What Are You Carrying? November Edition! (11/2022)

[MaiaH]

Hello Folks!

Autumn has officially arrived in Seattle and it's time for another edition of our favorite game: What Are You Carrying?

1. What bag/accessories are you carrying (items + colors, pics always welcome)?⁠
2. What are you reading?⁠
3. What are you playing or watching (movies, theatre, video games, etc.)?⁠
4. What are you listening to?⁠
5. What are you cooking/baking/drinking?⁠
6. What are you making/creating/doing?⁠
7. Where have you gone lately? -or- What travel destinations are on the horizon for you?⁠
⁠
Bonus question:⁠
⁠
What’s your favorite family recipe?

[Chicagoan]

1. What bag/accessories are you carrying (items + colors, pics always welcome)?

Shameless plug!!! I was recently asked by Maia to write a short blog post about my favorite bags, so I picked the three I use most and wrote about them here: Portable Culture Portrait: Three Favorites with Eric Widuger (tombihn.com)
⁠
2. What are you reading?⁠

A few weeks ago I had the dumb luck to stumble into a Barnes and Noble around the same time they released a new oral biograpahy about Tony Bourdain ("Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography"). I'm equal parts sad and excited to start reading it. I haven't ever traveled outside the country, but because of his show, I know a lot more about my world than I would have without his television program(s).

3. What are you playing or watching (movies, theatre, video games, etc.)?⁠

My wife and I just started on Julian Fellowes' follow up to the "Downton" series on HBO ("The Gilded Age") and it's nice to see so many well-known stage actors getting some well-deserved screen time (thanks, Telsey Casting!). It's the same upstairs/downstairs type of storytelling Fellowes is known for, and he gives the one-liners to Christine Baranski in this show about as generously as he gave them to Maggie Smith in "Downton." She easily has the best lines in the show.

4. What are you listening to?⁠

Promotional YouTube snippets of Ben Platt singing the lead part of Leo Frank in the New York City Center's ENCORES presentation of the musical "Parade." I'm not a person who gets excited about NYC, but this one-week-only staging has me wishing I could travel there to see it.

5. What are you cooking/baking/drinking?⁠

When it gets too cold to spend time outside, and I'm without my hiking hobby for a few months, my wife and I will usually visit a local tea shop to sample new flavors and take home old favorites (which for me is usually a spicy chai). It's one of the few parts of winter here that doesn't suck.

6. What are you making/creating/doing?⁠

I moved on from stage acting in 2013, but I'd be lying if I said singing doesn't still give me joy. So, when my wife works late nights and I have the apartment to myself, I'll jump on YouTube, find a karaoke backing track, and sing some musical theater songs.

7. Where have you gone lately? -or- What travel destinations are on the horizon for you?⁠

Pretty much all my 2023 plans are surprise trips (which I can't say much about yet!), with the exception of a couple that had to be booked two years ago: both are winter cabin trips. We stay some places because they're near exciting things to do. We also stay at places that are architecturally significant or exciting. These are the latter, and those kinds of trips we save for the cold months when it's more fun to be inside than out.
⁠
Bonus question:⁠
⁠
What’s your favorite family recipe?

Ready for a weird factoid? I don't cook. My wife doesn't cook. And her mother-in-law doesn't, either. So we celebrate holiday dinners at restaurants. My wife and I work sun-and-moon schedules opposite another, and rarely are home at the same time during the week for dinner, so it's just easiest for us to dine in or carry out.

[MatthewR]

1. What bag/accessories are you carrying (items + colors, pics always welcome)?⁠

I'm still carrying my trusty Burnt Orange 1050 Pilot.

2. What are you reading?⁠

I'm just starting NK Jemison's The World We Make, the sequel to The City We've Become. I'll admit, I was a little underwhelmed by the end of the previous book but I'm excited to inhabit that world more.

3. What are you playing or watching (movies, theatre, video games, etc.)?⁠

I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077, I just finished watching Midnight Mass which was fun and I'm about to start watching The Midnight Club.

4. What are you listening to?⁠

I've been listening to SuperCoze's Rainy Day Sunshine, Julia Shapiro's Zorked, and Sir Babygirl's Crush on Me a lot lately.

5. What are you cooking/baking/drinking?⁠

Pot roasts, soups, stews mostly, though I did make some carnitas with a red mole not too long ago that was pretty tasty. It's finally autumn!

Edit: Oh, drinking! Two Beers Brewery down the way from us has a really tasty Schwarzbier on tap right now that I've been partaking of whenever I find myself with some time after work.

6. What are you making/creating/doing?⁠

Still working on the banjo.

7. Where have you gone lately? -or- What travel destinations are on the horizon for you?⁠

I've got a short trip to the Washington peninsula coming up that I'm looking forward to. Always nice to be out in nature.

⁠
Bonus question:⁠
⁠
What’s your favorite family recipe?

Probably my aunt's baked ziti. It's hard not to love a many-cheesed baked pasta dish though. You pretty much cook the ziti until just over al dente then layer it in a baking dish as if it was lasagna -- sauce with a half and half ground pork and beef mix, ziti, provalone, ricotta, and mozzerella laid in 3 layers topped with some parmesan, then baked. I've also added spinach to the ricotta in the cheese layers and it was pretty good.

[G42]

1. What bag/accessories are you carrying (items + colors, pics always welcome)?
My Taiga/Taiga Paragon for short hikes and goofing around on vacation as I wander around some of the Olympic Peninsula. Water bottles, coffee, TB FAK, tissues, snacks, Matador mini blanket to sit on, layers for the ever changing weather, battery pack, etc. On the days it's pouring, I'm using an REI rain cover over it.

A45 holding the rest of the gear plus a Pilot for personal item on the plane & knitting.

Lots of organizer cubes, PCSB, etc. to help with keeping things tidy and make switching main bags from trip to trip easier. I don't ever unpack my travel toiletries or SSC with chargers.

2. What are you reading?
In honor of location, just started 'Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses' by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I love natural history writing.

3. What are you playing or watching (movies, theatre, video games, etc.)?
Nada

4. What are you listening to?
Whatever radio station I can get on the peninsula... Now that I'm up on the north side, it's from Canada.

5. What are you cooking/baking/drinking?
I've been at constant travel for work the past five months and now on vacation, so no real cooking, alas... Instead, I'm grazing on snacks from the grocery store interspersed with random nice restaurant meals (miso glazed black cod in Port Angeles, yum, thanks Salmanila8 for the restaurant reco)

6. What are you making/creating/doing?⁠
Knitting hats No.s 2 & 3, two scarves, a progressive skill building block project, and another scarf specifically to practice the Norwegian method of knit/purl; all in parallel because apparently I need more to do 🙄
And so far I've visited three independent yarn shops on this trip.
7. Where have you gone lately? -or- What travel destinations are on the horizon for you?
Olympic Peninsula, yay!!
And then year end holidays back in Massachusetts.

Bonus question:
What’s your favorite family recipe?

Our French Canadian Thanksgiving Stuffing, which is really a form of potato/onion/pork/beef/sage hash

[bartleby]

1. What bag/accessories are you carrying (items + colors, pics always welcome)?⁠
I am currently travelling in the US, having my T30 with me as my camera bag (see here) and the updated version of the Daylight Backpack in Black Halcyon for EDC purposes. Although TB makes all kinds of fantastic bags and I wouldn't want to miss any of the ones I have, the Daylight Backpack remains one of my absolute favorites. It is straightforward, unobtrusive, versatile, goes anywhere.

2. What are you reading?⁠
I started reading "behave" by Robert Sapolsky a fascinating book on the biology underlying our behavior. Despite my medical background it's not an easy read but rewarding!

3. What are you playing or watching (movies, theatre, video games, etc.)?⁠
I've just been to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to take a look at their amazing collection and to see the Obama Portraits.

4. What are you listening to?⁠
Just rediscovered (as I do every other year) how much I like the music of Steely Dan.

5. What are you cooking/baking/drinking?⁠
Not much cooking or baking these days. In terms of drinking I am trying to find my way through the IPA jungle.

6. What are you making/creating/doing?⁠
I just did my first steps in bouldering.

7. Where have you gone lately? -or- What travel destinations are on the horizon for you?⁠
To the US: Boston and New Hampshire mainly! Going back home to Germany by the end of next week.
⁠
Bonus question:⁠
⁠
What’s your favorite family recipe?
Chocolate mousse (nothing spectacular but soooo good).

[PaulT00]

1. What bag/accessories are you carrying?

Per my recent post here -> https://forums.tombihn.com/forum/tom...lot#post343448 I'm currently using my original Nordic Halcyon/Solar Pilot as my overnight kitbag. That worked pretty well on my last business trip to London, containing a couple of laptops, enough clothing (in a zest PCSB) for a couple of nights (essentials only!) plus a cardinal Kit as grooming kit, an azure ballistic cubelet full of charger and cables, and various other bits. Pictures in the linked thread!

2. What are you reading?

Mostly technical info on websites! Haven't really had time for recreational reading recently...

3. What are you playing or watching?

Junk TV mostly. Stuff from Netflix and/or Amazon video, mainly escapist nonsense because there's more than enough difficult stuff going on in the world without wallowing it in my free time viewing too!

4. What are you listening to?

Still stuck on the electronica. Madis' Sail, various Jarre, Vangelis (RIP), that kind of thing. I seem to be a bit stuck in the 80s...

5. What are you cooking/baking/drinking?

I've been doing a little more of the cooking recently, mostly things like omelettes for breakfast (ham and cheese... mmmm....) or my trademark chilli beef and cashew stirfry. Mostly, my partner does the cooking - we're trying to go a bit low-carb at the moment: L has been diagnosed as diabetic, we could both do with losing a chunk of weight. As far as drinking goes, I'm working my way through a selection of gins - my favourite is Berry Bros. No.3, with Fever Tree Mediterranean tonic over ice with a slice of lemon; my partner keeps buying me specialist gins for birthdays and Christmas, so I always have a variety to keep me well lubricated! Aside from gin, I'm a massive tea drinker: mostly variations on English Breakfast from one source or another - Tregothnan do a nice one, The Cornish Tea Company do a lovely Cornish Breakfast which is a large leaf version; latest one is Fortnum&Mason's Albion Blend which is very similar to an old favourite, Taylor's of Harrogate's Imperial Tea Room Blend - it's a fine-cut loose leaf blend with a lot of Assam and Kenyan teas in it, makes a nice strong liquor which is superb with a splash of milk.

6. What are you making/creating/doing?

My creative juices are still very much being sopped up by work at the moment. We're in the middle of 4 "proof of concept" exercises for SaaS packages, plus I'm still working on the last few (scheduled) months of the major development project I've been working on for the last 2 years. At this point we've delivered some pretty big hunks of new and improved functionality over a total of 8 releases and we have 2 more planned releases to finish out the bulk of the agreed package of goodies. All the while "keeping the lights on" on everyday support activities and managing various infrastructure upgrades along the way. Next up, after Christmas, we start thinking about integrating those 4 SaaS packages with our existing systems...

7. Where have you gone lately?

London. Also London, London, Bristol (for personal stuff) and London. And booked to go to London about another 6 times before Christmas. Fortunately I've been able to book stays at The Bloomsbury in Great Russell Street - it's only 5 minutes from the office, and it's a rather pleasant luxury 4-star establishment which is only feasible because of a negotiated corporate booking rate...

Bonus question: what's your favourite family recipe?

Probably the aforementioned chilli beef and cashew stir-fry. It evolved out of a recipe for Kung Pao Chicken from a book, but bears little resemblance to its ancestor! But the mere mention that I feel I might possibly cook a stir-fry tends to make my partner salivate in enthusiastic anticipation. It's a fair bit of work - reducing all the ingredients to the requisite similar-sized chunks, marinating the beef in sesame oil, soy and Shaoxing rice wine, etc takes the better part of an hour - but the result tends to be very well received! (Also, snorfled very quickly indeed!)

[Cooner]

1. What bag/accessories are you carrying (items + colors, pics always welcome)?⁠

I like to go to a coffee shop to work a couple times a week (two favorites, one just around the corner that's friendly but very limited hours, another that's a bit further away but 24 hours), so generally I'll be carrying my Burnt Orange Medium Cafe Bag with my iPad Pro, keyboard, drawing stand, bullet journal, and a few other accessories inside. If I'm traveling it's usually my Burnt Orange Aeronaut 30 with the Burnt Orange Side Kick tucked into one end pocket for my iPad Mini and/or Kobo ereader.

2. What are you reading?⁠

At the moment, an unpublished small-press manuscript I'm supposed to be doing the cover illustration for next year. ^.^

3. What are you playing or watching (movies, theatre, video games, etc.)?⁠

I recently started watching the original Dark Shadows TV series. I discovered it streaming on Tubi, and I remember my mom always used to talk about watching it when it aired when she was a kid. (Dark gothic supernatural soap opera with vampires, ghosts, and werewolves … this is SO up her alley.) I'm up to episode 60 so far, but since there are over 1200 episodes I've got a way to go. I just wish I could call Mom and talk to her about it. 😞

4. What are you listening to?⁠

I listen to plenty of stuff from my very eclectic library while working or walking. On my morning walk today I was listening to 1995's Telecommunication Breakdown album by Emergency Broadcast Network.

5. What are you cooking/baking/drinking?⁠

Last night I made a small mediterranean feast for me and the boyf: Pita bread stuffed with diced lemon-marinated chicken, hummus, tzatziki, toum (a mediterranean garlic paste), sliced cucumbers, pickled turnips, and feta cheese. I picked up the pitas, pickles, and feta at the store; everything else was homemade.

6. What are you making/creating/doing?⁠

Working ahead on a comic book/graphic novel idea I hope to start working on later next year. Aside from my other projects going on.

7. Where have you gone lately? -or- What travel destinations are on the horizon for you?⁠

⁠ In the last couple months I went to Kansas for my dad's remarriage, to Atlanta for my boyf's brother's wedding, and to San Antonio for a small convention. If covid doesn't explode again, I plan two more conventions coming up in Chicago in December and in San Jose in January.


Bonus question:⁠
What’s your favorite family recipe?

Hmmm. The one I make most often is a pasta y fagioli recipe from my mom. My FAVORITE recipe of hers would probably be the chicken paprikosh stew she used to make a lot, but unfortunately I never got the recipe from her (or I lost it somewhere along the way) and I haven't been able to find anything quite like it so far.