Status updates on Facebook from several friends reminded me that today is Shrove Tuesday, aka Pancake Day. Pondering the distribution of the updates, I noticed that most of them came from the UK, where I celebrated Pancake Day 2005. Prior to that, I wasn’t aware of Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day except as Mardi Gras. […]
Easy creamy kabocha squash-cranberry penne with fennel
This isn’t so much a recipe because I didn’t actually write down the amounts, but I thought this turned out well and it was easy. 1 tbsp olive oil 1 lb penne pasta 1 large fennel bulb, very thinly sliced 1/2 kabocha squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-1″ chunks A couple tablespoons each soymilk, Tofutti […]
Bikes – 1
I sold my oldest bike today (Minerva, my Trek Navigator 200 city/utility bike), to a friend, which got me thinking about how long I’ve had it. I’ve owned that bike since summer 2001. With the exception of some of my musical instruments, it’s the high-value possession I’ve owned the longest and used the most. (I’ve […]
Warm advocacy fuzzies
I don’t do a lot of writing about my advocacy stuff on this blog. If you think the bike-riding stuff is boring, imagine what you would think about stuff that doesn’t even involve riding a bike, but instead involves a lot of meetings and emails and often-tedious government agencies and regulations about bikes, and you’ll […]
Can has praise, cannot has money
The crappy economy has hit home. I don’t usually post about personal things on this blog, but this is a pretty big deal for me. In case you’re assuming the worst, it isn’t. I have a job (and even recently got some very nice feedback on the way I’m doing that job). …but it comes […]
Normal weather
I found myself surprisingly content when the clouds came back on Wednesday this week. I’m not a big fan of the typical California winter weather: cloudy, rainy, chilly. But there’s something reassuringly normal and expected about it. The nice weather lately had been amazing and I did my best to enjoy it, but always with […]
Goodbye, Stacey’s
I happened to read today that Stacey’s Bookstore in San Francisco is closing. Any bookstore closure is kind of sad, but this one has a particular sadness for me because that’s where I bought The Mindbody Prescription, which I used to get rid of my RSI totally. I bought the book in November 2005, on […]
Ignoring Rick Warren now.
But the great thing he brought us is the reminder that he doesn’t have to do everything. We the people have reserves of extraordinary that we can and should spend freely. —Sars
Sunset Salad
Clotilde’s Grated Carrots and Beets is a terrific way to try beets (raw or otherwise) if you are a little skeptical about them. But I don’t think it has a very good name; I always look for it under “Beet and Carrot Salad” before I remember that the name in English is a translation from […]
The perils of quiet settings
I just discovered that the reason that my camera phone has been taking much crappier photos recently than previously is that at some point it was set to take photos at 640×480, instead of at its top resolution of 2048×1536. The setting is actually pretty visible if you know where to look, so I can’t […]