Category Archives: Kerfluffle
Tracing My Bongo Burgers: A Day on the Farm, Part 3
This series of posts describes my recent trip to Bobolink Dairy Farm. I decided to break it into chunks because I apparently have a lot to say about it. Today’s entry chronicles the early part of the day.
This is the part where I go backwards a little bit before going forward, because I like to ramble, and because there was some stuff I forgot to say. First, I want to answer the question: Why Bobolink?
When Lady Aravan and I were on our journey to better health, we by chance started watching Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. It’s not a cooking show, but it is a show about food and travel, and we liked Tony’s acerbic sense of humor and presentation. One show he did was set in New Jersey, and in that show he traveled to a small cheese-and-bread-making farm called Bobolink. There he met a raw-milk enthusiast, baked bread, and had what sounded like the world’s best pizza. Read the rest of this entry
Tracing My Bongo Burgers: A Day on the Farm, Part 2
This series of posts describes my recent trip to Bobolink Dairy Farm. I decided to break it into chunks because I apparently have a lot to say about it. Today’s entry chronicles the journey itself.
Dawn broke on the big day as we woke up to head to the dairy. Actually, dawn didn’t break until well after we’d woken up, bu that just made it feel all the more farmier. A quick breakfast (cereal and a protein shake for me; leftover homemade pizza and cottage cheese for the Lady. Seriously.) followed soon after, and then we got bundled up. We knew it’d be in the 30s and we’d be tramping in snow, thanks to an email from Jonathan White, the cheesemaker and half the head of Bobolink Dairy Farm, the other half being Nina, his wife, who bears the lovely description of Dancemaker on the website since she is a ballet dancer as well, and who teaches breadmaking classes. Read the rest of this entry
Tracing My Bongo Burgers: A Day on the Farm Part 1
This series of posts describes my recent trip to Bobolink Dairy Farm. I decided to break it into chunks because I apparently have a lot to say about it. Today’s entry is sort of an introduction and background.
For Valentine’s Day this year, Lady Aravan got me the coolest present ever: a trip to a farm to take a cheesemaking class.
Now, to a lot of people, that might sound like hell on earth, or at least dull and pointless. I mean, Wal-Mart has all the cheese you’ll ever need, right? Perfectly yellow, helpfully shrink-wrapped, every single one of each variety tasting exactly the same as all the others. Such perfect uniformity is yummy! Read the rest of this entry
I Am A: Nerd
I Am A: Chaotic Neutral Human Wizard/Rogue (3rd/2nd Level)
Ability Scores:
Strength-16
Dexterity-15
Constitution-15
Intelligence-17
Wisdom-14
Charisma-14 Read the rest of this entry
The 2010 First Annual Aravan Awards
Every December, every publication on Earth (and I also believe on Betelgeuse IV, but there might be a magazine there that doesn’t believe in linear time and so form an exception) feels an overwhelming urge to put out a Top Ten List for 2010 of some variety, or hand out awards based on flimsy criteria and dubious decision making. Some wait until later, like The Academy (fitting in America that our most prominent Academy has nothing whatsoever to do with learning), to hand out their own stupid awards, but that’s only so they can milk the process.
Why not? After all, coming up with a top ten list has to be the easiest writing job in the world. Jot down ten things, come up with superficial reasons for their inclusion, and then explain how blatantly wrong you are as just “a way to get people talking about it.” It’s the ultimate mail-it-in, who-gives-a-shit approach to writing.
So I am TOTALLY in! Read the rest of this entry
Xmas
After hearing multiple admonishments to help “put Christ back into Christmas”, I’ve decided that I would do my part. From now on, I will be referring to the holiday that I celebrate every December as Xmas. It has nothing to do with mangers or nativities or loose women claiming they got knocked up even though they were virgins, I swear, Joseph, really. It has to do with the pure essence of the season, the thing that puts a warm glow in the heart and the bright glimmer of joy in the eye.
I am, of course, talking about toys.
A Month After Hitting My Weight Goal
It’s been about a month since I hit my weight goal. I say “about” because I can’t remember exactly when I did and am WAY too lazy to actually do, you know, research. I’ll call it a month, since it’s a great way to shorthand it. I think it’s close. Well anyway, it’s been a month since I hit my goal weight. I wondered what would happen when I did. Would things change? Would I go back to old habits?
Turns out, no, everything seems to be the same. That’s it! Thanks for reading. Read the rest of this entry
As Sam Said, Well, I’m Back
NaNoWriMo is over. I lost.
It was a struggle, even at first. I didn’t want it to interfere with my life too much, which is laughable in a way – I want to write 50,000 words in 30 days, but I don’t want to spend the time doing it. Mostly, I didn’t want to interrupt my home life, which I enjoy far too much to spend solitarily plunking away on a laptop. Plus, my laptop doesn’t actually have Office installed, which meant using a bunch of workarounds and additional pain-in-the-ass measures that made it more difficult than it needed to be. Excuses? You bet. I’m chock full of ’em. Read the rest of this entry
Something Brief While I Take A Noveling Break
So far, so good. I’ve hit (or ever-so-slightly exceeded) the 1,667 word daily quota each day. I haven’t been able to build a buffer yet, which isn’t great, but I’ll still take it. The site this year adds some interesting stats, like how many days in a row you’ve made quota, how many words you need each day based on your current output, things like that. It’s funny, because if I write 5,000 words today and 500 tomorrow, that would be well above a two-day quota, but since the site would call that 1 Successful Day and 1 Unsuccessful Day, it makes me want to hit the minimum at least every time. Ahh, the incentives that stats bring.
A couple of things I’ve had on my mind the last few days: Read the rest of this entry
Winter in Derenemyn 