site news, artwork, and a strawberry theme

Still working on adding things, so keep checking back. We hope to have Sal's beer making adventures up soon, and then I'd like to tackle updating about the house projects we've completed in the four years since the old site was last updated. Including! Pictures from converting the spare room into a library! And of course we're blogging here on the main page regularly. With non-bento posts, even!

Speaking of bento madness, I've just completed an additional page of the site called, funnily enough, Bento Madness. (You can find it in the Smorgasbord dropdown menu.) The new page explains a basic overview of what bento is, how I got started doing it, my own personal bento philosophy, and rules I've made for myself in packing them, as well as two photo galleries that can be viewed as slide shows.  So if you're one of the people new to my obsession with all things bento, perhaps that will make Teh Crazy a little bit clearer.

The first photo gallery contains all of my bento pics since bento 2.0 baby! began, and will include new pics as they're posted. It's interesting to see the evolution of my lunches since my revitalized interest began...well, interesting to me, anyway. (Note that the gallery is actually split into two pages, so they're viewed in two separate slide shows.) The second gallery includes pictures of each of the boxes I use and a short description of each, including its volume. It can also be viewed as a slide show.

Breakfast:

• Oregon strawberries! (if you missed it, read my ode to Oregon strawberries! from yesterday)
• mini sidecar with plain honey yogurt and a dollop of marionberry jam

Lunch:

• stir fry -- onions, scallions, lemongrass, turnips, chicken, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, kale, bok choy, sesame seeds, peanuts, and secret sauce, with more peanuts for garnish
• jasmine rice
• Oregon strawberries! in one half because I just can't get enough, orange creme cheesecake made by Sally in the other half...a bit on the decadent side, but on Mondays, you're allowed a bit of decadence

The weather is beautiful today so I made it a priority to get out of the office for lunch and eat at my little hidden park nearby. Haven't done that in far too long; time to get back in the habit. My day is always better for it.

Another thing I haven't done in awhile: my little notes in my lunch. The quote in my lunch today:

Each life converges to some centre
Expressed or still.

This is the first line from the poem Part One: Life -- LXI by Emily Dickenson. I incorporated this line into a piece of artwork for my office as a gigantic reminder to myself every day I'm there of where my real center lies. (More pics of that artwork to come...I'm thinking it's time for another photo gallery that groups our various creative endeavors in one place.)