Just a note that my UT email address has expired, finally. So if you need to reach me, you'll have to use a different address...which you probably already have by now.
If you're a fan of early 20th century houses, check out the Sears Archive. I don't see the design of home we're currently living in, but it seems like just about every other house we've ogled in Seattle is represented.
Oh, how I wish I could order a two-story farmhouse for $1150. Sigh.
If there is, and you haven't already heard this story (I think it's circulated before), read about grape and raisin toxicity in dogs here.
In answer to a recent *nudge* to finish what I started, here's an update on the previously mentioned project to expand our daily menu.
(An aside: this might be a little fuzzy-sounding, since I finally broke down and took some allergy meds today. Springtime is upon us here in Seattle and my body is adjusting to brand-new allergens. If you'd like to see some truly spectacular images of said allergens, check out these pics on Flickr. The link will take you to images of cherry trees in bloom on UW's campus. These trees, along with the plum and apricot trees which have been in bloom for several weeks now, make everything seem prettier. Even in the rain.)
Alrighty. I have three food items to report upon. One success was some properly-made polenta with garlicky vegetables on top. Polenta is one of those things that I've always felt I should embrace as a standard of vegetarian cuisine circa Diet For a Small Planet, but I never liked how it came out when I made it. Turns out that the right grind of cornmeal--medium--makes all the difference (duh). It was marvelous, smooth but with lots of body and not at all gluey. The next day we cubed it up, fried it, and added it to a quick, paprika-spiked tomato soup like little corn dumplings. It was fantastic in both iterations. So: Polenta is now in the weekday meal lineup.
Probably the big winner of this week of experimentation was the recipe for slow-cooked white beans from Cook's. Mercy! those are some good beans. We'd had them made for us once by some greatly-missed friends, and I've been meaning to make them myself ever since. I've made the cheater's variation using canned beans (lame!). But these, with the onion halves and carrot pieces and Whole Garlic Bulb, well, they take the cake. And best of all, the recipe makes about a gazillion servings, so you can just freeze the leftovers. Should you have any.
The least successful venture of the week was the socca, which I did finally get around to making and which was supposed to be the starch with those white beans. It wasn't a major failure, but our recipe called for baking it in a 10-inch skillet when really it needed to be cooked on the stovetop like a crepe and then maybe finished quickly in the oven. It's only garbanzo flour, salt, and water, so there's not a whole lot to hold it together. The bits that cooked properly were really yummy, though, so socca is definitely on the rotation, if somewhere near the bottom. Just need to perfect the method.
That's all for now. The project continues, though, so I'll post updates as they seem relevant.
"Chicago's plates are the Hummel figurines of the feminist movement."
From Maureen Mullarkey's 1981 review of Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party.
You may have seen this at BoingBoing, but in case you didn't: here's a little robot who's been taught to respond to rhythm. He doesn't exactly dance, but he perfectly mimics the kind of enthusiastic headbobbing most of us tend to engage in while listening to a catchy song. Say, something by Spoon. It's all very subtle and to me, hilariously uplifting.
(I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.)
Spring break starts Monday, and here I am saddled with three classes' worth of midterms. That's how it goes, I guess. My goal was to have 50% of their grades accounted for before the mid-term evaluations go out in two weeks, so here we are. Plus I thought it would be nicer for them not to have to study over break. Right?
I heard from some students that another instructor held a Jeopardy-style tournament in class in lieu of a test. Sounds like everyone wins: fun is had, candy is dispersed to the winners, and there's no grading afterwards. But if you choose to go this route, with no traditional test grades, what are they graded on? I suppose that they're doing projects throughout the semester, or maybe there's a cumulative end-of-semester exam (a method I don't really embrace).
I've tried before to move away from the strict two-thirds tests/one-third project model and to come up with other ways of evaluating student work, so I'm filing the tournament idea away for future application.
I'm realizing to my great amazement that people actually drop in and read what I write occasionally...which means I need to update my "about" blurb, which is no longer entirely accurate. Soon. Done.
The Trues are really focused on getting area students in to see their collection. They spoke about their desire to make contemporary art accessible and enjoyable (which the stuff in the current show definitely is) to a broad audience. I hope area schools make use of it. I certainly will.
The next two shows they have in the works are a sound installation by Jeremy Deller (I think) Bill Fontana that will utilize the entire space, and later Martin Creed's Half the Air in a Given Space, shown here at the Johnen Gallery in Cologne. I'm looking forward to experiencing them both, but I also feel a little selfish and wish that the gallery had provisions for showing more of the collection at once. This, of course, is difficult when you're dealing with such large-scale work, like Paul Morrison's mesophyte that currently fills the largest space in the building.
I think someone said last night that the Henry is going to be hosting another selection of work from the True's collection this summer, so that should at least partially satisfy my curiosity.
Edit: Betsey of the wonderful Hankblog adds clarification in the comments.
Ok, you know that strategy whereby you obligate yourself to finish something by making a public announcement? I'd like to try that out, albeit at a fairly safe level: I have a spring break project. We like to cook, but lately I think both Andrew and I feel like we're making a lot of repeat meals. This is mostly a misperception, since when I wrote down all the stuff that we consider our typical fallback meals I came up with a good 20 or so...but anyway, my goal for next week is to find and try out at least three new meals to be added to our repertoire.
This is meant to expand our menus, but it's also meant to get me to reconsider some neglected cookbooks. I love to buy them, and I love to read them, but once I've identified one or two quick and good recipes I tend to leave them on the shelf. Especially since The Book entered our lives, we've been virtually ignoring all the others.
I shall post my progress here throughout the week, maybe even with glamorous foodcam photos!
It's sunny and in the 60s, which is making me a little giddy. Somewhat incongruously, it also makes me want to Get Things Done. So in that spirit, here are some things.
Thing 1: I took the cat out for a walk.
Tiny has had to become an indoor cat since we moved because we live on a really busy street, and it would just be too risky to let her out. Nobody likes this much, but she's doing ok inside. To assuage our guilt, in good weather I put a wee harness on her, hook it to a wee leash, scoop her up and go out into the back yard. The more we do this, the better she gets with it. Today there was no struggle at all, and she relaxed right away. The only one looking stupid was me, standing there with my cat on a leash.
Thing 2: I taught Northern Baroque in one class.
I can scarcely describe the waves of art historical guilt that washed over me. Unfortunately, we needed to make some progress before the test on Thursday and this is where it happened. Even with the material pared down greatly, it was a pretty harried class. Breathless, you might say. Luckily, since the test is on Thursday, this was my last teaching before spring break. Which is good, because I need to catch my breath.
Thing 3: I'm trying to look at art.
Tonight I'm going to a very nice gallery called Western Bridge for an educators' open house. WB is the local venue for the True collection, and judging by what's up in the gallery right now, they have some very nice work. Recent stuff by all the young international talent...and a separate space built just to hold Christian Marclay's Video Quartet. Should be an interesting scene tonight, and I hope to jot down some impressions tomorrow.
Thing 4: Did I mention that the sun is out?
Not only is it out (it's been out a few times recently, and has been at least once a week all winter, seems to me), it's WARM. Lalala.
Thing 5: Did you see The Lives of Others?
I did. And you bet I cried at the end--though I think it was righteous indignation rather than pathos. I wanted to write something about it last week, but haven't quite made up my mind. I will say that I keep getting tangled up in the authorship question and have a hard time not being reminded of the Weimar exhibitions in 1999 (West German interprets East German culture/history, with more or less disastrous results). I'm trying to come up with a more sensible understanding and opinion of the film, and I'll be sure to post something here if that ever happens.
What do you think of Tumblr? I've set up an account...should I start up over there? This is the first service I've seen that is cool enough that it could motivate me to stop using MT.
...
Ok, I've been silent for a long time, but I keep thinking of things to post. I just never get around to it, often because of some kind of self-censure: I want to make sure that I've thought about what I'm writing before I publish it and lately I just haven't had time to do that.
But I keep wanting to get something new on this old jalopy.
So here I am, with a new post by way of a confession by way of silliness. Why not. Ok, see, I never write anything about knitting, in part because somehow I originally wanted this to be a very narrowly-focused blog. But that didn't happen, so who cares. And anyhow, I do knit, and I do like to read my way through the great proliferation of smart knitter blogs.
Anyway, I'm late to the party on this one, but do check it out: Stitchy McYarnpants' Museum of Kitschy Stitches. Knitting mistakes of yesteryear! I love it. Especially this entry from last November, which made me laugh out loud--did anyone EVER make those things, let alone WEAR them? Like wrestling masks they look. Only ugly.
NB: at the end of the entry is a snapshot of some poor kid from my original neck of the woods actually wearing one. Yeesh.
