On removing blackberries

You may recall when I spent the better part of a day last summer turning this:Into this:The removal of blackberries in the backyard was not a complete success, however, the care (read:machete thrashing) that I gave them was really more of a pruning exercise. they have flourished on the other side of the fence, so much so that we turned them into this last night:A variation on dutch babies...erm...Dutch Mama. Yum.

On this day...

1810: Colombia declared independence from Spain

1881: Sitting Bull surrendered to federal troops

1969: Humankind took a "giant leap." The celebration of the 40th anniversary is being used to bolster arguments for a mission to Mars.

1999: Grissom's Mercury 7 capsule (1961) was recovered from the Atlantic

2007: W signed an executive order prohibiting cruel and inhuman treatment in the detention and interrogation of terrorist suspects

2009: I awoke on the occasion of the start of my 29th year and thought, surely, I live a charmed life.

We spent the weekend camping at Crater Lake, what better way to usher in a moment of aging?

Some highlights:

A self portrait, with my head blocking Wizard Island



I love typos in official print. These were in the menu for the super swank grand lodge dining room:

Appetizers will be "severed"
...and Lava Cake has "fresh fresh" whipped cream...use your own imagination









We opted to dine in the lounging area outside the dining room, kicking off our shoes and settling into a squishy leather couch:

Wizard Island through the tree stump:
Tent and trees:
Sun setting over Joe and Linds:

Taking photos of Phantom Ship at the top of our hike:

Grasshopper chillin':

Phantom Ship (to left) and debris flow (to right):

Some snow remains, I graffitied this pile with my hand prints (effing cold...and not refreshing on a 90 degree day cold...it was frostbite in July cold)

Coming down the mountain, hollowed tree and Wizard Island sneaking out:

Wildflowers were just beginning to peek out:

Thirsty, dusty, hot trail:
"Natural fire, do not report" - all weekend there was a blaze and some chopper activity:

At the top of the hike, sun-kissed and smiles, we shared some kettle chips and a bottle of Radiant (very refreshing).
Pano:

perhaps I'm just cranky, but really, WTF

I am, as of yet, unschooled in the lingo of 'skate city' but I am generally aware that refugee status is given to those fleeing danger (often on foot) with the bare minimum of things that they have access to.

However, should you be on the run and not able to part with anything except the kitchen sink, you can stuff this bag (retailing for $140.00), called the 'Element Refugee Wheeled Bag' with your "favorite T-shirts, skate pants, and maybe a few pairs of extra undies, and embark on the vacation of a lifetime. This carry-on luggage has two compartments to keep you organized, plenty of pockets, including a mesh one for your stinkables, and super durable skate wheels that can take the knocks of constant travel." {emphasis added, by author. Meant to express extreme displeasure with word choice of manufacturer}

All Oregon....

So, while I was making dinner tonight, Joe stepped outside to talk to the neighbors; when he returned, he mentioned that he learned that our neighbors two houses down go out to dinner every night at the same place, at the same time. Read into it what you will, but a sly smile danced across my face as I served up our fourth homemade all Oregon dinner this summer, made with a combination of CSA goodies and veggies from our yard.

Every time I take photos, the garden just gets bigger, everything is twice the size of the last photos, so I have to go out again. But I did harvest some mint the other night and set it to dry-we will be rollin' in peppermint tea this winter.

...but doesn't she know the world is flat?

The nytimes article this morning addressing Palin's resignation included this little tidbit:

"The sheer distance of Alaska from the rest of the country complicated her ability to take care of the most basic kind of presidential preparation work: going to Republican Party dinners, developing a network of fund-raisers and supporters and becoming educated about the issues."

hmmmmm....

A shift in where the teeth sink in

I have recently been re-entrenched in the discussions of the US/Mexico border, the series of walls that are being built and the subject of undocumented immigration. This issue of immigration, which is always framed in the public eye as a problem, has intrigued me for some time. It will be something that I need to keep, if not in the immediate foreground of my research, at least on a warmish back burner. Chiapas has one of the higher remittance recipient rates in Mexico and has both a large outmigration of its income earning population as well as influx of undocumented immigrants from neighboring Guatemala.

I pulled up the nytimes this morning as I settled down with a cup of coffee and read this article on the new efforts to address the high number of undocumented immigrants in the US. I have to say that I find it refreshing to see that resources are going to a campaign of dialogue rather than one of terror, but that it is a far cry from coalescing lasting change, (or perhaps after hearing that word slung around so much during the campaign I expect quite a bit of it, and for it to have depth). I think fining companies that willingly embrace undocumented immigration is definitely a way to send a message (although American Apparel seems a less worrisome target, as they pay their employees well and offer health benefits-which is usually not the case), but as Joe dryly pointed out, those fines could perhaps be put to better use by being funneled into helping workers obtain legal documents. As I tend to think with many things, undocumented immigration is largely a problem of access (in this case, to legal documentation and by access I mean material wealth).

In related news, I have long desired to watch the Linklater adaptation of Schlosser's book "Fast Food Nation," but because I am familiar with the extraordinarily depressing content I kept shuffling it down the netflix queue in favor of more lighthearted flicks. Well, I finally gave in this week and we watched it. I was curious where the focus would fall, it's an almost 400 page book that addresses many issues along the greater fast food chain. The film focused in nicely on feedlots, meatpacking and the trials of undocumented immigrants in meat packing plants. I strongly encourage you to pick up the film or book and see for yourself.

One further note on border crossing...the film shows a brief glimpse of what a desert crossing entails, for further reading, check out Luis Alberto Urrea's book "The Devil's Highway," it is beautifully written.

Varying degrees of evil

Okay, I get it, money is important. I do, I really do understand.

But something about giving Madoff 150 years for "crimes [that] were extraordinarily evil" really sits funny with me. One of the people quoted in this article lost $2.5 million, they were already at the top of the economic hierarchy-I know that the majority of the money that was stolen was not from the elite, but it gave me pause to think that an "extraordinarily evil" fraudster gets 150 years when the amount of time that rapists (for example) are sentenced to is counted in months.

I see a red wall, I must have it painted...red

The living room face lift.

- Before

- During
- Mostly After

Also, Pocket thought paint would be delicious and tried to eat some, after that small disaster he was content to watch:

that's all you get for now, summer sesh started yesterday and I'm in lecture writing mode. It seems rather cruel that it should take three times as long to write a lecture as it does to deliver it. Oh well.

Banksy

Guerrilla Art.

Everything good is bad for you

From one of the blogs I follow:

The dangers of the White House Organic Garden. (link to Daily show piece)

Bringing up Broccoli

I received an email the other day from a friend who is abroad complimenting the garden photos from April....well, what a difference a month makes...

I'm not going to lie, I have spent way more time planting and playing in the garden then should be reasonable for a PhD student.