spotlight
Birthday Boxes
What to get someone for their 30th birthday? I’d used up my quotas of photobooks and custom made art prints for awhile and none of my ideas seemed to match up with the significance that seems to get dropped on these deca-milestone birthdays? To add fuel to the fire, the present also needed to work for someone that’s nine months pregnant and a house already stuffed with newborn paraphenalia. And I’m just smart enough to realize this present should probably be more about her and less about the baby. Which brings us back to the original question. Jewelry wasn’t totally jibing with our pending addition and therefor more frugal ambitions. What was a guy to do?
Garden Party
Last year I missed the window for the cool season, early spring planting. I had to spend late March, early April pulling up the grass, building the raised beds in the yard and rehabbing/importing soil. I didn’t actually get any plants into the ground until late May. Sure, like a tone deaf man at a karaoke bar, I tried to give it a go with some lettuce and brussel sprouts anyway. The results were not exactly Martha Stewart and rainbows. The heat just kept a foot on the necks of those plants and they never went anywhere. That corner of the garden was like an abandoned block of Detroit. The one real failure in last year’s garden experiment.
Cupcakes for Chelle
The beginning of April means Michelle’s birthday which also means starting to plan for her requested strawberry dessert. This year, for the second time in a row, we are opting for the cupcakes over the layer cake. Last year’s cupcakes were quite good. After baking as many cupcakes as I have over the past few years, if one still makes me sit up and take notice, it’s probably worth a repeat. So, after conferring with the guest of honor, we decided to do the vanilla cupcakes with strawberry filling and strawberry studded buttercream. The only catch was that I’d misplaced the recipes that had proven such a success last year.
Homemade Bagels
I tried the bagel recipe from ABiFMaD this weekend. One of the things I like about this technique is the low level of handling. Dough can be scary. It can be disobedient, slipping and oozing out of one’s grip. Those long strings of protein can have minds of their own. Handle it the wrong way and you find yourself facing some tough questions. Where’s the bread for the stew? Why did it collapse? Why does it look like underbaked snot? I’m still trying to work up the nerve to try another pie dough after the Labor Day incident of ’07.
My Affair with Fresh Bread
I love bread. In my mind that Atkins low-carb fad was simply old school Ruskie propaganda. A twisted cult existing solely to warp the minds of decent working folks. Who doesn’t love bread? It’s damn near un-American. I mean c’mon, it’s made from amber waves of grain and double rainbows. It’s a wonderful thing and supermarkets across this great nation are perpetuating a crime against tastebuds with those plastic sacks of bland, uniform masses of preservatives and chaffe. I’ll concede in moments of weakness and convenience I’ve bought a sandwich loaf, but I’ve never enjoyed it.
Top 5 Non-Denominational Days of the Year
The iceberg that has parked itself in my driveway since October is finally showing signs of getting onboard with this global warming trend and the dog has finally shown signs of recognizing that there is grass to pee on beneath that cold, white carpet she desipses. All sure signs that spring is finally decided to yawn, stretch, brush the night gunk off her teeth and get the coffee brewing in New England. She hasn’t deigned to actually make eye contact yet and I’ m still wearning the winter coat most days, but it’s close. So close. Close enough to feel that faint whiff of warm spring air on your neck.
Ripe for the Slapping
People Who Deserve It is just what you’d expect. Another overly, snakry and sarcastic list of people that just plain need a slap of common sense. Of course, that doesn’t make it any less true. One type that kills me on my daily train commute is nubmer 83: full volume headphone guy. I can’t decide [...]
The Notebook
Michael Beirut on his working life in notebooks. I have a hit or miss relationship with notebooks. I really want to use them. I feel like I should use them more. I’m happy to lust after buttery Moleskin covers. I tried earnestly to log our trip to Italy last year with mixed results. I think [...]
Once Upon a Time
One of the many problems I have with PowerPoint and its use in the workplace, the foremost is probably that for presentations it has become far more of a crutch than a useful tool. If you are going to give a presentation, you need to tell a story.
