Summer Salads

The Minimalist (Mark Bittman of the NYT) is my favorite recipe-guru. He just put out a list of 101 summer salads, and it's divine. Some of his recipes are a little too east-coast for me (I'm not a huge fan of canned clams, or tuna packed in heavy oil, and getting some of the finer ingredients can be tricky here in the Rockies), but mostly they are creative and new and easy. I've entertained using his 101 appetizers list, and people thought I was a magician in the kitchen. I haven't tried any of these salads yet, but it being summer, and hot, and produce being what it is right now...I can't wait. So I thought I'd share.

Here are the first three I'm going to try (I've only read the first few dozen, because I can't process 101 recipes at once):

13. A red salad: Combine tomato wedges with halved strawberries, basil leaves, shaved Parmesan and balsamic vinegar.

24. Blanch spinach, then drain and shock in ice water. Squeeze it dry, chop it and toss it with toasted pine nuts, raisins, olive oil and a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar. Capers are good, too. Quite elegant, actually.

44. Make a crisp grilled cheese sandwich, with good bread and not too much good cheese. Let it cool, then cut into croutons. Put them on anything, but especially tomato and basil salad. This you will do forever. (My note: why didn't I think of this? And he's right, I will do this forever).

I'm drooling.

Good news. Seriously.

I got a job interview. I'm trying not to get too excited (ok, I'm really too shocked to even be excited), but given how things have been? With the no-jobs-at-all-ness? I'm pretty excited. This, in large part because it's not just a job interview, it's an interview for a job I would actually like to have. Again, with the shock. I've been considering applying to be a cop (but those shifts really suck), I've applied to be a receptionist at a hair salon, I've applied to work for free, and so on. And I'm a lawyer, for chrissake. So this interview? For a job as a lawyer? But not a sucky firm job?

I'm probably about to wake up, aren't I? Please say I'm already awake. And that it's real. And even more important, please assure me it will go well. It took a year to get this interview. I can't wait another year.

I live in the #1 Best Place to Live in the United States!

Louisville (Colorado, duh) was named the best place to live in the U.S. by Money Magazine. We were #3 a few years ago, but we've moved up the list. I'm surprised it took me two and a half years in Boulder to figure out how awesome this little neighboring town is. I really didn't even know it existed for a while. For shame. Louisville really is the best place to live, and I plan on sticking around. Little traffic, low crime, street fairs every Friday night in summer, fabulous restaurants, affordable rent (affordable to buy, too, I just don't have first-hand knowledge of it!), Colorado weather, and terrific neighbors. What's not to love?

Okay, so I'm lazy

So, as usual, I didn't write it. But Maureen Dowd is just so on top of things, why bother? Here's another good Dowd column. A dig at Sarah Palin. Go forth, and read!

P.S. My favorite line is the one calling Bristol Palin the "ambassadress of abstinence." Which is demonstrated by Bristol holding her son....who was, of course, conceived in abstinence.

A litany of contradictions

Ok, so I didn't actually write anything for this post. But, this column by Maureen Dowd, about Gov. Mark Sanford, is super-duper fantastic. Please to read it?

Insomnia

I'm not one to suffer from insomnia. Usually. In fact, I can sleep some 20 hours a day if I need (want?) to. Well, that particular rule is out the window. Here is a bulleted list of the potential reasons that I can't (bad word) sleep at night:

• The job market
• The fact that after looking for over a year, all I can find are low-paying, short-term jobs
• My law degree, which cost $100,000 and is worth about $10/hour. I made more before law school.
• Planning my wedding
• Paying for my wedding
• Guilt over the fact that Rex makes money, but absolutely hates his job. I get to stay at home all day.
• Staying at home all day, feeling like a total loser.
• Rent, which apparently has to be paid every month. We don't make enough to pay it every month!
• Medical bills. A few thousand worth.
• Medical billing companies that have no sympathy for the unemployed.
  
• The fact that I'm not actually applying for jobs full time. That's what they tell you to do. What they don't tell you is that (a) there aren't enough jobs to take up that much time applying (b) after a while, it's hard to motivate because it feels so futile.
• Basically? It all comes down to money. You need it for EVERYTHING, but we really don't have any. I have $76 in my bank account, which is great when you don't have a job and therefore don't have more coming in.
  

I'm so stressed out!

"Landscaping"

Rex and I have been spending a fair amount of time in the yard at our (still relatively) new rental house, fixing it up and making it pretty. Which is a lot of work, because it was absolutely trashed when we moved in, and the neighbors all say it's been 20 years since it looked halfway decent. We're determined folks, though, so we've been watering and weeding and planting grass seed and making a vegetable garden. It was all going so well, until our landlord decided she was going to have the south side (the worst of all), landscaped. Actually, she said xeriscaped, and Rex and I were fine with having someone else pay and perform the work to leave us with some attractive, low water landscaping.

Do you know what my landlord meant by "xeriscape?" I found out last Saturday, when I walked out to check out the new yard, only to find a giant mulch field. With a kidney-shaped "dirt pool" in the middle. I always wanted a pool. Just not a dirt pool. And there's nothing planted in the small respite from a sea of mulch, just dirt. The landlord has indicated a desire to wait on planting in the dirt pool, so we just get dirt. Do you know how attractive several hundred square feet of mulch is? NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT ATTRACTIVE. The dirt in the middle? Doesn't help. See?:
Here's a close-up of my lovely pool (of dirt):But it gets better. The landscapers (dare I call them that?) told us they had taken the liberty of installing soaker hoses in our veggie garden, since they were already installing them in the dirt pool. Rex and I thought that was great--we'd been meaning to do that, and now, we didn't have to! Only last night, when I planted a bunch more veggies, and went to water them, do you know what happened? The soaker "hoses" are actually solid tubes, and closed at the end. So no water comes out, anywhere but at the spigot where it sprays like crazy due to the pressure. Pressure that builds at the spigot because the hoses ARE NOT HOSES. They are closed tubes. Running all over our lovely vegetable garden, and all around the dirt pool. The beautiful tubes look like this:
And, we can't even unscrew the tubes to attach our actual soaker hoses, because they affixed them at the spigot in a rather permanent fashion. So. Watering cans for the vegetable garden. And watering with my eyes closed, so I don't have to see the sea of mulch with its kidney shaped dirt pool.

Ha!

nataliedee.com

Bad math

I was listening to Denver Mayor Hickenlooper on NPR this morning, and he was talking about the recession, and city employment, and the economy, and all that fun stuff. When I tuned in, he was going on about how layoffs are the absolute last thing the City and County of Denver would do to free up extra cash. Which, I think, is a good thing. Isn't it better to have everyone make a little less, than to leave some people high and dry while their colleagues are doing just peachy? In Denver, we're talking 3-4 furlough days. Period. Over a year. This isn't the 3-4 per month that Hawaii has instituted. Looks like we have a good plan.
Only, the details seemed a wee bit murky to me. To avoid layoffs, the government must trim costs in other ways. Naturally. By way of example, Mayor Hickenlooper said that agencies are starting to share services, like IT and fleet maintenance. That way, he said, we can trim about 20% of the workforce needed to perform those operations.
Wait. Isn't cutting the work force tantamount to layoffs? What, are we expecting 20% of the IT staff for the City and County of Denver to spontaneously retire all at once? Can someone explain how eliminating 20% of our IT and fleet maintenance crews, among others, we are avoiding layoffs? Kthx.

The life of leisure I'm leading

Some might call this being an unemployed deadbeat. After spending ALL DAY sitting in the sun at my favorite coffee shop, alternately doing nothing and chatting with friends and acquaintances, I call it a successful life of leisure. Women of leisure usually have money, and are not desperately in need of work so they can pay rent (nay, they own). Today I say FIE! I've chosen this life of leisure (no I haven't) and I won't give it up for anything (except any reasonable offer of employment)! Oh, but it's so nice. Why must I work? Why can't I live this life forever?

On Unemployment...

Well, I'm still unemployed. I finally applied for Unemployment, but they got my income screwed up so I'm still waiting (UI thinks I made $0.00 last year, which = no $$ for me. They're wrong!). Applying for unemployment was no small feat. The problem, in CG's words, is that you have to be a lawyer to figure out the damned unemployment system. It's true--I figured it out, but the paperwork is NOT easy to understand. First, the online system boots people out randomly. If you're in the middle of your claim (or almost finished, as the case may be), you have to start all over. And it's S-L-O-W. So you have to have lots of free time. Not exactly a problem for me! After the fun of filing online, you start to get mail. Lots of mail. The first batch includes lots of letters that make it look like the check is on the way. The next batch includes a debit card for the money they'll be sending. The problem? Tucked away in one of the letters they send (which you get with an avalanche of information) is a little box that says "Monetarily Eligible." Below that, it either says yes, or no. "No" in that box means there is no money on its way to the debit card they sent, and you have to file more information. "Yes" means money may or may not be on its way, and I have yet to figure out what you do in that situation. I got a "no," because of the aforementioned UI glitch where they said I made $0.
Who is supposed to know to look for the box, in the middle of a whole series of boxes in a whole slew of letters, to find where it says "monetarily eligible?" Is that language that the vast majority of the population can understand? And why are they paying for postage on the 6 or so separate letters/packets I've gotten? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just send everything together? Why do I have a debit card with no money on it? How do I find out if there's money on it, or when they put money on it, and so forth? C'mon people, I'm a lawyer. If I can't figure it out, we're all doomed.

Becoming a member

I just joined the Louisville Chamber of Commerce. Not only does that make me feel grown up (it does!), it also makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something. I'm not sure what yet, aside from the obvious fact that I'm out $260. I stuck the sign in the front window of my house, encouraging people to stop in and check out this Chamber member's business. Well, it might be my house, and having folks stop in randomly would be a little weird, but still...I had to put the sign somewhere.

Getting political

Since I'm still out of work, I figured I better do something with my time (in addition to looking for work, of course). So, I decided to teach myself web design and design websites for both of my parents, who are both self-employed, and who don't have websites (*gasp*). The real kind, not web-in-a-box--I'm looking to develop my skills here, people. Skill I seriously lack. And who doesn't want a web designing lawyer on staff?

The other thing I'm getting into (though both things are unpaid) is political. I always thought politics were hideous, horrid things. Not unlike the plague. The older I get, the more it turns out that I really like politics. So. I'm volunteering with a Democrat's campaign for my House District here in Colorado. It's a solid Dem district, the issue is beating the more conservative, more well-known candidate. I like a challenge. And I'll work for free. Looks like I found my niche (till my $700 in total assets runs out).

Out of work lawyer...

That's me! I passed the Colorado Bar Exam (with flying colors, even!), so it's official--I'm a real life lawyer. That's the good news. The bad news is that I'm an out-of-work lawyer. The $100K-plus that I spent on the degree isn't doing me much good right now, as I sit at a local coffee shop trawling the job ads online. So, if you hear of any law jobs in the Denver/Boulder area, or contract work, or have any other money-making ideas (except direct sales--I'm already on that one), let me know! I'll give you my first born child, for the right job.

The Constitutionality of Fairness

I get to talk to a lot of unhappy people at my job. It's often better when the voicemail talks to them, because sometimes it's hard to keep smiling, and not reach through the phone lines and strangle people.

Yesterday, I got a message from a lovely gentleman unhappy with the Colorado Legislature's proposal to offer health care benefits to same-sex partners of state employees. It's a controversial subject, I know. Homophobia is rampant, especially among conservatives. This guy went another step, though. He explained, with citations to the Colorado Constitution, that it was unconstitutional to extend benefits to same-sex partners because in this state, marriage is defined as being between one man and one woman. Sadly, that last part is true. We do define marriage that way. I wanted to say to this man, "sir, that's the whole reason for the bill. It's because we restrict marriage this way that we have to take extra steps to give homosexual citizens the same rights you have. The Colorado Constitution prevents them from getting married, but it does not, thank goodness, also say that they are not entitled to all of the other rights that you are."

Alas, it was just a message, so I couldn't. Well, I couldn't have even if it was a live call. My job is just to listen and smile. And what's saddest? That we do need legislation for this kind of thing, and even worse, that there's a good chance we won't achieve it this time. Will the bigotry ever end?

Sharing the love

Miss MZ has given i like stuff an award! I think it's very awfully nice of her to think that I'm award winning. I'll try to keep up the good work, so I can feel like I earned it.

I'm supposed to return the favor by passing out 5 of these babies myself. Well, here they are:

• I don't think this is the intent of the award, but Miss MZ is just so super that I am re-awarding her. Her blog (well, she has two, but the one most inspiring to me) From This Point. Forward. is a personal, eloquent journey through her battle with the immune-system attacker RA.
• Miss [Dis]Grace. She's responsible for getting me into blogging (for better or for worse), and was/is a great friend and co-adventurer. Her blog, Miss Disgrace, is about the trials and tribulations of raising her fabulously handsomely adorable son.
• She doesn't post much, but my sister has a blog where she shares her terrific insight (on occasion). For someone as young as she, I'm always impressed at her musings. She blogs as Thoughts from an Undecided Undergrad, aka Tuna's Thoughts.
• On to the bloggers I don't know...
• Dooce. She's so popular, I'm not sure she needs my awarding, but I do LOVE her blog about life, and raising her daughter (soon to be two daughters!). She's Heather B. Armstrong, a recovering Mormon in Utah.
• The Daily Coyote. Another uplifting blog, chronicling the life of a rescued coyote named Charlie. The author posts a daily photo, and coyote puppies? Are so cute.

To finish the task, I shall be posting a comment on each of these award-winning blogs (four out of five, I know, have won awards previously, so I'm a little behind the curve, but whateva').

Dear Weather,

It is very nearly May. Please stop snowing now? Snow is for winter. I know that you forgot to snow all winter long, but I promise it isn't necessary to make up for it by snowing profusely all April long. That is all.
Sincerely,
Your Friend Paris

Shop for Mother's Day - Stella & Dot!

Mother's Day, it's a comin'. May 10, in fact. Time to think about getting Mom a present. Or, getting yourself a present, if you are a mom. Mom's deserve all the gifting they can get! Shop now!

Confused Tea Party-ers

I was marveling at the lack of logic in the Tea Parties held last week, and I stumbled across this article. It's worth a read. My favorite is the repeated mention of the number of taxpayer-funded facilities and resources used to put on anti-tax events. It's a bit ironic. Dontcha think?

Help out a great cause!

The MESA (Movement to End Sexual Assault) Canine Classic 5K/10K run/walk is coming up, April 19 at the Boulder Reservoir! Register to participate, or donate to help end violence against women, here. MESA is a non-profit in Boulder, Colorado with a terrific track record of helping women who have been assaulted or abused. It's an extremely worthy cause, and no donation is too small!