I kept imagining that I would write some sort of farewell post here, but it didn’t happen. It may still, but the truth is, farewell. For now. The site will still be here so I can keep my email address, but at this point, it’s hard to say when and if I will ever decide to devote the energy to continuing this blog as a blog.

I didn’t intend for it to happen this way, but I went through a period about a month ago where things just kept happening in my life: throw-away things, and bad things, and tragic things, and good things? I don’t really remember if anything was specifically good. And since I was already having lots of issues keeping this thing going, it just seemed like a good enough excuse to stop everything entirely.

So I’m going to turn some plug-ins off and just… stop. It seemed worth it to actually indicate this was happening as opposed to letting things trail out there. And it seems worth it to note that despite everything, it’s December 21 and I am happy. Which hasn’t been a normal state for December 21 in quite some time; not that December 21 represents anything in particular, but I always have a hard time with the holidays. For whatever reason this year — ironically, due to everything that’s happened — that is not the case.

So I’m going to crawl in bed and read with a bowl game on in the background, and be unbearably thankful for days spent with my phenomenal parents; for evenings spent with others I find phenomenal, or stupendous, as the case may be; for being able to accomplish all of my Christmas shopping in one day; for overpaying for shipping to make sure that last statement is true; for wings and beer; for the fact that if I can get up early in the morning and make it to Super Target before the crowds descend, all I have to do between then and Tuesday is wrap and cook; for football; for books; for my bed; and for the people in my life who read this and who only have to stop and think for a second to come up with at least one reason why I love them, because I do.

I might try to post a two-fer next week. My computer is acting odd again, so I’m going to spare myself the frustration and be thankful for silence.

It’s Music Monday.

So I went to a show last night! Shocker! The New Pornographers played in Lawrence, and even though it was a late night, and even though I was inexplicably tired after my extra hour of sleep, and even though I hated to have my Sunday football interrupted, even for a great show, it was all well worth it. I am not as familiar with their stuff as I should be, and I hadn’t even done enough preliminary research to realize that Neko Case was with them, but damn, damn, damn. Life is good.

It’s a related Music Monday.

Can I last for another eight Music Mondays? Only time will tell.

All the cool kids knew this song three years ago, but you had to wait for Music Monday.

It’s Music Monday. Not that I’m thinking it’s Music Monday; it actually is Music Monday. But I’m thinking about other things.

Muzzzzzic Monday.

The fact that the last few weeks I have almost forgotten to post a Music Monday really doesn’t bode well for the future, now does it?

A way retro Music Monday.

It’s pretty typical of me that I would be sharing a link about summer cooking as the season is on its last legs, but I only just found this myself.

Mark Bittman’s Summer Express

Mark Bittman writes a column for the New York Times called “The Minimalist,” and he’s something of a foodie darling. This column consists of 101 meal ideas that can be prepared in 10 minutes or less, not counting boiling water. Despite the fact that the weather no longer makes turning on the stove seem like an unmanageable chore (well, after today anyway, where we are expecting 90 degrees), I like these ideas because they are simple, varied and I can manage to make a lot of them work even while eating under restrictions.

I’ll spotlight some over the next few weeks.

Another geographically relevant Music Monday.

It’s Music Monday.

A note about my lack of blogging activity in recent weeks: first, note to self: summer? Not the time to start a food blog. Even when I decided to ignore the heat of recent weeks and turn on a stove, oven or grill, the energy to actually blog about whatever it was I cooked was nowhere to be found. And dieting on top of that does not lend itself to writing about things you might find delicious.

Then I took a week’s vacation, which, while delightfully relaxing and therapeutic, still is a disruption; a trip to Mississippi this last weekend to see my Tigers play Ole Miss and one to Virginia next weekend for a dear friend’s wedding further have me out of my routine. My hope is that in a few weeks everything will smooth out a bit and I can at least put up some of the items I have in reserve so you are not treated to a constant barrage of lean meats, veggies and whole grains. Mmmm. Tasty.

Until then, enjoy the music and whatever else I manage to scrape up around here.

Music Monday forgot there was a holiday. Kind of ironic, considering.

Music Mondays since the year started: 35

Pounds lost last week on South Beach: 5.5*

Tomatoes eaten last week: 12

Canker sores from the acid in the tomatoes: Amazingly, zero

*Sounds extreme, but not really. The point of the first two weeks of South Beach is to drop a certain amount of weight really quickly, then start eating the way you should. I did it to get past a certain number, and now I’m starting Body for Life again. Or Body for Death, as I will soon be calling it, if I remember correctly.

A friend and I have an ongoing, er, discussion about the relative merits of summer. He hates heat and baseball, and basically believes that the only things that redeem summer as a season are pool/lake activities, and tomatoes. While I disagree, and enjoy both baseball and all but the most humid and energy-zapping of the hot days, I do agree that a homegrown tomato is one of the few things that can make heat indices of more than 100 bearable.
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I had this thought about three weeks before I left for Vegas that I should go to the gym regularly between then and the trip. Not that I was going to affect any miracles in three weeks of working out, but maybe I would feel a little better in my clothes, you know? I ended up going not once in that time period (to be fair, I did walk some), and in the last week I decided that it really didn’t matter because, as is my way, in the never-ending battle between my appearance and my palate, food wins out every time.*

Here are details about the three notable meals I ate while I was there:
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I will post about eating Vegas later, but this deserves its own moment. An R.I.P., a raised glass, and a Music Monday from deep in my childhood.

I’m going to Vegas Friday, so enjoy Music Monday!

I could tell you about what I actually baked today, lemon pound cakes for a family reunion. You’re supposed to bring a dish for the potluck and then something you made, either a baked good or something like that, for an auction, so I took care of both with a pound cake to eat and one to sell. (Well, one turned into two smaller ones when I didn’t have an extra regular-sized loaf pan, but you know). The recipe, incidentally, is one of Ina Garten’s, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen, so it doesn’t make much sense for me to put it here, when you can just head over to that site and discover even more wonderful things.

No, instead I will tell you about what I snacked on as I mixed.

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