I am trying to eat more beans. Recently, I ruined a pot by over salting. Today, I’ve cooked the beans to mush. Still learning.

The red fox nabbed one of our hens today. I ran outside, fox dropped chicken, neck was broken and it died shortly after. I buried it in the woods and locked the three remaining hens inside the coop.

While we were driving through the vineyards of Napa Valley last week, I told Erin that I expected the Republicans to quickly propose a constitutional amendment to allow Trump to run for a third term. Wouldn’t you know it, today’s headline says Trump is already joking about another term. #madness

From Napa to Sacramento to Pt. Reyes National Seashore and across the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco, this has been a fun week away. So good to see our daughter, Anna. We were mesmerized by beauty of the land and sea but also horrified by the misery of the homeless. Headed home now.

Most Saturdays I visit the Carborro Farmers Market (North Carolina). Today I am on the other side of rhe country at the Davis Farmers Market (California).

In a surreal bit of timing, I’ve spent the last few days in Napa Valley. While my present state of mindfulness is bliss - a serene inn with Bouchon Bakery croissants at the door each morning, good wine, perfect weather, time with Erin - I feel a lingering worry for the future. …

It’s been a busy few days with family visiting from Austin, Wilmington (NC), and Rhode Island. Today we went to the food truck rodeo at Durham Central Park. Beautiful day, fun times, good food and drinks. Last night was dinner at Acme in Carrboro. Tonight a show at Cat’s Cradle.

Just registered for the Uwharrie Mountain Run (Feb. 1, 2025). I’ll run the 8-mile race this time around. Previously I did the 20 and 8, and both times it was cold!

Walk To Vote: Microcast from Carrboro Town Plaza just after I cast my ballot. Transcript

Josh Ritter is out with a surprise mini-album, ‘Heaven, or Someplace as Nice’ and he sent a special vinyl pressing to 21 record stores across the country. See list [here](mini-album ‘Heaven, or Someplace as Nice’). I’d love to visit these on my travels, but how to bring home records safely?

When they fall: Today’s news cycle has included quite a few articles (like this from WaPo) about the Trump rally that was interrupted as a couple of attendees passed out. The reports focus on the seemingly bizarre behavior of the candidate, who played deejay and “swayed and bopped” on stage for …

Yesterday I finished reading If You Can’t Take the Heat by Michael Ruhlman. Today I wrote a blog post about how much I enjoyed this teen/YA novel and why I liked the Cleveland references. 📚

More enjoyable live music this weekend at Cat’s Cradle: First the energetic reggae-jam-rock collective The Hourglass Kids (with the frenetic Appalachian thrashers Bongfoot) Friday, then the young brother-sister group The Wildmans (with Appalachian Americana singer Dori Freeman Saturday.

Toast to Mereva: Right about now, on the other side of the planet from where I’m sitting (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.A.), Mereva Timante is getting married in Port Vila, the capital of the Republic of Vanuatu. Mereva was just a small child of 2 when Erin and I arrived on the island of Paama as U.S. Peace …

That fun wine tasting the other night? Turns out to have been a Covid spreading session, too. At least 4 people, including my wife, got the virus. I’ve got the slightest of sore throats, so maybe I have it, too, though I did get the flu shot yesterday so my immune system might be a bit …

For dinner tonight, I made Peppers Stuffed with Feta (Piperies Gemistes me Feta), one of my favorite recipes from the once-great Saveur Magazine. I used poblano peppers from Carrboro Farmers Market.

Found what I wanted at the Carrboro Farmers Market this morning - roselle calyxes. Will make syrup today and family will enjoy it in seltzer throughout the winter.

Whoa, my new batch of hot sauce is good, sweet and quite hot. I just tasted it and developed hiccups.

Played soccer this morning. Now watching soccer as I make another batch of hot sauce - in the garage so house doesn’t fill with fumes. Later I will walk the annual Carrboro Music Festival.

There’s a member of Micro.blog community that I would like to contact for help on something sensitive regarding a family member in his city. I can’t find a direct way via the web (i.e., no email and I’m not on Facebook). I don’t think M.b has a ‘direct message’ …

Off soon to see Ed Sheeran and others at Duke’s centennial Founder’s Day Celebration and Concert. Erin and I loved Sheeran’s duet with Andrea Bocelli, which I blogged about here.

A morning microcast to explain my latest blog post on the Zuiker Chronicles (A list of profiles I’ve written) and the writing goals that are in my 5-year “vivid vision.” h/t Cameron Herold for the Vivid Vision inspiration. Transcript

Solsbury o’clock! This Friday I’m listening to Peter Gabriel’s anthem on my headphones as I ride the elevator down from my office. Another good week of worn done.

Who in the Micro.blog community is using the Sidebar.js to include your microblog posts in the sidebar of your main web site (per Help Center here)? I’d like to do this and would appreciate examples.

Finished reading: Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon - quite the surprising and enjoyable read. 📚

Just as my head hit the pillow and I fell asleep last night—after an engaging day at work—a pack of coyotes woke me with their barking and whining. They were out by the chicken coop but the 4 hens were alive and well this morning.

Oliver came upon this turtle on his walk to school this morning and he texted me a photo.

Bed time for me. I looked outside to see if the clouds had cleared, if the full moon was visible. Sure enough, high above, big, bright except for the small part at the top: a partial eclipse. So cool.

Still raining at midday. Heading to the office. Noticed this smaller turtle at the drain in the driveway.

We’ve had nearly two inches of rain in the last 24 hours, according to one site I just checked. I know that it’s been raining all day. My brother down in Wilmington has had much more. He’s safe. We’re dry. I’m hoping to see turtles tomorrow.

Made it to Chicago this morning. A lovely day in the not-so-windy City. I walked a mile to meet a cousin for lunch, then back to hotel. I desperately want to visit Optimo to buy this porkpie hat, but Erin says no way, too expensive and I don’t have the rest of the outfit to pull it off.

Twenty years ago, Americans were about to be introduced to Vanuatu, the South Pacific archipelago where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Here’s how I marked the occasion of Survivor’s new season.

As I watched the presidential debate last night, the barred owls in the woods were hootin' at each other. Here’s an audio clip. From 00:48 to 00:60 you can hear at least three of them at the same time.

Another beautiful fall day. Crows eating the corn that Sid put out for the deer. A hawk watching the crows. The hens frustrated I won’t let them out beacause of the hawk. Raccoon and opossum scat in the driveway again. This male box turtle near the house.

Oh, my. Both candidates start their closing statements with “So, …” I am not in favor of a policy to start answers with so.

To me, AI will always be a YouTube search for “italian singer english gibberish.”

A perfect lede to this science article: Surprising New Research Links Infant Mortality to Crashing Bat Populations The connections are commonsense but the conclusion is shocking. Also, a cool story about a scientist, procrastination, data, and the importance of bats.

Finished reading: Moonbound by Robin Sloan 📚

Happy to learn that Durham’s Fullsteam Brewery will be setting up its ‘forever home’ in the American Tobacco campus.

I am grateful to live in a placee where fragrant white ginger lily can grow. A connection to Hawaii and Vanuatu where this scent was with me daily.

When I redesigned my blog (10 years ago?), I defined a p selector for non-indented first paragraph. For each new post I had to remember to add a code to get the result. But this week I learned how to use ‘p + p’ in my stylesheet. So basic. Duh.

Early visit to the Carrboro Farmers Market to get a variety of chiles for my annual late-summer hot sauce canning. Now drinking coffee and watching soccer before heading out for yard work and a search for box turtles (big rains yesterday).

The U.S. opened an embassy in Vanuatu this year (when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer there the nearest embassy was in Fiji). And now this cool story about the FBI returning delicate artifacts.

Wondering if a North Carolina meetup of Micro.blog users is possible. Would be fun to share a meal with @dwalbert @amerpie@social.lol @kimberlyhirsh and others. I’d even host here in Chapel Hill.

A trill close and loud pileated woodpecker high in the white oak

Will soon attempt an update to my bio/resume page, currently at antonzuiker.com. Searching for creative, graphical ways to show my career journey. I’ve long wanted to use the steppers component of Mustard UI, but with some icons and photos. Other ways?

Stars Love Hillsborough’s Pre-War Guitars Co., Who Make New Guitars That Look and Sound Decades Old - Chapelboro.com Platt laughed at the question, because the instrument was brand new. It had come from the Pre-War Guitars Co., a Hillsborough-based luthier that makes new guitars that look and sound …

Early morning run to the airport to drop Anna, who is off for a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Sacramento, California. Proud of her, excited to watch our oldest child make her way in the world with a commitment to service and community.

David Remnick | Notes from the Underground A very informative profile of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza. This paragraph toward the end was both masterful and astoundingly sad. What was next? “We got our orders, and we are ready to fight and diminish Hamas and exterminate them wherever …

An unexpected benefit of purchasing a turntable for the house last year is old records as gifts. My wife gave me U2’s Wide Awake in America (also Dylan and Elvis Costello) for Christmas. Yesterday Erin’s sister gave us Cat Stevens’s Tea for the Tillerman.

Beautiful evening for UNC men’s soccer vs Campbell University at Dorrance Field.

Getting my haircut in Durham today and a guy wearing a Cleveland Guardians shirt was standing nearby. Serendipity, as 28 years ago I was upstairs in Great Lakes Brewing Company for a rehearsal dinner. Erin and I were married the next day. We celebrate with dinner in Durham tonight.

When the rains lessened this morning, I walked down the soggy hill to check on the creek. On the way up I passed this box turtle. She will be eating worms for days to come.

Tropical storm Debby has been dumping rain on us since about 10 last night with most of the morning ahead sure to be the same. 🌧️

Colum McCann | 50 Years Ago, the World Trade Center Was Home to the Art Crime of the Century His imaginative act catches in my throat and reveals a truth that is often obscured or degraded: that we can confront, and even triumph over, the seemingly impossible.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur paid tribute to Erin’s aunt, Peggy Murray of Sandusky, Ohio, on the floor of the House of Representative.

Ordered and received a Raspberry Pi 5. I want to try setting up Pi-hole to block ads across the home network. Realize I might be able to use the Pi 3 that’s been unused. A weekend project, perhaps, one way to push my limits and challenge my aging brain. Then maybe a NAS, too.

Took my daughter to see the Heavy Heavy at Cat’s Cradle. One of the best shows I’ve been to. They were so good.

I finally finished reading this excellent long feature by George Packer in the Atlantic: Phoenix Is a Vision of America’s Future. This is just one of his sentences that caught, and kept, my attention: Our tolerance of inequality is bottomless, but sunshine and sprawl have a way of hiding it.

A note to myself to look into why my Textpattern blog only shows the headline after I publish a post from MarsEdit; I have to go into Textpattern to hit the update button for the body to show up on zuiker.com. Too tired now after writing a long post to figure it out. Maybe tonight.

Loaded up a friend’s truck with the remaining lumber (milled in 2019) and we drove it an hour north to Wild Edge Woodcraft in Rougemont, where Avery will load it into the kiln for a final 2 weeks of drying. Then, I’ll be a step closer to my Long Table project.

Big rains = turtle sightings. This male Eastern Box Turtle was in the gravel road as I drove the recycling bins to the street. He has been through trauma. Amazing that he survived.

Fantastic night at UNC’s Kenan Stadium for the Manchester City vs Celtic FC match. Celtic victorious 4-3.

Celtic up over ManCity 1-0 after 14 minutes! A beautiful evening in Chapel Hillll, North Carolina.

Family is getting excited about the Manchester City vs. Celtic match tonight in Chapel Hill, even with the rumbling thunder in the area. I’m thankful the FC Series and top teams come to us each summer (last year was Chelsea-Wrexham).

Took Oliver to meet his cousin at the Manchester City pop-up store in Chapel Hill. He was jazzed to have his dad buy an expensive shirt that he then got signed by Oscar Bobb. We’re all excited about the ManCity vs. Celtic match on Tuesday. (Last year’s Chelsea-Wrexham match was fun; I …

Friday at 5 is what I call “Solsbury o’clock” - I play Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill each week in this hour. I play it loud. I dance around. I feel happy. Today is the birthday of my good friend, a college pal and best man at my wedding and the one who inspired my love of …

So much fun! Walking in the Breckenridge parade was a blast.

Many ways to serve.

In line to walk the Breckenridge July Fourth parade with my cousins and aunts and uncles - our Zuiker Family Reunion here in Colorado has been a blast and we wanted too celebrate family and freedom with the community.

Walked home hand in hand wirh my amazing wife Erin after the Wines of the Levant tasting at Rocks and Acid here in Chapel Hill. Some very tasty wines from Cypress, Lebanon, and Israel. Fun date night.

Last week, the Duke School of Medicine posted my profile of Charles Muiruri, a health care researcher and globetrotting soccer player. I’m inspired by Charles and how he finds a pick-up game wherever he lands. My new Adidas boots just arrived today.

Visited my local bookstore (Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill) to pick up my pre-order copy of Moonbound by Robin Sloan. I browsed the tables of new releases and also took away Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon. 📚

It is Juneteenth and Duke University has the day off. I’m rereading my Alabama post from April, about the Equal Justice Initiative and its Legacy Sites. The least I can do is to encourage everyone I know to visit those breathtaking Montgomery monuments.

Was enjoying this slower day. Decided to expand a flower bed beside the house. Pulling vines and noticed a flurry of tiny wings. Kept pulling, then felt the sting of angry bees on my arms and collar. Ouch. Inside now with a consolation Klondike bar.

I’m looking forward to settling into the chair on the porch tonight to read this Atlantic article about Vanuatu and climate reparations: What America Owes the Planet.

Lovely night camping beside a creek in West Virginia. I’ve arrived safely in Solon, Ohio although a near-disaster on the highway in Charleston scared me. Not sure how my car was able to stop within inches of the car in front of me.

Bummed to see I will miss the appearance of Robin Sloan near Chapel Hill on Saturday. His Moonbound book tour takes him to MacIntyre’s Books. Alas, I will be in Cleveland (running Towpath Twilight race Friday evening).

Malia and I picked 30 pounds of sour cherries this morning. We are home now, it’s nearly time for the Champions League final, then I will get to the pitting and canning (I use and dole out jars of pie filling for holiday pies).

In line at Levering Orchard in southwest Virginia for the annual sour cherry picking adventure.

Rainy night. Stepped outside to close the grill (left open by family after hot dogs foe dinner). This box turtle was against the house with an insect in its mouth.

We toured the White House today. Short but sweet. Beautiful weather.

Checking on the flowerbed and I noticed this tiny (about 7 cm long) box turtle.

And here’s the male Eastern box turtle up close.

Walking the hillside below our house, my brain registered another turtle before I consciously saw it. Can you spot it?

On the hillside below our house, Carolina climbing-milkweed (Matelea carolinensis) on a fallen log.

Raindrops and Turtles: Another walk in the woods to find box turtles and listen to the birds and cicadas. Transcript

Decided to walk the path along my rock-wall property line. It’s been raining and dripping since last evening. Thirty seconds after thinking ‘the turtles will be out today’ I came across this male box turtle with his head against the rock.

Hum of Cicadas: From Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a moment in the woods to listen to the birds and cicadas. Transcript

Over on the Zuiker Chronicles, I wrote about our recent road trip to Montgomery, Alabama to visit the Legacy Sites, which are beautiful spaces and displays and art that commemorate the horror and evil of slavery and lynching.

Waterfall in the preserve: I’m in Northern Virginia for a work event. I needed a walk and saw the Winkler Botanical Preserve nearby.

I observed the eclipse in Carrboro, North Carolina using binoculars with lens filters. I also used the perforated pizza pan to project shadows onto the back of the adirondack chair.

The hillside below our house is showing its wildflowers. In this nook are wild ginger, pennywort, and rue anemone. Lovely spring.

With warm weather and a big group of friends, today’s Sunday pickup soccer was pure fun. Then coffee and Colum McCann’s new book, American Mother, on the porch as birds chirp away.

I found time yesterday to get the Duke River of News back online. It’s now at dukeriver.news, though I expect to reconfigure the tabs to best reflect the complexity of Duke University and its wide range of medical, nursing, engineering, arts, sports, and much more.

A beautiful day in Chapel Hill. I spent the morning in the back finishing a flower garden in which I planted narrow-leaved sunflower and Eastern native mix from Garrett Wildflower Seed Farm (a North Carolina company).

A new book to read: American Mother by Colum McCann, one of my favorite authors. 📚

I’ve been using Micro.blog since the beginning yet I still don’t know what I’m doing wrong for longer posts. The full post with headline shows on my site but in my M.b timeline I only see the headline linked to the post. Guess I need to read the manual. Homework for tomorrow.

The monthly worknotes that I instituted for myself and my team at work have been a hit. Routinely documenting our work is helping me manage better and our team work better. (h/t @dave for teaching me to ‘narrate my work’). Naturally, I was happy to read Doing weeknotes. (h/t @benwerd)

Local Durham, local style: On my lunch break in Durham today, I went to the post office to mail our tax info to the accountant, then walked to a small coffee shop I’ve not yet visited, EverLou. The coffee was good, and served in a proper mug. I enjoyed it at an outdoor table, rereading Twenty Bits I Learned About Making …

Rainy day in Chapel Hill, but there was still a good showing for the 5K for Education. Glad to have been out there for a run around campus and neighborhoods. When we were getting out of the car back home, I watched a red fox, white tip of bushy tail, run away through the woods

My son, Oliver, joined me for Sunday morning pick-up soccer in Durham. We both played well, and on the ride home we talked about how much fun we had on the pitch.

Somehow we have a 45 single of The Monkees singing I’m a Believer and it sounds as fun on the turntable tonight as when I first heard the song in the 80s (I watched them on MTV). B side is Steppin’ Stone.

Attending the Ceremony for the Unveiling of the Manly McCauley Historical Matker in Carrboro, NC. This is part of the Equal Justice Initiative goal to acknowledge every lynching victim in the USA.

New blog post at Zuiker Chronicles: I’m well into my fifties now and finally landed on a theme for this decade (listening).

One of the thousands of anole lizards darting around the island of St. Croix.

This iguana did not want to move from the dirt road in the afternoon heat on S. Croix so I was able to get up close.

I’ve been trying to get to Austin to attend the big Austin City Limits music festival for years (my brothers live there and I have visited other times of the year). Looking again for 2024 but the Bourbon & Beyond festival also looks fun.

Finished reading: The Covenant of Water (Oprah’s Book Club) by Abraham Verghese. Loved it! 📚

RIP Carl Weathers (NYT obit). We’re listening to the Rocky album in your honor. (Record came from my wife’s family home. First time this has been played in decades.)

A good week done. Chicken Provençal roasting in the oven, vintage Springsteen vinyl on the turntable, cold margarita in the hand of the one I love & a Great Lakes Brewing Company Dortmunder Gold in mine, our children healthy & well, friends & family nearby. So much to be thankful for.

Another cherry pie (with filling made from sour cherries picked by me last year in Virginia) for a family meal tonight. Michael’s cocktail ratios book at the ready.

Just learned that I can buy books written by @patrickrhone on Lulu.com. I’ve admired Patrick’s posts on Micro.blog, and I’m looking forward to reading Enough and This Could Help.

The January 2001 issue of Northern Ohio Live (a magazine!) featured my innovations column (Inventing the Future), that month a story about a neurosurgeon at the Cleveland Clinic using deep brain stimulation. This week, I saw that same surgeon, Ali Rezai, featured by Sixty Minutes.

Morning coffee with a friend (fellow soccer player) then home to make sesame salt pretzels with brown beer mustard (from Sunday Suppers cookbook by Karen Mordechai).

I am reading The Covenant of Water (Oprah’s Book Club) by Abraham Verghese: I’m on page 84/724 and I know I will love this story. (Cutting Foe Stone is one of my favorite novels.) 📚

We seem to have survived the big storm. Rains snd winds have ceased and house is feeling calm enough to put a record on the phonograph. When sun is up will look for fallen branches.

Rain most of the day. When I woke from my nap, stillness, so I walked into town for coffee. Back home, I seeded pomegranates for the semiannual batch of homemade grenadine while listening to Peter Gabriel’s Passion album on vinyl.

This is a test: This is a test. I am refreshing myself on how to send a post to Micro.blog from iA Writer.

Another book I finished reading this month: The Point by Steve Woodruff. I previously read Woodruff’s Clarity Wins book about clear and direct communication. Both are very instructive.📚

I finished reading How to Know a Person by David Brooks. A lot of what Brooks focuses on, including pausing and deep listening, is what I’ve been working on this year. A longer blog post to come to reflect on what I’ve learned about myself in this. 📚

It took me half the year, but I finally finished reading Victory City by Salman Rushdie 📚

Woken early by young nephews so I took a pre-dawn walk on the wide streets of Fredericksburg, Texas. Yesterday we enjoyed good wine and family conversation at Signor Vineyards. Saturday was UT football win. Fun vacation so far.

Last night at soccer near Pittsboro, I noticed a marbled salamander walking through the grass toward the playing pitch. I moved it to a safe distance away. My phone was in the truck so I didn’t get a photo of the beautiful, moist creature.

A few nights ago, this copperhead snake was crossing the gravel road near the old house. I stopped to move it (with a long pine branch) back into the woods. I love snakes but I’ve since been convinced that I should have run over this one to best protect the people and pets in our area.

Went for a short walk behind the house and came upon two male Eastern box turtles.

A new long table: Before: The photo I posted to Micro.blog in 2019 of the blackjack oak on the mobile sawmill. The slabs from that day dried for more than 3 years, then went to the cabinet maker working on our new house. After: The cabinet maker crafted this table for the dining room. We’re very happy at the …

This male box turtle was not happy at being bumped by the wheel of the lawn mower. He was hissing and moving away but stopped long enough for a photo.

Big rains and turtles on the hunt.

Noticed this delicate strand of flowers at the base of a tree on our property: naked-flowered tick trefoil (Hylodesmum nudiflorum).

Walking into town for coffee, observing spring blossoms, cottontail rabbits, caterpillars and millipedes. In the power company easement along the creek I locked eyes with a large coyote that then turned and trotted away.

How I am feeling on my birthday: I have watched this flash mob video of Ode to Joy 3 times and cried each time. I also walked into town for breakfast with my lovely wife, then we planted a dogwood in the front yard. Now cooking a meal for friends and family. A good day.

A photo of the red-spotted newt.

Have not been able to use Sunlit app in many months. Updated to latest. Still always get a snippets error when trying to post. Will jump over to @help pages to troubleshoot.

Still working to dig out the Chinese wisteria. Today dug up old oil jug and found this red-spotted newt beneath.

If you enjoyed the music in Ted Lasso Season 3 Episode 3, then you must watch the fabulous music video for Adriano Celentano’s Prisencolinensinainciusol.

Emptying closets in preparation for the move to the new house, I found this instrument, oboe I played from 7th grade through college.

This bloodroot is having a great spring.

New bottle of tasty heat filled from the jar of homemade sauce I processed last summer.

On a walk in the woods this morning, along the hill just below our new house, I came across pennywort (Obolaria virginica), hairy bedstraw (Galium pilosum), and this rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides), all so delicate.

I’m seeing an error message at the top of the page here in Micro.blog. Never realized there was a log I could follow. Interesting, and yet another reminder of the tools and functions so carefully built into Mb.

Solved today’s Wordle and laughed out loud. This word has been one we’ve said too many times over the last week during some unfortunate screwups down at the new house.

Picked up a used copy of Songdogs by Colum McCann, now my McCann library is almost complete. Will read this in a couple of months. 📚

Spring day, sky is blue Redbuds bloom along highway Bald eagle above

Just finished reading: The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid 📚 Such a beautiful story. The racial plot was though provoking, the descriptions of the emotions that the characters have in their various relationships were insightful. I needed to read this book at this time and at my age.

Red-tail hawk near the farmers market with hectoring jays and mockingbirds.

Chilly morning visit to the Carrboro Farmers Market to get more bloodroot for the forest. At $5 a pot, quite the bargain, and vendor brought them at my request. Love our market!

Found in the woods this morning.

Taking a break from work to inventory the lumber we milled in 2019.

Always a joy to post an early spring photo of the bloodroot in bloom.

Solitude is an empty gravel road to walk along when checking the mailbox.

Up early this morning, well before the usual 6:30 a.m. alarm. After my shower, decided it was a good day to wear the Reyn Spooner Hawaiian shirt. Hope the weather cooperates.

And now a second post to test Dave’s updated script for publishing to Micro.blog from Drummer.

Updated the public link to this microblog.opml file in Drummer and gave Micro.blog the new url . Let’s see if this post goes through.

Day one of the photo challenge and day two of my new identity as adult orthodontia patient but I will refrain from taking a picture of the brackets secure around my teeth.

Been a U2 fan since 1985 but honestly I don’t know how I feel about the new covers of U2 hits by U2 themselves.

I’ve tuned into the Champions League early, and Thierry Henry and a couple of other guys are talking and explaining and demonstrating. Brilliant. This is both entertaining and enlightening.

Out of the ortho urgent care and back home, having learned a new phrase: medial gastrocnemius strain.

A perfect morning for playing soccer with the guys. I was playing well, but then got kicked in the calf and hobbled home. Sister-in-law urged me to get to ortho urgent care to make sure I don’t need surgical repair. So that’s why I’m settling in for a 2 hour wait in the clinic.

Just finished watching The Swimmers, about Olympian Sara Mardini and Syrian refugees.

A sunny and warm start to this Friday, and the week’s work has made me feel good, but I’ve started the morning listening to Josh Ritter’s ballad Galahad to remind me of the perils of thinking too much of myself. 🎶

Using a Uni-ball Signo micro 207 in red to edit documents. Will be ordering the new red and blue pencils from Blackwing later today.

About to start reading: The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid. I read Exit West last year. 📚

I was stoked to read this NYTimes Magazine Eat column about ‘buttery garlic shrimp’ on the North Shore of O’ahu. I took the long drive around the island many times in the early 1990s. Great memories. (I found the Onolicious Hawai’i site mentioned in the piece; there’s …

Stepped out to warm the car and was met with the deep drumming of a pileated woodpecker somewhere out there in the woods. 🌳

Finished reading: The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull A sci-fi novel, set in the U.S. Virgin Islands, about life that survives. 📚

A close Duke-UNC men’s basketball game tonight. Our family pulls for the Tar Heels (a master degree for me, an MPH and a JD for Erin) even though Duke pays my salary. Then an hour in the terminal testing a program; I’m grateful for great service from my webhost, Opalstack.

A new shemagh arrived from Afghanistan (via Combat Flip Flops), and Erin promptly asked if she could have my old one, which she borrowed recently and liked wearing. This after she’s laughed at my liking of this style of scarf. #converted

Having grown up with a plan to be a Peace Corps Volunteer — my father served in the Dominican Republic and inspired me— I had huge expectations by the time I set foot on Paama Island. My 2102 blog post remembered what happened next.

Oliver and his cousin are in the kitchen making cookies, listening to country, and now he’s turned up the volume on Wagon Wheel because I’m sitting in the living room and he knows I love this song. I love chocolate chip cookies, too, and those are coming soon.

A walk in the woods this beautiful morning.

Took my brother to the Carolina Hurricanes hockey game to celebrate his 50th birthday. Canes win in overtime 5-4! Exciting game.

I’m reading The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull. Anna gave me this for Christmas, knowing I would enjoy reading a novel about the U.S. Virgin Islands. Turns out this is about aliens, too. Turnbull earned his MFA in creative writing at North Carolina State University. Review soon. 📚

Today is a boot day. Played soccer this morning, now heading into the office wearing my black Lucchese cowboy boots.

What a stunningly bad speech to have to listen to as I wait to pick up my family at the airport.

In the pre-dawn dark a single sound in forest weak squawk of a baby owl With the morning light forest trees shrouded in mist call the adult great-horned owls

Erin, Anna, and Malia are in El Pescadero, Mexico visiting relatives. The other day they swam near a whale shark in the Gulf of California. Today they watched baby olive ridley turtles get released to the Pacific Ocean. 🐢

Waiting in the orthodontist office with Oliver. He tried an AI app for first time by asking for six paragraphs about Rick Astley. Oliver is 12 and is constantly playing that damn song (you know the one) on his sax.

Last day of this winter break from work but that doesn’t mean I suddenly learned how to relax. The warm weather had me outside making another firewood rack.

Justin Watt has time on his hands in a new city, so he let Craiglist know that he wanted to help others with their projects. Justin wrote a detailed blog post about why he did this, and what happened next.

Firewood stacked in the new rack. Very satisfying.

Sunday soccer this morning, great weather for a pickup game. I scored three goals mostly by being at the face of the goal when the ball came in.

Day dawned in mist, then turned to rain, so I worked under the carport to make a firewood rack from a pallet. I used two electric saws, a drill, and a hammer, and felt quite handy when I was done.

Oliver had just healed from the navicular fracture in his foot. Now he’s got a possible navicular fracture in his wrist. He’s bummed, to say the least.

Heard the news of Pele’s death while I was driving my son to ortho urgent care to get his wrist evaluated (fell while ice skating yesterday). We looked at each other and took a moment of silence for the great one.

Dropped family at the Duke Chapel for Christmas service and I went to walk the Al Buehler Trail. Halfway way around came upon an older woman who had fallen and broken a wrist. Stayed to wait with her daughter for paramedics. Hope that family is able to be warm and well later.

These cinnamon rolls were out of the oven before any of the family had awakened.

Family in other room watching Little Women, with a fire warming the house. I’m enjoying a cortado and the winter sun reflecting off the dining table. Dough for tomorrow’s cinnamon rolls rising in the kitchen corner.

Test post to see if my linking to my Mastodon account let’s me see this post over there (in the side panel in Vivaldi browser).

Stepping through the instructions to connect my Micro.blog posts to Mastodon: my Mastodon-compatible username is @mistersugar@smol.zuiker.com - I also have a Mastodon account @mistersugar@opalstack.social but do I need both?

Power has been out for a few hours. Wheeled the generator to side of house and plugged into panel. First time since we remodeled in 2018. It worked! House has electricity. Alas not enough for heat so we’ll make a fire.

Just paid into omg.lol, where I’ll be mistersugar again.

Cutting our Austin trip a day short to beat the arctic bomb cyclone. Weather here was cold and gray, but we enjoyed the warmth of family and visits to coffee shops, a brewery, and food trucks. Yesterday’s drive to Fredericksburg was nice, saw Nick’s AirBnB, shopped on Main St.

On this rainy day in Austin, I chilled at the house; went for coffee at Radio; bought a sweatshirt at the UT co-op; bowled three games at Westgate Lanes (Oliver & I had a blast); and now at house laughing with the little ones and my dad, who flew in from Rhode Island.

I have been let into Post.news, so I’m mistersugar over there. Let’s see where this goes. I don’t feel the excitement I did when I joined Twitter in 2007, or the satisfaction I get in backing and using Micro.blog, but I believe in online community so I can’t give up.

Watching World Cup final in cold Austin air at Meanwhile Brewing Company.

Fun first day in Austin visiting brother and his family. From airport to Meanwhile Brewing Company for tacos & last 15 minutes of the Croatia-Morocco match; an hour at Urban Air (nephews at party), later ceviche at Salt Traders & the Trail of Lights in Zilker Park.

Played pickup soccer this morning in the cold (about 34ºF). The guys from Morocco and Algeria were quite excited about today’s World Cup match. Me, too. And I’m jazzed because I scored a beautiful goal just before I had to leave to get home for work.

Sunday pickup soccer this morning was fun. A few of the guys are from Morocco, so there were smiles even before we got started.

Upgraded MarsEdit to v5 (always happy to pay fo this great tool); trying micropost feature here.

Bummer for USA. For next game I have donned my Socceroos jersey I picked up in Australia in 2018.

My latest blog post reflects my chagrined surprise about the richness of the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. Humans are amazing, and šljivovica is worth celebrating.

Warm cinnamon rolls a great way to start the week.

I have a pan of cinnamon rolls in the fridge ready for baking in the morning. Planning to start the week strong.

My Serbian friend came over for dinner tonight. I made chicken shawarma (NYTimes recipe) and we sipped Yebiga rakija, both the Bela and Prva varieties, which we liked very much. Was nice to catch up with good conversation.

Whoa that could have been an astounding end to the Portugal-Ghana match! I had just taken this cherry pie out of the oven and looked back at the television.

I’m home alone for the holiday, family up in Cleveland while I stay back to keep an eye on the house construction. Gives me time to play soccer, watch World Cup. Have wanted to see Whiplash for years, just watched. Intense and great!

Just booked flights for me and my son to visit family in Austin in December. That means I’ll be watching the World Cup final there. Maybe @pratik @manton or others can tell where the watch party will be. (May reach out for other fun father-son activities for Oliver; he’s 12.)

World Cup time! I played soccer with the guys this morning, even scored a couple of goals, made some good runs, passed well. Now I’m showered, dressed, have coffee in hand, and a big screen to watch the action.

I gave up hope on getting back into my Twitter account, so I created a new handle, but in the process of doing that, I found a way into my original account (2FA bug or limitation?). Whew. So now I have the ability to zap my account if and when it comes to that. Hope not.

Cloudy but warm day in NC. Dropped son at a bar mitzvah and then drove to Pittsboro for a pop-up craft show. Found @dwalbert at his booth, bought a stunning small bench and a pencil box. Wish I could stay to enjoy a local brew but need to get back to Chapel Hill.

I listen to the U2X station on SiriusXM; been thinking about what 5 U2 songs I’d recommend for the Desire segment, in which a listener gets to select songs & say why. I’ve been looking back at my blog archive & finding many posts about music & connections to my life.

Picked up Malia from Amtrak station in Raleigh for weekend home from college in Washington. Last week she took train to NY City. Proud that she is confident to navigate and travel on her own.

I’m still locked out of my Twitter account, but now I’m on Mastodon (as @mistersugar, naturally).

Swing in morning light

In line to vote. 6:45 a.m. Chapel Hill, NC. 55°F breezy and no clouds. UNC Health helicopter passes above.

standing in moonlight in forest beyond I hear great horned owl calling

Washington Post has an article that quotes a Musk tweet but it swapped a word? Vomiting for voting? The embedded tweet is right there to compare. What a mess this is.

I can no longer log into Twitter because 2FA doesn’t send a code to my phone. Tough times at Twitter, I hear. (Worst layoff letter? asks Josh Bernoff.)

Sunday soccer with the guys (30s-70s, from all over the planet) was much fun today, though weirdly warm and humid for a November morning.

Detail in one of the passageways on Duke University campus. We’re here to watch women’s basketball exhibition game (my wife’s niece plays for Indiana University Pennsylvania).

I moved the Meyer lemon tree from the garden to our inside laundry room. Tree has dozens of blossoms now and my office nearby is filled with fragrance.

Soccer Sunday: played pickup with the guys early; returned home to watch Premier League matches; now watching Oliver’s Triangle United team playing (though he’s on bench with his fractured foot).

oh my gosh, I watched a YouTube tutorial about the espresso machine I recently bought, I made a good cappuccino, and now I’m buzzing!

Lots of activity down at the build site, including the bagging of a big buck by one of the electricians (bow hunter who was up a tree before sunrise; he has license and signed our waiver). Lots of expertise among these tradesmen, and this writer respects their skills.

After soccer, my son and I drove to Greensboro for brunch with Anna (nursing student). On the way, I listened to U2X Radio on SiriusXM & the Elevation interview show with John Kelly. He interviewed an expert on the haiku of Bashō & it was a delightful conversation.

Here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, we have a stationery shop called Crazy Alan’s Emporium. I stopped in for pen refills. After he found the right ones, Alan showed me some of the fountain pens, then mentioned he’s closing the shop next August (but still going to pen shows).

My quandry: A family member needs to have a conference call with me and others. She wants us to use WhatsApp. I don’t use any Meta apps. This call is important, but I don’t want anything to do (again) with Meta/Facebook.

Visit to the periodontist yesterday left me with a bad taste in my mouth - teeth are sticky and gummy (no pun intended). Multiple calls and dentist still wouldn’t call me but office sheduled me for next Thursday. I am super annoyed going into the weekend.

Making one last batch of hot sauce on my makeshift outdoor kitchen. This is with the chiles from the neighbor and promises to be blazing hot.

Owl In The Chilly Night: Cleaning up the kitchen and heard an owl so stepped outside to record the night sounds.

A long day doing what I love: playing soccer with an international group; brunch with friends; attending a reception to support Cheri Beasley, who is running to be senator for North Carolina (Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff gave an intro); canning hot sauce and tomato puree.

Here is a gift link to the Washington Post article about the award-winning short film about the Indian family that met Neil Armstrong.

iPhone 8 Plus ➡️ iPhone 14 Pro Looking forward to contributing better photos to the timeline.

Brunch at the neighbor’s house. Met another neighbor, who invited me to pick chiles in his garden. He grows some very hot peppers! I’ll make more hot sauce.

Just relinked Drummer to Micro.blog so I can post from my outline.

The forest outside is raining acorns. Not sure if there’s anything to make of them.

At the Carrboro Farmers Market this morning, I bought a few containers of larger roselle calyxes, a box of canning tomatoes, and an assortment of chiles. Chiles are brining and will become hot sauce and roselle syrup is cooling. Tomorrow I’ll can crushed tomatoes.

Just posted my picture for the microblog photo initiative. Not great image. My phone is quite old and new phone to arrive later today. I’m lucky to live on this land.

Friday, October 14, 2022, 11:11 a.m., Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.A., North America, Planet Earth. A pleasant fall day. Stepping away from work to check on the rocks I’ve been lining along the property edge. Listening to the birds above and acorns falling to forest floor.

“That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

On this beautiful morning in Chapel Hill, I am grateful for the Micro.blog community, which has remained positive and generous and a nice play to be since the very beginning. Thanks to all of you!

One of the cats left this juvenile rat snake near the front door. It was alive but injured. I moved it to the forest, came back to see it moving a bit. Seemed to be asking me to tell the cats it’s on the same eat mice team. Hope it survives.

I have a page on my Zuiker Chronicles site to explain What I’m Doing Now. I’ve finally gotten in the habit of updating at the start of each month. (I mention Micro.blog, naturally.) Of course, I also have an About page.

Sunday morning soccer in Durham with a large group (enough for two games side by side). Always fun to see these friends from around the world, and happy to have scored a goal and made a few good assists (but plenty of bad passes, too).

I did go yesterday to Raleigh to meet my uncle John at the IBMA World of Bluegrass festival. The highlight of the evening show was a brilliant performance by Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway. (Watch her cover of She’s a Rainbow.) After the show we also heard Della Mae, also good!

Out walking the property to assess damage from tropical storm Ian yesterday. Lots of small branches and leaves and acorns on the ground. This hickory snapped and fell over out back.

Rains and wind from Hurricane Ian are here in North Carolina. Expecting downpours later as the storm comes through Chapel Hill. I’m supposed to drive to Raleigh to meet my uncle for an evening of music at the IBM World of Bluegrass Festival but may be too dangerous.

Out in the woods again this afternoon with the chainsaw at the fallen hickory tree. This turtle crawled out of the way and under a cedar stump. 🐢

Clearing fallen branches and cutting firewood today. Turned a decaying log and saw this salamander (possibly a four-toed salamander).

So far this morning, I’ve seen a ruby-throated hummingbird outside my office window, and that bald eagle along the road. Hoping to see or hear an owl or two tonight, and most likely the pileated woodpeckers will be busy in the woods out back.

Holy cow! Just saw a bald eagle swoop down roadside here in Carrboro, NC. And to think I went all the way to Alaska this summer to see eagles. (There are eagles at nearby Jordan Lake.)

I haven’t seen many turtles this summer during my walks in our woods. This one turned up near our front door. 🐢

Last day at the pool Reading ‘bout Benin bronzes French fries with ketchup

That Phoenix post by @maique reminded me of something we did in the early years of blogging: we took turns hosting a weekly blog carnival, a round-up of blog posts on a theme. In the M.b world, for example, someone would point to various posts about visiting Phoenix.

I do not like centipedes. But this one was inside an old beer bottle that I kicked out of the ground so easier to observe.

Stunning day on the Outer Banks near the village of Avon. We’ve come to visit with Carrboro friends who own a house here.

I used the Rode PodMic, Zoom PodTrak P4, and my aging iPhone 8 to record a couple of interviews for an article I’m writing for the Duke School of Medicine. Setup worked great.

I struggled to get today’s Wordle. I stayed up too late watching a movie, and I have a lot on my mind with family issues and work assignments. Eventually I got the word. Tonight I will sleep more.

A strike/rally/sit-in making move-in day at American University very slow and interesting.

Dinner last night my my uncle John and cousin Kristin; breakfast this morning with my uncle Michael (at Good Company Doughnuts & Cafe). When we drop Malia at American University tomorrow, we will be comforted to know she’ll be close to family.

In Washington D.C. to take Malia to college (at American University). Need to find the local bar where Liverpool fans will be for the ManU game tomorrow.

Erin and I went to dinner with Malia last night, her last in Chapel Hill before she embarks on college life in D.C. She went out with friends, Erin and I mixed gin & tonics and walked with dog (followed by cats) to our build site to measure the future rooms. #changes

A couple of years ago, I chopped down a few princess trees (Paulownia tomentosa) out in the woods. This is an invasive tree in North Carolina. When we cleared the spot for our new house, the seeds clearly got moved around because I’ve been pulling seedlings throughout the woods.

Out for another walk and came across this, another type of millipede here in North Carolina.

Out for a walk.

Coffee and laptop on the screened porch on a still, cool Sunday morning. Hummingbird just visited the flowering ginger lily outside. I can hear the family gathering in the kitchen for breakfast.

Family movie night was Thirteen Lives, a dramatization of the dramatic cave-diving rescue mission in Thailand in 2018. We were on the edge of our seats. Holy shit what a story, movie, coming together of humanity.

The pepper plants in the garden are starting to drip with red, and the Carrboro Farmers Market provides other varities, so I’m making a batch of hot sauce this weekend.

Our big gardenia bush finished with its flowers a couple of months ago, but we’ve had 2 late blooms this week. Nice surprise. I suppose it’s all the rain we’ve had, and the heat.

Tonight Anna, my oldest daughter, and I went to Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro to hear Blue Cactus.

“Well, I wouldn’t be made at a chocolate bar if they had one,” says Wade the cowboy in the show 1883. We’re rewatching it, and I must have missed that line the first time around. As a chocolate addict, I’m going to use that line next chance I get.

Erin and I have been rewatching Treme. Tonight we’re on the episode that pays tribute to Steve Earle’s character Harley. Such good music in this show, reminding us to get out more to listen to live music. Ep. 20: The Circle, Unbroken : A Blog Supreme : NPR

A long post (on my Zuiker Chronicles blog) about the cruise to Alaska and why I’m lucky to be married to Erin, who rings the bell and makes life and travel memorable.

What a great match between England and Germany. #euro2022

A pot of onions cooking slowly (for French onion soup later), and I’ve settled in to watch Euro 2022 England vs Germany.

Erin and I looked under the tarp at the pile of lumber that’s been drying for the last 3 years. We’ll use this slab of blackjack oak as temporary bar for Malia’s graduation party. The rest will become tables and counters in the new house.

Short post with latest version of MarsEdit to say thanks to @danielpunkass. I’ve been using MarsEdit for years, and all this week to draft a long blog post about the cruise to Alaska.

Good morning, Micro.blog community. Your advice, please: I need new voices & perspectives in my River of News. Please recommend bloggers, podcasters, others who regularly write about history, race, travel, food, science, books, ideas.

I’m feeling well today, glad to be past that COVID illness (though I presume I’m still positive, so still in quarantine and masking). Am eager to re-engage with the yard, the town, the world.

Tiny mushroom out in the woods. There is a pleasant breeze cooling the forest. Feels good to be outside.

COVID Chronicles: Still sequestered, still sucking honey-cherry lozenges. Checked my email to catch up on my friend Michael Ruhlman and his newsletter, saw his mention of a cooking drama called The Bear, so I’ve just binged all 8 episodes. Enjoyed it! #chicago

The July 25, 2022 issue of the New Yorker is doing as much (or more than) the ibuprofen and tissue box to get me through this COVID. Great articles about super yachts, narrative medicine, and the Volkswagen bus.

Fauna, too. This looks to be a katydid. (‘Wedding of the Bugs’ is one the most fun songs ever!)

Flora Funga out back.

I keep telling my wife that my purchase of notebooks and pencils is done, but then Blackwing went and made a new set of pencils featuring the Paper Girls comics book by Brian K. Vaughan, who was a college intern with me and childhood friend of Erin’s family. +12 pencils to come.

My post-vacation blog chronicles is delayed because I am possessed of Covid, shivering in bed but laughing at family text stream referencing Temple of Gozer from Ghostbusters. Glad I was vaxed and boosted prior to the cruise.

Enjoying good Seattle coffee (in sleepy Magnolia neighborhood) after a week at sea. Cruise to Alaska was much fun. Last night was a stop in Victoria, B.C. and was one of the best date nights ever: tapas and strolling and then drinks & dessert at trattoria, great sunset.

Still on the cruise ship, headed south back to Seattle. Much to report (when back home) about our few days in Alaska. Great weather, fun excursions, glaciers and whales and otters and eagles and bears!

On the Quantum of the Seas heading north to Alaska. On the pool deck giant screen this morning was a documentary about volcanologists rappelling into Benbow Crater on Ambrym Island (Vanuatu). Surreal to see that - I stood at the crater lip in 1999.

Arrived in Seattle late last night. Woke up this morning and looked out the hotel window (43rd floor) and there’s Mt Ranier floating. My goodness it is majestic.

As we construct a new house on the back lot, a variety of trucks have parked in front of our house. Today the power company is installing a new underground transformer and cables.

Box turtle crossing the driveway last night. 🐢

The FMail app (for my Fastmail account) continues to give me a spinning beach ball. Not sure why this app has degraded over time. I’m on up-to-date Mac and app is current version. Concerning me.

Long travel day yesterday from Rhode Island to North Carolina with too much time sitting in cramped airplanes. I’m glad to be home.

I had the best father-son day today on our trip to Block Island -Oliver and I biked and talked and shopped and body surfed. Great weather, beautiful setting, sweet ice cream, good memories.

I want to use Font Awesome icons in a post. Maybe I have misunderstood the FA plugin, which states “Adds Font Awesome icons to your blog, available to use in templates.” If that means only in templates, can we rewrite that sentence to be clear? @help

Are there instructions for how to use the new Font Awesome plug-in? I have a FA Pro account; is there a need for me to connect it to Mb? How do I call an FA icon? As a test, here’s the ferry icon because tomorrow I’m going on the Block Island Ferry: @help

Biking with my father and son to Snug Harbor for breakfast, through a neighborhood of new houses, and back to Jerusalem. #rhodeisland

Flowering milkweed in the Trustom Pond wildlife refuge, costal Rhode Island. Beautiful day today after yesterday’s soaking rains.

Travel day: flying from Raleigh-Durham to Rhode Island with my son. Prepared for whatever delays may come so wearing my favorite Reyn Spooner Hawaiian shirt. ‘Fly with aloha’ is my M.O. today.

Got today’s Wordle on fifth line, but questioned whether it was a real word so I opened the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and did find it at the end of the root word’s entry. Love my dictionary.

I’m on the porch with my coffee (in the Flyleaf Books mug) and the new issue of The Atlantic. I’m reading Ed Yong’s piece on on animal senses — blue jays are chatting about but I also hear a noisy leaf blower in the park below, and a rock saw on our building site.

Asking this great Micro.blog community for recommendations of what to see, do, eat, or drink in Skagway, Juneau, and Victoria. (Yes, Erin and I are hopping a cruise in Seattle next month.)

I get sad to my core when I come across a smashed box turtle on the gravel driveway.

Up early this morning to monitor the concrete pouring into the footings of our new house. First truck pulled up at 6:15. Both exciting and nerve wracking to watch the preparation and construction of this house-to-be.

Wow. Today’s session of the Select Committee on Jan. 6 was riveting and powerful. I stand in awe of the Americans who have stood strong for our democracy.

After lunch with Erin, I went out to the wood pile to split firewood (sourwood, maple, princess tree) and think about the Juneteenth holiday.

I wanted to prepare dinner yesterday as my Father’s Day gift to my family. We had chicken thighs in the fridge; I reached into the recipe binder and pulled out this shawarma at home. First time I’ve made it: delicious! The fam voted to make it a regular from here on out.

I’ve spent much of this Father’s Day on the patio with coffee, a magazine, and Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault from within on Modern Democracy by Tom Nichols 📚. I’ve looked up to see squirrels hop from the garden fence into the pear tree & make off with the tiny fruit.

My latest blog post celebrates my daughter’s graduation from high school and pending enrollment at American University, where a relative once was president after he was a diplomat under Kissinger and Nixon.

Oliver and I are getting haircuts this morning. First time we have been to the barber together. We’ve driven to Raleigh to my usual barber (Kirby at Arrow North Hills) and will get breakfast next. Sang along with Hamilton soundtrack on our way here.

Listening to a new track by a young woman whom we’ve known since she was a toddler. You go, delia-h! open.spotify.com

The lightning has passed, and now the forest around our house is filled with lightning bugs. So awesome.

Big thunderstorm blew in an hour ago, and we’re still seeing flashes and now hearing deep rumbles. The walls and windows of this brick-solid house are shaking, which is remarkable. Earlier, a lightning strike nearby, so I’ll have to look for damage tomorrow.

I’m reading the newsletter from James Fallows, and I’m delighted to see he mentions @dave @jack and my good friend Beck Tench. Awesome!

I played soccer this morning, and quickly felt the heat and my lack of recent exercise (and too many graduation parties). Time to get back into shape!

I couldn’t go to Levering Orchard to pick sour cherries yesterday because Malia graduated from high school. But my friend Rose went and brought back 10 pounds for me. So today I made pie filling, and usedthe pits to infuse in vinegar and rum and to start a shrub.

I’ve been in the Dean Dome for UNC basketball and a Barack Obama rally and Erin’s law school graduation. Now we’re back for Malia’s graduation from Carrboro High School. Since she’s studen gov’t veep, she’ll be on stage to give welcome remarks. So proud of her!

So bummed that I will miss the one day of sour cherry picking at Levering Orchard on Saturday. Means more 🍒 for anyone who can get to southeast Virginia - arrive early! But it will be a happy day with Malia graduating high school.

My dad sends a daily email, with one to five photos, to a long list of family and friends. (It’s old school & drives us kinda crazy.) But his photos chronicle his days. He recently upgraded his iPhone. I really like this image of an old stairwell in Frederiksted.

Studio 4: I recorded a short message of thanks to my Duke University colleague Stephen Toback for the amazing new podcast studio he and his team have created in the basement of the Bryan Center. I referenced Voices of Duke Health, too.

Graffito on the Libba Cotten Bikeway to UNC.

Reminiscent of my Peace Corps experience in the South Pacific, we’re at the table lit only with candle flames. A tree has fallen on the power line down the gravel lane, putting the 5 houses here in the dark.

A typical Saturday morning: first in the house to wake, feed the dog, make coffee, slip out to visit the Carrboro Farmers Market, return to a still-sleeping house, head out to the woods to gather firewood and stack branches. A beautiful day in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The first of the blossoms on the gardenia bush opened over night. Big, fragrant, beautiful white blossoms.

Another wildflower observation in the woods around our house. This is rattlesnakeweed (Hieracium venosum).

Another photo from my walk in the woods. This is heart-leaf ginger (Asarum virginicum) and there’s a lot of it along the slope to the creek.

A few hours ago I was casually walking through our woods looking at flowers and ferns. Now I’m sitting with my son in the ever busy Duke emergency department waiting for his lip to be stitched. Trampoline jumping in the dark — don’t do it!

Rattlesnake fern in the woods on the slope down to the creek.

Big rains the last few days. A cluster of these striped wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata) have bloomed in our woods along the gravel driveway.

The magnolia tree out back has many big blossoms this year.

Championship Sunday! I’ve got Tottenham-Norwich on the big TV and ManCity-AVL on my laptop. May put Liverpool on my phone. ⚽️

In his newsletter, food writer Michael Ruhlman mentioned that Ann Hood (his wife) has a new memoir out and will be in North Carolina tomorrow. So, I popped over to the local bookstore and picked up Fly Girl: A Memoir. I plan to hear here at the Greensboro Bound Festival. 📚

Out back clearing fallen branches and using chain saw to cut firewood. Very hot but feels good to clean the forest floor in preparation for our new house. Grabbed a gnarled stump and stirred bees. Stung only once on my arm but an hour later it still hurts!

How am I just now hearing John Prine’s Dear Abby?!

Leaves of a tulip tree along the gravel driveway as I walk back from the mailbox.

Getting ready to make strawberry mango jam. Also drinking a Blue Moon mango wheat beer and listening to U2.

Excited to see Robin Sloan has written a new novel. I enjoyed both Sourdough and Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.

Walked out to the clearing where we’re building a new house and saw the lunar eclipse, clouds drifting over just as the last of the glare faded and redness started. Wish it had stayed clear. But I have vivid memories of a blood moon over Idaho in my youth.

Wish you all could smell these berries we just picked at Waller Family Farm. Hot out there in the sun, but fun to be out with so many other families gathering fruit for jam, pies, and for me a muddled strawberry, ginger syrup, and vodka cocktail.

Only found that one turtle on my slow walk through our woods. Now the rain is back so I am on the porch reading Sea of Tranquility: A novel by Emily St. John Mandel 📚

Heavy rainstorm just passed over so I came out to the woods to look for turtles. In five minutes I found the first. 🐢

Sitting in the Durham Food Hall with a cortado, rereading Atul Gawande’s brilliant Being Mortal, I had to hold back the tears. Coming time for me to have conversations with my parents. Grateful for this book and it’s guidance.

Last Saturday I made a rock wall and flower garden at the top end of the new paved driveway. Underneath one rock I found this snake. At the time I thought it a black snake but when I looked at this photo I realized it was a ringneck snake.

Finally downloaded the images and videos from the GoPro camera we took to St. Croix in March. Here’s a green sea turtle that was in the shallow water near the Frederiksted pier. #turtle

Via DF, I see an uplifting story about how the internet helped Noah Grey, the creator of the early blogging software Grey Matter. I used that in early 2001 as part of my evolving Zuiker Chronicles blog: from hand coding to Blogger to Grey Matter to Typepad to Textpattern.

Pre-show dinner at trattorria at 44th St. & 9th Ave., window seat watching so many people walk by. Love the energy of this city. So different than tiny Chapel Hill. Got a great view from atop the Empire State Building.

With Erin and Oliver in NYC to celebrate Oliver’s birthday #12. A gorfeous day to walk. Just sat down for breakfast at a corner diner. Lion King tonight, Miss Liberty tomorrow.

A moment of confusion every time I hear the opening notes of Change by War on Drugs as I think I’m about to hear Solidarity by Rhythm Corps, a Detroit band I was introduced to by my college roommate in the late 80s.

Glad to get a haircut from my regular barber Kirby (Arrow North Hills), and on her recommendation I walked around the corner to discover Jubala Coffee for flat white and fresh drop biscuit.

Fiddling with the Smol Blog, adding a new page to pull in all posts about the various islands I’ve called home or visited (using the category+filters function) including Paama, St. Croix, and Hawaii.

Lots of rain today, but once it stopped I went for a walk out back and happened upon these (maybe a chocolate clover?).

Our daughter, Anna, is 21 today. So proud of her and grateful for how she has brightened our lives.

Blew out a quad muscle during warmups this morning, so had to leave the Sunday soccer just as the guys were splitting into teams. Bummed. This regular outside fun with others is so important to my health.

The 2011 Ford Ranger went to the shop for an oil change. Two days later, the power windows stopped working. Coincidence perhaps. I stopped by the auto supply store in Carrboro and bought a 30-amp cartridge fuse. Back home, fuse in, windows are going up and down again.

Just watched the first episode of Tokyo Vice. Very intriguing.

Got lucky today. Wordle 294 2/6 🟨⬛🟩🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

We’re traveling on my birthday and have arrived CLT with layover that nicely coincides with the Final Four game. (I work at Duke and have a degree from UNC.)

Snorkeled F’sted pier: blue tang, cuttlefish, green sea turtles, pencil fish. Now at Dorsch Beach. Playing Hapa on the bluetooth speaker, drinking a Leatherback Brewing Island Life lager (in a coozy thats says Pau Hana). Vacation days in the Virgin Islands (echoes of Hawaii).

Woke early and walked solo to the beach, strung the hammock, relaxed with my thoughts and a magazine. Watched three catamarans sail north to return their charters to St. Thomas. Now back at the house up on the hill, looking out over Frederiksted. #vacation

Over on my Storian blog, I’ve posted a mid-vacation update from the U.S. Virgin Islands. In short: we’re having a great time.

I started reading Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell last fall, took it with me on the winter vacation to Hawaii, but only on this St. Croix trip did I finally power my way through, and I’m so glad I did because this was a beautiful story that simmered until it’s boiling point. 📚

Sitting poolside at the Fred, a boutique hotel in Frederiksted on the island of St. Croix. Just had a massage, waiting as Erin gets hers. Reading a good book(Hamnet), drinking a beer, listening to a guitarist singing at the bar. Cruise ship looms beyond.

Back on Sandy Point for the final day of public swim. Turtle nesting season is starting.

Such a glorious day, warm and breezy and buzzing with life. I was glad to see the bloodroot bloomed.

Reading about the large Joro spiders that are moving up the East Coast of the U.S., I’m reminded of similar spiders, like this one, that were on Paama Island (in Vanuatu, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer). When we visited Paama in 2018, Reddy took us for a hike up to the family …

Regretting that my work and family responsibilities kept me from attending MicroCamp, but I’m looking forward to watching the recordings.

Making red beans and rice for family meal, and new classic brownies. Recipes by Pableaux Johnson and NYTimes.

I’m working from home in blue jeans, hip Nike shoes, a comfortable new hoodie. Was a time that I worked a suit and tie to the office at Duke University Hospital. I like getting dressed up, but WFH casual sure is nice.

Reading the NYTimes obituary for Dr. Paul Farmer. Trying to keep composed, but reading that other important people cried openly for this loss, I may let the tears flow.

Played soccer with the guys this morning. Helped my sister-in-law move into her new house a hundred yards down the lane. Now making chicken stock for soup for Erin, who has been done for days with bad flu (or a COVID variant not detected in her negative PCR test).

Updated the What I’m doing now page on my blog.

If this is a simulation, I wish to thank you who programmed Friday nights with good Thai takeout, cold beer, family nearby, and Ted Lasso on my laptop.

Great day shopping and eating on South Congress Street in Austin. Now chatting with frosé at the Hotel San José.

Gorgeous day in Austin, Texas. We gazed from Mount Bonnell, brunched at Tiny Boxwoods, shopped in UT co-op, walked along Auditorium Shores, now are back at my brother’s home to rest. Hoping dad can get here, but flight from Miami is delayed.

Waking up in Austin. Visiting my brothers. Glad to have a few days off.

Family movie night was Marry Me, the new musical rom-com with Jennifer Lopez and Luke Wilson. I enjoyed it for all its formula following and frivolity.

Uncle John Zuiker and my cousins made this sweet music video to honor the family and our memories of the beloved grandparents, Francis and Clarice.

Looking forward to visiting my brothers in Austin next weekend.

Wordle 227 4/6 🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Fun game, and easy to paste into M.b.

Desperate to drop Dropbox, so I’ve installed Nextcloud on my webhost for a try. That got me looking at other projects, including reusing my son’s Kano Raspberry Pi, maybe for file sharing or backups. Suggestions?

Cold night setting in. Outside with a fire before we head in for dinner.

Got a full night’s sleep, and woke up glad to be home but missing the fun we had in Hawaii. Today was a work holiday so I did laundry, fiddled with my websites, chopped firewood and used the chainsaw on a few downed trunks. It’s so warm that New Year’s at the fire pit is iffy.

One of the amazing Hawaii moments was seeing this endangered Hawaiian monk seal resting on Sandy Beach.

The Boeing 777 that just brought across the Pacific from Hawaii was nice, big, mostly comfortable. But the 787 Dreamliner we took to Australia a few years ago is stil the best flight ever. I love airports, but sitting in Houston amid a pandemic, I’m might eager to get home.

Morning trip to Oahu’s Waianae Coast for boat ride: Hawaiian spinner dolphins, humpback whales - we jumped into water to listen to them sing - snorkeling with green sea turtles and coral reef, and the most dramatic of views. Now sitting on Makaha Beach. Great family day.

A day for the beach: today at Kailua, sunny and windy and relaxing. Adding to my collection of Christmases on the beach, which includes Magen’s Bay(USVI), Lamen Island (Vanuatu), and Waikiki.

Family hiked up to the top of Diamond Head crater in Honolulu. Good exertion but scary to be so close to thousands of other tourist hikers. Now lunch at Duke’s, Mai tai and fish tacos. Happy holidays indeed

The joys of watching my children learn to surf, then later introducing them to shave ice. It’s nice to be back in Hawaii.

We’re celebrating Malia’s early acceptance to American University, and we’re excited for the education she’ll get there.

This story about building websites from a pen-and-paper notebook reminded me of the typed cards that @petebrown posts each day.

Anna joined me for an afternoon fireside chat.

Boosted!

The family scattered tonight, postponing our tree trimming until tomorrow, so I was left alone on the sofa. I decided to watch Arrival, which I’ve seen 2 or 3 times before.

Dad and Dot returned to St. Croix for the winter, and what they thought was an iguana that had crawled between the upper louvres turned out to be a red-tailed boa constrictor, an invasive species. They called the hotline and the snake guy came to get it.

Erin and I have started watching Yellowstone, with Kevin Costner and others. Just three episodes into the first season, and I’ve realized it’s a mafia movie, just set it Montana. Hardly any good food in sight, but nice hats, though.

At the Steel String Brewery’s Pluck Farm to hear the Loose Lucies (Grateful Dead cover band) and drink cold beer in the cool outdoors or rural Orange County.

Just met a few colleagues in person for the first time, a year into my job at DCRI on the RADx-UP project. Smiles all around.

I’ve worked at Duke University since 2007 (and known the editor longer), but it’s only now in the Winter issue of Duke Magazine that I’ve been able to contribute an article. This one is about sea turtle research in the US Virgin Islands. Read it.🐢

Headed home after the Thanksgiving holiday in Cleveland (and a 5k race with Oliver and the rest of the family). The marathon of life at home continues, but this short vacation helped to restore my calm, clarity, confidence.

Soccer tournament in Greensboro. Oliver scored goal in 4-1 loss, tough game. Picked up Anna at UNCG and came downtown for delish brunch at Chez Genèse.

This is good bye: Gathered two eggs and scattered meal worms for the hens. They are about to leave, going to live elsewhere. Life is so complicated at the moment that we decided to give away the chickens.

Family night out to UNC’s Memorial Hall to hear the Clef Hangers men’s student a cappella group. Amazing rendition of Toto’s Africa and the classics, UNC Fight Song and James Taylor’s Carolina in my Mind (he grew up a couple of miles from where I live).

So happy to have finally learned how to connect the two Ultimate Ears Wonderboom speakers, and now I have them perched on the upper kitchen cabinets as I play music loud: first Pain by War on Drugs, then Windfall by Son Volt, now the latest Big Red Machine album.

I have to be careful with my derisive laughs during this Bachelorette premier. Erin just reminded me how goofy I was when I was dating her. Example: my resume in the form of a nutritional label.

Date night with Erin, dinner at a newish Italian restaurant, now home again. Erin is helping Oliver prepare his Halloween costume (Hades, he’s studying Mythology and loves the Percy Jackson series), and I’ve just settled into the living room where Malia is watching the Bachelorette.

Beautiful, warm day to tour American University, the National Gallery of Art, and the Mall.

Washington Metro. Waiting with Malia, on our way to dinner.

Papaya in the garden box, got there via the compost, and won’t survive the cold but reminds me of my time in Vanuatu and how easy papaya seeds sprout.

Greetings from Durham, North Carolina and the Duke Clinical Research Institute. I’m working from the office today to support a big virtual tmeeting I’ve helped plan.

A new Harbinger V2310 just delivered to the house, so I unpack it, plug in it, power it up, connect my phone via Bluetooth, and play Solsbury Hill.

Quick trip to Fitch Lumber to meet with the window guy. He’ll try to make sense of our house plans and scope out a window order. We’re building a house in the forest, so want lots of windows to enjoy the view and let in light.

Anyone in the Micro.blog community associated with American University? Taking my daughter there for a college tour next week.

That chickens post, and this one, are being sent to Micro.blog from Drummer. Great new functionality from Manton connecting to the great new system from Dave.

That chickens post, and this one, are being sent to Micro.blog from Drummer. Great new functionality from @manton connecting to the great new system from @dave.

The chickens always produce more eggs in the days after I clean out the coop and put fresh pine shavings in their laying boxes.

Erin is driving to check her mailbox and grab some items for the chicken soup (Oliver has come down with a cold but test - for Covid). Malia was at store earlier. Cats out of food. ‘We need a shared online family grocery list’ says Erin. Is there such a tool?

Backyard concert in Carrboro, North Carolina.

Shopping for beer for the first time in 3 months (was on meds that kept me off alcohol) and there are 3 mango and 1 guava beer to choose from. Yes, I like tropical fruit in my beer.

Rain through the night but Burlington Shoot Out still on so I drove Oliver here for his soccer games. Passed a DeKalb sign on the way and remembered my summers detasseling corn in Northern Illinois.

Went 3 miles with the Carrboro Run Club. Felt great to be moving again after the craziness of the last 4 weeks (plumbing repairs at home). Was informed I have been promoted to a manager role at DCRI so happy about that news.

Heading to bed but heard owls so I stepped outside to listen. The scent of the white ginger lily was in the air. I shined a light and saw a moth at the pink ginger and a spider at the center of its web.

We’re back in our house after a three-week plumbing project to update all of the piping in and now out and around the house. The toilets are flushing & the washing machine is cleaning clothes. That’s good news. Bad is we discovered a new issue in this old house. We’re tired.

Don’t touch - look and smell.

Mural on the other side of the building in Durham. Full mural and story is here.

Mural in Durham, North Carolina.

Morning walk on Raleigh’s Crabtree Creek Trail, and now coffee and a bagel with a good book at Brew Coffee Bar.

Bumblebee on goldenrod.

I guess this must be how we get new turtles in our forest. 🐢

Is anyone in the Micro.blog world in the business of embroidery? I’m looking to order some custom velcro-backed patches. Would like to find someone local to North Carolina or from this great online community.

Rising in the forest.

I walked into town this morning for coffee and reading the New Yorker. As I walked back I thought about my former colleagues at Northern Ohio Live magazine, including Rice Hershey. At home, packing for big plumbing repair, I found this cap that Rice had brought back from Nepal.

Erin just noticed this male box turtle eating a fallen pear in the backyard. 🐢

We had our first fire of the season out in the fire pit. Perfect night.

I am working from the DCRI office in the Durham Centre in Downtown Durham, North Carolina. It is quiet but it feels good to be back in an office setting. Durham is a vibrant city and I am looking forward to exploring the shops and restaurants again.

Crew was here earlier to demo my office, part of a costly, disruptive project to update all the plumbing in this house. Now big rains are pounding outside. Wanted to visit the coffee shop but will make stovetop espresso instead.

In the forest this morning, the crows are harassing a great horned owl while a red-tailed hawk circles above screaming.

Labor Day holiday, walked into town, coffee at favorite cafe then migas at the co-op, reading the New Yorker archival issue on food & drink.

We gathered Anna from her dorm for a family hike on Greensboro’s Lake Townsend Trail, part of North Carolina’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail system.

Carrboro Run Club night. I went 4 miles. Now enjoying a thirst-quenching Pilsner from Craftboro Brewing Company. Big group here in the parking lot. Join us every Tuesday at 6:33.

Stepped outside. Cicadas are loud, but I hear tapping high in an oak tree, am lucky to spot the flashy black, white, and red of a pileated woodpecker. (Wondering if @mikehendley takes commissions.)

This autumn clematis is beautiful, but it is invasive and damaging the azalea.

Micro Camp sticker arrived yesterday. Thank you @jean @manton and all the presenters for a great event. Next year we camp for real?

When dad saw the Rolling Stones: News today that Charlie Watts, the drummer for the Rolling Stones, died, so I called my father, Joseph, to ask him about the time he peeked out from backstage as Charlie and company finished a set in the Los Angeles Forum. Here’s our microcast. Dad also explained how I got my childhood …

Just had an idea: I should keep a scratchpad of all the messages I type but don’t send in reply to the crazy stuff my family sends me. Or maybe I print each one and burn them each week in the firepit outside.

Angles and shadings. This is the hickory that toppled yesterday. Forest around it looked beautiful in the light between rains today.

Glad to have finally discovered a way to use Micro.blog categories: I can now tag my turtle photos and posts and have them together on my site here.

Yesterday’s loud crash as winds picked up turns out to have been large hickory tree that fell out back, taking out a few southern red maple and a sourwood. Walked out to assess, looked down and saw this turtle.

Fresh wood chips beneath the swing.

Family movie night was CODA on Apple TV+ and it was so so good. I cried a lot, and smiled, and cheered.

Waking up in the Siena Hotel in Chapel Hill, a staycation just few miles from our home, for our 25th anniversary. Erin surprised me with “We always wanted to go to Tuscany.” Dinner at Hawthorne & Wood, where we both had flounder in coconut broth, like our fav meal in Vanuatu.

The photo from @cheesemaker is better but inspired me to snap one of my own. Back at Gray Squirrel Coffee in Carrboro for a flat white and writing.

Finished reading: Exit West: A Novel by Mohsin Hamid. Very much enjoyed it, and found it thought provoking. 📚

The pear tree is heavy with fruit this year (we trimmed it way back a couple of years ago). I think these are kieffer pears so one of the weekend projects is to make preserves.

I had such a great vacation on St. Croix last month - swinging in my hammock - that I decided to make a sticker to remember it.

So glad to see the first of the ginger lily emerging.

This is great: The 25 Most Significant Works of Postwar Architecture - The New York Times

Started the day making hot sauce, cooking the mash outside on a wood-burning stove so the house doesn’t fill with the fumes. Serrano peppers from my garden and other chiles from the Carrboro Farmers Market.

I had neglected the garden and the weeds had overtaken the spaces between the boxes, so this morning I cleared and will soon be spreading a new layer of wood chips. This little box turtle was among the weeds and will get to stay.

I read Little Eyes: A Novel by Samanta Schweblin on my island vacation last week. I found the novel, about a technology-toy that connects people in different locations, engaging, slightly alarming, and thought provoking enough. 📚

45 minutes before it is time to pack up and head home to North Carolina? No worries, mon. 2 min to drive down the hill to the beach and 37 seconds to string up the hammock. Which leaves 35 to enjoy heaven beneath the sea grape tree.

Last full day on St. Croix has begun with more great weather, stunning views, cooing doves and crowing roosters, gentle breezes, and the promise of relaxation at the beach.

Christiansted, St. Croix, USVI. Alexander Hamilton walked here.

Dorsch Beach, St Croix, the water and view as relaxing and beautiful as ever.

Spider at the sea grape tree, Sprat Hall Beach.

Back on St. Croix. Island is green, temperature is pleasant, air is hazy with Saharan dust.

Sitting beside my family and 200 others underneath the big shade tree in front of Carrboro Town Hall for the annual reading of the Frederick Douglass speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

Second day in a row, another female eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) at our doorstep - this one appearing to be much older.

More rains this morning and, yes, turtles. Usually I find them out in the woods or down the gravel drive. Erin found this one at the doorstep!

Oliver and his cousin, both 11, are making a movie. They showed a preview just now. It includes a warning: “Curse word for movie purposes only.” Too funny.

After a nice Father’s Day breakfast inside with the family, now with cup of coffee and this Atlantic article about alcohol on the front sitting porch as heavy rains soak the property.

Hey @ron look what’s awaiting you!

I wish I could share with you all the delightful scents of this gardenia bush. Each June we get large flowers that smell so good.

Processed the sour cherries that I picked on Saturday: 3 quart jars of cherry pie filling, a cup of cocktail cherries, and 4 cups of sour cherry simple syrup.

After a trail run, returned home and with Oliver’s help rerouted the path through our woods to the neighborhood garden. Beautiful day here in Chapel Hill.

On orchard hillside the sour cherries picked clean bamboo distraction

Steve and I left Chapel Hill at 6am and arrived at the Levering Orchard gate at 8. Already a line of cars waiting. Because of two freezes this spring the sour cherry picking is going to be scant, and with competition.

Found this box turtle hiding in one of the flower beds behind the back deck. Been a week of rainstorms so I suspect I’ll see other turtles hunting for worms.

Finished the project, then worked up a sweat cleaning out the hen house and used the chicken poop for planting wildflower seeds in one of the backyard garden areas. Drank 2 Topo Chicos, now feeling better all around.

Sent my soon-to-expire passport in for renewal, and I feel uneasy and trapped. But maybe it was listening to On the Media explore cancel culture. Or maybe it’s this project I’ve not completed. Yet it’s also a U-curve. #saturdayennui

This novel belongs at the top of my Favorites and Re-reads page: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 📚

Still thinking about how much I enjoyed reading: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel on my vacation on St. Croix last month. 📚

Champions League final on the screen here in our room at the Elmar Boutique Hotel in Lauderdale by the Sea. Erin remains at the pool. We each have our priorities.

Juggling multiple work priorities today in preparation for weekend trip with Erin. Heard the alarmed squawking of the hens, rushed out to see a red fox headed their way.

Drove the red Ranger to Pittsboro for a cortado at Aromatic Roasters and garden supplies at Chatham Farm Supply. Back home I planted coneflower and black-eyed susans. Sitting on front porch with a cold beer.

Last day for this visit to St. Croix. In my hammock at our favorite, empty beach. So calm and peaceful. I relaxed. Needed this vacation. Will be rested for a work (and more) next week.

At Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge; gates are opened for a brief time so locals can go for an afternoon of fishing. Good to see the nest counts. I was here 37 years ago to watch a leatherback turtle drop her eggs into the sand. Amazing animals.

Just paged through the 1984 yearbook of The Good Hope School here on St. Croix. I was in the eighth grade (my younger brothers attended and my mother was a teacher). #memorylane

My step-brother Aaron is co-founder of Leatherback Brewing in The US Virgin Islands. He is looking for a manager of the St Thomas brewery/bar/restaurant. Great opportunity. Great beer. Beautiful beaches.

A beautiful sunset over the Caribbean Sea. Now, more than an hour later, the sky that way is glowing white, perhaps reflecting light from Puerto Rico. I don’t recall seeing this in past years.

Learning about the red-tailed boa on St. Croix, snakes on the loose.

My first beach read for this week on St. Croix was Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Read it fast, and enjoyed it, as eerie as it was to be reading a post-pandemic novel in the midst of a real pandemic.

Sprat Hall Beach, west end of St. Croix, U.S.V.I.

Waking up on St. Croix.

Went for a walk with the puppy in the woods yesterday, then pulled off another tick last night - lone star on my leg - so reading up again on tick-borne diseases and reminding the family to check themselves each night.

Got my nose plumbed for SARS-CoV-2 yesterday, and received a negative result by dinner, so I submitted my details to the USVI travel screening portal. Am excited to get back to St. Croix this weekend, visit family and my favorite beach, and walk through Frederiksted.

Oliver used some of his birthday cash to buy a Rubik’s cube. He’s already figured out how to solve it. In my youth I never once accomplished that. (YouTube and the wisdom of the crowd helped Oliver.)

Weekend activities: Drive to UNC Greensboro to visit Anna. Take a load of junk to the county recycling center. Enjoy coffee from 2 cafes. Help Erin and Malia hang lights around the fire pit. Clean chicken coop, add new pine shavings. Sit at fire pit with friends.

Camping solo in the back woods tonight. Family walked out to join me around the fire. Now I am alone, full moon rising, air cooling. Soon will be time to climb into the hammock tent to sleep.

Awesome reference! My copy of The Weblog Handbook is always at hand. @terrygrier

Birthday brunch to celebrate Erin. I made cinnamon rolls and they were a hit. Now we’re in the front yard for games and relaxation. Beautiful day in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The view from my grill. Looks out onto the back acres of our lots and the stack of lumber from when we milled the blackjack and white oak.

I just feel good. The week at work was nonstop and rewarding. Family gathering in the house is renewing. The world outside is glowing green. And dose 2 of the COVID vaccine is making me stronger by the minute. And scanning the Micro.blog timeline makes me grateful for community.

Family visiting for the birthday weekend (Anna and Erin consecutive days) and the request came in for cocktails so I called up Ruhlman’s Friday Cocktail Hour: The Mojito. In a few weeks I’ll be drinking mojitos at Rainbow Beach on St. Croix.

I am enjoying the M.b posts about watches. I saved up and recently bought a Tissot, partly foe sentimental reasons: Erin & I bought Tissot watches in Geneva post Peace Corps service, but mine was stolen a few years later. More in this blog post.

Showed up for my colonoscopy today and the doctor remembered that a few years ago we had staged a photo for the GI page of the Department of Medicine website with me as patient. Today’s procedure for real went smoothly and I am glad to be healthy.

Starting two days of liquid diet in preparation for a colonoscopy, and I’m so glad that I had purchased two containers of pho broth at the Carrboro Farmers Market last week. This elixir is delicious. I’m sipping it from my usual coffee mug.

Out in the hammock.

So nice to have a day off to unplug from the laptop, the Internet, and the phone (mostly carried as a camera). An adventure with my son, yard work with daughters, then Malia driving the new (old, red, running well) Ford Ranger. Soon, cake.

Took the day off to enjoy my birthday. Drove with Oliver to the farm store for supplies, then to Jordan Dam to birdwatch. No bald eagles but plenty of osprey and great blue herons at the tailrace.

We sold our Ford Ranger this morning. Then gathered up the rusty barbed wired along the property line in preparation for an epic egg hunt next week. Came across this beautiful (and harmless) rat snake near the corner of the land.

Early visit to the Carrboro Farmers Market for plants and seedlings (bloodroot, camellia, basil, chard). Now sitting on front porch with coffee looking out to misty woods. Singing birds and percussive woodpeckers. Spring.

Got my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine today. As luck would have it a good friend was there at same time and captured the occasion.

Erin helping Oliver get ready to return to school tomorrow. She retrieved his backpack and discovered a plastic container with moldy grapes left there since the last day of school in March 2020. Wonder how many other parents are finding similar detritus.

Here’s the more established bloodroot that’s at the base of the big white oak tree next to the house.

Twice this weekend I stopped the car to get out and move this box turtle from the gravel driveway.

The bloodroot I planted last spring out behind the firepit has awakened with the warmer weather.

Pi Day? Ok, went to my go-to pie, sour cherry with the filling I canned last summer from cherries picked by my friend, Rose, at Levering Orchard in Galax, Virginia.

Catching the sun’s rays on Spring morning.

A piece of wood out on the back slope, looked like an animal skull when I first spotted it. My grandfather, Frank the Beachcomber, would have called that trade goods and given me $5 for it.

One of the early flowers that are poking up around the yard.

Every one of the 10 hens gave an egg today.

Tools: I have many tools to note what I am noticing and mark what I observe. I have a main blog and a microblog and a 1999 blog, and I have typewriters and notebooks and pencils and pens, and I have a phone filled with apps and numbers to call family and friends. What I don’t have is the discipline to use …

Father-and-son weekend getaway. Here’s Oliver at Wrightsville Beach.

Spring’s first color.

I am going to watch every single video by the Marsh Family! Sweet COVID-19 relief. Read here and then find them on YouTube.

For 15 years Krankies in Winston-Salem has been our go-to stop for coffee on our trips to and from Cleveland. It’s 90 minutes from Chapel Hill so a good milestone. On this weeekend to rest and reflect, I am happy sitting here, thinking about my goals and looking forward.

The cold rain in Charlotte was too much so I retreated to Winston-Salem yesterday, walked the streets (still raining), slept in the cool Indigo Hotel. This morning I was delighted to walk the Long Branch Trail, a bit like the High Line in NYC. Now coffee at Krankie’s.

Weekend getaway to unwind and reset,read, write, last night drove to Charlotte. Woke early from a dream in which I referenced a dream from the other night (not sure I’ve ever noticed that before). Took a long walk through the cold rain to Enderly Coffee Co. no rush to get back.

Just finished watching The Dig about Basil Brown, Edith Pretty, and the Sutton Hoo excavation. Enjoyed the film very much, thank you.

I retrieved this brown egg and one of the pointy white eggs from the coop this morning. I bet the brown has a double yoke, which will be a delicious coincidence on the day Donald Trump has been impeached for the second time.

Lucky day: Went to YouTube to find a review of the Audient EVO 8 audio interface, found this one and right there in the middle is a great rendition of my favorite song, Solsbury Hill.

Cold morning in Chapel Hill but clear after yesterday‘s rain. I brewed coffee, filled the chickens’ water can, and walked out to the back corner of the land to sit on a rock and listen to birds. Very peaceful this morning, though the country is in turmoil.

Our family movie night was with the delightful Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

A pair of great horned owls are out in the woods tonight, female hooting first and male answering, nature’s way of calling in the new year.

Family sat around the table with back issues of Dwell, talking about what features we want in the new house we’ll soon be building. Then we walked out in the light rain to the corner of the land where we hope to build that house in 2021.

Do have a gentle day: Richard Gildenmeister died this month at age 88 (obituary here). He was a legendary bookseller in Cleveland for 55 years, and my friend for 20 years. There are plenty of mentions of him in my blog archives, including the story of our trip to New York City and the day we spent with architect Philip …

Saddened by the news that my good friend, Richard “Book General” Gildenmeister, died earlier this month. He was 88, a legend in Cleveland bookselling. He and I once took a trip to NYC, and had lunch with architect Philip Johnson. I’ll blog more, but wanted to mark his passing.

Recipe hunting for the pork belly I bought yesterday from Cane Creek Farm at the Carrboro Farmers Market.

Cold, clear day in Chapel Hill. I stopped by the Carrboro Farmers Market, picked up vegetable broth and a beautiful cut of pork belly. Heading home for Boxing Day football and a new book.

Just talked to my father in Honolulu. He’s still sifting through the many photos & slides he took in the 1960s, like this one from his time as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. He’s got many 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 slides. What scanner can I get to digitize those?

This red tailed hawk was stuck in the fencing around the chicken yard. While Malia rounded up all 10 hens, I freed and pardoned the raptor. Beautiful bird, sharp talons.

Breakfast and coffee at the dining table, looking south, noticing the sun slanting through the woods and the tops of the pine trees swaying in a light breeze.

Warm tamales just delivered from another neighbor.

So lucky to have a neighbor who is a hobby astronomer with good telescopes. He set up on the hill behind the high school and invited us and others to see the Jupiter-Saturn convergence. I saw Saturn’s rings and 4 of Jupiter’s moons lined up.

Turkey necks and wings have been roasted, and now are nestled in a pot of water for a 12-hour simmer in the oven at 200°F. Tomorrow’s stock will be Thursday’s gravy.

Internet restored after two days (since wire cut in construction mishap). Was very difficult to work by mobile hotspot. So gad to be back on the information superhighway.

In week two of a new job so not a lot of time to be online. Last night discovered the show Ted Lasso. Loving it. And we watched latest episode of This Is Us tonight. Feels good to laugh and cry.

Car Horns: Carrboro, North Carolina is celebrating the Biden/Harris win!

Carrboro, North Carolina is celebrating.

Stepped outside to blow the bubu shell (triton shell from South Pacific) to celebrate win by Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris.

Watched a crew building a new shed next to our house, found it astonishing how meticulous and efficient they were. Now making a cherry pie to celebrate democracy and satisfy my sweet tooth. Listening to Kurt Vile and John Prine (How Lucky). #mbnov

I have had an active summer with lots of running and I was feeling quite healthy. But I woke on this dreary, rainy fall morning with a throbbing left knee. Not sure what I did yesterday during yard work and walking the puppy, but darn it! #mbnov

Colors, seen on my way through Carrboro today.

My mouth is on fire! Made a batch of hot sauce this morning (jalapeño, habanero, Thai, ají, serrano sweetened with mango and pineapple and honey from a neighbor’s hive) and topped an omelet made with eggs from our backyard hens.

I have voted! I am thankful for democracy.

Saturday morning. Drove Ranger to get load of wood chips. Cleaned chicken coop. Watched a bit of Everton vs. Liverpool. At Oliver’s soccer game now. Beautiful day.

The Coconut Wireless: Hard floors: A microcast for a rainy Friday morning from my desk in the center of the house.

Stepping out of house for run to the coffee shop. Acorns are falling from the many oak trees, sometimes loud dings on aluminum carport. Crickets don’t seem bothered. Autumn day.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina (U.S.A.) at 1:40 p.m., 75°F. The swing is waiting for you. #adayinthelife

Went for a morning run along Chapel Hill’s University Lake. Mist over the water as a rower glided through, and golden leaves carpeting the path, a peaceful way to start the day.

Steady rains in Chapel Hill today, but I went out for an afternoon run nonetheless and had a good time with my thoughts.

“To be kind to others. To stand up, stand tall, and stand for something good.” Last few months have been particularly stressful, but I am on verge of a change to fix that. Saw this delicate mushroom out back and was reminded of life lessons past.

Monarchs visiting the flower garden.

The Coconut Wireless microcast for Sept. 28, 2020 Notes: Podcast episode I mention: The Democratization of Medicine: Open Access, Social Media, AI, Apps, and Empowering the Patient as the Future of Clinical Research

Sitting at the kitchen island, updating my LinkedIn profile, watching EPL ⚽️, waiting for the county recycling center to open so I can drop a truckload of junk. Beautiful Sunday in North Carolina helping me balance these feelings of depression and desperation.

Oliver has us watching the new Dynamite K-pop video on Fortnite. Bouncy music goes well with the good Cruzan rum I poured myself. Friday night fun.

Fall flower.

Satisfaction is sitting on the deck after a good run, drinking cold well water, looking over the flowering ginger - peach and white - that did so well this summer.

Last week, after an oil change and a haul of gravel, the Ford Ranger sputtered and wouldn’t move. Finally called AAA yesterday. Tow guy looked under hood and noticed intake valve missing cap. “I’ll go to parts store.” This morning I found piece in the driveway. No sputtering now.

I was looking for another mango beer and saw this local brew made with guanabana (we called it soursop in Vanuatu). I was expecting the strong taste of watermelon jolly rancher—how I describe the taste of soursop—but in this white ale it was very subtle.

Wearing cowboy boots and blue fedora. Listening to latest album from The Killers. Wishing my father a happy birthday. Drinking a flat white. Wondering which way is up. One of those days.

Cherry pie

Hedychium coronarium

We are at the first outdoor movie night in the Shine On Black Stories series at Chapel Hill’s Lumina Theater. UNC Law Professor Ted Shaw is giving an introduction to the film, Harriet (which I haven’t seen yet). “Our nation’s past is complex…our nation’s present is complex.”

I’ve been using M.B since the beginning, but I’m still perplexed when I see one of my posts with a microcast in the timeline. I see the title and a link to the post, and in the latest a tiny thumbnail of the image I added, but not any of the words from the body of the post.

The Coconut Wireless: Two turtles: For many years, I thought of my blog (archived at mistersugar.com; I blog now at zuiker.com) as the “coconut wireless” in deference to my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the South Pacific, where news traveled around Paama Island as people walked from village to village. Now that I …

The hot sauce, finished. Tastes sweet on the tip of the tongue and then a burst of heat at the back. Eager to share it with my brother-in-law, a hot sauce fan, next weekend.

Making the hot sauce outside on the gas grill. Have discovered it’s best not to do this in the kitchen, fills the house with fumes.

Oliver and I went for a drive in the pickup to the county recycling center to drop off garbage and boxes, then paid $12.50 for a load of mulch, which Erin spread on the flower beds. Now the puppy is happily rolling in the remaining pile.

Two weeks ago, I bought habanero chiles at the Carrboro Farmers Market. Last week I bought habanada, a no-heat version. Today I finally got around to preparing hot sauce, adding the chiles from the garden. When I bit into a habanada, I realized immediately I’d guessed wrong.

Out walking the land with the puppy, came across this turtle.

The young great horned owl stopped its squawking out in the woods last week, but just now it silently glided to a tree branch high above me as I watered the fig tree in the backyard.

Have had little alcohol last two months, but today just felt right to make a rye cocktail with the last of the sour cherry shrub and a sprig of mint from the garden. Dinner started with slices of tomato and shredded basil (garden bounty, too), feta, and balsamic vinegar.

I was outside with puppy and chickens. Come inside to reports that house had just shaken. I missed an earthquake. Just like I missed a temblor years back when I was in Duke Hospital elevator.

The view changed! Closest rainbow I’ve ever seen.

The view from the back porch, to the garden and chicken coop, as rain pours down.

Starting to read this now, and am expecting to have my view of history and current society expanded. 📖

The Aug. 3 & 10, 2020 issue of the New Yorker is filled with good reading, including pieces on the Army Corps of Engineers, a Dutch cybercriminal and his bunker business, and the skin. I’ll never tire of reading quality magazine journalism on a summer afternoon.

We’re taking a #daytrip with Indiana Jones and the Lumina Theater, pod D1 on the Southern Village lawn. Eighties music playing. I first saw Raiders with my father in an unheated theater in Nampa, Idaho, on a winter night in 1981.

Our local independently owned bookstore puts a bookmark in each book.

A day or two behind, but here is a #bisect image.

Mind the flow, please.

There was an old blackjack oak next to our house when we bought it. It dropped big leaves and small acorns. We took it down and milled it last year and we hope to make tables in the future. Just came across this young tree on edge of the gravel road.

Every photo I posted to MB before was square but with that bball photo I discovered I can post the full image. How have I missed that?

Always wished I could float like MJ. #mbaug

Ginger is blooming. This rhizome is watered by the air condition condensation drain pipe so moist all summer. Tropical storm (now hurricane Isaias) is headed our way so in a couple of days everything will be soaked.

Lemon drop and cayenne chiles from the garden. Thai (they grow #up), habanero, and serrano still to ripen. #mbaug

Dined out for first time in 5 months, patio at Hawthorne & Wood in Chapel Hill. Main was flounder in lemongrass coconut milk, delicious, reminding me of my favorite coriander-crusted red snapper dish at Harbourside in Port Vila.

I’m feeling dejected today, but listening to President Barack Obama give the eulogy for Rep. John Lewis is slapping me in the face and getting me to stand up straight and keep moving forward.

We watched three seasons of Broadchurch in just a few weeks. Dark story lines but exceptional acting and production.

Planning a refresh of the Zuiker Chronicles and thinking I’d bring back the original logo, a nod to the family’s Ravens Roost campsite in WI), but seeing the woodpecker yesterday now I think it’s time for a new logo with that bird. Who can I hire to design?

After A Storm: Once the afternoon thunderstorm passed over us, I walked out in the woods and encountered the dreaded princess tree.

Looked up from desk today to see a pileated woodpecker in silhouette pecking at silver elm. Later, on my run in woods, almost stepped on a rough green snake, and heard a pair of barred owls hooting at each other. Nuthatch desperate to escape the chicken coop.

Sitting on the back deck as evening comes. Talked with one of my brothers in Austin. Listening now to the cicadas and that young great horned owl squawking in the woods. Ginger plants next to me getting ready to bloom.

My dad’s been in the U.S. Virgin Islands since January, worried about hurricane season in the Caribbean and wanting to get back to his other home and office. But now Honolulu is about to get a hurricane. Hope the islands fare well.

Reading Our remote work future is going to suck and all these feelings and frustrations that have been building for the last four months are starting to make sense.

Stepped away from the desk, out into the warm day, checked the garden, picked tomatoes and lemon drop chile and basil. Heard a hawk call above and a woodpecker drumming on a dead treetrunk.

Family watching the end of The Greatest Showman, one of our favorite movies. Before I die, I want to be part of a Bollywood-style song and dance. Such joy in sound and movement.

Haven’t seen my mother since January so this morning we each drove 1.5 hours and met in Smithfield, NC, to sit in a Panera and talk over breakfast. Outside, we doffed our masks for a quick photo.

Department of Being Stupid: Needed a run, thought I could beat the rain, laced up the shoes and started down the gravel road, 100 yards and Bam! lightning strike way too close. Turned and high-tailed back to the house, heart thumping. More thunder and lights are flickering.

Home alone, and this house is quiet, still, calm. But this serenity won’t last long. The family drove east, and will soon be home with a golden retriever puppy.

Pleasant Evening with Birdsong: I am enjoying the peace of the front patio and the birds in the tress above.

Sunday morning, buttermilk biscuits in the oven, sorting out our banking - bank-merger regulations means our accounts are to be transferred to a third bank - and soon to sit with another cup of coffee to watch Arsenal vs. Tottenham.

Two friends came over this morning to help me make a trail in the woods. We completed about 60 yards, chatted along the way, later grilled hot dogs and sat for lunch. It was nice to spend time outside with buddies.

Honey bee on the flowering allium.

Box turtle near the carport.

On our last day at the beach, we did our usual family jump photo. Had a great time at the Outer Banks.

Been an intense week preparing for tomorrow’s annual presentation by the chair of the Duke Department of Medicine. Taking a break to finish the last of the sour cherries, making a shrub and a compote.

I was disappointed I couldn’t make my annual pilgimage to Galax, Virginia to pick sour cherries at Levering Orchard yesterday (work!). But my friends Rose and Steve were able to go today, the trees still had fruit, they brought me 16 pounds, and I can prepare pie filling tonight.

Almost to my anniversary as a blogger, I came to a realization that for as much as I’ve written over 20 years, I’ve been silent on racism—and I must do more to advocate for justice and equity. Here’s my post.

On the front patio with coffee, researching how to deal with a brooding hen, listening to the wind in the poplar leaves, and reading more of McCann’s Apeirogon. 📖

There’s a juvenile great horned owl out in the woods tonight begging for food with its piercing scream.

Out for an afternoon drive to see a house being built by a contractor we might engage on our next project.

Green dragon in the flower garden this week after rain.

Family walk down gravel road. Encountered dead copperhead snake.

Family movie night was Hugo. Great cast, sweet story, homage to early cinema.

On the back porch with the NYTimes, McCann’s Apeirogon, coffee. A mourning dove cooing behind me, hawks screeching far above, crows and blue jays talking, too. Power saws and nail guns and lawn mowers.

Day’s End and Evening Birdsong: After dinner, I walked out to the back woods to listen to the birds as they prepared for the night.

Yes, The English Game made me cry. I am proud to be a lifelong football player and fan.

It’s that time of year that I start calling the Levering Orchard hotline to find out when opening (and only) day for sour cherry picking will be. Looks to be mid-June this year.

I’ve had this Peace Corps patch for 20 years. It fits perfectly in the new Field Notes Vignette notebook.

Feels like I may be halfway through this work-from-home experience, so I’ve moved my desk back into the library, put the Olympia SM2 next to the MacBook Pro, and set up the podcast recording equipment next to the Cleveland photos on the back wall.

New post with iA Writer: Saturday. Slept in. Went to Carrboro Farmers Market, returned home to put plants into garden—cantaloupe, habanero, Thai basil, nasturtium, roselle. Inside, moved my desk from the bedroom back into library.

Cherries are ripening on the old tree in the front yard. Blue jays and red-headed woodpecker have visited and snacked. New cherry trees in back yard will need a few years to catch up.

Pull tab.

Just out of the oven. #dutchovenbread per Michael Ruhlman recipe.

Cleaned chicken coop. We’re down to 5 hens. Had to kill one yesterday after neighbor dogs attacked. Was distressing incident that punctured weekend tranquility. Another hen is injured and we’re watching her. Feathers litter yard. Birdnests will be downy this summer.

Hot sunny day in Chapel Hill. Out in the garden and yard planting and tending. Fragrant, ripe meyer lemon fell from tree as I moved it outside for summer. Peonies & irises & jasmine, bluebirds & dragon flies.

Thank you Jason Kottke for posting link to this amazing mashup of songs from 1984. I was 14 that year. This music makes me feel full-body nostalgia for that time.

Microcast from my home studio, i.e., a desk at the foot of the bed where I’ve been working for the last month (communications for the Duke Department of Medicine). I’m testing the Zoom Livetrak L-8 sound board with a Rode Podmic into a MacBook Pro and Hindenburg Journalist.

Spent the afternoon in the woods clearing a trail to our campsite. Now just boiling water on the BioLite homestove and drinking a Fullsteam Paycheck Pilsner.

To mark the arrival of the Mark One Apollo Edition pen, a Kickstarter from Studio Neat, I made an Old Fashioned using the Neat Ice Kit.

Elephants in Cleveland: Wildlife photographer Peter Beard has “died where he lived: in nature.” The NYTimes has a long obituary about Beard’s art and life. A good friend of mine in Cleveland had two large Beard prints, of elephants, hanging in his apartment. Whenever I visited him, I used to lean in until …

Just lost another hen to a hawk. It was the buffed lace Polish that looks cool but can’t see well. Bummed.

A cooler morning still wet from rain in the night. I went for a run on a nearby trail. Now settled into my chair at my desk in my bedroom, coffee in hand. The Zoom LiveTrak L-8 is on my desk, begging to be used, so maybe a microcast later.

Was on a few Zoom meetings for work today, now in Google hangouts for cocktail mixology with Chapel Hill’s Gary Crunkleton, later will tune into YouTube for live music feom Josh Ritter.

All five of us gathered in the kitchen to make brunch - crepes with mushrooms and goat cheese or bananas and Nutella, bacon and eggs, fruit - and sat, ate, talked about faith traditions and actions for good. Now we’re watching Andrea Bocelli sing live from Duomo di Milano.

Needed a break from the laptop so I came outside to sit on a log, read the New Yorker, boil water on the BioLite CampStove, and watch the sun set down the lane.

Erin and Malia stopped by the farm store and now we have four chicks chirping in the living room. The seven hens outside continue to give us eggs for breakfast. Got our second double-yoke egg this week.

Major cyclone Harold hitting Vanuatu right now, will be going across some of the bigger islands and Paama (where I lived) will be hit hard. Worried for our family and friends in Liro Village.

Delighted to discover the Sanguinaria canadensis (bloodroot) I planted at trhe base of the big white oak last year has survived and will be flowering soon.

Determined to make a grape trellis for a muscadine vine I bought last year. Will use cedar from our land. Found a perfect tree for one of the posts. Just can’t decide best location in yard.

New blog post to mark this special day that’s turned out very differently than I had planned - was supposed to be in New Orleans, then on St. Croix in the USVI. But, with health and a job and family, I feel fortunate: Fifty

Oliver giving me a report about the various buildings represented in the LEGO Architecture series he’s been building (Shanghai and Sydney).

I’m reading Apeirogon by Colum McCann, intense story that, combined with the pandemic chaos, has had me near tears often.

Sitting at the dining table, looking out the windows at the flowering dogwood dwarfed by the awakening, towering oaks. Solitude up here, reminder of how grateful I am to all builders of community, including @manton @macgenie @cheesemaker

Hoping to learn why MarsEdit (awesome app) is giving me ‘Unexpected response code 500' but log shows it is retrieving my blog posts. Textpattern upgrade and OpalStack server switch possible culprits. @danielpunkass

I’m taking the day off to run, blog, bake, read and eat cake; family are in their respective spaces working or studying.

Roselle wasting no time, springing to life, reaching for sunlight and garden freedom.

Working from home, desk at foot of bed, door to back deck open, mourning dove cooing and coffee helping to mask the undercurrent of stress. But garden boxes planted last night, and first double-yoke egg for breakfast, life going on.

Playing ‘Name that tune’ and making s’mores around the firepit, an evening of normal amidst these extraordinary times.

Snapshots in Idaho: Wednesday Tuesday Monday Sunday

I am in Boise, Idaho 37 years after I left with my family (for the US Virgin Islands). Good to be back. Today skiing Bogus Basin.

Yesterday I stopped by the local book store on my way home from work, walked out with a copy of Colum McCann’s new novel, Apeirogon.

We lost a hen yesterday to a red-tailed hawk.

Snow falling in Chapel Hill, so I went for a run as I do on such wintry evenings here. So solitary and serene.

Blossoms on the peach tree. Snow storm expected this afternoon.

Vanilla beans have been resting for nearly six months in a mix of vodka and rum. Today was good day to strain and bottle the extract. Daffodils picked by Erin this morning.

Warmth from a shot of homemade visinata, this bottle made with Cruzan rum and sour cherries I picked in Virginia last Summer.

Cold day. Hot fire. #contrast

In 2020, I will have been in my job at the Duke Department of Medicine for 10 years, I will have been a blogger for 20 years, and I will have lived for 50 years. It feels like the year ahead is one to chronicle. More in this blog post.

Big rains and high winds bringing the snakes to high ground. Shot this from #above as I drove up the gravel road to my house.

The hens are out, scratching and pecking. My omelet this morning was simple and good from fresh eggs.

A walk in the woods, a sight through the trees.

Cocktails last night at Cleveland’s Velvet Tango Room, with Erin, her sisters, and husbands while children were at movie downtown. And snow today for a wintry end to 2019.

My brother-in-law convinced me to create an account with Untappd beer app to track the microbrews I drink. I am mistersugar there.

Family day in Cleveland’s University Circle and Little Italy. Walked through this Philip Johnson sculpture on CWRU campus, where I once chatted with the famous architect.

Saturday Morning in December: Emptied the truck at the dump, stopped for coffee and reading (Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson), got box of pastries at the co-op, walked through farmers market (carrots, Swiss chard, lamb stew meat, winter bouquet ), came home to cut cedar logs for grape trellis (spring project). Now watching Man …

Erin found a single blue egg in the chicken coop this morning, the first from our eight hens.

Just read this Washington Post article that suggests culling the cords that collect at home. That’s what I did at work Friday, and here at home that night. Felt good.

Picking up a growler of Damascus Steel Stout from Craftboro Brewing Depot.

Stopped by Cliff’s Meat Market in Carrboro to get turkey necks, which are roasting in the oven now, soon to be immersed in water for slow cooking overnight, transforming into stock for Thanksgiving gravy.

I don’t spend as much time on the MB Discover tab as I should. There must be a way to look for microbloggers who are artists. I’m looking to hire an artist to illustrate a header image for my Zuiker Chronicles blog. I will be grateful for search tips and referrals.

Worked in the shed, up on the roof, and in the chicken coop. Now enjoying a fire.

I am once again a member of the North Carolina Peace Corps Association. (I served in the Republic of Vanuatu from 1997 to 1999.)

Cold, windy day here in Chapel Hill. I started the morning cleaning out the garden boxes, feeding the chickens, and walking the land.

Happy for my younger brother, who purchased his first home yesterday, in Austin. I’d like to get something fun, from a locally owned business, delivered to his place. Cookies, cake, tamales? Suggestions? @manton any friends I can support?

Deval Patrick is running for president. Makes me think back to how I serendipitously wandered into his victory celebration in Boston in 2006. Same day I talked about storyblogging with Ethan Zuckerman. I blogged about it.

Updated mistersugar.com for first time since 2015, to point to my current (and original) blog at zuiker.com.

More live music last night, this time the New Pornographers at Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw, NC.

Went to Cat’s Cradle with my daughter last night for The Dip, fun band from Seattle.

Is there a trick to taking an Overcast-generated podcast clip share and embedding it into my blog (either Textpattern or Micro.blog)?

Shed my week’s allotment of tears courtesy of the latest episode of This Is Us. (Had to reach over to the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary to check spelling of allotment. Love that dictionary.)

My latest blog post is about the communications strategic plan I’m writing at work, and what’s inspired and informed the styles of communication that guide my work.

Thankful for the excellent Textile reference site. What’s Textile? It’s a markup language (like Markdown) for formatting text in a blog or a content management system.

The Hedychium ‘Daniel Weeks’ ginger lily purchased from Plant Delights Nursery and planted in front garden last year bloomed for first time this week, just in time to beat the first frost we expect tonight. Out back, we had fragrant white ginger, too.

Dinner party tonight with super cool friends, so I reached into the pantry for a jar of the cherry pie filling I put up this summer. Also got a load of gravel to fill the holes on the drive up to the house. And cleaned the leaves from front yard. I am ready to eat.

Hiking With My Brother, Joel: On the Little Mountain Falls Trail in Fairy Stone State Park, Virginia.

The goldenrod along our gravel lane makes me slow the drive up to the house and savor the moment.

Early to the Carrboro Farmers Market, coming away with 20 pounds of tomatoes for canning and 20 pounds of grapes for juice. Thought of @ron at sight of big pile of long beans.

Stayed home today to attend to some family needs. Went for a short run, then a walk in our woods. Saw a hawk swoop low, later a black snake, its flickering tongue smelling my sweat. Came in for a shower and a refreshing glass of soda water with roselle syrup.

At the Carrboro Farmers Market yesterday, I bought scuppernong grapes, yellow tomatoes, roselle calyxes, a cedar bluebird house, goat cheese, rye bread, an almond sour-cherry babka. Grapes now cooked down to 2 quart jars of juice ready for the Thanksgiving meal.

A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man: A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man: At Levi’s bar, we were given cups of something cold and orange and alcoholic. Mr. Romer, in a comparable act of generosity, then offered Levi his email address. He would happily write a recommendation for grad school, he said. Levi, floored, went in for …

Erin will soon be home from the county animal shelter, where she’s exchanging the rooster for a kitten. Rooster will probably go to a good farm, rathern than my pot for coq au vin.

Our backyard chickens includes a buff laced Polish that developed into a rooster. We’d prefer not to keep it but can’t find a taker, so I’ll be sharpening the knife later today.

Spent the night at River and Twine tiny house hotel in Rocky Mount, NC and sampled brews at the Rocky Mount Mills microbrewery incubator.

The Shape of Everything: What to Do When You See Something Sketchy at the Climbing Gym - another good lesson to speak up.

Getting to know NetNewsWire, testing the Share button: Julia Evans: Get your work recognized: write a brag document

Time to get serious about blogging again, so I’m making sure MarsEdit is configured on all of my various Macs.

Making a batch of hot sauce, per recipe by Cathy Barrow. Last few years did this inside and family was coughing from fumes. So it’s an outside project this time. Roasted chiles on the BioLite stove yesterday. Cooking today on grill, will puree with Vitamix under carport.

Been silent, focused on family. We took our eldest child to college today, happy to see her grown & ready for this new chapter but sad that our little Anna is away. Later, Oliver & I bonded in the Lego store, filling a container with hundreds of loose pieces.

I am sitting solo on the patio of Walking Man Brewing in Stevenson, Washington enjoying good beer, thinking about the importance of family, friends, community, health, relaxation.

Finding shelter from the winds.

Sunday morning relaxation with cherry hand pies and the paper. Sat and talked with Erin about the world as I looked through window at dragonflies above the flower garden, feasting from a cloud of gnats. A hummingbird buzzed in, butterflies danced around.

Odd, posted a note but it’s gone and lost. Anyway, I noticed Micro.bog MacOs app now gives option of seeing a post in a browser. Nice addition. Thanks, @manton

Just seeing that the Micro.blog app on MacOs now gives me the option a post’s page in a browser. Nice new feature, @manton - thanks!

Went to a friend’s birthday party, and met his father, who had served in U.S. State Department. I asked if he knew my grandpa’s cousin, Joseph Sisco. “Yes, Ambassador Sisco!” He worked hard for peace in the Middle East. #familypride

Where to dine in Portland, Oregon on a Tuesday evening in August? Recommendations appreciated. Earlier I’ll be at the Skamania Lodge for a conference, and would enjoy a hike in the mountains, too.

Here’s a photo I want to use on my About page, and I think the way I do that is to upload it here, then link it to that page. If there’s a better way, please advise.

The tree I thought was a cherry, then a plum, turns out to be a peach. 10 gorgeous orbs ripening now. The trimming of the big oak above earlier this year gave this tree sunshine, made it happy enough to bear fruit.

A very pleasant evening in Saxapahaw, NC for live music (West African kora!) under the trees and conversation with friends.

We are committed to joining Rev. Barber in Washington on June 20, 2020 for the Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington.

My daughter made chocolate chip cookies. I poured a stout. Erin began to stream Rev. William J. Barber, speaking from Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh right now about racism, immigrants, and what – and for whom – July 4 is celebrated.

Birdsong On Summer Eve: Just before heading out to dinner, I sat and listened.

Am out for dinner. I recorded a short microcast with Ferrite on my phone. How do I get this to my Micro.blog podcast? I know a few of you perfected this. Guidance?

Inside Cleveland’s Veteran’s Memorial Bridge on Saturday’s open walk, part of Cuyahoga50 celebrations of the river below.

It’s gorgeous weekend weather in Cleveland for the summer solstice, father-in-law’s 80th birthday celebration on Lake Erie, Burning River festival (marking 50 years since last fire on the Cuyahoga), a baseball game, and USMNT vs. Trinidad & Tobago.

As we remake our land, we keep uncovering piles discarded junk. Here is a collection of soda bottles.

While my daughter hosted a party for 20 classmates to celebrate final day of freshman year, I worked in the kitchen to pit yesterday’s sour cherry harvest (daughters pitted 5 pounds earlier in the day) then prepare and can pie filling. Many pies to enjoy during the winter.

I was bummed last year to miss cherry picking at Levering Orchard - the one-day window for sour cherries was the day before our departure for the South Pacific. But today worked great. My daughter Anna went with me on the 2-hour drive to SW Virginia and we picked 4 buckets.

Fun time at Durham’s Beer Study for the Champions League final. Disappointing game but great energy among these Liverpool fans.

Late afternoon thunderstorms are drenching Chapel Hill, and the box turtles are on the move. Found two on the gravel driveway.

After a great week at work, I took a drive into the country with my daughter. First stop was Maple View Ice Cream, a heavenly spot I wish I could bring all the Micro.blog community to. Next stop a friend’s horse farm for a load of compost, the smell of hay, sounds of goats. #joy

Not your usual job title: When I was younger, I wanted to be a magazine editor (National Geographic, New Yorker). I didn't set out to be a communications director, but that's what I am now at Duke University, and I'm loving my job. Many days, though, I think of myself as a park ranger, but that title isn't among the …

Delighted that my friend Russ @RCC3NC is now using Micro.blog. His first ‘memory etching’ is up.

We received our new Kammok Mantis all-in-one hammock tent. Oliver and I will probably camp out back tomorrow night, and we’ll use the BioLite CampStove to make some dinner.

I changed name of my micro.blog to Wan Smol Blog, homage to Wan Smolbag Theatre Company in Vanuatu. I have great memories of watching them beneath the big Liro mango tree as they performed skits about importance of voting. In Bislama, ‘wan smol blog' means one micro blog. ;)

Enjoyed a great show by Son Volt at Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw, NC, last night.

And these! Picking tomorrow morning. To become cocktail cherries for the old fashioneds to be enjoyed on summer evenings. (Will pick more cherries at Levering Orchard in Va next month.)

I wish I could share the delicious frangrance of the North Carolina honesuckle with y’all.

This little raccoon was in this spot under the big oak tree four days ago, alone. I moved it into a box 50 yards away to the abandoned shed and lost sight of it. Today it’s back under the oak. Not sure if the cats found it or momma raccoon is nearby.

Beauty in the backyard.

Oliver interviewed me for his third-grade music report. We covered Doudou N’Diaye Rose, barbershop quartets, the oboe and shakuhachi flute, Josh Ritter and Steve Earle and Taylor Swift, and cruising songs (my favorite: Pain by The War on Drugs).

As we make our property bird, bee, and butterfly friendly, the carpenter bees are methodically making Swiss cheese of our house and even the new swing hanging from the oak tree.

Walking up the path from the bus stop, I overturned a rock and saw this earth snake.

Oliver is 9 today and requested ‘burn your lips chicken,’ the family name for the Chicken with Asian-Style Sweet and Sour Sauce (recipe in The Best Recipe cookbook). I’m cooking, in the sailcloth apron I bought on the Roseway Schooner in St. Croix.

Why can’t we have chilli tuna in the U.S.A.? Such a luxury after a long day in the yard and garden. I now have just one can left from my trip to Australia.

Reviewing details about my town, Chapel Hill, NC. Found a map of the urban service area. Wondering if I can embed an iframe here and see it on my micro.blog.

The blackjack oak on the mill made for some beautiful slabs.

Yesterday’s big storm just missed us. Sawyer Randall is running late today for our milling project - we felled a few oak trees last month - to take calls from folks with downed trees from tornado that hit northwest of us.

Zuiker Family is camped out in the hallway as our area is under a tornado warning. House is still, outside is calm. Storm approaches.

We successfully pulled off a surprise birthday party for my wife, Erin. Friends and family had a good time showing her how much we appreciate all she does for us.

Pulled into a space on top level of parking deck at Duke and the shiny exhaust tubes on the medical sciences research building caught my eye. The tip of the crane is part of a big new hospital tower.

Scripting News: Instant tech bootcamps for journalism: A really good idea from Dave Winer:Instant tech bootcamps for journalism: When journalism discovers a tech issue that appears to be a scandal, I proposed there should be a quickly convened flash conference, hosted by a university journalism department in conjunction with its computer science …

I’m late to the game, no doubt, but am glad to have just learned about Snickelcasts from @johnphilpin

Photo from Frederiksted, iguana climbing palm tree.

That bloodroot I planted next to the big oak tree has been doing well. It’s sheltered by the shed. But shed is getting re-shingled & workers positioned ladder so it’s straddling bloodroot. Oy.

Spring snake season in North Carolina. Workers found a couple under the shed this morning. Will be using the Copperheads and Similar Looking Harmless Species page to identify.

Old house noises don’t scare me. They just worry me. What’s about to break? How much is that going to cost?

Sitting with my father at Leatherback Brewing Company first anniversary party. He’s having a passion fruit frozen lindy from Rosa’s Stand (St. Croix legend), I am drinking Backyard Guava IPA made with guava grown in backyard of Aaron, my step-brother & Leatherback co-founder.

What makes a great flight? Arriving in Miami, exiting plane at gate directly across from La Carreta Restaurant for plate of arroz imperial and a cold Presidente.

We’ve posted the 15th and final episode of the pilot season of Voices of Duke Health. This one is a conversation between two doctors, David Zaas and Aimee Zaas, and how a leukemia diagnosis gave them insights about what’s important to a patient with cancer.

For last few months, I’ve been using iA Writer and MarsEdit for most of my drafting of work notes and personal blog posts, with white text on black background. But I end up with a lot of misspellings. Is problem with contrast, keyboard, aging eyes, or program?

Texture and Color: Clear, cool morning in Chapel Hill. Took a walk on our land to listen to the birds and look around.

The pilot phase of our Voices of Duke Health listening booth and podcast is nearing its end. We published Episode Twelve: The Puzzle Pieces tonight, recounting a medical emergency on campus and the team that converged to save a life.

Today’s blog post is inspired by @Ron and @garciabuxton - zuiker.com/to-give-a…

I’ve used Textile for 15 years, which is why I cannot get Markdown code right. :)

My MacBook Pro laptop keyboard B doesn’t always work.

Jeff Tweedy’s memoir, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back) is so good. I listened to the audiobook in the car over the last week.

With my daughters in Chicago.

Lukim yu, Mungau: I was astonished, and saddened, to see an obituary for Mungau Dain in today’s NYTimes. He was Ni-Vanuatu from Tanna Island, starred in the film Tanna. Mungau was young, and died from an infected wound. And he was in the capital, which has the best health care in the country. “Mr. Dain …

Taking my teen daughters to Chicago next weekend. I see the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival is on. What else is happening in the Windy City? Art? Music? Food? Coffee? (Won’t make the trip out to my hometown, DeKalb, but my mother will come in to join us.)

And the precipitation wastes no time - starts as mini hail.

Time (again) to look for a reliable web host that doesn’t force me to use Cpanel and isn’t GoDaddy. WebFaction, which I’ve liked, now owned by the abhorrent GoDaddy. I’m a digital nomad.

Family movie night is one we haven’t seen in years, and it’s bringing tears to our eyes yet again: Fly Away Home.

More genealogy tonight, tracking through my Radio3 linklog.

My new blog post gives an update on my nearly complete decade of narrative (aka my 40s). Thankfully, the Voices of Duke Health listening booth and podcast are giving the the last 9 years meaning.

Planning a family trip to Ireland. Will gladly take suggestions for lodging & activities, in Dublin, Galway and all around.

A Christmas cold for me, so it’s a cup of coffee, a box of tissues, and Boxing Day football (English Premier League) underneath the warm, soft blanket my wife gave me yesterday.

Clarification: I’m getting rid of most, if not all, of my social media accounts, but planning to more actively blog and be on my own site in 2019.

Just deleted my inactive Instagram account. Flickr next to go. I ditched Facebook 5 years ago. I’d like to flee Twitter except I use Dave’s various tools and they rely on Twitter for authentication. Basically, I’m on the brink of cyber-suicide. Keeping my blog, though.

Snowstorm in North Carolina. Oliver and I went out for a few minutes.

I like Friday mornings at Duke University Hospital. We get Medicine Grand Rounds started, then I sit outside the auditorium drinking coffee and chatting with latecomers, I listen to the pianist in the lobby below, and I plan a day of reading and writing and conversation.

Cherry pie ready for the Thanksgiving table. Turkey is in the oven.

Just arrived from the Netherlands (via Etsy), a beauty of a typing machine, Olympia SM2 1952. On my desk in the library, ready for Saturday-morning creativity.

Can’t put up with this any longer: I hate the keyboard on my MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017).

Real Friends at Cat’s Cradle, 11.09.2018 (Boston Manor opened and was quite good).

My brother and sister-in-law are visiting from Austin (the ‘live music capital of the world’). They wanted to catch a show at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, so we went to hear a punk rock show (my first) last night. My daughter, Anna, came along. Loud and fun.

My trip to Austin gave me flight-time to finally write a long post about our homecoming to Vanuatu this summer : A return to Paama

I am in Austin for AAMC (medical schools) annual meeting, and we are hearing from Dallas Street Choir (homeless outreach program) singing You Will Be Found from Dear Evan Hansen. What a way to start a conference that calls itself Learn Serve Lead. I am inspired. (@manton)

Heaviest rains yet from Florence, this morning in Chapel Hill. The deluge reminded me of the rains in Vanuatu during cyclones, so heavy and loud on the tin roof there we couldn’t hear each other speak. Chapel Hill and Durham roads are flooding, so I’m at home still.

Another big rain, another box turtle on the move, this one in my path as i walked to retrieve the Sunday NYTimes.

I was out walking woods again, checking on the fire ring we cleared Saturday and almost stepping on this turtle. Walked back to house and found good friends had stopped by to bring pickled sour cherries as consolation for my missing our annual road trip to pick cherries jn VA.

Discovered cool photo features of my new iPhone 8 Plus: profile mode with lighting options. Used it on a turtle shell my son and his friend found this afternoon in the woods out back.

Sounds of the South Pacific: We’ve been back from our epic South Pacific trip for nearly two months, and only now am I getting a chance to log the various sound recordings I made during our week in Vanuatu. I hope to stitch together the best of the sounds and interviews into an audio postcard. Here, though, is one full …

Another big rain, another creature crawling across the yard. This an Eastern box turtle.

During our trip to Vanuatu, I was happy to see World Cup fever, with many people flying the flag of their chosen team on their trucks, buses, and attached to bamboo high above their houses. Here’s a truck for France crossing the Yasur ash plain on Tanna.

One photo from our evening atop Yasur volcano on Tanna Island in the Republic of Vanuatu. If things ever settle down at home (major plumbing and water problems!), I’ll write about the trip and all we did.

Home again. Our grand family adventure in Vanuatu is complete.

Final day of our South Pacific adventure. We’re in Sydney, headed to the Glebe Markets, a dance performance st the Sydney Oper House, shopping for souvenirs, dinner in Newtown or Camperdown, and packing for the long flight home to the U.S.A. Much to blog about time in Vanuatu.

Vanuatu, here we come!

Box turtle near car wheel.

Beside myself with anxiety, stress, excitement, exhaustion: moved into our newly renovated old house, World Cup starts tomorrow, big family trip to Australia and Vanuatu soon, and a new boss at work.

The box turtles are on the move today across the Triangle. Found this one in my neighborhood, and just passed over another 5 on way to work. Take care not to crunch them!

Was worried about that turtle and the ant, but should have been focused on what might be clamped on me. In the shower tonight, found a lone start tick on my hip. Must be vigilant this summer, and spray liberally.

Walked the land at my new house and came upon a box turtle with a black ant clamped to its eyelid. Later noticed this interesting plant. Also found many cedar trees that will make good posts for the garden we will plant soon.

Threatened: A Green-Haired Turtle That Can Breathe Through Its Genitals - The New York Times: Take the green-haired turtle. It breathes through its genitals. Not all the time — but after a long time underwater, an alternative way to get oxygen really helps.

Morning walk in the rain to see the Pacific, Seattle waterfront. In 3 months will be across the ocean in Vanuatu.

Making plans for a family trip to the Republic of Vanuatu - where Erin and I️ served as U.S. Peace Corps volunteers - but realized this morning that we’ll be traveling during the World Cup. I️ remember watching taped games in 1998 in middle of village.