Last night's pie, on the train, funny

This pizza was absolute perfection, and I'm not embarrassed to say that T and I polished off the whole pie while watching last Friday's Real Time. Bill is now taking five weeks off, and I will miss him dearly and long for RT's return in September.

Anyway....we are almost to New York, and again I am struck by how much nicer, in pretty much every way, train travel is when compared to its air-based kin. Just imagine if our trains were like those in Europe! T is snoozing, I read the whole paper, managed to get down to 90 unread emails, and looked at the photos of BlogHer '13 that were just posted. That was such a great conference. While perusing the pics, it was easy to spot the fashion bloggers which reminded me of the person on Day 1 who, after admiring my shoes (which were awesome!), asked ME if I were just that. Hahahahaha- Em-i-lis a fashion blogger. Indeed, no, but thank you SO much for thinking I could be such.

Greenmarket here I come!!!

Jamathon, and why?

Today I indulged in a marathon of jam-making and stayed in my PJs until I had to go to the gym. There, I thought I'd make up for lost time by doing a ramped-up interval session on the elliptical before my training session. 5 minutes after my trainer put me to work, I started to feel some regret about that decision as well as my choice to have yogurt and granola for lunch. That was not enough sustenance to go into such a rigorous workout, and I left the gym no more than a torso with overcooked spaghetti limbs. I treated myself to a smoothie from the juice bar immediately. The jamathon was great fun though, and if you're wondering why I'm on such a kick it's because a) it's summertime and that is the time to can, and b) the annual Circle Yoga Arts Market is just a month away so I'm building my stash. I hope all of you in the DC-area will consider coming to this local artisan's fest: it's lots of fun and you can indulge in all sorts of great products. I'll have all manner of canned and baked goods, others will have jewelry and art, last year there was a woodworker.... It'll be Saturday, Sept 7, from 1-4p, at Circle Yoga on Northampton St, NW. Check my calendar for updates and more specific info.

A pizza crust is proofing right now, in anticipation of a good and easy dinner. Tom and I are avoiding packing in every possible way right now, and though we're excited about our weekend in NYC, I simply cannot believe (and am slightly bummed about the fact that) I'm about to leave for my third straight weekend away. Must.stop.traveling. I am excited about eating -Craftbar, Da Silvano, TBD lunch spots, the Greenmarket- and seeing The Book of Mormon on Sunday. Equal-opportunity offense: I can't wait to laugh my face off.

Repairing jam, compilation of really bad business names

Six or eight weeks ago, when I was possessed and bought 16 pints of organic blueberries during the Whole Foods one day sale, I made several jams, including a straight-up blueberry from my Food in Jars cookbook. After the fact, I felt it just had too much cinnamon but didn't have time to deal with it so put my sealed jars away in a dark spot until a lazy morning arrived. This morning is that time! That you can repair many jams is a liberating, wonderful feature of canning. In this case, I opened up the four jars of not-good-enough jam, discarded the lids, dumped the jam into my canning pot, added another pint of blueberries and once it's all boiling again, I'll add some Grand Marnier. Meanwhile, my waterbath canner is full of water and coming to a boil, new lids will be softened, jars sterilized anew. Yes, you have to toss lids, recook and reprocess your jams, but isn't that better than throwing it out? And, you'll net more of your product because you're adding something, be it additional fruit or, in the case of a too-thick jam, boiling water. Fantastic all around!

And now, completely off-topic but for your total amusement, a list of terrible business names personally witnessed by moi.

• Darquest Tan: Darkest Tan if you can't translate that nonsense. I don't believe this needs much in the way of explanation for making this list.
• Purse-a-Nail-ities: I don't even understand why so much needs to be going on here. Manicures and purses? This name is ridiculous.
• Ginalick: I have no words.
• Jimmy's Hair We Are: Here we are? We are hair? Who's Jimmy?
• Chicageaux: Why has Chicago come to Cajun country?

These really ice the cake of poorly considered, or overly considered, company monikers.