More Innards

Today I added some things to the Inner Vitz - for the first time in quite a while. I went back and included a brief look at all the various steps vitzy.com went through to become what it is today - not only plural, but semi-professional.

To get to the Inner Vitz, click here (or go to vitzys.com and dot your i's or cross your t's). The username is "guest." The password is the missing word that goes in the blank in the sentence "Are you calling me a ___?"

To find the new pages, choose "Randomness" from the side menu, and then "old websites."

If you don't know the password, but want in, send me an email. robinovitz at gmail.

Tired Legs

Life seems busy lately, what with work, class, fencing, and friends all thrown into the mix, we've had very little downtime. And last weekend was one of those one day weekends for me. Next weekend will be another one day weekend. So, I'm pretty darn excited that it's Friday night and I've got two unfilled days sparkling on my horizon.

Into those two days, who knows what we shall pack? We do have a new steed in the stable. Brian finally has a town bike. The Kuwahara and the Fuji were predestined to be best friends. Perhaps because they both have only one gear, or because they both came from Japan? Who can say where the affinity comes from... Our first little spin on the two together was truly beautiful. Today, the final touches arrived, in the shape of the orange grips and new pedals. I'm growing quite fond of these little bike-refurbishing projects.



I also had a good ride on my Modena this week, which was nice because it's been a long time since I rode a bike solely for the purpose of riding a bike. When I stepped out the back door on the mansion on Wednesday though, I knew I had to spend as much of the evening outside as possible. The weather was just too beautiful to waste. A road ride seemed the best way to meet this end, so Brian showed me a nice loop north of town. We had a glorious spin about, and then came home for a glorious pizza.

Fencing has been a great deal of fun so far, too, though a tad humbling. First of all, there is a multitude of small, forgotten but suddenly remarkably noticeable muscles in my body that are not at all used to fencing anymore. Also, there are a number of people on the team and coaching the team who've been fencing for longer than I've been alive. Sometimes I dart in for a sure kill only to realize it's me that's been killed, not them. Not them at all. In fact, they somehow managed to hit me and not get hit by my ferocious attack - all by only moving about two inches.

Still, it's good to be doing something that earns me some sore muscles again.

Under the Walnut Trees

I never really thought much about walnuts. I like them, without a doubt. I consider them a fine addition to many breads and baked goods, and to bins of mixed nuts. I remember fondly certain instances in my childhood with nutcrackers and small, metal picks, cracking them open and extracting the meat. But of the story of a walnut before it reached my murderous hands, I never once thought.

Not long ago, the large, beautiful trees in our yard began to bloom, and then the blooms slowly gave way to small, green, spherical objects that the squirrels collected with excitement. Some of these fell into our yard. Sometimes I stepped on them as I walked to the garage. They had a leathery green skin, like that of an orange. Except... not orange. Green. Still, I didn't think much about them.

Recently, these spheres have begun to fall with much greater frequently and gusto. The trees, in fact, don't so much seem to drop them as hurl them forcefully downward with malicious intent. The little green bombs of doom bang off the roof and sides of our house every few minutes these days. They hit so hard, they cause a resounding crack or thud, which can be quite startling.

Finally, all the noise piqued my curiosity. What on earth were these little disturbers of the peace? It didn't take google long to provide me with an answer. Walnuts. Any of you who, like myself, have tried to crack a walnut knows how damn hard the shell is. Well, I can tell you they have to be that robust, to survive their violent journey to the ground intact. I imagine, if one were to fall on me, it would hurt quite a lot, and maybe cause a bruise.

So lately on windy days with the nuts falling thick as raindrops, I can't help but worry slightly about the squirrels.

When the Weather Turns Cold

Sometimes, when the air is chilly, I am stirred into unusual spurts of baking. I hatched a scheme to make blueberry muffins a few days ago, and Brian and decided to carry the plan to fruition this morning. We encountered a little hiccup when I realized I must have given my muffin tins away during move, and we didn't have any little muffin cup liners anyway.

I do have a lot of bread pans though, of many different sizes and varieties. So, muffin bread it was. And it was lovely.

Uber Cool Light-Weight Nerd

Today I took a little online test and discovered these interesting facts about my self.

Urban Pet Magazine

While we were house-sitting last weekend, Brian and I discovered that a couple of our friends have very creative pets. We had barely but arrived when Molly, Isabelle and Oliver informed us that they wished, with our help, to do a little something to impress Adele and Peter while they were gone. So, the five us wrote a magazine. It's only four pages long, but for two cats and a dog, that's pretty impressive.

You can view the image files below (they get bigger if you click on them) or open the whole pdf.

Page 1:

Page 2:

Page 3:Page 4: