Kudos for Trudeau

G.B. Trudeau, author of the political comic strip Doonesbury, has taken on the topic of MST in this week's strip. MST stands for Military Sexual Trauma. Here's the strip, reprinted without permission.

GBT doesn't assume he can really take the perspective of a MST victim, but he brings attention to the issue in a very sensitive way. His desire to write about the ills of our society is very respectable. He could always come up with a story to mock W, but he continues to explore uncharted territory. That's all I want to say.

p.s. He also has a great forum for soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's call the Sandbox. I think it's wonderful that he provides a space where they can describe what's happening in their own words.

How I got my start in caffeine

After you reach a certain age, you can't remember the first time you drank coffee. It's been a part of my life so long, I don't remember the first sip. But I know that first taste occurred at a young age.

Coffee is a big part of family life (even dysfunctional ones). Like most adults, my parents drank coffee every morning. But the coffee moments that have the most significance are the after-dinner coffees with my grandparents. Like clockwork, when we finished eating, we had coffee. No, they weren't serving me coffee. They served me coffee-flavored milk. And it was good.

It was enough to give me the taste for coffee. And as I got older, my coffee-flavored milk became milky coffee.

Because I knew I liked coffee, and because my parents drank it every morning, I decided in high school that I would also drink it every morning. Now, what I considered coffee then, is actually something I consider quite blasphemous now. Brace yourself. My parents drank instant coffee. And used powdered creamer. Yep. Horrible, right? Yet, I always strove to create the perfect cup. In the evening, I would set up the cup so that all I had to do was pour in the hot water. I would put in a teaspoon of coffee (or whatever serving it was), a teaspoon of creamer and sugar and I'd stir it all together so it was blended. Then when I poured the hot water in all the flavors would blend.

It sounds disgusting now. Fake coffee and cream. Yuck. And sugar in my coffee. Yuck. However, that's how it started. I drank that concoction a long time. I'm not exactly sure when the transition to real coffee happened. I wasn't averse to drinking brewed coffee, but I just didn't know anything about it. Things changed when I got a job at a cafe. There was an espresso machine there. And brewed coffee. Around the same time, I developed a taste for espresso drinks, similar to the coffee-flavored milk I used to drink as a kid. For a while, I was drinking breves daily. That's intense. Espresso and steamed cream. The size of a latte. Yum. Decedent. And drinking those can lead to weight gain so I don't recommend making a habit of it.

The first cafe I worked at wasn't so focused on the coffee part. But then I went to work in a French-inspired bakery/cafe. There we served Cafe La Semeuse. It's good ... and expensive. But that was the place I discovered really good coffee. And really good espresso. And there was no turning back. I bought the best coffee-making machinery I could afford (and there are many options from basic to fancy). I bought a coffee grinder so that I would never brew pre-ground coffee again. And I embarked on a life-long journey to find good beans.

Now I've already confessed in previous posts that I drink ground coffee. So you can imagine that my journey has taken a few turns, mostly due to the necessity of rising early for my job. There's nothing that turns an overnight guest away more than the sound of the coffee grinder at 4:30 AM. Something told me I had to grind the coffee in advance and that just led to buying it already ground for me.

So that's my story. I think coffee is an acquired taste, and my journey has some bad chapters in it, but who's doesn't?

Happy brewing.

Gotta tend the earth...

... if you want a rose. (Indigo Girls, Hammer & a Nail.)

Today is my day to garden. I love to tend my vegetable garden. It's so rewarding to work the dirt and nurture plants.

This year's garden has cucumber, tomato (grape, yellow pear, early girls, and steak), yellow crookneck squash, red bell peppers, zucchini, and herbs (basil, thyme, rosemary, cilantro). Right now, I'm waiting for the grape tomatoes to ripen. There are many. We also have a zucchini and some cucumbers growing. And there are many buds on the other tomato plants. Fruits of my labor. Real fruit! That's gratification.

It's so satisfying to work in the yard. I think it's the feeling of creating something from the earth. Or nurturing something that's alive. Pruning, cutting, tilling the soil, weeding. All day long, five days a week, I sit at a desk under fluorescent lights, the life seeping out of me. When I get home, the garden reminds me of life and growth, reinvigorating me. It allows me perspective on the days I sit in an office, not creating or growing anything.

Actually, I have plants on my desk. I give them a lot of attention. One is a Christmas Cactus, one is a Peace Lily, and I don't know what the other two are called. I talk to them, water them, give them plant food. They are like an oasis on my desk. A reminder that beyond the walls of the office, and the concrete of the city, a lush green world awaits waiting for attention. They are brave plants to be surviving office life.

I just finished reading Falling Boy by Alison McGhee. It was a really good book. It's been a while since I sat down to read a good book and this reminded me that I love to read. It wasn't a book that changed my life, but I enjoyed reading it and I thought it was well written. It's about a boy, Joseph, who is paraplegic, living in a new town and working in a bakery (one of the reasons I liked it, since I, too, used to work in a bakery/cafe). The two people he interacts most with are a brother and sister who have some interesting issues and have this desire to see Joseph as a superhero. The story of the brother and sister and Joseph's past unfolds in the book. It's a short book (208 pages) and worth the read.

Career Day

Sometimes we laugh at things because they are just painfully true. That's why I love this Dilbert strip.

That's me, spending forty hours a week in a cubicle, pretending that the fluorescent light is really the sun and that my computer screen is a window into the world. Luckily, I don't have the idiot supervisor that uses fear to coerce work. But my office is rows of cubicles in what are called "six packs." That's how they come, like a six pack.

I feel like I'm being warehoused. Aged to retirement. In the summer, we try to get out of the office. Our work (which shall remain a mystery) requires it. But in the winter, we're like bears that hibernate. I rarely see the sun and suffer from seasonal affective disorder because of it.




But the upside of it all, if you can call it that, is the camaraderie that I have with my coworkers. It's like we're surviving the warehousing together. Something a little more mild than POWs.




And, I shouldn't have to say this, but I will, one key component to survival is coffee. The caffeine flowing through your blood reminds you you're alive and kicking.




Baltimore was beautiful today. It was 80 degrees with a fabulous cool breeze. You could drink hot or iced coffee and be comfortable. The evening cooled down to 70. I wouldn't guess this is a Baltimore summer, but I know that ever oppressive humidity is on its way.

Coming up in future posts I'll talk about Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City and possible third party presidential candidate. I'll also discuss how Starbucks has worn me down.

7-Eleven Coffee

Like most people, I need to have coffee to start my day. I usually prepare a pot at home to get me through my morning routine. But I often find that's not enough to get me started at work, so once I get to work, I buy another cup of coffee. 7-Eleven coffee.

The coffee station at 7-Eleven is brewing like mad between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. They must have at least fourteen different pots with all sorts of flavors. This isn't coffee that's been sitting around waiting for takers. A 7-Eleven employee mans the station brewing constantly. I drink the hazelnut.

But why 7-Eleven? You probably think I have no other choice, but not so. Actually, on the same block there is a Dunkin' Donuts and, wait for it, a Starbucks. But for my morning fix, I drink 7-Eleven. Hazelnut.

Let's get the easy one out of the way. Dunkin' Donuts. Their coffee isn't actually that bad. However, why do they insist on fixing it themselves? I don't like for others to put cream in my coffee (except for my sweetheart who knows just how I like it). Just because I like cream in my coffee doesn't mean I want my coffee to look pale. There is an exact shade of creaminess that only I know. Therefore, I've never been happy with a cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee. And frankly, even though the coffee is not that bad, it's really not that good either. Dunkin' Donuts does donuts, and coffee is an afterthought. I don't like afterthought coffee.

But why not Starbucks? I mean, Starbucks is all about coffee, right? Well, yes, I suppose. Starbucks is the McDonald's of coffee. There's no room for variation. There's an exact formula for coffee and coffee drinks. I don't believe that's how coffee should be made. Coffee is a personal experience. A person who makes coffee or espresso drinks should understand the art of coffee and feel a connection between themselves and the drink they are creating. But Starbucks doesn't want that. Most chains don't want that. They need consistency to sell their product. They want you to know that no matter which Starbucks you enter, you will get the same taste every time. And the taste of a regular cup of joe just isn't that good. I don't agree with the Starbucks brewing technique. I don't know what they do, but I don't like the results. The coffee is either too bitter or acidic. I like a smooth, full-bodied coffee. Starbucks coffee tastes burnt or stale to me. Now, if I want a latte or iced latte, I will go to Starbucks. But I don't drink those everyday. For my morning jump start, it's got to be a regular cup of joe.

Okay, so given that I'm a coffee snob, how do I bring myself to drink regular ole coffee from 7-Eleven? I like the simplicity of it. They know they are brewing just regular coffee. And they know how important that coffee is to the scores of coffee drinkers that come in every morning. They have that connection. Someone is there to watch over the coffee counter, wipe it down regularly, brew coffee as soon as it's needed, wipe down the counter again, make sure the cream is full, make sure you have everything you need to make that essential cup of joe. It's just that simple. Is it good? Well, it's not great. It's not that kind of coffee great that you get at a good restaurant after a fabulous meal. Or that kind of bagel shop great where the folks know a bagel tastes better with a great cup of coffee. But it's definitely good enough. And I just drink the flavored kind to make up for the lack of quality. It's a psychological trick, but it works.

You'll find that my coffee snobbery works in mysterious ways, but after a while you'll catch on to what I find important in the world of java.

So today is a very happy day for me. My partner, Caroline, just returned from a 10-day trip to Finland during which time we didn't get to communicate that much. I missed her terribly. But this morning we woke up together and everything felt right and normal again. Driving into work, I felt really good. When I stopped into 7-Eleven, they had bananas at just the right ripeness, and that made me even happier. So when I got to the counter, I decided today would be a good day to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket. I could feel it would be a winner. And it was! $2. That's a 100% return on my money. Life is good.

He's not going to win, but...

...I love him.




I never heard of Senator Mike Gravel from Alaska until this debate (South Carolina). Even after two terms in the Senate, he believes in peace and he's a radical (comparatively). Listen to what he's got to say. I wish he could be rewarded for his positions with votes, but we don't vote for ideas anymore. Not at this level. Barack and Hillary have already been ordained as the two we get to choose from. I don't have a problem with either of them. I like them both. But they will never say anything too creative or go out on a limb.

Our process for picking candidates guarantees we'll never get anyone that strays too far from the center. The differences will be nuanced. Of course, I desperately want to see a Democrat in the White House, but it's mostly because of what they won't do rather than what they will do. They won't appoint a justice to the Supreme Court who doesn't agree with Roe v. Wade. They won't sign the Federal Marriage Amendment. They won't use gay issues to divide the nation.

But (sadly) I doubt they will provide health care for all. I doubt our schools will improve under a Democrat. The nuance here is that I know under a Republican, we won't have health care for all. I know our schools won't improve. You see the differences are pretty small.

But I don't know if I can survive another term of Republican arrogance. I don't know if our country could survive it. So take a look at Senator Gravel, and dream, just for a second, that our candidates will have such brave ideas. And then just wait and see who wins the fundraising war.

Coffee tip #5: Today was a heat advisory day, with temperatures reaching 100 degrees. For the die hard "don't water down my coffee" iced coffee drinker, try making coffee ice cubes. Put those in your iced coffee and never experience watered down coffee again! Or, put some toothpicks in the ice tray and make coffee popsicles. Yum!

Afraid of the lights

When I was a kid, I was afraid of the dark. Who knew what horrible monster was waiting to snatch me? Now, that I'm older, I'm more afraid of the lights. What's brought on this 180? Baltimore Gas and Electric, aka BGE.

June 1st marked the beginning of the 50% rate increase BGE customers are now paying. Already expensive bills are now 50% more. Our elected officials, who spent most of last summer campaigning and promising to stop this rate increase, spent last winter doing absolutely nothing to help their constituents. I believe they were all on vacation June 1st when the rate increase took effect. I'm pretty angry about it, if that's not obvious.

Nevertheless, I'm stuck with this rate increase and now a new phobia. I've been walking around the house, turning out the lights in every room. I cook in the dark, only allowing light in the kitchen after I burn myself. Halogen light bulbs, programmable thermostats, whatever it takes. Light-Nazi.

I've put a heavy blanket over the bedroom window to prevent the sun from heating the room. The bedroom is the hottest room in the house because it gets the most exposure to the sun. Luckily the house tends to stay cooler than the temperature outside, but I keep the AC set at 80 degrees to make sure it's not running all day. Typically that setting is sufficient, but when I came home yesterday, the air was running. It was that hot!

BGE says try not to use appliances during peak hours, so I wake up around midnight to start the laundry. Also, I set the dishwasher to run in the middle of the night.

Did you know that computers are energy hogs? I've changed the settings on my laptops to reduce power usage. I don't really need to see the screen all the time anyway.

Global warming isn't helping either. It's rained maybe two times in the last two months. The drought has parched the grass and plants. And the lack of clouds hasn't given the sun a break in a long time. I've got a book on Native American rain dances. I'll be practicing that later.

Onto another topic, I have three cats. This is going to sound like a commercial, but I've struggled with litter box odor. It seems like no matter how often it's cleaned, the litter box always makes my basement stink. Since the basement is also like a den and I spend a lot of time down here (trying to stay cool), that smell drives me crazy. I typically don't like sprays because they are too perfumy and don't mix well with litter box odor. Well, I found something that works great! It's Oust Air sanitizer. I'm not kidding. It's supposed to eliminate odor and it really works. And it smells good. I bought the outdoor scent and it smells so good. It's my new favorite thing. I highly recommend it.

Finally, coffee tip #4. It's hot outside and you want a refreshing iced latte. When you make iced latte, pour the milk over the ice before putting in the shots of espresso. If you pour the espresso over the ice first, the ice will melt and water down the coffee. Or you could pour the ice into the already prepared latte, but I find that to result in splashed coffee.