Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Ahh...with bellies full of my infamous "Thanksgiving bowls" (leftovers from Thanksgiving mashed up in a bowl and eaten with a spoon), I write with a heavy heart regarding Alabama's sad loss against Auburn in the Iron Bowl...28-27!! We looked so promising during the first half, but abysmal in the second half. I'm sure most of T-Town is much sadder than Dan and I, so I guess this year I'm thankful I don't care too much about football...The game ended maybe 30 minutes ago and we can already hear the line of trucks and RVs leaving town. The Goodyear blimp has been hovering above us all day but will hopefully quiet down now that the game is sealed. We have frequently commented on the novelty that is southern football, the most impressive is the fact that last week we played Georgia on a Thursday (unsure why), and rather than have the football game compete with University traffic, the higher ups decided it was best to cancel classes all together so tailgating could take place unimpeded by students craving education...really now Alabama?!?!? yes, really...Today's game is one of the biggest rivalries in the South, and having it on Black Friday caused much hubbub about town. Once again, the higher ups decided to push for "Crimson Saturday" to be touted about as the big shopping day so consumers would not have to choose between ginormous sales or football (it was close, but football won out)...we'll see how the local merchants make out...

Anyhow, our Thanksgiving has quite wonderful. For me, the morning was filled with prepping the turkey, gravy, and stuffing (Dan took care of cranberry sauce and popovers). We went next door to have an early dinner (3pm!) with the neighbors and another couple that also teaches at the University. We had a great spread of food and followed the great American tradition of Thanksgiving gluttony, but saved room for dessert two hours later. We played a few rounds of Taboo (love that game) and called it a night...after Dan played a few rounds of Nintendo football and I snuck in a second Thanksgiving dinner (of course). Here are a few pics of our day..

Dan leaves for Iceland tomorrow for an 8 day sampling trip. Hopefully the weather holds for him, but outlook is a little touch and go...Look out for another update from him when he gets back!

xo

ct

Note!

I just added a few more pics to the most recent photo album for Nov 21, 2010, here's the link again (or also on the top right of our blog)...a little project we worked on over the last week finally shaping up after today - another raised bed for the yard! We'll have to buy some planting soil from our new favorite nursery in town...then time to plant more stuff - probably more lettuce and....hmmmmm....

ct!

Happy Birthday to Dan (yesterday)!

Hi!

First off, pictures that I want you to see right now without clicking on another link:

Ninja comes to the house to say "hi" Ed Grimley style...

On Dan's special day in Birmingham after a birthday dinner at Rojo...

Dan's Bday was yesterday and we had a great day all around. We started it off with a hearty breakfast of Dan's skillet potatoes and a nice simple omelet. We then headed into Birmingham and zipped straight to First Ave Rocks where the birthday boy wanted to spend his special day. I didn't have the foresight to rent the "party room" that the climbing gym has, but maybe next year...

After a nice climbing workout we set out to find Rojo, a latin bar and grill that has peaked Dan's interest after hearing Bob Dylan gave it a shout out on his weekly radio show. Now, we love love love Birmingham - it has a surprisingly pretty skyline, a nice historic downtown, a smattering of art and culture that the South can be devoid of, and all around a lot going for it. However, we have yet to master navigating around Bham's Highland neighborhood. The streets curve through residential neighborhoods and change names at the drop of a hat. There are numerous bowl-like parks in the neighborhoods that serve more to confuse you than landmarks to gauge navigational progress. So needless to say, attempting to find Rojo with a subpar map proved difficult, but in the end after acquiring Rojo's phone number (novel idea!) we got some vague directions from a helpful Rojo waitress and made it with extreme hunger.

Dan ordered a tasty mahi mahi taco plate while I opted for the carne asada burrito. While we waited for our food we noshed on some mini nachos and a couple of tasty bloody marys. The food and ambiance at Rojo was just what we wanted after a day of some hard climbing.

Bellies full, we set out to do a little shopping as we've been in the market for another refillable chalk ball and some natural vegetable shortening. Where else to do this shopping than the Cahaba Village Plaza? There are many "shi shi" shoppes and boutiques in the plaza along with a Mountain High Outfitters and a Whole Foods which meant virtual one stop shopping. We visited the area when Dan's parents visited since Tuscaloosa is lacking a really nice outdoor store that actually meets our needs (rather than the needs of people who just want to look like they are outdoorsy)...

We headed home after a nice day in the big city and after a quick power nap we walked down to the Alcove for a low key birthday night cap. A couple tasty high gravity beers put us right to sleep, all in all I think Dan had a great birthday with a nice mix of fun and relaxation...In addition, Alabama had a home game on Thursday against Georgia so Saturday was very mellow around town which played well into Dan's low key Birthday celebration.

Here are some pics from the last week or so...

xo

A quick note...

Dan and I just made up this Google Map of a few choice landmarks from his first Iceland trip. Check it out! Here is also a video of the "Vulcan's Larder"....these are the scientists Dan works with....

We hope to add more to the map soon enough!

xo

Food and Fall...

With the chillier temps outside we've been excited to get cozy at home, wearing our down booties, drinking hot coffee all day, and oh the food, the food! - been cooking a lot of comfort foods and devouring it with much enthusiasm...Tasty chicken yellow curry (with jasmine rice, we just bought 25 lbs from the asian market)..Dan's been making a lot of great breads from the Artisan Breads in 5 minutes or less book...I just made a super easy apple cake using a recipe from this blog. So far it smells like Fall from the oven, so I think it's a winner.....earlier this week I made some fried tofu cutlets with an impromptu BBQ sauce and spinach mashed potatoes...Shrimp tacos with a garbanzo bean and cabbage slaw! We have been eating well for sure. I am also SO excited to cook for Thanksgiving...we're having the orphan's Thanksgiving at the neighbor's house with a few others (maybe) on their newly acquired retro kitchen table complete with 4 inches of chrome wrapping around the edge...

oh yeah, go Tide! bouncing back after a very sad loss to LSU last week, we beat mississippi state university handsomely. Dan and I walked down to the Alcove Tavern and had a couple pints along with a catered free meal from the Innisfree Pub (pasta salad, mac and cheese, and a chipotle glazed pork loin..we had seconds, no shame when it comes to free food, especially good free food...)

ok, time to check on the apple cake...let's hope for the best!

xo

Random bits

I dressed Hannah in the hideous blouse I got from the thrift store for my Halloween costume...hard to make out the shoulder pads on her though...

And our first "bounty" from the starters I got from the Fall Arboretum Plant sale...so far we've only tasted the lettuce - tasty!

And again, another of Hannah doing what she does best - laying out in the sun in the front yard..I don't know how to rotate the picture using blogger, sorry:

he's gonna hate this....

...but I couldn't help uploading this clip of Dan belting out some Cat Stevens during our ride out to Pie Lab this past weekend....

xo

Frost! Pie! Yard!

Very random post today...working backwards may be best...which will be recounted in the other direction in these photos...Today Dan and I took a drive south about 40 miles to the town of Greensboro, AL. There is a place called Pie Lab that we've been wanting to visit for quite sometime. It was a fabulous morning drive, the air was nice and crisp and the colors on the trees were taking their time to change in keeping with the season. Once there we had some delish pie and quiche and two cups o' Joe. Pie Lab is a very cool idea and I hope it can revive Greensboro, whose downtown is very sad but with oh so much potential for a cute small town.

From Pie Lab's "About" page on their website:

Pie Lab is a local restaurant & bustling community space located in Greensboro, Alabama. In March of 2009, a group of young designers and thinkers participating in a PROJECT M session came up with the concept of Pie Lab. They coined the equation that "Pie + Conversation = Ideas / Ideas + Design = Positive Change." A group of these young designers moved to Alabama and, with the help of Project M and HERO, were able to make it a reality here in Greensboro.

Today, Pie Lab functions as a restaurant striving to bake with local ingredients and a community space striving to meet the needs of community members. We believe in the idea that pie can bring people together. That great conversation can be enjoyed alongside great food.

We walked around DT Greensboro which was very tiny, but had a lot of old buildings (city established in early 1800's) that I could see being a pretty hip downtown with a little TLC. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot going for Greensboro aside from the charm potential industry wise as it was mostly an Agriculture-based economy before the civil war. Then the Great Depression hit and they never really bounced back after that like most small rural southern towns (my source for this info is here). Anyhow, I still find it pretty durn cute in 2010 and there are a few DT pics of our little jaunt in the photo album I linked to at the top of this post.

Other than that, Dan's been adjusting to Central time quite well, we're both keeping busy in the lab with various tasks. There are pics of my Halloween costume with a friend Eve in the album (the day before Dan came back), some pics of my visit to Birmingham while I awaited the arrival of the Iceland Boys (bfast at Urban Standard (shrimp and grist for 7 bucks!) and bouldering at First Ave Rocks)...

Also been working in the yard a bit, planting bulbs, making the yard look more "country" (read: hanging random stuff on the fence), and the veggies are doing great! I think tomorrow will be time to harvest the first of the kale! whoopie!! Oh yes, and yesterday was our first day of frost...not too bad and we ended up keeping warm with the electric blanket...we're seeing how long we can hold out without using the heat! I think we feel more hardy since coming from Idaho...in truth, cold is cold...

xo

Dan's First Iceland Sampling Trip

Hi everyone. On Sunday I returned from my first of many Iceland sampling trips! As some of you know, I will be studying the effects of climate warming on stream ecosystems over the next 4 (or more) years. I am just one person in a team of 7-8 people working on this project and we are using a suite of spring fed streams in Iceland as our study site. This first sampling trip was not without problems, but is was a successful trip nonetheless.

We were very busy the entire trip and had little time to explore. Days were spent working outside in the cold. It was just above freezing and windy most days. Most nights were spent drinking Gull beer, chatting, and watching YouTube videos on our computers. However, being that we were staying in downtown Reykjavik, we did find some time to have fun and enjoy the interesting Icelandic cuisine at night. Between the minke whale kebabs, guillemot curry, and sheep intestinal fat, we kept ourselves sated.

That's about it for now. I will be heading back in about a month. It will surely be colder and windier then. Here's a link to a few pictures from my trip. Enjoy!