Activism Through Collaboration: New Belgium, Ben & Jerry’s, Protect Our Winters

I love following @ClimateOfGavin on Twitter. He’s a climatologist, and I learn a lot. I’ll be honest, even with my background in science, sometimes it’s a bit tough to follow (I have no climate training), but overall it’s well worth it. Gavin is interesting and very clear.

Unfortunately, what he’s clear about is that anthropogenic climate change is happening. Like it or not, here we go.

The bad news is the phrase “locked in,” meaning we’re already guaranteed some amount of massive negative impact from climate change. But maybe there’s hope yet that we can prevent further lock-in. And that will take advocacy.

Enter Protect Our Winters to this post. An advocacy organization rooted in the snow sports (skiing, snowboarding, etc), Protect Our Winters is about raising awareness and education around climate change, as well as encouraging advocacy within and beyond its members.… Continue reading →

Lasagne of Desperation

I made lasagne today. I kind of winged it, but mostly followed the recipe for Italian-American lasagne. from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. And, the photos I took (and will take) today will, largely, show back up in that post, which is sadly lacking in fun photos. However, you probably want to know what constitutes “Lasagne of Desperation.”

No problem! I’ll explain. First, your fridge needs to look at least a bit like this:

Then you have to be about ready to scream because you’ve never been a good cook when comes to greens that aren’t kale, spinach, and swiss chard.

Then you reach into the above fridge and grab whatever greens that aren’t the above that come readily to hand. You do this because you almost forgot you were going to make a veggie lasagne.… Continue reading →

Beer Trip – Founders and 3Floyds

Last Saturday night, I’d gone to bed in a bit of a bad mood. This happens to the best of us, and typically a night’s sleep takes care of that. At least for me. So, it’s noteworthy when I wake up the next day still in a bad mood. In fact, aside from last Sunday, I can’t remember a time when a solid night’s sleep hasn’t given me a cheerier disposition.

Bill, being awesome, is well-attuned to this sort of thing. He also specifically committed to adventures with me back on our wedding day. So, he did the only reasonable thing he could do. He proposed we go have a beer at Founders Brewing.

For reference, here’s the route from roughly where we live to Founders Brewing:


View Larger Map

Important to note?… Continue reading →

Phone Photos from Salt Lake City, Utah

So, Bill and I had a wedding to attend in Salt Lake City on Saturday. It was, as weddings always are, lovely. It made me cry. Weddings always do. They’re really (at least in my experience) a huge expression of love and joy and hope. Everyone’s a little in love at a wedding. And it was really emotional and wonderful to cuddle Bill and find ourselves touching our own rings at various times in the ceremony. Life. It could be way worse.

Anyway, the trick to traveling for a wedding is that you’ve got to do things before (and after, if you stay) the wedding. So, being who I am, I had pretty much nosed out a place to eat before I’d even found our vacation rental.… Continue reading →

[113] Borracho Baked Beans

Cover of Red Chile Bible by Kathleen Hansel and Audrey Jenkins

I have a friend who throws an awesome party approximately yearly. I think she is not the originator of this party idea, but it has migrated to her home through the years. The party theme is “Beer and Bacon”. It’s basically a pot luck that everybody brings a food that has beer or bacon (or both!) involved. Also, many people just bring beer.

Obviously, it is full of deliciousness.

This year, I was very torn on what to bring. I just couldn’t make up my mind. Eventually, I settled on bacon macaroni and cheese. Bill thought this was a very great idea, I thought this was probably a great idea, and it sounded pretty straightforward. All systems were go. Until I realized that this is a pretty straightforward recipe, and so possibly it might be one the hosts would make…

Yup, going back and looking at a few comments she made on her blog about her plans, I realized she was definitely making bacon mac & cheese, and so I should probably do something else and not duplicate that.… Continue reading →