I just heard from the printer than the first 1,000 copies of Stolen Sharpie revolution ship out on Monday! That’s good because I have pre-orders for 0ver 300 and that’s not even getting to few hundred I have to send our as promo copies. Want to you your self a copy? Read all about it here.

The other day I had a “take your partner to work day” I showed Paul all the ins and out of my various online shops and paypal, the strange organization of my office and packing area. he’s going to be running things while I’m out of the country. I’m taking down the craft roasted coffees, small custom button orders, and my zines so he will basicaly deal with larger button orders, premade catalog buttons and all the Stolen Sharpie Revolution orders.

I have been working on more promo SSR stuff and have a bit more to do before I send them out.

Right now I think I have allergies. I haven’t really had allergies since I was little. My head feels fuzzy and weird and I can’t think straight but my nose is not stuffy. I don’t think I like having allergies. it makes me feel non-productive. At least I didn’t catch the flu from hanging out with my sister the other day.

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I Am My Kat plays tonight at the Know…

Paul’s band I Am My Kat is playing a show tonight at The Know (2026 NE Alberta St) I know that it is St. Patrick’s day and maybe you want to avoid the bar idiots but it should be fun.

I Am My Kat plays at about 8ish so get there and let’s hang out.

I’ll write more about the (un)Conference soon.

Vegan wine and food pairing #1

Paul and I went to bed listening to Ghost to Ghost AM with Art Bell from 1996 last night. We still haven’t been able to track down the episode from the first night we spent together in 1997, but we are still looking.

I have been feeling a little under the weather last night and today. I bought two fancy 22 oz. beers at Whole Paycheck after my IPRC shift last night but I didn’t think I’d enjoy them so I’m saving them until I feel better. I got up at 7ish and work til 3ish so I think a nice rest in bed and watching some TV on the internets is in order while I drink some tea and hope this headache goes away.

Paul’s band I Am My Kat are practicing in the basement and luckily it is just a dull tone, not even loud enough to hear over the freeway up in my room on the second floor. Their last show is on  March 17 at The Know. Unfortunately that’s also St. Patrick’s Day. Being at a bar on that day never seems like a fun time. Oh well, I’m excited to see them play.

I have been meaning to document my foray into wine with Jess and I have been holding off. I was trying to find my tasting notes but they have disappeared. So, you are just going to get some photos of our meal last week.

My friend Jess is a beer and wine steward at the Arbor Lodge New Seasons. She knows her stuff. I think that when we met i probably knew more about beer and she knew more about wine but over the years she has probably surpassed me in beer knowledge and always has with wine. I like the call her my own private Steward… even down to the fact that she opens and pours for me!

We have been working on making these vegan wine pairings for over a year and I have been meaning to document them. So, I’m starting now. Basically I come up with some things to cook and explain the flavors and ingredients and she picks a wine to pair with my food.  what we have learned, that is a surprise to noone, is that my food tends toward the heavier and earthier flavors. I have also realized that my palate is pretty similar when it comes to wines. All I have really learned about tastings is from beer so I ocassionally get made fun of for my language.

With Jess and I it is a cultural exchange: She teaches me about wine and I educate her in obscure 90’s punk and vegan cooking. I think it is a fair trade! We generally have two bottles of wine. Usually a white and a red and listen to records. Sometimes we share with paul… most of the time we don’t.

Last week

soundtrack:

Cub-Mauler

Lemuria- Get better

Wines:

Menage a Trois: 2007 California White Whine (Chardonnay, Muscato, Chenin Blanc) I lost my notes on this but I remember that I enjoyed it. I’m finding that I dig the Muscato grape.

Owen Roe: 2005 Cabernet Franc Columbia Valley I feel bad for not liking this as much as Jess thought I would. I remember that there was this tanic *thing* that I frequently associate with cheap wine… except that I know this was an expensive one. The mouth feel was just really distracting.  jess loves Cab Francs but they are jsut hit or miss with me.

Food: Since we were making lasagna we thought we would make a nice starter platter to snack on while the lasagna was cooking. We made hummus from scratch, chopped up some veggies and olives, roast a clove of garlic and some dolmas. The white wine tasted so fucking good with the dolmas. yum. we even let Paul have some.

Yummy starters

we devoured the roasted garlic!

After we wer ethroughly stuffed from that we got our vegan spinach and tofu lassagna out of the oven and snacked on that with the Cab Franc.

earthy and fruity cab franc... and a fancy numbered bottle

That was last week. I’m not sure when we are going to have a meal this week. I leave Friday afternoon for Seattle with Lilly and marc for the Zine Librarian Un-Conference so it would have to be before then. Anyway, all this talk about food is making me hungry. I had some tofurkey Kielbasa with grilled onions and peppers sandwich for lunch and I know we have some artichokes so maybe I’ll make one of those for dinner, they are always so fun to eat!

A Quick note…

Tonight one of Paul‘s bands, Molly Bang, are play at The Know on NE Alberta, show starts at 8.

I guess it is also Last Thursday on Alberta. I haven’t even been on Alberta for the artwalk since last summer… actually, it’s not usually my thing but I’m going anyway. Come and keep me company!

Better things than Valentine’s Day…

Paul and I don’t celebrate holidays like Valentine ’s Day. Even when we dated when we were younger we thought it was just silly. We don’t celebrate Valentine’s but we do celebrate the whole month of March and every full moon, more on those at another time.

Every time I write or talk about Paul to someone new or somewhere new I feel like the back story is in order. The short of it:

We met over 15 years ago in Utah, started dating 10 years ago and dated for 2 years. Paul broke my heart and I moved to Portland. We spent 5 years not talking to each other. After 5 years we found each other again and through many complications he moved to Portland and we have been living together for almost 3 years to the day.

We make each other very happy. We give each other enough space for our own projects and make time to share crucial awesmoeness with each other. I am very thankful that we each had time to grow up so that we could be together again. I love that we came from the same geographic and musical location and timeline. I am grateful for a partner that supports me, trusts me, respects me, appreciates me and my work and that we can celebrate each other’s accomplishments.

So, even though we don’t celebrate Valentine ’s Day there are two cool things going on tomorrow. The first is that the Murder City Devils are doing a reunion tour and their Portland show is Saturday. My sister and I were stoked so I got four tickets for some sort of weird default Valentine’s double date with her and Mr. Bolsh. I think we first saw the Murder City Devils in Utah in the basement of DV8 in 1998 with The Queers. I remember drinking in the bar  upstairs with Paul. That seems like a long time ago. I also saw them at the second to last show here in Portland in 2001. This show should be fun.

And that is also the same day as Zwickelmania, the Oregon Breweries open house. Mmmm craft beer!

I started drinking when I was dating Paul in the 90’s when I was 20 years old. He is 6 months older than me and was the one who bought me beer. He was a beer snob and by the transitive property I became a beer snob. I never drank in high school so I was spared the stupid youthful binge drinking, and with paul’s help, I skipped right to appreciating porters and stouts.

Beer is one of the reasons I  moved to Portland. Hell, Paul and I came to Portland for my 21st birthday… for the beer! Craft beer is some think we thoroughly enjoy brewing and drinking, more so the drinking.So having a valentine’s beer open house date and a show is just right up our alley.

Tonight though, Paul, Androo and I are going to see this weeks episode of Battlestar Galactica at The Bagdad, one of Portland’s fine brewery theatre pubs!