Ohhhh January

A pretty mellow week to report here. Just been settling back into the teaching/classes schedule at work and otherwise enjoying my happy little apartment at home. It was actually pretty amazing weather for Pullman earlier last week (up in the 40's!), but by the time I had any free daylight hours this weekend it had gone back to a little bit snowy and a lot bit foggy. I've always wondered if the weather gods have an inside scoop on my schedule so they can plan these sorts of things...

The view from my balcony. I began to feel like I live in a cloud!


But I guess I still made decent use of indoor time with some typically nerdy, Jenny-type projects. I worked on my next sewing attempts, still sticking with Lindsey's vintage apron pattern set I used for the Christmas apron, but trying two more with some cool veggie fabric I found. I figure I might as well make useful things as I'm learning, and this ties together me learning to sew with me learning to cook. Plus it won't hurt to look good in the kitchen, right? I guess that will depend on how they turn out, but I'm optimistic so far.

Aprons in their early phases.

I'll keep you posted as I go


So that, the gym, and a movie was the majority of my relaxation time all weekend (I rented Lars and the Real Girl, it's pretty great if you like the category of happy-funny-odd). I did take a few breaks though to stretch my legs with Bryan, and we did get into something new; we geocached, and right in our own neighborhood! He owns a GPS and has been reading up on the hobby lately, and just between our apartments and a nearby trail we've already found 3! Ok, ok, I know it's not quite the staggering record that SOMEBODY has (Dad =) ), but it's a start and gave us an excuse to get out even in all the slush. Since I helped, Bryan signed me up as his fellow geocacher - we're the "lost botanists," cache count 3. At this moment I'll just say that I feel pretty darned high-tech, writing in my blog and uploading digital photos from a GPS- and internet-based treasure hunt I went on today.

Out caching around.

Bryan joked I'm more of the "lost" part of "lost botanists"

It's true (although at least I'm not the crazy-looking one!)



And finally, speaking of high-tech, an addition to point out on the website tonight. To the right you'll see a new feature of "other good blogs I recommend." I talked to Lisa Bushman today (happy birthday Lis!) and found out she's started a blog to keep in touch with her family too! See, it must be a good idea. Just click on the link below the recommendations title to see what she and Mikel are up to in Michigan. I'll bet they'll be very honored as the 1st amazing blog I'm stamping with my approval. Is this the wave of the future? I think so...

Benefit, Bangs, and Badminton

Hello my friends! Not a ton to report tonight, but pretty cool that the three things I've done lately all started with a B, eh?

The first and main thing, Benefit, is really short for the "1st Annual Brian Connolly Benefit Night." What in the world is that, you wonder? Don't worry, most of the people that came wondered too! In fact, they may have gone home still wondering because it was sort of odd. For you then, some backstory...

About a year ago, my good friend and fellow grad Brian Connolly had a little accident after leaving a get-together at my house in celebration of the new Spring semester; he tripped and broke his neck. Don't grow overly worried at this point, he survived and is now completely healed and fine. However, it's important for the story to note that this friend is about as good-natured and innocent, yet so-clumsy-it-makes-him-endearing as a guy can get. (He was apparently banned from his undergrad gym for having too many accidents falling off equipment, etc.) So this is all to say the neck-breaking was not actually due to alcohol as you may have just assumed, he really just tripped! However, even for those of us who know him and were there, this obviously sounds like a thin cover-up for a drunken-revelry situation. Thus, for the whole last year he's had to be a pretty good sport as everyone teases him for being the craziest partier in Pullman.

As the year started again, it of course became obvious that Brian Connolly's monumental event needed some commemoration. And of course, the only thing fitting would be a WILD party (as far as grad students get wild). His friends tossed around names and "1st Annual Brian Connolly Benefit" stuck, so plans were made and people got excited. However, it just so happened that last week also witnessed the massive disaster in Haiti, and as I talked with the boys throwing the party about their plans for Saturday I started to feel terrible that this was what we were doing as a whole country was going without water.

The happy solution was that everyone agreed we could turn the night into a real benefit for Haiti! Actually, the guys all came up with some pretty funny party games involving neck braces and donations. So we had the benefit, and believe it or not made $276 for the Red Cross! It's not a ton, but for a bunch of students my goal was only $100, so this result is enough to make me really proud and I hope it helps in some small way. I stayed sober for the party in order to keep track of a fanny pack I was filling with the raised funds, but that turned out to be maybe the most fun job - overseeing the weirdness that was a broken-neck-themed party and actually remembering it all. In total, here were some of the best pictures I thought would give you a taste of the evening:

The star of the evening, Brian Connolly


JUST KIDDING! These next two show the real Brian Connolly, ecstatic to finally be laughing at his friends wearing the braces



Shannon wasn't quite so excited when Travis bought her 5 minutes of rehab


I won't come straight out and say we planned it, but it did turn out that several rounds of medically-themed drinking games are a good way to loosen people up to donating


Filling up the fanny pack!


One of the housemates was even nice enough to rally his band for some live bluegrass music


And so of course we had to dance...


Yeah, we're terrible dancers, and yeah, the neck braces made it even worse. But hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for charity! Beyond the benefit party, the only other things I did over the weekend were pretty minor. You may already have noticed that I finally worked in a haircut I've been meaning to get since Thanksgiving (yikes!). I'm happy I did that, and am now back to having bangs. This was maybe a more clear picture from Saturday to give an idea of how it came out:


And finally, I just got home from an evening off with Bryan thanks to the holiday of a certain fellow King (Martin Luther Jr). We played badminton until my right forearm went dead (good thing I'm almost done, phew) and dinner at Thai Ginger, one of our favorite restaurants in town. Now I think I'll savor the last free hours catching up on some reading and relaxing in my PJ's, and with that end a nice casual day. And hey, "books" starts with a B, so that seems like a pretty perfect thing to do =)

My New Year's Resolution: Say "No" to Dieting

Well, the first week back from break was at least a tad more interesting than expected! That is, if you find one day off and a few cooking projects around the house as interesting as I do? I guess I'd say the fun technically started last Friday night with some babysitting, something I haven't done in a while. As a thanks to my office-mate Jeff for watching my research plants and pet fish over break, I took charge of his two toddlers long enough for him to take his wife to dinner. We had a great time, such sweet little guys! And man, his 4-year-old is very honestly the smartest I've ever met - unprompted, he explained the common industries around the world using an atlas, and then the health benefits of calcium as we had cookies and milk!

The next day was an outing to the "Big City" around here, Spokane. Bryan and I decided to drive up sort of last minute, but for several reasons. For one, we both had Christmas gift cards to stores that aren't here in little old Pullman. Secondly, it gave us a reason to meet my friends Jill and new husband Eric for lunch and hear about their recent Costa Rica honeymoon. It feels nice to hang out with people NOT in the biology department sometimes (Pullman can get a little claustrophobic otherwise...). And thirdly, we made it up in time to see one of Bryan's younger cousins compete in a regional youth gymnastics meet. When I say younger, I mean so young that it was insane what these kids can do! There were 10ish-year-olds flipping, springing, and generally being super athletic everywhere. Here's the cousin; turns out I'm not a very good photographer of action shots, but this move is still impressive.

A pretty amazing sport when watching children do it actually inspires you to get out there and get in shape yourself!

That motivation being said, here's what I actually did with my scraps of free time after work this week: food, food, and more delicious food.

I've found another thing to like about a cold winter. It makes you absolutely LOVE something a simple as a grapefruit. While in Riverside, the grandparents had given Bryan and myself permission to raid their citrus and avocado trees, and we actually had 100% success hauling quite a bit of tasty loot back to Pullman in our suitcases. Every day I've seen it all piled up on my kitchen counter since makes me happy. Not only are they bright, colorful, and twice as big as anything you can buy in a store here, but super luxurious to be so fresh when the world is all cold and gray outside. And every time I eat one of the tangerines or grapefruits it tastes just like it always did my entire childhood, except ten times better because now it's a special thing that came from so far and I won't be eating every day for 4 months straight.

One little project I tried Sunday with decent success was to preserve some of the big, beautiful Meyer's lemons. This variety is definitely not sold here, and I read they're the perfect type for canning. This way I can think up things to enjoy them in for the next month or two. I went with candied lemon first; all I had to do was boil 4 sliced lemons in sugar water, and look at all the candy and syrup I got out of it!


I'm thinking the next thing would be to make some kind of sweet bread with chopped candied lemon bits inside and that syrup glazed over it. I'd also like to try canning salted lemons. I'll let you know what the heck that tastes like if I get to it. Being the botanist that I am, I also couldn't help but keep a bunch of seeds to see if I can get any to grow.

I'll keep you posted if this turns into a little farming project of its own.

Speaking of citrus, I saw the sweetest thing today involving an orange. My other office-mate, Berkley, just got married in late December, and in the lunch his new wife had packed for him this morning was an orange with "I Love You" carved onto the side. Aren't they adorable? It made me very happy for them =)

Another good use of the awesome Cali produce took place just this evening because the first smuggled avocado was ripe; it went into an avocado/bacon/lettuce/onion sandwich. YUM! And just in case that first glorious 5000 calories didn't make you drool, I'll admit I also tried an unthinkable thing I heard about recently: "baconaise." That's right, a little of the hot fat from the fried bacon stirred in with the mayo before spreading it on the bread. Although I think I heard my arteries cry a little, the rest of me thought it was one delicious dinner to end a long day in a long work week.

I know, I know, at this point you're thinking I'm already way too into this blogging thing because I'm now taking pictures of my dinner plate. Probably at least half true, but I felt like sharing because as a not-so-big fan of sandwiches in general, I was so impressed with this creation that it made me kinda proud!

And finally, I also relaxed tonight by finding a good use for that extra Christmas candy that would otherwise have gone into hiding in the cupboard for the next month; I just chopped it up and baked it into cookies. The candies I had left were a sort of imitation Andes Mints, but a sharp knife easily turned them into chunks that spruced up a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe.


I sampled part of one right after baking last night and really liked what I tasted, although I was still digesting the wonder that was my sandwich so I haven't gotten to test these very thoroughly yet.

So, there you have it, a delicious start to my semester, and a firm commitment to an abnormal New Year's resolution! Hope all are well, and good luck keeping your resolutions, whatever they may be. Hmm, I'm hungry...

Cali Christmas, Northport New Year

Ta-dah, found a cable, so time for more photos! Although sad that it means the holidays are now done, looking back on everything I got to do this break in summary is pretty fun - there's some cool stuff! The title pretty well frames the itinerary; Bryan wanted to come meet the CA family, so we did that first in order to cover my b-day and the Christmas Eve party with Gerry's family. Then on the 26th, flew back up to WA to relax at his parents' mountain ranch through New Year's. I think I'll just describe the events and any good stories by showing you some pictures!

Got down to Riverside on the 19th, and amid some last-second Christmas shopping I'd say my favorite part was a trip to the San Diego Zoo with the parents. This place has gotten pretty fancied-up since I remember it as a tiny tot. Note our color-coordinated family. We didn't even plan this I swear, I guess we're just that cool.


We even found giant statues of prehistoric animals, including this almost-familiar big cat - Go Cougs!


That Bryan, always getting up close and personal with the wildlife...


This is perhaps my favorite exact moment of the trip. What happens when you make a rhinoceros angry:


Next, we took a day to check out the So Cal beaches for Bryan's sake. Brought back some fun summer memories walking down the Newport boardwalk...and we ended the day with delightful cocktails at a sea cliff restaurant watching the sunset.


We also made sure to make the classic Riverside trip to see the Mission Inn decked out for the season. It's become a big deal these days, including an ice skating rink on the downtown mall.


And finally, some Christmas 2009 family moments...awww =)


My brain-like attempt at a peppermint cheesecake. It tasted great, but in retrospect I recommend putting the peppermint topping on AFTER baking.


NEXT: Flew back up to Spokane to fetch a car and make our way a little further north - to Northport in fact. This is Bryan's hometown, a picturesque outpost perched on the edge of the Columbia River and just shy of the Canadian border. His parents are still working on it, but have a pretty castle-like home nestled into ~400 acres of mountain wilderness.


The canyon view from the back door. (This is actually the scene before it started to snow!)


Man and dog, happily reunited for the week. Tuque got so big! Although we've had fun and will miss him back in Pullman, he's definitely living a dog's dream life here.


The first day, we hiked around the mountain behind the house to the hunter's cabin and lake. My very first experience on a natural ice pond. Kind of scary, but obviously I got past that.


Much of our time at the CCR (Carlson Canyon Ranch) was spent just relaxing around the house. This would be Bryan dressed up for western movie night...


And then the snow began...it snowed and snowed, and it was beautiful! So, first things first, a snowman was made.


Favorite thing in Northport was DEFINITELY the sledding! Once we got a good pack, a bunch of people from town headed to the locals' favorite spot where they have a whole system set up for it; the road is plowed, one family drives carloads to the top, and you get dropped off to go sliding down like little penguins.


That was fun!


And apparently no New Year's would be complete without a dance party at the Sik's! Most of the menfolk spent their time outside around the bonfire, but I did manage to rope Bryan into dancing inside with the ladies a few times.


How do you top that kind of fun? How about some llamas? These things are cool, and as you can see, in-your-face friendly.


And they seem to like cameras.


Last but not least, even when cars can't go, snowmobiles at the neighbor's ranch can!


Look out, I took turn at the wheel...


I'll admit, I felt pretty James Bondish.


And so it's been said, many times, many ways, but Merry Christmas to you! I probably won't have such an abundance of photos to share again for a bit, I gotta get back to this whole "Master's Degree" thing, but I hope you find these fun for a while. PS, if you want to see even more pictures from these weeks off, I've included some extras you can find at this website. If you're not bored yet, check it out. And of course, I hope you all made some happy memories of your own to think back on this holiday!