Chopping block

This seems to be the year of giving up for me. Not in the negative sense but in the positive way. I am not sure that it started with a grand purpose in mind but it has become a way of aligning my life with what I believe, which is so hard to do sometimes. I started off the year giving up eating fish. I had already given up eating red meat (grazing animals) and white meat (poultry) a few years before but fish and seafood was particularly difficult for me to give up. I love the flavor and the experience of eating it, Sushi is one of my favorite cuisines and it cheered me up to eat it. Recently though the ecological and Health problems have become too big for me to ignore. So many fish are near extinction because of over fishing, not to mention the terrible health effects of all of the Mercury and other harmful substances that have been getting increasingly higher in fish and seafood. There was a recent article about the Japanese trying to save Blue fin Tuna from Extinction by having other fish give birth to Tuna. I don’t want to be part of the problem so I gave fish and seafood up in the beginning of the year and I feel a lot better for it. It has been hard but if you have a solid reason for giving it up it doesn’t linger or feel like a sacrifice.
The second thing I gave up this year was Pepsi and Coke products, all of them. I have known for a long time about the bad social and ecological business practices that they both participate in but it was very difficult for me to give up something that had become such a part of my daily life. I wrote a while ago about how much Coke I would drink a day and I was not exaggerating. I decided that I needed to stop supporting companies that I knew were doing terrible things in third world countries. It was very hard in the beginning to overcome the habit but it has become a lot easier lately and I feel so much better for it.
The latest thing has also been really difficult. I gave up cable TV! I always knew that I spent too much time watching Television but I never wanted to do anything about it, not really anyway. I wanted to stay informed and current on things and so I would rationalize my way into keeping it and rationalize my way into watching it from the time I got home from work until the time I went to sleep unless I had somewhere to go or something specific to do. This meant I spent a lot of time watching shows I had no particular interest in but were watchable enough to keep me on the couch or to keep me from shutting it off. If one channel didn’t have something to watch some other channel surely would. This meant a lot of channel surfing and a lot of hours but not a lot of enjoyment. In August I wanted to cut off the cable at the end of the month. Jeannie was fine with it as she never really watched that much TV anyway so I cancelled it. I thought that I should get an antenna for Broadcast TV so we could watch the handful of shows that we actually enjoy so as not to go cut off all TV and probably not be able to stick to it. We only watch Heroes, The Office, My name is Earl, 30 Rock and Medium so I thought that I would just get some rabbit ears and watch Broadcast TV. The problem was that I could not get a picture. I thought I would have to break down and get cable again but instead the solution has been that we have just been watching them online. NBC is no longer offering them on I-Tunes but they have been showing them on their own site so we can watch them when we have time and not have to worry about being home for it or recording it. It also means that we only watch what we consciously want to watch. This cuts down on my TV time dramatically and so far it has worked out really well. I’ll keep you posted if I relapse on any of the things I have given up so far or if I give up anything else. I don’t plan on anything right now but I don’t know how I will feel next week.

Year in Review

We have almost been in Philadelphia a full year. Our anniversary is September 3rd and I have a lot to say about this city. When we first the first thing that caught our attention was all of the great food choices in the city. We could walk to almost all of them and they were definitely better than average.
We started out going to get coffee and use the internet at an independent coffee house a few blocks away called, “The Last drop”. It is a little art college coffee house that is pretty nice to surf and people watch in; for reading or relaxing we can go to “Chapter House” a chill lounge type coffee house where no one is cramped and the atmosphere is almost meditative. But these are only two of the many choices, there are so many independent coffee houses near us, there are probably fifteen within a half a mile of us, that we could go really go crazy on coffee. I really like the intactness of the small business culture in Philadelphia. Philadelphians take pride in supporting local and small businesses.
Another place that we went to early on is “Naked Chocolate Café” It is more of a chocolate shop than a café but it has a great vibe and it is always filled with people. They actually make the chocolate themselves not just a melt and repackage job like some other places. We went there a lot in the fall of last year to get drinking chocolate and pieces by the pound but then not so much after we learned to make chocolate bark ourselves, and Jeannie loaded up on Marie Belle. I would still recommend it to anyone who wants some good artisan chocolate.
We are also lucky to be just a few blocks from whole foods and a regular supermarket and we get a lot of our produce from the reading terminal Market which has some really great food stands in addition to having some really cheap produce markets. I love the Carrot, cucumber ginger juice from the “Four Seasons juice bar” and we also get some great bruchetta at Mezze. For some really great Indian/Pakistani food try Nanee’s kitchen, their Mango lassis are delicious.
Last fall was also a time of discovering neighborhoods and walking everywhere. On average we were walking more than three and probably closer to four miles a day. We are fortunate that there are so many picturesque and historic neighborhoods within walking distance. One of my favorites is the small street from South street to Walnut on Camac street. The street narrows to just a few feet across in parts and the houses are all historic and you feel like you are in another time and another country. They are mostly old brick row homes and many that are ivy covered with thickly painted shutters and old worn marble steps. Another nice walk is on Spruce between 15th and 22nd. It is lined with beautiful old Brownstones and actually looks a lot like some of the beautiful blocks in Brooklyn sans the hipsters and the strollers.
Come to think of it there were probably twenty restaurants that were critical to having us feel at home in Philadelphia. I will just list them here out of order and write about some of them later: Pico De Gallo – Mexican, Govindas- American Vegetarian, Morimoto- Sushi, Tiffin- Indian, Mixto-Latin, Pad Thai-Thai, Su Xing House- Chinese Vegetarian, Continental- Classic American, Tamarind- Thai, Horizons- Gourmet Vegan, Maoz- Falafel, Bitar’s-Falafel, Rustica- Pizza, Marathon Grill- American, Slice- Pizza, Shiao Lan Kung- Chinese, Rita’s -water ice, Capogiro- Gelato, Café Nhu Y- Banh Mi, Sabrina’s- Brunch, Morning Glory-Diner, Geechee Girl Café-Southern, Sarcone’s- Bakery, Grocery- Sandwhiches, Isgro’s- Bakery.
This may seem like a lot of places but I have only listed the places we thought were great to excellent. We have been to a lot more restaurants that were good or at least ok but the ones I listed have really helped take the sting off being away from New York.
On the home front the past year has gone by brutally fast and although we have done a lot to our house there is still so much more that we want to do. This year we put up a fence ourselves with the help of my Mom and Dad early on and then Omar and my sister as well on the second phase. We also started a garden which was a great experience. The garden was a huge success in the spring but the summer heat waves cut short the growing season of many of our lettuces and tomatoes. This week looks like it will be the last harvest of our tomatoes. In the spring we were having salads from the yard almost every night and harvesting mint, cilantro, rosemary and sage for many of our meals. It was a really great feeling to grow your own food and we definitely going to plant a fall crop this week. We hope to learn from all our previous mistakes. Inside we have done some decorating and furniture buying but we are still woefully behind with what we had hoped to have done by this time of the year. We did manage to redo the downstairs bathroom and we are happy about that. There are a lot of decisions to make when you decorate and it’s all a little overwhelming but I think our biggest obstacle is parting with furniture and stuff that is still perfectly good but we are not going to use anymore. Hopefully we can get better at that this year.
Another thing that has helped temper the home sickness for New York is all of the arts events that happen here. From the very beginning we have gone to the first Friday’s event that is sort of a monthly art crawl that coordinates many of the gallery show premiers of both local and famous artist. This event is one of my favorite things to do in Philly and it happens every first Friday of the month without fail. We get lots of free food and drink (the best being at the Old City Jewish Arts Center) while going from gallery to gallery and we go as often as we can. The theater scene is really strong here too and although we have not really taken advantage of it yet, now that Omar is living in Philly I am sure that will change. Our neighborhood is crawling with artists and art students so it’s really good not be around stuffy suit types or suburban blahs all the time. The art scene here is getting better every day too as more artists flee the high rents of DC and New York, to say nothing of the booming indy music scene so I have high hopes for Philly in the coming years.
It has really been a year of adjustment for us: Getting used to not taking the subway everyday, getting used to a less busy metropolis, getting used to having an upstairs and a downstairs, getting used to having a yard, getting used to being so close to everything cool, getting used to most things being closed on Sundays, getting used to having most of our friends two hours away, getting used to being two hours away from New York. Getting used to a lot of things, but also getting used to not worrying about our future so much.
Overall though I would say our transplantation to Philly was a success. We are happy and living in a beautiful house that we can actually afford and finding new things to love about this sorely underrated city every day.

BYOB

My quest to avoid everything made by Coke and Pepsi ended last Friday. Jeannie and I went to see Order of the Phoenix (HP5) at the IMAX theater in King of Prussia. We went there because the last twenty minutes of the movie were being shown in 3-D there and it was the only theater in the area to do it. We spent most of the morning packing and making sure everything was ready for the trip to Northern Virginia that we were to take later that day. So in all of the preparation of the snacks and drinks for the bus ride I forgot to pack a drink and snacks for the movie. We arrived there at noon for a 1240 show to find that all of the showings till 1AM had been sold out. Luckily I had already bought tickets so that was no problem. The problem though was that all of the drink options were Coca Cola products, even the water was Dasani (Coke owned) I was going to forgo drinking anything but we had gotten a free popcorn from our frequent customer card and it was really hot outside so I broke down and bought a Minute maid fruit drink. I had successfully avoided Coke and Pepsi products from the time I wrote until then and truthfully I had not craved it at all after the first week or so. I am not giving up on not eating or drinking products by those two companies all together. As with any conscious food decision a lot of fore though and planning is necessary so next time I will have to bring my own drinks. I will let you know how it goes.

Watermelon stories

We are currently growing two kinds of watermelon in our garden and I must tell you I have never been so impatient. It is my own fault that they aren't further along. The first set of watermelon seeds rotted in the ground because I over watered and I didn't notice because there was a sprout of something growing in the spot where the seeds were planted. I didn't know that it was crabgrass and not a watermelon so it was several weeks before I searched on line and pulled it out. I replanted and got both of them to send out shoots. One of the sets of shoots got fried when there was a particularly hot day that dried them out. So I had to reseed that one a second time. So one of the watermelons is about a month old and doing fine and the other one is about a week out of the ground and is doing ok so far. They are both so small. I have trouble imagining how those little plants, the largest of which is only 5 inches tall, is going to produce a three or four pound watermelon, much less one of those 20 pounders you find in the supermarket. I am so disappointed every morning when I go outside and there hasn't been monstrous growth on the vines. At this rate I won't have watermelons until September and I think that might be too long for me. I might have to breakdown and buy one for the July 4th week or maybe even today.
I love watermelon on hot days like today. Watermelon has always been my favorite artificially flavor in candy. In Blowpops, Jolly ranchers or whatever it is always my first choice. Not that it reminds me of real watermelon, but it's always been a mental crutch so I can hold off until they are available and cheap in the summer time. Mostly I love the red varieties. I have had the yellow and the orange kinds but I like the sugary sweet drip of the big red ones.
About two years ago I bought two giant watermelons at the Pathmark near our house on sale for $3 each. I juiced half of one and got a gallon of deliciousness. I had it in the fridge at the height of the summer heat. When I came home from work that night something smelled wrong as I opened the door to the apartment. The rancid smell of something was coming from the kitchen. The fridge had failed sometime that morning and everything had gone bad in the sweltering heat. The watermelon juice had gone bad. It was the saddest food related thing that had ever happened to me. I have had ice cream cones fall on the sidewalk and pizza slices plop to the floor but the giant gallon of un-drunk watermelon juice, that had now separated and swollen the jug, was so emotionally destructive that I still feel a pang of sorrow now. I made another gallon later that summer but it wasn't as sweet or ripe as that lost batch.
One time when I was young we had a watermelon that had partially frozen in the fridge. It must have been set too cold because as my dad cut through the rind you could hear the ice crystals cracking. Those slices were so delicious like having a Froz-fruit pop only better. As I was eating my slice I noticed a white nugget stick in the frozen watermelon part near one of the bite marks. I thought it was an extra thick seed, but when I picked it out I realized that it was a tooth! I passed my tongue over my teeth looking for a gap and sure enough I found it two spaces to the left of my front teeth. It had already been loose and it was a baby tooth but it was still unexpected to lose it in such a way. I told my mom and went to look in the mirror at the bloody gum and the white crest of the tooth coming out underneath, but instead of being all freaked out and mad at the watermelon for pulling out my tooth I was grateful that it was such a pleasant and painless experience, as well as allowing me to keep the tooth for easy pillow payments later that night. I sat back down and happily chomped on two more icy pieces.

Berg-alar

The following article was in the local news today:

Jun 19, 2007 9:48 am US/Eastern
Police Searching For Salad Burglar
(AP) SOMERSET, Pa.
Someone kicked in the door of a man's apartment, stuck a knife in the door and took a chilled salad from his refrigerator.
Somerset police said the man reported the bizarre burglary on Monday. He told investigators someone broke into his apartment while he went to a nearby tavern. Nothing but the salad was missing, police said.
Police said they have a suspect and expect to file charges once they finish their investigation.


I think this is really indicative of a larger trend in crime.
Just the other day I saw an old lady get robbed of her Centrum Silver vitamins. It was shocking. The robber was an older man with a lone ranger type mask on and one of those portable oxygen tanks on his back. He pulled a knife on the old woman and asked for the Centrum Silver vitamins she had just bought at CVS. He must have been watching her for a while. There was a struggle as the woman refused to give but was quickly overpowered by the guy who might have been high on Viagra or something. He got away on one of those medical mobility scooters. It must have had turbo boost or maybe it was tricked out with Nitro because a few of us bystanders chased the guy but he left us in the dust.
This has all made me a little worried about our own home security. We are growing Organic vegetables in our yard and have very few security measures around it. Perhaps I am leaking too much information but as it is right now we have several tomato plants and other delicious and tempting treasures sitting in out yard. I have a six foot fence and motion sensor light but I don’t think it’s enough. I am thinking that maybe a well concealed electric fence or some sort of tranquilizer dart device with some trip wires is probably the way I should go. Maybe I can set up some sort of crow’s nest outside where I can keep watch from above. For now I guess I will sleep lightly and keep the best produce in the bedroom where I can keep a watchful eye on it. Everybody be safe out there you never know when someone is gonna go after your green.

scratch and sniff

When I was a kid I loved stickers. It was yet another thing that was seen as a girl thing that I enjoyed. So what! I never understood why stickers were for girls and not boys. They made gijoe stickers and spaceship stickers yet like most things that could at all be construed to be cute or little, they were not for boys. I didn’t pay attention to that at all and kept a Kennedy Space Center Binder full of stickers. It was filled with those sticky photopages that were probably a bad idea for keeping stickers in, but they were in use in the 80’s, so I had a ton of pages with stickers on both sides. It was filled with all kinds of stickers. The ones from school with good job or whatever uplifting thing was on it, the gijoe ones I mentioned previously and lots and lots of other ones. I used to buy stickers too. I had hundreds of stickers, maybe thousands I’m not sure. Of course this fed into my collecting personality and so I was probably a little obsessed. It wasn’t so bad though. I never really had much money to spend on them and so it never became a problem. Mostly I got them for free from stores or from stores or trading with other people, mostly girls. The ones I liked the most were my scratch and sniff and my fuzzy stickers, doubly so if they were fuzzy scratch and sniff. I used to love scratching and smelling the fruit ones and all the food ones and then when they came out with the ones that smelled bad like foot and skunk, I smelled those too. Those were crazy! I didn’t keep any of those because I thought they would contaminate my book. Recently we were in whole foods and they had a sheet of scratch and sniff stickers as a give away. It was awesome there was hotdog and popcorn and strawberry and some others.
It is well known that smell is one of the strongest connections to memory and those scratch and sniff stickers triggered memories not just of the food chemicals they emulated but also the years and years of scratching stickers till they were all worn out. I am glad scratch and sniff is making a come back or at least in the whole foods by my house. I wonder where my sticker book is. I should look for it the next time I go home. I will make sure to post pictures if I do find it.

been thinkin'

Recently I have been reevaluating my need to have and buy stuff. I have always been a collector of things. Jennie attributes this to my Taurusness. She is probably right. I always feel like items are precious and they are somehow going to go out of existence. Everything seems so fleeting sometimes. The yellowing of old school notebooks or newspapers always makes me feel a little sad, as though they are slipping out of existence, out of memory. Perhaps my Taurus earthiness translates to a stillness of time and memory that is in direct opposition to the transient and ever changing nature of our reality. Nostalgia and history always takes a back seat to progress and novelty. There was an article online about how the Brooklyn shoreline is an endangered Historical site. All of the changes in my native New York and the changes that are happening everywhere seem to be out of capriciousness rather than thoughtfulness. There is no care taken in these changes to preserve the good things of the past and make changes for the positive. It just seems to be change for possibilities sake, change because it’s allowed or easier than preservation or rehabilitation rather than out of need. Even when something comes back into style it always seems to me to be a shadow of the original, whether it’s fashion or music or whatever. It fuels an urge for the original rather than satisfies it through the new iteration. In College I studied Heraclitus’s views about the nature of reality. He believed that the nature of the universe is change. “You can never step into the same river twice.” He was quoted because everything in the universe was moving and changing, everything was like fire in his view. A contemporary of his, Parmenides held the opposite view. Everything is stillness and permanence. Any change is purely illusion and everything stays the same at its core. I side with Heraclitus and that adds to my collector-ness. If everything is change and nothing is ever the same then what happens to all of the things that I loved as a child? What happens to my cherished memories? These have always been my concerns, even before Heraclitus. The world has always seemed to forget. This lead me to keep notebooks from school even when I was in first grade I thought about looking back at my work with nostalgia, even though I didn’t know what it meant I knew how it felt. I had nostalgia about our old apartment when we moved into the house, and every house I have lived in subsequently. It is not about being able to go back as much as it is not wanting to be faithful to those memories. I still have all of my GiJoe toys in the basement of my parent’s house for that reason. I still have all of the stuffed animals I have ever had. I collect music and movies and so many things as though I will be the last repository of cinema or music or whatever memory I want to retain. Lately I have fought against this feeling. Data has become a cheap thing to hold onto. The internet and computers are creating a record of almost everything and everyone. Every email that is written, every picture that is taken, every video, every moment it seems is being held online for some future to look back on. It seems that the trend is just going to get more inclusive with Google maps documenting the world as it appears and the library project planning to put in all of the books in the national archives. This has led me to conclude that I can let go of some of my “stuff”. I will begin to unload things this year and fight against owning more and more. I will document what I let go of, and hopefully I can actually stick to it. Like a lot of the things that I try to change about myself, I try a lot and succeed only sometimes. I’ll let you know how it goes. Also in that vein I still have yet to have a Coca Cola or Pepsi product, even though the bottle sits in the office kitchen taunting me