The LBS have been really slow on getting me the shimano 8-speed nexus hub. Theoretically the shifter will come in this week and they can begin work. But as I am going to be bike-only for the foreseeable future, I am considering keeping the single-speed as-is and getting a geared, good-for-touring, bicycle (maybe the Bianchi Volpe since I already have the San Jose). Also, I was chatting with lindze and he thinks that the quoted labor figure was too high, which I could have misremembered as it had been a month, but I remember the total being at least $400 and the nexus' list is around $230 (Sheldon Brown's shop in MA sells pre-built wheels for $300).

So recommendations on a touring-ish bike? Must be able to carry panniers as I love them, has to take fenders, that sort of thing. I like the middling size tires as in the Bianchi, but not sure how they go for general touring (thinking about a bike-camping trip). Should I just get the hub anyway and wait?

Indian Food Cooking

Tonight I went crazy and made a channa dal style recipe (with some paneer added at end). I even went to the Indian grocery nearby. Approximate recipe follows (which was a sort-of hybrid of one from Hooked on Heat and another from Quick Indian Cooking).

Ingredients:

• Medium-large onion, chopped small (half a centimeter or so).
• Large heirloom tomato, chopped middling size. I mostly cared about making sure there weren't too many large skin pieces.
• Tablespoon or so of tomato paste
• Cup of water
• Couple cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed well.
• Tablespoon or so each of minced garlic and ginger (I used stuff from little glass bottles).
• 1.5 or so teaspoons of garam masala
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
• Teaspoon of chili powder
• 7 oz of paneer, chopped into half-inch or so cubes.
• Oil (not olive or peanut since the indian food blogs scared me off that)
• 8 or so curry leaves.

Steps:

• Heat some oil (1-2 T in my case because I had a very flat wide skillet)
• Add onions when oil is hot, cook till translucent.
• Add minced ginger & garlic.
• Cook, stirring pretty frequently, until starting to get brownish.
• Add powdered spices.
• Cook in dry-ish piles, stirring somewhat, until oil starts simmering out on the corners.
• Clear onion/spice mass off to side and put paneer down.
• Cook paneer a little bit to get a couple sides a little brown. Remove and put off to the side
• Add diced tomato, tomato paste and the curry leaves.
• Cook until tomato is breaking down a lot and oil starts bubbling out at corners.
• Add cup of water and the chick peas.
• Cook until a lot of water is gone, but not all (should be gravy-ish I think).
• Add paneer back and let it heat thru.

Verdict: most successful Indian cooking I've done (granted I haven't done a lot). Smelled and tasted like stuff I've gotten in good indian places. The fresh tomato and curry leaves probably "made" it -- the curry leaves added a lot of aroma and the tomato (which melted into the sauce) left some background sweetness to balance the hot.

Vacation Plans

The original plans were to go to London and environs for two weeks. Buy tickets, stay in hostels, probably spend two weeks drunk. I'm not sure it can happen now for affordability reasons. Plane ticket is about $800. Presumably hostel will be $30-60 a day. Add in food, booze, public transit, admission prices and I should probably count on at least $2000.

But, because of the divorce, etc. money is going to be somewhat tight for a month or two. I could probably swing it, but it would probably stress me out. The alternative plan is just to take two weeks off and either use my free domestic ticket voucher and go somewhere in US and camp (or something) which is somewhat cheaper. Or just do some bike-camping trip around here and plan to take more vacation in a couple months -- it's not like I don't have like 22 days of vacation time at the moment (and accumulate one and a third a month).

(Yes above discussion of tight money for vacation conflicts with bike plans. But the bike is planned no matter what since it is my primary transport.)

But I still might do the international travel thing anyway. Hell, vacation in general will be nice. I have never taken vacation "for myself" in my entire post-college working career. During the marriage, we'd gone on "visit family" trips and maybe two weeks total where he planned some stuff. But never just for me. (In college I was always working when not in school).

The Other Stuff

The separation in preparation for actual divorce proceeds apace. The ex or what have you is moving out this weekend (Saturday). I have seen a lawyer just to ask questions (not to retain). There is a plan for what I do next. No details, but it's going along.

Next few weeks will be fun though as I'm keeping some stuff, him other stuff. I will be doing some fun shopping the next few weeks (pots and miscellaneous kitchen stuff at the minimum, probably some other stuff).