It's Better in Wyoming.

here's my version of a collision between shepherd's pie and thanksgiving: cube some taters--maybe five smallish ones--and put them on to boil. brown some ground turkey, with a sliced onion, chopped pecans, about a tablespoon of soy sauce, and thanksgiving spices (thyme, sage, pepper). after it's browned, tranfer it to the bottom of a greased 9" round casserole pan. the soy sauce and pecans are suggestions from julie, and they make a huge addition to the overall flavor and texture. after the taters are done, transfer some of the starch water to the turkey pan and use it to make a mushroom gravy. (or, in my case, open a can of cream of x soup.) mix the gravy into the browned turkey. mash the taters. add butter, milk, sour cream, garlic powder. cheese if you feel like it. spread a layer of cranberry sauce over the turkey and gravy. then spread the taters over that. broil the whole business until it gets a nice golden crust on the taters--about five minutes. eat! t...

if i twittered, here's what I'd have to say today: zappos order on its way! somewhere btw louisville and my porch!

If I twittered, here's what I'd have to say tonight: three hours of weeding was pretty therapeutic, actually.

so I've made it through the first day of a new semester of teaching. i've commented to several people that i've never felt so unprepared, but i've also never been less nervous. it's the first time i've intentionally let myself be unprepared, in an effort to make myself a bit more flexible/reactive to the students' interests/abilities/pace. we'll see how it turns out. in other news, the beet salad turned out okay. it's better today, after the fridge gave the flavors a chance to do their melding thing. i think i probably should've waited for julie to show up to help me with proportions. in any case, my version went like this: slice rounds of beets and potatoes and onions. boil them together until they're soft. in the meantime, slice some smoked buffalo sausages and boil them in some beer. drain everything and throw it all in a big bowl. throw in some some cider vinegar, enough to give everything a light coating. mix. throw in some sour c...

When I write a book of the alphabet, that's how the book will start. The concert tonight was great. On the down side, the Avett Bros. didn't play Shame, If it's the Beaches, Salvation Song, In the Curve, The Ballad of Love and Hate, or November Blue. On the upside, I heard a lot of their stuff I'd never heard before, including their closer (Four Thieves) and a great solo by Scott (Black, Blue), and The Traveling Song. Pre-concert dinner at The Cheeky Monk was fine, too, though I was disappointed to have such a robotic waitress.

Listed for sale on the Wyoming craigslist: an "exorcise bike." Maybe I'll buy it and donate it to the Catholic church. They could start a whole new workout club. Pedal for God and drive out the demons!

As promised, an excerpt from Bridge of Sighs: Odd, how our view of human destiny changes over the course of a lifetime. In youth we believe what the young believe, that life is all choice. We stand before a hundred doors, choose to enter one, where we're faced with hundred more and then choose again. We choose not just what we'll do, but who we'll be. Perhaps the sound of all those doors swinging shut behind us each time we select this one or that one should trouble us, but it doesn't. Nor does the fact that the doors often are identical and even lead in some cases to the exact same place. Occasionally a door is locked, but no matter, since so many others remain available. The distinct possibility that choice itself may be an illusion is something we disregard, because we're curious to know what's behind that next door, the one we hope will lead us to the very heart of the mystery. Even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary we remain confide...

When I tell people I've been building a pot rack I usually get a joke, in response, about a place for my weed. But in fact, I've finally finished the pot rack, and I've got to admit, now that it's done--after way too many trips to the hardware store trying to figure out how to get it all stuck together--I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out: The switch to a kid's bike tire was definitely the right choice--a full-size rim woulda been too big for the space. By the time I got all the hardware figured out, I suppose the project cost me about 25 bucks, maybe a bit less. Not bad, especially since I've now freed up some space where I can store the flour and rice and the beans. And the oatmeal. Somehow I've managed to acquire, over the past while, five different containers of oats. Steel-cut oats, quick oats, old fashioned oats, microwavey oats with freeze-dried apple bits and cinammon and way more sugar than I need, and some other box of oatmeal pac...

I've been meaning to post an excerpt from Bridge of Sighs , but I keep forgetting to bring the book with me to a place with wifi. (This will all change next week, when I get DSL at the house, but until then I've been relying on a pretty crappy memory for this type of thing.) In any case, it'll be forthcoming, but you really shouldn't wait. You should probably head out straightaway and start the book. I've read books before, but I've never connected so strongly with the voice of the narrator before. Which is not the same as saying I like the narrator (although I think I do like him), but rather I like the way he talks to me. In other news, the past few Laramie evenings have been perfect--that sort of warm calm evening that should last forever. And, in other other news, the Avett Bros. concert is just eight days away.

I've never prayed for sweet karmic justice before. I'm not even sure you CAN pray for karmic justice--I guess the whole idea of karma is that it acts beyond the whims of individual human desires. But I gotta admit that I don't envy the bad mojo that my former landlord has just brought upon himself with the way he's decided to handle things. I'd really like to just slash his tires, but I'm going to content myself with the sweet satisfaction that the cosmos will eventually balance the register, without my impatient interference. In related news, I hate being right when it means that I have to sacrifice some of my faith in the decency of fellow humans. On the bright side, I haven't seemed to attract a whole lot of bad karma. I'll take that as a sign that, overall, I haven't been too much of an asshole lately. (Or maybe it's the other way around, but I prefer not to think about it that way....)