10 Most Recently Played in my itunes

1. In Your Mind - Johnny Cash - Dead Man Walking (Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture)
2. Angel From Montgomery - Bonnie Raitt W/ John Prine - Bonnie Raitt Collection
3. I Changed the Lock [Take 1] - Johnny Cash - American Outakes
4. Certain Slant Of Light - Vigilantes Of Love - Blister Soul
5. Once - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - Once (Music from the Motion Picture)
6. All Because of you - U2 - How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
7. City of Blinding Lights - U2 - How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
8. Me & Mr. Jones - Amy Winehouse - Back To Black Ltd. Ed. Reissue
9. Van Diemen's Land - U2 - Rattle And Hum
10. Supply And Demand - Amos Lee - Supply And Demand

Poetry

My ex-wife's best friend from college is a teacher in Baltimore. Not only is she a creative and talented teacher at an urban charter school, Emily also writes poetry. I would urge you to go read one of her recent poems.

Backpacking

While I often lean towards hating to run, I definitely love to go backpacking. One of my main motivations to run is to make hiking more enjoyable. Longer hikes, fewer sore muscles, more ability to focus on God's creation and less need to focus on catching my breath are all things I think about when I don't feel like hitting the road.

I hope that later this spring and summer, I'll do a lot more hiking. This year, the 4th of July falls on a Friday, which means I will have a four day weekend. I'm thinking about spending it in Colorado. One of the things I miss most after moving from Washington is being so far away from the mountains. From where I lived, it would take about 90 minutes to drive to Mt Rainier or Mt St Helens, and just a bit longer to get to the Olympics. (Take a look at some pictures from a few of the Washington hikes I've done) The thought of spending a four day weekend in the Rockies makes me happy.

I don't think I would mind making this trip solo. Hiking at my own pace, stopping to take pictures whenever and for as long as I like, and being alone with my thoughts sound great to me. I think the risks for a male solo hiker are a bit less than the risks facing a female solo hiker, although there certainly are dangers for anyone who goes into the wilderness alone. I went to college with Aron Ralston, who became famous in 2003 when he amputated his own arm after being pinned by a boulder for 5 days in a Utah canyon. If he had a hiking partner, there would have been someone who could have gone for help after the boulder fell upon him. I know that I would not be going anywhere nearly as remote as Blue John Canyon, and I'm sure that the trails in Colorado will be crowded on the 4th of July weekend.

All that said, I'm not totally set on doing a solo trip. There is a website I've found, Outdoor Eyes, that has a section called the Find A Partner Community:

The Find A Partner Community brings people together with common interests in outdoor activities: hiking, kayaking, backpacking, canoeing, snowshoeing, walking, outdoor photography and much more. Find friends that like to do the same things as you. It's that simple. Dream It. Plan It. And Then Do It.

Maybe I'll look around there and see if I could find some people to meet up with for some day hikes in Colorado. I don't know that camping with a group of strangers is that appealing, but some company during the day might be nice. If anyone in my vast audience (The Editor - an audience so vast that on a good day you need to use a second hand to count it? Shut up) wants to hang out in the Rockies over the 4th, let me know.

Thin Line Between Love and Hate

For the past couple of weeks, I have been running once again. Not a lot, about 2 miles every other day. While watching the NCAA basketball tournament, I've seen a New Balance ad that talks about "For every runner, there is a thin line between love and hate" (Of course, if you buy a pair of their shoes you will find the balance between love and hate) I've always leaned more to the hate side of things when it comes to running.

However, my cholesterol is high, I gained weight last summer while going through the divorce (since I don't drink much beer it does not seem right that I've developed the beginnings of a beer belly) and my dog needs to get more exercise. Therefore, I have started running again.

Duck update

Here's the latest in the duck saga. Apparently my neighbor, Barb, has been trying to convince her husband, Bill, that the drainage issue in their backyard is a problem and they should do something about it. When she saw the same live ducks that I did, she also pulled out her camera and took a bunch of pictures. Her plan is to show Bill's adult children these pictures and urge them to join her in trying to convince Bill to install some drains (this problem will not be fixed simply by regrading)

Later that afternoon, she bought the stuffed ducks, one for her dog and one for Leo, as a not-so-subtle reminder to Bill that the drainage problems are bad enough to attract ducks to their backyard. Not only does Barb have wonderful taste in dogs, but she is pretty clever and has a fun sense of humor as well!

Another duck?

Remember how yesterday when I woke up I saw this mallard out my window?



It was a little spooky then, when I woke up this morning to see this mallard in the backyard. Now, just finding a toy that I don't recognize in the yard is not all that unusual. Leo seems to always charm our next door neighbors. In Washington, when I rented a room from a couple from my church after my ex and I separated (This is actually something that I have in common with Rudy Gulliani. After he separated from his second wife, Rudy moved in with a gay couple. I guess that probably ruins my chance to run for president as a Republican), Leo made the woman who lived next door fall in love with him. She did not own a dog, but kept doggie treats in the entryway to her house. Leo could always count on her to stop and play ball with him whenever she left or entered her house.

Here, the next door neighbor, Barb, does have her own dog, but she still spends time just about every day to throw Leo a tennis ball. She walks her dog by the neighborhood tennis courts most days, and even though her dog does not like to play fetch, she often will pick up the stray balls she find to bring home. There usually 12-16 tennis balls in the backyard at any one time. When I leave him outside while I'm at work, Leo arranges the balls in two neat stacks for when I return. The first stack is right by the backdoor, and the second is at fence where Barb stands when she throws the tennis ball to him.

Anyway, having new toys show up for Leo is nothing new. But for the particular toy to not only be a stuffed bird, not only a stuffed bird but a duck, and not only a duck but a mallard, feels a little spooky to me. I hope that Barb is responsible for the appearance of this toy, and that nothing tragic happened to duck I saw yesterday!

Leo's favorite activity in the world!

Basketball

I think that March is my favorite time of the year in the sports world. (The Editor - don't you say that every August during NFL training camp, and then every 4 years when the World Cup comes around? Yeah. So what?) The NCAA basketball tournament, particularly the first weekend when there are 48 games played over 4 days, is always full of great stories and usually includes several wonderful upsets. Fortunately for me, it also comes during the local schools' spring break. Things are always slow at work when school is out, so my boss and I have not had very many interruptions while watching the games so far today.

The team I follow most closely, Oklahoma State, didn't make it to the tournament this year, and then they lost in their first game of the NIT. So, now I'm a Pitt fan. At halftime of their opening game, they have almost double the score of their opponent, so things look good so far.

Always in My Fridge

A friend from Pittsburgh (or now I suppose it is more accurate to say from Western PA) blogged about some of the things that are always in their fridge. She asked her readers to share what we always keep around, so here's some of my list.

1. Tortillas. In Kansas City, the best tortillas that I've found are actually at Price Chopper of all places. The Price Chopper on Roe Blvd caters to the area's large Hispanic community and makes their own tortillas.
2. Salsas. Depending on the season, it might be homemade with produce from the garden or farmer's market, or it might be from a jar, but I always have some kind of salsa around.
3. Mustards - usually several different kinds.
4. Skim milk, usually from Shatto.
   
5. Salad greens of some sort, often spinach or mixed baby greens. Of course, there are times of the year when the greens never make it into the fridge - they go straight from the garden to the sink to be rinsed and into the salad. I never have leftover salad.
6. Several kinds of cheese - usually some kind of cheddar (the sharper the better), a feta, and maybe a bleu.
7. Cider or Perry. Since moving to Kansas City, it's mostly been Ace or Strongbow. They are the not best but are fine to keep around for when the mood strikes. I don't know if I'm just getting old, but it's rare now that I'm in the mood for a beer. At the times when I use to grab a beer, I'm much more likely to go for cider.
8. And in what will likely remain a fixture in my freezer, limoncello. I tried it from the freezer for the first time tonight, and it's good!

Anyone else want to play? Suzanne?

Ducks?

My neighbors have drainage problems in their backyard. After Monday's hard rain, they had a pool of standing water for a couple of days. I have jokingly referred to that as their pond, so I guess I should not have been surprised this morning when I looked out the window and saw this:
I guess this pair of mallards agreed with me about the pond! There is a golf course a few blocks away, and I image that the ducks normally live near the ponds on the course. I wonder how they managed to find their way to this little, temporary bit of water.



I also wonder if they arrived after I let Leo out in the backyard first thing in the morning. I trust my dog around most small animals (his first owner had kittens when she first got Leo and he adored them! She told me that the kittens would follow him around everywhere, loved to snuggle up next to him, and would even try to nurse from him! Leo has been confused ever since then when he meets other cats who aren't quite as affectionate) but I'm not sure about birds. I think his retriever genes would kick in if he saw those ducks.



More duck pictures are on my flickr site.

I'm back

I actually never went anywhere, but my computer is now back from the land of the flashing question mark.

I spent most of the day today installing a new hard drive, upgrading my OS (I figured that since I was replacing the hard drive and would need to reinstall all of my stuff from the backups anyway, this would be the right time to get the latest version of the Mac OS) and deciding which of the old programs and files I really wanted to keep. It had been about 10 days since I last made a backup, so I only really lost a few things, all of which I could redownload (a few podcasts and some credit card transaction into Quicken) I sure am glad that I started doing the backups on a more regular basis a few months ago.

Not the most fun way to spend a day off, but it was something that needed to be done. I'm now up and running with a faster and larger hard drive and the latest operating system. I plan to celebrate by watching the first part of the new HBO miniseries on John Adams.

:(

I think the hard disc on my Macbook died last night. I had just connected an Ipod when everything froze. I had to manually force the computer to restart, and when I did I got the dreaded flashing question mark. After restarting from the install DVD, the computer still could not find the internal hard drive. I reset the PRAM, still no hard drive. Reinstalling the operating system is not even an option if the computer cannot find any place to put it. After spending over an hour on Apple's support and discussion pages, I came to the very technical conclusion that the disc is likely screwed. I'm glad that I finally started backing everything up a few months ago on an external hard drive. On Monday I will visit the genius bar at my local Apple Store to see if there is anything I missed, but I expect them to give me bad news.

Happy Birthday, Finn!

This is a picture of my dad with my brand new nephew, Finn Douglas Peterson (what a great middle name, huh?) Finn and my sister are both doing well. He was 8 lbs and 14 oz when he arrived this morning.

I can't wait to meet you, Finn!

Limoncello

On New Year's Eve, I started making my first batch of limoncello, an Italian lemon liqueur. I've been soaking the peels of about 20 lemons in Everclear (I received an interesting look from the clerk at the Liqueur Store when I purchased the Everclear on Dec. 31) for the past couple of months.


Tonight, I added a simple syrup, a bottle of vodka, and then bottled the lemony goodness! In about a week, one of the bottles will go into the freezer. It's warming up here in Kansas City, and it's time to fire up the grill. Once the limoncello has chilled, this will make a wonderful digestivo after some grilled chicken or Italian sausage.

Once

I watched a delightful, little movie last night. Once is about two musicians and the connection that they form. The guy, a vacuum cleaner repairman, spends much of his time as a busker on the streets of Dublin. He plays covers during the day when the crowds might throw him their loose change, but at night when the streets are relatively empty he plays his own songs. This is when the girl (the credits actually call the two main characters "Guy" and "Girl") stops to talk with him about his music. She is a Czech immigrant pianist who cannot afford to own a piano. She helps him record some demos of his music that he can take with him to London and pursue a music career (among other things)

Both the guy and the girl are at the very end of painful relationships, but neither have achieved any kind of closure. They spend a week getting to know each other, often through writing music together. Actually, Once is a musical, but a more naturalistic musical than any I've ever seen. The songs, which comprise almost half of the movie, did not feel to me like they were just a device, or a gimmick, as in many musicals. I had no trouble believing that two individuals like these characters in real life would sing together and to each other as they do in the movie. The songs are one of the primary means of communication between the guy and the girl.

Once is kind of like a cross between two other movies I really like, Before Sunset and Lost in Translation. Two strangers meet, spend a short but intense amount of time together, have a connection (I would be hesitant to describe the connection as falling in love, although I could understand how some might call it that), and come to some conclusions about their prior relationships.

The music in the movie is great. The way most people, I imagine, will be introduced to this movie stems from the song Falling Slowly, which won an Academy Award. I particularly liked a scene which takes place at a dinner party where everyone must sing for their dinner. Another great moment occurs after they have recorded the demos, and the guy plays one of the recordings for his father.

This is a small, intimate movie. It was made on a minuscule budget, which likely helped the filmmakers rather than hindered them. It was very enjoyable to spend some time with these two interesting characters and watch (and listen) to them encounter one another.

A job that facilitates blogging

It turns out my current job is great for facilitating blogging. While I enjoy my job, and parts of it are intellectually stimulating, there are quite mundane aspects to it as well. There are always dishes to wash, 10 cups of basil to mince, or any number of other tasks that don't require much thought. When I'm doing those things, I write incredibly insightful blog posts in my mind.

The only problem is that when I get home at the end of the day and sit down to type them out, I never am quite able to capture the brilliance and eloquence that I know I had earlier in the day. A friend of mine is looking for a device she can hook up to her brain that would enable her to download to her blog the thoughts she has as she is falling asleep. Suzanne, when you find something like that, I want to get one to bring with me to work!

Being an Uncle

Any day now, I'll become an uncle. My sister's due date was actually last Friday, and her doctor told her that they would induce if the baby has not come by this Friday Saturday.

I think that being an uncle has got to be one of the best jobs in the world. My ex had several nieces and nephews whom I adored. That's one of the many weird changes that happen after a divorce. I went from being an uncle and seeing the niece and nephew who lived in Seattle on a regular basis, to being totally cut off from all of them. None of her family has made any attempt to contact me since the day she she told me that we were getting divorced.


One of the regrets that I have regarding the divorce stems from wondering if I will ever become a father. I know people (Hi, Tom!) who were older than I am when they got married and had children, so I know that there is still a decent chance that I would be a father some day. But much less of a chance now than before. If I don't, though, I still will have the chance to play a significant role in the life of this child that will be born soon. That's not the same as having my own child, but it's still pretty damn cool!

U2 3D

Tonight I got to see U2 in concert. Well, I was sitting in a relatively empty movie theater, but the U2 3D movie is as close as I can imagine to being there. The movie was shot during the South American leg of the Vertigo tour. The process of how they shot the footage is fascinating.

The 3D technology sure has come a long way since I last went to a 3D movie as a kid. At first, it was almost a distraction, from wearing the glasses to noticing the effect. Early in the movie I started to get annoyed at the person sitting in the front of the movie theater who was jumping up and waving their arms, until I realized that there wasn't anyone sitting in front of me. What I was seeing was part of the concert footage.

Soon, I forgot about the technology, and was able to get into the music. A highlight for me was "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own," a song that Bono sang at his father's funeral.

I know that we don't talk
I'm sick of it all
Can - you - hear - me - when - I -
Sing, you're the reason I sing
You're the reason why the opera is in me...

Where are we now?
I’ve got to let you know
A house still doesn’t make a home
Don’t leave me here alone...

I don't know how they pulled off something as intimate as that in a huge stadium. After this, they went into the most political part of the concert, including the now standard feature at a U2 concert of reading from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I wonder if the United States was the intended audience for the reading of Article 5. The music stopped and the words appeared on the screen; "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

I would have loved to have heard "40" closing the concert, but instead it ended with "With Or Without You." I have never been to U2 live concert, and that is certainly on my list of things I want to do before I die. I'm sure that U2 3D is the next best thing. Even you aren't a big U2 fan, go see this movie!

I hear that U2 will release a new album as early as October of this year. Hopefully they will tour to support that album, and I'll be there if they come anywhere close to Kansas City.

March Recipe

(Each month, I include a recipe in the monthly newsletter for the kitchen where I work. These recipes need to complement the entrees on our menu that particular month, and are targeted towards our average customer. That means it needs to be simple, require little active prep work, and use only the most basic ingredients. Here is what we published in March.)

Our March menu has a Southwestern flavor, so my monthly recipe is for a Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salad. Go ahead and cook the corn enough that it turns light brown and the smell reminds you of popcorn popping. This tells you that the starches in the corn are caramelizing and it will bring out a nice nutty flavor. Feel free to improvise; add some garlic, fresh cilantro, ground coriander, or even mango! The salad taste great at room temperature, but it is also good when it sits in the refrigerator a few hours (or overnight) for the flavors to meld.

2 t. oil
16 oz bag of frozen corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
2 T. lime juice
1 10oz can of Rotel tomatoes (diced tomatoes and green chilies), drained
¼ t. ground cumin
¼ t. salt

Heat oil in non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Add corn and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned (8 min).
Transfer corn mixture to a large bowl. Stir in beans, onion, Rotel, lime juice, cumin, and salt.