Mighty Life

I just put my Mighty Life list over there at the bottom of my links, as a reminder to get started on the important stuff. I mean, I could be hit by a bus any moment without ever having rewired a lamp.

Just by putting the list into words, I find myself working toward the goals without thinking. I’ve accomplished so much already without even consciously trying. It’s also eerie how situations are just popping up that help me cross something off the list. A friend wants to practice his portrait-taking skills, and voila! We have a family portrait. After the presentation in Austin, a woman approaches to ask if we’d be willing to do one in Canada. Voila! I’ll be crossing the Canadian border in the near future. I want to own land, and this anonymous benefactor leaves me an acre along the coast of Northern California.

That last one isn’t true. But still, eerie, right?

Anyway, here’s the other progress I’ve made so far:

-Identified the violin busker to whom I’d like to give $100.
-I’ve started the first baby steps on a novel. Also, I’ve taken up pipe smoking.
-Have the infrastructure in place to launch a new Mighty site! Awww yeah.
-Purchased the Apartment Therapy book so I can do the home cure for my “Make a peaceful living space for our family” goal. I’m starting with de-lousing.
-The friend who took our family portrait said he’d help me try to do one in the style of my grandmother’s photo. Except she was sixteen when her portrait was taken, so I may also need someone who has excellent Photoshop skills.
-Started putting aside baby clothes for a quilt. I have trouble letting go of anything, actually. Little, tiny footie pajamas! Eeeny beeny socks! Soon our house will be a solid wall of our possessions with only a tiny path leading to the bed, where I’ll be chortling over one of Hank’s old onesies. With a robot on the front!

Have you done anything because of your list? Do! Then tell us, immediately.

Chug-a-Hugs!

And in the category of Ads that Would Never Fly in the States:

I took that in Argentina, it’s an ad for Tang featuring two young children who have fashioned a beer bong for Tang delivery. Madcap! Bong imagery aside, to my jaded eye, it looks like they’re pouring vodka and Kool Aid into the funnel:

What are we teaching the children?

Kids, listen to Aunt Maggie.That’s no kind of way to treat vodka.

19 Days Without Yeti

It’s been 19 days since the last Defective Yeti update, and that can only mean one thing. Matthew Baldwin is being held hostage on a secluded island, with no access to a keyboard, and enemy forces on all sides.

That or he’s playing, like, the world’s longest game of Werewolf with an inconceivably large group of friends. (So two things, I guess. It could mean one of two things.)

Anyway, Rob of Cockeyed has assembled a crack team of Internet search-and-rescue operatives:

I will be hiding here in my closet, in case the bad guys are coming for me next.

As for you Matthew, you stay alive. No matter how far, how long it takes…

We will find you.

7 Things to Taste in Argentina

As some of you know, we lived in Buenos Aires for a month last December, and I still have lots to tell you. Here’s a primer on some of the more traditional foods you should try if you plan a visit:

Seven Things to Taste in Argentina

Seven Things to Taste in Argentina _ Mighty Girl
Toast spread with dulce de leche.


Churros at the Recoleta fair.

1. Dulce de leche Fresh dulce is practically sexual. You’ll be tempted to pinch a bit to slide between your thumb and forefinger. Instead, may I suggest pouring a gallon or so on the bed sheets and rolling around in it naked? …No? Well, you can also use it on ice cream, fruit, or toast if you’re concerned about the cleaning bill. Be sure to try a slightly crisp panqueque swelling with warm dulce filling. (Miranda’s makes a great one — calle Costa Rica 5644.) Also seek out the fresh, dulce-filled churros dipped in chocolate, which are available at the Recoleta fair on Saturdays and Sundays.


Matambre

2. Matambre is a stuffed flank steak often served cold as an appetizer. The one we cooked was prepared and wrapped by our neighborhood butcher. It was rolled around carrots, onions, potatoes, a few hard-boiled eggs. Consequently, it looked like a severed limb wrapped tightly in plastic (for freshness!). The flavor was similar to corned beef, but with a more dense texture. Try it after midnight, when you wake up ravenous and still a bit fuzzy from the wine you had in lieu of dinner. One slice straight from the fridge is an excellent restorative.


Alfajores with various tea pastries.

3. Alfajores These small sandwich cookies taste nostalgic, like a part of your childhood you don’t quite remember. The fresh ones collapse in your mouth, giving you more time to ponder the slightly chewy dulce center. Each one is a small moment of peace, so have a cup of tea handy. Buy a few from the bakery on the corner of Santa Fe and Oro.


Mate gourd.

4. Maté A traditional warm beverage made by steeping dried yerba maté leaves. In the afternoons, Argentines gather on balconies and lawn sipping shared cups of maté through bombillas (straws with filters on the ends). I found it bitter and grassy, but soldiered on anyway. Mate is the national drink, and these are the things tourists must do. We are also duty-bound to attend an overwrought tango shows wearing white sneakers, but I digress.

5. Chorizo Stop at every corner carnecería and ask for a bit chorizo. Every butcher has a different take on this deep red pork sausage colored with peppers. For breakfast, fry it with some cubed potato, or add it to an omelet. You’ll find yourself reconsidering your blind allegiance to bacon. If you don’t have a stove, or the inclination to cook for yourself while you’re on vacation, the house chorizo at Don Julio is excellent.

6. Chimichurri This sauce is usually served alongside steak. It’s a mixture of parsley, oregano, garlic, peppers, and vinegar, and is best if prepared fresh. However, many restaurants simply add oil to a dried spice mix. Should you encounter the latter, politely scrape it from your tongue with the side of a fork.

7. Steak As you may already know, the cows in Argentina are grass fed, and their flesh is rich with the happiness of grazing on open hillsides. The steak here is so savory that it connects with the base of your brain, releasing a hormone that makes you instantly indifferent to the plight of cows. Argentine steak is the very best reason to have teeth.

Worth Repeating

Catching up on a year’s worth of old magazine subscriptions. Some snips:

Julie Morgenstern in O Magazine — “If I ran out of time today, what would be the one thing that, completed, would give me the greatest sense of accomplishment and contribution?”

New Yorker Mar. 20 article “Pretty Things,” about Hedi Silmane models — “They seemed in imminent danger of getting laid.”

Dave Grohl in Esquire Nov. 2007 — “Anybody who has to focus on being real has a problem. It’s like having a panic attack over how you’re prone to panic attacks.”

Your “Worth Its”

A few of my favorites from the comments in the 100 Things Worth Doing entries:

Jan: The time D woke me up at 12:01AM on my birthday with a coffee cup full of tiny wild roses he’d picked from the bluff outside our front door. (We were newlyweds and sooo broke.)

Dani: Going through the departures gate at Sydney airport and looking back to see my girlfriends flashing their boobies at me
Feeling his hand behind my back when ‘friend’ was flirting with him
Knowing he came all way across town by himself to a party when the only one he knew was me – and I opened the door in an afro, gold boob tube and flares

Jennifluff: Mud fight with my mother at the beach at sunset

Karen: [Eating] a peach in the shower.

Dangercat: The second I swung the hammer and hit the first stake on my own land for the foundation of my own house I built with my own two hands.

Moose: March of the Ghouls on Halloween in St. John’s cathedral. Men in spider suits rappel down columns while masked creatures on stilts lumber stiffly through the smoke.

Niz: “Dance parties” at the children’s museum where I worked, looking like a fool but not caring because the 3-year-olds were awed by my mad skillz

Julie: Watching my 1 1/2 year old daughter see the ocean for the first time, and run full steam ahead into the waves with her clothes on, oblivious to the fact that it was 40 degrees outside.

JoAnn: Walking quickly through the cold streets of Prague with a fresh, warm, round loaf of heavy, dark bread for my roommates and I. The bread store only baked on Tuesdays (This was just after the revolution and before Western stores found their way in). I can still feel the warmth through my coat as I rushed home.

April: spending all night on a panga in the ocean in San Blas, Mexico and after holding my pee forever finally having the courage to hang my rear over the edge and go (with my husband holding on to me)…
naps on the couch with my dad when I was little enough to sleep between his legs

Sara: Drinking Oolong on Alishan mountain in Taiwan while looking over fields of tea.

El: Grabbing Bono while he was crowd surfing at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, 1982. He has freckles on his arms and was wearing the same t-shirt as me.

Tina: Smelling Beezy’s cheek when I brought her home from the hospital and thinking…how could I have thought I didnt want another.

Stella: Drinking tea with the long eared women of the Kilian tribes north of Chiang Mai.

Em: Being pushed in the wheelbarrow through the tulips when I was four.

DimKnit: G rubbing his eyes and holding his blanket, bumping into furniture after he woke up. Flyaway hair and soft, warm cheeks. Yum.

Andrea Heimer: Being so close to a hummingbird I can feel it vibrating.

Henning: Seeing my parent’s tears of joy the day the Berlin Wall fell

Emily: riding an elephant through the rainforest in Thailand.

Jan: my sister and me, ages 6 and 8, holding hands between our beds as we fell asleep
my mom paying a kid to go to the bottom of the community pool and retrieve my two front teeth when they both came out unexpectedly (age 6), so the tooth fairy could come that night

Meaghan: My mother-in-law politely telling me that the gladiolas were on fire

Sara: Waking up late, naked, warmed by the sun, and thinking I was a mermaid for a minute before my brain woke up.

Kimblahg: seeing not one, not two but three sacs with fluttering heartbeats on the ultrasound.

Catherine: Pulling off a Lloyd Webber medley, self-arranged and orchestrated, with 50 singers and musicians

gilly: walking on hot coals, holding a sparkler

Sarafina: Spraining my ankle getting off the bus in eighth grade, being carried home by Justin Saunders.

misstraceynolan: Seeing Terence Blanchard play in New Orleans about 6 months after Katrina. Herbie Hancock sitting in.

ellen: Listening to birds in the back yard and knowing who was who.

Carly: Helping my grandmother shell peas in her living room with her hair in curlers watching Price is Right.

Valerie: Catching tadpoles and putting them in bubble yum containers.

Anne: Sitting with other recovering alcoholics at the diner after my first AA meeting, feeling so much hope that it made me gasp.

Amanda: The first fly ball I ever caught and not understanding what it meant. Short stop. Six years old.

Stephanie: Writing naughty words with sunscreen on the mean girl’s back while she was sunbathing at the church pool party.

100 Things Worth Doing, Part IV

The last of the things I’m glad I did, numbers 76-100:

76. Hummingbirds busy over Bryan’s shoulder at my 28th birthday breakfast.
77. Up on stage with everyone else to play air guitar after the championship competition had ended.
78. Playing Island of the Blue Dolphins using all the kitchen bowls to collect poisonous berries
79. Warm bottle in hand, Hank’s tiny head tucked under my chin
80. Dad telling me to reach into his jacket pocket, and finding a puppy inside
81. Stringing necklaces with mom at a big table in the sunshine.
82. Finally learning to swim because my sister bribed me with Ritz crackers.
83. Toilet papering Chris Parson’s backyard on Sunday morning when we knew he was away at church.
84. The smell of hardcover books and steam heat in the library.
85. Roadtrip games of Choose with smart friends
86. Back of our pickup truck, holding a warm donut, legs buried under freshly folded newspapers.
87. My first kiss: after the slow dance ended, just above my right cheekbone, on the soft skin beneath my eye.
88. Dancing drunkenly on the bed in PJs at the Ace.
89. Wrangling a litter of kittens in the playhouse in Julie Tucker’s backyard
90. Crying to gospel music
91. Running classified ads through the waxing machine
92. Collecting shells on a beach where even the smallest grain of sand was actually a shell, in Jamaica
93. Cheese board and a glass of wine on the patio at the San Jose in Austin
94. Freshly shaved legs and clean sheets
95. Spinning on the tall stools at Grandma’s tiki bar in her living room
96. Learning the chocolate chip cookie recipe by heart.
97. Kettle corn at the flea market in a sun hat
98. Sneaking to 7-11 after school to buy candy on my way home
99. Collecting lady bugs in jars to release in the garden
100. Backseat of the VW bus, legs sticking to the vinyl seats in the heat, Jim Croce tape

If you haven’t done this yet, it’s awfully fun. Add a few of yours in comments.