hellos from CA!

I was remiss in telling the blogosphere that I arrived safely in SoCal Wed evening.  I managed to miss much of the LA traffic that I have mixed emotions about - I mostly hate it, but it's so consistent that it's a comforting reminder of home....

All in all it was a hassle-free trip - I skirted the great blizzard in the southern plains, but I did get delayed on the highway in New Mexico-Arizona border by a semi-SUV accident that made the highway a complete parking lot for 3 whole hours....of course it occurred right after I had decided to end driving for the day and find a hotel to revel in TV and not driving...alas....tis how the world works sometimes.  It was 7pm at the time of the accident and a little 10pm I was awakened by the semi behind me honking at me to FINALLY drive...it was a little disorienting, but I drove to my hotel (which was just 12 miles away) and crashed hard, as did Hannah.  The next morning we both awoke relatively refreshed and ready for the last leg of the trip - just 500 miles to go!!  It was a pretty easy 10 hours drive...Red Bull became my friend let's just say...

Here are a few pics of the last leg of the trip...Dan has also made it safely to PA with no dreaded airport delays!!

all for now, will report back soon, basically been running lots of errands with the fam and eating tasty food...

xo

Biding time..

Still at the hotel room watching the weather channel and resting...This gives me time to upload pics and catch up on the bloggy...

This past week has been busy along with everyone else in the country - shopping, packing, readying...the Holiday season is fun, but also oh so packed in with activities!!!

Dan finished up with his finals early in the week which both went well...I tried to pack in as much lab work as possible before skipping town for 3 weeks - woo hoo!!  Saturday we celebrated my 33rd birthday with a wonderfully relaxing brunch at home - just me, Dan, and Hannah.  Dan made some great Bloody Marys, skillet potatoes, and pancakes...we also had a few Mimosas and enjoyed lounging in our PJs on the sofa with Hannah and playing some games on the Wii - I think a birthday brunch is becoming a tradition!!

We went to Evangeline's which had gotten good reviews, but we surprisingly found it so-so, though it could be due to UA Graduation also going on that slammed them for the night...I think we still prefer the Cypress Inn or Carmelo Cafe for dining here in Tuscaloosa, but regardless it was good to finally check that place out - the white christmas decorations in the restaurant were quite tasteful - hanging windows decorated with white wreaths separated the bar area from the dining area and I really want to steal that idea in the house...but we really have no need for such a barrier...hmm...

anyhow, it was a perfect birthday feeling well-loved by both Dan, Hannah, and all the friends and family who sent well wishes - thanks much!!

xoxox

and now...

pics!!

Greetings from the road!

Hi-yo!!
Just a quick update - made it to Amarillo, Tx last night at 2am after about 15 hours of driving! Hannah and I enjoyed a night here at the La Quinta Inn safe and sound. We managed to put on about 1000 miles on the ol' Matrix which puts us about at the half way mark. I need to tweak the ol route to the LBC since it looks like most of 40W is closed. But we may also just wait out the storm which should clear up by noon.

Rest assured I'm checking the weather constantly and driving safe!!

xoxoxo

ct and hannah

Please Watch this...

and love it as much as we do..

P.S.!

I also forgot to mention our fun fun night out in Birmingham last weekend!  We went to see the Alabama Shakes at the BottleTree Cafe.  They were AMAZING!  Do yourself a favor and download their EP for $4 at their website, you will NOT be sorry!  They are blowing up the charts!  They are from Athens, AL and the five piece put on a darn fine show.  We have been seeing them billed on shows all around town, and even heard them covered on NPR one morning.  (Seattle folk - they're playin' the Crocodile at the end of January, GO!!)

Before heading to the show we went climbing at First Ave Rocks for a spell, then dinner at Rojo - which is fast becoming my favorite place to eat in Bham!  Solid Meximerican food, not to mention decent Bloody Marys...

ok, just made two batches of soap with Vija and Emily - we are a soap factory now!!  it went a lot faster with three folks working together and doing two batches - another experiment in oatmeal, orange peel, and vanilla bean, and a half batch with cedar oil as well - now we wait for two weeks for it to cure!!  

all for now!

Season's Greetings!!!

So long since the last post! 

Yikes!!  Wish I could come up with a series of events that have busied us...but I'm at a loss...Let's see...we got a Christmas tree from a tree farm in Tuscaloosa!  We picked out a wee five-foot Leland Cypress (the only Christmas tree that will grow reliably in the South - we were hoping to find a fragrant Fraser Fir...alas, you need at least 3000 feet of elevation to grow those puppies) on a rainy Sunday. We named him Roly since that's all he did in the back of the Matrix as we drove home - not much heft to him, he's about 5 pounds max.  He's sparsely decorated with just a small popcorn garland and lights, but keeps the house happy and cheery.  Here are pictures 

We have finally finished the deck!!!  We stained her in between a brief respite of rain.  Now we're ready to fully appreciate the backyard, if only it would stop raining!!!  I think we have sun for the next few days - it's been getting chilly at night - into the high 20s!!  Here are some pics of the finished deck...which doesn't look much different, but I think the deck probably feels more accomplished...

The last few weeks have been filled with Dan writing papers and studying for finals (one on Monday, and one on Tuesday), and me trying to get as many samples processed as possible before my two week vacation!  I can't wait to start the road trip!  We still have to do some trip planning - once Dan is done with finals we can breathe a collective sigh of relief and have fun with those details!  Hopefully today there will be some soap making and beer bottling going on...it's already noon, yikes!!  so much to do with so little daylight and warmth!!  All we want to do is snuggle in bed with Hannah to stay warm!!! It's funny how baselines shift - the house is 58 degrees without the heat on and we're freezing!!!  Seems like ages since we dealt with Idaho winters that were well below freezing...and Iceland winters are but a distant memory...but soon a group may be going out for field work in January, but for sure February so we better buck up by then!!

Anyhow, hope all is well with you and yours...  

Happy Tday!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!  Dan and I ate waaaaaaay too much at an orphan Thanksgiving that Vija hosted...Smoked turkey, roast turkey, sides coming out of our ears, and a pecan and applie pie with ice cream and whipped cream for dessert!  It was delicious and ridiculously tasty!  Hope you all were with loved ones and enjoyed the day!

pictures!!
xo

Back at Bama!!!

Hello! I am back in the fine state of Alabama!! woo hoo!!!  Here are a few pics of he end of my Iceland trip.  I got home safe and sound with  2 coolers full of water samples and no hassle from customs - whew!  All in all I spent everyday working on the project, with one day at Veidi in a windowless lab, and the rest out in the field.  We got real lucky with the weather - no snow or harsh rain/wind days...just normal fickle Iceland weather days - with a bit of fog, sun, overcast, and breezes to round out each day in the field...It was a lot of fun to finally see the streams that I've been analyzing samples back here at the Bama lab, and see where Dan does his work...I'm still recovering from a bit of a head cold I caught midway through the trip, but it's been great to sleep AND have as much daylight as we have here vs at 66 degrees north!!  Puts things into perspective!  All the hard work in the field has been good for me to rack up hours for my xmas break - 2 weeks off that I will spend driving to So. Cal. and back!!woo!! I got to do some sightseeing for a few hours before Jim dropped me off at the airport for my evening flight outta Reykjavik.  That was really nice to see downtown in the daylight and with open stores to browse in!!!

xo all!!

Halo!

Mmmm...today I ventured off the beaten path (ie, recommendations from Team Iceland) and found a delightful vegetarian/vegan restaurant called the Green Choice.  I had a delish indian-spiced dish that is somewhere in the savory pie/pizza land.  Hard to describe, but there is a picture of my plate along with a handful of pics I've taken today...

A few items:

1) I have not been cold in the field!!  Amazing I know, but Chau has stayed warm with various layers and the all important rubber waders I borrowed from Veidi.  Sadly they have developed a hole and I hope to mend them tomorrow whilst I am in the lab processing chlorophyll a from all the stream we sampled today!

2) Been out in the field lots!  Which is great.  Nothing like a long day in the field to make shower and a dinner so satisfying.

3) this is the latest I've stayed up so far!  11pm Iceland time!  Which is Greenwich Mean Time - Basically 6 hours ahead of Alabama (CST)....

time for bed!

xo!

hello from iceland~~!!

Here are a few pics...Thus far we've been spending every minute of daylight in the field - from 9am-5pm!  So we've left and arrived in Reykjavik in the cloak of night and I still have yet to see her in the daytime!  Tomorrow is another day of fieldwork, then the next day is an all day lab push to process samples...

Here are pics!

xo

Hellos from Iceland!

Hi! I safely arrived yesterday morning in Reykjavik! Postdoc Jim picked me up at the airport, let me sleep a few hours, then we went out to OH2 to do some sampling!! It was a wonderful day with no wind and light rain. We sampled inverts and epilithon, microbes, and did tile metabolism chambers...

This morning we will be doing slugs and invert sampling in the landscape streams wee!! I'll take more pictures today and hopefully post tomorrow. I haven't figured out internet yet at the house so stay tuned.

Thus far it's super fun with spectacular views. The landscape reminds me of the Palouse in wintertime, with its rolling hills of golden grasses sprinkled in snow! But then there are huge clouds of smoke? gas? whatever you call it, I can't think right now, from the hot springs.

xo!
:)

Hi!

I'm in DC waiting for my flight for Iceland!!  hope to post pics and entries throughout my time here.. I get back Nov 20th! Dan's Bday!!

here are a few of the deck and yard...

xo

Whew!!

No pics right now, but!

News:

Chau is going to Iceland!  I leave Thursday and I'm back on Nov 20th - Dan's Bday!!!  It was a last minute trip that just got planned this week.  I'll be helping out in the field with monthly sampling - woo hoo!!  I hope I stay warm enough!  Dan has been prepping me regarding field protocols and such not to mention all the cool places to hang out in town!  I am excited but oh so much needs to happen this coming week!! 

Right now I am running SF6 samples..I basically sit in front of a Gas Chromatagraph-Mass Spectrophotometer and I fill a syringe with gas and shoot it into a machine every 4.5 minutes.  Repeat many times.  Because of a hectic schedule I've been running a lot more than I would normally run.  Normally I would run about 60 samples so I'm in front of the machine only 6 hours and then have a couple hours to ready samples for the next day.  I've upped it to 2 days of running over 80 samples, and then today is the last hurrah with 143 samples - that puts me here until midnight tonight, yikes a real laboratory scientist!  Did I say no pictures well I lied - here are 3 of me in the lab (I gave myself a haircut last weekend!)

Despite the slogging away in the lab, I am excited to have Saturday off because the supposed "Game of the Century" is going on here in Tuscaloosa!  Dan and I are very excited (and even a little nervous!).  The town is a BUZZ with activity - ESPN has its Gameday tent setup on the quad and outside of the stadium.  There are RVs everywhere and the LSU fans started flooding in yesterday...the game is tomorrow at 6pm and I hope to sleep in a little, finish the deck (yeah! It is happening folks!), rack the IPA beer into a carboy, rack the wit beer into bottles, plant some seeds, and then enjoy the game!!

No time for rest because come Sunday morning not only do we change back the clocks an hour, but Chau travels to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab which is on the Gulf Coast of Alabama for a two night-three day field trip with Eve's high school science club class!  She needed a few chaperones and I volunteered.  Her hubbie, who is also a grad student here in biology, is the other chaperone so it'll be fun to hang out with them and check out the Dauphin Island.  I'll be referred to as "Miss Chau" for the trip and I'm in charge of making sure 15 high school students stay alive.  fun!  I'm excited about an estuary walk, salt marsh trip, a "vessel excursion" and a beach walk.  I have yet to make it down to the Gulf so this is on the Alabama bucket list!  

And the fun does not stop there! Wed night Ted Leo plays in Birmingham  (yeow!!!) and then the next morning I leave for Iceland!!  It's a crazy couple of weeks, but once I get back it'll be Thanksgiving week and I'll be able to breathe for a bit.  This Iceland trip also helps me build up vacation time for Christmas break!  I'm getting super excited about the cross-country road trip and even more excited about the trip back when Dan gets to join Hannah and I to see some sights.  We're thinking about stopping at White Sands Park, NM, Austin, TX, and maybe even New Oreleans, LA!!!

I have taken some pics of the backyard - and the step by step progression of the deck, will have to post those puppies up soon!!

xo!

ct  

hallo!

Hi all!

a few pictures...off to the field tomorrow for the night and a day, then a day of washing rocks, then the weekend!  yippee!!  the football team gets a bye this weekend, to gear up for the Nov 5th LSU game!!  Which means I get time to work on the frame of the deck (I bought materials last weekend!) and then work on the garden some.  I got some free horse manure from a local horse farm, and bought a few plants at the arboretum fall plant sale - swiss chard, kale, arugula, parsley, chives, lettuce, and a few pansies.  I also got a couple of succulents for Vija and I...maybe he'll be an office plant!!  I also just discovered that my favorite nursery that got blown away in the tornado is back in business!!  I hope to get some good soil from them and a few more odds and ends for the garden.  I haven't taken many pics in the garden recently, that will change this weekend if I get to workin'!!!

Oh yes, I am also planning on a cross country road trip with Hannah for xmas!!  xcited she'll come home for xmas with the Tran family, and hopefully Dan can squeeze in a visit too and drive back with me!!  should be about 2100 miles, and about 32 hours of driving...whew!

Also, The Iceland crew got the heat exchanger working!! Yippee!!  It's amazing that something like that actually worked the first go around!! That NEVER happens in field ecology!!!  Jon took many pics so hopefully he puts them up on the Hengill DIaries soon enough!

more soon!

xo

ct

Team Iceland made it safe and sound...

A bit from Dan this morning:
"We made here safely and with all the gear. Plus we had a very productive but hazy day in the field!. All sandbags are full and we even built one dam!! Plus we finished up some sampling of stream 7."

Yippee!! I was worried not everything would arrive in Iceland, but that is very exciting. Hopefully the crew is rested a bit and I hope to see pictures sometime soon...

xo, and Happy Friday!

ct

Greetings!!

Hi everyone, 

Long time no bloggy.  The past couple of weeks have been slammed with activity, well, work really, but activity nonetheless.  Last week Jon, Mick, Vija and I went on a Coweeta bender - a day in Athens Georgia for the Coweeta Meeting, then two days at the Field station itself looking for insects for stoichiometry - similar to what Dan does in the field for his buggies.  Vija and I skipped out on the meeting since there wasn't much reason for us to sit in.  It was great to spend the day in Athens exploring and taking her easy - drank a lot of coffee, walked around the town bit, and just enjoyed the beautiful Fall day. It's a super hip town and we hit up the Manhattan for drinks, The Grit for an appetizer, A Tovola for a couple of pizzas, Big City Bread for Bfast, and Cali n Tito's for an amazing steak cuban sammy. All of those establishments were the ones we visited the first time we went to Athens, except A Tovola, BUT THEY'RE SO GREAT!!!  Next time we'll have to be more adventurous, but it's great to know there are some standbys that we love.

The last few weeks have also been busy getting things ready for the big trip to Iceland.  This is the trip that all the heat exchanger supplies went out with the crew and they'll do their darnedest to put it together and get her going.  I dropped the gang (Dan, Vija, Jon, Alex, and Phillip the engineer) off at the airport yesterday morning and, with no rest for the weary, they should have arrived today at 2am central time (7am Iceland time) and went right into the field!!!  I told you no rest! Hopefully they got some shut eye on the plane, but either way it's gonna be a rough few days!   Haven't heard from them yet, but they really haven't had time to breathe thus far!

On my end, playing airport shuttle meant I got to spend a day in B-Ham.  I ate a delightful lunch by my lonesome at Urban Standard (braised short rib, autumn puree and roasted brussel sprouts) and had a great hazelnut soy latte - the little things in life!  I then stopped by Alabrew and picked up a couple of beer kits! A New England IPA and another Rapier Wit which was the last beer batch I made.  I just really enjoyed the orange peel and coriander that it seemed like the right thing to do.  My hope is to get both going before Dan comes back (Oct 30th!) and go from there.  Wee!!!

This week Alabama is playing the Tennessee Volunteers..and this is what Bama fans think of Tennessee...Also, the Arboretum plant sale is on Sunday! I am excited to get a few dark green vegetable starts in the ground!!

Pics of the latest Coweeta trip soon...

xo

The weekly post

Pictures! Finally!

Last week was Eve's Bday..check out how we celebrated here.

Also, more random pictures of the week...

xo!

Happy Fall!!

xoxoxo

More pics!

I'm on a roll!!!!!!

xo

Finally, pictures...

Here are pictures of the hike VIja, Hannah and I did a few weeks ago...Finally!  Of course there are more pictures of the past month, but I will get to those slowly...

xo!

Pics! Finally!

Hey-O! A little garden work finally this weekend and I took pictures!!!

xo

Hi!

A quick post, just to say all is well in Alabamie...Tropical Storm Lee gave us about 68 inches of much needed rain on Monday! Not great weather for a Labor Day BBQ, but we appreciated it nonetheless since we only got an inch of rain in all of August! The garden is looking quite sated and lush. It's just herbs, peppers, and eggplants right now. Hopefully this weekend it will be nice weather to actually get some work done. It's crazy that just last week we had 100 degree weather and now it is a cool 75 degrees with no humidity. Fall is upon us!! Let's hope anyhow!! I'm ready for jeans, cooking up soups, and wearing down booties around the house. The whole town seems to be in happier spirits in general due to the weather! I guess living with 4 months of unbearable weather makes you relish a single day of mild temperature with childish giddiness...

Milder temperatures means it's time to start brewing beer again! Vija is in the market for a bike and we'll try to visit a bike mechanic in Birmingham this weekend and hit up some other big city spots - Alabrew, the organic market, a coffee shop that knows its way around a soy latte, etc...can't wait!

Anyhow, just wanted to let you know that although quiet on the blog, things are going quite well in general, just very busy - football has started up again (spicy and sweet wings and mac n cheese at the Alcove last week (which has newly expanded to the shop next door), we can only hope the same this week for the away game at Penn State!), I have been working a lot on the lab migration to our upstairs lab of awesomeness (we have windows! I should take pics!), having Vija here in the south has been great fun, and having Dan back in the house ain't all that bad either!! Hannah is still strutting her cuteness in exchange for gobs of peanut butter. Hopefully we'll do some picture worthy things this week and I'll upload those...

xo

Yikes, where have we been?!?!?

A long time comin'!

Tomorrow is GAME DAY!!!!  Football season is finally here!  Dan and I are incredibly excited...who knew we would take to Alabama football like a fish to water?  Tomorrow we plan on biking down to the quad with Vija, who arrived just last week, to show her the spectacle of Game Day, then biking to The Alcove, which will be open at 10:30 am for the 11:21am kickoff game!  They will have free food as they did last year and we are uber excited about this!

Anyhow, I am lagging in the picture department I know, here are a few - it's so dang hot outside to work on the garden all that much, and tomorrow Tropical Storm Lee will be giving us a few inches of rain if all goes well!! We need it desperately!!

xo

ct

Yeeeeee Haaaaaawwww!!

Oh yeah...now we're talkin...

oh yes~~

Happy Birthday to my lil brother Anthony!!

loooooooong time no bloggy...

Sigh!! 10 whole days without a new post!  Things have been ramping up at work - Jon got back and we're slowly starting the new lab migration - we are moving upstairs to a corner lab with windows!!!  There is much to be done to clear out the lab of random lab equipment, and it needs a good cleaning!!  That in addition to the other labby things to do makes for a very busy time - but having more than enough work to do is always a good thing!!

Here are a couple pics of the garden..not much has changed.  The eggplants and peppers are going strong, the tomatoes are still giving me a little beaut here and there, but mostly "there" than "here".  It has been super hot up until this week - we're now finally getting regular thunderstorms barreling through which keeps me and the garden happy - hannah not so much...

I managed to put together the stereo system...i should take pictures to show that progression.  I hope to setup the speakers outdoors, but I haven't decided how I want that to look just yet...

only 8 more days until Dan comes home!! It's been so long but these last two weeks are starting to fly by finally!!  So great and I can't wait to say "one more week" tomorrow!!!  The night Dan comes in is the My Morning Jacket Show...I still haven't figured out how exactly I am going to juggle the show and picking up Dan...but something will work out.

Anyhow, I'm waiting for work on Dan's Matrix to finish up here at Tuscaloosa Toyota.  Then I'm off to get my AL driver's license so I can be an official Alabama Belle!!

xo, hopefully more garden work this weekend and pictures to boot!

mmm...food

Another simple but tasty recipe...I was craving tofu in a big way and wanted to stir fry something for dinner last night.  oyster sauce keeps indefinitely in the fridge btw, so pick it up at the asian market and go to town!  It does not in fact taste like "oysters" but it does have a deep salty flavor..  I got to use the eggplant, peppers, basil, jalapeno, and onion from the garden! Yippee!!  The Jalapeno and onion were last minute additions since they were laying around - added a nice kick to the dish!  I also didn't have low sodium soy sauce and kinda forgot about that - a little on the salty side so I probably should have cut down the soy sauce to maybe 1/4 cup, but when paired with rice it was still good.  Since the basil is plentiful around here I put in about a cup of fresh picked - that was super fun to not have to slice them or anything and just let the heat of the dish melt the basil flavor into everything else.  Definitely a keeper and one we'll have to try when Dan comes back (T-minus 18 days folks!!).  I think I also converted Mike to tofu finally - he had given up on it being flavorful and instead looked at it as a bland protein source, not so!!  I heart tofu, and the combination of pressing the liquid out and sauteing it in the wok beforehand made it nice and chewy with a slight crunch...

mmmm

xo

ct

Hello August...

Hi there, pictures here, more details....possibly later..T-Town Family reunites in 19 days!!!

xo!

ct

hello!!!

This recipe is absolutely fantastic!  I had a plethora of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant that needed some attention, and this was one of the first recipes to pop up upon googling "eggplant pepper recipe"...This garden has been so satisfying and I will be sad to see it go (but on to Fall vegetables!).  I made a big batch so plenty for a week of lunches and some to go into the freezer and maybe Dan can try some in a few weeks when he returns home!  I also made a loaf of bread...mmm fresh bread with butter and the eggplant braise - delicious!!  Well worth sweating in the kitchen for the hour - whew!  I heeded some of the advice in the reviews of the recipe - tripled the turmeric, added some ground fenugreek, cayenne pepper, and coriander and a teaspoon of garam masala at the end for that full on "Indian" punch...I've been surprised how satisfying these veggie meals have been - the heat certainly curbs the appetite as well.  I've also surprised how little basil I've been using....It's been growing great but I just haven't had the desire to add it to many meals.  I went out for Thai yesterday and I noticed their parking lot was lined smartly with alternating bushes of Thai basil and lemongrass - how functional!! I snapped off a small stem of the basil and I'm hoping it'll take root!!  Although I don't seem to be using it much in cooking, I love the smell of basil when I go out to pet my basil plants....

For the next recipe adventure I may try this one.  I went to the organic market last week when picking up a friend from the airport and we loaded up on goodies that are scarce or pricey here in Tuscaloosa - chocolate covered espresso beans, dates, unsweetened shredded coconut, and these dates rolled in coconut flakes that Dan got me hooked on in Moscow. mmmm.  Anyhow, the recipe sounds pretty tasty, and I never cook with dates (except wrapping them in bacon thanks to Adam!).

A few random pics

AND!!  From Dan:

"Check out this seminal paper that was just published.  I have a feeling it may revolutionize science as we know it.  "

Congrats dearest!

:)

xo

hi-o!!

a new round o pics!
xo!!

Sigh...

Well we are t-minus 1 month and a day until Dan returns to T-Town.  sniff sniff..We get by with short chats on the phone (about 10 minutes), random skype sessions when we overlap with the 5 hour difference, and reminiscing by looking at old pictures.  Aw shucks....So here is a photo album that I haven't posted on this blog, but I have shared it with some in the past.  It's from 2009 Memorial Weekend Day which was one of the funnest weekends ever - I think it was our official "trip" together.  We drove out to Leavenworth, WA, camped and bouldered near my field sites, and then went to the Gorge for the Sasquatch Music Fest.  It was so much fun an looking at the pics make me miss the Pacific Northwest so very much (as well as Dan!).

anyhow, enjoy a blast from the past that I at least enjoyed hope you do too...

xo

A few random pics...

Here.
:)

An Iceland post from Alabama...

Hi there, this is just a reminder to check out the Iceland blog, the Hengill Diaries.  As an aside, when you type in "Hengill" in google, this link is the first thing that pops up!  Cool!!

There are pictures of the heat exchanger that I've been slowly taking apart and packing up here at work.  Keeps me busy along with gobs of lab work and the smattering of field work!

xo

ct

More pics!!

Here's another batch of pics from some garden changes from the past few days!!  I unfortunately now know what a lizard egg looks like... eeps - check the pics for more info..
xo

A video greeting for dad!

My dad had a hernia surgery yesterday, all went well but he'll be laid up for a few weeks. So here's a get well greeting Hannah and I made for him! (Hannah does not take direction well - such a picky diva!)

Get well soon Pops!  Rest up and do your daily exercises!!! Love you!

Hi!

Yesterday I made this recipe for dinner - AMAZING!! and so simple...I hope to have it in heavy rotation in the future!  Right now I'm awaiting a focaccia to bake for a potluck for a grad student's defense party (Scott's).  I'm already late, but a focaccia was the only thing that seemed to do.  And while I wait for it to bake I can have a short blog.

Enjoy some pics!

xo,

ct

Happy 4th of July!!

Not only is it the 235th anniversary of America, but it is also the 1st anniversary of Dan and I's Southern migration!!   I can't believe it's been a year already!!

Right now it is finally pouring down rain after a week of flirting with precipitation.  I think the rain should clear by 7pm tonight, which is when the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater opens up for the Tuscaloosa Orchestra Symphony plays some America songs and fireworks go off!  I was unsure if I wanted to attend since the weather was so dang hot, but the rain should cool things down and make the outdoors bearable!

On the bird front:

The hummingbirds have returned!  Anthony noticed one last week when one stopped by our feeder and was dismayed when it realized I had neglected by bird friend duties (in my defense, the ants had taken over the feeder and I was tired of feeding ants - it's not as satisfying).  Now the feeder is full and the birds seem happy.

The family of cardinals are aging well with the little ones now in an awkward teenage stage.  They are gangly and still not successfully feeding themselves.  They keep chirping for their parental units to feed them, even when I put out a platter of bird seed for them, p-shah!!

On the garden front:

It's totally wigging out with productivity.  The peppers are about a week from being fully blown ripe - waiting for the golden bells to reach "golden"levels, I've gotten about 5 eggplants so far and I'm pretty pleased with that, they are definitely on the list next year!!  I think I have to think of a different way to grow squash because they're such space hogs...

I worked a little on the garden, still haven't taken pictures of the mini progress though, stay tuned.

In any case, the tomatoes have been made into sauces and salsas thus far - both turned out quite delicious.  The Farmer's Market has a salsa contest and I think I may submit a recipe just to use up tomatoes!!

Roasted tomato, garlic, jalapeno salsa (adapted from Joy of Cooking!):

2 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 large jalapeno chile peppers

Roast in a dry pan over high heat for about 10 minutes, remove garlic skin and chile pepper stem, place in food processor (magic bullet!) with 1 teaspoon salt - make into paste

~1 lb of plum tomatoes (as many that fit in a 9" baking pan) broiled in the oven ~5 minutes on each side in a baking pan until skin is charred, cool and peel

Add to food processor and puree, mix with

2 tablespoons white onion, finely diced

Add more salt to taste - yum!

When I make the salsa for the Thursday market I might try to roast garlic and jalapeno in with the tomatoes to make it a bit easier.

I also put together some deer meatballs with some ground deer meat from Mike.  I tweaked the recipe a bit using oregano to merge better with my marinara sauce.  They are soo tasty. I've been eating it with the sauce, but also with the salsa and yogurt to do a gyro type of thing - amazing!

Random Pictures

Hi!!!

Quite a week!  Anthony's visit was a success - we ate our way through Tuscaloosa, watched a lot of Wimbledon, visited Coweeta, and tried to keep cool in the hot Southern summer.

Here are a couple of albums to our week!  Album 1 and Album 2.

Esja

Wow! I'm having a feeling of deja vu right now. That is not why I'm writing. I'm writing to recount our hike up Esja today. Esja is the large mountain which lies across the bay from Reykjavik. We have been planning this hike for a week or more and since we had a day off today, we went for it. I went with Jim Junker (the other PhD student on the project) and the two undergraduate students, Brooke and Adam.

The trailhead was a short 20 minute drive from Reykjavik. We got there about 10:30am and started hiking shortly after. It was a difficult hike, mostly because Icelanders don't believe in switch-back trails. They just go for it! I won't bore you with any more text and I'll get right to the pictures. Here they are...Esja.

Hi!!!

I write with yet another night of a one person household - sigh.  Anthony's flight into Birmingham got canceled so he's overnighting in Memphis - boo southern summer thunderstorms!!

Tomorrow at 1030am he should be arriving in BHM and we'll continue the southern adventure.  FINALLY we get rain but OF COURSE it comes right when a family member is visiting me...p-shah.  The garden is happy for its drink so I suppose we must be content with that.

I ended up driving into the BHM area to do a little shopping before Anthony's flight came in - but it turns out I just went to BHM for shopping.  Which is fine really - I only went to the Hoover area which is not as far north as the airport.  I got to explore some more which is always fun for me because I love to zip!

1)  I went to the Cajun Cleaver, which is a specialty butcher shop that touts natural and some local meats - yum!  They also had a pretty nice beer selection, and even had some taps of some tasty beers that they will load up in a milk jug for ya to take home and enjoy!  I have been looking for some tasty sausage, and I got a couple of their beer brats and tomato-basil chicken sausages.  I hope to throw them on the grill when Anthony gets in!  I also got 4 Tallgrass IPAs in 16 oz tallboys!  Tasty beers in cans always reminds me of Dan, because he himself gets very excited about canned beer!  I may have to break into one later this evening but I was hoping to wait until Anthony was around...

2) I went to Alabrew and picked up a Rapier Wit kit, based on a beer from Ohio - yippee!!

The description:

This naturally cloudy Belgian white (wheat) beer is subtly spiced with coriander and orange peel which blend naturally with the fruity flavor and aroma provided by the authentic Belgian style yeast. While light and refreshing, this beer finishes with a pleasant creaminess due to the use of nearly 50% unmalted wheat and oats.

It is totally different from the IPA kits we are used to - this one has no grains, no malt extract, but instead a "Wheat extract Spray" which basically looks like flour, and then some Belgian Rock Candy!  Add in a slight amount of bittering hops, and then some orange peel and coriander as aroma!  There is also a special strain of yeast that goes with it as well (it's a bit "spicier"!  Aside from just being interesting, the Wit has the added benefit of only 1 fermentation (we'll do it in the carboy) for 2 weeks and then we can bottle!  Woo hoo!! 5 days after that we should be in beer business!!  That means by mid-July this batch of beer will be done - I hope there's still some around when Dan comes back!! Ha!!

3) I went to the Purple Onion in Hoover on the recommendation of a fellow volunteer I met last weekend - I had the Kafta Pita Wrap and it was DELISH!  I am mad in love with Kafta (or Kofta) and it may be how I judge future Mediterranean restaurants.  Big Daddy's here in T-Town does a mighty fine Kofta burger - maybe it's the allspice that I taste, but it's just super well-spiced with TONS of parsley.  I'll have to give a homemade version a try one day! Yum!!  I have heard the falafel is good which Dan will be excited about - he's into the Falafel and chicken dishes at Med.-themed places, I go for the red meat!

4) On my way home I passed by the Organic Harvest Market.  I stopped in for a peak just because and was pleasantly surprised!!!  The place reminded me of Moscow's Food Co-op, even though it isn't a co-op.  Pleasant lighting and big wide aisles, a huge bulk section, and it was big overall!  Maybe as big as our old Co-op, or just under.  Anyhow, it totally out-shined the natural store here in Tuscaloosa, which I wish was just "more".  It made me super nostalgic for Moscow, and reminded me how Dan and I would always walk downtown in the evening for a dessert there (they were open until 9pm most days!), pick up a fun new beer, and head in for the night...ahhh Idaho....

5) We've got just under 2 months until Dan comes back to T-Town!  Which means I've got that amount of time to finish my thesis!!  Yikes!  Summer is always bittersweet..I saw this today, a little late for Father's Day, but funny nonetheless.  I would paste the pic here, but sometimes I feel I shouldn't overstep copyright issues....

BUT!!!

One copyright I don't mind infringing upon:

Yippee!!! Dan's first article from his Master's work has been published!! Congratulations Dan!!  So very proud of you!!!  Autographed copies may be ordered directly though Daniel Nelson - buy five and get an 8 x 10" glossy headshot for free in his "thoughtful" pose - get yours today!

:)
xo!

p.s. I am now just rereading my text for errors and I am noticing every paragraph ends with a story about Dan...apparently I miss him (awwwwwwwwwwwwwww).

Miss you dear!!xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
:)

Pics!

I finally uploaded some garden pics from the week!

xo!

ct

Yippee!! Rain!!

As I write rain is sprinkling down upon our garden.  I hear thunder in the distance and I think a good ol' southern thunderstorm is heading our way!  From the looks of the radar we're at the southern tip of a big storm sweeping through northern Alabama.  No matter - I'll take what I can get here in a Southern Summer!!!  This is probably only the second time it's rained since Dan's left - which means a lot of watering from the hose.  I can only imagine what the water bill will be!!

The garden seems to be doing well, tomatoes are coming in about one a day or so, one roma tomato has started to turn red, and the zucs and cucs have been producing here and there.  I finally pulled up the broccoli as it was getting pummeled by caterpillars.  No florets ever came to bear, but I did trim and peel the stalk which was tasty - very broccoli tasting plus a little "spiciness" which made my tongue tingle...which I'm hoping wasn't "poisonous"...but I've never heard of a poisonous broccoli stalk...stay tuned for more updates regarding that!  

Our first eggplant is trucking along, and has started turning purple!!  It's just so cute I can't wait to watch it grow more!!!  WHAT THE HECK?!?!  The roma that started turning red yesterday is no longer on the plant ( I can see the garden from my window) - vegetarian squirrel attack?  Did it blow off in the wind?  I'll hafta investigate once the rain subsides...grrr...

One thing that has been eating up my time is this website for Rebuilding Tuscaloosa.  My neighbor introduced me to it and I find it very inspiring!  I started up an account and have been submitting ideas in various categories - including bikes racks, setting up recycling bins, expanding the bike lanes and bike paths around the city, etc.  

A few other items: I bought 3 tix to My Morning Jacket this morning!!  It was easily the best box office experience I've ever had - rolled up at 9:45am to the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater, waited for the box office to open at 10am, 4 people were in line ahead of me, by 10:06am I had 3 tickets, no service charges, and the biggest grin on my face imaginable!  Tomorrow there is a boxing match at the amphitheater - so it's quite an eclectic venue!!  Also, Tuscaloosa has yet another cupcake shoppe - Sweets Cupcakes just opened today in downtown T-town which is in walking distance for us.  I keep thinking the cupcake bubble's gotta burst soon, but, well it's still here.  What Dan and I wouldn't give for a Pie Lab in Tuscaloosa, serving GOOD coffee (we are official coffee snobs) and maybe some ice cream too - is that too much to ask??

I'll upload more garden pics soon!

xo!

Today is Iceland's Independence Day!

Today (June 17) is Iceland's independence day celebration. Every year on June 17, Icelanders celebrate the day in 1944 that the independent Republic of Iceland was formed. Iceland was under Danish rule for a significant period. During WWII, the Germans occupied Denmark and the British held occupation of Iceland. Therefore, it was easy for Iceland to secede from the Danes.

Reykjavik has almost transformed over night. It is much like our July 4 celebration in the US. Many of the streets downtown are blocked off to car traffic and there are food vendors, street performers, and moon bounces for the kids everywhere. Restaurants have set up grills outside on their patios and there is even a huge stage set up downtown. One can only hope that the stage is for Sigur Ros or even Bjork to perform!

People everywhere are waving mini Icelandic flags. I hear there will be a parade later in the evening and afterward will be when bands take to the stage. The festivities will culminate with the release of thousands of helium filled balloons, much to the dismay of the whales and seabirds I'm sure. I'm looking forward to ditching my computer at my apartment and heading back downtown to take part in the celebration. Nothing says Independence Day celebration like a hot pylsur and a cold Viking!!

Cheers!

Another Post from Dan...From Iceland!

Wow! Chau and I are blogging fools! I just wanted to post some pictures from today. It's some more sciency stuff. I hope you enjoy them. CLICK HERE TO SEE THEM.

One of the endearing personalities on Alabama Public Radio, Kathryn Tucker Windham (or "K.T. Dubs" as Dan and I would call her) passed away last night.

Every Friday morning we would wake up to APR and hear her tell a random story about growing up in the South.  Her stories were always a little nutty and nonsensical, but maybe that's because we're Yankees (I consider California Yankee territory, even though it didn't exist when the term was invented - but maybe my history-buff-newly-minted-University-of-Chicago-professor-best-friend-from-high-school Amy can clarify).  However ridiculous, they stuck in our minds and made us giggle. Trying to feed goats tin cans, buying blocks of ice for the ice box and carrying it home to make a pitcher of sweet tea...little vignettes of everyday life with no real reason to them...just so stories...

Moving from place to place has introduced us to new "radio friends" on the local NPR stations. Dan and I miss Sueann Ramella from the Palouse's NWPR, and would still get all giddy when we saw her around Moscow neighborhoods walking her dogs.  She has an incredibly soothing voice and I miss waking up to it. 

It's taken some getting used to the APR radio hosts, when we first moved here Brandon Hollingsworth was the morning host and he was a suitable substitute for Sueann.  However, he mysteriously vanished from the air a few months ago and we never got a reason why.  They replaced him with another guy who apparently had trouble reading period - no bueno.  The current APR host is a woman whose name I cannot remember, but I like her so far...

xo

Hola!

Picture frenzy!!!  

Nice weekend!!  Today I drove up to Birmingham to volunteer with the Human Rights Campaign booth which was at the PrideFest.  All in all it was a blast!  It's good to see evidence of progressive folk all the way down here in the Deep South.  There was a pretty decent turnout when I was volunteering, and we met and surpassed our goal of getting 25 memberships!  By the time I had left at about 3pm we were at 34 already and we hoped to make another goal of 50 by the end of the night!  Looks like the memberships/funds raised from today will put an HRC office in Birmingham!!  Right now Alabama is one of 5 states without an HRC presence...so that's super exciting to have that change soon!

All in all I'm optimistic about the various signs of progressiveness floating around where we live...Legalizing Sunday alcohol sales, the various public spaces opening around the city, the fact that the Tuscaloosa Rebuild Team visited Greensburg, KS to see how they took their tornado disaster into an opportunity to rebuild smart and green, the fabulous farmer's market that pushes the eat local movement, the fact that My Morning Jacket is coming to play at the Amphitheater!!  All of these things are great little reminders that progress is possible...you just have to believe... 

The PrideFest was a culmination of a week of festivities - parades, filmfests, music shows, etc.  I always enjoyed going to the Pride parade in Seattle, which was centered near my neighborhood of Capitol Hill.  It was usually good weather with great people watching and a very fun atmosphere.  Memories of that plus the fact that there was an extensive nytimes article about eating your way through Seattle (thanks for the heads up Iowa!) made me miss the Emerald City for all that it is...But I'm lucky I was able to live there with so many fond memories AND all my great friends!! I'll be back soon enough! sigh...

I asked a fellow volunteer about some local eateries in B-ham...He was a vegetarian so he suggested veg-friendly places that I am excited to try with Dan when he returns - The Purple Onion, and the Pita Stop are supposedly tasty Mediterranean cafes!!

Another exciting thing about PrideFest other than the warm fuzzy feeling that Alabama is much more open-minded than I give it credit for:  the free swag...a handful of chapsticks, and a bunch of free dog food samples means Hannah gets a bunch of treats, which I stuffed into her squirrel-kong, only to have her slowly but surely retrieve them one by one...I could watch this forever (for the email subscribers you may have to go to the blog link directly to view the video):

  

A fellow grad student has made homemade ice cream and peach cobbler - I gotta get while the gettin's good!!!
 - bye y'all!!
xo!!

Hi!!

A few pictures!  Today was a little garden work and house rearranging...AND thesis writing...sigh...thesis writing...anyhow, I didn't take any pics of the garden work I did, but it was basically reinforcing the roma tomatoes which have outgrown their cages and now flopping over themselves being so top heavy and all...a little pruning here and there, and I set out some sunflower seeds from our plants for the birds.  The mother cardinal is back in the garden and I can hear her new little one peeping about for tasty vittles.  I wonder where her first chick wandered off to...anyhow...she hasn't seemed to find the seeds yet (or she's not interested in my attempt at growing bird food)...but let's hope it works out...

the house rearrangement pictures are mostly for Dan...so he can "yeay" or "nay" the new look...but anyone can chime in if they have an opinion...
xo!

ct

Another Post From Iceland!

Hello Everyone!

There must have been quite a storm in the mountains around Reykjavik last night, as they are covered with snow this morning. It was also very windy in town last night. The wind was howling and I could here it from inside my new apartment. Speaking of my new apartment, here are a few pictures of it. PICTURES

I'm sitting in one of my new favorite spots in town right now. It's a stylish cafe in the city hall building next to Lake Tjornin. I can sit here, drink my coffee, use the internet, and watch the plethora of birds swim and fly by. Just now, I'm looking at Mallards, Arctic Terns, Black-headed Gulls, Whooper Swans, Common Eiders, Tufted Ducks, Scaup, and Red-breasted Mergansers. There's probably more considering the number of birds on the lake, but those are what I can quickly identify.

It's a fairly nice day outside. It's about 10C and a little overcast. Springtime in Reykjavik is awesome! I'm starting to see that Icelanders are a very industrious and hard-working people. Everywhere, there are people gardening, planting things, washing windows, painting houses/fences, and power washing walkways. Nobody does much in the winter when it is dark for most of the day and the temperatures are uncomfortable. However, when the first nice day arrives, people get to work and since the days are so long, they are able to work extremely long hours.

I'm hoping to get back into the field this weekend and do a little work of my own. It's so beautiful at Hengill this time of year, I'd almost rather be there than in Reykjavik. Plus, I have to check in on the Oyster Catcher family to see if they have re-nested after the Arctic Fox incident.
I'll keep you all posted as I know all of you are on the edge of your seats awaiting that news.

Until next time.

No Joke...

MY MORNING JACKET BENEFIT SHOW WITH NEKO CASE AND PHOSPHORESCENT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR TORNADO RELIEF IN ALABAMA

This is OUR DREAM!!!

NO WAY!!!!  This is arguably Dan's favorite band (if put on the spot for the Dating Game that would be my answer, but White Stripes and Flaming Lips would also be on that list)...and they are coming to TUSCALOOOOOOOOOOSA!!!  This is INSANO!  The only bummer - they play the NIGHT Dan gets back into town from Iceland....he flies in at 851pm to Birmingham...the show starts at 7pm..so I think Dan will need to change his flight in order to actually see them...because by the time we get back into T-Town, MMJ will have finished up their set..**.DAN PLEASE DO THIS**

When the amphitheater opened up we joked "Ha! What if My Morning Jacket came and played...wouldn't THAT be something..."  and now it is happening - all it took was a tornado...Neko Case has a Tornado song that NPR featured the day after our tornado...sigh

ok..not the most thought-out post...but there is this...the Tornado did a ridiculous amount of hurt and damage to the town...the upside?  My Morning Jacket comes to play...that's bittersweet right there...

Anyhow, I'll be in line buying tickets June 17th at 10 am at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater...

Thanks to our neighbor Darick who let us know about it...WOW!

xo

Yippee!!

A post from Dan from Iceland!! :)  Nice to see his pics and nice that this blog helps us keep in touch with each other as much as with other folk scattered throughout!

A couple of links of some garden/veggie pics!  This morning I took a few pics of some tasty veggies from the garden and I made some beignets from the leftover challah dough Dan had made a few weeks earlier - frozen in small quantities this dough is PERFECT to thaw out overnight and then make these wonderful little fried gems...this was my first time making them, and I foresee Dan and I enjoying these together this coming Fall with a big cuppa joe!!

Also, a few pics I posted a day ago of the first two tomatoes I (prematurely) picked!  I just couldn't wait any longer...

xo for now!

Greetings from Iceland

Ahoy!!

As Chau mentioned in an earlier post, I made it to Iceland safely. This past week has been busy and chilly. According to our Icelandic friends, this has been one of the coldest springs in years. It snowed on us on Thursday and today was extremely windy and cold, although it was sunny and clear. I'm just glad I brought thermal underwear and my warm Mountain Hardwear Windstopper hat.

Jon and Alex leave in a few days and I'll soon be all by myself for a while here (but not really b/c I'll have the post doc Jim and our Icelandic friends to keep me company).

I'm sorry but I don't have a lot of interesting news yet, but I hope to soon. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures from the past week.

PICTURES

Happy Sunday evening to you!

Hello!

I just made some homemade mayo which tastes pretty yummy, even though I accidentally put in a tsp of ground ginger instead of ground mustard (that's what I get for not labeling my bulk spices) - whoops!  

Our friend Andy makes a killer potato salad which is basically an egg salad with potatoes - hardboiled eggs seem to make a potato salad go from "good" to "OMG THIS IS SO GOOD WHAT DID YOU PUT IN THIS, CRACK?!?!"  I had a craving for this potato salad - perhaps it's the heat that comes along with summer....maybe it is because I love mayonnaise more than I like to admit and potato salad is the perfect vessel for mayo, I don't know...But anyhow, I also just vowed this weekend to see how long I can go without going to the grocery store.  I'm allowing myself to go to the weekly farmer's market because it is just so dang delicious... what with the fresh peaches, beans, peaches, onions, peaches, and peaches (peaches are my favorite).  But allowing myself to go to the market also means I get a few other things that will help me along - eggs (but you gotta get there RIGHT at 3pm when they start!), goat cheese, AND frozen beef.  I like to keep a fully stocked cupboard, and sometimes that goes a little overboard.  Now with Dan gone for the summer, I feel the need to eat what I have - it's also a fun experiment to try to be creative with the ingredients on hand - sort of like a self-imposed Iron Chef show, except it happens every night with just me and less exotic ingredients.

So how this ties into homemade mayo goes back to the tornado back in April.  Since we were without power for a couple days, Dan preserved the food we had by not opening the fridge/freezer (I was away at Coweeta for monthly sampling).  Still, a few things got thrown out - soy milk that was a little suspect, and the mayo.  Ok, so I know someone who doesn't refrigerate their mayo - never has, never does, and they have not yet died.  But then you hear about mayo-based salads going bad at summer BBQs when left out in the sun too long.  So I just don't know what the deal is with mayo.  The mayo MAY have been compromised, but really...Dan does not like mayo, and I'd like to think that he trashed it at the first chance he got.  But it's ok - I would have done the same thing with french toast.  Which is really the only thing that I totally REFUSE to eat..but that's another story for another time.

Anyhow, my potato salad craving was HINGING on the fact that we had mayo...because, even though I don't use it all the time, I like to have mayo in the house at all times, just in case a craving like the one I had today pops up.  But what to do? Can't go to the grocery store on account of my desire to abstain...but wait!! Isn't mayo super easy to make?  Why yes it is...and thank goodness I still have eggs from the farmer's market!  The only problem is one egg needs about 1 cup of oil...and that makes quite a lot of mayo for a now single-person household, which needs to be consumed in 5 days.  The smart thing would be to give up and accept that yes, most of this mayo is going to the trash...but I'll try to do something with it...look up some recipes online that are heavy on mayo.  Then I'll get sick of mayo for a few months..then the cycle will begin again...with that craving for potato salad...

Sadly, Andy has now left T-Town for the boondocks in Georgia for the rest of his Master's work.  So I shall carry on this wonderful recipe with a heavy heart.  

Anyhow...did I mention Dan made it safely to Iceland?  He did last week, all is well - cold, but well.  Light until 10pm, but snowy and chilly up at Hengill where field work is...all in all he seems quite happy, perhaps he'll chime in once he gets settled in his new digs.

Here are a few pics from the garden this weekend...My last foray at 4pm today meant I got hit by mosquitoes...7 annoying bites in 5 minutes...man they act fast...at least my tomatoes are safe for now...see the pics for the skinny..

xo

Hallooo!

Hi There!

A few updates:

It is still HOT here...as in H-O-T....I fear that the summer heat is already upon us and it is only June!  It has been in the 100 range all week - thank goodness for central A/C...despite being of Southeast Asian descent I am wilting like a daisy...though I am unsure if daisies wilt in heat...perhaps tulips is a better example?   I am not a botanist.  

The good news: our beloved big boy tomato is turning a rosy colour!!!  See pics of the "turning"...not quite like a human turning into a vampire, but a similar excitement level.  Included in the link-o-pictures are a few other choice events:  me making another spanish tortilla - which I lived off of for 2.5 days (Dan left on Monday for Iceland for 2.5 months and the desire to cook wanes..), a trip Mick and I took to Tallulah Falls which is on the way to Coweeta and our monthly sampling, a few pics of Coweeta in its "green" state, and then the garden, which I am known to photograph on occasion.

stay cool....temperature-wise...

xo

Summer weather is upon us!

Hi all!!  Hope you are having a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend!  Dan just got back from Providence, RI on Thursday, and then he's jet-setting again tomorrow to Iceland for a summer of 75 degree field work and unending daylight!  I'll take him and three other faculty members from UA to the airport tomorrow morning  for a day of traveling, then they'll arrive in Iceland Tuesday around 6am.  No additional worries from Grimsvotn, Iceland's latest erupting volcano, so travel should be rather smooth.

No great American BBQs this weekend - we mostly stayed off the radar since Dan didn't have much time at home in between trips.  Dan made a tasty pizza topped with our garden squash and basil, I made a big batch of sweet potato and kidney bean burrito filling based off of a recipe I found on the internets...It was pretty great with tortilla chips and salsa as well!!

The heat has been melting us whenever we attempt to go outdoors.  We are thankful for A/C and I wonder how anyone ever survived out here without it.  The summer heat has brought a greater appreciation for cold brew coffee, AND popsicles!  We spent some time out in the garden yesterday and our treat upon completion of work was a tasty coconut popsicle.  There is something about that coconut creamy flavor that makes everything A-OK.  I think that might be the next DIY project...one of many!

Oh yes, our soap has finally cured and we just started using it!  The coffee is VERY exfoliating, which Dan and I enjoy, but may be a little harsh for some.  It moisturizes quite well and is nice that it's unscented, so all in all, a success!

A few more garden pics, what else do I take pictures of?

xo
  

Egads, Mother Nature scares me...

More deadly tornadoes?  Another erupting volcano in Iceland?  Tsunamis and earthquakes in Japan?  Floods in the Missisipp' (I drop the "i" now since I live in the South)?  "Macho Man" Randy Savage passes away???  WHAT is going on now?  I just don't know anymore, but I guess I should just be thankful everyday there isn't a natural disaster where I live...yikes...

Things like this make me go into list mode and be thankful for the things that we have...Little things like the heat, humidity, lack of good espresso, and the invertebrate pests of the South have been preoccupying me of late and bumming me out...I think with everything going on in the world I need to appreciate the South a bit more and stop my whining...
1) The summer heat giveth amazing produce - peaches and tomatoes and the like...
2) The summer heat also means amazing thunderstorms that fill up our rain barrel quite nicely
3) Mosquitoes feed bats, we like bats...other creepy crawlies feed...birds I guess?  Ticks are just plain awful and I can't find a particular reason to stop disliking them, although Kerri thinks their life cycle is interesting, so I guess I should applaud evolution for that?
4) Whilst the espresso market is quite barren here, I need to appreciate that the finest BBQ and biscuits are easily a stone throw away from where we live and that in itself is a rarity...it's a super stretch, but it helps that now that I'm back on cold-brewing coffee...
5) I found a horse stable today that will give me free horse poo...does that happen often in life?  I'm hoping the tomatoes embrace it as much as Hannah will...

this is only a partial list that I will be continually adding onto..this post turned odd no?  This is what happens when Dan leaves and I have a blank canvas that is the interwebs....

More garden pics that you just can't get enough of...

Morning shorts...

Tuscaloosa made the cover of Sports Illustrated last week, read the article here.  It's a few tornado stories from the perspective of student athletes...

Last week a few of us girls got together and made some soap!  Fight Club style!!  Well, not with human liposuction remains, but my neighbor and I did an all vegetable fat soap and mixed in some coffee grinds.  Here are pictures of us cutting it with dental floss.  Now it has to "cure" for 10-14 days....

We did not add any scents, so it mostly just smells like oil.  We used olive oil, canola oil, and coconut oil - heat all of these to about 100 degrees F, mix lye with water carefully (the lye is what burned Ed Norton's arm in Fight Club) with proper protective gear - gloves, goggles, long sleeved shirt.  Wait until the lye cools down to about 90-95 degrees F (Just mixing lye with water heats it up to about 140 degrees F!), mix the two mixtures together with a spoon and immersion blender, pour into a mold (2 pyrex baking pans lined with wax paper) and wait 24 hours until it sets, then cut the bars and let them sit for 2 weeks!

There is so much literature out there about soap that it is overwhelming, but once I broke it down in my mind as these few easy steps it was much easier to grapple with...Now I am inspired to make my own chapstick which includes no corrosive liquids - just melt 2 tablespoons each of beeswax, coconut oil, and shea butter in a microwave and then pour into chapstick tubes!

This DIY spirit will last another week then peter out...

Today is the Preakness!  I've been trying to find it online but I may have to settle for replays afterwards.  The neighbors are coming over in a little bit and we will be enjoying the backyard by having some cocktails, working in the garden, and grilling some brats - A nice weekend day all around...

Dan leaves for Providence, RI for a few days..There's a NABS conference there that he'll be attending with his lab.  It should be fun!  Especially since he doesn't have to present a talk/poster!

xo

ted leo in atlanta and hiking in bankhead...

So..Dan, Hannah and I drove up to Bankhead National Forest (about 1.5 hours North of us) today for a nice little nature hike.  While driving Hannah had a bit of an "incident"..it happens to everyone....riding in the back seat of a car, windy roads...upset stomach...well...of course this happened in Dan's car....and I happened to get some video of it...you may want to stop it in the last few seconds if you're eating...but for some reason I find it kind of hilarious (However, Dan does not...which I can understand after seeing him clean up dog puke off the side of his car...).  I meant to take a picture of Hannah enjoying the car ride, because she rarely sticks her noggin' out the window....then we got another surprise....at least now we know what to look for before Hannah gets car sick.  1) Frothing at the mouth, 2) jowls stretched thin, 3) dry heaving that soon becomes not dry....

Lest you think this phased her, she was a trooper and galloped to and fro throughout our little jaunt.   At one point she fell on her face...seriously.  AND I happened to get a picture of that...but I really was just taking a picture of her galloping about and I didn't WANT her to fall on her face...but she bounced back...and it ends up being a decent picture...so...a win win for everyone really...the link is a the end of this post...

Also, earlier in the week we went to Atlanta to see Ted Leo play at the Drunken Unicorn.  The DU is almost impossible to find unless you are in the "know"...We were not in the said "know", but we managed to spot some hipsters that looked like the Ted Leo type and BAM! we were led to the bar/club that is the Drunken Unicorn.  From their website we read that they have no sign, and have no phone...so if you forgot to write down explicit directions like I did, you are pretty much screwed.  TL played an AWESOME setlist with plenty of his great stage banter...a lot of old mixed in with newer songs and totally brand new songs.  One of those brand spankin' new songs was called "the little smug supper club" which is pretty perfect because Dan and I just started a supper club this past week as I posted about earlier!  It was a pretty great song and I spent most of the show video taping from my camera.  They ended up turning out pretty decent sound wise, not so much video wise....I will try to post one, but I realized afterwards that the mic on the camera faces me...which means there are a lot of clips with me singing along to songs I clearly a) do not know all the words to, and b) have no business singing because I am a god-awful singer...
Warning, as a proper Irish Catholic Boy, Ted drinks whiskey, and occasionally curses..if you start the video at 15 seconds, you'll skip the expletive...

link to pics from the Ted Leo show and our hiking bonanza...

Hi!!

link!  Actual veggies and then some!  I put this up last night on the shortcut menu but forgot to include it in the post...It's hot here!! up to the 90s!!  good for the veggies, bad for the humans...at least it makes me want to go to work to take advantage of the A/C!  Tomorrow Dan and I host a supper club of sorts at our place.  We're making Chicken Biryani and having a few friends over to partake in each other's company potluck style.  Hopefully it starts a trend and we can do this weekly or at least monthly.  I'm hoping we get some interest in a little board game playing as well tomorrow night...

cheers!

Another post!

Here are a few pics my brother Simon just sent me of his little one, Luella...she's got that Tran cute goin' on....

What a good little pho eater:

Cute!

hola!

Here's a link to a few more pics from the week.

Darick's art show was great!  Here is a link to his blog and specifically to his gallery page.  It was a lot of fun to see his art up at the Kentuck!  As a very generous "thank you" for helping put frames together the neighbors gifted me with "Shimmering Shoals"  which is beautifully framed and now hanging along the staircase in the house - I'l upload a pic of it soon but it is also on his blog gallery!  Emily and I made brownies, cookies, and pickles wrapped in cream cheese and ham for the opening the night before and that was a lot of fun.  you may not think the pickle appetizer is all that tasty sounding, but it is!  They went like hotcakes the night of the opening!  It was a great night to spend outside drinking with friends, nibbling on snacks, and looking at art...

In a few days Dan, Hannah, and I will go to Atlanta for an overnight trip.  Seeing Ted Leo at the Drunken Unicorn is the main impetus for the trip, but we'll also head to REI and Trader Joe's for supplies (coffee!! nuts!! dried fruit!!).  Dan will be able to pick up a few things for his upcoming summer Iceland trip, gotta spend that dividend!

Mocking birds have been disrupting our quiet household.  Namely their choice to procreate means they are aggressive as al get out.  Each of us have been dive bombed repeatedly, mostly Hannah.  The poor girl doesn't know what to make of it aside from the fact that the outdoors is now scary.  So now Dan and I protect her with a tennis racket as she relieves herself in the backyard...Sigh...
 

Hi all!

A few pics of the garden taken last weekend after I returned from the field.  Dan took mighty good care of the garden while I was gone, watering diligently and checking for pests.  I'm amazed how much they've grown in the few days I was gone.  The rest of this week looks to be good weather - which will be good for garden work!  I have a load of rocks from Coweeta to distribute, some concrete blocks to place as the start of our compost bin, and the rest of the grass to dig up in the back and newspaper/sawdust to lay down.  Should be great fun so get ready for another total change in the garden (fingers crossed!).  Tomorrow is very exciting because it's the art opening for our neighbor's show at the Kentuck Gallery in town.  I helped him build and finish frames for his 22 pieces and the frames are rock solid!  They are going to looks super great and I'm very excited to se the art in the gallery setting.  I'll try to remember to take many pictures.  Art night this month is coupled by a blues fest and with free cake from the local bakery that is uber delish!!  It should be a nice break from all things tornado...

speaking of that, it's been nutty being back from the field.  Dan and I took a drive around the major intersection in town where the tornado hit.  Totally unrecognizable.  It's hard to remember that things are totally wiped out while here in our neighborhood, things couldn't be more normal.  It's reassuring to hear about so many hopeful stories and see such an outpouring of help from the community.  Volunteers round the clock, local businesses donating free meals everywhere.  For all the bad publicity it may get, the South does indeed pull together in times of adversity and it warms the heart greatly...

xo for now

Everything's going to be just fine....

Here's the link to the story...

WE HAVE POWER!!!!

Yippee!!
Just got off the phone with Dan - we have power at the house though much of East Tuscaloosa is still without power and water is running out.  Seems like the stores and gas stations have been swarmed as you can imagine.  Luckily our freezer and pantry is pretty stocked with various food items so I think we'll be ok for the next few days/weeks.  I'm so happy to hear that we have power, it's a small step towards normalcy...Dan has helped a fellow grad student collect some things from her house that was right in the middle of the tornado's path.  He relayed it was pretty eerie to be walking around as other folks walking around were a little shady looking.  Let us hope that power returns soon because we know how the lack of the basics can cause our society to crumble rather quickly.  The city has implemented a curfew from 8pm to 6am which will hopefully cut down on looting (sad as it maybe), and help ease the jobs of those who are trying to make things better around here.

From the little that I hear and see in the news I'm happy that things seem to be going well with the recovery of the city.  The officials seem to be fast acting and by the next day there were additional power folks working hard to get power up and running ASAP.  On the Tuscaloosa News they have information readily available - a link to search for loved ones, report damaged areas, upload photos, a map of local shelters and drop off areas...all in all I feel really proud to be living in Tuscaloosa right now.  The University is sending out regular emails about the updates of the University - the Rec center is a shelter right now for displaced students, power is slowly being restored...things are looking up...

Here's a link to a map of the tornado path that the Tuscaloosa News put out - the "t" in "15th" is where we live...so we were very very lucky....

Here are some random pics...xo

I'm at a coffee shop in Athens catching up on all the news...more meetings this afternoon, then off to Coweeta in the evening....I think I've had my tornado update fix - now time to check out the royal wedding photos!!

Cheers all..

ct

p.s.

not that you need more links to see all this stuff, but this is our local newspaper...

thanks for surviving through my ramblings...

xo

Safe!

Hi all,
Well, as you may have noticed, T-Town has made national, and international news (BBC)..sadly, not for football, but for the deadly tornadoes that have ripped through the South yesterday.  It's been a little surreal and I write partly to help my mind process it all and to share news that yes, we are safe.  Our house is safe and those that we are close to are safe though not all their dwellings survived.  It's been spotty to keep up with everyone's whereabouts around T-Town, and it's made even more difficult because most of the town has no power.  I'm also currently in Athens, GA for a monthly meeting for the Coweeta project that I work on in the lab.  After today and tomorrow's meetings we (Jon, Mick, and I) will head to Coweeta for our monthly sampling and then head home to the unknown.

It's kinda hard to be away from Dan and Hannah right now, but I know we are both safe and we'll see each other soon.

As far as the breakdown of our account of the last 24 hours:
We had plenty of warning about the tornado - alerts started the day before (Tuesday).  The University had sent out warnings around 4:45 pm and dismissed classes.  Most students left and went home or into the basement of various school buildings.  It's difficult to think about the students who went home to houses that ended up being right in the tornado's path, but I hope most stayed put.  I was uneasy and wanted to head home - we have a basement, and wanted to just be somewhere familiar with Hannah, so I convinced Dan to drive home and hunker down.  We managed to cook a dinner of spaghetti before power totally went out.  Our homebrews and pasta kept us happy - Hannah took up her storm shelter in the windowless bathroom that is on the second floor.  I think if no one told us there was a tornado I don't think Dan and I would have noticed anything different.  The past few weeks have had a few bad storms - thunder and lightening, howling winds and pouring rain for a few hours and then sunshine and clear skies.  Yesterday was similar, but the aftermath just made everything kinda eerie.  It was a little too calm yesterday (and the fact that we had no power also made things "off").  No power meant no way to keep up with the news and what was really happening in town.  I had to go to the car and listen to the radio for an update.  It was early on and the tornado had reached Birmingham (50 miles northeast of us) and initial reports about Tuscaloosa said many parts of town were decimated.  It's difficult to digest something like radio words when the visual impact is missing.  Power never came back during the night so we remained "in the dark" about our town's status.  Thursday morning we woke up early and Dan was nice enough to drive me to campus for my 7:30 am departure for the field.  Still without power, we skipped coffee and breakfast and drove around for gas - but all the power was out around the University so no gas for us.  We got to our building and we were only on emergency power.  Thankfully the chest freezer is plugged in so the carefully collected samples over the year are safe.  We packed up the car and slowly students were trickling in to also check in on their labs.  That's when we started hearing the stories of the massive destruction around town...Apparently, the tornado steamed just south of campus and the students who stayed behind to hunker down at the University saw the massive mile-long tornado speed through town.  I'm sure you've all seen footage, I still have yet to actually get myself to look at the videos.  
By the time we left it was a little after 8am and it took us about 1.5 hours just to get out of town!  Due to damage there was only one main way to get out of town heading north/east.  We drove by right where the tornado crossed the highway and saw cars tossed upside down, and parts of what I think are a water tower scattered on either side of the road.  Crews were continuing their hard work searching through the rubble of residential area and businesses were cleaning up their areas.   It was quite surreal driving along the highway and seeing so many trees snapped and strewn about the roadsides. 
Stopping by the Georgia rest stop we caught some clips on the weather channel but still hadn't seen much of the damage.  Jon received many calls throughout the day so we heard some updates.  By the time we made it to the University of Georgia it was about 2pm and we finally got access to the internet and saw what you are all familiar images you've seen already...yikes...it still hasn't fully sunk in, but the images are just so jarring.  We're a few miles away from the main destruction so I keep saying it's a good thing that at least we are safe.  Then when you absorb all that, you think about the logistics of rebuilding.  The unknowns.  When will power be back?  Is power back already?  Are all of our friends safe (we think so)?  What is the process of rebuilding?  I haven't been able to get in touch with Dan again since I've left, and I know there's nothing I can do even if I was there next to him, I guess I would just feel better if we were together. 

In any case, the University has canceled classes and finals and have suggested student return home so the rebuilding process can be a little less crowded.  We've heard about 2,000 national guards coming into town to help maintain order so that will help I guess.

Phone coverage is spotty and I've forgotten my charger, so I'll be sparse via phone the next few days.  I do have my laptop with me, so at least I'll be able to email/blog/skype.

It's funny that we went from being naive about a tornado warning siren two weeks ago to living in a town totally decimated by a twister.  Oh how things change in a short amount of time...

I'll just be happy Saturday night when I'm home with the family...

xo, much love

chau