Category Archives: Blather

On Being Local

It’s funny how easy it is to fall into an echo chamber—at least of sorts. I’ve heard so very much about Proposition 37 that I’ve about been driven ‘round the bend. I’ve heard so much about it that I felt compelled to spend a bunch of Saturday writing a post about it. And then I was surprised when Angelique, who occasionally acts as my editor, made a comment to me that there are probably lots of Proposition 37s on ballots this year, so I should be sure to specify “Illinois.” I wasn’t writing about Illinois. I was writing about California.

Oops.

While I have friends who don’t fall into any of these categories, my current “echo chamber” is mostly full of people who care deeply about food, farming, science and research.… Continue reading →

Some “get to know me” links

I just wanted to offer a quick welcome to anyone who finds their way over here from my guest post over at Michelle’s blog. I’m super glad you’re here, and I hope you enjoy your visit and find something to stick with you.

For my current readers, please go take a gander at my post there about leaving graduate school, and poke around Michelle’s blog a bit. She’s the When I Grow Up Coach, and she’s full of inspiration, fun, hard insights and conversation.

In any case, I thought it might nice to give share a few links that give a sense of who I am and what this blog is about.

The source of the chicken photo in the upper right. Learning about chickens on a farm.… Continue reading →

On History

The blog move is kind of annoying. Making things work in WordPress that worked in Serendipity is surprisingly touchy and difficult. It’ll all be worth it in the end, but it’s seriously obnoxious in the meantime.

Work, computer! Just do what I want! Magically! Magic is how computers work, right?

One of the things I’m having to do is go through and read all the entries and look for coding errors or similar problems. It’s astoundingly slow going. It’s good for mostly-brainless activity, but as I’d like to get this done by the 22nd of October, it’s also something I’ll have to do while I have brainpower. Thus, it’s really dull.

There’s been some upsides, though. The first being that I’m seeing the list of cookbooks we own, and thus recipes I’d been so excited about making & then forgotten.… Continue reading →

One request for the day

My friend Ellen of One Hundred Meals recently wrote about her fifth meal. I have not gone through all the links and comments, but just the words she wrote are valuable.

I want to thank my friends and readers for all the times you all have pulled me out of the echo chamber it’s so easy to get into[1]. I hope I am doing the same for you.

I’ll catch you guys Friday with a post about Apple-Pumpkin Brown Betty.

fn1. And the people I follow on twitter. But many of them don’t even realize they’re doing this for me, as they may not follow back. So they’ll never see my gratitude. Nevertheless, it’s there.… Continue reading →

One year ago

My apologies for the post of the day being so late. I was busy planning on how to best quietly celebrate. It’s been a year since my friend Hamster managed to take this photo for us. I’m incredibly grateful to him.

It’s been a day. Mostly good, though a few things have been quite sad. I’m not going to get into the private ups and downs, but suffice it to say I’m thinking about all of it.

Thanks, guys, for sharing this piece of our lives with Bill and I. We’ll be back Wednesday with a more typical post.… Continue reading →