This is the last pepper I am going to purchase...

...at least for this season.

I have 28 pepper plants (6 varieties), among other things, growing in my super-teeny Allentown "front yard."

Some are already starting to flower...very exciting.

Urban Simplicity.

Cool Pug

This is Franklin, one of our pugs...he's cool and he knows it.

Urban Simplicity.

MP Bike

I saw this pseudo-retro MP Bike on Elmwood Avenue the other day...it's the second or third I've seen in the past couple months. The bike is made by Felt Bicycles (click here for a direct link to the MP Bike). It looks like it weighs a ton, but then again who am I to talk when my main bike is a Yuba Mundo. I really like when I see different style bikes in use. If you're interested, click here to read a post I wrote last summer on military bikes.

This seems a bit extravagant...

To put this into perspective you can see my teenage son standing near the hood of this limousine...it had to be 25 feet long. Oil crisis? What oil crisis.

An ass on a bike and wasp's nest on the sidewalk.

I saw this yesterday almost simultaneously: a person riding by dressed as a donkey on a bike, and when I looked down to adjust my camera there was a spent wasp's nest on the sidewalk. Weird, I thought. Weird enough to post. You'd never notice this stuff driving in a car.

Things That Can Be Carried On A Bike (#179)

$72.63 in groceries from the local food co-op.

Urban Simplicity.

A Few Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared.

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.

Poverty is the worst form of violence.

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

We must become the change we want to see in the world.


Urban Simplicity.

Things That Can Be Carried On A Bike (#178)

Urban Simplicity.

A large cardboard box which contained a slightly smaller cardboard box. Inside the slightly smaller cardboard box was another cardboard box slightly smaller than the second and much smaller than the first. Inside the third cardboard box was a fourth cardboard box which was the smallest of all that preceded. Inside this small, fourth box was a brown paper bag, and inside this paper bag was a plastic bag which held a fifth cardboard box wrapped in cellophane, which was the smallest of them all. And inside this teeny and last cardboard box was a birthday present for my son: a new iPod.

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Inspiring Bicycle Commercial

It's nice to see an inspiring bicycle commercial now and again instead of the constant barrage of advertisements for cars. What I like about this is that they show people of all ages on bikes and in many different activities.

120 Salade Nicoise Sur La Table

Salade Nicoise.

Urban Simplicity.

Password Stupidity

  

Is it just me or has the whole password thing gotten way out of control? I mean really. I long for the pre-password days...but I guess these are a sign of the (electrontic) times in which we live. Here's an example of my password day today:

Just before I left work I logged on to my work email account, which required a password. Shortly thereafter I arrived home, logged on to my home email, which required a password. Then I stopped at the health club, which required my membership number to enter and my combination lock for the locker. On the way home I stopped at the local food co-op which required not only my membership number but also my debit card pin number at the register. After dinner I did some on-line banking which required three passwords to log on, then I logged onto my blog and Facebook, which of course both required passwords.

I'm not sure how many times that adds up to that I needed a password, membership number, or pin number because it is too exhausting to count. At one point, when I was at the health club and fresh out of the shower and dripping wet I just stood there staring at my lock...drawing a blank. Thankfully I remembered the combination. I think my next purchase will be a lock with a key. I'm tired.

Urban Simplicity.

Staff Meal 6.2.10

Spaghetti alla Aglio e Olio con Broccoli in Brodo

(Spaghetti with Garlic, Oil, Broccoli, and Chicken Broth)

                                        Yield: 4 servings

3/4 pounds spaghetti

1/2 cup virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon crushed hot pepper

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

2 cups chopped broccoli florets 

2 tablespoons grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Cook the spaghetti and drain it. Heat the olive oil in a heavy skillet with the garlic and hot pepper flakes. When the garlic just starts to change color add the chicken broth and salt. Cook the broth for one minute, until it reduces by half, and then add the broccoli. Toss the broccoli for a few minutes. Add the cooked spaghetti, and stir it until thoroughly coated with the other ingredients. Stir in the cheese just before serving.

Urban Simplicity.

Crop Rotation...Bike Rotation

Every year when I plant my vegetable garden it is just a new experiment. It all started about 20 years go when I pushed a few seedlings into the moist ground and watered them...and to my surprise they grew. I've been hooked ever since. I try to do something new every year. This year I purposefully planted things closer than recommended to ward off weeds (I read an article that this supposedly works). I also did concious crop rotation (I say this toungue-and-cheek because my garden is very small). The past few days have been hot and sunny and as usual I am truly amazed at how things have visibly grown...the vine in the foreground growing up the wire cage is from yesterday...that's when I placed the cage around the green bean plant. Amazing.

I also did a bit of bike rotating...I finally fixed the flat on my little Dahon folder and used it to do tons of errands today....logged about 20 miles and my truck stayed put. I can't believe it has taken me something like 3 months to change the tire on this (mostly because I've been having so much fun on the Mundo). Anyhow, I went from riding my really long bike to my really short bike in a day...what a difference. If the Mundo is a bike version of a SUB then the folder is most definitely a sports car...I forgot how quick and zippy this thing is.

Best comment I've heard in a while: someone who often sees me on the Mundo saw me on the Dahon today and asked me if I washed my bike and it shrunk. That still brings a smile to my face.

Urban Simplicity.

100% Whole Wheat Bread Revisited

For the past year or so I have been experimenting with breads made with whole grains and/or 100% whole wheat flour...and I've discovered that it is a myth that bread can't be light and delicious and still be 100% whole wheat. Actually, the flavor and crunch you get from whole wheat is incomparable to white flour...it's almost sweet and when I eat it it tastes really healthy. Anyhow, below are pictures of how I made today's bread (pictured above). For a couple previous posts with better explanation of the process, additional photos, and a recipe...click here and here.

Urban Simplicity.