What Happens in Brazil

In addition to a smattering of new freckles and a CD full of samba music, Brazil also sent us home with large doses of inspiration. On Monday we celebrated El Día del Amigo (Friends' Day! how nice!) at a local Brazilian club, and on Tuesday we resumed Spanish classes with our beloved Sofía. Yesterday we went to our first Capoeira* class. Check that: It was my first Capoeira class, ever. Ken studied it for about 6 months, once upon a time. It was fun, and very hard, and today everything hurts. In my defense, let's just note that I am a 35-year-old white girl who just spent a month sitting on the beach. Eating cheese.

Also yesterday, we hosted the inaugural meal of - drumroll please! - our tiny new puerta cerrada restaurant in Buenos Aires!

Presenting... Ceci n'est pas un restaurant.

Get it?

In case you're new around here, opening a puerta cerrada is one of my dreams.

And thanks to our many awesome awesome friends here in Buenos Aires, it was a resounding success. All that's left is to tweak that pesky lasagna recipe before we open our closed doors next Tuesday night. Maybe we'll even have a reservation or two before then!

*Capoeira is an "Afro-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, games, music, and dance." This Wikipedia page has some nifty little animations of some of the techniques that apparently even non-cartoon-people can do with their bodies. Who knew?

Cooking the Argentine Way

I love food. I love reading about food (including reading cookbooks and recipes), I love watching cooking shows on TV and instructional cooking videos¹ on the interwebs, I love food preparation from chopping to sautéeing, and I love baking. I am also passionate about eating. In short, food is my favourite hobby, and having a year sabbatical I have been hoping to spend more time on this hobby. So far I've mostly focused on the eating part (see: +1.5 kg). Aside from one (successful) foray into the world of empanadas a few weeks ago, I hadn't cooked any traditional Argentine fare until yesterday, when I attended the lovely and talented Norma Soued's Argentine cooking class.

Before we moved to Buenos Aires I searched² for cooking classes, but only found classes taught in English and geared to tourists (read: expensive). A few weeks ago when I was perusing Craigslist³ I came across Norma's ad. I wrote to her to ask for more information about the class, and to confirm that she would, in fact, teach in Castellano⁴. Yesterday I went to her sunny apartment in Belgrano to learn how to make empanadas, guiso de lentejas (lentil stew), and alfajores.

I was very excited about the alfajores, as the only recipe I have seen for these delicious treats was in a Martha Stewart magazine, and it was insanely complicated (surprise surprise). I'm pretty sure it involved milking your own cow to make the dulce de leche.

Norma's class was great. She and the other student, Valeria, both speak English fluently, but since I really wanted to practice my Spanish they graciously (and patiently) agreed to speak Castellano. (Patience, for real: My brain on Spanish is Windows 98 on a 386.) We prepared all three dishes together, and everything was very well explained and hands-on. When we finished cooking, we enjoyed the delicious delicious fruits of our labour with a glass of red wine in Norma's beautiful dining room.

Taking a cooking class was a great way to further my burgeoning Spanish skillz, and happily I am now all set to make empanadas and alfajores⁵ for Ken's birthday shenanigans next weekend!

P.S. Norma also offers a Middle-Eastern cooking class that you can read all about over on her blog. I haven't taken it yet but if I do, you'll be the first to know.

¹ Before I made empanadas the first time, I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube to figure out the technique of sealing the empanada called La Repulgue. In my searches I came across this empanada video that is totally worth 6 1/2 minutes of your time if you like things that are awesome.

² I have since searched en español and found many more schools and classes that I'm interested in. Hooray!

³ Craigslist isn't so huge here. Most of the postings are for bars showing NBA games.

⁴ Latin American Spanish. Castellano:Español = English:British

⁵ Some alfajores will be filled with jam, because Ken doesn't like dulce de leche. I KNOW. [Candace: This is what is wrong with him.]

Inspiration

A friend put a link on Facebook to one of his friends' most amazing Flickr photostream (seriously, I could spend days looking at her pictures, which are mostly of pages from her illustrated journal). That inspired the treatment of this photo of Hermosa Beach. I used Poladroid (via Amy) to get the Polaroid effect, then added the drop shadow in Photoshop. Fun!

Anyone Else Predicting a Baby Boom in August 2009?

And a huge Democratic victory in 2028?

Democracy Is My Homeboy

This morning my American boy roused himself out of a deep slumber at 5:30 to hit the polls. For a few minutes I lay in bed considering my Canadianism (yes, I did vote in the recent federal election), and at the last minute decided to join him in line at the polling station.

Outside the polling center, the line wrapped around the corner and well down the next block. It looked insane, but moved quickly, and once we were inside the elementary school gymnasium, we only waited a few minutes. We saw a few voters still wearing pajama pants and even a bathrobe at that early hour.

It was awe-inspiring to see that many people out to cast a ballot. Democracy is good times.

Vote.

Because you can.

Pay It Forward!

A few weeks ago, my friend, fellow blogger, and talented photographer Elizabeth posted a Pay it Forward chain on her blog. She pledged to send a treat to the first three commenters on the post, in exchange for their promises to do the same on their blogs.

It was my lucky day - I was the third commenter! And on Labour Day, Miss Elizabeth arrived at my apartment for an afternoon brunch bearing this lovely tin:


Isn't it pretty? Let's have another look:


In the busy-ness of hosting brunch I didn't open the tin until much later that day, and nestled inside I found rows of neatly-wrapped homemade caramels. Little did Elizabeth know that caramels are my absolute favourites, and these beautiful sweet treats barely lasted two weeks sitting on my coffee table.


I'm so grateful to Elizabeth for these treats (and I'm hoping she'll be kind enough to pass on the recipe, as I'd love to include them with my Christmas cookies this year!). Now it's time for me to pay it forward. The official rules of the exchange are:

I agree to send something fun, cute, and nice to the first 3 blog owners who post a comment on this entry. In turn, those three will post this information and pick 3 people they want to send something to and so on. Unfortunately, due to postage costs, I can only pay it forward within the United States. If you are interested in participating, be one of the first 3 blog owners to leave a comment!

You have to promise that you will then post about this on your blog, link to me, and then send something to the first three people who comment on your blog so that this continues. When the first three have commented I will email you a request for your shipping address and I will send out something that I hope will make you smile!

The only thing I like more than receiving something fun, cute, and nice is giving something fun, cute, and nice - so comment away!

Reminder

Random Evening

When I left work this afternoon I had a pretty low-key evening planned: Recycling, laundry, water plants, pet Memphis. General domesticity.

Instead? I just spent an hour in the basement with my upstairs neighbours, taking a kick-boxing lesson with a private trainer who travels twice weekly from Long Island for training.

When I got home I called my neighbour, T, to belatedly thank her for feeding the beast while we were away on the weekend.

T: We're about to start a kick-boxing lesson. Come work out with us!
G: Oh, no, thanks, I worked out this morning.
T: So did I! Come on!
G: Oh, I... maybe I will sometime.
T: Come on!
[Note that T and her girlfriend were already warming up, and were dressed in sweats and tank tops that showed off their intimidatingly hot arms. I'm not exaggerating - these girls are TONED.]
G: Well, OK. I'll go change.
T: Really?
G: Yeah - are you sure it's OK?
T: Yeah, for sure! Hurry, we're starting at 8!

And so we spent an hour punching and kicking, with a set of abs thrown in for good measure.

I feel pretty righteous.

Hit the Ground Walking

This morning, for the third Wednesday in a row, I got up at the crack of dawn -- and not just because a small furry creature was poking me in the butt. I've started training again, this year for the Berlin Marathon at the end of September. And let me tell you something: It is much, much easier to get out of shape than to get back into shape.

I don't like running in the winter. Used to be I didn't like running at all, so I consider this an improvement. In the winter, I like sleeping and eating cheese. These activities, it turns out, do not preclude going for a tempo run as soon as the temperature is above 40°F/10°C at 7 a.m.

So, I'm easing back into it. Two of the past three weeks I've run with my friend Jim, who has been entirely supportive of my emergence from hibernation. He has yet to mock me for my untoned (read: flabby) thighs and shortness of breath after only 2 miles at an easy (read: slow) pace. He's very kind, but he's also a coach, and I still have flashbacks to last summer when he stood at the top of the hill in Prospect Park yelling, "Is that as fast as you can go?!" as I ran toward him.

While I'm enjoying the Special Olympics treatment FOR NOW, I'm also really looking forward to running longer, faster, and stronger as the season progresses -- not to mention getting my hotlegs back!

On My Mind

1. The 50mm lens I ordered from eBay this morning so that I can take pictures like this. Eventually.

2. Packing. Going to Puerto Rico this weekend to avoid packing. Packing for Puerto Rico. [Boo.]

3. Ways to start a scene in improv. This one plagues me. I love the improv class, but I have to tell you, whenever it's my turn to start a scene I break into a sweat. I have some ideas this week, including:

- Rifling through clothing racks and saying, "You know, Roberta, sometimes you can find really great deals at Goodwill."
- "Chad, thank you so much for getting us a room at the Holiday Inn Express for our tenth anniversary!"

[Chad: No offense.]
[Mike: You didn't see this, and tomorrow night my ideas are ALL NEW.]

4. Avoiding the jars of deliciousness at work.

Improv and Life

1. don't be nervous
2. "There are no mistakes in improv, only bad follow-throughs" (which is to say, the only way YOU can mess up is if you make somebody else look like they messed up)
3. just pay attention and be focused
4. don't feel awkward - whatever you're doing, just commit to it!
5. have SOOOO MUCCCCHHH FUN

That's the advice LaFarlow gave me when I emailed her about my improv class that starts tonight. Seems applicable.

Baking: The Other Therapy

I rescheduled therapy tonight in favour of staying home to bake Christmas cookies. My return from Argentina was delayed yesterday by a missed connection in Miami, which turned into a day in Miami spent enjoying a decadent brunch at the Delano in South Beach (at which there was a HARPIST, for real, and quite possibly the nicest waiter I've ever encountered), a mani-pedi, a viewing of The Golden Compass (B-, mostly because I really enjoyed the animals and it made me miss Memphis, and also Dakota Blue Richards *really* reminded me of LaFarlow, and finally because Eva Green is just so nice to look at), and some kickass people-watching at the Lincoln Mall (during which the acronyms BBA: Big Boob Alert and HCA: Hot Chick Alert were used extensively).

Argentina was wonderful. I probably ate the equivalent of an entire cow, and enjoyed much wine and dulce de leche. I rode a horse on an estancia (that's Spanish for "ranch"). One of the highlights of the trip for me was dining at Casa Felix, which will get its own post because it was just that good.

For now though, I'm considering options for the coming year. Sparkly D inspires me as always and makes me think about change change change. While I'm not planning to move away from NY just yet, I'm plotting improvements for 2008. January has already been designated as hotbody month (which will hopefully work in my favour come Valentine's Day!). I'm also planning to run the Berlin Marathon in September.

My brain is also desperately in need of exercise, and as such I'm going to take some kind of course. Options include but are not limited to:

• The Artist's Diary: Digital Photography and Bookmaking (inspired by Ali's recent photos)


• A calligraphy class


• Artisan Breads


• A creative writing class of some sort


• Improv! (LaFar, I know you're going to vote for this one!)

The options are kind of outstanding, eh? In fact, in looking up those links I almost registered for half of them. Right now the improv class is pretty high on my list, as is that (or some other) photography one, and that bread class is happening this Spring, No Matter What.

The last batch of cookies is out of the oven and I have molasses in my hair and I'm tired and happy. Vote for your fave class(es) or make other suggestions in the comments if you're so inclined. I promise not to be offended.

Haystack

My friend D started blogging again after a 2 month hiatus. Check out her latest post, replete with pictures of Sunny's garden which is at its most perfect this time of year. I'm sad to be missing it.

Also: Read about her Fluevogs, which cracked me up (and I have those same shoes!).

Summer Nights

Summer in NYC is magical, really. There are approx. 900,000 fun things to do, and every year when Time Out arrives with its listing of summer events, I load up my calendar with everything I could possibly want to go to and then at the beginning of the week make some tough decisions. Recent juggling to accomodate many top priority events included buying Manu Chao tickets for Tuesday's show even though I already had them for Wednesday's show because Jillian with a J was playing her first show on Wednesday, and I just couldn't miss that. (Tuesday night training was lost in that shuffle, and Mander happily purchased Wednesday night's Manu Chao tix.)

Tonight I had the pleasure of seeing Ani DiFranco play in Prospect Park. In addition to her music being wonderful, as usual, I am always struck by how much she seems to be enjoying herself on stage. It's almost like she still can't believe that she gets to do this for a living. It makes me giggle to see someone doing something she so clearly loves and feels lucky to be doing.

Watching Ani tonight inspired me. How great would it be to have so much awesome in your life that that sometimes, maybe even often, the happiness bubbles up and makes you laugh out loud? And that the happy makes you grateful and the grateful makes you happy and it's just one big circle of creativity and contentment and, well, awesome?

Everyone clicked through and read the lulu manifesto the other day, right? And you saw this part?

Nature wants us to be mediocre because we have a greater chance to survive and reproduce. Mediocre is as close to the bottom as it is to the top. Be creative. Do one thing a day that scares you.

Let yourself be inspired. Inspire others. Choose the awesome.

Run Your Race

Yesterday morning Lisa and I, along with our co-worker Aaron (who, incidentally totally cracks me up and who is LEAVING in 2 weeks to go get married and then roam around South America and then move to Oregon after which I will never see him again and this fact is causing me a tremendous amount of stress lately), along with our cheerleaders Melissa & Jo, subwayed it up to Central Park for the Naples Park-to-Park 10k. You might have noticed that UFF has been rather devoid of training updates recently, and that's pretty much because training hasn't been going awesomely. I haven't run 10M yet this season, and I've been whining about the heat and making excuses for not sucking it up and getting out there more. After yesterday, that's all going to change.

The race consisted of one counter-clockwise loop of Central Park, starting and ending at 102nd St. Aaron & Lisa & I started out running together. Aaron and I were running beside each other and as we approached Harlem Hill, a guy in a blue shirt asked us how we know each other. The conversation was headed toward being a race-day pickup (no, I'm not flattering myself, Lisa can confirm) with such genius lines as, "You look like a runner." Really? Wow! You mean wearing these running clothes, and running, and surrounded by 10,000 other runners? How flattering!

Aaron pulled ahead at that point and Lisa & I managed to lose Blue Shirt Guy to continue on our merry way. It was a very warm morning, and while I ran the first mile in decent time (considering it included Harlem Hill), I slowed down a bit after that, and when I checked my time at the Mile 4 marker I was not on track to meet my <1 hour (or at least, <10 minute mile) goal.

Something really good happened to me at that point, which is that I relaxed into it. This concept is kind of tough to describe. Last summer when I first did runs longer than 9 or 10M - that is, when I'd be running for longer than 1 1/2 hours, I learned that I needed to settle into the run, and just be present in that moment. In a shorter run, it's OK to get distracted thinking about the next rest station or hill or what's for breakfast afterwards, but in a longer run, more focus needs to be on what's happening right now - taking stock of how I feel in my body and my breath, how strong I feel mentally, etc. When I'm able to find that spot, my body relaxes and I'm much more comfortable running. I found it yesterday, and I'm sure that's what gave me the ability to push myself in the last third of the race, and finish strong in 1:02:39.

Last night when a friend asked me how I was doing vis-à-vis the stuff that's going on in my life, I happily realized that I might finally have found some of that relaxing into my life, the way I find it in running. Here's where I am, right now, and being aware of what's going on in this moment will allow me to make appropriate adjustments to my pace and posture so that I can keep going strong.

I <3 lulu

lululemon's manifesto inspires me.

Drive My Car

DLang and I just returned from a roadtrip to Montréal, where we attended his friend Isaac's wedding. I'm not sure how it is that spending 18+ hours in a car inspires the heck out of me, but for all the cramped-legs traffic-jammed gas-guzzling environmental unfriendliness, I'll take it. I have so much to share and create that I might burst! Sadly however, I also have a sore throat (maybe from all that singing along to songs on the radio?) which mandates bedtime at a reasonable hour. Just wanted to give you guys something to look forward to, 'cause I know it's been slow around here.

Check back early and often for updates this week. I promise them to you. Absolutely.

Photographic Evidence

Around Mile 5 (near Ghiradelli Square)



Rounding the bend out of Golden Gate Park



Still smiling!



Where's my necklace?


More pictures on Flickr.