a landmark for TK

A few years ago, at a library conference in Denver, I almost threw away something incredibly important without yet knowing how very important it was. Scurrying away to the safety of pretzels as soon as I could, I essentially blew off TK when first I met him.

Let me explain. Yes, for all my bluster and blogging, I'm actually a little shy. No, really. And I get intimidated by people I think are waaaay out of my league somehow: looks, talent, smarts. So picture it, meeting Todd for the first time at a conference social, and frankly being awed by him. He's articulate, he's got it all together, he's (let's be honest here) a handsome man. Whoa, why is this guy talking to me, of all people? Where are those pretzels?

We joke about it now, but once in a while I stop to think, what if. What if TK hadn't made an effort after that (thanks to the magic of Facebook) to get to know me? What if he'd not bothered at all?

You've seen the blog, you'll know how things turned out. TK and I got to know each other better and better, roomed together at conferences, visited each other in Baltimore (where he lives with his partner, Michael, and their two wonderful dogs that I adore so greatly) and Chicago (where I live with Conrad, of course!), and even spent time together in Vancouver last fall where he was a part of my wedding party and where he offered a reading. We're in touch pretty much daily. On top of all of this, I must add, he is an excellent librarian, and I value his professional insights immensely.

In the few short years I have known him, he has become my closest, most treasured friend, and it's hard now to imagine how things were before I knew him.

Todd, you are 40 today, a landmark birthday. A very happy birthday to you, and may our friendship bring us many more to celebrate.

restoring normalcy

Sunday, it has long been established, means Yoshi's. Travel, other plans, life in general - things keep us from getting to our favourite restaurant more then we might like. But it is good to be back.

We returned tonight, our first meal there in 2012. Some salmon for Conrad, a Cornish hen with mustard for me. A bottle of a Cotes du Rhone between us. Best of all, the company of other regulars and friends: Michael and Laura, Gil and Rakhael, Chris. Banter across the bar. Extra wine poured. An enjoyable night that recalled to us why we go there so very often.




For one weekend, normalcy restored to our lives. And thank goodness for that.

taking down the tree

Early January is a sad time of year (aside from a very big day next week, that is). Christmas is over, the gifts have been given, our dietary habits are more moderate, and I cannot play carols again until October. And as is our custom, the first weekend after New Year's Day we take down the tree. So it is tonight. It kills me a little inside.

Oh, sure, it was a sunny and lovely day out. A decent swim. Some tidying around the house. The fragrance of the chicken stock I spent the afternoon making in the kitchen. We're re-claiming our living room! Still, it's a melancholy evening in a way, and here I sit, deliberately drawing it out by blogging it.

Setting up the tree was odd and different this year. We set aside a the first Sunday in December (as opposed to American Thanksgiving weekend) to do the tree ourselves. No one helping. I can't even recall what I cooked or if we might have ordered in. One big tree in the corner, and a small feather tree on the dining table.

A little closer to Christmas we had those who might have been our recruits over for a nice meal: some curry turkey pot pies, biscotti, a steamed pumpkin pudding.
No work on the tree, just enjoying it and the other bits of holiday decor.


A fine night. There were too few of those this past Christmas.

And now it comes down. We started prepping the apartment before dinner, and then Conrad went to get the boxes from storage. A dinner of a chicken tortilla soup in us,
and now we're at it. I refuse to play Christmas music, however. Better to get this done and get back to the normalcy of the rest of the winter in the apartment.

I sound bitter, I think. Sorry for that. I do love Christmas, it's well known. Ah well. 9 months until the music comes creeping back into my playlists, and for sure, I'll be on the lookout for good gifts well before then.

dinner with Eric

It freaks me out a little that Eric was last my officemate 11 years ago. I've been in Chicago that long. Longer. On the other hand, I've had an office to myself ever since, and that's meant my own music at the volume I like and getting to sing along with all the Christmas carols I love so very dearly.

But back to Eric.

He hasn't been too involved with library associations in recent years, but - happily - his area of research brings him to Chicago with some regularity. On those visits, we do try to get together and catch up over a meal. Tonight, in fact, was his treat to me and Conrad (we should have had the super-premium margaritas, darn it!) in honour of hour wedding. Even more graciously, he let us show him pictures at the dinner table!

Very good to see him, though, and oh, the food was fine, too. I think I may switch back to fajitas when next we go to El Mariachi, but the shrimp in pipian rojo were fine, and the chips and salsa, as always, are my joy and my bane.

Flickr counts

Perhaps it all relates to the work that I do, dealing with digital images at my library and assessing the use of them. I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just a geek at the superficial aspects of social media. Feel free to speculate quietly on your own. The fact is, though, I'm altogether fascinated by the hits on our Flickr albums.

(full disclosure: the album I am referring to is the one for things Conrad and I do together - I have another account wherein I post things of my own, mostly conference photos)

I think it started a couple of years ago or so when I noticed that a picture - not even a very good one, not much descriptive metadata with it - was getting hits day by day it seemed. Oh, not a lot. Go look for, say, naked people on Flickr - those are likely the photos that are getting thousands of views. But no, this one photo was popular, and the referrer data suggested that people Googling "chocolates" were coming to it. Fair enough. Eventually interest tapered off, and while there have been 156 views in total (and two in the past month), the photo has gone from being #1 down to #8 in terms of all-time views.

In fact, it didn't remain #1 for long. Later in 2009, Conrad and I visited with Jeph (and his boyfriend, Brett, on whom I still unabashedly have a crush) in Ohio. Among the activities that weekend was wine tasting. And at a certain point after the visit and the posting of the photos, one image started getting hit. A lot, relative to my album. 15-30 hits a day for days on end. After a month or so, the hits stopped. I am not sure it's been viewed since. More mysteriously, the referrer data gave me no clue whatsoever as to why. It's #4 on the list now with 453 hits.

#3 comes from earlier this year while Vancouver was in the midst of Stanley Cup fever. Conrad and I were in Granville Island Market, and in a bakery we like to shop at, we noted some Canucks pucks - brownies with the hockey team logo on them. I tweeted the link to the photo, and it was retreated soon after by someone who evidently had a good number of followers. In two days views soared. Since then there have been occasional views, and it now sits at 873.

#2 is another mild mystery. I haven't been able to determine why a photo from last year of the Shangri-La Hotel in Vancouver has been so popular. No one source. General searches I suppose. It's a very grey photo, though it's a mildly interesting shot of the hotel tower. It's slightly ahead of the Canucks pucks with 878 views.

No photo has made it to 1000 views (although the photostream, collections, sets, and images together have surpassed 100,000), but a 2009 photo has reached 962. Not too far off. Here's the caption: Post-dinner chocolates, Shanghai Terrace, Peninsula Hotel. That's it. It's an odd, slightly blurry iPhone photo of chocolates on a Chinese soup spoon in a wooden cage. No, I can't explain it either.

I thought I might be in for another such curious anomaly a few days ago when I noticed that photos of eggs Benedict with smoked salmon (breakfast two mornings in a row near the hotel in Pasadena last month).
Alas, after two or three days, views of those images have tapered back off. Perhaps something else will make a run for the top in the future. We'll see.

So far 19 out of 8000+ images have been viewed 100 times or more. In the end, it's rather gratifying that at least a few of the images have been enjoyed so well.

cooking like Conrad

My kitchen. It's my kitchen. For ten+ years with Conrad, I've been the one to do the cooking. In the past year, though, our patterns have changed. Conrad has been in charge of dinners on a more regular basis than previously, and his evil influence is starting to rub off on me.

To wit: dinner on the Tuesday after Christmas in Vancouver. I was off at swim camp that evening, and we'd pretty much taken care of the turkey leftovers from the Friday dinner with my parents. Dinner was up to Conrad, and he performed admirably. I don't know where he got it from, but it was entirely reasonable sushi. We plated it up nicely and enjoyed it with Marie.




Fast forward a week or so, and it was my turn. Takeaway sushi, this time from WF.



I jest and exaggerate - we dine like this often. Weekly, in fact. Not pizza, only occasionally Thai or Mexican. Lazy me, since I'm the one responsible for the kitchen. But who am I kidding? Same time next week?

simple dinner

I didn't feel in a rush today, but I also didn't want to spend a lot of time making dinner. I have a book to read, after all, so no fancy preparations tonight.

Also, no dairy, interestingly. No, I'm not forgoing my morning decaf latte, but I am trying to eat a little healthier so as to be in not such dire shape when I get to Dallas for conference later this month. Yes, I really am that vain.

A long, flat piece of sockeye salmon, skinned and cut in two. I coated the pieces in a mixture of rice flour, salt, and pepper, then crisped up the coating in a large skillet with some canola oil. On the side were some Brussels sprouts halves, tossed with a little mustard. Underneath the fish was a parsnip and leek puree.



I liked the coating on the fish, I liked that it was light and thin and crispy. A decent effort. Conrad ate it appreciatively, too. Not a hearty dinner (and hmmm... what shall I cook tomorrow, I wonder), but a moderate one capped with a large Asian pear shared between the two of us.

I do, however, think a lovely glass of wine (which I'm taking a few days off from after the holidays) would be lovely right about now.

a few recent cooking observations

1. Blood orange souffles, by the time you get to the bottom of the dish, start to become a bit of a marmalade-y chore. I'll stick to other souffles in the future.
2. Why would anyone go for microwaved nachos or nachos with "cheese" sauce when oven baked are so much better. That's a rhetorical question, no responses need, you know I'm right.
3. I may no longer eat baby back ribs, but apparently I haven't lost my ability to cook them.
4. Chocolate cake good.

looking back

I don't do New Year's resolutions. I don't like the idea of committing to a life change just once a year and that's that. Better to reflect on what needs changing in life through the year and make it happen. Mind you, I don't begrudge others their resolutions. Everything needs a starting point, right?

So let me not call this a resolution, just a starting point for blogging again. I've recently been enjoying seeing some 365 albums on Flickr, and I realized that I would like to get back to blogging. Nothing serious. Food. Travel. Musings. With me?

At this time of year many media outlets pull together top lists or year in review stories. I'm a bit of a sucker for those if only because my memory is so remarkably sieve-like that it's good to have some reminders. I made a list yesterday. Here, then, is a year in review.

But not chronological, because 2011 was all about the wedding. Yes, ten years together, and on the first Saturday after what Conrad and I consider our ten-year anniversary of our first date, we were married in Vancouver. Family and friends came from as far as Sweden and the UK, and there was a healthy Chicago contingent. Allison looked gorgeous as my best woman, TK continued to demonstrate how awesome a best friend he is by standing in my party and doing a reading, and my big sister Marie gave me away. Actually, Marie did a ton more than that - she was the point-person for so many things here in Vancouver, and we really do owe her so very much for all she did in ensuring the day was a good, smooth, and marvelous one.

Anyway, the wedding was lovely, as was the reception. People ask what the best moment of it was. I never can answer that well - so much was a blur in the moment and all the more so looking back. A happy blur, but a blur. I guess the best part is every time I twiddle with the ring I now wear on my left hand and can revel in all that ring stands for and the day when it was given me.


There are many photos from the wedding week - the lead up, the time in Vancouver, the event, the honeymoon (Hawaii, of course) in a Flickr collection. Enjoy.

The end of 2011 saw Marie buy herself a condo, which means that this has been the last year of her living at our Vancouver condo. It's been a good arrangement all along, and we will miss her. On the other hand, we now get to furnish and decorate the place the way we want, and that excites us. The issue was almost forced a little earlier in the year when I found myself applying for and interviewing for a job in Vancouver. I didn't get an offer, and in terms of timing, that was likely for the best. I won't deny it's not disappointing not to be the first choice, but I have a secure position in Chicago, and I'll be grateful to have that job. May I do it well in 2012.

I swam a lot in 2011. I raced a couple of open water swims (fun!),
I did some timed distances in the pool (fun!), I closed the year with a 17-mile week at the English Bay Swim Club swim camp. In all, I was several miles short of 400 miles for the year, but good enough for a mile a day. I'm pretty proud of that. I am not proud of where my waistline is at the end of the year, but I haven't had to go out and buy bigger clothes, so I'll just eat moderately now that the holidays are over, and exercise regularly. About all that can be asked of us, right?

We have dined well this year, at home and elsewhere. Yoshi's has been our cherished regular place as always, of course. Safari Cafe is our coffee spot of choice in Vancouver. I had an unfortunately memorable meal at the Getty Museum in LA - a rare instance where I complained about the food. Best meal? Oh gosh. I ate a lot of very good things this year, not least of which were the deep-fried octopus chips at Boneta a few days ago. I might point to the wedding rehearsal dinner at Campagnolo for its combination of company, energy, location, and food. I still rave about that squash risotto with hazelnuts. Yum!

An interesting thing, though - if you go back earlier in 2011, you'll see some blogging about the cleanse that I did. I kept a few things going post-cleanse. Decaf only - I sleep much better now, seldom cursed with insomnia. I tried to add red meat back to my diet and found it just didn't agree with me much. With exceedingly rare exception, red meat remains out of my diet. Yes, I include pork in that, too. Nope, no bacon for me.

There have been good conferences, swimming events, trips to LA while Conrad has been working there. Thanksgiving in the UP with the in-laws (now officially that) and Christmas in Vancouver with my family and our friends here. Allison and Marie have stayed with us. TK joined them for a bachelor party weekend that still makes me shake my head in happy amazement. That led to one of the concerts we got to this year - the Debbie Gibson/Tiffany reunion concert. What a blast! Call it cheese, call me cheesy, I don't care. It was fun. Right TK? Oh, and there was the night we went with Smelts friends to see Florence + the Machine, and then there was the Dick Prall show Allison and I took in. I even got Conrad to a few movies this year, plus he went with me when I saw a pro-tennis match for the first time (Fish d. Harrison).


I'm forgetting things from 2011. That's fine. I blogged irregularly, but there is evidence of the year that was if you read back. Besides, it's now time for 2012. Which doesn't mean I won't look back again, but this should launch a new year of blogging nicely. In 2011 I hit my 1000th post. 1366+ by the end of 2012?