**...pant, pant, pant...**

Greetings from sweltering Tuscaloosa!!  I have been compensating for the heatwave by moving slowly, directing a fan on myself at all times, and drinking a ton of ice water (and consequently running to the restroom every hour on the hour - I find this very annoying).

What a crazy last couple of weeks!  Ever since returning from Iceland there has been a mad rush of ordering last minute things to make sure supplies get to us in time for Jon's departure for Iceland.  Also throw in some DNA work that I'm hoping we've finally finished troubleshooting so I can finish that project up (I was hoping to be done with this in April when we ran into problems with the samples being read and couldn't figure it out...issue: wrong size standards used and lab running the samples needed to tweak their machine...sigh!)!!!  

The biggest issue was packing up the microrespirometer to go to Iceland.  Basically this is used to measure how much lil itty bitty aquatic insects breathe (hopefully Dan gets pic of the thing in action and posts, we're holding our breath for the first post from him soon...get it? breath? respirometer?? I kill me).  The set up costs over $12k so I get uber nervous about even LOOKING at the thing.  We also have to pack a bulky 50lb water bath used to maintain the respirometer chambers at a constant temperature.  I couldn't pack any of this until Tuesday night as one of our grad students needed to finish up with his project measuring crayfish respiration.  In my true fashion I like to get things packed early - especially expensive equipment, so this little detail stressed me out some already...

Without dwelling too much on the details, let's just say that the sensor of this setup, that costs $900 btw, broke (hint: not by me)...the day before it was to go out to Iceland...this is the definition of stress folks.  Did I mention the company that makes this equipment is based out of Denmark??  So much of Tuesday was spent trying to see if our spare sensor works (it does not, but we think it's an easy fix) and ordering another spare sensor to be sent to Iceland (at least Iceland is closer to Denmark!!).  As of now it's up to the Iceland crew to get the respirometer up and working, thank goodness the company has EXCELLENT customer and technical care and can deal with hysterical lab techs like me...

So needless to say, I've been packing equipment up like a mad woman from Monday up until Wednesday morning when we left for the airport.  Upon arriving at the airport we learned while at the Delta counter that you can only check 4 bags total - I had packed 5!!  What a rookie mistake on my part not checking into that..oh well, now we know.  So that was a mad rush of repacking and making decisions on what will have to stay and travel with Alex when he goes to Iceland in August.  I think we did ok in that department and Jon left without further hassle.  Last word from Jon this morning -  he and all the supplies arrived in good shape - whew...

After the airport drop off I meandered to Homewood which is a city next to Birmingham...I consider Homewood and Bham all alike and often (incorrectly) consider it a neighborhood of Bham...Homewood residents please do not take offense.

I have been wanting to try Pinches Tacos for some time now...so I decided to head over and grab a bite.  The lengua tacos were the best out of what I tried.  I hung out for a bit at Pinches, worked on the thesis some, then slowly made my way back home to T-Town...happy to be at home and kick back with Hannah and catch up on some 30 Rock...

Random Tidbits:

My 4th of July plans:  seeing things explode, or in this case, implode.  Our lab is in the "Tom Bevill Engineering" building on the map, so we're sorta close to Rose Towers - should be exciting!!!

Tuscaloosa is getting a microbrewer-Druid City Brewing!!  This is in addition to the Black Warrior Brewing Company slated to open in September - when did Tuscaloosa become so darn cool?!?!?!

It is now 28 days and counting since I've returned from Iceland and I STILL have not done laundry...but I have a feeling this weekend is D-day folks...

Here are some pics of the last week or so..garden is doing as well as can be expected in this heat...still producing and I haven't watered since Monday...I should probably get to that today sometime..

ok, all for now, it's 1 pm and I'm pooped and I haven't done anything yet...time for a nap...

hot you say?

oh really? yeah? a little warm where you are??  aww, that's too bad...is it this hot?:

perhaps if you are Ellen in Africa you can say "kinda close"...but if you are not in Africa, or in Arkansas, then no, you do not see this in your forecast...Alabama however....

sigh.

hi..

Oh heck yeah!!!  Dan and I started subscribing to Garden and Gun sometime last year...I've been raving about it to just about anyone who will listen...I don't know why but I just love it, plenty of little stories to entertain you...excited it reached NPR, and at the same time I come to its defense for the slight negative it received - it is what it is, don't expect it to be a telling portrayal of current southern politics (that would simply not be proper) ...expect it to give you the light hearted positives of the South...a girl who moves here from Southern California knowing nothing of the Deep South but movies and its controversial history appreciates this magazine greatly and I know I will already miss it when we leave the South (because not living in the South and subscribing to Garden and Gun would just be wrong)...

Pictures!!  I had a rather productive weekend...it's not over yet though!...A lot of yard work today, put together a seeded whole wheat dough, and an enchilada (with the homemade tortillas, leftover beans and taco meat - delicious)!  Still need to hit up the library later this evening to keep working on the thesis...sigh...yesterday I managed to clean the inside of the house..finally vacuuming and mopping - the feel of clean wood floors on barefeet make me so happy...I think Hannah's constant licking of the floor contributes to the stickiness...

xo for now, Happy Father's Day proper!!

ct

How exciting!

Posh Tuscaloosa has started recently and I'm hoping it sticks..it's like Groupon...I've already gotten a gift certificate for Sarabella Cafe which I'm excited to try (I have a soft spot for chicken salad).  It's a blast from the past because I'm pretty sure Dan and I drove by Sarabella Cafe back in December when we were looking for the Christmas tree farm (remember when we were totally lost Dan??  I think we called Anthony for directions) and we told ourselves that we should try it sometime.  Bummer is it's only open Tuesday-Friday for lunch because I really want a chicken sammy right now, but it might be a good place to head down and write the thesis for a lunch session during the week!  I'm pretty excited to try one of their sammies (or samlokas in Icelandic) and a nice slice of pie!

I learned last night that the husband of one of the professors in Biology is setting up a brewery here in Tuscaloosa!  So exciting to have such a thing!!  I believe it's going to be called Black Warrior Brewing Company, and will be situated downtown T-Town..they'll have a tap room where you can taste the beers, and hopefully they'll distribute widely in the local bars and restaurants.  I can't reiterate how exciting it is to be in Tuscaloosa right now - things are coming along, business is booming (although, our unemployment rate just jumped from 6.8 to 7.1%, but still - that's so much lower than the national average!!).  

Another exciting venue is 5 Java.  Five is that hip restaurant that opened up a little over a year ago in downtown.  Dan and I have eaten there a couple of times and it's great, simple menu, great drinks, and a nice outdoor eating area.  Well I forget if I've mentioned that they bought the next door store front a while ago and have been working on expanding the restaurant (it's always super busy).  Only there is a twist!  During the day, when the actual restaurant is closed, 5 java opens as a coffee house and juice bar!  Complete with Wi-Fi AND!!!! they open at 7am!!!  this is amazing folks!!  I know a coffee shop that opens up at 7am is nothing new in most places, especially the Northwest!  But here in the deep south Sweet Tea runs the caffeine racket and that is served at restaurants and cafes as the token morning drink..NOT espressos!  So I met Cris (the owner) on opening day (Wed) when Hannah and I walked down to grab a soy latte and a grilled cheese sammy for breakfast (the grilled cheese was AMAZING - perfect multigrain bread, tasty cheese, and a tomato onion relish that gave it some zing!).  He was super excited about opening the place, super excited about coffee and bringing good coffee to T-Town.  The coffee in fact is roasted in Birmingham and called O' Henry's.  Never been to the OG place in Birmingham/Homewood, but excite to try it out next time we hit up the big city.  Anyhow, I'm excited to make a morning trip to 5 java a weekly ritual before heading into work - if you bike in they give you a dollar off your drink!!!  Yeah!!!  That's a two-fer people - promoting biking AND good coffee...you can see why I am instantly in love with this business and its owner!!!  

Just went on a little afternoon walk with Hannah bear...We walked down to Shelby park which is only a couple blocks from our house.  It's a new-ish park, and the fountains were on, spewing happiness by the minute.  It's so nice to walk and see so many happy kids, on summer vacation without a care in the world...Parents have setup tables and chairs and put out a full spread of soda, BBQ, chips, and various salads.  A true park outing. 

 I remember my parents dragging the family out for such events.  We would go to a city park or the beach and setup shop, sit in the shade and play cards, maybe rollerblade or bike, take a walk to the pond and feed the ducks etc...It was always exciting if there was a pool or fountain to keep us cool in the midday heat and tire us out for the drive home.  The beach could be fun, we weren't strong swimmers, and I remember being annoyed by the sand getting everywhere all the time when I just wanted to sit and eat my lunch.  Usually it was sticky rice and chicken for food.  The sticky rice was always wrapped up in foil, and was so sticky that you could just easily pull off a bit of it to stuff in your face and then take a bite of chicken.  Always bone-in pieces, marinated in fish sauce, soy sauce, and a bit of sugar and pepper.  So simple, but strangely satisfying after a day of running around.

It was always like pulling teeth to get all of us piled in the car, and packing all the food, drinks, toys, and supplies we would need for our all day adventure.   We were never usually happy about the outing, but once there and setup, I think we all agreed that, yes, it was indeed a good idea to bring the family to such a place, and not as dreadful as we thought it would be.  We weren't super into the outdoors as kids, perhaps due to growing up in the LA area and not really having much exposure to it, but maybe just due to the fact that I think us kids really just liked sitting at home and being insular...Hanging out with each other, playing video games, watching VHS tapes, maybe playing on the swing set for a bit.  We always entertained ourselves someway.

So nice that a simple walk in the park can conjure up such nice memories....

Happy early Father's Day to all the Dads out there...including my own!  Love you lots!

This was supposed to be a quick little post, but it turned out longer...hmm...time to crack the whip and get back to the thesis!!

xo

Chau

Summer setting in...

Hello!!

This week we're back into the upper 80s and lower 90s..ugh!!  the heat is good for the peppers and okra at least, not so good for Hannah or myself..alas, that is why we have ice, A/C, and fans...

Here are some pics from the last few days...they tell the story of what I've been up to...cooking, gardening, making soap, messing with Hannah, and of course, writing the thesis - no pictures of me doing that last one...it would be me frazzled and exasperated...

two links I want to share with you that will make sense based on the photos I have posted:

my inspiration for tacos - I like the pre-fry with cheese inside...because frying is amazing...but melted cheese is also stupendous...

go greek (yogurt) - note that this was the only site that made me really want to strain yogurt - I hate the recipes that push the cheesecloth - probably because I am inherently lazy and do not want to clean the cheesecloth afterwards...love the strainer!

ok, back to writing..

xo

ct

a quick sunday night post...

HI-o!!!!

Here are a few gardening pics!!

also, a few videos to remind Dan of home...

1

2

3

xo

trying to give the blog a new look and misc...

Hello!!

Oh boy it's been a quick week!  Haven't been up to much aside from playing in the garden, cooking, walking Hannah, trying to keep cool, working, and writing the thesis!  Mostly home stuff and it feels good to just chill

Tried to make some pinto bean burgers - ended up melding a few recipes I found online and threw in some extra stuff I had lying around..

This looked like a good place to start:

Guy Fieri makes veggie patties for his sister

and this one...

peas and thank you

I took a few pics of my own bean burger, link at the end of the post......

A few things I want to tell the blogosphere (and Dan)..

1) Hannah does not appreciate brown sugar - I dropped a bit on the floor while doctoring up my coffee this morning and asked Hannah to play clean up crew...she sniffed it, looked up at me and walked away...I asked her to come back and taste it at least...she gave it a little lick, left the rest and again walked away annoyed at the order to get up from her nap...odd..

2)  I failed at witnessing Venus in Transit - went to Galilee Hall on campus which is the physics building and they were holding a "viewing" on the roof, prime time started at 5:09pm for us...Vern and I waited a few minutes, but we were surrounded by clouds hindering our momentous event (along with a crowd of people and the Alabama humidity)...sad...so I biked home to be with the mutt.  During my ride home the sun came out (dang it!!!) and I was faced with a dilemma...turn around for a once in a lifetime view, or keep going...well, it was too hot for me to do anything but head home, so I went home and quickly googled how to safely see Venus in transit - enter a shoebox viewer!!  It was actually a Hamburger Helper viewer (it's pulling double duty - feeding me a tasty meal AND helping me with Venus)...unfortunately, I couldn't get the thing to work - I saw the sun via the pin hole, but couldn't make out Venus for the life of me, I probably did it wrong.  I also looked a little ridiculous out on the curb trying to angle a Hamburger Helper box covered in foil, but oh well..

There was a viewing at the Perlan in Reykjavik, but unsure if Dan made it out there to try to see her scoot by the sun...

3)It is hot here folks...it's the time of year where we can't get cold water from the pipes because the pipes are buried so shallow in the ground (no frost heaves here to worry about!!) that the sun heats the ground/pipes and keeps our cold water a nice luke warm temperature...which means I've been making lots of ice to get my drinking water chilled...thank goodness for ice...I don't understand how people in the South survived without ice back in the day...I always think about a story from Kathryn Tucker Windham who passed away this time last year...she talks about growing up in the South and keeping cool in the summer by asking the ice seller in town to keep their whole watermelon in his freezer for a bit to ensure an ice cold treat of a watermelon slice in the heat of the day.  Folks would go down to the ice store (or whatever it was called) and buy a block of ice to keep in their home ice boxes.  Usually it was the kids who ran down to fetch the ice from the store, and they would carry it back tied with twine and they would delight in the drips of the melting ice hitting their legs as they hurried home.   I tried looking for the audio for that particular story, but came up with a great big goose egg...alas...maybe I'll find it later...I miss KTW's long-winded random stories...nostalgia...

pics!

more soon..

xo

it's too hot to move right now, let alone go out to the grocery store, and summer time is also my time to forage and get creative with the garden and pantry...first up is this recipe:

brown rice and lentil salad

I didn't have tomatoes (ate the few ripe ones from the garden), not much parsley (most of it bolted due to the extreme heat), and no green onions, so I substituted fresh cucumbers, basil, and cayenne peppers from the garden!

upon first tasting it's pretty darn tasty..gotta let it sit in the fridge for a bit to cool off..woo hoo for foraging experiment #1 of the summer season!!

xo,ct

Here's a close up of foraging experiment #1:

and the "kingfisher" I thought I saw is actually a juvenile male cardinal I think, Dan can chime in:

also, I need to admit that the actual #1 foraging experiment was actually a box of hamburger helper left over from Rajit moving out of town.  I am embarrassed to admit that I had been looking forward to this ever since we acquired it...I did tweak it a bit though - no ground beef so I used a can of beans and in my (part) defense it was whole grain hamburger helper and I added in some cayenne peppers from the garden and soy milk.  I haven't had HH in maybe forever, but it was pretty tasty I have to say - sorta like mac n cheese but gussied up...confession over....

ct

random little videos

a few random videos from our trip...

chau dancing at hengill

eider calls

hot water at Hengill

hver algae

oyster catcher in flight

windy hengill

oyster catcher wing fake..

hi all!! Back in AL!

Hello there!  I got home late Friday night after just one missed connection - bad weather over DC forced my flight from Boston to Atlanta over Cincinnati which made me late for my connection flight to BHM from ATL...it only cost me an hour and a half wait, but after the day of flying I was so ready to be home.  Thankfully Mike, Mick, and Jamie were game to standby in Birmingham and pick me up two hours later than intended - bless them!!

Well, it is HOT in Tuscaloosa, but this weekend it's only in the high 80s - not the low 100s as it has been while we've been in Iceland - yikes!! I spent a few hours poking around in the yard in the morning, then took a nap on the couch which led to a full on sleep that I awoke from at 5:30am this morning - ah jet lag!!  

Anyhow, more garden poking this morning, just so delighted to be home to see it grow and also see Hannah's little mug.  I think she' happy to see me, but one can never tell, she's back to the old routine of sleeping and snoring all day without a care in the world...little nugget...

anyhow, that's all for now, here are pics of the last few days in Iceland and the current state of the garden..

chat with you soon!

xo