Pitchers and catchers report in 17 days

Are there any more beautiful words in the English language on a bitter cold January day with snow in the forecast and an icy wind howling down Mass. Ave? I think not. Spring may be far away here in New England, but it arrives the day after Valentine's Day in Fort Myers, Fla.

I heart my baristas

Like a lot of other mothers, I stop in Starbucks almost every day.

When May was first born, the doctors said that I would recover from my c-section much faster if I walked every day. Well, it was cold. I needed to rest after walking that long, tortuours half mile. So I'd go to Bucks, have a drink, sit and warm up, and then walk back.

On some days it was the only adult conversation I get between when Chrisotpher leftfor work and when he came home. On some days -- those days when I don't have story hour or play group or a friend visiting -- it still is.

Those of you who have never been at home for four days, trapped by cold or rain, with only a baby to keep entertained might have trouble imagining how important that two minute interaction is. Then again, maybe not.

And my baristas are great. No matter how crappy the weather, my mood, or May's mood, they always have a smile. They always tell me how beautiful my baby is. But that's just good service.

No, my baristas go way above and beyond the call.

They remember my insanely complicated drink. (Grande chai, organic milk, three pumps, no water, 130 degrees.) They remember Christopher's drink. They know that May likes to play with a cup and have a stash for her. They give me drinks and let me pay for them the next day if I forgot my wallet. They remember May's birthday.

And yesterday, when they ran out of chai, they stashed a little in the back room so that when I came in today, there would be enough for my daily drink.

I heart my baristas.

Which is why I'm declaring Feb. 1 "barista appreciation day." Show your love to the person who supplies your coffee, tea, or hot cocoa.

News and notes

First, May is really walking. Those first few tentative steps last week
were, well, just baby steps. She continued to take tottering little
shuffle steps all week but then, this afternoon, casually turned, let
go of Christopher's ottoman and just walked towards me. Since then
she's been wandering up and down the hallway, chasing the cat, and
generally causing me to get terrified.

I suspect I'll be running around after her by Wednesday.

Second, on less happy note, Grandma Murray had to go back in for another heart
surgery on Friday. Turns out she had another blockage, this one probably jarred loose by the last operation. She seems to be recovering well, however.

Along those line, Grandpa Murray was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Which, apparently, isn't really all that big a deal. They've done an MRI to make sure it hasn't spread, butapparently that's all. No treatment necessary. It's non-lethal.

Cool. Wish all cancers were like that.

Thirdly, everyone is friggin sick. There's a cold and a stomach virus crashing through the Northeast population and everyone has got it. I hope you all feel better.

Fourthly, crazy mad props to Steve for finishing his comps on Thursday. Everyone say "Huzzah!" for the future PhD.

(I'm trying to swear less and so am at a loss for emphatic amplification
words. Please bear with me as I try to Bowdlerize my language and
stumble through with phrases like "crazy mad" or, I swear to God I
actually said "wicked" the other day. Must take day trip out of Boston
soon.)

Fifth. Cathy started her new job this week. Huzzah for her as well.

I feel I'm missing a major news item, but there was a car alarm going off
for an hour this morning, beginning at at 5:04. By the time we'd called
it into the cops, gone out, found out thelicence number, the cops called the jerk who owned it (I say he was a jerk not because his alarm went off, which could happen to anyone, but because he was a Jetta driver and, no offense to anyone, but mostly jerks drive Jettas), it was about when we got up anyway so we just... got up.

So I got less sleep than usual last night.

Not that I get much sleep on usual nights anyway.

Oh, and May didn't really nap today. She sorta kinda dozed for about 35 minutes in the middle of the afternoon, but she kept waking up and a fire truck woke her up for good. I got her to sleep a little while ago.

But I didn't get a nap, either.

Sigh.

Blog question

So here's a random question. What blogs do you all read? Turns out everyone I know (within a certain demographic) has a handful of blogs they read on a regular basis. Everything from Steampunk to News of the Weird to slang dictionaries. I just write in this one and check out my freinds' ljs on occassion. Since I'm trying to get more plugged into the zeitgeist as I come out of the first-year fog, I want to know.

Also, Nikki wants to know if you can "hear" a character's or narrator's voice in your head when you read?

May, the fashion maven

So I went to Bucks today after the Porter Square Story Hour and the baristas all cooed over her smashing outft. I was pretty clear about the fact that I had nothing to do with her fashion sense (she was wearing a jacket by Nikki, ruffled jeans by Sarah, and a v. cool sweater by... um... someone. Not me.)

Then all three baristas declared that they were going to buy outfits just like May's. She is now the leading fashion light in a small section of Davis Sq.

My brownies just dinged. I'm signing off now.

Bloging for choice

Today is the blog for choice day. I haven't got a lot of time so I'll just say that I'm glad May lives in a world in which she has a choice.

Explosion in New Haven!

Mike, Skip, and the boys were among the people lucky enough to watch the New Haven Colliseum get imploded this morning. He's got a You Tube vid of it. I've got a link to his vid.



Click on the picture above to see his (slightly techno so turn down your volume) video of it.

Encouraging you to eat better

Remember I said that I was going to try to encourage other people to eat better. Better for the environment, better for their waistlines, better for their pocket books?

Well, today a little recipe.

Amanda's Lentil soup,
taken from ATK's Soups and Stews

4 slices of bacon about $1.25
1 c. lentils about 36 cents
2 carrots about 20 cents
2 ribs of celery about 25 cents
2 onions about 78 cents
4 c. chicken stock (organic) $3.99
3/4 c. white wine about $1.50
1 T balsamic vinegar no clue.... maybe 5 cents?
1 bay leaf and a pinch of thyme oh, jsut throw in a quarter
3 cloves of garlic 13 cents
salt and pepper oh, it's free

Dice the bacon and cook over low until crispy and fat rendered. While it's cooking, dice the mirepoix, then add it, the herbs, and the garlic to the fat. Sweat for 5 minutes. Add the lentils (picked and washed), and cook for 10 minutes. Add the stock, the wine, and a cap and half of water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cook for 35 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar.

I jsut did that and got 8 servings that I've frozen for us to eat for lunch. So that's a total of $8.76 for 8 servings. About $1.10 per lunch. Less if I bought in bulk. Even less if I bought it without being organic. Compare that to $3/can for store bought stuff. Or $7 for a Panera soup and sandwich.

And, since it's just legumes (protien!) and veggies, plus a little bit of bacon fat, it's fabulous for you. Add a green salad for more nutritionally goodness.

May ate a whole cup of it for dinner tonight.

And no, it's not all local produce. It's winter in New England and I didn't manage to buy enough to store before we moved. But it is partially local and all oganic. But it's still better for the environment than a big Mac or Subway sandwich, which is apparently the usual lunch in America.

And since I made a big batch on Sunday afternoon, it's actually fast and easy lunch. Easier than going out for lunch. Just toss it in the microwave.

Just something to think about as I try to save the world for my daughter.

(Margaret, it could be made with butter or vegetable oil, too.)

What's wrong with Cinderella?

I'll tell you! This is what's wrong with Cinderella.

I know a lot of people think my anti-pink attitude is insane. I'm okay with that. Many people have often thought I was insane.

But I'm going to take a moment and point out that, according to folklorists and fairy tale experts, Cinderella was originally a story from China and linked directly to foot binding. Hence the sisters slicing off their own feet to fit into the glass slippers. Nikki, can you cite some sources for me?

Anyway, you read the original Grimm and you think, oh that's just fairy tale stuff. And then you read an article in the NYT about women getting thier toes sliced or shaved to be able to wear Jimmy Choos and Manolos.

If you can't see the direct link from (on one hand) girls who are taught to be pink pretty princesses in glass slippers waiting on princes who will rescue them to (on the other hand) women who mutilate their bodies to wear overpriced shoes.... This is what's wrong with Cinderella.

"What's wrong with Cinderella?" btw, is an article in the Times recently about a woman who gets all frothy at the mouth about the princess thing. Way more frothy than me. I've linked to a copy of it on the -- believe it or not -- Mickey News website. It's an interesting if long read.

May walks!

May took her first few steps today. Just now.

Huzzah!

Where did I put those child locks?

Four-day weekend

Christopher and I and May are having a lazy four-day weekend. Of
course, after a month of bright and weirdly warm weekends, it's cold,
wet, raw, and threatening the dreaded "wintry mix" this weekend. Still,
we like winter and are only complaining because it makes our socks wet.

What have we done so far? Not a lot. Yesterday, we had breakfast at the Yolk
and got to meet our fry cook's baby -- Nicholas. Then we made a foray
into the burbs and came out only slightly scathed. We had accidentally
ordered twoPFDs for Dad's Christmas present and had to return one. So,
we thought in our blithe ignorance, we'd pop up to the newish Bean in
Burlington, return that, maybe swing by WilliamsSonoma and spend the gift card we had there, and be home in two hours.

HA!

Turns out just parking was a 30 minute exercise.
(We gave up and parked in the next-door lot.) Then we had to wait on
line fore over an hour in the returns line. We could have driven toFreeport
and the original Bean store with only an extra half hour. Finally, we
abandoned the store rather than spend the money there, had lunch at Not
Your Average Joe's, hit the mall v. quickly (didn't spend the gift
card) and got home six hours later.

This is why we usually avoid the burbs. We're never really prepared for it.




Today we popped in on the MIT Puzzle Challenge which our friend Denis Moskowitz (and his brother Marc) participate in. However, at 11;30 on Sunday, no one was there. SO I must assume someone won the bloody thing. Or is even 11:30 too early for non-parents? I have to track down the web site as soon as I'm done with this to find
out.

Then we went to Pandemonium and bought Witch Way To Murder and GURPS Biotech. Christopher is currently ignoring me and May both for the Biotech book. Then back home.

Mr. Crepe has opened again in Davis and there was much rejoicing. I've been... umm.... Let's just say that the owner recognizes me and May already and knows my preferred order. (Spinach, basil, & tomato with feta. Or chocolate, banana, and coconut for dessert.)

May's new favorite trick is to put the LEGO bucket over her head and scream wot listen to the weird acoustics. My daughter, the future genius.

More later. Be well.

Jen's pics from May's party

Click here for many more photos.

But if you don't want to lcick, scroll down for more.

It's Margaret's fault... she asked

I said I wouldn't explain why "Diet for Small Planet" sucks becuase no one asked. But Margaret asked! So, if you don't care, please disregard this post. It's got nothing about May in it.

First, let me explain that I don't have anything against vegetarianism. (Unlike those dirty vegans.) Being a vegetarian is a life-style choice ... like living without cable. Not my cuppa tea, but if you want to do it, more power to you.

My problem is with, specifically, the book Diet for a Small Panet. Which I haven't read in a while and haven't read the latest edition at all. So my argument is undermined before I begin. But my objections to DfaSP can be broken into three main compeonents:

1. Taste!

Most DfaSP recipies, frankly, suck. Brown rice can be done well, but it's usually not. There's no point to carob unless you're allergic to chocolate. Several countries have fabulous, sophisticated entirely vegetarian cuisines (China, Japan, and India) and DfaSP has crappy sloppy half-assed takes on these palates. (Notice that a lot of the food is made to imitate meat or take the place of meat. Just friggin eat the meat!)

Also, along these lines, meat tastes good. I like steak. I like chicken. I like bacon. Okay, I love bacon. Sausage, chili, pheasant. Hell, I like mussels and shrimp. And, as a foodie, I don't want to give up the option of meat for soy or mung beans. How limiting.

2. Politics!

It may sound total ridiculous coming from someone who is going to rejigger the way I and my family eat for environmental reasons, but I find the politics usually associated with DfaSP to be.... facile. So often eating gets tied up in "the oppression of our disenfranchised brothers and sisters...." Whatever. I acknowledge that there is much suffering and whatnot around the world and I even acknowledge that the way we live can affect those people. But even Omnivore's Dilemna lacks a nuanced view of the politics involved.

I'm not saying that I've got a supremely educated grasp on the issue. But I know enough to knw there's more to it than what can be summed up in a book.

3. Science!

Now there's a good argument from various nutritionists that vegetarianism isn't good for the human body. We evolved eating meat. Not a lot of meat, but eating meat. A strict vegetarian probably needs to take supplements of vitamins D and B12, and iron. Or eat a bowl of Total.

Also, Joan Gussow, an ecological nutritionist, points out that for most of human history (and before!), "livestock has been indeispendable for its magical ability to convert agricultural waste, failed crop, and the vegetation on unfarmable land into high quality protein." (Steingarten, TMWAE, p. 142). Taken another way, I'm betting that my backyard-grown chicken has a lower carbon burden than tofu from California. Or even Ohio.

Most of the ecological problems arising from eating meat (which is, at its heart, the main argument of DfaSP, at least as I understand it) arise from factory farming. And the same problems apply, on a smaller scale, to factory farmed corn and soy and even carrots and greens. Eating meat locally on a small scale is way better -- environemtnally -- than eating international organic vegetarian.

At least, as far as my research has been able to unearth. I'm always reading and updating my information. I'll let you all know if I come across anything else.

For a more reasoned and better typed argument -- not to mention funny -- see Jeffrey Steingarten's "Vegging Out," cited above in The Man Who Ate Everything.

Incidentally, like I said, vegetarianism doens't bother me. But vegans make me nuts. Anyone who can justify not eating cheese (for any reason other than health... and even then....) is clearly sick.

More on May's birthday

May is asleep (still) so I have a few moments to write about May's lovely birthday party, made fbulous by all the wonderful people who came.

My mother and father, as well as Cathy and Pat, drove up from Connecticut. Mary and Denis were here for chili and cupcakes and then mere minutes after they left to go loko at a house (good luck!) David and Jen arrived.

May got lots of presents, too many to list. Many thanks to you all.

I feel compelled by the weight of the mom-moirs that have come before me to sit and ponder the meaning of a year, what I was doing this time last year (being drugged), and wax sentimental with purple prose aobut hwo much May means and how my life hass changed and what a blessing she is, ad nauseum.

I'll refrain.

I don't think anyone who knows my daughter can doubt she's astounding and has changed our lives and therefore I don't need to go into it. And y'all really don't need to read maternal naval gazing (it's that small thing, right there, above the stretch marks and the c-section scar) on a gray and wet and rainy MOnday morning.

Instead, I will tell you that we made it! The past three months have been pretty much a forced march for the Ferry family. We closed on the place, fixed it up, moved in, unpacked, cooked and decorated for three Christmas feasts, traveled to Connecticut for what amounted to four more, denuded the place of holiday phneh, and prepared a birthday party for fourteen. (Okay, only 11 came, but I cooked for fourteen!)

Now, for the first time in three months, my "must do today or the whole thing goes to hell" list is empty. We still have piles of lists since moving in is complete in only the most superficial sense. And life marches on -- I have birthdays to buy for and bills to pay and what not. But for the first time since September, we have some breathing room.

And May is still asleep. In my whole time with her, I've never managed to finish a post while she was asleep, I think. Wow. I think I'm going to go read a book or something.

May's birthday!

She's been here a whole year now! Remarkable as that may seem. (Sometimes it seems like she's alwasy been here, soemtimes like she's just arrived a few days ago.)

We had a lovely birthday party today, which I will tell you all about at some point in the future. But in the mean time, check out Barb's fabulous photos!. (As ever, just click on the button that says "View Slideshow" to see it without having to register.)

Here are just a few:

Baby's first inauguration

May and I went to the Governor's inauguration this afternoon. I'd intended to run errands but wound up listening to (well-written) rhetoric instead. Deval Patrick, Gov. of the Commonwealth, took office on the steps of the State House at somewhere between noon and one today.

I'd intended to stay and greet the man -- he was throwing open the state house doors for the first time to "commoners." (Usually it's opened only for gubenatorial inaugurationsa nd ddepartures and for heads of state.) I wanted to ask him what he intends to do about the MCAS. But there were many many many people there and May needed a nap so I left.

I still plan to ask him about the MCAS, though.

I'm on a soup kick right now, trying to figure out what to do with chicken feet to make a good broth. I know, from various readings, that chicken feet make very very good broth, increasing the unctous quality quite a bit. But it's one fo those things that they expect you to just know how to do. Do I need to skin them? Scale them? Do chicken feet have scales? My general distaste for the feathered kingdom (excepting on my dinner plate) is serving me poorly right now.

The soup kick is part of my twin (contradictory but still dove tailing) resolutions for the year.

Part the first: I will be less snobbish about food. Although Nikki says it's part of my charm, I will endevor to be less, "bloody damned intimidating" as one person said, in the kitchen and at the dinner table.

Part the second: I will try to eat in a more evironmentally reasonable way. That means I will try to eat more locally, more organically, more from scratch, and more seasonally. Waht's more, I will try to encourage everyone else I know to do the same.

Why? Read the "Omnivore's Dilemma." Then ponder the thing that Michael Pollan doesn't talk about. The fact that not only do we need to have a more rational food chain, we need to teach and encourage people to cook. Because until we start making lunch, we're going to be dependant on Lunchables. Or the place down the street.

I'm hoping that by eating Greener I will do three things. 1. Save the Earth. 2. Save some money. 3. Lose some weight. Because eater closer to home means less sugar, more veggies, less meat (But not no meat. "Diet for a Small Planet" sucks. Many reasons. Will expound at length if you ask. You didn't ask however, so....) It also means more whole grains, fewer procesed flours, and a lot less eating out.

We are splitting a share of a CSA with the Hobermans. I've found a local purveyor of chickens and eggs. I've got a local beef and lamb source, too. Still looking for (not raw milk!) dairy.

More updates onceMay stops freaking out.