Because All I Talk About Is Food & Sleep

It's finally raining around here. After a week of unrelenting heat, things are finally looking gloomy again. We all know what this means: better sleeping weather.

Last week was so dry the blackberry crop died in the thicket. A couple friends suggested we run out by Turtle Creek, hoping to pick a few, but boy were pickings slim! We scrounged a few cups out of the bushes, but it was mighty disappointing on the whole. And while I didn't get to eat many berries, the mosquitoes got a feast out of me. Evenings like that almost make an argument for DEET... almost.

Despite the crunchy blackberries, the zucchini crop has been remarkable! There is a stand at the Farmer's Market that has been selling fifty-cent zucchinis the size of my arm-- had it been attacked by a swarm of angry horseflies-- for the last couple Saturdays. I promise this is no exaggeration. As with the big (in all senses of the word) mailing we are working on, these zucchinis make me feel as though I'm shrinking. It's great to watch the good people of Beloit stumble away under the weight of so many pounds of dirt cheap vegetable. Even if you don't need to go to the Market for the food, I highly recommend people-watching.

So, the weather may be dreary, but there is plenty of zucchini bread to make and recipes for fritters to try. Ta-da.

-Julia

Riverfest and Night Tours!

Hey all...welcome back from the weekend--I hope it was restful for everyone! We, the basement trolls of Middle College here at Beloit have begun the notorious, practically legendary Viewbook Mailing (dramatic drumroll) today, which involves stuffing giant envelopes with giant materials. It makes me feel like I'm shrinking or something because everything we're working with is about twice as big as a normal mailing. But, on to the important stuff...like...

Riverfest! As a child of small-town Iowa, I grew up going to town and county fairs in the summer: feasting on elephant ears and funnel cakes and everything-you-can-fry-up-and-put-on-a-stick, honing my bingo skills at the bingo tent, holding hands with middle school sweethearts on rusty carnival rides. Many of you surely know what I mean. But Beloit's Riverfest is a whole new level of carnivalesque fun--it's a heck of a lot bigger than Mt. Vernon's Heritage Days, for one thing...and Heritage Days, while always memorable, never hosts bands like Steppenwolf and Blue Oyster Cult AND Cheap Trick all in the same weekend. Remember my earlier post raving about the lineup for this year? Yeah, well, I actually made the effort to go as opposed to just sitting on campus listening to the not-so-far-off strains of "Don't Fear the Reaper"...and it was a blast. My sister, who's going to Vassar College in the fall came up for the weekend with her boyfriend, which was a ton of fun. I gave them and a few others a late-night tour of the campus on Saturday night, and just had an all-around great time. New Court Theatre, Beloit's summer stock semi-professional theatre company, has their show "The Foreigner" up right now (my boyfriend's in it! Whoo!) and it's pretty hilarious. So there's just a lot happening in Beloit right now, clearly. I wish I had pictures from Riverfest to post on here but the security guards actually emptied the batteries out of my sister's digital camera at the gate (she got them back later), so you'll just have to picture slightly aging rock stars with long hair and tight pants sounding not so bad here on the banks of the Rock River! I definitely got a much-needed dose of rockin' out, so now I can return to my non-groupie real life once again.

All right, back to the grindstone...

~ Laura DM