Making do

*Beeeeeeep*  The train doors open.

I squeeze out into the cold.  Hubert looks frostbitten today.  There isn't even a hint of sunrise peeking between the buildings but the sky is violently clear with a bright gash of moon and pricks of stars.

 The brave OccupyMN souls are still sleeping outdoors every night.  I wish them well in my head.  I can't imagine any kind of cold weather camping, much less sleeping in the cold without a tent.  If the temperature in my bedroom falls below 65 I swear my extremities go numb and I can start to see my breath.

I'm not happy about being back on the train.  The day before I tried to start my scooter in the morning and she wasn't having any of it, even after having the battery conditioner plugged in for twenty minutes.  I conceded and walked to the bus stop in defeat.  It's frustrating when the afternoon highs are hovering around 50-60 degrees.

So I am forced to embrace the cold.  I do so grudgingly.  I take the cold, smash it into a ball, and stuff it down into my solar plexus much like I do with the heat and light of the summer sun.  It's like stoking the coals of a fire.  The pain of the cold brings focus.  The focus brings strength.

I pick up my pace.

Kimchi Chronicles, let's see where this is going

I stumbled upon Kimchi Chronicles last night on PBS.  At first I was like, who is this orange lady and what is going on here?  She was touring around Seoul and the surrounding area eating bulgogi.

The orange thing turned out to be unflattering light.  Marja is actually black-Korean and adopted in the US.  The show is evidently about her discovering her Korean roots through food.

The Korean travel scenes are fantastic.  I missed the first 15 minutes or so of this show but when I jumped in she was talking with several locals and an expat about the different types of bulgogi.  It's a beautifully shot show made by the same people who did that insufferable Spain series with Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, and (ugh) Gwenyth Paltrow.

The part that lost me was when she was back in her super-modern tricked out kitchen with her snooty French chef husband, a man who admits he has never washed a single dish in his entire married life, and some random celebrities.  Chef Husband Guy made crazy steaks with wagyu beef and plopped butter mixed with kimchi down on top of them.  Make no mistake, this is in no way Korean food.  At least Marja made somewhat authentic LA kalbi.

Then there was the scene at the end with waif-like Heather Graham halfheartedly picking at some other Korean food and complaining about how spicy everything was.  Presumably at the end of the evening she jumped from the balcony and caught a light breeze back home.

FUCK I hate cooking shows with celebrities.

I've got the series set to record on DVR so I'll check out some other episodes as they become available.  But I'll probably skip the wanky celebrity parts from here on out.

It's been a while, so have some random crap

I've been busy, exhausted, and evidently too manic to put a coherent sentence together.  So you get this.  You're welcome.

I still put two spaces after my closing punctuation.

Every time I see these apple-peanut butter-marshmallow smiles I laugh uncontrollably.  I tried to make them once and almost peed myself.

Lily has yet another ear infection.  She has two giant bottles of medicine in the fridge.  If it keeps going like this we'll have to explore the ear tube option, which will probably give me a heart attack.

The temperature has been in the 80s for over a week and I am overjoyed.

I thought of a rhyme this morning:  "Autumn, fall, I hate it all."  I hate falling leaves, raking, rain, having to dismantle the garden, everything turning brown, the weather getting colder, football season, and having to winterize my scooter.  The only good thing about fall is the food.

For many years my favorite song was Golden Earring's "Twilight Zone."

My favorite song is currently still Hot Water Music's "Trusty Chords."

I am seriously considering a Hot Water Music tattoo, but band tattoos are kind of dumb, you know?  Besides, I haven't even gotten my Lily tattoo yet and probably shouldn't immortalize a band before my own child.

I commuted on my bike on Friday.  We had a terrible windstorm.  I couldn't physically pedal into the wind at times and ended up with a massive charlie horse.  I rode my husband's bike, which has the smallest, hardest seat in existence.  So my leg hurts and my crotch hurts.  So no more biking for me this year.

I've been popping in and out of the OccupyMN protest.

Our daycare lady's brother died this weekend and subsequently she is closed this week.  That's really awful and I'm a terrible person for saying this, but this is really inconvenient.  I'm going to buy her flowers and send along some dinner when she opens again.

I've been craving pulled pork, Husband has been craving beef barbacoa.  Which meat will prevail?

My midwife suggested I try an elimination diet to try and figure out why I need to take a prescription antacid every single day to function.  I've tried gluten free before but I think that might have made things worse.  So I'm going to try dairy-free and soy-free diets over the next couple of months.  I'm planning dairy-free starting next week for two weeks.  I'm getting lightheaded just thinking about it.  On the other hand, this will be a good time to make some more homemade cheese and not prematurely sample the goods before it's properly aged.

Did I mention I made some goat cheese?  Turned out great.  I need to find a source for goat milk in large quantities.  That shit is expensive at the co-op.