Newfangled Dad

This was interesting "news" this morning...I'll post a couple different links to various versions of it. Depending on the spin, it either made me angry or left me wanting to explain more. Runners World actually did it a bit better.  Then there was the  ridiculous NPR version. Oooh, organic foods may not be nutritionally better than convention foods! I take issue with the word "healthy" being thrown around so carelessly. If you're buying organic simply because you think the added price is getting you some unknown benefit to your body from a calorie standpoint, you do indeed have another thing coming. That's not why you should buy organic and the fact that we're wasting scientific time on such nonsense is a bit beside the point. As proud owners of a weekly CSA box from a wonderful, hard-working family of farmers at  Iron Creek Farm , I can tell you that nutrition has little to do with our choice to prefer organic. If you made the long list, it wo...

Kelly is a summer vegetarian. The amount of meat in our diet was fairly small anyway, but having a box full of organic fruits and veggies sitting in our kitchen for 16 weeks certainly helps. I remain Switzerland in the omnivore versus veggie debate. I love a salad. But I also think the ethics are there for a nice juicy steak. Let me explain... Just the other day, I had a conversation (in the context of greyhound racing) about how I love steak, but I also love cows. And I think this is at the heart of why people think vegans are a bit touched in the head. Because really the same principle applies to both greyhounds and, say, sheep. Nobody is going to raise these animals just for the heck of it. Ok, maybe not "nobody." But the reason we have sheep or greyhounds or cows is that they're useful to us. Whether it's food or clothing or racing, you look at the numbers from something like NPR's article on  "Visualizing A Nation Of Meat Eaters"  and you see th...

Saturday was a pretty great day. Well, actually, so was Sunday but I'll save that for another post. Beautiful early summer weather and we started fairly early to enjoy our first week of the Farmers Market. No CSA box yet--that starts next week--but it's hard to resist donuts and bluegrass in a church parking lot on a weekend morning.  We made our usual once-around of the booths before deciding what to buy. First on the list was definitely some of the plentiful strawberries. Not the flavorless, perfect-looking ones you get at the grocery. These are organic, farm-fresh, and look like some strange antique variety more closely related to wild. They taste earthy and sweet, but not sugary sweet. It's a different kind of mineral taste that melts in your mouth and is what leads us to usually eat the box of blueberries before we ever get home. My comment to our farmer we get our farm box from last summer was that her broccoli was spicy. I've never had broccoli have a natural ...

My brain never really came home from Minnesota. We're still trying to recover from the collective family colds, but mostly I've spent the last week in vacation mode. Sort of a Margaritaville state of mind. I think it's a combination of things...summer is here. We had a pretty amazing time all things considered. It's got me already looking forward to more journeys. To the point where I've got the next 3 trips already started in my head. I consider the last couple days the unofficial start to summer in the side yard. The kids have been outside with Leda rolling around on a blanket happily. Cole playing with rocks and sticks. Yesterday, we sat at the patio table and got covered in watermelon juice from the first one of the season. I probably should start paying more attention to London...and I actually have a list of what we want to see, hotels, and am starting to make an itinerary. But, really, my mind has been drifting more towards travel with the kids. I'v...

The weather certainly has us all thinking ahead. It's not even April yet and the air conditioners have gone in windows with the temperatures soaring into the 80's. But we're looking forward to summer for different reasons. Between when my son was born and when my daughter was born, I'd continued to work part-time at the museum. This meant a delicate balancing act of Kelly working M-F with me working the weekend. Simply trade off the kids with little family time other than evenings. Then last summer I took a supervisory role in my department which meant a negotiated extra day. It required some juggling on our part, but the position was technically supposed to be full-time so no complaints about the evenings it required as well. Last summer, however, it was an endless stream of Kelly alone at the Farmer's Market to pick up our CSA box. It was squeezing outdoor grill time into the window when I got home from work after a dog walk. It was no time to go places or att...