indelible edibles

chat with Abe Gong

2009-11-10T17:40:00.000-08:00

3:55 PM
me: how's it going?

3:56 PM
Abe: not bad
the lab was very chatty, but I finally found a quiet place to work
me: good

3:57 PM
Abe: you?
me: okay

3:58 PM
me: my strategic plan write up took a little longer than i hoped
Abe: mm
me: i'm getting nervous about this NSF grant
it's okay
there's sort of a sense of inevitability to it
whatever plan and partnerships and needs case we have now is basically what we'll have when we submit the grant
i can try to dress it up with good organization and word choice

4:00 PM
me: but even right now, the project is either there or it isn't
i don't know if that's right
but it has sort of a zen feel to it

Abe: hm
4:01 PM
Abe: sounds like the serenity prayer to me

me: haha

4:02 PM
me: the serenity to write the things i cannot change, the courage to change the things i cannot write, and the wisdom to know how to submit a grant through grants.gov

things our pumpkin is bigger than

2009-11-07T13:34:00.001-08:00

We got our pumpkin from a u-pick patch where every gourd was $5, regardless of size. We got a little carried away.

Our pumpkin is bigger than:

A banana

Our heads

A 50 lb bag of rice (almost)

We each carved a side. Abe did a goblin...

...dressed up as a phd student.

I did a mummy. (I completely copied an online photo of someone else's mummy.)

something to spice up your halloween party

2009-10-20T15:22:00.000-07:00

Abe & I have made a study of classic movies*, in part motivated by our Friday night trips to the library after everyone else has checked out the coveted new (after 1995) releases.

Many of these classics make for good Halloween celebratory fodder. Especially if you are easily creeped out (Sixth Sense and Watcher in the Woods top my horrometer). Some of these are actually quite good, some are good because they are oh, so bad.

I've added production dates and tag lines from IMDB for each movie.

Dracula 1931, "In the annals of living horror, one name stands out as the epitome of evil."
The Birds, 1963, "Suspense and shock beyond anything you have seen or imagined!"
Strangers on a Train - just the Carousel scene 1951, "It starts with a shriek of a train whistle...and ends with shrieking excitement."
Frankenstein 1931, "A Monster Science Created - But Could Not Destroy!"
Wait Until Dark 1967, "A blind woman plays a deadly game of survival."
Plan 9 from Outer Space 1959, "Unspeakable Horrors From Outer Space Paralyze The Living And Resurrect The Dead!"
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers 1956, "Before You Scoff at Flying Saucers - See the Greatest SHOCK Film of All Time!"
Creature from the Black Lagoon 1954, "A scientific expedition traveling up the Amazon River encounter a dangerous humanoid amphibious fish creature."
King Kong 1933, "A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla who takes a shine to their female blonde star."

Bonus:
Catspaw (Original Star Trek Season 2 Halloween Episode, 1967)

*And by study I mean Abe watches them and I fall asleep 2/3 of the way through. Really, the only movie on this list I didn't fall asleep through was Wait Until Dark.

a commitment to taking more walks

2009-10-15T15:34:00.001-07:00

I have been on many pleasant walks. So many, in fact, that I was resolved at the beginning of fall to take more walks.

Two Sundays ago, Abe & I took a mid-afternoon stroll around the neighborhood. I was fascinated with taking pictures of the beautiful scenery.

Abe was talking on the phone with his father.

Meanwhile, the sky looked like this.

We decided we'd better return before the clouds got angrier. The sprinkles started as we were walking down a dirt path back home. Abe was still talking to his dad.

The sprinkles got heavier. We started to jog. Abe was still on the phone ("Uh huh. ... Yeah, that sounds good, dad. ... Sure. ...").

Now it was pouring. And I had taken a wrong turn on the path so we were headed back the long way. Abe was still on the phone, but managed a graceful exit ("Actually, we're running through a rain storm right now - can I call you back in a minute?").

Did I mention that I was in a skirt and sandals this whole time?

The photo doesn't do our sopping selves justice.

these are a few of my favorite fonts

2009-10-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I interned for BYU Magazine. My fellow intern and I were hard at work in the office when he called out from his Mac, "What's your favorite font?"

Usually I find the "what's your favorite ..." game infuriatingly futile. But at the time my heart was unquestionably set on Garamond. I said as much, and my coworker replied that was his favorite font too. (We were both married - to other people - lest you think this is turning into the well-beloved Nacho Libre toast scene.)

He then countered, saying, "But if Garamond isn't an option, next is Palatino."

Which, of course, was my second favorite font, too.*

Do you have a favorite font? More to the point, do you have a favorite runner-up?

Bonus question: How do you feel about the recent proliferation of Calibri documents now that Word's default has switched from Times New Roman?

*I still like Garamond for formal documents, but Verdana has a good casual feel.

May need to check out the Carol Burnett Show from the library

2009-10-06T16:20:00.000-07:00

While reading Gone With the Wind the other night (now on pg 798), I had a sudden impulse to watch a few scenes from the movie. The first YouTube hit for "Gone With the Wind Part 1" starred, not Vivien Leigh but Carol Burnett.

Just to give you an idea, this is a still from the scene where she comes down in her new green dress made of the drapes.

Parts 1 and 2, for your enjoyment.

multi-huh?whatwasthat?-tasking

2009-10-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

I know I'm not good at paying attention to 2 things at once. But I always convince myself I am. Today, I came home from work, listening to a history lecture on reconstruction in the south after the Civic War. I tried to continue listening to the lecture while reading blog posts and thinking about what I might post on my blog tonight.

Well, I read most of the blog posts, but all I can remember about reconstruction is that after the initial influx of blacks into leadership positions there was some key turning point that then led to the rise of power for white plantation southerners. Gee.

I decided to test my ability with this Multitasking Game (***Loud music warning if you click on this link***). I think my high score was around 450. After a few minutes I felt my blood pressure rising and had to stop playing.

If you want more food for thought, here's an interesting Stanford study about multitasking. Note: The results are quite negative towards media-multitaskers. But I have some contentions with the tasks. It seems that the multitaker's strength would be in accomplishing 2 goals at the same time. However, the tests are all about accomplishing 1 goal, and filtering out interfering information.

your library request is ready to be picked up

2009-09-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

Two years ago last August, Abe & I bought a pair of Ikea's black-brown Billy bookcases. It was our first furniture purchase that didn't involve Salvation Army (or it's equivalent). Aside from a wedding ring and plane tickets home, it may have been our single biggest purchase together.

What does it say about us that our next big furniture purchase (last Saturday) was 3 additional Billy's?

I think it says that I shouldn't be surprised to look at our library accounts and find 74 checked out items - 68 books*, 6 DVDs.

We relegated the original Billy's into our bedroom. Now our living room sports the more stylish half-width Billy's, including one wall mount. The shelves will be arranged in a sort of square arch around our piano. This creates a shrine-like space above the piano and below the wall mount (the keystone, if you will). Abe has suggested a series of 3 cat statues, in increasing size, for this space**.

In transit, these books have taken residence on our bedroom floor.

I've always felt that books on someone's bookshelf are a good conversation piece. A sampling of titles from our floor:

Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
Biology of Life (Bio 101 textbook)
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Rational Herds: Economic Models of Social Learning by Christophe P. Chamley
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
Jane Austen's Complete Works by Jane Austen
4 hymnals
The Authoritative Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Beowulf by a heroic epic poet

Surprisingly, we actually own all of the above books.

*Until last week, this included one book, Trees of Michigan, that I have been renewing since June 2008 (approximately 22 renewals).
**It is disturbing that my Google search for "cat statues" came up with this photo:

pg 314 out of 1024 ... fiddle-dee-dee

2009-09-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

I have Goodreads updates on my blog sidebar of books I've read lately. It's been stagnant for some time. Not because I haven't been reading, but because I've been reading Gone With the Wind. I reserved it at the library, not realizing it is 3 inches thick.

And today I realized I could catch the whole thing in 3.06 minutes, thanks to YouTube videos set to sappy romance songs.

I may never live to finish it, but I do recommend the book. The film version is also one of the best book-to-movie conversions I've seen. (238 minutes long.)

Garden Variety

2009-09-22T18:16:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a delicious Spinach Basil Pesto, made with basil from our garden. It turned out much better than some other basil dishes we had earlier in the year. That's because earlier this year I was actually cutting Impatiens from our garden, not basil.

Story:

This summer was my first attempt at a garden. We planted several pots of herbs, and, because we had leftover soil and pots, also planted a few flowers. Everything was from seed, so I was excited to see what the plants would look like as they grew. The basil was doing well, and so were my flowers.

After a few weeks, the basil looked old enough to cut, as a garnish for our pizza or spaghetti. It didn't add very much flavor, though. I was disappointed.

Time passed.

I noticed that my flowers were looking more and more like my basil. In fact, basil seemed to be springing up in all of my pots. Then I noticed that there were 2 subtly different looking plants growing in my basil pot.

And that's when I knew: some of these plants were not basil. And I was pretty sure whatever wasn't basil was Impatiens. Finally, turning on my Cub Scout Commissioner/Forestry Merit Badge Counselor skills, I noted that one of the plants had "opposite" growing leaves and the other had "alternate" growing leaves - one of the basic traits to look for in plant identification. A few Google searches confirmed that we had been eating our Impatiens as garnish.

So last night, I was confident that it was basil I snipped and put into this lovely recipe.

Spinach Pesto

Ingredients:
10 ounces torn spinach leaves
2 garlic cloves, halved
3 tablespoons pine nuts (I didn't used these)
3 bunches fresh basil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 tsp. salt
hot, cooked linguini

Preparation:
Place a few spinach leaves, garlic, pine nuts, basil and a little oil in blender or food processor container. Cover and puree until leaves begin to look crushed. Continue adding spinach leaves a few at a time with small amounts of oil to blender, using a rubber spatula to help to combine pureed mixture. Add Parmesan cheese and 1/8 tsp. salt. Cover and process until spinach pesto mixture is smooth.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain in colander. Serve with the spinach pesto sauce.

I also added sauteed mushrooms.

Where the fishermen meet!

2009-09-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

In my family, Saturdays always meant day trips in the family van. Which was no small thing (the van, I mean. We sported a 12-passenger Ford Club Wagon, like this one but baby blue and with curtains made of PVC piping and canvas).

One memorable trip was down the Lake Michigan coast of Wisconsin. Actually, I remember nothing about the trip, except that we stopped in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, for dinner. Mom really wanted a Saturday night fish boil, with fresh fish from the Great Lakes. Of course, none of us children remotely comprehended why this would be a better option than, say, McDonalds. But to a fresh fish boil we went.

And ended up at M&Ms, or perhaps MOMs -- the restaurant's logo was ambiguous, so we were never quite sure. Maybe we should have left when they sat us at a table that still had the previous diners' trash on and under it. But we didn't leave. After all, fish boil.

Mom ordered her fish and we all got something with fries. But even the fries weren't a safe bet. They had a distinct yeasty taste. Being in Wisconsin, there was a strong possibility that they were deep fried in beer. We added more ketchup, but the yeast taste got worse. Then we realized the ketchup bottle was marked with an expiration that pre-dated my birth.

It didn't help that I had ordered a kiddie-sized milkshake (we're a "I'll just start with a water" family, so I knew Mom and Dad wouldn't take a full shake well). The shake came in a shot glass-size paper cup that I managed to stretch out to 2 spoon fulls.

M&Ms/MOMs has always been something of a joke to us since. My family moved away from Wisconsin about 13 years ago, and (to their surprise and ours) my parents moved back about 2 years. In between, Dad was on a business trip there and ended up in Two Rivers. He bought a black logo truckers hat from M&Ms/MOMs for me.

And this weekend, I finally found the perfect venue to wear it at.

Demolition Derby! The Michigan state championship, no less, held at the Saline Fair. My friend Elizabeth invited us, and, as she says, if you haven't gone, you should go because "it's a lot more fun than it should be".

Some footage:

Generally, what happens at a demolition derby.

Note the dirt flying at us.

Captioning: "He's got the rear end shoved up in the sheet metal." And just which one of these cars might you be talking about, sir?

They also had a truck heat.

In my M&Ms/MOMs hat.

p.s. I actually found M&Ms/MOMs website, and confirmed the name. M&Ms Lunch and Catering. Catering?! Their slogan: "Come and eat where the fishermen meet!"

Toronto Days 3 & 4

2009-09-12T12:16:00.000-07:00

The last of my Toronto series.

Saturday we went to lunch at Spring Rolls with the BYU political science crew. Good food, lacking in service. They forgot to bring desserts until we remembered, which was right before we had to go. They gave us 10% off gift cards good between 2-5 and 8:30-10:00 weekdays. So, next time we're in Toronto...

I walked around the farmer's market, then headed to the harbour front, where I sat in the grass reading The Pelican Brief and lost track of all time.

Abe & I met up again. CN Tower in the background. Tallest tower in the world, before DuBai beat them last year.

In the evening we went to High Park to see The Tempest performed outside. It was wonderful. Though by the time we got back it was 10:30 and we hadn't eaten. We made a wrong turn off the subway and ended up walking nowhere towards food. We finally landed at our hotel (photo above) and got sandwiches from Tim Hortons across the street.

Tim Hortons in the morning - we had to go back for donuts.

Eating donuts in traffic. We got 2 chocolate glaze, Boston cream, strawberry jelly with white frosting glaze, strawberry jelly powdered, and Canadian maple (also with cream). Boston cream was a clear winner, with Canadian maple coming in at a close second.

In traffic, for 1.5 hours just getting out of Toronto. I prefer seeing the city by foot.

Toronto Day 2

2009-09-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

Continuing my final summer vacation series...

I started Day 2 by going to Abe's conference to see him present on his paper "Applying Voice Recognition to Vox Populi: State Transition Models and the Study of Public Opinion and Political Communication". There were 5 people on the panel and about 15 of us in the audience. Actually pretty good average for an academic conference.

Afterwards, we went to lunch at Richtree Market. I enjoyed delicious pad thai.

The restaurant was based on an open market concept. After being seated, you received a "shopper's card" and could then stroll through a maze of different eateries, swipe your card to get some of their food, return to eat, and then pay for your entire shopper's card when you left. Think high school cafeteria meets bistro.

After that I went to the Art Gallery of Ontario, which my guidebook said was $5. It was actually $18, so I left and went to the Bao Xi contemporary art gallery across the street (free). It was a two-story, 15-ish-painting gallery and I absolutely loved it.

Then I headed over to campus to see the rare book library and museum. The "museum" was 5 display cases with 16-18c books. But it was on a floor that sort of floated inside a round hall several stories high, filled with rare books. Despite the bust of Shakespeare, I sited no Shakespearean writings in the museum.

While contemplating vellum, I heard shouts and screams outside. Come to find out, freshman orientation at Toronto University includes 1,000s of students parading through several city blocks. Everywhere I went, I could see or hear their giant snake of different colleges and clubs, weaving up and down the streets.

Campus, sans students.

I met up with Abe and his academic folk at a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown for dinner.

Abe got the XL soup.

We finished the night by walking to the city hall building. You can see the spacecraft ready to shoot up, just above the fountain.

End of Summer Series

2009-09-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

To finish my string of vacation posts, here is Part 1 of the Toronto Series. Abe & I traveled 4.5 hours to Toronto last Wednesday. He had a conference and a graduate program-subsidized hotel room downtown, so I tagged along.

My adventures began Thursday morning. I took on the city with only my Timbuk2 messenger bag, Keens sandals, and 3 Toronto travel guides.

First stop, Ontario Science Centre. I don't have many photos, maybe because I wasn't very impressed. My analysis of their exhibits needs its own blog post, when I'm ready to get more philosophical and less travelical, so more on that later.

Early afternoon I was back downtown - Chinatown, to be exact. I took the subway here, started walking, and didn't stop until it was 8 pm and I'd seen most of the city. Lunch was delicious shrimp dumpling and noodle soup, for $3.95.

From Chinatown I headed to Kensington Market. I wish I had more photos of the market. Tight city streets lined with Indian boutiques, Chinese bargain shops, and vintage treasure houses. The shops are all in old Victorian-style (maybe? I think?) homes. Or, the odd vehicular reclamation project car.

I trekked across town to the Bata Shoe Museum, which may be one of the coolest museums I've been to. 10,000 shoes, telling stories about different cultures, religions, women's high heels through the 1920s-1980s, and Sir Elton John.

After that, Crepes A Go-Go, a small French bistro, where I had an amazing buckwheat crepe filled with strawberries, brie, spinach, and a drizzle of maple syrup.

During my 45-minute walk bag to the hotel, dusk was settling in, so I got some nice shots of city buildings. Toronto is a very clean city. There were some street corners where I could stand, look in all four directions and not see any trash - not even cigarette butts.

5 Years and 40% Chance of Rain

2009-09-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a great vacation in Toronto, Canada, but I'm still a trip behind, so more on Canada later, eh?

Two weekends ago we headed out to Traverse Bay and Sleeping Bear Dunes in northern Michigan for a 2 night, 3 day camping trip in celebration of our 5th anniversary. The original plan was to leave Thursday morning, but because I needed another vacation day for Toronto the next weekend, we made it Thursday after work. Even then, Thursday at 5pm found Abe frantically finishing a paper due that night that he'd been working on non-stop for 3 days. His eyes were glazed when I met him at the bus stop, and he said he felt like he was floating. With my editor's pen in hand, I helped him round out the rough edges and get it in by 6:30.

With a late start, we didn't make it to camp until about 11:30pm. Luckily, the camp manager was across the road from us and kept blazing Christmas lights around her camper all night, so we had plenty of light to set up our tent.

We were so excited to be on a getaway together, and to have actually gotten away, that we were determined not to let anything ruin the trip - including the weather forecast of rain until Sunday.

Despite threatening skies, we enjoyed beautiful hikes around the dunes off of Lake Michigan.

Four things to note from this photo. 1) Gorgeous water. 2) Sand you want to roll it. 3) Skyline that looks like we're on the edge of the world. 4) Steepness and length of the dune climb (this is only half of it).

Do we look like we've been camping?

We went on a 4-mile dune hike to the edge of the water. When Abe got there he gathered white and black stones and played a game of "Go" (Ancient Japanese game, still around today, supposed to be harder than chess. Note: I sat on a log and laughed at a piece of driftwood that looked like a bunny. And you wonder why our two family reunions were so different.)

If you noted the cloudy skies in above photos, then you won't be surprised that we hit a rainstorm in the late afternoon. Luckily it cleared long enough for Abe to start a fire out of wet wood (I don't know how he does it, but he can basically start a fire anywhere) and for me to cook up some tinfoil dinners.

It rained all night. This is our tent in the morning, after we cleared our gear out. Look at the photo again. See the water line by the disc? See how it goes all around our tent. It's dry in the middle because that's where our air mattress was. The air mattress and blankets soaked up the rest of the water. While we were sleeping.

It was still raining the morning and we were hungry. This was our solution.

They may have been the most delicious blueberry pancakes I've ever had. Bonus - I got to wear my baby blue jumpsuit, which I stuffed in a paper bag at a local thrift store a few weeks ago when they were having a Bag Sale (everything you can fit in a bag for $5 total).

We don't have any photos of us kayaking and swimming in Traverse Bay, because it never happened. The rain persisted until we drove home late that night. Instead, we showered, drove around admiring the wet scenery, bought blueberries (they were out of the famous sweet cherries), and went out to eat in Traverse City at a bay-side restaurant with a great view and even better white fish and balsamic vinagrette.

In the end, we were both surprised at how much fun we had.

How Far Does the Apple Fall From the Tree?

2009-08-31T18:03:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from a round robin of family reunions. They were all ... completely different. I will attempt to recreate them here.

Reunion #1
Title: A Redneck Family Reunion
Location: Family Farm, Plymouth, Utah (Just south of idaho and north of nowhere. It's okay, no one else has heard of it either)
Events: Flag raising ceremony, farm fix-up projects, mud pit volleyball, arm pit band contest, pond tubing with 4-wheelers, pond slide (tarp + tires), cardboard box and duct tape pinata
Highlights: Uncle Cory's false teeth and mullet, caravan of aunts' and uncles' outfits to the backyard turned KOA, sudden tornado that blew awning plus various relatives across the lawn and spiraled an air mattress several stories into the air

Mud volleyball

Abe & I after mud volleyball.

Gray hitting redneck pinata.

Matriarch of the clan.

And, of course, the annual Sister Act. Mom, you said no YouTube, but you didn't say anything about blogs...

Reunion #2
Title: Gong Family Reunion 2009
Location: Spring Haven Lodge, Hobblecreek Canyon, Utah. "Spring Haven Lodge, located in the serene mountains east of Springville, is a rustic yet refined retreat for those looking to enjoy classic elegance." (from their website)
Events: Something I'd Like to Share: a presentation followed by Q&A of your life updates (powerpoint available upon advance request), photo sharing and paste up, games in the gymnasium
Highlights: Dinner featuring ingredients such as fresh basil, avocado, or hand-pulled pork; re-creation of the past 20+ years of family reunions from memory; after hours cousins games of improv; fueled by chocolate milk and chips and salsa

Family hike. Surprisingly, I have no photos of the powerpoint presentations.

Reunion #3
Title: Lindsay Reunion
Location: Park City, Utah
Events: eating, sleeping, playing board games, swimming, riding the Alpine Slide,
pinata
Highlights: Playing board games, eating, sleeping (in that order)

Said board games.

Real pinata.

With Grandma on ski lift to Alpine Slide.

A reminder that Utah can be beautiful.

Re-routing to Wisconsin

2009-08-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I took a solo trip to Wisconsin to meet up with my parents and my niece and nephew, who were staying with them for a few weeks. I was a little nervous about staying alert for a 7.5-hour drive on my own, but, armed with Amelia Peabody mysteries on tape, I made it without so much as a nod.

I brought several books with me, to read while relaxing on the sofa or outside on a blanket. Boy, was I mistaken. I don't think they even made it out of my bag. Mornings I woke up to my 7 year old niece standing by my bed, ready to play. We did breakfast, games, Wii Fit, and piano playing until lunch time. Then we went off on one adventure or another. We also did an overnight trip to the Wisconsin Dells and Noah's Ark, America's Largest Waterpark.

The first day in Wisconsin, we visited the New Zoo. I remember taking a field trip here when I was in elementary school. The lion peed on one of my classmates. My niece and nephew have a chicken coop at home, so they were very excited to chase this guy (girl?) down.

My mom and niece in the teeny tiny train car that wound around the zoo. I can still hear the happy music playing in my head...

The whole family!

Of course, no zoo trip is complete without the "human-head-in-place-of-an-animal" board.

At our motel at the Dells. It had 3 pools alone. One of them had a slide in the shape of a giant whale. It seemed to be the thing there. Every motel had a pool with a slide in a horrific rendition of some animal or mystical creature. The strangest one I saw was a prancing pink unicorn.

We went to the Tommy Bartlett show at the Dells. This circular structure rotated around (like the hands of a clock). There was a person in each of the cylinders at the end. They actually stood on the outside of the cylinders as it spun around.

One day we took a ferry to Washington Island, near Door County (basically at the tip of Wisconsin's tiny thumb sticking out into Lake Michigan). I think Dad was meant to be a seaman.

Mom and I in our sunglasses.

Not to be left out, Naomi sporting my glasses.

After the ferry (and riding bikes around the island) we can back for a fish boil. They boil fish on a fire outdoors, and at the very end throw kerosene on the fire to make it boil over, to get excess oils off, or maybe just to look completely awesome.

Mom and dad with the fish dinner. It was delicious!

Sketch to the Finish Line

2009-08-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

I came across a wonderfully fun web application called Odosketch.

It simulates using a sketch pad, and is really quite realistic. You can choose from a palette of colors, and the speed of your sketching determines how rough/fine the lines come out (took me a while to figure that out...).

I did this sketch using the mouse pad on my laptop (not recommended). It's a rough representation of me (the maroon blob) streaking through the finish line of the 5K race I ran this morning.

Visit this link for a larger image.

Yes, I did say 5K. No, I do not run. I have not run for several years. Abe & I decided to do this race purely because of peer pressure.

We went on a 2-ish mile practice run Monday night. Neither of us was seriously injured (although the next day we both came down with bad colds from which we are still recovering - I blame the run), so we went through with the race today. Again, no injuries, though I am moving quite sluggishly now. In fact, I am not moving at all, right now.

Encouraged by my fellow racers and Abe yelling for me to "Bid! Bid!" at the finish line (bidding is diving in Ultimate), I came in a few seconds over 25 minutes.

Thrift Store Find

2009-08-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

I randomly stopped by a thrift store on my way to pick up my friend's dying plants. I went straight to the shoe section, which I never do because it's usually a low yield strategy.

But the first thing that caught my eye were these babies.

Not just because they are neon blue. They are also Keens, a great brand for footwear. Thank goodness the store didn't know that, because they were priced at only $3 (list price $85).

Summer-ography continued

2009-08-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

We've been disc golfing 3 times since purchasing our set of discs. This is at a local course (24 holes!) about a week and a half ago.

We started off eating delicious grilled vegetable and mozzarella paninis (highly recommend).

This is part of the course. Michigan is beautiful!

This is where my discs often ended up.

Yes, that is the launching pad in the immediate background. Sometimes my throws have quite a slice to the left.

Note the mosquito-infested bog behind me. The bright orange disc is obscured by the mud.

Blog Forecast for July and August: Mostly Photos, Slight Chance of Video, Deeply Stimulating Discussion Unlikely

2009-07-25T07:19:00.001-07:00

Summer vacation is in full swing, and we finally purchased a new camera, which means my usually thought-provoking entries will be replaced by lengthy slideshows documenting how much fun I'm having not thinking.

We start this summer photo series with last weekend's main sports event. My sister and her family were in town for the regional art fair. Although I don't have any photos of that, I do have some great shots of us playing Disc Golf. I can't recall a time visiting my sister and not playing some kind of disc sport. Last weekend was no exception.

Abe and I bought 6 new Disc Golf discs, which was a big step for us, as we have hitherto been exclusive Ultimate players.

My niece, Amelia, and I both have great form.

How my other niece, Elsa, went through most of the 9 holes.

Our new camera has a sports action setting that takes multiple shots seconds apart. The resulting filmstrips are small on screen, but worth enlarging.

My sister, Sarah, clearly has a laid-back, controlled style.

Quite unlike Ben, her husband.

Amelia is well on her way.

Abe has a great start.

But needs to work on his end game.

Do they make one with a side car?

2009-07-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

This afternoon at work I was searching online for a grant foundation by the name of Hearst. One of the sponsored links on the side of my search read: Motorcycle Trike Hearse. Designed to carry die hard bikers to their final resting place.

How could I resist?

The link took me to this website, where, indeed, you can purchase your own motorcycle hearse for only $12,000. Drive the Highway to Heaven in a wide array of exterior colors. Additional features such as imported European carriage lamps and tempered glass available.

From the website:

Dear self,

2009-07-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

You like your job.

I know you can see the sunny 78 degrees out of your office window all day and would rather spread out a blanket on the grass and read all day instead of run regressions on visitor data and hunt down more possible grant funds. But you like data and government money. So it's okay.

I know you would rather sit at the breakfast table on the screened-in porch, letting the soft morning light settle on your arms and cheeks. But running down the morning bus is good calisthenics.

I know that freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and an old sci-fi flick sound like just the thing tonight. But going to bed so you can wake up early again tomorrow has a reassuring Puritanical feel to it. Well, okay. Maybe there's time for the cookies.

Anyway, if nothing else, take comfort in knowing that you won't have to worry about this in 6 months from now. Michigan will change states of matter to solid ice, and being shut up in an office all day will be a pleasant alternative to braving the -10 degree terrain.

So in the meantime, enjoy the view of the Ginkgo tree outside your window.

Affectionately responsible,

Your better half

Hammocks and Impuse Shopping - An American Tradition

2009-07-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

Any trip to the store - grocery, convenience, Big Box - I go armed with a shopping list. Still, one or two impulse buys usually fills my cart. Especially when Abe comes with me. Either because the ensuing discussion (justification) makes me take more notice or because Abe is particularly averse to shopping, and a bonus gift or two soothes his nerves.

When we were first married, he convinced me to buy a small "camp mirror" for its versatile features, such as a reflective surface, wall-hanging device, and trifold stand. It slices! It dices! It sat comfortably in the bathroom cupboard for several years, and still does.

Another early purchase was a 50-pack of cable ties (small plastic bands that wrap around cords to keep them in place - think heavy duty bag ties). I remember playing with a few of them to figure out how they worked. At one point I think we used one to actually tie up a cable.

A few months ago we got a small tub of colored foam shapes. Abe wanted to use them for game pieces (he is a board game hobbyist). We sat on the living room floor one night and sorted them by shape and color. I made geometric designs on the floor, and then we put them into the box, layered in rainbow fashion.

Impulse buys have unexpected staying power. The cable ties? Still in the original package. I just counted - there are 32 left. Even things we've never used, we tend to hang on to longer than things we've never used but deliberately bought. A few years ago we bought a hammock on a whim in Mexico. $10. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a place to hang it in our basement apartment, or in our 2nd story apartment after that, or the apartment after that.

Yesterday, while cleaning out the closet, I pulled out the hammock and brought it out to our screened-in porch. Abe and I hemmed and hawed about how to string it from the rafters, came up with a viable plan, realized we didn't have any rope, went to the store and bought rope, came home to discover there was no way to hang the rope from the rafters, and tucked the hammock back in the closet.

Maybe in 5 more years we'll find 2 trees.

The hammock will still be around. Probably the rope, too.

Potbellys = 141.8% of my daily protein!

2009-06-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

My coworker introduced me to a slick web application for tracking daily food intake. MyPlate is part of the Lance Armstrong LiveStrong website. The application works off of user-generated content. Anyone can enter in the nutritional value for any food. This creates a huge database of foods that you can then search for the specific food you've eaten that day. It gets quite specific: 2% milk from Kroger, Kashi Pumpkin Spice Granola Bar, raw blueberries.

[Screenshot of website]

After putting in your food, it will calculate your nutrition intake, by day, week, month. I was pretty cheery when entering in my oatmeal and strawberry breakfast, but not so much with the PotBelly Big Turkey Sandwich for lunch, where my protein shot up to 141.8% daily value and sodium to 120.6%.

There are a few other nifty features, like being able to save a meal (e.g. cereal, milk & blueberries together as "breakfast" rather than entering each item in separately) or writing how your body feels each day.

I've always wondered how many calories I really consume each day. That, along with a growing suspicion that my body is not digesting dairy as well as it used to, will (hopefully) motivate me to use this for a few weeks.

Results forthcoming.