• Jan
    2018
    16
    2018 / Jan / 16

    Camera-Ready or Not

    2017 was a year very full of both good and bad, and December proved to be a month of concentrated 2017. We finished our two holiday shoots for the year in late November, and my plan was to spend most of December focusing on the holidays, do a simple but fun New Year shoot mid-to-late in the month, and in mid-January start 2018 shoots in earnest.

    Then December actually happened, and it was like an 80-grit revolving door of suck. Every day found a new and exciting way to make me sad and angry. December was the Baskin-Robbins of Bullshit.

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  • Jan
    2018
    05
    2018 / Jan / 05

    A Good Manchego is Hard to Find

    Completing the last of what little holiday shopping I do invariably lands me at a bookstore. My family exchanges books, always has, always will. I got about nine this past December, including a stack of cozy mysteries, Black Wave which I’ve wanted to read since one of my sisters raved so hard about it a year ago, and Rasika: Flavors of India which I am going to have all kinds of fun with, fun I shall post about right here on this very blog.

    This year, as I was finding goodies for my loved ones, my eye fell upon something I have wanted ever since it was released. That thing was The Bob’s Burgers Burger Book.

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  • Nov
    2017
    17
    2017 / Nov / 17

    The Portlandia Bundt

    For this, my 7th year observing National Bundt Day by baking an original-recipe cake, I had very little idea what would happen. But I had leftover lemon avocado buttercream in my refrigerator and love in my heart. I also had a bag of cacao nibs and, like many of you I’m sure, any hint of a mention of the word “cacao” brings to mind one thing.

    Thus, in all its quirky, vegan, repurposing, cacao-inclusive glory, the Portlandia Bundt was born.

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  • Oct
    2017
    18
    2017 / Oct / 18

    Taking My Dogs to San Diego

    The Guy and I needed to obtain a copy of a document recorded in San Diego County. We could have requested it online, but the turnaround time stated on the county website for documents to be mailed is “several weeks”, a timeframe as impractical as it is ambiguous. So we decided to throw the dogs in the car and take a quick roadtrip; drive down Sunday, visit the recorder’s office Monday morning, spend the rest of the day enjoying a bit of San Diego, and drive home Tuesday.

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  • Aug
    2017
    24
    2017 / Aug / 24

    Vegan Sourdough Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

    This recipe was born of my sourdough starter threatening to gain sentience and run away with one of the backyard squirrels if I left it alone any longer, and my sincere belief that I could not refrain from stabbing myself in the face with a railroad spike if I had to make another banana chip.

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  • Aug
    2017
    09
    2017 / Aug / 09

    Why I Post Outtakes

    Once upon a way back when, in the early days of the website, I created a section called The Gallery of Goofs, Spoofs, and Outtakes. Later, this gallery spawned The Terrible Tues(days) over on Ye Olde Facebook Page. You have probably guessed by now that both of these exist to showcase just a few of the many things that do not go according to plan during any given photo shoot.

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  • Mar
    2017
    30
    2017 / Mar / 30

    The Random Crap in My Kitchen Bundt

    Imagine it’s November 2015, and you are someone who, for the previous four years, has baked an original recipe Bundt cake in observation of National Bundt Cake Day, which is November 15.

    Now let’s fill in some imagine-time details. Close your eyes, and picture a calendar showing November 17. Picture your kitchen counter, showing no sign of any remnants of the cake you baked two days before, because you didn’t bake one. Picture a bunch of odds & ends in your refrigerator and cabinets from various other baking you’ve been doing. Picture yourself just done with the whole idea of ever baking anything else ever for all ever time again ever because you are seriously over carbs and sweets and frosting and you’re already dreading all the Christmas baking you’re going to start in a few weeks. Picture your doneness, your sorrow, your angst, your dread. Now close your eyes a little harder, and picture what you know in your heart will make all of that better.

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  • Nov
    2016
    15
    2016 / Nov / 15

    The Harvey Wallbanger Bundt

    I have been celebrating National Bundt Cake Day by baking an original recipe Bundt every year since 2011. 2015 was not an easy year, the streak almost came to an end, but I persevered and in 2016 headed into November with not only a perfect record but actually prepared. As in, thanks to my phone making notes for me 10 months in advance, I was reminded on November 8th that I needed to shop for the unique ingredients necessary to make the cake a friend on my Facebook page had suggested, a Bundt version of a Harvey Wallbanger.

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  • Jun
    2016
    17
    2016 / Jun / 17

    How I Became a Doctor in 23 Seconds

    A few months back, I was setting up a new iPad, and had to create an account in order to complete the setup.  They didn’t ask for terribly much information, but they did ask for one piece of information that I was not able to provide.

    They asked for my “title”.  It was a required field, my choices were

    Mr.
    Mrs.
    Ms.
    Dr.

    and it would not let me continue setting up the account until I had selected one of those.  Which, for me, was a problem.

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  • Apr
    2016
    04
    2016 / Apr / 04

    An Open Letter to Home Depot

    Earlier today, a friend posted this photo on Instagram

    Now, the fact there is an Instagram that exists, on which my friends can post these things, that is found on the Internet, told me my initial suspicion was correct, but I glanced at the upper right corner of my 27” iMac just in case.  Sure enough, it’s the year 2016.

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  • Mar
    2016
    21
    2016 / Mar / 21

    Why Boaty McBoatface is a Really Good Idea

    There are not many nice ways to say this, so I’m just going to say it as simply and directly as I can; science has a tendency to get a little up its own ass and consequently suck at PR.

    Not to say that isn’t an understandable thing.  When your job is to figure out what could be, the tendency to distance yourself from what is becomes a necessity.  Case in point, Nikola Tesla.  When your head says “I know how we can pull electricity out of the air and make it free for everyone” while the world around you is saying “This person is going to die from a minor flesh wound because Neosporin hasn’t been invented yet” chances are good you’re going to fall in love with a pigeon.  There’s only so much the human brain can do as far as coexisting between The Is and The Possible before something has to give.

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  • Dec
    2015
    20
    2015 / Dec / 20

    Mason Jar Gifts For & From Guys

    Last year, as I was putting together a few last-minute things for the holidays, these happened:

    Yes, I jumped aboard the Mason jar gift trend train, whipped up a batch of just-add-water microwave mug cake mix, added some festive fabric and ribbon and a cute little instruction card, and just like that, three gifts done.  For women.

    And that’s where I paused.  For women.  It is so easy to do this sort of thing for women.  We love cake that happens in 40 seconds.  We love cute.  We love the little glass Universe of infinite possibility that is the Mason jar gift.

    So I said to my best friend, who happened to be nearby and happens to be a guy, “We should do stuff like this for guys.  Guys like stuff in containers, right?  We should do Mason jar gifts for them.”

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