i look at the red, ornate blooms on the roses i bought kris for our 17+7 year wedding anniversary ( I KNOW! YOU NEVER SUSPECTED I COULD BE SUCH A TRADITIONALIST! ) and i hear a professorial voice in my head say, ”floridus!” which in latin means, “blooming, flowery” and the root of the english word florid which is an adjective with a primary meaning of “having a red appearance” and a secondary meaning of “elaborate or excessively intricate”.
i’ve been happily driving jetta diesels for 15 years. i have a lot of words i could say after dieselgate but maybe the most pertinent are “never buying another volkswagen” ( insert epic rant here that i don’t have time to write ).
perhaps the only solace i can personally take is that we’ve only been driving a polluter for about a year and the diesels we drove previously appears to have not skirted the emissions laws.
i hope the EPA fines them the reported maximum, $18 billion and we use the money to invest in pedestrian infrastructure ( probably not going to happen, but hey we can dream a little dream, right? ).
So, VW owes the U.S. $18B+.
I say we invest the money in bicycle+ pedestrian infrastructure for our cities. Make polluters pay for change.
— AlexSteffen (@AlexSteffen) September 23, 2015
i was leaving work and found this tucked under the windshield. i’m pretty sure it was meant as a lighthearted joke but the reality of the environmental impact of dieselgate is no laughing matter.
as i hopped into the car, i got a text message from a friend in michigan. sigh. i had conversations with several current owners of TDIs that aren’t buying another one no matter what the company does and several people who didn’t own one but were considering buying and are now not going to. i think the long term implications for diesels in the US in general and vw in particular will be devastating. apple couldn’t have asked for better timing of a scandal as they accelerate their efforts to build an electric car as current TDI owners like myself, er, ride out their payment plans.
i am so loving the spicy beets with grassmilk yogurt and caraway sauce i made yesterday. i took it to work and got generally positive reviews and quite a few usage suggestions.
it totally works as a topping for a burger ( in this case, an olive and swiss ). and yes, you can also dunk it in fries.
although it can be eaten and enjoyed all by itself as a savory yogurt, it’s really a multifunctional, vaguely mediterranean, spicy sauce analogous to sriracha sauce.
as a brand manager, i think it needs an identity more interesting than “spicy beets with grassmilk yogurt and caraway sauce”, befitting of its festive red color and spicy attitude. how about “We Got The Beet!”? i guess i should look into what it would take 
the possibilities are endless. cut it with some olive oil for a spicy beet yogurt vinaigrette. it was lovely on a roasted beet salad with feta cheese and toasted walnuts.
odin has been playing soccer for a few years and most of that time has been as right or left fullback which he enjoys but he’s mentioned that he would like to give the goalie position a try.
the good news is that today he got his chance. the bad news was that it was against a very tough team 🙂
he stopped more goals that he let by and kept the other team out of double digits. maybe he has the goalie mentality because when the game was over he said he had a lot of fun even thought the other team was really good and would love to do it again.
a few years ago, i came into possession of this minneapolis thrift store find after a local friend’s husband – for reasons that are impossible to understand – didn’t want it.
it’s well made and the attention to detail is noticeable. if feels like it’s going to last forever. and the design! it is by far, the shirt i own that gets the most positive comments. i mean, people love this shirt. i wanted to get a few more shirts from its creator and it’s turning out to be more difficult than i anticipated.
the shirt has an embroidered tag with “www.kuhlmancompany.com” which redirects to a parked domain. it looks like the company has some success in the mid ’00, expanded fast, ran out of money, sold to investors, and came back as “scott james” in 2011. that website also redirects to a parked domain and the Facebook page hasn’t been updated since 2013.
anyone have any idea where scott kuhlman landed?
cheese curd stand that, in my humble opinion, sells the best fried cheese curds at the vernon county fair.
i like the vibe of the booth design combined with the salt-of-the earth characters and have been waiting for something like 7 years to get this shot at night with a wisconsin nighthawks feel.
but, happily, that day has not yet arrived.