Marmalade

Waking up is hard to do.

2009-09-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

This morning I was really struggling to wake up. It was one of those mornings when you feel like the sunlight in your room must, must be moonlight. I just couldn't get my eyes open. Then I started getting subliminal messages from my clock radio (set to the news in the mornings)

6:15

".....can't do it alone. Need the assistance of China, India,.."

so I hit snooze.

6:23

"...the entire G20 is going to have to cooperate on this...."

Well. There's hardly room in my house for the entire G20.

snooze.

6:31

"...responsible for the financial meltdown..."

Whoa whoa whoa!

You're right, clock. I guess I should get up and go to work. Sigh. How about some nice music tomorrow morning, ok?

Birthday Camping

2009-09-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

I had a sort of big birthday last week. To celebrate, I wanted to invent a time machine. But that didn't work out. The next thing on my list was CAMPING! I know, I know. I don't seem like someone who enjoys camping. Or living outdoors for months at a time. Or sleeping on the ground. But I really do.

Rob obliged and took me to the Chiricahua mountains for a lovely weekend. We brought along our new favorite toy, "The Mansion". The mansion is the largest tent ever. We luv it. We have both spent a lot of time camping and backpacking in teeny tiny tents, and we have a great time, but now that I've hit the big 3-0, we felt it was time for...a different kind of camping.
Mansion camping. This sucker is sooooo big you could easily fit four people inside along with their stuff. We figured we should just admit to ourselves that we mostly car camp, and we should embrace it. Chairs, tableclothes, cards, frisbees, giant coolers, and The Mansion.
We grilled out a birthday dinner of spicy chicken tacos.
And I played in the creek some.
When we got home, Rob baked(!) this gorgeous birthday cake. This is his first cake ever. Isn't it perfect? It tasted every bit as good as it looks.

Post for Emily

2009-08-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

Not Emily Post, this Emily!

Emi has decided to take up baking and I'm sure she's going to be excellent at it. She recently asked about recommendations for baking gear. I was putting together an email for her about all of my favorites, but I decided to put it on here instead. So here you go, Emi, here's what my

perfect dream kitchen would contain:

For cookies and almost all other baking needs:

I like a heavy aluminum half-sheet. I get all worried about the non-stick stuff that comes on a lot of cookie sheets, so I prefer this plain, non-treated kind. Besides, most cookies don't need greased sheets anyway. If you need to make your pan non-stick (for candy or biscuits, etc.) you could use a silpat:

These silicon baking sheets prevent things from sticking, but they are essentially made of woven glass, not scary chemicals, so I think they're probably safer. Plus, they make cookies cook really evenly and they turn out fluffy and perfect. I also use my silpat to roll out bread dough and pastry. Speaking of pastry, I'm sure it's familiarity with what my mom taught me to use, but I don't think there's a better kitchen tool than the pastry knife:

I use mine for pastry (duh), for making crumbs for apple pie and struesel, for mashing small amounts of mashed potatoes and for crushing up basil before I put it in the blender when I make pesto.

For cakes, which I cannot stop making entirely too often, I use my beloved mixer. It is a Sunbeam Mixmaster. While I would dearly love a pale blue Kitchen Aid, my Mixmaster kicks a lot of ass. It's a powerful mixer and it never ever shoots dough across the kitchen and it never ever gets clogged up beaters. I especially love that I have a mixer that is the same brand and the same design as the one my mom has and the one my grandmom used. Can't beat that!

My cake pans are really cool, but I couldn't find pictures of them. They are 9" dark metal (think calphalon dark) and have silicon handles so you can hold them almost right out of the oven. I'm suggesting these pans for Emily:

They are the same heavy aluminum as the half sheet. I think I would buy the 8" diameter instead for a couple of reasons. First, I think that a smaller pan yields a taller cake, and I think that looks better than a wider cake. Second, I'm not sure if it is my oven or the elevation here in Tucson, but I find that the edges burn less and the cake cooks more evenly in a deeper pan.

In case you're worried about your own oven, get one of these:

For bread, roasts, and soups with fry starts, I love love love these enameled cast iron dutch ovens:

Emily totally called it on these, Lodge makes the nicest and prettiest version. They are heavy and seem to last a long time, I've had a lodge pan since I first went to college and it looks brand new.

The last thing I can think of that I really use a lot is a metal spatula.

It is perfect for icing (which I absolutely suck at) but I also use it for picking up fragile things off of baking pans (fiddly brownies, candy, etc.). You could also use it for fish in a frying pan, since it's nice and long.

Oh, and there's also my silver fork. I couldn't make a thing if it weren't for my favorite silver fork.

I hope this helps Emily! You know, even though all this stuff is cool, and I would love to have a whole kitchen full of perfect tools, you can make delicious awesome looking food without any of it.

The most important thing I use when I bake is experience. If it weren't for my mom letting me bake with her for so long, I wouldn't know how to do anything. She's the best baker there is. Maybe she has some gear suggestions?

Countdown

2009-08-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention earlier how excited we are here for football season....
We created a countdown on the chalkboard in the kitchen. Every day for the next twelve (looooong) days, we will cross off one gator tail until the happy morning of September 5th. It's Game Day eve eve eve eve eve eve eve eve eve eve eve eve!

Baking

2009-08-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

Well well well. It seems like once again, all I blog about is food.

This weekend I decided it was high time to make some more tiny cakes. I whipped up some plain old buttery, rich yellow cake in my tiny cake pans that I bought for Kacy's shower last year.

Then I baked them all together on a tray. I let them cool and then was free to experiment. Each cake has three layers, so there was plenty of room for icing and flavoring. On the first one, I spread lemon curd between the layers (oh how I love lemon curd) and then iced it with cream cheese vanilla icing. I decorated it with my favorite little fake daisies. Annnnd, I might have eaten a slice for breakfast. shhh.The other cake was for Rob. In between the layers is blackberry preserves. Then I mixed the preserves with the cream cheese icing and iced the whole cake with the purpleish mixture. I stuck it in the fridge for a while to set, then I iced over that with normal, non berry icing.

Of course I covered it with sprinkles. Rob hearts sprinkles more than cake.

I can't get enough of tiny cakes. I wish I lived back east so I could hand deliver one to my lovely niece who just had her first birthday!!! Happy Birthday sweetie!

This is a little candle holder that I made for her for her birthday. Well, it's like the one that I made her. The real one is hopefully on a USPS plane speeding its way toward her right now.

Return from Obscurity

2009-08-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

Ahhh. I'm home. Home home home. It has been a really long field season this year. We left for Mule Creek in late May, and here I am, finally reunited with my dear computer on August 18.
I have hiked more than 60 miles, driven 15000 miles, seen a moose, a marmot, a bear, a ringtail, bighorn sheep, and lots of pronghorn. I've been to 26 states and 34 national parks and monuments.
I have been nearly killed by rain, lightning, wind, raccoons, and one giant spider in Louisiana.

Now that I am back, I plan to enjoy:
1. a bed. and a pillow. and a roof
2. showering in bare feet
3. using the bathroom in bare feet
4. not waiting in line for breakfast/lunch/dinner
5. getting up after dawn

and most importantly, the company of my awesome husband, our friends, and all of you.

I'm BACK!!!!!

Mischief Managed

2009-04-05T09:20:00.001-07:00

All of yesterday's projects were total successes!

The chocolate chocolate chip cookies are outrageously good. They are going to be added to next year's cookie party for sure. I'm currently eating them for breakfast because R. isn't up yet and I can't get in trouble. hee hee.

The trickier project was the new chalkboard in the kitchen. This was much harder than I thought it would be. I planned to just yank it down and spray paint it a few times, but R. made sure we did it right.
He was very careful about how we took it down, so we didn't hurt the wall or the board. pah!. Oh, you know what? There's nothing at all under the board. I fully expected a hole or an old utility box, or at least a portal to another dimension, but there was nothing! I guess somebody put it up so they wouldn't have to drill holes in the adobe to hang the towel bar. Now I feel kind of bad that I've been making fun of it for so long.
I sanded the board and took out all the old nails and screws. Then I spackled all the holes and sanded it again. Then I put on the first coat of chalkboard paint and actually waited to put on the next two. My patience and maturity are astounding.
After four coats, it's very smooth and looks just like a real chalkboard. I can't write on it yet. Sigh. It has to cure for a whole 24 hours. Tonight at exactly 9:16 I'm going to write all over it. Yay!

I'm up to something

2009-04-04T12:07:00.001-07:00

I have big ambitious plans for today. The first involves this really awkward corner in my kitchen. It's right by the stove. Some genius patched some kind of problem with the wall with a giant piece of wood that sticks out about an inch. It used to be sort of off white and dingy, but I painted it bright orange to make it blend in. That sounds kind of funny. You generally don't paint things bright orange to make them more subtle. Anyway, it's very ugly and very weird. There are all kinds of nail holes and screws in it. There are two towel bars right on top of eachother- everything about it sucks.
So, I'm thinking about making it into a chalkboard! I bought the chalkboard paint, now all I have to do is take down the huge scary piece of wood, sand it, and remove the dozens of tiny nails and screws. I can't wait. We can write our menu on it, or write recipes on it while we cook, or keep the shopping list up there. I can hardly make it worse, right? I mean, it's a giant orange eyesore now, the worst that can happen is I make it a giant black eyesore.

The other thing I have up my sleeve for the afternoon is this:

hell yes.

What is this?

2009-04-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Ashley,
I'm very sorry that you've been stuck eating cupcakes for so long. Here's a new post just for you.

I bought this at the antique store the other day. I'm very excited about it and I can't wait to use it....except for one little thing. I don't know what it is!

It's a flower-shaped tube with little metal caps on both ends.

I don't generally buy stuff just because it's flower shaped or anything, but this was only a dollar and I saw big potential. I suspect that it is a kitchen utensil, so I'm pretty sure it's food-safe (I washed it about eighty times). My first thought was molded jello- that you could slice up and have little flower-shaped chunks of jello. Well, ok, that wasn't really my first thought. My first plan for it is probably not very practical (or possible). I want to bake cake in it. Chocolate cake, that I will slice up and then ice. Ooo! Or brownies that could be sliced with blobs of ice-cream on them!

On the boring side of experimentation, we could just freeze ice or juice in it and then float it in a pitcher of iced tea or something. Or punch. More awesome (and less likely) options include molding ice cream and then refreezing it . Wouldn't little flower-shaped ice cream cakes be delicious and pretty? You could potentially also use this like a big cookie cutter. You could make a sandwich, and then jam this into it, cutting out a flower-shaped sandwich and then move on to the next sandwich, filling the tube with a stack of pretty sandwiches. Unfortunately, I think only me and Katie would appreciate such fussy sandwiches. It kind of makes me want to find someone to throw a shower for!
What else could I use this for? Does anybody know what this thing is actually supposed to be? Aunt Joan? Ever seen anything like this? The store also had star shapes and heart shapes, so if this works, I'm going back to get more. Normally, I would have been all over the star shape, but I'm playing it safe with no tight corners. It's very hard to get a failed attempt at molded cake out of little star points.

Mom's cupckes

2009-03-02T15:54:00.000-08:00

Thank you everyone for the sweet comments about the last post. They were so sweet, they made me want to make all of you a treat. So here you go.
Chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing and dark chocolate drizzles

and there's enough for everyone...

An Airman winks at me everyday

2009-02-28T10:17:00.000-08:00

I live near an Air Force Base. Usually this fact has absolutely no impact on my life whatsoever. It simply means that sometimes we have to pause in our conversations as jets go roaring overhead in twos or fours, screaming their way back to the base. Sometimes it means that we see F-22's taking off before us at the airport right along side all the commercial and commuter planes. Mostly, though, it does not affect me. I don't even live close enough to the base to see cute Airmen in the grocery store or anything.
I do have one little connection with the flyers of Davis Monthan though, that I think is so special.

Every morning, one of them winks at me.

This requires a little explaining probably. You see, on my street, all of the houses face exactly north or south. That means that everyone's side windows face exactly east or west. In my house, my bedroom and bathroom have east facing windows. When the sun rises, it fills this side of the house with bright bright sunlight, while the other rooms still look like night. It is no fun in the summer when the sun rises straight in your face at 5:30 in the morning, but in the winter, it's so much nicer. You start to get a pinky glow at 6:30 and by seven, the window is all sparkly. I especially like the sparkly window effect in the bathroom, where the window is textured and frosty. The sunrise through that window turns the whole pane into one big diamond. It gets even better when the shower has been going because then the air is all sparkly too with the tiny water droplets. So, when I'm good and can manage to get in the shower around 7 or 7:30, I spend most of the time staring at the gorgeous window. This is what I was doing when I first saw the wink.

I was looking at the window with perfect indifference to the time or the soap dripping down my face when for a split second the sparkles stopped and the room turned dark. It happened in less than a blink, so I thought that maybe I imagined it. Afterall, I am not a morning person, and I probably had been staring too long. But it happened again the next day. And again. It happens almost every day.

By some magic trick of timing and light, at the same moment I am staring at the diamond window, a plane flies overhead on its way to the base and blocks out my light. The shadow from a fighter plane must be very small and must move very fast, but it crosses exactly over my house early every morning when I am looking at the sunrise. When I first realized that it must be a plane blocking my window, I started thinking about the person flying that plane.
He probably got up much earlier than I did because he is already on his way home. Home safe at the base. He is seeing the same rising sun that I am, but probably saw it much earlier from that height. He's thinking of breakfast, or a nap, or worrying about the landing, or thinking about a deployment. 3,000 feet above me, my airman has no idea that I see him. That I think about him every morning. That I pray for him to make it safely back to Davis Monthan.

I sometimes wonder if he feels eyes on him as he comes in to land. If he knows that I care. I have never actually met anyone who lives or works at the base, but my pilot has brought the war to me in a way that no news broadcast or political speech ever could. When I hear of war casualties I immediately think of my pilot, high above Tucson, alone in the cockpit, thinking that no one notices. I notice. I care. And I'm winking right back.

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-14T16:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Even though it is possible that this is a greeting card holiday that puts undue pressure on men to buy expensive jewelry or flowers or candy, I still enjoy a designated day of lovin'. Me and my Valentine have been taking it easy today. He competed in a racquetball tournament this morning and then we went back to the zoo this afternoon. Tonight we're going to make a lovely little feast out of pork loin, garlic-y pasta, and asparagus. yum. Maybe I will take some pictures of the cooking and share them tomorrow. I did a teeny bit of hearty (har har) crafting. I made these using the pattern on Martha Stewart's website last week. They took no time at all.
One of them is stuffed with homegrown catnip and a jingle bell. We quickly had to take that one away from its fat little recipient this morning. Orbit got really high and worked up. He wouldn't stop meowing and then he bit me. Very out of character. No more drugs for Orbit. Remember the last time we had to take the catnip away?

My sweetheart did bring home flowers and chocolate. I love them! The flowers are the hugest bunch of bright yellow chrysanthemums (with an "e") and a red heart full of truffles. The best!

Don't they smell nice?

I bought my Valentine a little gift to let him know how hot I think he is.

This isn't as random as it seems. He really likes Tabasco.

Popcorn ceiling

2009-02-14T11:25:00.000-08:00

Check out this sky over Tucson the other day. Wow. We decided this might be God's cotton candy machine.

Dolls

2009-02-02T08:35:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I was going through the crafty shelves and I ran across this poor little dollhouse doll. She's really pretty, but she was wearing a super poufy polyester blue dress with lots and lots of lace. She's such a cool porcelain doll and is in perfect scale for a dollhouse, but the dress had to go. So I made her this one.

It's nothing special, but she seems way more comfortable. The doll also had a lace headband glued to her head, which I peeled off. Now all she needs is a dollhouse to live in.

The most important part of any doll is her shoes...
This is another little doll that I don't think I've shared before. She's a wooden clothespin with a little wooden knob glued on for a head. Her arms are pipe cleaners. She isn't the right scale, but I still like her.
It's tough to take pictures of tiny dolls, even though they stand perfectly still. Here I was trying to take a picture of her little red bow painted on the side of her head.

Anyway, they were two small projects that were easy and satisfied my strange need to make teeny tiny things. Is that an inherited trait? I kind of think so.

Go Cardinals!

2009-02-01T19:20:00.000-08:00

Well. I have been a diehard Arizona Cardinals fan since at least...this morning. To celebrate our team's Super Bowl appearance Rob and I had a cookout today with some good friends.
We grilled out hotdogs, burgers, brats, and italian sausage andhad all kinds of other yummy football food.

We had Kelly, Sam, Liz, Lauren, Anna, AJ, and Katherine over to watch. We had a great time watching the game and watching the commercials.
Unfortunatley we lost. It was a great game though and we were ahead briefly in the fourth quarter. I'm strangely disappointed for somebody who has been cheering for the team as long as I have.
Go team! Go Arizona! We're going to have a great season next year, for sure.

Trip to the Zoo

2009-01-31T16:50:00.000-08:00

Rob and I took a trip to the Reid Park Zoo this afternoon. We've been meaning to go for a long time. I have a thing for otters and as soon as we heard that the zoo has an otter exhibit, it was on the top of our to-do list.
It turns out our little Tucson zoo is completely awesome! There are way more animals there than we expected and the habitats are really nice. Some of them are smallish, but they are all laid out well and the zoo is really good about shade. I don't know how they did it but most of the habitats face east so they're much cooler and many of the viewing spots are shaded or in little tunnels so the visitors stay cool and still get a great view of all the animals. It is much more intimate than other zoos I've been to. It may not be as big or swanky, but the animals seem healthy and they were all visible.

Here I am in the aviary:

And here is our new friend:

The giraffe enclosure was fairly large, but this guy was hanging out right next to the sidewalk so that everyone could admire his pretty spots. And his weird tongue. He got so close he managed to lick the camera of a guy next to us. Nice!

We are definitely going to come back. They're building a new elephant habitat, so we look forward to seeing what that looks like. This trip we walked around the whole zoo and tried to see everything, but we've decided that next time we're going to pick out an animal or two to watch the whole time. Or maybe we'll just do one area. They have the zoo divided by continent of origin, so it would be easy to spend a lot of time looking at the South American animals or the African ones. Or just the otters. I'd be happy spending the day with the otters.

If you live in Tucson, we highly recommend the zoo, our hidden gem right in the middle of town. If you're not from Tucson, come visit and we'll take you there.

Pretty Things on my Table

2009-01-30T15:05:00.000-08:00

I have some pictures of pretty things to share. First are these beautiful flowers that I got two weeks ago when my friends came over for book club. They started out a little bit brighter and a little bit taller. I've only changed the water twice and trimmed them once. Pretty good for $5 worth of flowers, huh? They're so fluffy and fat, I love them.

There are also these..

Oh man. Man oh man. They are cream-filled coffee cake cupcakes and I've eaten approximately a million of them. I made a batch on Wednesday and then couldn't stop eating them, so I sent them to work with Rob to get rid of them. Well, I couldn't stand it and I had to make more last night. Coffee cake is one of my favorites, not too sweet, not too fussy, perfect with coffee (duh). I made these trying to copy the TastyKake Koffee Kakes (I hate that they spell everything with K's. It's like Kwik Mart. How annoying.)
I used to write recipes on Fridays on here. Do you want the recipe for these?

Coffee Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Filling
Cupcakes:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter (softened)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt (I used yogurt. Come on, you're going to eat ten of them, make 'em a little healthier)
2 tbsp buttermilk

Topping:
1/4 cup light-brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon (maybe a little more)
2 tbsp butter

Filling:
4oz cream cheese (I used Neufchatel)
4-5 tbsp butter (softened)
1 cup 10x sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
milk (as needed to obtain a nice texture)

Here's what you do:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Make batter as follows: Mix butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg. Mix well. Mix all dry ingredients together and add to the butter mixture slowly, alternating with the sour cream and buttermilk. Scrape the bowl often to keep all the goodness in. Mix everything well. Divide equally between 12 muffin tins. It doesn't look like a lot, but it will make it. They won't be huge cupcakes.
Mix all ingredients for the topping together and blend using a fork or a pastry knife. Try to make the mixture crumby in texture. Pour the topping on top of the batter in the greased (did I say greased before? Grease them.) muffin tins (don't worry about being neat) and put them in the oven for around 15 minutes. Or golden brown.
I bake at high elevation, so I would always be cautious of my temperature or time guidelines.
When the cupcakes are out and cooled a little bit, mix together the icing ingredients until it's smooth and delicious. Add enough milk to keep it smooth, but don't let it get runny.
This is the tricky part. Getting the icing inside the cupcakes took a little creativity. I'm sure you could do it with a knife and a baster or something. Or a turkey injector. I used a cookie press with an icing attachment. I shoved the nozzle down into the cupcake and filled it with icing until the top kind of domed up. When you take the nozzle out, the icing sort of wells up through the hole and makes the perfect little white dot on top like a Tasty Kake. Incidentally, I think putting icing in the middle of cupcakes and watching it erupt out is an excellent way to illustrate the pressures of vulcanism and magma chambers under a stratovolcano. Just sayin'.
That's it! Eat them up with a glass of milk or cup of coffee. Yum!!

Meet Tolstoy

2008-12-05T10:04:00.000-08:00

We have a new little friend that lives with us. This is Tolstoy, the African Dwarf Frog. He lives in the aquarium where the late Bart, Mr. Fishie, Lucky, Dusty, and Ned used to live. I went to the pet store to get more fish (they call me the Fish Killa') when we saw these little guys swimming around. They are really cool because they basically act just like fish. They are entirely aquatic and don't need any land to rest on. I don't get it either, but apparently all they need to do is come up to the surface to breathe once in a while. He mostly hides under his little sherd (like he's doing in the photo) but sometimes he swims around or hops on the bottom. Every now and then it will really seem like poor Tolstoy is dead because he'll just float at the top or along the bottom with all his little limbs splayed out and not move for a long, long time. We looked it up and it turns out that this weird behavior is entirely normal for Dwarf Frogs. They call it their "Zen Pose". Isn't that adorable? He's just chillin'.
We feed him Frog Chow, which he doesn't seem to ever eat. We assume he's eating because he isn't dead, but we may have to try out the dried bloodworms (ew ew ew ew ew) if he continues to be so picky.
We're thinking of getting Tolstoy a bigger house so we can get him better hidey holes and a heater. And fish friends.

coooooookies

2008-12-03T16:07:00.001-08:00

I made some cookies today for my favorite husband. He really likes peanut butter cookies, but the creative Blythe women have encouraged me to branch out and make different stuff. Well, only slightly different in this case. Instead of our usual peanut butter cookies, I made these with brown sugar and chocolate chips (I know. I'm a daredevil). Do you want the recipe? It was really really easy:Wednesday Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies:
1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Peter Pan, but usually I like the more peanutty store brand for cookies)
1/2 cup brown sugar packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg slightly beaten
teensy handful of flour (maybe 1/4 cup)
1 cup chocolate chips (plus 1/2 cup for snacking)

I mixed the peanut butter with the sugars and the vanilla and then added the egg. It was seeming a little shiny and peanut buttery, so I added the small amount of flour until it seemed more doughy. I wouldn't add much, but I think just a little flour makes a cakier cookie. When I liked the look of the dough, I added the chips and drop them in large spoonfuls on a cookie sheet with a silpat. I think Peanut butter cookies smell weird when they cook, and the Silpat seems to help with that. I smooshed the dough balls with my favorite cookie fork* in a criss- cross pattern (of course) and then baked them at 375 for 10-ish minutes.
I cooled them on a rack and then ate them all. Ok, that's not true, I shared with Rob. Afterall, they were for him.

*I have big love for this particular fork. It is very narrow and has extraordinarily long tines. It's silver and has a semi-fancy handle. I got it at a thrift store, so it is the only one like it. It is so perfect for making cookies and for beating eggs and squooshing the edges of pie crust, etc. I would be so sad if I ever lost it. Do you have any funny tools like that? Anything that seems really ordinary but is indispensible for what you like to do?

I'm back

2008-12-02T19:30:00.000-08:00

I'm back from a very long hiatus from blogland. I have lots of new things to tell you about and lots of fun things to look forward to. I promise to try and blog often now that I am home. I missed my blog when I was in Mule Creek and when I was away on GeoJourney. It has been kind of hard to make the decision to come back after such a long gap. What do I talk about? Where do I pick back up? I have decided that I am just going to blog as if I never left. I don't want to talk about the last few months, so we're going to move on. New Stuff. It's December now, so there will be lots of holiday stuff to post and lots of travel pictures to share. So, if you're still out there, I'm back and I'm ready to blog.

Run!!!

2008-07-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

Mule Creek

2008-07-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

We're back! What a wonderful field season this has been. We've been excavating the 3-up site in the gorgeous Mule Creek, NM since June. Rob and I, along with Katherine Dungan, Brett Hill and four students from Hendrix College in Arkansas. The site is a 2-3 story pueblo that was occupied from about AD750 to AD1450. It hasn't been excavated before so most of our efforts this summer were in mapping all the features we could find (trying to establish the boundaries of each part of the pueblo) and finding pottery and other artifacts that could be used to date the site.
I was the cook for the fieldschool which means that I didn't go to the site everyday. I'm reading for my exams, so this gave me a chance to read all day, and then cook dinner in the evenings. It was great not having to be apart from Rob. Also, it gave me a chance to meet the wonderful neighbors in tiny Mule Creek. We made some great friends there and have more stories to tell than I can possibly fit in a blog post.
This is the view from "Cell phone point". If we communicated with you this summer, it was from this spot. It's basically a pull-off on the side of the road through the National Forest almost at the state line where locals found they could get a tiny cell signal. If you pulled off the road here and stood on one foot and said the alphabet backwards, you could get one, sometimes two bars of service!

Most mornings in Mule Creek I went for long walks with Becky, Nina or both. This was one of our destinations, "The Spring". It was about 1.5 miles from the ranch house and is where our drinking water came from. It's a beautiful little spot that was filled with the biggest bullfrogs you ever saw. Sometimes I would bring my reading out here for the day. If you think office noise can be distracting, try bullfrogs!
I couldn't get enough of the view. Everywhere you looked at every time of day, some part of the fields were spectacular. This was from an evening walk I took with Kelsey. As we walked, the whole world suddenly turned pink and our path turned silver. We must have taken 6 billion pictures.
The sunsets (and sunrises!) were jaw-dropping. This is our version of a 70's album cover. If you look closely, you can see everyone from the fieldschool except poor Katherine. She was taking advantage of a break in the monsoon to take a solar shower. Isn't the sky cool? Mule Creek is the only place I've found in the west that really feels like it could be a home. I like Tucson, but I think we've always known we couldn't live here forever. I could live in Mule Creek forever...
...except for these little jerks! These are called vinegaroons. They are Jurassic little bastards that are in the scorpion family and smell just like vinegar. Nina caught two (!) in her garage and brought them over in a jar to show me. Like a dummy, I stuck my face right in the jar when she mentioned their scent. I nearly fainted. I didn't expect their horrible smell to be so strong!
After threatening everyone in camp with a Vinegaroon in their tent, we set them free far far far from the house. I never ever want to see these in the wild again. It's like spiders, scorpions, and the predator all rolled into one.

So, that's Mule Creek story, volume one. There are so many stories to tell, I will have to do it in installments. It is great to be back, and I'm so glad to be talking to you on a regular basis now.

web crack

2008-06-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

Darn you Ravelry! I had plans this week. Important things to do. Ravelry, do you know how impossibly long my bibliographies are? Do you realize that we have just a few weeks to get through them? Now I have to play around and search through your wonderful patterns and laugh at people's mountainous stashes. I was sewing before this! Sewing. It takes about an hour and a half to make something satisfying when you sew. When you knit, that's like your cast-on row.
This is one of the sundresses. It's made of thin thin linen with blue palm-y looking designs. The fabric reminded me of my wonderful time living in South Carolina. I doubled up the linen so I wouldn't have to wear a slip. Nothing spoils a sundress like a slip.
Dirtiest mirror ever? Don't care. Must play with Ravelry.

Also, I'm getting my hair cut today at lunch. My hairdresser is like a genie. She makes magic happen on top of my head. Today I'm going to ask her to make my hair longer.

What I've been up to

2008-06-04T10:38:00.000-07:00

I just joined Ravelry. That means, of course, that I've been doing no knitting whatsoever. Just sewing. Lots of sewing. I've been making little sundresses for myself that I can wear this summer when our adventure in New Mexico starts (more about that later). I've also been making stuff for other people.
This is a purse that I made for my sister for her birthday. In real life, it's a little more purple than blue. The handles were handmade by my dad. Cool, huh?
It's lined with icy blue on the inside, because that's one of her favorite colors. I hope she likes it!
Then I made these coasters. These are for Liv and Kacy who liked the set I made for my mom (and still haven't sent). I still haven't sent Karen's present either. Hmm, maybe I should get myself to a post office. The coasters are from Last Minute Quilted Gifts, a book that possessed Ashley and I before she moved. Such big plans.
Then I made this teensy tiny dress for my niece. It's made of super thin cotton so she won't get too hot this summer. I can't believe that this dress could possibly fit a human. I'm pretty sure my Cabbage Patch Kid would be comfortable in it. Next up, sunhats and bloomers for the prettiest baby ever.

Here's the video

2008-05-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

Blogger won't let me post the edited video, so here's the whole stupid shot. If you skip to about 30 seconds, it starts to get interesting.

Phoenix has landed!

2008-05-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

We are so excited here in Tucson. Yesterday the Phoenix Mars lander touched down on Mars and we were all on campus to join in the celebrations. Rob and I and Dana and Matt walked over to the University Mall and tried to find space in front of one of the many screens set up that were broadcasting NASA TV.

We found a spot in the Sonett Space Sciences building. They had these countdown clocks hung up everywhere so we could keep track of Phoenix's progress.
It was very exciting. We were standing next to a guy who was part of the team that designed this: the HiRise camera.
It stands for The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and it's how Phoenix is going to send back all those great images. The guy wasn't worried at all that Phoenix would be alright. He said that the "7 minutes of terror" were really just slight anxiety. He said everything was going to run perfectly, and he was right. As the mission counted down "1600 meters, 1400 meters, 1100 meters" all the way down to "30 meters, 27 meters, 10 meters" the room was completely silent, crossing our fingers that the lander would slow down enough for a smooth landing. We held our breath as the announcer said "Phoenix has landed! Phoenix landed!" Then there were claps, screams, hugs, and handshakes all around. It was funny, the screen outside must have been a little delayed, because a full minute after we were done cheering, we heard the crowd outside erupt into applause.
Afterward, Space Science graduate students made ice cream for everybody out of liquid nitrogen. Very cool.

In the evening, we went back to Flandrau Science Center to see the Planetarium show on Mars. I love love love Planetariums. After that, we went up to the public telescope to see a very nice view of Saturn. It was so crisp, we could see the shadow of Saturn across the rings, and we could see the shadow of the rings across the surface of the planet. We also could see at least 3 of its moons. So cool. It was a very long day, but to finish it off on a funny note, we saw Rob on the 10pm news! He was interviewed about his experience watching the landing. He looked very cute and very smart.
Congratulations Phoenix and congratulations, University of Arizona. Go Wildcats. Well done.

Windy City

2008-05-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

The weather in Tucson has been bananas lately. Here's a video of the stop sign last night. I'm surprised it didn't blow down the street like everything else did. It's been howling all day today too. And guess what. It snowed on Mt. Lemmon last night. Snow. May 22. Tucson.
Signs of the apocalypse? Perhaps.

In brighter news, this weekend's movie extravaganza has finally arrived. Poor R. has been wearing his Indiana Jones outfit nonstop for the last 19 years since The Last Crusade came out. Will it be worth it? Of course it will.

Muggle

2008-05-09T11:35:00.000-07:00

My glasses are broken. They've been too big for a while now and I thought they were just getting stretched out. Nope, yesterday I noticed a little crack above one of the springs that's making the part that goes over your ears splay way out. If I tilt my head down, they slip down my nose. I hate (really hate) wearing my glasses anyway, but now that they don't fit, they feel extra bulky and dorky.
Apparently I was mulling all of this over in my sleep last night. I woke up this morning really early, the sky was mostly still dark and the room was just a little grey. In my sleepy head I suddenly had a brilliant idea, I could just use "occulus reparo" on my glasses. Of course! Then I wouldn't have to pay for a brand new pair or wear taped up ones. My brain woke up a little more and told me that I cannot perform magic, so I resolved to ask one of my friends to do the charm for me instead. I happily went back to sleep. When I woke up again at 7:30, I realized that maybe I shouldn't read Harry Potter before falling asleep.
I made an appointment with the muggle eye doctor at noon.

Bubbles!

2008-05-06T09:51:00.001-07:00

I've been trying for a long time to make the kind of bread I would want to eat. I've made some really brick-like loaves of dense, gross bread. I've also made some greasy heavy bread that tastes delicious, but will make you sick. I really wanted my bread to have giant air bubbles that toast up so nicely and hold butter so well.
Dana came to the rescue with this recipe. She sent it to me ages ago, but I didn't try it until last night. I love it. Bubbly success!

You start it about 20 hours before you bake it which seems like a pain, but really, this recipe is very hands-off. You mix up the ingredients, then let it sit for 18 hours. No kneading, no stirring, no rising in a warm oven, no nothing. Then you form it into a loaf and stick it in a cast iron pot (or a dutch oven or anything with a lid) and bake it for 45 minutes. Easy peasy. And delicious. Almost immediately after I cut into this and saw all the beautiful bubbles I started a second loaf. I added garlic, rosemary, and thyme to that loaf, so we'll see how this recipe does with some fiddling. The dough smells great, so cross your fingers. It'll be put in the oven in another 2 hours.

Year of cake. hmph!

2008-05-01T10:26:00.001-07:00

Dang! I didn't do an April cake. Now it's May.
I made vanilla orange cupcakes last week, but I didn't take pictures of them. I just ate them. all of them. I've been messing around with recipes trying to make a "creamsicle" cake. Something creamy with a little bit of orange flavor.
So, I guess I'll have to make two cakes for May. Poor me.

Meet me at the Fair

2008-04-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend Dana, Matt, Deanna, Shannon and I went to the Pima County Fair. It seems strange to have a county fair in the Spring, and I was skeptical, but this fair had all of the key ingredients:
There were lots of FFA and 4H kids with their animals. They had goats, horses, cows, chickens, turkeys, pigs, peacocks, and even a row of pigeons (gross).There were also tractors!Most importantly, there were corn dogs, funnel cake, fried zucchini, and popcorn.

...aaaand (stop reading here Mom and Dad)

we rode rides!I put my life in the hands of drunk hobos.and it was awesome

Hotlanta

2008-04-26T14:25:00.001-07:00

Guess who has pictures of her trip to Atlanta?

What I didn't let on in my last post is that the entire trip was planned, booked, financed and organized by one member of the family. Naturally, we had to do as he commanded.
Here we all are at Chuck E. Cheese trying to appease his insatiable appetite for pizza and animatronics. After this picture was taken, we were ordered to immediately begin shelling out Chuck E. coins to earn him tickets. He redeems the tickets for tiny plastic instruments of destruction and world domination. And gum.

Resistance is useless. Last month, his mommy tried to take away one of his trains and he unleashed hell on the city. Look, you can see some of the buildings he tried to bring down.

Here are Dad, Jennie, and Katie doing his bidding. He made them cut up tiny pieces of cheese and fruit to serve with wine to entertain a group of "dignitaries". Being three, he's too young to use the knives or purchase the wine himself.
It worked out well though. The wine and cheese were very well received and "the boss" actually got to spend most of the party napping. The next day he was kind enough to teach his daddy and me how to play golf.

I sure do hope he lets me come back to Atlanta soon.

I missed you!

2008-04-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Marmalade,
It's been a really really long time since I last wrote to you. There has been so much going on in my life, that really, it's been hard to find a time to sit down and write about any of it. I know, it seems like if I have time to write about the minutiae of cake baking, hummingbirds, and the exploits of Orbit and Georgie, I would surely get around to writing about major educational milestones, trips to Georgia, family parties, and the return to Tucson and impending summer. But I haven't. You know why? Mostly because I don't have pictures of any of that.
The milestones were passed. The trip to the dirrrrty south was awesome. It was family-filled and utterly sleep deprived. Like, no sleep. All drinking. Wine drinking. There are wonderful pictures of the party (hint hint) that I would love to post (nudge nudge) if people would email them my way.
I also got to visit with the brilliant Liam and the adorable Ezra. I now know the difference between an Allosaurus and a T.Rex. Toes are a very important distinction, you know. Liam is the best fisherman, golfer, racer, paleontologist, and sportscaster I've ever met. I am a very proud auntie.
Up next for this week: planning a going away party for the B-H family (noooo!), working on school nonsense, baking April's cake (strawberry? lemon cream?), and catching up on missing sleep.
So, my lovely Marmalade, I promise to write more often and to not neglect you like that again.
Love,
Lizzie

Georgie's big day

2008-04-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure who is being trained here, the cat or us.

Happy Birthday Karen!

2008-04-07T09:51:00.001-07:00

It's my sister's birthday!!! Here's some cake for her. I can't wait to see her and everyone else next week!

Softball

2008-04-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. Time when the anthropology department gets together for its annual ass-kicking. We have an intermural softball team called the Chaco Meridian. Our first year we won every single game in our division, so we moved up to the next division. Ever since, we have lost every single game. And they weren't close. I have some blurry pictures of our game on Saturday. Here's the team going over the roster...
And this is looking down the third base line at R. at bat. He had two hits in two at-bats. Unfortunately, he only got two at-bats because the game was so lousy. I mean, it was really fun, we just stink at softball. We lost 27-11. That's right. They scored 27 runs. These are little-league scores. We lost in the fifth inning because of the mercy rule. I am confident that in 4 more innings we could've turned the thing around.
It's possible we need more practice.
I forgot to mention that the team we played only had eight players (two of which were injured in the 3rd inning). We were a full team and only managed to score our 11 runs after their players started to get exhausted from being at bat so much. Ha ha! At least we made them sprint! 90 feet at a time.
Our next game is Thursday. This is the one. This is the game where the Chaco Meridian proves to the world that we belong in the intermediate division. Cross your fingers for us, and I'll let you know on Friday how we did.

What's my age again?

2008-04-04T20:12:00.000-07:00

I am afflicted with injuries and diseases usually associated with the under 10 crowd. All week I've had monster bruises on both legs from falling down the stairs at the SAAs (twice). I was wearing new and fancy shoes and the stairs were outside in the slippery rain. If it weren't for R. and Nikki, I'd probably still be lying in a pile at the base of the stairs. The bruises are wayyy darker than they appear in these shots. The left knee is dark blue on one whole side, and my right shin is scraped and has a nasty yellow bruise. Pretty right? The worst part is that I also beat the crap out of my brand new conference shoes in the fall(s). The whole top of the right one is scuffed and pitted. I wore them for approximately 6 hours total.
To top it all off, this morning I woke up with the second most embarrassing kid disease ever (after head lice of course):
Pink Eye!!

When I woke up, my right eye was glued shut. G.ross. double gross. I looked in the mirror though and everything seemed clear and alright, so I went to work as normal. During the day people kept mentioning that my eye looked red, so I got worried and went to the doctor. Not before I shared a microscope with everyone in the lab (I'm so so sorry, Ashley!) and shook a lot of hands at a morning conference. Go me. I'm typhoid Mary. Pink eye Mary. Pink eye Mary who has to wear her glasses for at least 5 days. And has to change her pillow case.
I keep threatening to give R. butterfly kisses., but he won't come near me and says I'm disgusting. I don't think that's very husband-y behavior do you? Aren't I supposed to get cake or something?
Mom, sorry for the break from looking on the bright side, it must be my right eye that does all that. She's temporarily seeing pink.

doo dee doo

2008-04-02T22:31:00.001-07:00

Just sitting around. Waiting for the big news from Georgia....

Vancouver to Seattle

2008-04-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

It sounds funny, but one of my favorite parts of the trip to Vancouver was the ride home. We took the train to Seattle to hang out with R's awesome uncle for the day. The train was so fun. Here we are in the lounge car where there were swivel chairs and little tables you could hang out in. We drank tea and ate m&m's while we watched Puget Sound go by.
The view was beautiful.
At the end of the line in Seattle we got off at King Street Station. The building was really cool on the outside, but look at how ugly it is inside. I just hate suspended ceilings.
But look! If you peek along the edges of the ceiling you can see all the way up to the original 45' ceiling which is much more beautiful. Look at the molding. Turns out, they're restoring this cool building to the way it looked in 1905 when it was built. I don't understand what was going on in the urban renewal projects in the mid-sixties, but they made a mess of this cool place. Why would you cover up this ceiling with Styrofoam? They also covered up the marble walls with formica. Seriously. Well, I guess fashion has come back full circle because now it is popular to restore historic places back to their old glory.
Here is one of the lobbies already restored. Pretty, no? It was designed by the same architecture firm that did Grand Central in New York city. It may be gaudy, but it really feels grand. It makes you feel like your train ride is going to be something special. So what do you think? Are clean lines and basic, efficient design better, or is ornate, intricate, and overt design more your style? Is less more? Is less less?
At least in this building, I know what my vote is.
There are a lot of buildings in Tucson that underwent major changes in the urban renewal projects and some that were built at that time to replace older structures. Maybe I'll go around and take some more pictures so we can vote on which we like better.

More about how I love Canada

2008-04-01T12:09:00.001-07:00

We took a very long walk all around the city and then ended up in Stanley Park. We'd heard a lot about the park and it really did live up to expectations. It was like a little magical forest where you can't see or hear the city anymore. Just gorgeous. Totem poles and trees and lakes and paths and flowers and everything you'd want in the middle of March. Except coffee.
Here are Nikki and I walking down one of the paths through the cedar trees.

This is a whale (me thinks) outside of the aquarium in the park. It was raining so I think he was happy to be wet. I've never known a whale that likes dry weather.

These are the people who live in the aquarium. I mean the seals that live in the aquarium. Seals are people too...

They're sugar seals and they kept swimming back and forth on their backs. They looked like they were having a good time. This view is from a path in the park that leads to a glass wall where you can see the seals and the beluga whales without going into the aquarium itself which was a little expensive. There were otters inside which was definitely a temptation (I heart otters), but we had sushi to get to. Also pizza and brownies. And then Canadian beer.

This is the view back to the city from the park. Wow, huh? The tide was out so you can see a lot of the shoreline. The walk back around to the convention center was very long, it would have been really tempting in hot weather to swim across instead. Then again, this is a shipping channel so that would be gross. And dangerous. Ok, bad idea.

So we walked back the normal (read: long) way and warmed up in the hotel's hot tub. The hot tub was outside (!) and on the eighth floor. Such a weird experience, being outside in the freezing cold, and wearing nothing but a bathing suit. Very fun.
Then, we walked down to Chinatown in search of dinner. If you go to Vancouver, I highly recommend not walking to Chinatown at night. Or maybe ever. We ended up having sushi in Gastown instead. Gastown was really fun and we hung out there a lot.
Ok, back to work. One last Canada installment tomorrow...

Trip to Canada

2008-03-31T16:35:00.000-07:00

We just came back from our super fun trip to Vancouver. We were in town for the Society for American Archaeology's annual meeting. We both had presentations to make on Thursday, and we were also there to hear other sessions and to discuss our work and the new research of other people.
We went to Seattle first and then headed up to Vancouver. The day we got there we got a great northern surprise!

I know, I know. everybody else is used to exciting weather, but it is about 80 degrees here in Tucson - even clouds are unusual.

We also tried Poutine. So. so. so. good. Can an American make this? I don't know, but I sure am going to try. It was little wads of cheese over thick fries with brown gravy over all. Delicious.
We did a lot more eating and a lot more sightseeing that I will have to tell you about in future posts. It's just too much for one day. Anyway, it's good to be back, even though I am officially in love with the northwest.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T14:50:00.001-07:00

We made some eggs for you from a tie-dye Easter egg kit...
These little suckers are going to be deviled eggs soon, they just don't know it.

New Mexico

2008-03-22T19:08:00.001-07:00

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair...

Rob and I took a trip to New Mexico this week to scope out some sites that he will excavate this summer. He's running a field school with five students. They're going to dig and survey for about six weeks, all over southern New Mexico. We talked to some really nice ranchers who will let the students stay on their land.
We also drove around looking for other places he can take the students on weekend trips and for archaeology lectures. Here are the amazing Gila Cliff Dwellings.
You can see the small, shallow caves from a distance in this picture.
Inside are pueblo room blocks. This site was occupied in the 13th century by the Mogollon people. It was dated using tree rings. If I remember right, the last cutting date (outside ring of a tree with bark on it still) was around 1280 or 1290. The families living in this site grew corn along the Gila river and hunted deer and other small animals nearby. They wore cotton clothing and plant fiber sandals. They made corrugated pottery and black on white pottery in which they cooked and stored seeds and water.
This next picture is a close-up of the lintel over the doorway of one of the rooms in the cliff dwelling. It's cool for a couple of reasons. First, it's cool that the wood is still preserved 700 years later. Second, you can see where dendrochronologists came and took a core sample of it for dating (apparently sample #74a). If you look carefully, you can see these bore holes in many archaeological sites around the southwest. Next time you visit one, see if you can spot them.
The other cool thing about this lintel is that in the mortar above the wood, you can see pieces of the matting that would have covered some of the supports for the roof (or ceiling). See? Right above the bore hole and another one a little to the left. This would have been covered with mud plaster when they were building the roof.
It was a great trip and I have many more pictures to share if anybody wants to see them. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of New Mexico as Rob works through the summer.

Fire Spinning

2008-03-19T13:44:00.001-07:00

Here are some recent pictures of Rob's cool new hobby. He's learning to spin fire. It's called Poi, and I think it comes from New Zealand. In this picture, he has blue LEDs attached to pieces of fabric that he is spinning in the back yard.
Here he has bits of kevlar soaked in kerosene attached to chains. He lights the little kevlar balls and then spins them in the same patterns and designs as the LEDs. I like the fire ones the best because they make an incredible noise as they swoosh through the air. And aren't they pretty?
In this one, he's letting little sparks fly out while he spins, so it looks like there are little teeny fires all around him. I took these pictures with a long exposure (between 4 and six seconds) so you can see the path the fire takes and you can also catch little glimpses of how Rob moves around too. It's cool to watch in person in real time, but it also looks really cool when you can see it slowed down like this.
Sparky!

How many is too many?

2008-03-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

Hummingbird Cake

2008-03-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

I made a cake for Whitney's birthday. The beautiful Whitney is turning 28 tomorrow and she deserves a cake. I'm not actually sending her the cake because her birthday is only one day away, she lives far from me, cakes don't do well in the mail, and she eats well and won't appreciate cake in her diet. Still, we will celebrate for her here in Tucson.

I made a hummingbird cake from my new favorite cookbook, Back to the Table.The basic premise of the cookbook is that we should all slow down a little bit and eat together more often. Especially in our little family of two, we sometimes have to remind ourselves that dinner is important time together and we should eat at the table. This cookbook has a slightly southern flair and is full of delicious recipes. I like the hummingbird cake recipe because it makes a kick ass cake, but also because it is sort of rough and simple. You don't use a mixer, so you can really make this one with someone else in the kitchen and still hear eachother's conversation. We haven't tried it yet, but when we do, we will think of Whitney and sing to her birthday.

Karen's trip

2008-03-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

My awesome sister came to visit this week. We did so much, I hardly know how to blog about it all. The first day, we mostly hung around in Tucson. We made a big dinner and played at home. The next day, we went to Mexico and walked around. We went to a casino (We lost big). We drove into the desert to Gunsight Pass looking for the ghost town, Helvetia. We never made it to the town, but we did have a lot of fun trying to get there. We drove through huge copper deposits that had chunks of turquoise and collected lots of beautiful pieces. We also think we might have seen a UFO. Well, actually, we definitely did. There was a white, shiny object in the sky. It was flying, and it was unidentified (at least by us). weird, huh? Then I made Karen come to school with me and we walked around my office. It's in the stadium, so we walked out onto the field just for fun. Today we went to a spring training game and watched the Colorado Rockies beat the Angels. The day started out very cloudy, but it was warm (hot) and sunny by the end of the game and now we're all very full of sunshine and very tired. I think tonight we'll have a bonfire, and then we have to say goodbye to Karen. So sad. Maybe we can sabotage her alarm clock so she misses her flight? Maybe she could just stay!
It's hard living so far away from my family, but I love when they come to visit. They remind me that Tucson's not so bad and that no one is really more than a plane ride away from each other.

Archaeology Expo II

2008-03-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

That darn video won't load.
Luckily, I have other videos from Sunday at the expo.
These little girls were waiting around to perform their dance. They do ballet folklorico.
They were giggling and gossiping and twirling their skirts around, being cool. I took a bunch of pictures of them, then they agreed to do some spinning for the camera.

Archaeology Expo

2008-03-02T20:01:00.001-08:00

I haven't been giving the blog much attention lately. I've mostly been really busy with work. This has been my constant view for the last ten days...

So it was really nice that this weekend we had something fun to do. The weather was really beautiful ('cause this is Arizona in February) and it was nice to be outside and get some sun (you know, with lots of sunscreen and all). This is the lovely Arizona State Museum. This weekend they hosted the Archaeology Expo and R. was a volunteer. Basically it was like a little mini-fair with tents and people selling food and people giving archaeology demonstrations.

Here is R. and our friend Brandon showing people how to make stone tools. It's called flint-knapping. The guys practice making stone tools so that they understand how the tools that we find archaeologically were made. They also really like it. Here they are working with mostly chert and flint.
And, due to popular demand, here is a video! The famous R. is going to show the world how to knap. The video cuts off a little at the end, because I can't figure out how to make videos last longer than 60 seconds.

Coming up this week: a visit from my sister!!

Ninja Warrior

2008-02-28T11:47:00.000-08:00

We had a very mysterious and very silent visitor at the house last night. Can you see him?

Now can you see him?

Using the flash on the camera, I caught a split-second glance. Holy crap! That's a ninja in the office!!

Aspiring ninjas may find this link helpful.

Orbit and his prey

2008-02-27T12:51:00.000-08:00

I was sitting quietly working at the table this afternoon when I feel this little tickle on my foot. It happened twice. I kicked my sandals off and lifted up my feet to find Orbit with a lizard in his mouth! He was dropping his lizard right on my foot! So I got the camera...

I was going to let him have it, but Katie convinced me to let it go. This video makes me sound like I have a lisp. I don't. Maybe the microphone has a hard time with s's...

I also don't know why I look angry. Maybe the sun was in my face. Anyway, the lizard is doing just fine now, but he's still hanging out on the fence for safety.

Electrifying

2008-02-25T21:04:00.000-08:00

Overall, this has not been the best day ever.
First thing in the morning, R. went to go check the load of clothes that had been in the dryer overnight to make sure they were finally dry. Our dryer doesn't do a very good job, so there was a good chance stuff was still damp. Sure enough, the clothes weren't dry, so R. turned the dryer on for another cycle. But it didn't work. Some piece of the stupid machine wasn't doing its job, so R. unplugged it and looked around to see if the problem was obvious. It was not, so he tried to plug it back in. He couldn't fit his arm behind the dryer to plug it back in, so I said I would do it. I climbed on top and reeeeeached behind to put the big, scary plug back in the big scary socket. All of a sudden my arm that was in the air for balance began to feel all buzzy.
Then I jumped off the dryer, and maybe I screamed.The stupid dryer shocked me! Everything was fine at first, except that for some reason, my thumb was all achy. Then my arm went kind of tingly and numb. Then, my, um, backside, got all sore. Then I got a huge headache and started to feel all queasy. It was weird. It really felt like I had hiked about ten miles, and then was a little drunk.
Needless to say I freaked out. I called home, and then I called all kinds of doctors.
I feel fine now and I think there was no real damage, I just got scared. Still, the dryer is broken, and now we're afraid of it. R. installed a very nice retractable clothesline in the backyard this afternoon. It will probably dry clothes faster than the stupid machine anyway. Also, it will help us use less energy and will keep our house cooler in the summer. So green! Lessons learned today:
1.When plugging in big scary appliances, shut off the breaker first.
2. Don't play with electricity
3. Don't yell at your husband. He didn't make the dryer break and he didn't shock you. Plus, he brought you chocolate.
4. Don't go to Urgent care without an appointment.
5. Don't to be shy about saying you've received an electric shock in your butt.
6. Clotheslines must be anchored well because wet clothes are heavier than you'd think.
7. Clothespins hurt when you try to attach them to other people.
8. My Dad tells me that when you are testing to see if something will shock you, you should use the back side of your finger, not your palm, because when you're shocked, your muscles contract and you will end up grabbing onto the thing. So, if, say, you were thinking about breaking and entering, but you aren't sure if that fence is electric, don't use your palm to check, because then you'll be shocked, and you'll get caught for sure.

Turn around, bright eyes

2008-02-20T20:53:00.001-08:00

It's a total eclipse of the moon!
Look at what an incredible photographer I am. Here is a National Geographic-worthy shot of tonight's eclipse. I know, I know. I'll make prints available later.
R. and I went outside in time to see the last half of the moon disappear. We performed special dances in the front yard and sang the "Moon!" cheer to make sure that it would come back. That's right, you have us to thank for the return of the moon. Next time you're at the beach watching the tide, be sure to remember what we did for you.

Also, remember how this is the year of cake? Here's February's cake. I made this for the lovely Katrina for her birthday. It is a version of my mom's favorite cake ever. It's chocolate on the inside with 1/2 buttercream and 1/2 cream cheese icing on the outside. The red drizzles are white chocolate dyed red. Happy Birthday, Katrina. Welcome to Tucson

Mexican coke

2008-02-18T09:55:00.000-08:00

I'm very sad that my dear friend Ashley is moving away. I've been thinking about all the stuff I'll miss when she leaves, all the things that would make me too sad to list in a blog. Instead, I'm going to start a list of all the things Ashley will miss when she moves away from the Old Pueblo.
1. calling your hometown "the old pueblo"
2. Rodeo break
3. Thursday drink specials
4. Mexican coke.

Mexican coke may just be the biggest perk to living in a border town. You see, as an Atlanta girl, I have to say that American coke is the finest thing ever invented, but when you taste Mexican coke, you'll know that we Americans have sold out.

Autumn's friend Mike enjoying Mexican coke in Sonora

Mexican coke is still made with sugar instead of corn syrup. It makes a huge difference and Mexican coke is delicious. You can't get it everywhere, but at certain restaurants and burrito shops, you can get rebottled, imported Mexican coke. Which brings me to #5,
5. Really great burrito places.

To be continued...

p.s. still messing with blog colors. Don't worry Whit, I don't think this is permanent.

New colors?

2008-02-16T13:13:00.002-08:00

what do you think? Do you like them? Can you still read it? I messed around with so many different combinations, I don't really think I'm impartial anymore.

Valentine's Day #2

2008-02-14T17:35:00.000-08:00

What's the most effective way to get a date for St. Valentine's Day?

Oh that's riiiight. You spray paint it right on the sidewalk. Nothing says romance like grafitti.

p.s. we made these little blackberry tarts for dessert. I topped them off with sugar cookie dough, just like Ashley taught me to do.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

Will you be my Valentine? I got you these pretty flowers from my walk this morning.

And I also got you this Gila woodpecker.

Hummingbird

2008-02-12T10:28:00.001-08:00

I've been walking to work lately and I really enjoy it. It's been great exercise and I like spending the time alone in the mornings. I see a lot of really pretty things on my walk, but this morning might take the cake. Here is a hummingbird sitting in her nest. How about that! Can you see her? She's right in the middle of the picture peeking out of a teeny round nest.
I spend a lot of time griping about Tucson, but I guess it really is ok sometimes.

Biscuits- oh yeah!

2008-02-11T11:15:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to learn to make biscuits for a long time. Lately, I've been inspired by Wildernesse and Daily Thread to go ahead and try it.
Our friend Joe came to visit this weekend, and we had a fantastic time. On Sunday morning, Joe taught me how to make biscuits like his mama and grandmother. It seems so easy, only a couple of ingredients, right? I tried them again this morning on my own, and I don't quite have the hang of it, but at least they weren't thin hard rocks like they used to be before Joe taught me.
I bought all the stuff I need to keep practicing, and that's what I'll do until I am fully qualified to be an old Southern woman. I'll be the only one in all of southern Arizona who can make a biscuit! Hmm, I might be a little ahead of myself here, but they sure are yummy!

Coolest toy ever

2008-02-08T18:54:00.000-08:00

In case I don't manage to post tomorrow, I want to share what I think is probably R.'s and my favorite kitchen utensil:
Imagine the possibilities!
Below you see the 2 packages of lime jell-O version, but imagine some sort of opaque pudding, or filling this with juice, freezing it, and then letting it float in a punch bowl. I don't know how I made it all these years without a brain-shaped mold.
ahh.. The benefits of zombification.

pillow hog

2008-02-08T17:37:00.000-08:00

I woke up with such a crick in my neck this morning. I think this picture R. took may explain why...
The darn cat was sleeping all spread out on my entire pillow. I had one eensy little corner and my head was all crooked. Thanks Orbit, hope you were comfy.

p.s. sorry for the blog break. It's been a busy week. We have company coming this weekend, so I'll try to get some shots of the cool stuff we're going to do.

Bird-a-long

2008-01-29T10:01:00.001-08:00

My sister and I are both making paper mache projects this month. We decided to make seagulls. I've never done paper mache before (except maybe on a balloon in school), but this was really fun. By really fun, I mean it was really messy. Mine has an aluminum foil core and was covered with Saturday and Sunday's newspaper cut into strips.

I made the goop you dip the paper in out of flour (all purpose), water, and some Elmer's glue. I don't know if you need the glue, but it seemed like it couldn't hurt.
I think that the kind of newspaper you make your bird out of affects his future personality. I tried to give mine a balance of the comics and the obituaries. There's a sudoku on his head for intelligence, and an auto parts add on his tail to remind him to be a fast flier.

I didn't think it was going to work at first because it was so gloppy and wet. I left him on the front porch overnight, though, and he dried just fine. It was even raining outside, so it's not like it was just Tucson dryness helping me out. He came out really hard and heavier than I expected.

Next weekend, I think I will paint him and add some birdy details. Maybe Karen will share pictures of hers.

Friday Recipe: Tiny Lemon Cakes

2008-01-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

I have a new Friday Recipe for you today (Saturday morning). I know what I said about this being the year of full sized cakes and everything, but these are too yummy to be ignored in 2008. Besides, they aren't cupcakes. I haven't got any pictures today because we already ate the cakes.

I have some special tiny cake pans, but before I did, I used to make tiny cakes in the bottom of large aluminum cans. I used empty tomato cans or pumpkin cans, you know the size, right? Well, I washed them really well, then lined them with foil (just in case tin cans are actually toxic in some way). So, if you have small pans, use them. If not, improvise!

Tiny Lemon Cakes

1/2 cup butter
7 tbsp sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup self-rising flour
1 tsp lemon extract
zest of half of one lemon
3tbsp milk

Ok, make sure your butter is a little soft, but not squishy before you start. Mix all the ingredients except for the milk together on high speed. I use the small bowl on my mixmaster so that everything gets good and whipped. When everything is combined, drizzle the milk in until it reaches a good batter consistency. Sometimes it doesn't need all 3 tbsp. You know how cakes can be fiddly like that.
Fill your prepared cans about 1 inch full (use several cans to make layers, you should be able to get 6 tiny layers) or pour batter into lightly greased pans.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 min or until they start to get a little golden on top. My oven is inconsistent and I sometimes have to cook them at 375 for 25 minutes. Your's is probably lovely and will be right on target.
When they're done, let them cool for a minute or two in the pans (don't burn yourself) then turn them out onto a cooling rack for at least 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the icing:
1/4 cup butter, softened (1/2 a stick)
8 oz cream cheese
5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon extract (or use lemon juice at this stage)
the other half of the lemon zest
1/3 cup of milk or cream.
yellow food coloring (people won't believe it's lemon if it's not yellow)

Mix up the butter and the cream cheese. Slowly add the powdered sugar, alternating with the milk and the lemon extract. (Go check and see if the cake is burning). Adjust the milk or powdered sugar to get a good icing consistency. Not too thick, not too thin. The lemon zest will make the icing just a little lumpy, but we're not perfectionists, are we? Add the food coloring just a little at a time until it looks nice and fake. When the cakes are cool, ice them liberally with your delicious icing and eat the rest out of the bowl.

-so I made this up and as you can see some of the instructions are a little less than exact. If you do make the cakes, let me know how they turn out, okay, and we can adjust the recipe for later.

Beautiful science

2008-01-22T14:31:00.000-08:00

Look what my Dad made, it's a test tube stand, which doubles as a set of six vases! It works great when you have some flowers left over from last week that aren't really strong enough to stand up on their own anymore. Talk about integrated science- how's that for chemistry and botany together at last!

Slumber Party Pie

2008-01-18T21:41:00.000-08:00

It's Friday recipe time. Ashley's here for a sleepover and we're going to invent a pie! This will be the most delicious pie you ever tasted. It will make you want to invite your best friends over to watch silly movies and play games. Promise.

First up, the crust!They're made with oats and those are good for you!

Capn' Crunch Berry Crust:
4 tbsp butter
4 cups crunch berries
Crush the crunch berries until you have crunch berry flour. Then, melt the butter and mix in into the crunch berries with your fingers until it starts to stick together. Transfer to your pie plate and press into the bottom and up the sides. Bake in 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.
Then, we made a cream cheese mixture:
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup half and half
1 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
These all got mixed up in the mixer on high speed until they thickened a little bit, like cheesecake. Then we spread that in our prepared crust.

There was a little bit of the cream cheese mix left on the beaters and we mixed that in the blender with cherries, raspberries, blueberries, and mixed berries in the blender until it looked like a pink smoothie.
yum.That got spread on top of the cream cheese layer in the pie crust. Then we decorated it with more, um, berries. Warning: we made this up. and it was way after midnight. and we only used our cookbook as a coaster. You are not obligated to make this recipe.
Unless, of course, you're at a slumber party. Then you have to.

Buffalo gals

2008-01-17T10:04:00.000-08:00

won't you come out tonight?

Look who is finally done! It's the buffalo head that caused so much trouble for us back in August. Thanks to this buffalo, UPS will no longer deliver packages to us.
The lovely Ashley and Ryan provided a home for our disgusting head for the last five months and now it's dry and clean and awesome-looking. Thanks guys!

pink daisies

2008-01-14T12:16:00.001-08:00

I always forget that I live with tiny monsters who can't be trusted. Whenever we have fresh flowers on the kitchen table, I forget that I have to put them in the sink overnight or in the morning we'll find flower massacre. I had a jar of fat pink daisies on the table yesterday and I left them there, knowing that my animals know they are not allowed anywhere near the top of any tables. I'm not pointing any fingers...
...but this morning there was a pile of decapitated flowers on the floor and water everywhere. Thanks buddy. At least now I get to wear one of the flower victims in my hair all day. Thanks Georgie!
"I don't know what you're talking about. Feed me."

Lyra's hat knitting pattern

2008-01-11T09:50:00.000-08:00

January 28th Update: There has been a lot of attention to this post. Is there any interest in kits for this pattern? Tell you what, if anyone would like a kit that includes a pattern (more precise than the one below) and pattern yarn, please leave a comment and we'll work something out. I'll even put it all in an Alkaline original bag.

Lyra's hat

Have you seen the Golden Compass yet? Did you read the books? You totally should. Remember Lyra's hat that she wears in the movie? This is sort of a sucky picture of it, but you can get the basic idea...

Well, I thought that my daemon and I ought to be prepared in case we ever have to go into the North, so I figured out how to make her hat.

My daemon, Orbit

Want the pattern? It goes a little something like this: I used one hank of very big yarn, about as thick as those old hair ribbons we used to wear in the 80's. You could get an even cooler effect by combining leftovers of all of your favorite yarns until you get about that weight. You could easily go even chunkier than this and it would look more like the movie.

This is a really quick knit. I started mine over three times and was still able to finish it during the National Championship game.

Lyra's Boreal Hat

Gauge: 4" =7 stitches x 10 rows.

Needles: size 19 (or whatever works

-Cast on 36 stitches. Work in stockinette stitch for 20 rows. Add a few extra rows for an even roomier fit. Mine may be a little skimpy for Svalbard.

-Bind off. Now you have a long knitted rectangle.

-Fold cast off edge in half (making roughly a square) so that there are 18 stitches on each side and make a seam using whatever method you like. this will be the back of the hat. In the movie, the seam is very obvious on the outside of the hat, but you could be more discrete if you like.

- make two long braids of coordinating yarn (or an i-cord if you feel up to it) and affix to the two remaining open corners of the former rectangle. These will be the tassels you use to tie the hat snugly.

Tada! A very easy, very warm hat. Plus, the ties keep it on your head, should you find yourself riding a polar bear at great speed.

Friday night cooking show at Your House

2008-01-09T16:44:00.000-08:00

This misadventure in the kitchen is for you, Whitney and Tiffany!

This is a recipe from my favorite cooking show, Sam the Cooking Guy, that comes on Tucson's public channel on Saturday mornings. It's yummy and warm and gooey. We ate it for dinner last night, but now that I think about it, it would be a kick-ass brunch food. On the other hand, it is full of onions. You never have brunch if you don't have company, right? Onions=smelly=uncomfortable guests. You do what you think is right.

Kick-Ass Onion Pie
-8 oz red wine
-2 big red onions
-3 roma tomatoes (or 2 regular tomatoes, or a zillion cherry tomatoes)
-6 oz goat cheese with herbs. (I know last week's had goat cheese too. We're not fanatics, we had leftovers- gimme a break)
-1 deep pie shell (or be brave and make your own)
-olive oil

First step: Change into something fabulous.
Next, locate place in your kitchen where pretend audience is sitting. Mine usually sits across from the stove. Remember, you must be able to explain everything you're doing to the audience, so be sure they're sitting on your good side.
3. Obtain large wine glass. Pour 8 oz wine into glass. sip demurely. Being on TV is so hard.
4. Slice up onions into really thin rings. This takes a little while, so be sure to say witty things to the audience, or go ahead and take a commercial break.
5. Heat some olive oil in a big frying pan over medium high heat and add the onions. You're going to cook them until they're nice and soft and maybe a little browned. Add salt and pepper to your liking.
6. While those are cooking, slice up the tomatoes.
7. Sip wine
8. Advise audience on proper cutting techniques, being sure to show off any fancy knives or cutting boards. Remember, you're a professional. Speak hautily and use big words. Tell them how you learned to cook in France, etc...
9. Check on onions. Still not done? Flip them over a little so they all get cooked. I used tongs. Tong ta tong tong tong
10. Open goat cheese package. If you forgot to get the herb-y kind (like I did) then spice it up yourself. Wink at the audience while you expertly mix together your favorite combination of rosemary, sage, dill, thyme, whatever you like. Crumble it up with the cheese.
11. When onions are done, take them off the stove and get out the pie shell. Fill the pie shell with onions.
12. Layer the tomatoes on top.
13. Sprinkle the cheese over top.
14. Here's where you tell the audience that you'll cook the pie at 350 degrees until the top is bubbly and the sides are brown. Then, pull out a pie that you made earlier to show them how awesome you are.
15. Big sip of wine.
16. slice up the pie and serve.

January sucks

2008-01-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

Januaries can be tricky. On the one hand, they are post-holidays-still-winter disappointing. A downward spin into the horrors of Arizona summer. On the other hand, they mean a new year, new beginning, fresh starts. I've chosen to make this January the latter. These have been cheering me up a whole lot

and I've been trying to spend more time out here.

So bring it on 2008. Everyone knows that even-numbered years are the most fun anyway.

Jerk Grown-up

2008-01-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

I can clearly remember the way that adults who weren't my parents treated me when I a little kid. I hated it when I would talk to a grown-up and they would reply to my parents instead of to me. I hated it when they would talk to me in baby-talk or assume that all I could do was baby-talk. I remember the look on their faces when they couldn't understand me and how frustrated I felt. We spent a lot of time in our neighbors' gardens and sometimes would sit and chat with them. They'd ask us questions that we didn't care about and we'd tell them things that I'm sure made no sense. One neighbor in particular was always great about never making me feel like I was too little to talk to her. She took me seriously and never tried to make me be cute. I sort of keep it in mind when I talk to kids now. I try not to talk in a high pitched voice and I try not to use baby words for things (but am guilty of both).
This afternoon, I had my first experience with being a full-fledged jerk grown-up. The neighbor kids across the street are really young. I'm not sure how old they are, but they're too young to go to school. Their older brothers are very nice and often have to come into the backyard to retrieve balls and stuff (which terrifies them. Ha! Scary adult is fine with me. Mean adult is not.) Today, I was replanting a cactus into a bigger pot, when the kids came over and asked me what I was doing. Here's where the trouble began. I understood their question and I told them all about how my cactus was too big for the little pot and had to go into a bigger pot so it could grow better, etc. Unfortunately, they asked their question in Spanish and I answered in English. Most people in Tucson speak at least a little of both languages and seem to have a magic radar that tells them which language to use in a certain situation. These kids were so little though, they didn't speak English at all. I panicked and realized I would have to tell them what I was doing in Spanish. When you're nervous, you can barely speak at all, let alone in a language you last studied in high school. I sort of bumbled around a sentence or two and got blank stares from the kids. They pointed to my backyard and told me something about my fence and the people who live behind me but I couldn't understand them. Then I did it. I gave them a huge smile and said (in English) "Ok then, well I hope you guys have fun!" In a squeaky high voice and a stupid expression. Their faces were blank. My face became blank. They said something else. I nodded and smiled. It was over. I'm a jerk grown-up. They think I don't want to listen to them, and I think that Spanish in their cute little chipmunk voices is too hard for me to understand. Is this what happened when I was a kid? Were jerk grown-ups actually not speaking my language? I don't mean they didn't speak English, but did they just not speak four-year-old? Maybe my voice sounded like my neighbor kids' and was too high and fast to be understood in any language.
Anyway, from my new perspective as a jerk, I'm still going to try to talk to kids normally and without funny words or voices, but I am a little more sympathetic to all the jerks before me who just wanted to make friends with the little neighbors too.

Friday is for free recipes

2008-01-04T14:33:00.001-08:00

I am married to the most fantastic cook ever. He makes miracles in the kitchen all the time. It's a wonder we don't both weigh 400 lbs. The only trouble is that he makes things up as he goes along, so there's no record of what he put in when the dish is a success (which it always is). We've tried lots of solutions to this, me tagging along behind him jotting things down, him writing down the recipe when he's done, etc. Mom even bought him a tiny tape recorder so he can talk about what he's making as he makes it. None of this has been very effective.
I have resolved in 2008 to try to keep track of some of his creations and to write them down as close as I can. Here's the first installment:
We had this on the 1st and it was unbelievable. You'll be bummed if you skip the dumplings.
We did our best with the amounts of ingredients. If it's not looking or smelling right at your house, go ahead and adjust.

Rob's New Year's Day Beef Stew
1-2 lbs Tri-tip or sirloin steak
6-ish strips thick bacon
4 medium potatoes
1 large onion
3-4 celery stalks
4-ish carrots
1.5 Quart beef stock
1/4 tsp cloves
2 bay leaves
Some paprika, marjoram, thyme, white pepper, parsley, black pepper (all dry)
dash of Worcestershire sauce

Cut bacon into 1/2" strips. Saute in thick-bottomed (hee hee) pot until brown, remove. In bacon grease over med. high heat, brown steak (cubed) until awesome-looking. Remove. As you're browning, sprinkle it with salt and pepper. In the same pan, saute onions (diced)until clear and yummy. Remove. Deglaze pan with 1/4 bottle (about a wine-glass full) of any red wine. Add bay leaves, stock, cloves, spices, worcestershire sauce, bring to a gentle boil. Add steak, bacon, onions, turn to low and simmer gently for 1 hour, stirring whenever you remember it. Add potatoes, carrots, celery, and some salt if necessary. Cook for 45 min, or until everything is soft and smells good. This sounds like a long time, but you will love the way it makes your house smell.

Dumplings
2 cups regular flour
1.5 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup soft goat cheese
2 tsps each parsley, marjoram, thyme, black pepper
about 3 cups stock or water flavored with bouillon

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Spoon into the boiling stock or water and cook about 6 minutes or until they float and seem done. Serve in stew.

Rob's note: The stew is too thick to cook the dumplings in, so that's why you've got to make them in stock or water.
Lizzie's note: The dumplings were crazy delicious. We baked the leftover batter in little wads on a cookie sheet the next day and ate those pseudo-biscuits in the leftover stew and it was even better than the dumplings.

Hope you like it!

Update:

2008-01-03T23:13:00.000-08:00

I was soooo wrong. Jenny has pointed out that giant cupcakes are, of course, still the rage in 2008. This is an example she sent from www.surlatable.com. yum!

sculpey

2008-01-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

I got a bunch of packages of sculpey for Christmas and I'm having so much fun with it. I've been making dollhouse food. First I made some tomatoes:

Then I made some eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Dollhouse people are best when they've had a good breakfast. They also like treats, so I made them some doughnuts too.

The pictures are a little weird, but it's hard to take close-up pictures of really tiny, shiny things. Anyway, I'll go find my (homeless) dollhouse people and ask them if they're hungry. They'd better be, they haven't eaten in about 15 years.

2008!

2008-01-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Did you get the memo? 2008 is officially the year of cake. 2007 was big for cupcakes, but this year, full cakes are back to claim their place in the dessert race.
No more wimpy tiny cakes. No more weird icing piled up really high. 2008 will be full of delicious cakes meant to be shared with others. And they will be pink.

Catnip is a gateway drug

2007-12-15T11:23:00.000-08:00

We went to an eggnog party last night at Ryan and Ashley's. We played Rabbids and looked at their beautiful tree and watched Rudolf.
When we came home, it looked like someone else had been hitting the 'nog pretty hard around here. This is the Christmas tree the way we found it. Notice anything missing?
That's right. No angel. No angel on top of our 7' tree. Where there used to be one. A pretty one. Also, the Christmas tree skirt was missing and there were an outrageous number of needles all over the floor. What happened? Were we robbed? Did the angel have to fight?
This is how we found her...
Poor angel! What did she do to deserve that? Who could've knocked her off the top of the tree and taken the tree skirt?
Suspect #1:

Suspect #2:We caught Georgie this morning trying to light a little bonfire under the tree. She said it was "too cold up in here". Brats. I suspect the angel was making them feel guilty about whatever they were up to while we were gone, and she paid the price. too much nog. Or was it catnip?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2007-12-10T14:58:00.000-08:00

Wait a second. Is that a snowflake? On the Tucson forecast? As in snow? Frozen water falling from the sky? wow.
We've seen mountain snow for a few days. They're saying that Mt. Lemmon is going to get 14 inches tonight. Won't that be pretty! The snow line is moving further and further down toward town. It's raining here now. All dark and gloomy and wintery like.
Update: It's sleeting! The cats are slinking around all scared of the "pink pinkity pink" going on outside!

December

2007-12-01T14:38:00.000-08:00

The wind is howling around our house and it's still raining. The house is nice and chilly and I think we'll have soup for dinner. Oh how I wish the weather would stay nice and wintry.

Drip Drip drip

2007-11-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

Oh Atlanta, I wish I could send some of this your way. We woke up this morning to hear the steady dripping of rain. I absolutely love this sound and I never get to hear it since we moved to this desert. Oh man, there's no better way to wake up. And it's still raining!

And also:

Wow. Thanks Mrs. Haury. We're having a big ceremony tomorrow with a formal dinner to announce the gift and thank Agnese Haury. With this gift, we'll be able to build a new archive building to house the thousands of tree-ring samples that are currently stuffed in the store rooms under the stadium. They'll finally be climate controlled and ventilated. This lab has been waiting for new headquarters since 1937. This building won't be headquarters, but it will move our most precious and vulnerable artifacts into a place where they'll be safe. They'll be organized and preserved so we can continue to use them. Some of the samples up in the Lab attic were collected by Douglass himself. I love when I'm looking for a specific piece of wood from a particular pueblo and I find it in a box, neatly labeled with a real ink pen. The neat little initials in faded ink say "A.E.D". It makes me feel like I'm a part of a long tradition. I'm really lucky to be at the tree-ring lab, and we're really lucky to have such a generous benefactress.

Front Door fun

2007-11-28T07:43:00.001-08:00

I know. I know. It isn't even December. I'm not nuts, I just like lights, that's all.
We put together this little wreath the other day. It's a regular old plastic wreath with bendy branches. We wrapped a string of big ceramic lights around it, did some clever extension cord work and voila! Big, bright, cheery front porch!I may have also put up some lights in our room... Just one strand. and that's it. And two bows. But seriously, it's too early. that's it.

Christmas idea #1

2007-11-25T17:24:00.000-08:00

The turkey is barely gone, but can I talk a little about Christmas?
I like to make my own Christmas decorations as much as I can. I have fun doing it, and I like to have something that's a little unique.
Here's the first thing we've made for this Christmas. The day after Thanksgiving, Rob's mom and I were sitting in front of a movie making these little guys.We took small pieces of red felt and cut out two bird shapes. Then, we embroidered flowers, wings, and star designs on the sides. Sometimes we added a few beads for the eyes or for the middle of flowers. When both sides were decorated, we sewed the two sides together and stuffed the birds with cotton balls. When we ran out of cotton balls, we just used the scraps of felt. When we sewed the seam shut, we added a little piece of green ribbon to the top of each one to hang it by. We made seven in all. We think they look kind of Scandinavian. What do you think? I have a short stand of red wooden garland from the grocery store ($1.99 tops). I attached the birds here and there along the garland and hung the whole thing over the window in the dining room.
It was an easy, inexpensive, and fun thing to make together.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-24T13:33:00.000-08:00

We had much to be thankful for on Thursday. Grandma, Jeanne, Doug, Charlie, Bob, Patty, Tommy, and Dana were all here with us to help celebrate. Isn't it wonderful to have a house full of people you love? We also had a lot of delicious food to be thankful for. Eight pies (that's close enough to the five pie limit, give me a break) and a huge pan full of stuffing.
Oh man, though. Thursday morning gave us a real test of gratitude. We got up early (not exactly as early as we meant to, but hey, it's a holiday) to prep the bird. My biggest worry was that Tom would still be frozen on the inside. HA! We got the bird out and unwrapped him and put him in the sink to wash. But the water wasn't draining. No big deal, I thought, we sometimes have a hard time with our stone age plumbing. However, a half hour of plunging did no good at all. Precious turkey time was ticking by. Poor Rob was up to his elbows in yucky sink water when all of a sudden dirt and gravel comes shooting out of the drain. Holy shit! Turns out our minor plumbing problem is much bigger than we thought. Then, "ding dong!" the family arrives from the hotel hungry for breakfast. I could've cried, but wonderful Rob just laughed and went to run interference. We ended up washing the bird in the bathtub like a big, cold, slimy baby. We even stuffed it while it was in the bathtub. Then, all the uncles went out back to sort out the sink issue. I think they were kind of having fun doing it, at one point they had out wrenches and hoses and beer. At least two of them were on the roof. They eventually rigged some sort of system where the water drained elsewhere and the sink was usable. Phew.
So, the turkey went in at least two hours late, but the rest of the preparations were mostly drama-free. Here's a little video of grandma making the lattice on the cherry pies. Nice work, Grandma!

Here's the whole gang beginning to enjoy dinner. It's funny how it takes all week to get ready for this dinner and it only takes just a short time to eat it. We ate lots of helpings and really made it last. Then, we ate at least three slices of pie each and passed out. Ahhh. This is the best holiday ever.

Gobble

2007-11-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

We just added Tom as a friend.

Nooo, not this Tom:

This Tom! He is a big boy, but not quite as big as last year. He was the biggest one at the grocery store weighing in at 20.69 lbs. Yum. Do you think that will feed ten people? No? you think I should get two? I so agree.

Little People

2007-11-16T08:49:00.000-08:00

The tiny family I told you about have been having some *problems*. Their little boy has been hanging out with a rough crowd:

And their little girl has been drinking an awful lot.
Both kids were recently caught stealing the family car! So naughty.
"What are we going to do? These kids are getting into so much trouble."
"Do you think we should homeschool? You, know, to keep them from drinking?"
"What if we moved out to the country. Somewhere away from the negative influence of the Tucson streets"
"That's a great idea, but where will we go?"
"We'll find someplace"

So the little family set off. They left the bad friends and the booze and walked off into the wilderness.
They camped out along the way.

Finally they came across a little clearing in the woods of Georgia. In it stood a little house, just their size. Is this the answer? Can this little family live in a tiny log cabin so far away?
"This is perfect!"
"Well, almost perfect. Don't you think our house should be painted and fixed up?"
"Oh, I'm sure it will be before Christmas, don't you worry"

How it really happened...

2007-11-14T19:56:00.001-08:00

Secret Project X

2007-11-12T15:14:00.000-08:00

I'm working on some sneaky sneakiness for my favorite nephew who doesn't read blogs.
These little people are step one.

I got little wooden game pieces at the craft store. I painted them and made them some little clothes. The mom and dad are about 2 inches tall and the kids are a little shorter. I think L. will have to use his wonderful imagination a little since this family hasn't got arms or legs, but they sure do have a lot of fun. Wait until you see where this little family lives...

Lucky and Dusty, what have you done?

2007-11-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

Well, their names are Lucky, Dusty, and Ned, but something terrible has happened. This morning, Ned is dead at the bottom of the tank and Lucky and Dusty are swimming around triumphantly. Was it Lucky? Was it Dusty? Did the cats somehow kill the fish with their brains?
I'm going to be watching these murderous fishies more closely today. I have to say, I suspect the more aggressive Lucky. Poor dusty is looking ragged this morning. I hope he's not next.

More beasts than people

2007-11-11T20:03:00.000-08:00

Well, we've had a week to come to terms with the death of Black Bart. While we still miss him, we decided our family needed new fish, so we got three guppies. Two are kind of orange and the third is really pale yellow with a fancy tail. They don't have names yet. I sort of want to see if they make it through the night and then we'll invest in names.
I was thinking that a set of names in threes might be fun. We could do Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Or Koltho, Lakhesis, and Atropos for the three fates. Or Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar for the three kings. The ones I'm really liking the best are Lucky, Dusty, and Ned for the three Amigos. Don't those sound like great fish names? Especially Dusty, that cracks me up.
anyway, here they are:
Our three new fish
...and the cats who will someday eat them.

Blackout!!!

2007-11-10T13:34:00.001-08:00

I want Mark Richt to be my boyfriend.

Is it too early?

2007-11-08T20:48:00.000-08:00

Okay. I know that we have a little while yet, but my mind has been on Thanksgiving. I wait all year for Thanksgiving. This is my favorite holiday by far. there's nothing not to like about Thanksgiving. The decorating is minimal and voluntary (you better believe I put up cheesy turkeys all over this place), there aren't any presents to buy, you eat all day, the entire day is based on a good happy feeling, instate rivalry football, and, most importantly, the pie!
The pie is the subject of this post. You see, I may have a problem when it comes to pie. Every Thanksgiving I find myself baking 8 jillion pies. When I'm at my parents' house, this is no big deal since I come from a family of hearty pie-eaters. In fact, it is only since I got married that I learned that most people don't consider pie a breakfast food. Can you imagine?!
This year, Rob and I are hosting Thanksgiving at our house (yay!). We're having Rob's parents, his grandma, two uncles, an aunt, an uncle in-law? (not really sure how this person is technically related), and Dana and Caitlin. Last year, our crowd was great about eating seven helpings each of turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, and rum. They did not, however, eat their fair share of pie. Now, true to my heritage, I can handle a good amount of pie by myself, but that was too much and it went bad before I could eat it. (am a failure to my family).
I've been doing some careful figuring, and I think I can make five (read: six) pies and count on them being consumed within a reasonable period. What should those precious five pies be? Any suggestions? We know there has to be pumpkin, apple, and cherry. Probably some kind of berry pie for Dana. What should I double up on? Should I make any others?
ahh. a delicious dilemma.

R.I.P. Black Bart

2007-11-06T15:13:00.000-08:00

We had some bad news at our house last night. I was sure that Black Bart was feeling better yesterday because he wasn't so covered in the white scuzziness and he was swimming a little higher in the tank. Unfortunately, last night at about 10pm, Black Bart joined the big fish tank in the sky. We said some words over his burial at sea and Rob gave a beautiful eulogy.
Black Bart, I'm sorry that I brought you home on my bike and I'm sorry that our house got a little cold that first night you were with us. I hope that where you are now there is a pirate chest that opens and closes and that you are swimming through the bubble-blowing thing that you loved so much.

Fishiness

2007-11-04T11:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was homecoming at the U of A. (We won our game, yay! so did Georgia- double yay!).
I was walking down University Blvd. and these people had a fish pong booth! It is the most genius thing I've ever heard of. It works like beer pong, but instead of drinking when you lose, you get a fish! You make a small donation to UNICEF and they give you three ping pong balls to throw at solo cups floating in a baby pool full of fish. I got a ball in a cup, so I got to pick out a fish.
Meet Black Bart:
Black Bart is a goldfish with a black stripe down his back. He has survived two days so far, which is better than I expected given his species and the two predators that live with me. Today, though, Black Bart is having some issues. He's covered in white fuzz and is swimming sideways. I know that listing is really bad for fish, but in case he doesn't die today, does anyone know anything to do for fuzzy fish? Or, um, any fish that are more long-lived?

p.s. Congratulations Diane and Damian! I'm sure it was a beautiful wedding, you are a wonderful couple.

Trip to Denver

2007-11-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

I'm back from a busy trip to Denver. I went to present a poster at the Geological Society of America's annual conference. I can't get over how huge that meeting is. There are 10,000 people there and they're all giving papers or posters. The program for the week was like a phonebook. My poster presented some new data about Lassen Volcano in California. People asked some good questions and had some good criticism, so all in all it was a successful conference. This is my poster. I know it's too small to read, but trust me, it's only exciting to me. The graphs are tree-ring chemistry and the rest of the figures are mostly maps. I observed something else in Denver. Archaeologists aren't particularly famous for their fashion choices, but next to Geologists, we look like supermodels. The standard uniform for men seemed to be faded jeans, a blue collared shirt, and a tweed-y blazer with elbow patches. Most of the time, this was topped off with a field hat. On women, I saw a lot of long skirts with tights, fleece jackets, and white white sneakers. Next year, I might propose a session called " how to not look like a field scientist" or "how to be taken seriously outside of your lab". do you think anyone would come?
A cool thing happened on the plane on the way to Denver though. These fighter planes were taking off from the Tucson airport and they kept flying right over our plane. Neat, huh? The guy next to me thought I was a dork for taking pictures outside the window. Okay maybe I was being a dork, but I had to get ready to meet the rest of the dorks in Denver didn't I?
I went to the conference by myself. I met a bunch of friends the first day for dinner and drinks and then I shared a hotel room with them that night. It's great to be able to meet old friends from all over the place at the same conference. I really look forward to it, sometimes, the GSA's are the only time I see those people all year. I got to see Joe, Nikki, Kathy, Lori, Chris, and Christian all on Tuesday. The second night, they all left town and I moved to a different hotel by myself. I know it probably sounds weird, but I've never stayed in a hotel room alone before. I was excited about it- keeping the temperature just how I like it, watching whatever I want on the TV. I also resolved to go out to dinner all by myself. That was the hardest part. I don't know how people do it. I hesititated a little at the door of the restaurant, but I was brave and got a table for one and ordered my dinner (resisting the temptation to order it takeout). It was kind of fun- being alone, I could eat wherever I wanted and not worry about impressing anyone- so I got Lasagna and a shirley temple. yum. Then I just sat there. by myself. What do you do when you're alone at dinner? I should have brought a book. I got lonely and called Dana who kept me company over the phone. I still feel like I've overcome a scary obstacle- staying alone and eating alone. Ha!
Still, I'm glad to be back with Rob. Busy week ahead, I'll try to post at least a few more times.
Happy November and Happy day of the dead!

Meet Jack

2007-10-29T21:47:00.001-07:00

Living in a sketchy neighborhood, it is very important that you carefully consider your pumpkin guardian at Halloween. Everyone knows how many spooky creatures roam the streets of Tucson toward the end of October. About a week ago, R and I bought the most perfectly shaped pumpkin ever and named him Jack.
These are R's prototypes for Jack.
He had to be 1. Really scary 2. unique and 3. really scary.

Hello Jack. Boy are you scary. Thanks for keeping away all the ghosts and ghouls. I'm real sorry about that time when Orbit ate your guts.

Go Dawgs!!!

2007-10-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

42-30!!!!

Blumen!

2007-10-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

Kacy's getting married this sunday, so this morning we had a bouquet making party. We bought a ton of gorgeous flowers (nice job Kacy!) and everyone worked together to make corsages, boutonneires (I had to look that up), and six bouquets.
So Pretty!

Naughty Orbit!

2007-10-25T23:32:00.000-07:00

This picture isn't posed, I promise. This is how we found Orbit. He somehow found the bag of tobacco and the little corn cob pipe from Rob's Leprechaun costume from last Halloween. He smokes now? He's only four! Needless to say, we took this stuff away from the bad boy.

Standin' on the corner and fishin' in the lake

2007-10-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

I went on two fun trips the last two weekends. First, I went to Winslow with my friend AJ. We slept in this pueblo that she built. It was really cool to watch the stars at night through this smoke hole in the roof. The next day, we burned the pueblo down as an archaeological experiment. She's looking at how fire behaves in prehistoric buildings and whether or not you can reconstruct the origin of the fire from the debris on the floor and the smoke patterns on the walls. I was looking at how many tree-rings are lost on the primary and secondary beams when the roof of a pueblo catches fire. That way I can know how far off tree-ring dates from a prehistoric charred log might be. Anyway, we came back very tired and very filled with smoke.
Last weekend I went with Ashley, Ryan, and Reggie to Lake Havasu to visit her family. We had a really really great time. It was very relaxing and felt like a much longer trip than the two days that it actually was. Plus, there were Yorkies!

My sister is a famous rapper

2007-10-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

How to dress inappropriately for work: step one.

2007-10-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

These are the shoes I decided to wear today. Normally they are very comfortable. Today, they were a bad bad idea. I'm not so good with heels in the first place, but I thought these would be fine since they're kinda clunky. So I put them on and hopped on my bike to ride the 1.5 miles to work. HA! Little did I know that riding my bike would be the easiest thing I did all day!

The morning went fine, other than two long walks all the way across campus to meet Rachel and Ashley and to go to a class. Then, I had some work to do in the wood shop, so I teetered over to the tree-ring lab. I used the band saw and a belt sander and got all covered in sawdust. Still fine, right? No big deal.
Two hours later I got to be a lab hero. We had some really important samples that needed to be sent to Oregon and Canada via the 5 o'clock FedEx. Well, we only finished working them up at about 4:56. Yipe! Me and my heels jumped on the bike and raced over to the dropbox. As I was turning into the street, I heard the clock chime 5:00. Crap! I was almost there when I saw the FedEx truck zooming away. Oh no! So I chased it. On my bike. In the heels. The packages were tucked under my arm and I pedaled really hard and caught up to the truck at the stop sign. I called to the driver and she took my packages. Whew!
I know. It was a lot of effort for some stupid trees, but I got to go back to the lab with a big grin.
Hurray.

p.s. this is the scene in the front yard this evening. There may be a dog in our future. R. is in love with these mongrels.