Wine Club!

Our friends the Holubs (of Movie Night with the Holubs) invited us about six months ago to take part in a wine/dinner club through Bonny Doon Winery. We eagerly accepted, just happy to do anything with the Holubs. They know a lot about wine and food and we are learning things like wine comes in "white."

There are four wine shipments in the year and each one comes with a detailed menu, info about the wines and suggestions on parings, tasting, etc.

The first shipment went to Ellen to work her magic. She prepared a "goddesses" menu with Hawaiian salad (avocado, guava, grapefruit vinaigrette) and Moroccan tagine (she actually has a tagine!) with lamb and squash and for dessert an Egyptian pomegranate baklava. There were wines with each course, and of course, I don't remember them, but they were GOOD!

Long story, short, tomorrow is my night to prepare the shipment's meal and serve the wines along side. I am attempting things which I haven't even EVER cooked before here, people. It's more than a little intimidating. I even had the produce guy at Whole Foods stumped.

The theme is perfect for us, but I won't say what or where in case the Holubs read this today. I'll let you know how it goes!

Less scary than the "Backpack Bandit"

The smiling idiots on King 5 this morning described a female bank robber who wears a pony tail as "Fashion conscious, armed and dangerous."

OMG! o.b.s r kewl!

I bought some o.b. tampons yesterday. When I got them home, I noticed something weird on the box:
There she (?) was, a little cartoon dog on the side of the box with flowers and in crayon-y writing it says, "visit hiobie.com" So I did.

This is what greeted me:


Holy shit. It appears that my tampon of choice has been officially co-opted by tweens. On the home page we can mouse over the various "rooms" and with each one, a little animated Obie (the dog) peeks out to join in the menstrual fun. We can go to school, the movies and my favorite place when I am on the rag: the mall!

What bothers me first: All the writing is dumbed down online-speak.

...and I was like, ttly, like, OMG! Did U, like, take the period test? U can learn that like, it's ttly norm if U get ur boobs before ur "little visitor"...if U have yours and U tell me, I swear I won't tell any1. Having ur period is so ttly embarrassing. OMG!

What bothers me next: obviously girls are starting their periods younger and younger. Several factors contribute this: better nutrition (as compared, say, to the 1800s) all the way around the circle back to poor nutrition and an excess of fat; and something that freaks me out completely -- an "excess of estrogen in the environment". The average age is like 11 or 12 now and falling toward 9 or 10 by 2015 according to several articles posted at the Museum of Menstruation (who knew there even was one?!)

I totally get that if younger and younger girls are starting their periods that pads and tampon companies are going to market to them. It seems like they are making a (somewhat pathetic ) attempt to make it fun and cool and all peppermint candies and downloadable (period themed?) ringtones for girls only, but they miss that mark completely and the overall feeling is that you should treat your period like a dirty little secret and they encourage an underlying hatred of this function by "swearing not to tell anyone!" and having a place to post "period horror stories". Just to be clear, I am realistic about the drag of having a period and I am not suggesting that we build bonfires and eat Luna bars and dance naked under the full moon in a sisterhood menstrual frenzy, but I do know that the way society looks at the biological functions of women has a lot to do with how we are treated and valued and how we treat and value ourselves.

What bothers me most is that starting the self-hatred training so young is a tragedy and SUCH a missed opportunity for this company to be on the right side of bringing girls up to be strong, smart and confident and comfortable with their bodies. Personal Products Inc. (the makers of o.b. the tampon "made by a woman gynecologist",) is the one who should be ashamed, not the little dog who has her period.

Go here to tell o.b. what you think of "obie."

Oh Yeah....

I met Paul Newman on Friday. Holy crap! He came into 826 on Friday with Dave Eggers and his friend Stewart Stern (who wrote Rebel Without a Cause, if you're interested) and we visited for 3 hours. He and Stewart got Space Competency Certified and when they left they gave us all hugs goodbye!
Wow. This is Justin Space Competency Certifying him, which included making him make animal noises.

Camp Finance NorthWest!

I went to camp yesterday. We didn't make macaroni pictures or sing songs or learn to canoe, but instead we talked about the exciting world of Nonprofit Finance Management. Wooooo! The one thing that I want to write about is that I really, really, really don't want to be like my colleagues in the nonprofit finance world. They are dumpy, annoying, grouchy, unaware and boring. Jesus, people get a life.

That said, except for the whining lesbian who had to tell me all about how she was forced to come, didn't want to be there, wasn't going to learn anything, etc. etc.; the high-waistband nerd who talked incessantly about his particular situation that has nothing to do with the rest of the group taking the seminar; and the other guy who complained multiple times about how high the (standard conference center-sized as near as I could tell) chairs were from the floor because of his short legs(!), it was interesting and informative and I would go back and do it again for the wide and tasty variety of snacks that were offered throughout the day: Tims chips, cookies, a fridge full of juices and soda and water, jelly beans, etc. In the breakfast buffet, they even had a waffle bar. Suh-weet.

Sushi-cam

God this rules. I wish I had thought of it.

When you question the president, Tinkerbell dies

Bill Maher wrote the following funny editorial. I hate it when he's right because he's such a prick, but I almost always agree with him.

Canada!

To celebrate our anniversary, we drove to Vancouver BC. It's about 2 1/2 hours plus an hour at the border. CocoRosie was playing on Saturday night, so we went to see them and wander around the city. The show was amazing. Tez the Parisian human beatbox blew my mind. Busdriver was also a freak show of staccato slamming rhymes, and Coco Rosie, every time I see them, further cement themselves into my heart. I have this odd mixture of reverence and compassion for them. I am in awe of their story and yet, I feel wiser than and protective of them somehow...in any case, the show was insanely great and the weekend was amazing. Here is a little photo collage:

We saw this on the drive up. I hate businesses that misspell words in their names...it's not clever or cute. But this is reminded me of a baby blackbird my friend Jennifer and I "rescued" when I was in high-school and we named it Jalopy Payphone. It died, but we kept it alive for about 2 weeks.

Beef carpaccio, shaved pecorino, truffle aoli and fois gras stuffed olives at CRU. Local organic, romantic, great.

Coffee so big, we had to share.

We went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Jon went across. It was really beautiful and I wandered around the grounds-- it's a little like a Disneyland town with people in costumes and a General Store and a Loggers' Grill for lunch, but we just looked at the sites and left. Not before taking note that 1) the river was fast and cranky and 2) one of those workers looks familiar....

Every Day in May is out the window

Fuck! I suck at these "commitment" art projects. Best of luck to all the EDIM folks, who are doing great without my weird dinner contributions anyway. I will, however, celebrate my commitment art project which is my marriage, which has been going on officially for one year as of last weekend and we're right on track, thank you very much.

A mediocre grilled sandwich and a great cocktail

Last night before the Circus Contraption show, we went to the Zig-Zag, which has, like the best bar in America or something and had dinner and some really great house drinks.

Derailed

Avocado Chicken and Artichokes

We had a (very) ripe avocado so I used garlic and onion and spices and turned it into a savory sauce to spoon over these grilled chicken breasts. The artichokes were overcooked, but the first for us this year and very good and the Medoc (Chateau Gresysac 2001) was nice, but a little overwhelmed by this dinner.

Coriander Chicken and Spring Roll

We didn't get out of the movie until 8:30 so I stopped at Rom Mai Thai and picked up some quick stir-fry and rice. Nothing glamorous, but indeed delicious. Does Rosé go with everything?

Tri-tip and Mint Pine Nut Couscous

This is what we ate last night:
Onions, garlic and carrots in chicken stock to cook the couscous. Fresh mint, lemon zest and tomatoes stirred in once it was done.The steak was rubbed with spices and cooked rare. Cumin cream on top. Corn on the cob (not pictured). A (great!) bottle of Barnard Griffin 2006 Rosé of Sangiovese.

What's for dinner?

I'm sort of participating in the Every Day in May project (for the real deal of this kind of project, check out my friend Gibson's 30 Days in Red Pants.) Instead of painting a picture or making art, I decided to take a picture of our dinner each night. Usually I cook. Sometimes we go out. Either way, I think it's a fun undertaking.

Poe/lar Bear

I saw this on French Toast Girl. It struck me as awesome.

Setbacks

Ladies, if you thought your uterus and ova were yours to make decisions about, think again. The Supreme Court decision today has reiterated several stances taken by this administration:

1) Women are not citizens in the way that men are. Our bodies are not our own, but belong to some greater "good" that may or may not have our best interest in mind. Should we get pregnant, we are no longer in charge of what happens to us.

2) The court system is now a mouthpiece for the president. It terrifies me to watch the gradual retreat of the (well-thought out, meticulously planned, long-recognized as an integral part of our democracy) checks and balances that help to regulate our country. They were put in place to assure us that when the majority of the people hold an opinion contrary to the opinion of an administration, the majority will eventually have its way. It's not that other administrations haven't been at odds with the people, it's that now we don't have separate branches of government to make sure that the country, the justice system and, apparently, women's bodies don't end up belonging to George Bush.

3) It is the government, not OB/GYNs, who should recommend reproductive health care choices for women. The term "partial birth abortion" refers to a practice that doesn't even exist. There is a medical term for the kind of abortion that is performed in the 2nd or 3rd trimester, but "partial birth abortion" is a made up name and not a medical procedure. The Supreme Court of the United States has decided to politicize for the very first time the choices that doctors and women make about women's health. I also am appalled that Kennedy in his statement calls OB/GYNs "abortion doctors." Another fake term.

This isn't just about the access to affordable, safe abortions. This is about the fabric of our democracy and the rights of women as equal citizens.

Words overused by food review writers

1. Cloying

What it's Not

Last month, we discussed that "vagina" is not bad word. Here is a disturbing poster that illustrates another thing a vagina is not:

(stolen from i don't care much for this)

Part of the Problem

Hubby pointed out this War Room post from Salon. The main story is that a Bush administration employee leaked classified documents to a "friend" -- never mind that she works for the Department of Parks and Fish and Wildlife (or whatever) and the documents included information about endangered species and the friend's email address ended in "chevrontexaco.com" -- Bad? Yes. But you know what's worse? This employee met this friend while "playing online role playing games." What? Like D&D? Are you kidding me? First, is she 15?? Second, la-la land prevails in the minds of the whole Bush world. Lets roll a 20-sided die and pretend to be half-elf mage warriors. It all makes horrible, greasy, pimply sense. They don't face reality when they are NOT at work either.