Fun with a bacterial process!

This Sunday we had some intrepid friends over to try our hand at making cheese.

We set our sights relatively low and figured we could successfully create a fresh mozzarella. And mozzarella we did create. It was awesome and pretty easy too.

The only unfortunate thing is the surprisingly small amount of cheese you get from 1 gallon of milk. We curdled with citric acid and rennet, drained whey and kneaded and stretched 1 gallon of milk per person - and each received about 3/4 of a pound of cheese for our trouble. On a side note, we saved 4 gallons of whey for use in other recipes (I came into work this morning and had a muffin that was made with the whey-just lovely).

Somewhere between batches three and four pizza dough was tossed onto a couple of cookie sheets and we used our first runnings to make some fresh mozzarella, pesto, black olive, roasted garlic and artichoke heart pizzas. YUM!

You are entering a new dimension of time and space

I always feel a little like it's the twilight zone when there is no traffic during the daily commute. Do not misunderstand me. I hate commuting by car, I hate traffic, I especially hate being trapped on the Freemont bridge (apparently I have a lot of hate). But I feel as though something is lurking around the corner to punish me when I can make it from work to home without having spent enough time in the car to listen to 7 or 8 Tool songs.

Business as usual

As always, I have gotten excited about Spring before it was excited about me.

We started seedlings, I got some spring shoes to replace my 10 year old winter clogs, we tried some new seasonal beers, marveled at the daffodils and even discussed taking the flannel sheets off the bed.

Ah...too soon. I scraped ICE off the car this morning and said a silent thank you, to no one in particular, for not letting me get dirt and plant outside yet.

And once again I wonder why Spring is fucking with me.



In other (more exciting) notes, we will be ushering in the month of May in the City of Light.

Dragon's Blood

On Sunday we racked the mead that has been bubbling away in the den for the past month into a few small secondary containers. At first we were concerned about using several small containers over one larger one, but after some discussion and ideas on how eventually to proceed, I think we’re both happier with the decision. Because the mead is entirely experimental, we’ll likely bottle it in shifts letting some of it age longer in the jugs. We did give it a sample after racking and mostly it tastes like sour (think lime) alcohol that has a slight effervescence. It has a beautiful color –from the pomegranate juice– and seems to be aging nicely.

I dubbed it (rather greedily) Dragon’s Blood, because it is red in color and because mead makes me think of the cartoon Flight of Dragons that came out in the early 1980’s and was a favorite of mine as a child. In one particularly memorable scene, the two main dragon characters drink their way through an entire cellar of mead (while traveling to the castle of the ‘bad wizard’ Omadon) and share a rousing chorus of Oh Susanna!

...and while not trying to question something this simple, the movie itself rests on the idea that the human world must choose between science and magic. So, is it wrong to call what is essentially a science experiment dragon’s blood?

Duck...Duck...Doctorate

The U of O has admitted me for Doctoral Studies in the Department of Geography for Fall of 2008.

{insert dance of joy here}


Let the games begin.


...Update: I've also 'unofficially' been accepted by PSU :)

Brussel Sprouts

I love them. Who knew?

Joe and I both thought we hated them, but then we went to see Michael Pollan speak on his new book and were handed the latest edition of Edible Portland which had a full spread article on the 'foul,' tiny, green, things...so we thought...why not? Upon further inspiration from a friend at work, I purchased a small sample at the grocery store, tossed them with some olive oil and salt and then baked them for 1/2 hour. Yum.

On a side note, seeing Michael Pollan speak was both entertaining and thought provoking, I am enormously happy to have had the opportunity.

That's it that's all.

Weekend Walk

Last weekend marked the first in a while that Joe and I had to ourselves and at home.

We went for a long walk out on Sauvie Island (usually our spring/summer haunt) exploring the Warrior Rock trail. It was a nice 7 mile trail, starting at the end of Collins Beach (which was unknown to us until driving past) walking along the sand for a bit and then back up into the woods until the end of the island where there is a small and distressed looking lighthouse. We had positively gorgeous weather and a nice clear view of Mt. St. Helens. It was especially nice to be able to get up and get some errands done and still have enough daylight to do the length of the trail. We spent the better part of the morning getting geared up for spring planting; purchasing seeds, some hanging baskets and bamboo poles for trellis structures. I think I might start some seeds inside this weekend...or maybe next weekend. It has been at least 60 degrees in our house for the last week. I feel like I can chance it. What is less certain is if the cats will allow me to. . .

Food is good. I like food.

While making some inquires into local CSA's I spied this graphic today:

It makes me happy.

By popular demand...

...well not really popular, or even by demand...

However, new editing capabilities for blogs have been made available to those of us without any real skills and were pointed out to me by a couple of people recently (thank you Matt, thank you Freed).

Armed with my fabulous new laptop I have now given the blog a bit of tweaking. (er...it's easy being green...)

Did I mention FABULOUS? NEW? LAPTOP?! After almost 7 years with my over sized paperweight of a CPU, I am now the proud owner of a notebook...and to celebrate, some comparisons:In any event, it is a new leaf turned over, a breath of fresh air...and if I may be so bold....the commencement of a new era.

"Must be beautiful this time of year, with all that snow..."

Since the snow hasn't been exactly coming to us, we ventured out to it.

We spent a lovely weekend with LB who's hopes of biking and skiing were dashed by the rainy/icy weather and a renegade derailleur.

I couldn't believe the luck, we had just had a week of clear and dry days with sunshine- so clear that I could even see the snow covered mountains.

In lieu of these other activities, we opted to go out on the gorge and try our luck with some of the hiking trails and if there was any additional luck available, continue on to Hood River for lunch.

There were DOT warnings about the road conditions, so we skipped Hood River in favor of Edgefield and mercifully exited to our hiking area before chains were required.

We spent a few hours tramping around Elowah Falls and took a load of photos. There was just enough snow to make the short hike hard work and to make the surroundings beautiful.


We hiked down to the bottom of Elowah Falls which was almost completely snowed over and had coated the surrounding area in a thick layer of ice-

And we endured the somewhat frightening sound of falling icicles which echoed in the canyon, glancing around at each other and up to the cliff faces to see whether there was any true danger...it was a bit of a laugh.

We then tracked back and went to the top of the falls and encountered the most incredible icicles I've ever seen. We weren't able to go to the proper end of the trail because a small ice avalanche had taken out the guard rail and made the way impassable.






All in all it was a lovely day out of the house and ended with some good pints of beer and an early evening.




















Icicles:

End of trail...

Signed, Sealed and Delivered...

...or posted anyways.
Now I will patiently wait for the hammer to fall...or the other shoe to drop...or whatever.

...and on the lighter side of things

a friend from work queried:

20%

Not that I'm counting....

I'm a little preoccupied right now. 7 days and then I'll be relaxed.

Oh yeah...we were in Kauai this time last week...

...the only difference was it was 80 degrees and rainy.

As a surprise for my brother for his 25th birthday we went to Kauai. My mom hatched the plan, twisted our arms and made it all possible.

Of course, the garden isle is known for stupendous rainfall as well as red dirt. Put them together and you have red mud. Lots of red mud. Add the three of us and you have it tracked all over the island. We tried not to let the weather mess our plans about too much. We hiked four or five times and at his request, for Blake's birthday proper, we went horseback riding.

We had a marvelous time. Mai tai's flowed from the heavens, tropical fruit was abundant (we hit the farmers market twice while we were there) and the whole of the island was at our disposal (or so we thought). The incredibly rainy weather created an interesting turn of events for us. No snorkeling (which was lame), a power outage at the resort (playing cards by flashlight), an unsuccessful viewing of Waimea Canyon (see the mist? that's the canyon), and a whole lot of shit talking to see who would slip in the mud and fall on their ass while hiking first (just glorious...) There was the usual abundance of chickens, but this time we chanced upon some wild pigs on our hikes...and those fuckers move fast.

Out on the Wailua, Joe and Blake braved the waterfall, both swimming not only in the pool but into the falls itself. I hung out in mosquito bite hell to take pictures.

We actually had a few hours of sun for a couple of days...long enough to warrant sunscreen and some beach time and also to get pink noses while kayaking the Wailua River. The rain was rather welcome at times though, nightly, when sitting in the hot tub at the resort, and daily, when the sun shone through, however briefly, the rainbows were spectacular.

Joe and I packed our camping gear and stayed on a few days extra to hike the famed Kalalau Trail, much to my relief(...after 7 stormy days) it was closed by the state parks for having parts of the trail washed out and dangerous river crossings; a friendly ranger met us at the trail head to give us the news. We did hear the next day from some more intrepid hikers that they defied authority, making it to the first 'stream' crossing (about a mile in), they said it was flowing fast and the water had risen to past their chests. So we instead popped onto a boat and saw our trail destination from another point of view. The benefit of the boat ride was to get out into open water and snorkel (not so much) the debris and mud from the rain flow off the island was so profound that it made the surrounding waters murky. We did however have the great joy of seeing some humpback whales, albeit briefly, but seeing the whales fluke was enough for me. We also spied dolphins, a turtle and the astoundingly beautiful Na Pali coastline. We caught a glimpse of the beach at the end of the Kalalua trail and shortly thereafter turned back.

It was an interesting experience coming back three years later...but overall, a wonderful time. Unfortunately for us, time didn't stop while we were away and we came home to find the holiday season in full flush. Thankfully, our house and the kiddos were well looked after, and we even got the holiday cheer look from some christmas lights installed by Andy. :)

100 post mark...

and for this momentous occasion,
My cat plays fetch...

Harvest Century

...actually, we only did 3/4 of a century.
Absentee riders...you were missed!

10 Good things about the ride:

(1) Excellent temperature

(2) Pins for bibs

(3) No start line and a small crowd

(4) Apple cider, hot chocolate w/cookies and caramel apples

(5) Doing my single longest one-day ride EVER - 78.40 miles :)

(6) Beer and food being included in registration fees

(7) Beer...and extra beer tickets

(8) The rain starting to fall the moment after I sat down with my post ride beer in the tent, with the live music...

(9) Shammy Pants

(10) Excellent company, gorgeous scenery (the falling leaves...drift by my sunglasses)


10 Not so good things about the ride:

(1) Headwinds 60% of the time...ugh

(2) Having a sweet, curvy downhill turn sour

(3) The taste of pine needles and dirt

(4) Blackberry bushes

(5) Stinging nettles

(6) Finding out that your life really does not flash before your eyes

(7) Quick moving bean burritos

(8) Foot numbness

(9) Roadkill

(10) Pulling gravel and other debris out of my hair

My Good Company :)

The Canby Ferry Crossing

My sexy, over the handlebars and into the blackberry bushes look

Computer nerds? Time (left), Distance (right)

The deluge...all enjoyed from the comfort of the tent and with a pint

...and just for Mom...bike cupholders!

Trading busy for...busy

I spent the better part of 12 hours on Saturday finishing commiting my research to text to complete my internship with the OEC. I fielded a few e-mail questions that have piled up and did a little extra work and proofing this morning and have finished just in time to start my school homework/reading for the week.

My research was for a presentation on making the business case for environmental sustainabilty, I won't rehash it here, because my eyes will start to bleed. However, the bottom line is:
an environmentally sustainable business is economically sound, in fact sustainable businesses generally outperform the competition. See my yet unpublished work for details :)

A lament for Virginia Wineries

So once again with the prospect of a whole day at home without plans we scurried off to do something. This past Sunday it was checking out a few Lincoln wineries down near Salem. We did a small bit of looking about on the internet to see if any wineries boasted a tasting room with snacks. Most just boasted tremendous views, so we stopped at New Seasons and got some bread and cheese on our way south. I realize that after 3 wineries I can't generalize about the Willamette Valley Wine country...however, I can cry out a lament for my beloved Virginia wineries. I quite miss the excellent, detailed maps and signage, the multiple varietals and being able to order a hot baguette and some cheese at the tasting room and sit out with a bottle of wine. Or maybe I just need to find that place once...and frequent it.

Reflecting on B&W

This is one of my favorite shots from the B&W's that were taken with my camera. It was taken by LB and it is masterful in capturing the scene.

On the right you can see Joe and I walking towards the dance floor, scanning left the 'ladies in waiting" presumably watching the bride and groom, further left, a quiet moment as Carissa stands still long enough to have her hair blown by the wind while she talks with Christian, Ben and Therese approaching the conversation and the Freed's marvelling at a walking Ella.

End of an Era

As you will recall, at the end of July at the OBF gathering at our house our trusty digicam faltered. A trip to Hilary and being sent out to 'repair' confirmed that it was indeed dead. The chip was fried. I have to admit I was quite unprepared for this situation, I loved that camera and had no designs on replacing it, so I haven't kept up with the changing technology or new releases at all.

We are fortunate enough to have friends in various industries and before I knew it a loaner camera was made available (thank you Andy) so I didn't go mad without one for the last month. It was important to me to have one for Toph & Jess's wedding too. But the time for returning it has come and gone and in the interim I did some research on the new cameras coming out.

I wish I could say that I spent hours comparing the spectrum of brands, but I didn't. I had a pretty good experience with the Sony that I had on loan, but it just didn't produce the shots that I had with my old Canon, I checked out the Olympus camera that John has because he only has good things to say about it...but I kept drifting back to the Canon's. I loved the S230 and I felt comfortable with the functions in the Canon digital elph series.

We descended upon Hilary at her work this Friday and beyond answering all of our questions and letting us play with all the Canon powershots, she patiently steered us in the best direction. Hilary you are a Goddess. We are now the proud owners of the Canon Powershot SD870 IS and damn is it sexy. We took it out to St. Johns Cathedral Park to play around with it yesterday. Oh yeah.

And let me just digress a bit and talk about price. Back in 2002 I purchased the S230 for the same price as we paid today for the SD870 but somehow in my mind I remembered paying a higher total price, that is, more for extra memory. Over the years I had kept the receipt in the manual for the S230 - in 2002 I paid $70.00 for a 128MB CF card. On Friday we bought a 1G SD card for $15.00. My goodness.

Cheers to the S230. My Elements library boasts close to 10,000 photos, all taken with that camera. It was a good 5 years.