Quoth Corey to the cat, "Curiosity killed y'all."

And in a desperate fit of escapism, they found themselves in the critiquable position of being nauseated at the idea of eating local for even one more meal. Localvores turn into loco-vores when their passports haven't been stamped in a while, and at that moment, there was nothing in North America that could slake their thirst for the smell of that smoggy, tropical air that drapes over the shoulders, heavy with humidity, diesel particulates, and sticky papaya sweetness, outside metro stations in central Sao Paulo. In headphones, Tom Ze crooned a love-lorn yarn about the stops around Ave. Paulista: "Augusta, between you and Angelica, thank god I found Consolation." The corrosive saudade tasted a little bit wonderful in their mouths, but mostly it just made things worse. Barreling through just didn't seem possible that day.

Most likely, what happened next was that hours passed, and they went to the park--maybe the farmer's market was on that day. Maybe they got some baked goods from Amish country and ate, and maybe drank, and certainly slept, and the smell of spring in their natural habitat created enough instant nostalgia that they could get through another season. But while that was a perfectly reasonable response, reason seemed awfully tragic, and at least one of them surely googled recipes for aipim and vegan feijoada.

I'm signed up for Basic Carpentry at Yestermorrow for May 5-9, camping onsite, and hopefully some nature time before and/or after. Who's in??? They're also offering Sustainable Treehouse Design and Construction that week. C'mon, I do everything by myself. You should come. Then we can rip apart the back of my house and rebuild it super pretty and maybe strawbailey or something because I'M GONNA LEARN HOW TO FRAME A MFKN HOUSE. In May. In the mountains of Vermont. In a tent. You know you want to take a potentially chilly solar shower in this:

Anyone have a tent one-person tent I can borrow? I can lend you a HIGH-QUALITY KITTY CAT as collateral.

My AIRQUOTES work boots AIRQUOTES are in the process of biting the dust. What are good and affordable big-girl work boots? How do you properly escape html characters to make fake tags for comedic value? I'll bet it's easy but I've used up my 2 minute quota, cuz it ain't 3 minutes worth of funny.

I remembered this story earlier today when I was talking to someone about yerba mate (mah-tay), a South American herb that makes a popular tea in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, southern Brazil, etc. It's a delightful beverage drunk out of a gourd with a straw kinda thing called a bombilla. Wikipedia has a nice description and pictures, and says it is"an inhibitor of MAO activity" .

( ah, to be 19 in Argentina... )

Got this from elnerdoricardo. Been to more places than this but got driven around.

As promised. For my birthday I got:

Make mag! OMG robots! And more robots!

Goooorgeous handmade card from thebities, who is amazingly generous and kind.

Tower gifty card! Kid in a music store! thebities and whitegato get KUDOS FOR LIFE for these 3.

Burley Ultimate Commuter Rain Pants from my fam, and when they say ultimate, they ain't kiddin'. To test them out, S squirted me with a hose. The pants literally rolled their eyes, looked askance, struck a defiant, hips-out, how-you-like-me-now pose with all the attitude of a Puerto Rican teenager, and said boredly, "Whah-evah," while the water beaded off them like a seal dipped in teflon.

( More: Road Trip! )

Tags: amazing friends, detroit, music, partay, roadtrips, travel