Hopeful!

Guess what I found in the cereal aisle today? I am hopeful that it is the return of the famously discontinued (around 2001 I believe) Kellogg's Honey Crunch Cornflakes cereal.

Kellogg's has offered weak substitutes for this cereal before, but I am hopeful that this is the real thing. It is a corn flake, not an oat ring or a wheat flake, and there are no fake nut products added as far as I tell.

Report tomorrow!

Clippings

Kirsten's tomato starts from her final days at Mendham High have yielded quite the crop of oddly shaped and not particularly beautiful tomatoes. Were they subject to some weird genetic experiments in the classroom?

Knowing that I had about 50 or so tomatoes outside methodically inching along to an unusable state of mushy, I clipped this recipe from the Star Ledger's Food section on Wednesday, ahem, the Star Ledger's shadow of its former self Food section. (I can't even link to their website since it is virtually impossible to navigate or even find articles from the paper itself.)

The Bacon & Tomato Jam recipe was the one I read all the way through. Why? Who would ever want to eat this? But, in the back of mind I was thinking, hmm...what a great Christmas gift for Peter. He has certainly established prominence as the go-to guy for weird foodstuffs.

I've driven past signs for James River Plantations many times going back and forth to Durham and Miami, and have never been able to allot enough time to head off the exit and find it; there is question whether the historical site even exists or if it's a ploy to get vacationers to wander through some small towns searching for it.

I have had a corn pudding dish at Thelma Hartwick's once; I must have been enthusiastic about it because I have a recipe card she wrote out for me, however, hers calls for cans of creamed corn and regular corn and a box of corn muffin mix, so this one is definitely more authentic. But, like the Bacon & Tomato Jam recipe, I can think of no use for this James River Corn Pudding; Thanksgiving dinner attendees can breathe a sigh of relief.


Grilled Pork Skewers is from Mark Bittman's Minimalist column in the NY Times. I have generally never had success with any of his recipes; his description of the taste and texture rarely match my experience once the dish is done. But I continue to clip the occasional recipe, since his writing always conveys such a sense of of course, how simple, how tasty, this is a no-brainer that I am coerced once again to try.

The slow lane.

It is dark in the morning now! When did this happen? No more bike rides starting before 7:00 a.m. anymore. And runs now begin in the dark.

Today I was out running, on mile 2, the streets just beginning to get light, when I heard some steps behind me, let out a kind of dreamlike yelp, the kind that is totally ineffective in the face of a real emergency, and was passed by a guy running around me. I don't really mind the lapping but jeez, cross over to the other side of the road, or give a cough signal or something. I was very irritated to have my heart speed up like that so early in the run. And I wanted to call out to him, Big deal, see you on mile 10. But I wasn't running 10 that day and haven't in a couple of weeks, so that comeback was internally lame.

I am a bit less impressed with the CarTalk podcasts now that I've discovered the callers are pre-screened, but that is minor, so don't let it stop you from listening. There also seems to be a heavy emphasis on boring cars from the 1990's with 150,000 miles on them and nobody calling seems to have any money, but again, that is trivial. These road trip stories are hilarious, especially this one. I am working on a good question to call in to ask them, not necessarily about actually fixing cars but related to cars in general. Maybe I can work in the whole lame car thing from my teenage years; I haven't heard anyone call in and say "Pacer" yet.

Darn, tomorrow I must go run.

I have been running for about 30 years now. I cannot say I have ever liked it. But it is a habit that is hard to break, a routine that is hard to replicate with comparable results in fitness, but really, that first mile or so is a mental killer.

About mile 4 I am not thinking anymore about turning around and heading for home. And the last 1/8 mile (uphill, in my case) is the best. It is over for another 24 hours. And tomorrow I can ride my bike.

Wildlife

Wildlife I like, or don't mind:
Daddy long leg spiders. They are easy to pick up and toss outside. There is some flailing of the legs which can feel creepy on your hand, yes, but that's about the extent of the interaction.

Domesticated wildlife that I'm not a fan of: (yeah, ugh, on that sentence structure.)
Cats, particularly ones that are sitting quietly on an upholstered piece of furniture and then suddenly, with little warning other than a disquieting gurgle, throw up copious amounts of grossness and then have the audacity to gear up for another bout without moving a muscle.
I feel moved to research the origins of domesticating wildlife - who thought this was a great idea?!

Uh oh, are these cars similar?!

Here on the left is a 1970's era AMC Pacer Wagon, the car we drove often as teenagers.

(Okay, enough with that snorting. It was better than the regular Pacer which was frightening.)

Is there an uncanny resemblance to my current vehicle? I have been wondering...

Cars

Here are some things to think about before purchasing a new vehicle.

Most important: what is the turning ratio? (I think that is the proper term.) This is very important to notice when taking it out for a test ride. (Full disclosure: I have never taken a car out for a test ride before buying it. Why is this? It seems we are always buying a car right before a dealership closes, or before we're on to some other event - it never is a leisurely, pondering type of thing.) This turning ratio can become a point of real dislike with a car instantly, especially if your prior vehicle's TR was amazing and could handle your individual style of quick parking decisions, intricate maneuvers in the library parking lot, and most importantly, especially if you ever need to drive in Maryland, the ease of making U-turns, without having to resort to distressing 3-point turns in the midst of moving traffic. Sigh.

Another item to notice: how high is the point where the door panel and the driver's side window meet? In other words, how easily can you reach the bank's drive-thru window? Does the height of the window/door cause you to twist your arm out through the opening and torque your body to transact business outside your driver's side window? Does this unnatural torquing sometimes cause your foot to move and accidentally rev the engine in park, scaring all occupants and causing you minor embarrassment?

And lastly, check that the sound system controls are conveniently located on the driver's side of the panel, since 99% of the time, the driver will actually be using these buttons, not the passenger.

New swimsuit

From RJ Mars, only $54 off $106. Too bad I couldn't find a photo of the pieces put together, so just squint and wiggle your head slightly and that's probably what I look like anyway! :)

Rarely seen!

We are heading up there this weekend to test the validity of this amazing forecast.

Weird fear of electricity

Confession: I sometimes, well, okay, often. Yikes! Okay, okay, mostly always pull plugs out of sockets by the cords. I do not like getting my fingers too close to those scary dark slashes of unknown electrical power.

My vacuum, my favorite most favorite home appliance, now sports a major industrial plug installed there by the husband who sometimes wonders out loud why the last plug he put on didn't last as long as it should have. While this piece of home wiring is ongoing I have quietly slid out of the room, dashing down to the laundry room so I do not have to answer to that implied accusation of bad plug handling.

I do recall that unit of 8th grade honors science called simply "Electricity" where us overachieving Riverdale & Dolton students - soon to be glumped into the Honors track at Thornton High School, just another segregated high school in suburban Chicago in the 1970's - were expected to independently construct various electrical gadgets and test them and throw off sparks and strip wires and use batteries and the other assorted items in our labeled toolboxes. I despised this unit, though we all loved the frumpy Mr. Kriz and tried not to give him a headache before lunch.

Food I liked today

Breakfast: In a rut. Nothing.
Lunch: I tried to be enthusiastic about the leftover Indonesian spicy noodles from yesterday's lunch, but alas, I am wimpy. Too spicy.
Dinner: The reliable shrimp/artichoke/goat cheese homemade pizza. Okay, so the dough is from Shop Rite's (Ugh. I have never reconciled to that horrible "rite" spelling.) deli case. One hunk of dough can work for a dinner and 2 lunches. Home economics at its best!
Snack Partially frozen Little Debbie Swiss Cake Roll.