Dunawi Creek

Calm Knot and RhombiTriHex Pillows

2011-12-24T16:13:00.000-08:00

I made these two pillows for Christmas presents:

The first one is a present for my nephew. The block is a simplified version of a block I found in the EQ7 library they called "calm knot". Here's how it looks in the EQ7 program:

I didn't scan the fabric in, so that part doesn't match, but the colors are close enough. The colors are the school colors of DU where he is going to school.

The other one is for my Mama:

I wanted to see if I could machine piece the RhombiTriHex pattern. It was quite difficult and there's a lot of slop in the final product (but my Mom won't care). I think if I were to try this pattern again, I would have to hand piece it. I think this pattern lends itself to English Paper Piecing.

Deltoid Tri Hex

2011-10-15T22:13:00.001-07:00

3 Color

Go Broncos!

Mardi Gras

Since I did the dual for the Snub Hex, I figured I should do the dual for the Rhombi Tri Hex. This tiling is called deltoidal trihexagonal (I say Deltoid Tri Hex or DTH). Like the Pentagonal Florets (and all duals to uniform tilings), this is a one-patch quilt.

EQ actually lets me tile this one without any workarounds. One of the quilt layouts they offer is called Baby Blocks:

This takes a square block and distorts it to fit in the diamond shape. So I had to reverse distort my custom block so that it would ultimately fit right:

Floret Pentagonal Quilt

2011-10-13T18:04:00.000-07:00

Here's another one:

Flowers

3 Color

This one's a Floret Pentagonal tiling. It's the dual of the snub hex tiling I posted yesterday. A dual is basically when you convert the vertices of a tiling into faces and vice versa. One of the nifty properties of the snub hex tiling (and all the other uniform tilings including the rhombi tri hex) is that every vertex is the same as all the others. In the case of the snub hex every corner is made up of a hexagon and 4 triangles. This means that a nifty property of its dual is that every face is the same as all the others (i.e. a one patch quilt; it would be a good pattern for a charm quilt).

Each tiling would also be a good quilting pattern (by this I mean the stitching on top) for the piecing pattern of its dual.

I think it would be cool to make these projects in pairs (gifts for couples, perhaps) where one quilt's quilting is the other quilt's piecing.

Snub Hex Quilt

2011-10-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

Another quilt I designed on EQ7 this weekend:

Custom Block

Gradient Heat

It's another alternative tiling like the Rhombi-Tri-Hex quilt I posted yesterday. This one's called snub hexagonal tiling (I just call it Snub-Hex). I used the same workaround that I did with last one; I designed a custom block that would tile on a grid. But the smallest segment of the pattern that would repeat on a grid turned out to be big enough to be the entire quilt (a small quilt anyway).

Some alternative colorings:

I wouldn't piece the larger equilateral triangles out of the four smaller ones; I'd just make it one patch. I like how this gives each patch a more equivalent size. It makes the pattern elegant and balanced.

Here, too, I would combine the two small brown triangles into a single rhombus patch. Notice if the rhombus was a square, it would be a Rhombi-Tri-Hex.

Rhombi Tri Hex quilt

2011-10-11T17:24:00.000-07:00

I designed this quilt on EQ7 this weekend (with four alternate colorings):

RheaTH

RTH Flowers

Grapevine

Cosmic Jacks

I wanted to see what a quilt would look like if it was based on a tiling other than squares. Specifically, I thought this tiling would lend itself to a nice quilt:

It's called a rhombitrihexagonal tiling (I just think RTH or Rhombi-Tri-Hex). Unfortunately, EQ7 doesn't let me set up my own custom tiling (at least I can't figure out how). But I did figure out a work-around; I designed this custom block:

When this block is put on a grid, the pattern repeats. The only difference is that the block edges split some of the patches where they won't actually be split on the real quilt. So disregard those grid line on the images above.

Learning Electric Quilt

2011-10-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

One of the incentives I gave myself for finishing my last quilting project was that I would buy myself Electric Quilt 7 (quilt design software) when I was finished.

I installed it on my computer on Friday, and I have been playing with it all weekend. The first thing I did while I was figuring out how to use it was to retroactively design the two quilts I've already made.

Mom-in-law's Snail's Trail:

and niece's Bento Box:

Brielle's Quilt Completed

2011-10-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

I finally finished it!

I managed to get it done in time for her birthday; hopefully she's not too big for it already.

Last time I posted about this, I had just finished the top. All I needed to do was quilt and bind. What took so long? Well, I'm not going to blame anyone else for my procrastination, but shortly after that post, I posted about my new feline roommate. I had put my quilting gear away when he moved in because I wasn't sure how well-behaved he would be. Turns out he was unobtrusive... well, mostly.

A Weekend in Portland

2011-05-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY

Chris is attending the CHI conference in Vancouver, BC this week. Our friend Todd was giving him a ride up on Friday, and I tagged along as far as Portland. We arrived at lunchtime and stopped at my tradition base of operation in Portland, The Backspace Cafe.

From there, I took the streetcar to Heron Haus B&B in the alphabet district where I was staying. After I checked in, I explored the neighborhood. I had tickets to the Portland Timbers game that night, so I scouted the ballpark.

I was surprised to see the folks with general admission tickets (like the ones I had) were already lining up to get good seat 3 hours before game time. I wasn't hardcore enough to wait three hours in the rain, so I accepted the fact that we'd have bad seats and found a nearby bourbon bar I had read about, The Pope House, and had a Manhattan while I waited for game time.

My friend Eric drove up from Corvallis to see the game with me. We met up at the Pope House and walked to the game just as it was starting. We had to stand up in the back row with a post partially blocking our view, but that didn't matter, it was still a blast.

The north end of the stadium is general admission seating and is referred to as the Timbers Army. If you loop the above 10 second video 540 times, you'll get an idea of what it's like. These folks never sit down, and never stop chanting for the entire game. I've never seen this happen at a Rapids game.

After the game, Eric and I got food and beer at 21st street Bar and Grill.

SATURDAY

I spent Saturday morning at my other favorite coffee shop in Portland, Anna Bananas. Then I went to an independent movie theater in the neighborhood, Cinema 21, to see the matinee showing of the new Werner Herzog documentary. After lunch at Laughing Planet and a haircut, I went back to the B&B to get ready for an evening out.

I had wanted to check out a jazz club while I was here, and the jazz calendar said that a Django Reinhardt tribute band (the Djangophiles) was playing at the Livingroom Theater - I had always wanted to check out the theater anyway. I arranged to meet up with some old friends, Jamie and Rachael, there.

I initially figured that I'd catch a movie at the Livingroom Theater, but after all the food, cocktails, jazz, and conversation, we had talked past the starting time of any movie we wanted to see. So we went to Ground Control instead. It's an old school video game arcade/nightclub. Rachael and I threw away a couple of dollars worth of quarters playing poorly (like back in high school), then watched Jamie, who is very competitive and excels at everything she endeavors, get the high score on Galaga.

SUNDAY

After coffee at Anna Bananas, I headed downtown. I had initially planned on hiking Forest Park, but it was too rainy, so I decided to go to the Portland Saturday Market (special Sunday edition). I bought an umbrella (I've lived in the northwest for almost 4 years now - this is my first umbrella). After Pad See-Ew at the Thai Peacock, I went back to The Livingroom Theater - this time to actually see a movie, Bill Cunningham New York. The person who sold me the ticket and the beer was our server from the previous night, and she remembered me (Jamie and Rachael - you'd never guess what her favorite movie was!)

That night I went to The Blue Monk, a jazz club in Jamie and Rachael's neighborhood that they had told me about. It was probably my favorite discovery of the weekend. The place was just about my class of people - not too snobby, but not divey. The basement bar, where the live music was had a great vibe. I'll definitely be back to this place.

MONDAY

Today's a travel day. I checked out of the Heron Haus, and I've been spending the last couple hours at Backspace Cafe writing this post (I'll probably finish this on the train). I'm heading over to Union station next. I'll be on the train for 10 hours, arriving in Vancouver at midnight. Go Canucks!

Pacific Gopher Dave

2010-11-16T22:37:00.000-08:00

Guess who I found under the splash guard on my front porch?

The Mystery of the Body in My Crawlspace

2010-08-20T22:00:00.001-07:00

Tonight I went into the crawlspace under our house to see if I can figure out how the mice are getting into the cupboard under our kitchen sink. While I was down there, I was greeted with this grisly visage:

Before discovering this skull, I found some bones that were too big for rodents (at least I'd hope so). I assumed they were chicken bones that some mouse had dragged in. From a distance and from a different angle, this skull looked like a wadded up sack from a fast food restaurant. As I approached I could read that the sack was Purina Dog Chow bag that had mostly rotted away and revealed the remains of this critter inside.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the skull is about the size of a human fist. I guessed it was a cat skull (despite the dog food bag) and a search for "cat skull" on Google Images seems to confirm this:

How did it get there? I first considered the possibility that the cat got trapped under there and died. There was no entry point big enough for a cat, but perhaps while workers were installing the water heater or remodeling the bathroom, a cat sneaked in while no one was paying attention.

But how to explain the dog food bag? I saw that mice were able to drag some small bits of trash down (I found a bottle cap, a bit of tinfoil, and a sprung snap trap), but it didn't seem feasible for a mouse to drag something as big as that dog food bag through any of the tiny holes I found.

It seems more likely that the cat died, and his body was placed in a dog food bag for disposal. But did somebody think it was a good idea to dispose of it in the crawlspace? It must have smelled horrible for awhile. Perhaps it was left in the trash or elsewhere initially and some other critter (or human prankster) moved it to the crawlspace.

Whatever happened must have happened a long time ago judging from the decay and the fact that neither we nor the prior owners owned a dog. Since then, there has been work done that required going under the house (the kitchen and bathroom were remodeled and the water heater was replaced), so it's surprising that this wasn't found earlier.

I left it where I found it; I didn't want to touch it. When I go back to plug the mouse entry hole, I'll bring rubber gloves and a trash sack and clean it up then.

Meet Henri

2010-08-15T18:24:00.001-07:00

His name is Henri. It's spelled the French way, but it's pronounced the good old American way. Of course you could call him On-Ree like it's spelled, or Hank, or Hey You, and he'll respond (or not) if he feels like it, because that's how cats are.

I'm told his full name is Henri T. Cat. I don't know what the T. stands for, but I bet it stands for The. I've never seen his full name spelled out, so maybe the last name is spelled Katt or Kat or Caedt or something, but unless I'm corrected by someone who knows better I'll just spell it Henri Th. Cat (I've opted to use the Th. abbreviation because the Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer abbreviated his middle name that way and I think he's cool).

It's been 10 years since I last had a feline roommate (aw... Chip!), and we weren't planning on taking in another one until after Chris finishes school and we were more settled, but Henri's oldest friend Arwen got married recently and moved to Australia, and the logistics of Henri going to Australia with her were prohibitively onerous, so Henri was looking for new roommates.

He's completely black - even his whiskers. He's so black that when he's rolled up on his back or contorting his body during grooming, it's hard to tell where his head is; it's like a Rorschach ink blot.

He's six years old (I don't know his actual birth date... Arwen?), and like all kids today, he's got his own facebook page. When I was a kid, we had to keep in touch with friends and family using old fashioned blogs, and we liked it!

Brielle's Quilt - The Top

2010-06-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post an update on Brielle's quilt.

I've completed the top. Now I need to quilt and bind it.

I need to adjust my camera settings; the colors shown here aren't true. The purples are too blue and the greens are too gray.

Buffs and Beavs conference rivals?

2010-06-10T15:08:00.001-07:00

I guess it's official; the CU Buffs are switching to the PAC-10 conference.

That means the CU Buffs will be in the same conference as OSU (er... that's Oregon State University).

Chinchilla Dust Bath

2010-06-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

Wanna see something cute?

A coffee dessert - yes, you know it's good news

2010-01-26T17:00:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about my dad lately since his birthday is around this time of year. If he were still alive, he'd be 76. I was remembering how we used to go over to his house on Sundays to watch the Bronco games. He would often make his specialty snack, mock chicken legs, which became an important part of football watching tradition (aside to siblings: remember?). Another tradition was his coffee mousse; this would be chilling in yogurt cups in his refrigerator.

I wanted to try to duplicate this dessert in his memory. I don't have his actual recipe, so I looked online to find any coffee mousse recipe, and found quite a variety. Most of the recipes for mousses use whipped egg whites to get the fluffy texture, but I also found some that are based on whipped cream, gelatin, custard, or even marshmallows. There were also several different ways to infuse the coffee flavor: strong brewed coffee, ground coffee beans, instant coffee crystals, or coffee liqueur. I ended up making up my own recipe by mashing up several other recipes.

Coffee Mousse

Note: Contains uncooked egg whites
Servings: 3

Ingredients:
3 eggs separated
1/2 cup cold strong coffee (or 2 shots of espresso)
3/8 cup of sugar
1 package of unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup whipping cream

for topping:
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp sugar
3 mini Heath toffee bars

1. Beat eggs yolks until pastel yellow.

2. Mix gelatin into 1/4 cup of chilled coffee and let it soften for 1 minute. This step is important: I skipped it in my first batch and the gelatin didn't dissolve well and there were lots of gummy nuggets in the final product.

3. Mix the remaining 1/4 cup chilled coffee with the beaten egg yolks and stir it in. It might just be superstition, but I think it's important to chill the coffee first. I worry that hot coffee would cook the yolks before they're sufficiently blended in. I also think chilling it first helps dissolve the gelatin in the previous step.

4. Pour yolk/coffee batter into a small saucepan and heat it to almost boiling, stirring in sugar as it heats.

5. When hot, add coffee/gelatin mixture and stir continuously until completely dissolved (5 minutes or so).

6. Pour this mixture into glass bowl and refrigerate until the texture is custard-like when stirred (about 40 minutes). As you can see in the picture, I left it in fridge too long - way past the custard stage. It still worked okay, but it's not plan A.

7. Whip the egg whites until they are stiff peaks (this is tricky, over-whipping or under-whipping will cause the egg whites to weep out making the final product slimy at the bottom).

8. Whip cream until it has stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the cream, then fold in the coffee custard.

9. Make the topping by whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla until stiff. Crush Heath bars (I used a mortar and pestle).

10. Spoon mousse into dessert cups and top with whipped cream and crushed toffee.

11. Refrigerate for a couple hours. I think it will last at least a week or so in the fridge, but I doubt I would ever let it come to that.

The final product tastes remarkably similar to how I remember Dad's tasting. I think the coffee flavor is a bit harsher in my version, but not in a bad way. It's just not as mellow as his was. I don't know what he used for coffee, but I'm sure he didn't use espresso; this was almost 25 years ago - before Americans drank espresso.

How not to pre-wash fabric

2010-01-18T06:30:00.000-08:00

I've read conflicting advice on whether or not to pre-wash fabric before piecing a quilt. I've tried it both ways and haven't noticed a significant difference. When I made the tester last week, I didn't pre-wash the fabrics, but a quilt-pro at my office told me that it was particularly important to pre-wash flannels since they shrink significantly.

I calculated that I would need about a quarter yard of each of my flannels for the quilt so I cut off 10 inch strips and put them in the washer on warm without soap. This is how it came out:

After untangling the mess and cutting off the frayed bits, I ironed out what i could salvage, but I had lost enough that I needed to wash some more fabric to have enough for the quilt. This time I washed it in the sink. That worked much better.

Now all the fabric is pre-washed, ironed, and cut. Now I'm ready to start piecing the top of the quilt.

Brielle's Quilt - The Tester

2010-01-11T06:13:00.000-08:00

I'm new to quilting and don't quite trust my instincts or skills yet, so I like to make "testers" when I do a quilt project. Basically I make a block or four with the fabric I'm using so I can get a sense for how it will all work together in the final project. That way I can be experimental and try out some ideas without risking messing up the "real" quilt.

I decided to make a tester using four of the seven fabrics I bought, 2 dark and 2 light of each purple and green. I decided to make the blocks 10" wide, and to do a 2 block by 2 block version of the first format style I listed in the previous post (the simplest one).

I looked up online for some tips on how to piece a bento box block. I found how the 20 pieces of the block are to cut individually and sewed one by one from the middle out. It was the intuitive way I would have done it if I had no other instructions.

But then I found a really nifty shortcut on this blog.

First you make a courthouse steps block (cutting 9 pieces instead of 20):

Then you cut them into fourths:

Then you rearrange them (I thought it was fun to see what other arrangements could be made with these same blocks):

Finally, you sew them back together:

What I learned:

I got the size right. The final quilt will have blocks that are as wide as these, but I will make it 3 blocks by 4 blocks.

If I decide to use this format style (and I think I will) where the dark values make hollow squares inside the block, it is more important to line up the dark value pieces than the corners (see photo to the right).

Flannel is quite thick and I found the intersections where three or four pieces came together to have too much of a bump. I think I will have to press the seams open. This will prevent me from being able to stitch-in-the-ditch when I quilt it, so I'll have to think about that.

Also, I didn't pay attention to the shapes of adjacent pieces that were the same fabric because I didn't think it would be noticeable, but it is. The diagram below demonstrates what I mean. The block on the right is radially symmetrical through the center point, but the one on the left is only symmetrical on the horizontal axis. All four of my blocks were some variation of the one on the left. Not only do these odd seam lines look sloppy on the finished product, it also causes more 4 piece intersections when the blocks are pieced together.

The background fabrics I used in the tester were too similar in value and their checkerboard pattern is too subtle. Unfortunately the other fabrics I have are the same value or different colors, so I will have to pass on the checkerboard motif and just have a scrappy random background probably using all 5 of the background fabrics I've got.

Quilt Project #2 - Brielle's Quilt

2010-01-04T06:30:00.000-08:00

Today my newest niece is 3 months old. So I've decided that my next quilt project is going to be a crib quilt for her. My goal is to have it completed before she's 6 months old (which is a relaxed pace, really, considering it's a small quilt).

Her colors are green and purple, so this weekend I stopped by the fabric store and got a variety of green and purple flannels.

I have the darnedest time trying to get my camera settings right, so this photo doesn't accurately represent the fabric's true colors.

I've decided to make this one a bento box quilt. A bento box block looks like this:

It looks plain, but it's surprisingly versatile. When I mess around with different colors and values (lights and darks), I get a variety of effects:

I haven't yet decided which of these layouts I'll use.

Also, I've decided to renumber my quilt projects since the last one was really the first proper quilt, and the earlier potholders were just messing around.

Quilt Project #4 - Snail's Trail Quilt

2009-12-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

I just completed my first proper quilt.

It's a snail's trail quilt that I made for my mom-in-law for Christmas.

This detail shows the scrappiness of the teal spirals. It also reveals some of the slop; there is some puckering and some of the points don't line up, but these little flaws are hardly noticeable in the big picture. I'm definitely satisfied with the way it turned out.

What I learned:

No number of potholders could have prepared me for some of the unique challenges that come with the size and scale of full sized quilt. There are major logistics issues with cramming something this big in my sewing machine (and this isn't a big quilt - 63x72 inches).

A step that seems insignificant with a small project becomes significant when multiplied 50 times - it took me days just to cut all the pieces.

I grabbed the first package of batting I ran across that was the right size. But it turned out to be a low loft for the project. It's fine, but I think a higher loft would look better and be more cozy (even if it would be more difficult to stuff under the sewing machine.

I *finally* got the binding right. The trick was to blind stitch the back side by hand. I also finally figured out how to do the mitered corners correctly. The binding on this quilt still had some sloppy parts, but I know how to prevent them next time.

Box of Veggies (20 of 22)

2009-10-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

We split the peppers, squash, cauliflower and the turnips (we took the greens, E&A took the nips). We took the spinach. E&A took the kale, onions, lettuce, and potatoes.

We stir-fried the cauliflower, peppers and spinach. We ate the turnip greens as is with potatoes mashed up with last week's celeriac. I think we will be stuffing and roasting the squash.

The yard produce is done for the year. I pulled out the last tomato plant and all the fruit trees are finished. There are still some grapes on the vine to snack on, but I won't be making jelly or anything with them.

Box of Veggies (19 of 22)

2009-10-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

We split the leeks and peppers. E&A took the onions, bok choy, broccoli, squash, and tomatoes. We took the potatoes, carrots, butternut squash, and celeriac. I lost track of who ended up with the lettuce (we have wilty lettuce in our fridge, but that could be from last week).

Chris made a pumpkin pie from scratch using last week's pumpkin. We have so much pumpkin left over that we're still trying to find uses for it. I made pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin scones. There was also a failed attempt at making pumpkin leather in the dehydrator. I think Chris is planning on making a pumpkin liqueur and/or syrup. We haven't even considered the buttercup squash yet. We still have half the ambercup squash left over from 3 weeks ago to use.

I made yet another batch of carrot cupcakes. They're still tasty, but we must be growing tired of them; they're lasting longer than they used to. I brought half of them into the office.

The leek, of course, became a quiche. I will never get tired of this.

The celeriac is a challenge. I found this recipe for root vegetable gratin that has celeriac, butternut squash, and leek - like they knew what was in our CSA box! But I'll probably just add celeriac to this gratin recipe instead.

My First Joint

2009-10-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

I just mailed in Chris' and my Oregon Income Taxes (on the last possible day, of course). It's the first time we've ever filed a joint tax return. It's a tedious bit of bureaucratic hassle, but one that reflects a shift in cultural attitudes toward gays and lesbians in America. It's weird - paying my taxes has never seemed so historic.

The main problem for Registered Domestic Partners (RDPs) filing jointly in Oregon is that the feds don't allow us to file married and the state doesn't allow us to file single, so we have to come up with a work-around:

- We each have separate 1040s prepared as 'single filing separately' (like we always have) to file with the feds.

- We have a 'married filing jointly' 1040 prepared to be included with our state return, but it is not actually filed. This is the "as if" return (seriously, they really refer to is as the "as if" return on the official on-line instructions - I find that funny for some reason).

- We mail in our state return with copies of all three 1040's with the phrases "RDP - As Filed" (for the individual copies) or "RDP - For Oregon Only" (for the 'as if' copy) stamped in red on each page of the return.

- If RDPs file "married filing separately", they still must send in their separate returns in the same envelope, but not stapled together (but you could put them in a binder clip - it would be 'as if' stapled).

I'm really grateful that I work at a tax office, because I wouldn't have wanted to figure this out on my own. Also, ours is not the first RDP return I've had to process, so I'm grateful to the first RDPs whose return I processed for helping me work out the details.

Box of Veggies (18 of 22)

2009-10-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

We split the peppers, the beets (we took the greens, E&A took the beets), and corn. E&A took the potatoes, lettuce, onions/shallots, squash, and tomatoes. We took the carrots, kohlrabi, cabbage, and basil.

Gathering Together Farms had a potluck for all their CSA members last Sunday. I brought a quiche made with the kohlrabi, and E&A made black bean couscous with some of their CSA vegetables. We each got a pumpkin out of the deal. We also saw pigs, turkeys, and poodle-chickens, but I couldn't find my camera, so no pictures. Sorry.

I used the beet greens, a pepper, and a carrot in a stir-fry on Monday. We fried up another pepper with our burritos on Tuesday. Half of the cabbage went into the duk-bokki on Wednesday. Last night we made a wonderful cream of pumpkin soup with last week's ambercup squash (instead of pumpkin).

We still have the basil, which I think I'll put on a pizza this weekend - whatever's left will be made into pesto. We also have most of carrots left - maybe enough for cupcakes? The remaining cabbage and pepper will be easy to use in stir-fry or something; the corn is also easy. We still have half the ambercup and a whole pumpkin left - perhaps a dessert?

On Adoption

2009-10-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

Last year I mentioned that of all the heartbreaking anti-gay election defeats in California, Florida, and Arizona, it was the anti-adoption measure in Arkansas that I found the most worrisome. With the stated goal of preventing gay and lesbian couples from adopting, the Arkansas Family Council wrote the measure broadly enough to ban even straight unmarried couples and single individuals from adopting.

It's important to point out to these social conservatives that gay and lesbian couples can and do have children the old-fashioned way. Mary Cheney, for instance, has recently confirmed she is pregnant with her second child. There is no law that they can pass to stop this. This measure doesn't thwart gay couples from starting families; it just takes away the option of adoption. So the only victims of their vindictive measure are the kids in foster care hoping to find homes.

This measure got less notice than California's Proposition 8, and I wished it had gotten more attention. That's why I was heartened when I read this interview with Scott Fujita, the NFL linebacker for the New Orleans Saints, where he talks about this measure and how it bothered him as an adopted child.

"what that is really saying is that the concern with one's sexual orientation or one's sexual preference outweighs what's really important, and that's finding safe homes for children, for our children. It's also saying that we'd rather have kids bounce around from foster home to foster home throughout the course of their childhood, than end up in a permanent home, where the parent, whether that person's single or not, gay or straight. Either way, it doesn't matter. It's a home that's going to be provided for a kid who desperately needs a home."

I just wish more people were saying things like this before the election.

Box of Veggies (17 of 22)

2009-10-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

I was at the Portland Juggling Festival last weekend, so Chris picked up the veggies and divvied them up with E&A. When I came home, I found some carrots, half a head of lettuce, some peppers and a tomato - I presume we split these with E&A. We also had cilantro, a squash, a zucchini, kohlrabi, and spinach. E&A must have taken the potatoes, cucumber, onions, and pears.

The zuke, peppers, carrots, spinach, and last week's fennel have been fried up in stir frys or served on pasta this week. Some spinach was used for omelets one morning. I'm planning on making a quiche out of the kohlrabi. The squash may be stuffed and baked, or Chris will turn it into a pie. Some of the cilantro, some tomatoes from my garden, and some jalapenos from my coworkers garden were made into salsa which I canned.

The backyard produce is diminishing. I'll harvest a few more tomatoes this weekend - next weekend I'll take out the vegetable garden for the season. I'll harvest the green tomatoes to see if they'll ripen off the vine, and I'll pick the 2 tiny eggplants that are left. The concords are finally done - I juiced a bunch, and gave the rest to a friend. The red grapes and green grapes will be ripe very soon, so I will make more jelly.

Box of Veggies (16 of 22)

2009-09-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

We split the corn, tatsoi, fennel, and peppers. E&A took the lettuce, onions, cucumber, and carrots, as well as the tomatoes and grapes since I have a surfeit of these in my yard. I took the potatoes, summer squash and acorn squash.

Chris is home! Woo-hoo! Well, most of him - he's 15% lighter than when he left. Last night was our first supper together in months. We had potatoes, tatsoi, and last week's corn. I'll probably serve this week's corn with the roasted acorn squash later this week. I have one of the summer squashes marinating in teriyaki with last week's onion and pepper. I have one more summer squash to work with as well as an eggplant from my garden, these might end up fried and served on pasta, or maybe on a pizza. I still have to come up with something for the fennel.

The tomatoes are still coming in by the pound, but last week seems to have been their peak. I won't bother canning these; the small batches that I dried last week worked out really well, so I think I'll do some major production tomato drying now. The tomatoes might have 2 or 3 more weekends before they're done. I have one small eggplant left still growing, but after that, I think the vegetable garden will be done for the year.

The yard produce is all about grapes now. Yesterday I pick 40% of the concords on the vine and juiced them to yield 15 cups. I'm experiment with making fruit leather in the dehydrator now and will also make some jelly. I might also try to make raisins, but they have seeds which is problematic. The red grapes will be ripe imminently, and the green ones will follow soon after.

The fruit trees are babies, so they don't produce much yet. I harvested the last of the pears (only 6 or so). The asian pear tree isn't going to provide anything edible (the 4 fruits on the tree are too buggy). One of the apple trees provided 2 apples and is done for the year. The other apple tree will have 3 or 4, but they're not ready just yet. The second wave of figs probably won't ripen in time, but if they do, I'll have dozens of them next month.

Who is Yann?

2009-09-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

This is Yann.

He is the boarder that has been staying with me every other week for over two months. I've made references to him on this blog, but I've never properly introduced him. He's a Ph.D. in Human Computer Interaction and he's been doing research at OSU this summer.

He is French and has spent a couple years in Australia. He speaks English fluently but with an accent that's somehow both French and Australian. He loves photography, scuba diving, and cheese (natch). You can check out his photos in his Flickr gallery.

This picture is from a juggling lesson I gave him, but I think I benefited more from the things he taught me.

He taught me how to cook gougère, quiche, and crêpes. He didn't personally show me how to make ratatouille, but it was on his recommendation that I figured out how to make it on my own.

He showed me how to work my camera better. I now know why purple was showing up as blue in all my photos (like in the balloon arch). But I still have to remember to revert the setting back when I'm indoors so that my photos don't turn out too red (like the bird on my head).

Yann influenced my opinion on public health care. He has strong opinions on the subject and it's easy to get him started on it, but he makes a compelling case.* (at this point I go off on a tangent so I cut and pasted it to the bottom of the post.)

He introduced me to some great new music from France (Les Hurlements D'Leo) and Australia (The Cat Empire). We were each impressed that the other was familiar with Manu Chau and Xavier Rudd (although I was surprised to learn that Chau was French and not Spanish).

Also, he taught me how to sharpen my knives.

His project's deadline is tomorrow (Thursday) and that will be his last day in Corvallis, but I will certainly see him again. He and his wife live in Seattle in a neighborhood not far from Andy and Jung-Eun, and I've promised to meet up with him next time I'm in town.

-----------

*My opinion on health care was only that I hate the way insurance companies work and I would support anything that made the whole process less aggravating. On principle, I would prefer a solution that didn't involve the law, but I don't have any idea what that would be exactly. Since the government seems set on getting involved anyway, I was just hopeful that the end result would be an improvement.

I admit that a major reason I want health care reform to pass is because I'm a fanboy of the President and I have a rooting interest in seeing my guy succeed (or perhaps more honestly, I want those folks who want my guy to fail to fail). But I don't have the idealism to believe that a government run insurance plan would be a hassle-free streamlined solution to all our country's health care problems, nor do I have the inherent distrust of government to fear it as a first step in the U.S. becoming a totalitarian police state.

After listening to Yann's testimonial, my opinion on the issue has shifted from "government run health insurance is an unobjectionable if not ideal way to treat the symptoms associated with dodgy health insurance practices" to "government run health insurance has proven to be an effective and popular alternative around the world".

I bet we're smart enough to come up with a way to keep the best parts of our system and incorporate the best parts of other countries' systems. Maybe we could provide a basic public insurance, but still keep the option of signing up with a private insurance company. Has anyone thought of that? It works for schools.

Box of Veggies (15 of 22)

2009-09-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

We split the corn, tomatoes, and onions. E&A took the potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and green beans. I took the lettuce, bell pepper, Jimmy Nardello pepper, and beets.

I have no inspiration this week. Tomatoes, lettuce, onions and peppers are all basic enough to toss into salads, stir-frys, pasta sauces, or anything, which is probably what I'll do. I already ate the melon. The corn will be easy.

I now have a collection of peppers to work with: the Nardello and last week's Anaheim plus the santakas and the runty rejects of my failed jalapeno plants from my garden.

I'm also stumped by the beets, but at least they will last a while.

I'm more inspired by the backyard harvest. I pulled out over 5 pounds of tomatoes again this weekend and canned four quarts of them. More importantly, my food dehydrator arrived and I have been experimenting with dried tomatoes. I'm anxious to try it out on the pears, apples, figs, and grapes when they come in.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This is the last week that Yann will be here, but Chris comes home next weekend (Yay! - I hope he likes beets!).

Best Uses For Blackberries

2009-09-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

Before blackberry season came to an abrupt end for me two weeks ago, my bushes were bursting with fruit. I figure between my friends and I, we harvested over 4 gallons of berries throughout the month of August. Here's some of the ways we came up with to use all these berries:

Blackberry Scones - These are a little trickier than blueberry scones. The trick to preventing purple batter with blueberries is to toss them with a couple tablespoons of flour until they're coated, but this does not work blackberries. Blackberries are not very cohesive, and there is no way to prevent them from getting all squished up in the batter and making a sticky mess. Maybe I'll try freezing them first next time. Nonetheless, they were quite tasty.

Blackberry Milkshake - This very simple treat was a favorite of Yann's. It's just ice cream, milk and blackberries in a blender.

Blackberry Jelly - This was my first attempt at canning. I strained the blackberries to remove the seeds and leave mostly juice, then cooked it with Sure-Jell and tons of sugar.

Blackberry Cobbler - My friends Karen and Chris came over last month to pick blackberries. A week later, they invited me over to their house for pizza and served blackberry cobbler for dessert. It was delicious!

Blackberry Margarita - Originally, I just tossed a handful of fresh blackberries in the blender with Margarita fixins, and it turned out delightful. Then I made them a little more elaborate by puréeing the berries and straining out the seeds then premixing this with the alcoholic ingredients and lime so they can be preserved in the freezer indefinitely. Now I have over a half gallon of this premix in my freezer ready to just add ice and Sweet-and-Sour in the blender.

Blackberry Dessert Topping - The quickest thing to do was just rinse a pint of berries and stir them up in a bowl with a few tablespoons of sugar and leave them in the fridge overnight to get syrupy. I spooned this over ice cream, French toast, and crêpes.

Dunawi Creek is Moving

2009-09-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

This is the new Dunawi Creek:

This is what the old Dunawi Creek looks like now:

They're moving the creek and restoring the wetlands as part of a plan to redirect Reservoir Drive so that it intersects with 53rd at Campus Way to my north (Yay! there will be a light there!) instead of at the railroad tracks to my south (that intersection was deemed unsafe).

The creek used to run along the western border of my property, now it's being moved to something closer to it's historic banks.

This is what my house looks like from the old creek:

This is what my house looks like from the new creek:

Bye Bye Blackberries

2009-09-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

BEFORE:

This is what my blackberry bushes looked like last Thursday.

AFTER:

This is what they looked like the next day.

It was kind of sad at first, but then I remembered that this is Oregon - You can't get rid of blackberry bushes by merely bulldozing them. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with more blackberries than I can eat again next year.

Box of Veggies (14 of 22)

2009-09-09T16:53:00.001-07:00

We split the leeks and the dill. E&A took the purple potatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, and watermelon. I took the carrots, onion, eggplant, bell pepper, and anaheim pepper.

My in-laws were staying with me on Sunday and Monday, so I wanted to share some of my favorite recent recipes. So I made sure to keep what I needed for the quiche (the leek), the ratatouille (the eggplant, onion, pepper... no squash this week!?), and the carrot cupcakes (the carrots, natch). They all turned out beautifully. I was pleased because the cupcakes failed the last time I made them. The ratatouille turned out well despite being squash-free.

I still have to use the eggplant (I ended up using the eggplant from my garden for the ratatouille), I will probably just fry it up and serve it on rice or pasta. I'll roast the anaheim, and keep it chopped up in the fridge to add to stuff (stir-frys and omelets and such).

I have no use for the dill. or last week's cilantro. and last week's lettuce is probably beyond salvage. I may have to give up and compost these.

The backyard produce is a bigger challenge. The plums all ripened at the same time. I ordered a food dehydrator to make prunes, but it won't be here for another week; The plums'll be gone by then. I'm pulling out five pounds of tomatoes a week. I've frozen some, I'll can some others, and I'll dry some if they last that long. I finally got my first eggplant, I expect 2 or 3 more before it's done. I can keep up with the pears - I get about 5 a week. The apples and grapes are still a week or two away. The blackberries... well, the blackberries will have their own blog post.

Bird On My Head

2009-09-08T20:04:00.001-07:00

Yes. It is just what it looks like.

You might wonder why these guys were in my house in the first place.

They came over for game night last Saturday.

Box of Veggies (13 of 22)

2009-09-04T10:10:00.001-07:00

We split the onions, cilantro, Squash, corn and green beans. E&A took the carrots, cucumber, and tomatoes. I kept the potatoes, lettuce, pepper, and watermelon.

I fried up the squash, pepper, with tomatoes from my garden and served them on pasta. I also used these in omelets for breakfast. The potatoes were fried up for breakfast. I plan on eating the green beans and corn tonight. The lettuce and tomatoes have been and will be made into sandwiches. No plans yet for the cilantro.

Deny the Claim

2009-08-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

This health insurance company sent an e-mail to all their customers asking them to oppose health care reform.

I don't understand why so many people are passionately opposed to health care reform, but I suspect it has more to do with distrust of the government than with a deep affection for their insurance company. I can't believe the hassles and frustrations I encounter whenever I deal with my health insurance company are unique to me.

It would be kind of fitting if, now that they need us, we were to deny their claim.

This particular insurance company isn't my insurance company, and I didn't receive this e-mail. But if I did, I would have sent them this response:

Dear Health Insurance Provider,

It's come to our attention that you are facing a threat to your well-being that is costing you $1.4 million per day. After making regular payments to your lobbyists for years, we understand why you expect to be protected from these expenses and entitled to our help. But after reviewing your case, we've decided to deny your claim for one or more of the following reasons:

Pre-Existing Condition. Your last bout with government health care reform was 15 years ago, but according to our records, you've been battling government health care plans since Truman was President.

Treatment not covered by policy. According to the policy book, our job is to pay you increasingly large amounts of money every month, and, if we should get sick, to jump a lot of hurdles to get a portion of our costs recovered. It is not in our contract to petition our legislators on your behalf.

Procedure deemed medically unnecessary. All of our allies in Europe, Canada, and Australia have managed to survive just fine despite having their governments involved to varying degrees in their health insurance.

Treatment sought without prior authorization. We were never consulted when you spent our premiums to buy congressmen.

Improper claim filing (missing information, illegibility). How could you possibly expect us to stick to our side of the bargain if you didn't legibly print the ICD-9 code on the claim form?

If you feel we have denied your claim unjustly, you are welcome to file an appeal. If after a six month review, we determine you are entitled to our assistance, we will provide it grudgingly if you are still alive and not bankrupt.

Box of Veggies (11 & 12 of 22)

2009-08-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks sort of ran together for me...

Last week we split the leeks, basil, corn, and beets (E&A took the beets, I kept the greens). I kept one of the beefsteak tomatoes and E&A took the others plus the cherry tomatoes; the tomatoes in my garden are coming in now, and I don't really need the CSA ones any more. I also kept the carrots, potatoes, anaheim pepper, onion, and eggplant. E&A took the lettuce, cucumber, and melon.

This week we split the onions and green beans. I kept the potatoes, lettuce, peppers,garlic, squash and melon. E&A took the carrots, cucumber, celery, corn, and tomatoes (but I traded some homegrown romas for another beefsteak tomato).

I roasted the anaheim and mixed it with tomatoes from my garden, onion, and cilantro left over from the previous week's box and made a pico de gallo for the burritos I served during my blackberry picking party.

I made a batch of carrot cupcakes (cup carrotcakes?); they didn't come out as tasty as usual (they collapsed), but we ate them anyway.

We just ate the potatoes, corn, and beet greens fried, boiled and steamed respectively for dinner one night.

On Friday, I made one of my specialty pizzas with garden tomatoes and the basil. It turned out great!

The peppers and squashes were really pretty colors. I followed Yann's advice made ratatouille with them and the eggplant last night - It turned out delicious! Ratatouille is so much more than the sum of its parts (just eggplant, sqash, onions, peppers, and tomatoes). The flavors really complement each other. It's also really easy to make; I followed a recipe that was somewhat fussy about presentation (which I do think is important), but I'm sure you could simply chop the ingredients up and throw them all in the dish together instead of slicing and layering. After a night in the refrigerator, it holds together much better and isn't as soupy.

This morning I made crêpes and stuffed them with cream cheese and a topped them with a blackberry topping I made. Since I'm on a streak of French dishes, I plan on making a quiche tonight with the leek.

That just leaves the green beans, potatoes, and onion left over. Those shouldn't be difficult to find uses for.

What I learned at Gardening School

2009-08-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

Last week I took a couple of vacation days to attend the 2009 Gardeners Min i-College hosted by the OSU Master Gardener Program.

I signed up for 7 classes over three days:

1 - Composting and Mulching
I learned that my garden needs mulch and that autumn leaves would be perfect. Every fall, people sweep their leaves into the bike lane to be picked up by the city. As a biker, I find this irksome. I need to figure out a way to get these leaves out of the bike lanes and onto my garden. This October you might see me on the side of the road sweeping these leaves into my bike basket.

2 - Managing Vertebrate Pests
I don't have a surfeit of charismatic macrofauna in my yard. This class wasn't the main reason I signed up for this event, but I did learn which critter is digging the holes in my yard. It's voles (I didn't take this picture - I swiped it from Google images). I also learned that owl stools are chock full of vole skulls.

3 - Organic Gardening
The garden I inherited when I bought the house was organic, so I took this class to see what I need to do to keep it that way. I learned that I don't need to do anything. I can do that.

4 - Preserving Food
I was already going to try canning this year. This class wasn't so much of a 'how to' as much as a 'what to buy' class. It did convince me that I would use a food dehydrator if I bought one. The pressure canner is still under consideration.

5 - Raising Chickens
As I've mentioned before, I've been seriously considering keeping chickens. It's sort of trendy these days. This class made a good case for it, but I'm still not sure. It's an investment of years, and we will more than likely be moving out of town in three years or so.

6 - Edible Landscaping
This lady had some incredible slides, but her yard requires a lot of maintenance. She does this for a living.

7 - Making Herb Teas
This class focused more on medicinal properties, and I was more interested in culinary aspects. But her website is a good resource.

Although not an official part of the event, I also went to see an appropriate movie called Food, Inc. this week. It's a documentary about industrialized food production, and I highly recommend seeing it. It was a scare-doc in the same genre as An Inconvenient Truth, and I got the feeling there was another side to the story that I wasn't getting (to be fair, industrial food companies frequently declined to participate in the documentary). Even so, it made a compelling case that we should buy as much of our food locally as possible (shop at farmer's markets), grow a garden (even a small one, even in the city), and buy organic and in-season produce.

Other things I learned at this event:

Gardening is more than just thowing some seeds into some dirt. There's an entire system that doesn't begin or end with the pretty flowers or tasty food (although that is the best part of the cycle). It involves various other aspects: maintaining the soil via composting and mulching; turning kitchen scraps into fertilizer via worms, chickens, or rabbits; managing pests and weeds; keeping trees, bushes, vines and plants healthy and productive; and preserving what you grow by canning, drying and freezing.

Gardeners like to talk. There were hundreds of master gardeners in attendance, and they were the majority of the folks in the classes. The typical class would start with the speaker talking for only a few minutes before a gardener would raise her hand and want to share her related experience, which would lead to other gardener's following up and comparing notes. This isn't a criticism of the class - it was always very informative. I got the impression that these folks spend so much time alone in their yards obsessing about minutiae that they jump at the opportunity to interact with other humans and share their thoughts.

I learned that I have a lot to learn. Each class was less than 2 hours, and each was complex enough to be a seminar on its own. I think I was one of only a handful of beginners in attendance. It wasn't exactly discouraging; it was inspiring, in fact. I kept the handouts, and wrote down some notes, but I'll have to revisit these topics if I ever decide to try any of this stuff out.

Gardening can be simple. For most of the attendees at the event, gardening is a way of life. Several days of being immersed in obsessive-gardener space can be intimidating. I kept wondering if my compost is too nitrogen rich, and where was I going to get saw dust and oyster shells to compensate for it. And would chickens and rabbits provide enough fertilizer or should I get a goat too. And what blooming plant could I grow to lure beneficial bugs to my yard. But then I came home to my yard and saw the tomato plants bursting with fruit even though I've never done any of these things and I realized that I could make this as complicated as I wanted, but sometimes gardening is just throwing some seeds into some dirt.

Box of Veggies (10 of 22)

2009-08-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

We split the onions, shallots, cilantro, and tomatoes. E&A took the potatoes, carrots, lettuce, and melon. I kept the tomatillos, jalapeno, purple pepper, summer squashes, and cucumber. I intentionally kept all the salsa ingredients (I also have tomatoes from my garden), and plan on making the green salsa recipe that came with this week's newsletter.

I'm having friends over next Saturday for a blackberry picking party, and I plan on serving Mexican food. The tomatillos, jalapeno, onion, and cilantro will be made into the green salsa, the purple pepper and onion will be fajita filling, and the squash and tomatoes will be mixed with corn for calabacitas.

I have nothing special planned for the cucumber, and I have potatoes and celery left from last week. I'll just snack on them as is.

Box of Veggies (9 of 22)

2009-08-03T11:57:00.001-07:00

We split the lettuce, onions, celery, and green beans. I kept the potatoes, eggplant, squash, and blueberries. E&A took the carrots, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes.

I want to roast the eggplant and make sandwiches with pesto-mayo (I'm trying to recreate a favorite sandwich I used to get at this place in Boulder). I don't plan on doing anything fancy with the green beans and potatoes - just cook them straight up and serve them as side dishes to something. The squash will be pizza if I have time, or teriyaki if I don't. The blueberries will be pancakes, muffins, and/or scones depending on my mood (the blackberries in my yard are ready as well). I haven't come up with a plan for the celery.

The Fair is Back

2009-07-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

The Benton County Fair is back, which means the carnival employees are camping in my back yard again. This is not an inconvenience. In fact, as I watched them setting up camp Sunday afternoon, I realized I was glad to see them. I can vicariously enjoy the carnival atmosphere without having to actually do the work of setting up the event in this crazy heat.

The campers also provide some protection from the rowdies that occasionally show up at the fair. I'm not one to judge; I've been their age before and I understand you've got to kick up some dust now and then. All the same, I'm glad the carnival employees provide me with a buffer from the craziness.

Just like last year, I volunteered to help my co-worker take in canned and baked goods to be judged. One perk of this gig is that exhibitors bringing in their treats will sometimes bring in a little extra for us to snack on (score!). Another perk is I get a free pass to the event for my two hours of... uh... work?

Anyway, for those keeping track of my benevolence, my volunteer work so far this month includes making a balloon arch for Pride Corvallis, setting up a maze for da Vinci Days, playing with kittens for the Humane Society, and tasting competition-caliber baked good and treats for the County Fair. I’m magnanimous like that. Perhaps I should volunteer at a homeless shelter; the homeless love balloon arches.

Box of Veggies (8 of 22)

2009-07-27T20:33:00.000-07:00

In the box this week: E&A are back from England, so I have a much more manageable amount of vegetables this week. We split the dill and the zukes. I took the spinach, garlic, cabbage, and blueberries, and they took the potatoes, lettuce, cucumber, onion, green pepper, and cilantro. There were no carrots! I hadn't eaten the purple carrots from the previous week, and I gave them to E&A when they picked up their cats on Friday.

The dill, and last week's parsley and cucumbers are currently chilling in my fridge becoming tzatziki. The rest of last week's parsley, scallions, and tomatoes plus some mint from my garden are also chilling in my fridge as tabouli. These were on last week's meal plan, but I didn't get to them because the boarder had offered to make dinner on two of the nights (gougère on one night, and crêpe the next - both were delicious!).

The boarder is gone this week, so I will make fewer meals and have leftovers. The cabbage will be two batches of duk-bokki, the zukes and onions will be teriyaki, the spinach will be blanched and salted and served with the rest of last week's potatoes either roasted or mashed. Last week's lettuce (holding up surprisingly well) and onions will be used for salads and sandwiches. I had half the blueberries in my pancakes this morning, the other half is destined for the same fate for breakfast tomorrow.

Tomato Update

2009-07-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

Same tomato 1 month later.

By this time last year, I had already started getting red tomatoes. This reddish Roma is the closest so far.

All three plum tomato plants I planted are healthy and productive, but none have ripe fruit yet.

As I posted earlier, last year's cherry tomatoes took over my garden, so this year I decided not to have any cherry tomatoes, but several cherry tomato volunteers kept popping up.

I pulled most of them and decided to keep just this one.

But weeks later I noticed I had missed another one that had sprung up in a part of the garden I hadn't planted.

As you can see from the cracked soil, I have done absolutely nothing to encourage this plant. The soil isn't tilled or fertilized, and I have never watered it. I don't want this plant, but I've decided not to pull it. I've decided to leave it, but not water it or anything, just as an experiment to see if the already minimal work I put into this is actually necessary.

Heartland Humane Society

2009-07-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

I've started volunteering at the Heartland Humane Society. I Go every Saturday morning from 8:00AM to 11:00AM. I started last Saturday, but today I remembered to take pictures.

Primarily, the job is cleaning kennels. 2 or 3 dozen cats are kept in individual kennels (sometimes 2 will be in the same kennel if they're small). In addition, there are 3 window rooms. These are the size of closets and have glass walls, and cat furniture. 4 or 7 cats will share these. These are cats that have been there longer than the kennel cats and tend to be older and better socialized. Then there is the prime suite: the puppy playroom (presumably it was expected to be for puppies when it was named). This is much bigger than the other window rooms and these cats (including Feivel, pictured) are the oldest and most affectionate.

The window rooms and playroom are the reason I love this. I go in these rooms and a half dozen cats will start clamoring for attention. It's complete cute overload.

Critters II

2009-07-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

A year ago today I posted a bunch of pictures of critters around my yard. I have a couple more:

When I came home from my trip to Seattle, this frog was waiting for me. (No, I'm not referring to the French boarder - but he was there too. In fact, he's actually the one who took this picture).

The cats were the first to notice this guy on the patio last Saturday.

Bonus critter from Andy and Jung Eun's yard:

When I arrived in Seattle, this bug was waiting for me. Andy and Jung Eun named him Jumongboli.

Who's Eating My Cauliflower?

2009-07-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

Deer

Bunnies

Aphids

Cabbage Worms

Slugs

When I first posted this picture, I incorrectly labeled this as a broccoli plant. When I bought the starters, they were ambiguously labeled, and I guessed wrong.

Also, less than a week after this photo was taken, the plant in the picture was chewed down by ants (who knew?). But I didn't get a picture of them.

Miss Melody's Maze

2009-07-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

This is Miss Melody. I volunteered to help set up at da Vinci Days this year and they asked me to help Miss Melody build this maze. In exchange, they hooked me up with a weekend pass to the event.

The event was great. I hung out with friends, listened to music, juggled, watched Kinetic Challenge events, and watched electric go-carts drive around in circles.

Box of Veggies (7 of 22)

2009-07-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

In the box this week: potatoes, purple carrots, lettuce, cucumber, onion, scallions, chard, parsley, 6 zucchini/summer squash, radicchio, blueberries, and 6 tomatoes.

I made another batch of carrot cake muffins with last week's carrots.

2 zukes, 1/2 of last week's pepper, and 3 of last week's mini onions are marinating in a teriyaki sauce for a stir fry later this week. I will probably do this every week since there always seems to be zukes and onions.

Last night I made a pizza with 2 zukes, the other half of the pepper, the remaining mini onions, and the last of last week's tomatoes.

The last 2 squashes will be battered and fried and served with steamed chard, and half the potatoes roasted with butter and parsley.

I'll somehow make a meal of the radicchio (fried or roasted). This is a new veggie for me, so it'll be an experiment. I'll serve it with a dressing made with last week's cucumber and yogurt, and tabouli made with some of the parsley, 4 scallions, and 2 tomatoes (the recipe is in the CSA newsletter this week).

I will use the blueberries in scones and/or pancakes for breakfast.

I have no plans for the onion; I diced it up and it's ready to be added to omelets or whatever. The remaining potatoes will be fried up for breakfast. The carrots, lettuce and the remaining tomatoes, scallions, and cucumber will be for salads and sandwiches. I have no idea how I'm supposed to eat this much parsley (it's a large bunch); I'll do what I can, but I have feeling I'll be throwing most of this into the compost in a couple weeks.

I successfully cooked all of last week's veggies despite not having a stove (I'm particularly proud of the toaster oven eggplant parmesan), but eating all the food was impossible since I'm the only one home, so I still have fridge full of leftovers (the eggplant parmesan, veggie stew, duk-bokki, and now the pizza and carrot cake muffins). Fortunately, the boarder is back this week and I can get him to help me with these.

Also my stove has been fixed. Yay!

Cat Pictures

2009-07-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hi Eric and Allison,

I hope you're having fun in England.

Klaatu and Gort are wonderful house guests. It makes my days to have their fuzzy cuteness around the house.

Box of Veggies (6 of 22)

2009-07-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

In the box this week: purple potatoes, carrots, lettuce, cucumber, 2 onions plus a bundle of mini-onions, beets, spinach, basil, zucchini, garlic, 2 small eggplants, 2 green peppers, 2 tomatoes, and cherries.

I've had the first casualties of the season; some of the veggies from two weeks ago were still uneaten and had to be composted. The chard was on-deck for supper the day the stove broke, and didn't get selected during last week's unplanned meals. I will try to salvage enough cilantro for one batch of rice, but the rest will have to go. I peeled away 75% of a head of last week's lettuce to make a salad last night.

I'm back to planning, but it's a challenge this week. The boarder is away, and E&A are still in England, so I have to eat everything myself. The stove is still broken (until Friday). And there's still lots of veggies from last week.

The zucchini, half a green pepper and what's left of last week's onion is marinating in teriyaki for a stir fry later this week.

In the crock-pot, I made a stew with half the purple potatoes, last week's carrots, the other half of the green pepper, half the mini onions, last week's tomatoes, and beets. I don't intend to eat most of it this week; I will fill a couple of quart size Ziplocs and freeze them for another day.

Last week's cabbage is on the endangered list, so I will make a hefty batch of duk-bokki, and have lots leftovers.

I'm going to attempt to roast the eggplant in the toaster oven and make eggplant parmesan.

Some night, I will have to make a meal of the beet greens and the remaining potatoes.

I made almost a pint of pesto with the basil, but have no immediate plans for it, but at least it will keep. I'll try to finish the remaining green pepper, mini onions, cucumber, lettuce, and tomato in salads and sandwiches throughout the week. I already ate the cherries.

By the time the next box comes, I'll still have the 2 onions (plus an additional one from my garden), the spinach, and the carrots left over from this week. I will probably get additional carrots and onions in that box. E&A will still be gone, but the boarder will return. And the stove should be fixed.

Box of Veggies (5 of 22)

2009-07-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

I was up in Seattle for the Fourth of July weekend (just like last year), so E&A picked up the box of veggies. I came back last night in time for E&A to leave for England this morning. They'll be gone for over 2 weeks, so they dropped off whatever they didn't eat: carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, 2 onions, cabbage, 2 cats, zucchini, cherries, and a tomato; plus some from the previous box they didn't finish: cilantro and garlic scapes.

My meal planning has been thrown off track this week for several reasons, primarily because my stove broke just before I left for Seattle and I hadn't had a chance to get it fixed. I will be improvising a lot this week. Perhaps I'll make a soup or something that can be cooked in the crockpot. I suspect I will be eating lots of salads and raw veggies.

Photo Dump

2009-06-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

I'm clearing off the photos from my camera. Here's some pictures that never made it into blog posts yet.

Things found in my yard:

Holly trees and mowy boys.

Things that go Bloom!

My catnip brings kitties to the yard.

Silly Fiver, cowslips are for Owsla.

(sorry for the photo quality, this was taken through the screen on my bathroom window with the highest zoom my camera has.)

Our new patio furniture.

Chris made me a cherry pie from scratch for my birthday. (We're not in the "things found in my yard" section any more, by the way)

Remember when I used to spend my Saturday mornings at the Majestic Theatre? Well now they've got a machine to do my job!

Quilt Project #3 - Checkerboard Pot Holder

2009-06-30T04:00:00.001-07:00

For my first pieced top, I made this checkerboard pot holder.

There's a trick to it. First I cut four long yellow strips and four long black strips and sewed them together in alternating colors. Then I cut the resulting bumblebee looking piece into perpendicular strips. Then I flip every other strip and sew them back together.

The hard part is getting the corners to line up exactly. I made it difficult on myself by using so many squares (this is usually a 9-square instead of a 64-square) and by using such small squares (small errors become proportionately bigger).

For the quilting stage, I decided to use the "stitch in the ditch" method where you quilt along the seams of the pieces. This was a little more tricky than I expected. It was hard to keep my stitching in a straight line, and little variances are more obvious with this method.

I also had difficulty with unintentional pleats. These were formed when I pressed the seam allowances. The fabric folded, and the folds were ironed in, so the "ditch" was inaccessible to stitch. When I pressed the seam allowances, I always pressed them onto the darker fabric so that it wouldn't show through. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but of course this wasn't possible once I got to the point where I was sewing the alternating strips together. I realize now I should have pressed the seam allowance open. This would have prevented the pleats, and the show-through problem would at least be symmetrical.

Box of Veggies (4 of 22)

2009-06-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

This week we split the onions, potatoes, and beets (E&A took the beets and I kept the greens). I got the lettuce, tomato, cucumber, chard, and strawberries, E&A got the cilantro, garlic scapes, and carrots (am I forgetting something?, it seems like I took more than my share this week).

Last week I put the strawberries in scones. They were tasty, but it seemed like a waste of really good strawberries. This week, I sliced the strawberries and mixed them with a couple tablespoons of sugar and will use them as a topping. I had left over cream cheese from last week's carrot cake frosting, so I made stuffed french toast. The recipe I used called for Irish Cream liqueur which I didn't have, so I had to substitute soy milk and sugar, but I love the idea and will be pick some up the next time I'm at the liquor store for just this purpose.

The chard and beet greens will be blanched or steamed and served with potatoes as a side dish. The lettuce, tomato, onion, and cucumbers will be sandwiches.

Pride in the Park

2009-06-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is Tristen; you may recognize her from her photo in the paper. She is one of the organizers of Pride Corvallis, the first (and hopefully annual) lesbian and gay pride festival in Corvallis .

When I first heard about the event a couple weeks ago, I sent an e-mail asking if they needed volunteers. Tristen wrote back and said I could help set up. This mainly consisted of unloading tables, chairs, and one ridiculously heavy generator (for the 'bouncy castle') from trucks, but constructing the helium balloon arch was easily the highlight.

I missed the actual parade (I went to the Farmer's Market instead), but after lunch I came back to the park with my juggling props and juggled, took in the sights, listened to the music, visited the vendor booths, and juggled some more.

This was the most wholesome Pride event I've ever attended. There was no alcohol, lots of folks my age, and lots of little kids (there was a kids area with games, face-painting, and that bouncy castle). If this had been my first Pride festival 20 years ago, I'd have been disappointed. Back then I was young and looking for a wild time; I enjoyed seeing people in their fetish gear with their slaves on a leash, mostly naked go-go dancers, and flamboyant drag queens lip-syncing to disco. But now I'm much more mellow and I really appreciate the family-friendly and laid-back atmosphere.

I do wish there had been more shirtless guys though.

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Tomato Update

2009-06-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

A year ago today, I posted a picture of my first tomato.

Here's this year's tomato for comparison.

Box of Veggies (3 of 22)

2009-06-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

This week we split the potatoes, spinach, mizuna and lettuce. I took the onion, carrots, and strawberries, and gave E&A the scallions, basil, and tomato.

The only thing new to me this week was the mizuna. It's a slightly bitter, slightly spicy leafy green - somewhere between mustard greens and arugula. It's usually used in salads. I will stir fry it later this week.

I'm not a big fan of carrots, but it's seems we will get a large bunch of them every week in the box. I can't just keep forcing them on E&A (like week 1) and I won't have a bunch of friends over for game night every week (like week 2); so I will have to find carrot recipes that I can eat. This week I made these carrot cupcakes.

I also made spinach calzones and strawberry scones. The potatoes are parboiled and ready for breakfast burritos, and the onion and lettuce will be eaten on sandwiches throughout the week.

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Quilt Project #2 - Hilbert Curve Pot Holder

2009-06-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

The piecing stage of quilting naturally has a lot of possibilities for exploring some of the niftier properties of polygons and tessellation, but the quilting stage can have it's math appeal as well. For example, space-filling curves lend themselves quite well to quilting.

The Sierpiński curve (above left) is ideal for quilting because it is a loop , and you can start it in the middle. This is important because as you sew, the layers of fabric tend to shift. Starting in the middle helps mitigate this effect. However, for my second quilt project, I decided to make another whole cloth pot holder using the Hilbert Curve (above right) because it only has right angles (way easier).

I'm still unhappy with the binding. I spent much more time fussing with it this time trying to make it work. It's better than last time, but still very sloppy looking.

It's hard to see the fancy stitching pattern from this picture. Here's a close up:

Blogaversary

2009-06-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

One year ago today I posted my first entry on this blog.

Last year I posted a picture of our new house. Here's how it looks a year later.

There are a couple small differences:

- There was a dead tree in the open space behind our house. The top 12 feet of it crashed into our yard after a serious windstorm last fall.

- The arch that was covered in grandmothery pink roses is now covered with grapes (much tastier).

- There is no car in the port. Chris took it to Arizona for the summer (the car-free days of summer).

I thought the name "blogaversary" was a natural portmanteau of "blog anniversary", but then I realized that by taking out the "anni" from "anniversary", I'm removing the part of the word that means "year", so what would blogaversary actually mean? Maybe anniblogary would be a more correct term.

So for the fun of it, I tried googling the terms, blogaversary and anniblogary (as well as blogiversary, blogversary and annibloggery), and discovered that lots of people have already used these words in this context (go ahead, try it).

In fact most of the results come from blogaversary posts discussing which term is the most appropriate. Can you believe people actually do that?

I love the internet.

_

Box of Veggies (2 of 22)

2009-06-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

This week's harvest:

We Got a Fennel Bulb, and Eric and Allison took the strawberries. We split everything else: carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, fava beans, turnips, and kale.

We had friends over on Saturday night to play Diplomacy, and served some of the carrots, cucumber, and turnips as snacks

The newsletter that they send with the box suggests cooking and mashing the fennel bulb with potatoes. I might do that and serve it with the fava beans. They also suggest slicing the fennel bulb, breading it, and frying it. That sounds tasty, too, and then I can save the potatoes for breakfast burritos. I also want to experiment with making tea from the fennel fronds.

Allison forwarded me this recipe for baked kale chips that looks delicious (and more importantly, easy), so I'll probably give that a try.

I'm still looking for something to do with the turnips. I'm leaning toward this recipe for Kashmiri-Style Kidney Beans with Turnips if I get a chance put some beans in the crockpot, Otherwise I'll try this simpler mashed turnip recipe (though I'll probably skip the last baking step). This Israeli Moroccan Couscous looks wonderful, but I'm not planning on putting that much effort into it this week - I'll consider it in the future if we get similar veggies.

South for the Summer

2009-06-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

I expect this to be an annual tradition; Chris has an out-of-state internship and will be leaving town for the summer.

He's leaving today and splitting the 20 hour drive over 3 days.

Last summer he was in Seattle, which wasn't too far to visit, but this summer he'll be in Phoenix, Arizona. I will miss him, of course, but I won't be making a trip to visit him.

He'll be back in 14 weeks. I've started the countdown.

Summer Juggling

2009-06-14T06:01:00.000-07:00

There are two juggling clubs in Corvallis: The OSU juggling club, and The One Wheel Wonders Unicycling and Juggling Club. Both clubs move their meetings outdoors during the summer. Tomorrow is the first day that 1WW meets at Central Park downtown.

One of my many summer resolutions is to get back into juggling regularly. So starting tomorrow, I plan to juggle with the 1WW at their meetings on the first and third Mondays of the month. The OSU club meets at the MU Quad on Mondays and Thursdays throughout the summer. Every time I've ever showed up there during the summer, I've been the only one, but I figure I'd like to juggle weekly anyway, even if it's by myself, and the MU quad is as good a place as any, so I plan on practicing there on every Monday that the 1WW aren't meeting.

While I'm on the topic of juggling in Corvallis, here's a YouTube video from the Juggling Convention last March.

If you look close, you can see me in the background briefly; at 0:17, I'm the one kicking up the club.

Also, I meant to post this earlier; it's a video that I took at that convention of my friend Ethan with whom I used to juggle back in the day on the courthouse lawn in Boulder. He now lives in Portland and came down for the convention.

The Majestic Gig Ends

2009-06-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm hanging out in the box office of the Majestic Theatre like I have most Saturday mornings since November when I first started volunteering here.

This will be my last day here, though (at least for a while). I was informed last Saturday after my shift was through that this Saturday would be the last day I am needed here. The Majestic is temporarily closing in August for remodeling, and I figured I'd be doing this until then; they do have a show in July. But it turns out that the house manager here (my boss) is taking a leave of absence starting now, and so they decided to not keep the box office open on Saturdays any more.

I'd be happy to come back after the remodel, but I have a feeling they won't ask me to. I think the plan was to expand the box office hours to Saturday and staff it with volunteers for a little while to see if it was popular, but Saturday ticket sales are very slow and I usually just sit around for a couple of hours and post on my blog. I think the only reason they kept the box office open on Saturdays as long as they have was because they had an eager and reliable volunteer willing to do it for free, but it just doesn't make sense for them to open up the box office just for me.

I should probably find another volunteer gig for Saturday mornings before I fall back into my old lazy Saturday habits (sitting in my cowboy pajamas, eating sugary cereal, and watching cartoons). Maybe I'll check Craigslist again, maybe the Humane Society or Kitty Angel Team needs people.

Last Pride Home Game

2009-06-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

The Corvallis Pride (The women's football team I mentioned last year) are playing their last game of the season tomorrow morning against the Portland Shockwave.

The team isn't the same this year. I first noticed something was different at their first home game (also against Portland) back in April. I recognized Simone Shepherd playing quarterback (and defensive back, place kicker, and punter), and I recognized Natalie Nash and Coach Buglione, but where was Michelle Derry? or for that matter, anybody else from last year's squad? I mean no disrespect to the athletes on the team who are all better football players than me, but the level of play was unexpectedly amateur compared to last season.

I looked it up when I got home and learned that they had in fact lost a lot of players this year and had been demoted to the League's Tier II classification. I found this article that described how the team was facing the possibility of not having enough players to play at all this season and they merged with the Redding team in order to play.

It's a remarkable story, but it doesn't seem sustainable. I hope they manage to recruit enough local athletes this off-season to stay afloat on their own, preferably Tier I caliber athletes so the games will be more competitive.

I wouldn't even mind if they were Tier II if there were other Tier II teams in the region to compete with. Wikipedia lists Bend, OR, Medford, OR, and Kennewick, WA as possible Tier II expansion cities.

If they can't recruit more players, there's a certain probability that they won't be able to field a team next season, and tomorrow would be the last chance to see them play.

My First Quilt Project

2009-06-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Matt posting his sketches on his blog to record his progress, I've decided to do the same thing with my quilting projects.

When I decided to take up quilting, I had the misconception that sewing together the scraps of fabric into pretty geometric designs was pretty much all there was to quilting. It turns out this process is called 'piecing', and it's only one part of the project (and not even a necessary part).

The actual 'quilting' part is stitching together a sandwich of batting between two pieces of fabric. I had considered this a relatively insignificant "finishing up" stage of making a quilt, but this stitching can be very elaborate and is an art of it's own. Most importantly, you can do it badly, and after you've spent so much time piecing together an elaborate top, you don't want to mess it up by doing an ugly stitching job on top of it.

Although the top piece of a quilt is almost always pieced together from scraps of fabric, it doesn't have to be. Whole cloth quilting uses one solid fabric for the top and is usually used to showcase fancy stitching.

But the stitching job doesn't have to be elaborate either; the most basic quilting pattern is called channel quilting which is just straight parallel lines.

Although channel quilting and/or whole cloth quilts are quite common (most store-bought bedspreads and sleeping bags are just that), it's not what most people think of when they think of a quilt; like me, most people think of a pieced top when they think of a quilt.

So for my first quilting project, I decided to start with simplest project I could conceive of: a whole cloth channel quilted pot holder.

It's not particularly pretty, but it wasn't intended to be. It does hold pots.

I figured it wouldn't be hard to eye-ball parallel lines, so I didn't bother with guidelines. When I noticed I was way off, I tried to compensate, and only made it worse.

The fabric also puckered a little. I will probably invest in a walking foot for my sewing machine to prevent that.

The binding was hard to do, and I don't like the way it looks; hopefully this improves with repetition.

Kegger in Slugtown

2009-06-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Before moving to Corvallis, I knew little about Oregon. But my experience at the Great American Beer Festival taught me that Oregon (Portland, specifically) was the origin of the microbrew revolution in the 80s, and that Portland has more breweries per capita than any other city. When I first moved here from Colorado I was impressed by the beers here - not just the quality and diversity, but the availability; unlike Colorado, you can buy craft beers at the grocery store any day of the week, and it doesn't cost much more than mass produced beer (at least for now).

I'd also heard about the slugs. When I was a kid, my older sister went to Oregon on an Outward Bound program (or some such), and when she got back she told me about the banana slugs she saw here. Slugs aren't very common in Colorado, so when I first saw them here (the non-banana kind) I found them kind of endearing. After being here awhile I find them less so. But the easy-to-get inexpensive microbrews still haven't lost their charm.

Given the surfeit of beer and slugs in Oregon, it's not surprising that the "beer trick" for trapping slugs in your garden is common knowledge around here. But it was news to me when I first heard it, so I'd like to share it with my friends and family in Colorado (specifically my sister, who asked me about it).

- Get beer. It doesn't have to be good beer (slugs aren't snobs).

- Get a small jar lid. It doesn't take much beer.

- Place the lid near the base of the slugs' favorite plant.

- Push it into the ground so the lip is level with the ground, (this step is optional, the lip of the lid is a small hurdle for the beer-thirsty slug).

- fill the jar lid with the beer.

- Wait for the slugs to come in and drown.

I just leave the pickled slugs there. The birds will eventually come and eat them. I add more beer (more or less daily) to replace whatever gets lost (some evaporates, some gets washed away in the rain or during watering, some is spilled or drunk by birds or other critters).

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Box of Veggies

2009-06-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

Local farm, Gathering Together Farms has a program they call Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). The way it works is, the subscribers pay a one-time fee up front in March, and for 22 weeks the farmers give us a box of whatever veggies they happen to harvest that week. The benefit to them is that they don't have to come up with the start up cash, and they don't risk losing big if uncooperative weather damages their harvest. The benefit to the subscriber is that we get a big box of fresh tasty vegetables every week without having to get dirt under our fingernails, plus we stand to benefit if they are lucky enough to have a bumper crop.

We signed up for the program this year, and I picked up the first box of the season this Saturday. We got Kohlrabi, Bok Choy, Chard, Rhubarb, a couple carrots and a cucumber. We are splitting the box with some friends of ours and they got the lettuce (one red-leaf, one green), onions (one of them might have been a leek), purple potatoes, carrots and a cucumber. After we split it up I realized that we got all the "cool" vegetables and they got all the "ordinary" vegetables (that wasn't intentional, Eric and Allison, we will have to work out a fairer way of splitting this up in the future).

This program helps me accomplish two of my summer resolutions: to eat more fresh produce, and to start planning my meals for the week (including bringing lunch to work instead of eating out). Maybe I'll copy my sister and start posting my weekly meal plan on my blog.

Getting the Garden Started

2009-05-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

I went to the Corvallis Farmer's Market yesterday and bought some starters for my garden.

My primary objective was tomatoes. Last year I had three cherry tomato plants that sprawled all over my garden and smothered one of my jalapeno plants. They also produced more tomatoes than I could eat, and since they couldn't be reasonably peeled, their culinary options were limited. This year I decided not to buy any cherry tomatoes, only plum tomatoes. I bought 3 types: Prince Borghese, Roma, and San Marzano.

These plants are determinate, which means they bear fruit once and are harvested all at once, whereas the cherry tomatoes produced continuously until first frost. I suspect this means that they are also less like to sprawl, but I put them in cages just in case.

My next priority was jalapenos. Last year I had two plants, one was overrun by the tomato plant. The other produce tasty peppers, but they were not hot. My hypothesis is that it was because they didn't get enough sun and got too much water. This year I plan to plant them on the west side of the house between the trees of the espalier.

Unfortunately, nobody had any jalapeno plants for sale yet, but I bought a santaka pepper plant on a whim.

I also got an eggplant, basil, and broccoli (and/or cauliflower - I thought I was getting a pack of 3 brocs and 3 caulis, but it wasn't clear)

Beside the vegetables, I also got a wisteria plant. This was on the advice of JoAnne (Chris' mom) who was visiting last week. She suggested that it would be a good vining plant to cover the pergola on our patio.

Guess Who's Turning 39 today...

2009-04-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Ricky Schroder!

He's famous for his role in the sitcom Silver Spoons, but I'll always remember him for being in the first movie I ever cried at.

Can you believe this kid will be 40 next year?! He'll probably start going by "Rick" and voting Republican.

Pacific Northwest Juggling Festival

2009-03-26T22:45:00.000-07:00

Time to dig my prop bag out from the bottom of my closet, there's a juggling festival in Corvallis this weekend (March 27-29). I don't think I've juggled since last summer's da Vinci Days.

Reasons to recommend the juggling convention to non-jugglers:

1. Renegade Show - Friday night at 10:00 in McAlexander Fieldhouse. Renegade shows are like regular juggling shows, only more amateur and fringey.

2. Public Show - Saturday night at 7:00 in LaSells-Stewart Center.

3. It's Free! - They will pass a hat at the public show.

4. Learn to juggle - I will teach you. If I can learn, anyone can learn.

Pictures from Last Weekend

2009-03-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

Four Reasons why last weekend was great:

1. Friday After work, we all met at Cloud 9 downtown to welcome Arwen home from Australia.

Welcome back Arwen! (Sorry for the blurry picture)

Swearing in the new President, Katie.

First Dude Will took pictures.

Eric is startled.

This amuses Allison.

Ben, Paul, Chris C., and Chris B. were also there, but I only took pictures of the people sitting on the other side of the table.

2. The Beavers beat the Ducks in softball. I really don't really feel the Beavers/Ducks rivalry on a gut level, but I was glad to see the softball team again; this was there first home game this season. I didn't take pictures.

3. Chris and I went to see Chicago at the Majestic Theater.

4. We got house guests again!

Portland Timbers are going Major League

2009-03-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

It was just announced yesterday that the Portland Timbers will be joining the MLS for the 2011 season.

Which means the Colorado Rapids join the list of Denver teams that will regularly visit Oregon along with the Nuggets and the Mammoth.

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An Anniversary

2009-02-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

February 4, 2008, was the first day that same sex couples in Oregon could sign up for Domestic Partnerships. Chris and I signed up that day. I didn't have a blog at the time, so I'm posting this picture on the one year anniversary instead.

Also, I didn't have a camera then either, but fortunately their was a nice lesbian couple who took our picture and sent us a copy. Thanks Wendy and Paige!

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Super Sushi

2009-02-02T21:31:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Joey, we decide to make sushi for the Super Bowl party.

We mimic the Steeler's logo using egg, red bell pepper, and blue potato.

I was actually rooting for the Cardinals, but their logo was harder to sushi-ize.

Cooking with Joey

2009-01-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

This is our friend Joey.

He's making avocado rolls for us.

mmmmmmmm

New Year's Resolutions

2008-12-31T23:35:00.000-08:00

1. Make a quilt.

OK, so that was my 2008 resolution, and I didn't follow through with it. I bought a house and was preoccupied with it and it's accompanying garden. So I'll make another one for 2009:

2. Learn to can.

One thing I learned about Oregonians is they are all about sustainability and self-sufficiency. Gardening, cooking and preserving are all part of that. So is sewing and making use of fabric scraps.

Also, we've been considering raising chickens. Seriously. But I want to focus on gardening, canning, and quilting this year. Maybe the chickens could be next year's resolution.

Pictures from The Bogart Family Christmas

2008-12-27T14:45:00.000-08:00

Christmas at the Majestic

2008-12-16T20:05:00.000-08:00

I took this picture a couple of Saturdays ago during my volunteer gig at the Majestic Theatre box office.

Merry Christmas everyone!

A Year Without Arena Football

2008-12-15T04:37:00.000-08:00

I've been a fan of alternative football leagues since the Denver Gold of the USFL. The Arena League was invented in 1987 with some developmental help from former Gold coach Mouse Davis. I was excited to learn that Denver would have one of the four inaugural teams. And when the Denver Dynamite won Arena Bowl I, it was surprisingly significant to me after the disappointment of the Broncos' Super Bowl loss to the Giants earlier that year.

I was hooked on the AFL. They didn't get a lot of coverage, but I would watch the tape delayed games at odd hours on obscure cable channels anyway. After the Dynamite folded, it was impossible to get news on the AFL from local sources, so I lost touch for a couple of years. Then the internet (and Arenafan.com) came along and I was able to follow the sport again. When John Elway brought the Colorado Crush to Denver, I bought season tickets.

So it made me quite sad to hear the news that after 22 seasons, the AFL is suspending operations for the 2009 season. They claim that they will be back "bigger and better" in 2010, but that's hard to believe; if it was difficult to get broadcast deals, sponsorships, season ticket sales, and respect from sports reporters and football fans before, why would it be easier after a bush league stunt like this?

I do expect they will be back in 2010. But I expect a "meeker and humbler" league instead of a "bigger and better" one. But I suppose I'll continue to follow it anyway.

Pictures from Thanksgiving in Seattle

2008-12-14T19:46:00.001-08:00

Thank Goodness

2008-11-26T12:57:00.000-08:00

When someone sneezes, I say "bless you". It's one of the many common English phrases that I use that have a religious origin (e.g. "heaven forbid", "you're a saint", "a good soul", and many others). I'm an atheist, so lord knows I don't mean it literally. More thoughtful atheists substitute these phrases with non-religious equivalents like "Gesundheit". One example of this is using the term "Thank Goodness" instead of "Thank God".

A couple of years ago, I read an excellent essay in the Skeptical Enquirer called "Thank Goodness" by Daniel C. Dennett. In it, Dennett makes a case for why it's more sensible to thank goodness (because "there really are lots of ways of repaying your debt to goodness—by setting out to create more of it" ) than to thank God ("what could an omniscient, omnipotent Being (the Man Who has Everything?) do with any paltry repayments from you?")

Last year, I shared the essay with my atheist friends at the Corvallis Sunday Group. Since rereading it has become my new Thanksgiving tradition, I wanted to share this link to the essay.

Losing touch with the Denver sports scene

2008-11-24T10:29:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning, I was working the box office at the Majestic Theatre. It was slow, so I talked to my mama on the phone for almost an hour. The conversation came around to the Broncos, (which happens a lot in my family) and she was saying how strange it was to see Jason Elam kicking field goals against the Broncos the other week. What?! - I didn't know Jason Elam wasn't a Bronco anymore. It was strange; I don't remember a time when I was so out-of-touch with the Denver Broncos.

Later that day, Chris and I and several of our friends got together for a Thanksgiving dinner. My friend Eric asked me if I'd be interested in catching a Blazers game sometime. I said yes, especially when they play the Nuggets. I said I was an Allen Iverson fan before he was a Nugget. "You know Iverson's not a Nugget anymore" he said. No. I didn't know that. "Also, Matt Holliday plays for the Oakland A's."

I give up. I was bummed when the Crush traded Damian Harrell last year (that's Arena Football for those who don't know), now I can't seem keep up with all the roster changes on the Denver teams (yet somehow Eric does).

I was planning on getting a #3 Iverson jersey to wear to the Rose Garden whenever the Nuggets play there, but now I think I should accept the fact that I've got a new home team and get a #52 Greg Oden jersey.

If it hadn't been for Marco

2008-11-19T17:35:00.000-08:00

I've attended the Telluride Bluegrass Festival 16 times. I've had great times at each of these festivals and have hundreds of stories I could bore a stranger with. Of all 16, there is one in particular that I relive more frequently than the others: 1995 - the year I went with Marco.

It was my fifth festival, and Marco's first and only. My roommate, Drew, Our friend Lee, his boyfriend Ken, and several of their friends that I had never met before were also going. They were renting a condo, but I declined to join them on principle; I believed the best way to experience the festival was to camp in the parking lot and skinny dip in the river like the true bohemian I imagined myself to be. Marco opted to join me, since he was even poorer than I was at the time.

I was nervous about road-tripping with Marco. We were close, but he was still more Chris'-friend-from-college than my friend at the time. And road trips are notorious for testing friendships. I remembered how Chris and Marco's road trip from the March on Washington two years earlier had strained their relationship, and how Drew and Marco's road trip less than a year earlier had caused a rift that still hadn't healed (another reason Marco wasn't staying in their condo).

I rented an SUV from my brother (thanks Ken!), and picked Marco up before dawn. We barely had room for everything since Marco was bringing his guitar and bike, and I was bringing all my juggling gear (in a classy new prop bag that my sister bought for me in Mexico - thanks Tami!). It was good that we left so early, because even though this was my fifth time doing this, I got lost (my sense of direction is genetic - thanks Dad!).

We ended up in Lake City. We were looking at a couple of hours of backtracking around the mountain range, or... "Doesn't this thing have four wheel drive?" asked Marco. I wasn't too sure about his plan to four wheel it over the mountain range; the vehicle was rented, and I couldn't afford the fancy insurance, but Marco had a way of daring me into doing things.

I didn't need to worry. The four wheel road was in good shape, and the SUV made it to Ouray without a scratch. More importantly, it was a hell of lot of fun. And the view was gorgeous. It turned out that the four wheel road from Ouray to Telluride was closed, so we had to backtrack around the mountain range anyway, but I had no regrets.

During the Festival itself, Marco and I parted ways. He couldn't afford a ticket, so he just listened from the river bank and caught the free shows in Town Park. He hooked up with a hippy boy named Dan who became his constant companion for the weekend (his name officially became Sexy Dan in the retelling of the story ever since).

To this day, regular Festivarians remember the 1995 Festival for its extreme weather. It rained non-stop the entire weekend, it got below freezing every night, and it even snowed one night. The weather prevented me from juggling as much as I usually do, but it didn't stop me from having a great time. This was during the time in my life when I was going barefoot everywhere, so I was walking and dancing through slush and mud. It got really cold sometimes, but I was too blissed to care. Marco introduced me to Bushmill's Irish Whiskey, which was really good at keeping me warm. It's still my favorite Irish Whiskey, and it became a festival tradition of mine for years since.

One night, festival staff went around the parking lot kicking out the campers. In a policy that was new that year, they would no longer allow people to camp in the parking lots. This prevented bums like us from doing the Festival on the cheap. Unfortunately, I had drunk too much whiskey to drive away safely, so I just went to sleep in the back and let Marco drive us out. He found a great hiding spot on Airport Road that I would continue to use as my festival camping spot for years to come.

One morning it was raining so hard that we decided not to leave the SUV until it let up. The three of us stayed cooped up in the back of the cramped vehicle for over an hour while Marco played Neil Young songs on his guitar. With all the great music I heard that weekend, that's the set I remember most vividly.

The professional music was good, too. I was excited to see Wolfstone again; they were the highlight for me the previous year. It was also the first time I heard Ani DiFranco. I was so impressed with her that I made Marco and Sexy Dan listen to her free Town Park concert the next day. They were less impressed than I was.

After the festival, I was making my annual post-festival trip to Parachute to visit my dad, so Marco needed to arrange another way home. He decided to hitchhike. This wasn't unusual for him. He had hitchhiked up the Pacific coast from San Diego to Washington, as well as other trips. We talked about it often, and I told him how I'd love to do similar trips before I got too old.

As we were packing up to leave the festival that sunny (figures) Monday morning, I reflected on what a great time I had despite the weather, and getting lost, and being kicked out of my usual camping spot. I realized that Marco was a significant reason why the festival rocked when by all rights it should have sucked. I also knew that it was something you should say out loud when you get a chance. I distinctly remember the scene: I was trying to get a brush through my tangled mess of long hair, and he was brushing his teeth with whiskey. I said "You know Marco, I had a blast this weekend. And it's all your fault!" He gave me the open-mouthed squinty-eyed smile that I will always picture in my mind when I think of him, and he gave me a spontaneous hug.

Ever since I found out yesterday that Marco had died this weekend, I've been preoccupied with memories (as well as other thoughts) of Marco: memories of tubing down Boulder Creek with him, visiting him in New Orleans, learning to make cocktails from him, etc. I struck me how many ways Marco had influenced the direction of my life, from the music I listen to to the cocktail I drink. It's impossible to know what I might have done differently. I might not ever have had the courage to take my hitchhiking trip if Marco hadn't dared me to. If I did, I certainly wouldn't have been brave enough to go to New Orleans by myself. Would I have ever been a bartender? Would I appreciate bagpipe music? One thing's certain: I wouldn't have had nearly as much fun at the 1995 Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

Chipotle is coming to Corvallis!

2008-11-18T12:06:00.000-08:00

How pathetic is my life that I get excited about a fast food chain opening a new franchise in town? But it's true, I am really psyched about the new Chipotle opening on Monroe Street next to campus this week.

I haven't had much luck finding spicy food in Corvallis. I've tried ordering the "hottest you got" salsas at the other jumbo-burrito fast food places (Qdoba, Baja Fresh, and Del Mar), but their hot isn't on the same scale as Chipotle's.

It's not just the restaurants; the grocery stores here stock mainly mild and medium salsas with a very small or non-existant selection of hot salsas and pepper sauces, and the ones I've tried are neither very hot nor particularly tasty. I've been craving my favorite Colorado salsa (Religious Experience) and pepper sauce (Boulder Hot Sauce).

There's also a comforting back-home feeling to it. Like me, Chipotle was born in Denver, and I've eaten there many times, so I'm looking forward to reassuring familiarity of ordering the exact same burrito I always get.

UPDATE: After adding links to Religious Experience and Boulder Hot Sauce, I discovered that they sell their stuff directly from their websites and can ship it here. So there's a solution to that as well!

What Craigslist got me into this time...

2008-11-16T15:46:00.000-08:00

I was surfing Craigslist as I often do and I found an ad under the 'volunteer' section looking for someone to volunteer at the box office of the Majestic Theatre.

I've worked box offices before (at the Great American Beer Festival and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival), and I could sure use an excuse to leave the house and interact with humans, so on impulse, I responded.

After exchanging a few e-mails and stopping by and meeting the house manager during the week, I agreed to give it try on Saturday (yesterday). It was good fit, so I volunteered to do it every Saturday morning.

This is not the first time Craigslist got me involved in Corvallis. About this time last year I met up with a group of folks that wanted to form a non-religious community gathering group (what I've referred to somewhat misleadingly as an Atheist Church). I really enjoyed the Corvallis Sunday Group while it lasted. Perhaps someday I'll try to contact those folks to see if we can try to re-establish it.

I should also mention that Craiglist is where I found my current job.

The Mormons v. The Gays

2008-11-07T16:52:00.000-08:00

Activists in California are targeting the Mormon church for their involvement with Proposition 8, the measure to deny marriage equality to gay and lesbian families. They're protesting at Mormon temples and petitioning to revoke their tax-free status. As a gay atheist, I sympathize, but as a conscientious objector to the culture war, I strongly disagree with these divisive tactics.

Gay and Lesbian couples (and their friends, families, and allies) have put enormous effort into gaining marriage equality in California, so it's understandable that these people would feel hurt and angry and want to lash out against those that hurt them. I am as heartsick as anyone about the 11,000 gay marriages that have been nullified by Prop 8, but fanning the flames against another minority group that itself has been the victim of bigotry is counter-productive, and sort of misses the point.

I would assume everybody, even anti-gay folks, would want gays and lesbians to be held legally responsible for their families, but there's obviously something about gay marriage that the Mormon church feels threatened enough by to devote a great deal of time, money, and energy. So the challenge to those of us who support marriage equality is to assure them that their gay neighbors are willing to peacefully coexist with them even if we have strong disagreements on the definitions of family, but as long as there are cops in battle gear guarding their temples from gay protesters, their fears will only be validated.

Choose Adoption* (unless you're gay)

2008-11-05T10:05:00.000-08:00

It's hard to not feel optimistic with the results of last night's election. It really seems like America is ready to move forward from the mean-spirited fear-mongering that has divided American politics for the last couple of decades, and I'm excited to be around for this transitional moment in American history.

But... It was an awful night for gay issues. Californians voted to nullify Ellen's marriage (and Sulu's too). I'm sure they'll rest easier now that their families are no longer threatened by likes of her. Marriage equality bans also passed in Arizona and Florida.

What disappoints me more than the marriage bans is the Arkansas measure to ban unmarried folks from adopting. It wasn't a surprise; the polls were showing it would pass. I just wish it would have been a bigger part of the national discussion.

Adoption is one of those issues I could become a crusader for. I have an adopted brother and an adopted niece, and I don't think families that are open and inclusive are somehow inferior to traditional ones.

I also happen to be pro-life (in a nuanced liberal sort of way), and when you reduce the options to abortion, you increase the incidence of abortion. People are pro-life for different reasons; I tend to side with the pro-lifers I've met in my animal rights circles whose motivations are based on their empathy with the suffering of sentient beings, not the pro-lifers whose primary motivation seems to be the resentment of people who have sex for the fun of it.

Some issues separate these two kinds of pro-lifers: the anti-suffering pro-lifers oppose war and capital punishment, and the anti-sex pro-lifers oppose birth control and stem-cell research. This measure is one of those issues; it places a higher priority on sexual morality than on placing unwanted children in loving stable homes.

In this election, Sarah Palin emerged as an infuential new face of the Pro-Life movement. I wish somebody would have asked her about this measure. I would like to know which kind of pro-lifer she is (she's a pro-war hunter, so I have a guess). If she would have opposed this measure on pro-life grounds, I think it could have influenced the outcome.

Welcome to the Blue States, Colorado!

2008-11-04T08:11:00.000-08:00

Wow.

When I left Colorado last year, I bragged to my friends and family that I was moving from a Red State to a Blue State. I was moving from the state represented by Tom Tancredo and Marilyn Musgrave to a state where Chris and I could file a joint tax return.

As recently as 2004, Colorado's Governor and both Senators were Republican, and aside from Clinton's Perot-assisted victory in 1992, the state hadn't voted for a Democratic President since LBJ (Yup, we even voted for Ford and Dole).

Now look.

The Governor and both Senators are Democrats, Tancredo's gone, and not only did the anti-gay Musgrave lose her re-election, but you guys actually elected a gay guy! Now Congress' gay and lesbian causus has increased 50% and are only one short of a bridge hand. Way to go Jared! - Say hey to Barney and Tammy for me.

But more importantly, Colorado played a pivotal role in electing the most promising President of our generation.

Way to go Colorado! You make me proud!

Roller Derby, Mama's Visit, and Chris in Germany

2008-09-21T23:15:00.000-07:00

I found photos on my camera that I had intended to turn into several blog posts over the course of the month.

Roller Derby in Portland:

These are the Breakneck Betties. I am very impressed with roller derby. I expected it to be theater pretending to be a sport like professional wrestling, but instead, it's a real sport that uses campy names and costumes as stunts to sell tickets.

It reminds me of old Negro League Baseball in the sense that it was legit athletes playing a legit sport who had to clown around to attract fans. In this case though, the campiness is so intrinsic to the spirit of roller derby that even if the sport was ever taken seriously, I don't think the athletes would necessarily give up the showmanship. It questions the assumption that for a sport to be legitimate, it can't be fun.

Mama and Aunt Betty visit:

Mama and Aunt Betty visited me in my new house (that's not our house, that's a covered bridge near our house). We have a guest room here and are always happy to have visitors.

Chris Update:

Chris finished his internship in Seattle and went directly from there to a conference in Germany where he got trapped in an Escher building with an Austrian Robot-Monkey. And they have eggs. But only for decoration.

This is one of his pictures from Germany. I promised my mama that I'd link to Chris' Pictures on Flickr in this post.

He'll be back home next weekend.

Wish I Was There

2008-08-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

Top three homesick moments of my life (so far):

3. "Roctober" 2007 - The Colorado Rockies make it to the world series. I'm in Corvallis, Oregon.

2. February 1998 - The Broncs finally win the big one. I'm in Key West, Florida.

1. August 2008 - The most inspirational Presidential Candidate in a generation accepts his historic nomination at Mile High. I wish I was there

New Friend

2008-08-07T07:34:00.000-07:00

Last night I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ryan Fetherston.

With his Momma:

With his Poppa:

Take a bow, Ryan.

Old Friends

2008-08-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

On Monday I Stopped by my old office to say hi to the old crew:

On Tuesday, I watched the Rockies beat the Nationals with Larry. (Official fan photo here):

On Wednesday I went to see the Gen and Nicole at the famous A Grand Finale (as seen of TV).

And Dee Dee was there too!

The Lee-Bogart's Boulder Reception

2008-08-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

Jeff and JoAnne organized a wedding reception for Andy and Olivia at the Boulderado for their Colorado friends and family.

Olivia walking up the stairs.

She was followed by children everywhere she went.

I didn't get any pictures of Andy without him making a goofy face, But I got a picture of Olivia laughing at Andy's goofiness.

Back in Denver

2008-08-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a year to the day since I was last in Denver. It's the longest I'd ever been away from home in a single stretch.

I'll be here for a week catching up with family and friends.

I got a hotel room for the night in downtown Denver. Chris will be flying out later tonight and joining me. We plan on going out on the town with our friends Abe and Larry.

I took this picture of Civic Center Park (with the art museum in the background) from the hotel window.

Benton County Fair

2008-07-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

The other major summer event in Corvallis (along with da Vinci Days) is the Benton County Fair and Rodeo. It features carnival rides, rodeo and tractor pull competitions and live country music.

All this takes place pretty much in our backyard.

My friend Tracy and her daughter Kayla are heavily involved in this event, and they arranged for me to help take entries in the food competition (pies, canned food, cakes, etc.) for a couple of hours on Sunday and Monday. It was enough to get me a free pass.

I was struck by the contrast between the two events. da Vinci Days had a lot of science displays and events (kinetic races, remote control airplanes, robot derby, etc.) and left leaning political booths (Basic Rights Oregon, and a variety of environmental organizations), and even a skeptics booth for kids in the family area. The fair, on the other hand, had an anti-evolution booth and evangelical church groups.

I like da Vinci Days best.

Happy Birthday Mama!

2008-07-29T11:28:00.001-07:00

Today is my Mama's birthday.

She's 71.

Happy Birthday Mama!

Little Things II: The Reddening

2008-07-26T01:44:00.001-07:00

Same tomato one month later.

Nifty Faucet Gizmo

2008-07-24T00:09:00.000-07:00

I'm taking the Corvallis Energy Challenge.

They inspect your home and tell you what you need to do to make it more energy efficient. Then they give you cash incentives if you actually do them. Basically you spend thousands of dollars on improvements, they pay you back hundreds of dollars in incentives, and you save dozens of dollars in energy costs. It all works out somehow.

The inspector came over on Wednesday and gave me a list of things I need to do. Among a dozen or so small things (don't leave your phone charger plugged in when your phone's not charging, etc.), there were a couple of big ticket items:

Seal and Insulate the ducts
Insulate the floor
Insulate the walls
Install high efficiency furnace

But even if I don't do any of these things, I get to keep this nifty faucet gizmo:

Critters

2008-07-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

Pictures of some critters in and around my house.

A slug.

A Butterfly.
It's *really* hard to take a picture of a butterfly.

A gazillion and a half baby spiders.
I didn't actually count them.

These two spiders do an interpretive dance to Billy Holiday.

Juggling Videos

2008-07-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

Some videos I took Monday night at the juggling club:

Dave and Crizzly passing eight clubs:

From Crizzly's POV (it was right side up on my camera, but I can't figure out how to turn right here):

From underneath:

da Vinci Days

2008-07-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend was da Vinci Days in Corvallis; Good Music, Good Art, Good Science, Good times.

Some pictures from the Kinetics races:

Sidewalk chalk art:

Robot Derby:

Me Juggling: