On this week's agenda...

Here's a video of Peru Negro. They're coming to the Mondavi Center on Wednesday, and Scott and I have tickets!



I hope my black eye is gone by then. I got hit with a frisbee on Saturday, on the eye socket bone right below my left eye. It is ugly!!



Believe me, it looks worse in person. What I think is weird is that even though I got hit below my eye, my upper eyelid is swelling and bruising too.

Ides of March Sushi

I was talking to my parents tonight, and my dad asked if we've cooked anything interesting lately. Turns out, we had a very interesting lunch! Our fridge was full of fresh greens from this morning's farmers market, and our cupboards have fun things from a recent trip to the Asian market. Here's the recipe (really, a record of the improvisation, since I had no idea what the end product would be):

1. Make brown rice. (I used 1 cup dry rice.)
2. Peel, chop and microwave beets until they're soft. (I used 8 oz., about a cup.)
3. Roughly chop beet greens (4 cups?) and carrot greens (1/2 cup?) - if you have nice, fresh, feathery carrot greens, that is.
4. Put the beets, greens and a little water and soy sauce in a pot on the stove. Cover and simmer until the greens get soft. Stir occasionally.
5. Meanwhile, wash your carrots (10 very small ones - about the size of Sharpies) and a big radish, and cut the radish into slivers.
6. Puree the beet/greens mixture in your food processor.
7. when the rice is done, mix it with the puree, and add a healthy splash of rice vinegar.
8. Make sushi rolls with the rice mixture. Put a carrot and some radish slivers in the center of each one.

The result is a very festive lunch! Carrots for the Easter Bunny, and green rice for St. Patrick. (Note: our beets were very pale pink. The rice would probably turn fuchsia if you used regular dark beets.) I would have taken a picture, but we ate them up too quickly.



I also made our tried-and-true chocolate silk pie.
1. Melt a bag of chocolate chips.
2. Blend the chocolate chips with a package of silken tofu.
3. Pour it into a pre-baked crust. (I used a graham cracker crust.)
4. Let it set in the fridge or freezer for a while.

Next time I make this, I'm going to add some cayenne, and maybe some chopped almonds. Tonight, I just sprinkled a little cinnamon on top, which was also pretty tasty.



(A little early for Easter, but as long as I'm talking about chocolate and the Easter Bunny, I may as well include it!)

Art Experiment Slideshow

Here's a much better display of the art experiment. I'm really happy with it! It's about 6' x 6', so it really fills the wall. For those of you who remember Margaret's collage mural at Chez Limon in DC, this one is not nearly as large, but I'd say it has a similar "presence" in our office.

(Note: If you're viewing this in a blog reader, click through to the original post to see the slideshow - it's a YouTube video.)



Here's the piece that my sister put up on her wall:

I love my sister!

This week I got a package in the mail from my sister! The envelope read, "NOTE: ART EXPERIMENT ENCLOSED"

Here's what I found inside:

Serendipity, and other cool stuff

This afternoon, I drove to San Francisco, found a parking spot, and then went in search of wireless internet. I had just ordered a macchiato at Starbucks when I realized my wallet was back in the car. I retrieved it and, again on the prowl for wireless, stumbled upon a different Starbucks, closer to the car. I had just ordered my macchiato when I looked up and saw my friend Nia! There must be hundreds of Starbucks in this city, and I managed to visit the one where Nia works, when she's working!

Happily, I'll get to spend more time with her tomorrow - she and Mavis both have the day off, so I get to do "brunchy things" with them.

Tonight, I'm attending an orientation about becoming a workshop leader for a non-profit called About-Face. From their website:

Our Education into Action media literacy program teaches young women the skills they need to truly understand what they’re seeing to lessen the effects of harmful media messages. About-Face workshops are sassy, edgy, fun, creative and interactive. We go to schools and other organizations to teach young women how to dissect all types of media including magazine advertisements, music videos, television shows and so on.

It sounds like a really cool program and a great organization overall, so I'm excited to learn more about it!

And, to update you on last night's adventures, I successfully spun fire! I wouldn't go so far as to say I danced with fire, but I survived without getting burned! My shirt was actually flaming for a few seconds, but the spotter came over and smothered the flames with a towel, and I happily went on spinning. Some observations:
* Poi is like belly dancing. Even beginners look good doing it.
* It's more exciting in person than on YouTube.
* While you're spinning, it's harder to see than you'd think. I don't think I could see anything besides the balls of fire flying around my head.
* It's also harder to hear than you'd think. The lighted poi make really cool whooshing noises when you spin them, and it's pretty loud when you're right in the middle of them.
* Being on fire is not necessarily as scary as you'd think. I still think being burned at the stake would be pretty much the worst way to die, but last night the only thing burning was white gas (camping fuel) which burns at a relatively low temperature. My shirt shows no evidence of having hosted flames - it does smell a little like gas though.

Experimental College

Last quarter, I took three courses through the Experimental College at UC Davis: belly dancing, yoga and poi (aka fire spinning or fire dancing). They were fantastic, so I'm excited about signing up for spring quarter classes. Here's one that caught my eye and that I'll definitely be enrolling in:

Kitty Kindergarden
In this course, cat owners will gain a better understanding of the types of early experiences that kittens need in order become sociable with both guests as well as other household pets. They will learn techniques that can be used on both kittens and adult cats to teach felines to accept handling, get along with people and other pets, urinate only in their litter box, to play nicely instead of scratching and biting their human housemates, and to keep entertained playing with appropriate objects rather than destroying the house. ... Kittens for this hands-on class will be provided; how-ever, owners can also bring kittens that are under the age of 14 weeks and have received at least 2 vaccinations. (Emphasis mine.)

Now, I'm off to the last poi class of the quarter - the one where we actually get to light our poi on fire! Don't worry Mom, there's a lengthy fire-safety lecture included, and we've been instructed to wear hats "if you like your hair."

Hard to believe a whole week's gone by since I last blogged... here's the recap.

On Wednesday, I got some bad news, so I made Scott go on a date with me after my Poi class. He was very supportive, and we shared a terrific Belgian beer (Maredsous 10, if you know your Belgians), and I felt much better.

On Thursday, we went to Aslihan's to celebrate her birthday. I brought fresh bread, which was quickly eaten. Kelly brought chocolate cake and someone else brought port. A terrific evening.

On Friday, I went climbing with Scott and felt great - strong and graceful.

On Saturday, we played pick-up in the wind, worked from a coffee shop, and went to Jay's birthday celebration - MORE chocolate cake and Belgian beer!

Today was quiet. We worked from Mishka's in the morning, played Scrabble during lunch, took an afternoon nap, and cooked some very tasty acorn noodles for dinner.

Almond paste, Santa Cruz, Sardines

Friday
We had Lindsay, Nathan, Ivona and Justin over for dinner! We've enjoyed great hospitality from them this year, so it was fun to get to reciprocate.

We served Baked Goat Cheese and Roasted Winter Squash over Garlicky Fettuccine and Mark Bittman's terrific recipe for roasted chickpeas. (Toss chickpeas in oil, garlic and whatever spices you want, and bake in a single layer at 400°F for 20 minutes.)

Dessert was a bit of an experiment... I had a whole bunch of almond paste on my hands (from a foiled attempt to make almond butter), so Scott and I rolled it into little bite-sized balls and coated each one with chocolate (melted chocolate chips). We let them chill on the back patio while we ate dinner, and voila! Almond truffles! The recipe needs some work, to be sure, but it served us in a pinch and got rid of some of our almond paste. (I think I'm going to try to make some kind of energy bar with the rest of it...)

Saturday
Road trip to Santa Cruz!
I started the day with a training session with a trainer at the CrossFit Santa Cruz gym. I've been doing CrossFit workouts for a few years now, and Santa Cruz is the HQ gym. Working out there felt like completing a pilgrimage. The session was good - I got a lot of expert feedback on my technique, which I'm excited to put to use.

From there, I went to Sibley and Nina's for a little house party. It started raining pretty hard soon after I arrived, so we couldn't visit the treehouse as planned. We did have a very cozy afternoon indoors, complete with homemade, deep-fried apple fritters and a fire in the fireplace.

I spent the night there and slept very soundly for 10 hours. It was wonderful.

Sunday
I took off around 9 am for Monterey, to visit the famous aquarium. The most beautiful thing I saw was a school of sardines swimming in a circle. There was a lot of other great stuff too - otters, jellies, sharks - but those sardines are what really stunned me.

Two Other Things
First, my favorite cookbook author, Mark Bittman, has started a blog! It's great, and I highly recommend subscribing. http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/

Second, I discovered this morning that I can do a pull-up! I've been trying and failing for a few years now, so I'm really excited that I can finally do one.

Science Fiction Dreamin'

I dreamt that I was in NYC, battling zombies with the CSI team and Anthony Zuiker.

Scott beat me though - he dreamt that Earth was being attacked by quadrupedal yetis from space. And a naked lady in a wheelchair was the only one who could save us.

Mie's Yummy Lentils

We made Mie's Yummy Lentils for dinner tonight and thoroughly enjoyed them. I added a diced eggplant to the onion mixture, as well as some reconstituted dried seaweed. I only used about a tablespoon of oil, and added water to the onion mixture to keep it from sticking too much. Tasty stuff!

2c lentils
28oz. canned tomatoes
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/3c cilantro
1/6c parsley
1/2c veg oil, 1/4c olive oil (i usually use a lot less)
s&p
2tsp cumin
1/4tsp red pepper
1tsp paprika
1/16tsp turmeric

add lentils to 5c boiling water. cover, simmer for 6 min. turn off and let sit.
in separate pot, combine all non-lentil ingredients except tomatoes. cook and stir until onions are browned. add tomatoes. Add tomato mixture to lentils. cover and simmer for .. uh... like 30 minutes.

The bread turned out well today!

I made bread today, and it turned out well, so I figured I'd post the recipe - as much for my own memory as for the benefit of all of you out there. (If you have a food processor, making bread is *really* *REALLY* easy.)

Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 tbsp warm water
2 tsp yeast
1.5 tsp salt
3 cups flour

The flour is where you can get creative. I used 1 cup of bread flour, 2 tablespoons of flaxseeds (ground in my coffee grinder) and about 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour (so that the flaxseed and w.w. flour together equal 2 cups). I threw in 2 teaspoons of wheat gluten, since it's supposed to make whole wheat breads rise better. I also added a bunch of fresh rosemary.

1. Mix everything up in the food processor.

2. Take it out, pat it into a ball, and throw it in a bowl you've greased with olive oil. Let it rise in a warm place for a few hours. One hour might even be enough - the dough should double in volume. (My dough likes Scott's desk best, which gets lots of afternoon sun.) Don't forget to put saran wrap over the bowl.

3. When it's doubled in size, AWESOME. Punch it down, and shape it into a round loaf. Put it on whatever you're going to bake it on. (Scott gave me a baking stone for Christmas.) Sprinkle it with cornmeal, put the dough on, and cover it with saran wrap.

4. Let it rise for another hour, or longer if you can stand it. The dough should double in size again, ideally.

5. Heat the oven to 450, stick a pan with a little water in it on the bottom rack of your oven, and put your bread in. It should be done (i.e. golden brown) in 20 minutes.

Here's where I got the recipe. It has pictures and is generally more instructive than my instructions.

I actually baked only half of the dough today. After the first rising, I divided the dough and put half of it in the freezer. Apparently, this recipe is good for pizza crusts as well as regular loaves, so maybe after I thaw it, I'll shape it into a crust rather than a ball.

Off to bed now, looking forward to toasted rosemary bread for breakfast!

Two beautiful outings

A hike and a ballet - not a bad way to spend Saturday!

Kelly and I hiked the Blue Ridge Trail to Fiske Peak, which is in the Cache Creek Canyon Regional Park. It was wonderful to be outside all day long. I'm still learning to appreciate the dry California landscape, but it's definitely growing on me. (I think Boundary Waters landscapes - green trees, blue sky and water, grey rocks - will always be my favorites.)



I got home around 4:30, spent some time rejuvenating, and then Scott and I went to see the St. Petersburg Ballet perform Romeo and Juliet.


It was more modern than I expected (They used Prokofiev's score; I assumed it would be Tchaikovsky.), but once I got warmed up to it, I loved it. Juliet was incredible, as were her nurse and Tybalt (even though his costume reminded me of Spiderman). And I loved the choreography for the corps. A wonderful night.

Cooking news

Thanks, everyone, for sending in your vegetarian recipes! I slipped up today and opened up a can of chicken noodle soup for lunch - I was three bites in before I realized I shouldn't be eating it. And last weekend, I ate plenty of non-vegetarian dim sum... but it was a special occasion, so I excused myself.


Besides that, we're eating as yummily as ever. Yesterday, I bought some amaranth grain from the Davis Food Co-Op. We first learned about amaranth in December, when we toured ECHO with Scott's family in Florida. Amaranth is good for you because it's a whole grain, and it has a lot of protein. I just cooked a pot of it, in preparation for dinner tonight, and it looks a LOT like quinoa. (This makes sense; I just discovered they're both in the Amaranthaceae family.) It tastes pretty good (probably needs some oil and salt), and it's kind of fun to be eating a grain with a good backstory. It has been cultivated for the past 8,000 years, was banned by the conquistadors, and was rediscovered in the 1970's.

I finally matted and framed this series of color compositions! I made them for a class in college, and liked them, so I've been intending to get them up on a wall ever since then. My mat-cutting skills still have a ways to go, but this turned out really well - four windows with no visible mistakes!http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

In other news, I had a lovely weekend. Scott and I went climbing on Friday evening, and I got to play pickup Ultimate on both Saturday and Sunday - in sunny, 60° weather! I hadn't played since before Thanksgiving, and I was pleased to find that I am in pretty good shape and that my throws aren't too rusty.

Sunday also included a delicious dim sum brunch, and a pretty fun belly dancing class - it was the last one of the session, so we did a little improv at the end. Scary, but fun!

On top of all of that, I rented some DVDs. We watched Ratatouille on Friday (fun movie, incredible animation) and Devil's Playground last night (really good documentary on Amish teenagers). On deck for tonight is Brick, a high school murder mystery in the film noir style. I'll let you know how it is.

Odds and ends...

Congratulations to my brother, who won an honorable mention for a photograph he submitted to National Geographic Adventure!



I started taking poi classes last month. I'm not good yet, but it's addictive so I've been practicing my moves in the living room. Here's a terrific poi video:

(I use tennis balls rather than fire balls.)

I made a loaf of bread this afternoon - our first using the new food processor - and it turned out beautifully! Here's a link to the recipe I used: baking french bread is easier than you think.

What's your favorite vegetarian recipe?

I'm giving up meat for Lent. What's your favorite vegetarian recipe? Last night I made this lasagna for dinner - it is tasty!!

San Fran Sunday

I missed the Giants' big victory because I spent the day doing girly things in San Francisco instead.

I started off at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I got to see some Joseph Albers (my favorite artist ever), and a Rothko, and this incredible, enormous curtain made of fake flowers. Absolutely gorgeous. I went up a floor and enjoyed the photography section very much, but the top floor was the best - an exhibit called "Take Your Time" by Olafur Eliasson.

Widely heralded as one of the most important artists of his generation, Olafur Eliasson nimbly merges art, science, and natural phenomena to create extraordinary multisensory experiences.

Commerce followed culture. I bought a set of "Hula" wine glasses at the museum store, which bobble around on your table but never spill a drop. They're very fun, and they fit in our dishwasher better than our current stemmed glasses.


A little more casual shopping along Market St., and then I arrived at Mavis and Maya's house! (Remember them from the MN party photos?) I was greeted by hugs and the aroma of fresh-out-of-the-oven vegan coconut cupcakes. As soon as they were frosted, the Valentines-making began! Three plastic boxes, stuffed with craft supplies appeared, and we (about 8 of us altogether) sat around on the floor - cutting, pasting & chatting.

The train ride home was no good - it's supposed to be a quick, hour and ten minute trip. Instead, it was three and a half. I got home after 9:30 instead of 7, starving hungry after my cupcake "lunch."

Fortunately, Scott had dinner waiting on the table for me. This was possibly even more beautiful than Olafur's works. It was a wonderful day out, and a wonderful homecoming.

Catching up on photos

I finished my t-shirt quilt this morning! It's far from perfect and has lots of sloppy places, but it's far better than having a drawer full of t-shirts I don't wear. Now I only have half a drawer full of such shirts...



(Click here to go to my Flickr set, where there are more photos and notes.)

Next, here are a few photos from the 4th Annual Minnesota Party that I've been meaning to post.

Princess Kay of the Milky Way, Betty Crocker, and Paul Bunyan!




Here's Maya and Mavis, with Scott in the background, dressed up as me.




And what's a Minnesota Party without Minnesotan food?
Hotdish, Jell-O salad, fried spam, etc.

Matted & hung!

All of these rainy evenings are so good for crafts! The t-shirt quilt is coming along - I'm adding borders now.

Just a few minutes ago, I finished matting and framing a print that my parents gave Scott and I for Christmas! It took some organization, but it was a pretty quick and easy project overall. (It was cheap too! The frame was about $25, and the mat was only $3 - a scrap from Ace Hardware.) This was my first time using my mat cutter, and now I'm excited to mat more stuff!


Not bad, eh? I didn't take a very good photo of it, but I think it looks great on my wall. Clean corners, straight lines, etc. Thanks for the print, parents!


P.S. The print is "The Trapper's Daughter and the Pickerel," by Rick Allen. You can see (and buy) more of his fantastic prints at the Kenspeckle Letterpress website.

Here's a better picture of the print:



It's part of a story. This print says,

On Winter Nights When Northern Lights
Would Paint the Snow With Color...
With Her Concertina
The Trapper's Daughter
Would Sing to the Pickerel.

Making Jell-O in the Rain

It's been raining all week, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon. Sort of a glum start to the weekend, but any start to the weekend can't be all that bad. I went to the grocery store to get the last few items for tomorrow's Minnesota Party and got the Jell-O salad started. I made the glögg last night, so that it would have a few days to steep, and our house still smells wonderful from it.

Besides the MN Party tomorrow, we get to go to a birthday party tonight, and on Sunday I have my second belly dancing class - I'm very excited.

Ghost cat

Last night I dreamt about the ghost of my dead cat Puff! I dreamt I heard her outside the door, meowing to be let in. I opened the door, but she wouldn't come in of course, because she was just a ghost. (She didn't look ghostly, she looked normal, but in my dream I knew she was dead.) My dad was sitting on the couch while I was standing at the door and said something like, "Yeah, she does that to me too."



Mom and Dad, hope Puff is resting peacefully and not bothering you...

Stebbins Cold Canyon Hike

As promised, here are some pictures from Saturday's hike to Stebbins Cold Canyon. We had terrific weather - it felt so good to be out in the sun, and it was nice to see the hills getting a little bit green.

From the top of the ridge, we could look left to see Lake Berryessa. On some days, there's a view of the mountains to the right, but it was too smoggy on Saturday.



As we were driving through the rolling hills on the way to the trailhead, Ashlyn announced that she felt like she was "frolicking on the thighs of the Earth Mother," and we giggled about this for the rest of the day.



Ashlyn, Lisa, hatless Libby

Cooking green stuff

Sometimes I wish I could take a picture of the way our kitchen smells and post it here. The other night, we made two recipes from the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market Cookbook (my Xmas gift to Scott), and they were excellent. I think they would have been tasty even if we hadn't been ravenous! Brussels sprouts with prosciutto, and penne with arugula and parmesan. Yum!

First week back in CA

An up-and-down week. It was weird being back in Davis, and spending all day at home by myself after four solid weeks of spending time with terrific people. I felt lonely, and more than once considered buying a last-minute ticket to DC to attend the annual MLK party at Delafield. Fortunately for my credit card and carbon footprint, lots of good stuff also happened this week, and I have a fun weekend here to look forward to.

1. I signed up for three courses at the university's Experimental College - yoga, fire dancing (aka poi) and belly dancing. I'm definitely excited about belly dancing and poi - I have a tiny bit of experience with each and am looking forward to learning more!

2. Scott and I went on a date last night - Ciocoat for dinner and carrot cake. We jumped in the hot tub when we got home.

3. We went climbing tonight! I miss the rock walls we used in Duluth and Boulder, but it was good to get out nonetheless.

4. I'm going hiking tomorrow and Monday! Look for photos next week...

Offices away from home

The Florida Office:


The Minnesota Office:


The South Carolina Office:

Sheep Retreat in South Carolina

I arrived at the retreat on Monday night and was immediately welcomed into the mix of Sheep eating, drinking, reuniting, meeting for the first time, laughing, etc.





It was probably our most luxurious retreat yet, with absolutely gorgeous beach houses and a professional chef! It was probably our most focused retreat as well - after December's restructuring, our leaders have a clearer idea of our company's mission, so a lot of time was spent making sure everyone is on the same page. As usual, I left feeling physically exhausted (I slept most of the 5 hour flight home, and then slept 11 hours that night.) but professionally rejuvenated. I'm really excited about upcoming projects and processes.



This retreat will probably be known as the Rock Band retreat. On Wednesday night, there was a Rock Band tournament using the Nintendo Rock Band video game, where teams of four must successfully sing, drum and play guitar and bass in order to score points for a song. Teams were announced on Monday, so Sheep were practicing all week long. My bedroom happened to be right above the Rock Band living room, so every night I was lulled to sleep with "My Sharona." Thank goodness Allison bought earplugs for us. The tournament itself was fantastic - so many Sheep showed a different side of themselves. Sibley's insane dancing, Paul's incredible McCartney impersonation, Tristan's slicked hair... I wouldn't be surprised if we see Rock Band at future retreats.

(Thanks to Dan and Sam for the photos.)

New Years in Colorado!

On New Year's Day, Scott and I drove down to Minneapolis. We spent the afternoon with Alissa - a wonderful and long overdue visit. We flew to Denver in the evening, rented a car and drove west to Silverthorne where we were greeted by Rob and Nate and a pull-out couch with our name on it.

I had to work on Wednesday and Friday, but got to go skiing on Thursday and Saturday - my first time in 10 years. (It had been 15 years for Scott.) All in all, it went pretty well! The low point was on Saturday when I gamely decided to follow Scott and Nate down a black diamond - it started off with some not-so-bad moguls and rapidly turned into steep and scary moguls. It took me a long time (with many falls and a few tears) to get down. But Scott and Nate were very supportive and patient - couldn't have asked for better pals on the slopes.

We spent Sunday in Boulder. Dan and Jess came to visit (Dan, Nate and Scott all went to high school together), and we spent the afternoon at the climbing gym. We were all a little worn out but had a great time. I drove Scott to the airport and sent him home with our two enormous suitcases filled with cold-weather gear and Christmas presents. I flew to South Carolina on Monday morning with a laptop and a nice little duffel filled with warm-weather clothes.

Christmas in Minnesota!

Minnesota exceeded even my high expectations. We got a ton of snow, on the day we arrived and throughout the week, and the temperatures stayed right around 20°F, so we had a great time being outside and playing in the snow - frisbee, sliding, hikes along Tischer Creek, walks on the Lakewalk.



A few sad things:
(1) Not having Margaret home. She's spending the year in Turkey, and a short trip home wasn't worth it. It was the first year that one of the three of us missed Christmas. We missed her.
(2) My cat died. We returned home from Christmas dinner in the Twin Cities to find her curled up, dead, a few months shy of her 20th birthday. I got her when I was 6 and slept with her in my bed almost every night until I left for college. I'm glad I got to see her again before she died, and I'm glad she died peacefully. Still, it's sad she's gone.



A few fun things:
(1) All the snow. Even shoveling it was fun.
(2) Scott and I went climbing with Fred and our neighbor Jane. Cool to climb new walls, to cheer Fred on and to hear him encouraging me when I went up.
(3) A few more of my relatives got to meet Scott!
(4) Getting dressed up for the annual Red Flannels dinner dance and the New Year's Eve symphony.
(5) LOTS of good food. Venison, salmon, Christmas cookies, breakfast at Hell's Kitchen, akvavit, and coffee anytime you want it.
(6) Spending an afternoon with Alissa! Brunch, fine art, and lots of catching up.
(7) Snow!

Adventurous arrival

Our flight arrived in Minneapolis right on time, no problems, and we started a very long trip home. It had been snowing lightly and blowing hard all morning and wasn't letting up anytime soon. Dad picked us up and took us to the Highland Grill for lunch before we started north. Roads were snowy, and there hadn't been many plows out, so traffic was moving slowly. We were driving 40 mph on many stretches of the freeway, and saw numerous cars in the ditch. By the time we got to Duluth, the lake effect had taken hold - lots more wind gusting around. The freeways had been pretty clear, but the city streets were not. We barely made it up 21st Avenue, gingerly cut across 4th St., but couldn't make it the final half block to our house. We grabbed our computers but abandoned the Volvo and the 2 big suitcases and walked the rest of the way home. Mom had tea and lots of Christmas cookies waiting for us.

Dinner was one of my favorite meals - venison steaks and fried onions. After a rice pudding fortification, we set out to rescue the Volvo. Fred manned the big snowblower and worked on the driveway. The wind had packed it into a four-foot-high drift. Dad took the little snowblower down to the end of the block, to clean up the intersection. Scott and I got shovels and did the details. And... it worked! Mom and Scott and I took Max for a celebratory walk around the block - between the bright white snow, the Christmas lights and the full moon, it was bright out. But still cold and windy, so I was happy to get home and curl up with tea, one more cookie, and a warm laptop. It's wonderful to be home, and such a snowy home at that.

Water Ballet!

Alternate title: It's a Foot!

Many thanks to Becky for putting up with Scott's and my shenanigans in front of the camera!

Tail end of Florida

We're en route to Minnesota - just an hour left until our transition from humid 70-degree weather to icy 0-degree weather is complete.

Work was busy, so I didn't get to spend as much time with Scott's family as I would have liked, and we didn't see many of the sights. Still, it was a nice visit. On Friday morning, we toured Echo echonet.org, which is a Christian organization that develops plants and agricultural techniques to help feed hungry and malnourished people around the world. We spent two hours there and only managed to see the highlights. We saw some really smart, innovative rooftop gardening ideas. People who live surrounded by concrete can use old tires, carpet and old pop cans to plant vegetables. We also saw a bunch of neat edible tress. The moringa, for instance, has incredibly nutritious leaves and horseradish-like roots, and its seeds can purify water 98%. (Not sure what's left in the last 2% though...) For Christmas, Becky and Sandy had a tree planted in Scott's and my honor.

On Saturday, we celebrated Christmas. We drove north and picked up Becky's mother, and then drove a little farther to where Sandy's mother lives. Fantastic dinner - turkey with all the fixings and apple pie for dessert. We pried some good stories out of Mrs. Anderson - she lived in Indonesia for 2 years and in Brazil for 5 while her husband was working to introduce new crops to those regions. She's 100% Norwegian and was pretty excited when I told her I was going to get to eat lefse this Christmas.

The neighborhood

Scott and I went for a lovely crepuscular walk tonight

Thoroughly enjoying my "office" this week. Scott and I are sitting outside on the lanai, about 10 feet from the swimming pool. Beyond that is a pine forest and blue sky.

A tumultous trip across the country

The adventure started on Sunday at 5 p.m. I went to check in online and discovered that we had missed our flight - we were supposed to have left on Saturday night, not on Sunday night. Miraculously, United issued us new tickets at no charge. Scott and I went on a nice little dinner and a movie date (burritos and "Enchanted"), finished packing, and took off first thing Monday morning. It turns out that if we had left on Saturday night, we would have been delayed in Chicago for 12 hours because of weather there. Instead, we had nice, uneventful flights.

The day was an eventful one for the Sheep though - a pretty massive restructuring was announced. (Here's a link to the official blog post about it.) I spent the three-hour layover on the phone, learning about it and discussing it, and a few more hours doing the same once we arrived in Florida. Almost all of us were shocked by the news. It's a sad thing, and it's strange to have to say goodbye to people who were doing wonderful work. (Some of them will continue to work with us as contractors in the short term, thank goodness.) We're all trying to navigate how to work together moving forward - who will fill the holes and how, who to ask for support, who needs to be supported, etc. After more phone calls today, I have a definite sense that everything will be okay. Not smooth or easy, but get-throughable.

Christmas Cactus, Day 2

Today's bloom is even bigger than yesterday's, and there's another bloom on the way - I hope it opens before Sunday.

I counted 11 other tiny blossoms getting ready to go.  We'll probably miss them while we're gone traveling.

Blogged with Flock

Finals week... twiddling my thumbs...

I've been remiss in blogging... but my life has been pretty quiet these days. UC Davis is engulfed in finals, and I think I'm looking forward to Thursday night, when Scott is all finished, almost as much as he is. We have at least 4 parties scheduled for this weekend, to make up for the currently muffled social scene.

I'm mostly impatient for our holiday travels to begin. We're leaving for Florida on Sunday, where we'll spend a week with Scott's family. Then we'll spend a week in Duluth, have New Years with Alissa in Minneapolis, and head west to Colorado for a week of skiing with friends. Scott goes home after that, and I'll head back east for a Sheep retreat in South Carolina. That makes four straight weeks of traveling for me!

So, I'm happy that our Christmas cactus bloomed today so that we can enjoy it before we leave.

Color in my living room!

My apartment, originally uploaded by esproat.

I spent last night sewing a sleeve onto the back of my quilt, and tonight after dinner Scott and I hung it up. It fills the space nicely, and I'm definitely happy to have it hanging rather rather than folded up in a closet.


Today was productive overall. Scott and I worked from Mishka's in the morning, and then I ran a bunch of errands. Went to the Davis Craft Center's annual holiday sale and bought some gifts that I'm very excited about giving. More errands, an afternoon nap and some music shopping on emusic.com, a yummy butternut squash-beet-carrot-bok choy-chipotle stir-fry dinner, quilt hanging, and then a terrific game of Scrabble - our first in months.

Ta da!

Here's the top of the quilt!



This is going under the tree for a special someone, and then after Christmas we'll have it quilted professionally (get the top, the batting and the bottom layer of fabric all sewn together). Technically, I *could* do it, but it will turn out 10 times better if we bring it someone with the right equipment - stretchers and a fancy sewing machine.

The border turned out a little wrinkly... but besides that I'm really happy with it. It feels great to have it all bunched up in my lap. The colors are prettier in real life than in the photo.



In other news, today was a cooking-themed day. I spent the morning buying produce at Pedrick's Produce, other stuff at Super Walmart (although I'm still feeling guilty about shopping there) and bacon and kale at the farmers market. I made a pan of pretty good butternut squash and spinach lasagna. (Here's the recipe.) It was a beautiful, sunny 54°F afternoon, so Scott and I took a run through the campus arboretum, which definitely whet our appetites for lasagna.


On the agenda for tonight:
1. Work on a sleeve so I can hang my blue star quilt on the living room wall.
2. Hot tub.