Currently Reading

Sometimes people ask "what are you reading?" Sometimes. Or sometimes, as it might be obvious from that list, I ask myself "What am I reading?"

Or , "Where is that book I was reading?"

It's not a list of books I have not finished. Only books I have picked up in the last week are included in the list. Some of the books might be on the list for a while. Both the Raymond Carver and Lydia Davis collections are large-- career spanning. I could not, and it would not do their work justice, cruise through this in a two weeks or a month. The Ha Jin will be there for a few more days; I read half of it on one sitting. "Grave Peril" will be there a week, at most. It's entertaining and fast, perfect for late at night when concentration wanes.

The novels I leave scattered around my house and various bags (computer bag and shoulder bag, man-purse if you must). I pick them up when on a whim and knock off a bit here and there. I am almost positive that Chute's novel will be finished first even though it was the last started. Her feel for character and place are thoroughly compelling. I want to read it slow to luxuriate in her world and fast to find out what happens.

Cheese

To paraphrase Cheese Monger Steve Jenkins from the Splendid Table:

Good cheese is not expensive. It's cheaper than wine. Heck, it's cheaper than craft beer. Sure it might be $16-20 a pound but one does not eat a pound of good cheese. One eats an ounce or two at a time which translates to $1 - 1.25 per serving. For stuff this good that a cheese artisan ( and I do mean artisan) crafts over a period of months to years craft cheese is one of life's great bargains.

To put it really simply:

I like cheese. The good stuff. The really good stuff. The cheese that is sold in the cheese section not in the dairy section. Cheese sold by the ounce not by the pound. Artisan crafted cheese not the stuff that all too often faintly resembles glue. I could give up the bulk cheeses but you would have to pry the craft cheese from my cold, dead hands.

This past week-end we ate two wonderful cheeses at our cabin with our friends Craig and Yvonne. My wife plated a delicious five year Gouda. This was not a soft Gouda. It was hard with crystallization taking place within it. Wonderfully complex I let it linger in my mouth for as long as possible. The other was a cave-aged Gruyere that was softer but still firm. beth served them with Figs and olives from Kowalski's olive bar.

It was delightful. And we still have some of both cheeses left. I look forward to enjoying them again tonight.

Ngon

I am no expert but I know what I like and what I like is the pho at Ngon.

Today was one of those days. i was dragging. Not enough sleep. An early morning (7:30am) trip to the doctor so my wife could get a steroid treatment. Then back to work after too few hours.

I was dragging. I just wanted

Pho.

And I got it and got it good. It was a hot broth injection of love and energy. I immediately perked up. The day became doable. More than doable-- downright enjoyable. Hours later I am still going strong.

So get yourself some pho and get going.

Ngon-- University and Avon in St Paul's Midway. Tell them Paul from the Muddy Pig sent you (it won't get you anything except a quizzical stare).

Positive Jam

This is the blog I putatively started first. Last year or something. Nothing ever happened with it by magic or design. Or pure laziness. But I still like the idea of it and now that I have got that other blog I think I need this blog for stuff that doesn't fit there.

But it's not just any blog. For starters, it 's mine. And I have a rule. When I started this blog (by that I mean when I picked the title and signed up then did absolutley nothing) I was getting sick of my negativety and the negativity I was reading. Thus:

It's a blog about things I like and only about things I like

"Yes to that!!!" things

All that positivity kind of scares me too. But I'm sticking to my guns on it. It's all too easy to get on a rant about something stupid. Too easy to see only the dark side of things or see things that just seem plain stupid.

However, I am more and more convinced that the good really outshines the bad. That concentrating on the good nurtures it. Conversely, concentrating on the negative feeds the darkness. Really, I believe that. Sounds kind of crazy to me but I'm going to own it.

So welcome to my other blog. The blog about things I dig.