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adventures / food / friends / Monday / photo / running — Comments Off
6
Dec 21

A weekend in Savannah

Yes, this is Monday, but I’m writing about Monday. The next few days will be in arrears. It’s a vacation thing and I’ll somehow cope with the difficulty of the problem.

Spirits were high before the 10K. Here are most of us. Anne was on the course doing a 5K because she’s an awesome overachiever. The Yankee, Brooke, Andre and Stephen and I all did the slightly less ambitious 6.2 mile run over one of the tallest bridges in the southeastern U.S. We had to run the bridge twice.

Anne ran the bridge three times. (She also finished in second in her age group.)

This is at the starting line. Limited field by design. Everyone had to show proof of vaccination and all of that. Here, I thought, is a sign of maturation as a human and my bowing to inevitability. The joke I used to make right here was “Look at all of these people I have to pass.”

(Knowing I would never pass all of those people. I have landed on the podium in exactly two foot races as an adult. Both, you might say, were of a limited field.)

But, today, my joke was “Look at all of those people that don’t have to pass me!”

And here we all are, after weaving through many of the beautiful squares in the historic district we finally have our first good view of the bridge we’re about to go over.

And one of the views from atop the Savannah Bridge.

This is the largest single ocean container terminal on the U.S. eastern seaboard, and the nation’s fourth-busiest seaport. It is a cable-stayed design, and it’s 185 feet from here to the river below.

Off the bridge, around a cloverleaf, up one little kicker and around a little right hand turn you’ll find the finish line, and your medal, and some fruit and other healthy snacks.

Speaking of food … We tried a new place for dinner Saturday night, on account of the mileage we’d already enjoyed. Plus it got good reviews, and we’re going to give Cha Bella another good review. It’s a farm-to-table concept, a term that’s lost all meaning, I think, but Saturday night it meant tasty. We had a gnocchi appetizer.

I had a tasty grouper entree, which did not photograph very well, but it was tasty. We tried the cheesecake, which had a goat cheese blend. It was a super creamy dish, and every now and again, you got that hint of goat cheese.

It was a delicious outdoor dining experience. And we made everyone go back with us again on Sunday night. Because there were other things to try.

And, look, if you have different servers on different nights and they both react the same way when someone orders a specific dish, you get that specific dish. This is the hog chop.

And I’m pretty sure I don’t need to ever have another pork chop in my life. But I also wonder why everyone doesn’t make their chops like this one. Because they should.

And this weekend I also had the opportunity to enjoy a few ghost signs. This was one of the better ones. Everybody knows, Uneeda Biscuit.

That’s a 19th century brand, made it all the way to 2008, when Kraft (which took hold of all of the old Nabsico properties in 2000) discontinued it. The old original Nabisco, NBC (itself a product of three different mergers) rolled out the Uneeda campaign in the 1890s, when no one said things like “rolled out the campaign.” Within a year or so, NBC was selling ten million Uneeda biscuits a month.

I don’t think I ever had a Uneeda, which you’d, of course, today call a cracker. But I did have some good biscuits this weekend.

Tomorrow, we have to leave Savannah and travel back to Indiana. But I probably have two more days of content to work through here. Anything to extend the trip.

food / Friday / IU / photo / television / video — Comments Off
15
Oct 21

Easing into the weekend … with an 11-hour day at the office

My morning started with a meeting. I used the Zoom option, because some people have trouble with masks. My day ended with another meeting. There was no Zoom option. I wish there had been a Zoom option. But not because of the masks.

My day should have ended with that meeting, but I ended up running into a prospective student and her father and talked about the school for a while. And I shot an instructional video and finally left the office at 7 p.m. On Friday. All of this was made possible because that Friday afternoon meeting ran until 6 p.m.

In between those meetings, though, I caught up on a week’s worth of emails and many of the small chores that fill up everyone’s work week. I also went to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to get a temporary handicapped driver placard. The Yankee can’t drive for a few weeks, doctor’s orders, but parking on every college campus in America is a premium commodity, and she’ll be limited in her walking distances the next few weeks.

So I got the temporary tag. And I updated my car’s registration, as well. And this was the time of the day when the sun broke through the clouds. It was a wonderful moment to be outside doing things.

The other thing I did was to notice that the BMV office is close to Carson’s, the best barbecue in town, so I picked up a sandwich to take back to the office.

It isn’t Bob Sykes, but it will do get the job done in the moment.

I haven’t updated this space with any of the student television this week, so let’s get caught up.

The morning show introduced us to some service dogs and had some other great segments, as well.

The best part is when they’re trying to introduce the dogs, who are trying to be service animals, and one of them immediately hides under the chair. You couldn’t have coaxed that out of that pup any better. Never work with animals, they say. Whoever says that doesn’t appreciate the joy of the spontaneity.

Here is one of IUSTV’s new shows this semester. Bring in a student filmmaker, have them talk about a project they’ve produced. It’s pretty cool.

I say one of their new shows, because there are two new shows this term. Here’s the first episode of a new sports project, almost everyone on it is an underclassman. I’m excited to see where they take this as it grows.

Of course that isn’t enough sports for you, but not to worry. I’ve got more sports for you. Here’s the oldest sports show in our catalog. They produced this one Wednesday night, and it has all the highlights and the looks ahead you’ll need for the weekend of IU sports.

And tomorrow is homecoming around here. (Naturally they have scheduled a top 10 conference foe for homecoming.) The Toss Up has your deep dive ready, right here.

One of the entertainment crews was in the studio this evening, as well. And we should see that episode early next week. I’ll have it here in a timely fashion.

Until then, have a great weekend, and don’t forget we’ll have Catober updates on Saturday and Sunday.

adventures / food / Monday / photo — Comments Off
12
Apr 21

And, finally, in mid-April

Well happy spring to you, too! I saw this guy at a red light on the drive back from campus last week, but didn’t share it here for whatever reason. But, since the front page went full bloom, it seems like a good time for this one.

It just appeared. One day it was all sticks, and then, this. By tomorrow it’ll be leaves. That’s what’s happening to the blooms in our yard, anyway.

One of the weather services is talking about long range freeze potential.

We had some rain and gray this weekend, but it’s all easily ignorable because, long range potential notwithstanding, it’s obvious and apparent that we’ve finally, finally shifted into a new season. We’ve made it once more.

It rained on us Saturday when we got our customary weekend takeout. It rained during parts of that afternoon, as well, and into the evening. All of this came after Friday evening sprinkles. So we worked in the exercise room.

The previous owners of this house had added on a little exterior kitchen on the back so that they could make their traditional Vietnamese fare. They were going to have it torn down as part of the sell, but we asked them to keep it up, thinking we could use it, and we’ve made a great use of the space after finishing the walls and doing some general cleaning. The upside is we got a little bonus room and a basically brand new kitchen, since the regular one was seldom used.

Anyway, we’ve been using a light industrial throw carpet over plywood in there for a good long while. But some friends put down some new flooring in their pain cave and had very nice things to say about it, and so we are keeping up with the Joneses!

Now, the first thing you have to know about flooring is that it is a virtual certainty that no room is perfectly square, and your walls aren’t likely to be perfectly straight. No difference here. And the second thing is we decided we’ll just make peace with the notion that this is where we store things and, when the weather is bad, where we sweat. So if something is a little off, so be it. We aren’t making the floor of the Sistine Chapel, after all.

(We count ourselves fortunate to have seen the Sistine Chapel. It’s beautiful. The floor is a mess.)

Anyway, the flooring came in this week and we started installing it Saturday. We did the easy parts, building out two walls and leaving the tricky sections until yesterday afternoon. Yesterday there was a lot of sliding around on the floor and measuring odd angles and cutting and insisting on making things fit. And, to be honest, I am more satisfied with the outcome than, perhaps, I should be.

Here’s the tricky part, the non-corner corner. There’s a lot of stuff going on here, two angles, a threshold overhang, door trim, inserting an extra piece because of the way I put all this down. And, without too much consternation — which is how I’ve come to define progress in most any project — it just all clicked together nicely.

Because that dismay never arrived I wondered, and am still curious, about what I’ve done wrong with this stuff — and when I’ll realize it. But, for now this means we can happily put all of the things back in that room.

So, reviewing last week: we dug up a tree (and The Yankee did a lot of other things in yard, besides) and I replaced a faucet and we did that floor. This feels industrious.

The cats like the new floors, because it meant a weekend of access to a room they’re seldom allowed into. And that meant new windows to sit in, where they can see the exact same view of the yard and the woods they can from … seven or eight other windows in the house. Maybe it smells different from there, I don’t really know.

Phoebe took advantage of the clutter to try out the outdoor cushions.

We don’t leave them outside, and so they get stored in the exercise room, generally. So they are kind of new to her, and she was happy to enjoy them all weekend. If a cat can sit in a box, that’s great. If a cat can sit on a half-dozen cushions in a box, that’s better.

A few nights ago we had some potatoes for dinner and Poseidon was very interested.

He never touches the food, I’m sure because he knows we’re standing there waiting to give him grief about it. But he will reach out from time to time. I liked his toes were spread out there, ready to give it a try, if only we weren’t standing right next to him.

Tonight we got takeout Chipotle. First observation, takeout Chipotle is a smaller serving than if you’re dining in. Nice. Second, both cats were very interested in the bag of chips.

food / IU / photo / television / Thursday / video — Comments Off
18
Mar 21

More of the same, and some more besides

I’ve been on something of a streak with clothes pictures for no particular reason. May as well push that out one more day. It’s the content I know purveyors of this site aren’t really here for at all, but, like I said Monday, it’s a light week.

Today, I decided to try encouraging this spring to be an actual honest-to-goodness spring with some light pastel colors.

It did not work. Other forces in the universe are more powerful than my pocket squares. I am just as surprised as anyone.

And there’s been a lot of food here lately, which is odd considering this is in no way a food blog. But, again, Mellow Mushroom’s pizza is important. And when we have occasion to be near their nearest — and too far away store — we get takeout, and plenty of it. For the leftovers, like tonight.

Seventy-six miles is far too far to have to travel to get good pizza, but here we are. And here they are not. Thus far my social media campaign for them to establish a new store in this college town hasn’t been successful. But it’s gaining momentum.

What we’ve not done this week is show you any shows. Shame on me.

Here’s the late night show they shot last week. See it takes place at a bar. Which is a TV set. An always changing and never-completed set.

We’ve got your news here:

And your pop culture — and bagels! — right here:

We’ll have some sports tomorrow. And some more stuff, too. That oughta keep you coming back! See you then.

cycling / food / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
17
Mar 21

Tonight we are Mellow

Tonight I had the good fortune to join a ride with the many Major Taylor bicycling clubs across the country. So I wore my Major Taylor kit.

He won the world championship in 1899, set almost three-dozen world records in his career and had to deal with all sorts of racism and violence. He didn’t hang on to it, though, and explained why and how in his autobiography, which is a fine sports read.

So I’m on this group ride on Zwift, and I should point out this was in no way a race. Because I don’t race. Because I am not fast. But, somehow, despite that, I found myself off the front for about 25 minutes.

To not see anyone in front of you for that long is pretty wild. And then the really fast guys went by. It was a sight to behold.

But, for a while, my nose was in the wind and I was riding almost all alone. I celebrated with pizza.

Nah. I was going to enjoy that pizza anyway. The Yankee picked up Mellow Mushroom on an errand-trip to Indianapolis and so we are eating right tonight, and tomorrow! Mellow Mushroom really needs a store here. It’s a college town with woefully inferior pizza selections. Mellow would be a huge hit.