Summer shows itself

Finally! Just when I was starting to think that all the nice days were going to arrive after we'd left Seattle, we had a few gloriously sunny days.

First, we had a picnic in the park.The picnic also featured a crawling race.The ducklings are starting to swim in the lake!We took a jaunt to Deception Pass State Park. It was a perfect Pacific Northwest scene - tall green trees, deep blue water, rocky cliffs.I also did a little Seattle tourism - I finally went on a Duck Tour (note that it was not especially sunny that day).Here's SYL's old house - the little blue one down in front (not to be confused with the big blue one in back).

The Graduate

So my brother graduated last weekend. From Berzerkeley. With a degree in Environmental Economics and Policy. He is a superstar!

The ceremony was at 9am on Sunday morning in the Greek Theater on campus. 9am seemed early, but since it was a brilliantly sunny day - and the theater has no shade at all - we ended up feeling very happy (and only a little sunburned and dehydrated).

Here are some pictures from the ceremony:

There was a dog on stage! I love that a professor brought his or her dog!

My brother walks

and he shakes (I guess he is kind of like a dog, too).

Obligatory graduation shot

In the flesh.

With his novia.

The whole crew.

Celebrating. With white grape juice, of course.

Jake, the wonderdog that owns my San Francisco family.

p.s. A very happy congratulations to my friend Joanna (if you follow the link, she's the one in the pink, not the one in the wedding dress!) who became Mrs. Joanna over the weekend.

These boots were made for walking

On Sunday I replaced these hiking boots.These weren't just any hiking boots - they were all leather Italian Zamberlans with Vibram soles. In my mind, these were, like, the hot fudge sundae of hiking boots. They kicked, well, you know. . . .

The boots were tough to break in. I remember quarter-sized blisters on both my heels, pressure points on my ankles, and chafing at the spot where the cuff of the boot tightened around my lower calf. But once broken in, these boots were the best.

I've had them longer than I've known Mike, possibly longer than I've known Miso.

They've been hiking, backpacking, and after-ski wearing in:
Montana
Hawaii
Massachusetts
California
Oregon
Washington
Idaho
Colorado
Wyoming
Vermont
New Hampshire
Virginia
Maine
British Columbia
Alberta
Japan
Australia
New Zealand
France
Switzerland

They've had a good, long, full life. No boots could ever ask for more.
I wore out the original insoles, and I wore out the original laces.

But all good things must come to end. And the end has been long in coming; it is entirely possible that the boots needed to be replaced two years ago. The breaking point came last summer after our backpacking trip. I ended the trip with purple nail polish. Except it wasn't nail polish. The boots had finally reached the end of their life and now I was bleeding under my toe nails. Yes, it hurt. A lot.

But it was still with a heavy heart that I went to REI. They were so good, for so long.

R.I.P.

A new power is rising in the (y)east

I spent the weekend making bread.

Okay, so that's a total exaggeration. My bread spent the weekend making itself. And it is awesome. A while back the New York Times published a no-knead bread recipe. I read the article, but it still seemed a little too complicated for me. But last week, the local paper's food writer did a blog post with a revised step-by-step recipe for no-knead bread. After reading that and having pictures to guide me along the way, I figured I'd give the bread a try. How hard could it be?

It was totally easy. The bread rises with a mix of rapid-rise yeast, lager beer, and vinegar. I started the bread on Friday evening, let it rise all night and Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon I put half of the dough in the oven and got this:Tasty, but a little darker than I would have liked. Can't beat the artisan bread look, though.

Sunday, Mike cut the cooking time and baked this with the second half of the dough that I'd begun on Friday evening:Can you believe it? The bread is so good. You have to try this! For real.

Spring-a-ding-dong

Yesterday, it rained.

Today really felt like spring! It was sunny, cool-ish but not cold. So we went to the lake for a walk.

The trees have really leafed out.Some are still flowering.And then we saw puppies!Coming: video and pictures from our extremely delicious dinner Saturday night.