Back in July I posted a pickle recipe, which has proven to be quite popular (up to #3 on the all-time list already). I’ve made several batches and have decided that I prefer apple cider vinegar to white or white wine. It’s both a little more mellow and a little more flavorful. Also, I’ve refined my two favourite spice combinations.

From the combo in Mark Bittman’s recipe (linked above), I’ve changed the ingredients to cinnamon sticks, all spice berries, cloves, celery seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, and anise. Use the same proportions as in the original recipe and the same number of anise seeds as cinnamon sticks.

For dill pickles I like the following: shallots (peeled and rough chopped), bay leaves, coriander seeds, celery seeds,  and fennel seeds, plus a nice big bunch of fresh dill. The proportions change somewhat depending on my mood, but it seems to be pretty forgiving.

My new niece was born on Friday, just before noon. She’s got a full head of dark hair, just like her two older siblings had. One of them now has light brown hair while the other is quite blonde, so it’ll be interesting to see what she ends up with.

Here she is with her big brother:

Even when you’re not having fun. Not that I haven’t — just that with the start of the fall semester things have rather gotten away from me. You know, like the entirety of my non-work life.

Anywho, I do love the fall semester. It’s fun to see all the new students getting settled in; it’s even fun to answer all the low-level “pointer” questions for the first couple of weeks. It’s marvelous to hear the marching band practicing, and to have cooler temps for the walk to and from work. I could do without all the smoke/haze from the California fires, though. Hopefully those will be put out soon.

Here in Oklahoma, though, we’ve got some interesting stuff happening. Like the opening of the Banjo Hall of Fame on the 12th (be sure to have your speakers on if you follow that link). And Oklahoma City resident Jim Smith is doing a picture-a-day on his blog. Today’s was a nice night-time shot of a Sonic — made me feel a bit nostalgic even though I can go to one whenever I want!

Here’s the real kicker, though: we’re getting a raw foods restaurant! Never would’ve thunk it. The open on the 14th, but I’ll probably wait a bit to try them out. Looking forward to it, though, because it will be a completely new thing for me.

On the personal front, I’ve been slowly stumbling my way back into my yoga practice. I hadn’t even realized I’d gotten quite so far away from it over the summer until one of my colleagues started talking about taking a class. There’s a local studio that I’m thinking about signing up with, just for one class a week. The kick-start would do me good.

Oh, and y’all please wish me good luck. I’ll be babysitting my niece and nephew alone for the first time on Saturday afternoon. It’s only for a few hours, so it should be ok. Really. *eep*

Well, bloggers in the maze that is the internet, anyway. I agreed some time ago to participate in a doctoral student’s study on blogging, privacy, and identity. She had me fill out a survey and then harvested several months’ worth of posts from this blog. We got off the phone about an hour ago after a pleasant chat/interview.

She asked about things like whether my writing style has changed (not that I noticed) and why I chose WordPress (because it’s open source and not Blogger). And she also asked about what I do and don’t talk about here, and whether I ever censor myself. I said whatever popped into my head — something about not wanting to be whiny or juvenile or violate the privacy of others — but now that I’ve thought about it more I wish I’d added this:

Most anybody with any sense of either community or self-preservation will censor themselves at times — both in person and online. I generally try to keep both my blog and myself pleasant in affect because I find that it acts as a fence between myself and the black dog. It’s still visible, but can’t sink its teeth into me without my opening the gate.

Censoring has, for rather good reasons, some very negative connotations. On the other hand, there’s no need for me to go around telling the unvarnished truth-as-I-see-it all the time. I talk about depression in hopes that someone will stumble across this blog and see that one can actually live one step ahead of the black dog. One big baddie per blog is enough, in most cases.

Our semester starts Monday (tomorrow!) so I took a three-day weekend just to recharge a bit. It was more about simply not working than doing anythig in particular, but the days filled up quickly!

Friday: While on my way to Walls (a local, scary-but-fun version of Ross Dress for Less) I stumbled upon an estate sale and found a tea infuser spoon, a mason jar with attached lid, a square pink Pyrex baking dish, and 11 white linen/cotton napkins with nice lace detail in one corner. Walls was a bust but I found a red linen jumper dress and a long brown linen skirt at my favourite second-hand store. Treated myself to sushi at Tokyo. That evening was my mom’s birthday party at my brother’s house.

Saturday: Farmers market (‘maters, grapes, and bell peppers) and another second hand store in the morning. Lunch with my sweetie at a little local Thai place, and later in the afternoon we made the short drive to Pops:

Sunday: Fifty(!) minutes of yoga while listening to Russill Paul talk about yoga and Christianity. Met ER at Mayflower and heard Dr. Charles Kimball give the sermon. Quick trip to Super Cao Nguyen, then lunch with my sweetie. Soon I need to go to the regular grocery store, then, well, maybe I’ll relax a bit.

The only thing I didn’t do was read anything in Infinite Jest, which I’m sadly behind on. It’s an amazing novel, but lately it’s been a little gross in parts and I’m having a hard time getting past that.

Three inches of rain / can not stop August from / feeling like August

1. Yesterday my sweetie and I went to Joey’s Cafe (12325 N. May, OKC, kitty-corner from the Northpark Mall) for lunch. I had the eggs Florentine (steamed spinach on a poached egg on a slice of tomato on half an English muffin, drizzled in Hollandaise) with fresh fruit and was quite impressed.  They’re only open for breakfast and lunch (until 3 p.m. if I remember correctly) and have a nice variety of items on the menu. My sweetie got the Cesar salad with chicken and declared it on the high end of such. They also had burgers and sandwiches, omelettes and “home cooking” type dishes. The decor was nice yet subdued, and it wasn’t too noisy (echo-chamber restaurants bother me). Y’all who are in the area, be sure to check this place out. It’s a bit out of the way for me, but I have every intention of going back.

2. For those of you curious about my work-life, check out these five posts from my other blog: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (Friday was kinda quiet). They’re a little repetitive because of the big project I was working on at the time, but fairly representative nonetheless.

3. Pickles are popular, apparently. It’s probably just the time of year, but I’m amazed at the number of hits received by that pickle recipe I posted less than a month ago. In fact, it’s already the fourth most-viewed post here. (If you’re curious, the first is on changing your sleep schedule.) I am still making fridge pickles but haven’t done anything wildly different — just fiddled with the spice mix a bit. My next batch is going to be dill pickles, thanks to my mom’s donation of a good bit of fresh dill.

4. It’s been too hot for the hens to lay, so no eggs at the farmers’ market this week. But when I next get some, I’m going to try Julia’s method: