it's great

to be a Florida Gator!!

so long, farewell

Summer is leaving. The sun is setting earlier. The pine needles are starting to fall. And I finally had to close the windows tonight and pull the jacket out for school tomorrow. This is always a bittersweet time of year. I know I'll still wear shorts for several more weeks, but it's no longer a given. I will have to check the weather forecast first. *sigh* Goodbye summer. I'll miss you.

here we go again

It's not a real storm until the Asplundh truck convoys start to roll through town.

We were only in school for three days before TS Fay decided to swing our way. The school board's automatic notification system reached me at 10:47 p.m., well after I had gone to sleep. Grrr. I wonder how they reached the kids whose phones don't work (ie. quite a few of mine)?

It's 11:30 and we've barely had more than spitting rain for the last 24 hours. *sigh* There goes a hurricane flex day -- and one of our scheduled four-day weekends! You know the worst part? I'll probably go into work anyway. There's too much to do to let a little rain get in my way.

oh my!

The gas light in my car turned on as I was driving home from work today. I turned into my neighborhood gas station when I saw something that shocked me:


I said something that as a school board employee I shouldn't repeat on my public blog, so use your imagination.

Wow. Just wow. *sigh* And my bike broke Tuesday as I rode it to the library. Guess I'll have to really jump on getting that fixed.

oh my goodness

Blueberries. In the first week of May. Wow!

These fresh, organic, giant berries were delivered to my doorstep courtesy of my parents, who went picking at South Moon Farm in Cross Creek Saturday morning. These berries are so big and still super tart. Really, I cannot get over the size of these things. I am eating them like candy. We've been going to South Moon for over a decade and they've never been this big before. And it's early for blueberries, even here. It's normally a June crop.

This means I need to step up the kitchen activity now that the season has started -- there are yummy no-bake blueberry pies to whip up, blueberry muffins galore to bake, and jam to cook and can for holiday gifts. You know, I haven't even put up my garlic-dill pickles yet because I thought I had more time. I guess I'd better get started!

say what?

I came upon this headline over and over this morning on my morning run. (The Gainesville Guardian is a free semi-weekly newspaper targeted at the residents of the east side of town and delivered to homes on Fridays.) So naturally I spent most of my run thinking about the recent Associated Press news revealing trace levels of potentially dangerous pharmaceuticals in some of the nation's largest water supplies. I was happy that Gainesville Regional Utilities had taken the initiative to handle this issue before it became a problem, that is until I read the first paragraph of the story:

Gainesville Regional Utilities officials say they're confident the local drinking water supply is free of pharmaceuticals, even though they're not testing for the chemicals.

What?! The article does go on to say that GRU taps groundwater instead of using surface water like those cities mentioned in the AP article, but still. It claims the groundwater is protected with a 7,000-acre conservation area surrounding wells. I think I'd be happier with actual tests, especially since this claim comes from a city that's had an active Superfund site since 1983.

neighborhood beautification

Every morning I run through my neighborhood. I used to like the track at the nearby middle school but I find that I like checking out my neighbors' yards more than counting laps. This morning my nosey-ness paid off. Halfway down the first street on my normal route I saw some small, wavy elephant ears peeking out of a yard waste bag. Being a gardener with no shame, I opened the bag and pulled out a good-sized cluster. I decided they would be kind of hard to hold while running, so I doubled back to drop them off at the house. While walking down the sidewalk I noticed the sad state of the drainage ditch located on the side of my house. I live on the corner of a relatively busy Gainesville street, and the drainage ditch was full of garbage and fallen tree limbs. Knowing the city was unlikely to clean it up anytime soon I decided to make it my project for the day (after my run, of course.)

After breakfast I spent an hour or so filling a kitchen garbage bag and my recycle bin with garbage and glass bottles. Then came the hard work. It took five wheelbarrow loads to get all the limbs out of the ditch. This is what I ended up with:
I had some neighbor's children offer to help me with the last few loads, which made it feel more like a neighborhood project. Many neighbors who walked or drove by made positive comments about our work. That certainly made me feel good. I hope our work encourages nearby streets to follow suit!

fat tuesday food

My community is lucky enough to have a wonderful family-owned grocery. Like most local stores, it serves different niche markets. Ward's is the best place in town to go for fresh, locally grown veggies and plants. Their meat department is amazing -- they cut thick steaks fresh every day and have yummy homemade sausage you can buy by the pound. It's also the best natural foods store in town with an impressive bulk section filled with hard-to-find ingredients. But they also sell pig's feet and other classic southern food fixings. Add in the largest chocolate selection I have ever seen in any grocery store and an impressive beer collection, and what's not to love?

While I enjoy spending time roaming through the aisles looking at all the new products they have on the shelves, the store's smaller size means I can't guarantee that any preferred pantry staple will be there. This means that I swing by the neighboring Publix afterwards to stock up on cheaper staples and favored brands (I know I'm not the only one who does this because I always see at least one person at Publix who I saw at Ward's just minutes earlier.) Since my budget requires me to be an organized shopper, I usually try to plan a week's worth of meals before going grocery shopping but I always leave wiggle room just in case. It's a good thing I do otherwise I never would have come up with tonight's dinner.

Ward's had a great sale on large shrimp for the Super Bowl, so I decided to buy a pound. Limes were also on sale so I threw a couple of those in my basket. Fresh garlic and scallions were on my list already, and as I left Ward's a plan for dinner began to emerge. As you can tell from earlier food posts, most of my creations have a Latin flair. This one is no different. At Publix I bought my favorite canned black beans that already include some spices, as well as some basic white rice and whole-wheat tortillas. This is what I ended up making:


pen loves paper's Garlic-Lime Shrimp with Herbed Black Beans and Rice

1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
Zest of 2 limes (retain limes for juicing)
salt and pepper to taste
5 scallions, chopped
1/4-1/2 teasp. red pepper flakes
4 cloves of garlic, minced
olive oil
1 cup rice, cooked
1 can black beans
1/2 tblsp. cumin
cilantro
parsley
tortillas

Add shrimp, lime zest, 3 cloves minced garlic, 3 chopped scallions, salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes to a non-reactive (glass) dish. Add enough olive oil to coat the shrimp and mix until shrimp is covered. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, cook the rice according to package directions. Chop up a handful of cilantro and parsley. Add the black beans into a saucepan and set on the stove at low heat. Add half of the cilantro and parsley, the remaining chopped garlic clove, cumin, and one chopped scallion to the black beans. Squeeze in the juice of half of a lime. Stir to combine, then occasionally until warm. Once the rice is cooked, add the remaining cilantro, parsley, and scallion. Squeeze some of the remaining lime juice into the rice. Stir to combine.

Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add shrimp mixture to pan and cook 3-4 minutes or until shrimp are cooked through. Layer some rice, beans, and shrimp onto a tortilla. Squeeze some more lime juice over the mixture. Enjoy!


Of course it would be a waste of limes not to make a Cuba Libre to go with dinner:

Shot of your favorite rum
Juice of half a lime
Coke

Add the rum and lime to a glass. Top with Coke. Stir. Add ice to taste. Fiddle with proportions to your liking. I tend to like less alcohol in my drinks, so you may wish to add two shots for a stiffer Cuba Libre.

Happy Fat Tuesday! (If you live in one of the 24 Super Tuesday states I hope you remembered to vote!)

florida primaries

I just voted. How about you? Florida has closed primaries, meaning you can only vote for candidates within your registered party. I used to be an Independent, but since I couldn't vote in primaries, I switched affiliation to Democrat in 2000. Even if you are a Florida Independent voter, today's election is important to determine the fate of Constitutional Amendment 1, which would decrease home owner's taxes and all the services that they pay for. My community also happens to be voting in 3 new city commissioners so I expect voter turnout to be higher than in the rest of the state. We'll see. You have until 7 p.m. to cast a ballot. Make sure you do!

sour obsession

It's winter in the Sunshine State, and while the weather may not give it away, the sunny-colored fruit all over grocery stores and farmer's markets couldn't make it any clearer. Yes, it's citrus season.

It all started with a giant pink grapefruit Tim and I picked up during a visit to the Oldsmar Flea Market in early December. It was the sweetest thing I'd eaten in a long time. Thus started my quest for more deliciously sweet grapefruit closer to home. I tried all the usual haunts: Ward's, the 441 farmer's market, the downtown farmer's market, and favorite roadside stands. Since then I have eaten a lot of grapefruit, but have yet to replicate the flavor of that sweet Oldsmar fruit. Along the way I've been picking up anything that looks interesting: sour oranges for Cuban cooking (mmm... mojo criollo marinade), ugli fruit (think orange, grapefruit,and tangerine hybrid), and honeybells (cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit.)

Now I usually have limes in the house for Cuban cooking and cocktails (Cuba Libre or Caipirinha, anyone?) Lemons usually come out for summertime tarts and lemonade. But when I visited Leesburg last week one of the antique stores had Ponderosa lemons on the counter for 50 cents. I figured it would taste more like a Meyer lemon, meaning it would be more sweet than tart. But when I sliced it open Sunday night with a mild chicken marinade in mind I was met with a super tart smell! I ended up using half of the giant lemon for a 3-serving pitcher of lemonade while Tim created a yummy lemon-garlic-Cachaça chicken creation for the grill. We indulged in a giant-sized pumelo (aka Chinese grapefruit) too. It had a really thick skin with tough membranes between the wedges of fruit. And lots and lots of seeds -- over 60! Some pieces tasted tart like grapefruit, some were more mild. It was deliciously messy.

I've certainly been having fun in my all-citrus kitchen, but I still have yet to find another perfectly tart grapefruit.

holiday craft overload

My Mom commissioned me to create gifts for her coworkers this year. She's worked in the same office for 24 years now, so it was like making gifts for old friends since I grew up around many of her work-mates. I made two different things: 8 sets of four holiday coaster and 12 sets of four alligator pushpins (did I mention she works at the University of Florida?)



















I've made both things before, but not in large quantities -- not to mention I've never completed everything in one day! My biggest struggle was trying to figure out how to mount the pushpins for poke-free giving. I wandered around Jo-Ann's with a semi-idea (my preferred method of decision making.) I turned down the floral aisle and there it was -- a giant sheet of one-quarter-inch styrofoam! It was a lot easier to cut than I ever imagined it would be. I just used a straight edge and a sharp craft knife and made sure to score the styrofoam to help prevent ripping before cutting all the way through it. I designed and printed out sticker gift tags to cover the styrofoam completely. I created a smaller card stock version of the gift tags for the coaster sets.

I was so happy with the results that I quickly whipped up extra sets for Tim's family. His brother is a rabid Columbus Blue Jackets fan, so I colored some bee stamps dark blue instead of yellow. I'm not really sure they look like blue jackets, but I'll let you be the judge...


I finally delivered the coaster and pushpin sets to Mom's house at 1am Thursday morning -- yawn! But I feel great having all my holiday responsibilities taken care of. Actually, I'm waiting on one more. Mom wants me to make her a purse like the one she's worn to death, but she keeps forgetting to give me her old one to use as a template. So that will likely end up being an early 2008 gift.

holiday wedding

My friends Candi and Andrew got married last weekend. Their wedding in the courtyard at the Thomas Center was simple and beautiful.
The ceremony was short but full of meaning. Our friend Amy officiated and Candi and Andrew read personally written vows. All of the guests had to stand and pledge to support their marriage -- a really sweet touch. But there was one part that really stood out to me: the beautiful song playing while the wedding party walked down the aisle. I can't seem to get it out of my head. The song, "Lullaby and Exile" by M. Ward, was graciously provided to guests as part of a wedding CD. I'm so glad it was so I can listen to it incessantly:



I will always think of them whenever I hear it. The reception was lots of fun as well, filled with numerous toasts to the bride and groom, good friends, yummy food, and the best music playlist I've ever heard at a wedding. Honestly, how often does one get to dance to Radon's "Kibbles & Bits" in a fancy dress and heels? If I had that mp3 to share, believe me I would (that record's been on the turntable lots since I got home. Oh, memories.) Congratulations Candi and Andrew. You two are amazing!

winter? already?

The last four days have been unbearable -- gray skies, constant spitting rain, and biting wind. The house temperature has plummeted to 71 degrees, chilly for a gal who leaves her thermostat on 80 all summer. Could winter be here early? I certainly hope not. It's just got to be a passing phase. Please?

But in the meantime, I've settled into cozy winter tasks. I'm halfway done with the scarf I'm knitting. I promised my mother I'd create a silent auction item for her women's group function next week. I've settled on sewing holiday coasters in a quilt-square theme. I'm combining 3-5 of the fabrics shown here in each square, which will be added to a felt backing. It took an hour and a half of debating at the fabric store to come up with these pairings -- I wish I was more decisive! Denyse Schmidt Quilts has been my inspiration for this project. Her off-kilter geometric designs have always caught my attention. If these coasters go well, I hope to dive into my first quilt by the beginning of the year.

I've also been commissioned to create holiday gifts for about 20 coworkers -- Gators themed. I have some ideas kicking around in my head, and I hope to have some drawings done by the weekend. As always, I'll post my progress with these tasks in the next few days and a few fun surprises, too. And maybe if I'm lucky the sun will finally come out of hiding.

window weather!

It's finally time to open the windows -- if only in the evening. I hope the cool breezes stay around for a while. Maybe I'll have to dig out the sweaters soon? Probably not. It is still Florida, after all.

festival season

Phew! It's been a busy week. I'll try to make up for not posting with some extras today and tomorrow. I've been enjoying the festival fun that comes with fall in North Florida. I love the way this community comes alive again once the consistent 90-degree days give way to 70s and 80s. Last weekend was the Thornbrooke Arts Festival. I went with my Mom on Sunday -- the first mostly dry day after four days straight of rain. There was a lot of jewelry at the show and an abundance of glass pumpkins. Mom found one we both fell in love with, but it was already sold. We were disappointed with the day after that until I found this cute print that Mom graciously bought for me:


I'm a Gainesville Area NOW board member, so it was particularly cute to me. I think I'll put it in a simple frame and hang it in my office.

Today I went to the Friends of the Library fall book sale (there's also a smaller one in the spring.) For the uninitiated, the FOL has about 300,000 books, records, CDs, DVDs, games, and more crammed in a meticulously organized fashion into a (now) small warehouse. The sale runs for five days, but if you want a chance at the best of the best you ought to be there Saturday morning. It's so celebrated that folks even camp out the night before, making sure to be one of the first through the door. It's a FOL ritual of mine to pass by the parking lot the evening before just to check out the campers (there were at least two out there yesterday at 4:30.) How do these campers know what they want? Well, that's the fun of the sale. Typically you never really know what you'll find at the sale since there is no preview day, which is different from most library sales. By the time the doors open at 9:00, the line has snaked through the parking lot several times and down the street. Being full of mostly book lovers though, the entrance into the sale is usually orderly and quick. I picked up a few old Marthas (magazines are only a quarter), a quilting magazine, and the Home Restaurant cookbook. Home, located in NYC's Greenwich Village, was the only place I ate more than once the entire summer I spent at NYU. The cookbook brings back lots of good memories.

Unfortunately, I missed the 12th annual fall plant sale at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, the Natural History Museum's ButterflyFest 2007, and several fall festivals in surrounding communities. Next weekend is the 1890s festival in McIntosh and Morningside's native plant sale. I'm hoping to get to both before the 3:30 UF/Kentucky kickoff.

the lovers, the dreamers ...

Today I woke up grumpy. Madeleine was pawing at me, wanting to go outside. I didn't get enough sleep and was still achy from all that cleaning yesterday. There was nothing for breakfast so I went out to get pastry and a paper. As I left the store it started to rain, again, for like the fifth day in a row. That made me grumpier, until I got in my car and looked up -- at a full rainbow. The rain stopped as quickly as it started and the rainbow became clearer, lifting my grumpy mood away. Today will be better -- I know, I know (I only wish I'd had my camera!)

saying good-bye is never fun

Tonight I said good-bye to a friend, fellow activist, & neighbor. John got a job in Portland, and he's moving there next week. Larry is staying for now to put the house on the market. I will miss them dearly. They live on the next block over, and I love to walk Madeleine there just to stare at their amazing garden. John and Larry encouraged me to get more involved with the Labor Party and the fight for HR 676 -- single-payer health care for all. Listening to their experiences encourages me to do more.

I suppose I should be used to this. After all, Gainesville is a college town so transient by nature. But even after 25 years here I just can't get used to saying good-bye. I'm thrilled for John and Larry. I know fabulous adventures await them on the west coast. Good luck. I'll miss you both.

AND ... check out this great shirt Joe gave him as a going away gift. Go Gators!