CourtneyP

What’s next? Black turtlenecks and veganism for Mr. Gore?

Today, Gretchen and I had a girls’ day out and headed on up to the Napa Valley for the Mustard Festival. The weather was excellent… not a raindrop fell on us today, which was a really pleasant surprise.

There was a mind-boggling selection of mustard and wines for us to sample (the above photo shows just one booth’s selections). I particularly favored Oakville Grocery‘s Sun-Dried Tomato Curry Mustard and Willamette Valley Mustard’s Aoli Garlic Mustard Sauce. So many good wines to remember (alright, maybe I was a little buzzed)… and a lot of fun, to boot!

The whole experience made me a little wistful. I was really into the culinary world when we were living in Hawaii… mostly because it’s a pretty big industry there. We used to host wine tastings at our house, and I loved cooking… a LOT. It also made me wonder, why we never patronize the local vineyards and check out the great restaurants, when we are in the heart of the food and wine country.

I know, it’s just a luxury. I also guess that it has to do with the fact that the South Bay seems to removed from the rest of the Bay Area. We have almost nil access via public transportation (and if you *do* take public transportation, it takes at least twice as long to get where you’re trying to go). I can’t tell you just how much I miss the convenience of BART, MUNI and the ferries. The recent news that I heard regarding the imminent cancellation of the Bart Extension to Santa Clara County is a real bummer.

But I so do love my food and wine!

*whine*

If you’ve got a problem (or something that even slightly resembles a problem), there’s a support group for you, somewhere out there.

There’s even Lip Balm Anonymous, whose mission is “to stay free from lip balm and to help others achieve the same freedom.”

A sampling from their self-evaluation:

• Has the use of lip balm interfered with your job?

• Is your lip balm use causing conflict with your spouse or family?
• Do you feel depressed, guilty, or remorseful after you use lip balm?
• Do you ever wish that you had never taken that first application or hit of lip balm?
• Do you have an obsession to get lip balm when you don’t have it?
• Do you experience an anticipation high just knowing you are about to use lip balm?
• Are you absorbed with the thought of getting coated even while interacting with a friend or loved one?
• Have you begun to use lip balm while alone?
• Do your lips, nose, or other areas hurt when you avoid Lip Balm?
• Do you use larger doses of lip balm to get the same protection you once experienced?

The site started out as am honest joke, but has turned out to be a useful resource to true, real-life Bonne Bell addicts.

Excellent.

(via Chicago Tribume via ObscureStore)

I’m inspired by the men and women in this article: America’s Biggest Readers (via MeFi).

I don’t read as much as I used to. I would love to read more. No, and blogs don’t count, silly. I mean, really read. Books… the tangible reading material. Paper and ink.

It’s strange how it’s strange that in most homes, the books are non-existent or hidden away where they are inacessible. It’s also odd that the average American buys only a couple of books a year… and hardly any go to their local libraries on a consistent basis.

I read a lot of non fiction books, mostly because I enjoy them best. I guess I could really get back into fiction if I wanted to… I think that my reading NF has a lot to do with lack of time and/or energy to pay attention to a novel. Also consider my short attention span, and tendency to leave a book unfinished for days, even weeks, at a time. It’s simply a lot harder for me to do these days, with home life and school and such.

We were discussing tonight how we have more books than we can fit on our shelves. I mean, a LOT more. I have a plethora of pages here, a plentiful library or all sorts of genres, for me to peruse. I like that almost every time we have friends over, they grab a book off of our shelves to browse. I just don’t peruse our collection as much as I should.

I think I can do it if I put my mind to it. If a full time oncologist like Dr. Ronald Yanagihara (and he’s a local guy, to boot!) can fit in a couple of books a week, I could at least finish one.

What was the last book you read, and how long ago did you finish it?
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In your neighborhood… in your neigh-bor-hoooood…

I’m only posting this cos I found it to be pretty darned cool, and helped me find some new reads!

BlogStreet Blog Neighborhoods

My top ten related blogs are:

1. evhead

2. gnome-girl
3. inside gretchen’s head
4. Uhhhhhhh… What’s going on here?
5. megnut
6. a small victory
7. dive into mark
8. Boing Boing (w00t!)
9. besidemanner
10. Acerbia

Wha’bout you? Ping away!

Well they’re the people that you meet
When you’re walking down the street
They’re the people that you meet each day!

-snappy tune from Sesame Street