straight outta the PNW: 12 Days of Twin Peaks Christmas

*k3, k2 tog, repeat from *

This weekend, I dug into my various knitting bags and sorted out what I have. I finished a couple of hats that for some reason were partially done and abandoned and knitted another hat from the ground up. There was no salvaging a handwarmer that had a few mistakes and then had fallen off the DPNs, so I frogged it. It was only about 2.5 inches of ribbing, so I don't feel too bad about it.

So, if my calculations are correct and there are no more stashes of work somewhere, I only have one project going on now, and it's one I've been dawdling on. It's baby alpaca, and super soft and wonderful, but tiny. I'm more into worsted or bulky weight yarns because I like the way they feel in my hands. And I'm kind of impatient--shocking, I know.

All of this knitting has been fun, but I fear it's kind of an excuse for me not to be cleaning up the house and getting packed for my trip on Monday. I'm the worst packing procrastinator for no apparent reason. The last time I flew somewhere, I literally took ten minutes and threw random clothes in a bag right before I left for the airport, and just dealt with the odd matches later.

So if you're in Seattle next week and you see a woman wearing yoga pants, a sparkly tank top and a down vest, well it's probably me. Say hello.

music box

On a cold, cold night like this, I figure some music will warm us all up a bit, so here's one of my rare mp3 posts.

Music is my real first love, I think. We all have a soundtrack to our lives and certain songs bring back crystal-clear memories of specific times and places. Sometimes it's unexpected, like when I heard Great White's "Wasted Rock Ranger," and suddenly flashed back to the summer of 1989 in Birch Bay, listening to the tape over and over again with Jamie, trying to decipher the lyrics. I'm not sure what the fascination was, to be honest, but we were in a rock phase that year for sure. We even went to our first big concert that year: Def Leppard!

Def Leppard-Pour Some Sugar On Me

Other songs and artists are always associated with certain people. SJ's music is Dub Narcotic Soundsystem, 50 Cent, Cake, and Justin Timberlake. Sorry, friend, but it's true. This stuff reminds me of driving around in the Jetta, hooch from a paper sack, storming out, grad school in general, writing papers, and cutting up 15 lbs of cheese.

Dub Narcotic Soundsystem-Monkey Hips and Rice
Jay-Z-99 Problems

I will always associate Ken Stringfellow's first full-length solo album and Cat Power's Covers Record with an ex-boyfriend. I gave him the former and he gave me the latter, and I don't know if we ever listened to anything else when we were together.

Ken Stringfellow-Reveal Love
Cat Power-Sea of Love

Other songs are wonderful because they remind me of home. Some are named for Seattle personalities, others make local references that make me smile, and all are from artists I love for one reason or another. This little selection reminds me of different periods of my life: high school, the U-District years, the Capitol Hill Years, and lastly, the late 90s when I went back to finish college.

Flop-Julie Francavilla
Ondine-Yesterday
Heather Duby-You Loved Me
United State of Electronica-Emerald City

in dreams

One of my goals is to improve my sleeping habits, and tonight aside, I've been doing better. I need to get to bed earlier so I feel better in the mornings, and the last couple of weeks have shown me it works pretty well.

A possible side effect of this move is that I've been remembering my dreams lately, which is sort of unusal for me. I've never been one to have vivid dreams regularly, and I kind of like not knowing what's going on in my brain while I'm snoozing. But for a while now, my dreams have been technicolor fantasies, complete with so much detail I feel like I actually lived them. It's a complete sensory experience, but I won't be sad if they go away soon.

mysteries of life

I have all sorts of questions lately. Well, if I'm being honest, this is not a new phenomenon. Probably every hour or so I have a WTF moment, and it could be that I have more stress and less sleep in my life than is ideal.

Why do so many people comma splice all over the place? How hard is it to seperate independent clauses with a semicolon, coordinating conjunction, or even better, just stick in a period and make two perfectly nice sentences? This is one of my grammar peeves and I can't overlook it.

Relatedly, is there a comma shortage? I keep seeing egregious displays of comma neglect. Granted, I can go overboard sometimes, and I do acknowledge a very small number of cases where a technically correct sentence might be more elegant if a comma was omitted, but in many cases, commas are essential to meaning.

Why do the coffee shops on campus offer up stir sticks that are far shorter than the coffee cups? I can't reach the sugar crystals that settle to the bottom of my cup without literally sticking my fingers into the coffee. My solution is to pour the coffee about a third of the way up, throw in sugar and milk and stir, then top up with more coffee. This is far more fussing than is ideal.

this just in

Laramie has Indian food! Well, we've had it for about a month now. I've been to the lunch buffet twice and dinner twice, and I'm happy to admit they passed the paneer masala test. It's my favorite dish of all time, and Passage to India does a nice job. It's no Chutney's or Taste of India, and I didn't like the chai, but it's good and a welcome addition to this town.

buffet lunch from my first visit

Also, they're open on Sunday!

September: farmville, only real.

At the end of September, I went to a consumer issues conference centering on food production and safety. It included tours of local facilities. First up was Grant Family Farms, a local organic farm. This is where we get our CSA. Check out these carrots.



In addition to veggie shares, like the one I split with Rick, GFF does fruit, egg, meat, and flower shares. These flowers were in the cooler, all ready to be sent out for shareholders. I love all the gladioli!



We spent most of our time at the processing and packing facility, but we also go to see the livestock. They had pigs, chickens, ponies, sheep, and these cute goats. The goats resisted most of my efforts to photograph or otherwise interact with them. The sheep were not so shy. They'd been in a huge flock a ways away, but spotted me stalking them to take a photo and nearly charged me. Those suckers are aggressive and big talkers. Baaa!



These eggs were being cleaned by hand and packed into cartons for sale.



The next day, we toured the university student farm and the university meat lab. The student farm is really small, but they manage to produce quite a bit of food. During summer, I try to buy their stuff at the farmer's market, but sometimes they sell out before I make it down. There wasn't much still growing, but it was interesting to see how they work, and the student volunteers were really great tourguides.

One thing they do year round is compost. These bins are full of finished compost that's ready for use. I need to remember to start collecting compostable scraps, because they let anybody drop stuff off there. I don't garden, so I haven't bothered, but I'd like to reduce my garbage even more than I am through recycling and buying less packaging.



Tools in the corner of the hoop house.



There were lots of things still growing in the hoophouse: tomatoes, tomatillos, swiss chard, edible nasturiums, salad, etc. I liked the perspective from the far end of the house; another group is touring at the other end.



My favorite tour was last. The meat lab was fascinating, and seeing it convinced me to sign up to buy meat from the college of agriculture. Their facility is amazingly clean and efficient. If you've read Fast Food Nation or the recent New York Times article about ground beef, you might have been turned off from eating meat, but not me. Living closer to the production of my food has made me appreciate and feel more comfortable with local, humane meat production, including hunting.

One of the Animal Science professors toured us through the facility, and we spent a lot of time on the slaughter floor learning about the process of killing and butchering cattle, sheep, and pigs. They use these animals as teaching tools, and I checked the course catalog to see what kinds of classes they offer. It's interesting to see titles like Carcass Fabrication, Livestock Slaughter, Meat Processing, and Livestock Judging. Here, our guide is showing us the cooler where meat is hanging and aging.



Students were processing meat while we were there. In another room, other students were preparing ribs to go into the smoker for the Ag Day barbeque the next day. They keep everything pristine in the meat lab. There are separate rooms for butchering and food preperation, and even separate walk-in fridges for raw and cooked meats.



You know, I geek out on any kind of tour, especially food production. I can't count the number of times I've toured breweries or candy factories. But the farm and meat tours were more interesting to me, maybe because they're local and I feel personally connected to it. It makes me think back to high school, where we had a working farm I never even saw. I wasn't in any of the agriculture classes, and wasn't interested. But I bet the kids raising animals back then are a lot like the students I meet at the university now, and I'm kind of sad I totally overlooked it. Back then, I didn't have a clue you could compete in meat judging competitions or how much work that is.

personas

Leslie posted a link to personas on her FB page, and I tried it. It's interesting, but you can't capture the prettiness of it all, and I didn't see a way to save the result--I grabbed a screenshot of it. I wish it was bigger, but I didn't want to try to save it as a TIFF. Interesting.

favorites

I'm always surprised when other flickr users "favorite" my photos, especially when they're kind of real-deal talented photographers. I'm a semi-obsessive photographer, but I use a five year old point-and-shoot digital camera that I love mostly because it's tiny and I can carry it with me always, and I know basically nothing about composition, lighting, or any of the fancy settings that are technically possible. I just aim the camera in the general direction of pretty/weird/interesting stuff and hit the button. So it's a happy surprise when something turns out well and when it doesn't, I just delete.

Anyway, here are some of my pictures that people have added to their favorites.

discomfit

Often, a word comes to me at the most appropriate time. Today, I was feeling discomfited, and thought to myself, "hey, why don't we use discomfit more often." And then I felt better.

three wishes

1. I wish Laramie had a coffee shop that doesn't suck. Coal Creek's coffee is decent, and so is the atmosphere, but the service is incompetent. My odds of actually having them remember to make my order after taking my money should be better than 1-in-4.

2. I wish there was a way to get a hold of some nice pants without leaving town. There's no way around the fact I can't turn a pair of chinos, three pairs of jeans, and some yoga pants into a work wardrobe. Shopping must be done, whether I want to or not.

3. I wish I spent more time in the moment and less worrying about what's coming next.

Holy Hail

The photo above is from yesterday evening's big old storm. After getting knocked on the noggin by marble-sized hail as I skittered from my front door to my car, I drove on rivers of hailstones to the grocery store, then wisely tried to wait out the little bastards before going in to fetch my tortilla chips. This is my blurry documentary photography; the rain and hail were coming down way too hard to open the window. Freaky.

Completely unrelatedly, have you heard the NY band Holy Hail? They're pretty good--I discovered them on Hype Machine the other day. Listen to Minute Man (mp3). You can hear more on their MySpace.

Thinking about missing Bumbershoot again has me longing for more live music. It's too bad Denver's so far away and that most of the shows I'd like to see fall mid-week. A friend and I are pondering going to Monolith--the Saturday lineup looks most promising.

I did catch the Jalan Crossland Band set on campus the other day. I enjoyed it, and the students seemed really into it, singing along and getting really crazy during "Trailer Park Fire." I was too tired to stay for the headliners, Head for the Hills, so I'm officially old.

last weekend of summer, part 2

Sunday brought more hot weather, but also storms. I headed up to Vedauwoo with Chad in the afternoon for the last vertical dance performance. Right as we arrived, the storm broke and pounded freezing cold water down on us. We waited it out in the car before hiking up to the site, and consequently missed the first ten minutes or so of the performance. I wonder if I missed the best part, because I remember some much cooler moves from the show two summers ago.

You can't really see the dancers in the photo above, but I wanted to show the scale of the rock. It's impressive, to be sure, though you need a better vantage point than I had to really see everything. The first time I went, we got there early and staked out a much better spot.

After the show, we drove across the valley to Centennial and hung out at the Bear Tree in the back yard. There was live music, and we had some green chili pizza. It was a nice way to end the day before the semester started.

last weekend of summer

After the read-in we had in the library for freshman orientation, I headed to Denver with some friends. We had dinner at the Cheeky Monk, where I enjoyed mussels with bacon and blue cheese. So good. Then we saw the Avett Brothers at the Ogden. It was a good show, but sweltering in there. It reminded me of last summer's Old 97's show at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland. I was so sweaty that my jeans felt like they were shrinking as I wore them.

A taste:

is this turning into a food blog?

Tonight, I took a look in the cupboard and fridge and decided to make chili, which morphed into a chicken chili tortilla soup, based on what I had on hand. You guys, it's so good!

I spiced it with a ton of chili powder, basil, red pepper flakes, sea salt, and garlic powder. It has two cans of stewed tomatoes and a big can of kidney beans, chopped up chicken breasts, and some water. The contributions from the farm share are two white onions and corn. I like to add the tortillas to each serving individually, so they don't get too soggy and floppy, and I top it with a bit of shredded sharp cheddar cheese. This will keep me happy for a few days.

Last night, I baked up some muffins using that zucchini. There was just enough for a batch, and I added in raisins, dried cranberries, and chopped walnuts. I made both regular and mini muffins (I have an aversion to the jumbo muffins).



They're a good breakfast and are so tasty warmed up with butter!

confession

Forgive me blogger, for I have sinned. It's been more than two weeks since my last entry. In that time I've been busy and little of what I've been doing is blog-worthy. School is starting soon, and I'm involved with planning too many upcoming events. My workdays have been long and filled with dozens of small tasks, double checking the timelines for various projects so I'm on track, and being constantly interrupted by urgent email.

But I did start playing softball on a friends' coed team. I'm pretty much terrible, though I usually manage to hit the ball and get on base. They have me playing right field, aka the position least likely to see action, which is okay by me. I wish we had a batting cage in town, because I really need to practice. A friend pointed out that I don't know how to swing the bat without moving my whole body along with it, which is probably why I don't hit the ball very hard or far.

I haven't been at yoga much, mainly because I'm too tired to make the morning classes, and there's enough going on at work that it's hard to get away at noon or early evening. This needs to change, because I need the mental health break. It's worth it.

The vegetable bounty in my farm share seems to be improving. It never seems like that much food, but it's really hard to get through it in a week. Especially the greens. I'm a salad lover, but I'm at capacity. I've been loving the yellow squash and zucchini because it's so fast and easy to saute and eat with whatever protein I have on hand. I still have a pretty big zucchini from last week, so I think I'm going to shred it for bread or muffins. This week, I got a couple baby artichokes, some onions, beets, and sweet corn. The beets will get roasted and thrown in a salad with some grapefruit and a citrus vinaigrette. It's fun to try to figure out ways to use this stuff with whatever else I have laying around.

Cooking up trouble

You know how when you know you're going out of town soon, you kind of stop buying groceries a little too early and justify eating a burrito on campus for lunch and make grilled cheese for dinner every night? And then after you get back to town, you come home to a house with hardly any food, but you're pretty broke from vacation and conferencing and don't want to go to the store until you can really make a plan and a list and do it right? Just me?

So I've been putting together meals out of whatever I have lying around. Just when I think there aren't any ingredients left that go together, I come up with something pretty decent. Last night's dinner was better than decent, actually. Inspiration struck when I saw the tub of couscous in the back of my cupboard. Now that I'm back, I'm able to actually use the CSA share I'm splitting with Rick. Last week's bin included a couple of zucchini, which I love. Inspiration part two. Recipe below.

Desperation Couscous (10-15 minutes)

• Heat cast iron skillet to medium heat and add some olive oil. Put kettle on to boil.
• Throw 1 c. couscous in a bowl with about 1/3 c. slivered almonds.
• To the now-hot skillet, add around 1 c. zucchini chunks and 1/2 a red onion, chopped. Add some course sea salt and some herbs de provence. Stir regularly to evenly carmelize the veggies. Add in some jarred roasted red pepper when you realize you have it.
  
• When water boils, pour 1 c. into the bowl of couscous. Cover with an inverted plate and let sit until the veggies are cooked to your liking.
• Chop up a few (I used three) slices of cooked bacon*. Take the veggies off the heat.
• Uncover the couscous and fluff with a fork. Throw the veggies in and mix. Add the bacon and mix again.
  
• Serve and eat. There should be enough for lunch tomorrow.
  

As I sit eating leftovers in my office today, I realize I should have thrown in some raisins or dried cranberries. If I'd had more patience, I would have sauteed some chicken and thrown it in, too. Normally I would have added some kind of cheese (most likely feta, chevre, or parmesan), but I didn't have anything but chedder.

*When I cook bacon, I always bake up the whole pound and then freeze what I don't need in little packets of 2-4 slices each. This way I buy the cheaper, larger package and only make my house smell like bacon a few times a year.

"When Blogs Collide" or "There's a Whole Lotta Fishnet Up in This Bitch"

I was in Seattle for two weeks! And while I was there, I met up with Jess and we schemed up an interblogsection that I'm only just now getting around to posting. Hers is up and it's here. As she mentioned, the title of the posts comes from Ryan's observation of the bar. He said it so seriously, too.

Jess captured the night pretty well, truth be told. We met up at King's Hardware, which I keep reading about on the Slog. I expected it to be all hipster and annoying, but we were there early enough on a weeknight that we might have missed that crowd. My billy burger was devine. Can you beat grass-fed beef with goat cheese, roasted garlic, and onions? No, I don't think you can.



It is always fun to hang out with Jess and reminisce about our days in the 'Ville. One part of the customer shitting story she left out was that we had called the police on that gal because she'd forged/altered a prescription for vicodin. Oh, yes. The shoplifting was merely an added bonus. When the MPD arrived to nab her, she ran into the bathroom claiming her period had started (wtf?). But really, she shit herself in fear. I recall there being two women involved, but only the younger one lost control of her bowels. Good times.



I seriously covet Jess's t-shirt here, by the way. It seems like we took tons of pictures that night, but I really only have a few. Damn it! After much hemming and hawing, we left for the belgian pub, but the highlight was the Baranof. In addition to the peek-a-boo toilet stalls, the 'Nof has Poseidon to watch over you while you pee.



Never fear, the god of the sea is here! But of course, the best part of the whole experience was the karaoke. I conducted a video interview of Jess, for your enjoyment.

Spring fever

The weather has been cool and stormy this past week. I don't mind this, as it reminds me of home. It really affects me in various ways: my hair reverts to its naturally curly state because the humidity is above zero; I start drinking a lot more coffee throughout the day; my sleep paradoxically improves, possibly because of the afforementioned humidity; I drop into dreamy reverie often, prompted by the scent of wet lilac, the sound of rain, or watching the clouds over the mountains to the west.

I also get a bit dippy, judging from the paragraph above.

I'm updating from the coffee shop on my iPod, so I can't add any photos. Recent fun things I've done include going to the Neko Case show in Denver, laying around reading novels, and buying my ticket to Seattle for my TWO-WEEK visit!

I know I've been M.I.A.

There's stuff going on, and even stuff worth writing about. But instead of talking about me, I'll post a video of Ken Stringfellow and his gorgeous voice.

neglected

I've been remiss in not updating the world on my fabulous life. Heh. You know I'm kidding, right. Since my Seattle/Phoenix adventures, I've been totally wrapped up in life and not really taking the time to reflect on it.

Not long after coming back home, I left again for Wichita to go to the Kansas Library Association/Mountain Plains Library Association conference. Highlights of the trip include eating paella, drinking whiskey with Josh Neff, and barely restraining myself from buying shoes I can't afford at a very cute boutique in Old Town. I also enjoyed this sign on the front door of the Hyatt where we stayed.

After getting back to Laramie, I got caught up in work business and the impending move to the new offices in the addition to the Library. It's beautiful in there. I haven't take any photos in the office suite yet, but here's a sneaky peep through my old office into the new building.

And then it was my birthday! I kind of celebrated all weekend. I ate a cupcake at my desk on Thursday.

I had drinks out and then watched Point Break with Chad on my actual birthday. I'm glad I have friends who like cheesy movies as much as I do sometimes. No pictures from friday, strangely. On Saturday, a couple of other April babies and I had a party, where we danced, drank, and ate fun foods. I took some pictures, but was more into partying than photography. And here I am after the party, all sweaty and messed up from dancing.

Today's all about lazing around and reveling in not having to be anywhere. Happy Easter!

the big trip

I've been through several states in the past couple of weeks. First up was Seattle, for the ACRL conference. The first thing I did when we checked into the Paramount was look out the window of our room and take in the lovely city view.

Then, we skipped the opening keynote in favor of a little shopping (needed top and cute shoes for the presentation, of course) before heading to the College Inn for drinks with the ipeeps and some assorted non-librarian friends. After that, Mel took Rick and me to the Little Red Hen, where I two-stepped badly with some guy and drank some Rainier beer from a can. The place was packed and the music was good.

Friday was kind of a blur of poster session committee work, but I do remember Sherman Alexie's keynote. As always, I loved him.

After that, we headed to the Space Needle for a reception. There was a DJ who gamely played "Jump on It" at my request. Sadly, my booty shaking did not inspire other librarians to follow suit. I drank too many glasses of wine from the open bar, then snapped this shaky picture from the observation deck.

There was more to Friday night, but some of it involved me becoming belligerant at being charged $17.50 for a drink, and therefore does not bear repeating. Saturday was the big day of the presentation. I was supposed to meet up with family downtown for breakfast, but the St. Patrick's Day parade and I-5 construction scared them off. I think Rick and I handled the session well, though being assigned a huge ballroom that could hold at least 500 people made our crowd of about 100 seem kind of sparse. You can see the cute top here, but the rad shoes are sadly out of sight.

Other highlights of Saturday included dinner at Etta's, where I ate oysters, mussels, and a giant crab salad. Then we went to the all-conference reception at EMP. Once I walked in and saw the DJ, I danced and danced and didn't get around to any of the exhibits. After the party ended, my friend Patrick and his friend Ryan took me dancing at the Baltic Room. It was Indian dance night, and was so much fun. Alas, no photos of this evening were taken because I was living it up too much to get out the camera.

Sunday was the last day of conference, and we woke up to snow. I thought Rick was kidding when he said it was snowing, but here's the proof.

The final event was Ira Glass's keynote. He spoke sitting down at a mixing board and basically ran his talk like a radio show. It was really fascinating, especially when he talked about the process of putting shows together, choosing stories, and craftily tugging at heartstrings. Very cool.

After a quick Indian lunch at Westlake, we headed to the airport and flew back to Denver. From there, we drove as far as Pueblo, Colorado and stayed the night at a motel where we deemed it appropriate to sleep in our sleeping bags on top of the bed. Again, I regret the lack of photographic evidence. Monday was all-driving, all the time. We made it to Phoenix at about 10:00pm and managed to hang out with Peter for about an hour before we all crashed.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day. In case you can't remember a week ago, that was a handy reminder. Peter went off to work, and Rick and I went downtown to check out the Phoenix Public Library. I am a good librarian nerd tourist, after all. It was pretty snazzy.

Then we had lunch with Peter, followed by an A's vs. Diamondbacks game. Oakland demolished the D-backs, I got a sunburn, and we decided to bail after seven innings of sitting on what felt like the surface of the sun. It was a good time, though. I think this is Nomar coming up to bat, but it's hard to see.

We met up with Peter again for some St. Pat's Day drinks on Mill Avenue. After a while of that, we decided to grab some food and came upon an Ethiopian place. Here we are after feasting on delicious, delicious food. Note that the guys both have the red devil-eyes, while I am obviously demon-free.

Getting tired yet? On Wednesday, after kind of a late start and general clulessness about where to eat breakfast, Rick and I went to Taliesin West. It was really beautiful and I'd be into going back. Our tour guide was pretty interesting, and though 90 minutes is a long time to listen to somebody talk, we agreed that it's worth it to get to go into the residence, which you can't do on the hour long tour.

After Taliesin, we had lunch with Rick's grandparents. He took off to hang out with them at their place, and I met back up with Peter and his family for a relaxing evening sitting outside in the yard. It felt amazing to be outside in a tank top well into the evening in March. I was acutely aware that I would not be able to to the same when I got home. After P and I drove out to collect R, we all grabbed some late dinner on our last evening together.

The three of us had breakfast together on Thursday, where Rick finally got his bagel sandwich and I finally got my Jamba Juice. This is why god invented strip malls, yo. Then R and I took off for Wyoming. We drove through Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and finally, finally, finally made it to Laramie at 3:00am. It was fifteen or so hours of driving, eating snacks we'd grabbed at Trader Joe's, bickering, singing along to music, and just wanting to get home already. But it was a wonderful trip, and I'm glad we did it. Besides, we got to drive though 1000 miles of our beautiful country on the return trip alone. This final picture is from Monument Valley.

"I've got a brand new pair of rollerskates..."

photo by Marshall Astor (used under Creative Commons license)

I don't actually have my own skates yet, but I did go to my very first roller derby practice on Wednesday night! It's something I've been interested in trying for a while, but with the nearest team about an hour away in Ft. Collins, I knew the likelihood of making practices was slim. But recently, the Naughty Pines started up here in Laramie and now that I'm over the flu, I'm ready!

It took me about five minutes into practice to realize I really like it. I'm sore from the holds in skating position, but look forward to more. It's a great workout, and I think it will be a nice counterbalance to the yoga (which I really need to start up again). Stay tuned, and send vibes for no broken bones or teeth!