Is a Blogpost

Ahh, Saturday. Ever since I rearranged my work schedule and don't have to work on Saturday mornings, the day has gotten a lot lazier. Two weeks ago I worked from 6 AM to 10 AM, then came home and did an 80 mile solo bike ride. It was rad. I felt good about life. Today I'm sitting around writing a blog post that no one will read and drinking coffee. Later I will ride for 3-4 hours. Tomorrow I have a 95 mile ride planned, but it snowed here yesterday so I'm giving the northern roads that I plan on venturing to a day to melt and dry off. It should be lovely today, as well as tomorrow - high of 45º! I know, heat wave in California right now, 80 in Reno, 45 feels pretty good to me after wading through 4" of slush yesterday. Blech.

Cody's away for work for another week in Philadelphia - doesn't even get to come home for the weekend! Bunk. So I'm left to my socially reclusive self. Sweet. Me and the dog, cats, and my bikes of course. Bikes are good company.

I went to the dentist yesterday for the first time in 10.5 years. Yes, 10 and a half years. The last time I went was December of 2000. Before I graduated high school. Yes, I said 10.5 years. Sorry, everyone always does a double take when I say that, but I want you to know that it's no typo. In spite of my relaxed approach to oral hygiene and my infrequent (haha, understatement) dental check ups, my mouth is in pretty rad shape. I went in because I lost a filling in August 2009 and it has hurt ever since. Yeah, I know, I'm an idiot to have waited so long to check it out, but my state of employment has been spotty in the interim. Anyway, that one needs a root canal (I know, I'm totally terrified, too) but otherwise I must be doing something right. I know, no one gives a shit about my visit to the dentist, but I'm pretty psyched that I don't need 10K worth of work so I'm sharing it with the world. yay me!

And if you've made it this far then you deserve to be rewarded by my mediocre photography. Enjoy.

This is my back yard. Literally. Pretty freaking gorgeous, no? Now maybe some understanding of why the HELL I live in this tick-infested, ice covered, 3rd-world-country-quality-roads region of New England.

Since Cody is gone for another week we downloaded Skype and got to have a video conversation. It's weird being able to see a little picture of myself while I talk, and I honestly found it so distracting looking at my doofy facial expressions that I spent more time looking at myself than him. I know, I know . . .

And finally! The first photo I've ever taken of my food that looks even remotely appetizing, even though I set my food on the floor amongst the varmints to do so (yes, my floor consists of mostly-painted plywood - I live in a barn, what do you want from me?). Or, so I think, but maybe that's because I got to eat it and it was AWESOME! It was my first attempt at Vietnamese food - brown rice vermicelli over farm-fresh New England lettuce (grown in a green house - it's nice having a not-brother-in-law who is running a CSA this year) with cucumbers that are probably from Mexico. Anyway, that one has baked tofu and a dressing with rice wine vinegar, carrots, and some other stuff. And then topped with copious amounts of Sriracha, of course.

Continuing my attempt to cook food that isn't Italian/Mexican/American I purchased some Bob's Red Mill teff flour at the store yesterday and tried to make some Ethiopian food. Erm, I don't think I did the injera right (you know, the pancake that you scoop everything up with) because it didn't ever really set and just turned into a gross teff flour pudding. Uck. No. But I cooked some lentils and made a salad with the most bomb-tastic (wasn't life better when we could say that things were 'da bomb' without ridicule? Yes, yes it was) dressing that was just as good as the stuff that I got at the Ethiopian place in Reno (which is GREAT and you should go there and try it - Zagol, on 4th St.). Anyway, I must figure out how to make proper injera, and then I'll try to take another appetizing floor-photo.