The Casual Tradition

No, i'm not promising to post more often. BUT, I have established a tradition I will continue.

I finished Chapter 6 of the novel today, from the Musicians Story (Rough Draft Chapter Title: Blood and Fire). As I've done before, here, for your viewing pleasure, is a short excerpt from the chapter:

"He could hear his horn, resting right nearby in it's case, whispering to him. He could almost feel the beat, as he watched Sonja stripping his mattress of the sheets, her feet setting the rhythm. From the windows, open wide to let the cooler night air in, he could hear the bass drone of freight trains and cars and the murmur of crowds. The horn was dictating a melody to him, a solo to cut above all of it. Her hips were swaying, completely unaware of the dance she had initiated, her arms conducting themselves. Ramon had never seen such a benign, mundane activity with such beauty. He felt delirious from the fever."

There you go. We're back to the Detective next, I think.

Also, for yoru information, May is the Month of New Music. Awesome. New music from my favorite bands:

• Blunderbus by Jack White (with my cousin Lillie Mae, of course!). Typical Jack White, he doesn't deviate from his formula too much. There are a couple excellent songs (Hip Eponymous Poor Boy, Love Interruption), and the rest is only okay so far. I anticipate it to age well.
•  Little Broken Hearts by Norah Jones (with mega producer Danger Mouse). Excellent. Definitely Norah's best work since her second album (Feels Like Home). Danger Mouse's style is all over it, but he always does such an excellent job of matching up with the artists he's producing. Least "mainstream" of her albums by far, a little quirky, but never loses it's pop sensibilities. Favorite song so far, Merriam.
• Not Your Kind of People by Garbage. First listen was underwhelming, hearkening to their latter work (like albums Bleed Like Me), but has improved with further listens. This is not Version 3.0, but it has it's moments. Shirley Manson's a better songwriter when she's writing pop songs instead of stepping up on a soapbox.
• Neck of the Woods by Silversun Pickups. This band just keeps growing on me every day, a little by little. The first album was awesome. the second as well, much of the same thing. But this one, the third, they reached back into the 80's. They retro'd up their sound, changed with the times, but didn't lose their identity as a band in the process. the first time I listened to this album I didn't get it, and I didn't like it. But then I read some of what they said about it, their process and ideas. And then I listened again, and again, and again, and I love it more and more every time. This is an album, and not a collection of singles. I miss bands that do that. it's getting lost in this modern age of digital downloads.

Sister Liz's Quinoa & Cream Zucchini Soup

Alright Sis! I promised, and here it is! Sorry it took so long:

Ingredients:
1 Medium Onion
1 Large (or 2 Medium) Zucchini
1 Boneless Chicken Breast
Bacon
Chicken Stock
White Wine
Half & Half
Quinoa
Rosemary, Bay Leaf, Salt, Pepper, (Unsalted) Butter, Olive Oil
Plantains, Cooking Oil

Prepare the quinoa, and set in the fridge to cool to about room temperature.

Take half of your zucchini, and dice into small pieces. Dice the onion, and put both the diced zucchini and onion into a sautee pan with some butter. Cook over medium heat until onion becomes translucent. Add approx 3/4 cup white wine and 3/4 cup chicken stock to the pan, and bring to a boil. Add rosemary, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Continue to simmer until the sauce reduces to about 50% of it's original volume.



Meanwhile, cut the rest of your zucchini into 3/4" discs, and wrap in uncooked bacon. Place into a pan, and put in the oven at about 350 until the bacon is cooked. If possible, the zucchini rounds should be raised so they are not cooking directly in the bacon drippings. Remove from the oven when finished, and set aside.

In a second (large) sautee pan, add a small amount of olive oil. Salt & pepper the chicken breast, and cook in the sautee pan over medium/medium-high heat. It's okay if the chicken sticks to the pan a little bit (we will be deglazing the pan in a little while).

Once the white wine/chicken stock sauce has reduced to 50% volume, remove from heat. (remove and discard any rosemary sprigs or bay leaves) Add to a blender, food processor, or immersion blender, and blend until smooth. The mixture shouldn't be too thick. If necessary, add additional chicken stock and/or white wine to thin the sauce. Set aside.

Once the chicken has finished cooking, remove from heat and set aside to rest. After the chicken has rested for 3ish minutes, you may cut it into slices.

In the pan you cooked the chicken, add the sauce from the blender. using a wooden spoon or spatula, scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen any of those delicious chicken scrapings. Add half & half to the pan, mix with your spoonula, and allow to reduce (stirring regularly) to aboug 66% volume. Or desired consistency.

You have cooked all of the parts! Now it's just presentation!

Form a ball of quinoa, and place in the middle of a wide bowl. place your zucchini/bacon rounds and chicken slices around the quinoa. Garnish (if you feel fancy) with a sprig of rosemary. Pour the cream zucchini into a small bowl or mug, and serve alongside. When you are ready to eat, you pour the cream zucchini soup over the quinoa bowl and enjoy!

Because quinoa reminds me of Peru, I prepared fried plantains to serve alongside. (Easy, plantain bananas cut into slices and fried in a pan of peanut oil. Remove from oil, dry, and salt).






Enjoy! If you have any questions, let me know!



Brad, your Black Bean soup is next!

You did notice the part of the title that says "Absence," right?

Maybe six of the best paragraphs i've ever written, the beginning of a short little fairy tale i'd like to finish someday...

It was a dark and stormy night, except that it wasn't. In fact, it was not stormy and hardly dark at all, a fact which made it exceptionally difficult to be night, unless the place of our story were nearest the north pole during summerstime. It's not. It is, actually, noplace more simple than Kansas, or less simple for that matter, being Kansas itself. Though this hardly may seem the location for such an extraordinary tale, it may be that we place too much emphasis on the extra and not quite enough on the ordinary. As any good storyteller will explain, the value of a story lays in the revelation that something believed to be quite ordinary was alltogether all along quite extraordinary.

This is why the story could hardly be about me, for i am extraordinary, at least partially so. Retired. This story, as most all stories are, is about a boy and a girl. A (not-so) ordinary boy and a simply extraordinary girl who was simply all wrong in life.

Perhaps it was a switching at birth (these things happen quite often in fairy tales, you know) or maybe her mother ate a bad fruit and suffered a mild indigestion on the wrong morning, but for whatever reason, the girl, whom we shall affectionately know as Mellie (who's actual name was Melody but her friends being simple on account of them being children felt that was too many syllables to pronounce), was born and grew up not quite in step with everything else. Either one-half step ahead, or one-part step behind, it was a clumsy method of growing up for an already awkward girl.

But as is the case with so many awkward young girls, Mellie (who believed it was only a matter of time before her friends grew weary of saying as many as two syllables in her name) grew up into a decidedly less awkward young lady, and at age 16 proved to be rather extraordinary. This was quite apparent to all of the men and boys who spoke with her and noticed their IQ's dropping, their stutters increasing, and their eyes shifting much less subtlety than they believed between their shoes and places they should not be glancing.

Also, like so many awkward young boys, our hero—who was called Jay by his friends (of which he had a very few), his enemies (which consisted entirely of a small group of bullies who rather liked pushing Jay into puddles of mud), and those who rather rarely thought much of him anyway (truth be told, a category which most people, up to and including his parents, teachers, and most unfortunately nearly every girl ever)—grew up into a decidedly more awkward young man, and proved at the age of 16 that it was possible to be more awkward than Jay had been at age 10—something to which there had been a great debate concerning feasibility, probability, likelihoodability, and a great deal of other words which may or may not have ended in “-ility.” It is very difficult, you must understand, to form one's own identity when your name contains no more than one simple letter, and not a very popular or exciting letter at that.

At an age when girls and boys think less about kissing and more about mud pies, it became entirely commonplace for an already awkward girl to spend her afternoons running and playing with an equally awkward young boy. And so it was that Mellie seemed strangely immune to Jay's awkward growing up, having been privy to it all along. He was, in so far as she was concerned, a tag-a-long little brother or a harmless puppy. This was not the case with Jay, who was increasingly aware that his own awkwardness grew exponentially according to his proximity with the decidedly less awkward Mellie, and struggled valiantly and hopelessly to keep his eyes from shifting away from his feet to places they probably should not be glancing.

Music of the Day

• Eisley, The Valley (it may or may not be true that I once asked one of the Eisley girls to marry me. I think she ignored me, which was probably one of the smarter things she's done in her life)
  

Reading Assignment of the Moment

• Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (I don't know why I thought of this comparison--actually, I do, and if you ask, I'll tell you--but Tarzan would kick Batman's ass any day of the week, and then he'd ask for seconds)
  

A (Brief) Review of Four Books I Read in the Last Month

• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand: I read it. It was a book, about a man, a man who did things, true things.
• Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller: It was a book, about a man, by a man, a man who did things, things he said he did, things he probably made up.
• In The Garden of Beasts by Eric Larsen: There were Nazis (I hate Nazis) in this book. There really wasn't a plot. It was a biography, or a history, or a history of a biography. There were politics, spies, a little violence, a bit of sex, one Chevrolet, and an auspicious amount of Nazis. Also, true.
• The Drowning Pool by Ross MacDonald: Also, a book. No Nazis, but there were gangsters. Also, violence, sex, and a couple of segues that combined scenes that made me think it was originally 3 completely different stories amalgamated into one. Not as good as The Moving Target, also by MacDonald, which was good. Untrue, from start to finish. Unlikely to read more MacDonald for a little while.

Are you still reading? Shush. Go away, and do something valuable with your time! I'll let you know when I'm back.

Whistling for the Choir

I really hate how sitting in traffic, doing nothing but flipping between mediocre radio stations, is simply exhausting work. I can't imagine doing it every day. It was difficult to scour up the desire (or the countenance in the absense of desire) to venture to the gym tonight when i got home. But I did. I did Krav on Monday, and Wednesday, and the gym today. I'll hit the trail or something for about 6 miles on Saturday. Maybe a short run on sunday too. We'll see. I may be doubting that. I didn't do my distance run last saturday, but that's because I hiked up Mission Peak with Jesse. It was still 6 miles, and half of that was a 2000 foot ascent. The other half, then, must've been a 2000 foot descent. I always forget just how much going down can be as taxing. Ascending is more physically challenging. Going down, more mentally challenging. in fact, i recall from my treks through the Andes Mountains of Peru that I preferred going up. Well, except for Dead Woman's Pass. There's very little activity you can do at 13,400 foot altitude that's enjoyable; except enjoy scenery and sitting down. Thankfully these two things may be accomplished at the same time.

It seems that today may be picture day. Woohoo! Let's go with that theme!

oooh, I guess that means I owe Nick a picture, since he requested a girl in a bikini...so...here you are! Rita Hayworth! Maybe not what you expected, but there's something to be said for the classics. Me, I love a bikini as much as they next guy, but how often do you see a disco ball with a fedora? That was some quality action. But for something equally incredible, and just about as improbable as me dating a hollywood starlet, a penny, when dropped, lands perfectly on it's side. True story. You can't make this stuff up.

So, Soup Challenge. I know I've been quiet on the soup front, but it's not for lack of activity. Liz, your Quinoa and Zucchini soup is nearly ready--I just need to fine tune the quantities. Brad, my first attempt at your black bean soup failed, but I'm not giving up! I still have an idea and a plan to go on it! All hope is not lost, though! I am prepared to share some potato soup success!

Potato Soups are a dime a dozen, and most of them are quite delicious. My mom made the world's simplest potato soup when we were growing up, and I'll be quite honest, I liked it then and I still like it now. But for Brad's Challenge Potato Soup, I decided to approach the soup more or less like a fully loaded baked potato. So here you go...

I'm not one for quantities, usually, so you can adjust things as you need it.

Start by cooking up bacon. I recommend cooking it to a nice and crispy state, but you can do it however you like it. For delicious soup, you can save the bacon grease. For healthy soup, you may discard. Chop up some red potatoes into 8ths or 12ths (depending on the size of the potato, you want healthly bite-sized pieces). It's important to use red potatoes (or gold ones) rather than your standard Idaho bakers, because the red and gold potatoes will retain their shape without dissolving into mashed potatoes. Dice up one onion. Add the potato pieces and diced onion to the bacon (and the grease, if you saved it. If you did not, splash some EVOO over it, thank you Rachael Ray). Cook these over medium to low heat for awhile with a little bit of salt. You don't have to cook them very much, you're just trying to work the flavors together a little bit. After you've let them cook for a bit (10-ish minutes), add chicken stock (for a soup that will thicken more upon standing, use chicken broth instead). This is the liquid base of your soup, so add enough to submerge everything pretty well (save just a very little bit, 1/8 to 1/4 cup, for a little bit later). Bring to a boil, and simmer for 20-30 minutes (until potatoes are tender). In a seperate bowl, mix together the chicken stock you set aside with some sour cream and about 1/8 cup instant mash potato flakes. Slowly add this mixture to the soup, stirring as you go. You may now add even more instant mash potato flakes the soup, as much or as little as you would like. The more you add, the thicker the soup will be. Let cook for another 10 or so minutes.

Your soup is now ready to serve. Serve topped with grated cheese of your choice, and chives.

Last, then, but not least:

Music of the Day:













The Fratellis, Costello Music (let's be honest, boys and girls, I had another album by the Fratellis before this one, but the cover certainly helped inspire me to pick up this one)

Remember, Remember, the First of November...

I don't think that's how it goes! But i should say, if you are not otherwise disposed, you might want to watch V for Vendetta on November 5 (or, if you're a comic book snob, you could [re-]read the original comic). Because Guy Fawkes may or may not have been the man. That's for you to decide.

Also, if you're planning to switch banks, that's sort of useless. I used to work for a bank. they're all evil. Don't get me started. I have an entire anti-bank rant, but I'll save that for a day that's other than this one. But in the meantime, faults or not, i will continue to keep my accounts with megabank Chase. They seem to have something of mine that would be very difficult to conduct commerce in the US of A without. Money. Mine. Which they have.

It's been weighing on my mind a lot lately that I've completely slacked. I mean, I wrote a few words last last Monday, but that was like a decade ago. Relatively. I mean, if you were moving at relativistic speeds, it may have been an actual decade for me and a few days for you. Which, I suppose, any speed is a relativistic speed, the question is whether or not the distortion is perceptible.

And, for your viewing pleasure, a discoball with a fedora:
I'm not going to bore you down with the details of things I've done since we last spoke (or since you last listened to me spoke), but I will talk briefly of running (which I do a lot, I suppose).

Some days you go running, and it sucks. And then you finish, and it sucks even more because you realise your pace was slower than normal and it still sucked. But then there are days, like last Thursday when i was running at the gym, when you seem to glide over the ground and you're done and it's this big sort of surprise because you keep waiting for that part of it that sucks, the part which doesn't show up. Love those days. My current goal is a sub-24 minute 5k, a perfectly reasonable goal, and I'm pretty sure i'll be there soon enough.

Also, weighed in at the gym at 196 lbs. Ladies and Germs, that's the lightest I've been since high school. This is not news to those of you who read my facebook. i was really excited. I still am. I'm also paranoid that when I go back next time it will go up. Without adding any further muscle weight, i think i've still got another 10-ish pounds of which i want to get rid.

So I guess NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writer's Month) started today. I'm not participating. Not that I have anything against it, I just know that i would not complete the goal. Fall behind a little bit would be just the excuse i needed to quit. I can't do that, I've slowed down too much as it is.

That being said, I wrote a little bit tonight. i've lost the romance. I guess the novel-writing honeymoon period is over. right now it's sort of that time where you're not really sure you want to do it anymore but you kinda have to or just quit and since you can't right quit yet you sludge through it because you have to figure a little drugery will pay off when you get excited about it again. I hope I didn't waste all my excitement in the months planning before i actually started writing. I'd imagine if I start reading an excellent novel, it will inspire me further.

So, that being said, this is my to-read list (in no particular order):

If you can't see, that's:
In the Garden of Beasts; Unbroken; The Perfect Mile; Trouble is My Business; Bel Canto; Hondo; Tarzan of the Apes; The Goodbye Loook; From the Prairies to Peru--and Beyond; Black Dahlia; Double Indemnity; The Ivory Grin; Middlesex; Blue Monday; Good Morning Blues; 2666

Not included are the 4 books scattered in my life I'm currently (re)reading:
The Drowning Pool; Born to Run; Goin' to Kansas City; The Savage Detectives

Slightly overwhelming, to say the least. How do i get myself into this sort of thing?

So, with all of that, I'll leave you on All Saints Day with this one last bit...

Music of the Day

• Flyleaf, Memento Mori
• Flyleaf, Flyleaf

See you tomorrow? That's the idea. We'll see.

The Best Part About Mondays: they only happen Once a Week!

I feel like I'm apologizing more about not writing posts than actually writing posts these days. Life gets busy--you all know what that's like--and you make decisions, which may or may not be good ones. Sometimes the decisions you make are to take the free tickets to the Foo Fighters concert in Oakland and run with it. There's very few times in my life I would consider that a bad decision.

Funny thing is, I've had more concert tickets than albums for the Foo Fighters (3 vs 2). That's not a knock on their albums--I've always been a fan. Dave Grohl is a great songwriter. Great musician. Really catchy songs, and that means a lot in my book (not my actual book, the one i'm writing, but my metaphorical one, the one about me, that biography written in a car, or something). But for all that he is on tape, he's all that, a bag of chips, and a snickerdoodle live. By far one of the best live shows I've ever seen. Like Garth Brooks good. He knows how to work a crowd. He always goes out and gives 100%. It's almost like he's having fun! go figure! And when he's having fun, he doesn't see any reason to stop. 3 hours later...hoo. Also, any concert that involves dueling guitar solos is all right in my book (that's the same book we already talked about).

What else have I done since we last talked:

• Gym (less sore than last time. Excellent.)
• Krav Maga
• 6.5 mile run. It's not supposed to be in the 80's, hot and sunny in late october! Also, alternate route taken home included a lot more hills than expected.
  
• Caught up on Eureka. Good thing too: I hardly have enough time to watch all the shows I want now, and the Walking Dead just came back on...
  
• Got lost in ridiculous bumper-to-bumper traffic in Oakland...on a saturday afternoon
• Got pulled over by a cop; apparently i have a tail light out. Ticket. Suck.
  
• Played two church services deep in the hood of Oakland for the 54th anniversary of the American Indian Baptist Church of Oakland (one service--saturday--was all bad; the other--sunday--all good)
• Managed to not get shot wearing my bright red Chiefs jersey deep in the heart (hood) of the Raider Nation ("...beyond doubt the sleaziest and rudest and most sinister mob of thugs and wackos ever assembled..." not my quote) on gameday. You laugh, because this is sort of a joke. But it sort of isn't. Ok, kinda really isn't. Across the street was a candlelight memorial for someone who wasn't as lucky as I was the other day.
• Enjoyed one of the best 3 1/2 hours of football in a long time (Go Chiefs!)
• Researched recipes on how to prepare crow. Not for me. For thee of little faith.
  
• Interior decoration
• one book (The Perfect Mile) from Half Price books, and two (Unbroken and In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin) from Amazon
• three cds (Jazz of the 20's Greatest Hits, Louis Armstrong Greatest hits, and Swinging the Blues 1930-1939 from Count Basie) from Half Price Books.
  
• and, finally, today, decided to write a few words in my novel. This chapter isn't hard, but I'm having a hard time motivating myself. I've lost momentum, and I've gotta get back go writing regularly

Music of the Day:

• Skin and Bones by the Foo Fighters

Joke of the Day:

• A woman had two sons. One ran away to join the circus; the other became vice president. Neither was heard from again.

That's all i've got. Don't knock it. Something>nothing

The Unbelievable Soreness of Scones

It's been a few days since we visited, now hasn't it? I feel like last wednesday was so long ago, so many days. like it was all the way last week. Crazy that. Did you miss me? You should practice more; your aim is off.

in the meantime, i have been busy. and lazy. In alternating altercations. Which is sort of how I like to live my life.

I went to the gym on thursday after work and started my new(ish) routine. I figure I'll follow this pattern until the end of november, and then I'll go back to more full time distance running for december and january (in case i decide to run the SF half marathon again in the beginning of Feb). So i figure this is what I'll do: Mondays & Wednesdays I'll do Krav Maga, as I have been. Thursdays I'll go into the gym. i'll start with running a fast mile (for me fast) on the treadmill, and slowly increase the distance on that until i hit the 5k distance at the end of November. the idea behind this is not necessarily to improve my distance pace (although I can't imagine it hurting), but to be able to run a sub 24 minute 5k. Right now on my average everyday runs, I run a 27, 28 minute 5k. But anyways, after the (fast) mile, I'll go in the back and work on some weights and exercises specifically aimed to supplement my Krav classes--I want to go into the 1st level test in december and rock the two-ish hour warm up routine. Last Thursday i did pullups (3 sets of 8), decline situps with a 25 pound weight (3x8), power cleans (3x5 but that will increase), and then more decline situps (3 times to failure) with jabs. I'll probably be adding or switching pushups & pushups with jabs, and maybe some planking. But after all that, i finished up with another mile on the treadmill to cool down. Slow this time. I say slow, but what i really mean is at my current average ideal distance pace (9-9:15 minute miles).

All that for thursdays? Depending on what's going on, I'll add workouts on one or both saturday & sunday. I'll do a distance run (6-8 miles) on one of the days, and if i decide to add the second workout i'll make my way back to the gym for a similar routine to thursday. I ran 6+ miles saturday. For reasons listed below, I didn't do anything sunday...

it's been a long time since I did any weights or such. I'm pretty sure i couldn't move my arms or lift them above my shoulders on friday. or saturday. sunday was better, and it took until today to be just fine. i'll be honest. it was on the intense side of sore; it hurt like ache ee double-hockey-stick.

I took saturday & sunday to relax, play some guitar, and cook some breakfasts. My two favorie things about saturdays: being able to put on a second pot of coffee if i feel like it, and taking the time to cook breakfast. i have this recipe (ok, it's a mix, in a box, that you add water to) I mix up (by adding some vanilla and peanut butter) for these cakes. These cakes are incredible. you wouldn't believe it...you can make them in a PAN. I call them pancakes. it's brilliant. it'll revolutionize breakfasts everywhere. And some days I make them with sausage, or bacon. let's be honest. I could be making paper mache and adding bacon would make it a wonderful breakfast.

I went to Krav today, made some soup (try #2 liz, I'll let you know how it comes out!), and worked on chapter 5. The detective's story is easy. I love it. I mean, it's probably my favorite and it's the core story that the other two were built around. well, that's sort of misleading; the two other stories are completely independent, but they were cooked up in my brain long after the detective's story. I've had that one percolating for on two years now.

But other things of importance: it has been brought to my attention that october may or may not be Velociraptor Attack Awareness Month. Which seems sort of surprising to me, on account of halloween (or more ominously, la Día de los Muertos). I'd figure we should be planning for a zombie apocalypse. Don't kid yourself--it could happen, but then again, maybe not. Maybe velociraptors are the viable threat. either way, you outta know your exits. It's just good sense.

This all from a man who keeps a wooden stake in his bedroom. Just in case. I'd rather have one and not need it then need one and not have it. I'm just sayin.

I saw eggnog at the grocery store the other day. Clearly some higher power is looking out for me. Apple cider season at the same time as egg nog season? This must be what heaven is like, beveragely. Or, it is yet another sign of the apocalypse.

Without further delay...

Soundtrack for Today:

• Back to the Alley, the Best of the Stray Cats
  

Activities for the Day:

• Avoid being choked from the side--extended arm and close range
• Begin Chapter 5
• Soupy experiments (details tomorrow, hopefully!)
• Read some of Going to Kansas City
• Read some of the Drowning Pool
• Read the first chapter of Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister (as research/refresher for the Detective's Story)
  

Picture of the Day:

• The Bryant Building in downtown Kansas City, where my detective has his office. Most all of the locations in my novel are historically accurate (except for the main night club, which is historically based but a few details have been changed to suit the story)