Although my cats are named Arthur and Daschel, I tend to call them "[poop|shit] [stains|steaks|flakes]" at this juncture.

I chose Arthur and Daschel from the film "Minority Report", which is of course based on Philip K Dick's short story of the same name. The precogs in the movie are Agatha, Arthur, and Daschel. I'd rather stay true to PKD, but Phil gave his precogs boring names: Mike, Donna, and Jerry.

p.s. Daschel farts.

maybe i'll sing abracadabra

nommmmmmmm

num

sigh

Tonite made black bean soup from elise.com's site, and Northern Cornbread in my cast iron skillet. Yes, I am the bomb. I need a wife with whom to share these things.

i didn't think friends were coming to help me plant my tree today. but i misunderstood their RSVP, and had to jump off the couch, throw on a bra and yesterday's t-shirt. s'all good. shannon and andy and their baby eleanor came along with dan who's visiting from manhattan. too bad andy stayed behind the camera.

BRAEBURN APPLE from New Zealand. Superb late season fruit: very crisp and tangy, more flavorful than Granny Smith. Excellent keeper (like me!). Green with dark red blush. October-November harvest. Self-fruitful.

M-111 ROOTSTOCK Excellent all-round rootstock for apples. Tolerates wet soil, dry soil, poor soil. Resists woolly apple aphids and collar rot. Induces bearing at young age. Unpruned tree height 15-25ft. Trees on M-111 may be held to any desired height by summer pruning.

i plan on pruning the tree to keep the fruit in reach.

not that i'm suffering over it, but i'm suddenly aware of how much instant gratification i'm accustomed to -- this tree won't bear fruit for a few years. i won't get to bring friends and coworkers its bounty until maybe 2010, and i'll be almost 40. that's a little scary. but that's why i'm putting fruit trees in the ground during my first year in my house in berkeley -- get 'em growing!

Soon I'll be getting the three bare root fruit trees I ordered from Berkeley Horticulture:

* Braeburn apple - good for eatin' and pie bakin'
* Fuyu persimmon - the non-astringent kind you eat like an apple
* Black Jack fig (or a Brown Turkey fig depending on availability)

So exciting!

Hopefully I'll come back to post about how the planting goes, and photos.

My typical internal debate again tonite. Go out to celebrate NYE or not? Inner tug-of-war for 3 hours between

1) BARTing to the Mission to a huge party. If it were easier to get to, I'd have at least dropped by, done a "fly-by"
2) Walking a few blocks to Jupiter for a beer and some live music. eh.
3) Walking a few blocks over to Freight n Salvage for some country and bluegrass music. But they don't have beer :< Still, prolly more my kinda place.

Instead, making tea and catching up on what the internet has to say about introverts. It's nice to remember there's a reason why I'm like this. just a couple URLs: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200303/rauch http://introvertretreat.com/


*shrug* .. whatever calendar you follow, be well on yet another trip around the sun.

thanks to dp, i'm now using my homemade terra cotta smoker as seen on Good Eats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

note, i live in Berkeley where the weather is quite nice, not too hot. these trials were done in late September, early October.

 

 

my first try wasn't so great, but i learned from it. i smoked a 3 pound pork butt, but mostly burned it. the grill was too small (14 inch), so it fit lower in the pot, too near the heat. i also had it just too hot for most of the time .. 250 degrees. now i've learned i need to keep adjusting the temp on the hotplate as the ambient temperature of the day changes.

today i'm doing another trial with a 7 pound pork butt. i have an 18.5 inch grill that fits perfectly near the top of the pot. in one of the photos above, you'll see part of the pork butt is resting on a rock. i did this so the fat side would be up, and level.

it's done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

it's not pulling apart as easily as i'd like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but it sho do taste good!

 

 

 

i just had to jot down a quote that moved me.

Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day. --Rilke

Poll #1039387 Barbara Stanwick films
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

which five Barbara Stanwick films should i see?

i'm watching Double Indemnity again. now i realize i need to see more films by Billy Wilder, Barbara Stanwick, and Edward G. Robinson. so, i'm making a list.

• Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend (1945)
  
• Little Caesar (1931) with Edward G.
  
• Barbara Stanwick .. so many to choose from. i think i'll start with
  
  
  
  • The Lady Eve (1941)
    
  • Stella Dallas (1937)
    
  
  

my friend leslie told me to go look this up. i did.

i bought a house in berkeley. escrow closes on the 16th. i love it and am totally excited.

but i had a nightmare about it last nite. i dreamed the house was kinda crappy, in a bad neighborhood. at the front of the house was the street, and across the street was a set of freeway overpasses. yuck. and in the dream, i lamented what an awful thing to have to look upon. back in bernal heights, i had so many nice things to look upon. i could see down this valley, and up this hill, and see all kinds of nice things.

back in the real world -- it recently occured to me as i was looking for a house in berkeley that it would be quite a change to live somewhere flat. in san francisco, one can walk down this block and around the next, look thru this alley and around the corner, and almost always be able to see in the distance because of all the hills. from where i live now in bernal heights, i can see the water of the bay. living in someplace that is flat, i will lose the hilly perspective that SF gives me. i predict it might feel a little claustrophobic.

but in berkeley, i will have quiet! and parking! and a dog! and trees! and lots of sun for my garden! tomatoes n roses! tomatoes n roses! woo!

feigh