raise your hand if you don't have the luxury of sleeping in airconditioning!!!!

What's the deal with local news talking about "good sleeping weather" anyway? How many people actually sleep in a non-temperature controlled environment in the summer, huh?!? HUH?!?!?

I can think of 2 off the top of my head.

Me and my upstairs neighbor.

And every time I start feeling sorry for myself (last night I managed about 4ish hours of sleep) I think of him UPstairs in that sweltering barn and realize that someone's always got it worse.

The good news is the humidity has broken. Bring on the good sleeping weather, I say!

It's been a week.

There were some crazy work-related events that transpired which I will not go into detail about here. It is finished and no one was permanently injured however there will most likely be battle scars we can all show off for many years to come.

Peetah and I managed yet again to travel to Detroit for a show at my most favorite venue The Majestic this week. He had this really great idea of picking up Jimmy Johns before we left, putting in some miles, and stopping at a rest area for a picnic. Brilliant, right? Except I had worked myself up into a frenzy of excitement over the foodgasm I was going to experience--Veggie Sub with salty Pringles and sweet icy Diet Coke--only to discover that they had made a VITO sub not a VEGGIE sub. The Vito? Genoa salami, capicola, provolone, lettuce, tomato, onions, and vinaigrette. I just about had a nervous breakdown.

The show, however, might go down as the best concert I have been to. Ever. In my life. This is a high honor as past shows include New Kids on the Block, The Grateful Dead with Jerry, Barry Manilow, Beck, The Pointer Sisters, The Beach Boys, and Old Crow Medicine Show.

The Black Keys were amazing.

For a long time, I was under the impression The Black Keys were a bunch of old black blues dudes from the South. I then found out that they were a bunch of white dudes from Ohio. And but a few days before the show I found out there were only 2 of them. 2 dudes. That's it. The stage setup was really something else. A drumset was placed at the very edge of the stage to the left and a mike stand was to the right. Behind the mike stand were a set of speakers of some sort. That's it. 2 dudes. The sound was incredible. Rich and full of reverb. And completely rocked out. I thought the crowd was a tad subdued, but Peter didn't seem to think so. There was that guy who was a few rows ahead of us who kept giving off some spirit fingers. He seemed to be having some fun. In the excitement of it all I managed to splash a teeny tiny bit o'beer on the girl in front of me but as it was sweltering hot I think she thought she was just dripping with sweat. Which we all were. They only played for about an hour which is completely understandable given that there were only 2 dudes. Did I mention it was only 2 dudes?!?!

The weekend is gonna be a weekend. I'm off tomorrow and have plans to see Molly's new house and then lunch with she and the monkey. Saturday I work all day. Sunday I'll be trying to remind myself that the Harry Potter event is just like every other movie event I've done. And then it's Monday.

HP Day.

it's friday night, yo!

I just started reading "The Assault On Reason." I am but 15 pages in yet I am hooked. Crazy hooked. Like, hibernate for the entire weekend and read hooked. Get a copy from yer local library.

Unfortunately (or fortunately!) I have things to do this weekend that will tear me away from Mr. Gore. Tonight it's mexican food and margaritas followed by Scrabble though the Scrabble part of the evening may fall by the wayside depending upon the amount of margaritas consumed. Tomorrow morning I'm up early for the farmers market as I refuse to make the same mistake I did last weekend and miss out on all the fruit! Tomorrow late afternoon I'm off to a wedding reception/open house in Zeeland of all places. And Sunday...hmmm....Sunday....It looks like I may have a hot day with Al afterall!

Can someone explain the logic behind combining the issues of immigration reform and border security?

Other than George not having the support of his own party on immigration and therefore throwing them a Big Wall to make them happy?

9/11 was 6 years ago. If anyone was seriously concerned about terrorists getting though the Mexican border I would hope they would have mentioned it before now. Or if they were formulating a plan these past 6 years they would have come up with something better than a Big Wall.

I can't believe the Big Wall is still alive.

are hillary or obama literally saving the world? no? well, al gore is and i want him to be my president

I know I've been waxing poetic about the farmers market as of late. Though certainly not a new concept by any means, this is the first summer I have chosen to eat and shop this way on a regular basis. I'm sure it's the recent environmental broohaha (Thank you Al Gore and while I'm at it will you please consider running for president? Pretty please? With organic strawberries on top?) that has influenced me. Regardless, comparing lettuce picked but a few days before at a farm in Hudsonville to the plastic wrapped bland romaine hearts from California I buy at Meijer is like comparing the Vintage Choice Cabot Cheddar cheese to Velveeta. My next project (which I need to get on sooner than later given how often I got to the market!) is going to be knitting up a few market bags from "yarn" made from plastic bags.

AND I need to get a typewriter. My dream of a small run of chapbooks to be completed by Christmas is not dead though my sweet lead on an industrial press is. I'm interested in procuring a manual and electric if at all possible. Plus, despite my love of receiving and sending handwritten letters, I really don't like writing longhand.

Archaic much? I don't honestly know if I can even find ribbon anywhere.

Let's see: I live in a barn without air conditioning or a washer and dryer; I don't own a car; I don't have cable; I don't have a computer...

What century is this again?

how's about that middle east?!

One of my most vivid food memories as a child involves lunch at my grandparent's house during summers in Michigan. My grandfather, affectionately referred to as Poppy by my sister and I, always had a shallow green bowl filled with radishes. Just. Radishes. I assumed this was a "grown-up" food reserved only for Poppy and therefore never tried one.

Until Saturday.

I arrived at the farmer's market a little later than I had wanted (I watched a man buy the last flat of strawberries in the entire market leaving the rest of us completely fruitless unless we were willing to buy bananas from the guy on the corner who is clearly not selling what he grows or watermelon which I thought a tad cumbersome for me to carry on foot--though I did enjoy a ice cold slice on the way home!) thereby leaving me without 2 of my staples: strawberries and baby golden potatoes. After purchasing lettuce, tomatoes, sugar snap peas(addictive...seriously), real baby carrots (so sweet and tender you can't even imagine!), and bread I had some leftover money. For some reason, I was attracted to the radishes. Big bunches of bright red crispness just sounded good. Dang. Dang me. I don't think I've had a meal without a radish since Saturday afternoon. They're going in wraps, in sandwiches, on salads, and yes I'm eating them straight up plain. It's too beastly hot to think about roasted them (which I hear is the preferred method--it takes away the bite and sweetens them up a bit), but I'm okay with that. The best part? I think of Poppy every time I eat them.

And fear not! I manage to procure some local fruit thanks to the fruit stand on the way back from Sunset Junque--strawberries AND blueberries! I also picked up a little more asparagus and a sweeeeeeet container of wild mushrooms. I came thiiis close to buying morels, but at $42/lb they were a tad outside my price range.

The rest of my weekend was...well...huh. A weekend. Actually, Friday night was fun. Saturday was not. And Sunday t'weren't bad. In a misguided effort to remain consistent, I didn't call Dad yesterday for Father's Day as I failed to call my Mom on Mother's Day. Maybe next year instead of waiting until the day after, I'll manage to call the day before. This afternoon I head north to Spring Lake for therapy, thankthelittlebabyjesus, and post-that maybe the beach. It's hot here. Really miserably hot. Even with the prospect of cooling off in the lake, I'm not sure if I'll be up for the mile hike to get there.

Did I mention that it's hot?

summertime and living is easy

Happy first week of the Summer Reading Program! I am so sorry most of you aren't here to witness the screaming children, the stressed-out parents (school has been out for less than a week...HA!), and, most importantly, the lines. The very big lines. The lines that sometime contain upwards of 20 people impatiently holding stacks and stacks of books. On the upside, the hours are flying by and despite my bitching it really does bring me joy to check out 37 chapter books to a nine year old girl who reads as she's unpacking her backpack, reads while I'm checking out her books, reads as she repacks her backpack, and reads as she walks out the door.

Mom? Dad? Remind you of anyone?

Speaking of the Davisons-from-Vermont, I had a wonderful time as usual! I spent upwards of 2 glorious weeks with them. They even braved the barn for quite a few nights--and washed my windows! My windows have never been washed. Not once. Confidentially, I was terrified of the bug carcasses that had built up over the god-knows-how-long. One can now find me sitting in my chair (it's really my chair. Don't listen to Grace. She's under the mistaken impression it's actually her chair. Silly cat!) happily knitting away, listening to records, and actually looking out my windows onto the driveway/reflecting pool/birdbath/eco-system. I love it. And my new vacuum? AMAZING! Pre-new vacuum? I should have vacuumed every single day. Post-new vacuum? Once.a.week. And? The bathroom and kitchen are still clean. And mopped. I'll send you guys pictures just to prove it!

The other big news in Western Michigan is the return of produce to the farmer's market! I'm in heaven. Twice a week I head down to pick up whatever looks good. Today's loot: 1/2 lb of spinach, 1/2 lb of red leaf lettuce, a quart of golden baby potatoes (which make amazing fried potatoes for breakfast thanks to my small little herb garden), 1/2 lb sugar snap peas, 1 quart of the sweetest most bestest strawberries ever, a loaf of 7-grain bread, and a dozen organic eggs all for the very low price of $15.00. The produce should get me through until Saturday when I'm determined to get Mr. Berghoef up early to witness the gloriousness of this market. No really. Just watch. I'm thinking with coffee and a really good breakfast I can get him down there by 9:30am at the latest. Bets, anyone?

The weather here this week has been heavenly allowing me to forget all about the freezing cold winter I just endured and the upcoming sweltering humidity of the future. I've either biked or walked to work every day for a week. And the past 2 days I've gone for hikes--once in the Dunes and once at Sanctuary Woods. In both places, my eagle-eyed companion spotted a young deer not 15-20 feet away from us. This? This is why I live here.

Though I do wish I was in Boston this week. The entire Davison clan (including those from Colorado!) have come together to enjoy a week of the Red Sox vs the Rockies. Actually the menfolk are enjoying the series whilst the womenfolk go to museums and shopping and generally enjoy that glorious city. It'd be a tough choice for me as my obvious preference would be the games (where I would be giving some mad love to the Rockies, I might add), but I do know the delicious food and copious amounts of wine the women are consuming would be hard to pass up. I'm hoping the east coast Davisons are working on the west coast Davisons regarding a trip back out there in October....