got the iPad. I've been thinking about it a lot, and it's going to be worth it. I do think I'm going to try to sell my iPod Touch and my netbook, though - they aren't getting enough use. Anyone interested? Shoot me an offer.

I tore myself away from iPad yesterday to go to the gym. 35 minutes, 2.5ish miles on the treadmill, alternating jogging and wakling. I made it 2.5 minutes jogging wtihout dying, which is 2.5 minutes more than I have jogged without stopping in the last, oh, 17 years or so. So that was nice. Being a little more in shape has also helped my stamina in scrabble - hopefully the win will keep me motivated to continue trying to push the fitness.

I lack such motivation in my work life, though. I'm still in 'we just got through the school year and I want to relax' mode, when in truth it has been a month since school ended and I haven't done much.

lately i've been pretending that i can jog. for about 90 seconds at a time. i can only do it with "good" songs. my list is pretty terrible, though, compared to what i listen to at most times in my life. i pulled the bpm numbers off of http://jog.fm, which has given me some new song ideas...

jogging, ish (5.5-5.7 mph on the treadmill):
my life would suck without you - glee (145)
don't rain on my parade - glee (2x93 - it doesn't feel that fast when i'm jogging)
mushaboom, postal service remix - feist
right in front of your eyes - wedding singer soundtrack
voulez vous danser - ace of base
some people - linda eder
jai ho - slumdog millionaire (137)
friday i'm in love - cure (130)
mercy - duffy (130)
get the party started - pink (129)
when i grow up - pussycat dolls (131)
boom boom pow - black eyed peas (130)

in between the jogging, i do the walking (4.0-4.2 mph on the treadmill):
i'm too sexy - right said fred
take it off - kesha (125)
telephone - lady gaga (126)
love game - lady gaga (105)
i gotta feeling - black eyed peas (128)
the time - black eyed peas (128)
rolling in the deep remix - adele (105)
just dance - lady gaga (119)
mambo mambo - lou bega
summer of love - b52s

then i come back to the normal world with a slightly less tragic song:
hello seattle - owl city

at some point, perhaps i'll try to push the jogging above this speed, but for now, it's working for me. more or less. i'm still bitter about the idea of jogging, but i'm more bitter about the thought of having to buy larger sized clothing, so there you go.

After three years of prolonged fretting, I have finally been given permission to redesign my office's website. The current version is hopelessly stuck in the 80s, and it's very difficult to tell what we actually do. I've spent a couple hours so far on the new version, and hopefully it'll be easier to get around, and also easier for others to go in and update their own information as they wish. I once learned basic css and html, but luckily UNH provides us with a template, so the backbone of the site was already created - I just have to parse out how to customize it. I haven't broken anything yet, I don't think.

Also, there's a thunderstorm brewing. The dogs were already getting upset this morning. I love summer rainstorms.

couldn't bring myself to do this jog/walk thing today, but did haul myself to the gym and do 6 miles on the bike while watching the red sox almost hold on to the lead, and doing about 500 scrabble flashcards. also ordered a new pair of shoes so that i stop working out in casual sneakers (nike air stabs -- apparently they are 'retro running shoes' if you google them) and actually have shoes that are built for exercise.

what's the cheapest way to grab a domain name for a year or so?

Our farmers market just opened this weekend (our CSA only ended two weeks ago, so we've been okay for local produce year round). It's warm enough that I'm motivated to get out of bed. The birds are chirping, and the squirrels are stealing the seed out of our feeders. Time to turn to a new section of our recipe repertoire. Here are a few of the things we've been eating lately:

Wilted Spinach Salad (from Deborah Madison, Veg Cooking for Everyone)
Basically, it calls for tossing together 8 cups spinach, a clove of minced garlic, a couple tablespoons of vinegar, herbs (we used mint and basil) and some combo of mix-ins (toasted walnuts, pickled red onions, crumbly cheese like feta or ricotta salata). Then, you warm up about 6 tablespoons of olive oil, and when it's super warm, you pour it over the salad and throw it around with tongs. The garlic cooks a bit, the spinach gets glossy and slightly wilted, and it just turns super tasty. I don't love raw spinach - I like it with this very brief cooking a lot better.

Grilled Asparagus - toss in balsamic and olive oil, throw on grill. nom.

Bulgur w/Roasted Chickpeas and Lemon (Peter Berley, Flexitarian Table)
Cook 1 cup bulgur. Combine 1 can chickpeas, 1 thinly sliced red onion, 2T olive oil, 2T lemon juice, bay leaf, cumn seeds, turmeric, paprika, a bit of cayenne and salt in a pan. When it sizzles, throw it in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, stirring once. Remove bay leaf, toss with bulgur.

Tapenade (I am recently addicted to tapenade): 1 c olives, 1 tsp fresh thyme, 1/2 c minced onion sauteed in 2T olive oil. Some people would add capers here, but I haven't been convinced that they are for human consumption.. or at least my consumption. combine in food processor, adding more oil to taste and seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with crusty bread.

may 1 seems like a better time to try to be resolved about things than january 1. in january it's too cold to get any momentum going. i hope to move more, keep eating local, and try not to spend money frivolously. i've actually made decent progress on those second two -- the first one is getting to critical levels. my body is constantly achey from even basic moving, even tho i've been better at getting to the gym the last couple months than i was for a large part of august through february (which was surgery through illness season for me, at an almost constant rate).

so, we walked to and from town today, and now i'll do some house cleaning, and we'll go to a bbq and then to the gym. we'll see how well i maintain it. at least the weather's making it easy at the moment.