Better than a weekend

Riley has been in town this week and we had a lovely evening last thursday over a good deal of beer on the weaver lawn. It is always good to see him and we both certainly enjoy the company and talk that revolves more around perspective, life issues and good art rather than science. We had offered to help him redo a shot that felt like 'the one that got away" from an engagement photo client from his last visit, the result is here. It is a great pleasure to watch an artist work and and even greater pleasure when it's a good friend, and even more so after 2 gallons of beer :)

Joy and Pain of No Plans Weekends

Both last weekend and this weekend found us relatively plan-less, which was rather nice, except for fighting off this spring cold i managed to get.... Spring feels a little bit like summer here, and all the flowers in the yard have been in various stages of bloom. Of particular note is the yarrow in the front that has gone from no buds to bloom in less than 2 weeks. Above are some of the blooms from last weekend.

Last weekend we had the delightful idea of making our own tonic water since everything you buy at a store has high fructose corn syrup in it these days, that-and we like to make projects of things. So there we were, thinking it was going to be a one day thing which was naive since the recipe we had called for a full ounce of cinchona bark ( the quinine component), which no one locally had- so we had to order it online. It arrived this saturday, much to my delight, and so this evening I had a lovely gin and tonic. The base recipe has allspice berries, zested and juiced lime, lemon and orange, citric acid, salt, and lemongrass- we traded half of the allspice berries for juniper berries to keep it from tasting too yuletide-y. Images above are from the making.

Despite the cold, it has been two rather lovely weekends as we've both spent some time away from work, which was needed, and so now- noses back to the grindstone...

but with a the prospect of a little gardening and a damn good gin and tonic on some evenings.

spring= parents,music,work,wine and graduation!

It's April. How that happened I am not sure really. But here it is, with it's pollen and southern 80 degree weather...

April means many things around here, but mainly it's time for my parent's annual Easter visit. Upon getting my thoughts together for this post i realized that we were terrible about photo documentation this time around. As ususal we had a great time.. the highlight being the wine fair happened to fall on the saturday of the visit. After some initial deliberation we decided to have our post wine fair party and it went really well, despite Lucy eating kelly's cake...I must admit that the weekend had a bit of drinking in it. Friday we made a rib roast that, to my father's credit, was cooked PERFECTLY. While that was superb (think red wine,garlic, rosemary and a grill), the real gem of the evening was "special occasion sangria". This was born when Gina came down to visit in...hmm 2007, maybe 2008. It was the infamous weekend of burst water pipe and the great dog escape... anyway my dad had already bought his beer and so we made it for my mom. Truth be told, I've never seen her that far into a glass. And i'm not sure my father knew what to do with that. It was fantastic. After the party wrapped up around 2am, we woke up with enough gumption to make it to the easter late service.... always a mild disappointment as they throw the whole bible in the sermon for the C and E's. But it was good to go and the music is always really great. We made a Cliff's ham on the grill ( let me interject here that Cliff asked my mom if she was related to better midler when we bought it. not awkward at all...) and it was a lovely slow day to recover from the previous night. Like i said, as always it's great to have them down.

April also means Linda's birthday is here. We went to see David Gray last night as part of the celebration. Getting the tickets was a bit of a hassle as the cheap seats were sold out fast, so i had to scour craigslist for them. Long story short a Duke kid sent us two tickets that weren't together..ok great. Who does that?! Anyway it worked out as the person next to Linda never showed so I took that seat. The concert was great, despite the fact that he's a head bobbler. Hardcore. It was a little distracting ((See video)) For as depressing as his music is, he did a great job of having the crowd get into it.





So now all we have to do is put our noses to grindstone- I'm going to Woods Hole for the summer ( science nerd camp) and Linda is on the home stretch for her masters. Speaking of which- check this out (just note that the portfolio might not be up yet). She's been working like mad on this and other projects,and i've been working like half mad to get things done before I leave.

To sum it up, busy month, busier month ahead- bring on graduation and parent visit #2!

Of Breakfast, Pancakes and Flapjacks.

All throughout college, breakfast and I only met after midnight in the form of something from a gas station. Probably not the best decision, but that's what college is for. Those super early breakfasts were nothing like this. Ever since I started living with the human food pyramid, I've been changing my ways. The very first thing that changed about 3 years ago was, after coffee, breakfast. Actual food, in the morning. And the weekends are way better than the week- in this case, apple cinnamon buttermilk pancakes. I had to get rid of the buttermilk before it went bad, this just seemed like and obvious decision...

My next goal-british flapjacks.

Doesn't get much better.

For valentines day this year Linda and I went to Cat's Cradle to see Brandi Carlile, a favorite for both of us. In addition to her stuff (fast, slow, new and old- and as you can see even unplugged) Brandi also covered Bob Dylan, Tears for Fears, the most spectacular Johnny Cash, Pasty Cline and brought out Amy Ray for a few duets and even got the audience in doing harmony. I really don't think I've ever enjoyed anything half as much as this.

patiently pursuing creative knowledge

This is my new mantra. I love too many things:biology, cooking ,art, music...But that should be a good thing. Including painting. And while I'm not about to make a life out of it, without it- i would not have a life.

Above are some works in various stages, mainly in progress

Chicken Love.

Ok so except for the whole gross salmonella thing, I love chicken. There is nothing more amenable to leftover creativity than a roast chicken. This one made many meals- some of which were balsamic artichoke and chicken pizza and chicken potpie with biscuits. An so it is no surprise that this is my favorite Julia episode....i think it's the knife waving....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ohiUbQyDhk