Lately, I've been dreaming about cheap beer and fancy wine flights.

About foosball tables, pinball machines and dart boards.

We're working full-throttle on our bar guide -- which comes out Wednesday -- and that means I'm spending all my time calling bar after bar. Basically any spot that sells swill within a 50-mile radius of KC.

Living in the student ghetto makes you feel seriously old.

I live in East Lawrence, a mecca for cheap rentals and keg parties.

I love my house, and I love my (mostly) quiet neighborhood, with its brick sidewalks and big trees.

I'm crossing my fingers...

Yesterday I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to ride the bus from Lawrence to KC. The Jo, a Johnson County bus service, offers a K-10 Connector Route from several spots in Lawrence to Johnson County Community College in Overland Park. I was trying to figure out how to get from JCCC to downtown, but couldn't find any routes that could make that dream a reality.

Anyway, after 10 solid minutes of googling, I discovered this article in the Lawrence Journal World:

bring your fire extinguisher and noseplugs.

Just kidding. I'm actually a pretty good cook. Not Ted Habiger of Room 39 good. Not Marshall Roth of Ophelia's good. But, you know, I make perfect scrambled eggs and a mean batch of rosemary chicken.

I love being in the kitchen, so I couldn't wait to test the new recipes I learned working on this week's cover story about cooking with locally grown food.

Where are my freakin' movies?

I ordered "The Incredibles" like a week ago after I was blown away by "Wall-E" and still, you haven't delivered.

I wanted "Wall Street," the Oliver Stone-directed '80s flick about big-shot stock market honchos in NYC, and you didn't give me that, either, so I had to get it from the library. Grrr...

People keep asking me when I'm moving to Kansas City.

The answer is never.

I'm not against Kansas City. I like the restaurants, the concerts. In other words, I like visiting. I can totally understand why people would want to live there. But there's something about Lawrence that feels right for me.

Mass bike rides. Compostable beer cups. California's got it goin' on.

I just got back from The Golden State -- which should seriously consider changing its name to The Green State -- and I'm majorly inspired to become more eco-friendly.

One of the coolest things I did there was attend the Tour de Fat, a cross-country bike and beer tour sponsored by Fat Tire beer. The all-day festival, which happened in Truckee, CA, near Lake Tahoe, began with a mass bike ride (think tall bikes, frankenbikes, couches fitted with wheels) and culminated with an organic wheat beer-drinkin' party.

At a spa in Virginia, customers pay $35 to get their feet nibbled on by tiny carp.

As in, fish. As in, fish eat the dead skin off your feet until they're silky smooth. Seriously?

Read the article on msnbc.com here.

I'm supposed to be an expert on composting.

After all, a couple months ago I wrote a detailed how-to story about it, which you can read here.

Problem is, I'm a busy gal. And if a true composter caught a glimpse of my supposed compost pile, they'd be appalled.

Work attire, be damned!

I'm testing the limits of my (nearly nonexistent) work dress code.

Here at ink, we can pretty much wear whatever we want. I usually keep it (mildly) professional with a denim pencil skirt, wedges and a semi-crisp top.