When Nick and I biked around Tuscany in 2007 with our good friends Dave, Karen, Bruce and Sylvia, I made up this silly song to help me climb the impossibly steep hills that plagued each day’s route. When I saw this icon of a biker going uphill yesterday, I knew there was some new computer wallpaper in our future. Now that it’s installed I crack up every time I sit down at the computer and read the lyrics.

Click the picture for a popup of the full-sized image.

Bentley knows there’s hell to pay if he even touches the laptop. Doesn’t stop him from laying on my BarBri notes though.

Despite our cats’ best hunting skillz, the rabbits ate most of our radishes. I managed to salvage four of them though! Maybe these ones were too small to be of any interest to the rabbits yet. On the upside, Nick said they tasted great - really peppery.

I’ve decided to move most of my food posts over to my Salad Days blog. This morning’s post is about turning vegetable scraps into a delicious stock for flavoring soups, pilafs, and sauces. If you haven’t been over there yet, check it out.

This morning on NPR, there was a story about the government asking BP to set up a $20 billion fund to compensate people affected by the gulf oil spill. The story set off a firestorm of questions from Nick about how a fund like that would be distributed. And I wondered what authority the federal government had to compel BP to set up a fund like this.

If you want to geek out on the law with me a little, here are a few things I’ve learned today about this subject:

First, the government likely has no authority to compel BP to set aside $20 billion dollars. According to David Zaring, funds to pay for damages of oil spills would be governed by the Oil Pollution Act, which limits economic damages from offshore drilling activities to $75 million. Clean up costs are capped at $150 million. Even if we tack on the $25,000 per day civil penalty for violations of the OPA, we still aren’t anywhere close to $20 billion.

And then there’s these little things called Due Process and Takings that would prevent the government from compelling a private entity from turning over property without compensation or an existing law which was created with the appropriate procedure. Dang!

Of course, if you read the NY Times, you’d know that, notwithstanding the government’s impotence, it got its wish:

The White House and BP agreed [today] that the oil giant would create an independent $20 billion fund to pay claims arising from the worst oil spill in American history.

Bowing to pressure from the Obama administration, the company also said it would suspend paying dividends to its shareholders for the rest of the year and would compensate oil field workers for lost wages.

“But how will the fund be administered?” Nick asks.

That’s a question for Ken Feinberg, the lawyer who gets this high-stakes assignment. Sounds like this guy has had a pretty cool career, starting with mediating the claims of Vietnam vets for damages caused by Agent Orange, to overseeing the distribution of government funds to victims of the 9/11 attack. 

Of course, Feinberg won’t be the only lawyer who does well as a result of the oil spill. There will be plenty of plaintiffs’ lawyers and defense firms who will get a piece of the action, as well. With that in mind, I’ll leave you with the big lesson of the day: oil spills aren’t good for birds and fishes, but they are just fine for sharks.

After 142 miles of bike riding this weekend, we needed some seriously calorific comfort food for dinner tonight. This luscious coconut rice curry with tomatoes, peas, and beans served over a pile of steamed collards totally fit the bill. I made it with full fat coconut milk, a luxury I will reserve for weekends like this one, and my-oh-my it was good!

The recipe came from Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson. This is the second recipe we’ve tried out of this book and it is quickly becoming a favorite! So far, both recipes have involved minimal prep and came together in under an hour, including cooking time. The recipe for the curry for example, took 10 minutes of prep, then it simmered away on the stove for 35 minutes while we did other things.

Finally, I’d just like to mention that I KNOW that the last three posts have been about food. Bar prep is kicking my ass, and the only thing I have time for these days is studying, eating, and biking. You’ll just have to bear with me for the next few weeks, because that’s all you’re likely to hear about from me.

I popped over to the grocery store today for a few vegetables to make homemade stock. In the mushroom bins, I found this collection of stems. Seems someone didn’t want them and left them behind. They looked like just the thing for making stock, especially since the grocery store was willing to give them to me for free!

I finally bought a copy of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day - a wonder book for bread lovers. My first bread? Whole wheat bread, which incorporates leftover cooked brown rice.

Yum!

One of Bentely’s favorite hiding spots is inside my motorcycle touring bag. Too bad he can’t come with me tomorrow.

On Saturday afternoon, Nick and I walked a mile or so to the hardware store for some lock washers. We didn’t anticipate finding just the right patio umbrella. Rather than go home and drive back, we decided it would be more fun just to carry it home together. You get a lot of funny looks when you do this.