Architecture is frozen music.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Hey brother, Happy Birthday!
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2012.
Happy Monday! We’re traveling all over the map today, no clear post topic winner, save the photos.
This is my friend Rob, remember him? Luckily and quite thankfully, business brings him to the City of Roses a couple of times a year, and we have fun adventures that often include photography. This last time was no exception. We headed to the Japanese Garden on a very foggy and contemplative day. We were among the few out, as it was kind of chilly, and enjoyed spending time zooming in on the multitude of sights, giant and ever so tiny, the mushrooms only as big as the tip of my pinkie. Isn’t nature amazing?
In stark contrast to tiny mushrooms, Rob was upgraded to an Escalade after the GPS in his first vehicle wasn’t working, as he is a man who likes a map on the dashboard. So, despite his embarrassment at having a huge ass, pimped out mode of transport (Oh the rims on that baby!), I made him pose for a photo with it, which, I think, turned out rather awesome, save the wires. As a friend once said, only God is perfect.
Quite near perfect, however, are my friend Maren’s drawings for Polite Society! Check them out for yourself. I received the originals in the mail the other day and keep going to the room where I keep them, smiling and touching them with a light hand. My story is so much more alive now, which hardly seems possible, but it’s true. Thank you sweetheart, I love them so!
And for a final skip to a new subject matter, and once of my favorites, FOOD! Do you remember the egg that changed my life? Well, I’m still in love with it and make it all the time, so yummy, and easy and delicious. Redundant, I know, but it’s soo good! Anyhoo, Daniel, the man behind Duckspoon is off on another worthy adventure I thought I’d share with you:
The Open Kitchen, at which he hosts two kind of events: the first is a local chef spotlight dinner where he features a “not yet known” Portland rock star chef and pair them with local farmers and wine makers for a seasonal five course meal.
The second is a Wellness Dinner Series. He receives a list of ingredients from a naturopathic doctor in a growing network and builds a four course “fine dining” meal out of those ingredients focusing on the theme for that month (November was cold/flu prevention). As the food goes out, the doctor explains the effects that the key ingredients have on the body. People take notes, ask the doctor questions, and learn more about “food as medicine.” Pretty cool, I think, though I have yet to try either. It’s on my list, so to speak.
On another list, for banh-mi sandwich lovers who like to know the meat is sustainable, the Double Dragon on 12th & Division is beyond awesome. I’ve been twice and am in love, juicy delicious, and with just the right amount of sauce and cilantro. If I could say something clever in Vietnamese, I would. Something like, a good sandwich makes me very happy.
Wait, wait! I forgot to say THANK YOU for all of the super sweet messages and calls I’ve gotten in support of Polite Society being published. Like a good sandwich, this makes me very happy, as well. You are too kind!
Hope you are happy and enjoying 2012!
Tags: Polite Society
I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.
Og Mandino
Tags: Quoting
Well, here we are gentle readers, 2012, and it feels quite lovely, I must say. Last year was such a wild and wonderful year for us, with so very many changes, most of them good, but some happily left to molder in the scribbly annals of 2011. As for this year, it’s on track to be a humdinger.
The hubster, if all goes to plan, will only have one W-2 and master quite a few songs on the piano. He is well on his way with this song from Amelie. It’s been ever so fun to watch him progress through all the keyboard fingerings and strange to hear something from a film I love and know so well be made by his hands.
Also, very soon (quite possibly this week!) we will be done with the hanging of pictures in the bathroom before even more painting, decorating, and picture hanging in the basement and a house that is, for all intents and purposes, finished. It only took eighty-one years! How marvelous to walk into rooms once creepy and beyond ugly for so very long and see them just as they’ve been in my head for years. Patience has its rewards.
Which is also quite good because there will be one grand bash at our house this year to celebrate – are you ready peeps? The publishing of my novel! I can hardly believe the wheels are in motion on this, with all sorts of action happening behind the scenes and the reason for my sometimes erratic postings, as of late.
In some ways, I wish I could say it’s being published by some big New York house to save me from the large out of pocket expense and to make me rich and famous, but alas, the publishing business is a fickle one, and writers, unless they are already celebrated, have so little control, so I am taking the reins. Polite Society will be done to suit my very particular tastes, beautiful, simple, and small, and complete with illustrations from my beyond talented friend and Art & Letters partner in crime, Maren. She will be posting a selection of fabulous drawlin’s (as we’ve been calling them) shortly over on her blog, but in the mean time, wouldn’t you like to know what the Gastro-Gnome has been up to?
Many thanks to the hubster for everything, but mostly for believing in me and my talents, to my dear friends who read my work in progress (especially to Maren, and soon to Jef – BIG hugs to you both), Seth Godin for spurring me on with his inspirational blog, and my friend Kelli, who self-published her own novel and keeps me inspired in a myriad of other ways, large and small.
Stay tuned for pre-ordering information and all the best to you in 2012!
