I don’t remember him as being affectionate, or even particularly nice. He worked hard because that’s what he was supposed to do. Like any kid, I craved my father’s love, and there were many times I never felt as if I received it. There were moments, as there always are, but with men like him you have to look harder for them. And when you find them, they’re all the more beautiful for their rarity.

Earlier today, I took my dogs for a walk on the trails by our house. A group passed by us on bicycles, dad in the lead followed by his four children, all chattering happily and calling out to my dogs as they sped past. It brought back sudden memories from when I was very little, ones I hadn’t thought about in a long time. My parents used to take us out for bike rides, my older sister and brother had their own bikes, but my younger sister and I were too little to keep up. So she rode in a seat on the back my mother’s bike and I rode with my father. I remember riding around our neighborhood, especially as we got towards the back streets where it turned hilly. Sometimes my dad would detour, and then race as hard as he could to catch the group again. I remember the thrill of going so fast it was almost scary, tightly gripping the sides of my kiddie seat—boy, would those things not be considered safe enough now—while the wind whipped my hair around and I tried to lean over to see as much as I could in front of us. It was exhilarating, I really loved those rides.

During those bike rides and remembering them now, I feel connected to him again. And I suddenly realized this is why I love riding my bike so much. I liked running a little, I enjoy yoga, but the bike! It’s like an addiction, I love it far and away more than any other kind of exercise I’ve ever done. Calling it exercise seems wrong, almost demeaning, it’s a complete zen experience beyond mere exercise or workout. I love the feeling of pumping as fast as I can up a hill and then flying down the other side, turning corners so hard that I’ve got the tires on the edge of the tread. I love riding slowly and smoothly along and just feeling the pedals turn. I love everything about it. And now I remember why, it’s because somewhere in those times, my dad is with me again.

Typically, restaurants supply three tortillas, along with a huge pile of meat, beans, pico de gallo, and onions. Three tortillas is never enough to contain the volume of ingredients, and the unwary diner who attempts to stuff all that into only three tortillas is going to end up dripping food all over the place. What exactly is the problem, restaurants? Tortillas are probably the cheapest part of an order of fajitas, you can’t possibly claim it would cost too much to include another couple of tortillas. You give chips away for free, it’s the same ingredients as tortillas, but not as tasty, and certainly not as useful for fajitas.

Please join the fight today, tell your local restaurant that they are cheating their customers by being so stingy with the tortillas!

We bought new shelves last weekend for the living room, a necessity in light of the considerable mess of yarn, books, and other assorted knitting paraphernalia lying about downstairs. The lovely arrangement of yarn and knitting shown here is deceptive, as if this was all there was. Not pictured is the bin full of crap, the pile under a desk, the coffee table drawer, or the magazine rack full of knitting books and tools. And that’s just all the knit-related stuff downstairs, and most of it isn’t even yarn.

But this basket will fool all visitors, mwa ha ha ha! Be sure to set up a similar lovely arrangement in your home, hide the crap, and deliberately mislead your friends into thinking you are not only crafty but supremely well organized!

1. Be interested.

Dogs are naturally curious about almost everything, they want to see what you’re doing and get involved in it. Emulate that when dealing with others, take an interest in them and whatever they’re doing or talking about (people love that).

2. Be social.

Dogs have a social creatures, they very much want to be around other social creatures (most often dogs or people). People are healthier and happier when they have a well-developed social network, so whether it’s online or in-person get out there and sniff some butts and build some kind of social contact that charges you up on a regular basis.

3. Be protective.

This may seem at odds with the previous point, but it’s not. Dogs love social contact, and they also fiercely defend their own boundaries, it’s a necessary balance. Learn to set firm boundaries with people who drain you, and lock your doors at night (contrary to popular sayings, it was never safe to leave them unlocked at night). A dog will wake to check out and bark at strange noises in the night, then go right back to sleep as if nothing happened; they don’t live in fear, they have common sense.

4. Get plenty of sleep.

Dogs will instinctively nap regularly. For some odd reason, people often equate sleep with laziness. Have you ever seen a dog napping who suddenly hears a noise outside, and they go from zero-to-sixty in a half-second? That is not lazy, that is a highly developed system in action. If people could do that we’d all be a hell of a lot more productive.

5. Exercise is fun!

Dogs love to run, most dog games involve running at some point. They have a two-leg advantage over humans, but the idea works for other forms of activity, too—working your muscles feels good and it improves your health on all kinds of levels. It’s just like Elle Woods said in Legally Blonde, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands.” Dogs virtually never shoot anyone, I like to credit the amount of exercise they generally get for that.

I suspect this is why so many people love dogs, we subconsciously recognize their superior traits. If we would all strive to be more like our dogs, the world would be a better place. Well, except for that butt-sniffing bit, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that.

Apparently there is a connection between a fungus and a virus causing colony collapse, and much more research needs to be done to find a solution. But this is HUGE. Again, no bees means reduced food supplies, it’s an incredibly important issue even though many people are still not aware of it at all. If you’d like to contribute, see my previous post—Knit to Save Bees!—for links to knitting patterns where a percentage of the proceeds go towards bee research.

I can’t decide if it’s Pucci-cool or seriously awful. I think it could look cool on a runway, but it’ll never work in real life. It seems to have a little fuzzy halo going, too, which, again, never work IRL.

Let me assure you, many a loaf didn’t come out well, in fact a few spectacular bread-fails resulted in immediate trashing of said loaf. (Note: “loaf” is a great word. It’s fun to say, try it. Loaf. Loaf. Loaf.) I don’t have a bread machine, but I do have a KitchenAid mixer, which is even better. I just let the yeast proof in the main mixer bowl, get the dry ingredients together while that’s happening, then dump them in with the yeast and let the KitchenAid mix and knead the hell out of it. I had a bread machine years ago, and I don’t think it does as good a job on the kneading process.

I’ve improvised a roll recipe that includes a quarter cup of Parmesan cheese. Did you know that Parmesan cheese is supposed to be capitalized, as it’s a very specific kind of cheese from Italy, and in Europe the trademark is protected? I bet you didn’t care, either. Anyway, here’s some pics.

homegrown peaches and fresh baked rolls

latest batch of fresh rolls

My favorite way to eat these is with some olive oil with garlic and peppers in it. They makes great sandwiches, too.

ETA: Sheesh, this app is the next best thing to worthless. I couldn’t resize this image (according to WordPress I should be able to do that), and the controls in general are clunky, just hardly seems worth trying to use it at all.

You know what, I think I’m going to run to Lowe’s and just buy a bag or two of mulch to cover up the bare dirt, maybe then it’ll cease to look so construction-zoney that I can deal with it taking a while to finish out completely. I think that’ll help quite a bit, I just hate that crappy bare dirt and it’s really interfering with enjoying the parts that are finished.