14 posts tagged “john-patrick”
See Bee's recent comments for verification of this fact.
Not only can he cook, but he's the sweetest, steadiest, sexiest guy I know. And his jokes land 1/10 of the time, too!
He's smart, he gives a damn, he's always challenging me to live better, and no matter what else is going on during my day, I'm always happier when I get to be around him. And in about 6 weeks, we'll be married!
Happy Anniversary, Bee. Five years and counting! Loves.
Show us something you can't explain.
I suppose I've just done another Welcome to Our World.
At some point today, I'll snap, select, and post my very last photo for Project 365, something I began on July 1 last year after watching and enjoying Marc doing the same.
I'm definitely glad to be done. There were waves along the way that were very difficult. Some days just aren't photo-worthy, and you have to come up with something. That's a good challenge, but there were definitely moments where it felt like a totally pointless burden. And it's hard to capture exactly why simply needing to take a photo could be such a challenge. You certainly don't feel like that in the beginning of your year. And really, it's not hard. But the photo (ideally) needs to be good. (Many of mine certainly weren't --but that's also what it's all about.) And I felt the need to mix it up. And I felt the need to keep challenging myself. Perhaps that's why it got hardest right near the end. Not in-the-last-few-weeks end. But like a month ago or 6 weeks ago. The end was in sight, but by no means near. I'd taken the easy photos (of the cats, of foods, out our window) too many times already. And like I said, some days it just doesn't happen. The urge to cash it in was strong, but when you've come that far....
The last month or so got a lot easier. I could taste the end. The weather has been good so I've been out more. And I started to get excited about being done.
In the end, I'm really glad I did it. I learned a lot about photography, mostly just through looking at other's photos in Flickr photo pools and stuff. I think I took some cool shots that I never would have taken otherwise. I got in the habit of taking my camera almost everywhere I go, which I doubt I'd ever have done otherwise. And there are definitely times I've been glad to have a camera. You never know when something funny or beautiful or magical will happen to you suddenly, and having a camera to capture it is so enjoyable. And perhaps this will sound like the easy stretch at the end of the experience, but yes, I do think I've learned to look at my world around me in its relationship to art. It's not everywhere. I won't say that. But I do think it's in more places than we might notice, were we not primed to take it in and document it.
So I won't continue 365 for another year. But I will keep carrying my camera, and continuing to learn how to take better photos, to capture that rare unexpected moment or that random form of art. But I'm excited now to leave the pressure and responsibility behind. (It's like graduating!) And I've come to really like Flickr. Mostly I've held back from posting anything other than my 365 photos on there. But now I'm excited to post photos that wouldn't otherwise make the cut (remember, it had been ONE a day). And sets for trips and other things like that.
So if you've been following my photo journey at all, keep peeking in. It's another form of community --John-Patrick says his set functions like a blog, since his blog is only about cooking and his photos are about cooking as well as the other things in his life. (And he's in the midst of 365, too. He's done later this year.)
I'm excited to use mine that way, too. But will I have a photo for every day any longer? Nope. And that freedom not only feels good, but it also feels earned. Like resting after a hard workout. So today, I'm on my final sprint into the finish. Feels good to be (almost) done!
Although it's our last free weekend until mid-August, I'm going to try to convince John-Patrick to agree to an impromptu road trip this weekend.
I want to go to St. Ignace / Mackinac Island area.
- We can get a car for $16/day
- We can stay for free at my family's cabin (which my dad already booked for us in hopes John-Patrick will say yes) in Wellston, MI.
- Castle Rock, a formative part of my childhood (we camped there every summer for years)
- A kitchy Indian Villiage, for research of course, so I can refresh my How We Cartoonify and Then Exploit American Indians presentation in my Race & Ethnicity class. Plus, again, rubber tomahawks were another formative part of my childhood.
- I think we would also have to do the Mystery Spot...
- ...and the Weird Michigan Wax Museum....
- ...and the Man Killer Clam.
- Plus, we always do Friday night pizza. Why not do it tomorrow at The Deerhorn? (They have some of the best pizza on the PLANET.)
- And on our way up tomorrow, we could stop and have lunch in Grand Rapids, and pick out his tux, whereas we weren't sure when we'd be able to get there otherwise.
Seriously, how could he say no?????
The fifth installment in a series, whereby I welcome you to Life with Bee:
An email John-Patrick sent me recently, in its entirety:
"Subject line: Chickens
Sent: 9:38am
After Gena kicks it lets get some real chickens.
They're just like Gena, but give us fresh eggs
http://vimeo.com/821696"
______________________
We later had this chat:
Welcome to Our World.
Bee found a new method for draining water out of his sushi rice.
See here.
I swear, I sometimes think we're inches away from a reality show. I guess this is Installment 3.
This from one week ago tonight.
I caught Bee trying to sneak up on some birds, so I filmed it.
Not a fast-moving video but cute if you can hang with it.
John-Patrick had a great idea a few weeks ago: taking one night per week and trying a new recipe together. So far we're 2 for 2. Last Tuesday we made BBQ tempeh sandwiches, and last night we made two kinds of risotto.
For the tempeh, it was pretty easy. We used tempeh we had bought from the store, a 3-grain kind that we pan-seared...
Yesterday we were trying to come up with a recipe idea, and it occurred to us that perhaps the only perk in this still-cold weather was that we still had never made risotto. We couldn't decide between an acorn squash risotto recipe from Bee's Mario Batali book, or Alton Brown's mushroom asparagus risotto. So we did both. His and hers, although we shared and made it more like a tasting.
Although our timing was slightly off, given that his squash needed prep work before his risotto began, whereas my veggies were to be added only at the end, there was a decent period of time when we were both doing the risotto at the same time. It's easy, if you've never done it. It's just a gradual adding of stock (and white wine, depending on the recipe) while ya stir and stir for about 30-45 minutes. Here were the his and hers pairs of pots:
In hindsight we wished we'd done a dessert risotto to make a full tasting, but it didn't occur to us until we had them side by side like that. They weren't perfect, and Bee definitely improved to both of ours (I had missed the part where it said COOKED mushroom in the ingredients, for example), but we learned and it was fun. And they both tasted great!
Hooray for New Recipe Tuesdays. I hope we'll keep this up!
I don't know why, but about a week or two ago, John-Patrick started paying a LOT of attention to squirrels. We'd be walking together, talking, and all of the sudden the behavior of the squirrels would take center stage. "Look at that squirrel." And from my vantage point, the squirrel would be doing nothing interesting. Or, "Did you see that squirrel jump from that branch?" Uh, yes....
I inevitably began to tease him about this fixation. (Squirrels are neither uncommon nor especially oddly-behaved here.) So he teased me right back.
A few days ago, John-Patrick sent me this email while we were both at work:
Subject line: Squirrel Report
Body:
Three sightings on west side of N. Winthrop between Glenlake and Thorndale.
1 - west edge of sidewalk, digging in leaves
1 - east edge of sidewalk, digging in leaves
1 - east edge of curb, ran under car
It made me laugh really hard.
