Who’s ready for nightmares?!

I think Nick Hornby would approve of finishing this book in two days. Two days that included a full day of work, a hockey game on CBC and a day spent skiing.  Actually, not much of the day was spent skiing as I spent almost two hours in the lodge reading over lunch.

Shakespeare Wrote for Money is a collection of Hornby’s articles for The Believer magazine. We’re given a list  of the books he has purchased and read every month (which, as for so many of us, the books-bought list often surpasses the books-read list) with topics that are entertainingly all over the map, along with his thoughts on them, what he was doing while reading, and so on. It’s a bit like a better version of this site, as read to you by John Cusack. sigh.

The book also has a lovingly biting intro by Sarah Vowell. Vowell is the author of Assasination Vacation, a book that I haven’t yet read (for fear that I might not know nearly enough US history to fully get it). But it’s on my to-do list for when I cross the US in a winnebago one day. One day…

While visiting Analog, Banff’s new used book store, this afternoon I picked up The Road, by Cormac Mccarthy.  Hornby describes it  (about a father and son team wandering around an apacalyptic world finding  things like babies on barbeques) as “one of the most miserable books ever written.”  And it’s won the pulitzer prize? Sold!

Water flows uphill towards money.

I’m jumping into the frugal waters this year to see how much fun can be had for free (or next to nothing.) Luckily, the Banff Centre is making it awfully easy so far. wooot!

Earlier this week I took a break from my computer and went into the belly of the Other Gallery to see what kinds of creative things were happening behind closed doors. Daniel (pictured here) has built his own kayak. It was something I had admired for quite some time, seeing it strapped to the roof of his car in our parking lot. It’s such a fun little break to see what people are creating while I’m playing with excel spreadsheets. har har.

Ladies of the Rockies

The ladies of Banff took to the Rockies this past weeknd. Wait, we’re already in the Rockies. We spent a weekend in the woods (better.)

The weekend was spent knitting, napping, chatting, snowshoeing and tanning by a nice wood burning stove. Ahhh.

One fantastic book while in the woods is Off the Beaten Track, stories of Canadian women studying botany, hiking, camping and exploring the Rockies by horseback.  After a few stories I had visions of trying to trace their adventures myself this summer, to test their tracks myself. Until a co-worker told me it would be near impossible in one summer. Oh well, I can still paint flowers down by the river with a basket full of chocolate brownies. And did you know that Mary Vaux married Charles Doolittle Walcott? Dr. Doolittle.  He could apparently “smell a fossil.” I love it.

mmm digital snacks…

I bought a new digital camera today!

It was finally time to replace the ‘ol 2002 Sony, and after one look at this picture I instantly wanted to take a bite out of it. Which is how I make all my big purchase decisions. Chris kindly explained the pixel and zoom factors… but the selling point was still it’s nibbleness.

Have a lovely Sunday!

Happy Birthday!

This week celebrated Trapper Jerry‘s 92nd Birthday in Banff. Still skiing Delirium Dive and still handsome in his Crocodile hat!

Have a lovely Saturday,

Sarah

Cuckoo cherie.

Well, it’s my first family day in Alberta (cue music) and while I love a long weekend, I’m a little at loss with what to do today with my family so far away.

I’ve decided to grab the ‘ol binoculars and head down to the Cave and Basin marsh and check out the magpies, crows and the little fish caught in the swamp.

If you’re in the city today, or stuck at your desk, why not check out Paul Morstad’s bird paintings instead?

Have a lovely Monday,

Sarah

Cachinnate and maieutic

oh boy oh boy oh boy!

Tonight is the 19th annual Spelling Bee and Trivia Challenge at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. It’s one of the more brainy activities as part of Banff’s Winter Carnival happening right now in town. Now, this would normally be the type of thing you read about in the back of the community news section of your paper a week after the fact. But in a small town this is the place to be on a Tuesday night!

Chris and I will be going head to head on opposing teams this year; he’ll be playing with the Banff Centre marketing team, and I with the Cranium Crawlers (the nerdy ladies from softball!). There’s about a dozen teams ready to take on such subjects as local history, geography, and “name that tune.” My rock and roll history class will finally pay off! heh.

I sure wish these ladies were at the carnival this year. May the biggest brain win!

Garden of Eatin’

When I came to Banff last spring, I had visions of living in a little cottage, with a little garden, growing tomatoes and flowers. Quickly I discovered no one had gardens here. Bears will eat your berries. The elk will eat your veggies. So a few fantasies were quickly put to rest. Oh well.

But there’s something about living in the mountains that makes me want to be able to grow my own food. As I’m still not quite at that stage yet, a couple of books filled in the gaps nicely and got the ‘ol melon a turnin’.

In The 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating a couple from Vancouver, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon decide to eat locally for an entire year. At first it sounded impossible to me; no avocados, mangoes, Aunt Jemima pancake mix, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, Coke and no potato chips. But they do much better than you would expect, or than I expected, anyhow, finding farmers around the Vancouver area who grow everything they need (from veggies to livestock). I think Chris and I might kill each other with a project such as this one, as I thought the authors might half-way through, too. Canning corn at midnight sounds like a recipe for disaster. But the fact that they make it all the way to the one year mark, happy, feeling healthy, and not desperately missing junk food was fascinating. It’s also caused me to start looking a little more closely at what I eat. Maybe not so far as to grow my own food yet, but to at least question buying blueberries from New Zealand and to enjoy Canadian fruits and vegetables when they are in season.

Doug Fine is a man in New Mexico with a similar mission: to not only eat locally, but to stop living off fossil fuels. He’s written about his successes and failures in his book Farewelll my Subaru and also on his website. I’m particularly interested to hear of his success with goat’s mik ice cream. mmmm

He’ll be speaking as part of the Mountain Culture series tomorrow night, which I am really disappointed to be missing. Hopefully the Banff Centre will have videos of the talk available online in the near future.

A little Nigella for Alexis

Hmm, what to have for brunch on New Year’s day? I had oatmeal and coffee, which was fine, but I would’ve really loved to have Nigella Lawson’s tomato and bacon hash. Oh mama, so salty and bacony. This recipe was on the Food Channel a few months ago and it’s been stuck in the ‘ol melon since then. I can’t think of a better kinda-healthy-after-party-breakfast.

Why not take a moment and watch the video right here?

If you’re looking for some ideas for breakkie tomorrow, here’s the recipe taken from the episode “Breakfast all Hours.” Hope you had a fantastic New Year’s Eve!

Bacon and Tomato Hash

Ingredients

• 4 rashers streaky bacon
• 2 teaspoons garlic-infused oil
• 1 tomato, diced
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Serving suggestion: bread

Directions

Cut each piece of bacon into 3 or 4 pieces. Heat oil in a skillet. When oil is hot, fry bacon until crispy (the bacon will also give up flavorful fat of its own). Remove the bacon to a piece of kitchen towel.

Add the diced tomato, with all its seeded, gluey interior, into the hot oily pan, which will cause a great spitting and sizzling, and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce and stir again, then put the bacon back into the pan, mixing it into the tomato before transferring to a plate.

Scatter with some parsley and freshly ground black pepper, and serve with bread to dip in the oily juices.

Where will the time go?

With New Years only a few days away I’m starting to wonder what types of projects or changes might be in store for 2009. Not in a New-Years-Resolution type way, however, which are always broken immediately. (Who bought a gym membership and went three times in a year?)

I think I’d like to simply get things done this year. Pure and simple. Turning 30 might also be to powering this list – I was supposed to be living in California and fluent in German by now. Mach schnell!

So, one obtainable goal I’d like to set I’m going to set for this year is to try to make breakfast at home more often. Instead of coffee and a croissant every day from the coffee shop at work, as much as I love them, I’ll whip something up at home. I found a flickr set not long ago that has the tastiest set of photos taken at breakfast every morning. This picture in particular kills me:

If I could stop hitting snooze so many times and hurry up and get out of bed, this is what I’d like to have for breakfast in the morning. I’d also love to be organized enough to make homemade scones, freeze them, and heat them up in the morning. But that seems to much to ask at this juncture.

Hmm… I’m still not sure this plan is feasible. Maybe I’ll hope for this Christmas miracle instead.