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.

not so much to report

I don't even have any new pictures to share.

What have we been up to these last few weeks?

Two weeks ago I tried to make a famous orange cake. It didn't work out so hot. Oh well.

I'm working on some fancy socks. This is hard. So much counting. Luckily, I chose a colorful yarn, so my mistakes are mostly lost in the color changes in the yarn. Mostly.

Last week we went to Michigan for Passover. Mike presided over two great seders. We enjoyed the warm hospitality of Mike's family - it was so nice to see everyone in Michigan. We also had a few warm and sunny days. It was actually nicer in Michigan than in Seattle [It snowed here while we were gone. Seriously].

While we were in Michigan, much of family - both from the U.S. and England - went to Armenia for a ceremony honoring my great-grandfather. You can see pictures of their trip here.

I've also been working at cleaning out my side of the office, so that there's less to move eventually. I've also started hoarding boxes compulsively [hey, this is a university town - those free boxes are going to be mighty hard to come by in another month or so].

Last, I've signed up and totally committed myself to this half marathon on June 8. Since the course is at the foot of the Olympics and right along the water, I figure it'll be a nice farewell to Seattle. You know, if I'm even able to enjoy it. Seriously, my goal is just to finish before they take the course down. Or even after. Whatever.

Our first goodbye

Tomorrow morning our friend Kris leaves for a three month training in the southeastern U.S. By the time he comes back, we'll have left for Texas. So we said goodbye on Sunday night. I know he'll be busy over the next few months, but I hope that we can all stay in touch and that he and SYL will come to Texas to see us.

I especially remember Kris' kindness that first summer when I came back from Japan alone. Kris always welcomed me, even though we really didn't know each other. I was lonely and he and SYL were always willing to have my company. I must have driven them crazy.

In other news, it's still pretty cold here. Spring, you could show up any time! Instead, they are predicting snow for the local mountains this weekend.

Saturday, however was a rare exception - sunny, warm, summer-like. We went to discovery park, to enjoy the ocean while we still could.And we saw a great dane puppy.And then on Sunday, it poured. Of course.

Chicken and Waffles

I went to a conference in Atlanta this weekend. Before going, I followed the example of Kate's friend Miso, who surfs the chowhound message board before visiting a new city to find good restaurants. I found a restaurant called Gladys Knight and Ron Winan's Chicken and Waffles, and I convinced two friends to go with me on Saturday night. One was a Japanese woman who said that from her perspective, it was one of the most exotic experiences she had ever had. The other friend was a very tall redhead, originally from Texas, who kept ordering more food. It was fantastic, and definitely the most memorable experience of the weekend.

Squirtle / Sheldon

With Mike gone, my big weekend accomplishment was finishing a baby gift for baby Zachary. You know, now that he's eight months old. But, voila, I present to you a knitted turtle:Although small, this was a big knitting project for me - I had to learn how to crochet to finish the darn [ha!] thing. Big props go to Jen Em who, with the patience befitting an elementary art teacher, taught me how to crochet.

I have several other projects forthcoming [in theory. certainly not with any alacrity]: a sweater-vest for my brother, some fancy socks for me [inspired by Dr. M's gift], and a baby present for baby Emma's new brother [who is expected to make an appearance in late May - can that family handle any more cute???].

We'll see about finishing all that before, oh, 2012.

In other weekend news, I went to the fancy Pacific Northwest nursery to help Jen Em shop for plants. Here are a few pictures:I really like the picture of the dog - although the background is a little busy. I'm considering making it my new internet avatar.

And then we went back to Jen Em's house and I got to kick it with the most wonderful [real] dog in the world.As a parting gift, here are some shots of the cherry blossoms on campus. I took this last week when the shone briefly. Now it's back to being rainy and cold.

Opening Day

Yesterday, Mike and I went to Opening Day. It was fun, but it was also really, really cold.

Here's a picture that captures the fun part - all the special things done for opening day:Here's a little self-portrait [note my new baseball hat!]:And here's a picture that captures the cold part - midway through some inning, it started to snow! For real, SNOW! So, the picture isn't that great, but you can see the white beyond the stadium roof.The snow just lasted for a few minutes, and then it turned to rain, then sun-ish. But it was still cold. As we were leaving the park, we saw a marquis that said it was 39 degrees. Brrr.

But we still had a great time, especially since the Mariners won - beating Texas!

San Diego

We spent last week in sunny San Diego. I forget how bright the sun is when it really shines. Also, what my shadow looks like.

Anyway, first we went to the desert to see the wildflowers blooming. Driving up there, we drove past many of the areas that were burned in the fires last October. It was a little strange, since a gentle, downy, green spring grass was growing on all the hillsides. It made things not look so bad. And then you noticed that the trees were all charred and leaf-less. At one point we drove by the place where the fire had crossed the freeway and I just realized how big a fire had to be to burn down one hillside, cross eight lanes of freeway, and burn up the other hillside despite the best efforts of the fire department. Big.

But the wildflowers in the desert were so pretty. Also, so atypical, compared to how the desert looks the rest of the year. I am not really a desert fan, but this really was very scenic. We got up early one morning in time to see the sun rise and get in a hike before the heat of the day. Here are some pictures from that morning:Also, on the hike we saw a cloud shaped like a fish:We also hung out in San Diego, spending time with our favorite two vegan political theorists and my family from San Francisco. My allergies were bothering me a lot in San Diego, so I wasn't feeling the picture vibe quite so much [also, I noticed in my pictures from the desert that I haven't quite figured out how to adjust for bright sun. I'll be working on that, I guess. . . .].

I did manage to take a few pictures, though:

Mike getting a lesson from my grandmother on how to make margaritas.Cinnamon rollsSucculentsBaby Emma [isn't she adorable?]The scholar hard at work.And then we came back to Seattle. And it snowed.

Etc.

Well, I'm finally done with my last externship for my new career. I feel like I'm rejoining the world of the living again.

To celebrate, here are some pictures - first of a belated Valentine's Day rose and then of a tree in bloom at the lake near our house.Although the picture above was taken on a sunny day, we haven't had too many of those recently. Yesterday morning, it was 39 degrees in the city when we woke up. So we are really still in the eagerly-awaiting-spring's-arrival phase.

In other news, my dresser broke. Or, really, I should say: In other news, we gave up on my broken dresser. The dresser hadn't been in great shape before we moved to Japan, and the journey to and from the storage place didn't really help things. I sort of accepted the dresser; it was willful beast whose drawers stuck frequently, but, in the end, I could always yank the drawers and make things work. That is, until last week when the drawers became so hopelessly stuck that I couldn't get my clothes out. I was actually planning my days around which clothes were not in the dresser.

But, with the upcoming move, buying a new dresser seemed dumb. On a number of levels [levels, stairs, whatever, get it?]. And buying a cheap dresser from that Swedish place was what got us into this mess in the first place.

So we went plastic. And light. And, yes, sort of lame and pathetic.
We posted the old dresser on freecycle, and had several offers within a few hours [fools!]. I will say, though, that this dresser met a better end than Dr. M's dresser [her dresser was, in weird twist of cheap and functionality-induced decision-making, the exact same model] which her father hated so much that was always threatening to hack up with an ax every time he helped her move. Did I mention how heavy the darn thing was? Her father may have actually taken an ax to the dresser in the end. The dresser certainly deserved it.

Thus endeth the dresser saga. Talk about a boring post. . . .

Oh, and as for what we'll name the blog - you all are such a creative lot! I especially liked the suggestion of "burritos for breakfast". I also like "(deep in the heart of) fish for breakfast". So we'll see. I'm also thinking about a re-design of the blog to accompany the move and the new name.

You know, now that I have all this time on my hands.