Summer’s End

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It’s the beginning of September, and you can feel it in the evening breeze: these all-too-frequent goosebumps signal the end of a magical summer. Maybe I’m crazy, thinking that somehow, if I just furrow my brow and will it hard enough, the earth will slow down in it’s path around the sun, giving me just another month, another week, another day of late sunsets and impossibly long twilights, night-long bike rides under the full moon, ice cream trucks, and stolen midsummer kisses (the chocolate kind, I swear!). I feel like I’m thirteen again, sitting in the middle of a long and awkward transition into something again unsure, but still knowing the that the cold, sobering rain is just up ahead.

But I’m not thirteen. I’m turning twenty-six this week and it’s time to be a grownup. I’ve got two jobs now, Shayna and I are looking at apartments, and I’m trying to save up to buy a motor vehicle of some sort. Cold, sobering rain.

Mujaddara

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Mujaddara

Mujaddara

I love to look up everything that I eat, so I find myself searching for global variations on simple dishes on wikipedia. A few months ago I came across the entry for mujaddara, a lentil-and-rice dish featuring the savory-sweet addition of caramelized onions. Lentils are a favorite of mine, but I always stuck to the same recipe when preparing them, so I decided to go out on a limb and try this mujaddara thing out. The wiki page has a link to a recipe that looked simple enough. Shayna’s kitchen was stocked with all the necessary ingredients, and I didn’t really feel like spending the money to get a vietnamese sandwich from down the street, so home-cooked lunch was a GO. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but mujaddara doesn’t look like one of those precision dishes anyways. I added some zucchini because we have way too much of it, and I didn’t add the cumin because we were out of it. In the end, though, it turned out great!

Food and Grub

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beans and rice

Grub

It’s very simple: I like to eat. Don’t be fooled by my bony 5’10 1/2″  130 lb frame; given the opportunity I’d take the entirety of Nebraska’s corn harvest and dairy production to make and subsequently eat the largest pile of nachos known to man. There are a couple of restrictions, though, to this digestive habit of mine. Firstly, I’m vegetarian. This rules out many delicious things that I used to eat, like bacon cheeseburgers, tuna melts, and Jello. The second, and perhaps most important restriction is that I’m broke. The whole living-in-the-bay-area-while-making-less-than-$30,000-a-year is kinda tough, so I’ve had to cut a lot of corners when it comes to feeding myself and not going crazy. A third, though less pressing, restriction is my girlfriend’s milk allergy (not the same as lactose intolerance). Since I’m spending the majority of my time at her place and since we like to cook and eat together, most of my home-kitchen-prepped food remains dairy free.

So, food, or rather, grub. A former roommate of mine from Texas once told me that there are really  two different kinds of food: food, and grub. Food is fancy: it’s the stuff of dinner parties, 2+ star restaurants, and catered events. Grub is the day-to-day stuff you eat to get by, the stuff that nourishes you, sustains you, and keeps you going. Peasant food. So, as it is currently, I’ve been eating mostly grub. For the last few months it’s been pinto beans and brown rice with a dish made from garden vegetables here and there (the girlfriend has an excellent veggie garden in the back yard). Sometimes I like to switch it up with pasta, PB&Js, and cheap fruit from the store.

ratatouille

Food-like grub

Tonight, though, was a bit different. The last week I’ve picked up some new income, so I didn’t feel so guilty making a decent grocery run. In addition to the staples, GF and I picked up an eggplant, some onions and herbs and combined them with some zucchini from the garden and assorted ingredients from the fridge to make ratatouille.  It turned out great! Cooking for Engineers, the site we lifted the recipe from, was very straightforward in its instruction and very helpful. It was my intention to eat some and save the rest for the week, but the dish was so tasty that we ended up eating every last bite. If things go well, I might be able to eat like this more often in the future!

The Bird Next Door

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Northern Mockingbird

This guy has a serious set of lungs

Next to Shayna’s house is a mockingbird that resides in her neighbor’s tree. It’s mostly quiet, save for the time between 1:00 and 6:00 in the morning. The bird’s been singing for a couple of weeks now, and it’s killing our precious sleep. Each and every night Shayna and I are greeted by sonorous chirping that seems to emulate the various noises from a nearby car-alarm. Car alarms are great devices, truly, but I like them best when they’re not sounding during the dark hours of the night.

Shayna’s mother did a bit of research and claims that our avian friend is trying his darnedest to find a mate and won’t let up until autumn. It’s going to very, very long summer.

Custom Light Mount

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The other day I went scrounging around San Jose to see if  any bike shops had nifty little gadgets that would let me mount my headlight onto my fork. I stopped by Willow Glen Bicycles to inquire about them, but sadly they had nothing like that in stock. Fortunately, Tony was able to fabricate something for me out of an old seatpost, some threaded thingamajigs, loc-tite, and elbow grease. I think it turned out well:

Full Moon Ride Oct 22 @ 8:00 PM

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Full Moon Ride InfoHave you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

If not, you should definitely check it out some time. In the meanwhile, come join a bunch of lunatics on October 22 for a South Bay adventure into parts unknown to SJBP! Howl at a coyote, tip some cows, and watch out for cougars.

Start point: Santa Teresa Light Rail Station (terminus)
Show up at 7:30 PM
Wheels hit the street by 8:00 PM
Route: http://bit.ly/bojRFr

The first part of the route is essentially a 10-mile-ish straight shot toward Morgan Hill taking Santa Teresa Boulevard. The one and only regroup is at the El Toro Brewpub (http://www.eltorobrewing.com/main.php)
Afterward there are got two options:

  • OPTION A: Wane or Shine, is the same as the first part, only backwards, and on Monterey Road instead of Santa Teresa
  • OPTION B: Lunatic Fringe, is a 20-mile-ish trek through the backroads behind the western hills by the reservoirs. Lots of climbs and dips, lots of curves, lots of critters, and no street lamps. Bring tools, tubes, flareguns, and your wits.

We can take a vote at the pub or we can split the group up, depending on how many of us there are.

Some things to note:

  • The route, especially Option B, is *very* dark, even in a full moon, so bright lights, front AND rear, are recommended.
  • There is only one regroup, and it’s at my favorite brewery. If you plan on drinking, be smart, be of legal drinking age, and carry your ID. Don’t get drunk and don’t be rude. The proprietors, Geno and Cindy, are very nice people.
  • Be on your best behavior! This party goes to places previously untouched by SJBP and the local cops ’round these parts are mighty bored.
  • If you need to bail out earlier than the rest, take Option A, or better yet, just take the #68 bus. It runs all the way to downtown SJ and the Morgan Hill transit center is just a couple of blocks away from the brewpub on Main.

VERY IMPORTANT

This event is for BIRDs and friends of BIRDs. Don’t bring people your bike party mama wouldn’t approve of, and don’t share the route with unruly folk. If 2800 people show up at the lightrail station on the 22nd, I will not be pleased. Morgan Hill is my city, it’s small, and everyone knows everyone here. If the event goes south (no pun intended!), or even if the cops just don’t like it, it’s my head, so keep it (moderately) secret, keep it safe!

Nestled in a Valley

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Nestled in a valley

Originally uploaded by keynell4

I took this picture today while biking to San Jose. Rather than taking the straightforward country roads into the city I went westward through the back roads. This picture was taken to the right of the road. Behind me was the reservoir.

The last month I’ve written a number of entries in my journal, but haven’t taken the time to post them here. I’ll get to it eventually, maybe even in time for Easter.