Dreaming of a White St Patrick's Day

After about a week of decent weather, with temps almost reaching 60, I thought we were in the clear.

I was wrong.

It snowed again last night. On St Patrick's Day. This is a first for Kimberly. Unfortunately for me, I experienced an April Fool's Day blizzard while in school at Vermont, which is depressing, because it's really not an April Fool's Day joke, it's real.

Anyways, it's also another special day today, and the first time it's snowed on that day, too. So Happy Special Day to the person whose Special Day it is.

Merry Belated Christmas

I just wanted to share this pic from Christmas that my mother or sister took of little 1900 with Santa Claus:

Another Bullet Point on the Resume, file under 'Published'

In the past, Kimberly shared that she got a chapter published as part of her academic life; of course, this was a fairly technical article for people in her field, which, honestly, is kind of boring if you're not into 'corpus linguistics'. [ducks]

But now, she can really brag: she's been published on the interwebs, where not just anyone can voice their opinion randomly and without consequence (ignore that you are reading this on a blog, where we can voice our opinion randomly and without consequence).

If you go to this website, which is apparently the travel section of the San Pellegrino water company, you will find Kimberly's photo journalist skills on display.

If you go to the first article on the front page, Slow tourism in the City: introducing urban trekking in Siena, and scroll through the pictures at the bottom, you will come upon this picture of me and Kimberly's mom or sister (I can't tell) walking through the streets of Siena (yes that's a street in Siena, not a sidewalk or alley; they don't allow cars in the city, which is kind of nice):

I haven't read the article, but at the bottom are the credits, and look, there's Kimberly (they even spelled her name right):

21. Walking through Arches - Courtesy of Kimberly LeVelle - www.flickr.com/photos/33948778@N00/

Of course, the beauty of her subjects (and I don't mean the arches) is most likely the reason why San Pellegrino chose this photo.

I tried to get them to send us some cases of water in exchange for the use of the photo (I love that sparkling water, but it is awfully expensive, especially compared to the tap in our kitchen, which apparently is free), but in the end we decided we would just go for the glory.

This little excitement has also reminded me that I should really start recollecting out trip to Italy this past summer and upload a lot more of those photos, of which there are literally hundreds. Hopefully, I actually do it this time. If not, feel free to heckle me like I'm Karl Rove at the University of Iowa.

If those links above don't work, go to www.acquapanna.com, and search for Siena, where you'll find the article.

It's just around the corner...

Spring Break that is! What students don't know is that we teachers are at least as excited about the break as they are. In fact, I'd even argue that I'm more excited. I know for a fact that few of my students would be excited to hear my plans- hang out with Mom, explore Iowa, grade papers, write papers, work on projects etc. But I'm thrilled (not so thrilled about the grading and writing, but grateful to not be teaching and going to class simultaneously).

But, to get to Spring Break I have to make it through the next two days. In the next 40 hours I need to:
1. finish my presentation for tomorrow am
2. finish my lesson plans for tomorrow am
3. laundry
4. pack for the mini trip with Mom
5. grade homework for the Friday class
6. figure out what I'm supposed to teach on Friday
7. read the chapters for my Friday class
8. dishes
9. pick up rental car
10. figure out when to get together with my partner for a project due after the break
11. decide on a topic for a class project
12. send 40,000 emails (almost)
13. read 40,000 emails (just about)
14. write 3 cards
15. pay bills
16. tidy desk at school
17. go to library

I think that's about it. My apologies for using this space to post my boring to do list- but being accountable to the world at large is a useful strategy. Now let's see what I can accomplish!

edited Thursday 11:00pm

Making Liquor is Easy

Sometime last week, I got an email from a friend - he had found a bottle of Limoncello in the back of his freezer and was inquiring into how we made it (when we got married a few years back, we made some homemade Limoncello and gave it out as wedding favors). As I was looking through the computer and asking Kimberly about it, we came across this photo set (with some really pretty pictures) from when Kimberly and some friends made lots of different flavored -cellos. Doing all that stuff, made me remember how much fun, and how easy it is, to make liquor.

So on my day off, I went down to the natural food store to check out what kind of citrus they had on hand. I ended up buying some blood oranges, meyer lemons, and regular lemons.

I also had to go to the liquor store to buy a couple bottles of Everclear (also known as grain alcohol, complete with 2 cautions: 1) be careful it's flammable; and 2) excessive imbibing can result in serious health effects. These are the things you need to worry about when your alcohol is 190 proof). Let me tell you, if you're trying to buy Everclear, and don't have a fake ID or look 22 years old, you get some pretty funny looks.

When I finally got down to the making, the whole process took about 45 minutes, including the cleaning of jars, peeling of fruit, and pouring of alcohol. Now, we need to wait a couple months for the fruit to infuse the alcohol, then add some simple syrup, and let mellow again for a while. It will definitely be ready for the summer, just in time to mix with some tonic and put over ice for a refreshing cold beverage.

With any luck, it will taste as good as it looks.

From the left: Limoncello (lemon), Limone-del-Meyer-cello (Meyer Lemon), and Arancia-Sanguigna-cello (Blood Orange).

Some News

I got accepted. Which is kind of mind blowing.

Kimberly had the letter all day and just gave it to me a few minutes ago. She's mean.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll add details later, when I figure things out.

I think this calls for the the Badgers.

Has to be Done

I don't like it when people complain about the weather. There's nothing we can do to control it, unless you count slowly and systematically destroying the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels for industrial purposes to fundamentally change the atmosphere and, thus, weather patterns. Of course, I occassionally do a little complaining, but that has more to do with my Italian upbringing, where complaining is a way of life (I like to call it 'critical observation'), not necessarily a reflection of how annoying something actually is.

But then, I saw this post over at kch's place. And I got really annoyed. Or sad. Or mad. Not with kch, but with this crazy Midwest weather.

Wanna know why? Here's why: On the same day kari and co up in Portland are enjoying 'fake-spring,' the weather here in the middle is just messing with us. Take, for instance, yesterday:

The day starts out real nice, so you decide you'll spend some time outside. It's 65 degrees out and you go for a walk in the park with short sleeves on. All the snow is melting and you think you actually might see some green grass. If you imagine hard enough, you can even imagine leaves and green buds on those gray, sad trees. A couple hours later, when you get home, the temp drops 20 degrees in an hour and it starts sleeting outside. Then the thunder and lightning start. During a sleet storm. In March. Then, it drops another 20 degrees when the sun goes down. The snow starts coming down like you live on Hoth. By the time you go to bed, all that kind-of-green grass that was poking through the melted snow- remember that? - well, it's gone. It's covered in 4 inches of snow. 4 INCHES OF SNOW in, like, 30 minutes. When you wake up, the car is covered in half an inch of ice, with an additional 6 inches of light, dusty snow - you know the consistency, the one where when you brush it, it just goes straight up in the air and then down the neck of your jacket or back on the car.

Yes, I grew up in New England, where the weather swings are just as monumental. And I went to school in a place that was so cold that the 6th Great Lake would freeze over. But I moved to the NW, where the Goldilocks weather turned me into a giant weather-wuss. You could go hiking in January. And play Ultimate Frisbee year round. And the rhododendrons and dogwoods are probably already in bloom. And you could grow rosemary year round without having to worry abou tit freezing to death.

And now, I have to deal with this Midwest weather. The wind whips through constantly, creating snow drifts so high I'm worried Kimberly might disappear. We haven't been snow-free since Thanksgiving, which, let me remind you, was in NOVEMBER.

Hopefully, once this cold streak ends - which, I hope might happen by June - we'll get 2 or 3 months of nice weather before the heat and 90% humidity kick in. Meanwhile, in the Northwest, they'll be enjoying 85 dry degrees, blue skies, and not a vision of rain for 3 solid months.

Yes, I'm going stir-crazy.

Welcome!

Congrats to Em and family over at Totblock who welcomed their newest addition this week. You can see pictures and share the love at http://totblock.blogspot.com/2008/02/newest-addition.html

We're so happy for you guys.

Presents!

Today was a very good day. Today involved a lot of presents!

My favoritest sister sent me these:

Now, while YOU may think, "seriously? She's excited by that?" the truth is, I have been dreaming of these since we moved to Farm State. PEter and I have a large collection of mason jars and store lots of cooking stuff in them. I've been looking for these everywhere and they are not here.


Then, after that, Cool Accent Prof took me to the Italian Grocery in the big city. I came home with proscuitto, oil cured olives (the black wrinkly ones), sopresatta (a spicy salami type), and a jar of spicy mixed pickled veggies. This little store was great fun! PEter visited it a while back and wrote a post about his trip here.

So now, I'm enjoying olives and cured meats and grading and writing papers. Woo hoo, what a Friday night!

Allow Myself to Introduce...Myself

The other day, Kimberly mentioned that we were making ourselves an Indian-style meal, with naan, tikka masala, and saag. There was a huge outcry from our readers (well, 2) to know how things turned out from that experiment.

So we've decided to take this opportunity to introduce something we've been fiddling with on the side in our copiuos free time: the What We're Eating blog.

Whenever we cook something, we usually write down little helpful tips and suggestions in the margins of the recipe. In my bread making experiments, I was keeping a little bread journal to try to remedy problems (a project which has somewhat stalled with my recent new job). So we decided to start taking these notes online and having feedback from people that aren't us in an effort to cook better food.

We hope it becomes a collaborative effort, an online community of people who like to eat, want some inspiration, and like to share inane details of their everyday life anonymously and with complete strangers. Isn't that what the Interwebs are for?

We hope you enjoy it.

[and for those of you not lucky enough to grow up in the Boston area, Chow Daddy (up top there) was the mascot for our lunch program. Yes, that guy was promoting healthy eating. Unfortunately, he didn't mention Dynamite Bars, which in my memory, were the highlight of the public school lunch plan]

Hot Oven, Cool Scars

I hope this doesn't become a weekly update, but I figured I would show you all the cool new burns I got this week at work. Remember, 600-degrees F is hot.

This one is on the outside of my forearm:

This one is on the inside of my forearm. I think it looks pretty cool (although the photo doesn't really do it justice):


Someday, when I have kids, I can tell them cool stories about how I used to get into knife fights and got all these cool scars on my arms. But I wasn't a wussy, so we didn't use regular knives, we used hot knives.

And just so you're not all freaking out about the gross pus from my wounds getting on people's food, I treat them with ointments and cover them during work.

The Splendid Table

Our new hometown is featured on Lynn Rossetto Kasper's NPR show, The Splendid Table. Check out a review of our absolutely favorite divey dinner, The Grove Cafe. If you're in Oregon, The Splendid Table used to air at 5 or 6pm- check it out!!! If you come visit us, we'll promise you a meal there.

Internationalism in the Middle

Last night my program had an international potluck. We generally have a get together at least once a semester with the MA, PhD, and faculty for our small program.

So last night's party was bring your own favorite ethnic food (not necessarily from your own culture). And my what a spread we had! There was Syrian chickpea salad, kung bao chicken, Chinese pancakes, dolmas and yogurt, Ukrainian apple cake, bacalao, chicken and rice, beef stew, cheese, Indian curried squash, serbian cookies, spicy chili corn bake, ratatouille, apple pie and vanilla ice cream, Argentinian empanadas, and I brought pizzelles.

We feasted! And there was much discussion about why we weren't running restaurants instead of pursuing these degrees. Clearly there was much talent in the room. We finally decided that a rotating restaurant would really be the way to go. Each group could run the restaurant one night. So we could have Middle Eastern, the Korean, then European, then Chinese, then Latin American, etc etc.

So, while there are some serious limitations to living here in the Middle, my new friends and colleagues can certainly cook! And tonight, while we stay inside to hide from the incoming blizzard, we're making chicken tikka masala, saag, and homemade naan. We'll let you know how it goes.

my eyes....

This week has been a killer. I've left by 9 every morning and don't get home until about 9 each evening. I'm actually on a 10 minute break from my Wednesday evening programming class right now. Yep, you read that right, I'm taking a programming class. Wouldn't Dad be thrilled! I have to confess that (a) I really wouldn't have signed up for this except for the fact that it's required, and (b) it's actually cooler than I thought it would be. It's odd because I'm kinda the third generation in the family to be working on computers. My Grandmama worked with the old punch cards (back in the olden days). Dad and Mom were both programmers for a while. It's been cool to talk "shop" with Mom a bit.

Alas, between this class, the numerous papers I'm writing and grading, and the two research projects I have going on, I'm spending 6-9 hours a day in front of the computer, 6-7 days a week. My eyes are not appreciating this activity (or lack thereof) very much. I may need to invest in saline company stock, the rate I'm going through it.

One of these days, I just know that they'll invent a screen that doesn't hurt so much. Until then, well, I guess I'm suffering for passion.

Back to class!

Reading is FUNdamental!

I'm fairly ambivalent about technology. Only a few years back, I referred to myself as a Luddite. However, over the past few years, coinciding with my move to the NW, I decided I needed to more fully embrace technology. I've made strides, but I'm still certainly no first-adopter.

But this new product from Amazon is really cool. Books without killing trees! Reading on a computer, but without the eye strain! Free Wikipedia!

From the video and some of the reviews on that page, it seems like it still needs some fine tuning and some of the bugs to get worked out. And hopefully the price tag will come down. But honestly, I hope that they can work things out and that we have one of those within the next couple of years. Maybe we can get Kimberly to be a tester, since she reads a million words a minute.

Blisters are for Healing

Hi all (if there's anyone out there that still reads this).

So, I haven't posted on here in weeks because I've been kind of busy - I finally got myself a job. I'm working in a kitchen at a local restaurant; it's probably the best restaurant in town, having beat out the other 1 good ones. While it's not the greatest job in the world, it gets me out of the house, gives me something to do, and almost doubles our monthly income. And it's a good job for the near future, while I wait for a decision from Farm University on my future plans.

I work at the brick oven station, making pizzas - I decided I needed to start living up to ethnic stereotypes more accurately. The oven runs between 580 and 600 degrees, which is really hot and makes for some pretty good pizzas, which is a nice perk. Unfortunately, I also occassionally nick parts of my arms on the mouth of the oven or the oven floor, all of which are also at 580-600 degrees. As you can see from below, at these temps, human skin doesn't stand a chance:


I have absolutely no idea how I got that first one my wrist - I came home and Kimberly inquired to the red mark and blister on my wrist. I got the one on my finger on the first order of the night last night - reaching into a hot oven with a heat blister for 5 hours does not feel good.

Keep your fingers crossed that I get into the program I applied to so that I don't have to keep working on the hot oven - the nerves in my fingers will appreciate it.

Dreaming of the summer....

Well, it's only February, but summer plans are beginning to take shape. It looks like I'll be headed south for part of the summer, Mexico in fact. Doesn't that sound just terrible? :)

Professor Mentor here at Farm School teaches over the summer at a universidad in Mexico. It turns out that not only does she need an assistant, but this universidad is in the same exact city that I studied in during my undergrad days. So, after some negotiation and waiting, I've been officially asked to go with her! I'll be teaching a conversation class to Mexican engineering students and working to create camaraderie between them and the American exchange students.

I'm working on a plan to have some travel time for me as well, so time to enjoy and experience Mexico again. It's hard to believe, but that first trip to Mexico (10 years ago!!) was what started my traveling experiences. And, I haven't made it back to Mexico since. There are so many wonderful things I'm looking forward to seeing and doing, from gazing at the amazing Diego murals to each tacos on the street to having the little girls pull my hair on the bus.

So, while it's still cold, blustery, and icy here, the future looks sunny and warm. A little something to look forward to!

I get the wierdest things.....

I'm not sure a) why this is related t0 the wrestling team and b) why they'd be sending this to me but here it is for your viewing enjoyment.

Yep, That's right... a facial hair competition!
The person who grows the best facial hair wins a Cyclone shaving prize pack!

According to the American Mustache Institute... "it is important to note that the greatness of a mustache is that a new style can be created each day by any mustached man... and sometimes a woman." As the AMI often notes, "A mustache is a terrible thing to waste."

---

Here are the rules:

1. Email a picture of yourself freshly shaven to (deleted)
   no later than Feb. 7 (please include your name).
   
2. Send an updated photo of your progress by Feb. 14.
   
3. Submit final photo of your three week facial hair
   growth by Feb. 21.
   
4. Be creative and have fun!

Winners will be selected during intermission of the Iowa State vs. Nebraska wrestling meet (Feb. 24 at 2 p.m.). Contestants must be present to win.

For complete guide to growing and grooming your facial hair, click here.

---

Check out these great examples...

Published!

It's official! I'm published! Hooray! Well, so it's only one co-edited chapter in a very big book, but nonetheless, it certainly counts.

Today I had a planning meeting for another project and we have a abstract for a conference due Tuesday. Eeek!

So, things remain in motion. Slowly but surely, as they say.

Dunes

If I look out the bedroom window, I see drifts of white. The wind has been fierce, and I can watch it sculpt the drifts, creating the undercut that makes them look like waves as they are about to crash. The wind picks up the top layer and blows it into the air. The small particles sparkle and swirl, showing the patterns of the wind.

If I squint just right, I can almost convince myself that I'm standing by the ocean. Even the cold isn't quite wrong, standing outside waiting for the bus it's almost like the coast. Those early spring days, where it looks so lovely outside and then it turns out to be soooooo cold. It's like that but colder, much much colder.

The snow is often so beautiful. It's so cold here that the snow isn't flakey or lumpy but instead it's tiny granules. They shine and I actually need my sunglasses here. They also sting just like the sand as they just get blasted towards all exposed skin.

The comparison falls apart quickly but, in a way, it brings me a little comfort to pretend, just for a minute, that I'm home.