Hey ya!
This past weekend we had work and fun.  Dan studied hard for his aquatic entomology test that he took on Monday and I processed benthic samples from Coweeta.

We managed to take a break Saturday evening and had fun at the 2nd Annual Druid City Art Fest that was FREE and held downtown in the new park that opened up this summer, just a half block down from the Alcove...There was a proper stage setup with musical acts throughout the day - we caught the last couple and they were....not for us let's just say.  But it was nice to enjoy some nice weather, eat some hot dogs and sip a beer in the open.  Plenty of people watching opportunities as well!

Our neighbor was one of the featured artists at the festival and it was great to see his art displayed - about 4,000 people showed up which is up from last year (3,000) so it was nice that he got some foot traffic!

After taking in the Art Fest we headed downtown for an evening stroll.  We were surprised by a whirlwind of bikers swerving throughout the downtown streets.  Unknowingly we had stumbled upon "Tour de Tuscaloosa" which is held annually for the last 5 years.  Timing had it that we could watch the Men's Pro "criterium",  which I was unfamiliar with - but basically it was a 1.2 mile loop bike race around downtown for various time intervals and gain points depending on their placement.  We found a seat in Temerson Square (a row of bars downtown usually peppered with the undergraduate crowd and smoky as all get out) and watched the bikers whiz by...It was like Nascar, only with bikes...Since they were the Men's Pro, these guys were FAST.  It was a little unnerving to watch them take one of the downhill corner turns at such speeds!  I haven't gotten that fast on my Trek just yet!

Right now there's a nice sized thunderstorm (complete with lightening) keeping me awake - oh how I love a good thunderstorm!  Sadly, Hannah freaks out at the thunder, I had tried to teach her to enjoy thunderstorms a couple of summers ago while in the field in Icicle Creek.  While camping, every time thunder rolled I gave her a generous lick of peanut butter from her pb jar (yes, she has her very own pb jar).  That got old fast as booms of thunder were common each evening for a good couple of hours... I don't think she learned much from the experience except confusion - "The sky is falling, but at least there is peanut butter before I die" maybe I should've kept at it...maybe...

I need to do a lot of work on the yard, but it's been delayed due to bad weather and me working on the thesis (boo, hiss)...right now it is in massive disarray due to a wood pile score (Thanks to Dan's helpful lifting skills), but a plan is forming in my head...

Oh yes, I put up a new picture link in the photo shortcut area - this is an old set of pics from our friend Ben, who took us shooting before leaving Idaho last summer.  It was on my list of things to do before leaving Idaho..Thanks to him, it was happily checked off the list...
xo

Garden pics!

Hi!

The link above are recent pictures of the garden! A weekend of A LOT of yard work! But fun!!

Here are a couple pics from Dan - The update is he and Post-Doc Jim FINALLY successfully sampled streams 7 and OH2...I don't know what OH2 stands for, perhaps Dan can translate...

Come Wednesday Dan will be have gone for 2 weeks in Iceland! He's had RIDICULOUS weather in Iceland - snow, wind, cold..yikes! Here are a few pictures:

Jim digging out the rental car:

Stream 8 on the right (geothermally heated), Stream 7 is on left (not heated)

Jim sampling in the "hole" in OH2..most of the stream is covered with over 6 feet of snow!!
The landscape picture of Hengill: a snowy wonderland!!

March Madness and the end of an era...

Yikes!! March Madness!! I am biting my fingernails for the Bruins vs. the Spartans right now...I am SO excited that we can watch all the NCAA games online for free (is this for real!?!?)!! College football season was frustrating trying to find UA games at times... I filled out a bracket with the Idaho contingent...we'll see how I do (not well). I seem to always need to take UCLA all the way if they are in it...sigh...

cripes, as I write this it's a 1 point game with 4.4 seconds left on the clock...if UCLA loses my bracket is useless and I wallow in last place (which I think should earn a prize really)...

anyhow, the "end of an era" title is in reference to this:

sadly, the end of my xtratuf boots....but!

the birth of my xtratuf clogs:

So I got my xtratufs as my first real "job" out of college - a fisheries observer in Alaska (Whew! UCLA wins by a hair!!!)...it came about after a few attempts at biology jobs in So. Cal. that didn't pan out. I decided I would work as an observer, make money, save up, and eventually move to Seattle and get a fisheries job there. Long story short: Train in Anchorage for 3 weeks, fly out to Dutch Harbor for my first assignment, seasickness, seasickness, seasickness, better, bleeding ulcer, seizures, fly to Anchorage to fix the bleeding thing, then back home to the LBC. All in all my first and only assignment lasted only a week.

Although the observer thing didn't pan out, at least I got a pair of xtratufs out of the deal. They served me well in Seattle where they kept my feet dry during rainy walks with Hannah. Then in Idaho they kept my feet dry during snowy walks with Hannah. Here in Alabama, well, they could still be useful, but the truth is, after 8 years of use, they were dying on me. It's technically my fault since I walk weird. I seem to dig in with my left inside heel in some odd fashion, and wear out that area in ALL of my shoes...the xtratufs held up for a good fight, but proved no match for Chau's inner left heel. It became painful to walk in them because my burro of a left heel would rub up against the exposed rubber. I ignored the pain for as long as I could. Yesterday, while running in and out and up and down stairs while pulling shoes on and off, I had enough! It was time to rebirth the xtratufs, taking guidance from this website...

Remember how I've been longing for a firepit?? I FOUND ONE!! It's perfect!! and it's perfect in the fact that it was FREE...I repurposed a concrete pipe fitting that I found.... somewhere...and made it into a firepit...well, I set it down on the ground of our brick patio and deemed it "a fire pit"...I've been eyeing it for a few months and it has gone ignored and even had a bunch of weeds growing in it, so I feel justified in relocating it to our backyard...

also, I named our beds - floyd (new short one), edgar ( the new-ish one I moved to the back) and bruce (the original)...the names just came to me while I was sitting outside yesterday...

Also! (again) I transferred out beer to the glass carboy for secondary fermentation. Photos forthcoming on this one - my camera was on the fritz and I had to use my phone camera...

:)

More pics HERE!

Happy Tuesday!

Greetings! Well it's been a pretty exciting week thus far - daylight savings has changed my outlook on life in general. It is so very wonderful to wake up to sunshine and leave work in sunshine!!

I have to express my love of Almond Roca for a second - it is possibly my favorite candy..I have a weak spot for English Toffee in general. I am unsure why it is exactly - the gold foil? The almonds (also my favorite nut)? The butterscotch crunch? Whatever it is, I love it so, and my family sent over a package that included a big bag of Almond Roca so I've been nibbling away at the treasures each and every day. We'll see if they last until Dan comes back from Iceland (next Wednesday!!)

Yesterday morning I happened upon some abandoned lumber during a walk with Hannah. I came by later with the Matrix and loaded her up. I made some carpenter bees very upset as well as a sunning lizard that may or may not have jumped ship before loading. Lets hope the lizard can find an escape hatch from the Matrix if it is there.

Anyhow, the wood was *near* perfect for my new low garden bed! I say "near" because it was riddled with screws that I had to remove before cutting them down to size. She's not the most square, level, or pretty box, but she'll do. I planted some of the tomato plants and lettuce in our other box...I think I should probably name the boxes to help develop their own unique personalities. Soon I hope to have 4 boxes in total filled to the brim with veggies...

Last night we had a BIG thunderstorm that lasted throughout the night. Hannah setup shop in the bathroom as per usual and I sat alone in the living room listening to the rain and watching the lightening strike down upon Tuscaloosa...

The beer is doing well still, thick and bubbly like a batch of sourdough starter. Come Thursday I'll move it into the glass carboy and add in the dry hops for added aroma - yum!

Here are a few more pics, mostly of the garden!

I leave you with a video from a couple weeks ago:

gardening...

pics!!

gardening weekend extravaganza with a beer fest in the middle!

xo

A look at the Brew on Day 2

Bubble bubble bubble!!!

Yippee!!!

Finally got a video up...

Hannah likes nori, who knew?

Morning!

P.S. Since I know little about blogs, I'll pass this along, but perhaps you already know this. I just added a Follower gadget to the right so you can follow this blog if you so choose. I think it means that you can get an email of new blog posts and hopefully not anymore annoying that that...We'll see how it works out...But perhaps you like the anticipation and surprise by checking the blog every now and then - to each his or her own...(Thanks to Ellen for sussing that out)...

xo

morning beer pic, go yeast go (bubbles are a good sign)!!!

Hello again!!

In case you haven't heard, Dan has safely made it to Iceland and seems to be adjusting fairly well. Weather there is COLD and it looks like he won't go out into the field until Monday...he can fill us in more as he sees fit...

In other news, I just finished putting together our next beer! I bought an Oregon IPA kit from Alabrew after I dropped Dan off at the airport on Tuesday. I had a few hours to kill between the airport run and when Alabrew opened up, so I tooled around the city of Birmingham for a bit and found a fantastic coffee shop that makes a perfect soy vanilla latte (my fancy drink of choice). I am unsure why a soy latte in general is finicky, but for some reason when done correctly your first sip is like drinking a toasted marshmallow...in other words - heaven. And I was delighted to experience this at the Red Cat Cafe which is located in an area called "Pepper Place" which was the site of the old Dr. Pepper syrup plant. Now it is a collection of hip furniture and art shops and the site of a weekly Farmers Market that I have yet to attend - soon!

Needing food, I decided to visit Sol's, which was originally suggested by the Peanut Depot workers to Dan, myself, and his parents when they came last October. We have read good reviews so I gave them a try. For some reason I was craving a 9am hamburger and they were happy to oblige. It was pretty tasty and came with a side of tabouleh (it's a Greek family deli/cafe) which I think was flavored with pickle juice - sounds weird, but it was pretty darn tasty.

The Beer:

It smells amazing and should be a little hoppier than the Tuskaloosa IPA we just finished up! Took some pics of the process, and I really wish I could insert a scratch n sniff sticker into the mix because the hops are intoxicating...This beer has us throwing in some additional dried hop pellets during the second fermentation process to marinate for 2 weeks - I can't wait!! Right now we're in the first fermentation process which will be a week...

Speaking of hops, while chatting with Mr. Alabrew man I learned that hop rhizomes are currently being harvested, which explains why I haven't gotten my Cascade hops in the mail yet - plenty of time to get them in the dirt, I'm just an overly excited gardener right now...

This time I saved the grains and will be attempting some bread with it! I just put together a whole wheat bread this morning so I'm freezing the "spent grains" until I'm in need of more bread....

Also, the birds have found the window box bird seed but they are still skittish and constantly look into the window to make sure no one will kidnap them...I should put up a one-way mirror but maybe that will make it a little creepy...

Oh!! I forgot to mention another fun tidbit from last weekend: as a special treat/going away lunch, we decided to visit the Cypress Inn for a delicious Sunday lunch compliments of Dan's sister Caroline who surprised him with a gift card to one of our favorite restaurants for Christmas! It was still busy at 1pm when we headed over - it was also the first Sunday where alcohol was served in the city of Tuscaloosa, so that was worth celebrating as well. Ironically, we ended up not ordering any alcohol but instead had an another amazing lunch - fried gulf shrimp for me and fried catfish for Dan...they do both SO well! We again had their delicious spiced muffins and biscuits along with a salad, hoppin' john, mustard greens, and mashed potatoes as our sides. Thanks Caroline it was great!!!

Hola!

More pictures!

Dan leaves tomorrow morning for two whole weeks of Iceland fun! Which leaves Hannah and I home alone as two single ladies - ha! It should be nice to have T-town quiet during Spring Break (next week)...I hope to get busy in the garden and put in a lot of hours at work, but also laze around at home a fair bit and watch old Simpsons episdoes as well...

The past week has been busy especially for Dan who has been prepping for his trip - the longest one yet! It should give him some time to get adjusted to the time change better and get field work done in ample time...Look for a post from him soon enough (hint hint!!)...

We've been on a rollercoaster of weather lately, yesterday it got down in the 30s as a low, 50s as a high (We turned the heat back on - yikes!!) and there was a lot of rain over the weekend, but the week before it was in the high 70s - skirts and screen doors a plenty...

Basically last week gave me a taste of Spring and got me uber excited to have a garden and BBQ on a daily basis. We stopped by Target last night for some last minute sundries for Dan's trip and I had to spend a good 15 minutes in the newly appropriated "outdoor" section...it's just so fun to have a yard!!!!

I can't upload videos for some reason, but I'll post a couple of random things (as always)...

xo

ct