u s e y o u r h a n d s

about working from home is that on the first Tuesday morning of the month, the City tests the tornado sirens. It still freaks me out.

I’ve been cruising the Wanted section of Craig’s List because I’m in the middle of a huge house purge and I like to make people’s day. I cannot, however, fulfill this wish:

Gently Used Dungeon Furniture Needed (Chicago)

I am looking for gently used Dungeon Furniture in like new or good condition. I would like to purcahse up to 20 pieces of furniture such as St Andrews Crosses, Spanking Horses, Kneeling Benches, Bondage Chairs, Bondage Tables, Suspension Frames or Medical Exam Tables.

Please send pics of what you have with prices.

I’m fiddling with my RSS feeds. Something’s wonky with the ol’ blog.

At first, all she saw were his shoes, one untied and the other on the floor. She followed them up and up to his hands clutching at the rope around his purple, pleading neck. In all honesty, she was not surprised. Slow and then speeding fast, she realized he was not dead only dying. He must have just done this. At her feet, the note. There was time to skim, which she did. No affair. Not a heroin addict. Just in despair and longing for anything else. Anything but her.

So she let him have what he asked for.

- Bring books in for sale
- Take recycling in
- Buy soil conditioner for lawn
- Cover lawn with cardboard, compost and newspapers
- Finish painting basement
- Arrange and decorate basement
- Touch up paint in living room, dining room, and entry way
- Empty station wagon
- Donate station wagon
- Finish portfolio site
- Finish print portfolio
- Go to gym 3 out of 5 days this week

Wheatberry Green Salad

1 cup uncooked wheatberries
1 cup rough-chopped grape tomatoes
2 huge handfuls of robust greens (kale, beet greens, etc.)
1/4 cup Annie’s Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette
1 to 1 1/2 cups of sauteed seitan, cubed

In a big bowl, prepare a big bowl of washed, uncooked greens. Cook up your friends the wheatberries. You’ll know they’re done when they are tender, but not mushy. Drain the wheatberries then toss them on top of your greens. Add in your diced toms. Pour over the vinaigrette. Do nothing for a little bit.

In the meantime, toss some (preferably fresh) seitan in a mix of flour with a generous dash of salt, pepper and some italian seasoning mix (with basil, marjoram, oregano, maybe some rosemary.) Saute them until brown and crispy (but not too crispy) in a bit of grapeseed or canola oil. Drain!

Then, add the seitan to the salad. Add a few twists of pepper and toss the whole thing up. Eat it! Enjoy!

And eat it tomorrow. It makes a good 4-6 portions.

Now that I work out of my house, I’ve gotten really into staring out the window and checking out what’s going on in my street in Albany Park.

So much happened this morning! My really elderly across-the-street neighbor was once again taken to the hospital. My next-door neighbors got a delivery of what’s probably bogarted landscape flower flats. And this dude keeps riding down my block on a bike with a hand-truck strapped to the back like a makeshift trailer. All in half an hour!

And I wrote a tsk-tsk note to my alderman about the half-ass requirement placed on some retailers to accept plastic-bag recycling.

I am the nosy neighbor. The neighborhood busybody. And, hopefully, after I finish ripping out my front lawn, the local weirdo.

One of the goals for this freelance journey I’m on is to get more civically engaged. I just have to make sure my outlook doesn’t get terribly small.

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