Legislation, Yardwork and Pizza

The Cap is officially popped. The state legislature, on August 13th, 2005, approved House Bill 392, increasing the allowable alcohol content of beer in North Carolina from 6% to 15%. This past week, I enjoyed my first beer on tap, and then bottled, which I would not have been able to enjoy before. I drank and reviewed Chimay Cinq Cents White, Reserve Blue and Premiere Red this week. They had the White on tap down the street at the Sawmill Taproom, and I procured bottles of the Blue and the Red at Taylor's Convenience Store (also my source of propane). It is a marvelous example of the government doing something that actually benefits me. I am very pleased indeed. The $300 I got from George W. Bush a few years ago was nice, but this will last longer.

Lindz and I have been working in the yard. She has ripped out large tracts of ivy, and I have cut down and cut up innumberable tree branches. We transplanted some of the herbs from pots into the newly revealed ground. I constructed a workbench, in our storage room, out of an extra door. It's extremely stylish. I feel like more of a man, now that I have a workbench. Next, I want functioning electricity and a vise at my bench.

And then I made pizza:

Standard pizza dough from The Best Recipe, smeared with a paste of roasted garlic, capers, flat leaf parsley, olive oil and black pepper. On top of that went sliced gouda and sausage. Lindz made a spinach salad with mustard balsamic vinaigrette, red onion and toasted pine nuts. We drank chianti. We lived life to the fullest.

Carnitas, Yardwork and Beck

(listening to "Que Onda Guero," by Beck)
Another low-key weekend at the Blauhaus. Lindz and I had a fab-o-marvelous time in San Diego, and we certainly enjoyed our time at Lake Norman last weekend, but it sure is nice to have a weekend alone here at the house. Friday evening, Lindz put together a very tasty soup of sausages, roasted potatoes, tomatoes and other goodies.
("Missing," by Beck)
I made us a couple of sidecars, and we enjoyed a quiet evening. Saturday morning, we did some yardwork. It's SO EXCREMENTALLY HOT Here. Lindz pulled ivy, and I did a lot of long-overdue pruning (I recently purchased one of those long poles with a cutter on the end; you pull the rope to lop off a branch). I cleared some branches that were touching the house (makes it too easy for bugs to waltz in) and generally opened things up in the yard. I was up on the roof as well as on the ground doing this, and soon I was pouring sweat.
("Broken Drum," Beck)
Lindz was helping me drag the branches into the remote, shaded corner of the back yard when she stumbled on the pod of a sweet gum tree. She skinned her knee, rolled her ankle and banged her shoulder. She lost interest in being outside at that point. I got us some lunch, and we loafed around inside for a while. I got restless and decided to go wandering. In addition to simply wanting to be out and about, I wanted to see if any new beers were on store shelves yet since the law was changed (North Carolina's silly, backward law limiting beer alcohol to 6% was just changed to 15%). I wanted to find some Belgians, but I didn't see anything yet. More searching is needed, and it may simply be too soon. I continued to wander. I want to get more familiar with this state, so some random wandering is a good thing. I went to Carrboro. It's a funky little town, and my knowledge of it is very cursory. Here are some very encouraging things about it:
1)Squirrel Nut Zippers are from there
2)It looked old, funky and charming (lots of brick) when I stopped in there
3)The best Mexican food I've had so far in North Carolina came from Carrburritos. It's a tiny little place. I had a big, tasty carnitas burrito. The salsa from that place is excellent, too. I don't know how to describe it other than to say that it had FLAVOR, an unfamiliar concept to most Mexican restaurants around here. It tasted like roasted pork and arbol chiles. Too bad it's 35 miles from the house.
("Reasons," Earth, Wind & Fire)
Anyway, it's worth exploring that town a bit more.
Beck's Album, Guero, is wonderful. He did it with the Dust Brothers. It's an entertaining aural flea market. Cool-sounding, incomprehensible lyrics. Great beats. I listened to it while I motored around Carrboro.

NASA rover image from the airport in St. Louis

This was on August 2nd as we made our way to San Diego. Good times. The trip back home on the 8th was a twelve-hour festival of delays, but I didn't get any pictures from that.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Chicken in a Can.

Albertson's grocery store in Carlsbad, California:

America's Finest City (continued)

(sitting at my desk at work, listening to the printer)
Yes, the trip to San Diego was all about food and family. The second full day involved some traipsing around a shopping center that had not existed when I left two years ago. It's quite a swank place called The Forum, and it caters to the thousands of yuppies that continue to move to the area. Thousands of houses, at astonishing prices, have appeared in the area in recent years. I believe a lot of folks are living beyond their means; how many families can there be who can pay $700K or so for a house (not a mansion, a house). All I really cared about was perusing the goodies at Sur la Table, but one can't visit that shopping area and fail to notice the ubiquity of medically-enhanced trophy wives, bejeweled old matriarchs and their expensive SUVs. Where is all this money coming from? I didn't care. I was too relaxed to sanctimoniously judge people (well, not as vigorously as usual, anyway). I don't exactly remember what order in which everything occurred, but many of the pleasures of our trip were more bohemian:
1)Fish tacos at Rubio's (Lindz had guacamole on hers, and she didn't hate it, an unprecedented occurrence)
2)Driving around and enjoying the fact that California drivers are less stupid than North Carolina drivers (yes, I'm serious)
3)The ocean breeze.
4)Stone India Pale Ale
5)A breakfast burrito as big as an adult armadillo, devoured while sitting placidly on the tailgate of a pickup truck. The burrito was from Pipes in Cardiff by the Sea.
6)Freshly squeezed orange juice from the two trees in my in-laws' yard (I have named them Telperion and Laurelin).
7)A California burrito from Rico's in Encinitas. This, my friends, is true fusion cuisine: marinated and grilled beef, cheese, sour cream and french fries in a burrito. Devastating.
8)Being in the same state with friends, family and acquaintances.
9)Watching the horse races at Del Mar. Lindz won a few bucks.

We also did a few things that involve a bit of sophistication:
1)We drank a lot of very good red wine at the Wine Loft (located at aforementioned Forum) for a scandalously low price (Lindz's close friend Ashley works there). It was an evening of pleasant conversation and tasty vino. We ate pizza and continued to drink at Ashley's folks' place. It's half-renovated, so we were in a candle-lit, high-ceilinged room whose walls were 2-by-4's and dangling wires. Kind of neat, really.
2)Sushi with my friends Charlotte, Rebecca and my brother. Marvelous, simply marvelous. Food and eating reach their highest forms in sushi.

America's Finest City

(listening to "Doors of Perception" by Thievery Corporation)

Lindz and I just spent almost a week in San Diego. I lived in San Diego for eight years, and she was born and raised there. I hadn't been back for two years (not since I got in the car and drove here to NC). It was a bit emotional for us. First of all, we stopped for super nachos on the way to Lindz's parent's house from the airport:



Yes, it was a luxurious orgy of fat, salt and flavor. In addition to this, we were bathed in the cool ocean air (translation: the not sauna-like air).

("Whatever Happened to Gus" by Medeski, Martin and Wood)

I took a lovely stroll the following morning, enjoying the air, palm trees and funky houses of Crest Drive in Cardiff. I squeezed orange juice from the two trees in the yard (they are absolutely laden with fruit; I loaded my suitcase with it when I came home). I hung out with my brother for the first time in two years (we had been roommates for eight). We delightedly wandered the aisles of 99 Ranch, perusing the Asian delights (I began the process of filling my suitcase with goodies: mysterious flavors of bouillon cubes, ginger flavored hot sauce and a liter of top-quality peanut oil). We slurped wonderful noodles at some little place in Kearney Mesa. We met up with our friend Charlotte and had beers at Pizza Port in Carlsbad. I particularly love that place. They brew excellent beer there. Charlotte, my brother and I sipped beers together, as we had done numerous times before. The evening progressed to Lindz joining us at Bryan's apartment. We drank mojitos on his patio as he prepared homemade fish tacos for us. His roommates had three guests from Spain. It all reminded me of the days of old: sitting on a patio with a bunch of diverse people, eating and drinking. We drank Sanford Pinot Noir, one of my favorites. It was so lovely, so natural.

("Professeur Suicide" by Rhinocerose)

to be continued...