At the risk of invoking the Doom Gods, I'll say that life and work have been somewhat calm recently. The week of vacation did me a lot of good. Family time was fun and relaxing (mostly). Camping was very relaxing. Work has been going through a brief lull where I'm neither traveling a ridiculous amount nor working on a LOT of projects at the same time. I'm learning to make time for quilting and house cleaning again. (Who knew that ironing could be so relaxing?) I even managed to go shopping with my girlfriend R this past weekend and bought about 50 wrap dresses.
Trust me, I am enjoying it while I can!
The India tour I was planning to take with Mom in January was unfortunately cancelled due to lack of interest, so we are in a flurry of considering new options. K and I may check out Shanghai for Thanksgiving. We may head to Italy in January. The planning period with endless options is enjoyable and (because I am who I am) somewhat brief. I'm looking forward to the next adventure!
And with the A's out of the running, I'm really hoping the Red Sox win the World Series. Go Sox!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Pt. Reyes in September
This is becoming a good habit!
K and I went on another three-day trip to Point Reyes National Seashore. This time we were at Coast Camp right next to the water, and were joined by our friends D and M. We had originally planned to hike over Mount Wittenberg to the camp (we've done this before and it's a nice way to burn some calories plus the scenery is a great Pt. Reyes sampler) on Friday, but K's company ended up having a team-building day so we went there first instead.
Team building for a game company means: paintball! K's sordid past includes some hard-core paintballer years, so he had the gear and the attitude to have some fun playing. I watched some of it, but wandered off for a part of the time. His colleagues were very nice about inviting me to join, but I was happy to pass on the bruises and bonus sweat. We were headed camping, after all.
We managed to get into camp before dark, but there was no sign of D and M. Unfortunately, between the heat, paintball, and hiking, K had triggered himself a migraine. Our stove was nearly out of gas, so it took forever to cook dinner, plus we waited a good while for D and M to show up (enjoying some primo star-gazing in the process, at least until the unbelievably bright moon showed up). In the end, K went to bed with barely any food (but a lot of Excedrin) in him, and D & M made the hike in glorious full moonlight and found the camp just fine. M cheerily said, "I think I've pitched more tents in the dark than in daylight!" as she did exactly that.
A note about the moonlight: a recent New Yorker article talked about how cities are _over_lit. Planners (and people) tend to favor more light, with the assumption that that means more visibility and more safety. However, it turns out that humans are really well adapted for low-light seeing, and studies have shown that _less_ light often results in lower crime and vandalism. Plus, there's the environmental effect whereby some animals navigate via the brightness of the stars (newborn sea turtles, for example), and since cities are now brighter than the ocean reflecting the sky, they're getting misdirected and dying in great numbers. My personal test of wandering around camp without my headlamp on and, later, under just the moonlight confirmed that I could see just fine. Not particularly detailed, but fine enough to find my way, not get hurt, and notice other moving objects on the trail. The article prompted me to downsize our porch light, and I'm glad I did. Now, how can we get more cities to work on decreasing their light pollution? (Yeah yeah, I've seen the Simpsons episode.)
When we woke up in the morning, there was a deer in our camp.
Saturday we opted for the Coast Trail, which somehow ended up being a round-trip hike of about 9 miles, including side trips to Sculptured Beach and Arch Rock. The tides weren't with us, so we couldn't do any really cool exploring, but the hike was beautiful and we saw lots of birds (mostly pelicans) and a few seals. M is a very entertaining energizer bunny. She gets these weird urges to run, and apparently D has a collection of photos of M running away from him. (So far, she always comes back.) She definitely helped the miles go faster. I think.
We were pretty pooped by the time we got back to camp. D was darn near zombified ("Braaaains...") and we managed to summon enough energy to make dinner (yummy pasta) and plop into bed. We'd planned a moonlit trip to the beach, but we were all fast asleep by then.
The next morning we packed up the camp, walked down to the beach, and proceeded to sit there for a few hours. It was great. Peaceful, relaxing, sunny...D was man enough to go swimming (nutbar), and after the initial I-can't-breathe-it's-so-cold shock, seemed to have a good time splashing around. Thankfully the undertow wasn't acting up that day. We saw seals, horses, dogs, and even some more albino sheep. (Yes, SHEEP.) We were there long enough to watch the tide come in, and eventually peeled ourselves away and headed back to our cars.
That night we managed to tidy ourselves up enough to head into the city for dinner with my Dad (mmm...chicken), and slept well in our own beds. The next day: chores and Teh Haloz. Ah, vacation!
K and I went on another three-day trip to Point Reyes National Seashore. This time we were at Coast Camp right next to the water, and were joined by our friends D and M. We had originally planned to hike over Mount Wittenberg to the camp (we've done this before and it's a nice way to burn some calories plus the scenery is a great Pt. Reyes sampler) on Friday, but K's company ended up having a team-building day so we went there first instead.
Team building for a game company means: paintball! K's sordid past includes some hard-core paintballer years, so he had the gear and the attitude to have some fun playing. I watched some of it, but wandered off for a part of the time. His colleagues were very nice about inviting me to join, but I was happy to pass on the bruises and bonus sweat. We were headed camping, after all.
We managed to get into camp before dark, but there was no sign of D and M. Unfortunately, between the heat, paintball, and hiking, K had triggered himself a migraine. Our stove was nearly out of gas, so it took forever to cook dinner, plus we waited a good while for D and M to show up (enjoying some primo star-gazing in the process, at least until the unbelievably bright moon showed up). In the end, K went to bed with barely any food (but a lot of Excedrin) in him, and D & M made the hike in glorious full moonlight and found the camp just fine. M cheerily said, "I think I've pitched more tents in the dark than in daylight!" as she did exactly that.
A note about the moonlight: a recent New Yorker article talked about how cities are _over_lit. Planners (and people) tend to favor more light, with the assumption that that means more visibility and more safety. However, it turns out that humans are really well adapted for low-light seeing, and studies have shown that _less_ light often results in lower crime and vandalism. Plus, there's the environmental effect whereby some animals navigate via the brightness of the stars (newborn sea turtles, for example), and since cities are now brighter than the ocean reflecting the sky, they're getting misdirected and dying in great numbers. My personal test of wandering around camp without my headlamp on and, later, under just the moonlight confirmed that I could see just fine. Not particularly detailed, but fine enough to find my way, not get hurt, and notice other moving objects on the trail. The article prompted me to downsize our porch light, and I'm glad I did. Now, how can we get more cities to work on decreasing their light pollution? (Yeah yeah, I've seen the Simpsons episode.)
When we woke up in the morning, there was a deer in our camp.
Saturday we opted for the Coast Trail, which somehow ended up being a round-trip hike of about 9 miles, including side trips to Sculptured Beach and Arch Rock. The tides weren't with us, so we couldn't do any really cool exploring, but the hike was beautiful and we saw lots of birds (mostly pelicans) and a few seals. M is a very entertaining energizer bunny. She gets these weird urges to run, and apparently D has a collection of photos of M running away from him. (So far, she always comes back.) She definitely helped the miles go faster. I think.
We were pretty pooped by the time we got back to camp. D was darn near zombified ("Braaaains...") and we managed to summon enough energy to make dinner (yummy pasta) and plop into bed. We'd planned a moonlit trip to the beach, but we were all fast asleep by then.
The next morning we packed up the camp, walked down to the beach, and proceeded to sit there for a few hours. It was great. Peaceful, relaxing, sunny...D was man enough to go swimming (nutbar), and after the initial I-can't-breathe-it's-so-cold shock, seemed to have a good time splashing around. Thankfully the undertow wasn't acting up that day. We saw seals, horses, dogs, and even some more albino sheep. (Yes, SHEEP.) We were there long enough to watch the tide come in, and eventually peeled ourselves away and headed back to our cars.
That night we managed to tidy ourselves up enough to head into the city for dinner with my Dad (mmm...chicken), and slept well in our own beds. The next day: chores and Teh Haloz. Ah, vacation!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
On the Road Again
Been a while since we posted...it's been busy.
We got out to see S&P&S&N for their housewarming and anniversary party in Merced, and it was another blissful day at the pool. They even put my name on one of the floaties! Slight drawback was that the "permanent marker" was no match for Coppertone Bug & Sun (SPF 15 and DEET), so I briefly had some very fetching black marker tattoos.
I'm in Birmingham (UK) this week, and would entertain you with a photo of my hotel room & environs, except I forgot to bring my camera hookup cable. It's a nice hotel room that looks out over trees and...another hotel. I'm rather more interested in checking out the pool at some point. And, while it is a very nice hotel room, it turns out we are some distance from the city-center, so I'm planning to be healthfully familiar with the hotel accoutrements before Friday.
We got out to see S&P&S&N for their housewarming and anniversary party in Merced, and it was another blissful day at the pool. They even put my name on one of the floaties! Slight drawback was that the "permanent marker" was no match for Coppertone Bug & Sun (SPF 15 and DEET), so I briefly had some very fetching black marker tattoos.
I'm in Birmingham (UK) this week, and would entertain you with a photo of my hotel room & environs, except I forgot to bring my camera hookup cable. It's a nice hotel room that looks out over trees and...another hotel. I'm rather more interested in checking out the pool at some point. And, while it is a very nice hotel room, it turns out we are some distance from the city-center, so I'm planning to be healthfully familiar with the hotel accoutrements before Friday.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Careful what you wish for
Remember my comment about taking all the 4.x earthquakes in the world rather than a Big One? Well, there was a 3.2 last night around midnight that jolted me awake, and a 2.7 on Saturday night that jostled my sudoku session.
The list of earthquakes in our region seems sobering at first, but the actual numbers are quite low. Could be a truck going by...could be an earthquake. Given that the wind patterns are pushing the constant sound of trains our way at night, I've got enough nightmares without actual ground motion!
The list of earthquakes in our region seems sobering at first, but the actual numbers are quite low. Could be a truck going by...could be an earthquake. Given that the wind patterns are pushing the constant sound of trains our way at night, I've got enough nightmares without actual ground motion!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Baseball, Olive Trees, Model Ships, Tents
Been a bit remiss on posting, but real life gets busy sometimes.
Went to a baseball game in the rain today. What? Okay, it was really your classic spitting Bay Area fog, but I was decidedly wet. And unimpressed with the weather. It did humid up a few times, but I ended up wearing my fleece for most of the game. Thank goodness my colleague G brought her fleece blanket and was willing to share. I also managed to convince my workmates that the cheese that comes with nachos is really made of plastic. We were all very disappointed that the malt guys didn't come around after the 3rd inning. It's a vast anti-malt conspiracy, attempting to replace our ballpark favorite with crappy Dibs, Toll House cookie sandwiches, and sno-cones. Feh!
I also finally planted the olive tree that mom gave me for my birthday. It's been sitting, happily potted, in the backyard since the BBQ. R gave me some llama dung (yes, llama dung) to help give it a good start. He has a garden at his house in Napa and it produces the most amazing vegetables - he says, because of the llama dung. Interestingly, the area around where I've been watering the olive tree has sprouted new evil weeds. The ground in our neighborhood is so fertile, it's just waiting for more water to make it go crazy. (In digging a hole for my tree I came across all kinds of root networks, ready to send up new shoots.) All the more reason to replace our lawn with something more environmentally conscious, I say.
And isn't it funny how "weeds" are "the plants we don't want"? I was thinking that the other weekend when pulling up the bastards. I wish there were a better way for me to like what my garden volunteers.
My guest feature photo this post are models from my brother's childhood collection. I remember these being displayed with great respect on the high-up shelves in his bedroom when we were growing up. (High enough so I couldn't mess with them, I assume. My brother is no dummy.) They've been a bit dinged around in storage at Dad's, and somehow I am now in possession of them. (Along with C's storage "bank", containing mainly Boy Scout merit badges so far as I can tell.) Hey bro, do you want these back?
We also bought a tent on sale at REI. K decided he doesn't have enough sprawl room for sleeping in our current 2-person tent. When we got it home, I insisted on setting it up in living room and testing it. It's definitely bigger than it looks in this photo. Hee hee!
Went to a baseball game in the rain today. What? Okay, it was really your classic spitting Bay Area fog, but I was decidedly wet. And unimpressed with the weather. It did humid up a few times, but I ended up wearing my fleece for most of the game. Thank goodness my colleague G brought her fleece blanket and was willing to share. I also managed to convince my workmates that the cheese that comes with nachos is really made of plastic. We were all very disappointed that the malt guys didn't come around after the 3rd inning. It's a vast anti-malt conspiracy, attempting to replace our ballpark favorite with crappy Dibs, Toll House cookie sandwiches, and sno-cones. Feh!
I also finally planted the olive tree that mom gave me for my birthday. It's been sitting, happily potted, in the backyard since the BBQ. R gave me some llama dung (yes, llama dung) to help give it a good start. He has a garden at his house in Napa and it produces the most amazing vegetables - he says, because of the llama dung. Interestingly, the area around where I've been watering the olive tree has sprouted new evil weeds. The ground in our neighborhood is so fertile, it's just waiting for more water to make it go crazy. (In digging a hole for my tree I came across all kinds of root networks, ready to send up new shoots.) All the more reason to replace our lawn with something more environmentally conscious, I say.And isn't it funny how "weeds" are "the plants we don't want"? I was thinking that the other weekend when pulling up the bastards. I wish there were a better way for me to like what my garden volunteers.
My guest feature photo this post are models from my brother's childhood collection. I remember these being displayed with great respect on the high-up shelves in his bedroom when we were growing up. (High enough so I couldn't mess with them, I assume. My brother is no dummy.) They've been a bit dinged around in storage at Dad's, and somehow I am now in possession of them. (Along with C's storage "bank", containing mainly Boy Scout merit badges so far as I can tell.) Hey bro, do you want these back? 
We also bought a tent on sale at REI. K decided he doesn't have enough sprawl room for sleeping in our current 2-person tent. When we got it home, I insisted on setting it up in living room and testing it. It's definitely bigger than it looks in this photo. Hee hee!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
K's Chicken Abomination Recipe
In response to a friend's request for the recipe, K wrote:
Weeelll...see...um...part of it is from the Best Recipe "grill-roasted chicken" recipe. And part of it is from stuff I read. And I made the rest up.
I'll do my best to remember everything. Here we go:
Ingredients:
1 chicken
1 can of beer (quality not important; I use Pabst Blue Ribbon)
1 cup (or so) herbal chicken rub
1 cup (or so) kosher salt
The herbal rub:
I use the paprika-based chicken rub in The Best Recipe. You can use any chicken rub, really, as long as it does NOT contain salt. You are brining this bird, and that would be way too salty to eat if you use a salt rub. Go for things like rosemary, paprika, oregano, sage, basil, cumin, and just a little hot stuff like cayenne. Google "chicken spice rub" and you'll get lots of ideas.
The night before:
- Get a non-reactive (glass or plastic) tub or pot just big enough to contain the chicken. Fill with enough water to cover the chicken (best guess is fine).
- Dissolve the salt in the water, stirring until it's clear.
- Put the chicken in the brine and put the tub in the fridge.
The morning before:
- Dump the brine out.
- Rinse the chicken in cool water and pat dry.
- Massage the chicken, inside and out, with the herb rub.
- Put the chicken back into the fridge.
1-2 hours before mealtime:
- Take the chicken out of the fridge.
- Open the beer and pour off (or drink) just less than half of it.
- With an old-style triangular can opener, punch two extra holes in the top of the can so it looks sorta like a radiation symbol.
Okay, now at this point, you do different things depending on whether you're grilling or oven-roasting.
Oven-roasting (less prep, weather-immune, milder flavor)
- Remove the top rack from the oven and set the bottom rack as low as necessary to fit a vertical chicken.
- Preheat the oven to 375 or so. Anything from 350-400 is fine.
- Get a pan with raised sides and put a cake cooling rack or roasting rack in the bottom of it.
- Shove the beer up the chicken's butt.
- Stand the chicken on its drunsticks and the beer can in a sort of tripod setup, with the beer can on the rack and the drumsticks poking through to rest on the roaster pan bottom.
- Put the pan with the chicken in it into the oven.
- Monitor the temperature. It's ready when the deepest part of the breast meat is 170. Depending on your oven and the size of the bird, it'll take an hour or two.
Smoking (tastier, much more macho)
NOTE: You need a grill that has enough headroom to fit a vertical chicken under its lid.
- Fire up your charcoal grill. Get 4 or 5 big (3") hardwood chunks, soak them in water for an hour, and add them to hot barbecue coals.
- Or get a handful of hardwood chips, make a double-thick tinfoil tray, soak the chips in water for an hour, then put them in the tray and set the tray on the grill.
- If you have a gas grill, fire up your gas grill to low/medium, then use the chip try method above.
- Stand the bird on the grill, using the drumsticks and beer can as a tripod. I find that it's more stable if the drumsticks are jammed between the grill bars.
- Cover the bird. Check on it every 15 minutes or so and adjust the temperature of the gas grill, or add briquets to a charcoal grill, to keep the heat up while not scorching the outside of the meat. Replenish wood chips if they burn off.
- Monitor the temperature. It's ready when the deepest part of the breast meat is 170. Depending on your grill and the size of the bird, it'll take an hour or two.
Okay, now the tricky part: removing the beer can. This recipe makes fall-apart chicken that is very moist and tender. So you will have some trouble getting the beer can out without making a huge mess.
First, get the beer out of the can, otherwise you risk spilling it all over your chicken during extraction. Not great. Take a meat fork (you know, those ones with two big ol' prongs) and punch a hole in the bottom of the can and let the beer drain out. For effect, I sometimes do this while it's still on the grill. (Stab! Pfffsssshhhh!!! Oooo! Aaah!)
Now you can set the brid down horizontally and gently twist and pull until it's free. Remember, it's hot! Sometimes a knife needs to be inserted and run around the perimeter of the can to free it.
Ta da! Ready to carve and serve.
Weeelll...see...um...part of it is from the Best Recipe "grill-roasted chicken" recipe. And part of it is from stuff I read. And I made the rest up.
I'll do my best to remember everything. Here we go:
Ingredients:
1 chicken
1 can of beer (quality not important; I use Pabst Blue Ribbon)
1 cup (or so) herbal chicken rub
1 cup (or so) kosher salt
The herbal rub:
I use the paprika-based chicken rub in The Best Recipe. You can use any chicken rub, really, as long as it does NOT contain salt. You are brining this bird, and that would be way too salty to eat if you use a salt rub. Go for things like rosemary, paprika, oregano, sage, basil, cumin, and just a little hot stuff like cayenne. Google "chicken spice rub" and you'll get lots of ideas.
The night before:
- Get a non-reactive (glass or plastic) tub or pot just big enough to contain the chicken. Fill with enough water to cover the chicken (best guess is fine).
- Dissolve the salt in the water, stirring until it's clear.
- Put the chicken in the brine and put the tub in the fridge.
The morning before:
- Dump the brine out.
- Rinse the chicken in cool water and pat dry.
- Massage the chicken, inside and out, with the herb rub.
- Put the chicken back into the fridge.
1-2 hours before mealtime:
- Take the chicken out of the fridge.
- Open the beer and pour off (or drink) just less than half of it.
- With an old-style triangular can opener, punch two extra holes in the top of the can so it looks sorta like a radiation symbol.
Okay, now at this point, you do different things depending on whether you're grilling or oven-roasting.
Oven-roasting (less prep, weather-immune, milder flavor)
- Remove the top rack from the oven and set the bottom rack as low as necessary to fit a vertical chicken.
- Preheat the oven to 375 or so. Anything from 350-400 is fine.
- Get a pan with raised sides and put a cake cooling rack or roasting rack in the bottom of it.
- Shove the beer up the chicken's butt.
- Stand the chicken on its drunsticks and the beer can in a sort of tripod setup, with the beer can on the rack and the drumsticks poking through to rest on the roaster pan bottom.
- Put the pan with the chicken in it into the oven.
- Monitor the temperature. It's ready when the deepest part of the breast meat is 170. Depending on your oven and the size of the bird, it'll take an hour or two.
Smoking (tastier, much more macho)
NOTE: You need a grill that has enough headroom to fit a vertical chicken under its lid.
- Fire up your charcoal grill. Get 4 or 5 big (3") hardwood chunks, soak them in water for an hour, and add them to hot barbecue coals.
- Or get a handful of hardwood chips, make a double-thick tinfoil tray, soak the chips in water for an hour, then put them in the tray and set the tray on the grill.
- If you have a gas grill, fire up your gas grill to low/medium, then use the chip try method above.
- Stand the bird on the grill, using the drumsticks and beer can as a tripod. I find that it's more stable if the drumsticks are jammed between the grill bars.
- Cover the bird. Check on it every 15 minutes or so and adjust the temperature of the gas grill, or add briquets to a charcoal grill, to keep the heat up while not scorching the outside of the meat. Replenish wood chips if they burn off.
- Monitor the temperature. It's ready when the deepest part of the breast meat is 170. Depending on your grill and the size of the bird, it'll take an hour or two.
Okay, now the tricky part: removing the beer can. This recipe makes fall-apart chicken that is very moist and tender. So you will have some trouble getting the beer can out without making a huge mess.
First, get the beer out of the can, otherwise you risk spilling it all over your chicken during extraction. Not great. Take a meat fork (you know, those ones with two big ol' prongs) and punch a hole in the bottom of the can and let the beer drain out. For effect, I sometimes do this while it's still on the grill. (Stab! Pfffsssshhhh!!! Oooo! Aaah!)
Now you can set the brid down horizontally and gently twist and pull until it's free. Remember, it's hot! Sometimes a knife needs to be inserted and run around the perimeter of the can to free it.
Ta da! Ready to carve and serve.
Weekend Update
Sorry no posts last week. Couldn't talk. Too busy.
Last week was actually rather stressful, so I did the Girl Thing and rounded it off by getting a nice pink pedicure. Yes, pink. Rather a bit more pink than I'd planned, but the color was leftover from an impulse buy in San Diego (we were there for cousin M's excellent wedding). It's kind of a happy pink, so it'll do.
Saturday I headed out with some girlfriends to visit another girlfriend who has moved to Merced. We had a fantastic day at their pool in the 90-100 degree weather. There was one moment when I was lying in the pool on a green floatie and thinking that I felt just about perfect. There's nothing like idleness, a little Vitamin D, and kahlua brownies to cheer up the soul. If I can get a chauffeur to drive me to/from Merced next time (~2.5 hours), it'll be perfect. Now where could I find one of those? Sweetie?
This past week was more relaxed, partly because my boss it out of town, and partly because my brain was fried. The main excitement Friday morning was the 4.2 earthquake, some 5 miles from our house. We're used to the occasional rumbler, but this one jolted us out of bed and really zapped us awake. Small earthquakes aren't usually that scary...unless you're right on top of them! We did learn a few good lessons, like the fact that my glasses were sent tumbling to the floor and I couldn't find them, not great if it were the Real Thing. But there's really no knowing what'll happen in the big one. I'll take all the 4.x earthquakes in the world, every day of the week, rather than anything bigger, thankyewverymuch.
We don't have too much lined up for this weekend (lunch with friends, dinner with Dads), and we're continuing to test out the "one weekend day free" hypothesis so I get a chance to recharge my batteries. So far, so good.
Last week was actually rather stressful, so I did the Girl Thing and rounded it off by getting a nice pink pedicure. Yes, pink. Rather a bit more pink than I'd planned, but the color was leftover from an impulse buy in San Diego (we were there for cousin M's excellent wedding). It's kind of a happy pink, so it'll do. Saturday I headed out with some girlfriends to visit another girlfriend who has moved to Merced. We had a fantastic day at their pool in the 90-100 degree weather. There was one moment when I was lying in the pool on a green floatie and thinking that I felt just about perfect. There's nothing like idleness, a little Vitamin D, and kahlua brownies to cheer up the soul. If I can get a chauffeur to drive me to/from Merced next time (~2.5 hours), it'll be perfect. Now where could I find one of those? Sweetie?
This past week was more relaxed, partly because my boss it out of town, and partly because my brain was fried. The main excitement Friday morning was the 4.2 earthquake, some 5 miles from our house. We're used to the occasional rumbler, but this one jolted us out of bed and really zapped us awake. Small earthquakes aren't usually that scary...unless you're right on top of them! We did learn a few good lessons, like the fact that my glasses were sent tumbling to the floor and I couldn't find them, not great if it were the Real Thing. But there's really no knowing what'll happen in the big one. I'll take all the 4.x earthquakes in the world, every day of the week, rather than anything bigger, thankyewverymuch.
We don't have too much lined up for this weekend (lunch with friends, dinner with Dads), and we're continuing to test out the "one weekend day free" hypothesis so I get a chance to recharge my batteries. So far, so good.
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