Monday, July 19, 2010
100 words: Education
There are two new tumbling grizzled kittens in the house. He has a three-quarters length tail; she, a small little nubbin. Without the tail’s disparity they can be hard to tell apart. They play very hard and explore the house fearlessly. They also nap hard; together; alone; and with their adopted “mother,” an older three-legged orange male. This unrelated, no resemblance tabby offers instruction on the fine points of licking oneself clean, reinforced by a pinioning paw, while emitting a diesel-engine quality purr. These good habits are so-so-necessary to learn; but not some of his more adult, post-adolescent bad habits.
100 words: Dreams
In the early morning, when the sky lightens in the east bedroom window, is when I find I have the most intense dreams. There may be wild adventures; there can be prosaic going-ons. Interestingly enough I find most these dreams take place inside a building, usually a house. Sometimes the house is one I’ve been in before, typically morphed out of recognition. Sometimes it’s a new place full of dark corners and clanking hulking machinery. Is the outside too strange, too uncommon to make its way into my dreams except in nightmares where I am plunging from a collapsing bridge?
a commitment to write more....
I would like to contribute more to this blog than I have been. In an effort to impose discipline, and gain the habit, I’m borrowing a meme from another blog http://mrlondonstreet.blogspot.com/. So, for at least a little while, I shall try to write 100 word entries. I hope to do two or more per week. Please enjoy!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Hot hot summer is here
It's July, and it's already 90+ degrees!!! This is not typical of Rochester... On the bright side, the tomatoes love it. Thanks to the sprinkler system my husband installed they should just grow and grow in the sunshine.
We went to a movie last night, Micmacs. Very funny movie, in French with subtitles. Lots of Rube Goldbergian devices and improbable coincidences. One disappointment: we've been using the Rosetta Stone for French for three months. Not always that faithfully. It shows in our total incomprehension of the movie's dialogue!
The kittens are growing so fast! Little Ada was only 2.5 pounds at her last checkup in June; now she's 3 lbs 12 oz. She went to the vet on Saturday for a recheck due to walking on her wrist. Hopefully she'll grow out of it, but if I don't see improvement I may take her to an orthopedist. Both Ada and Kelvin have adopted Pudly as mother; Pumpkin and Tempe mostly ignore them; and Kelvin seems to want to give Copy a hard time.
We went to a movie last night, Micmacs. Very funny movie, in French with subtitles. Lots of Rube Goldbergian devices and improbable coincidences. One disappointment: we've been using the Rosetta Stone for French for three months. Not always that faithfully. It shows in our total incomprehension of the movie's dialogue!
The kittens are growing so fast! Little Ada was only 2.5 pounds at her last checkup in June; now she's 3 lbs 12 oz. She went to the vet on Saturday for a recheck due to walking on her wrist. Hopefully she'll grow out of it, but if I don't see improvement I may take her to an orthopedist. Both Ada and Kelvin have adopted Pudly as mother; Pumpkin and Tempe mostly ignore them; and Kelvin seems to want to give Copy a hard time.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
An infrequent blogger returns to the blog
We made a kind of Passover dinner Sunday night. Veal meatballs with matzo meal, green olives, egg, parsley and garlic; served with perfectly diced (by me of course!) braised parsnips and turnips picked up from the Public market on Saturday. Shopping at 7:30 am when the weather is 20 degrees was unexpectedly fun.
We have a cooking class tonight at the New York Wine and Culinary Center. It is based on maple, so includes salmon, pork, chicken, brussel sprouts, parsnips and so forth. This is more for my husband than me. In exchange, he has agreed to go with me to a class in two weeks on bivalves, which I love. Finally, I get to learn how to chuck oysters!
Lecture last night at RIT was fascinating. Hiroshi Ishii was the lecturer for "The Art of Tangible Bits." The premise was that there are more ways of interacting and getting information from the environment than mouse/keyboard/display, so why be constrained? There are the science fictiony elements such as the screen displays seen in "Minority Reports." Examples shown include a glow lamp (ambientdevices.com) that changes color based on the stock market; a bottle, placed on a glass table, that when uncorked plays bird song if the weather is nice; a sand table or clay table that is continuously mapped by a computer and has contour maps or other information overlaid on it as it is changed.
I have been picking up and reading and resting from reading "Songs of the Dying Earth," a tribute anthogy to Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth" series. I remember reading his book as a teenager and the stories entranced me. However, the effulgent language is best taken in small draughts and so it has taken me over 6 months to get almost to the end. Another book, Ricardo Pinto's "The Third God," I have been avoiding starting as it feels like such a commitment. I know once I get into it I will enjoy it as he is a visionary writer. It occurred to me to go with my husband to his family this easter weekend as a way of starting the book during the 12 hour total car ride. My husband made fun of me for that thought, declaring he would have taken pleasure at starting the book at home if he knew he was all alone.
We have new kittens arriving in May from Natureworks cattery in Gananoque, Ontario. They are Pixie Bob cats, mainly because I wanted cats that would be on the large size. We couldn't get, for example, Savannah cats, as the lower generation (larger) cats are not legal in NYS. These are likely our last kittens. We've loved all our cats over the years, large and small, but all non-pure-bred; in memory of our big boys Pascal and Tamarind, and girls, Teaka, I wanted big cuddlers. It should be interesting having kittens around! We were commenting the other day about kitten proofing the house and about how we have to train them to not get on the kitchen counter and not walk over keyboards. But then we came to the realization after opening the door for Pumpkin and Pudly for the upteenth time that they train us!
So, names for the cats are under consideration. Obviously they may change as we get to know the kittens and their personalities. Immediately, Ada came to mind for the girl, in honor of Lady Lovelace, the progenitor of computer programming. Grace is also under consideration, for Admiral Hopper, inventor of COBOL. Albert came to mind for the boy, in honor of Einstein. My husband suggested keeping with the theme of famous programmers but they generally have such boring names: George and John and Guido, for example. Von Neumann is on the table. Getting back to physicists, and staying away from names with sibilant consonants: Galileo, Kelvin, Henri, Nikola.
We have a cooking class tonight at the New York Wine and Culinary Center. It is based on maple, so includes salmon, pork, chicken, brussel sprouts, parsnips and so forth. This is more for my husband than me. In exchange, he has agreed to go with me to a class in two weeks on bivalves, which I love. Finally, I get to learn how to chuck oysters!
Lecture last night at RIT was fascinating. Hiroshi Ishii was the lecturer for "The Art of Tangible Bits." The premise was that there are more ways of interacting and getting information from the environment than mouse/keyboard/display, so why be constrained? There are the science fictiony elements such as the screen displays seen in "Minority Reports." Examples shown include a glow lamp (ambientdevices.com) that changes color based on the stock market; a bottle, placed on a glass table, that when uncorked plays bird song if the weather is nice; a sand table or clay table that is continuously mapped by a computer and has contour maps or other information overlaid on it as it is changed.
I have been picking up and reading and resting from reading "Songs of the Dying Earth," a tribute anthogy to Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth" series. I remember reading his book as a teenager and the stories entranced me. However, the effulgent language is best taken in small draughts and so it has taken me over 6 months to get almost to the end. Another book, Ricardo Pinto's "The Third God," I have been avoiding starting as it feels like such a commitment. I know once I get into it I will enjoy it as he is a visionary writer. It occurred to me to go with my husband to his family this easter weekend as a way of starting the book during the 12 hour total car ride. My husband made fun of me for that thought, declaring he would have taken pleasure at starting the book at home if he knew he was all alone.
We have new kittens arriving in May from Natureworks cattery in Gananoque, Ontario. They are Pixie Bob cats, mainly because I wanted cats that would be on the large size. We couldn't get, for example, Savannah cats, as the lower generation (larger) cats are not legal in NYS. These are likely our last kittens. We've loved all our cats over the years, large and small, but all non-pure-bred; in memory of our big boys Pascal and Tamarind, and girls, Teaka, I wanted big cuddlers. It should be interesting having kittens around! We were commenting the other day about kitten proofing the house and about how we have to train them to not get on the kitchen counter and not walk over keyboards. But then we came to the realization after opening the door for Pumpkin and Pudly for the upteenth time that they train us!
So, names for the cats are under consideration. Obviously they may change as we get to know the kittens and their personalities. Immediately, Ada came to mind for the girl, in honor of Lady Lovelace, the progenitor of computer programming. Grace is also under consideration, for Admiral Hopper, inventor of COBOL. Albert came to mind for the boy, in honor of Einstein. My husband suggested keeping with the theme of famous programmers but they generally have such boring names: George and John and Guido, for example. Von Neumann is on the table. Getting back to physicists, and staying away from names with sibilant consonants: Galileo, Kelvin, Henri, Nikola.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Baking preferences
There are few things in life more sublime than a nice warm freshly baked biscuit. Sad to say, though, the readily-available Bisquik mix is lumpy. The recipe from Joy of Cooking or similar cookbooks is another doughy, dry lump. My husband and I had a discussion which ended with him declaring he would make a biscuit! He used a puff pastry recipe, which exemplified his ideal of a buscuit: buttery, layered, crispy. And it was good, although I got on his wrong side by asserting it was a puff pastry not a biscuit recipe. So the next weekend I turned to one of our newest cookbooks, Ratio, by Michael Ruhlman. I was not disappointed. It was a nice, chewy, layered biscuit, which exemplified my ideal.
It also made me realize the importance of testing recipes, and how much I appreciate cooks such as Michael Ruhlman, Alton Brown, and the guiding light behind Cook's Illustrated, Christopher Kimball. They take the time to throughly vet recipes, understand the science behind the techniques and ingredients used, and share it with the middling cook, such as myself. Also, as a scientist, I appreciate the scientific approach. I hear of people who eat out most nights of the week, or simply reheat prepared foods, and I shudder. Maybe I am too hard on myself, calling myself a "middling" cook, but even my mediocre (ok- outright failed) attempts usually taste better than the Olive Garden or frozen dinners. I know the kids in school have a lot to learn and would probably rebel at the thought of more classes in their curriculums. But would it kill them to take a semester or two of basic home cooking, accompanied perhaps by visits to restaurant kitchens of higher caliber? I probably would not have appreciated it at the time, too, myself, but that would've enhanced my life so much now. As well as other things that were self-taught such as balancing my check book, etc.
It also made me realize the importance of testing recipes, and how much I appreciate cooks such as Michael Ruhlman, Alton Brown, and the guiding light behind Cook's Illustrated, Christopher Kimball. They take the time to throughly vet recipes, understand the science behind the techniques and ingredients used, and share it with the middling cook, such as myself. Also, as a scientist, I appreciate the scientific approach. I hear of people who eat out most nights of the week, or simply reheat prepared foods, and I shudder. Maybe I am too hard on myself, calling myself a "middling" cook, but even my mediocre (ok- outright failed) attempts usually taste better than the Olive Garden or frozen dinners. I know the kids in school have a lot to learn and would probably rebel at the thought of more classes in their curriculums. But would it kill them to take a semester or two of basic home cooking, accompanied perhaps by visits to restaurant kitchens of higher caliber? I probably would not have appreciated it at the time, too, myself, but that would've enhanced my life so much now. As well as other things that were self-taught such as balancing my check book, etc.
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