The Adventures of a Rural Explorer

2012-01-23T10:48:00.002-06:00

Now that I have finally finished my travel blog re: my Hawaiian traverses, it's time to batten down and get back to the Midwest. Coming soon - an entry on my sister site http://goatmaiden.blogspot.com/ on, what else? GOATS! And my early January visit to Dreamfarm in Cross Plains, WI.

Stay tuned!

“Top 20 Tips and Tricks from a First-time Kona Tourist”

2012-01-22T14:31:00.001-06:00

20. Kona is not a town. Kailua-Kona is. But Konaseems to be an accepted term for the area south of the airport and north ofCaptain Cook.

19. Find a farmer’s market. Buy fruit. Eat fruit.

18. Don’t plan anything for your final day – you will find away to fill it.

17. KOA is an awesome airport to fly into / out of. Smallopen air.

Outdoor waiting area of the airport. The baggage claim was open air as well.

16. Read up on a little history, or at least know who KingKamehakameha the Great was (united the islands via conquest), and his sons (whowere not named Kamehameha at birth.) You will pick up a lot more if you have alittle knowledge to begin with (oh, and the last monarch was the Merry one withthe ‘stach).

15. Watch for coupons, but use with a grain of salt. The BigIsland is like a small town, and there is a limited amount of choices. Whereassome coupons are totally worth it (2 snorkel sets for the price of one), othersmay just be trying to upsell to you.

14. WATCH out for TURTLES! While I was busy talking abouthow they sometimes crawl up onto the shore to bask, I just about tripped overthem. I also almost swam into one while snorkeling.

13. The Volcano National Park is a full day’s worth ofstuff, and quite a drive (3 hrs.) from Kona. Find out the lava reports and webcams of the volcano here http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hvo/cams/

12. Luaus are like Vegas shows. All you can eat / drink foodand beverages are included. We did not see poi anywhere else. Kinda likeRiverdance is a little different than traditional Irish folkdancing, you mightwant to temper your experience with a visit to a local hula school .

11. Fair Winds tours were suggested to us, and we could seetheir boat from our hotel. Though we didn’t go, we would have had we more timeand money. We also didn’t go to Bamboo restaurant (far north) but it wasrecommended 2x for good local food. In Hilo, if we had the time, we would havechecked out the Lyman Museum and the Akatsuka Orchid farm.

Fair Wind's II sailing passed.

10. Don’t worry about bringing snorkel gear – it isavailable to rent really cheep, or you can buy a set (sans flippers) for under$10 at a convenience store. $1.50 per day for a pair of flippers and they makeyou go really fast! You float better in salt water. Go snorkeling, it’s worthit. The most expensive rental right now is stand up paddle board. When you goto a beach, watch where the people enter and exit the water, and where theycongregate. Most of the time, that’s where the coolest stuff is. P.S. don’ttouch anything, and keep your feet off the coral (most of the time it looks likerocks, so wait until you get to a sandy place to put your feets down.)

9. Parking – can be very difficult to find. Sometimes youluck out and find street parking but watch out for dead end / one way / onelane streets. Otherwise there is a pay lot near the Kona Inn. If you get a rentalcar (you will want one unless you enjoy biking long distances) you might wantto consider bringing some travel tunes as there were only 2 radio stations we could get.

8. You will probably be solicited – we were offered drugs, akayak ride out to Captain Cook Monument, and there was a lady with drawings“for donation only” at a beach (a clever way to circumvent peddler laws.)

7. Hawaii is a TALL island. Driving along the coastalhighway that encircles the island, don’t think you will be toodling along at 65mph a short distance from sandy beaches. The speed limit is 25-55 most of theway, and you will be on a 2-lane highway snaking around about 1500’ elevationthrough tiny towns. Expect rocky cliffs and plunging vistas of the wavescrashing miles away. Portions of it feel a bit like Hwy. 1 in CA.

6. Food. Food food food food food. Study up on it before youget here, and be ready to seek out and experience it all! You may need to getuse to seeing tasty passion fruit rotting on the trees and falling into thestreet tho.

5. There are a lot of used bookstores here. Don’t wasteluggage room packing many books – and feel free to leave yours behind (seemslike lots of travelers do!)

4. Antique, second hand, and thrift stores are a good placeto grab a unique souvenir (I got a cookbook put out as a fundraiser for a highschool marching band in Honolulu), or beach blanket.

3. Looking for cheese? Go to the Kona Wine Market.

2. Wanna tour a certain coffee plantation or farm? Contactthem ahead of time. Cell reception can be spotty, depending on your locationand carrier. Schedules can change, so try to set up something you can actuallyadhere to. We tried to find the Big Island Goat Farm and Buddah’s Cup Coffee,but got lost or couldn’t contact them via phone once we got here.

1. You are in the land of cloud forests and ghost crabs.Enjoy the magic.

Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T13:56:00.000-06:00

Well it finally hit me. I got sick from bad sushi, or pentup stress. I wasn’t stressed out on vacation, but all the planning, theexperiencing, it can take a toll. Had some coffee and a banana for breakfast.It was kinda fun – we watched the Packer game from 8am-11am before we checkedout of the hotel. We headed out, returned the flippers to the rental place andwent to the airport.

I took a nap under a bench (one bad thing about the airportis that they have bars on the benches so you can’t lay down). DMV had the onlyloco moco of the trip and said it was pretty good. I was sad I didn’t even getto see it!

On the plane home, DMV had a ham salad sandwich we boughtthe night before and a diet coke. I made myself some tasty kimchee ramen in mynew Hawaii themed travel mug with some hot water the flight attendant broughtme. I also had a sprite. And we shared some mac-nut lavash with Puna goat cheese and some dried apricots. Time forsleep now.

2011-11-23T13:50:00.001-06:00

Woke. Tossed and turned. Made coffee. Almost out of milk.

Took a bath – this vacation had me, for the first time inI-can’t remember-how-long not bathing 2 days in a row. Too much to do!Fascinating, and a bit disturbing. Trying to do the minimum amount of care –sunscreen, moisturizer, coconut lip balm. Stretches.

Lunch was more picnic stuff and we ate the lichees.DMV had a boat.

We watched a turtle eating slime off a rock. What an awkwardanimal! So wrongly put together. And they live for so long!

We walked around, then sat at the pool for a while. Saw a giant feral cat I decided was "the king."

We decided to treat ourselves, it being our last full day onthe island, to some sushi. Unfortunately, we picked a bad place / day / menuitems. DMV had a good salad of greens, but then he had some strangenon-Japanese chicken bits that tasted like buffalo wings. We thought they’d besome sort of spicy tempura or something. He got a Hawaiian roll that was madewith cooked, well seasoned fish and fresh pineapple. It was good, but small -only a little bit longer than your index finger! I got some salmon egg roe thatwas a little off, no quail egg, and some tuna that also seemed old. TheMomokowa Pearl Sake helped sooth out the evening.

Next door, we could see a grey cat sleeping in the background of the bookstore sign.

We did a little shopping that night and lo and behold! Wefound some Hawaiian goat cheese! I can’t wait to eat in on our return planepicnic.

2011-11-22T12:57:00.000-06:00

Bfst – coffee and banana bread

Today we drove to Hilo – another great idea. Drive Northpast the airport, and you are suddenly surrounded by miles and miles of darka’a. People (bikers mostly I’m guessing), have rooted around and found whitestones which they use to spell out messages you can read from the road. Weascend away from the shore and cut across the island going Northeast.Eventually, right around Waimea there is a very distinct line, where thelandscape goes from desert to greenery.

We drove through the hilly cowboy country, loosing our tworadio stations now and again. When we were about 14 miles or so from Hilo, the roadgot incredibly winding, and was filled with deep gulches which made yourstomach drop. Some had waterfalls, most just had enormous trees filling them.We could at times peer waaaay down to the shore, and see people surfing in thebreakers.

DMV below a banyan tree

Hilo is about 40,000 people. First we stopped to see RainbowFalls, which was as picturesque as could be. Probably about 6 buses disgorgedtheir tourists while we were there. We drove back into town and parked andwandered through the small daily farmers market (the huge one, started in 1986,happens on Wednesdays and Saturdays). Bought a few more apple bananas (whichDMV says he really likes!), some lechies (I didn’t remember what they lookedlike in the “shell”-only ever having had canned ones) and some giganticcarrots. We talked with the tourism lady and wandered down the road to find theKamehameha statue, well, one of them. Strangely, no signrelating the story of the statue was near it.

Hilo is old, andrun down in a quaint, easygoing way. It’s history is tinged with tragictsunamis, but it’s grit seems to have gotten it through. We appreciate the oldbuildings, and are interested in what they use to be as well as what is in themnow. If they are closed up, they are still interesting. Also, there are tons of natural food stores and used bookstores in this town.

We stopped at a YMCA-type auditorium.They have a lunch window which could be serving the same things the kids areeating for lunch for all we could tell. Donnie got a hamburger steak and gravywith onions, served over a scoop of rice. It was your typical lunchroom fare,but still good.

I bought a bento “made fresh at 11am today”. It consist of two onigiri speckled withcooked salmon, a little pickled stuff (maybe radish?) a few slices of coldchicken katsu and some slices of sweet omelet. We had 7up to drink.

We walked down to the beach, which was kind of crummy. There was a bus that had just dumped off a bunch of tourists who seemed to be enjoying it. Then we drove off. We wanted to catch a malasada on ourway home from Tex’s drive in. Wealso wanted to stop at Spenser Beach,an obsession of mine since college (when I thought, instead of a Resort, wewould be camping in a tent when we went to Hawaii).But I also wanted to check out the Japanese garden in Hilobefore we left. It was nice, and free, but nothing extremely interesting exceptthe 50 ‘ tall bamboo. We also checked out coconut island, which may have beencreated during a flood. Its just a little island of coconut trees. We watchsome crazy kids diving off of a old bridge pylon and saw a herd of kayakerscome ashore.

See the man in reeds?

Tsunami marker at the very top is from the 40s

Ok, so on the way home, we tried to find the goat farm, orat least some of the goat cheese from there. I had a tip that it was located on the Hamakua Coast and we tried to give them a call, but their answering machine picked up. Ohwell, we stopped at Tex’s and Ihad a Bavarian cream madesala. Wonderful! DMV thought it lookd so good, eventho he is not a fan of fried dough, he got an apricot one. Terribly fantastic.

Spenser beach park was so much fun. It is not as white asHapuna, the white sand beach next door (which we didn’t visit but which hasbeen voted one of the top 10 beaches in the world.) And the snorkeling wasn’tas good as the other beach. But you can camp here! And, it is within a stones’throw of one of the best preserved sacred places , the Pu'ukohola Heiau built by Kamehameha to his wargod. If you want to camp there, get apermit ahead of time. Supposidly there are monk seals (native to HI) that flopup onto the beach, but we didn’t see any. We did, however, watch the sun slipinto the ocean. Wanna know why time feels like it’s going by so quickly? Watchthat, and you’ll see, it’s because it is.

There was a floating heiau in this bay until the 50s to a shark god

Coming home, we decided to get a “Hawaiian” pizza. Hell, whynot. At this time, I also bought some more very expensive kona coffee to takeback with us. We got the “Hawaii5-o” 14’ which camewith ham, tomato sauce, cheese, red onion (bah!), chopped macadamia nuts and pineapple. FRESH little nubbins of pineapple. It was good.

2011-11-21T12:49:00.000-06:00

Breakfast = coffee, banana bread with very sweet guavajelly, Portuguese sausage (which is a little too soft for my taste.) At some point, we acquired a ukulele.

Click on the humuhumunukunukuapua'a above to see a cute PSA on reefs.

Time to go snorkeling! Come hell or high tide, we are goingsnorkeling. It’s overcast and warmly drizzly, but darn it, we gotta go.

Finally narrowed down what beach is considered “thebest.” Kahaluu Beach. Means literally "diving place."

It is a drive away,but not too far. Snacked for lunch (panda cookies bought wile souvenirhunting, along with tiger’s milk bars and a shave ice Donnie tried to get tolook like a brown’s helmet.)

Here are some that we saw (photos taken from anearby sign, since we didn’t have an underwater camera:

Snorkeling is so fun. We followed some advice we gotearlier, where you are suppose to watchwhere people went in and out of the water, where people congregated whileswimming. We edged our way in – the water is almost always the same temp as theair, so once you dip in, it’s pretty nice. And when we stuck our faces in thewater, lo and behold, fish!

That night we hadsome Kona beers poolside and then grabbed some Thai food – yellow curry andshrimp Tom Yum spicy soup.

2011-11-20T11:00:00.000-06:00

Breakfast= hotel coffee and cold leftovers. Hurrah for hotelfridges!

Today we drove to the volcano. It was really lousy weatherout, if you can believe it. Dreary, highclouds and a Portlandesque wet mist. We drove, listening to one of two stationswe could get – an AM station on which we hoped to catch some NFL (mostly theywere discussing the Penn state child sex abuse scandals, which had just brokethat week) and KWXX the native music channel. At a point the day before, wefound a cd on the ground which had a bunch of lousy r&b music on it, but itdid have the Cee Lo Green "F-You!" song, but it was the radio edit so it was forget you!

We passed a couple of Hawaiian pheasants which I learnedwere an invasive species. We also saw signs for nene crossing – the Hawaiiangoose which is a native species. Its biggest predator is automobiles. We didn’tsee any nene, but we drove passed some animals grazing in a field.

“Moo!” DMV said as wepassed a cow.

“He haw!” he said as we passed a donkey.

“Zebra,” he finished as we passed said animal. I laughed. Hetried to explain, “it surprised me!”

I learned later that the gardens spoke of in descriptions ofour resort from the 1970 must have been where the pool is (between the rooms).Still not sure where the art was, although there were still the huge murals.

Also, flip flops (or the footwear previously known as thongs) are calledslippers here.

The volcano was kinda of a wash – literally. Wet wet wet. Wewaltzed out passed the closed Volcano House and out to the first overlook ofthe caldera. Very deep, with a forest at the bottom, but not much else. We walked a bit further,and Donnie picked up some wild ginger and started chewing on it. The secondoverlook actually gave us a look at the flat base of the crater, with pathsleading off through it. Portions of the paths were closed due to Pele lettingescape some deadly gasses. I did see a lady walking with a red umbrella throughthe trees. No idea how she got down there.

A good thing about the rain? They filter it and have itavailable for you to fill your reusable water bottle with at the rangerstation.

I asked a ranger about a path I had read about before ourtrip, where a group of people under one of the Alii fighting Kamehameha theGreat had been killed by a massive eruption of suffocating gases. Apparentlyyou could still see their footprints in the desert. He was happy to tell mesince “it is one of my favorite hikes no one ever goes on.” Aren’t those magical words to a traveler?Kinda like, “it’s where the locals eat. ”

We scarfed down a few Tiger Milk bars on our hike, which waspretty uneventful, but much dryer than our time on the mountain. There were afew bouts of sprinkles, but mostly it was dry and warm and the sun peeked out.The desert area is very rocky, with lots of chances to view a’a and pahoehoe.There were scrubby little trees that made us feel like we were giants walkingover a Lilliputian landscape. Also some packed mud earth, which was what thefootprints were encased in. It looked like rock.

The pavilion built over the footprints, or what is left ofthem, was old and someone disused. There was one interpretative sign thatdidn’t really tell us much except that the army had been killed in 1790. Thefootprints are more or less is indentations that may or may not last a few morecenturies. A bit forgotten, not very attractive, but thought provoking, and agood way to spend a rainy afternoon when you can’t see anything through thefog.

We did stop at the black sand beach. The sand IS really black. Be careful not to trip over turtles.

Driving back, on a whim we stopped at a cemetery. Didn’ttake any photos as I thought it might be a little disrespectful (there wereother people in the cemetery). The plots were very interesting though-most allof them were decorated, some even with items as large as surf boards. Theoldest date (although not the original headstone) was for Alexander Hutchinson, the founder of theHutchinson Sugar Plantation. He died when his rowboat capsized while he was returning with two workers who defected.

DMV wanted coffee so we stopped at the Punalua Bakery – “themost Southern bakery in the US!” They make extremely fluffy sweet loaves,including some tinted with taro (purple) and guava (pink). We bought a two packof coconut buns, which were pretty amazing. Tucked inside a fist sized bun wasa coconut center more like a macaroon!

We descended back down into Kona and headed to the brewery.We sat outside and saw everyone ordering pizza, so we followed suit and got thebuffalo chicken style and a few pints of beer. The Koko brown ale was slightlysweet with a hint of coconut, and was quite dark. The Wet hopped brew on tap wasnice and zingy. Tip – be sure to ask what the seasonal is. We didn’t see thatone on any menu.

2011-11-19T10:16:00.000-06:00

Still rather cloudy this a.m.

Where coco comes from.

Coconut drink!

We went to the Kailua Farmer’s market bright and early. Ittakes place in the parking lot of the nearby shopping center on top of thehill, and is totally local stuff. I bought some coffee as gifts for people fromKona Lisa, a coffee farm managed by a retired husband and wife team fromMichigan. We bought some fruit (there is so much fruit here!!! Tens of types ofbanana, mango, avocado etc. Please click on these links as the posters they go to show just a portion of what we saw) and some Portuguese sausage. Donnie bought a little jar of a creamy lemony type spread.

Saw another one of those “tree mink” which I guess is amongoose. For breakfast, we had more of the hotel coffee (really it’s prettygood) and some banana bread DMV bought. Incredibly fluffy. “Auntie Helen’s”brand with cranberry and walnuts. It states that it is grown using localbananas, which are as ubiquitous as coconuts and the passion fruit we seefalling and rotting into the streets. Seems a shame! We actually saw a truckthat advertises tree services, with an image of a man cutting down coconuts. Iwould guess they would be something of a hazard – cannon balls falling from 17feet up!

Today is Saturday, and I had heard about the Makahihi festival going on at a resort down the way. Just so you know, this is not likethe Vegas Strip – you can’t just walk very easily from one resort to the next.So we drove to the Keahoe Beach resort. They had a stage set up, a few vendors sellingkukui nut necklaces, one had a guy weaving hats from palm fronds. We sat infolding chairs, listening to someone I believe was a radio DJ invite the nexthula school to the stage. There were three ages of dancers. The little girlswent first, while the teacher played a drum and sang most of the song. Then thelittle girls would answer. The next group of adolescents included a girl withdown syndrome. The teacher said that she hula had helped her become morecoordinated as she performed for a number of years. Finally the adults danced.They each had a tall walking stick, and another piece of wood in their beltsthat they would use to hit the stick to make a “clack!” The cutest thing wasthe little keikis (kids) in the front row who danced along.

We stepped away from the stage and cruised past the foodvendors. We had to try some Spam musubi, a small loaf of white rice topped withlightly fried spam and wrapped up in a piece of nori. The short grain riceseemed unflavored by vinegar or mirin, but was sprinkled with a sesame seedmix. The Spam was not thick, and was only just crispy-not burned or too brown.The nori used was not very fishy. All in all, a good experience that I wouldlove to try to replicate at home!

We had bought some strawberry papaya at the farmers marketearlier in the day (little and pink inside), and mowed down on them while wewaited for some shops to open. In Hawaii, you are 4 hours in the past, and soour internal clocks had us getting up at 4am thinking it was 8. We were earlyfor everything.

For lunch we had more picnic food. We had bought some herbfoccachia bread at the farmer’s market. I wondered if it was only partiallybaked, as if one needed to toss it in the oven for another 5-10 minutes. It waspretty doughy and yeasty. We ate that with the rest of our Parma ham andcheese. We also had goldfish crackers, carrots, nuts, and a cool little thingcalled an apple banana. They are about the size of a gorilla’s thumb and thesewere nice and firm.

After lunch we took a walk to see how far we could go. Notfar. We walked to Keahou Bay, where Kamehameha III was born (just a small boatharbor, and apparently the king was born in a crevasse in the rocks, next tosome grass and a park bench.) We went a little further, but could find no beach– all we found was some absolutely horrifying smelly fruit. It looked andsmelled like the pod people would be coming out of it soon – whitish green withan aroma that puts female ginkgo fruit to shame (smelled like feta cheese goneoff.) We looked it up later and found out it was noni.

We then took a drive south, down past the bypass (no longermanned by cats, but not manned by anyone else either.) We went to an antiqueshop in Captain Cook, which was fun. Captain Cook is alt. 1500 ft, whichsurprised me. Instead of driving along the beach, which I kinda thought was howthe road that encircles the island, it was more like Hwy 1 in California.Tight, twisting, two lane, and tall! As we left Capt. Cook and drove a littlefarther (I don’t recall where I thought we were trying to get to) and theheight really got to me. I thought we were on the wrong road, so we dove downthe hillside on another twisting road, towards the ocean. When we got to thebottom, we dead ended into a parking lot, manned by a group of guys thatdescended on the car and tried to sell us a kayak trip out to the Capt. Cookmonument (which is only reachable by water or hiking.) Unfortunately, I wassuper discombobulated. We were probably only a short distance from the Place ofRefuge, which I’d wanted to see, but it was down a one-lane road (again, howthe hell is that suppose to work?) and I just wanted to get back on the righthighway, so we drove back up the hill. We stopped and got some shave ice at anice joint though. Passion fruit and lemon flavor with a 50 cent drizzle ofcoconut syrup on top.(note: I can't get a photo of how high we were - or the stomach dropping feeling I got driving the roads. This website has a bird's eye view, but it really did feel like this is how far up we were! )

When we got back to the resort, we decided to watch the tikitorches come on. Picked up some beer anddinner. Dinner consist of some lovely Hawaiian BBq from L&L. This was some of the tastiest stuffwe’ve had so far, and not at all healthy. I had the special Mixed Plate whichincluded chicken katsu and shrimp tempura, a dipping sauce, a scoop of whiterice and one of macaroni salad. There are two macs in Hawaii, macaroni andmacadamia. This mac salad was a nice blend of cooked, cooled noodles, mayo andthin carrot shavings. I think there was probably some celery salt or somethingelse in there too. He got shredded bbq kalua pork and Lau lau - a “hefty porkchunk” wrapped in a taro leaf and steamed. We drank some Primo beer (Hawaiiantallboy).

The tiki torches are gas powered, and a guy with a blowtorch walks around and lights them.

2011-11-18T19:16:00.000-06:00

Breakfast today was our last croissant from the Medcalfbakery in Madison, topped with butter and organic strawberry jam. I also had aginormous banana offered in a fruit basket outside the resort gym and a cupfrom the pot of 10% Kona blend coffee I brewed in the room.

We ran to the store and stocked up on some beer for theroom, including Maui Brewing's coconut porter, and milk for coffee.Milk is pretty darn expensive and apparently comesfrom Texas. A pint was $2.99.

Our resort is built on an old sacred location. It actually seems like most of Hawaii was originally worshiped for some reason or another. We keep find
ourselves wanting to apologize for any perceived affront. There is a sign and a brochure about the areas around our resort which we should respect.

Our resort is older, and has passed through a number of hands. But still, the room is of a good size (albeit a bit musty) and the lanai (balcony) is as big as the room. It does have ferns growing from the ceiling tho.

There are a selection of native wildlife throughout the area. Giant crazy looking spiders with webs I keep almost walking into because I won't stay on path, Giant land snails, and squirrly looking things we call tree mink.

We took some pics in front of the Royal Palace, and the church in Kona-Kailua, two of the only remaining original buildings in the town.

Out exploring the town, we found Lulu’s, which Ihad looked up online before our travels as a place to watch NFL games. Itresembled what I guess a bar in the Florida Keys would look like, with dollarbills and license plates stapled to the wall, open air views of the ocean, andstring of light-up puffer fish. We eachhad a Red Lava Kona Beer (these are delicious), and ordered their signaturemanapua appetizer: soft buns stuffed with pork that are then deep fried anddrizzle with nacho cheese sauce. Sounds like a strange combo, but it wasdelicious, especially when we dabbed some Tabasco sauce on top.

With that under our belt, we wandered over to the Kona Inn,a restaurant that use to be a motel and is now a supper club. I had my Mai Tai(recommended by a lady at our Resort). Idon’t know, but I always expect a fancy drink to come in a fancy glass. And tobe bright colors. I guess I’m confusing it with a girly drink…

At the Kona Inn, we were privy to a slice of island drama.Apparently feral cats are part of the local wildlife. We saw them all over. Some have obviouslybeen born in the wild, or have been without human caretakers for so long theydon’t even know they’re cats. However, I think others are former pets, orperhaps only one generation removed so that the wildness has not completelyovertaken them yet. At the restaurant, we sat at the bar, and soon heardwhisperings amongst the waitstaff (mostly women) that “someone (couldn’t quitemake out the name) is back.” Eventually I asked a blond server what was up.“Oh, we use to have a whole bunch of cats here, but the management doesn’t wantthem. Bazooka was the last one, and we had him neutered and everything. He’sgone home with two different people who said they’d adopt him and,” at thispoint she got choked up. “He keeps coming back here. Because this is his home.”

“What’s his name?”

“Bazooka. Because he has a bubblegum nose.”

She scurried away, and lo and behold, the fabled Bazookahopped up onto a stone fence nearby. Sure enough, the lithe feline did have a pink nose. He kept a close eyeout, but allowed himself to be pet by anyone that approached him with calmnessand love.

We drove back to the Resort, but stopped off for our mainfare, burgers from Ultimate Burger, an unassuming joint in a strip mall thatserved locally grown beef and fresh caught fish. I snapped a pic of a sign forthe catch of the day. I got the local beef with Swiss and mushroom, tomato,white onion and lettuce. DMV ordered something of his own creation, a burgerwith cheddar, jalapeno, pineapple, tomato and lettuce.

For dessert we ate some really amazing toffee we’d broughtfrom home.

2011-11-17T07:14:00.000-06:00

At 5am, struggledinto my travel clothes and dragged myself out to the van. We were on our way!

One of our major food sources on this trip is going to be an “AirplanePicnic” I’d packed which included snacks, whole fruit, nuts and more. I evengot hommos through security. Forbreakfast, I’d brought croissants with butter and organic strawberry jam and ahoneycrisp apple.

In the inflight magazine, I read an article about “3-PerfectDays in Mexico City” in which theyhad an image of corn on the cob withmayonnaise, chili powder, lime and salt. I actually would like to try it with cotija cheese crumbles and paprika.

I also was listening to the comedy channel and heard this Thanksgivingthemed bit by comedian John Pinette about my favorite vegetable, the turnip.Apparently others do not like them quite as much as I:

On a 9 hour flight, you come up with some unique ways topass the time. For instance, after doing some of the seated exercisesrecommended by United, we came up with some of our own:

For lunch we had

- Sliced French bread w/

- Hommos (I'm spelling it like they do on the pkg.)

- Rolled Parmaham with mozzarella (thanks to this book, I wanted to try Parma ham. It's very live and fresh tasting.)

- Pepper encrusted sliced turkey

- Romaine Lettuce

- Arena Cheese Curd

- Baby Carrots

- Container of olives

- Honey roasted nuts

DMV had a Heineken and I had a cranberry juice.

Then came a little edited in-flight movie madness called "Rise of the Planetof the Apes": two hours of unfettered monkey fan service. Highlights allcentered upon the final epic confrontation on the Golden Gate Bridge,wherein we see a chimpanzee riding a horse, and a gorilla attacking ahelicopter in flight.

Later on we attacked our bag of Xstreme Cheddar Goldfish andPretzel crackers. We transferred planes in Honolulu,which has a lovely smelling garden right in the center of the airport. On theplane from Oahu to the Big Island, we were treated to an orange and passion fruit drink whichwas nice, even though the flight was only about 20 minutes. I also read anarticle on kim chee.

We got the rental car and drove down Ali’i Drive to our hotel. We actually missed the turn(there are no signs stating that the Sheraton is down there, and the road says“no outlet.”) Ended up in a clowder offeral cats at a road closed booth – apparently the road is a one lane bypassonly open from 6:30am-6:30pm.

We are staying at the Sheraton Keahou Bay Resort. This isthe old Kona Surf Resort, photos from1972 can be found here: http://www.waynethom.com/archive/view_album.php?set_albumName=album19 . We knew going in that we were in the old “mountain view” wing, also called the Hilowing or wing 4. We had the opportunity to upgrade for $25 / day but chose tostay in the room, even though it was as musty and beat up as most of the onlinereview said it was. The lampshade was rusty, perhaps from people draping wetswim trunks on it. The ceiling of the lanai (balcony) had ferns growing out ofit. Still, we are in a tropical environment. And the lanai is about the samesize as the bedroom, with high stucco walls and tall ceiling.

After briefly flopping down onto the bed, we decided to tourthe dark hotel (it was about 8pm localtime / midnight back home) and findsome dinner. We made our way to the Manta Ray Bar and even got to see some mantarays flipping out. Ah. Nice. Our “free” Manta Ray Punch (actually included witha $15 daily resort fee) is some sort of non-descript red alcoholic drink. I alsohad Kona Longboard Lager and the fish ofthe day sandwich, which was Ono (also called Wahoo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahoo)and rated as “Good Alternative / Use Caution” by the Monterey Bayseafood watch) “served on a freshKainaliu Bakery bun with a Li hing mui Mango Salsa and local Avocado Aioli.” Lihing mui is a preserved plum, and it made for a sort of sweet, slippery salsa.The ono looked sort of like a chicken breast, flat and white with grill marks.The bun was fluffy and golden – I think I will see a lot of bread like thishere.

I didn't have my camera with, so you'll just have to imagine what it looked like.

DMV got a draft KonaBig Wave Golden Ale, the Hawaiian Kine Seafood Chowder made with shrimp,scallops, fish, and apple wood smoked bacon clams in a rich base of coconutmilk. It tasted like something I should have ordered - really super creamy. He also got the Big Island Field Greenssalad, made with cucumbers, beets, Hilo tomatoes, and Molokai purple sweetpotatoes. Served with a really sweet Papaya dressing.

Coolest thing so far was seeing wild cane toads as we walkedback to the room.Again, no camera, but they look like this.

2011-11-16T07:11:00.000-06:00

Getting ready to leave for Hawaii,it was my goal to eat the fridge clean. I pretty much succeeded, which left mewith no bread (for peanut butter toast) and little milk for cereal. So forbreakfast I had a bowl of thick-cutoatmeal with raisons, brown sugar and butter and a cup of coffee (using therest of the milk up.)

I usually bring my lunch to work, and using what leftovers Ihad, I made myself some fish tacos. Normally I enjoy my fish and my tacosseparate, but this actually worked out pretty well. I used two corn tortillas, about 3 oz. cooked salmon, less than 1 oz. of blue cheese, some romaine lettuce, andabout 2 oz.home canned salsa. I ate that with about ½ bag Fritos and a Recess cup Ihad stashed in my desk. I also had an orange and some water.

Believe it or not, the combo of salsa, salmon and bluecheese was not unpleasant. The corn tortillas, bought at a Mexican grocerystore, had a flowery aroma and a tender texture.

For dinner, I met my good friend KH, who would also becaring for the cats while we were away, at the Fitchburg Great Dane Pub. I hadthe Velvet Hammer Bock http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/952/6160which was, for me, the perfect drinking beer. Dark in color, malty and slightlycomplex.

I was trying to come up with something very Wisconsin tohave on my final night as I prepared to leave on my week-long tropical islandvacation. I settled Wisconsin style Cheddar Mac, “A creamy blend of Wisconsincheddar and our famous Pilsner, tossed with rigatoni noodles and topped withbuttery toasted sourdough crumbs. Finished with a wedge of hand-selectedseasonal cheddar. Served with a thick, chewy pretzel.” The cheese wedged intothe center surprised me-at first I thought it was butter. I couldn’t taste thebeer, but the tubular pasta was cooked perfectly and skated atop a thin layerof white cheddar sauce. The pretzel breadstick was a great addition. I also hada side salad with good milky ranch.

Maybe it was a slightly unconscious to order macaroni, as Ihear “mac salad” is an essential part of the ubiquitous Hawaiian plate lunch.We shall see.

DRAGONKAAAAAHHHNNNN!! SATURDAY (+wrap up) - part III

2011-09-08T20:51:00.032-05:00

“Late nights and early parades, Still photos and noisy arcades. My darling we're both on the wing look down and keep on singing and we can go anywhere ...” ~ Owl City

PARADE!!!

Another reason not too get too smashed on your way to Saturday is 1.) you either have to get up early, get your costume on, and MARCH mofo, or 2.) you have to get up early, struggled to find a spot, and SPECTATE yo. Atlanta – the city with the 9^th largest metropolitan population in the country - thank you for shutting down your downtown for a bunch of nerds.

Good lord, who is manning the internets?

Dr. Who sent a text to his mom from inside the parade. She wrote back, “Is that protest or dragoncon? Looks like fun!”

He was also trying to become the 4square mayor of DragonCon. “ – it’s like facebook without facebook. It makes it really easy to stalk people.”

Yellow Boxes, Unite!

Before the Parade ended, we went to take a dip in the pool. It was pretty great - we were the only ones there at first. Well, until the snowtroopers showed up.

We got into costumes and went roaming.

Stuff we did:

10am - Parade

2:30pm - Ernest Borgnine

- 8pm (yeah right!) Gonzoroo – Sylvester McCoy playing spoons

Stuff we didn’t do:

1pm Eating in a box – Bento 101

4pm – Cosplay contest

530 Everything Neil Gaiman

730 – 11pm Dcon at the aquarium – Donnie said he wouldn’t go unless I could promise him a “Pacu carrying an octopus in it’s mouth.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBcPVmaNKa8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_E_crrzB7M&feature=related

8pm – comic book babes contest (We did watch some of it in the hotel Dcon channel – it was pretty bad, but it wasn’t like the Dawn contest that apparently has now been put to bed. http://yayacosplay.deviantart.com/art/Dawn-at-Dragoncon-2009-136430425 in 2009 this beautiful woman fell out of an egg on stage. )

Donnie tried to get pic of Ultimate Warrior cosplayer (swears the guy was 6’4”), but he was too damn fast.

My sister and her bfriend went as a film Judge Dread pair.

We ran into a comic version (green)

His robe is made of Crown Royal Bags

Drank a Hells Bells beer and a “Pond Stout” – homebrewed. Changed costumes and went to see Jonathan Coulton. And Paul and Storm ("Any sound from the piano" is my Billy Joel cover band.)

Well, first we tried to find the end of the line to see Jonathan Coulton. And then we got food, and then we stood in line from 7:49pm – 9:19pm, most of the time outside in the swelter.

Meanwhile, back in the room, Brock was getting naked and killing things.

Epilogue:

Sunday = Left Hotel at 4pm, after helping my sister become a zombie Molotov Cocktease (first of the 10 steps of zombification: aggravation).

Read “The missing white dragon” on the way home.

We had made fun the whole drive up about all the signs which state “Chick-Fil-A – closed on Sunday.” I have yet to go to a Chick-Fil-A and so we were going to stop there for lunch…

But it was Sunday.

There are certain aspects of DragonCon that are utterly and fantastically amazing, while others that are twelve parts overwhelming

If you have a large group, coordination is a bear. If you have people who are poor, then they are at a disadvantage. If you have people with a low alcohol tolerance, well…

And four days is really not that long.

The Man as Tintin, or Mr. Wizard.

Keep Dcon With You, All Through The Year - Part II

2011-09-07T20:27:00.030-05:00


























When Dcon is over,

Save some Dragon cheer.

These precious moments,

Hold them very dear

And keep Dcon with you

All through the year.

Friday – Later – Mau5heads

Con suite – chips and salsa. I remember the first time I went to a con suite and I thought it was so cool. A whole room devoted to free snacks for the masses! How could a convention of 40,000+ manage to do this, I wondered aloud.

“$120 per membership,” my sister said.

She also told me that the gaming room is kept at 60 degrees. The same as a jail.

Interesting. The Conscene seems to be learning and evolving. I remember back a number of years ago when I was tagged as being extreme to the max when I discovered Febreeze could be used to control costume odor. Now they print in the con book, “Febreeze does not replace showers.” (Honestly though, when you have 8 people sharing one bathroom, and there is a limited amount of time before the meetup, and you have to budget for the fucking elevator wait, you have to make some tough choices.) Another roomie, who has been to a number of Anime cons, pointed out that there is a difference between otaku nerding vs. other nerds (such as the Dr. Who contingency which was ever-present and very well dressed / bathed / coiffed at Dcon).

Timing. Honestly, at DragonCon25, as much as I sooo wanted to, there was just no time to get wasted. As I stated in my last post, I not only had travel/drive time to contend with, but also I know I need sleep to keep me healthy. We were very well covered on all fronts for food – both surrounded by restaurants, cafés with amazingly good (if not horrifically expensive) sandwiches, and we had packed some nutrient dense treats to tide us over when we finally did make it up to the 19^th floor (Sakuracon is probably the only convention I have ever been at where elevator travel was not the bane of my existence.)

Okaaaay, the Zombies return back after reaching the end of the march (it dumped out into Zombie Prom which somehow was already at capacity by the time the zombies got there. WTF?) The plan for many in the room was to don Deadmau5 helms and photobomb the "300" photoshoot. I think it was a success.

DragonCon and San Diego Comicon have an interesting rivalry / appreciation. I heard DragonCon refered to as “Comicon’s slutty sister – dirtier and more fun.” When Comicon installed a blooddrive, Dragoncon followed suit and a contest has been going to see which con can collect the most blood units. When Comicon released an app, DragonCon had one this year.

The anime roomie chirps up, “When I try to access the app on my 3G iPhone, it shits itself.”

Time for sleep. The man decides to roam a bit more and finds two short films to watch, Abra Cadaver and Some Guy Who Kills People. He also find the Three Amigos.

Dangers of a con – you fall asleep with 4 people in the room, and when you walk up, there are four different people in the room. Or they are the same people in costume so you just think they are different.

Goodnight.

---

Dcon Coverage in the mass media =

BBC http://blogs.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/09/06/doctor-whos-day-roundup-watch-the-steven-moffat-approved-a-cappella-who-theme/

CNN http://geekout.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/03/the-2011-dragoncon-parade/

MTV http://geek-news.mtv.com/tag/dragon-con/

WI TronCar to Dcon! or 2,280 Minutes in Heaven (with DragonCon) - Part I

2011-09-06T21:13:00.010-05:00

For the 5 days prior to heading to DragonCon, I worked 47.2 hours.

At DragonCon proper, I spent approximately 38 hours experiencing, thriving, and living in the geek-infused chaos that is 40,000+ people, 4 hotels, and countless (home brewed!) beers worth of hedonistic, nerd-tastic, costume-enchanted chaos.

Now granted, I did pause for sleep. Perhaps in my halcyon high-school days, I could have powered through on pure adrenalin and Jolt Cola. But being that I also drove a total of 30 hours round trip, arrived late Friday and left Sunday (before the final day of programming), I do believe I did pretty good for an old (34) broad.

Now, sipping some Halloween Spice wine from Spurgeon Winery (leaving HotLanta, it was 94 degrees, arriving back in Wisco, it was the inverse 49) I will attempt to relay my experiences.

Thursday, September 1, 2011 – approx. 7pm

“When the bombs go off, the sun will still be shining,because I’ve heard it said that every mushroom cloud has a silver lining.” ~ Owl City

This is my second time going to DragonCon. I don’t know if I learned anything the first time around.

After getting off work at 4:30pm, I rushed home to chill with our catstitter until my second driver (and significant other) arrived home from work at 6pm. I had been living in such anticipation of fleeing the confines of my job, my house, my Midwestern obligations that I had been driving around for two days with my fully-packed bags in the trunk of my car. On the day prior to departure, armed with Leinenkugel's and 2 rolls of painter’s tape, I had transformed my silver Toyota Echo (MinkCar) into TronCar for our journey.

The Man arrived home at 6pm, threw some deodorant in an Army Surplus bag, downed two beers, and we were off.

Actually, I decided to stop by a friend’s place to deliver some goods for an alternative show I was missing out on – Geek Burlesqu e, starring performers with acts homaging X-Men, Firefly, Tank Girl, Mario Brothers, and oh so much more. I really hated missing it.

Our map sucked balls. I drew it, so I guess that would be my fault. I also downloaded directions from Google that had us "Continue onto Edward T. Breathmint Pennyrile Pkwy to Lover's Lane"! As for the trip, I will say Travel Center of America (TA) damn good coffee, Tennessee has some bathrooms that look to have pre-peed water in them, and downing two beers, and then chasing it with a Kwik Trip Angus Burger + Dean Strawberry Milk does not make for good-tasting burps.

I’d hit up the Rosemary Garfoot Public Library in Cross Plains for some audio books. We had The Hitchhikers Guide Tertiary Phase, Christopher Moore’s Stupidest Angel, and a collection of David Sedaris to keep us going.

Holy crap, Illinois is a long state.

When we finally got to the Smokey Mountains, I realized that, though I’d driven this route (to Florida to visit my little sister when she lived there – the same little sister who is giving me the excuse to go to DragonCon this year as she now lives right outside Atlanta) in the past, I’d always left the North in the early morning, and had never actually seen this area of the world in the day time.

I am frightened of mountains, something I found out when I lived in Portland, OR. On this trip I discovered that mountains are still scary, even when covered with trees.

We were following a casket truck for a few miles. Emblazoned on the back was the note that “We only sell to licensed funeral professionals.” Driving right behind it, a flatbed truck carrying a solitary coffin. Hu?

Next time I journey to this part of the country, I will take time to stop at Dollywood, and Rock City. This time, we just powered through, fueled by coffee, Coke Zero, summer sausage, cheese curds, and the utterly fantastic Cheddar Multigrain Pringles. And then, suddenly…

Holy F**k it’s Friday, September 2, 2011

"What I need is a stiff drink and a peer group." - Ford Prefect, The Hitchhikers Guide Tertiary Phase.

7:18 AM

txted my sister.

“What time is it? You in Costume yet???”

She txt back:

“Haha! No. Just woke up and brewed nice pot of hot water. LOL. Coffee is a good thing to add when making coffee.”

We cross into Eastern Time Zone.

I am driving from Wisconsin to Georgia in part because I can. I am still healthy enough to make the journey, the car is healthy enough, gas is under $4 a gallon (the cheapest we saw it was $3.36), I have enough money to cover hotel and registration, and my life is such that I can run away and take a 15 hour road trip. Or rad trip. And I wanna see my seester.

Arrived at Roswell, GA, home of seester’s boyfriend, at 11:30am.

Picked up sister’s costumes, luggage, and cooler, which is filled with beer, milk and cereal, fruit, granola bars, almond 100 calorie packs, a fuckass huge bag of oranges she got for $2.99, apples and Emergen-C to stave off con-funk. Righteous.

We then drive into the bowels of Downtown Atlanta.

Arrive at Dcon hotel at 1:40pm.

Sister's Boyfriend

I am introduced to the other members of the room party and ask them all what they think of Friday so far. Here is the response I get from the mostly-horribly hung over bunch:

“Man!”

“Hangover – we drank so much we grew discouraged”

“hmm”

“muhhahahaha”

“no”

“whaaat?”

“Tired”

“Coffee takes away the pain of being dead”

and my favorite description of Friday?

“Almost Saturday!”

The Room

Stuff I did on Friday:

- Zombie Walk!

- Found out I should see “Hobo with a shotgun”, an actual movie based on the fake trailer on Tarantino’s Grindhouse.

- Saw less moms then last time – when we attended Dcon in 2009 (the same time they filmed the documentary “4 Days at DragonCon” ) we caught a ride to the airport with a mom who was heading home after spending the weekend dressed as a StormTrooper.

Stuff I didn’t do (from the downloaded schedule we all make nice little notations on, then ignore):

230pm – Panel: Violent video game law in California

530pm – Panel: How not to get into gaming

7pm - Anime industry panel

10pm - What’s new with Troma? (I ended up just asking Lloyd Kaufman when I saw him and ended up with the home-grown “Blood Junkie” )

Friday was frantic, in a way. Everyone freaking out that they just got there (save those who had arrived on Thursday and drank themselves into oblivion.) And as disorganized as any con – the schedule had only appeared a few days prior, and things were constantly being canceled and rescheduled (updates were available via the Daily Dragon). The con, tho fan run and therefore I believe more scattered than an industry convention, has been around for 25 years, and seems for the most part know how to make things work.

We got into our Zombie costumes and shuffled down to the Westmark, where we had heard the march/ walk started. We simply hung out in front of the place, starting at about 8pm, waiting for something to happen. Eventually we had to go inside and investigate. Seems there was a zombie makeup panel going on and anyone could get their makeup done before the walk. This lead to the actual walk starting about an hour late.

No matter. Hanging out on the street dressed as zombies, everyone who wanted to know about the walk asked us for details and then took our pics. Score!

We ended up shambling off after a guy holding a “Zombie Walk” sign – loosing him at every intersection and spinning in circles, then attacking the public. It was pretty great. Except for I was too scary – I vow to come up with a cute girl zombie before next time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TApki4e_gz4&feature=player_embedded#!

..up next, the Deadmau5keteers and more of Friday!

Back to the Grid: Review of Tron: Legacy

2010-12-24T21:56:00.004-06:00

Oh “Tron: Legacy”. What you could have been. I was going to title this “Fanservice: The Movie” but there wasn’t even enough of that. I guess we should all just be glad it wasn’t called TR2N (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPGWYAUF3v4 ).

I will warn you that in this review, I will extensively compare “Tron: Legacy” to the original “Tron” movie. Perhaps this is unfair, because many movie goers will not have seen the first one (the two main actors for “Legacy” weren’t even born when the first movie came out). However, since one of the major reasons this movie was made was due to fan support, a lot of the audience will have seen the first movie, and may be disappointed with what they find in this one.

Whereas “Tron” was pretty solidly sci-fi adventure, “Legacy” starts as an action flick, and it should have stayed more in that vein. Instead, it ends up as a mad hash of Star Wars and The Big Lebowski.

At certain points, I could almost hear the writers (8 mentioned on IMBD http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104001/fullcredits#cast ) discussing where they wanted to go with the movie. Should it be on / in the internet? What about Y2K? We gotta work the character of Tron in, but how? I don't think I agree on their final choice - a strange alternative dimension as opposed to the inner workings of ENCOM.

At the beginning of the movie, Sam, the currently MIA Kevin Flynn’s son, pulls of a terrific digital heist. I was hoping this topical Wikileak-esque release of a for-profit program onto the Internet would lead the story forward, but instead, Sam ends up answering a page and going to an old arcade to journey to the Grid. I won’t say I didn’t enjoy the trip back to Flynn’s Arcade, but the earlier setup seemed so good, it seemed a waste not to use it (granted, why couldn't he have done his hacking from the comfort of his own computer? Not as cinimatic I guess, so it's understandable.)

There is way too much talking in “Legacy”. One of the attractive aspects of the first film was that the visuals did a lot of the talking; things were mentioned in passing but not discussed. Here, characters try to explain everything. At one point, I all but begged for a flashback – when Quorra discussed meeting Flynn. The movie had already proven it was ok showing flashbacks; rather than sit and look at her intense eye makeup, why not show what could have been a very exciting and terrifying scene?

That was another thing. The bad guys were not scary enough. At certain times they were threatening, but not like Master Control, with his deep voice and Big Brother attitude. Even the light cycles in the first movie were rather torturous – I remember flinching before impending crashes. With the speed and randomness of both the physics and paths driven by the cycles in “Legacy”, there was no time to anticipate anything – it was all just a light show.

A lot of things looked like other things in this movie. The first disk fight reminded me of FFX’s Blitzball (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3APp6eBJqKU ). Quorra reminded me of Leeloo from “Fifth Element.” The dance party and bar reminded me of any number of taverns and cantinas from movies and TV (Quark’s bar for instance). Zuse enters the ranks of pale bishi-to-foppish characters like Jereth from “Labyrinth”, Prince Nuada from “Hellboy 2”. The ranks of programs ready for battle were reminiscent of the CGIed drones in “Attack of the Clones”. Flynn himself is weirdly Dude-ish.

And some things just didn’t make sense. Why was Clu Hitlering-out, giving some useless speech to his minions when he should have been sending them after his enemies? I couldn’t keep track of who the helmeted henchmen was, or even how many of them there were (at least not in my first viewing.) I mentioned the physics of the light cycles earlier, which seemed to be in conflict of their own rules at certain points. Sometimes people flew out of their bikes when they crashed, some times they de-rezed (which now that I think about it, happened in "Tron" too). Sometimes bikes burst apart at contact, other times they merely sent out sparks.

All of this being said, “Tron: Legacy” was not unwatchable. It was still cool, and the Daft Punk soundtrack is beyond excellent. It was simply what I expected-not more, maybe slightly less (I wish Jeff Bridges had brought some of the charm and fun of Flynn with him, but both of those things were sorely lacking). Sam and Quorra were more tolerable than I thought they’d be. It was cool to see light cycles again (I really liked the Flynn’s throwback model.) I liked the addition of flying light jets, however at one point I swear I heard a TIE fighter.

My Little Pony Customs

2010-11-28T17:50:00.006-06:00

Hi there! I am a toycutter. That is, I take formerly collectible toys and transform them into custom works of art. Some people consider this abuse, in the same way some fans of the original VW Bug consider alterations to be "bug abuse." I understand where you are coming from, but I think the number of customs don't necessarily effect the number of people looking for originals, and in fact increase the value of said originals. It may be harsh, but that's consumerism, baby!

Here are the two customs I have made so far (please click for more pic!):

To keep them all together, here are some links for customizing ponies:

My Little Pony Arena
My Little Pony Trading Post

Collectors' Guide

Restoration Guide
A Minty step by step custom

Some cool customs
Aikarin - some really nice customs
My Little Customs
Custom Cove

Why I Love November

2010-11-22T16:37:00.001-06:00

Holiday Craft Shows

2010-11-21T09:46:00.003-06:00

(Looking at Madison area only.)

Holiday Art Fair
90 booths
Art clients
Nov 19-21
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
227 State Street, Madison WI
608.257.0158
Fax: 608.257.5722
Noon - 5pm
http://www.mmoca.org/events/holidayartfair/artists.php

Holiday Craft Lounge
Saturday, November 27th (Thanksgiving weekend) from 10 am to 3 pm.
http://anthology.typepad.com/anthology/holiday-craft-lounge.html
Part of the Downtown Holiday Open House.

Sixth Annual Holiday Craftacular!
Saturday December 11th @ the East Side Club 3735 Monona Drive
Madison, WI 53714
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday December 11th
http://craftacular.glitterworkshop.com/
44 booths.
Etsy clients

Bounty II! (Fall edition)

2010-11-06T18:01:00.005-05:00

It's funny to be foodbloggin' as this spirals.

Yes! That is a hellovalota squash. We have - 1 pie pumpkin (the poor chap is already gutted) 1 - butternut squash, 3 - sweet dumpling squash, 3 - buttercup squash, 1 - sweet potato (delicata) squash, 1 - bag of freshly gathered Wisconsin Cranberries, and in the back 1 - bowl of random local apples (orchards are open for such a short time!).

The pumpkin. I pulled it apart, took out the seeds (there weren't many of them - Donnie took to washing them and singing the Adzuki Bean washer song from "The Great Yoaki War"), and just stared at it. My new favorite way to cook squash is in my bamboo steamer. It is excellent and fast and makes the house smell nicely of warm damp wood. But I was wondering, could I roast this? What kind of pie would that make? Could I fill it with some sort of liquid and steam it in the hot oven? The bowls - they just seemed made for filling. Oh Alton Brown where are you when I need you!!??

Eventually, I resorted to the norm of plopping them upside down in a 9x13"pan with about an inch of water in the oven. Because I'm also baking a buttercup.

I cut the buttercup open and the odor wafted up, uncontrolled, utterly intoxicating. I actually had to sniff it and I couldn't even blaspheme; "oh my gosh!" I said to the cat. It smells -- like carving jack-0-lanterns. Like crisp, delicious fresh air. Like a pile of lovely dry leaves. Just - awesome.

I didn't set to making a vegetarian Thanksgiving feast, but that's what I sort of ended up doing. See, Donnie had been invited to the Lion's dinner and unfortunately, we didn't have any cash on hand to partake. So, inspired, I set about making "do" with what I had in house. This is what I came up with:

Thats 1/2 a buttercup squash filled with Brownberry stuffing, made with homemade chicken broth, mixed veg with almonds, carrots and potato topped with Colby cheese, homemade cranberry sauce made with local sorghum and apple topped with cinnamon and brown sugar!

Some day I should make a butternut squash pie.

Fresh cranberries - not frozen - and in season. Are such a treat.

K- Donnie just brought home "Sweeny Todd" so we're all set!

P.S. My Kitsune Costume

2010-11-04T08:37:00.002-05:00

I couldn't dress up while I was working, but on Sunday I dressed up in my American Gods Kitsune costume and handed out candy.

Gathering of American Gods Costume Party

2010-11-03T06:22:00.016-05:00

I did the above sketch after the weekend. I am not saying it is any good (click for large view) but I just had to do it.

My day Saturday started early, transporting Golden Tickets which would be given as souvenirs to each of the people who would win rides on the carousel by the end of the day. They had been signed by Neil and were also signed by Sue, the President of House on the Rock. I admit, I felt pretty special.

Much of my day was spent at the Scavanger Hunt table. At first we didn't know what to expect as far as people participating in and completing the hunt. There seemed to be a lot of people interested, and someone posted on Facebook Friday night that they were stumped by some of the clues. I had one participant stop by early on Saturday to ask about the final clue, and felt bad I couldn't tell her much. I wondered if I should have given more hints - what if no one completed it??

I need not have been worried. Our first completed hunts started coming in at Noon. They had worked all night and planned out the lay of the land to find the best route to get all of their stamps. All in all we think 1/3 of the attendees completed the hunt, with about 200 being turned in fully completed. And - the girl who stopped by first thing to ask the questions? She was one of the winners (even without my help)!

Neil was about. Here he is talking with Dawn of the Spring Green Chamber of Commerce about the raffle.

The real party got started Saturday night, of course, as school buses began vomiting up costumed characters to participate in the contest. The Welcome Center soon filled with gods of all shapes and sizes.

After grabbing a drink, many headed over to the tent, where the contest was taking place. The line of participants snaked off into the twilit night.

And on into the tent itself. Here you can see a "Mr. Wednesday" front and center. I thought he'd be shorter.

Some of the assorted crowd. There were about 200 people who entered the contest, but a lot of people were there just to gawk.

Trooper that Neil is, he had each participant parade before him and tell who they were. Then he called a list of finalists forward. Finally, he had to decide on his 8 winners. Which he fudged and called 9 :-) I feel for him - it had to be one of the hardest calls.

And I WISH I had a list of the winners. I know, above, Morgana (who had an amazing leather mask and hand sewed feather cape), the Nameless God, Dr. Horrible, Anansi (dancing in front of the line - holding 2 tigers balls), and the Ms. Liberty on stilts all won.

White Buffalo Woman and the Nameless God.

Cthulhu drinking a Spotted Cow.

Possibly the only Shadow I saw, tied to the World Tree.

Bast.

I loved these two - these were the guys I had such a problem finding in my registration database! They dressed as the 'Bog brothers - Czernobog and Bielebog.

Then, it was on to the Carousel!

The winners of the scavenger hunt were already there, the winners of the raffle soon to follow.

The House on the Rock staff were there to assist people with boarding and disembarking. There were certain animals that could be ridden. The carousel was never made to be ridden (it only stops and starts once a day), and so a lot of prep was given to making sure it would survive the number of rides we wanted to give. The luck of the gods, and perhaps the spirit of Alex Jordan, were all there that night.

The crowd watching the rides.

Other events included food, bands, tarot card readers and magicians.

Little Red Wolf from Madison drew a crowd in the Organ Room.

Finally, just because I wanted to, I've saved my favorite moment of the night for last. I was in charge of collecting about 1/2 of the raffle winners and had the chance to talk with them before escorting them to the crazy loud and crowded carousel room (that's actually when I took most of the stand alone costume pics above). The guy below had just gotten married and was on his honeymoon. I got a short little video of him just as he rides past his wife and blows her a kiss (she's video taping him.) Ah me.

On my drive home at nigh about 2am, I spied the last quarter harvest moon rising. Good night!

All Myths Are True (No, seriously, all of them (except Paul Bunyan))

2010-11-02T14:35:00.018-05:00

First off, this was just a guy visiting, but he looked so much like Damon Gant from Ace Attorney games I had to snap a pic (he bent his head just as I took it but you can still see the resemblance):

Neil's bookstore Dreamhaven sets up shop in the Welcome Center.

Friends and fans begin to arrive.

I already mentioned that my first duty was registration on Friday. My second duty was to let the 200 or so people who had lined up outside into the tent to get out of the 45 degree weather and 7 mph wind. I then got to man the door as upwards of 800 or so people filed in. Finally, I met Steve Paulson, the moderator for the evening, and Neil and his entourage at the side door. They were, as a group, moving forward while talking about how to conduct the evening. I asked if they wanted to go in and the answer was affirmative. As they entered, the crowd began to applaud. At which point one of the entourage said, "You aren't suppose to see us yet." And I believe it was Neil who said, "It was just too damn cold. Pretend you don't see us."

Sue Donaldson, President of the House on the Rock, then said a few words and the evening began.

Big tent. With bleachers in the back. Because of the wind, the sides were not secured and therefore the heat was want to escape. Luckily people took the suggestion to bundle.

The Storyteller at work.

There were some great questions, and some great lines from Neil. Hell, every other line from Neil was great. I wanted to write them all down. (Someone from another blog had this one re: Wisconsin winters "I've lived here for 18 years, and I'm still confused. WHY are we HERE?")

One question was "What do you do if you start a story and it doesn't turn out?" The answer was " put it away. The Graveyard Book came from an idea back in the 80s where a boy wandered into a graveyard and was raised by ghosts. It wasn't until I read an article about a girl who survived a civil war by hiding from the death squads in a cemetery that I realized that the graveyard wasn't just a place to go, it was sanctuary."

When asked "why do some people become mythic figures - such as Elvis or John Lennon, and others do not?" he pondered for a bit and eventually talked out that perhaps it has to do with when you die. If you die at the right moment in your own personal story arch, you become a myth. He also pointed out that some myths disappear and loose their strength, such as the "Paul is Dead" myth.

I have a confession to make - something that has bugged me about the book American Gods since I first heard it on tape soon after I got my job at The House on the Rock and listened to it on my 45 minute each-way commute. Neil answered for me, which makes me feel better. I didn't like American Gods as a novel. It didn't have a strong enough plot, I thought. He hyped the clash of the gods throughout the whole book, and then, it just sort of fell flat. Plus, there were all those confusing short story asides stuck in there - about Bilquist, and the Ifrit, and the slaves and the prehistoric god.... Well, someone asked if American Gods would ever be made into a movie. Neil said he specifically wrote it so that it couldn't. He had been writing a lot of scripts at that time in his life, and wanted this to be a sort of "fuck you" to the film industry. It was not 120 pages, it did not have the prerequisite rising action / falling action.

It was suppose to be messy.

Which reminds me of yet another line of discussion (I should mention I am going from streight memory. I did not have my notebook on me to jot any of this down). Someone asked about Joseph Campbell, and Neil admitted to liking one of his books, he also said that he never read others, saying as he started one, "I thought, 'I should not be reading this'. Because, it was like, if I'm doing my job, I should already be doing this." He said there was another book he picked up once about the plot of fairy tails, which again, he put back down because he thought "I should not read this." I guess that's the closest I've ever had someone state the reasoning, however true or flawed, for me wanting to be a writer, but not wanting to go to college for writing....

The best line of the night, pretty much all would agree, was when Neil told the story of how he started blogging as a way to show the road from completing a book (American Gods) to it being sold, which he always thought was a section missing in most stories about books and writing (it usually goes from an author typing "The End" on the typewriter and pulling the page out with a flourish, then a cut to a spinning headline "Famous Author Releases Next Best Seller!"). He admitted he doesn't blog nearly as much as he used to, mainly since the advent of Twitter. "Twitter is to blogging as crack cocaine is to a fine red wine."

I do have a video of Neil making an American Gods mass media reveal, which I will post if it does actually happen....

hint: it's not a movie.

Finally -- to end Friday - Neil did his first of three signings. This one was to go from 10:15pm-12:15am but went about 45 minutes overtime (the most we ever went over for any event I think - I think that was about how much the costume contest was over its time as well.) We all learned some valuable lessons which were applied to the mid-day Saturday signing and the early morning Sunday one.

Moar Gods

2010-11-01T20:22:00.009-05:00

The Wisconsin River on Friday morning.

In a word, it was just... Mythic.

A few choice Tweets from the American God's Weekend

"It's what Chuck E. Cheese must be like in Hell."

"Most surreal #HoTR moment: @neilhimself, standing in the Mikado Room in a Dr. Who costume, talking to a fan in a Neil Gaiman costume."

Blogs:

Mind Stain (from the awesome chick dressed as a "Cats" version of Bast-love you!

- And a pic of her and Neil (she really does look great.)

Cafe in the Woods Post 1
- Post 2

Meandering Streams of Consciousness blog with great links to pictures

Apex Book Co. blog.

baD kARmA INk blog about not fitting in
- and one from another attendee
- An Outsiders View - from someone who could not make it

Another Blog...from a girl lucky enough to win a ride on the carousel, and be a finalist in costume contest (however, she was down at the carousel at the time we announced costume people so missed it - however, Neil talked to her personally. "What a gent!") There are links to a photo of her in the comments.

Here is a link to the Finnish guy Jouni Koponen's blog - he did some artwork for Neverwhere.

Here's a link to Kat Mihos' Neverwear blog post.

VIDEOS:

GuyFaux video of Pam - the Anansi with Tiger's Balls - one of the costume contest winner of a carousel ride.

GuyFaux video of Neil. On his ride upon the carousel, Neil yells out, "it's just as much fun as it looks like it would be!!"

Neil, dressed as Tom Baker version of Dr. Who, walking to the Carousel.

PICS:
A pic of Neil as he viewed the crowd seeing him ride the carousel for the first time.

Low Key Facebook collection of images.

A pic of a person who got a "Shadow" card from Esmerelda.

Low Key's Flicker Group !

Another Flickr group of pics - kitsune!

Moar pics! Cillic's Smugmug pics.

"What happens when Death meets an Angel from Doctor Who?!"

Cheeky Neil.

Here is the band, Little Red Wolf!

Neil checks out Amy's wedding album.

More Kitsune as well as Hates and Persephone.

And these.

Other Media:

Doink! The event made it onto Geekosystem.com!

And Huffington Post!

Low Key's Facebook page.

House on the Rock Resort Facebook.

HOTR Blog.

Gathering of American Gods at the House on the Rock

2010-10-31T14:19:00.010-05:00

This is going to be long, so we'll see how far I get. Here we go.

Once upon a time, as all good stories start, a bug was placed in the electronic ear of a Famous Writer. Said Famous Writer responded positively, as did his fans, and the stage was set for one of the strangest most magical weekends ever conceived in the autumnal driftless lands of Wisconsin.

After ages of communications betwixt all involved parties: real, imagined, pseudonymic, and authenticated, the date grew near. None knew what to expect - which, oddly, was to be expected of such a joining of the creator of this (and this and this) and the ownership of that (that, and that).

What it was all about tho, was Gods, and a Carousel. (an aside to anyone who did the Scavenger Hunt; did you know about that first link? It's a searchable online text of the novel "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. Helped immensely with the creation of the Hunt. )

The House on the Rock put together a challenging schedule of events, food and drink offerings (from John Chapmen 'ne Johnny Appleseed's Applejack, to Shadow and Wednesday's Christmas Dinner, to Mabel's Pasties, to of course mead), and contests to win rides on the World's Largest Carousel, in the hopes that the events, the panels and the panelists would all come together, the wind would die down enough for them to put up their tent (which it did:

note on this: I think it is funny that one of the first tweets for this event was from the guys who set up the tent!)

.... anyway, hoping people would eat the food, drink the mead, (another notation: found out there are a lot of home brewers in this group-heard a lot of "mine is better"), do the Scavenger Hunt , and that the carousel would, well, survive.

The God's smiled upon the event.

Neil talked up the event on Wisconsin Public Radio's "Veronica Rueckert's Show" including giving away tickets to the event. I had the pleasure of meeting the lady who won, although I didn't hear the full tale of how she ended up winning them (except to know she had not heard of the event until the radio show on 10/22!)

Everyone. Was. Giddy.

That is the only way I can describe it. Granted, some of the people at the HoTR had fits of nervousness (as perhaps did people in the Gaiman entourage), but most all had to absorb and reflect the effervescent and ever-present grins of the guests. And, being on the HoTR side of things as I was, it was so affirming to have people excited as I went through their packets with them. You complimented the badges, you jumped up and down when I handed you the scavenger hunt, your eyes widened when I showed you the number of local businesses offering discounts. And, I felt as if I were putting two cherries on your ice cream sundae as I handed you your free copy of The Graveyard Book, (I can't take credit. That was thanks to Harper Collins).

After traveling the many miles that so many of you did, I guess I expected road weariness or perhaps jet lag? Instead, I was awarded with peaceful happiness and geeky excitement. Loved it.

The other thing - I don't know how you planned it, but as guests, you spaced yourselves out almost perfectly. I told numerous people that I personally have been involved with other conventions as a volunteer, and two things I never wanted to have anything to do with were scavenger hunts (more on that later) and registration. With this event, I was in co-charge of the scavenger hunt, and had to work registration most of Friday. We never were overwhelmed, and even as people appeared who we didn't have packets made up for, you graciously waited as I ran around searching files, checking emails and talking with people until I confirmed what I needed to give you your stuff. Thank you once again for your patience.

Also, you seemed to realize that I was living off of 2 hrs. of sleep and a bag of cheese curds (bought warm on Friday morning after just being made. My small contribution to the gift basket.)

Ok -- more later (including pictures and one of the most awesome moments of the weekend in the form of a guy riding the carousel). I mean, it's Halloween!!! In the mean time, you can read comments on the thread on Neil's Messageboard. Or check out the Panels which were streamed live!

Comments are still rolling in on Neil's FB page.

Hooray !

Two more things..

2010-09-20T11:37:00.000-05:00

... I also never caught a fish
I also still don't really know how to use eggplant

Adendum

2010-09-19T19:44:00.005-05:00

So.

It's over.

What did I learn?

Before that, what did I eat today?

Breakfast = I whipped up some cinnamon puffs, celebrating the ability to once again use nutmeg and white and brown sugar! I used some of the rest of my pancake mix, an egg and some milk. I also used some canola oil. Now that the challenge is over, I hope to be able to find some local sunflower oil on the shelves of the co-op, since the times I was there, it was sold out!

Lunch = Funny enough, I had planned, during my last shopping trip, to make local soup from the bones of the chicken I bought. Instead of carrots, I bought local parsnips. Instead of celery, I bought a local celeriac bulb. So I chopped up some onion and garlic, added the celeriac, parsnips, a red potato, treated myself to some pepper, and threw in some cooked rice that has been sitting in my freezer for a while. I took some of my pumpkin bread and topped them with cubes of cheese and put it under the broiler. Ta da!

Plus, I still have some chopped chicken left for a casserole.

Dinner = Blue corn chips, cheddar cheese, leftover spicy taco meat mixed with my mother-in-laws "dem der beans" which are a type of sweet baked beans. Lettuce and cabbage, yogurt, and PACE SALSA!!! Yes, I really didn't like the cranberry salsa. It was too sweet.

So that I suppose brings us to what I didn't get to do:
- I didn't make salsa
- I didn't make sauerkraut after I found out - duh - you need salt
- I didn't collect my own yeast
- I didn't make chili because I never found any local beans
- I didn't exercise nearly enough.
- I wanted to buy a ton of sweet corn and make some chowder and corn relish. Didn't happen.

And what did I do - what did I learn?

I really will think twice, at least for a while, about where stuff comes from. I also don't think I missed salt as much as I thought I would. The soup I made tonight probably could have done with a sprinkle, but it didn't need it. I didn't need the carrots or celery either :-)

The Final Day!

2010-09-19T19:31:00.004-05:00

So here we go!

My final Breakfast = Lonesome stone pancakes, butter, Wagner's Sugar Hill syrup, cantaloupe and raspberries

Lunch = A bag of salad made with cukes, tomato, cabbage, summer squash and zucchini

Dinner = I started a three day journey on cooking up an organic chicken. Tonight, I roasted it and boiled the gibbets. The heart and bones I saved for soup. I ate some of the roast chicken with some cooked potatoes and summer squash. I also made a rendition of liver pate. I cooked the liver in water, then chopped it fine with onion and garlic, along with some crumbled bacon. It wasn't very smooth like pate, but it tasted great on some toasted bread!

Day 31

2010-09-19T19:28:00.001-05:00

Breakfast = Toast, jam
Lunch = I caught a cold and so did not have lunch
Dinner = snacked on cheese and sausage, had a beer and went to bed

Day 30

2010-09-19T18:57:00.005-05:00

Winding up my eat local challenge-ending a bit on a weak note but will write more on that in a bit...

Breakfast - Rise and Shine muffin from Whistle Stop
Lunch - Nick's lunch special (see last post)

One thing I didn't talk about in my post about Madison was the Willy St. Coop. I made my final stop and final shop of the challenge there. You'll note some non-WI items creeping back in, such as the romaine lettuce. I really missed lettuce. I am still working through the final quarter head of the gigantic cabbage I bought at the start of the challenge!

Dinner - Tacos

Okay -- I was really proud of this, but I was very hungry and didn't get any pics of the finished product.

So what this is, is a pound of Black Earth Meat's ground beef, chopped sweet onion, chopped green and jalapeno pepper, chopped tomato. I served the meat in El Rey tortillas, topped with Sugar River yogurt, the aformentioned cabbage, and cheddar and Monterrey jack Arena cheeses.

It was very spicy!

Visiting Madison, WI

2010-09-14T07:29:00.002-05:00

I am a born tour guide. I love telling people about places, and if one were to ask me to take them around Madison, Wisconsin, this is what I’d do.

First I would drive in from the west, since I live over there now. I use to come off I 90 on 151 but haven’t as of late. We’re going down town, so watch for a small street off of State Street. State Street is a pedestrian and bus only thoroughfare that connects the Capital to the University of Wisconsin. The street we're looking for is called Henry Street. If you drive up Henry far enough you can usually find a free parking spot. If not, go down a bit more towards the capital and park on Wisconsin Ave.

My first apartment was on Wisconsin Ave, on the third floor of a very neat building. There are a lot of really neat buildings downtown. Take time to admire them. The old Quisling Clinic is pretty neat-it has been turned into Apartments. I still have the “Q” from the clinic sign. When they were remodeling I was walking past and all the letters were lying all over the sidewalk so I picked one up.

Apartments made from old hospitals and doctor’s offices must be haunted, no?

Trees are changing colors now, and the air is skin-warm. The sky is so blue. People don’t believe I don’t Photoshop pics of the sky when I take them, so I just keep taking them.

We walk down Henry Street, passed the Vientiane Palace which serves the best curry. Even my spice-aversive mother loves it. I actually used their coconut milk, yam infused base as a start for my own homemade recipes. Besides this restaurant is the Plaza Tavern, home to one of the best arcades in Madison. And next to that is the fabled 4 Start Video Heaven. Although it can feel a bit uppity at times, there are tons of rare movies, tv shows and the like to rent and enjoy (I just watched a documentary on “Rock-a-Fire Explosion” and remember renting seminal flicks like “Terminal USA” when I was going to college.)

Walking down State Street, you will be assaulted by sights sounds and smells that seem set in separate universe, but in fact coexist here. Gyros mix with incense. Guys jangling coins in a cup and asking pretty girls to smile at them mix with scared college students with headphones in, sunglasses on, and eyes cast downwards towards their iPhone.

Stop into Community Pharmacy. They are a great haven for anyone looking for bulk herbal shampoo, ecologically friendly hair spray, or lipstick not tested on animals.

When I walk down State Street, my heart is inexorably pulled towards the Memorial Union. This core pull takes me through the Mall, a space crowded with students headed to the library and food carts hawking their wares. I hate that there is this whole “resurgence” of food cart “culture” being touted by liberal cities around the country. Madison has had food carts since I was in school, and perhaps it is because we don’t talk it up that we don’t get the publicity. Then, when we do (as in a recent article) we are so down on ourselves, pointing out that most of the food carts are just extensions of traditional restaurants that what, they don’t count?

Onwards though. The Memorial Union has two distinct personalities. The one I prefer is the one inside the building. Old wooden tables scratched with initials, beer flowing from behind the bar, garbled talk, clicking of keyboards. Outside there is the tender wildness of the wind off the lake, those chairs everyone obsesses over, and sailboats galore. Music plays for free periodically at both places.

Walking back up State, I hear a bit of a conversation about the proposed rail line between Madison and Milwaukee. To me, these two cities do not need to be linked more than they are. What does need to be linked is the small towns and farming communities. I read about Frank Lloyd Wright and the fact he used to be able to take a train from Spring Green to Chicago. Mazomanie too was connected to Prairie du Chine. Now, not so much as a bus travels that distance.

Lunch was to be had inside, as the sun was beginning to beat down by this time. I went to Nick’s, a place that reminded me of a tavern in Cleveland, Ohio. Dark but friendly, I had their lunch special which was a “French Dip” roast beef sandwich served with a side of gravy plus mashed potatoes. Drank a few Capital City Oktoberfest beers and called it a day.

Day 29

2010-09-14T07:28:00.001-05:00

Breakfast: Fruit (heavy meal last night)
Lunch: Offered leftover Chinese food (was craving)
Dinner: The leftovers were kinda dinner too.

Day 28

2010-09-14T07:27:00.001-05:00

Didn't eat breakfast because I rose too late.
Lunch: Brat, cuke, summer squash
Dinner: Chicken, mushrooms, mashed potato

Day 27

2010-09-14T07:26:00.002-05:00

Breakfast: Fruit and yogurt, donut
Lunch: Buffalo summer sausage and cheese sandwich, cucumber, summer squash
Dinner: Offered pizza

Can feel that I have not been exercising. Not even stretching...

Day 26 - Local Night in Spring Green

2010-09-10T07:14:00.007-05:00

So on my way to the Spring Green Literary Festival's "Who is Neil Gaiman?" presentation at the Guard Theater, I stumbled upon a Thursday tradition. Local night features local food and musicians in a park downtown. A duo played a few Beatles, Edwin McCain and Train mellow melodies as I contemplated the menu. Very tempted to go with the BBQ rib that was prepared by a student at Taliesin, I opted for a plate of liver and onions. Why? Why not. The liver was slightly breaded, the onions well cooked. I washed it down with a beer from Madison's Vintage Brewery.

Breakfast: Donut
Lunch: Leftover stuffed pepper
Dinner: Cate's Farm liver and onions, pickles, baked beans, potato and a Vintage Brewery Better off Red
Snack: Apple

Day 25

2010-09-10T07:12:00.002-05:00

Breakfast: Toast w/ peanut butter and jam
Lunch: Leftover stuffed peppers
Dinner: A brat in a locally prepared bun, mustard, sauerkraut, tomato salad, cottage cheese

Stuffed Peppers - Day 24

2010-09-07T18:37:00.003-05:00

I am really starting to feel the pull towards salt and fat recently.

Breakfast: Toast with peanut butter and jam
Lunch: Leftover Pizza
Dinner: Stuffed peppers (with other roasted veggies topped with remaining stuffing mix - summer squash and eggplant - because I didn't have enough peppers.)

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup water
6 green bell peppers
2 c. tomato sauce
1/2 c. chopped onion
Bunch of shredded cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brown bread crumbs in oven. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef with onion until evenly browned.
Remove and discard the tops, seeds, and membranes of the bell peppers. Arrange peppers in a baking dish with the hollowed sides facing upward. (Slice the bottoms of the peppers if necessary so that they will stand upright.)
In a bowl, mix the browned beef, toasted bread crumbs. Spoon an equal amount of the mixture into each hollowed pepper. Pour 1/2 tomato sauce into peppers. Pour remaining sauce over the stuffed peppers.
Bake 45 hour in the preheated oven, basting with sauce every 15 minutes, until the peppers are tender. At 45 minutes, top with shredded cheese and bake 15 more minutes.

Modified from this recipe: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/stuffed-peppers-4/Detail.aspx

Day 23

2010-09-06T19:35:00.005-05:00

Breakfast - Mom's eggs scrambled with herbs, Straka bacon, fried red potatoes.

Lunch - Okay -- MAJOR FAIL! --- Went to the Iowa County Fair specifically to see the Goat Costume Class and Agility Contest (i.e. pushing goats up and down ramps). You can read about it on my Goatmaiden blog. Anyway, I not only got Deep Fried OREOS, but I specifically carried them around for about 15 minutes until I found a Schwann ice cream stand that would ladle a scoop of vanilla on top. OMG. Pure hedonism. But it was the Fair, what was I suppose to do? ;-)

Snack - Beer. Numerous types. Including Horny Goat Exposed and Red Vixen Vienna Style Lager.

Dinner - Okay I guess Labor Day was one big fail. I bought a Hot Stuff Supreme self-rising crust Pizza from the bodega up the street. I was rather horrified to find that it had over 100 ingrediants listed. I was surprised to see sheep's milk on the list, beet powder and "oleoresin of paprika."

Day 22

2010-09-06T19:31:00.002-05:00

Breakfast - a doughnut from Bloedoe's Bakery in Winona, MN (I had it left in the freezer!), yogurt with raspberry, musk melon and maple syrup.

Lunch - leftover spaghetti squash w/ sauce from the freezer

Dinner - offered non-native sweet potato fries, leftover salad from last night, chunk of Gouda

Day 21

2010-09-06T19:17:00.004-05:00

Breakfast at Monte's Blue Plate, a restaurant that just so happened to have a Dine Local menu - Baked free range eggs (from Keene Organics), with potato, onion, roast peppers, tomatillo salsa, sharp cheddar and greens with a side of toast (and coffee). Note for later on: they have grilled doughnuts on the menu.
.
Snack - Steamed milk w/ local honey at the cafe

Lunch - Blue corn tortilla chips, yogurt, salsa, raspberries and a beer

Dinner - I went nuts and made two salads. One had sliced cucumber, sliced tomato, basil and red wine, the other one had cabbage, carrots (bought from the Dane Co. farmers' market), sliced summer squash, cukes and dressed with white wine and a handful of herbs. A Straka brat in a locally prepared bun topped with brat mustard and sauerkraut was served with Westby Cottage Cheese. MMMMM!

ARG! Day 20

2010-09-03T16:20:00.006-05:00

I bought too soon! The neighbor just dropped off a bag fulla produce, including peppers!!

Oh well.

Breakfast - Lade da... toast and jam. Yawn.
Lunch - Leftover stir fry
Dinner - we'll see - I am going to Geek.Kon tonight, to feed another passion in my life - geekery in the form of video games, costuming, etc. May end up going to Roman Candle for pizza.

Additional - ended up not getting dinner - had non-native popcorn and pop at the theater. Glad I don't drink pop on a regular basis. Also, we had some Sunburst Red in the hotel room.

Day 19

2010-09-03T16:10:00.004-05:00

Breakfast = Toast with jam
Lunch = Leftover stir fry
Dinner = Straka meat brat, local mustard, local (quite expensive but very delicious) sauerkraut on local bread. Drank a Fat Squirrel.

I also went shopping (where I got the brat, beer, bread and sauerkraut.) Plus milk, melon, squashes, raspberries, bacon, eggplant, peppers (got sick of waiting for someone to give me some so I can make stuffed peppers) and potatoes. Oh, and sharp cheddar, Gouda and Munster cheese. Just to prove that you don't just eat a bunch of salad when you eat local! (By the way, if you look back over my food choices, can you tell I pretty much hate salad?)

Day 18

2010-09-03T15:52:00.003-05:00

Breakfast = pumpkin bread made with pumpkin, maple syrup, fresh ground flour, baking powder, baking soda and eggs. So really is not very sweet but still hearty and tasty. Also had more watermelon.

Lunch = Tomato soup (mostly just a bunch of cooked tomatoes with basil, onions and topped with some cheese. Very acidic. Why would someone get rid of tomato seeds and juice when canning tomatoes, only to add water back in when cooking them for soup etc.?).
Snack = Cuke, apple, tomato.

Dinner = What I thought was going to be odd turned out to be an awesome almost-totally local stir fry. Driftless sunflower oil, cut up chicken, locally grown and produced tofu dipped in (nonlocal) corn starch, roast eggplant, summer squash, herbs and chard. I drizzled it with (obviously nonlocal) Newman's Own Low Fat ginger sesame dressing.

Day 17

2010-09-03T15:49:00.002-05:00

Breakfast = Toast with black raspberry jam and cream cheese
Lunch = leftover stew
Dinner = Sloppy joes made with local meat, tomatoes, herbs, pickles and bread. Also had non-local sweet potato fries. And a Lake Louie Milk stout.

Day 16

2010-09-03T15:39:00.002-05:00

Breakfast = Toast + jam
Lunch = Leftover stew, mustard greens.
Snacks = Cuke, tomato, apple
Dinner = Offered frozen pizza, beer

Day 15

2010-08-30T13:05:00.002-05:00

Breakfast - Watermelon, pancakes made from Lonesome Stone mix bought at the Whistlestop Cafe. Made from organic hard red winter wheat grown in Dodgeville, winter rye grown by Otter Creek Organic Farm of Avoca, baking powder and salt. Add an egg and milk, cook on griddle. Served with butter and syrup.

Lunch - Nacho chips, salsa, yogurt, beer.

Dinner - Stew

Day 14

2010-08-30T12:55:00.002-05:00

Breakfast - most amazing yet! Charleston Gray Watermelon toast, omelet made with Mom's chicken eggs, mushrooms, homegrown herbs, and Carr Valley Billy Blue Cheese. Holy yum!

Lunch - Some leftover focaccia pizza from the freezer (after 1/2 a month of this "specialty diet eating" my freezer is pretty packed with leftovers.) A cucumber.

Dinner - Offered chicken wings.

Day 13

2010-08-28T09:08:00.002-05:00

Breakfast = AAHHH! Broke down and had peanut butter toast!

Lunch = Spaghetti squash, tomato sauce, cheese and a cucumber. I also had an apple, but I picked it before it was ripe.

Dinner = Stew with Black Earth beef stew bone, onions, shallots, cabbage, zucchini and herbs.

Note: Local food. Not always pretty.

Day 12

2010-08-28T09:06:00.002-05:00

Breakfast = Toast and egg

Lunch = Local veggies (cabbage, mushrooms, zucchini etc.)

Dinner = Esser's Best beer, offered wings

Some things I miss: Vinegar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, peanut butter.

Day 11

2010-08-28T09:04:00.002-05:00

Breakfast = Toast, jam and cream cheese

Lunch = Offered salmon bisque

Dinner = Spaghetti squash with tomato sauce and feta cheese.

Note: I dumped out the brine and replaced it with water. Shouldn't have done that. Missed the salt!

Exercise: Jogged to Lake Marion.

Day 10

2010-08-28T08:55:00.002-05:00

Breakfast = Toast and Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
Lunch = worked through lunch
Dinner = 2 Furthermore Knotstock beers
Offered fried cheese curds, mushrooms and wings!

No exercise but walked a lot for work.

BONUS POST - chicory anyone?

2010-08-23T21:01:00.012-05:00

On my 2 hr. drive from Mazo to LaCrosse and back I had to stop and take some pics because I am just so enamored by the gorgeousness of Wisconsin's countryside. I just found out what I always thought were bachelor's buttons are actually chicory. I want to dig some up and roast the roots! Speaking of that, I just found this blog by a fellow challenger with info about dandilion root as a coffee alternative. Gotta look into that....

Abandoned house and foundation on Hwy. K

Bluffs overlooking the Mississippi

Mighty Mississippi

Day 9 - BOUNTY!

2010-08-23T20:25:00.008-05:00

Breakfast = Offered peanut butter toast (ha ha ha!!! I knew I wouldn't make it a month w/o PNB!)

Lunch = a cuke and 1/2 an unripe apple

Dinner = Offered noodles w/ chicken and broccoli topping (shared the leftover chicken w/ my husband who cooked dinner. I also used leftover bits from said chicken to create some awesome broth - along w/ onion, sage, green pepper, arugula, and mushroom stems.)

Exercise = a walk past the old cemetery and back w/ Mom

After the picnic yesterday, I stayed overnight at my Parent's house. My Mom inspired the way I deal with food - from caring where it comes from to cooking it myself to liking it perhaps a bit too much. We spend a lot of time talking about food - this visit not withstanding. I was telling her my list of things I know are very difficult to find native, including leavening. I thought it would be fun to try to collect native yeast sometime, and she made the point that, way back when, the bread starter was tended with about as much care as the hearth fire. There is some musings about starter cultures on a fellow challenger's blog here.

My mom is a great gardener, even though her garden has sat in a floodplain for about 35 years now. It still gives up a bounty of goods - some of which, hooray!, I was allowed to abscond with. Let's see - summer squash, tomatoes, chard, yellow beans, beets, apples, cucumbers and about 5 kinds of herbs (lemon balm, savory, sage, thyme, basil.) I also got a gift of eggs.

I spent the afternoon and evening cooking up a storm. I baked some bread - made from Old Feed Mill wheat and rye flour, one of my mom's chickens' eggs (I should have taken a photo of the chickies but I forgot. That said, they are not very attractive - don't tell them that), honey from my uncle's farm and yeast. I did also shake some table salt in there. Whoops. It really is the spice of life tho. I also made sauce for my spaghetti squash, cooked up the bitter mustard greens, and some summer squash. I was hesitant on the squash - my friend in Portland taught me to cook sliced summer squash with salt and olive oil. I used butter and a bunch of fresh herbs from Mom. It ended up not being fried as much as basted, and the water that wept from the veggies created sort of a butter sauce. Not bad!

My tomato sauce was mostly tomatoes, onion, garlic, shallots, peppers, and mushrooms + one metric ton of basil. It is very fresh but also very watery. I scooped some out before hand for tomato soup (which I topped with goat feta cheese), then boiled the rest of the sauce down.

I think I should be set for meals all next week! Froze some too. Feel very rich right now.

Day 8

2010-08-23T19:57:00.004-05:00

Breakfast = Offered pancakes, maple syrup

Lunch = Johnsonville Brat, non-local potato bacon soup, local and non-local party food: home-prepared dips, non native pretzels, home grown cukes and tomatoes, conventional baby carrots, local deviled eggs made with non-local mayo etc.

Dinner = Offered burgers, hot dogs, chips, dip, melon

Exercise = none

I went to a family picnic this weekend. Keeping a food diary has pointed out to me how much other people feed me! I had a great time. Also, eating deviled eggs made by my mom from eggs laid by her own three chickens (the whites were not smooth and round due to the shells sticking to them after boiling since they were so fresh), I couldn't help but be glad I had access to such wonderful things. Especially in the wake of the egg recall. I heard that around a BILLION eggs have been recalled, and are traceable to TWO FARMS. No doubt most of them were purchased for .59-.89 / dz. That just does not add up in my mind. As a consumer, I feel certain things should have worth, and a dozen eggs to me is worth around $3. If I can get it for cheaper, I don't think I'm getting a great deal, I think "what shortcuts were taken that this company can offer eggs that cheap?"

Day 7

2010-08-23T19:54:00.003-05:00

Breakfast = Wheat berries w/ maple syrup and butter.

Lunch = Greens: cabbage, arugula, cooked chard, mushrooms and peppers.

Dinner = Last of the stew.

Exercise - not really, but I had a super long day at work and was on my feet the entire time, so feel like I did.

The wheat berries had a texture a bit like undercooked barley. I soaked them overnight, then boiled them for at least an hour. They never popped open, like one would expect barley to, so I'm not sure if I cooked them long enough. I also kept adding h2o. They were flavorful as far as that went. I don't think I'd cook them on a regular basis tho.

Day 6

2010-08-23T19:46:00.002-05:00

Breakfast = 2 slices of toast* w/ cream cheese and strawberry rhubarb jam

Lunch = Leftover stew

Dinner = Offered Glass Nickle Pizza, Spotted Cow beer

No exercise. Boo.

* The casualties have begun. I pulled out the last 1/2 loaf of bread I had from The Old Feed Mill and it was blue and fuzzy. So I used some of my husband's bread. Also, the rest of my red potatoes got incredibly stinky and a few of them were slime so I had to toss them too. I was not keeping them in the fridge and maybe I should have...

Day 5

2010-08-20T17:10:00.003-05:00

Exercise - none

Breakfast - boiled wheat berries, maple syrup, butter

Lunch - leftover pizza

Dinner - chicken, corn, roll, arugula, potato, Lake Louie Milk Stout

Today I learned that I can feed my non challenge husband

Day 4

2010-08-19T17:09:00.000-05:00

Exercise - none
Breakfast - leftover potato breakfast w/ egg
Lunch - offered cheese and brat soup
A cookie
Dinner - potato, stew meat, acorn squash, onion stew

Day 3

2010-08-17T23:09:00.005-05:00

Exercise –

Pilates to “Spider Riders”

Breakfast –

Toast with cream cheese and black raspberry jam

Lunch –

Leftover dinner from last night

Din – Cojack panini on their own homemade bread from Better Buzz in Arena (home of Arena cheese, which in turn is the "Home of Co-Jack!")

Finally made it to the Co-op to pick up my packet of stuff for the Challenge. Oh and I shopped!

That's soft white wheat berries in the bag (currently soaking on the stove, hope to cook them tomorrow morn.) Westby butter, shallots, Japanese eggplant and mushrooms all grown in WI. I also bough red mustard greens (I think that's what they are). Never had them and don't know how that will go when I cook them but will try. Best find was a big lump of stew bone for $3 something from Black Earth Meats. The biggest "splurge" was $9 for 1/2 a chicken(!) My mom would be so disappointed in me. She raises her own fryers and gives me one or two for free! Still, I think I can make it last for at least three different dishes, which will each last me a couple of days. I hope not to have to do another "big shop" except for supplementals throughout the challenge (that what you see above cost almost $70).

And... I cheated - I have always waned to try kombucha tea, especially since it was yanked from the shelves back in June due to reports that it can contain alcohol. I know tea is not local, nor is it on my list, but I went ahead and got elder clover seasonal from N essalla. Wow! It was as foreign and bizarre a drink as it sounds! And looks.

Day 2

2010-08-17T22:33:00.005-05:00

Exercise
Took a walk down to the last house on Jordan Drive, then into the little nature reserve and back.

Breakfast –
Italian percolator coffee + milk
Sharp cheddar and mustard sandwich

Lunch -
Chips, salsa, yogurt, scrumped apple (found two apple trees to revisit!)
H2o

Dinner –
Focaccia Pizza made with beer bread crust, roma tomatoes, my own grown broccoli and basil topped with cheddar and Swiss.

Ideas:
Corn chowder
Chili + sides
Stuffed peppers
Spaghetti Squash + sauce
Pumpkin quick bread or cookies
Local wine
Eggplant (grill for sandwiches)
Watch for the ample, abundant veggies and fruits (melon, squash, etc.)
Potato or wheat noodles
Sauerkraut

Day 1!

2010-08-17T22:24:00.004-05:00

Exercise:

Biked to the nude beach and back

Breakfast:

- Coffee with milk

- Red potatoes fried in butter with onion, chive, thyme and parsley, topped with an egg

Notes: already found out that I am not going to be using as much butter as would be necessary to keep things from sticking to the bottom of a cast iron pan. I went camping recently and made 4 scrambled eggs (be sure to add water when mixing) in a cast iron pan over a campfire. It worked out really well, but I had to use almost 4 tablespoons of butter.

Snack –

Offered berries (cherry, black, blue)

Lunch –

Offered cheese pizza (Home Run Inn)

Minhas beer

Notes: I wondered what I would do when I was first offered some food during the “Eat Local Challenge”, and I found out the very first day. Socialization so many times revolves around food that it doesn’t make sense to derail an offering. I’m not in a position to pack food wherever I go – even though I did bring extra sandwiches and chips when I came to this friend’s house to await word on my car that is currently being worked on. I offered, but she had been saving the pizza for when she had visitors so I partook.

Snack –

Offered BBQ chips

Minhas beer

Notes: Minhas is brewed and canned in Monroe, WI and is dirt cheep. Already my delicate harmony of eating “local, organic, fair trade, nutritious, simple, food within my budget” is being threatened. As is my inclination towards my few vices, such as beer. I will try harder to purchase a beer that perhaps only uses hops that aren’t from WI (in that case, I’d probably look for one that comes from this country.)

Dinner –

Summer sausage and sharp cheddar sandwich with beer and brat mustard

Chips, yogurt and salsa

Notes: I have purchased fresh ground flour and bread from The Old Feed Mill since I moved to Mazo last year. I knew they had used organic wheat from this place area in the past, and so on Saturday when I went there and bought two ½ lb. round loafs, I asked them if their wheat was still coming from there. No, I found out, it is from Otter Creek that grows it in a field near Taliesin (about 10 miles from my house). Score!

Questions: should I assume all milk is local?

- Will eating unripe apples really upset your stomach?

Few exceptions:

- Leavening (yeast, baking soda-may try to make a starter by collecting local yeast, or find where baking soda comes from)

- salt already existent in items (no table salt or pepper to be added, but if I buy salted chips made from local blue corn it’s ok)

- coffee

- hops

- can eat things offered to me by other people

Frontier House

2010-08-13T18:42:00.004-05:00

If you want some inspiration to keep you on track eating local, imagine living in 1883. It's an exercise in simplicity, ingenuity and sacrifice. One of the first reality tv shows I ever saw was Frontier House on PBS. Not only did the participants have to eat what they could grow, trade for (that would have existed in 1883) or raise, they also had to build their own houses! And they had to do it for 5 months.

I think that is one of the reasons I chose to be an extreme locovore. If I can't find any local oil, vinegar etc. tough - I should just eat what it takes to fill my belly and sustain my health.

Yeah right like that's gonna happen. I like food as much as I like sleep. And I like to sleep!

In other news, an article was written recently about the challenge. Check it out here - the reporter talks about a lot of the stuff I've touched on. And, she mentions some staples that can be gathered at the farmer's market. My shopping list includes:

- Onions
- Garlic
- Potatoes
- Walnuts
- Sunflower Oil

I also want to try local tofu. And, I hope this will inspire the coop to have more local fish (otherwise I may have to make a journey back to Prairie du Chien to Valley Fish - or get my fishing license. )

Eating local at the ballpark

2010-08-12T06:24:00.002-05:00

I went to my first Mallard's game last night and had some local, hand-dipped beer battered cheese curds from Maynard's Slide In which also serves local burgers. They also have Willy Street Coop food.

My favorite part of the night? BMX Bikers!

Nothing but oppinion here....

2010-08-12T06:16:00.002-05:00

* Gather.com sucks. It has a terrible UI. It's like the program I use at work to make reservations at our hotel. No consistency, you have to do half the stuff by hand and end up reentering all kinds of data you shouldn't have to, and NPR shows are hooked into it (Splendid Table - an uppity show but about food and I like the guy for Road Food that sounds like Roger from American Dad....). They keep sending me email. But-- they did help me get a story published so I can't hate it.

Trip to Pecks Market(s)

2010-08-09T10:53:00.007-05:00

Peck's East - closest to Madison and Mazomanie. Has good selection of baked goods and mustard along w/ produce. Animal exhibits but no playground.

Peck's West - between Lone Rock and Spring Green. Has big honey and candy sections, as well as animals, playground, fee-based kids activities.

I am itching to start moving on my challenge, so I made a stop at both Peck's markets this weekend. They bookend the town of Spring Green and include all kinds of homegrown veggies. However, you have to ask to make sure the goods you are buying are local, which is okay if it's a bit of a novelty but would be a pain if you had to ask and explain yourself every time. For instance, the watermelon they have now are not grown locally, but the ones that are will be in in about a week. I did find out most of the produce can be used for WIC food which leads me to believe that the only people who care enough to ask are mothers on Federal assistance and crazy nouveau-hippies.

My haul included zucchini, a gigantic head of cabbage (for $2! homemade sauerkraut here I come), a pie pumpkin, a spaghetti squash, musk melon and Roma and regular tomatoes. I also splurged and bought some cranberry salsa, beer and brat mustard, and some jellies and jams. I hesitated buying Slack's Jelly Farm products in part because I wasn't sure how much of their ingredients were grown in WI. They also have a pretty strong Christian evangelical overtone (Bible verses on their jars, a section of the website devoted to "why the bible is essential and absolutely trustworthy today.") Bit of a turn off for me.

So some of the other stuff in my fridge includes:

Straka Meat's Buffalo Summer Sausage
Cedar Grove Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Manna House Bakery (formerly L&M) brat and hamburger buns
Wienke's Market Door Co. Cherry Pie Filling
Lakeside Pickled Eggs

I will admit to already stretching the boundary of the 150 mile limit (I think I will focus on Wisconsin based businesses which means Door County and Eau Claire are okay.) Also, Lakeside has other plants in other states and I can't tell if my pickled eggs came from WI or not.

Still - I think if the items are something that "could" be local (ie someone could locally pickle eggs), I am still okay. I think there will be a ton of hedging in this challenge.

K - I have to go now. I'm debating going to pick up my Co-op pkg (they did email some of the kit: events, recipes and menu, but some of it was just too big. However, the Farm Fresh atlas is on line.) I really want to nest a little bit and prep some food, and I really wanted to get my car worked on - but no one was available. We'll figure it out.

Front passenger side tire going bald. Grinding noise when I break. Squeeling belts are probably not a symptom but eeeeeee..... this can't be good.

Coffee and a Local Food Community Page on FB

2010-08-05T19:07:00.004-05:00

So I mentioned in my post (and linked to) an article I read in Time a few months ago questioning the benefits of fair trade in regards to coffee producers. The local co-op just wrote an article about it too.

All that aside, I still want to try to do good. I just bought a pound of fresh roasted Guatemalan coffee from the local coffee shop, ground for drip. When I used to live in a certain West coast city, the local java shack would ask me if I had a flat bottom or a cone shaped filter holder in my drip coffee pot and that made me unreasonably upset. I don't know why. Maybe because it couldn't have mattered that much, if no other place ever asks... just one of the issues I had with that town.

The "Eat Local Challenge" has a Facebook page - already I have posted a question re: most local beer eveer. Me thinks the rub lies within the sourcing of hops (as this Capitol Brewery blog post goes into.) A local company with the name "Gorst Valley" is attempting to provide hops for brewing - and - lo and behold - they are located near my adopted town of Mazomanie.

In other news - and I may be linking to a lot of co-op articles, but they're giving me a lot of info - here is a list of vendors of local ingredients. I was asking about oil, and this points out Driftless Organic's sunflower oil. Still gotta find a cereal purveyor.

Oh, and in case you care, last night I had chicken wings and mixed veggies for dinner and this morning I resorted to peanut butter toast. Lunch was veggies and a cookie. Supper - leftover curry.

Local pot lucks

2010-08-03T18:19:00.002-05:00

So far I have been experimenting the last 2 days with local food eatings.

Breakfast: Toast + cream cheese + blackberries (I usually have peanutbutter toast)
Snack: Cut up veggies (need to find / make local dressing
Lunch: Ring bologna + mustard (Slimm & Nunne Sweet Hot)- need to find local sauerkraut.
Dinner: Curry - not local - but goooood. Rice + onions, olive oil, garlic, carrots, yam + tomato, zucchini, vinegar, curry powder.

Second day =
Breakfast: is there a local cereal?
Snack: Homemade oatmeal cookie
Lunch: See yesterday
Dinner: we'll see...
So far, I'm a toe in the waterer (at least one ingredient).

There are three planned Pot Lucks I really want to be a part of - Aug 17, Aug 31 and some time in Sept. On August 12, the co-op sponsoring the challenge will have a "seasonal food wheel" program I might go to.

In the mean time, searching out to see if anyone else is blogging about this.

Local food pkg.

2010-08-03T06:54:00.002-05:00

I got an email that said my Local Food Challenge packet is at the Co-op, so I'll have to pick it up next time I'm in town. Wonder if any of the stuff is available online or via email? Also - would love to find a discussion board to find out what other people are doing...

Eat Local Challenge Madison, WI

2010-08-01T15:03:00.005-05:00

(Alt. title “Eat more local food, dammit!”)

So I just signed up for the Willy Street Co-op’s Madison Wisconsin Local Food Challenge (accessible from the link in the title above). The challenge runs from August 15 – September 15, 2010 and was created in part to encourage people to eat more local food at all levels – from “toe in the water locovore” to “hard core.” One of the reason I have chose to do this was to connect myself more to the community in which I live – to seek out local food producers to support (agriculture being one of the three legs South West Wisconsin commerce stands on. The other two being Biomedical and Tourism: http://www.thrivehere.org/home/regional-profile/economic-base/economic-base.aspx ).

It’s funny to me that most of the other reasons for choosing a local diet are not so big picture (food tastes better, more nutritious etc.)-taste is not always the highest factor on what I choose to eat, and I think most people in the Middle Class have good nutrition. I also see the rational behind people who are AGAINST http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_food#Criticism the local food movement. Many times, there is not a “conservation of motion” when it comes to individual farmers driving food to the city from a farm http://epsem.erin.utoronto.ca/desrochers/food-miles-writings.htm (although looking at other countries, I think our mainstream food delivery system is a bit of a dissent.) Also, local does not equal organic or native (although it does perhaps more times than conventional).

I took the pledge to be an “Extreme Locavore: everything you eat is locally grown, with a few exceptions” I wish, once you signed up, you were able to start chatting and discussing and finding recipes about local ingredients, but I think you have to wait for an email. The co-op (which – hallelujah – will soon have a store closer to me http://www.willystreet.coop/willy_west ) does have purple stickers (also above) that denote locally grown or prepared items.

So here are some of my thoughts:

1.) Do not change what you eat dramatically. I usually have toast or cereal for breakfast + coffee (coffee may be one of my “few exceptions” unless I can find a locally produced caffeine, or decide to take it in pill form as a drug - although I pledge to consume locally prepared, and, where I can, organic and fair traded coffee – although the “fair trade” aspect is taking some fire: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1926007,00.html )

2.) You must continue to have “exercise” be part of your “diet” – that is, the movement of your body directly effect (and is effected by) what you put in it. Biking, walking and Pilates will have a lot to do with managing my dairy intake from August 15-Sept 15.

3.) Concentrate on fiber, protein, fat and carbohydrate balance (as well as vitamins and minerals). I plan on continuing to take a multivitamin during my “challenge” and so don’t think I run the risk of getting rickets in a month.

4.) Realize there will be a real expenditure of time. From research to planning meals to preparing food, I think this will take some thought and some elbow grease.

5.) Plant to keep things interesting – explore what native people ate as well as the local settlers of the area (French, German, Swiss etc.) as well as Italian, Irish, Mexican and any other group that can use the in-season produce and stored items of your location.

6.) The simpler the food, the easier it is to keep it local. For instance, cleaning and cutting up local cukes, carrots and summer squash, or eating local cheese curds as a snack = awesome. Bread and beer pose more intricate challenges (are all the ingredients local?).

That’s all for now – I am off to do some research, pose some questions to the local community, and will post more soon!

Leadership

2010-08-01T14:58:00.000-05:00

It takes an ‘extraordinary’ leader to make big changes. The rest of us struggle to be ‘adequate’ leaders that take baby steps to make the world better. That’s all.

Concerts on the Square:: Madison, WI:: July 28, 2010

2010-07-29T07:03:00.003-05:00

People still know how to picnic. I have proof.

How many of you have picnic baskets and blankets that have never felt the caress of a lawn? These people had tables set up! Multiple people had these little things.

"Summer Nights in Vienna", the second to last Concert on the Square for this year, could not have had a nicer night. Members of the Madison Ballet danced on small stages set in the street to music like "Blue Danube" while balconies full of apartment dwellers and bankers looked on.

I also saw a lot of dancing kids. Mad with summertime I guess.

I was told "I like your colors" by a street musician. I don't have a pic of what I was wearing, but I was mostly tan, purple, and a deep green aqua.

Dogs and beer were welcome on the square. Just don't dump alcohol on the grass.

(More pics on line)

How do people write?

2010-07-19T18:40:00.007-05:00

I wonder some times how people write. What is their setup, their schedule? I am thinking right now of a friend blogger who always seems to find time to put together well thought out, finely edited, timely and topical posts. I am also thinking of professional writers who find time to blog, as well as fly off to do signings, panel appearances and the like.

I'm working to fit blogging back into my schedule, while also writing articles and the occasional fiction fun (oh and working on the house, planning my next move, and working at my rather eccentric day job).

I'm also reading-right now, an issue of Time Magazine from October 2009 all about Detroit. Which to me is very topical since I just returned from there. Time was, back those nine months ago, embarking on a year long investigation of the Motor City's decline, and attempted rebound. I'm still reading the article, but one notion that popped out at me was that, whatever happens to Detroit, once the 4th largest city in the country, will say a lot about how the United States will move forward. I'm hoping for the best, but silent crisis are hard to fix.

My trip to Detroit was to help my uncle who is moving to Texas soon. Given the chance, he would love to remain in his small bungalow off of Telegraph Road (his plan was to putter around his retirement fixing it up), but cancer has changed all that and he is moving to be closer to family. The neighborhood around him is strong, the neighbors very caring-I wish them the best. As I do my Uncle Ron.

Driving to Chicago down Hwy. 12

2010-04-18T06:19:00.003-05:00

I wish I had enough money to have someone come to my house and give me a pedicure.

But I think about my 1977 Class C Dodge Motorhome Bertha. And how I felt when I decided to “fix” her. I felt rich. I acted rich. As if I’d always be rich. I wouldn’t be. As if money could fix anything. It can’t, least of all an old vehicle.

Is everything about the hunt for money? (Deadliest Catch) Is that noble? Should we care?

Is life all about asking questions?

Anyway- I thought about other things on my FIVE HOURS in traffic. Three of them moving.

Detective Gumshoe. Ernest to the point of annoyance. But not an evil bone in his body. Never does anything purposefully harmful, but sometimes, things done with the best intentions still cause harm and heartache (Operation Baby Lift).

Fort Atkinson looks like a cute little town. I'd love to go to Fireside Theater.

I want to start a promotion called "get off the road" all about exploring life outside of the Interstate.

Heard an interesting conversation about advertising. How you can't just grab consumers and shake them and scream your brand at them ("Tide!") I think that could actually make a very funny commercial. Don't know if it would sell Tide though. That's the whole rub.

Gotta look up Cambridge Salvage. Looks like it could be a U-Pull-It!

Star Road - cute little school - young cows - horses - Rustic Road - crazy ruins of an old Motel?

Mink Farm Bar. Gigantic over-inflated house for sale right off the highway.

The semantics of Sports Radio and the subtleties of complex ideas. Athletes are not entertainers, but they can entertain.

A tiny little market. "Markette"!

Tweet-lation Re: Kick-Ass and C2E2

2010-04-16T06:52:00.003-05:00

I don't think Ebert liked Kick-Ass. He also said that all Chicago critics panned it.

But the fans tweet:
"It lives up to it's name"
"Go see this movie"
"Kick-Ass" was pretty freaking sweet. It really crept up on me and floored me. I was head over heels by the end"
"heard the phrase "kick-tastic" more tonight then I ever have before or ever will in my life. :)"
"I fucking loved kick-ass"
"KICK ASS the greatest film ever!"
"Kick-Ass reminds me once more that films can be great AND original at the same time. 5 out of 5"
" Holy shit! Kick-Ass was fucking awesome!! I can't wait to see it again, and I wish the sequel came out tomorrow!!!!"
" NYTimes comment: "For the sheer joy of being at the movies KICK ASS is the best film since The Sound of Music"–Paul H, Manchester, England"
"Exactly what I thought. It's like... every major action star crammed into one kick ass movie!!!!"

C2E2 updates coming fast and furious on the iPhone app and at http://www.mediumatlarge.net/
Sadly Anthony Michael Hall will no longer be at C2E2.

One more completely unrelated thing:

Tomorrow is the start of the Madison Farmer's Market - the LARGEST producer-only farmers market in the country (which ruined me for all other farmers markets... expectation set too high.)

Too Much Going On

2010-04-15T07:39:00.002-05:00

Wisconsin Film Fest
Odyssey Con
Marching Band Fest
C2E2 + Pre and post Con Parties.
Go West Happy Cow Premier
The Transient (short film about a homeless superhero trying to stop Vampire Abraham Lincoln from sucking the blood of four score and seven virgin)

AAAARRRG Brain aneurysm!

Beer Nerds

2010-03-28T08:40:00.002-05:00

I have been slowly collecting a list of beer festivals around the Midwest and found this fun post from Chicago's Nerd City:

http://nerdcityonline.com/2010/03/25/beer-nerds-heading-to-chicago/

Chicago will host the Craft Brewers Conference and Expo April 7-10, 2010. Looks like it's sold out, but hopefully next year they will be at a bigger venue.

Report: Wisconsin 2nd in nation in organic farms

2010-02-17T19:22:00.002-06:00

Wisconsin was rated 2nd for number of organic farms!

Midwest Anime Cons 2010

2010-02-15T16:46:00.003-06:00

Quad Cities Anime-zing! = http://www.qcanimezing.com/
Bettendorf, IA
June 18-20, 2010
Pre-Registration: $30 through March 20, 2010
Registration opens January 1, 2010. It may begin earlier if we receive high demand.
Pre-Reg Tier 2: $40 through May 20, 2010
At The Door: $50
Hotel $95 per night

First year in existence.

The Quad Cities of

are 3 hours from Madison, WI.