dendrochronology

compost! it's the sh*t.

2011-09-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

While away in the field and desperately missing my garden (among other things), but loving my new Kindle, I downloaded and read The Quarter-Acre Farm. While there were a few dumb moments, overall it was a decent read, and I especially appreciated the part about compost. As a lazivore (my new favorite term, thank you Treehugger), I don't turn our compost. Sometimes I poke at it with a pitchfork, but that's about it. And by sometimes I mean once every 6 months. Apparently I am not alone, but Ms. Warren describes her technique of simply removing the uncomposted stuff on the top to get at the good stuff below. Ah hah! Only our scrap wood compost bin has a removable front, so I just removed the front and carefully scraped out about 3 cu. ft. of lovely composted compost. I could have gone for more, but I started to worry about the pile's structural stability, plus it was hard. But I got enough to top off the one raised bed that is currently empty. And I forgot to take pictures before I got it all re-sealed.

In other news, things are growing, but not too fast at my own 0.05 acre farm. Except for the birdhouse gourd vines, which are trying to take over the world. One of the more amazing things in the yard continues to be the flowering basil, which the bees love so much it is almost embarrassing. And fortunately Rudy the dog has decided to ignore them for the time being (we will not pretend that he actually learned from last year's bee eating / face swelling / Benadryl induced sleeping event).

Felt!

2011-07-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, so sometime last year my cousin sent me a link to this site with one of those "ha ha, this looks like some hippie s**t you would do" emails. Little did she know, we were in the midst of a crisis in which N was totally ready to chuck his favorite Patagucci cashmere sweater because it had a hole in the elbow. So, I said "ah hah!", ignored my cousin's tone, and went to buy a felting needle. Only my local yarn shop doesn't carry felting supplies (though they told me there's a shop like an hour away that does) and the people at Michael's across the street from my house looked at me like I was crazy. So, the sweater went in a box, and life got busy. BUT, apparently since then felting has gone viral (as has fixing sweaters - google it, I dare you) and so the last time I was wandering around our disheveled Michael's I discovered a whole new felting section. So this weekend I tried it. I didn't take a before picture, but here's shortly in to the process:

And then slightly further along:

And this is the finished product:

Not quite amazing, but kinda fun. I turned the sleeve inside to outside a few times, and I could work more on it, but this represents like 20+ minutes of pretty concentrated felting-needle poking. I'm guessing if he ever wears this he will get a lot of "Hey, there's something... wait, what's going on on you elbow?"

Garden update: Slowly clearing out, the cabbages are having babies, slugs and/or birds have a striking preference for butternut squash seedlings (over acorn and fairytale pumpkin), the watermelons are sprawling, and if the cucumbers ever start growing they may get slapped in the face by several birdhouse gourd vines. Fun!

SF Flower Mart

2011-07-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

One of the most fun and unique experiences of planning the wedding (and doing all the flowers with just help from family and friends) was taking a trip to the San Francisco Flower Mart. As a recent inductee into the world of flowers, it's pretty incredible. You can literally buy almost any kind of flower you can imagine. For better or worse, many of the flowers are not locally grown - I asked one seller where his roses were from and he proudly told me they were from Ecuador. While they were beautiful, I looked for and eventually found equally beautiful roses from California (organic? no...)

We really didn't buy that much for the wedding - I had already picked up several bunches of mini callas from the farmer's market (from the same grower who recently sold me some awesome dahlias), and we had some stuff from the garden. We did buy some yellow and white roses, several bunches of white hydrangeas, 2 delicious bunches of peonies (the same kind that are currently NOT flowering in my garden), some flowering kale, some other crazy kale, and some curly willow branches. A few of the willow branches even sprouted, and I'm keeping one in water with plans to pot it at some point (that should work, right?)

Anyhow, the flowermart opens at like 3 a.m. but they don't allow us non-pros in until 10 a.m. so I can only imagine how incredible it must be in the wee hours of the morning. Now in my next life I want to be a homesteader, fabric crafter, and locally grown florist.

Variety

2011-07-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

One of the things that still shocks me about gardening is the incredible assortment of different varieties available of things that, to most people, are just one thing. And not just of lettuce and potatoes, either. Territorial Seed Co. lists 35 different types of garlic. Thirty five! Do they all taste different? Look different? It seems that way, yet if I walked into a fancy grocery store and asked for "Ontario purple trillium garlic" I'm guessing I would get some funny looks. And then there's red onions. Did you know there are different kinds of red onions? (as well as multiple types of white and yellow and scallions?)

There are also the things we know have varieties, but it turns out that those varieties are just categories, too. "Heirloom tomato" actually refers to an almost infinite number of varieties. Here are a few of my favorite names (today):
- Yellow perfection
- Green zebra
- Delicious (duh?)
- Kellogg's breakfast (in our garden now)
- Pink accordion
- Tiger-like
- Cosmonaut Volkov
- Striped cavern...

It goes on. If you have some procrastinating to do, check out Baker Creek's tomato options and just imagine the possibilities.

Carpenter bees and other thoughts

2011-07-03T20:25:00.001-07:00

On June 18th N and I were married, largely explaining why I haven't written a blog post in nearly a year. Much of my time was devoted to crafting, reading other people's blogs about wedding craftiness, and attempting to grow all of the flowers for the wedding. The last didn't exactly work (I would estimate I grew about 30% of the flowers used in the actual wedding decorations), but it means my garden is much different this year than last.

Here's an abbreviated list of what I grew: various sunflowers (bloomed perfectly on time, unexpectedly), calla lilies (epic failure), peonies (fail, duh), zinneas (fail for the wedding but now blooming beautifully), marigolds (mostly starts, great in the wedding), double-click cosmos (only a few blooms for the wedding, now great), bells of Ireland (meh), some kind of poppy that is about to bloom, dusty miller (from starts, good for wedding filler), ranunculus (too early), alliums (almost all too early), columbine (fail), German chamomile (fail, though finally growing), hydrangeas (now have tiny, unexpectedly pink-ish blooms), yarrow (big win, unintentional addition), and a huge, insane, amazing smelling mountain of sweetpeas ('April in Paris' and 'Royal Wedding' from Renee's Garden). There are a few photos on flickr of the bouquets, etc, with hopefully more to come. In addition to the wedding flowers I've had some good luck with echinacea, violas, and nasturtiums, so it's a pretty colorful place.

What this all means is that the garden this year has been a much more lively place for birds and bees. One big surprise was that the birds' favorite snack seemed to be sunflower leaves. This left the leaves looking lacy, but the flowers intact, but that was fine by me. The bees have been everywhere, of course, but the most exciting was when I got buzzed by a GIANT bee headed to a dime-sized hole in a rotten log I was using to hold down some black plastic (attempting to grow watermelons on the California coast...). It's probably silly for me to be so excited about a relatively common native insect, but I just feel so honored that this guy (I think) has deemed my often scruffy yard to be good habitat for not just foraging but living.

Here's a photo:

I claim no entomological expertise, but I am fairly certain that this is a carpenter bee (Xylocopa spp.) of some species. Go nature!

Garden Update

2010-07-21T21:22:00.001-07:00

We have a zucchini problem. I'm not embarrassed about it. I mean, sometimes, in life, you wake up nearly every morning to find new, surprisingly large zucchini lurking where you thought there were only flowers. I did better when N was out of town and I could convince myself that a plate of sliced raw zucchini constituted dinner. And lunch.

But now that he's home and we cook, we've cut back to maybe 1/2, maybe 3/4 of a zucchini per day, and that's just not enough to keep up. Tonight (N is out) I did make Barbara Kingsolver (and family)'s Disappearing Zucchini Orzo. I have to say that while it did make the zucch disappear, this is definitely a dish for a family with kids. I helped it out with some sun-dried tomatoes, but it could probably use more zest. (though I just went back for seconds)

And yesterday we made Sunset's arugula, fennel, and preserved lemon salad. Here's a question for you: are salt-preserved lemons just supposed to taste like salt? Did we miss something? Maybe you should rinse them? It was intense. Nothing like having to hydrate after your salad...

Forgetting...

2010-07-04T22:24:00.000-07:00

I think I had forgotten about summer. Not having interns to supervise makes it feel less real. That and being away for its first month. But now it's too hot from noon to 6 pm, too cold right after that, and right now I can hear fireworks (R is, as usual, surprisingly indifferent). Though this strange school schedule means that independence day feels more like the start of summer, not the middle. It's strange how little is going on campus, compared to during the year.

Folks were over earlier and I tried to hide some zucchini in a salad that included potatoes (also from the garden!), grated zucch, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, thyme, red wine vinegar, olive oil, and, of course, salt & pepper. Not great but not too bad. Everyone was impressed by the gigantic-ness of my zucchini plants... but no one knows the cause - more morning sun? afternoon shade? fertilizer anomaly? oh, plants, why are you so fickle?

Home...

2010-06-30T22:18:00.000-07:00

... from Santa Fe and road tripping. See pictures of the Grand Canyon and whatnot. Not quite done processing the experience, but came home to an excessive amount of zucchini. Learned an interesting lesson tonight about hunger beating out kitchen creativity. And the house is still not self-cleaning. Sigh.

What am I forgetting?

2010-06-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I embark on the first serious solo road trip I've taken in a while. I'll be in Santa Fe, NM, for the next three weeks, learning something about "complex systems." On the way I have plans to spend a night in the Mojave, a night with friends in Flagstaff, and then two nights at the Grand Canyon on the way home (which I have never before seen! gasp!)

At the end of a pretty ridiculous search, I finally found my old-ish iPod, which will make all of this much more fun. I've gone through more than one hard drive in the past few years, and, of course, I'm not so good about backing up music, so this little device contains some music that I don't have other access to (yes, I know I could deal with this... but that takes effort and some shadiness). It will be interesting. Just me, Rowdy (the car), Sylvie (the road bike), and a bunch of random stuff (my cycling shoes are already packed).

I've already said goodbye to N and R, so now it's just parting with the garden, which will hopefully survive without me. The real news is that the center hop reached the ROOF of the garage the other day. Observe:

Awesome. The corn may be a lost cause, but I have hope for everyone else.

Here goes something!

Who knew?

2010-05-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Friends, I have surprising news: my brain has been hijacked by a crazy wedding planning person. This isn't actually all that surprising. I love parties, planning complicated things, and DIY stuff, so, really, a wedding is like a great culmination of fun things for me to obsess about. But it is a bit terrifying. Like, yesterday my cousin sent me links to EIGHT DIFFERENT WEBSITES that sell bicycle-themed wedding toppers that are not tandems. I hate to say it, but if for men the internet is for porn, for women it might be for wedding planning.

So, I either need to not talk about it here, or disconnect this blog from my "professional webpage" lest people realize that I spent several hours yesterday (1) looking for shrug knitting patterns, (2) shopping for yarn, and (3) knitting.

But, in other news, parts of the garden are going great. The weird one, though, is that my corn is tasseling at about 3 feet tall. Not good. According to the internet, corn flowering is linked to how many leaves it's put out, but its height is driven by sunlight & temperature. Hence, I plant corn too early, we have freakishly cold spring, I get diminutive corn. But supposedly it won't decrease yields. I'll let you know.

One more wedding / party planning comment: it's funny how some environmentally friendly things can make a party more expensive than normal (organic food, recycled paper invitations, providing shuttles), while others make it cheaper (not using flowers flown in from Peru, recycling, hand making stuff). Hmmm.

The News!

2010-05-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

Phew, well, yet again a couple of weeks have slipped by. But below is the epic tale of our engagement! Enjoy!

On Saturday, we drove up to Chico, CA, with the intent of pedaling in the 100-mile Chico Wildflower Century. At about 6 a.m. on Sunday I realized that I had forgotten my cycling shoes (a fairly essential part of a 100-mile ride). After a quick search for friendly cyclists with extra shoes, I conceded to try on N's size 10 (men's) shoes. With a pair of arm warmers stuffed in the toes, they weren't so bad, and so I conceded to *try* them on the ride. That left N with no shoes, but he valiantly pulled on a pair of socks, donned his flip-flops, and then duct-taped them to his feet.

At the 51-mile mark we reached the top of the last major climb, and while was I celebrating surviving, N, very unexpectedly, quieted the crowd at the rest stop, got down on one knee, and pulled out a ring! Of course I said yes, and then (since we were behind schedule due to the shoe epic) we got back on our bikes and finished the 100 miles.

Wahoo!

Once again...

2010-04-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

... Sunset Magazine comes through, even though I was skeptical at first. Brown sugar-banana coffee cake muffins, I thought you were going to get ugly, but you turned out awesome. Hopefully my committee agrees. Actually, hopefully the muffins aren't the most important part of the meeting, but baking success is an added bonus.

There is other big news but it's not quite blog-ready yet. But we did successfully complete the Chico Wildflower Century on Sunday, despite several surprising, monumental occurrences.

In the news

2010-04-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

Our favorite local German beer garden is totally famous.

The Salsa Trials of 2010

2010-03-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

Whoa. This has been a pretty epic house/garden weekend. I started off with a solid to-do list, only to discover yesterday that each thing on the list was really a >1 hr type of activity (i.e. "harvest" = pick winner plants/leaves, reject losers, pull up whole plants, compost, wash, wash, wash). Last year I had what I think was salmonella from unwashed farmers market lettuce, so I am no longer casual about leaf-washing. But the salad spinner is my new favorite invention.

The real purpose of this post is to record a salsa recipe. In anticipation of tomato season I'm hoping to perfect a mix. I'm usually a pico de gallo kind of gal, but for long-term storage, I think boiling will have to do. So today I made two 12 oz jars of this (an amalgam of internet recipes)

Salsa Trial No. 1

9 med. tomatoes (from TJ's) chopped (seeds & middle stay in... I'm lazy)
1.5 chipotle jalapenos (from B & A) minced
1 T brown sugar
1 "garleek" (going to be hard to replicate) chopped
2 t salt
2 t white vinegar
0.5 c cilantro stemmed & washed
juice of 2 limes
zest of 1 lime
0.5 c onions (mini-scallions from the garden) minced
2 t black pepper
2 T cornstarch
0.25 c water

Combine all but last 2 ingredients in a big pot, hand blend till smooth, bring to a boil then simmer for 45 min to cook down. Mix cornstarch & water separately then add to pot. Pour into jars, let cool for a bit on the counter then into the fridge.

Upon first tasting this recipe is okay. Next time definitely needs more onions and a squidge more garlic (N permitting...) and maybe another spice, but I'll have to ask the expert for advice on that.

In other news, I out-planted the corn yesterday. I know it's too early, but it was too huge for the wee peat pots. I think normally it would be okay, but we're supposed to have epic weather this week. So I haven't planted the pumpkins and beans, in case we have to start over. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to live somewhere with simultaneous warmth and rain, eh?

I had a leek there, but I got bored.

2010-03-27T21:29:00.001-07:00

Epic garden day - mowed the over-grown lawn, planted the corn (with embarrassing soaker hose), and harvested almost everything from the raised beds. Sure, stuff wasn't ready, but after some thought I decided to turn it all into soup. I'm calling the garlic "garleeks", the leeks sad onions, and the onions... scallions. And the kale and chard... epic. But about 17 rounds with the salad spinner later, I think I've made soup. Now if I can just get it all into cans without any serious burns, I'll be good to go. Pictures will be posted manana. R is not entertained.

Bed Prep

2010-03-14T17:11:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I painstakingly cut all the cover crop in the 10x10 plot (wheat, vetch, fava beans, and who knows what else) and then dug it up. Then today I began what could be a long experiment. First I added some soil and manure to amend and level it out.

Then I covered the whole thing with newspaper, wetting it to keep it all from blowing away. This step will hopefully keep down the weeds. Looks classy, eh?

Finally, the whole thing got covered with a nice layer of soil. When I plant into it I'll dig through the newspaper, but hopefully this will cut down on the weeds and re-sprouting cover crop.

more Spring!

2010-03-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

We pedaled up OLH after work today, which was surprisingly not as hard as I expected (though I still wouldn't want to do it every day...) But the best part was that it is as close as I've ever been to hiking while on a road bike. Not only did we ride through redwoods, but there were Trilliums and milkmaids in bloom all along the road. And a lot of very fancy houses with PVs and water tanks, which I guess you have to do up there, but it was impressive.

Spring! (well, almost)

2010-03-08T21:33:00.000-08:00

Whoa, where did February go? Meh, it was rainy and cold and full of work. But now there's sunshine (springing forward this weekend, though that won't help my early mornings) and the garden is starting to perk up. I've been posting stuff on flickr, but here's the big winner:

The daffodils ('Tahiti' and another double) are finally starting to bloom! We also planted three 'Magnum' hops rhizomes (alpha 12-14%!), so the asparagus and hops bed is mostly done (still need to do some rigging for the hops). The seedlings I started indoors are growing a bit faster than I expected (mostly the corn), so we're changing our planting plans a bit, but all should be fine.

Otherwise all is well in our little homestead. My two new favorite books are the Sunset Western Garden Book of Edibles and Home Grown. Just as long as it doesn't hail again...

I am thinking of things that are brown.

2010-01-31T22:30:00.000-08:00

Earlier today R and I went for a hike at Pulgas Ridge, where there was a serious fetid adder's tongue (Scoliopus bigelovii) party on the northwest side. Check this out:

So I don't forget, this is what I baked today, adapted from Dreena Burton's Vegan Recipes. Though, honestly, the whole wheat-for-spelt substitution was simply because I couldn't fathom a trip to Whole Paycheck just for spelt flour. These cookies are an attempt to solve two challenges: (1) being vegan for 1 or 2 months and (2) not being super hungry on days that I run. Immediately out of the oven they taste pretty good!

Super-Charge Me! Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup oats / whole grain mix
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp (rounded) sea salt
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 - 1/3 cup dried berries
3-4 tbsp walnut pcs
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup flax meal
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
3 tbsp almond butter
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp canola oil

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). In a bowl, combine oats, flour, salt, cinnamon, coconut, dried fruit, and nuts, sift in baking powder, and stir until well combined. In a separate bowl, combine flax meal, syrup, almond butter, and vanilla and stir until well combined. Stir in oil. Add wet mixture to dry, and stir until just well combined (do not overmix). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spoon batter onto baking sheet evenly space apart, and lightly flatten. Bake for 13 minutes (no longer, or they will dry out). Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 1 minute (no longer), then transfer to a cooling rack.

Number of Servings: 12

In other news, I sowed seeds today (indoors, of course)! Cherry & Roma tomatoes, baby bell peppers, Ancho, Jalapeno, and New Mexican chiles, marigolds, and Echinacea. Get psyched for spring!

Salinger & Zinn

2010-01-29T21:13:00.001-08:00

I have to say, right now, that I have a closer affinity for Zinn, and more sentiment, than I do for Salinger. I think this is probably telling, but here's the thing: Salinger, at least in my brief, distant experience with him, wrote books for boys. It's interesting, actually. Adam Gopnick's tribute claims that "In American writing, there are three perfect books, which seem to speak to every reader and condition: 'Huckleberry Finn,' 'The Great Gatsby,' and 'The Catcher in the Rye.'" Funny thing - these are all books about men/boys. In contrast, A People's History of the United States reminds us that there is more to U.S. history, and life, than white men and their adventures. This also all sweetly reminds me of my high school APUS history teacher, Mr. Strand, who had us reading Zinn, Takaki, and Stephen Steinberg when we were supposed to be memorizing textbooks. In hindsight, those books (and Mr. Strand?) played huge roles in my adult view of the world.

AND, I am reminded that I should own (or at least preview from the library) Voices of a People's History of the U.S. - Zinn's selection of primary sources. Just as soon as the stack of books on the bedside table shrinks a bit.

Anthropomorphication

2010-01-29T07:01:00.000-08:00

This almost made me cry. Poor Rover...

The best laid plans...

2010-01-19T20:02:00.000-08:00

Before I start I would like to thank the home rental gods for providing me with a home with a gas stove. I woke up this morning (after waking up at the normal time, hitting the snooze, and going back to sleep) to find that the power was out and it was much later than I expected. Cool, except that my coffee maker needs electricity, and therefore I need electricity. But I rummaged out the French press, lit a burner on the stove, and made coffee anyway. Also, I'm glad I remembered to grind beans the night before. That does need electricity. I should keep an emergency stash of ground beans somewhere...

And then here we go. I am not a great cook. I'm not a terrible cook, but since I am a vegetarian and try to stick to Michael Pollan's rules ("Eat food, not too much, mostly plants") and experiment with raw diets, I don't have a huge repertoire. BUT I do own a tart pan (for reasons I won't discuss here) and so when the opportunity to produce a baked good of the tart variety arises, I often volunteer.

So, my friend is rallying some folks to try to raise money for Haiti the old fashioned way - with a rum-focused bake sale, Haitian single-drip coffee, and whatever we can get away with making in the bike-powered blender. Naturally, I volunteered to bake a tart.

Searching epicurious for baked deserts with rum, I found this, which looked relatively simple. And it is. Two problems: the "1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs" should read "1 1/2 cups." I know this now. Now that the bottom of my oven is covered in burned butter, my stove hood has been venting for 30 minutes, and both house doors are wide open (in January). Second problem is that it turns out (I should read these things more carefully before I start to make them) that the filling is just bananas mixed with apricot jam. JAM. Is that lame, or is it just me?

But it turned out at least food-looking, and my vision is to cut it up then serve single slivers topped with the whipped cream. And nutmeg. Or maybe I'll add nutmeg now...

To Link, or Not To Link

2010-01-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

There are now five sprouted asparagus, and after untangling an epic knot, I'm trying to get back in the knitting saddle, as it were.

There are some additional ponderings, but they may have to wait.

Tiny Asparagus

2010-01-14T20:34:00.000-08:00

Today there were two (of ten root crowns planted on 12/30).

[sorry about the crappy picture] They were planted about 10 inches deep, then covered with a few inches of soil. Once they've all emerged I'll cover them with a couple more inches, until they emerge again, looping (I've been writing code all day) until the ground is flat again. Then NEXT YEAR we get to taste a bit of home-grown asparagus. This year we're just all about establishment.

In other news it's supposed to rain like crazy all weekend/next week, so I may get my wish of lazing around the house and reading all day. And in one of my beer traps there was a crazy huge larvae thing. Gross.

On Coffee

2010-01-11T18:19:00.001-08:00

I'm thinking a lot about coffee these days because (1) a friend of ours sent us some of his favorite local beans for Christmas and (2) apparently coffee grounds spread around a plant prevent slugs (so far so good!). BUT, more interestingly, recently several people have independently told me how their new favorite thing is single-cup, freshly-ground drip coffee, and how they've found it to be the most delicious, best way to enjoy the brew. "Wow," I've responded. "Yeah... you know that's like the hipster trend of the moment, right?" They all have responded with disappointment and/or incredulity. "Really?" "Damn."

Though it's not really even of the moment. Blue Bottle Coffee has been around for nearly 10 years (they now sell it on campus), I had single brew coffee from a pedi-cart in Chico, CA, almost three years ago, there's a single-brew place in my (not hip) neighborhood, and the Chemex was invented in 1941 (so could it qualify as steampunk?). There's no real point to this except that (1) how can people be so unaware of what, at least in the Bay Area, is like 15 minutes away from being the next big ubiquitous thing, and (2) be so bummed that it's a trend?

Interestingly (with some web surfing), it seems as if there may be a debate among coffee brewers at this time. Some, like Blue Bottle and Chemex, rock the pour-through-paper-filter method. Others, like Stumptown, are apparently all about the French press-style (soak the grinds then filter). I am apparently not the expert to judge, but I will point out that I tend to be anti-sludge.

Still, as long as we still have a non-Nescafe option, I'm cool.

Oddly Cleansing

2010-01-10T20:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning we started cutting. Or, I started cutting on the small apple tree. Then we moved up to the big apple and flowering plum. The carbon-handled loppers N got me for Christmas are fantastic, as are N's climbing skills and our neighbors. Midday yesterday involved our neighbor on the roof of his garage (with the white siding in the picture), beer in one hand, chainsaw-on-a-stick in the other, us with a rope around a limb to pull it into our yard, and then a lot of smoke (chain could use some sharpening). Here are the winning shots. Before:

And after:

The neighbors also loaned us the cutting pole and the crazy ratcheting loppers. Which were great. The flowering plum still has a big top on it, but, well, it's really tall and awkward. Plus a hummingbird definitely considers the top of the tree to be an essential part of its territory, so we felt bad cutting it down. Maybe next year it will have to go all together. I starting thinking I could plant a coffeeberry or two in its place...

I have a new respect for wood rats after my experience cutting up and piling tiny bits of stick (which will maybe all fit in our green waste bin eventually? too much for the compost, I think, and we probably shouldn't burn it). It's a lot of work! And imagine doing all that with just your teeth and no opposable thumbs!

We also caught another slug (!!!) and I'm trying using coffee grounds around the bases of plants as a slug deterrent. We shall see. I ordered the last of the seeds we need for the summer, so I think we're pretty good to go. Though we may just have to wrap copper tape around all the raised beds. And I'm still waiting for the asparagus to come up. Did I mention the asparagus...?

Update - spoke too soon

2010-01-06T20:47:00.000-08:00

In the daylight this a.m. I saw this

Next to this

Victory! But only one. How many more are out there...?

The Slug Wars of 2010

2010-01-06T06:23:00.000-08:00

I think the garden has a (minor) slug problem (holes nibbled in leaves, a few missing edges). So I did the reasonable thing and went and got a six-pack of Simpler Times, sank a few shallow jars/salsa containers between the plants, filled them each with the brew and a pinch of yeast, and patiently waited. But it's morning number two and still no slug carnage! Somewhere the internets said birds might pick the dead slugs out, so you might not see them, but I just went out pre-dawn and still no slugs! Am I doing something wrong? No noticeable increase in slug damage, either, so maybe they're on vacation, but I'm pretty disappointed. (side note: how do Buddhists grow food? I'm down with growing organically, but not killing pests? How does that work?)

I also read in a book that spreading coffee grounds around the base of seedlings (or just on the ground before they sprout) works. I may try this on the strawberries. And N loves it when I collect and store random trash-like things. Tupperware full of used coffee grounds, anyone?

First Harvest

2010-01-02T15:26:00.000-08:00

Radishes! Meowkay, so we've been eating the arugula, lettuce, and spinach for a bit now, but this is the first things we've actually, like, grown into food (esp. since I bought the lettuce & spinach as starts, so basically all I've done is not kill them... yet...)

N's dad and step-mom are in town and coming over for dinner, so I thought it was an appropriate occasion to harvest. I've spent most of the past few days poring through seed catalogs, and designing our spring garden, but I'm beginning to worry that I won't have much to do in the coming months.

But then again, N got me awesome carbon-handled (of course) Felco loppers for Christmas and so now I get to go nuts on our trees. We did the fig last week, and the apples and plum will come along shortly. Though I think those will be a bit more involved.

I also *finally* finished the baby quilt I was making, and I'm pretty happy with it (but the next babies are definitely getting knitted things!) and threw together some slippers for the cousins and sister-in-law. Mental note = sewing through vinyl is hard! But seeing all three of them immediately put them on Christmas Eve was totally cool.

Okay. Time to go help cook! (vegetarian risotto with pureed acorn squash, porcini, & red bell pepper, roast asparagus, and warm spinach salad)

Happy New Year, internet!

Day 2

2009-11-10T21:23:00.000-08:00

Meh. Not so bad... yet. Though I burned my tongue this morning on some too-hot tea, so that's bumming me out. And I'm getting bored of chewing so much (silly roughage). So far shunning booze and cheese isn't boosting my desire to work, though. Surfing the internet is just so much more fun! And now to read some of The Canon (Natalie Angier), which I have been slowly making my way through

Day 1

2009-11-09T21:42:00.000-08:00

Today is the first day (of 10, hopefully) of ye' olde raw fruit & veg cleanse. Since I'm already borderline vegan, this isn't a huge switch, and I'm keeping some minor and not so minor exceptions (can you call it a "cleanse" while still drinking coffee every morning?). But it is still a bit of a challenge. And always impressive to see how much tea I can drink when I'm bored of the food options.

And luckily I live in a state where farmers' markets are still open in November. When I did this last spring, it led to some interesting results, so we'll see what this brings (look, Ma, no more Diet Coke!). So far just a craft project plan and some more tiny, tiny stitches. Perhaps tomorrow I will provide a quilt update (no, it's not finished). Mmmmm, Bedtime Tea...

Compost!

2009-11-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

Today we built a compost bin! Hooray, no more storing compost in the metal trash can that got all stinky and full of fruit flies. Despite some disagreement on the design (see creative use of found wood), it turned out okay, I think. I did accidentally disrupt an Argentine ant nest in the process of moving my small pile of yard clippings and leaves into the bin. I feel about 5% bad about that.

Really, I only feel 5% bad about killing a bunch of ants and ant larvae (and disrupting their home) because I read Elizabeth Kolbert's review of Jonathan Safran Foer's new book about vegetarianism. Of course, I don't eat meat (and less and less eggs & cheese, these days) but, well, there is this awkward question about where to draw that line, right? I've seen video of Argentine ants interacting with other insects, waging hostile takeovers, etc, so, how bad to they feel right now? What about when I go to turn the compost?

But, honestly, if they invade my house then it's war.

In other news, lots is going on in the garden. Anything that looks noteworthy on flickr is a start from the nursery, but the seeds are coming along. Who knew that hours of sunlight was such an important factor? Oh, wait. I did. Doh.

Making progress...

2009-10-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

Phew! Not only do we have germination (more on that sometime soon), but we have (nearly) a place to put the baby plants. Three 4' x 8' raised beds, plus a 10' x 9' plot for the three sisters (after a cover crop mix from Common Ground). I am anticipating waking up tomorrow barely able to move due to all the digging I did today (thank goodness for the rain!) Now if only I could get the compost situation figured out. And buy some soil. Oh, the list goes on. We have also had our first houseguests (for HSB) and our first dinner party (cooked Moosewood's Bulgarian red pepper stew and baked Hungarian pumpernickel bread. My baking skills continue to produce dense, but tasty bread...more yeast? heat?)

Drum roll, please...

2009-09-15T16:54:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen... We have germination.

Seriously, everything has a few sprouts coming up except for the Tuscan kale, the spinach, and the red onions (who are a day behind). And the marigolds are blooming, which is nice too. But the seedlings are the best. One more:

I'm pretty psyched that this whole farming thing hasn't been derailed on the first step.

Oh, internet....

2009-09-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

How I've missed you! Sure, we still had the iPhone, but, honestly, the iPhone is not for hanging out online and randomly searching for stuff. Or blogging. Or really doing anything except proving someone (or myself) wrong about something via wikipedia. But we moved! Or I moved, and this weekend we move N. And now we live in a house. With walls. That aren't touching other houses' walls. And when I jingle my keys two crazy dogs don't go ape s**t. And R can do just about whatever he wants. And as of this afternoon we have internet.

Currently I am full of plans but empty of fundage, so I do things like stake out where raised beds will someday go, and buy seeds. Lots of seeds. And make spreadsheets. I'm thinking I'll do some photo-monitoring (because that's what I do). This is the yard as it stands. There are two apple trees and a fig, and lots of dead lawn. Things may get interesting...

The current veggie seed list includes leeks, spinach, lettuce, two kinds of kale, arugula, scallions, Swiss chard, radishes, beets, carrots, and cauliflower. There were no big onions at the hippie organic store, so we'll see. But if I find some motivation, they may all get sown tonight! Or tomorrow. Oh, temperate climates. How fun are you?

Really important question

2009-08-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

Due to a sad, overplayed "workout mix" in my ipod, I have developed the following question: Which is the better rhyme? Nelly's intrepid use of "...bottles, ...models, ...throttle, ...goggles," or Sir Mix-a-Lot's "...Honda, ...Fonda, ...anaconda." I ponder this question on a regular basis.

In other news, the quilt progresses but I've started a new set of projects that are top secret for the time being. And the house situation will hopefully be made official on Sunday, then there will be much rejoicing. And trips to Ikea and the plant nursery.

House!

2009-08-19T20:38:00.000-07:00

It looks like we're moving (at some point...)! I just spent all this time trying make a sketch of it on my lame tablet pc, but the sketch program will only export in LAME formats. WTF? So you'll just have to imagine it for now. BUT, it's got space, a yard, and a garage (and allows Mr. R) so what else could I possibly need. Maybe I'll give this exportation thing another go. Stand by...

Hah! Oh, Microsoft Paint, when will I shell out the cash for a real program so that I don't need you anymore? But this is what the front of the house will look like once I get my hands on some cheap giant pots (it's all concrete). The back will be a project of epic proportions, but there are two apple trees, a fig tree, and a whole bunch of dead lawn that really wants to be converted to a mini-farm. I may have to subscribe to Sunset Magazine. Does that mean I'm old?

Progress!

2009-08-16T18:41:00.001-07:00

OK, back from ABQ where we discovered an unreasonable amount of broken glass on the roads and bike paths. But we also discovered thorn-resistant tubes. Apparently the locals roll them WITH SEALANT and that's how they avoid flats. I actually carried Clyde through a bike path underpass to avoid what must have been several fifths of who knows what.

But now I'm home and after sending N off at 4:30 a.m. I've had an alarmingly productive Sunday. Finished and combined the quilt squares yesterday:

N was a bit startled by the lack of pattern/symmetry, but I think he's getting over it. Then I added top and bottom borders, made a backing, and then a "quilt sandwich" and THEN started on what is now my least favorite part of quilting: hand basting it all together.

On the up side, it does show how cool the back may eventually look...

Now it's just a couple of bajillion tiny stitches between me and finished! This has all been additionally challenging as I've been keeping all fingers and toes crossed about a potential rental house that would be AWESOME. Like a hundred billion hot dogs, sir.

Potential Epic

2009-07-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

Task of the morning? Getting this bike:

into it's FAA regulation size suitcase so that I can take it with me to a conference in Albuquerque.

Fortunately I have step-by-step instructions from N... First we carefully pad it and take it apart.

Then fit it into it's box Tetris-style.

Then stuffing clothes in as extra padding, and I'm ready to go! Hopefully the re-assembly goes as smoothly, and hopefully I can carve out some time in the very full schedule to get some rides in.

Le Tired

2009-07-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

Two days of running the dog in the morning, then pedaling to work, then hiking around all day, then pedaling home & entertaining the dog some more is maybe too much. BUT I only have two quilting squares left, then it's on to... what comes after making the squares? Hopefully something less painstakingly detailed.

What I should be doing right now is adjusting Clyde-the-Ritchey-Breakaway's front derailleur so that I can use the big chain ring tomorrow (and fixing the handlebars, and swapping the saddles). But I'm tired and want to watch the Daily Show and go to bed. And make breakfast and walk R somewhere in there.

I'm starting to collect pictures of poison oak (the plant, not the rash on my arm) on flickr. They really are quite pretty, despite their bad rap.

And that concludes my random listing of thoughts.

Attempting a Resurrection

2009-07-26T14:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I know we thought I'd let this thing die, but all of a sudden it seems like a good idea again. I just bought a new camera (after leaving the old one at a plot...) and so am feeling inspired to take pictures and post them somewhere. I'm also in the midst of making a quilt - my first attempt at such a thing. It's turning out to be a lot more precision cutting and ironing than actual sewing, and unlike knitting, you definitely can't do it while watching TV (at least the beginning, square-sewing part). But it does feed my need to be obsessive. And since I'm sortof tired of the Big Bad Baby Blanket (Stitch & Bitch), but everyone I know keeps having babies, I figure I need a new gig. Also working on a knitting project, but that doesn't look like much yet.

This is what a quilt square would look like if you were 1 inch tall:

And this is what a finished square looks like:

The pattern is modified from a Denyse Schmidt quilt.

In other news, I'm hoping this blog will keep me from obsessively searching craigslist for apartments for me, N, and R to share (trumpets blare!) which has been quite a process. And, if you haven't seen it yet, it's absolutely mandatory that you read over Mark Bittman's 101 salads. Awesome.

K. Time to go turn over the laundry and run the dog to Trader Joe's.

Pot Farming

2009-01-11T14:07:00.000-08:00

Why, yes, it has been a while. BUT a few months ago I moved to the RWC, and now I find myself with more free time and the urge to cultivate. And like a good 20-something, I've chosen to blog about it (mostly for nerdy record keeping purposes). So, here's the thing. My tiny apartment walkway ("balcony" is a bit highfalutin) gets no direct winter sunlight, and it's fairly chilly (and January). So we're starting with lettuce, chard, and some herbs (lemon thyme and spicy oregano). The chard looks a bit sad right now, but I have high hopes.

IKEA also makes these sweet-as mini green houses, so we're experimenting with one lettuce and one chard in, one and one out (at least until they get too big). The soil mix is mostly sterile mulch, supplemented with about 1 T/pot of Dr. Earth's organic 5. I realize they are all too crowded (I think the recommended situation for pot gardens is 5 gallons of soil per plant...) but I have limited space, and, heck, it's lettuce. I could eat it right now if I wanted. I haven't re-potted or fertilized the herbs yet. One more picture for the purposes of documentation:

Updates hopefully to follow. Otherwise life is good. Being only a 6.5 mile bike from campus is awesome (as opposed to the 1.5 hr each way bike-train-bike system), Nathan and Rudy are stupendous, school continues, and I'm looking forward to a great spring (though it would be nice if we got a bit of winter one of these days...) I hope all is well with you, internet.

where, now?

2007-08-25T22:38:00.000-07:00

It’s Saturday night, and I’m home drinking beer, eating chocolate, reading friends’ blogs, and thinking it’s about time I did a bit of blogging myself. My wonderful and amazing boyfriend is back in his 'home'-town of Reno, NV, my bike is as improved as it’s going to get tonight, and it’s highly unlikely that I’m going to rally to go out to the bar. So, what’s up? I broke my camera about a month ago, and so I’ve been reticent to post, as so many of the things that have been going on seem to be more visual than verbal.

BUT… I quit my job, had a great “transition party,” went to my cousin’s wedding, backpacked solo in the Hoover/Yosemite Wilderness for a week, drove north for a while (Reno, NV; Oakridge, OR; Portland, OR; Naches, WA; back to Oakridge; back to Reno), came back to SF, hung out for a bit, spent a week on Santa Cruz Island, came home, went to another wedding, and have been chillin’ ever since.

Highlights have been: the giant sequoia cone I got as a going away present and the matching NPS belt, the abundance of postcards from N. as he travels the western hemisphere, compliments on my dress-for-weddings, seeing old friends, making new friends, the beauty of combining red wine, espresso, and chocolate cake, knitting like a banshee, riding and fussing with bikes, climbing some stuff, the crazy but loveable dogs, and deciding to not go to Burning Man.

Classes at Stanfurd start in a month, and then who knows how life will change, but I’m guessing it will be good. At least going in to it my computer is going to have 2 GB of RAM and my commuter bike will have bullhorns, so how worried can I be?

Just kidding, I'm going to the bar.

not quite green thumb

2007-04-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

I have successfully grown a very, very sad wavy-leaved soap plant (Chlorogalum pomeridianum). She came from a project I worked on last fall that involved lots of ground disturbance, which then turned up lots of soap plant bulbs, which were mostly eaten by hungry animals. But not this one, who I saved and quasi planted, mostly just to see what would happen. She sat in her pot looking like a very dry, very hairy coconut for about five months, then finally sprouted these four very sad leaves. But, in the way of plants, nonetheless managed to bloom. I'm very proud of her, and will transplant somewhere with more soil depth soon. Also of note is that I was told that these guys only flower at night, but clearly this is not the case.

Yay for California native plants stolen (salvaged?) from national parks!

Well, shit.

2007-03-13T23:59:00.000-07:00

On October 7th, 2006, sitting in a loud, dark bar in the Lower Haight, a good friend asked me if he could give me a piece of advice. I had been whingeing and moaning about life, overwork, applying to PhD programs, etc. “Of course,” I blinked; open to most anything but not expecting much.

“Kyla,” he said, “shit, or get off the pot.”

I was a bit taken aback, given that Tom has been nothing but kind and supportive for the time I’ve known him, and harsh comments are unexpected after the first few pints of Racer 5. I realized quickly, however, that he made an excellent point. I could continue to complain about the things standing in my way, or I could just do what I needed to do and move on.

Taking the advice to heart, I promised Tom that I would indeed “shit,” and I stumbled home to [sleep first then] start really applying myself to this whole grad school issue.

Months later, I am happy to report that I have accepted Stanford’s offer of admission, and I will start there in the fall. Thanks, Tom, and more soon!

2007-01-28T17:55:00.000-08:00

Taking a bit of inspiration from Ms Rustygrass' wrist cuffs, the fact that I got an interchangeable watchband watch for Christmas but with ugly leather bands, and the scrap ends of a pair of non-Carhartt work pants, we have a new watch! I'm not sure this satisfies my need for a "professional looking" watch that covers up the tattoo, but I'm fairly happy with it.

The next question is, why do I keep making things out of turquoise, green, and brown? Wierd.

Oh, the conundrums...

2007-01-25T22:31:00.000-08:00

So, here's the question of the day: the NY Times says that by wearing cotton clothes that have to be washed more often, I'm actually doing more damage to the environment than if I were to wear only synthetics but just half-assedly wash them. It turns out that the environmental impact (e.g. energy used) of repeated washings is way greater than that of producing a synthetic garment.

But here's the thing - I bike a lot and I wear Tom's Natural deodorant. The deodorant choice is mostly out of a desire to not (maybe) give myself breast cancer or Alzheimers. The biking is part health, part gasoline, part finding-parking-in-my-neighborhood-blows. Valid, no? But my selfish desires to avoid cancer (sometimes) and not troll for parking means most of my clothing needs to be washed fairly frequently. Add to that the need for field clothes, office clothes, and gym clothes, and let's just say I do a good deal of laundry. And frankly, synthetic or natural, it all gets pretty funky pretty quick. It's one thing to think you might smell a bit ripe, it's another repel the general public.

So what do I do? I'd already accepted that by biking I might actually hurt the planet, but maybe if I switch to aluminium-based antiperspirant that'll offset the biking, I can wash my clothes less, die earlier, and thus balance out? Or just wear synthetics and throw them away? Or maybe hemp? Is hemp the answer?

distraction!

2006-12-22T08:34:00.000-08:00

now that everyone nearby has received their mini-gifts, I can safely post this...that's right, I've purchased a 1.5-inch button maker. I'm not quite up to making special requests yet, but after the holidays that may be a possibility. I also acquired a sewing machine, and my first knitted glove project. More on those later.

In the meantime, I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season, whatever that may mean.

Peace.

yowza!

2006-10-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

Holy crap, it's October. Where have I been? Well, let's see...in no particular order

- some awesome people got married in some beautiful settings
- about 1000 feet of new trail were built in the Marin Headlands
- nearly 400 feet of existing trail have been "rehabilitated" in the same spot (with more to come)
- many, many (bad) plants were poisoned and/or yanked/sawed/cut from the ground
- singing mic-ed was tested (and happily not recorded)
- some folks learned that there's more to environmentalism than recycling (and that the only time to go to Muir Woods is before 9 a.m.)
- it was determined that a furry cat and a furry dog is one too many furry animals in the house
- sleep deprivation was experimented with and rejected as a concept (though not as a lifestyle)

One of these days I'll have an original thought to share, but until then I leave you with this question: Exactly when did the Red Hot Chili Peppers start sucking and is the radio simply playing them out of nostalgia or am I missing some genius in their inane repetitiveness?

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is this weekend. New York may still be better, but SF has many, many more awesome, free, public, drunken festivals. AND fun people are in town. Twang on.

Never again

2006-08-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

will I leave the beloved insulation of urban life. I will travel by plane from city to city, occasionally visiting lovely liberal towns like Missoula and Marfa, but there will be no more of this suburbia or any “real country living.” Today, for reasons too ridiculous to explain, I heard/saw a cow get shot and slaughtered. I’m not really traumatized by this so much as, well, eeew-ed out. That and due to my proximity to the experience I can categorically say that the cow was not killed with respect, kindness, or care, despite being one of a handful of cows on a family farm. So there goes that myth. Following the cow incident was a brief trip to a mall (what?) where, among other things, I heard an adult man use the words “c**ksucking motherf***ers” in conversation with a six-year-old. Now, I’m no expert, but that doesn’t seem cool. I’m now safely back in the land of sirens, crackheads (is this un-p.c.? “people suffering from an addiction to the ‘crack’ for of cocaine”?), and cantankerous roommates, where the worst I have to worry about is getting my sh*t stolen, and, apparently, not wearing the right thing to the right part of the right wedding.

In other news, David Brooks can kiss my butt. For those of you who don’t have the joys of TimesSelect (or this “paper” I hear so much about), dude just wrote a whole diatribe on the conventionality of tattoos and how lame they now are. Here’s my guess – someone’s daughter just got a butterfly tattoo on her hip, and this is how daddy communicates/expresses his feelings (p.s. I know absolutely nothing about D.B. except that he’s wearing a pink shirt in his profile picture). Just to get it out of the way, here’s an incomplete list of things that I do/have that might be considered “conformist displays of individuality”:

Have tattoos
Am pierced
Play in a band
Live in San Francisco
Go to trendy bars with friends
Wear pants
Eat “ethnic” food
Do not eat animals
Am not married, with child, or a parent
Have a blog
Work for an environmental non-profit
Read good books
Read the Onion
Vote

I hate to say that there’s nothing new under the sun, but living in this place makes it difficult to imagine that I’ll ever do anything that someone else hasn’t already tried. Does that make me “vanilla middle class” and “absolutely mainstream”? Does the fact that Kevin Federline and I both have tattoos make us lump-able? Dear god, let’s hope not.

2006-08-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

So this is what a neglected blog looks like (actually, this is what a neglected blog really looks like, not to name any names…), but I’m finally back in the world of home-internet and so I guess it’s time for an update. That and two of the approximately four people that actually read this have recently noted that I am, in fact, not dead.

Where’ve I been? Well, it all started with a vacation, which was awesome (check out the pics on flickr. If you want to see the real ones with real human friends in them, email me). It started at the High Sierra Music Festival, complete with the likes of Keller Williams, Hot Buttered Rum, Bela Fleck and Nickel Creek. I think the real highlights were the pick-a-long with the crazy-awesome Jake Shimabukuro and the workshop with Bela and Chris Thiele. I had high hopes for the late night Bela and Nickel Creek show, but apparently the non-mando playing members of Nickel Creek decided not to play with Bela…but it was still pretty awesome and inspiring.

Four days of good fun, great friends, and fantastic music was followed by a short solo backpacking trip along the Lost Coast. It was amazing, I chased a bear out of my awesome campsite (note photo of successful bear bag), and I was reminded yet again that I shouldn’t try to vacation places where I’m too familiar with the vegetation. Nothing like feeling totally out in the middle of nowhere only to come upon a f***ing pampas grass (Cortaderia jubata and/or C. selloana) infestation. Boo. But old growth redwoods are pretty rad. Yes, I hugged one or two.

Finally, I cruised up to Eugene, Oregon, to check out the Oregon Country Fair. I can’t quite explain this one to you…this is the kind of place where it is spelled faerie, people wear stilts, and one can purchase and don these. Pretty intense. Next year I want to be on the inside!

But, yes, all that was over a month ago now. I returned from the vacation to move the following weekend (I now am an integral part of the gentrification of the area surrounding The Independent), and we just got the internet humming yesterday. In addition, my plant killing and trail building responsibilities have led to some unfortunate sleeping situations (as in, not getting enough), so don’t expect much for the next few months, but I’ll try to be more forthcoming.

Glad to be back, internet. I’ve missed you.

2006-06-27T23:11:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something crucial...

Prep-prep-prep

2006-06-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Camping!
This is a birds-eye shot (-ish) of day one of preparations for Hippie Road Trip 2006. Functional digi pending, pictures to follow.

Lessons I learned today?

One - don't ever store your zip-off pant legs separate from their zippered shorts. You might find yourself with with only one leg, and pondering whether or not you want to wear the old ones with the moss stain/streak on the ass...

Two- never assume that REI will have anything!!! especially maps. and ponchos. and watches that cost less than $30. jerks.

Three- never assume that online stores will be able to fulfill your needs...turns out you can't buy a good poncho and Mary Jane Farms Black Bean Hummus in the same place at the same time. Nor can you buy a map of the Sinkyone Wilderness anywhere. Boo. AND shipping is expensive.

Oh! And it's hard to find violin strings on a Sunday in SF. Who knew? Basically this was a day of shopping for stuff and not buying anything (except for at Sports Basement, which we love.)

But it was also Pride. Yet another example of San Francisco's institutionalized public drunkenness; something New York has yet to really embrace. And it's hard to be too pissed off about shopping woes when overwhelmed by the amazingly beautiful and incredible ethnic/ social/ economic/ gender/ sexual (/not so political) diversity that exists on the streets of San Francisco.

Feels Like Home to Me

2006-06-06T23:06:00.000-07:00

Biking home from band practice I take a wrong turn through Golden Gate Park (stoopid museum construction detours!) then hit a bump and lose my rear light. On the unlit (‘cept my headlight) mid-park road I pause to grab the blinker and reassess my directional decision. A car cruises by and slows ever so slightly. As I give him (or her?) my best “fuck-you-motherfucker-I-fought-off-a-mugger-in-Bed-Stuy” look I realize that this is what makes San Francisco San Francisco for me – biking, fiddle on my back, not sure where I’m going, letting a bit of New York slip out.

A few blocks later I’m home, I park the bike in the garage (ah, SF) and then discover that my flat’s front door is wide fucking open. Who knows how long it’s been like that, but I shut it, assuming that the last one out of my housemate’s meditation study group left it ajar, or that it's part of some spiritual cleansing that should be stopped. But I ask, and it seems that, in fact, he just forgot to shut it while forgetting to water the very, very sad fuchsia hanging by the door. But no one in the neighborhood seems to have noticed the oversight, and all is well.

And so it goes. Creepy date today, no? Too bad that movie ruined it.

p.s. I went to New York this weekend. More on that, with some pictures, soon.

2006-05-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sifting through files on my computer trying to find the final report for this project that I worked on back in the day, which, though unsuccessful, led to the rediscovery of a bunch of stuff I wrote when I was trapped in Texas. Apparently while in Texas I spent a good deal of time thinking about how much more fun I had while trapped* in New Hampshire, and, more importantly, a lovely game we used to play called "F**k, kill, marry." My personal challenge (at the time)?: Howard Roark, Hank Stamper, and Dave Eggers.

Another great game is "Sinking ship" where you take all of the people in your immediate social situation (in NH a house of 8) and decide the order in which you would throw them off a sinking ship in order to, presumably, save yourself and whoever you're playing the game with.

I've had some wierd (and fantastic) summers.

*By "trapped" I mean living somewhere isolated from things like the internet, phones, TV, sane people, and cultural stimuli, but surrounded by wildlife, crazy folk, and alcohol.

What am I up to?

2006-05-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

So, part of my job involves a "trail use study," which means I spend many hours every couple of weeks counting the number of people who use certain trails. This would be fascinating except that NO ONE USES THE TRAILS. That's not true. But in the 6 hours I was out last week I saw approximately 10 people. Sure, sure, this means I get paid to hang out in nature and do pretty much nothing, which is awsome, except when I do actually have other things to do with my working hours (which is always). But here we are. So I decided to start taking pictures of flowers, and these are the winners. Plus this gave me an excuse to figure out the flickr thing (partially). My favorite is still this one:
Because the native plantains get so little love, and they're pretty freaking adorable in their itsy-bitsy-ness.

I've also spent some of that time thinking about what I would get if I got another tattoo, and who I would have do it. But don't worry...no more tattoos in the near future.

Maps!

2006-05-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

If I ever have the opportunity to really, truly warp the mind of a young person, my big plan is to do so by only ever showing him or her maps that look like this (or derivations thereof):

This map, originally produced by the SASI group, shows all the countries of the world in actual land-area proportion to eachother. As we map geeks know, most maps are some derivation or another of trying to project a spherical-ish surface (the globe) on to a flat page or screen. Which leads to lots of distortion, getting worse and worse as you move away from the equator. And, since most of the developed world lies signinficantly north (or south, hi New Zealand!) of the equator, these projections could give us developed-world-ers an inflated sense of our importance (at least geographically).*

I've flipped the map upside-down because, from the perspective of the universe, what is up? The only reason we draw north as "up" is because the first folks to figure out this whole map-drawing-printing-and-distributing thing drew themselves living on the top of the planet. Does it matter? Not really. Not climatologically. In fact, looking at the map this way reminds me of why it's so much colder in Siberia than it is in South Africa.

So, would a kid raised on this map freak out when he got to the first grade and saw his first north-up interrupted sinusoidal projection? Maybe. But that's what independent parent cooperative schools are for, right? So no kid ever gets called a freak because they know what Lambert conformal conic means.

* I should note here that maps like this are NOT good for navigation. That's a whole other thing. Really any projected map isn't very good for navigation over long distances.

Talent? Ain’t no such thang.

2006-05-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

I was recently at a bar (no!) discussing the fact that doing things you’re not good at totally sucks. I, for example, “am not good at” learning languages. Or having rhythm. My conversation partner (can that be a new category on Friendster?) “is not good at” skate skiing. But, of course, along come the internet and some numbers/econ geeks to point out that the whole concept of “not [inherently] good at” is false. I actually found this column to be quite inspiring…or at least leveling. The conversation in the bar led to us both pondering the few times that we’d transitioned from “not good at” to “okay.” My favorite personal example is snowboarding. There was a time when I was terrible at it. I have walked down mountains (bunny slopes) and spent entire days more on my butt than on my feet. My right knee is f***ed up partially thanks to that period of learning. But I don’t suck at snowboarding any more. I’m not particularly good, but I’m aware that it’s due to a lack of commitment and the fact that I’m a big chicken, not a lack of talent.

Chicken-ness and lack of commitment are things I can control, and it’s somehow reassuring that, theoretically, when I try to learn new things I am in control of my success. So the fact that I’m not very good at playing the fiddle is because I’m not trying hard enough (which is true). And it’s up to me to change that. Or to give up and add ‘playing a musical instrument’ to the long list of things I’ve bailed on.

The column also claims that “when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good.” What they gloss over is how you come upon things you actually love to do. It ain’t talent, but if our likes and dislikes beget skills, how do we develop likes and dislikes? Some are clear – I like and am good at reading maps because my father is an architect and I grew up reading plans. I am not good at team sports because neither of my parents played any, nor did they encourage me to do so. But my excessive love for trees (there must be a latin word for this)? Or my sense of humor that verges on the completely bizarre?* the root of these is a mystery even to me. But because I believe that the nature/nurture question is weighted towards the nurture side, I’m guessing they’re somehow subtly environmental.

How does this help to solve the problems of the world? Well, if more people believed that what was standing between them and success was (1) finding something they love doing and (2) working hard at it, I’m pretty sure the world would be a better place. Or, to take it the step further that the column does, the best thing would be to raise children in an environment that encourages as many likes and passions as possible. Except bad passions, like schmoozing politicians, making and distributing tacos in lieu of the mail, or getting other people addicted to drugs. Some passions should go unfulfilled.

*Britt- have you seen this? Watch “Blueberry” immediately.

Opposite day?

2006-05-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

First of all, Tom Friedman is talking about a third "environmental" party like it's a new idea. Um, what? Admittedly, during the last election he was too busy thinking about Israel and 9/11 to worry too much about the environment, but did he really miss the entire Nader campaign? Say what you want, but pretty much if it weren't for third party candidates, we'd have a green president, damnit.

Second, Mark Morford can't just complain about everything. Writing an article that basically is against smart growth (i.e. generally building denser developments with mixed-use commercial/residential. Google it.) because it does involve a lot of Pottery Barn cleanliness is just stupid. If someone chooses to live in an apartment above a Sunglass Hut where they can WALK to the Whole Foods, WALK to their yoga classes, hair appointments, and botox sessions, and take a shuttle or BIKE to their middle managment job at the nearby office park, that's f***ing awesome. Because that person wasn't choosing between that lifestyle and our hipster urban I-don't-own-a-car shop at Rainbow make my own underwear world. It was this clean, Disney-ified version of urban life or an actual tract home, where they'd DRIVE 20 or 50 or 100 miles a day in their Passat or Excursion or H3 to do the same things, only isolated from the world, on their ass, and belching noxious fumes the entire way. There are more people. There will be more homes. Mixed-use in-filling is so far the best option. Get over it.

Making the world a better place

2006-04-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

one little tiny sweater at a time.
Could this be any more adorable?
photo credit: LDS, Grist.

2006-04-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

I have been known to complain about my job. I don’t like the negativity of that fact, but it is, empirically, low paying, highly stressful, and, sometimes, uninteresting (or interesting to someone, just not me). But then there are days like these. Days when I get to hike around ostensibly “mapping invasive plant species” in the brilliant sunshine. Sure, I got stuck in a poison oak thicket, sure, I’m getting a farmer’s tan, and, sure, I slipped and fell on my (metal) clipboard, but who cares when it’s this freaking nice out. Please ignore the invasive trees encroaching on coastal scrub habitat.

p.s. I realize having my toes in this picture looks a bit ridiculous. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
p.p.s. If you squint you can see Mt. Diablo. For those of you unfamiliar with the territory, I grew up just south (to the right in this picture) of that mountain.

2006-04-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

In my 24th year* I…

- landed my first real job
- learned to accept (tolerate? weather?) professional and academic failure
- started rock climbing
- did not leave the country
- began to learn to play fiddle
- cried more than I’d hoped to
- gained a relative
- was reminded of the beauty, kindness, and strength of my friends
- got a (-nother) tattoo. But no piercings.
- thought about death
- read some pretty good books
- was granted ‘administrative’ privileges to my work computer twice
- shaved my legs three times
- tried to remember the difference between want and need
- happily shifted from ‘acquaintance’ to ‘friend’ several times over
- listened to a lot of great music
- knitted many scarves (+ two hats and a baby blanket)
- met at least seven fantastic people
- accidentally ate bacon once
- went on my first solo backpacking trip
- played Edward 40-hands twice
- started a filing system for my non-work papers
- made peace with my parents
- got poison oak on my face three times
- lived in only one city
- bought eight pairs of shoes
- over-thought several insignificant things (and a few significant ones)
- almost always meant it

What will the 25th year bring? ‘Tiz unclear. I’ve got some ideas and requests (no expectations, this time), but a firm belief that expressing wishes makes them not come true prevents me from telling. Let’s just say that I’d like this year to find me less petty and more athletic.

*Okay, I know that technically the year that I was 24 was really my 25th year, as I was 0 + X months for my first year of life, yadda-yadda-yadda, but get over it. It’s like when we geeks pointed out that 2000-2001 was really the millennium. No one cared. It was 1999-2000 that really mattered. Deal.

the itchy and scratchy show!

2006-03-31T11:36:00.000-08:00

I have a tendency to miss small details in life. I tend to over-commit to things, leading to the occasional fainting spell and/or heartbreak. This inattention to my own personal well-being has also led to the following list:

Places I Have Poison Oak (today)

both ankles
both forearms
in between my ring and middle fingers on my left hand
on the top of my middle finger on my right hand
my right elbow-pit
my right knee-pit
just below my right collar bone
the left side of my neck
the bridge of my nose

Fortunately nowhere totally inappropriate (yet) - I hear nipple p.o. is a doozy.

Feng shui, or something

2006-03-27T21:06:00.000-08:00

According to Supernaturale, feng shui says, "To find your love area stand in your doorway (the door to your home, your apartment, your room if you share a household). The love area is the furthest most rightest corner."

My love corner therefore consists of (1) my over-full closet, (2) a bag of recycling that really needs to be taken out, and (3) an IKEA lamp that is currently holding a very wet, very poison-oak-covered pair of Carhartts. Hmmm...perhaps some rose quartz crystals are in order.

It also says feng shui is anti-tree, though, so that just can't be right.

Feminism be damned.

2006-03-16T19:45:00.000-08:00

I am not a fan of male chauvinism. Larry Summers – not my guy. I am a huge fan of equal pay for equal work, the ERA, and a general avoidance of discrimination. I have, in fact, been called a “screaming feminist” (sorry for the repetition here) by men who like to wear shirts that imply that they are lesbians. I am, however, also not the kind of woman who has to deal with a lot of male chauvinism. I work in a field dominated by women and I almost never get hit-on by strangers.

But there are certain times in my life when I’m reminded of how awesome it is to be a young woman of precarious means. Say, hypothetically, that I rear-ended an Audi today on my way down to City College. After calling my mom to cry, calling the insurance company to report, and getting my general shit back together (and out of my car), I faced a seriously bent hood on a very small, very meek, very inexpensive Daewoo (that’s a kind of car, for those of you not cool enough to know that). So I headed to a recommended body shop, pointed at the hood of my car, noted that I only had liability insurance, and was told to “wait till Dan got back from his break.” “Dan,” my friends, in the course of 30 minutes called me “darlin’” at least four times, told me that he could “fix anything but a broken heart” (literally. fortunately Pierre’s bent hood was not heartbreak caliber), fixed my car, and let me choose how much I would pay for the endeavor. This rocks. An otherwise shitty week totally salvaged by some random dude’s kindness and metal-hammering skills.

Of course, they might treat all customers the same way. If my dad drove his Mercedes in with his 6 feet of height, silver hair, and golf-club polo shirt, trying to get a dent fixed, they might have let him pay cash and called him darlin’. Or if I had bitched instead of sniffled, and been wearing a suit instead of jeans they might still have said when I asked how much, “Well, whatever.” I’ll never know. That’s what’s funny about life. Empathize all we want, we really have no idea what it’s like to be someone other than ourselves (unless you have an identical twin, I guess). What would it be like to walk through the world prettier or blonder or less pretty or male or really tall or super-short? Partially deaf? With an extra toe? With perfect pitch? I have no idea. But I do know that when faced with a mechanic or a hardware store clerk, I’m damn glad to be a woman.

Here’s a related question: why is it that when you have limited car insurance, mechanics try to work with you to save you money, but when you have limited health insurance doctors go out of their way to screw you. I once got a root canal thinking I didn’t have dental insurance, but really wanting the root canal, only to find out that I was still insured (thank you, California Teacher’s Union). When the dentist went to file with the insurance company they also had to reimburse me, because they’d charged me the “uninsured price” which is MORE than what they charge insurance companies. Uh, unfair? So is it the insurance companies themselves sucking? Or is it that most mechanics know what it’s like to have weak car insurance, but most doctors have spent their entire lives happily health-insured? Or something else? Also, I’ve never had a doctor call me darlin’. Though that might be a little creepy.

When P.C. misses the point.

2006-03-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I admit that I read a disproportionate number of NYT articles just because they have the word “Yale” in the title (or, more and more, the names of people I know. WTF?). That said, here’s another that makes me cringe.

So at the end of this month the Yale Law School will hold a symposium on executive power. The presidential kind, not the CEO kind (are they different?) One of the people who is going to speak is John Yoo, the dude who wrote the memo for the current administration that justifies torture (in the legal sense) and who thinks wire tapping, any war-time, any place, is just dandy. I actually think anyone with something to say should (if invited) be able to say their piece without censure in an academic setting, but at a liberal law school, what is there to do if not protest.

But what are our dear Yalies protesting? Some 21-year-old who took notes when he was a law student (oh, and apparently he’s a genius) and used the n-word to mean African American. Then prudently posted the notes on the internet (not because of his stellar vocabulary, but because this is normal in law school land). Now, I’m not saying it’s a good idea to use racial (or any other kind of) slurs, in note-taking or otherwise, but SERIOUSLY? This is what's being protested? And the kid already apologized. Several times.

I’d like to think that the YL folk are letting Mr. Yoo come just so they can throw rocks at him, and that this silliness with language is just a diversion, but somehow I doubt it. Not that it bears comparison, but if you looked at any of my class notes from when I was 18, you wouldn’t find racial slurs, but you would definitely find some inappropriate comments. (Actually, I think I spent most of that year counting the number of times a certain professor used the word “concatenate” in a class. An average of more than once is all you need to know. But I digress.) What's the right analogy-cliche here? The elephant in the room? Throwing the baby out with the bath water? Fixating on the minutia of one person's past word choices while ignoring his peer's anti-Geneva Convention sentiments?

There’s, like, a war and shit right now, and our best and brightest legal minds are getting huffy and (more importantly) spending their scholarly time protesting a word that, for many factions of our culture (including much of the faction that the word is a slur towards), is just part of the vernacular? If a guy who thinks that German shepherds are a reasonable interrogation device is allowed to speak and debate, shouldn’t the guy who made a poor short-hand decision have that same privilege?

Yes and no.

2006-03-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

This is great. Perhaps negative, but great.

This is a ridiculous and terrible idea. The definition of "native" is loose, I agree, but unless you're going to create different types for each regional watershed, cut it out. You're introducing non-indigenous seed. And, um, not to make assumptions about other people's hygiene, but I usually try to find places that are already vegetated when I need to relieve myself. Who shits in a clearcut?

out-cooled again

2006-02-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

just when I think I might be kinda creative, someone comes along and completely destroys me. case in point, woman who crochets tree/log sweaters.

I am in awe. Check out more tree sweaters (and awesomely bizarre mounted crocheted deer heads) here. (Stephen, this is exactly what your fireplace needs!)

Really Large Body of Water

2006-02-15T20:22:00.000-08:00

New life plan (early today I called it an "interim personal management strategy." yeesh. too much bureacracy in my life.):

"I'll eat when I am hungry, and I'll drink when I am dry. Get drunk whenever I'm ready, get sober by and by." (The River Driver) Especially when sung by adorable (though long-haired) boys in 4-part harmony.

As Brett pointed out, live music is great. Instant mood elevator. Especially when it's kick-ass music and combined with whiskey and good friends. So check out Great Big Sea, and go see them in your town. (but don't even try to get them to play a wedding. They'll say no.)

Who needs romance anyway?

Just goofy?

2006-02-05T00:18:00.000-08:00

There is, I suspect, a fine line between goofy-weird and creepy-weird. I am comfortable with my goofy-weird status. I honestly hug trees, read about hydrology for fun, and eat plain raw tofu on a daily basis. Goofy-weird. But then there’s creepy-weird. And nothing says creepy-weird like taxidermy and basements. Last spring Katy, Stephen, and Tom found a fully intact dead mole. After keeping it in our office freezer next to the free bagels (shhh, don’t tell OSHA) for several months, Katy and I decided to hike up our skirts and do something about it. So we let it thaw, then we skinned it (we’re both bio/anatomy nerds), regrettably chucking the inside bits (we should have kept the skull), tanned its wee hide (easier than you’d think), and stretched it on a piece of cardboard to dry. Then, due to the, um, inappropriate nature of an animal skin in the workplace, I put it in an unused drawer of my desk for safe-keeping.

There were big plans for this mole skin, but, well, things change, people move to different states, other people become spastic, forgetful stress-cases, the world turns…So yesterday I consolidated offices and came face to face with the tanned skin of a mole that had been sitting in a drawer of my desk FOR SIX MONTHS. Say what I want about who I am and where I stand on the goofy- v. creepy-weird rubric, I am the kind of person who doesn’t mind (1) dealing with a dead animal, (2) thawing and skinning a found dead animal, then tanning it, and (3) KEEPING IT IN A DRAWER OF MY DESK.

But times must change and my new desk is much smaller, so I yet again found myself alone in a basement with a dead animal skin, a picture frame, and the uncomfortable realization that I wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Here is our handiwork. We don’t know the species, because, well, you need a fleshless skull for that. So it is just a mole. Framed, on the wall of the interns’ office.

Yeah...probably creepy.

Belated Dishing

2006-01-30T22:21:00.000-08:00

Vying for the blue ribbon in so-late-it’s-no-longer-relevant criticism, I would like to point out that Maureen Dowd’s new-ish book pretty much sucks. Posted by my desk is a column of hers from last year titled “Dish it out, Ladies” (13 March 2005) which I dutifully cut out for her use of the word “kerfuffle” and the sentence, “Going from Tess Harding to Carrie Bradsaw, Dorothy Thompson to Candace Bushnell, is not progress.” I thought it a swell column and was excited to learn that she was writing a book on the topic of surviving as an intelligent, opinionated woman in the modern world (ahem…). Ignoring the not so stellar review in her own paper, I shelled out for the hardbound and lugged it on a cross-country flight last November (side note: on the trip home the dude next to me looked up from his New Yorker and noted, “Ah, I see you’re reading Dowd’s new book. Frah-frah-frah.” My knee-jerk reaction was to think, pretentious fuckers. Several minutes later it occurred to me that I was the one holding the book and that I was the one on a flight back from an event I, myself, have referred to as “the only game that matters.” It’s cold over here in the land of hypocrisy, let me tell you. Fun, but a little chilly).

I slogged through Are Men Necessary?, whole-heartedly agreeing with the Times reviewer’s comment that a good column doesn’t always translate into a good book. I would go so far as to say that about ten good columns, clumsily spliced together with even more short, repetitive paragraphs listing random stuff (why? why the lists?) along with heavy quoting from an absolutely brilliant book (Woman: an Intimate Geography, by Natalie Angier), which some assistant production editor then MIS-CITED on the editor’s page, definitely does not make a good book.

Then last night I found myself partway through three books that all happen to be focused on the rural middle part of the country.* Not ready to face another chapter of desolate, beautiful vistas, cattle ranching, and/or fly-fishing, I picked up AMN? for a quick recap. Now, I have on occasion been called a “screaming feminist” by my friends. I prefer articulate, well-poised humanist (and, perhaps, arborist), but whatever. I take women’s issues seriously and I don’t joke around (much) when the realities of gender inequality come up. But, hell, after 338 pages of gibberish, other people’s facts, and general whinge-ing, even I was thinking, Yeesh, this woman needs to get LAID.

The book blows. My advice? Read Ms. Angier’s book if you want to learn something about how women function from a biological perspective. Read Sarah Vowell’s books if you want to read funny essays written by an intelligent, opinionated woman. And if you want to know what people are doing (and not doing) in the world of trying to fit in to our WASPy, male, hetro-normative society, read last week’s Times Magazine article about “covering” (Yoshino, 15 January 2006). And if you’re frah-frah enough to subscribe to TimesSelect, or to (gasp!) have the actual paper delivered to your actual doorstep, keep reading Maureen Dowd’s columns. She’s a smart lady.

*Collapse, by Jared Diamond; Close Range, by Annie Proulx, and The Memory of Old Jack, by Wendell Berry.

random

2006-01-26T16:34:00.000-08:00

discussion I just had with my office buddy has led to the conclusion that I (1) have quite a bit of gray hair, but (2) am not optimizing my genetic predisposition. Given that I am predisposed to the gray (if you've seen my dad's head or my mom's roots, you'll agree), stress and tragedy have made me one prematurely aged young lady. However, what I'm missing is a good heartbreak. One serious soul-crusher should just about do it (of course, there's extreme illness too, but I feel like that's going above and beyond). So now I've just got to track down one of those, and then I will have truly maximized my prematurely gray potential. Excellent.

In other news I've spent all day seeking out and digitizing historic deviations from the current coastal trail. So I'm feeling a bit loopy.

Funniest thing I've heard all day

2006-01-25T21:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I’ve been working now for about 14 hours straight. (that’s a lie. I took two hours off from 5-7) Normally that wouldn’t be so bad, except for what I’m now, at 10 pm, working on. Did you know that people are paid very good money to draw the distinction that a corral is historic while the fence around it is not? So the CONCEPT of the corral is historic but the thing that makes it functional is not. WTF? On top of that, other people (me) are paid less well to turn that information digital and spatial. Awesome.

On the up side, this incredibly boring task has let me quasi-listen to all the awesome music I bought yesterday. What did I buy? Several incredibly cheap CDs, thanks to Amoeba’s “disc surface doesn’t look perfect” clause. The new Ryan Adams is growing on me, as is Son Volt (anyone else think he sounds just like a mid-80s Michael Stipe? I’ve been listening to Okemah but keep getting “Gardening at Night” stuck in my head.) And Gillian Welch’s first album. I figure if this SF enviro-geek thing is going to be my lifestyle I might as well try to get in to the music.

But NONE OF THIS compares to the real winner, John Prine’s John Prine. Not only does it have Paradise, which until now I’d only heard sung by Katy (or myself) and therefore had no idea it was A WALTZ!!!! But it also has the most amazingly premonitive (shut up, it could be a word) song I’ve ever heard. Or just more proof that (1) things never really change and (2) it’s starting to feel a lot like Vietnam. The song is called “Your flag decal won’t get you into heaven anymore” and the chorus is:

But your flag decal won’t get you into heaven anymore,
They’re already overcrowded from your dirty little war,
And Jesus don’t like killing no matter what the reason’s for,
And your flag decal won’t get you into heaven any more.

And then, of course, it’s JP so there’s a fun little story. This album is from 1971. Yeesh. And I feel the same way now (minus the assumption that heaven and Jesus actually exist). To everything turn, turn, turn.

Alright. These historic hedgerows aren’t going to digitize themselves.

Hey. That's not funny.

2006-01-22T21:06:00.000-08:00

I just scored 32.74162% (Total Geek) on the geek test. This is apparently significantly higher than the scores of most people my very geeky friend knows. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. Since when does wanting a yurt and watching the Weather Channel make me a geek??? Oh, right. Try it, it's fun.

p.s. Snowboarding is awesome. Even when you break a fall with your head and shoulder, then at the end of the day spend nearly an hour digging yourself out of out-of-bounds powder while hoping your friends haven't yet called ski patrol. Still awesome. (note vague attempt to feel less like a geek. I snowboard! mmm. no dice, eh?)

You might be a hippie if...

2006-01-20T13:58:00.000-08:00

The fact that I think that THIS is the coolest idea ever definitely makes me a hippie geek. Josh and I are going to start one now, so it should be ready for us around retirement age :)

VICTORY IS MINE (almost)

2006-01-18T20:44:00.000-08:00

Okay, if I ever refer to myself as a slacker and any of y'all ever disagree, try this one on: my laptop has been broken, like, non-functional broken, since last September. It's January. I just got it fixed. Of course, I do have 24-hour access to my office, and now a work laptop as well, so I wasn't really suffering from lack of internet, just abusing office resources, which is, well, the American way. But now no more. (for the time being we will ignore the fact that the new screen was installed improperly and will necessitate some more sweet, sweet phone-time with the friendly Dell folks).

What does this mean? It means that I can download things that let me post pictures to my (as yet almost un-viewed) blog!!! And since I was able to salvage some of the old hard drive (that's right, lost the HD and the screen at the same time. Wierd.), I also can reminisce about the past. So here's a good one:

This is Mila and I somewhere in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, Summer 2004. She is whittling a spoon, I am pretending to read Ed Abbey. Huzzah for pictures!

In the future there will hopefully be many craft-related pictures, as I still have big plans to abuse my work-provided digital camera.

Going to a beer garden in January makes me think about...

2006-01-14T18:03:00.000-08:00

The things that I miss about New York:
(1) Fall
(2) Insulated buildings
(3) Snowflakes
(4) Real hipsters
(5) the Brewery
(6) Spring! (the event-ness of it, as opposed to this crazy cherry-blooms-in-January anti-climactic b.s.)
(7) the people (known and unknown)
(8) public transportation
(9) those moments you have on the subway where you thing something’s funny and someone else thinks it’s funny too and they catch your eye and you smile but can’t laugh because the thing you both think is funny is probably another person.

Things that I don’t miss about New York:
(1) slush
(2) those weird piles of black snow that hide in the shadows and last until May
(3) ironic mullets
(4) baking cookies in July in a building without air conditioning
(5) the rent
(6) Paris Hilton
(7) construction on the L-train
(8) $7 beers being normal
(9) that occasional uncontrollable feeling of rage and frustration when you momentarily realize that your entire existence is based on things and systems entirely outside of your control.

2006-01-08T16:39:00.000-08:00

In the ever thrilling race of the paperwhites (Narcissus 'paperwhite'), the kitchen has decidedly beat out my bedroom and the living room. With a flower bud breaking earlier today, and another bud well on its way, the kitchen bulb wins. My room is the obvious loser - only one real bud in three bulbs, so far, and the stems are all bent - but that's no surprise, given that the light sucks. The living room bulbs are holding there own, and I expect great things soon.

If you haven't planted any indoor bulbs this winter, I highly recommend you get on that. Paperwhites are my favorites, as they're tiny and beautiful and smell like candy (well, floral candy), but one big amaryllis bulb will also brighten your day. I expect I'll be acquiring some hyacinths in the near future as well.

2006-01-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

Dendrochronology, for those of you who’ve never heard of an increment borer, is “the science of dating events and variations in environment in former periods by comparative study of growth rings in trees and aged wood,” or so says Webster’s. I like trees. A lot. I grew up in dry, inland California, where we don’t have too many trees, so it’s not a childhood memory kind of thing, and I also like milled timber, so it’s probably not a spiritual thing. I think what I really like about trees is that they’re so slow compared to the rest of life. Woody plants are the oldest living things on earth (NOTE: I just googled “oldest living thing” expecting to find info about the friendly bristlecone pine, only to discover that according to the High Country News (hi Dan!) it’s actually a freaking creosote bush outside of Barstow – 11,700 years old. Whatev. If it has bark…). We humans are conceived, are born, grow, whither, and die in the time it takes some trees just to get out of their ancestors’ shadows. And if you chop one down, it still probably isn’t dead – it’ll root- or stump-sprout and just keep on truckin’. But this blog isn’t really about trees.

Except when important tree related things are going on. Like right now the magnolias are in bloom (here in SF, that is). I walked under one near Stanyan and Haight on Saturday, and it smelled delicious. Fun facts about magnolias? The magnolia family is one of the most primitive woody plant families, as indicated by the fact that the flowers do not have sepals (the green leafy segments that protect most buds before they bloom). And magnolias are pollinated by beetles, so that delicious smell? Yeah, it’s for beetles. Not for you. Last but not least, my favorite east coast tree, the tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera), is actually in the magnolia family (Magnoliaceae), despite having little tiny flowers that no one gets to smell because they’re too high up in the canopy.

Phew. So, this is my first post in my third attempt at having a blog. Sometimes it will be funny. Often (apparently) it will have fun info about trees (send questions!) Rarely, I hope, will it be irritatingly self-deprecating, whiny, or bitter. But the year is young and the blog is new. At least I promise my next post will have very little to do with trees.

So let’s make this quick – New Year’s resolutions (actually, I didn’t really make any. But if I did…):
(1) Say “like” less
(2) See above comment about blog content, apply to life
(3) Climb a 5.10
(4) Play the fiddle breaks in Wagon Wheel (well)
(5) Bike to work at least once a week (more when it’s dry, less when it’s rainy)
(6) Roll over last year’s ‘under-achieved’ resolutions (and acknowledge those I achieved)
(7) Enjoy the good parts, weather the crappy
(8) Re-read all the science books I bought in 2005 and actually retain some of the information in them
(9) Appreciate my (albeit brief) foray into the world of grown-up working life.
(10) Rock on.