29 June 2005
While we were traveling through the Midwest, I noticed that their
cemeteries were slightly different from those in the South. In the half
dozen cemeteries we passed, the headstones were flush with the ground, and
a basket of flowers sat a foot or two off the grave in a metal
planter-like structure. I've never seen this kind of commemoration
before, so it's likely a regional or cultural tradition. But I can't find
any information about it. This got me thinking that there are various
ways of commemorating the dead in this country, even in the seemingly
homogeneous subset of Christians who inhume their dead. I've decided I
should write a giant glossy coffee table book about different styles of
headstones and flowers. I can easily get information on all the
cemeteries in the country through the
USGS, handily enough.
I doubt anyone would buy my book, though.
Posted at 1609.
28 June 2005
After an uneventful car return and flight back to RDU, nothing much to
report. Sara e-mailed me to say there is a new show coming to Fox in the
fall called
Bones.
I found out that it is about the fictional character
Dr. Temperance Brennan, who is the main character in the trashy summer
forensic fiction I read, and who was created by UNC-Charlotte anthropology
professor Kathy Reichs. The amusing thing is that, in the TV show, the
character Tempe Brennan is a forensic anthropologist who, in her spare
time, writes books about a fictional forensic anthropologist heroine...
named, in the TV show, Kathy Reichs. Clever. At any rate, it just goes
to show you that sometimes anthropology does pay a living wage... if you
happen to write best-selling novels and agree to provide plot lines for a
new TV show capitalizing on the CSI boom.
Posted at 1459.
27 June 2005
We woke up a tad bit late, so I rushed to shower and dry my hair before
breakfast at 9am. Al had made cinnamon-peach muffins, stuffed French
toast, fruit salad, and sausages. The French toast was stuffed with a
walnut-creamcheese mixture with a hint of orange, and then deep fried. It
was pretty tasty. The other couple staying there was originally from
Togo
and apparently had moved to Minneapolis for school.
After breakfast, we headed up the
North Shore again to a couple state
parks not far from Duluth. The first,
Gooseberry
Falls State Park, was
quite lovely. The
falls
were easily accessible, and you could walk to any
or all of the upper, middle, and lower falls. We then drove up to the
Split
Rock Lighthouse State Park, thinking we could get some good views of
the lake. Sadly, the park cost $8 per person, largely, it seems, because
they're trying to make a destination of it. There was a movie to see,
people in period costume, and other such nonsense. We decided it wasn't
worth $16 and headed back towards Duluth, stopping at the
3M
museum
in Two Harbors along the way. The "museum" was one floor of a tiny house
and was really kind of useless in telling the story about the company and
its products, and the docent there wouldn't shut up and let us look
around.
In Duluth, this time, the
Duluth
Athletic Club Deli was open (having in the past 24
hours chiseled their Sunday hours off the door!), but definitely not worth
it. I had my second whitest MN meal of the trip: strawberry and spinach
salad with vinaigrette (which consisted of white vinegar and god only
knows what kind of clear oil), cream-based tomato soup (which was largely
flavorless except for the onions), and half a "baguette" (again, a hoagie
roll). Patrick's jerk chicken wrap wasn't too bad, though. But it seems
they're primarily reputed as a bar, not as a food establishment.
In an attempt to beat the storm that we heard was quickly moving
into Duluth, we headed down I-35 but ran into it about 45 miles outside of
the Twin Cities. It was quite a scary storm too. In central NC, we'd
call it a hurricane - high winds, pouring rain, occasional marble-sized
hail. But in central MN, apparently it just means you should reduce your
speed by about 10 mph. The rain didn't let up, but we missed a lot of it
by pulling into Ikea's covered parking and spending a little over an hour
shopping there. After Ikea kicked us all out at 9pm, we headed to the
hotel, packed all our stuff, and went to sleep early in preparation for
our 5:30 wake-up time.
Posted at 2143.
26 June 2005
Following a surprisingly vegetarian-friendly brunch at the Damers' (the
spinach-cheese casserole was awesome!), Patrick and I headed up to Duluth,
on the southern tip of Lake Superior. The town was pretty sleepy, as it
was late afternoon on a Sunday when we got there. We tried to get a bite
to eat at the Duluth Athletic Club Deli, which had at least one person in
it behind the counter, but the door was locked in spite of the hours
posted. We ended up getting a tasty potato-garlic pizza at
Pizza Luce next door, which also had a
surprising amount of vegan food considering it's Duluth.
From
there, we
headed to our B&B, the
Mathew S. Burrows
1890 Inn to check in. Our innkeeper, Al, suggested we drive up the
North Shore, so we took the scenic path along the lake. There was a lot
of wind, which created some
impressive
waves on Superior.
We
waded
into
the lake a bit, but since it was only about 55 degrees outside, only
crazies were actually swimming. Other crazies were wearing shorts and
tank tops. We also went out to a
cute
little lighthouse and saw some of
the
giant
iron ore boat docks in Two Harbors before we
turned around.
Half-way bath to Duluth, we stopped at the
New Scenic Cafe, on Al's
recommendation, and had a great dinner. I had a sandwich of
pistachio-encrusted goat cheese, fresh spinach, and cucumber on
cranberry-pecan bread and wild rice soup, and Patrick had a sandwich of
buffalo-meat pastrami. We took dessert (blackberry creamcheese tart for
me, chocolate pecan pie for Patrick) back to the B&B and enjoyed it with
some tea in the sitting room.
While Patrick was uploading our
pictures from the day to his laptop, I fell asleep on the four-poster
queen bed. Even for B&B's, this was the most comfortable bed I think I've
ever slept in.
Posted at 2343.
We got up relatively early to drive down to the Mississippi River to see
its
northernmost
lock, near downtown Minneapolis. We
wandered around and
did the entire circuit around the lake, and by the time we were back at
the lock, there was a tiny boat getting ready to go through it. So I got
to see a lock operate for the first time in person. We also got to laugh
at a bunch of people on a
Segway
tour of the river. After that, we drove
down to Ikea, for which we didn't have time on Friday, and ended up
spending more time eating at the restaurant than shopping. I had a
cheese-and-fruit plate and Swedish apple cake, and Patrick had a tuna
salad and a Daim tort. Since we had to leave to get
ready for the wedding, I vowed to come back to Ikea on Monday.
The wedding was, of course,
beautiful. Stillwater was a
cute
little town,
and the
historic
courthouse had an amazing ballroom
upstairs.
Erika
was gorgeous,
Paul
was handsome, and the
food
was fabu. Arum and I finally
succeeded in getting Dave and Patrick to dance, but for the most part our
table was concerned with
the
many
ways
we could find to "improve" the
centerpiece.
Posted at 2343.
24 June 2005
Today, we headed out for two destinations:
Mall of America and the
Science
Museum of MN. The MoA was not nearly as big or as freakish or as
filled with fatties as I thought it would be. Lego Land was quite cool -
bulk bins of Legos in a variety of colors and a
full-scale
Harry Potter and
some
dinosaurs.
My favorite store was
P.B. Loco,
which was a peanut butter store selling flavored peanut butters, cookies,
and sandwiches.
The SMM was nice. One of the main reasons I
wanted to go was to see the display of Questionable Medical Devices, which
were collected by one area man and used to have
their own
museum.
Unfortunately, there are only 6-10 items on display right now. They also
appear to have an interesting collection of anthropological and
archaeological items from around the world that are not on display. One
of the most amusing displays was a life-size poster of a little girl on
one wall, which had a door where her head is. The exhibit was about
sneezing. I opened the little door, and there was a hole in the wall that
blew air and moisture on you with a sneezing noise. It took me totally
off-guard, and I yelped and lept back amid a throng of amused kids. My
favorite exhibit, though, consisted of two slices of
plastinated
human cadavers, followed closely by the SMM's exhibit/tour of the former
St. Paul museum, which included a mummy.
For a late dinner, we ate
at
Good Earth, a fantastic
veggie-friendly mostly organic restaurant that happened to be
right near our hotel in Roseville.
Posted at 2343.
23 June 2005
We left for Minneapolis on an early morning flight, and got our car and
headed to the hotel by noon. Patrick left for Paul's bachelor party -
go-karting
- around 1pm, and I headed to the mall. The mall was nice, but
Midwesterners are just not as friendly as Southerners, no matter what
people from the Midwest say. I told salesgirls I was visiting from NC,
tried to chat about the weather (which was about 95 that day in the Twin
Cities), but to no avail. Patrick came back around 5pm, full of stories
and threatening to wear his newly-purchased
head
sock to
the wedding. We left for our respective parties. I had a couple strong
martinis with the girls at the
Wild Onion in St. Paul...
and my first
All-White Minnesota Meal: fettucini alfredo with a slice of baguette.
Only the fettucini was less tasty than mac-n-cheese, and the baguette was
actually a piece of white hoagie bread. Mmmmm. Tasty.
During our tenure at the bar, after we'd all had a few drinks, some random
40-ish guy with thinning hair, glasses, and a moustache came up to the
table and told us to look outside - his stretch Hummer was parked out
there, and he told us he was "going to Minneapolis to a few bars." He
said, "What do you think of that?" I tried to brush him off with, "Uh
huh, nice car," but Erika said, "That's revolting!" The guy didn't hear
her and asked her to repeat herself, and she said, "It's really revolting.
What kind of gas mileage does that thing get?" For the remainder of the
weekend, anytime Patrick and I passed a giant car on the road, one of us
would shout, "Revolting!" and laugh.
Posted at 2343.
20 June 2005
We got in from Charlottesville around 11pm last night to two very whiny
cats who wanted food and attention. After bringing in all our luggage and
putting all the berries I picked on Friday away, we noticed that the cats
were really growling and hissing at one another. Patrick guessed, "I'll
bet Lethe took Pilosus' mouse away." So I followed her into the kitchen
behind the island, planning to take her toy away or toss it across
the room for them. But when I looked over the island, I noticed that she
was playing with a
very
real, very dead
mouse.
As you can
probably guess from my
last entry about
small furry rodents in my house, I freaked out and ran into the living
room. Now, at this point, any good husband would have promptly scooped up
the mouse and chucked it in the garbage bin outside. But, no, Patrick had
to
take a movie of Lethe playing with the mouse. Like
the good actress she is, as soon as the camera was rolling, Lethe
grabbed the mouse in her mouth, shook it, and tossed it around. By the
time it landed - in the living room - I was none too happy with this
little snuff film.
Posted at 1022.
And now for something completely different... for those of you with
excessive amounts of fresh herbs in your windowboxes, yet not enough basil
to make traditional pesto, I present the following recipe:
Kristina's Sage Pasta with Chevre
1/4 c walnuts
1/8 c parmesan cheese
1/4 c olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 cloves garlic
2 c fresh sage, loosely packed
1 c fresh thyme, loosely packed
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb penne
2 oz chevre
Puree walnuts, cheese, oil, lemon juice, and garlic in a food processor
until mostly smooth. Add washed and dried herbs. Pulse until well mixed.
Toss with penne, and garnish with dollops of
chevre. (Would probably also be good as a spread on a chicken sandwich,
as a topping for baked potatoes, or a sauce for butternut squash
ravioli!)
Recipe makes about 1 cup pesto at 730 calories.
Posted at 1302.
19 June 2005 - Happy Father's Day!
For Father's Day today, my mom took me and my grandparents out to the
Omni
for brunch, and later we went to see Sentimental Journey play a
selection
of big band hits from the 40s and 50s. The band is composed mostly of
retired guys, but Jeff played in it in high school many years ago. The
audience, of course, was also composed of mostly elderly people, some of
whom got up to strut their stuff on the dance floor. In the middle of one
dance, I turned to my mom and whispered, "This is like Cocoon: The
Musical!"
Posted at 2332.
17 June 2005
Tonight we went out to dinner at our fav
C'ville Mexican restaurant, The Guad. While waiting for Cory to arrive,
we noticed the oddly painted wheelchair sign in the parking lot. If you
can figure out what's in his hand, let us know. Patrick thinks it's a
votive candle, but I think it's a Corona with a lime.
Posted at 2312.
16 June 2005
Well, we did indeed find that Bodo's was open today! Yay, bagels on the
Corner! Anyway, we joked that they should issue t-shirts that read,
"June 16, 2005 - Bodo's on the Corner - Grand Opening and 10 Year
Anniversary Celebration!" Brian Fox was milling around the door,
listening to the conversations as people came in. The guy in front of us
said, "I never thought I'd live to see the day that this Bodo's opened."
But even though his rent has got to be at least $3,000 a month for the
space, and it's been virtually empty for 10 years, Fox probably makes at
least a month of rent back in one day of selling bagels.
Posted at 2312.
14 June 2005
Last night, Jeff told Patrick that the Corner
Bodo's was going to have its grand opening this morning around 6am. Not that a
lot of Charlottesvillians read my blog or care about this, but I'll explain.
Bodo's is a local C'ville bagel chain that has two locations, each of which took
3-4 years to set up. The third and final Bodo's, located in an area frequently
patronized by UVa students, still has not opened. The owner began renting the
location in
1995, yes,
1995, and still hasn't opened, inciting a lot of curiosity, resentment, and bad
puns like, "Waiting for Bodot." My mom's ex, Fuzz, worked on the electric wiring
in 1996 and said it was nearly done. But apparently Jeff was wrong, and Bodo's
still isn't open. However, a
recent
article in The Hook says it will open
around June 13. So it's
possible Patrick and I will be up in C'ville if it opens this week to get some of
the first bagels and celebrate the end to a 10-year wait.
Posted at 0918.
7 June 2005
Are you a fan of Star Wars, organic food, and really bad puns? Then check
out the link that Ankur just sent me:
Grocery Store Wars. Join your friends Cuke Skywalker, Obi Wan
Cannoli, and Tofu D2 on their odyssey to save your produce from the dark
side of the farm.
Incidentally, if you are a fan of Harry Potter and can't wait for the new
book to come out, Amazon is guaranteeing delivery on Saturday, July 16 if
you order now. As long as it comes before my sure-to-be-harrowing
transatlantic
flight on the 18th, I'll be a happy camper.
Posted at 1322.
6 June 2005
Yesterday and today,
we were in
Charlotte because, well, we've never been and thought it might be fun.
The street names in the Queen City amused us the most, though, like
Tyvola, Clanton, and Wendover. Imagine me, with my best Nawth Carolahna
accent on, saying, "Mah name is Clanton. Aah went to Africa last month
and caught me some ty-vola. The doc gave me Wendover for it." But the
zoo in Asheboro is quite cute, and we ate at some good restaurants like
Boudreaux's
cajun, which is not, incidentally, affiliated with
Boudreaux's Butt Paste.
Although I do like the Where's Waldo-style
soft-core
ape porn picture (Patrick was too slow to capture a full-frontal), my
favorite picture has got to be the one I took in the discovery museum's
Grossology
exhibit. They had an interactive exhibit for kids where you climbed
through the lips, slid down the esophagus into the stomach, and crawled
through the intestines until you came out the rectum onto a squishy brown
pad of "poo." The best part of it, though, was the huge white lettering
at the bottom of the rectum that said
"Exit
only." Ahhhh, it's good to know that North Carolina sodomy laws apply
even to children's museum displays.
Posted at 2236.
3 June 2005
OK, my
freelance editing webpage is online.
It's nothing fancy, 'cause I'm really lazy and don't know how to make all
the new bells-and-whistles of modern web design, just simple old HTML.
But I now officially have a fallback job in case this promise of tens of
thousands of Roman skeletons for my dissertation doesn't pan out. Editing
doesn't make for as
interesting a business
card, though.
Posted at 1112.
2 June 2005
We were woken up this morning a little after 8am by one of the people at
the office temp agency I applied at. Patrick gave me the phone, and I
tried not to sound like I had been jolted awake by the call. The guy said
they had an "emergency need" for someone to fill in at their office
today in Chapel Hill and hoped that I would be interested. Which I
thought was patently absurd. So I declined, and the guy asked if I was
available for other jobs. I said sure. He then pressed, and said, "If we
hold off until 9 or 10am, can you come today?" Yeah. I'm just sitting
around in full office-clothing-regalia waiting for the phone to ring every
morning. Sure, I can get up, shower, feed myself, get dressed, and drive
to Chapel Hill by 9am. For what will amount to probably $50 after taxes.
Right.
Posted at 1320.
1 June 2005
Yesterday, I went to meet Patrick at Brodie Gym for racquetball. I got
there a few minutes early to do situps and weights, and while I was
shoulder-pressing, I saw Shelden Williams come in. I didn't know he was
in Durham for the summer, but it makes sense since he's
stalking me. When Patrick got there, we
started playing, and
I wanted to sound cool, so I said, "Hey, you missed Shelden a few minutes
ago." He then said the three little words that upset me the most, "You missed
J.J." I was pissed because I could have gone
out to get the racquets but made him go instead. But perhaps this means
that there will be some good pickup ball in Brodie this summer that we can
gawk at.
Posted at 1920.
