Tuesday, March 08, 2005

blog blog, it's big it's heavy it's wood

this is a blog about me. about me and food. about how i like to make food and it sometimes takes a really long time and turns out disappointingly but people have already eaten all the craisins in my pantry so they're not hungry anymore anyway. about how standing over a deep fryer for afternoon upon extended afternoon has somehow made anthony's skin translucent and poreless. how salicylic acid is the unsung hero of skin products, to the extent that i'm not sure it's even working. how, yes, beignets are a snooty way of saying "mini-funnel cake", and at what point did i start saying "roux" without irony?

this blog is also about being a city-dweller with no foreseeable end to my tenure as rental tenant. about how the relationship between homey-ness and home ownership is too intimate and can be resisted. about how we can still tend our gardens even if the dirt doesn't belong to us. how i don't actually have a garden but eli does, and his tomatoes look like bunions.

it's about how my love-hate relationship with ikea is neither novel nor interesting, nor does it absolve me from shopping there. about how a series of negations can render readable something that's otherwise hackneyed. how, though your lips are not rose-red nor your eyes ocean-blue, i can't say i don't love you. about how love-hate is too strong a description for it -- more like a grudging respect. how meatballs are a lost art and lyndenberries an affectation.

this blog will also be pragmatic. it will be about practical home care, and though nothing specific comes to mind i believe rubbing alcohol and mineral oil may be featured prominently. and maybe st. john's wort. this blog is about how you can use baking soda to clean both your teeth and the toilet bowl but please don't use the same brush. how, of the seven housemates i've had over the past four years, six have unwittingly shared their toothbrush with me at some point or another. with the seventh it was wittingly. how only one of the seven has ever had her toothbrush accidentally knocked into the toilet bowl, but a soak in baking soda solution made it all better again.

i'm feeling compelled to make this inaugural post a significant one but am sort of at a loss for how to do that. trumpets and fanfare would be nice, but i think what's really in order is a sort of mission statement, or a compact bit of philosophizing to put some wind into the sails of this project. karen reads over the shoulder and says: "blogs are generally too windy to begin with." i say something about being lost at sea and already it's become clear we're moving in the wrong direction. i guess what i'm saying is that what this blog needs to get things moving is a purpose and an intended audience. okay, so

PURPOSE:

this is a tough one, and to be honest, if i were able to punch this out in a paragraph, i wouldn't be sitting in my living room during business hours typing out a blog. for now, i'll have to setttle for something simple, vague and unsatisfying. this blog is an exploration of the mind. an exploration of the mind at home.

i think that's enough for today.