a new twist on "watch what you eat"

I've been listening to this really fascinating podcast series from Princeton's Food Ethics and the Environment conference.

Today, in part 3, I learned that a person who normally gets about a third of their calories from red meat (average for most Americans) is responsible for 2.5 times the greenhouse gases (created during production) when compared with a vegan person. This is roughly the equivalent of the difference between driving a SUV versus a Camry.

Simply amazing. I'd highly recommend the series for anyone who likes some background education during their workday. Or even at home.

one for the road

it was really awesome having jess here. her blog has some details, but you really should check out the photos of waterbeds n stuff.

and maybe i'll get these for her next visit -- or in case st. patty's day is warm next year.

moment of silence

the fish is dead.

i went out to get some of the leaves out of the pond and it floated up. it was much bigger than it was in the summer, so i wonder how long ago it died.

rip. i'm sorry i was so cavalier with your life.

bookmarks

librarians are portrayed in such interesting ways. there was an article in the local newspaper about how librarians "tell all" by mentioning the weird and often gross things they found in returned books. Bacon?

a librarian's life is so compelling.

birthday plans

my birthday is friday and i'm excited to say that jess is totally coming to visit. there will be dancing, hookah, bowling, dj-ing (jetgirl!) and tacos. i'm taking the day off friday so i can really enjoy it.

Sunday we got this crazy motivation to replace the bathroom floor, so johnny is in there finishing it up. it's a nice grey color, much better than the crazy white/green diamonds or whatever that were on it before. it is like a completely different room.

still no sign of the fish in the pond. i'm staying hopeful.

demolition!

you can see "live coverage" of the library demolition (wrecking ball and all) highlighted today on the library webcam.
(there are directions at the top of the page, so be sure to log in to view the cam.)

johnny's valentine

We got home from the grocery store saturday and there was a doorknob hangtag from a fancy florist with Johnny's name on it saying they were sorry they missed her. I knew I didn't send her flowers, although I wish I had, so I had to 'fess up and not take the credit. she called up there and they couldn't tell her who sent them, so she just rescheduled delivery for today. neither of us would be home during the day, so she said they could leave them on the porch.

We spent a lot of time trying to guess where they were from. I thought maybe her mom had sent them. She thought they were from me. I guessed that maybe The Goddess sent them. She thought they were from me.

She called me at work saying that the florist wasn't going to leave them on the porch to freeze in the cold, after all, and could I call and have them brought to my work? Yes, I said, I'll do that. I call. I keep checking the door. I give a heads-up to the person at the front door.

Johnny calls back and says she knows who they are from.

Who? I say.

The Refectory.

What? The Refectory, like the restaurant we went to last weekend for our anniversary? Why would they send you flowers?

Obviously, I'm not convinced, but you know, whatever.

A few hours later Johnny calls back saying that the flowers have finally arrived and I should go to the desk and get them. I go, they aren't there.

[My current workplace is pretty confusing, logistically. You have to actually go to the back of the building to get to the entrance.]

I finally find out where they are, I go pick them up.

Not only did we get flowers from the restaurant, we got a $25 gift certificate AND a bottle of wine!

I couldn't figure it out, then she reminded me that we had to push our reservation back 1/2 hour and she'd asked them if they were going to make it up to us or something.

I say they did! Lesson learned: if you go eat at a fancy place, find something to complain about.

7 of 7, and a little side of regret

we went to Kikyo for our final meal of "7 Meals for 7 Years". I got 3 kinds of vegetarian rolls, but Johnny signed up for an adventure.

At the bottom of the third page of the menu, written in pen, was, Soon Tofu. It sounded appealing, so she asked the server for some details. The server was super nice, and had this thick asian accent, so we both just kind of nodded when she said something about vegetables on the side and spicy-ness.

A little later, she returned with literally twelve small bowls of various vegetables, spiced in different ways...cabbage, pickled radished, sesame sprouts, tofu with seaweed (maybe?) and several other things. We tried everything but the anchovies and then she got her soup. it was this monstrous bowl of spicy seafood broth and tofu. we both ate a lot in there, as you might guess, then rolled down to meet our friends for a drink and Sing-A-Long show tunes night.

today i learned about the WHEEL ... OF....... FOOOD, which definitely would have made our lunchtime restaurant choosing more fun, and a little easier. you can use it next time you need a place for lunch.

Anniversary Meals 3-6

if you want to hear our anniversary song (says me), you can listen here. You don't have listen to all 9 minutes, although it might make a nice backdrop for reading the rest of this post.

so yesterday we went to lunch at the worthington inn, for meal 3 of 7. it's this bed & breakfast kind of place with a nice dining room, that johnny says is her favorite so far. it was a little cold in there, but the food was great. i got crabcakes with spinach and rice and johnny got sweet chili glazed salmon with potatoes and vegetables. the service was great, and they even accomodated our request to switch starches (mine was originally the potatoes) and it was lovely.

After that we went to Cup o' Joe for lattes and cheesecake, which doesn't count as a meal. just as a stomachache.

Then, for dinner, we went to The Refectory, which I've heard is the only 4 star restaurant in columbus. I'm not sure about the validity of that claim, but, dude, it was so good. When we were being seated the hostess asked if we were there for a special occasion, so i told her it was our anniversary. she was all "happy anniversary" which was really nice. the restaurant is located in a not-exactly-queer part of town, which made me: a) more inclined to tell her it was our anniversary, and b) surprised when she didn't even act fazed about it.

The food and service were incredible. They had a 20 page wine list, but we settled on a glass each of an affordably priced bottle. we got the goat cheese appetizer, which was great, but we weren't sure if we should have saved our olive bread to spread it on. johnny got the crab and artichoke encrusted halibut (i love fish that is encrusted! judy's used to have this hazelnut encrusted fish which was incredible.) but i got the ohio trout with a bonne femme sauce. it was amazing. THEN, we splurged on a brown sugar pudding and a pear tart for dessert, which were totally worth it. our seating wasn't until 9, so we got home about 11:30 and went straight to bed without even watching SNL which sucks, because Justin Timberlake was totally on there. (btw, Johnny is totally in love with Scarlett Johannsen and pretty much hates JT because there is a rumor that they are dating and she says that "simply the rumor is hurting her good name").

this morning we got up and went to the Evening Star Cafe for coffee and bagels, and then to the Claddagh Irish Pub for 6 of 7. we had a couple drinks there (they have cider on tap) and then came home. tonight is sushi! woo!

does anyone know of any household materials that function well as a mousepad? i am currently using a 3-ring binder, but the height difference is annoying.

new!

My computer came!

This weekend is Johnny and my 7 year anniversary. We were going to try and go to a weekend getaway cabin in a wooded area, but they were all booked by the time we decided, so we are theming it "7 meals for 7 years."

We are going out for 7 meals this weekend, all places we've never been. This morning, we went to Nancy's, a little greasy spoon up the street. I had fried eggs and potatoes, Johnny got pancakes. There were lots of middle aged guys -- all regulars -- chatting one another up before heading to work.

Last night, we went to Liu Pon Xi, a Chinese fusion place in the Short North. (Their website is down.) They have glass tiles in portions of the floor, with sand gardens and fish tanks under there. We each had a different kind of tofu, which was quite good, and the service was good too - the waiter bought my wine because it was the end of the bottle and not a full glass. All told, it was still a little unremarkable. It was a little too trendy, and not in a cool, individual way.

Update: I forgot to mention that after dinner we went to see Rendezvous at the Riffe
at BalletMet. It was really great. There were four pieces, and one was choreographed to Simon & Garfunkel music. The whole show was really lovely, modern and fun. I loved it.

And now, it is snowing again. I guess we are supposed to get another 3 inches today. Here's our yard from the window, through the icicles.

it wasn't that bad

Last night i had the amazing foresight to go out and clean the ice and snow off my car so that i'd be ready to roll this morning. I'm glad I did, because it took me about 30 minutes, with the car running and defrost on full-blast, to work through the 4 inches of ice covering parts of my windshield.

i felt really prepared, and, a little proud of myself.

This morning, i headed out there a few minutes before 8 to go to work. I started it up, scraped the ice again and started to pull out. I was totally stuck in the ice. I tried to clear the space away next to the tires, but it didn't work out.
I had several options:
1) Call someone for a ride.
2) Take the campus bus to campus, then the library bus from there.
3) Walk.

Obviously, I chose the easy route.

I went back in to get my book, then started walking down the street. Johnny called me when I was a few blocks out and said her work was closed and that she was coming back home. She was going to pick me up and drive me the rest of the way.

I was really glad because I'd only gone about 4 blocks (in the street because the sidewalks were really awful) and I was already freezing. It was about 10 degrees this morning and my coffee cup was made of metal, so every time I took a drink my lips stuck to it a little bit.

She called back. Her boss showed up, she wasn't coming.

Oh, no problem, I said.

I kept walking. I went through parking lots becuase they were more likely to have been shoveled. I got to the corner of the least hospitable part of the trip -- an almost highway-like stretch of about a mile, crossing a river and no sidewalks, even when there isn't any snow.
I crossed the street and instantly fell down. Underneath me was some kind of rubber, instead of concrete, so it probably won't bruise - but at least I didn't spill my coffee!

I was halfway across the bridge when I realized -- oh, i'm totally walking on top of a 3 foot drift, and my falling options are either into speeding traffic, or into the frozen river. i slipped once, almost freaked out, and realized that my irrational fear of falling through very small cracks isn't so irrational after all.

More parking lots, more snowdrifts and I finally made it to work, after about 45 minutes. I was telling my coworker about it when i got in and she said she was really impressed. "Most women would have called in," she said.

Called in. Called in. Brilliant. I didn't even think of that. I'm taking the bus home.

another lame post

what's happened:

• i bought a new computer. i expect that it will be delivered this week. it's so pretty.
• i went to the gym for the first time in about 2 weeks yesterday and the girls in the locker room informed me that the university was closing down. i had to wait in the snow for the bus to get back to my car, but i got to leave at 1:30.
• today was a snow day!
• the prom outfits for the drag show were super fun. i have a few photos, but none of them are very good, so i'm going to see if i can get some good dress shots from scootking or pixelville. i ended up with a lovely black velvet with hot pink crinoline number. Johnny couture'd it up for me. we all went to the spaghetti warehouse. some of the folks in there were a little uncomfortable maybe, and the kids all stared at our asstonishing fanciness. one of us was dressed like michael jackson from the 80s, btw.
  

more soon.

prom dress blues

next weekend the Royal Renegades (Columbus) are having a prom themed show where the audience is encouraged to dress in prom gear. i was completely excited because i just knew i had the perfect dress. some of you might remember it -- pink with black lace overlay, strapless, knee-length, crinoline? remember?

well, i think i got rid of it. i just went through my closet and the attic and i think it fell prey to the giant closet clean-out that happened just before we moved back here. i'm so sad.

but, on the bright side, i get to go look for a new prom dress! i have a couple of long slinky-style ones, but i was kind of thinking i might go for something a little more garish, maybe satin with a big bow? any ideas?

what do you do

Okay, so say someone asks you to be their friend on myspace. You don't know the person, but they are clearly queer, is friends with one queer person you recognize from around, and is friends with some random person you work with.

Do you friend them?

I've previously only friended people that i actually know in real life, but i know there are lots of people who take a different approach. what's your approach to this kind of thing?

it didn't rain!

It only rained once the whole time I have been in Seattle, which is surprising. We went to some good restaurants while we've been here, Indian on Friday night, Italian on Saturday, Thai last night and a yummy vegetarian biscuits and gravy breakfast today.

Christie left today so I had dinner with my coworker at this kind of weird and very interesting vegetarian hot dog restaurant. So strange. We played Ms. Pac Man, then went to the fancy Seattle Public Library, then to get ice cream.

The Library is really cool and beautiful. There's a lot of artwork, including part of the floors and the walls.

Now, I'm watching Heroes! I'm glad it's back on.

Seattle

My flight yesterday was really freakin' long. There aren't any direct flights from Columbus to Seattle, so I had a 4 hour flight to Salt Lake City, a 2 hour layover and then a 2 hour flight here. The first flight was hilarious, you'd think that it was a plane full of first-time fliers. There was a little kid behind me, which seemed acceptable, but there was this woman who actually yelled out "oh shit" when we took off.

I got checked into our swanky hotel and went for a walk to the Pike Street Market. It is pretty nice and I picked up a bottle of wine for Johnny's arrival today. I met up with our friend M, who lives here now, and I went to dinner with her and a friend of hers, then to her place to get ready for one of the monthly queer parties that occur here. It was super fun, I drank-n-dialed Jess because I saw someone drinking Sparks and forgot my camera. I got home pretty late (especially since I am on Eastern time) so I took my time getting to the registration.

So, the registration has been completed and I have my first meeting to get to. Go Librarians!

on my way

The "burlesque" thing just turned out to be a drag show with more female-presenting performers than usual, so slightly disappointing. I did run into a couple people I hadn't seen in a while, so that is always nice.

I got another haircut before I leave for ALA tomorrow, but I'm not posting photos because it looks almost the same as last time. I think when i go in next time, I'll get some color which always warrants a photo.

My flight to Seattle leaves at 7 am! It was originally scheduled for 9, but got moved. So early, but I guess that is 2 more hours that I'll get to explore.

i didn't get sick

I ended up eating the chili mac and i didn't get sick.

Tonight, the Eagles continue their bid toward the Super Bowl. The game is at 8 and afterward we are going to a neighborhood venue for a "burlesque" show. I'm not sure how burlesque it will be, but people will certainly be taking their clothes off. It might not be pretty, but lots of people will be there, so flyering for the next Jetgirl is in order. I hope it's fun.

finally winter

It snowed last night. Not a lot, but enough to keep Zoey out playing in it for at least 45 minutes. It hasn't yet melted either, which means it is cold outside.

Ever since we got that insulation last year, it is much warmer inside the house. I was looking at the chart on the gas bill and we are using a THIRD of the gas we used last year at this time. A third!! Not only are we saving the money, but I feel a little less wasteful.

Speaking of wasteful, how long do you think you should keep veggie chili mac in the fridge? It's been there since Sunday. I'm really bad at throwing-food-out timelines, but this site says 3-4 days for soups in the fridge. I guess I need to have it for lunch today. Then for dinner, I want to make this cozy veggie soup. I'm not sure why Howstuffworks.com has recipes, but whatevs.

go bucks

well, the eagles really rocked the house on sunday. the buckeyes did not fare as well.

i watched the first episode of the new season of the l-word, and

can we be any more dramatic

how many times can jenny be in ridiculous situations? i still can't stand her.

and, i was aghast to see that my myspace song the soundtrack to shane's current downward spiral. i might have to shop for a new one now.