emperor tomato ketchup

here's a pic of the latest batch of tomatoes from the massive garden we maintained this year. we planted seventeen tomato plants, a mix of heirloom and non, six thai chili plants and two habañero plants. the first frost of the year will inevitably come sometime very soon, so we're probably nearing the end of garden season, sadly. the farmer's market is still going strong though. and then there's the dozen or so jars of tomatoes we canned a while back, just waiting in the basement for their time to shine. how nice will it be to crack one of those babies open this winter when everyone else has to make due with the stuff from the supermarket? very nice, that's how.

food court

in an earlier post, i said i would post follow up pictures of Mondough's renovations to the food cour...,er, i mean Ped Mall. well, here you go. the pics are of rather poor quality, but i thought that fitting. there, now don't you feel more "cosmopolitan"? i know i do.



i don't have anything further to say about it, so i'll just let you judge for yourself. it turned out just about as i thought it would. Here's the "before" photos for you to compare.

in an unrelated note, in the unlikely event you haven't heard the track "Paper Planes" by M.I.A., you should check it out, as it absolutely slays. i've been addicted to it for a while now. here's a video. you just can't beat a well placed Clash sample, now can you?

finally!

beer enthusiasts all across Iowa have been waiting for this moment for what seems an eternity, myself included. no need to fill the trunk of your car with six packs when you head out of state on vacation anymore, for New Belgium Brewing has finally begun distributing in our fine state.

i can't remember when it was that i first had a Fat Tire or a Sunshine Wheat, but i think it was probably sometime around 1994, possibly while on Dead Tour. i remember how exotic it all seemed to me then, particularly the fancy bottles and elaborate designs on the labels. since then, i think i've tried nearly all of their brews and can say without exaggeration that they consistently brew some of the very best beer in the nation. my personal favorites are the Sunshine Wheat and the Abbey Belgian Ale.

for the first few months they're only selling a few varieties, and only in the "bomber" (22 oz) bottles. the Fat Tire bottles have a special Iowa-related label that reads, "FIGBRAI", or Fat Inaugural Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, a reference to RAGBRAI. soon, though, they will begin carrying a greater selection of the beers, including six packs, cases and kegs. hooray!

R.I.P. Michael Jackson, (1942-2007). i raise my glass to thee.


oh, and extra points to the first person who can correctly guess the (specific) location of the first picture.

the wrath of grapes

do you ever notice how many wild grape vines there are in downtown Iowa City? it seems as though every old house downtown has some somewhere on the property. ours is no exception. in fact, we have some rather hearty grape vines of our own growing on an arbor in our backyard (these first pictures were taken a few months ago). i'm not sure how long they've been there, but the main stems are very woody and thick and they certainly produce a lot of grapes. when we moved into the house last year, i was concerned that the tornado damage might have wiped them out. thankfully that wasn't the case though. if anything, i think it just scattered more of them around the neighborhood. now they're all over the place and i find myself constantly having to remove them from the various new spots where they're trying to establish, the little bastards.



a few weeks ago they started falling off the vines with more regularity. it got to the point where you couldn't walk on the path connecting our patio and garage without smashing a ton of them under your foot. eventually, it started to smell like stale wine bottles back there and was attracting legions of flies, bees and wasps. something had to be done, so i got a step stool out and picked about seven gallon buckets of them this past monday. here are a few pics taken just before i picked them.




so, what are you to do with seven gallons of concord grapes, you ask? make grape juice, of course! how do you make grape juice? well, you just wash the grapes, squish 'em, cook 'em for about fifteen minutes, squish 'em some more, strain 'em through a metal screen and then through cheese cloth. all in all, it took the greater part of the day, but was well worth it. cheers!

FHP - Belle Plaine House

for the past year or so, i've been volunteering with the Friends of Historic Preservation - Iowa City. specifically, i go out with the salvage crew to houses across the area that are going to be taken down and help with the salvage of floors, doors, hardware, tubs, sinks, light fixtures, built-ins and even entire staircases. anything and everything that can be of use is taken back to the Salvage Barn to be inventoried and priced for the public to buy.

most often, the houses where we do these salvages are far out in the country and often they are very old. many of the ones i have been involved in were over 100 years old. recently we finished up salvage on one near Belle Plaine. the house was vaguely Queen Anne-esque, probably built sometime between 1890 and 1910. we took up almost all of the flooring (some was unsalvageable due to recent water damage from flooding), many doors and even the upper windows, casings and all. here are some pictures for your perusal. oh, and if this sounds like something you might be interested in, please contact FHP via the link above. we always need more volunteers.

front corner

front

front/left side

left side

back

bundled flooring

wildflowers

Ped Mall Prevarication

As you may or may not be aware, Jim Mondanaro, owner of such restaurants as Givanni's, Mondo's, Bread Garden, Joseph's and the newly-opened Saloon (among others), has petitioned the Iowa City Council to allow him to essentially replace one of the planters down in the Ped Mall with a seating area for the Saloon. You can get all of the details here, here and here. I just thought I would provide a few pictures of the area in question for those of you unfamiliar with the location.

Here you can see the planter in question, with The Saloon in the background:




And here you can see one of Mondanaro's other restaurants, Givanni's, directly opposite The Saloon:



As you can see, the two areas possess their own unique atmosphere. The former is a public green space (albeit more actual plants would be nice), available for anyone to enjoy, free of charge. The latter space no longer functions as a public area. And, when the restaurant is closed, in essence serves as a storage area (or, more accurately, pile) for patio furniture.

As a resident of Iowa City and frequent patron of the Ped Mall, the precedent this would set really bothers me. As myself and others have argued, the Pedestrian Mall, essentially the main public forum for residents of Iowa City, is an area where we can all sit and enjoy ourselves, free of charge. The issue isn't about what percentage of sales from the Saloon come from alcohol vs. food, or how nice the area might look (as Mondanaro has suggested). The issue is about losing part of this public "forum", the heart of Iowa City, to the private business interests of one man.

If you care to voice your opinion on this issue, please come to the Downtown Association Public Form at 3:30-5:30 on Wednesday, August 1st. The meeting will be held at the Iowa City Chamber of Commerce, 325 E. Washington St. (across from The Picador).

cubicycle

top o' the mornin' to ya, Schwixxy. stopped off at the Co-op for coffee i see. what's that, you haven't had your coffee yet? i'll make sure to keep my voice down then. looking forward to another action-packed day here in the ol' cubicle i trust? heh, yeah, tuesdays suck.