My civic duty

Al Franken won the DFL nomination in the primary!

No time for cutting out ravioli with a wine goblet

Since classes resumed a few weeks ago, weeknight dinners have been like nightly hit-and-run accidents in our kitchen. We still cook like mad and use good ingredients and enjoy the result, but the Process becomes a little less joyful when Ben and I are both exhausted and hungry at like 7 PM. So, we've been cooking a lot of our old, quick standbys, like this and this and something similar to this.

Our bentos haven't suffered, though, because they're quick to assemble from the store of savories and salads we whip up on the weekends. Above, clockwise from top left: grapes and orange slices, ginger-peach muffin, vinaigrette coleslaw, and falafel with tahini sauce. Below: couscous salad with roasted eggplant and red pepper, grapes, chocolate-chip banana muffin, and black bean patties with fresh tomato and spinach.

Cubed

Studio classes are keeping me fruitfully occupied. Pictured above is a cube I created for my 3-D design course, and I'm fascinated by the discovery that one can remove almost the entire substance of that form without destroying it. Of course, it depends on the building material. But this windowed cube is just made from some thin cardboard! Magic.

The note Ben left for me on the mirror this morning

Back-to-school bento

Our bento boxes arrived, and Ben and I took them to work and school, respectively, all week! I don't have time to discuss the benefits and challenges of bento right this moment, because now that school's in I have about twenty seconds of free time a day, but
I do have some lunchtime photos to share.

Below (clockwise from top left):
Couscous salad, chocolate chip zucchini muffin, half a kiwi, and Thai summer rolls with peanut sauce.













Below: Carrot sticks, half a kiwi, chocolate chip zucchini muffin, and three-bean salad.













Below: sweet potato chips, chocolate mini-muffins, half a kiwi, spicy dan-dan noodles.













Below: Blueberry-peach summer rolls, zucchini bread mini-muffins, carrot sticks, and three-bean salad.