I hated you loving baseball
Not because I hated you
but because I hated baseball
And when I learned to hate baseball
I learned to love you loving baseball
I loved you loving baseball.
Yours, Slim
John Lee Hooker | August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001
We’ll meet again
Even dogs enjoy the thrill of cycling. At the City of Vancouver’s Urban Bike Fair today, I spotted two pooches in cyclists’ pouches.
The Dunsmuir Street separated bike lane is officially open. Gregor Robertson, mayor of Vancouver and Amy Walker, publisher of Momentum Magazine gave little talks on the joys of cycling. Proper cycling infrastructure, such as this new separated bike lane, prevents cyclists from being smeared by cars.
In Vancouver in June, cyclists rock all month long. Bikesummer grew into Velolove, which evolved into Velopalooza. And the city’s bike culture continues to grow.
If you’re like me and don’t have a wife to nag you about your bad habits, no problem. Habitforge.com will do the nagging for you. Based on a theory that it takes 21 days to quit an old habit or develop a new habit, HabitForge will send you emails for 21 days asking you to respond yes or no to the goals you had cited. HabitForge will then send your friends an email of your progress and of your success. That way, they can get in on the nagging too. If you mess up, HabitForge starts counting from 1 again.
But you’re right out of luck if you don’t have the habit of checking your email.
In Salon.com women writers continue to whine over male writers getting more attention in best lists and awards.
Some have been whining about this for years. Here’s a 1998 article, Are men better writers than women? reviewing the Harper’s piece, Scent of a woman’s ink: are women writers really inferior? The editors who write the titles could do with a little writing face lift.
And here’s a story about a woman writer who had a hard time making it until she wrote with a male alias. Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants? But, hey a real male writer would never say, “women’s underpants.” Panties. Babes wear panties. Even my 90-year-old mother wears panties.
With Monday around the corner, I thought of Meatless Mondays, a promotion by Earthsave to get us away from eating meat. In the spirit of Meatless Monday, I got out my vegetarian cookbook and found a recipe for filo filled with vegetables and feta and a little pesto.
I’ve never bought or used filo pastry before. Instead of following the directions on the Krinoz box, which says to thaw first, I pulled the filo box right from the freezer. Of course, filo doesn’t work frozen — it broke off in small pieces. Even when thawed, it appears to be a tricky thing and needs to be covered with a damp cloth so it won’t dry out while preparing the recipe.
I managed to make my recipe with the small pieces of filo. Mmm, good. Certainly worth the hassle. I’ll use the leftover filo to make apple strudel from the recipe on the box or maybe a spinach and feta filo. There’s lots of great filo recipes including the one pictured: Filo and Apricot Purses.
Resources
The first time Javier Bardem appears on-screen in Vicky Christina Barcelona, a lusciously photographed film set in Barcelona, he’s leaning against a wall in an art gallery looking forlorn. And, he’s wearing sneakers. The black top-white shoelace kind of sneakers that you see in a movie set in Barcelona about an artist picking up women for a ménage trios weekend. Bardem, in the role of a painter, exudes sex just as his character Anton Chigurh in No County for Old Man oozed evilness. The sexy ooze and the black top sneakers accompany Bardem in every scene he’s in. Except, of course, when he’s in bed.
Writers’ body parts don’t usually get media attention. The profile of Haruki Murakami in the Globe & Mail described a man with toned biceps and quadriceps. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, a memoir of Murakami’s running and sitting life. Murakami, a former jazz club owner and successful novelist prone to reclusiveness, took up marathon running to combat the sedentary life of writing. This resonated with me. As a production artist working at a computer for hours, my extra pounds stay on an upward trajectory along with my age.
Last week or so, I took a friend to the Cottage Bistro, a live music restaurant on Main Street, Vancouver, for a birthday dinner. The website indicated a motorbike event, so I called ahead to confirm the time and type of music. I was two months late with this dinner invite, so we decided to go ahead with our plans.
At the Cottage Bistro, I ordered the buffalo burger and my companion chose fish and chips. I don’t know how the venue managed to blow preparing rather simple food, but the food was a disappointment. And instead of blues, there was a heavy rock band. In such a small venue, the sound blasted me and my companion out of our seats and into the street. We passed a long line of patrons buying beer, and outside, parked motorcycles lined the street for a block or two.
Waking up on Sunday, the morning of the Tour de Blintz, my eyes met an intense downpour of rain. As I slid open the patio door, the sound of the rain was as heavy as a Tom Waits song. It was still early—5:30 am—and knowing Vancouver weather, a lot could happen by 9:30. I was an hour’s ride to the start of the Tour and by the time I arrived, the rain had toned down to a drizzle. Within a few minutes, the rain had stopped.
About 20 people, including a 3-generation family of five (on two tandem bicycles, one with a trailer for the little kid), enjoyed the leisure 45km Tour around Vancouver. We stopped at several
Jewish eateries for a sampling of food such as latkes and bagels with cream cheese.
The Jewish Museum and the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition hosted the ride, and a longer, 75km ride the following Sunday. Thanks to Greg Robinson at the Jewish Museum for organizing the tour.
UBC Researchers to investigate cycling safety
Critical Mass Vancouver
Bike and beer
because she writes 