best of portland

woo-hoo! go, milo!

we won "best place to buy clothes in the middle of the night," or something like that. although, as should be expected with the phoenix, or maybe "the press" in general, there are many boo-boos in this little write up. oh well. it's not called "milo in maine," but close enough.

see, this is milo. this is milo in maine. got it? milo is the store, and milo in maine is the clothing line. think it's too confusing? really, you can be honest with me. although we have no intention of changing either name, no matter what you think!

the worst job in the world

be glad that your job isn't dressing in a donut suit (chocolate with rainbow sprinkles, to be precise) and standing outside dunkin donuts waving at people with your big, big gloved hands. and dancing around, sort of, and being led blindly by "handlers" wearing dunkin donuts uniforms.

(p.s. there is just the tiniest shred of dignity in wearing, say, a lobster costume. but there is none to be found in a) dressing as a donut and b) working for the satanic, bad-coffee, trashy enterprise known as dunkin donuts.)

more good food

i made another recipe from vegan with a vengeance last night, and it was so delicious that i didn't even have a chance to take a photograph of it before it was all gobbled up. this was "sweet potato crepes with cilantro-tamarind sauce." the vegan crepes have chickpea flour in them, and they end up tasting kind of like dosas (you know, those south indian pancakes filled with spiced potatoes and peas or whatever, like you can get at hampton chutney company, should you happen to be in soho at lunchtime). they're filled with indian-spiced sweet potato, onion, and red pepper, and topped with this amazing creamy cilantro-tamarind-cashew-coconut milk sauce.

it inspired a dinner party idea: a dosa party! want to come? here's our plan -- we'll make a whole pile of vegan crepes/dosas, and then have all kinds of indianish fillings to choose from. sweet potatoes, potatoes and peas, curried cauliflower, some kind of saag-type spinachy filling, etc. doesn't that sound good? we could make basmati rice on the side, and have hot chai to drink. mmmm....

so, after dinner, we watched the first disc of undeclared, judd apatow's post-freaks and geeks tv show. we weren't disappointed, because we didn't expect it to live up to the fabulousness of f&g, but it's really pretty funny. i would highly recommend it to you freaks and geeks fans out there.

tardy

isn't "tardy" just about the worst word ever? it sounds like it's about ready to enter the halls of obscurity to me. yes, boo was tardy today, arriving at school at precisely 9:02 am. m accused me of getting him there late this morning just so i could document the infamous tardy slip. hmm...

sweet potato fries

yep, plenty o' vegetables roasting in my oven lately... i made some fries by cutting up a sweet potato and tossing it with a little olive oil, some cumin, coriander, and black pepper, and cooking it at 425 for about 30 minutes. i put a heaping plate of them on the table with some healthy-type ketchup, turned my back, and when i came back they had VANISHED.

suspects: bean, boo, artemis, and crazy girl.

just joking. i made the fries for them, my fingers crossed that they wouldn't taste too healthy-like. next we'll see what they think of the tofu "fish" sticks from vegan lunch box.

don't fear the brussels sprouts

make some yummy ones, like so:

get yourself 15 or 20 of them. cut off the woody bottom, remove any unattractive leaves, and cut them in half. lay them in a baking dish, and pour atop: approximately 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 4 tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper. roast them for about 1/2 hour, stirring now and then, til tender. mmmm, good, and good for ya.

google, part two

wow, people were busy googling last night. since the last time i checked, i've got all kinds of new searches which brought people to my extremely special blog (still nothing bizarre, unfortunately, but still):

vegan blueberry buckle
lizzie lou (many dogs with this name, apparently)
mommy is a democrat
spaghetti-o factory
squirrel costume

not bad for one weekend. i must be more prolific, as well as more bizarre, i think, to reap the benefits i seek.

hey, my family is back, my house is no longer clean, and i am cooking all kinds of stuff (even stuff i don't feel like eating). but it is pretty wonderful to have them all back! m and i watched i heart huckabees last night, which i expected to be completely meandering, plotless, and frustrating from what i'd read about it, but i kind of loved it. i want an existential detective of my own!

two frightening books

versus...
















while it's obvious which one i would buy if i had small children who required some righteous propaganda, there is something horrifying about both of these books. i love in "liberals under my bed" that ted kennedy, hillary clinton, and a donkey are hanging out under the bed together -- hey, that would be just fine with me, personally. and as far as "why mommy is a democrat," while we're all crazy about squirrels, of couse, these particular squirrels, as rendered by this particular illustrator, are fairly creepy. and they're not wearing any pants. LIBERALS!

best ice cream in portland

just thought i'd let you know that maple's organics now has a sweet lil' website.

google you

no fair. unlike my blogging brother, no one has stumbled upon me by googling weird things. the weirdest so far was "japanese ear scoop," although i guess "spaghetti-o recipe" isn't too bad. also i've had "spaghetti-o t-shirt."

happy birthday, adam!!

have a wonderful day!!

i just remembered my dream from last night

well, to be honest, i remember no details. except the MINIATURE HORSES!!!

art opening

before they left on their trip, m, bean, boo and i attended boo's art opening at meca. there was more to the exhibit than just this photograph, but this is kind of the centerpiece:














he was not entirely pleased with it, because there were other photos taken which he preferred, and he thought (accurately) that he should have been the one to choose which would be used. but i LOVE it. it's all about the hair. it's a little hard to see in this picture-ma-phone photo, with light reflecting off the glass, but it's really lovely, and very boo.

writing prompt

topic: "if i had an entire weekend to myself, i would..."

this is easy, since i am currently living the dream! here's what i would do (and this has been tested and found to be accurate, this very weekend):

1. i would walk mr. min-the-dog an unprecedented four times a day.

2. i would go to the gym every single day, and stay as long as i wanted (i.e. as long as the lifetime movie of the week continued to captivate).

3. i would eat whatever i wanted, whenever i felt like eating it, and i would not fix any food for anyone but me, except for pouring dog food in min's bowl.
3a. this would undoubtedly include eating bowls of cereal in front of the tv and making a meal of a box of crackers and half an avocado.

4. i would painstakingly clean my house, reaping a zen kind of pleasure from it.

5. i would get some work done.

6. i would go out to breakfast with my friend dancer lady.

7. i would waste little time in actively missing my family, with the following exceptions:
7a. i would get teary-eyed when telling a friend i ran into that bean is going to high school in the fall, and that she'll be 14 on her next birthday.
7b. i would feel my heart leap strangely when i spotted a long-haired boy head which bore a close resemblance to boo's head.
7c. i would miss m with a sudden pang as we exchanged chatty text messages about the pasta he cooked his parents last night.

8. i would read lots of magazines, including catching up on old new yorkers.

9. i would arrange my netflix queue so that three movies would arrive which would only be interesting or appropriate for me and me alone. these might include:
9a. morvern callar
9b. sylvia
9c. kinsey

10. and finally, i would luxuriate in silence, and i would only occasionally catch myself talking to my dog.

how ruthless are the gentle

this is one of my favorite pieces from the portrait exhibit at the ica. i can't get "how ruthless are the gentle" out of my head (the phrase, not the picture so much, although i like it. it reminds me a little of photographs by my friend karen).

i need help in analyzing the emily dickenson poem it's inspired by, though. english majors?? anyone??


















how ruthless are the gentle -
how cruel are the kind -
god broke his contract to his lamb -
to qualify the wind -

minnow

i am trying to fill up my blog with pleasant photographs, so that you will no longer have to gaze upon the cheesy, members only jacket-wearing image of marc silverstein below.

also, i wanted to note that while minnow the freckleboy is just about the sweetest, best, lovingest dog in the world, he does have a weakness for tissues. especially nice salty, damp, used tissues. yummmmm. oh, and he'll pretty much jump up and eat anything that's lying unguarded on the dining room table, too. but otherwise, he's nearly perfect.

boo on wheels

have i mentioned how much boo is loving rollerblading right now? he has practiced a lot with crazy girl in her fabulous roller disco/basement, and a few weeks ago he attended a happy wheels birthday party at which he had a blast. he doesn't have his own skates yet (hmmm... someone's birthday is coming up pretty soon, isn't it?), but he can borrow artemis's just about whenever he has the irrepressible urge to skate around and around and around the block.

food network

oh, hello. i'd like to introduce you to my least-favorite host on the food network, marc silverstein:


















i only watch the food network when i am at the gym, since time-wasting tv is what it's all about for me at the gym. i was waiting for rachael ray (my favorite food network host) to come on, watching the end of the best of, when this guy caught my attention. the episode was called "waterfront tables," so his maryland/pennsylvania accent immediately jumped out at me (examples: water. ocean.). do i have a prejudice against the baltimore accent or something? i have to do some serious soul-searching on this issue, but suffice it to say that i developed a loathing for marc silverstein as i watched, and his pronounciation of "haute cuisine," several times, as "hot cuisine" can't be excused by geography.

lookee!

designed by boo and modelled by our very own chazzy, resident model-barista-bookseller-handyman-guitar teacher-cafe manager, and all-around renaissance man. check out the link for more t-shirt styles.

ears for lunch

come and get em, kids!

i can't bring myself to provide a link to the site where i found this image. it's for medical professionals only, not appropriate for the family-friendly atmosphere i'm attempting to cultivate around these parts.













but the above is for my brother, who is interested in japanese ear-wax rituals.

from jbox:

"The Japanese love cleaning their ears, and it is often a sign of love if your partner will clean your ears for you. It is not an uncommon sight in Japan to see a man with his head on his partner's lap while she scapes out his ear wax with the precision of a surgeon. This Hello Kitty mimikaki (ear pick) will help you recreate the uniquely Japanese experience of having your ear wax cleaned out."

the fruits of my labor

this is what i've been working on today -- these are black camisoles with "rock" stitching. pretty, huh?

and here you can see a close-up of the stitches.



















i love sewing these shirts, no matter what "sweatshop" comments i may make from time to time. mine is a very luxurious non-sweatshop, with all the tea i can drink, bathroom breaks whenever i need them, access to online radio streaming, and a dog to walk, should my legs need a stretch.

i'm proud of my mastery of the sewing machine (despite the fact that i still don't really know how to sew anything useful, like curtains, say, or clothes). i can thread that thing so fast, wind a bobbin at the speed of light...i can even take it all apart, clean and oil it, and put it all back together in five minutes.

and the actual sewing, when i'm on a roll and not sewing the fabric to itself or letting the bottom thread run out or spilling something on the shirt, etc, is very meditative. maybe it demonstrates a lack of creativity, but i love semi-mindless, repetitive work like this. and at the same time, it is aesthetically pleasing, and quasi-artistic!

spring

ahh, the first beer bottle of the season! the sun is shining, the birds are singing, idiots passing in cars with open windows are flinging empties on my lawn...it must be spring!

in a related item: why do people not consider cigarette butts trash ? i'm positive that the majority of the smokers who fling their butts from their car windows and casually drop them as they walk throw most of their trash in a garbage can. i really sense that they don't actually think it counts as littering.

i am particularly sensitive to this and many other driving-related issues due to the location of my house at a busy intersection where i'm able to do extended anthropological studies of driving behaviors, as well as listen to a bizarre car radio soundtrack all summer long (obviously heavy on the thumping bass, but - surprisingly - also rife with very loudly played songs by foreigner).

the birds

this movie terrified certain people i know as children, but i am pleased to report that my own children had basically the same reaction i did when i first saw it. there are genuinely scary moments (when tippi hedren is attacked by crows and seagulls in the bedroom at night), but just as many that are perversely funny (especially when the schoolchildren are dive-bombed by crows). and it is strangely satisfying to see hedren's character, melanie, go from being utterly composed, perfectly pressed and tidy with her neat hairdo and her clean fur coat, to being pecked and bloodied by birds.

vegan blueberry buckle

bean made the post-punk kitchen's blueberry buckle recipe last night, and it came out amazingly delicious. it's a thin layer of cake covered with blueberries and a crumbly layer on top.














boo is not a huge fan of blueberries, but he and crazy girl ate three pieces each while they watched corpse bride. they liked the movie, but they thought it was very sad.















meanwhile, in the dining room, m, bean and i were polishing off the rest of the cake.

deaf dog to the rescue

local interest news story of the day: so, this vacuum cleaner salesman was, uh, hiding in the closet of someone's house, under some clothes, and the person's deaf cocker spaniel alerted him to the intruder's presence in his closet (this sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke), and that's about it. the vacuum salesman ran away and was detained after going home and changing his clothes.

"Deputy Police Chief Steve Trahan interviewed Wood, who said he was trying to sell vacuum cleaners Thursday, but did not have a vacuum cleaner with him or any brochures about the product.

'He said the door was open, he walked in and closed it behind him and got scared when the home owner came in,' Trahan said.

Emery said the case ended well, with nobody getting hurt, but it shows that people should lock their doors."

one of my favorite details of the story is that the vacuum cleaner salesman drives a "purple plymouth breeze."

passport

i accomplished the first step towards obtaining bean's passport today, by taking her to the aaa office to get her regulation-size passport photos taken. i was under the impression that it was free, but no, i had to shell out six bucks for them. how i wish she would allow me to scan them, so you could see her in all her official cuteness, but she pretty much hates them, so the only person who's going to be getting a peek at them is whatever official-type passport inspector she may encounter at the airport.

step two, submitting the passport application, will be taken next week. i am gathering everything we'll need (birth certificate, social security number, eighty-two dollars, two parents, and the drivers licenses of those parents).

hey, did i mention that bean is traveling abroad this summer?? she is going to england with a&j, robot boy, and pink! lucky girl.

maple's organics ice cream

bean and i read an article in the portland forecaster about this new, all-organic ice cream/bakery place, so we went by today before her latin class to check it out. it was AMAZING. i am now officially instructing every person i know who lives in portland to go try it. it's at 796 forest ave, at the corner of hartley street (not far from baxter woods). the woman who owns it is so sweet, and the place smells incredible when you walk in, since she does a ton of baking as well as making homemade ice cream and sorbets. she'll take special orders, too, including wheat- or dairy- free treats. she buys all of her ingredients from local organic farmers, but most importantly, the ice cream is really delicious.















bean had the maple praline pecan, which i think is kind of a house specialty; it was sublime. i sampled way more than my fair share of it. i had the mexican chocolate sorbet, which (completely coincidentally) is entirely dairy-free, made with dark chocolate, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and almond extract. it was incredibly creamy and really heavy (in a nice way) on the cinnamon.















see? all gone.

i have a mental list of the things portland needs in order to be a really great (if tiny) city, most of them involving food of various kinds (for example, good middle eastern food, including but not limited to, cheap, good falafel; excellent new york-style pizza; ethiopian food; an entirely vegetarian restaurant; and many more!). foremost on the list has been great ice cream. everyone goes to beal's, but i find it really mediocre, to be honest. when you have a hankering for a creamy-but-unnatural softserve cone, there's no place like red's. and then there's coldstone creamery, home of the $9 ice cream scoop (i'm only exaggerating the tiniest bit, plus they "sing" if you tip them).

anyway, i think this new place may qualify as the really excellent ice cream spot we've been needing. uh oh. could be dangerous.

bill napoli's phone numbers

he's a hideously misogynistic south dakota senator who favored the abortion ban which that state passed last month, with no exceptions included for rape or incest (the ban can't actually go into effect unless it's upheld by the supreme court, but, yikes, have you seen the supreme court lately??). this cartoon, by stephanie mcmillan, has been floating around for a little while, and the original just sold on ebay yesterday for more than $2000, which will be donated to planned parenthood and a south dakota sioux tribe which is opening a reproductive health clinic.

spam

my mom found a recipe for spam fajitas in her email "spam" folder. who finds this as funny as i do?

dear cape elizabeth lady,

i just can't get our brief interchange off my mind. on the other hand, it's probably completely slipped yours by now, so let me refresh your memory:

scene: outside the building which houses our daughters' choir rehearsal space. this building is a few blocks away from the house in which my family and i reside. it is evening, just getting dark, and unseasonably warm.

me: oh, the door's locked.

you: well, it's probably a good idea for them to keep the door locked. with all those girls in there.

me: mmm.

you: and this is such a sketchy neighborhood.

me: uh...you think so?

you: oh, yes. it gives me the creeps.


almost as if i were moving through the stages of grief, i went through many phases of my reaction to this interaction. first, shock and the speechlessness that accompanies shock. sketchy? i thought? creeps? i thought? huh?

second, confusion. why would you assume that no one whose daughter attended such an elite organization-for-poised-young-ladies could possibly live in this particular neighborhood? do you always speak so rashly, without considering that you know nothing about the person to whom you're speaking, including where that person lives? and what, exactly, do you find "sketchy" about this verging-on-suburban area of lovely portland, maine?

next came anger, of course, because for god's sake, i LIVE in this neighborhood, stupid lady! and i can envision with such precise detail where YOU live (although i know nothing about you, either): on a charming street, in a doll house, probably with a water view and a perfect green lawn and a lexus suv parked in your perfect driveway.

now i believe i've arrived at the final stage of coming to terms with our exchange: pity . i can see now that you've lived a very sheltered, safe, limited kind of life. your 40-something years haven't brought you out of your own tidy neighborhood, or other neighborhoods like it, unless you were driving through a "sketchy" area with your windows rolled up and your doors locked tight (i say this as a person who grew up in suburbia, who has also led a blessedly safe life, but whose world view has thankfully grown as i have). poor you!

my friend mama d wants to take you on a field trip to camden, new jersey. what do you say??

school art project

boo's school has started its annual collaborative art project with meca, our local art college. it's one of the coolest things his school does, teaming up with their art education program so that the kids get this amazing experience and the art students get hands-on practice in working with bunches of kids. they always coordinate with whatever exhibit is currently at the ica, which right now has to do with self-portraits.

the school takes a couple of field trips to meca, where the kids tour the galleries and do a little art work (they took polaroids of themselves this time -- or had other people take them, of important parts of their bodies. boo picked his hair, which is his most distinguishing characteristic, being long, luxurious, and blond, and his feet, which are quite useful for scottish highland dancing purposes). the meca students also take their own field trips out to boo's school, where they do most of the actual art work. when they're done, they hold an evening art opening with all the kids' work displayed in one of meca's galleries, and with juice and snacks, too.

this project more than makes up for the art program at school, which leans discouragingly toward the mediocre.

the new york trilogy

i may have reached paul auster saturation, at least for the time being. not that i didn't like this book, but by the end i was really tired of private eyes and people ending up locked in small rooms with their lives and physical selves deteriorating all around them. i'm realizing that most of his characters need a big kick in the butt.

lumen designs

i'm not sure i'm adding this to my wish list, because it's such a completely unnecessary item, but these are so cool. they're "stainless steel oil-lamp shadow projectors," which cast these incredible silhouetted shadows on the wall, beautiful images like this tree and birds and things. oooh, pretty.